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Berg, Joseph Frederick D.D.

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a minister of the Reformed (Dutch) Church, and a son of Rev. Christian Frederick Berg, of Denmark, was born at Grace Hill, Antigua, W. L., June 3, 1812. He was educated in the Moravian institutions at Fulnic, England, in 1816-25. In 1825 he came to the United States, and was placed in the Moravian school at Nazareth, Pa. He was made teacher of chemistry at Nazareth in 1829, when only seventeen years old, and while he was pursuing theological studies. In 1831 he was licensed, and was ordained and installed as pastor of the German Reformed Church at Harrisburg, Pa., Oct. 2, 1835-37. From 1837 to 1852 he was pastor of Race-street German Reformed Church, Philadelphia, and while here he also studied medicine in Jefferson College, and received the degree of M.D. He served the Second Reformed (Dutch) Church of Philadelphia from 1852 to 1861. At this time he was elected professor of didactic and polemic theology in the New Brunswick Seminary, in which capacity he labored until his death, which occurred July 20, 1871. In addition to his other labors, he was professor of evidences of Christianity at Rutgers College from 1862 to 1867. As a preacher he was successful. He did not so much aim to captivate his audience with glowing rhetoric or oratory, as to instruct them. His style was solid, logical, persuasive, and instructive. Although he had no relish for controversy, yet in this, as in whatever he undertook, he was a master. As a pastor, Dr. Berg was greatly beloved by his people; as a professor, he fully met the expectations of his friends and justified the wisdom of those who selected him. He wrote, The Tree and its Fruits (1837): — Ancient Landmarks (1838): — Christian Landmarks; or, The Centenary of the German Reformed Church (Phila. 1840): — The House of God and the Family Altar (1840): — Lectures on Romanism (eod.; several editions): — The Confessional (1841): — Papal Rome (eod.): — a series of pamphlets published anonymously, entitled A Voice from Rome, Rome's Policy towards the Bible, The Pope and the Presbyterians (1844).: — History of the Holy Robe of Treves (1843), an oral controversy with a Catholic priest: — The Old Paths; or, A Sketch of the Order and Discipline of the Reformed Church before the Reformation (1845): — A Plea for the Divine Law against Murder (1846): — Mysteries of the Inquisition, etc; (eod.): — Reply to Archbishop Hughes on the Doctrine of Protestants (1.850): — Expose of the Jesuits (eod.): — The Inquisition; Church and State, or Rome's Influence upon the Civil and Religious Institutions of our Country (1851), a prize essay: — Jehovah Nissi; or, Farewell Words to the First German Reformed Church (Phila. 1852): — Vindication of the Farewell Words (eod.): — The Bible Vindicated against the Aspersions of Joseph Barker (1854): — Translation. of Dens' Moral Theology (1842, 1856): — Prophecy and the Times; or, England and Armageddon (1856): — The Stone and the Image; or, The American Republic the Bane and Ruin of Despotism (eod.), an exposition of the fifth kingdom of Daniel's prophecy: — The Saint's Harp; or, Hymns and Spiritual Songs (eod.): — Abaddon and Mahanaim; or, Daemons and Guardian Angels (eod.): — Cause and Cure of Financial Distress (1857): — The Olive Branch, a Conservative View of Slavery (eod.): — Loyalty; or, Christian Obligation (1859): — Paganism, Popery, and Christianity; or, The Blessing of an Open Bible: — The Second Advent of Christ not Pre-Millennial (eod.): — The Evangelical Quarterly (1860-62, 3 vols.): — Valedictory Sermon before the Students of Rutgers College (1862): — History and Literature of the Heidelberg Catechism, and its Introduction into the Netherlands (1863), a translation of Von Alpen: — System of Didactic Theology (in MS.): — besides several books for children. See Corwin, Manual of the Ref. Church in America (3d ed.), p. 174; Presbyterian, July 29, 1871; Harbaugh, Fathers of the Germ. Ref. Church, 4:488.