THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
/ 
 
Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive 
 
 in 2008 witii funding from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 littp://www.arcliive.org/details/alplieuswwilsonprOOIiarr 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 A Prince in Israel 
 
^Jfr/t^X^r^^ 
 
Alpheus W. Wilson 
 
 A PRINCE IN ISRAEL 
 
 By Carlton Banner Harris 
 
 Editor of 
 The Baltimore Southern Methodist 
 
 BOARD OF CHURCH EXTENSION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH 
 LOUISVILLE, KY. 
 
THE rRANKLlN FRINTIN* COMPANY 
 
 INCORPORATED 
 
 LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKV 
 

 DEDICATION. 
 To the memory of my father, 
 Rev. David Harris, who was an 
 itinerant preacher in the Balti- 
 more Conference from 1860 to 
 1868, the latchet of whose shoes 
 his son is not worthy to unloose. 
 
 f^ifC/TK 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Foreword xi 
 
 Introduction xiii 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Ancestry 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Earlier Years 16 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Trials and Triumphs of the Itineracy 31 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Perilous Days of the Sixties and Southern Methodism 
 
 IN Baltimore 43 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 The Law and the Gospel 62 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Called to be Secretary of the Board of Missions 69 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 The Episcopacy and Its Responsibilities 91 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 The Holy Land and the Orient 115 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 The Bishop As a Preacher 137- 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 The Bishop As a Man: His Mental Habits and Powers. ... 152 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 The Bishop As a Man: His Home Life and Social Qualities . 159 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 Honors and Unofficial Events 179 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 The Fall of the Earthly Temple 189 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Face Page 
 Bishop Alpheus Waters Wilson {Frontispiece) . .Opposite title page 
 
 Alpheus W. Wilson (1850) 10 
 
 Rev. Alpheus W. Wilson (1853) 10 
 
 Rev. Alpheus W. Wilson (1854) 10 
 
 Rev. Alpheus W. Wilson (1855) 10 
 
 Mrs. Cornelia Rowland Wilson, Mother of Bishop Wilson ... 26 
 
 Susan Bond Lipscomb (1850). (Later Mrs. A. W. Wilson) ... 26 
 
 Susan Bond Lipscomb (1853). (Later Mrs. A. W. Wilson) ... 26 
 
 Susan Bond Lipscomb (1854). (Later Mrs. A. W. Wilson) ... 26 
 
 Mary Lipscomb, Sister of Mrs. Wilson (Mrs. Thomas Fitz- 
 gerald) 42 
 
 Rev. and Mrs. Philip Lipscomb, Parents of Mrs. Wilson. ... 42 
 
 Rev. and Mrs. A. W. Wilson (1857) — the year of their mar- 
 riage 42 
 
 A. W. Wilson and His Little Sister-in-law, Nannie Lips- 
 comb 42> 
 
 Hon. Thomas Wilson, Grandfather of Bishop Wilson 58 
 
 Rev. Norval Wilson, Father of Bishop Wilson 58 
 
 Sarah Louise Wilson, Sister of Bishop Wilson 58 
 
 Cornelia Rowland, wife of Captain Daniel Howland, Grand- 
 mother of Bishop Wilson 58 
 
 Bishop Wilson's Home — the gift of Governor and Mrs. E. E. 
 
 Jackson in 1902 74 
 
 Bishop Wilson's Study — after he sent his books to Emorj'^ 
 
 University in 1915 90 
 
 ix 
 
House on Charles Circuit, where Bishop Wilson boarded 
 
 during the first year of his ministry 106 
 
 Bishop and Mrs. Wilson, at McTyeire Home, Shanghai, 
 
 China (1901) 106 
 
 Bishop AND Mrs. Wilson, at a railway station in Japan (1907) 122 
 
 Bishop and Mrs. Wilson, in Japan (1907) 122 
 
 St. Paul's M. E. Church, South, Baltimore, Md 138- 
 
 Trinity M. E. Church, South, Baltimore, Md 154 
 
 Central M. E. Church, South, Baltimore, Md 170 
 
 St. John's Emmanuel M. E. Church, South, Baltimore, Md. . 186 
 
 Kate Lear, cook in Bishop Wilson's household for forty years . . 202 
 
FOREWORD. 
 
 This volume is the outgrowth of an idea of Dr. W. F. 
 McMurr>% Corresponding Secretary of the Board of 
 Church Extension. Dr. McMurry suggested that the 
 author expand his article entitled, "The Late Alpheus W. 
 Wilson," which appeared in the April number of the 
 Methodist Review, to be published in connection with the 
 Bishop's Lectures on the Atonement, for use of the Board 
 of Church Extension. The work under the kindly en- 
 couragement of the Secretary has grown to its present 
 dimensions. It is not, however, designed by any means, 
 to take the place of a larger and critical life of Alpheus W. 
 Wilson covering more fully his work as bishop, which 
 treatment in this volume is necessarily meager because of 
 the lack of time and opportunity to secure the proper 
 data. It should rather contribute to a larger work that 
 may appear later from an abler pen, for it has gathered and 
 put in permanent form important information that will 
 likely be of service to the future biographer. The aim of 
 the author has been to make this a personal rather than 
 an official life of the Bishop that its pages may reflect his 
 personality and character. In conformity to this aim 
 many letters and other products of the brain of the Bishop 
 have been used. 
 
 The author has done the best he could in the prepara'- 
 tion of the book in the limited time allotted him, and it is 
 sent forth with the prayer that the life of the great Bishop 
 may be helpful to many other lives. 
 
 Grateful acknowledgments are hereby expressed to 
 all who have aided in the making of the book, especially 
 to the committee of supervision, and to Dr. F. J. Pretty- 
 man and Mr. CM. Armstrong for valuable materials and 
 helpful suggestions, and to Miss Nina Wilson without 
 whose sympathy and co-operation this volume would not 
 have been possible. 
 Baltimore, December, 1917. The Author. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 Bishop Warren A. Candler. 
 
 The best gift of God to any church, or nation, is a 
 great and good man. 
 
 In the gift of Moses to enslaved Israel was bound up 
 deliverance from bondage, the Mosaic law, and the Pen- 
 tateuch. 
 
 In Paid God bestowed on the Church of the first 
 century the missions to the Gentiles, the world-wide 
 propagation of the Gospel, and two thirds of the books of 
 the New Testament. 
 
 When Alpheus Waters Wilson was given to Methodism 
 the church received an apostolic Christian, a great ad- 
 ministrator, a wise counselor, and a Pauline preacher. 
 
 In the days of his strength he was considered by many 
 the greatest preacher in America, if not in the world. 
 In this estimate of him the writer of this introduction 
 deliberately concurs, after having heard most of the great 
 preachers of the world who have lived during the last 
 forty years. 
 
 Bishop Wilson was a great preacher because he was a 
 great believer. The Psalmist said "I believed, therefore 
 have I spoken" (Psalms cxvi: 13), and St. Paul quoting 
 the utterance of the Hebrew singer, says, "We also be- 
 lieve, and therefore speak." (2 Corinthians iv: 13.) 
 "Having the same spirit of faith," Bishop Wilson be- 
 lieved, and therefore preached with power. His spiritual 
 insight into the meaning of the oracles of God was deep 
 and his beHef in the Gospel of Christ was confident. 
 
Hence he spoke with authority, and not with the hesitating 
 manner and qualified utterance of an academic scribe. 
 
 For the -wTitings of St. John and St. Paul he had special 
 fondness, and his grasp of the Pauline Epistles was un- 
 equaled by any man of his day. In the epistles to the 
 Romans, the Colossians, and the Ephesians he saw fully 
 set forth the whole scheme of redemption for the lost race 
 of man, and the rapturous vision enthralled his mind and 
 heart. 
 
 Subjects less important never engaged his attention in 
 the pulpit. For that type of preaching which finds its 
 themes in current topics he had no respect. Using a 
 portion of Scripture as a mere motto, or sermon caption, 
 he regarded as handling the word of God deceitfully. He 
 did not preach to entertain, but to edify and save. He 
 was not, therefore, what some would call "a. popular 
 preacher." For that role he was far too serious and 
 earnest and sincere. He used few illustrations outside 
 the Scriptures, and repeated no pathetic stories to excite 
 the emotions of those to whom he preached. Neverthe- 
 less he mightily moved vast audiences as he proclaimed the 
 Gospel "with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven." 
 The supernatural in his preaching eclipsed the natural. 
 The words with which St. Luke describes Apollos fitly 
 describes Bishop Wilson : "An eloquent man and mighty 
 in the Scriptures." (Acts xviii: 24.) 
 
 He searched the Scriptures with the most studious 
 care. His knowledge of the New Testament in Greek was 
 as minute as his acquaintance with the King James 
 Version, although he made no show of scholarship and no 
 claim of critical learning. He studied the Word of God 
 that he might know the mind of the Spirit, not that he 
 might win the admiration of men. 
 
 In view of his habit of unwear>ang study of the Scrip- 
 tures, it might be supposed that he was not concerned to 
 
 xiv 
 
read other books; but such was not the case. He was a 
 rapid, as well as a careful, reader, and he seemed to have 
 read everything worth reading. He was often in my 
 home during the later years of his life, and the extent of 
 his knowledge of books amazed me. I tried to find for 
 him books he had never read, but seldom was I successful 
 in the effort. On one occasion I thought I had found one 
 he had not seen, or even heard of. It was a book given 
 me in London by Charles Candler, and written by his 
 brother, Edmund Candler, a missionary of the English 
 Church in India. The author of the book had gone with 
 the British Expedition under Younghusband to Thibet, 
 and from the experiences and explorations of that trip 
 wrote a most fascinating narrative entitled "The Un- 
 veiling of Lhassa. " It was this volume which I had laid 
 away for Bishop Wilson, believing I had at last found 
 something which he had not read. On his next visit to 
 our home, as we were sitting in the library, I said " I have 
 found something now which you never saw." "What is 
 it?" he asked. I answered "It is 'The Unveihng of 
 Lhassa' by Edmund Candler, a British kinsman of mine. " 
 With a smile, he said "I found it at Bombay when it was 
 first published, and read it on my way home. " Then he 
 proceeded to tell me more about Edmund Candler and the 
 expedition to Thibet than the book revealed and far mor§ 
 than I had ever known. His was the fullest mind with 
 which I ever came in contact. He was familiar with 
 philosophy, history, science, and even much light litera- 
 ture. But with him all knowledge was subordinate to the 
 knov/ledge of God. During a long life he drew "all his 
 cares and studies that way. " 
 
 Profoimd religious convictions. Scriptural principles, 
 and apostolic precedents recorded in the New Testament 
 permeated and controlled his great work as an administra- 
 tor of the work of the Church, whether he was engaged in 
 the pastoral office, the Secretaryship of the Board of 
 
 XV 
 
Missions, or the episcopacy. It was chiefly this element 
 in his Hfe which made him so great in the exercise of 
 administrative functions. While he had a mind of 
 statesmanlike mould, and possessed judicial qualities of 
 a high order, it is not to these alone, or chiefly, we must 
 look to find the secret of his success as an executive offlcer 
 of the Church; he fashioned his methods of administration 
 according to the "pattern shown him on the Mount. " 
 
 It was by the apostolic character of his appeals as 
 Missionary Secretary he aroused the conscience of the 
 whole Church while he was engaged in that work. His 
 addresses were not concerned with detailing the customs 
 and describing costumes of the heathen world "as the 
 manner of some is. " He laid upon the hearts of men the 
 missionary obHgation as it arises from their relation to 
 Christ and our Lord's work of redemption for a ruined 
 world. He rested the case on eternal things, and caused 
 those who heard him to feel that the refusal to give the 
 Gospel to the nations who have it not is treason to Christ 
 and inhumanity to mankind. With such deep truths he 
 broke up the fallow ground of the Church, and the harvest 
 which has followed is due more to his labors than to any 
 other man. The missionary cause was dear to his heart 
 because the salvation of the world is dear to the heart of 
 Christ ; and by his masterful presentations of it he made it 
 dear to others who otherwise might have been indifferent 
 to it No American Church has ever had a greater 
 Secretary of Foreign Missions. 
 
 From his work as Missionary Secretary he was called 
 to the office of a bishop, and as a general superintendent 
 of the Church he manifested the same apostolic zeal and 
 employed the same apostolic methods. What a bishop he 
 was! What skiU he displayed in assigning the preachers 
 of the Conferences to their fields of labor! With what 
 wisdom did he counsel the men on their admittance into 
 "full connection" as itinerant preachers! With what 
 
 XVI 
 
power did he preach before the Annual and General Con- 
 ferences ! Shall we ever see his like again ? 
 
 In the meetings of the Bishops his services were in- 
 valuable. When he was present his colleagues felt more 
 safe in their conclusions, and when he was absent there was 
 none to take his place. If the question of his superan- 
 nuation had been submitted to the bishops at the General 
 Conference of 1914, when he was retired, they would have 
 voted imanimously to retain him "on the effective list," 
 and after his superannuation they still deferred to his 
 judgment and relied on his wise counsels. He was always 
 a man of great heart, but in his latter years he became in- 
 creasingly tender and affectionate, especially towards his 
 colleagues in the episcopal office. When he died he was 
 the best beloved man among them, and deserved to be. 
 
 No multiplication of words can set forth adequately 
 the varied excellencies and remarkable ability of this ex- 
 traordinary man. In goodness he was great and in 
 greatness he was good. 
 
 This biography is an attempt to tell in outline the 
 story of his wonderful life. It is something more than 
 interesting. It is inspiring. It is the record of a life 
 protracted through more than fourscore years glorified 
 by apostolic faith and abounding in apostolic labors. 
 It cannot fail to bless those who read it. 
 
