Minutes from the Hauge Synod congregation in Ossian, Iowa

 A page from the Ossian, Iowa congregation of the Hauge Synod. The pastor was Peder Severin Stenerson.

This page records a congregational meeting in 1900 as well as the tail end of the previous meeting. It says:

For the school committee for next year the following were elected, Knud Østerhus, Karl Karlson and Jakob Østerhus, this committee is responsible, together with P. S. Stenerson to negotiate with K. M. ‘J’. Mjånos, if this person is willing to hold "mothers-school” ((language class)) here for the same pay - $20.00 per month or a little ‘more’. The referendum was read and passed.
March 29 - 1900
As was previously decided, the Stavangers congregation met for the official congregational meeting on the 29th of March, 1900. The meeting was opened with prayer, bible verse readings and song. After this, Pastor Stenerson declared the meeting open for discussion regarding if the congregation should send any delegates to the next annual meeting. After some debate, the congregation decided to send some delegates to the annual meeting. Then the congregation unanimously voted to have new cedar shingles put on the roof. As well as, voted unanimously to paint the church, both the outside and the inside.  Then a committee was chosen for the collection of money for materials, consisting of Ole ‘Krundsvig’, Ole ‘Aasterud’ and Knud Kleppe Jr. Additionally a committee was chosen to direct and have oversight of the repairs to the church, consisting of Pastor Stenerson, E. N. Evensen and T. N. Evenson.   
      The referendum was read and passed the same day.
                                               T. N. Evenson.
                                    Temporary Secretary

 

Stephan Gerlach

 

What's going on here?

Hello there

This version of the blog has laid dormant for many a year. I am now resurrecting it to dump in random bits and bobs of research or curiosities based on a book I am working on. In the years since I have used Blogger with any regularity, it has stagnated. The templates are sub-par and it lacks in a lot of modern tools. It does however allow for some manipulation of the css and so I thought I would rip off the Tufte CSS crafted by Dave Liepmann. Lo and behold, it seems to work, if crudely, on Blogger.

As a matter of fact, I think I can even get sidenotes to work. ⊕ Yes, they work! This is technically a margin note.

So I don't expect this blog to have much of a readership, unless you are interested in some of the individuals I mention, or the time period I am covering. If for some reason you are reading this, please let me know in the comments.

Gisle Christian Johnson

⊕Gisle Christian Johnson from Store norske leksikon.

Theologian. Parents: Second Lieutenant, later Harbor Director Georg Daniel Barth Johnson (1794–1872; see NBL1, vol. 7) and Wilhelmine (“Mina”) Hanssen (1800–69). Married 31.10.1849 to Emilie (“Milla”) Helgine Sophie Dybwad (15.9.1825–14.2.1898), daughter of merchant Jacob Erasmus Dybwad (1792–1854) and Christiane Lange (1795–1885). Grandfather of Lauritz Johnson (1906–92); uncle of Johannes Johnson (1864–1916) and Gisle Carl Torsten Johnson (1876–1946); brother-in-law of Jacob Dybwad (1823–99).

Gisle Johnson was one of the 19th century's most important Norwegian theologians - Lutheran-confessional, but at the same time characterized by a modern way of thinking. For over a century he worked at the Faculty of Theology in Kristiania, and he exercised great influence on the future priests. He co-founded the internal emissary in Norway and was for a long time one of its foremost leaders. With his preaching of penance, he left his strong mark on religious life in Norway from the 1850s.

Johnson was born in Fredrikshald, but grew up in Kristiansand, interrupted by two years (1832–34) in Lyngdal. In Kristiansand he went to the city's cathedral school and graduated from there to the exam artium 1839. At home he received a harmonious Christian upbringing. Also important was his long-standing and close friendship with assistant professor Ole Christian Thistedahl, who led him into 17th-century Lutheran orthodoxy and a pietistic-colored scriptural theology rooted in classical education.

After artium, Johnson studied theology at the University of Christiania and became cand.theol. 1845. The following year he traveled to Germany with a scientific scholarship. He visited Berlin and Leipzig and found a suitable place of study in Erlangen, where he met the Lutheran-denominational experience theology ("Erlangen School"). After two years abroad, he returned to Christiania, where in 1849 he was appointed associate professor at the Faculty of Theology. In 1860 he became professor with responsibility for systematic theology. In 1855–74 he also taught pedagogy at the practical-theological seminary.

In the 1850s, the state church faced great challenges. The resignation of the priest G. A. Lammers (1856) and the establishment of a free church which eventually became Baptist, caused unrest. In the laity there was great dissatisfaction with the Grundtvigian priests. In 1851, Gisle Johnson also emerged as an uncompromising critic of Grundtvigianism. Its lack of sense of the exclusive authority of Scripture, its optimistic view of man and its cultural openness were for him incompatible with Lutheran doctrine and with the pietistic basic attitude he shared with the "awakened" lay people. The Church's infant baptism was attacked by Baptists. Johnson responded with the book Nogle Ord om Barnedaaben (Some Words on Infant Baptism).

In 1855, Johnson initiated the founding of the Christiania Indremissionsforening. Social and spiritual distress necessitated internal emigration; it should be concentrated on edification, "soul care", dissemination of edifying writings and diakonia - a supplement to the state church's public service. From 1855 he held for a time Bible readings in Christiania with a large influx. Johnson broke social and cultural barriers when he became a popular preacher as a professor. The Pietist revival of the 1850s was named after him (the "Johnson Revival"). Priests who had sat under his catheter helped bring it to church life. An alliance was developed between the Orthodox-Pietist clergy ("Johnson priests") and the people of the inner mission, which was to become significant well into the 20th century.

Johnson was behind the establishment of the Norwegian Lutheran Foundation (1868), a nationwide central body for internal mission work and the forerunner of the Norwegian Lutheran Internal Mission Society, which was established in 1891. He was also involved in the establishment of a number of institutions, such as. Diakonissehuset (1868), the first nursing school in Norway.

As a Lutheran-denominational theologian, Gisle Johnson had difficulties with the public lay sermon, which accompanied the inner mission. When the Lutheran Foundation's unorthodox preachers preached publicly, it was clearly contrary to the confession, he believed. Johnson sought a solution to his so-called "distress principle": When the church was in spiritual "distress," the layman had to use his gift of grace to preach; but when and where it should happen, the lay preacher himself had to consider. In that sense, the Lutheran Foundation took no responsibility. When the Lutheran Foundation was transformed into the Home Mission Society in 1891, the "emergency principle" was abolished, and Johnson resigned from the leadership.

