Some Jewish Witnesses For Christ
Professor Schleiermacher, whose speculations in doctrinal theology
verged very closely upon heterodoxy, and who is pronounced by an
authority to have been "the greatest theological writer that Germany has
produced since Luther, and, indeed, he may be called the founder of
modern rationalism on its better side."[18] Intercourse with this
erratic and brilliant genius produced no perceptible taint of
rationalism in the mind or scholarship of the scarcely less brilliant
pupil, whose public teaching contrasted so powerfully with that of his
erstwhile master. "It was a sad and singular sight," wrote the
biographer of Neander, "to behold his former teacher, Schleiermacher, a
Christian by birth, inculcating in one lecture-room, with all the power
of his mighty genius, those doctrines which lead to the denial of the
Evangelical attributes of Jesus Christ, whilst in another his pupil
Neander, by birth a Jew, preached and taught salvation through faith in
Christ the Son of God alone."[19]
[18] Peter Lombard, in "Church Times" of Nov. 21, 1902.
[19] "Memoir of the Life and Writings of Dr. Neander," prefixed to the
English translation of his "General History of the Christian Religion
and Church."
When Neander left Halle he repaired to his birthplace, Göttingen, to
pursue his theological studies in the university of which Planck was at
that time the leading spirit. It was there that Neander acquired the
practice, so conspicuous in his writings, of taking nothing for granted
and digging deep to the very _origines_ of things. It was this
invariable reliance solely on first hand and primitive information which
makes his literary work so valuable. In 1811 Neander became a private
"coach" at Heidelberg, in the university of which he was appointed a
professor of theology in the following year. Youthful as he still was,
his fame had by this time spread far and wide, and within a few months
he was elected to a similar position in the recently founded University
of Berlin, which the King of Prussia desired to elevate to the foremost
rank among the sister universities of his kingdom, and to make a great
centre for the teaching of theology. There Neander remained till the day
of his death, fully justifying his selection as one of the leading
lecturers in that seat of learning.
The foregoing are the chief events in an otherwise uneventful career,
entirely passed as scholar and tutor within the sheltered seclusion of
university life. It has been said that such an atmosphere makes for
self-indulgence. Of course, it may easily degenerate into this state.
And yet how many university dons could we name, whose saintly and
scholarly lives, long hours spent in teaching, and nightly burnings of
the midnight oil give the lie to such a sweeping assertion! That it was
far from being the case with Neander the following slight sketch of the
man himself, his labours and his writings, will abundantly demonstrate.
Neander was of an exceedingly lovable disposition, humble-minded,
retiring, pious and zealous. He was as simple as a child in the ordinary
and every-day concerns of life, eccentric and singular beyond
description, absent-minded to the last degree, and generous to a fault.
His charity was unbounded. His wants being few, he could give the bulk
of his income to others. The proceeds from the sale of his numerous
works were devoted to philanthropic and missionary purposes. He could
never keep any loose cash in his pocket, or turn away his face from any
poor man. If he did not part with the well-worn coat off his back it was
because he preferred to bestow the new one hanging in his wardrobe.
His industry was prodigious. Being a single man, for he never married,
he could devote all his time and energies to his calling--which was that
of scholar, writer, and lecturer. He was never ordained, and so never
preached in the ministerial sense of the word; but he never lectured
without teaching Christianity in its practical as well as doctrinal and
historical aspect. Religion was never obscured by theology. His lectures
were attended not merely by under-graduates and students, but also by
leading professors of his own and other universities--Protestants and
Romanists alike sitting at his feet. Three lectures a day he invariably
gave, and those on different subjects. To the students he was a father
and a counsellor, ever ready to bestow, though never eager to thrust,
his advice upon all who sought it. He was universally beloved for his
kindness of heart and his gentleness, and respected and admired for his
talents, scholarship, and teaching powers.
The supreme object of Neander's life, studies, and labours, is thus
concisely stated by himself in the preface of the first edition of his
_magnum opus_:[20] "To exhibit the history of the Church of Christ as a
living witness of the Divine power of Christianity, as a school of
Christian experience, a voice sounding through the ages, of instruction,
of doctrine and of reproof, for all who are disposed to listen." Neander
was not merely the historian of the dead past or _laudator temporis
acti_. To him the past was indeed great, eloquent, and glorious, but he
regarded it chiefly as the beginning of a greater present and a more
glorious future, and as the foundation of the stately building of the
Church that is being reared throughout the ages. He had unquenchable
faith in the abiding presence of Christ in His Church, and of its
consequent power to mould and transform the world. The parables of the
leaven and of the mustard seed were pregnant with meaning to him, and in
his history he elaborately traced the process of development in the
past centuries--a process which amounted to a steady and ever forward
progress, even furthered by all attempts to hinder it. And this, because
Christianity is a Divine power which descended from heaven at the
Incarnation of Christ, and gave a new character to the life of the human
race.
[20] "General History of the Christian Religion and Church."
