ISTORY in general, in a work on "The Study of Biology," is defined by Thomas Hobbes to be, "The register of knowledge of fact." But as Church History especially has two sides, a divine and a human, it must include more than a recital of bare facts. On the part of God it is his revelation in the economy of grace and in the order of time of his plan of infinite wisdom, justice, mercy and love, looking to his glory and the eternal well-being of mankind. On the part of man it is largely the biography of prominent actors, and of the moral and spiritual development of those who have come under their influence, or through their agencies under the saving power of the gospel. And in the establishment of a religious body of people its history is largely the history of one man. Hence, the story of its founding, like that of the great Reformation, is best told by a biography of the man under God whose work assumed the largest proportions. Every movement, political and religious, also has its indirect, previous and often hidden causes, which may extend into a more or less remote past. It is not against a divine providence, nor yet against an intelligent human purpose, that this fact is recognized. The environment, physical, moral, political and economic, has a determining force in the history of even our highest activities. This important feature of written history requires some investigation into these mediate causes and their portrayal in a clear light. That the picture itself may be clearly and correctly painted it is a prerequisite that there be first a true historical background. More than a century has passed since the man was born who, in the divine providence, laid, humanly speaking, the ecclesiastical foundations of the churches of God. It is, therefore, the more necessary, in order that the history of the churches of God may be as nearly complete as practicable that the reader have a correct perspective; that the antecedent facts be given their relative importance. True history requires that, so far as may be, the view be taken from the standpoint of an actual observer. Neglect of this important principle gives a distorted view of the distant past. Or, on the contrary, as Hazlett so justly remarks: "Seen in the distance, in the long perspective of waning years, the meanest incidents, enlarged and enriched by countless recollections, become interesting."

      The proper measurement of the present is by the past. And only as we know the past in its entirety can we correctly estimate it. We live in a new world. Marvelous changes in every department of human life have taken place. Not only in State and Nation is this true, but in all ecclesiastical affairs. A century ago the wildest romancer could not have pictured the present age. Nor can the living generation, in the absence of historical data, conceive conditions at the close of the eighteenth century.

      The growth and development of our common country have had no parallel in the world's history. The meager millions of '76 have become almost one hundred millions to-day. The first census of the population of the United States was taken in 1790. The total population as then computed was 3,929,214. In 1900 it was 75,303,387. Three years after the birth of Winebrenner it was 5,308,483. This population was scattered principally along the Atlantic sea-coast, extending a few [3] hundred miles inland. Of the sixty-seven counties in Pennsylvania only twenty-five were organized prior to 1800. The population of the State of Pennsylvania in 1790 was less than one-third of the present population of Philadelphia. This relative proportion is everywhere evident. The total Continental troops in the entire period of the Revolution was but 130,917. Great things then would seem insignificant now.

      There are many land-marks of historical and biographical importance which the thoughtful reader will recall with profit in this connection, so as to secure a proper setting for the story of the founding of the churches of God in the United States. They will transport the reader into the environment of the last decade of the eighteenth century. Thus, the birth of the great American Republic occurred twenty-one years before the birth of Winebrenner. Seven years before the latter event the Constitution of the United States was adopted by the last one of the original thirteen States, while a year earlier Washington was inaugurated the first President of the new Republic. The corner-stone of the Capitol at Washington was laid but four years prior to the birth of Winebrenner, and it was not until three years after his birth that the archives of the Government were removed from Philadelphia to Washington, preparatory to the convening the ensuing November of the first Congress in the new metropolis. Two years after the birth of Winebrenner Columbia's most honored, venerated and renowned son, George Washington, ended his illustrious career. His Farewell Address was published in September, 1796. In his case, as in many in less exalted station, the ordinance of divine wisdom was verified, that the great boon of earthly immortality shall be attained only through the portals of the grave, to which decree the illustrious and the humble are alike subject.