In the 1870s, Johnson gave up teaching systematic theology and took over dogma history instead. He was clearly burnt out. Nor did he seem able to meet the challenges of modern culture. During the constitutional struggle in the 1880s, he was behind the conservative appeal To the Friends of Christianity in Our Country, published in 1883 as a warning against political radicalism within the left movement. The appeal provoked violent reactions on a liberal and radical level. Even within the lay movement it did not gain general support; large parts of it parish to the party Venstre.

Scripture, the Reformation confessions, and Luther himself were the decisive authorities in Johnson's "system." But it rested on modern principles: The valid theology was rooted in the individual faith experience. The Lutheran teaching content could be internalized in the believer because it expressed the experience of faith in a comprehensive way. In this way, the experience also had a dogmatically correct content. He justified this method theologically-psychologically in his pissing (learning about the nature of faith). Struggle for pure Lutheran doctrine, preaching of revival and emphasis on personal piety were natural consequences of his principled theological position.

Johnson's professional writing was rather limited. He influenced primarily through teaching and preaching. But he emphasized journalistic communication: in 1859 he started (together with CP Caspari and RT Nissen) Theological Journal of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Norway and edited it until 1891. In 1863 he founded the Lutheran Church Gazette and was its editor until 1875, and In 1864–71 he published Gammelt og Nyt, a Journal of Enlightenment and Building for Lutheran Christians.

For the Grundtvigians and the spokesmen of liberalism, Gisle Johnson represented orthodox dogmatism and dark pietism, for the conservative clergy and the pietistic lay movement in the inner mission he was a "church leader". He was a member of the Society of Sciences in Christiania (now the Norwegian Academy of Sciences) from its foundation in 1857 and of the Royal Society of Norwegian Sciences from the same year. He was knighted by St. Olav's Order 1866 and received the Commander's Cross of 1st Class 1882; In 1879 he was created an honorary doctor at the University of Copenhagen.

Works

A selection

• Some Words about Barnedaaben, 1857
• 1859–91 Theological Journal of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Norway
• Spare. Konkordiebogen or the evangelical Lutheran Church's Bekjendelsesskrifter (sm.m. C. P. Caspari), 1861–66 (and later edition)
• Ed. Lutheran Kirketidende 1863–75
• red. Old and New, a Journal of Enlightenment and Edifice for Lutheran Christne 1864–71
• Outline of systematic Theology, for Use at Lectures, 1879–81 (and later circulation)
• Spare. Dr. Martin Luther's great Katechismus (sm.m. C. P. Caspari), 1881 (and later edition)
• To the Friends of Christendom in Our Land, 1883
• Lectures on Dogma History, (posthumously) 1897
• Lectures on the Christian Ethik, (posthumously) 1898

Sources and literature

• Biografi i NFL, bd. 3, 1892
• A. Brandrud: Theology at the Royal Frederick University 1811–1911, special prints of festive writing published on the occasion of the university's 100th anniversary, 1911
• G. Gran: Norwegians in the 19th century, bd. 2, 1914
• L. Selmer: NBL1 biographers, bd. 7, 1936
• G. Ousland: A church chief. Gisle Johnson as theologian and churchman, 1950
• O. Rudvin: History of the Inner Mission Company, bd. 1, 1967
• E. Molland: Norwegian church history in the 19th century, bd. 1, 1979
• B. T. Oftestad: "Ecclesiastical Legitimacy of Lekmannsprekenen", in TTK 1980, p. 189–206
• G. Johnson Høibo: The Johnson family. Norway – Iceland – Norway, 1983
• S. Wollert: Gisle Johnson's Study Trip to Germany 1846/47, 1998
  

 

Carl Paul Caspari

 

German-Norwegian theologian of Jewish descent. Parents: Merchant Joseph Caspari (died after 1861) and Rebekka Schwabe (died 1859). Married August 1849 to Marie Caroline Constance von Zezschwitz (3.10.1830–14.3.1918), daughter of President of the Court of Appeal Carl August von Zezschwitz and Constanze Friederike von Polenz. Father of Theodor Caspari (1853–1948).

Carl Paul Caspari was a professor of Old Testament theology at the University of Christiania for 35 years. In his younger years, he made important contributions to the study of the prophets. He was also an outstanding connoisseur of Oriental languages, and made a pioneering effort in researching the ancient baptisms and creeds. Next to Gisle Johnson, Caspari stands as the foremost representative of Lutheran Orthodoxy in Norway in the second half of the 19th century; each in their own way, they came to shape the church's view and theological point of view in several generations of Norwegian priests and theological scholars.

When Caspari, as a newly appointed associate professor of theology, gave his inaugural lecture at the University of Christiania in January 1848, he was no small sensation. That a German Jew, an internationally known Orientalist, of all things should act as a spokesman and apologist for Lutheran pietism in Norway, was no less startling. “We [were] excited to hear a Lutheran theologian who, born and raised as a Jew and fanatical of his ancestral faith, at a mature age and standing on the heights of science, had been seized by the gospel he had hated as a Jew, and , as it was called, had studied to contest it, ”said one of the students who heard his first lecture (the later Minister of State Nils Hertzberg).

His story of conversion, as he himself told it, is, however, less dramatic, and for that time also not unique. The parents did not belong to the traditional, strongly church- and Christian-critical Talmudic Judaism, but rather to the Jewish Enlightenment movement, which had as its program to adapt Judaism to the Christian Enlightenment culture in Europe. At the University of Leipzig, where Caspari studied Oriental languages, his Jewish Enlightenment philosophy was met and challenged by a pietistic revival movement among his Christian classmates. He was now convinced that the Enlightenment's human view was far too shallow. He had early acquired Kant's life motto: "You can, because you must!"; now he realized that he just could not, and that the message of Christ's vicarious suffering and death was the answer he needed. He was baptized in 1838, aged 24, and took "Paul" as his baptismal name. He was not alone in this conversion process; two of his siblings were baptized soon after, and among Jews who wholeheartedly joined the Enlightenment movement's assimilation program, this process was not at all unusual.

As a Christian, Caspari also changed his academic career; he now studied theology, including in Berlin under the great conservative apologist E. W. Hengstenberg. Before this change of course, he had published an exercise book in Arabic for students (1838). He crowned his efforts as an Arabist with the publication of a large Arabic grammar in two volumes (1844 and 1848); this is still the basis for the most used handbook in the subject.

