Background
Nevin was born on February 20, 1803 in Franklin Country, Pennsylvania, the nephew of Hugh Williamson of North Carolina, and was of Scottish blood and Presbyterian training.
(NATURE, as well as revelation, has thrown a peculiar inte...)
NATURE, as well as revelation, has thrown a peculiar interest around the whole subject of Music. The science of sounds is, in itself, wonderful and mysterious. As it unfolds itself to the inquiring student, he is amazed to find, that, where he had dreamed of almost none, the most perfect and immutable system reigns. He learns, that the vast variety of tones, with which the ear may be assailed, are not, in their nature, that confused and anarchial multitude, without distinctions of right, and without abiding relation, which he once imagined; but, that they form, on the contrary, a regular society, pervaded throughout with the principle of order and definite law. A natural and original proportion is discovered to have place through the universal family. Sound stands related to sound in natural position and place; and yet more mysteriously in native constitution. This last is a relation of essential and original character, as its peculiarity in one is found more or less congenial with its peculiarity in another. Every sound has, as it were, a genius and a temper, more or less accordant with the genius and the temper of its companions, and the intimacy of its communion with each of them is graduated by the measure of this sympathy alone. Hence, while some sounds can never associate with the smallest friendship, others are adapted to unite in concurrent harmony, or to proceed in close succession with the movement of melody. This agreement the ear is constituted by the Almighty to feel, as truly as the eye is framed to perceive the relations of beauty in the visible world. The field of sound has its scenery of variety, resemblance, and proportion, equally with the field of light, and displays in its arrangement the same wonderful adaptation to the mental constitution of man. On investigation, it is found, that this connexion is suited in its nature to become a source of important moral results. Sound strangely corresponds with feeling, and is fitted to wield, by the magic of its combinations, a most powerful control over all the machinery of the heart.
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(As the Eucharist forms the very heart of the whole Christ...)
As the Eucharist forms the very heart of the whole Christian worship, so it is clear that the entire question of the Church, which all are compelled to acknowledge, the great life-problem of the age, centres ultimately in the sacramental question as its inmost heart and core. Our view of the Lord's Supper must ever condition and rule in the end our view of Christ's person and the conception we form of the Church. It must influence at the same time, very materially, our whole system of theology, as well as all our ideas of ecclesiastical history. -- excerpt from the Preface to "The Mystical Presence" This edition is a word-for-word copy of the 1846 publication of John Williamson Nevin's classic "vindication of the Reformed or Calvinistic doctrine of the Holy Eucharist." Significant effort was made to balance the original text's style with modern typesetting and legibility.
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(The HEIDELBERG CATECHISM; first appeared in the year 1563...)
The HEIDELBERG CATECHISM; first appeared in the year 1563, and soon won for itself a sort of universal authority in the Church, that no similar system has since been able to supplant. Its relation to the Reformed Church was soon allowed to be parallel, in this respect, with that of the venerable Catechism of Luther to the Lutheran Church; a distinction not admitted before, in favor even of the Catechism of Geneva. Hence it is denominated at times the Reformed Catechism, as representing, by general acknowledgment, the faith of the entire communion, distinguished by the same title in the sixteenth century. It is much more indeed than a Catechism, in the ordinary sense; being so constructed as to serve, at the same time, the purpose of a full church Confession. It stands forth accordingly with special prominence, not only among the Catechisms, but among the regular Confessions also, of the period to which it belongs. In this view, it holds, we may say, the very highest distinction. If the question be asked, which among all the symbolical books that have appeared in the Reformed Church, has the best claim to be regarded in the light of an cumenical or general symbol; the answer must be given undoubtedly, that it is the Heidelberg Catechism. Such we find to be, in fact, the clear judgment of history itself. Though formed originally for the use of a particular territory only, the Catechism proved to be a true and happy exposition of the faith of the Reformed Church in general; and in a short time accordingly, it came to be recognized and honored as such, all over Europe. Where it was not exalted formally to the rank of a symbolical book, it was at least invested with the highest credit, as a work embodying in the most approved form, the doctrines of the Church at large. The authority of the prince under whose direction it was prepared, was sufficient indeed to bring it into general use in the Church of the Palatinate; but this authority could have no force beyond these limits. Its favorable reception in other lands could be owing only to its own intrinsic worth, and the ready concurrence in its doctrine sand spirit, which it met with from the Reformed Church in every direction. It was received indeed with a sort of universal homage, as an ornament to the creed which it was felt so well to represent. Switzerland, France, Scotland and England, joined in testifying towards it their admiration and respect. It was translated for the use of schools and churches in Hungary. It became the basis of religious instruction, for the Reformed Church generally in Germany. In the Netherlands it was clothed with the highest authority, in being made to constitute, along with the Belgic Confession, the national rule of faith. Finally by the Synod of Dort, the general council of the entire Reformed Church in the beginning of the seventeenth century, it was formally acknowledged and sanctioned, as a fair and proper representation of the Reformed faith in all lands. It became thus in form, to a certain extent, the accredited standard of the Church as a whole. In all this we see the true importance of the Heidelberg Catechism. The relation which it bears to the whole Reformed Church of the sixteenth century, is full of interest, and such as may well make it an object of special regard in all ages. No other Catechism or Confession comes down to us, under the same broad catholic character, or with equal claims, in the view now mentioned, to historical attention and respect.
