Jacob Behmen

Alexander Whyte (1836 - 1921) entered the ministry of the Free Church of Scotland. In 1909 he became principal, and professor of New Testament literature, at New College, Edinburgh. His works include Characters and Characteristics of William Law (1893), Bunyan Characters (4 Vols, 1893-1908), Samuel Rutherford (1894), An Appreciation of Jacob Behmen (1895), and Lancelot Andrewes and his Private Devotions (1895). Jacob Behmen (1575 - 1624) was a German shoemaker and a leading mystic. He was a Christian mystic and theologian. He is considered an original thinker within the Lutheran tradition. An excerpt reads, " While working with his hands, Jacob Behmen's whole life was spent in the deepest and the most original thought; in piercing visions of GOD and of nature; in prayer, in praise, and in love to GOD and man. Of Jacob Behmen it may be said with the utmost truth and soberness that he lived and moved and had his being in GOD. Jacob Behmen has no biography because his whole life was hid with CHRIST in GOD."