Porter. This word, when used in the A. V., does not bear its modern signification of a carrier of burdens, but denotes in every case a gate-keeper, from the Latin portarius, the man who attended to the porta. In the original the word is IS""!! or "irilJ, shoer, from "i>'U, shdar, a gate; once (Ezra vii, 2-1) Chald. S'nl-t, tara', the same (Sept. Svpwpog and 7rvX<up6g ; Vulg. porta- rius and janitor). This meaning is evidently implied in 1 Chron. ix, 21 ; 2 Chron. xxiii, 19 ; xxxv, 15 ; John x. 3. It is generally employed in reference to the Le- vites who had charge of the entrances to the sanctuary, but is used also in other connections in 2 Sam. xviii, 26 : 2 Kings vii, 10, 11 ; Mark xiii, 34 ; John x, 3 ; xviii, 16, 17. In two passages (1 Chron. xv, 23, 24) the Hebrew word is rendered " doorkeeper," and in John xviii, 16, 17, ») Svpwpoe. is " she that kept the door." Thus, in 2 Kings vii, 10, 11, and 2 Sam. xviii, 26, we meet with the porter at the gates of a town. In the palace of the high-priest (John xviii, 17) the porter was a female, ?) TraidiaKi], )) Bvpwpog. See also Acts xii, 13. A porter seems to have been usually stationed at the doors of sheepfolds (John x, 3). According to Stier and others, this Svpwpog corresponds to the Holy Spirit, who opens the way for the true ministers of Christ. See Door.
The porters of the Temple, who were guards as well as porters, were very numerous in David's time ; for in 1 Chron. xxiii, 5 no less than 4000 are mentioned. They were divided into courses (1 Chron. xxvi, 1-19), and had their post assigned them by lot (ver. 13). Be- sides attending to the gates and keeping order there, they seem, as Lightfoot says, to have had charge of certain treasures (ver. 15, comp. with 2 Chron. xxv. 24, and Lightfoot's Prospect of the Temple, c. v, § 6). Prop- erly speaking, their office was in some respects military: they were the soldiers of Jehovah, and the guards of his Temple. The stations that were guarded were not all occupied by the same number — some being guarded by six, some by four, and others by two persons only. They were relieved every Sabbath-day by others who took their places (2 Kings xi, 5; 1 Chron. ix, 17-29; xvi, 42; 2 Chron. viii, 14; xxiii, 4; xxxi, 14; xxxv, 15). Their service was required by night as well as by day, and a man called " the Alan of the Mountain of the House" went round every night to see that all were in their places, and that none of them slept. If he found any one asleep he struck him, and had liberty to burn his clothes. To this Lightfoot thinks there is a reference in Rev. xv. 16: "Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments" (Temple Service, c. vii, § 1). See Temple.
Porter, David, D.D., a Congregational minister of some note, was a native of Hebron, Conn., where he was born May 27, 1761. He was educated at Dartmouth College, class of 1784, and, having been duly ordained, became pastor of the Congregational Church at Spencer- town, N. Y., in 1787. In 1803 he removed to Catskill, N. Y., as pastor of the Presbyterian Church, and retained Ids relation to this Church until 1831. He died in that
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place Jan. 7. 1851. He served nearly a year in the Revolutionary army. He published Dissertation on Baptism i 1809), and Bome Sermons. He was, after his dissolution of the pastorate, the agenl of several benevo- lent societies, member of the American Board of Com- missioners f"r Foreign Missions, and, though eccentric, a man of great influence, See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, id. 496-506.
Porter, Ebenezer, D.D., an eminent Congrega- tional minister, was born Oct. 5, 1772. in Cornwall, ('..mi. After graduating at Dartmouth College in 171)2, In taught school some months; then studied divinity, and entered the ministry in 1794, and was ordained pas- tor at Washington, Conn., Sept. G, 1796, where he re- mained until April 1. 1812, when, liis health becoming impaired, lie removed to Andover to take the Bartlet professorship of pulpit eloquence in the theological sem- inary. In 1817 he was chosen professor of divinity in Yale College, but did not accept, and during the same year refused successively the presidency of Hamilton College, ..f Middlebury College, and of the University of Georgia. In 1*27 he was made (.resident of the sem- inary, and held that office until his death, April 8, ls:;i. As a theological instructor, Ur. Porter had lew equals. He was remarkably well endowed for the training of young men intended for the holy ministry. Tims Dr. Dewey writes: "A friend of mine attended service in the (Andover) seminary one morning some years after 1 lefl it. and heard one of Dr. Porter's grand discourses; and. as the audience was leaving the chapel, professor Stuarl in his deep tone said, 'This is the majesty of the Gospel' It was indeed the majesty of the Gospel!" Dr. Porter published, The Young Preacher's Manual (1819; I'd id. 1829): A Li iinn mt thr Analysis <;/' Vocal In~ fiections (1824): — An Analysis of the Principles if Rhetorical Delivery as applied in Reading ami Speaking (1827):- Tfu Rhetorical Reader (1831 >: — Lectures on Revivals of Religion (1832): — A Lecturi mi///, Cultiva- tion of Spiritual Habits mi,! Progress in Study (1833):