On the Continent, the Reformed Churches had in the seventeenth century fallen into a lifeless state consequent upon their alliance with the world. Here and there evidences of life were to be found both within and without the established Churches. Our object is to trace and depict them, if but briefly and incompletely.
Early in the seventeenth century, an evangelical man named Teelink had promoted conversational Bible readings and prayer meetings among believers in Holland. Such activities have always been a source of blessing to Christians. They provide for the exercise of that corporate, spiritual life which is the very essence of Christianity and which the formal round of religious services and sermons does not provide. It was thus that the earliest Christians met and edified one another. Later, such activities were promoted by an earnest minister in the Dutch Reformed (Calvinistic) Church named Lodensteyn. He preached without choir and without vestments. He grieved much over the deadness of the Reformed Church. “The Reformed Church,” he said, “is outwardly flourishing and inwardly dead. It has a worldly piety and an outward zeal for the worship and service of God ... but it is in vain I labor to break through the unspeakable carelessness and coldness beneath. ... People take the outward, national Church for the true Church ... but of the spiritual Church, the hidden Body of Christ, they know nothing and care nothing for it.” He felt that God’s holy things were being profaned by the admission of unbelievers to the Lord’s supper. And while he would not join in the communion service for this reason, he felt it his duty to remain and preach in the Calvinistic Church at Utrecht, in spite of opposition and misrepresentation. He died in 1677, leaving a truly Christian testimony.
Labadie
In 1639 a French Jesuit named Labadie was dismissed from that order on account of health. God had used the Scriptures to open his eyes to the truth. He felt he was called by God to do a work of reformation. He began to preach Christ as the Saviour of sinners. In spite of denunciation by his enemies, God overruled events so that for a long time he continued to proclaim the gospel in France in the midst of the Romish system. The Bishop of Amiens invited him to preach in his diocese. He formed a company of awakened persons who met twice a week for prayer and for the study of the Word of God and who also read the Bible in their own homes.
He hoped the day would come when the Church would abandon all its rites and ceremonies and return to the simple worship of apostolic days. “Then,” he said, “they would all meet for reading the Word, for preaching and for prayer, and to take the Lord’s supper, both bread and wine, as in the days of the apostles.” The numbers thus gathered ran into hundreds.
Labadie was finally forbidden to preach and became a fugitive for four years. To his surprise, he found what he had been teaching was in agreement with the doctrines of the Protestants. He finally found his way to Geneva. Prevailed upon to preach in that citadel of Calvinism, his activities were so blessed that they produced a remarkable revival — a revival which, as in other instances, changed even the public aspect of the city. Later he accepted an invitation to labor at Middleburgh in Holland. His devotion to the truth, however, aroused the opposition of the Reformed Church. He preached the second coming of the Lord and used extempore prayer. On account of these and other scriptural views, he found himself opposed by the Reformed Church.
Finally he came to the conclusion that his lifelong ideal of a restoration of the apostolic Church could only be reached by separation from all the then existing systems, Catholic or Protestant. So he left the Church. A new community was formed of his followers. They were banished from Middleburgh and went to Veere. Persecution threatened, so he removed to Amsterdam. Not long after, there were sixty thousand in Amsterdam and many in other towns who formed communities in separation from the Reformed Church on the grounds that they could not partake of the Lord’s supper with unbelievers. Labadie and some of his followers finally found refuge in Altona (Denmark), where they began to meet and break bread on the simple lines of apostolic days. There he and his company shared a communal life. After Labadie’s death, the company removed to Wiewart in Holland. A writer well versed in the history of those times says, “To Labadie and his followers may be traced many a stream of living water flowing yet through dark and dry places in Holland and in Germany. Like Ridley and Latimer in England, Labadie lighted a candle which will never be put out till the Church is called up to be with Christ.”
“For about fifty years the community held together, though dispersed into distant corners of the earth. Labadie’s widow, with a few more, went to Surinam, where her brother was governor, and there began the first Protestant mission recorded in history. It came, however, to an untimely end.”
Philip Spener
Labadie influenced, among others, Philip Spener, who in turn was much used of God to revive the dying embers of faith in Germany. What is called the Pietist movement in Germany was largely the result of Spener’s work. Born in 1635, Spener was brought up under the influence of the pious Countess Agatha of Rappolstein, who had been led by the troubles of the Thirty Years’ War to turn to God. God worked in Spener’s heart while still a lad. When a young man, he spent some time in Geneva where Labadie was preaching, and his heart was stirred with a burning desire for the restoration of the simplicity of faith and worship in his own country. He became a public preacher at Strasbourg in 1662 and from 1666 at Frankfort-on-Maine. In 1694 the name of Pietist was first given to the awakened Protestants in that city. It was coined as a term of reproach. An extraordinary awakening followed in the beginning of the eighteenth century, traceable largely to Spener and those who were blessed through his means.
