S'wan, Samuel, a Presbyterian minister, was born in the island of Dominica, Nov. 30, 1798. While Sam- uel was a child his father returned to his native coun- try, Scotland. Here the son received a liberal educa- tion, completing his course at the Glasgow University. At the age of nineteen he came with the family to Phil- adelphia, from whence he soon went to Princeton Sem- inary. He was licensed to preach by the Philadelpliia Presbytery April 17, 1823, and received as a licentiate in the Presbytery of Huntington, Pa. He received a call from the Sinking Valley Church, which he declined to accept, and was dismissed to the Redstone Presby- tery. His next call was to the churches of Fairfield, Ligonier, and Donegal, which he accepted, and was in- stalled June 17, 1824. He proved to be a devoted, self- denj'ing, and successful pastor, and for seventeen years and a half retained the esteem and growing confidence of his three churches. Becoming seriously crippled by
a shivered limb, he was compelled to relinquish so ex- tensive a charge, and he accordingly resigned, and ac- cepted a call to the Johnstown Church, Pa., where he was installed in 1841. Half of his time was occupied by the Church at Armagh. Here he continued until 1855. In 185t) he removed to Leland, La Salle Co., 111., where he made an extensive purchase of land ; and though he had no pastoral charge, he continued to preach the Gos- pel as he had opportunity. From 18U9 to 1871 he resided at Aurora, 111. F'or the purpose of giving his children an education, he returned East, and, though advanced in years, continued to preach until the end of his pil- grimage, Aug. 5, 1877. (W. P. S.)
Swanger, John P., a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was born in Mifflin County, Pa., Feb. 15, 1836. He was converted and united with the Church in 1854, and in 1859 was received on trial in the East Baltimore Conference. His ministry, however, was of short duration, as he died June 29, 1867, in Baltimore. See Minutes oj" Annual Conferences, 1868, p. 27.
Swarm is the rendering, in the A. V., of two very different Hebrew words.
1. m^l, \'ddh (usualh' rendered "congregation" or "assembly"), is employed to designate the swarm of bees and honey found by Samson in the lion's carcass (Judg. xiv, 8). The lion which Samson slew had been dead some little time before the bees had taken up their abode in the carcass, for it is expressly stated that "af- ter a time" Samson returned and saw the bees and honey in the lion's carcass, so that "if," as Oedmann has well observed, " any one here represents to himself a corrupt and putrid carcass, the occurrence ceases to have any true similitude, for it is well known that in these conn- tries, at certain seasons of the year, the heat will, in the course of twenty-four hours, so completely dry up the moisture of dead camels, and that without their under- going decomposition, that their bodies long remain, like mummies, unaltered and entirely free from offensive odor." To the foregoing quotation we m&y add that very probably the ants would help to consume the car- cass, and leave, |ierhaps, in a short time, little else than a skeleton. Herodotus (v. 114) speaks ofa certain Ones- ilus, whohad been taken prisoner bj- the Amathusiansand beheaded, and whose head, having been suspended over the gates, had become occupied by a swarm of bees; comp. also Aldrovandus {De Insect, i, 110). Dr. Thom- son (/^and and Book; ii, 362) mentions this occurrence of a swarm of bees in a lion's carcass as an exfraortlinary thing, and makes an unhappy conjecture that perhaps "hornets," debahir in Arabic, are intended, "if it were known,'' says he, "that they manufactured honey enough to meet the demands of the story." It is known, how- ever, that hornets do not make honey, nor do any of the family Vesjrldce, with the exception, so far as has been hitherto observed, of the Brazilian Nectarina rnellifica. — Smith. See Bee.
2. 2"lS', 'fl?-o6, is the term applied to the fourth of the plagues (q. v.) of Egypt (Exod. viii, 8-31 ; " divers sorts of tlies," Psa. Ixxviii, 45; cv, 31). It is regarded by most interpreters as a species of f/adfy, or iabanus (Michaelis, ASe/yj/j/fOT. p. 1960), such as is still very troub- lesome to animals in Egypt (Forskal. Descr. Anim. \), 85; Riippell, Arab. p. 73). See Bochart, t/ieroz. iii, 472; Werner, in the Miscell. Lips. Nov. iii, 201 sq. See
Fl.Y.
Svrayze, John J., a minister of the IMethodist Episcopal Church, was born at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., Aug. 30, 1812. He was received on trial in the Pitts- burgh Conference in 1829, and labored with great accept- ability, filling the office of presiding elder nine succes- sive years. He took a superannuated relation in 1852, and died Feb. 18, 1853. See Minutes of Annual Covfer- ences, 1853, p. 242.
S^vayze, 'William, a Methodist Episcopal minis- ter, was born in Sussex County, N. J., Nov. 18, 1784.
SWEARING
48
SWEARING
In his youth he was led l)y a pious African to hear a Methodist preacher near naitiinore. was converted, and soon alter Celt impressed tliat it was his duty to preach the Gospel, and labored as a local preacher to great ad- vantage for several years. He was admitted into the New York Conference on trial in i\Iay, 1807, and for eight years labored successfully witliin the bounds of that Conference. "He became emphatically a 'son of thunder,' attracting great crowds of people to his minis- try, and speaking with a power and pat lios, that few have ever eiiualled, moving and exciting many — some to tears, others to cry for mercy, while others would shout for joy" ((iregg, p. 177). In 181G he was trans- ferred to the Ohio Conference; in 1817 appointed to Co- lumbus Circuit; in 1818 to Deer Creek Circuit, includ- ing Chilicothe; in 182() presiding elder of Ohio District, where "his labors, for almost four years, were crowned with unexami)led success." In 1824, by the division made by the Cieneral Conference, he fell in the Pitts- burgh Conference, and was appr>inted to Erie District; in 1828 to Canton District; in 1830, conference mission- ary; in 1832, retransferred to Ohio Conference; in 1834 to Pittsburgh Conference; after which, he was super- annuated until death, March 29, 1841, See Minvtes of A iimifil Coiifi-reiiccs, iii, 238 ; Stevens, Hist, of the M. E. Church, iv, 339-341. (J. L. S.)