As an Old Testament researcher, Caspari worked closely with a former fellow student from Leipzig, Professor Franz Delitzsch (1813–90). The two developed an entire research program, which aimed to disprove the thesis put forward by W. de Wette (1780–1849) and JKW Vatke (1806–82): that the Mosaic Law did not originate from the time of Moses, but was written down just before and during the Babylonian exile in the 5th century BC. Consequently, the Law of Moses presupposes the prophets, not the other way around. This had far-reaching consequences for the view of Israel's history and the Old Testament canon.

The main point of his counter-evidence had Caspari learned from Hengstenberg, but he developed it further with great philological accuracy and learning: Within the Old Testament canon it can be shown that the later books always presuppose and to some extent quote the previous ones. This means that the prophets in their books quote and presuppose the law of Moses. Virtually all of Caspari's articles and books in the Old Testament field of study form sub-studies of this research program, which he also continued with after his transfer to Christiania in the late fall of 1847. But after a major book on the Prophet Micah (1852), his Old Testament research subsides; after that he gives most popular theological lectures on biblical figures, and repeats his Old Testament lectures to ever new cohort of students. This is because from 1851 he had devoted himself to a completely new scientific task, which eventually came to devour him completely.

It was not to refute Old Testament Bible critics that Caspari had been brought to the pulpit in Christiania, but to another task. The person who had visited him in Leipzig and persuaded him to apply for the vacant associate professor post in Christiania, was then a fellow, later Professor Gisle Johnson, and he had his own agenda, also for Caspari. Johnson needed his help to refute Grundtvig's "incomparable Discovery" of 1825, namely that the most authentic words from the mouth of Christ - and thus the foundation of the church - are not the words of Jesus in the Gospels, but the creed at baptism. The risen Christ himself had, according to Grundtvig, communicated to the apostles the Apostles' Creed word for word, and since then these "words of faith" had been handed down without the slightest change throughout the centuries.

Caspari began to disprove this purely historically, through an in-depth examination of the origins and history of the creed. In the years 1853-57 he was in a kind of research quarantine and published almost nothing. But then, from 1858, there was a steady stream of major and minor studies of the history of the creeds, in addition to a number of publications of source texts. Through these publications, Caspari founded the modern exploration of the history of confessions, and his German publications are constantly cited as fundamental in the field. He eventually became so caught up in his church history studies that he went beyond the history of confessions in the strict sense and published texts and studies in the general ancient church and medieval history. While at first he was very concerned with the controversy against Grundtvig, this was strongly toned down in his later years, and when liberal German theology in the 1870s and 1880s attacked the apostolic confession as an imperfect expression of the faith, Caspari ended up expressing his sympathy for Grundtvig's affair.

Caspari was knighted by St. The Order of Olav in 1862 and became commander of the 1st class in 1876. He was also a knight of the Swedish Order of the North Star, and from 1849 a member of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences. In 1857 he co-founded the Science Society in Christiania (now the Norwegian Academy of Sciences), where he was president in 1873, and contributed diligently both in the academy's meetings and in its publication series.

In addition to his work as an academic teacher for two or three generations of Norwegian priests - they remembered him as the eminent and spiritual lecturer - Carl Paul Caspari was from 1859 until his death active as a member of the Bible Society's Central Committee, and he was the leading professional force in general worked to provide Norway with the first Norwegian translation of the Bible. In 1861 he co-founded the Central Committee for the Jewish Mission in Christiania, and was chairman of the committee from 1866 until his death in 1892.

Works

• The Prophet Obadja, Leipzig 1842
• Arabica grammar in usum scholarum academicarum, 2 bd., Leipzig 1844–48
• Contributions to the introduction to the book Jesaia and the history of the Jesaian period, Berlin 1848
• About Mica the Morasthite and his prophetic scripture, 1852
• Unprinted, unnoticed and little-noticed sources on the history of the baptismal symbol and the rule of faith, 3 bd., 1866-75
• Old and new sources on the history of the baptismal symbol and the rule of faith, 1879
• Historical-Critical Theses over a Part Real and Probably Oriental Daabsbekjendelser, 1881
• Martin von Bracara's writing De correctione rusticorum, 1883
• Kirchenhistorische Anecdota, 1883
• An Augustin falsely enclosed Homilia de sacrilegiis, 1886
• Letters, treatises and sermons from the last two centuries of the ecclesiastical alteration and the beginning of the Middle Ages, 1890

Papers left behind

• Letters in Staatsbibliothek preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, in RA, Oslo, and in Handwritingsaml., NBO
• 70 letters to and from Carl Paul Caspari,in transcribed photostatcopy in the Faculty of Church Science, Oslo

Sources and literature

• Biografi i NFL, bd. 2, 1888
• T. G. B. Odland: "Prof. Dr. C. P. Caspari," in 76. Account of the Norwegian Bible Seal, 1892, p. 78–120
• G. H. Dalman: "Carl Paul Caspari", in Evangelical Lutheran Church Time, Decorah 1893, p. 195–201 and 209–212
• J. Belsheim: "Caspari, Carl Paul", i Real-Encyklopädie für Protestant Theology and Church, vol. 3, Leipzig 1897
• A. Brandrud: "Theology of the Norwegian University 1811–1911", in the Norwegian Theological Journal, 1911, p. 201–280 (about Caspari p. 236–251)
• A. Brandrud: biography in NBL1, bd. 2, 1925
• T. Caspari: From My Young Aar, 1929
• O. Skarsaune: "A Scholar of The Naade of God". Carl Paul Caspari 1814–1892. A biography, unpublished. and unfinished manuscript for biography (with extensive bibliography by and about Caspari), 1989, Faculty of Church, Oslo

 

 

 

Peter Olivarius Bugge

This article was published in the Norwegian Biographical Lexicon, published 1999–2005. The article will not be updated. Newer articles can be found in Store norske leksikon.

Bishop. Parents: Prost Søren Bugge (1721–94; see NBL1, vol. 2) and Gidsken Edvardine Røring (1724–93). Married 26.10.1787 in Horbelev on Falster to Cathrine Magdalene Koch (29.9.1771–14.1.1869), daughter of parish priest Hans Peter Koch (died 1806) and Lucie Olsen. Father of Søren Bruun Bugge (1798–1886; see NBL1, vol. 2) and Frederik Moltke Bugge (1806–53); grandfather of Johannes Christian Piene (1832–1912).

Peter Olivarius Bugge is one of the most colorful personalities in Norwegian church life, with strong inner tensions in his mind. It is significant that he came to bear the nickname "bifrons" (lat., 'The man with the two faces'). He flung himself around with jokes and jokes. "My jovial mood," reads a letter from 1816, "hardly leaves me here in life, and then nature goes over the rebuke, and caution lies under the table."

