Life of the Rev. Henry Harbaugh, D.D.

Contents

PAGE

Introductory . . The Rev. Nathan C. Schaeffer, D.D., 5-19 Eulogy . . . The Rev. Em'l V. Gerhart, D.D., LL.D., 21-55 Hymns and Poems of Henry Harbaugh —

"Jesus, I live to Thee " 57

Introduction

baugh, he replied that he was a reader of the Guardian. One of the most touching incidents belongs to the pastorate at L,ewisburg, and is best given in the words of another :

' ' An old member of his flock was an habitual drunkard. In his soberer moments he always repented of his folly. The pastor saw the man's weakness. The cause of temperance then was violently assailed. The new pastor became known as a temperance champion. All manner of threats were made to intimidate him. These only incited him to greater boldness. He took the old drunkard by the hand ; sat with him in his little hut by the hour. For years the inebriate's hard heart had been proof against all arguments. But this was a change of base. In his small room the pastor knelt by his side, and prayed God to help him lift the fallen man up. His soft words of love fell on the old man's heart like the first rays of the spring sun, thawing the earth and covering the fields with green. This he could not resist. ' Here is a man that loves me — me, a poor drunkard.' Thus he thought and felt. He was melted down with keenest penitence. There was joy in that little home, there was joy in heaven at the sight. The old man w T ept for sorrow and his old wife for joy. The pastor knew well the force of his old habits — how hard it would be to break away from the bent of twenty years' drunkenness and become a sober man. Now the tempter will try his utmost to keep the poor man out of heaven, to keep him at his cups. The pastor warned him against danger ; entreated him to shun all drinking places, attend church, prayer meeting ; urged him too to pray every day in his family ; all of which advice he obeyed. Thenceforth his old Bible and prayer book, for many years sadly neglected, were his daily companions. He was regularly at his place in church. One night he was absent from the

prayer-meeting. ' Where is Peter ?' was the anxious

inquiry of the pastor at the close of the services. Though late at night, he at once proceeded to his house. The poor wife

Z 6 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.

knew not where he was. ' Surely some wicked persons have entrapped him, to defeat my well meant endeavors, and ruin his poor soul.' Through the window of a tavern he sees the old man at the bar, with his carousing comrades. He hesitated for a moment. Would not those drunken ruffians attempt to beat and kill him if he interfered ? No matter, the poor old friend must be rescued. Bravely he stepped up to him. * Peter, you were not at the meeting this evening. Come, I will go home with you. ' Arm in arm the two walked out of the bar-room, through the dark street to his home, none of the cowardly braggarts daring to molest him. Little was spoken as they walked homeward. How sorely the poor man repented of his fall. Thus the pastor watched and nursed him till the end of his labors among this people."

During his pastorate at Lancaster he refused to install a saloon-keeper as elder. So profound was the impression made by this refusal that the man changed his business, prospered as a dealer in coal and lumber, became a consistent member of the church, spent money and time in promoting her interests, and died a faithful Christian. Such fruits go far to justify what some regarded as intemperate zeal in the cause of temperance.

Dr. Harbaugh had himself seen trouble and sorrow, and hence he could sympathize with others. He knew from experience the struggles of the student, the Christian, the pastor, the parent, and for this reason he could console others in their hours of trial, disappointment and bereavement. And yet he was habitually cheerful and buoyant in spirit. To quote once more from the writer upon whom we have so often leaned : ' ' Dr. Harbaugh possessed the happy talent of looking at the bright side of things. If the silver

