adherent of the Episcopal Church. His mother, Silence Douglas, was of Scotch Presbyterian origin. His parents removed in 1790 to Hampton, Washington County, New York. Nathan remained on the farm until his fifteenth year. He then entered an academy, taught by Mr. Bolles, of the University of Dublin, in Poultney, Vt.,-one-half of his father's farm lying in this town. Two years afterwards (1802) he was sent to the grammar school at Williamstown, Mass., and entered Williams College in 1803. He was transferred to Middlebury College, Vt., in 1804, where he graduated in 1807. While in his junior year he became a subject of divine grace, and, at his graduation, he relinquished his original design of becoming a lawyer, and resolved to seek the Christian ministry. He accepted an invitation to become the Principal of Lincoln Academy, Newcastle, Maine, and at the same time pursued a course of theological study with the Rev. Kiah Bailey, the pastor of the Congregational church of that town. At the expiration of nearly two years, June 14, 1809, he was licensed by the Lincoln and Kennebec Association to preach the Gospel. In the autumn of the same year he became a Tutor of Middlebury College. Shortly after, he accepted a call from the Third Congregational Church of Portland, Me., and was ordained their pastor March 10, 1810. At an early period he developed symptoms of pulmonary disease, which compelled him to relinquish his pastoral charge. He was dismissed in October, 1812, and immediately sought a milder climate. He found a home in Hancock County, Ga., where he gathered a Presbyterian church and established a classical school for both sexes, and speedily acquired a high reputation as a teacher. This position he held for ten years, with the exception of the year 1818, when he served as President of Franklin College, Athens, Ga. In 1822 he returned to the North, and in September was invited to preach in the First Presbyterian Church of Troy, N. Y. He received soon after a call to be its pastor, and was installed June 17, 1823. In this post, which by his superior abilities and his eminent faithfulness he greatly adorned, he remained for forty years. Then, at his own request, he was released, June 16, 1863, from the active work of the pastor, and retained as "Pastor Emeritus." He was twice married-first to a Vermont lady, and then to a Southern lady, whom also he survived. The last few years of his life were spent with his daughter at Carbondale, Ill., where he died August 8, 1871, in his eighty-sixth year. As a preacher, a the Dr. Beman was no ordinary man. ologian, a debater, a counselor, a philanthropist, and a reformer, he occupied the very first rank. In fact, he had very few peers, scarcely any superiors. He was a mighty champion in the cause of Temperance and of Anti-Slavery. He favored, with his whole heart, the work of Revivals of Religion, and his preaching was peculiarly adapted to promote them. Everywhere he was acknowledged as a most effective leader, as "a master in Israel." Williams College conferred on him, in 1824, the honorary degree of D.D., and Middlebury College, Vt., in 1852, the honorary degree of LL.D. He was the Moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly of 1831, and took a foremost part in the debates that led (1837-1838) to the dismemberment of the Church, pleading the cause that he loved with a force of argument and a loftiness of eloquence that challenged universal admiration. He was the acknowledged peer of the greatest statesmen of the land. Pulpits of the first class and presidencies of colleges were repeatedly offered him, but he declined them all. He lived to witness the two darling desires of his heart-the Abolition of American Slavery and the Reunion of the Presbyterian Church. His publications were few. His "Four Sermons on the Doctrine of the Atonement, Troy, 1825," excited great interest, and their publication had a marked effect on the theological controversies of the period. His "Sacred Lyrics," or "Select Hymns, particularly adapted to Revivals of Religion, and intended as a Supplement to Watts, by Nathan S. S. Beman; Troy, 1832," was followed in 1841 by a much larger compilation, with the same name, “intended to be a complete Collection of Psalms and Hymns for the Use of the Sanctuary." A second and revised edition, to which he gave the name of "The Church Psalmist," was published in 1843, and received the endorsement of the [N. S.] General Assembly of that year. It has had an extensive circulation, and, until recently, was largely in use. The only hymns from his pen are the following three, which first appeared in "Sacred Lyrics" with his initial [B.]: "Jesus! I come to thee," etc. "Jesus! we bow before thy throne," etc. 66 'Hark! the judgment-trumpet sounding." ERASTUS CORNELIUS BENEDICT. 