festly had an influence upon his style. The maxim holds true of him, if of anybody, le stile c'est l'homme. As he was careless in his habits of life, so too in his style. The spirit of the man does indeed betray itself everywhere, and shines out wonderfully in glorious utterances, which take hold of us all the more deeply, because they are the unsought expression of his lovely soul. But though a simple and unadorned discourse is more attractive to the unperverted sense, than that finical and high-seasoned mannerism which many, alas! call style, yet there is still unquestionably a genuine historical style, which, by its plastic simplicity, its nervous conciseness, and its masterly strokes of delineation, brings out before the soul the images of history, better than can our daily speech. And such an historical style as Ranke, for example, has the mastery of, is wanting in some measure in Neander. Narration and investigation, negotiations and delineations, go on in the same tone, in the same attitude, almost without rise or fall of cadence, without light and shade. He lingers upon some favorite subjects with a prolixity which is in marked contrast with other portions; and he often fails in giving a good general outline, and in the skilful distribution of his materials. In the artistic treatment of the materials those might easily surpass him who are far his inferiors in wealth of knowledge, in thoroughness of investigation, in profoundness of historical character. Others perhaps find that he is deficient in other things. Thus the speculative school of philo sophy has denied to him the title of a scientific man, because he would not ascend with them to the heights of a philosophy, which constructs history by means of à priori ideas, or at any rate considers it only as the form through which the "immanent idea" is moving according to the trichotomy of the Hegelian logic. But we frankly confess that we see in this one of the merits of Neander. He has kept to what he so often declared should be the highest law in the case, and that is, that historical facts are not to be looked at through the "dim and borrowed glasses of the schools," but with a free and unperverted vision. And he was not wanting in the higher consecration which science can receive, in that which we may call the ideal view of history. On the contrary, he refers all the individual and manifold events to a higher idea which lies at the basis of the passing phenomena. Only this is not a philosophical category, brought from without and applied to history, but it is the truly "immanent idea" of history, and by this we mean an idea dwelling in the very life of history and moving it onward; it is the heart, the very soul of history; it is, to speak the very word, it is the Spirit of the Lord, whose influence and 1851.] Effects of Neander's Labors. 855 efficiency, Neander strives to trace, with a soul allied thereto, and which he seeks to get possession of in the same measure in which he gives himself up to it in humility and self-forgetfulness. Neander's historical sense was especially repelled by two tendencies; the one the speculative tendency which makes everything just as it thinks it should be by means of à priori laws; the other the false and dead orthodoxy of the letter, which limits everything by some positive, ecclesiastical form, which misunderstands, and, were it possible, would stop the flow of history. Both these appeared to him to be forms of an unwarrantable scholasticism, which scoffs at the divine power there is in history, and, mild as he was in his usual judgments, he would speak as if irritated or bitter, when the one or the other of these tendencies tried to get the upper hand. The services which Neander rendered to Church History are not exhausted with his writings. The living word, by which he worked as a teacher, the encouragement, the excitement, the guidance he imparted by his instructive personal intercourse, these things can be truly estimated only by those who had a part in them. How many have sat at his feet, and been won by him first and perhaps for always to the study of the history of the church; and this, too, in addition to the great multitude of those whose hearts were awakened by him for the practical service of the church and led in the way of salvation for themselves and for others. Neander's school is wide-spread; and where in later times has any talent shown itself in the sphere of historical theology that did not pass directly through this school at least in part? From this school have sprung whole branches of church history, especially that of the monograph, which in the last three decennia has borne such fair fruits. Some whole sides of the life of the church, as the History of Missions in its separate portions, the History of Christian Morals and Manners, of benevolent activity, and the History of the Internal, Spiritual Life of the Church, were first brought out by him into a clear light and woven into the web of ecclesiastical history. But the departed one has given us in his own life the most admirable addition to the History of the Church; for Neander's appearance is, as has been well remarked, the appearance of a Father of the Church for the church of the nineteenth century. Not only will his name be named with those of the great church historians, with the names of a Mosheim and a Planck, and in many things above them; but as a theologian for our later times Neander is to be reckoned in the number of those who have understood their VOL. VIII. No. 32. 