Digitized by tine Internet Archive in 2011 with funding from Princeton Theological Seminary Library http://www.archive.org/details/religiousconditi03evan RELIGIOUS CONDITION OF CHRISTENDi TJIIKD PART. EXHIBITED IN A SEEIES OF PAPEES, PBEPAEFD AT THE INSTANCE OP THE GERMAN BRANCH OF THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE AND BEAD AT THE CONFERENCE HELD IN BERLIN, 1857. luMisIjely lig Jtutljarits of tl]e €mm\ 0! tlie §ntisl] frpitiptiaii. EDITED BT THE / EEV. EDWAED STEANE, D.D., ONE OF THE nONORARY SECRETARIES. LONDON : OFFICE OF THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE, 7, ADAM STBEET, ADELPHI. LONDON: W J JOHNSON, PRINTER, 121, FLEET STREET. CONTEI^TS. AGB Preface . . . . . . . . v Evangelical Alliance : — Opening of the Conference . . . . .3 Mutual Salutations — Introductory Address, by the Rev. F. W. Krummacher, D.D., of Potsdam . . . 4 Appointment of Committee . . . . .29 Subjects Discussed : — The Recent Conferences of Christians, convened by the Evan- gelical Alliance, compared with the Assemblies of the Church in Former Periods. By the Rev. Dr. Jacobi, of Halle. 33 The Bonds of Christian Union, as supplied by the Evangelical Alliance. By the Rev. J. H. Merle d'Aubigne, D.D.,of Geneva. 46 Facts Connected witb the Earliest Ecclesiastical Councils, showing an Analogy between them and the Present Con- ferences. By the Rev. Dr. Piper, of Berlin . . .54 On the Unity and Diversity of the Children of God. By Prelate von Kapff, of Stuttgart ; Rev. Rector and Professor Moll, D.D., of Halle; Rev. Pastor Krummacher, of Duisbui'g; Rev. Pastor Wunsche, of Berlin. . . . .64 The Universal Priesthood of Believers. By the Rev. Provost Dr. Nitz^ch, of Berlin; Rev. Dr. Mallet, of Bremen; Rev. Pastor Konig, of Wolkwitz ...... 105 Free Remarks on the Subject ..... 150 Why, notwithstanding tbe Return of German Theology to the Church Confessions, is there so little Spiritual Life in the Congregation? and What are the Obligations arising out of this Fact. By the Rev. Dr. Krafft, of Bonn ; Rev. Dr. Beyschlag, ofCarlsruhe ....... 157 Free Remarks on the Subject • . . . . 193 The Attitude to be assumed by Protestants under tlie Papal Aggressions. By the Rev. Dr. Schenkel, of Heidelberg; Rev. Dr. Heppe, of Marburg . . , , ,211 Free Remarks on the Subject ..... 253 Religious Liberty. By the Rev. Th. Plitt, of Heidelberg. . . 265 Free Remarks on the Subject . . . . .291 On the Probable Influence of the Closer Union of German and British Christians upon the Theology and Religious Life of the Two Countries. By the Rev. John Cairns, of Berwick-on- Tweed 315 Free Remarks on the Subject ..... 327 Countries Reported on : — Germany: On tbe State of the Evangelical Churcb in Eastern Germany. By the Rev. E. Kuntze, of Berlin . . . 333 Christian Life in Western Germany. By Dr. M. Goebel, of Coblentz ........ 352 The Religious State of South Germany, especially of Baden. By Carl Friedrich Ledderhose, of Brombach . . . 379 Account of the " Evangelische Bruderveroin" at Elberfeld. By Pastor Heuser, of Elberfeld . . ' . . .387 A 2 IV CONTEXTS. Page Countries Eeported on : — Account of the Kotscher Union at Spiers. By Pastor Hoffmann, of Spiers . . . . . . .389 The Protestants of Hungary. By Professor Szekacs, of Pestb ; Pastor Legrand, of Basle . . . . .391 The Keligious and Ecclesiastical Position of Bohemia. By the Rev. Dr. Nowotny, of Petershain . . : . 394 France: The Present State of French Protestantism. By the Eev. Dr. Grandpierre, of Paris ; Eev. Pastor Fisch, of Paris . . 419 On the Eeligious Condition of the Germans in the City of Lyons. By Pastor Meyer, of Lyons .... 465 Spain : The Religious Condition of Spain. By Don Herreros de Mora, of Madrid . . . • . . .469 Belgium : The Protestants of Belgium. By the Eev. E. Panchaud, of Brussels . . . . . . .483 Holland : Politico-Eeligious State of Holland. By Baron von Linden, of Nymwegen; M. Lohmann of Amsterdam . . 485 Italy: The Protestant "Diaspora" throughout Italy. By the Eev. Paul Kind, of Milan . . . . . .491 The State of Evangelical Eeligion in the Kingdom of Sardinia. By the Rev. Dr. Meille, of Turin .... 502 Russia : The Evangelical Church in Russia. By the Rev. C. A. Berkholtz, D.D., ofRiga . . . . .511 Greece : Condition of Evangelical Religion in Greece. Bv the Rev. Dr. King, American Missionary at Athens . . . 525 The Turkish Empire: The State of Turkey. By the Rev. Dr. SchaufHer, American Missionary at Constantinople; Rev. Dr. Dwight, American Missionary at Constantinople , . 533 Prayer Offered in Concert with Christians in America. By Pastor Kuntze ....... 546 Wallachia and Moldavia as Mission Fields. By the Rev. Dr. Hamlin, American Missionary at Constantinople . . 548 The Armenian Church in Constantinople. By Pastor Catujian . 551 United States of America : Christianity in America. By the Rev. Dr. SchafF, of Mei-cersburg, Pennsylvania . . , 557 German Methodists in America. By Pastor Nast, of Cincinnati . 597 The American Lutheran Chiu'ch. By Professor Carver, of Penn- sylvania ....... 609 On Emigration to America. By the Rev. Dr. Baird, of New York 610 Protestant Missions : — To the Heathen: Letter from English Missionary Societies; Ad- dresses by the Rev. J. M. Mitchell, of Bombay; Rev. — Eudolph, from Futigon, East Indies; J. Coldstream, Esq., M.D., of Edin- burgh (Medical Missions) ; Eev. Mr. Nauhaus, Missionary from- South Africa ; Eev. J. H. Bernau, of Erith, Kent ; Pastor Bern- see, of Stettin . . . . . . .615 To the Jews : By Dr. Capadose, of the Hague ; Pastor Reichardt, of London; Rev. D. Edwards, B.D., Breslau . . .625 Report of the Committee ...... 655 Farewell Addresses by the Very Rev. Henry Alford, B.D., Dean of Canterbury; Rev. W. Patton, D.D., of New York; Rev. G. Fisch, of Paris ; Rev. F. W. Krummacher, D.D., of Potsdam . 658 The Lord's Sdpper ....... 669 List of Brethren Present at the Conference . . . 673 PREFACE. The Berlin Conference is the third in a series of con- ferences of Evangelical Christians of various nations and Churches convened by the Evangelical Alliance. The first of these was held in London in the year 1851, and the second in Paris in 1855. It is not attributing too great an importance to the Conference of Berlin, to say that in many points of view it surpassed them both in interest, as it probably will in the results which are yet to flow from it. The circumstances attending its origin, the development of its plan and purposes, and the cha racter, proceedings, and consummation of the Assembly itself, all indicate to a reflective mind not only a new phase of Christian life, but a new order of events in the history of collective Christianity. The Conferences of London and Paris stand in their origin intimately connected with the great Industrial Exhibitions of the respective years and metropolitan cities in which they were held, since it was the anticipated fact that those Exhibitions would draw men from all parts of the world to the capitals of England and France which suggested the idea of holding in them, at the same time, these Christian assemblies. But there was no similar inducement to hold a third Conference at VI PREFACE. Berlin ; while, on the contrary, causes were known to be in operation in the north of Germany, and latent influences of an unfriendly, it might indeed be said of a strongly antagonistic nature, were justly suspected to exist in the city of Berlin itself, which might well have discouraged the attempt, l^ov would the attempt have been made but for an unprecedented cii'cumstance which, though altogether of a different kind, indicates as clearly the interposition of Divine Providence as the great Industrial movements which suggested and facilitated the antecedent Conferences. The Evangelical Alliance little anticipated the coui-se in which it was about to be led, and was ignorant of the favour which God had already given it in the eyes of the first of the Protestant sovereigns of the Continent. The desire to bring about a closer union among Protestants had long been cherished by the King of Prussia ; and at diflerent periods, and by such methods as he deemed expedient, he had laboui-ed to promote it. But he had never found the co- operation which he sought, and still longed for the success which he had never been able to achieve. His mind was thus predisposed to examine with candoui' the constitution and the plans of the Evangelical Alliance. Accordingly, he had attentively watched its proceedings, and made himself acquainted with its fundamental principles, and as the consequence was prepared openly to avow himself the friend of the institution when- ever the fitting opportunity occurred. This the course of events in an unexpected manner, and not long after the Paris Conference, supplied. At first through the medium of private correspondence, and afterwards PREFACE. VH by a Eoyal message sent to the annual meeting of the British Organization, his Majesty's adhesion to the Alliance was made known, and his wish that the next general Conference should take place in the capital of his kingdom. The intelligent and conscientious sanction of royalty was as encouraging as it was novel and unlooked for, and naturally supplied a stimulus before which many difficulties totally disappeared, while those that yet remained were materially diminished and weakened. The preparations for the Conference engaged the continuous attention of Committees in Berlin and London; and at an early period, a preliminary meet- ing of brethren from various parts of Europe was held at Frankfort. Twice a deputation was sent to communicate with his Majesty the King, and was honoured with private audiences, the first deputation being composed of French and English members ; the second, of English and German.* An extensive cor- respondence was opened with every quarter of the globe, and a wide-spread sympathy and many prayers were thus engaged on behalf of the Conference. The difterent branches of the Alliance in Sweden, Holland, Belgium, France, Switzerland, in Turkey, Syria, the East Indies, and in the United States of America, expressed in various ways, and especially by published addresses, to which numerous signatures were attached, their earnest con- currence ; and where no branch of the Alliance had been formed, similar addresses spontaneously emanated from * The first deputation consisted of the Rev. Mr. Vallette, of Paris, John Finch Esq., and the Rev. Dr. Steane; the second, of the Rev. Carr J. Glyn, the Rev Hermann Schmettau, and the Rev. Dr. Steane. Vm PREFACE. Christian brethren, as at the Cape of Good Hope, and also from various ecclesiastical and missionary bodies, as from the Synod of the Moravian Chni'ch, from the Church Missionary Conference of Calcutta, and the German Mis- sionaries in Bombay. British Christians of all denomi- nations issued an address to their Continental brethren, signed by more than 3,000 persons, and the Archbishop of Canterbury, with several of the Bishops of the United Church of England and Ireland and some of the Colonial Bishops, gave public utterance from the press to their good wishes and prayers that the blessing of God might rest upon and prosper the Assembly. Amongst the public meetings, also, which were held to helj) forward the design, special mention should be made of one in London at which the Earl of Shaftesbury took the chair, and one at Lambeth Palace presided over by his Grace the Arch- bishop of Canterbury. In the meantime opposition did not slumber. The Ultramontane press of France assailed the project, and found an echo in the Popish and semi-Popish journals of this and other countries. Hostility in England sprung up also from another quarter ; for, as might indeed have been antecedently expected, the principles and design of the proj)osed Assembly were found to be as unpalatable to the party which exhibits Socinian tendencies as to that whose steps are carrying them in the direction of Eome. In Prussia, and some other parts of Germany, the rigid spirit of an intolerant Lutheranism, assuming at first the attitude of a fixed but passive resistance, roused itself afterwards into an earnest and active con- flict. Not only was the press employed, but the pulpit and the pastoral conference also were made the arena of PREFACK. IX a determined and sharp antagonism. But tlie friends of the measure were at their posts ; the King never wavered ; some of the highest ecclesiastical rulers avowed their support in the face of the opposition of their colleagues ; the magistrates and municipality of Berlin gave practical proof of their good feeling ; and the public crowded to lectures in which the objects of the Conference were explained, and the arguments of objectors refuted by- its zealous and eloquent friends. As the time of the meetings drew nigh, the interest on all sides naturally deepened. Many anxieties were felt lest expectations which had been so universally awakened should be disappointed, or any unforeseen circumstance should arise at the last moment to mar the harmony, or hinder the usefulness of the great Assembly. To those, however, who stood nearest to the central point of activity — who were most intimately en- gaged in the preparations, and who could take at once the most accurate and the most comprehensive view of the various parties and influences arrayed against it, or on its side — it became increasingly evident that the project had taken a strong hold upon the Christian mind both of this and other countries, and was destined under God to reach a happy consummation. That consummation has been realised. For nine suc- cessive days there was gathered together in Berlin, an assembly of Christian men such as, considering the many countries from which they came, the many sections of the Christian Church which in some sense they repre- sented, the official and ministerial character which the larger portion of them sustained, and abov6 all the simple yet sublime object which had brought them PREFACE. together — that city certainly had never witnessed before, nor perhaps any city in Christendom. The vohime Avhich is now put into the reader's hands will make him familiar with the transactions of the Conference. Tollowing the precedent of the former volumes, the materials are not arranged in chronological order, but in the order of subjects. The Berlin Con- ference was distinguished from the two preceding Conferences by the circumstance that it did not restrict itself to the reception of papers on the religious state of different cou.ntries, but embraced also the discussion, in essays prepared with great ability, of some of the most germane and important theological topics. To these the first place is assigned after the Salutations, and they are followed by reports full of authentic information from the various countries of the world. It will not be out of place to speak here of the general arrangements of the Conference and the mode of its procedure. The meetings were held in the Garnison Kirche^ one of the largest churches in Berlin, specially placed at the use of the Conference by his Majesty. Two meetings took place every day, one at ten, A.M., which sat till two ; the other at half-past four, P.M., which continued till seven. Each meeting was opened and closed with devotional exercises ; and to facilitate the united praises of the Assembly, an ingenious and happy expedient was suggested and acted upon. The same hymns were printed in the three principal languages — German, French, and English — and set to the same musical notation, so that with one voice, not- withstanding their different tongues, as well as with one heart, the whole Assembly sung together the praises of PREFACE. XI God. To every member of the Conference a card of admission was presented, on which he found his name and profession inscribed, with the place from which he came, the programme of the meetings, and a map of the city. This card admitted him to the reserved seats appropriated to the members in the centre of the church. A large space under one of the galleries was set apart for ladies, and the galleries themselves, with the excep- tion of the royal pew, which occupies the centre of one of them, were filled with the general public. The papers read were most of them of great length, and occupied so much time that little opportunity was afforded for free discussion. Discussion indeed, as it is practised with us, seemed to be unexpected and unpro- vided for, perhaps not desired by our German brethren. There was no possibility of speaking at all unless you sent up your name to the Chairman, and your wish were in accordance with the views of the Committee, and then you rose to address the meeting at the time appointed by them. Under such conditions, free conference — in the English sense, at least— is impossible, and its absence was, certainly to the British members, a very considerable drawback from the enjoyment and practical value of the Conference. Kor was it possible, in meetings so con- ducted, that any business should be transacted, or any resolutions come to, embodying the deliberate and col- lective sense of the Conference. Some of the discourses, indeed, in which a subject had been elaborately discussed, closed with the enunciation of theses logically deduced and arranged, in which the writer sums up the chief conclusions of his argument, and presents them to the adoption of the Assembly ; but no vote was taken upon Xll PKEFACK. them, nor, of course, unless they had been debated, was it proper that there shouki be. Once or twice, a pro- position was submitted, which, from its obvious pro- priety, required no discussion, and was at once accepted ; but either because there was no proj^er executivCj or from some other unexplained reason, the vote was barren of the intended practical result. Indeed, this absence of practical business was the chief defect of the Conference ; so at least we Englishmen would judge of it — perhaps not a Grerman ; but probably, an impartial looker-on would have deemed it an advantage had German patience and English activity, German thought and English work, been permitted a freer and fuller union. On the Lord's~day which occurred in the middle of the Conference, some of the pulpits were occupied by foreign clergymen, though the instances were not numerous. At an early hour of the morning the English brethren, wiljh a few from other countries, commemorated together, in the large room of the Hotel de Russie, the death of the Eedeemer. It was a hallowed and delightful season, in which all minor differences of creed were forgotten, and Episcopalian, Wesleyan, Presbyterian, Independent, and Baptist ecclesiastical forms, with probably others as well, were all lost sight of, while '' in simplicity," and — may it not be added " in godly sincerity ? " — every one communicated with all the rest, and all enjoyed "the communion of saints." In the evening a meeting of German and German-speaking brethren was held for mutual edification, in another large hall in the Unter den Linden. Some of the clergymen of Berlin took advantage of the presence of so many of their brethren from other parts of Germany to hold services in their PREFACE. churches, during the week ; and the Gospel was thus preached twenty-seven times during the Conference in thirteen different churches. There is yet another circumstance to be mentioned, of a character so unprecedented, and which created so ex- traordinary a sensation, not in Berlin alone, but wherever it became known, that it will certainly go down to his- tory as the most remarkable occurrence of the Confer- ence. His Majesty, who took every means to evince the deep interest with which he regarded this gathering of Protestant Christians from so many nations in the metropolis of his kingdom, determined to give to them all a Eoyal reception at Potsdam. Accordingly, on Friday, the 12th of September, three special trains conveyed them thither, and twelve hundred visitors spread themselves, in the afternoon of that day, through the magnificent apartments and the enchanting grounds of the New Palace. About six o'clock the King and the Queen arrived. The company in the meantime, after partaking of an elegant repast, had been arranged in one vast hemicycle, according to their nations, on the terrace to which the front of the Palace opens. It was intended that his Majesty should have been received in respectful silence ; but it was impossible to repress the enthusiasm of that exciting moment, when, alighting from his carriage, he threw himself upon the sympathetic affec- tions of so many glowing and grateful Christian hearts. When the outburst of strong emotion had subsided, the Conference in its entireness was first presented to the King by the Eev. E. Kuntze, the Chairman of the German Branch of the Alliance. " Sire (said he), your Majesty has seen many armies, but never before such an XIV TREFACE. one as now meets your view ; an army not arrayed in martial attire, but girt with spiritual weapons, and wield- ing only the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God." The King replied with evident emotion, " I have always felt the most earnest desire to promote such a union among Christians, and hitherto it has always appeared to me impossible ; but now I rejoice to see it. The first step is taken. The first days of the Con- ference are passed with the joy and the blessing of the Lord. I trust it will be the same with the rest. My wish and most fervent prayer is, that there may descend upon all the members of the Conference an effusion of the Spirit of God, like that which fell on the first disciples at Pentecost." Afterwards, as his Majesty advanced through all the groups into which they had been formed, the different nations were successively presented, and some of the principal persons of each, and to all of them short and appropriate observations were made. "While the King was thus engaged, the Queen had been supplied with the names of the ladies who had been most kindly included in the Eoyal invitation, and was paying similarly gracious attentions to them. The presentations being at length finished, as their Majesties were about to retire, amidst the renewed cheers of the Assembly, a voice struck the first notes of Luther's time-honoured hymn, so hallowed in the minds of German Protestants, " Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott," which was instantly taken up and sung by the whole Assembly with a hearty enthusiasm, perhaps never surpassed, and at its close, a venerable clergyman PREFACE. XV stepped forward from the crowd and offered up a short but emphatic prayer, and pronounced the benediction. The King and Queen were evidently taken by surprise at this spontaneous and devout utterance of Christian loyalty, and stopping the moment they heard the psalm begin, reverently remained till the close of the prayer. At eight o'clock the special trains conveyed the visitors back to Berlin. It was not an unnatural reflection by which many who were present on this occasion were led to contrast the scene then passing before them with scenes which had been witnessed in the same palace in the reign of the monarch who built it. In the salons through which they wandered, and the paintings and curiosities of -which they were invited to inspect, were many souvenirs of Frederic the Great and Voltaire. In these halls they conversed, through those gardens they walked, plotting in their grand conspiracy against the sublimest hopes of men, the overthrow of Christianity. Here they ''took counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed." "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh : the Lord shall have them in derision." What a striking comment on these pro- phetic words, in this application of them, was the Assembly now gathered on this spot ! The infidelity which was to crush the Gospel has become as contempt- ible as it was always malignant, and the very palace in which it rioted in its bitterest and profanest hostilities, rung with the jubilant echoes of a thousand voices, united under the auspices of a nobler and worthier monarch in the lofty song of praise to Christ. On the results of the Berlin Conference much might XVI PREFACE. already be historically written, and mnch more in the language of well-founded expectation. It is impossible that such assemblies of Christian men, meeting in free association, under the impulse of Christian love, for pur- poses neither political, nor scientific, nor in any sense secular, but purely Evangelical, profoundly respecting each other's convictions, yet standing together on the ground, not of latitudinarian indifi'erence to dogmatic truth, but of " the faith once delivered to the saints," and stimulating one another to new activity in the service of the same Divine Master, should be barren of results. Eather, they are pregnant with consequences the moral importance of which can scarcely be over-estimated. The Church of the Future will feel their influence, and through the Church the world at large. Speculation, however, is unnecessary and perhaps profitless. Let the hopeful and observant Christian rather betake himself to his watch-tower, and there, in silence and prayer, await the developments of "the vision" which '^'is yet for an appointed time, but in the end shall speak and not lie." EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE. OPENINa OF THE CONFERENCE. II. MUTUAL SALUTATIONS. INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS BY THE REV. F. VV. KRUMMACHER, D.D. H. TON BETHMANN HOLLWEG. PASTOR SCHECEDEB.. HIS EXCELLENCY JOSEPH A. WEIGHT. EEV. BISHOP SIMPSON. REV. DE. BAIED. PASTOR EOLBENHEYEE, SIR C. E. EARDLEY, BART. EEV. G. SMITH. JOHN HENDERSON, ESQ. SUPERINTENDENT GOTHE. PASTOR GEANDPIEREE. EEV. J. S. JBNKINSON. PASTOE MOLENAAE. PROFESSOR MALAN. EEV. DR. BLACK. PROPESSOR CHAPPUIS. III. APPOINTMENT OF COMMITTEE. EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE. OPENING OF THE CONFERENCE. September 9, 1857, Evening. — Royal Garrison Church* The meeting this evening was entirely occupied with devo- tional exercises, first in the German language, then in the French, and lastly in the English. The worship commenced with the 100th Psalm, by Men- delssohn. This was not sung by the congregation, but exclusively by the cathedral choir, who attended for the purpose at his Majesty's special command, under the direction of their leader, Neithardt. The Assembly then united in singing part of Luther's hymn, " Eine feste Burg ist unser Gott ; " after which Pastor Kuntzel, of Elberfeld, read the 17th Chapter of the Gospel of St. John, and ofiered prayer. Pastor Fysch, of Paris, after the assembly had again united in praise, read the 13th Chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians, and ofiered prayer. Praise was again offered, and then the Hon. and Pev. Baptist W. Noel, of London, read the 17th Chapter of St. John's Gospel, and prayed. The Doxology was sung, and Pastor Kuntze, of Berlin, pronounced the Lord's Prayer, and dismissed the meeting with the benediction. By an arrangement previously made, the hymns were simg in the three languages simultaneously, German, French, and English versions of them being printed on the same page, and set to the same music — and this method was followed on all occasions. * All the meetings were held in this church, the use of which was specially granted by the King of Prussia, except the closing communion of the Lord's Supper, which was celebrated in the church of the Moravians. B 2 AlU'niAL SALUTATIONS. MUTUAL SALUTATIONS. September 10, 1857. — 10 a.m. President : Pastor Barth, D.D., Calw. After singing, the President read the 12th Chapter of the Epistle to the Corinthians, and oflfered prayer. INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS BY THE REV. F. W. KRUMMACHER, D.D., COURT PREACHER AT POTSDAJJ. Welcome, Reverend Sirs and Dear Brethren, from east and west, from north and south, under the protecting wings of the Prussian Eagle, in the hospitable bosom of the State to which, for centuries, the name of Refuge of the Church of Christ has belonged, and which has laid to heart more than any other coimtry, from times of old even to this hour, the union of true believers. Welcome in the light of the favour and friendship of Him whom the royal singer thus praises : " How excellent is thy loving-kindness, 0 God ! