The beneficial influence, also, exercised by the Pietists on the manners and morals of the people should not be under-rated, although much of this influence was undoubtedly lost by their proneness to separate from the multitude. But, wherever the labours of Spener, as shepherd of souls, had found imitators, especially where Pietism had been recognised by the church of the State, the practical Christianity of the new teaching was perceptible. Like Spener, his followers felt the importance of religious instruction for the young, and gladly availed themselves of the opportunities when the youthful souls of the parish and the parents opened themselves to them, to counsel them on the more important occurrences of the day, and give a practical turn to their teaching. It was they who, with warm hearts, first, after the devastating war, provided schools for the people; and to them must be attributed the first regular supervision of the poor in the large cities. It is known that the German orphan-houses were established through them; the example of Franke, in Halle, was followed in many other cities--these great institutions were looked upon as a wonder by contemporaries. Throughout all ages these foundations of our pious ancestors ought to be regarded with special interest by our nation; for they are the first undertakings for the public welfare which have been formed by the voluntary contributions of individuals from the whole of Germany. For the first time did the people become conscious how great may be the results of many with small means working together. It is not surprising that this experience seemed then to the people like a fabulous tale, when one considers that in the ten years before and after 1700, the "Stillen" must have collected in the countries where the German tongue is spoken, far more than a million of thalers for orphan-houses and other similar benevolent institutions; this was, undoubtedly, not from private sources alone, but in that poor and depopulated country such sums are significant.
Thus did Pietism prepare men for rapid progress in many directions, and its best offering to its votaries, a more elevated sense of duty, and a greater depth of feeling, passed from the "Stillen im lande" into the souls of many thousands of the children of the world; it contributed scarcely less than science to the beginning of that period of enlightenment, by mitigating the wild and rough practices which everywhere prevailed in the second half of the seventeenth century, and by giving to the family life of Germans, at least in the cities, greater simplicity, order and morality. The families from whom our greatest scholars and poets have sprung, the parental houses of Goethe and Schiller, show the influence which the Pietism of the last generation exercised on their forefathers.
That many of the Pietists might lose themselves in extravagancies and dangerous by-ways, is easily comprehensible.
It was natural that with those who, after inward struggles and long strivings, had obtained strength for a godly life, the delivery of man from sin should become the main point; and as they were yearning, above all, for the direct working of God on their own life, it followed that they ascribed this awakening to the special grace of God; that they sought earnestly in prayer for the moment when this special illumination and sanctification should take place by a manifestation of the divinity; and that when, after severe tension of the soul, they reached a state of exaltation, they considered this as the beginning of a new life to which the grace of God was assured. Luther, also, had striven for this illumination; he also had experienced the transports of exaltation, inward peace, repose, certainty, and a feeling of superiority to the world; but it had been with him, as with the strong-minded among his contemporaries, an ever-enduring struggle, a frequently-repeated victory, a powerful mental process which appeared sometimes, indeed, wonderful to himself, but in which with his sound, strong nature, there was nothing morbid, and of which the special form, the struggles with the devil, were the natural consequences of the naïve, simple-hearted popular faith, which had changed the old household spirits and hobgoblins of our heathen ancestors into Christian angels and the devil. The Pietists, on the other hand, lived in a time when the life both of nature and man was more rationally viewed as to cause and effect, when a multitude of scientific conceptions were popular, when a practical worldly mind prevailed which made itself few illusions; and when the hearts of men were seldom elevated by enthusiasm and great ideas. Already we begin to trace the beginnings of rationalism. In such a time this regeneration, this moment of awakening, was not a frame of mind easily produced--not a condition in which, with a sound mental constitution, one could place oneself without a certain degree of violence. It was necessary to wait for it--to prepare oneself strenuously, and constrain body and soul to it, by a self-contemplation, in which there was something unsound; one must watch anxiously one's own soul, to discover when the moment of awakening was nigh. And this moment of awakening itself was to be entirely different from every other frame of mind. In order to arrive at the conviction of its presence, that was not sufficient for them, which, after severe struggles, had given a happiness to the great reformers that rested on their countenances like a reflection of the Godhead; the peace and serenity which come after the victorious end of a struggle betwixt duty and inclination. This outpouring of grace with the Pietists was frequently accompanied by ecstasies, visions, and similar pathological phenomena, which at no period have been wanting, but which were then sought after as the highest moments of human life and recounted with admiration. It will shortly be shown that this was the rock on which Pietism struck.
With such tendencies, even the reading of the Scriptures was fraught with special danger. When they explained the holy Scriptures, being under the conviction that God favoured them with a direct influence, they were in the unfortunate position of considering every accidental incident that presented itself to them in any part, as an unerring manifestation. Now, the yearning of a weak age for a better condition, and the inclination of the pious for special illumination, rendered the prophetic books of the Old and New Testament particularly attractive. Thus it came to pass that the Pietists drew from them a multitude of revelations and prophecies. It is of no importance at what results they arrived; but this engrossing attention to the dark passages of the prophets, and especially the Revelation of St John, did not contribute to render their judgment clearer, nor their scientific culture more solid: for in their time the key to the better understanding these records had not been found. Moreover, the knowledge of languages even among scholars was generally unsatisfactory, although, after the example of Schurmann, there was already here and there a pious maiden who began to learn Hebrew. It was not long before all worldly knowledge appeared, to most of them, useless and detrimental.
