De Charms, Richard

De Charms, Richard a minister of the New Jerusalem Church, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1797. In early life he was a printer; graduated at Yale College in 1826; the year previous studied Swedenborgianism under Thomas Worcester, D.D., at the same time superintending the publication of the New Jerusalem Magazine; continued his theological researches in Baltimore, Md., and there began to preach in 1828, his first sermon, considered a masterpiece, being published, and afterwards reprinted in London. Its title was The Paramount Importance of Spiritual Things. After a year of pastoral labor in Bedford, Pennsylvania, he went to London, studied under Reverend Samuel Noble, and on returning, in 1832, became pastor of the First New Jerusalem Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, and conducted a periodical called The Precursor. Subsequently he preached in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New York. In his latter days be devoted much attention to various mechanical contrivances and inventions of his own. He died March 20, 1864. He was the author of Sermons Illustrating the Doctrine of the Lord: — Series of Lectures Delivered at Charleston, S.C.: — The New Churchman: — and Freedom and Slavery in the Light of the New Jerusalem. See Appleton's Annual Cyclop. 1864, page 598.