the Bunker Hill monument now raises its tall form, was born Enoch, the second son of Enoch and Lydia Mudge. This was at the time of some of the most interesting events in our national history, as well as in the immediate vicinity of their

occurrence.

Lynn was settled in 1629, and is therefore one of the oldest cities in the United States; and Mr. Mudge, on the maternal side, was descended from one of its earliest white settlers. His parents were members of the Congregational Church, claimed to be the oldest in the Massachusetts Colony, and were persons who truly feared God, according to the light which they had; but at that time were ignorant of the interior Christian life, and destitute of the riches of an inward religious experience. But as far as their own religious life went they instructed him in the fear and in the knowledge of God, a course which was not without its wholesome influence upon his subsequent life and

career.

The "Old Tunnel" Church, of which his parents were members, and where he first listened to the word of God, at the time of the "Great Awakening" in 1745, was under the pastoral care of the Rev. Nathaniel Hinchman, who was a violent opponent of the revival, and wrote a letter against Mr. Whitefield, its chief promoter and representative, addressed to the Rev. Mr. Chase, of Lynnfield, then a portion of the town. Fifty years later, this Church, then under the pastoral care of the Rev. Thomas C. Thatcher, showed lamentable signs of the fruits of the violent anti-evangelism, and so it did even for many subsequent years. Indeed, it was nearly a century before it fully recovered from the sad effects of Mr. Hinchman's doctrines and measures.

From a conference held in the city of New York in May, 1789, Bishop Asbury sent the Rev. Jesse Lee into New England for the first time. Lee, at this time, was a comparatively young man, but pious and zealous, possessing a courage which knew no fear, an indomitable energy which never quailed in the presence of difficulties, a most genial humor and an executive ability in ecclesiastical matters which has rarely been surpassed in this country. Commencing at Norwalk, Connecticut, he immediately formed a large circuit in the southwest corner of the state, principally in the county of Fairfield. Messrs.

Brush, Smith, and Roberts being sent to his assistance from the South in the course of the following winter, he at once formed another circuit, extending along the post road from Milford on Long Island Sound, to the city of Hartford; and in the spring, still a third, including both banks of the Connecticut, and reaching from the city of Middletown, now the seat of the Wesleyan University, to Wilbraham in Massachusetts. The following summer he also made explorations for future operations in the states of Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.

At the conference held in the city of New York, October 4, 1790, Mr. Lee was stationed in Boston, to attempt to plant Methodism in that capital of the Puritans. Boston was now just beginning to recover from those political and financial troubles which had alike depressed its business and drained it of its wealth and of its population, during the three wars from which it had so fearfully suffered in the course of the half century which had just elapsed, and in which three of its original Churches had become extinct, and the general interests of religion had suffered in common with its other concerns. Catholicism and Universalism had just before been introduced into Boston, the former in 1788, and the latter in 1785, while Unitarianism was beginning to take that distinct form which it subsequently assumed.

Mr. Lee did not take his station till the 13th of November, when the autumn leaves had begun to fall, and the forests of the north to put on those varied and resplendent hues of the season for which they are distinguished. His usual success as a pioneer did not here immediately attend his efforts, but hinderances and discouragements of a most painful character, and which now strangely contrast with the present flourishing condition of Methodism in that city, but by which we are reminded that great and important results often have the most humble and unpromising beginnings.

But in the midst of these discouragements he received a letter from Mr. Benjamin Johnson, a prominent citizen of Lynn, inviting him to that ancient town. Accepting this invitation, he immediately repaired thither, and met with a most cordial welcome. He was treated with a true Christian hospitality, which greatly revived the spirits of our worn evan

gelist, and at once made him feel at home. Here, in the midst of an intelligent, thoughtful, and contemplative people, many of whom were hungry for the bread of life, he found "a people who were prepared of the Lord." Large numbers immediately attended his preaching, who received the rich evangelical doctrines relating to a full and free salvation, of which he was the messenger, with all readiness of mind; and on the 20th of the following February a class of eight persons was formed, among which were the parents of Mr. Mudge; and on the 27th twenty-one more were added to their number. A legal ecclesiastical society, outside the Church, in accordance with the laws and customs of this ancient commonwealth, was also immediately formed, to which, on the 9th of the following May, seventy tax payers joined themselves. Thus a Church was at once formed, and a large and respectable congregation was at once secured. One thing more was requisite, and which was promptly supplied. A house of worship was commenced on the 14th of June, was raised on the 21st, and when but just covered in, was dedicated by Lee on the 26th. This most famous ecclesiastical building in the history of New England Methodism, after having served as the cradle of both the Methodist and the Baptist Churches in Lynn, and having been subsequently used as a public school-house, was last in the possession of the Catholics, and has since been burned.

