in his favour; in this they were joined by all the youths, who begged that their beloved teacher might be restored to them. But all in vain; Francke must leave the town. On 7th October 1691 he left Erfurt, and repaired to his mother and sister at Gotha. It is said that on the road thither the rejected pastor composed the beautiful hymn, commencing, "Thank God that towards eternity another step is won," and of which the two last stanzas are as follows:

"Then on, my soul, with fearless faith,

Let naught thy terror move,

Nor aught that earthly pleasure saith
E'er tempt thy steps to rove;

If slow thy course seems o'er the waste,
Mount upwards with the eagle's haste
On wings of tireless love.

"O Jesus, all my soul hath flown

Already up to Thee,

For Thou, in whom is love alone,

Hast wholly conquered me.

Farewell, ye phantoms, day and year,
Eternity is round me here,

Since, Lord, I live in Thee."

And He in whose service he suffered reproach and persecution, came to his aid in this trial too. On the same day in which the magistrates of Erfurt banished him from their town, he received an invitation from Spener, who meanwhile had been appointed provost and head of the consistory court at Berlin, to come to that city if he were not allowed to remain at Erfurt.

He promised that in Berlin he should be well cared for. Other offers came to him at the same time, but he answered the summons of his old friend; and after he had remained some time in Berlin, was in his twentyninth year appointed Professor of Oriental Languages at the University of Halle, and at the same time pastor at Glaucha, a suburb of that town. On 7th February 1692, he preached his first sermon there. For fiveand-thirty years the worthy Francke worked hard in this place, which Providence had appointed as the scene of his earnest labours, and richly was his ministry blessed to thousands of souls.

When he was chosen pastor at Glaucha, he found the parish in a most neglected state; he met everywhere with unbelief, idleness, rudeness, misery, and a total want of morality and honesty. Where the orphan house, which Francke reared by his efforts, now stands, low public-houses and dancing saloons, which were much frequented, then stood. The streets were crowded with beggars, who arranged on fixed days to visit all the well-to-do inhabitants, to ask for alms; to Francke and his neighbours they came every Thursday. One day he admitted them all, children and grown-up people, into his house; he ranged the parents on one side, the children on the other, and talked with the latter for about a quarter of an hour on the doctrines of the catechism, to which the former had to listen. He then concluded with a prayer, and distributed between them the bread which he was in the habit of giving them. This he did for

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some time once a week. But when the extreme ignorance of the children in the first principles of the Christian faith, and their indifference to the Divine Word, appeared to him to be the chief reason of their degraded condition, he determined to become a guide to them, on the road to a better understanding of the truth, and thereby to rescue their souls from perishing. What he then vowed to do he faithfully accomplished. As these neglected children, on account of their poverty, could obtain no instruction, he paid the school money for them, till he remarked that, though they came regularly to receive it, they nevertheless did not attend the school. For those numerous poor persons who were ashamed to beg, but whose need increased with the distress of the times, he sent round a box to collect the gifts of the charitable. But he obtained very little in this way, and the scanty alms at last ceased altogether. How could he help them now? The excellent man thought that, by denying himself the most necessary things, he would be able to provide means, for the support of the suffering. For a long time he gave up his own supper; and then, because the whole day was taken up by the duties of his office, worked hard at night at literary matters, giving the profits to starving families. Thus, by his hard night labour, he gained 150 thalers in a year.

After he had been at Glaucha about three years, the thought struck him of hanging up a poor-box in his sitting-room, and this turned out to be the way in which the darling wish of his heart was fulfilled, and

far beyond his expectations. Underneath the box were the following texts: "Whoso hath this world's goods and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?" (1 John iii. 17;) "Every man, according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver."

During the first few months only very small donations were put in, but once seven florins, the gift of a benevolent Christian lady, were found in the box. "This is a splendid capital," said Francke, "something real must be founded with it. I will begin a school for the poor." The very same day he purchased school books for two thalers, and engaged a poor student at six groschen a-week to teach the children for two hours a-day. But he soon discovered to his dismay, that out of the twenty-seven books he had given out, only four were brought back; the rest the children had sold, while they themselves gradually fell away in numbers. However, the undaunted Francke bought new books, which, after the instruction, he ordered to be left in the school. Thus was the foundation laid of a school for the poor, and his first enduring work, really established. It was not long before this institution increased, and was attended also by the children of the town's-people who could afford to pay a small sum for the instruction they received. The room in the parsonage was no longer large enough, and two rooms in a neighbouring house had

to be hired, and two schools established, one for the poor, the other for the children of the town's-people. The fame of Francke's benevolent and disinterested labours soon spread abroad, so that now and then large sums were sent to him; thus in a short time he had received 100 thalers, then 500 thalers at once, for the benefit of poor students. His courage was thereby strengthened and his resolution confirmed, with joyful trust in God, to continue the work, he had begun. His experience that, with the poorest children, home often counteracted all the good which school had done for them, called forth in this indefatigable children's friend, the plan of establishing an orphan-house, in which the children should receive constant care as well as instruction. A friend of Francke's gave him 500 thalers for this object, the interest of which was to provide for one orphan. When they looked around them to choose one, they found four, and soon after five others, none of whom Francke could decide to reject, so they were all distributed in three Christian families. student of theology, named Neubauer, undertook the oversight of them, and God blessed the work of mercy. Donations flowed in so abundantly from all sides, that within a year, Neubauer was enabled to enter with his orphans, a house which had been specially bought for the purpose. Next year a second house was bought, and when the number of orphans amounted to fiftytwo, and the free table for poor students provided for forty-two, Francke formed the bold determination of building an orphanage.

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