      While every youth in America remembers that John Adams, the second President, was inaugurated in 1797, and Thomas Jefferson, Vice President, it is not so generally remembered that among the distinguished men born in that year are Dr. Charles Hodge, a powerful ecclesiastical leader and a fine example of the modern expositor of the dogmas of Calvinism; John Hughes, Catholic Archbishop of America; Samuel Joseph May, American clergyman and abolitionist; Franz Schubert, "the immortal melodist"; Thurlow Weed, one of the oldest American journalists, and that Abraham Lincoln was born but twelve years later. John Wesley, founder of Methodism, died six years before the birth of Winebrenner, and Charles, his brother, the celebrated Hymn-writer, nine years earlier.

      At the close of the eighteenth century the economic conditions of the country, with its largely preponderating rural population, were of the most primitive and antiquated character. Slavery was not yet abolished in Pennsylvania, as in 1780 there were 11,000 slaves in the Colony, which probably marked the highest figures in its history. Maryland in 1800 had 105,635 slaves. There were no public service utilities; no transportation lines except the stage coach and the Conestoga wagon. In 1790 there were only twenty-five post-offices in the whole country, and up to 1837 the rates of postage were twenty-five cents for a letter sent over four hundred miles. There were no canals, no railroads, no telegraph or telephone lines, no gas or electric lights. The most sententious contrasts can be drawn between 1801 and 1901 in economic, civic, political, scientific and religious conditions. In area alone the figures for 1801 are 827,844 square miles, and for 1901, 3,631,000 square miles. Then they had the quill pen, now we have the fountain pen and the typewriter. Then the springless stage coach, now the locomotive, the dining-car, the bicycle and the automobile. Then the tallow-dip, the flint and steel to strike fire; now the sulphur match, the Roentgen rays and the electric light. Then the needle; now the sewing-machine and the knitting-machine. Then the sickle, the scythe and the flail, the farmer's harvesting tools; now the reaper that cuts and binds and the header and steam thresher. Then hand type-setting and the slow printing press; now the almost human linotype machine, and the octuple steam press, turning out one thousand papers a minute, pasted, folded and counted. Such wonderful achievements as these and scores of others make the grandest epochs in the history of the world. They are also the exponent of the mental development of the race.

      In newspaper enterprise the same remarkable progress has been made. Its beginning dates back to 1690, when "Publick Occurrences" appeared in Boston. Progress was slow the greater part of the century which followed. By the commencement of the struggle for independence the Colonial press numbered but thirty publications, all weekly. But with the opening of the nineteenth century the periodical press grew rapidly in number, circulation and influence. And at the [4] close of the century the number of the newspapers and periodicals of the United States easily leads the world. The annual expenditure of a single metropolitan daily operated on a large scale is computed at not less than $3,000,000. The religious press has had an equally rapid development. The first distinctively religious newspaper the world had ever seen appeared at Portsmouth, N. H., in September, 1808. To-day the number of religious publications of a periodical character exceeds the wildest anticipations of a century ago.

      The churches of God in modern times having had their origin in Eastern Pennsylvania and the border counties of Maryland, it is quite important that something should be said of the early immigrants to these sections, their culture, language, customs and religious peculiarities. In the study of the history of any people, as Pierson says of all great forward movements, "it is always important to begin at the beginning." For "history is a constant ethical lesson to the studious and candid observer." The first general settlement of Pennsylvania by Penn with a colony of English Quakers was in 1682. This was followed by the first cargo of German immigrants in October, 1683. A few years later this immigration assumed large proportions, aggregating over thirty thousand names of Germans, Swedes and Hollanders by the close of the year 1776. They were all of the poorer class of people, and lived at first in small log cabins in the primeval forests. In many sections extending as far westward as the Cumberland Valley, in Pennsylvania; the northern counties of Maryland, and the Shenandoah Valley, in Virginia, they formed fully nine-tenths of the population, while throughout the Province they constituted more than one-half of the population. The Netherlands, the Palatinate, Scotland, Ireland, Bavaria and other countries contributed their proportion to the mixed population of Pennsylvania at the close of the eighteenth century.