 After EHsha, the prophet, had been long dead, wheii 
 one who was buried in his sepulchre was let down and 
 touched the prophets bones, he "revived and stood up 
 on his feet." (2 Kings xiii:20). In like manner this 
 account of our great prophet's career must surely quicken 
 into new life our faith and zeal. 
 
 xvu 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 Ancestry. 
 
 Alpheus Waters Wilson, the son of Rev. Norval 
 and Cornelia Howland Wilson, was born in Balti- 
 more, February 5, 1834. 
 
 His ancestors on his father's side were Scotch- 
 Irish, stanch Presbyterians who clung to the doc- 
 trines of Calvinism with a tenacity characteristic of 
 that sturdy people. His grandfather was Thomas 
 Wilson, of Morgan town. West Virginia, then a part 
 of Virginia; a lawyer of acknowledged ability, who 
 not only met the demands of a large practice, but 
 served his state in the Legislature and in Congress 
 with distinction and honor. 
 
 To Thomas and his wife Mary were bom six sons 
 and three daughters. One of the sons, Edgar, be- 
 came a resident of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and was 
 elected from that state to the United States Senate. 
 Hon. Edgar Wilson had a son who became a member 
 of Congress, showing that political life was not with- 
 out a fascination for the Wilson family. 
 
 Religion had a chief place in the lives of those of 
 the Wilson lineage, as is evident from their history. 
 A son of the home, Norval, became an influential 
 minister. A daughter, Louisa, married Rev. Robert 
 Lowrie, a missionary to India. Though she died 
 shortly after reaching that land, she has the honor 
 of having been recognized by her denomination as 
 the first missionary of the Presbyterian Church to 
 the women of India. Many other facts recorded in 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 this volume will show how strongly entrenched were 
 the principles of reUgion in the nature of the Wilsons. 
 
 Thomas Wilson was the owner of more than a 
 quarter of a million acres of unimproved land granted 
 to him by patent 1775-6 in Virginia and that part 
 of the state which afterwards became West Virginia. 
 These tracts were in seven groups covering some of 
 the most valuable timber and mineral land in those 
 states, as will be seen from their locations which are 
 as follows : 
 
 Group 1. 41,000 acres in Bath County, Virginia, 
 now partly in other counties. 
 
 Group 2. 30,000 acres in Bath County, now 
 mostly in Alleghany County. 
 
 Group 3. 44,000 acres in Bath County, now in 
 Pocahontas County, West Virginia, on the Green- 
 brier River. 
 
 Group 4. 35,000 acres in Bath County, now in 
 Pocahontas County on the Allegheny mountains. 
 
 Group 5. 4,000 acres in Randolph County, West 
 Virginia, now in Upshur County, West Virginia. 
 
 Group 6. 57,000 acres in Wythe County, Vir- 
 ginia, now in McDowell County, West Virginia, but 
 from 1798 to 1858 in Tazewell County, Virginia. 
 
 Group 7. 60,000 acres in Randolph Coimty on 
 Rich Mountain. 
 
 The subdivision of old counties, too large for 
 development, for the formation of new counties and 
 the establishment of the state of West Virginia 
 naturally affected the names of the geographical 
 boundaries of these tracts. 
 
 It seems that Thomas Wilson, a gentleman of 
 means, culture and learning, dividing his time be- 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 tween his profession and politics, gave but scant at- 
 tention to his vast tracts which were not regarded at 
 that time to be of special value, for in 1816 four of the 
 groups were forfeited to the state for non-payment of 
 taxes, and ten years previous to that time groups 3 
 and 4 had been sold by the United States Marshal in 
 the name of Thomas Wilson for non-payment by him 
 of a direct tax imposed by an act of Congress. Other 
 groups slipped through his hands. It is probable 
 that he did not regard them worth the trouble and 
 expense involved in their retention. 
 
 His children must have shared the opinion of 
 their father; at any rate they slept upon their rights 
 for years, for much of this land could have been re- 
 deemed by a proper settlement with the state. If 
 these property interests had been properly looked 
 after and safeguarded, they would have yielded to 
 their possessors enormous wealth. Thus Bishop 
 Wilson escaped having been born rich. Whether the 
 riches of his great life would have been given to the 
 church if he had been born to large wealth with 
 affluent surroundings no one can say. Circum- 
 stances attendant upon wealth do not usually turn 
 the soul toward God. There may have been a pro- 
 vidence in all this. Bishop Wilson's life has been 
 worth immeasurably more to the cause of God and 
 the largest welfare of His creatures than incalculable 
 material wealth even wisely used. God places the 
 highest value upon Spirit-filled personality. 
 
 Bishop Wilson sometimes spoke of his rights in 
 those Virginia and West Virginia lands, but they gave 
 him little concern. Eighteen or twenty years ago 
 at the request of his sister, he gave a relative the 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 power of attorney to take such steps as might be 
 deemed necessary to recover as much of the land as 
 could be reclaimed under law. But because of the 
 heavy expense of litigation and other difficulties, but 
 little has been done. Indeed, so far as is known, the 
 Bishop did nothing to realize on the 3,000 acres of 
 unimproved land in Calhoun County, West Virginia, 
 left him, with Henrj'-'s Commentaries and Dodd- 
 ridge's Paraphrases, by his father's will. He was 
 too much interested in the deep things of God to 
 allow his affections to be centered even temporarily 
 on the things of time and sense. He may have laid 
 himself open to the charge of improvidence, but his 
 life moved on a level far removed from material 
 values. 
 
 Thomas Wilson and his wife sleep in a cemetery 
 at Morgan town. West Virginia. Their tombstones 
 are disintegrating and will not be likely to stand 
 many more years the ravages of time. One stone 
 bears the inscription : 
 
 "Sacred to the memory of Thos. Wilson, Esq., 
 who departed this life Jan. 24, 1820, aged 60 yrs. 
 4 mos. and 15 days. 
 
 "His was a life active, useful and regulated by 
 a uniform principle of integrity. 
 
 "Withal an humble reliance in the sacrifice of 
 
 Christ, he was prepared to leaving 
 
 behind endeared to recollections of 
 
 mourning friends. 
 
 "Being dead, he yet speaketh. " 
 
 (The dashes indicate illegible words.) 
 
 On the other stone are these lines : 
 
 "Sacred to the memory of Mrs. Mary Wilson, 
 consort of Thomas Wilson, who departed this 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 life April 22, A. D. 1817, aged 40 yrs. 2 mos. 8 
 days. 
 
 "She lived amiable, affectionate and univer- 
 sally esteemed; she died regretted by others, yet 
 herself resigned and at peace with God. 
 
 "Let me die the death of the righteous, and 
 let my last end be like hers. " 
 
 Thomas Wilson's son Norval, the Bishop's 
 father, was the first Methodist of the Wilson line. 
 He was born in 1802, and was converted at a camp 
 meeting in 1819. In independence, courage, and 
 reverence for the Word of God, he was a worthy son 
 of noble sires. For a time he studied law with a 
 partially formed purpose to follow the profession of 
 his father. But God's Spirit unmistakably in- 
 dicated his call to the ministry. This brief record in 
 his diary reveals the inner workings of his heart at 
 that critical period, and his fixed desire to do God's 
 will: 
 
 Jan. 9th, 1821. With the new year events have 
 transpired to me of the utmost consequence. Having been 
 much exercised about working in the Lord's vineyard, I yet 
 saw no way for me to proceed. I therefore judged it best 
 to resign m^^self into the hand of the Lord, being assured 
 that if He designed I should preach. He would clear my way. 
 Accordingly I received a long letter from Daniel Hitt, the 
 presiding elder of the Monongahela District, on the 27th 
 of December, 1820, proving conclusively that it was my 
 duty to engage immediately in the work of the ministry.* 
 I gave it to my father, asking him for his opinion. At 
 first he made objections from my 3'outh, but eventually 
 
 *An anachronism appears here. The entry in the diary was made January 9, 
 1S21, nearly a year after the death of his father according to a typewritten copy 
 of the inscription on the tombstone, which was placed in the author's hands, with 
 other material for this volume. It is possible that the transcriber did not cor- 
 rectly decipher the date on the partially decayed stone. 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 remarked that if I conceived it to be my duty, he would 
 not object. About the first of March I shall go to Balti- 
 more to receive an appointment. 
 
 His first sermon was from the text, "Prepare to 
 meet thy God. " This Scripture was the keynote of 
 his life and labors. His chief care was to be ready to 
 meet his Lord, and never did his voice falter in warn- 
 ing men of the danger of being unprepared. He was 
 ordained a Deacon by Bishop George, April 20, 1823; 
 and an Elder by Bishop Soule, April 10, 1825. He 
 became one of the ablest and most influential ministers 
 of the Baltimore Conference, and was a potent force 
 in molding the character of Methodism in Baltimore. 
 He was appointed a presiding elder at twenty-six, 
 and at the same age was elected a delegate to the 
 General Conference. It is beUeved that the Balti- 
 more Conference can furnish no parallel in her his- 
 tory in conferring such a double honor on so young a 
 preacher. 
 
 He was a commanding figure in the Baltimore 
 Conference of 1861, and wrote the resolutions adopted 
 by that body severing its relations with the General 
 Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and 
 disclaiming its authority. He was President of the 
 Conference held in Bridgewater, Va., in 1864, and of 
 the memorable Conference held in Alexandria, Va., 
 in 1866, when the "Old Baltimore" became a part of 
 the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. At this 
 session he was elected a delegate to the General 
 Conference of the Church with which his Conference 
 had become identified. 
 
 He was a member of the General Conference at 
 Pittsburgh 1828; Philadelphia 1832; Cincinnati 1836; 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 Baltimore 1840; Pittsburgh 1848; Boston 1852; In- 
 dianapolis 1856; Buffalo 1860; New Orleans 1866. 
 
 He was a strong Scriptural preacher, rightly di- 
 viding the Word of truth. He never hesitated to 
 expose iniquity and to call things by their proper 
 names. When Presiding Elder of the Potomac 
 District, he preached a sermon that went to the 
 hearts and consciences of the people. The preacher 
 who sat in the pulpit confessed that he had never 
 felt so mean in his life. 
 
 At the conclusion of the services, he said, "Bro. 
 Wilson, I am much obliged to you for preaching that 
 sermon." 
 
 The reply came as a rifle shot, "Yes, many men 
 are obliged to others for doing what they are afraid 
 to do themselves." 
 
 He preached a sermon at a camp meeting in 
 Fairfax County, Virginia, in 1851, which was over- 
 whelming in its effect. His text was John XV:26 
 and his subject, "The Personality and Divinity of 
 the Holy Spirit: His Mission, and His Office, and 
 Operations." The first words were, "On the doc- 
 trine of the Holy Ghost depends the existence of the 
 Church — the salvation and fruit of its members." 
 Near the close he exclaimed, "What subHmity there 
 is in the doctrine of the moral regeneration of the 
 world by this potent energy. How we should fehci- 
 tate ourselves on the visitation and influence of such 
 an agent." A minister writing of the scene pro- 
 duced by this sermon said, ' ' But who can fill the in- 
 terval between the first sentence and the conclusion 
 with a fit description ? The Holy Ghost attested the 
 truth of the doctrine ; preachers and people wept and 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 shouted. The influence was not limited to those who 
 were near the speaker — the entire 'circle' was bap- 
 tized from above — perhaps for once it may be con- 
 fessed, the people were immersed in the Holy Ghost. " 
 
 Bishop Keener said of his preaching: 
 
 " He was blessed with the ability to weigh words to an 
 uncommon degree; but nothing in his manner gave in- 
 timation of the process; for he spake with much ease, and 
 never wanted the exact word, no, not for an instant. It 
 fell into place as coins from the mint. His regular move- 
 ment of speech was not disturbed by warmth of sentiment, 
 but in the most impassioned moment of his discourse 
 there was a rhythmic march that gave unity to the whole, 
 or wielded it with unrelenting force. His rate of speed 
 never surpassed his thought, and in this he was not unlike 
 another great pulpit orator of the same city or period — 
 the Rev. Dr. Stockton. 
 
 "His strength lay in a sound, unambiguous treatment 
 of his theme, holding to the middle current of evangelical 
 exegesis. He vitalized or reproduced the original power 
 of those formulas of death or life which hold eternity in 
 their syllables. There were in the Scriptures of the Old 
 and New Testament all the words of argimient, truth, or 
 illustration that he needed, and he rarely went outside the 
 Bible for matter. The unction of the Holy One was his 
 afflatus, and there remained in his audience no room for 
 criticism. His perorations were an abandon of spiritual 
 or mental power in fullest sympathy with the truth, or 
 with those to whom he delivered it, subdued by the habi- 
 tual reverence of his soul for his Lord and Master. They 
 seemed to me irresistible." 
 
 At the close of the "War Between the States" a 
 new responsibility was thrust upon him. The Con- 
 stitutional Convention was about to assemble in 
 Richmond. Nearly all of the people who were 
 qualified to represent the counties were ineligible by 
 
 8 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 reason of participation in the war. Pressure was 
 brought to bear upon Norval Wilson though a min- 
 ister to serve as a member of that convention. He 
 consented to do so in the event of his election and 
 then used the opportunity to admonish the gentle- 
 men, who bore him the message, of their duties to 
 God. 
 
 He was elected and his position and service as a 
 member of that convention are related in the lan- 
 guage of an honored associate. 
 
