Merbes, Box de, a French theologian, was born in
MERCATI
108
MERCHANT
1G16 at ^yiontdidier. He entered the congregation of tlie Oratory, and rose to much distinction. The doc- torate of theology was conferred upon him. He died Aug. 2, \i}Hi. I lis Latin works are excellent. Espe- cial notice is due to his Suin/na Christiana sen Ortlio- doxa morum disciplina ex Sacris Lilfe?-is, sanctorum pa- trum monumentis, conciliorum oracidis, summorum deni- que pontijiciim decretis fideliter excerpta, etc. See Du Pin, Bibliotheque du dix-septieme siede, iv, 271. — Hoefer, Xoui: Jiioff. Generale, s. v.
Mercati, Giovanni Baptista, a painter of the 17th century, was a native of S. Sepolcro, Tuscany. He achieved a high reputation at home, and his fame ex- tended as far as Kome. Two of his historical frescos, representing Our Lady, are in S. C'hiara; and at S. Lo- renzo there is a picture of the titular, with other saints. In the (aiidcs to Venice and Kome several of his works are mentioned; and in that of Leghorn, the only picture in the cathedral esteemed worthy of notice is that of the Five Saints, painted by Mercati with great care. See Lanzi's Uistoi-y of I'uintinr/, transl. by Eoscoe (London, 1847, 3 vols. 8vo), i, 255.
Mercator, INLmuus. See IMarius.
Mercein, T. F. Kandolpii, a minister of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church, was born in New York Citj' Nov. 27, 1825. He was converted in early youth, and joined the Presbyterian Church, to which his parents belonged. His educational advantages were very supe- rior, as he was intended for tlie ministry. Li his second year at college his health failed, and he was obliged to desist from all study. While at home he fell in with books that gave him a distaste for Calvinistic theologj'. He promptly joined the jMetliodists, was licensed to preach, and exercised his power as a Cluisiiar. pasinr for eleven years. He died at Sluiliil.l, .'Ma—.. Srpi. !."■. 1856. "Of a high order of iiitcllcri. carcliilly (•(lucalcd. deeply serious and ihdiightful, with a profound sense of ministerial rospdiisiliility. hold and faithful in the dis- charge of duty, gentle, amiable, and genial, he was em- inently fitted to atlorn both public and private life. His deep, ardent piety jiervaded and beautified his whole being. He was emphatically a pure, humble, heavenly- minded man. His rare gifts made him an attractive speaker, a fine writer, a successful author, an accom- plished debater, a choice friend. He was loved even more than he was admired" (Smith, Sacred Memories of the N. Y. and X. Y. East Conf p. 75 sq.). His pub- lished works are, Natural Goodness : — The Wise Master- Builder: — Childhood and the Church; and numerous essaj-s, etc., in the periodicals of the Church. All these evince great genius and earnest study, deeply imbued with the spirit of Christian love. — Minutes of Confer- ences, vi, 321 ; Dr. Dewey's Lecture (p. 298), of the " Pitt's Street Chapel Lectures" (Boston, Jewett & Co., 1858).
Mercer, Jksse, D.D., a Baptist minister, was born in Halifax County, N. C, Dec. 16, 1760. His early ed- ucation was limited, yet he began to preach when only eighteen years of age ; was ordained Nov. 7, 1789, and soon became pastor of a Church at Hutton's Fork (now Sardis), in Wilkes County. In 1793 he accepted a call to Indian Creek (or Bethany), in Oglethorpe County, whence he removed in 1796 to Salem, where he became preceptor in the academy, and also succeeded his father in the charge of the Phillips ilill, Powelton, and Bcth- csda churches for some time, and finally removed to the fork of the Little Piver, in Crcen County. In 1826 he attended tiie (ieneral Convention in Philadelphia, and at the end of the next year accepted a call from the Church at Washington, Wilkes County, where he con- tinued until 1833, when he became editor of the Chris- tian Index, a religious periodical. He was made D.D. by Brown University in 1S3.5. He was for many years identified with the (Jeorgia Association, acting as clerk of that body from 1795 till 1816, and afterwards as mod- erator till 1839; he was also connected with the Baptist
Convention of the State of Georgia from its beginning in 1822, being its moderator until 1841, when his im- paired health obliged him to resign. He became also one of the trustees of the college at Washington, and president of the mission board of the Georgia Associa- tion from 18.30 to 1841. He died Sept. 6, 1841. Dr. Jlercer published a large number of A Messes, Circular Letters, Essays, etc. See Mallory, Memoir if the Rev. Jesse Mercer, D.D. ; Sprague, Annals, vi, 283.
