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 BX 9593 .N4 K73 1890 
 Kremer, A. R. 1832-1917. 
 A biographical sketch of 
 John Williamson Nevin. . . 
 
■^■^'y/i^yf 
 
 £A/e CO /^/v/iA 
 
A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
 
 OF 
 
 O.LLLL 
 
 ULiiiiilliWU 1 1 LMJi LL^^ ir, i/.j ui^. ly.j 
 
 Doctor Prsestantissimus. 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. A. R.'^KREMER, A. M. 
 
 READING, PA.: 
 
 DANIEL MILLER, 123 NORTH SIXTH STREET. 
 
 1890. 
 
TO HIS SON, 
 
 JOHN NEVIN KREMER, 
 
 AND TO ALL OTHERS 
 
 WHO HAVE RECEIVED THE NAME OF THE DOCTOR MOST EMINENT, 
 
 THIS LITTLE BOOK IS DEDICATED 
 
 BY THE 
 
 AUTHOR. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 One of the most important works that has ever been 
 published is the biography of John Williamson Nevin, 
 written by his disciple and co-worker, Theodore Appel. 
 It is the work of a ripe scholar and master of the great 
 subject undertaken by him, and well has he performed 
 his task. It is a work which required arduous painstaking 
 and labor, though from first to last a labor of love, the 
 final result being a magnificent monument to the memory 
 of the grandest and noblest historical personage of the 
 present age. 
 
 All persons who take a real interest in the truth as it 
 is in Jesus, and have made sufficient progress in Christian 
 knowledge to grasp and appropriate the profound thoughts 
 of Dr. Nevin, should by all means possess a copy of Dr. 
 Appel's book. And this, no matter to what demonination 
 they may belong. Dr. Nevin was far above denomination 
 or Church party, a Catholic in the broadest and best sense, 
 who knew only the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, 
 and no other. All persons who can rise to that plane of 
 Apostolic Christianity, or have the mind and wish to do 
 so, would be greatly benefited by reading Dr. Appel's 
 great work. 
 
 Then why this little book on the same subject ? An- 
 swer : Just because it w a little book, intended for people 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 who will never read the great and large one of Dr. Appel. 
 This alone is the humble author's reason for writing it. 
 He would rejoice exceedingly if the large work would find 
 its way into every intelligent Christian household ; but 
 knowing that such will not be the case, he offers to the 
 general public this little book, with the humble conscious- 
 ness of its extreme littleness as compared with the great- 
 ness of its subject. It is written for people who, after 
 reading it, it is hoped, will want the other book. May the 
 blessing of God rest upon this earnest, honest, though im- 
 perfect, design of the AUTHOR. 
 Berlin, Pa., June, 181)0. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER. PAGE. 
 
 I.— UpjK-r Strasbnrg. The Old 
 Homestead. A Temperance 
 
 Meeting, .... 9 
 
 II.— At College, .... 17 
 
 III. — At College, Religious Interest, 21 
 IV. — The History of Twenty-two 
 Years Briefly Told. The 
 Theological Student. The 
 Author. Teacher of Hebrew. 
 Theological Professor and 
 Preacher, . . . .28 
 
 V. — Transition, .... 40 
 
 VI. — Reformed and Presbyterian, . 45 
 
 VII. — True and False Evangelism, 53 
 
 VIII.— The Contrast, ... 69 
 
 IX.— Tlie Pilot Steers Straight, . 81 
 
 X. — True Evangelism, . , 87 
 
 XL— Dr. Philip Schaff, ... 91 
 
 XII.— A Review, .... 98 
 XIII.— A Ten Years' War, . .110 
 
VIII CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER. PAGE. 
 
 XIV.— A Speck of War, . . 120 
 
 XV.— The Book, .... 127 
 
 XVI.— The Mercersburg Review, . 141 
 
 XVII.— The Well is Deep, . . . 158 
 
 XVIII.— A Year in Carlisle, . . 165 
 
 XIX.— A Retrospect, . . . . 180 
 
 XX. — Gigantil)us Est Contentio, . 195 
 
 XXI. — Concluding Notes, . . . 20U 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 Upper Strasburg.— The Old Homestead.— A Tem- 
 perance Meeting. 
 
 In the shadow of what is locally known as 
 the North Mountain, in Franklin county, Pa., 
 is the village of Upper Strasburg, a place of 
 several hundred inhabitants. It boasts of hav- 
 ing once entertained, for a few hours, the " Fa- 
 ther of his country" — no idle boast, for one of 
 the old denizens of the neighborhood, a perfectly 
 truthful man, told me a long time ago that he 
 himself, when a boy, saw the great Washington 
 enter the village, where he stopjied for a short 
 time at the hostlery, the only one in the place. * 
 
 My old friend was a man of fervid patriotism, 
 and there were tears in his eyes when he said : 
 ^j " Yes, I sarfi him ! He rode u^) to the tavern 
 / with some other big men, and I said to my fa- 
 ther, who held me by the hand, * Who is that 
 big man that has just got off his horse?' and he 
 answered, 'My son, that is the great and good 
 9. 
 
10 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Washington.' Yes, I saw our AVashington,and 
 it does me good to think of it." 
 
 That was, perhaps, the first feather in the cap 
 of the viUage, which some people thought al- 
 ways carried a rather high head for its size, 
 which fact used to evoke from near outsiders 
 many a contemptuous observation. Ribald 
 jokes would frequently be indulged in at the 
 sore expense of the villagers, and sometimes 
 couplets of grotesque doggerel would be com- 
 posed by their calumniators, holding up the 
 supposed conceited people in an unfavorable 
 light, and ridiculing their pretensions. Some 
 of those mock verses were composed in Penn- 
 sylvania German, evidently to annoy as much 
 as possible the Scotch-Irish element, which for 
 several generations had held undisputed sway in 
 the village. It was treated much like the town 
 of Preston, in England, that was regarded by 
 the country folk as unreasonably proud. The 
 town had a very high steeple on a very low 
 church (and even tliat was high theologically) ; 
 the people were not rich, but proud, proud of 
 something, the great steeple for one. And it 
 was thus that the poetic muse inspired some ru- 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 
 
 11 
 
 ral swain to express the general sentiment, on 
 the outside, in regard to Preston : 
 
 "Proud Preston, 
 Poor people ; 
 Low church 
 And high steeple." 
 
 All the same, however, the spirit of Strasbiirg, 
 like that of Preston, would not down, but main- 
 tained its proud position against all the satirical 
 efforts of its rude assailants. 
 
 The fact is, Strasburg was something of an his- 
 torical place, small as it was, and still is. Be- 
 fore and after the memorable brief appearance 
 of Washington on its one and only street, it was 
 the centre and headquarters in a community 
 which boasted of men of note, in church and 
 state, and people of respectability and character 
 in the quiet walks of life. Among these, first 
 and foremost was the Nevin family, I'esiding 
 about a mile and a half from the village. 
 
 More than forty years ago, when I was a 
 small boy, an open-air temperance meeting was 
 held on the Nevin farm. Temperance meetings 
 in those days were high occasions, and peoi:»le 
 came for many miles to attend them. Those 
 were the days of Washingtonian pledges, won- 
 
12 THE LIKE OF 
 
 derful conversions from drunkenness to sobriety, 
 and all sorts of oratory on the temperance plat- 
 form from all sorts of orators — college students, 
 preachers, doctors, lawyers, and, the most popu- 
 lar of all, "reformed drunkards," with their 
 tales of woe, frantic appeals and coarse wit. On 
 this occasion the speakers, as previously trum- 
 peted throughout that great valley, were my 
 eldest brother. Rev. A. H. Kremer, then a 
 young minister residing in Shippensburg, on 
 the Franklin county side of the town ; and a 
 doctor, who told of the dreadful physical effects 
 of drinking alcohol. 
 
 My father, who was a j^ioneer in temperance 
 work, was there, of course, and the whole fam- 
 ily, leaving only the faithful dog to take care of 
 the house. The meeting was held in a beautiful 
 little grove, a few hundred yards from the old 
 Nevin farm house, where a platform had been 
 erected for the speakers and men of note, with 
 plenty of seats for the large assembly of 2)eople 
 — boards laid across logs, in camp-meeting 
 fashion. 
 
 This was the only time I ever saw the old 
 place where Dr. Nevin's father had lived, and 
 where the Doctor had s})ent part of his early 
 
JOHN W. NEVIX. 13 
 
 life. Some time after that, my father, in a con- 
 versation with him, referred to the place and 
 the temperance meeting in the grove — in which 
 young Nevin had doubtless often caught inspira- 
 tion for his future work — when the Doctor said : 
 " Yes, many a hard day's work I did on that 
 farm ; but I enjoyed it, and it was of great bene- 
 fit to me in every way." My father was an ar- 
 dent admirer of Dr. Nevin, and followed him 
 up as closely as he could in his great career ; 
 and his small boys learned thus from childhood 
 to revere and study the man and his works. 
 My reverence for him is therefore a family in- 
 heritance ; and when I was once favored with 
 the opportunity of passing through and exam- 
 ining the house where he had spent part of his 
 youth, and of looking over the fields which he 
 had helped to till, I seemed to be on enchanted 
 ground, wondering that such a small boy would 
 dare to breathe the same atmosphere that once 
 filled the lungs of the distinguished President of 
 Marshall College. I had just read in the Re- 
 formed " Messenger" an article written by one 
 of his enthusiastic disciples at Mercersburg, in 
 which the writer spoke of " the world renowned 
 Nevin," and the words had lodged deep down in 
 
14 THE LIFE OF 
 
 my juvenile soul. Here I was now where "the 
 world renowned Nevin" used to be when a farm- 
 er's boy — house, barn, temperance grove, mead- 
 ow, Casey's Run, and the broad acres sj^read out 
 before my young vision as sacred to the Muses, 
 all seemed to me, if I could have expressed it, 
 as if touched b}^ a magic wand. 
 
 It was a good providence that made this the 
 early home of Dr. Nevin. Had he been born 
 and reared in a large town or city, it might be 
 said that he was blessed with superior advan- 
 tages, the environments of social culture, and 
 ready means of personal and educational im- 
 provement. On the contrary, the real advan- 
 tages were on the farm. There was the stuff, 
 rich and ])i\Ye from the lofty mountain ranges, 
 that nourished the flame of his youthful life. 
 The exercises of farm industry are infinitely 
 better than dumb bells, or Indian clubs, or any 
 of the artificial city devices for the manufacture 
 of muscle. These are good for people so unfor- 
 tunate as to be deprived of the sights, sounds 
 and exercises of a farm located near one of Penn- 
 sylvania's glorious mountains, yet they are only 
 poor substitutes for the plow, pitch-fork and 
 other instruments of husbandry. It was here 
 
JOHN W. NEYIN. 15 
 
 that Dr. Nevin laid a good physical and mental 
 foundation for that wonderful and grand super- 
 structure known afterwards in the intellectual 
 world as one of its greatest representatives. 
 There is poetry, as well as hard sense, in the 
 
 old couplet : 
 
 "God made the country, 
 Man made the town." 
 
 In that quiet home, rural pursuits did not oc- 
 cupy all the time by any means, as is too often 
 the case in the country. Young Nevin's par- 
 ents were persons of mental culture and refine- 
 ment. The father was a man of learning, hav- 
 ing received a liberal education, being a gradu- 
 ate of Dickinson College, and ranking in ability 
 while at college with such men as Roger B. 
 Taney and James Buchanan, both Dickinson 
 students, and of high grade. It may be easily 
 inferred, therefore, that the country home of 
 young Nevin was a femily institution of learn- 
 ing, and such it really was. Here the father 
 prepared his own sons for college, and so thor- 
 ough was the drill in Latin, Greek and mathe- 
 matics, that John was prepared for the Fresh- 
 man class, which he entered at the early age of 
 fourteen. He worked on the farm and studied 
 at intervals, often taking his books with him to 
 
16 THE LIFE OF 
 
 the field ; and yet, with all such seeming dis- 
 advantages and interruptions, at the age of four- 
 teen was thoroughly prepared to enter college ; 
 and though the youngest of his class, he was 
 equal, if not superior, to any of his superiors in 
 age. 
 
 John Williamson Nevin, the subject of this 
 biographical sketch, was born on the 20th of 
 February, 1803. His birth-place is not where 
 I attended the temperance meeting, but a farm 
 near Shippensburg, his father having removed 
 to the Upper Strasburg farm some years later. 
 Here were born a large family of children, and 
 all, in after years, were noted for intelligence, 
 and occupied high positions in state, society and 
 church. Dr. Appel, in his great work, gives a 
 full account of this distinguished family, and 
 the reader is here referred to that book for in- 
 formation as to the Nevin family tree. I will 
 only say here that Dr. Nevin was of Scotch- 
 Irish descent, and that his ancestors were of the 
 very best stock and blood, in the best sense of 
 the word. He had a right to be proud of his 
 ancestry, but his ancestors (if there is pride in 
 the other world) have a much better right to be 
 proud of him. He is the Alcyone in the centre 
 of the group that bears his name. 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 At College. 
 
 As already stated, young Nevin entered the 
 Freshman class in college, after a careful prepara- 
 tion by his father, when he was but fourteen 
 years of age. He had no experience in the 
 usual preparatory drill of the academy or high 
 school. But he had the advantage of excellent 
 home training, while at the same time his physi- 
 cal powers were developed by such work on the 
 farm as was suitable to his age. 
 
 It is not often that a farm lad is prepared for 
 college by his father. Not many farmers are 
 college graduates. It is a pity that there are so 
 few ; it is well there are some ; and it is well for 
 the whole world to-day that farmer Nevin was 
 one of these few. If only one out of every 
 graduating class in our American colleges would 
 choose agriculture for his earthly pursuit, take 
 to himself an intelligent and sensible wife, and 
 then settle down permanently on a farm — what 
 noble results there would be ! What a power 
 
18 THE LIFE OF 
 
 such farmers would be in country places ! How 
 they would elevate the social life in their several 
 communities ! How they might instruct their 
 less cultured neighbors in the science of agricul- 
 ture, and in many other things that men of the 
 soil ought to know ! Farmer Nevin was such a 
 man, and his influence was felt all around. His 
 farm house was a centre from which flowed out 
 educational and refining influences in all direc- 
 tions ; and the neighboring farmers were all the 
 better for having him in their midst. 
 
 But Mr. Nevin was more than a learned 
 farmer. He was what many college graduates 
 are not : he was a Christian man, a consistent 
 member of Christ's mystical body, the Church, 
 in connection with the Middle Spring Presby- 
 terian congregation, whose jilace of worship was 
 near his home. He and his excellent wife brought 
 up their children in the faith of the gospel. 
 They gave them to the Lord in His holy cov- 
 enant of baptism in their infancy, thus j^lanting 
 them in the house of the Lord, that they might 
 flourish in the courts of our God, and carefully 
 taught them the lessons of our holy religion. 
 
 The influence of such a man among plain 
 country people could not be otherwise than good. 
 His Christian morality was set in the frame- 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 
 
 19 
 
 work of thorough mental culture, like apples of 
 gold in pictures of silver. He did not use his 
 learning to the disadvantage of those who were 
 not possessed of such intellectual power. His 
 neighbors well knew that, and that they could 
 entrust to him any interest of theirs when they 
 were in need of direction and counsel. Mental 
 culture is a power for good or evil ; in his case 
 it was a power for good. 
 
 The reader knows something now about John 
 W. Nevin's mental and moral outfit when he 
 entered Union College, in Schenectady, New 
 York. A mere boy, and from the country, he 
 was now to associate with young men, the most 
 of whom, perhaps, were brought up in town or 
 city, where from their infancy they had breathed 
 the atmosphere of refined society, and were fa- 
 miliar with no other. But he was equal to the 
 new demand. It matters little ivhere a youth 
 has been reared ; but it does matter by whom. 
 He had a double advantage : he had been 
 brought into daily contact with plain and simple- 
 minded people, who knew little of the great 
 world of humanity, became familiar with the 
 crude ideas, thoughts, emotions and simple as- 
 pirations and virtues of the common masses, also 
 their needs and the imj^ortauce of their mental 
 
20 THE LIFE OF 
 
 and spiritual elevation ; while, at the same time, 
 in the home circle he lived in a different world 
 from theirs, and was separated from them as if 
 by an ocean or a continent. His own proper 
 life was formed and moulded by the mental and 
 spiritual life of an intelligent Christian home. 
 That was far better than to have been brought 
 up amid the fashionable surroundings of an 
 aristocratic section of a city. His culture was 
 true and solid, and free from any superfluity of 
 mere outward polish. He was not, therefore, a 
 stranger to the real humanities and refinements 
 which are the natural concomitants of true edu- 
 cation ; so that, great as was the difference be- 
 tween the home life and rural scenes of his 
 childhood and the imposing presence of a great 
 institution of learning, he received no severe 
 mental shock by the sudden change. He was 
 constitutionally modest, and even timid, and be- 
 ing the youngest in his class, it may well be 
 supposed that it was something of a trial to him 
 at first to be doomed to long years of separation 
 from his dear home, and something of a task to 
 adaj)t himself to the new situation ; yet his solid 
 mental endowment and training soon brought 
 him in full sympathy with the new world which 
 he had entered. 
 
JOHN \V. NEVIN. 21 
 
 CHAPTEK III. 
 
 At College.— Religious Interest. 
 
 The thorough instruction which young Nevin 
 had received from his learned father, served him 
 well at college, where his standing was always 
 high, youthful as he was. Owing to his natural 
 timidity, he never exhibited what is called 
 " dash ;" was not an eloquent debater in the lit- 
 erary society to which he belonged ; in fact, ac- 
 cording to his own account, he could scarcely 
 frame, off-hand, a coherent sentence when ap- 
 pearing before his fellows during the first years 
 of his collegiate course. There were with him 
 at college, students with glib tongues and ready 
 wit, who, in after years, were proud to do rever- 
 ence to the once timid boy, who as theologian 
 and philosopher astonished the learned world. 
 Evidences were not rare, even when he was a 
 child, of extraordinary talent. Dr. Aj^i^el re- 
 lates that an old German lady once saw him at 
 his grandjiarents when he was twelve years old, 
 heard his conversation and was amazed at his 
 
22 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 wonderful knowledge. That reminds me of my 
 early ministry, when that same old lady was one 
 of my most honored and excellent j^arishioners, 
 over eighty years of age. In the narrative re- 
 ferred to, she is spoken of as a German Avoman 
 — which needs explanation. She was not of 
 foreign birth, could speak English as fluently 
 and correctly as (merman, and her reading, of 
 which she did a great deal, was mostly English. 
 The Reformed " Messenger" was her constant 
 companion, she knew something of every min- 
 ister in the Reformed Church, had an almost 
 unlimited memory, and when she related the in- 
 cident about young John Nevin and his wisdom, 
 her story could be relied on as perfectly correct. 
 One event in Mr. Nevin's life at college must 
 be mentioned as having an important bearing 
 on his future history. AYlien he was about half 
 way through his college course, a " revival of 
 religion," so called, broke out among the stu- 
 dents. There seemed to be what has often been 
 termed *' a great awakening." There were strong 
 cries and tears, mourning over sinful condition, 
 and earnest striving after a spiritual state that 
 would insure the salvation of the soul. Mr. 
 Nevni, whose Christian training would naturally 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 23 
 
 cause him to regard with solemnity such reli- 
 gious earnestness and seeking of salvation, fell 
 in with the movement, became a subject of it, 
 and after many severe soul struggles, arrived at 
 a spiritual state which he ventured to hope 
 was the great desideratum, conversion. 
 
 Up to this time he had not made a public 
 profession of Christian faith ; but he now felt 
 prepared to do so, and with others was received 
 into full communion with the Church. 
 
 In after years Dr. Nevin spoke and wrote of 
 that college " revival" in terms of severe and no 
 doubt just criticism. Before he entered college, 
 it was still the good custom in the Presbyterian 
 Church generally to teach the baptized children 
 the fundamental truths of the Christian religion, 
 that they might be prepared to assume for them- 
 selves, at a proper age, the obligations and du- 
 ties of a i^ersonal consecration to the service of 
 God as full members of the Church. It had 
 been the recognized duty of the minister to 
 catechize the young and all who needed elemen- 
 tary instruction, according to the method of in- 
 struction as appointed by ecclesiastical authority. 
 The pastor of the old Middle Spring church, to 
 which the Nevins belonged, was a faithful pas- 
 
24 THE LIFE OF 
 
 tor to the children, the lambs of Christ's fold, 
 and carefully supplemented their home training 
 by teachinsT them more fully the truths of the 
 Christian religion as set forth in the Westmin- 
 ster catechisms. The educational idea in reli- 
 gion was firmly maintained and practised in 
 that church and by its pastor, and young Neyin 
 received a full share of the spiritual benefits 
 conferred in this way. But when the " reviyal" 
 turned in at Union College, the promoters of it 
 taught and insisted upon an entirely different 
 theory of personal religion. No account what- 
 ever was made of covenant relation to God 
 through holy baptism. The baptized and un- 
 baptized were not necessarily different in any 
 way. Worse, still, for those would-be evange- 
 lists, the most careful Christian training, re- 
 ceived at the Christian home and in the church, 
 all went for nothing in the estimation of the 
 new teachers. What they insisted on as the one 
 great essential was, that the soul pass through a 
 crucible of torture in a sort of spiritual inquisi- 
 tion, the inquisitors meanwhile increasing the 
 agony until the racked subject " yields," from 
 sheer exhaustion, and collapses into a state that 
 is called conversion. ]Mr. Nevin, with many 
 others, was drawn into that whirlpool of soul 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 25 
 
 horrors, and came out })artially satisfied that he 
 had done at least sufficient penance to his con- 
 science and to his God to entitle him to a place 
 among the converted. He united with the 
 C'hurch, as if he had never belonged to it before, 
 that is, under the impression that Christ had 
 never before received him into His fold — in 
 other words, that his baptism had been an empt}' 
 form, if not a wicked mockery of sacred things. 
 This was not true Presbyterianism, nor Cal- 
 vinism. It was New England Puritanism run 
 mad, which had insinuated itself into a large 
 part of American Christianity and gained as- 
 cendancy to such a degree that any other theory 
 of religion was by many regarded with suspicion 
 and even pious horror, or, according to humor, 
 with the most self-complacent pietistic commis- 
 eration. The character of that type of religion 
 was essentiallv leo-alistic. It was law and 2;os- 
 pel mechanically joined together in such a way 
 that the gospel seemed to be omitted altogether — 
 the gospel, with gospel left out. In words every 
 possible account was made of God doing all for 
 the sinner, and of the sinner being justified by 
 faith alone ; and yet when the work of converting 
 sinners was in hand, the means resorted to looked 
 3 
 
26 THE LIFE OF 
 
 very much as if righteousness and salvation came 
 entirely by works. The air was rife with vocifer- 
 ations against Romish penance, and yet the vo- 
 ciferators themselves insisted on severer })enances 
 than Roman priests usually require - the pen- 
 ances of what the revivalists called " law work," 
 a kind of religious flint-mill in which the soul 
 coming out alive would do well. Romanism is 
 tame as compared with the legalistic demands 
 made on men by the Puritanic system. 
 
 The more modern style of modern Christianity 
 differs from the old Puritanism in this, that it is 
 not in such horrible earnest, and not so dreadful 
 in its demands. Its adherents are not so firmly 
 set in their religious ways as were their spiritual 
 progenitors, and they have found easier and 
 quicker methods of casting out devils and in- 
 creasing the number of the converted. They 
 tell sinners there is very little for them to do ; 
 that they have only to believe " right now," and 
 instantly they will be born again. Strolling 
 evangelists are frequently employed by regular 
 pastors (who ought to do their own work) to 
 awaken religious interest in their pastoral 
 charges to which they have been regularly and 
 solemnly appointed, and they do things with 
 amazing celerity. The old Puritanic '* law 
 
JOHxNT W. NEVm. 27 
 
 work" is almost ignored, and the new way of be- 
 coming full fledged Christians is in perfect ac- 
 cord with the rapidity of the present age. Yet 
 the underlying principle is the same in both 
 periods. They are but two phases of one system. 
 In both there is the same disregard of the sacra- 
 mental and educational idea of the old apostolic 
 and historical Church. Great care is taken to 
 disabuse minds of the soul destroying error of 
 laying any stress whatever on baptism, as though 
 baptism had in it nothing heavenly and divine. 
 But tliis subject will come up again farther on. 
 
 Suffice it to say here, that Dr. Nevin in due 
 time saw fully the errors of the unchurchly re- 
 vival system and exposed them in all their rank- 
 ness. He did not speak lightly of what he ex- 
 perienced during the religious awakening at 
 Union College ; he treated the matter with 
 solemnity, and spoke of that j^eriod in his spirit- 
 ual life as of great importance in both a nega- 
 tive and a positive view. He was led by it to 
 make a full profession of faith in Christ, and to 
 take a positive stand in the CUuirch as a cove- 
 nant child of God. But notwithstanding such 
 important results, he nevertheless did not fail to 
 see the radical errors which marked the whole 
 movement and the system to which it belonged. 
 
28 THE LI?^E OF 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The History of Twenty-two Years Briefly Told. — 
 The Theological Student.— The Author. 
 — Teacher of Hebrew.— Theologi- 
 cal Professor and Preacher. 
 
 Mr. Neviii graduated with honor at the early- 
 age of eighteen. The severe application to study 
 during the four years of his college course was 
 too much for his undevelojied and rather deli- 
 cate physical organism, and he returned to his 
 paternal home broken in health, a miserable dys- 
 peptic in body and mind. 
 
 The religious crucible through which he had 
 passed, was of a sickly, sentimental and morose 
 order, all in one, and had much to do with his 
 physical condition, as he himself afterwards de- 
 clared. His piety was real and sincere, but so 
 tinged with the prevailing jiietistic legalism of 
 New England that it made him look with sus- 
 picion on everything in religion that did not 
 square with its exacting standard; and his reli- 
 gious morbidity seemed to penetrate his whole 
 being, spirit, soul and body. 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 29 
 
 But the change from academic life to that of 
 a quiet liome in the country in due time wrought 
 a good and wholesome effect. He worked on 
 the farm, exercised on horseback and inhaled 
 the life-supporting atmosphere that flowed like 
 streams of living water from the great mountains 
 near by. His morbid habit of mind and spirit 
 also yielded to these gentle remedial influences, 
 and he took gradually a more cheerful view of 
 life and religion. 
 
 During this time of relaxation from regular 
 study — a period of two years — his mind was 
 much exercised in regard to his future calling. 
 His parents and friends had regarded it as a 
 foregone conclusion that he should enter the 
 ministry, and he had himself, though somewhat 
 vaguely, this great object in view. But the 
 matter had now to be decided, and after much 
 reflection and earnest prayer he determined to 
 enter upon a course of theological study and pre- 
 pare himself for the gospel ministry. So in the 
 year 1823, at the age of twenty, he entered the 
 theological Seminary at Princeton, the leading 
 school of divinity in the Presbyterian Church. 
 
 Mr. Nevin found life at this school of the 
 prophets congenial and pleasant. His progress 
 
30 THE LIFE OF 
 
 ill his new studies was entirely satisfactory, which 
 he pursued witli a solemn sense of their impor- 
 tance, having in view constantly the salvation of 
 men through his future ministry of God's ^vord. 
 For some time he had a great dislike for Hebrew, 
 and was tempted to abandon it altogether ; but 
 taking the good advice of a friend, he continued 
 the study, and soon afterwards became as much 
 interested in that sacred language as he had for- 
 merly been disgusted with it ; and when he com- 
 pleted his theological course he was the best He- 
 brew scholar in the Seminary. 
 
 And right here one fact deserves special men- 
 tion. Mr. Nevin performed a feat that may 
 possibly have been accomplished by a few others 
 elsewdiere, but by none to my knowledge ; that 
 is, he read critically during his seminary course 
 the entire Hebrew Bible, and so made himself 
 master of the entire Old Testament text in the 
 original, at the age of twenty-three, and while 
 yet a theological under-graduate. This alone 
 was a sufficient j^rophecy of his future glorious 
 career as a theologian. It showed the wonder- 
 ful intellectual powers of the man, and indicated 
 what those powers would be wdien fully devel- 
 oped. 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 31 
 
 Another remarkable fact in this connection 
 was, that immediately after the close of his semi- 
 nary course he was appointed professor ad interim 
 of the Hebrew language and literature, in the 
 same institution from which he had just gradua- 
 ted, to take the place of Dr. Charles Hodge dur- 
 ing a two years' absence in Europe. He filled 
 the place with great ability and to the entire 
 satisfaction of all concerned. 
 
 Another remarkable fact belongs to this pe- 
 riod. It was during those two years that he 
 wrote the " Biblical Antiquities," the excellent ' 
 and well known work published by the Ameri- 
 con Sunday School Union. I remember seeing 
 it among my father's books when I was a child, 
 and how my parents prized the work as one of 
 their best household treasures. Years afterwards 
 I heard Dr. Schaflf speak of it as a remarkably 
 clear, learned and readable production, differing 
 in this respect entirely from the usually dry bun- 
 dles of facts called archaeologies. Another sure 
 sign of the future " world renowned Nevin." 
 
 When Dr. Hodge returned from Europe and 
 resumed his place in the Seminary, Mr. Nevin 
 was still quite a young man, only twenty-five. 
 But he had made his mark ; he had stepped 
 
32 THE LIFE OF 
 
 upon the ladder which reached to the stars, and 
 it did not require a great prophet to see that his 
 proper phice was to be at the upper end — wiser 
 than all his teachers. The young teacher of 
 Hebrew in that noted institution attracted the 
 attention of thoughtful and earnest men, though 
 he did not himself seem to be aware of the im- 
 pression he had made, nor seemed to have the 
 least idea of ev^er rising to eminence, least of all 
 to that immense height to which, eagle like, he 
 rose. Men like him were in demand, and al- 
 ways will be. Such a light could not be hid. 
 His work in the Seminary, being limited to the 
 period of Dr. Hodge's absence in Europe, was 
 now ended, but to be continued, however, in an- 
 other place. The greatness of the man was al- 
 ready seen and felt. A man of twenty-five, who 
 had spent eighteen of those years among plain 
 people in the country, a master and teacher of 
 Hebrew, and author of one of the best of Bibli- 
 cal works — such a man would be sought after. 
 
 What was to be called the Western Theologi- 
 cal Seminary was about to be established in Al- 
 legheny, and the chief promoters of the enter- 
 prise looked to Princeton for a professor of Bib- 
 lical Literature, and the choice fell upon Mr. 
 
JOHX W. NEVIN. 83 
 
 Nevin as the only one to be thought of for the 
 place. He accepted the appointment. This was 
 in 1828, but it was not until 1830 that he en- 
 tered upon the duties of his new position. The 
 managers of the institution could not get ready 
 any sooner for putting it into operation. Mean- 
 while Mr. Nevin was licensed to preach by the 
 Carlisle Presbytery, and during this interval he 
 frequently preached, as opportunity offered, in 
 churches, school houses and j^i'ivate dwellings. 
 He also had now another good chance to gain 
 physical health and vigor, and he made good 
 use of this interval for such purpose. 
 
