Taylor, Joseph Van Sommern

Taylor, Joseph van Sommern a missionary of India, was born at Bellary, Southern India, in 1820, where his father was a missionary of the London Society. He was educated at the Bishop's College in Calcutta and at Glasgow, graduating at the latter place in 1845. In the same year, having been accepted by the London Missionary Society, he left England for Gujerat, where he labored for thirty-four years, the last twenty-one years in connection with the Presbyterian Church of Ireland. He died in 1881. Mr. Taylor, besides translating the Confession of

Faith into Gujerati, wrote two of the best grammars in that language. The natives of Gujerat are indebted to him for a History of the Christian Church, founded on that of Dr. Barth, as well as for a Book of Christian Practise and a Manual of Devotion. Several of the best tracts in the list of the Gujerat Tract and Book Society are from his pen. He also translated the Shorter Catechism, and was engaged at the time of his death on a translation of the Philosophy of the Plan of Salvation, which he left unfinished. (B.P.)