Smith, Joseph (2)

Smith, Joseph (2), one of the early ministers of the Presbyterian Church in Western Pennsylvania, was born in Nottingham, Pa., in 1736. Of his early education and religious convictions nothing is known. He graduated at Princeton in 1764; was licensed by the Presbytery of Newcastle at Drawyers, Aug. 5, 1767; was ordained and installed pastor of the Congregation of Lower Brandywine, April 19, 1769; of the united congregations of Wilmington, Del., and Lower Brandywine, Oct. 27, 1774; and of Buffalo and Cross Creek congregations in Westmoreland County, Pa., in December, 1780, where he spent the remainder of his life. He died April 19, 1792. Mr. Smith was an extraordinary preacher and laborious pastor. "I never heard a man," said the Rev. Samuel Porter, "who could so completely as Mr. Smith unbar the gates of hell and make me look far down into the abyss, or who could so throw open the gates of heaven and let me glance at the insufferable brightness of the great white throne." See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, 3, 274. (J.L.S.)