 Prof. Nevin continued in the Western Theo- 
 logical Seminary for ten years. The position 
 was one of far greater responsibility and harder 
 work then than the same is now, in that and 
 other similar institutions. It was not manned 
 with a sufficient force of professors for a proper 
 division of labor, and Prof Nevin, always ready 
 to do more than his own share of work, carried 
 extra burdens during that entire decade. He 
 also preached almost as regularly as if he had 
 a pastoral charge. Meanwhile he received or- 
 dination, and so was invested with the full 
 power and authority of the sacred office. As 
 
34 THE LIFE OF 
 
 professor of theology and preacher of the gospel 
 he was most earnest and diligent, and by pre- 
 cept and example adorned the gospel of Christ 
 and magnified his high office. A volume could 
 be written of his work while in Allegheny, but 
 the object and plan of this sketch will permit of 
 only a brief outline. 
 
 During this period Prof. Nevin made himself 
 master of the German language. This opened 
 to him a new world of thought, and prepared 
 him for the great transformation in his whole 
 inward being after he had entered the very home 
 of German philosophy and theology, in its 
 American representative, the German Reformed 
 Church. 
 
 On January 1st, 1835, Prof. Nevin was uni- 
 ted in marriage to Miss Martha Jenkins, a 
 daughter of the Hon. Robert Jenkins, of AVind- 
 sor Place, near Churchtown, in Lancaster co.. 
 Pa. Mrs. Nevin, who died recently in the 85th 
 year of her age, was a woman of the highest 
 character and culture, a true and congenial com- 
 panion to her husband ; and scarcely can too 
 much be said in her praise. They were blessed 
 with a family of eight children, five sons and 
 three daughters, of whom five — two sons and the 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 35 
 
 three daughters — are living. All these are in 
 every way an honor to their parents. 
 
 In 1839 Jefferson College conferred on Prof 
 Nevin the honorary degree of Doctor of Divin- 
 ity. He was a real doctor long before that, and 
 the conferring of the title was simply a formal 
 and official declaration of what he was already. 
 It is in very many instances quite different of 
 late years. Every second rate academy, char- 
 tered as a college, can and does confer the titles 
 of Ph. D., D. D. and LL. D., and frequently 
 upon 2)ersons whose unfitness to receive them is 
 their most distincruishino- mark. As to the 
 modern conferring of D. D., it would be amusing 
 were it not for the fact that the worthy doctors 
 are scandalized and belittled by the small fry who 
 falsely, and yet legally, flourish tliat greatest and 
 noblest of all titles. It has become so common, 
 that a respectable theologian must be almost 
 ashamed to die either with or without the honor- 
 ary suffix. In 1839, however, and thereabouts, 
 the degree was rarely conferred upon men who 
 were unworthy of it ; and as for Dr. Nevin, he 
 was a doctor every whit and all through, with 
 or without the title. In 1873 his alma mater, 
 Union College, did itself the honor of conferring 
 on him the degree of LL. D. 
 
36 THE LIFE OF 
 
 The closing part of this important decade in 
 the career of Dr. Nevin forms one of the most 
 interesting chapters of that period. He was still 
 a young man, but his fame had spread abroad ; 
 he stood high in his own denomination, and was 
 favorably known beyond its borders as a man of 
 extraordinary intellect and ability as a scholar, 
 and above all as a Christian of apostolic piety 
 and zeal. The German Reformed Church, the 
 American representative of the original Reformed 
 Church of Europe, and related to the Presbyter- 
 ian Church as mother to daughter, and sharing 
 with it a common origin, was not ignorant of the 
 man and his work. Esj^ecially some of her 
 leading men Avere well informed in regard to 
 him. It so happened that a professor of theology 
 was to be chosen by the Eastern Reformed Synod 
 for the Seminary at Mercersburg. Several were 
 elected, but they declined the ajipointment. 
 Then the attention of Synod was directed to the 
 Allegheny Professor. After prayerful delibera- 
 tion he was unanimously chosen. 
 
 If the first Synod of the apostles and elders at 
 Jerusalem was guided by the Holy Spirit, as all 
 Christians believe, then just as certainly was 
 that Reformed Synod so guided to its unanimous 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. o7 
 
 conclusion and act. It was a synodical act on 
 which turned some of the most important relig- 
 ious events of the 19tii century. 
 
 Dr. Nevin was informed of his election by a 
 committee in person ; and not long after the 
 members of the committee had returned to their 
 homes, he returned a favorable answer, accepting 
 the call. The letter was addressed to Rev. Dr. 
 B. S. Schneck, of Chambersburg, as President of 
 Synod. 
 
 Those who desire to read a full account of the 
 various steps leading to this result ; of the evi- 
 dent directions of Providence in the case ; the 
 conspiring together of events leading to the de- 
 sired object ; and the harmony of thought and 
 feeling on both sides of the transaction, should 
 secure a copy of Dr. Appel's Life of Dr. Nevin, 
 where they can read the whole story — a story 
 whose plot is all solid fact, and as entertaing as 
 a romance. Here are a few sentences of Dr. 
 Nevin's letter of acceptance. Get the other book, 
 and read the whole of an ej)istle that is apostolic 
 in spirit and in wisdom, and presents in minia- 
 ture a picture without a flaw of the man who 
 wrote it. He says : 
 
 " Thus do I find mvseif constrained to 2;o into 
 
38 THE JLIFE OF 
 
 the German Reformed Church. Let it not be 
 thought, however, that I go rekictantly or coklly 
 into her communion, now that the duty is settled. 
 I go, indeed, with fear and trembling ; but I carry 
 along with me my entire will. I give myself 
 wholly to the German Reformed Church, and find 
 no difficulty in making her interests my own. 
 No Church can boast of a better creed or a bet- 
 ter ecclesiastical frame-work. Her fathers rank 
 high in the history of the Reformation. The 
 spirit of a time-hallowed faith, such as could 
 once make martyrs, older than the Presbyteri- 
 anism of Scotland, is still enshrined in her arti- 
 cles and forms, and the German Church in this 
 country has become a rising interest. No sec- 
 tion of our American Zion is more important. 
 None embraces vaster resources of power in pro- 
 portion to its limits. None exhibits a richer 
 intellectual ore, available in the same way for 
 the pur230se of religion. I find no lack of con- 
 siderations here to enlist my sympathies or to 
 stimulate my zeal, I can go heartily into such 
 a Church, and in this spirit I now accept of the 
 call of your Synod to the professorship at Mer- 
 cersburg." 
 
 It was enough. The peo[)le to whom JDr. 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 39 
 
 Neviii was coming as a teacher of holy and sa- 
 cred things, as a spiritual guide and helmsman, 
 had before their eyes the portrait of his soul, 
 and could see that here was a man sent to them 
 by the Lord Himself. He was not dissatisfied 
 with his own tribe of Israel to wliich he belonged 
 from his birth, nor in a spirit of unfilial prodi- 
 gality was he now going out into foreign parts 
 to seek a better fortune ; but as a true servant 
 of Christ he obeyed the plain indications of His 
 will and yielded to His sovereign pleasure. 
 
40 THE LIFE OF 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Transition. 
 
 The near prospect of Dr. Nevin's advent was 
 a bright anticipation for the live members of the 
 Reformed Church, and was the subject of daily 
 conversation. I was at that time a mere child, 
 in my eighth year, but the conversations of my 
 father and mother, and the older members of 
 the family, on the now leading subject I shall 
 never forget. I can understand now, as I could 
 not then, the enthusiastic manner, the fervid 
 tones, and the delighted countenances at table 
 and fireside, where all was animation in the dis- 
 cussion of Dr. Nevin's coming to Mercersburg 
 and its bearing on the future of the Reformed 
 Church. 
 
 I remember well how a Presbyterian elder 
 and friend of my father tartly spoke of Dr. 
 Nevin as a " turn coat," and reproached him 
 rather severely for making the transition ; to 
 which my father replied that Dr. Nevin did it 
 conscientiously witli the view to accomj^lish the 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 41 
 
 greatest possible good ; that he was influenced 
 by the highest and holiest motives, and acted in 
 accordance with what he believed were plain in- 
 dications of Providence. My father's intimate 
 acquaintance with Drs. B. S. Schneck and S. R. 
 Fisher was of great use to him in the way of 
 learning the inside history in the movement 
 which resulted in securing Dr. Nevin for the 
 Reformed Church, and from them he learned 
 much of his previous history. 
 
 At Mercersburg Dr. Nevin became associated 
 with Dr. F. A. Ranch, President of Marshall 
 College. Dr. Ranch, though only about thirty- 
 four years of age, was one of the most learned 
 men of his time. He was a German, and famil- 
 iar with the whole j^hilosophy and learning of 
 Germany ; and at the same time was a thorough 
 English scholar — in fact, a sort of universal 
 genius. The two men were outwardly totally 
 different. The man of German blood was im- 
 pulsive and of the most fiery enthusiasm, and 
 showed it in speech and action ; the other, with 
 equally high aims, was usually calm, of wonder- 
 ful natural dignity, deliberate in all he said and 
 did, and as unswerving in right doing as the 
 stars in their courses. But aside from difterence 
 4 
 
42 THE LIFE OF 
 
 of temperament and external personality, they 
 were in their inmost natures much alike, and 
 very much of one mind. They [were, in fact, 
 two very congenial spirits, their differences 
 mutually compensating for what was lacking in 
 each. Dr. Ranch regarded his new fellow work- 
 man in the great field of thought with feelings 
 of profound reverence, and the regard was mu- 
 tual. 
 
 Dr. Nevin had already mastered the German 
 language ; and now that he was in a Church 
 whose pedigree, life and spirit were largely Ger- 
 man, he found special use for his late acquisi- 
 tion. His association with Dr. Ranch, a Ger- 
 man to the manor born, gave a new impulse to 
 the cultivation of the vast field of literature and 
 learning which lay open before him. The com- 
 panionship of the learned German was equal to 
 a university library, and better ; for the living 
 and speaking organ in the person of a true 
 representative of the best German thought and 
 culture was of far greater account than the most 
 massive learning bound up in books. Dr. Nevin 
 had both ; he had the living exponent of Ger- 
 man learning as a companion, and from him he 
 discovered the ways and avenues leading to the 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 
 
 43 
 
 richest mines of German philosophy and the- 
 ology. 
 
 On the other hand, the towering intellect of 
 Dr. Nevin and his ripe scholarship fired the 
 enthnsiasm of his learned colleague, and aided 
 him much in every way. The two men were 
 each greater and more useful as public teachers 
 than they would have been alone. United like 
 David and Jonathan, in hearty symjDathy with 
 each other, they filled their great offices, as it 
 were, with a double force in each. Thus Dr. 
 Nevin, right from the beginning of his labors in 
 Mercersburg, felt at home, as he could not other- 
 wise, associated as he was with Dr. Ranch. 
 
 But this delightful affiliation of kindred spir- 
 its continued only a year, at the end of which 
 Dr. Ranch passed from his work and place on 
 earth to the higher employments of the saints in 
 heaven. But it was a year of the greatest im- 
 portance to Dr. Nevin. With ordinary mortals 
 a single year may add but little to their mental 
 stock, but not so in this case. That year began 
 and ended with the unthinking multitude like a 
 story or a song, without any permanent impress 
 upon it of sublime thought or deed ; but to those 
 two kindred spirits it was a year of immense 
 
44 THE LIFE OF 
 
 consequence ; a year of intellectual and spiritual 
 enlargement, that would be of vast account in 
 the whole future career of the survivor ; a year 
 of bountiful sowing that must ])roduce a glorious 
 harvest in the world of mind. After Dr. Ranch's 
 death, the Board of Trustees of Marshall College 
 elected Dr. Nevin President of the institution. 
 A double burden now rested upon him, in Col- 
 lege and Seminary, which he carried for twelve 
 years without interruption — a period of extra- 
 ordinary interest, not only for the Reformed 
 Church, but for the C'hurch and world at large. 
 Dr. Nevin, in the meantime, came to be re- 
 garded everywhere by peo})le of good mental 
 caliber as an intellectual prodigy, and the com- 
 pound adjective, "world renowned," as applied 
 to him, and which struck my mental ear so 
 forcibly when I was a small boy, was no exag- 
 geration. 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 45 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Reformed and Presbyterian. 
 
 What's in a name ? A rose would be as fra- 
 grant and lovely, if called by any other name — 
 so it is said. Only this, however, if the rose 
 had not been just what it is, it would not have 
 received such a sweet name. If by general con- 
 sent it should henceforth be called catnip, tansy 
 or garlic, then the rose would simply be slan- 
 dered and misrepresented, though its own char- 
 acter would remain unchanged. 
 
 Yes, there is something in a name. The 
 Church is called Catholic, because it is not secta- 
 rian, clannish, partisan, or national ; but is uni- 
 versal in its nature, and indivisible, the one 
 Apostolic, holy Catholic Church, the mystical 
 body of Christ. This holy Catholic Church is 
 an object of Christian faith, as expressed in the 
 Apostles' Creed, being the bearer of Christ's life 
 and saving virtues to individuals ; in her official 
 character mediating the grace of Christ to men, 
 the Lord's bride, and the mother of all true be- 
 lievers. 
 
46 THE LIFE OF 
 
 But contrary to the divine idea of true inward 
 and outward Christian unity, the Church of 
 Christ, through the perversity of men, has been 
 marred by schism and torn by division. The 
 Reformation of the sixteenth century was not a 
 schismatic movement ; the design of the reform- 
 ers was to remove errors in doctrine and prac- 
 tice from the existing Church, and not destroy 
 or separate from the Church itself 
 
 The Reformation did not imply a new Church, 
 but a renewal of the Apostolic form and creed 
 of the Church ; a casting aside and rejection of 
 merely human doctrines and practices by which 
 the Church had been borne down for ages ; a 
 going back to primitive simplicity and purity, 
 and at the same time a forward movement in the 
 right direction. The Reformation was radical 
 only in the sense of rooting out destructive evils ; 
 it was conservative, in that it retained whatever 
 in ecclesiastical order, ritual and creed was 
 found to be in agreement with Holy Scripture. 
 It made the Bible the ultimate rule of faith and 
 practice, and rejected the Romish doctrine that 
 Christian tradition (much of it w?i-christian) was 
 of equal authority with the canonical Scriptures. 
 It rested upon the immovable foundation that 
 
.lOHN W. NEVIN. 47 
 
 the Word of God was the only absolute rule of 
 Christian doctrine, and that men are justified by 
 faith as the root of all Christian graces and good 
 works. The Church as thus established is the 
 Church not merely as starting in the sixteenth 
 century, but as existing from its birth on the 
 day of Pentecost. What more appropriate name 
 then could be given to it than the name Re- 
 formed f The Catholic Church re-formed, formed 
 anew. Not the Church of Peter or Paul, or 
 Apollos, but the Church of the Apostles, whose 
 head is Christ. Not the Church of Zwingli, or 
 Calvin, or any other of the leaders in the Reforma- 
 tion, but the Church of Christ, victorious over 
 the corrupting influences of the world which 
 had for ages sought her life and brought her to 
 the verge of destruction. The same Church 
 now, but re-formed — and that is her name, by 
 which is meant the Holy Catholic Church of 
 Christ, after fifteen centuries of conflict with ex- 
 ternal enemies, triumphant over them all. 
 
 The name is of immense importance, because 
 there is in it not the least susj^icion of sectarian- 
 ism or schism. The real and substantial name 
 is Catholic, and "Reformed" denotes that it is 
 not the Catholic Cluirch that claims exclusively 
 
48 THE LIFE OF 
 
 the title and stands convicted fof apostacy from 
 the simplicity of the gospel, and that it is the 
 old Church of which we read in the New Testa- 
 ment. Now the Church which bears the name 
 Reformed, while it by no means assumes to be 
 the only ecclesiastical body that could justly 
 claim the title, has at least the advantage of 
 original possession, and of the name itself The 
 original Reformed Church is represented in this 
 country under that title. Its form of govern- 
 ment is presbyterial, but it is not therefore called 
 the Presbyterian Church. It has equally the 
 elements and powers of episcopacy, but its proper 
 name is not Episcopal. It has all that is good 
 
 ^and true in Congregationalism, but its name is 
 not Congregational. The name of Zwingli will 
 always be honored and cherished by the Re- 
 
 ijbrmed Church, but not as its name. It is of 
 much account that the Reformed Church is not 
 named after a man or some form of church gov- 
 ernment, and that its name means everything 
 that belongs to the Church of Christ, no more 
 and no less. 
 
 Dr. Nevin felt the power of the Reformed 
 name when he was once rightly settled in his 
 new home. He realized a greater degree of 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 41) 
 
 spiritual freedom than he could in the Presby- 
 terian Church. He found in the Reformed 
 Church a freedom from sectarian narrowness 
 such as he had seen nowhere else ; and he 
 rightly attributed this to the fact that it was in 
 its reigning sjiirit true to its significant name ; 
 not maintaining its existence by the magic of a 
 word, a doctrine, a shibboleth, the name of a 
 leader, or something equally unessential and 
 narrow. The Presbyterian Church was cramped 
 by a confession of faith, a leading part of which 
 was in conflict with the belief of a majority of 
 Christians. It fairly bristled with the doctrine 
 of God's absolute decrees and of Christ's re- 
 demption eternally planned for the elect only. 
 In the Reformed Church Dr. Nevin found a 
 different and more refreshing order of thought 
 and Christian doctrine as embodied in the Hei- 
 delberg Catechism, and in the Reformed theo- 
 logical literature of Germany. He found the 
 Heidelberg Catechism to be filled with the life 
 and powder of Christianity, and entirely free from 
 any declaration whatever not consonant with the 
 articles of "our undoubted Christian faith." No 
 vexed questions concerning divine election and 
 reprobation, and nothing to disturb the tender 
 
50 THE LIFE OF 
 
 conscience of a true believer. The Westminster 
 standards were indeed grand and noble con- 
 fessional symbols, but they were not of a truly 
 oecumenical character, and suited only to such 
 as could endorse their central and leadino- dojjma 
 of divine decrees as elaborated and taught by 
 Calvin. When Dr. Nevin came into the Re- 
 formed Church, it was suspected by some that 
 he would '' Presbyterianize" it, and eventually 
 bring about an organic union of the two bodies. 
 But it was not long till it was manifest to all 
 who took an interest in the subject, that he not 
 only felt comfortable in his new ecclesiastical 
 relations, but that he found in his new home a 
 church life that was more congenial to his spirit 
 than what he had ever before experienced. He 
 identified himself fully with the mother Church 
 of the Reformation, and found in her bosom 
 what he had longed for in a much larger denomi- 
 nation, but yet much more contracted sphere of 
 thought. He felt more at liberty now to sound 
 the depths of theological ideas, being no longer 
 fettered by stiff confessional declarations. The 
 Heidelberg Catechism, clear and positive, yet at 
 the same time was an open door for a profound 
 and original investigator to bound forth into the 
 free air and sun-light of divine truth. 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 51 
 
 Thus, instead of leading his adopted Church 
 into other pastures, he did more than any other 
 man to lift up her own standards and bring 
 back her people — such as had wondered off and 
 fallen into new and strange ways — to her an- 
 cient creed and time honored customs, believing 
 that these were in harmony with the Word of 
 God. The more he studied the history and 
 character of the Reformed Church, the more he 
 saw her glorious Catholicity and the mighty 
 power lodged in her, that needed only to be 
 stirred into activity in order to effect mighty 
 things for God and humanity. 
 
 Dr. Nevin was not slow to discover departures 
 from the Reformed faith. AVhile in some quar- 
 ters he saw dead formality, in others there were 
 signs of falling in with the shallow revival 
 spirit, much in vogue at the time. What is 
 called the "anxious bench" system, was intro- 
 duced here and there in Reformed churches, 
 while a large part of the Lutheran Church was 
 completely carried away with it. As a general 
 thing, where this foreign element was allowed to 
 enter the Reformed Church, it was through the 
 plausible persuasions of floating, glib-tongued 
 evangelists, whose affectations of superior piety 
 
52 THE LIFE OF 
 
 were well calculated to deceive honest and guile- 
 less people, trained under a far better system, 
 but not all of them j)roof against pious fraud. 
 The so-called revival or anxious bench system 
 was exceedingly aggressive, too, as well as insin- 
 uating and crafty. On occasions it could be 
 modest as a maiden and gentle as a lamb ; or, if 
 opposed or crossed in its designs at any time, it 
 could rail and storm with fury, and consign all 
 opposition to the lower regions. I have been 
 an eye and ear witness to it all. 
 
 This foreign unchurchly spirit, and the very 
 opposite of its saintly pretentions, sought the 
 headquarters of the Reformed Church at Mer- 
 cersburg. The congregation at that place was 
 visited by one of the most aggressive apostles of 
 the New Measure system ; and for a time he 
 had his own way, the people yielding like inno- 
 cent and helpless children to his methods. 
 Meanwhile Dr. Nevin kept an eye on it, gauged 
 it, weighed it in the balances of God's Word, 
 and pronounced the judgment of "Tekel" 
 against the whole movement. He was victori- 
 ous, and the deluded people were brought back 
 and started on the true gospel course, in which 
 they have continued ever since. 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 53 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 True and False Evangelism. 
 
 When Dr. Nevin struck the blow that crushed 
 the demon of fanaticism and false Christianity 
 at the literary and theological capital of the Re- 
 formed Church, he made a new epoch in his 
 own theological life. He now studied the na- 
 ture of Christianity, theoretical and practical, as 
 never before, in the light of the Heideli)erg 
 Catechism and of the historical Church. He 
 saw that most of the religious denominations in 
 this country were not in full accord with church 
 history, and had but little of the true historical 
 spirit ; and that if the Reformed Church would 
 live and grow according to her own order and 
 constitution, she must throw off the foreign ele- 
 ments introduced into her sacred enclosure, and 
 cease to burn strange lire upon her altars. 
 
 It was just at this time when the Church was 
 beset by a false religious spirit from abroad to 
 rob her of her own genius and apostolic inherit- 
 ance, that Dr. Nevin prepared a " Tract for the 
 
54 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Times," aiul sent it on its mission of instruction 
 and warning. The title of the work was, "The 
 Anxious Bench," under which he inckided the 
 whole scheme of religion as conceived and un- 
 derstood by a large part of the Christian public. 
 In this little work he well nigh exhausted the 
 whole subject, and by unanswerable argument 
 showed that the theory of Christianity and })rac- 
 tical religion, as represented by the "Anxious 
 Bench," was shallow, sentimental, and in its 
 reigning thouglit unscriptural. 
 
 The Anxious Bench or New Measure system 
 of religion and evangelism, may, in general 
 terms, be called the emotional, over against the 
 educational system.. The main object of preach- 
 ing, under this system, and all evangelistic work 
 (esjjecially during a "revival") is to operate 
 upon the emotional nature, the feelings of men 
 and women, and to stir their souls to such depths 
 that they will be forced to cry out for relief, 
 which they are told they can have if they strug- 
 gle on and don't give up until God shall say, 
 "It is enough," when there will be a sudden 
 change from an unconverted to a converted 
 state. To accomplish this result, the preacher, 
 now in terrible and awful, now in mellow and 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 55 
 
 persuasive tones, appeals to sinners to "flee the 
 wrath to come." He pictures heaven with its 
 glories and hell with its horrors, and represents 
 religion as the means mainly of gaining the one 
 and escaping the other. Accordingly, changes 
 are rung on Scripture passages which seem to 
 favor such ideas, and used with powerful tem- 
 porary effect. Sinners are wildly exhorted to 
 cry out, like the Philip]nan jailer, " What must 
 I do to be saved ?" The day of Pentecost is 
 spoken of in a similar strain as a day of tre- 
 mendous revival, when three thousand dreadful 
 sinners, filled with fear of the coming judgment, 
 frantically cried out, " What shall we do to be 
 saved ?" — even mutilating holy Scripture in their 
 blind subjection to the emotional and legalistic 
 idea of religion. They add " to be saved" to the 
 question of those devout Jews, as if it must be 
 so meant ; as if salvation could only mean re- 
 mission of punishment in the next world, and 
 as if " religion" would not be an important mat- 
 ter, were it not for the infinite danger of neglect- 
 ing it. Then the joys of conversion are the joys 
 of escape from hell. There may even seem to 
 be rejoicing in the Lord after "conversion," and 
 a real enjoyment of the spiritual blessings of the 
 
56 THE LIFE OF 
 
 gospel, but (except in cases where the turning to 
 God is real and true, in spite of the miserable 
 system) it is not hard to see that it is a mere 
 ebullition of hapj^y feeling and a reaction after 
 a hard mental and physical struggle. It is the 
 religion of emotion and slavish fear, not of gen- 
 uine repentance and the godly sorrow from which 
 it proceeds, and which seldom or never comes 
 by observation or with any outward exhibition 
 of inward struggles. It is not the religion of 
 genuine faith in Christ ; though the Anxious 
 Bench exhortation that is the oftenest repeated 
 is (amid enough confusion to prevent either 
 thinking or believing) : " Believe — only believe 
 now, right now, believe, believe, and you are 
 saved." All this without the preacher or ex- 
 horter knowing whether the " mourner" knows 
 the ground principles of the Christian religion 
 or not. 
 
 All this might be expected of those sects 
 which came into existence through the conceit of 
 ignorance, and must necessarily make up in 
 " bodily exercise" for what they lack in knowl- 
 edge. But the New Measure system is not 
 confined to thejn. The same system in different 
 form is upheld by denominations that boast of 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 57 
 
 their history and learning. There is no wild 
 display of feeling at their revival meetings. It 
 is the fashion to observe strict order and solemn 
 quiet. The inquiry room is put instead of the 
 noisy Anxious Bench. The anxious are not re- 
 quired to spend hours on their knees struggling 
 to "get through." The " special effort," as the 
 revival now is often called, may continue for 
 weeks without any display of feeling. The most 
 noted evangelist of the present generation checks 
 at his meetings the least demonstration of this 
 kind. He " means business," and has no time 
 to lose through the indulgence of religious gym- 
 nastics. But it all belongs to the Anxious Bench 
 system. It changes its manner and style to suit 
 the whims of the period or place, but is still the 
 same in princii)le under every form it has ever 
 assumed. In times past the revival in respect- 
 able communities was not only free from " noise 
 and confusion," but was also marked by due 
 solemnity in speech and conduct on the part 
 of preachers and religious people. It is no 
 doubt the same still in many places ; and yet of 
 late years it is not considered essential at all to 
 be specially serious on such momentous occa- 
 sions. The evangelist may be a habitually sol- 
 
58 THE LIFE OF 
 
 emii person, or he may be a clown, a dealer in 
 low wit, a provoker of side-splitting laughter ; 
 he may make his audience weep or laugh, be si- 
 lent as death or applaud to the echo - it is all 
 right, only so that the great point is not missed, 
 the conversion of sinners. Even if the crowd 
 go to the meetings from mere curiosity, to see 
 and hear some noted evangelist, whose fame is 
 throughout the Christian world, they think it 
 will be well ; for some of them at least may be 
 I converted ; that is, they " will not hear Moses 
 ' and the prophets," but they will be persuaded, 
 if one come to them from abroad, and has a 
 great reputation. " Religion is at a low ebb," 
 they say ; and the ordained ambassadors of 
 Christ, with long faces, in solemn conference, 
 decide that a united onslaught shall be made on 
 the works of the enemy. Doctors of divinity 
 and pastors of lower degree, but all having the 
 apostolic commission and seal, lo, and behold ! 
 unite in a Macedonian cry for help to an un- 
 ordained and irresponsible evangelist ; and not 
 for help simply, but to do the work they 
 had solemnly engaged, under official divine au- 
 thority, to do themselves. Of course thousands 
 flock to the church, or hall, night after night. 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 59 
 
 On the })l<itforin are seated a score of ordained 
 ministers, regular pastors of churches. What if 
 the evangelist won kl fail to arrive! What on 
 earth would those thousands of dear people do ? 
 To be sure, there are a score of learned and pi- 
 ous heralds of the cross on the platform, any 
 one of whom could say a good word for • Christ, 
 or preach a gospel sermon good enough for any 
 one of that multitude, and sufficient, with the 
 divine blessing, to turn any sinner in the audi- 
 ence into the way of righteousness. But, no 
 matter, if the Great Expected should happen not 
 to get there, all the gospel represented on that 
 platform could not make satisfaction to the dis- 
 appointed and anxious multitude. 
 
 The service begins. There is a song, " Hold 
 the Fort,^' or something equally devotional, read- 
 ing of a Scripture lesson, prayer, and another, 
 perhaps this time a real Christian hymn ; all 
 this, so far as the bulk of the congregation is 
 concerned, only a " preliminary exercise," a 
 getting in tune for the only thing the people 
 came for, to see and hear ihe noted evangelist. 
 " Is he not coming?" is the burden of that mul- 
 titude of expectant souls. But as the last lines 
 of the hymn are reached, the great man leaps 
 
60 THE LIFE OF 
 
 upon the platform, scans his audience, looks 
 pleased, steps to the front, and reads his text. 
 
 But why did he not join in the devotional 
 services ? and where was he during that time ? 
 He was in some room behind the platform, gath- 
 ering himself up, getting in mental trim, keep- 
 ing himself fresh for the evening's effort, and 
 letting the smaller frv (the D. D.'s and other 
 clergy) attend to the hymns and prayers. The 
 impression upon the audience is at once made 
 that the devotional part of the service is more 
 ornamental than useful, a sort of fringe or red 
 tape to the sermon ; else why would not the 
 saintly evangelist join in it? The sermon, while 
 containing many good and true things, is what 
 might be expected of one who would presume to 
 build on foundations laid by others on every 
 square of the city.. If St. Paul were to come to 
 Philadelphia or Baltimore, he would hardly 
 tarry more than a day or two, about long enough 
 to pay his respects to the brethren ; and then, 
 great and eloquent apostle as he is, he wcnild 
 strike out for some godless region where C/hrist 
 is not known, or at least where there is no 
 church. We have the Apostle's own word for 
 it. (Rom. 15 : 20.) 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 61 
 
 But our modern evangelist does not believe in 
 such old-fashioned notions. He goes where 
 there is no foundation to lay, where the Church 
 is established, and where houses of worship are 
 on every hand. And, worst of all, he is encour- 
 aged by many ministers and their people. 
 
 All this belongs to the New Measure or Anx- 
 ious Bench innovation. The miserable results 
 should open the eyes of its advocates. Dr. 
 Nevin saw through it all, and raised his voice 
 against the whole system as contrary to the 
 apostolic teaching and practice. 
 
 But the evangelist's sermon — and here the 
 fundamental error of this system is laid bare. 
 The greater part of the discourse, and of those 
 which followed, was a harangue against faith in 
 Church ordinances. He warned his hearers that 
 they should, above all things, put no faith in 
 baptism. " You can't be saved by baptism. I 
 tell you, if you think baptism will save you, you 
 may find out your mistake when it is too late. 
 Why, if I believed that people were saved by 
 baptism, you wouldn't catch me going over the 
 country preaching. I would go through the 
 streets with a bucket of water and douse every 
 sinner I would meet, whether he wished it or 
 not." 
 
62 THE LIFE OF 
 
 He would do like Charlemagne, who, in order 
 to compel the Barbarians to become Christians, 
 forced them into a river and had the baptismal 
 formula pronounced over them. 
 
 " Yes," continued the speaker, " if baptism 
 saves, then stop building churches, close up your 
 theological seminaries, let everybody be bap- 
 tized, and we will then have the millennium, 
 without the expense and labor that would other- 
 wise be required. Now, mind, I am not speak- 
 ing against the ordinances (sic !) ; they are all 
 right in their place (sic!), but I don't want you 
 to depend on them for salvation." And much 
 more of the same sort. 
 
