Editorial Notes. THE Editor extends his hand with grateful | render it acceptable to the general religious welcome to an unexpectedly numerous company of subscribers. At "this present writing," hardly a week has passed since the appearance of our first number, yet the demand for the work, already on the books of the publishers, amounts to about six thousand, and every mail augments it. In our preliminary reckonings we hopefully calculated on ten thousand, as an encouraging number, for the close of the first year; we will not dissemble that we feel exceedingly complaisant in view of the more gratifying prospect before us. We have already intimated some of the drawbacks which have beset our undertaking. For the convenience of beginning in July, as a suitable semi-annual period, we have had to work thus far not only in hot weather but in hot haste. Besides the mechanical and artistic preliminaries, most of which have claimed the editor's attention, he has been under the necessity of editing the first two numbers nearly simultaneously, and, before either of them was through, to begin the third. The foreign publications, too, upon which, from the plan of the work, he is so largely to depend, could not, of course, be immediately commanded; his three first issues must, of necessity, be dispatched without them; his only resource, as a substitute, being a batch of such works as he could seize and disembowel with unceremonious dispatch. We know it is easy, and as natural to reply that we should blame ourselves for such a necessity-but the reader must bear in mind, that we are but editor; and an editor standing between publishers and public, must not unfrequently (as the backwoodsmen tell us of Bruin, in winter quarters) lick his intellectual resources out of his paws. It is usually, we know, irrelevant and sometimes worse, to indulge in editorial apologies; but it is due not only to ourselves but to our patrons, who have so promptly rallied around us, that we should allow them this brief glance at the unavoidable circumstances which have delayed, and otherwise interfered with the publication. Meanwhile we have got along with tolerable good nature, notwithstanding these embarrassments; and we must solicit the same favorable disposition on the part of our readers, till we get fully "under way." Both our foreign and domestic resources will soon be regularly at our command, to the mutual satisfaction, we trust, of editor and reader. We regret that in several very cordial references to this work, it has been directly or indirectly placed in competition or comparison with some of our predecessors. We have explicitly disclaimed any such pretensions. Our design, size, terms, all give us a distinct character. This publication has been provided to meet a specific want, particularly in the religious community which originated it: that want it can meet with adaptations which may public. In its own peculiar field it need not fear, but may welcome the co-operation of other and more general works. Some of the latter are of established standing, and of extraordinary size and richness; with our different dimensions and pretensions, it would be as absurd in us to attempt to equal them, as it would be contemptible in them, with their established reputation and currency, to resort to any artifices of interference with us. Our own patronage will be, to a great extent, independent and specific; so far as we shall share the general market with our cotemporaries, it will be, we doubt not, without appreciable interference with them. Many who may be unable to meet the larger terms, which their larger expenditures justify, may find ours not inconvenient; this, however, will be no subtraction from their patronage. More on this subject hereafter. While it shall be our aim to give a popular character to these pages, devoting them chiefly to articles which shall be especially adapted to general readers and the family circle, we shall endeavor to present in each number papers which may deserve the attention of the student or the literary man in his leisure, and, in due time, original discussions of leading public the general character of the work will restrict questions. There are obvious limits to which us in respect to the latter subjects; but, nevertheless, there are aspects of them, presented by the exigencies of the religious, the literary, or the social world, which may be legitimately examined within those limits. Among our present articles, will be found one on the "Buried Palaces of Nineveh." In the Literary Record of our July No. we referred to Bonomi's recent work on the discoveries of Botta and Layard; the above article gives an outline from Bonomi of the history of these discoveries, and the Scripture illustrations afforded by them. The paper on the Roscicrucians will also be of interest to the literary reader. We give several scientific articles, among which are the Natural History of the Silk-worm, Ivory and its Applications, and the elegant essay on the Characteristics of Birds, from the pen of H. T. Tuckerman, Esq. The Defense of Mrs. Fry, from the London Eclectic, will interest the Christian reader, as it vindicates that rare lady from the abuse of a gossiping, but