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1857.]

Zacharias Ursinus.

163

treasury by the Senate of Breslau, he started upon a pilgrimage as an apprentice of letters, upon an extensive journey to the most renowned Universities of Germany, France and Switzerland, visiting Heidelberg, Strasburg, Basel, Zurich, Lansanne and Geneva, and passing by way of Lyons and Orleans to the city of Paris. In these travels it was his privilege to become acquainted with many of the leaders of the Reformation, who esteemed him very highly, and whose influence impressed and influenced him. In Geneva he became acquainted with Calvin and Beza, in Zurich with Bullinger and Martyr; and as regards christian doctrine, he became their decided follower, without, however, on this account forsaking the Melancthonian stand-point where he had stood all along. In Paris he perfected himself in the French and Hebrew languages. After this he went again into Switzerland, making his home for some time in Zurich, where he enjoyed the confidence and friendship of Bullinger, Martyr, Gessner and other distinguished theologians then belonging to hat place.

Having returned to Wittemberg in 1558, in September of that year, he received a call from the council of Breslau as theological teacher in the Elizabethian Gymnasium, which on account of the generosity which that town had manifested toward him in providing him funds for his journey, he felt bound to accept. Here his services for some time gave great satisfaction. As a text-book in his instructions he made use of the ordination book prepared by Melancthon in 1554, for the examination of candidates for the ministry-a book then popular, and in use in many Universities. By this course, however, he soon fell under suspicion of entertaining Calvinistic views in relation to the Lord's supper. In justification of himself he published his first theological production, entitled "Theses on the Doctrine of the Sacraments, especially of Baptism. and the Lord's supper," a work which gave great satisfaction to Meancthon. He said on this occasion: "With his learning he was previously acquainted, but as to knowledge in such matters, he had hitherto seen nothing so brilliant as that which he had found in the writings of Ursinus." The zealots for high Lutheranism, at a time when Lutheran Germany was passing into a general hurricane of excitement, under the progress of the second sacramental war, which finally resulted in its rupture into two confessions, were very jealous in regard to Calvinism; and sympathy with Melancthon's views of the Eucharist, was regarded as secret Calvinism. His defence did not quiet the clergy of the place who had raised an alarm in regard to his orthodoxy. He had plainly advanced to a deeper knowledge on this central point than that possessed by his masters, and instead of suffering themselves to be moulded by him, they turned against him. Melancthon exhorted them to peace, but they ceased not to reproach him as a sacramentarian. Being naturally averse to strife and commotion, he began to look around him for peace and quiet; and having sought leave of absence, which also he obtained in an honorable way, he left Breslau, having given promise however to the magistrates who greatly desired to retain him, in spite of all the clamor that had been raised against him, that he would return again when desired.

When he was about leaving, Roth, his uncle, asked him whither he would now go, to whom, in the spirit of true resignation he gave the

cheerful answer: "Not unwillingly do I leave my fatherland when it will not suffer the confession of truth which I cannot surrender with a good conscience. If my best teacher Philip still lived"-he had just died—“I would go no where else but to him. Now that he is dead, I will turn to the Zurichers, who it is true are not here in great repute, but who have so honorable a name with other churches, that it cannot be obscured by our preachers. They are pious, learned, great men, with whom I have already resolved to spend my life. God will provide for the rest."

Sustained in his outward way by his early friend and patron, John Crato, he started on his journey, a pilgrim in the holy cause of peace and love. In passing through Wittemberg he declined the invitation of his friends their to become their colleague; and in the autumn of 1560, he arrived in Zurich, where he associated himself anew with his former friends, especially with Peter Martyr, one of the most distinguished, mild, and decided of the Reformed theologians, to whom he now sustained a relation very similar to that in which he had previously stood to Melancthon, and upon whose recommendation, and in whose stead he was in 1562 called by Frederick III. as Professor of Philosophy in Heidelberg, whereupon he was also in that same year made Doctor and Professor of Theology.

