INTRODUCTION. ANew translation of the admirable devotional manual of John Gerhard needs no apology. The Meditationes Sac
INTRODUCTION.
A New translation of the admirable devotional manual of John Gerhard needs no apology. The Meditationes Sacræ was first published in Latin in the year 1606, when the author was but twenty-two years old. It enjoys the singular distinction of being the only work written by a young man that gained and maintained a deep and lasting hold upon the Church, as so expressing the loftiest devotion, with spiritual insight so just, that all, even those old in the faith, might be guided and uplifted by the meditations of so young a disciple of Christ. It has been frequently reprinted in Latin; it was speedily translated into German, and later into most of the European languages, including the Greek. It has also been honored with an Arabic version. The English translation by R. Winterton (1631), passed through at least nineteen editions. It ranks in its fine devotional spirit with Thomas à Kempis’ Imitation of Christ, Arndt’s Das Wahres Christenthum, and Taylor’s Holy Living and Dying. It is not a large book, but a golden one.
John Gerhard was born of a good family in Quedlinburg, 17th of October, 1582. In his fifteenth year, during a dangerous illness which continued about a year, he came under the personal influence of John Arndt, and resolved to study for the ministry. In 1599, he entered the University of Wittenberg. During his studies, he relinquished his purpose and gave himself for two years to the study of medicine. But, in 1603, he resumed his reading of theology at Jena. On the completion of his course, he began to give lectures at Jena in 1605. In 1606, the same year in which the Meditationes Sacræ appeared, he accepted the duke of Coburg’s invitation to a professorship in the Coburg Gymnasium and to the superintendency of Heldburg.
In 1616, he became professor at the University of Jena, which position he retained until his death. Though still comparatively young, Gerhard had already come to be regarded as the greatest living theologian of Protestant Germany; in the numerous disputations which characterized that period, he was always protagonist, while on all public and domestic questions touching on religion or morals, his advice was eagerly sought on all hands and by every class. Almost every university in Germany called him, as well as the University of Upsala in Sweden, but in vain. His writings indicate enormous labor, being both voluminous and varied, dealing alike in exegetical, polemical, dogmatic and practical theology. All exhibit patient study, great grasp of intellect, copious knowledge and religious experience. Luthardt says, as a theologian “he combined rare learning, great acuteness, wonderful industry, sound judgment and practical ability, with ardent piety.”
His great work, the Loci Theologici, begun in 1610 and completed in 1621, in which the theology of the Lutheran Church is set forth, is his theological masterpiece, and is marked by fulness of learning, logical force, clearness, thorough elaboration of every question, and by a practical and spiritual use of dogma. “Bossuet is said to be the author of the often quoted remark that Gerhard is the third (Luther, Chemnitz, Gerhard) in that series of Lutheran theologians in which there is no fourth.”
Gerhard died on the 20th of August, 1637. Of him it is recorded that personally he combined all the excellencies of the Christian character, his only failing, if it be a failing, being an excessive love of peace. The Meditations amply substantiate his fervent piety, his deep spiritual insight, which could only be acquired by living communion with the Lord.
The work of translation of this volume was entrusted to Rev. Charles W. Heisler, A. M., who has lovingly and faithfully performed his task, which to him was a congenial and pleasant labor.
The age in which we live is practical and energetic, more given to work than meditation. It needs the corrective which such books supply, teaching that there is a spiritual greatness which can only be attained by meditation and prayer. It is well to work, but the highest work can only come from the greatest souls who are nurtured by fellowship with God. It is therefore sent forth with the hope that its pages will furnish to many a help to higher and deeper fellowship with the Master, to their unspeakable comfort and larger efficiency as laborers with Him in His kingdom.