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9wete Switzerland
Teaching (1909); The Ascended Christ; a Study in the earliest Christian Teaching (1910); and edited Essays on Some Biblical Questions of the Day (1909).
SWING, ALBERT TEMPLE: Congregationalist; b. at Bethel, 0., Jan. 18, 1849. He was educated at Oberlin College (A.B., 1874), Yale Divinity School (B.D., 1877), and the universities of Berlin and Halle (1891-92). He has held pastorates at Fremont, Neb. (1878-86), Cortland, N. Y. (18861887), and Detroit, Mich. (1887-90). In 1890-93 he was in Europe, and since 1893 has been professor of church history at Oberlin Theological Seminary. In theology he is a liberal conservative. He is the author of Theology of Albrecht Ritschl (New York, 1901); Outline of the Doctrinal Development in the Western Church (Oberlin, 0., 1904); and Life of James Harris Fairchild, or Sixty Eight Years with a Christian College (New York, 1906).
SWING, DAVID: American divine; b. in Cincinnati, 0., Aug. 23, 1830; d. in Chicago Oct. 4, 1894. He came of blended English and German ancestry; grew up on a farm near Williamsburg, Clermont County, 0., attending the district school of the village; was graduated from Miami University, Oxford, 0., 1852; studied for two years in the Theological Seminary at Cincinnati, under Dr. Nathan Lewis Rice; then returned to Miami University as professor of classic languages, where he remained for twelve years. He married Miss Elizabeth Porter, of Oxford, 0., in 1855, and two daughters were born in their home. In 1866 he was called to the Westminster Presbyterian church of Chicago, which was consolidated with the North Church in 1869, under the name of the Fourth Presbyterian church, Professor Swing being retained as pastor of the new organization. The church edifice was destroyed by fire in 1871, but was rebuilt the following year. Charges of heresy were filed against Professor Swing with the Chicago Presbytery in 1874, by Dr. Francis Landey Patton, editor of The Interior. An exciting trial ensued, the records of which are preserved in The Trial of Rev. David Swing, Edited by a Committee of the Presbytery (Chicago, 1874). The result was a verdict of " not proved," but upon appeal by the prosecution to the Northern Illinois synod the accused withdrew from the Presbyterian Church.
The following year, 1875, Central Church was organized with Professor Swing as pastor, $50,000 having been subscribed by citizens of Chicago to support the enterprise. It was an independent society, founded upon a simple statement of faith in Christ as the savior and leader of men. In 1880 Central Music Hall was dedicated as the home of the church, and in that spacious auditorium Professor Swing preached to a congregation of 3,000 people until his death. Professor. Swing was editor of The Alliance, an undenominational religious weekly, 1873-82, and of The Weekly Magazine, 1883-85. He was much in request as a lecturer, his most popular themes being " The Useful and the Beautiful," " Overdoing," and " The Novel." His sermons, which he read, were little essays, covering a wide range of moral and spiritual topics, and written with rare delicacy and beauty of style.
THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG Among his published works are Truths for To-day (2 series, Chicago, 1874-76); Motives of Life (1879); Club Essays (1880); Sermons (1883); Old Pictures of Life (1894)-two volumes of essays edited after his death. JOSEPH FORT NEWTON.BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. F. Newton, David Swing.- Poet-Preacher, Cedar Rapids, Ia., 1908.
SWISS BRETHREN. See MENNONITES.SWITHUN, swith'un (SWITHIN, SWITHUM), SAINT: Bishop and patron of Winchester; d. at Winchester July 2, 862. Of noble birth, he was educated in the Old Monastery, Winchester, where he was ordained by Bishop Helmstan, 827. Egbert, king of the West Saxons, committed his son and successor, Ethelwulf, to his care, and availed himself of his counsels. . Ethelwulf, on his accession, made him his minister, especially in ecclesiastical affairs, and in 852 appointed him, with the clergy's consent, bishop of Winchester on the death of Helmstan. St. Swithun's Day is July 15, because on that day, in 971, his relics were moved from the churchyard, where he had been buried at his own request, so that his grave might be trodden on by passers-by, to the cathedral of Winchester. Owing to the fact that rain fell on the day and for a considerable period afterward, the superstition exists that a rainy St. Swithun's Day presages forty days of rain immediately afterward. Miracles are reported to have followed in great number.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Early material, with comment, is collected in ASB, July, i. 321-330, Aug., i. 98-100, and in MPL, clv. 57-66. Consult further: J. Earle, Gloucester Fragments, vol. i., Facsimiles of some Leaves in . . . Handwriting on St. Svnthun, London, 1861 (contains essay on life and times of Swithun and three early lives); DNB, Iv. 239-241.
The censuses ordered by the federal government, 1850-1900, give evidence of the varied and often complicated conditions in the Church as well as1n the State of Switzerland. The four divisions tabulated were the Protestant, Roman Catholic, Jewish, and " Others not specified "; but distinctiohs were not clearly drawn, and subdivisions were omitted. It is therefore not evident how many members of the smaller Evangelical denominations were included either in the first or fourth categories; how many Christian Catholics (Old Catholics), in the second or fourth; and how many were included in the fourth because of religious indifference or inadvertently. From a review of the census statistics of Dec. 1, 1900, it appears that the confessional distribution in Switzerland from 1880 to 1900 has undergone little alteration. The Protestants lost eight per cent; the Roman Catholics gained the same; the Jews increased from two to four per cent of the
