Gibson, Robert, a minister of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, was born at Ballymena, Ireland, Oct. 1, 1793. His parents migrated to the United States in 1797, and his father, the Rev. William Gib- son, settled as pastor of the Reformed Presbyterian Church at Ryegate, Vt. He received his theological training at the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, and was licensed to preach in 1818. On Sept. G, 1819, he was ordained and installed as pastor of the church at Beaver Dam, where he la- bored with great success for twelve j'ears. In 1831 he became pastor of the Second Reformed Presbyterian church in the city of New York, and occupied that po- sition till his death. In this new and extensive field he labored with great diligence, and his influence grew rapidly. He bore a prominent part in the controversy which resulted in the disruption of the Church in 1833, and pulilished three pamphlets vindicating the course of the Sj'nod. In 1836 he showed symptoms of de- clining health. All efforts to arrest his disease were unavailing, and he died in the midst of his people, Dec- 22, 1837. We have from bim onlj^ the three pamph- lets above mentioned. — Sprague, Annals (Ref. Presb.), ix, 71.
Gibson, Tobias, a Methodist Episcopal minister, was liorn in Liberty County, S. C, Nov. 10, 1771, en- tered the itinerant ministry in 1792, and died at Natch- ez, Miss., in April, 1804. He traveled and preached in the most important appointments of the Carolinas until the year 1800, and then went to Natchez as a missionary. The whole Louisiana purchase was then almost a wilderness. After penetrating the forest for six hundred miles to the Cumberland River, Mr. Gib- son took a canoe, and alone navigated that stream to the Ohio, and thence down the Mississippi in a boat. He made four trips through the wilderness to the Cumberland while missionary at Natchez, and laid the foundations of Methodism in that vast and now so important region. His fellow-laborers in Carolina tes- tify that "he did for manj^ j'ears preach, profess, pos- sess, and practise Christian perfection ; and that those who were acquainted with him must be impressed with his de])th of piety;" and "that infidelity itself would stagger before the life of so holy, loving, and devoted a man of God." — Minutes of Conferences, i, 125.
Gibson, "William, a Reformed Presbyterian min- ister, was born near Knockl)racken, County Down, Ireland, in 1753. He studied at Glasgow, and was licensed by the Reformed Presbytery of Ireland in 1781. In the political ferment of Ireland towards the end of tlie century he joined the United Irishmen, and on the failure of the rebellion he fled to America, where he arrived in 1797. Finding a number of his own people there, he formed a congregation ; and the Re- formed Presbytery of North America was constituted
GICHTEL
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in 1798. In 1799 he became pastor at Eyegate,Vt., and remained there till 1^17, wiien he accepted a call to Cauonsl)ur<;, Pa. In 18;)() his infirmities compelled him to resign his charge. His latter j'cars were spent in Philadelphia, where he died, Oct. 15, 1838. — Wilson, Piesb. Hist. Almanac, 18G2, p. 274; Sprague, Annals (Kef. Presb.), ix, G.
Gichtel, JoHANN Georg, a German mystic, was born at Ratishon in 1638. He studied theology and law at the University of Strasburg, and was after- wards distinguished as a lawj'er. He became a fol- lower of Jacob Bohme, and prepared for publication the first edition of his works (Amsterdam, 1G82). He linally devoted himself to the propagation of his theo- sophic and ascetic views. Gichtel considered his own announcements of divine commands as superior to the Scriptures in authority. He was imprisoned as a dan- gerous visionary, struck off the list of barristers, and linally exiled. He retired in 1667 to Holland, where he died poor in 1710. His opinions have found occa- sional adherents to this day at Amsterdam, Leyden, and even in Germany. They were called Gichtelians, or Brothers of the Angels (_Enf/ehhi-uder), and be- lieved themselves equal to the inhabitants of heaven on account of their celibacy, peculiar mode of life, etc. One of the most zealous adherents of Gichtel was pro- fessor Alandt de Raadt, who, however, subsequently fell out with him, when a merchant, by the name of Ueberfeld, became intimate with Gichtel. Bands of adiierents were found in Berlin, Halle, Magdeburg, Altona, where Gliising (died 1728) \i'as at their head, and other places, and partly maintained themselves to the 19th century. Gichtel's Letters were published by Gottfried Arnold (1701, 2 vols.; 1708, 3 vols.); and finall}- a complete collection of his writings, under the style Practische Theosophie (Leyden, 1722, G vols.). See Eeinbeck, 6'jc/ti!f>rs Lehensluvf und Lthnn (Berl. 1732); Harless, Gichtel's Lehen u.Irrthiimer, in Evan(j. Kirch. - Zeit. 1831, No. 77 ; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Genhxile, xx, 454 ; Herzog, Recd-Encyklop. v, 145.
Giddal'ti (Heb. id. "^nb^r,, whom / [Jehovah] Aare made great; Sept. FfcitoXAn^i and Ftf JfXS(,Yulg. Geddelthi and Gedelthi), the ninth named of the four- teen musical sons of Heman, and head of the twenty- second course of Levitical musicians in the tabernacle under David (1 Chron. xxv, 4, 29). B.C. 1013. The office of these brothers was to sound the horn in the Levitical orchestra (verse 5, 7). Fllrst (who reduces the sons of Heman to five) suggests (//< 6. Lex. s. v.) that the appended " names probablj' formed together