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings." See to-day a beautiful image of our future union before the throne of God . Never before has such a scene been witnessed on German ground. Happy and blessed days have we already enjoyed in our Kirchentags ; but there stood then without our circle such men of God as Bunyan the Baptist, who painted for us the progress to heaven — as the heads of the Methodists, Wesley and Whitefield, those sounders of the spiritual alarm at a time when the Church, far and wide, had become a mausoleum, a house of the dead — men such as Chalmers, that witness with a tongue of fire, who was the founder of the Free Church of Scotland — and many others of like stamp. These stood then without the circle of the assembled brethren, and looked on only from a distance. To-day they are in our midst. The barriers of centuries have yielded. The brotherly love which springs from God has shattered the rusty chains. A portion of the communion of saints has become visible. Above the family banners of the Churches there waves the royal standard of our Lord Jesus Christ, with the inscription, " One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all." How true is that verse of the old 3IUTUAL SALUTATIONS. 0 psalm : " And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her : and the Highest himself shall establish her. The Lord shall count, when he writeth up the people, that this man was born there. As well the singers as the players on instru- ments shall be there : all my springs are in thee." It was not without a struggle that we attained to the posi- tion in which we to-da}^ joyfully greet one another. Our oppo- nents who have distui'bed us are not, however, to be all classed together. We know well how to separate between the dull echoers of the word of command and those who have given the word. With deep pain have we seen, under the latter of these classes, men of note in the kingdom of God ; men of worth, with whom we have stood for tens of years, foot by foot and heart united with heart, in the holy war against the an ti- Christian powers of the time, yea, men whom we have held and will ever hold high in honour as leaders in the battle of the Lord. They have, indeed, at least by silence, withdrawn many of the charges at first made against us, but we do not yet enjoy their presence among us. They look upon our meeting unfavourably from a distance. Why ? I will not return, my dear friends, to the old imputations which have ceased to be made. Those of the latest date may be thus stated : First, our Assembly has no inward bond of truth ; second, it is not adapted to the time nor to the wants of German Emngelical Christians ; and, third, it is devoid of ail fixed, clearly understood, and direct practical aims. I. It is said that our Assembly has only the appeaimnce of a brotherly union, without any realit}^ and wants also inward truth, since each maintains his own particular Churchism, and the old bomidary lines remain unmoved. It is strange ! Once they charged us with an intended breaking up of the old ecclesiastical boundaries, and with the attempt at a union and fusion of the different confessions of faith and Church organisms, and now the very opposite objection is started. What is, then, the real truth of the matter ? Assuredly the Church barriers are not affected nor injured. I remain faithful to my native Chui'ch — faithful to her standards — faithful to her worship — faithful to her order — faithful to her arrangements, usages, and customs. I love my native Church as the spiritual mother which bore me into a new life through the living Word, which nourished me from her breasts, and which daily feeds, supports, strengthens, and quickens me with b MUTUAL SAT.LTATIOKS. her treasures of healing and of grace. I hold high her banner, and will hold it till this arm sinks in death, and I will praise her till this voice is for ever still. I consider that my beloved German Church reposes not less in the sunshine of promise and of hope than any other, and from my heart I wish her well ; I desire her prosperity, her perfection, both outwardly and in- wardly. And as I feel towards my Church, so every one in this Assembly feels towards his. But we all know that the limits of the kingdom of God extend far beyond the temporary enclosures of particular Churches, and that that which unites us together is much more essential than that which separates us and keeps us apart. We all bow to the authority of Holy Scripture, as the infallible revelation of God given us from heaven, above which no other authority can stand, be it reason or tradition, hierarchy, Church, or whatever else can be named. We all unite in prayer to the living God, the one Jehovah, in Three Persons, as He reveals himself to us in His Word — the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ — the only-begotten Son, who, before the laying of the world's foundation, dwelt personally in the bosom of the Father — and the Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Son. We all acknowledge ourselves to be lost by nature, unfitted to do anything essentially good, prone to that which is evil, without wisdom, without consolation, without help in our- selves, and dependent for salvation on the free grace and mercy of God alone. But we comfort ourselves likewise with the joyful confidence, that this grace has appeared in Jesus Christ, in Him who is God manifest in the flesh, and we see in His mediatorial work the only but the all-sufiicient and superabundant cause of our happiness, and of our everlasting blessedness. We take hold of Christ through faith ; we honour Him ; with body and soul we give ourselves to Him ; and thus we find that, however sinful, miserable, and guilty we are in ourselves, we stand justified before the Judge of the living and the dead, not on account of our faith as a virtue, and much less on account of our good works, but solely for the sake of the righteousness of the Great Surety, which is accounted for grace to those who have faith in Him. On account of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost declares us in our conscience free from sin, gives a witness to our spirit that we are the children of God, fills us to overflowing with that peace which is higher than all the reason of man, and MUl'UAL SALUTATIONS. sets forth in us the work of sanctification as He has already begun it in us. But we know that the Holy Ghost unfolds His activity only in the method appointed of God ; therefore, while He accom- panies the Word, we press the Bible ardently to our heart. We hold it to be our inalienable right, and our most holy duty, to deal directly, daily, and constantly with this sacred treasure. We honour the Church, the miraculous temple of God in the world, the dwelling-place of the Holy Ghost, in which He by means of the establishment in grace of the members of Christ, builds up, supplies with power, fashions, and completes the body of the Lord Jesus. We value highly the holy office of the preacher, founded and ordained by the Lord Jesus Christ himself, to make a path for the Spirit into the world, to make a way for His entrance into the heart ; and with solemn and reverential spirit, we consecrate the sacraments, those holy ordinances of our God, which not only witness our union with the whole Church, but also seal it — yea, more, and mediately convey it. W"e count ourselves blessed in the possession of these means of grace ; but we all unite in the common acknow- ledgment that we are guilty of repeated unfaithfulness in the use of them, and we find cause daily in our life to renew our confessions of sin, and to seek anew for grace and mercy. Yet, we know, " It doth not yet appear what we shall be : but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall* see him as he is." We comfort us with the secure prospect of a life after death, when we, transformed in body and soul into the likeness of the fairest of the sons of men, shall for ever praise and adore the works of God. Blessed with the same hope, moved by the same interests, and borne along by the same grace, though many of us are separated from each other, in body, by land and sea, we meet together, as children of one house, as fellow-heirs of a future inheritance, daily and hourly before the face of our common Lord and Master. Behold, then, the deep soil by which our fellowship is borne, and in which our brotherhood is rooted ! Is it not really such as I have pictured ? And yet, forsooth, is our Assembly to be regarded as having only the appearance of brotherly union, and not the reality and essence of it ! Oh ! how much more reality is there here — not only than in a mechanical Church unity, which displays itself only as the artificial production of an 8 MUTUAL SALUTATIONS. intolerable priestly despotism ! — but also than in any society which, has for its basis only the consistent form of an outward confession, even if it be true, or only a uniformity of outward Church forms and usages. Here with us, there is, we hope, a living membership, of which Christ is the Head ; here, the fusing of hearts with the heart of the great heavenly Friend of Sinners ; here we are gathered together in the love of Him who first loved us even to the death, and with a brother's love ! But it now belongs to us not only to assert this, but also during the time of our joyful assembling together, as well as at all other times to prove it by action. And here we have to deal with the. first problem, the solution of which is incumbent in these days. May all who looked upon our meeting with suspicion be unable, in breathing its atmosphere, to repress such a feeling as that which once forced the cry of astonishment from the heathen, " Behold, how these Christians love one another ! " May they be convinced that we do not love one another at the sacrifice of truth or by the denial of it, but rather on account of the essential truths of God in which we all agree. May such a deep impres- sion of these truths be made upon us, that nothing else may be found influencing us except a deep desire for the honour of the name of our God and the coming of His kingdom, and that no party interests of any kind may mislead and disunite us ! May it especially be felt by you, with growing strength of conviction, that the arms of our brotherly love are wide enough to embrace in our hearts warml}^, inwardly, without hypocrisy, as wfell as without the remnant of a feeling of bitterness, those likewise who have opposed us, and have given us the cold hand, but who bow the knees to the same Lord with us. May God grant that a problem so beautiful, and so much affecting throughout the honour of the Lord, may find among us, and through us, during these days of our association together, a solution honouring to His name ! II. It is further objected to our Assembly, that it is neither adapted to the present time nor to the wants of German Evan- gelical Christians. This objection only reacts upon those who have raised it, and who have imputed to our Assembly intentions which are altogether foreign to it. I assert the suitableness of the time as well as the adaptation to the wants of the Protestant Christians of Germany. What is suitable to the time if not a distinctly -borne testimony of livelj'^ experience out of the mouths MUTUAL &ALUTAT10^'S. 9 of many witnesses, publislied as it were from the tops of houses, that Jesus is Lord, and that in Him alone the salvation and the happiness of the world is to be found for time and for eternity ? What is more suited to the time than the united jDrayers of the faithful for the outpouring of the Holy Ghost over the Church, which has been in part converted into a wilderness, and over a generation sunk in indifFerentism and materialism ? What more required than an inward union of all true confessors of the Gospel in the common struggle against the destructive powers of un- belief as well as false belief, of anti- Christ, as well as pseudo- Christianity, which raise their head in our day with such certain expectations of victory ? What is required if not a lively exhibition in fact, of the real union of the Protestant Church, in opposition to the shouts of triumph of its enemies, who, in the divisions of the Church and in its bitter party strifes, imagine that they witness its last death-struggles, and see the evidences of its speedy destruction ? And what, my dear friends, answers better to the necessities and requirements of our German Protest- antism, than an unmistakable evidence that the continuous quarrels of our theological schools and parties, with which we have long been satiated and weary, are about to jdeld to that union of heart for which Christ prayed in His intercessory prayer ? What can be better fitted to meet the attempt on the part of some to revive the feelings of a century stiffened in scholastic forms, which were happily buried through the earnest theology of an Arndt, a Spener, and a Franke — a century in which, among other things, marriages between Lutherans and members of the Reformed Church were placed under the ban of the Church, and the Communion, in striking contrast to its name and intention, was raised as a rough wall of separation between Protestant husbands and wives, brothers and friends ? What is more imperatively demanded by the necessities of our people than such a union as ours, in days when the incredible phenomenon has appeared, of Protestants regarding as a misfortune the work of God accomplished by means of such men as Luther, Melanchthon, Calvin, and Knox ? or even con- demning as an act of rebellion, the appearance of an armed troop of watchmen upon the walls of Zion who unite themselves anew to establish the principles of our holy Peformation ? What is more wanted among us than an active and strong evidence that there exists an energetic and triumphant re-action against 10 MUTUAL SALUTATIONS. the smuggling in again of a human priesthood into our Pro- testant Church, against the renewed attempt to assert the opus operatiim, and against the design to change the Church built on the Word of God into a so-called sacramental Church ? If, indeed, there was any attempt to remove the standard of our faith or to establish a union without principles ; to weaken the existing Church, or break her off in revolutionary fashion from her historical connexion ; to introduce foreign customs, to Anglicise, or Americanise, or Frenchify the Church in Germany ; then such a meeting as ours upon German ground would be as entirely out of place as it would prove devoid of results. Let us have indeed, by the grace of God, a spiritual inter- change of gifts. Ye French, give us of your energetic zeal in the service of the Lord ; ye brethren from Italy, of your martyr spirit, and your joy in death for the name of Christ ; ye Britons, of your apostolic activity, and your Christian world- conquering spirit ; ye Scotchmen, of your completeness of faith, and your moral and Christian earnestness ; ye Americans, of your reverence for the inspired letter of the living Word of God ; ye Dutchmen, of your moderation, when thousands reeled in spiritual intoxication ! Give us, ye Methodists, of your glowing zeal in the conversion of individual souls ; ye Independents, of your self-denial for the interests of your congregations ; ye Baptists, of your Church discipline and your congregational order ; ye of the Church of England, give us of your reverence and love lor the Church which nourished you from her breasts ; ye members of the Moravian Church, of your broad-heartedness, wherewith ye recognise all in whom the image of Christ is to be seen ; yea, give us each what you have, and we will thank God and you for the gift. But whoever among you can only think of the perfected Church as Independent, of the true Church only as separated from the State and entirely free, of Church government only as properly Episcopal or as properly Presbyterian, of the services of the Church as only rightly per- formed when according to puritanical observances, of religious freedom as being unrestrained and unlimited ; let each keep his own idea. These are not the questions which are to be discussed and decided on here. They would carry war into our own camp, and lead the Conference to self-destruction. If there is any one who now thinks that he ought prominently to attack the policy of those German brethren who seek above all things to restore MUTUAL SALUTATIONS. 11 again the Church creeds to the congregations, and to raise and strengthen the position of the Church and of the clerical office, let him remember that he is not in England, nor in Scotland, nor in Sweden, where, in general, the form of the truth still holds its place in the consciousness of the people, and where, perhaps, it may be suitable to the time rather to dwell upon love and upon the living action of faith, than upon the faith itself ; but in Grermany, where the thorny seed of Rationalism has overspread, even to this hour, such an immense extent of the field of the Church — in Germany, where the danger of glorying and trusting in a dead Church orthodoxy is still far distant, at least from the masses — in Germany, where, in wide circuits, the ignorance of the people in religious things is scarcely less than that of the heathen — in Germany, where con- gregations are here and there to be met with in which, for years past, the Lord's Supper has not been celebrated, because no one has been found desirous to join in it — in Germany, where even the Prussian Church authorities, in spite of their strict rule, have not succeeded in freeing the pulpit and the schools from infidel teaching, and where, certainly, the first duty is anew to set up once more the overturned lamp of pure and true doctrine, and to establish the knowledge of the truth. Now, my friends, let us consider what the second problem is which is given us for solution. I give it in a few words. It is consideration for the peculiarities of the dififerent Churches, in their history, guidance, special call, circumstances, and rela- tions ; it is a liberal acknowledgment of the good, the noble, the pious, and true everywhere, even if it meets us in the efforts of those whom we may consider partially in error ; it is oppo- sition to the unevangelical and the Romanising elements ; it is an unambiguous evidence that we have not come here to add another to the parties of the Church, but rather to impart unity to those who shall meet as fellow -heirs at the throne of the Lamb. Oh, may friends and enemies be forced at last to the acknowledgment that this Assembly has busied itself with all earnestness to follow the wisdom which is from above, and of which James says, that it is "first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy ! " God' grant that this problem also may be fully solved. III. Lastly, dear friends, it is repeatedly objected to our 12 MUTUAL SALUTATIONS. Assembly that we do not know what we want, and, indeed, have no clear, ■well-determined, and directly practical aim. We will not take advantage of our accusers by asking them, why, if they hold such an opinion, they have arrayed against an un- important and useless Assembly such an amount of eager opposition. They say our meeting will have no results, but will flow away like water. Yes, but we trust that it will flow away like the water of the Nile, which leaves behind it not destruction but only fruitfulness, and that flowing away fi'om the inhabitants of the banks — whom its floods, perhaps, have ierrified — it will be followed back to its channel with hymns of praise and thanks. If our Assembly will really have shown that the kingdom of God extends far and wide over the bovmdaries of each particular country, and of the particular views of different Churches ; that the restoration of the broken peace of the Church, longed for by thousands of the widely-scattered faithful, lies no longer only within the bounds of possibility, but has been accomplished as a fact : if, in consequence of the attain- ment of such a result, hope is again excited in the faint-hearted, if new joy strengthens the desponding to build up the walls of Zion, and a spirit of mildness and temperance finds place in those eager for particular ecclesiastical forms, and the heart enlarges itself in all respects — if such results be attained, will not a most beautiful, large, practical purpose be gained ? And if the members of the Assembly take with them the conscious- ness that nothing is more necessary for the conquest of the world than the gathering together of the faithful around the standard on which is inscribed " Christ all aud in all," nothing so much as a continually renewed study of God's Word, a repro- duction of ecclesiastical confessions out of that Word, and a united, strong, joyful action for the planting of \h.e new life ; — if, besides this consciousness, the presence together of brethren out of all lands impresses the conviction that the Lord, with His Spirit and His gifts, yet acts on the method of prejDaring everywhere the living stones for the completion of the building of His temple, — Oh, then, can any one doubt that our meeting will have had beautiful, real, practical advantages? Lotus, however, lay to heart the objection, that we want practical objects, and let us feel that our third and last problem in these dajj-s, is not to appear as Doctrinaires and Idealists, but to consider diligently the wants of actual life, and to seek means MULUAL SALUTATIONS. 13 for their redress, in earnest counsel with, each other, and in united and manly resolutions. In all Christian lands there are still multitudes of the people who scarcely ever hear the sound of the Gospel. How can a way of entrance be opened up for the Gospel of Christ ? Before the door of our Protestant Church, numbers of Romish priests stand and knock. How shall we provide for them subsistence and a field of operations, and prepare them for their entry among us ? A number of small Churches languish under our home missions, in the midst of the isolation and persecution which they experience. How may we succour, comfort, establish, and strengthen what will otherwise die? Excellent under- takings, missionary and literary (I name among the latter the publication of the lives and writings of the fathers of Protest- antism), threaten to be put a stop to for want of means. Will it not be suitable for us to attempt to support such under- takings ? Our people are daily more and more poisoned by a light literature, which, like a flood, often dashes its destroying waves over town and country. Might we not begin to lead the poor stupified people into a better and more thriving pasture? Look at these few questions, which I could easily multiply ; they point out to us at once a wide field of action, a sphere for practical undertakings, and for the direct bestowal of aid. Let us consider this field, if only to disprove this final accusation made against us ; let us become truly practical in these pleasant days of our assembling together. I now close, and declare herewith the Assembly of Evangelical Christians from all countries, to be opened. I add only the re- mark, that the foundation principles upon which this Assembly will continue to convene, are excluded from being made subjects of discussion, since they are to be considered as already fixed. I cannot forsake this place without bowing in the dust in the deepest humility, and yet with joyful, childlike confidence, to entreat, in the name of you all, the Saviour himself, our adorable Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, to be present in the midst of us to preside over us. May He show His love toward us, may He crown us with favours as with a shield, may He be so with us that we may be able to say, as was once said of the temple of Jerusalem, "The glory of the Lord filled the house; " and may He grant that at the close of our proceedings, thousands of the people, either anew or for the first time, may do homage at His 14 MUTUAL SALUTATIONS. feet ! That is what we desire, long for, pray for, and to that end may He, the Eternal One, speak His all- conquering, efficacious — Amen. Privy Councillor Dr. von Bethmann Hollweg, of E-heineck Castle, and President of the Kirchentag : Most honoured Assembly, — On my expressing a wish to be permitted to address a few words to you, the committee have allowed me to occupy this place, in order that after a clergyman, a layman of this country might, in behalf of this Assembly, welcome our dear guests and the friends here present. It is difficult to obtain a hearing after such an orator — one who, like a stormy blast, awakens the noblest feelings by the power of his words. Still, it is possible to restore our excited feelings to the resemblance of a mirror-like sea, on which the sun of eternal truth again looks down in peace, and on which the breath of the Spirit can be heard. It is difficult also for me to speak without a commis- sion, or at least without a commission from the EvangeKcal Alliance, to which I do not belong. Still I must appear, even without a commission, in the name of our brotherly Alliance exist- ing in Germany, which, on the occasion of the exciting words of the orator who preceded me, was called into existence nine years ago at Luther's grave — in the name of the German Kirchentag, which the Evangelical Alliance, in its invitation to this Assembly, thought necessary to distinguish in a special and kind manner from itself, and from persons in connexion with which, to our great regret, opposition has proceeded. But must difference necessarily involve separation, and even hostile opposition ? The venerable creed, which in its simplest elements goes back • to the earliest times, and which, in its grand simplicity, mentions the fact of redemption, the confession of which is renewed throughout the whole of Christendom every Sunday — this creed presents in close connexion two articles of faith, which are not one and the same, as many, including Luther, thought, and yet in a certain sense are one — " I believe in the Holy Catholic Church : The Communion of Saints." The first article is the watchword of our German Protestant Kirchentag. The Kirchentag seeks this Holy Church of God, which, as the richly- adorned Bride of the Lamb, followed her Lord in the form of a servant — it seeks it out of its fragments scattered over the earth. Where else should MUTUAL SALUTATIONS. 