ART. III. THE BERLIN CONFERENCE OF 1857.

[SECOND ARTICLE.]

The

THE subjects of discussion, as well as the persons who were formally to report on them, had been chosen by the German Committee of the Alliance. The programme, published six months before, formed an organic whole, and was indicative of the logical, systematical German mind. Every forenoon session (from 10 A. M. to 2 P. M.) was devoted to a regular discourse upon the theme prescribed by the order of the day, and followed by short remarks from different speakers, mostly English. All that was spoken in English was repeated in German. The afternoon sessions (from half past 4 to till 7 P. M.) were devoted to reports concerning the religious condition of the various parts of the world represented in the convention. The addresses of the first day were, as we have seen, of an introductory nature. The subject for the forenoon of the second day was, "The unity and diversity of the children of God." pious prelate, Kapff, of Stuttgardt, having led the devotional exercises, and read John xv, 1-16, made a few practical remarks respecting the ground and condition of Christian union; it was not a union in theories or formulas, but a living union in heart with Christ, and an abiding in him. Rev. Mr. Jenkinson, of the Episcopal Church said: "We are on the eve of great events in the kingdom of Christ on earth, and need a pentecostal outpouring of the Spirit, for which we should pray with one accord. Union was the strength of the Church, and would ensure to her the victory over all her enemies." Rev. Professor Moll, of Halle, a Lutheran, read the first lecture on the theme prescribed by the programme. It was so abstrusely philosophical, that I know not how to make it sufficiently intelligible in English. Suffice it to mention the two leading thoughts. First, sinners become children of God, the same Divine grace conforming each individual personality to the will of God; and as the same Divine grace impresses the image of Christ upon the different human personalities or free agents, so it uses for this end different instrumentalities; in both respects regeneration is an historical process and fact, and upon this rests the unity and diversity of the children of God. The family of God will become still richer in different personalities and nationalities, when Islam and Israel, China and India, shall have received Christ. Secondly, a distinction is to be made between saving fuith, which is wrought by God, and the outward form of faith, that is, the creed,

which is the work of man, not inspired, fallible, and dependent upon the mental development of each age. This consideration need not, and ought not to diminish our confidence in possessing the truth. With the word of God as the rule of our faith, we may glory in the unity of faith, notwithstanding the difference of our ecclesiastical creeds.

Professor Moll was followed by the Rev. Mr. Krummacher, of Duisburg, a German Reformed minister, who read an equally learned, but far more practical and effective dissertation upon the same theme, bearing throughout a polemical reference to the exclusive stand-point of Lutheran High-Churchism. He gave first, a definition of the children of God, men born from above by the Holy Spirit under the pangs of godly sorrow for the guilt of sin, which could be expiated only by the blood of Christ. In passing over to the unity of the children of God, he quoted the many earnest exhortations of the Apostle Paul, and showed how the children of God are one in Christ, both objectively, inasmuch as he is the only Lord and Saviour, and subjectively, inasmuch as we are assured of having a part in him only by believing with the heart, which is the same in all the children of God, how great soever their doctrinal differences may be. We may have different conceptions of the atonement, but the fact of receiving the atonement, of being reconciled, by which alone we become the children of God, is one and the same. The unity of Christians does not exclude diversity, their diversities are rooted in unity, it is a unity in heart, a diversity in the head. Moreover, God dispenses the different spiritual gifts and graces in different proportions. Different ministrations, but one Spirit. Finally, a firm adherence to our own individual convictions is not at all incompatible with believing those sincere who differ from us in opinion. To claim infallibility in the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures, is not consistent with the Protestant principle of private judgment. The difference in the use of private judgment between evangelical Protestants on the one hand and Rationalists and Romanists on the other hand, consists in this, that the former feel themselves bound to interpret the Scriptures by the Scriptures, while Rationalism and Romanism interpret the word of God by another rule. The highest ideal attainable by the Church on earth will be, that her unity does not cancel the diversities, and that the diversities are compatible with unity. To forbid diversity is the work of Romanism and High Churchism; to deny unity is the work of schism and sectarianism.

Rev. Mr. Wünsche, pastor of the Moravian Church in Berlin, closed the discussion very appropriately by summing up in plain,

simple biblical words all that had been said by the preceding speakers.

The afternoon of this day the members of the Alliance were presented to the king in front of the palace in Potsdam. The president of the Alliance, Rev. Mr. Kuntze, at the head of the Committee of Arrangements, first addressed the king; then were presented successively the American, the British, the French, and the different German delegations. To the address of the president the king replied with deep emotion:

"I know not how to express my feelings. I had once considered such an assembly impossible; but I know the first day of your convention has been successful, and I hope the rest will be equally so. My ardent prayer is, that the end may be as the beginning; may you go from Berlin like the disciples of our Lord from Jerusalem after the day of Pentecost."

The theme in the forenoon session of the third day was, The universal priesthood of believers." This subject, as it refers to the powers of the clergy in State Churches, has not so much significance for Americans as Europeans, and especially for Germans. We will, therefore, give it only a passing notice. That eminent divine, Dr. Nitzsch, gave a very learned exposition of the idea of priesthood in the old and new covenants, showing that the priesthood in the former was not universal, because the Holy Ghost was not yet fully given. He then defined the relation which the universal priesthood in the New Testament dispensation bears to the office of the Christian ministry. Refuting the doctrine of apostolical succession, he said, the authority of the ministry rested alone upon the graces of the Holy Spirit, bestowed personally, namely, faith, love, inward purity.

