EUROPEAN INTELLIGENCE. desired it to use the Lutheran formula of | Gospel or the Epistle of the day, on which distribution at the Lord's Supper, although the use of the Union formula remains lawful. These controversies prevail chiefly in the Eastern Provinces of Prussia; in the Rhine Province and Westphalia, the Union has been more successful." "We are well aware (remarks Dr. Sack, in conclusion), that the crisis is not yet passed; that the excitement of parties is still great; and the future of our German Evangelical Church still dark. But we trust in the Lord Christ and His Spirit, that truth and justice, and a firm and united profession, which proceeds from the living faith of the true members of Christ and carries that faith onward into the future, will be more and more victorious." The fourth article is one of great interest. WURTEMBERG. The readers of our journal have often been apprised that the kingdom of Wurtemberg is distinguished beyond every other part of Germany by the extent to which real Evangelical religion prevails both among its clergy and people. It did not suffer in an equal degree from the prevalent Rationalism of the last century, and this circumstance under God is to be attributed, as is also its present religious life, to what in England we should familiarly call prayer meetings. Common as such meetings are with us, especially, though by no means exclusively, among the Nonconformists, they are unknown, or else dreaded, disliked, and branded with the opprobrious name of conventicles in almost all Lutheran countries. In Germany, Wurtemberg forms nearly, if not quite, the solitary exception. The frequenters of them in that kingdom are called "Pietists" and "Stundenhalter." They themselves call their meetings "Stunden," from the circumstance of their generally lasting an hour. Prelate Kapff estimates the number of persons by whom they are attended at 50,000, out of a population of 1,220,000 Protestants. They are held in every town and almost in every village and hamlet in the country. Their organisation is very simple. The leaders, who are for the most part men distinguished by piety and knowledge, and by the gift of speaking, open the meeting by giving out a hymn, which all join in singing; they then offer up prayer, and read a portion of the Word of God, it may be the they make appropriate remarks. After the leaders, other members speak, or ask questions, and all, except the women, are at liberty to do so. Sometimes a sermon is read, or extracts from good religious books; and these form the subject of free discussion. If the pastor should be present, he is generally asked to lead the devotions, but he does not take the conduct of the meeting in his official character, but simply as a Christian brother among other Christian brethren, or perhaps as primus inter pares, and they are more frequently held without him. As the hour draws to a close, the meeting is concluded with singing and prayer. These meetings are held on Sunday evenings, and once or twice in the week. They are protected by law, so that, if the authorities or the pastors should be opposed to them, they cannot be disturbed. Six or eight times a year the leaders hold conferences among themselves, when many pastors also are present, in which the concerns of the meetings are discussed, and much time is devoted to spiritual edification. Once a year, a great meeting takes place of pastors and leaders of the whole country, with especial reference to Christian missions. In all these conferences, men of different tendencies are united in a truly brotherly alliance; for they have distinct parties, more or less divergent from each other. Some of these are dissidents from the State Church, and some remain in it. The former are unmolested, enjoy religious liberty, and are decreasing. The latter, Prelate Kapff proceeds to characterise at some length. He enumerates four :-simple Pietists, Moravians, Michelianer, and the Pregizerianer. Of the first two we need not speak, as their peculiarities are already sufficiently known. The Michelianer or Hahnianer derive their name from Michael Hahn, a highly gifted peasant, who died in 1819, after having manifested extraordinary powers and activity. "The addresses he used to deliver were so full of unction and spirituality, that the people gathered round him in great numbers. Though he firmly adhered to the doctrine of the Atonemen and of Justification by Faith, he mos earnestly insisted on sanctification and selfdenial. He has written sixteen large volumes of Scripture exposition, essays, memoirs, and sacred songs, which being still held in great veneration, are diligently, perhaps with too much predilection, studied by the greater number of his adhe EUROPEAN INTELLIGENCE. rents." Pastor Pregizer was a contemporary of Michael Hahn, and was a very powerful preacher. He insisted much on Assurance, and his followers have exaggerated his peculiarities, calling themselves "the saved," and teaching that the regenerate cannot sin; but they are not very numerous. A favourite doctrine of almost all Pietists is that of the millennium, and a great many of them, especially the two last-mentioned parties, entertain the hope that future punishment will not be eternal. To his general account of the Pietists, the Prelate adds the following most interesting statement respecting a particular community of which he was himself the pastor for a period of ten years. "The different parties of the Pietists," he says, "have a very interesting and delightful point of union in the community of Kornthal, which, together with its colony of