n
LIFE OK
THE
REV. HENRY HARBAUGH, D.D.
BY
HARBAUGH, ESQ.
WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND EULOGY.
' Selig sind die das Heimweh ha ben,
Denn sic sollen nach Haus kommen.'
PHILADELPHIA :
REFORMED CHURCH PUBLICATION BOARD.
SUNDAY-SCHOOL BOARD OF THE REFORMED CHURCH.
COPYRIGHT 1900
By Reformed Church Publication Board, and Sunday-school Board of
Reformed Church.
.CONTENTS.
PAGE
INTRODUCTORY . . The Rev. Nathan C. Schaeffer, D.D., 5-19
. . The Rev. Em'l V. Gerhart, D.D., LL.D., 21-55
HYMNS AND POEMS OF HENRY HARBAUGH
"Jesus, I Live to Thee" ........... 57
"Jesus, my Shepherd" ............ 57-58
"Jesus, to Thy Cross I Hasten " ....... 58
" The Mystic Weaver " ....... .... 59-62
"Heemweh" ................ 63-67
"Das alt Schulhaus an der Krick " ...... 68-72
I. ANCESTRY ................... 73-89
II. CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH ON THE FARM ... 90-110
III. THE STUDENT AND APPRENTICE IN THE WEST . 111-131
IV. MARSHAL,!, COW,EGE AND THE SEMINARY, MER-
CERSBURG, PA. . . ........... 132-156
V. TWENTY YEARS IN THE MINISTRY ....... 1 5 7- 193
VI. THE AUTHOR AND His WORKS ...... 194-253
VII. BACK TO OI,D MERCERSBURG ......... 254-302
BIBLIOGRAPHY ................... 303
M181690
EWD. PENQELLY & BRO., PRS., READING, PA.
INTRODUCTION
SAW and heard Dr. Harbaugh but once. It
was a rare privilege. It deepened the impres-
sion which his articles in the Guardian had
made, and greatly enhanced the high estimate
which I had formed of his genius. The occa-
sion was the commencement banquet of Franklin and
Marshall College in the year 1866. We under-
graduates were not allowed to participate in the feast ;
but when the part of the program which consisted of
toasts was reached, the alumni adjourned to the main
auditorium of Fulton Hall (since converted into an
opera house), and this gave me the opportunity to hear
Dr. Harbaugh's response to the toast, " The Mercers-
burg Review. ' ' Its humor and delivery made a deeper
impression than the oratory of all the eminent men at
home and abroad whom I have had the good fortune to
hear at banquets, in the pulpit or from the rostrum.
This may be due to the fact that the speech was
delivered in the dialect of my boyhood. He had
shown the poetic possibilities of the Pennsylvania
German in the pages of the Guardian ; he was now
to prove its power and fitness for the purposes of an
after-dinner speech. When the toast was announced,
he attracted attention by walking forward after the
6 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
manner of an old farmer, pulling off a slouch hat with
both hands, and catching a red bandanna handkerchief
as it dropped from his forehead. His first sentence,
"Es gebt gar greislich gelerente Leut, und Ich bin awe
aner dafun,"
("There are some very learned people, and I am one of
'em,")
sent a flash of merriment through the assemblage.
When he proceeded to enumerate the learned lan-
guages
' ' Es gebt sieva gelehrte Sproche, Englisch und Deutsch,
X/ateinisch und Griechish und Hebraeisch ; sell sin fiinf. Die
sechst haest Pennsylvania Deutsch, die sievet is German
Reformed,"
("There are seven learned languages, English and German,
I,atin and Greek and Hebrew ; these are five. The sixth is
called Pennsylvania German, the seventh is German Re-
formed,"
there were shouts of laughter over the entire hall.
The merriment reached its climax when he referred to
the venerable Dr. John W. Nevin as
" Der Chon Nevin, do navig mir."
( ' ' John Nevin, here aside of me. ' ' )
The applause then was like that of a great convention
and lasted for some time. The impression made by
his enumeration of the contributors and by his descrip-
tion of the work it accomplished before its publication
was suspended, is evident from the fact that the Re-
INTRODUCTION. 7
view was revived, and under different names its pub-
lication has been continued to the present time.
Dr. Harbaugh was a typical Pennsylvania German.
The dialect and its range of ideas he acquired at his
mother's knee and from the companions of his child-
hood and youth. His powers of work and his love of
fun were developed under the tutelage of the old farm
and under the influence of its customs, traditions and
forms of speech. He was thoroughly familiar with the
homes and habits, the social and religious life of the
Pennsylvanians of German ancestry. He knew their
merits, foibles, and shortcomings, their peculiar ways
and superstitions, their highest hopes and noblest
emotions. He admired their frankness and simplicity,
their thrift and industry, their honesty and integrity.
He shared their fondness for good meals, their sense of
humor, their hatred of every form of sham and hum-
bug. He summed up in his personality and exem-
plified in his life the best characteristics of these
people. Of all the men whom they have given to the
world, he was the most gifted and the most productive
from a literary point of view. Even in his criticism of
the common school system he reflected their views,
their fears and their prejudices. Had he lived to our
time he would have accepted, as a fixed fact among all
civilized nations, schools supported by taxation ; and
he would have been untiring in the effort to put into
these schools teachers of the highest skill and the
most unblemished character.
Dr. Harbaugh was more than a Pennsylvania Ger-
man. He mastered the English so well that his style
8 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
was envied and admired by many whose mother tongue
was Knglish and who had enjoyed far superior educa-
tional advantages. Such was his command of Anglo-
Saxon words that many of his sentences consist almost
entirely of monosyllables. In one respect he was like
Prof. Felton of Harvard, who, on handing a manuscript
to the printer, said : I profess Greek, not spelling.
Although Dr. Harbaugh could never have taken a
prize at a spelling bee, he always stuffed his sentences
full of sense and thought. He always aimed to make
his discourses intelligible and had little patience with
those who cannot or will not make their ideas clear to
their audiences. His assimilation of the fruits of
scholarship and sound learning was thorough and
rapid, yet he never drifted away from the common
people. He voiced their sentiments and aspirations in
prose and poetry, and sought to bring absolute and
eternal truth within the comprehension of the humblest.
His talks to children made a lasting impression upon all
who attended his Sunday School. Several of the hymns
which he wrote have come into general use and are now
helping to stimulate the hopes, to enrich the devotions,
and to elevate the aspirations of Christian worshippers
wherever the English language is spoken. The best
thoughts of the best men were his special delight.
Everything human and divine had an interest for him.
By taking up into himself the best things in literature
and the humanities he became a representative of
humanity in the best and broadest sense of the term.
Jesus Christ was the centre of his thinking, his affec-
INTRODUCTION. 9
tions, his purposes, and everything that he wrote and
spoke was intended to build up the Kingdom of God.
As a preacher he had few equals and no superior in
the Reformed Church. His sermons were fresh, inter-
esting, instructive, and edifying. An audience com-
posed largely of students and professors is very hard to
please and very difficult to hold. Of their own accord
the students of the college flocked to his church and
filled its pews. With pleasure and profit they listened
to his lectures on cultus and on the Heidelberg
Catechism as well as to his regular sermons. One who
often heard him writes :
"He had the qualities of a popular speaker. His clear,
round, musical voice he could control and use with marvelous
power. A good voice is a rare advantage to a public speaker.
Whether this gift was wholly natural or the result of elocution-
ary study I cannot tell. He could be distinctly heard in every
part of the largest church, even when speaking on the lowest
key. His utterance was always slow and distinct ; indeed,
sometimes it seemed slow to a fault. Fluency, as some men
count it, he had not. He lacked that rapidity of utterance so
common among public speakers, which allows syllables and
ideas to tread on each other's heels in hurried confusion. His
deliberateness of articulation sometimes made him seem
awkward and hesitating. With slow and measured accent,
effective and well chosen emphasis and few gestures, he rolled
out his short, sonorous sentences like pleasant music. Few
men combine depth with clearness, as he did. He could see
truth in the most trivial themes and subjects, and knew how to
show it to others. Often, when he announced an odd text or
subject, his hearers wondered how anybody could tell people
anything worth listening to on such a theme. To the tiniest
flower and the most insignificant animal he could give a tongue
to utter an impressive sermon. He abounded in apt illustra-
I0 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
tions ; preached frequently by parables taken from common
life. He dealt much in 'likes.' His style was unique. He
was profound yet simple, learned yet clear. His writings and
sermons abound in short sentences and short Saxon words.
He mediated between the deepest philosophy and the practical
sense of the common people. Freely using sources of learning,
he used them as a tree uses the earth and air, by reproducing
and assimilating their substance. His sermons were aglow
with life. You felt the warm blood coursing through every
sentence. He could throw a charm around the most abstruse
and apparently barren theme, and draw from it a cup of cold
water for the panting heart of the most illiterate day laborer.
These lines will be read by men of intelligence and earnest
thought, who remember the time when they were adrift on the
dark, stormy sea of skepticism. Without faith, without virtue,
without hope, providentially they were led to hear him once.
An undefinable something led them there a second time. And
thereafter he drew them closer and closer to himself. Step by
step, and often unconsciously to himself, he brought their
imperilled souls into the ark of safety. Many such there are
whose doubts he solved, and whom he led to the Lamb of
God."
It is the privilege of a gifted writer to influence the
hearts and lives of many with whom he never comes
into personal contact. His Golden Censer is still
without a rival as a book of devotion for young mem-
bers of the church. In it he is still guiding the devo-
tions of youth and lifting their inner life to a higher
plane. His books on Heaven have consoled multitudes
in their hours of sorrow and bereavement. An instance
in point will not be uninteresting. A New England
educator and author, Dr. William A. Mo wry, was
making a trip through Pennsylvania. When the sta-
tion Lancaster was announced, he said it reminded him
INTRODUCTION. 1 1
of Henry Harbaugh, in whose "Heavenly Recogni-
tion" he became interested as far back as 1851, the
year that the book was published. Depressed by the
death of a friend, he had gotten relief from it. He
read it again and again. Finding the argument satis-
factory, he has since used several copies as gifts to
those who have lost friends by death. Once while on
his way from New York to Boston he met a stranger
wearing weeds on his hat as a sign of mourning for a
deceased wife. After some conversation the mourner
asked : "Do you believe in the immortality of the
soul?" They discussed Butler's Argument for the
belief in a future state and exchanged cards on parting.
Harbaugh' s Book on Heavenly Recognition was sent
and courteously acknowledged. L,ater the two met
again. The influence of the book was evident. The
bereaved man had risen above his despondency and
settled in his mind the question of a hereafter. To
cause a good book to be read by another is to show a
double favor ; it benefits the reader and widens the
blessed influence of the author.
While Dr. Harbaugh was writing the Lives of the
Fathers of the Reformed Church, he heard of a trunk
full of documents collected by Rev. Philip Boehm. He
and two other clergymen traced the trunk to a building
on Cherry Street in Philadelphia. Upon learning that
the building, with all its contents, had been destroyed,
he shed tears over this irreparable loss.
During their search for the trunk and for historic
reminiscences the three stopped at a suburban home
I2 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
and were handsomely entertained. Next day on their
return to the city, as the house was disappearing over
the brow of the hill, he stopped to bless and gaze at the
home, saying : ' ' There dwells a very nice family. God
be praised that there are such families. Would that
there were more of them." Those whose homes he
entered as a guest say that his conversation was always
entertaining and instructive. His genial countenance
had a power which few could resist. Traveling in a
car, he sat behind two gentlemen whose profanity
annoyed him. He leaned forward and said : '" I notice
that you are men of prominence and gentlemen of cul-
ture, but the oaths with which you interlard your con-
versation are very annoying to me, a minister of the
Gospel. I know it is more from the force of habit than
from any evil intention." They felt inclined to resent
the interruption, but when they saw his genial face,
they thanked him for his kind counsel, whereupon he
said : ' ' If you must use expletives in your sentences,
say potatoes and beans." The gentlemen changed
their conversation and grew very fond of him before
the end of the journey.
Dr. Harbaugh was quick-witted and seldom at a loss
for a reply. Among his warm personal friends was
Rev. Samuel Bowman, Rector of St. James Kpiscopal
Church at Lancaster, Pa. He congratulated the latter
upon his elevation to the Episcopacy. "Ah," replied
the newly-made bishop, ' ' after all you grant that there
is something in the Episcopal office. " "Of course I
do," was the reply. " As an ordained minister of the
Reformed Church I have for many years performed the
INTRODUCTION. ^
rite of confirmation, and I congratulate you on your
elevation to my own rank. ' '
One incident in his life recalls a parallel incident in
the life of Socrates. A stranger on beholding the face
of this famous Athenian exclaimed ; ' ' That man is a
glutton." The inference was a great blunder, for of
all the men of that period Socrates was the most tem-
perate in all things. The incident in the life of Dr.
Harbaugh also grew out of his personal appearance.
Says the writer already quoted :
"In person he was of medium height, inclined to corpu-
lency. His florid face gave evidence of a vigorous constitution
which he by no means possessed. ' What a pity that such a
powerful preacher should be a drunkard,' said a gentleman
who had just heard him preach in Pottsville, Pa. His red face
misled the man. The temperance cause had no abler champion
than Dr. Harbaugh He was simple in his style of
dress, no less than in his style of writing and speaking. He
despised the dandy, above all the literary and clerical dandy.
Whilst he often gave his clothes to the poor, his own garments
not unfrequently bore marks of long use. Although one of
the most earnest of men, he was, on all proper occasions, brim
full of fun. Would that some one could collect his 'table
talk,' his sayings around the festive board and among the
circles of his more intimate friends. Few have such a fund of
anecdotes as he had, and few could tell them with such
dramatic effect. Many of these have passed into current use,
and are often quoted by his friends in conversation. With a
sort of humorous abandon he could throw himself on the study
lounge, and entertain a group of friends by the hour amid
roars of mirthful laughter. ' '
Although fond of wit and humor, he was always
reverent and always insisted on reverence for sacred
1 4 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
things. A student of theology announced that the
religious exercises would be opened by the singing of
a hymn. He reminded the student that the Reformed
Church holds religious services, not exercises. On
the floor of synod he described the difference between
churchly and unchurchly denominations ; the former,
he said, hold religious services, the latter religious
exercises. The distinction was emphasized by ges-
tures and bodily movements resembling those of the
athletic field and the old-fashioned revival meetings.
In the class room he invariably addressed the students
by using the term brethren, rather than the phrase,
young gentlemen. The epithets applied to him by
those who studied under him, show the profound
esteem and affection which they cherish for him. The
secret of his influence over young and old is found in
the superior qualities of heart which he possessed.
"Great thoughts spring from the heart," says a
philosopher. "Out of the heart are the issues of
life," says the Book of Proverbs. The sources of a
man's influence for good are found in the heart rather
than in the head. Because he had nothing else to
give, Pestalozzi took off his silver shoe-buckles and
gave them to a beggar. Harbaugh, on a frosty morn-
ing, took off his shoes and put on his slippers that he
might give the shoes to a barefooted, thinly clad tramp
at the front door. The student in need of funds
always found in him a helpful friend. During the
meeting of the Lutheran Synod at Lancaster a student
from Gettysburg stopped at his house. When asked
what claim he had upon the hospitality of Dr. Har-
INTRODUCTION. ! 5
baugh, he replied that he was a reader of the Guardian.
One of the most touching incidents belongs to the
pastorate at Lewisburg, 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
wept 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
!6 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
knew not where lie 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.
1 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, disap-
pointment and bereavement. And yet he was habitu-
ally 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 over-
sanguine views now and then misled him. He had no
sympathy with the morbid ecclesiastical croakers, who
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 con-
demned 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 dis-
missed from the ministry at a meeting of the Synod of
Reading, in 1782 :
' ' What the nature of this trouble was or for what cause he
was dismissed, I do not know nor was I zealous in ascertain-
ing 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.' "
OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
The foregoing quotations, with the exception of the
last, are from the pen of Rev. Dr. Benjamin Bailsman,
whose articles in the Guardian belong to the original
sources of information, and who sustained to Dr. Har-
baugh 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 glow-
ing 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 ser-
mons. This will be a proper theme for discussion in
the pages of the Reformed Review. Finally, no apology
is needed for reprinting several of his best poems in
English and Pennsylvania German, for these show him
INTRODUCTION. ! 9
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. SCHAEFFER.
Harrisburg) Pa. , October 29,
*I distinctly recall that while I was a student at Mercersburg, Dr. E. E.
Higbee, then Professor of Church History and Exegesis, 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.
EXPLANATORY.
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 life-
like 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 respect-
ing Dr. Harbaugh, the interview called this manuscript
to my mind, which some months before I had discov-
ered among my papers. After he had read it, he ex-
pressed 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 com-
mitted to paper.
T? ~\7 C^
Theological Seminary, Lancaster, Pa.,
October 2jth, 1899.
IFn flUemorfam,
BY THE REV. EML. V. GERHART, D.D.,
THE REV. HENRY HARBAUGH, DOCTOR OF DIVINITY, AND
PROFESSOR OF DIDACTIC AND PASTORAL 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
OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
~~ r
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 excel-
lencies, yet he seems to be a man 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 appre-
ciate 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 prema-
ture 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 zeal 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 MBMORIAM. 25
Pennsylvania, did not belong to the ordinary class
of educated men. Whatever the position he
occupied, or in whatever relation he stood, he dis-
tinguished 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 pre-
vailing in the social life of our German popula-
tion ; baptized into the communion of Christ's
26 LIFE 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 endow-
ments, he grew up into youth and manhood in the
element of German Gemuethlichkeit, 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 strength-
ened 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 indi-
vidualized 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 understand-
ing ; 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 per-
fection 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 sub-
servient to these spiritual ends ; yet he was tender-
IN MEMORIAM.
27
hearted, and in quick sympathy even with the
trifling bodily wants of little children.
Dr. Harbaugh possessed great facility in acquir-
ing knowledge ; the knowledge of men and things,
of literature, science and philosophy. He digested
rapidly what he learned, and rewrought it for him-
self. More active than receptive, no fact, sugges-
tion, or thought was laid on the shelf of his mem-
ory like a labeled fossil ; but he penetrated the in-
most sense of acquired knowledge freely. Breath-
ing 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 gen-
eral laws and the broadest relations which inform
the constitution of the world, genius apprehends
particular events and single things, not in a super-
ficial or arbitrary manner, but as they grow forth
from universal powers. Hence come new and
striking views of common events and of well-known
28 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
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 right-
eous 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 slum-
ber, 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 expres-
sion. No sooner had he accomplished one self-
imposed task than he was already engaged in pre-
IN MEMORIAM. 29
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 activ-
ities is found in the fact that he was always read-
ing, always thinking, always writing, always
working, and, I might add, always joking.
Among all 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 accom-
plished 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 o LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
Whilst entering with keen zest into the sports of a
fishing excursion, a huckleberry party, or a moun-
tain 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 develop-
ing 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. 3I
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 exter-
nal 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.
32 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 stub-
born, 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 some-
times 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 con-
sequence 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
IN MEMORIAM.
33
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. L/ike 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 com-
posure. 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 burn-
ing 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
34
UFK 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 ele-
ments 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 Ger-
man ; not an Englishman, nor a Scotchman, much
less a Frenchman ; but a German, an American
German, from head to foot. The blood of a Penn-
sylvania 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
IN MEMORIAM. 35
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 repre-
sentative 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.
36 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
The most prominent trait in his Christian char-
acter, 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 through-
out all the ages and in the midst of all the contra-
dictions 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 ; perpetu-
ated by the same divine agency through the sacra-
ment 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.
IN MEMORIAM. 37
Such devotion satisfied his heart and conscience.
To his faith Christ and His Church were not merely
scriptural doctrines, or beautiful ideas, but they
were substantial, living realities ; the most real of
all realities ; the most certain and glorious of all
certain and glorious things. Christ was present and
living in His kingdom ; He was the very presence
of the fulness of the Godhead in the Son of the
Virgin Mary. He was the consummate revelation
of the Creator in the perfection of the creature, and
the reconciliation of a just and holy God with a
fallen and sinful race. This most comprehensive
fact, seen by the eye of faith as a present, living
reality, authenticated itself as the most certain
truth to the consciousness of Dr. Harbaugh, and
satisfied his deepest needs as a dependent creature,
as a man, as a thinker, as a moral agent, and as a
sinner. Convinced that the acts of God could not
be lies any more than the words of God, he believed
that in baptism God sealed to him the forgiveness
of sins and the quickening of the new life in Christ ;
and that in the Holy Eucharist Christ nourished
the new life of faith by the communication of
Himself.
Apprehending Jesus Christ in this light, Dr.
Harbaugh believed in his divine Lord and Saviour
with a faith that enlisted all the energies of his
will, every faculty of his intellect, all the feelings
of his heart, and no less also all the powers of his
38 UFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
body. Seeing in Him the original principle of the
natural creation and the living fountain of grace ;
seeing in Him the final end and purpose of nature,
of providence and redemption ; the Head over all
things in Heaven and on earth unto the Church ;
and believing himself to be by grace a living
member of Christ, and an heir with Him of the
ineffable glory which He had with the Father
before the world was ; he was moved from within,
as by the spontaneous impulses of his being, not
only to acknowledge the supreme authority and
obey the commandments of Christ, but to live unto
Him with rejoicing ; to think and study in His
service ; to write and preach in His service ; to
labor and toil, to deny himself and endure in
His service ; concerned chiefly that the glorious
Kingdom of the Father might come with new
power, and that he might be faithful to his Lord
and Master unto the end.
Paradoxical as it may sound, yet it is but the
simple truth to say, that Dr. Harbaugh had but
little, or no concern about his personal salvation.
He took God at His word. He believed Christ and
His salvation to be sealed to Him in the sacra-
mental acts of God ; and he believed this so firmly
that the dark shadows of doubt or fear rarely, if
ever, disturbed his peace. His was the objective
assurance of salvation. He did not look into him-
self for the evidence of forgiveness. He did not
IN MEMORIAM.
39
analyze his spiritual feelings to find out whether he
was a Christian, just as he did not analyze his nat-
ural feelings to find out whether he was a man.
To him one process was as vain as the other. But
relying on the word and sacramental acts of Jesus
Christ, who can neither lie nor deceive, he felt him-
self standing as on an immovable rock, and he looked
forward to his resurrection from the dead and his
ultimate glorification in heaven as certain and nec-
essary facts, rejoicing in hope with unspeakable joy.
As the objective truth determined the nature of
his personal piety, so did it exert a determining in-
fluence on his official character and conduct as a
Christian Minister. The distinguishing trait of
his ministerial character may be expressed by say-
ing that he magnified his office. As the Church,
according to his view, was a present reality, a living
constitution in whose veins flowed the very life of
the God-Man, he held that in the act of ordination
a man becomes an office-bearer in this spiritual
kingdom, invested with supernatural authority and
power. The minister represents and perpetuates
the three-fold office of Christ in the Church for the
salvation of man. As Christ is the chief Prophet,
the minister teaches in His Name the truth as it is
in Christ. As Christ is the great High Priest who
offered Himself on the cross an all-sufficient sacri-
fice for the sin of the world, the minister proclaims
and dispenses the perennial virtue of this one all
4 o
LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
sufficient sacrifice. As Christ is the only true King,
the minister rules by His authority and according
to His will in the Church, guiding, protecting, and
defending, as the rightful under-shepherd, the flock
entrusted to his supervision.
It was in this sense that Dr. Harbaugh believed
himself to be a minister of Jesus Christ. Nor did
he suppose that the office of the ministry, being
representative of Christ, detracted from the su-
preme dignity of the divine Head. As the min-
ister mediates the Word of Christ in teaching, and
the law as the will of Christ in governing, so he
believed that the minister mediates the virtue of the
sacrifice and resurrection of Christ in performing
priestly functions. To represent and act for Christ
as the only High Priest did not involve a denial of
His supremacy and all-sufficiency, any more than it
did to represent and act for Christ as the Chief
Prophet and Teacher. On the contrary, he believed
that in magnifying his office as a minister in obedi-
ence to divine authority, he exalted the dignity and
intensified the sense of the reality of the original
office as belonging exclusively to Christ Himself.
For in exalting the ministerial office to its true
relation to Christ, he brought nigh to the sense
and consciousness of men, the living, ever-present
virtue and the peculiar glory of Jesus Christ as the
only Prophet, Priest and King.
IN MEMORIAM. 41
Of this view of his office received from Christ by
the laying on of the hands of the presbytery, the
spontaneous effect was to humble him in view of
his great unworthiness ; to fill his heart with joy
that he had been counted worthy to be entrusted
with the mysteries of grace ; to inspire him with
ardent and unquenchable zeal for his Master and
his Master's kingdom ; to impart strength, comfort
and hope amid his weaknesses and his numerous
discouragements ; to make him fearless, bold, and
uncompromising in the face of subtle wickedness
and hydra-headed errors that arose in church and
state, in philosophy, theology, and practical life ; to
impel him to persevering activity in the service of
the church, and sustain him under the various ex-
hausting labors which he performed with unwaver-
ing resolution from month to month, from year to
year, in the spirit of genuine self-denial and self-
sacrifice, for the good of men and the glory of
Christ ; and to keep his mind calm, composed,
cheerful, in the midst of the vicissitudes, bereave-
ments, sorrows, and conflicts of his ministerial
career.
The want of time does not permit me to enter
into details, else I might speak of his implicit faith
in Holy Scripture as the inspired word of God ; of
his ability and freshness as a preacher ; of his
fidelity to Christ in expounding His word without
fear or favor ; of his fidelity to the people in pro-
42 UFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
claiming the entire Gospel in all its fulness ; of
his sympathy as a pastor with the poor and the
sick, the widow and the orphan ; of his diligence
in the catechization of the children and youth of
the church ; of his lively and constant interest in
young men, and his unwearying efforts to arouse
them to high resolves and stimulate them to noble
endeavors ; of his devotion to the churchly idea of
parochial schools ; of his steady zeal in supporting
all the educational and missionary operations of
the church ; of his profound sense of the solemn
importance of higher institutions of learning in
their relation to the progress of the Gospel ; and
of his earnestness, tact, wisdom and modesty as a
conscientious leader on the floor of classis and
synod.
But waiving the consideration of these particu-
lars, I pass on to notice the position and character
of Dr. Harbaugh as a Protestant theologian of the
Reformed Church. Viewing him under this aspect,
we come to the highest point of the development of
his spiritual life. His genius and energy, his faith
and piety, his intellectual and practical activity ;
all meet and culminate in the Christian theologian.
Awakened to a clear perception of the rational-
istic and disintegrating tendencies of modern Pro-
testantism by the severe criticisms of his revered
teachers, the Rev. Drs. Neviu and Schaff, and led
by them, by organic methods of thought, into the
IN MEMORIAM. 4
study of the theology of the Reformation in its
relation to the theology of the post-Apostolic and
Nicene periods of history, Dr. Harbaugh came to a
definite apprehension of the truth that the Apostles'
Creed, next to the written Word, stands as the
principal rule of faith, possessing fundamental
significance for Protestantism, for the Reformed
Church, and for all subsequent periods of history.
In the light of living faith in Christ, he studied
with a due measure of independence the entire
range of Protestant theology, L,utheran and
Reformed. Passing beyond the Reformation
into those fruitful periods which solved many
fundamental problems of the Christian faith,.
he studied the issues involved in the great
controversies of the early church ; he repro-
duced the ruling primitive ideas concerning the
nature of Christianity and the nature of the church,
concerning the ministry, church government, wor-
ship, and the sacraments ; then, qualified by such
knowledge and sustained by a candid exegesis, he,
in the exercise of his own judgment, but with a
childlike spirit, studied the Scriptures of the Old
and New Testament. Standing on this scriptural
and catholic ground, he followed the developments
of the medieval age, and judged of the errors in
doctrine and corruptions in practice in the Roman
Church.
44 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
As the result of these extensive and faithful
historical studies, conducted under the leadership
of those whom he always loved to acknowledge as
guides, yet conducted in his own way with a free
and independent mind, Dr. Harbaugh became a
broad, manifold theologian, uniting in an organic
whole what to his opponents appeared to be antag-
onistic elements. For him the governing force of
sound theological thought was the objective order
of truth embodied in the Apostles' Creed, of which
the central, animating principle was the Person of
Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God. Studying
the written Word from this point of view, his
theology became catholic as well as Scriptural,
Protestant no less than catholic, and Reformed as
well as Protestant ; and it stood opposed alike to
infidelity and to false Biblicism, to Romanism and
Gnosticism, to one-sided metaphysical Calvinism
and humanitarian Arminianism, to lifeless orthodoxy
and arrogant rationalism, to a false unionism and
narrow bigotry, to cold formalism and self-inflated
fanaticism.
The theology of Dr. Harbaugh was therefore pri-
marily catholic, then Protestant, and finally Re-
formed. The Heidelberg Catechism he subordi-
nated, as it subordinates itself, to the Apostles'
Creed, and the Apostles' Creed to Holy Scrip-
ture, Scripture being held to be the ultimate critical
standard and the only norm of faith. But he
IN MBMORIAM. 45
studied Scripture in the light of the Creed, and the
Creed by the aid of the Catechism as well as in the
light of history. With him, the chief object of
interest and devotion was the Church catholic, the
one mystical body of Christ. To promote her pros-
perity and glory he lived and labored. No other
object on earth did he consider worthy of his time
and services. He was a Protestant because he be-
lieved Protestantism to be a necessary and valid
development of the original life of Catholicism ; and
he was Reformed because the Reformed Church, as
regards her theology, government, and type of
piety, was the better side of Protestantism. Under
this view we may call him a Reformed theologian
of the Church catholic ; or a firm opponent of
Romanism on the basis of the Reformed catholic
faith.
The natural result of such a comprehensive yet
definite theology was illustrated in the life of Dr.
Harbaugh. His opponents may draw the infer-
ence, and try to do so logically, that he did not
love the Reformed Church and was not devoted to
her prosperity as a distinct branch of the Protes-
tant Reformation. But no inference could be less
logical and less in accordance with fact. Whilst
the church universal was to him the chief object of
interest and devotion, he believed, as a legitimate
consequence of his Protestant faith in catholic
truth, that he could accomplish this chief end most
46 UFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
effectually by cultivating the original life and faith
of the church after the type and in the communion
of Protestantism. As a legitimate consequence of
his Reformed faith in Protestant truth, he believed
also that he could promote the interests of Christ's
Kingdom in the sphere of Protestantism most
effectually by living in the communion of the
Reformed Church, and devoting all his energies of
body and mind to her progress and triumphs.
Nay more. His life was even more specific still.
He eould not live for the Church by dissipating
his energies among vague generalities. He could
do so only by consecrating himself, his ministry,
his studies, his warm heart, to the church of his
American German fathers.
Accordingly Dr. Harbaugh was not only Re-
formed and German Reformed, but also American
German Reformed. That is, he devoted himself
specifically to the advancement of theology in the
German church planted in America by the Re-
formed fathers.
His extraordinary activity and numerous labors
demonstrate the truth of what I have asserted. He
loved the Heidelberg Catechism. He studied its
origin, its theology, its history ; he vindicated it
against false interpretation and unwarrantable op-
position. He preached series of sermons on it.
The last work of his life, though not published, is
a complete commentary on the catechism, contain-
IN MEMORIAM. 47
ing the results of his theological investigations
during the last twenty years of his life. In many
and various ways, which I have not time to enume-
rate, he labored to bring this precious formulary of
faith into honor among ministers and laymen ; to
disseminate the knowledge of its genius and its
doctrines among the people, and awaken in the
mind of the Reformed Church a lively conscious-
ness of her rich inheritance. Excepting only the
Rev. Dr. Nevin, no minister of the Reformed
Church from the pioneer Schlatter down to his
time, ever worked so steadily and untiringly to-
wards this noble end, and no one accomplished so
much.
Dr. Harbaugh made the history of the church
both in Europe and America a special subject of
investigation. He studied the lives of the Re-
formers. He studied the lives of the American
Fathers. To gather the requisite material for his
biographical works, he traveled extensively for
several years, as his professional duties would per-
mit, searching for information among piles of old
letters, in the records of the oldest churches, in con-
versation with the oldest surviving members of the
oldest churches, with the descendants of deceased
clergymen, and among the files of German and
English newspapers of the last century. To the
same end he carried on an extensive correspond-
ence ; besides, he collected all accessible manu-
48
OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
scripts, reports, annals, biographies, and histories
bearing upon his undertaking. He spared neither
time, nor labor, nor money in qualifying himself
for the proper execution of his plans. Then he
wrote out the Life of Michael Schlatter ; and this
was followed by The Lives of the Fathers in three
volumes. Though the books he wrote directly for
his own church yielded him no pecuniary revenue,
yet he did not abate his zeal nor relinquish his pur-
pose. These works were only preparatory to a
larger and more important work which he intended
to write, and no doubt would have written, had his
life been spared, namely, a complete history of the
German branch of the Reformed Church from its
origin to the present period.
Dr. Harbaugh originated the idea of the Ter-
centenary celebration of 1863. As Chairman of
the Committee of Arrangements he devised the
plan of that jubilee ; he superintended all the pre-
liminary work ; he directed the movement, in the
midst of all the discouragements arising from the
prevalence of a gigantic civil war ; and he did the
work successfully, from the beginning to its trium-
phant conclusion. Though he received important
aid and was supported by the active cooperation of
other members of the committee ; though the
movement must have been a failure had not other
distinguished theologians, both in Europe and
America, sustained it by their contributions, yet
IN MEMORIAM. 49
the fact stands out clearly to view that he inaugu-
rated the celebration of the Ter-centenary year,
and that the success of the celebration must in
the first instance be ascribed mainly to his genius
and zeal.
He was also the originator of the Historical
Society, or one of its principal originators. He
took a deep interest in its operations from year to
year, and was one of its most active supporters.
But I waive any further enumeration of par-
ticulars. These are only some of the facts which
demonstrate the earnest spirit with which he
devoted himself to the practical affairs of the
Reformed Church. Whilst many other men have
done good service in this direction, such as
Schlatter, Hendel, Reily, Mayer, Nevin, and
Schaff, yet it is but simple justice to say that, as
regards direct practical efforts in the interest of the
German branch of the Reformed Church, Dr. Har-
baugh distinguished himself as one of the most
efficient workmen in America.
We see from this review of his life that there
was no incompatibility between the catholic the-
ology of Dr. Harbaugh and living interest in the
practical affairs of the church. On the contrary,
it was the old faith that yielded such rich and
abundant fruit. The original life flowing in the
arteries of the church catholic circulates in the
arteries and veins of the entire body, nourishing
5 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
and animating every member and every organ of
the body mystical. Any member of this spiritual
organism can live and flourish only as it appropri-
ates the vitality of the same original life-blood.
u As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself," says
Christ, " except it abide in the vine, no more can
ye except ye abide in Me." Just because Dr. Har-
baugh identified himself with the faith and theology
of the Reformation and thus stood in unbroken
continuity with all previous periods of history and
through them with the life and faith of the Apos-
tolic College, did he feel the strong pulsation of
that life in the depths of his soul, and was con-
strained as by an irresistible impulse to labor for
the church of his fathers in America with as much
patience and zeal as if, like Paul, he had received
an audible call from God to offer himself to Him a
sacrifice on her altar.
It would be proper yet to touch upon the charac-
ter of Dr. Harbaugh as a writer and a poet. But
as this imperfect portraiture has already exceeded
its intended limits, I must forbear.
So fertile and various a genius, so marked a
character, and so active and successful a life, sug-
gest important practical reflections. But I shall
conclude by merely summing up the results of this
review of our sainted brother's life.
The central idea may be expressed by saying
that the spirit and genius of Dr. Harbaugh were
IN MEMORIAM. 5I
in the true sense representative. He was a repre-
sentative personality under every prominent aspect
of his character. Whether we consider him simply
as a man, an individual member of the race, or as
an American German, an individual member of this
particular nationality, the assertion is valid. He
was a genuine man, realizing the rich truth of a
noble manhood. He was a genuine Pennsylvania
German ; the best type, taken all in all, of German
life, of German geniality, and German modes of
thought, that has come to view in our day.
But the assertion is equally valid under the
higher aspect of Christian manhood. He realized
the idea of a Christian. I knew him well for nearly
thirty years, first as a student at Mercersburg and
afterwards as a pastor and a professor ; and for the
last twenty years we have been intimate bosom
friends. On all occasions he would communicate
to me with entire freedom his private opinions of
men and things, and the secret workings of his own
heart under the severest trials of his life. And I can
testify without reserve that, whilst he would some-
times differ with me in judgment, Dr. Harbaugh
was true to Christ as His humble follower, true in
the full sense of the word. What he appeared to
be outwardly he was in reality in the secret depths
of his soul. Scrupulously conscientious in every
act, the all-controlling principle of his conduct was
fidelity to Jesus Christ. Christ was the only law of
5 2 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
his life. And to this law he made all private and
temporal considerations bend absolutely by the
power of an unconquerable will.
No less did he realize the true idea of a minister
of the Gospel. Studious, faithful, earnest, devout,
reverential, fearless, yet kind and tender, he conse-
crated his powers and acquirements to his calling,
seeking only to fulfil the work of Christ on earth
to the glory of His name.
But I may speak more specifically. Harbaugh
was the true type of a German Reformed minister.
The rare qualities of mind and heart with which
he was endowed were not diverted from his legiti-
mate calling and frittered away on outside popular
enterprises and schemes, but were set apart sacredly
to the single purpose of building up the Church of
Christ in the faith of the Heidelberg Catechism,
and among the people of American German nation-
ality.
These particulars I sum up by saying that he
was a representative man in the sphere of Christo-
logical theology. He realized the idea of a theo-
logian of the German branch of the Reformed
Church. Rooted in the original life of the church
catholic, like the Catechism in the Apostles' Creed,
he held the positive truth of all ages in the specific
form begotten by the Reformed Confessions. This
truth he held in its negative relations to divergent
tendencies of Christian faith, revering what was
IN MEMORIAM.
53
good and Scriptural in the ecclesiastical organiza-
tions to which he did not adhere, and exposing
what he believed to be evil or false in the Com-
munion in which he lived. Whilst some men are
distinguished mainly for profound thought, others
for practical judgment and extraordinary activity,
he united both elements of character, devoting
himself with equal freedom to the science of Chris-
tian theology and to the details of practical Chris-
tian life. The union of these opposite qualities
constitute Dr. Harbaugh a model theologian.
Among all the disciples of his distinguished
teacher, no one grasped, illustrated, and developed
the ruling ideas of his philosophical and theolog-
ical thinking so well and so fully as did he.
In virtue of this extraordinary combination of
manifold qualities, natural and moral, which raised
him above the common level of men, of Christians,
and of ministers, Dr. Harbaugh was, by universal
consent, a leader and a standard bearer. As such
he stood forth prominently in the Reformed Church,
and he wielded an influence, mighty and permanent
for good, on the rostrum, in the pulpit, on the floor
of classis and synod, through the medium of the
press, and far and wide among all classes of the
people.
But it has pleased an all-wise Providence to call
him hence. Just when he had reached the meridian
of life ; when his intellect and his scholarship were
54
LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
approaching maturity ; just when the conflict be-
tween faith and all the insidious forms of unbelief
was waxing more violent ; just when, according to
our narrow judgment, his life and labors were most
necessary and important, the voice of God bids him
lay down the weapons of spiritual warfare, and
enter into rest. At such an hour as we thought
not, his lips are sealed in death ; and we awake to
a sense of great and irreparable loss. Our beloved
brother, our friend, our co-worker is no more.
A burning and a shining light has been extin-
guished. So we say ; but we do not yet feel the
full force of our loss. The painful sense of be-
reavement will come as occasions arise when his
presence is needed. Our hearts are sad and de-
pressed ; but we acquiesce in the dispensations of
the divine will ; for God deals with us both in wis-
dom and love. Dr. Harbaugh has entered into his
reward among the sainted dead ; he is verifying the
hope of heavenly recognition ; and is enjoying the
blessedness of the Home which he saw in the dis-
tance by faith. He has gained infinitely more than
we have lost.
We who remain are still in the midst of the
great conflict, and follow after in hope. His noble
example of faith and activity, of earnestness and
burning zeal, is the rich legacy which he has
bequeathed to us. His influence still lives. Though
dead, he yet speaketh.
IN MEMORIAM.
55
Let us revere his memory. Let us cherish and
perpetuate among us his apostolic spirit. Let us
imitate his example of activity, of zeal for the honor
of Jesus Christ, and of consecration to the Church
of the living God, which is the pillar and ground
of the Truth.
E. V. GERHART.
Lancaster, Pa., March 2d, 1868.
HYMNS AND POEMS.
BY HENRY HARBAUGH.
ESUS, I live to Thee,
The loveliest and best ;
My life in Thee, Thy life in me,
In Thy blest love I rest.
Jesus, I die to Thee,
Whenever death shall come ;
To die in Thee is life to me,
In my eternal home.
Whether to live or die,
I know not which is best ;
To live in Thee is bliss to me,
To die is endless rest.
Living or dying, Lord,
I ask but to be Thine ;
My life in Thee, Thy life in me,
Makes heav'n forever mine.
, my Shepherd, let me share
Thy guiding hand, Thy tender care ;
And let me ever find in Thee,
A refuge and a rest for me.
Oh, lead me ever by Thy side,
Where fields are green, and waters glide
And be Thou still, where'er I be,
A refuge and a rest for me.
58 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
While I this barren desert tread,
Feed thou my soul on heavenly bread ;
'Mid foes and fears Thee may I see,
A refuge and a rest for me.
Anoint me with Thy gladdening grace,
To cheer me in the heavenly race ;
Cause all my gloomy doubts to flee,
And make my spirit rest in Thee.
When death shall end this mortal strife,
Bring me through death to endless life ;
Then, face to face, beholding Thee,
My refuge and my rest shall be.
3ESUS, to Thy cross I hasten,
In all weariness my home ;
Let Thy dying love come o'er me
Light and covert in the gloom :
Saviour, hide me,
Till the hour of gloom is o'er.
Where life's tempests dark are rolling
Fearful shadows o'er my way ;
Let firm faith in Thee sustain me,
Every rising fear allay :
Hide, oh ! hide me,
Hide me till the storm is o'er.
When stern death at last shall lead me
Through the dark and lonely vale ;
Let Thy hope uphold and cheer me,
Though my flesh and heart should fail.
Safely hide me
With Thyself forevermore.
HYMNS AND POEMS.
