Afternoon, >From time to time you come across something that is intriguing in the obscurity of its existence. Such is the case today. And please be forewarned that this will be "high-brow" for most folks so you may desire to "tune out." I have often asked myself the question, "What were people thinking in days gone by? It is difficult to ascertain this adequately enough because what has been passed down to the present is only a brief synopsis, perhaps!, of the volumes of writings of that bygone era. Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg (1802-1869) of Berlin, Germany was, for his time, a noted philosopher, Bible scholar, author, and publisher of the early to mid 19th Century. You can think of him, as the Good Witch Glinda might have said, a Great Thinker. You can read a brief biographical article concerning him at Wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Wilhelm_Hengstenberg> . During his lifetime he was the editor of the "Evangelische Kirchenzeitung" (Evangelical Church Newspaper) of Berlin, Germany. He was both praised and ridiculed because of his views dependent on which side of the fence the reader sat. He wrote, apparently quite voluminously, on the Evangelical church, presumably Lutheran and Reformed, in America, but from a decidedly Reformed perspective. Logically the only method for him to gain this insight would have been through an extensive letter writing campaign to ministerial representatives in Pennsylvania. When these were originally published in the aforementioned German newspaper is by this writer not known, but they are available within the Weekly Messenger (1838-1848), once an organ of the Reformed church, of Chambersburg, Franklin county, Pennsylvania. Beginning with the Sept. 8, 1847 issue, and concluding with the Dec. 15, 1847 issue, E. W. Hengstenberg writes about varying topics specifically about the theology in existence in the Reformed Church in America. A study of these items of interest demonstrates that what became the Mercersburg Theology <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercersburg_Theology> ; so named because of its beginnings in 1844 in the town by that name in Pennsylvania, as adhered to by Revs. Philip Schaff and J. W. Nevin, was, in truth, based on the writings of Hengstenberg-or the likelihood of this occurrence. It would be interesting to discover exactly when this material was originally published in the German paper. This would, or perhaps not, prove conclusively the basis of the formation of the Mercersburg Theology. Or at least show a close connection between the theology of Hengstenberg and his American counterparts. Now to the specific reason for this posting. While extracting the various marriages and obituaries from those volumes of the "Weekly Messenger" in my possession, I often visually scan the other items to see if there is something odd or intriguing. I specifically noted, and stored in my cavernous and convoluted brain, those congregational histories that I may in the future return to for future publication. I also make a concerted effort, because of an avid interest, to notice anything pertaining to the German Baptist religion or any other separatist sect. This occurred while eye-balling the Hengstenberg item. Under the sub-heading: "The Small German Sects," of the much larger: "The Germans in America, No. 9," I noticed that "Tunkers," "Winebrennerians," and "Albright Brethren" had been used. Realizing that to post the entirety of the passage would have been troublesome, I decided instead to take the time to scan the page in its four parts (because of the physical dimensions) and post the subsequent file to the Internet. The reading is difficult at times to understand unless you are a student of theology (which I am not) but the little gems of knowledge in the article are interesting to historically interested individuals. I do apologize in that I was not as careful in the "stitching" together of the various parts of the images; thus you will likely notice a spot or two where there was an overlap of the images. But, as I commented to an individual the other day in regards to the blurred portions of the previous full page of the newspaper, What do you want for free? You can access the file here <http://brethrenarchives.com/newspapers/2533.pdf> . Once again, be forewarned the physical dimensions of the newspaper are large. The resultant PDF file is small enough so that even those with a dial-up Internet connection should be able to access it. As for the "blurriness" of the text, that is a case of paper and ink of 163 years old. Best regards, Wayne Webb P.S. Anyone got a really large color scanner lying around?