15 it seek them, in order to exercise its love, and to labour in the work of union ? The second article — the Communion of Saints — this holy bond of love which unites person to person over the whole of Christendom — is the lovely banner of the Evangelical Alliance — the cause of the meeting we celebrate at this time. One of these articles cannot exist without the other — the one demands the other. In the hands of men each must limit the other — may include or exclude too much. This is known to those who complain that the basis of the Evangelical Alliance is still too narrow. Only the heart must have no pleasure in exclusiveness and narrowness, but be ready in the Spirit of Christ, to embrace everything filled by Plis grace. Therefore, notwithstanding difierence and opposition, in the name of the German brotherly Alliance — which here also is represented in some of its most distinguished members — I extend a brother's hand to our dear friends come from distant lands, and even from beyond the Atlantic. We heartily welcome these dear men of God, who each in their own sphere, in true confession of Christian faith and active love, are carrying out the victory of faith over the world. We thank them that they are come here to impart to us something of the gifts of the Spirit, of the joy which the Lord has given them, and to pray with us for the coming of His kingdom. May He hear this prayer ! May He cause fire to fall from heaven, which shall kindle in our hearts a flame of love, that there may be no more Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female ; but that we may be all one in Christ Jesus, that the world may believe that the Father hath sent Him ! One word more to our dear guests, in the name of the German brotherly Alliance, about to hold its meeting in the course of a week at Stuttgart. Come, as each time hitherto some of you have come, and see that God's grace reigns amongst us, and hear how we also, in true catholicity, with open heart and voice, embrace all that belong to Him. A second and last word to this Assembly — for I am obliged to leave to-morrow evening, to attend the National Conference of Benevolence, which begins next week in Frankfort-on-the- Maine, and which, in the love of Christ, examines into the wants of the poorest of our brethren, and seeks out means of relief; this Conference has addressed to me an appeal, which I could not refuse, to preside at its meetings. So rich and manifold is the blessing of fellowship which God has bestowed upon us in these dark days, in which, 16 MriUAL SALUTATIONS. till now, we have been wont to bite and devour one another. Therefore, before I leave, I must express one wish more. When, amidst the hosannahs of the people, our Lord made His entry into Jerusalem riding upon an ass, the Pharisees and Sadducees were offended at ^is lowliuess, but the children waxed the more loud in their hosannahs. Men can accomplish nothing more than, like this beast of burden, to be the bearers of Christ. In these days, as five years ago, when the Kirchentag assembled in this same Church, the Saviour will make His entry into this city, and will reach the hearts of many. May He grant to all of us the simplicity of those children ! May He direct our eyes, not to those who bear the burden, but to the precious burden himself ! Let no man glory in men, or in the works of men, whatever those works may be ; but let no one take offence at the feeble- ness of the human work. May God help us, for in every one of us lurks a Pharisee and a Sadducee ! Let Christ, Christ alone, be the desire of our hearts ! Let our hosannahs arise to Him with one voice ! Let Him take up His abode in us ! and before His throne there will ascend thanks, from many hearts, for the blessings of this day. Pastor ScHRCEDER, of the Reformed Church at Elberfeld : The privilege of speaking is granted to me, in order that I may express to the Assembly the brotherly greetings of the Presbytery of the Reformed Church at Elberfeld. [M. Schroeder particularly mentioned that the Church which he represented had been distinsruished from the time of the Reformation for its attachment to piu'e Evangelical doctrine, and then said :] In later times, besides other ecclesiastical bodies, the Dutch Re- formed, the Baptists, and the Independents have formed Churches in the Wupper Yalley. But whatever serious concern we may entertain for the particular banner entrusted to each struggling Church by the mighty Lord of battles, that banner has always been ready to bow itself before the general standard of the kingdom of our God and Saviour ; and that not from any indolent wish for peace, but because the Christian, and not the Churchman, has the promise of eternal life. Not he who will stand or fall with Zwinglius, or Luther, or Calvin, but he that is born of God, overcomes the world. Because the Evangelical Alliance has so effectually brought into notice throughout Europe the importance of personal Christianity, without which none can see the kingdom of God, we salute the brethren composing it, MUTUAL SALUTATIOTSrS. 17 and their work. I must beg the brethren from England and Scotland to carry the salutation of the Reformed Church at Elberfeld across the Channel, and to tell their countrymen that we are full of gratitude to the Lord that they again, by the grace of God, fill the place that belongs to them ; and as the most Biblical and apostolical nation of the earth, have acted nobly in being the first to form the Evangelical Alliance. I cannot help adding to this general salutation the expression of my personal esteem and reverence for the pious Archbishop of Canterbury. I have felt obliged, since I have seen him reviled in some of our religious papers, to remember him oftentimes in my prayers. I conclude with what I consider as belonging to the task intrusted to me — namely, the declaration of those patriotic feelings, in which I assure myself not only of the sympathy of my compatriots, but also of that of the representa- tives of foreign nations. Since the country of Berg, to which I belong, has been attached to the Crown of Prussia, this provi- dential dispensation has never been so much a cause for rejoicing and gratitude as at the present time, when the prince who has had to wear the Christian's crown of thorns in the ignominy cast upon him by the world, has now avowed, not only his love to the Lord, but also to the Christian brotherhood. May the grace of God so warm the hearts of all in this Assembly, and especially of those of us who are theologians, that we shall raise our visors and throw down our iron gauntlets, and regard each other in the spirit of that love with which One has loved us who bought eternal redemption for us with His own blood. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Amen. His Excellency Joseph A. Wright, Minister of the United States at the Court of Prussia, spoke to the following effect : He said he had no expectation of addressing this Assembly till he was now invited to do so, and desired by his countrymen. He had come 6,000 miles from the West, and he raised his voice with joy in a meeting of the Evangelical Alliance, which was especially dear to him, because he valued and held fast their confession of faith, founded as it was upon the Word of God. No system in the world stands upon such a foundation; none could have maintained its ground as that of the Bible had. Next to the Bible he held dear the history of the Reformation, and as it was related above all, in Foxe's " Book of Martyrs." c 18 MUTUAL SALUTATIONS. The Bible, he said, exhibits three societies or unions — the family, the State, and the Church. He remai-ked upon the family as the foundation of all social happiness. He particularly selected from among the facts and doctrines of the Bible the death and resurrection of Christ, repentance and faith, which are the foun- dation of personal religion, and upon which the Evangelical Alliance was also founded. It was a high gratification to him to come here to further this alliance, and he said so all the more, since he was surrounded by people from Athens, Armenia, Con- stantinople, and other places, who have all the same belief in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, in whom alone is salva- tion and grace. He rejoiced to be able to aid in the perfecting of this work. The Eev. Dr. Simpson, Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America, said he desired to bring to the meeting the cordial greetings of America and of American Methodism. He had been delighted to be present on that occasion ; and in listening to the address of Dr. Krummacher, he had almost fancied that he had heard the voice of Luther again on the earth. Americans, so far as he understood their feelings, re- joiced in that Christian alliance — an alliance not of creed and organisation, but an alliance in heart and in Christian activity. It reminded him of the little streams rising in the great moun- tains, which, though they could slake the thirst of the weary, could never carry the treasures of commerce to the world till they blended in one mighty river. The American national organisation, like that of Germany, was somewhat analogous to the Christian alliance : they had individual States, each inde- pendent, but united into one great national confederation. America, too, had a kind of alliance in itself, composed of all races in the world, from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, mingling into one people, and he believed their prayer, from one ocean to the other, from valley to mountain top, was, that the song might yet be sung that Christians everywhere were one in Christ. As Methodists, his community loved the name of Luther, for from him Wesley received much of his theology. The speaker, in conclusion, handed in a written address from his brethren to the Conference. The Rev. Dr. Baird, of New York, said he brought an address from New York, which was covered, in the course of a few weeks, with a great number of signatures ; almost every post MUTUAL SALUTATIONS. 19 brought new names, and even yesterday lie had received addi- tions, which still express the heartfelt sympathy of their writers with this assembly. Distinguished men of the State, as well as of the Church, the Governor of North Carolina and the preachers of the United Brethren, have added their support, and more especially the Episcopal Church, both by her bishops, clergy- men, and laymen. The Presbyterians also, in their different communities, Baptists, and other bodies, have in like manner given their approbation and sympathy to this Alliance ; he would not call them sects, because in America there are no sects, but all are parts of the universal Christian Church, mutually acknowledging each other as brethren in the Lord. Dr. Baird then read some few sentences from the address, and added that it was not probable that many of the subscribers would be pre- sent at the Conference, but they wished to testify to their brethren in Germany and in Europe that these noble efforts for Christian union had their warmest sympathy and prayers. May it be a glorious Assembly, by the presence of the great Head of the Church, of the Lord and King of Zion. Praised be God though all eternity ! May this Assembly aid in arousing the faith which saveth, and promote the universal reign of our Lord Jesus over the hearts of men. We are living in important times. The enemies of Christianity, wearing the mantle of Romanism, of Socialism, of indifference, and of unbelief, are numerous, and the hatred of which they boast is openly known, but we do not fear, for the victory is certainly ours. Pastor KoLBENHEYER, from (Edenburg, in Hungary: Dear Brethren in the faith, — I am certainly not authorised to represent the community, the 800,000 Lutherans in Hungary, to which I belong. They do not know that at this moment I am standing here and addressing this Assembly. But notwithstanding this, I will act to-day as if I were authorised, for I am certain that thousands upon thousands, from the banks of the Danube and the Theiss, turn with longing gaze to the evangelical metropolis on the Spree, and that thousands of hearts beat in heartfelt sympathy with you during these festive days. And, therefore, I believe that I am acting in accordance with the feelings of my brethren at home if I venture to express to you our salutation, our petition, and our blessing. Accept our greetings, beloved brethren from all parts of the world, accept our greetings from the distant country of Hungary, for the sake of the holy work c 2 20 MUTUAL SALUTATIONS. which has brought you together ; though as yet, with sighing and supplication, this holy work lies near to the hearts of the dwellers beyond the belt of the Carpathian mountains, that all may be gathered under one Head, that sacred Head which for our sakes has worn the crown of thorns. We ask j^ou also to remember us at the throne of grace, and call upon Him with a loud voice, that He may break off from us, as from all the world, the two- fold fetters of unbelief and sin in which so many are yet held, and take from us the ban of self-righteousness, and make us as little children, for " of such is the kingdom of God." This is my petition. And yet one thing more. As we in our native country hope in the Lord that He will arise and guide the threatened vessel of our Church from the storms of past years into a quiet haven — and we do hope in the Lord, who has given us an apostolic emperor and king — so ma}'' you be comforted, dear brethren, and wait for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, and beseech Him that He will grant unto us all that spirit which is expressed in the words of that great father of the Church, ^^ In necessariis unitas, in duhlis UberaUtas, in omnibus earitas." Amen. Sir Culling E. Eardley, Bart., President of the British Organization of the Evangelical Alliance, agreed entirely with all that Dr. Krummacher had uttered to-day. Christian England, he said, regrets and mourns over the fact, that for three centuries it has been separated from Christian Germany. He would not examine where the fault lay, but he believed that both parties must bear the blame, since much must be ascribed to the ecclesiastical arrogance of the Tudors as well as to German dogmatism, from which even great Luther himself was not entirely free. He related an anecdote of Louis XIV. One of the courtiers of that king, to whom it was of great im- portance to bring about a union between France and Spain, said to the King, "]^o longer any Pyrenees ! " In the same way Sir Culling would say, " No longer a North Sea ! " In the name of the common Saviour, he returned the hearty salutation which had this day been accorded his countrymen. They had come here to work in concert with the Germans for the Evan- gelical cause, for the religious good of both countries, and he hoped it would not be the fault of his countrymen should this Assembly pass by without making this desired unity a living reality. There is one friend of our great cause that must not MUTUAL SALUTATIONS. 21 be forgotten. We are greatly indebted to the clergy of this country who have given ns such a friendly welcome ; and not less so to the laity of Germany, in whose name M. de Bethmann- HoUweg has addressed us ; but above all these, we must re- member one with the most fervent gratitude, who, amidst so many difficulties, has been true to his own vieM^s — His Majesty the King of Prussia. He was glad to be able to salute them all once again, and to express his hope that other guests who addressed them would participate in his feeling of joy. The Rev. George Smith, of London, Secretary of the Con- gregational Union : I come in the name of different Churches of the Nonconformists of England, to give our testimony to the love and friendship we feel for the Evangelical Alliance, and to express the sympathy of the brethren with the present Assembly. With all my heart do I agree with what our dear friend, Sir Culling, has said in reference to a closer union be- tween Germany and England, and I hope that by the union of the two E.oyal families a still closer bond will be created. Although in England there are several denominations of Churches, Conformists and ISTonconformists, Presbyterians and Methodists, yet, I believe that we have all a common ground of Christian doctrine on which we stand together, where there is space enough for all Christians ; and I must add, that I believe this ground is larger and broader than is generally believed. And although, as we know, the peculiarities of individual Churches will not cease to exist, yet we feel that there is a line, which reaches from England to the Continent, which shall unite us with our brethren here. We think that no boundary, no stream, or ocean, or mountain, no degrees of latitude or longitude, separate Christians from each other ; we believe that this love which has been to-day so eloquently brought home to us by Dr. Krummacher, will increase in all our hearts ; and while I speak in the name of the Noncon- formists, I do not think that I say too much if I take for granted that this is also the sentiment of the brethren of the Episcopal Church of England. We are delighted to be able to meet you here ; we have been quickened by the hospitality, the love, and friendly affability with which we have been received ; and we only wish to have the opportunity of proving to you again, in our own land, that both love and gratitude have a place in our hearts. I stand in official relation with the Congregational 22 MUTUAL SALUTATIONS. body, but I do not speak here only in tlie name of my own Church, but also of the Baptists, the Methodists, and all other Churches that love the Lord ; and I am persuaded that you all agree with me in the broad view we hold of Christian com- munion, that it is in accordance with the will of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who himself offered the praj'er, that they all should be one in Him, and that the unity of the Church on earth should eventually be perfected in heaven. The blessing of God, His grace, and His mercy, be with you all. John Henderson, Esq., of Glasgow : As I have come to this Conference with great pleasure, so does it do my heart good to be able to say to you that I see a great number of representa- tives of different denominations from Scotland around me. Shall I tell you what has brought us here ? We would see friends from every coimtry face to face, and give each the hand as dear brethren in Christ Jesus ; we would find hearts that are warmer than our own ; and so refresh heart and soul, and draw new courage for the great work of our Lord and Saviom* Jesus Christ. As far as I am concerned, I must confess that I regard this day as one of the most delightful which the grace of God has peiTuitted me to see. Let us then unite our prayers, for that is the strongest bond of union that exists for Christians. Let us go hand in hand before the throne of our Heavenly Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ ; thus we may hope to be led by the Lord by a way that we know not. Superintendent Gothe, from Melbourne, Australia : Honoured Brethren, — I have no authority, and yet I must give you a mes- sage from Australia, not, indeed, from my own Church, but from the English Evangelical Churches. With us in Australia, the Alliance is no mere appearance. The English Church, having at its head its bishop, that active man of God, Dr. Parry, unites itself with the Methodists, Independents, Baptists, Lutherans, and others, for prayer — and the bishop conducts the meeting — that God would send His quickening Spirit to that desert, so that we may all labour together in the good work. We have a Bible Society, presided over by Bishop Parry, besides tract and missionary societies. All these are unitedly conducted, in order not to divide our strength. With us the AlHance, dear brethren, is seasonable. For in Australia there are men of all nations, colours, and languages — American, French, Scotch, L"ish, Eng- lish ; and in Melbourne alone there are 25,000 Germans ; then MUTUAL SALUTATIONS. 23 there are 40,000 Chinese, who came like a barbarian swarm to seek gold. The Chinese mission, with the Bishop of Melbourne at its head ; the mission among the Papuans, which failed, after having been carried on twent}^ years, from being the effort of individual Churches ; and even the Moravian Brethren, with whom generally everj^thing succeeds, have been obliged to give up their mission-house because the work was too much for their single strength. J^ow all Churches have united in the work. I bring you one greeting, and I know our brethren will rejoice when they hear of it, " It is not the time to sleep." Let us lay these words of our beloved Luther to heart, and be convinced that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Pastor Grandpierke, of Paris : Dear Brethren, — ^We salute you all in the name of all the Evangelical Christians of France, and especially of the Reformed Church of Prance, to which I belong. We are united together, not only by the bond of one faith and of one love, but also by gratitude to German Christians, to whom we are historically indebted. In the beginning of this century, when our Church began to revive, we had no theology, no pastors ; our believing brethren were scattered, our Churches were levelled with the ground. Then from the books of German scholars, and from the universities of Germany, we were able to draw some knowledge in religious matters ; although you know yourselves how rare at that time Christian theology was in Ger- many. We are united to you by good deeds ; where is the Pro- testant in France who can forget that at the time when our ancestors under Louis XIY. were persecuted, thousands of Pro- testant Christians sought and found a refuge in Prussia, and especially in this large city ? When we go through your streets and your public places, do we not see the churches, the schools, the gymnasiums, which the kings of Prussia have given to our ancestors, who found here a second home ? Blessed be the memory of these Christian kings ! blessed be the present King of Prussia, who walks so faithfully in the footsteps of his fore- fathers ! Now, dear brethren, I will in conclusion give you my confession of faith, as some of our brethren have already done. Heart and soul I agree with what Dr. Krummacher has said. I am a friend of my Church ; I love the Reformed Church. I will serve her, and give up my life to revive and enlarge her borders ; but I confess with sincerity that I love still more the universal Church of Christ. We must have a hand always ready to press 24 MUTUAL SALUTATIONS. the hand of all Christians, and a heart open to all Christians. I stretch out this hand to all Churches and to Christians of all nations, and this heart I open to you all ; and I pray that God may make it more and more warm and ready to love the brethren in Christ. Amen. The Rev. J. S. Jenkinson,* Vicar of Battersea, said that, as a clergyman of the Church of England, he rejoiced to be present on that occasion, and to meet so many brethren beloved in the Lord, from so many places far and near, who served the same God and Saviour, though in different ways, since the diflFerences that prevailed amongst them were only the differences of the rainbow, which is coloured by one light. The Church of Eng- land had taken no mean part in the great work of the Reforma- tion, and was in close connexion and sympathy with some of the forefathers of the German Churches. He hoped that that union would be revived, and that every hindrance to it would be removed. Many of the bishops, clergy, and laity of the Church of England were deeply interested in the present movement, and were pouring out their souls before the throne of grace for the success of the Berlin Conference. Many of them, as well as considerable numbers of his Nonconformist brethren, were per- sonally present, but still more were present in spirit. The Archbishop of Canterbury had expressed the deep interest he felt in the movement, and in a letter received by the Committee his Grace said, " I am much gratified by the kind invitation that has just reached me from your Committee. It is not, how- ever, in my power to avail myself of this obliging offer, as my official duties will not allow me, except under pressing necessity, to leave this countr}^ My prayers will attend the meeting of the Conference, which I trust will have the Evangelical stamp of promoting the glory of God and goodwill amongst men." Dr. Krummacher was right in saying that the Church of Eng- land sought only the submission of ail mankind to the cross of Christ ; Germany had greatly assisted her in the work, having sent to the Church Missionary Society, and other bodies of a like character, some of their best and most successful labourers. He believed that great things were about to take place, that the Church was about to be enriched with all the fruits of the Spirit, especially the fruit of love and union, which would prove her * This address, and those that follow, were delivered on subsequent days, but are properly placed here among the salutations. — Ed. MUTUAL SALUTATIONS. 25 great strength, by whicli she would overcome all her enemies and promote the kingdom of her Lord and Saviour. Let them all unite in endeavouring to obey the great law of Christ, that they should love one another, even as He had loved them, bearing especially in mind His last prayer, that they might be one, as He and the Father were one, that the world might know that the Father had sent Him. Pastor MoLENAAE, of the Mennonite Church at Monsheim, near Worms : " This is the day the Lord has made ; let us rejoice and be glad in it." Honoured and beloved Brethren in the Lord, — It would not be necessary that I should speak a word in your Assembly ; but I feel urged to it, as belonging to a Church that is little known, but which yet is a part of the Evangelical Alliance. I think I now see as in a vision on this blessed alliance day, my adored Lord and Master Jesus Christ enthroned as our President, and below Him at His feet are sitting the founders of our Churches. I see Dr. Martin Luther ; I see Master Philip next him ; I see John Calvin, I see Zwinglius, and together with them Menno Simons ; I behold them at the feet of their Lord and Master, who shed His blood for them on the cross. And now in heaven they are united in the most heartfelt alliance. And now let me offer you my brotherly salutation. Time presses too much for me to greet all the dear brethren indi- vidually ; the honoured President of the Committee, who invited me to this sacred day ; the brethren from England, especially those Baptists who have been in my house* — I greet these and all the brethren with a hearty Evangelical salutation. One word let me say to show that in the Mennonite Confes- sion we are acting on the principles of the Alliance. Many of the Mennonite ministers, in whose name I am now speaking, have resorted for instruction in theology to your great masters. As for example, my own fatherly friend Dr. Nitzsch, Dr. Sack, Dr. Muller, and other excellent and beloved professors of Germany, in Bonn, in Heidelberg, in Halle, and here also in Berlin — in a word, your teachers have also been ours. Further, we have an alliance, when a preacher among the Mennonites stands in so close and brotherly a connexion with the brethren of the Reformed and Lutheran Confessions, that they do not speak of their respective Churches, but of the one * Rev. Dr. Steane. 