We can well understand how exhilarating and energising such teaching as
this must have been when directed, as it was of set purpose, to
counteract the then new-fangled doctrines of Schleiermacher, and more
especially of Strauss, who in his "Life of Christ" had sought to
eliminate from Christianity all that was Divine, and therefore to
destroy its regenerative power on the hearts and lives of mankind.
To Neander, then, a Christian Jew, an immense debt of gratitude is due
from all who hold the Catholic faith undefiled. He stemmed for a time
the tide of Rationalism which threatened to engulf in its turbid waters
not only Germany, but the whole of Christendom. His aid was expressly
chartered to undo the harm caused by the speculative teaching of
Strauss. When others would have suppressed the latter's work by force,
Neander, discountenancing such carnal weapons, boldly and mercilessly
met his heresies by the issue of his own "Life of Christ."
We have already dwelt upon his two greatest works. We can only barely
mention the others. They were, to give them their titles in
English--"The History of the Planting and Training of the Christian
Church by the Apostles," "Biographies of Julian the Apostate, St.
Bernard and St. Chrysostom," "Anti-Gnostikus, Development of the Gnostic
System," "Memorabilia from the History of the Christian Life," "Unity
and Variety of the Christian Life," numerous essays contributed to
religious periodicals, and "Memoirs of the Proceedings of the Berlin
Royal Academy of Sciences."
Neander's restless activity doubtless shortened his life, and death
overtook him before the work which he had set himself to do was done. He
had completed his "General History" only to the middle of the fourteenth
century. He died whilst dictating a page of this unfinished history,
with the words, "I am weary; I must sleep; good night;" upon his lips.
To another famous historian, Bede, it was granted to see, but only just
to see, the completion of his labours. When dying, the amanuensis who
wrote for him his translation into Saxon of the Gospel according to St.
John, said: "Master, there is but one sentence wanting." Bede answered:
"Write quickly!" and when the sentence was written, he replied: "Thou
hast the truth--_consummatum est_," and with the _Gloria Patri_ upon his
lips, he breathed his last. Neander's work is like a broken column, and
yet who shall say it had been better otherwise? Surely not those who
believe that "man is immortal, until his work is done."
NEANDER, Rev. John, thus wrote of his conversion to a sincere
acquaintance:--"My dear friend,--Cheerfully do I respond to your call,
and as briefly as possible will I relate to you, how wonderfully God
has dealt with me; how He, the Almighty God, looked down upon me while I
was yet deeply sunk; how He called me, and lifted me up from the dust;
and how He brought me out of darkness into His marvellous light; praised
be His name. Amen.
"I was born in the year 1811 at Neubrûck, in the province of Posen. My
parents were strict Talmudical Jews, my father especially, a zealous,
learned Talmudist. They had consecrated me to the office of a rabbi,
even while I was at my mother's breast; which office being considered
then, as it still is, a most holy vocation. On my having attained my
eighth year, and being able to read Hebrew, my father engaged for me a
teacher of the Talmud, who resided in the house, and from early in the
morning until late at night he laboured with me in the Talmud; now and
then he also read the Pentateuch and Jarchi's Commentary with me.
"Until I was twenty-three years old, I studied at different Talmudical
schools in Posen, and having attained to that degree which qualified me
for the office of a rabbi, I returned to my father's house, where I
devoted myself entirely to the study of the Talmud. You are well
acquainted with the course of life led at rabbinical schools; I have
therefore no occasion to give you here an account thereof. I lived
earnestly engaged in this study, because it was my parents' warmest
wish; and I moreover hoped thereby to attain to a high position amongst
my nation, and flattered myself that I should hereby be qualified for
the community of the Chassidim, and consequently to reach the presence
of God.
"I plunged myself into the deep labyrinth of rabbinical subtleties and
sophistry; entangled myself in a chain, composed of thousands of links
of trivialities; exhausted myself in endeavouring to be enlightened on
this, or on that matter; but I only got deeper and deeper into the
labyrinth; not a ray of light penetrated its dark recesses. At length
the employment became exceedingly disagreeable to me; the zeal which was
so ardent in my youth (alas! it was a blind zeal), cooled more and more
in proportion as it became clearer to me that the words of the different
rabbis, the former and latter, are truly not agreeable to God's most
Holy Word; and I discovered, that the persuasion that their ways lead to
the truth is a vain persuasion.
"I was about twenty-five when with a painful heart I perceived this. I
had no firm foundation to rest upon; nothing on which to lay hold. I
stood as on broken ground; my heart torn, and nigh to perish with
anguish. About this time I was teacher in a town in Germany, where I had
above twenty pupils, whom I had to educate, and bring up as men and
Israelites; and every Saturday I had to deliver a public lecture on
portions of the Old Testament. All this placed me in a terrible
condition; I had to preach up and defend that, against which my heart
revolted; dissemble I would not, yea, I could not.
"In the early period of my life as a teacher, I was zealous for the
rabbinical Judaism of the present day. I tormented and exhausted myself