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Early History Of The Lutheran Church In America FACSIMILE
(High Quality FACSIMILE REPRODUCTION: Schaeffer, Charles W...)
High Quality FACSIMILE REPRODUCTION: Schaeffer, Charles William, 1813-1896 :Early History Of The Lutheran Church In America :1857 :Facsimile: Originally published by Philadelphia, Lutheran board of publication in 1857. Book will be printed in black and white, with grayscale images. Book will be 6 inches wide by 9 inches tall and soft cover bound. Any foldouts will be scaled to page size. If the book is larger than 1000 pages, it will be printed and bound in two parts. Due to the age of the original titles, we cannot be held responsible for missing pages, faded, or cut off text.
Charles William Schaeffer was an American Lutheran clergyman and theologian. He was specially versed in American Lutheran history and the historical and doctrinal development of the Lutheran Church in the United States.
Background
Charles William was born on May 5, 1813 at Hagerstown, Maryland, United States, the only child of the Reverend Frederick Solomon Schaeffer (1790 - 1815) and his wife, Catherine Elizabeth. His father lived the few years of his ministry at Hagerstown, gave proof of eloquence and power, and died of camp-fever contracted while ministering to soldiers quartered near the town.
Charles lived his boyhood and youth in the home of his stepfather, the Rev. Benjamin Keller, at Carlisle and Germantown, Pennsylvania, and of his grandfather, Frederick David Schaeffer, in Philadelphia.
Education
Schaeffer attended the Germantown Academy, graduated in 1832 from the University of Pennsylvania, studied at the Gettysburg Theological Seminary 1833-35.
Career
Charles William Schaeffer was licensed in 1835 and ordained in 1836 by the Ministerium of Pennsylvania. He was pastor at Barren Hill and Whitemarsh (formerly part of the Germantown parish) 1835-41; of Zion's, Harrisburg, 1841-49; and of St. Michael's, Germantown, 1849-75. All these congregations had been served by his grandfather; his uncle, Frederick Christian Schaeffer, had preceded him at Barren Hill and Harrisburg, and his stepfather at Germantown.
For one-third of his ministerial career Schaeffer was either president or treasurer of the Ministerium of Pennsylvania, and he was a member of many of its committees. He was president of the General Synod in 1859 and of the General Council in 1868, a trustee of Pennsylvania College 1855-73, of Muhlenberg College 1868-76, of the University of Pennsylvania 1859-96, and an editor of the Lutheran, the Foreign Missionary and the Philadelphian. He was an assistant professor in the Philadelphia Theological Seminary from its opening in 1864, and was made Burkhalter professor of church history and pastoral theology in 1874.
Though nominally he retired as professor emeritus in 1894, he continued to lecture twice a week and to preside over faculty meetings until the end; three hours before his death he sent directions to his pupils as to their work for the next day.
In his translations from the German he was able to reproduce not merely the substance but the spirit of the original. His important translations were the Halle Reports (1892), consisting of the first three sections of B. M. Schmucker and W. J. Mann's edition of the Hallesche Nachrichten (1886); The Life of Dr. Martin Luther (1883) by Wilhelm Wackernagel; a thorough revision of the common English version of K. H. von Bogatzky's A Golden Treasury (1858); Hans Sachs' Wittenberg Nightingale (1883); and a number of hymns, among them three - "Come, O come, Thou quickening Spirit"; "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost"; "O blessed house, that cheerfully receiveth" - that are included in the Lutheran Common Hymnal (1917).
He lived to a patriarchal age with his powers of mind and memory almost unimpaired and died, suddenly but not unexpectedly, at his home in Germantown.
Achievements
Charles William Schaeffer was long one of the leaders of the conservative and confessional party in the Lutheran Church. He took an active part in the establishment of the Theological seminary at Philadelphia. Besides, he contributed notable articles to the Evangelical Review and the Lutheran Church Review, and was the author of famous works: The Early History of the Lutheran Church in America (1857; 1868), Family Prayer for Morning and Evening and the Festivals of the Church Year (1861), one of the few devotional books of merit that have been composed by Lutheran writers in America.
Schaeffer was a man of fine intelligence and gracious spirit, prompt, cheerful, and capable in the discharge of every duty, and utterly free from any taint of affectation or self-seeking. In him the rigors of theological orthodoxy were softened and humanized by the devotional spirit. His literary taste was severe and high-bred.
Connections
In 1837 Schaeffer married Elizabeth Ashmead of Germantown, who bore him two sons and two daughters and died in 1892.
