George Cross · 10 of 40
A. A Sketch of Schleiermacher’s Life. · PROFESSOR AND PREACHER AT HALLE
Schleiermacher went to Halle in October, 1804. He did not find conditions there very satisfactory. His professorial work was of a rather varied nature and indefinite in range. We find him lecturing on Plato, philosophical ethics, introduction to the study of theology, fundamental Christian doctrines, and dogmatics, and delivering public exegetical lectures on the Epistle to the Galatians, and all within a single year. The delay and uncertainty as to his appointment to a regular professorship vexed him. Moreover, the arrangement for his preaching services at Halle were by no means to his liking. The stiffness and want of life in the liturgy he could not . His desires for a change in this respect were by a visit to Barby in the spring of 1805, when he witnessed a Moravian Easter service. A letter written just after this visit sets forth his feelings at the time:
There is not throughout Christendom in our day a form of public worship which expresses more worthily or awakens more thoroughly the spirit of true Christian piety than does that of the Herrnhut brotherhood. And while absorbed in heavenly faith and love I could not but deeply feel how far behind them w are in our church, where the poor sermon is everything and e\en this is hampered by meaningless restrictions, while, on the other hand, it is subject to every change in the times and is rarely animated by a true and living spirit.
He hoped soon to transplant something of its nature into the services at Halle. He experienced on that occasion a renewal of the drawing toward the Moravian communion, and goes on to say, rather regretfully:
They would not have refused me permission to partake of the with the congregation, but I would not ask for what I knew to be contrary to rule. . . . . While dwelling on my loneliness in the world and my separation from those who, I believe, form the truest Christian communion which exists in the outward world, I consoled myself with the thought of the secret and scattered church to which we all belong and of the common spirit which animates it.
He felt so dissatisfied with the state of things at Halle that in the spring of 1806 he was disposed to accept an invitation to the pastorate at Bremen, but by certain concessions was prevailed on to. remain. We might trace without difficulty, if space would permit, his struggle through the rest of his life against formal ism. A state-controlled church was a veritable prison to a liberty-loving spirit like his, that longed for a lofty flight. The dread of Separatism helped to keep him within it, but to the end of his days he battered his wings against the bars of his cage without much avail.
While at Halle he met Goethe once or twice, but about the only thing he said of their interview was that they conversed together like old acquaintances. It is more important to note that he found there a kindred spirit in a Norwegian member of the faculty, Steffens by name. A warm friendship soon sprang up between them and continued through the vicissitudes through which central Europe was then passing. When the war with France broke out he and Steffens shared the same dangers, suffered the same losses, occupied portions of the same lodgings, and partook of the same scanty supply of food. Their friendship was based on religious sympathies. This is incidentally brought to our knowledge in a note Steffens makes of a little time they spent together in an inn at Ostrow: “Never did the deep religiosity of his nature strike me more favorably. The Savior was with us as he promised to be ‘where two or three are gathered.’” The excellent opportunity Steffens enjoyed of observing Schleiermacher under a great variety of circumstances makes the following pen-portrait he gives of Schleiermacher in those days especially valuable:
Schleiermacher was small of stature and slightly deformed, but so slightly as hardly to be disfigured by it. His movements were quick and animated, his features highly expressive. A certain sharpness in his eye acted, perhaps, repulsively at times. He seemed, indeed, to look through everyone. . . . . His face was long, his features sharply defined, his lips firmly and severely closed, his chin prominent, his look always earnest, collected, and self-possessed. I saw him under various circumstances in life--deeply meditative and sportive, mild and fired with anger, moved by sorrow and joy--but ever an unalterable composure greater, mightier than every passing emotion, seemed to dominate his being. A slight expression of irony played round his features; the sincerest sympathy ever animated his heart; and an almost childish goodness shone through the outward calm. His constant presence of mind had sharpened his features in a remarkable degree. Even while engaged in the most animated nothing escaped him. He saw everything that was passing around him and heard everything, even the most low-toned conversation.
