2 THE LIFE OF E. J. PECK 



among the inhabitants of the Greenland and 

 Labrador coasts. 



He was not even the first representative of the 

 Church Missionary Society to come in contact with 

 the Arctic wanderers. Bishop Bompas, Bishop 

 Horden and others had visited them at various 

 points, but no one had hitherto devoted his life 

 to them. 



A brief sketch of his life previous to his call to 

 a most arduous and self-sacrificing work will be 

 instructive, as showing what means God chooses 

 for the preparation of a Peter or an Ananias in 

 these days. 



Edmund James Peck was born on April 15, 1850. 

 His parents at this time lived at Rusholme, near 

 Manchester. His father was an energetic, con- 

 scientious, straightforward man, occupied in a 

 linen factory. His mother was a sweet, happy 

 Christian woman, whose influence was largely 

 exercised upon her son. Edmund was the eldest 

 of the family. There were three other children, 

 a boy and two girls, making up, to borrow Mr. 

 Peck's joke, a bushel of them. When the eldest 

 child was seven years of age the family moved to 

 Dublin. About three years after their arrival at 

 the Irish capital the mother died. Her death, 

 as is the death of every good mother, was an irre- 

 parable loss to the family, but she lived again in 

 at least one of her children. 