Bugge's father, who was the merchant's son from Christiania, had been seized by the Herrnhut teachings that reached the country in the 1740s, and he raised the children in the same spirit. After being a priest in Holt from 1750, he became a priest in Vanse on Lista in 1767, and the youngest son received his education here until he was 11 years old. Then he was sent to Bergen to go to school with principal Fr. Arentz, and here he lived with his uncle, Hans Wilhelm Bugge, who at that time was the head of a Herrnhut congregation in Bergen, and who even the first summer took the young Peter Olivarius to Herrnhut itself.

After four years of schooling in Bergen, he returned home and attended the cathedral school in Kristiansand for a year, and from here he graduated from the University of Copenhagen in 1782. He began to study theology and took all his exams (cand.theol. 1786, magister 1787) with best Grade. Brilliantly gifted as he was, he had the good fortune - he says himself - to be treated by his teachers more as a fellow student than as an apprentice.

When Rector D. G. Moldenhawer, on behalf of the university, called him parish priest in Skullelev in 1787, he could not say no, but he did not thrive in the Zealand village, and in 1790 he succeeded in being appointed his father's successor as parish priest in Vanse. In the meantime, he wrote the work that in a way became the program of his life, the Betragtninger over de aarlige Søn- og Helligdags Evangelier tillige med et Anhang af Passions-Betragtninger  (house postal Considerations of the Annual Gospels of the Sunday and Holidays as well as an Appendix of Passion Considerations) (1791). The postil was published as early as 1793 in German translation, and a Finnish translation from 1804 was published in several editions until the 1860s. It must also have been translated into Swedish and Dutch. Bugge did not have his name on the first edition; he knew full well that the book would not give him any honor among his friends of the educated class. It was a sharp attack on the rationalist preaching, which made Jesus' teaching the pattern of human virtue. In sharp contrast to this work is his treatise from 1796, De perversitate humana morali (On the Moral Plain of Man), in which he rejects both original sin and the devil; the dissertation earned him the theological doctorate at the University of Göttingen in Germany.

In the years 1799–1804, Bugge was parish priest in Fredericia in East Jutland, and it is in many ways a new Bugge you meet here. He began publishing a new Danish translation of a number of New Testament writings, and was thus the first Norwegian in recent times to attempt a Bible translation. Both the translation and the remarks that were attached to it have the clear tendency to transfer the words of the testament to modern thought and speech, and the four writings he had published in the years 1799–1803 are closely connected with contemporary rationalist work, and formed a clear contrast. to his house post.

In 1803, it was decided that the diocese of Trondheim, which also included the whole of northern Norway, should be divided in two, and on December 30, Bugge was appointed bishop of the new diocese of Trondheim, which in addition to the county of Søndre and Nordre Trondheim also included Nordmøre and Romsdal. He was ordained a bishop (along with Johan Nordal Brun and Matthias Bonsach Krogh) at a large joint episcopal ordination in Our Lady's Church in Copenhagen on May 10, 1804, and then traveled to Norway to take over his new position. 

After Bugge came to Trondheim, he soon came into conflict with his closest associate, diocesan dean H. J. Wille, and with other prominent officials in the city, such as diocesan court justice Andreas Rogert and commanding general G. F. von Krogh. He also came into conflict with the chancellery, which i.a. led to the fact that he did not receive the Order of Dannebro at the great service of the Order in 1810 like the other Norwegian bishops or as priests in his own diocese. The only thing in the administration that he was interested in was the care of the poor, and in 1809 he founded a "Charitable Society" in Trondheim. The distress that followed the war years of 1807 unleashed the power of compassion that lived in him, but also the violent indignation that was so strong in him. With a bleeding heart he saw how poor peasants and homemakers had to suffer, and with resentment he turned to landlords and merchants, who abused the peasants and exploited the need for their own gain. Throughout his life, he continued to feel almost connected to the underclasses.

As vice-president (from 1804) in the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences, Bugge came from 1806 in constant correspondence with its president, Prince Christian Frederik. After the prince came to Norway in the spring of 1813, Bugge sent him a detailed description of the political way of thinking in Nordafjell. Bugge did not attend the large deliberation meetings at Eidsvoll on 30 January and 16 February 1814 (the "notable meeting"). He had traveled in advance for the prince to Trondheim. But he preached in the cathedral on February 6 about the hope that religion bestowed in these turbulent times, and he turned the hope to the prince who now worked for the good of the people. Carsten Anker had wanted the prince to be proclaimed king in the cathedral, but when the prince came to Trondheim, the plan had already been abandoned. Bugge still greeted him in a company in the bishop's manor with a tribute poem as King of Norway.

After the big man's meeting at Eidsvoll, Prince Bugge encouraged people to prepare a draft constitution and then come to Christiania. In less than fourteen days he had finished the draft. But it did not succeed, and was in its entire structure a clear contrast to the constitution that was created at Eidsvoll. According to Bugge's proposal, the National Assembly was to be a pure assembly of clergy, bourgeoisie and peasants. It would have no legislative authority and would also have a very limited granting authority.

At the invitation of Christian Frederik, Bugge lived at Eidsvoll as long as the National Assembly sat together. Bugge's deed at Eidsvoll is unclear. Some claim that he was Christian Frederik's spy. "My fire-arrows," he writes in a letter, "wounded many; I knew that pretty well; but they were just about to be wounded, and thereby frighten away from many a canary that was intended. ” When Bugge on his way home traveled up through Gudbrandsdalen, he was, according to himself, greeted by the farmers as the "who had significantly contributed to us becoming true Norwegians and independent, and especially at the National Assembly strengthened many weak". He was received "almost with swarming Joy", and followed many miles by all kinds of people, "yes even by Ladies". Before his departure from Eidsvoll, the newly elected king had appointed him president of the Science Society, a position he held until 1820.

In the parliamentary elections of 1815, Bugge was elected as the first representative of Trondheim. In parliament, he soon made a name for himself by his "demosthenic" eloquence. He was for a time vice president of both the Odelsting and the Storting and for a time also president of the Odelsting. He was a member of the nomination committee and gave the impetus to the appointment of standing committees. He fought for the establishment of a protocol committee and was himself a member of it from the very beginning. Of the other standing committees, he was a member of the church committee, and auxiliary committee no. 3, where he allegedly wrote the temporary national school law of April 1, 1816. But he did not like the work of the Storting, and never later tried to be re-elected.

