THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
of the Lutheran confessions, and were at no pains to disguise this spirit of confessional energy and dogmatic stress. The cardinal doctrines of the person
of Christ, of sin and grace, and of the 6. The atonement ruled the sermon; and along
with the positive exposition of these
Confessional Type.
themes there was a polemic against errant tendencies of the period. The endeavor was to have the sermon practical with reference to the center of the Gospel. Among the exponents of this spirit of the pulpit may be named from South Germany Johann Konrad Wilhelm Lohe, Gottlieb Christian Adolf von Harless, and Gottfried Thotnasius (qq.v.) ; from North Germany especially Ludwig Harms (q.v.), Ludwig Adolf Petri, and K. K. Miinkel (qq.v.). Petri's sermons were simple in construction, but so deep and rich in their thought that they were adapted rather for the educated. The text governed in the workingout of his discourses, and was often exegetically treated. He emphasized doctrine without obscuring the Gospel, and revealed an earnest, keen, thoroughly trained personality of the Lutheranconfessional type. Miinkel, while stressing less the form, exercised a like care in the workingout of his discourses and in their clearness. He- preached to the church of a village, and that influenced his diction and his illustrations; the result is that his sermons may be designated as popular. He avoids all that is coarse; he is learned, the church standards define his exposition, and his exegesis is unadorned. In this connection Bernhard Adolph Langbein of Saxony should be mentioned. From Christian Ernst Luthardt's pen have come down a number of volumes of sermons which unite a full utilization of the text with determination of its religious testimony. Simple and forceful repose combines with a great active ethical strength and rich theological content. Gerard Uhlhorn (q.v.) had a remarkable gift of exposition, and vigorous material found a corresponding form of expression, while a mighty ethical earnestness was combined with the energy of the Lutheran proclamation. Of Lutherans outside of Germany mention may be made of A. F. Huhn, preacher at Reval, prolific in production.
From this group of distinctively confessional preachers a second group may be distinguished by a closer grip of the confessional element and a sharper emphasis upon practical, communal, and individual matters. To be named here are Karl Hein-
rich Caspari of Munich and J. F. Ahl-
7- ^^8is feld (q.v.) in Leipsic. The sermons of
Practical tne ^ormer m their simplicity appeal
more to the ordinary man than to the educated; but they show a rich experience, a deep knowledge of men, special aptitude in individualization, concrete illustrations, and a plastic exposition. Johann Friedrich Ahlfeld was too practically disposed to be a mere partizan. In the many volumes of sermons from his pen there are shown an engaging warmth, a religious-ethical earnestness, and an extraordinary power of presentation combined with popular homeliness. The Wurttemberg Church produced Wilhelm Hoffmann (q.v.), a preacher whose discourses lead clearly and surely I
into the Scriptures and their plan of salvation and illuminate the practical life. Another man of note is B. B. Bruckner (q.v.), preacher in Berlin and professor in Leipsic, a man of gentle orthodoxy pleasing speech, fine employment of the text, and correct in his methods of arrangement. Of Carl Gerok (q.v.) it may be said that he possessed a great power of pleasing, a gentle mildness, a pronounced clarity, a poetic beauty, none of which lessened the earnest depth of his Christian thought and comprehension of the text. He was, however, more of a practical man than thinker, partaking of the qualities of Ahlfeld as a saver of souls. Also to be named are the brothers Max and Emil Frommel, the former of whom belonged to the group of practical sermonizers who based their work on the Bible. Max's sermons may be said to be more forceful and earnest than his brother's, and carry a tinge of Pietism with a joyous and certain faith in God. They are artistically complete. Emil, court preacher and military chaplain at Berlin, especially in his sermons on festival days took great delight in leading his congregation into the world of Biblical thought; he also was practical in type, polished to a degree. Events, history, application, interpretation, illustration, followed each other throughout his discourses. He was a preacher for all ranks of society, though the fineness of his discourse made him appreciated most by the cultured. Two preachers of recent date are Rudolph Kogel and Heinrich Hoffmann (qq.v.). The former, in dogmatics stronger than Frommel, did not strive for dogmatic profundity; his forte was a rhetorical art which made all else serviceable. Hoffmann's strength lay in his fine, searching, saving, and keen psychology, in the energetic compactness with which he brought to expression his rich and deep thinking, in the forcefulness of the testimony which he brought to the Gospel, and finally in the holy earnestness with which he appealed to the conscience. T. J. R. Kogel (q.v.), preacher at the cathedral in Berlin, was the foremost Evangelical clergyman in Prussia, possessed of great national and courtly opportunities, a prince in the pulpit, the rhetorician of sacred oratory, a master of style; on the other side was Heinrich Hoffmann, restricted to the narrow sphere of the Neumarktkirche in Halle, without notoriety, yet a herald of earnest and philosophical thought, a real shepherd of souls. Both of them were preachers to the educated; for simple people the genius of Kogel was too lofty, the compressed thought of Hoffmann too difficult of comprehension. Neither had the fine, light touch of Emil Frommel, the gripping power of narration of Ahlfeld, or the gentle art of Gerok. Only briefly to be mentioned here are Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Arndt (q.v.), the Berlin preacher Strauss, whose sermons are distinguished by devoutness and feeling, and Karl Biichsel (q.v.), whose rough, formless, knotty, but uncommonly earnest and practical sermons had wide influence. The sermons of F L. Steinmeyer (q.v.) might be called essays toward the understanding of Scripture. The material for them he derived from the text, while the exegesis was almost too broad and artistic; but the thoughts were ever deep and original, the structure well thought through, the form beautiful