 All this shows that the j^i'etended teacher of 
 God's Word had no true idea of the nature of 
 the Christian Church as the body of Christ, and 
 of the divinely ordained sacraments as channels 
 for the communication of saving grace. In the 
 most flippant style he set up a man of straw by 
 presuming that multitudes of people ho2)ed to be 
 saved by having water poured over them, or by 
 bajitism without the subjective conditions of re- 
 pentance and faith, and a corresponding life. 
 Having set up his straw image, he displayed his 
 heroism and iconoclastic zeal by bravely knock- 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 63 
 
 iiig it down and scattering it to the winds. And 
 the circle of Doctors and other clergy, and their 
 adherents, showed by their smiles and other ex- 
 pressive signs that they were well pleased with 
 the performance. This, now, is an examj^le of 
 the revival system that carried its head on high 
 and affected superior piety which Dr. Nevin 
 opposed at ]\Iercersburg. The Reformed Church 
 was in danger of being drawn into it and of los- 
 ing her ancient churchly character, but God had 
 given her a wise leader, and the danger w^as , 
 averted. 
 
 In the " Tract for the Times" Dr. Nevin set~7 
 forth the positive as well as the negative aspects 
 of the subject. Over against the frivolous Anx- 
 ious Bench idea and methods is that which pre- 
 vailed in the Church from the beginning, when- 
 ever ignorance and fanaticism did not interfere 
 — namely the educational and sacramental sys- 
 tem. The key-note of the true idea of personal / 
 salvation and true evangelism was struck by St. 
 Peter on the day of Pentecost, in answer to the 
 question, " INIen and brethren, what shall we 
 do." The men who asked this solemn (question 
 were not tlie kind of sinners modern revivalists 
 make them out to be. Verily that second chap- 
 
64 THE LIFE OF 
 
 ter of the Acts has been about as badly handled 
 and interj^reted as could well be conceived. 
 Those three thousand converts have been con- 
 stantly spoken of by that class as sinners of the 
 worst kind, and that their sudden conversion 
 was in all res2:)ects like the conversion of notably 
 wicked and profane men at a modern revival. 
 
 Let us see how that is by comparison. There 
 is a " revival" in progress. No one thinks of 
 being converted at the first service, or by the 
 first of the series of sermons. No one goes to 
 the anxious seat, or rises for prayers, or kneels 
 at the altar the first night ; nor the second, or 
 third, usually. AVhy not ? Because, it seems, all 
 who have any intention of doing so, wait for some 
 one else to make the start. This being done, others 
 follow, and then wdiat ? That all depends on the 
 character and style of the church or congrega- 
 tion. If it is composed of an ignorant class of 
 people, there will be singing of exciting revival 
 song, rant, confusion, and more or less demon- 
 stration by penitents. The meeting at some 
 hour of the night closes ; the ])enitents (there 
 being as yet no converts) go to their homes, go 
 about their business next day as usual, with ap- 
 parent unconcern, and in the evening are back 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. . 65 
 
 again at the anxious bench ; and the same is re- 
 peated night after night, one after another 
 meanwhile receiving the " blessing" from above, 
 which is usually heralded by a shout, followed 
 by the song : " Good news gone to Canaan." 
 How does that all compare with Pentecost ? 
 
 But suppose it is a " fashionable" church, the 
 revival an ordinary one, and no union of churches 
 under the lead of a professional evangelist — it 
 will be outwardly different. The minister and 
 leading members agree that Zion is languishing 
 and that something must be done. The congre- 
 gation needs reviving and sinners need conver- 
 sion. The Winter is well advanced, the. Christ- 
 mas holidays (not observed in a Christian way, 
 as that is deemed superstitious) are over, there 
 has been a surfeit of high-toned social enjoy- 
 ment, in which religion seemed to be rather out 
 of place ; but now the church is awake to the 
 necessity of getting up a religious interest, which 
 it is resolved to do. The " Week of Prayer" is a 
 good time to begin ; and the week being set apart 
 by general appointment, there would be a good 
 opportunity to slide into a protracted service with- 
 out the appearance of " forcing a revival." The 
 preaching by the pastor is what may be termed 
 
66 THE LIFE OF 
 
 " good ;" tlie members look serious ; interesting 
 people who are not in full communion, and other 
 interesting people who are regarded as simply 
 adherents, seem to be " impressed." Invitations 
 are daily given to such to attend the inquiry 
 meeting, and after a week or so, some one is per- 
 suaded to make the start. Some others follow, 
 and the local pai)ers announce, " A revival in 
 progress." A neighboring minister of some rep- 
 utation in revival work is called to the pastor's 
 assistance, and the work goes bravely on. 
 
 The preaching. In the first place all refer- 
 ence to the Holy Catholic Church as a divine 
 institution of saving grace from Christ, the 
 head, is studiously avoided. The 'sacraments 
 are not mentioned. To preach about Church and 
 sacraments would be regarded as throwing a wet 
 blanket over the awakened religious interest 
 and killing it outright. The doctrinal standards 
 of the church hold in check any desire to declaim 
 against the holy sacraments as in any real sense 
 means of grace, but, what is 'no better, they are 
 utterly ignored (during the revival) and treated 
 with silent contempt. Everything for conver- 
 sion and salvation here depends on the subjec- 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 67 
 
 tive state of mind, or feeling, resulting in a 
 " change of heart," regarded as the new birth, 
 as if this could be without the maternal inter- ^ 
 vention of the Lord's bride, the Church, with 
 her divinely appointed means. And so the 
 work continues and ends. Good is accomplished 
 — some good, at least, — for even a one-sided gos- 
 pel may produce partially good results, in some 
 cases ; but there must also be much evil result- 
 ing from it, for a partial truth, or a mixture of 
 truth and error, can certainly not accomplish 
 the full object of truth, pure and simple. Tlie 
 nearer we are to the truth, the nearer we are to 
 Christ and the freedom that is in Him. 
 
 Xow look at the gospel as i^resented in the 
 second chapter of Acts. Here is a centre from 
 which we may look in all directions. Of the 
 day of Pentecost it can be truly said : " This is 
 the day which the Lord hath made ; we will re- 
 joice and be glad in it." Ps. 118 : 24. On that 
 day the New Creation, as indicated by the Lord 
 in Paradise, and foretold by the prophets, came 
 full born into existence. It crowned and com- 
 pleted Christ's redeeming work, according to 
 His own word, that the Comforter would come 
 
68 THE LIFE OF 
 
 and reveal all the mysteries of the gospel to His 
 disciples, and that He would then fulfil His 
 word, " I appoint unto you a kingdom, even as 
 my Father apj^ointed unto me, that ye may eat 
 and drink at my table in my kingdom : and ye 
 shall sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of 
 Israel." (Luke 22 : 29, 30.) 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 69 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Contrast. 
 
 The day of Pentecost was the birthday of the 
 Christian Church, the kingdom sjDoken of in the 
 above quotation ; and the account given of it in 
 the second chapter of the Acts, contains, in its 
 fundamental principles, the constitution of the 
 one holy apostolic Church of Christ for all time. 
 That the Church is of divine origin and consti- 
 tution, is plain enough from Christ's words to 
 the disciples concerning it, but here we have His 
 words fulfilled : the scattered, uncertain and 
 hesitating disciples now united into one mystical 
 body by the eternal Spirit, and filled by that 
 Spirit with the knowledge of heavenly things, 
 and made to understand all the mysterious utter- 
 ances of Christ when He was with them in the 
 flesh. The receiving of the Holy Spirit was 
 their baptism and ordination both in one, and 
 they were now invested with the full powers of 
 the apostolic office. Tliey were ready now to 
 fulfil their great commission from Christ to 
 
70 THE LIFE OF 
 
 preach the gospel, and administer the signs and 
 seals of His grace. 
 
 There were gathered at that great Jewish fes- 
 tival — which on that day became the Christian 
 Pentecost — Jews from all parts of the world. 
 How gloriously and wisely God arranged mat- 
 ters in His kingdom of grace ! Tiie Old Testa- 
 ment passes into the New, and the New absorbs 
 all the true elements of the Old. Christ, the 
 author of the new creation, is its Head —for 
 " He is the Head of the body, the Church," and 
 His ordained ambassadors represent His official 
 presence in the Church on earth. Accordingly, 
 Peter preaches the initial sermon, a sermon 
 which contains the essential elements of the 
 Christian salvation. The hearers are devout 
 Jews, who had come to worship at the feast. It 
 is evident they gave the closest attention to the 
 sermon, as the result proves, and the most per- 
 fect order must have prevailed. Peter in his 
 sermon did not inveigh against his hearers as if 
 they were a morally bad set of men, but calmly, 
 yet most forcibly, reasoned with them out of 
 their own Scri]itures, to prove that Jesus was 
 the Christ. He told them, indeed, that by the 
 hands of wicked men they slew Him of whom 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 71 
 
 their prophets wrote, but yet without a hint that 
 they were consciously ungodly men ; that, as he 
 afterwards said, in ignorance they did it, and 
 that they would all obtain mercy, if they would 
 now believe in Him whom they crucified as a 
 malefactor. The sermon produced the effect 
 that might be expected on men of devout spirit 
 and r.easonable minds. Without any unnatural 
 excitement, but with sincere conviction of the 
 truth as delivered by Peter, they inquired what 
 they should do. 
 
 Now up to this point, what resemblance can 
 be found between this whole scene and the mod- 
 ern revival as already described ? There is none 
 at all. In the first place the transactions on the 
 day of Pentecost were of a nature not to be re- 
 peated in such form ; not any more than could 
 the birth or the death of Christ be repeated. 
 The Spirit was given and the Church was born 
 once for all. The powers of the world to come 
 were now lodged, complete and organized, in the 
 new creation effected by the divine Spirit. It 
 was the grand miracle of the ages, all the divine 
 works of grace finding in it their glorious solu- 
 tion and meaning. It was the great new Sab- 
 bath day of the new spiritual world in which 
 
72 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Christ lives and reigns as head. In the second 
 j^lace the preaching of Peter was addressed to 
 men who were in good and reguhir standing in 
 the Old Testament Church, and in their way 
 honest and devout ; and in it was the design of 
 God that these children of Abraham should be 
 gathered in as the first fruits of the finished re- 
 demption. It was not then with them a case of 
 sudden conversion after the modern revival or- 
 der. It was the conviction, under the preaching 
 of an inspired apostle, that Jesus was the 
 Christ, which led those devout Israelites to Him 
 and into His new-born Church. 
 
 But the answer of Peter to the question : 
 " What shall we do ?" The question implied that 
 they were willing and ready to d<j whatever the 
 apostles would direct. There is not the least 
 sign here that those men thought only or chiefly 
 of the punishment God might inflict on them for 
 the rejection of His son. They were " pricked 
 to the heart ;" they realized the enormity of the 
 sin which they had committed ; but evidently it 
 was the sin itself, and hot the dread of punish- 
 ment, that burdened their hearts ; and it was 
 release from sin and to be placed in right rela- 
 tions with God that they desired. The New 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 73 
 
 Measure system could not flourish at all with 
 such peojile for mourners or inquirers. 
 
 The answer of Peter is plain, direct and sim- 
 ple, and of eternal significance. " Kepent ;" 
 that is, change your mind with regard to Jesus, 
 and accept Him as your Christ and Saviour. 
 Love Him whom you formerly hated as a pre- 
 tender and blasphemer ; and then come into 
 full communion and fellowship with Him and 
 receive the remission of your sins and tlie new 
 birth into His kingdom of grace ; that is, " be 
 baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus 
 Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall re- 
 ceive the gift of the Holy Ghost." 
 
 This they did. They were not told to get 
 down on an anxious bench and endure spell af- 
 ter spell of mental torture until relieved by some 
 divine influence. As for " law work," they had 
 had enough of that under Judaism, and they 
 now heard the glad sound of the Gospel. 
 
 According to the modern Puritanic Gospel it 
 would be very dangerous to answer religious in- 
 quirers as St. Peter did, by telling them that 
 baptism is for the remission of sins. But very 
 likely Peter was right, and they are wrong. 
 
 Then the great apostle continued his answer : 
 6 
 
74 THE LIFE OF 
 
 " For the promise is unto you and your chil- 
 dren." The promise that God had made to Abra- 
 ham, that He woukl bless him and his seed, 
 is here renewed ; and as little children under 
 the old covenant were made members of the 
 family of God by circumcision, so now they were 
 not left out in the cold world. No, the little 
 ones whom Christ took u}) in His arms and 
 blessed are not to be denied the covenant bless- 
 ings of the Gospel dispensation, " for of such is 
 the kingdom of God." And thus was the 
 Christian Church established ; not according to 
 the varying moods of men, but according to the 
 'wisdom of God ; not according to the spirit of 
 our modern unhistorical and upstart sectism, but 
 according to the spirit of truth, unity and peace. 
 The Church was established as a famil}^ — the 
 family of God — with all that such constitution 
 implies, in which Christian households include 
 all, from the oldest to the youngest, within their 
 warm and loving embrace. 
 
 But modern revivalism practically ignores all 
 this. The baptized children are classed among 
 the uncovenanted children of the world, their 
 baptism having no relation whatever to what is 
 called their conversion. We might scarcely ex- 
 
. JOHN W. NEVIN. 75 
 
 pect anything better of those sects whose minis- 
 ters are as ignorant as the people whom they 
 pretend to instruct, but the same is true of re- 
 ligious bodies that claim almost a monopoly of 
 the brains and culture of Christendom. 
 
 Take the case of an eminent New England 
 divine, a man of unquestioned learning and 
 piety. He brought up his children in the most 
 approved religious manner, and with the desired 
 success. At a certain period in the history of this 
 pious family a little son of eight years took ill and 
 died. The reverend father bent over the dying 
 child, his grief seeming to be controllable until 
 his daughter, a girl of ten years, spoke such 
 words of Christian consolation that his sorrow 
 was almost turned into joy. The account says : 
 " While her father and mother were weeping at 
 the bed-side of the dying boy, the little daughter 
 whispered into their ears words of peace and 
 hope. Her conduct at such an hour was a re- 
 storing cordial to the wounded hearts of the par- 
 ents, w^io found in the heavenly-mindedness of 
 one child consolation for the loss of another." 
 But now behold the sudden fall from the sublime 
 to the ridiculous ; for thus the narrative pro- 
 ceeds : " Shortly after the death of this brother 
 
76 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Mary became in heart and life a Christian." 
 What was she when, " heavenly-minded," ^he 
 gave Christian consolation to her agonized par- 
 ents ? *' She passed throngh that mysterious 
 change which some denominate ' regeneration ;' 
 which she described by the expression, ' I have 
 found God.' " Who and where was lier God 
 when she manifested so much Christian piety ? 
 But this is not all. Her father (too bad, after 
 accepting her consoling ministry in a most try- 
 ing hour) was unwilling that she should make a 
 public profession of faith in Christ, for fear that af- 
 ter all she was not born again and truly converted. 
 " He could not endure the thought that she 
 should enter the Chui-ch (where was she up to 
 that time — in the waste, howling wilderness?) 
 without a saving evangelical change," and he 
 would not have her " substitute the sprinkUng oj 
 water for the baptism of Christ's blood." 
 
 Ah, there ! the secret is out. The " heavenly- 
 minded" child had been baptized in infancy, but 
 the learned and pious father looked upon the 
 baptism as only a " sprinkling of water," and a 
 mere form empty as the wind. There was no 
 grace in it that he could conceive of; it was to 
 him an empty sign of what is of the highest mo- 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 77 
 
 meut, but obtainable only after many years, and 
 after passing through a series of humanly pre- 
 scribed mental horrors. In other words, the best 
 of children, though baptized into Christ and 
 pressed with His own arms to His bosom, are 
 not Christians until they have passed through 
 some such ordeal. Then what was the spiritual 
 condition of that dying boy ? and of that saintly 
 sister whose " prudent" father waited long after 
 that before he received her into the Church ?' 
 AVhat if Mary had died just before " she passed 
 through that mysterious change which some de- 
 nominate regeneration" — what would have been 
 her condition after death ? O thou heartless 
 modern unchurchly and rationalistic Christian- 
 ity, decked in the livery of superior piety and 
 evangelicalism par excellence ! to rob children 
 of the divine covenant of the blessing which 
 Christ imjoarted and declared was theirs ! To 
 deny baptism to children is bad enough ; to 
 grant it and then treat it as a mere form, with- 
 out life or substance, is infinitely worse. 
 
 Now such was largely the state of things in ' 
 the churches, whose early history should have 
 taught them something far better, during Dr. 
 Nevin's first three years at Mercersburg. The 
 
78 THE LIFE OF 
 
 nature of the Church, as clearly sh(3wn by the 
 New Testament account of its organization, had 
 been very much lost sight of. Every profes- 
 sional revivalist treated the second chapter of 
 the Acts as simply an account of a big revival, 
 like those of modern times. The real meaning 
 and significance of the Christian day of Pente- 
 cost was almost unknown. Religion was re- 
 garded as a matter which every individual was 
 to see to without regard to any mediating office 
 in the Church — a false spiritualism which ac- 
 cepted baptism, but saw in it nothing but an 
 outward sign of what could exist as well without 
 it. The Lord's Supper fared no better in the 
 general estimate. So the Church — the only con- 
 ception of it was, the numerical sum of Christian 
 believers joined together like grains of sand in 
 a heap. How different the Church of Pentecost, 
 as described by St. Paul : " By one Spirit are 
 we all baptized into one body." (1 Cor. 12 : 13.) 
 What a mighty contrast between the Church as 
 here presented and the abstract nothing of mod- 
 (_ern revivalism. The one is an object of faith, 
 " the pillar and ground of the truth ;" the other 
 i^! a mere human conception, having the sacra- 
 mental bonds without acknowledging their bind- 
 ing and saving virtue as divine means of grace. 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 79 
 
 111 a similar way other portions of holy Scrip- 
 ture are treated by this class. They do not 
 seem to know, for instance, that the aj^ostolic 
 Epistles were addressed only to Christian 
 Churches. As a natural consequence the great- 
 est mistakes are often made by 23reachers who 
 select certain passages as texts for sermons to 
 uncovenanted sinners, which were originally in- 
 tended for Christian people only. I once heard 
 a doctor of divinity preach from the text : 
 " Quench not the Spirit." His entire address 
 was to impenitent sinners (and he made no dis- 
 tinction between baptized and unbaptized), in 
 which he maintained that all men had some- 
 thing of the divine Spirit in them, and Paul's 
 exhortation was that they should not quench it. 
 To prove his assertion that all men have the 
 Spirit, he cited 1 Cor. 12 : 7 — " For a manifes- 
 tation of the Spirit is given to every man to 
 profit withal"— and declared with great empha- 
 sis of voice and gesture that no other Scripture 
 proof was necessary for the purpose. The ig- 
 norance displayed by that " doctor" was inex- 
 cusable and deplorable, and yet that is a fair 
 sample of the kind of treatment the Bible re- 
 ceives at the hands of a very large number of 
 
80 THE LIFE OF 
 
 preachers. The passage has reference to Christ- 
 ians only, and occurs in a discourse on the nature 
 and constitution of the Christian Church which 
 may be regarded as a complete connnentary on 
 the second chapter of Acts. Indeed the whole 
 idea of subjective emotionalism in religion is a 
 perversion of the fundamental principles of the 
 doctrine of Christ, which is, as He said to Nico- 
 demus, not an emotion or " change of heart," 
 but a new birth from above, and that by water 
 and the Spirit, in order to any real citizenship 
 in the kingdom of God on earth, and union 
 with its head, Jesus Christ. The jjopular theol- 
 ogy of fifty years ago had no real church con- 
 sciousness, scarcely anything more than its per- 
 version as sect consciousness, and sometimes not 
 even that. As a consequence the Bible was 
 either pressed into the special service of some 
 favorite sectarian shibboletli, or used in a gener- 
 ally loose way, there being no proper sense of 
 the great central principles of Christianity as 
 formulated and focalized, for example, in the 
 Apostles' Creed. 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. ' 81 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The Pilot Steers Straight. 
 
 Dr. Neviu had got down to work at Mercers-! 
 burg with a will. The Church question took 
 hold of him and he took hold of it. It was a 
 new experience, for up to that period in his life 
 the subject had not been ^^ressed at all in the re- 
 ligious circle in which he moved, except as re- 
 ferring to a denomination of Christians, or 
 vaguely to the Church at large, with no special 
 concern as to the doctrine of the holy Catholic 
 Church of the Apostles' Creed. But he now 
 found himself in a more free and open field of 
 theological thought in the Reformed commun- 
 ion, and seeing that this Church was in danger 
 of losing its identity by following in the ways of 
 other denominations, and of losing all proper 
 sense of the true idea of the Church as the body 
 of Christ and the mother of all true believers, he 
 carefully studied the subject on every side and 
 in all its bearings, and then uttered his voice, in 
 which there was no uncertain sound. He pub- 
 
82 THE LIFE OF 
 
 lislied his famous work entitled '' The Anxious 
 Bench." It was like a bomb falling and explod- 
 I ing in a crowded camp. Dr. Nevin was not 
 made after the manner of those who employ am- 
 biguous phrases and conciliatory circumlocu- 
 tions. He only needed to know that he was en- 
 gaged in a good cause, and made no calculations, 
 nor indulged anticipations, in regard to any re- 
 sult to himself. He wrote his " Ti^act for the 
 Times," and sent it forth, as a true physician 
 would prepare medicine and administer it with- 
 out consulting the taste of the patient. In this 
 instance heroic treatment was necessary, and 
 there was no shrinking from the responsibility 
 in the case. 
 
 The effect was tremendous. Notices and cri- 
 ticisms were like Autumn leaves in number. 
 The Reformed Church as a whole applauded the 
 work and its author to the echo. , Even many 
 who had been carried away on the wave of New 
 Measureism hailed it as their deliverer from the 
 whirlpool of false revivalism. Very few, if any, 
 in the Keformed Church opposed the new book. 
 It settled completely their minds on the question 
 at issue. 
 
 In other Christian bodies there were varied 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 83 
 
 results. One part of the Lutheran Church con- 
 demned it, while another and larger part gave 
 to it its unqualified endorsement. So of others. 
 But, as was to be expected, the Tract was furi- 
 ously assailed from various quarters. I well re- 
 member when, in my twelfth year, I read a vio- 
 lent rejoinder published as a counter-blast, in 
 which the writer represented Dr. Nevin as in 
 the bonds of Satan, and as his emissary, trying 
 to overthrow the cause of true religion. This 
 writer also expressed the hope that Dr. Nevin 
 would see his error, and would himself bow at 
 the anxious bench and be converted from the 
 error of his ways. A Lutheran minister, whom 
 I knew, employed his pen diligently for years 
 against the book, using the most bitter language 
 in characterizing it and its author. This same 
 minister, a few years ago, publicly retracted 
 every word he had uttered against Dr. Nevin 
 and his Tract against the Anxious Bench, and 
 declared it to be his firm conviction, after years 
 of experience and careful study of the subject, 
 that the Mercersburg Professor was right, and 
 merited the gratitude of all right thinking men 
 for the good he accomplished by his timely and 
 
84 THE LIFE OF 
 
 powerful utterances. Many others of that Church 
 have given similar testimony. 
 
 The Tract itself, uncompromising as it was 
 against the system which it attacked and showed 
 that it had nothing solid on which to rest, did 
 not breathe a word of contempt or dislike for 
 the people who employed the modern innova- 
 tion in evangelistic work. Its object was solely 
 to advance the cause of truth ; to show the bet- 
 ter way ; to tear down a false system, that the 
 true one might be restored to its place ; to open 
 the eyes of the people, that they might behold 
 Zion in its beauty and excellence ; to set forth 
 the true principles of Christianity ; to explain 
 the mysteries of the kingdom of God, as these 
 are embodied in the heavenly mystery of Christ's 
 ^T^hurch. Dr. Nevin saw more and more that 
 in American Protestantism current sentiment 
 was running into rationalism and Pelagianism, 
 unconsciously indeed, but nevertheless with sure 
 tread in that fatal direction. To the unthink- 
 ing, and to ordinary minds in general, no dan- 
 ger could be farther removed than that. Ameri- 
 can Puritanism professed to be spiritual above 
 all otlier forms of Christianity. The contrast 
 between it and what may be called the church- 
 
JOHN W. NEVIlSr. 85 
 
 liness of the older Protestant bodies was regarded 
 as tlie contrast between spirituality and dead 
 formalism. So it appeared to superficial observ- 
 ers, but on close inspection it is seen that genu- 
 ine spirituality exists only where there is true 
 and practical faith in the Church and her ordi- 
 nances ; and that discounting the grace-bearing 
 character and office of the Church and her sac- 
 raments is, so far, bowing to the demands of 
 mere human reason. It is false spiritualism^ 
 that is in the end rationalism, and asks, like 
 Nicodemus, " how can these things be ?" Or, 
 like some other Jews, " how can this man give 
 us his flesh to eat ?" Dr. Nevin exposed the 
 error in all its magnitude, and made it descend 
 with shame from the uppermost seat in the 
 synagogue. It has scarcely succeeded since in 
 getting back to its old place. 
 
 But it is not good to pull down, unless there 
 is also a building up. Dr. Nevin did not stop 
 with the negative business of exposing error. 
 He pointed out the right way, and proclaimed 
 positive truth. The Educational System, he 
 maintained by unanswerable argument, was the 
 only true one. To this the Reformed Church 
 had been committed from her historical begin- 
 
86 THE LIFE OF 
 
 ning ; to this he woiihl bring her back, now that 
 she seemed to be wavering, and he succeeded. 
 He wakened up the sleeping consciousness of 
 that old mother Church of the Reformation, and 
 put her on the right road. May she never wan- 
 der from it. 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 87 
 
 CHAPTEK X. 
 True Evangelism. 
 
 To evangelize or make disciples of all nations 
 is the mission of the Church, committed by 
 Christ to His apostles and their successors in the 
 Christian ministry. 
 
 St. Paul says, " Faith cometh by hearing, and 
 hearing by the word of God ;" and the Heidel- 
 berg Catechism affirms this divine word by as- 
 serting that " the Holy Ghost works faith in the 
 heart by the preaching of the Gospel, and con- 
 firms it by the use of the sacraments." And 
 Christ, in the great commission, told the apostles 
 to teach the disciples — the baptized — to observe 
 all things that He had commanded them, with 
 the i^romise that He would be with them to the 
 end of the world. 
 
 Here we have in clear and unmistakable 
 terms the authority for what is called the educa- 
 tional system of evangelism. According to it 
 the authorities in the Church are authorized and 
 obliged to set forth in right order the principles 
 
88 THE LIFE OF 
 
 of revealed truth, in due form, for the Christian 
 training of chikiren and all who iieed elemen- 
 tary religious instruction. Accordingly, from 
 the beginning of Christian history there has 
 been in the Church a class called catechumens, 
 that part of a Christian community which is 
 comj^osed of the baptized children and youth, 
 and others who may be seeking baptism and full 
 admission into the Church. In eai-ly times it 
 was a common thing for men and women of the 
 highest standing, including princes and nobles, 
 to attend catechetical instruction. This was 
 the old apostolic system, which was regarded as 
 essential in evangelical work by the entire 
 Church, and has only been rejected within a 
 comparatively recent period, not by the histori- 
 cal Church, but by ignorant upstart sects, and 
 practically by denominations whose constitutions 
 and re2:ulations teach better thino's. 
 
 The educational system attaches to the very 
 idea of Christianity and the Church. In what 
 other way could there be promoted a healthy 
 Christian life ? What is there in religious ex- 
 citement and spasmodic fervor and zeal without 
 knowledge that is of permanent value ? The 
 Church cannot g-row and bear the fruits of 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 89 
 
 righteousness by fits and starts, no more than 
 things in the natural world, where, as Christ 
 himself tells us, in speaking of the nature of His 
 kingdom, there appears, " first the blade, then 
 the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." 
 According to Christ, the apostles, all church his- 
 tory, and common sense, there is only one right 
 method of evangelization — the educational. 
 
 Dr. Nevin had now made a fair and success- 
 ful start as a jniblic teacher and leader in the 
 Church of his adoption. Instead of trying to 
 lead his adopted Church over to the one from 
 whicli he came — of which lie never entertained 
 a thought, — he labored to make the Reformed 
 Church know herself and her glorious history, 
 to consider well her position as a mother in Is- 
 rael, her Catholic spirit and character, and her 
 oecumenical symbol of faith, the Heidelberg- 
 Catechism. He warned her to he true to her- 
 self, and not be misled into strange ways by the 
 l)yrotechnic displays, stage performances and 
 pietistic rant of mountebank revivalists. Then 
 came from his powerful pen " The History and 
 Genius of the Heidelberg Catechism," in whicli 
 he continued the positive work of strengthening 
 7 
 
90 THE 1,1 FE OF 
 
 the hands and hearts of those in whose special 
 service he was called to labor. 
 
 In tliis work, as also in the extensive intro- 
 duction to the Tercentary edition of the Cate- 
 chism, and numerous other writings. Dr. Kevin 
 exhibited the superior excellence of the Reformed 
 Confession of Faith, and especially as having no 
 equal as a method of instruction preparatory to 
 confirmation. The amount of writing he did on 
 the Catechism was sufficient of itself to give him 
 literary fame ; but it did much more — it awak- 
 ened up the Reformed Church to a joyful sense 
 of her true existence, and her true genius and 
 mission. For this alone the Church owes him 
 a perpetual debt of gratitude ; and the very best 
 way to pay the debt will be for all — ministers 
 and laity — to read carefully what he wrote on 
 their cherished summary of Christian doctrine. 
 It will jjay with interest every one who may 
 have read them years ago to read them again ; 
 and ihose who have not 3^et become familiar with 
 their contents, should not delay to form their 
 acquaintance. 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. - 91 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Dr. Philip Schait". 
 
 The im2:)ul8e Dr. Neviii had received from 
 association with Dr. Kauch was of great account 
 to him and his work in the combined institutions 
 of college and theological seminary. The first 
 three years of his life in Mercersburg were a 
 period of great mental activity and most import- 
 ant practical results. His introduction to the 
 vast stores of German wisdom by his learned 
 colleague was rapidly followed by intimate lit- 
 erary acquaintance with the land of ideas. He 
 became a thorough German scholar and a master 
 of German thought in the spheres of theology 
 and philosophy, as was clearly proved by his 
 literary productions. He was regarded as a 
 master in Israel and a leader whom Reformed 
 people could trust. No one envied him on ac- 
 count of his superiority, but all were proud, as 
 inferiors, to sit at his feet and learn. He was the 
 Gamaliel of the Reformed Church, and he be- 
 came such by devoting himself and all the ener- 
 
92 THE LIFE OF 
 
 gies of his giant intellect and loving heart to 
 the advancement of her people in Christian 
 knowledge and virtue. 
 
 But it is not good for even the greatest men 
 to be alone. Dr. Nevin enjoyed the compan- 
 ionship of the college professors, and that was of 
 great account to him ; and the friendships he 
 had formed with congenial spirits in the Re- 
 formed ministry and laity, made him feel com- 
 fortable and at home ; yet no one of these could 
 fill the place of the lamented Dr. Kauch. He 
 needed a colleague and a helper, one who could 
 in a manner complement his own being, and 
 vice versa, by mutual compensation each filling 
 out what might be wanting in the other. After 
 three years of this sort of loneliness there was a 
 great change. The vacant place was filled by 
 Dr. Philip Schafi". 
 
