home, where every wounded spirit
Is brought, Physician, Comforter, to Thee.

And when at last all earthly toil is ended,
All meet Thee in the blessed home above,
From whence Thou camest, where Thou hast ascended--
Thine everlasting home of peace and love.

Carl Johann Philipp Spitta, 1833.

HYMNS OF THE SPIRITUAL RENAISSANCE

In the early part of the nineteenth century a great spiritual revival
swept over Germany and other parts of evangelical Europe. In some
respects it resembled the earlier Pietistic movement in Germany and the
Wesleyan revival in England, except that it was more conservative than
either. In Germany the old orthodox conservatives and the more radical
Pietists joined forces to fight Rationalism, and the union was of benefit
to both groups.

There were many influences that contributed to the overthrow of
Rationalism. Chief among these was the widespread suffering and distress
in Germany, both physical and spiritual, following the Napoleonic wars.
Jacobs has well said: "When earthly props fall and temporal foundations
crumble, men turn, almost perforce, to God." The downfall of Napoleon and
the great empire he had founded was an object lesson to the world of the
transitory character of all things material.

The great thinker, Immanuel Kant, also helped to undermine the walls of
Rationalism by pointing out the limitatations of the human reason. He was
followed by the famous theologian, Friedrich Schleiermacher, who taught
that the seat of religion is not to be found in either the reason or
will, but in feeling--"the feeling of absolute dependence upon God." The
way was thus paved for the zealous efforts of Claus Harms, who in 1817,
the 300th anniversary of the Reformation, published a new set of
ninety-five theses and called upon his countrymen to return again to the
pure evangelical teachings of Luther.

Spring-time always brings song-birds and flowers. It was spring-time in
the religious life of Germany, and the sweet notes of evangelical hymnody
again were heard throughout the land.

Carl Johann Philipp Spitta was the greatest German hymn-writer of the
nineteenth century. He was born August 1, 1801, in Hannover. His father,
who was a descendant of a Huguenot family that fled from France during
the Catholic persecutions, died when Carl was only four years old. His
mother was a Christian Jewess, and it is a beautiful tribute