Mayer, Philip Frederick, D.D., a distinguished American Lutlicran minister, was born April 1, 1781, in the city of New York, wliere he continued to reside till he reached his majority. His earlier years were spent at the German school attached to the Lutheran Church. His preparation for college was made under the direc- tion of Mr. Campbell. He graduated with the first honors of his class at Columbia College, New York, in 1799, then under the administration of Dr. W. S. Johnson. He spent three years in the prosecution of his theologi- cal studies, under the instruction of the Rev. Dr. Kunze, one of the most learned men of his day. He was licensed to preach the (xospel in 1802, and soon after took charge of the Lutheran Church at Lunenburg (now Athens), N. Y. In 1806 he resigned this position, and accepted a call as pastor of St John's (Lutheran) Church, Phila- delphia. This was the first exclusively English Lu- theran congregation formed in this country. To the discharge of his arduous duties Dr. Mayer devoted him- self with conscientious fidelity and untiring zeal. He was unwearied in his efforts to promote the good of his
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own flock, as well as faitliful anil constant in his aims to advance the welfare of the whole community. He never withheld his influence from any object v.hich met his deliberate and cordial approval. In 1808 he was associated with bishop White, Dr. Green, Dr. Rush, and others in the formation of the Pennsylvania Bible Soci- ety, the first institution of the kind organized in the United States, of which he continued to be an active and efficient manager, and was at the time of his death the presiding officer. He was also the senior member of tlie board of trustees of the University of Pennsylvania. He was the president of the board of managers of the Deaf and Dumb Asylum and of the Philadelphia Dispen- sary, and ^vas actively connected with other eleemosy- nary institutions. Liberal and enlarged in his views, he was at some time identified, either as a patron or di- rector, with every philanthropic enterprise of a catholic spirit in his adopted city. He retained his pastoral connection with the Church tUl his death, which oc- curred April IG, 1868. Dr. Mayer was no ordinary man, or he coidd never have so successfully sustained him- self for so long a period among the same people, and enjoyed in so eminent a degree the regard and confi- dence of the whole community. He was a man of clear intellect and quick perceptions, united with great deli- cacy of taste and keen discernment. He was a. ripe scliolar, thoroughly acquainted with the whole range of English literature, and in the department of Biblical Criticism having few superiors. He received his D.D. from Columbia College, New York, and the University of Pennsylvania. (M. L. S.)
MayheTV, Experience, a noted American divine, for years actively engaged in missionary labors among the Indians, was born Jan. 27, 1673. His father, grand- father, and great-grandfather were all most successfully engaged as missionaries to the Indians before him. In March, 169-i, about five years after the death of his fa- ther, he began to preach to the Indians, taking the over- sight of five or six of their assemblies. The Indian language had been familiar to him from infancy, and he was employed by the commissioners of the Society for Propagating the Gospel in New England to make a new version of the Psalms and John, which work he executed with great accuracy in 1709. He died Nov. 29. 1758, aged eighty-five. He published a sermon en- titled A II Mankind by Nature equally undei' Sin (1724:) : ■ — Indian Converts (1727), in which he gives an account of the lives of thirty Indian ministers, and about eighty Indian men, women, and j'outh, -worthy of remembrance on account of their piety : — Letter on the Lord's Supper (1741): — Grace Defended (17-14), in which he contends that the offer of salvation made to sinners in the Gospel contains in it a conditional promise of the grace given in regeneration. In this he says he differs from most Calvinists ; yet he supports the doctrines of original sin, of eternal decrees, and of the sovereignty of God in the salvation of man. His son Zechariah succeeded him in the missionary field, making five generations thus en- gaged. The age attained by the Mayhews is remarka- ble: the first, Thomas, died aged ninety; Experience, eighty-four; John, grandson of the first John, eighty- nine; his brother Jeremiah, eighty-five; Dr. Matthew, eighty-five ; Zecliariah, seventj'-nine. — Indian Com:, Appendix, p. 300, 307; Chauncy's FemarJcs on Lan- daff's Sei-nion, p. 23 ; Cyclop. Eel. Knoicledge, s. v.
Mayhe^w, Jonathan, D.D., a celebrated Ameri- can divine, was born at Jlartha's Vineyard Oct. 8, 1720. He was a descendant of Thomas Jlayhew, the first Eng- lish settler of that island. In early childhood Jonathan gave indications of great vigor of mind and a strong will. He was fitted for college by his father, who was a very intelligent man. During his college course at Harvard he w.is distinguished not only as a fine classi- cal scholar, but also for his skill in dialectics and his at- tainments in ethical science. He graduated with great honor in 1744. Three years later he received a caU