26 MUTUAL SALUTATIONS. Lord and Saviour wliom they all serve. And to this the dear brother who has just spoken could testify as well as his esteemed brother, Dr. Krummacher. Into our Mennonite Churches of the Palatinate, of Baden, and of North America, moreover, we have just introduced a hymn-book, in which you will find all the glorious hymns of the Lutheran and the Reformed Churches unchanged ; and the first baptismal hymn of the Mennonites — who, as is known, hold the baptism of adults, and will maintain it as long as God gives them grace and power to follow His Word according to their own conviction — is as follows : — " On Jordan's banks behold our Lord, Obedient to His Father's word. Accept from John the holy sign That sealed Him to His work divine." And in the second verse : — " Christ bade His ministers go forth To preach the Word to all, Lying in sin, exposed to wrath. To turn from Satan's thrall. He who believes and is baptized. Shall surely blessed be ; And born again, no more exposed To death and misery, His portion is in heaven." And this hymn is by Dr. Martin Luther. In this spirit, my beloved friends, I salute you once again, and pray the Lord of all grace that from this time we may be always more and more closely united in the sacred work of tho Alliance, that one day we may rejoice in the eternal alliance with our fathers in the faith, the Reformers. Amen. Professor Malan, of Latour, Sardinia : Respected Brethren in the Lord, — I am deputed by the elders of the Wal- densian Church to convey its greeting to this Assembly. The Waldensian Church has heard with joy that an Evangelical Alliance has been founded, for she has herself enjoyed the ad- vantages of an Evangelical Alliance now for 200 years. All Evangelical Churches have testified their love for the Church of the Waldenses, and their interest in her welfare ; and I seize this opportunity to express the thanks of this Church to all other Churches. [Professor Malan then stated that he had been requested to lay before the Assembly a paper on the Wal- densian Church, drawn up by the Rev. M. Meille, but as it had MUTUAL SALUTATIONS. 27 not come to hand lie must substitute for it such particulars as occurred to his own mind. This he did ; but as M. Meille's paper, which afterwards arrived, will be found in a subsequent part of the volume, we need not give them here. In concluding, M. Malan said :] May we not hope that we shall live to see a time in Italy like the Reformation of the sixteenth century in Germany ? It can only come by the power of the Spirit of God ; yet we will preach the Gospel, and receive unto our communion those who, by the grace of God, may turn to the truth. We will pursue our work with prayer, and will faith- fully abide by the "Word of truth ; and I trust that you who sympathised with us in the time of our trial, and who then supplicated for us, will also now offer up your prayers for us in the time of our prosperity. The Rev. Dr. Black, from the United States : I have been deputed by the Presbyterians to convey their heartfelt greeting to this Assembly, and to testify their gladness in the present gathering. They have felt so cordial a sympathy with this Assembly that they laid before their last Synod an address which has been signed by all its members. They are under special obligations to Germany ; since, when they were in America destitute of all ecclesiastical care and of preachers, they sent over to Holland and received from thence new servants of the Lord. They hold the Germans as such very dear. . With the exception of Germany itself, there are probably to be found in no land so many Germans together as in America. How highly the Germans are there esteemed one instance alone will show. In the State of Pennsylvania, in which I reside, a German has been chosen Governor. The writings of Krummacher, and other Germans, are circulated in English translations. The Presby- terians descend from the old Covenanters of Scotland, and as these showed their fidelity to the Lord, so they also desired constantly to show their fidelity. I am deputed to present an address, by which a bond will be formed, as formerly they established a covenant in Scotland, a bond of love to unite all together in one community, so that Germans, English, French, and Americans may be one in the Lord. We desire that ye may receive grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, in all your present deliberations. Professor Chappuis, of Lausanne : Brethren beloved in our Lord, — I convey to you the salutations of the Evangehcal 28 MUTUAL SALUTATIONS. Alliance of French Switzerland, more especially of the Canton de Vaud. In this canton there are members of different Churches, I myself belong to the Free Church. Several of the brethren who have spoken to you have, on the one hand, ex- pressed their brotherly love, and on the other their attachment to the Church to which they belong. I shall avail myself of the same liberty. We are attached to the principles of the Free Church and to her independence ; still we rejoice to give the hand of fellowship to all those who acknowledge our Lord Jesus Christ as the Sou of God. The party wall which separates us will never be so high that our hands cannot stretch across to our brethren of other Confessions. Therefore, brethren of different Churches, accept our hearty and brotherly salutations. May the Lord abundantly bless you ! It is a good thing that the brethren should meet thus to speak together upon Divine things ; it is good to feel that differences exist, if only we love each other at all times. These days which we have passed here together will be blessed ; but the fact that an Evangelical Alliance exists, and that it has met in Germany, will be more effectual and beneficial in its effects than even the speeches delivered. Some one, who was not accustomed to hear sermons, expressed himself thus : " he felt," he said, "more edified by the temple than by the preaching." Well, we too may say that however excellent the speeches may be, the Alliance itself will be a more effectual blessing ; for it is carried on in a spirit which will attract even those who are opposed to it. Some of the blessings which I expect from the Alliance are the following : First, the Alliance will teach us to understand and comprehend the unity of the Church, the true unity as opposed to a false unity. Secondly, these assemblies will teach us to understand what sects are, and what a sectarian spirit really is. By its means it will be clear to us that men can belong to different Churches and principles without belonging to a sect or being sectarians. Thirdly, these assemblies will reveal more distinctly and positively the sjDirit of Protestantism, for the latter is often hid by a half- Catholic character. Lastly, these assemblies lead us to the organisation of Protestantism. Now is the time that we should exclaim, " To thy tents, 0 Israel ! " — in order not only to offer resistance to Catholicism, but also to Infidelity. The living children of God must and ought to come together. It ought not to be forgotten that we are the salt of the earth. MUTUAL SALUTATIONS. 29 neither ought the communion of the saints to be forgotten. This communion becomes weaker if it cannot exhibit and express itself. This is also to be seen here. It is necessary that the children of God should approach each other, for upon that depends their activity on behalf of those that are without, an activity which in our century is essential. Allow me, beloved brethren, to conclude with the words of a man whose name you know, and whom we venerate as a sort of patriarch in our Church — I mean Yinet — who says : " Everything in the Western world invites the Christian to withdraw himself to the holy mountain ; let us hope that no Menenius may come to lead away the people with an idle tale." May the Lord bless all the Churches that have here their representatives ! May He bring His children together from all the ends of the earth, and give them grace to testify more powerfully, more unitedly, and more effectually to the truths of the Gospel ! Amen. APPOINTMENT OF COMMITTEE. At the close of the Salutations on the first day, a Business Committee was appointed, whose functions are defined in the following resolutions. James Cunnixghame, Esq., of Edinburgh, said he had per- mission to submit a resolution authorising the appointment of a Committee to which matters of business might be referred with more advantage than considering them in the Conference. Upon his motion the following resolutions were unanimously adopted : — " That a Committee be now appointed to take into considera- tion the religious interests of Protestant Christendom, whose principal business it shall be to inquire into the state of Evan- gelical religion in the different nations, and to report the result of their inquiries to 'the Conference. " That it be an instruction to the Committee to divide itself into as many Sub- committees as to them may seem expedient. " That the inquiries of the Committee, through the medium of its Sub-committees, be especially directed to ascertain — " ' 1. What institutions or committees exist, whose object is the promotion of the Gospel, or whose operations substantially subserve that purpose, to which assistance might be rendered by brethren of other countries ; distinguishing those in which 30 MUTUAL SALUTATIONS. all EvangeKcal Christians are united, and those which are con- nected with particular parties. " ' 2. What new objects there are to the advancement of which it is desirable that the united efforts of Evangelical Christians of various countries should be invited ; and what local facilities exist in any particular country by means of which to promote them. " ' 3. What are the hindrances, whether of a general nature, or existing in different nations, to the propagation of the Gospel, or to the free profession of particular forms of the Christian faith, and what steps may be best to take in order to remove them.' " That the Committee have power to take such measures as to them may seem proper, in cases where Christian brethren are hindered in the exercise of their worship, and in the free development of their religious activity." The names of the Committee were then read. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED. I. THE RECENT CONFERENCES OF CHRISTIANS, CONVENED BY THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE, COMPARED WITH THE ASSEMBLIES OF THE CHURCH IN FORMER PERIODS. BY THE REV. Dr. JACOB!, PROFESSOE OP THEOLOGY IN THE nNIVEESITY OF HALLB. II. THE BONDS OF CHRISTIAN UNION, AS SUPPLIED BY THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE. BY THE KEV. J. H. MERLE D'AUBIGNE, D.D., PBESIDENT OF THE THEOLOOICAL SCHOOI, OF GENEVA. III. FACTS CONNECTED WITH THE EARLIEST ECCLESI- ASTICAL COUNCILS, SHOWING AN ANALOGY BETWEEN THEM AND THIS PRESENT CON- FERENCE. BY THE REV. De. PIPER, PEOFESSOB OP THBOLOGT IN THE DNIVEBSITT OP BESLIIf. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED. I. THE RECENT CONFERENCES OP CHRISTIANS CONVENED BY THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE, COMPARED WITH THE ASSEMBLIES OF THE CHURCH IN FORMER PERIODS. BY THE REV. Dr. JACOBI, PEOFESSOR OF THEOLOGY, HALLE. Thursday, September 10, 1857. — Evening. President : The Rev. Dr. Nitzsch, Oberconsistorialrath and Prevost of Berlin. I SHOULD not venture to compare such an Assembly as I have now before me, gathered from so many countries of Christendom, with any provincial or national council — there is no ground for a parallel, except it be "svith the oecumenical councils of the ancient Church. But how can an assembly unofficially convened, con- sisting only of private individuals, having no authority to legislate, and pretending to none, be compared with those councils which are among the most important events in the history of the Church, and which are so rich in results ; the dogmatic decisions and other enactments of which are accepted as law by a large portion of the Church, and are regarded with reverence by the rest ? I reply, that no comparison is meant to be instituted with reference to the importance of their results, but only in the remarkable relation in which they stand to each other, as to their character and qualities, and the significance they both possess as signs of the times. Such an extraordinary phenomenon as a Conference of Evangelical Christians from all countries, requires me to try to discover the peculiar principles upon which it rests, as well as those of the ancient councils to which we compare it. I start from a general consideration. All intellectual life, D 34 KECENT CONFERENCES OF CHRISTIANS COMPARED when it develops itself, be it taken singly or as a wliole, is, on the one side, controlled by the objectire forces which govern it as a law, and, on the other, by the subjective individual qualities which are brought into opposition to them. Captivated by sensuality and sin, these two sides do not always develop them- selves in harmony, but the one or the other predominates ; and it is a law of life that the objective forms which bind the individual first preponderate, the individual forms of life slumber till their day comes, and, awaking, they seek for harmony with the objective and universal. This universal law may also be applied to the kingdom of Crod ; and this the Apostle Paul has confirmed when he says : " For the heir, as long as he is a child, difiereth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all." The history of the Church may be divided into two great divisions. The first is that period during which the individual and subjective elements are bound by the sovereignty and pre- ponderance of universal ; the second, when personality in Jesus is freed, and individual right is acknowledged. The Reformation marks this division. Let us look back to the times before the Reformation. Who does not know how the Church then held the individual in its guardianship, how the universal priesthood was replaced by a class of priests, which was of Jewish organisa- tion and character ; how the invisible Church was overshadowed by the visible — the visible Church being represented by the clergy, that priestly class which moi'e and more infringed upon the place which the Church ought to have occupied. From this class legis- lation proceeded ; it was itself a necessary law, and the laws which it pronounced became a tradition by its side. The Church is led by the Spirit, and the Spirit, so they say, speaks through the priests, and their decisions becoming traditions are the pillars of that objective power which the Church exercises over the individual — for the individual may, indeed, examine, but the result is prescribed to him ; he may doubt, but he must submit. All the lines of authority in the ancient Church unite more and more in the synods. It is significant how the rise of synods is connected with a victory of the objective power over the subjective emotions, and, indeed, with a victory which, at the same time, might lay claim to having right on its side. The Church was moved by the Gnostic arbitrariness, by those specu- lations derived from heathenism which, under the name of Christianity, extended themselves, in the most arbitrary manner, WITH FORMER ASSEMBLIES OF THE CHURCH. 35 to the highest subjects, for nothing was too high nor too deep for them to fathom. Against these subjective speculations of a rationalistic tendency appeared a subjectivism of a supernatural kind in the Montanists. They appealed, in opposition to specu- lation, to the decisions of their pretended revelations ; but what they pretended were revelations of their prophets, was, after all, only subjectiveness and arbitrary will — they were revelations invented by themselves. The Church then assembled in council to consider how it should be stemmed ; and the means seemed to offer itself in the assembling of the presidents of the congrega- tions, the bishops, about the middle of the second century, to come to an understanding upon certain general measures. The priesthood now interposed its authority, representing itself to possess objective Divine right, and destroyed the subjectivism which opposed it. The necessity and beneficial effect of this measure was soon so imiversally acknowledged, that it was adopted in different places, so that at the beginning of the third century Tertullian speaks of the synods as the representatives of entire Christendom. The decisions of these synods had reference to those who took part in them, and over whom they could exercise authority. What, now, was more probable, than that the Emperor Constantino — upon a question which supremely exercised the minds of Christians, that of the Divine dignity of Christ — should have thought of calling together a synod of the whole empire, and so of the whole Church, the decisions of which should have universal authority ? The Synod of Nice was convened. Its decisions were at first accepted reluctantly, but their profundity gained by degrees the approval of the most important leaders of the Church. And, as the Council of Nice succeeded in establishing its dogmas, it established at the same time the authority of synods, which thenceforth appeared a suitable means for arriving at information and decisions upon doubtful and disputed questions. It is true that these assemblies were not the representatives of the entire Christianity of the empire, the Oriental Christians being almost exclusively repre- sented at the Council of Nice. The Council of Constantinople consisted only of 150 bishops, called together for specific pur- poses. It cannot be denied that the spirit which ruled in these assemblies did not in every respect preserve its character for holiness ; but the importance which marked the dogmatic decisions of the ancient councils, gained for them an extended D 2 36 RECENT CONFERENCES OF CHRTSTIANS COMPARED recognition, and was victorious in the greater part of the Church, which more and more began to see itself reflected in them. It beheld in them the expression of the mind which led and inspired the entire Church, in a manner as conspicuous as it was incontrovertible. The Council of Chalcedon said : If Christ promises His presence to two or three who are assembled in His name, how much more will He be among so many bishops who have come together from such distant parts in order to confess His name ? The Church was idealised, and to a still higher degree the councils were idealised, Augustine declares, that in the oecumenical councils the holiness of the fathers is just as great as their confession of Divine things ; they expressed what was going on quietlj^ in the Church, giving it a legal form and sanction ; they cannot err ; the one only completes the other and carries out the development more fully. The oecumenical councils are thus the illuminated pinnacles by which the degrees in the development of the Church may be recognised. The laity were excluded from giving their vote on doubtful matters ; as a rule, they were permitted to be present, but they were passive in their demeanour ; the decision belonged exclusively to the bishops. This was not even accorded to the subordinate clergy, who were allowed to join in the discussion, but were not permitted to take part in the decision, except when they appeared as represen- tatives of their bishops. The laity being, under the conditions of priestly government, excluded, made itself felt in a way entirely secular, as the council was obliged to be subordinate to the will of a layman in the person of the Emperor. It was he who called the council ; and who else ought to have done it ? He alone could take the initiative. But now he kept watch over the council. The confirmation of the decisions depended upon him, and from this it arose that too much regard was paid to the Emperor's will and pleasure. The settling of dogmas was one of the principal duties that devolved upon these councils, and we know, and have already remarked, how much the Church is indebted to them in this respect. Being, however, induced by the strife of parties to decide at once, the dogmatic decision became a subject of too great importance ; and thus life in Christ, and faith in Him, were placed more in the background, and were not recognised as being of greater significance than the dogma. This was more especially the case with the shallow Arians, in their pride of WITH FORMER ASSEMBLIES OF THE CHURCH. 37 intellect. The profound teachers of the Church have not quite overlooked this point of view. It was recognised by them as well as by Gregory of Nyssen, that love to the Lord is, after all, the decisive proof. Under these influences, the opinion of the bishops of Pamphylia was also expressed to the Emperor Leo towards the end of the fifth century. He acknowledges gravely the dogma which the Council of Chalcedon has pronounced, but then adds : " The doctrine of two natures must not be carried out into subtilties ; it is not necessary to salvation, and might easily bewilder the mind ; it is important for controversy, but the still greater doctrine is involved, that in these forms we have Christ." The councils did not succeed in maintaining this point of view consistently or in all its purity. They were, therefore, much more interested in separating and dividing, and were forced to this by the frequently objectionable contrasts which were directly opposed to them. But they carried this further than was necessary, even to parties who did not difier essentially from the truths of the Church, belonging in their origin more to the past, and having no longer an importance at that time, and who were, even at a later period, treated with the same severity. The councils which now in this way claimed the authority of the Church had, in a certain degree, taken the development of the Church out of the hand of the Montanists, for the latter no longer ought to be the leaders of the dogma, but should follow the leadings of the council. This aristocratic constitution, according to which the Spirit of God should be bound to the priesthood of the Church, was again unable to maintain itself for a long time. The councils were once above the Pope, and as every other individual priest, or layman, so must the Bishop of Borne submit himself to the decisions of the council. But the Church turned more and more to a central point ; her chief aim was a united represen- tation, and the Pope raised himself above the councils. Aris- tocracy yielded to monarchy. It was progress of a reformatory character, by which, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, some of his absolute authority was taken from the Pof)e and in a measure restored to the aristocracy — that is, to the general councils — which should be the objective power in the Church, the universal and necessary authority. It was in the fourteenth century that Marsilius of Padua, in his celebrated efibrt to pave 38 RECENT CONFERENCES OF CHRISTIANS COMPARED a way for tlie peace of the Church, and to defend the Emperor against the attacks of the Pope, propounded his theory upon the rights of the councils, which are to explain the Holy Scriptures for the Church with binding authority, and which should, at the same time, constitute, together with the Scriptures, a power which no one should dare to resist, not even the Pope himself. These councils should be the representatives of the Universal Church; they should not be composed simply of the Pope, his chief clergy and bishops, but the lower clergy also should take part in them, and especially learned men who are capable of judging on Church matters, and even the princely laity should still maintain their rights. These are the ideas which moved and shook the Church to its foundation, and eflFectually prepared the way for the Reformation. They pervaded the great men of the Paris University in the fifteenth century — Pierre d'Ailly, John Gerson, and others. John Gerson, a brilliant star among the many luminaries who shine forth so conspicuously in that age, published a doctrine of Church authority which is founded upon the rights of general councils. They only represent the entire Church, and the entire Church is not the Pomish Church, but includes the children of God in the Greek Church and in those Churches also which are not acknowledged by the Pope, but are con- demned by him. This was a most praiseworthy ejffort to place the decision on the ground of personal relation to Christ. Gerson, therefore, approved of councils being constituted upon more liberal principles. Not only clergymen should be chosen as members, but, like Marsilius, he would have excellent, pious, and learned men from different ranks chosen, princes also and their representatives, for these too had to care for the good of the Church. But, after all, Gerson, together with all his friends, stopped half way ; they placed the Pope below the council, but still they did not root out the hierarchy ; they con- ceived the idea of a universal priesthood, but they disregarded its consequences. But still the trial was to be made. Those great councils met together, which so peculiarly characterise the history of the fifteenth centur}^ the Councils of Pisa, Constance, and Basle. Where has there been a council which could compare, either in splendour or magnitude, with that of Constance ? It was, perhaps, the most magnificent assembly the world had seen. At this council the genius of Gerson WITH FORMER ASSEMBLIES OF THE CHURCH. 