 Dr. Schafi", a professor in the great university 
 of Berlin, was elected by the Beformed Synod of 
 the United States, in October, 1843, Professor of 
 Church History and kindred branches in the 
 Seminary. He accepted tlie appointment, and 
 began his labors in Mercersburg in the following 
 year. 
 
 The new })rofessor was young, only twenty- 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. d'd 
 
 five, yet he had ah^eady become distinguished 
 even in the literary cai)ital of the world. He 
 was a man of profound and varied learning, and 
 gave promise of a career which, then only seen 
 through the mists of the uncertain future, is to- 
 day known and read of all men, and is second to 
 that of no other man in America. It was a 
 happy day for Dr. Nevin when Dr. Schaff ar- 
 rived at Mercersburg. The great loss of three 
 years before was now made u[), and the vacant 
 place was again filled. Henceforth, if it pleased 
 God, two great and congenial minds would work 
 together in the great cause of Christian education. 
 It was also the beginning of a new era in the 
 life and work of Dr. Nevin. 
 
 Dr. Schaff prepared (and delivered in part) 
 an inaugural address, wdiicli at once raised the 
 highest public expectation in regard to him, and 
 established his rei)utation for great talent and 
 scholarly ability. The address was published in 
 pamphlet form, with a very able and aj^itreciative 
 introduction by Dr. Nevin. It was a revelation 
 of new and strange doctrines to many outsiders, 
 but the membership of the Reformed Church 
 had already been prepared by Dr. Nevin to hear 
 such sentiments as were contained in the address, 
 
94 THE LIFE OF 
 
 and they were welcomed and applauded every- 
 where throughout her borders, with only a few 
 individual exce2:>tions. 
 
 Tlie subject of the address was, " The Principle 
 of Protestantism," in which true Protestantism 
 was thoroughly sifted out of a mass of ill-grown 
 notions, which had become moss-grown and fixed 
 as the hills in the ordinary thinking of the 
 American Church. A great cry was raised in 
 Puritanic quarters against this new and sudden 
 demonstration coming from the usually unde- 
 monstrative Reformed household, and hands were 
 held up in holy horror at the idea of there being 
 anything wrong, one-sided, or stupid, in the 
 system of thought and doctrine which Puritanism 
 had prescribed as the rule, law and testimony for 
 the evano'elical Church of America. There was 
 considerable wringing of hands, and trembling 
 for the ark ; Init all the same, the young lion 
 roared, and it became tolerably certain that 
 pseudo or false Protestantism had to yield up a 
 considerable part of its sovereignty. 
 
 The two names, Nevin and Schaff, became 
 closely linked together, in the minds of the 
 people, like Alexander and Coesar, or Clay and 
 Webster. 
 
 How I remember Dr. Schaffs arrival from 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 95 
 
 Germany, when I was a boy of twelve years, 
 and the lively conversations between him and 
 my mother. Years afterwards, when I was one 
 of his theological students, Jie frequently spoke 
 of her, and of the pleasant and profitable con- 
 versations he had with her when he fii'st came 
 to America. The invariable form of greeting 
 he sent to her was : " Give my love to your 
 mother ; she is such a smart old lady." Her 
 Christian faithfulness in the training of her 
 children, and her noble virtues, are my apology 
 for alluding to her here. --| 
 
 Thus, in the providence of God, two men of 
 extraordinary al)ility stood shoulder to shoulder 
 at the head of the Reformed institutions of learn- 
 ing. Tliey worked together in perfect harmony, 
 and never consulted flesh and blood when they 
 found it necessary for truth's and righteousness' 
 sake to attack error in high theological places, 
 and to weigh in the balances of truth and find 
 wanting long cherished theologies and mummi- 
 fied theories of Christianity. They became dis- 
 turbers of the long peace of the self-complacent, 
 self-satisfied and groove-bound Puritanic the- 
 ology, and broke the Kip van Winkle slum- 
 ber and conceit of the negative Protestant- 
 
96 THE LIFE OF 
 
 ism that was unconsciously going to seed. 
 They fearlessly proclaimed that true Protest- 
 antism and true Christianity were not to be 
 judged and measured by opposition to Roman- 
 ism, but by the standard of positive truth 
 as contained in the Word of God and formulated 
 by the Church in her (ecumenical creeds. In 
 the popular Christianity of the time there was 
 no real sense of an objective order and kingdom 
 of saving grace. Between the subject and God 
 there was supposed to be nothing. The Church, 
 as visible, was regarded simply as a conveni- 
 ence ; and as invisible, a mere abstraction ; and 
 the sacraments, symbols only of what could 
 exist as well without them. So also Christ him- 
 self was regarded as chiefly a legal instrument 
 brought into existence as a divine after-thought 
 through the accidental fact of sin — a |)ivot on 
 which to turn the scale of justice and effect hu- 
 man deliverance from the consequences of guilt. 
 Salvation was viewed as the result of a commer- 
 cial or governmental scheme, in which there was 
 a scrupulous balancing of book accounts between 
 God and the sinner ; and these being fairly ad- 
 justed, there followed God's imputation of right- 
 eousness, which righteousness belonged solely to 
 
JOHN W. NEVIX. 97 
 
 Christ, however, and was merely set down to the 
 sinner's credit as if his own, though in no sense 
 his own in reality. Then again the very oppo- 
 site of all this was virtually taught by the same 
 prevailing Puritanic school. Instead of the me- 
 chanical legal arrangement, there was insisted 
 upon as a prime condition of salvation a power- 
 ful soul struggle, an inward subjective conten- 
 tion, in which faith played scarcely any part at 
 all, a wrestling as in a night-mare to get away 
 from the spot over which hung the sword of 
 divine justice, or, in common phrase, to "flee the 
 wrath to come ;" and at last coming out of all 
 this conflict with flying colors and with the self- 
 complacency of a hero to whom was due all the 
 glory of the victory. 
 
 Ill all this the Church as the body and bride 
 of Christ, and as " the pillar and ground of 
 the truth," was systematically ignored. i 
 
 Dr. Schaff, having Dr. Xeviii at his side, was 
 not lono- in learnino; what was the state of the 
 American Church and the reigning spirit of 
 Puritanism with its lofty claims and shallow 
 pretensions. He and his powerful colleague 
 pricked the stupendous bubble, and it has been 
 collapsing ever since. 
 
98 THE LIFE OF 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 A Review. 
 
 Before the arrival of Dr. Scliaff, Dr. Nevin 
 had performed single-handed an immense amount 
 of work for the Church. He had laid a foun- 
 dation for the future that was broad and deep. 
 
 He diligently and conscientiously studied the 
 great questions in theology and philosophy, and 
 the social problems that pressed on his attention, 
 and gave the results to the Church and to the 
 world. 
 
 His inaugural address, on the nature and 
 importance of the Christian ministry, was a most 
 thorough and solemnly earnest presentation of 
 the divine office. It produced a profound im- 
 pression, and also settled permanently the ques- 
 tion as to the wisdom of the Synod in choos- 
 ing him to be the chief teacher in the Church. 
 
 His love for the German language and high 
 regard for the German people, who constituted 
 a considerable })ai't of the Reformed family in 
 America, was soon })erceive(l and appreciated. 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 99 
 
 He made a trip tlirough Eastern Pennsylvania 
 to see the conntry and become better acquainted 
 with the German speaking people. He was both 
 surprised and delighted with what he saw. Not 
 only was the country through which he travelled 
 of surpassing beauty and fertility of soil, but he 
 saw on every hand fine church buildings and 
 school houses, and discovered, through free 
 intercourse with many of the people, that they 
 had in them the timber to make men of the 
 highest character and quality. 
 
 During that pleasant journey he had occasion 
 to make practical use of his knowledge of the 
 German language. I remember how I heard of 
 it when I was a boy, and helped to discuss it at 
 the family hearth, and how strange we thought 
 it would seem to hear one, who had just recently 
 been a Scotch - Irish American Presbyterian 
 divine, preach in the German language. But it 
 was so. The sermon was actually delivered, 
 and that Berks county congregation has the 
 honor of hearing the only German sermon ever 
 preached by the greatest theologian in America. 
 No doubt many who heard that sermon are still 
 living and have a lively recollection of the effort 
 of an " Irisher" trying to adapt his tongue to the 
 
100 THE LIFE OF 
 
 peculiar flexions and idioms of their language. 
 I confess, I heartily envy the men and women 
 now living who heard that sermon. 
 
 Dr. Nevin returned from his Eastern tour 
 with fresh zeal in behalf of his Anglo-German 
 Church. And the more he learned of the 
 American German people, the more he admired 
 their simple virtues and character ; and he bent 
 himself to the work of elevating them to the 
 position to which they had the natural capacity 
 to attain. And since that day many a grand 
 and noble living statue has been created by that 
 master hand out of the unpolished material in 
 the German sections of the State. 
 
 During this period Dr. Nevin wrote a great 
 deal for the Reformed " Messenger" on such 
 topics as he believed required special attention, 
 all which was read with the greatest avidity. 
 He also lectured to the students — or rather, he 
 delivered an address —on a special occasion, on 
 the German language, in which he showed the 
 marvellous power and flexibility of that queen 
 of modern tongues, and recommended its thor- 
 ough study. The address was proof of its 
 author's complete mastery of the German lan- 
 guage, and it would be profitable for the present 
 generation to look it up and read it. 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 101 
 
 One of the most important of Dr. Nevin's 
 prodnetions during this period was at its close, 
 and may be said to mark the transition to the 
 next : I refer to his " Sermon on Catholic 
 Unity," preaclied at the Triennial Convention of 
 the two Reformed Churches, and published with 
 an English translation which he made of Dr. 
 Schaff's " Principle of Protestantism." 
 
 This sermon is proof positive that Dr. Nevin 
 was no church partisan, and that he was as far 
 removed from sectarian bigotry as the jwles are 
 from each other. He rejoiced in the name Re- 
 formed, not because it designated a certain divi- 
 sion in the Lord's army, but because it repre- 
 sented, in name and historical fact, catholicity, 
 unity, charity. 
 
 It w^as not uncommon at that time, or ever 
 since, to hear utterances on Christian unity. 
 Many of both clergy and laity have used voice 
 and pen to promote it, and no doul)t with sin- 
 cerity. But generally there has been a 2)ainful 
 lack of the true idea and conception of such 
 unity. Many practical attempts have been made 
 in this direction in the way of joining forces in 
 evangelistic work, or in conventions where 
 leaders and })eople have met in right good fel- 
 
102 THE LIFE OF 
 
 lowship, and a momentary enthusiasm lias taken 
 hold of the assembly. Unfortunately much of 
 the union sentiment about which we hear a 
 great deal is not the genuine article, and has 
 little of the spirit of that church unity which 
 was the burden of our Lord's intercessory 
 prayer, and the subject of many an ai)ostolic dis- 
 course, as we can see in the epistles of St. Paul. 
 There have been ])lenty of union talkers who 
 would catch at every opportunity to make pros- 
 elytes for their own sect from the very bodies 
 about whom they would say fine things at union 
 meetings. I have a distinct recollection of a 
 " union effort" in one of our large Pennsylvania 
 towns, about twenty-five years ago. Its object, 
 as declared, was " to take the town" by a mighty 
 shoulder to shoulder effort, in which all the 
 evangelical Churches were expected to join, 
 especially the ministers and leading members. 
 There was to be a weekly union prayer meeting, 
 regular meetings for conference, and general 
 union services, in whicli all were expected to 
 take part. 
 
 I state here as an historical fact that the most 
 enthusiastic of the leaders of that movement 
 were men who, as events proved, were the most 
 
JOHN W. iVEVlN. 103 
 
 eager to swell the ranks of their membership at 
 the expense of the dear sister churches of the 
 town. 
 
 But the Reformed pastor did not join in the 
 union effort, as he thought all his time should be 
 devoted to the interests of his large parish ; and, 
 besides, he had no faith in any good likely to 
 come of it. He thought, if all the pastors would 
 do their duty among their own people, it would 
 be far better. As for himself, there is not to 
 be found one more faithful than he in all pas- 
 toral work. He was on the most friendly terms 
 with his ministerial brethren of the town, and 
 was universally regarded as singularly free from 
 sectarian bigotry, and would be the last person 
 in the world to move a finger toward increasing 
 his church by encroachments on a neighboring 
 pastor. He was aggressive, going beyond the 
 limits of his pastoral charge, and frequently 
 brought in men from the world, but never from 
 any other orthodox branch of the Church. In 
 fact, he made more conquests in this way than 
 any other pastor in the place. When the union 
 movement started up, the Reformed pastor re- 
 fused to join in it, and was freely criticised and 
 even denounced by his good brethren for his 
 
104 THE LIFE OF 
 
 negative course in the matter. At some of the 
 union meetings he was loudly prayed for, that 
 the scales might fall from lii-^ eyes, and that he 
 might be made to see the glory of the Lord as 
 manifested in the united effort of God's peo23le 
 to advance His kingdom and save precious souls 
 — but all to no purpose. The meetings con- 
 tinued many weeks, and as there is an end of 
 all such things here below, so there was an end 
 to this. Then came a dividing of the spoils. 
 Then he who imagined himself to be the lion, 
 thought he should have the lion's share. Then 
 there was a quarrel between the two that were 
 biggest ; then a newspaper fight. Then the less 
 distinguished of the evangelic leaders got into 
 the fight ; and then, of course, the rank and file 
 followed, divided into as many bands as there 
 were sectarian interests at stake. Then out- 
 siders (the poor sinners) looked on and chuckled, 
 thinking they were about as good as these fight- 
 ing parsons and their adherents. Then the 
 " converts" beij-an to doubt whether after all 
 there was anything in " religion," and gradually 
 they relieved themselves of any further trouble 
 about it ])y falling into their old ways and to the 
 world. Then, after the news})aper wnr was ended 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 105 
 
 (the editors, after long endurance, had to shut 
 down on the disgraceful scrimmage), sensible 
 [)eople began to see that there can be Christian 
 unity without such forced admixture and com- 
 mingling ; that the several parts of a unity can 
 best perform their functions in their own way 
 and separately, and that the spirit of unity and 
 peace is the principal thing. Then, after that 
 colossal union effort, it was seen that the Re- 
 formed pastor had accomplished more in the 
 way of true evangelism than all the rest put 
 together ; had not brought scandal on the min- 
 istry or compromised Christianity itself; was 
 respected by all sensible people, and was at 
 peace with all. He had carefully read and 
 studied Dr. Nevin's sermon on Christian unity, 
 was in full accord with it, and at all times en- 
 deavored to practise its j^recepts. 
 
 Dr. Xevin's sermon was not then a sentimen- 
 tal plea for great union demonstrations in any 
 shape or form, but for the true Christian spirit 
 of unity as inculcated by Christ and the Apos- 
 tles, There cannot be a true sentiment on this 
 subject, however, without a true Church spirit 
 and correct views in regard to the Church it- 
 self. " There is one body, and one sj^irit, even 
 8 
 
106 THE LIFE OF 
 
 as ye are called in one hope of your calling: one 
 Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Fa- 
 ther of all" (Eph. 4: 4-(3), and this was the 
 text on which the sermon was based. The or- 
 ganic unity of God's people is there clearly af- 
 firmed, as also in many other places. " One 
 Lord, one faith, one baptism" — " one bodj^' and 
 one spirit" — one holy Catholic Church, whose 
 Head is Christ, and whose spiritual life is from 
 Him. A right apprehension of this great truth 
 is necessary to promote the " unity of the Spirit 
 in the bonds of peace." 
 
 As the Church actually exists, divided into 
 separate ecclesiastical bodies or denominations, 
 the full expression of catholic unity is wanting ; 
 that is, the New Testament ideal, in which all 
 Christians " with one mind and one mouth glo- 
 rify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ" (Rom. 15: 6), is not now realized. 
 Then all the more reason for considering the 
 question as it confronts us and forces itself upon 
 our attention, in view of the lamentable and 
 senseless divisions in the Church, in face of the 
 high priestly prayer : " That they all may be 
 one ; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee, 
 that they also may be one in us." (John 17 : 21.) 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 107 
 
 Dr. Neviii in this sermon showed the import- 
 ance of cultivating the spirit of Christian unity 
 as an essential principle in a practical godly life. 
 We cannot get away from the denominational 
 system at once, but the way may be prepared 
 for outward unity by coming more and more to 
 a true sense of what the Church really is as the 
 body of Christ, and what the truth concerning 
 the Church involves, and especially by bearing 
 practical testimony to the truth contained in 
 this article of the Christian taith, life and action 
 corresponding with the profession : " I believe 
 in the holy Catholic Church ; the communion of 
 saints." 
 
 Dr. Nevin being a public teacher in the Re- 
 formed branch of the Church catholic, was true 
 to her interests ; but what did he consider her 
 interests to be ? Did he believe her right posi- 
 tion was that of a rival to other branches of the 
 Church, and that his high mission would be ac- 
 complished if he could place her in the lead ? 
 That was far from his thought ; he knew of 
 nothing of interest to his denomination, except 
 what pertained to the Church universal ; and 
 that her sole object in all her activities should 
 be the glory of Christ, the Head of the whole 
 
108 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Body, and the salvation of all men. Since in 
 the Providence of God we belong to different 
 branches of the one Chnrch, our Christian life 
 and works must be in one of them ; yet we 
 should at the same time rise in thought and af- 
 fection far above the partial and sectional, even 
 to the heaven-born, white-robed bride of the 
 Lord, all glorious within, and without spot or 
 blemish. 
 
 The sermon on catholic unity was a grand 
 230stscript to the English edition of Dr. Schaff's 
 Principle of Protestantism. It may be said to 
 be the entering wedge of Dr. Nevin's numerous 
 contributions on the Church question which fol- 
 lowed, the forerunner of perhaps the most re- 
 markable and powerful discussions of that period. 
 Webster once said of Hamilton : " He struck 
 the rock of the national resources, and the 
 abundant stream of revenue gushed forth." Dr. 
 Nevin smote the rock wherein were hid too long- 
 some of the richest treasures of theology, and the 
 abundant streams of Gospel light gushed forth. 
 His foundation was Christ and His Church, as 
 embracing in a living, organic form the whole 
 trutli of the Gospel. He looked no longer to 
 any abstract doctrine as the centre and starting 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 109 
 
 point in theology, but to Christ Himself as the 
 principle and source of all truth, and the Church 
 as the organ of His saving grace and holding 
 the Word of divine revelation, committed to her 
 care as the leaves of the Tree of Life for the 
 healing of the nations. " This is a great mys- 
 tery ; but I speak concerning Christ and the 
 Church." (Eph. 5: 32.) The Lord's bride, 
 His mystical body, the mother of all true be- 
 lievers. 
 
 Dr. Nevin's earnest and profound looking 
 into this glorious mystery of Christ and the 
 Church produced in his mind the most j)ractical 
 ideas and inferences. The truth concerning the 
 Church, her catholicity, unity and holiness, en- 
 joined uj)on every member the duty of main- 
 taining, according to the grace given to each 
 one, the spirit of unity and peace. 
 
 He also saw in the Reformed communion a 
 broad field for the free and unobstructed work- 
 ing out of all the theological problems that de- 
 manded solution, and for the development of 
 theological science from that fontal [)rinciple of 
 Christianity — Christ and the Church. 
 
110 THE LIFE OF 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 A Ten Years' >Var. 
 
 The next ten years in the life and work of 
 Di*. Nevin were, in many respects, or altogether, 
 the most important period in his extraordinary 
 career. It was for him a decade of hard work, 
 learned and earnest controversy, and the erection 
 of a theological structure against which no oj^po- 
 sition has yet prevailed — a monument to his 
 memory more enduring than granite or brass. 
 
 If there could he erased from the printed page 
 and from the tablets of memory the records of 
 that 2^eriod in the life of Dr. Nevin, — or, rather, 
 if the facts in the case had never existed, — there 
 would be a great historical vacuum in the world 
 of mind, and a condition far below that which 
 now exists. 
 
 Theological science was confined at that time 
 in America to fixed limits, and was run in 
 grooves made and cut in some approved fashion, 
 and was expected to show its loyality by never 
 for a moment leaving its appointed track. There 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. Ill 
 
 were several varieties of po])ular theology, which 
 sometimes on meeting would show an amount of 
 polemical activity and zeal worthy of the best 
 cause, Calvinism and Arminianism, on occa- 
 sions, would outdo political partisanship itself in 
 fierceness of controversy. The points of differ- 
 ence were only points, but they were sharp, and 
 when used as missiles it was sometimes not 
 eminently wholesome to be within range. How 
 we used to hear from Arminian pulpits the un- 
 musical changes rung on the dreadful five points 
 of Calvinism, until the five points seemed like 
 five horns of some horrible apocalyptic monster ; 
 to all which Calvinists would reply with equal 
 severity. Orthodoxy (which generally meant 
 faith in some doctrinal hobby) was, in the popu- 
 lar estimation, the Church, and the Church in 
 any other view was an object of suspicion. To 
 talk about the Church as a visible kingdom of 
 divine grace, and about religion as more than a 
 mental and spiritual state, as holding in the body 
 of Christ, the Church, in connection with her 
 sacramental energies and life forces, would imj)ly 
 a dangerous departure from true S})irituality, 
 which must hold away as far as possible from 
 religious forms, and use them only because there 
 
112 THE LIFE OF 
 
 seems to be a divine command to do so. As for 
 the rest, every one's subjective states must be 
 for him gosj^el, religion, Church and all. And 
 religion being altogether subjective in its nature 
 and essence (a sort of mode of motion), why 
 should any special account be made of Church 
 and sacraments ? If religion is the result of a 
 spiritual coming out of Egypt, of a trembling 
 beneath the thunderings and lightnings of Sinai, 
 or a wrestling, like Jacob with God, of an arrest 
 in the mad career of sin, and three days' blind- 
 ness, as in the case of Saul, then what has the 
 Church to do with it ? The Church is a very 
 proper place for people after -they have become 
 full-fledged Christians, but the new birth, with 
 all that it implies (no matter what the confes- 
 sions of faith say) , must take place on the out- 
 side. Thus writes a minister of the Gospel (a 
 college and seminary graduate) to a brother 
 seeking Christian counsel : 
 
 " I suppose you could live a Christian life 
 without joining the Church ; but in that case 
 you would not be fully recognized as a Christ- 
 ian. There would be doubt in the minds of 
 some concerning your conversion, as it is exjiec- 
 ted of converts that they profess their faith in 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 113 
 
 Christ publicly. Then, too, your old compan- 
 ions may still regard you as one of them, so long 
 as you are not formally united with God's 
 people, and will the less hesitate to invite you 
 to their resorts. If you join the Church, your 
 new course of life and refusal to take jiart in sin- 
 ful practices will not create surprise, for even 
 sinners take note of consistency and admire it. 
 I earnestly advise you then to unite with the 
 Church — not that there is any virtue or essential 
 benefit in such act itself, but because of the ad- 
 vantages you would secure by so doing." 
 
 This is a fair sample of the false views con- 
 cerning the Church as held by large and influ- 
 ential bodies of American Christians when Dr. 
 Nevin at Mercersburg rapped them to order, 
 and called them to account. Then he took his 
 stand for the old Church doctrine and exposed 
 the shallow pretensions of the reigning Puritanic 
 theology. It was no small task he took in hand. 
 The prevailing sentiment was against him, espec- 
 ially outside of the Reformed and parts of a few 
 other denominations. 
 
 The literature of the Sunday schools was gen- 
 erally of the most unchurchly character, much 
 of it teaching sentimental morality without any 
 
114 THE LIFE OF 
 
 positive Christian trutli, and never a word about 
 Church and sacraments. Here is an example of 
 the teaching in the especially solemn kind of 
 Sunday school books : 
 
 Helen Jones, a young lady belonging to a 
 Christian family, and carefully brought up af- 
 ter the most approved Puritanic fashion, received 
 an invitation to a })arty. She was sternly 
 advised by a severely prudent aunt not to go. 
 But as the young lady thought she would enjo}'' 
 the party and its innocent diversions, she went. 
 The exposure to the cool night-air on the way 
 home was followed by an attack of pneumonia, 
 causing her death after an illness of one week. 
 
 During this time there was no lack of spirit- 
 ual doctors who undertook her case and pre- 
 scribed the remedies which seemed to be needed. 
 She was made to understand, first of all, that 
 her illness was a divine judgment for having 
 attended a social party against the godly advice 
 of her pious aunt (though with the consent of 
 her equally pious parents), and that she was 
 therefore a terrible sinner. These casuistical 
 doctors then produced their nerve - racking- 
 medicines and poured them into the soul of the 
 young sufferer. She must atone for her sins 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 115 
 
 (tliey will tell her about Christ later on — never 
 mind) by a repentance concerning the reality of 
 which there must be no doubt ; she must realize 
 the horr(n's of the damned, that she may know 
 the full extent of her guilt ; that only then she 
 will l)e released by a gracious God from the 
 power of His anger, for the sake of Christ who 
 paid lier debt on condition that she first pass 
 through the terrors of an accusing conscience, 
 and have a taste in this world of the death which 
 never dies. Such, and much more of the same 
 kind, was the medicine administered to a tender 
 soul when the body was racked with pain. But 
 in this case, at least, the strong New England 
 spiritual drugs failed to produce the desired 
 effect. The young lady, after the mental terrors 
 produced by the awful remedies had subsided, 
 became wonderfully calm and resigned — but, 
 alas ! resigned to what she believed to be her aw- 
 ful fate. She sent for some of her young friends, 
 and with the calmness of despair addressed them 
 on the importance of religion, and of preparation 
 for death and eternity. As for herself, she said 
 it was too late ; that she was lost, lost forever ; 
 but she wished ])efore she died to warn her sur- 
 viving companions against delay in the most 
 
116 THE LIFE OF 
 
 important of all matters. She had hoped that she 
 was a Christian, but discovered too late that she 
 was not. " When I am gone," she said, " think 
 of miserable Helen, and strive to enter in at the 
 strait gate of life immortal. Make religion your 
 chief concern, and do not waste a moment in the 
 indulgence of the fleeting pleasures, such as I 
 pursued a week ago, and which have brought 
 me to this dreadful condition, the loss of my 
 soul." And with many more words of like 
 character she exhorted those around her. Now 
 who would not say that the dying girl, deceived, 
 mocked and terrorized by such " miserable com- 
 forters," was a better Christian than they all ? 
 
 Such abominable stuff I w^as reading b}^ day 
 and dreaming about in the night watches, when 
 Dr. Nevin began the work of driving out such 
 traders from the Lord's temple. And of this 
 general character was the greater part of our 
 American Sunday school literature at that time. 
 Througli its influence religion was looked upon 
 as a miserable and doleful necessity, as a nau- 
 seating dose, a nostrum that was kill or cure, 
 which i)rudence would advise to accept, not for 
 its own sake, but as a remedy against what is 
 worse (perhaps !) than the horrid remedy itself. 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 117 
 
 Here was one of the errors in religion wliicli Dr. 
 Nevin laid low during the ten years' war. 
 
 There was also in the reigning popular reli-1 
 gious thinking what may be called ultra Prot- 
 estantism, distinguished by extreme and fanati- 
 cal hatred of Roman Catholicism. A man's 
 Protestantism was gauged by the length he 
 could go in abusing and vilifying that faith. 
 Such was the general Protestant teaching on 
 that subject, that Roman Catholics were either 
 pitied on account of the certainty of their dread- 
 ful doom, or thoroughly hated. It was allowed_j 
 by some that here and there were good Chris- 
 tians among Romanists, but they were the few 
 exceptions, and were Romanists only in form 
 and not in reality. Dr. Nevin could not possi- 
 bly take a comprehensive view of the truths he 
 was under solemn obligation to teach, without 
 seeing and attacking the falsehood and errors 
 wliicli lay in that direction. The results to him- 
 self he never weiglied or considered. He was 
 concerned only for the truth, and never stoj^jped 
 to consider the commotion that would be raised 
 against himself, or any other result, knowing 
 that " truth is mighty and shall prevail." 
 
 Then there was another class of people thaP 
 
118 THE LIFE OF 
 
 he had to encounter — the High Church Episco- 
 palians, whose lofty j^i'etensions about " apostolic 
 succession," and other exclusive ecclesiastical 
 prerogatives and claims, he kncxiked into smith- 
 ereens. 
 
 Then he undertook the task also of presenting 
 to the Church and to the world the true Re- 
 formed doctrine concerning the Lord's Supper, 
 which he did in the ablest work ever written on 
 the subject. This, too, helped to continue the 
 ten years' war. 
 
 Then the two opposite i)oles of Protestantism 
 — that is. High Church Episcopalianism and 
 Puritanism — each claimed to be the exact copy 
 of the ancient Church, and connected with it by 
 a relationshi]) that was indisputable, an exact 
 reproduction in every respect — an odd claim, 
 surely ! But Dr. Nevin proved that both par- 
 ties were color blind, and therefore no judges in 
 the case at all. He spoiled their pretty dream 
 so conn)letely that the (pieer fable has scarcely 
 been repeated since. But the writings in which 
 he settled forever the two claimants, became for 
 other reasons a target for arrows of eveiy de- 
 scription. 
 
JOHN W. NEVIX. 119 
 
 Then came Ins powerful plea for Protestant- 
 ism ; and this time it was a distinguished Ro- 
 man Catholic that contended with him. 
 
 But we must take up this period, briefly, in 
 detail, the whole history of which would fill 
 volumes. 
 
120 THE LIFE OF 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 A Speck of War. 
 
 The conflict was inev^itable. Cherished theo- 
 ries and opinions, of long growth, cannot be as- 
 sailed without causing antagonism. Drs. Neviu 
 and Schaft' had no desire to stir up strife and 
 contention among Christian })eople, but they 
 were charged with the duty of teaching truth, 
 which they determined to do, if necessary, at the 
 expense of personal comfort and repose, and of 
 the peace which may be, after all, only a cover 
 under which Satan finds j^i'otection in his as- 
 saults upon the Church of Christ. 
 
 Though the Reformed clergy and laity almost 
 unanimously endorsed the teachings of the Mer- 
 cersburg ^^I'ofessors, there were still a few who 
 opposed them. Among these was the Rev. Dr. 
 Berg, pastor of the Race Street Reformed church 
 in Philadelphia. He was a man of ability, a 
 fine pulpit orator, quick and sharp in debate, 
 and a born controversialist. He edited a reli- 
 gious journal called the " Protestant Banner," 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 121 
 
 in which the most ultra Protestantism was main- 
 tained and the Roman Church represented in 
 its very worst features. Dr. Berg wrote and 
 lectured against Romanism, and was one of tjie 
 great leaders in this country in opposition to the 
 Church of Rome, which was freely designated 
 as " the harlot," " the man of sin," " the scarlet 
 woman." Witli Dr. Berg were several other 
 ministers and a few prominent laymen, who 
 thought they did sf)ecial service to the cause of 
 truth by doing all in their power against the 
 Roman Catholic Church. They affected great 
 horror of such Romish tenets as " works of 
 supererogation," " penance," and the " meritori- 
 ousness of good works," but they certainly 
 seemed to think that Protestants who were sjie- 
 cially zealous in fighting Rome, would be 
 specially rewarded at the Great Assize, if not 
 sooner. With many people the hatred of Rom- 
 ish doctrines is very much modified by " the 
 way the wind blows." Nevertheless, deducting 
 all rel^ates and discounts, Dr. Berg and his co- 
 believers were thoroughly and irreconcilably 
 dead set against popery. 
 
