Still, Elijah, a minister of the IMetho.Hst Episcopal Chnrcli. w;is born in White County, Teiiii., Sept. 4, 18(»,5. He was admitted on trial in the Holston Conference in 1832, but ill 1838 was granted a hication. and settled in Bradley County. When the present Holston Confer-
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ence was formed, in 18G5, he was readmitted, and labored very successfully. He died at his home in Hradley, April 12, 1875. See Minutes of Annual Conftrences, 1875, p. lijO. Still, John, an English prelate, was born in 1543, and was the son of William Still, of (iraiUham, Lincoln- shire. He was admitted to Christ's College, Cambridge, where he took his degrees. In 1570 he was Margaret professor at Cambridge, in 1571 he became rector at Hadleigh, County of Suffolk, and archdeacon of Sud- bury, and in 1573 was collated to the vicarage of East Marham, in Yorkshire. He was elected master of St. John's in 157-1, and of Trinity College in 1577. In 1588 he was chosen prolocutor of the convocation, and two years after was appointed to the see of Bath and Wells, in which he continued until his death, Feb. 26, 1607. See Chalmers, Bio;]. Diet. s. v.
Still, John Kline, a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was born at New AVindsor, Orange Co., N. Y., April 16, 1813, and united with the Church at the age of fourteen. In 1840 he was admitted on trial in the New York Conference, superannuated in 1855, supernumerary in 1856, and in 1861 finally super- annuated. He died at Middletown, N. Y., Feb. 3, 1876. He was a diligent, studious, faithful, and useful minis- ter. See Minutes of A nnuul Conferences, 1877, p. 44.
Stilling, JuN"G, whose real name was Johann IJein- rich Jung, was prominent as a writer of popular books for edification, and as a theosophico-mystical apocalyp- tist. He was born at Grund, in Nassau-Siegen, Sept. 12, 1740. His early years were spent in poverty. A common village school afforded the earliest instruction he received, and his subsequent progress was constantly interrupted by the necessity of practicing his father's trade of tailoring. Down to his twenty-first year he st\idied, taught, and sewed, but never ceased to aspire. He became proficient in geography, mathematics, gno- monics, Greek, and Hebrew ; and when he obtained the position of tutor and general manager in the household of the merchant Spanier, at Rade, he added to his ac- quirements a knowledge of economics, agriculture, and commercial science. At this time a Roman Catholic clergyman of the neighborhood made known to Stil- ling a secret cure for diseases of the eye, thereby con- ferring on him a favor by which he profited to the end of his life. A successful cure opened Stilling's way into the household of a wealthy patient, Heyder of Rondorf, whose daughter plighted her troth to him, and whose aid enabled him to obtain in Strasburg the diploma of doctor of medicine in 1771. At Strasburg .he first met Goethe and Herder, and also Saltzmann, his life-long correspondent-, and their influence undoubtedly did much to enlarge his mental horizon and broaden his sympathies; but it is certain that he never ceased to respect the Pietists, whose influence had guided his early experiences, and that he never wholly separated from them. The earliest pages of his autobiography, which were written at Elberfeld soon after his marriage, and published by Goethe, afforded evidence of increas- ing independence of thought, and served to decide his position as a literary man. They did not, however, re- lieve him from debts which he had incurred, nor free him from numerous enemies whom his too lively im- agination and morbid sensitiveness had raised up, and lie accordingly accepted the position of professor of finance and political economy in the newly established academy of Kaiserslautern, though the salary was only 600 florins. The transfer of the school to Heidelberg doubled his salary, his practice as an oculist became steadily more profitable, and the expenses of his house- hold were more carefully managed after he married his second wife.Selma von Saint-Florentin (1782), than be- fore. It was not, however, until his transfer to Mar- burg that the pressure of financial troubles began to lighten. His circle of friends and influence now rapid- ly widened, and his books and medical practice en- grossed his time ; as a consequence, his academical du-
ties were but indifferently performed, and his lectures were but poorly attended by hearers. In 1805 the elector of Hndcn made him a privy-councillor, with a salary of 12()i) thalers, and left him free to write and practice medicine. Rooms were assigned him in the palace at Carlsruhe, where he lived with his family, and where he em()loyed his powers to the utmost in the work to which he was called. His correspondence was immense : his journeys frecjuent. He operated, general- ly with success, upon nearly two thousand patients for diseases of the eye ; and, in addition to this, he was in- defatigably engaged upon what he regarded as his life- mission — the prei)aration of religious, quite evangelical, but still more Apocalyptical books. He was concerned about not only the ordinary questions of eschatologj-. but also the problems of the future life, the spirit-world, our connection with that world, and the apparition of its representatives among men. He endeavored to present such themes in a fresh, attractive, and helpful viay, to arouse the sleepers as far as possible, and to gather and unite into a holy family all those who are awake, that they might be ready to meet the Master at his coming. The spirit which possessed him con- ferred upon him a dignified, quiet, peaceful bearing. His home became a sort of sanctuary, where nothing common or coarse was permitted to enter. A^isitors of eminence were constantly arriving, and letters from all quarters kept pouring in. Thousands of his contempo- raries expended on him in equal measure their venera- tion and their love. But his excessive labors exhausted him at length. The death of his third wife, Eliz.i Coing, of Marburg, preceded his own by only a few weeks. He fell asleep quietly on April 2, 1817.