Relative to this mode of composing his sermons, which, as is shown in his letters to his father, he had adopted very early in life, Lücke says:³ “It is well known that Schleiermacher never wrote his sermons before delivering them.” All those that have been published were taken down during delivery. While I was a constant hearer of his, two young friends were always engaged in this work. Those persons who were aware of this felt higher admiration for the great gifts of the man. The sermon could not be said to have come into existence in the pulpit, in as far as it was generally conceived in his mind several days previously, and left as it were to mature there until the moment of delivery. But no part of it was committed to paper while I lived with him, except the text and the theme, which was noted down on Saturday evening, and at the most, in addition to this, the heads of the divisions of the latter. This he called writing his slip, and thus prepared he entered the pulpit. Here the sermon took definite form, the mode of representation and the detailed execution being the living product, not only of the preceding reflection, but also of the animating impression produced by the assembled congregation, and of the never-failing power of his mind over the order of his thoughts, and his equally unfailing command of language. Those who knew the secret could follow the growth of the artistic structure of his discourse. They perceived how, at first, he spoke slowly and deliberately, somewhat in the ordinary tone of conversation, as if gathering and marshalling his thoughts; then, after awhile, when he had, as it were, spread out and again drawn together the entire net of his thoughts, his words flowed faster, the discourse became more animated, and the nearer he drew towards the encouraging or admonishing peroration, the fuller and the richer flowed the stream. He was ever the same and always equally attractive by the original manner in which he treated his text, by the novelty and freshness of his thoughts, by the order and clearness of his mode of representation, and the fluency of his delivery. When your attention was not too much engaged with the thoughts, you might often have an opportunity of admiring how, though giving way to that liking for complicated periods, which rendered his style so peculiar, he, even in the midst of the most complicated, ever found the most appropriate term, and never lost the clue which led him with certainty to the conclusion. He had modes of expression peculiar to himself, and also a sphere of thought peculiar to himself. But the richness of his mind and the fulness of Christian life in him never allowed any of the ordinary defects of extemporary preaching to be apparent in his sermons, and caused one to contemplate with unalloyed pleasure his wonderful mastery of the homiletic art and the rich fruits that it bore. A person who only heard Schleiermacher preach once, might fear that his manner was not popular enough, and that he would not be easily understood by the less cultivated among his congregation. But when you heard him consecutively this fear vanished. It is true he expected a good deal from his hearers, yet in reality no more than attention and familiarity with the Scriptures; and as he knew how to rivet the attention of the less educated by the freshness and vivacity of his mode of delivery, and by his constant application of even the deepest Christian ideas to practical life, and to the actual conditions of the Church, of family life and of the fatherland, this explains how it was that, although his congregation mostly belonged to the educated classes, persons of the lower ranks, and even belonging to other congregations, were constantly seen in his church. I believe that this portion of his congregation steadily increased, for just as his whole system of theology was ever in living progression, so also the fervour and Christian simplicity of his mode of preaching increased year by year in proportion as his experience was enlarged, and his inward life expanded.”

The active part which Schleiermacher took in the political associations formed by the patriots of Germany while their country was sighing under the yoke of France, has been shown in various of his letters; and the principles which actuated him herein were carried out in the pulpit also. “We also, the preachers of peace,” he says, in a letter to Karl von Raumer,⁴ “if we have not all seized the sword, have at least had recourse to the telling battery of words, and have from the holy altar called the people to battle, to share in the life and death struggle. You know that I look upon it as an essential condition for the development of a people to a truly Christian, i. e. a free state, that its peculiar nationality should be relieved from the pressure of foreign dominion… . . The purer and more righteous our cause is in the eyes of God, the more we ought to make it our object to preserve this purity. Once already our presumption has led to our fall, and therefore it seems to me to be my essential duty to warn the people that we ought not to be vainglorious, and that we ought not to begin the impending struggle without confessing our sins, and acknowledging that we have well deserved the chastisement.”

