GAUSSEN, Louts, iwo—issa, was b. in Geneva, and in 1810 became pastor of Satigny, near that city. Here he derived profit from intercourse with pastor Cellerier, who had continued a steadfast Christian in the midst of the declension that was spread ing among the Swiss clergy. About this time, through the labors of James and Robert Haldane, of Scotland, genuine religion was greatly revived in Switzerland. But as the work was distasteful to the majority of the Geneva ministers, the Venerable Compagnie des Pasteurs passed ordinances against it which seriously restrained Christian liberty. In opposition to them, Gaussen and Cellerier republished in French the Helvetic con fession,.with a preface defending the use of. confessions of faith. Gaussen labored zealously in Satigny 12 years, and became known throughout Switzerland as a faithful defender of true Christianity, seeking not to divide the church, but to infuse into it new supplies of spiritual life. His activity and his doctrines were equally offensive to the opposite party, and involved him in frequent collisions with the Venerable Compagnie.
They ordered him to use the mutilated and rationalistic catechism which had been sub stituted for Calvin's, and, on his refusal, they censured him. He persevered in his course, and, together with Merle (d'Aubigne) and Galland, formed the " evangelical society" for the circulation of Bibles and tracts. The consistory at last suspended him. In 1834, he became professor of theology in the new evangelical school at Geneva, where he taught a strictly orthodox Christianity but perhaps without sufficient regard to the peculiarities of modern thought. His l'heopneus (1840), translated in England and America, maintains, in a form stronger than now commends itself to the majority of evangelical thinkers, the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures. His other writings that have been translated into English are: Canon of Scripture; Geneva and Jerusalem; Gen eva and Rome; It is written; Scripture proved to be from God; Lessons for the Young on the Six Days of Creation,.