Demme, Charlbs Rudolph, D.D., an eaiaa* Lutheran divine, the son of Dr. Herman Deiniw,w« bom in Mtthlhausen, Thuringia, April 10, irSi & studied at the Gynmasium at Altenburg, andtke»- versities of Gdttingen and Halle. On the nprianiEC^ Germany to repel the invasion of Napoleon, be oft**^ his services, and immediately repaired to the seem « conflict. His zeal led him into imminent daa^: and at Waterloo he was carried, wounded and y«* ing, ftrom the field. He had been deeignwi i» ^ law. He came to this country in 1818, a yoawf w= of twenty-three, deeply imbued with the lov* fif^ ty, and an ardent admirer of American iostitotiaB& He entered the ministry in 1819, and accefited t cu to Hnmmelstown, Pft. He removed to Phibdd(^
DEMON
743
DEN
822, and became associate pastor with Ber. Dr. I efler of St. Michaers and Zion's charches, where ontinued to labor for thirty-seven years with great , ity and success. Worn oat by great labors, for ral years before his death he was unable to per- 1 any active duties in the ministry. He died Sept. $63. I>r. Demme was a man of enlarged culture, bcconiplished scholar, and a prince among preach- As a pulpit orator he was not surpassed by any lis contemporaries. Illustrating in hb life the er and blessedness of the Gospel, he brought to the ''ice piety and learning, and made the ministry of Word the grand aim of his life, with which no iv pursuit was allowed to interfere. In 1839 he I elected to the professorship of the Theological alnary, Columbus, Ohio, and in 1849 was appointed feasor in the seminary at Gettysburg, but both posi- IB he felt it his duty to decline. He was a member Jie American Philosophical Society, and was hon- cl with the doctorate of divinity from the University Pennsylvania. He edited in German the works of (cphus, carefully comparing the translation with t original, and adding a large number of notes. Demon; Demoniaa See Daemon ; Djbmoniao. Dexn^ophon (Af^/io^cDv), a Syrian general or mil- ry governor in Palestine under Antiochus Y. Eupa- • (2 Mace, xii, 2).
Dempster, John, D.D., an eminent Methodist Inister and promoter of theological learning in the lurch, was bom Jan. 2, 1794, in the town of Florida, . Y. His father, the Rev. James Dempster, was a x>tchman, educated at the University of Edinburgh, id, though bred a Presbyterian, was received by Mr. "eeley as one of his colaborers, and sent by him as a issionary to America. He preached for a season in le city of New York, but for some reason became dis- mnected from Mr. Wesley's service, and was there- fter a pastor of a Presbyterian church in the town f Florida till his death in 1808. The son was too oung to profit intellectually from his father's train- ig, and grew up ignorant almoet of books till his con- ersion at a Methodist camp-meeting in 1812, when ha egan a course of sedulous and systematic study, rhich he kept up during his whole life. In 1816 he ntered the itinerant ministry of the Methodist Epls- opal Church, and his successive appointments, as tated in the Minutes, were as follows : 1816, St.Law- ence. Lower Canada District ; 1817, Paris, New York ; 818, Watertown ; 1819, Scipio; 1820, superannuted ; «21-22, Watertown ; 1823, Homer; 1824, Auburn; 825-26, Rochester; 1827-28, Cazenovia; 1829-82, Ca- yuga District, Oneida Conference ; 1833-35, Black ^iver District ; 1836-41, Missionary to Buenos Ayres ; 1842, Vestry Street, New York; 1843-44, Mull)erry Street ; 1845-M, professor in Qiblical Institute, New- aury,Vt., and Concord, N. H. ; 1856-63, professor in Grarrctt Biblical Institute, Evanston, 111. **His fields >f labor were extremely diverse, and yet he occupied every one of them with marked success. From the borders of Canada on the north, to St. Augustine, Fla., on the south, whither he went in 1835, primarily in search of health, and thence to Buenos A\Tes, in South
America; from New England on the east to IlUnois on the west, his name has, during the last half cen- tury, been fiuniliar to the good, and associated with active labors for the promotion of the cause of Christ." By incessant labor he made up largely the deficiencies in his early education, acquiring the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages, and a fioir amount of general cul- ture. His mind, naturally metaphysical, turned es- pecially to questions of philosophical theology, such as the divine nature and government, the will, etc. and on these topics he both spoke and wrote with great success. But the great work of his life was the organ- ization of theological semiruuries in the Methodist Epis- copal Church. After eighteen years of labor, he saw two of these (Concord and Evanston) in full operation, largely as the fruit of his own industry, energy, and perseverance. He died Nov. 28, 1863, at Chicago. As a preacher he was at once simple, stirring, and profound. He seized with a master hand upon the great cardinal truths of revelation and providence, and wielded them with equal application to the judgment and the conscience. He left many MSS., especially a work on the will ; but, thus far, all that has been published in permanent form u his Lectures and AcU dresses (Cincinnati, 1864, 12mo). See Appendix to his Lectures; Minutes of Conferences, 1864, p. 148; Metho- dist Quarterly Review, July* 1864 ; Stevens, History of the Metnodist Episcopal Church, vol. iiL