The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-10-07
B1sMARCKs RELIGIOUS CHARACTER.
by PHILIP scHAFF, D.D

Dr. Schaff is one of the most eminent
German scholars in this country.-ED.
The astounding events now passing in
Europe remind me of my promise to Translate
for the ~. Y. ObSer0er extracts from some
interesting and characteristic letters of Count
Bismarck which L collected last year in Prus-
sia and which give unmistakable evidence
that this extraordinary man-the victor of
Napoleon and the first statesman of the age
is no stranger to religious experience. His
master, King William, is an honest, God
fearing old soldier and every observer of his
public conduct in this French war must have
been struck with the tone of unaffected mod
esty, truthfulness, and pious recognition of
the hand of God in the events of history. l
am confident that Bismarck fully shares these
feelings. / know from a number of facts
which learned from his pastor Cthe Rev.
Mr.. Southron, a most earnest evangelical
preacher in Berlin, } and several of his init
mate friends, that, whatever may have been
his former life, he is now man of decided
Protestant religious convictions and ire
proachable private character. But let him
speak for himself.
tFrom a letter dated Berlin, Dec 90, 1861
''My Dear A.-Although am hard pressed
for time, cannot leave unanswered an inter
pellation which is addressed to me from an
honest heart with an appeal to Christ's name.
l sincerely regret if | give offense to believ-
ing Christians, but / am certain that in my
position such offensess is unavoidable. In the
camp of my necessary political opponents
there are, no doubt, many Christians who
are far ahead of me on the way of salvation,
aid yet, on account of what on both sides
belongs to earth, l must live in conflict with
them 1 need only appeal to what you say
yourself:-'Nothing of the public life on 20
high eminence remains hidden Where is
the man who, in such position, does not give
offense, justly or unjustly? L concede more
than this, for your utterance that nothing
remains hidden is not true. Would to God
that, besides what the world knows of me, /
had no other sins on my soul, for which /
hope forgiveness only by trusting in the
blood of Christ fur die ich 1ur i'm VertrGuen
duf Christi B21t Verge6ung hCBe).
AS statesman, l am not even sufficiently
bold, but rather timid in my feeling, because
it is not easy In questions with which l have
to wrestle to gain that clearness on which
alone trust in God can thrive. He who calls
me an unsorupulous politician does me in
justice: let him first try his conscience on
this battlefield. X If l stake my life
on this cause, do it in that confidence in
God which 1 have nursed and strengthened in
long and severe conflict, out in honest and
humble prayer to God"
In letter to his wife, written from Frank
fort, 1851, Bismarck confesses to q serious
CndOBo OF Ills view OF INC WOTlu:-
ebay before yesterday dined with -
at Wiesbaden, and looked, with mixture of
sadness and wisdom, upon the theatre of
former folly. May it please God to fill with
! His clear and strong wine that vessel in
which, twenty years ago, the champagne Of
youth uselessly evaporated, leaving but empty
dregs behind. Where and howlmay -
and Miss - be now? How many are
dead and buried, with whom 1 then wasted
| fIa in, 1.t,N III,
bling amt deueR jch ddn1ats Ie6eJte, becberte,
aourfegte)! How many changes has my view
of the world (lV6ItGuSch0nung) undergone
within the last fourteen years. How much
appears to me little now, what then appeared
great: how much is venerable to me what
then laughed at How many a leaf may yet
bud from our inner man and worthlessly fade
away till another fourteen years have passed
by, if we should live till 1868
81 cannot conceive how a man who reflects
and yet ignores God, can endure life for con-
tempt and eanut. 1 do not know how
stood it formerly. If i had to live now as
/ did then, without God, without thee, with
out children, could see no reason why
should not lay off this life like an unclean
shirt. And yet most of my acquaintances
are in this condition, and yet they live. If
l ask, in individual cases, what justifies this
or that man to continue to live, to labor, to
worry himself, to intrigue and to act as a spy,
/ verify do not know.
''You must not infer from this scribbling
that l feel particularly gloomy; on the cou-
trary, feel as If, on beautiful September
day, l looked upon the leaves as they turn
yellow; healthy and cheerful, yet a little
sad, a little homesick, longing after the
wood, the sea, the Wilderness after thee
and the children mixed with sunset and
| Beethoven"