Religion. — There exists hardly any well -developed ■form of worship or religion. They have no idols and no priests. A loose system of spirit worship, or, better said, of veneration for the spirits of the dead, used to prevail among these people, but is gradually dying out. When a Micronesian dies, the body is placed upon mats, in the centre of the house, and rubbed with cocoa-nut oil till the flesh is gone; then the bones are placed in a loft or thrown into the sea. A stone is placed near the house as a resting-place for the spirit, and offerings
MICRONIUS
232
MIDDLETOX
are made to it twice a year. There are but few tradi- tions, and the people cannot be said to be very supersti- tious.
Missions. — Prosperous missions have been established in these groups by agents of the American Board of Foreign IMissions; several of the workers have been se- lected from among tlieir converts in Honolulu. As the result of the mission to Micronesia, during the nineteen years since its commencement, it would appear that a wonderful change has been produced in the social and moral condition of the once wild and savage inhabitants. A number of the natives have been converted to Chris- tianity, and, according to the last report, G()8 converts are united in Church fellowship. See The Missionury World (N. Y. 1873, 12mo), p. 457 and 1123; Grundemann, Miss. A this, s. V. ; Newcomb, Ci/doj). of Missions, p. 539 sq. See Sandwich Islands.
Micronius, Maktin, a very distinguished Dutch divine, was born about 15"23 at Ghent, of a noble Dutch family. We know little of Micronius's earh' years. He was at first a physician, and is said to be the author of several medical books and essays. In 1550, when the Protestant Church was bitterly persecuted by the Span- iards, Micronius, with many others of his countrymen, Hed to England, and there proved himself a very effi- cient helpmate to John a. Lasko (q. v.) in the establish- ment and organization of the foreign Protestant con- gregation in London. lie translated John ii Lasko's system of Church order and liturgical formulars into Dutch, and introduced them into the congregation of Dutch refugees in London. The death of the king wrought an entire change in the prospects of the exiles, and on the accession of queen ]Mary they prepared to leave for other parts. iSIicronius accompanied them to Denmark and East Fricsland, and finally became pastor at Nordcn. He died towards the close of the l(5th cen- tury. In his disputations and writings Micronius op- posed Simon ^lenno (q. v.) and David (ieorge ; and when Westphal (q. v.), a Lutheran divine, had called his fel- low-pilgrims " martyrs of the devil," on account of Las- ko's views of the sacraments, Micronius sought to con- vince, or at least silence him, but failed. In Norden he edited his larger and smaller Catechism, 1592 : De cleyne catechismus of kinderbere der Duitschen Ghemeynte van London, etc., weelce nu Mer ende deter verstrogt is. Ghe- maect door Martin Micron. Ghedruckt hey Gellium Itema- tium anno 1555. These catechisms were consulted in the composition of the Heidelberg Catechism ((}. v.). Micronius also wrote an apology of the foreign I'rotes- tant congregation, defending them against the accusa- tion of liigh-treason, which had furnislied a pretext for their ex])ulsion from England. vSce Kiicher, Katech. Gesc/i. der reform. Kirche ; Bartel's Johannes a Lasko.
Mid-day (Cl^f ^1?, <^onble light, 1 Kings xviii, 29, i. e. noon, as elsewhere rendered; Bi'rt ""'^n'^, half of the day, Neh. viii, 3; iif.ikpa fi'im], middle day. Acts XX vi, 13). See Day.
Mid'din (Ileb. Middin', 'p'l^, dista7ice ; Sept. Mact'iv V. r. Mrttuij'), a town in the desert of Judah, mentioned between Beth-arabah and Secacah (Josh, xv, 61); and probably situated not far from the Dead Sea, about opposite its middle, or possibly at the ruins near a well marked on Van de Velde's Map as Khan Mardeh, near the north end of the Dead Sea. " 15y Van de Velde {Memoir, p. 256, and Map) mention is made of a valley on the south-western side of the Dead Sea, below Masada, called I'm el-Iiedan, whifh may contain a trace of the ancient name" (Smith).
Middle Ages. Tlie barbarism of this period may be said to have begun about A.D. 510. when the barba- rians had made an irruption into the West very preju- dicial to the interests of literature. Learning was pre- served in the bishops' schools and monasteries: the works of ancient authors were kept in the libraries of the monasteries, but the libraries of monks and church-
men were composed chiefly of ecclesiastical and ascetic works, (ireek literature was generally neglected, Latin but poorly cultivated; rhetoric was turned into bom- bast, the liberal arts comprised within a few rules, and the study of philosophy abandoned and decried. This barbarism almost extinyuished the liyht (hence the name "Dark Ages") and life of Christianity, as the influence of the Church in the course of its previous corruption had already suppressed ancient literature. See Kiddle's Led. Chron. ; Eden, Theol. Diet. ; Farrar, Lccles. iJict.
Middle "Wall (/ito-oroixoi'), spoken of the eh el or sacnd ttiuc ("partition") between the Court of the (icn- tiks and v\\v interior sanctum of the Temple (Eph. ii, 14). See Ti;.Mi'i,E.
Middlekauff, Solomon, a German Reformed min- ister, was born near Ilagerstown, JId., in 1818; was ed- ucated at jMarshall College, Mercersburg, Pa. (class of 1839) ; studied theology in the theological seminarj- of the German Keformed Church located in the same place; was ordained in 1842, and became pastor of the Lincolnton charge in North Carolina. He died at the mineral springs, Catawba Connty, N. C, ISIay 21, 1845. His ministry was liricf hut blessed. Energetic, mild, and peaceful in sjiirit. well educated and ze.ilous, his in- fluence was widely iult, and bis memory is faithfully cherished.