here many stately ceremonies have taken place. At the door
of this cathedral Emperor William I., then Prince Regent, stood with
uncovered head to receive the remains of Alexander Von Humboldt, which
here lay in state in May, 1859, after the great scholar "went forth"
for the last time from his home in the Oranienburger Strasse.

We attended a service at the oldest of the Berlin churches, the
Nicolai Kirche, and found the sparseness of the audience in striking
contrast with the crowds which frequented most of the other churches
where we went. Standing-room is usually at a premium in the Cathedral,
the Garrison Church, and the place, wherever it may be, in which
Dryander preaches; and in nearly all the churches unoccupied seats are
hard to find. This is due, not to the large numbers of church-going
people in Berlin, but to the comparatively limited church
accommodations. It is not too soon that the present Emperor has given
order that the number of churches and sittings be immediately
increased. In this city of about a million and a half inhabitants,
there are only about seventy-five churches and chapels, all told; none
very large, and some quite small. It is said that Dryander's parish
numbers forty thousand souls, and that there are other parishes
including eighty thousand and one hundred and twenty thousand each.
Only about two per cent of the population attend church. Ties to a
particular church seem scarcely to exist in many cases; those who go
to Divine service following their favorite preacher from place to
place as he ministers now in one part, now in another, of his vast
parish, or going to the Court Church to see the Imperial family, or to
some other which happens to offer fine music or some special
attraction for the day. Churches do not need, however, to offer
special attractions nor to advertise sensational novelties in order to
be filled, and of course there are many humble and devout Christians
found in the same places from week to week.

The Nicolai Kirche dates from before 1250 A.D. and the great granite
foundations of the towers were laid still earlier. At this period the
savage Wends and the robber-castles of North Germany were yielding to
the prowess of the Knights of the Teutonic Order, and the powerful
Hanseatic League was uniting its free cities and cementing its
commercial interests, of which Berlin was erelong to be a part,--a
League which was to sweep the Baltic by its fleets, and to set up and