CHAPTER XX.

Boos a private tutor at Weihern-Professor at DusseldorfMinister at Sayn.

Boos stayed only nine days at Munich. At the end of that time, not being able to obtain a parish on account of the prejudices which had been raised against him even in his own country, he entered as private tutor into a respectable family at Weihern, some leagues from the city. He had the charge of educating two children; one eight, the other thirteen years old. This employment was, we may suppose, not very congenial, for he speaks of it as a dry occupation." Yet it seems to have given him at first some relief from the turmoil and agitation of public life. He even expressed to a friend his thankfulness that God enabled him to live as contented while so engaged, as if he had converted, or silenced, half the world.

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But "this is not your rest," was still to be the motto of his life. In December, 1816, he was summoned before the provincial court, and ordered to leave the country within four and twenty hours, or three days at the farthest. Astonished at this proceeding, he repaired immediately to Munich, and endeavoured to

learn from the authorities for what reason he was to be banished from his native country. "Because you have been accused," he was informed, "of being at the head of a dangerous society of mystics." "If that be mysticism," he boldly replied, "which the Lord Jesus, and the apostles Peter and John preached, I acknowledge that I am a mystic, for I have always aimed at teaching what they taught." "We shall be well pleased," they said, "if you can clear yourself from the charges brought against you by three consistories." "I will attempt it," Boos replied; "I only request a revocation of the order for my banishment, and a longer respite." This was granted; the uncle of his pupils likewise interceded in his favour; and by the efforts of some other influential persons, he was allowed to remain unmolested.

The following are a few extracts from Boos's letters during this period:

"Munich, 4th June, 1816.-I look back with tears on the forlorn four thousand at Gallneukirch.* May God preserve and keep them! They have been stedfast in the faith thus far. But now efforts are made to turn them from light to darkness, to take their New Testaments from them, etc. Pray for them."

*When Boos's successor, Brunner, was installed at Gailneukirch, not more than ten of the parishioners came to give him the right hand of fellowship, according to the custom of that country. The four thousand were four times called upon by the dean to go to the altar, and give their hands to the new vicar, and swear fidelity and obedience to him; but they would not go, or stretch out a hand.

"Weihern, January, 1817.-With my flock in Austria, I have only an invisible connexion, because all visible correspondence is intercepted. They have taken away all Höchstetter's letters and books, because they imagine he preserves the four thousand in the faith. After severely persecuting Leopold they have banished him to a remote part of Hungary; and I can no longer hear from him . . . . Yet the knowledge of the Lord is increasing around us, though I am compelled to stand idle. Gossner, Lindl, and many others are going forwards, and daily making new disciples."

"Weihern, 19th March, 1817.-A few days ago, my brother, the cross manufacturer at Augsburg, called on me. On asking him how things were going on, he said, 'Miserably! no one will buy a cross now-a-days.' 'I believe it,' was my answer, 'for every one is already provided with them. I for one will not be a customer to you.''

In the spring of 1817, a severe illness brought him apparently to the brink of the grave, in which, however, he experienced such an assurance of his salvation, through a living faith in Christ, and such a joyful willingness to die, that he wished his faith might frequently be thus re-animated, though it were by the recurrence of such attacks. His recovery was slow and imperfect. But he longed for a wider sphere of activity; and his wishes were unexpectedly granted by an invitation from the Prussian government to become professor and

catechist in the Gymnasium at Dusseldorf, on the Rhine; which, as there appeared no hope of his being again allowed to preach in Bavaria, he gladly accepted.

On the 12th of October, 1817, he took leave of his friends at Weihern, and proceeded to his new appointment. His duties were to give religious instruction to all the classes, and to teach the principles of the Latin language. He was also to be allowed to preach after being duly installed. He had scarcely commenced his labours, when he was summoned to attend the vicar-general's court at Cologne. He went, (as he expresses it) like a burnt child who dreads the fire; but was agreeably surprised at the reception he met with. Instead of a long and rigorous examination, which he had been led to expect, when De Caspars, the vicargeneral, entered the room, he asked Boos whether he had already filled the pastoral office. He answered that he had filled it so long that he had lost every hair of his head in it. On this the vicar-general laughed, and after looking over his testimonials, assented to his admission into the diocese.

The general character of the students in the Gymnasium afforded him little satisfaction. With scarcely an exception, they were wild and reckless, and hardened against religious impressions. Yet after labouring among them for some months he was gratified by the desire they manifested to obtain copies of the Scriptures. "The students, both lay and ecclesias

tical," he says, "appear becoming more hungry for the Word of Life, and have already taken forty copies. The students who seemed formerly to dread the Bible more than the devil, show just now great confidence in the Munich edition, after seeing the archbishop's approval of it."

In February, 1819, the magistrates, with the approbation of the episcopal council at Ehrenbreitstein, offered him the country parish of Sayn, a village on the Rhine, between Coblentz and Neuwied. He very readily gave up his professorship, and returned to those pastoral duties in which he had spent the greater part of his life, and ardently longed to spend his remaining days. He removed to Sayn in June, 1819, and continued there till his death.

In this, as in every other place, he found it to be true that "they who will live godly in Christ Jesus, must suffer persecution." The neighbouring clergy regarded with distrust a preacher who exalted the name of Christ above that of the Virgin Mary and the saints, and who insisted so forcibly on the necessity of the regeneration of the heart. Some of the literary journals attacked Boos and his so-called heresies with great virulence. The vicar-general at length felt compelled to address a circular to all the clergy in his diocese, in which Boos was instructed to abstain from all confidential intercourse with persons of other communions, to avoid singularity, and to submit his discourses to his clerical brethren.