 It could not then be exjDCCted that they could 
 by any possibility be silent, especially Dr. Berg, 
 9 
 
122 THE LIFE OF 
 
 when he was informed that Dr. Nevin was teach- 
 ing that the Roman Catholic Church was part 
 of the Church of Christ. The charge itself was 
 a true bill, and Dr. Nevin did not deny it, but 
 re-affirmed and sustained the truth of it by ar- 
 gument, when the subject was brought to his 
 attention. Dr. Berg had made an attack upon 
 him, charging him with defection and surrender 
 to the great enemy of true religion, and of being 
 false to his trust as a teacher in a Reformed 
 pseminary. Dr. Nevin replied in several articles 
 in the " Messenger," headed " Pseudo-Protest- 
 antism," in which he showed that it was very bad 
 Protestantism to affirm that the Roman Church 
 was no Christian Church at all, and that her 
 sacraments and ordinances were without validity, 
 thus consigning that immense body of professing 
 Christians to the world and the devil. The 
 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church 
 having thus affirmed by a formal deliverance. 
 Dr. Charles Hodge, of the Princeton Theological 
 Seminary, and everywhere regarded as a prince 
 in the Presbyterian Church, was exceedingly 
 mortified and disgusted by what he regarded as 
 an outrageous declaration, thus agreeing fully 
 with Dr. Nevin on that point. Why imitate 
 
 L^ 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 123 
 
 the Roman Clmreh in hurling anathemas ? She 
 will have much to answer for on that score ; but 
 bad and corrupt as are some of her doctrines 
 and practices, she is still entitled to considera- 
 tion as a Christian Church, fully as much so as 
 many of the numerous sects that ignorantly 
 prate about their own virtues, as if truth and 
 godliness were confined almost exclusively to 
 themselves. Dr. Nevin was blamed for not 
 anathematizing the Roman Catholics, and he 
 did not deny the truth of the accusation. His 
 charity extended to all, and he rejoiced in find- 
 ing truth anywhere ; and while he denounced 
 the errors, he at the same time acknowledged 
 whatever of truth there was in the system of 
 Romanism. He would have been false to his 
 high trust, if he had taught otherwise. 
 
 His answer to Dr. Berg on this subject was 
 complete, satisfactory to all who were not blinded 
 by prejudice, and a final settler once for all. 
 
 But there was another charge. He was ac-^ 
 cused of teaching that Christ is really, though 
 spiritually, present in the Lord's Supper. An- 
 other accusation, the truth of which he would 
 not deny, but in his answer to Dr. Berg fully 
 admitted that he so taught. He here took occa- 
 
124 THE LIFE OF 
 
 sion to 2>resent the true historic Reformed view 
 of the Lord's Siq^per ; that it was not Roman 
 Catholic (Transubstantiation), nor Lutheran 
 (Consubstantiation, so-called, though not by Lu- 
 therans), nor Zwinglian, that is, the memorial- 
 istic view (though Zwingli was much nearer the 
 truth on this subject than his detractors would 
 admit), but Ccdvinistic, which teaches that the 
 Lord's Supper is a real means or channel of 
 grace to the true communicant ; that Christ is 
 really, though spiritually, present in it, and that 
 the Christian believer receives in the sacrament 
 the body and blood of Christ, after a heavenly 
 ( manner, as his true spiritual meat and drink, 
 ^gain Dr. Nevin held his ground and convinced 
 the Church that he was right. He was at Mer- 
 cersburg not to be used as a thing of wax, al- 
 lowing himself to be shaped and controlled by 
 the sentimental theology of the day, but to guide 
 the grand old historic Church in the King's 
 highway — and he did it. 
 
 This periodical controversy led to the prepara- 
 tion by Dr. Nevin of the work on that subject, 
 entitled " The Mystical Presence," without any 
 question the greatest work on the Lord's Supper 
 that has ever been written. It was so regarded 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 125 
 
 in England by its greatest theologians, and also 
 in Germany, the land where theology and phil- 
 osophy grow and thrive like tropical plants. 
 
 According to the popular American Puritanic 
 idea of Christianity and practical religion, the 
 sacraments are nothing more than outward 
 signs, or rej)resentations, pictures, of what can ' 
 and does exist without them. They think it is 
 proper to use them, but that they belong only 
 to the necessary outward forms of religion, and 
 do not immediately, only incidentally, affect its 
 inward life. Where the baptism of infimts is 
 allowed, it is more because of venerable custom, 
 or of custom that it may not be well to abolish, 
 than because of the ancient and true Christian 
 sentiment that by baptism children, as well as 
 adults, become members of Christ, that though 
 outward and visible, there is in it divine S2:)iritual 
 grace, and that it seals the transfer of the sub- 
 ject from the realm of fallen human nature into 
 the kingdom of God. Consistently the Lord's 
 Supper, though regarded with greater solemnity,, 
 perhaps, is viewed in the same way. The j^ar- 
 ticipation of the believer in Christ's flesh and; 
 blood, and the Scripture terms used to express; 
 it, are regarded as figures of speech, meaning 
 
126 THE LIFE OF 
 
 thereby nothing more than a proper sph'itual 
 frame of mind of one wlio woukl hold spiritnal 
 fellowship with Christ. That is, there is sup- 
 posed to be nothing in the sacrament but what 
 men put into it by whatever state of mind they 
 come to it ; not therefore in itself a divine chan- 
 nel of grace appointed for that end, but simply 
 a something superadded as an indication or sign 
 that the grace is present, or an act performed in 
 memory of what Christ did for men eighteen 
 centuries ago. 
 
 This was not the Church doctrine as repre- 
 sented by the Heidelberg Catechism and other 
 Reformed confessions. Dr. Nevin planted him- 
 self squarely on these, and on the teaching of 
 the New Testament, when he began to move his 
 vigorous pen against the modern doctrinal inno- 
 vations that threatened to turn Christianity and 
 the Church as organized by Christ and center- 
 [jng in Him, into a spiritualistic dream or fiction. 
 His controversy with Dr. Berg, in which he was 
 easily victorious, and fully sustained by the 
 Church, was the occasion, in part, of his prepar- 
 ing the great work, " The Mystical Presence." 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 12" 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 The Book. 
 
 -n 
 
 The two productions, Schaffs " Principle of 
 Protestantism" and Nevin's " Mystical Pres- 
 ence," may be regarded as the foundation or sub- 
 stratum of what became known as " Mercers- 
 burg Theology." In these were laid down and 
 clearly defined the great principles of the Christ- 
 ian religion, which these learned and earnest 
 theologians developed and unfolded as time 
 rolled on. In the " Mystical Presence" Dr. 
 Nevin entered the inmost sanctuary of Christ's 
 kingdom on earth, the Holy of Holies of God's 
 spiritual temple. For such is the position of the 
 Lord's Supper in the spiritual world in which 
 Christ lives and reigns. "Holy, holy, holy, 
 Lord God of Sabaoth," is the song of men and 
 angels that fills with its swelling notes this inner 
 sanctuary of our Redeemer God. | 
 
 This book is called " A Vindication of the 
 Reformed or Calvinistic Doctrine of the Holy 
 Eucharist," and the work itself is a most thor- 
 
128 THE LIFE OF 
 
 ough vindication of its title. It is not a large 
 work, a duodecimo of about 250 pages, includ- 
 ing over 40 pages of an Introduction, which is 
 a free translation of a German monograph by 
 Dr. Ullman of Heidelberg, Germany. And yet, 
 though many larger works had been written on 
 the same general subject, it is doubtful whether 
 all taken together would compare in fullness 
 and value with this remarkable production. It 
 is undoubtedly the classic Avithout a peer or 
 
 ^ rival on the subject to which it relates. 
 
 The book created a sensation in theological 
 circles. By far the most important notices and 
 reviews of it came from two theolosical head- 
 quarters — Erlangen, in Germany, and Prince- 
 ton, in America, by Dr. Ebrard and Dr. 
 
 vHodge. The review of the work by Dr. Ebrard 
 was exhaustive and learned, as might be expected 
 of one of the ablest theologians and scholars of 
 Euroi3e, and a full endorsement of Dr. Nevin's 
 views. The book was to him an agreeable sur- 
 prise, coming from America, the land of practi- 
 cal ideas, Yankee notions, and all the odds and 
 ends of religious belief. Dr. Nevin was at once 
 elevated in the mind of Germany as the repre- 
 sentative of its best thought and culture. From 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 129 
 
 henceforth he belonged to the Okl as well as to 
 the New World. He was too broad and free in 
 his ideas to be hedged in by geographical or ec- 
 clesiastical walls. He was familiar with the past 
 and present in their relation to all questions, 
 whether sacred or secular, and he knew how to 
 separate truth from error in both. He knew 
 the state of theological and kindred questions of 
 the time throughout Christendom, and gathered 
 them all within the comprehensive grasp of his 
 prodigious mind. 
 
 On the other hand an unfavorable verdict > 
 was rendered by a judge in the American Israel, 
 Dr. Charles Hodge, of Princeton. He was a 
 leading representative of the reigning Protestant- 
 ism of this country, a man of high character 
 and extensive learning, but hedged and con- 
 trolled largely by what had become regarded in 
 America as the Ultima Thide, or utmost limit of 
 Christian science and knowledge, the modern 
 theology that claimed to be the most ancient, the 
 most Biblical, the most orthodox and evangeli- 
 cal. The " Mystical Presence" did not meet his 
 approval, albeit that it was professedly a " vin- 
 dication of the Reformed and Calvinistic view 
 of the Lord's Supper." But the American 
 
130 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Presbyterian Church, while maintainiiis; and de- 
 fending the less defensible " five j^oints of Cal- 
 vinism," had about forgotten the great Reform- 
 er's views on the sacraments. The Puritanic 
 inquisitorial view of regeneration and conver- 
 sion, w^ith its frowning legalism, hair-splitting- 
 casuistical conditions of salvation, and the prac- 
 tical outcome of it all, seemed in such sharp 
 contrast with the new book that Dr. Hodge was 
 much annoyed by the threatened disturbance of 
 the general peace. There was a murmur of dis- 
 sent pretty much along the whole line, but the 
 mere fact is all that needs to be here noticed. 
 The review by Dr. Hodge, however, was of some 
 importance, though on account of his deep- 
 seated predilections he was not in proper mind 
 to treat the subject with the judicial fairness that 
 would naturally be expected from a man of his 
 character and ability. He attempted to prove 
 that Dr. Nevin in his views on the Lord's Sup- 
 per had departed much farther from the early 
 Church and the Protestant Reformation than 
 ^those whom he accused of such departures. But 
 Dr. Nevin successfully answered the charge and 
 worsted his antagonist as completely as such a 
 thing was ever done in all the history of theo- 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 131 
 
 logical controversy. He had thoroughly and 
 conscientiously studied his subject and mastered 
 it, and as usual made his position impregnable. 
 He gained a complete victory for Christianity 
 by thus rescuing from the domination of pietistic 
 cant and false spiritualism the true apostolic doc- 
 trine of the holy Eucharist, the very heart of 
 Christian life and worship. 
 
 I shall not attempt to present anything like a 
 review of the " Mystical Presence" in this brief 
 sketch of Dr. Nevin's life, and will therefore 
 only state a few of its main points, in a general 
 summing up of the argument, with the hope of 
 creating the desire to procure and read the great 
 work itself. It is pre-eminently a multum in 
 parvo, a body of divinity containing more solid 
 theology than many a large and pretentious 
 theological treatise. It has been so regarded by 
 the most eminent men of England, Germany 
 and America ; and this work alone made the 
 name of its author famous throughout the world. 
 
 What is the true historical Reformed doctrine 
 of the Holy Eucharist? What is the New Tes- 
 tament doctrine as represented by the Reformed 
 Church ? 
 
 In the first place, Christ established and 
 
132 THE LIFE OF 
 
 organized what is called His Cliurcb, consisting 
 of all who believe in Him and have the sacra- 
 mental seal of His saving grace, that is, who 
 have been baptized into Him. This means a 
 transfer from the old creation in Adam to the 
 new creation in Christ, not in dramatic repre- 
 sentation or emblem merely, but in reality. 
 These subjects of God's grace and fatherly good- 
 ness constitute His family on earth, and it is His 
 good pleasure that they be faithful unto death 
 and receive the crown of life. 
 
 The work of human redemption was full and 
 complete only when the Spirit of the Father 
 and the Son had performed His great work on 
 the day of Pentecost in the founding and organ- 
 ization of the Church. The giving of the Holy 
 Spirit to the disciples was their baptism into the 
 triune mystery of the Godhead, and they became 
 members of the Lord's family. The same day 
 the family was increased from peoj^le of the old 
 covenant. These were added by the same bap- 
 tism of the Spirit, but, in accordance with 
 Christ's a2:>pointment, water became the medium 
 of the Spirit's operation, which could not be in 
 the first instance, there being no human admin- 
 istrator, not until the first disciples had received 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 
 
 138 
 
 directly from heaven the baptism of Christ. 
 Tlien the apostles, having been baptized and 
 ordained by the Spirit directly from above, were 
 first officially qualified and authorized to admin- 
 ister the signs and seals of the new covenant to 
 those who sought its blessings. 
 
 St. Peter said to the men who inquired what 
 they should do : " Repent and be baptized, every 
 one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the 
 remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of 
 the Holy Ghost ; for the promise is unto you 
 and your children." Therefore, as in the words 
 of the Nicene Creed : " We confess one baptism 
 for the remission of sins." Accessions to a 
 family are by natural birth ; so also the fiimily 
 or Church of God is increased by a new spirit- 
 ual and heavenly birth. By natural birth 
 we are under the dominion of sin and Satan, 
 according to our relation to the first and sinful 
 Adam ; by the new birth we come into the 
 kingdom and under the dominion of Christ, the 
 Second Adam, the kingdom of divine grace, of 
 deliverance from sin, of salvation. The first 
 fruits of the Christian Pentecost were baptized 
 into Christ, were united thus to Him as their 
 living head, were born again, of water and the 
 Spirit, and received the remission of their sins. 
 
134 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Now these same disciples, new-born children 
 of God, did not fail to use the means of Christ's 
 appointment for their growth in Christian grace 
 and virtue. " They continued steadfastly in the 
 apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in the 
 breaking of bread, and in prayers." It is easily 
 seen here that the relation of baptism to the 
 Lord's Supper is that of birth to development 
 or growth. And there is as much reality in the 
 one as in the other. 
 
 The sacrament of the Lord's Supper, soknnnly 
 instituted by Himself, and always treated by the 
 apostles as the climax of the whole Christian 
 cultus, is surely a most important subject for 
 consideration. It was the central feature on the 
 birthday of the Christian Church, and has 
 maintained its position ever since, wherever the 
 Church has advanced along truly catholic and 
 apostolic lines. Even where the sacrament is 
 not properly estimated or viewed in its proi)er 
 relations, it is still si)oken and thought of with 
 peculiar solemnity. Take the lowest possible 
 view of the ordinance, and there is still enough 
 to excite .strong religious feeling, and call forth 
 the spirit of worship and piety. Regard it sim- 
 ply as a memorial of Christ's sufferings and 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 135 
 
 deatli, and the words of institution as only' a 
 strong figure of speech, there will nevertheless 
 be a blessing in it, and the communicant will 
 not go entirely empty away. But how much 
 better to know and realize the whole truth en- 
 shrined in the sacramental mystery. Why take 
 only the crumbs, when the loaf can be obtained ? 
 In other words, why not possess the whole Christ 
 so freely offered ? 
 
 One says, the sacrament was solely designed 
 to call up the slumbering memory to the fact of 
 Christ's death on the cross. Another, that there 
 is in it a spiritual communion with Christ's di- 
 vine nature only — as if Christ could be divided. 
 Another, that in it there is a feeding on Christ 
 in a high, moral sense, which partaking of Him, 
 however, does not differ from that which is 
 effected by reading or hearing His word, or en- 
 gaging in other acts of worship. Another, go- 
 ing to the opposite extreme, accepts Christ's 
 words in all the literalness of common every- 
 day fact, and says the natural elements of bread 
 and wine are by the priestly act of consecration 
 transmuted into the very body and blood of 
 Christ ; and that, too, in the face of our Lord's 
 explicit instruction : " The Hesh proliteth noth- 
 
136 THE LIFE OF 
 
 ing ; the words that I speak unto you, they are 
 spirit and they are life." Then another, reject- 
 ing such gross view of Christ's presence in the 
 Eucharist, barely escapes Charybdis, and is en- 
 gulfed in Scylla. He takes the words, " this is 
 my body — this is my blood," in a literal sense, 
 in such way that " in t;ie Holy Supper the true 
 body and true blood of our Lord Jesus Christ 
 are truly and substantially present, and are dis- 
 tributed with the bread and wine, and are taken 
 with the mouth by all those who use this sacra- 
 ment, be they worthy or unworthy, good or bad, 
 believers or unbelievers, in such wise, neverthe- 
 less, as that believers derive consolation and life 
 from the Supper of the Lord, l)ut unbelievers 
 take it unto condemnation." This is the Lu- 
 theran doctrine. (See Formula of Concord, 
 Art. YII.) The Keformed doctrine is neither 
 one nor any of these. It is rational (not rational- 
 istic) in that it does not violate common sense 
 nor contradict the first princi[)les of knowledge 
 and fact. It is supra-rational also, in that it 
 mediates Christ and His salvation to us in a 
 manner beyond our comprehension, and is there- 
 fore a mystery. The Reformed doctrine is, that 
 in the Sacrament believers receive the true body 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 137 
 
 and blood of Christ after a spiritual manner ; 
 that the union with Christ effected in baptism, 
 is now, in the Holy Sup2)er, strengthened by a 
 real communication of Himself, as the vine com- 
 municates its own life and substance to the 
 branches. According to Christ's intercessory 
 prayer : " Even as Thou, Father, art in me and 
 I in Thee, that they also may be in us." (John 
 17: 21.) 
 
 The apostolic declaration which precedes the 
 words of institution are alone sufficient to show 
 that the Lord's Supper is the holiest and most 
 effectual means of living contact of the believer 
 with Christ : " The cup of blessing which we 
 bless, is it not a communion of (or, participation 
 in) the blood of Christ? The bread which we 
 break, it it not a communion of (or, participation 
 in ) the body of Christ ? seeing that we, who are 
 many, are one bread, one body : for we all par- 
 take of the one bread." (1 Cor. 10 : 16, 17. 
 Kev. Yer.) 
 
 Now from this inspired utterance setting forth 
 what the Lord's Supper i-eally is — a particij^ation 
 in the Ijody and blood of Christ, — it should be 
 evident that there is immeasurably more than 
 a mere outward representation or symbol de- 
 10 
 
138 THE LIFE OF 
 
 signed to evoke pious memory of Christ's suffer- 
 ings and death. So also there is no ground here 
 on which to base the gross literal view that a 
 change takes place in the natural elements. It 
 is quite sufficient that the whole sacramental 
 transaction, including the elements themselves, 
 becomes the highest medium of spiritual com- 
 munion with Christ, as human and divine, and, 
 as such, the Head of the Bod}^, the Church, which 
 cannot have any part in Him, unless nourished 
 by Him as the living Bread which came down 
 from heaven. 
 
 Then the words of institution, as given in full 
 by St. Paul (1 Cor. 11 : 23-25), can be fully 
 understood only in the light of the explanation 
 just quoted from the preceding chapter: "This 
 is my body, which is for you," expresses the 
 participation of the communicant in Christ's 
 body, and what is actually done for Him in the 
 sacrament ; and the words, " Do this in remem- 
 brance of me," defines the subjective condition of 
 mind and heart necessary to a proper godly 
 observance of the ordinance. Both go together. 
 To make all account of either one of the two 
 momenta in the Holy Eucharist and none of the 
 other would destroy the whole intent and meaning 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 139 
 
 of it, as is done by formalists on the one hand 
 and by sentimentalists on the other. 
 
 Dr. Nevin believed, and doubtless for the best I 
 reason, that if the Church would waken up to the 
 solemn importance of the true sacramental doc- 
 trine, there would be a great gain to the cause of 
 true religion. A falling away from the apostolic 
 idea of the sacraments as taught in the ancient 
 creeds and in the Protestant confessions has 
 proved all along to be a falling away from Christ, 
 and a substituting for Christianity some of the 
 most wretched caricatures of it, either in the form 
 of high-church pedantry or of loose no-churchism 
 and frivolity. It was most opportune therefore 
 that such a work as the " Mystical Presence" 
 made its appearance right in the heyday of 
 unsacramental pietism, at the very time when 
 New England Puritanism was crowned imperial 
 master of evangelical Protestantism. . 
 
 This book saved the Reformed Church from the 
 maelstrom toward which the American Church 
 was rapidly tending, and set all earnest minds to 
 thinking, wherever the book was read ; and to- 
 day the very headcpiarters of Puritanism, if they 
 would speak, would acknowledge their indebted- 
 ness to Dr. Nevin for their not being entirely 
 
140 THE LIFE OF 
 
 swallowed up by the rationalism of the age. 
 This is an excellent time for the study of this 
 great treatise. The age of i)rejudice has measur- 
 ably passed, and live men would be thoroughly 
 aroused by the weighty arguments in the work. 
 There is a general activity in the religious think- 
 ing of the present time, and tliere are peculiar 
 dangers to the cause of Christianity from scien- 
 tific atheism, which is becoming bolder every 
 day, and if not met with the best weapons of 
 truth, many will make shipwreck of their faith. 
 I know of nothing better than Nevin's " Mystical 
 Presence" for every minister of the Gospel, and 
 every wide-awake Christian to read and study 
 thorouo'hlv at this time. Never was it more 
 needful than now to be armed against the ene- 
 mies of Christ and His Church ; and the work 
 that best exhibits the nature of Christianity and 
 the mystery of the glorious Bridegroom and the 
 Bride will ])e the best weapon to use against the 
 enemy : and that is, par excellence, without ques- 
 tion, the work to which I have now directed the 
 reader's attention. 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 141 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 The Mercersbiirg Review. 
 
 Of the ten years' war, as I have called it, 
 several battles had now been fought, with victory 
 complete and glorious on the side of Mercers- 
 burg. But, after more or less continual skir- 
 mishing and bush-whacking, about the middle 
 of the decade open and furious hostilities broke 
 out afresh and in vigorous earnest. The attacks 
 came from all directions, from great and small. 
 What was the matter, anyhow ? 
 
 Just this : Dr. Nevin found that in order to 
 do full justice to the religious needs of the time 
 he must have a better medium than a weekly 
 church paj^er by which to reach the centres of 
 American theology, and discuss the important, 
 questions that were pressing upon thinking men's 
 attention. So in January, 1849, was commenced 
 the " Mercersburg Review," which apjDeared 
 first as a bi-monthly, and afterwards as a quar- 
 terly. Dr. Nevin was the prineij^al contributor 
 to its learned pages. It was to be the medium 
 
142 THE LIFE OF 
 
 henceforth of his public utterances on theological 
 / and kindred sul)jects. It became at once the 
 most powerful and learned periodical in the land. 
 A Daniel was coming to judgment, and many a 
 cherished theological idol was now weighed in 
 the balances and found wanting. Theological 
 discussion had elsewhere been largely given to 
 questions that scarcely touched the heart of 
 Christianity. It was Predestination, Election, 
 Arminianism, Calvinism, Old School and New 
 School, Perseverance of the Saints — and when 
 united against Romanism there was something to 
 stand from under. Then baptism was very much 
 discussed by a lower grade of religionists, but 
 only as to its mode of administration, over which 
 the most unseemly quarrels were indulged in, 
 exceeded only by the display on all sides of the 
 most profound ignorance of the real meaning of 
 the sacrament itself. In all this Dr. Nevin saw 
 that Christianity as organic life and centering 
 in the person of Christ, was scarcely thought of 
 Christ as a Substitute, ingeniously pre2)ared and 
 constituted to take the sinner's place, was a com- 
 mon theme ; but Christ as the Head of His 
 mystical body, the Church, with all that it im- 
 plies, was scarcely mentioned, excej^t inciden- 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 143 
 
 tally, or to round off a rhetorical period. The 
 soul of Dr. Nevin was stirred within him, when 
 he beheld the motley character of Christian 
 belief and the altars dedicated to a hundred doc- 
 trinal gods, all having the name of Christ, but 
 miserably lacking in the fulness of the grace 
 which He presented in the mystery of God 
 manifest in the flesh, both in His own proper 
 person and in His body, the Church. 
 
 Dr. Nevin saw the decadence of those rich andl 
 fundamental Christian ideas, which appeared 
 like wells of salvation, contained in the Apostles' 
 Creed — the twelve wells of Elim — the apostolic 
 fountains of truth, and all having their source in 
 the living truth himself, Jesus Christ. He saw 
 that denominations of historic origin treated the 
 universal creed of Christendom as old and useless 
 lumber, and not to be thought of for use in pub- 
 lic worship. Such use of it was very generally 
 regarded as a step toward Rome, and a full litur- 
 gical service as all of Romanism except the name. 
 He had written the " Mystical Presence," and he 
 was now ready to supplement it by propositions 
 and corollaries which he had neither right nor 
 desire to suppress. The Creed, which had 1)een 
 thrust into a corner, or held at arms' length as 
 
144 THE LIFE OF 
 
 something not altogether safe, except at a safe 
 distance, was brought to the front. Christ the 
 the centre and heart of the Creed was viewed as 
 the sum and substance of Christianity ; not the 
 invisible God planning and designing it from all 
 eternity, and constructing a Christ as the legal 
 instrument for effecting His design, but Christ 
 as " the true God and eternal life," having all 
 power in heaven and on earth, and the true form 
 \_and expression of the eternal Godhead. True 
 theology was shown to be Christology, the three 
 persons in the Godhead not absorbed in the 
 23erson of Christ, but Father and Holy Spirit 
 revealed and incorporated in His person, as He 
 said to His disciples — " He that hath seen me 
 hath seen the Father — I am in the Father and 
 the Father in me." (John 14 : 9, 10.) The 
 2)rinciple of Christianity is Christ Himself. 
 
 On this broad and immovable foundation Dr. 
 Nevin built, and the Review through which lie 
 now addressed the public derived its peculiar in- 
 spiration and life from that source. It differed 
 from all other theological Reviews from that very 
 fact, namely, that it was set for the defence of tlie 
 essential, living principles of Christianity and 
 redemption, of the kingdom of God as a concrete 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 145 
 
 constitution centering and having its existence in 
 Christ, and for true catholicity in doctrine, cultus, 
 and practical life. 
 
 Dr. Nevin may or may not have foreseen that 
 the Mercersburg Review, to which he was the 
 chief contributor, would be a declaration of war, 
 but such it was in fact. High churchism, low 
 churchism, broad churchism, ultra Protestantism 
 (that is, Protestantism with a vengeance), Ro- 
 manism, extreme Calvinism, and all other isms 
 and theologies described by St. Paul (Col. 2: 19) 
 as " not holding fast the Head, from which all 
 the body, being supplied and knit together 
 through the joints and bands, increaseth with the 
 increase of God" — all these had to meet the 
 shock of battle from the guns of Mercersburg. 
 
 It was evident at once that the Mercersburg 
 Review would " give place in the way of subjec- 
 tion, no, not for an hour" (Gal. 2 : 5) to the de- 
 mands of the off-slidden theologies of the time. 
 It had to fight its way against great odds, but 
 being conscious that truth was on its side, it 
 seemed willing to be crushed to earth, in hope of 
 rising again. It was not crushed to earth — so it 
 had no occasion to rise out of dust or ashes. 
 
 The Review for the year 1849 contained 
 
146 THE LIFE OF 
 
 enough matter from Dr. Nevin's pen to make an 
 octavo volume of more than 300 pages. The 
 articles were all on subjects of first importance, 
 in defence of pure Christianity, and were of the 
 very highest order in every resj)ect. The volume 
 contained three articles on the Apostles' Creed ; 
 a review of Dr. SchafTs " Principle of Protestant- 
 ism ;" " Puritanism and the Creed," in which he 
 shows the deteriorating tendency of unchurch- 
 liness ; " False Protestantism," a raking fire at 
 the obstinate persistence of modern j^ictistic pre- 
 tense and anti-churchism ; " Kirwan's Letters 
 to Bishop Hughes," in which he shows that it 
 takes more than a Puritanic Polemic to grapple 
 with a learned Roman Catholic ; " The Lutheran 
 Confession," in which he bids God-s2)eed to the 
 Lutherans in their new enterprise of starting a 
 Church Keview for the maintenance of the true 
 Lutheran doctrines and customs ; two articles on 
 " The Sect System," showing in the clearest 
 manner that its underlying principle is false and 
 anti-christian, and in practice wild and irregu- 
 lar, with a constant tendency to run into every 
 sort of excess, away from the true idea of the 
 Church, and landing anywhere except at the 
 right place ; " The Liturgical Movement," a 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 147 
 
 plea for a true order of worsliij), a masterly 
 argument in favor of a liturgy that embraces 
 the true idea of worship, as far as this may be 
 known by a thorough and devout investigation 
 of all that pertains to the subject ; and other 
 articles of perhaps equal importance. 
 
 The first volume of the Mercersburg Review 
 was a plain index of what would follow in future 
 numl^ers. The reigning popular theology was 
 publicly and boldly arraigned for defection from 
 Christianity in its original form and from true 
 Protestantism. And it is not strange at all that 
 the charges preferred against it were resisted by 
 its adherents and ^^romoters, and that the cry 
 of heterodoxy and Romanism was raised against 
 the Mercersburg Doctor. Of course Dr. Berg 
 and a few others of the Reformed Church found 
 new occasion for dissatisfaction and opposition, 
 and no doubt sincerely believed that Dr. Nevin 
 was leading the Church astray. 
 
 But let us see, very briefly, what dreadful 
 heresies he was promulgating that should cause 
 so great commotion and so much fear for the 
 cause of evangelical doctrine. First, he had 
 brought out the Creed from its dark corner, to 
 which j^opular theology had consigned it, and 
 
148 THE LIFE OF 
 
 plead for its proper sense and its liturgical use. 
 And as the Creed occupied the place of the heart 
 in the Heidelberg Catechism, no sensible mem- 
 ber of the Reformed Church at least could find 
 any fault there. 
 
 He also wrote much on the Heidelberg Cate- 
 chism itself, and all in its favor. Was he wrong 
 in that ? 
 
 He saw that there were errors and faults in 
 much that was called Protestant, agreeing neither 
 with the oecumenical creeds, nor with the Prot- 
 estant confessions. Was he wrong in pointing 
 out the errors ? - 
 
 He perceived a widespread sentiment that 
 Protestantism had no organic relation to the 
 existing Church at the time of the Reformation, 
 and that it started de novo from the Bible. Such 
 stupid idea he speedily put out of countenance. 
 Was he not right ? 
 
 When ])edantic High Church Episcopalians 
 claimed to be the regular army and counted all 
 other Christians as nothing but unauthorized 
 and irresponsible sects, did Dr. Nevin commit a 
 sin against evangelical Christianity, when he 
 brought their ecclesiastical highnesses down from 
 the lofty clouds to the ignoble dust ? 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 149 
 
 When, on the other hand, Congregationalism 
 sj^read itself and claimed to be by all odds the 
 nearest to the ancient apostolic Church of any 
 other Christian denomination, nearest to it in 
 doctrine, government, worship and practice, did 
 he do wrong to waken it from its pleasant dream 
 and expose its claim as a delusion, when such 
 it was ? 
 