INTRODUCTION. ! 7

lining on the dark cloud was never so small, he was sure to see it and enjoy it. Few men as earnest as he are so hopeful. Indeed, in practical matters his oversanguine views now and then misled him. He had no sympathy with the morbid ecclesiastical croakers, w 7 ho all the while tremble for the ark, and are nervously apprehensive that God cannot take care of His own affairs. Neither did he waste his ammunition in endeavoring to attain the unattainable." Only one human life has been without spot and without blemish. Henry Harbaugh did not claim to be infallible. He had his faults. Several things which he did from a sense of duty have been severely criticised and condemned by his warmest friends and admirers. To dilate upon these might please some who delight to feast upon the weaknesses and imperfections of human nature. Some men's tastes are like that of the vulture, which seeks and sees only carrion, while all the beauties of the landscape lie open to view. I prefer to pass over any faults which he may have had, in the kindly spirit in which he himself wrote of one dismissed from the ministry at a meeting of the Synod of Reading, in 1782 :

1 ' What the nature of this trouble was or for what cause he was dismissed, I do not know — nor was I zealous in ascertaining the cause. It inspires our heart with strange sadness when we find an unpleasant savor gather around the name of one, especially a minister, who has long been dead — especially when we know him to have been the spiritual guide of our ancestors. And if the solemn records of the past incidentally remove the veil from his faults and failings, the best we can do is

' To weep over them in silence and close it again.' "

.The foregoing quotations, with the exception of the last, are from the pen of Rev. Dr. Benjamin Bausman, whose articles in the Guardian belong to the original sources of information, and who sustained to Dr. Harbaugh a relation in some respects similar to the relation which the beloved disciple sustained to the Master. Memorial volumes have been written of other men who accomplished much less for the world and the Kingdom of Christ, and who have far less claim upon posterity than Dr. Harbaugh. The details of a life so rich in good works as his was, should not be allowed to drop into oblivion. The letters which he wrote at different periods form a very interesting study, because they show how a boy of Pennsylvania German parentage may gradually acquire the graces of style and diction in another tongue. The life which is here given to the public is from the pen of his son, with whom it has been a labor of love. In my judgment, the most glowing tribute ever paid to the genius of Dr. Harbaugh is from the pen of his life-long friend and successor in the chair of dogmatic theology, Dr. E. V. Gerhart, who has at my request consented to its publication in this memorial volume.* One interesting phase of his life is not adapted to the purposes for which this biography has been prepared. I refer to the gradual development of his theological views, as these may be gathered from his writings and his unpublished sermons. This will be a proper theme for discussion in the pages of the Reformed Rcvie7v. Finally, no apolog} 7 is needed for reprinting several of his best poems in English and Pennsylvania German, for these show him

INTRODUCTION.

as he was when his inner life was at its best. Every other purpose has been subordinated to the primary aim of doing full justice to the life and genius of the man whose biography is herewith offered to the public.

Nathan C. Schakffkr.

Harrisburg, Pa. , October 29, 1899.

*I distinctly recall that while I was a student at Mercersburg, Dr. K. K. Higbee, then Professor of Church History and E)xegesis, cut short one of his lectures, saying: "I must prepare to be eyes for Dr. Gerhart." This enigmatical remark became intelligible when, at the unveiling of the Harbaugh monument, he proceeded to read an address which he said was from the pen of Dr. Gerhart. From what I recollect of the nature and length of the address I feel warranted in asserting that it was the address herewith printed for the first time.

This brief memoir of my bosom friend was written early in 1868, only several weeks after his lamented death, when the image of the man was fresh and lifelike on the tablet of my memory. The occasion of writing it I do not now, after the lapse of more than thirty-one years, recall, nor do I recollect what use may have been made of it. All I know definitely is that the memoir was never published.

When, about ten days ago, the Rev. Dr. N. C. Schaeffer came to see me for some information respecting Dr. Harbaugh, the interview called this manuscript to my mind, which some months before I had discovered among my papers. After he had read it, he expressed the opinion that the memoir would supply what was needed for the forthcoming volume ; and at his request I assented to its publication.

The portraiture has been reconsidered and revised ; but after a deliberate review the prevalent tone of the representation remains ; and I find no reason to change my judgment of the man in any particular. Here and there some verbal modifications were necessary ; and at some points the language was improved. But in all respects the memoir reflects the conception of my friend as it was formed when it was originally committed to paper.