      Religiously these people who fled from the terrible persecutions of the Old World represented quite a variety of religious organizations. English and French infidelity was also represented, especially during and following the War of Independence. The principal denominations thus early established in Pennsylvania and the border counties of Maryland were the Dunkards, the Mennonites, the Moravians, the German Reformed, the Lutherans, the Presbyterians, the Quakers and the Methodists. There were also organizations of some less widely known bodies, such as the River Brethren, Schwenkfelders, Swedenborgians and Shakers. The United Brethren Church originated in Lancaster county, Pa., with the revival preaching of Philip Otterbein, of the German Reformed Church, and Martin Boehm, a Mennonite minister, about 1789. Simultaneously the "outward organization" of the Evangelical Association, then more generally known as the German Methodist Church, was effected. In the formation of both these religious bodies the pressure of external circumstances, the passion in a few devout souls for a deeper spiritual experience and the burning desire and zeal for the salvation of their fellow men, under the divine providence, were the predominant factors.

      The religious life of the church has been a succession of ebbs and flows, of high tides and low tides. It is human to degenerate. And so after the high tides of spiritual revivals in the past two centuries there followed a season of depression and dearth. Ritualism, sacramentalism, secularism, rationalism and infidelity, proved fatal to genuine piety and spirituality. The Mennonites, Dunkards and those of other faiths fled from the intolerance and oppressions of the Old World to enjoy liberty of conscience, and a free worship in the New World, but to become enslaved in forms and ceremonies. When they reached the New World their piety was unaffected, their morality of a high order, and the spirituality of their religion genuine and sincere. But before the middle of the eighteenth century there was a general eclipse of vital godliness. In most sections of the country religious experience had ceased to be a test of church membership and disappeared from the pulpits as a theme of discourse, and even the ministry was filled with unregenerate men. Laxity of belief and morals prevailed, and candidates for the ministry often refused to answer inquiries in regard to both faith and experience. Then came "The Great Awakening" under Edwards and Whitefield. It did not, however, deeply effect the spiritual life of Churches in the Middle States, and was soon followed by the inevitable reaction. General moral degeneration, skepticism and infidelity prevailed to an alarming extent. This condition was somewhat relieved by the introduction of Methodism, which dates its organic existence back to 1766. A more general revival followed all over the country, which has been characterized as a counter reaction against the skepticism and immorality which had distinguished that period of the century. These earlier Methodists were originally from the [5] German Palatinate, and were to some extent scattered among the German settlements in eastern Pennsylvania. Their first house of worship was erected on Fourth street below Vine, Philadelphia, in 1769. They were self-sacrificing, zealous and persevering in their efforts to disseminate experimental religion in the Colonies. Their converts multiplied with unprecedented rapidity. The first Conference was held in 1773, in Philadelphia, with ten preachers and eleven hundred and sixty members. But when the General Conference convened in New York City in 1812 there were reported six hundred and eighty-eight preachers and one hundred and ninety-five thousand, three hundred and fifty-seven members. But the Methodist ministers followed in the main the English population. They discouraged German preaching, believing that the German language would die out at an early day.

      The Revolutionary War had a disastrous effect upon the Churches. Moral deterioration is a concomitant and a consequence of war. The twenty years following the Revolution was a time of the lowest general morality up to that date in American history. In the churches there was general lukewarmness and grievous apostasies. There was a lamentable decay of vital piety, and gross immoralities increased to a signal degree. French infidelity came into the country during the continuance of the war. It spread with unusual rapidity, and swept over the country like a devouring fire. Colleges and universities were filled with youthful skeptics. At Yale, in 1795, there were but four or five who were willing to admit that they were members of churches. Similar conditions existed at Harvard, Princeton, the University of Virginia and others of the then large institutions of learning. They were as thoroughly hotbeds of skepticism as they were nurseries of higher learning.

