FOSTER, ROBERT VERRELL: Presbyterian (formerly Cumberland Presbyterian); b. near Lebanon, Tenn., Aug. 12, 1845. He was graduated at Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tenn., in 1870 and Union Theological Seminary in 1877. He was professor of mathematics in Cooper Institute (near Meridian, Miss.) 1871-75, and in Waynesburg College; Waynesburg, Pa., 1877, professor of English, ethics, psychology, and logic in Cumberland University 1877-81 and also of Hebrew and New Testament Greek 1877-93. Since 1893 he has been professor of systematic theology in the Cumberland Presbyterian Theological Seminary in the same institution. In theology he is a Calvinist, although he believes that in the vicarious atonement of Christ propitiation is made for the sins of the whole world, and that for this reason the Gospel is freely and sincerely offered to all men for their acceptance or rejection. He prepared commentaries on the International Sunday-school Lessons from 1881 to 1895, edited The Theological Quarterly Review 1891-92, and has written Introduction to the Study of Theology (Chicago, 1889); Old Testament Studies: Being an Outline of Old Testament Theology (1890); Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (Nashville, Tenn., 1891); Brief History of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church (New York, 1894); Our Doctrines (Nashville, Tenn., 1897); and Systematic Theology (1898).