As a man and a Christian, Dr. Neander was univer- sally esteemed. Indeed his character, religiously con- sidered, is of so noble a Christian type that it calls for special notice. Ardently and profoundly devotional, sympathetic, cheerful, profusely benevolent, and with- out a shadow of selfishness resting on his soul, he in- spired universal reverence, and was himself, by the mild and attractive sanctity of his life, as powerfid an argument on behalf of Christianity as his writings. The childlike simplicity of his character was beautiful. Everything like vanity and pretence was as foreign to him as if he dwelt on a different planet. A recent Ger- man writer calls him a " Protestant monk or saint, whose world was the cloister of the inner man, out of which he worked and taught for the good of the Church." We do not wonder when it is said that Xeanders salu- tary influence on the religious sentiments and state of Germany are far above that of any other man in this century. He was one of the chief promoters of the changes introduced into the Protestant establishment of Prussia, and of the comiiromise of the Lutheran and Calvinistic confessions. He is also believed to have contributed more than any other single individual to the overthrow, on the one side, of that anti-historical rationalism, and, on the other, of that dead Lutheran formalism, from both of wliich the religious life of Ger- many had so long suffered. His hifluence was so great as to lead very many of the young men of the father- land to embrace the vital doctrines of Christianity, for his own theological views were more positive and evan- gelical than those entertained by any of his colleagues. He shared with the most orthodox of them the opinion that religion is based upon feeling. The Christian '* con- sciousness" was the sum of his theology. " By this term," said he, " is designated the power of the Christian faith in the subjective life of the single individual, in the congregation, and in the Church generally; a power independent and ruling according to its own law — that which, according to the word of our Lord, must tirst form the leaven of every other historical development of maidiind." Neander's motto, " Pectus est, qiuid the- ologum facit," unfolds his whole theological system and life career. The Germans call his creed " Pectoralism," in view of the iimer basis of his faith. 'With him, re- ligion amounts to nothing without Christ. Nor must Christ be the mere subject of study ; the soul and its manifold affections must embrace him. The barren- ness of Jiulaism is done away in him, ami the cm|)tincss of rationalistic criticism is successfully met by the ful- ness found in Christianity. Sin is not merely hurtful and prejudicial, but it induces guilt and danger. It can be pardoned only through the death and mediation of Christ. The illustrations of devout service to be found in the history of the Church should serve as examjiles for succeeding times. Neander therefore spent much of the careful labor of his life in jiortraying ]irominent characters; for it was his opinion that individuals some- times combine the features of their times, the virtues or the vices prevalent: and that if these individualities be clearly defined the Churcli is furnished with valuai)le les- sons for centuries. Tiic work which he published when
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but twenty-two years of age, Jtilian (he Apostate (Leips. 1812; tralisl. by G.V. Cox, N. Y. 1850, Timo), was the beginning of a series oT similar monographs designed to show the importance of the individual in history, and to point out great crises in the religious life of man. He subsequently produced St. Bernard (Berl. 1813): — Gnosticism (1818):— aS^ Cknjsostom (1821, 2 vols.):— Denhwiirdigkeiten aus der Gesch. des Chi-istenthums und des rjeistlichen Lebens (1822, 3 vols. ; 3d ed. 1845-46) ; in an English dress, entitled The Uistory of the Christian Relifjion and Church during the first Three Centuries, transl. by Henry John Rose (2d ed. Lond. 1842, 2 vols. Svo) :—TertuU'ian (182G) -. — Geschichte der Pflanzung und Leitung der Kirche durch die Ajiostel (Hamb. 1832- 33, 2 vols. ; 4th ed. 1847 ; Uistory of the Planting and Training of the Christian Church by the Apostles, transl. from the German by J. E. Kyland [Lond. 1851, 2 vols, sm. 8vo]) -.—Das Leben Jesu Christi in seinem geschichtli- chen Zusammenhange, written as a reply to Strauss's work (Hamb. 1837 ; 5th ed. 1853 ; The Life of Jesus Christ in its historical Connection and historical Derelopment, transl. from the 4th German ed. by John M'Clintock, D.D., LL.D., and Charles E. Bhimonthal [N. Y. 1848, 8vo]) : — Wissenschafllirli" Abliinidliiiiiini. published by Jacobi (Berl. 1851) :—(/(«•// /(■///(' ih r Chrisl lichen Dognien, also published by Jacobi (1850;; in English entitled Lect- ures on the History of Christian Dogmas (Lond. 1857, 2 vols. 12mo). To these may be added a few practical commentaries and essays. By far the most important of these works is his Life of Christ, which has a polemic aim against Strauss. This is, however, only a small part of its merits ; and but for the notes an ordinary reader woidd not detect any such specific tendency. It unfolds the life of the Saviour from the record with great clearness and skill; it invests the outlines thus obtained with the fresh colors of life, without resorting to forced constructions and vain imaginings ; and, above all, it seeks, with childlike humility and reverence, to learn and exhibit the mind of the Spirit. The charac- teristic of spirituality, strongly stamped upon all the works of this great writer, is especially prominent here. None, we think, can read the book without becoming not merely acquainted with the facts of the life of Christ, but more anxious than ever to drink in its spirit. Nor let us forget, in our judgment of what may ap- pear to us even grave errors of opinion in the book, that its author has fought for every step of ground that has been gained of late years by spiritual religion in Ger- many; and while we lament the "dimness" which this great man confesses with such Christianlike humility, let us acknowledge the grandeur of his idea of the king- dom of God, and the earnestness of his devotion to it. His starting-point and many of his paths are different from ours; it must therefore gladden one's heart, and may perhaps confirm one's faith, to see that Neander reaches, after all, the general results of evangelical the- ology.