William Swan Plumer

William Swan Plumer

a Presbyterian minister, was born at Greenssburg (now Darlington), Beaver County, Pennsylvania, July 26, 1802. He graduated from Washington College, Va., in 1825, and from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1827; having been licensed to preach in 1826, he soon after organized a Presbyterian Church at Danville, subsequently another at Warrenton, N.C., and preached at Raleigh, Washington, and Newbern, in the same state. In 1834 he became a pastor in Richmond, Virginia, and in 1837 founded the Watchman of the South, a weekly religious journal, which he edited for eight years. The same year removed as pastor to Baltimore, Maryland. In 1854 he became professor of didactic and pastoral theology in the Western Theological Seminary at Allegheny City, Pennsylvania; in 1866 was called to the chair of theology in the Theological Seminary at Columbia, S.C., Where he remained until it was closed in 1880. He died at the Union Protestant Infirmary, Baltimore, Maryland, October 22 of the same year. Dr. Plumer was the author of many excellent works, among which are, Argument Against the Indiscriminate Incorporation of Churches and Religious Societies (1847, 8vo): — The Bible True, and Infidelity Wicked (New York, 18mo): — Plum, Thoughts for Children (Philadelphia, 18mo): — Short Sermons to Little Children (18mo): — Thoughts Worth Remembering (New York, 8vo): — The Saint and the Sinner (Philadelphia, 18mo): — The Grace of Christ (1853, 12mo): — Rome Against the Bible and the Bible Against Rome (1854, 18mo): — Christ our Theme and Glory (1855, 8vo): — The Church and her Enemies (Philadelphia, 1856, 18mo): — The Law of God as Contained in the Ten Commandments (ibid. 1864, 12mo): — Vital Godliness (New York, 1865, 12mo): — Jehovah Jireh ( Philadelphia, 1866, 12mo): — Studies in the Book of Psalms (1866): — The Rock of our Salvation (New York, 1867, 12mo): — The Words of Truth and Love (Philadelphia, 1868, 18mo): also commentaries on the epistles to the Romans and Hebrews, works of great merit: besides Memoirs and Select Remains of William Nevins, D.D. (1836, 12mo): and an abridgment of Stevenson on the Offices of Christ (Philadelphia, 1837, 16mo).He wrote more than fifty religious tracts, issued by six religious societies, several single sermons, and contributed largely to various religious journals and papers. See Necrol. Report of Princeton Theol. Sem. 1881, page 20; Allibone, Dict. of Brit. and Amer. Authors, s.v.