39 * worked its ends ; there he preached his principles with unbending courage, and with great propriety, amidst impending dangers. The council, led by him, set itself the great task of judging three popes and healing the schism of the Church ; thus to restore peace, and to accomplish a thorough reform. Unanimity was restored within the limits of the Catholic parties, and the schism terminated ; but purification did not follow. Gerson and his council were defeated by Papal absolutism, because half mea- sures could not withstand the powerful influence of a consis- tently and thoroughly-formed tradition and constitution. Papal absolutism seemed to raise itself higher than ever. And how could the council expect to gain the victory, when it burned the man who represented the Evangelical principle with far greater purity ? The doctrine of John Huss concerning the Church was, beyond all comparison, more thoroughly established upon an Evangelical foundation than that of Gerson's. Gerson and his party were theoretically victorious, but practically they were defeated. It was the Reformation which first secured the victory to Evangelical principles, and led to a more consistent development. The principle of justification by faith soon worked a purifying and enlightening efiect, both in reference to the objective and subjective — ^to the universal and to the individual. Christ was put in the place of the Church ; to Him she must abandon those rights which she had assumed in her vicarious position. On the other hand, she must give up rights to faithful Christians ; they were all priests — all, as far as they believed, stood intimately connected with Christ. Dependent they were upon Him ; but not intended to be under the lasting guardianship of an outward, visible Church ; they would be led to Him, but they would not alwaj^s have a mediator between Him and them ; they needed it no longer, for they belonged to Him entirely. And thus we see a principle arise in history which had long been smothered, yet now awakening with new power, never again to be subdued or suppressed. This principle extends its power through every province of life ; but naturally, the province of the Church is the most decidedly afiected. Already a difierent idea obtains among the Reformers. The invisible Church, the relation in which it stands to Christ as the only salvation and the only truth, governs them ; and from this point of view the individual acquires a totally difierent significance, as also do the 40 RECENT CONFERENCES OF CHRISTIANS COMPARED authorities of the Church in contrast with Him. Councils also assume a different character. Luther himself has spoken many a striking thing upon the more ancient councils. On the whole, he arrived at just conclusions, if in particidar instances his asser- tions may hear some modification. Luther highly esteemed the ancient councils on account of their practical decisions ; he has, for instance, honoured them for their dogmatic decisions upon the Trinity and upon the doctrine of the person of Christ ; but always with the reservation, not that these doctrines depend on the decisions of councils, hut because, being the written Truth, they are therefore recognised. He certainly overlooks that this Truth has changed both in forms and places in the development ; he further overlooks that there is no just ground to separate so sharply as he does the four first councils from those that follow. But this is all subordinate, Luther then asks himself, since councils have been of great use, and since the Pope and many others speak of a council, whether a satisfactory result may be expected from one at the present time ? and he denies this ; such a result is not to be expected in the then existing state of the Catholic Church. That in this he was perfectly right, the Council of Trent sufiiciently proved. But, on the other hand, it appeared to him that the possibility of calling a council at a future time should be preserved, which might give greater satis- faction. And then he makes his propositions. A council shall be called, which shall not be too numerous ; the legal forms of the authorities of a class shall not be exclusively regarded, and therefore, it must not be confined to the clergy, as those who alone have the prerogative of forming it ; but excellent men shall be chosen from different classes, clerical and lay ; for it concerns the laity also ; and if the laity have a heart for the Church and for their own peace and salvation, then they ought to be called upon to take part in the synod and its proceedings. Certainly, without authority Luther would not have called such a council together, and nothing offered itself at the moment but the authority of the Sovereign Princes. He proposed that they should make use of the occasion, and invite those who were subordinate to them, and yet suitable to form the council. What he thus proposed is, to a certain extent, a national council, a council composed of different nations and national Churches ; and viewed from this point, there is a degree of resemblance between this proposal and the Assembly which I see now before "WITH FORMER ASSEMBLIES OF THE CHURCH. 41 me. But Luther was far from thinking that such a council could have rested upon any other basis than that of doctrine. He always presupposed that the result of its deliberations would have beesji in agreement with essential points. Melanchthon would, perhaps, have acted in a somewhat different manner. It does not, in fact, lie in the principles of the Reformation ; but to live and be one with Christ, and thus to be free from the bondage of human formulas and human institutions, is, according to Luther, the essence of Protestant faith. This principle exceeds even the consistent Lutheran dogma when strictly carried out, and Melanchthon exactly illustrates the side where it is seen in its larger and pro- gressive form. Luther's strong believing nature led to one- sidedness, which we cannot separate from our idea of him. Melanchthon is less dogmatical ; his is a more equalising and combining spirit, more open to amicable differences of opinion. Luther was strong and firm in his own truth ; Melanchthon was conscientious and delicate in feeling for the truth on the other side. Melanchthon limited the circle of necessity, and allowed freedom for the less essential. Melanchthon, therefore, by his whole bearing has allowed the possibility, by an acknowledgment of mutual differences and agreements, of bringing about a union. And even in the strictest Lutheran divinity this has not been entirely overcome, that there are doctrines which are fundamental and those which are not fundamental ; and thus is to be seen at least a trace of the after-working of such an idea. The Reformed Church being a great whole in itself, divided into different national Churches, and uniting in itself so many peculiarities, could more easily call together a council composed of those who differed amicably on non- fundamental points. In fact, she has tried such a synod — the Synod of Dort. There a great portion of the Reformed Church was represented; still more were invited. Laymen were also present according to the constitution of the Reformed Church ; but though there was the form, it was not imbued with the spirit of reconciliation, but from the beginning looked upon itself as a tribunal to pronounce sentence upon the opposition ; and it therefore acted much more in the spirit of the ancient Church synods. It is undeniable that the more reconciling tendencies have gradually faded away, that the spirit of Melanchthon has more and more disappeared from the Church, and we can only regard 42 RECENT CONFERENCES OF CHRISTIANS COMPARED this as an evil. It has, however, vindicated itself, but has been suppressed by violence, and it has not always shown itself in a manner beneficial to the Church on important occasions, as, for instance, as it arose from Calixtus. Then, too, exclusiveness has relaxed; Lutheran and Reformed Christians have attained to a juster appreciation of each other ; and under these influences there has been a depth of Christian life, traces of which may be seen in Spener and in noble pietism. Indeed, the suppression of the individual element by the rude power of an objective Church system, is not altogether without blame in the rise of Rationalism, in which the subjective arbitrary will has made itself felt in a perfectly abnormal manner. And in this contradictory position — who is not aware of it ? — we are standing ; what do I say ? — we are, alas, still standing ! Those who interest themselves in a free knowledge, a profound study of the inner spirit of the Gospel — to whom this stands first, before the exactitude of dogmatic consistency — will be inclined to acknowledge that, in spite of differences, an assembly of Christians can take place upon common grounds. Others, who hold the ecclesiastical system and ecclesiastical exclusiveness more strictly, will find in it an unsuitable laxity; it will be an error, not without having the appearance of some rationalistic influence. Honoured and beloved Assembly, brethren from foreign lands, you will not expect that I should complain of brethren at home, who are near and dear to us as members of our Church. Far be it from me ; at the same time, I beg these brethren to consider, whether the greatest consequences of the Reformation and their own later history have not fashioned themselves into the forms they have assumed, because the element of reconciling love in its powerful peculiarity has died away. I beg them to consider, whether they have not themselves conjured up a position of things, the galling fetters of which, we must sorrowfully acknowledge, many of us have painfully experienced, and still more in time past ; a state of things which the Evangelical Alliance is intended to remove. I ask, if crime slinks from nation to nation by a thousand paths, and frames its plots against Divine and human laws, whether we ought, as Christian brethren, to strive against the subjects of Christ who strive against these evils? Ought we not rather to give them our hand ? We will do so. I will not protract the subject fui'ther, but draw to a conclu- sion. It is scarcely necessary to formulate a parallel, for it is WITH FORMER ASSEMBLIES OF THE CHURCH. 43 evident of itself from the preceding remarks. I say, that the Reformation did not aim at arbitrary power, but it desired a development of the individual element in harmony with the objective and universal. The Reformation would not place the power of the Church simply in an external authority, reaching to the individual, but the decisive point is that this authority should be at the same time an internal and living power dwelling in every member. The Reformation united the individual right with the universal ; it did not restore arbitrary power ; it rather fixed a higher and spiritual law, which, attaching to Christ himself, has m.ade the bond firmer ; for although the external law may reach far, the internal is everywhere present. It is, however, Christ the Son of God who makes free and at the same time binds the most surely, and as free and yet bound in Him we give the hand to each other, and accord a place to the individual element of the Church and Churches ; and, therefore, we say, let Christian brethren, be they clergy or laity, appear as united together. We are certainly an Assembly which has not arisen in the direct and positive way of development from the ancient oecumenical councils. I cannot represent it as a continuation of them ; they have their continuation much more in the unity of the fixed ecclesiastical authorities of particular Churches ; and if these should once form a legal synod commissioned and autho- rised to legislate and decide, they would then be the continua- tion in a direct line of the ancient synods, so far, that is, as the Protestant Church might regard itself as Christendom, which, however, it cannot do to the same extent as was anciently done, for then the Catholic Church was included. But it is this authority of particular communities which now pronounces legal decisions ; and if I were speaking of synods, I should regard it as their representative. And it may, under the leading of God, serve to supply their place. May it manifest the free, subjective, individual element, as represented in Christ ! Those old assem- blies and Church authorities, when they pronoimced decisions of an analogous kind, always treated the foreign communities as hostile, or at least as strangers ; we, on the contrary, seek to cherish communion by allowing difierences. When we touch upon dogmatic points, we have not to give fresh decisions, like the ancient synods, nor is it at all our design to place in the background those doctrines which are universally acknowledged in the Evangelical Church ; but we have to make evident the 44 RECENT CONFERENCES OF CHRISTIANS COMPARED difference between the important and the less important, to grant to the latter freedom and individuality, and to meet it with a friendly and brotherly feeling. Those ancient synods sought to narrow the bounds of the Church ; we must seek, for the sake of brotherly love, to enlarge them, and to carry our Evangelical principles so far that we may have a common field of action on which, Avhile we manifest a praiseworthy tolerance of each other's peculiarities, we may find room for united prac- tical objects. We should thus have much in common with the tasks which the ancient synods set themselves — the advancement of life in particular Churches. But we aim at this by means also of mutual assistance ; and here a great resemblance presents itself, which all the more confirms the fact that our Assembly has not been called together by a mere arbitrary fancy, but has arisen from a true and noble necessity of our times. I say, it comes, by means of these already-mentioned objects, in con- nexion with those which are comprehended under the name of Inner Missions, and which have for the most part arisen from the individual movements of Christendom. Who would say, that in this Divine grace is not a truly Christian necessity ? And the brethren who aim at similar objects, but who desire to adopt other means, and regard individual Christian activity with suspicion, may well ask themselves whether they will be able with equal right to place something as effectual and sufiicient in its stead, and whether they are not snapping off the noblest and most delicate blossoms of Christianity. Are not these the objects which have already united brethren of different com- munities in the same neighbourhood ? I know a case in which American brethren helped in the building of a German house for deaconesses. This leads me to a still more general consideration, in fact to a clearly-defined Divine law, which, as the following analogy shows, operates in the relations subsisting between different nations. Who can look at the united effort of these different nations without admiration ? and on what does it rest except upon this, that the individual nation will make itself known and felt as possessing distinctive rights and privileges, while it acknowledges, at the same time, that others also possess theirs ? Would it not be a piece of barbarism if one nation should regard itself as alone privileged in its peculiarities ? I see in it a practical illustration of the philosophy of history. As the nations WITH FORMER ASSEMBLIES OF THE CHURCH. 45 are now striving together, in spite of all confusions, so, looking to Jesus as the guiding pole-star, and trusting that God will prepare their way, Christians unite their eflforts, in the face of all difficulties which beset them. An objection may, indeed, be urged that, as in the age of the ancient synods, when a great variety of nations proceeded from one Church, the peculiarities of which were absorbed in the slavery of the Roman Empire, that was a sign of approaching dissolution ; so our present Assembly may indicate a similar result. But the peculiarity of modern nations is strengthened by Christianity, and that they will preserve along with it ; so that it will not pass away after the manner of ancient times. And the Churches, the members of which have come together, differing amicably, are also conscious of their separate task ; they mutually occupy them- selves in those things which are here of importance, and keep within those limits with praiseworthy consideration ; and it is far from us to wish to surpass those limits in any manner which would be annoying to each other. We are certainly an Assembly without the authority of the ancient synods ; we are an Assembly which meets together privately : that is our weakness, but it is also our strength. The more freely that love operates in our midst, which respects each other's convictions, the more will prejudices disappear ; and should it please Grod to represent Christianity once again by a large and officially deputed assem- bly, our Conference will be acknowledged as one of its earliest though most unpretending germs. May God be with us by His grace ; may His peace be with us ; may He who has brought us in brotherly love together be with us when we separate, and fill US with that peace which is more precious than any the world can give ! 46 THE BONDS OF CHRISTIAN UNION, II. THE BONDS OF CHRISTIAN UNION, AS SUPPLIED BY THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE. BY THE REV. J. H. MERLE D'AUBIGNE, D.D , PRESIDENT OP THE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL, GENEVA. Holy Brethren in Christ and -well -beloved : This year com- pletes forty years since I received the Protestant baptism in Germany; since I became enrolled among her Protestant citizens. In the autumn of 1817, I (already an ordained preacher) visited Germany, in order to be present at the Jubilee of the Reform- ation. Early on the morning of the 31st of October I heard the voice of praise resounding from the Church Towers, and then I repaired to the worship of God in His house — and, whilst passing through Eisenach itself, I learnt that Germans were assembled at "VYartburg, in memory of Luther and of the Reformation. I also went there ; though at the time I knew nothing of the German language. Luther — his words, his work — wholly engrossed me. I visited his room ; I ascended the steps Luther's feet had trod : and in that prison of the holy man of God, I first conceived the wish to write something about his work. To-day, after forty years, I am again in Germany, and now am in the midst of a very different, and, I may well say, better assembly — this Conference of Christians. Here no youthful fantasies grate on the ear ; here we speak alone of pure Christianity ; God be praised, it is now become very different. The former political vent of feeling has been succeeded by a religious ; a more Christian period has followed that Rationalistic one. Minds are now directed to the study of the Gospel, and Christian brotherly love has made great progress in Germany. Truly, the state of things is become better. The state of my health has not allowed me to undertake the treatment of the subject which unexpectedly was intimated to me two months ago, when I was going to the water-cure. I instantly informed the Committee of this. Hence it was en- trusted to abler hands to deal more closely with it, Dr. AS SUPPLIED BY THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE. 47 Jacobi, of Halle. My foreign language and foreign accent, moreover, preclude my giving a real essay on it. And yet, perhaps, it is owing to my foreign tongue that you have desired me to speak before you, who, among your own learned Christian men, ought to keep silence. Yes, dear friends, it is no slight thing for a foreigner, for a native of the Alps, to appear before this learned theological Grermany. We are well acquainted with the theological, ecclesiastical, and philosophical systems formerly and still existing among you. Your " Contributions to the History of Eecent Theology "* have already reached us. But we have no disposition either for an abstract dogmatism, or even for an intellectual Sansculottismiis (Radicalism), as the Germans express it. In the midst of the confusion of schools, in the contradiction and strife of deep words and great wisdom, we do not believe that we know anything of ourselves without Jesus Christ, and Him the Crucified One. At the same time, as coming from Calvin's town, I have a word to speak to you — a very weak word — the word of a sick man, prepared at the eleventh hour. You know better than I do, that in earlier times (as the Programme observes) many assemblies, Churches, and autho- rities, have sought to exhibit Christian unity. The Greek Church, on the one hand, the Roman, on the other, have done so, and even among Protestant bodies it has not been wanting. I will not enter into details. Dr. Jacobi has just done this. Many of the Protestant attempts I highly esteem, but the majority of God's children have always set them on one side. And what means have frequently been employed to efiect this unity ? Anathemas, forcing of con- science, exile, bloody persecutions (as under Louis XIY.), or political measures against schisms, or, at the best, dogmatical ecclesiastical rules and uniformity in ceremonies and customs. Yery different is the aim of the Evangelical Alliance, and this aim I will describe. There is an external Church, but there is also an internal one. This communion of saints, this true catholicity, this mystical body of Jesus Christ, is the true Church. Still, where is she ? How and where is this living body made visible ? What this allotted time has to show forth, what must characterise this Conference, is precisely the clearer * Beitiage zur Geshichte der Nuesten Theologie von Schwaz. 48 THE BONDS OF CHRISTIAN UNION, demonstration, the more visible manifestation, the real carrying out of true catholicity. In this Assembly the Evangelical Alliance is not the main thing ; it is but an instrimient, but a servant ; but the living Church of Christ, she is the Queen for evermore. But, it is objected, from her very nature she must always remain invisible. I willingly grant, there are many of God's children here below who remain hidden. But it has always been unintelligible to me, why a Church, which consists of the children of men, born again by the regeneration of the Holy Spirit, must be wholly and entirely invisible. You, dear friends, here present, are for the most part members of this Church, and yet you are all really visible ! I cannot see why this internal Church may not be made also, in some degree, external ? why, at least, the invisible, though only in an imperfect manner, may not appear visibly ? If I do not mistake, the object of the Evangelical Alliance is this manifestation of internal Christian union among all Churches and nations where the Gospel is preached. The object is grand, and well- pleasing to God ! Shall we ever have on fearth one visible, external Church alone ? I much doubt it. Perhaps some day may come — a universal Pentecost — when the Spirit will be poured out from on high in such abundance, that there will be, externally and inter- nally, but one fold and one Shepherd. I long for it, but the time is not yet. The great development of the Church on earth is not yet far enough advanced. If, now, we were to seek to unite into one and the same external Church all the varieties of worship and Church government, and even some articles of faith, many dissensions and breaches Avould arise. What, then, is to be done, in order to make manifest Chris- tian unity ? This question is answered by the Alliance. All the children of God, of every race and tongue, must arise and join together their hearts and hands, and, as Holy Scripture says, sing a new song. We should, as the rules of our Alliance lay down, have a mutual respect for the peculiarities of each Church — firm and sincere adherence to our own confessions and convictions ; but, on the other side, we should cherish all the immortal bonds which may unite us to the Lord's household. But what are these bonds of union ? Nothing, dear German friends, which can disturb you. Not questions of Church govern- ment, which with you, as well as with others, are so closely AS SUPPLIED BY THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE. 49 allied with politics. No, brethren, as the first bond of union, we present to you Christ — our Lord and yours. The Alliance, in its creed, acknowledges Him, the Saviour, in each article. It is Christ we present to you — a man conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin, free from all original sin, from every lust, sinless and holy — yet God from all eternity, the Almighty, everlasting God, through whom and by whom . all things were created ; who procured eternal life for those that believe in Him. We bring forward Christ to you as our Bond of Union, who, indeed, left us an example ; who, also, has given us a Witness of the Truth, but who, above all, by His all- atoning death, truly atoned for us, and has redeemed us from the curse of the law, inasmuch as He was made a curse for us. Is this Christ your salvation and our salvation? Are we not both justified before God only through faith in this Atoning One and His bloody sacrifice ? and, Oh ! then, are we not one ? Friends, we will not agree to unite out of the truth, in an indifferent Latitudinarianism, as often happens. Every honest conviction we will respect ; every upright man we will love — yes, even if he be not truly converted ; but with Anti- Trinitarian, Pelagian, nationalistic errors we will have nothing in common. " Without me ye can do nothing," said our Lord. No, nothing; and, above all, no Evangelical Alliance. As the second bond of union, we give you God's Word, as the AlKance says. We cannot find, nor have the Lord Christ, except in and through the Word of God. We know that in the Scriptures, as in the whole system of Christianity, and in every doctrine, there are two elements or factors, the Divine and the human. We believe the Scriptures to be wholly of man and wholly of God. We recognise the human element in the sacred writings ; we do not say, like the Montanists or Justin — Loquiter in exTao-e*. No ; in the inspired prophet the man himself still lives and acts. We will not occupy ourselves with vowels and consonants, and be, as Augustin says, " Miseri aucupes vocum." We do not say, with the scholastics of the seventeenth century, "Deus dictat in calamum et puncta ipsa ©eoTrveuo-Ta." We maintain the humanity of the sacred writings. But we assert, in opposition to the Socinians, to the Mystics, to the Jesuits, to the Rationalists, at the same time, the existence of the Divine factor, or element, the inspiration of the Bible by the Holy Spirit ; and, as in the person of Christ, the union of the Divine E 60 THE BONDS OF CHRISTIAN UNITY, and human natures, had this effect, that it made pure our fallen nature, and Jesus became a Man without sin (Anamar- tetos) ; in the same manner, we say, ; did the union of th e Divine with the human element in the Scripture purify the latter from all its errors, so that the Word of Grod is without error or blemish, Infallible. We do not believe that it is per- mitted to our natural man to remove from the Holy Scriptures what is displeasing to Him. We say, " Our conscience is bound down by the Word of God " (as Luther aforetime said to the Emperor Charles) ; "we can suffer all things, but we dare not overstep the Word of God. The Word of God must reign above all things, and remain the judge of all men." For (as the great theologian Calvin says) "it is as if the living voice of God caused itself to be heard still in the Word : " Vivce ipscB Dei voces. As the third bond of union, we present to you the Holy Ghost and the New Life (this is the sixth point in the creed of the Alliance). Have you received the Holy Ghost? Yes, truly, you have. Now we also know that there is a Holy Ghost. Is there not a witness in youf souls ? Who has opened your hearts to comprehend the length and breadth, the depth and height of the love of Christ, which passes all knowledge, and given you the earnest of your adoption into the ranks of God's children ? . . . Well, my friends, this Witness, we also know it. . . . Are we not, then, one ? The Spirit of Love has kindled a fire in your breasts. To the Son you say, together with one of your own countrymen, " I have but one Love ; it is even Thou and Thou alone." Now, my friends, this fire burns also in us — pei'- haps more faintly than in you, but still kindled by the same Spirit. In your invitation you say : Too few opportunities have we found for intercourse with Jesus. To that we respond ; and, moreover, each one of us will gladly join with one of our best British friends, Noel, in saying, " The one