SWIFT
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SWIFT
was filled up with laborious efforts iu behalf of the for- eign missionary cause — travelling, for the most part, on horseback, preaching almost daily, collecting fimds, forming auxiliary societies, and awakening the people everywhere to the claims of this great enterprise. At length he was obliged, on account of the want of funds on the part of the board, to relinquish his long-cherished desire of being a foreign missionary. In October, 1818, he became pastor of the Church in Dover, where he labored diligently, but under great discouragements; in Novem- ber, 1819, he was installed by a committee of the Red- stone Presbytery as pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, Pa., and immediately entered upon his labors in that community, which he subsequently adorned and blessed until he became secretary and gen- eral agent for the Western Foreign Missionary Society, March 1, 1833. "This society," to use his own lan- guage, " has since become, as it was intended at its very outset it should, the Board of Foreign IMissious of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church" (a his-, tory of which is published in the Presh. I/isf. Almamic for 18C1). He was also deeply interested in theological education, and took an active part in the establishment of the Allegheny Theological Seminary, Allegheny, Pa. ; and was connected with it from its inception until his death, a period of forty years. He was one of the first directors, also an agent to collect funds, and the first in- structor in theology, which office he held for about two years and for which he declined to receive any remu- neration. In 1835 he received a unanimous call to become the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Allegheny, and after about twelve months, during which time he made such arrangements as to secure the continued efficiency of the Missionary Society, he accepted the invitation, and was installed in this, his last, longest, and most important pastorate. He died April 3, 186.5. Dr. Swift was a man of uncommon pow- er of intellect and unusual tenderness of heart. As a Christian he was pre-eminent for his humility and de- votion. He took a deeij interest in all educational, eleemosj'nary, or Christian enterprises, and was a pa- triot in the truest sense of the term. He was a leader in all the various courts of the Church, made so by the breadth of his views, the wisdom of his counsels, the integrity and loveliness of his character, and his mani- fest freedom from all selfishness and ambition. It was, however, as a preacher that he shone most conspicu- ously. See Wilson, Presb. Illst. A Imanac. 1866, p. 172. (J. L. S.)
Swift, Job, a Congregational minister, was born at Sandwich, Mass., June 17 (0. S.), 1743, and removed in early youth to Kent, Conn. He graduated from Yale College in 1765, having made a profession of religion while in college. He studied theology under Dr. Bel- lamy, was licensed to preach in 1766, and in 1767 be- came pastor of the Church in liichmond, Jlass. After a pastorate of seven years he left Kichmond, and, hav- ing preached in different places for about a year, be- came pastor in Amenia, N. Y. In the spring of 1783 he removed to Manchester, Vt., where he preached be- tween two and three years. On jMay 31, 1786, he was settled over the Church in Bennington, from which he made many missionary tours into the western and north- ern sections of the state. Leaving Bennington June 7, 1801, he removed to Addison, on Lake Champlain, where he purchased a farm. He established a Church there and officiated as its pastor, and also continued his mis- sionary labor. He died on a missionary tour at Enos- burg, Oct. 20, 1804. Mr. Swift acted as a chaplain in the army during most of the Revolutionary war. See Sprague, Annals of the Ainer. Pulpit, i, 640.
S^wift, Jonathan, D.D., a prelate and satirist, was born in Dublin, Nnv. 30, 1667, and when about a j'ear old was carried by his nurse to Whitehaven, Cumberland, England, where he was kept for three years. His fa- ther, who died three months before he was born, left
his family in great poverty, and they were supported by relatives. Swift, when six years old, was sent to tlie school of Kilkenny, and remained there until re- moved to Trinity College, Dublin, wliich he entered as a pensioner, April 24, 1682. He received his degree of A.B. Feb. 15, 1685, but he remained in the college until 1688, when he went to England to visit his moth- er, and was on her recommendation admitted into the house of Sir William Temple. In 1694 he went to Ire- land, took orders in the Church — that of deacon Oct. 18, 1694, of priest Jan. 13, 1695— and obtained a small liv- ing, which he threw up in two years and returned to England. He lived as a friend with Temple until the death of the latter, Jan. 27, 1698, and in 1699 accom- panied lord Berkeley to Ireland as his chaplain and private secretary. Being deprived of this oflice, he was given the rectory of Agher, and the vicarages of Lara- cor and Ruthbeggan, worth altogether £230 a year. The
Laracor Church. *
prebend of Dunlavin was bestowed upon him soon after- wards. He still continued to reside with lord Berkeley until 1700, when the latter returned to England and Swift took possession of Laracor. He performed his duties as a country clergyman with exemplary dili- gence. His appointment to the deanery of St. Pat- rick's was made Feb. 23, 1713, and early in June he left England to take possession. He soon returned to Eng- land on a political mission, and again visited England to solicit the remission of the "first-fruits." In 1741 Swift's memory failed, his understanding was much im- paired, and he became subject to violent fits of passion which soon terminated in furious lunacy. In 1742 he sank into a state of quiet idiocy, and died Oct. 19, 1745. Dr. Samuel Johnson {Lives of the English Poets) gives the following estimate of dean Swift: "He was a cluirchman rationally zealous; he desired the prosper- ity and maintained the honor of the clergy ; of the Dissenters he did not wish to infringe the toleration, but he opposed their encroachments." To his duty as dean he was verj' attentive. In his Church he restored the practice of weekly communion, and distributed the sacramental elements in the most solemn and devout manner with his own hand. He came to Church every morning, preached commonly in his turn, and attended the evening anthem, that it might not l)e negligently performed. The suspicions tif his irreligion proceeded in a great measure from his dread of hypocrisy; in- stead of wishing to seem better, he delighted in seem- ing worse than he was. In London he went to early prayers lest he should be seen at Church ; he read prayers to his servants every morning with such dexter- ous secrecy that Dr. Delanj' was six months in his house before he knew it. He gave great attention to politi- cal matters, and, indeed, it is to his political writings that he is principally indebted for his fame. In addi- tion to these works, some poems, etc., he ])ublished sev- eral Sermons and Tracts upon religious and ecclesias- tical matters. Of his works several editions have been printed, that of Sir Walter Scott being considered the best (Ediub. 1819, 19 vols. 8vo). See Allibone, Did. of