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(What of Mercersburg and Modern theology is presented in t...)
What of Mercersburg and Modern theology is presented in these pages, is given as it appeared to our mind in the course of our reading and studying for the last twenty years. We hold no one but ourself responsible for what may be peculiar in their subjective apprehension and reproduction. But we are not aware that we have misconstrued or misrepresented the one or the other at a single point. The attempt to fix such a charge on our production, especially in reference to modern theology, when it first appeared in a series of articles in the GERMAN REFORMED MESSENGER, is admitted on all sides to have proved a signal failure.
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(Excerpt from A Summary of Biblical Antiquities: For the U...)
Excerpt from A Summary of Biblical Antiquities: For the Use of Schools, Bible-Classes and Families It is hoped that this present attempt may not be with out something of its intended use, in furnishing such a compilation, easy to be procured and easy to be read, for the assistance of teachers. If it should in any measure answer this design, it will accomplish an object of vast usefulness. If, however, the remarks which have already been made are well founded, a work this kind may be reasonably expected to be yet more extensively useful. As a help to the intelligent read ing of the Scriptures, such a compilation, if not defective in its form, is, no doubt, better suited the use of all common readers, than any larger work. 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.
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(We have before us to day, my Christian friends, inclosed ...)
We have before us to day, my Christian friends, inclosed in that quiet coffin, the remains of the first President of Marshall College, Dr. FREDERICK AUGUSTUS RAUCH. His death took place at Mercersburg, on the morning of the second day of March, 1841, now eighteen years ago. He was buried on the fourth of March, with large funeral attendance, in the corner of a retired grove belonging to the College grounds, which was then first set apart for cemetery purposes. It was a bright, sunny day; in notable contrast, I remember, with an uncommonly rough storm of snow toward the close of the same week; a day, which was made memorable for the nation at large, by the inauguration of Gen. Harrison as President of the United Statesa most brilliant political occasion, destined to be itself dismally overclouded, a very short time afterwards, by the mournful intelligence of his death.
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(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
This book was originally published prior to 1923, and represents a reproduction of an important historical work, maintaining the same format as the original work. While some publishers have opted to apply OCR (optical character recognition) technology to the process, we believe this leads to sub-optimal results (frequent typographical errors, strange characters and confusing formatting) and does not adequately preserve the historical character of the original artifact. We believe this work is culturally important in its original archival form. While we strive to adequately clean and digitally enhance the original work, there are occasionally instances where imperfections such as blurred or missing pages, poor pictures or errant marks may have been introduced due to either the quality of the original work or the scanning process itself. Despite these occasional imperfections, we have brought it back into print as part of our ongoing global book preservation commitment, providing customers with access to the best possible historical reprints. We appreciate your understanding of these occasional imperfections, and sincerely hope you enjoy seeing the book in a format as close as possible to that intended by the original publisher.
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(This historic book may have numerous typos and missing te...)
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1850 Excerpt: ... certain order of life which men are required to observe; but it is the very forms of truth and right themselves, the absolutely independent power by which they exist in the world. As in the sphere of nature, the law is in no respect the product of the forces which are comprehended in nature itself, but forms rather the inmost life of its entire constitution, which could not consist at all if it were not held together by this bond; so here in the sphere of free intelligence also, it is by no other power that the order of life, as thus intelligent and free, can be upheld for a single hour. The world, in its moral no less than in its physical constitution, lives, moves and has its being, only in the presence of the law, as a real existence in no sense dependent upon it for its character. Not indeed as though it might be supposed to exist, with its own separate entity, in no connection with the actual world whatever. As the ideal life of nature, it cannot be sundered from the actual manifestation in which this consists; and as the absolute truth and right of the moral universe, it cannot subsist except through the consciousness of the thinking and willing subjects of which this universe is composed. Abstracted from all subjective intelligence, its objective reality is reduced to a nullity. It is only in the form of reason and will, which have no being apart from self-consciousness, that the law can have any true subsistence whatever. It supposes an intelligible and intelligent universe. But still it is no creature of the universe, no mere image abstracted from its actual constitution. In the order of being, though not of time, it is older than the universe. Without reason and will there could be no law, and yet all reason and will stand in it from the very star...
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(The necessity of owning a supernatural destiny in the cas...)