 "Rev. Norval Wilson served as the member from 
 Frederick County, in the State Convention convened in 
 1867, at Richmond, under the Act of Congress, for the 
 purpose of framing a Constitution for the State of Virginia, 
 in conformity with the reconstructive acts. Although 
 advanced in years, and not in firm health, he devoted him- 
 self with laborious energy to his representative duties, and 
 exhibited his accustomed clearness and strength of intel- 
 lect in their discharge. His sound judgment, steady 
 courage, and cheerful spirit, made him a valuable coun- 
 sellor to the feeble minority of conservatives which sat in 
 that famous conclave. Recognizing fully the sad wreck 
 made by the war, of the true principles of Constitutional 
 Government, he labored zealously to restore the civil 
 system of Virginia upon the best attainable foundation, 
 in view of the fanatical and hostile elements which encom- 
 passed the situation. It became the policy of the con- 
 servative members to delay the action of the convention, 
 until the thorough organization of the conservative party 
 could be secured and effected throughout the State. Mr. 
 Wilson, who had been placed on the most important 
 committee of the convention, rendered valuable service to 
 this policy of delay, and displayed remarkable ingenuity 
 and m.ental resource in detaining the majority of the com- 
 mittee from reporting the obnoxious plans to the con- 
 vention. The wit, humor, skill and consummate know- 
 ledge of human nature which he displayed in conducting 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 this programme, were much enjoyed by his conservative 
 colleagues." 
 
 The secret of the fruitful life of Norval Wilson was 
 perhaps rooted in his high order of mental gifts, his 
 philosophic temperament and his complete consecra- 
 tion. What he accomplished was not by the easy 
 efforts of genius but was by disciplined industry. 
 
 He not only prosecuted the study of theology 
 both from convictions of duty and a love of that 
 divine science, but in the arduous work of the itiner- 
 acy found time to explore other fields. He was a 
 diligent student of history, civil and ecclesiastical, 
 law, science, philosophy and other studies necessary 
 for broad and deep culture. During the first twenty 
 years of his ministry he read the Old Testament 
 through fourteen times and the New Testament 
 twenty-five times in addition to having read 347 other 
 volumes. In the meantime he had preached 2,858 
 sermons and had traveled nearly 40,000 miles and 
 every mile of travel meant something in those days. 
 He expected to succeed by inspiration, but he ex- 
 pected the inspiration of the Holy Ghost only when 
 he had furnished his mind by reading and had 
 methodized his thoughts by study and prayer. 
 
 His philosophic temperament enabled him to 
 take rational and what seemed at times stoical views 
 of life. But his apparent stoicism was a fruit of his 
 faith. He had an overwhelming sense that God was 
 in everything and over all.- Therefore he bore un- 
 complainingly any sorrow. Nothing was more sure 
 to him than that all things work together for good 
 to them that love God, to them that are called ac- 
 cording to His purpose. It was this knowledge born 
 
 10 
 
1. Alpheus W. Wilson (1850) 
 
 2. Rev. Alpheits W. Wilson (1853) 
 
 3. Rev. Alpheus W. Wilson (1854) 
 
 4. Rev. Alpheus W. Wilson (1855) 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 lead a life of faith in the Son of God Who loved me, and 
 gave Himself J or me. Graciously accept my person, and 
 powerfully maintain me in this holy and earnest con- 
 secration, through Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit. 
 Now unto the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, 
 be glory forever. 
 Winchester, Va., July 16, 1846. Norval Wilson. 
 
 "I herewith append my faith that God . . . , of 
 promise c?o^5, does accept the offering, and deigns . . . .that 
 I am now and altogether His, having my life in God. 
 Praise God for His sovereign, unsearchable grace. 
 
 N. Wilson. 
 
 "The above act of consecration renewed with hearty 
 gratitude to God, April 29, 1850. 
 Alexandria, Va. N. Wilson. 
 
 "With devout thanksgiving and prayer, I again con- 
 secrate myself to God. Amen. 
 Ingleside.^Feb. 8, 1854. N. Wilson." 
 
 His biographer gives a pen picture of his dis- 
 tinguishing characteristics, which will be recognized 
 by the older members of the Baltimore Conference 
 and others who knew him. "His tall, slender, 
 slightly stooping figure; his thin and furrowed face; 
 his strongly marked features; his fine eyes — clear, 
 restful, penetrating, the mirror of an honest soul; 
 his tremulous gait; his rich, sonorous voice, calm in 
 common discourse, quivering with intensity of con- 
 viction as he preached the Gospel, and at times 
 penetrating to the very soul, as he manifested the 
 exceeding sinfulness of sin, fitly uttering that Word 
 which 'pierces to the dividing asunder of the joints 
 and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and 
 intents of the heart' " are the graphic touches of 
 this accurate portrait. 
 
 12 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 Those who had but a slight acquaintance with 
 Norval Wilson thought that he lived in an atmos- 
 phere of severity and even sternness. But as has 
 well been said, "John Baptist was probably not more 
 severe in aspect; John, the beloved, not more gentle 
 in fact. " 
 
 He took the superannuated relation in 1860, but 
 never ceased to do what work he could to the time 
 of his death. His health, never strong, failed in 
 1860, and according to Dr. Armstrong, in his history 
 of the ' ' Old Baltimore Conference, " "he retired from 
 the active work and chose Winchester, Virginia, as 
 his home, where for sixteen years he never ceased 
 itinerating among the churches, as vacancies gave 
 opportunity for Presbyterian, Lutheran and Re- 
 formed congregations to invite him temporarily to 
 occupy their pulpits." 
 
 His long and useful life came to an end on August 
 9, 1876, and he was buried in Mt. Hebron Cemetery, 
 Winchester, by the side of his wife, who was Miss 
 Cornelia L. Howland and who, after a happy union 
 of forty-seven years, had preceded him to the heaven- 
 ly world. 
 
 Her son Alpheus paid this tribute to her a few 
 years after he had left the family roof tree. He said 
 that there never had been a meeker, purer spirit than 
 that of his mother's, and added: "If I had in- 
 herited her disposition and her piety, I would willingly 
 abandon all the talent and all the external posses- 
 sions of the family to the others. " 
 
 Considerable space has been given to the ancestry 
 of Bishop Wilson that heredity may be accorded the 
 credit to which it is entitled for the Hfe of this re- 
 
 13 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 markable man. It will be observed that the mental 
 habits, the moral convictions, and the heroic spirit 
 of Norval Wilson were strikingly reproduced in his 
 distinguished son. 
 
 On his mother's side the Bishop was of Quaker 
 extraction. Her father was Daniel Howland, of the 
 Howland family of New Bedford. Daniel Howland 
 was a sea captain, and about the beginning of the 
 nineteenth century moved to Baltimore and became 
 master of one of the famous Baltimore chppers which 
 was destroyed by the French. He was one of 
 Baltimore's gallant defenders in the early days. 
 
 Captain Howland was probably buried in the old 
 South Cemetery, Baltimore, from which the bodies 
 were removed a half century or more ago to some 
 place which is not identified by the mortuary rec- 
 ords of the city. His wife is buried in Governor 
 Holliday's lot in Winchester, Virginia. 
 
 14 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 Earlier Years. 
 
 Little is known respecting the boyhood of Bishop 
 Wilson beyond hints which fell from his own lips, as 
 all his contemporaries have gone, and there are now 
 no sources of information available. 
 
 We know, however, that he was reared in the 
 pious and wholesome atmosphere of a Methodist 
 parsonage, than which, for the moulding of character 
 according to divine standards, and the furnishing of 
 the mind and heart for the largest usefulness for 
 time and eternity, there is no superior training school 
 on earth. 
 
 When his father was stationed in Baltimore, Mr. 
 George W. Corner was his Sunday School teacher. 
 In later life he often remarked there was never a more 
 saintly man, nor one who had the faculty of making 
 his boys take the Scriptures into their minds to a 
 greater degree of thoroughness. 
 
 His life is another refutation of the age-old^ 
 canard that the lives of ministers' children are a 
 practical denial of the efficacy of parsonage training, 
 and that generally they do not proportionately 
 measure up to the lives of others in responding to 
 life's great responsibilities. 
 
 Occasionally a minister's child does not reflect 
 credit upon its rearing and opportunities, but this is 
 the exception and not the rule. As a matter of fact 
 it has been said that the proportion of ministers' 
 children who have distinguished themselves by large 
 
 15 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 achievements is fifty times greater than those of men 
 of other calHngs. Twenty out of fifty-one names in 
 the National Hall of Fame are those of ministers' 
 sons. Roger Williams, Jonathan Edwards, WilHam 
 Ellery Channing, Emerson, Holmes, Henry Clay, 
 Agassiz, Bancroft, Beecher, Stowe, Lowell, PhiUps 
 Brooks are among the number. Of our twenty-five 
 presidents, four were ministers' sons — Buchanan, 
 Arthur, Cleveland and Wilson. The wives of five 
 presidents were ministers' daughters — Mrs. John 
 Adams, Mrs. Millard Fillmore, Mrs. Franklin 
 Pierce, Mrs. Benjamin Harrison and the first Mrs. 
 Woodrow Wilson. This does not account for many 
 other preachers' children who have distinguished 
 themselves in statesmanship, science, literature, or 
 in other fields or for the tens of thousands of other 
 sons and daughters of the parsonage who have 
 consecrated their gifts and energies to the moral and 
 spiritual betterment of humanity, and who under 
 God have been the constructive forces in the up- 
 building of human Hfe and character, and the 
 estabUshment of His Kingdom on earth. 
 
 The rigid rules and strict discipHne of Mrs. 
 Susannah Wesley in the training of the children in 
 the Epworth rectory, however efficient these means 
 were in her days, were not employed in the Wilson 
 home. The principles of divine truths were em- 
 phasized and the example of parental Hving and holy 
 character was kept before the children whose Hves 
 unfolded and developed with most beneficial results 
 under such gracious influences in an atmosphere of 
 larger liberty. 
 
 16 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 The children were brought into vital relation with 
 the Church and the Sunday School. In the last 
 address the writer heard the Bishop make, he said 
 that the Scriptures which he could quote so readily 
 were principally learned in the Sunday School in 
 those times when the Bible was more largely com- 
 mitted to memory than in these modern days of the 
 voluminous helps of the International Lesson Series. 
 
 In his boyhood the profound scholarship of his 
 later years gave no foregleams. He was considered 
 a dull and backward youth, never having much to 
 say and always keeping his own counsel. He 
 studied at a classical academy at Winchester, Vir- 
 ginia, during his father's residence in that city as 
 pastor and presiding elder. Later when his father 
 was appointed to Georgetown, D. C, he entered the 
 Columbia University, now known as George Wash- 
 ington University, and shortly after his eighteenth 
 birthday, he surprised his friends by taking the full 
 graduate course and successfully passing the exami- 
 nation for a degree. He was refused the degree, 
 however, on the ground of his youth. 
 
 He was converted in August, 1848, at a camp 
 meeting in Stafford County, Virginia, of which his 
 father, who was stationed at Fredericksburg, was in 
 charge. 
 
 Shortly after his conversion he turned his atten- 
 tion to the question of a vocation. The mercantile 
 business first attracted him, and he took a position 
 in a dry-goods store which he retained for a week. 
 Medicine became his next interest, and he studied as 
 a disciple of ^Esculapius for two weeks. By that 
 time he had his bearings, and the great question of 
 
 17 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 his life's calling was determined by the voice of God. 
 In obedience to that call, he entered the ranks of the 
 local ministry of the Methodist Church in the spring 
 of 1852, and served as a supply on Charles Circuit, 
 with Rev. Robert Smith as his colleague. 
 
 In 1853, when but nineteen years of age, he was 
 admitted on trial by the Baltimore Conference, a 
 member of a class of thirty-five, the largest on record, 
 of which he was the last survivor but one — the Rev, 
 EphraimL. Kregloe, of Shepherdstown, West Virginia. 
 He preached his semi-centennial sermon while the 
 Baltimore Conference was in session in Trinity 
 Church in 1902. He was licensed to preach under 
 the administration of his father; w^as ordained a 
 Deacon by Bishop Scott, March 11, 1855, and an 
 Elder by Bishop Waugh, March 8, 1857. 
 
 His first appointment was junior preacher on 
 Jefferson Circuit, with W. G. Eggleston as his 
 senior. During this year, he was the victim of a 
 spiritual depression that drove him to the borders of 
 despair. He had lost an experience which had once 
 blessed his life and his ministry seemed to be barren 
 of fruit. He poured out his soul in a letter to a 
 friend written from Middleway, Virginia, now West 
 Virginia, under date of November 14, 1853, which 
 reveals the agony through which he passed — an ex- 
 perience not unknown to men who have subjected 
 their hearts to the severest introspection and their 
 lives to the most rigid scrutiny. 
 
 "You are not alone," he wrote, "in the remorse that 
 you feel for having incurred the guilt of a lost soul. 
 
 "I am but too well acquainted with the feeling of 
 which you speak. For I fear that I too have been the 
 
 18 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 cause of the ruin of more than one. I frequently call to 
 mind the memory of some, now in eternity, whose salva- 
 tion I might have secured, had I been faithful. God has 
 forgiven and I trust never again to incur such guilt. 
 
 "But let not past sinfulness keep you from present 
 holiness. The perfect love, which you desire, may even 
 now be obtained, by finn trust in the blood that cleanseth 
 from all unrighteousness. 'This is the will of God, even 
 your sanctification.' Your mention of perfect love has 
 brought to my mind a period in my religious history, in 
 which my heart rejoiced in the possession of that un- 
 speakable gift. For more than a year I enjoyed a heaven 
 of bliss, which I had thought beyond the reach or ken of 
 mortals. But it has gone. And my spirituality is as 
 a smoking flax. I am unfit for the position I occupy as a 
 preacher of Christ crucified. But I feel that 'woe is unto 
 me, if I preach not the gospel,' and I dare not leave the 
 work. 
 
