HELDRING, OTTO GERHARDT: Founder of the Inner Mission in the Netherlands; b. at Zevenaar (8. m. s.e. of Arnhem), Gelderland, May 17, 1804; d. at Marienbad (38 m. n.w. of Pilsen), Bohemia, July 11, 1876. In his university studies he displayed a decided preference for history and political economy over theology, but accepted, nevertheless, in 1826, a call to the pastorate of Hemmen, a little village of 150 inhabitants. There his bent for practical sociology was not slow in manifesting itself. The life of the peasantry attracted him; the causes and problems of poverty, with its effect on the physical and moral being of the community, were made the subjects of careful investigations, the results of which he published with the object of arousing a general interest that might lead to the initiation of remedies. The first of his works, "Nature and Man," appeared in 1833, and was followed by a succession of writings published independently or in the form of contributions to periodicals, revealing a charming union of religion, poetry, history, economics, and homely wisdom, expressed in a simple style suitable for the wide audience to which he appealed. With the year 1841 begins the essential activity of his beneficent career. A journey undertaken in that year brought him by chance to the little village of Hoenderloo, whose inhabitants lived in a state of material and spiritual privation that aroused his pity. Through his exertions Hoenderloo was supplied with a well and a school; a church was established soon after, and within a few years Heldring had the satisfaction of witnessing the regeneration of a community. He devoted him-

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self next to the cause of temperance, to the relief of the stricken in the famine years of 1845-46, to remedial schemes of colonization. At a time when orthodoxy and public beneficence had no intimate connection, he succeeded in uniting the propagation of the Gospel with the distribution of material aid. In this field he was assisted by the "Assembly of Christian Friends" of Amsterdam, which included such men as Capadose, Da Costa, Beets, and Groen van Prinaterer. But, while no branch of philan thropy failed to receive his attention, Heldring devoted his particular efforts to rescue work among the fallen. For the reclamation of unfortunate women he established an asylum at Steenbeck in 1847, and to gain support for this Institution trav eled throughout the country preaching the Gospel of charity toward the weak. The asylum was fol lowed by other institutions for the protection of young women and girls, and by a seminary for the training of teachers for work in that field.

(Theodor Schäfer.)

Bibliography: His autobiography was published by his son, L. Heldring, at Leyden, 1881, Germ. transl., GOters loh, 1882; N. Beets, Zum Geddchtnias an O. O. Heldring, Hamburg, 1876.