Here was a new field, and one in which Ursinus was destined to accomplish his greatest work. At first he also preached in Heidelberg; but this he soon gave up, both for want of time and talent for the work, and after 1568 he devoted himself exclusively to the profession of teaching. Although only twenty-eight years of age, Ursinus was in every respect ripe, as a man and a christian, as a learned man and a theologian. With deep and decided piety, and with a cheerful confidence of spirit, he gave himself with all, his learning, wholly and without reserve to the service of his Lord and Saviour. He acknowledged positively, "that he was no more his own master, having become the property of another; and he that gives himself over to God as His possession, will receive salvation from Him, but whoever seeks to withdraw from Him will also fail of salvation." The ground-stone of his christian life was the cheerful consciousness of his unconditional dependence upon God, and that inward gratitude toward him, which springs from the rich experience of His grace. His whole life was a constant walking before the Lord in prayer, and in the strict and unwearied fulfilment of every duty. Modest and silent, never did any one hear from him an unnecessary word. The extraordinary love and attachment of his pupils was the pleasant reward of his diligence. A most conscientious teacher, he required of his pupils, after every hour of instruction, to hand over to him in writing any points of doubt and difficulty that remained on their minds, that he might consider them at home, and at the next lecture answer them to their satisfaction. Feeling the value of time, in order that he might not be too much disturbed in his labors by lengthy visits, he wrote above the door of his study:

"Friend, whoever you may be, when you come to me,

Make your matter short, or leave me soon,

Or assist me in my work."

On this account, however, Ursinus was also not easily approached, and whenever unnecessarily disturbed, he was easily displeased.

1857.

Zacharias Ursinus.

165

Storms are often the precursors of quiet and peace in nature and in history. The violence of high Lutheran zealots, if it did not occasion, hastened the transfer of the Palatinate in one broad sweep into the bosom of the Reformed faith and life. The Melancthonian type of Lutherianism reigned in the Palatinate; and when the alternative, whether the views and spirit of Hesshuss and Klebiz or of Melancthon and Calvin should be its hope and home was forced upon them, both the Prince and the people had no difficulty in deciding in favor of the latter. After the public discussion of the points involved in June 1560, Frederick's mind was fully made up to establish the Reformed faith in his dominions. A catechism or symbol was needed. By a wonderful working of the divine spirit, always the formative power in history, the peculiar christian life of the Palatinate had clearly reached a stage of development alike above Lutherianism and Zwinglianism; and the catechism must be of a type-not to unite these-but to embody and express the deepest and best elements of both, which history had already made one in a ground deeper than that upon which their separation rested. Upon the production of such a catechism, the "pious" Prince had set his heart. For such a work God had already provided him the right men-Ursinus and Olevianus-his theological professor and his court preacher.

In order to accomplish the work laid upon them by the Prince Olevianus as well as Ursinus, composed a special treatise-Olevianus his "divine covenant of grace, and Ursinus, after Luther's example, a smaller and larger catechism, in which he made essential use of the Emder catechism of de Lasky, and the Genevian catechism of Calvin, which last one was afterwards at the same time with the Heidelberg catechism translated into German, in order thus to prove the agreement between the P'alatinate and Genevean doctrine. Thus in the preliminary work and in the substance of the catechism, the spirit and work of both these divines is to be recognized. Ursinus, however, whose plan received the preference, performed the duty of drawing up the catechism.

The circumstances under which this excellent symbol was produced, and the character of the men who were at the same time the organs of the religious age and of the divine spirit, wonderfully conspired in making it the flower and fruit of the entire German Reformation. It has Lutheran inwardness, Melanethonian clearness, Zwinglian simplicity and Calvinistic fire, all melted into one. In the beautiful combination of all these elements, it looses the peculiar and distinctive spirit of each one. It has no prototype in any of the Reformers. Zurich and Calvin can say, it is not of us. It has the suavity, but not the compromising spirit of Melancthon-the Prince him self it is said took care that it should not be without some sharp points. It has not the dashing terror and dogmatism of Luther. What is strangest of all, it is farthest possible removed from the scholasticism and rigid logic of Ursinis. Though it has the warm, practical, sacred poetical fervor of Olevianus, it has not his fire and flame. It is greater than reformers. It is purer and sounder than theologians. It is the product more of faith and piety than of knowledge and theology.

The pious Elector highly appreciated the services of Ursinus, both in the formation, and afterwards in the defence of his catechism. On one occasion when Joachim, a Silesian praised Ursinus to the Prince, he re

plied: "And yet your fatherland was not worthy of such a man; tell your countrymen to banish many such men into my dominions."

In 1564, while fierce controversies were going on in regard to the new catechism, the Plague broke out with great violence in Heidelberg, causing both the Court and the University to withdraw for a time from the place. During this solemn recess, Ursinus wrote and published a small work on Preparation for Death, which proved very opportune, was translated afterwards into Latin, and did much good.

