GOSS, CHARLES FREDERIC: Presbyterian; b. at Meridian, N. Y., June 14, 1852. He was educated at Hamilton College (B.A., 1873) and Auburn Theological Seminary, from which he was graduated in 1876. After several years as a home missionary, he was called in 1885 to the pastorate of the Moody Church, Chicago, but was forced by ill health to resign five years later. He then resided for two years at Kettle Falls, Wash., after which he was assistant pastor of the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York City, for a year. Since 1894 he has been pastor of Avondale Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati. Theologically he is in general sympathy with the methods and results of the historico-critical study of the Scriptures, and accepts the "Brief Statement" of the Westminster Creed. Besides several novels, he has written Life of D. L. Moody (Hartford, Conn., 1900); Just a Minute (Philadelphia, 1904); and

Husband, Wife, and Home (1905).

GOSSNER, JOHANNES EVANGELISTA: German minister; b. at Hausen bei Ober-Waletatt (near Augsburg) Dec. 14, 1773; d. at Berlin Mar. 20, 1858. He studied at the University of Dillingen and at the seminary of Ingolatadt, and was ordained priest in 1796. After officiating at Dillingen, Seeg, and Augsburg from 1797 to 1804, he was appointed parish priest at Dirlewang, where he remained for seven years. He had long entertained pronounced Evangelical convictions which at length made him consider the advisability of leaving the Roman Church. Despite the advice of his mystical Lutheran friend, Sch6ner of Nuremberg, he resigned his pastorate at Dirlewang, and engaged in literary pursuits, also accepting a small benefice at Munich. The Roman Catholic party unfrocked Gossner for his views in 1817, and two years later he was appointed religious instructor at the gymnasium at Düsseldorf. From 1820 to 1824 he officiated as pastor of a German congregation at St. Petersburg, but his attacks on the celibacy of the clergy forced him to resign, and in 1826 he openly joined the Evangelical Church. In 1829 he was appointed pastor at the Bethlehem Church at Berlin, where he officiated for seventeen years. During his stay in Berlin he developed a great and beneficial activity, founding schools and asylums,

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and establishing a missionary society which during his lifetime sent out more than 140 missionaries, especially among the Khols of East India. After his resignation from his pastorate in 1846; he devoted himself for the remainder of his life to ministerial work in the hospital which he had founded while still at the Bethlehem Church.

Gossner made a highly popular and very faithful translation of the New Testament; and published numerous tracts and pamphlets. Among his more important works may be mentioned his SchatzzkdSt lein (Leipsic, 1825), M. Boos, der Prediger der Gerecktigkeit (1826), and Goldkorner (Berlin, 1859). In 1834 he founded a missionary journal, Die Biene auf dem Missionsfelde, which he edited for several years.

(W. Hallenberg†.)

Bibliography: M. A. Von Bethmann-Hollweg, Johannes Goasner, Berlin, 1858; J. D. Prochnow Johannes Evan-

gelista Gosener, ib. 1859; H. Dalton, Johannes Gossner, ib. 1878.