Ernst Gerhard Wilhelm Keyl was born as the second son of his parents in the famous trading and university city of Leipzig, in the Kingdom of Saxony. The day of his birth was May 22nd, 1804. If we think back for a few moments to the time in which our dear Keyl saw the light of day and spent his first years of youth, we find that it was a sad time in all respects. In Christendom there was a terribly thick spiritual darkness, and in the state things also looked very sad. God's judgments on Germany were near. God had already woven his scourge, which he wanted to wield over the completely rationalized Germany: Napoleon Bonaparte had ascended the imperial throne in France in 1804, and the very next year he overran the German lands with his army, which he devastated in a bloody war lasting almost ten years, the sad consequences of which our old fatherland had to feel deeply for a long time to come. These were, as I said, God's judgments on the German people who had fallen away from the faith, and Napoleon was the instrument through which God carried out his judgments. But our Keyl, young as he was at that time, could still remember in his later years the impression that those sad events had made on his childlike mind. In an old notebook he says: "I can see how deeply special events impress themselves on the mind of a child from the fact that the horrors of the French war have remained unforgettable to me from my childhood."
Little is known about his parents and his ancestors. His great-grandfather was a head miner in the "Goldgrund" shaft in Freiberg, Saxony. His father was the Royal Saxon Chief Tax Collector in Leipzig. His mother, of whom we do not even know her baptismal name, died at an early age; her place was later taken by a stepmother. The blessed Keyl himself knew little about his ancestors. He writes in one place: "I know nothing of my ancestors. My father wrote a book about the art of making tables." *) (*) Diary, 1857.) In another place he mentions that four weeks after his father's death he appeared to him in a dream when he was 17 years old, which left a deep impression on his youthful mind. **) (**) The same.)
We also know very little about his upbringing in his father's house. It would probably be possible to find some information about this in his diaries if one were to search them for this purpose; but this would take a lot of time and effort, because they are very extensive, and because in some years the writing is already very faded. This much we do know, however, that his upbringing in his parents' home was a very serious and strict one. For the good thing about that time of stale rationalism was that a strict paternal discipline prevailed in almost all homes and the youth was accustomed to obedience to all human order. But whether his father gave him a truly Christian upbringing is unknown to us. We do know that the father was a diligent visitor to the house of God and that he also encouraged his son to do so from a young age; however, this does not mean that the father himself was a living Christian, and as such he could only give his son a truly Christian upbringing. But that our Keyl must have been a modest, hard-working and obedient boy to his father can be deduced with certainty from the fact that his father was especially devoted to him and, for the sake of his good behavior, destined and encouraged him to the preaching ministry at an early age.
Blessed Keyl's diaries contain brief remarks here and there about his boyhood. He writes: "As a boy I liked reading Bauer's and Schröckh's biographies, hence my preference for biographies." And: "I liked reading Gellert's fables and Claudius." "I also read Becker's Mildheimisches Not- und Hilfsbüchlein as a boy. "*) (*) Diary, 1856) He gives us information about the religious instruction he received as a boy when he writes: "I received religious instruction in my parents' house under Robbe according to Dräseke's 'Faith, Love and Hope'. Then at the Nicolai School according to Rosemüller's guidelines, and in the upper class according to Niemeyer." **) (**) Himself.) From this we can probably draw a conclusion with a fair degree of certainty as to the nature of the religious instruction he received in his youth. Because the authors of these books were rationalists, and because consequently the content of their so-called religious books is also entirely rationalistic, the religious instruction that our Keyl received in his youth under the guidance of these books can of course not even have been generally Christian, much less Lutheran, but only flatly rationalistic. If we now draw the conclusion from this that our Keyl could hardly have received a clear knowledge of law and gospel, of sin and grace in his youth, then we will probably not be mistaken; for such a knowledge cannot be achieved through the shallow virtue teaching of the rationalists, but only through a truly Christian education based on the small Lutheran catechism.
