CHARLES LOUIS LOOS.

      Charles Louis Loos, son of Jacques G. and Catherine Loos, was born December 22, 1823, at Woerth-sur-Sauer, Lower Rhine, (Lower Alsace) France. With his father's family he came to the United States, and settled in Ohio in November, 1834. The family were in the communion of the Lutheran church, but soon after arrival in the United States, heard the preaching of the Restoration, and on October 14, 1838, Charles was baptized. He began teaching and was soon also preaching. In September, 1842, he entered Bethany College, Va., where in due course he graduated. While the greater part of his systematic work in life has been that of a teacher, Prof. Loos has always been an active preacher of the gospel. He preached before entering college, and while in college. After graduation he was engaged as minister of the gospel at Wellsburg, Va., 1849-1850; Somerset, Pa., September, 1850 to January, 1856; Cincinnati, O., First church, corner Walnut and Eighth, January, 1, 1856, to January 1, 1857.

      At Bethany College he was Professor in Primary Department, September, 1846 to July 1849.

      At Somerset, Pa., he established and conducted the Collegiate Institute, 1853-1856. He was president of Eureka College, Ill., January, 1857, to September, 1858, was professor of Ancient Languages and Literature at Bethany College, September, 1858, to June, 1880, and president of Kentucky University and professor of Greek, September, 1880, to June, 1897. Since he has been professor of Greek in the same institution.

      While in Somerset. Pa., he established and edited The Disciple, 1851-1853. At Cincinnati he was one of the editors of the Christian Age, during 1856. He was co-editor of the Millennial Harbinger, January, 1864. to January, 1871. Prof. Loos was also a constant contributor, editorially and otherwise, to the Christian Standard, from its founding in 1865, to the death of its great editor, Isaac Errett, in 1888. He has also written for the Christian Quarterly, New Christian Quarterly, and other journals and periodicals of the Restoration.

      From October, 1856, to January, 1857, he was Corresponding Secretary of the American Christian Missionary Society, and President of the Foreign Christian Missionary Society, January, 1889-1900. During all his long life in the Church of Christ Prof. Loos has been an active preacher of the Word, both with voice and pen--an educator mainly devoted to the fostering of the Christian ministry, an ardent supporter and leader of Christian missions, and a valued [466] counselor in all the activities of the Churches of Christ. From the very beginning of his ministry Prof. Loos took high rank among the preachers of the Restoration, as a scholar and thinker, as an educator and as a leader in all the great onward movements of the churches. He was intimately associated with the great leaders of the early days of the Restoration--A trusted friend and counselor of Alexander Campbell, Walter Scott, Robert Richardson, and all the men who laid the foundation of the work, and a prominent figure in the great development of the second period. There is perhaps no living man among the disciples of Christ to-day who knows so well the history and genius of this great body, or has been himself so large a part of that history. He has been closely connected with all our educational development, having been invited at one time or another to the presidency of almost every prominent college in the brotherhood. To-day he is the Nestor of our educational forces. Equally close and true has been his relation to our journalism, and no man has had more to do with the founding, inspiring and fostering of our great missionary enterprises. In the colleges, in the progress of our development and in public addresses in our great assemblies, he has influenced more profoundly the minds and hearts of our ministry than any other man now living. Even in his ripe age he is looked to in honor and reverence as one of our most trusted and able counselors. His name is known throughout the ranks of the Christian ministry, from East to West and from North to South.

      While by nature and culture of a specially intellectual type of deep and accurate scholarship, wide reading, and broad and tolerant thought, Prof. Loos has always been marked among our leaders for ardent enthusiasm, evangelical fervor and loyalty to the great ideals of the features of the Restoration Movement. An ardently progressive Christian spirit in the best sense of the term, leading the great host onward with high enthusiasm in the paths of Christian service, cultivating and reposing in the widest fellowship with all Christian life of whatever name or under whatever temporary banner, he has stood four square to all the winds that blew upon the great foundation of evangelical Christian faith--the all-sufficient authority of the Divine Word of God, in which that faith is set forth--which was the great thought of the fathers of our movement. There has been no man among our ministry, less bigoted, less sectarian, less speculative, and at the same time none more loyal to the ancient gospel.

      A man of strong, clear cut convictions, and ardent devotion to his faith, his career has been remarkable for the absence of controversial excitements or personal antagonisms. One of the most forceful and virile spirits of the Restoration ministry, he has never been a man of strife. Proclaiming and enforcing the truth as he saw it, and pushing forward in every way the work of Christ in the world, he has had around him ever the shield of such a manifestly candid and unselfish spirit, an instant fellowship with all good, such a single-minded integrity of purpose that has disarmed all personal antagonism, and overcome malevolence. His heart has ever been seen to be pure from all thoughts of self-seeking or taints of self-feeling, and in his old age he reaps the fruit of single-minded love and loyalty in, "That which should accompany old age, as honor, love, obedience, troops of friends."

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