Si'hor (Josh, xiii, 3). See SimiOR.
Sikes, Henry N., a minister of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, was born in Fulton County, Pa., in 1833.
SIKHS
V38
SILENT PRAYER
He was converted in early youth, and began to preach | See Cunningham, History of the Sikhs; Malcolm, Slcetch in his nineteenth year, lie united with the Baltimore of the Sikhs; Asiatic Besearches, vols, i, ii ; and The Conference in 1854, and served in the regular niinisit'rial [ Cti/ciiltii Revieu; vols, xxi, xxiii.
work (with the excejuion of two years — 18(11 and 1862 — when he acted as chaplain of the U. S. Penitentiary at Washington, D. C.) until his death, June 20, 18C5. Mr, Sikes had a vigorous anil well-stored mind, and was un- tiring, industrious, and of untlinching courage. See Minutes of Annual Conferences, 18()G, p. 17.
Sikhs (a corruption of Sanscr. sishya, disciple), orig- inallv a religious sect, since grown into a nation, and iulial)iting the Punjab. Their founder was Nanok (ij. v.), who has been succeeded by nine pontiffs, each of whom, like himself, is popularly denominated ynrii, or teacher. His object was to unite Hindus and Mo- hammedans on the basis of a pure monotheism and of human brotherhood. Sufficient proof of the compre- nensive character of his scheme is afforded by the cir- cumstance that he accepted concurrently the incarna- tions of Neo-Brahmarism and the mission of the Ara- bian propliet, Nanok's three immediate successors, while zealously protecting the interests of the infant sect, avoided secular pursuits, and held themselves aloof from political complications. Arjun (Arjunmal), com- piler of the Sikh doctrines in a volume called .1 diyranth, and founder of Amritsar, the holy city of the Sikhs, also rendered himself conspicuous as a partisan of the rebell- ious prince Khusru, son of Jahanglr. He was im- prisoned b}' the IMussulman government, tortured, and put to death in 1006. His son, Har Govind, led the Sikhs against the Mohammedans, but was driven from Lahore to the northern mountains. It was under Guru (iovind, tlie tenth of tlie " teachers," that the Sikhs were tirst formed into a separate state. He combated the Mohammedan power and religion; and Hinduism, with its castes, fictions, and irrational idolatry, fell under his ban. He also wrote the second volume of the Sikh Scriptures, in which are taught the worship of one God, strict morality, and, equally, living by the sword. He was assassinated while in the imperial service in 1708, on the banks of the Godavari. After his death, perse- cution from time to time greatly reduced the strength of the tribe ; but their religious fanaticism, nourished by the sacred writings which successive leaders had pre- pared, lent vigor to their warlike energies. In 1764 they convened a general assembh', formally assumed the character of a nation, and issued coin from which the name of the emperor was omitted. Their common- wealth was designated Kh<dsa, and its twelve compo- nent states were called misals, and were governed by sirdars, or petty chiefs, of whom Maha Singh was the most powerful. His son, Kunjlt Singh, consolidated the misals into a unity sulyect to his own sway, A.D. 183H. The following year he ilied, aged fifty -nine years, leaving a kingdom, called Lahore, which included all the principal Sikh states except those cast of the Sut- ky. In 1840 they were conquered by the English, and ceased to be a nation. New complications arising, war between the Sikhs and English was renewed in 1848, but concluded uiifavoral)ly for the Sikhs in February, 1849. The portion of the Sikh territory remaining in- dependent is comprised in the nine small states of Sir- hind. The Sikhs were faithful to the English during the Sepoy rebellion in 1857, and aided malerially in its suppression. The Siklis still maintain their national (characteristics, Ijeing tall, thin, dark, active, excellent 8oldi(!rs, frank, sociable, and jilcasure- loving. Their numlier in British India was officially given in 1808 as 1,12I»,;510. A critical ac(|uaintance with tlie real views of Nanok and (iovind must remain a matter of con- jecture initil a detailed translation is made of their works by some scholar comjjletely versed in Hiiidtl philoso|ihy. The A diyranth (the original record) and the Ditswin I'alashi da Granth (the record of the tenth king) are metrical throughout, and are chiefly in Hin- dfl and I'anjabl, the former containing additionally a little Sanscrit, and the latter a long chapter in Persian.