The character of, and effect produced by the sermons inspired by these sentiments is graphically described by bishop Eilert,⁵ in reference to one special occasion. “It was in the great year 1813,” says the bishop, “when after the heavy judgment of the Lord of the elements had fallen upon the Emperor Napoleon on the ice-fields of Russia, the Prussian people, called to arms by their king to liberate the oppressed and ill-treated fatherland, awoke and, with a bright flame of enthusiasm kindled in every breast, prepared for the difficult and serious task. The whole of Berlin was in a state of inward and outward commotion, and the students of the university and the gymnasium, who were about to start for Breslau as volunteers, in uniforms and armed, had in a body requested Schleiermacher to deliver a sermon and administer the sacrament to them immediately before their departure, thus to consecrate them for their holy undertaking. Their firearms were piled in front or rested against the walls of the church of the Holy Trinity. The beautiful old hymn, ‘In all my acts,’ sung with heartfelt effusion, had attuned the minds of the congregation to the proper pitch of solemnity. After having pronounced a short prayer, full of unction, Schleiermacher went up into the pulpit… … There, in this holy place and at this solemn hour, stood the physically so small and insignificant man, his noble countenance beaming with intellect, and his clear, sonorous, penetrating voice ringing through the overflowing church. Speaking from his heart with pious enthusiasm, his every word penetrated to the heart, and the clear, full, mighty stream of his eloquence carried every one along with it. His bold, frank declaration of the causes of our deep fall, his severe denunciation of our actual defects, as evinced in the narrow-hearted spirit of caste, of proud aristocratism, and in the dead forms of bureaucratism, struck down like thunder and lightning, and the subsequent elevation of the heart to God on the wings of solemn devotion, was like harp-tones from a higher world. The discourse proceeded in an uninterrupted stream, and every word was from the times and for the times. And when, at last, with the full fire of enthusiasm, he addressed the noble youths already equipped for battle, and next turning to their mothers, the greater number of whom were present, he concluded with the words: ‘Blessed is the womb that has borne such a son, blessed the breast that has nourished such a babe,’—a thrill of deep emotion ran through the assembly, and amid loud sobs and weeping, Schleiermacher pronounced the conclusive Amen.”

Wilhelm von Humboldt, also, in his well-known letters to a female friend, bears testimony to Schleiermacher’s wonderful power in the pulpit. “Of Schleiermacher,” he says, “it may be said, as of the greater number of very distinguished persons, but in an incomparably higher degree, that their speaking exceeded their writings in power.” Those, therefore, who may have read his numerous writings ever so diligently, but who have never heard him speak, must nevertheless remain unacquainted with the most rare power and the most remarkable qualities of the man. His strength lay in the deeply penetrative character of his words, when preaching or engaged in any other of his ecclesiastical functions. It would be wrong to call it rhetoric, for it was so entirely free from art. It was the persuasive, penetrative, kindling effusion of a feeling, which seemed not so much to be enlightened by one of the rarest intellects, as to move side by side with it in perfect unison.”

Schleiermacher’s activity in church matters was in accordance with the whole tendency of his religious character. He took a lively part in the proposed reform, which was to give to the church of Prussia a synodal constitution in lieu of the existing bureaucratic absolutism. The principles on which he acted in regard to this question,⁶ are expressed as follows in a paper on the subject written by him in 1817: “As in a truly free state-constitution, which necessarily depends upon the zeal and affection of the citizens, everything is based on a free and living communal system, from which springs all true interest in the legislation, and in which the executive finds its best support and its greatest strength;” so also it would be vain to attempt to touch and to improve the constitution of the clergy, if the reform to be introduced be not founded on a well-organized Christian presbyterian system. The Protestant Church consists, in truth, of the totality of the Protestant communities, and the clergy are only their servants… . . If we be in reality in earnest in our desire to exercise our office in the most blessed way, we churchmen ought to wish for nothing more sincerely or more urgently than the institution of rather extensive assemblies of elders, based upon the free election of the community, which would draw closer the bonds between us and the community, which would enable the latter to gain a deeper insight into the tendency and character of our office, and would put us in a position to correct their judgment of us in an unconstrained manner, and to counteract prejudice and fickleness; which would further enable us to render intelligible to them and to explain the grounds of such matters as may be determined in the ecclesiastical synods, and to awaken their zeal in favour hereof, as also to prove to the world that much that we have long wished for in vain, in regard to the dignity of public worship, to the upholding of ecclesiastical freedom, and in reference to certain unchristian acts and relations, is not only our wish, but that of the Christian communities themselves, which have hitherto only wanted a recognized and legal form through which to make themselves known.”

