# The American Cyclopædia (1879)/McClintock, John

Edition of 1879. See also John McClintock (theologian) on Wikipedia; and the disclaimer.
McCLINTOCK, John, an American clergyman, born in Philadelphia, Oct. 27, 1814, died at Madison, N. J., March 4, 1870. He graduated at the university of Pennsylvania in 1835, and entered the itinerant ministry of the Methodist Episcopal church. In 1836 he was appointed professor of mathematics in Dickinson college, and in 1839 of ancient languages. While holding this post he translated, in conjunction with Dr. Blumenthal, Neander's “Life of Christ,” and with Prof. Crooks prepared a series of text books for Latin and Greek. From 1848 to 1856 he was editor of the “Methodist Quarterly Review,” which under his charge gained a high place in various branches of literature. In 1856 he was appointed, in conjunction with Bishop Simpson, a visitor to the English, Irish, French, and German conferences, and was also a delegate at the meeting of the evangelical alliance held in Berlin. In 1857 he was placed in pastoral charge of St. Paul's (Methodist Episcopal) church in New York, and in 1860 was called to be preacher in the American chapel in Paris, France, under the charge of the American and foreign Christian union. While in Europe he devoted himself
largely to the advocacy of the Union cause in the civil war. His replies to articles in the London “Times,” and his speeches in Exeter hall, produced great effect. On the continent he was greatly aided by the coöperation of Count de Gasparin, and his home in Paris became a centre for American Unionists abroad. In 1864 he returned to America, and was again placed in charge of St. Paul's church in New York; but impaired health compelled him to resign in 1865, and he took up his residence in Germantown, Pa. In 1866 he removed to New Brunswick, N. J., where for a time he filled the pulpit of St. James's church. During this year he was also chairman of the central centenary committee, organized to devise means for a fitting commemoration of the hundredth anniversary of American Methodism. Through his influence Mr. Daniel Drew, a member of St. Paul's church in New York, was induced to contribute a large sum as an offering to the centenary fund. This was appropriated to found an institution to be called the “Drew Theological Seminary” at Madison, N. J. (see Madison), of which Dr. McClintock was president until his death. Several prominent positions were at different times offered to him; among these was the presidency of Troy university, for which his name was used in 1857-'8, but without any service as such on his part. The degree of D. D. was conferred upon him by the university of Pennsylvania in 1848, and that of LL. D. by Rutgers college in 1866. For many years he was an acknowledged leader in his denomination. As a pulpit orator no one surpassed him, and he has been designated as “probably the most complete scholar that his church has produced in the United States.” His works, besides those already mentioned and numerous contributions to periodicals, include “Analysis of Watson's Theological Institutes” (1850), “Sketches of Eminent Methodist Ministers” (1852), “The Temporal Power of the Pope” (1853), and a translation of Bungener's “History of the Council of Trent” (1855). But his chief literary work, to which a great part of the last 20 years of his life was devoted, and which he did not live to complete, is the “Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature,” projected by him and Dr. James Strong, the former having charge of the department of theological and ecclesiastical literature, and the latter of that of Biblical literature. The work was commenced in 1853, but the first volume did not appear till 1867, and the fourth was partially prepared at the time of Dr. McClintock's death. (See Strong, James.) Since then have been published a volume of his sermons, “Living Words” (1870), and “Lectures on Theological Encyclopædia and Methodology,” a portion of a work which he had in preparation. Several other of his incomplete manuscripts are now (1874) in course of preparation for publication.