d were merciful enough to bless me. I
kneeled down and prayed. All doubt vanished; I was assured in my own
heart of the grace of God in Christ. Now I know him, not alone as my God
but as my Father. All melancholy and unrest vanished, and I was so
overcome with joy, that from the fullness of my heart I could praise my
Saviour. With great sorrow I had kneeled; but with wonderful ecstacy I
had risen up. It seemed to me as if my whole previous life had been a
deep sleep, as if I had only been dreaming, and now for the first time
had waked up. I was convinced that the whole world, with all its
temporal joy, could not kindle up such pleasure in my breast."

A few days afterwards he preached from the same text as before. The
sermon was the first real one that he had preached. Henceforth his heart
was in the work for which God had chosen him.

He preached in Halle statedly, for, in addition to the duties of the
professor's chair, he was pastor of a church. His ministrations in the
pulpit became extremely popular and attractive. Naturally eloquent, he
won the masses to his ministry; and by his forcible presentation of
truth he molded them into his own methods of faith and thought. Nor was
he less zealous or successful in his theological lectures. He commenced
them in 1698, by a course on the _Introduction to the Old Testament_,
concluding with a second one on the New Testament.

In 1712, he published his _Hermeneutical Lectures_, containing his
comments on sections and books of Scripture, particularly on the Psalms
and the Gospel of John. In his early life he had observed the dearth of
lectures on the Scriptures; and he accordingly applied himself to remedy
the evil. His principles of instruction were, _first_, that the student
be converted before he be trained for the ministry, otherwise his
theology would be merely a sacred philosophy--_philosophia de rebus
sacris_; _second_, that he be thoroughly taught in the Bible, for "a
theologian is born in the Scriptures." His _Method of Theological Study_
produced a profound impression, and was the means of regenerating the
prevailing system of theological instruction at the universities.

But Francke is chiefly known to the present generation by his foundation
of the Orphan House at Halle. This institution was the outgrowth of his
truly practical and beneficent character; and from his day to the
present, it has stood a monument of his strong faith and great humanity.
Its origin was