changed this for the professorship of Biblical exegesis. Then as now, this institution received older students from the practical vocations who had not matured at the university, and counted among its students many coming evangelists in Europe and Canada. Soon after occupying this position, Scherer seemed to become aware of a conflict between the emotional needs of the religious consciousness and the theoretical convictions of the reason, but he still believed in the possibility of a union between sound theology and sound piety. The natural man, he thought, can not conceive religious things; only the experience of the Christian, by faith in Christ and love to him, unlocks the mystery. Accounts of "visitations of Christ," arranged somewhat in the form of a diary, from the year 1848, show Scherer in the heights of religious moments and from the personal mystical side. His transition from history to exegesis became fatal to his belief; he had always fully accepted the theory of verbal inspiration, and had subscribed without reserve the Consensus Helvetieus of 1655 on vowel points and punctuation, but with the insight that this position was untenable his faith and theology also were shaken. In June, 1849, Scherer's friends became acquainted with his dissatisfaction with his position, and before the end of the year he had resigned and taken farewell of his students. But he continued with a series of free lectures on matters of faith which were a great attraction, June, 1849, to Feb., 1850, and were summed up in a pamphlet, La Critique et la foi (1850). The repetitions, contradictions, inaccuracies, and the temporal contingency of Biblical writers were pointed out and the fact that they did not claim to be inspired. The personal authority of Christ and his Spirit in the disciples, the facts in the religious consciousness of sin and redemption remained for him the pillars of revelation and faith. At this time Scherer regarded himself as still a believing Christian, logically carrying on the thought of the Reformation, but did not linger long in this position. His Melanges de critique religieuse (1860) show a progress in negation. He examined the problem of sin and freedom which led him on the causal side to the question of miracles. A proposition is not true because it comes from Christ; but because its truth is affirmed in ethical consciousness, it comes from Christ. So far he could justify himself by reference to Alexandre Vinet (q.v.), but his interest in seeking individual freedom according to his subjective perception of truth led him farther. Original sin is a limitation of freedom; not that God was the author of sin, but rather Scherer came to deny original sin and to declare the freedom of man to achieve victory by struggle over a sinful world. Evil was a lesser good, the shadow needful for the completion of the optimistic world harmony. In order to conserve the humility under the sense of sin and the consequent desire of salvation, the necessity of sin to human development was to be held theoretically from the view-point of the theodicy; but practically sin was to be regarded as something that should not be. A dualism resulted from this position of heart and head. From the maze of the problem of freedom he could not extricate himself. From the relativity

of freedom he proceeded to the invariability of law in nature until even the supernatural could no longer be maintained. Finally, Scherer attached himself to the Hegelian philosophy with enthusiasm. With the last step, that there is no final truth but that there are only truths which prepare themselves by self-destruction, he had to break with even the prominent and advanced theologians. Scherer confined himself to mere textual explanation in his lectures on the Epistles, 1856-60, and moved to Versailles in 1860. A call to the newly established chair of religious science at the lcole des Hautes nudes he declined; the columns of the Revue des deux Mondes were open to him, and his course was marked out. The fruit of his literary labors, remarkable for originality, psychological acuteness, and ethical earnestness, was collected in .9tudes critiques sur la litWature contemporaine (10 vols., Paris, 1863-95; Eng. transl. of one volume, Essays on English Literature, and History of German Literature, 5 vols., London, 1891). He was also coeditor of the Temps since it was founded in 1860. He performed eminent political service as mediator between the provisional governments of the German occupation and the population and was made sena;;or for life in 1872. Scherer was never a polemical opponent of Christianity. Faith he likened to poesy, striking root everywhere, rising ever anew from the dust, to survive as long as humanity shall draw breath. The crisis of his faith brought him great suffering which left him a sad heart. The flood of theological and ecclesiastical malediction and ridicule he met either with total silence or answered with calm composure and noble patience, knowing that his course was the only one left to an upright man. (E. PLATZHOFF-LEJEUNE.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: O. G_rard, E. Scherer, 2d ed., Paris, 1891; J. F. Asti_, E. Scherer, ses disciples et ses advensairm Lausanne, 1854; idem, Les Deux Thiologies nouvelles, ib. 1882; idem, E. Scherer et la Wologie ind~pendante, ib. 1892; G. Frommel, Esquisses coneemporcinea, pp. 199288, ib. 1891; E. Logoz, Essai sur E. Scherer th6olopien ib. 1891; E. Dowden, New Studies- in Literature, Boston, 1895; Mary Fisher, in McClurg's Magazine, 1897.

Lutheran; b. at Salisbury, N. C., May 22, 1870. He was educated at Roanoke College, Va. (A.B., 1890), and Pennsylvania College (Ph.D., 1897). After being pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran church at Pulaski, Va., in 1890-91, he founded a mission of his denomination at Saga, Japan, where he remained until 1897, being also a teacher in a Japanese government school in 1892-96. He returned to the United States in 1897 for reasons of health, and held pastorates at Cameron, S. C., in 1897-98, and at Charlestown, S. C., in 1898-1904, being at the same time a professor in the Lutheran theological seminary in that city. Since 1904 he has been president of Newberry College, Newberry, S. C. In theology he holds that the Book of Concord is the "true and logical development of Christian faith in Reformation times" and that "the principle of historic continuity should determine any subsequent statement." He has written Pour Princes: or, The Growth of a Kingdom: The Story of the Christian Church centred around four Types (Philadelphia, 1903); Japan. To-day