plausible book which has been reprinted in this country, and the misrepresentations of which, respecting the Gurney family, were of such an insidious character as to produce no slight impression. Our juvenile readers will find an article-The Linnet and its Nest-especially suited to their own tastes. The other papers form a somewhat numerous miscellany, which we hope will be found interesting to our readers generally. OHANN AUGUST WILHELM NE- voted himself, even at that early period, on the 16th of January, 1789. Of the condition of his parents, we have only learned that they were very poor. He showed early indications of that deeply devout and meditative turn of mind which was so strongly developed in his after life; and it is said that his mother, who was a very pious Jewess, took great pains to implant devotional feelings in his young heart. The Johanneum of Hamburg at that time held a very high place among the classical schools of Germany, and it was here that Neander laid the foundation of his broad classical culture-especially of his knowledge of Plato, to whose writings he deVOL. I, No. 3.-0 study of Plato formed the means of his transition from Judaism to Christianity; at all events, -as he himself has shown to be the case with many of the more spiritual and genial heathen souls in the early days of the Church,-" Plato was a schoolmaster to bring him to Christ." It was, however, by the perusal of Schleiermacher's Reden über die Religion (Discourses on Religion) that he was led to recognize Christ as the greatest and most glorious being that had appeared upon the earth; and, this truth once received, he went gradually on to a full apprehension and humble reception of the gospel. Of the actual steps of his conversion, in an outward sense, we have but little knowledge; but his correspondence with Chamisso gives beautiful glimpses of the process of change that was going on in his feelings, as well as of the development of his halfpoetical, half-philosophical mind. In 1806 he went to Halle, and commenced in earnest his course of theological study, devoting himself first to the Bible and to the Fathers, especially the Alexandrine. "In these studies," says an esteemed correspondent, Professor Jacobi, who had a long personal intercourse with him, "he lived over again, as it were, in his own mind, the gradually unfolding development of the Church, as it passed from the Jews to the Gentiles; and found its earliest science in its connection with the Platonic Philosophy at Alexandria." How Neander obtained the means of pursuing his studies, we have not ascertained; but it is well known that at Halle he suffered from poverty. His privations and his excessive application finally broke down his health, and laid the foundation for the discase which accompanied him through his whole life. Driven from Halle by Napoleon's measures for the dissolution of the University, he proceeded to Göttingen, and completed his course of study there. Here, under the guidance of Planck, he turned his attention more particularly to the sources of Church history, and imbibed his earnest devotion to what was subsequently the great work of his life. After completing his University course, he spent a short time in Hamburg, and then proceeded to Heidelberg, where, in 1811, he was admitted as privat docent in the University, and began his career as a teacher by a course of lectures on Church History. In the next year he made his first appearance as an author in his monograph on " Julian the Apostate;" in whose character and history Neander detected the agency of Platonism as hostile to Christianity, just as he had seen its influence in the Alexandrian theologians as preparatory to Christianity. The work was so strikingly conspicuous for piety and originality, as well as for a wide and genuine erudition, that it called the attention of the most eminent men* to the unknown author. In the year 1813 Neander received a call from the Prussian government to the University of Berlin. The aim of the government was to draw to the new University the ablest teachers from all parts of Germany; and but a short time before, Schleiermacher and De Wette had accepted professorships. We have before mentioned the effect of Schleiermacher's "Discourses on Religion" on the mind of Neander. At Halle he had again been brought under Schleiermacher's influence, and now, in entering upon his labors at Berlin, he stood to him in the relation of a colleague. That his mode of thinking, the current of his studies, and, in fact, his whole spiritual and intellectual life, were, to a certain extent, molded by that great man, there can be no doubt. He himself revered Schleiermacher, not merely as one of the instruments of his conversion from Judaism, but also as the herald of a new era in the ology; and over and over again in his works he acknowledges his obligations to him, vindicates certain of his views, and proclaims his spirit to be the genuine-the only genuine-spirit of theology. Neander fulfilled the duties of his professorship in the University of Berlin without intermission until a few days before his death. The history of his outward life during this period is little else than a history of his labors in