tion of the hard and confounding combats in | related at the Kirchentag of Elberfeld a the theological schools, if the men of liber- few words which the deceased Neander once al tendency would learn to obey the precept had spoken to him. "Before our nation," of St. James, to "be swift to hear and slow to said he, "I see a deep precipice, but above speak," and if they would get accustomed to the precipice appears a brightness; I don't examine the reasons of the apologists as ear- know whether it is aurora or evening red.” nestly as the latter examine and ponder the But, added the relator, the gleam of his arguments of the critic. Many utterances eyes bore witness that he believed it was of that side authorize us in expecting that aurora. the book of Strauss will have the effect of an air-cleansing thunder-storm; the book will soon be forgotten, even as the sounds of thunder quickly die away; but they leave behind them the cleansed atmosphere. I am at the end of my report. Two-andtwenty years ago, Dr. de Pressensé, of Paris, My dear brethren, I think, in the picture I have unfolded to you, neither the deep precipice nor the brightness above it have been wanting. My belief, my hope, my prayer is, that this brightness may be the aurora of a new day-of a better time! Let it also be your prayer for my fatherland. EVANGELICAL THEOLOGY IN GERMANY: SURVEY OF MY LIFE AS A TEACHER OF THEOLOGY. BY PROFESSOR AUGUST THOLUCK, D.D., UNIVERSITY OF HALLE. [Translated and read, with an Addition, by the Rev. LEOPOLD WITTE, Cöthen, Prussia.] MANY a time countrymen of yours have al languages. Thus it was that philology, questioned me both by word of mouth and and more especially Oriental philology, beby letter: What is now the state of Chris-came the centre of my course of reading at tianity and of theology in Germany? Many the University. I entered college after the a time this question has been repeated to me French war, at a time when in Germany, at those diets which we call "Kirchentage," | particularly in Prussia, a new spirit of vital in our synods in Switzerland, Germany, Hol- faith had been awakened and had taken land, France, and England; and many a possession both of the Church and of theologtime, though a comparatively short periodical science. Some slight traces of that rehad elapsed, I could but give the same an-vival might be discovered at Breslau, where swer, only pointing out some peculiarities I began studying; but more distinctly of minor importance. was seen in Berlin that the Gospel was gaining ground in the higher circles, and was strenuously upheld by the court. Thither I went, in 1816, to continue my studies. I was introduced into some circles frequent ed with Christian faith and Christian life. Yet did I not give up my Oriental researches, but pursued them steadily, without thinking I should ever pass over to the faculty of divinity. It was trials and afflictions that made me consider it the highest aim of a man's life to become a servant of Christ. Oh! my dearly beloved friends, if the grace of the Lord had granted me that privilege, rather than send you a kind of theological report, I would have spoken from heart to heart in an assembly where I shoulded by superior men, who made me acquainthave found Christian brethren who for many years past have been most cordially attached to me. And, although a foreigner, yet to many of you I should not have been a stranger, nay, some might consider me an old friend. Sincerely deploring as I do that I have been denied that gratification, I beg to express my thanks for your kindly allow-In consequence of too hard working, I being me to send to you a dear young friend as my deputy, and to use him as my mouthpiece for submitting to you a retrospective review of the development of German theology in this latter age. gan spitting blood, and was obliged more than a year to interrupt my studies preparatory to an academical chair. During this time my conscience suggested the question unto me: Supposing the end of thy life had come, wouldst thou be able to exculpate thyself before Him, who has given thee the knowledge of His Gospel not only for promoting science, but that thou mightst lead others to the same blissful en It is the life of a theologian I am going to give, a sketch of the life of a man who, being thrown together with high and low, with kings, princes, ambassadors, scholars, and artists, has taken a part in all the ecclesiastical, the Christian, or sometimes rath-lightenment that has been granted thee? er unchristian movements of his age, that have been brought about in Germany, France, Switzerland, Holland, and Sweden. Then I made a vow to God within my soul that, if it pleased Him once more to restore me to life, I would devote myself to no othAt one time I should hardly have thought er calling than a missionary's life in Eastern that it would be Christian life and theology countries, a resolution I was chiefly induced I should ever plead for in my own country to form by reading the Life of Martyn. Then or on the other side of the Atlantic. I grew it was that, having some connection with up alienated from the Gospel, and far from Sir George Rose, the English Ambassador at intending to devote myself to the study of Berlin, I was encouraged to tender my servdivinity. On leaving the Gymnasium, when, ices to the British and Foreign Bible Socieaccording to a German custom, I had to de- ty, and was offered an agency for that Soliver an address on any subject I might se-ciety in Malta. Hoping that my still very lect myself, I