The afternoon session was devoted to reports concerning Protestantism in Roman Catholic countries. It was shown that Protestantism had far more influence and power in France than was generally believed, and that there were elements in the French Catholic Church which tended toward the destruction of Popery. It was an encouraging sign of the times, that even Roman Catholic writers of note begin to do justice to the Reformation of the sixteenth century, as, for instance, Michelet and St. Hilaire, and literary journals, such as the Revue des deux Mondes, and the Revue de Paris. Lamartine was the first French poet who speaks of the fall of man, of sin. Eugene Sue and Béranger, who by their writings had exercised a very unfavorable influence upon religion and morality, before they died, sought refuge in the Gospel of Christ. May we not regard these facts as foreshadowing the conversion of the French people to Christ? The Protestants in Italy were represented as

deprived of all liberty of public worship. In some cities the Protestants must bury their dead in the night, in deep silence, guarded by gensd'armes. The Protestant Church ought to have more active sympathy for these oppressed brethren, not ceasing to agitate until they obtained their rights. Deeply affecting was the address of a Spaniard, Professor Don Herreros de Mora, of Madrid, who a year ago that day had been thrown into a dungeon of the Spanish Inquisition.

We have neither room nor sufficient documents to give the exercises of the intervening Sabbath. The topic of the forenoon session of the fourth day, (Monday, September 14,) was expressed in the following questions: "Why, notwithstanding the return of German theology to orthodoxy, is there so little spiritual life in the membership of the German Church? And what are the obligations arising out of this fact?" Professor Krafft, of Bonn, read the first essay upon the subject. After proving the historical facts implied in the first question, he charged the prevailing lack of spirituality in so melancholy a degree, as it did exist, with great boldness, upon two causes, first, upon the speculative character of German theology, which had been too long kept apart from experimental and practical religion, and the consequent lack of spiritual experience in the ministry; secondly upon the High-Church character of that orthodoxy to which the Church had returned. In the contest with infidelity the Church had relied too much on the power and patronage of the state, upon a strict adherence to the letter of old creeds, upon the saving efficacy of the sacraments, upon the power of the keys, ascribed to the clergy. How worthless a dead orthodox confession was, unaccompanied by the energy of a true and living faith in the living soul, the seventeenth century had sufficiently shown. But the lesson was forgotten. Such reformers as Spener, and Franke, and Arndt, were to be disowned, and the Lutheran Church was in danger of falling back again into scholasticism. Theology, in order to be lifegiving, dare not be satisfied with returning to the creeds of the sixteenth century, it must go back to the original fountain of life, to the ever-living word of God, which never loses its freshness. Not the sacraments, but preaching the word from personal experience must be the prominent work of the ministry, and the spiritual wants of believers must be satisfied by a Scriptural discipline, and by such means of grace as always have characterized the communion of saints.

Professor Krafft was followed by the Rev. Dr. Beyschlag, court chaplain to the Grand Duke of Baden, who doubted if German theology was so sound as the first question implied; he made particFOURTH SERIES, VOL. X.-36

ular reference to the Tubingen school, which is yet Rationalistic, and to that of Hengstenberg and Stahl, which is Romanizing. He then proceeded to show the defects of the German Church to consist, first, in a lack of personal living faith. Mere orthodoxy or headreligion cannot cure Rationalism, for it had begotten it. The speculative mind which built up a theological system without an inward religious life, found it equally easy to dissect and dissolve that same system. The people did not need a rebuilding of the old creed, but a revival of religion in their hearts. Head-religion was the disease of the German Church; its great need was heart-religion, a life of faith that worketh by love, a deep conviction that we can grow in the knowledge of the Lord only as we grow in faith. There is no use in our appearing more orthodox than we are spiritually alive. If the preaching does not come from the heart, it cannot reach the heart. The second defect consists in the mode of presenting the Divine truths. Every age has its peculiar mode of thought and language; the preacher, in order to make an impression on his cotemporaries, most appropriate to himself their mode of thought and language. The people have become estranged to the old scholastic terms, they want to hear the old truths in new, clear, fresh, and attractive forms. The third defect he found in the practical workings of the ecclesiastical organization. Our age is an age of social reform. The German Church, in order to exert the moral power which she ought to exert, must first reform her own ministry and membership. The clergy must be brought in nearer connection and sympathy with the people, and the laity must be properly represented and take an active part in the operations of the Church, for the Protestant Church is no hierarchy.

Do such sentiments not present the strongest plea for the introduction of Methodism into Germany at the present time, as the very agency most needed, and promising an early and rich harvest? It was peculiarly fitting, and in keeping with the admirable symmetry of the whole programme, that the committee assigned the reports on the religious condition of the United States to the afternoon of this day. Professor Schaff, of Mercersburg, was to report on Religion in America generally. He was prevented from coming, but sent in a written report, in which he showed the characteristic differences between European and American religion and churchism to consist, 1. In the total separation of Church and State. 2. In the distinction between believers and unbelievers, in consequence of that separation. 3. In the voluntary principle of supporting the Church. Only the first section of his excellent essay had come to hand, and was read by Mr. Kuntze, after which the writer of this