In another question, of still greater importance to his country, Schleiermacher took an active and very decisive part—namely, the question of the union of the Lutheran and Reformed Churches in Prussia, which had been a favourite idea of his long before it was proposed by the king. His views on this subject are expressed in a compendious form, in the subjoined passage, from a pamphlet addressed by him to Dr. Ammon, in reference to the opposition raised against the union by the original Lutheran clergyman, Claus Harms, in Kiel, who had republished, on the occasion, Luther’s famous ninety-five theses, with the addition of ninety-five of his own, and who declared the union to be an apostacy from Lutheranism and from Christianity.

“Harms,” says Schleiermacher, “regards the subject from a point of view, from which Lutheranism appears to him as identical with Evangelical Protestantism and Christianity. But Luther and Melancthon, Calvin and Zwingle, and their various fellow-labourers, were not creators of a new state of things, but merely instruments in the hands of divine Providence, and it is, and ever will be their highest glory that they were found worthy to be such. They produced nothing new, but merely cleansed the old doctrine from the rubbish that had been heaped upon it, so that it could appear again in its pristine purity, and commend itself thus to men. The work of the Reformation was not, therefore, to found a Lutheran Church—against which, indeed, no one protested more warmly than Luther himself—nor was it to found a Reformed Church, but to bring forth in renewed glory the Evangelical Church, which is guided and governed by its founder, Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God. He is the quickening centre of the Church; from Him comes all, to Him all returns: He is Beginning and End: in Him we believe, and through Him alone we are blessed… . We ought not, therefore, to call ourselves Lutheran nor Reformed, but we ought to call ourselves Evangelical Christians, after His name and His holy evangel; for in our name our faith and our confession ought to be made known.”

The same liberal principles that guided Schleiermacher, in regard to the ecclesiastical matters already mentioned, led him strenuously to oppose the proposal which was being mooted in high governmental circles, to make subscription to the confession of the Evangelical Church compulsory and binding, though at the same time he expressed a wish that a form might be adopted according to which every Evangelical Christian should, on ordination, declare his concurrence in the condemnation of the tenets of the Roman Church, contained in the symbolical books of the Church.

In the question of the reform of the liturgy and of the hymn-book, which, though less important, caused as great excitement at the time as any of the foregoing, Schleiermacher also took a prominent part, and in addition to the sharp polemical warfare, and the numerous enmities resulting from this, to which these various questions gave rise, Schleiermacher was in this later period of his life subjected to many other annoyances, which never, however, disturbed the equanimity of his mind, or troubled that happiness which he drew from a source far deeper than those whence these annoyances sprung. When, after the glorious war of liberation in 1813–15 the reaction set in, Schleiermacher became an object of suspicion in the highest circles, like most of the men who had infused into the nation the spirit which had driven the foreigner out of the land, but which was now to be quelled, lest it might insist with too much vigour on the fulfilment of the promises made by the sovereign in the hour of need. Having been denounced to the king for some expressions used in a circle of what he supposed to be confidential friends, he remained for a long time under apprehensions that he might lose his position as professor at the university, like Arndt and De Wette, and many others, who, in consequence of the prevailing system of espionage and denunciation, were either suspended or dismissed. In a letter dated March, 1820, to Arndt, who in 1827 had married his sister Nanni, he says: “For the last fortnight the city has again been full of the rumour of my dismissal. The fact upon which this is based, is that the State-chancellor has demanded to see the documents of the faculty referring to De Wette’s dismissal, and that thereupon Schulz has made many inquiries as to what toasts I had proposed on the 9th, at the festival in honour of the general arming, celebrated by the students. Certain expressions of well-informed men which have come to my ears, give me reason to think that hostile intentions towards me have really been seriously entertained; but I have been told by the same persons, within the last few days, that the matter may now be considered as having blown over, and thus it seems that this time at least grace has triumphed over disgrace. However, the documents have not yet been returned, so I must not sing pæans too soon.” And again in 1823 he writes: “The projected journey is more especially important to me, because I wish to look out for a spot in Germany where it would be possible to live, in case of matters going wrong. For though as regards yourself, you may be quite right in thinking of England, I would be of no earthly use beyond the limits of Germany, and within these, I should prefer above all others a constitutional country in which the two Confessions are united.”⁷ It was these and various other annoyances that induced him to think of retiring ultimately to some quiet country parsonage, as frequently alluded to in his letters, and also to the contemplation of possible poverty, which is hinted at therein. However, his real devotion to the king, which went hand in hand with devotion to constitutional liberty, seems at last to have been recognized, and in 1831 the order of the Red Eagle was bestowed upon Schleiermacher.