It took time before Bugge waited for the new situation. As late as 1816 he wrote secret letters to Christian Frederik, whom he consistently referred to as "King" Christian, at the same time as he let his irony spread to Karl Johan, who in a letter from 1816: "I parlance French so it has good custom without almost being able to (sic) a Word. My Norwegian Fist is squeezed and pressed with all Southern sincerity; yes, sometimes the love goes so far that it manifests itself in kissing. I got 6 ditto in one day and feared for my chastity. ... My wife, on the other hand, who received a visit to Thjem, retained her chastity without any such attack on her. Instead, she received a souvenir of a pair of earrings with diamonds. I intend to take these with me when I come home, for she has no holes in her ears, and the town must not be left unused. ”

Only once later did Bugge attract political attention. On September 7, 1818, he gave a speech in the cathedral in Trondheim in connection with Karl Johan's coronation. Bugge rebuked the people's boastful arrogance and its abuse of freedom, and he urged people to bow to God and the king. But his sermon provoked a storm of rage, because he gave Karl Johan the credit that freedom had been saved in 1814. In the evening, the windows of the bishop's courtyard were smashed, and the newspapers were filled with blacksmiths. He who had been Karl Johan's fierce opponent was now perceived as bilingual - in politics as before in religion. He had then also been appreciated with the Knight's Cross of the Order of the North Star in 1815 and the rank of commander (ie Grand Cross) two years later.

The storm against Bugge's coronation speech led to him never later falling back into the worship of rationalism. He soon began to gather a Herrnhut circle around him, and in 1819 he officially defended the Haugian lay preachers. When the peasants in the Storting in 1836 had received a majority for the repeal of the Conventical poster, Bugge was the only one of the bishops who spoke in favor of the repeal.

In his older days, Bugge was afflicted with poor health, and he was - after a reluctant application - resigned from the episcopate in 1842. Seven years later he died in Trondheim, 85 years old. By then he had already experienced seeing two of his sons installed as principals at the learned schools in Christiania and Trondheim.

Works

• The full record can be found in Bugge's biography in the NFL, bd. 1, 1885, p. 528–530

• Considerations of the Gospels of the Annual Sun and Holiday, as well as an Anhang of Passions-Recitals, Copenhagen 1791 (ty. utg. Flensburg 1793, fi. utg. Åbo 1804 and later utg.)
• The perversitate humana morali eiusque origine et ratione universa, dr.avh., Göttingen 1796
• Jacobs Letter, translated with Annotations, Copenhagen 1799
• Pauli Letter to de Galatians, translated with Annotations, Copenhagen 1800
• Pauli Letters to the Corinthians and the Letter to the Ebes, translated with Annotations, Fredericia 1803
• John's Gospel translated with Annotations, Fredericia 1803
• To Tronhiems Indvaans, the Maintenance of the Poor,in Aurora 1809, p. 3–12
• Draft of a Norwegian Constitution, 1814, printed in Y. Nielsen: Contribution to The History of Norway in 1814, bd. 1, 1882, p. 51–61
• Gospel Progress Intelligence in All Parts ofthe World , 2 bd., Trondheim 1821–22

Sources and literature

• F. M. Bugge: Characteristic Features of Bishop Dr. P.O. Bugges Life and Company, Trondheim 1851
• M. Birkeland: Contribution to the recent history of Norway, 1858, p. 14–30 and 33–46
• D. S. Thrap (ex. ): From Bishop Bugges Haand. Letter and Speeches, 1886
• d.s.: Contribution to the history of the Norwegian Church in the nineteenth century. Biographical Depictions, bd. 2, 1889, p. 1–211
• A. Fridrichsen: "P. O. Bugge as the exeg", in Norwegian theological journal, rk. 3, bd. 1, p. 115–140
• T. Høverstad: Norwegian skulesoga, bd. 1, 1918, p. 106–110, 234–249, 264 and 270
•  H. Koht: biography in NBL1, bd. 2, 1925

Erik Pontoppidan - another biography

 

Erik Pontoppidan: Danish bishop; b. At Aarhus (on the eastern shore of Jutland) Aug. 24, 1698; d. at Copenhagen Dec. 20, 1764. He was educated at Fredericia (1716-18), after which he was a private tutor in Norway, and then studied in Holland, and at London and Oxford, England. In 1721 he became informator of Frederick Carl of Carlstein (later duke of Plon), and two years later morning preachers in the castle and afternoon preacher at Nordborg. 

From 1726 to 1734 he was pastor at Hagenberg, where he so protected the pietists as to find it advisable to defend his course against the Lutherans with Dialogues; oder Unterredung Severi, Sinceri, und Simlicis von der Religion und Reinheit der Lehre (1726) and Heller Glaubensspiegel (1727). During this same period he laid the foundation of his later topographical and historical works in Memoria Hasniæ (1729); Theatrum Daniæ (1736); and Kurzgesasste Reformationshistorie der danischen Kirche. Pontoppidan became successively pastor at Hilleröd and castle preacher at Frederiksborg (1734), Danish court preacher at Copenhagen (1735), professor extraordinary of theology at the University (1738), and a member of the mission board (1740), meanwhile writing his Everriculum fermenti veteris (1736) and Böse Sprichwörter(1739).

In 1736 Pontoppidan was directed by royal rescript to prepare an explanation of the catechism and a new hymnal, and through these two works—Wahrheit zur Gootesfurcht (1737) and the hymnbook (1740)—the pietistic cause in Denmark received powerful assistance. He likewise continued his historical investigations in his Marmora Danica(3 vols., 1739-41; a collection of noteworthy epitaphs and ecclesiastical monuments) and his uncritical Annales ecclesiæ Danicæ (4 vols., 1741-52); and also wrote a novel, Menoza (3 vols., 1742-43), a critique of the religious conditions of Denmark and other countries. In 1747 he was appointed bishop at Bergen, where he introduced many educational reforms, and wrote Glossarium Norvagicum (1749) and Versuch einer naturlichen Geschichte Norwegens (Copenhagen, 1752-53), while his pastoral letters formed in part the basis of his later Collegium pastorale practicum (1757). The antagonism which Pontoppidan roused at Bergen, however, obliged him to go in 1754 to Copenhagen, where he became prochancellor at the university in the following year. But all his plans in this capacity were thwarted by his opponents, and he sought consolation in writing, the results being his Origines Hafnienses (1760) and the first two parts of his Den danske Atlas (1763-67), of which the last five volumes were edited posthumously. He was also active as a political economist, being the editor of Danmarks og Norges ökonomiske Magazin (8 vols., 1757-64).

F. Nielsen, in The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge: Embracing Biblical, Historical, Doctrinal, and Practical Theology and Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Biography from the Earliest Times to the Present Day. United Kingdom, Funk and Wagnalls Company, 1908. Volume 9, page 124.