 And when he showed by invincible argument 
 that Pi-otestantism is a normal and true devel- 
 opment of the organic life of Christ's body, the 
 Church, was he playing into the hands of the 
 enemy ? or was he showing the only ground for 
 the defence of the Protestant Reformation ? 
 Some questions answer themselves. 
 
 This must do now for the year 1849 ; but the 
 reader has only a glimpse, and scarcely that, of 
 Dr. Nevin's contributions to the Review at that 
 time. During the following year the subjects 
 discussed were less likely to cause friction among 
 Protestants, and one of the most powerful argu- 
 ments ever made against Romanism is contained 
 in two articles by Dr. Nevin in the second vol- 
 ume of the Review. They are entitled '* Brown- 
 son's Quarterly Review." Mr. Brownson was 
 a learned Roman Catholic layman, a convert 
 
150 THE LIFE OF 
 
 from three or four different shades of religious 
 belief, and a foeman worthy -of Dr. Nevin's steel. 
 He was not to be trifled with, and the Mercers- 
 burg man did not attem2:)t to trifle with him. 
 The controversy was conducted on both sides 
 without acrimony, each treating the other with 
 respect. But the conflict was none the less 
 earnest and vigorous on that account. And 
 when the smoke of battle had passed away, true 
 Protestantism was seen to hold the field, and 
 stood like a stone wall, not damaged in the least 
 by the missiles from Brownson's Boman bat- 
 tery. It was said at the time, by men who had 
 watched the progress of the controversy, that 
 the hardest blow Bomanism ever received was 
 by Dr. Nevin. He had said some things that 
 were favorable to the Boman Church, but sim- 
 ply because there are some things in Bomanism 
 that are good, and he was not the man to with- 
 hold the meed of praise from anyone, from any 
 Christian organization, or from any system of 
 religious faith, so far as there was any just claim 
 to it. But when the question was as between 
 Bomanism and Protestantism as such. Dr. Nevin 
 did not hesitate to advocate the cause of the lat- 
 ter ; and he proved to the satisfaction of all 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 151 
 
 whose faith was not hekl by Rome's iron rule 
 that Protestantism was a true historical develop- 
 ment of the apostolic catholic Church. A cer- 
 tain writer at that time made the remark that 
 the future historian in referring to this contro- 
 versy would say : " There were giants in those 
 days." Protestants of every name owe Dr. Nevin 
 a debt of gratitude, such as they owe to no one 
 else, for having vindicated the Protestant Refor- 
 mation from the Romish charge of sectism and 
 schism, and for having brought to the light of 
 day the great principles on which it rests secure. 
 Thus it is seen why the second volume of the 
 Mercersburg Review represented a rather quiet 
 year. The Puritanic Protestant batteries were 
 silent, or nearly so, for the time being. Rome 
 was getting hammered, and that was in itself 
 such godly work that all past sins at least would 
 be atoned for, if any had been committed by the 
 Macduff who laid on the blows. But, then, 
 who knows what will turn uj) next ? The con- 
 queror of Brownson may appear in another role, 
 j^erhaps even come forth as the apologist for the 
 the triple crowned autocrat — who knows ? Bet- 
 ter not utter praise too soon, or at least not be 
 too lavish with it until it is seen and known to 
 
152 THE LIFE OF 
 
 a certainty that the fight witli Brownson meant 
 war to the knife with Rome, or whether after 
 all it was only a little side-show to divert atten- 
 tion for a while from other designs, and make 
 time for a new onset on some more supposed 
 Protestant fancies and follies. We shall see. 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 153 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 The Well is Deep. 
 
 " The well is deep," said the Samaritan woman 
 to Christ, little knowing the profound import 
 of her w^ords as applying to the Man whom she 
 addressed. He was himself the Well of Life — 
 the deepest in the universe, and therefore inex- 
 haustible. It cannot be otherwise that Christi- 
 anity also, having its source in Him, is most 
 profound and far reaching. Those persons, then, 
 who have had all their lives but a su2:»erficial 
 notion of it, would naturally be startled, and 
 even alarmed, at having their faith rudely as- 
 sailed, and some of their cherished beliefs tried 
 and declared wanting. 
 
 It is not to be supposed that even the cultured 
 representatives of Puritanism properly under- 
 stood Dr. Xevin's arguments against the Church 
 of Home. If he had discussed the subject in 
 the ordinary style, and called the Pope and his 
 Church by hard names, he would have been 
 perfectly understood l^y great and small, but 
 11 
 
154 THE LIFE OF 
 
 that is not the way he did. It was, indeed, 
 something to be thankful for, on their part, that 
 he at least in his own way opposed the Roman 
 Church, and so gave them reasonable ground 
 for lioj)e that after all there was not much dan- 
 ger that he w^ould ever join himself to the mys- 
 tic Babylon. But they were not en rapport 
 with his learned and philosophical treatment of 
 the subject, and so were not prepared for his 
 startling utterances in the third volume of the 
 Review. Like a clap of thunder in a clear sky 
 were the articles on " Early Christianity." 
 
 The articles, three in number, aimed a*t three 
 things : To bring down and make occupy its 
 proper place, High Church Episcopalianism ; 
 to scatter the equally lofty pretensions of its 
 neighbor at the opposite pole, Puritanism ; and 
 to teach the American Church some very useful 
 lessons in ecclesiastical history. It was imj:)or- 
 tant that Church pride and pedantry should 
 have a fall — better a fall in this workl of proba- 
 tion and hope than in the next w^orld. It was 
 equally important that nasal-toned pietism of 
 the New England type should be brought down 
 to its proper level, that it might cease trumpet- 
 ing its superior righteousness and intelligence in 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 155 
 
 the face of Christendom and the rest of the 
 workl. Then it foUowed that these two extremes 
 in the Protestant world miglit receive wholesome 
 lessons from Dr. Nevin's historical investiga- 
 tions. In the end, the whole object of the arti- 
 cles was charitij, which is the bond of perfect- 
 ness, an earnest desire to benefit his fellow 
 Christians who were not able as he was to sound 
 tne depths of Christian doctrine and fact. He 
 made some people very angry by those articles, 
 but he couldn't hel]> that; his business was to 
 tell the truth, no matter how disagreeable it 
 might be to those people who thought they were 
 the special custodians of the religious interests 
 of America. Dr. Nevin made it exceedingly 
 doubtful whether all that was worth knowing 
 came from the Eastern States, or from the upper 
 tendom part of the Episcopal Church. For the \ 
 Episcopal Church as such he had great respect, 
 as also for the Congregational ; but when repre- 
 sentatives of these claimed, each for his own 
 denomination, the exact form of Christianity as 
 it existed in the early Church up to the time it 
 was supposed to have become corrupted, he could 
 not allow the claim to stand unchallenged. The 
 three articles on " Early Christianity," in which 
 
156 THE LIFE OF 
 
 he showed a perfect familiarity with history, its 
 facts and its philosophy, were a complete and 
 overwhelming answer to such high pretensions. 
 He brought out to the light of day the immense 
 difference between the early Church and either 
 of the two claimants to perfect resemblance to 
 it. He showed that by the law of development 
 such likeness could not exist. The true Church 
 of Christ is, of course, always the same substan- 
 tially, having always " one Lord, one faith, one 
 baptism," but different in form and expression, 
 accordino- to a2:e and circumstances. He main- 
 tained, with great force of argument, that Prot- 
 estantism can never prove its right to exist by 
 attempting to prove an immediate moral connec- 
 tion witli the early Church, thus leaping over 
 the Middle Ages at a single bound, as if they 
 formed an historical vacuum, so far at least as 
 V^e Church was concerned. All this is the 
 veriest fancy, and poor at that. Corrupt as the 
 Church was during the so-called Dark Ages, it 
 was still the Church, containing many excellent 
 Christian people in all ranks of social life. The 
 Keformation shook off the corruptions tliat were 
 the growth of centuries, and the Reformed 
 Churcli, thus relieved, rejecting all tradition not 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. lo7 
 
 in harmony with the Word of God, asserted 
 itself as the Church having come to full age, 
 and therefore to freedom. Its relation to the 
 Church of the first four centuries, for instance, 
 was no more immediate than that of a man to 
 an ancestor of four or ten centuries back. 
 
 Thiit two denominations so widely different as 
 the Episcopal and Congregational should claim 
 to be each an exact copy of the Church of the 
 first few centuries, is curious enough, and shows 
 that a wish may, indeed, be father to a thought, 
 but it shows little else. Still, Dr. Nevin's"' 
 antagonists could stand all that, whether they 
 believed it or not ; but when he asserted that the 
 early Church was more like the Roman Catholic 
 Church of to-day than like either the E})iscopal 
 or the Congregational, there was a howl like 
 the Jewish chorus at Capernaum : " This is a 
 hard saying ; who can hear it ?" / 
 
 That seemed sufficient to prove that Dr. Nevin 
 would soon land in Rome, where he could do 
 little or no harm to the Protestant cause. For, 
 was not the early Church a model for all time ? 
 If it was, then it must follow that if the Roman 
 Church resembles it more than does any Prot- 
 estant denomination, it has a rightful claim to 
 true Catholicity, and to be the only true Church. 
 
lo8 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Now figures and logic don't lie, if the premises 
 are all right. But how about this syllogism : 
 All Christian martyrs are saints ; Jezebel was a 
 Christian martyr ; therefore Jezebel was a saint ? 
 That is good and perfectly sound reasoning from 
 the premises, which, if cori-ect, can have only 
 one conclusion, namely, that the woman thrown 
 out of a window and torn to pieces by dogs, 
 belongs to the glorious company of holy mar- 
 tyrs, whose name should adorn the calendar of 
 saints. But history has something to say on 
 that point, and it tells us that Jezebel was the 
 incarnation of wickedness and one of the visible 
 human forms of Satan. One of the premises 
 being false, the conclusion must be false. The 
 case ])efore us is not as bad as this, and yet when 
 the premises are examined in the light of his- 
 tory and fact, the conclusion also falls to the 
 ground, as in the supposed case. 
 
 Let us see. Was the early Church, after the 
 apostolic age, in all respects the model for all 
 time ? In some respects it undoubtedly was, for 
 that was the period of oecumenical Councils and 
 Creeds, and of the final settlement of fundamen- 
 tal Christian doctrines. Those Creeds have come 
 down to us unchanged, and are the common 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 159 
 
 bond and property of the historical Church in 
 all its branches and forms. In this regard Ro- 
 manism and Protestantism are alike related to 
 the early Church and the Christianity of that 
 period. The Church fathers and their writings 
 are the common property of both confessions. 
 The Christian literature of that age is as eagerly 
 sought after, read and studied by fair-minded 
 Protestants as by Roman Catholics. But, on 
 the other hand, the forms and modes of worship, 
 Church government, customs and j)eculiarities 
 of the early Church differed greatly from mod- 
 ern evangelical Protestantism of every descrip- 
 tion. It quite naturally bore a stronger resem- 
 blance to the Church against which Protestant- 
 ism rebelled ; for that Church came down from 
 it by natural succession and growth, even though 
 in the course of centuries it became foul with 
 corruption in doctrine and morals. Then, too, 
 the doctrines held by the early Church were not 
 all the same as those held by Protestants. The 
 germs of those doctrines which are peculiar to 
 the Roman Church existed at a very early 
 period ; and before the close of what Protestants 
 generally have regarded as the age of pure and 
 unadulterated Christianity, there were more than 
 
160 THE LIFE OF 
 
 germs ; practices, forms and doctrines, such as 
 the Puritanic and Episcopal claimants referred 
 to in this Chapter would utterly repudiate. 
 
 AVhat, then, was the matter with Dr. Nevin ? 
 Why, it would seem as if he did very wrong in 
 not making early Christianity better than it 
 was ; for allowing Romanism to take root and 
 even show itself at a very early period ; for not 
 inculcating New England Puritanism among 
 the i^eople in that great formative period, or the 
 stilted notions and airs of High Church Episco- 
 palianism. Well, not that either. Dr. Nevin 
 happened to live some fourteen centuries later, 
 and so was not there to tender his good offices, 
 and could of course have no hand in shaping 
 the Church. What he would have done, had 
 he lived at that time, his antagonists, the " Ro- 
 manizing tendency" shriekers, could only have 
 guessed at. Then in what consisted his great 
 sin ? AVe have it noAv : He refused to gratify 
 certain parties by falsifying history. He could 
 easily have done it. He could have affirmed 
 that early Christianity was a living and swift 
 witness against the whole system of Romanism ; 
 that the Reformation restored it to the Churcli 
 re-established on its foundation, and tliat its 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 161 
 
 present perfect manifestation is to be found in 
 the Congregational or in the Episcopal Church 
 — either one, as you prefer. That might not 
 have suited some other denominations, but it 
 would at least have relieved him of the charge 
 of making love to the scarlet lady, the Roman 
 Church. To come to the point, Dr. Nevin sinned 
 against his antagonists by simply telling the 
 truth, thus clipping their wings, by which they 
 had done some lofty soaring, and wished to do 
 more. He put an end to their flights by put- 
 ting to use his thorough knowledge of history. 
 He did not make the early Church, nor did 
 he say it was infallible, but more than hinted 
 that it was in some things in error ; and that 
 after many centuries it developed, through the 
 abiding presence and guidance of the Divine 
 Spirit, into the rejuvenated and advanced form 
 of the evangelical Church of the Keformation, 
 having shaken off' the errors of Romanism. 
 
 In those three articles on " Early Christian- 
 ity" Dr. Nevin showed a master hand as a 
 Church historian, and historical honesty such as 
 is rarely found. Two things are to be noted 
 here. The first is, that Dr. Nevin presented 
 the facts of history in relation to the early 
 
162 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Church without addition or 8ubtractiou, and 
 without regard to consequences. He deterinined 
 to present what he believed to be historical 
 facts, even if the logic of the facts would sustain 
 the Konian Church in its whole Creed, customs 
 and cultus. The second is, that true Protestant- 
 ism does not suffer in the least by a comparison 
 with early Christianity, or with that of the apos- 
 tolic age. So Dr. Nevin believed. Had he 
 believed otherwise, he would, without doubt, 
 have gone over into the Roman Church. He 
 showed his faith in Protestantism by remaining 
 and exercising his ministry in it to the end of 
 his useful life. 
 
 He was undoubtedly far in advance of his 
 age, and much of his writing subjected him to 
 the harsh criticism of men who could not sound 
 the depths as he did, nor had his 2^i'C)phetic 
 spirit. " The well is deej)," and there are many 
 even of those who claim to be teachers who have 
 " nothing to draw with," except only from the 
 surface. To-day the deep soundings by Dr. 
 Nevin and their mighty revelations of heavenly 
 truth are better understood, and the very terms 
 he then used to express his great thoughts — 
 terms which many regarded with creeping hor- 
 
JOHN \V. NEVIN. 163 
 
 ror — are now freely employed by representative 
 men in the leading denominations. 
 
 It is worthy of note that between the second 
 and third articles on " Early Christianity," Dr. 
 Nevin pnblished one on Ursinus, the principal 
 author of the Heidelberg Catechism. This alone 
 was sufficient to prove his loyalty to Protestant- 
 ism. His high estimate of the man and his 
 work shows that he believed the doctrines as set 
 forth in that symbol of faith. 
 
 The fourth volume of the Keview opened with 
 the third article on " Early Christianity/' fol- 
 lowed by one, a few months later, on the Hei- 
 delberg Catechism ; another assurance to those 
 who trembled for the Ark, that the Doctor had 
 wonderful sticking qualities, and would give his 
 life, if necessary, for the genuine princijiles of 
 Protestantism. 
 
 Up to this time Dr. Nevin's contributions to 
 the " Mercersburg Review" were fifty-one arti- 
 cles, nearly all on the deepest and most impor- 
 tant subjects. The articles on Cy23rian, together 
 with those on " Early Christianity," furnished 
 abundant occasion for attacks from several quar- 
 ters, notably by Dr. Berg again, who, when he 
 found that the Reformed Church sustained Dr. 
 
164 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Neviu, and refused to lieed his own words of 
 warning, concluded to leave the German Ke- 
 formed Church and find a spiritual home else- 
 where. He, therefore, said farewell to his con- 
 gregation in a valedictory of sad complaint 
 against a Church that refused his strong hand 
 extended through years to save her from the 
 rock on which she was sure to be broken to 
 atoms. So he departed, and the Church he left 
 behind continued to flourish and jirosper. From 
 a small and ^^opularly unknown body she has 
 become a host over two hundred thousand 
 strong, and a jDOwer in the land, whose future 
 looks brighter and brighter every day. And 
 all this mainly through the instrumentality, 
 under God, of the man whose gentle and loving 
 heart, giant intellect and stupendous learning, 
 as well as unique personality, were freely given 
 in her service, for the honor and glory of Christ 
 and His Holy Catholic Church. 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 165 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 A Year in Carlisle. 
 
 In a mere sketch like this much of areat 
 interest in Dr. Nevin's life must be passed over. 
 
 In 1858 he severed his connection with Mar- 
 shall College, in order to rest from his severe 
 labors, at least for some time. This was neces- 
 sary after so many years of intense labor and 
 anxiety. The college was removed to Lancas- 
 ter, its name having been changed to " Frank- 
 lin and Marshall College," and is now one of 
 the first-class colleges of the country. The 
 Theological Seminary followed in 1871. 
 
 The next year — 1854 — Dr. Nevin removed 
 with his family to Carlisle, Pa., where he re- 
 mained about one year, and then settled down 
 in Lancaster, attracted no doubt by the college 
 so dear to him. But his mother-in-law, Mrs. 
 Jenkins, dying the same year, at Windsor Place, 
 a charming country-seat, it was arranged that 
 he and his family should occupy it. They 
 remained there two years, when they moved to 
 
166 THE LIFE OF 
 
 a new home of their own near Lancaster, which 
 was duly christened " Gernarvon Place," where 
 the Doctor lived during the remaining eighteen 
 years of his life. ' 
 
 I first saw Dr. Nevin in June, 1854. He 
 spent a week with my brother. Rev. Dr. A. H. 
 Kremer, then, as now, pastor of the Reformed 
 church of Carlisle. I was a student at Dick- 
 inson College, and resided at the time with my 
 brother. The name of the erreat and 2;ood man 
 had been familiar to me since I was in my eighth 
 year ; I was also acquainted with his life and 
 work ; and now that I was to see him and hear 
 his voice, the anticipation was one of the most 
 delightful I ever enjoyed. 
 
 It was a few days before the Commencement 
 week of Dickinson College when Dr. Nevin 
 made that visit to Carlisle. His coming was 
 hailed with delight in learned and refined cir- 
 cles, and many in the lower ranks were inter- 
 ested. As for myself, I regarded it as the great- 
 est privilege of my life to listen to his conver- 
 sations on important subjects. These were fre- 
 quent ; for there was scarcely an hour during 
 his week's sojourn among us that men of learn- 
 ing did not call upon him and engage him in 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 167 
 
 discussions of the great questions of the day. 
 He was perfectly at home in them all. His lis- 
 teners were glad to be such, and such only. 
 Frequently his talks would become learned dis- 
 courses, in which the subject in hand would 
 assume concrete, logical form, perfect in all its 
 parts and radiant in the light shed upon it from 
 the resources of his capacious mind. These 
 talks — O how I listened ! — were better than so 
 many books on the same subjects. The soul 
 was lifted up by them into hitherto unexplored 
 regions. Truths partially perceived before were 
 now seen in something of their reality. Perver- 
 sions of truth, rooted and grown up in the mind, 
 went out like demons routed and driven by 
 arrows of light from his mental armory. Like 
 the Queen of Sheba, all felt that the half liatl 
 not been told them of the man whom they now 
 saw and heard. 
 
 During Commencement week Dr. Nevin at- 
 tended all the exercises, which continued from 
 Monday until Thursday. He took a lively in- 
 terest in them, and delighted to speak approv- 
 ingly of all that he saw and heard which he 
 regarded as worthy of praise. Nor did he spare 
 what was subject to adverse criticism. One of 
 
lf)8 THE LIFE OF 
 
 the addresses was delivered by the famous blind 
 preacher, Mr. JMilburn, who was then, as he is 
 now, chaplain of the national House of Represent- 
 atives. He was then young and at his best as an 
 orator. His sul)ject was " Young America," or 
 sometliing of that kind, and his oration was one 
 of the most brilliant and eloquent I ever listened 
 to ; but in his magnificent periods were con- 
 cealed, and exhibited too, ideas and sentiments 
 which could not stand the crucial test of Dr. 
 Nevin's philosophy. I asked him what he 
 thought of the address. " As to the outside," 
 he answered, " it was jierfect. The elocution, 
 language and action I never saw surpassed. He 
 is a man of extraordinarv 2'ifts of oratory, and 
 it was uncommonly pleasant to hear him. But 
 many of his ideas were abominable, and worse 
 still, they permeated and poisoned the whole 
 speech and turned even the excellent truths 
 that he uttered in the direction of falsehood. If 
 his ideas should prevail and produce their natu- 
 ral fruit, our American liberties and institutions 
 would go to sticks." Such was his judgment of 
 that eloquent and popular address, which was 
 immensely applauded even by gray-haired men 
 of learning who occupied the stage. They little 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 169 
 
 tlioiiolit that a Daniel was there too and men- 
 tally writing " Tekel" at the same time that 
 gold-headed canes beat applause, and the crowds 
 below and in the galleries were held captive by 
 the orator. Mr. Milburn has since become much 
 wiser and no less eloquent. 
 
 It was a delightful week to Dr. Nevin. Here 
 were the old and learned-looking stone walls of 
 the college buildings, where his father had been 
 a student, as also his younger brother, Prof AV. 
 M. Xevin— who shared with himself the labors 
 in Marshall College, and is still at his old post, 
 where he has been for half a century without 
 interruption. If for no other reason, he would 
 naturally take a deep interest therefore in these 
 college exercises, similar in their leading feat- 
 ures to the ones at Mercersburg. 
 
 The " Union Philosophical Society" of the 
 college had selected Dr. Nevin to serve as chap- 
 lain at their anniversary on Tuesday evening, it 
 being understood that he, years before, had been 
 elected by the society as an honorary member. 
 But on Monday morning it was discovered that 
 this was either a mistake or that his name had 
 somehow failed to get on the register, and so the 
 Unions determined to make the matter all right 
 12 
 
170 THE LIFE OF 
 
 at a meeting to be held on Tuesday morning at 
 *ten o'clock, when they would elect him a mem- 
 ber and appoint him their chaplain for tlie 
 evening. 
 
 But, alas for the numerous projects and 
 schemes " 'o men 'an mice" that '* gang aft 
 aglee" on this uncertain and vagrant star of 
 ours ! Everybody knows that college societies 
 watch each other as wakeful ly as two opposing 
 armies armed to the teeth and anxious for battle. 
 It so happened that a member of the Belles Let- 
 tres Society knew of this latest of Union items, 
 and he lost no time in heading off the rival of 
 his clan. Up to this moment there had been no 
 question as to the ownership of Dr. Nevin by 
 the Unions, and the jealousy of their rivals was 
 very poorly concealed. On the other hand the 
 Unions seemed to take on special airs of im^Dor- 
 tance, Avhich only tempted the green-eyed mon- 
 ster to plague his victims still more. But now 
 there was a chance for the gay and alert Belles 
 Lettres boys to humiliate the proud and digni- 
 fied Unions, who seemed to regard their rivals 
 about as Platonists would the frivolous Epicure- 
 ans; for, were they not tlie Union Philosophical 
 Society? — and philosophers they would be. 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 171 
 
 What place could there be for a man like Dr. 
 Nevin among the frisky set that composed the 
 Belles Lettres Society ? So seemed to think the 
 Union sages. 
 
 Nevertheless that society had opinions of its 
 own concerning itself, and having an opportunity 
 to steal a march on the other, there was no delay 
 in doing it. As by electricity the word was 
 passed round through campus, streets and every- 
 where, to members to repair to the Belles Lettres 
 Hall for the single purpose of electing Dr. Xevin 
 an honorary member and defeating the designs 
 of the enemy. 
 
 It was amusing to see one after another, at 
 various intervals, from the green Freshman to 
 the grave Senior, pass up to the Belles Lettres 
 Hall, each one holding a profound secret in his 
 breast. Among these, and acting as chief drum- 
 mer (the drumming being all done in whispers), 
 was the most grotesque individual in the college, 
 odd physically and mentally, droll, witty, indif- 
 ferent as to what he was or ever would be, a 
 general favorite, and by all odds the smartest 
 and brainiest fellow in his class. His bushy hair 
 was a sight to behold. It came down in front 
 over his eyes in dark frowning bangs, so that he 
 
172 thp: life of 
 
 looked like a wild man fresh from the forest. 
 His gait was shainbliiig, or indescribable rather ; 
 the heels of his boots always turning outwards 
 from being worn off desk-shape, and at a long- 
 distance off anyone would suppose he was walk- 
 ing on stilts. He had plenty of money, yet 
 dressed without the slightest regard to quality in 
 men's wear, or to the tact that there were jieople 
 around who had some sense of the eternal fitness 
 of things. His face w^as a study — and a wonder. 
 The nose would pass muster in good company ; 
 but the upper lip ! Any one seeing him the first 
 time would say it was stung by a hornet. When 
 he laughed his countenance and person presented 
 an appearance that, seen once, would never be 
 forgotten. He was the curiosity, as well as 
 favorite, of Dickinson College. Yet this odd 
 specimen of the genus homo had an intellect 
 that was able to grasp and hold the profound 
 thoughts of Dr. Nevin. Just the evening 
 before, he had heard him })reach a po^verful ser- 
 mon in the First Presbyterian Church, and had 
 taken it all in ; and now that he had a chance 
 to honor him, as well as play a handsome trick 
 on the Unions, he was in his glory and almost 
 ready to say : " Nunc dimittis" ! 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 173 
 
 The hall was soon filled, and in a few minutes 
 the work was done, Dr. Nevin elected an honor- 
 ary member of the Belles Lettres Society, and 
 immediately informed of the fact. The society 
 remained in session until the Doctor returned 
 an answer accepting the honor. 
 
 But the contest was not yet ended. The 
 Unions, though grievously disappointed, feigned 
 a provoking indifference, but still their friends, 
 the enemy, attributed this to their stoical phi- 
 losophy, not dreaming that there was anything 
 in the air. Fortunately for them, an innocent 
 Berks county Dutchman, who believed that 
 everybody was as innocent as himself — a good 
 Union man — boasted to a Belles Lettres student 
 that the Unions were going to turn the tables on 
 his society, to be effected in this way : The 
 archives of the Union Society were to be thor- 
 oughly explored, with the almost certain hope 
 of finding an old letter of acceptance by Dr. 
 Nevin, showing that he had been for years an 
 honorary member, which fact would nullify his 
 election by the other society ; that there would 
 be a meeting at 10 o'clock on Tuesday morning, 
 when, having discovered the needed document, 
 they would a])point him their chaplain for the 
 
174 THE LIFE OF 
 
 evening. This was famous news, and within an 
 hour every Belles Lettres was instructed to be 
 in the hall at 9 o'clock sharp, on Tuesday morn- 
 ing, for the purpose of initiatiny the Doctor, 
 and so taking him finally and forever out of the 
 hands of the enemy. This was done. A com- 
 mittee of three was appointed to conduct him to 
 the hall, where the mystery of initiation was 
 duly performed ; a messenger was sent to the 
 Union Society to inform it of vdiat was done — 
 and the lively contest was ended. 
 
 The Berks county Dutchman, who was the 
 innocent cause of the Union loss, was one of 
 Nature's true nobility. A year later he gradu- 
 ated with honor. He delivered the German 
 oration, which Gov. Pollock, who was present, 
 said was a splendid effort, though he did not 
 understand it. He no doubt judged the oration 
 by the young man's appearance, earnest manner 
 and splendid delivery. 
 
 Dr. Nevin was evidently pleased that the stu- 
 dents of Dickinson College vied with each other 
 in doing him honor, and was greatly amused at 
 the deft proceedings which culminated as they 
 did, especially as he saw that good humor pre- 
 vailed throughout between the parties engaged 
 in the contest. 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 175 
 
 That incident showed something of the won- 
 derful power exerted by Dr. Nevin over men. 
 He had been only a few days in Carlisle, but he 
 had already been seen and heard by apj^reciative 
 college students, who were deeply impressed by 
 his extraordinary appearance, wonderful voice 
 and mighty thoughts. An enthusiastic Senior 
 remarked after Monday evening's exercises, that 
 when Dr. Nevin arose to pronounce the benedic- 
 tion, he seemed to him more like a god than a 
 man. Of course they had heard of him before, 
 but they now realized more fully the real great- 
 ness of the man. 
 
 After that discomfiture of the Unions, one of 
 them suggested that, after all, the Unions did 
 not lose so very much, and that Dr. Nevin was 
 no greater than hundreds of others, no greater 
 than Dr. Blank, for instance. " I never heard 
 of anything very great that he ever did, and I 
 don't see why there should be such a furor about 
 him. I never heard of any books that he 
 wrote." 
 
 " Then you never read or heard of Nevin's 
 Biblical Antiquities, I suppose ?" 
 
 " You don't say he is the author of that book, 
 do you ?" 
 
176 THE LIFE OF 
 
 " Of course lie is ; who else ? He finished 
 writing it before he was twenty-five — while he 
 was teacher of Hebrew in the Princeton Theo- 
 logical Seminary. Was Dr. Blank a master of 
 Hebrew at twenty-three ?" 
 
 " No, I don't know that he is acquainted with 
 Hebrew at all. But can it be that this is the 
 same Nevin that wrote the Biblical Antiquities ? 
 Why, I read it, down in Alabama, years ago. 
 But is that all he wrote ?" 
 
 " No, indeed. If all his printed writings were 
 in book form, it would make a respectable library. 
 Has Dr. Blank any learned correspondence with 
 the great theologians and scholars of Europe ?" 
 
 "Not that I know of; Dr. Nevin either, for 
 that matter ." 
 
 " For that matter, if you please. Dr. Nevin 
 has been in learned correspondence with the 
 leading lights of the old world — the Wilber- 
 forces in England, and ." 
 
 " Not the Wilberforees. You don't say he 
 corresponds with them f 
 
 " Certainly. Why not ? He is greater than 
 any of them, and they consider it a rare honor 
 to be on such terms Avith him. He has not his 
 equal in England. Does Dr. Blank hobnob 
 with those British lions ?" 
 
JOHN W. XEVIN. 177 
 
 " Never mind Dr. Blank. Does Dr. Nevin 
 know only theology ?" 
 
 '* To make a long story short, I simply tell 
 you that he knows everything. His mind is so 
 comprehensive that it takes in the whole domain 
 of truth. He holds the key of universal knowl- 
 edge." 
 
 " Is he a linguist ?" 
 
 " Yes, he understands Latin, Greek, Hebrew, 
 German, and perhaps several other languages, 
 as well as his native English. More still, he 
 can make English look like a giant among pig- 
 mies. The English of some of his writings is 
 the wonder of the age. How about Dr. Blank ?" 
 
 " Let him go. How does it happen that I 
 never knew this before ? It seems to me if he 
 were all you say he is, I would have known it, 
 or something of it at least." 
 