In 1829, however, an affliction for which there is no earthly consolation, fell upon Schleiermacher. His only and dearly beloved son, Nathanael, was taken away by death in that year, when only nine years old. This event, which is not mentioned in any of the letters included in the present collection, is touchingly alluded to in the following extract of a letter from Schleiermacher to his friend, Gass, which also proves him to be possessed in old age of the same calm power of self-command, that distinguished him in the strength of manhood: —“I am very thankful to Ohl,” he says, “for having taken upon himself to convey to you the first accounts of the heavy calamity that has fallen upon us… . . Since the boy had begun to attend the gymnasium, I looked upon it as my special vocation to take him under my more particular guidance. Ultimately I had arranged it so that he studied in my room, and thus I may say there was no hour in the day in which I did not think of the boy, and occupy myself with him, and now in consequence I miss him every hour. But there is nothing to be done but to resign myself, and to labour to transform the character of my grief. For struggle against it I will not and cannot, and give myself up to it I know I must not. On the day of his burial already, I began to attend to all my duties as previously, and life goes on in its old grooves, but more slowly and more heavily. My health seems not to have suffered. My wife also, who, from the Monday until his death (it is a fortnight since to-day) never moved from his bed, has kept up wonderfully.”⁸ And then he passes on to speak of other matters with his usual interest, and to enter into the joys of his friends with his usual sympathy. The discourse pronounced over the child’s grave is one of his most celebrated. In addition to this son, Schleiermacher’s wife had borne him two daughters, and the family was further increased by the adoption of a child of one of his half-sisters who died in Gallicia, and the child of a friend, both of whom, as also the two children of his wife by her former marriage, were cherished and educated by him as his own. His sister Nanni’s place was, after her marriage, taken by the elder sister Charlotte, the early friend of his boyhood and youth.]⁹

Schleiermacher to Charlotte von Kathen.

[CCCLX.] Berlin, 3rd August, 1809.

It is all the delights of our new life that prevent Jette and myself from writing. We are much together, and besides this, each has his and her own occupations. I have my professional duties to attend to, with a host of disagreeable petty matters, which are quite new to me, besides a volume of Plato that is going through the press; and Jette is still busy with various household arrangements. In addition to this, we are endeavouring to enjoy as much of the summer as we can, at least in the Thiergarten. Yesterday we were for the first time a whole day in the country with the children, and romped to our hearts’ content. To-day the whole city has been in a state of intense bustle from the early morn, it being the king’s birthday. Your heart, dear sister, is full of joyful hope for the fate of the world; in mine this hope has almost been quenched as regards the immediate future, and to-day the thought has frequently forced itself upon me, that this may be the last festival of the kind that we shall celebrate. Should it not be so, and matters turn out more favourably than I expect, then my worldly position will also very soon be satisfactorily settled.