Erik Pontoppidan

 (This article was published in the Norwegian Biographical Encyclopedia, published 1999–2005)

born: 24 August 1698, Aarhus, Denmark

died: 20 December 1764, Copenhagen

Erik Pontoppidan was part of Danish-Norwegian state pietism, but eventually became a transitional figure to the Enlightenment. He was a very prolific writer and published a number of theological and ecclesiastical writings and significant works on language, history, topography and economics. His catechism explanation, which was introduced as a textbook in the confirmation teaching and other ecclesiastical teaching, was of great importance, especially in Norway.

Erik lost both parents before he was 10 years old. As an adult, he looked back at his childhood home, he gratefully recalled his mother's scriptures, prayers, living rules, and exhortations. After his parents' death, he was cared for by various relatives and had a changeable upbringing. Eventually he lived with his half-brother and buddy Henrik Ludvigsen Pontoppidan in Fredericia. There in 1716 he was discharged from the Latin school to study at the University of Copenhagen.

The study period fell short, primarily because of the economy. He was a work man and took a philosophical exam in 1717, theological certificate in 1718 and the baccalaureus test shortly afterwards. For Pontoppidan, theology study had more to do with his head than with the heart. So far, he had had no religious experience of his own, and he later said about this time that he lacked a personal relationship with Christianity.

After graduating, Pontoppidan spent some time with friends and family in Jutland, and he traveled to Germany. In 1719 he came to Norway as a home teacher with Lieutenant General Barthold Heinrich von Lützow in Christiania. After a year there, he became a travel companion for Claus Huitfeldt (son of Iver Huitfeldt) to Holland, where he received strong impressions from Reformed theology and church life. The journey continued to Great Britain, where he gained some knowledge of English church and spiritual life. When he had high hopes for a priestly position on Funen, he interrupted his journey in 1721. He did not get the position, instead he became a house teacher with Frederik Carl von Carlstein (the later Duke of Plön) on Als 1721-23.

At this time, Pontoppidan came into contact with German Pietism, which he experienced as a reform movement. He was gripped by the concern for the individual's personal relationship with God. In 1723 he became a deacon and court preacher with Frederik Carl in Nordborg on Als and was then clearly influenced by Pietism. Although he cannot be said to have had any experience of repentance, his preaching was geared toward revival and repentance. This led the parish priest Hans Casper Brandt to accuse the young chaplain of heresy. The dispute between the parish priest and the chaplain reflected the clashes between orthodoxy and pietism. The Pietists downplayed the confessional differences and turned their attention to the individual's relationship with Christ, while Brandt was more concerned with the doctrines of orthodoxy and pure doctrine. At the turn of the year 1726/27, Pontoppidan applied for the parish priesthood in Hagenbjerg and got it. Brandt, however, became provost, and the tension between them continued.

Shortly after Pontoppidan took office in Hagenbjerg, he published the book Heller Glaubens-Spiegel in welchem die Kennzeichen der Kinder Gottes vorgestellt werden, an edifying book with an emphasis on personal and living faith. Here the influence of mysticism, penance and German pietism is expressed. The book became widespread in Denmark / Norway after it was translated into Danish in 1740 and published under the title Troens Speyl. It is still coming out in new editions, in Norwegian as late as 2002. At this time Pontoppidan also began to publish topographical and church historical collections; Among the better known, Theatrum Daniæ veteris et modernæ.

Christian 6 favored pietism. Towards the end of 1734, Pontoppidan was appointed castle priest in Frederiksborg and parish priest in Hillerød-Herløv and took office at the beginning of 1735. Before the year was over, he was transferred to Copenhagen as court priest. When confirmation was introduced in 1736, Pontoppidan was commissioned to publish a catechism explanation. The book was published anonymously towards the end of 1737, publicly approved by Professor Christian Langemach Leth. The title was: Sandhed Til Gudfrygtighed (Truth Unto Godliness). It was introduced in both primary and lower secondary school and in catechism exercises in the church. It was clearly marked by Philip Jacob Spener's Einfältige Erklärung from 1677 and, with its 759 questions and answers, constituted a compendium of the Lutheran doctrine in pietistic form. In 1771 it came in an abbreviated version, called Saxtorph's “Udtog” (Excerpt).

While the catechism explanation in Denmark was somewhat controversial and was replaced by Balle's textbook in the 1790s, it was in use in Norway for over 150 years, in some congregations and Lutheran-Pietist circles even longer. It is constantly coming in new editions (latest 1996). It was important to Hans Nielsen Hauge and Haugianism and left its mark on several of the revival movements in the 19th century. It also accompanied Norwegian emigrants to the United States and was translated into English. Next to the Bible, hardly any book in recent times has had a greater influence on Norwegian Christian life than Pontoppidan's explanation.

In 1738, Pontoppidan was appointed extraordinary professor of theology at the University of Copenhagen. The following year he became a member of the commission for the revision of the Bible translation and in 1740 a member of the Missionary College and co-director of the Waisen House. At the king's request, Pontoppidan anonymously published a supplement to Kingo's hymn book under the name Den Nye Psalme-Bog (The New Psalm-Book). The Psalm-Book attracted little attention.

As a by-product of the work on Danish church history, Pontoppidan published a two-volume collection, Marmora Danica. It is a collection of inscriptions from tombstones, epitaphs and other monuments. At the same time, the three-volume work Gesta et vestigia Danorum extra Daniam, which deals with the merits of famous Danes abroad, came up throughout history. He also wrote a four-volume work on Danish church history, the Annales ecclesiæ Danicae diplomatici, and a travel novel, Menoza, which is about an Asian prince who traveled the world in search of Christians, "but found little of what he was looking for". The book can be read as a defense of Lutheran-Pietist Christianity based on the Enlightenment philosophy.

Barely a year after Christian 6's death in 1746, Pontoppidan was appointed bishop of Bergen, where he remained until 1754. According to Michael Neiiendam, it was "a forced relocation." Pontoppidan immediately saw the need to expand the school and established a catechetical seminar intended for teachable peasant boys and a school at high school level, Seminarium Fridericianum. As a overseer, he visited the congregations, and annually he sent pastoral letters to his priests. The Pastoral Letters for 1749–52 were collected and published in 1753 under the title Opvækkelige Hyrde-Breve (Revival Pastor Letters). Here he gave the priests pastoral theological advice, characterized by a pietistic spirit.

