Schaeffer, Charles Frederick, Dd

Schaeffer, Charles Frederick, D.D.

an eminent Lutheran divine, was born at Germantown, Pennsylvania, September 3, 1807. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1827, and studied theology with his father and with his father's assistant, the Reverend Charles R. Demme. He was licensed by the Synod of Maryland and Virginia June 17, 1829, and spent some months assisting his brother in New York. His first charge was at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and his ordination took place October 12, 1831. He left Carlisle December 1, 1834, to enter upon the pastorate at Hagerstown, Maryland, where he remained until 1840, when he received a call to become professor in the Theological Seminary at Columbus, Ohio. His relation to the Ohio synod became unpleasant, and he removed to Lancaster, November 21, 1843. He next removed to Red Hook, Dutchess County, N.Y., December 23, 1845, where he was much-esteemed. In 1851 he became pastor of St. John's Church, Easton, Pennsylvania, where he had a prosperous ministry of four years. It was during this period that he translated Klurtz's Sacred History, and made a careful revision of the translation of Luther's Smaller Catechism. In June 1855, he was unanimously chosen as German professor in Pennsylvania College and in the Theological Seminary at Gettysburg. The ministerium of Pennsylvania having decided to establish a theological seminary at Philadelphia, in July 1864; called Dr. Schaeffer to become professor of dogmatic theology, his instruction to be given in German and English equally. In this field he labored until his death, November 23, 1879. Besides the above-named works, he published several single sermons, translated Lange's Commentary on the Acts (1866), and contributed numerous articles to the Evangelical Review and the Bibliotheca Sacra. See a Memorial of his life, funeral addresses, etc., in German and English (Phila. 1880).