"Rain down, ye heav'ns, eternal bliss I The cherub-cliiud to-dny Bears Jesus wlierc his Father is, Along the starry way."
See Neale's Hymns of the Eastern Ch. p. 229 sq. (B. P.) Rhea, Samuel Audlev, a Presbyterian missionary, was born in Blountville. East Tenn., Jan. 23, 1827. He graduated at the University of East Tennessee in 1847, after which he entered the Union Theological Seminary, New York, at which institution he graduated in 18ii0, and was ordained Feb. 2, 1851. After his ordination he was appointed missionary to Gawar, Persia, where he labored faithfully for eight years, at the expiration of which time he removed to Seir, another part of the Per- sian field, where he remained but a year in consequence of declining health. Being advised by his physician to return to the United States, he came to his former home, and on recovering his health returned to his post. From this place he went to Oroomiah. where he labored with zeal and success till his death, Sept. 2, 1865. (W. P. S.) Rhees, Morgan John (l),a Baptist ndnister, was born in Glamorganshire, Wales, Dec. 8, 1760. He de- voted himself at first to teaching; but having studieil theology in the Baptist College at Bristol, he entered the ministry. His liberal views led him to France at the beginning of the revolution in that country, but, dis- appointed by its excesses, he came back and began ex- pounding his particular views in a quarterly entitled The Welsh Treasury. This brought him into some dif- ficulties with the authorities, and he emigrated to the United States in 1704 as the protector of a Welsh colony. Here he travelled through the Southern and M'estern states, preaching with remarkable success. Having, in connection with Dr. Benjannn Rush, inirchased a tract of land in I'ennsylvania, to which he gave the name of Cambria, he planned the capital of the county, which ho called Beulah, and settled there with a conqiany of Welsh emigrants in 1798. He remained for several years, acting as pastor of the church at Benlali, but finally removed to Somerset, Somerset Co., where he died,"Sept. 17, 1804. One of his sons was INF. .1. I.'hees, D.D. (q. v.). His earlier jiroductions were publislied in the Welsh language, and but few of them have been
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KIIETORIANS
translated. He published a few Orations and Dincovrfes ill this country, which evince great vivacity and elo- (luence. — Sprague, . I iiiiah of' the A mer. Pulpit, vi, 344.
Rhees, Morgan John (2). D.D.. a Haptist min- ister, was liorii at S<iu)ersct, Simcrset Co., I'a., Oct. 2.'), 1802. He devoted himsclt" at lirst to law, hej^an prac- ticing in May, lH2(i, and gave promise of great success in that profession; but, directing his attention to the stutly of theology, he acted for a time as temperance agent, an<l was tinally ordained Sept. i>, 182!l, and on April 1, lf<;>0, became pastor of the churches at Uorden- lown and Trenton, N. .1. Here he was also one of the founders of the New .Jersey State Convention for missionary purposes in 1829, of which he became secre- tary', besides being chairman of the executive committee of the State Temperance Society, and editing for a time the Trmperuiice /i( porter. He closed his connection with the church at Uordentown in 1833, retaining that at Trenton. In 1840 he also resigned tlie latter to become corresponding secretary of the American Hap- tist rublication Society, in which position his services proved very useful. In 1843 he l)ecame pastor of the Second Baptist Church at Wilmington, Del., wliere he remained until 1850, when lie accepted a call from tlie First Baptist Church of Williamsburgh, L. I., and here, still acting as recording secretary of the Board of the Missionary Union and the American and Foreign Biljle Society, death closed his useful career, .Ian. 15, 1853. — Sprague, Anncils of the A mer. Pulpit, vi, 780.
Rhe'gium (Pi'iyiov, prob. from pt^yvvpi, alluding to tlie abrupt character of the coast). The mention of this Italian town (which was situated on the Bruttian coast, just at the southern entrance of the Strait of Jles- sina) occurs quite incidentally (Acts xxviii, 13) in the account of Paul's voyage from Syracuse to Puteoli, after the shipwreck at Malta. But, for two reas.ons, it is wor- thy of careful attention. By a curious coincidence the ligiires on its coins are the verj' " twin-brothers" which
gave the name to Paul's ship. See Castor AND Pol- lux. Again, the notice of the in- termediate posi- tion of Hhegiura ; the waiting there for a southerly wind to carry the ship through the strait ; the run to Puteoli with such a wind within the twenty- four hours, are all jioints of geographical accuracy which help us to realize the narrative. As to the history of the place, it was originally a (Ireek colony : it was mis- erably destroyed by Di.mysius of Syracuse; from Au- gustus it received advantages which combined with its geographical position in making it important throiigli- out the duration of the Homan emjiire. It was promi- nently associated, in the iSIiildle Ages, with the varied fortunes of the Greek emperors, the Saracens, and the Unmans; and still the modern R<';i>iio is a town of 10,000 inhabitants. Its distance across the strait from Messina is only about six miles, and it is well seen from the tele- gra|di siaiion above that Sicilian town. — Smith. See Coiiybeare and Howson, .S7. Paul, ii, 34',» ; Lewin, >S7. Piinl, ii, 217 ; Smith, Diet, oj' Cltiss. Gvoij. s. v.