Enoch at once saw the fruits of holiness in his parents, which much affected him. He also listened to the plain, earnest, searching, persuasive, and richly evangelical discourses of Mr. Lee with rapt attention; and while all these things were going on, he was awakened to a sense of his lost condition as a sinner, and was led to seek his Saviour with sincerity and earnestness. He desired to unbosom his burdened soul to Mr. Lee, but his youthful timidity prevailed, and he was afraid to do so. Finally, doubt, with its concomitants of fear, gloom, and despair, began to settle down upon his soul. But deliverance was near at hand. At a class-meeting at which Mr. John Lee, the brother of Jesse, was present, Mr. Lee, who was truly a son of consolation, was enabled so to speak to our anxious and youthful penitent as to lead him to hope, and then to believe in Jesus. The next morning, which was the 16th of

September, the clouds of doubt, fear, and gloom, which had so heavily pressed upon his soul, were all swept away, the Sun of Righteousness shone forth upon his renewed heart, and he was made happy in the love of God. The divine peace which he then received he never lost or forfeited for a period of more than sixty years. Taking a hymn book from his pocket, he opened on the one which commences with—

"O joyful sound of gospel grace!

Christ shall in me appear;

I, even I, shall see his face;

I shall be holy here."

Says he: "The whole hymn seemed more like an inspiration from heaven than anything of which I had a conception. I could only read a verse at a time, and then give vent to the gushing forth of joy and grateful praise; and in this way I went through it."

The same day he told a young friend, who was also under awakenings, of his new experience, and of the Spirit's inward revealings, who at once recognized the work of God in him; and bursting into tears, he solicited his prayers, that he, likewise, might be made a joyful partaker of the same blessings. And now his voice was heard ascending in supplication for his youthful associate-a voice chosen of the great Head of the Church to convert thousands to God in like manner, and to convey the precious consolations of the Gospel to distant multitudes. And thus, at once, commenced those public labors which were to extend through threescore years, ere that voice should be silenced in death, near the very spot where it was thus first heard.

Our young convert now rapidly grew both in grace and in Christian knowledge. The spirit of constraining speech was upon him. Spiritual gifts, as well as Christian graces, were at once developed, and were at once brought into requisition. He first began to exhort in the social meetings, among his friends in Lynn, and also with his older brother John, to assist in conducting the devotions of the family in the absence of his father. Numbers were blessed, even under those early labors. Mr. Lee, who was quick to perceive the developments of talent, and equally prompt to avail himself of all the assistance providentially furnished him, at once took the direction

of the labors of our youthful evangelist, and sent him to Marblehead, to Malden, and to Boston, where he not only prayed and exhorted in religious meetings, but also even attempted to expound the Scriptures from the desk.

The fields in the Eastern States were now "all white to the harvest," while the laborers were few; and a wide sphere of labor was about to be opened to him, which was to extend all along the sea-coast of his native New England, from the mouth of the Connecticut River to beyond the deep waters of the Penobscot in Maine. At the annual conference held in Lynn August 1, 1793, the second held in New England, and at which Bishop Asbury presided, Mr. Mudge, then but seventeen years of age, was admitted to the Methodist itinerancy, with its exhausting labors, its painful privations, and its glorious successes. He thus entered the New England Conference, bearing the enviable distinction which, from the nature of the case, no other man could share with him, of being the first native New Englander admitted to that work, as well as its most youthful laborer. And after nearly sixty years' labor in this field he fell, near the same spot, the oldest member of this same ecclesiastical body, as he was then the youngest.

He was appointed to the Greenwich and Warren circuits, R. I., which, although appearing separately on the Minutes, were, for some reason, united, with the Rev. David Kendall and Philip Wager as his colleagues. This vast field, which had been opened by the labors of that useful pioneer, the Rev. Lemuel Smith, the previous year, embraced the whole of the State of Rhode Island then brought under cultivation, together with the adjacent portion of Massachusetts, lying north and west of the Taunton River, as far as Easton and Bridgewater. It comprised nearly the whole of what is now the Providence District, with a portion of the Sandwich, and is now one of the most fruitful fields of Methodism in New England.

His extreme youth, then ruddy with the glow of health, attracted the attention especially of the young, who, with wondering eyes, flocked to behold the most juvenile preacher whom they had ever heard. Many were made tender under his persuasive words, and he found himself much more acceptable than he feared would be the case. This immense circuit, even, could not boast of a meeting-house of the humblest con