 " Oh, how shall I, at the judgment seat of Christ, meet 
 the fearful responsibilities, which press upon me and which 
 I fail to meet here. May God raise the smoking flax to a 
 flame and prepare me to discharge my obHgations to Him. 
 But the worst of all with me is, that I see no fruit of my 
 labors. A barren fig-tree! It is all my own fault. I 
 sometimes feel like praying the Lord to remove me and 
 place a more profitable servant in my room. But, no. 
 We must 'learn to labor and to wait.' Pray for me. My 
 daily prayers go up to God for you. 
 
 " My voice, in consequence of excessive labors, while 
 in full possession of a cold, has been completely broken 
 down. It is very much shattered and entirely unfit for 
 use. But there is no rest for me or any of us, this side 
 the grave. But I would not care for all my labors, if they 
 did any good. But as I said above, they effect nothing. 
 I fear lest God should curse me, as Christ cursed the fig- 
 tree that yielded naught but leaves. I have preached 
 fourteen times and exhorted half-dozen times or more 
 since I left Baltimore and no good results have followed 
 therefrom. What am I to do.? Don't forget to pray for 
 me." 
 
 19 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 A few months later he had emerged from his bitter 
 experience and was filled with faith and joy. The 
 assurance had returned and the salvation of souls as 
 the fruit of his labors had been a tonic to his soul. 
 A letter dated Berryville, Virginia, January 12, 1854, 
 speaks of the great change in his spiritual vision, an 
 experience which caused him to burst forth in the 
 language of thanksgiving. 
 
 " During the year the Lord has disappointed our fears. 
 The church has been blessed with the visitations of His 
 grace, the communities have been led to more serious and 
 careful reflection than is usual among sinners, many of 
 them have awakened, many — and some of them the most 
 desperate — have been converted and the work is still in 
 progress, wherever it has been commenced and still 
 spreading. 'Bless the Lord, O! my soul and all that is 
 within me bless His holy name. ' All this has not been un- 
 productive of good to my own soul. The old desires of 
 my heart have sprung forth afresh and I have been crying 
 after God with all the earnestness of my nature. And it 
 has not been in vain. My Christian experience has again 
 assumed the character that it bore in 1850 — the most 
 joyous year of my life. And while the affairs of life seem 
 to become gloomy, God reveals Himself more brightly to 
 my heart and bids me rejoice in Him; what more can a 
 mortal ask or desire? For a week past there has been a 
 deep tranquillity of spirit, almost unnatural to me, that 
 the most distressing thoughts or circumstances could not 
 disturb. Amid all the exciting scenes through which I 
 have passed and with which I have been more or less in- 
 timately connected, my heart has been strangely peace- 
 ful. Joy in the Holy Ghost has been the most prominent 
 feature of my experience. And I have found all this 
 singularly consistent with most acute mental suffering. 
 For I have been suffering the most intense mental agony 
 from various causes. And nothing but these riches and 
 fuller communications of Divine grace have supported me 
 and prevented my being overpowered. " 
 
 20 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 In this letter he referred to his lack of adequate 
 preparation for standing his Conference examina- 
 tions, but congratulated himself upon the youth- 
 fulness of the committee which he thought would not 
 be far removed from its own trials and would, there- 
 fore, be more incHned to be merciful. The young 
 preachers may gather encouragement from the fact 
 that even Bishop Wilson in his early years was not 
 without some apprehension and dread of the exami- 
 nation committees. 
 
 In 1854 he was sent as second man to Berry ville 
 Circuit. 
 
 Two letters written this year from Berry ville, one 
 dated September 12, 1854, and the other February 
 20, 1855, emphasize by their contents the passion of 
 the young preacher for the salvation of souls and his 
 sense of the tremendous responsibility of the minister 
 of Christ. It may seem strange to many who have 
 never associated the great Bishop with revivals to 
 read these lines and others that will appear later, but 
 the passion and fire were in his soul, and in his fare- 
 well address at the Oklahoma General Conference, 
 when he retired from the active duties of the Episco-, 
 pacy, he placed tremendous emphasis upon saving 
 men. 
 
 In his letter of September 12, we read: 
 
 " Our meeting has been one of unlocked for success. 
 .... Men who have been living on in sin, totally un- 
 concerned for years past, have been powerfully awakened, 
 and bitter tears of remorse and sorrows have streamed 
 from eyes hitherto unused to weep. This section of 
 country, though but five or six miles from Winchester and 
 within range of our other circuit appointments, has been 
 almost totally destitute of the pure preaching of the 
 
 21 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 gospel, until we took it in a few months since. At last 
 the 'kingdom of God has come' to this people and 'they 
 receive it gladly.' We took seven or eight into the church 
 last night and several more are yet to join. We shall form 
 a class immediately, which, though small in its commence- 
 ment, we intend and trust shall exert a great influence upon 
 the community and be the nucleus of a large society to 
 spring up in after days. May God carry on His work 
 here. 
 
 "If the financial affairs of the circuit were unembar- 
 rassed, we should most unquestionably have a prosperous 
 year. And, thank God, in other respects we shall have a 
 prosperous year. But 'money matters' press like a dead 
 weight upon the church and crush all the energy and 
 enterprise of the people. And we have, in despite of and 
 in direct opposition to all this, to work them into something 
 better. . . . After one day's rest we go at it again 
 in an adjoining neighborhood and shall try there to get the 
 victory over the World and the Devil again. I cannot ex- 
 press my gratitude to God for the success that has attended 
 our efforts thus far during the progress of the year. " 
 
 In the letter of February 20, written just before 
 the meeting of the Annual Conference, he wrote of 
 preaching his last sermon of the year, as if he had 
 been in the presence of the Judge of the quick and 
 the dead. Preaching was a terrible thing to him 
 that must be done in the fear of God and with a 
 sense of awful responsibility. 
 
 "I have three more sermons to preach before leaving, 
 one at Providence in the mountains, one at Berryville, and 
 the third at an appointment in the country, some six miles 
 from here. I scarcely know what themes to select. I 
 feel like giving all the Gospel at each point. But my 
 sermons wotdd then be rather too lengthy. I think, 
 however, that I shall select three of the plainest texts I 
 can find — such as 'Prepare to meet thy God,' 'God be 
 merciful to me a sinner' or the like. I want to leave an 
 
 22 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 impression on the hearts of my hearers, not in favor of 
 myself, but a permanent religious impression, that shall 
 result in the salvation of those to whom I am sent for the 
 last time. God only can tell when or under what cir- 
 cumstances we may next meet. If it be at the Judgment scat 
 I want to be assured of my freedom from guilt in relation to 
 them. So I shall preach as though my coffin and winding 
 sheet were just before me. As regards the material of my 
 preaching hitherto, I have nothing with which to reproach 
 myself — for I have preached Christ and have tried to 
 benefit the people and not to gratify personal feelings or 
 promote personal reputation. But there is more to be 
 accounted for than my pulpit ministrations, and in other 
 respects I have been woefully defective. I trust that my 
 coming year, wherever it be spent, may be more faith- 
 fully given to God than the past. I look for Divine as- 
 sistance and consequent improvement in every particular. " 
 
 In 1855 he was junior preacher on East Loudoun 
 in Virginia with headquarters in Middleburg, at the 
 home of Edwin C. Broun, a member of an old 
 Methodist family of Loudoun County. In an undated 
 letter which w^as evidently written not long after 
 his appointment to this work, he announces his 
 purpose to pay more attention to preaching and im- 
 prove its quaUty that year; he places an humble « 
 estimate upon his intellectual gifts and his imagina- 
 tive powers, but large value upon diHgent applica- 
 tion and the art of extemporizing; the former char- 
 acterized his entire after-Hfe, and the latter he 
 developed to such a degree that he was always 
 ready to speak upon any subject to which he had 
 given his thought. 
 
 The letter shows the principles which he had 
 reasoned out, adopted, and which were among the 
 foundation stones of his marvelous success. 
 
 This letter reads as follows : 
 23 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 "I want to pay more attention to my preaching this 
 year and make considerable improvement. There is 
 room for it. And I often feel ashamed of myself that I 
 should be so far inferior to many young men in the Con- 
 ference who have been at the work no longer than I. My 
 mind, however, is not by any means a superior one and 
 has not had the advantage of the preparatory training 
 that some of them have enjoyed. I have had no teacher 
 who bestowed any special attention upon me, since I was 
 thirteen or foiirteen years of age. All that I have acquired 
 since that time and all the improvement that I have made 
 has been by my own unaided effort. Books I have had at 
 my command and I have been an extensive reader, literary, 
 scientific and classical. And I have digested what I 
 read, so as to deduce and retain general principles, not 
 merely facts. But I have never accustomed my mind to 
 develop its resources and never brought it to effort and 
 action until I commenced preaching. Hence my great 
 deficiency, owing, doubtless, very much to the want of 
 intellect, is due in no small degree to the want of habitual 
 mental effort. I am aware that in some respects I possess 
 some advantage over many of my brethren, as in the ex- 
 temporizing faculty and command of language, which 
 last I attribute to my former familiarity with the dead 
 languages and my habit of investigating the philosophy 
 thereof, and this of course is within the reach of all. But 
 I possess very little originality of mind, and a feeble 
 imagination, both of which are essential to eminence in 
 public speaking. 
 
 "But I shall try and make up by diligent application 
 what I lack in native power. And you know that I hold 
 the theorv^ that perseverance and labor are sufficient to 
 remedy all defects. Thus I may at some time become a 
 tolerable preacher and I trust in God that I shall be a 
 successful one. It is a wise and consoling provision of the 
 Gospel that 'the foolish and weak things of the world are 
 made use of to confound the things that are mighty and 
 wise. ' " 
 
 24 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 A few months later he told a friend of a con- 
 templated change in his Conference relations which 
 had probably occupied his thoughts for some time. 
 He was considering transferring to the Pittsburgh 
 Conference. It was a happy providence that 
 interposed at this critical time, as had he made the 
 change his distinguished services would have likely 
 been lost to Southern Methodism. 
 
 He said to his friend: 
 
 "I have never thought the Baltimore Conference my 
 place. None can succeed in accomplishing much good 
 here unless he possess either very superior talent, or a 
 great deal of business tact. The demand universal is for 
 one or other of these. Unfortunately for me I've neither 
 the one nor the other. I know full well the opinion 
 generally entertained concerning me — but I think I am 
 far better acquainted with my own mental resources than 
 any one else can possibly be. And even if I possessed the 
 talent which some ascribe to me, you know that I am so 
 unpopular in my style and manner of preaching that I 
 can scarcely hope to do good anywhere else than in a 
 new, or comparatively new country and among a people 
 essentially different from those of the Baltimore Con- 
 ference." 
 
 A letter written from Warrenton in the fall of 
 this year revealed the tendency of the mind of the 
 young preacher to Christian philosophy which grew 
 into an absorbing study with passing years. 
 
 "But to my mind there is far more to be learned and 
 more profit to be derived from an earnest, strict scrutiny 
 of the movements of the unseen, spiritual world than all 
 the variety of villainy and virtue of the external world can 
 afford. You know that I have always considered human 
 nature as identical in all its various aspects. And hence in 
 judging of the character of men from their actions, I place 
 
 25 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 myself in their circumstances and seek for the motive that 
 would impel me to such and such deeds in their situation. 
 Accordingly, I endeavor to make myself thoroughly con- 
 versant with all the machinery of my own heart, which is 
 the seat of principle and the source of action and, with 
 this view, suffer not an act, or an emotion of my life to 
 pass unobserved, or uninvestigated — always taking care 
 to refer to God's word, as the revealer of the human heart 
 and as the only standard by which to try its operations. 
 
 "But alas! for me, I find only the conceptions of evil 
 and the principles of iniquity within myself, with here and 
 there an indication of Divine influence in the form of a 
 contempt for myself and a desire for the right and the 
 true and an occasional principle and emotion manifested, 
 whose only origin could have been God. But few hours 
 of my life pass without the contention of the two natures 
 for the supremacy. There is an almost incessant tempest 
 of strife raging within, intermitted but once in a long 
 while by the peculiar displays of Divine grace, bringing 
 peace to my troubled conscience and wearied heart. I 
 need not sa^' that this is unsatisfactory to me. You know, 
 that bad as I am, I can never rest quietly under the domin- 
 ion of sin, nor be satisfied with a mere, partial, inefficient 
 resistance, almost invariably succeeded by long, bitter, 
 unavailing repentance. Stability of Christian character, 
 steadfastness of purpose, entire victory over and eternal 
 death to sin are what I require in order to have peace. Is 
 not the Gospel as strict in its demands ? I am sick of self, 
 sensual gratification, sin. God knows I long to be freed. 
 But such has been my habit so long, that I seem to myself 
 to be doomed to it for life. If ever man could use Paul's 
 wail 'O! wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me 
 from the body of this death?' it is I. True, I am not in 
 utter despair. I take courage from even the feeble in- 
 dication of the Spirit's influence within me. Jesus can 
 save — Jesus must save — Jesus shall save me. I know that 
 the earnest struggle that I once more engage in will be — I 
 trust a final — victorious one." 
 
 26 
 
1. Mrs. C(jiiNi;LiA Huwlam) Wilsu.s, .Mother iif Bishop Wilso 
 
 2. Susan Bond Lipscomu (ISoO) (Later Mus. A. W. Wilson) 
 
 3. Susan Bond Lipscomb (1853) (Later Mrs. A. W. Wilson) 
 
 4. Susan Bond Lipscomb (1854) (Later Mrs. A. W. Wilson) 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 In the early part of this year Miss Bettie Lips- 
 comb, a lovely young woman of sixteen, a sister of 
 the lady who afterwards became his wife, died of 
 erysipelas at her home in Baltimore. The future 
 Mrs. Wilson remained by the bedside of this loved 
 sister all night, and when the delirium would lapse 
 for an interval and a lucid moment come, she talked 
 to her of personal salvation and had the joy of 
 seeing her accept Christ before passing to the spirit's 
 world. The letters of consolation this young 
 preacher but twenty years of age wrote to his fiancee 
 will bring comfort to other hearts that have passed 
 through the waters. They are strong and Scrip- 
 tural in thought, apt and beautiful in diction, and 
 reveal the wealth of tenderness and sympathy of the 
 heart from which they came. 
 