Wilhelmsdorf, might be called the Congregation of the United Brethren of Wurtemberg. This congregation has existed since 1819, and has proved, in every respect, during these forty years, a model congregation, to which even the Government authorities give the highest testimony. During this period, neither a law-suit nor a divorce has taken place; and no pauper has had to be relieved. In forty years only four illegitimate children have been born, whilst in the rest of the country every eighth child is illegitimate. Numerous educational establishments train a very large number of boys and girls, who are sent thither from all parts of Wurtemberg, as well as from abroad. They leave this place impressed with the preciousness of living Christianity and prepared for any practical activity. We now come to the fifth article, which is on the OBSERVANCE OF THE LORD'S-DAY IN NORTHERN GERMANY, and is written by our friend Dr. Krummacher, of Potsdam. He treats of his subject under three divisons: How the Sabbath is observed; what measures have been taken to improve its observance; and with what success. He gives a melancholy picture of the state of things under the first division. Early on a bright Sunday morning, he says, if you enter one of our large towns, you see crowds hastening to the Concert Gardens. At nine o'clock the church bells strike up, and then the last sound of the fiddle must die away, and the concerts close. But of the multitudes who are dispersed not one goes to the morning service. No sooner is that service over than all sorts of public amusements begin again, and especially from four o'clock until late at night the pleasure-seekers take their fill. To attend the afternoon service is considered not consistent with the tone of "good society;" and even those who have been at church in the morning spend the evening in dinner parties, country drives, taverns, theatres, ball-rooms, and other places of entertainment. If you enter the churches, and should find a popular or a fashionable preacher in the pulpit, you may see a congregation; but when this is not the case they are nearly empty. In Berlin, out of 425,000 inhabitants, scarcely more than 25,000 go to public worship. The neglect on the part of some classes of society, especially the officials of Government and justice, is become a bye-word. In country places it is not quite so bad, except in Mecklenburg, where the churches in many parishes are totally deserted. Since the year 1848 efforts have been made to rescue the sacred day from this awful desecration. Societies have been formed with this view, tracts circulated, and the pulpit has made its solemn appeals. A Prussian nobleman, the Landrath von Kröcher, has made it the principal aim of his life to promote the sanctification of the Sabbath; and the Kirchentag addressed itself in various ways to the same object. But much of this zeal has of late died away: yet activity has not wholly ceased. At the last meeting of the Kirchentag, held in Hamburg, the subject was again taken up, and a series of resolutions adopted. But they stopped short of affirming that there is a positive Divine law for the sanctification of the Sabbath, and some of the methods proposed for awakening the people to a sense of its importance seem little adapted to that end, such as "the ringing of bells, instrumental sacred music from church towers and other public buildings, sacred songs in the streets, &c." There has not been a total want of success. Princes and ecclesiastical authorities have received the representations made to them with more than common courtesy. Where laws existed they have been enforced, and in this way shops and public-houses have been closed, and public works discontinued on the Sabbath. By an order from the King of Prussia, the assembling of the militia on that day has been dropped; the Government offices closed, and the hours of attendance at the post-office diminished. Yet, it must be added, the habit of Sabbath EUROPEAN INTELLIGENCE. breaking is not essentially changed. The | congregations still exhibit a sad picture of spiritual indifference and deadness. Scarcely anywhere is a revival heard of, or any remarkable outpouring of the Holy Spirit. In concluding his letter, Dr. Krummacher indicates what he regards as the best means of achieving the desired object. First, Rationalism and Infidelity in the congrega tions must be annihilated; second, the German princes must set a better example; third, congregational organisation must be promoted; and, fourth, increased pastoral intercourse with the people, and the institution of Lord's-day evening services. [A notice of the remaining articles we must reserve for our next number.] PRUSSIA. THE MARRIAGE QUESTION-CONGREGATIONAL ORDER-EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE-RUSSIA AUSTRIA-MECKLENBURG, Berlin, March 19, 1859. THE MARRIAGE QUESTION is still the subject of public discussion; and since the Ministers have laid a new law before the House of Deputies for their adoption, the political papers concern themselves with it as well as the religious. You will not wonder that the Government proposal should find both supporters and adversaries, since it is intended to reform the existing law, to abolish light and insufficient grounds of divorce, and restore marriage to its due honour according to its Christian significance, while, at the same time, it allows persons who object to be married by a Christian minister to marry by a civil pro cess. You will perceive, at the first glance, the dualistic principle which pervades the proposed measure. Mr. von Bethmann