The necessity of owning a supernatural destiny in the case of man, lies to a certain extent in his natural constitution itself, in the relation he is seen and felt to bear to the world around him in his present mortal state. This relation in one view is of the most close and intimate kind. The organization of the world, as a system of nature, comes to its completion in his person. This is signified to us very plainly in the Mosaic account of the creation; where the whole magnificent process, rising gradually from one stage of order and life to another, is represented as reaching its climax finally on the sixth day, when God said: Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowls of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. Man thus is strictly the perfection of nature, the crown of its glory, the very centre of its life. In him the world comes to its last, deepest, fullest significance and sense. So to some extent even in his mere bodily organization. But far more still in his soul, in his intelligence, in the self-acting power of his willthat higher life of reason, of which only the most dim and remote foreshadowings are to be met with in the lower spheres of creation, but whose appearance here at once proclaims itself to be the central light, that reflects back on every other part of the system its true meaning and form. In such relation simply to the present world, our human intelligence and will, notwithstanding the spirituality which belongs to them in their own character, are to be regarded as appertaining still to the constitution of nature. They are the sublimation of this indeed to its highest potency, its most ethereal quality and sense, and present it thus under a form where to be true to itself it ought to pass away in the presence of a higher and more enduring economy; but the sublimation itself, the taking up of the world of nature into the world of mind, is now in and of itself the subjection of it in this way, to the claims and purposes of every such economy above nature. The process may stop with the mere intellectualization, so to speak, of the present order of things, the world as it now stands; and then it matters not how far the activity of thought may seem to go, exploring the depths or scaling the heights of Gods creation; it matters not with what flights of science or art it may appear even to pass over the boundaries of time and space, and to hold communion in its own way with what it is pleased to denominate the absolute and the eternal, all will remain in the end a revelation of the life of nature merely, and nothing more. The mind of Humboldt, regarded as a mirror simply of the outward world he describes, is of one order with Cosmos, whose image it serves so magnificently to reflect. Mirror, image, and object, belong alike to the sphere of nature, and have to do only with its organization as such. So deep and far-reaching is the relation, by which man belongs to the present world, stands in it, moves in it, finds in it his natural and congenial home. He is the consummation of nature. It unfolds the entire volume of its wealth; it comes to its full efflorescence, only in his person.
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Nevin was born on February 20, 1803 in Franklin Country, Pennsylvania, the nephew of Hugh Williamson of North Carolina, and was of Scottish blood and Presbyterian training.
Nevin graduated at the age of 19 from Union College in Schenectady, New York, and then attended Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey, although uncertain of his call to the ministry. After completing studies at Princeton, he accepted appointment as professor of biblical literature at Western Theological Seminary in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. Finally, in 1835, he received ordination as a minister in the Presbyterian Church. A scholar by temperament, Nevin learned the German language and studied the German theologians of the day.
Nevin's newspaper articles on temperance and abolition spread his reputation; in 1840 the trustees of the German Reformed Church's seminary at Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, offered him a professorship in theology. It was a big step for an innately cautious man, but he decided to accept the call and converted to the German Reformed Church. Dignified in appearance and somewhat preoccupied in manner, Nevin inclined to a conservative approach on all questions, including those then agitating American Protestantism. The revivalistic fervor sweeping many denominations found no friend in Nevin, although in his youth he had experienced a mild "awakening. " He published a series of lectures, The Anxious Bench: A Tract for the Times (1843), which criticized the "new measures" and angered their proponents. The absence of emotionalism from the Lutheran and German Reformed Churches of that day was partly due to Nevin. Nevin and his colleagues went on to develop a conservative doctrinal position eventually labeled the "Mercersburg Theology. " His Mystical Presence: A Vindication of the Reformed or Calvinistic Doctrine of the Holy Eucharist (1846) drew much public criticism for its alleged sympathy with Roman Catholic belief. In 1841, in addition to his seminary duties, Nevin became the temporary president of Marshall College, the seminary's undergraduate division. Bedeviled by the school's financial problems, he helped engineer a merger with Franklin College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. In 1851 he gave up teaching for reasons of health and because his controversial opinions made him the target of public attack. In retirement, he worked on a new liturgy for his adopted church, but in 1866 he accepted the "provisional" presidency of Franklin and Marshall College. He served for 10 years, resigning again in 1876 in order to relieve the college of the financial burden of his salary. He died on June 6, 1886.
(Excerpt from A Summary of Biblical Antiquities: For the U...)
(As the Eucharist forms the very heart of the whole Christ...)
(The necessity of owning a supernatural destiny in the cas...)
(The HEIDELBERG CATECHISM; first appeared in the year 1563...)
(What of Mercersburg and Modern theology is presented in t...)
(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
(We have before us to day, my Christian friends, inclosed ...)
(NATURE, as well as revelation, has thrown a peculiar inte...)
(This historic book may have numerous typos and missing te...)
Nevin was a conservative opponent of the enthusiastic revivalism that characterized 19th-century American Protestantism.