his lectureroom and in his study; but they were mighty labors--such as will carry his name down to the latest posterity. His studies at Berlin were pursued in the same chan nel as at Heidelberg; and in 1813 he published a monograph on "Bernard and his Times"-an 8vo. volume of 338 pages, especially noticeable for its treatment of the relations between Bernard and Abelard. At an early period he was impressed with the conviction that the great work of preparing a general Church History was a task assigned to him by Providence; and this conviction deepened with advancing years. All his studies, however widely extended, were made subservient to this grand end. In the mean time he wisely adopted the plan of publishing, in separate parts, the results of his investigations into the history of particular periods; and the monographs on Julian and Bernard were of this character. Of the same class was his "Genetical Development of the Princi E. g., Niebuhr, who commends it highly in pal Gnostic Systems," which appeared in his correspondence, vol. ii. 66 1818; and also, Chrysostom and his Times," (2 vols., 18mo.) In all these works he aimed, true to the spirit of his own religious convictions, to promote at once Christian science and Christian life. But in 1822, with a view to make Church history conducive to general Christian edification, as well as to develop his researches into the first centuries of the Church, he published "Memorabilia from the History of Christianity and the Christian Life," 3 vols., (3d edition, 2 vols., 1845-1846.) In 1824 appeared a small 8vo. volume containing a series of addresses delivered at several anniversaries of the Berlin Bible Society, the profits of which were devoted to the cause of missions. These, with other occasional addresses and essays, were republished, 8vo., 1829. In 1825 he published "Antignosticus, Spirit of Tertullian, and Introduction to his Writings," (8vo., pp. 525.) In the latter part of the same year he published the first volume of his great Church History, the immediate occasion of which was, as he tells us in the preface, the call of his publisher for a new edition of the monograph on Julian. He found that the work must be entirely remodeled in order to meet his views, and this suggested the plan of publishing this volume, treating the history of the first three centuries as the beginning of a general Church history; and his plan, fortunately, was so generously encouraged by his publisher that he at once carried it into execution. In 1828 he published a second installment, in three volumes, extending the history to the sixth century. In the mean time he was studying the history of the Apostolic Age, which should, in chronological order, have been the subJect of the opening treatise; but he did not feel himself prepared to publish upon it until 1832, when he put forth the "History of the Planting and Training of the Christian Church by the Apostles," which reached its fourth edition in 1847. Two additional volumes of the Church History appeared in 1834 and 1836; and in 1837, his "Life of Jesus Christ, in its Historical Connection and Historical Development," which has also run through four editions. The publication of this last great work was hastened by the necessity of some antidote to Strauss's Life of Christ. The Church History was going on in the mean time; and a volume appeared in 1841, and another in 1845, bringing the history down to the year 1294. Neander completed an other volume in manuscript, up to the death of John Huss. Besides these larger works, he has written sketches, reviews, short biographical articles, &c.,-far too many to be enumerated here. One would think these labors sufficient to occupy the life of any one man. But Neander the author is but half the name of Neander; during the preparation of all these works he was giving as much time, or more, to his duties as Professor of Theology. He lectured twice and even thrice a day; the range of his topics embracing not only Church History, but Dogmatics, Ethics, the History of Doctrines and of Ethics, and, most important of all, the Exegesis of the New Testament. It is no exaggeration to say that no teacher of theology in Germany, since the days of the Reformation, has obtained so strong a hold upon the minds and the hearts of theological students as Neander. Their love for him amounted to a passion. This profound regard and reverence was doubtless due, to a considerable extent, to the grandeur and breadth of his intellect; but much of it-to the credit of the German students be it recorded-is to be ascribed to his fervent piety as a Christian, and to his genial simplicity as a man. On this point we present our readers with an extended extract from the letter of our correspondent, Professor Jacobi, who, both as student and professor, has had the fullest opportunities of intimate intercourse with the great departed. Contrasting Schleiermacher with Neander, our friend proceeds: "It was Schleiermacher's special gift and delight to discover and combine principles, to survey scientific culture and discipline as a whole, and to demonstrate their organic unity. It was his eminent acuteness as a dialectician that gave rule to his method of