      The dawn proverbially follows the darkest hour of the night. It was hastened by the labors of such men as Otterbein, Boehm, Albright, Dwight, Asbury, Griffen and a host of local co-laborers. British Christianity had been powerfully quickened, and new beneficent agencies were starting into being. There were indications of an immense advance all along the lines of Christ's militant host. The churches of the new world happily were destined to share in this onward and upward movement. The Great Awakening under Edwards had been arrested in Pennsylvania by the German language. The German churches were now themselves to be the agents in this new awakening. And so the pen of history has recorded on its annals the equally great, but more widespread, revival of the closing years of the eighteenth and the opening years of the nineteenth centuries. The influence of this revival extended into almost all portions of the country, quickening and multiplying churches, turning back the dark and desolating floods of infidelity and immorality, and giving birth to numerous powerful religious and reformatory agencies. Perhaps the Churches least affected by this great revival were the Dunkard, the Mennonite, the German Reformed and the Lutheran, whose members and adherents constituted the largest part of the population of eastern Pennsylvania and the northern counties of Maryland. In these Churches the spirit which prevailed to so unhappy an extent was arrayed against men who preached experimental religion, and procured the expulsion of most of them from the communions in which they stood.

      It was at the inception of the great revival of 1800-1803 that John Winebrenner was born. Two different dates have been published, one in Histories of Dauphin county, Pa., respectively by Dr. William Egle, and by Luther Reily Kelker. The other is given in the "Biography of Elder John Winebrenner," by Dr. George Ross. The former give the date of March 24, 1797; the latter gives it as Saturday, March 25, 1797. The publications of the churches of God, however, uniformly quote the date given by Dr. Ross. The correctness of this date is verified by Winebrenner himself in the article which he furnished over his signature for "The Testimony of a Hundred Witnesses." He says: "I was born in Frederick county, Maryland, on the 25th day of March, 1797." He was the third son of Philip and Eve C. Winebrenner, whose maiden name was Barrick. The place of his nativity is Glade Valley, Woodsborough District, Frederick Co., Md., near the present town of Walkersville. This section of the county is known as the Glades, the most fertile and wealthy part of the county, having within its limits five farms, with beautiful and picturesque scenery, affording the delightful variety of mountain and valley and woodland. His parents were of German descent, but German was not spoken by them in their family. His father was born near Hanover, York Co., Pa., Dec. 4, 1759, and when a young man moved on the farm in Maryland, where he died Dec. 11, 1841. His mother was born [6] June 1, 1757, and died Sep. 14, 1831. His father had a limited education, but possessed a strong mind, a remarkably retentive memory and unusual decision of character. His mother was a woman of gentle and pious disposition, with a good mind and scripturally adorned character. The father pursued the occupation of a farmer with a good measure of success. The farm which he owned, and on which his eminent son was born and raised, is a valuable homestead of about two hundred acres, with a spacious stone mansion, built in 1810, to take the place of the old log house in which John was born. Both his parents were members of the German Reformed Church. Their bodies rest in the Glades Reformed church grave-yard, a country church about one mile from the old homestead. Young Winebrenner received his rudimentary education in the Glades school, a log school-house, standing by the roadside within a stone's throw of the church, and about a mile from his home. It still stands, and is occupied as a dwelling house.

Glades School-House.

      Thence he went to an academic institution in Frederick City, eight miles south-east of his home. Later he went to Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa., at that time and until 1833 under the control of the Presbyterian Church. Here he pursued his classical course, being a non-graduate of the class of 1818. From Dickinson College he went to Philadelphia, where he studied Theology for about three years under the instructions of Rev. Dr. Samuel Helfenstein.

      Winebrenner's religious training began in infancy. He was baptized according to the ritual of the German Reformed Church when two months old, May 28, 1797, by Rev. John William Runkel, pastor of the Glades Reformed church from 1784 to 1801. At this church he attended services while at home, Rev. Daniel Wagner becoming his pastor in 1801. In Philadelphia he attended the ministry of Dr. Jonathan Helfenstein, pastor of the First Reformed church, Race street, between Third and Fourth. These ministers are characterized in "The Fathers of the Reformed Church" as "eminently good, active in the ministry, and aiming as much as possible at immediate effects."