73 time and have labored for it, in a purifying, quickening and reconciling spirit. Schleiermacher, De Wette, Neander. Yes, these three, now gone from us, (whom I name before all others because I have the singular happiness of owing to them more than others my own theological character), Schleiermacher, De Wette and Neander, once united as colleagues in one of the principal universities of Germany, each great in his way, each helping to complete the other's. They abide no longer with us, and the coming generation of theologians can now only look up to their illustrious forms as we gaze upon the heroes of the times of our fathers. They will reverence in them, if they be not unthankful, the founders of a new form of theology, of a theology which, it is to be hoped, will neither be circumscribed by the old bondage of the letter, nor yet let itself be forced back from its positive foundations by the pretensions of that tendency of the times which sets itself in a hostile attitude to Christianity. These three names will shine in the firmament of theological science, as long as an unprejudiced examination of Scripture shall form the basis of theological science-so long as a sound philosophy, not snatched from the air, but taken from the inmost nature of man and purified by revelation, shall remain the companion of theology, and so long as true and living historical investigations shall bring the present and the primitive times of Christianity together and shall mediate be tween them. The last words with which Neander separated from his friends and from the world were the words, "Good night." Oh! that no bitter irony may turn this simple wish of a pure heart into an evil omen; Oh! that that night may never break in upon us which shall obscure to our vision the brightness of this three-fold star, that night of barbarisın, in which the powers of darkness shall interlock their hands in the covenant between superstition and unbelief. 1 The putting them together is not an empty phrase. That these three theologians were very different, even in essential matters; that there was between Neander and De Wette for a long time an estrangement which began to be adjusted only in the last part of their lives, could be unobserved only by a blind man. But none the less may we regard each in his way as breaking the path for later times. That in which all three agreed negatively was in the protest against all unjustified reäction in the sphere of theological science, the preserva tion of their independence against this or that form of dognatism. But still more empaasis is to be laid upon the community of the three on the positive basis of finding the only ground of salvation in Christ. Sufficient evidence of this could be cited, were it necessary, from the writings of all of them. 1851.] Recent Works on Asia Minor. 857 No! far from us be this thought! Rather will we direct our eyes, as a worthy close of this solemn hour, to the prophecy which the deceased uttered at the end of the preface to his Life of Jesus: "We stand," he says, "on the boundaries between an old and between a new world, which will be called into existence by that Gospel which is ever old and ever new. For the fourth time there is preparing a new epoch of life for the human race by means of Christianity; and therefore can we, in every respect, only labor in preparation for the times of that new creation, in which, after the regeneration in life and in science, men shall proclaim with new and fiery tongues the great works of God." ARTICLE IX. RECENT WORKS ON ASIA MINOR. "THERE is no country that now affords so fertile a field of discovery as Asia Minor." This observation was made by Mr. Leake in 1824, and it is still substantially true, notwithstanding the important investigations which have since been made by a number of eminent travellers and scholars. In point of deep and absorbing interest, it is in some respects not inferior to Greece, Egypt, or Italy. The fabled Argonautic expedition sailed along the shores of Bithynia and Pontus. Here are the plains of Troy, and the scene of the great epic poem of antiquity. In regard to the earliest settlers of Lycia, we have more correct information from Homer and Herodotus, than from any other writers. Both almost claim this province as their native country, being perfectly familiar with its original legends. They tell the story of Europa's visit, and of her sons taking possession of the country. Some of the most beautiful parts of the Iliad recount the history of the Lycian heroes, Sarpedon and Glaucus, and the exploits of Pandarus. The climate of the country, and its beauty and fertility are frequently praised. All the remains termed Lycian, recently discovered, probably belong to the age of Homer, and that immediately subsequent. Much of the rock architecture, the sculptures, the language and the coins, do not refer to Byzantine, Roman, or even Greek subjects, which are known. Some of the most valua ble coins have reference to Bellerophon, the Pegasus, the Sphinx, etc.1 - Subsequently, numerous Greek cities and colonies sprung up and flourished along the southern and western shores of Asia Minor, sometimes rivalling the parent States. These colonists boasted that they had built three of those works which were termed "the seven wonders" of the world, the Colossus at Rhodes, the Mausoleum of Artemisia and the temple of the Ephesian Diana. The delightful narratives of Xenophon lead us twice through Asia Minor. Two of Alexander's great battles were fought in the peninsula, at the Granicus and at Issus. In the conflicts and tumultuous changes of his successors, this part of his empire played a conspicuous part. Pergamus, her kings and her library, are prominent in the scene. In the period of the Roman dominion, our interest is not much diminished, as her orators and historians relate the stirring events which occurred in Pontus, Cappadocia and Cilicia. Asia Minor has a sacred interest, partly grateful and partly sad. Flourishing Christian churches were planted in every direction from Pontus to Smyrna. Next to Palestine, the Christian scholar is attracted hither. The epistles of Paul find here much of their illustration. The apostle, himself a native of the southeastern district, repeatedly traversed large portions of Asia Minor in his missionary journeys. He has immortalized the places where he merely landed or embarked. In the recital of his sufferings he speaks of "perils of rivers," notαμav, and "of robbers." 2 Cor. 11: 26. We naturally think of the numerous and rapidly swelling rivers of the southern coast, and of Pisidia always wearing a bad name as a haunt for robbers. As the first of the divine revelations were probably commu nicated to the dwellers in Armenia, sometimes reckoned in Asia Minor, so the last were addressed to the seven churches in Asia, by one who saw the visions of God in an Asiatic Greek island, and who probably died at Ephesus, in the bosom of one of those seven churches. But the light from "the golden candlesticks" has long since gone out. Inspired teaching, and apostolic labor, could not ensure steadfastness in the faith. The history of Asia Minor in the middle ages is not without stir. ring interest. Some of the most exciting passages in the history of the crusaders describe their progress through these provinces. When Constantinople fell, and the Saracens were triumphant, the attention 1 Hamilton's Asia Minor, I. Preface, p. xvii. 2 Coneybeare and Howson. |