Theological Setni?iary, La?icaster, Pa., October 27th, 18 pp.

By the Rev. EML. V. GERHART, D.D., LL.D.

The Rev. Henry Harbaugh, Doctor of Divinity, and Professor of Didactic and Pastorai, Theology, in the Theological Seminary of the Reformed Church, Mercersburg, Pa. Born Oct. 28th, a.d. 1817. Died Dec. 28th, 1867. Aged 50 yrs. and 2 mo.

[HE life of a great and good man, who lives by faith in Christ and offers himself a sacrifice to Him in the service of His Church, reveals the truth and power of divine grace. Growing up among us, passing by degrees from the imperfection and the crudeness of youth into the vigor and ripeness of manhood, our judgment of his worth, whilst living, is more or less obscured by the memory of the deficiencies and foibles of early life. So long as he moves before our eyes ; so long as we mingle with him in the social circle, and stand with him side by side in the great conflicts of the church ; so long as we see his beaming eye, and hear his clear, manly voice, we enjoy the richness of his spirit, and lean on his powerful mind, whilst at the same time we may now and then differ with him in opinion and find fault with his conduct. We acknowledge his intellectual superiority and his sterling moral excellencies, yet he seems to be a mari such as we are in character, and in some respects we may even think him to be inferior to ourselves. Thus it comes that so long as he goes in and out among us we appreciate his virtues but partially, and fail to recognize fully the blessing of God in bestowing on the church so precious a gift.

But when the inscrutable providence of God suddenly closes the life of such a man in premature death ; when on a bleak day in mid-winter we are called upon to carry his lifeless remains away from his study and the embraces of his family, and lay them in the cold grave to moulder into dust, our hopes of future service vanish, our joy is turned into sorrow, and we wake up, as it were, to a sense of great and irreparable loss ; and we are prepared as we were not before to estimate the genius of the man, the zeil of the Christian, the fidelity of the minister, and the ability of the theologian, as these qualities really met in his life and character.

The Rev. Henry Harbaugh, D. D., Professor of Theology in the Theological Seminary of the (German) Reformed Church at Mercersburg,

IN MKMORIAM.

Pennsylvania, did not belong to the ordinary class of educated men. Whatever the position he occupied, or in whatever relation he stood, he distinguished himself. He stood out above the generality of men as a thinker and writer, as a preacher of the Gospel, as a debater on the floor of synod, as a representative minister of the Reformed Church, and as a leader of the people. This was seen and felt throughout the entire Reformed Church, East and West ; and was acknowledged also by all, outside of her communion, who knew him or read the productions of his prolific pen. Hence the deep and peculiar sense of loss and of sorrow that fills the hearts of ministers and people throughout the length and breadth of the church. Hence, too, it is becoming that we reflect on his character, on his extraordinary activity, on his genial and earnest spirit. It is due to his memory. It responds to the general sentiment of propriety, and will be profitable to ourselves.

Dr. Harbaugh challenges our attention as a man. Born in a Pennsylvania German family consisting of twelve children, of whom he was the tenth ; brought up on a farm at the foot of the South Mountain ; trained by an honest and industrious father, and by a gentle, pious, and noble mother ; moulded by the customs, manners and habits prevailing in the social life of our German population ; baptized into the communion of Christ's

26 UFB OF HENRY HARBAUGH.

mystical body ; carefully instructed in the doctrines and duties of our holy religion, and gifted with a rare combination of extraordinary natural endowments, he grew up into youth and manhood in the element of German Ge7nuethlichkeit, sanctified by the grace of the Christian Church. He realized in his person, in body, mind and spirit, the richness and beauty of the German character, as strengthened by genius and ennobled by living faith in Jesus Christ.