That our dear friend Herz has gone to Prenzlau for a few days, you will no doubt learn from herself. We miss her much in every way, and the lectures I delivered to the three ladies have in consequence been interrupted. What you write to me, dearest sister, about communicating the letters of friends too generally to other friends, was probably written with a special view to her. You are, however, mistaken on this point, and even the Monologues might have enlightened you on the subject; I feel exactly as you do, that perfect friendship must in every case be a strictly personal relationship; and although it is very delightful to make one’s friends acquainted with each other, there is of course a natural limit which ought not to be overstepped. And this limit I am sure we both equally recognize in the present case, for I know full well how far you have got with Henrietta Herz, and what distance still separates you, and I do not believe that I should ever communicate to her any parts of your letters that you would disapprove of. But if you mean that you might say things to me, which you would not wish me to communicate to my wife, you must write to me more explicitly about this; for although I can conceive the possibility of this being the case, I should not have the proper tact in the matter, without your direct guidance. However, I should certainly act in accordance with your wishes, and allow your words to reach no other ear than my own, as long as such should be your pleasure. For your unbounded confidence is of infinite value to me, and I would not forfeit it for a great deal, even independently of the beneficial effect I know it has upon yourself. Yes, dearest Lotte, let this sweet confidence continue undisturbed; be assured that I shall ever guard it as a precious treasure. Your faithful Brother.

[CCCLXI.] Berlin, 4th November, 1809.

Accept my sincere thanks, dear sister, for your little note, and a little note also in return this time; for I can only steal a moment from my necessary occupations which are daily increasing. I cannot describe to you what a pleasure it has been to me to make Jette and the children acquainted with my relatives, and to show her my beautiful native country; and I still congratulate myself upon having seized the opportunity that offered, though it may have been a little imprudent from the economical point of view. The enjoyment we have derived from the journey will be a lasting one, and the toll which was levied upon us in the shape of mishaps and disappointments, was so slight compared to the length of time, that we may in fact consider ourselves as having come off scot-free. In regard to the university—the accounts of the proposed erection of which I received just after our arrival in Gnadenfrei—I still fear to give myself up to my joy. It does not at all seem clear to me that our present tranquillity will remain undisturbed, and that the existing order of things will be maintained.

Your little note has saved you from a serious scolding that I was about to give you because, just as you had settled the conditions of the most unconstrained and thorough-going correspondence between us, you ceased to write altogether.

Farewell, sister of my heart, and write soon. Greet and kiss all the children from me, remember me to grandmamma, and say to all who care for me, that I had long been silent, but that I shall soon begin to write again.

[CCCLXII.] Berlin, 26th April, 1810.

You are right, dearest sister. I have postponed writing far too long, and you will do me a great service by not asking how this has happened. I saw one day that Jette was giving you a little sketch of our life, and more particularly of my doings, and this is all the excuse I have to offer. Formerly, it is true, I was equally busy, and yet I found time for writing; but then I was still a single man. That is in fact the great point, which you will know how to explain to yourself in detail, taking into consideration among other things, that when Jette writes it. is the same as if I had written, only that I am sure she does it much better than I should. If I could but describe to you how entirely I am absorbed in my work, and in my home. It is an inexpressible happiness, but also a great misery. Home and business stand hostilely arrayed against each other, and interfere very much with each other; for in the midst of my work the thought of Jette and the children will intrude, and on the other hand, when I am with the latter the thought of my work will come into my head. In short, I retain my motto: “Man is a troubled individual.” … .

Your birthday we celebrated in the most beautiful manner. We took the Communion on that day, and afterwards Henrietta Herz dined with us, and we drank your health. Continue to remember us with affection.

[CCCLXIII.] 27th December, 1810.

Dearest sister, the longed-for happiness has come, and come so gloriously! On Christmas Eve Jette was still quite brisk, was making preparations for young and old, and went with me to the Reimers to witness the Christmas joys there. Towards nine o’clock we returned home, and before midnight the little girl was happily ushered into the world, strong and healthy, and with its little head covered with thick dark hair. I was to preach on Christmas-day, and I had all along felt very uneasy lest I should be disturbed by the event; but with what a bounding, joyful, deeply moved heart I could now preach, and after the sermon offer up my thanksgiving for the happy delivery. It is not, indeed, customary to do so here; but I could not refrain; I felt the need to pray for wisdom and understanding, and to feel that others were joining in my prayer. Many persons present guessed by my manner that it was my own wife I was alluding to.