 Both are reproduced. When the first was writ- 
 ten, the tidings of the death of Miss Lipscomb had 
 not reached the writer. 
 
 "When you wrote to me that Bettie was ill, you did 
 not mention the disease and it was not until Bro. Mc- 
 Mullin came from Baltimore and told me that it was 
 erysipelas in the head that I began to entertain any fears' 
 as to the issue. I had seen a great deal of the disease and 
 knew that it was very dangerous on account of its constant 
 tendency to the brain and I dreaded the effect upon 
 Bettie's constitution. And now, my worst fears are 
 realized. If not too late and 'if it be possible,' may God 
 in His goodness avert it. Nevertheless not our will, but 
 Thine, O ! Father, be done. I have long loved her as one 
 of my own sisters and the blow will fall heavily — very 
 heavily on me. I know how you feel and sympathize with 
 you, for not three years have rolled away since I bade the 
 long farewell to the best beloved of my own sisters and 
 stood by her beautiful corpse and followed it to the home 
 
 27 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 of all the living. May God sustain and comfort you as He 
 did me in that hour of stem trial and exquisite suffering. 
 
 " But there's a joy in the midst of all this sorrow that is 
 strange to the hearts of those who know not the Gospel. 
 As, 'dust to dust,' the frail body is committed to the tomb 
 and the darkness of the grave envelops all that is visible 
 of the beloved one, there's a voice that rolls with more than 
 earthly melody from beyond the thick gloom of death and 
 thrills through our hearts its glorious assurance 'I am the 
 resurrection and the life.' Oh ! there is no more death, for 
 Jesus 'hath abolished death.' The tomb is not the home 
 of the dead ; it is the resting place of the living. We may 
 sorrow at the parting; but we sorrow not as those that 
 have no hope, for we shall meet again. And, thank God, 
 to whatever part of the glorious Gospel of Christ I turn my 
 eye, my heart finds a resting-place in the exceeding great 
 and precious promises so thick-scattered therein. Then, 
 dearest Sue, rejoice in the fullness of the Gospel, thus 
 provided so richly for the most trying circumstances of 
 life and, while suffering the will of a kind and merciful 
 Father, 'who doth not willingly afffict nor grieve the 
 children of men,' be thankful that you are a partaker of 
 consolation that, without Christ, would be unknown to 
 you. 
 
 "We ought to be very thankful that she has given such 
 expression of her willingness to meet death, even though 
 God should see fit to remove her without a return of 
 reason. But I trust and pray God that your hearts may 
 be, or, if she be now gone, may have been comforted with 
 other and even stronger and clearer declarations of her 
 trust in Jesus. Of her safety I have not, nor do I suppose 
 you have, any doubts. But ah! with all the consolation 
 afforded by the Gospel and the circumstances of her 
 death, I can't help feeling, as you do, that it is very hard 
 to part with her and have the family circle thus broken 
 in upon; And, again, my heart would pray, 'if it be pos- 
 sible, let this cup pass from us.' May God spare her yet 
 a little longer, if she is still living. How I long to see her 
 once more and most gladly, if it were in my power, would 
 
 28 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 I visit her now. But while I am writing she may be in 
 the better world and all regrets and longings are vain. 
 Give yourself up, darling, into the hands of God, submit 
 to be governed by His will, assured that, painful though 
 it be for a time, it is best and safest in the end. We'll all 
 meet in heaven. 
 
 This is the second letter: 
 
 "Alas! it is even so. Bettie, our dear Bettie, is in 
 heaven. I looked anxiously for a letter from you this 
 evening, hoping to hear of a change for the better — but, 
 fearing that it could not be so. I received information 
 from Father of her departure and also the joyous assurance 
 that she had died very happily and left a certain testimony 
 behind, from which I infer that God was pleased to return 
 her to reason again. I am truly thankful to God for the 
 consolation that I am sure you experienced from that. 
 
 "I have been thinking of and praying for her and all of 
 you since your letter came to hand. And I could not 
 throw off the feeling of sadness that oppressed me. And 
 now I feel as though one of my own sisters had gone. I 
 deeply and truly sympathize with you, dearest Sue, and 
 would willingly bear the burden of your sorrow, if it were 
 in my power. I would offer consolation, but I can't con- 
 sole myself. We know that God is good, and doth not 
 willingly afflict nor grieve the children of men. We know 
 that if we could have seen the end from the beginning, as 
 He has, we should have done likewise. And we can bow 
 submissively and say 'Thy will be done ;' but our anguished 
 hearts will feel and no consolation can supply that want 
 within, or fill that void in the family circle, or return the 
 familiar sound of that loved voice, or lighten again to our 
 gaze the eye now closed in the grave. It is not the death, 
 it's the separation that fills our hearts with pain. We 
 know that the spirit lives and is happy — happy beyond 
 our conception; but it lives far from us. It will no more 
 partake of our joys, nor sympathize with our sorrows; it 
 will no more unite with us in social intercourse, nor bear 
 us company in the varied pursuits of life. It still lives; 
 
 29 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 but years on years must roll away, the tr^ang scenes of 
 time, the conflict with death must pass, the morning of 
 the resurrection, the dawn of eternity must be ushered in, 
 ere we shall again look upon the loved one gone before and 
 have the sorrow and its effects forever and entirely effaced ; 
 may He, who wept at the grave of His friend and even, 
 now, thank God, feels for us, comfort all our hearts and 
 sanctify the bereavement to our good. Tr>% dear Sue, 
 to trust and cling more closely to Him. Most keenly do 
 I feel it and never have the workings of Providence seemed 
 so inscrutable as now. 
 
 "But He hath done as seemed good in His sight and 
 He knows what is best. 
 
 "May God bless you, darling, and support you. 
 
 "I was so much better on Sabbath morning when I 
 wrote to you, that I concluded to try and preach and did 
 so. I preached of Jesus, for I was very sad, thinking of 
 Bettie, and I found my heart full and it was a great relief 
 to tell of the power of the blood that saves from sin. 
 And Jesus was with me and I felt that I was near the cross 
 and my rejoicing in that cross was more than my tongue 
 could tell. My heart was melted and subdued and tinged 
 with sadness, and though it was. throughout the day I 
 thought and spoke of and rejoiced in the cross of Christ. " 
 
 30 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 Trials and Triumphs of the Itineracy. 
 
 In the spring of 1856 Rev. A. W. Wilson was ap- 
 pointed junior preacher of Patapsco Circuit. Shortly 
 after going to his new work he was the victim of an 
 accident that nearly cost him his life. Like many 
 other Methodist preachers he was fond of a mettle- 
 some steed, and his fondness was in proportion to the 
 spiritedness of the animal. While on East Loudoun 
 he broke and gaited a fractious colt for the father of 
 Mr. L. W. Hopkins, the author of the well known 
 war book, "From Bull Run to Appomattox. " This 
 colt showed its appreciation of its training by render- 
 ing excellent service for the South in the "War 
 Between the States. " 
 
 But young Wilson learned from experience that 
 a horse is a vain thing for safety, for he was thrown 
 from his own steed in going to an appointment and 
 narrowly escaped fatal injury. He describes the 
 event in a letter of vivid picturesqueness and phil- 
 osophizes upon the lessons it taught. But let him 
 tell the story in his own energetic style : 
 
 "I have just returned from an adventure * * * 
 which, had you witnessed it, would have excited and 
 terrified your loving heart almost beyond your endurance. 
 I have been within a hair's breadth of the other world and 
 my preservation is due to the Providence of God alone. 
 I started from here a half an hour since to ride to my ap- 
 pointment for tomorrow, thoughtless of danger, antici- 
 pating a pleasant trip and dreaming as usual. After 
 riding a few hundred yards my horse, wild generally, more 
 
 31 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 than ordinarily so today, after a week's rest, got frightened 
 and started to run, for which I cared nothing, and indeed 
 was rather wilHng to let him go, as I was late, only check- 
 ing him as he went dashing downhill, to prevent his falling. 
 But as I turned the corner of a lane leading into the pike, 
 I felt the saddle turning off and then ran him over against 
 a bank at the other side of the road so that I might not 
 fall on the stones. The saddle went and I with it, rolling 
 right under the horse's feet. He reared and his front 
 feet were coming right down in my face and neck and then 
 all would have been over with me. But fortunately the 
 bridle rein was still in my left hand and I gave a jerk to 
 one side with that and at the same moment with my right 
 hand gave his legs a blow as hard as I could send it. 
 These saved me — he brought one foot down on my side 
 and the other on my thigh — stumbled over me — fell and 
 rolled down the hill, leaving me, my saddlebags, saddle and 
 everything else in the mud. The worst of the matter is a 
 broken umbrella, broken saddle girth, and myself and 
 fixings plastered with mud. I am safe and unhurt. But 
 I had made my arrangements for eternity and the thoughts 
 of past, present and future passed through my mind with 
 the rapidity of the lightning flash while lying under the 
 hoofs of my horse. 
 
 "I thought of the errors of my life — the sins of my 
 youth and the backslidings of my Christian career, and 
 hung upon the cross. I thought of my present condition 
 and I felt grateful that I had a sense of my acceptance 
 with God and 'was ready to be offered up.' 
 
 "I thought of the future and rejoiced in the prospect 
 of Heaven's glory * * * j have heard of the rapidity 
 of thought before — but never experienced it to such an 
 extent, and the rapidity of feeling too, in all its forms and 
 gradations. 
 
 "I have been wondering if other minds are like my 
 own. Totally destitute of fear, I lost not for one moment 
 self-possession and, even, amid the wild rush of thought 
 above alluded to, I forgot not to use and devise means for 
 self-preservation and, in case I lived after it, to form plans 
 
 32 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 for the control of my horse. Is such absolute self-control 
 the lot of men generally ? 
 
 "You may think this matter one of nature's ordering 
 and so think the question of no moment, or capable only 
 of a general answer. But I have an idea that God has 
 endowed men with specific qualities for specific purposes. 
 
 "For instance you meet with some men of iron nerve, 
 great intellect, large souls, grave, determined, energetic — 
 just fitted in every respect for great responsibilities. 
 
 "Did you ever meet with such an individual who did 
 not in the course of his life incur those responsibilities? 
 If you observe carefully, you'll find it a general rule that 
 men are placed in the position for which they are fitted by 
 nature. The exceptions are in the cases of those who 
 refuse to submit themselves to the guidance of God — 
 God's Providence. And, even among these, in the ma- 
 jority of instances, those very qualities will originate the 
 circumstances amid which they are fitted to act. 
 
 "And taking this into account I have sometimes 
 thought that some particular circumstances of importance 
 to myself and, perhaps, to others, are yet to arise, re- 
 quiring the exercise of this particular quality of self- 
 possession — or rather the power for which it leaves room. 
 Indeed I sometimes go farther still and become a fatalist. 
 At all times I am enough of one to believe that my whole 
 course through life will be controlled by the Providence of 
 God, as the past has been. I have had some stem lessons 
 to learn at the hand of Providence — but I have always 
 recognized that hand and believe that all these lessons are 
 to find their development and design in my future life. 
 I could not and would not endure life without this belief. 
 Despondent as I naturally am, I should have abandoned 
 my most favorite schemes and important pursuits but for 
 this." 
 
 During the summer of his year on Patapsco, he 
 attended a camp meeting at Berryville, and was 
 brought into close association with many of the 
 people he had formerly served. He became so deeply 
 
 33 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 interested in soul saving and personal work that he 
 remained a week longer than he intended. 
 
 An excerpt from an old letter expresses in his own 
 language the exalted privilege and joy he had in 
 leading souls to Christ. 
 
 "I know not whether the preacher on B. circuit was 
 grateful to me for the exchange. But I am sure that I 
 now feel grateful to my God for the Providence that so 
 ordered my steps. I went there with a heart to work. 
 As soon as I reached the ground I found two very sweet 
 girls — daughters of the best friend I had on that circuit, a 
 noble, generous-hearted Christian, who went to Heaven 
 last winter, and it entered my mind at once to make their 
 salvation the end of my efforts while there. I felt an 
 intense solicitude for them — prayed for them — conversed 
 with them — appealed to them in private and public by 
 every interest and emotion of humanity and, as day after 
 day rolled away and they still yielded not, though power- 
 fully awakened, I became more and more anxious and 
 endured an almost intolerable agony on their account. 
 But I was resolved and would believe even against all 
 human hope. And God favored me. Yesterday after- 
 noon I went to the elder of the two and told her that I 
 wanted to know her decision immediately. If she de- 
 clined going to the altar, I would say no more to her on the 
 subject this side the judgment seat of Christ. She 
 yielded and I knelt by her until after midnight and then 
 salvation came. Her sister came at night and is still 
 earnestly seeking mercy, or has found it. Her brother, 
 too, went to the altar — so that now all the family are on 
 the way to Heaven. Besides this God made me the in- 
 strument of the conversion of six or seven other souls. 
 Indeed the principal part of the exhorting and the conduct 
 of all the prayer meetings (with one exception) and altar 
 work was thrown upon me. I left the place this morning 
 with a clear conscience and a light heart and received from 
 the lips of several newly converted ones and of nearlj^ all 
 the old membership blessing and thanks for my labors. All 
 
 34 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 this is very soothing and comfortable to me who so seldom 
 sees any fruit of my labors. I feel much strengthened by it 
 and am in better mood for the work of our own camp. I 
 am more cheerful and joyous than I have been for many 
 long months. I am looking now and waiting for yet 
 larger evidences of the favor of my God. Indeed I hope 
 yet to be a Christian. God help me. You must not fail 
 to pray for me. 
 
