KEIR
29
KEITH
Canaanites in the place" (Smith). See Baal. Keilah was so considerable a city in the time of Nehemialr as to have two prtefects, who are mentioned as assisting in the reconstruction of the walls of Jerusalem (Neh. iii, 17, 18), and existed in the days of Eusebius and Jerome, who place it eight (the former, s. v. Ki]\a, less correctly, seventeen) Roman miles from Eleutheropolis, on the road to Hebron (see Keland, Pulcest. p. 488, G98). Jose- phus calls it CiUct (KiXXrt, Ant. vi, 13, 1). The prophet Habakkuk is said to have been buried here (Sozomen, Hist, vii, 29 ; Nicephorus, Ilisf. xii, 4:8) ; but see IIukkok. The above notices all point to a locality at a f(jrk of ■\\aily el-Faranj, a little N. of Idhna (Jedna), " where on a projection of the right-hand mountain stands a ruined tower" {lloh'mson, Researches, ii, 427), which Van de Velde learned at Hebron was still called Kiluh {Memoir, p. 328). This is confirmed by Tobler {Dritte Wanderun;/, p. loO sq.), although he remarks (p. 4G7) that Van de Velde, on the first edition of his Maji, had placed it too far south (S.E. of Idhna). A writer in Fairbairn's Dic- tiomirii (s. V.) argues in favor of the locality of Khmcei- lifeh [see Rimmon], but this is utterly out of the re- quired region, being in the Simeonitish portion of the tribe. See Judaii.
Keir, John, D.D., a Presbyterian minister, was born at Bucklyvie, Stirlingshire, Scotland, Feb. 2, 1770, edu- cated at the University of Glasgow, studied theology un- der Rev. A. Bruce, professor of theology in the tleneral Associate Synod, and was licensed at Glasgow in 1807. In 1808 he was appointed missionary to Nova Scotia, B. P., wliither he immediately proceeded. In the spring of 1809 he preached at Halifax and Merigomiah, and later took charge of the societies at Princetown and St. Peter's, Prince Edward Island, and in June, 1810, was ordained and installed as pastor, which position he held for nearly fifty years. In addition to, his pastoral duties he filled the position of professor of theology in the Pres- byterian Church of Nova Scotia, to which he was ap- pointed in 1843. He died Sept. 22, 1858. " Mr. Keir, as a lecturer, left upon the minds o6 the students a deep imjiression of the duties and responsibilities of the sa- cred ottice." — Wilson's Presh. Hist. Almanac, 1859-60, p. 234.
Keith, George, the noted leader of a faction of the (Quakers, was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, about the middle of the seventeenth century, lie was a man of superior intellect, who had enjoyed the advantages of a splendid training, not only in tlie schools of the na- tional Church of Scotland, but also at the University of Aberdeen. In the year 10G4 he came as a minister from the south of Scotland to his friends in Aberdeen, and, adopting the views of the Quakers, was involved in con- fiscations and imprisonment, together with others of that persecuted people. He wrote and published sev- eral treatises in vindication and ex|3lauation of the prin- ciples of that respectable body of Christians, and in 1675 was engaged with the celebrated Robert Barclay in a dispute with the students of the University of Aberdeen in defence of the Quaker doctrines. He also, about this time, with William Penn, (ieorge Whiting, and Stephen Crisp, engaged in a discussion with the Baptists in Lon- don. About the year 1682 he removed to England, and took charge of a school at Edmonton, established by the Society of Friends. He was soon persecuted, however, for pireaching and teaching without a license, and, re- fusing to take the oath, was committed to jail. In 1684 he removed to London, but was imjirisoned five months in Newgate for nonconformity. After his liberation he emigrated to New Jersey, and was there appointed sur- veyor general, and employed in determining the boun- dary-line between East and West Jersey. In 1689 he removed to Philadelphia, where he took charge of a Friends' school, with a liberal salary, but resigned his position at the end of the school year, and travelled in New England, visiting meetings and holding disputa- tions with the religious professors. He is noted for his defence at this time of the Quaker tenets against In-
crease and Cotton Mather. On his return to Philadel- phia he became involved in a controversy with his own denomination, on various points of discipUne and doctrine. He charged them with doing away, by allegor\-, with the narrative of the real sufferings of Christ, and conse- quently the doctrine of a real atonement. He also sus- pected them of being infected with the spirit of Deism. Penn, being at this time in London, addressed a letter to Turner, a justice in I'hiladelphia, in which he defends " honest Geo. Keith and his I'latonic studies," but after- wards, becoming acquainted with the merits of the dis- pute, decided against Keith. Keith returned to Lon- don, where he soon came in collision with Penn himself. Penn having spoken from the text, "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin," his exposition being strictlj' orthodox on their principles, namely, that " the blood is the life, and the life is the light within them," Keith took up the subject, and showed that " sin was cleansed by the blood of the true Christ actually shed on Calvary." Penn is reported to have started from his seat, and, as he himself afterwards stated in the annual meeting, being "so transported by the pow- er of God that he was carried out of himself, and did not kno^v whether he was sittmg, or standing, or on his knees," he tlumdered forth this anathema: "I pronounce thee an apostate, over the head of thee." The great body followed Penn, and Keith was condemned by an edict of the annual meeting. He was not slow, how- ever, in his own defence, but denounced the society as Deists, and entered into an able and labored argument to prove it (see Keith's JJeism of William Penn, and Mosheim, vol. v, cent, xvii, ch. iv, sect, ii, part ii), and formed a society of his own, kno%vn as Christian Quale- ers. Baptist Quakers, or Keithians (q. v.). Still dissat- isfied, he finally entered the Church of England, and became a regular priest. In the years 1702, 170;'>. 1704, he performed an important and successful mission on the American continent, under the care of the Episco- pal Society for projHtr/cttiiuj the Gospel in Foreiffn Parts. He was especiallj' successful in Pennsj-lvania and New Jersey. Seven hundred Quakers were through his in- strumentality converted from Quakerism and baptized (see Humphry's Historij of the Qual-erSjl^onA. A.D. 1730 ; Christian Observer, April, 1816). Returning to England, in 1706 he was appointed rector of Edburton, in Sussex, and there died about 1715. Bishop Burnet, who was educated with Keith at the University of Aberdeen, in his Historij of his Own Times (1700, ii, 144), says that Keith " was esteemed the most learned man that ever was in that sect ; he was well versed both in the Ori- ental tongues, in philosophy and mathematics." Keith •\vrote a great many theological tracts, principally di- rected against the (Quakers, for a list of which see 'Watts, Bihl. Brit. The most important of all is The Standard of the Quakers examined (Lond. 1702, 8vo), which is a refutation of Barclay's Apolorjy. See Janney, History of the Frieruls (Philad. 1867, 4 vols. 12mo), iii, 71 sq. (E. de P.)