Bost, Paul Ami Isaac David

Bost, Paul Ami Isaac David a Swiss Protestant theologian, was born at Geneva, June 10, 1790. His father, a member of the Moravian Church, sent his son to Neuwied, where he spent four years. After his return, he pursued a-theological course at his native place, and was ordained in 1814. In 1816 he accepted a position as assistant at Moutiers-Grandval, in the canton of Berne, where he preached for two years. Feeling that a congregation was too limited a field for him, he entered, in 1818, the services of the London Continental Society. After his first journeys in Switzerland and Alsace, he left, in 1819, the Church of Geneva, defending his course in Geneve Religieuse en Mars 1819. In 1825

he returned to Geneva, and was appointed pastor of the Free Church of Bourg-de-Four. The ministers of the national Church spoke and wrote against the schismatics, which caused Bost's Defense de Ceux des Fideles de Geneve qui se sont Constitues en Eglise lndependante,' contre les Sectaires de cette Ville.' The excitement was great. Bost was accused of libel. On Jan. 4, 1826, the matter was brought before the court. Bost pleaded his own case, and was acquitted. The procurator-general made an appeal, and the matter was brought before the supreme court. Bost pleaded again for himself, and was acquitted of the accusation for libel, but was fined five hundred francs "for offensive expressions against an official corporation" (the Compagnie des Pasteurs). On this occasion the separated members of the Free Church were brought into closer contact with each other, and Malan, especially, gave expression to his brotherly love towards the accused. Bost soon resigned his position in the Church of Bourg-de- Four, and organized a new congregation at Carouge, near Geneva., In 1838 he founded a politico-religious paper, L'Esperance, which together with his congregation at Carouge, he soon gave up. In 1840 he was again received into the national Church of Geneva, and accepted a call to Asnieres, Bourges, and finally to Melan, where he was appointed preacher to the prisoners of the Maison Centrale, and labored there until 1848. Between 1849 and 1851 we find him at Geneva, Nismes, and Paris. The last years of his life he spent with his son at Laforce, where he died, Dec. 14, 1874. Bost left Memoires pouvant Servir a l'Histoire Religieuse des Eglises Protestantes dela Suisse et de la France (1854-56, 2 vols.). Besides the works mentioned, he wrote, Histoire des Freres. de Boheme et de Maioravie (1831, 2 vols.): — Sur la Primaut/ die Pierre et Son Episcopal (1832, 3 vols.): — Histoire Generale de l'Etablissement di Christianisnue (1834, 4 vols.), based upon Blumhardt's history of missions:Les Prophetes Protestants (1847). See Guers, Premier Reveil a Geneve (1871), Semainie Religieuse, Jan. 1875; Eglise Libre, April 9, 1875; Rhffet, in Lichtenberner's Encyclopedie des Sciences Religieusees, s.v.; Barde, in Herzog's Real-Encyklop. (2d ed.), s.v. (B. P.)