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Sanderson, Rev. Dr. G. R., Pastor of the Methodist church, Sarnia. This worthy and greatly respected minister was born in the city of Kingston, in the year 1817, so that he is now seventy years of age. He is of English parentage. With his parents he attended the church of the Wesleyan Methodists in Kingston, and in the year 1834, through the ministry of the Rev. Dr. Stinson, was converted, and at once connected himself with the church. Having a fair English education, possessing a good voice, good judgment, and above all, a renewed heart, he was by the quarterly official board made a local preacher in connection with the Kingston circuit. Engaged in this relation and realizing his need of better qualification for the work, he entered the Upper Canada Academy, which formed the nucleus out of which Victoria University has risen, where he completed his education. He then left the college to enter the full work of the ministry. The late Rev. Dr. Carroll writes of him: “His going out as chairman’s supply, one year before his formal reception on trial, was at the conference of 1836, and his introduction into his ministerial work was under circumstances which entitle him to rank among the pioneer preachers. He was first sent to the extensive boundaries, miry roads and miasmatic atmosphere of the old Thames circuit; and received a fitting seasoning for its toils by a ride on horseback from Kingston to Chatham. In the course of this journey the writer first met and admired the pluck and heroism of the boy of twenty.” A list of the circuits on which Dr. Sanderson has travelled since entering the ministry will no doubt interest many readers. In 1837, he travelled the old Thames circuit, going thence to Newmarket, Grimsby and Hamilton respectively. In 1841 he was ordained and sent to Stamford, where he remained for two years, then to St. Catharines for two years, and thence to Toronto, where he was elected and ably performed the duties of editor of the Christian Guardian. Upon relinquishing the editorial chair, which position he held for five years, he was appointed to Cobourg for three years, during which period he was elected secretary of the conference, and was thence sent back to Toronto to take charge of the Methodist Book and Publishing House. From the successful discharge of these important interests of the church he came to the city of London, where he remained for three years. In the year 1861 he was elected representative from the Canadian Conference to the Wesleyan Conference of Great Britain. In 1860 he was elected chairman of the London district, which position he has held without a break on the several districts on which he has been placed from that period until the present. From London he went to the following places in order, remaining in each the full allotted time of three years: Port Hope, Picton, Belleville, Kingston, St. Catharines, London (Wellington street), London (Dundas street east), and Strathroy. In 1876 he was elected president of the Conference of the Methodist church of Canada, for which position his many years’ experience as chairman well qualified him. The honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity was conferred upon him by his alma mater, Victoria University, in May, 1876. Victoria has never honoured a more worthy son, and Dr. Sanderson has always been a noble representative of the claims of this university upon the Methodist people of this dominion. Dr. Sanderson is a fine specimen of the Christian minister. During his long period of service there has been no time that he has been laid aside from work by illness, and no year that there has not been a revival of religion on his circuit. The statement may be ventured that Dr. Sanderson has been the instrument in God’s hands of winning more souls to Christ than any other minister in the regular work in the Methodist church. He is now the oldest man in the active work of the ministry, and at 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.”