Skinner, Ezekiel, a Baptist preacher, was born in Glastenbury, Conn., .June 27, 1777. He was appren- ticed to a blacksmith, but bought the last year of his apprenticeship and studied medicine. He received his license to practice medicine in 1801, and settled at Gran- ville, Mass. Here he jjrofessed religion and united with the Congregational Church; but afterwards adopting the views of the Baptists, he was immersed and joined the Baptist Church in Lebanon. He enlisted in the army in the war of 1812; but was discharged in a few months on account of the failure of his health, and re- moved to Stafford, Conn. While there he began to fireach, and was licensed in 1819 by the Baptist Church in that place. In 1822 he was ordained pastor of the church in Ashford, where he officiated nine years; and also pastor at Westford, where he officiated seventeen years, including a period of four years which were spent in the service of the Colonization Society. In the sum- mer of 1834 he went to Liberia, and rendered important services to that colony. On his tinal return in 1837, he resumed his pastoral relations with his former charge, which he resigned in April, 1855, and went to reside with his son (Dr. E. D. Skinner, Greenport, L. I.), where be died, Dec. 25, 1855. Mr. Skinner published a series of articles On the Pr-ophecies, in the Christian Secretary (1842). See Sprague, A muds of the A mer. Pulpit, vi, (594. Skinner, James, a missionary of the Presbyterian Church, was born in Dundee, Scotland, in 1801. His parents were members of the Secession Church of Scot- land. He was educated at St. Andrew's College and at Marischal College; studied divinity under John Mitchell, D.D., and .John Dick, at Glasgow; was licensed in the summer of 1832; was accepted by the Mission Commit- tee of the United Associate Synod, and designated to go to Canada; and was ordained for that work by the Pres- bytery of Forfar March 31, 1834. He landed at Montreal in May, 1834, and immediately directed his steps west- ward to the township of Southwold, on Lake Erie, where he began a series of itinerancies and explorations, setting up regular stations and starting new congregations in every direction. He died Oct. 17, 18()5. Mr. Skinner was emphatically a missionarj-. See Wilson, Piesb. Hist. Almanac, 1867, p. 481. (J. L. S.)
Skinner, Thomas E., a minister of the Metho- dist Episcopal Church, was born on Kent Island, Queen Anne Co., Md., April 2(5, 1838. He was educated at Bal-
timore (where he was converted in his sixteenth year") at Dickinson College, and graduated as Doctor of Medi- cine at the Maryland University of Baltimore. In 1859 he abandoned the profession of medicine, and entered the Philadelphia Conference. Consumption soon began to prey upon him, and he died June 14, 18G2. See Min- utes of Annual Coiferences, 18G3, p. 45.
Skinner, Thomas Harvey, D.D., a Presbyte- rian minister, was born at Harvey's Neck, Perquimans Co., N. C, March 7, 1791. He graduated at Princeton in 1809, and commenced the study of law in his native state. After pursuing this study for eighteen months, he experienced religion, and determined to preach. He returned to Princeton, where he remained one year. The year 1812 was mainly spent with Rev. John Mc- Dowell at Elizabeth, N.J,, and he was licensed to preach in December of that year. He was ordained co-pastor with Dr, Janeway, Philadelphia, June 10, 1813, and in 1816 became pastor of the Fifth Presbyterian Church in Locust Street. He remained in Philadelphia until 1832, when he accepted the chair of Sacred Rhetoric in Ando- ver Seminarv. He occupied this for three years, and then became pastor of the Mercer Street Church, New York. After thirteen years of service he became profess- or of sacred theology in the Union Theological Semi- nary, N. Y., and continued to discharge the duties of this professorship until his death, Feb. 1, 1871. He published, Reliijion of the Bible (1839) : — A id in Preach- infi and Hearimj (1839) : — Hints to Chiistians (1841): — Thoughts on Evangelizing the World: — Beligiuus Life of Francis Mai-koe: — Vinet's Pastoral Theology, and Vinei's Homiletics (1854): — Discussions in Theology (1868), See Plumlev, Presb. Church throughout the World, p. 410.
Skiold, in Norse mythology, was a son of Odin, who obtained for his consort the beautifid Gefion after she, aided by the giants' sons in the form of oxen, had plough- ed Zealand off from Sweden. Skiold was ancestor of the Danish kings, traces of whose graves and monuments yet occur near Leira. Leira was the early Hleidra, or Lethra, the principal place of sacrifice among the hea- then Danes. — Vollmer, Wijrterb. d. Mythol. s, v,
Skirner, in Norse mythology, was an intimate friend and companion of the god Frey.
Skirt is the rendering in the A, V, properly of ?^t\ shul (so called as being pendulous), the flowing train of a female dress ("skirts," Jer, xiii, 22, 26; Lam. i, 9; Nahum iii, 5 ; " train," Isa. vi, 1 ; elsewhere " hem") ; more vaguely of 7)33, kyuidph (literalh' a wing), the flap of a robe (Deut. xxii, 30 ; xxvii, 20 ; Ruth iii, 9 ; 1 Sam. XV, 27; xxiv, 4, 5, 11; Ezek. v, 3; Hag. ii, 12; Zech. viii, 23) ; improperly of 'n'B,peh (literally the mouth, as usually rendered), the upper opening of a garment around the neck (Psa. cxxxiii, 2; "hole," Exod. xxviii, 32; xxxix, 23; "collar," Job xxx, 18). To raise the skirts of a female's garment is put for a symbol of the greatest insult and disgrace (Jer. xiii, 22, 26; Nah, iii, 5; comp. Isa. xlvii, 2) ; whereas to cover her with one's skirt was a token of matrimony (Ruth iii, 9), or to remove it was preliminary to sexual intercourse (Deut. xxiii, 1); the wide Oriental outer garment serving as a coverlet by night. See Dkkss.