THE MYSTIC WEAVER,
HT his loom the weaver sitting
Throws his shuttle to and fro ;
Foot and treadle,
Hands and pedal,
Upward, downward,
Hither, thither,
How the weaver makes them go !
As the weaver wills they go.
Up and down the warp is plying,
And across the woof is flying ;
What a rattling,
What a battling,
What a shuffling,
What a scuffling,
As the weaver makes his shuttle,
Hither, thither, scud and scuttle.
Threads in single,
Threads in double ;
How they mingle,
What a trouble !
Every color
What profusion !
Every motion
What confusion !
Whilst the warp and woof are mingling,
Signal bells above are jingling,
Telling how each figure ranges,
Telling when the color changes,
As the weaver makes his shuttle
Hither, thither, scud and scuttle.
II.
At his loom the weaver sitting,
Throws his shuttle to and fro ;
'Mid the noise and wild confusion,
59
60 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
Well the weaver seems to know,
As he makes his shuttle go,
What each motion
And commotion,
What each fusion
And confusion,
In the grand result will show :
Weaving daily,
Singing gaily,
As he makes his busy shuttle,
Hither, thither, scud and scuttle.
III.
At his loom the weaver sitting
Throws his shuttle to and fro ;
See you not how shape and order
From the wild confusion grow,
As he makes his shuttle go ?
As the warp and woof diminish,
Grows behind the beauteous finish :
Tufted plaidings,
Shapes and shadings ;
All the mystery
Now in history ;
And we see the reason subtle
Why the weaver makes his shuttle,
Hither, thither, scud and scuttle.
IV.
See the Mystic Weaver sitting
High in heaven His loom below.
Up and down the treadles go :
Takes for warp the world's long ages,
Takes for woof its kings and sages,
Takes the nobles and their pages,
Takes all stations and all stages.
HYMNS AND POEMS. 6 1
Thrones are bobbins in His shuttle ;
Armies make them scud and scuttle.
Woof into the warp must flow ;
Up and down the nations go ;
As the Weaver wills they go.
Men are sparring,
Powers are jarring,
Upward, downward,
Hither, thither,
See how strange the nations go,
Just like puppets in a show.
Up and down the warp is plying,
And across the woof is flying,
What a rattling,
What a battling,
What a shufliing,
What a scuffling,
As the Weaver makes His shuttle,
Hither, thither, scud and scuttle.
V.
Calmly see the Mystic Weaver
Throw His shuttle to and fro ;
'Mid the noise and wild confusion,
Well the Weaver seems to know
What each motion
And commotion,
What each fusion
And confusion,
In the grand result will show,
As the nations,
Kings and stations,
Upward, downward,
Hither, thither,
As in mystic dances, go.
In the present all is mystery ;
In the Past 'tis beauteous History.
O'er the mixing and the mingling,
62 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
How the signal bells are jingling !
See you not the Weaver leaving
Finished work behind in weaving ?
See you not the reason subtle
As the warp and woof diminish,
Changing into beauteous finish
Why the Weaver makes His shuttle,
Hither, thither, scud and scuttle ?
VI.
Glorious wonder ! What a weaving !
To the dull beyond believing !
Such no fabled ages know.
Only faith can see the mystery,
How, along the aisle of History
Where the feet of sages go,
Loveliest to the purest eyes,
Grand the mystic tapet lies !
Soft and smooth and even-spreading,
As if made for angels' treading ;
Tufted circles touching ever,
Inwrought beauties fading never ;
Every figure has its plaidings,
Brighter form and softer shadings ;
Each illumined what a riddle !
From a Cross that gems the middle.
'Tis a saying some reject it
That its light is all reflected ;
That the tapet's hues are given
By a Sun that shines in Heaven !
'Tis believed, by all believing,
That great God Himself is weaving !
Bringing out the world's dark mystery
In the light of faith and History ;
And as warp and woof diminish
Comes the grand and glorious finish
When begin the golden ages,
Long foretold by seers and sages.
HYMNS AND POEMS. 63
HEEMWEH.
*lfCH wees net was die Ursach is
" Wees net, warum ich's dhu :
'N jedes Johr mach ich der Weg
Der alte Heeniet zu ;
Hab weiter nix zu suche dort
Kee' Erbschaft un kee' Geld ;
Un doch treibt inich des Heemgefiehl
So schtark wie alle Welt ;
Nor'd schtart ich ewe ab un geh,
Wie owe schun gemeldt.
Wie nacher dass ich kumm zum Ziel,
Wie schtarker will ich geh,
For eppes in mei'm Herz werd letz
Un dhut m'r kreislich weh.
Der letschte Hiwel schpring ich nuf ,
Un ep ich drowe bin,
Schtreck ich mich uf so hoch ich kann
Un guk mit L/uschte hin ;
Ich seh's alt Schtee'haus dorch die Beem,
Un wott ich war schun drin.
Guk, wie der Kicheschornschtee' schmokt
Wie oft hab ich sell g'seh',
Wann ich draus in de Felder war,
'N Buwele Jung un klee'.
O, sehntscht die Fenschterscheiwe dort?
Sie guk'n roth wie Blut ;
Hab aft cunsiddert, doch net g'wisst,
Dass sell die Sunn so dhut.
Ja, manches wees 'n Kind noch net
Wann's dhet, war's ah net gut !
Wie gleich ich selle Babble Beem,
Sie schtehn wie Brieder dar ;
Un uf'm Gippel g'wiss ich leb !
Hockt alleweil 'n Schtaar !
64 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
'S Gippel biegt sich guk, wie's gaunscht-
'R hebt sich awer fescht ;
Ich seh sei' rothe Fliegle plehn,
Wann er sei' Feddere wescht ;
Will wette, dass sei' Fraale hot
Uf sellem Baam 'n Nescht !
O, es gedenkt m'r noch gans gut,
Wo selle werri Beem
Net greeser als 'n Welschkornschtock
Gebrocot sin worre heem.
Die Mammi war an's Grandad's g'west,
Dort ware Beem wie die ;
Drei Wipplein hot sie mitgebrocht,
Un g'sa't : ,,Dort blanscht sie hie."
M'r hen's gedhu' un glaabscht du's nau-
Dort selli Beem sin sie !
Guk ! werklich, ich bin schier am Haus !-
Wie schnell geht doch die Zeit !
Wann m'r so in Gedanke geht,
So wees m'r net wie weit.
Dort is d'r Schap, die Welschkornkrip,
Die Seiderpress dort draus ;
Dort is die Scheier, un dort die Schpring-
Frisch quellt des Wasser raus ;
Un guk ! die sehm alt Klapbord-Fens,
Un's Dheerle vor'm Haus.
Alles is schtill sie wisse net,
Dass epper fremmes kummt.
Ich denk, der alte Watsch is dodt,
Sunscht war er raus gedschumpt ;
For er hot als verschinnert g'brillt
Wann er hot 's Dheerle g'heert ;
Es war de Traw'lers kreislich bang,
Sie werre gans verzehrt :
Kee' G'fohr er hot paar Mol gegauzt,
Nor'd is er umgekehrt.
HYMNS AND POEMS. 65
Alles is schtill die Dheer is zu !
Ich schteh, besinne mich !
Es rappelt doch en wenig nau
Dort hinne in der Rich.
Ich geh net nei ich kann noch net !
Mei' Herz fiehlt schwer un krank ;
Ich geh 'n wenig uf die Bortsch,
Un hock mich uf die Bank ;
Es seht mich niemand, wann ich heil,
Hinner der Drauwerank !
Zwee Blatz sin do uf dare Bortsch,
Die halt ich hoch in Acht,
Bis meines Lebens Sonn versinkt
In schtiller Dodtes-Nacht !
Wo ich vurn alte Vaterhaus
'S erscht mol bin gange fort,
Schtand mei' Mammi weinend da,
An sellem Rigel dort ;
Un nix is mir so heilig nau
Als grade seller Ort.
Ich kanu se heit noch sehne schteh,
Ihr Schnuppduch in d'r Hand ;
Die Backe roth, die Aage nass
O, wie sie doch do schtand !
Dort gab ich ihr mei' Farewell,
Ich weinte als ich's gab,
'S war's letschte Mol in dare Welt,
Dass ich's ihr gewe hab !
Befor ich widder kumme bin
War sie in ihrem Grab !
Nau, wann ich an mei' Mammi denk,
Un meen, ich dhet se seh,
So schteht sie an dem Rigel dort
Un weint, weil ich wek geh !
Ich seh sie net im Schockelschtuhl !
Net an keem armere Ort ;
66 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
Ich denk net an sie als im Grab :
Juscht an dem Rigel dort !
Dort schteht sie immer vor mei'm Herz
Un weint noch liebreich fort !
Was macht's dass ich so dort hi' guk,
An sell Bnd vun der Bank !
Weescht du's? Mei' Herz is noch net dodt,
Ich wees es, Gott sei Dank !
Wie manchmal sass mei Dady dort,
Am Summer-Nochmiddag,
Die Hande uf der Schoos gekreizt,
Sei Schtock bei Seite lag.
Was hot er dort im Schtille g'denkt?
Wer mecht es wisse sag ?
V'rleicht is es 'n Kindheets-Draam,
Dass ihn so sanft bewegt ;
Oder is er 'n Jingling jetz,
Der scheene Plane legt !
Er hebt sei' Aage uf juscht nau
Un gukt weit iwer's Feld ;
Er seht v'rleicht d'r Kerchhof dort,
Der schun die Mammi helt !
Er sehnt v'rleicht nooch seiner Ruh
Dort in der bessere Welt !
Ich wees net, soil ich nei' in's Haus,
Ich zitter an d'r Dheer !
Es is wol alles voll inseid,
Un doch is alles leer !
'S is net meh heem, wie's eemol war,
Un kann's ah nimme sei ;
Was naus mit unsere Eltere geht
Kummt ewig nimme nei' !
Die Freide hot der Dodt gearnt,
Das Trauerdheel is mei' !
HYMNS AND POEMS. 67
So geht's in dare rauhe Welt,
Wo alles muss vergeh !
Ja, in der alte Heemet gar
Fiehlt m'r sich all allee' !
O, wann's net vor der Himmel war,
Mit seiner scheene Ruh,
Dann war m'r's do schun lang verleedt,
Ich wisst net, was ze dhu.
Doch Hoffnung leichtet meinen Weg
Der ew'gen Heeinet zu.
Dort is 'n schee', schee' Vaterhaus,
Dort geht m'r nimmeh fort ;
Es weint kee' guti Mammi men'
In sellem Freideort.
Kee' Dady such meh' fer 'n Grab,
Wo, was er lieb hat, liegt !
Sell is kee' Elendwelt wie die,
Wo alle Luscht betriegt ;
Dort hat das Lewe ewiglich
Iwer der Dodt gesiegt.
Dort find m'r, was m'r do verliert,
Un b'halt's in Ewigkeit ;
Dort lewe unsre Dodte all.
In Licht un ew'ger Freid !
Wie oft, wann ich in Druwel bin,
Denk ich an selli Ruh,
Un wott, wann's nor Gott's Wille war,
Ich ging ihr schneller zu ;
Doch wart ich bis mei' Schtindle schlagt,
Nor'd sag ich Welt, adju !
68 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
DAS ALT SCHULHAUS AN DER KRICK.
JL|EIT is 's 'xactly zwansig Johr,
* *" Dass ich bin owwe naus ;
Nau bin ich widder lewig z'rick
Un Schteh am Schulhaus an d'r Krick,
Juscht neekscht an's Dady's Haus.
Ich bin in hunnert Heiser g'west,
Van Marbelstree' un Brick,
Un alles was sie hen, die Leit,
Dhet ich verschwappe eenig Zeit
For's Schulhaus an der Krick.
Wer mied deheem is, un will fort,
So loss ihn numme geh'
Ich sag ihm awwer vorne naus
Es is all Humbuk owwe draus,
Un er werd's selwert seh' !
Ich bin draus rum in alle Eck',
M'r macht's jo ewwe so ;
Hab awwer noch in keener Schtadt
Uf e'mol so viel Freed gehat
Wie in dem Schulhaus do.
Wie heemelt mich do alles a' !
Ich schteh, un denk, un guck ;
Un was ich schier vergesse hab,
Kummt widder z'rick wie aus seim Grab,
Un schteht do wie en Schpuck !
Des Krickle schpielt verbei wie's hot,
Wo ich noch g'schpielt hab dra' ;
Un unner selle Hollerbisch
Do schpiele noch die kleene Fisch,
So schmart wie selli Zeit.
HYMNS AND POEMS. 69
Der Weisseech schteht noch an der Dhier
Macht Schatte iwwer's Dach :
Die Drauwerank is ah noch grie'
Un's Amschel-Nescht guk juscht mol hi'
O was is dess en Sach !
Die Schwalme schkippe iwwer's Feld,
Die vedderscht is die bescht !
Un sehnscht du dort am Giebeleck
'N Haus vun Schtopple un vun Dreck?
Sell is en Schwalme-Nescht.
Die Junge leie allweil schtill,
Un schlofe alle fescht.
Ward bis die Alte kriege Werm
No'd herscht du awwer gross Gelerm
Vun Meiler in dem Nescht !
Ja, alles dess is noch wie's war
Wo ich noch war en Buh ;
Doch anner Dings sin net neh so,
For alles dhut sich ennere do
Wie ich tnich ennere dhu.
Ich schteh wie Ossian in seim Dhal
Un seh in's Wolkeschpiel,
Bewegt mit Freed un Trauer ach !
Die Dhrene kumme wann ich lach !
Kanscht denke wie ich fiehl.
Do bin ich gange in die Schul,
Wo ich noch war gans klee' ;
Dort war der Meeschter in seim Schtuhl,
Dort war sei' Wip, un dort sei' Ruhl,
Ich kann's noch Alles seh'.
Die lange Desks rings an der Wand
Die grose Schieler drum ;
Uf eener Seit die grose Mad,
Un dort die Buwe net so bleed
Guk, wie sie piepe rum !
LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
Der Meeschter watscht sie awwer scharf,
Sie gewe besser acht :
Dort seller, wo lofletters schreibt
Un seller, wo sei Schpuchte treibt,
Un seller Kerl wo laclit.
Die Grose un die Kleene all
Sin unner eener Ruhl ;
Un dess is juscht der rechte Weg :
Wer Ruhls verbrecht, der nemmt die Schleg,
Odder verlosst die Schul.
Inwennig, uni der Offe rum
Hocke die kleene Tschaps,
Sie lerne artlich hart, verschteh,
Un wer net wees sei' A B C
Sei' Ohre kriege Rapps.
S'is hart zu hocke uf so Benk
Die Fiess, die schteh'n net uf
En Mancher kriegt en weher Rick
In sellem Schulhaus an der Krick,
Un fiehlt gans krenklich druff .
Die arme Drep ! dort hocke se
In Misserie juscht denk !
Es is kee' Wunner : nemm mei Wort
Dass se so wenig lerne dort,
Uf selle hoche Benk.
Mit all was mer so sage kann,
War's doch en guti Schul ;
Du finscht keen Meeschter so, geh, such
Der seifre kann darch's ganze Buch,
Un schkippt keen eeni Ruhl.
Bees war er ! ja, dess muss ich g'schteh ;
G'wippt hot er numme zu ;
Gar kreislich gute Ruhls gelehrt
Un wer Schleg kriegt hot, hen se g'heert,
Hot eppes letz gedhu'.
HYMNS AND POEMS.
Wann's Dinner war, un Schul war aus,
Nor'd hot mer gut gefiehlt ;
Dheel is 'n Balle-Gehm gelunge,
Dheel hen mitnanner Rehs g'schprunge,
Un Dheel hen Sold'scher g'schpielt.
Die grose Mad hen ausgekehrt
Die Buwe nausgeschtaabt !
Zu helfe hen en Dheel pretend,
Der Meeschter hot sie naus gesendt :
Die Ruhls hen's net erlaabt.
Die kleene Mad hen Ring geschpielt
Uf sellem Waasum da ;
Wann grose Mad sin in der Ring
'S is doch en wunnervolles Ding !
Sin grose Buwe ah !
Die Grose hen die Grose 'taggt,
Die Kleene all vermisst !
Wie sin se g'schprunge ab un uf,
Wer g'wunne hot, verloss dich druf,
Hot dichdiglich gekisst !
Am Chrischdag war die rechte Zeit
Oh wann ich juscht dra' denk !
Der Meeschter hen mer naus geschperrt,
Die Dhier un Fenschter fescht gebarrt
,,Nau, Meeschter, en Geschenk !"
Nor'd hot er awwer hart browirt,
Mit Fors zu kumme nei' ;
Un mir hen, wie er hot gekloppt,
'N Schreiwes unne naus geschtoppt,
,, Wann's seinscht, dann kannscht du rei !'
Nau hot der Meeschter raus gelanst,
Gar kreislich schiepisch 'gukt !
Eppel un Keschte un noch meh',
'S war juschtement in fact recht schee',
Mir hen's mit L,uschte g'schluckt.
72 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
Oh wu sin nau die Schieler all,
Wo hawe do gelernt?
'N Dheel sin weit ewek gereest,
Vum Unglick uf un ab gedscheest,
Dheel hot der Dodt gearnt !
Mei Herz schwellt mit Gedanke uf ,
Bis ich schier gar verschtick !
Kennt heile, 's dhut m'r nau so leed,
Un doch gebt's mir die greeschte Freed,
Dess Schulhaus an der Krick.
Gut bei ! alt Schulhaus Echo kreischt
Gut bei ! Gut bei ! zurick ;
O Schulhaus ! Schulhaus ! muss ich geh',
Un du schtehscht nor'd do all allee',
Du Schulhaus an der Krick !
Oh horcht, ihr L,eit, wu nooch mir lebt,
Ich schreib eich noch des Schtick :
Ich warn eich, droh eich, gebt doch Acht,
Un nemmt uf immer gut enacht,
Des Schulhaus an der Krick !
L.IFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
I. ANCESTRY.
on him who will know nothing of
his parentage," exclaimed Dr. Henry
Harbaugh from his pulpit at Lancaster,
Pa., in 1851. "Shame on him who dis-
owns his ancestry ; he reproaches the
blood in his own veins. Both shame and sin on
him who is ashamed of his countrymen ; he brands
himself as a hypocrite in the eyes of all nations !
Yet there are those still who seem to think that he
who speaks German is necessarily ignorant, and
that he who understands two languages knows less
than he who knows but one ! This lowest of all
prejudices is certainly held with consistency by the
descendants of those who in 1727 remonstrated with
Governor Keith against the naturalization of the
Swiss and German settlers on the Pequea, * urging
among other things against them * that they had
resolved to speak their own language ! ! /' O jam
satis."
* Creek flowing through Lancaster County, Pa., into the Susquehanna
river.
74 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
Upon another occasion he wrote :
"No country lies so near heaven as Switzerland.
Her eternal Alps are her fit monuments, at once
the symbols of power and freedom ; while the quiet
valleys which they shelter and shade, speak to us for-
ever of peace and blessing. ' '
It is intended herein to trace briefly the lineage
of Henry Harbaugh, from the ancestral home in
Switzerland down to his own life and times, and to
offer something in support of the proposition that
his deeply religious and poetic life, if nothing more,
sprang through the influences of heredity from the
very heart of the Swiss mountains.
In the Land Office at Harrisburg, Pa., there is a
deed of record in which it appears that in 1739,
Joost Harbogh was the owner of a tract of land of
one hundred acres in what is now Berks County,
three miles above Maxatawny creek. He came from
Switzerland about the year 1736, and lived on this
tract for about four years. After this he moved to
the new settlement of Kreutz creek, west of the
Susquehanna, where he cleared the land and built
a substantial log house which was yet standing in
the year 1836. It was forty feet square and the
logs were of the choicest timber, all nicely hewn,
some of them being as much as two feet broad.
Westward from the site of this old house there is a
gentle slope downward towards the spring ; directly
ANCESTRY.
75
south of the spring was formerly the garden. Not
many years ago there still grew some parsnips and
larkspur along the fence which once bounded the
old garden plot the degenerated and lingering
relics of ornament and use. Their dying and re-
viving each year seems to be a picture of how mem-
ory lingers and struggles to keep itself alive around
the spot to which its fondest associations are bound.
Numerous German settlements were made on the
banks of the Kreutz creek as early as 1736. Exiles
from the Palatinate, they sought a new home where
they hoped to live in peace ; martyrs to the cause
of Protestantism, they fled from the cruel religious
persecutions of France and Germany, and expected
to find a dwelling place where they could build
anew their homes and their churches.
But in the place of receiving them kindly for
their own sakes as well as for the sake of Him in
whose cause they had suffered so much, the mag-
nanimous government of Penn denied them a home
for a time, and then after relenting so far as to
allow them to remain, subjected them to great
annoyances for many years.
The mode of life and surroundings of these early
German settlers were truly primitive, simple, and
severe. Here the young man and wife with a calm
courage born in part at least of a hope for material
prosperity, blazed a pathway through the forests
and braved the dangers of the time.
76 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
Upon their arrival from the fatherland the first
want of these hardy pioneers was to found a home.
To clear away the forest and erect a good strong
house of logs was the labor to which they first ad-
dressed themselves. Their furniture and conveni-
ences of the household were of a rude sort, and
their dress was simple, consisting of tow cloth
almost wholly, until later when wool came to be an
article obtainable in the markets. But there was a
long time during which even a mixture of tow and
wool was regarded as an article of luxury, and for-
tunate was he who could have it as a means of com-
fort in the winter months. In all that district
around Kreutz creek there was neither shoemaker
nor tanner, and shoes were brought annually from
Philadelphia to supply the settlers. The mending
was done by an itinerant cobbler who carried his
little pack of leather used in the mending, with his
tools, from one farm house to another. Tailors and
blacksmiths were also itinerants. The same incon-
venience attended the introduction of schools. The
first schoolmaster was known only as " Der Dicke
(thick) Schulmeister" and it goes without saying
that he was crude in his art and often mercenary in
his motives.
The privileges of the church could only be en-
joyed by going to Lancaster, where a Reformed
Church was built as early as 1736. It is said that
" ministers from the other side of the river" were
ANCESTRY.
77
wont to come over once or twice a year to baptize
the children. However, the lot for the Kreutz
Creek Church was taken up October 27, 1746, and
there was a church erected soon thereafter. The
settlers maintained their religion and church serv-
ices, though at times they were disheartened and
scattered, only to be brought back again and pro-
vided with shepherds by such heroic missionaries as
Zinzendorf, Muhlenberg, and Schlatter. On the
occasion of celebrating the H5th anniversary of
the organization of the German Reformed Church
in the city of Lancaster, October n and 12, 1851,
Dr. Harbaugh, pastor of the church, delivered sev-
eral historical discourses. Among other things, he
said :
" The members of this congregation, from the begin-
ning, and always, took a deep and active interest in the
cause of education. Their school house, as they say,
was * erected almost since the first settlement of the
town.' It was no doubt built at the same time with
the church, for in their minds the church and school
were inseparable. Their ideas of the culture of their
children was, * from the family into the school, from the
school into the church, and from the church into
heaven.'
' ' The first Reformed ministers in this country were
men of learning,* and knew therefore the value of this
*The Reverend Jedediah Andrews, a graduate of Harvard College of
the class oi 1695, in a letter dated Philadelphia, 1730, says in evident sur-
78 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
interest. Their classical learning was a matter of sur-
prise and wonder to the English divines of this coun-
try. It has already been shown in this discourse that
the largest number of the pastors of this congregation
were men of regular university education. They re-
garded the business of education as belonging rather to
the church than to the state ; and hence manifested the
same zeal for it as they did for any other religious
duty. Success attended their zeal. It was known that
the Rev. Michael Schlatter, the first regular missionary
of the German Reformed Church in this country, had
as an important part of his mission assigned to him the
duty of establishing and superintending schools. He
labored in this cause in Lancaster also. It is said in
regard to these schools, ' so rapidly indeed had the
scholars increased, and with so much success were the
schools conducted, under the united efforts and perse-
vering industry of the Lutheran and German Re-
formed congregations that from about the year 1745 to
1784, they were almost the only schools of character in
the county, except those at Ephrata and L,ititz. '
' * Again it is said in regard to these same Germans :
* For their attachment to learning and their untiring
efforts in the cause of education, they receive but little
credit, even from those whose acquaintance with the
facts, independent of their German origin, should
prise : "There is lately come over a Palatinate candidate of the ministry,
who having applied to us at the Synod (Scotch Synod) for ordination, 'tis
left to three ministers to do it. He is an extraordinary person for sense
and learning. We gave him a question to discuss about Justification and
he answered it in a whole sheet of paper, in a very notable manner. His
name is John Peter Miller, and speaks Latin as readily as we do our ver-
nacular tongue, and so does the other, Dr. Weiss !" Mirable dictu !
ANCESTRY. 79
prompt them upon all occasions to become their readiest
defenders. How many schemes for the dissemination
of knowledge among men have they not successfully
devised, and other nations, as well as ourselves, as suc-
cessfully put into operation, without so much as credit-
ing the source from whence derived ? With no other
people would it have been attempted, and they have
submitted to the moral wrong only because they re-
joiced more in the good that followed to others than in
the enjoyment of the honor that was due to the dis-
covery for themselves.'
' * So much we have thought proper to say by way of
correcting the common slander is there a softer name ?
which it is still fashionable to perpetuate, not only
among the wise descendants of those who made the
Blue lyaws and who burnt witches, but among some
whose grandfathers spake only German."
The Pennsylvania-German Society, although in
existence but a few years, has rescued and put in
form to be preserved, much of the history and liter-
ature of this sturdy people. The Rev. Paul de
Schweinitz speaks thus of them : "These early
emigrants were intensely religious, and their de-
scendants as a people have remained so. The lan-
guage they brought with them, which is still used
in their German churches, testifies to this. The
German language is peculiarly adapted to the ex-
pression of religious and spiritual experiences.
They brought with them to this country their in-
8o LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
born love for the masterpieces of musical creation,
and they have been largely instrumental in intro-
ducing to the American churches the uplifting
anthems of Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn, Haendel,
Mendelssohn, and others. So difficult and profound
is the Passion Music of John Sebastian Bach, that
its production in this country has been attempted
only twice, I believe. Once in Boston, Mass. , and
the other time with brilliant success in the Penn-
sylvania-German town of Bethlehem."
" The social and religious life among the Ger-
mans of Pennsylvania and neighboring states, one
hundred years ago, was peculiar to itself, and its
history has its own charm," writes Dr. Harbaugh,
in his life of Schlatter. U A retiring and rural
people were our forefathers. Isolated to a great
extent from others by language, social habits, re-
ligion, and even the character of their secular pur-
suits, they dwelt in the fertile and friendly valleys
of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Vir-
ginia, ambitious only for the quiet ways of peace
and love. It cannot be uninteresting even to
strangers, and certainly not to their own children,
to be presented with a picture, even though it may
be very imperfect, of the social and religious
features of the olden time among the Germans.
Such a picture must come forward in the life and
labors of a man like Michael Schlatter, who earn-
ANCESTRY. 8 1
estly identified himself with their highest educa-
tional and religious interests for the space of more
than forty years, during the most interesting and
eventful period of our country's civil and ecclesi-
astical history.
"A true history of Pennsylvania would be one
that would cluster not around its civil machinery,
its council records, its battle fields and forts, its
public officers and schemes of state policy, but
one which would thread on its religious history,
follow its churches as they rose in one valley and
settlement after another, the pioneerings of its early
pastors and the general progress of piety and purity
in its families. There is not a family in the State
whose history is not prevailingly bound up with its
venerable churches and well-filled grave yards.
These were not only the first prominent, sacred,
and venerated places in the early settlements, but
have always been the centers to which the deepest
and most earnest thoughts of men have tended, and
from which have gone out those moulding influ-
ences which have made individuals, families, val-
leys, and the State itself, as wealthy, worthy, and
peaceful as they are."
Tradition says that Yost Harbaugh was a man of
stout physical frame, energetic spirit and great
courage just such a man as would enter upon a
new settlement and brave the dangers and endure
8 2 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
the hardships of a border life.* He was a member
of the Reformed Church. This is certain from the
fact that he came from Switzerland, where all are
confirmed to the church at fourteen years of age.
Among the records of the Kreutz Creek Church are
the baptism of children of his sons Yost and John,
as early as 1759, which was before his death. This
indicates that he raised his children to the faith and
worship of the Reformed Church. He helped to
found the German Reformed Congregation at York,
Pa., and was a member of it. He aided in build-
ing the first church there. An old manuscript
agreement, in which are laid down the principles
on which the church shall be built, and the rules
by which the congregation shall be governed, con-
tains his name signed by himself, under date of
March 17, 1745. His sons were members at
Kreutz creek, and the Reformed Church has been
since the prevailing ecclesiastical connection of
nearly all the families which have sprung from this
patriarch. Yost Harbaugh is buried, it is thought,
in the grave yard at Kreutz creek, though there is
no stone to mark his grave. There remains on the
western side of the grave yard a stone which
marks the grave of one of his daughters who died
in 1790, and this may be safely taken as designa-
ting the place of family interment. He died in
*At this and other places in this chapter, the words of Dr. Harbaugh
have been freely used, from the Annals of the Harbaugh Family.
ANCESTRY. 83
April, 1762. His will, which is a quaint and curi-
ous document of considerable length, was recorded
April 27, 1762, in York County. As an expression
of his intentions it was no doubt satisfactory, but
the scrivener who drew it evidently had more re-
gard to the form and letter, than to the spirit of the
law. In quite a long preamble the testator ac-
knowledges his gratitude to God. u Being very
sick and weak in body but perfect of mind and
memory thanks be given therefore unto god there-
fore calling unto mind the mortality of my body
and knowing that it is appointed for all men once
to Dye, I do mak and ordain this my Last Will and
Testament." As to his body, he recommends that
"it be buried in a Christian like and desend maner
nothing Doubting but at the general Resurrection
I shal receive the Same again by the mighty pwr
of god." And touching his worldly estate, he be-
queaths to his wife, "Twelve Pounds of good and
lawful money of Pennsylvania & that yearly and
every year so long as she abids a widow, and she
shal have a full right to the Spring hous to Live
thereon or in and to any one of the Cows in the
stable . . . and a Chist to hir own use and that to
hir and hir assigns for Ever." And to his ten
children the estate is " Equal y divided Share and
Shear alike to the ouldest no more than the youngst
or any of the rest." There is a memorandum
marked " Beni" at the end of the will in which the
84 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
wife is further provided for, u and any of the Ex-
ecutors if the have any money in hand for any of
the Legasses if the Can not lend it out as the think
proper shall not be obliged to pay interess for it.
This has been forgit to put in the will afore signed
and sealed. " The paper was first probated before
one John Adlum, who styles himself u One of His
Magosty's Justices of the Peace," but the Court
afterwards decided it to be insufficient and the pro-
bate was then made before the proper officer.
This Swiss emigrant, Yost Harbaugh, the pro-
genitor of the family in America, was twice mar-
ried, having by h s first union six children and by
his second four. Three of his sons by the first mar-
riage found their way into the border land of Mary-
land and Pennsylvania and permanently settled in
a small valley in Frederick County, Maryland,
which afterwards came to be known as Harbaugh's
Valley. No doubt they were attracted there by the
fact that a Swiss settlement had already been made.
Perhaps the national instinct of the Swiss to love
mountainous regions had much to do with it. Swiss
soldiers have died of homesickness for their native
Alps, and the hearts of emigrants are ever weary of
the plains, abiding not until they rest in the shadow
of a mountain. It is the fortunes of the third son,
Jacob, with which we shall have to do briefly. He
was born in Switzerland February 5, 1730, and
came with his parents to America at the age of six
ANCESTRY. 85
years. When quite a young man he purchased a
tract of land in Frederick County, Maryland, and
while yet living with his father, and long before he
received his u Equal shear and no more," made fre-
quent trips to the land and worked at the clearing.
He was married in April, 1761, to Anna Margaretta
Smith and moved to his new possessions shortly
thereafter. The names of the several tracts of land
composing his farm are "Mount Olivet," "Sweet
Land," and " The Tied Dog." It was surrounded
by wilderness when he bought it, but he cleared it
up and afterwards added some acres to the original
purchase. Game of all kinds was plentiful when
he moved there, and bear's meat was not an un-
common article of diet. Nor were they at that
early time free from danger on account of voracious
and destructive wild beasts.
Jacob Harbaugh was tall and rather stout in
person, though somewhat on the strait order of
build. His education was limited, but he could
read, write, and keep his own accounts, and he
knew well how to handle money affairs. He ruled
with perfectly undisputed authority in his house
and family, and his government in that respect
would be considered far too severe in these days.
On Sunday all was perfect order about the house.
He belonged to the German Reformed Church, and
all of his family who were big enough to go, at-
tended services, often walking the distance of six
6
86 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
miles. The table fare was plain and the furniture
of the house was as simple and plain as the fare.
The chairs were homemade, the seats platted with
broad smooth shaved slips of white oak or hickory,
while the walls were lined with plain benches. By
industry and economy Jacob Harbaugh prospered
from a worldly point of view and in his old age he
was surrounded by a large amount of property. He
was able to place each of his sons on a piece of
land where they might begin the world for them-
selves. He became quite venerable in appearance
and patriarchal in his habits in his old age. He
began to exercise the same authority over his grand-
children that he had over his own children. Fi-
nally on the 28th day of April, 1818, he u was
gathered unto his people" at the ripe age of eighty-
eight years and three months. He is buried on the
homestead farm in the family grave yard by the
side of his good wife, who preceded him March 18,
1803. Two neat marble slabs with suitable in-
scriptions mark the graves. Jacob, like his father,
Yost, had ten children, and his descendants, to-
gether with those of his brothers, L,udwig and
George, form a numerous, widely scattered, and
thoroughly respectable class of citizens.
Jacob Harbaugh's youngest child, George, was
imbued with the same spirit of industry and enter-
prise that characterized his forefathers. He was born
in the old homestead in the " Valley" March 17,
ANCESTRY. 8 7
1774. In his twenty-sixth year he married Anna
Snyder, daughter of Jacob Snyder, who lived near
Boonsboro, Md., and soon after his marriage settled
in Washington Township, Franklin County, Pa.,
at the foot of South Mountain. There he took up
a tract of land almost wholly unimproved, the same
being a part of a tract called the " Third Resurvey
on Sarah's Delight," granted by patent unto Chris-
topher Shockey by Frederick, then absolute Lord
and Proprietor of the Province of Maryland, July
12, 1768.
A small log house stood opposite the present
barn in the orchard where he resided for several
years. The stone house, so frequently and so
fondly spoken of in Pennsylvania-German poems,
was built in 1805. The stones for the front were
hauled from near Leitersburg, a distance of six
miles, and the capital available for building at the
time was two hundred dollars. George Harbaugh,
however, was an industrious man, and required all
his children to be usefully employed. Like his
father, Jacob, he was strict in his family, and a life
long member of the Reformed Church, attending
worship regularly at Waynesboro. Ministers fre-
quently enjoyed his home and hospitality, and he
was especially fond of their company. He was one
of the founders of the German Reformed Church
at Waynesboro, and took a prominent part in the
erection of the church, which was built of hewn
88 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
logs. The inside work was wrought out by the
carpenters in his barn and hauled to town by his
teams. He was also, in his old age, one of the
founders of the church near his own home ; giving
the ground for the site and the grave yard, and
taking an active part in its erection. He was during
many years an elder in the church, and in his last
years especially attended diligently to the duties of
that office. He was strictly temperate in his habits
and moderate in his views. He was averse to all
excitement in politics, wild speculation in business,
and fanaticism in religion. In his mellow old age
he was known far and near and beloved by all. In
his death the community sustained a great loss and
especially the needy, distressed, and sick, to whom
he attended with a father's care. On February 3,
1853, aged seventy-eight years and ten months, he
passed away. He sleeps with others of the family
in the graveyard on the farm. His wife, Anna,
born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, died
October 31, 1837, aged fifty years and five months,
and lies buried by her husband's side.
They had twelve children sons and daughters
nearly all of whom lived to a good age, but all have
passed away except David, who has been a most
zealous and able minister of the Lutheran Church,
and is still an active man of God and an exemplary
citizen, residing at present in Colorado Springs,
Colo.
ANCESTRY. 89
The tenth child of George and Anna Harbaugh
was Henry Harbaugh 1817-1867, the subject of
the following pages :
And so we have the progenitor and great-grand-
father, Yost ; the grandfather, Jacob ; the father,
George, and the son, Henry all honorable men of
good report ; all long since passed over to the spirit
world, and their works do live after them.
When these ancestors settled in York County and
in the Valley and elsewhere, the country was wild
and unbroken. On their own land they felled the
forests, cleared the soil, and erected homes for them-
selves and their descendants. All this was done by
many a weary and earnest stroke. They were econ-
omical, but bore the name of being good to the
poor, and of practicing the virtue of hospitality.
They were sober, kept their promises, and paid
their debts, and were professors of the Christian
religion. It is a duty and a pleasure to cherish the
memory of those who have thus gone before us. To
contemplate their lives and to grasp the spirit of
their goodness cannot be but a blessed inspiration.
II. CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH ON THE
FARM.
HIvMOST within the shadow of South Moun-
tain, on the Pennsylvania-Maryland boundary
line four miles southeast of Waynesboro, Pa., stands
the old Harbaugh homestead. The house is a double
front stone structure whose substantial walls, built
in 1805, bid fair to weather the storms of another
century, while its less durable companion piece, the
school house at the creek, u Juscht neekscht an's
Dady's Haus," lives only in the song of the
u Harfe." Here amid the homely scenes of Penn-
sylvania-German country life, George Harbaugh
and Anna his wife lived and reared their children,
and here it was that Henry was born on October
28, 1817.
In after years, when visiting the old home, he
was wont to stroll through every corner of the house
from cellar to garret. Rummaging among the old
lumber, usually stowed away in the garret, his eye
fell upon the cradle, which he thus describes :
' * There is one piece of furniture in the corner of the
garret, the sight of which touches us more strangely
than all the rest, and awakens feelings of a peculiar
kind. It is the cradle in which we all the boys and
the girls were rocked in infancy. It is of the old
FATHER OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
A DAOUBRRBOTYPB IN THB POSSESSION OF THE RBV. DAVID HARBAUOH. COLORADO SPRINGS. COLO.
CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 9I
fashioned make, and never was capable of the long,
gentle sweep and swing of the modern cradles. Broad
and flat, with rockers well worn, it hath little grace in
its motion, but waddles clumsily, like a duck. Yet
sweet in it was the sleep, and pleasant were the dreams
of infancy ; and over no cradle, no, not in palaces, has
a warmer mother's heart, or a more watchful mother's
eye, ever hung and sighed, smiled, prayed, and wept."
This stout oak cradle, the only tangible associa-
tion of his infancy now in existence, was but a step
in advance of the hollow gum log shut in at both
ends with a board, made to lie upon the floor like a
half moon on its back, in which the worthies of
the generation preceding him had slept and dreamed
the sweet dreams of infancy. Under the guidance
of exceptionally pious parents and in association
with brothers and sisters, both older and younger
than himself, Henry Harbaugh first awakened to
conscious life, and began to reveal a personality that,
at the end of his alloted fifty years, had not yet
wholly unfolded in all its possibilities. While yet
in very tender years, he seemed to read a solemn
meaning in the shadows cast upon the white walls
of the stairway by the flickering candle, or in the
moaning of the wind through the tall poplars ; but
all this was the early fruit of a sound imagination,
and meanwhile he breathed in courage and strength
of mind and body and grew sturdy and strong like
a tree in the open. His early mental growth was
9 2
OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
marked by a gradual unfolding not marked any-
where in its course by special brilliancy. He was
propelled into a channel of intellectual activity
wholly by a power within himself. His pastor, the
Rev. F. A. Scholl, on one occasion suddenly stopped
a conversation he was holding with the father, and
laying his hand upon the boy's head, said : "You
must become a preacher. ' ' The recollection of that
incident was to some extent a directing light but
not a vital incident in his career. The opposition
of a stern parent, who made a tardy recognition of
the superior talents of his son, served as a stimulus
to the boy's purposes. But in the light of his after
struggles, his failures and his triumphs, it may be
fairly asserted that no purely human agency could
have swerved the sensitive soul and religious genius
from his course or imperiled his entry into the holy
ministry. He had been dedicated to God in holy
baptism in early infancy, and was confirmed June
4, 1836, at Waynesboro, Pa. Of these events he
wrote in the Guardian of November, 1854 :
" Not long ago, I unexpectedly got into my hands the
records of the church where my parents worshipped,
where we, their children, were baptized, and where I
recorded my first vows in confirmation. At the begin-
ning of the Record Book there was a brief account of
the organization of the church, many, many years ago !
There was the purpose and the pledge of those who were
willing to enter into its first organization. There were
CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.
93
the rules by which they engaged to be governed ; and
under these were subscribed the names of fifteen mem-
bers, who solemnly began this church, in their own
handwriting. Among them were the names of my
father and mother. Ah, what feelings that record pro-
duced, no one but myself can fully know. They are
dead, and as their lives on earth prove, in Heaven.
How much had that record to do with this happy re-
sult?"
The blessed heritage of a pious faith was already
his. He possessed a cheerful spirit and a happy
blending of things practical, with a keen boyish
imagination and sense of the mysterious. His
youngest sister persisted in remembering him as a
mischievous boy, though this recollection was dwelt
upon in the evening of her life, and in evident con-
templation of the attainments of her then Doctor
of Divinity brother. Mischievous, that qualifying
word with many shades of meaning, was really
softened into a complimentary reference by the ex-
pression of pride on her kindly face.
The older boys of the Harbaugh household were
farmers. They accepted that life in good earnest,
and were afterwards faithful and successful in that
pursuit. Henry suffered by contrast before he grew
tip to reach the handles of a plow. Upon a trip to
the mountain sawmill, he was far more eager about
the legend of Mount Misery than he was about the
proper loading of the logs upon the wagon. The
94
LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
curious old coins that were one day turned up by
the plow interested him more than the plow that
turned them up. He chose to contemplate the
majesty of the forest trees and the life that teemed
among them rather than to assist in reducing such
haunts of nature to practical and commercial levels.
