Niles, Nathaniel, a Congregational minister, was born April 3, 1741, at South Kingston, K. I. He grad- uated at the College of~New Jersey in 1776 ; studied the- ology under Dr. Bellamy ; entered the ministry, but never settled in any place as pastor. Kesiding for some time in Norwich, Conn., he was several times sent to the state legislature. After the Kevolution he settled in Orange County, Yt., then a wilderness, and there spent his life, filling many important public stations, being a judge in the supreme court; speaker in the House of Representatives, 1784; member of the United States Congress, 1791 to 1795 ; and six times presidential elector. He preached in his own house and in school-houses around the country, seldom receiving any compensation for his labors, which were continued until his strength failed. His death occurred Oct. 31, 1828. Mr. Niles pub- lished Four Discouises on Secret Prayer (1773) :—Two Discourses on Coifession of Sin and Foi-(/ireness (1773) : — Two sermons entitled The Perfection of God the Foun- tain of Good (1777) : — A Sei-mon on vain amusements; and a Letter to a friend concerning the doctrine that impenitent sinners have the natural power to make to themselves new hearts (1809) ; besides numerous arti- cles for newspapers and the Theolofficid ^faffazine. See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, i, 716.
Niles, Samuel (1), a Congregational minister of colonial days, was born at Block Island, Mass., May 1,
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1G74 ; was educated at Harvard University, class of | 1G99 ; and after thoroughly preparing himself for min- isterial labors became pastor of a church at Kingston, E. I., in 1702, and there remained until 1710. In 1711 he was installed pastor of the Second Church at Braintree, Mass. He died at his native place May 1, 17G2. He published, A brief and soiTonful Account of the present Chirches in New Enr/land (1745) : — Vindication of divers Important Doctrines (1752, 8yo):— Scripture Doctrine of Original Sin (1757, 8vo) : — God's Wonder-working Providence for New England in the Reduction of Louis- burg {11-^1) ■.—History of the French and Indian Wars, in " Hist. Collections," 3d series, vol. vi.
Niles, Samuel (2), a Congregational minister, son of the preceding, was born Dec. 14, 1743, at Braintree, Mass., where his father was then pastor. Niles, Jun., graduated at the College of New Jersey in 1769 ; studied under Dr. Bellamy ; entered the ministry Nov. 7, 1770, and was ordained, Sept. 25, 1771, pastor in Abington, Mass., where he remained until his death, Jan. 16, 1814. He published two occasional sermons. See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, i, 713.
Niles, William Watson, son of judge Nathan- iel Niles, of Vermont, was born at West Fairlee Nov. 29, 1796; graduated at Dartmouth College, studied at An- dover Theological Seminary, entered the ministry of the Congregational Church, and subsequently took or- I ders in the Protestant Episcopal Church. He died at La Porte, Ind., in 1854. He was a zealous advocate of the cause of temperance.
Niloa, an anniversarj' festival among the ancient Egyptians in honor of the tutelar deity of the Nile. Heliodorus alleges it to have been one of the principal festivals of the Egyptians. Sir J. G. Wilkinson thus describes the Niloa: ''It took place about the summer solstice, when the river began to rise ; and the anxiety with which they looked forward to a plentiful inunda- tion induced them to celebrate it with more than usual honor. Libanius asserts that these rites were deemed of so much importance by the Egj'ptians that unless they were performed at the proper season and in a be- coming manner by the persons appointed to this duty, they felt persuaded that the Nile would refuse to rise and inundate the land. Their full belief in the efficacy of the ceremony secured its annual performance on a grand scale. Men and women assembled from all parts of the country in the towns of their respective nomes, grand festivities were proclaimed, and all the enjoy- ments of the table were united with the solemnity of a holy festival. Music, the dance, and appropriate hymns marked the respect they felt for the deity ; and a wood- en statue of the river-god was carried by the priests through the villages in solemn procession, that all might appear to be honored by his presence and aid, which invoked the blessings he was about to confer." Even at the present day the rise of the Nile is hailed by all classes with excessive joy. See Gardiner, Diet, of Religion and Sects, ii, 536. See Nile.
Nilus, the great river of Egypt, which even in the most ancient times received divine honors from the in- habitants of that country. This deity was more espe- cially worshipped at Niopolis, where he had a temple. Herodotus mentions the priests of the Nile. Lucian saj's that its water was a common divinity to all of the Egyptians. From the monuments it appears that even the kings paid divine honors to the Nile. Champollion refers to a painting of the time of the reign of Rameses II, which exhibits this king offering wine to the gods of the Nile, who in the hieroglyphic inscri]ition is called Hajn-Mitn, the life-giving father of all existences. The passage which contains the praise of the god of the Nile represents him at the same time as the heavenly Nile, the primitive water, the great Nilus whom Cicero, in his De Natiira Deorum, declares to be the father of the highest deities, even of Ammon. The sacredness which attached to the Nile among the ancient Egyp-