chose to lecture on "The Su- delicate state of health would allow me to periority of the Oriental World over the discharge the duties of my office, I was on Christian." In my school-days already I the point of accepting, when it was made had applied myself to the study of Orient-evident that the Lord designed me for a still higher vocation. A renewed attack of tian population. Nor are you, my dearly spitting blood forced me temporarily to re- beloved brethren, ignorant of the fact that nounce the calling I had fixed upon; but Pietism, wanting, as it did, a comprehensivejust then the Prussian Government inquiredness of views, and renouncing the task of if I should feel inclined to accept an Assist- thoroughly penetrating and reviving the ant Lectureship on Hebrew and Oriental | whole human life, was at length found inadLiterature, on the occasion of Dr. De Wette having to resign his chair in the University of Berlin. equate to stand its ground against the fascinating influences of that bold school which goes by the name of "Aufklärung," and the votaries of which pretended to fathom the mysteries of Christian faith by what they So I was unexpectedly removed into the faculty of divinity. About the same time my health was restored, and I may be allow-called Common Sense, that is to say, by shorted to say that thenceforward I adopted for sighted human understanding. Almost my own life the famous motto of Count Zin- throughout the breadth of the country this zendorf: "Ich hab nur Eine Passion, und tendency of" Rationalism," as it was termed die ist Er, nur Er" (I have but one passion, about the beginning of the present century, and that is He, and He alone). To bring had taken an uncontested possession of the back souls to Christ, was from that time the pulpits and academical chairs. Only some daily, nay, the hourly problem as well as the feeble boughs of the Pietism of an age gone joy of my life. The delivering of lectures by were still faintly growing, known by the on the Old and New Testaments, as well as name of Supernaturalism; and at Halle there on the literatures of the Orient and Occi- had been one single man who, feebly indeed dent, the composition of critical treatises and secretly enough, dared to resist all-powand of popular books of edification, but, erful Rationalism. I allude to Professor first of all, the daily intercourse with the Knapp. Out of nine hundred students, he youth of the University, filled up every hour had found five who, being revived by the of my existence. And yet my thirst for aid of a Christian craftsman, believed in the gaining over souls remained unquenched. Divinity of Christ. The body of the acaEvery day I prayed to God that He might demical teachers, in agreement with the be pleased to call me to that place where whole mass of the students, had sent to the a hundred years before August H. Francke Minister of State for Ecclesiastical Affairs had built his orphan asylum, and had, by his against my appointment to a professorship addresses both from the pulpit and from the at Halle. chair, gathered a faithful community, teaching that the first stage on the way to the tree of knowledge was by the tree of life. What the yearning soul of the youth had prayed for, was in store for the man-yet not till after a hard struggle. Having returned from travels to England and Holland, which the liberality of our Government had enabled me to undertake for scientific purposes, I was called upon to fill the chair of Professor Knapp at Halle, lately deceased. In spite of many sacrifices my heart had to make, I joyfully acceded to the proposal. Notwithstanding all the difficulties I had to contend with, by the blessing of the Lord, the number of the young believers in Christ increased from year to year. A new spirit had been awakened in Germany. The afflictions caused by the French war, the high example set by Frederick William III. and his royal house, the moral bankruptcy which beggarly Rationalism had undergone in genuine and upright minds, who wanted real comfort and no mere phrases, heavenly realities, not earthly reasoning: all these forebodings of a change contributed to facilitate It would be out of place to give here a de- my position in Halle, and to bring a constanttailed account of all the theological schools ly increasing number of Christian students that from the time of the Reformation had to the feet of the Lord. A colleague of mine, been founded within, or based upon, the Ger- Professor Wegscheider, had declared in one man Church, and had contributed to bring of his dogmatical books, " in rebus gravissiabout that state of things which I found mis ad religionem et honestatem pertinenexistent when I removed to Halle. To the tibus convenire omnes gentes." Dr. Hase, a members of this assembly it is universally young theologian of the University of Jena, known, how a dead orthodoxy had, through- in his excellent and most important book, out the 17th century, been predominant in "Hutterus Redivivus," published in 1828, raisGerman churches and universities; howed the objection that no one well read in hisSpener, that man of faith and inward Christian life, was graced to recall to piety a great many inhabitants of poor, devastated Germany that had been the miserable theatre of the Thirty Years' War; how he gave rise to the celebrated school of the Pietists in Halle, whose influence, within the time allotted to one generation, revived the courts, the nobility, the clergy, nay, the whole Chris omnes tory and philosophy would agree with that Another