MALAX, ABRAHAM HENRI CESAR 



495 



resigned his seat to accept the office of Secre- 

 tary of the Treasury, Governor Cony appointed 

 Nathan A. Farwefl in his place. 



As one of the northern border States of the 

 Union, Maine was exposed during the year to 

 petty depredations by rebel refugees from the 

 adjoining British provinces. At mid-day, on 

 July 18th, a bold attempt was made to rob the 

 Calais Bank, in that town, by a small party of 

 rebel raiders from St. John, X. B., led by one 

 Collins, a captain in a Mississippi regiment. 

 But the town authorities having been previ- 

 ously put upon their guard by the American 

 consul at St. John, three of the party were 

 arrested and committed, and the remainder 

 prudently kept out of the way. This attempt, 

 though frustrated, caused an uneasy feeling 

 along the eastern frontier, and in Eastport, 

 Calais, Belfast, and other border towns, volun- 

 teer organizations were formed for the purpose 

 of patrolling the streets at night, and the or- 

 dinary police force was increased and armed. 

 The Governor, in view of the possibility of 

 future attacks of this nature, ordered the several 

 companies of State guards to be in readiness to 

 move to any part of the State at a moment's 

 warning. 



An important change was made by the Legis- 

 lature of 1SG4, in the rules regulating criminal 

 proceedings, by the passage of an act providing 

 that in the trial of all indictments, complaints, 

 and other proceedings against persons charged 

 with the commission of crimes or offences, the 

 person so charged may, at his own request, but 

 not otherwise, be deemed a competent witness ; 

 the credit to he given to his testimony to be left 

 wholly to the jury, under the instructions of the 

 court. An act was also passed incorporating 

 the " Foreign Emigrant Association of Maine," 

 to which the State agreed to give $25 for every 

 able bodied foreign emigrant from the north of 

 Europe, between the ages of fifteen and fifty, 

 whom the association might, within the next 

 five years, introduce into Maine, and cause to 

 remain one year. 



MALAX, (Rev.) ABRAHAM HEXRI CESAE, 

 D. D., a Swiss Protestant clergyman and author, 

 born in Geneva, Switzerland, July 7, 1787, died 

 in the same city May 8th, 1864. From infancy 

 young Malan exhibited extraordinary abilities ; 

 at three years of age he received at the com- 

 mencement of the Geneva Academy a prize 

 medal for reading, being borne in his nurse's 

 arms to the old cathedral where the prizes were 

 delivered, to receive it. His studies were con- 

 tinued at the Academy till his eighteenth year, 

 when, from a desire to aid his parents, he went 

 to Marseilles, and entered a mercantile house, 

 but soon returned and prepared for the ministry 

 at the Faculty of Theology, and at the age of 

 twenty-three was ordained by the " TV, 

 Compaqine" or Presbytery of Geneva. His 

 extraordinary eloquence as a preacher and 

 writer attracted attention at once, and ere long 

 ho was appointed preacher at the cathedral, 

 where he occupied the pulpit of Calvin and 



drew crowds to listen to his brilliant cratory. 

 He was also appointed Regent at the Academy, 

 and published for the benefit of his pupils a 

 carefully annotated edition of " Lcs Fables de 

 PJtedre" and a selection of Latin poems of his 

 own composition, remarkable alike for the ex- 

 quisiteness of their Latin versification and their 

 high moral tone. The title of this collection 

 was " Carmen Ettricum de predpuis bonce tit<& 

 offidis." 1 When Cesar Malan entered upon his 

 ministry in the Genevan cathedral, the forms 

 of the church founded by Calvin remained, but 

 the spiritual life had departed. The young 

 preacher endeavored to infuse the vitality of his 

 own fervid spirit into the lifeless forms, and the 

 latitudinarian creed of the " Venerable Com- 



'V," but in vain. At this time there came 

 to Geneva four men whose influence on his 

 character was deep and abiding. These were 

 the late Dr. John M. Mason and Matthias 

 Bruen, of Xew York, and the brothers Haldane, 

 of Edinburgh. By their instruction and con- 

 versation Mr. Malan was converted from Ra- 

 tionalism to a pure and active Christianity, and 

 preaching the doctrines which he had so heartily 

 imbibed, he soon produced a commotion in the 

 city of Calvin. The " Venerable Compagnie" 

 had issued for circulation among the masses an 

 edition of the Xew Testament, in which all 



_es bearing the Divinity of Christ were so 

 altered as to favor the Socinian belief; this trans- 

 lation young Malan denounced with the most 

 vehement eloquence, explaining at the same 

 time to the assembled multitude what were the 

 real declarations of the Xew Testament. The 

 theological faculty ordered him to desist from 

 such preaching, but in vain; they threatened 

 him with the loss of position, and present and 

 prospective honors; his reply was "God and 

 Truth will remain." 



In 1818 the rupture between him and the 

 Venerable Compagnie, had become two public to 

 admit of any hope of reconciliation, and he was 

 dismissed from the Established Church, and the 

 post of " regent " filled by another. For two 

 years subsequently he preached in his own 

 house, where some of the most eminent people 

 of Geneva attended his service constantly. In 

 1820 he erected upon his own ground a church, 

 which he named ''the Chapel of the Testi- 

 mony." (La, Cnapelle du Ti'inoignage. r ') But 

 his active spirit was not content with preaching 

 the truth, or engaging in pastoral labors; his 

 pen was also busy, now on polemical works, in 

 defence of the Divinity of Christ ; or the Sover- 

 eignty of Divine Grace, or exhibiting errors of 

 the Romish Church, and anon in the prepara- 

 tion of religious tracts, clear, simple, and prac- 

 tical, and which exerted a powerful influence 

 over the masses. He established the first Sab- 

 bath-school hi Switzerland ; founded a Magdalen 

 Asylum, or ''Penitentiary," as it is called on 

 the Continent ; organized a Tract Society for 

 Switzerland, and taught a school of theology, in 

 which several excellent pastors and some mis- 

 sionaries were educated ; and amid all his toil 