On his many and long visitation trips, Pontoppidan collected information about Norwegian words and sayings. This resulted in the book Glossarium norvagicum. He was also interested in Norway's natural history and topography, and in 1752–53 he published a two-volume work of a total of 800 pages under the title Det første Forsøg paa Norges Naturlige (The First Attempt at Norway's Natural History). This was a groundbreaking work, illustrated with a number of pieces of landscapes and natural phenomena. Pontoppidan encouraged his priests to conduct topographical studies and write down what they saw and heard.

In 1754, Pontoppidan went to Copenhagen to defend himself against a number of untrue rumors, such as could be interpreted as meaning that he had had an extramarital affair with the daughter of Bergen's mayor. He did not return to Bergen, but in 1755 was appointed vice-chancellor at the university, where he had time to continue his literary activities. Anonymously, he edited Danmarks og Norges oeconomiske Magazin (Denmark's and Norway's economic magazine), which was published in 8 volumes 1757–64. He also published a large topographical-statistical work on Denmark, Den Danske Atlas (The Danish Atlas), in three volumes. In the theological-ecclesiastical field he published several writings, i.a. a 740-page pastoral doctrine, Collegium pastorale practicum, which became widespread. Among his more edifying writings are the Sandheds Kraft (Power of Truth) and Tractat om Sielens Udødelighed (A Tract on the Immortality of the Soul).

Erik Pontoppidan was a transitional figure between pietism and the Enlightenment. Theologically, he remained a church pietist and a prominent representative of state pietism. In his theologically grounded view of man, especially in his apologetic writings, it gradually became apparent that he was influenced by the rational thinking of the Enlightenment. Through his significant works on language, history, topography and economics, he placed himself in the dawn of the Enlightenment. As a writer, Pontoppidan was first and foremost a collector.

Works

• Excellent bibliography in Ehrencron-Müller, bd. 6, 1929, p. 323-336

A selection

• Heller Glaubens-Spiegel in welchem die Kennzeichen der Kinder Gottes vorgestellt werden, Frankfurt and Leipzig 1727 (Danish overs. Speyl of Faith, Imagining God's Børns Kiende-Tegn, Copenhagen 1740; first Norwegian outing. Fredrikshald 1856, new outg. The Mirror of Faith at S. Feyling, 1935, new output at Ø. Kleven 2002)
• Apologetic Epistola,Altona 1731
• Sandhed To Godfreegtighed, Udi An eenfold and after Possible Card, however sufficient Explanation Over Sal. Doct. Roach. Luthers Liden Catechismo, Copenhagen 1737 (first Norwegian outg. Kristiansand 1834, newest rev. utg. Tønsberg 1996)
• Evil Proverbs, Who Corrupts Good Seats, Igien powered by the Word of God, Copenhagen 1739
• Marmora Danica, 2 bd., København 1739–41
• Gesta et vestigia Danorum extra Daniam, 3 bd., Copenhagen 1740–41
• The New Psalme Book, Copenhagen 1740
• Annales ecclesiæ Danicae diplomatici, 4 bd., Copenhagen 1741–52
• Menoza, An Asian Printz Who Travelled the World and Sought Christne, 3 bd., Copenhagen 1742–43
• Certain and Important Truths, Imagining in Some Sermons, Copenhagen 1746
• Glossarium norvagicum or Attempt on a Collection such nice Norwegian Words, which are not understood by The Danish People,Copenhagen 1749
• The first experiment on Norway's Natural History, Imagining This Kingdom's Air, Land, Mountains, Waters, Wexter, Metals, Minerals, Steen-Species, Animals, Birds, Fish and finally The Naturell of The Inhabitants, as well as Customs and Levemaade,2 bd., Copenhagen 1752–53 (facsimile. Natural history of Norway 1752–53, Oslo 1977)
• Awakening Shepherd Letters, Aarlig sent to the Priesthood of bergens-Stift, Bergen 1753
• Ancient and Eenfold Christendom, Or the Essence of de Christnes throne and duty, Copenhagen 1755
• Collegium pastoral practicum, Containing a necessary teaching, warning, counseling and encouragement for dennem, who either prepared to silence God and Almost in the Holy Priest-Embete, or and live already therein, and favor to accomplish everything with Fruit and Edification,Copenhagen 1757 (Norwegian utg. Kristiansand 1850, new utg. 1986)
• Power of Truth to Overcome The Atheist and Naturalist Incredour ,Copenhagen 1758
• Tractat on the Immortality of the Siel, as well as its State in and After Death, confirmed by the Word of God and Common sense, Copenhagen 1762
• The Danish Atlas or the Kingdom of Denmark with its natural properties, Elements, Inhabitants, Weaster, etc., imagined in a detailed Lands-Description, 3 bd., Copenhagen 1763–67 (facsimile. in 9 bd., 1969–72)

Sources and literature

• S. M. Gjellerup and P. K. Thorsen: biography in DBL1, bd. 13, 1899
• Ehrencron-Müller, bd. 6, 1929
• M. Neiiendam: Erik Pontoppidan. Studies and contributions to the history of pietism, 2 bd., Copenhagen 1930-33
• L. Selmer: NBL1 biographers, bd. 11, 1952
• B. Kornerup: biography in Nordisk Theological Reference book for church and school, bd. 3, Lund/København 1957
• M. Brødsted: "The story of Pontoppitan's 'Explanation' in Denmark and Norway", in The Royal Library's collections 12, Copenhagen 1965, p. 47–66
• H. Hamre: Erik Pontoppidan and his Glossarium Norvagicum, UBÅ. Humanist series 1971 No 2, Bergen 1972
• M. Neiiendam: biography in DBL3, bd. 11, 1982
• P. Munthe: "The Bishop Who Discovered Norway", chronicle in Aftenp. 13.4.2002

 

Pontoppidan Pastoral Collegium 1.0.0

 

To the Christian reader, I act among other reasons from important motives and, for some time now, have been contemplating the improvement of the clergy.

Since I, in the name of Jesus, hereby surrender for general use this Pastoral Collegium, it is necessary in a short preface to inform the reader of some such things pertaining to it, and first of all of the occasion of Christ, which is the following.

Among many other proofs of God's special providence in the conduct of my life, I remember this, that by his anointed, our Most Merciful King, he has appeared to me with a quite unexpected call, to my present academic office, and in it imposed me among several duties, especially the preparation which candidates for ministry might need, after their other studies have reached the usual goal.