cord, which draws us all into one, is Love to the same Friend. Jesus is the best friend of every one among us. His love, which lives in our hearts, creates in us a community of thoughts, hopes, and feel- ings, which unites us, formerly strangers to each other, in an eternal bond of unity." As the last bond of union that we bring forward. . . . What shall I say? ... "I speak as a fool," as the Apostle says. Still, No ! ... As the last bond of union we bring forward the AS SUPPLIED BY THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE. 51 Lord's Supper. The Evangelical Alliance testifies in its creed to the importance, to the Divine ordinance and perpetuity of this holy sacrament. I know that (as you expressed it in your invitation), " that that feast of love has become an apple of dis- cord." But, however man may have perverted it, God the Lord ordained it as a feast of unity ; and at this table we are one. I do not hold that the life of the children of God can be nourished with bread or quickened by wine. The outward signs are not enough for me ; I must have, therewith, the promised grace. AYe are no longer in the dispensation of types, but of realities. Yes, my Saviour ! thou hast said it — " My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed." Thou hast never deceived me. At the breaking of bread, when I have thus viewed thee, 0 Jesus ! as if thou wert crucified among us, then truly have I not only partaken of bread and wine, but through faith eaten thy flesh and drunk thy blood ; for Jesus says, " This is my body," he does not merely say, " this signifies." But the word signifies is for me too dry, too bare, too dead. I believe that I have a mysterious, secret, incomprehensible par- ticipation in His body. Ui vita nostra in Christo sita sit, necesse est animus nostras ipsin,s came et sanguine vesci, vehit cihariis pro- priis et peculiarihus, says Calvin. Here, indeed, diversities, nuances, may exist among Christians ; but I hold by the testimony of Luther, in his noble letter of 1st December, 1537, to the Reformed places of Switzerland : " It is indeed true, such great dissensions cannot be so easily and so soon healed without leaving some furrows and scars. But this much is ever possible with me, that nothing shall be wanting on my part, God knows, whom I call to witness on my soul. We concede that it was ordained by Divine omnipotence that we should partake of His body and blood at His supper. And if we do not entirely understand each other in this matter, it will be best to become friendly towards each other, till the dark and troubled waters have settled down." This is the most beautiful letter of Luther, and this mandate of the man of God, Germany of the present day will, after three hundred years, again send forth to us. Now, honoured and beloved German friends, since in the Evangelical Alliance so many strong bonds of union are to be found, we say, " Let all saints greet each other therein with the kiss of love." This invitation is not addressed to those only who are present in this church, but let it go forth into the whole E 2 52 THE BONDS OF CHRISTIAN UNITY, of Germany, to all those who bear in their hearts the great secret of heavenly joy ; to all those Christians, far or near, whether they are for or against this gathering or not, who have either embraced the Evangelical Alliance, or attacked it freely and courageously. If the latter do not love our Alliance, they love our Lord and Master. I honour them ; I love them. I will have them join us. I will not allow them to escape. Let strict, old Lutherans excommunicate me, still will I shake them by the hand ; my heart clings to them ; and if sometimes, at the sight of their zeal, I am inclined to say, " Saneta siinplicitas /" still I esteem their fidelity. Ah ! if Melanchthon even said, that were it possible he could shed as many tears as there is water in the Elbe, and yet he should not sufficiently weep for the strife among Christians, then indeed must the Saviour, He who wept over the city of Jerusalem, weep tears of blood, if I dare say so, when He beholds His distracted Christendom. If a man feels thus, what must His feelings be, who is Love ? I know not what the future has in store ; but of the present time this testimony will remain : We will be brethren with all Christ's brethren, and to all such we stretch out our hand. There is need thereof. Our age shows mighty signs of changes which are approaching. Among men, and specially in Christen- dom, a revolution has taken place. " Upon earth distress of nations, with perplexity ; the sea and the waves roaring," says our Lord. Now it is a glorious sign of the times, that hundreds are here gathered together, not only from all European, but also from all other lands, with one voice to bear witness to their union in the living truths of salvation. A distinguished Chris- tian, Lord Shaftesbury, lately said in London, our present meetings showed a new epoch in the world's history, and the commencement of a new order of action. Yes ; in this Con- ference I see a new, true, extended, holier, more living catho- licity ; and this new catholicity will be the last sentence in the history of mankind and Christians, the accomplishment of all promises, and all predictions. It is truly a difficult work, and we are feeble instruments. But we not only believe in Christ as the crucified and risen One, we also believe in His omnipresence, His perpetual Trapova-ia, in His real and living presence. We are here in Him, and He in us. He is in the midst of us ; and even as He has given the command of unitj'^, so will He also give the fulfilment. AS SUPPLIED BY THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE. 53 It is said, indeed, dear friends, the Evangelical Alliance has few adherents, few members, even few friends in Germany Now this important Assembly testifies to the contrary. The idea of the Alliance is exalted, holy, divine, and Germany has per- ceptions for great ideas. In the Church, as in Christ, as in the Scriptures, there is a human and a divine element. The visible Church is the human, the invisible the divine, and we beseech you, let the divine come more under the regard of the Church. The body of Christ shall rise, for it is not dead ; in Him alone is life on earth. Germany will not reject our petition. It will not be false to the godly Christian mind of its Reformers ; but this would happen, if she refused to stretch forth her hand to all who are Christ's. Germany began the Great Reformation. She has an oecumenical, perpetual vocation. She should make use of this privilege ; she ought not to forego her birthright, but ever be mindful of the motto — Noblesse oblige. A perfect organisation consists in all its members being in harmony, and active each in his own sphere. The Lord has many members in His body ; and only to adduce two, the Anglo-Saxon and German races ; both have their great work to accomplish in the world. I wonder at the learning of the one — at the activity of the other. Let us not divide them. In Christ's kingdom there should be no wall of partition. Isolation is profitable neither for nations nor for individuals. We will not impose upon others our own tendencies — our Church prin- ciples. We desire no fusion — fusion, confusion ! Yet still the English may receive much from the Germans, and the Germans from the English. I thank my friends the English, that I was enabled by the railroad so quickly to reach my German friends in Berlin. But all nations have something higher to receive from each other. " The eye cannot say, I need not the ear ; the hand must not say, I need not the foot." Let us in God's kingdom make use of all energies. Christ has prepared for us in heaven an eternal joy ; we on earth must prepare for Him such a joy as will please Him. " I pray that they may be one in me." From every land, from all the ends of the world, let us with one heart exclaim. Glory to God in the highest ! Peace — Peace — Peace on Earth ! and goodwill towards men ! 54 FACTS CONNECTED WITH THE III. FACTS CONNECTED WITH THE EARLIEST ECCLE- SIASTICAL COUNCILS, SHOWING AN ANALOGY BETWEEN THEM AND THE PRESENT CON- FERENCES. BY TBE REV. Dr. PIPER, PHOFESSOK OF THEOLOGY IN THE DNIVERSITI OF BERLIN. Honoured Brethren, — I take tlie liberty of drawing j^our at- tention to the primitive times of the Church, and to the first great ecclesiastical assemblies. If to our Evangelical Church there can be no higher object presented than to walk in the footsteps of the Apostolic Church, and of the Church of primi- tive times, the present Assembly might regard the first eccle- siastical coujicils as its pattern. Certainly the question with us is not of external authority and investiture with authority ; but if this Assembly should enjoy in itself the witness of the Spirit, if founded upon the universal priesthood of believers, it should accomplish anything becoming a synod, it need not trouble itself about authority. I turn to the question of the day, in which it is required that a comparison should be drawn between the recent conferences of Evangelical Christians from different lands and Churches, and the assemblies of the Church in earlier times. After the two addresses to which we have listened, facts may be communicated which have reference to the subject. I shall, therefore, mention some which have come under my notice during the journeys I have made this summer in England and France. And I would first mention a Greek MS. in the Imperial Library at Paris (Cod. gr. 510), which con- tains the discourses of Gregory of Nazianzen, who, by his defence of the Divinity of Christ, obtained the name of " The Theologian." It is of the ninth century, ornamented with miniature paintings, the originals of which are probably for the most part, not-much later than Gregory himself (therefore about the end of the fourth century). One of them leads us directly into the midst of the most ancient councils. This EARLIEST ECCLESIASTICAL COUNCILS. 55 painting gives us a representation of ttie second General Council of Constantinople in the year 381. The men are sitting in a semicircle — bishops, and amongst them the Emperor. In the middle of the semicircle a throne is raised, upon which, however, no one is sitting, but upon it lies an open book, the Bible ; so that the proceedings in this assembly were carried on under the presidency of the Word of God. A gem which is to be seen fn the Royal museum here gives a further explanation of this. A throne is represented which has been incorrectly ex- plained to be a bishop's chair ; upon it lies a crown of thorns, inscribed with the Greek initials of the name of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, IXT0. It reminds one of the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the Book of Revelation. But if this representation of the Second General Council shows that it was assembled in the name of the Lord, and desired to arrive at all its conclusions by the study of the will of God as revealed in His Word, we have in that fact a close analogy with the present Conference, as appears not only in this general Protestant idea, but especiall}'^ in the opening speech this morning, when the prayer was offered that the Lord himself would preside over and guide it. But, further, as no one was seated upon the throne, least of all coidd the Bishop of Rome, or his deputy, be placed there, for no such person was present at the council. At the same time, the Roman Catholics acknowledge this as a general council, which is a very weighty fact, that cannot be wholly disposed of by those who defend the pretensions of later times, by reference to those early days of the Church of Christ. The assertion, therefore, that from the beginning there has been no general council without the presidency of the Bishop of Rome, or his legate, comes to nothing. But this circumstance may afford a clue to what should constitute the real object of this Assembly, which, resulting from the peace existing in the Evangelical Church, should not seek controversy with Rome, but rather to defend itself from the assaults and pretensions which are made by Rome. I remember still the figures in the picture. There are two men, Macedonius and Apollinaris (the portrait of the latter is now lost), whose doctrine was condemned by this council, and so the doctrinal development of the fourth century closed. It is well known that Macedonius denied the consubstantiality of the 56 FACTS CONNECTED WITH THE Holy Ghost with the Father and the Son ; ApoUinaris called in question the proper humanity of the Redeemer, substituting His Divine nature in the place of a reasonable soul. By the rejection of these two errors, a foundation was laid for theology for all future time. And the Paris Branch of the Evangelical Alliance has given especial prominency to this foundation. Besides the substance of the doctrinal developments of that age, the course of procedure by which it was arrived at itself claims our whole attention — that course, especially, which resulted in the accepted doctrine concerning the Deity, the great question which occu- pied the fourth century, just as the conflicts of the following centuries were about the person of Christ. Long and maturely was it weighed, and after repeated consideration it was decided. If this procedure may not in every respect be followed by us, it may at least furnish us with an example for our guidance. For with these repeated Conferences — which are a happy sign of newly-awakened life in the Evangelical Churches — there may be danger in attempting to make the greatest possible use of the few days we can be together, of undertaking too many important questions, which it would be impossible to work out in such an assembly. Ancient times give us, on the contrary, the example of working for centuries on great individual questions. The second century, for example, especially discussed the doctrine of the monarchism of God ; the third, the doctrine of the dis- tinction of the persons in God, and the divinity of Christ ; and the fourth, the doctrine of consubstantiality in God, which last meets us in this painting. "We see finally how long it took them, as now, before the different provincial and country Churches could be brought to unite in a general council ; and to this a remarkable parallel is found at the present day, when Evangelical Christians of different countries and Churches are at length met for the brotherly interchange of sentiments. Three centuries have passed away since the Reformation, which left the Churches that rest upon the same apostolic foundation, separated from each other, and many new Reformed ecclesiastical rites have been added since then. No doubt they have all had their peculiar avocations, and will continue to have ; but their divisions have at last brought about the mighty effort by which these divided brethren have stretched out their hands to each other. This I witnessed principally in J^ngland, where the venerable Dr. Steinkopf, Minister of the German Lutheran Church in the EARLIEST ECCLESIASTICAL COUNCILS. 57 Savoy, London, speaking with deep emotion of God's ways, and of this union of soul in the Evangelical Churches of England, assured me that twenty years ago it would have been impossible. A still greater improvement is there expected, and we may participate in this expectation, looking at the probability of a closer union of the British Churches with those of the Continent, and especially with those of Germany. If, while in a state of separation, these Churches had the task of perfectly developing their distinctions, and of subjecting the national peculiarity to the service of the kingdom of God, it will be a higher step if the nations which stand upon an Evangelical foundation should now conclude an ecclesiastical alliance, and exchange with each other their gifts of grace. The time also in which this is taking place reminds us of the three centuries which elapsed from the com- mencement of the Church before constitutionally a general council — a council, that is, of universal Christendom — could be held. The Churches of Asia Minor, of Italy, of Egypt, and Roman North Africa, and generally speaking of the Medi- terranean countries, had had to fulfil their especial work, and by turns to take a prominent position, till at last under Constantino, in the year 325, a general council was called. But the council which, as a general council, is most nearly allied to our countries and our design, and possesses greater importance for us than the first Nicene Council, is that held at Aries in the year 314. Then there came together for the first time bishops from all parts of the West, and many bishops were there of whose sees we had no positive information before. Besides, from many towns of France (as Aries, Lyons, Yienne, Marseilles, Bordeaux), they came from Italy, Spain, and North Africa, and there were repre- sentatives from Germany, Treves, and Cologne, and from England, York, London, together with colonia Londinensis. Of this council a modern writer of ecclesiastical history, Chr. Fr. Walch, says that they exercised great forbearance, and manifested much zeal to unite the brethren who were one in faith in the bond of charity, a thing more uncommon but not less praise- worthy. What higher aim could the Evangelical Alliance and our Conference have than this ! SUBJECTS DISCUSSED. INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. BY PRELATE VON KAPFF, OF STUTTGART. IV. ON THE UNITY AND DIVERSITY OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD. 1. BY THE REV. RECTOR AND PROFESSOR MOLL, D.D., OF THE UNIVEESITT OF HALLE, 2. BY THE REV. PASTOR KRUMMACHER, OF DUISBURO. 3. BY THE REV. PASTOR WUNSCHE, OF THE MORAVIAN CHURCH, BERLIN. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED. IV. UNITY AND DIVERSITY OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD. INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE MEETING, THE PRELATE VON KAPFF, OF STUTTGAET. Friday Morning, September 11, 1857. The President, Dr. von Kapff, after having offered prayer, read Deut. xxx. 11 — 14, and St. John's Gospel v. 1 — 16, and then delivered the following address : — And now only some few sentences, dear brethren, upon these glorious words of the Lord. We shall hear to-day addresses upon the " Unity and Diversity of the Children of Grod ; " yesterday "we heard from our dear brethren quickening words upon this oneness of believers ; we feel in our assemblies the breath of the Spirit, strengthening brotherly love, and exalting the power of unity. But what is the positive ground of this unity ? This is told us in these words of the Lord. It is the remaining in Him, as the true Yine, whereby we, as the consequence, are united together ; and if we do not cling to Him like clusters upon the vine, neither can unity exist among us, which is the moving idea of this Assembly — a personal, living communion with Christ, the Head, by the enlightening influences of His Holy Spirit. That is the great condition of the unity of believers, which rejoices us co-day, a personal, living communion with Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, the Head of the com- munity of which we desire to be members ; and this communion with Him is not in idea, not in theory, not in forms, but it so exists in the inmost heart that we are sensible of it by the power of the Holy Ghost filling our hearts with Divine love. For only when this Spirit of the Lord has worked within us — 62 UNITY AND DIVERSITY OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD. when the new life of the new birth has been awakened and strenffthened in us — then alone can we hold fast true union of spirit by the bond of Divine peace. Without me ye can do nothing ; without me ye cannot love one another, neither can ye be one — one with another ; but in Him is given us the love uniting us according to His command, that we should love one another, even as He has loved us. And how has He loved us ! What tongue can tell what we owe to Him who, through un- heard-of shame and torture, has given up His sacred Divine life for us lost and condemned sinners ! How has He loved us ! And as He has loved us, so should we love one another. The power to follow this great and sacred command, obedience to which we shall renew during these days, will become ours through the promise, " As my Father has loved me, so have I loved you." Wonderful words ! The Scriptures scarcely con- tain more loving words than these. Who can understand the depth of the love of God, who gave up His only-begotten Son for us ? And the Lord will feel this love for us. Is it possible that the Holy One, before whom the heavens themselves are unclean, before whom the cherubim and seraphim hide their faces, can love a sinful race that has sunk down to hell, and love this race, even as the Son is beloved of the Father ? Where is the soul that will not be inspired with a holy and blessed joy at this message? It is a light in which we ourselves become brighter and clearer while it shines upon us ; and everything in life will become bright, everything transfigured by this truth ; we appear to ourselves altogether changed in this promise ; we become, as it were, different persons. How poor soever we may feel ourselves to be, so that we almost give up in despair, if we but hear, " The Son of God will love me as the Father hath loved Him," the very heavens open before us, the angels of God look down upon us, the sun of eternal love shines upon us, till we long to cross the stream and be for ever with the Lord. This message concerns us during these days ; we shall also have our portion now of perfect joy, as the Lord has here promised. Yes, we shall also be enabled to believe that which we have twice heard : that which we ask of the Father shall be granted unto us. And if, too, the individual soul is not wide enough to take in the exceeding fulness of this faith, the community may pray more boldly, more courageously, with the full confidence that the prayers will be heard. We comfort ourselves with this UNITY AND DIVERSITY OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD. 63 in our united supplications. Dear brethren, bring everything that you have upon your hearts at times of public prayer for the entire Church ! We send these sacred couriers up to the throne of the Almighty, where the angels, the twenty-four elders, bring incense in their golden censers before the Lord, and we have sure confidence that our crying will be heard for the coming of the kingdom of God. We have here the promise only on the condition of remaining in Him. These words belong to those at which when I come to them, I close my mouth before the sacred mystery. We cannot explain it — it is the deepest and the highest ; I can only express the wish in all your names, that, as Christians, we may be such as remain in the Lord, and He in them. If we mutually pray earnestly for it, the prayer will be heard, and He will remain in us in all the power of His grace ; and though this may variously exhibit itself, yet this power will be one and the same. The powers, offices, and gifts, are different, but they will not strive one with another ; they will work together to that holy unity in which Christ Jesus is glorified in us and through us, will work in the whole world. He has chosen us ; we have not chosen Him. Upon this our hope rests, that this choice is of His grace, of His love, and not our own work and merit. It is He upon whom alone I build as upon a rock, full of hope which faileth not. 64 UNITY AND DIVERSITY OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD. IV. ON THE UNITY AND DIVERSITY OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD. 1. BY THE REV. RECTOR AND PROFESSOR WOLL, D.D., OF THE UNIVEESITY OF HALLE. Beloved in Christ Jesus, — We are now to take into con- sideration the " Unity and Diversity of the Children of God," and the honour of speaking first upon this subject devolves upon me. I accept it less as a privilege than as a duty, and I see myself cfimmissioned with the attempt to find a pathway on this broad province, which it might reward us still further to pursue. From the place where I am now standing, words were spoken, yesterday, which have mounted like fireballs, and have not only thrown a gleam of light over the greatness of our task, but have also cast sparks into our souls, which may well kindle and feed a sacred flame. Permit me now to seize the axe, and give a few strokes, so that, if it please God, air and light may enter into the forest of thoughts, which shoot up exuberantly, yet disorderly, when the words are uttered, " The Unity and Diversity of the Children of God." "We leave, therefore, the region of general considerations, and also do not enter upon tedious examinations into the nature of the unity and the right of the diversity of the children of God. They would touch on questions which in this Assembly are partly matters of course, and partly, indeed, are supposed, by its very existence. Rather permit me to go by a direct road to the point in which, in my view, the interest of the whole theme is comprised. The theme is this : That they are not in themselves different, but essentially the same relations, in which we have to recognise both the unity and the diversity of the children of God. Follow me, therefore, first of all, to the region, altogether within which only can we in any seriousness speak of the children of God. You will see that the equal rank of the children of God individually is compatible with a particular UNITY AND DIVERSITY OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD. 60 position in this rank. The province we speak of is that of revelation. And I take this word in the strictly theological and ecclesiastical sense. I understand by revelation, not the dis- coveries of reason — in which the latter plays hide and seek with itself — nor the weak but often bold and delusive attempts of men to raise, with their own hands, the veil from the mysteries of God and of His eternal life ; I understand by revelation the historical revelation of the living God, for the introduction, exhibition, and accomplishment of His kingdom in the world. For instance, the supposition which lies at the foundation of all hope of salvation for us is, that God has placed himself historically in a relation of grace to us, within which we can know and apprehend Him personally as our God. His descent from that light which no man can approach unto, His drawing nigh to those who dwell upon the earth. His abode with our race upon the earth, alone present the possibility of a fellowship in which we have not to do with thoughts upon the invisible Being, nor with speculations upon the idea of God, but with the true God himself. You see that by this our religious life is on all essential points fixed as ethical and prac- tical, and, in fact, so that it necessarily proves and gradually develops itself in historical conditions. The fall did not first call this peculiarity into existence ; for, also, the life in Paradise, while men were yet innocent, was upon earthly soil, although with a Divine basis. But the fall, by its awful severity, has changed the peculiar form in which the relation of men with God appears. For the holy love of God exerts a continually antagonistic