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Publifhed July 1830. by Mefs Holdsworth & Ball, 18.St Pauls Church Yard. London.

THE

CONGREGATIONAL

JULY, 1830.

MAGAZINE.

THE DECLINE, REVIVAL, AND PRESENT STATE OF EVANGELICAL RELIGION IN GERMANY.*

THE attention of the Christian public has, of late, been called particularly and repeatedly to the great and interesting changes, which religion and religious sentiments have undergone, within from about sixty to eighty years, in that part of Europe of which I am at this time to speak. We have had the appalling sight of a Christian country deluged with infidelity, and all its concomitants of licentiousness and vice. We have witnessed a few noble spirits, a few names written, as we trust, in heaven, engaged in a contest, long and fierce, against a host of enemies enemies as powerful,and malicious, as subtle, decided, and persevering as have ever been arrayed against the cause of truth. We have heard the shout of victory raised by the enemy, echoing from one end of the land to the other, proclaiming the supposed extermination of the true religion of Christ. We have seen the believers in Jesus, as a body, overwhelmed, and prostrated with their faces to the dust, bearing their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers," and drinking at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury" to the very dregs. We have

heard their haughty enemies say, Bow down, that we may go over;' and they laid their bodies as the ground and as the street to them that went over.' Raze it, raze it,' was the universal shout of the adversaries in that gloomy time, when God drew back his hand, and hid his face from his people; when he made them to pass through the furnace of fire, to purge away their dross, and to take away their tin.' But withal, we have seen the wrath of man to praise God, and the remainder thereof restrained. Zion is awaking again, shaking herself from the dust, and, putting on her strength, meets in open contest, and with brightening hopes of victory, her profane enemy, who had so proudly and so long defied the armies of the living God,'

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It is proposed to divide the subject into three parts. First-The declining state of religion in Germany during the latter half of the last century. Secondly-Its revival and growth, from about 1804 to 1824. And thirdly-Its present state.

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1. The declining state of religion Germany.

If we go

back into the first half

*The writer of the following article, as will be inferred from the statements and mode of expression, is a German. The account which he gives will be new and interesting to our readers, and it is presumed, may be relied on as correct.--Extracted from "The Spirit of the Pilgrims," Feb. 1830. Boston, U. S.

VOL. XII. N. S. No. 67.

2 X

of the eighteenth century, and examine the state of the Protestant churches in Germany, and the spirit of the religious publications of the day, we shall find much sound and deep practical piety in the community, and a very animating spirit of devotedness, connected with purity of doctrine, in the religious works then published. The writings of Arndt, Spener, Franke, Tersteegon, Gerhard, and many others, were admirably calculated to excite and cherish true and undefiled religion in the churches. They exhibited divine truth with a simplicity, faithfulness, and power, worthy of the apostolic age. But in the second half of the century, the religious publications underwent generally a rapid and lamentable change. A most surprising barrenness characterizes most even of the better works published from 1760 and downward. The more they increased in number, and rose in character, as compositions, the less they seemed to contain to lead the sinner to Christ, or to animate and benefit the believer. Sermons, hymn-books, prayer-books, and other works for public and private use, as clear as water, and as precise as any proposition in geometry, as cold also as the one, and as unproductive of religious feeling as the other, were daily pouring in upon the public, to supplant those precious guides to heaven which had so long been instrumental in building up the church of Christ. Particularly striking is the unequalled deceitfulness of many of these publications. In various instances, it was not only difficult, but absolutely impossible, fairly to unmask the author, and to convict him of unchristian sentiments, so well he knew how to hide himself under a show of piety and orthodoxy. And yet, the certain effect of these books was to

divest a man, before he was aware of it, of all belief in the Bible as a revelation from God, and in Christ as a divine person, and the Redeemer of lost men.

Whoever is acquainted with the state of German theology at that time, will easily account for these facts. The theological scepticism of Semler and his companions had captivated the greater part of the ministry. Doubts or secret unbelief as to a positive divine revelation, possessed their hearts, controlled their reason, and guided their pens. The scepticism of some of the English philosophers and rationalists, and the infidelity of the French philosophers, could not remain without effect. They had read Shaftesbury, Tindal, Morgan, Chubb and Hume; Whitby, Taylor, and Clarke; Voltaire, the Encyclopédists, and the author of the System of Nature (Système de la Nature). And if the German philosophy counteracted, in any measure, the influence of these men, and saved the ministry from universal scepticism and atheism, it stripped the weaker, that is, the greater part, of what belief they yet had in any of the strictly revealed truths. To the courts of Germany, it is well known an example of infidelity was set, by Joseph II., the Roman emperor, and Frederic I., king of Prussia -men, whose influence was the more powerful, as they united some excellencies of character, as men and as monarchs, with an utter neglect, if not contempt of religion. Through the lower and middle classes of society, especially about the Rhine, irreligion and vice was effectually spread by the French emigrants at the close of the century. Nor were injurious examples wanting among some men of learning and reputed piety. Gellert, the father of modern German poetry, whose religious hymns are