However, it is undeniable that he received a very good education in the worldly arts and sciences from an early age. As the father himself was an educated man, blessed with earthly goods, he did not neglect to let his two sons (the other of whom was an excellent painter) learn something proficient, for which Leipzig offered the best opportunity. Our Keyl, for example, had received a thorough musical education in his youth. He particularly excelled at playing the violin. Even as a boy he often had to play under the direction of a conductor in the famous concerts which were performed in Leipzig's so-called "Gewandhaus". It once happened that shortly before the start of a concert, the conductor suddenly fell ill, which naturally caused embarrassment. In this embarrassment, the boy Keyl had to play the first violin. But this was no small matter, for he was now to be the leader of the musical production, not in a practice session, but in front of the eyes and ears of the audience, which included educated people and artists in music. And when Keyl stepped forward, holding the violin in his right hand and the bow in his left, astonishment was painted on many faces, for they thought: How is it possible that a boy who does not yet know with which hand to hold the violin bow can play the first violin? They expected nothing less than that he would spoil the whole concert. But regardless of the audience present, our Keyl tuned his violin with his left hand, made a few fingerings and the concert began. And lo and behold, everything went splendidly and brilliantly! The young artists were enthusiastically applauded by the crowd, and everyone was amazed at the skill of the boy Keyl, who had not only shown himself to be an accomplished player, but who also played the violin bow as skillfully with his left hand as with his right. But Keyl was also at home on the piano, and he played it with skill. When he came to this country in 1838, he brought a large Viennese grand piano with him, which then found its first resting place here in Frohna, in a poor hut, and was used diligently. Music-loving Americans often came to Keyl's home, to whom he had to play something, which he gladly did; for at that time, the possession of a musical instrument was something rare here in the jungle, and anyone who was able to play such an instrument as masterfully as our Keyl was considered half a miracle by the Americans. Keyl valued the aforementioned grand piano so highly that he always took it with him when he moved several times, and even today it enjoys the honor of taking pride of place in the parlor of the widowed Pastor Keyl's home in Monroe, Michigan. Of course, the old fellow, who for nearly half a century has soothed the hearts and minds of men with his sweet tones, has become invalid, and is now only cherished and preserved as a relic to the memory of his former dear owner.
The fact that the blessed Keyl had received a fine education from his youth was evident when we first met him. There was something aristocratic and distinguished in his whole demeanor; but at the same time he was a humble-hearted man who was able to get on well with even the simplest and most humble people. As a result of his father's position as a senior civil servant, he had already moved in educated circles in his youth and socialized with people from higher classes, and so he had also had to adopt their finer manners and manners. In 1827, as he himself tells us, *) (*) Diary, 1858) he made a journey through a larger part of Germany in the company of the pious Count Von der Recke, who is most famously known from history, in order to get to know the country and its people; which we mention here only to show how he had already moved in aristocratic circles in his youth.
Keyl received his academic education at the Nicolai-Gymnasium in his home town of Leipzig. We have not been able to determine the year in which he entered the grammar school or how long he attended it. After he had passed his school-leaving examination here, he decided to study theology with the permission and (as he himself often testified) on the urgent persuasion of his father, and to prepare himself for the sacred ministry. He ended up attending the University of Leipzig. We are not quite sure what age he was at the time, but it appears from other circumstances that he attended the university quite young.
But he did not yet know Christ, his Savior, and he had to get to know Him if he was to become a true scholar of God. But there was little hope that he would get to know Christ at Leipzig University, for Christ found no shelter there at that time. Just as the most extraordinary rationalism prevailed at all German universities at that time, so too in Leipzig. Most professors did not teach their students how to preach the gospel to the people in a salutary way, but how they could tear it from the people's hearts without being noticed. There were still a few professors who professed faith in Christ (albeit only weakly), but they were little known and even less sought after; moreover, vulgar rationalism ruled the roost there.
The situation in the German regional churches at that time was just as sad as in the universities. In almost all pulpits, instead of the Gospel of Christ crucified, the most miserable religion of reason prevailed under the title of Enlightenment. God, virtue and immortality were regarded as the only three fixed articles of faith. The doctrine of the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures by the Holy Spirit, of the Holy Trinity, of the eternal deity of Christ, of the reconciliation of the world of sinners through Christ's suffering and death, of the justification of a poor sinner before God by grace through faith, of the effects of the means of grace for the rebirth, repentance and conversion of the sinner, of the existence of a devil, of hell and the eternal damnation of all who die in unbelief: all these basic teachings of Christianity were only remnants of a superstitious time that once existed. The Lord Jesus was praised only as the wise man of Nazareth and as the most glorious model of virtue, who atoned for his boldness with death.
In his 95 theses, the pious preacher Claus Harms - on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the Reformation in 1817 - characterized the deep decline of the German church, which still called itself Lutheran, quite aptly. There he says, Thesis 1: "When our Lord Jesus Christ says: Repent, he wants people to form themselves according to his teaching; but he does not form the teaching according to the people, as is now done, according to the changed spirit of the times." Thesis 3: "With the idea of a progressive reformation, Lutheranism is reformed into paganism and Christianity out of the world." Thesis 24: "Two places, O man, you have before you, it was said in the old hymnal. In more modern times the devil has been struck dead and hell has been sealed." Thesis 27: "According to the old faith, God created man; according to the new faith, man creates God and when he has finished him, he says Hoja! Isa. 44:12-20." Thesis 71: "Reason runs riot in the Lutheran church: tears Christ from the altar, throws God's word from the pulpit, throws excrement into the baptismal water, mixes all kinds of people at the altar, wipes away the address of the confessional, hisses out the priests and all the people after them and has done so for a long time. Are they not yet bound?" Thesis 75: "As a poor handmaid, one would now like to make the Lutheran Church rich through copulation" (namely through union with the Reformed Church). "Do not perform the act over Luther's bones! It will come alive and then - woe to you!"