Hollweg, the Minister for Ecclesiastical and Educational Affairs, had a heavy task to perform, or, I should rather say, an impossible one. For if the new law is to preserve the Christian character of marriage, and, therefore, its ecclesiastical consecration, how can it at the same time allow the rite to be performed by a lawyer? Does a court of justice represent Christ's Church? Is a lawyer, as such, able to dispense the means of grace, i.e., the Word of God, like one of Christ's faithful servants? What I say is not meant to detract in any way from Mr. von Bethmann Hollweg's Christian character; moreover, I am sure that it cannot have been without scruples that he gave way to the urgent circumstances which have induced him to bring this measure before the House. In doing as he did, the statesman was compelled to contradict the Christian. Since we have in this country the so-called "Free Congregations," and also many divorced persons whom a Christian minister cannot consistently marry, the Legislature must, of course, provide for such cases. The only way of doing justice is found in the course adopted by the Cultus Minister in allowing such parties to be married by a lawyer; but, in order not to cast a slur upon their marriage, the Legislature is obliged to extend the law to all who may choose to be married in the same way. So that everybody will be at liberty to solemnise his marriage either ecclesiastically or civilly, as he pleases. The provision, moreover, that persons married by the civil process shall be entitled to have their expenses returned to them if they afterwards have their marriage consecrated by a elergyman, cannot annul the provision so opposed to the Church that any one shall be entitled to have his marriage celebrated by a lawyer. Whether or not this bill will pass both Houses of Parliament, or, as we term it, the Landtag or Diet, is extremely questionable. The Committee of the House of Deputies, which prepared the general discussion, was divided; while some six of its members would have allowed no option, but have made civil marriage obligatory in all cases, all the rest maintained the Christian character of matrimony, only with this restriction-that the civil ceremony was not of so high a form as the ecclesiastical, apparently not to offend the Dissenters. More grounds of divorce have also been admitted than Mr. von Bethmann Hollweg reserved. Even should the Lower House pass the measure, it is certain that the Upper House (Herrenhaus) will not agree to it; and so the matter will remain, polically considered, as it has been to the present time. Ecclesiastically, you will meet with the same parties. The strongest opponents are the adherents of Stahl and Hengstenberg, and they would be right were all the people in Prussia real Christians. But it is impossible to make a Christian by law. EUROPEAN INTELLIGENCE. RUSSIA. God's grace in Christ, through the Holy | seen it myself, but I hope soon, for the Spirit, can alone regenerate a man. From opportunity of giving you a particular acthis point of view, Mr. von Bethmann Holl- count of it. [The reader will find a notice weg's measure cannot be objected to. of it in p. 114.] What we want is a true Congregational order of things. There are other adversaries of the law who are equally opposed to Stahl and Hengstenberg-those who want to make civil marriage obligatory. Most of these belong to the negative party of the Union. What they think and feel has been eloquently expounded by Dr. Schwartz, Councillor of Consistory in the Dukedom of Coburg-Gotha. They make Free Churchism their pretext; really, they are more or less infidels. Under present circumstances, however, it would be a benefit to Prussia if these matrimonial disorders could be brought under some fixed regulation by law. If this is not yet possible, then we must take refuge in the arrangements of the Oberkirchenrath, as mentioned in my last. They will not be able to settle all the inconveniences, but they may make the begin nings of a good work, and lay the basis of future legislation. In a former letter I drew your attention to THE CONGREGATIONAL ORDER which had been given to the province of Prussia on the Russian frontiers, and I trust you will be gratified to learn that the same Order is about to be published for the provinces of Pomerania and Brandenburg. The ordinance is lying before the Prince Regent, who is expected to give it his sanction shortly. By this Order our Church Union becomes a reality, for by it all the members of a congregation are called to united Christian work and love. It would be a mistake to suppose that the Oberkirchenrath had been favourable to old Lutheran Churchism in days past. On the contrary, it did its best, as far back as in 1851, to promote the introduction of the Congregational Order into all the Protestant congregations of Prussia, and the merit of this is principally due to Dr. Richter, of whom I spoke as he deserves in my last. A gratifying indication of the progress of the principles represented by THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE is seen in the recent publication of another journal pervaded by its spirit. It is published at Stuttgart, in the kingdom of Wurtemberg, under the title of the "Peace Bell" (Friedens Glocke). I have not yet Another sign of the times presents itself in the north. As you considered it a cheering event that the Emperor of Russia should have shown himself friendly to the British and Foreign Bible Society, you will be still more delighted by the favour he has manifested to Protestantism in granting a free press to the