as one of the trophies in the year's campaign, he enrolled on his list of members the name of the young manufacturer, then unknown, but in due time to become a household word among the millions in the rising sect. Though trained in the Puritan faith, and bound to it by many ties of association, blood, and interest, the new convert conceived at once a strong attachment to the new order, then every-where spoken against, which had proved so helpful in his own enlightenment and spiritual renewal. Unlike many, who were able to appreciate only the defects of the system, his sterling sense at once grasped its excellences. To intellect and heart the doctrines and economy of the Church commended themselves as at once sensible and usable in the great work of evangelization. The appeal to experience was then new, and much needed in New England. It was this appeal, as Coleridge puts it, that found him. The surrender to the divine Saviour was instantaneous and utter. Without stopping to confer with flesh and blood, he was at once baptized and received into the Church he had come so highly to appreciate, and of which he remained to the last a faithful member. In that age of lay help membership implied activity. The recruit, not less than the seasoned soldier, buckled on the armor and entered the field of conflict. The new Church was an aggressive force, a conquering host, as well as an army of occupation, whose sole business was to secure the territory of the world. The young man apprehended at once the genius of the sect, and began to exercise his gifts in public prayer and exhortation. The ability to speak and handle himself in social services was a revelation to himself not less than to his neighbors and fellow members; and, while these early endeavors secured the approval of the Church, they awakened in his own mind a vague aspiration for broader and more fruitful fields of service.

Of this mental questioning and spiritual aspiration the outcome was the "call to preach," of which the fathers made so much. To the divine vocation was soon added that of the Church in the form of a license. Armed with this formal authority, he began tentatively to preach as well as to conduct in a less formal way social and household services. The tact displayed and the success attained in these minor gatherings

indicated to his brethren a call to wider service, and tended to deepen in his own mind the conviction in favor of the ministry as a life calling. With this purpose he abandoned secular business, and in order to secure a somewhat fuller preparation for the new work he repaired, in 1829, to Kent's Hill Academy, where he spent six months in brushing up his knowledge of earlier studies. With a field already white and calling for laborers he could not tarry long at Jerusalem. Though his mental acquisitions at the time were not large, they answered well the requirements of a period when the standard of minis terial education in the Methodist Episcopal Church was much lower than at present. The entrance upon the duties of the active ministry was, moreover, regarded by him as but the beginning in a course of education which was to extend through life.

In 1830, a period which appears to the current generation as almost pre-historic, James Porter joined the New England Conference. Of the eleven in the class, some of them historic men -William Livesey, Sanford Benton, Samuel Osgood Wright, Charles Noble, Jefferson Hascall, Dexter S. King, Joel Knight, Thomas G. Brown, Ephraim Scott, and Salmon Hull-he was the last survivor. Of those who entered during the decade only six-R. W. Allen, Stephen Cushing, William Gordon, Franklin Fisk, Walter Wilkie, and H. C. Dunhain-remain; four others-Mark Trafton, W. H. Hatch, M. P. Webster, and Nathan D. George-belong to the decade, but entered later the New England Conference by transfer. Of these, William Gordon alone, venerable for years and services, continues on the effective list, holding his fifty-sixth appointment in unbroken succession. Most of the men of that period have not only passed out, but their names sound strange to the reader. Amid these unsubstantial shades the name of James Porter remains fresh and familiar through the Church. The Conference into which he then entered, though comprising the territory of the present New England and New England Southern Conferences, was comparatively small in numbers. All told, the roll contained only one hundred and one names, all of which have disappeared save that of George Sutherland, who joined in 1825, and now stands as the sole living representative of the Conference prior to 1831.

The first five years of his ministry were spent on territory now included in the Southern New England Conference. In 1830 he traveled the New Bedford and Fairhaven Circuits, as one of the junior preachers, under the Rev. Timothy Merritt. In 1331-32 he was stationed at New London, Conn.; 1833, at Warren, R. I.; and in 1834-35 at East Greenwich, R. I. In each of these fields he acquitted himself well, giving ample promise of a useful ministry. Diligent in study, and careful in pulpit preparation, he was at the same time abundant in labors among the people. Besides the ordinary pulpit and pastoral work, as was usual in that day, he massed his forces in special revival services, a kind of work in which he excelled. But on all sides were evidences of interest and progress; no labor was in vain.

