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Joh. Rudolph Huber.

late Minister at fr Elizabeths in Basel:

Pub by Williams & Smith Stationers Court 1. Sept 1807

THE

EVANGELICAL MAGAZINE.

SEPTEMBER, 1807.

MEMOIR
OF

THE REV. JOHN RODOLPH HUBER.

THE Rev. John Rodolph Huber was born Feb. 12, 1766. His father was Mr. John James Huber, late Astronomer, and afterwards Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Berlin. His mother, whose maiden name was Rohner, is still living. Under the tuition of his worthy parents, and in the circle of his amiable brothers and sisters, he soon shewed the most promising disposition. His mind appeared open to every impression of interesting truth. The assiduous attention and the appropriate method of instruction, which was pursued with him by an able and virtuous tutor in the useful arts and sciences, the good example of his parents, and the edifying discourses of a truly pious instructor in religion, afforded the youth an excellent school of true wisdom, virtue, and piety; whereby he profited to a degree that gave great satisfaction to his parents. The good effects of these circumstances, so favourable to the culture of his mind and heart, were further promoted by bodily sufferings, with which he was afflicted in his earliest youth. He was of a weakly habit of body, which often seemed to sink under the activity of his mind, and sometimes prevented him from gratifying his eager desire after knowledge as he could have wished. But, whatever impediments these bodily afflictions might seem to oppose to his rapid progress in useful learning, they were beneficial in promoting the culture of his heart, which was thereby guarded against youthful levity, and directed to serious objects. This favourable turn of mind, the best foundation for true piety, remained peculiar to him throughout his whole life; and proved the means, after he had recovered from his different illnesses, of his making the most rapid proficiency in genuine intellectual cultivation. Moreover, they brought the true end of his terrestrial existence more distinctly before his view; and he exerted all the strength of his faculties in the ac quisition of useful knowledge; of which, when he afterwards 3 D*

XV.

entered into active life, he could continually make profitable application.

His inclination was chiefly directed to the study of divinity. -After having, from the year 1779 to the year 1784, applied himself with great diligence to the acquisition of that preparatory knowledge which is justly required of a sound divine, he entered, in 1784, upon his theological studies; bat scarcely had he commenced them, and taken some general survey of the field which he was afterwards more thoroughly to explore, when the wise direction of the Lord led him, for a time, into a different career of exertion; for, towards the close of the year 1783, being then not quite 20 years of age, he was chosen Professor of History in the University of his native city of Basle. His being chosen to this appointment at so early a period of life, is a sufficient proof of the estimation in which he was held, both for his literary acquirements and the integrity of his conduct. He was the first Professor of History in the University of Basle who delivered public lectures in the German language, upon the history of Switzerland; wherein he displayed so much learning and taste, and rendered them so interesting, that, besides the students, he counted also many of the more respectable inhabitants of the city among his hearers.

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Although this sphere of employment was so remote from his great object, to become a minister of the gospel of Christ, yet it was not altogether void of utility to him. He writes himself, in a short account which he has left of the occurrences of his life,-"It habituated me to continued application; a habit which afterwards proved of great utility to me in the execution of my duties as a parish minister." Nevertheless, amidst the functions of his office, he did not forget the object upon which the inclinations of his heart were decidedly fixed. He husbanded his time so well, that he still found leisure to prosecute his theological studies. He began with deducing the doctrine of Christian faith and practice, without reference to any particular theological system, from its original source, the word of God; and that laid in a large stock of Bible-knowledge, which, throughout his whole subsequent life, he was enabled to turn to the best advantage. In this manner, his divinity became purely Biblical, and free from all the trammels of the schools. He did not indeed neglect to make himself historically acquainted with writings and speculations upon points of divinity; he availed himself of the good contained in the different systems, in as far as he found it conformable to the word of God; but, to have recourse to scholastic distinctions in disquisitions on theology, to view the divine word only through the dioptric glasses of a system, always appeared to him the height of absurdity.

By diligently searching the Scriptures, and comparing its truths with the wants of his own mind and heart, the grand

scope of the word of God became, by degrees, more and more clear to him, its application to the conduct of life more weighty, and his convictions of the truth and divine origin of the Bible more impregnable. If any thing was not yet clear to him in it, he did not hesitate to confess that he did not understand it. But what his heart and understanding had already comprehended of the word of God, was too precious to him for any mistrust towards it to insinuate itself into his mind, in consequence of any obscurities which it might still present to him. He could wait with patience till it should please God to clear them up to him, by circumstances which generally were the means by which he attained to greater clearness in the truths of God's word.

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In the year 1789 he was ordained to the ministry; and, a week after, chosen to be Pastor of the Reformed Congregation at Strasburg. lu the following year, 1790, he married his first wife, Margaret Battier, with whom he lived not longer than a year in the most uninterrupted harmony. In the flower of youth she was taken away from him, after having given birth to a healthy boy. This was one of the severest afflictions which ever came to him from the hand of the Father of Love. He expresses himself thus on the occasion, in the above-mentioned memoir : The felicity of being united to this pious, virtuous, and, in every respect, excellent woman, was too great for me: I did not deserve it." Nothing but his faith in the wise and gracious leading of the Lord, and the precious pledge of their mutual love, which his departed wife had left him, could pour balm into his deeply wounded heart, which this severe stroke of affliction drew the more powerfully to things eternal.

The death of his wife was followed by another series of sufferings, which, in some degree, cleared up to him the gracious designs of the Lord in the loss which he had sustained. The French Revolution had already broken out, and Strasburg, in its turn, became the theatre of those scenes of horror attendant upon the reign of Terror, at which Humanity recoils, and which History wishes to bury in oblivion. Under these circumstances, Mr. Huber lived in the greatest possible seclusion with his little boy," and a few tried friends. That inveterate animosity against Religion which, during this period, diffused everywhere misery and dismay, and sentenced those who boldly professed the faith of the gospel to imprisonment and death, had more than once marked him out for destruction; and, during nearly half a year, he had every evening to make himself prepared for being dragged away in the night to prison or to execution. In the solitude of his chamber, silently to search the Scriptures, to pray for his fellowcreatures, and to prepare himself for death, were his most agreeable occupations. Sometimes he was obliged to mount guard, in military accoutrements, upon the ramparts of the city. Another affliction now befel him, the wonderful issue of which left a peculiarly salutary impression upon his mind. In his

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