Theological Faculty at entitled Dorpater Zeitschaft fur Theologie Dorpat. Its members publish a periodical und Kirche (the Dorpat Theological and Ecclesiastical Journal), and are happy to be able to publish it without a censorship, either ecclesiastical or civil. The Emperor of Russia is about to grant somewhat more liberal institutions to his people, as you know. Is it not a graceful circumstance that he should first have given this liberty to a portion of the Protestant press in his country? Of course no fear can exist that the privilege would be abused, since such men as Dr. Kurtz, the author of the "History of Genesis," and other valuable works, and others of a respectable character, are amongst the members of the Theological Faculty at Dorpat. But still the boon is worthy of our thanks, for the same professors in whom this confidence is placed did not possess it under the late Emperor. Just the reverse of this is the case in AUSTRIA, where the Jesuitical system flourishes in its buted to us. EUROPEAN INTELLIGENCE. pressors of Protestantism, but rather desire | MECKLENBURG, but I do not communicate to give our sympathies to countries that it, as I presume you will have received know what Protestantism and liberty are. fuller particulars than we have.* Miserable news has reached us from DEBATE IN THE CHAMBER OF I cannot refrain from sending you some few particulars of a debate which took place the other day in our Chamber of Deputies, which shows the sentiments of our new Government on religious liberty; and the result of which will, I am persuaded, afford sincere pleasure to our English friends. A merchant at Königsberg, whose name is Sieburger, and seventy-five of his coreligionists, sent up a petition, in which they pray for the rights granted by paragraphs 12 to 16 of the Constitution, to dissidents from the State Church, for civil marriage, for a simple affirmation to be substituted in the place of an oath, and for exemption from the supervision of the police. I hardly know how to characterise the petitioners; they are not the separated Lutherans who refuse to join the United Church of Prussia, nor are they the Baptists. They are, in fact, the so-called "Free Churches." Their religious sentiments, no doubt, are not such as we can approve, but are far divergent from Evangelical truth; still, if they are peaceable subjects, and men of respectable character, they ought not to be oppressed on the side of their religion; and if religious liberty is granted to them, it cannot, of course, be withholden from those to whom all sincere and enlightened Christians wish to see it extended. Besides this petition from Königsberg, there were also several others of a similar tenor from Tilsit and other places. The Committee on Petitions proposed to transmit them to the Ministers of State for consideration, in the expectation that some measure would be shortly adopted which should regulate generally the relations of Dissenting Churches, according to the spirit of the paragraphs of the Constitution referred to. Deputy Reichensperger, of Cologne, proposed to transmit them to the Ministry for consideration in so far as these Free Churches proved themselves to be religious societies in the sense of the aforementioned paragraphs. The Minister Flottwell said that the regulations of the Ministry had already met the complaints of the petitioners in the main points. The question relating to * See page 116. DEPUTIES ON FREEDOM OF 0. separation from the State Church and of external rights in regard to marriage, he would leave to his colleagues, to whose departments they belonged; but, with regard to police supervision, he observed that, although the law of March 11, 1850, could not be totally abrogated, the authorities were strictly enjoined to confine their supervision within the very narrowest limits, and the dissolution of a meeting by them was entirely forbidden. The police were simply to take notes and report; they were instructed to behave in the discharge of their duty in the most modest way, and to give no offence to religious feeling. The Minister of Justice, M. Simons, next spoke. He said that the prayer of the petitions which related to civil marriage was already met, at least in part, by the bill which had been brought into the House a few days ago.t Something further remained to be done with reference to the marriage of persons who had not left the State Church with members of other Churches; but this must be left to the future. With regard to the substitution of an affirmation for an oath, it was not to be supposed that all Dissenters desired it; yet if a certain form of affirmation should be decided upon, it should be such as would meet the principle of every community. It was a point involving many consequences, and needed to be well considered before the Government could give any promise respecting it. You will naturally be desirous to know in what manner our new Cultus Minister, M. von Bethmann Hollweg, expressed himself; and I think, when I report to you the substance of his speech, you will acknowledge that he spoke as became an enlightened Christian statesman. I know that he formerly took up a position on the subject of religious liberty which is deemed untenable in England, and I am not prepared to say that he has theoretically abandoned it; but like other statesmen, even in your own country, he is controlled by the progress of events, and carried, perhaps, beyond the limits which his logical theory prescribes. At all events, if that has not yet been the case, you may be assured that he † See preceding Article.-ED. |