François Gaussen

At the close of his university career at Geneva, Louis was in 1816 appointed pastor of the Swiss Reformed Church at Satigny near Geneva, where he formed a close relationship with J. E. Cellérier, who had preceded him in the pastorate, and also with the members of the dissenting congregation at Bourg-de-Four, which, together with the Église du témoignage, had been formed under the influence of the preaching of James and Robert Haldane in 1817.

[1] As a protest against this ordinance, in 1819 Gaussen published in conjunction with Cellerier a French translation of the Second Helvetic Confession, with a preface expounding the views he had reached upon the nature, use, and necessity of confessions of faith; and in 1830, for having discarded the official catechism of his church as being insufficiently explicit on the divinity of Christ, original sin and the doctrines of grace, he was censured and suspended by his ecclesiastical superiors.

Gaussen's reading of Rollin's "Ancient History"[2] and a belief that the prophecies in the second Book of Daniel had been fulfilled were also influential in leading him to an interest in the Second Advent, and following further study of the Bible, he came to the conclusion that the Second Coming of Christ was near.

In 1839, inspired by his success with the children, Gaussen published a first volume entitled The Prophet Daniel Explained in a series of readings for young persons, with the second following in 1848.

[3] After some time devoted to travel in Italy and England, he returned to Geneva and ministered to an independent congregation until 1834, when he joined Merle d'Aubigné as professor of systematic theology in the college which he had helped to found.