In 1571 he received an urgent call to Lansanne, which, on account of his enfeebled constitution and owing to heavy labors at Heidelberg, he felt inclined to accept; yet, through the influence of the Elector, who granted him an assistant, he was induced to decline it. In 1572, in the fortieth year of his age, he was married to Margaret Trautwein, which is said to have added materially to his comfort and rest.

In October, 1576, the Frederick died, and was succeeded by his eldest son Louis, under whom the religious state of the Palatinate again fell into disorder. The young Prince, whose previous connections had inspired in him a strong zeal for Lutheranism, in full opposition to the entire course of his father, at once dismayed the more prominent theologians, who did not fall in with his measures, and Lutherans were appointed in their place. Ursinus, declining to receive Luther's Catechism, and with it the Lutheran Doctrine and Reformation, became a martyr to his convictions, and was compelled to leave the place. He declined a call to his native city as professor. In 1578 he was called, by the second son of Frederick, the Prince Palatine John Casimer, to the newly established Reformed Theological School in Neustadt on the Hardt, which speedily flourished under his care, and that of his earlier colleagues, who had also been called to that Institution, which now became the home of nearly all the Heidelberg Theologians.

The triumph of Lutherans in the Palatinate was short. Louis died in the midst of his days; and under Duke Casimer, who succeeded him, the Reformed faith was again restored, and the Heidelberg Catechism became again the ecclesiastical banner of the Palatinate. The Theologians of Neustadt were recalled; but Ursinus had gone to the saints everlasting rest. His health had been failing for some years, but his unwearied zeal and industry stimulated him, as in the case of his beloved teacher Melancthon, even upon his tedious sick bed, still to labor in his office of religious teacher. Only about five years was he permitted to labor at Neustadt, when the will of God concerning him in the church, on earth was fulfilled, and on the sixth of March, 1583, the very year in which his catechism triumphed in the Palatinate, and in the forty-ninth year of his age, he fell asleep, resting upon Jesus Christ as "his only comfort in life and in death," and was translated into the general assembly and church of the first born in Heaven.

He was buried in the choir of the church at Neustadt. A funeral oration was pronounced on the occasion, in Latin, by his constant friend Francis Junius. His colleagues erected a monument to his honor and memory which very justly pronounces him "a great theologian, a vanquisher of the prevalent erroneous doctrines concerning the person of Christ and His Supper, gifted with powerful language and pen, a keensighted philosopher, a wise man, and a strict teacher of the young."

1857.]

Cling to the Mighty One-The Seed Must Die.

167

Some time after his death his works were collected and published, in three folio volumes, by his friend and disciple David Pareus. These are valuable in their place as monuments of theological conflict and victory in the past; but not as the author of three folios is Ursinus known to the Christian world, but as one of the authors of the Heidelberg Catechism. In it his genius and spirit live in the Reformed Church; and on account of it millions continue to call his memory blessed.

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Cling to the Holy One,
He gives relief;

Cling to the Gracious One,
Cling in thy pain,
Cling to the Faithful One,
He will sustain.

Cling to the Living One,
Cling in thy woe,

Cling to the Living One,
Through all below.
Cling to the Pardoning One,
He speaketh peace;
Cling to the Healing One,
Anguish shall cease.

Cling to the Bleeding One,
Cling to his side;

Cling to the Risen One,
In Him abide;

Cling to the Coming One,
Hope shall arise;

Cling to the Reigning One,
Joy lights thine eyes.

Ps. lxxxix. 19.

Heb. xii. 11.

Heb. i. 22.

Ps. cxvi. 9.
Ps. cxvi. 5.
Ps. lv. 4.

1 Thess. v. 24.
Ps. xxviii. 8.

Heb. vii. 35.
Ps. lxxxvi. 7.
1 John vi. 16.
Rom. viii. 38, 39.
Is. iv. 7.
John xiv. 27.
Exod. xv. 26.
Ps. cxviii. 3.

1 John i. 7.
John xx. 27.
Rom. vi. 9.
John xv. 4.
Rev. xxii. 20.
Titus ii. 13.

Ps. xcvii. 1.

Ps. xvi. 11.

THE SEED MUST DIE.

FROM THE FRENCH.

THE Seed must die, before the corn appears
Out of the ground, in blade and fruitful ears.
Low must those ears by sickle's edge be lain,
Ere thou canst treasure up the golden grain.
The grain is crushed before the bread is made,
And the bread broke ere life to man conveyed.
O, be content to die, to be laid low,
And to be crushed, and to be broken so;
If thou upon God's table may'st be bread,
Life-giving food for souls an hungered!

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