element of higher importance tem. contributed to discredit Rationalism, I mean cultivated in your Congregationalist schools. the theological system of Schleiermacher, Ever since the year 1614, when John Sigiswhich the obsolete names of Rationalism mund, Elector of Brandenburg, adopted the and Supernaturalism would not allow to be reformed confession instead of Lutheranism, subsumed under themselves. A renewed ex- which was the established religion of his amination of the real nature of religion had country, our Prussian sovereigns, with their taught Schleiermacher that the traditional families, have always professed a spirit definitions did not come up to it. To him re- of toleration, and have, moreover, exerted ligion was the feeling of an absolute depend- themselves to effect a union of the several ence on God within the Christian Church, denominations of the Protestant Church. a consciousness of sin and of the redemption We may be allowed to say that even among by Christ, which had not been put forth the Prussian people the tendency to union prominently enough in any dogmatical sys- has been constantly increasing, since, in All philosophical terms and defini- 1817, a "United Evangelical Church" betions, all physical investigations, all theses came the established church of the country. whatever that could not be derived by strict A new epoch may be dated from the appearinference from the profound feeling of sin-ance of Hengstenberg, and the publication fulness and the certainty of redemption, were excluded from the dogmatical system of Schleiermacher. The consequence of which was that a great many were now won for Christian piety of such as had felt an aversion to the incomprehensibilities of the old dogmatic system, while not a few among the orthodox Christians, slightly modifying their creed, began to take an intermediate position between the two contending parties, a position that found particular favor with the highest circles in Prussia. Although Schleiermacher continued to have his adversaries, among whom in the outset I was counted myself, yet it is due to him to own that his influence gradually made religion respected by scoffers. of his Evangelische Kirchenzeitung in 1829, inasmuch as it seems owing to his influence that the orthodox party of the Church, who, up to that period, had been of a more gently Biblical character, gradually became more polemical and aggressive. Although that ecclesiastical record often exceeded the proper limits of justice and moderation, yet it must be avowed, as it has been even by so liberal a theologian as Professor Hase in Jena, that Professor Hengstenberg's eminent talent as an editor made his journal the head paper of Germany, that concentrated and strengthened all the Christian elements. In the beginning, confessional quarrels were excluded altogether; but when the waves of the Lutheran flood were swelling and surging, Hengstenberg himself yielded to their force, and from 1844 the "Evangelische Kirchenzeitung," without breaking with the United Church of Prussia, unfurled the banner of Lutheran confessionalism, yet so as to give at the same time a considerable check to the Lutheran separation. The late king and his father, who both held moderate views in point of religion, have likewise contributed not a little to revive Christian faith in their country. Frederick William III. called pious men into his council, and intrusted others with the highest clerical offices. Being assisted by Altenstein, the Prussian Minister of State for Ec- Let me now turn to the latter period of clesiastical Affairs; by his Adjutant, the my life, some dewy evening hours of which General von Witzleben, and other men of I may still have to enjoy. In the third desimilar religious persuasions, he supported cennium of our century, the dominant power Christian associations, such as the Societies of one mind averted the thoughts of men for the Propagation of the Gospel among from theology into the channel of philosoJews and heathen, and the Bible Societies. phy, substituting for religious aims philoHe devoted himself to liturgical studies with sophical problems. In the year 1818, Hegel a view to reform the ritual of public wor- was called to a chair of Berlin University, ship, and promoted a variety of other inter- and began there his philosophical lectures. ests of the Church. Still more countenance You could hardly perceive any Christian was given to Christian endeavors, when he tendencies either in his life or in his writwas succeeded by his greater and more tal-ings before the Berlin period. It was the ented son, Frederick William IV. His was atmosphere of the Prussian capital, and the not a faith of ancient orthodoxy, but of mod- union with a pious wife, that impregnated ern piety, nurtured partly by philosophic- both his mind and his philosophical system al speculation, partly by æsthetical pursuits. with Christian principles. After his death, Of the same character were the religious the school of the founder divided into two views and feelings of his highest function-distinct parties. A minority, with Goeschei aries, particularly of his devoted personal for their leader, were faithful to the symfriend, the Minister of State, Eichhorn, who also enjoyed the intimacy of Schleiermacher. It was not the orthodoxy of Hengstenberg, but a more liberal theology, that was particularly favored by the late king, such as is bols of the Lutheran creed; while others, imbued as they were with the spirit of Spinoza, were hurried into downright pantheism by Strauss. For