force to sin. From this arises the awakening of religious sentiments, the governing of the moral direction of life, the formation of religious ideas into positive conceptions and doctrines ; and not by a mere spiritual influence from God upon the soul ; nor as a simple consequence of an impulse coming from God through human activity, and by independent cultivation ; nor as the natural development of a seed deposited in the human breast ; nor even is the practical progress of sin in the world overcome by precepts and dogmas, nor by systems and theories. The Divine influence upon the soul and life of man has much rather been, from the very commence- ment, inseparably connected with definite revelations which present themselves to many as facts, and is difiused through the world by positive historical institutions, by arrangements ^6 UNITY AND DIVERSITY OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD. and measures which have the character of Divine appointments and ordinances. It is a covenant relation which God has estab- lished with His children. But this covenant is not, therefore, a free association of parties possessing equal rights — not a treaty which we have effected of our own accord — with God. It is an institution of grace, and plan of salvation by which God seizes, surrounds, and holds us to effect our redemption. It is His covenant which He has made with man ; a covenant, the arrangements of which form the separate threads of that net of love with which Divine mercy hastens to draw men from the world. He who permits himself to be caught in it, ex- periences in himself the grace and truth of the faithful God of revelation, and will ever continue to be drawn into closer union with Him. Must not the position of man be, by this means, indi- vidualised, who bears the name and the rank of a child of God ? He has been able to obtain both, only at the same time with and within the limits of an historical covenant relation, founded upon an actual revelation of salvation. I need not, before this enlightened Assembly, show how all historical life is the indi- vidualisation of the universal, and at the same time the exalting the individual to the community and continuity of existence' and how, by this means, the sinking down of unity into imi- formity and formalism is prevented by an internal and effectual law, in the same way as the division of unity into useless differ- ences, which afterwards, indeed, clash with each other within the limits of actual life till they arrive either at mutual concord or unyielding opposition. It is sufficient here to place in the fore- ground that the history of the kingdom of God also develops itself according to the same law of life, and that we have not to devise this law — not even to discover it — but only to acknow- ledge it as revealed. Christian catholicity is not an abstraction, but a reality ; it is not an external combination of heterogeneous appearances. Just so its exclusiveness is something quite different from the peculiarities of obstinacy and the narrowness of sectarian arrogance. Christianity is specifically distinguished from all other religions as a manifestation of the household of God, the children of which, as essential members, have an individual and definite position, office, and character, but they are participators of this diversity only in the degree, and by virtue even of their essential and genuine unity, which individualisation has an historic life in these diversities ; and UNITY AND DIVERSITY OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD. 67 this life is an endeavour after the realisation of a Divine thought. No hesitation, I imagine, will be felt in admitting that the name of child of God is not only known in the Old Testa- ment, but that it was used in more than one acceptation. We perceive in this a confirmation of our subject. The house of Grod has a twofold economy, which we call, in brief, that of the law and of the Gospel. Neither excludes the other, as is the case with Christianity and Judaism. They supplement each other, however, neither externally nor formally. They are reciprocally conditional ; they appeal to each other continually ; they bear their apparent contrast in their own life everywhere. The law of God carries in itself not merely the sanction of its fulfilment, but also presents itself within its own province as the promise of the coming accomplishment of the Divine will. And on the other hand, the Gospel, as the expression of the perfect bene- volence of God in its historical fulfilment, is in itself the normal representation of the royal law of love, and the expression of an unconditional authority, which obliges to the obedience of faith. The obligation to the obedience of faith is peculiar to both Testaments ; and in both it has the same essential character and relation. Inwardly it consists in an undoubting confidence in the power of salvation and in the certainty of the Divine state- ments. Outwardly it represents itself as unwavering obedience to the Divine ordinances ; and the latter have to do with the redemption of the world and the working out of man's salvation by the never-wearying fidelity of God, who so governs all created things by His power, that even in the midst of a resisting world His purposes of grace are accomplished. The holy nature of God obliges us to regard the government of the Almighty as perfect, so that the accomplishment of the eternal plan of salvation is carried out agreeably to the Divine intention in wise adaptation to the times and to the necessities of successive generations. But as little as the nature of God changes, so little does the order of salvation historically ex- hibited by Him; and the becoming a child of God is never efiected by anj^thing else than the prescribed means of grace within the limits of that order. This leads us to the second point, from which light falls upon our subject, namely, to the efiectiveness of that grace by which alone a sinful man can become a child of God, and which reaches F 2 68 UNITY AND DIVERSITY OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD. and takes hold of each individual. The children of God are not a race of natural growth. They are born like the dew of the morning. Their origin is a miracle wrought by the grace of the Almighty. Do we compare them to the branches of the vine ? Then we must say not one of them has rooted itself out of the world and planted itself in God's vineyard. Do we call them members ? Then we know that they are by an act of grace in- corporated into that body whose Head is our exalted Redeemer. Do we regard them as citizens of the kingdom ? Then we confess that God has rescued them from the powers of darkness, and has translated them into the kingdom of His dear Son, " in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." Do we inquire after their right ? Then we must confess that they had none ; but are received from grace to grace. Where, then, is their right to the position of children ? It is the right of adoption. But we cannot stop here. Grace does not merely form the lasting foundation of our position as children, and thereby of our essential union with all God's children ; it is also the con- stantly efficient cause of our individual Christian peculiarity, and thereby of our diversity. For grace is certainly an essen- tial, yet according to its own definition, an effectual exhibition of the eternal love of the holy God towards a sinful world. Therefore grace works according to the order and in the manner of a moral living power. It rises infinitely above nature, and everything that is created ; as in its foundation and in its aims, so in its powers and in its effects. But this does not take place at hap-hazard, nor in a manner which sets at nought its own law, which wounds nature, which tramples down the creature ; but temporal and earthly existence is penetrated, restored, and purified by the blessings, gifts, and powers of the eternal and heavenly world. True to its own law, to the law of the liberty of a perfectly wise and ever-blessed God, grace works the works of God with the zeal of eternal love, but circumspectly and gradually, with the emphasis of Divine earnestness, yet without constraint ; always in an equal measure of Divine compassion, ready to aid every one who desires salvation ; constantly near to all misery, but distant as possible from monotonous conformity, and effecting anything but colourless uniformit}^ On the con- trary, its internal riches are displayed by the fulness of its exhibitions, and this again portrays and reflects itself in the UNITY AND DIVERSITY OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD. 69 manifoldness of its productions. Wlio would venture to pre- scribe to God, who His own self determines in himself by a holy and eternal liberty when He must begin, where He must commence, how He must carry on the work of creating children of God ? Endless the riches, inexhaustible the fulness, unnum- bered the forms, and yet in all is to be recognised the signature of the children of God: " Through the grace of God I am what I am." This same grace, which decreed salvation in eternity, has accomplished it in time, and brought it down to us. The God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, who created the heavens and the earth, saved Noah with all his house from the Deluge, gave the Law by Moses, spake by the prophets — the same God who speaks of Israel as His first-born son, and of Ephraim as His beloved child, is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the first-born of every creature, the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, and to them that believe on His name has given power to become the children of God. As He hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation, so also after that in Christ He has reconciled the world unto himself, has He given to us the word of reconciliation, and provided that in His own time it should be preached. But to each one among us grace is given, according to the measure of the gift of Christ, who has given himself for the redemption of all. M ost intimately related to this is the third point, which ex- plains our subject, namely, the restoration of the Divine like- ness after which man was made in the children of God. Here we recognise manifold individual forms of the same Divine image. We may, according to the Scripture, characterise it as the peculiar destiny of man to be a personal organ for the accomplishment of the Divine will upon earth, and the terrestrial head of the creation for its lasting union with God. Therefore personal life is the essential sphere of human life in general, but the unchanging model for each individual is given by the form in which God himself manifests that personal life in an eternal and perfect manner. Man's personal life has a character neither entirely original, nor absolutely free, nor purely spiritual, but rests on a natural foimdation, inseparable from his individual being, and predetermined by his consciousness and will. He is therefore not the image of God absolutelv ; but he is created in 70 UNITY AND DIVERSITY OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD. the image and after the likeness of God. In his concrete life there is a twofold element ; one in which he forms in his indi- vidual and personal being a distinct unity, composed of body and spirit ; then, conformably with his position as a creature, he fulfils his special mission within the boundaries of limited cir- cumstances, and lives his individual life in personal communion with God. "We know only too well, that this communion is not a self- preserving possession. We know how and by what means the loss and destruction of this sacred possession was brought about ; but we also know how and by what means restoration and salvation were gained for us, and triumphantly Ave praise the grace which has made it possible for us to lead a life in God, according to the pattern and likeness of Jesus Christ. Tor Christ is the brightness of the glory of God, and the express image of His person. Through Him is not only the perfect knowledge and the true notion of God communicated, but also the transformation of sinners into the true likeness of God is effected, and the imprinting of the Divine image on the children of God. Our transference into the rank of the children of God is, of course, to be thought of under the form of adoption, and is efiected by a pure act of grace in the justification of the sinner. It indicates, therefore, first of all, a change, not in the man, but in the position and relation of the man to God. But grace cannot work otherwise than according to the holy nature of God ; and the relation in question is religious. Its moral aspects must, therefore, on no account be lost sight of. They occupy a prominent place in the Holy Scriptures in the require- ment of faith as the essential condition of salvation, and the ethical nature of true saving faith shows itself in the acknow- ledgment that it can be produced only in a contrite heart, through the Holy Spirit, in connexion with the ordinary means of grace. That transference into the position of God's children is accordingly no mechanical removal and change of place. The translation from the world into the kingdom of God, is at the same time a transfiguration and transformation, the changing of the essential form of life from the image of Adam to the image of Christ. But what is the image of Christ ? Not a self-made ideal, not an artistic composition, not an abstraction of the understanding, not an image of mythical fancy, but the living form of the true and only God-man. Just on this account His picture is not exhibited as a model for external imitation or UNITY AND DIVERSITY OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD. 71 as an outline to be filled up at pleasure. It is the efficacious archetype of the communion of God with man in a personal living representation, with the finished character of the true child of God. From this we best comprehend why the imitation of Christ is something different from the complete education of a noble soul to an harmonious existence. AVe see that the question is, how, in the midst of a wicked world, and without destroying the worldly existence of man, to rescue him from worldliness of life and to transform him into a personality well pleasing to God. But such personality has, on the one hand, as its presupposition, the new birth, which is the commencement of a new life in God and from God ; and, on the other hand, as its condition, the earnestness of a religious education, which has for its centre the culture of the will. From this proceeds reli- gious character, that is, impressions of the life of Christ in posi- tive individual forms of the likeness of God in man. And after these our souls ardently aspire. In order to understand this correctly, we must not forget a fourth consideration — namely, the individual transforming power by means of the one Holy Spirit. It is not with the life of God, as some poets fancy and many worldly-wise dream. God is not the ideal, eternally revolving in itself, which is forced to allow its creations continually to perish in the whirlpool of its revolutions, in order to be able to maintain its unity and eternity. God is not the One who must be at the same time the All; from whose hidden depths the glory of the Divine life may spring up into the light of exist- ence in ever richer streams and in evermore beautiful and glorious forms. Nor is He the solitary God, in the unapproach- able height of His own indivisible equality. Endless duration does not bubble up to Him from the caverns of that spirit- world which surround His throne ; rather is He the ever limpid- spring of all life, knowing himself and all His works from the begin- ning, all-sufficient, independent, blessed in himself, the God of the spirits of all flesh. He is the only Good, who eternally determines, sustains, and asserts himself by the positivity and by the increasing energy of the self-assertion of His holy will. Thus He lives from eternity His perfect individual life. But He does not live in the form of a simple self-consciousness, but in the self-distinction and combination of His holy being as the Triune God. Just on this account He does not create from a 72 UNITY AND DIVERSITY OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD. necessary creative impulse, nor from craving after objects to contemplate and love ; nor does He create and order things according to the scheme of a world of external ideas, but in creating and preserving, governing and saving, teaching and purifying, carries out His own thoughts of wisdom, according to the free determination of His holy benevolence. Therefore, He does not regard a happy development of worldly affairs merely without envy, nor an evil one merely with displeasure ; nor does He attack the order of things violently and capriciously ; nor does He, as the Eternal Spirit, form the mere collection and remembrance of all spirits which have left history behind them as their Grolgotha. He works according to the free purpose of His grace, by the holy power of love, upon the world which has become estranged from Him, yet which He has not abandoned, and carries out the thoughts which He has for the world in such a way that everything is treated according to its nature, and to every being justice is done. It may, therefore, indeed, be said that corporeality is the end of the Divine method. But this profound word can only be rightly understood when it is at the same time maintained that God's will and workings aim at the purifying of the world and the embodiment of all spiritual and moral existence ; for He takes each one who is susceptible of salvation into His holy and blessed communion, and communi- cates to him the peculiarity of His own manner of life. But the participation of this communion with God can only take place upon the basis of the contemplated redemption and reconcilia- tion of the world by God in Christ through the Holy Ghost, whose activity shows itself in all directions in individual culture, and in everywhere preserving the individuality of all along with their essential unity. By Him our union will also be raised to a genuine community of life with the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ; and the holy Scriptures speak with all seriousness of a communication of the Divine nature to the regenerate. But never does this relationship — which is often, and by the Lord himself, described as the unity effected by the Son — receive the character of a participation in the Divine essence. Man never becomes a god except in mythology. Not merely the difference between the Creator and the creature is preserved, but the moral-religious character of this distinctive transformation of man is always made apparent in the difference of the spiritual pre-suppositions and of the historical conditions of redemption completed in UNITY AND DIVERSITY OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD. 73 Christ. Thus, an iacorporation of the man into Christ takes place at the new birth, and this is intended so seriously that it extends to a growing up together with Christ to a like death and to a like life. But this incorporation is effected by a certain instrumentality ; on the one side, by the Christian Church in the application of the means of grace entrusted to her ; on the other side, by the faith of the persons concerned. The same Spirit gives now to each one his portion in the community, according as He will ; and we know well that, by the word which is planted in our souls, and which can make them eternally blessed. He enters as the imperishable seed of the new birth into the human heart. But we also know how we should apply the teaching of the Lord concerning the Word, and the sound thereof, to him who is born of the Spirit. We, no doubt, perceive in such an one the mighty movement from invisible powers in a direction strongly marked ; but we cannot denote the point whence they have arisen, and the limits of their effects escape our perception. There is also no prescribed rule by what door the Spirit shall enter the heart of man, and no law with respect to the province on which He ought to begin to work. We only know that He will not leave one province of life un- touched or unchanged. Whether the awakening of the soul may have been effected by rousing the mind, or by laying hold of the will — whether the first seizure may have been effected by means of the affections or of reason — His will and work aim at the sanctifying, perfecting, and purifying of the entire undivided man, at the restoration of the personality of a child of God, as an individual form of the image of God after the likeness of our Lord Jesus Christ in the communion of the Holy Ghost. From these remarks we see that with the same right St. Paul says, " Ye are all children of God by faith in Christ Jesus ;" with which he says, " I live, but yet not I ; but Christ liveth in me ;" and " the life which I live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." Nor does our Lord refer in vain to the many mansions that are in His Father's house. There are the dwellings prepared for the disciples, whither the Lord, according to His promise, will lead them, and take them to himself at His second coming, that where He is they may be also. Tliis will take place at the regeneration of the world, when the Son of Man will sit on the 74 UNITY AND DIVERSITY OF THE CHILUKEN OF GOD, throne of His glory, and the apostles who have followed Him will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Isi^ael. All this has reference to distinctions of personal life, which have their value in the view of God, and extend from eternity to time, and from time to eternity, but have their root in a common relation to God, the Author of salvation, in which lies, also, the root of their personal living in union with God, and therefore of their communion with the collective people of God. We cannot comprehend the riches of their relations, nor fathom the depth of their purpose, but we are able to cast a look full of anticipation at the extent of the kingdom of God, and also an admiring glance at the condition of its inhjrfbitants. AYe who dwell on earth can perceive a great difference between our- selves and the inhabitants of heaven, and yet by means of our adoption we can hold fast our union with them, and can well understand that which was written to the Hebrew Christians : " Ye are come unto Mount Zion and unto the city of the living God, the heavenl}^ Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and Church of the first-born, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than the blood of Abel." But we can, therefore, rightly comprehend, and scrip turally determine, not merely the relation between men and angels, between mem- bers of the Church militant and of the Church triumphant ; Ave can also most clearly discern the difference between the ordinances of the old and of the new covenant, and in all honesty adopt the words, " Ye are not come imto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire ;" and can, however, maintain with all earnestness our union with the believing and righteous of the old covenant, and rejoice that m the kingdom of heaven we shall sit with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For these patriarchs and men of God of the old covenant are of value to us, not as figures and masks, but as historical characters in that service of God which has a direct reference to the appearing of Christ. They are, therefore, not symbols of ideas to be applied allegorically, but types of his- torical significance, of high religious and moral worth. They bring typically before us the essential features of human life carried on in communion with God, as the apostles and believers UNITY AND DIVKRSITY OE' THE CHILDREN OF GOD. 75 do this ante-typically ; yet in both cases so that the common type of adoption into God's family, which has its absolutely perfect expression in Jesus Christ, individualises itself within the limits of historical relations and iipon the foundation of natural and spiritual gifts. It is needful only that we should truly realise that we are children of God, and that though we are inhabitants of the earth, we are yet citizens of heaven, who, living in the flesh, yet by the spirit do mortify the deeds of the flesh, in order to have a living experience in ourselves, that the love of God which is infused into us, and makes us partakers of the gift of the Holy Spirit and of eternal life, does not in the slightest degree hinder us from being husband or wife, parent or child, master or servant, nor even take away the local colouring and the national fashion, but only puts everything in harmony with the character of the new position of life which belongs to us as believers. We have, therefore, a reasonable cause to pray for the en- lightening influences, that we may justly appreciate the riches which the creating grace of our God has brought within the limits of the life of Christian nations and individuals. Else we might mete them with too small a measure, and, with our eye fixed upon the Divine right of diversity in the unity of the children of God, might lose our gratitude for the fulness of the blessings which flow to us from unfathomable depths, in the re- ciprocal influence of individuals, and in the interchange of gifts, which serve to complete and develop the individual form of Christian life. We cannot look at history without perceiving that East and West, that Roman and Germanic character, that Saxon and Suabian race, that Frank and Friesland art have aided as spiritual elements in the historical formations by which Christian life has been exhibited in the world. And we do not doubt that other phenomena — not indeed unanticipated — will arise, when India and China are evangelised, Islam has dis- appeared before Christianity, and when Israel as a people shall be converted to Jesus as the true Messiah. Yes ; this our Assembly gives us, in the elements composing it, an elevating and touching proof of the strength and extent of the desire even now to realise the unity of the children of God, by bringing together Christians whose countries, whose histories, and whose ecclesiastical organisations are so diflerent. But does there not lie just here a danger, if not, indeed, a 76 UNITY AND DIVERSITY OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD. presumption and a wrong ? If the view is thus directed towards the representation of the unity of the children of God, will not the eye lose its power to recognise the right of ecclesiastical peculiarity ? Or if we are willing to guard the right of diver- sity, and even to extend ecclesiastical diversities, does not unity then become an empty word, and the attempt at its representa- tion a folly, if not a fault — the work of dreaming enthusiasts, if not sin ? And will not the end of such an undertaking be vexation and strife, the dividing asunder of those who have been brought together in vain, the destruction of the existing Church communities, and the formation of other sects ? We do not deny the danger. But danger never alarms the courageous ; and we have the courage of faith. We