SERMONS

ON THE

FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER:

CHAPTER IV.

BY

H. F. KOHLBRÜGGE, D.D.,

OF ELBERFELD, GERMANY,

WITH

A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR.

TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN.

LONDON:

PARTRIDGE AND CO., PATERNOSTER ROW.

DUBLIN: J. ROBERTSON. EDINBURGH OLIPHANT.

GLASGOW CHAMBERS.

NEW YORK: CARTER, BROTHERS.

1856.

100. 7.262.

THE

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

OF

THE AUTHOR.

HERMANN FRIEDRICH KOHLBRÜGGE was born in Amsterdam, on the 15th August, 1803. His father, who formerly lived near Osnabrück, where the family possessed landed property, removed to Amsterdam, where this worthy man established a soap manufactory. At a very early age our Hermann Friedrich was called to experience the sufferings of this present state. In consequence of a severe illness, he was deprived of his eye sight, and it was as by a miracle that, after two years of blindness, the power of vision was restored to him. At the Latin Grammar School, the lad was distinguished by diligence and talent, and after he had decided on devoting himself to the study of theology, he attended the Athenæum in Amsterdam, where, enjoying the tuition of excellent tutors, he acquired an extraordinary philological standing. Here he pursued the study of the Oriental languages, for which he possessed a great predilection, with much success. While thus engaged in his studies, his father experienced reverses in his circumstances, in consequence of which our young student was obliged to spend a great part of the day in the soap-manufactory, and to avail himself

of the night to prosecute his studies; in the meantime, he endeavoured to obtain the needful means to continue his literary labours by imparting instruction to others.

Under the beneficial influence of his pious grandmother, he had received deep impressions of the grace of God in his earliest youth. From this excellent woman he received an ingenious course of instruction in Scripture history, from the pictorial representations of Bible scenes on the Dutch tiles which adorned the sides of the chimney. Though it seemed as if the impressions he then received had been effaced during the years he devoted to study; yet, in after life, the instruction thus imparted produced abundant fruit.

When he was on the point of preaching his first sermon in the Reformed Lutheran Church in Amsterdam, after his father had dropped beneath the weight of cares and the anguish caused by disappointed friendship, it pleased the Lord to draw the young preacher to Himself, and to reveal His Son in him, whom he, as a chosen vessel, was now called to proclaim.

After having been appointed a candidate of the ministry in the Lutheran Church, he preached "Jesus Christ and Him crucified" with great power and unction, so that the whole church was filled with the savour of the gospel of Christ. But, alas! the testimony that he bore with all the fire and energy of youth, influenced one of the ministers of this church

in such a manner, that he departed more and more from the gospel, and turned to avowed infidelity. In one of the sermons preached by this minister, the shallow neology which he had adopted was so striking, that Kohlbrügge felt himself compelled, in compliance with the church regulations, to hand in a protest against such doctrines to the church council. This step, which was taken in 1827, led, on the part of the ecclesiastical authorities, to measures, which, as Kohlbrügge refused to revoke his accusation, led to his being deprived of his office. Rarely has justice been more boldly despised; seldom have faithfulness and truth been thus trampled under foot.

It was, however, in this path of suffering, humiliation, reproach, and persecution, that Kohlbrügge was to experience the unchangeable faithfulness of God, who, in His own set time, powerfully revealed Himself to him, comforted him by His Holy Spirit, and led him by the right way. Strengthening himself in his God, looking “not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, he persevered undeviatingly in the road of trial.

In consequence of his removal from office, Kohlbrügge was deprived of all means of subsistence. "The few florins I still possessed," he himself relates,

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were soon parted with; but although I had not partaken of warm food for a long time, and my provision of bread was decreasing, I did not feel at liberty to make known my position to any one, but clung to