volume of excellent sermons for mariners, and many poetical pieces of more than ordinary merit.

At the right of Mudge stands the veteran ASA KENT, who still survives one of the few remaining members of that corps of strong men who laid the foundations of our cause in the New-England States. He is small in person; his face bears the marks of extreme years, and he totters on the verge of the grave; but his faculties retain a remarkable degree of vigour, as his occasional writings in our periodicals show. His memory is a store-house of old Methodistic reminiscences, and our historical writers owe much to his recollections and sound judgment. Vermont, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island have been the principal fields of his labour. He shared the severest conflicts of our cause in the former, and is a living history of the Church in that State. The great peculiarities of Methodism are with him, as with most of our early preachers, very precious. "I believe," he says, in a letter once addressed to the writer of this article,-"I believe the Lord cleansed my soul from sin more than forty years ago. I have not steadily enjoyed the witness of it; but, for nearly that time, have seen no terrors in death or the grave. The doctrine of holiness is my comfort and joy, and I hope, through mercy, to dwell with God forever, as a sinner saved by grace; even so. Amen."

In about the centre of the pews JOSEPH A. MERRILL will be recognised, with his face turned toward the spectator. His name has become quite familiar in the New-England Conference, not only from his own long connexion with it, but also by the number of worthy sons whom his careful training has, under God, given to the ministry. He was a "strong man "-a good, sound preacher, unshakable in his

adhesion to the great principles of Methodism, a persevering labourer in many hard fields, the associate of Ruter and Fisk in the early struggles of the Church for educational institutions, and a man of unusual sagacity and skill in the practical management of public affairs. His frame was large, though not corpulent, his head amply developed, and his features regular.

On his left sits EBENEZER F. NEWELL, another of the survivors of the first battles of the Church in the East. His labours have been chiefly in Vermont, Maine, and Massachusetts. His memoirs have been published; they are very entertainingly characteristic, and full of illustrations of the hardships and triumphs of our primitive preachers. Mr. Newell is remarkable for his exceeding amiability, the warmth of his religious sympathies, his ready conversational powers, and the many interesting recollections of the "old times" with which his conversation is enlivened.

Behind him, and in the adjacent right-hand pew, sits THOMAS C. PIERCE, a man well-beloved, especially in Vermont and Massachusetts, where he laboured faithfully and with much success through a long life. He was slight in person and infirm in health, but always abounding in the work of the Lord. He had good talents, a rare aptness in the illustration of truth, a persuasive, winning manner in his discourse, and was an unusually successful pastor. He lived a good working life, and died well, leaving a name in the Church that is as ointment poured forth.

To the left of Mr. Pierce, and closely behind him, are seen the full and kindly features of ABRAHAM D. MERRILL, who still lives and labours in the New-England Conference. He is large in person, with a capacious head, ample features, and a voice of music, which he not unfrequently uses

with the force of a trumpet; for, though a Jeremiah in pathos, he is also known in the Church as a son of thunder. His talents are good, his appeals sometimes overwhelming; and he is, in fine, what every preacher of the gospel should be, a "revivalist."

At his right, in the same pew with Thomas C. Pierce, sits EPAPHRAS KIBBY, one of the strong men among "the giants of those days" when Methodism had to advance amid continual conflicts. Fifty-five years ago he entered the itinerancy; he lingers still among his brethren with erect form and vigorous faculties, but disabled strength. He saw the great battles and the triumphs of our cause in Maine, at the beginning of the century. He was one of the most powerful and popular of our early preachers in Boston. He formed the first Methodist Society in the city of New-Bedford. Mr. Kibby is tall and slight in person, extremely neat in dress, and venerable with age. His talents were of a very superior order. His imagination furnished him with vivid illustrations, always abundant, chaste, and appropriate. His reasoning was strikingly perspicuous, direct, and conclusive, his language remarkable for both elegance and force. Though he never used notes in the pulpit, yet a large portion of his sermons were fully written the cause, probably, of that rich and correct diction which so eminently characterized even his impromptu addresses. He has been a fond lover of good literature, and abounds in general knowledge. His judgment has always been cautious and safe, his zeal steady and effective, his attachment to the doctrines and economy of Methodism unwavering amid many calls and temptations to more comfortable stations in other communions. Without ambition or pretension, he attained to a rare popularity as a

preacher in the days of his vigour. He has accomplished distinguished service in the Church, and is endeared to it, in most of New-England, by precious recollections.

Near Mr. Kibby, at the head of the pew in front of him, sits ISAAC BONNEY, another of the veterans still remaining among his brethren, though unable to share their labours. Shaken by more than threescore and ten years, and nearly half a century of itinerant life, he has retired into the superannuate ranks, where, however, he is not forgotten, but enjoys not only the respect, but the love of his many friends.

He has been distinguished by modest worth, a pure exemplariness of life, an indisposition to accept the preferments of honour or place among his brethren, a sound but unpretending piety, a discriminating judgment, good pulpit ability, and success in his labours. Isaac Bonney is, in fine, one of those modest but genuine men, who are prized immeasurably more by discerning minds among their friends than they are by themselves, and whose associates learn to value them higher as they know them better. He is an example of our primitive ministry which the future historian of Methodism will commemorate with pleasure.

Not far off EDWARD T. TAYLOR stands, with folded arms, in the aisle. He is noted through the country as an original, both in character and talents-an orator, sui generis-a wit overflowing with humour-a man of strong sense, of deep pathos, of the freshest poetic thought-a powerful preacher-a gentleman, even to gracefulness, in manners a murderer of the queen's English, and, best known as "the mariner's preacher of Boston." Immediately behind Mr. Taylor sits DAVID KILBURN.

He has seen about threescore years and ten, and has spent nearly half a century in the ministerial work in almost all the New-England States. His preaching has been accompanied with good sense and the unction from above. His frame is large, his head well developed, his features full and benevolent, and many are the seals to his ministry.

They and

Such are a few, and only a few, of the men of note who belonged to the old New-England Conference before its division into its present half-dozen sections. their coadjutors had the hardest field of Methodism in the nation; they have made it the best, in the estimation of many, and all will admit it to be, at least, among the best. The growth of the Church within the Eastern States has not only been great, numerically and morally, but in all those material provisions which give security and permanence to a denomination-in good and well-located chapels, literary institutions, &c.-it is probably before any other portion of our common cause. One honour, at least, will be conceded it; it has had greater difficulties to overcome than any other portion of the denomination, and has fully conquered them. Its success is a common honour to us all.