!r: ;;;':,«! 'fig) ■?flj:.!r!;^^jf;o;--::-:-:.-;,.i^;j;,,fiTjp.j»]>;^ Mk\]% The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924050584584 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 924 050 584 584 I^ottor Carl JFerbtimnb Wimm wmtv " n- mis digmus" ) for admission to the academic studies, and that he never merited the slight- 17 J^octor Carl Walt^tv est reproof. The pastor primarius and superintendent at Waldenburg, who wrote him a testimonial under date of November 21, 1829, immediately after his matricula- tion at the University of Leipzig, recom- mends "the hopeful youth, Carl Ferdinand Walther, to the favorable attention of his honorable academic teachers, and of other high patrons and promoters of the sciences, as being both worthy and in need, as urgently as respectfully." There was no question of his being both. His father gave him his weekly "thaler," as he had promised when he expressed his disapproval of Ferdinand's musical ambi- tions. He also received a cord of wood from a certain foundation, established to aid a number of students in possession of good gymnasium reports. This was the limit of his regular support. How he managed to exist, unless some "high patron and pro- moter of the sciences" gave heed to the "urgent and respectful" solicitation of the pastor primarius of Waldenburg, and came to his aid, is difficult to understand. His poverty must have been extreme, for he did not even own a Bible and he had no money to buy one. Surely this was an astounding predicament for a student of theology, and 18 2?irtt) anb gouft at the same time a remarkable characteriza- tion of the theological teaching of the uni- versity where he was being trained to be- come a minister of the gospel. Indeed, it is difficult for us to understand how a young man could come up to the university from the g3minasium without a Bible of his own. All becomes plain and simple when we think of the period. Farrar, in his famous Bamp- ton lectures on "The History of Free Thought," characterizes it when he says: "The present course of lectures relates to one of the conflicts exhibited in the history of the Church, viz., the struggle of the human spirit to free itself from the authority of the Christian faith." He should have said, "from the authority of the word of God." Sturdy old Claus Harms, arch- deacon at Kiel, who somehow always re- minds me of Hugh Latimer, had published his famous Ninety-five Theses on the eve of the three hundredth anniversary of the Reformation and struck a brave blow for Lutheran orthodoxy. But the religious movement, which we call Deism in England, Infidelity in France, and Rationalism in Ger- many still held sway. The confessional re- action against its blighting influences was not yet organized. Schleiermacher, whom Doc- 19 Bottot Carl Waltiitv tor Krauth, in his "Conservative Reforma- tion,'" pronounces "the founder of the dis- tinctive theology of the nineteenth century" (page 148), represents only the speculative reaction against Rationalism. With this re- sult: all of the teachers at the Schneeberg gymnasium, during the attendance of Walther, with but a single exception, were outspoken rationalists. "I was eighteen years old when I left the gymnasium," he tells us, "and I had never heard a sentence taken from the word of God out of a believ- ing mouth. I had never had a Bible, neither a catechism, but a miserable 'Leitfaden' (guide or manual), which contained heathen morality." It was impossible that the boy should alto- gether escape the influence of such a religious environment. Still he never lost the child- hood faith of his early home training in the Holy Scriptures as being God's revealed word, although, as he himself tells us, he had neither knowledge nor experience of that living faith which overcomes the devil, the world and the flesh. He speaks of this with affecting frankness. In an address, delivered in 1878, speaking of the historical faith which holds the Bible to be God's word, he says; "Through this, 20 2?irtt) anb fgoutt that a man holds the Holy Scriptures to be God's word merely because he was so taught by his parents, namely, through a purely human faith in the same, certainly no man can become righteous before God and saved. Nevertheless, such a purely human faith is an inexpressibly great treasure, yea, a pre- cious, costly gift of the prevenient grace of God. I may in this respect present myself to you as an example. My dear. God-fearing father taught me from childhood that the Bible is God's word. But I soon left my parental home — in my eighth year — to live in unbelieving circles. I did not lose this historical faith. It accompanied me through my life like an angel of God. But I spent my more than eight years of gymnasium life unconverted." Walther got his Bible. One day, after he was a student of theology at Leipzig Uni- versity, he was debating with himself whether or not to purchase this book he so much desired to own. He had but a few "groschen" left of the paternal "thaler a week." If he spent them for a Bible, he might be compelled to go hungry for a few days. The temptation to defer the purchase was rather strong. Finally he said to him- self; "Why, I am spending the money for 21 J^octor Carl l©alt6Er God's word; He will surely help me and not forsake me in my need." Nor was his faith shamed. The very next day a farmer from Langenschursdorf looked him up and in- formed him that, intending to come to Leip- zig, he had stopped at the parsonage to ask his father if he had any message for his son. Papa Walther at first said, "No, not any." Then, stopping to think a moment, he gave him a letter, which he was pleased to deliver. Walther opened his letter and found a "thaler." What is more, he had a stronger faith in Him whose promises cannot fail. And so, on December 9, 1829, we find this entry in his diary: "To-day I read in the Bible, namely, in the Book of the Acts, firstly in order to somewhat orientate myself there- in, for as yet very little is known to me of the apostles, and I can hardly repeat their twelve names; secondly, to edify myself by the examples of the workings and mani- festations of an unmovable faith." This looks promising. A "thaler" a week, a cord of wood, contentment in poverty, willingness to sacrifice, a desire for the word, a bit of Christian experience, a strengthening of faith, and a study of the heroic deeds of the holy men of God. After Acts comes Romans. Paul will teach us as he taught Luther what 22 2?irti) anb gouti) faith is, what it works and how it manifests itself. The Herr Studiosus is in a fair way to become a theologian. 