presenting them as component parts of the whole truth. His system was not therefore a fragmentary arrangement of separate truths; but a growth. Externally, and because of his logical mind, his lectures on dogmatics did seem at first to be more of an arrangement of parts, than, e. g., Harbaugh's lectures which we used as a text-book, and which were written with poetic fervor; but this was only in appearance. One could soon see that they were informed by one principle, and by this, not as it had been discovered by the teacher or invented, but as it had taken hold of his own great mind and heart through the word of God, and faith which is in Jesus Christ. Sitting under his instruction one could well perceive what has been seen and expressed by one of the reviewers of his institutes, one who does not accept the principle of his book, who says:* "It is informed with reverence for the holy themes discussed, and a devoutness of spirit which convinces his readers that the author's soul has found nourishment in the doctrines he formulates, and that he thinks with the heart as well as with the head.” It was this fact that made him such a forceful teacher, and made his calm reasoning move the soul as by the fire of eloquence.

Dr. Gerhart lived through the educational movement of the Reformed Church in the United States. He was a pupil of Mayer and Rauch, was a member of the high school at York, moved with the institution to Mercersburg, and lived to see the growth of our institutions in this land and in Japan, a larger fulfillment of hope than any of our fathers could have prophesied.

Four months before his death there were yet living three men who were students of the High School, the mother of all our educational institutions. These were Elder Jacob Heyser, who died in Chambersburg, Pa., January 17, Dr. Gerhart himself, and Elder Rudolph F. Kelker, the last living representative of that body of students, of whom when the roll is properly completed, the Church of the coming generations Professor Benjamin B. Warfield.

will think with peculiar affection and pride. The last named lives in his home in Harrisburg, where he has always lived, in the full possession of his mental faculties, and with sufficient physical vigor to enable him to be actively useful. The first person to greet him when he alighted from the stage in York was Emanuel Gerhart. This friend of his youth and of his later life has preceded him to a "better country where he waits to give him a warmer welcome to a better fellowship.

Having been connected so early with our school of the prophets Dr. Gerhart took a long, active and honorable part in the great intellectual and doctrinal movement which gave Mercersburg a name in the universities of Europe. Our professors and writers, and our institution, received there honorable recognition and were better known than in their own country.

The distinctive theological system with which Dr. Gerhart was allied was called "Mercersburg Theology.' The movement thus named was the struggle of the Reformed Churchlife, amidst conditions and influences altogether different from those in which it had its birth (and some of which were hostile to the spirit of the church) to assert itself according to its own idea and law. The movement reached out in cultus and government as well as in doctrine. It embraced far more than could be expressed by the term "Mercersburg Theology.' The name given to it was a term of controversy and was used by some to represent certain features of the movement which were not acceptable to the whole Church. The movment itself was broader than the name as thus used, and gave to the Church the Order of Worship endorsed by the General Synod, and later the Directory of Worship, adopted by the constitutional number of classes, and thus placed by the side of the venerable Heidelberg Catechism as one of the ordinances of the Church. Among the results of this movement may be cited, the restoration of the Catechism to its proper place in the Church, the recognition of the Church year as

originally observed in the early life of the Church, the collects, offices, and forms of worship as they now stand in the Directory, and the emphasis now properly given to the Apostles' Creed. These features stand to-day as a bulwark against the tide of loose and independent thought which always threatens the Church in one form or another, and we may well rejoice that so much has been preserved out of the storms and dissensions which at one time threatened our very existence. Together with these is a system of theology which has been wrought out by our own men. In all this work Dr. Gerhart was continuously active, and it is his peculiar honor to have been spared to present in a systematic form his own conception of this movement as it laid hold of his mind and heart. It is also to his praise to have produced in the evening of his life a work "which bears throughout the marks of a longcontinued, careful and conscientious labor," "conspicuous for philosophical depth of thought. "’*

We cannot pass under review Dr. Gerhart's "Institutes of the Christian Religion." This work is before the public in printed form, and should be more generally circulated in the Church. It is a fitting memorial to his patient labor, his distinguished ability, and his intelligent faith. It appeals to the heart as well as the head and will call forth from every careful reader praise to Him Who gave to His servant strength and years to finish his work.

Dr. Gerhart's work as a teacher was in so many departments, extended over so many years, and the number of his publications was necessarily so small, compared with the important positions he filled, that it is difficult to assign him his specific position among the leaders of thought in the American Church. He stands however as the first American author who has published a Christological or Christocentric Dogmatics. What was wrought by a number of writers in articles upon many subjects of faith and cultus Dr. Gerhart has completed in the book already named. He himself was both a contribu*Dr. Benj. B. Warfield.

tor to and a product of the great movement of thought which he has reproduced and preserved in his Institutes. In this work however he does not simply copy or record the thoughts of others. By his own patient and constructive labors he has produced a system of theology ruled by the great fact of revelation as it laid hold of his own mind and heart: "No man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." It is by this work that his position among the teachers of his generation will be fixed by the judgment and appreciation of the public. Great as this may be he will always hold a higher position in the affection and esteem of the large number who have come under the influence of his teaching. But his position may safely rest on his Institutes. Such a work will always be needed because of the ever-recurring attacks upon the fundamental truth of Christianity, the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ, as they are revealed in the Scriptures and confessed in the Apostles' Creed.

IX.

NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.

MY FOUR RELIGIOUS TEACHERS. By H. Clay Trumbull. Cloth. Pages 128. Price, $1.00. Philadelphia, The Sunday School Times Company, 1903.

This book is a tribute of appreciation by a grateful pupil to his four religious teachers. Due acknowledgment is made in the preface of the earliest religious instructions and impressions received from his mother and his pastors. The four religious teachers, of whom Dr. Trumbull writes in particular, were “Men of God under whose instruction and influence he was providentially brought at the time he was entering on the Christian life, and whose teaching have largely shaped his religious course and modes of thought." Two of them, Drs. Chas. Finney and Horace Bushnell, have a national and even an international reputation. Their words and works have been recorded in extensive biographies. Yet when one reads the personal testimony of their influence on so distinguished a pupil as Dr. Trumbull, new light is cast upon their personalities, their characters and their methods. Less widely known, though not of less worth and fidelity in their callings, were David Hawley, the Hartford City missionary, and Dr. Elias Beadle, pastor of the Pearl Street Congregational Church at Hartford. The several sketches are interspersed with anecdotes and reminiscences taken from Dr. Trumbull's personal acquaintanceship with these distinguished men. He could see them and hear them from an original standpoint, and he has accordingly drawn a living picture with fresh color and inspiring force. The book is written in an engaging style and published in a most attractive form. A portrait of the subject precedes each sketch.

The author emphasises the fact that none of the four men "was trained in and bound by the tenets of any distinctive and recognised school of denominational theology." Yet "all these teachers were earnest, devoted, evangelistic soul-lovers in God's service." Such training he considers a providential preparation for his life-work which was largely undenominational in its character. For he has since labored as city missionary, army chaplain, in the sunday-school work, and as a non-denominational religious editor. God prepares every workman in a specific way for his appointed work. Blessed is that man whose lot is cast in the formative period of his life among teachers of inspiring