He made the birds around the old homestead his
associates. How they sang for him in the morning
in the tree tops near the house ! How they hurried
with many a chirp and nutter from stake to stake,
and swung and sang their songs in mowing-time on
the tall weeds in the meadow ! When he went
forth to labor he knew them as they floated grace-
fully and leisurely high in the warm blue air. As
they passed in droves away over the sombre land-
scape of autumn ; as they moved towards the sunny
South, his childish fancy conceived that they formed
the letters of the alphabet in flying until they were
lost in the dim distance.
All this was the awakening of his poetic soul,
and many impressive teachings were then stored up
in his mind and made to bear fruit in the thoughts
of his mature years. But he was practical and
sociable. He ran with the other boys through the
orchard to the dead tree where the " yellow ham-
mer" had his nest, and he was among those who
undertook to catch the bird while his companions
would stand back and shout u a snake in the hole,"
just at the critical moment. He would stand with
CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.
95
the others at a certain point in the orchard to hear
the echo answer back from the barn door the little
man in the barn, as he was called.
Dr. Bailsman, writing in the Guardian, speaks
of a visit he once took with Dr. Harbaugh to the
old homestead :
" At length he took me to the ' old pie apple tree,'
still bringing forth fruit in old age. The tree faces the
barn door. Standing here the boys used to call to ' the
little man in the barn/ as they called the echo of their
voices, who would mock them with his prompt replies
to their questions. We both stood under the old tree,
facing the barn door, when he, with grotesque sol-
emnity, and, if I err not, with hat in hand, woke up
with his trumpet voice the little man in the barn as
follows :
Harbaugh Ho ! ho ! still alive ?
Little Man Ho ! still alive.
H. Little man in the barn !
Iv. M. Man in the barn.
H. Are you getting old ?
L. M. You getting old !
H. Still your voice is good.
I/. M. Voice is good.
H. lyittle man, farewell.
L. M. Man, farewell !"
The suggestion that Henry was a mischievous
boy might be greatly strengthened, if the tradition
could be positively confirmed that he once lured
several neighboring boys close to a hornets' nest
hanging from a tree, and then from a safe distance
96
OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
cast a stone into it. So it was as to the school life
so faithfully pictured in u Das Alt Schulhaus an
Der Krick. " The average school boy will scarcely
admit that such a recital of rewards and punish-
ments, of recreation and declarations of independ-
ence, may be gathered from observation alone. And
even observation alone would argue a slight infrac-
tion of discipline, for he relates :
' ' Uf eener Seit die grose Mad
Un dort die Buwe net so bleed
Guk, wie sie piepe rum.
Der Meeschter watscht sie awwer scharf,
Sie gewe besser acht : "*
It is related that one morning little Heinrich " was
taken by the hand and led to this school house.
The schoolmaster gave him a seat. Kre long, how-
ever, his new scholar grew weary of the task of sit-
ting still so long. He took his cap to go home.
When he was not allowed to escape through the
door, he climbed up the logs of the unplastered
wall, like a squirrel, seeking an outlet elsewhere.
The master knew not what to make of the boy, but it
was here that the strong boy-will took its first whole-
some lessons by gradually yielding to authority."
*Dr. Harbaugh has rendered these lines almost literally as follows :
" Here on this side the large girls sat,
And there the tricky boys on that
See ! how they peep around !
The Master eyes them closely now,
They'd better have a care."
CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 97
Those who have read the U AH Schulhaus an
der Krick" will recognize it as the one described
below, by the author himself, in the Guardian of
April, 1854 :
1 ' As to its location, it was built amid rocks and stones
and stumps, near where a small stream murmured by,
and at the edge of a half -cleared woods. Between it
and the road lay the commons, which not by right and
title, but by custom and use, had from time immemo-
rial been the playgrounds of the school children. It was
so near the house and barn of Mr. Farmer that, looking
over from the road, you would take it at first glance to
be one of the out-houses belonging to the farm. In-
deed, the cider press building joined roofs at one end
with the school house. . . .
* ' At one corner of the school house stood a large
white oak tree, along whose sides grew up a very large
grape vine, which extended itself all over the lower
limbs of the tree, and in summer they hung down upon
the roof. Happily, if not for the intellectual benefit of
the children, yet happily for the interests of the farmer
who owned the tree, there was school only in the win-
ter, except a small summer school for little ones, who
could not climb. Consequently there never was any
opportunity for trying the strength of prohibitions, or
the virtue of those whose mouths would water in the
sight of forbidden fruit. ... On the west side of the
school house was a long window, made by sawing out
two logs, and the introduction of low two-pane sliding
windows. Along the inside was a long double desk
9 8 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
sloped on both sides for the large boys, that read, wrote,
and ciphered. Along the gable was a similar desk for
the big girls."
The manner of life at the Harbaugh homestead
was characterized by great simplicity. Until
Henry was ten years of age not a floor in the house
could boast a carpet ; not a single window flour-
ished a curtain. It was quite an event when at
length the floor was laid with a striped homemade
oil-cloth. This wonder of the age was often visited
with joy by the children while it was in course of
preparation on the garret floor. When it was at
last actually fitted to its place it remained for a long
time the pride of the household. Then the other
rooms began to look bare and cheerless by contrast,
and the girls of the family became correspondingly
restless. Although sweet and clean under the in-
fluence of sand and soap, bare floors were no longer
to be tolerated, and the good old customs of sim-
plicity and economy, to that extent at least, must
give way to a more modern finish. Gradually,
therefore, every floor in the house received its soft
covering and many of the solid comforts of a home
crept in under the management of a rising genera-
tion. The mother of this household accepted the
innovation graciously, for she was a true woman
and took pride in maintaining her home with all
the cheerfulness and comfort that the means at
hand would afford. To her it was the earthly par-
CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.
99
adise, and diligence in the affairs of her house she
considered one of her most important duties. She
kept a clean and neat kitchen and all the boards
that were not painted or carpeted were always
smooth and white from the application of sand and
a scrubbing brush. Seldom was it that the last
two hours of Saturday evening were not spent in
examining, folding up, and laying into their proper
places the raiment for the coming Sunday. She
pitied the unfortunate with a sincere grief and was
always good to the poor. She was one of those
peculiar old-fashioned mothers who have graced
every generation of the world's history, from whose
doors one may see many a less prosperous neighbor
depart with full baskets and full hearts.
In "The Annals of the Harbaugh Family,"
Henry Harbaugh drew his own picture of his
mother :
" In personal appearance she was not tall, but heavy.
She always enjoyed good health ; and even in her last
years, retained a ruddy color, and when exercising
freely had rosy cheeks. She was industrious, mild, and
kind hearted to her children, and always good to the
poor. At the time of my mother's death, I was in
Ohio, and did not hear of her sickness till I heard of
her death. I had spent the summer in Harrisonville
and returned to Massilon in November, 1837. My
cousin, residing there, had just received a letter con-
taining the sad news for ine ; it having been directed to
I00 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
him because it was known at home that I expected
about that time to be there. He immediately asked me
to take a walk with him. We found our way into a
woods south of town, where he opened to me the
touching news. Her image came up to me, not as
dead for I could not see her so but as she stood
leaning upon the railing of the porch in tears, when I
was entering the carriage to leave for the West, over a
year before. In this way, and in no other, have I seen
her ever since. In this position only do I desire to see
her it is the best picture of her true character, always
affectionate, bearing tenderly upon her heart of hearts
the temporal and eternal good of her children. I
cherish this image of my weeping mother. I can so
easily transfer this recollection of her to the state of
the glorified in Heaven, where all the beautiful is
permanent. So will I see her, till I meet her in the
bloom of immortal youth, clothed in the pure white
robes of the sainted, in our Father's house above.
' ' She used to say, * Give to the poor and you will
always have.' I suppose she learned this from an old
Book that used to lie on the corner of the mantel, and
over which she used to pore full many an hour. It
pleaseth me greatly that I can recollect this of my
mother, now that she sleeps in yonder grave. I never
heard my mother boast of what she had done ; when
she gave, it was all so natural with her, and she did it
so quietly just as it is with a tree when it shakes off
its ripe fruit.
* ' My mother used to read the Bible and go to
church. It seems as if I could still see the carry-all
CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. IO i
move round the corner of the orchard, towards the
little village in which stood the church where our
fathers worshipped. It was a plain way of going to
church, but it was the way my mother went ; and I
verily believe she went with a good object in view ;
and it is doubtful in my mind whether it ever entered
her mind that it was a shame to go to church in a
carry-all. It is a long time since then, and times and
customs have greatly changed, but still it giveth me
much pleasure to think of the old Book on the end of
the mantel, that my mother used to read on Sunday
afternoons after she returned from church. I cannot
get rid of the idea that it was her church-going, in
connection with that Book, that made her so good a
mother."
So Henry Harbaugh passed his boyhood, in the
winter months at the school house by the creek ; in
the summer turning the hay rows or following after
the grain cradles in the broad acres of the harvest
field. Perchance he would steal away to the moun-
tain side, there to commune with nature or to pon-
der over his well-thumbed book, away from the
thoroughfares, far away from the towns where only
the faintest din of the noisy work is heard and the
tallest spire of the distant town is almost hid.
Many an hour he spent watching the glistening
surface of the winding stream or the tall poplars
swaying in front of the quiet mountain brow afar
off. An ideal place indeed for reading and study,
I0 2 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
where physical health makes meditation vigorous,
and where separation from the great flow of busy
life makes interruptions few.
Into his quiet retreats there crept many a rude,
disturbing element, and when duty called him
back to the farm he grasped the handles and plodded
along behind the plow with a cheerfulness of spirit
that sustained and strengthened his reluctant hand.
But he was not simply a dreamer. Between brain
and brawn there was a goodly balance wheel. He
had no apology for idleness, which he characterized
as a burden to oneself, a trouble to others, and an
offense to God. But in the rhythm of nature he had
an enduring part, and the ordinary incidents of
labor led to reflections of mind. Through the prac-
tical all around him he perceived the ideal, and
throughout boyhood and youth his mental treasury
was being fortified and replenished at the expense
of a constant drain upon his material resources.
He took notes almost from the time he was able to
write and in so doing he was regular and system-
atic. His earliest book of the kind to which he
referred frequently in after years, has never been
found among his papers, though in an article in
the Guardian he declares that he would not part
with it for money. Some curious loose papers
remain which illustrate how frank he was and
unreserved in expression. The rude characters in
boyish hand are in marked contrast to the firm,
CHIIyDOOD AND YOUTH.
103
clear penmanship of his mature years. The
spelling was unhesitatingly sacrificed to save the
thought, and yet one may readily lose sight of the
uncouth vehicles by which the idea was fostered
and carried along, until it might be needed to do
the bidding of its master. Thus almost every-
thing he wrote in those early days exercised and
trained his mind, and in after years he found it not
only available and useful, but pleasant to contem-
plate when passed in review. How observant he
was of the shifting panorama of nature may be
gathered in many pages of the Guardian, whose
founder and editor for many years he was.
His picture of a rainy day at the farm is but one
of many fond recollections. He does not mean the
thunder storm which rises in mid-afternoon and
drives over in an hour, but he found beauty and
sublimity in that too. ** Watch the deep dark
clouds moving up slowly from the western horizon,
increasing in deepness and darkness as the storm
advances. Soon a bank of rolling clouds like a vast
arch extends across the sky from which the light-
ning glares and darts, while muttering thunder
shakes the earth ; beneath the grand arch is seen
the broad sheet of white descending rain, hiding
the distant woods, sweeping the wide plain fields,
and drawing still nearer. Already the birds are
silent in the branches and the cattle move towards
a shelter ; or, if shut in, stand in mute wonder and
I0 4 I<IFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
fear, while the plowman has unhitched his horses
and is riding towards the barn. . Scarcely has the
barnyard gate closed upon him when the big drops
fall like bullets into the hot dust of the road, and
in a moment more the rain comes down almost a
torrent, and a fair sheet pours from the eves of the
barn. The tin spout chuckles in vain to disgorge
its overloaded contents, and the plowman as he
stands thoughtfully at the stable door listens while
roaring wind and descending rain tell him only the
more sweetly that he is indeed in shelter. It has
rained a few hours. The sun has come forth, and
the whole face of the earth smiles in freshness and
beauty. The horses have rested and the plowman
has taken his supper. This done, he goes forth
again ' to his work till the evening. ' The sun has
a milder brightness, the fields are greener, and the
mountains have a bluer tinge through the pure air. "
u But the rainy day we have in mind is the
settled rain, one that does not begin and end on
the same day a steady, deliberate rain that soaks
the earth and fills the rivers. The cattle seem to
have less fear of it than they have of the passing
summer shower. It comes not so suddenly and
thus cools them without inspiring terror. They
are the very picture of patience as they stand in
the barn yard to be rained on. The farmer is not
impatient at this protracted rain. It will make the
plowing one horse easier. When he goes forth
CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.
105
again to the fields he will not turn up the dry earth
as he did after the thunder shower. It has pene-
trated a full foot into the ground. How nicely the
coulter cuts the sod and how smoothly the mould-
board turns the furrow, and the horses move in a
brisk pace. These rainy days are no loss of time
to the judicious farmer. He will find indoor work
enough for * the boys. ' The plow irons must be
put in proper order. The horse's gears must be
greased. The barn mows must be cleared and put
to rights. The stables and feeding rooms need a
thorough overhauling. It will even do no harm
and look only better if the spider webs are swept
away from the ceiling of the stables and through-
out the barn. There is always some one about
who is not slow in wood work. An axe, a shovel,
or a fork needs a handle. A chair or a bench is to
be mended, and some of the racks in the barn need
slight repairs. In short, there is enough to do,
and there is no need of getting impatient of the
long rain or going to the nearest tavern to pass the
time. In all the sneaking crowd that there doth
congregate, you will not find one good farmer.
You shall see when the rain is over in what fresh-
ness and beauty the earth will lie before you.
What deep green the fields have put on. The rain
has not been licked up on the surface as in the hot
dust or sand ; it has found its way down to the
roots, and its influence upon vegetation will be
I0 6 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
permanent. The pastures are clothed with flocks ;
the valleys also are covered over with corn ; they
shout for joy ; they also sing. ' '
No one who had been a laggard on the farm
could have written thus ; no one who had escaped
the practical work of a farmer could have received
such faithful impressions, much less cherished them
unto the time of his manhood.
Thus in a home into which the stirring events
of the outside world had already begun to extend
their influences, midst simplicity, typical of the
Pennsylvania-German farmer life, Henry Harbaugh
grew from boyhood to youth, and in his eighteenth
year began to 'grow restless weary of the plow
and less than ever inclined to the life around him.
He had no quarrel with his father at any time.
There is no one to rise up and say that he was dis-
obedient or anything but reverent in his conduct
towards either parent. No one could have carried
into his mature life a more constant affection for
his mother, and with brothers and sisters he well
understood the code of honor and always rendered
the full measure of brotherly kindness. Whatever
his boyish faults that are buried in the past may
have been, his impulses were as generous as they
were earnest and positive.
But the time had come for the parting of the
ways. The father, still cherishing the hope that
his son would curb his restless spirit and remain
CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. IO j
upon the farm, declined then and afterwards for
some years to encourage him with fianancial assist-
ance.
What would seem now as a sort of intermediate
step to what the boy proposed to do, was taken in
the engagement to work in the mill of his uncle,
Elias Harbaugh, over in the "Valley." Whether
or not the undertaking to learn the busines of a
miller was serious, he only remained at it for
a part of a year. Mills of that day had a way of
running themselves a good part of the time, and
this circumstance no doubt gave the coveted oppor-
tunity for the young man to think and to pore over
a few books that he had at hand. At all events,
within a year he had turned his back on the old
mill and his ancestral valley, crossed over the
mountain and told his father that he was going
West.
"Then," writes Dr. Theodore Apple, "there was
a great stir of course among the Harbaughs, old
and young, and the anxious question was raised at
once, what is to become of Unser Heinrich ? The
father gave him up as a lost son, and the mother
stood on the front porch, looking after him as he
went down the road, as she wiped away with her
apron a flood of tears rolling down her cheeks.
She never saw him afterwards. This scene he de-
scribed with his own pen when he began to use it,
in one of his poems. Uncle Jonathan, who lived
I0 8 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
on a neighboring farm, was more self-possessed.
He said Henry could not be stopped. It would
either be a make or a break, and he believed that it
would turn out to be a make."
The casual summer visitor to Pen-Mar Park,
viewing the peaceful valley from u High Rock,"
may have a complete panorama of the scenes which
have been made so familiar in the Pennsylvania-
German poems the scenes from which Henry
Harbaugh so sadly turned away in the summer of
1836. Here was his home, here the favorite walks,
the lonely retreats, the woods and streams which
he knew so well, and all the stages upon which he
acted in boyhood and youth. Here were many
hidden nooks to which he often resorted to think
over his own situation, his responsibilities, and his
future hopes and fears. No one in all that country
knew the mountain paths and the winding way to
"High Rock" better than he did. Of this he
wrote in the summer of 1845: " Dr. Trail Green
is going to visit my home with me, and we intend
to go up to ' High Rock. ' It is on the mountain
about four miles from my home. It is one of the
most splendid views I ever beheld. It towers
high, and from it is to be seen a level valley forty
miles long and twenty-five broad, extending from
the South Mountain to the Alleghenies in width
and nearly from the Susquehanna to the Potomac
rivers in length. All this valley can be seen from
CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH.
I0 9
the rock houses, fields, woods, and streams all
lie in silent grandeur before the spectator."
But modern progress has greatly changed the
landscape. Much of the land has been cleared
for farms. Railroads cut across the country, bridges
span the meadows, and the shrieking engines scale
the mountain side. Nothing remains to mark the
site of the school house at the creek save the fast
decaying portion of a white oak stump.
" Der Weisseech schteht noch an der Dhier
Macht Schatte iwwer's Dach."*
The old cider press is gone. The narrow wind-
ing path to High Rock, difficult to climb and follow,
has given way to the smoothly graded highways.
The only remaining landmarks are the gray stone
house, and the quaint, weather-beaten barn, which
from the point of view above seem to stand close in
to the base of the mountain.
Much of the tenderness and pathos of the original
are lost in the English translation of u Heemweh,"
but may we not let this little bit of home-memory
complete the imperfect sketch ?
"As nearer to the spot I come
More sweetly am I drawn ;
And something in my heart begins
To urge me faster on.
The white-oak stands before the door
And casts its shadow on the roof.
IIO LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
Ere quite I've reached the last hill-top
You'll smile at me, I ween !
I stretch myself high as I can,
To catch the view serene
The dear old stone house through the trees
With shutters painted green !
See ! really I am near the house ;
How short the distance seems !
There is no sense of time when one
Goes musing in his dreams.
There is the shop the corn-crib, too
The cider-press just see !
The barn the spring with drinking cup
Hung up against the tree.
The yard fence and the little gate
Just where it used to be."
III. THE STUDENT AND APPRENTICE
IN THE WEST.
A brief glance at the history of the time may,
perhaps, enable one to appreciate the influences that
prevailed and the conditions that confronted the
young man ambitious to succeed in life, but not
fully conscious as yet of the resources at his com-
mand, nor of the direction his efforts might take.
Beyond the immediate circle of home life the
world begins to widen rapidly, and, as the larger
view grows dim in detail, it intensifies in solemn
reality. He who widens the sphere of action for
himself, deepens his responsibility to God and his
fellowmen. Henry Harbaugh, early in life, eagerly
sought the former condition ; how faithfully he as-
sumed the latter may be gathered from his life and
works.
The year of 1836 found the American people at
the culmination of an exceptionally brilliant moral
and industrial revival.* A wave of temperance
sentiment and activity had modified the national
habit of eating and drinking too much. Industries
and public improvements had made strides in all
parts of the country upon a scale never before
dreamed of. The habit of expressing solicitude
* Andrews' U. S. Hist.
II2 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
for the fate of the Union had largely passed away,
and both of the dominant political parties were
pinning their faith to the patriotism and good sense
of the common people. Every American had come
to believe in America. The decade ending with
1840, was the transition period in mode of travel
from the old stage coach to railroads and canals.
Ex-President Madison had just died, and such men
as Adams, Calhoun, Jackson, Webster, and Clay
were exerting masterly activity in politics and
statesmanship ; the last two named being in the
midst of a thirty years' unsuccessful struggle for
the presidency. The presidential campaign of 1836
was being waged with great bitterness. A national
literature was in its formative period, with Cooper,
Irving, Hallack, and others enjoying the popularity
which was shared a little later by Emerson, Haw-
thorne, Longfellow, and Whittier. Manners and
habits of dress were improving slowly. Gentlemen
were still to be seen dressed for the street not so
differently from the revolutionary style, while
women wore enormous leghorn hats, leg-of-mutton
sleeves, and skirts barely reaching the ankle.
Letters were folded, sealed with wax, and mailed
without envelopes until 1839, and stamps were not
used until some years later. The mails were slow
and uncertain and postage was a considerable item
of expense. In 1834 Chicago had one mail a week
by a messenger on horse back. The railroad from
IN THE WEST. H 3
Philadelphia to Columbia, Pa., the canal from there
to Hollidaysburg, the portage railway over the
mountains to Johnstown and the canal from there
to Pittsburg afforded a means of travel between
Hast and West which began to rival the old stage
lines. Ohio, between the years 1835 and 1840, in-
creased in population from about one million to a
million and a half. It had already become the
promised land towards which the young men of
Harbaugh's Valley in Pennsylvania were turning,
and indeed several relatives of the family had
already settled in this new West. Information was
eagerly sought as to the best way to go and the
means of transportation. The whole subject was
talked over quietly at home, but more boldly at the
blacksmith shop or other places of assembly during
the leisure hours of the day, and at the singing
schools and social gatherings in the evening. Con-
flicting reports came back from the settlers of this
far off country. As might be expected, some had
succeeded and liked it ; others had failed and re-
turned home. The prevailing opinion seemed to
be that it promised well for all who were willing to
work and stay long enough to conquer their long-
ings for the blue mountains of Pennsylvania.
About the first of August, 1836, just one hun-
dred years after his great-grandfather had come out
of Switzerland to seek a new country, Henry Har-
baugh began his journey over the mountains to-
II4 IvIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
wards Ohio. He was not yet nineteen years old and
it was not only a new departure for him, but also
the first break in the family circle in this regard.
His father was displeased with the prospect and
gave merely a formal consent, withholding the gen-
erous approval which the young man so strongly
craved. The mother was heart-broken, but her
farewell was as affectionate and tender as her love
for all her children had been constant and true, and
the memory of that parting at the threshold of the
old home lingered through the after years until it
became enshrined in the tender pathos of "Heem-
wch. "
George Harbaugh lived to recognize the talents
of his son and to behold them being rendered unto
God with manifold increase, but the mother's life
had almost run its course, and "Heemwetfs" sad-
dest note was struck :
Dort gab ich ihr mei' Farewell,
Ich weinte als ich's gab,
'S war's letschte Mol in dare Welt,
Dass ich's ihr gewe hab !
Befor ich widder kumme bin
War sie in ihrem Grab !*
The little school house by the creek and its suc-
* 'Twas there I gave her my good-bye,
I wept as it I gave,
It was the last time in this world
Her blessing I could crave.
Before I had come back again
She rested in her grave.
[I
IN THE WEST. II5
cessors in office had already left their impress on
the boys and girls of the Harbaugh family. They
could read and write well in the English language,
though the Pennsylvania-German dialect was still
the means of ordinary communication in the fam-
ily, and German was largely used in the services
and sermons of the church. Imperfect as the
school system was and unsupported as it was by
popular sentiment, the average scholar of that day
managed to acquire much general information of a
practical kind from the Sckulmeister, who was
sometimes a resident of the district, and at other
times a stranger who had perfected his education in
a more highly favored institution of learning be-
yond the mountains.
Being assured a temporary home with relatives,
Henry Harbaugh set out for Eastern Ohio on Au-
gust 4, 1836. Poor in purse but hopeful and self-
reliant, he engaged passage in the stage running
from Chambersburg, Pa., through Bedford, Somer-
set, and Mount Pleasant to Pittsburgh. As may
well be supposed, the conveniences of travel and
lodging were of the simplest sort, and his first
touch of homesickness came early in the journey,
when the stage arrived at Mount Pleasant : " Here
the passengers left me for Wheeling and I was left
alone. I sat with the driver fifteen miles and then
went in the stage, lay down and slept as much as I
could, and that was not much."
H6 IvIFB OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
At Pittsburgh he took passage by steamboat about
fifty-three miles down the Ohio river and from that
point by stage and canal boat he completed his
journey. Within two weeks of the time he left his
home in Franklin County, Pa., he was engaged to
work with a house builder in Massilon, Stark
County, Ohio, and continued in that position six
months. He noted the fact that his employer was
u a man with respectable ancestors who understands
his business well," and was also struck with the
extensive scale upon which building business was
carried on in Ohio, and feared that it would take
more of his time than he had to spare to learn it.
He engaged himself at first for one month for what-
ever the man pleased to give him, and at the end of
that time he was offered fifty dollars a year for two
years and boarding, which he declined. He worked
on, however, for the first six months without any
definite arrangement as to pay and after that found
employment with another man who was engaged in
building machinery.
He was not in Massilon more than a month until
his talents as a singer began to attract attention.
He sang in the church choir on the first Sunday of
his stay in Massilon, and was kindly received by the
minister and some members of the congregation.
A few days after that he was invited to attend a
singing school several miles out from the town.
He went and sang for an assembled audience of
IN THE WEST.
117
about one hundred persons, young men and women,
and at the suggestion of some of his hearers, he
organized a class on the spot, having twenty-four
names enrolled that evening. These singing classes
he kept up during the winter months at whatever
place he chanced to be during the whole of his so-
journ in the West, and while they yielded some in-
come in connection with his daily work, they also
formed no small part of his early education and
culture.
He began a private course of study and reading
from the very day he landed in Ohio, and he never
let slip an opportunity to attend lectures, debates,
or patriotic meetings, and took an active part in
them whenever invited so to do. He formed some
very warm friendships, and engaged in a corres-
pondence with several of his most intimate friends,
in the course of which the most sacred confidences
were exchanged, and subjects of a literary or reli-
gious character were discussed in a very systematic
way on the plan of debates. To one thus engaged
in self education under very limited advantages this
form of correspondence was invaluable, and resulted
in some remarkable discussions in which are shown
very painstaking and original research on the part
of the authors. It was a profitable but rather an
unusual way of spending the time on the part of
young men of twenty years. His letters written
home contain much thoughtful and tender expres-
Hg LIFE OF HKNRY HARBAUGH.
sion, and, from the very first, embodied a gentle
agitation of the question which was uppermost in
his mind. Scarcely a letter written to any one in
the Bast omitted the request for an opinion as to
his finishing his trade or going to school. " Be
sure to tell me in your next all about what the folks
think of me learning the trade," he writes perhaps
two months after he had left home. And at the end
of one letter is this tell-tale but pathetic sentence :
" I don't think I will forever continue at the car-
penter business. "
Gradually the accounts of his progress in learn-
ing grew more frequent and confident in tone, and
his epistolary efforts, interspersed liberally with
verses on various topics, began to cause some un-
easiness at home, consequently there were murmur-
ings of the rewards of changeableness and sloth that
were sure to overtake Unser Heinrich. In this crisis
a good friend to whom Henry had gone to school
for a while, came to the rescue with some very
wholesome advice. He was blunt in expression
and went straight to the mark, but he was as kind
hearted as he was intelligent, having both the con-
fidence of and confidence in the young man to whom
he addressed himself. "I am happy to find," he
writes, " that the liberty I took in criticizing has
not ruffled you against me. As some allusion is
made respecting metaphor and figures of speech
and mystics, I would briefly reply that it depends
IN THE WEST. II9
much upon what calling you pursue. To cul-
tivate them certainly refines the mind, and a
speaker can make an object appear more vivid and
can bring it out in more than its own true colors.
But my principal object in making those remarks
was on account of your being flattered in your
poetical effusions, and fearing that you might
thereby be carried from the object which I have
understood you have in view, and turn author, ex-
pecting thereby to support yourself by your pen.
I know from biographical and other sketches that
literary men, particularly those who follow no other
calling, in Europe, have lived poor lives with few
exceptions, however famous they may have been
after their death, and even then their progeny de-
rived little from their labors more than the praise
they heard lavished on their works. And as to
America it is ten times worse in that respect than
Europe.
" Having learned from good authority that you
intend to prepare yourself for the ministry and hav-
ing some idea of your means, I thought probably
you would pay less attention to the mystic and more
to the real simon pure, although the reasons you
advance please me well, nor do I wish to bind you
in any contracted sphere of usefulness as some who
are spouting forth occasionally their jealousy by
saying you wish to be better than other people and
wish to live without work. Such sentiments are
120 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
almost beneath contempt, just as if a man's labor
was done when he can read and write well and speak
fluently. As regards my sentiments respecting the
animadversions made upon you by some ministers
I agree with them in some points. If you were to
address the common people, which of course you
will if you become a minister of the Gospel, would
you think high-wrought pictures, mysterious figures
having the semblance of fiction, and flaming alle-
gories would have the tendency to arrest the atten-
tion of hearers to their benefit ? Or would ft be
better to have the plain matter of fact way, illus-
trated by comparisons within the knowledge of
people, warmly pressed on them by the action and
gesticulations of the speaker ? That some people
have a dull, monotonous way of addressing their
hearers is true, and the effect it has on the hearers
is about the same that the rain has on the sands of
the Arabian deserts. These suggestions are made
for no other purpose than to draw your attention to
a point that may perhaps be of some utility, not
that I think to dictate to you anything as a superior*
but as a friend."
The foregoing extract is given at some length for
the reason that it intimates to what extent the
young student in the West had been already mak-
ing use of his pen, and for the further reason that
it furnishes a fair specimen of the courtly, high-
flown diction that prevailed at that age. Henry
IN THE WEST. 12 1
Harbaugh's earliest letters and essays were much in
the same vein, though there was an element of
humor that brightened the quaint phrases. With a
very imperfect knowledge of the origin of words, he
seemed to adopt them sometimes because of their
great length, and as his spelling improved his ex-
pressions became more formidable, and the words
used often exceeded in length the requirements of
the thought. In the first letter written home to his
brother, he announces, in the most comprehensive
way, that he proposed to stay in the West, u to im-
prove myself in the acquirements that I find are
necessary to us and to every young man who takes
an interest in his future happiness and enterprise
and who does not wish continually to bear the yoke
of oppression and contempt that is laid upon them
by those who are possessed of superiority." But he
follows this with the announcement : "I will now
give you a memorandum of the females of the
West," whereupon he launches out into a most del-
icate tribute to the grace and beauty of the young
women with whom he had become acquainted ; and
lest his brother should suspect that he was becom-
ing too deeply absorbed in the social pleasures of
his new home, he adds, "but I have another mag-
got in my brain now besides marrying a wife. ' '
In recording some facts relative to his departure
from home, he used the words : U I left my home
for Ohio to fulfil my designs," and from the whole
I2 2 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
trend of his life thereafter it may be gathered that
his purpose was to obtain an education. His under-
taking to learn a trade was a financial expedient in
part, and incidentally a means of convincing his
friends that his plans did not involve the forsaking
of manual labor. Comments and criticisms upon
his work and purposes were always received by him
in the most humble and kindly spirit ; he never let
slip an opportunity to learn, no matter in what
form the information or experience presented itself.
He was a sensitive soul, however, easily driven to
the gloom of discouragement through the applica-
tion of harsh terms, but his spirits were buoyant,
easily recoverable, and not to be trodden under foot
with impunity. He was possessed of a calm cour-
age, and, when convinced that he was right, could
wield as keen a lance as any that ever was thurst
against him.
In and about Massilon, Canal Dover, and New
Hagerstown he remained until the fall of 1840.
He taught school three winters and attended the
sessions of New Hagerstown Academy during two
summers. During all this time he wrote a great
deal. Everything that impressed his mind at all
was jotted down, and much of it having served his
purpose as an exercise, was destroyed. His long
words often ran wide of a proper meaning and his
muse sometimes rode a rough horse, but with it all
he wrote letters, prepared speeches upon patriotic
IN THE WEST.
123
subjects, and delivered them upon numerous occa-
sions ; read original essays, and once at least entered
into the field of romance and published his story in
one of the Ohio weekly papers. Upon the occa-
sion of this production his candid friend again
appears with his criticism :
u I received a paper some weeks ago," he writes,
"from you, containing a fictitious piece which is
pretty well written. It is well composed and con-
ceived for so young a hand as yourself, taking your
literary attainments and your chance and time for
your education into consideration ; there are some
few expressions though at the time of reading I
thought were injudicious, and the latter part winds
up rather abrupt to continue the thread of the story
with the same uniformity that the part down to the
marriage seemed to promise. However, I do not
wish to discourage you from sending me a paper at
any time that contains a composition from your
pen, whether poetical or prosaical."
The Harbaughs as a family were always Demo-
crats, and Henry joined the young men of Ohio in
support of Van Buren in 1836. He was not to be
outdone in party zeal by any one, and he declared
that if he chewed tobacco he would not hesitate a
minute to bet a chew on Van Buren. But while
he was a debater and partisan shouter with the
other boys of his acquaintance, he did not become
a presidential voter until 1840, and by that time he
124
LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
had come to enlist in the cause of Harrison. Poli-
tics had a prominent part in the debates and written
communications of that day, and the flings at each
other on partisan questions were perhaps no worse,
certainly they were no better than at the present
day.
In the summer of 1839, Henry had so far
changed his political faith as to say : "I am afraid
that Van will be re-elected. I expect that your in-
fluence is in his favor, but I assure you that a man
who says that ' the farther the power of suffrage
(or voting) is removed from the people the better'
will not get my vote ; and he also said that any
person who was not worth $250 should not have a
vote, and at that rate I myself would hardly have
a vote, and I think that I as a freeman am as much
entitled to one as Mr. Van himself. Before I would
vote for a man who has said all this, and to top the
climax recommends that cursed Sub-Treasury bill,
I would go to Texas. I don't want you to under-
stand from this, however, that I belong to the Whig
party. I am opposed to parties. I am a Republi-
can^ a Democrat and a friend of equal rights, but
not a Van Buren man. I am a genuine Conserva-
tive ! ! !!"
The exclamation marks all belong to the original
text here quoted. Bate in the winter of 1837 he
came Bast in the expectation of receiving some
substantial encouragement and assistance that would
IN THE WEST.
125
enable him to attend school. It is difficult for one
to realize that a young man of Pennsylvania-Ger-
man family as late as the year 1836 should find it
necessary to strive for the privileges of an educa-
tion, and to be postponed on account of a mistaken
sentiment, arising partly out of his own personality ;
but the fact remains that he returned to the West
with the declaration : " The prospects of going to
school have again been blasted." He again set to
work as a carpenter and when he had earned about
$200, lost it all by the failure of his employer. He
remained at the trade undismayed, however, and
increased his earnings by teaching common school
and singing classes. He shut himself up in the
evenings in a bolting chest which he had selected
for a study, secured some candles, and while his less
serious companions were spending their time in
idleness, pored over his books.
In one of the earlier numbers of the Guardian,
he related his own experience :
' ' We know a young man who in the course of his
business as a journeyman mechanic, was thrown among
a company of young fellow-workmen who had ' no
other resort,' as they thought, but to spend their even-
ings in playing cards in a mill, which they were at the
time furnishing with its inside machinery and fixtures.
He, having been trained to different habits, had no
difficulty in finding another place of resort. He pro-
cured for himself candles, fixed up for himself a study
126 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
in a finished bolt chest, where he spent his evenings in
reading, writing, and study. As we know him well,
we have been frequently assured that he still remem-
bers some things which he learned in that bolting
chest ; and he is firmly of the opinion that those even-
ings were among the most pleasant and profitable of
his whole life. While the card players would fall out
in the game, and swear in fearful style at one another,
the echoes of which would ring through the mill, he
was getting along on the very best of terms with the
poets, historians, and sages of other days. These con-
versed with him kindly and wisely, and did not seem at
all ashamed or impatient of his humble company. ' '
In the winter of 1839 he was at the academy,
New Hagerstown, which he described as a small
place with two taverns, two churches, three stores,
one squire, a female seminary, and an academy for
young men. They had two literary societies which
met every Saturday for the purpose of select decla-
mations, reading of original essays, and debating.
He took the regular academical course except L,atin
and Greek, which he did not take up until he went
to Marshall College. To one of his friends he thus
describes his apartments : " Fancy to yourself you
see a large three-story brick house, not altogether
finished. Now do not be forever gazing at the out-
side, but step in, straight forward, up stairs, turn
to the left (need not knock), well here is Harbaugh's
studying room ! Take care, don't tramp on the
IN THE WEST. 127
nail that sticks up in the floor near the door. Do
you know what that's for? Well, I'll tell you :
there are a few fellows in the other rooms who are
fond of popping in to molest me, so you see we
take that piece of board and put one end against
the door and the other against the nail, then when
they knock, * there is nobody at home.' "
Adopting a more sober train of thought in the
communication just quoted, he proceeds to an
argument on infant baptism and, in the conclusion
of it, records the view of Christian charity which
he entertains as a young man of twenty-two years :
" If you were baptized in the stream under water
in faith and sincerity, you in my opinion are bap-
tized right, but I consider that sprinkling is just as
scriptural. I have spoken with reference to the sub-
ject in sincerity and I hope you will review it with
a Christian spirit. I do not wish to fight against
truth for the sake of prejudice, for I could wish that
there were many who are no more sectarian than I
am. Though I belong to a church, yet I do not
feel disposed to condemn those who do not perform
their worship as our church does. I believe if there
were more union of heart among professors of reli-
gion it would be better. I am afraid there is too
much said respecting the form, and the heart loses
its devotion. The ancients, like some at the pres-
ent day, thought that if they could only slay a
bullock upon the altar, that the work was done,
I2 8 IvIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
but God declares that he will not regard their sacri-
fice."
The number of poems written by Henry Har-
baugh during his three years' sojourn in Ohio will
never be known. At least fifty of them are extant,
nearly all of which are of considerable length. A
few of them were written in albums and probably
half of them were published from time to time in
various newspapers.
One of his first finished essays on " Music" was
delivered at the New Hagerstown Academy at the
exhibition held by the students of that institution,
September 27, 1839. It is in two parts, exceeding
in length any of his productions of that period,
and bears evidence of much thought, as well as an
acknowledgment of his special love for that theme.
In one brief sentence he couples his ancestral Swit-
zerland with his beloved native land in a beautiful
and affectionate manner. Speaking of music
personified, he exclaims: "Superstition had
chained the heaven-born stranger until the Re-
formers tuned his harp to more heaven-wrought
strains in the churches of Europe, and taught him
the songs which angels sang upon the plains of
Bethlehem. But Burope could not retain the
peaceful pilgrim, nor were the glens of Switzerland
ample to captivate the imperial echoes, but on the
trans-Atlantic strands of America he was destined
to chant the song of freedom." Not among the
IN THE WEST. I29
least of his essays was "The Mind of Man as
Evinced by its Operations, " which was read at the
literary contest in the New Hagerstown Academy,
March 27, 1840. The Franklin Literary Society
was represented by Mr. James McGinnis of East-
port, Ohio, and the Madison Literary Society by
Henry Harbaugh, who carried off the honors of the
occasion. This essay abounded in metaphor and
poetic expression, setting forth inter alia that, u the
mind of man is like a small rill that rises in some
sequestered glen, and becomes mighty in propor-
tion as it approaches the ocean, which at first plays
carelessly among the laureled wilds in all the beauty
of romantic solitude. When we contemplate the
unbounded range of arts, sciences, and improve-
ments around us, we are instantly led to look up
with wonder to those Herculean minds whose ex-
panded intellects have far outstripped even the
most extravagant fancies of earlier years !"
So it remained for this industrious young essay-
ist to look back with astonishment upon the ex-
travagant fancies of his earlier years, some of which
were embodied in the very prophesies he had made.
He also delivered a number of patriotic addresses,
notably the one to his fellow-citizens on the 4th of
July, 1840, upon " The Causes which led to the
Declaration of Independence."
In the early summer of 1839, his father made a
brief visit to the West, and upon this occasion
OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
Henry had great expectations of settling finally the
difficulties that yet stood in the way of his further
education. But the occasion passed without any
event that changed his prospects, and he struggled
on until October, 1840, when, poor in scrip as ever,
but with moral and intellectual capital unimpaired,
he applied for admission to the Freshman class at
Marshall College, Mercersburg, Pa.
Dr. Bailsman describes Henry Harbaugh's meet-
ing with Dr. Nevin at Mercersburg :
" Then already he (Dr. Nevin) was widely known as
a theologian and a ripe scholar. Sitting at his study
table one day, engaged in severe mind work, a bashful
young man approached his door with no little misgiv-
ing ; with just such thoughts as would naturally op-
press any young man of ordinary modesty in approach-
ing a college president for the first time. He raps at
the door and is told to ' come in' in a tone of voice
which by no means removes his embarrassment. His
story is soon told. The keen eye of the president scans
him with painful care. There was nothing in the young
man to promise an extraordinary future. A polished
exterior, and an ease of manner, which feels perfectly
at home in such a presence one cannot expect in one of
his age. A sound body he seemed to have and a head
which gave room for brain enough, provided it was of
the right sort. His whole appearance was that of a
young man fresh from his work shop, a rough stone
hewn out of the mountain, which needed much careful
chiseling to bring out the full-formed, finished, sym-
IN THE WEST. I3I
metrical statue. His room was assigned him. After
passing through the usual examination he entered the
Freshman class. At length his long cherished hopes to
become a college student are realized."
Thus ran the course of fortune with him until his
twenty-third year. Much of it all the downfall-
ings and uprisings, the smiles and tears, and aught
else that goes to make up the lights and shadows of
an eventful life may be rounded out from the diary
of one's own experiences, for the old world wags
much the same for all, and life's story is an old one.
IV. MARSHALL COLLEGE AND THE
SEMINARY, MERCERSBURG.
were about 130 students at Mercersburg
at the opening session of Marshall College
and the Seminary in the fall of 1840. Henry Har-
baugh was not regarded as one of the most promis-
ing among them. Dr. D. Y. Heisler remembered
him well as he then appeared : " a somewhat slender
and tall young man, with the evidences of hard
work and earnest efforts deeply impressed upon his
features. His athletic frame, sun-burned counte-
nance, and bony hands, gave him an appearance
wholly different from that of the future Dr. Har-
baugh, with the image of whose pleasant and genial
countenance we are all so familiar. He was there,
however, in the power and spirit of his future self.
