than any man to reduce human thinking to its lowest level of brutish inconsistency. It is not to be wondered at that the spirit of destructiveness in religion led him and his followers to a similar destructiveness in social and political theories. He was at the bottom of much of the feverish spirit of recent German radicalism; and he died as the representative of a firm and perfect hatred of all civil and political order. When it is added that he closed his days at Nuremberg in poverty and misery, it seems only like the fitting though lamentable end of such a man. GRUNDTVIG. ON September 2nd of the present year, died, in the fulness of his powers, and still active in Christian work, though in his eighty-ninth year, one of the most illustrious of Scandinavian Lutherans, the Danish Nikolai Grundtvig. As a theologian, as a hymn-writer, and as a patriot, he held the foremost place in his own land. And, although his name has not been so familiar to our ears as that of many other less distinguished men, it may be interesting to know something of his history and religious influence. For the following notices we are indebted to German prints announcing his death; and especially to the Neue Evangelische Kirchenzeitung, the organ of the German Branch of the Evangelical Alliance. Grundtvig was born on the 8th September, 1783, at Udby, in Iceland. He was carefully trained in religious principles by godly parents, and entered the University of Copenhagen in 1800. There he was for some time troubled by what he called the "Göttingen Theology." But he was preserved from Rationalism by a deeply religious spirit, which was roused to a fervent study of Luther and his reforming principles by the preaching of Steffens. He began to make the Person of Christ the object of ceaseless study, both theoretical and practical; and the fruit soon appeared. He withstood his young companions with vigour. A characteristic anecdote is recorded of him, that, at a convivial party, when a number of students filled and drained their glasses in honour of Reason, he refused to join, remarking that "it was very beautiful in them to remember the Absent so affectionately." A few years he spent in the study of German and Scandinavian literature, in such energetic study as sometimes allowed only two or three hours for sleep. The events of 1807, which threw the Danish people into a fever of false excitement, made him an author, and he began a long series of keen and fearless publications, which never failed to tell powerfully on the national spirit, though they provoked the bitter animosity of the Rationalist party. Church turned against him, and he would have been struck off the list of candidates for the ministry if the personal influence of Bishop Batte had not saved him. Admitted to orders, he entered upon a service of indefatigable preaching; at first full of energy and satire and fancy; but afterwards much marked by spirituality and Evangelical sentiment. His preaching and occasional tracts soon made The him a marked man. Oerstedt warned the people against him as against a false prophet. From 1813 to 1821 he was engaged in Copenhagen. He wrote a great number of those hymns which have since been sung in all Danish churches. He wrote largely on the mythology and history of the Northern nations. The personal favour of King Frederick VI. secured him an afternoon preachership, which he used with great effect. But he made himself powerful enemies among the other clergy, especially by the vehemence of his "Protest against Professor Clausen," whose work on Protestantism had done much to undermine the faith. The Church party instituted suits against him; popular opinion, at that time, was not in his favour; and, in 1826, he retired from the State Church, which seemed to be renouncing faith with its Confessions. For five years he held no office, but devoted himself to literature. In the prosecution of his scheme for a collection of Anglo-Saxon remains he made many journeys to England. In theology he laid the foundations of what was afterwards one of the leading principles of his party for he became the head of a large party-the vindication of the Apostles' Creed as the real basis of the Christian faith. With this he combined certain political religious views, which were much shaped by familiarity with our English Dissent, not that he aimed, then or at any time, to form a sect. It was his scheme to secure perfect freedom for his opinions and practices within the domain of the National Establishment. To this end he began an agitation for toleration and a relaxed parochial worship. Effectually resisted by the clergy at the first, after long perseverance he gained his end. In 1831 he obtained an appointment as "unattached preacher," and in 1839 became pastor of a hospital church in Copenhagen. In this post he continued till his death. There his influence gradually increased, and he became a centre of religious life. On Sundays and Wednesdays he gathered a large number of hearers and communicants, hungering and thirsting after righteousness. All classes thronged to his services, which seldom failed to number Queen Caroline Amelia among the attendants. Gradually he became the centre of a good work, not only in Copenhagen, but throughout the Danish islands and in the neighbouring Norway. Numbers of religious communities owe their origin to his influence, which was strong enough to combine them in yearly conferences of ministers at Roeskilde. He was also the rallying point of the champions of orthodoxy in the Church, as well as of all those who were devoted to Scandinavian literature and ecclesiastical history. Much of the power that he swayed was due to his inexhaustible humour, which, like Luther, he used to season everything down to his last day. He was a fresh spring of life in every organisation and in every company. His passionate devotion to the interests of Denmark, which, in the pulpit and through the press he constantly proclaimed, soon made him popular among the people generally, even as his Evangelical spirit and labours won him the special devotion of the pious. In his later years he was a member of the Reichstag, and generally attended its sessions, always in the interests of religion. The King gave him the title of Evangelical Bishop. He fought many hard battles, and never spared the enemies of the faith; but his most eager opponents never refused him the credit of sincerity and purity of motive. By degrees he became, especially when old age hallowed the same zeal which had given strength to his youth, a spiritual sovereign in Denmark. This supremacy he retained to the end. On