Charles (Alexander) Force Deems (December 4, 1820 – November 18, 1893) was an American Methodist minister. He was the pastor of the non-denominational Church of the Strangers in

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from 1868 to 1893.

Early life

Deems was born in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

. As a child, he delivered lectures on

temperance Temperance may refer to: Moderation *Temperance movement, movement to reduce the amount of alcohol consumed *Temperance (virtue), habitual moderation in the indulgence of a natural appetite or passion Culture *Temperance (group), Canadian danc ...

and on Sunday schools before he was fourteen years old. He graduated from

Dickinson College , mottoeng = Freedom is made safe through character and learning , established = , type = Private liberal arts college , endowment = $645.5 million (2022) , president = J ...

in 1839.

Career

Deems taught and preached in

for a few months, and in 1840 took charge of the

Methodist Episcopal The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself on a national basis. In ...

church at

Asbury, New Jersey Asbury is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located within Franklin Township in Warren County, New Jersey, United States, that was created as part of the 2010 United States Census.North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

, where he was General Agent for the

American Bible Society American Bible Society is a U.S.-based Christian nonprofit headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As the American member organization of United Bible Societies, it supports global Bible translation, production, distribution, literacy, engage ...

. Deems was professor of

logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premises ...

and

rhetoric Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate parti ...

at the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...

from 1842 to 1847, and professor of natural sciences at

Randolph Macon College Randolph may refer to: Places In the United States * Randolph, Alabama, an unincorporated community * Randolph, Arizona, a populated place * Randolph, California, a village merged into the city of Brea * Randolph, Illinois, an unincorporated commu ...

(then at Boydton, Virginia) in 1847–1848, and after two years of preaching at

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, he held for four years (1850–1854) the presidency of Greensboro, N. C. Female College. He continued as a Methodist Episcopal clergyman at various pastorates in North Carolina from 1854 to 1865, for the last seven years being a presiding elder and from 1859 to 1863 being the proprietor of St Austins Institute, Wilson. Deems settled in New York City in 1865, and he began preaching in the chapel of

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in 1866. In 1868, he established and became the pastor of the non-denominational Church of the Strangers, which in 1870 occupied the former Mercer Street Presbyterian Church, purchased and given to Deems by

Cornelius Vanderbilt Cornelius Vanderbilt (May 27, 1794 – January 4, 1877), nicknamed "the Commodore", was an American business magnate who built his wealth in railroads and shipping. After working with his father's business, Vanderbilt worked his way into lead ...

; there he remained until his death in New York City in November 1893. Deems attended the Baltimore conference of the

Methodist Episcopal Church, South The Methodist Episcopal Church, South (MEC, S; also Methodist Episcopal Church South) was the American Methodist denomination resulting from the 19th-century split over the issue of slavery in the Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC). Disagreement ...

in 1870. He was influential in securing from Vanderbilt the endowment of

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...

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. Deems was one of the founders (1881) and president of the American Institute of Christian Philosophy and for ten years was editor of its journal, '' Christian Thought''. Deems was an earnest temperance advocate; as early as 1852 he worked (unsuccessfully) for a general

prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...

law in North Carolina, and in his later years allied himself with the

Prohibition Party The Prohibition Party (PRO) is a political party in the United States known for its historic opposition to the sale or consumption of alcoholic beverages and as an integral part of the temperance movement. It is the oldest existing third party ...

Personal life, death and legacy

Deems had two sons, Theodore and Francis, who both served in the

Confederate States Army The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...

during the Civil War, and a third son, Edward Mark Deems, the pastor of Sailors' Snug Harbor. Deems died in New York on November 18, 1893. The Charles F. Deems Lectureship in Philosophy was founded in his honor in 1895 at New York University by the American Institute of Christian Philosophy. His autobiography was finished by his two sons and published posthumously.

Works

As an editor

*''The Southern Methodist Episcopal Pulpit'' (1846–1852) *''The Annals of Southern Methodism'' (1855–1857) *''Devotional Melodies'' (1842)

As an author

*''The Life of Dr Adam Clarke'' (1840) *''The Triumph of Peace and other Poems'' (1840) *''The Home Altar'' (1850) *''

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

'' or ''The Light of the Nations'' (1872) *''Sermons'' (1885) *''And The Light Shineth In Darkness'' (1884) *''The Gospel of Common Sense'' (1888) *''The Gospel of Spiritual Insight'' (1891) *''My Septuagint'' (1892) *''Autobiography'' (New York, 1897)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Deems, Charles American Christian clergy 19th-century Christian clergy Religious leaders from Baltimore 1820 births 1893 deaths Randolph–Macon College faculty People from New Bern, North Carolina Activists from North Carolina 19th-century American clergy