 "Tomorrow we expect the Revs. N. Wilson, J. S. Mar- 
 tin, B. B. Hamlin, R. D. Chambers and one of the Caroline 
 St. preachers, to open our work for us. Good enough for 
 a commencement, " 
 
 A letter written from Germantown, August 24, 
 1857, describes a very successful camp meeting in 
 whose preaching and other services he took a very 
 prominent part. In those days a tremendous 
 emphasis was placed upon soul saving, and camp 
 meetings and revivals were a large part of the labors 
 of the preachers. He writes concerning this meeting : 
 
 "The Camp Meeting was very successful — the most 
 remarkable in many respects that I ever attended. The 
 preachers were B. H. Nadal, John S. Martin— both of 
 whom inquired after and sent their kind regards to 
 yourself— J. W. Wolfe. I. N. Eakin, F. C. Tebbs, T. B. 
 McFalls (Mat Swink's old friend), J. Engle, J. Graham, 
 the circuit preachers and your humble servant. None of 
 us hurt ourselves preaching. Sennons were good — but 
 ordinary. No special feeling displayed. Nor was any 
 marked interest apparent upon the part of the membership. 
 And yet, despite of coldness and difficulties, the work 
 went on. Several times during the meeting I think there 
 must have been fully two-thirds of the unconverted part 
 of the congregation seeking religion. 
 
 "Many families — Presbyterians by birth and training 
 and holding old prejudices against Methodism, were 
 converted entire. It is impossible to say what the 
 
 35 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 numbers were. Fifty-six names were taken and very 
 many left the ground before they could be reported. " 
 
 The Conference of 1857 sent him as preacher in 
 charge to Warm Springs. 
 
 It will be observed that the subject of this sketch 
 was junior preacher on each of his first four charges, 
 for at that time it was the custom to train the young 
 preachers on the large, old-fashioned circuits under 
 older men of larger experience and wisdom. It is 
 doubted w^hether we have greatly improved upon the 
 plan of our fathers. 
 
 On March 4 of this year he was married to Miss 
 Susan Bond Lipscomb, daughter of the Reverend and 
 Mrs. Philip D. Lipscomb, of Baltimore. It was an 
 evening wedding in which four groomsmen and a 
 corresponding number of bridesmaids took part. 
 
 The newly wedded couple journeyed to the 
 bridegroom's new appointment in a buggy, the trip 
 covering an entire week, but the young bride de- 
 clared repeatedly afterwards that she had never en- 
 joyed anything like this primitive bridal tour to the 
 mountains. 
 
 But the romance and poetry of their lives w^ere 
 succeeded by hardships, chief of which was their 
 enforced separation after three months of each 
 others' companionship. The young wife because of 
 illness was compelled to go to Charles Town, West 
 Virginia, then in Virginia, and make her home with 
 her husband's father and mother where she could 
 receive the proper medical attention, while the young 
 husband wrought on his mountain charge. It 
 would have been more than human for him not to 
 have chafed under this arrangement, especially as he 
 
 36 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 was unable to provide his wife with the comforts she 
 needed because of the scarcity of money. He re- 
 ceived that year the munificent sum of $130. 
 
 A letter written to his wife from Warm Springs, 
 September 1, 1857, reveals untoward conditions 
 which are known to but few of our preachers of the 
 present day ; a story of proverty and suffering : 
 
 "And so you remain, my own dearest wife, in Charles- 
 town* until spring? I feel very, very sad and lonely and 
 the thought of so long a separation is intolerable. But I 
 cannot say nay to the plan. 
 
 "Money is so scarce — or so hard to get hold of that I 
 begin to doubt if the circuit will pay the expenses already 
 incurred. To add to these would of course only add to the 
 burden of debt. 
 
 "But I am by no means satisfied with such results. 
 'What God hath joined together let no man put asunder' 
 .... The only time that I could spare to come to see 
 you — ^my very precious love — is the week that I have 
 engaged to give to the Lewisburg Camp Meeting, and if 
 I could get a release from that engagement I do not think 
 I can procure money enough to pay my expenses down 
 and back. And I fear that I shall be in the same situation 
 when Christmas comes. I have not paid one dollar of 
 the board due at the Hotel. 
 
 "All that I can secure I must use for that now. So 
 we must fain submit to wait until the way is open and the 
 means provided. I send you four dollars — all that I 
 have excepting some small change that I can't send by 
 mail. I shall want none for myself. And if this should 
 not be sufficient for your purposes, get what you want and 
 have it charged to me. Any of the Charlestown merchants 
 will credit me. 
 
 "My love, you will not allow yourself to be unhappy 
 in view of our absence from each other. I shall love you 
 
 ♦Charlestown is now written Charles Town to prevent its being confused 
 with Charleston, a city in the same state. 
 
 37 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 as much — or more than if I were with you ; for I know that 
 you are denying yourself and submitting to this painful 
 separation for my sake. ' ' 
 
 The publication of the following personal letter 
 as well as the preceding one is almost an invasion of 
 the sacred precincts of the inner lives of this j'-oung 
 couple, but it is the only means of presenting a true 
 picture of their trials and re-creating in some measure 
 the atmosphere that surrounded them. His sacrifice 
 and faith under such circumstances will hearten and 
 strengthen others who are following in the way which 
 he trod in pain. The spirit of Paul whom he made 
 the subject of his profoundest study and his most 
 reverent thought reveals itself in these words which 
 give the relative values of the present life and the 
 one to come : 
 
 " My thoughts have been of you and the longings of my 
 heart have been towards you. Life is almost burdensome 
 and but for the unfailing resource of Christianity I could 
 not endure my present position. But God, who 'tempers 
 the wind to the shorn lamb, ' does not forsake me. And 
 very often when most depressed and almost in despair, 
 there is a sudden, almost overwhelming manifestation of 
 my Saviour to my consciousness that dispels all gloom and 
 calms my troubled heart. I can almost say with Paul, 
 ' I glory in tribulations ' — ' I glory in mine infirmities that 
 the power of Christ may rest upon me. ' 
 
 "You see I am learning those lessons of wisdom that 
 may be derived from every trouble and that in the end 
 cause us to thank God for the trouble. Most certainly 
 the peace of God that passeth all understanding strangely 
 keeps my heart and mind and whatever the result of this 
 dispensation may be I shall enjoy the consciousness that 
 I have done my duty and, if it end only with death, my 
 paean of victory shall ring from my lips — ' I have fought 
 a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the 
 
 38 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 faith. ' And will not you, my love, join with me in the 
 triumph? Would you not partake with me in the joy of 
 any great success here? And in this greatest of all 
 triumphs — the success of life — the achievement of its 
 glorious purposes — ought not and would not your heart, 
 quail as it might in view of the sad separation — would it 
 not yet swell with delight at the triumph and in view of 
 the glorious results to be realized in another and nobler 
 life?" 
 
 Despite his trials he had a most successful year 
 on Warm Springs Circuit. He knew nothing of the 
 arts of the diplomat in preaching, but like the prophets 
 of old cried aloud and spared not. He condemned sin 
 and proclaimed the atonement of Christ and the 
 regeneration of the Holy Spirit as its only cure for 
 the sinner. In speaking to a friend of the last 
 sermon he expected to preach on the work, he said : 
 
 "My topic will be the 'Sins, punishment and pleas of 
 the Church. ' 'What wilt thou say when He shall punish 
 thee?' my text. If they have never thought and felt 
 before, they shall do it next Sunday — God being my 
 helper." 
 
 There was a strong movement for his return 
 headed by men whom he thought he had mortally 
 offended by his preaching, some of them promising 
 if the Conference sent back this fearless denouncer 
 of sin and advocate of truth to increase their sub- 
 scriptions five-fold. He was amazed at his popu- 
 larity and wrote concerning it : 
 
 "God has strangely given me the hearts of the people. 
 It is a perfect mystery to me. I have been a poor pastor. 
 You would pronounce me yourself unsociable and rather 
 reserved in manner and character. Many better preachers 
 than I have served the same people and been within their 
 
 39 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 reach for another term. But I have yet to travel a circuit 
 when I was not asked to return. I have acquired an in- 
 fluence and power over the people that others far superior 
 to me have failed to secure. How is it? Not by pulpit 
 power certainly — not by the ' winningness ' of manner — 
 not by any effort on my part — for I have never sought 
 or deserved such popularity. It is altogether incompre- 
 hensible to me. As regards my return here, I can only 
 repeat what I have said before. I leave it to Providence 
 to control the matter. If sent back without a word for 
 or against it on my part, I shall come willingly. The 
 future direction of events and their issue I must leave to 
 the same Power above. " 
 
 Notwithstanding the desire for his return and 
 his willingness to be returned to Warm Springs, the 
 Conference following its godly judgment sent young 
 Wilson to Blue Sulphur, a circuit in the same general 
 neighborhood but paying a much larger salary — 
 $250 all told. 
 
 On Blue Sulphur he had a notable revival at 
 Asbury, one of the appointments, in which many 
 substantial people were converted, the father of Rev. 
 John A. Anderson of the Baltimore Conference 
 being among them. The holy influences of this 
 meeting Hnger today in that community as an abiding 
 benediction. 
 
 In after years as Bishop, he recalled those days 
 marked by supernatural power, his memory retaining 
 the most vivid impressions of them. On one 
 occasion he spoke of them in this manner : 
 
 "When I was a young preacher, I couldn't do much 
 preaching, but they bore with me. I was wandering along 
 there on the mountains of Western Virginia, telling them 
 what I knew, which wasn't much, about the gospel, when 
 one of the most remarkable revivals, the most remarkable, 
 
 40 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 I may say, broke out, under my ministry in an isolated 
 region up in the mountains of one of the counties of 
 Western Virginia, Greenbrier County in West Virginia 
 now. It was nothing but a little pretty-well-worn-out 
 shanty. It represented fairly the average life of the 
 community. Their homes were very much of the same 
 grade and style. We had the rough wooden seats, without 
 backs to them; and it had one of the high pulpits — box 
 pulpit — and it had no chancel railing at all, just a few 
 seats set along there when the sacrament was to be 
 administered; but I saw that house, night after night for 
 a month, ablaze with the glory of God as I never saw any 
 other building on earth ; and I heard there songs that had 
 never been sung in any of the costlier temples of earth, 
 and men got down there and lost themselves, absolutely 
 and completely, in their consciousness and sense of God's 
 presence and God's overwhelming power working in them; 
 I say, I saw that thing going on night after night, for 
 weeks and weeks together. 
 
 "It was a marvelous thing. It was in the fall when 
 the wonderful comet spread through the skies, in 1858; 
 it lightened my way to church night after night. It 
 spread out there as perhaps the most magnificent attesta- 
 tion of God's sense of majesty and beauty that had ever 
 flashed across the sky. It was a wonderful thing, with 
 its great, long, saber-like tail that reached almost across 
 the horizon, while its central glory reached up into mid 
 heaven, and that followed me night after night, and under 
 the inspiration of a scene like that, I went into this — almost 
 a hovel, very little better — where the people gathered 
 crowded, where they had to come miles to it, and there 
 settled to hear the Word of God, and they fell in trances, 
 and they shook, and hundreds were converted there in 
 that sparsely-settled community." 
 
 In 1859, failing in health, which had never been 
 robust, he took a supernumerary relation, moved to 
 Baltimore and held an official connection with what 
 was then known as Columbia Street Church. 
 
 41 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 In 1860, he again entered the effective ranks and 
 was stationed at the historic Eutaw Street Church, 
 Bahimore, beneath whose pulpit the bones of Asbury 
 had reposed for forty years and under whose roof 
 some of the momentous gatherings of early Method- 
 ism had been held. 
 
 42 
 
1. Mary Lipscomb, Sister of Mrs. Wilson (Mks. Thomas Fitzgerald) 
 
 2. Rev. and Mrs. Philip Lipscomu, Parents of Mrs. Wilson 
 
 3. Rev. and Mrs. A. W. Wilson (1857)^the year of their marriage 
 
 4. A. W. Wilson and his little sister-in-law, Nannie Lipscomb 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Perilous Days of the Sixties and Southern 
 Methodism in Baltimore. 
 
 It is necessary at this point to introduce a seg- 
 ment of Baltimore Conference history to account for 
 the isolated position of Bishop Wilson and several 
 other preachers in Baltimore during the "War Be- 
 tween the States," and their service in heartening 
 and conserving the forces that established Southern 
 Methodism a few years later in that city. 
 
 When the General Conference of 1844 divided the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church, the Baltimore Con- 
 ference adhered to the Church, North, but at its 
 session held in Staunton, Virginia, in the spring of 
 1861, it severed its relation from the Buffalo General 
 Conference of that Church. The outbreak of the 
 war and the estabHshment of military lines between 
 Virginia and Maryland prevented the Conference 
 from holding its next session in Baltimore as had been 
 previously determined. 
 
 A part of a statement of our work in Baltimore, 
 prepared by Rev. Thos. E. Carson, at the request of 
 Bishop Wilson, is reprinted from the Conference War 
 Minutes. It describes an unparalleled situation in 
 the history of Ivlethodism — three Conferences bear- 
 ing the same name meeting in the spring of 1862. 
 
