Williston, Seth, D.D., a Presbyterian minister, was born at Suffield, Conn., April 4, 1770. He studied at Dartmouth College, where he graduated in 1791. Having applied himself to the study of theology, he was licensed to preach Oct. 7, 1794, and was afterwards employed for some months in supplying, temporarily, several churches in Connecticut. After several years spent as a missionary in Vermont and New York, he was finally, in 1803, installed pastor of the Church of Lisle, N. Y., which he had, however, supplied for the preceding three or four years. Having in July, 1810, become pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Durham, he remained there eighteen years, when he received a dismission, at his own request, Dec. 22, 1828; and dur- ing the rest of his life he preached at various places, chiefly in New York state. After a life remarka- ble for earnestness and activitv, he died at (Juilford Centre, Chenango Co., N. Y.. March 2, 1851. Dr. Wil- liston published the following volumes: An Address to Parents (1799): — Sermons on Doctrinal and Ea-peri- mental Religion (1813): — A Vindication of Some of the Most Essential Doctrines of the Reformation (1817): —
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Sermons on the Mystery of the Incarnation, etc. (1823) :— jSf ;7«o«s Adapted to Revivals (1828): — Harmony of Divine Truth (1836): — Discoiases on the Temptations of Christ (1837) : — Christ's King- dom Not of this World (1843), three discourses :— Lectures on the Moral Imperfection of Christians (1846): — Millennial Discourses (1848): — and a number oi Pamphlets. See Sprague, Annals of the A mer. Puljnt, iv, 141.
Willow is the rendering, in the A. V., of the two following Heb. words:
1. 3*13?, ereb (only in the plur. d'1315', Sept. Itm, ayi'Of;), is apparently a generic term for the willow, like the Arabic ffhai-ab. Willows are mentioned in Lev. xxiii, 40, among the trees whose branches were to be used in the construction of booths at the Feast of Tabernacles; in Job xl, 22, as a tree which gave shade to Behemoth ("the hippopotamus"); in Isa. xliv, 4, where it is said that Israel's offspring should spring up '• as willows bv the watercourses;" in the Psalm (cxxxvii, 2) which so beautifully represents Israel's sorrow during the time of the Captivity in Babjion — " AVe hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof." With respect to the tree \ upon which the captive Israelites hung their harps, there can be no doubt that the weeping willow (Salix Babylonica) is intended. This tree grows abundantly on the banks of the Euphrates, in other parts of Asia as in Palestine (Strand, Flora Palcest, No. 556), and also in North Africa. Bochart has endeavored to show {Phaleg, I, viii) that the same country is spoken of, in Isa. xv, 7, as " the Valley of Willows." This, however, is very doubtful. Sprengel {Hist. Rei Herb, i, 18, 270) seems to restrict the ereb to the Salix Babylonica ; but there can scarcely be a doubt that the term is generic, and includes other species of the large family of Salices, which is probably well repre- sented in Palestine and other Bible lands, such as the Sa- lix alba, S. viminalis (osier), S. ^'Er/yptiaca, which latter plant, however, Sprengel identifies with the safsdf of Abul'fadli, cited by Celsius (Hierob. ii, 108); but this latter word is probably the same as —
2. nS^iS^, tsuphtsaphdh, which occurs only in Ezek. xvii, 5, " He took also of the seed of the land, and plant- ed it in a fruitful field ; he placed it 5y great waters, and set it as a willow-tree," Celsius, however, thinks that the
Salix J^gyptiaca.
Weepmg Wdlow (Salix Bahjlomca).
word means locus planus, planities, although he at the same time gives all the evidence for the willow. First, the rabbins consider it to mean a tree, "et qiiidera salix ,•" R. Ben Melech says it is " species salicis, Arabi- bus tziphtzaph dicta;" while "Avicenna hoc tit. dicit tziphtzaph esse cliiluf" Travellers also give us sim- ilar information. Thus Paul Lucas: "Les Arabes le nomment sofsaf qui signifie en Arabe saule." Rau- wolf (Travels, i, 9), speaking of the plants he found near Aleppo, remarks, " Tliere is also a peculiar sort of willow -trees called safsaf, etc.; the stems and twigs are long, thin, weak, and of a pale -yellow color; on their twigs here and there are shoots of a span long, like unto the Cypriotish wild tig-trees, which put forth in the spring tender and woolly flowers like unto the blossoms of the poplar-tree, only they are of a more dry- ing quality, of a pale color, and a fragrant smell. The inhabitants pull of these great quantities, and distil a very precious and sweet water out of them." This practice is still continued in Eastern countries as far as Northern India, and was, and probablj' still is, well known in Egypt. Hasselquist (Trav. p. 499), under the name of calaf apparentlj' speaks of the same tree; and Forskal (Descript. Plant, p. Ixxvi) identities it with the Salix ^Eyyptiaca, while he considers the safsaf to be the S. Babylonica.
Various uses were no doubt made of willows by the ancient Hebrews, although there does not appear to be any definite allusion to them. The Egyptians used "flat baskets of wickerwork, similar to those made in Cairo at the present day" (y^'ilkmson, Anc. Kf/ypt.\, 43). Herodotus (i. 194) speaks of boats at Babylon whose framework was of willow ; such coracle-shaped boats are represented in the Nineveh sculptures (see Rawlinson, Ilerod. i, 268).