Forgive my not writing more at present, dearest Lotte. I am deeply moved by the sincere sympathy of all my friends. It must be true, that there are few men so blessed as I am. May God also grant me grace and faithfulness to enjoy and to use profitably what he bestows so bounteously. Unite your prayers with mine, you dear, true-hearted sister, and let us soon have a word of gladness from you.

[CCCLXIV.] 7th March, 1811.

I am getting on very badly with my letter-writing just now, dearest sister; and partly, I believe, because I am also otherwise not getting on very well. Since the beginning of last month I have again been suffering from cramps in the stomach, and at times so violently, that for weeks together I have been obliged to lie down on the sofa in perfect idleness as soon as I returned from the lectures. I ought at present to be in a state of intense activity, in order to be prepared for the next term, but I am so exhausted by the pain that I can do little or nothing. And when I sit down to write letters my conscience pricks me, because I feel that if I do anything at all, I ought to do that which is more pressing. Even my enjoyment of the two delightful days which we have just celebrated—the day of the christening, and Jette’s birthday yesterday—was disturbed by the pains. On the first of these days, more especially, I am sure you were with us in spirit, in like manner as we bore in mind your sincere and faithful affection. It was a solemn day to me. May I never forget what I felt when performing the sacred rite! May it more particularly be present to me should I ever be on the point of acting towards the child in a spirit contrary to Christian paternal wisdom. I believe there was not an individual present, who did not, in his own way, feel with me. Dearest sister, I think few persons are so favoured by God as Jette and myself; and we both fully recognize it, and are prepared for everything that time may bring as a counterpoise to our rare happiness. You, poor dear, have again had to suffer a great deal, and now, I dare say, you feel grateful that the cup has once more been taken from your lips, and that you have still your little flock entire and gathered around you. Anxiety for our loved ones has also its noble influences on our lives, and is an element that we cannot do without, and which we ought not to wish to be exempt from.

[CCCLXV.] September, 1811.

… . Your whole position seems to me very gloomy. If it could help you, I would describe how very much worse even matters look in many parts of our state, and more particularly in the province of Prussia. We must be resigned to give up all outward prosperity, and feel assured that, as far as this is concerned, no improvement can take place until after the most dreadful convulsions and devastations; and we must only endeavour to work upon the minds of people, so that when the evil comes it may be borne with fortitude, and be brought to a happy issue. I do this to the utmost of my powers in every direction that is open to me; how long I shall still be able to do so God only knows. But I would fain have spoken to you about the blessing which I think attends my efforts in this respect, and about the seeds which I think I see germinating, and have shown you how I enjoy to the full the rare happiness, which this hope, and my life with Jette and the children afford me, though I am at the same time quite alive to the fact that the cup which contains it is but of fragile nature. Everything else is as nothing to this. I am not either then to be an eye-witness of your present delightful life, and shall not be able to make you feel how entirely, and with what pure enjoyment I enter into it! Well, it cannot be otherwise, and must therefore be right. I only wish that my image stood so vividly before you as yours stands before me at this moment. Ah! it is a great pity that we shall not be able to go to you!

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Footnotes

1. Nearly all of these being from the mother, and containing merely motherly admonitions and expressions of affection, the greater number have been excluded by the translator as having no bearing upon Schleiermacher’s life, and only such have been retained as contain descriptions of the events of home life in which he is concerned. These eliminations, as also various curtailments in the wife’s letters to her husband, have been made with the greater confidence, as the extracts that remain, suffice to show the development or changes that have taken place in her character. ↩

2. Leben und Erinnerungen. ↩

3. Erinnerungen an Schleiermacher. Studien und Kritiken, 1834. ↩

4. Erinnerungen aus den Jahren 1813 und 1814. ↩

5. Charakterzüge und Historische Fragmente aus dem Leben des Königs von Preussen. ↩

6. Gutachten über die für die Protestantische Kirche des Preussischen Staates einzurichtende Synodal Verfassung. ↩

7. E. M. Arndt. Nothgedrungener Bericht aus meinem Leben. ↩

8. Schleiermacher’s Briefwechsel mit T. C. Gass. ↩

9. The parts inserted between brackets are not included in the German edition, but have been added by the translator as a feeble attempt to supplement what the last section of the letters leaves to be desired. ↩