Lewis Pyle Mercer

Background

Lewis Pyle Mercer was born on June 27, 1847, at Kennett Square, Chester County, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Pennock and Ann (Pyle) Mercer, both Quakers.

Education

Mercer was educated in the common-schools of Chester County, in the Normal School, and at Taylor's Scientific and Classical Academy, Wilmington, Delware, where he also taught. At Wilmington, in 1865, he became interested in the teachings of Swedenborg, and after hearing lectures on the subject by the Rev. Abiel Silver, he sought out the lecturer and began with him a study of Swedenborg's doctrines. With the New Church ministry in mind he continued his studies with the Rev. Willard H. Hinkley and the Rev. Nathan C. Burnham, going finally for a term to the New Church Theological School, Waltham, Massachussets.

Career

In 1868, Mercer went West to teach at East Rockport near Cleveland. Here he found an opportunity to preach and in 1870 was licensed, taking charge of the New Church society there and also later for a short time of the society in Cleveland. In 1872, he accepted a call to Detroit and was ordained to the ministry of the General Convention of the New Jerusalem in the United States of America. In Detroit he quickly attained popularity, with the result that in 1877, he was called to Chicago. Here a difficult task awaited him. After a prosperous beginning, the society had been weakened by the great fire of 1871 and the panic of 1873. The wide extent of the city and internal friction had led to dissatisfaction and division. The result was the formation of a separate body, the Union Swedenborgian Church, to the pastorate of which Mercer was called. Under his leadership the new society was immediately successful. His sermons were published regularly in the newspapers and helped spread the teachings to which he was devoted. It was his conviction that these doctrines were divinely provided to meet the needs of the age, and he preached them as such, but he did not believe that assent to elaborate doctrinal definition should be a basis for organization.

In 1881, the Union Swedenborgian Church united with the original Chicago society under Mercer's leadership. From a membership of 175 in 1880, the society had grown to 484 in 1900, and in 1894, had been organized into four strong parishes. In 1884, Mercer became president of the Illinois Association of the New Church and in 1895, general pastor, resigning his Chicago charge in 1900 to devote his whole time to this wider field. In 1901, however, he accepted a call to Cincinnati, where he continued in active service till his death.

Achievements

• In 1903, Mercer was consecrated as the general pastor of the Ohio Association. While still in Chicago he had been instrumental in organizing the Western New Church Union (1886), for missionary, educational, and publication purposes in the W. He also took an active part in the organization of the World's Parliament of Religions in connection with the Columbian Exposition, was editor of The New Jerusalem in the World's Religious Congresses of 1893 (1894), and author of Review of the World's Religious Congress (1893). He possessed considerable literary talent, and wrote The Bible, Its True Character and Spiritual Meaning (1879) and other expositions of New Church Doctrine which at the time were highly valued. He edited the shortlived New-Church Review, 1882-84, and in 1893 founded The Sower, the first New Church Sunday-school paper. Always interested in science, he became a member of the Swedenborg Scientific Association, organized for the study and publication of Swedenborg's scientific works, and when this body adopted as its organ The New Philosophy, he became the managing editor, serving from July 1900 to April 1902. In 1905 he was chosen president of Urbana University, Urbana, Ohio, a New Church college. He began the raising of an endowment fund which has grown to considerable proportions.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The New Jerusalem in the World'S Religious Congresses of 1893

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • Review of the world's religious congresses of the World's congress auxiliary of the World's Columbian exposition. Chicago, 1893

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • Review of the World's Religious Congresses of the World's Congress Auxiliary of the World's Columbian Exposition: Chicago, 1893

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • Swedenborg's Doctrine of Correspondence, a Key to the Intercourse Between the Soul and Body

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • "Lex Mundi": And Other Tracts for the Times on Swedenborg and Modern Thought

    (Leopold is delighted to publish this classic book as part...)

  • The Bible: Its True Character and Spiritual Meaning

    (This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)

Membership

a member of the Swedenborg Scientific Association

Personality

Mercer was of a very devout nature, sanguine, generous, capable of evoking deep friendship and enthusiastic cooperation. On these qualities rather than on his considerable intellectual gifts depended his success. He was a man of strong convictions, yet never anxious to force them on others. His willingness to work with anyone who would work with him held him aloof from party strife. His greatest contribution to the New Church was his talent as organizer and administrator.

Connections

In 1868 Mercer married Sarah Taylor Pennock of Chester County, Pennsylvania, by whom he had six children.

Father:

Pennock Mercer

Mother:

Ann (Pyle) Mercer

Wife:

Sarah Taylor Pennock

1851 - 1916

Daughter:

Lucy Elizabeth Mercer Cluff-Billingslea

17 October 1870 - 19 August 1946

References

• Sketches of the New Church in America on a Background of Civic and Social Life: Drawn From Faded Manuscript, Printed Record, and Living Reminiscence