The Guardian.

VOL. XXXIV.

THE STREAM.

BY THE EDITOR.

OCTOBER, 1882.

When pleasures vanish like a dream,
When earth's connections sever,
'Tis well to watch a flowing stream,
That tumbles on forever.

In silence on the waters gaze,

For, as they pass, they banish
The hopes and joys of former days,
While all thy sorrows vanish.

Gaze on. gaze on, as in a dream,

Until thy tears come gushing;
And, through their flood, behold the stream,
Forever onward rushing.

"Twill make the wounded spirit whole,
'Twill bind what grief doth sever;
For thus itself the weary soul
Sees flowing on forever.

-From the German of Nikolaus Lenau.

KARL RITTER.

BY REV. B. BAUSMAN, D.D.

NO. 10.

Lecture. In due time a tall, well-built, venerable gentleman entered. As he slowly walked up to the stand, the eyes of the students followed him with loving silence-a silence which seemed almost breathless. At one end of the room, behind a low rostrum or a platform, he took his seat, and at once began his lecture. His first sentence set scores of pens going. He was seventy-seven years of age, and showed signs of growing infirmity. His white hair was carefully brushed, and his clothing was tidy and suited for his years. Evidently he held that a professor teaches not only in what he says, and does, but also in what he wears. His subject was: Ancient Geography among the Israelites and the Egyptians. His full, rotund voice was pitched on a low key. His utterance was clear, distinct and conversational. seemed eager to catch every word; and the busy pens on the little desks blended their faint, hurried strokes with the kindly voice of the speaker. He sat before them like a father before his children. I felt it to be a great privilege to sit at the feet of the "Father of Modern Geography."

All

It was on the evening of November 11, 1856, that I slowly felt my way down At the foot of the Hartz mountains two dark, narrow flights of stairs in my lies the small and very old village of temporary Berlin home. From the Quedlinburg. Here the great port Leipziger Strasse I passed through the Klopstock and the eminent geographer poorly lighted streets that led across to Karl Ritter were born. The latter here the Unter den Linden. The night air first saw the light of day on August 7, was crisp, yet not unpleasantly cold. 1779. His father was a physician, a Entering the palatial University build- man of a noble, Christian character. He ings, I at once went to Karl Ritter's died when Karl was but five years of Lecture-room. For it was to hear and age. His mother was left a widow withsee him that I was constrained to wander out property and with five children. She through the dreary, unfamiliar streets of is said to have been a finely educated Berlin, in the night. The room, one of lady. A Mr. Saltzman was then in the the largest lecture-rooms in the building, act of founding a high school in Schueffenwas filled with students-from 150 to thal. He had resolved that the first 200. This was an unusually large at- scholar to be received should be a deservtendance for an ordinary University | ing poor toy, whom he would educate

the distinguished Chancellor of Prussia, Von Bethman-Hollweg. He became the favorite scholar, who gave him much pleasure. The two became ardent life

without pay. It was to be a talented boy,
not less than six years of a e. The sad be-
reavement of the Ritter family called
forth the sympathy of newspapers in that
part of Europe. In this way Mr. Saltz-long friends.
man's attention was directed to the
children of widow Ritter. Incidentally,
he happened to meet with Karl Ritter,
and at once chose him as the first scholar
in his Schueffenthal School. Here he
spent eleven years, until he entered the
University of Halle.

Quedlinburg, the quaint old Thuringi-
an village became a second home to him.
The picturesque scenery, great mountains
and fertile valleys first started his recep-
tive mind in geographical studies, to
which he devoted his long and useful
life. His teacher wrote to his mother
that Karl was cheerful, obedient and
studious, At first he missed her, and
now and then his tears flowed freely.
But his tender body was soon strength-
ened, and his heart cheered by various
amusements. One letter says: "Karl has
already been trained to skate a whole
bour in a stretch. When he is tired of
sitting or standing about, he lays himself
down on the frozen earth, looks at the
heavens for half an hour and has his own
thoughts about them." "Karl makes
rapid progress; some day he will be
made a professor of geography. It is a
pleasure to teach him in this branch of
his studies." This prophecy of the teacher
was literally fulfilled. At length he
reached an age when he should have en-
tered the University. But where should
he get the needed money? About this
time, a Mr Hollweg, a wealthy mer-
chant of Frankfort-on-the-Main, visited
the Schueffenthal School. Karl Ritter's
character and talents pleased the good
man very much. On the recommenda-
tion of Principal Saltzman, he offered to
support the youth through a university
course, on the condition that at the end
of it he would serve as a private tutor to
his children. At Halle he advanced
rapidly in
in his studies, which

in

various ways he continued after he entered the Hollweg family. He was but nineteen years of age. The family was one of the wealthiest and most refined in Frankfort. Would the poor student feel at home in such an atmosphere? Among the bright children in this Christian home, was the youngest son-afterwards