yet used and admired, once tried himself in novel-writing, and composed a number of very tedious plays for the moral improvement of the German stage. He wanted "to make the devil pious," as Luther says, but did not succeed. We will charitably suppose that he did not know what he was doing. The consequences of all this might easily have been predicted. Through the influence of unrestrained depravity, the morals of society rapidly declined. The religious state of the communities grew worse from year to year; and the preaching heard from most of the othodox pulpits was far enough from being able to counteract the spirit of the times. Gospel truth was, indeed, proclaimed by many as yet; but not constantly, not the whole, not in its fulness, not with close and fearless application, Christian morals, the favourite subject, was preached by some of the best men to a disproportionate and sometimes an almost disgusting degree. Take, for instance, Zollikofer, the great Coryphæus of pulpit eloquence among the reformed churches in Germany. In all his published sermons, I have not seen one on any of the distinguishing doctrines of the Gospel. In 1783, he published two volumes of sermons "On the Dignity of Man," when there was much more reason to publish as many On the Depravity of Man.' This Dignity, according to the first sermon, consists in reason, liberty, activity, growth of perfection, immortality, his relation to God, &c. This relation is the image of God which man possesses. (Not a word about his having lost it.) This image of God is the ground of man's relation to Christ, as his friend, brother, relative, as making man a member of Christ's body, of one mind with him, &c. I will give a few more of the subjects of

his sermons, in the first volume of that work. The first was "On the Dignity of Man, and wherein it consisted." II. "What is opposed to that Dignity." III. "How does the Christian religion restore the Dignity of Man?" This seems to imply that his dignity was lost; but no: for it restores it, 1. By throwing light upon our relation to God; 2. It teaches us what an interest God takes in the welfare of man, what he did for him, and what he still does. Here the coming of Christ is just touched upon, in three or four lines, whilst the dealings of God with the patriarchs, and the people of Israel, is largely exhibited. 3. It throws light upon the providence and government of God. 4. It makes the dignity of man conspicuous in the person of Christ, and in his conduct and destiny, as the head and restorer of our race. 5. It teaches the great doctrines of immortality and eternal life. This is the manner in which the Christian religion restores the dignity of man. Can a more uncertain sound' be given?

Then follow sermons on the following subjects: On the value of life; of health; of riches; of honour; of the pleasures of sense; of spiritual enjoyment; of devotion; of sensibility; of virtue, &c. In the confession of faith, proposed to a young prince at his confirmation, not one of those doctrines is mentioned, which distinguish the Christian religion from Rationalism, Unitarianism, or any other Monotheism.

Much better is Francis V. Reinhardt, one of the best preachers Germany ever had. He entered upon his theological career as an acute thinker, and a sceptical inquirer; but came out a believing, pious theologian and Christian. He touches frequently upon the doctrines of the Gospel, even at

the earlier period of his life; and whenever he does so, he is unequivocally orthodox. But he never gave these doctrines that prominence which they deserve, until perhaps from the year 1810, when his mind became fully satisfied with regard to them. He was, however, too much of a moralist. His sermons are exceedingly interesting and improving to the Christian; and if he had lived in the millennium, when the devil will be bound, and cast into the bottomless pit, and shut up to deceive the nations no more, his preaching would have been well adapted to his audience, and to the state of things. But when it was emphatically the hour of the enemy, and the power of darkness; when the very gates of hell seemed to be open, to let loose upon half Europe all which was subtle, malicious and ruinous; then was a clearer sound needed, to rouse the slumbering or disheartened disciples of Christ, and to rally them around the standard of the cross, I might proceed to characterize Spalding, and some other preachers of that age, but my limits will not permit. They all labour, in a greater or less degree, under the same difficulty. Their sermons are little more than moral essays, addressed to men as though they were almost, if not altogether, in a safe condition. The character of an unconverted audience, and the peculiar and important office of the law in the conversion of the sinner, were not understood.

Thus, whilst religion had but a few, and those timid defenders, Rationalism, as may be supposed, had bold and daring advocates in abundance. The higher literary characters promulgated the new doctrines as professors and authors; while men of less weight and learning inculcated them in the pulpit, each in his own way, mixed up

with as much orthodoxy, or clothed in as orthodox a phraseology, as the supposed prejudice of his congregation would require. In many places, persons of this description occupied the whole ground; whilst in others, they had the dissatisfaction of seeing the progress of their pretended reformation checked, by the orthodox preaching of some superstitious mystics, as they termed them. By the governments, Rationalism was rather fostered than opposed, and the universities soon came out boldly on its side. Periodicals either took no notice of religion, or were decidedly opposed to it, and especially to every appearance of a revival, which they deemed the heighth of folly and fanaticism. The reading part of the community were diverted from the subject of religion by the impulse which every science and art was receiving at that time, and especially by those sweeping revolutions in the departments of metaphysics and philosophy. And whosoever felt a desire after something better than mere speculation, usually took up with that sentimental religion (if it deserves the name) of which De Wette was the advocate-a sickly, sterile, undefinable abortion of metaphysics, unproductive of anything good or holy in life or emotion, but doubtless the only refuge of those who find no rest in philosophy, and seek none in revelation.

Religion, then, in the proper sense of the word, soon became almost entirely unknown. The Bible was neglected in families. To young persons of education or polished manners, it would have been a disgrace so much as to own one. Public worship was deserted; the Sabbath was profaned by every kind of business, the opening of theatres, ball-rooms, &c.; and vice and licentiousness

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