developing the subjects which he treated. Precisely those departments, however, which to him were less adapted, namely, History and the Exegesis of the New Testament, found a most capable laborer in Neander, whose great talent it was, in Exegesis to perceive at once the essential features in the characters and events of Scripture, and, in History, to exhibit, with a fine and profound insight, the genetical development of ideas and occurrences. These two great men were thus, in a certain sense, complements. of each other. "What especially enchained the atten tion of Neander's students was the devotion of the entire man to the subject of discourse before him. He did not stand up merely to offer his own reflections upon objects that had once been-upon events that once happened; he rather lived over again the history in his own mind, and when he spoke, brought it all fresh and living before his auditors. In hearing him you felt, and could not help feeling, that the soul of the lecturer was in communion with those of the gifted spirits that had preceded him as laborers in the kingdom of God; and that, for his mind, they yet lived, and that no prejudice or prepossession hindered his fellowship with them. And so he impressed his hearers with the conviction that his utterances were given in the spirit of truth-never in the spirit of party. And while he unfolded History or Scripture in a strictly consecutive and logical manner, he always spoke with an unadorned, and often, therefore, with a more sublime simplicity. Everywhere, too, you saw and felt, amid the manifestations of a vast and comprehensive intellect, the movements of a tender and loving heart. In him there glowed that gentle fire that shone so purely and beautifully in the apostle John; and, with its mild light and warmth, it touched the hearts of those that heard him, winning them at once to him and to his Master. The uniform humility of his language and of his thoughts, his reverence and love for the things of God, often rising even to enthusiasm, and his personally rich Christian experience, gave an edifying character even to his scientific lectures; and, indeed, in his hands, the practical side of Christianity and of theology was inexpressibly attractive, and even touching. It was his constant effort to promote Christian life along with science; and this led him into earnest strifes not only against all perversions of true science, but also against every tendency hostile to the interests of pure Christianity. His personal intercourse with students was of a character greatly to increase his influence over them and their love for him. Half an hour of every day after dinner, and the whole of Saturday evening, were expressly reserved for conversation with the students. They gathered round him with the utmost freedom-and he sat in their center, as much a friend as a teacher. With the utmost patience he listened to their state ments of difficulties-heard their questions, and solved their doubts. The intellectual crumbs which in those golden hours fell from Neander's table would make many a scholar rich. "A student in want or suffering was sure of succor from his own purse, though his resources were very limited; and when this would not suffice, he was untiring in his efforts to interest others in their behalf. One or two incidents may be given out of many. A poor student, in ill health, was ordered to visit a watering-place. Neander was not able, at the time, to give him the necessary money; but he selected one of his most valuable books,—a splendid edition of Griesbach's New Testament,-fixed a price on it, and sold a number of tickets to the students, who drew lots for the book. The avails enabled the poor student to proceed upon his journey. I was myself," continues Jacobi, "witness of another case, in which he entreated a young man with affectionate urgency-I may even say imploringly-to accept from him a gift of money in an hour of need. Seeing that the young man's sense of independence was so strong as to humiliate him in view of receiving such relief, he reminded him, with touching delicacy, that it was 'more blessed to give than to receive,' and entreated him to accept the gift for love's sake. With no family of his own, Neander considered himself the father of young theologians; and never, since the time of Melancthon, his great spiritual forerunner, has a teacher in the universities of Germany so faithfully filled this relation. With all his simplicity of mind and feeling, he had a quick and intuitive perception of talent and of moral character; and his prognostications were generally realized in the subsequent history of his pupils. Humble in his estimate of himself, and regarding any peculiar talent which the lowliest mind might have as worthy of all respect as a 'gift of God,' he gladly afforded to every student the fullest opportunities of culture, and was cautious of setting arbitrary limits to the development of individual minds. And even when the religious life of any one was obscured by great faults, he remained true to him, and would not despond, so long as any germ of better things could be discerned. How many has he, by his long-enduring patience, finally led to the Saviour! |