      But Winebrenner contemplated the ministry and was pursuing his studies with that end in view, when he was as yet destitute of the saving knowledge of God. It was in Philadelphia, in his twenty-first year, when his theological studies had been already commenced, that he became scripturally converted. The graphic narrative of his conversion is thus recorded with his own pen, dated at Harrisburg, Pa., July 22, 1858: "As my mother trained me from my youth up in the fear and [7] admonition of the Lord, and instructed me in the great principles and duties of religion, I was graciously brought to feel my obligations to God at an early age, and my mind was deeply exercised on the subject of my soul's salvation. These convictions, however, would sometimes wear off, and then be renewed again. Hence I continued sinning and repenting for a number of years, till in the Winter of 1817 [But in a Note in The Gospel Publisher of Feb. 18, 1842, he says: "I was converted, or born again, in the Spring of 1817"], when deep and pungent convictions laid hold of my guilty soul. Then, like Job, 'I abhorred myself'; like Ephraim, 'I bemoaned myself'; with the prodigal, I said, 'I will arise and go to my Father,' and with the publican, I cried, 'God be merciful to me, a sinner.' And after 'chattering like a swallow,' and 'mourning as a dove' for three or four months my poor woe-fraught soul found redemption in Immanuel's blood, even the forgiveness of sins. It was on Easter Sabbath, in the city of Philadelphia, in the presence of a large congregation of worshipers, that Jesus, the 'Sun of Righteousness' arose and shone upon my soul 'with healing in his wings.' Truly that was the happiest day of my life! My darkness was turned into day, and my sorrow into joy. Jesus became the joy of my heart and the center of my affections. His people became lovely and precious in my sight. His word was my delight. In it I beheld new beauties and beatitudes. Sin, that dreadful monster, became more odious and hateful to my soul. Zion's welfare lay near my heart. My bowels yearned for the salvation of sinners. I was in travail for my friends and kindred. I felt constrained to Join with 'the Spirit and the bride' and say to all, 'Come, O, come to Jesus.'" Winebrenner's conversion is in many respects almost parallel to that of Albright, the founder of the Evangelical Association. He was instructed in the catechism and confirmed by a Lutheran minister, baptized and entered as a member of that Church, but knew nothing of true conversion. He had similar experiences before conversion, and finally his conviction became clear and deep, and he emerged into the light with unspeakable joy. And still a more complete parallel is the religious experience of Otterbein, founder of the United Brethren Church. He was brought up in the German Reformed Church and became a minister and pastor in it before his conversion. During his pastorate in Lancaster, Pa., the great crisis in his religious experience "brought about a most marked change in his spiritual consciousness."

