MATTHIAS'S DAY
901
MATTISON
Christian reputation is without blemish. He possessed the disciplinary attributes of a minister — " gifts, grace, and usefulness." His preaching was practical and ex- perimental. He sought assiduously and successfully to lead tlie members of his Church to a higher spiritual state, and a holy, active, religious life. As a pastor he had few superiors. Gentle, aifectionate, and sympa- thetic in his manners, his pastoral visits were highly prized by the people of his care. He fostered the 8ab- batli-school, and fed the lambs of the flock, a good min- ister of Jesus Christ" (bishop Janes, in the N. Y. Chris- tian Adrocate, Jan. 0, 18(32). See also Smith, Memorials of the N. Y. and N. Y. East Conferences, p. 11.
Matthias's (St.) Day, a festival observed on the 2-4th of February in the Church of Rome, with a pro- vision that in leap-year it should be observed on the 25th. In the Church of England it is usually observed on the 24th of February, even in leap-years. In the Greek Church St. Matthias's day is held on the 9tli of August. The date of the introduction of this festival is involved in obscurity. Some suppose it was first es- tablished in the 11th century, others in the 8th. See Farrar, Ecdes. Did. s. v. ; Eadie, Ecdes. Diet. s. v. ; Broughton, Bihlioth. Hist. Sac. ii, 76.
Matthieists. See Munster, Anabaptists in.
Matthieson. See Anabaptists.
Mattison, Hiram, D.D., a prominent divine of the Methodist Episcopal Church, was born at Norway, Her- kimer County,N.Y., Feb. 8, 181 1. Three years afterwards his parents, who were natives of New England, removed to Oswego County, and settled near the present city of Oswego. His mother, besides rearing her own twelve children, became the foster-mother of ten others who had not homes for themselves. The first years of his early manhood were devoted to teaching, but his con- version at the age of twenty-three turned his thoughts towards the ministry, which soon after became his life- work. He entered the Black River Conference in 1836, and filled successively several of the most important ap- pointments in that body. In 1842 and 1843 he was sta- tioned at Watertown ; in 1844 and 1845 at Rome ; in 1846 he became superannuated ; the next year supernu- merary ; the next two years he was superannuated ; in 1850 lie was made secretary of the Conference, and his relation changed to eifective. During this and the fol- lowing year he served, by appointment of the bishop, as professor in FaUey Seminary. In 1852 he was elected secretary of Conference for the third time, and his rela- tion was changed to superannuated. This same year, on account of ill-health and a tendency to pulmonary difficulties, he removed to New York City for the bene- fit of the sea air, and was pastor of John Street Church (left vacant bj' the death of Rev. \V. K. Stopford), and afterwards of Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church in Tliirtj'-fourth Street, which he organized, and under his administration the present church edifice was erected. His preaching was both popular and effective, being dis- tinguished by great clearness of statement, force of argu- ment, aptness of illustration, and earnestness of appeal. His sermon at the camp-meeting held near Morristown, N. J., in 1866, may be ver\^ justly pronounced one of the most eloquent and powerful discourses of modern times. Dr. Mattison labored with great zeal to secure action by the General Conference (of which he was a member in 1848, 1852, and 1856) against all slaveholding in the Church, but at length, despairing of success, he formally withdrew from the ]\Iethodist Episcopal Church, Nov. 1, 1861. He became the pastor of an Independent Method- ist Church, for which a house of worship \vas built un- der his supervision in Forty-first Street. Tliis church he continued to serve till 1865, when he returned to the Methodist Episcopal Church, and was appointed to the Trinity Jlethodist Church in Jersey City, having been admitted a meml)er of the Newark (N.J.) Conference, in the fellowship of which he continued till death. The last year of his life was devoted to the service of the
American and Foreign Christian Union as its secretary. The fertility of his pen was amazing. Believing strong- ly in the power of the press for good or evil, he made free and constant use of it to aid the one and oppose the other. His publications embraced a range from the lit- tle Sunday-school card to the stately volume, all in- tended to aid the public movement in favor of temper- ance, and in opposition to slavery and Romanism. There was too much in the life and character of Dr. IMattison to admit of a summing up in the space allotted to this brief sketch. We need only say that to know him, es- pecially to know him well, was to admire, esteem, and love him as a man, a friend, a scholar, a minister, a hero, a Christian. Bishop Thomson, in his introduction to the writer's memoir of Dr. Mattison's life (see below), thus delineates him : " Before the world he stood as the able preacher, the gifted writer, the stern controversionalist, the unsparing antagonist; but he was not without the gentler and more attractive elements of character. He was an amiable, communicative, entertaiuuig compan- ion, a generous friend, and loving husband and father.