In his regular studies and in all his exercises, liter-
ary and theological, he exhibited the same earnest-
ness, ardor and persistent application, which so
eminently distinguished him in after life. In the
discharge of his duties in the seminary and college,
as well as in his occasional addresses to Sunday-
schools, which with other students he used to attend
in the country, he was always enthusiastic, fresh,
and instructive ; but his style of speaking was then
comparatively crude and his gestures exceedingly
MARSHALL COLLEGE.
133
awkward, owing greatly, no doubt, to his self-for-
getting earnestness in the presentation of the truth."
The young student arrived at Mercersburg No-
vember n, 1840. He had left Ohio in mid-October,
having secured passage with his brother, who was
then coming Bast, in a two-horse carriage. The
trip was accomplished in seven days and was far
more comfortable and pleasant in every way than
was afforded by his former mode of travel.
He had formed some warm personal attachments
among the people of Ohio with whom he had been
associated during the three years sojourn, and now
he was leaving with genuine regret, but with
brighter hopes for the future than he had ever be-
fore cherished. He was to return, however, and
Ohio would be his future home, he told his friends,
but now his footsteps were turned towards Mercers-
burg, where the coming years had so much in store
for him, upon which he reckoned not.
The following quotation from one of his letters
well illustrates how thoughtful and observant he
was as a young man and how keenly he enjoyed
being "nearer to nature's heart." (May 22, 1842.)
"We arrived at Wheeling the same day we left
you," he writes to one of his Ohio friends. (l We
did not, however, cross the river the same evening,
as the ferry-boat had laid up for the night. We
had good luck. We stopped only about an hour in
Wheeling, and from there we reached my father's
I3 4 L,LPE, OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
in five days. Being Saturday evening, we had to
drive late, as it was after ten o'clock when we
arrived home. Our journey was generally pleasant,
though we had some rain on Thursday and Friday.
Nothing is more unpleasant than to be away on a
journey on a rainy day. All the other time was fair
and beautiful. May is the loveliest season for trav-
eling ; nature in all its richness smiled around us.
Not only is every field and every plain carpeted
with green, but nature hangs its beautiful drapery
on every hill and tree. Flowers and perfume meet
the sense and fill the heart with feeling, and we are
made to exclaim in the language of Thompson :
" ' These as they change, Almighty Father ! these
Are but the varied God. The rolling year
Is full of Thee. Forth in the Spring
Thy beauty walks. Thy tenderness and love
Wide flush the fields.'
"There is every variety of scenery on the road
from Ohio here. Along the Ohio river is a lovely
spot. The near banks that enamel the stream are
shaded by the blossoming Buckeye, and the gentle
current murmurs by as calm and even as the good
man's life. Then as you pass along farther east
you see by the wayside many a little cottage and
many a lonely cabin wealth and poverty side by
side the lordling and the slave, the oppressor and
the oppressed are all together and you are led in-
voluntarily to ask yourself, why this difference?
and he is a philosopher who solves it aright.
MARSHALL COLLEGE.
135
" Through the country you see many neat resi-
dences, some beautiful yards, lovely shade bowers,
summer houses and green trees all of which are
a good index to the character of the inhabitants.
For where you see such beauty and taste without,
you may look with confidence for neatness, kind-
ness, and happiness within.
" Such persons commune much with nature's
God. Thus the heart is made better, and it is filled
with the warmest feelings, which continually flow
out in rich floods towards God and man.
" Towards evening of the second day after you
leave Wheeling you get to the commencement of
the mountains. For about twenty miles before you
get to them, they appear to the view far in the dis-
tance, raising their deep blue peaks towards heaven
in tranquil beauty. Then as you get nearer to
them they become more distinct, less beautiful, but
more grand and sublime. The first is the Laurel
Hill. It is thick with laurels full of flowers, as
they are in bloom at present. There are also many
locusts ; they are at this time also full of flowers,
and as you pass along you are greeted by their loads
of perfume, which comes to you on every gale.
From the top of this first mountain is a most lovely
prospect. Far as the eye can reach lies to view
the level country westward, interspersed with fields
and woods, white houses and villages. When we
were there it was nearly sunset, and as he descended
1 36 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
in the west in his ( golden car,' a lovely serenity
spread itself over the face of the country. At last
the shades of twilight began to settle far off on the
mountains, and animated nature with her thousand
insect voices commenced its deep and solemn vesper.
From Laurel Hill eastward there is nothing but
mountains for about 130 miles, at the end of which
is the lovely (Cumberland) valley, one hundred
miles long and thirty to forty broad, in which Mer-
cersburg is situated. On the top of the highest
mountain the leaves were scarcely started, and the
woodland was bare. I have said that I love moun-
tain scenery, yet I love not only the mighty and
sublime in nature, but the lovely and beautiful
the gentle, the modest, the chaste. I have loved
the mountain with all its wildness from my child-
hood. It has been my intimate companion, and
all the world, with its pride and follies, seems as
nothing when my soul rises amid scenes like these. "
Mercersburg in sixty years has added much to
her fair fame, but the many affectionate and glow-
ing tributes to her greatness, sent forth from literary
hall and banquet board, have not served to lead her
as a body corporate into any dangerous schemes of
expansion. In the matter of internal improvements
the town has kept modest pace with like villages of
Southern Pennsylvania, but seldom indeed has it
been found necessary or desirable to extend its bor-
ough limits. The burgess and town council have
MARSHALL COLLEGE. I37
been all-sufficient in civil administration, and a
high constable, acting on occasion as special police-
man, has been the sole executive officer. In 1840
Mercersburg was a thriving village, commercially
speaking, and was alive with freight and passengers
moving east and west. The macadamized road,
now a turnpike, had already been built and there
was a coach line from Frederick City, then the ter-
minus of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, by way
of Hagerstown, Mercersburg, and Bedford to Wheel-
ing, West Va. This was a successful rival of the
stage lines running on the National road. Mercers-
burg was a picturesque place at this time, and while
many of the old landmarks have long since disap-
peared, the old taverns with their quaint signs, large
open stable yards crowded with white covered wag-
ons and quietly feeding horses, are still within the
memory of most of the older inhabitants.
From a purely Scotch-Irish community in 1835,
Mercersburg has merged into an Anglo-German
people which is substantially her citizenship to-day.
The old town has entertained many noted person-
ages ; it has produced and sent out into the world
men arid women of refinement and education, who
have made their impress on state and nation. The
town has grown old and gray and quiet, but it
shelters many peaceful firesides, and a company of
gentle-folk with whom it is a rich pleasure to meet.
One may stand now, as Henry Harbaugh did upon
I3 8 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
the front steps of the seminary in the autumn of
1840, and contemplate much the same scene. True
it is that the many green groves which encroached
so beautifully upon the borders of the village have
disappeared before the axe of the relentless lumber-
men ; the wide pasture fields lying between your
point of view and the town limits have given way
to the builders, while the slender saplings round
about the seminary building have sprung up to
over-top the building itself.
To one looking westward from this eminence the
little old town falls into view with its weather-
beaten shingles and big brick chimneys. Down in
the foreground of the picture stands the church
a large brick structure with a quaint little steeple
perched on top looking like a tarnished silver thim-
ble. In front and within the high iron fence, to
the left as you enter, stands a square block of mar-
ble which once marked the grave of Dr. Frederick
A. Rauch. To the right is the grave of Henry
Harbaugh and a monument erected to his memory
by the Synod of the Reformed Church. The in-
terior of this church will be well remembered by
many a college student its dusky walls, its pon-
derous galleries, and the lacquered brass chandelier
suspended by a long rope from the hub of an im-
mense wheel frescoed upon the ceiling. Many a
sultry Sunday morning during the progress of the
sermon has one of the younger representatives of
MONUMENT AT THE GRAVE OF DR. HARBAUGH. IN TRINITY CHURCH YARD,
ERECTED BY THE SYNOD OF THE REFORMED CHURCH.
MARSHALL COLLEGE.
139
the congregation rested back in the corner of a pew
and in fancy fashioned countless pieces of machin-
ery with this gigantic wheel as a nucleus. Per-
chance it would be a locomotive engine with train
of cars attached extending far out into the base-ball
field, with the whole equipment ten times too big
ever to get through the tunnel pictured like the
wheel in massive strokes on the wall behind the
high white pulpit.* And they who stood in that
high white pulpit McCauley the gentle, eloquent
minister, Brown the faithful pastor who traveled by
road and mountain in answer to every call of his
people, those giants of intellect, Schaff, Nevin,
Higbee, Thomas G. Apple, and so many others
all have joined the choir invisible of the sainted
dead ! These the church will never cease to honor
and hold in affectionate remembrance.
But farther to the west there fall into view the
everlasting hills and the blue mountain background.
These have better withstood the test of time.
Scarcely three miles away is a spur of the North
mountain, curving around like a sheltering arm
from Mount Parnell on the north to Two-Top on
the south, with a foreground of rolling farm land
cut in two by the glistening turnpike which loses
itself in the windings of the Cove Gap.
The description of the town most familiar to
* The interior of this church has been beautifully remodeled in recent
years. The gallery, high pulpit, and old frescoing are gone.
I4 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
those who have dwelt beneath its classic shades is
contained in the college catalogue of other days :
It is u a village of about twelve hundred inhabi-
tants, situated on the south-western part of Frank-
lin County, Pa., in the midst of a fertile lime-stone
region, at a distance of an hour's walk from the
base of what is called the North mountain. The
scenery formed by the mountains, which bend
around it like a vast crescent or amphitheatre, con-
trasting as it does with the rich open country below,
is absolutely splendid. "
Frequent allusion is made elsewhere in these
pages to the social and educational features of Mer-
cersburg, and the inclination to introduce further
description that might be borrowed from various
sources is therefore suppressed.
Marshall College, which early in its career was
termed " the little Dutch College out somewhere
along the mountains," had a long and hard struggle
for existence. A peculiar responsibility rested upon
teacher and pupil alike. Both the college and the
seminary were one great big home where social in-
tercourse was unrestricted and where the conveni-
ences of life such as the institution could then offer
were enjoyed largely in common. The well was
always free to him who would carry his pitcher to
it ; the country around afforded pleasant walks and
recreation, while the nuts were plentiful in the near
by woods for all who would gather them. The huge
MARSHALL COLLEGE.
141
wood pile with its attendant implements never
turned anyone away who honestly sought healthful
exercise.
When Henry Harbaugh entered his name upon
the roll of this institution he did it not as an expe-
dient, not merely as a means to some good end ;
not alone as a preparation for the calling in life that
seemed to him so many weary years ahead. But
rather his enlistment was for life. He regarded him-
self as surely adopted and the spirit of the institu-
tion in some mysterious manner became his spirit ;
the impulse which his mind received in these plas-
tic years of his life, in a great degree determined
the current of his after history. He accepted the
guardian care and benefits, and assumed the respon-
sibilities of a child of the institution.
The early students of Marshall College, with but
few exceptions, realized these things that from the
broken and withered bough no fruit could fall
within the shadow of the parent tree ; that any liv-
ing branch cut off and separated from the body of
the tree could bring forth no fruit of its kind. And
it were well for men of a later generation could
they awaken to the truth that he who wilfully and
permanently severs himself from the life of his alma
mater, thereby proves himself false to the memory
of those noble men who gave their best years, yea,
their very lives, against odds that this college might
live and her light continue to shine among men.
I4 2 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
The present writer deems himself fortunate ia
having the following masterly summary of the status
of our church and institutions of learning in the
year 1840. Dr. Theodore Appel, in his Life and
Work of John Williamson Nevin, D.D ., LL.D.,
says :
' ' The Reformed Synod met in the later part of Octo-
ber, 1840, at Greencastle, Pa., not far from Mercers-
burg, and about the same distance from Charnbersburg,
where the editors of the church papers and most of the
church treasurers resided. All parts of the denomina-
tion were well represented, the advisory members, of
whom Dr. Nevin was one, being about as numerous as
those that were regular delegates. Rev. Bernard C.
Wolff was ^chosen to preside. A general feeling of
hopefulness and confidence seemed to predominate,
which presented a strong contrast to what prevailed ia
some of the preceding synods, especially in one that
was held in Philadelphia in 1839. The dark clouds
which had hung over the church, and over the seminary
in particular, had in a measure passed away, and better
times seemed to be looming up under the blue sky of
hope. The action of the synod at Charnbersburg in
the election of a new theological professor (Nevin) was
heartily approved.
"The matter of holding a Centennial Celebration
during the following year occupied much of the time of
the synod and every member seemed anxious to give it
as wide and useful a range as possible. In reliance
upon Almighty God, the year 1841, therefore, was set
MARSH ALL COLLEGE. 143
apart as a solemn festival of thanksgiving, prayer, and
praise ; sermons and historical discourses were to be
delivered, the churches were to bring their thank-offer-
ings to the Lord, and to unite in raising $100,000 at
least for its struggling schools of learning, missions,
beneficiary education, or other objects ; subscription
books were to be opened in all the pastoral charges,
containing separate columns for each specific object ;
the brethren in the West were invited to unite in the
celebration At Mercersburg a very en-
thusiastic meeting had been held under the direction of
classis, at which quite a number of generous contribu-
tions were made. Dr. Rauch pledged himself for $500
and Dr. Budd for the same amount. Others in the
congregation and on the outside subscribed liberally.
The ladies in the Presbyterian congregation had nearly
raised the money for a $500 scholarship in Marshall
College ; on the Reformed side the ladies were trying
to do the same thing, and twenty students in the insti-
tutions had engaged to raise $25 each in five years to
complete a scholarship of their own. Dr. Nevin gave
$1000 for himself and family, which was probably the
largest amount contributed during the centenary year."
This was the enthusiastic condition of affairs at
the time Henry Harbaugh entered college. At
that time the alumni could number barely twenty
members, but where numbers lacked there was
plenty of energy and hope for the institution.
But just at this time Dr. Rauch fell sick and it
was realized among his closest friends that he had
1 44 LIFB OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
not long to live. He was young in years but frail
of body, and had no doubt overtaxed his mental
and physical energies in the work of Marshall Col-
lege and the Seminary, on which his heart was set.
He died March 2, 1841, and was laid to rest in the
grave yard of the college at the southern end of
Mercersburg, where his body rested until its re-
moval to Lancaster in March, 1859.
From the foregoing it will be observed that Henry
Harbaugh's entry at Marshall College was only a
few months prior to the death of its first president,
and he had, therefore, very brief personal contact
with Dr. Rauch as a teacher. But Dr. Nevin had
been sent to the relief of the college and seminary
in the declining days of Dr. Rauch, and was then
already asking the people of the German Reformed
Church through the press, the pulpit, and the class
room, whether they were willing to see the church
merged into other religious systems, or whether
they would unite to sustain it as it was and allow it
to grow in its own historical life. Dr. Rauch was
laid in his grave in March, 1841, but Mercersburg
theology had already awakened and was wielding
its influence in the formative period of what has
since come to be the Reformed Church in the United
States. During these and after years many of the
fathers of the church had their good part in weld-
ing and forging the system of theology which con-
MARSHALL COLLEGE. 145
trols the cultus and economy of our rapidly grow-
ing branch of the visible church.
Henry Harbaugh was now coming near to what
he had long wished for. He had a modest sum
stored up for expenses of the first year at least ;
and what was far more important than that, his
honored father was beginning to apprehend the true
bent of his son's mind, and there was no longer
the feeling in the heart of the young student that
he was doing and living against the will of a con-
scientious but mistaken parent. He was well
pleased with the college. He had found a pleasant
boarding place at a very modest price and had be-
gun to study. To a correspondent in Ohio he thus
unburdens himself :
1 ' I like the college well. Of course thus far I have
not much enjoyed myself, being altogether strange. I
pay $1.87 per week boarding, and the tuition is from
ten to eighteen dollars per session. There are about
125 to 130 students. I am studying at present Latin
and Greek only. Greek is hard more so than plan*
ing logs or boating on the ice. The college course is
four years. Probably I will not take a full course.
Your letter found me in good health, but I cannot say
in good spirits, for I was exceedingly depressed in mind
about the time it made its appearance. ' '
Early in January, 1841, in an affectionate letter
to his father, he relates in detail the circumstances
I4 6 WFB OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
of the fire which destroyed the building in which
the preparatory school was held.
U I am getting along tolerably well with my
studies," he writes. "I intend to commence to
study the German language on Monday, as I con-
sider it wrong for me to keep studying other things
of less importance before I know the language in
which I was raised better. I will study the German
with Professor Good. He is a good German scholar
and fond of teaching it. I do not know that I can
come home again before spring. I would like to see
any of the folks at any time. Probably if snow comes,
some of you will pay me a visit, and if so I hope
you will not forget to put some of the good apples
in the box. " He received the candles that had been
made for him at home, and he hoped some one
would take a sleigh ride and bring the German dic-
tionary along up.
With the same diligence that had characterized
his student life at the New Hagerstown Academy,
Ohio, he availed himself of all the means of im-
provement that were to be found at Marshall Col-
lege. He became a member of the literary society,
which was conducted in the German language, and
also one of the rival English societies. In Die
Deiitsche Literarische Gesellschaft he found oppor-
tunity to supplement his study of the German lan-
guage, to exercise in the sound German words, and
to become more fluent in the use of them. Criti-
MARSHALL COLLEGE. 147
eism on the part of the various members was un-
sparing, and Henry Harbaugh was severely brought
to frequently on account of his tendency to drift
into the use of the Pennsylvania-German dialect
the language of his home.
He became a member of the Diagnothian Liter-
ary Society, in which English was used, and around
which much of the charm of college life lay for
him. Of his entrance into it Dr. Theodore Appel
speaks as follows :
1 ' We were on intimate terms during his course of
studies at Mercersburg, and had many interesting con-
versations together. He joined the same literary
societj r to which we then belonged in 1841, and took his
seat as a full-grown man, already twenty-four years old,
when all the rest of us were his juniors. He sat and
listened for a while, but looked as if his thoughts were
somewhere else, rather absent minded ; and it was not
thought that there was anything special in him, or that
anything special would come out of him. On one occa-
sion, however, when he was called on to read a compo-
sition, he got up and recited a very beautiful little
poem, full of tenderness and pathos, something very
remarkable in the circumstances, and very surprising
to his fellow members. The wonder was where this
rural addition to the society had found such thoughts
and such words. At once he rose up as one of our
brightest stars, and we were all of us very proud of
him. The poem has been published in several periodi-
I4 8 WFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
cals, and has always been admired, notwithstanding its
want of polish in several respects."
Dr. Appel further, speaking of the tendencies of
some young students of that day, declares again
the doubt that existed as to Henry Harbaugh's fu-
ture, " but as for Henry Harbaugh afterwards
author and professor of theology, no less than a
powerful preacher of righteousness it was a doubt-
ful case whether he would come to anything at all
in the ministry. He was free spoken and had very
little of cant about him. Both he and his ances-
tors were genuine Swiss, and could not be anything
else but Reformed. Henry, however, was not be-
hind anybody on the subject of temperance or
slavery, just as afterwards he never lagged in the
rear on the question of the Union."
While Henry was thus observed by his fellow
students, it would be a mistake to suppose that he
was not also one of the observers. His estimates
are in several instances recorded. One fellow, he
remarks, u is a bright genius. He can learn con-
siderably more in two days than in one. He appears
to feel the full force of being at college. It will take
him about a session to find out that he knows
nothing." . . . " Suppose you come up some one
of these Saturdays," he writes to his brother
George, " and I will make you a present of a copy
of Dr. Ranch's Psychology the book the man
MARSHALL COLLEGE. 149
wrote who died last spring, and that will pay you
for your ride. I would like to have a talk with
you. You have a horse to ride, but when I come
home I have to walk."
It was thus that the homesickness betrayed itself
in nearly every letter the young student wrote. He
longed to get back to the old stone house to the
little sleeping room out into the orchard where he
could awaken the echo, and hear the " I/ittle Man
in the barn" call back to him. But there was much
to occupy his mind now, and he found so much en-
couragement in the progress of his first year's work
at Marshall College that he was able to say to one
of his friends :
' * You tell me in your letter that you find a great deal
of enjoyment in reading. If you find a pleasure in it
now, you will in after life find, not only the pleasure
continued, but it will be the cause of drawing smiles
upon your pathway. It will serve to light up each
joyless hour with a serenity of mind and a self-existent
joy of heart, that can only be known by those who feel it.
There are hours lonely hours that every one is called
to pass, at one time or another, and sorrows that no one
can evade, but how much easier are they borne by the
mind that is fortified by education, and which finds in
itself a resting place when all around is turbulent and
black with storms of sorrow. You say you are almost
discouraged trying to get an education. It is true that
you are put to inconvenience by there being no school
there, but you must not let this discourage you. You
, 5 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
can read, and, as you say, study at home, and if you
read as you say you do, two volumes a week, you will
improve much until spring. And no doubt some time
you will get an opportunity, and the more you accus-
tom yourself to habits of study, privately, so much
the greater will be your advantages when you get to
school hereafter."
In the midst of his studies, he found time for some
practical theology and pastoral work. Towards the
close of his second year at Mercersburg, he wrote :
' ' I got my cold by walking to the country to address
a Sunday-school. I got into a perspiration while I was
in the house and then took cold when I came out. I
have established a Bible class about two miles from
town among the young folks of the country. They
are very attentive and take a great interest in it. I
meet them on every Sunday afternoon at half-past
three o'clock. The class is composed of about fifteen
young persons, and is still increasing. I expect to
have an interesting class and, by the help of God, to
do some good among them."
Probably the first service of a public character
which he performed was on the occasion of the
death of his uncle in " Harbaugh's Valley," in
December, 1842. Jacob Harbaugh had been an
exemplary member of the Reformed Church, an
elder in the congregation at his home for many
years, and had reached an advanced age. Henry
Harbaugh was present at his funeral, and circum-
MARSHALL COLLEGE. 151
stances were such that no minister was able to
attend. The young theological student offered a
prayer and sang a hymn at the house.
Henry preached his first sermon in the " Little
Cove," ten or twelve miles from Mercersburg. He
and his room mate, Mr. Lesher, were there by in-
vitation in the last week in December, 1842. They
were kindly received with the well-known hospi-
tality that exists for travelers and strangers unto
this day in that little valley. He preached upon the
text " It is finished," and spoke for about fifty -five
minutes not an unusual length for a sermon fifty
years ago.
These homilies from the seminary, and the serv-
ices attendant, were well received, patiently listened
to, and piously joined in by the people ; and it came
to be an event of more than ordinary interest in the
various settlements, " when the students came down
to preach. ' ' The reverence with which these young
men conducted the services, and the ardor and en-
thusiasm which accompanied their discourses, ap-
pealed strongly to these people. If at times theology
and botany prevailed too largely over religion and
flowers in the sermonizing, nevertheless the influ-
ences of Rauch, Nevin, SchafF, and others per-
vaded it all, and rendered it a condition of amateur
preaching not so directly given to other communi-
ties.
I5 2 v OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
A short time after his experience in the " Little
Cove," Henry Harbaugh replied to one of his
friends in Ohio :
" You asked if I was embarrassed when I preached.
I was not. I felt perfectly composed. I have to
preach again on Sunday evening, the 4th of February,
about two miles from town, in a little village."
Another engagement which was nearer to his
heart than all else in Mercersburg, was the little
singing class which he had organized in connection
with his leadership of the Reformed Church choir.
Only a few months before leaving the seminary in
the autumn of 1843, he wrote :
"This afternoon about three o'clock I visited the
1 Juvenile Female Sewing Society ' of Mercersburg, of
which I am an honorary member. Perhaps I told you
before of this society. It consists of young girls
about 12 years of age. They sew little things, the
profit of which is devoted to missionary purposes.
They have already between four and five dollars of
money. I like to encourage them, so I visit them fre-
quently. They meet every Saturday afternoon. They
are also my singing class. I took them a watermelon
this afternoon. It was a large and excellent one.
They were much pleased and we had a great feast.
They are improving beyond all my expectations, and I
intend to hold a concert this fall before I leave. We
are at present practising tunes for it andjl think we
will have a crowded audience. I do not like to part
MARSHALL COLLEGE. 153
with my class and they do not like to part with me, but
so it must be. It is harder to leave this class than any
thing else I have found in Mercersburg. ' '
At the anniversary exercises of the Diagnothian
Literary Society, held July 4th, 1842, he was on
the progam with Theodore Appel, John Cessna,
William P. Schell, and others. The last part on
the order of exercises, was : u Oration The Tomb
of Washington, Henry Harbaugh of Ohio." At
this time he thought very seriously of again inter-
rupting his course of study to teach for a term at
Waynesboro. Dr. Nevin then gave him the follow-
ing certificate :
' ' Mr. Henry Harbaugh has been in connection with
the Theological Seminary of the German Reformed
Synod, as a student of theology, since last fall ; having
previously prapared himself for college in the Prepara-
tory department. He bears an excellent character, as
a Christian man and a student, and I can readily recom-
mend him as one likely to give satisfaction as a teacher
in the situation for which he proposes to apply at
Waynesboro. ' '
He did not accept the appointment, however,
and that fall entered again upon his regular studies
at Mercersburg. Altogether he spent three years
in succession at Marshall College and the Seminary,
the first year entirely in the college and the remain-
ing two partly in the college and partly in the
154
LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
seminary. To the regular theological course he
added what he could from the college. His course
was, therefore, not regular, and he did not gradu-
ate, as he then considered his youth pretty well
gone and his funds small. He thought, and was
so advised by others, that he might be useful in the
ministry with a partial course. u It is not so much
human learning that God will bless as the one thing
needful," he wrote, " though that is not to be de-
spised, and I pray that it may be increased."
But his mental equipment at this time, and also
when he entered the active work of the ministry
one year later, was better than he knew. Where
he had crowded time and had interwoven the col-
lege and seminary courses of study, he had also
marshaled his mental powers and trained them to
do his bidding in a systematic and logical way.
Thirst for knowledge and an unyielding perseve-
rance in pursuit of it, were his substitutes for
opportunity and time. At each recurring vacation
time his thoughts seemed to turn towards teaching.
Barly in life he had grasped the idea of improving
his own mind and imparting knowledge to others
at the same time. He regretted that there were so
many teachers who had neither appreciated their
advantages nor felt their responsibilities. He be-
lieved that a school teacher ought to be first of all
a Christian, one who would exert a moral influence
MARSHALL COLLEGE.
155
and cast heavenly seed on the sunny fields of child-
hood, which growing up might be for the glory of
God in eternal ages. He advocated the organiza-
tion of libraries in every school house, and was
personally instrumental in starting one at the Am-
sterdam school house near his old home. This
was while he was at the seminary in Mercers-
burg in 1843. -Dr. Traill Green, then teacher of
natural sciences, accompanied him to his home
below Waynesboro and made an address to the
children and people gathered at the school house,
in the interest of such a library. Within a few
weeks thereafter they had 170 volumes and the
promise of many more, and it was already doing
wonders for the young folks.
In August, 1843, he said : " I love the institution
and its professors as well as many of the students.
With the citizens of the town I have very little
communication, only so far as I am thrown among
them in the common relations of life."
From this time forward he bent his energies
harder than ever towards the completion of his
course in the seminary. He was becoming unduly
anxious to enter the active work of the ministry,
and was urged all the more in this direction by
reason of the fact that his venerable father, though
willing now to assist him, found himself unable to
do so because of severe financial losses.
I5 6 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
In the autumn of 1843, therefore, he completed
his course in the seminary and left Mercersburg,
bearing with him the warm personal friendship of
Dr. Nevin and others of the faculty, and the good
wishes of many friends he had made while there.
V. TWENTY YEARS IN THE MINISTRY.
REV. HENRY HARBAUGH, as he may
now be called, found that there were many
vacant charges in Pennsylvania. Ohio was also a
promising mission field at that time for the Re-
formed Church. He visited a number of places in
Maryland and Virginia and preached during the
autumn of 1843. From some of them he received
calls, Westminster, Md., and Meadville, Pa., being
among those which he seriously considered. The
mode of travel to the various places was slow and
expensive, and while he visited and preached for a
number of congregations, he did not finally decide
upon a field of labor until after the meeting of
synod at Winchester, Va., where he received his
authority to preach. As to one of his journeys to
preach in Maryland he speaks as follows : "I left
Mercersburg on Saturday in the stage to Green-
castle 10 miles, and from there I went to Hagers-
town, Md., the same day in the rail-cars. It is a
beautiful way of traveling. We went nine miles
in a half hour. It looks singular to see a steam
locomotive with a train of cars moving over the
country * like a thing of life' and at so fast a rate.
Now it runs fast over an even plain, now it winds
round a hill, and now it shoots into a deep cut, and
I5 8 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
then out again, and so on, puffing and blowing like
a great monster. May it not be that some day you
will ride on it?"
Before going to the session of synod, he went
back to his old home, where, in accordance with a
previous arrangement with the pastor, Mr. Philips,
at Jacob's Church, in " Harbaugh's Valley," he
assisted in the series of services leading up to the
celebration of the Holy Communion. From Thurs-
day until the following Monday he preached nine
times at the old stone church. Several of his ser-
mons were in the German language. Seven years
before brief ones they seemed to him now he
had gone away from the mill of his uncle Elias and
had taken his departure from his ancestral home to
" fulfil his designs." Now he was standing among
his relatives and friends of former years, preaching
to them the word of God. It was a trying time,
no doubt, but the warm reception of his friends,
and the scenes of his youth, acted as a blessed in-
spiration, and the occasion gave him the coveted
opportunity to sweep away any feeling of prejudice
that might be lingering against the boy, Unser
Heinrich.
Harbaugh's Valley was first settled by the three
Harbaugh brothers Ludwig, George, and Jacob,
in the year 1760. They came from the Kreutz
creek settlement in York County, Pa., as has been
stated elsewhere in this volume. Previous to the
IN THE MINISTRY.
159
year 1822 they worshiped at Apple's Church, near
what is now Thurmont, Md., and owing to the
scarcity of ministers, had their services, for a great
part of the time, only every four or eight weeks on
Thursday instead of Sunday. Jacob's congregation
was organized by the Rev. David Bassler, then
pastor of the Kmmittsburg charge, and the stone
church was erected in 1823. ^ n later times it has
come to be called St. Jacob's Church by what Dr.
Cort terms " a strange misnomer." "After seventy-
five years," said the present pastor, the Rev. Dr.
Cyrus Cort, " it stands forth strong and beautiful
in its simplicity, an enduring monument to the
heroic faith and piety of the Reformed fathers and
mothers who reared it in the midst of the primeval
forest." These words were uttered on the occasion
of the celebration of the seventy-fifth anniversary
of the building of the church September 24, 1898.
Upon the conclusion of the services in which the
Rev. Henry Harbaugh took part at Jacob's Church,
he repaired to Winchester, Va. , where he was
licensed to preach by the synod October, 17, 1843.
He accepted an urgent invitation to go to Lewis-
burg, Pa., to preach for the people with a view of
becoming their pastor. The former pastor had
resigned owing to his inability to preach in the
German language, and the people were rejoiced at
the prospect of having a minister. Mr. Harbaugh' s
impressions of the town and country were very
X 6o LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
favorable. He pronounced it a beautiful place,
and the people received him with a warmth and
kindness that never abated in the least during his
seven years' pastorate among them.
The charge was made up of two congregations,
one at L,ewisburg and the other six miles in the
country. To the country congregation he preached
altogether in English. In town German and Eng-
lish alternately every other Sunday. He entered
upon his work without delay. In addition to the
services mentioned above, he conducted a weekly
lecture and prayer meeting, and the Sunday-school.
He started a Bible class with an attendance of 34
members. He received a salary of $300 a year
from this charge, but within the first year of his
pastorate the Milton congregation was added, and
he also served several other points in an irregular
manner, and his salary was increased proportion-
ately. Nevertheless, he had a rather meagre in-
come, but his people were kind and they manifested
their approval of his labors frequently in a substan-
tial way. He began his ministry in December, 1843,
and was ordained on the 24th of January following.
He found L,ewisburg to be a town of considerable
size, pleasantly located on the west branch of the
Susquehanna river, about ten miles above the
forks. It is in the historic Buffalo Valley in cen-
tral Pennsylvania, arnid fertile farm lands, bounded
by the Blue mountains in the distance.
HENRY HARBAUGH AT THE AGE OP 35 YEARS. PROM DAOUBRRBOTYPB TAKEN IN 1882.
IN THE MINISTRY. !6i
After accepting the call he paid a visit to his old
friends in Ohio, and on December 14, 1843, was
united in marriage with Miss Louisa Goodrich, of
New Hagerstown, Carroll County, Ohio, whose
acquaintance he had made in his early life at the
New Hagerstown Academy. This union lasted
until the summer of 1847, when the companion of
his youth, while on a visit with him to the home
of her parents in the West, was stricken with fever
and died, September 26.
The people of Lewisburg charge had been labor-
ing under the disadvantage of worshiping in com-
mon with the Lutherans in a so-called Union
church, which prevented them from having services
oftener than every other Sunday. The young pas-
tor saw at once the many inconveniences arising
from a system of this kind to both the minister
and his people, and efforts were put forth at once
to establish a church exclusively Reformed. This
was not fully accomplished, however, until 1847,
when a substantial brick church was 'erected to the
service and honor of God. The result thus attained
was in a large measure due to the . energy and zeal
of the young pastor.
The practical work of the ministry was a revela-
tion to him. After all his experience in the world
of mental and physical labor ; after his painstaking
course in practical and theoretical theology, he
assumed the pastoral charge of this little flock of
!62 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
God's people in fear and trembling. Of the reality
of his call to the work he had never any doubt. He
felt that the way leading from his confirmation in
1836, to his ordination to the ministry in 1844, had
been hard, and that his efforts had been conscien-
tious, and yet, while on the threshold of the life
which he had so earnestly longed for, he confessed
that he was inefficient and yet groping in the dark
in many things that concerned his Master's king-
dom. His services at the altar, in the pulpit, and
his ministrations among the people at their homes
were not in accordance with the plans which he had
pondered over beforehand. The outer world had a
chilling effect on the church. His people were per-
verse at times, over-zealous as to one branch of the
church work and coldly indifferent to another. The
young parson himself often allowed trifles to vex
him, and permitted responsibilities that did not
properly belong to him to lie heavily upon his
heart ; so that at times he was moody and so lack-
ing in grace as to be ready to exclaim : " Oh, who
is sufficient to be a faithful minister of God in sea-
son and out of season !"
The young pastor was a good listener to what
laymen had to say. His good humor kept all dis-
couragements and moods in the background. His
sense of despondency was not intruded upon his
people. His periods of mental depression were
fought out for the most part at his desk, and his
IN THE MINISTRY.
trials of faith were sustained by prayer. With
persons from abroad who wished to enlist his sym-
pathies, or perhaps tempt him with books he could
not afford to buy, he exercised marvelous patience,
and he soon learned to close off in a manner void
of offense that peculiar class of people who essayed
to entertain him with long stories on short subjects.
The work which he laid out to do admitted of no
waste places in the flight of time.
He was eager for work, open to suggestions of
others, and keenly observant of the lives and plans
of his own people and of the community at large.
Whenever opportunity afforded he attended services
at the several churches of the town, and, though
not openly critical, he found much to reflect upon
for his own benefit. He did not approve of preach-
ing on a subject when the people were in agitation
upon it. He early observed the danger of sensa-
tionalism, and his tendency in the pulpit was away
from the questions of the day towards the simple
word of God. A most striking exception in this,
however, was on the subject of temperance, in
which he was most persistent and uncompromising
for the greater part of his early ministry.
Preaching, he considered, ought to be plain and
to the point ; and a preacher, like other men, when
he has nothing to say, ought to say nothing. He
disliked argument when entered into merely for its
own sake, but polemics for a purpose grew upon
OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
him, and he became proficient and formidable on
the floor of synod.
He avoided disputes with his fellow-townsmen
when he found them ignorant of the subject under
discussion. He encountered considerable difficulty
with the prevailing Unitarian sentiment and also
with certain persons who urged upon him the dis-
cussion of the "Anxious Bench" exposition then
lately published from the pen of Dr. Nevin. He
was dismayed by the display of shallow thinking
upon this and kindred subjects, and failed to appre-
ciate the humor of one disputant, who sagely as-
serted that Dr. Nevin had given it the wrong
name, inasmuch as the "bench is never anxious."
He deplored the lack of discipline in the congre-
gation as he found it, and often regretted on Mon-
day that he had spoken so severely to his people
the previous day. He grieved over the lack of
unity in the church at large, and, in this respect,
he assumed a burden of thought which no one man
is called upon to bear. In later years, though with
unabated zeal in the work of the church, he
looked upon God alone as the power that could
heal her divisions.
He discovered that it required a great deal of res-
olution to carry forward regular studies where there
was so much interruption and so many circum-
stances to intrude upon him. He could study well
when walking in the country or along the river
IN THE MINISTRY. Z 6 5
bank. He could always learn a good lesson in con-
versation with children, and on one occasion when
he had found it hard to persuade a boy that birds
like to live, he observed that u one seed in the
young mind is worth ten in the old." At times
his sermons, prepared with a great deal of labor
and conscientious effort, seemed to be dull and un-
profitable, while after a time of restlessness and
inability to command the powers of his mind, he
would preach with ease and feel that the effect had
been good. He believed that the best pulpit elo-
quence was when the truth was brought fairly to
the conscience. He thought that a pastor must
not expect the people to lead him in any profitable
exercise ; he must lead them.
He found the German language difficult, espe-
cially in sermonizing, and once in a while his ser-
mon was made singularly emphatic by a little
hesitation and then the introduction of a broad,
crisp Anglo-Saxon word in place of the German
one that could not be recalled. After ten years of
pulpit experience and no small amount of transla-
ting of the German language, he still found it
something of an effort to preach the German, and
a welcome relief to resort to English.
He found it not good to be in all kinds of company
when intending to preach, and he could preach best
when he went direct from his study to the pulpit.
This indicates a difficulty which many ministers
OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
have in fairly balancing the duties of pastoral visit-
ation and public services in the house of God.
But with all the little frictions incident to a first
pastorate, and with the grace to calmly accept them,
which comes of experience, Henry Harbaugh grew
very fond of his little flock. While he pursued
his work with unabated vigor and stood up for right
as he saw it without compromise, the relation of
himself and his people rose to a pure glow of affec-
tion. This is well indicated in his reply to a sug-
gestion that he should accept another charge in the
spring of 1847 :
' ' I can see no reason why I should leave these peo-
ple. I believe I have their confidence, and am, under
God, useful to them. My salary is not near so large as
that of which you speak, and scarcely large enough to
support me as a minister ought to be supported, but
this is not so much of a consideration. The charge is
small, new, and my salary is every year increasing. It
is because the charge you speak of gives more that I
ain fearful of giving the least encouragement, lest it
might be the impulse of a wrong spirit.
' ' Whether my qualifications are such as would meet
the case you represent, I cannot say. That must be
learned from another source. This, though, is what I
can say in reply to your friendly epistle : Accept my
thanks for any concern you have manifested in my wel-
fare. May God make it plain. I will not leave I/ewis-
burg until God makes me leave : that is, until He
makes it so plain as that it shall not be possible for me
IN THE MINISTRY. ^7
to mistake it. And this He will do if it be His will that
I shall go."
The thoughtless jibes of the public press upon
this subject need no refutation, but if they did, such
words as the foregoing ought to suffice among
thoughtful people. They are but the words of one
recording the actions of the many faithful, con-
scientious servants of God.
The call to which the above paragraph is a reply,
set forth the facts that one of the most important
of our churches was about to become vacant, that
there was but the one congregation, for which a
minister would be required who could preach in
both languages u one who could preach a good
practical, doctrinal sermon (a Heidelberg Catechism
man)" one who could preach u a common sense
three-quarter of an hour sermon so that any Penn-
sylvania-German can understand it" one who
would " visit the sick, and every family of his
flock once or twice at least during the year a sys-
tematic, pastoral visit." The compensation was to
be $500 or perhaps $600 u no horse or conveyance
required."
It was to this part of the communication the
following words of the reply refer : " Whether my
qualifications are such as would meet the case you
represent, I cannot say."
Among the pleasant and encouraging features of
his life at Lewisburg were the visits of Drs. Schaff
1 68 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
and Nevin and other ministers of the church, with
whom he took great delight in conversing, and who
preached for him frequently. Thus he could keep
in touch with the institutions of learning, and keep
himself informed of the great activities of the
church and of the best thought of its men of light
and leading.
One of the brightest hours of his weekly labor
was the meeting of the Sunday-school teachers.
Here his love of teaching found its true response ;
here also lay his best opportunity to do lasting
work. With such a devoted, faithful, and thor-
oughly unselfish portion of his flock before him, he
knew that an influence would be wielded and good
seed be sown for a fruitful harvest. This training of
the teachers he placed second in importance only to
the course of instruction in the catechism for those
who were looking towards confirmation to the
church. To this catechetical class he was con-
stantly devoted, and those who were confirmed in
the course of his ministry were most deeply im-
pressed with the solemnity and earnestness of his
final words to them. The final examination of his
catechumens was usually held before the consistory
and a good part of the congregation.
He began early to write articles for the Messenger.
He prepared the first prologue for the anniversary
of the Diagnothian L,iterary Society of Marshall
College in 1845, an ^ i n that year wrote and deliv-
IN THE MINISTRY. ^9
ered a sermon to his people on the subject of heaven.
This afterwards became one of a series of sermons
which were rewritten and became his first published
volume u The Sainted Dead." His tendency in
preparing sermons was to run into serials and his
mid-weekly lectures partook of that character for
the most part.
Early in the summer of 1847 he set out with wife
and little daughter, Mary, to visit Ohio. They
made the journey in easy stages by horse and car-
riage. The young pastor was in good spirits, and
after an exceptionally hard year's work, was eager
for the freedom of a vacation, and delighted with
the prospect of a leisurely trip through the moun-
tains of Western Pennsylvania. He was leaving
his people in peace. The work of his pastorate had
prospered. The new church project was then well
under way. The corner stone had been laid on
May 7, in the presence of a large concourse of peo-
ple. Dr. J. W. Nevin had been present and
preached the sermon. Subscriptions to the new
church had been raised to the amount of $i, 600
with but a few days of canvassing. Everything
seemed favorable for a good rest in travel and at the
home of Mrs. Harbaugh in Ohio. The one sad
stroke upon them at this time was the death of their
second child, a daughter who died just two days be-
fore the occasion of the laying of the corner stone,
aged only eighteen days. At one place where they
170
LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
remained over night in their travels west there had
been scarlet fever among the children of the house-
hold. This fact was discovered only after it was
too late to adopt any precautions, and soon after
their arrival in New Hagerstown, Ohio, Mrs. Har-
baugh took sick with a virulent attack of scarlet
fever which was complicated with rheumatism,
from which she never recovered. After a few
weeks of intense suffering she slept in death, Sep-
tember 26, 1847, aged twenty-three years and three
months. She was buried there among the friends
of her childhood, and the sad homecoming of the
young man with his little daughter may be much
better imagined than described. Very touching
indeed was the sympathy shown by his people at
Lewisburg, and he at once resumed his duties among
them with mind turned more solemnly than ever
to the contemplation of the life beyond the grave.