In order to live up to this very important duty with the assistance of God, in so far as my so-called crises would suffice, I began at St. Michael's Day in 1755 a Collegium Pastorale, on such days and hours of the week as could not be hindered by the usual lectures. Now I was astonished that the greater part of my hearers had set out to recite my words by postscript. But although this willingness to teach was in itself praiseworthy and not disapproving in other respects, this time I do not advise to give it place, especially for two main reasons. At first, in these practical matters, I wished to act not only with the mind and the memory, but also sensibly with the will and the affections of the heart; the former must to some extent hinder the latter in the case of the copyist, who devoted all his diligence only in putting my words in pen. Secondly, I knew from experience that such copies, taken not by sight but by poor hearing, must be very numerous, and for the most part inaccurate. Thirdly, there was the fact that my Auditorium Domesticum could not accommodate as many tables as all these writers needed.

For these reasons I asked my listeners to spare themselves the trouble of writing after the lecture, and to first open their ears and heart to me. If there were any among them who in their own time desired to read and reflect on what they had once imperfectly grasped by hearing, then they could expect to achieve their desire most certainly, when I, if God gave life and rest, had to mind too well to let the same Collegium by the Press go out to their and others' edification. This solution was the one that imposed on me the debt, which I hereby seek to repay.

Concerning the contents of the writing itself then, it is not desired without hope that the it may become a means at the hand of the Almighty for some edification of the walls of Zion among us. The Great Shepherd, whom I dare to take on the solitary of my eyes, and the honest intention of my heart in doing so, he uses this work to strengthen his faithful servants in the same mind which already governs the conduct of their office, but to warn and convince all those who must be far from this mind that their way will within a short time hurt them in depravity, even in a depravity so much greater than others, as they themselves have given themselves to the companions of others on the path of life. If some of these by reading these magazines, should go within themselves, turn around, give glory to God, and begin the deeds of which they have long since been named, then the newspaper would touch my heart with heartfelt joy.

If doctrine is destined to improve all the other estates in the world, then there is undeniably the highest concern that this office be entrusted only to such people of God who both know the will of the Lord themselves and who have a heartfelt desire to make it known to others, as well as in all intents and purposes to behave like faithful housekeepers and shepherds over the Lord's flock. The Church has always needed such men, and has always had some of them; for without their help its condition would have been far worse than it is. But for some time now I think that the Church needs to be concerned about the improvement of teachers, since the lack of righteous teachers now could have doubly harmful consequences. Should I explain this sentence somewhat more clearly: my opinion of an urgent need for the improvement of the doctrine is based on certain random things which our times bring with them, far more recognizably than the times of the Fathers.

Hertil henregnes nu først et rigere lys, en rigtigere naturlig smag og en skarpere dom hos menneskene i almindelighed, hvad andre videnskaber, stænder og embeder angåer.  Ved et mindre lys opdagedes fordum mindre feil.  Den ene holdt den anden mere tilgode, og, i hvor lidet fortrin en lærer havde, da fandt han han dog deri mere sikkerhed, end som nuomstunder.  Sandheds kundskab er vistnok bleven langt større, og, endskjøndt dens lydighed desværre! hos alt for mange maa savnes nu såvelsom tilforn, hvoraf reiser sig desto større dom, saa pålægges dog lærestanden, ved lysets almindelige fremgang, den store fornødenhed, ikke at ståe tilbage i sin deel, men mage det saa, at seerne i Israel beholde noget forud i sandheds kundskab og i dens kjærlighed, eller i det retsindige, vise og gudelige forhold, som skal give dem ære at tale med, og deres ord indgang hos fornustige folk.  En anden aarsag, som gjør lærestanden nu sremfor nogen Tid trængende til Forbedring i lærdom og levnet, er denne, at det nylig omtalte rigere lys, som tiderne føre med sig, bliver nu, langt mindre end tilforn, inden for sine rette grændser. Det misbruges kjendelig til Religionens, det er, den allervigtigste sandheds ringeagtelse, af mange saadanne, som med hine selvkloge Romere, blive til dårer just da, naar de ville synnes vise. Her gaaer det fornusen ikke anderledes end visse unge mennesker, som i en hast slippe af et alt for hårdt formynderskab, og derover begynde en rasende levemåde, såsnart dem gives råderum og leilighed til at yttre deres lyster. Knap ere overtroens bulverker kuldkastede ved hjælp af Guds eget Ord og sund ands, førend fornusten viser sin utaknemmelighed i at antage, som ledsager, den kjøds-sands, der er fiendskab mod Gud og hans hellige Ord, følgeligen ogsaa mod Ordets tjenere, hvilke af hine formente stærke ånder, endelig må ansees med yderste foragt, såfremt de ikke ere istand til at understøtte Religionens høiagtelse, både ved en viis og discret læremåde, uden hvilken sandheds ord såer en vrang anseelse, så og ved en ustraffelig, uegennyttig og ret christelig omgængelse, uden hvilken hiin mistanke bliver dobbelt stor og farlig, ja allerfarligst mod dem, som tale meest derom, og gjøre mindst deraf. Vee berden for forargelse i almindelighed, og vee kirken i særdeleshed for lærestandens forargelse!

This now includes first a richer light, a more real natural taste and a sharper judgment in men in general, as far as other sciences, estates and offices are concerned. At a lesser light, former errors were discovered. One held the other more favorably, and, in how little advantage a teacher had, then he found in it, however, more security than at present. The knowledge of truth has evidently become far greater, and, though its obedience unfortunately! too many must now be missed as well as in the past, from which the greater judgment arises, but the doctrine, by the general progress of light, the great necessity, is not required to stand back in its part, but to make it so that the seers in Israel retain some preceded in the knowledge of truth and in its love, or in the righteous, wise and divine relationship which is to give them honor to speak with, and their words entrance in delighted people.   Another reason which makes the doctrine now for some time in need of improvement in learning and living is that the newly mentioned richer light which the times bring with them is now, far less than before, within its proper limits. It is noticeably abused to the contempt of religion, that is, the most important truth, by many such as, with their self-righteous Romans, become fools just when they would seem wise. Here things are no different from certain young people, who in a hurry get rid of an excessively harsh guardianship, and begin a furious way of life over it, as soon as they are given room to maneuver and an opportunity to express their desires. The bulwarks of superstition are scarcely overthrown by the help of God's own Word and healthy spirit, before the discerning man shows his ingratitude in assuming, as a companion, the flesh-sand, which is enmity against God and his holy Word, consequently also against the servants of the Word, which of hine supposed strong spirits, must finally be regarded with utmost contempt, if they are not able to support the esteem of Religion, both by a wise and discreet doctrine, without which the word of truth sows a false reputation, so and by an impunity, disinterested and rather Christian intercourse, without which hiin suspicion becomes doubly great and dangerous, yes most dangerous against those who talk most about it, and do least of it. Woe to the indignation of indignation in general, and woe to the church in particular to the indignation of the doctrine!