GLAS, JOHN: Scottish sectary, founder of the sect of Glassites or Sandemanians; b. at Auchtermuchty (17 m. w.s.w. of St. Andrews), Fifeshire, Sept. 21, 1695; d. at Perth Nov. 2, 1773. He was educated at St. Leonard's College, St. Andrews (M.A., 1713) and at the University of Edinburgh, and was ordained pastor of the Presbyterian church at Tealing, Forfarshire, May 6, 1719. Here he became an independent in his views, and in The Testimony of the King of Martyrs (Edinburgh, 1727) he denied the right of the civil authorities to interfere in religious matters. For his publication he was suspended by the Synod of Angus and Mearns Apr. 18, 1728, and deposed from the ministry Oct. 13. Despite the intercession of influential friends the deposition was affirmed by the commission of the General Assembly Mar. 12, 1730. Glas then formed an independent church at Dundee. In 1733 he removed to Perth, where he built the first church of the new sect. Here he was joined by Robert Sandeman, who married his daughter and became the leader of the sect in England and America, (see Sandemanians). The works of Glas, in four volumes, appeared at Edinburgh in 1761, and in a more complete edition in five volumes, Perth, 1782-83.

Bibliography: Walter Wilson Hist. and Antiquities of Dissenting Churches, iii. 261-262, 4 vols., London, 1808 1814; William Anderson, The Scottish Nation, ii. 307, ib. 1870; E. Grub, Eccl. Hist. of Scotland, iv . 55, Edinburgh, 1861; Hew Scott, Fasti ecclesim Scoticand, 5 parts, London, 1871; DNB, xxi. 417-418.

GLASS (Glassius), SALOMON: Lutheran theologian; b. at Sondershausen (28 m. n.n.w. of Erfurt) May 20, 1593; d. at Gotha July 27, 1656. He occupies an honorable position among the strict orthodox who in the middle of the seventeenth century were preparing the way for a transition to Spener's attitude. From 1612 to 1615 he studied philosophy at Jena, and then went to Wittenberg for a year. His health obliged him to return to Jena, where Johann Gerhard had recently begun to lecture. A scholarship enabled him to enjoy for five years the lectures and daily intercourse of this "archtheologian and model dogmatician." Glass had already begun to make a special study of Hebrew with its cognates. In 1617 he was made master of philosophy, and in 1619 adjunct professor in the philosophical faculty. Owing to his timidity, and perhaps also to conscientious scruples, he long refused to appear in public disputations or in the pulpit; when the university offered him the degree of doctor of theology, he hesitated to accept it, even when commanded by his princely patrons. In 1621 he was appointed to the chair of Hebrew, which was usually considered a transition rom philosophy to theology. In 1625 he was called to Sondershausen as superintendent, and in the following year he accepted the doctor's degree from Jena. But a greater distinction awaited him. Gerhard, on his death-bed, htid designated his beloved pupil as his successor, and after some discussion the request was complied with in 1638.

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This position Glass occupied only two years. He was then summoned to Gotha by Duke Ernest I. as court preacher and general superintendent, and aided his sovereign in all his beneficial endeavors. Such a thorough Biblical theologian and a man of such practical piety could find no pleasure in the passionate scholastic disputes of those times, though he did enter the controversial field against the mystics who disparaged the authority of Scripture. To those who charged even such a man as Johann Arndt with heresy, he sail: "He who loves not Arndt must be afflicted with the spiritual dyspepsia." In his estimation the spread of pure doctrine availed little where it was not united with the life. Faithfully adhering in his own belief to the statements of the symbolical books, he yet maintained a conciliatory attitude in the syncretistic controversies which raged for decades with such animosity: He seems to have had no intimate relations with Calixtus, though he had with some of his friends and admirers. The duke, anxious for harmony, had asked for an opinion for his own information. Glass replied with great moderation, avoiding everything which could hurt the orthodox, but doing justice to Calixtus. Even his friend, the fanatical Michael Walther, did not dare to reject this opinion, though he soon afterward opposed it in essential points. The strict orthodox, however, disliked it so much, that, as it was published only after the author's death and without his name, doubts were raised as to its genuineness.

Glass's greatest scientific work is his Philologia sacra (Jena, 1623-36), a kind of Biblicalphilological encyclopedia, which was extravagantly praised by his contemporaries as a key to all Biblical difficulties. It shows indeed, very great diligence and the necessity of following the general standards of higher instruction and scientific method. It rests on an extensive knowledge of Scripture and of Hebrew and rabbinical literature, and contains a valuable collection of illustrations and many acute linguistic observations. For the first time is found here an attempt at consistent study of the grammatical peculiarities of New Testament diction, the Hebrew coloring of which is shown. But its critical positions are taken from the narrow standpoint of the time, the grammar is not satisfactory, and its rhetoric and logic are antiquated. See Exegesis Or Hermeneutics, III., § 7.

Georg Loesche.

Bibliography: A full list of Glass's works is given in Hauck-Herzog, RE, vi. 671-672. Consuit: the preface to Crenius' edition of the Opuscula, 1700; J. C. Zeumer, Vitae professorium Jenensium, p. 141, Jena, 1711; ADS, ix. 218-219; KL, v. 612-613.