Gray, John

Gray, John a Reformed (Dutch) minister, descended from the Scotch. Covenanters, was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1792, and educated and ordained in that country in 1815. He led in prayer at the family altar, and bought a Bible, then a costly book, with his own earnings, of which he afterwards wrote the history, called Little Johuny and his Bible. In 1818 he went with his wife to Russian Tartary as a Presbyterian missionary. After seven years of labor there, he returned on the death of his wife, and engaged in home mission work in England until 1833, when he removed to America, and spent the rest of his busy life chiefly as a missionary (Fallsburgh, N.Y. 1833-35; Schodack, 1835-46; Cohoes, 1847-48; Ghent, 1848-55; Cicero, 1856-57). He died in 1865. He was an almost constant contributor to the religious press, and was the author of several of the most striking tracts of the American Tract Society. He was a close observer of men and things, an acute thinker .and vigorous writer, full of strong points and memorable forms of expression. His spirit, work, and life were full of Christ, and his earnestness was unwearied. See Corwin, Manual of the Reformed Church in America, s.v. (W.J.R.T.)