He was an interested observer and student of
public questions. He did not like practical poli-
tics, and could not abide the unstudied and careless
speeches of the hustings. He often attended dis-
cussions of a political character, however, and
during the forties was inclining in his political
faith towards the movement which afterwards crys-
talized into the Republican party. In July, 1848,
writing to his brother, he made the following preg-
nant and prophetic utterance :
IN THE MINISTRY. I y I
' ' There is a powerful anti-slavery spirit getting up.
I would not be surprised if the candidate to be taken
up at Buffalo (Van Buren) in August would succeed.
May God grant it. If he does not, then in 1852 we
will have two parties, thus, ' Slavery and anti-slavery,'
then the Union will be divided. It cannot stand, it
will not stand six years longer, unless the current of
our country's history will take a sudden turn. We
are now going towards a split fast and far. However,
' God who sitteth in the heavens will laugh,' and His
kingdom will rise with even new power and freshness
out of the wrecks of revolution."
The Free-soil party failed to receive even one
electoral vote, in 1848, but events did take a sudden
turn in the repeal of the Missouri Compromise
which aroused Lincoln and other leading men of
the nation to the organization of the Republican
party. And in 1858, Lincoln uttered a prophecy
similar to the one quoted above, though on a public
and momentous occasion, and more nearly in the
fulness of time :
' ' A house divided against itself cannot stand. I
believe this government cannot endure permanently
half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to
be dissolved ; I do not expect the house to fall ; but I
do expect that it will cease to be divided . . . . "
Having built and dedicated a new church at
Lewisburg, and having built the congregation up
in membership and influence in the community,
I7 2 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
the Rev. Henry Harbaugh, after much deliberation,
felt constrained to accept a call to the First Re-
formed Church, Lancaster, Pa. It was with great
regret that he gave up his first pastorate. The ties
were stronger than ever now for the reason that he
had married Mary Louisa Linn, whose home was in
Lewisburg, on November 14, 1848.
In March, 1850, he took up his work at Lancas-
ter. His pastorate there proved to be the busiest
ten years of his life. He edited The Guardian, a
monthly magazine which he had started at Lewis-
burg in January, 1850, finished the second volume
of his work on the future state, ** Heavenly Recog-
nition,' 7 and prepared the "Sainted Dead" for a
third edition during the first year at Lancaster.
He also prepared for publication " The Fathers of
the Reformed Church," u The Palatinate Cate-
chism," "Union with the Church," u The Birds of
the Bible," u Life of Michael Schlatter," and much
other work which will be referred to more at length
in a subsequent chapter.
From such busy scenes as these Dr. Harbaugh
would sometimes flee to the mountains or to some
place in the country with a friend or two for recre-
ation. To his friend Dr. Bausman he wrote in the
mid-summer of 1857 :
* ' You preached last Sunday on the childlike in
Christ. So did I in the evening. At least a good part
of my sermon was on that. I preached on Christian
IN THE MINISTRY. ! 73
cheerfulness, perhaps suggested by your remark on
Ward Beecher's sermon. My idea was that the Chris-
tian is the childlike, and the childlike is the cheerful.
A child is often vexed, fretful, &c., but never sad. If
sad, then morbid. I agree with you that we may well
wish to be children again. That is a bright spot that
comes but once in life. As we get older we are forced
to fence off the world on account of its untrue charac-
ter, and with it banish the heaven that lies about us in
our infancy.
"You banter me in your letter to spend a vacation
with you. Well, Bro. B., I would do anything in the
world to cheer you. Although I have no particular
need of recreation, feeling pretty well, yet it would not
hurt me ; and how pleasant for us to spend a week to-
gether. Now hear what I say : You come down to the
junction (in Perry County) next Monday, or to Millers-
town, on the Juniata, with your carriage, and I will
meet you there. And we will go to any place you
please for a week to Perry County, to Chambersburg,
Mercersburg, and my brother's at Waynesboro any
place you please. And on Saturday we will separate
at the same place and go home to preach. How would
a trip to brother C. H. Leinbach's, in Perry County,
do, for a week ? Fine ; we could go whortleberrying,
and talk about all things. There is so much pomposity
and empty flourish in this world, and in these times,
that it does one good to come heart to heart. Perhaps
a week away from your cares would do you good. And
if in the way proposed, I can add something to your
comfort, oh, how gladly will I do it."
1 74 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
" What a memorable week that was," writes Dr.
Bausman. ' ' Strolling along the banks of a stream,
Dr. Harbaugh mounted a log, made a low awkward
bow, and delivered a parody on a political speech.
I can still see him, his face flushed with fiery ardor
of the occasion, himself looking so smilingless and
grave, and the rest of us convulsed with laughter,
till one's sides ached. "
On another occasion, writing to Dr. Bausman
who was then in Europe, Dr. Harbaugh said, among
other things :
' ' When I read your letter I had an indescribable
strong desire to be with you, and had I then been able
to command the speed of the telegraph, you would
have met me soon But let it go now. If
I do not get to Europe, we will get to heaven some
day won't we? And as Stilling says: ' Dort lasst
sich noch mehr von diesen Sachen sagen ' (There we
shall have some more to say about these matters).
' ' I was out at the fish baskets last week (in the
Conestoga, near the old Bausman homestead). We
had a pleasant time two eels and forty suckers. We
were wishing you were along with us. Got some of
H's apples and cider on our return. I had your old
coat on and filled it out pretty well. ' '
Only those who knew the tall and slender young
Bausman and the broad shouldered Dr. Harbaugh
in 1857 would be able to appreciate the humor of
that last sentence.
IN THE MINISTRY.
175
During the winter of 1858-1859, he preached a
series of sermons on the subject of the Virgin Mary
which attracted large audiences to his evening ser-
vices, some among his hearers being Roman Cath-
olics. Report went out through the community
that he was developing decided Romanizing ten-
dencies. In January, 1859, he preached the fifth
and last sermon of this series and at the request of
not a few of his friends, prepared the manuscript
for publication, which appeared in book form under
the caption of u The True Glory of Woman," and
had a large circulation.
The preparation of these books, particularly the
u Lives of the Fathers," which he declared time
and again had been too long neglected, was a great
labor in itself. In 1850, beginning February i, he
preached 107 sermons in Lancaster and 28 at other
places ; to this must be added ten or twelve lectures
on special occasions. In 1851, 125 sermons in
Lancaster and 30 elsewhere. In 1852, 97 sermons
in Lancaster and 35 at other points. And so the
average kept up during his pastorate of ten years,
and indeed during his whole after life.
In a meditation upon this portion of his work, at
the close of the year 1851, he made the following
entry in his diary :
" 'As the rain cometh down, and the snow from
heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the
! 7 6 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
earth and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may
give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater : so shall
My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth : it
shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish
that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing
whereto I sent it. ' (Isaiah 55, 10, n).
" I believe in God and in all His promises in His
power and grace, and with cheerful confidence, look
back upon all these sermons as blest of Him. In this
lies the consolation of a pastor. What has been defi-
cient in the presentation of the truth will be pardoned
through the same blood by which we believe we have
been pardoned of other sins, and received into favor.
Glory to God in the Highest all praise to the L,amb
all honor to the Spirit. Amen!"
The following paragraphs from Dr. Harbaugh's
address delivered at the close of the Allentown
Seminary, April 3, 1861, are given as specimens of
his style and diction in that kind of public dis-
courses :
" The story of the fall is a prophecy for the world.
This first chapter in man's history is repeated in every
subsequent one. As sin has made man a slave to the
useful, he has learned to love his master. While the
penalty of sin has made him toil for the useful, the
power of sin has at the same time wrought to make him
sensual, selfish, earthly ; so that if in any case he
reaches wealth beyond his wants, he adds miserliness
to his misery. Instead of pursuing the useful as means,
he pursues it as end. Making an end of what is only
IN THE MINISTRY.
177
designed as a means, he becomes mean in the pursuit
of means, and sees nothing beautiful beyond what
ministers to his degraded lust of means and money.
1 * What then is his idea of education and cultiva-
tion? The useful. The mind is a means to get
money ; money is not a means to be used in the cul-
tivation of mind. Whatever brings money is useful ;
whatever costs money is evil. A little writing, a little
reading, a little cyphering is necessary and cheap.
But the higher branches painting, music, all the
finer arts, all the beautiful sciences, which a man can
neither eat, nor drink, nor sell what are they good
for ? It is all money thrown away !
1 ' Such men would rather have a big strong horse
than an educated child would rather have stock in
bank than stock in the heads of their children would
rather see their children hoe another potato patch than
study another book. They say mules are more useful
than music ; pigs are better than pictures. They say,
give us little books and big bakeovens little learning
and large ledgers big barns and little seminaries. To
such results are we necessarily and consistently brought
by carrying out the principle that the useful is the first
and most important interest in life a principle false in
its position and debasing in its tendency."
Within the first year of his pastorate at Lancaster
the subject of a new church building was being
agitated. The actual work began shortly after the
close of the winter months. The old church was
one of the few specimens left among the Pennsyl-
I7 8 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
vania Germans. It had been well built of selected
materials, and though the young pastor thought it
a sad sight to witness such an old temple of God
laid in ruins, yet it was right to do so, as the new
one was needed. To prepare a sermon for such a
peculiar occasion as the farewell services in a 99
year old house of worship was no light task. The
venerable landmark soon disappeared under the
strokes of the workmen and the ground was made
ready for the new building. It was of far greater
proportions than the one built at Lewisburg, and
much more handsome in its architecture and ap-
pointments. The corner stone was laid May 30,
1851, and the work went regularly forward from
that time to its completion except as to the towers,
which remained unfinished some time after the
building was in use.
In February, 1854, the consecration services were
held, and it was a joyous occasion, largely attended
by ministers and laymen of the Reformed Church
and by citizens generally of Lancaster city. July
25 of the same year witnessed the laying of the
corner stone of the new college building. Henry
Harbaugh had been deeply interested in the welfare
of the institution, was a member of the committee,
and assisted personally in selecting the site. He
made an address on the occasion referred to above. *
*NOTB. Franklin College, established at Lancaster, Pa., in 1787, and
Marshall College, founded by the Reformed Church at Mercersburg, Pa.,
IN THE MINISTRY.
179
The last few years of his ministry at Lancaster
weighed heavily on the heart of the young pastor
on account of the antagonism which arose within
the congregation. His uncompromising position on
the subject of temperance was a disturbing factor.
His strong advocacy of the liturgy then under con-
sideration by a committee of synod, of which he
was a member, aroused bitter opposition and greatly
impaired his work in the charge. His consistory
was sadly divided against itself, and gradually a
majority was arrayed against him. He resigned in
1857, but was induced to reconsider and withdraw
his resignation. He remained until the autumn of
1860, during which time the appeal taken to classis
on his behalf was sustained. It is to be regretted
that such facts need to be recorded, and they have
in 1836, were consolidated under a new charter in 1852, the union taking
effect in 1853. In view of the proposed celebration of the soth anniversary,
the jubilee of the founding of Franklin and Marshall College, ia 1903, the
following memoranda made by Dr. Harbaugh may not be without interest:
" Franklin College It was first held on Water Street, the second house
above or north of Orange on the west side, in a stone building which was
afterwards turned into a brewery. Prof. Reichenbach was then teacher.
He was celebrated as a mathematician. From thence it was removed to a.
building on the back lot from south Queen Street near Vine, on the alley,
which building has been lately and for some time the lockup of the city
a stone building. To this place it was removed in 1790 and remained till
1793. This building was erected during the Revolutionary war as a Con-
tinental stable for horses, by Col. Mathias Slouch, who was a German,
commissary of supplies, receiving his title from that fact, never having
been in military service. Thence it was removed to North Queen Street.
That place, when it was removed thence, was turned into a hall for the
exhibition of mountebanks ! Gov. Bigler and others began their rafting
business by squatting on the lands of Franklin College in Clearfield
County. These facts I obtain from Col. Mayer, now 79 years old, Sept. 21,
1858. H. HARBAUGH."
!8o LIFB OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
been touched upon only in so far as it seems neces-
sary to keep the thread of narrative unbroken. He
left Lancaster because he was unable to make his
labors there acceptable to all of his people, but he
gave up the charge only after he believed himself
fully vindicated. Whatever may be said on behalf
of those who so bitterly opposed him, it can be con-
fidently asserted on his behalf that he grieved and
wept over the church at Lancaster long and bitterly,
and prayed for his enemies more earnestly than they
can ever know.
For further comment on this subject the reader
may safely turn to the words of Dr. D. Y. Heisler,
who passed through what he terms something of
the same " painful and yet most blessed experi-
ence :"
"The old congregation, after a painful conflict of
years, effected a division one part, the English por-
tion, constituting St. Paul's Church, while the other
part, who desired services in both languages, was or-
ganized into the First Church, to which Dr. Harbaugk
was called to minister, from Lewisburg, Pa., in 1850.
The fact of a long conflict having been passed through
by the congregation a conflict of languages intensi-
fied and rendered more fierce by previous conflicts,
arising from the difference of religious sentiments pre-
vailing among the members the so-called old and new
measure parties rendered the position of the pastors
of both churches very critical, and required in them
IN THE MINISTRY. !8i
the utmost prudence and care in order to keep clear of
difficulties.
' ' It is hard for an outsider to estimate duly the seri-
ous difficulties and dangers which surrounded the wor-
thy pastor in the First Church. He took charge of
the congregation just as it was emerging out of the
smoke and dust of this severe and protracted conflict,
or series of conflicts rather, and while yet in a state of
highest excitement. Many persons who had been for
years careless and indifferent, and had taken little or
no interest whatever in the church, were roused up by the
excitement of the occasion and marshaled into battle
array with the rest of the congregation, and at the
time of the actual division, were in a certain way con-
nected with the congregation as members.
1 ' This entire mass, so diverse and uncongenial in
its character, had to be managed, and either gradu-
ally worked into a homogeneous mass or finally elimi-
nated as useless, and even worse than useless, material,
or else retained as a source of constant trouble. The
earnest and positive labors of Dr. Harbaugh, to some
extent carried forward simultaneously this three-fold
process of spiritual assimilation, elimination, and exci-
tation of ever-recurring troubles in the congregation.
' ' That there should be conflicts was to be expected
as a matter of course ; neither man nor angel could
have prevented them ; that the earnest and faithful
pastor should be able at all to bear up under these
manifold trials is an evidence of the wonderful powers
of endurance which he possessed ; and that he should
succeed in spite of all these necessary and unavoidable
1 82 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
trials, to build up the congregation, both in numbers
and in strength and clearness of their Scriptural views
and Christian virtues, proves his extraordinary ability
as a preacher and pastor ; and finally the fact that,
during his pastorate, stormy and perplexing, one of the
finest and most substantial churches in the city of Lan-
caster should be erected, is sufficient to stamp his min-
istry in that congregation as efficient and successful in
the extreme. We do not speak here at random ; for
having been connected as pastor, with one portion of
that congregation during its fiery trials, we know from
painful and yet most blessed experience what the state
of the congregation then was, and what extraordinary
trials it involved for its future shepherd."
As a young man both in Lewisburg and Lancas-
ter his uncompromising attitude upon moral ques-
tions often served to array against him a portion of
the community which could combine to place him
in a false light. While in after life he never altered
his views on any question of principle, he modified
his methods of combating evil and receded from the
extremes to which he had gone upon some occa-
sions.
He pursued the right as he saw it without any
fear of the consequences. His zeal in the interest
of those who showed any disposition to accept
Christ never abated in the least. The indifference
of parent to the religious training of children he
deplored as one of the withering effects of the power
IN THE MINISTRY.
of worldliness, and he would postpone a baptism
and give the parents a serious talking to when he
found them ignorant of and indifferent to the step
they were about to take.
Just as he was severe at times with those who
were wilfully wicked and immoral, so he was gentle
as a mother in dealing with those who were strug-
gling upward from the effects of a long and rebel-
lious life into a purer condition of living where
they could make an intelligent surrender of them-
selves to God.
With the social life of young men in his congre-
gations he was in perfect sympathy. On semi-
public occasion he was frequently the centre of an
interested group, both young and old, and it is re-
membered of him by many who had the personal
experience, that his good humor never forsook him,
and his fund of anecdote never failed. He was ready
for a romp with the children and had plenty of little
tricks and stories with which to amuse them.
Whenever he had occasion to withdraw from
such relation in life to the pulpit or services of the
church, he invariably laid aside all spirit of levity,
and became clothed with a solemnity and serious-
ness of manner which he really felt deeply, and
which he imparted to all who were in his presence.
While not a man of unusual height, he was of
strong muscular build, and his commanding pres-
LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
ence strengthened the impression that he was of
large stature.
He made frequent mention in his diary of the
pastoral work. He allotted a part of each fore-
noon for visiting families to urge upon them their
religious duties, and he diligently sought out per-
sons who ought to attend catechetical lectures and
who were for the most part indifferent to their priv-
ileges. " How faithless are some parents in regard
to their baptized children !" he exclaims upon one
occasion.
With all the demands upon his time he did not
forget the duties he owed to his family. Referring
to a part of New Year's day which he spent with
them, he said : " I spent the most part of my time
to-day with my family. This is a duty which there
is danger of neglecting. We are in danger of be-
coming unsocial in the multitude of studies and
cares. Must seek to guard against this tendency."
He had this thought in mind also when he dedi-
cated his book " Birds of the Bible" to his wife,
" to whom the hours of leisure in which this volume
was prepared properly belonged. "
These reflections occurred to him amid the press-
ing duties of his pastorate such as are mentioned in
his diary entry of March 14, 1852: " Married a
couple. Preached and held the communion in
German. Gave the communion in three places to
sick persons. Attended a funeral. Examined,
IN THE MINISTRY.
185
baptized and confirmed one person. Preached and
held communion in English in the evening."
For ten years and a half he had labored among
the people of Lancaster until the first of October,
1860, when he resigned his charge. On Sunday
evening, September Qth, after the sermon, three
men from St. John's Church in Lebanon, stepped
forward as a committee and presented a call in the
name of that congregation. The result of the
pastor's consideration of the call is found in the
fact that a few weeks later he removed to Lebanon,
Pa. , and assumed the pastorate of the newly organ-
ized congregation of St. John's Church.
Synod was in session at the time of his arrival
in Lebanon, and he was installed by a committee
of synod, October 18, 1860, as pastor of St. John's
Reformed Church, Lebanon. The progress of his
labors among this new people may be gathered from
his first anniversary sermon :
" One year ago we were brought together in the
providence of God, almost strangers to one another, and
the solemn relation of pastor and people was made and
ratified between us. If any one had suggested such an
event but a few weeks before it took place, we would
have set him down as a dreaming prophet. Surely it is
not in man to direct his steps and still less is it in a
minister to choose his charges ! It is due to the con-
gregation by whose kindness and consideration this
first year of my ministry has been made pleasant, to say
!86 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
that I have had no reason for a moment to regret the
change which brought me into this interesting and hope-
ful field of labor. Whatever has been defective in my
ministry has been charitably endured by you ; and I
have this confidence of faith, that the blood which
washes away all sin will also atone for the faults and
follies which attach to the ministry committed to me.
' ' One year ago this beautiful church edifice was the
centre of a singular cluster of anomalies. Here was a
church building without a church a consistory with-
out a congregation a pastor to be installed without
any members to be installed over pews without occu-
pants a choir gallery without choir or instruments a
Sunday-school room without teachers or children book
cases without books. In short the entire shell of a
home without a family.
"It was evident, however, that there were earnest
and anxious hearts looking towards this spot, to whom
it was daily growing more sacred, and who had made
up their minds that what was not yet, by the grace of
God should shortly be. When the pastor asked for
members to be installed over, names were handed in.
When the bell rang, people came. When the empty
pews asked for occupants, families gathered in. When
the hymns were announced, choral sounds greeted the
ear and cheered the heart. When the doors of the
Sunday-school were thrown open, there was heard the
pleasant noise of little feet ; and when the doleful
empty shelves of the library cases were looked into, it
was said 'let there be books,' and books came.
" Without commotion and without restraint, by some
IN THE MINISTRY. jgy
mysterious law of attraction, everything took its place
and began to move in its order, ' while in stillness thus
our little Zion rose.'
" What has been accomplished during this first year
of our existence can of course only be fully known in
that great time of harvest unto which all our earthly
labors continually grow. Yet in some degree we may
judge of permanent results from indications of present
progress and success. The first and most outward data
are furnished by our statistics. These we shall first
present.
1 ' This congregation was organized one year ago-
(October, 1860) with 6 1 adult members. To these have
been added by confirmation 7, by certificate 33, making
the whole number added 40
' ' There is, however, something higher and better
than statistics ; the spirit and life of the congregation
which has made these statistics what they are. Fully
104 sermons and 52 shorter week-day lectures have
been delivered ; for if there have been some omissions
of regular services, these have been more than made up
by the extra services on holy days and in connection
with the communion occasions.
' ' Our faith in the divine character of the teaching
office in the church does not allow us to fear that the
word might have returned void.
"Rather we must believe that the entrance of the
word has given light ; and that many have been built
up and confirmed in their faith.
' ' No credit is due to us if these discourses have not
been harping on favorite strings, but have carried us
!88 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
over the general ground of faith and practice ; because
our course has been marked out for us by the excellent
arrangement of the church-year, so that it was not law-
ful for us to pleasure at will on easy or popular topics,
but we were under a wholesome discipline which re-
quired us, as each Sunday directed, to give a portion
of all the meat in due season. Thus it has been almost
impossible for us to overlook or omit any doctrine, any
duty, any privilege, any virtue, any grace, for each
one confronted us at some time or other in the Lessons
of the day. If this course has in any measure brought
before us the whole truth, round and symmetrical, we
are indebted to the order of the church year for it.
For this is as good a preventive of idleness in ministers,
as it is a terror to lop-sided and one idea Christians."
The anniversary sermon, from which the forego-
ing extracts are taken, further takes up the review
of Sunday-school work of the year, and then drifts
into an historical view of the church year, and the
use of the liturgy in the Reformed Church. Dr.
Harbaugh experienced no difficulty in the introduc-
tion of the liturgy and observance of the church
year at Lebanon. He congratulated the congrega-
tion upon the restoration to them of their part in
the services of the sanctuary.
' ' You have claimed your right of being active wor-
shipers, and not silent spectators merely. . . . You
claim, with the meditations of your heart, also to offer
up the words of your lips. When God said by the
IN THE MINISTRY.
189
mouth of Solomon, c Let all the people say, amen !' he
gave to the people that response of faith, and that seal
of prayer. Who shall take it from them ? For this,
too, I claim no credit. You by your own wish and de-
cision, asked it. Before I was installed as your pastor
you asked it ; I only acquiesced in your decision, but I
did it from long aud full conviction and with all my
heart. And the more heartily and devoutly you re-
spond to our beautiful and solemn prayers, the more I
shall commend you for it."
As the children are an important part of the
church, the Sunday-school is an important part of
the congregation. At the opening of the year there
were mustered 87 officers, teachers and scholars ;
they had not a single book, not a Bible nor a New
Testament. At the end of the year they numbered
in all 117 members, had all the Bibles and Testa-
ments they needed, catechisms for each scholar,
and a monthly paper to give to each one in the
school room. They had 431 instructive and inter-
esting books, u have become publishers of a Hymn
Book of our own, and our treasury is still in funds."
The two years that followed, and that terminated
his labors as a pastor of any particular flock, were
busy ones for the minister of St. John's. Civil
strife between North and South was raging furi-
ously and the excitement of the times was bearing
heavily against the progress of his work. Dr. Har-
baugh had voted for Fremont ; he voted for Andrew
190
LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
Curtin for Governor, and for Lincoln, and he was
unwavering in his allegiance to the government
from the beginning to the end of the war. He
seriously considered accepting a chaplaincy in a
Pennsylvania regiment, but was warmly and effec-
tively persuaded by many of his friends that his
best services to church and state could be rendered
at home. That his proper place was at home is
attested in more than one instance and especially
does it appear in the fact that the United States
Christian Commission applied for and published
his tract or address on the u Religious Character of
Washington." In sending this address out among
the soldiers, the commission used these words :
4 ' Soldiers, read and study the religious character of
Washington as presented in the following pages, and
while you read and study, and endeavor to learn how
to serve your country to the best of your abilities, re-
member the motto, ' In God we Trust.' "
The pastor of St. John's went to Harrisburg Feb-
ruary 22, 1 86 1, and heard Mr. Lincoln speak on
the occasion of his stop there during the memorable
trip from Springfield to Washington. He records
that he was well pleased with the honest face and
judicious words of the president-elect.
He was much depressed when in December, 1862,
Dr. Schaff, who had become his intimate friend,
went to Andover to deliver a course of lectures he
IN THE MINISTRY. 191
bad a presentiment if not a conviction that Dr.
Schaff was lost to the Reformed Church. But a few
months later he had a very cheering letter from his
friend in which he spoke of being well pleased with
Andover, but adds : " Nevertheless, I see no occa-
sion for changing my views on Puritanism in the
least. On the contrary, it is one of the strongest
arguments for our theological position that the de-
fects of the system are beginning to be felt by its
best and most earnest minds. There is plenty of
light in New England but not enough heat. There
is great need for the infusion of the historic, the
mystic, the aesthetic and the churchly element. I
spent a most pleasant evening with Dr. and Mrs.
Stowe and was surprised to find how far they admit
this very thing. Their judgment, or feeling rather,
is worth the more as they have gone to the very
extreme of independency."
Dr. Schaff further makes a very pleasant personal
suggestion which, if it had been adopted at the
time, might have been the means of preserving Dr.
Harbaugh's life for further years of usefulness. He
says : "I thought of you with painful sympathy
every day since I heard of your unexpected afflic-
tion, and the thought struck me whether this per-
haps would not be a fit opportunity for you to pay
a flying visit to the mountains of Switzerland, and
the universities of Germany. You may still be
back by Christmas, if necessary. You could see
I9 2 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
Lange in Bonn, Hundeshagen in Heidelberg,
Kersohner in Tubingen and a host of interesting
men in Wurtemberg and Prussia. I will give you
the best of references. Think of this suggestion
and let me know when you get here."
Many of his students and old friends love to re-
member Dr. SchafF as one who in the depths of his
heart never really did leave the Reformed Church.
He was present at the General Synod held in Read-
ing, Pa., in May, 1893, only a few months before
his death, and it proved to be his farewell meeting
with his Reformed brethren. At that time, refer-
ring to the Briggs heresy trial then pending, he
said, u If they turn us out I will come right back
to you." And in conversation with one of his
friends about early times, he remarked : "Die alte
Liebe ist doch die beste."
The characters of Nevin, SchafF, and other men
of the Mercersburg movement are not easily sus-
ceptible of comparison. In personality they dif-
fered widely. In their habits of work and thought
they were far apart. Nevin was a teacher of teach-
ers ; Harbaugh was peculiarly a teacher of the
people. SchafF and Nevin were to the church what
an upright man should be in the national senate.
Harbaugh was a commoner. Just as the ideal sen-
ator concerns himself with the great questions of
state and thereby reflects back to the people a more
perfect form of government, so Nevin championed
IN THE MINISTRY. ! 93
the cause of Christ on the floor of synod. Har-
baugh came forth directly from the hearts of the
people and brought their needs and interest up with
him. The influence of great theologians tends
from the seat of deliberative bodies back to those
who created them ; the influence of Harbaugh's
life and teachings, on the contrary, originated in
the homes and hearts of his people, and forged its
way to centres that were even beyond the confines
of his own branch of the church. But the attri-
butes that were predominant in either of these
fathers of the church, were in a large measure
common to all, and in their personal lives they were
devoted and affectionate friends.
VI. THE AUTHOR AND HIS WORKS.
TT would be fortunate perhaps if the limit of
this biographical sketch could be so extended
as to admit of more liberal quotation and intelli-
gent review of Dr. Harbaugh's literary productions.
This is especially true of that portion of his work
which is now hidden in the volumes of the Guar-
dian, which he edited from its birth in 1850 until
1866, and the Mercersburg Review, to which he
contributed frequently and of which he was the
editor a part of the time.
Such an undertaking, however, was not contem-
plated in the original plan of this volume, and as
the work has progressed its development does not
seem to be of such a character as to make any ex-
tended inquiry into the learned writings of Dr.
Harbaugh a fitting part. While an effort has been
made to present a view of his life partly through
his literary work, yet this part of the field has been
explored in much the same way as a cautious en-
gineman with hand upon the throttle, and pilot by
his side, approaches the curves and grades of an
unfamiliar branch of the road. The learned fathers
of the church who are still with us may be amused
at the boyish pride that has here and there cropped
out, and may readily excuse the impulsive expres-
THK AUTHOR AND HIS WORKS. 195
sions of a son upon the life of his sainted father ;
but they would be grieved, and justly so, at the
result of an untutored and spiritless digression into
the sacred domain of Christological Theology.
If the tenderest theme of Dr. Harbaugh's whole
life were capable of expression in one word, it
would be Home. In fond recollection, it was the
home of his childhood, that found expression in
"Heemweh," and other poems both in English
and German, as well as in almost every number of
the Guardian, during the early years of his min-
istry. In present enjoyment and affection, it was
the family home the sympathy and companion-
ship of the wife of his mature years whom he
called u the home of his heart."
In his deepest contemplation and spiritual long-
ings, it was the heavenly home of which he said at
the conclusion of his first published volume, "The
Sainted Dead:"
" Here I lay down my pen, but here do I not end my
meditations on the heavenly land. My thoughts, and
feelings, and hopes crowd onward still. Along the misty
Jordan, which bounds the future side of this mortal
life, I continue to walk up and down, crowding upon its
awful confines, and looking anxiously across, till the
fog breaks. ' '
Then from the German of Stilling he quotes :
I9 6 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
' ' Blessed are they that are homesick, for they shall
come to their father's house."
The scenes on which his mind had dwelt the
scenery upon which his eyes had rested in child-
hood's years when mind and affections were peculi-
arly plastic and growing, had transferred their
images into the eye and spirit, leaving there a bent
and bias which remained a part of his inmost self.
Thus the deep memory of childhood brought its
scenes to his spirit with all their old immediate-
ness, and the riper life became their interpreter ; in
these resurrections of memory lay the power of
his mature life to impress others ; here lay the
secret of his wisdom to teach, and his mystic power
to charm.
To point out just when Dr. Harbaugh's literary
life began would be impossible. His habit of jot-
ting down his thoughts started almost with the first
efforts of the school-boy to write English words ;
his productions while at school in Ohio have been
briefly referred to elsewhere in these pages. Upon
entering the ministry at Lewisburg he began to con-
tribute articles to the Reformed Church Messenger.
He prepared the carriers' addresses for the local
papers at L,ewisburg, Lancaster, and Lebanon almost
every year of his pastorate in each place.
The first published volume, u The Sainted Dead,"
grew out of a series of sermons which he delivered
KV///.
T
(7
(yLtsfr 0Lt*~*ri^ yd L
TWO STANZAS OF DAS ALT SCHUL HAUS ' ' IN FAC-SIMILB.
THE AUTHOR AND HIS WORKS. I9 y
at Lewisburg as early as 1845, an ^ after several
years meditation on the subject, he published the
work in 1848. In gathering information on this
interesting subject he was surprised to find that so
little had been written directly on it. He found
also that, while his own mind had been employed
on the subject, there were many to whom it had
been a subject of like interest, and who were eager
to read what professed to throw light on it.
When he had finished the work it was laid unre-
servedly before his friend and teacher, Dr. John W.
Nevin, with the request that he exercise critical
censorship on the work without mercy. In the
July number of the Mercersburg Review (1849)
Dr. Nevin reviewed the book and incidentally gave
his impressions of the personality of the author,
who was then thirty-one years old, and had been
out of the seminary only five years :
' ' A very popularly written volume on a popular and
interesting theme, which needs only to be known gen-
erally, we think, to find many readers, and which,
when it is seriously read, can hardly fail to leave behind
it a salutary religious impression. The work of course
is more practical than philosophical, designed to serve
the purposes of believing piety rather than to minister
food for curious speculation. At the same time the
writer shows himself to be possessed of a good deal
more learning, and philosophy too, than we meet with
in many who put forth much larger pretensions in this
I9 8 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
form. Mr. Harbaugh is constitutionally a thinker, and
not a mere dull retailer of other men's thoughts.
' ' The habits of the preacher and the pastor, both
vocations in which he is known to excel, are not allowed
with him to mar the sympathies and affinities of the
scholar ; and the present production, in this view, is
certainly very creditable to his literary character and
powers, and carries in it also good augury for the time
to come. The author has a certain advantage for the
popular discussion of the subject he has taken in hand,
in his temperament and age. The first includes a
broad dash of mysticism ; to the second he is indebted
for an exuberance of imagination, which riper age will
be apt considerably to tame, both qualifications well
suited to help the mind forward, in such an excursion
as is here made over the confines of time and sense,
into the world of unseen mystery that lies beyond.
There is nothing dark, however, nor particularly tran-
scendental in the style of the work. Its poetry is not
prose run mad, or mounted on stilts into the region of
the clouds, but clear, sensible thought and speech
which as a general thing all sorts of readers may readily
enough comprehend. Mr. Harbaugh uses a pen which
is at once both fluent and correct."
After discussing the work on its theological side
somewhat at length, Dr. Nevin closes with these
words :
" On the subject of the Church, as we have before
said, as well as in its whole Christological theory, the
little volume before us is far enough removed from the
THE AUTHOR AND HIS WORKS. 199
abstract spiritualism which has become so common in
our modern divinity. One great object of the writer
seems to be indeed to expel such spirituality of the
mere intellect from our minds, and to make us feel that
the mystery of the new life, as it is unfolded to us in
Christ, is no less real and concrete and near to the
world as it now stands, than are the palpable existences
that surrounded us in the sphere of sense."
Dr. Nevin was not mistaken in his prediction
that the book would be widely read. The first edi-
tion was soon exhausted and the second followed it,
enriched at various points, and considerably enlarged
by additional arguments, illustrations, and practical
reflections, the fruit of continued attention to the
subject.
The second volume, " Heavenly Recognition"
(1851), is an earnest and scriptural inquiry into the
question, will we know our friends in Heaven ? In
style and command of language there is a notice-
able improvement over the first volume and the
reader is led to feel that the arguments advanced
are sound and correct, yet, for those who are soon
convinced, there is still a pleasure in following the
author through all his meditations on this absorb-
ing subject. This volume, like the first, was well
received and ran through many editions.
"The Heavenly Home," which completed the
trilogy on the future life, was published in 1853.
As to its aim and purpose, it is well introduced in
200 WFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
the preface to the work itself. It concluded what
the author had designed to contribute to this inter-
esting department of pious inquiry the fruits of
seven years' contemplation of the subject. These
themes were not treated without a special and defi-
nite aim, even beyond the general desire of pro-
moting the interests of individual piety and com-
fort. While this had been kept steadily in view,
it was in connection with what the author consid-
ered the wider and deeper wants of the age. He
saw in the piety of the age a drifting towards mere
naturalism. The power of the world to come, he
thought, did not enter sufficiently into our piety.
Men were not conscious, as they should be, of their
nearness to unseen, supernatural, and eternal reali-
ties. Hence instead of reverence, there was bold-
ness ; instead of humility, presumption ; instead
of quietude of spirit, there was restlessness ; instead
of faith, individual notions and opinions , instead of
love and hope, there were distractions and fitful
spasms of desire ; and instead of the life of a higher
world, dwelling in us by grace, and bearing us for-
ward to glory, we have become the unhappy sub-
jects of mere influences.
" May we not ask," says the author, " whether
the very progress of modern natural science, which is
the cause of all our earthly conveniences, and which
if rightly used leads us towards God, has not by a
prostitution to mere carnal ends, had a tendency to
THE AUTHOR AND HIS WORKS. 20 1
cause men to deify human reason, to enthrone in-
tellect, to over- rate man's natural powers, to flatter
his pride, to seek the satisfaction of mere temporal
wants, and thus practically to forget the momen-
tous interests and claims of a future and higher
world ? Behold for a moment the busy whirl of
earth, the rush and rivalry of the multitudes in
pursuit of the mere interests of time, even to the
secularization of holy seasons and places, and then
say whether the subduing powers of another life
are felt as they should be."
In the treatment of the whole subject of the
future state, the author sought to avoid two ex-
tremes. On the one hand, he endeavored to shun
the vague, hortatory cantation, which he found so
common in a certain class of practical treatises, and
which, however pleasant it might be to a certain
class of Christians, he did not consider either profit-
able or satisfactory to earnest and inquiring minds.
Again, with equal diligence, he sought to avoid
wild and bold speculations, which, while they de-
light the itching ear of the curious, have in them
too much of the wisdom of this world to serve the
purposes of true piety, and have, to reverent minds
at least, the appearance of being profane. He
humbly sought to entwine in one, the authority of
revelation, the definiteness of science, and the ten-
derness of devotion.
202 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
How well he succeeded in this devout purpose, is
attested by the thousands of readers who have
sought consolation in contemplation of the future
life, in their affliction and distress.
' ' There reposes deep in the human spirit the idea of
the perfect. Amid the sense of our own imperfections
and the sight of imperfection in all that surrounds
us, there is the deep, intuitive conviction that there
exists somewhere the infinitely Pure, the infinitely
Beautiful, and the infinitely Good. Often when
the spirit lingers lonely and meditative among the
wrecks of earthy hope, and feels as if it could no
more cling to things which perish, it is drawn by a
sweet attraction made up of faith, hope, and love, into
a far off silent world of peace, purity, and perfection.
Beneath our sense of guilt, beneath those monitions
that chide us as wanderers, beneath the confusion and
collision of sense, of sin and sorrow, are heard in soft
' mournfully pleasant ' undertones the harmonies of
higher, holier, and happier realms. There is at such
times a growing weary of present things, the things
that are seen ; and the spirit longs after an outlet from
that which is 'in part,' and an outlet into that com-
munion where ' that which is in part shall be done
away.' "
In the words just quoted the author of the
u Heavenly Home," the last of his volumes on the
future state, introduces his readers to a pious con-
THE AUTHOR AND HIS WORKS. 203
templation of the future world, and the employ-
ments and enjoyments of the saints in heaven.
In some of the positions taken by the author in
these volumes, Dr. Nevin did not fully concur.
While he warmly commended the work, he also took
advantage of the author's request that u he criticize
the work without mercy," and indicated what he
considered errors from a theological point of view.
Indeed, it is related that Dr. Harbaugh himself,
as Professor of Didactic and Practical Theology at
Mercersburg, made some statement in one of his
lectures which was not at all consistent with his
treatment of the same theme in "The Sainted
Dead," and when his attention was called to it, he
made reply that he had written that book when he
was a boy.
Quite different in character was the next publi-
cation from his pen, though attended with the same
diligence in research and earnestness of purpose.
In the autumn of 1852, at Lancaster, he preached
a sermon from the text (Prov. 30, 26), u The conies
are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in
the rocks." This suggested to him the idea of
writing a series of articles for the Guardian on the
animals and birds of the Bible. No doubt he
found that the whole subject would take too wide a
range for his purpose, and chose the birds of the
Bible as the more pleasant branch of the subject.
These articles appeared in the Guardian during
2O4
LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
the year 1853-4, and after being revised were pub-
lished in 1854 in book form.
Piously cultivated and truly refined minds, he
thought, would never tire in the study of this beau-
tiful portion of creation the birds. Peculiarly in-
teresting to him were those birds which Jesus men-
tioned, whose images, natures, and habits mingled
with the visions of holy men of old, and which be-
came to them great words bearing precious truth to
ages since, and ages yet to come. The author's
endeavor was not to give descriptions of dead birds
so much as to make pictures of the living ones ;
and he aimed to make his book more like a grove
than a cabinet. Mechanically the book was hand-
somely printed and richly illustrated in colors, and
had a large circulation. Prof. W. M. Nevin, in his
interesting review of it, points it out especially to
those who wish to remember their friends at Christ-
mas, and speaks of it as a book that u will not
waste its sweetness in a single year, but continue to
bloom for many ; one that will not soon be super-
seded or impaired, but, like a good old painting,
keep its place and be rather improved by age ; one
that will rest comfortably beside even the Bible or
any other good book and not feel out of place ; one
that will delight not only youth and beauty and
childhood with his laughing eyes, but be read with
pleasure also by manhood, and lighten with a mellow
THE AUTHOR AND HIS WORKS. 205
smile even the cheek of hoary eld, as he pores over
it earnestly through his sober glasses."
Then came " Union With the Church, " a small
volume of 127 pages, a plain, practical treatise upon
the duty and privilege of becoming members of the
church. Presuming correctly that a number of
well meaning persons remain out of the church,
because the progress of sectism and rationalism has
produced a false public sentiment in relation to the
nature of the church, the author, in the first part,
removes the difficulties which present themselves
to sincere inquirers, and, in the second part, pre-
sents a series of convincing arguments in favor of
the immediate union with the mystical body of
Christ.
In the January number of the Mercersburg Re-
view (1851), appeared an article entitled, " System-
atic Benevolence, or a Plea for the Lord's Portion
of Our Increase." This was afterwards published
in pamphlet form at the request of synod, under
the title of U A Plea for the Lord's Portion of the
Christian's Wealth."
In September, 1855, Dr. Harbaugh came into
possession of the Journal of Rev. Michael Schlatter
and examined it with the greatest pleasure. He at
once saw its importance as a part of our early
church history and immediately began to translate
it into English.
20 6 UFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
Much has been written, in recent years, of Amer-
ican history covering the period in which the Rev.