He was a representative man. This he was in relation to the race. The true idea of a man, or the ideal type of manhood, was individualized in his spirit and character. So it is in a measure in every man. But in Dr. Harbaugh the individualization answers more fully to the generic type than is common, even among devoted ministers of the Gospel. Nature and feeling were held subordinate to understanding ; understanding to reason; reason, to faith. Mind ruled the body ; spirit ruled the mind ; and Christ ruled the spirit. He realized the normal order of the manifold powers of a man ; not indeed perfectly ; but in such a degree of approach to perfection that the reality could not fail to command admiration and profound regard. He moved in the sphere of the true, the beautiful, and the good ; he made all outward objects and earthly relations subservient to these spiritual ends ; yet he was tender-

IN MBMORIAM.

hearted, and in quick sympathy even with the trifling bodily wants of little children.

Dr. Harbaugh possessed great facility in acquiring knowledge ; the knowledge of men and things, of literature, science and philosophy. He digested rapidly what he learned, and rewrought it for himself. More active than receptive, no fact, suggestion, or thought was laid on the shelf of his memory like a labeled fossil ; but he penetrated the inmost sense of acquired knowledge freely. Breathing into it his own warmth and freshness, and weaving for it a garment from the rich resources of his genius, he reproduced it in a form answerable to the peculiar type of his own spirit.

True genius has two sides. On the one hand, it discovers new facts, new principles, produces new ideas, and moves with singular freshness and vivacity among the common facts and ordinary relations of life ; on the other hand, it looks with keen vision into the deep and most general laws of God as these permeate and govern nature and society. The new is bound by the old, the surface facts by unchanging law. Beholding the most general laws and the broadest relations which inform the constitution of the world, genius apprehends particular events and single things, not in a superficial or arbitrary manner, but as they grow forth from universal powers. Hence come new and striking views of common events and of well-known facts — new to less-favored men, who fail to descend to the root of things, and therefore judge according to transient manifestations, not according to righteous judgment.

Both these forms of action were developed in the genius of our sainted brother. With what freedom he walked into the inner, hidden sanctuary of truth ! Yet with what delight he looked at single objects as enshrining general laws. How nice his perception of the beautiful and sublime ; and how keen his sense of the incongruous and ridiculous. The strong current of profound thought mingled with an unceasing flow of wit and humor.

The mind of Dr. Harbaugh, however, was no less practical than profound. A strong will, energy of purpose, intense and persevering activity were among his leading characteristics. Indeed, so prominent were these traits that, to a superficial observer, they seemed to be absorbing and almost exclusive. His thoughts did not sleep nor slumber, but they passed over into resolves, plans, and pursuits, and his plans were realized in acts and deeds.

As a consequence he was always at work. When he conceived a thought, he began to revolve and mature it ; and whilst maturing it, he brought it forth in outward form, and it gained full expression. No sooner had he accomplished one selfimposed task than he was already engaged in pre-

IN MKMORIAM.

paring for another. Nor did his labors simply succeed one another. Various kinds of work were upon his hands at the same time. Visitation of the sick and the poor ; the preparation of a sermon ; the writing of a book, or of an article for the Review or for the Messenger, or for some other periodical ; attendance upon the meeting of a committee or of an ecclesiastical body, and the composition of a German or English poem were all receiving attention during the same month and even during the same week, if not sometimes on the same day. The secret of such various activities is found in the fact that he was always reading, always thinking, always writing, always working, and, I might add, always joking. Among ail my acquaintances I know not a man who united such intense activity, such earnestness of character, with such extraordinary geniality and playfulness of spirit. God intended, he would say, that a man should laugh as well as pray ; for there are certain muscles of the face which he never uses but when he laughs. Nor were his multitudinous activities periodical. He labored day and night, from week to week, from month to month, and from year to year, with indefatigable zeal, gathering fresh energy with every accomplished work for a new undertaking. Even his short seasons of recreation in July and August were not a cessation of work, but only a change.

3°

IvlFB OF HENRY HARBAUGH.