      Winebrenner's inclination toward the ministry of the German Reformed Church developed early in life, so that when a lad he often essayed to preach to his school comrades, and at other times he would "preach in a wood near his home," or under a "majestically beautiful oak along his road to school." He was reverent in his demeanor at church, and an ardent lover of the truth as he understood it. Plato's striking definition of man as "the hunter of truth" applies to Winebrenner from boyhood to old age. He exemplified it in making devotion to truth his chief end, and found in searching for it his highest pleasure. He was always ready to make sacrifices in the interest of truth. After his conversion "the work of the ministry became," as he says, "the uppermost desire of my heart. This desire became like a pent-up fire in my bones from youth up. In later years my mind became strongly impressed with the duty of preparing myself for the gospel ministry." He opened his mind to his parents, and requested them to have him educated for the sacred calling. His mother readily consented, but his father opposed it, and sought in every way to divert his mind to mercantile pursuits, to medicine, or to the law. This only seemed to intensify his desire to become a minister of the word. When his father finally yielded he entered upon the necessary course of preparation, which he completed in 1820. The Reformed Church in Harrisburg, Pa., having been without a pastor for several months, on the recommendation of Rev. Jonathan Helfenstein, of Frederick City, Md., invited Winebrenner to preach a Sabbath for them. He accepted the invitation, and delivered his first religious discourses Sunday, Feb. 28, 1819, and revisited them Sunday, May 21st, and Nov. 28th. Very favorable impressions were made by these sermons, so that at a meeting called by the Vestry of the church, held Dec. 16, 1819, the young theological student in Philadelphia was elected pastor of the Harrisburg charge. He received forty-three out of forty-eight votes cast, his competitor, Rev. Lewis Mayer, D. D., receiving five. But the call was made unanimous. In a letter dated Dec. 27, 1819, the unanimous call was communicated to him to become the pastor of the four churches constituting the charge, viz.: Harrisburg, Shoop's, Wenrick's in Dauphin county, and Salem's, near Shiremanstown, in Cumberland county. His salary was fixed at $1,000.00 per annum. This call was accepted in a letter dated [8] Jan. 28, 1820, with the statement that he could not take charge of the congregations until he had completed his theological course and been ordained by the Synod within whose bounds these churches were located. This being agreeable to the churches, he proceeded to Hagerstown, Md., where the General Synod of the German Reformed Church convened, in Zion's church, where he was ordained to the office of the sacred ministry on Sep. 24, 1820. He then, on Oct. 4th, sent his formal letter of acceptance of the above-named charge. He preached his introductory sermon at Harrisburg, Pa., on Sunday, Oct. 22, 1820.

      During these years of preparation for Winebrenner's life-work important events were transpiring whose influence his receptive mind could not escape. In the religious world there was a series of new movements of momentous import. These included the distinct and separate organization of some religious bodies destined to exert a far-reaching, powerful influence on American ecclesiastical life. Otterbein and his followers had previously organized the first Conference of the United Brethren Church. But it was in 1800 that titles of the new organization were dropped, and the present distinctive name assumed. The relation of this new organization and its possible effect upon the German Reformed Church may be inferred from the fact that the analysis given of the original Roll of Conference members shows that of the seven men present five were of Reformed antecedents and two of Mennonite: of those enrolled but absent four were Reformed, two Mennonite and one Moravian. Otterbein indeed never formally severed his relation with the Reformed Church, and he persistently cherished the hope of seeing the revival movement inaugurated under his preaching spread more extensively among the Reformed churches than Pietism had in Germany. While Martin Boehm, his faithful coadjutor, labored earnestly to develop a true spiritual life among his own people, the Mennonites. He, like Otterbein, did not desire to separate himself from the Church of his childhood. They were eminently successful in promoting revivals in the lower tier of counties in Pennsylvania, including Dauphin, and in Maryland and Virginia. Many members of Reformed and Mennonite churches accepted the gospel invitation which they heralded throughout those regions.