some time conservatism in point of religion was seconded by political conservatism in the spirit of the Holy Alliance between Russia, Prussia, and Austria; and was supported in addition by the political absolution of France under the Bourbons, until, in 1830, by the revolution of July, Roman Catholic absolutism was broken to pieces. The victory gained by liberalism in politics prepared the way for the radical Hegelian school, first in Germany and afterward in Switzerland. But in theology the effect of these new tendencies was not so much to foment an anti-Christian philosophy as to give birth to a new school of historical criticism, founded by Baur in Tübingen. In the outset, this great Wirtembergian scholar seems not to have been aware himself of the destructiveness of his principles; but when, by slow degrees, he lifted the veil that covered his negative positions, it became evident that his system of Christianity, sweeping off even the slightest traces of the supernatural, was nothing more than a rationalistic product of dialectical deductions, which even plain history was bidden to obey. From Baur an arbitrary, though often ingenuous, criticism has taken its rise, that, having for its centre now the University of Zürich, has spread widest in the Swiss and Dutch churches, and is more or less avowed by the so-called Protestanten-Verein in Germany. In Prussia the powers of destruction were successfully subdued up to the day of the downfall of Mühler, late Prussian minister of public worship. Seldom has a man been so much depreciated by the public, or been assailed with the same animosity by parties diametrically opposed to each other, as this true and faithful servant of Christ. Toward the end of his administration both rationalists of the Protestanten-Verein and Lutheran confessionalists made a dead set at his person; and for some time it seemed impossible that the establishment of the United Prussian Church could be kept up any longer if he were intrusted with the conduct of public affairs. What a great majority had clamored for, was brought about at the beginning of the year 1872; Mühler was dismissed. It can not be said with any justice that under the administration of his successor an antiChristian or anti-ecclesiastical system had been substituted for the one formerly upheld. But this much can not be denied, that the very contrary has come to pass of what had been the hope of the whole evangelical part of Germany. The unparalleled victory which God granted to the nation in the late war has not regenerated us in faith and elevation of our souls to him. On the contrary, the new epoch that has been inaugurated, as far as human eyes can see, proves itself to be an ever proceeding dissolution of positive faith and Christian interest; and this is not only the case in a few parts of the country, but throughout the whole of Germany. Yet, whether what seems to us a beginning of decline be correctly judged to be so, or to what extent it may be carried, we do not dare to assert. The Church, theology, and Christian life have had their progress and regress, counting back from the days of the Reformation to the days of their origin, from our times back to the sixteenth century; nor will it be otherwise with regard to the future development of the Church of Christ. Our understanding and our moral state will ever alternately move on and turn back, and, opposed to the Kingdom of the Lord, a realm of Antichrist will remain, and will continue to grow, until it be destroyed by the last victory. May the Lord give us clear eyes and warm hearts, in order that, from all the aberrations that His Church has undergone till now, there may redound to us an everlasting gain. Amen. To this matured account of Dr. Tholuck, which I have had the honor to read to you, reverend gentlemen and dearly beloved brethren, I beg to add a very few words. It can not have escaped you that the person of our beloved and venerated Dr. Tholuck himself has remained in the background of his sketch, much more so than any of us could have wished. It is his extreme modesty that has restrained him from setting himself forth in that place which is due to him. We know that in a great measure the wholesome change from Rationalism to faith which has been granted to our native country within the last fifty years is, next to God's grace, owing to the restless zeal of this brave "miles Christi," a genuine "good knight without fear and without reproach." In dark and dreary days he has gallantly borne disgrace for Christ's sake. He, a single man, has won the field in the University of Halle, and all his colleagues, one by one, have been forced to yield to his superiority of Christian energy and knowledge. But more than that-thousands of thousands call him their spiritual father, their father in Christ. His firmly clinging love embraces young hearts with heavenly power, and wrestles with God for the peace and victory of his students. He himself, ever youthful though gray with age, and a hero, though with a broken body, thoroughly understands the striving of youth, and knows how to hit home conscience, and how to drop healing balm into the wounds inflicted by the word of God. There is nothing like sickliness in his spiritual life; Christ and Christ alone, as he himself has borne witness to you, is the love and passion of his heart. Not a theological school did he want to found, no dogmatical or philosophical thesis does he wish to imprint on the mind of his followers-the celebrated puzzling questions of the famous doctor show |