A GERMAN POINT OF VIEW


Many Americans will remember the favorable impression made by Professor
Christlieb of Germany, when he attended the meeting of the Evangelical
Alliance in New York some years ago. His writings, like his presence, show
a most liberal spirit; and perhaps no man has ever presented the more
advanced evangelical theology of Germany in so attractive a light. Yet I
heard a story of him the other day, which either showed him in an aspect
quite undesirable, or else gave an unpleasant view of the social position
of women in Germany.

The story was to the effect that a young American student recently called
on Professor Christlieb with a letter of introduction. The professor
received him cordially, and soon entered into conversation about the United
States. He praised the natural features of the country, and the
enterprising spirit of our citizens, but expressed much solicitude about
the future of the nation. On being asked his reasons, he frankly expressed
his opinion that "the Spirit of Christ" was not here. Being still further
pressed to illustrate his meaning, he gave, as instances of this
deficiency, not the Crédit Mobilier or the Tweed scandal, but such alarming
facts as the following. He seriously declared that, on more than one
occasion, he had heard an American married woman say to her husband, "Dear,
will you bring me my shawl?" and the husband had brought it. He further had
seen a husband return home at evening, and enter the parlor where his wife
was sitting,--perhaps in the very best chair in the room,--and the wife
not only did not go and get his dressing-gown and slippers, but she even
remained seated, and left him to find a chair as he could. These things,
as Professor Christlieb pointed out, suggested a serious deficiency of the
spirit of Christ in the community.