23 chapter 2 ^anibersiitp OBnbironment But how did this young man who felt him- self to be born for nothing else than for music make up his mind to become a student of theology and prepare himself to enter the holy ministry? His father, true to family traditions, wished his sons to become ministers. While he did not absolutely forbid, he gave no en- couragement to Ferdinand's desire to study music. Nor can the "thaler a week" he promised him if he would study theology be looked upon as a sufficient inducement to persuade him to give up a cherished ambition. If need be, he could easily earn that and more by giving music lessons or playing with some orchestra. Neither his father's wishes nor the promise of support determined his choice. There was another and a far more honorable reason. His brother. Otto Her- mann, who had now studied theology for two years, coming home to spend his vacation, brought a number of recently published tracts and booklets with him, among them a biography of the famous J. F. Oberlin, 24 ^ambersiitp ajnbironment written by G. H. Schubert. The reading of this book made a profound impression upon Ferdinand Walther. He writes in his diary: "I am living quite happy, and philos- ophizing with my brother upon the most in- teresting occurrences of our lives, and read- ing, with real greed, the life of Pastor Ober- lin by Schubert; this has filled my whole be- ing and shown that the prospects which a theologian may have are the most beautiful, insomuch as he, if he only will, may create for himself a field of opportunity such as no other man, who chooses some other call- ing, may ever hope for. The anxious doubt, 'Will you then some day secure an adequate support?' is now completely overcome; for I have imbibed out of this most precious book an immovable confidence in God and a firm faith in His providence and its workings upon our destiny, after I saw this awakened through the conversations with my dear, good brother." Can there be a finer testimony to the value of Christian biography? God teaches men through the Christian experiences of other men. God led Wftlther into the service of His Church through the reading of a little book on the life and work of a devoted Christian minister, who faithfully labored 25 i^octor Carl WalUev among the peasants of Steinthal in the Vosges Mountains. And so, after a brief vacation of several weeks, Carl Ferdinand Walther went to Leipzig in October, 1829, with his "dear, good brother," Otto Her- mann, to matriculate as a theological student. When Walther entered the university, the so-called "common rationalism," introduced into Germany by the speculative philosophy of Wolf, the importation of the works of the English Deists and the colony of French infidels established in Prussia by Frederick the Great, was at its height. Strauss pub- lished his celebrated work on the Life of Christ in 1835. Denying the revealed char- acter of Scripture and treating it as an ordi- nary history, rationalism explained away the supernatural element, such as miracles, by insisting that they were merely the results of oriental modes of speech. Eichborn, at Goettingen (1752-1827), applied this prin- ciple of interpretation to the Old Testament and insisted that the cloud of smoke at Mt. Sinai was a thunder-storm, and the shining of Moses' face a perfectly natural phenom- enon. Paulus of Jena extended this principle to the New Testament. According to him the transfiguration was but the confused recollection of sleeping men who had seen 26 t^ntlierseitp <{Enlitronment Jesus with two unknown friends In the beauti- ful light of early morning, the resurrection was the awakening of our Lord from a trance or the semblance of death. The teach- ing of these men made Jesus to be merely a wise and learned man, His miracles merely acts of skill or chance. As its name implies, rationalism put reason not merely above, but in the place of revelation; insisting that Christianity was not designed to teach divine mysteries but only to confirm the religious teaching of reason. No one, it insisted, ought ever to accept anything as true which was not capable of rational demonstration. Rationalism was thus destructive of all faith. It denied the doctrine of the Trinity. It re- garded the death of Christ as an historic event, the death of a moral martyr, who died for his convictions or as a symbol that sacri- fices were abolished. Veneration for the word of God was called "Bibliolatry." With this result: Christianity was reduced to a system of natural morality, or, at best, a kind of Socinlanlsm. Preaching under rationalism became frankly practical and utilitarian. The great Inexhaustible themes of the Inspired word, repentance, sin, faith, justification, sanctifi- cation, salvation by grace were cast aside by 27 J^ottat Carl Waltiftv the men who preached to their congregations on themes which might have been suggested by the pithy sayings of Poor Richard's Al- manac. Nicolai, in his Sebaldus Nothanker, drew a faithful picture of the average rationalistic preacher, who knew how to make use of a Bible text "as a harmless means for impressing useful truths." Only by so doing was the "utility of the ministerial office" preserved. Thus Sebaldus Nothanker boasts that "he was very studious to preach to his peasant congregations to rise early in the morning, attend carefully to their cows, work in their fields and gardens as well as they could, and to do all this with the view of becoming comfortable and acquiring property." A shallow, selfish morality, in which prudence constituted the principal means, and temporal prosperity the great end of all life, was the unfailing theme of these preachers. There was quite a passion for elaborate sermons and sermon series for special classes of men. There were dis- courses against law suits and superstition, on the duties of servants, on health, etc. Thus Steinbrenner, in 1804, published a vol- ume of sermons on "The Art of Prolonging Human Life, According to Hufeland's Principles," 28 ^miittsitjf