The Village in the Mountains, Conversion of Peter Bayssiere, and History of a Bible [ATS ca. 1840]

The Village in the Mountains, Conversion of Peter Bayssiere, and History of a Bible. New-York: Published by the American Tract Society, ca. 1840. [8350]

Leather spine with marbled boards, front outer hinge with surface crack, not loose. 3 3/4 x 6 inches. General title page with a half title page for each of the three stories, 108 pp. with two plates. End papers creased, some foxing/smudges. Good. Hardcover.

Imprint is Published by the | American Tract Society, | 150 Nassau-street, New York. | D. Fanshaw, Printer. This indicates that the printing date was sometime between 1832 and 1844.

The Village in the Mountains is a narrative which includes original letters written by a widow in France. An American engaged in business in that country met an elderly widow in the mountains of Puy de Dôme who professed an evangelical faith. He pledges to send her New Testaments and other books, and she responds to his shipments with these letters, which were in the possession of the American Tract Society of New York. The American again visits the widow in her home, on which occasion some of her neighbors and village officials - her "persecutors" - descended upon the house. They are invited in, and the American reads from the New Testament and delivers a gospel message to them. 39 pp.

Conversion of Peter Bayssiere, from the Romish Church to the Protestant Faith: In a Letter to His Children; Translated from the French. 50 pp. with one plate. Written by Bayssiere at Montaigut, Dec. 31, 1826. A footnote quotes the London edition's statement by Francis Cunningham, authenticating the contents. "The autograph of Bayssiére's letter I saw when I was in the South of France, in the year 1826. It had just then been received by M. Audezez, the minister of Nérac; who, as appears by the Tract, was well acquainted both with Bayssiére and his circumstances."

The History of a Bible. 18 pp., 1 plate. Writted from the point of view of a Bible, who was "prisoner" in a bookseller's shop, and then locked up in the new owner's home. The Bible records how it was used and who by, in the family. "After remaining a close prisoner for some months in a bookseller's shop, I was liberated, and taken to the country to be a companion to a young gentleman who had lately become major...In the evening I was taken up stairs, and confined in the family prison, called by them the library. Several thousand prisoners were under the same sentence, standing rows about the room; they had their names written upon their foreheads, but none of them were allowed to speak."