the 1st September last he conducted Divine service as usual; on the following day he began, as usual, to prepare for his next sermon. That was his morning's task; in the afternoon he quietly passed away, surrounded by his family. On the 7th September he was interred. Thousands upon thousands flocked to the scene, from all classes of the community, and even from Norway. More, in fact, were assembled on that occasion than at the funeral of Thorwaldsen, Oehlenschläger, or Frederick VII. This is surely a remarkable history. We may reasonably ask what was the secret of a character so diversified in its elements, so entirely at unity with itself in its influence? We shall see that there was one ruling principle that gave Grundtvig his wonderful strength, which saved him from the consequences of some serious defects in his system of faith. That principle was an unwavering confidence in Christ as a living Person, and in his own personal relation to the Lord. His fellowship with Christ was the joy of his life. It was the energy of his faith and practice. It kindled, under the influence of the Divine Spirit, a divine confidence towards Jesus, the Saviour especially of those who believe, in thousands of souls. But this glorious principle was in Grundtvig, and is in his followers, too subjective for the thorough defence of Christianity against Rationalism. This was exemplified in his undue emphasis upon the internal witness as needing no external props. It took also a remarkable form in the relation it bore in his theology to the Apostles' Creed. That symbol, transmitted in baptism to the Church, he regarded as having been communicated by the Lord to His Apostles after His resurrection. Hence he held it to be a tradition essential to the existence of personal faith and the Church's belief. Accordingly the step was soon taken to place the New Testament Scriptures in a lower sphere, as belonging essentially rather to those who are already brought to personal faith in Christ. This enthusiastic and one-sided deference to the Apostolical symbol is not justified by the testimony of Scripture, and it is opposed by manifold historical evidences. It has borne its evil fruits in the theology of even the comparatively orthodox in Germany, especially in the North. Grundtvig lived to see this. He must have discerned the evil effect of placing so much stress upon a creed of historical facts which, however true in itself, can be shown to have an origin below the New Testament Scriptures, below both in the order of time and in the order of dignity. However precious this early symbol is, it surely must be wrong to make it absolutely the precursor of the Scriptures, and to make it, instead of them, the pillar and ground of the truth. That hypothesis would do away with the distinctive doctrines on which the Christian community rests. It would open the gates of the Church to all varieties of opinion concerning the Trinity and the characteristics of the work of Christ. It has been tried as an experiment, on a large scale, in Denmark. The personal influence of the leader, the warm devotion of his people, the liberal tendencies of the time, have conspired to secure its acceptance. Perfect freedom of faith has been proclaimed within the heart of a Lutheran State Church, and perfect freedom of conscience. Free communities have been largely tolerated. By a curious anomaly, the territorial character of the Danish Church has remained as it was, so that the communities separated from the Church nevertheless remain within it, and share its privileges. This strange Danish Dissenter has always refused to sanction any new ecclesiastical organisation or worship. He has avowed his preference for the ecclesiastical legislation of the two Houses of the Reichstag; and his dread of any distinct authority conceded to any other and religious corporations. Hence it was his cry sometimes in late years: "I thank God that I am not a Grundtvigian!" The experiment has been made; it has not fairly been tried. That it has succeeded so well and so long only shows the indestructible grandeur of the principle of personal faith and devotion towards Christ. Now that the veteran leader of this movement is gone, we may expect, according to analogy, a disruption of this theory. Grundtvig was an intense patriot, and belonged to the Liberal party in Denmark. With his relation to national politics we need not concern ourselves. But the tribute to him would not be complete were we to forget his eminent contributions to the cause of education and to the Danish "service of song." He was the means of establishing schools for the higher education of youth, which have done much for the Christian and patriotic education of the people. He was also a religious poet of no mean order. His hymns are very numerous. They have all the glow of a time of religious revival; and are very dear to the Churches in Denmark, as well as to most Danish families. They will do much for generations, to render sacred and precious a memory which on every other ground will long be held in reverence throughout the Scandinavian North. Literary Notices. 473 II. ENGLISH THEOLOGY. RECENT SERMONS. Sermons preached before the University of Oxford between A.D. 1859 and 1872. By the Rev. E. B. Pusey, D.D. London: Rivingtons. Oxford: Parker and Co. 1872. Six Sermons suggested by the Voysey Judgment. By the Rev. Stopford Brooke, M.A. London: H. S. King and Co. 1871. Sermons Preached in St. James's Chapel. By the Rev. Stopford Brooke, M.A. Fifth Edition. London: H. S. King and Co. 1871. Christ in Modern Life. Sermons by the Rev. Stopford Ordination Sermons preached in the Dioceses of Oxford and and Co. 1872. The Pillar and Ground of the Truth. By the Rev. Daniel Macafee. London: Wesleyan Conference Office. 1872. Plain Pulpit Talk. By Thomas Cooper. London: Hodder and Stoughton. 1872. Sermons. By the Rev. T. De Witt Talmage. Delivered in the Brooklyn Tabernacle. London: R. D. Dickinson. 1872. DR. PUSEY'S name is now one of the most venerable in the Church of England, the object both of passionate admiration and dislike. It is by one of the curious chances of history that his name, and not Keble's, or Newman's, furnished the distinctive title of the HighChurch movement of thirty years ago. With the distance that time has afforded, and in the light of subsequent events, we are ready to maintain that the general estimate of that movement which the churches formed, was correct; but we must also maintain that there were elements of good in it, not likely to be recognised in those days of agitation and high-wrought controversy, which it is time for us to |