Scriver, Christian

Scriver, Christian a Lutheran clergyman and writer of devotional works in the 17th century, the contemporary and friend of Spener, was born at Rendsburg, in Holstein, Jan. 2, 1629. His childhood was spent under the care of a widowed mother in the trying period of the Thirty Years' War; but a wealthy merchant the brother of Scriver's grandmother — finally made provision for his needs. After suitable preparatory studies, Scriver became a private tutor, and in 1647 entered the University of Rostock. In 1653 he was archdeacon at Stendal, and in 1667 pastor at Magdeburg, with which position he combined other offices, e.g. that of a schol-arch, and finally a senior in the government of the Church. lie refused to leave Magdeburg in answer to repeated calls to Halberstadt, to Berlin, and to the court of Stockholm, but was in advanced age induced to accept the post of court preacher at Quedliuburg. In 1692 he suffered an apoplectic stroke, and on April 5, 1693, he died. He had been married four times, and had had fourteen children born to him, but he outlived all his wives and children except one son and one daughter.

The name of Scriver has lived among the common people through the publication of his Seelenschatz (Magdeburg and Leips. 1737; Schaffhausen, 1738 sq., 5 parts in 2 vols. fol.), a manual of devotion which he dedicated to "the Triune God," and which deserves high commendation. Another work deserving of mention is his Gotthold's Zufallige Andachten (lsted. 1671, and often), a sort of Christian parables, 400 in number, · which are based on objects in nature and ordinary, occurrences in life. The Siech- u. Siegesbette describes a sickness through which he passed, and the aids and comforts derived from God's goodness in that time. Pritius has published a work of consolation, entitled Wittwentrost, from Scriver's literary remains.

For Scriver's life, see Pritius's preface to the Seelen. schatz; Christmann, Biographic (Nuremb. 1829); Ha-genbach, Wesen u. Gesch. d. Reformat. iv; Evang. Protestantismus, ii, 177 sq.