In such a time of generally prevailing unbelief and apostasy from God and his word, the high school graduate Keyl went to university to study the doctrine of God and to become a servant of Christ in his church. If we now transport ourselves in spirit to that time, we must accompany him to the university with an anxious heart. For if he takes into his heart the anti-Christian teaching that prevails there, he will become an apostle of Satan instead of a servant of Jesus Christ. - But the LORD has mercifully prevented this. He, who has the "way of all things", also knew ways and means to protect the soul of the young, easy-going student from the fierce wolves and their poisonous teachings and to fill it with heavenly light. It was during his years at university that Keyl came to know his Savior Jesus Christ. The instrument for this was a believing candidate living in deep seclusion in Leipzig by the name of Kühn, a serious and zealous Christian with a friendly and engaging nature, who was joined by a group of students who loved the Lord Jesus; he was regarded as an example to them and they sought edification for their souls from him. However, Keyl does not seem to have found support in the knowledge of the pure doctrine of the Lutheran Church in these circles either. When he mentions his revival through the ministry of the candidate Kühn, and his contact with him and his friends, he says: "In this pietistic environment there was never any talk of doctrinal difference, only of piety. That I became acquainted with the Lutheran doctrine, I owe first of all to the pious shoemaker Götsching in Leipzig. My contact with this experienced old man was of great benefit to me during my university years. He knew the teachings of the Lutheran Church well, had read a lot in Luther's writings and in the symbolic books, had beautiful parables, rejected the Herrnhuters, etc. He was also a similar man. I also got to know a similar man in Frohna, namely Father Schneider from Oberfrohna, who was of great help to me." *) (*) Diary, 1853 and 1856)
An old friend and fellow student of the blessed Keyl, Pastor Bürger, writes the following about Keyl's revival and his Christian direction: "Keyl and his friends demanded a deep and thorough conversion, and especially the necessary experience of repentance in the narrower sense. Just as at that time there was a more pietistic-synergistic-legal direction among the souls eager for salvation, influenced by pietistic writings, than an evangelical nature, so it was the same with Keyl and his Christian friends in Leipzig. But in spite of all the pietistic and synergistic leaven, it lay at the bottom of their hearts that free will was nothing. Jesus Christ, the Savior crucified for all sinners and resurrected to righteousness, and that we are saved by grace through faith without any merit, was the sun and the light with which the Holy Spirit shone through their hearts more and more and introduced them more and more deeply to the full enjoyment of the Gospel. It would be desirable if we had many pastors, students and church members who had had a similar deep experience of repentance, and who had thus become completely null and void in their own eyes, to whom the gospel would then also taste and taste good."
If we now take a look back at Keyl's youth and student years, we must exclaim: How wonderfully God leads men to the knowledge of Christ, and how wonderfully he preserves his church and the orthodox preaching ministry in it! In those times of the deepest decay of the church and the ecclesiastical teaching institutions, God always preserved his little group of believing, yes, orthodox Christians and preachers and did not allow his church to perish. It was already thought that the old Christianity had long been overcome, that it would soon have completely disappeared from the face of the earth and that a new enlightened age would dawn in which only the religion of mere common sense would prevail: then God also raised up here and there in the German lands individual faithful witnesses in the preaching ministry who preached the gospel of Christ again with evidence of the Spirit and power and brought about great revivals in the spiritually dead congregations. Our blessed Keyl was one of these faithful witnesses whom God raised up in the first half of this century, who brought spiritual life again through the preaching of the gospel, as we will hear with joy in the next chapter.
God also raised up pious people among the laity at that time who had to bear witness to the truth, as we heard above from the old shoemaker Götsching. When the public teachers at Leipzig University had not only become dumb dogs who were silent about the truth, but also denied and blasphemed it, God used a lowly shoemaker as his instrument; a whole number of students eager for salvation not only sought and found encouragement in godliness from him, but also learned through him to know and love their mother, the Lutheran Church, and its scriptural teaching, and were thus prepared for their future ministry by a lowly layman. O wonder!