kness, which perhaps were produced by
insignificant causes, and a reckless sinner was suddenly plunged into
sorrow and contrition. Life was undoubtedly poor in love and elevation,
but the necessity of loving and honouring which lies so deep in the
German nature, after the peace, sought painfully for something high and
steadfast, in order to give an aim and an interest to his poor wavering
life. Thus the mind clung to the holy conceptions of faith, which it
again with quiet reverence endeavoured to realise heartily,
affectionately, and confidingly.

From such longings in the hearts of the people, a new life was
developed in the Christian Church. It was not only among the followers
of Luther, but equally in the Calvinistic persuasion, and almost as
much in the Roman Catholic Church; it was also not only in Germany and
the countries which then partook of German cultivation, Denmark,
Sweden, Eastern Sclavonia, and Hungary, but almost at the same time in
England, and even earlier in France and Holland, where religious schism
and political faction have rent asunder the souls of men in bitter
controversy for centuries. Nay, even among the Jesuits we may find the
working of this same craving after a new ideal in a cheerless life. In
the history of the Christian Church, this Pietism--as the new tendency
has been called by its opponents since 1674--has been a transitory
impulse, which blossomed and withered in little more than a century.
The effect it has exercised on the culture, morals, and spirit of the
German people may still be perceived. In some respects it has been an
acquisition to the nation, and a short account of it shall now be
given.

As this Pietism was no new doctrine proclaimed by some great reformer,
but only a tendency of the spirit which burst forth among many
thousands at the same time, the greater number of its professors
remained firm at first in the dogmas of their church. In fact, in the
beginning it only expressed wide-spread convictions, to which the best
natures had already, before the Thirty Years' War, given utterance;
that the points of union of religions parties, and not the deviations
of doctrinal opinions, were the main objects of faith; that personal
communion with God was independent of dogmas; that it availed little to
hear sermons and take the sacrament, to confess that one was a great
sinner and relied on the merits of Christ only and not on our own
works, nor to refrain from great sins and