Ritter ever showed a keen thirst for knowledge, and never ceased to be a scholar. In the Hollweg family he discovered that he had not paid sufficient attention to ancient literature. He says, "I keenly feel my ignorance in this department, and now clearly see how this is the basis of all thinking and knowledge." For a considerable time he went with his favorite scholar to the Frankfort Gymnasium. The graduate of Halle University sat on the same bench beside his boy pupil, and rejoiced in the privilege. And when be attended the Hollweg sons to Göttingen he sought to secure the benefits of the university there. He spent his vacations in traveling in Europe and Asia. There were few parts of Europe which he did not visit. He traveled much afoot, which helped to develop and preserve his robust bodily strength. He wrote 19 large volumes on Universal Geography, besides works on other subjects. All modern writers on this subject have reaped in good Karl Ritter's barve t field; much of their best material has been taken from the great storehouse. As for sacred geography, no one, nor the combined labors of a dozen of later writers, can compare with this humble man. When in 1820 he commenced his first lecture on Geography, he found not one hearer when the hour arrived. Later he could scarcely find a room large enough to contain all who crowded to hear him. Indeed to have heard one of Karl Ritter's lectures was in Berlin regarded as a mark of culture.

Although a great man of science, Karl Ritter was an humble Christian. And he was such in spite of many drawbacks. True, his parents were pious people. But his first teacher, Principal Saltzman, was a Rationalist-that is, a man who did not believe in the Bible as a divine revelation, nor in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Redeemer of the world. A French infidel has said: "Give me the first five years of a child's life and I will teach it to break every law of God and of man.' To a boy of six years a teacher of such views is a very dangerous man. He sows the

questions and proof-texts, from which we fear, in these later days, catechumens would shrink if they were required to commit them to memory. Grandfather was not afraid that his children might have to study too much. Nor was there any danger that the children would object to the labor involved in learning this catechism. Such a thing was in those days, entirely out of the question. Grandfather was not inclined shrink from his duties as chief teacher of his family. His pastor it is true re

to

great-grandfather, who settled in Eastern Pennsylvania exactly one hundred and fifty years ago. The old conch was used as a dinner-horn, and no doubt many thousand times it called the weary Jaborers from the field. It has, however, its objections as a keepsake. The youngsters about the house have learned to blow it, and occasionally, at unexpected times they fill the air with its dreadful echoes. There once was in existence a musical instrument, which, as a relic, we would prefer to possess. In our father's boyhood-days there was still in the gar-sided in his house for several years, as ret of the old homestead" ein Flügel" a sort of primitive piano-which his grandfather had made with his own hands. It has long since disappeared, and is probably destroyed; but if it should still linger in some garret of Eastern Pennsylvania, we would not only be willing to pay more for it than any one else would be likely to consider it worth but would even promise to write an article about it.

In our library we have a relic which, though less ancient, is in our eyes more valuable than such things as these. It is a copy of the Palatinate Catechism, printed at Frankfort on the Main in 1782, which is therefore exactly one hundred years old. On the first page are written the following words: "This catechism was the property of Daniel Dubs, of Lower Milford, Lehigh county, and was thoroughly studied by all his children. He finally presented it to his youngest son, Joseph, who valued it very highly."

No doubt the book was quite new when grandfather bought it. The catechism which he himself had studied was probably nearly worn out, and as soon as his eldest son was ready to be prepared for confirmation (about 1790) he thought it time to purchase another. We can imagine him taking a load of grain to Philadelphia, and after selling it, going to the store of Melchior Steiner, or some other German bookseller, to buy this precious volume.

In making this purchase grandfather was not satisfied with the more brief form of the catechism, which is now generally used, but selected the best edition of the large Palatinate. It is a volume of nearly three hundred pages, and contains an abundance of minor

an invited guest, and may possibly during this time have devoted some attention to the instruction of the children, but ordinarily it was grandfather himself who was "the priest of the household." How well the work was done is evident from the auto-biography of his youngest son, the father of the present writer. "During the long winter evenings," he says "we were required to commit the catechism and to read the Psalter and New Testament. We read alternately; the elder were the teachers of the younger, and each one manifested a degree of zeal, and of anxiety to excel, such as is rarely found in schools. On Sundays, when there was no service in the church, we were required to spend the forenoon in religious study, but whenever it was possible we went to church and listened to the preaching of the Gospel. After we returned from church, and had taken dinner, the Bible was brought, and the chapter from which the text was taken, read and commented upon. When this was done we were allowed to take a little innocent recreation."

The catechism which was so carefully studied contains an appendix with prayers for various occasions. These the children were required to commit to memory, and to repeat at proper times. Grace at table was never neglected. There are several table-prayers in the catechism, but the following was most generally employed:

"Lord God, our Heavenly Father, bless us and these Thy gifts which we owe unto Thy loving-kindness, and make us partakers of Thy heavenly table, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen. " "Our Father, &c. "

This prayer, it will be remembered, comes down to us from the days of the

The book concludes with the following series of divine precepts, teaching "how God's children should conduct Scriptures. themselves in their daily life:"

1. Whatever you do, let it be done in time. For I

order and at the proper

am a God of order, saith the Lord; A translation of the Dies Ira of Thomas à all disorderly conduct comes from the devil and from sin.