Michael Schlatter lived and labored for the Re-
formed Church in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Mary-
land, and Virginia. Much ink has been shed in the
endeavor to produce living pictures of the life and
times which led up to and through the American
Revolution. In their efforts to improve upon the
early historians and to brighten the dry facts of his-
tory, not a few writers have gone to the other ex-
treme, drifting into senseless absurdities.
Prof. John Fiske, whose lectures on the critical
period of American history, and other works in the
same line of thought, have given him a well-earned
reputation as an infuser of life and spirit into the
scenes in which the American Army of Revolution
and the Continental Congress had their struggles to
found a new nation, would no doubt be surprised to
find that this same life and spirit pervades u The
Life of Michael Schlatter " a humble missionary, a
chaplain in the French and Indian war, and the first
superintendent of public schools in Pennsylvania.*
*Dr. J. H. Dubbs gives the following interesting facts in the life of
Schlatter :
" Schlatter was chaplain of the Royal American Regiment, 4th Battalion,
I 757~ 1 759- Chaplain of the 2nd Battalion of Bouquet's army on the expe-
dition to Pittsburg, 1764. Took the side of the patriots in the Revolution ;
two of his sons were in Washington's army. He was imprisoned on the
grounds that he was still an officer of the Royal army, but refused to obey
orders. His house was plundered. I can find no proof of Harbaugh's
assertion that he was a chaplain in the Revolutionary army."
See also " The German Soldier in the Wars of the United States," by J.
G. Rosengarten, pp. 25-27.
THE AUTHOR AND HIS WORKS. 207
The life of Michael Schlatter was produced amid
the busy years of the Lancaster pastorate. In the
course of its preparation the author unfolded a gen-
eral plan for what he then termed u Lives of the
Fathers,'' and he had already gathered much mate-
rial for this object. He found to his great regret
that the work had been too long neglected, and
that many interesting facts were growing into dim
tradition in reference to the early ministers of the
Reformed Church. He gives forcible expression to
this thought in the introduction to the " Life of
Michael Schlatter :"
' ' For a time the sayings and doings of our ancestors
may be left to the preservation of a grateful remem-
brance, and to the unrecorded traditions which parents
hand down to their children. But such traditions soon
grow dim and uncertain, and at last vanish away. As
the setting sun leaves first a glory, then a twilight,
and at last darkness : so the deeds of the past as they
sink beyond our personal recollection, are first bright,
then dim, and then gone ! and too late we mourn that
we have no picture of the faded beauty. Our parents
relate to us stories of the days of our grandparents ;
but our grandparents themselves are gone, and tell us
no more what was before them. This is our case as a
church in America. The grandparents are gone, the
fathers are going, the history of their toils and achieve-
ments is beginning to swim in half uncertain twilight,
and there is but barely time to record the doings of
their life's day before the oblivious night sets in, when
2 o8 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
records and traditions will no more recognize one
another. ' '
Michael Schlatter was not the first ordained min-
ister who came out with the oppressed emigrants
from the Palatinate and found a home in Pennsyl-
vania and neighboring states. He was, however,
the one who accomplished most and made the
greatest sacrifices in the work of permanently organ-
izing the infant church in America. The work of
Henry Harbaugh is a faithful and spirited record
of the earnest and laborious life, nearly half a cen-
tury of which was spent in the religious interests
of the Germans of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Mary-
land, and Virginia. It was a life belonging entirely
to the last century, including what may be called
the formative period both in church and state,
and extending through the perils of our country's
two tedious wars. The author's power of investi-
gation into original sources, and his accuracy of
detail, coupled with his ability to reproduce the
elements of biography in a living story, have led
more than one reader to pronounce the book a
model of its kind. It was offered first and directly
as the life and labors of Michael Schlatter, and then,
indirectly, as a small contribution u to the inward
civil and religious history of our free, peaceful, and
noble state." For both these purposes, as well as
for its intrinsic value, the book has been highly
THE AUTHOR AND HIS WORKS. 209
prized and widely read, especially among Pennsyl-
vanians. Schlatter's appeal to the churches in
Europe, setting forth the true condition of the des-
titute congregations in the colonies, is well worth
a careful reading by any one who desires to be well
informed upon his own branch of the church. So
also his connection with the charity schools ought
to interest every Pennsylvanian who takes pride in
the progress of education in the commonwealth.
u The Fathers of the Reformed Church' ' followed
the life of Schlatter. Two volumes were completed
and a greater part of the material for the third pre-
pared. The labor involved in this work was great.
It made necessary an extensive correspondence, and
no little traveling about for the purpose of consult-
ing the old records. It has rescued to the church
a vast amount of information concerning the early
ministers and their work during the time when the
church was almost wholly a missionary field. To
use the words of the author himself :
1 ' We have written vast numbers of letters we have
travelled in pursuit of facts we have taken down the
traditions of the aged, and compared them with pre-
served records we have searched old files of news-
papers and pamphlets in the libraries of Philadelphia
and elsewhere we have examined piles of old letters
in English, German, Dutch, and L,atin we have gone
patiently through the Coetal and Synodical minutes
and archives, so far as they are still extant, from 1748
2io IvIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
down to the present time we have carefully waded
through a bundle of documents in German, Dutch, and
Latin, procured some years ago from the ecclesiastical
archives of Holland we have examined, either per-
sonally or through friends, all the old congregational
records throughout the church we have rummaged the
old papers left behind by many of the earliest deceased
ministers we have been in garrets and in graveyards
we have begged and bought material in short, we
have sought wherever hope of success invited us, like
one who seeks for goodly pearls."
One letter of inquiry, under date of May 20,
1856, to Dr. Bausman, who was then in Germany,
runs as follows :
' ' If you can incidentally, I wish you would make
some inquiry about the religious condition of the Men-
nonites in Europe. When you get to Berlin, please
inquire also, if you do not forget it, about Rev. John
C. Stahlschmidt, who came to this country about 1770
and returned about 1790, and was about Berlin. He
was a pietist. I once saw a letter he wrote to one of
our old ministers, I think in 1793, or perhaps later.
I would like to know his last years. I have a history
of him up to the time he returned to Kurope. I won-
der whether the Dominies in the Rhine country know
anything yet of the pastors who came from that
country here Hendel, Herman, etc."
The Rev. D. Y. Heisler, D.D., continued this
work after Dr. Harbaugh's death, and among his
contributions was a brief but touching biography
THE AUTHOR AND HIS WORKS. 2 1 1
of Henry Harbaugh, his friend and co-worker.
Dr. Heisler's work, with that of his successor,
Rev. Dr. W. M. Detrick, brought the "Lives of
the Fathers'' down to the time when the material
desired could be more readily and accurately
obtained.
Dr. Harbaugh finished the Lancastrian decade
with the <l Golden Censer," a book of devotion for
the young, his series of sermons preached on the
life of the Virgin Mary, revised and published under
the title " The True Glory of Woman," and his
volume of English poems.
With his pastoral work, his Guardian, his labors
attendant upon the deliberations of the Liturgical
Committee, and the many other special calls upon
his time all considered, it was certainly a busy ten
years.
Encouraged by Professor Nevin and others, and
also by the fact that his publisher preferred the
poems to another manuscript which had been sub-
mitted as an alternative, he edited and prepared his
English poems for publication. "The Mystic
Weaver" and " Through Death to Life," are two
of the poems which have been widely published
and read both in Europe and America. They have
been recited at times on public occasions by persons
who did not know who the author was. The little
u Child's Christmas Hymn" has been sung to the
children of many firesides. Two hymns contained
212 UFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
in the collection are also in the Church Hymn
Book, but the compilers overlooked the authorship,
and they were not accredited to Dr. Harbaugh until
the last revised hymnal was published. They are :
"Jesus my Shepherd, let me share
Thy guiding hand, Thy tender care ;"
Also that more familiar one, " The Hiding Place"
"Jesus to Thy cross I hasten,
In all weariness my home."
His well-known hymn, "Jesus, I live to Thee,"
has taken its place in the Protestant Episcopal,
Methodist, Baptist, and Presbyterian hymnals, and
in a number of other collections. It has also re-
cently been placed by Dr. Irvine in the College
chapel at Mercersburg, upon a tablet in brass let-
ters. The translation of it into German by the
Rev. N. Z. Snyder has been highly spoken of, be-
ginning :
"Jesu, ich lebe Dir,
Mein liebster Freund bist Du."
The epilogue written for the anniversary of the
Diagnothian Literary Society of Marshall College,
July 2, 1847, i s to be found in this collection of
English poems. Dr. W. M. Nevin, in his inimita-
ble way, has thus spoken of them :
"We were apprehensive," he commences, "that
it would turn out in this way. A certain rich vein
of feeling and easy flow of imagination had we
THE AUTHOR AND HIS WORKS.
213
long ago observed in the prose writings of our
author, which we feared in the end would burst
forth into poetry. A disposition in him for some
time had we remarked, with some concern, to in-
troduce into his essays and other writings, as if
merely to illustrate or embellish some of his
thoughts, choice passages taken from the best old
English and German poets, which, however, showed
too plainly what was the natural bent of his mind,
and with what sort of writings he was pleased.
Nay, in the Guardian, from its first appearance,
little poetical pieces of his own had we been in the
habit of observing every month, as it came out,
few at first and far between, indeed, and, as we
thought, inserted merely for filling up some odd
space ; but, at length, we saw them swelling out
into whole poems, extending sometimes over seve-
ral pages. We were not taken aback then, by this,
final enunciation. We had seen the determined
tendency long before. We knew that this would
be the end of it."
Dr. Schaff confessed to a similar want of surprise.
" The appearance of a volume of poems by Rev. EL
Harbaugh," he says, " was to us simply a question
of time. It had to come sooner or later by an un-
avoidable necessity. The bird will sing and the
poet will write poems, and if he finds a publisher
he will publish also, or others will publish him.
We have before us genuine lyric effusions, some of
14
214
LIFE OP HENRY HARBAUGH.
them of more than ordinary beauty and merit, all
animated by a lovely spirit, which associates beauty
with truth and goodness and. makes this triad the
worshiping handmaid of religion."
THROUGH DEATH TO LIFE.
Have you heard the tale of the Aloe plant,
Away in the sunny clime?
By humble growth of an hundred years
It reaches its blooming time ;
And then a wonderous bud at its crown
Breaks out into thousand flowers :
This floral queen, in its blooming seen,
Is the pride of the tropical bowers.
But the plant to the flower is a sacrifice,
For it blooms but once, and in blooming dies.
Have you further heard of this Aloe plant,
That grows in the sunny clime,
How every one of its thousand flowers,
As they drop in the blooming time,
Is an infant plant that fastens its roots
In the place where it falls on the ground ;
And fast as they drop from the dying stem,
Grow lively and lovely around ?
By dying it liveth a thousand-fold
In the young that spring from the death of the old.
Have you heard the tale of the Pelican,
The Arabs' Gimel el Bahr?
That lives in the African solitudes
Where the birds that live lonely are ?
Have you heard how it loves its tender young,
And cares and toils for their good ?
THE AUTHOR AND HIS WORKS.
It brings them water from fountains afar,
And fishes the seas for their food.
In famine it feeds them what love can devise !
The blood of its bosom, and feeding them, dies !
Have you heard the tale they tell of the swan,
The snow-white bird of the lake ?
It noiselessly floats on the silvery wave,
It silently sits in the brake ;
For it saves its song until the end of life,
And then in the soft, still even,
'Mid the golden light of the setting sun,
It sings as it soars into heaven !
And the blessed notes fall back from the skies
'Tis its only song, for in singing it dies.
Have you heard these tales Shall I tell you one,
A greater and better than all ?
Have you heard of Him whom the heavens adore,
Before whom the hosts of them fall ?
How He left the choirs and anthems above,
For the earth in its wailings and woes,
To suffer the shame and the pain of the Cross,
And die for the life of His foes ?
O Prince of the noble ! O Sufferer divine !
What sorrow and sacrifice equal to Thine !
Have you heard this tale the best of them all
The tale of the Holy and True ?
He dies, but His life, in untold souls,
Lives on in the world anew.
His seed prevails and is filling the earth
As the stars fill the skies above ;
He taught us to yield up the love of life,
For the sake of the life of love.
His death is our life, His loss is our gain,
The joy for the tear, the peace for the pain.
215
216 UFB OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
Now hear these tales, ye weary and worn,
Who for others do give up your all ;
Our Saviour hath told you the seed that would grow,
Into earth's dark bosom must fall
Must pass from the view and die away,
And then will the fruit appear :
The grain that seems lost in the earth below,
Will return many fold in the ear.
By death comes life, by loss comes gain,
The joy for the tear, the peace for the pain.
The " Golden Censer" was prepared at Lancaster
during the time that the Liturgical Committee were
holding their deliberations, but was not published
until Dr. Harbaugh had removed to Lebanon in
November, 1860. In it will be found not so much
of anything new, as of that which will conduct the
young Christian into the silent fellowship of the
venerable saints of the past ages. The author
claimed little for himself, but chose humbly to say :
" Here are words of high inspiration born in the
hearts and caught from the lips of martyrs, con-
fessors and saints of all ages, lands, and languages.
Sacred associations of faith, hope, love, and peni-
tence, of joys and sorrows, of conflicts and victories,
render fragrant every line and word of these solemn
old devotions."
During his first year at Lebanon, 4 ' Hymns and
Chants," a book for the Sunday-schools, was issued.
It proved to be what was needed and has been
largely used as an order of worship and hymn book
in our Sunday-schools for the last thirty years. In
THE AUTHOR AND HIS WORKS. 217
preparing this work the author was surprised to find
how many poems the existing collections contained
which in his judgment were not hymns at all. He
also published, in 1867, " Youth in Earnest," as
illustrated in the life of Theodore D. Fisher, a
young member of his church at Lebanon, who be-
came a paymaster's clerk in the army in 1863, and
who was lost in the burning of the unfortunate
steamer Ruth, on August 3, 1863, on the Missis-
sippi river near Cairo.
The mention of the " Child's Catechism" (1867),
"The Religious Character of Washington," " An-
nals of the Harbaugh Family" (1856), and other
small pamphlets, does not fully complete the list of
his minor publications.
The project of a commemoration of the three
hundredth anniversary of the Heidelberg Catechism
now began to be of absorbing interest to the pastor
of St. John's Church, Lebanon. This great event,
after careful preparation, was celebrated at Phila-
delphia, Pa. , January 17-23, 1863.
In a historical sketch of this event, or series of
events, is the following paragraph :
" Great events, it will be found, if facts are carefully
traced out, generally owe their origin to some compar-
atively trivial circumstance, which at the time attracted
but little attention. The Tercentenary Celebration of
the Formation and Adoption of the Heidelberg Gate-
2i8 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
chism by the German Reformed Church in America,
does not form an exception to this rule. ' '
In the first volume of the, work entitled "The
Fathers of the Reformed Church in Europe and
America," by Rev. H. Harbaugh, D.D., the fol-
lowing language occurs at the close of his sketch
of Frederick III. :
"If the Reformed Church wishes still further to
honor the memory of Frederick, it cannot do it in a
more appropriate and better way than by laboring to
make his blessed Heidelberg Catechism rise to new life
and power in the hearts of its members. Should the
Reformed Church in America feel desirous of reviving
old memories, in grateful connection with the Palati-
nate prince and his zealous love for the church, and
seek a fit occasion for such a pious purpose, we suggest
the 3ooth anniversary of the year and day, when he,
with his own imprimatur, and with pious princely com-
mendation, sent forth the Heidelberg Catechism into
the churches and schools of his dominions January
19, 1863.
' ' How appropriate ! and what a blessing might such
an occasion be made to the German Reformed Church
in America !"
This was written early in the year 1857, and
published soon afterwards. It was not, however,
until about two years later that any formal move-
ment was set on foot to carry out the suggestion
here made. At the annual meeting of the classis
THE AUTHOR AND HIS WORKS.
219
at Mercersburg, held in Huntingdon, Pa., in the
month of May, 1859, a series of resolutions bearing
on the subject was offered by the Rev. Dr. Philip
Schaff, and adopted by the classis.
This brought the matter to the attention of the
synod of the church, and from that time forward,
through means of committees, the work of prepa-
ration was carried on and all arrangements were
completed.
Eminent theologians of Europe, especially in
Germany, contributed articles which were translated
and read by members of the convention. The
opening sermon was preached by the Rev. Samuel
R. Fisher, D.D. , and Dr. John W. Nevin was made
president. Dr. Harbaugh had translated the con-
tribution of Dr. Herzog of Erlangen, Germany, on
the Swiss Reformers and read it in place before the
convention.
Between the readings of the specially prepared
essays, discussions were held in an informal way.
At the close of the address of Dr. Ebrard on Me-
lanchthon as translated by W. M. Reily, a tutor in
the seminary at Mercersburg, Dr. Harbaugh, ad-
dressing the convention said :
"The essay of Dr. Ebrard just read discusses an
important point the influence exerted by Melancthon
on the Palatinate, and the Melancthonian element as
it entered into the formation and founding of the Re-
220 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
formed Church of the Palatinate under Frederick III.
in 1563.
1 ' The full extent and significance of this element,
as it entered into that eventful period of the Reforma-
tion history, has only during the last several decades
come to be properly understood. The reason for this
may be found in the more catholic spirit which has of
late years characterized the study of that period of
history.
' ' When the great Reformatory movement of the
sixteenth century became unfortunately divided into
the two great sections of the Lutheran and Reformed,
the controversial spirit on both sides grew sharp and
strong. In the heat of battle, preferences we might
say prejudices became firmly set, and these were
traditionally perpetuated from age to age. Being
removed from the scenes of those early contests both
by space and by time, we of the present day are in this
respect in a favorable position for reviewing and per-
ceiving the ruling elements which entered into the
events of the times. It is difficult for us now to
appreciate fully the strong traditionary feelings which
then warped, if they did not even unconsciously darken,
the minds of those who then contended with each other
on both confessional sides. Even some of the cate-
chisms and books of elementary religious instruction,
were, we may say, rudely sharp and pragmatic, cul-
tivating thus the spirit of sharp antagonism in the
minds of the young, and perpetuating stern traditional
prejudices in youthful minds, who could know but
little of the points at issue. In a passage in the cate-
THE AUTHOR AND HIS WORKS. 2 2I
chetical work of De Witte in many respects an
excellent book the catechumen is asked : 'Are the
Papists properly called Catholic?' Ans. 'No; they
are properly called Kakolic,' playing upon a Greek
word meaning evil or wickedness. We have also heard
of an elementary religious book of that time in which
the child is asked : * Believest thou firmly that the
Reformed hold six hundred and sixty-six errors in
common with the Turks?' Ans. ' Yes ; this I believe
with my whole heart.' These are somewhat strong
and extreme specimens ; but they are still illustrative
of the sharp antagonism in which the different con-
fessions stood toward each other, and show with what
zeal it was sought to bias the minds of the age. In
proportion as such traditional prejudice reigned, and as
long as they reigned, it was, of course, impossible to
take a calm and true view of the events in which they
had their rise.
"With the dust of that great historical battle the
partisan feeling of the age have in a great measure
passed away, and men are prepared to look back and
review the times with other eyes. The Reformed are
now able to see the working of a great power in the
bosom of Lutheranism, in which they discover not only
a congeniality with what was precious to itself, but
which actually became part of itself. Melancthon, the
author of the Augsburg Confession, who at first stood
fully with Luther in his views of the Lord's Supper,
was brought gradually to sympathize with, and at last
substantially to adopt, the view of Calvin on this sacra-
ment, so that he incorporated it substantially in his
222 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
amended edition of the Augsburg Confession of 1540,
and, abandoning the view of Luther, or at least essen-
tially modifying it, held and stated his views in a way
which found hearty favor with the leading Reformed
theologians.
" Besides, what is a still more important fact, the
view of Melancthon on the entire doctrine of the Lord's
Supper took deep root, and extended itself widely and
powerfully, in the bosom of the Lutheran Church itself .
Such influence, in fact, did his views, as embodied in
the tenth Article of the revised Augsburg Confession of
1540, obtain, that it became the ruling power in the
Lutheran Church on German soil. This is evident
from the fact that from 1540 to 1580 the altered Augs-
burg Confession entirely set aside the general use of the
original confession of 1530, so that when, in 1580, it
was intended to republish the original confession, no
copy could be found to print from, and recourse had to
be had to the original manuscript.
" The fact is, that the latest and most reliable inves-
tigations in history clearly show that Melancthon was
influenced by the Calvino- Reformed doctrine of the
Lord's Supper, and he influenced the Lutheran mind
largely, especially in the Palatinate, in favor of the
same view : so that when the old Lutheran party rallied
again, about the time when Frederick III. came into
power in that electorate, they were not able to call back
the general Lutheran mind from their tendencies toward
and sympathy with the Reformed doctrine. Frederick
III., with that deep insight which characterized him,
wisely determined to embody these views in his Heidel-
THE AUTHOR AND HIS WORKS. 223
berg Catechism. Melancthon's influence had prepared
the public mind for its favorable reception. The new
catechism came with welcome into the bosom which
already had all aptitudes and longings for the views it
embodies. Thus the Melancthonian tendency in the
Palatinate became the occasion, the basis, and the de-
termining element from which rose the German Re-
formed Church of the Heidelberg Catechism. In brief,
the Reformed Church influenced Melancthon, and
Melancthon opened the way for the founding of the
Reformed Church on what was before Lutheran ground.
' ' The historical facts on which this view of the rise
of the Reformed Church of the Palatinate rests have
been incontrovertibly established by such men as Dr.
Ebrard, Dr. Heppe, Dr. Herzog, and others. Sudhof,
in an article on the Heidelberg Catechism in Herzog' s
Real-Encyclopsedie, and in his life of Ursinus and
Olevianus, has vainly and ineffectually endeavored to
controvert this view.
" Facts justify us, moreover, in believing that had
the timid Melancthon stood up firmly in maintaining
the tendencies which his own influence had created,
when these tendencies were again assailed by the old
lyUtheran party, the result might have been a full union
of both sides of the Reformation on substantially the
same confessional ground which the Heidelberg Cate-
chism now represents. Who does not regret that so
desirable a consummation was not realized? But
Melancthon was constitutionally timid. We may not
blame that illustrious man ; not more can be required
of a man than is given him. He has been called a com-
224 OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
promiser. We would not charge him with this. We
attribute his silence to his timidity. If, however, it
should be thought true that the failure referred to has
resulted from a compromising spirit, it is only another
sad illustration of the fact, so often evident in history,
that every endeavor to compromise the interest of fun-
damental truth must meet with sad and certain defeat.
' ' No feature of Reformation history deserves more
earnest study at the present time than this Melanc-
thonian tendency ; and none gives better promise of
pleasant and peaceful fruits to both the Reformed and
Lutheran Confessions in their present states both in
Europe and America. ' '
Dr. Harbaugh's principal address, however, on
that occasion was u Creed and Cultus" an ex-
haustive treatise, with special reference to the rela-
tion of the Heidelberg Catechism to the Palatinate
Liturgy. The Tercentenary Monument a volume
of nearly six hundred pages, containing all the
essays, proceedings, and a history of the movement,
together with valuable statistics, was compiled and
published in the same year of the convention.
Much of the work of this publication was per-
formed by Dr. Harbaugh before he gave up his
charge at Lebanon to accept the professorship at
Mercersburg.
No one in the Reformed faith could have given
the Mercersburg Review a more cordial welcome
than Dr. Harbaugh. He pronounced its appear-
THE AUTHOR AND HIS WORKS. 225
ance in January, 1849, as an e Pch in the church.
The Review was published at first every two
months, then it became a quarterly and appeared
as such until 1861, when the publication of it was
suspended on account of the distracted state of the
country. It was not revived until 1867, when it
appeared again, under the editorship of Dr. Har-
baugh.
His stewardship was brief, but the Review gained
a fair foothold again, and his contributions to it were
characterized by great vigor and force. The Re-
view has since been regularly published, having
been modified several times in name and in general
plan during the course of its history. It could not
be otherwise than with pathetic and solemn interest
that any one would now turn to these old volumes
and behold the literary excellence and great scope
of learning displayed therein. The first editor,
Dr. Nevin, was the foremost theologian of his time
in America. The general contributors were the
men who have been in the front rank of thought
and action during the last fifty years of our church's
history.
Dr. Harbaugh was a frequent contributor, and
among his articles are the following : " Reverence
in Worship," September, 1849; "Systematic Be-
nevolence, or a Plea for the Lord's Portion of our
Increase," in January, 1851, which was afterwards
published in pamphlet form at the request of synod,
226 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
as "A Plea for the Lord's Portion of the Christian's
Wealth." In the July number, 1852, he contri-
butes a review of the Doctrine of Christian Bap-
tism, translated from Dr. H. Martensen, Professor
of Theology in the University of Copenhagen. In
January, 1853, appears his " Parochial or Christian
Schools," being the substance of a sermon delivered
by appointment at the meeting of the synod of the
church in October, 1852, in the City of Baltimore,
and published at the request of that body. In
April of the same year is the continuation of Dr.
Martensen' s discussion of baptism.
During the year 1854 he contributed a translation
from the German of Lange, and an article on Chris-
tian cultus, and in the next year two articles from
the German, and a further essay on Christian cultus.
For the next five years he contributed no less than
twelve articles of considerable length to the Review
upon questions which were agitating the church at
that time.
Dr. Harbaugh, upon assuming the editorship of
the Review in 1867, brought to the work a ripe
scholarship and a high reputation as a writer and
thinker upon the system of philosophical and theo-
logical thought it was intended to represent. His
theological studies conducted him into the very
centre of the sphere in which it proposed to move.
In his introductory article, January, 1867, ^ e says:
" The publication which was from 1849 to 1852 the
THE AUTHOR AND HIS WORKS.
227
Mercersburg Review ; from 1853 to 1856 the Mer-
cersburg Quarterly ; from 1857 * I 86i again the
Mercersburg Review; but which, under these
changes of title, steadily maintained the same spirit
and character, and which has been during the last
five years suspended, is now again resumed. Its
suspension was not owing to any loss of interest in
the subjects to which its discussions had been de-
voted, but partly, if not wholly, to the pressure on
all publishing interests brought on by the war of
the Union, and was always designed to be but tem-
porary. The reasons which led to its origination
are the reasons for its continuance. In resuming
the old name it proposes to lift the old banner."
During his editorship in 1867, Dr. Harbaugh
contributed to the Review, " The Christian Idea of
Almsgiving, " " The Two Systems, > ' " The Essence
and the Form of Christianity," and his last article,
which appeared in the October number, " The Old
Distinction between Gemeide and Kirche" with
special reference to the 74th question of the Heidel-
berg Catechism.
The lectures which Dr. Harbaugh wrought out at
the seminary in Mercersburg, are preserved in man-
uscript among the archives of the seminary at Lan-
caster. Some of the ministers who were students
at the time these lectures were delivered, possess
-written copies of them in full, especially those on
Dogmatics and Practical Theology. The only pub-
228 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
lished lecture perhaps is the one which appeared in
the Review of January, 1868, upon "The Church
Doctrine of the Forgiveness of Sin."
Dr. Harbaugh completed a full course of lectures
on Dogmatics which alone would make a good
sized volume in print. He also prepared a course
on Practical Theology, on Catechetics, Cultus and
the Pastoral Work ; lectures on Homiletics, on
Symbolics, on the history of Reformed Dogmatics,
and on the Heidelberg Catechism. The mere
mention of these topics can give no adequate con-
ception of the work as it was planned and carried
forward.
u In a seminary where the teaching is all done
by two professors and a tutor," remarks the editor
of the Review in April number, 1868, u the won-
der is where time could be found for such an
amount of labor, amounting really to the prepara-
tion of full treatises in the several departments
above enumerated."
In outlining this work Dr. Harbaugh leaned
towards the system of his favorite author, Dr.
Lange, of the University of Bonn, but he was not
merely a retailer of other men's thoughts, and his
work is expanded and enriched by extensive
research into the theology and philosophy of Ger-
many.
The Inaugural Address, " Christological Theol-
ogy," was delivered in the First Reformed Church,
THE AUTHOR AND HIS WORKS. 229
Reading, Pa., on the 24th day of May, 1864.
General Convention of the Reformed Church to
close the Tercentenary Celebration of the Forma-
tion and Adoption of the Heidelberg Catechism,
was in session at the time. Its proceedings were
suspended on the morning of that day to afford its
members an opportunity to participate in the solem-
nities of the occasion. The services were opened
with an invocation by the Rev. John W. Nevin,
Chairman of the Committee of Installation. After
the devotional services had been concluded, Dr.
Nevin delivered an extempore address. His re-
marks were earnest and appropriate, and were ren-
dered more impressive by the fact that the speaker
was able to draw his lessons from his own experi-
ence, having formerly occupied the same office
himself.
After taking the obligation of office, and listen-
ing to the charge delivered to him by the Rev.
Samuel R. Fisher, D.D., Dr. Harbaugh stepped
within the chancel and delivered his address, which
occupied about two hours, and which is considered
by many theologians to be by far his ablest pro-
duction.
Synod afterwards requested that the address be
handed over for publication, and the author com-
plied. Whilst it was passing through the process
of printing in Chambersburg, and after about one-
half of it had been set up in type, manuscript, type
15
230
LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
and all shared in the common ruin which attended
the burning of Chambersburg by the Confederates
on July 30, 1864. Thus the author supposed that
a final disposition had been made of it. He was
called upon, however, to reproduce the address, if
possible, and pass it over to the Committee of Pub-
lication, but it was a request most difficult to fulfil.
Upon the completion of this difficult task Dr.
Harbaugh wrote in a characteristic vein to Dr.
Samuel R. Fisher under date of November 22, 1864:
' ' Te Deum laudamus ! To-day I send you by mail
(marked printer's copy), in care of I. R. Rodgers, the
MSS. of the Inaugural. That was a job ! You look
for it, if it is lost again I must have $500 for writing
it again. It was the hardest job I have undertaken
for a long while. The occasion was not before me, the
stimulus was not at hand, the scaffolding had all been
taken down, and I had to work myself into the subject
again as at first. Fortunately I had a rough first draft.
But the filling in had to be done again de novo. I be-
lieve it is faithful the thoughts are all there ; whether
the style is as good I do not know. Now as the child
is rescued from Rebel fire, do it up in a good dress.
And as time has elapsed, do it up as quickly as possible.
The spirit of the occasion must not die away before it
appears.
" I must read the proof . Were it the original copy,
I would not care to trust in your hands, but it is not
written in large copy hand, so it is not so clear, and it
must be correct. It will not delay it much to pass the
THE AUTHOR AND HIS WORKS.
2 3 I
proof to me. Could I not put a brief note on the blank
page opposite the title ? Perhaps the story of the fate
of the original ought to be given in brief, and a state-
ment of how I produced it so that it may not be thought
to be another thing. The fact that I had the first
rough sketch would fix that right
Will you or have you re-written your charge ? or must
I stand alone ? If not, you ought to put in at the end
the account of the proceedings as a historical matter. ' '
This inaugural was addressed to the learned pro-
fessors and students of the Reformed Church Com-
munion ; the Christology which he left to the people
and which has been sung in many climes, and
adopted by many a pious heart as a sufficient ex-
pression of its abiding faith, is all summed up in
that tender little hymn, " Jesus, I live to Thee."
What shall be said here of the Guardian ? That
little magazine which the founder and editor re-
garded as peculiarly his own. It is more befitting
with this, perhaps, than with any other of his pub-
lications, that the author should speak for himself.
When in 1867 he laid the editorship upon his
friend, Dr. Bausman, he wrote :
" Seventeen years ago, in our early ministry full of
youth and enthusiasm, we started the Guardian in
L,ewisburg, Pa. started it with plenty of faith and
hope, but without funds or subscribers. A kind prov-
idence gave it success far beyond our most sanguine
expectations. In 1850 we carried our sweet burden
232 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
with us to Lancaster, Pa. After ten and a half years
we took it with us to Mercersburg, where it has again
been our companion three years longer. In our study
and as by our side, it has grown up from infancy
through childhood into full youth. Every year has it
hung upon our Christmas tree as an offering to Christ
in the services of the young. To part with it, even
with the assurance that it will live on, and perhaps live
better than ever before, has to us something of the
nature of a bereavement in the family.
' ' How many, many memories,
Come o'er my spirit now."
In his diary of December 13, 1866, he wrote :
* ' This evening I wrote and sent on my last words as
editor of the Guardian. I could not entitle the article
' parting words, ' or anything of that kind. I must feel
as if it were still my Guardian. Seventeen years thou
hast been my companion a beloved friend of my
bosom. It seems like the end of a little world to give
thee up. Yet it must be at some time, and why not
now when duty seems to me so plainly to call for it. It
may be a more important work, but it cannot be a
pleasanter one that now calls me to part with the
editorship of my Guardian. May God take care of the
work I am now passing out of my hands and give me
grace and fitness for the work that is now falling to me
in its stead. ' '
The Pennsylvania-German poems which appeared
from time to time in the Guardian were collected
and published by Dr. B. Bausman in a volume
THE AUTHOR AND HIS WORKS.
233
called "Harbaugh's Harfe," in 1870. Dr. Baus-
man, writing in The Reformed Church Messenger
recently, said :
"In 1868 the late Dr. W. A. Passavant, of the
Lutheran Church, wrote the following to Dr. P. Schaff :
' ' ' I wish very much to suggest to you the publica-
tion of Dr. H. Harbaugh's touching Pennsylvania-
German poems. I have long thought that his poem enti-
tled " Heemweh" was equal to Goldsmith's " Deserted
Village." There is no one in the land better able to
bring out such a work than you are ; and it might and
would be a monument at once to the piety and genius
of our departed Harbaugh, who was in every way wor-
thy of the love of his own church and of that of the
pure and good in all communions. As a delineator of
the character and life exhibited in our slow old Penn-
sylvania state he had no equal. And now I have re-
lieved my mind of this burden of pious care for our de-
parted poet-friend. '
' ' Dr. Schaff laid this tender-spirited letter, with its
pious request, upon my heart. The result is known.
But for this timely request the unique poems of Har-
baugh might still lie unread, in the old files of the
Guardian. Much of the best work of our strongest
men has never been published in permanent book form.
It was simply spoken in the lecture room and on the
pulpit, or published in the periodicals of the church.
The results of the best and ripest scholarship of Har-
baugh, Higbee, Apple, Weiser, and others are unread
treasures, scattered loosely around in old periodicals,
like so much literary lumber."
234
LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
The u Harfe" contains fifteen poems in the Penn-
sylvania-German, and the author's own translation
of four of them into English, among these being
the two most popular and widely known ones
u Das Alt Schulhaus an der Krick," and " Heem-
weh." The volume also contains a brief sketch of
Dr. Harbaugh's life in Pennsylvania-German, by
Dr. Bausman, and a poem entitled " Zum A'Denke
An Heinrich Harbaugh," by his intimate friend
the late Dr. Weiser.
The "Harfe" is illustrated with six wood cuts
made from original drawings. The picture of the
Old School House, the Old Mill, the Harbaugh
Home, and the Old Hearth, were all sketched on
the spot in Franklin County, Pa. u Kerchegangin
Alter Zeit," and u Heemweh," were drawn by an
artist of Reading, Mr. Devlin.
Dr. Harbaugh was frequently requested to pub-
lish a collection of these poems in book form, but
the wish of his many friends remained unfulfilled
on account of his early death. The commission
could not have been placed in worthier or more
tender hands than Dr. Bausman' s. " Harbaugh
wrote these poems, not I," he writes, u but he was
a dear friend of mine is yet, although on the other
side. A grateful love for him as well as for the
people in whose language he sang these songs, in-
duces me to publish this little work. The wish for
its appearance both in America and in Europe
THE AUTHOR AND HIS WORKS.
235
has become pronounced. . . . This ' Harfe' gives
a representation of the folk and family life of the
Pennsylvania-German. From the cradle to the
grave. From the family, the school and the church
many a beautiful picture is painted. "
Dr. Bausman closes his preface to the " Harfe ."
with this touching sentence: " Mochte die lieben
Leser bitten, * Die Harfe' nicht an die Weiden zu
hangen, sondern recht oft ihre schonen Klange im
Kreise der Familie ertonenzu lassen," which being
interpreted, means, " I would ask the dear readers
not to hang the c Harp' on the willows, but to
allow its beautiful tones to be frequently heard in
the family circle. ' '
The following words are taken from Dr. Schaff 's
memorial sketch of Dr. Harbaugh, in the Christian
World of January 9, 1868 :
" As the poet in the* Pennsylvania- German dialect,
he stands alone, if we except an isolated attempt made
before, namely, the touching evening hymn, 'Margets
scheent die Sunn so schoej which was written by a
Moravian minister (the late Rev. Mr. Rondthaler) , and
published, with some alterations, in Schaff 's Kirchen-
freundior 1849. I first directed his attention to this
piece of poetry, and suggested to him the desireableness
of immortalizing the Pennsylvania-German in song,
before it dies out, as the Allemannian dialect has been
immortalized by Hebel. He took up the hint and
wrote his ' Schulhaus an der Krick,' which he modestly
236 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
submitted to me, and which, when published in several
newspapers, produced quite a sensation among the
Pennsylvania- Germans, and found its way even to Ger-
many. The ' Heemweh' and other pieces followed
from time to time in his Guardian, and were received
with equal favor. These poems can, of course, only be
fully appreciated in Pennsylvania ; but in originality,
humor, and genuine Volkston they are almost equal to
the celebrated Allemannian poems of Hebel. They are
pervaded, moreover, by a healthy, moral, and religious
feeling. They deserve to be collected and published in
book form either separately, or in connection with his
volume of English poems."
The Pennsylvania-German is a beautiful dialect
from the Palatinate, into which have crept many
English words which have added to its utility but
not to its softness and beauty. It has been used for
the most part as a means of conversation, having in
but few instances risen to the dignity of a written
language. Its literature, however, has not been
limited merely to humorous experiments made by
philological students, as has been stated by a certain
writer. "Heemweh" alone furnishes ample proof
of the tender pathos of which this language is
capable, and perhaps the most popular poem of all,
"Das Alt Schulhaus an der Krick, n is not only
rich in humor, but singularly true to life in its
descriptions, and pathetic in the undertone of sacred
life and home-feeling that pervade its every line.
THE AUTHOR AND HIS WORKS. 237
Nothing could be more natural and truthful than
the touching expression which Dr. Harbaugh gives
to that sense of love for his mother which absence
first revealed to him in its deepest meaning. Far
away in the West, with rivers and mountains be-
tween them, he unbosoms the beautiful secret of
his heart's silent love ; and in after years, when
memory presented it to him anew, he gave expres-
sion to u Heemweh," in the only language that
could have fittingly clothed his thoughts.
It was thus that the scenes of his childhood were
woven into his life and associations, and he never
could break away from them without the pain of
homesickness. He would at any time exchange the
pomp of social pleasures, and even the triumphs of
theological controversy, for a quiet lingering mem-
ory of the summers of his childhood ; the dewy
meadow, the twittering heat over the landscape like
a swarm of silver-winged insects, the calm clover
fields in red and white blossoms, the glad shout of
the reaper, and the painful whine of the dogs, re-
sponsive to the noonday horn ; the tinkling bells
and the lowing and bleating of herds returning to
their nightly shelter. His spirit gladly received
and revived such scenes in all their richness, and
memory treasured up for him the golden store.
In "Der Alte Feierheerd," the old time hearth-
fire, and other poems the reader is brought home to
the winter of childhood days, combining the stern-
238 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
est outdoor lessons with the sweetest heart teach-
ings of the fireside. The sheet of snow on the
fields, hardened and glistening in the sunlight, the
piercing creak of the heavy wagon over the crisp
and frozen road, and the merry jingle of the sleigh
bells ; then the snow balls, the snow men, and the
snow forts the athletic feats upon the glassy pond,
and the school house, with its recess, its balls, mus-
ters, battles, races, and hillside sliding all these,
and much more, are called up with peculiar vivid-
ness in this quaint and curious patois from the
ancient Rhine country.
u Of course," writes Dr. J. H. Dubbs in the
Guardian, "Dr. Harbaugh's efforts, like those of
other poets, were not of equal excellence. Thus
his * Peewee, ' though otherwise a fine poem, bears
a strong, though of course undesigned, resemblance
to Hebel's * Storch ;' while his * Law Bisness' is
so much inferior to his other productions as hardly
to appear to be from the same hand. "
It may be true that the fate of the Pennsylvania-
German language is sealed, and that it will in time
pass away as a practical means of communication,
but it has a history and a literature that will endure
to become the wonder of generations yet unborn
who shall ponder over it through their smiles and
their tears.
In spite of the humorous speculation revealed in
the translation of Hamlet, which has been made
THE AUTHOR AND HIS WORKS.
239
memorable by its rendering of that solemn declara-
tion, " I am thy father's ghost," into " Ich bin deim
dawdy set spook" let the Pennsylvania-German
jealously guard the dialect of his fathers, and care
for it as Dr. Harbaugh asked him to cherish the old
school house :
"Ye, who shall live when I am dead
Write down my wishes quick
Protect it, love it, let it stand,
A way -mark in this changing land
That school house at the creek."
Never are the poets the interpreters of the mys-
teries of the human heart more successful than
upon the home theme. Whatever else that is beau-
tiful they may have left behind, it is in their rural
idyls that their names are most pleasantly and
durably embalmed. It was his " Elegy" that made
Gray's fame immortal. For Goldsmith it was his
"Deserted Village." For Burns, "The Cotter's
Saturday Night ;" Rogers, his " Pleasures of Mem-
ory ;" Thompson, his u Seasons ;" Cowper, his
"Task." The same may be said of many others
in all lands and languages. What are these poems
that stand out among the rest but songs of home,
the echoes from the heart that memory returns in
soft voices from childhood. These are the " wak-
ings up from their temporary sleep of innocence of
those deep intuitions and presentiments, which from
the beautiful and imperishable fields of life behind
240
LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
us, furnish us the strongest intimations, outside of
positive revelation, of an immortality beyond the
grave. ' '
It could not be otherwise than that a man of such
positive nature as Dr. Harbaugh should create an-
tagonisms. The zeal with which he pressed for-
ward often brushed aside the usages of diplomacy
and relegated moderation to the rear. The Rev.
Dr. George H. Johnston, a nephew, who had ex-
ceptional opportunities for knowing Dr. Harbaugh
intimately, speaks to this point :
" If you will allow me," he writes, "I would
suggest a ruling characteristic of Dr. Harbaugh' s
organization : His was a sanguine temperament,
full of indomitable energy, persistent, hopeful,
quick to see what ought to be done, and then,
without any ado, going about doing it with might
and main. He did not depend on others to outline
work for him to do, but topics, subjects, sprang
from his own mind and claimed his best powers.