The Counts of Wittgenstein had for long welcomed Huguenot refugees fleeing from the awful persecutions in France which exiled hundreds of thousands of these sorely-tried believers. To this city of refuge other persecuted Christians — Labadists, Anabaptists and Pietists — found their way. Early in the eighteenth century, Count Casimir, having finished his education with a period of foreign travel during which he had been soundly converted, returned and took control of the family domain. Although among the motley crowd of refugees who settled in this region there were many extremists and fanatics, there were, on the other hand, many earnest, zealous Christians, and this little territory became “the center and hearth of a mighty awakening which spread through the whole of western Germany from the Alps to the North Sea — which gathered together the children of God who were scattered abroad, scattered broadcast spiritual food, and was watered everywhere by showers of spiritual blessing.”
It was then that the martyrs and preachers in southern France died in multitudes among their native mountains or were driven from their homes to begin their lives afresh in foreign lands. The blessed hope of the Lord’s second coming, which seemed all but forgotten during the long ages since the apostles, began to be revived among the Pietists. There was with them, too, a fervent desire for the conversion of God’s ancient people, the Jews, hitherto held in hatred and contempt by Christians everywhere.
A. H. Francke
A feature among the Pietists was their zeal for the study and distribution of the Scriptures. A. H. Francke, professor of oriental languages, went to Halle University and made it the center of the Pietist movement. He started Bible classes and organized a school for poor children and then an orphanage. A printing press, which had been started by Baron von Canstein, came into his hands, and was employed for printing Bibles and New Testaments, which were distributed all over Europe and America.
From Halle issued some of the first missionaries since Reformation days. In 1705 two Halle students, Ziegenbalg and Putschau, were sent, under the auspices of the King of Denmark, to the Danish settlement in India. Ziegenbalg translated most of the Bible into Tamil, and a number of natives were converted. Halle for many years was a focus of evangelical activity and its influence extended far and wide.
Ernest Von Hochman
One of the fruits of the Pietist university of Halle was the conversion of Ernest von Hochman, a nobleman’s son. One day, when out hunting, he was led by a curious circumstance to dedicate himself entirely to the Lord’s service. Thenceforward he labored ardently for Christ. During an outbreak of persecution against the Pietists, he found refuge at Wittgenstein. There he built himself a little hermitage in the woods where he lived much alone, but preached and taught in the castles of the counts. Having been used to the conversion of one of the countesses, he was driven from the territory by her enraged husband. Thereafter, for ten years or more, he traversed the whole of western and northern Germany with several companions, holding meetings in houses, farmyards, fields and forests, which were attended by great crowds.
At times his soul was stirred within him as he heard blind leaders misleading their congregations from the pulpit, and he would stand up and publicly rebuke them. On a number of occasions he was put in prison. From the prison of Nuremberg he wrote, “My heart can find rest in nothing, but only in the one only love, the love of Jesus, and he who once has tasted what it is will lose all taste for the things of this world. The Lord Jesus will henceforward do with me as He will, come what may. I have given myself up to the service of my gracious Lord, and His I remain. I shall find no better Lord and Master, turn where I will.”
His journeys through Protestant Germany much resembled the activities of Wesley thirty years or more later. There was much opposition from the clergy and mobs who pelted him with mud and stones, but there were many conversions. Unlike Wesley, he withdrew from the Churches, for he said there was no evidence left of true worship either among the Lutheran or the Reformed. He held that the true Church consisted only of living members of Christ. When asked what religion he belonged to, his answer was, “We belong to Christ, the Head of the Church, and not to any sect.” He was forbidden to preach, but the people only came in greater numbers to hear him. He departed to be with Christ in 1721. The day before his death, he said to a visitor, “All vanishes; only Jesus remains, and in the darkness there is light.”
Gerhardt Tersteegen
Another shining light in these dark days in Germany was Gerhardt Tersteegen. His father, an earnest Christian, had carried on a voluminous correspondence with awakened Christians in Holland and Germany. Companies of Labadists were numerous in Meurs and the neighboring towns. His father died when Gerhardt was only six. He made rapid progress in his studies, but owing to lack of means had to go into his brother-in-law’s business at Mulheim. This town was the center of a great spiritual revival in the early eighteenth century; singing was to be heard everywhere; hymns and sacred songs were on the lips of the workpeople in the town and the laborers in the fields. Almost everyone read Christian books in their spare moments during the working day. So it was when Gerhardt arrived there, and his heart was touched with a longing to share the joy around him. An awakened conscience made him unhappy, but he still clung to the world. However, he began to attend the conventicles and listened to the earnest preachers like von Hochman who visited the town. It was not till 1717 when he was twenty years old that the light of God broke into his soul. He commenced business for himself, living and working alone, reading and studying much, and among his studies were the books of Jacob Boehme, a wild visionary whose mysticism poisoned many minds.
