Jacobus, Melancthon W.; Newkirk, Matthew [editor]. The Christian's Heritage, and Other Sermons, together with an Unfinished Autobiography. New York: Robert Carter and Brothers, 1878. [11524]
Russet cloth decorated in black & gilt, corners tips bumped, frayed at the top of the spine, 7 1/2 x 5 1/4 inches, all page edges gilt. Steel-engraved portrait with printed signature and tissue guard; xxvii, 361 clean pp.; 6 pp. publisher's catalogue with date of November, 1877. Good. Hardcover.
A short autobiography (pp. ix-xxvii) followed by twenty sermons on evangelical themes. The editor, Rev. Matthew Newkirk, was the son-in-law of Rev. Jacobus.
Melancthon William Jacobus (1816-1876), b. Newark, NJ; d. Pittsburgh, PA. Jacobus had the benefit of being raised in a pious Christian home, and at age fifteen entered Princeton College, graduated 1834, and then took up the course of the Princeton Theological Seminary. He was ordained pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn in 1839. He toured Europe in 1850 and in 1851 accepted the call of the General Assembly to be Professor of Oriental and Biblical Literature in the theological seminary at Allegheny, Pa. During this assignment he was also pastor of the Central Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh (1858-1870).
Dr. Jacobus served in several denomination-wide capacities, including as the last moderator of the General Assembly of the Old School Church in 1870, and continued his denominational service after the merger of the Old and New Schools in 1871. During his ministerial career he published a series of Bible commentaries, the large sale of which to the Christian public denotes their usefulness.
"Dr. Jacobus stood in the front rank of the Biblical scholars of his age. As a preacher he maintained all through his ministry a high position, while on the platform his addresses were always happy and effective. He was a most energetic and persistent worker, and his industry was untiring." - M'Clintock & Strong, The Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature.
