arning of a weak age for a better condition,
and the inclination of the pious for special illumination, rendered the
prophetic books of the Old and New Testament particularly attractive.
Thus it came to pass that the Pietists drew from them a multitude of
revelations and prophecies. It is of no importance at what results they
arrived; but this engrossing attention to the dark passages of the
prophets, and especially the Revelation of St John, did not contribute
to render their judgment clearer, nor their scientific culture more
solid: for in their time the key to the better understanding these
records had not been found. Moreover, the knowledge of languages even
among scholars was generally unsatisfactory, although, after the
example of Schurmann, there was already here and there a pious maiden
who began to learn Hebrew. It was not long before all worldly knowledge
appeared, to most of them, useless and detrimental.

Thus, Pietism was threatened with great dangers immediately after its
rise; but the life of the early Pietists, who from Frankfort spread
themselves all over Germany, was more simple and harmless than the
later proceedings at Halle, under the separatists of the eighteenth
century.

Two autobiographies of pious individuals of Spener's school have been
preserved to us, which throw light on other phases of German life. It
is a husband and wife who have bequeathed them to us,--kind-hearted
people, with warm feelings, some learning and no particular powers of
mind,--the theologian, Johann Wilhelm Petersen, and his wife, Johanna
Eleanor, born von Merlau. After they were united in marriage, they led
together a spiritual life, in perfect unanimity, and, like a pair of
birds, flitted through the temptations and troubles of this earthly
valley. Heavenly consolation and manifestation came to them alike. The
world considered them as enthusiasts, but they were held in honour to
the close of their life by the best among the Pietists, undoubtedly
because of the goodness of their hearts, which were not choked up with
spiritual pride. The husband was industrious and faithful to his
duties, a man with poetical feeling and some philosophical culture; but
he needed another to lean on, and was evidently much influenced by his
more decided wife, whose worldly position, as being noble, gave her
consideration even among the pious. It was soon after his marriage that
a restless excitement, and sometimes an immoderate zeal, became