Stuart, Moses

Stuart, Moses, a learned Congregational divine, was born at Wilton, Conn., March 26, 1780. He early began to develop a taste for books, reading Edward's On the Will when he was only twelve years of age. At the age of fifteen he was sent to an academy in Norwalk, Conn., and entered the sophomore class of Yale College in May 1797, graduating with the highest honors of his class in 1799. The year after he spent teaching in an academy at North Fairfield, Conn., and during a part of the year following he was principal of a high school in Danbury. He was admitted to the bar in 1802 at Danbury, but the week previous had been chosen tutor in Yale, which position he accepted. During his tutorship, desirous of procuring an appropriate work on the Sabbath, Mr. Stuart borrowed of the president Macknight's work On the Epistles, the perusal of which awakened him to spiritual things and resulted in his conversion. In the early part of 1803 he connected himself with the Church in Yale College, began to study theology under president Dwight, and was soon after licensed to preach by the New Haven Association. He was ordained pastor of the Church in New Haven formerly served by Dr. Dana, March 5, 1806. On Feb. 28, 1810, he was inaugurated professor of sacred literature at Andover, and continued in the active discharge of his duties until 1848, when he resigned in consequence of advancing age. After this, however, his mind retained its wonted activity, and he published two or three works requiring minute and profound Biblical investigation. Taking his daily walk, he fell, fracturing the bone of his wrist. He afterwards took a severe cold, which passed into a typhoid fever and issued in death, Jan. 4, 1852. Mr. (for he refused the title of Dr.) Stuart's life was one of incessant labor, devoted chiefly to Biblical literature. In this he led the way in his own country with most happy results. His own contributions to sacred learning are very valuable; but perhaps he did even more by the impulse he gave to Biblical study, and the sound principles of Biblical exegesis which he instilled into the minds of his younger brethren, especially in America, than by the works which he himself published. His chief writings are, a Grammar of the Hebrew Language (1813; of which a 5th ed. appeared at Oxford in 1838): — a Hebrew Chrestomathy (1832): — Course of Hebrew Study (1830): — a Grammar of the New Test. Dialect (2d ed. 1841): — Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews (1827, 2 vols.; reprinted, Lond. 1828): — On the Epistle to the Romans (1832; London, 1833): — On the Apocalypse (1845; Edinb. 1847): — On Daniel (1851): — Ecclesiastes (1851): — Proverbs (1852): Critical History and Defense of the Old; Test. Canon (1845): — A Scriptural View of the Wine Question (1848): --Sermons (1810-46). He was also a large contributor to the Biblical Repository and the Bibliotheca Sacra. A monument has been erected to his memory at Andover, on which he is styled "the father of Biblical science in his native country." See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, 2, 475; Park, Funeral Discourse (1852); Meth. Quar. Rev. April 1852; Christian Review, April 1852; Journ. of Sac. Lit. Jan. 1853.