Merchant (this and kindred terms, as merchan- dise, etc., are properly expressed bj- some form of the Heb. *n!D, sachar', to travel about, Gr. tfiiropoc, a pas- senger to and fro; sometimes also by 531, rakal', to yo about; and occasionally by the title Canaamtk). Trade is of very great antiquity in the East (Niebuhr, Trav. iii,4 .sq.), and was sometimes carried on by sea (Prov. xxxi, 14; Psa. cvii, 23), but more commonly on land by means of a company associated for a mercantile journey (Gen. xxxvii, 25; Job vi, 18). See Cahavax. The itinerant character and temporary location which appear in all the ancient notices of Oriental merchants, whether individuals or an association of several persons, is still a marked trait of the same class in the East (Ilackett's Illnstrat. of Script, p. 63). In the patriarchal times such parties of Ishmaelites passed through Canaan on their way to Egypt (Gen. xxxvii, 25, 28), and bar- tered with the nomades for various products of their herds in exchange for implements, apparel, and similar articles, and sometimes purchased slaves (Gen. xxxvii, 28; xxxix, 1). After the Hebrews became settled in Palestine, they were drawn into those forms of commer- cial relations that early existed, but rather passively than actively, since the Mosaic law little favored this jirofession (^lichaelis, Mas. Recht, i, 238 sq. ; Josephus's ilonial of all mercantile pursuits by his nation, Apion, i, 12, is probably too strong an expression), although the geographical position of their country would seem to be in general advantageous for it ; but the circumscribed extent of their territory, the prevailing direction of the population to agriculture, which left few poor, their al- most total want of those natural and artificial products most in demand for general traffic, and the preoccupa- tion of the trade between Asia and Africa by two mer- cantile nations (the Phoenicians and Arabians), mostly precluded them from an independent commerce, for which, indeed, they were further incapacitated by the continuance of their sea-coast for the most jiart in the hands of the Canaanites and Philistines, who had, more- over, secured to themselves the great commercial route to Damascus, tnrough the prominence of several cities in the northern part of Palestine (Bertheau, /.«;•. C'wr/;. p. 287). Yet the north-western Israelites ajipear quite early to have occupied a post in the Phoenician marts (CJen.xlix, 13; Dent, xxxiii, 18; Judg. v, 17). Solomon not only (as a royal monopoly) imported horses from Egypt, and traded them away in Syria by governmental salesmen (I Kings x, 26; 2 Chron. i, 16, 17), but formed a commercial treaty with the king of Tyre for maritime enterprise (1 Kings ix,26), and launched from the Edom- itish ports of Ezion-geber and Elath, which David had acquired on the Bed Sea, a fleet that sailed under the pilotage of Tyrian seamen into the Indian Ocean, and, after a three years' voyage, brought back gold, silver, ivory, sandal -wood, ebony, apes, peacocks, and other products of Cliin-India (1 Kings x, 11; xxii, 22, 50; 2 Chron. ix, 10, 21). See OriiiR. After the death of Sol- omon this marine commerce shared the neglect of all the royal affairs, and the trade never revived, with the single cxcei)tion of .Jehoshaiihat's nndertalving (1 Kings xxii, 49), until these harbors passed entirely out of the control of the Israelites. See Eiiomitk. What posi- tion the .Jews held in the Phoenician traffic, or what profit the transit of Pha-nician merchandise brought them, is only to be gleaned indirectly from the histori- cal records (Bertheau, /.sr. Gcsch. p. 354") ; but that both these were not inconsiderable is clear from Ezek. xxvi,