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246 inburgh, whence he was suddenly recalled the fol- lowing year by his father's death. On his return he was installed pastor over his fathers congregation. The Associate Reformed church had been wont to celebrate the Lord's Supper but once or twice annually ; but Dr. Mason believed in more frequent communion, and both with tongue and pen urged a reform in this re- spect. A pamphlet which he issued on the subject, entitled " Letters on Fre- quent Communion " (New York, 1798), first brought him prominently before the religious public. He also believed that his denomination should not be dependent on foreign institutions for the education of her ministry, and thus began a movement that resulted in founding the Union theological seminary, of which he was appointed first professor on its opening in 1804. In 1806 he projected the " Chris- tian Magazine," in the pages of which he con- ducted a friendly controversy with Bishop Hobart on the claims of the episcopacy. In 1810 he re- signed his pastoral charge to form a new congre- gation. The intimate relations that he now estab- lished with the Presbyterians were objected to by many of his own denomination, and in 1811 a charge was brought against him ; but the synod refused to censure him. The same year he was elected provost of Columbia college. In 1816 he severed his con- nection with the college on account of failing health and sailed for Europe. On his return in 1817 he again devoted himself to his ministerial duties, but in 1821 he accepted the presidency of Dickinson college, Pa. In 1822 he became con- nected with the Presbyterian church. Finding the duties of his new office too onerous for his dimin- ished strength, he resigned and returned to New York in 1824 ; but he was never again able to as- sume any official employment. As a pulpit orator Dr. Mason has had few equals in the United States. His physical and intellectual powers were of the most robust order, his theology was Calvinistic, and his style of eloquence irresistible. When Rob- ert Plall first heard him in London, whither he had gone to raise money for the new seminary, on the occasion of his delivering his celebrated ser- mon, " Messiah's Throne," in 1802, he is said to have exclaimed : " I can never preach again." Robert McCartee tlius describes the effect that was produced by one of Dr. Mason's fast-day ser- mons at a time of great political excitement, caused by a proposed alliance of the United States with France : " The doctor chose for his text Eze- kiel ii. 3, and the whole chapter was read in the most impressive manner. Near the close of the discourse he broke forth in a solemn and impas- sioned apostrophe to Deity in nearly these words : ' Send us, if thou wilt, murrain upon our cattle, a famine upon our land, cleanness of teeth in our borders ; send us pestilence to waste our cities ; send us, if it please thee, the sword to bathe itself in the blood of our sons, but spare us. Lord God Most Merciful, spare us that direst and most dread- ful of all thy curses — an alliance with Napoleon Bonaparte.' As he uttered these rousing sentences the blood gushed from his nostrils. He uncon- sciously put his handkerchief to his face, and the next instant made a gesture which looked as if he were designedly waving it like a bloody and sym- bolic flag. You can fancy better than I can de- scribe the impression which this incident, coupled with the awful apostrophe, made upon the crowded assembly." He received the degree of D. D. from the University of Pennsylvania. Besides many es- says, reviews, orations, and sermons, Dr. Mason published " A Plea for Sacramental Communion on Catholic Principles " (New York, 1816). His best-known orations are those on Washington and on Alexander Hamilton. See " The Writings of the Late John M. Mason, D. D.," by his son. Ebenezer (4 vols.. New York, 1832 ; new ed., greatly en- larged, 1849), and " Memoirs of John M. Mason, D. D.," by his son-in-law, Jacob Van Vechten, D. D. (2 vols., 1856). — John Mitchell's son, Erskine, clergyman, b. in New York city, 16 April, 1805: d. there, 14 May, 1851, was graduated at Dickinson college in 1823, ^nd became pastor of a Presbyte- rian church at Schenectady in 1827 and of the Bleecker street church in New York in 1830. From 1836 till 1842 he was professor of ecclesias- tical history in Union theological seminary. In 1837 he received the degree of D. D. from Colum- bia. Dr. Mason's style of preaching was rigorous- ly intellectual. He published several occasional sermons during his lifetime, and a collection of his discourses appeared after his death, under the title of '• A Pastor's Legacy," with a sketch of his career by the Rev. William Adams, D. D. (New York. 1853). — Erskine's son, Erskine, surgeon, b. in New York city, 8 May, 1837 ; d. there, 13 April, 1882, was graduated at Columbia in 1857, and in 1860 at the College of physicians and surgeons in New York city, where he afterward practised his profession. From 1861 till 1870 he was assistant demonstrator and then demonstrator of anatomy in the latter institution. He was connected with various hospitals, and was adjunct professor of sur- gery in the medical department of the University of New York, which chair he resigned in June, 1876. and from 1879 till 1882 he was clinical lec- turer on surgery in Bellevue hospital medical col- lege. Dr. Mason was a member of various profes- sional bodies and president of the Pathological society in 1873. Among his frequent contributions to medical periodical literature may be mentioned those on " Lumbar Colotomy " (1873) : " The Opera- tion of Laparotomy, with a Case " and " Perityph- litis" (1876): and "Amputation at the Hip-Joint."

MASON, John, founder of New Hampshire, b. in Lynn Regis, Norfolk, England ; d. in London in December, 1635. In 1610 he had charge of a naval expedition that was sent by James I. to subdue a rebellion in the Hebrides. He went to Newfoundland in 1616 as governor, surveyed the island, and published a description of it (Edinburgh, 1620), and a map (London. 1626). In 1617 he explored the New England coast, and on 9 March, 1622, he obtained from the Great council a grant of a tract of land on the sea-coast between Naumkeag and Merrimack rivers, called " Mariana," now the northeast part of Massachusetts. In the following August he sectired a patent, jointly with Sir Ferdinando Gorges {q. ^'.), for a tract on the seacoast between the Merrimack and Sagadahoc rivers called the province of Maine. Early in 1623 he sent a party of emigrants to settle on the west bank of the Piscataqua, the nucleus of the first settlement in that locality. During the war with Spain in 1624-'9 he acted as treasurer and paymas-