Irah Chase
Irah Chase [1]
an eminent Baptist minister and biblical scholar, was born at Stratton, Vt., Oct. 5, 1793. He was fitted for college under the direction of Rev. Dr. Sanders, the first president of the University of Vermont, graduated from Middlebury College, Vt., in 1814; and from Andover Theological Seminary in 1817. He was ordained as an evangelist at Danvers, Mass-, in September of the same year, and for some time preached as a missionary in Western Virginia. His attention was early turned to the urgent necessity of starting a seminary of sacred learning to meet the wants of the rising ministry of the Baptist denomination. For seven years (1818-25) he was connected with the theological department of Columbian College, Washington, D. C., during one of which he was in Europe, devoting himself to the studies of his profession, and performing some needed work in the interests of his denomination. Having resigned his position at Washington, he went to Massachusetts and opened a school for theological students at Newton, Nov. 28,1825, which resulted in the' well-known Baptist seminary there.' He was a hard and most diligent student, patiently plodding to get at anything he wished to reach, cost what it might of time and toil. After twenty years' service he resigned his office, and spent the remainder of his life in Boston and Newton, largely occupied with literary work, chiefly in the line of his lifelong studies. He died at Newton Centre, Nov. 1, 1864. Dr. Chase wrote and published a large amount of matter in Baptist publications, and in the Bibliotheca Sacra, some of his papers embodying the results of patient and protracted investigation. In addition to these were the' following volumes: Life of Bunyan:-The Design of Baptism, Viewed in its Relation to Christian Life: The Apostolic Constitutions: - Infant Baptism an Invention of Men, etc. (J. C. S.)
