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

327 Pages·1900·12.289 MB·English

by  Linn Harbaugh

ff^/OyC^^^^1^
LIKE OF
THE
REV. Henry Harbaugh, D.D.
By lyiNN Harbaugh, Esq.
WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND EULOGY.
'SeUg sind die das Heimweh haben,
Denn sie sollen nach Haus kommen."
Philadelphia
:
Reformed Church Publication Board.
SUNDAV-SCHOOL BOARD OF THE REFORMF.D CHURCH.
Copyright 1900
ByReformedChurch rublication Board,andSunday-schoolBoardof
ReformedChurch.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
*;
Introductory . . The Rev. Nathan C. Schaeffer, D.D., 5-19
Eui^OGY The Rev. Em'l V. Gerhart, D.D., LL.D., 21-55
. . .
—
Hymns and Poems of Henry Harbaugh
"Jesus, I lyive to Thee " 57
"Jesus, myShepherd " 57-58
.
"Jesus, to Thy Cross I Hasten " . 58
"The Mystic Weaver" 59-62
"Heemweh " 63-67
"Das alt Schulhaiis 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. Marshall College and the Seminary, Mer-
cersburg, Pa. 132-156
. .
V. Twenty Years in the Ministry 157-193
VI. The Author and His Works 194-253
VII. Back to Old Mkrcp:rsburg 25^1-302
Bibliography 303
EWO.PENQELLY&BRO..PRS.,READINO,PA.
;
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
We
Marshall College in the year 1866. 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 methe opportunityto hear
Dr. Harbaugh's response to the toast, " The Mercers-
burg Review.' Its humor and deliverymade adeeper
'
impression than the oratory of all the eminent men at
home and abroad whom I have hadthe 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 greislicli gelereute Lent, und Icli 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 gelelirte vSproclie, Englisch und Deutsch,
Ivateinisch und Griechisli und Hebraeiscli; sell sin fiinf. Die
sechst haest Pennsylvania Deutsch, die sievet is German
Reformed,"
("There are seven learned languages, English and German,
Latin and Greek and Hebrew these are five. The sixth is
;
called Pennsylvania German, the seventh is Gennan 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 Chou Nevin, do navigmir."
("John Nevin, hereaside ofme.")
The applause then was like that of a great convention
and lasted for some time. The impression made bj'
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
vieiv 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 persoualit)^ 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 English 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 handingamanuscript
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
eternaltruth within thecomprehensionof the humblest.
His talks to children madealastingimpression uponall
who attendedhisSundaySchool. Severalof thehymns
which he wrote have come into general useandare now
helping to stimulate the hopes, toenrich 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 werefresh, inter-
esting, instructive, and edifying. An audience com-
posed largely of students and professors isvery hard to
please and very diflficult 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 regularsermons. Onewho
often heard him writes
:
"He had the qualities of a popular speaker. His clear,
round, musicalvoicehe couldcontrol and use with marvelous
power. A good voice is arare advantage to a public speaker.
Whetherthisgiftwaswholly natural orthe resultof elocution-
ary study I cannottell. He couldbe distinctly heard in every
part of the largest church, even w^hen speakingon the lowest
key. His utterance was always slow and distinct indeed,
;
sometimes it seemed slow to a fault. Fluency, as some men
countit, hehad 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 themosttrivial themes and subjects, andknew how to
show it to others. Often, when he announced an odd textor
subject, his hearers wondered how anybody could tell people
anything worth listening to on such atheme. To the tiniest
flower and the most insignificant animalhecould give atongue
to utter an impressive sermon. He abounded in aptillustra-