Whilst entering with keen zest into the sports of a fishing excursion, a huckleberry party, or a mountain ramble, he was still studying. Beneath the play of fancy there was a deep undercurrent of reflection. And he would write as well as play and think. Sitting down under a tree by a stream, he would take out a blank book, which it was his rule to carry in his pocket, and write the outline of a sermon perhaps, or the stanza of a poem, or the plan of a book, or a few seed-thoughts. That was his chaos, as he called it, on which his creative mind wrought afterwards, and brought forth order and beauty. Some of his best poems and prose productions had their beginning in this chaotic jumble of ideas. Indeed, I may add here, that such was his general practice. Instead of developing and maturing an idea or train of thought in his mind, he put down his thoughts at once — crude, half-formed, and half-expressed thoughts — on paper confusedly, and then, brooding over this chaotic mass, as in the beginning the spirit of God was brooding upon the face of the waters, his mind wrought it into logical form and order.

Yet Dr. Harbaugh was rarely in a hurry. He seemed to have a great deal of leisure. A visitor was ever welcomed to his study with a smile, and entertained in free and humorous conversation. Nor was he given to absence of mind. Whilst he moved in the sphere of philosophic thinking, he was

IN MBMORIAM.

a close observer of society and nature, and alive to all that was going on around him in church and state. His senses were as susceptible to the external world as if he never entered into the inner region of metaphysical truth ; and he descended into the hidden depths of the ideal world with as much freedom as if he were indifferent to the objects of sense.

Nor did Dr. Harbaugh concern himself about a system of working. An external system, he said, was a hindrance. What was to be done, he did ; he did it at once ; he did it by day or by night, morning, noon or evening, just as the occasion met him, whether in the best mood or not. Nor was he noted as an early riser. Though there was nothing which he was less than a sluggard, yet he did not observe Franklin's rule. He would correct Dr. Franklin facetiously. Go to bed early, he said, and get up late, but then keep awake all day. Here was one secret of his noble and useful life. He was awake, in mind and body, always awake. He suffered no power, neither mental nor moral faculty, nor bodily sense, to go to sleep.

The energies of his will, the activity of his mind, and the conduct of his life were governed by his conscience. No one had a higher sense of honor. Nor was any one less capable of doing what was mean or ignoble. Yet it was not honor so much as right and duty that inspired and controlled him.

UFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.

He must do right regardless of consequences. What had he to do with consequences ? he would ask. Consequences belong to God. Hence he was as firm as a rock. He was not self-willed and stubborn, as some have alleged. If approached on moral grounds he was as docile and tractable as a child ; but if you would attempt to move him from his purpose by any considerations of policy, you would not only fail utterly, but excite his intense indignation, if not call down upon your head the fierceness of his wrath.

You may say that he sometimes erred or did wrong. That may be so. His best friends sometimes differed with him. But he did not do wrong as wrong. What I or you might think was wrong, he firmly believed to be right. Convince him that he was wrong, and he would at once abandon any cherished purpose ; for he would rather cut off his right hand than commit a known wrong. But fail to do that, fail to convince him, and you might as well try to move Gibraltar. This was universally felt and acknowledged by all who understood the high-toned moral character of the man. The consequence was that he commanded the confidence and respect of his enemies no less than the affection and devotion of his friends. For Dr. Harbaugh was a man that had enemies, and bitter ones too. Clear and uncompromising in judgment, candid and straightforward in speech, conscientious in all his conduct, he stood up for right and truth in the face of any opposition, and dealt blows upon corruption and vice with a rod of iron. Such a man could not be at peace with all classes of persons in the world or in the church. Iyike those of his Master, his words were a two-edged sword.

This exhibition of Dr. Harbaugh's genius, his practical activity and moral character, implies the presence of another distinguishing element which quickened every attribute of his nature. He was endowed with deep, intense feeling. He felt what he thought ; he felt what he resolved ; he felt what he said and did. He had no dead thoughts ; no icy purposes. He could not maintain the right and enforce truth in dry, logical formulas. He could not expose error and denounce sin with composure. Rising from the depths of his warm heart his thoughts glowed, and his words were like live coals. Wherever they fell they kindled a fire.

