McGIFFERT, ARTHUR CUSHMAN: Congregationalist; b. at Sauquoit, N. Y., Mar. 4, 1861. He was educated at Western Reserve College (A.B., 1882), Union Theological Seminary (from which he was graduated in 1885), and France, Italy, and Germany (Ph.D., Marburg, 1888). Returning to the United States in 1888, he was appointed instructor in church history in Lane Theological Seminary, a position which he held until 1890, when he was promoted to a full professorship of the same subject. Three years later (1893), he was appointed to his present position of professor of church history in Union Theological Seminary, New York. In theology he belongs to the critical school, and has written, in addition to translating the "Ecclesiastical History" of Eusebius (New Fork, 1890), Dialogue between a Christian and a Jew entitled 6vrtpoRil lIaviaKOV Kai obiAwvog 'Iovdafov rpos /c6vax6v rsva (New York, 1888); A History of Christianity in the Apostolic Age (1897); The Apostles' Creed (1902); and The Christian Point of View (in collaboration with F. Brown and G. W. Knox; 1902).
McGREADY, JAMES: Presbyterian; b. in western Pennsylvania about 1758 or 1760; d. at Henderson, Ky., Feb., 1817. He was educated for the ministry at a school in Cannonsburg, Pa., and was licensed to preach on Aug. 13, 1788. His first parish was in Orange County, N. C., but in 1796 he moved to Logan County, Ky., where, beginning in 1797, he took a prominent part in the great revival, holding the first camp-meetings there in July, 1800. It was partly due to his influence in ordaining young men who were without a classical education that the Cumberland Presbyterian Church seceded from the main body (see Presbyterians). McGready, who had really never seceded, was speedily reconciled to his church, having been prohibited from preaching for only a year or two, and was sent in 1811 as a missionary to found churches in southern Indiana. His sermons were edited by J. Smith (vol. i., Louisville,
1831; vol. ii., Nashville, 1833). See Revivals of Religion, III., 2, § 2.
Bibliography: E. H. Gillett, HiSt. of the Presbyterian Church, U. 3. A., passim, Philadelphia, 1884; R. V. Foster, in American Church History Series, xi. 280, 261, 288, 272, New York, 1894.
MACHERUS: A fortress in Peraea, nine miles east of the northern end of the Dead Sea, identified with the modern Mkawr. It was built by Alexander Jannaeus, destroyed by Gabinius, rebuilt by Herod the Great. Josephus points it out as the place in which the beheading of John the Baptist took place.
Bibliography: Sources are: Josephus, War, L, v. 8, TL, xviii. 6, VII., vi. 1-2, 4; Ant., XIV., v. 4, XVIII., v. 1-2; Pliny, Hist. not., v. 16, 72. Consult: G. A. Smith, Historical Geography of the Holy Land, pp. 569-570, London, 1897; Schürer, Geschichte, i. 438-441 et passim, Eng. transl., I_ ii. 250-251 et passim.
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