Barton, William Eleazar

BARTON, WILLIAM ELEAZAR: Congregationalist; b. at Sublette, Ill., June 28, 1861. He was educated at Berea College (B.S., 1885) and Oberlin Theological Seminary (B.D., 1890). He 495 was ordained to the Congregational ministry at Berea, Ky., in 1885, and has held successive pastorates at Robbins, Tenn. (1885-87), Litchfield, O. (1887-90), Wellington, O. (1890-93), Shawmut Congregational Church, Boston, Mass. (1893-99), and First Congregational Church, Oak Park, Ill. (since 1899). He is a corporate member of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions and of the Chicago Society of Biblical Research; a director of the Congregational Educational Society, of the Chicago Theological Seminary, of the Illinois Home Missionary Society, and formerly of the similar society in Massachusetts; a trustee of Berea College; and vice-president of the Congregational Sunday-school and Publication Society and of the American Peace Society. He is lecturer on applied practical theology at the Chicago Theological Seminary, and was a delegate to the Triennial National Congregational Council in 1895, 1898, and 1904, and to the International Decennial Council of the same denomination in 1899. In theology he is a progressive conservative Congregationalist. He is associate editor of the Bibliotheca Sacra, and his writings, in addition to numerous sermons and works of fiction, include: The Psalms and Their Story (Boston, 1898); Old Plantation Hymns (1899); The Improvement of Perfection (Portland, Me., 1900); Faith as Related to Health (Boston, 1901); Consolation (1901); An Elementary Catechism (1902); The Old World in the New Century (1902); The Gospel of the Autumn Leaf (Chicago, 1903); A Shining Mark (Philadelphia, 1903); and Jesus of Nazareth, His Life and the Scenes of His Ministry (Boston, 1904).