Another characteristic was his ready wit, humor,
temper of mind, which buoyed him up, which
helped him mightily to refresh himself, and shake
off care, brighten weary and heavy laden clergy
and laymen and fit them and him to renew their
labors. This vein of good feeling, of wit, of invec-
tive, of reductio ad absurdum power, he often
utilized to overthrow an argument, to confuse and
confound advocates of untenable theories and illogi-
THE AUTHOR AND HIS WORKS.
241
cal or absurd views. He reminded me of Abraham
Lincoln now, of Washington Irving then. ..."
These phases of his character were best portrayed
in his sympathies and labors in connection with the
so-called u Liturgical Movement. n
The question of using the liturgy in the Re-
formed Church was not a new one during the early
ministry of Dr. Harbaugh, or even of Dr. Nevin.
The Reformed Churches of the Reformation in both
Germany and Switzerland were liturgical, and the
early ministers of the Reformed Church in America
used the Palatinate liturgy largely. Some of them
had only manuscript copies of some of the old forms
of worship and used them regularly in their services.
As early as 1820 official notice was taken of the
matter in accordance with the request of Maryland
Classis when the synod met at Hagerstown, Mary-
land. A request was made that the form of wor-
ship be revised and published both in German and
English. A committee was appointed to consider
the matter, and thus, without making much head-
way, the whole subject was before the church at its
successive synods until 1841, when Dr. Mayer's
Liturgy appeared in both languages. It was not,
however, a success, only one small edition being
printed, and no second edition was ever called for.
The question was further agitated in much the same
way, and was referred to committees whose mem-
bers found it difficult to effect any satisfactory result.
242 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
The " Mercersburg Movement" brought the sub-
ject before the church in a stronger and somewhat
different light during the decade from 1840 to 1850,
and at the Synod of Norristown in October, 1849,
quite a long report was submitted and after much
debate a committee was appointed from whose
labors finally came the Provisional Liturgy pub-
lished in 1857. The discussions at this synod were
earnest and lengthy, and the question resolved
itself into : Liturgy or no Liturgy.
Speaking of the occasion from memory, Dr.
Philip SchafT says : " Another speaker embodied
his anti-liturgical prejudices in the lines,
* ' * Prayer is the simplest form of speech
That infant lips can try.'
But he was promptly silenced by the quotation
of what immediately follows, in the same hymn of
Montgomery, who, as a Moravian, was certainly in
favor of liturgical worship :
" ' Prayer the sublimest strains that reach
The majesty on high.' "
"A third opponent of the report asked the ques-
tion : 'If I read another man's prayer, is it I who
prays, or the one who wrote it?' He was effect-
ively answered by another question : ' If you sing
a hymn is it you that sings, or the man who com-
posed it ; or must you make both the poetry and
the music in order to use it as an act of worship ?'
THE AUTHOR AND HIS WORKS.
243
" The last speech as far as I recollect was made by
Dr. Nevin, with his usual solemnity and earnest-
ness. He stated frankly, that the study of the
church question ' had wrought a complete theolo-
gical revolution in his mind and entirely removed
his inherited Presbyterian prejudices against litur-
gies.' "
Dr. Harbaugh was a member of the committee
appointed at Norristown and remained a member
until the completion of the Provisional Liturgy in
1857, and also served on the committee as it was
afterwards called to active duty again. He was sec-
retary of the committee and kept complete notes of
all its meetings. Many of the conferences were
held in his study at Lancaster and much of the
work was done there. He was wholly in accord
with those of the committee who advocated a com-
plete liturgy which should embody forms of wor-
ship for all services of the church, as well as for
private devotion and special occasions. The extent
of the labors of this committee can scarcely be esti-
mated. Liturgical lore was explored from the
original sources. The German liturgies and forms
were translated and revised, and all the literature
and history of the church as it pertained to the sub-
ject was familiarized and presented by the various
members. Drafts of prayers were submitted, freely
criticized, altered, rewritten, and finally adopted.
Thus the Provisional Liturgy was finally published
244 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
without expense to the church in 1857 an ^ given
over for inspection.
To guard against all mistakes, it was plainly
stated that the synod had not yet given to the work
its sanction ; the liturgy carried with it no authority
for the churches nothing to make the use of it
binding, nor obligatory in any direction. It was
only put forth to meet what was believed to be a
growing want of the Reformed Church. It was
thought that years might be required to settle the
question, and that the interest involved was so
great that none should object to having years
allowed, if necessary, for its proper determination.
However, the liturgy was well received, the third
edition having been called for almost in the same
year of its publication. As stated above, the ques-
tion was by no means settled, and at successive
synods following the year 1857, ^ e subject was un-
der discussion. Meantime the government of the
church was so changed that the various synods were
to be delegated to a general synod to meet every
three years. The western branch of the church had
taken up the liturgical question also, and so it came
about that the whole subject was brought to the
attention of the first General Synod at Pittsburg in
The committee that had been so faithful in its
duties was restored to office by the Eastern Synod,
and, at the first General Synod, a recommendation
THE AUTHOR AND HIS WORKS.
245
was sent to the Eastern Synod to go forward with
the revision of the liturgy, according to its own
judgment, so as to have it ready to be presented to
the General Synod in 1866. With this kind of
encouragement acting as a stimulus, the committee
went to work again in good earnest. They held
many meetings, receiving or rejecting their own
contributions to the work, using the freest and
most unsparing criticism, and had it finished and
published for the Synod of York in October, 1866.
The word liturgy had become offensive to many
persons and in view of that fact, the work was
called simply, " An Order of Worship for the Re-
formed Church."
The work justified the expectations of its friends.
It bears on its face the indications of unwearied
labor and perseverance. The spirit and character
of the Provisional Liturgy had been maintained,
but various changes had been made, and it was then
presented to the synod for adoption or rejection.
In connection with its presentation the committee
made a long report, embodying a brief history of
the liturgical movement.
The synod then referred the Order of Worship as
presented, to a committee of its own members, who
made a report, which is given in part from the life
of Dr. Nevin, as stated by Dr. Theodore Appel :
' ' The report then concluded with several resolutions,
recommending that the thanks of the synod be rendered
16
246 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
to the great Head of the Church, that this work, so far
as the synod was concerned, was brought to a termina-
tion ; that its thanks be tendered to the committee for
the zeal, ability, and unrequited toil which they had
displayed in the prosecution of the work, from the be-
ginning to the end ; that the revised liturgy be referred
to the General Synod for action ; that its optional use
be allowed within the limits of the synod, until the
whole question should be finally settled by the various
classes and the General Synod, according to the consti-
tution of the church. The report elicited considerable
discussion, and aroused a deep interest in the commun-
ity. Here, at this synod, the war against the Order of
Worship and its tendencies, extending over a number
of years, was initiated, which on the whole probably
did it more good than harm. Being the only one of ten
opposed to the form of the revision, Dr. Bomberger had
withdrawn from the committee, and from that time
onward he fought the Order of Worship with such
weapons as he deemed most effective. His speech at
this synod was answered by Dr. Harbaugh in his own
peculiar style, to the satisfaction of all liturgical men.
Dr. Nevin and other members present did not deem it
necessary to make any extended remarks or arguments,
as the matter seemed to be in safe hands. The synod
adopted the report by an overwhelming majority."
Students of church history are familiar with the
momentous debates of the General Synod at Day-
ton, Ohio, in 1866. Dr. Nevin was the champion
of the Revised Liturgy. Dr. Harbaugh closely
THE AUTHOR AND HIS WORKS. 247
supported him on the floor of synod. The ques-
tion was first referred to a committee of nine, fairly
representing the different parts of the church in
numerical strength. There was, of course, a mi-
nority and majority report, and then began the
great controversy. Dr. Nevin's argument, litur-
gical, historical, and theological, occupied two
sessions of the synod. A western member occa-
sionally interrupted him by asking annoying ques-
tions, and was answered so appropriately, that a
distinguished military officer, General McCook,
whispered to a friend by his side that the member
referred to " had better retreat and get into his
bomb proof." This questioner did retreat and
others with him, as the theological artillery explo-
ded over their heads.
The majority report was brief, and simply recom-
mended u that the Western Synod, in conformity
with its own wish, be authorized to continue its
labors in preparing its own liturgy ; that the Re-
vised Liturgy should be allowed to be used as a
proper order of worship in the congregations of the
Reformed Church, and it should be understood that
this action was not intended to interfere in any
way with the freedom of ministers or congrega-
tions who might not be prepared to use the liturgy
in whole or in part."
The minority report was much more lengthy and
248 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
pointed out its various grievances and all its objec-
tions to the Revised Liturgy.
After great discussion the majority report was
adopted by a vote in which all the eastern ministers
sustained it except five or six, and the majority on
the whole vote was seven.
The action did not mean that the Revised Lit-
urgy was ratified and endorsed by the General
Synod, but simply that it was to have fair play and
was not to be u subjected to the vandalism of being
made so much raw material merely for the manu-
facture of another. "
At length the church began to grow weary of
controversy, and at the General Synod at Lancaster
in 1878, the different branches of the church
seemed to be drifting towards the state of peace in
which it may be found laboring to-day. Then came
the Peace Commission and the Directory of Wor-
ship, or fourth liturgy. With this liturgy, and with
the extent of its adoption in the church, all good
Reformed people are thoroughly familiar.
During the liturgical controversy the name of Dr.
Harbaugh and that of Dr. J. H. A. Bomberger were
recorded frequently as standing decidedly opposed
to each other. Dr. Bomberger was not an anti-
liturgical man, but rather came to be an anti-revised
liturgy man, and always combatted the tendency of
liturgical direction as advocated by Dr. Harbaugh.
He had been a member of the committee that pre-
THE AUTHOR AND HIS WORKS. 249
pared the Provisional Liturgy, but withdrew from
the committee after it had resumed its labors on the
Revised Liturgy. He waged his war with great
bitterness on the floor of synod, and his shafts were
frequently thrust against Dr. Harbaugh as the rep-
resentative of those who upheld the liturgy. Dr.
Harbaugh in turn sought with all the power of in-
vective and sarcasm with which he was peculiarly
gifted, to lay bare the errors which he conceived to
be lurking in Dr. Bomberger's arguments.
Thus not only in speech but through the medium
of the church papers and the Mercersburg Review
as well, the controversy waxed earnest and ardent.
That the feeling at times became somewhat per-
sonal can scarcely be doubted, for these earnest
men were unbending in their convictions and the
contest was shaking the very foundations of the
church.
But neither of these contending warriors went so
far as did Dr. Luther, when he refused the hand of
fellowship extended to him by Zwingli, though it
was pleaded for in tears, when the Reformers met at
Marburg in 1529. Nor did the controversy de-
scend to such grossness of language as that which
characterized the discussions between Puritan and
Churchman in England. The Puritan pamphleteer,
for instance, addressed the very head of the English
church as " Doctor of Diviltrie and Deane of Sarum
. . . you grosse beast ;" while in reply the Church-
250
LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
man states that he thought his Puritan adversary
had died, or in other words, u that your grout-
headed holinesse had turned uppe your heels like
a tired jade in a medow and snorted out your
sorrowefull soule, like a mesled hogge on a mucke-
hille."
Whatever may be thought of this great storm and
long stress of weather that fell upon the church, by
those who are inclined rather to the quiet and
peaceful side of religious life, this is nevertheless
true, that the church increase was greater at that
period than at any time in her history in America.
Any fair presentation of the liturgical question,
or the frank statement of any one man's part in it,
surely cannot at this late day serve to disturb the
peace of the church. The contest was earnestly
fought out. No one was ever in doubt as to where
Dr. Harbaugh stood upon the question from its be-
ginning to the time of his death. His conscien-
tious labors as a member of the committee and his
abilities as displayed in the Provisional Liturgy,
were generously recognized by those who saw fit to
oppose the liturgical tendency in general.
It may be doubted whether there is any where in
the English language a more perfect specimen of
trenchant sarcasm and invective than is contained
in the review of Dr. Bomberger's funeral discourse
on the occasion of the funeral of Dr. Samuel Helf-
THE AUTHOR AND HIS WORKS.
251
fenstein. Dr. Bomberger took that occasion to set
forth his views upon the questions which were then
before the church, touching indirectly upon the
subject of the liturgy and the priestly character of
the Christian ministry. In the Mercersburg Review
of April, 1867, Dr. Harbaugh reviewed the sermon
at length, but, in the midst of his criticisms, he
states that u with the author of the sermon we never
have had, and never intend to have any personal
quarrel, but with his publicly expressed views on
the subject in hand ever !"
But it must not be forgotten that these men were
laboring in the same general cause. They were
nearly of the same age, born within the same year.
Dr. Bomberger was a graduate of Marshall College
and the Seminary at Mercersburg, was pastor in
his early manhood for five years at the old home of
Dr. Harbaugh Waynesboro, Pa., and served for a
number of years with Dr. Harbaugh on the litur-
gical committee.
At a special meeting of the Synod of the Re-
formed Church, at Harrisburg, Pa., in March, 1868,
to elect a successor to Dr. Harbaugh in the semi-
nary, when a resolution was offered looking to the
publication of a memorial volume of the late Pro-
fessor Harbaugh, Dr. Bomberger, in connection
with the adoption of the resolution, made some
touching remarks in honor of the memory of Dr.
252
OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
Harbaugh. Dr. Bomberger lived to be quite an
aged man, and, like his antagonist on the liturgical
question, he became somewhat tempered and mel-
lowed in his views of church questions. This was
amply shown only a short time before his death,
when he greeted a son of Dr. Harbaugh tenderly,
and spoke quite at length with unmistakable feel-
ing and sincerity of the father.
Upon another phase of the liturgical controversy,
let the words of Dr. Harbaugh himself serve to
close the subject :
' ' The appearance of our new liturgy has given occa-
sion, in some quarters, for the display of a very flat
kind of pedantry, which is deserving of notice only on
account of the superficiality which it betrays. Thus,
the blind tell the blind, that the greater part of it is
taken from the Episcopal Book of Common Praj^er.
The truth is, there is scarcely a respectable liturgy in
existence that was less used in the preparation of the
new liturgy. That some of the forms in both books
are similar, results purely from the fact, that both are
drawn from the common liturgical sources, as they ex-
isted in the earlier church, and as they had been, to
some extent, developed under an evangelical form in
the Protestant churches of the Continent, before the
Reformation had its faintest dawn in England.
* ' These are facts ; and others might here be pre-
sented, which show that the English liturgy is far more
indebted to Reformed liturgies of the Continent, than
THE AUTHOR AND HIS WORKS.
253
the present liturgy is to it. For every single page that
the new liturgy may be shown to contain of matter
from the Book of Common Prayer, that is original
there, we will show more than one for which the com-
pilers of that book were indebted to the liturgical
labors of the Reformers on the Continent. ' '
VII. BACK TO OLD MBRCBRSBURG.
DR. HARBAUGH'S departure from Lebanon
after a pastorate of only three years, was occa-
sioned by his election to the Professorship of Di-
dactic and Practical Theology in the seminary at
Mercersburg, Pa. He was chosen by the synod at
its annual sessions heM in Carlisle, Pa., on his
birthday, October 28, 1863.
His farewell sermon to St. John's Reformed con-
gregation at Lebanon was preached on the evening
of Sunday after New Year, 1864. It abounds in
solemn and affectionate expressions of good-will for
this people, from whom he had not expected so
soon to be separated.
" We part," he said, " with an intelligent convic-
tion on both sides that it ought so to be. Though
abundantly assured of your sincere affection an
assurance signed and sealed by a thousand kind-
nesses all acquiesce in the separation as being
necessary and proper."
He arrived in Mercersburg with his family on
January 7, 1864, and for a short time resided in the
house north of the seminary building. He then
moved to the professor's house on the south side of
the campus, which became his permanent residence.
He at once entered upon his new duties, and, as
GROUP GENERAL VIEW OP COLLEGE
SOUTH COTTAOH. DR. HARBAUOH'S RB8IDBNCB 1884 TO 1807
BACK TO OLD MERCERSBURG.
255
early as January i5th, delivered his first lecture in
. the seminary, it being introductory to the study of
dogmatic history. Dr. Thomas G. Apple, then
pastor at Greencastle, gives the first real glimpse of
the new professor in a letter written to Dr. Baus-
man :
' 'I have been to see Dr. Harbaugh. He is at work with
his sleeves rolled up, but somewhat nervous, I think,
on account of his close application, and sense of the
new responsibilities resting upon him. The students
(in the seminary) are well pleased. He does not write
much for the M., but it is no wonder, when you con-
sider what he has to do. I cannot see how he manages
to write so much."
Dr. Bausman gives this further picture, much in
the same connection, writing of the late Dr. Apple :
" Drs. Harbaugh and Higbee were then at Mercers-
burg, nine miles from Greencastle (Dr. Apple's home).
The three with their families formed a delightful social
circle. Their mutual visits were frequent and most
cordial. These three royal men beautifully stood by
each other in trouble. They found a delightful com-
pensation for the solitude of their village life in a liter-
ary and social club. Usually one would read a paper,
which formed the basis of their intellectual feast.
With their many duties the preparation of such a paper
sometimes became an irksome burden. Dr. A. writes
on the eve of a club meeting : ' I feel out of sorts that
my essay has turned out a kind of failure. This thing
256 IvIFK OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
of writing is not always an easy matter. It is to me
sometimes like pushing a heavy load up hill.'
' ' Here is a little picture of a club meeting at his
house. It happened on a New Year's day :
" We had a house full of visitors. Besides the mem-
bers of the club, Mrs. and four children were
with us. Altogether there were twenty-four guests
for awhile. Fortunately we had a large fat turkey.
Higbee read an elaborate paper. Harbaugh's was
good. Yes, Harbaugh is gifted in prayer. I once
remarked this to Higbee. It is partly constitutional.
But do you not think it is also partly the result of his
long study and training as a member of the liturgical
committee ? Praying well is one of the most important,
and at the same time most difficult parts of our public
ministrations.
1 ' One needs unction in reading a prayer. Harbaugh
spoke of the want of heart in the reading of the litur-
gical services at Dr. 's funeral. He said the
brother read in a cold and heartless manner. ' '
During the early months of 1864 Dr. Harbaugh
put his powers of endurance to a severe test. He
drafted lectures in the various departments of semi-
nary work, inaugurated his class room work at once
and met his students regularly in accordance with
the plan of recitations then in practice. In addition
to this he retained his editorship of the Guardian
until he became editor of the Review in January,
1867.
BACK TO OLD MERCERSBURG.
257
Along with his preliminary and introductory lec-
tures in 1864, he also had the preparation of his
inaugural address, elsewhere referred to, which was
not delivered until the following May.
Meanwhile the liturgical committee had been
called into action again and was pursuing its labors,
which resulted in the Revised Liturgy published
in 1866, and which became the subject of the great
discussions at the Synod of York in October, 1866,
and at the General Synod at Dayton, Ohio, a few
weeks later.
On Monday evening, January 18, 1864, in accord-
ance with previous arrangements, the students of
the seminary called upon Dr. Harbaugh for the
purpose of extending to him and his family a wel-
come to their new home. One of their number,
now known to the church as the eloquent and
learned Dr. J. Spangler KiefTer, acted as spokesman.
Among other things in his address of welcome, he
said :
' ' You enter upon a field of labor in which men of no
ordinary character have preceded you. Here labored,
fora time, Dr. Mayer, the pioneer professor in the estab-
lishment of the seminary ; here labored and died the
learned and lamented Ranch ; and the revered names
of Drs. Nevin, Schaff, and Wolff shall always stand in
inseparable connection with the Theological Seminary
of Mercersburg. To your keeping is now committed,
in part, the honor of this seminary. We do not fear
258 IvIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
for the result, but are confident that this institution of
our church will continue to maintain in the future the
character she has sustained so well throughout the
vicissitudes of her early history. ' '
In reply Dr. Harbaugh spoke with much feeling
and quite at length to the students. His closing
words are given below :
' ' I am here and among you in some respects as a
stranger ; but in others not. Many memories crowd in
upon me ! New are all things and yet old. Those
mountains, these surrounding hills and fields, these
buildings, this campus with its shrubbery and trees, are
all as sacredly familiar to me as the scenes of my own
childhood. Twenty years of varied labors and experi-
ences have intervened between my life as I left and my
life as I return. Though the Alma Mater has since
glided silently into something more of the venerable-
ness of age, she seems more lovely and loving to the
returning than she did to the departing son. Had I
honors, how filially and gladly would I use them to
crown her venerable head !
"There is this difference between you, as you are
now around me, and myself you are preparing to pass
out into the church to fulfil the duties of the pastoral
office, whilst I am returning from its direct and active
labors. Many of its pleasures and toils are no doubt
known to you, while many others are to be known only
by experience. But of one thing I may assure you in
your after life, when engaged in the responsible duties
of the pastoral office, you will often look back upon the
BACK TO OLD MERCERSBURG.
259
years of your seminary course as among the pleasantest
of your life ; and should any of you be so unfortunate
as to make a careless use of them, the fact will furnish
you ever after with matter for bitter and lasting regret.
This is the plastic and formative period of your lives,
and the determining influence of this period will give
direction and character to all of life that comes after."
When he had closed, the professors and students
extended to him the hand of welcome and the
remainder of the evening was spent in social con-
versation interspersed with music, vocal and instru-
mental.
Dr. Harbaugh took up his residence in what is
now known at Mercersburg College as South Cot-
tage, where he lived the four busy years that were
left to him. That he had premonitions of a phys-
ical breaking down is beyond question. He seemed
to think that it was necessary to crowd the work,
and that certain things must be accomplished. He
tried faithfully to heed the warnings of his physician
to desist from mental labor, but so eager was he to
meet the expectations of those who had called him
to such a responsible position in the church, that
he longed to get back to his desk. Now and then
he could be lured away to the mountain by Elder
Hause for a squirrel hunt ; Dr. Higbee's invitation
to go fishing or to take a swim in the creek was
always accepted. His old love of working in wood
never forsook him, and in winter he would build a
2 6o LIFB OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
sled large enough for a party of his friends, who
were delighted at any time to accompany him to
the near-by towns on a crisp winter day or on a
moonlight night. Every summer he looked for-
ward with pleasure to his trip up through Path
Valley, and on to Lewisburg by horse and carriage,
where his family usually spent a part of their vaca-
tion. It was upon one of these journeys that he
came to the blacksmith's shop with the droll sign
above its door, "The Live Blacksmith" He was
so much amused at the sign, and so well pleased
with the genial manner of the smith himself, that
he wrote an article for the Guardian using the live
blacksmith for his theme, and drawing many use-
ful lessons from the incident.
Upon one occasion, leaving his family to prolong
their vacation at L,ewisburg, Dr. Harbaugh made
the journey by carriage alone back to Mercersburg.
Of this trip and his arrival home, he writes to his
wife :
' * On Friday, while the evening star hung brilliantly
and beautifully over the fluted mountain west of Mer-
cersburg, and the last faint gleams of departing day
still shone and lingered along the western horizon,
there might have been seen a solitary buggy-man
wending his way through between Ritchie's house and
barn, crossing the little stream, threading along the
rocky slope past our fat washerwoman's humble hut,
trotting up seminary lane past the mansion of the Pro-
BACK TO OLD MERCERSBURG. 261
fessor of Church History, entering the gate, himself
acting as porter, and alighting in the campus greeted
only by the faithful Rover ! He speedily unhitched his
horse, and entered through the silent lawn of the man-
sion of the Professor of Theology and put up his horse
in the stable. All was darkness and silence, save the
sound of a distant flute, supposed to be Prof. Moses'.*
I had good luck all the way except in Mifflintown,
where I asked the way to Academia, and three persons
tried to tell me all at once. I could understand neither
of them, for all talked at once, and such a ridiculous
jabbering I never heard. I had a basket full of mail
awaiting me, and it has kept me busy to dispose of it."
The seminary, like the community itself, felt
deeply the depression of war times. In the sum-
mer of 1863, atl ^ even earlier, the county of Frank-
lin was over-run by both Union and Confederate
armies. The capture of a portion of Lee's wagon
train on its retreat from Gettysburg, landed a large
company of prisoners of war, and many sick and
wounded soldiers of the South in Mercersburg.
The arrival of this motley crew on a quiet Sunday
evening created a new excitement and afforded one
more channel through which the thoughts of the
people could be diverted from the existing and im-
pending dangers. Fears that an attempt to rescue
the prisoners might be made created great uneasi-
ness, but the knowledge that the energies of Lee
and his cohorts were all centered upon a safe and
*A colored man employed by Dr. Apple.
17
262 WFB OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
rapid retreat into Virginia dispelled all this. The
wounded found places of rest and received prompt
medical treatment. The seminary building was
turned into a hospital for the time being and was
soon filled with wounded men. The Sunday-school
room of the Reformed Church was also filled with
wounded and a number of them were placed on the
porch in front of the church. In the same way
the basement of the Methodist Church was occupied,
and other small buildings .throughout the town
were made use of. Again in the summer of 1864
the little village was invaded, but more fortunate
than its neighbor, Chambersburg, it escaped the
torch. While the burning of Chambersburg caused
untold immediate and consequent distress to its
citizens, yet the calamity reached far beyond the
boundaries of the town. Dr. Harbaugh, as well as
other ministers of the church, lost valuable books
and manuscript, and the loss of the manuscript of
his inaugural address, elsewhere referred to, was
one that could not be restored. During all these
troublous times, Dr. Harbaugh maintained a hope-
ful spirit and never wavered in the faith that the
Union would be restored. When others around
him became depressed on account of reports favor-
able to the Confederate cause, he would say, " Wait
until you hear from our army again. " But the
weary struggle came to an end at last, and in his
diary of April 10, 1865, he made this entry :
DR HARBAUOH AND HIS SUCCESSOR, DR JOHNSTON, AT ST. JOHN'S CHURCH.
LEBANON, PA.
BACK TO OLD MERCERSBURG. 263
' ' To-day at half -past eleven the dispatch was brought
to my study giving notice of the surrender of Lee, and
that Sherman had again whipped Johnson. The bells
were rung an hour from 1 2. 30 o'clock on. The flag was
raised on the seminary and the students sang the ' Star
Spangled Banner' on the cupola."
On the day of national mourning for the death of
President Lincoln, June i, 1865, Dr. Harbaugh de-
livered a discourse at Clearspring, Maryland, on
" Treason and Law," which was published in a little
pamphlet at the request of his audience.
The music of that tenth day of April, 1865,
lingers upon the memory of the present writer as
almost the only recollection of war times, and al-
though he may not have understood it or appreci-
ated the importance of the great event which had
called forth such a demonstration, yet he knew as
well that it was a time of rejoicing as that the fol-
lowing week was a period of gloom and sorrow over
the land. There were some excellent voices among
the students of that day, and as the stars and
stripes were once again unfurled to the breeze from
the seminary cupola, the words of Key's immortal
song ascended in strains of music that perhaps had
never before clothed them with a deeper meaning.
In the years 1866 and 1867, the effects of peace be-
gan to be felt throughout the land, and the people
of Mercersburg and its institutions of learning
shared in its blessings.
264 WFB OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
The social relations at Mercersburg were very
pleasant. During his pastorates at I<ewisburg and
Lancaster Dr. Harbaugh had .made frequent pil-
grimages to the little mountain town, and he was
by no means a stranger upon his arrival there in
January, 1864. His "class of little girls" had
grown to womanhood, but they still remembered
their singing teacher of the early forties. The
members of the choir at the Reformed Church also
knew him as their former leader.
He took great interest in pruning and caring for
the trees that grew in the campus. He knew their
names and manner of growth, and loved to watch
the development and budding forth of each pecu-
liar kind. He cultivated a fine garden and aimed
to have the choicest fruit. His quince trees were
the pride of the village, and the old fashioned
apple and quince paring parties which he intro-
duced at his home were occasions of great jollifica-
tion for the students and others who were invited
to take part. How varied his daily occupations
were may be indicated by a single extract from his
diary :
" Wrote some letters, worked in the garden. Went
down town to have my axe fixed. Planted some grape
vines. Wrote for Messenger and Guardian."
A bereavement like that which came upon the
families of Drs. SchafF, Wm. M. Nevin, Thomas G.
BACK TO OLD MBRCERSBURG. 265
Apple, and Higbee at Mercersburg, also cast its
shadow upon the home of Dr. Harbaugh. On Easter
Sunday, April i, 1866, George Merrill Harbaugh,
an infant son, aged eight months, died after a brief
illness and was tenderly laid to rest on the follow-
ing Tuesday. Miss Troupe, now Mrs. Dr. John B.
KiefTer of the college at Lancaster, made a sketch
of the boy, from which she afterwards painted a
portrait in oil, which became a much cherished pos-
session of Mrs. Harbaugh in after years.
Dr. Harbaugh was one of the original incorpo-
rators or Board of Regents of Mercersburg College,
which was the worthy successor of Marshall Col-
lege, and the immediate predecessor of the " New
Mercersburg" now under the successful presidency
of Dr. William Mann Irvine. The charter was
received from the court in October, 1865, providing
for u the education of youth in the learned langua-
ges, the arts, sciences, and useful literature," a
liberal charter in its character and wide in its scope.
Its history is interwoven with the history of all the
institutions of Mercersburg, and in great part em-
bodies the growth of the Reformed Church in
Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia from 1835
to the present time.
Much of the work in the seminary was done in
the early part of the day. For a long time prayers
were held as early as 5.30 A.M. and Dr. Harbaugh's
favorite hours for lecture were from 7 to 9, and from
266 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
ii to 12. During these years of his professorship
he was constantly called upon by the church for
special work, and he always responded cheerfully.
He also preached nearly every Sunday in the
churches of nearby towns, especially in the Clear-
spring charge, which he supplied regularly for a
time, until the arrival of Mr. Goodrich, who was
recommended to the people by Dr. Harbaugh him-
self, and who has (1899) entered into rest after a
faithful pastorate of thirty-three years.
While it was characteristic of Dr. Harbaugh, in
the contemplation of any subject, to go to the
sources, and to set forth the results of his burrow-
ing, and his own views thereon at length, yet in
his later writings, and especially in his extempore
addresses, and his lectures at the seminary, he de-
veloped a tendency to epigram, and has left to the
church some concise expressions which have been
accepted as the best. Such for instance, is the
term u Messianic Ordination," which he applied as
descriptive of the baptism of our Lord, and the
descent of the spirit of God upon Him like a dove.
So when the criticism of a certain clergyman,
that Dr. Harbaugh made too much of Christmas,
which happened at that time to fall on Sunday,
came to his knowledge, his reply was : " Say to him,
please, that Christmas is a greater day than Sunday."
His peculiar power of illustrating and developing
a thought by drawing upon nature and natural ob-
BACK TO OLD MERCERSBURG.
267
jects, is apparent everywhere in his writings. The
reader may casually turn the pages of his published
volumes, and find many such illustrations as are
here given :
" As the eye that sees cannot see itself, so any great move-
ment, in any given age, can never directly and fully understand
itself, or measure the meaning of the activities and tendencies
which strive and struggle in its own bosom."
" The tree must ever draw life from its roots ; the strength
of a stream must ever be replenished from its fountains : so is
the nation and the church, in the divine order, ever dependent
for vitality and vigor on its past history. ' '
" As the setting sun leaves first a glory, then a twilight, and
at last darkness ; so the deeds of the past, as they sink beyond
our personal recollection, are first bright, then dim, and then
gone !"
' ' As the noble Rhine, which in its course over many a
league, waters fair meadows and blesses smiling vineyards,
babbles its infant song on her bosom, so has this wonderful
land (Switzerland) nursed and sent forth streams of history
which have since gladdened many a heart and heritage in
church and state."
"Thus the broad surface of nature becomes to us a grand
panorama, passing before us as the seasons pass, revealing in
each move some new r representation of God's wisdom and ways.
Stupid indeed must he be who is not able to look and learn."
In his series of articles in the Guardian exposing
various kinds of humbug, his powers of wit and
sarcasm were allowed freer play perhaps than in
any of his other writings. In the September num-
ber, 1856, appeared a book notice which found its
way into the Guardian without the knowledge of
268 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
the editor. It was favorable to a publication which
Dr. Harbaugh had previously refused to notice.
In the following month the Guardian appeared
with an article on the subject in which the editor
paid his respects to the book in question in no un-
certain terms, and dismissed the subject in the
following words :
" Now, therefore, to all to whom these presents may
come, the editor of the Guardian sends greeting : and
he disowns the recommendation given to the book in
toto he protests against being forced to say what he
does not wish to say and asks that if any one wishes
to buy said note-book, he do it, like General Jackson,
'on his own responsibility' and not from any recom-
mendation purporting to be from the Guardian , whether
it be written, printed, pasted, preached, prayed or
sung/'
Many anecdotes are still abroad among his friends
illustrative of his rich humor. Upon the occasion
of his visit to Waynesboro, he stopped at the sad-
dler shop of Lewis Detrich, a pleasant resort for
the ministers of the Reformed Church, and was
informed that one of his Waynesboro friends wanted
to see him, whereupon he said : "Tell the gentle-
man that I am now visible."
Then, too, his translation of the Latin phrase,
<4 Non omnes possumus omnia," We are not all
possums, grows more intense in its drollery the
longer one contemplates it.
BACK TO OLD MERCERSBURG. 269
Before leaving Lancaster Dr. Harbaugh was in-
formed through Bishop Alonza Potter, that the
Board of Trustees of Union College, at the com-
mencement held July 26, 1860, had conferred upon
him the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity.
This was regarded by many of his friends as a well-
merited distinction.
Not among the least tributes to his greatness are
the assertions that have been made from time to time
since his death, that Dr. Harbaugh was tending to-
wards some particular denomination that, had he
lived, he would have come into this or that partic-
ular fold of the Christian church. No one who will
study his life, and his works that are based on the
tenets of the Heidelberg Catechism, can ever arrive
at such conclusion. He had examined and settled
the question for himself early in life and up to the
year of his death had not found any reason for dis-
turbing his conclusion. Moreover, there need be
no speculation as to what his life work would have
been. On his forty-ninth birthday, October 28,
1866, only a year before his death, he makes the
following record :
' ' If God grants me health and life I hope to finish
what I now feel still to be my work that is to organize,
develop, and illustrate a system of Christological The-
ology. To this I propose to devote chiefly the remain-
der of my life."
270 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
Thus with disposition mellowed and softened by
experience ; with zeal and energy unabated, but
stripped of the impulsiveness of younger years
with mind self disciplined and well stored with the
knowledge of his sacred calling he was stricken
down. He lingered for a few months, tenderly
cared for by those he loved, but gradually drifting
away beyond human aid, until the veil was lifted
and he was numbered among the sainted dead.
His only desire to recover was for the love of his
family and that he might continue to labor for the
church. Beyond these things he had no wish to
live. u No wonder," he said, on awakening once
from what seemed an unconscious stupor, u that the
early church saw the blood of the atonement even,
on the leaves of the trees." At another time, when
aroused from such a state, he said to a friend, " You
have called me back from the golden gates." Dur-
ing an interval of consciousness he spoke with calm-
ness of his approaching end. Not many days be-
fore his death he remarked to a friend who nursed
him, " Some of these afternoons I will take my de-
parture."*
While yet in his pastorate at Lewisburg, Dr,
Harbaugh was married to Mary Louisa Linn, a
daughter of James F. Linn, Esq. , a lawyer and
*Upon the theme, "You have called me back from the golden gates,"
Dr. Cyrus Cort wrote a poem which was published in the Guardian, and
which was regarded by Drs. Schaff, Apple, and others as being very beau-
tiful and appropriate.
BACK TO OLD MERCERSBURG.
271
member of his church. As a child and young
woman she had spent the first twenty years of her
life around a refined and Christian fireside, and
under the influence of intelligent and gentle parents.
After the death of her husband she moved to Lewis-
burg, where she lived for three years, and then
returned to Mercersburg, where she devoted herself
to the education of her children until the summer
of 1885. Then, with her children well grown to
man and womanhood, she removed to Bryn Mawr,
Pa., where nearly twelve years later she entered
into rest, February 13, 1897, * n her seventieth year.
She sleeps at the cemetery of Old Saint David's
Church, Radnor, a quiet and beautiful spot within
five miles of her late home. Services were con-
ducted by her pastor, the Rev. Henry Harbaugh
Apple, assisted by the Rev. Cyrus J. Musser, editor
of the Messenger, and by the Rev. W. H. Miller,
D. D., of Bryn Mawr, a devoted friend of the family.
It was her disposition to be cheerful and hopeful
of good for the future. She never faltered in the
faith of which her husband so ably taught, and
whose labors she so nobly shared until the end. She
had a high conception of the dignity and sacred
character of the holy ministry, and her gentle words
of sympathy and encouragement for the young cler-
gymen of the church are well remembered. She
had a familiar acquaintance with many a timid
2 72 LIFB OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
young parson and with the struggling student life
of Mercersburg.
Dr. Callender, who knew her well in early days,
has written: u Her mild and pleasing cordiality
will be recollected with a sad pleasure by those
whose privilege it was to meet her in her home,
especially during the later years of her husband's
life at Mercersburg. She was a woman of devout
spirit and of a more than ordinary reserved and re-
ceptive disposition, and thus became the satisfying
object of Dr. Harbaugh' s deep and absorbing affec-
tion, while her mildness happily complemented that
ardent zeal with which he asserted his convictions
of truth and duty. There was a company of
neighboring ministers who in response to his invi-
tation would gather in that home, and while earn-
est discussions were agitating the whole church,
would study the questions which were exercising
its mind and heart. Dr. Harbaugh was the master-
spirit in those meetings."
Mrs. Harbaugh was spared the suffering of a lin-
gering sickness. While for some months it was
apparent that she was growing frail of body, yet in
spirit she remained ever cheerful, and it was but
three or four days before the end came, that her
family realized the probability of such a loss. We
may well believe that although she was u so tired"
all through that long night, yet the approaching
dawn had in store for her a sacred rest and peace
BACK TO OLD MBRCERSBURG.
273
which only the rapt and parting soul may know ;
and that what broke upon our spirits as a chilly,
desolate day, was upon her pale and wasted brow
" the gentle breath of eternal morning."
Of Dr. Harbaugh's first marriage, one child sur-
vives, Mary Olivia, the widow of the late Dr. S.
T. Lineaweaver, Lebanon, Pa. Of his second mar-
riage, there are four sons and two daughters living:
Wilson L. Harbaugh, Margaret Anna, Henry Lange,
Mary Louisa, and John A. , living at Bryn Mawr,
Penna., and Linn Harbaugh, Chambersburg, Pa.
It has already been noticed how the author of
"The Fathers of the Reformed Church," while
absorbed in the preparation of life-sketches, espe-
cially those of the earliest period, had frequent
occasion to deplore the fact that the work had been
so long neglected. In many instances there was
absolutely nothing upon which the author could
base an estimate of the character and abilities of
his subject.
It is not so, however, in the case of Henry Har-
baugh. In the several issues of The Reformed
Church Messenger of January and February, 1868,
the months following his death, there have been
preserved the affectionate and able tributes of those
who stood very near to him both personally and in
the common cause of the church and its institution
of learning. Some of these are here given in part,
274
LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
as supplemental to the eulogy by Dr. Gerhart at
the opening of this volume.
From the pen of his intimate friend Dr. Gans,
the following words were recorded in the Messenger
of January 22 :
' ' Dr. Harbaugh was ardent in everything he under-
took, and his ardency led him to undertake a great
many things all of which he pressed forward with
heroic courage, and made to bloom at last in great
success. His industry, as a student in the vast field of
truth, was untiring. In his writings, he shows how
varied and broad was the range of his thought. He
was at home no less in the field of history than of
theology ; and in the practical Christian life he showed
the presence of the same high gift, baptized with equal
spiritual ardor. This ardency, guided by correct judg-
ment, gave a peculiar charm to his words. His ser-
mons were always of a high order. Many of them, as
they fell from his lips, were felt to be eloquent in a
truly noble sense. He knew how to create the mighty
rushing torrent, and how to distribute its power into
gentle fructifying streams. His writings are all fresh
and suggestive. You can feel his ardency in every
sentence. For style, there are few writers more pure
none more natural. Seldom has an author succeeded
in throwing more true geniality into his publications.
Strangers, in reading his works, are made to feel at
every paragraph that they are in company with a
warm and congenial friend. His faith was no less
radiated by this central element in his being. For his
BACK TO OLD MERCERSBURG. 275
mind, God was in Christ and Christ was in the Church
all under so real and organic a form as to place the
Divine kingdom entirely above and beyond the effects
both of error in its own bosom and of all the wrath and
rage of its foes on the outside. He loved history as
the concurrent testimony of God in a human form, in
iavor of the unalterable and indestructible principles of
essential truth."
Dr. Giesy, in the Messenger of February 5th,
follows with these words :
' ' All his writings bear the stamp, not only of his
genius, but of his theology. There is here one char-
acteristic most refreshingly prominent. It pervades
everything he wrote, for it was the very center of his
whole Christian life, as well as the ground- work and
solid foundation of all his theological teachings ; we
mean, of course, 'the Christological tone and thought
everywhere appearing. His inaugural address, among
the ablest of his productions, is especially full of this
kind of sound thinking. His earlier productions also
the three volumes on Heaven breathing the spirit
of that sound Christological theology for which he was
so eminent, and full of the poetry of his own sanctified
experience, have brought edification and comfort to
thousands of mourners within and beyond the pale of
his own communion, who sympathized with him in that
subdued feeling of homesickness for heaven and its
sainted inhabitants, which he so beautifully and ten-
derly portrayed."
276 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
Probably no two men were ever more congenial
and affectionate in their personal and social inter-
course than Dr. Philip Schaff and Dr. Harbaugh,
and it seems but natural to read from Dr. Schaff
the following peculiarly strong and expressive trib-
ute in The Christian World :
" Dr. Harbaugh was no common man. He was en-
dowed with rare gifts of mind and heart, and indomi-
table energy and perseverance. He had an exuberant
vitality, a rich imagination, great power of populariz-
ing and illustrating deep thought, and an unfailing
source of genuine good-natured humor. The defects of
his early education he made up by intense application.
