HISTORY AND GENIUS

of the

HEIDELBERG CATECHISM

By J. W. NEVIN, D. D.

Prof. of Theol. in the Seminary of the Ger. Ref. Church,

Mercershurg, Pennsylvania

CHAMBERSBURG:

publication office of the german reformed church

1847

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1847,

BY B. S. Schneck,

in the Clerk’s office of the District Court for the Eastern

District of Pennsylvania.

PREFACE

The small work here offered to the public owes its origin, in some measure, to the latter portion of a series of Essays, which appeared during the years 1841 and 1842, in the Weekly Messenger, under the general caption of the Heidelberg Catechism. The publication was called forth by the occasion of the late Centenary of the German Reformed Church in this country; and was designed, to serve the object of that celebration, in the way of bringing home to the consciousness of the Church, in popular form, an imperfect sketch at least of her own history and constitution, as unfolded in Europe first and afterwards on this side of the Atlantic. There was an earnest call at the time for the whole, in the form of a separate volume. It has been judged best not to comply with this request; but it seemed important, at the same time, to throw into a more permanent form so much at least of the articles in question as had respect to the direct history of the Catechism itself. This is now done in the present publication; which however is not a reprint simply, to any extent, of what was previously published, but in all respects another work, in which the old material is taken up, with the addition of a good deal that is new, into a much more thorough and complete form.

The series of Essays in the Messenger was prefaced, Dec. 9, 1840, with a short introduction, in which occurs the following passage, worthy for various reasons to be repeated in this place.

“The whole is intended to be a contribution to the celebration of our Centenary Year. One great object of this observance, it seems to me, should be to make the Church properly acquainted with herself, by connecting in her consciousness as far as possible the present with the past. We need, not only to look back on our history, as it belongs during the last hundred years to this western continent, but to follow it still farther back, to its commencement in the old world. We need to feel that we have a history, as old and as honorable to say the least as that of any other Protestant denomination; embodying a vital spirit of its own; enshrining principles and ideas, which are worthy of being cherished by us, as a precious legacy, through all coming time. The more we can be brought to commune familiarly and freely with the spirit of the Reformation, as it wrought mightily in the deeds, and uttered itself powerfully in the words, of our ecclesiastical ancestry, the better is it likely to be with us in all respects at the present time. In every community, whether it be religious or civil, it is of immense account to keep a firm hold in this ...