Sixty-ninth Session of the Synod, Holly Grove Church, Ilex, Davidson County, North Carolina, November 8, 1889.
Obituary of Rev. Polycarp C. Henkel, D. D-On the 20th of August, 1820, was born the oldest son of Rev. David and Catharine Henkel, in Lincoln County, North Carolina. That son was the Rev. Polycarp C. Henkel, D. D., who is a descendant of a long line of distinguished Lutheran ministers. He inherited very great physical and mental powers from both his parents.
He was early dedicated to God in Holy Baptism, and was received into full communion with the Evangelical Lutheran Church with St. Peter's congregation, Catawba County, North Carolina, having been catechised by Rev. Daniel Moser and confirmed by Rev. Adam Miller. On the 5th day of September, 1843, he was married to Rebecca Fox, of Randolph County, North Carolina, daughter of David Fox. The issues of this union were two sons and one daughter. The youngest son preceded his father into the spirit world. The other son, Hon. David S. Henkel, of New Market, Virginia, and Mrs. Catharine C. Lail, of Conover, North Carolina, and his aged widow, survive him, to mourn their loss.
He died at his late residence in Conover, North Carolina, on the 26th of September, 1889, after a few days of intense suffering, at the age of 69 years, 1 month, and 6 days, and was buried at St. Peter's Church, Catawba County, North Carolina, September 28 1889. Rev. J. M. Smith preached the funeral from 2 Tim. 4, 6-8, in the presence of hundreds of people who came from far and near. He was followed in brief, appropriate addresses, by the pall-bearers, Revs. Yoder, Schaid, Koiner, Bernheim, Little, and Rudisill.
Dr. P. C. Henkel was an extraordinary man, and unique in his character. He has been so long and so favorably known in this country, that anything like an attempt at a sketch of his life, would seem useless; yet we offer these few lines as a tribute of respect to his memory. As a husband and father, he was kind and devoted to his wife and children, anxious for their welfare, both temporal and spiritual, and supplied them with both precept and example.
As a neighbor and citizen, he was kind and obliging, always ready to do a favor, if it were in his power, frequently disobliging himself and family to oblige others.
Intellectually, he was a powerful man. He was an original thinker and a fine logician, He would clinch every argument, and in debate and controversy was a formidable antagonist. He would consider well, make up his opinion deliberately, and when once made up, was very decided. He was immovable from an opinion which was the result of long and careful consideration. He would never, for any consideration, go back on his word. His word was as sacred to him as a most solemn oath. In his manners he was humble and unassuming. Humility was manifest in all his intercourses with his fellow man. Integrity was also a salient point in his character. He was rigidly honest and truthful.
As a minister, he was a power. His style of preaching was expository, plain, and forciful. He entered the ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Tennessee Synod in 1843, having been ordained in Green County, Tennessee. He preached for forty-six years without interruption, and wholly in the Tennessee Synod, except a few years, while in the State of Missouri, where he led in the organization of the English District of the Missouri Synod. He labored exceedingly hard in the vineyard of the Lord. At one time he had pastoral charge of fifteen congregations. He did an immense amount of missionary work, traveled thousands of miles, in cold and heat, and rain and storm, in obedience to the call of the Master to this work. He never shirked from duty, but was always punctual, and ready to speak the word of encouragement to the weak, the word of comfort to the sorrowing, the word of life to those seeking a knowledge of the way of life. He was an uncompromising antagonist of error, and boldly and fearlessly denounced it wherever he met with it.
As a theologian, he was very profound. His range of study was broad, and his investigations were intense and searching, and descended into the very depths of theological problems, perhaps as far as human mind could go. His chief text-books were the Bible and The Confessions of the Lutheran Church. On Dogmatic Theology he was all acknowledged authority, in the Lutheran Church in the South, at least.
As a writer, he showed the same originality of character as in other fields. His ideas were original, and his style bold and vigorous. His writings are not numerous, but the treatment of the subjects he handled is exhaustive. It is to be regretted that he could not devote more of his time to writing, and thus transmit to generations to come, the results of his deep researches in theology.
His influence in all the relations in which we have mentioned him, as husband and father, as neighbor and citizen, as a man and as a preacher, and as a theological writer, was very great. In the Lutheran Church of the South, he was, perhaps, the greatest man in its history.
He labored hard and made great sacrifices to establish our school, Concordia College, for the Tennessee Synod, in which the Word of God should be recognized as a factor in education, and in which the Bible and Luther's Catechism should be taught daily. His influence is felt far beyond the limits of his own Synod, even throughout the whole Southern Church. He was in the midst of his earnest labors, both writing and preaching, to raise the Lutheran Church of the South to a higher plain of doctrine and practice, when the Master called him to his reward. Thus ended his work. A good and great man has fallen.
