Parker, Samuel (5)
Parker, Samuel (2)
son of bishop Samuel Parker, was an excellent scholar, but a man of singular modesty. He married a bookseller’s daughter at Oxford. where he resided, and appears to have had a situation in the Bodleian Library. Parker declined taking the oaths at the Revolution, and therefore did not enter into orders. He published Bibliotheca Biblica; being a Commentary upon all the Books of the Old and New Testaments, gathered out of the genuine Writings of Fathers and ecclesiastical Historians, and Acts of Councils down to the Year of our Lord 451, etc.; comprehending the proper allegorical, or mystic, and moral Import of the Text, etc. [anonymous] (Oxf. 1720, etc., 5 vols. 4to). This is a commentary of profound learning and research. It is to be regretted that it was not carried beyond the Pentateuch: An Abridgment of the Ecclesiastical History of Eusebius. His son founded the bookselling establishment at Oxford which still remains in the family.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Parker, Samuel (4)
a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, one of the most eminent pioneers of Methodism in the West, was born in New Jersey about 1774. He was converted at fourteen; in the year 1805 he entered the itinerancy; in 1809-1813 was presiding elder on Indiana District, which was then one of the most important fields of the Church, and was greatly improved and enlarged under his labors; in 1814 he was on Miami District; and in 1815- 1819 on Kentucky District. An important position in the Mississippi Conference needed a strong man, and thither the bishops sent him in 1819, but he was soon stricken down with disease, and died Dec. 20 of the same year. His preaching was of the most eloquent and irresistible character. He possessed an exceedingly musical voice, a clear, keen mind, an imagination which, though never extravagant, afforded frequent and brilliant illustrations of his subject, while his ardent piety imparted wonderful tenderness and power to his appeals. Withal his personal appearance was striking. He was nearly six feet in height, and had a remarkably intellectual countenance, with a full forehead and a black piercing eye. Parker’s whole life was one of ceaseless and glorious toil for the kingdom of Christ. He was one of the princes of Israel, and his early death deprived the Church of one of her most needed laborers in the West. He was a man of genius, and was called the Cicero of the Western Methodist ministry. See Minutes of the Annual Coferences, 1:358; Meth. Mag. 1825, art. Wm. Beauchamp, et al.; Stevens, Hist. of the Meth. Epis. Church 1:365),378; Finley, Sketches of Western Methodism, p. 206; McFerrin, Hist. of Methodism in Tennessee, 2:321 sq.; Redford, Hist. of Methodism in Kentucky (see Index in vol. 2). (J. H.W.)
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Parker, Samuel (5)
a Presbyterian minister, was born at Ashfield, Mass., April 23, 1779. He was of Puritan ancestry, noted for their piety and decided character. During 1798 and 1801 he pursued his preparatory studies under the superintendence first of the Rev. Mr. Strong, of Williamsburg, Mass., and afterwards of Dr. Smith of Ashfield. He graduated at Williams College in 1806. taught a year in the academy at Brattleboro, Vt., and in the fall of 1807 sent to Shelborough, Mass., and commenced theological study with the Rev. Theophilus Packard. In the pecuniary straits, as well as the demand for duty, he was licensed at the end of the year 1808 by the Northern Congregational Association of Hampshire County to go to Steuben County- , N.Y., and to Northern Pennsylvania. After three months there, he entered the Andover Theological Seminary, and graduated with the first class of that institution, immediately after which he was sent by the Massachusetts Missionary Society to Middle and Southern New York. In 1812 he was called to Danby N. Y.; was ordained and installed pastor Dec. 23 of that year and continued to labor there for fifteen years when he was called to become financial agent to New England for Auburn Theological Seminary. In 1830 he became pastor of the Church at Apulia, N. Y.; in 1833 of the Congregational Church at Middlefield, Mass.; and in 1835, 1836, and 1837 he made his exploring tour beyond the Rocky Mountains, under the American Board of Foreign Missions the result of which was the establishment of several missions. After his return he wrote his book on Oregon, and spent several years in lecturing and supplying pulpits temporarily. He died March 24, 1866. Mr. Parker was in character a bold, decided man, full of energy and. Resolution doing with his might whatever he undertook. His preaching was sound, doctrinal, and scriptural. He was a distinguished counselor in Church polity and discipline. Naturally a fine scholar, he took an interest in languages science, and art, as well as in the practical duties of life. He claimed to be the first to suggest the possibility of a railroad through the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific. He published the journal of an Exploring Tour beyond the Rocky Mountains, 1835, 1836, 1837 (Ithaca, 1838, 12mo; Lond. 1841, 8vo; 5th Amer. ed. Auburn, 1846, 12mo). See: North Amer. Rev. Jan. 1840, p. 129; Lond. Monthly Rev. Nov. 1838, p. 349; Lond. Athen. 1838, p. 790; Wilson, Presb. Hist. Almanac, 1867, p. 315; Record of the Alumni of Dartmouth College. (J. L. S.).