Read, Francis H., a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was born in Harrison County, Va., Nov. 25, 1812, was converted in his youth, joined the Church promptly in 1829, and in 1834, feeling called of God to the holy ministry, entered the travelling con- nection within the bounds of the Pittsburgh Conference, Pa. When the West Virginia Conference was formed, he became united with it, and there labored until 1855, when he was located. He removed to Illinois, and shortly after entered the Rock River Conference, and was appointed to the Newark Circuit. After two years he again took a location, and removed to Iowa. In 1858 he was admitted into the Iowa Conference, and afterwards, by the formation and division of territory, he fell first into the Western Iowa, and then into the Des Moines Conference. His appointments in these conferences were Hopeville Circuit, Osceola, Chariton, Ottawa Circuit, Corning, and the Atlantic District. In this field truly "he died at. his post." His death oc- curred July 13, 1871, at Panora, Guthrie County, Iowa. See Minutes of the Annual Conferences, 1871, p. 218, 219.
Read, Henry Clay, a Presbyterian minister, was born in Stanford, Lincoln Count}', Ky., Jan. 30, 1826. He graduated at Centre College, Danville, Ky., in 18-19, and at the theological seminary at Princeton, N. J., in 1850; was licensed by Transylvania Presbytery June 27, 1850, and began his labors at Westport, Lagrange, and Ballardsville, Ky. In 1851 he moved to Glasgow, Ky., and was ordained over that Church April 9, 1852. In 1858 he moved to Columbia, Ky., and engaged as joint principal of the high-school in that place, during which period he preached half of his time to the Church there, and the churches of Edmonton and Munfords- ville. In 1859 he took full charge of the Church and school, but discontinued the school in 1862. He was a commissioner to the General Assembly of the Presbyte- rian Church which met in Peoria, 111., in 1863. He died Oct. 23, 1863. Mr. Read was a most exemplary Christian, a man of sound judgment, and a good preacher. See Wilson, Presb. Hist. A Imanac, 1864, p. 191. (J. L. S.)
Read, Thomas Buchanan, an American artist of some renown, deserves a place here for his distinc- tion in works on sacred subjects. He was born in Chester County, Pa., in 1822. When but seventeen years old he entered the studio of a sculptor in Cincin- nati, intending to devote himself to sculpture for life ; but painting soon proved the more attractive to him, and he practiced sculpture only as an amateur. In 1841 he went to New York, then to Boston, and settled in Philadelphia in 1846. He visited Europe first in 1850,
since which time he has lived in Florence and Rome, passing some interval in Cincinnati. His pictures and his poems have the same characteristics, as might be expected. They are full of aerial grace and delicacy ; an exquisite refinement and an ideal charm mingle in all he did. And yet he sometimes wrote with the spirit we find in Sheiidan's Ride, and painted with such force as is seen in Sheridan and his Horse. Among his most charming pictures is his Star of Bethlehem. He died in Europe, where he had resided for over five years, while on his way home in 1872.
Reader, one of the five inferior orders of the ChiiTch of Rome. The office of reader is of great antiquity in the Church, dating as far back as the 3d century." It is, however, abundantly evident that it was not a dis- tinct order, the reader (in the Latin Church at least) never having been admitted to his office by imposition of hands. According to the Council of Carthage, the Bible was put into the hands of the appointee, in pres- ence of the people, with these words : " Take this book, and be thou a reader of the Word of God, which office thou shalt faithfully and profitably perform. Thou shalt have part with those who minister in the Word of God." At the time of the Reformation, readers were admitted in churches and chapels for which no clergy- man could be procured, to the end that divine service in such places might not be altogether neglected. The office, or rather the name, is still continued in the Church of England. The following is the pledge to which, at the time of the Reformation, the readers were obliged to subscribe :
"Imprimis, I shall not preach or interpret, but only rend that which is appointed by public authority. I shall not minister the sacraments or other public riles of the Church, but bury the dead, and purify women after their childbirth. I shall keep the register-book according to the injunctions. I shall use sobriety in apparel, and es- pecially in the church at common prayer. I shall move men to quiet and concord, and not give them cause of of- fence. I shall bring in to my ordinary testimony of my behavior from the honest of the parish where I dwell, within one half year next following. I shall give place, upon convenient warning, so thought by the ordinary, if any learned minister shall be placed there at the suit of the patron of the parish. I shall claim no more of the fruits sequestered of such cure where I shall serve but as it shall be thought meet to the wisdom of the ordinary. I shall daily, at, the least, read one chapter of the Old Tes- tament, and one other of the New, with good advisement, to the increase of my knowledge. I shall not appoint in my room, by reason of my absence or sickness, any other man, but shall leave it to the suit of the parish to the or- dinary for assigning some other able man. I shall not read but in poorer parishes, destitute of incumbents, ex- cept in the time of sickness, or for other good considera- tions to be allowed by the ordinary. I shall not, openly intermeddle with any artificer's occupations, as covetously to seek a gain thereby, having in ecclesiastical living the sum of twenty nobles, or above, by the year." In Scotland also, at the Reformation, readers were ap- pointed to read the Scriptures and the common prayers — that is, the forms of the Church of Geneva. They were not allowed to preach or administer the sacraments. The readers were tempted now and then to overstep these limits, and were as often forbidden by the General Assembly, till, in 1581, the office was formally abolished. The First Book of Discipline says :