pass from a region of barren negations to beliefs more accordant with the general faith of the church than he himself cherished" (Fisher). Neander taught the world to unite learning, religion and humanity.
The more earnest men of the state church confessed that it had lost influence with the people. The pastors waited for the poor to come to church and did not seek them. "Thousands remain without the word, without light and life." "We have no parishes, only church congregations." At the earnest request of some active men a conference was called at Wittenberg in April 1848. It was held in September, while the fright of the Revolution was fresh in all minds. Men were appalled at the brutality and fierceness of the outbreak and the bitter hostility of the people to religion. J. H. Wichern was the man for the hour. In an impassioned address he described the spiritual destitution of the homeless classes, of the proletarians of cities, and the antisocial purposes of the communists. He sketched the individual efforts already made to overtake the social need, to care for children and the poor, and to secure a regeneration in the inner life of the state, church and society. Perhaps a single sentence has been authentically reported: "May the Evangelical Church set upon this work its seal and declare : the work of the Inner Mission is mine! love belongs to me as well as faith."
A committee was appointed to formulate a plan. The conference adopted the report, and in the following January the "Central Committee for the Inner Mission of the German Evangelical Church" began its work.
It was near the close of this period, June 15, 1847, that Bismarck voiced the principle of the benevolent disposition: "I am of opinion that the idea of the Christian state is as old as the ci devant Holy Roman Empire, as old as all the European states, that it is the soil in which these states have taken root, and that a state, if it would have an assured permanence, if it would only justify its existence, when it is disputed, must stand on a religious foundation." But deep down in the heart of the nation that doctrine had been kept alive by men who lived near to the
