12mo. xii, 480 pp., contemporary full calf, speckled edges, top end of title page cut without loss to title, slight split at bottom of spine, worm hole to top edge of first few leaves without any loss to text, scattered foxing, otherwise copy in overall good condition, W. B. Gilley, New York, fourth edition, 1817.

Synopsis

Joseph Samuel Christian Frederick Frey, clergyman, born in May at Stockheim, Franconia, Germany, in 1773 ; died in Pontiac, Michigan, 5 June 1850. At twenty-one he became a leader in the synagogue, read the prayers and law, and spent a whole year in learning the Jewish method of killing fowls, or beasts. About this period, while journeying from Hamburg to Schwerin, in the hope of obtaining at the latter town a more lucrative office, he met a Christian, who suggested to him novel ideas regarding the Messiah. He was impressed with the doctrines of the new religion, and, after three or four years of mental struggle, adopted them as his own.
In 1820 he founded the American society for meliorating the condition of the Jews. The object of this association was to establish an asylum for Christian Hebrews from all parts of the world. The enterprise proved a failure, and occupied several years of fruitless labor. In 1827, Mr. Frey, convinced of the necessity of immersion, left the Congregationalist Church and became a Baptist. He held several small charges as a member of that denomination, and in 1837 resigned his pastorate to go to Europe as an agent for the American society for the conversion of the Jews.