This biography needs no apology. It is the history of a noble life and an exalted character. In whatever light he may be viewed, Dr. Nevin occupies high rank among the distinguished men of his age. An eminent scholar, a profound theologian, an independent thinker, a vigorous writer and an earnest Christian, he exerted a powerful influence, which will not cease to be felt for many generations to come. It is only right, therefore, that the life and labors of one who touched the higher spiritual interests of humanity at so many points should be recorded, that the world may know what manner of man he was, what truths he taught, what conflicts he waged, and what measure of success he achieved.
Dr. Nevin was a man of broad and thorough scholarship. With a strong and richly endowed mind well disciplined by years of hard study, he accumulated vast treasures of learning, which were ever at his command. There are few departments of knowledge in which he was not at home. When he entered on the study of theology and philosophy, in which he rose to such great eminence, he had already laid a solid foundation in the Classics, mathematics and history. Equipped with a thorough knowledge of Hebrew and Greek, he was well fitted, both by his attainments and his tastes, for the pursuit of Biblical science, to which his earliest official labors were devoted; and it is not improbable that, if he had continued to make this branch of theology his specialty, he would have come to stand among the foremost Biblical scholars of America.
But when called to Mercersburg, it became his duty to teach dogmatic theology in the Seminary, and, after the death of Dr. Rauch, philosophy in Marshall College. His brief contact with that able and genial scholar afforded him a deeper insight into the immense wealth of German thought, of which he had only had a passing and unsatisfactory glimpse before. He had already acquired a good working knowledge of the language, and he now devoted himself to the arduous task of mastering the whole field of German philosophy and theology. It was at a time when, in this country at least, all German systems alike were regarded with suspicion; but in his unwearied search for truth, he determined to make their acquaintance, and was rewarded by having a new intellectual world opened up to his view.
His learning, though broad and varied, was especially marked by thoroughness. He had no ambition to be an encyclopedia of knowledge. To have full mastery of one subject was infinitely more to him than to have a superficial acquaintance with many. He was not a man who kept himself constantly surrounded by a great multitude of books. It was a surprise to his friends, at least during the latter period of his life, to find how few books he had at hand. You entered his study, but saw no library. On his writing-table lay his Hebrew Old Testament and his Greek New Testament, which were never absent from his side, and besides these a very few works connected with the study on which his mind was then engaged. These he read and re-read and inwardly digested, till their contents became part of his very self. Any subject which claimed his attention completely absorbed him, and for the time filled his conversation as well as his thoughts. He kept it constantly before his mind until he saw it in all its length and breadth, its height and depth.
It was this that made him the profound thinker he was. His mind was constitutionally of a philosophic cast. Imbued with a strong love of truth he was impelled to search for it as for hidden treasure. Traditional opinions and inherited beliefs had little value for him until he had examined them, tested them and proved them correct. A questioning attitude was natural to him. He readily detected the weakness and defects of any system and mercilessly exposed them to view. His mind was in fact severely critical, even toward conclusions he had himself reached by much study and reflection. Hence it is not surprising that, during his long and thoughtful life, he passed through various phases of faith. To many he seemed to be ever vacillating. And indeed he was not stationary. Whatever lives advances from lower stages to higher, and the life of thought is no exception. It manifests itself either in the discovery of new truth, or, at least, in the fuller, clearer and more adequate apprehension of old truth. Only what is dead stands still. Dr. Nevin felt no pride in maintaining an unvarying uniformity of thought. As soon as a form of truth appeared on more mature reflection to be unsatisfactory, he freely surrendered it and diligently sought for a higher and more perfect form. And so he seemed to himself to be always progressing, and yet in his progress to be self-consistent, at least in the sense that he was constantly advancing upward along one unconsciously predetermined line.
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