 "Three Conferences," according to the statement, 
 "each composed of a part of the one Baltimore Conference, 
 as it was in Staunton the year before, met at the time ap- 
 pointed, March, 1862, in as many different places. One in 
 
 43 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 Harrisonburg, Va. ; another in Baltimore City, Light Street 
 M. E. Church, and the third in the same city, in the count- 
 ing-room of a friendly merchant. The first _ (Harrison- 
 burg) was composed of a majority of the Baltimore Con- 
 ference, and it held firmly to its action of the year before 
 in Staunton, Va. The second met under the authority of 
 the M. E. Church— its discipline of 1860— which had been 
 rejected the year before by a large majority of the body as 
 whole. The third, composed of five members, met in full 
 sympathy and accord with the Virginia part of the Con- 
 ference and under the authority of the discipHne of 1856. 
 
 "The Conference that met in Light Street Church, 
 Baltimore, had presented for its action a resolution, in 
 substance as follows : 
 
 '"That, as the unavoidable absence of the Ministers 
 and Members of the Conference within the Confederate 
 lines would prevent their concurrence in any action in 
 reference to the resolutions adopted at the Staunton^ Con- 
 ference, therefore nothing should be done inconsistent 
 therewith, and that we agree to await the time when the 
 entire Conference can meet again in peace and harmony.' 
 
 " It so happened that the Staunton minority of '61 was 
 the Baltimore majority of '62, and the proposal was 
 promptly rejected by the Conference, and an action was 
 taken 'to repudiate, as null and void, the action of the 
 Baltimore Conference at Staunton, and to consider _ all 
 members, not answering to their names, as having with- 
 drawn from the Church. ' In anticipation of a probable 
 action of this kind, and to be consistent with the action of 
 the Staunton Conference, the five preachers composing the 
 third Conference of that date were not present at the 
 Light Street Conference on roll call, nor took part in any 
 of its proceedings. They, with their Virginia brethren, 
 were pronounced ' Withdrawn. ' 
 
 Perhaps the source of the greatest embarrassment 
 to this Conference was the fact that it was without 
 a journal. John 8. Martin, the secretary of the 
 Conference of 1861, was in charge of the records. 
 
 44 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 He had been pastor of the Charles Street Church, but 
 when the long expected hostilities commenced, he 
 succeeded in reaching Virginia and subsequently the 
 records succeeded in following him. 
 
 He did not take these records with him, as was 
 supposed, but left them in the care of Rev. J. W. 
 Perry. For safe keeping, Mr. Perry took them to 
 the Eutaw Street parsonage and made Rev. A. W. 
 Wilson, the pastor, their custodian. 
 
 Shortly afterward, the Federal authorities (Bal- 
 timore was at that time under military rule), at the 
 behest of the Church, North, tried to get them, and 
 searched the parsonage in vain. Rev. A. W. Wilson 
 had seen the drift and had them removed and hidden 
 in a cotton warehouse, with the consent of one of its 
 owners, Dr. Thomas E. Bond. At the proper time 
 they were boxed and shipped to Dr. Martin via 
 Fortress Monroe, who received them safe and sound 
 at his home in Lexington, Virginia. The Bishop 
 laughingly told the author not long ago how he had 
 outwitted the Federal officers by sending these 
 records to the warehouse in a cart, having carefully 
 covered them with tarpaulin. 
 
 At the General Conference of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church in 1864, the Committee on Annual 
 Conference Journals reported that the journals of all 
 the Conferences were before them, except those of 
 the Baltimore Conference, which, it stated, "were 
 stolen by one J. S. Martin. " But at the Centennial 
 Conference, which met in Baltimore in 1884, in 
 which both Churches participated, this same J. S. 
 Martin was unanimously elected secretary. It does 
 not seem that the alleged crime of 1862 was re- 
 
 45 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 membered against Dr. Martin by the brethren of the 
 other side. Dr. Martin was a prominent member of 
 our Conference and its efficient secretary to the time 
 of his death; his commanding personaUty, his deep 
 rotund voice, and his rare quaUties of heart and 
 mind made him a preacher who never failed to com- 
 mand the interest and admiration of men, and to win 
 them to the kingdom of Christ. 
 
 Of course, the action of Rev. A. W. Wilson in 
 declining to affiliate with the new Conference and 
 firmly adhering to the old one cost him his pastorate 
 of the Eutaw Street Church. With Revs. Ezra F. 
 Busey, Thomas E. Carson, William J. Perry, and 
 John A. Williams, kindred spirits, who also were 
 caught in Mar^dand when the miHtary Hnes were 
 drawn, he remained in Baltimore during the war. 
 A. W. Wilson and his associates naturally formed the 
 leadership of the little band of Methodists who con- 
 tinued loyal to the old Conference which was com- 
 pelled to hold its war sessions in Virginia. His in- 
 vincibiUty in argument, his genius for organization, 
 his fearlessness in the cause of truth, and his martyr- 
 like spirit for the right, made him conspicuous in the 
 public eye as a young man of unusual parts. These 
 five preachers held the third Conference with Rev. 
 Ezra F. Busey, much the senior of the others, acting 
 as president — a Conference notable for its uniqueness 
 of character. The business session took the form of 
 several questions with answers which were fraught 
 with far-reaching consequences to our work in 
 Maryland. 
 
 The interest that attaches itself to them after a 
 half century may justify their publication here. 
 
 46 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 "Question 1st. Shall we attend as members of the 
 Baltimore Conference of the M. E. Church, now in ses- 
 sion in the Light Street Church ? 
 
 "Answer. We cannot, if we still hold to our Annual 
 Conference action and still believe the Buffalo General 
 Conference did wrong to this section of the church by its 
 'New Chapter' enactment. 
 
 "Question 2nd. What shall be our attitude toward 
 our brethren in Virginia, who, because of the war, are 
 unable to meet in Baltimore at this time as agreed upon 
 last year? 
 
 "Answer. We shall hold firmly to our connection 
 with them, and act for the church in harmony with them, 
 as far as possible, till we may again come together in one 
 body. 
 
 "Question 3rd. What is our present position on the 
 question of separation from the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church? 
 
 ' ' Answer. We see no reason for changing our opinion 
 or regretting the action of our Conference last year. 
 
 "Question 4th. What shall be our relation to each 
 other as preachers ? 
 
 "Answer. We shall continue as heretofore — Brethren 
 in the same Church, Conference and cause, and will faith- 
 fully stand by each other for our mutual help, as need may 
 require and ability serve. We will also co-operate in all 
 ministerial work. " 
 
 Four appointments were established, at each of 
 which four of the preachers preached in turn; the 
 fifth, Rev. William J. Perry, taught a school for his 
 support. The work was rearranged each year to 
 meet changing conditions until 18G6, when these 
 preachers had the opportunity of rejoining their 
 comrades of the old Baltimore Conference. During 
 those trying times in Baltimore, this movement was 
 labeled by its opposers "organized disloyalty," and 
 
 47 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 young Wilson was threatened with all sorts of ills, 
 including hanging. 
 
 A few months before his death, in talking of his 
 experiences of the early sixties, the Bishop related to 
 the writer this incident of a crisis upon which hinged 
 the fate of Southern Methodism in Baltimore. He 
 said that one day he met one of his officials on the 
 street, seemingly agitated and not going in the direc- 
 tion of his place of business; a little later he met 
 another moving in the same direction, and naturally 
 asked him what was the matter. He was informed 
 that these two gentlemen had called a meeting of the 
 official board and had determined to disband the 
 organization, as they could not longer stand the 
 tremendous pressure, the ver^^ safety of their families 
 being hazarded by their course. But the intrepid 
 preacher replied : ' ' You can do what you please, but 
 you have no authority to disband the organization. 
 You and others can resign, but I will fill your places, 
 and the work shall go on. I will preach next Sunday 
 as usual. " This adamantine attitude of their young 
 leader so strengthened the laymen that they gave up 
 all idea of disbanding. 
 
 Nearly every sermon was preached under the 
 espionage of a military spy. Occasionally uniformed 
 officers made their appearance at church. One 
 Sunday night when Rev. A. W. Wilson was preaching 
 at the New Assembly rooms to a large congregation 
 from the text, "God hath not given us the spirit of 
 fear," etc., he noticed several Federal officers enter 
 the hall. Their presence caused suppressed excite- 
 ment, as it was thought the arrest of some members 
 of the congregation was their mission. The minister 
 
 48 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 paid no attention to them, but went on with his 
 service. One of them proved to be Gen. John A. 
 Dix, who when urged the next day to arrest the 
 preacher, said: "Gentlemen, I will not arrest that 
 man. I heard him preach last night, and if his 
 ministerial accusers had preached the gospel as he 
 preached it, we should not have had this war." It 
 might be interesting to know that General Dix was 
 the father of Dr. Morgan Dix, for many years the 
 rector of Trinity Church, New York; and it is reason- 
 able to believe that the father of so prominent a 
 churchman was a competent judge of gospel preach- 
 ing. 
 
 It may not be without interest to give the names 
 of those who formed the quarterly Conference in 
 Baltimore under these trying conditions — a Con- 
 ference, composed of men of marked intelligence and 
 loyalty to great principles, that is worthy of a most 
 honorable place in the history of our Church. The 
 descendants of these men and their wives, as noble 
 as their husbands, can feel justly proud of such an 
 ancestry. Here are the names and the principles to 
 which these men subscribed : 
 
 John M. Buck, Charles J. Baker, John W. Bruff, 
 Dr. Alexander F. DuHn, Samuel G. Miles, J. B. 
 Brinkley, Gersham Broadbent, Charles Towson, 
 Samuel H. Randall, Leonard Passano, William R. 
 Barry, the Diggs Brothers, Charles and Joseph 
 Shipley, T. J. Magruder, Thomas Norris, Daniel 
 Shipley, Elisha Carback, F. A. Lawrence, Wesley 
 Starr, Carvill H. Carson, Samuel Burnette, John W. 
 Massey, William J. King, Milton D. Mettee, and 
 John C. Smith. With these laymen were associated 
 
 49 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 Revs. J. Newman Hank, Joseph H. Spangler and 
 John Poisal, supernumerary preachers, and Rev. 
 Thomas E. Bond, M. D., a local preacher. 
 
 This was the platform upon which they stood: 
 
 "Resolved, We cannot conscientiously submit to the 
 jurisdiction of the Buffalo General Conference, nor become 
 members of the Church under the new Discipline of 1860. 
 
 "We furthermore avow our continued adherence to 
 the Discipline of 1856. We acknowledge no other. In 
 this position as a Church we intend to stand, being in- 
 fluenced by no political consideration whatever, and we 
 and other churches and congregations associated with us, 
 assure our people and all who may unite with us, that 
 there shall be neither political nor social distinctions in our 
 midst; nor will any interference with matters of state be 
 allowed either among the ministry or laity. 
 
 "As members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
 independent of the General Conference of 1860, we shall 
 know no change of doctrine, principles, or usages of 
 Methodism. All we ask of the ministry is to confine 
 themselves exclusively to the one work of 'spreading 
 Scriptural holiness over these lands, ' and preach ' Christ 
 and Him Crucified. ' " 
 
 February the eighth, 1866, was a happy day in 
 Alexandria, Virginia, when after the war clouds had 
 disappeared, and peace had returned, the old Balti- 
 more Conference united with Southern Methodism, 
 and these preachers rejoined their comrades of other 
 years and brought this body of faithful laymen under 
 the authority and administration of the Church of 
 which their Conference had become a part. 
 
 Dr. John J. Lafferty, that past-master in the art 
 of reminiscence, was present at the gathering. He 
 has left on record a graphic description of that 
 historic Conference. 
 
 50 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 "The Virginia section of their Conference had been 
 desolated. The Shenandoah Valley was scorched by 
 cinders of bams, mills and homes. Hardly a hoof was 
 left to make a print on its paths. Casting their lot in with 
 the Southern Methodists would provoke personal ostra- 
 cism, political persecution. If they had elected to follow 
 their late comrades into the Northern Church, their way 
 would have been carpeted with flowers. Missionary 
 money would supply salaries, homes and Churches. 
 
 "In the Church at Alexandria came to pass during the 
 sittings of this body an event illustrating the highest 
 grandeur of the soul. A member of the Conference was 
 the moderator. The roll was called; name by name 
 answering affirmatively for association with the Southern 
 Church. The hour and act were surcharged with resolute 
 purpose. Cromwell's Ironsides never bore faces more 
 fixed with stern decree of the heart. No tear swelled 
 under the lid, for every eye glittered like a sphere of fire. 
 
 "When the list of ministers had been recited and the 
 vote recorded, it remained only to receive a bishop of the 
 church of which then the Baltimore Conference was a 
 part. The door presently stood ajar. Amid profound 
 silence and suppressed emotion, the noble presence of 
 Samuel Regester, with a certain majestic mien, appeared. 
 Behind him walked John Early, bishop of the Southern 
 Methodist Church. Closely after came the superb Roszel. 
 There was utter absence of ceremony. The dignity of the 
 transaction fell in fitly with this quiet gravity. The . 
 bishop took up the routine of the session as if the issue 
 could not have been otherwise. And it could not. They 
 enlisted with men kindred to them in character and lofty 
 impulse. 
 
 "These Christian chieftains charged the air and 
 audience with their own resolute valor. It will be a 
 distinct loss, if the achievements wrought by this band, 
 with these centurions, are not preserv'ed on the unperishing 
 parchment of pages that pass through the printing press. " 
 
 There is pathos in the pastoral address issued by 
 the Conference of 1866 to its constituents, and 
 
 51 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 martyr-like devotion to duty in every line. These 
 heroic preachers were turning their faces to a country 
 of smoking ruins and desolate hearthstones. Its 
 most valued possessions had been swept away. 
 Nearly every home was a place of mourning. But 
 God's people were there to be guided and comforted. 
 A paragraph from this address is quoted to bring 
 back the atmosphere of those days. 
 