By the integrity of his character, and the disinterested-
ness of his labors, he won the esteem, and, by the kind-
ness and generosity of his heart, secured the affection
of all who knew him. His cheerful disposition, rich
humor, and an inexhaustible fund of original anecdotes,
made him a most agreeable companion. ' '
Dr. Bausman, who edited and prepared for publi-
cation the Pennsylvania-German poems, after Dr.
Harbaugh' s death, and who succeeded to the editor-
ship of the Guardian in 1866, was for many years
in close sympathy with the hopes and purposes of
Dr. Harbaugh. The two men spent many a happy
hour together discussing their then present work
and the plans they had for the future. These little
conferences would rarely ever close without a read-
ing or discussion of " Das Alt Schul Haus an Der
BACK TO OLD MERCERSBURG. 277
Krick" or other Pennsylvania-German poems,
which seemed to furnish humor and amusement in
abundance for them.
Dr. Bausman's tribute to the memory ol his friend,
from the Guardian of February, 1868, which is
given below in part, breathes all through it the
tenderness of brotherly affection :
' ' Before this number of the Guardian shall have
reached its readers, they will have been apprised of the
death of Dr. H. Harbaugh. The sad event has cast a
gloom over the church which his life and learning have
adorned for nearly twenty-five years Person-
ally we mourn the loss of a sincere and fast friend.
He seemed like an ' elder brother,' whose heart, with
watchful tenderness, followed us from the moment
when we were * first become acquaint.' It was in the
old stone church at Lancaster, Pa. His friends and
admirers had often praised his character and talents to
us. Now he had become pastor of the First Church
in that city pastor of our parents. On a visit home,
during college vacation, we went with them to church,
and there heard him preach and received his cordial
grasp of the hand for the first time. Since then we
have directly or indirectly been under his moulding
power. We preached our first sermon in his pulpit.
He assisted at our ordination. Helped to install us at
Reading. Followed us, through his letters, with mar-
velous affection when traveling abroad. With all his
arduous work, he would rise in the morning before
dawn, to pen sweet greetings and cheer us on our
18
278 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
journey in a foreign land. Betters they were, longer
than the sermons he preached, full of the love of home
and heaven. With an ecstasy of delight we pored
over them again and again, until the charms of Rome
and the sacred memories of Jerusalem were forgotten
under the enchantment of his loving heart. As he
held ours, so held he the hearts of hundreds of others,
who mourn as if they had lost a natural father. Fare
thee well, thou sainted brother ! Sweet be thy jo} 7 s in
the realms of the ' sainted dead ! ' Our hearts follow
thee to the edge of the Jordan. Along its banks we
linger, lonely and lost, because thou hast passed out
of sight. ' '
Referring to his election to the professorship in
the seminary, Dr. D. Y. Heisler says :
' ' No better choice could possibly have been made for
this important post than that which the synod, guided
by a higher power, actually did make when they elected
Dr. Harbaugh as the future guide and preceptor of the
sons of the church, to prepare them for the work of the
holy ministry. Intellectually and spiritually, as well
as by his naturally happy temperament, he was admir-
ably adapted to gain the confidence and hold in un-
broken sympathy with himself the hearts and affections
of the young brethren who came under his potent and
controlling influence. He had a peculiar power to
illustrate and make familiar the most important and
abstruse questions in philosophy and theology. He was
in the best and highest sense a popularizer of what was
naturally deep and obscure. His rare power lay in a
BACK TO OLD MERCERSBURG.
279
peculiarly happy combination of profound speculation
and a semi -poetical and familiar mode of representation.
The higher exercises of the intellectual faculties were
thus brought into living union with the familiar objects
of every-day life, and thus rendered intelligible and
attractive to men of even the most ordinary capacities.
" How wonderfully this combination of two seem-
ingly opposite qualities in the constitution of Dr. Har-
baugh aided him in his work, and gave him power and
influence over others, was felt not only by the students,
but also by all our ministers and laymen who came in
contact with him. His sermons, always simple and in
one sense unadorned, were yet supremely beautiful,
attractive, and edifying. He never failed, in his pulpit
efforts, to gain the attention of his auditors and to
retain it to the end of the discourse. His power to
particularize and bring out the latent force and most
striking peculiarities of a passage was wonderful ; and
this power of accurate discrimination in the case of any
and every subject brought to his notice, enabled him
' to make the most of it' in the best sense of the phrase.
This controling influence over the minds and hearts of
men was also frequently witnessed in the discussions on
the floor of classis and of the synod. Few men were
more ready and successful in public debate than he, and
his great earnestness always procured him a respectful
hearing and the solidity of his arguments seldom failed
to carry conviction to the minds of the listeners.
"As a theologian, Dr. Harbaugh had few equals and
no superiors. He had thoroughly mastered all the
deep and interesting questions relating to the person
2 8o LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
and work of Christ, and the practical duties arising
therefrom. In the deeper and more spiritual views of
Christianity which the late Christological discussions
had brought into vogue, he was especially at home ;
and much of his power and influence, both in the
pulpit and in the professorial chair, was undoubtedly
owing to this higher and sounder theological position
which he occupied. With all his vast intellectual
power and moral earnestness, he could never have
exercised this moulding influence on any other ground.
In the power of these lofty theological ideas, he was
pre-eminently mighty mighty in the consciousness of
his own moral rectitude, and mighty in the overpower-
ing influence which he exerted upon the others around
him.
' ' Dr. Harbaugh took a deep interest in all the pub-
lic movements of the church. Her various benevolent
enterprises, her literary and theological institutions,
her late Tercentenary celebration, and the formation
and introduction of a better system of worship all
these enlisted his warmest sympathies and called forth
his most earnest efforts. He was a member of the
liturgical committee, and took a most active part in the
formation of the ' Orders of Worship. ' Many of its
offices were prepared by him, either wholly or in part,
at least. In connection with this great and good work,
he rendered the German Reformed Church of this
country a most valuable and enduring service.
"Altogether, Dr. Harbaugh was an extraordinary
man. His private character was unexceptionable. His
social qualities were of the highest order. Few men,
BACK TO OLD MERCERSBURG. 28 1
indeed, could make themselves more agreeable in society
than he. As a friend, he was trusty, confiding, and
ardent. As a ' preacher of righteousness' he was bold
and fearless, and as an expositor of the sacred Scrip-
tures he had no superior. 'His sermons were always
solid, fresh, and instructive, and in the highest degree
interesting and edifying. As a pastor he was faithful,
kind, and compassionate in lively sympathy with the
wants of his people. As a theologian he was thorough,
earnest, and positive eminently clear and decided in
his views, and in perfect sympathy with the teachings
of God's most blessed Word. Before the overpowering
majesty of this glorious revelation of the Divine will
and purposes he bowed in profoundest reverence, and
silent, childlike submission."
Few persons enter upon the fortieth year of their
life without experiencing some very sober reflec-
tions upon the half of life that has passed away,
and the half that may be for them in the future.
Few also, it may be said, make such a record of
their meditations as is given below from the diary
of Henry Harbaugh, October 28, 1857. In its
character as autobiography, it is clearly pertinent
to these pages. It is a good specimen of his dic-
tion, though not directed to the general reader, and
from still another point of view, it is strangely,
sadly prophetic :
" ' The days of our years are three score and ten ; and if by
reason of strength they be four score years. ' Four score, or eighty
years, are accordingly the full allotment of man. This being
282 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
so, if I should be permitted to reach the fullest period of human
life which I do not expect I am now half-way on my life's
journey.
" It is perhaps this thought that has made my present birth-
day peculiarly solemn to me. I have hitherto felt like a young
man, and have ever found it difficult to realize my age ; but I
am to-day forcibly reminded that I am fairly in the region of
manhood, and fast on the way to the end of life. Childhood
and youth are fairly and forever in the past ; and as I pass be-
yond forty I feel sensibly that these periods or seasons of life
do no more slope up to me ; but I feel as if I were in a measure,
outwardly at least, sundered from them ; and hereafter memory
will have to travel over a space to reach them. Farewell then
though not in sweet memory my childhood and youth.
"True, should the fullest period of life, as intimated by the
Psalmist, be mine on this supposition I speak it would still in
reality be longer to come than past, as far as it pertains to the
actual work of life. Of the period past, the first ten years
were spent in childhood, the next ten in youth the next six in
a coiirse of preparation for my office and then the remaining
fourteen only have been spent in what I regard as the true work
of my life inasmuch as I was licensed at the synod which sat
from October I2th to October I9th, 1843.
' ' I have exercised myself with many solemn and pleasant
reflections to-day by looking through the Bible to see what events
are connected in it with the period of life which I have now
reached.
' ' I find first of all that Isaac and Esau were both forty years
old when they were married, Gen. xxv., 20 ; xxvi ., 24.
"Israel did eat manna in the wilderness forty years, Ex.
xvi-> 35 ; Nen - i x -> 33> an( i tnat so l n g also they wandered in
the wilderness, Num. xiv., 33. xxxii., 13; Deut. ii., 7; viii.,
2 ; xxix., 5 ; Josh, x., 6. I have been led the same length of
time, but I cannot say it was in a wilderness. The Lord has
most mercifully granted me a pleasant way, crowning it with
loving kindness and tenderness. My life, as compared with
that of thousands, has been a happy life. I have not only
BACK TO OLD MERCERSBURG. 283
enjoyed health of body and mind, but have been prospered in
all my undertakings ; so that I am often amazed when I think
of God's goodness in this respect, and array His mercies by the
side of my deserts. He has not failed also to give me manna
by the way, so that I have not lacked anything that I actually
needed. If at times His strokes have fallen upon me, ' His
strokes were fewer than my crimes and lighter than my guilt.'
And now I say, as I have a thousand times said on a review of
God's dealings with me: *O bless the Lord, for He is good.'
More far more by love than by wrath has He led me. Much
more of His drawings than of His drivings have I felt. Many
more prosperous than adverse providence have attended my
life. It is my prayer that He may not find it necessary to
change His dealings with me, and be compelled by my unfaith-
fulness to put me yet under the discipline of trial, terror, and
tribulation.
' ' Caleb was forty years old when Moses sent him to espy out
the land, Joshua, xiv., 7. When he was 84 years old he could
say : ' And now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old.
As yet I am as strong this day, as I was in the day that Moses
sent me ; as my strength was then, even so is my strength now,
for war, both to go out and to come in.' Verse ii. Should God
permit me to see so many years my prayer is that reasonable
strength of body and mind may also continue to be mine.
Especially do I pray that my mind may not fail me to the last,
whether that be sooner or later.
' ' God gave the children of Israel into the hands of the Phil-
istines forty years, because they did evil in His sight, Judges
xiii., i. When I remember that the same God still reigns, and
on the other hand that even though I have endeavored to do
some good for myself and others, yet that every day has had its
sin for the whole of my forty years, I have reason to fear that
it may be necessary for God still to send me forth into the hands
of disciplinary providence. May His mercy, as it has ever been,
continue to be above all that I deserve or can steadily bring
myself to hope for. Do I not further find that Eli, after he had
judged Israel forty years (I. Sam. iv., 18), nevertheless
284 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
through severe and mournful trials in his last years ! To a
merciful Father, in Christ Jesus, I cheerfully commend myself.
His goodness through the past, is a source of wonderful comfort
to me as I look into the future.
"David reigned forty years over Israel, II. Sam., v., 4; I.
Kings, ii., ii. I wonder, and am humbled, where I read that
during all this time ' David did that which was right in the eyes
of the Lord, and turned not aside from any thing that he com-
manded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of
Uriah the Hittite, ' I. Kings xv. , 5. Of my own life, I am deeply
sensible that this cannot be said. My comfort is that the blood
which can take away one sin, can also take away many. * Her
sins which are many, are forgiven,' Luke vii., 47. These are
consoling words. I humbly claim them, now by faith as spoken
in reference to myself. For that end has my Saviour left them
on record. It is as easy for Him to forgive many as few ; oh
that it were as easy for us to love much in return even accord-
ing as we have had much forgiven.
"Solomon's reign was also forty years, I. Kings xi., 42. Of
him the same cannot be said as of his father David. He sinned
often ; and we have reason to suppose from his book of Eccle-
siastes supposed to have been written in his old age that he
had much of darkness and tribulation to endure in his last
years. As a kind of temporal atonement for the evil of his
life. Perhaps it is necessary that this should be so for two
reasons : i. That he himself might be humbled on account of
.his sins, and be turned to have a better mind. 2. That others
might see that, though the penitent are saved, yet even to them
sin brings sorrow. May God deliver me from sin, that I may
escape the sorrow. ' '
The present writer has frequently had the pleas-
ure of meeting with ministers and laymen of the
Reformed Church who have spoken to him of the
varied traits of Dr. Harbaugh's character as they
have fallen within the experience of each one per-
BACK TO OLD MERCBRSBURG. 285
sonally. Not realizing upon these various occa-
sions the inestimable value of a note book to be
stored up against the time of such a writing as
this, these incidents have been allowed to pass
into dim memory from which they cannot now be
recalled in detail.
In conversation with the Rev. Dr. Cyrus Cort
on the occasion of the funeral of the Rev. William
Goodrich at Clearspring, Md., May 9th, 1899, he
spoke in very eulogistic terms of the impressions
made upon him by the writings, teachings, and
personality of Dr. Harbaugh. He had been a
reader of the Guardian from its first issue, and in
later years, by the special request of Dr. Harbaugh,
had been a frequent contributor to its pages. Pub-
licly on the floor of Potomac Synod he had depre-
cated the discontinuance of the publication of that
monthly magazine which had done so much to
cultivate a taste for wholesome reading among the
members of the Reformed Church, and had served
as a vehicle for the presentation of many valuable
articles by Reformed writers which were not suited
either for the weekly church paper or the " Quar-
terly Review." During his four years course in
Franklin and Marshall College at Lancaster, Pa.,
from 1856 to 1860, Dr. Cort had regularly attended
not only the Sunday evening services of Dr. Har-
baugh in the First Reformed Church, but the
afternoon catechetical lectures for the benefit of
286 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
college students in the Sunday-school. He was
free to confess that he received more benefit from
the instructions of Dr. Harbaugh than from any of
the college professors, with perhaps a single excep-
tion. After Dr. Harbaugh became Theological
Professor in the Seminary at Mercersburg, Pa. , they
became closely associated as members of the same
classis, and also of the Board of Regents of Mer-
cersburg College. To quote Dr. Cort more closely:
' ' Dr. Harbaugh was present as my special guest,
Nov. 17, 1863, at Altoona, Pa., when Mercersburg
Classis took Christ Reformed Mission Church under its
care ten months after its organization under the auspices
of the Westmoreland Classis. This was on the eve of
the organization of General Synod at Pittsburg. The
occasion evidently made a deep impression on his mind,
as the following entry made by him on a fly leaf of my
Provisional Liturgy, lying on my study table, indi-
cated, viz :
' Tuesday before the 25th Sunday after Trinity, 1863,
Memorable in the history of the Altoona mission.
'H. H.'
" When the corner-stone of our sandstone Gothic
church was laid at Altoona, July 31, 1864, he preached
the sermon on I. Thes., i : 3-8, commending ' the work
of faith, the labor of love and patience of hope' exem-
plified by the Thessalonians, to our little Reformed
flock on the Keystone mountains, if they would succeed
in their important undertaking in behalf of the kingdom
of our lyord and Saviour.
BACK TO OLD MERCERSBURG. 287
" It was my privilege to hear Dr. Harbaugh speak
grandly on many occasions, but his greatest effort,
and, in my opinion, the greatest forensic effort ever
made on the floor of any Reformed assembly in the
United States, was his reply to Dr. J. H. A. Bom-
berger on the liturgical question at the meeting of the
mother or Eastern Synod, in York, Pa., October, 1866.
Dr. Nevin and others made splendid speeches on the
same subject at the same time and on other occasions,
notably at the General Synod at Dayton a few weeks
later, but for overwhelming argument, wit, sarcasm,
humor, and eloquence, the speech of Dr. Harbaugh at
York Synod, in 1866, stands unequaled.
"As the only person alive who has attended all the
meetings of General Synod since its organization in the
fall of 1863, and heard all the important discussions
before that body, I am in a good position to speak.
My opinion is also fully confirmed by Rev. Dr. S. G.
Wagner and other competent judges present at York,
Dayton, &c.
"In the earlier part of his career Dr. Harbaugh
seemed to entertain rather narrow Puritanic views on
question of political and humanitarian reform, but as he
was apprehended by the Christological mode of thought
his views and sympathies were broadened and mellowed
in a very perceptible degree. Dr. Titzell and I had
ample evidence of this while helping to care for the sick
and wounded with Dr. Harbaugh on the bloody field of
Gettysburg the week following the great battle. He
had profound reverence for Dr. John W. Nevin. Point-
ing to his picture on his study wall one day he said to
288 IvIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
me, ' He is the father of us all. ' Referring about the
same time to the Heidelberg Catechism, he remarked :
1 It is wonderful how well guarded that little book is on
all important points of doctrine.'
' ' No minister in the Reformed Church ever sur-
passed Dr. Harbaugh in the happy faculty of illustrat-
ing profound theological doctrines in a way that
brought them within the grasp of the humblest Chris-
tian. He did important and heroic service as a pioneer
originator of new and valuable publications. He was
the father and founder of the Guardian, the Reformed
Church Almanac, the resuscitated Mercersburg Review,
the Lives of Fathers of the Reformed Church, etc. He
was the leading spirit in the celebration of the three
hundredth anniversary of the Heidelberg Catechism,
1863, and other enterprising historical movements of
vast benefit to the Reformed Church. Pennsylvania-
German poetry in its best phases was originated by him
and given a world-wide reputation.
1 ' His was a many-sided mind after the order of
Leibnitz, Goethe, etc., at home in philosophy, litera-
ture, and poetry.
' ' Every genuine theologian possesses more or less of
the poetic element, and like Dr. Lange, whose writings
he greatly admired, Dr. Harbaugh possessed the poetic
spirit in an eminent degree and thus was often enabled
to interpret the deep things of the spirit world and
bring forth choice flowers and fruit from the garden of
the Lord where prosaic minds could discover nought
but a barren waste.
BACK TO OLD MERCERSBURG. 289
" For what Dr. Harbaugh did for me personally, and
for the church of my fathers, I shall always gratefully
cherish his memory."
Hon. M. A. Foltz, founder and editor of Public
Opinion, Chambersburg, Pa., has this interesting
recollection :
' ' While in the employ of the Publication House in
Chambersburg from April, 1861, to the burning of the
town on the 3Oth of July, 1864, it was my good fortune
to frequently meet Dr. Harbaugh. His visits, only too
infrequent, were especially grateful to Dr. Fisher and
other Chambersburg friends, Drs. Schneck, Bausman,
and Davis among the number. It was during the early
years of the pastorate of Dr. Davis that Dr. Harbaugh
was one of a favored company of divines who by ap-
pointment would spend an afternoon in the study of
'The Young Parson.' The Doctor spoke of the
delights of these little gatherings, and how on one occa-
sion Dr. Harbaugh, taking possession of the couch,
said : * Preach, Davis ; I want to sleep.'
"In the printing establishment the manuscript of
Dr. Harbaugh was regarded as a favorite ' take' with
compositors. His chirography was round, plain, and
distinct, and if a word was abbreviated it was as if
chosen as much for the ready discernment of the printer
as for his own convenience. Those who are acquainted
with the MSS. of the principal writers and authors of
the church's literary productions of that period will
appreciate the relief it must have proven to the sorely
vexed compositor to get hold of Dr. Harbaugh's copy.
2 go
LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
By them, for instance, a page of Dr. Schaff's manu-
script would be likened to a map of the state. It was
not so difficult to follow until you struck the interline-
ations. These traveled to the margin or any unoccu-
pied corner of the sheet in all sorts of hieroglyphics. ' '
In a letter to Dr. Bausman, October 24, 1867,
Dr. Harbaugh intimates in his own pathetic words
the beginning of the end :
' ' I/ittle did I think when I promised to be at Wom-
elsdorf on the occasion of the dedication of the Orphans'
Home, that this sickness, now over two months, was
going to linger thus. If I were there I could speak, as
my mind is perfectly clear, and I have strength to last
me at least half an hour's talk. But I am giddy and
could not travel alone. I stagger like a drunken man.
Fell twice the other day on my head and fell three times
going up stairs. I expected every day to be better ;
but I fear it is injudicious to let you hope for me longer.
If I can I will come, but I have little hope. The doctor
says it may be two or three weeks before it leaves me
altogether. Think I can take up my seminary duties
next week by having the classes come to my house."
From that time forward the symptoms began to
be more alarming, and on December 17, Dr. Thomas
G. Apple wrote :
" Poor Dr. Harbaugh, our dear brother, is still low.
For the last few days he is a little better, but the phy-
sician has little or no hope. He has been prayed for
day by day and preserved thus far, beyond our expec-
BACK TO OLD MERCERSBURG. 291
tations. The Lord can raise him up for the church.
... If only Dr. Harbaugh gets well, how happy we
will all be. Then we can stand the fight of the Gnos-
tics."
Dr. Apple, though charged with much extra
work in the seminary at this time, was unceasing
in his watchfulness at the sick bed. He contributed
to the Messenger the following account of Dr. Har-
baugh's last illness :
1 ' He was first taken sick about the beginning of
September, a few days before the opening of the session
in the Theological Seminary. He had been on a visit
to Waynesboro, at the close of his vacation, where he
was attacked with severe pains in the head, accom-
panied with fever. After coming home, he passed
through what, at first, appeared to be an ordinary spell
of bilious fever. From this illness he arose after some
five or six weeks, and was able to move about the
house, and even to go out. At this time, however,
some alarming symptoms began to show themselves, in
the slowness of his recovery, and especially in a certain
dizziness, so that he was unable steadily to direct the
movements of his body ; and the surmises of the physi-
cian began to be confirmed that he was suffering from
a cerebro-spinal affection. After three or four weeks,
he relapsed into his former state, suffering now more
than ever in his head. From this time on his mind
became somewhat affected, giving additional evidence
that the disease was centered in his head. For some
days he was in a revived and apparently convalescent
292
UFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
state, and then again he fell into a dull, comatose con-
dition, from which it became difficult to arouse him.
His disease became thus of a remittent character. After
being aroused from one of these dull states, we had a
service in his room, in which he united with us in sing-
ing two of his favorite hymns, and in repeating the
words of the Apostles' Creed.
" His last revived state continued longer than usual,
and gave us some hopes that perhaps the disease had
passed its crisis. On Sunday evening before Christmas,
he gave indications of again passing into a worse con-
dition. On that day, his mind seemed tolerably rational.
He knew that Christmas was near ; and, in answer to
a question we proposed to him, he promptly named the
day on which it would occur.
' ' From this time on he continued to grow worse. On
Christmas day he was able to take some nourishment,
and a little again on Thursday morning. From that
time on he lay in a heavy sleep, from which he could
not be aroused ; the symptoms continued to become
more alarming, and on the evening of that day dis-
patches were sent to his friends that he was not ex-
pected to live. All human help was now unavailing,
and we could only sit by his bedside and watch him
through the heavy hours which brought him nearer to
his end. On Saturday, the last day of his earthly life,
when he seemed to be entering the valley and shadow
of death, we joined in the prayer and litany for the
dying, commending his spirit to God. At four o'clock
in the afternoon he peacefully, without a struggle,
breathed his last, and fell asleep in Jesus.
BACK TO OLD MERCERSBURG,
293
1 ' During these trying seasons the utmost kindness
and affectionate regard was manifested for their beloved
teacher by the students of the Theological Seminary.
One of them, Mr. Jacob F. Wiant, became from the
beginning of his sickness his constant attendant. Be-
yond any other we have ever known, this young
brother seemed to possess the special gift of ministering
in the sick-chamber. His affectionate attentions were
devoted day and night to his beloved professor. He
stood by his bedside wiping away the cold death-sweat
from his brow until he breathed his last.
"The other students also joined affectionately in
watching with him to the last.
" Thus Dr. Harbaugh passed away at Mercersburg,
Pennsylvania, in the midst of his labors, December
28th, 1867, aged fifty years and two months.
" His funeral took place on Tuesday, the 3ist day of
December, the last day of the year 1867. The immense
multitude in attendance was formed into a procession
at the house, whence they proceeded to the sanctuary
of God. Arriving at the church the opening sentences
in the office for the burial of the dead were read, as
the procession passed slowly along the aisle, by Rev.
Dr. J. W. Neviu. The goth Psalm was then chanted
in subdued tones by the choir. The Scripture lesson
was read by Dr. R. S. Schneck, followed by the first
prayer, offered by Dr. E. V. Gerhart. A sermon was
then preached by Dr. Nevin, from the words : ' But I
would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concern-
ing them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as
other which have no hope. For if we believe that
19
2 94 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which
sleep in Jesus, will God bring with Him/ (I. Thes.,
iv., 13.)
' ' At this point the resolutions, adopted in a meeting
held in the lecture room of the seminary the evening
previous, were read by Prof. Theo. Apple. Rev. B.
Bausman then read the 1 83rd hymn, from ' Hymns and
Chants,' commencing ' Forever with the L,ord,' which
the choir sang to a tune which, as well as the hymn,
was a favorite with Dr. Harbaugh, and had been sung
in the sick-chamber during his illness.
' ' The procession then proceeded to the grave imme-
diately in front of the church, and opposite the ceno-
taph of Dr. Rauch, where the remains were deposited
according to the service provided in the liturgy, which
was read by Dr. Nevin.
" The Reformed Church, in which the services were
held, was still clothed in the beautiful Christmas deco-
rations ; but these were now draped in mourning. The
surroundings, as the corpse lay before the altar, were
beautiful even in their sadness. They were just such
as Dr. Harbaugh would have chosen to surround his
body in its burial. The Christmas decorations were
there to speak forth his own love for the festal days and
their pious observance in the church, which he always
so earnestly advocated, and in which he loved to join.
The liturgical service was among the last works which
he gave to the church, the office for burial being
mainly his own contribution as a member of the Lit-
urgical Committee. Though the emblems of mourning
were now mingled with these decorations, yet the joy
BACK TO OU) MERCERSBURG. 295
of a Saviour's birth triumphed still over the sorrow of
the grave. That birth looked, through death, to the
resurrection, in which all our hopes of a blessed immor-
tality center. This hope and comfort were brought
home to our sorrowing hearts by Dr. Nevin, in his ser-
mon, in such a way as to enable us to be filled with
Christian peace even in the deepest sorrow. ' '
An imposing monument was erected to his mem-
ory by the Synod of the Reformed Church, which,
with appropriate religious services, was unveiled
on the 1 8th of October, 1870.
A procession formed in the seminary campus,
embracing the students and faculties of the Theo-
logical Seminary and Mercersburg College, and
ministers and others in attendance from abroad.
The procession gathered around the monument,
where the services took place. Dr. Thomas G.
Apple then spoke as follows :
" Henry Harbaugh, whose body lies buried at our
feet, fell asleep in Jesus on the 28th day of December,
in the year of our Lord 1867. Through all his extreme
sufferings he continued unto the end firm in the Holy
Catholic and Apostolic Faith which he had taught arid
defended with exemplary fidelity throughout his life.
Called from his many labors and arduous toils, he hath
gone before us into rest, and joined the holy fellowship
of patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs, and the
whole glorious company of the redeemed of all ages
who have died in the Lord and now live with Him for-
296 LIFB OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
evermore. The church therefore in whose service he
labored, mindful of the great grace and many gifts be-
stowed on him by God, and rejoicing in the blessed
communion of saints over which death hath no power,
has erected this monument which we now unveil."
(Here the minister paused until the monument was unveiled,
and then proceeded as follows :)
" And now let this monument show forth, during all
time to come, the gratitude of the Church to God, the
Father of our L,ord Jesus Christ, for the good example
of his servant whom she honors, and for the blessed
privilege which her children enjoy of having part in
the glorious company of all those who have gone before
them in the way of salvation, and let it inspire all who
may look upon it with zeal to follow the faith of those
saints who have died in the Lord and now live with
Him for evermore. "
The following ministers from abroad were pres-
ent : Rev. J. O. Miller, a member of the synod's
committee, who was chiefly active in preparing the
design of the monument ; G. L. Staley, S. S. Miller,
S. G. Wagner, J. S. Kieffer, William Goodrich,
T. J. Seiple, J. Hassler, W. C. B. Shulenberger,
Dr. M. Kieffer, S. N. Callender, G. B. Russell, and
G. H. Johnston. There were also a number of
elders and laymen from different portions of the
church present, and many friends of Dr. Harbaugh
from Greencastle, Chambersburg, Clearspring, and
other places in the vicinity. The public schools of
BACK TO OLD MERCERSBURG.
297
the town were closed and a large concourse of citi-
zens came to pay their respects to the memory of
the departed. The church was filled. A deep
solemnity pervaded the audience, who listened with
intense interest to the memorial address, prepared
by Dr. E. V. Gerhart and read by Dr. E. E. Hig-
bee.*
The monument is of fine Italian marble, twelve
feet high, resting on a granite base and terminating
in a cross. It is in tableau design ; the front sur-
face resting on three terraces of stone, is three feet
in width. Just under the cross and above the
shield which bears his name, title, and date of birth
and death, the artist has cut an almost life size bust,
and on the right of the shield, in three-quarter re-
lief, stands a student with book in hand weeping.
On the other side of the shield stands the figure of
an angel, also in three-quarter relief, with head un-
covered and face turned upward, the forefinger of
the right hand pointing upward. This angel bears
in his other hand a palm leaf, the symbol of vic-
tory. On the two lower terraces of marble, in front,
is the lettering. On the upper, a stanza from one
of Dr. Harbaugh's hymns as follows :
' ' Living or dying, Lord,
I ask but to be Thine ;
My life in Thee, Thy life in me,
Makes heav'n forever mine."
* Reformed Church Messenger, Oct. 26, 1870.
298 LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
The lower slab, immediately above the granite
base, contains simply the family name u Har-
baugh."
Upon the right and left face of this lower block
are cut two extracts from the Pennsylvania-German
poem, " Heemweh," which in the original is
touching and full of pathos. The one is :
" O wann's net vor der Himmel war,
Mit seiner scheene Run,
Dann war m'r's do schun lang verleedt,
Ich wisst net, was zu dim.
Doch Hoffnung leichtet meinen Weg
Der ew'gen Heemet zu."
On the other side, from the same poem
" Dort find m'r, was m'r do verliert,
Un b'halt's in Ewigkeit ;
Dort lewe unsre Dodte all,
In Licht un ew'ger Freid !"
Other memorials of Dr. Harbaugh have been
placed in recent years in several of the churches of
which he was at one time pastor. When the First
Reformed Church, Lancaster, Pa., was remodelled
recently, among the memorial windows was one to
him erected by the ladies of the congregation. On
the occasion of the rebuilding of " Harbaugh's
Church," which stands almost within a stone's
throw of the old homestead in Franklin County,
Pa., the large window at the front of the building
was erected to the memory of Dr. Harbaugh by his
family. In the chapel of the new seminary at
BACK TO OLD MERCERSBURG. 299
Lancaster, Pa., all the windows are memorials to
the former professors one being in memory of Dr.
Harbaugh.
In the reading room of the seminary at Lancaster
hangs a portrait in oil of Dr. Harbaugh, which is
pronounced, by those who knew him in life, to' be
a most excellent and faithful likeness. It was pre-
sented by Mr. B. Wolff, Jr., of Pittsburg, Pa., and
was unveiled November 22, 1897, in the presence
of a large number of friends and several members
of the immediate family of Dr. Harbaugh.
Much of the narrative contained in the foregoing
chapter has been gathered from those who were
personal friends of Dr. Harbaugh, and perhaps the
writer has here and there appropriated too liberally,
and presumed too far upon the friendship of those
amongst whom he passed his childhood days on the
old college campus at Mercersburg.
The boy of seven years can have few personal
recollections to offer upon any subject, but the few
impressions he has carried forward in memory to
mature years must be true and unfeigned.
Dr. Harbaugh loved childhood and children. It
was his delight to watch them at play, and he
cherished up their sayings in his heart. His
addresses to young people disclosed a rare talent,
and the abstractions of the lecture room or study
and sternness of manner he never carried with him
to an audience of young people or into the com-
3
LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
pany of little folks. For the latter he had Christ-
mas stories from the German and Christmas stones
of his own. His patient, sympathetic eyes could
draw the timidest child in confidence to his arms,
and he could console their little griefs with inno-
cent diversions that seemed to suit the require-
ments of each particular childish calamity. His
fund of riddles and anecdotes for children was
usually of the kind to lead their minds gently to
the Scriptures.
There are many students now in middle life who
will remember well the old chapel with its walls
papered in imitation of natural wood panels and
frame work, giving it somewhat of a massive and
mediaeval appearance. Some no doubt will remem-
ber, too, the last Sunday upon which Dr. Har-
baugh conducted the service there in 1867. His
form was still erect, but his locks had whitened
and the wonted color of his face had fled. Near
the end of his sermon he paused as though to
gather up the threads of his thought. A little
boy, mistaking this for the conclusion of the ser-
vice, slipped quietly out of his place in the family
pew and made his way up to the pulpit. As he
reached out to take the hand of his father, the
minister stooped gently down and amid the wave
of amusement that passed over the assembly of
students farther back in the chapel, whispered, " Sit
down and wait for me, we will soon go home."
BACK TO OIvD MERCERSBURG.
301
There on the step in front of the altar the little
fellow sat, unembarrassed by the gaze of those in
front of him, and secure in the protection of the
beloved form that stood nearby.
It is with this picture in mind rather than that
of the lingering months following it that the
present writer would lay down his pen.
Why should a life that had come to be so valu-
able to the church so sympathetic in the life of
the people so affectionate and dear to l * the home
of his heart," and the little ones that gathered
around his knee be thus taken away ?
It is said that in the Alps of Switzerland, high up
on the ledges of the mountain side, there are clumps
and bits of sweet herbs or grass upon which the
flocks love to feed. From the larger pastures below
the path upward seems narrow and difficult to
climb. The broader fields and easier way below are
more inviting.
The watchful shepherd, gently urging his flock
upward to the pure air and richer pastures, some-
times leads off one of his trusted ones, or perchance
takes it up in his arms and makes his way along
the narrow path. Beholding this, the timid, doubt-
ing ones below take courage and begin to look up
and to follow the lead of their shepherd and his
trusted charge. Thus they all reach step by step
3 02
LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
the higher and richer pasture, where they may enjoy
the companionship of the one whom they have lost
a while -in the narrow way, but who has encouraged
them to struggle upward, protected by the strong
arm and assured by the gentle voice of their master.
And now, as though in a voice from beyond the
clouds, come the words of The Sainted Dead :
11 Lift up your heads, ye heavenly pilgrims, and be-
hold your home ! Your earnest, longing eyes turned
upward, declare plainly that you seek a country.
' Blessed are they that are homesick, for they shall get
home.' As yet there is woe unto you, because you
sojourn in Mesech, and are compelled to tarry in the
tents of Kedar ; but if you will, I shall speak comfort-
ably to you, in the language of Canaan, by the way.
Rest thee, then, upon thy staff, for even in this weary
land whence ye go out, it is granted unto wayfaring
men to turn aside for a night, to refresh themselves
with rest under the shadow of a rock."
BIBLIOGRAPHY.
1. A Plea for Temperance, 1845. A Pamphlet.
2. A Word in Season, or a Plea for Legislative aid in putting
down the evils of intemperance. Printed at the publication
office of the German Reformed Church, Chambersburg, Pa.
1846. 50 pages.
3. The Heidelberg Catechism, or Short Instruction in Chris-
tian Doctrine, as it is conducted in the churches and
schools of the Palatinate and elsewhere, explained and
confirmed with proof passages from the Holy Scriptures.
The whole adapted to the use of Catechetical Classes, Sab-
bath Schools, and family instruction. Translated from the
German by Rev. J. H. Good and Rev. H. Harbaugh.
Chambersburg, M. Kieffer & Co., 1849.
4. Woe to the Drunkard Maker ! A sermon preached in the
German Reformed Church, Lewisburg, on the 8th, and in
the Presbyterian Church, New Berlin, on the loth of July,
1849, by Rev. Henry Harbaugh. Printed at the Good Sa-
maritan office, New Berlin, Pa., 1849, pp. 17. Second edi-
tion printed at the office of the German Reformed Mess.,
Chambersburg, Pa., 1849.
5. Three Volumes on the Future Life.
The Sainted Dead, pp. 290, Phila., 1848.
Heavenly Recognition, pp. 288., Phila., 1851.
The Heavenly Home, pp. 365, Phila., 1853.
6. Founded the Guardian, a Monthly Magazine, in 1850. Ed-
itor of the Guardian, 1850-1866.
7. "Trials and Triumphs of Genius;" an address delivered
before the Gamma Theta Society of Strasburg Academy,
Lancaster, 1852, pp. 16.
8. The Duty and Privilege of Making a Public Profession of
Religion, by connection with the church. Lancaster, Pa.,
1851, 32 pages.
ii. LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
9. Union with the Church. 1853.
10. The Birds of the Bible. 300 pages. 1854.
11. Annals of the Harbaugh Family from 1736 to 1856. 16 mo.
pp. 148. Chambersburg, Pa., 1861.
12. Life of Michael Schlatter, Phila., 1857, pp. 375.
13. The Fathers of the German Reformed Church in Europe
and America, Lancaster, Pa., 1857-1858. Vol. I. pp. 394,
Vol. II. pp. 408.
14. The True Glory of Woman, pp. 263, Phila., 1858.
15. The Lord's Portion, 1858. Reprinted at Reading, Pa., 1885,
pp. 126.
16. " Young Men. ' ' A Lecture delivered before the Young Men
of Manheim, Feb. ii, 1859. 8 pages.
17. Poems. Phila., 1860, pp. 285.
18. The Golden Censer. Phila., 1860, pp. 419.
19. Hymns and Chants. 1861, pp. 348.
20. The Child's Catechism, pp. 80. Chambersburg, 1861.
21. The Star of Bethlehem. A Christmas Story for Good Chil-
dren. Lancaster, Pa., 1862. Pearsol & Geist. 20 pages.
22. "Ueber Spaltungen und Unabhangigkeit in der Kirche
Chnsti." Harrisburg, Pa., 1863. pp. 61. (Published
anonymously. A copy in the library of Dr. J. H. Dubbs
has the following in Harbaugh's own handwriting in Ger-
man script : Dr. L. H. Steiner, von dem Verfasser, H. Har-
bach.)
23. " The Bright Light in the Clouds." A sermon delivered in
St. John's Church, Lebanon, Pa., Sunday morning, Oct. ii,
1863, in commemoration of Theo. D. Fisher, A.B. Leba-
non, 1863, pp. 26.
24. "The Religious Character of Washington." Chambers-
burg, Pa., 1863, pp. 24.
25. "Creed and Cultus." Article, contributed and read before
the Tercentenary Convention at Phila., in 1863.
26. Farewell Words Addressed to St. John's Congregation in
Lebanon, Pa., on the evening of Sunday after New Year,
1864, 15 pp.
27. " Christological Theology." Phila., 1864, pp. 80.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. iii.
28. "Christmas : A Story for My Friends." From the German
of Franz Hoffman. Phila., 1864, pp. 114.
29. A Plea for Beautiful Churches. A sermon preached at the
dedication of the Church of the Cross, Cincinnati, Ohio,
Dec. 20, 1863. 17 pages. Published by congregation, 1864.
30. Treason and Law. A discourse delivered at Clearspring,
Md., June I, 1865, the National day of mourning. 31 pages.
Jas. B. Rodgers, Phila., Pa., 1865.
31. "The German Burns," an article on the poet Johann Peter
Hebel in the magazine, Hours at Home, October, 1866.
Reprinted in the Guardian, 1868.
32. Youth in Earnest. As illustrated in the life of Theodore
David Fisher, A.M. S. R. Fisher & Co., Phila., 1867, 238
pages.
33. Contributed the Lives of Reformed Ministers to Dr. Mc-
Clintock's Theological Cyclopaedia.
34. Editor of the Mercersburg Review in 1867.
35. Contributed many articles to the Reformed Church Mes-
senger.
36. Editor of The Child's Treasury.
37. Originator and editor of the Church Almanac.
POSTHUMOUS PUBLICATIONS.
38. Harbaugh's Harfe. A collection of his poems in the Ger-
man Dialect of Pennsylvania, edited by Rev. B. Bausman,
D.D. Phila., 1870, pp. 117.
39. The Fathers of the Reformed Church. Vol. 3, edited by
Rev. D. Y. Heisler, D.D. (1872^, pp. 493.
40. The History of the First Reformed Church, Lancaster, Pa.,
published in Ellis and Evans' History of Lancaster County,
is taken chiefly (down to 1851 / from three Centenary Dis-
courses preached Oct. n and 12, 1851 (the manuscript is in
possession of Mr. John B. Roth, Treasurer of the Theologi-
cal Seminary of the Eastern Synod).
The following are his contributions to the Mercers-
burg Review ;
iv. LIFE OF HENRY HARBAUGH.
Reverence in Worship, 1849.
Systematic Benevolence, 1851.
The Doctrine of Christian Baptism, from the German of Dr.
Martensen, 1852-1853.
Parochial or Christian Schools, 1853.
Christian Cultus : Its Nature, History and Relations, 1854-1855.
The Land of Blessedness, from the German of Dr. Lange, 1854.
Dr. Casper Olevianus, from the German of Max Goebel, 1855.
Dr. Zacharias Ursinus, from the German of Max Goebel, 1855.
Boardman on the Christian Ministry, 1856.
Rev. Jacob Lischy, 1856.
Inner Life of the Christian, 1857.
The Church System and the Heidelberg Catechism, 1857.
The First Liturgy for the Celebration of the Lord's Supper in
the Reformed Church, 1857.
Hymn of Bonaventura ; a translation, 1858.
The Heidelberg Catechism : Its Formation and First Introduc-
tion in the Palatinate, 1859.
The Power Behind the Throne, 1859.
Faith and Knowledge, 1859.
Sy nodical Church Authority, 1860.
What is a Catechumen? 1860.
The Literature of the Heidelberg Catechism, 1860.
The Early Introduction of Catechization in the Reformed
Church, 1 86 1.
Catechisms, 1861.
Introductory Article, 1867.
The Christain Idea of Almsgiving, 1867.
The Two Systems, 1867.
The Essence and Form of Christianity, 1867.
The Old Distinction between "Gemeinde" and "Kirche," 1867.
The Church Doctrine of the Forgiveness of Sin (Posthumous),
1868.
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