"Awake, awake, for night is flyiuir; The wMtchraen ou the heights are crying Awake, Jerusalem, at last !"
For this he composed a choral, which was afterwards used in Mendelssohn's "Elijah," to the words, " Sleep- ers, wake, a voice is calling." His other noted hymn was entitled "A Spiritual Bridal Song of the Bdieving Soul concerning her Heavenly Bridegroom" — Wie schOn leuchtet der Morgenstern ; in English, "O, morning star, how fair and bright !" The choral which he composed for this was so popular that it was often chimed by city chimes, and it was invariably used at weddings and cer- tain joyous festivals. These are two of the three hymns which he is known to have written; the third is not preserved. They mark an rera in German bymnology. Hitherto the hymns of the Reformation had been dis- tinguished by their simplicity and appropriateness to Church use ; their models were the Psalms of the Old Testament, and they were addressed to God the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ, or to the Holy Trinity; or, in case of hymns of sorrow and penitence, to the Saviour. But from the time of these liymns of Nicolai the mystical union of the soul with Christ became a fa- vorite subject, and a class of hymns appeared finding their scriptural ground in the Song of Solomon and the Apocalypse, and called in Germany " Hymns of the Love of Jesus." They are for the most part vivid expressions of the sense of fellowship with Christ, of his presence and tender sympathy, of personal love and gratitude to him, which are among the deepest and truest, and at the same time most secret expressions of the Christiau life. Gerhardt, " the prince of German hymnists," be- longed to this school. For more than fifty years it gave the prevalent tone to sacred song, and its residts are
NICOLAITANS
14
NICOLAITANS
still seen in some of the tcndcrest and most spiritual hymns in use in tlie churches. Nicolai's complete works were published in 1017 by DedeUenn, and consist of four volumes in German and one in Latin. Their mer- its arc very unequal. The history of tlie kingdom of Christ, which he wrote in Latin, and which was trans- lated into German by Ortus in 1598, contains an ac- count of the history of the world and of the Church, compiled from Ezekiel, Daniel, and the Apocalypse, in which he makes, for instance, the locusts (llev. ix, 7) to mean the Calvinists, and announces the end of the world for the year 11)70. His Freudenqneyel, to which we have already referred above, is, on the other hand, a good and remarkable work, the exegesis of which is indeed more fanciful than correct, but which evinces a thoroughly religious and evangelical spirit. In the same strain is his Theoria vitm celenice. The remainder of his works consists of sermons, which are remarkable neither for their form nor for their substance, and of a great number of controversial pieces. The most impor- tant of these worlds are, Grunclfeste d. Uhiquitdt. (160i), and De rehus antiquis Germanicarum gentium (1578). It is not, however, as a theologian, but as a hymnologist that Niculai's fame wiU shine longest in the Christian Cliurch. See Curtze, NicolaiJs Leben u. Lieder (Halle, 1859); Weis, Theorie u. Gesch. des Kirchenliedes ; Koch, Gesch. des Kirchenliedes ; Winkworth, Christian Singeis of Germanij : MiUer, Singeis and Songs of. the Church; Schatf, Christ in Song. (S. S.)
Nicola'itans (N'(icoX«Vrrti)> ^ class or sect men- tioned twice in the New Testament (Kev. ii, 6, 15). In the former passage the conduct of the Nicolaitans is condemned ; in the latter, the angel of the Church in Pergamus is censured because certain members of his Church held their doctrine. Irenajus, the first author extant who refers to these passages, says that Nicolas, one of the seven deacons of the Church in Jerusalem (Acts vi, 5), was the founder of the sect {Contra Hceres. i, 2(5). But Epiphanius (^Adcers. Uteres, i, 25), with whom TertuUian, Hilary, Gregory of Nyssa, and other fathers agree, says that Nicolas had a beautiful wife, and, following the counsels of perfection, he separated liimself from her; but not being able to persevere in his resolution, he returned to her again, as a dog to his vomit; and not only so, but justified his conduct by licentious principles, which laid the foundation of the sect of the Nicolaitans. But the practice of putting away wives for the sake of sanctity belongs to a later period ; nor can we conceive that taking back his wife would be considered a crime, in view of Paid's instruc- tions (1 Cor. vii, 3, 6). Suspicion is thrown on the whole passage by the further statement of Epiphanius, that all the Gnostics derived their origin from Nicolas; which is too absurd for controversy. Clement of Alex- andria has preserved a different version of the story (Strom, iii, 4, p. 522, ed. Potter), which Euscbius copies from liim (Hist. Eccles. iii, 29), and which is repeated by Augustine and other ancient writers : " The apostles," they sa\', " reprehended Nicolas for jealousy of his wife, who was beautiful ; whereupon Nicolas produced her, and said. Any one might marry her who pleased. In this affair the deacon let fall the expression, 'that we should abuse the flesh;' which, though employed in a good sense by him, was perverted to a bad one by those who would gain to their licentiousness the sanction of a respectable name, and who from tliencc styled them- selves Nicolaitans." Who can believe that a sect should take its rise ami its name from a casual expression by a man whose obvious sense and wiiosc conduct were op- posed to tile iieculiarities of the sect? (irotius supposes that Nicolas, Ijeing reproved for jealousy of those Chris- tians who saluted his wife witli the kiss of peace, ran at once to the other extreme, and imitated the custom of the Lacedremonians and of Cato, permitting others to have intercourse Avith her, affirming that it was no crime when both parties consented. This is improbable, and unsupported by testimony. Nor is there sufficient