Spicer, Torias, a distinguished minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was born at Kinderhook, N. Y., Nov. 7, 1788. His conversion took place in Octo- ber, 1803, and soon after he united with the Church. He was admitted into the New York Conference at Pittsfield, Mass., May 20, 1810. He received the ordi- nation of deacon in 1814. and that of ehler in 1816. L^jion the division of the conference he became a member of the Troy Conference. He was suiiernumerarv in 1837, efllective in 1839 ; again supernumerary in 1843, effective in 1844, and supernumerary in 184."). In 1846 he was the delegate from the Troy Conference to the Evangeli- cal .Mliance, London. From that time he held either a supernumerary or a su|ierannuated relation. But he was often engaged in regular work, either as pastor or presiding elder. He died Nov. 13, 186-2. Mr. Spicer was a deep thinker and a hard student. He was very industrious, having preached during his ministry SiibO sermons; and during bis seventy - second year he lireached 211 times. See Minutes of Annual Confer- ences, 1863, p. 96.
Spicery. See Spice 2.
Spider is the rendering in the A. V. of two Heb. words:
1. Wkkahish (w^^3r" ; Sept. «|OfJx'i'»; ; Xw]^,. arnne({) occurs in Job viii, 14; Isa, lix, 5. In the first of these passages the reference seems clear to the spider's web, or, literally, house (n"2), whose fragility is alluded to as a (it representation of the hope of a profane, iingodlij, or proflif/ate person; for so the word ClIPl really means, and not "hypocrite," as in our version. The object of
SPIDEIl
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such a person's trust or confidence, who is always really in imminent danger of ruin, may be C()m|iared for its uncertainty to the spider's web. " He shall lean upon his house (i. e. to keep it steady when it is shaken) ; he sliall hold it fast (i. e. when it is about to be destroyed) ; nevertheless, it shall not endure" (Job viii, 15). In the second passage (Isa. lix, 5) it is said, " The wicked weave the spider's web" (''"lip, literally " thin threads") : but it is added "their thin threads shall not become gar- ments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works;" that is, their artifices shall neither succeed, nor conceal tliemselves, as does the sjiider's web. This al- lusion intimates no antipathy to the spider itself, or to its habits when directed towards its own purposes; but simply to the adoption of those habits by man towards his fellow-creatures. No expression of an abstract an- tipathy towards any creature whatever is to be found in Scripture. Though certain species, indeed, which for good and wise reasons were prohibited as food, are so far called "an abomination," yet revelation through- out recognises every living creature as the work f)f God and deserving the pious attention of mankind. — Kitto.
In the passage from .Job the special allusion is thus seen to be not to the use of the web as a snare to inter- cept tlies, but as a structure for the concealment and protection of the artificer; and is intended to express that, notwithstanding all the ingenuity displaved in the construction of the web, and the spider's trust in it and efforts to fasten it, the material is so frail that a slight violence suffices to destroy it; so shall the artifices which tlie hypocrite so craftily devises, and on which he depends for concealment, fail before the judgment of God. We may suppose that the writer had his eye upon one of those species which weave an elaborate nest in the form of a wide sheet, centring in a close and clothlike tube, in which the animal lives, such as that of Af/flena labyrinthica, which is so common with us in the latter part of summer. "Our readers," says Mr. Kennie, "must often have seen this nest spread out like a broad sheet in hedges, furze, and other low bushes, and sometimes on the ground. The middle of this sheet, which is of a close texture, is swung, like a sailor's hammock, by silken ropes extended all arouiul, to the higher branches; but the whole curves upward and backward, sloping down to a long funnel-shaped gallery which is nearly horizontal at the entrance, but soon winds obliquely till it becomes quite perpendicular. This curved gallery is about a quarter of an inch in diameter, is much more closely woven than the sheet part of the web, and sometimes descends into a hole in the ground, though oftener into a gronp of crowded twigs or a tuft of grass. Here the spider dwells secure, frecptently resting with her legs extended from the en- trance of the gallerj', ready to spring out upon whatever insect maj' fall into her sheet-net" (Insect Archit. p. 357).
The prophet Isaiah appears to glance at the poison- ous nature of the spider, and the object for which the web is woven. It is for the entrapping of unwary in- sects, which are then seized by the treacherous lier-in- wait, and pierced by its venomous fangs. It is true, moral feelings cannot with metaphysical propriety be attributed to an invertebrate animal, but popular preju- dice in all ages and countries has sanctioned the poet's unfavorable verdict, when he says of the spider — "Cnnuing and fleice, mixture abhorred."