Like many of the preachers of a period when salaries were small and fields large, he began his itinerant career as a single man. The delay of marriage was prudential, for he was not a believer in clerical celibacy. He held that a suitable companion would add vastly to the preacher's usefulness, and such a one had, in his view, been providentially selected for him. In one of the early prayer services, held by him at a private house in Easton, a young lady of the place, the daughter of the leading merchant, attractive in person and manners, and a prominent figure in the local circle of fashion, was in attendance. Trained in another faith, the service was to her novel and impressive, especially the part relating to religious experience, for, up to that hour, though reared in a Christian family, she had never been personally approached on the subject of religion. The young evangelist seized the opportunity for a personal appeal, urging the duty of immediate repentance and faith. Accepting the terms of salvation which had been so clearly set forth and enforced, she made an instant and entire surrender of herself to the Saviour, and came at once into the joy of conscious pardon. To both parties the occasion was memorable as a turning point in life; and, as such, was often referred to by both in later years with profound interest. The chance acquaintance of that evening ripened into mutual and abiding attachment, as well as conjugal union. Without an extended knowledge of each other, or, as they used to say, "very much courting," James Porter and Jane Tinkham How

ard were united in the bonds of holy matrimony June 17, 1833. Though the method of attachment at sight may not be commended as usually promotive of personal happiness or domestic tranquillity, we are constrained to acknowledge that in this instance the results were extremely happy. The attachment realized in the first moment of acquaintance knew no abatement or change for the more than fifty years of their married life. In the new home created by the union of hearts as well as hands, the law of kindness and mutual appreciation held sway, excluding alienations of affection, jealousies, jars, and troublesome differences of opinion and modes of domestic administration. In affection and sympathy the two lives became

one.

Into this household came eight children-four of them died early; two sons and two daughters survive.

The

At the close of the term at East Greenwich, Mr. Porter passed over into the territory of the present New England Conference, where he occupied for twenty years the leading pulpits in Wilbraham, Worcester, Boston, and Lynn. pastorate, 1835 and 1836, in Wilbraham was very fruitful in a large revival, extending from the school into the village, and marked by some signal conversions. The whole people were moved, and many became members of the Church. After two years spent in Worcester he went to Church Street, in Boston, the "People's Church" of the period, where he maintained his already high reputation for pulpit and pastoral ability, which was not easy in a charge abounding in volcanic forces and invariably run at high pressure. From Church Street he passed to old Bennett Street, where the labors of the famous John Newland Maffit had produced a spiritual tornado. The selection of James Porter to meet this emergency indicates the current estimate of his ability, and his success in the charge added to his reputation.

As a successful pastor he had become one of the foremost men of the conference. Though without brilliant pulpit gifts, his advance had been constant and regular. He had taken no backward steps; the work in each charge had given fresh assurance of his capacity for important service. As a preacher, he was sound, sensible, practical. He knew what to say and his best way of saying it. In his earliest ministry he aspired to be a pulpit orator, a theologian, a philosopher; but he soon

learned that he could never move easily, or contend effectively, in these seven-league boots, or in Saul's cumbersome armor. As a wise man he returned to the sling and smooth stones, finding that adaptation is power. Dispensing with the learned method, in which he was at a disadvantage, he returned to the simple and practical, where he was easily master. In style he was conversational, descending to the plane of the people without loss of dignity or impressiveness. A story or incident no one knew better how to tell. It was always to the point, and served to illustrate or emphasize the truth in hand. Beginning at the beginning, he unfolded the plot with dramatic skill. In preaching he never stopped at the intellect. With rare sense, and a knowledge of human nature, he could appeal to the conscience and drive home a truth. Above all, his appeal was to the heart. Beyond most men he knew how to stir the feelings and enlist the sympathies; to open the fountain of tears and move men to immediate action. In the pulpit his commanding personal appearance-tall, well-proportioned, erect—with a good voice, gentlemanly bearing, and easy manner gave him at once the eye and ear of the audience. what was thus gained at the start was held by skill in handling his subject and himself to the close. His preparation for the pulpit was simple. The matter and form, carefully thought out, were secured in outline. Though accustomed to the use of the pen, he seldom wrote in extenso for the pulpit; and even the notes used were usually brief. As suggestions in the rough, they held him to his line of thought and lighted him on to the goal. With this simple furnishing, and with the mind full of the subject, he was a model extempore speaker, at once instructive and entertaining.

And

On the platform and on special occasions he had few equals. Calm, self-poised, and quick to see and feel, he was ever ready to take up his parable. No one ever found him unprepared. En rapport with the audience and occasion, he knew instinctively how to say the things which would carry conviction and gain his case. On Conference anniversaries he was ever fresh and suggestive. Many households long retained the impressions he made at funerals. Without any patent method, he entered into the circumstances of the occasion, and with rare sense of propriety, knowledge of the human heart, and tact, he was ablo