(Excerpt from The Life and Journal of the Rev'd. Christian...)
Excerpt from The Life and Journal of the Rev'd. Christian Newcomer, Late Bishop of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ: Containing His Travels and Labours in the Gospel From 1795 to 1830, a Period of Thirty-Five Years What an impression did this make on my young and juvenile heart. M'ah! Said I to myself, if such persons as my pious grand. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
https://www.amazon.com/Journal-Christian-Newcomer-Bishop-Brethren/dp/0259477370?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0259477370
https://www.amazon.com/Christian-Newcomer-letters/dp/B0006R2V7W?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B0006R2V7W
Christian Newcomer was born on January 21, 1749 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States. His father, Wolfgang Newcomer, emigrated with his parents from Switzerland to America some time between 1719 and 1729. He married a Miss Baer--who died about a year later--and as his second wife, Elizabeth Weller. Christian was one of their eight children. The family was identified with the Mennonite faith.
At the age of seventeen Christian experienced a religious conversion. At this time there was a small but growing body in the ministry and laity of different churches, which gave special emphasis to the inner experiential elements of religion. The movement which it furthered contributed, among English-speaking people, to the development of American Methodism, and among the Germans to the organization, in 1800, of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, under the leadership of Philip William Otterbein, a minister of the German Reformed Church. Newcomer, some time subsequent to his conversion and partly as a result of a critical illness which led to a more serious consideration of spiritual matters, became inwardly convinced that he was divinely called to preach the Gospel, but through natural timidity he remained in a state of indecision for a number of years.
In 1775 he moved to Frederick County, Maryland, his residence later being included, by change of boundary, in Washington County. Finding no peace of mind as a fugitive from duty, as he regarded himself, he finally yielded to his convictions, entering upon the work of the ministry in 1777. Withdrawing from the Mennonite communion, he became identified with the movement headed by Otterbein, which, though lacking in compact organization, was assuming considerable proportions and wielding a growing influence.
Historians are much indebted for information regarding the early history of the Church to the diary, known as "Newcomer's Journal, " which records, though incompletely, his labors from 1795 to 1830. This journal, translated and edited by John Hildt, was published in 1834, under the title, The Life and Journal of the Rev'd. Christian Newcomer, Late Bishop of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. He was elected bishop in 1813, being the third to occupy that office, and was successively reelected to that position in 1814, 1817, 1821, 1825, and 1829.
Newcomer took a leading part in the founding of the Church of the United Brethren in Christ and became a most ardent promoter of its activities. He was among the first to attempt to formulate a discipline for the government of the general body, and to promote organic unity of the congregations east and west of the Alleghenies. In his itineraries, he made at least nineteen trips through the mountains, invariably on horseback.
(Excerpt from The Life and Journal of the Rev'd. Christian...)
Newcomer early perceived the necessity of effective organization, and wherever conditions permitted he formed local congregations, at the same time urging and developing a more complete plan for missionary enterprise.
His strength as a preacher was more in his intense earnestness and spiritual zeal than in any marked oratorical ability, though he was recognized as possessing a high degree of persuasive power and ability to expound the Scripture.
On March 31, 1770 he married Elizabeth Baer.