Thus, Pietism was threatened with great dangers immediately after its rise; but the life of the early Pietists, who from Frankfort spread themselves all over Germany, was more simple and harmless than the later proceedings at Halle, under the separatists of the eighteenth century.
Two autobiographies of pious individuals of Spener's school have been preserved to us, which throw light on other phases of German life. It is a husband and wife who have bequeathed them to us,--kind-hearted people, with warm feelings, some learning and no particular powers of mind,--the theologian, Johann Wilhelm Petersen, and his wife, Johanna Eleanor, born von Merlau. After they were united in marriage, they led together a spiritual life, in perfect unanimity, and, like a pair of birds, flitted through the temptations and troubles of this earthly valley. Heavenly consolation and manifestation came to them alike. The world considered them as enthusiasts, but they were held in honour to the close of their life by the best among the Pietists, undoubtedly because of the goodness of their hearts, which were not choked up with spiritual pride. The husband was industrious and faithful to his duties, a man with poetical feeling and some philosophical culture; but he needed another to lean on, and was evidently much influenced by his more decided wife, whose worldly position, as being noble, gave her consideration even among the pious. It was soon after his marriage that a restless excitement, and sometimes an immoderate zeal, became visible in him. His wife, who was some years older than himself, had attained to a rigid piety, whilst struggling against the worldly life of the small prince's court, where she had lived. One may conclude from her biography, that she was not free from ambition and love of power, with a slight touch of asperity. Her long, quiet struggle had made her over-zealous, and she and the pious Frau Bauer von Eyseneck, with whom she lived later at Frankfort, both belonged to the enthusiastic members of the community, who were inclined to conventicles, and caused great sorrow on that account to their pastor, Spener. It may therefore be assumed that it was chiefly the influence of the wife that drove her husband on in the course which at last removed him from his office, and gave him the repute of being an enthusiast and millennarian. But the hatred of the orthodox party has done injustice to both; they were honest even when predicting marvels. We will first give the youthful years of the wife, then some characteristic traits from the life of the husband, related in their own words. Johanna Eleonora Petersen, by birth von Merlau, was born at Merlau the 25th of April, 1644. She narrates as follows[[79]]:--
"The fear of the Lord has guarded me, and His goodness and truth have led me.
"I have felt the quieting of his good Spirit from childhood, but have resisted it from ignorance. My high position in the world has been a great hindrance to his working; because I loved the world equally with Him, till I came to a right understanding, and till the saving Word wrought powerfully in me to conviction. For when I was about four years old it came to pass that my dear parents, who had lived at Frankfort on account of the troubles of war, returned into the country, as peace was established. They brought many things into the country, and my now deceased mother lived with me and both my sisters on a property at Hettersheim, called Philippseck, where she believed herself to be out of harm's way. Then came the servants and told her that a troop of horsemen were coming, whereupon every one quickly put away what belonged to them and left; my now deceased mother, with three little children, alone, of whom the eldest was seven and I four years old, and the third at the breast. Then did my deceased mother take the youngest in her arms, and both of us by the hand, and went without a maid-servant to Frankfort, which was distant a long half-league. But it was summer, the corn was standing in the fields, and one could hear the noise of the soldiers, who were marching about a pistol's shot from us. Then did my deceased mother become much alarmed, and bade us pray. But when we came to the outermost gate of the city, where we were in security, my deceased mother sat herself down with us, and exhorted us to thank the Most High God who had protected us. Then said my eldest sister, who was three years older than I, 'Why should we pray now? now they cannot come to us.' Then was I grieved to the heart at this speech, that she would not thank God, or thought that it was no longer necessary. I rebuked her for this, having fervent love for the Lord, whom I thanked with my whole heart--Item, as I was persuaded that the midwife had brought the children from heaven, I had a great desire to talk to her; I charged her to greet heartily the Lord Jesus, and desired to learn from her whether the dear Saviour loved me. These were the first childish emotions that I can distinctly remember.
"When I was nine years old we became motherless orphans, and matters went ill with us; for our father dwelt at a farm five miles from our property, and brought the widow of a school-master into the house to take care of us. She had her own children to help on, and spent upon them what should have been ours, leaving us in want, so that we often gladly took what others would not have. It happened too through her artifices that she left us alone in the house in the evening. Then came certain people, dressed in white shirts, and their faces rubbed with honey and sprinkled with flour; they went about the house with lights, broke open chests and coffers, and took from out of them what they wished. This gave us such a fright that we huddled together behind the stove, and perspired with fear. This went on till the whole house was emptied. As our father was very severe with us, we had not the heart to complain, but were only glad when he left us; so we bore with this annoyance till von Praunheim, who is now married to my sister, visited us,--he was then very young. To him we complained of our distress, and he undertook to remain concealed in the house till evening, to see whether the spirits would come again. When they did come, and one went straight to the cupboard to break it open, then he sprang out, and found that they were people from the country town--sons of a wheelwright, who were intimate with the widow who had charge of us. But, as he was alone, they rushed away and would not allow that it was them; but the spirits did not return, and we recovered much that they had left on the floor of the kitchen.