Kent, Asa

Kent, Asa a Methodist Episcopal minister, was born in West Brookfield, Mass., May 9,1780. In 1801 he was licensed as an exhorter, and appointed to Weathersfield Circuit, Vermont; in 1802 he joined on trial the New York Conference, and was appointed to Whitingham Circuit. The following year he became a member of the old New England Conference, and during the thirty-six years succeeding filled appointments at Barnard, Vt.; Athens, Vt.; Lunenburg, Vt.; Ashburnham; Mass.; Salisbury, Mass.; Salem, N. H.; Lynn, Mass.; Bristol, R.I.; New London, Conn.; Nantucket, R. I.; Middleborough, Rochester, Mass.; Chestnut Street, Providence, R.I.; Elm Street, New Bedford, Mass.; Newport, R. I.; Charlestown, Andover Mass.; and Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard. During this period, ill health, brought on by the strain of indefatigable labors upon a naturally delicate constitution, compelled him several times to take supernumerary and superannuated relations. In 1814-17 he was presiding elder of the' New London district. He was a delegate to the General Conference in New York in 1812, and also in Baltimore in 1816. From the date of his last appointment in 1839 to the day of his death, Sept. 1, 1860, he was always laboring when his health would permit. He wrote much for Zion's Herald- and the Christian Advocate and Journal. His productions were characterized by a clear, concise, unornamental style, freshness of thought, and deep spirituality. Not ostentatious in the expression of his religious convictions and experiences, he claimed personal knowledge of the doctrine of entire sanctification. " Uniformly cheerful, full of buoyant hopes in Christ, he always was remarkably sedate."-Meth. Minutes for 1861; New York Christian Advocate.