A long period of darkness and depression and physical weakness followed. The clouds of mysticism obscured the light of the knowledge of God. The prince of darkness was very active at that time. The Reformed Churches were temples of dry theology, filled with self-righteous Pharisees, while the philosophy and vain deceit that characterized the Age of Reason were sowing abroad the seeds of doubt and scepticism. There was a third kind of delusion: false prophets — wild enthusiasts — abounded, whose teachings and behavior were lying caricatures of “pure religion and undefiled” (James 1:2727Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. (James 1:27)). It was these last who, for a time, influenced the tender, highly-strung, sensitive mind of Gerhardt Tersteegen. But the clouds at last rolled away, and with the eyes of his heart Tersteegen saw “the King in His beauty” and beheld “the land that is very far off ” (Isa. 33:1717Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off. (Isaiah 33:17)). The effect was to produce an act of complete surrender to the Lord. He wrote his covenant of self-dedication to His Master in his own blood — a strange and unnecessary extravagance it may seem to us — but He who knows the heart would value even such a token at its right value. Thenceforward he never turned back. This was in 1724.
For a short time, he earned board and lodging as tutor to his brother’s children, but following the counsel of a wise friend, he and another Christian worked together as ribbon weavers. They lived together for forty-four years. His life was one of self-denial and service to others for Christ’s sake. He now began to write those wonderful songs and hymns for which, as an author, he is unique. He has been called the foremost master of spiritual song. There was at this time a wonderful gospel work in Mulheim, and Gerhardt Tersteegen emerged from his retirement to become a powerful preacher and guide of souls. He accepted the Holy Scriptures as the inspired and infallible Word of God, but from the year 1726 he firmly refused to join in the communion of the Reformed or the Lutheran Church. “That which is holy,” he said, “is given to dogs, and by the reception of so many who are known to be unworthy, the indignation of God is aroused against the country and the professing Church.” He upheld the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s supper but did not accept the current teaching that they were necessary to salvation. “One cannot,” he said, “in these days, join oneself to any assembly or take the Lord’s supper anywhere without joining oneself, not to pious people, for they are rarely to be found in any of these congregations, but to the whole mass of worldly-minded people, who could only be a hindrance to blessing.” He added, “I will now go into another question, namely, if we join ourselves to this mixed multitude in any sect or denomination, we are separating ourselves (often unconsciously or unintentionally) from the love and fellowship of many pious people who do not belong to this sect or denomination. What should hinder us, beloved, from meeting together as Christians? Two or three make a complete assembly, in the midst of which the Lord has promised to be present.” He had acquired some knowledge of medicine and the properties of herbs, and he added the healing of the body to the care of souls. His services were in great demand and his time so fully occupied that in 1728 he gave business up entirely and lived by the sale of his books, his services as a physician being gratis. He became known far and wide, and his visits were more extended. “From Sweden to Switzerland, from Berlin to the lonely forests of North America, he sought out and found (by correspondence and by means of friends) ‘partakers of the heavenly calling’ (Heb. 3:11Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; (Hebrews 3:1)), and it was a great joy when he could add a new name to his ‘book of remembrance’ (Mal. 3:1616Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. (Malachi 3:16)).” Those whose names were thus recorded were remembered in his prayers. A great revival followed his first preaching, and his labors in following up and watching over the spiritual welfare of those awakened by his means were constant and arduous. Travel now occupied a great part of Tersteegen’s time. Roads were poor or non-existent in those days, and his journeys, like those of Wesley, were made on horseback. When conventicles were prohibited by the government in 1740, Tersteegen devoted himself to house-to-house teaching and letter-writing, besides the writing of books. His house was often beset with visitors from morning to night. Thus he labored, preaching and teaching and exhorting by word and by pen. He was a shining example of the Lord’s words, “He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:3838He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (John 7:38)).
The Pietist movement already spoken of had lost its power, like the Protestantism it sought to revive, and God used men like Tersteegen to bring in, once again, the water of life. Never strong, Tersteegen’s infirmities increased as old age came on. In his latter days he suffered much in body but bore his sufferings with much patience. On April 3, 1769, he departed to be with Christ. Space forbids our giving fuller details of the life of this truly remarkable Christian. He was a true follower of Jesus and one who was full of His Spirit. He left a precious legacy to the Church in his wonderful hymns and spiritual songs. A great multitude followed his body to the grave.