Raffles, Thomas, D.D., LL.D., an English Inde- pendent divine of great celebrity as a pulpit orator and theologian, was born in London. May 17, 1788, of good parentage, and was connected with Sir Thomas S. Raf- fles. He pursued his theological studies at Homerton College, and in 1809 was settled as a Congregational minister at Hammersmith. In 1812 he accepted a call from the Great George Street Chapel in Liverpool, and remained sole pastor until 1858, when he was furnished a colleague as an assistant. In 1860 he resigned his charge, and withdrew from the responsibilities of the stated ministry altogether, his health having become inadequate to any considerable labor, yet he preached frequently after that at the opening of chapels and on other similar public occasions. He died in August, 1863. Probably no minister in the Congregational body in England has been more widely or more favorably known during the last half century than Dr. Raffles. Besides being one of the most popular preachers in Great Britain, and being called abroad on occasions of public interest oftener, perhaps, than any other one, he has done good service to the cause both of literature and religion by his pen. In 1817 he published a high- ly interesting volume of Letters during a Tour through Some Pa?-ts of France, Savoy. Switzerland, Germany, and the Netherlands. Shortly after the commencement of his ministry he preached a sermon before the London Missionary Society, which attracted great, attention and was very widely circulated; and several other of his discourses have been given to the public and received with great favor. He was accustomed to celebrate the return of the new year by an appropriate piece of po- etry, which was printed and sent forth among his friends as a most welcome remembrancer. He has, in addition to these pieces, written many beautiful hymns, some of which have found their way into some of the collec- tions of sacred song. He is also the author of a Memoir of the life and ministry of his predecessor, the Rev. Thomas Spencer, a work which passed through many editions, and in America it has been several times re- printed. His Lectures on Christian Faith and Practice, though widely circulated, deserve to be better known than they are, being a clear and conclusive exposition and vindication of the Gospel and the rule and motives of morality. He published several separate sermons preached on various public occasions, and contributed frequently to periodicals. See The Patriot (Liverpool), Aug. 20, 1803; X. Y. Observer, Sept. 19, 1863; Prince- ton R< v. April, 1870, art. iii.
Rafin, Gaspard, a French Protestant minister, was born at Realmont (Tarn), in the first half of the 16th centurv. He was a devoted Huguenot, and his home
RAGAU
878
RAGGED SCHOOLS
was the raUying-place of French Protestants during the days of oppression and persi cution.
Ra'gau (Payav; Vulg. Ragau I, the Greek form of the name of a place and of a person.
1. A place named only in the Apocrypha [Judith i. f,, 15). In ill'- latter verse the "mountains <<t Ragau" arc mentioned. Ii is probablj identical with Rages (q.v.).
2. One of the ancestors of our Lord, -<>n of Phalec
35). He is the -ami' person with J.'i i (q. v. i, s.m of Peleg; and the difference in the name arises
translators having followed the Greek form, in which the Hebrew " was frequently expressed bj y, as is the case in Raguel (which once occurs for Reuel), Gomorrha, Gotholiah (for Atholiah I, Phogor i lor Peor), etc. Smith.
Ra'ges ('Payjj, 'Payoi; Vulg. Rages, Ragau) was an important city in north-eastern Media, where that country bordered upon Parthia. Ii is nol mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures, but occur- frequently in the book of Tobil (i, 11: v, 5; vi, 9, L2, etc.), and twice in Judith (" Ragau" [i, 5, 15]). According to Tobit, it was a place i" which some ol the israelitish captives taken }>\ Shalmaneser (Enemessar) had been transported, and thither the angel Raphael conducted the young Tobiah. In the book of Judith ii is made the scene of the great battle between Nebuchodonosor and Arphaxad, wherein the latter is said to ha\ e been defeat* d and taken pris- oner. Neither of these accounts can be regarded as historic, but the latter may conceal a fact of some im- portance in the history of the city.
Rj is a place mentioned by a ureal number of profane writers. The name is said to have I. ecu de- rived from the chasms (payag) made in the vicinity by earthquakes (Strabo, i, 13). It appears as Ragha in the Zendavesta, in [sidore, and in Stephen; as Raga in the inscriptions of liarius: /:/in;/n- in Duris of Samos ( l'r. ibo (xi, 9, ;; 1 ), and Arrian ( Exp. Alex, iii, 20); and Rhagcea in Ptolemy (vi, 5). Properly speaking, R a town, but the town gave name to a province,
which is sometimes called Rages or Rhagae, sometimes Rhagiana. It appears from the Zendavesta that here
was "I the earliesl settlements of the Arians, who
were mingled, in Rhagiana, with two other races, and wire thus broughl into contact with heretics (Bunsen, Philosophy of Universal History, iii, 485). [sidore calls 1 the greatest city in .Media" (p. 6), which may
have been true in his day: but other writers commonlj regardil as much inferior to Ecbatana. Ii was the place i" \\ hi. ih Frawartish | Phraortes), the Median rebel, fled w hen defeated by I tarius I [ystaspis,and at which he was made prisoner by one of Darius's generals (Beh. Tnscr.