 " Yes, so it seems to me, too. If he belonged 
 to your Church, you would have advertised him 
 at every cross-road, but the Keformed are a lit- 
 tle slow in that line of business. Still, I think 
 you should have known a little more about this 
 modern prodigy. You haven't been as wide 
 awake as Prof. Godman, who never saw Dr. 
 Nevin till now ; and yet he knew him like a 
 
178 THE LIFE OF 
 
 book, because he had read his works. That 
 young Godman has more brains and knowledge 
 than your Dr. Blank can boast of. Only think, 
 he (Blank) asked Dr. Nevin if he had been 
 President of the college at Gettysburg ! He 
 likely never heard of the great stir which was 
 made in the theological and religious world by 
 the Mercersburg Professor. Why you and Dr. 
 Blank allowed all that controversy to pass un- 
 noticed, is to me a mystery. I wonder if Dr. 
 Blank knows anything about Ebrard, Schaff, or 
 Tholuck. In Europe you could not find a great 
 theologian or philosopher that does not know 
 Dr. Nevin. A learned German traveller in 
 America said the name of Nevin in learned cir- 
 cles in Europe was as familiar as such theologi- 
 cal landmarks as Krummacher and Neander. 
 But he said nothing about Dr. Blank, and I 
 suppose he did not know of his existence." 
 
 " Well, let Dr. Blank rest in peace. Bequi- 
 escat in pace. I suppose he doesn't bother much 
 about such knowledge. But as for myself I want 
 to know more about your great Nevin. If you 
 talk by the book, well then he must be a big 
 man." 
 
 Soon after this Dr. Nevin moved with his fam- 
 
JOHN w. np:vin. 179 
 
 ily to Carlisle, where they remained about one 
 year. During this time he frequently preached 
 in the Reformed and other churches. For sev- 
 eral months he preached every Sunday evening 
 in the Reformed church. The professors and 
 students of the college frequently heard him 
 there, and appreciated very highly his discourses, 
 on which I never knew them to pronounce any 
 but the most favorable opinions. One bright 
 student said to me one day after hearing one of 
 the Doctor's most pointed sermons : 
 
 " I don't think I'll hear Dr. Nevin again." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 " Well, he always makes me feel so abominably 
 mean. Last evening especially I thought he 
 would annihilate me. You know what he said 
 about the spirit of martyrdom, and how he talked 
 about practical Christianity." 
 
 "Yes, but wasn't he right?" 
 
 " Of course he. was — that is what hurt, and 
 just there's the rub. If it were not all true that 
 he said, I would feel much easier. I don't think 
 I ever heard things put in that way before. I 
 tell you he took pretty much all the starch out 
 of my religion. I used to think I could jjass 
 muster on a low plane at least ; but he has taken 
 from me even that little consolation." 
 
180 
 
 THE LIFE OF 
 
 " Yet he told the truth, as you admit. That 
 truth ought to be agreeable to you. It is light 
 seeking entrance which you should not try to 
 avoid. Don't you think you have special reason 
 to hear him whenever you have an opportunity ?^' 
 
 " Yes, no doubt ; but I hate to be shaken up 
 so. I tell you, Kremer, the other preachers, or 
 many of them, can thunder at people furiously 
 and produce a powerful temporary effect, but 
 there is nothing permanent, and you go away 
 without making the aj^plication to your own self 
 — and give it all to others. But when Dr. Nevin 
 preaches, /at least feel that it is all for me, and 
 it seems too much for me. I feel as if I would 
 rather not hear such things." 
 
 Nevertheless that student continued to hear 
 the Doctor. He was attracted, so to speak, by 
 the very thing that repelled. He has since died, 
 and there is reason to believe that the sermons 
 which had so often revealed to him his real con- 
 dition were effectual means to prepare him for 
 the better Avorld. 
 
 At Carlisle Dr. Nevin met for the first time 
 one of his most ardent admirers in the person of 
 Rev. Mr. Godman, who at the time was assistant 
 teacher of languages in the college, having taken 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 181 
 
 the place temporarily of the regular assistant. 
 Mr. Goclman was a man of about thirty, and 
 young as he was, he had scarcely a superior as a 
 scholar in the college faculty. He had gradu- 
 ated with unusual honor at the Ohio Wesleyan 
 University, having never once failed of a perfect 
 recitation during the whole course. His learn- 
 ing was extensive, reaching far beyond the sub- 
 jects p>ursued at the University. In theology he 
 was at home ; and he had the ability to pursue 
 it without subjecting himself to any denomina- 
 tional strait-jacket for a guide. His mind was 
 of such order that some of his most cherished 
 preconceived ideas had to yield to the logic of 
 new investigation and maturer thought. He was 
 not a theological clam or mummy, but a pro- 
 gressive student of sacred things. 
 
 He had several times occupied the Reformed 
 pulpit in Carlisle, and the pastor was much sur- 
 prised at the similarity of his thoughts with much 
 of what had become known as Mercersburg the- 
 ology. Especially was this manifest in a com- 
 munion sermon, in which Dr. Nevin's " Mysti- 
 cal Presence" was seen all through, not coj^ied 
 by any means, but reproduced extemporaneously, 
 after having been thoroughly made his own. It 
 
182 thp: life of 
 
 was after that service that the pastor asked him 
 where he got all his Mercersburg theology, and 
 his answer was that he got it from Dr. Xevin's 
 writings in the " Mercersburg Keview" and the 
 " Mystical Presence." He said : " When I first 
 read that book, I was very much pleased with 
 it, though somewhat staggered by some of its 
 arguments ; but it seemed to me such a great 
 work that I read the whole of it a second time. 
 Then I understood it, I think, and I have 
 adopted its views as my own. I consider it the 
 greatest work on that subject." 
 
 That explained it all. So when he heard of 
 Dr. Nevin's coming to Carlisle, he was unspeak- 
 ably delighted. He now saw and heard the 
 man whom he had seen so often on the in-inled 
 page. He was not disappointed in him. On 
 the contrary, his high regard for him was greatly 
 increased when he saw him face to face ; when 
 from his knowledge of him through the silent 
 letter he came to personal intercourse and friend- 
 ship w^ith the great man liimself. It is doubtful 
 whether any of the Doctor's disciples appreciated 
 him more than did that gentle, modest and 
 learned young })rofe8sor. 
 
 One Sunday morning Mr. Godman, in the 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 183 
 
 absence of the pastor, preached in the Keformed 
 church when Dr. Nevin was present. There 
 was a slight embarrassment perceptible, which 
 was greater perhaps than could be noticed ; for 
 his habitual quiet manner concealed any great 
 inward disturbance, if there was any ; and he 
 preached without any apparent labor, while at 
 the same time it could be seen that he realized 
 the presence of one of the very greatest masters 
 in Israel. Afterwards Dr. Nevin made this one 
 remark in regard to the sermon : " It was full 
 of thought." He entertained a very high regard 
 for Mr. Godman as a man of rare worth and 
 great promise ; and while the Doctor remained 
 in Carlisle, the young professor was one of his 
 most welcome and frequent visitors. Like Saul 
 of Tarsus, he sat at the feet of this greater Ga- 
 maliel, and learned many a profound lesson from 
 his lips. 
 
 The leading citizens of Carlisle had organized 
 a monthly lecture course, in which the best 
 home talent was employed, and occasionally from 
 abroad. Dr. Nevin, on short notice, was asked 
 to deliver one of the lectures. His subject I 
 have forgotten, and for some reason of other I 
 did not hear the lecture ; but those who heard 
 
1(S4 THE LIFE OF 
 
 and under.stood it pronounced it a matchless pro- 
 duction and by far the best of the course. A 
 desk had been placed, as usual, on the j^latform 
 for the speaker's manuscrij^t, but to the surprise 
 of all Dr. Nevin had no manuscript, not even a 
 note. It was supposed that a learned lecture 
 must necessarily be written out and read from 
 the desk, and when the Doctor stood uj) and 
 spoke without the aid of manuscript or notes the 
 intelligent audience was taken by surprise ; and 
 when he was done, having spoken over an hour, 
 the surprise was wonder and delight. 
 
 The next day I was amused by a description 
 of the lecture by an intelligent and enthusiastic 
 citizen. Dr. R., a promhient mendjer of the 
 Presbyterian Church. A friend passing by, the 
 Doctor incpiired whether he had heard Dr. 
 JN'evin's lecture. " No," he answered, " what 
 would have been the use? I couldn't have 
 understood it at any rate." "O well," said Dr. 
 R., with great animation, " it would have done 
 you good just to hear it thunder a little." That 
 man was impressible and of keen penetration, 
 able to comprehend the great ideas that he heard 
 from the greatest master of the age, and his 
 whole being was thrilled by their surpassing 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 185 
 
 excellence and power. He even thought the 
 personal appearance of the lecturer and the 
 ►sound of his voice were a sufficient attraction. 
 
 Mr. Godman, thinking that Dr. Nevin might 
 possibly not have a written address, prepared to 
 take notes, and reported the lecture for one of 
 the town papers. No one could have done this 
 without being in full sympathy with the speaker 
 — and Mr. G. was therefore the man to give as 
 faithful a pen 2)icture of the living production 
 as could be made. 
 
 That was a good year for Carlisle ; if not 
 specially so, it was not because it had not in it 
 for that period in its bright history a king of 
 men, whose authority was greater and more real 
 than that of any crowned monarch of the Old 
 World. 
 
 13 
 
186 THE LIFE OF 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 A Retrospect. 
 
 Dr. Nevin's life at Mercersburg, covering a 
 period of thirteen years, was one of the most 
 fruitful in mental and scholarly work that has 
 ever been known. 
 
 He not only taught in the Theological Semi- 
 nary, but was president of the college at the same 
 time, and in each institution he performed more 
 than one professor's share of service. Besides 
 all this, as we have already seen, he did a large 
 amount of literary work, making enough printed 
 matter to fill half a dozen large volumes. True 
 enough, I could name authors from whose pro- 
 lific pens five or ten times that much has been 
 turned off in the same length of time ; but two 
 things must be considered : one is, that their time 
 was all their own, with naught to interfere ; the 
 other is, the difference in subjects, substance, and 
 quality. Quantity is a small thing as com{)ared 
 with quality. There may be a vast difference 
 between bulk and weight. There is more weight 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 187 
 
 in a single Review article of Dr. Nevin than in 
 many a large volume. The amount of instruc- 
 tion imparted by his productions is immense. 
 There is enough in them for the study of a life- 
 time. 
 
 His instructions in Church history, in the 
 various branches of philosophy, and in almost 
 every branch of theology, if they could be re- 
 produced, would make a library of vast learning. 
 
 To relieve the necessities of the college, in a 
 time of financial pressure, he assumed the addi- 
 tional task of teaching the higher mathematics. 
 He was ready at any time to take charge of any 
 department when there was a necessity for it. 
 All this showed him a man of the broadest cul- 
 ture, thorough in all branches of learning, a 
 master of universal knowledge. Otherwise he 
 never could have borne up under such a weight. 
 This accounts, more than anything else, for the 
 ability which he had of speaking on short notice, 
 or without any previous notice, on the most pro- 
 found subjects. Of course, there are many glib- 
 tongued orators who are always ready with a 
 speech, but their subjects are usually of the pass- 
 ing hour, and their speeches fre(|uently consist of 
 wit, flowers of rhetoric, glittering generalities, 
 
188 THE LIFE OF 
 
 and stale platitudes. But Dr. Neviii was not 
 built that way. He spoke from the fulness of 
 heart and mind, and many of his off-hand ad- 
 dresses, if they had been taken down and printed 
 word for word as spoken, would have made first 
 class literature. 
 
 He seldom wrote sermons, and only for extra- 
 ordinary occasions. His extemporaneous sermons 
 differed but little from written productions, except 
 in their delivery. In sj)eaking he sometimes hesi- 
 tated for lack of a word needed to give true ex- 
 pression to his thought. Those accustomed to 
 hear him did not object to this, knowing the cause, 
 and feeling certain that in due time the great 
 thought struggling for expression would come 
 forth clothed in substantial elegance and beauty. 
 Some men of immeasurably less learning, instead 
 of halting, would fill up the vacuum with a string 
 of words with little or no sense ; but Dr. Nevin 
 was not concerned at all about the temporary 
 impression made upon an audience by mere flu- 
 ency of speech. Not a word would he utter at 
 such juncture until he could give satisfactory 
 form to his struoirlino- thouii^ht; and the result 
 
 or? ~ ~ 
 
 was always a fine work of art, all its })arts united 
 and fitted together as a complete whole, with no 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 189 
 
 false episodes, and no oratorical tricks, to mar 
 its just proportions. I once heard one of his 
 admiring students say, that it was often a relief 
 to him when the Doctor would halt in his speech, 
 as it gave time to take in and hold fast what he 
 had already spoken, and a chance to keep up 
 with him. It is a matter of regret that his 
 many sermons and addresses delivered in this 
 way are lost to the general public. If some 
 beloved disciple of his could reproduce them, he 
 would by that means write a more real biography 
 of him than could be done in any other way. 
 
 The greater part of Dr. Nevin's life in Mercers- 
 burg was passed amid theological conflict. He 
 could not look with favor upon the drift of popu- 
 lar thought, and was not the man to keep silent 
 when he believed that false views of Christianity 
 were extensively propagated, which had already 
 taken deep root in the popular mind. Especially 
 he saw that the life centers of gospel truth as 
 expressed in the Apostles' Creed were disarranged 
 and thrown into confusion, and believed in, if at 
 all, without regard to their proper order and 
 unity in the person of Christ. The gospel 
 according to the Creed was not the gospel of 
 popular teaching. Its articles were believed. 
 
190 THE LIFE OF 
 
 but only as so many sejmrate truths, without the 
 necessary order and connection involved in the 
 very idea of a fundamental symbol of Christian 
 faith. As a consequence the Creed was not used 
 either in a liturgical or a didactic way in by far 
 the larger part of the American Church. The 
 most popular part of the Sunday school literature 
 ignored it altogether ; and secretly, if not 02)enly, 
 it was regarded with suspicion, as if it were a 
 relic of the Dark Ages and too closely related to 
 popery to be handled with safety. In feet, the- 
 ology in America was at loose ends ; while at the 
 same time American Puritanism had set itself up 
 as Pope, imagining that it had sounded the 
 mighty depths of Christian theology and anathe- 
 matizing everything that did not bow to its in- 
 fallible dictum. 
 
 But a Daniel had in due time come to judg- 
 ment and shook to its foundations the structure 
 that was built largely on sectarian and anti- 
 Christian conceit. He was victorious in every 
 contest. Under his tremendous blows every 
 antagonist went down. 
 
 He did not strive against what was true and 
 good in the reigning theology ; he attacked the 
 errors only. He rebuked the false tendencies of 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 191 
 
 the times, and especially the frivolous sectarian- 
 ism, which had no idea of the Church as the body 
 of Christ. He freely admitted that there was 
 good in the midst of the evil, and true Christian 
 piety in spite of the wide-spread defection from 
 the true catholic idea of Christianity ; but he saw 
 clearly that even the good and true which still 
 remained would perish, unless there would be a 
 return to the ancient faith as presented in the 
 Apostles' Creed. 
 
 Dr. Nevin had no selfish partisan end in view. 
 His sole object was to discover truth and proclaim 
 it for the common benefit of men. If at any time 
 any denomination of Christians showed signs of 
 awakening to higher and purer conceptions of the 
 gospel, he rejoiced. His idea of Christianity and 
 the Church was not denominational. He pre- 
 ferred the Reformed Church to any other because 
 in it he found more freedom than anywhere else 
 for the exercise of his mind on the living ques- 
 tions that were forced on his attention, as well 
 as because of its glorious history, catholicity and 
 apostolic character. But he had no idea of pro- 
 claiming it as the highest conception of what the 
 Church ought to be. He did succeed in raising 
 the Reformed Church to the highest plane of 
 
192 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Protestant catholicity in this country, and in the 
 world — but others also shared the benefit, as was 
 his own heartfelt and godly desire. 
 
 The charge of Komanizing made against him 
 was entirely gratuitous. When he found it 
 necessary to defend the Roman Church from the 
 innumerable false accusations by pseudo Protes- 
 tants, he did it without any hesitation or reserve. 
 When he handled such Protestantism with 
 severity and dealt gently with Romanism, he 
 simply did what has always been considered 
 honorable and right, that is, to soundly thrash 
 a false accuser, and sympathize for the time being 
 with the accused. But on the other hand, when 
 Romanism held up its head on high and mis- 
 represented Protestantism, he made the hair fly 
 in the other direction, and made Rome repent 
 of its audacity in challenging the man who never 
 knew defeat. It was not strange that the more 
 enthusiastic part of Romanists prayed hopefully 
 for the speedy and complete conversion of Dr. 
 Nevin, nor was it strange that the most cool and 
 far-seeing of them declared that he was their 
 most powerful and dangerous enemy. Tliey could 
 easily repel the vulgar attacks made from all 
 points of the compass, but when Dr. Nevin spoke 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 193 
 
 — as in his controversy with Mr. Brownson — it 
 was something else. For abont the first time 
 they heard a man in defence of Protestantism 
 without the usual abuse of Romanism, one who 
 did not argue against Home simply from hatred 
 of it, and who knew how to maintain his own 
 cause philosophically, historically, and theologi- 
 cally. For once they had to meet a champion 
 who could not be scorned or waved aside with 
 the usual supercilious air. For once they were 
 beaten, like all others who attempted to measure 
 swords with the man at Mercersburg. 
 
 When he resigned his position in the college, 
 he thought his active career was about ended, 
 little dreaming that there were yet thirty-three 
 years left of his earthly life, and that most of these 
 would be years of great mental activity. After 
 a rest of one year at Carlisle and several more at 
 Windsor Place, his strength was renewed, and 
 being yet in the prime of life, he entered again 
 upon another full decade of service for God and 
 his Church. He again wielded his powerful 
 pen, and his productions were pronounced by the 
 ablest men in Euro2^e the best and most import- 
 ant that came to them from the Western world. 
 Indeed, not even what may be called his resting 
 
ly4 THE LIFE OF 
 
 period formed a vacuum in his life. Such a 
 " nature abhors a vacuum." Absolute rest to 
 one of his kind would be distressing, and not to 
 be endured. He rested — but at the same time 
 accomplished more for the Church and mankind 
 than many a man officially employed. His 
 words spoken and written during that period of 
 rest would alone make an author famous. His 
 sermons, addresses, letters and writings of that 
 period are of more account than most men's 
 literary works of a lifetime. And that was only 
 while he rested ! Then, what after that ? 
 
JOHN W. XEVIN. 19f) 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Gigantibus Est Contentio. 
 
 If the reader would know how Dr. Nevin took 
 a recess of rest — a vacation — let him look up the 
 Mercersburg Review of that period, and he will 
 learn that rest with him was not idleness. He 
 was relieved of the double or triple responsibility 
 of his former official position and its onerous du- 
 ties, yet he conriuued to work on ; and being free 
 from official cares, his writings were now char- 
 acterized by a greater buoyancy of thought and 
 expression than formerly. His former produc- 
 tions, especially the Review articles, stand alone, 
 and always will, as Nevinian classics, to which 
 men will turn, ever and anon, as scholars do to the 
 literature of ancient Greece and Rome. If they 
 were generally read and studied by Christian 
 teachers, they would do more to keep theology 
 and the Church in the right track than all the 
 multitude of so-called theological works which 
 fly from the press like quails from their shells. 
 And yet his later writings are scarcely less im- 
 
196 THE LIFE OF 
 
 portant, as they are in some sense the fruit of 
 the former. 
 
 From the time that he withdrew from the Col- 
 lege in 1853 to the end of his life in 1886, his 
 literary productions were great and numerous, 
 consisting of published sermons, addresses, essays 
 and learned Review articles, besides unpublished 
 lectures on various subjects delivered in Frank- 
 lin and Marshall College, of which he was Presi- 
 dent for ten years, from 1866 to 1876, having 
 also previously given lectures in the institution 
 on the philosophy of history and other subjects. 
 
 But the most brilliant performance of his 
 post-Mercersburg life, as it seems to me, was his 
 review of Dr. Charles Hodge's Commentary on 
 St. PauPs Epistle to the Ephesians. Dr. Hodge 
 had been duly installed Pope in the Presbyte- 
 rian Church by his admirers, just as Dr. Nevin 
 had been in the Peformed Church. In the case 
 of each a sort of unconvened Council of enthu- 
 siasts had voted a decree of infallibility ; and 
 for two such men to meet on the field of theo- 
 logical controversy, was something sublime, to 
 say the least. 
 
 It should be taken for granted that any liter- 
 ary production of Dr. Hodge would be worthy 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 197 
 
 of respect from all who are capable of appreci- 
 ating and recognizing real intellectual ability. 
 He was regarded everywhere as one of the few 
 theological giants of America, and he represented 
 the best and strongest phase of the modern Pu- 
 ritanic belief. He was also a Calvinist of the 
 old school, held strictly to the " Five Points ;" 
 and in fact he simply took Calvin straight, bar- 
 ring perhaps his views on the sacraments, as Dr. 
 Nevin had, during the ten years' war, occasion 
 to point out. But great as he was, he was not 
 great enough to cope with Dr. Nevin in a com- 
 bat of ideas. He doubtless had no thought that 
 the man in his quiet retreat at Windsor Place 
 would make an assault upon the splendid theo- 
 logical structure he reared on the foundation of 
 a great apostolical Epistle. 
 
 In his Commentary on the Epistle to the 
 Ephesians, Dr. Hodge proceeded on the assump- 
 tion, from first to last, that the keynote of the 
 inspired document was God's eternal election of 
 the saints and their certain predestination to 
 everlasting life. This, according to Hodge, was 
 the ruling thought in the Epistle, and he made 
 it his text from which to prove the truth of Cal- 
 vin's metaphysical view of the divine decree as 
 pertaining to all that are finally saved. 
 
198 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Dr. Nevin entertained the higliest regard for 
 bis friend and former teacher of Princeton. But 
 he had long outlived his relation to him as a 
 learner ; he was his peer in every respect ; and 
 in intellect, solid attainments and logical power 
 far his superior. To say this is not to detract 
 from any proper estimate of Dr. Hodge's ability 
 as theologian and scholar. It is only affirming 
 the extraordinary greatness of Dr. Nevin ; and 
 his wonderful intellectual power, as well as bis 
 deep spiritual insight, enabled him to penetrate 
 the depths of sacred truth as few men have been 
 able to do ; so that no antagonist could ever [)re- 
 vail against him. It was the same in this case ; 
 he tore Dr. Hodge's theory to shreds ; and when 
 the smoke of battle had {)assed away, there was 
 left that grand book of the Bible, a gem however 
 in quite a different setting. 
 
 Dr. Nevin showed by reasoning profound and 
 convincing that St. Paul had no such doctrine 
 in view as the unconditional divine election 
 when he wrote the Epistle. He also sliowed 
 how far he had advanced in liis theological 
 thinking since he came into tlie Reformed 
 
 I Church. He evidently had cast aside the doc- 
 trine of election and predestination as taught in 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 199 
 
 the Westminster standards. It is certain that 
 he greatly admired the Heidelberg Catechism 
 for not putting into the mouths of the faithful a 
 doctrine which represents God as a being to be 
 feared rather than loved. So, instead of con- ^ 
 firming the Reformed Church in the belief of 
 the Calvinistic decretal system, he broke what 
 bonds there were of that kind, and showed a 
 better way by opening the Scriptures in the 
 light of Christ, the Sun of Kighteousness, by 
 holding up Christ as the alpha and omega of 
 the Christian salvation, and not abstract deity 
 exercising an arbitrary will in blessing and 
 cursing, saving and damning, '* for His own 
 glory"(!). According to unconditional divine 
 election, the election is an end in itself, the elect 
 having salvation as a certain and inalienable 
 gift of God's grace. For some infinitely wise 
 reason God decreed from all eternity that a cer- 
 tain number, to be neither increased nor dimin- 
 ished, should be saved, and that not on account 
 of faith or good works as foreseen in them, but 
 only ou account of His good pleasure ; and that 
 for such elect He prepared the means by which 
 the salvation was to be accomplished — that is, 
 sent His Son into tlie world that through Him 
 
200 THE LIFE OF 
 
 the chosen or elect ones might be saved. Dr. 
 Hodge maintained in his Commentary that such 
 was the doctrine which was set forth in the 
 Epistle to the Ephesians, and that it was the 
 golden thread which ran all through it. 
 
 Dr. Nevin shattered that idol as comjiletely 
 as iconoclast ever shattered an idol. He affirmed 
 without fear of contradiction, and drew his argu- 
 ment from the Word of God, that the election 
 spoken of in the Epistle in question and that of 
 Dr. Hodge were two different things entirely. 
 The election, instead of being an end in itself, 
 was a means rather to the great end, namely 
 eternal salvation. The elect are not necessarily 
 saved. They are the called of God, set apart 
 from the world to His service, baptized into 
 Christ, members of the family of God, yet with- 
 out absolute certainty as to their successful com- 
 pletion of the Christian race and the final vic- 
 tory over sin and Satan. They are, without 
 distinction, called saints, children of God, heirs 
 of the promises of God, because of their connec- 
 tion with the Church, which is Christ's body. 
 And yet some of these may fall away and finally 
 be lost. Nevertheless they were " elect," pre- 
 cious in the sight of the Lord, His children by 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 201 
 
 adoption and grace. Surely they were rational 
 beings, endowed with freedom of will, and not 
 saints of necessity — simply because they could 
 not be otherwise. St. Peter tells all such to 
 make their calling and election sure ; so that it 
 is not sure of itself, and will not be unless the 
 subject of it freely and of his own will " works 
 out his own salvation with fear and trembling." 
 The Epistle to the Ephesians, as all the New 
 Testament epistles, proceeds on the fact that all 
 whom it addresses are members of the Church, 
 that sacramentally at least all are saints, and 
 therefore are elect. The word " ecclesia" (church) 
 itself means that ; namely, the called, the elected, 
 so that the word election is not used here to 
 denote what Calvin means by God's eternal 
 decree, effecting the sure salvation of a certain 
 fixed number. Every act of divine grace is a 
 means for the accomplishment of some benevo- 
 lent purpose in men's behalf, and their complete 
 salvation. Calling, by the spoken and written 
 word ; baptism ; confirmation ; the Lord's Sup- 
 per ; these are the election, and are gracious 
 means to secure the priceless boon of eternal 
 life as begun here and continued forever. The 
 divine election, in the mind of St. Paul when he 
 14 
 
202 THE LIFE OF 
 
 wrote the Epistle to the Ephesians, was not that 
 which was in the mind of Dr. Hodge when he 
 wrote his commentary on it. The Calvinistic 
 decree, with its limited atonement, its scheme of 
 redemption for the elect only, is altogether foreign 
 to the thought which runs through the whole 
 body of apostolic epistles. The Epistle to the 
 Ephesians especially is the one least to be thought 
 of as teaching the fatalistic ideas of Calvin on 
 the subject of the divine decrees. The promi- 
 nent thing in it is not Calvinistic election (for 
 that is not in it at all), but the Church, or Christ 
 and the Church : " This is a great mystery, but 
 I speak concerning Christ and the Church." 
 (Chap. 5 : 32.) It is the mystery of the marriage 
 relation, the Bridegroom, Christ, and the Bride, 
 the Church, being united as one flesh. Election 
 then pertains to the Church, belongs to it, and 
 is spoken of in connection with it. Nor is the 
 Church merely instrumental in giving practical 
 effect to the absolute decree from all eternity ; 
 the Church is itself the divine means by which 
 men are called, and in which men are to make 
 their calling and election sure. 
 
 Dr. Nevin's review of the commentary con- 
 sists of two articles making hearly 100 pages of 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 203 
 
 the Mercersburg quarterly, and is no doubt one 
 of the clearest and most exhaustive presentations 
 of a most disputed theological subject. Dr. Hodge 
 never replied to it. and for the excellent reason 
 that ]ie could not. That Dr. Nevin had the 
 field all to himself, and was master of the situa- 
 tion, was declared by an eminent Presbyterian 
 theologian and professor, and one of Dr. Hodge's 
 most devoted friends. It is nothing to boast 
 over, but to be devoutly thankful for, inasmuch 
 as until then no such satisfactory solution of the 
 question concerning the divine sovereignty and 
 election had ever been attempted. And at the 
 present time it would be an excellent thing for 
 Presbyterians to read and study closely Dr. 
 Nevin's masterly review of Dr. Hodge's Com- 
 mentary on the Ephesians, now that the whole 
 denomination is stirred up on the subject of the 
 revision of the Westminster standards. No one 
 interested in the matter should fail to secure that 
 theological classic. It should be reprinted in 
 separate form and secured by every Presbyterian 
 minister and intelligent layman in the country. 
 It has not had half the chance to do the execu- 
 tion it is capable of doing, and now is a good 
 time to bring it out from its resting place in the 
 
204 THE LIFE OF 
 
 old numbers of the Mercersburg Review and 
 send it forth on a most noble errand. It would 
 pour in a very flood of light where there is now 
 only an impression, more or less strong, that 
 some change is necessary. It would solidify the 
 movement to revise ; it would put the whole 
 question in proper form ; it would do more than 
 make such verbal chano-es as would merelv soften 
 the apparently harsh language of the Confession ; 
 it would eliminate, rather, what new light has 
 shown to be erroneous ; it would liberate the 
 conscience from unnecessary bondage. It is 
 pitiable to see what reasons some give for revis- 
 ion, showing plainly a weak conception of the 
 question at issue and the interests at stake, and 
 what arguments are presented by others for leav- 
 ing the Confession intact, bristling as it does with 
 points that proclaim God's wrath rather than 
 His love. As compared with Dr. Kevin's mono- 
 gram on this vexed sul)ject most of the discus- 
 sions on the present question of revision seem 
 like trifling. 
 
 The effect his great argument had on the 
 Church at large has been greater no doubt than 
 can now ])e measured, but in the Reformed 
 Churcli it did immensely to settle its theology on 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 205 
 
 that head. Those who have carefully read and 
 studied it liave no special difficulty with the 
 doctrine of election, but see it now in the light of 
 *' Christ and His Church," and not in the dark- 
 ness of God's terrible vengeance on all except a 
 few arbitrarily chosen ones, snatched as brands 
 from the fire and then wrought into fit subjects 
 of His kingdom. Dr. Nevin has come nearer to 
 reconciling the divine sovereignty with man's 
 free agency than any one I know of, at least. 
 
 During this vacation })eriod. Dr. Nevin took 
 in hand to bring down another giant, this one 
 being Dr. C. P. Krautli, probably the ablest the- 
 ologian in the Lutheran Church of America. 
 The two men were intimate and mutually admired 
 friends, and each sjjoke and wrote of the other in 
 the highest terms of esteem. But such friend- 
 ship did not prevent Dr. Nevin from antagoniz- 
 ing his distinguished friend, when he believed 
 that truth required such a sacrifice. And truth 
 did require it on a certain important occasion. 
 The important occasion was this : 
 
 Dr. Krauth wrote a book entitled " The Con- 
 serative Reformation," in which he labored to 
 prove that the only conservative Reformation 
 was that headed by Luther, asserting that the 
 
206 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Keformation on the Keformed side was radical, 
 one-sided, unchurchly, a violent breaking loose 
 from the historical Church, that is, schismatic 
 and revolutionary ; that the Lutheran was the 
 only true Protestant Church, and that no other 
 was truly catholic and apostolic, though admit- 
 ting that true Christian piety might be main- 
 tained by individuals elsewhere. Such in brief 
 was the position assumed by a man who had 
 become the mouthpiece of at least an important 
 branch of the Lutheran Church in America. 
 It was a tremendous undertaking to prove to the 
 world that the Lutheran Church alone was 
 worthy of being called a Church, that in fact it 
 was the Church, and all others claiming such 
 distinction were only sects. The undertaking 
 too seemed the more heroic from the fact that 
 it was a question as to which of the organizations 
 having the Lutheran name was really entitled to 
 it : The General Synod, General Council, Mis- 
 souri Conference, or some other of the name — 
 which ? — Well, the Lutheran Church, the 
 Church of the Augsburg Confession ; yes, that 
 was it. 
 
