Abraham, Andrew

Abraham, Andrew a Presbyterian minister, was born at Florida, N. Y., Oct. 12, 1818. After receiving a preparatory literary education, having graduated at Union College in 1844, he entered Union Theological Seminary and completed the course of study. He was ordained Oct. 13, 1848, and in the same year received a commission from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to labor among the Zulus in South Africa, at Maipumulo, where he spent his entire ministerial life, with the exception of one year on a visit to his native country. One who was for many years his yoke-fellow in the Zulu mission says of him, "He was a practical man in every sense of the word. While he attended to the spiritual wants of the people and instructed them thoroughly in the doctrines and principles of religion, he taught them how to carry out those principles in active daily business life. He labored faithfully and patiently to instruct the ignorant and lead them out of their darkness and superstition to a hope in Christ, and he instructed them how to build their houses with a view to convenience and health." A native chief said, after his death, "I never heard our teacher speak an unkind word." He was true to his convictions, and carried them out faithfully. He was an excellent scholar, and, in the judgment of his brethren, the best translator in the mission. It is thought that overwork in preparing the Old-Test. translation for the press had an influence in causing the disease which brought him to sudden death. He was found dead in his bed on the morning of Sept. 12, 1878, having been apparently stricken with apoplexy. (W. P. S.)