Whilst he never spared dishonesty, corruption or vice, he was nevertheless tender in his address. Full of kindly sympathy with all classes of men, he never designedly wounded the feelings of any one.

When he spoke, the spontaneous flow of burning thoughts touched responsive chords in the hearts of his hearers, and drew them into intimate communion with himself. They either felt with him, and he carried them along, with free consent

IvlFB OF HENRY HARBAUGH.

and delighted in the path of his speech, or they felt hostile to him, and followed, hovering about his track, only to resist and to condemn.

The harmonious union of these vigorous and highly developed mental, moral, and emotional elements of his person and life, distinguished Dr. Harbaugh from among men generally as one in whom God's idea of manhood was realized above the common measure, and constituted him a leader of thought among educated and thoughtful men, and a leader of practical religious activity among all classes of practical men. He represented them in truth. The faithful echo of their half-conscious wants, he voiced their thoughts and desires. For this reason they heard him gladly, trusted him without reserve, and loved him like a brother.

But his character as a man, true as it was to the generic type, was just as distinctive of the national life in which he stood. Dr. Harbaugh was a German ; not an Englishman, nor a Scotchman, much less a Frenchman ; but a German, an American German, from head to foot. The blood of a Pennsylvania farmer flowed in his veins, and with his mother's milk he drank in das tiefe gemuethliche Wesen of the German farming population. In all his moral and religious instincts he was one of themselves. He understood their prejudices, lived in their modes of thought, shared their feelings, and sympathized with them in all their religious and educational needs. He loved their language, their peculiar homely dialect, and rescued it, as Burns did the Gaelic dialect, from death and oblivion by the baptism of his genius. Of all the sons of the German farmers of Pennsylvania, who have sought the halls of learning and entered the sphere of the liberal professions, he is the first one, that, seeing the capabilities of a dialect, before only neglected and despised, and laying hold of it with new-creating energy, wrought it into the genuine forms of living poetry and breathed into these forms the genial spirit of their own social life, thus at once ennobling the dialect by consecrating it to the spiritual ends of fine art, and clothing it with honor and immortality. To him belongs the honor of being, as he has been called, the poet of the American German people. He is their true representative man, the representative of their genius on the elevated plane of religion, science, and art. The distinguishing attributes of Dr. Harbaugh's personality as a man underlay and modified his character as a Christian and a minister of the Gospel. Nature is the basis and occasion of grace. Grace, in turn, takes up nature into its bosom, creates and fashions it anew. Grace realizes and perfects the idea and purpose of nature. In this relation, pre-eminently did the personality of the man stand to the character of the Christian and the minister in the life of the Rev. Dr. Harbaugh.

The most prominent trait in his Christian character, was devotion to the person of Jesus Christ, and to His mystical body, the Church ; — devotion to Christ as God manifest in the flesh, really present and living in His mystical body on earth throughout all the ages and in the midst of all the contradictions and convulsions of time ; — a devotion that was intelligent, intense, exclusive, all-absorbing, steady and unfaltering, always fresh and always vigorous. Devotion to Christ and devotion to the Church were inseparable. The Church was the original human life created anew by the Holy Ghost and perfected in the person of Christ ; perpetuated by the same divine agency through the sacrament of Holy Baptism ; nourished and matured by the preaching of the Gospel and the Communion of the Body and Blood of the Son ; existing on earth, in time and space, in the form of an organized kingdom, which as to its constitution is both divine and human, as to its manifestation is both visible and invisible. It was the true and only Noachian Ark to which all men must flee for deliverance from the overwhelming curse of sin. To labor in the Church and for the Church, was, for him, to labor for Christ. The notion that a man may either come to Christ, or labor for Christ, apart from and outside of the Church, was a delusion, fraught with tendencies towards infidelity.