MEMOIR Xl
Writing himself subsequently on this subject, Dr.
Kidersheim says: ‘The purity and holiness of life of
these men attracted me; their earnestness and con-
victions aroused me to inquire into the views which
had made them so quite other from those whom I had
hitherto known, and from what I knew myself to be.
Our acquaintance soon ripened into friendship... .’
And again: ‘I had never seen a New Testament till
I received the first copy from the hands of the
Presbyterian ministers. I shall never forget the first
impression of ‘‘ the Sermon on the Mount,’’ nor yet the
surprise, and then deep feeling, by which the reading
of the New Testament was followed. That which I
had so hated was not Christianity; that which I had
not known, and which opened such untold depths, was
the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth. I became a
Christian, and was baptized by the pastor of the
Reformed Church at Pesth.’ That this stage was
followed as well as preceded by long and anxious
thought and struggle, is testified to by a corre-
pondence (in Latin) which ensued between the
newly baptized one and Dr. Duncan, then resident
at Leghorn.
The circumstances which led to the young con-