      At this time the Methodist pioneer Bishop Francis Asbury, had much fellowship with Boehm and Otterbein. The Methodist Church operated largely in the more eastern counties of Pennsylvania, coming westward into Lehigh, Berks, Northumberland and Dauphin. Their itinerant system was better adapted to country evangelization. But they were disinclined to perpetuate a German ministry. When Jacob Albright, founder of the Evangelical Association, was converted, he joined the Methodist Church. He was born in the Lutheran Church. He was a man of great zeal, and an effective exhorter and later a preacher of unusual power. He was deeply interested in the spiritual welfare of his German fellow citizens. He began his ministerial labors in Montgomery county, Pa., in a community of Schwenkfelders. He felt specially called to lead the neglected Germans to a life of vital piety. This he would do in the Methodist Church. Like Otterbein, he had at that time no intention of organizing a new denomination, a step which would have antagonized the sentiments of the better disposed professors of religion. But "classes" were formed, organized work was planned, "big meetings" were held, Pentecostal meetings were inaugurated and new circuits were formed. They also began holding camp-meetings in 1810, as did the United Brethren in 1815. Thus his work extended into the northern parts of Lancaster county, into Lebanon, Schuylkill, Dauphin, Mifflin and Huntingdon. Like burning and shining lights these heralds of a true spiritual life went through these eastern counties of the State. So thoroughly Methodistic was this work that the first Conference adopted as a name "The Newly-formed Methodist Conference." It was a German Methodist organization, with the Methodist Discipline, Confession of Faith and Polity. But this movement toward a higher spiritual life had little effect upon the older religious bodies. It reached scores of individuals in those Churches. But the doors and hearts of these Churches were closed against this new gospel. And by 1810 the lines were so strongly drawn that but few converts were made from these older faiths. Revivals on an extensive scale did not occur between 1810 and 1825. Not only is there a periodicity in revivals, but the religious life of a people is like the surface of the earth as seen in some of the American States. There are the lofty, majestic mountains, the lower foot-hills, the ravines and the deep valleys, with their streams and rivers, their deep soil and their fertile plains. So there are great upheavals of a religious character as seen in the memorable and wide-reaching revivals when a continent was stirred to its very heart. Others like the [9] foot-hills of our mountain ranges. But the quieter seasons yield the largest permanent results.

      Besides these movements out of which grew the United Brethren Church and the Evangelical Association, in the year 1803 the "Christians" assumed the form of a united body, composed of Methodists, Baptists and Presbyterians. The Reformed Methodist Church was organized in 1814. In 1816 the African Methodist Episcopal Church was organized, and in 1820 the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. In 1818 the first General Convention of the Swedenborgian, or New Jerusalem, Church was organized. The Cumberland Presbyterian Church originated in Tennessee in 1810. In other lines there was also a decided increase in religious activities. In 1810 the American Board of Foreign Missions was organized, followed by the American Baptist Missionary Union in 1814, and the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1819. Indeed it was in these two decades of the nineteenth century that the missionary movement which places the present time above any since the apostolic days began to manifest itself. And almost simultaneously came in the spirit of division and sectarianism which divided the Christian forces in America into so many hostile camps.

      Other eponymous events during this period are the Second War with England, 1812, which as usual had a demoralizing effect upon the people; the admission into the Union of Ohio in 1802; of Louisiana, in 1812; Mississippi, in 1817; Illinois, in 1818, and Alabama, in 1819. Among the renowned men who occupy so large a part in the history of the United States that were born during this period and were Winebrenner's cotemporaries are Abraham Lincoln, the great War President, whose apotheosis has been proclaimed by an admiring world; William H. Seward, his brilliant Secretary of State; Robert E. Lee, the master spirit of the militant Confederacy; Charles Sumner, the illustrious champion of the anti-Slavery movement; John Lathrop Motley, accomplished author and diplomatist; Frederick Douglass, the ex-slave, whose oratorical fame is world-wide; John B. Gough, of unsurpassed talents as a temperance orator; and abroad such celebrities as Count Bismarck, the iron Chancellor, Premier and Statesman of Germany; William E. Gladstone, England's greatest prime minister, who as a theological, political and economic writer and an orator and debater has ever had few superiors; Lord Beaconsfield, author of "Endymion" and other great works manifesting originality, vivaciousness and wit, and a controlling figure in the government and prosperity of England, and Queen Victoria, the beloved Sovereign of Great Britain, under whose beneficent reign greater and richer advantages in religion, science, art, commerce and literature were enjoyed than under any other modern sovereignty. Among the princes of the American pulpit born during this era may be named Henry Ward Beecher, the most eloquent of pulpit and platform orators; Matthew Simpson, the most celebrated Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church in a century; Thomas H. Stockton, who in his time is said not to have had a peer as a pulpit orator in the country; Horace Bushnell, Congregationalist author and divine, and Theodore Parker, Independent minister and representative of Liberal Theology. [10]

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