THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
come to him in the first place as facts formally orthodox. If it is given to us to see as such facts the person and office of Jesus Christ; then and then only may we become Christians and find in the devotion of Christians the beginning of a life of blessedness. (W Herrmann.)
DE "WETTE. See Wette, Wilhelm Martin Leberecht de.
DE WITT, JOHN : The name of two American clergymen. 1. Reformed (Dutch); b. at Albany, N. Y., Nov. 29, 1821; d. at Irvington, N. Y., Oct. 19, 1906. He was educated at Rutgers College (B.A., 1838) and the New Brunswick Theological Seminary, from which he was graduated in 1842. He was then pastor successively at Ridgeway, Mich. (1842-44), Ghent, N. Y. (1844-49), Canajoharic, N. Y. (1849-60), and Millstone, N. J. (1850-63). From 1863 to 1884 he was professor of Oriental literature at Rutgers College, and from the latter year until his retirement in 1892 was professor of Hellenistic Greek and New Testament exegesis in the same institution. He was one of the American Old Testament Revision Company from its foundation, and wrote The Sure Foundation, and how to build on it (New York, 1848) and The Praise Songs of Israel, a new Rendering of the Book of Psalms (1884).
2. Presbyterian; b. at Harrisburg, Pa., Oct. 10, 1842. He studied at Princeton (B.A., 1861), studied law for a year, and then theology at Princeton and Union seminaries, graduating in 1865. He held pastorates at Irvington-on-Hudson, N. Y. (186.5-69), Central Congregational Church, Boston (1869-76), and Tenth Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia (1876- 1882); was professor of church history in Lane Theological Seminary, Cincinnati, O. (1882-88); professor of Christian apologetics at McCormick Theological Seminary, Chicago (1888-92), and since 1892 has been professor of church history in Princeton Theological Seminary. In theology he adheres to the Reformed confessions. He has written: Sermons on the Christian Life (New York, 1885); What is Inspiration f (1893); and History of Princeton University (in Princeton Sesquicentennial Volume, 1896).
DEXTER, HENRY MARTYN: American Congregationalist; b. at Plympton, Mass., Aug. 13, 1821; d. at New Bedford, Mass., Nov. 13, 1890. He was of both Pilgrim and Puritan descent. He entered Brown University in 1836, but went to Yale in 1838, and was graduated there in 1840. After teaching a year in Rochester, Mass., he was graduated at Andover Theological Seminary in 1844. He was ordaineil first pastor of the Franklin St. Congregational Church, Manchester, N. H., Nov. 6, 1S44, and was pastor of the Pine St. Church (now Berkeley Temple), Boston, 1849-67. He joined the staff of the Congregationalist in 1851, and was editor-in-chief, excepting during 1866, from 1856 until his death. In 1854 he drew up the memorable antislavcry Nebraska Protest to Congress against the Missouri Compromise. In 1858 he was one of the founders of the Congregational Quarterly. In 1S80 he was moderator of (ho National Congregational Council at Oberlin and, later, one at its Creed Commission. In 1884, with
Dr. G. E. Day, he represented the American Home Missionary Society to the Independent Churches of Norway and Sweden, and in 1889 he was invited to preach the opening sermon before the first International Congregational Council, at London in 1890, but died before the appointed date arrived.
Dr. Dexter wrote many articles and volumes, and was an expert on Congregationalism and American Colonial history. His chief books are: Congregationalism : What it is. Whence it is, How it Works, Why it is better than any other form of Church Government, and its Consequent Demands (Boston, 1865); and The Congregationalism of the Last Three Hundred Years as Seen in its Literature (New York, 1880), the latter embodying his Southworth Lectures at Andover in 1877 and containing a valuable bibliography of 7,200 titles. He traveled extensively and made special studies abroad of the Pilgrim movement. His unfinished manuscript on this subject was edited and rewritten by his son Morton Dexter, and published as The England and Holland of the Pilgrims (Boston, 1905). Morton Dexter.
Bibliography: A sketch of Dr. Dexter's life is in the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society for 1891; consult also W Walker, Hist, of Congregational Churches, pp. 385-388, New York, 1894.
DEXTER, MORTON: Congregationalist; b. at Manchester, N. H., July 12, 1846. He was graduated at Yale in 1867 and Andover Theological Seminary in 1870. He was pastor of Union Congregational Church, Taunton, Mass., from 1873 to 1878, and was then associate editor of the Congregationalist, Boston, until 1901. He was secretary and treasurer of the committee of the Congregational National Council which erected and dedicated the memorial tablet to John Robinson on St. Peter's Cathedral, Leyden, Holland, in 1891, and he was a delegate to the first International Congregational Council held at London in the same year, and to the second at Boston eight years later. In theology he may be described as a Broadchurch evangelical. He has written The Story of the Pilgrims (Boston, 1894) and The England and Holland of the Pilgrims (1905).
DIACONICON, dai"[ordi"]a-cen'i-cen: A Greek word which denotes the semicircular extension on the southern side of the bema in the Greek churches, corresponding to one on the north side which is known as prothesis. It is the place occupied by the deacons, and is used also for the custody of various things used in divine service. This use of the term was definitely established at least as early as the end of the Middle Ages. The word is also applied to a selection from the great Euchologion of the Greek Church which contains all the liturgical functions of deacons (officially called Hierodiakonikon) , and to certain prayers in the Greek liturgy recited by the deacon.
(Philipp Meyer.)