can suffer fools to censure us, for we are inspired. But we are not enthusiasts, for we are sober, and watch unto prayer. We pray, therefore, that God may turn away from us vexation and division, and prevent the decline of Christianity. Nor will w^e be vexed, however much it may grieve us, that many whom we esteem as our brethren in Christ, keep away from our midst through conscientious con- siderations. But we . cannot have our own conscience made prisoner by another's opinions, nor can we alter it, however much we deplore that any should find cause for vexation in us. Let us only be diligent, beloved in the Lord, that we may have " a conscience void of offence both before God and before man," Then we can quietly put awaj^ from us the reproach of pre- sumption of wrong, and of sin. It does not affect us. But we dare not let it rest satisfied with itself. We must contradict it for all those who have ears to hear. Allow me, therefore, in conclusion, to make some remarks upon this point — how both the unity and diversity of the children of God may be recognised just in that in which one is too often inclined to seek exclusively either the one or the other, namely, in the ecclesiastical repre- sentation of the one true faith. The only efficient cause of salvation is, of course, the grace of God in Jesus Christ ; the only condition of salvation is faith. Let us keep firm hold of this simple but fixed principle, and everything is certain and clear. Through faith is secured to each one full appropriation of the offered salvation in personal living experience, and all the healing power which is conveyed by means of grace to the individual form of life in God, Two things, therefore, are important — objective truth and subjective UNITY AND DIVERSITY OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD. 77 vitality. In these two directions appear an historical separation as well of the definite doctrines of faith as of its vital influence. Who would deny that there never will arise, through the in- fluence of historical currents, distortions, confusions, nay, that even impure and sickly phenomena may present themselves, and by means of the imperfection which still cleaves even to believers, conditions may exist which not only dull the per- ception of the character of existing things, but also are capable of disturbing and bewildering the course of the life of faith as much in the individual as in the ecclesiastical com- munity ? Then the healthful tension of the members ceases, and with the fruitful interaction of living distinctions, the freshness and the joy — nay, the certainty and the power — of progress are lost. The difierent parts fall asunder ; those which are con- nected no longer recognise each other ; that which has become strange, that which is not understood, is treated as hostile ; difl'er- ences become contrarieties ; opposing persecutions excommuni- cate each other ; and those who adhere to them find themselves in the midst of a conflict. In the face of historical facts we may not doubt that there are justifiable oppositions, necessary exclusions, and unavoidable separations. This is connected with the self-preservation of positive faith, which is not alone self- reliance on religious conviction, but healthful reliance on revealed truth. But we dare not deny that there is such a placing of parties, and such a maintenance of certain positions, that those who hold to them not only come to an open rupture with those who think otherwise, but also to a rupture with the funda- mental principles of Evangelical faith, and so long as they endeavour at the same time to maintain these principles, how- ever theoretically, will be at strife and in contradiction with themselves. For there is no internal necessity for the above- mentioned appearances. Every true reformation is much more occupied "with the healing of such injuries, and the prevention of new malformations ; yet, let it be well understood, not by the forcing together of justifiable differences of life into one ex- clusively authorised form and formula, but by returning to the only ground of salvation, the grace of God in Christ Jesus through the Holy Ghost, and through the introduction of the powers of the kingdom of God into the life of men from the true sources of all real saving mediation. To make this Evangelical maxim — in which also is contained 78 UNITY AND DIVERSITY OF THE CHILDKEN OF GOD. the principle of oiir reformation — a power within the limits of the professed life of the children of God, T consider as one of the greatest tasks of our race — one of the most important subjects which our Assembly can discuss. I will not trespass upon the province of the Conference, which will hereafter occupy itself at length with the right of Evangedical Confession. I have only to lay before you, in a few sentences, the ground I have for the conviction, that while I am attached honestly and lovingly to the Church of my native country, and can, in all sincerity, subscribe to its confession, I yet feel that I am one in faith with the true and faithful members of other Churches, and can meet together with them, and can also present myself in such iinion before the holy presence of God. I lay the em- phasis upon this last point. For we do not now speak of the never-denied internal concord of all the pious with the simi- larity of the striving after the heavenly riches in the unanimity of a purely spiritual communion of salvation. We speak now of the Church, but not of her as she is the subject of the faith and communion of the saints, but as she possesses historical reality in her living members upon earth. She must, therefore, confess her belief in words ; nor has she ever otherwise existed in the world than in the form of the confession. The essential unity of the Church always expresses itself in the same confession, what- ever may be the territorial distinction and national peculiarity ; and it is possible to suppose a future where the unity of the faith of the Church may be represented by a common confession of all the members of the Church. For my part I openly confess that, according to my firmest conviction, the future belongs to the Church of the purest confession, since this Church has for itself the promise of the Lord. But unity is not uniformity, and community in confession does not necessarily demand the same formulary and the same form. AVhere, in the prescribed con- fessions of the different communities of the historical Church, is the perfectly pure expression of truth, and therefore the con- fession entitled to universal authority and sole recognition ? Is not the formulary dependent upon the degree of ecclesiastical doctrinal development ? Is not this conditional on theology ? And can this form itself separate from the course of development of the epoch, and without dependence on the other branches of science and the knowledge of the day? The Church may no doubt be certain of the material truth of her doctrine, and the UNITY AND DIVERSITY OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD. 79 Evangelical Church can have the conviction that her doctrine, drawn from the Holy Scriptures, really explains the Scriptures, and gives again the sense of revealed truth in essentials. But she must, as she has already done constantly in her official explanations, principally insist upon this, that the interpreta- tions of the Scriptures by her servants is to be considered not as infallible ; the ecclesiastical symbol not as standing on a level with the Holy Scriptures ; the confessional dogma not as ex- hausting the Scriptures, nor as absolutely determining its rela- tions. The confession may, therefore, be an ecclesiastical sign of recognition and rule of public doctrine, without thereby losing, in the slightest degree, the character of a testimony of faith ; and so, also, vice versa. Deep musing on the faith, and hence on the grounds of salvation, impels not merely to active testimonies of the power of faith and unity of faith, but to the living expressions of the soul absorbed in God also belongs the doctrinal testimony of faith ; and this has its worth in the distinctness of the expression and the sharpness of the proposition. We have, therefore, no reason to regard the dogma doubtfully, or theology scrupulously, or ecclesiastical authority distrustfully, or to become indifferent to the confes- sion. How should we commit this spiritual suicide, and separate ourselves perversely from the historical ground upon which we have received peculiar duties, and through the grace of Grod have become what we are ? It could never occur to us to characterise the fulness of the confessions as an exuberant formation, or to wish that the universal Church should be robbed* of the riches of her knowledge, in the variety of her doctrinal expressions, or to try whether it be possible to limit the ecclesiastical development of the doctrine once more to the first and simplest expression of faith in which the apostles con- fessed the Lord Jesus Christ. We will in nothing limit the just rights of history, of doctrine, of the Church, or of the confession. But we wish that the Church should not be mistaken for the school ; and cannot comprehend the communion of the Church under the one-sided point of view of a rnere doctrinal com- munion, far less permit a decision to be given on the position of believers in the kingdom of God, derived from theological dogmas. We cannot, and will not, confound theology with religion, the positive character of doctrine with the posi- tive character of faith, the dogmas of the Church with the 80 UNITY AND DIVKRSITY OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD. holy Word of God, the confession with the Gospel. "»Ve see that the style of doctrine of the Apostle James widely differs from that of Paul, and that Peter has a different manner from John. But we do not find that they teach a fourfold Christianity, but that one Gospel is preached in a fourfold form. These living- witnesses of the Lord Jesus which have spoken by the Holy Spirit after this manner, " I believe, therefore I speak," have become in this respect too our patterns, and have given us not only the kernel and root of the correct representa- tion of doctrine, but along with its true type, also the lasting rule and the right method for the development of the doctrine ; so that whatever in ecclesiastical productions cannot prove itself to be the true fruit of that seed of sound doctrine, and thereby maintain its life, must by degrees fall off and withdraw itself. Just on this account we have patience with the slow progress of Church development. We only look on, that we may lose neither our way nor our aim in the midst of the historical changes. We do not seek after ecclesiastical amalgamations, if we endeavour to awake in the members of Christianity, divided by confessions, the consciousness of the need of mutual assistance. It is not ecclesiastical disorganisation that we want in order to produce the possibility of bringing about a representation of the organic union of the members of the one body of Jesus Christ. We do not strive after ecclesiastical formations in the narrow, historical, legal sense, but fresh and living testimonies of Evangelical faith, in order that we may more and more show by the grace of God, how it is with the men of God, who are not only confident in their faith, but live a life of faith, ever bringing out more dis- tinctly by confession and by life, in their diversity and in their unity, their true character as children of God. If you are desirous thus to be stamped and marked as individual forms of the likeness of God in Jesus Christ, join with me in the prayer. May God grant it according to the riches of His mercy in Christ Jesus. Amen. II. BY THE REV. PASTOR KRUMMACHER, OF DDISBEBO. Most honoured Assembly ! Beloved Brethren in Christ Jesus ! With the sincere desire to steer clear of the Scylla and Charybdis, on the one side of a latitudinarianism incompatible with the UNITY AND DIVERSITY OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD. 81 holy words of God, and making concessions to error, and, on tlie other side, of a narrow-mindedness and sickly, self-satisfied, Lao- dicean disposition, disowning and violating charity, I come before you in the name of Jesus ; and in order that I may not be mis- judged by many here to whom I am unknoAvn, I feel myself obliged to begin my speech with the declaration, that with all my heart I belong to the Reformed Church, and have, through the mercy of God, found in her sj^'mbols the summary and expres- sion of the pure and eternal truth of the Divine Word. In all the diverging doctrines of Protestant denominations, I stand, boimd in the spirit of my mind and of my conscience, on the side of the Reformed theology and Church. As a member and as a theo- logian of that Church I intend to live and die. I am so rooted with my innermost being, with my faith, life, and tendency, in the Reformed Church and theology, in her peculiarities and modes of thinking, that I should — especially at a time like the present, when the Reformed Church, her doctrine, her constitu- tion, her simple worship, are so often despised and calumniated, even by so many who are themselves believing brethren — be guilty of the sin of denial if I were in any way to hide or weaken this confession, which by the way of oratio, medttatio, and tentatio, is the issue of a serious and diligent study of the Word of God. I know in whom I believe, and by the grace of God I am firmly rooted in this faith. Yet not the less warmly have I greeted the providential appearing and mission of the Evangelical Alliance, called into life by the Lord himself. I have recognised its pathological and therapeutical significance for the Church, and on this account, with a glad heart, I have acceded to the request to lay before you my thoughts upon the unity and diversity of the children of God. And I do this all the more joyfully, since, at the present ecclesiastical period, a party has appeared which has made the baneful attempt to restore the times of uncharitable disputes, calumniations, misjudgings, and divisions, on points of orthodoxy ; and, in the endeavour to secure for their doctrine,, which they arrogantly identify with the unerring revelation of God, the right to be regarded as infallible and entitled to sole authority ; in a word, as the exclusive doctrine, to call into being, perhaps unconsciously, a stagnation, a mutilation of ecclesias- tical life, a spiritual arrogance, and a pseudo- Church system — un-Protestant, ogling at Rome, and seducing to Rome. It is G 02 UNITY AND DIVERSITY OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD. necessary, therefore, botli with regard to those who are so fascinated and dazzled in the camp of Protestantism, who work against the unity of the Church, and with regard to our oppo- nents in the Papistical body, who proclaim with mocking triumph that the divisions of the Evangelical Church are an incontrovertible proof of its speedy destruction — it is necessary, I say, to testify before all the world with emphasis based upon the infallible Word of God, that we fellow-believers of the Evan- gelical faith are, notwithstanding all difference of our indi- viduality, all manifoldness in our methods and views, which had its foundation partly in the counsel of God, partly in human sinfulness and weakness, partly also in the imperfect knowledge of the present life, are yet united in all essential and fundamental articles of faith and life by the bond of a true, and therefore Divine and eternal, unity. And if now, by the grace of God and His blessing, this unity of the children of God, amidst all their diversity, shall become a matter of full conviction and living consciousness, then, through the exertions of the Evangelical Alliance, will there be, not only a fresh seal set to its authority, qualification, and import- ance, but also a new and freshening breath of life will be breathed into this union, thus promoting a bolder enunciation of its belief and a more courageous prosecution of its labours. And to this, may the Lord — without whom we can do nothing, but who gives strength for all things which with a true heart are undertaken in His name — grant the rich blessing of His grace. In making the diversity and imity of the children of God the subject of our consideration, we have first to ascertain who are the children of God, then to explain their unity, and lastly their diversity. I. To be a child of God — how simple and insignificant are the words ! and yet in this homely phrase the most sublime dignity lies shrouded, of which a child of man can be made a partaker. Let our spirit rise to the loftiest heights and descend to the pro- foundest depths of thought or imagination, a nobler dignity it cannot conceive. No relation can be imagined which could bear in such measure the stamp of intimacy and confidence to- wards God as the relation of a child, which, without the revela- tion of God, had never entered the heart of man. The most sublime appearances in the province of Church history, as well as in the life of the glorious witnesses for Christ, find their UNITY AND DIVERSITY OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD. 83 genesis and their ground of explanation in the relation of adop- tion. To be rescued from the slavery of sin and to be received to tlie heart and house of our Heavenly Father as a child of Grod, pardoned and accepted in Christ ; this gives to the heart, as nothing else can give, the courage needed for active duty, for ready conflict, for earnest self-denial, and for a cheerful death, and, therefore, we speak of the poicer of adoption. There is no one upon earth who has made himself a child of God. He who in truth may be called a child of God must, by the Spirit and grace of God, be born anew, or, as it is literally, be born from above. "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name ; which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." Only for the sake of Christ, and in Him, has the believing sinner the right of adoption ; and the seal and earnest of this right, received through grace, is the Spirit of the Son, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The consequence is, according to 1 Pet. i. 17, that our walls and conversation, during our sojourning here, must be passed in fear. Correct, thorough, and comprehen- sive knowledge of Divine truth ; external similai'ity with the living children of God in speech, conduct, practice, and morals ; ability to speak of spiritual experience, pleasure even in Divine things — all form by no means a certain criterion of adoption. There is something mysterious about this dignity, and only he who possesses it understands its nature, for the Holy Spirit, who "searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God," this breath of God, that bloweth where it listeth, the sound whereof we hear, but know not whence it cometh nor whither it goeth, *' beareth witness with our spirit that we are sons of God." To have the knowledge of adoption is not to be adopted ; the privilege exists only where a spiritual life is imparted. Then we are happily conscious that we are no longer under task- masters, no longer under tutors and governors and the elements of the world. We are ransomed, emancipated in very deed, no longer a servant, but a child and heir through Christ ; Jerusalem above, the free woman is our mother ; we are not children of Hagar the bondmaid, but Isaac's children, according to the promise. In pain, and amid tears of holy sorrow, the children of God are born. Mourning over their own heavy and inefiaceable sins, G 2 84 UNITY AISTD DI%'ERSITY OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD. chosen, called, and drawn by their Heavenly Father, and urged by the Holy Ghost, they turn themselves to the Lord Jesus, and only in Him do they find the joy of access to God as their Father. But in Him, for the sake of His bleeding sacrifice, for the sake of His mediatorial righteousness, they also obtain full authority to call the Eternal their Father, and to appropriate to them- selves all the privileges thence resulting. It does not, however, become the portion of all the children of God to possess the full consciousness of the blessing of adoption. Not to all is it given to see the fulness of the merits of Jesus Christ and the tender love of their Heavenly Father's heart, so that they can rest un- doubtingly in His fatherly arms and rejoice over their newly- attained dignity of adoption. There are timid, trembling ones among God's children, longing after the certainty of adoption, agonising hearts who would fain perceive the distinctly marked signature of the children of God in themselves, yet by their perception of the misery of their sins, of their want of faith, and of moral requirements wavering in their conviction of their adop- tion. Among all Christian confessions, even in the Roman and Greek Churches, are to be found such as these, whose know- ledge is limited, deficient, perhaps extremely erroneous, but whose heart " hungers and thirsts after righteousness." And are there not such in the heathen world and among the people of Israel ? Does not the Apostle Paul speak, in Rom. viii. 21, of a longing and travailing creation that shall be deli veiled from the bondage of corruption to the glorious liberty of the children of God? But who would reckon the souls aoronising; for the grace of God as belonging to darkness and the kingdom of the devil ? "Who can here mistake the marks of the grace of God, who does not regard our categories, but will have mercy upon whom He will have mercy ? And, therefore, the embryo of true longing after grace, however undeveloped it may be, if it be only sincere and earnest, must not be injured by a rough hand. It is not human schemings that give the stamp of adoption ; God's choice grace and calling are free, and mock at all human limits. But, least of all, is a doctrine, however systematic, thoroughly subtle and scholastic, justified in claiming for itself and its categories to be the only valid representation of the true physiognomy of the children of God. There is often more of the true adoption of God in one of these striving, longing souls, untaught by men in the dogma, than in the ablest doctor of the UNITY AND DIVEKSITY OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD. 85 dogmatic science. Oh, how graciously did our Saviour receive that centurion of Capernaum, that Canaanitish woman, the thief on the cross, and the woman of Samaria ; and yet how deficient must their dogmatic system have been ! It is, of course, under- stood that in speaking thus we in no way undervalue the worth, even the necessity, of scientific investigations and dogmatic- systematic labour, or would diminish tho importance and signi- ficance of deeply-impressed marks of adoption; but even in those Christians who have received the seal of adoption and can rejoice in this with all their hearts, it is not the doctrine, not the sharply-expressed definition of the truth in separate and non- fundamental dogmas, which makes them children of God, but rather the painful consciousness, brought about by the Holy Spirit, of the misery of sin ; and their only comfort in life and in death is that which they draw from the incontrovertible facts and fundamental truths of the Gospel. And these consist in the incarnation of Christ, His perfect obedience. His mediatorial sufferings and death, his resurrection from the dead, the justifi- cation of the poor sinner by faith in Christ and the pursuit which arises, and is inseparable from this, after holiness of heart and life. II. This leads us to the second point which we have to throw light upon, the unity of the children of God. How impressively the Holy Scriptures enforce the unity of the children of God, and how sharply they chastise the factions and divisions among them, may be seen clearly from 1 Cor. i. 10: "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions ((r;i^jo-/xaTa) among you ; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and the same judgment." But these divisions exhibited themselves among the Corinthians in this, that one said, " I am of Paul ;" another, " I am of Apollos ;" a third, " I am of Cephas ;" and a fourth, " I am of Christ." Speech is the expression of the mind (of the voOj), and contains the meaning (7vwju,r;) of every one. Therefore Paul exhorts, " Be perfectly joined together in the same mind ;" for if the mind is not one, unity in speech is only disguise — a mere appearance of unity. In 1 Cor. xii. 25, the Apostle refers to the unity of the different members of the body which are ordained b}' God, and infers from this the absurdity of divisions. With great emphasis he insists upon this, that the members of the one body, in all O'O UNITY AND DIVERSITY OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD. the diversity of their formation and functions, are intended for . mutual assistance, and that no member of the body can re- gard the other as superfluous or despicable. The eye cannot say to the hand, " I have no need of thee," nor the head to the feet, "I need ye not." All this he applies to the body of Christ, to the Christian community, in which a unity, ordained and willed by God, is to find place. In 1 Cor. xi. 18, 19, he says : " For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you ; and I partly believe it. For there must be also heresies {alpeasig, dissentiones, opiniones) among yo\x, that they which are approved may be made mani- fest among you." Here, therefore, the approved I'jxifxoi, the upright, are opposed to the schismatics, who are the authors of the heresies (al^ro-jij) which are expressly reckoned in Gal. v. 19, as among the evident works of the flesh. The flesh is ready to exalt itself beyond the boundaries set by God himself, and rends asunder the bond of love. And it is certainly of great importance in the present ecclesiastical period, that immediately after the serious warnings of the Apostle against these schis- matic and heretical excesses, he speaks of the Lord's Supper and its institution, in which the two-fold tovto Trotslrs sis W" eja*jv uvuixvYj(7iv is not wanting. This is, therefore, significant for the present time, because, unfortunately, since the Reformation — since that unhappy discussion at Marburg, and especially in our days, by the power and devices of Satan — the Lord's Supper, this repast of love, has furnished, and still furnishes, occasion to the most unloving accusations of heres}'-, to divisions, and to the most determined preparations for battle. Hence in 1 Cor. iii- 3, envy, strife, and divisions (S<;>^oo-Tacr/ai) are called "carnal, and walking after the manner of men." But this is not apostolical. Paul had heard at Rome that certain persons " preached Christ even of envy and strife, supposing to add aflliction to his bonds," as we may see in Phil. i. 15, 16. How easil}^ might a division have arisen had the Apostle exerted himself against these individuals in a carnal manner, for which he had every reason in the ejxs of men. It would have been an easy thing for him to gather together a party against them, but he rejoiced much more that only Travr) rpoxcp, " Christ was preached (sirs ■npo