a conference lately held in St. Thomas, a testimonial in the shape of a purse of $120 was presented to him in honour of his advent upon the 50th year of his ministry. Dr. Sanderson as a preacher is at times eloquent, always practical and strictly evangelical. As a speaker he is chaste, polished and powerful, and when in debate he waxes warm with his theme he invariably carries his hearers with him. As a man he is sympathetic and tender and withal firm and unflinching in what he believes to be right. To quote Dr. Carroll again—“He has not been without difficult positions to keep, and has had his trials; yet he has proved faithful to his trust, and has usually triumphed. He is self-contained, manly and enduring, and has never failed in a connexional trust.”
Hunter, Rev. Samuel James, D.D., Pastor of the Centenary Church, Hamilton, Ontario, one of the leading preachers in connection with the Methodist denomination, is a Canadian by birth, having been born in the village of Phillipsburg, province of Quebec, on the 12th April, 1843. He is of Irish parentage, his father and mother having been born and married in Strabane, county Tyrone. The subject of our sketch removed, with the other members of the family, to Upper Canada, and settled in East Gwillimbury, which was then almost a wilderness. He early developed an unconquerable thirst for knowledge, and when a mere lad had reached the limit of the common school teacher’s power to instruct. The few books in scanty libraries here and there amongst the neighbours were read with avidity and studied with care. The first money he ever earned was invested in three works that opened to him the vast world of thought, namely: Dick’s works, Rollin’s Ancient History, and a Latin grammar and reader combined. When seventeen years of age he was led into a religious experience through the ministry of the Methodist church, which he subsequently joined. At the age of eighteen he was received as a probationer for the ministry, and began his labours in the township of Walpole. Four years afterwards he was publicly ordained in London, Ontario. For many years he did the hard work of a Methodist preacher, and at the same time pursued secular study under private masters. His fields of labour have been—one year in Walpole, two in Oakville, two at Thornhill, one at Bowmanville, six in Montreal, twelve in Toronto (six of which were in Elm street, three in Queen street, and three in Sherbourne street Church). He is now completing his second year in Centenary Church, Hamilton, one of the largest and most important congregations in the Dominion. At the convocation of 1886 the Senate of Victoria University conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. Dr. Hunter, though a member of every general conference that has been held, has no taste for debate, and seldom enters the arena. He is regarded as orthodox in his teachings, but never takes things on trust merely. He thinks for himself, and never burkes his opinions, even when they seem to be out of harmony with the generally accepted creeds. He married, in 1871, Miss Ruston, of Montreal, and has a family of two children.
Mathison, George, Senior Past Grand Worthy Patriarch of the Grand Division of the Sons of Temperance of the Province of Quebec, was one of the most energetic and enthusiastic temperance advocates in that section of our country. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on the 1st May, 1801, he received his education there, and after leaving school was apprenticed to the baking business. Having faithfully served the prescribed term, he worked for a short period as a journeyman, and wishing to see the world, enlisted in His Majesty’s 70th regiment of foot, and soon attained the position of colour-sergeant. Seeing the evil effects of drink on his comrades, he soon became convinced that a life of total abstinence was the safest and best for him to secure success in his profession, and accordingly adopted the principle. At that time very few had abandoned the entire use of intoxicating liquors as a drink, and those who had were looked upon with suspicion by the “moderate drinkers,” but his example soon began to tell upon his comrades, and many of them were induced to abandon liquor-drinking. In due course of time, with the permission of his commanding officer, he established a total abstinence society in the regiment. He soon afterwards attained to the rank of quarter-master-sergeant, and still continued to use his influence to further the good work he had begun. In the year 1842, having served his country for twenty-one years in Gibraltar, Malta, West Indies and Canada—proving the practicability of the principles of total abstinence in all these varied climes—he was discharged with a pension, and at the same time received a situation in the Commissariat department as keeper of the government woodyard in Quebec. This gave him greater opportunities to work in the temperance cause, and shortly afterward he and several other citizens started the first total abstinence society in that city, and it proved a great blessing to many. In October, 1850, having heard of the order of the Sons of Temperance, which was then making rapid strides in enrolling men in the total abstinence ranks, he and other members of the society secured a charter from the National Division, and Gough Division, No. 3, of Canada East, was organized. This division continued to prosper, and the order to increase in the province, when in January, 1852, the Grand Division of Canada East (now Quebec) was organized, Mr. Mathison being one of the charter members, and in October, 1854, he was elected its Grand Worthy Patriarch. In February, 1852, St. Lawrence Division was organized under very favourable auspices, and in the following year he left Gough Division and joined St. Lawrence, in the hope of extending his usefulness among the military men who had joined in large numbers the younger division. In June, 1867, he was initiated into the National Division of North America, at the session held at Providence, Rhode Island, and continued to attend the meetings of that body as opportunity offered, the last time being at the session held in Halifax, N.S., in 1884. In 1859 he was removed to Halifax to fill another position in the Commissariat department, and later on to Prince Edward Island. In each place he was well known as an enthusiastic worker in the cause of temperance, and other good works. In the year 1866, after serving twenty-four years in Her Majesty’s service, he was superannuated, with another pension, and took up his residence in the city of Quebec, and again associated himself with St. Lawrence Division, and continued to work persistently in the cause he had so much at heart up to the last month of his life, not only in connection with the order of the Sons of Temperance, but in the formation of Cadets of Temperance, Bands of Hope, and other kindred societies. He was ever ready to help, and very few of the youth of the city of Quebec have failed in being influenced to a certain extent by his efforts. He was a consistent member of the Methodist church for over fifty years, and for several years superintendent of the Sabbath school. The class meetings and prayer meetings were always faithfully attended by him and highly appreciated. He passed away after a few days’ illness on the 30th October, 1886, in the eighty-sixth year of his age and the sixtieth of his temperance work, deeply regretted by all his co-laborers in the church, as well as in the cause of total abstinence. George Mathison earned the benediction: “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
Flewelling, William Pentreath, Accountant and Lumber Agent, Crown Lands department, Fredericton, New Brunswick, was born at Clifton, Kings county, New Brunswick, on the 31st of May, 1850. His father, William Puddington Flewelling, was a native of New Brunswick, and resided most of his life-time in Kings county, where for a long time he carried on a large ship-building business. He also represented Kings county in the New Brunswick legislature for a number of years, and part of the time he was a member of the government, and held the office of surveyor-general. His mother, Esther Ann Merritt, was a native of Marlborough, Ulster county, New York state. William received his early education in the public school of his native place, and at a later period attended the superior school at Studholm, Kings county. While preparing for a collegiate course, ill health overtook him, and he was obliged to give up further study and betake himself to out-door pursuits. He having become as a boy familiar with the use of tools in his father’s ship-yard, he betook himself to the lumber regions of New Brunswick, and joined a lumbering party; and after a winter spent in the forest he became restored to his usual ruggedness, and returned to civilization. In the spring of 1869 he removed from Clifton to Fredericton and entered the service of the government as a clerk in the Crown Lands department. In 1873, some changes occurring in the staff, he was promoted to the position of accountant; and in 1881, in addition to this office, he was made lumber agent. This dual office he has since held—the first having put him in charge of all the financial matters in connection with the Land department, and the second the general supervision of the lumbering on the Crown lands throughout the province, and the collection of the revenue therefrom. As a young man, Mr. Flewelling took an active interest in military matters. Having joined a local militia corps as private he gradually rose in the ranks, and when he retired from the service in 1874 he held the rank of paymaster of the 74th battalion, Kings county militia.
