Muhlenberjj] t)20 [March 16, 



might have so influenced him, as to have conducted liini on to the further 

 cultivation of the imaginative and poetic element of his nature, as it was 

 manifested in his collegiate life, and in his first sermons ; but he was led 

 by what we might call an accident, but which, no doubt, was the provi- 

 dence of God, to the more complete improvement of the rational faculty ; 

 and then he was turned aside into the domain of logical and speculative 

 theology. In the list of his published writings, during the period from 

 his ordination to the ministry, to the time of his election to the theological 

 professorship, numbering twenty-six, more than half of the entire num- 

 ber are profound papers on theology and psychology. In one of them, 

 written in 1858, which contains an account of the bibliography of the 

 Augsburg Confession, there are twenty pages of the "Evangelical Re- 

 view," taken up with the list of titles of books on the subject, one hundred or 

 more in number, all, or most of which, he had in his own library. He must 

 have had at that time, the idea in his mind, for some reason or other not 

 known to us, that he was to be distinguished as a theological professor ; 

 and with a view to this, had already commenced collecting that valuable 

 library, in this special department, which at his death amounted to 14,000 

 volumes, and had cost him $30,000. Many of these papers, on the, "Re- 

 lation of the Confessions to the Reformation ;" the "Lord's Day ;" "The 

 Mass ;" "Liturgies," &c., were modified, improved, and inserted with his 

 latest views, in his greatest and best book : "The Conservative Reforma- 

 tion," which first appeared in the year 1871. 



How this particular direction was given to his studies, we are taught 

 by one of his friends, whom we liave already quoted. He remarks, that 

 he asked on one occasion, the elder Dr. Krauth, how his son, " the poet 

 and preacher, " was changed into " the theologian and controversialist," 

 and he replied, that it was owing to the fact, that he had presented to his 

 son "Charles," a copy of Chemnitz, who was a distinguished Lutheran 

 theological champion, in the era of the Reformation, against the dogmas 

 of the Roman Catholic Church, as laid down by the Council of Treat. 

 This, so far as known to us, was the first stimulus given, for the intensified 

 development of his native turn,- for speculative truth. The same kind of 

 studies was pursued, and the same kind of writing continued also during 

 the five years, from 1861 to '66, whilst he was editor of the "Lutheran and 

 Missionary." And though the poetic vein often re-appeared in him, in all 

 the subsequent years of his life, and was exercised in the composition of 

 fugitive pieces of poetry, either original or translations, the burden of his 

 work was of a controversial character, on the subject of liturgies, diver- 

 gencies of theological belief and kindred matter, during all this time. 

 These discussions were conducted with amazing skill and learning, and 

 with a wit and power of expression, sometimes tinged with severity, un- 

 equalled in the Church ; and whicli always silenced, if they did not con- 

 vince, those who were opposed to him. His words, during the heated 

 controversies, which prevailed in the Lutheran Churcli in America, in the 

 five years of his editorship, were like the arrows, sent into the Grecian 



