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Rodgers. Ravaud Kearney, D.D.

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Rodgers, John, D.D.

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a Presbyterian minister, was born in N.Y. city, Nov. 3,1796. He was the son of John R.B. Rodgers, M.D., surgeon in the Revolutionary army, practicing physician, and professor in the medical department of Columbia College, New York city. His grandfather, John Rodgers, D.D., was minister of the First Church, in New York, founder of the Brick Church, and the first moderator of the General Assembly in 1789. In the year 1815 Ravaud K. graduated at Princeton College. and in 1818 he graduated at the Princeton Theological Seminary. In 1820 he was ordained and installed pastor of the Sandy Hill and Glenn's Falls Presbyterian churches, N.Y. He remained ten years in that field. He was an ardent, noble, earnest young preacher, and associated with Drs. Bullions, Proudfit, Prime, and others in the Bible cause, education, and all great works of social improvement and philanthropy. With a voice of trumpet power and glowing eloquence, he was a favorite at all great public meetings and anniversaries, and a leader in every good work. Genial, warm hearted, and generous, he was a general favorite. In the year 1830 he received a call from the Presbyterian Church at Bound Brook, N.J., and, accepting the same, was installed pastor; and at that place, and in the Synod and the State of New Jersey, he left the impress of a pure and useful life. No minister of that State was more generally known or more universally respected. On all social occasions his presence was indispensable as the most agreeable and entertaining of men. As a member and officer of ecclesiastical bodies — whether General Assembly, Synod, or Presbytery — his great excellence of character and peculiar executive ability were illustrated. For a long time he was stated clerk of the New Jersey Synod, and a more faithful, popular, and accomplished servant never filled that office. His assiduity in the discharge of official duty, his punctuality in attendance, his perfect knowledge of the law and practice of the Church, and his clear, incisive, and able exposition of the constitution, which was always at his command, rendered him an authority in the courts of the Church. He was a model pastor, knowing all his people and their families. He called his own sheep by name; he carried them in his heart, and went about among them to do them good, for he was their trusted counsellor and confidential friend. He entered his pulpit with sermons thoroughly prepared, which he delivered with energy, life, and power. Even down to old age he was strong in the work of the ministry, and at seventy-five could outwork many of his younger brethren. As he drew near to fourscore, he resigned his pastoral charge, which he had held unbroken for forty-five years. In 1874 he removed to Athens, Ga., where in the home of his daughter he spent the calm and beautiful evening of a long, laborious, and honored life. He was a philosopher as well as a Christian, the divine presence being as real to him as the light of the sun; and living in that light, he was as ready to die as to live; for, "whether living or dying, he was the Lord's." He died at Athens, Ga., Jan. 12, 1879. (W.P.S.)