Silanus is mentioned as governor of Syria by Jo- scplius (.1»^ xviii, 2, 4, s. f.). According to Tacitus (will) surnames him Cretiais), he was in that office in A.D. 16, but removed from the governor.ship by Tiljeri- us in the following year, on accoimt of the connection of his family with Germanicus, inasmuch as a daughter of Silanus had been betrothed to Nero, the eldest of the children of Germanicus (Annals, ii, 4,43). From his name, Creticus Silanus, it has been conjectured that he originally belonged to the Julia gens, but was adopt- ed by the Civcilia gens. It has been further supposed that he is the same person as the consul Silanus of A.D. 9 (Dion Cass, iv, 30), who is better known as Metellus. In that case his full name would have been Q. Ciecilius Metellus Creticus Silanus. — iimith, Diet, of Class. Uioy. s. V.
Si'las (SiXac), an eminent member of the early Christian Church, described under that name in the Acts, but probably as Silranus (q. v.) in Paul's epistles, B.C. 47-55. The Alexandrine writers adopted somewhat bold abbreviations of proper names, such as Zenas for Zeno- dorus, Apollos for Apollonius, Hernias for Hermodorus, The metliod by which they arrived at these forms is not verj' apjiarent. Silas first appears as one of the lead- ers (i/yoi''ji(f I'oi) of the Church at Jerusalem (Acts xv, 22), liolding tlie office of an inspired teacher {Trpo(pi]- Ti]Q, ver. 32). His name, derived from the Latin silva, " wood," betokens him a Hellenistic Jew, and he ap- pears to have been a Roman citizen (xvi, 37). He was appointed as a delegate to accompany Paul and Barna- bas on their return to Antioch with the decree of the Council of Jerusalem (xv, 22, 32). Having accom- plished this mission, he returned to Jerusalem (ver. 33 ; the following verse, t^o^e ci t(^ 2iX^ tirtfttiimi avroi), is perhaps an interpolation introduced to harmonize the passage with ver. 40). He must, however, have immediately revisited Antioch, for we find him selected by Paul as the companion of his second missionary journey (ver. 40 ; xvii, 40). At Bercea he was left be- hind with Timothy while Paul proceeded to Athens (ver. 14), and we hear nothing more of his movements until he rejoined the apostle at Corinth (xviii, 5). Whether he had followed Paul to Athens in obedience to the injunction to do so (xvii, 15), and had been sent thence with Timothy to Thessalonica (1 Thess. iii, 2), or whether his movements were wholly independent of Timothy's, is uncertain (Conybeare and Howson, Life of St. Paul, i, 458, note). His presence at Corinth is sev- eral times noticed (2 Cor. i, 19 ; 1 Tliess. i, 1 ; 2 Thess. i, 1). He probably returned to Jerusalem witli Paul, and from that time the connection between them appears to have terminated. Whether he was the Silvanus who conveyed Peter's first epistle to Asia Jlinor (1 Pet. v, 12) is doubtfid; the probabilities are in favor of the identity; the (piestion is chiefly interesting as bearing upon the Pauline character of Peter's epistles ( De Wette, Kinleit. § 4). We have to notice, for the pur- pose of rejecting, the theories which identify Silas with Tertius (Hom. xvi, 22) through a Hebrew explanation of the name (Ti;"^b';3), and again with Luke, or at all events with the autlior of the Acts (Alford, Proleyom. in Acts, i, 1). — Smith. The traditions (ap. I)orotha>- um ct Ilippolytum) regard Silas and Silvanus as differ- ent persons, making the former bislioj) of Cnrinth, and tlie latter bisiio]) of Tlu'ssaloniea (see Fabricius. Lur Kvavy. \\ \\~i \ Cellarius, V>iw. e/e Sila Viro Aposlol. Jen. 1773). See Paul.