LOWEXTHAL, ISIDOR. 



LUTHERAN CHURCH. 



487 



ever afterward characterized him. As soon as 

 he had attained the requisite age he was admit- 

 ted to the Gymnasium, where he acquired with 

 extraordinary rapidity the higher studies of a 

 liberal education, including most of the lan- 

 guages of modern Europe, and at the age of 

 seventeen had completed the course of study. 

 He then entered a mercantile house iu Posen 

 as clerk, but books were much more to his 

 taste than merchandising, and every leisure 

 moment was devoted to literary pursuits. In 

 consequence of his association with a club of 

 young men of liberal tendencies, and his con- 

 tribution of a poem to one of the public journals, 

 he found himself involved in difficulties, and to 

 avoid arrest was compelled to escape from the 

 country. Reaching Hamburg he embarked for 

 New York, where he arrived in the autumn of 

 1846. Here for some time he sought employ- 

 ment in New York and Philadelphia without 

 success. At length, with a few shillings he 

 procured a few articles and went about with 

 them in a basket as a peddler. In this capacity 

 he visited "Wilmington, Delaware, and his in- 

 tellectual face and thin clothing excited the 

 interest and compassion of Rev. S. M. Gayley 

 of that city, who offered him a shelter for the 

 night from the severe cold storm then raging. 

 Entering into conversation with him Mr. ' 

 ley found him possessed of talents of a high 

 order, and attainments remarkable for his age, 

 and on the morrow he invited him to remain 

 at his house while he made efforts to secure 

 him a situation as a teacher. He did so, and 

 obtained for him the position of teacher of 

 French and German in Lafayette College, Eas- 

 ton, Pennsylvania. In an almost incredibly 

 short period he obtained so thorough a mas- 

 tery of English as both to write and speak 

 it with classic purity. He entered Lafayette 

 College in advance in 1847, and graduated in 

 1848. During the summer of 1847 he became 

 a convert to Christianity, led, as he himself 

 said, by the Christian example and devotion 

 of his friend, Rev. Mr. Gayley. In 1848 

 he took the position of teacher of languages 

 in the Mount Holly Collegiate School, N. J., 

 and turned his attention to philological studies, 

 in which he made rapid progress, and collected 

 a large library of very rare and valuable books 

 bearing upon philology. Through the kindness 

 of Rev. Dr. Phillips, of New York, he was ten- 

 dered a scholarship in the Princeton Theologi- 

 cal Seminary, which he accepted, and in the 

 fall of 1852 was matriculated as a student in 

 that institution. Here he took a high position 

 as a student, prosecuting his philological studies 

 in connection with theology, and contributing 

 articles of great ability to the Biblical Reposi- 

 tory. For about a year after graduating at 

 the Theological Seminary he was tutor in the 

 College of New Jersey, but having decided to 

 devote himself to the work of missions in India, 

 he offered his services to the Board of Missions 

 of the Presbyterian Church. He was accepted 

 and appointed to the new mission to the Aff- 



ghans. In August, 1856, he sailed for India, 

 and arrived late in the autumn, and going im- 

 mediately to Peshawur, his station, entered 

 at once with ardor upon his work. He ac- 

 quired with great readiness the difficult lan- 

 guage of the Affghans (the Pushtoo), and soon 

 after the Persian, Cashmiri, Hindustani, and 

 Arabic, and as soon as he was able to speak in- 

 telligibly in these languages he commenced 

 preaching. In the seven years of his mission- 

 ary life, besides preaching with great frequency 

 in all these languages, he had translated and 

 published the New Testament in Pushtoo, and 

 had nearly completed a dictionary of that lan- 

 guage, had formed a more thorough acquaint- 

 ance with Asiatic literature, manners, and cus- 

 toms, and Oriental politics, than any other 

 foreigner in India ; had so completely mastered 

 the religious systems, both Pagan and Moham- 

 medan of the country, that he was greatly fear- 

 ed by the ablest muftis and priests as a dispu- 

 tant ; had secured the friendship of the present 

 and late Governor-General of India, to whom 

 he rendered great services ; had accumulated a 

 very large and valuable library, said to be the 

 richest private collection of manuscripts and 

 rare books on Oriental topics in India, and was 

 a frequent contributor to British and American 

 reviews, besides conducting a very large cor- 

 respondence. He was a most indefatigable 

 student, devoting but four hours to sleep. He 

 came to his death by this intense devotion to 

 study, his choickedar, or watchman, seeing him 

 in his garden (where he was walking in the 

 night to cool his heated brain), mistaking him 

 for a robber, fired at him, and the ball striking 

 his forehead, he fell senseless and soon expired. 

 LUTHERAN' CHURCH. The condition of 

 the Lutheran Church in 1864, and its progress 

 since the previous year, is given as follows : 



* Not represented at the last Convention of the Genend Synod. 