 Now Dr. Nevin, with his broad, catholic, 
 unsectarian views, always regarded the Lutheran 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 207 
 
 Cliureli with great respect, but lie would allow 
 uo narrow or bigoted views to be published to 
 the world from any respectable quarter unre- 
 buked. So in this case. It was during the civil 
 war, and as the publication of the Review had 
 been for that reason suspended for several years, 
 he replied to Dr. Krautli through the weekly 
 " Messenger." What a pity the Review was not 
 running then, as in that case there would now be 
 bound together in library volumes another series 
 of Dr. Nevin's powerful i^olemics, one of the most 
 vigorous counter assaults ever made on the field 
 of theological battle. He bravely defended the 
 Reformed side of the Reformation and reduced to 
 atoms the monstrous assumption that Lutheran- 
 ism had an iota of superior right to the claim of 
 true catholicity over that of the Reformed 
 Church. He drove through Dr. Krauth's book 
 like Jehu, witli unmerciful logic, and covered 
 with confusion the abominable exclusiveness, 
 however respectfully maintained, that could pre- 
 tend to be Protestant and yet ignore or belittle 
 the world-historical movement which developed 
 into the Reformed Church — the Church that 
 embraces within its mighty fold the most pro- 
 
208 THE LIFE OF 
 
 gressive, active and numerous part of evangelical 
 Protestantism. 
 
 Dr. Krauth never made reply. He was asked 
 by one of his friends why he did not ; and his 
 honest answer was : " Dr. Nevin's jDOsition is 
 impregnable." 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 209 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 Concluding Notes, 
 
 Three-score and Ten. 
 
 In the year 1866 Dr. Nevin began another 
 decade of resjionsible official life as President of 
 Franklin and Marshall College. For more than 
 ten years previously he was the leading figure in 
 the liturgical movement in the Reformed Church, 
 on which subject he had expended much thought 
 and learning, and had been variously engaged in 
 literary work and lecturing in the college ; and 
 now again, at the age of sixty-three, we find him 
 at the head of old Marshall in its new home at 
 Lancaster, the same college with tiie new name 
 of Franklin added to it. 
 
 In 1873, on the 20tli of February, occurred 
 his 70th birthday. A special meeting of the 
 Eastern Synod was in session at the time in the 
 First Reformed church, Lancaster (Dr. A. H. 
 Kremer, pastor) , where, in the temporary absence 
 of the Doctor during one of its sessions, it was 
 
210 THE LIFE OF 
 
 announced by Prof. W. E. Krebs, that the 
 Faculty of the college and others had planned a 
 surprise for him in the foi'ni of a celebration by 
 his numerous friends, and the members of Synod 
 were invited to join in it. Accordingly, on the 
 afternoon of the 20th, carriages, omnibuses and 
 other vehicles, filled with people who wished to 
 honor the great and good man, formed a long 
 line and proceeded to Caernarvon Place. The 
 Doctor was taken by surprise. Here were 
 crowded into several rooms old, middle aged, and 
 young, nearly all liis pupils at one time or an- 
 other, come to congratulate him, and wish him 
 still more years of happy usefulness in the service 
 of God and His Church on earth. Dr. E. V. 
 Gerhart delivered the address of greeting and 
 congratulation, and then in the name of the fac- 
 ulties and students presented the Doctor with a 
 valuable gold watch. 
 
 Dr. Nevin's response to Dr. Gerhart's address 
 was, of course, entirely unpremeditated, and yet 
 it was fit for the best print just as it was spoken. 
 It was carefully and accurately reported, and 
 can now be read in Dr. Apple's book, in which 
 it occupies five pages. Get the book and read 
 this address by Dr. Nevin on his 70th birthday. 
 
JOHN w. Ni:viN. !211 
 
 and learn from it nuicli of the great soul and 
 great heart of the man who spoke it. 
 
 LituTgy. 
 
 Dr. Nevin was at the head of the liturgical 
 movement in the Reformed Church. He had 
 found the Church practically without a liturgy 
 — with nothing more than a hand-book for 
 ministers, to be used only by themselves on sacra- 
 mental and special occasions. The labors, in 
 study and in writing, which he performed in 
 connection with this subject were very great and 
 numerous, and resulted in vast benefit to the 
 Church. There ie no more important subject 
 than that of Christian worship and cultus, and 
 should be well understood. The forms of wor- 
 ship should be in accord with its true idea, 
 whether the forms be prescribed or otherwise ; 
 and that the Church should have a good liturgy, 
 one that comprehends the whole of worship, 
 public and private, so as at least to serve as a 
 directory, is plain enough to the ordinary mind. 
 The question still would be then as to the style 
 or plan of the work, and this question caused a 
 great commotion in the Church for a number of 
 years. But the controversy was educational and 
 
212 THE LIFE OF 
 
 resulted in excellent fruits. The man or woman 
 at the present time in the Reformed Church that 
 knows as little about liturgy as did the people 
 generally about forty years ago, is certainly to 
 be pitied. The conflict, sore as it was at times, 
 only shows that great religious questions cannot 
 be settled in this imperfect state of existence 
 without a war of opinions, and that it is better 
 than j^eace founded on mutual ignorance and 
 j^rejudice. The results were, first a provisional 
 liturgy, which, after about ten years, was revised 
 into a complete and artistic Order of Worship, in 
 proper form, according to what was regarded the 
 true idea of a liturgy for minister and people. 
 For years afterwards this order of worship was 
 accepted and used, in whole or in part, by a 
 majority of the churches, while a very respectable 
 minority rejected it, on account of certain feat- 
 ures which they regarded as in conflict with 
 Reformed doctrines and customs. Then some 
 years later the " Peace Movement" was inaugu- 
 rated, and a commission appointed to settle the 
 differences in the Church, if possible, and the 
 result was entirely successful. The Liturgy was 
 again overhauled and amended so as to meet the 
 general approval of the Church, retaining how- 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 213 
 
 ever the substance and liturgical principles of 
 the original work. The progress made by the 
 Reformed Church, during the controversial 
 period of her history, in the intelligent appre- 
 hension of the div^ine idea of Christian worship, 
 was truly great. This is realized and felt in our 
 churches generally, as manifested in sacred song, 
 observance of the Church festivals and the 
 Christian year, in church architecture and furni- 
 ture, and most especially in the character of the 
 free prayers offered in public by the ministry. 
 The Reformed Church is on the right road to the 
 best possible standard in the matter of cultus, 
 and too far advanced ever to turn back. 
 
 In all this movement Dr. Nevin took a leading 
 part. A most devout and godly man himself, 
 his devotional spirit was impressed on the litur- 
 gical work, which has for a generation directed 
 the public services in the Reformed Church. 
 
 Tercentenary Celebration. 
 
 In January, 1863, the three hundredth anni- 
 versary of the adoption of the Heidelberg Cate- 
 chism was celebrated by a general convention of 
 the Reformed Church in the United States, held 
 in the Race Street Reformed church in Phila- 
 
214 THE LIFE OF 
 
 del})hia (Dr. J. H. A. Bomberger, pastor). Dr. 
 Nevin was chosen president of the convention. 
 The literary fruits of that great gathering of 
 representatives of tlie Church are contained in 
 two vohimes : The Tercentenary Monument, 
 consisting of the proceedings of the body, essays 
 and addresses by leading men in the Church, 
 and the communion discourse of Dr. Nevin, on 
 the " Undying Life in Christ" - also the ojiening 
 sermon by Dr. S. E.. Fisher ; and the tercente- 
 nary edition of the ELeidelberg Catechism, in 
 German and Latin, and a new translation in 
 English, with an elaborate introduction by Dr. 
 Nevin which makes about half the volume. This 
 and the sermon are of uncommon merit and 
 value — like everything else that came from bis 
 facile pen and wonderful mind. Here is another 
 evidence that he was true to the principles of the 
 Protestant Reformation, apprehended as these 
 were by a mind that was free from all i)artisan 
 bias. 
 
 The Vatican Council. 
 
 That was quite a different convocation from 
 the one just S2:)oken of It was a council of 
 Roman Catholic bishops at the Vatican in Rome, 
 called together by the Pope for the express pur- 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 215 
 
 pose of declaring him infallible in his official 
 character. The decree of infallibility having 
 been promulgated by the Pope, Dr. Nevin 
 treated the subject in an exhaustive article in 
 the Review. In his articles on " Early Chris- 
 tianity," twenty years previous to this Romish 
 folly, he had created a flutter in some quarters 
 by assertions in which Rome seemed to be painted 
 in colors quite too fair. But he had succeeded, 
 in due time, in convincing reasonable people that 
 some things could and ought to be said about 
 the Roman Church not included in the black 
 list of hard names. Besides, the subject under 
 discussion at that period was not the question 
 about papal infallibility ; it was quite different, 
 and related to matters in which that Church 
 appeared, by comparison, to considerable advan- 
 tage. Now, however, that same Church lays 
 herself open to a new and serious objection by 
 announcing to the world a new dogma, or pro- 
 mulgating an old one, and hurling anathemas 
 at the heads of all who refuse to accept it as gospel. 
 It was a challenge, and Dr. Nevin felt it to be 
 his duty to answer back and expose the fallacy 
 and downright blasphemy involved in the mon- 
 strous claim of the Church of Rome in the person 
 of its visible head. 
 
216 THE LIFE OF 
 
 The decree of the Vatican Council was a fruit- 
 ful and lively theme for all sorts of writers. For 
 a considerable time the religious press especially 
 teemed with observations, both wise and other- 
 wise, on the big thing ; and in most, if not all, 
 the Protestant quarterlies there were labored 
 and learned articles on the subject, writted by 
 well known representative men. But I venture 
 the assertion, without the least hesitation, that 
 the presentation of the case by Dr. Nevin 
 was worth more than all the rest put together ; 
 that it dealt more philosophically and theologi- 
 cally with the question, and did more execution, 
 than all other efforts in that direction combined. 
 He left no stone unturned, nor did he leave a 
 foundation of sand for papal infallibility to rest 
 upon. 
 
 It was a liappy resort, or loop-hole, for Ro- 
 manists to say that infallibility pertained to the 
 Pope only in his official character, in this way 
 explaining how certain ungodly and even infidel 
 popes could and did always speak from the 
 pontifical throne without error. But Dr. Nevin 
 exposed that figment in all its superfluity of 
 unrighteousness, and showed the monstrous ab- 
 surdity and wickedness of the notion, that official 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 217 
 
 infallibility can be, and is in its own nature, 
 entirely separate from personal holiness ; that 
 the Pope is therefore a sort of Balaam, who, as a 
 mere instrument in the divine hands, inust bless, 
 and mud curse, nolens volens. Dr. Nevin's 
 arguments were not of the usual kind, the kind 
 that Romanists sneer at because of their inherent 
 weakness ; but if any Romanist sneered at Dr. 
 Nevin's crushing argument against the new 
 dogma, it was like whistling to keep up failing 
 
 Dr. JVevin's Epistle. 
 
 That is a word of deep and precious import 
 which St. Paul addressed to the Corinthian 
 Church : " Ye are our epistle, written in our 
 hearts, known and read of all men." (2 Cor. 
 3: 2.) 
 
 The truly apostolic man, whose life is here 
 faintly sketched, had also a living epistle, living 
 now, and will live successively on, doubtless, 
 until the Master whom he served will say : " It 
 is done." At his feet sat the men who to-day 
 are masters in Israel, the educators of our vigor- 
 ous young men and women. Where are they 
 not ? Our noble institutions of learning at Lan- 
 caster, which until recently rejoiced in the light 
 15 
 
218 THE LIFE OF 
 
 which still shed its soft evening radiance around 
 them, are chiefly directed by his disciples, who 
 are animated by his spirit, and, robed in his 
 mantle, carry on his work, looking to the end on 
 which his eye was ever fixed : " Jesus Christ, the 
 same yesterday, to-day and forever." In the in- 
 stitutions at Tiffin the same epistle is known and 
 read. For forty years their instructors were 
 chiefly men whose greatest lessons were learned 
 from him. The same is true of Ursinus Col- 
 lege, Catawba College, Calvin Institute, Sheboy- 
 gan Mission House, Palatinate College, Allen- 
 town Female College, Clarion Collegiate Insti- 
 tute, Juniata Collegiate Institute, and others. 
 They are his epistle. The great majority of 
 Reformed ministers of the Gospel, ministering 
 to more than three hundred thousand souls, are 
 his epistle well known and read. It is doubtful 
 whether any other man of modern times has 
 such a well written epistle, and so unquestion- 
 ably his own. 
 
 Personal. 
 
 In outward appearance Dr. Nevin was truly 
 remarkable. I wish I could give a faithful pen 
 picture of the man, as his image stands in its 
 singular majesty before my mental vision. Years 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 219 
 
 before I saw him, his portrait, a steel engraving, 
 made from an excellent painting, was familiar 
 to me. The wonderful forehead, eyes, mouth, 
 hair — the whole contour of head and face, the 
 expression, all — I never saw human form like 
 it. The folded arms, so natural and graceful ; 
 the attire, so suitable that it could not be con- 
 sistently otherwise ; the whole person, so far as 
 shown in the picture — aye, what a man ! The 
 picture w^as itself a revelation of a wonderful 
 living original. I once saw two ministers (not 
 Reformed) in a room where this picture was 
 hauijino; over the mantel. One of them, an elder- 
 ly gentleman, remarked to the other : " What 
 a brilliant man that would have made, if he 
 would have had early training !" How my 
 young blood rose ! You stupid ! I thought to 
 myself; you admire that great picture, but don't 
 know that its original knew more in his " early" 
 days than you, old man, ever dreamed of How 
 I felt like telling him so, or giving him a shake. 
 Still, he meant well, and knew no better. He 
 was far more excusable than many of Dr. Nev- 
 in's would-be critics. 
 
 An illustration of the effect of his personal 
 presence on appreciative minds occurred in New 
 
220 THE LIFE OF 
 
 York at a general meeting of the World's Evan- 
 gelical Alliance. A photographic artist, after 
 scanning the faces and pliysiques of the eminent 
 men from all parts of the globe, decided that 
 Dr. Nevin presented the most intellectual and 
 distinguished appearance of them all. He wished 
 to photograph the dignified group, and waited 
 until Dr. Nevin stood upon the platform to read 
 his essay, so that he might have him as the most 
 prominent and central figure in the picture. At 
 this great convocation were present many from the 
 old world, with whom he had enjoyed a literary 
 acquaintance, among whom was the eminent Dr. 
 Dorner, of Berlin, who, flushed with enthusiasm 
 and delight, exclaimed to some of his friends : 
 " Ich habe den Nevin gesehen !" (I have seen 
 Nevin !) 
 
 I will not attempt further to describe the exter- 
 nal appearance of that remarkable man, whose 
 outward form seemed to be an almost perfect im- 
 age of the great personality which it enshrined. 
 
 A True Chinstian. 
 
 It was truly said of Washington that tlie 
 greatest victory he ever gained was wdieu he 
 conquered himself. Dr. Nevin 's greatness of 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 221 
 
 intellect and immense attainments in knowledge 
 were truly wonderful. James Buchanan said 
 he believed him to be the greatest man in Amer- 
 ica, if not in the world. And yet he was great- 
 est HI this, that he sat humbly at the feet of 
 Jesus and learned of Him, counting himself and 
 all his attainments as nothing in comparison 
 with the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus 
 Christ his Lord. He scarcely realized how 
 great he was intellectually. In all his great 
 literary efforts there is not the least sign of 
 intentional parade of learning. His eminent 
 greatness was scarcely equal to his childlike sub- 
 mission in faith to his adorable Master, whose 
 servant he was and delighted to be. He sought 
 only to know and expound the truth of God as 
 he apprehended it, and was concerned only that 
 the truth should prevail. He was not governed 
 in his reasoning and teaching by the shibboleths 
 of party or popular demand, but by the Sj^irit 
 of truth — the Comforter, in whose abiding pres- 
 ence in the Church he firmly believed. His 
 daily invocation seemed to be : " Ve7ii, O^eator 
 /Spiritus/' that his soul might be enlightened 
 with celestial fire, and filled with the graces 
 which are the gifts of God to the faithful. Cor 
 
222 THE LIFE OF 
 
 facit theologum — not the brain, but the heart 
 makes the theologian, the heart full of childlike 
 faith in God and His word, — and all else, j>ow- 
 ers and acquisitions of the mind and earthly 
 possessions consecrated as a holy offering to the 
 Lord. 
 
 Such was Dr. Nevin, " full of the Holy Ghost 
 and of faith," and so using his abundant talents 
 that, doubtless, the Master, when He shall come 
 to reckon with His servants, will say to him : 
 " Well done !" 
 
 His Place in History. 
 
 There have been and are men whose names 
 are familiar among all classes of people. It may 
 be on account of some one ^peculiarity alone in 
 the person. Certain shallow politicians are bet- 
 ter known than many a wise statesman. Cer- 
 tain mountebank evangelists are more heard of 
 and written about than the most able and faith- 
 ful pastors. Their smart sermons are peddled 
 on street corners and on railroad trains. What 
 place will they have in history ? No place at 
 all, for they are not historical characters, but 
 men of the passing hour, rockets that shoot high 
 in the air for the temporary delectation of the 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 223 
 
 multitude, and then vanish like meteors out of 
 sight. There are others whose career would 
 receive merciful treatment, if their names were 
 withheld from the historic page. But no, they 
 are needed there to exhibit the dark back- 
 ground of history, to serve as warning to future 
 generations, and to fill out the whole truth in 
 the annals of the world. 
 
 There are those also, at all times, who accord- 
 ing to their gifts and special calling have lived 
 a useful life and are approved of God, while 
 yet, if they have a place in history at all, it is 
 only in connection with others, without individ- 
 ual i^rominence, as the rank and file of an army, 
 honored in the mass, but otherwise unknown. 
 A real historic personage is one who, under the 
 guiding hand of God, has directed the course of 
 history and stamped upon it his character and 
 genius. Such were Moses, Cyrus, Alexander, 
 C?esar, jSTapoleon, Washington, St. Paul, Zwingli, 
 Luther, and many others. Each has his place 
 as a living organ of historic energy in the devel- 
 opment of the human race. 
 
 Dr. Nevin is a historical character of the first 
 order. In him there was nothing negative. A 
 man with great natural qualities and acquisitions, 
 
224 THE LIFE OF 
 
 such as God could use for wise and gracious 
 purposes, destitude of j^ersonal virtue and good- 
 ness ; not such was he, but entirely consecrated 
 to the service of God, with all his exalted tal- 
 ents and abilities, a leader of men, a discoverer 
 in the vast field of truth, such as has been rarely 
 known, with an authority in his day that was 
 wonderful and far-reaching, and is to-day with- 
 out a rival. His place in history will be among 
 God's best and mightiest men. 
 
 Foreign lestimony. 
 
 As already stated. Dr. Nevin was well known 
 and highly estimated in England and on the 
 continent of Europe. Some of the most learned 
 men of the English Church consulted with him, 
 by literary correspondence, in regard to ques- 
 tions of the day that demanded solution. They 
 regarded him as an exceptionally safe guide 
 through the clouds and darkness of modern 
 unbelief and theological vagrancy. They read 
 his powerful productions with intense eagerness, 
 and were not ashamed to acknowledge him their 
 master. 
 
 In Germany, which enjoyed the pre-eminence 
 as the land of philosophers and theologians, Dr. 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 225 
 
 Nevin was ranked among the greatest men of 
 the time. He was there regarded as a tower of 
 strength and defence for the true principles of 
 Protestantism, or for the truth wherever found. 
 The celebrated Dr. Doellinger, of Munich, who 
 as a Roman Catholic refused to bow his neck to 
 the decree of papal infallibility — a living library 
 of learning, — pronounced Dr. Nevin the great- 
 est theologian America ever produced. He read 
 his articles in the " Mercersburg Review," and 
 other writings, and told an American clergyman 
 that they were by far the best that had come to 
 him from the western world. Foreign testimo- 
 nies of a similar character could be jDroduced in 
 abundance, but these are sufficient to show that 
 the extraordinary greatness and pre-eminence of 
 the man is not the fiction of an enthusiastic 
 biographer. His own works, however, are the 
 best testimony to all that has been claimed for 
 him. These are his living and speaking monu- 
 ments, whose inscriptions the corrosions of time 
 will never efface. 
 
 2he Race is Ru7i. 
 
 " I have fought a good fight, I have finished 
 my course, I have kept the faith ; henceforth 
 
226 THE LIFE OF 
 
 there is laid up for me a crown of righteous- 
 ness," said St. Paul when he was uearing the 
 goal of service in tlie militant Church ; "which 
 the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at 
 that day : and not to me only, but unto all them 
 also that love his appearing.'^ 
 
 The last years of Dr. Nevin's life were years 
 of special communion with his Saviour, His 
 last writings were mystic utterances on the deep- 
 est and most spiritual sense of God's word. It 
 was the lamp to his feet and the light to his 
 jDath. The Spirit of Truth conducted him into 
 its profoundest depths, where Christ was revealed 
 to his inmost consciousness as his present, living 
 Kedeemer, and verifying to his waiting spiiit 
 the truth of the blessed Gospel, in whose eluci- 
 dation and defence he had devoted his long and 
 useful life. A few years before his death he 
 told a friend that he was giving the remainder 
 of his days to special preparation for heaven. 
 It was a beautiful thought, and bears no resem- 
 blance to the idea of living a worldly life until 
 old age warns of its earthly close, wlien pru- 
 dence suggests preparation for the solemn 
 change. Far from it. While the true Christian 
 is always preparing for heaven, the active and 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 227 
 
 vigorous part of his life means not distinctively 
 that, but rather engaging, in the spirit of faith 
 and obedience, in the work of building up 
 Christ's kingdom among men, which involves 
 much labor and thought in connection with the 
 common affairs of earth. An active Christian 
 life is service of love to mankind, as St. Paul 
 tells us, doing good unto all men, especially to 
 them who are of the household of faith (Gal. 6 : 
 10). No one can do this without at the same 
 time holding spiritual communion with God, 
 and looking after his own spiritual welfare. And 
 yet, after one's strength has been spent thus in 
 the service of God for the benefit of others, and 
 there remains little to do but to wait for the sun- 
 set of the earthly life, the attention would prop- 
 erly be turned es^^ecially to one's own personal 
 interest in the next world ; though not in a 
 spirit of self-seeking, as that would be a contra- 
 diction of the whole idea of personal religion. 
 Dr. Nevin had given the full strength of his 
 manhood to the cause of Christ in the world. 
 He might have died in the harness, as in the 
 case of many other heroes of the faith ; but it 
 pleased God to prolong his life for some years 
 after old age compelled him to lay aside his 
 
228 THE LIFE OF 
 
 regular work, and this was for liiiii a precious 
 season of special preparation for heaven. He con- 
 tinued, however, to the last to manifest a dee^) 
 interest in the Church in general ; and while he 
 was preparing for his own transfer to the better 
 world, he was still, according to his strength 
 and opportunity, helping forward the cause of 
 Zion. 
 
 It is worthy of remark that Dr. Nevin's 
 natural birth was on a Sunday, and that, after a 
 period of over 83 years, on a Lord's Day he 
 passed from the scenes of earth to the heavenly 
 state. He came and departed on the Day of the 
 Lord, the day of life from the dead, when the 
 healing beams from the Sun of Righteousness 
 burst resplendent over a dying world. It seemed 
 as if the best of days was chosen for his entrance 
 into the life of time and for his blessed entrance 
 into the life immortal. Thus entered into rest, 
 in the 84th year of his age, one of the best and 
 greatest of Christ's servants, a prince and master 
 in Israel, and, as I verily believe, the chief 
 Apostle of the nineteenth century. 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 229 
 
 This biographical sketch would be still more 
 imperfect than it would be otherwise, if I failed 
 to add a small portion at least of Dr. Nevin's 
 testimony in favor of a movement on the part of 
 the two Reformed Churches in this country, 
 which has lately ripened in a federal union. 
 
 Such a union was effected by the two General 
 Synods of the " Reformed Church in the United 
 States" and the "Reformed Church in America," 
 with wonderful unanimity, and with great re- 
 joicings and thanksgivings to God. This hap2:)y 
 result was accomplished after several years of 
 preliminary work, much and frequent counsel 
 and earnest prayer. It was a glorious day for 
 Zion when it was announced tliat these two 
 ancient ecclesiastical organizations thus declared 
 their relationship as being members of one fami- 
 ly, and decided to become more nearly one ex- 
 ternally, in order that the internal " unity of the 
 Spirit" might be more fully realized. 
 
 What was Dr. Nevin's contribution to this 
 result ? I have already spoken of liis sermon on 
 " Catholic Unity," in which he presented 
 thoughts on the Church which it would be well 
 for every one to read and carefully ponder. The 
 sermon was " delivered at the opening of the 
 
280 THE LIFE OF 
 
 Triennial Convention of the Reformed Protest- 
 ant Dutch and German Reformed Churches, at 
 Harrisburo^, Pa., Aug. 8, 1844," that is, forty- 
 six years ago. Parts of the sermon read as if 
 delivered in June, 1890, when these same mem- 
 bers of the old ecclesiastical household flowed 
 together and were made one. Any ])erson 
 familiar with that discourse must perceive that 
 it was seed which could not return void, that it 
 took root and produced blade, ear and the full 
 corn in the ear. The closing words of that great 
 sermon will be a fitting close to this little volume. 
 " In view of all that has thus far been said, we 
 may now be prepared, respected and beloved 
 brethren in the ministry and eldership of the 
 Reformed Church, to estimate ariglit the weight 
 of the occasion, by which we are brought together 
 this day. The very object of this convention is 
 to bring into closer visible union the two denomi- 
 nations we have been appointed to represent. 
 Apart altogether from the counsels and action of 
 the convention itself, the simple fact that these 
 bodies have been engaged to enter into the 
 friendly arrangement, by which it is called to 
 meet, deserves to be regarded with special inter- 
 est. In the midst of the religious divisions and 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 231 
 
 dissensions that are abroad in the land, it is 
 cheering to find in any quarter an active move- 
 ment in fiivor of the opposite interest. May we 
 not trust that the measure will be owned and 
 blessed of God, and that through His blessing it 
 may be folloAved in time to come with conse- 
 quences of good, far more vast than we have 
 power now to imagine ? 
 
 " It is true, indeed, that the Reformed Dutch 
 and German Reformed Churches in this country 
 can hardly be regarded as different denomina- 
 tions, and certainly not as different sects, in any 
 right sense of the term. They have been from 
 the beginning substantially the same Church ; 
 different national branches only of the one great 
 communion of the Reformed, as gloriously repre- 
 sented in the ever memorable Synod of Dort. 
 The faith of Switzerland, the faith of the Palati- 
 nate and the faith of Holland, in the sixteenth 
 century, were emphatically one faith. Trans- 
 planted to this country too, the same Churches 
 have been closely related from the first ; in a 
 certain sense borne upon the knees, and nour- 
 ished from the breast, of the same compassionate 
 mother . . . Nor has tlie sense of this relation- 
 ship been lost since ... It is well therefore that 
 
232 THE LIFE OF 
 
 now in the end we should be permitted to re- 
 joice in the prospect of a communion, from this 
 time forward, more intimate and full. It is well 
 that the claims of our kindred life have come to 
 make themselves so felt on both sides, that we 
 are brought thus openly to recognize their force, 
 and give visible expression to the one spirit by 
 which we are consciously bound together. The 
 Church at large have reason to rejoice in this 
 union. It is something won for the cause of 
 Catholic unity, in the broadest sense, that these 
 two divisions of the Reformed Church should 
 thus embrace each other in the presence of the 
 whole world, and proclaim themselves ourwardly 
 as well as inwardly the same ; ' one body, and 
 one Spirit, even as we are called in one hope of 
 our calling.' . . . 
 
 " It would seem to lie in the very nature of 
 the case, that Churches so related, historically, 
 ecclesiastically, and geographically, as the Ke- 
 formed Dutch and German Reformed Churches 
 in tliis country, sliould find occasion for common 
 counsel and common actiou, in many respects. 
 By wise co-o])eration they may surely expect to 
 make themselves felt with more etfect in 
 the land at large, than they are likely to be by 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 233 
 
 standing wholly separate and apart. The inter- 
 ests represented in the two Churches are in all 
 material respects the same; and this itself would 
 seem to require that they should regard them as 
 a common cause, and combine their strength in 
 carrying them forward . . . 
 
 " I may be permitted in conclusion to say, 
 that the time has come, when the Churches of 
 the Reformation generally have need to seek 
 among themselves a closer correspondence and 
 alliance than has hitherto prevailed. The work 
 of the Keformation is not yet complete. In 
 every movement of this kind the direction taken 
 by the general mind is liable in the end to be- 
 come more or less extreme ; and the consequence 
 is then a reaction towards the abandoned error, 
 which is often more dangerous to the cause of 
 truth than all the opposition it had to surmount 
 in the beginning . . . What is wanted is a re- 
 publication of the principles of the Reformation, 
 not in the letter merely that killeth, but in the 
 living spirit of the men who wielded them with 
 such vast effect in the sixteenth century. Never . 
 was there a more solemn call upon the Reformed 
 Churches to clothe themselves fully with the 
 power of the life that is enshrined in their an- 
 16 
 
284 THE LIFE OF 
 
 eieiit symbols. And surely, in these circum- 
 stances, when the very foundations of their 
 common faith are threatened, not by a casual or 
 transient danger, but by a force that is lodged 
 deep in the very constitution of the age, and may 
 be said to carry in itself the gathered strength of 
 centuries; when questions of vital import, which 
 were supposed to have been settled long ago are 
 again to be encountered and resolved, on an issue 
 that involves the very existence of these Churches 
 themselves ; when in one word the vast struggle 
 of the Reformation is to be taken up in its origi- 
 nal spirit and carried forward through a crisis 
 that may be considered final and decisive to its 
 proper consummation ; surely, I say, in circum- 
 stances like these, the Churches in question 
 should feel themselves engaged to narrow as 
 much as possible the measure of their separation, 
 and strengthen the consciousness of their unity. 
 The interests by which they are divided are few 
 and small as compared with those that should 
 bind them together. The glory of God and the 
 honor of His truth, as well as their own common 
 safety, require that they should stand out to the 
 view of the world, not as many, but as one, the 
 Church, (not Churches,) of tlie Reformation, the 
 
JOHN W. NEVIN. 235 
 
 body of Clirist, ' the pillar and ground of the 
 truth,' one body and one Spirit, even as they are 
 called in one hope of their calling. May the 
 great Head of the Church Himself inter})0se, in 
 ways that to His own wisdom shall seem best, 
 to conduct the hearts and counsels of His people 
 to this result ; and in the meantime bestow richly 
 upon us who are here present the glorious power 
 of His grace, that we may be enabled to be faith- 
 ful to this high interest, especially in the exer- 
 cise of the trust now committed to our hands, 
 maintaining the unity of the Spirit in the bonds 
 of peace." 
 
 THE END. 
 

Date Due