1800-1880. MR. BENEDICT was an honored counselor of the city of New York. He was a descendant of Thomas Benedict (16171690), of Norwalk, Conn. His great-grandfather, Peter, son of Deacon James, of Ridgefield, Conn., settled early in the last century at Salem, Westchester Co., N. Y. His grandfather, Abner (1740-1818), was the brother of the Rev. Joel Benedict, D.D. (1745-1816), an eminent biblical and classical scholar, of Plainfield, Conn., and was himself a minister of the Gospel, and pastor successively of the Congregational churches of Middlefield, Conn., and New Lebanon, N. Y., a preacher subsequently in Morris Co., N. J., and Roxbury, N. Y.,-having graduated at Yale College, in 1769. His father, Joel Tyler Benedict (1772-1833), born at Middlefield, Conn., began life as a lawyer in Connecticut; but, having been converted in his thirtieth year, he was licensed, June 15, 1802, by the Morris County Presbytery, and ordained November 16, 1803, as an evangelist, at Blooming Grove, N. Y. He was eminently blessed in his ministry as a laborer for many years in revivals of religion, and subsequently as a pastor at Franklin, N. Y., and Chatham, N. Y. In 1816 he removed to Philadelphia, and for many years, until his death, October 23, 1833, he was the Secretary of the Pennsylvania Tract Society. was of a high order. His piety Erastus was born, March 19, 1800, at Branford, Conn. He graduated at Williams College in 1821, and in 1824 was admitted to the bar, at New York, where he resided until his death, October 22, 1880. During his extended professional life, he acquired a well-earned reputation for legal skill, eminent integrity, and accurate scholarship. Long a pronounced Christian in connection with the Presbyterian and the Reformed churches, he was known as a wise counselor and earnest friend of the Church, ever ready to promote its interests. He took quite an active and prominent part in advancing the cause of education. At various times, he served as a trustee of the public schools of the city, a member and President of its Board of Education, and, from 1855, as a Regent of the University of New York. On several occasions, also, he was elected a member of the City Council and of the State Legislature, as Assemblyman and as Senator. In 1865 Rutgers College, New Jersey, conferred on him the honorary degree of LL.D. Besides several pamphlets, reviews, and addresses published at various dates, he brought out in 1838 his "Presbyterianism: a Review"; in 1850 his "American Admiralty"; in 1863 "The Beginning of America"-an anniversary discourse before the New York Historical Society, of which he had long been an active member. In 1867 he brought out, in a beautiful form, "The Hymn of Hildebert, and other Mediæval Hymns, with Translations" from his own pen-"the agreeable labor of occasional hours of leisure. Several of them," he says, "have at different times, during the last fifteen years, appeared in public journals—literary and religious." The translations are remarkably true to the original; the stanza, metre, and double rhymes being faithfully preserved. The closing portion of the hymn of Hildebert, beginning with that beautiful strain, "Urbs cœlestis! urbs beata," fairly exhibits his style and poetic ability: "Heavenly city! happy dwelling! Built upon that stone excelling: How thy heavenly hosts are singing— Let me sing the heavenly chorus." HENRY BENNETT. 1813-1868. THE year before his death, Mr. Bennett, of London, published an unassuming volume with the simple title, "Hymns by H. Bennett, London, 1867." Mr. Bennett was born at Lyme Regis, on the sea-coast of Dorsetshire, England, April 18, 1813. His hymns were the fruit of his leisure hours, and many of them appeared occasionally in various publications. His death occurred November 12, 1868, at Islington, London. The last two double stanzas of the hymn, "I have a Home Above," are subjoined: "But more than all I long His glories to behold, |