Mr. C. departed this life in East Boston in December, 1866.
In 1827 Rev. MENZIES RAYNER entered the Universalist ministry from the Episcopalian church. He was born at South Hempstead, L. I., Nov. 23, 1770. His advantages for learning were principally derived from private instruction. He showed early signs of superior abilities. When very young he became a convert to Methodism, and before the age of twenty-one commenced preaching as an itinerant. He was ordained at Lynn, Mass., by Bishop Asbury. He continued to itinerate according to the rules of the Methodist Church for more than two years, when he received and accepted an invitation to settle with the Protestant Episcopal Church in Elizabethtown, N. J., where he was ordained as a minister in that church by the Right Rev. Bishop Provost of New York. After a pastorate of six years in that place, he accepted a call to the rectorship of the Episcopal Church in Hartford, Conn., where he continued ten years. He next removed to Huntington, Conn., and took a joint rectorship of that town and New Hartford (now Munroe). He remained there sixteen years, when from close and prayerful inquiry and study of the Scriptures he became convinced of the truth of the doctrine of Universal Salvation. He asked and obtained an honorable dismissal from Bishop Brownell of that diocese. Through all his subsequent life he continued to enjoy the respect and esteem of several distinguished clergymen of that church. So much Bishop Brownell pledged to him at the time of his withdrawal.
Soon after becoming known as a Universalist, he was called to the pastorate of the church in Hartford left vacant by the removal of Rev. John Bisbe to Portland, Me. He continued in Hartford four years, when he was earnestly solicited to remove to Portland and take charge of the society there left without a pastor by the death of Mr. Bisbe. He accepted the call, and remained there four years, excepting one winter, which he spent in North Carolina, where, and in intermediate places, he preached the Gospel. Afterwards he had pastorates in Troy and Lansingburg, N. Y., and preached in Schenectady, Fort Ann, Hartford, and other places. For a year and a half he ministered to the Bleecker St. Universalist Society in New York city. He resided in that city until his death, which occurred Nov. 22, 1850. He retained his mental vigor until a few days before his departure at the age of eighty.