 "Perhaps, " it says, "when you receive us you must go 
 away from the houses of God you have built, from the 
 graveyards you have enclosed around your fondly re- 
 membered dead. You must give us as you can of the 
 little oil and the few cakes you have. Temporarily you 
 will be poorer for your love to us. In all worldly respects 
 you will find us anything but profitable. But we know 
 you, and God knows both you and us. We solemnly and 
 fearlessly appeal our cause to Him. With regard to 
 temporal things. He shall think for us. We, by His help, 
 will think only of things that minister to salvation." 
 
 This record would be lacking in completeness 
 without some statement of A. W. Wilson's relation 
 and contribution to Baltimore Southern Methodism 
 since the time he took such a prominent part in its 
 estabhshment. He was peculiarly identified with it, 
 for from its beginning to the time of his death, with 
 the exception of a few years his residence was main- 
 tained in Baltimore and his family were active 
 members of Trinity Church. He regarded our 
 Church in Baltimore as a father regards a loved 
 child, and was always particularly interested in the 
 appointments to the Baltimore Churches. 
 
 It may not be without interest to speak of the 
 growth of Baltimore Southern Methodism so long 
 under the eye of Bishop Wilson. 
 
 52 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 As is well known, Baltimore is the home of some 
 of the most notable historic shrines of American 
 Methodism. Methodism took a deep root in the 
 monumental cit^^ and entered so vitally into its 
 growth and development that Baltimore has become 
 a Methodist stronghold and Methodism a tremendous 
 factor in shaping the city's Hfe. MilHons of dollars 
 are invested in Methodist churches, parsonages and 
 schools. More than forty thousand Methodist 
 communicants claim Baltimore as their home. They 
 are distributed among the Methodist Episcopal, the 
 Methodist Episcopal, South, the Methodist Pro- 
 testant, the Independent Methodist, the African 
 Methodist and the Colored Ivlethodist Churches. 
 Of the 449 Churches, Jewish, CathoHc and Protes- 
 tant, 175, or more than one-third, are Methodist. 
 The city directory lists them as follows: Methodist 
 Episcopal 92; Methodist Protestant 27; Methodist 
 Episcopal, South, 12; Independent Methodist 5; 
 African Methodist 16; Colored Methodist 23. 
 
 Southern Methodism, through all the years with 
 no fanfare or pyrotechnic displays, has quietly done 
 its distinctive work in Baltimore. It has been 
 making a progress which, though necessarily slow, 
 has been sure and steady, as figures will show. The 
 Minutes of 1866 report that when the Baltimore 
 Conference united with the Church, South, there 
 were but 589 members in the part of Maryland 
 covered by the Conference, and 100 of them in 
 Baltimore divided equally between Winan's Chapel 
 and Central Church. Our Church had many friends 
 who were members of the Independent Methodist 
 Churches which, though in sympathy with our cause, 
 
 53 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 hesitated to become identified with an ecclesiastical 
 organization that had so greatly suffered from the 
 ravages of war. The major part of these sympathetic 
 friends finally came to us. 
 
 The question may be asked, where at that time 
 was Trinity Church which has been known through- 
 out the connection as the Bishop's Church. The 
 answer is that, though the present Church edifice 
 was erected during the Conference year of 1864-1865, 
 yet for prudential reasons it was not incorporated 
 under the name of any organization until 1868, but 
 was held by some of its members as their private 
 property. In that year, however, articles of incor- 
 poration were obtained, designating this religious 
 enterprise as Trinity Methodist Church. It was not 
 until 1884 that the name of the Church became 
 Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Strong 
 but futile efforts had been made to make Trinity in- 
 dependent. A modified independency existed for a 
 while because of prevailing conditions, but the con- 
 gregation was always strongly Southern Methodist 
 in its spirit and sympathies. 
 
 In 1876, a decade afterward, our membership in 
 Baltimore had grown from 100 to 1,725 and our 
 charges from two to eight. Our churches paid for 
 ministerial support $11,144. 
 
 In 1886, at the close of the second decade, we re- 
 ported nine charges, 2,034 members and $8,602 paid 
 on ministerial support. 
 
 In 1896, after another period of ten years, the 
 number of charges remained the same, but the mem- 
 bership had grown to 2,555 and the amount paid on 
 ministerial support was $14,359. 
 
 M 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 In 1906 the charges numbered ten, the member- 
 ship 2,418, with $11,563 paid on ministerial support. 
 
 Last year (1916) at the close of the half century 
 we reported twelve churches with a membership of 
 2,965 and $15,122 paid on ministerial support. 
 
 Our Churches reported at the Conference of 1917 
 which recently closed, 3,312 members and $15,416 
 paid on ministerial support and a proportionate in- 
 crease along all lines. 
 
 It was within the last decade that St. John's In- 
 dependent Methodist Church on Madison Avenue 
 came to us with a small but choice membership, and 
 about $40,000 worth of property. The action of 
 this church was the culmination of what might be 
 called a religious romance. Our Emmanuel congre- 
 gation had had its church edifice condemned by the 
 city authorities because of damage caused by a storm. 
 It was invited by St. John's to be its guest with the 
 understanding that the two pastors alternate in 
 conducting the services. The congregations became 
 closely attached and decided to unite, the union 
 being known as St. John's-Emmanuel Methodist 
 Episcopal Church, South. 
 
 Has Southern Methodism justified its existence 
 by its fruits, or has it been kept alive by missionary 
 subsidies on account of denominational pride? Cold 
 statistics will tell. During the half century the 
 number of its charges has increased 600 per cent and 
 its membership nearly 3,000 per cent. No percent- 
 age of increase on missions or ministerial support can 
 be obtained, as neither item is reported in the Minutes 
 of 1866. It is worthy of note in passing to state that 
 the entire Conference reported but $454.12 for mis- 
 
 55 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 sions in 1867, but the sad confession was made by 
 the treasurer that $3.00 of it was counterfeit. Last 
 year the Baltimore Churches contributed $2,649 for 
 missions, and $3,573 to other benevolences, a total 
 of $6,221 for Conference collections, and received 
 $1,600 from the Conference Mission Board to help 
 maintain the weaker charges. Therefore, the Balti- 
 more Churches not only paid their own way last year 
 but contributed between $4,000 and $5,000 in ad- 
 dition for Conference purposes. The other years will 
 give similar results. 
 
 From the standpoint of financial considerations 
 alone. Southern Methodism in Baltimore is a profita- 
 ble asset of the Church, South. But its material 
 contribution to the general Church is much greater 
 than appears from its ordinary current collections as 
 shown by the foregoing. 
 
 It has given to the General Board of Missions the 
 largest gift ever received in its history — the Shiplev 
 legacy of about $180,000. The Board of Church 
 Extension and other Boards have profited no little 
 from contributions from this city. 
 
 It has given to the Church one of its greatest 
 missionary agencies. The first Woman's Missionary 
 Society in Southern Methodism was organized in 
 Trinity Church, Baltimore, in the sixties under the 
 name of the Woman's Bible Mission Society. Our 
 other churches in the city followed the example, and 
 subsequently there was formed a federation of 
 Woman's Missionary Societies. This federation was 
 the parent of the Woman's Board of Foreign Mis- 
 ions organized by the General Conference in 1878. 
 
 56 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 It has given to our cause preachers who have 
 occupied and are occupying positions of large re- 
 sponsibiHty throughout the Church. 
 
 Our latest enterprise is the Alpheus W. Wilson 
 Memorial, located on University Parkway and 
 Charles Street, opposite Home wood Park, the new 
 home of the Johns Hopkins University, in the most 
 beautiful section of the city. Its congregation is 
 preparing to build the first unit of a church which 
 when completed will cost at least $100,000. This 
 church will fittingly perpetuate the name of our great 
 Bishop and suitably care for, not only our own 
 people in that part of Baltimore, but also for Sou- 
 thern Methodist students who come to this world- 
 renowned University for literary and scientific train- 
 ing. The leaders of this church are among our 
 choicest men and women and are intelligently direct- 
 ing their energies, under the leadership of their 
 pastor, to the consummation of this enterprise. 
 This church will not only be monumental in character 
 but of large utilitarian value, for it will greatly 
 strengthen and conserve our Church in this historic 
 city of Methodism. 
 
 Southern Methodists of Baltimore are necessarily 
 of a heroic type or they would not be Southern 
 Methodists. The pastors are picked men chosen to 
 lead the people. With charity for all and malice 
 toward none, our Methodism in Baltimiore is main- 
 taining the faith of its fathers and preaching the 
 pure Gospel of Jesus Christ which it believes is the 
 sovereign remedy for all the ills of suffering, sorrow- 
 ing men. 
 
 57 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 In 1916, fifty years after the Conference had 
 united with Southern Methodism, the body met in 
 Alexandria, in the same church where this historic 
 event took place, and observed the Golden Anniver- 
 sary of the occasion. Bishop Wilson was to have 
 made the principal address, but he was ill at his home 
 in Baltimore. He sent this message by the writer 
 to Conference, having dictated it when he was suf- 
 fering so much pain that he could scarcely speak. 
 It proved to be the last he ever sent to the body and 
 was his parting benediction. 
 
 The Message. 
 
 "In much pain I dictate this message. I regret that 
 I cannot be with you and share the pleasure and profit of 
 your happy occasion. I congratulate you upon a half- 
 century's successful work. The past should stimulate 
 you to larger endeavors for the future. May the blessing 
 of the Great Head of the Church continue to rest upon 
 you. 
 
 Affectionately your brother, 
 
 A. W. Wilson." 
 
 This chapter cannot be more appropriately 
 closed than with a paper which can be aptly entitled 
 "The Beginning of Southern Methodism in Balti- 
 more," written by Bishop Wilson in the fall of 1865, 
 when the events were fresh in his memory, and found 
 among his effects after his death. The paper is 
 pubHshed as it was written, except the full name 
 when known is printed in parentheses following the 
 initials used in the paper. It clearly shows that the 
 attitude of the writer to the institution of an in- 
 dependent Methodism at that time was not of the 
 most friendly character. 
 
 58 
 
1. Hon. Thomas Wilson, Grandf.athpr of Bishop Wilson 
 
 2. Rev. Norv.\l Wilso.v, Father of Bisliop Wilson 
 
 3. S.VHAH Louise Wilso.v, SisU-r of Bishop Wilson 
 
 4. Cornelia Howland, Wife of Captain Daniel Howland, 
 
 Grandmother of Bishop Wilson 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 "On Wednesday evening, March 19, pursuant to 
 adjournment, the meeting was held at Northwestern Hall 
 on Biddle St. and Rev. A. W. W. (Rev. A. W. Wilson) 
 having been invited to attend stated the purpose had in 
 view in the organization of what was shortly known as 
 Central M. E. Church, distinctly disavowing any pur- 
 pose of assuming an independent position and declaring 
 the connection of that body with the Baltimore Conference. 
 The action was traced back to and connected with the 
 session of the Baltimore Annual Conference at Staunton 
 in 1861 and declared to be the result of the legislation of 
 the General Conference of 1860. It will be seen from the 
 records of this meeting that discussion was had upon the 
 "proper basis for the formation of a congregation," the 
 most of the views expressed in which differed essentially 
 from those expressed at the former meeting and embodied 
 in the resolution then passed, and that with a view to the 
 better understanding of the action of the meeting at New 
 Assembly Rooms Rev. A. W. Wilson was requested to 
 explain it. It also appears from the verbal report of com- 
 mittee appointed to wait on Rev. J. H. D. that he would 
 consent to become Pastor only on condition that a separate 
 and distinct independent congregation was formed. As 
 the idea of independence was not maintained and he was 
 not called to be Pastor, the fair inference, nay, the ir- 
 resistible conclusion is that the meeting looked to the 
 maintenance of the connectional relation. Accordingly 
 a committee was appointed for the purpose brought in a 
 report at a meeting held March 26th in the following 
 words : 
 
 "'The undersigned committee appointed by the con- 
 gregation which met at the Northwestern Hall, Biddle St., 
 on the 19th inst. to suggest a basis of subsequent operations 
 respectfully recommend an organization in affiliation with 
 the Central Church New Assembly Rooms which report 
 was adopted and the congregation continued in said con- 
 nection for about two \^ears. 
 
 " 'In the early part of 1864, the churches thus organized 
 having been repeatedly subjected to the t^'rannous in- 
 
 60 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 terference of the military authorities of this city, serious 
 apprehension began to be entertained that their avowed 
 connection with an ecclesiastical denomination in the 
 South would be seized upon as a pretext by the military 
 rulers for breaking them up, and resolutions were offered 
 in the Official Meeting of the Church looking to a tempo- 
 rary dissolution of that connection. 
 
 '"Owing to an unfortunate misunderstanding the first 
 series of resolutions v/ith this object in view was ruled out 
 of order; but at an adjourned meeting of the Quarterly 
 Conference a few nights subsequent, similar resolutions 
 were offered and adopted with but one dissenting voice. 
 It was then distinctly avowed and understood that this 
 separation was but temporary and occasioned by the 
 pressure to which they were subjected under military 
 rule. It may be stated here in corroboration of the fore- 
 going that the movers of the first and second series of 
 resolutions, J. M. B. and J. P. L. (There is some uncer- 
 tainty about the latter initials, as they are almost illeg- 
 ible. Author), were both thorough advocates of a re- 
 sumption of the connectional status at the earliest practi- 
 cable period, never conceived the idea of permanent in- 
 dependence and are both now in connection with the M. 
 E. C. S. (Methodist Episcopal Church, South.) 
 
 '"The erection of this congregation into a separate 
 charge as shown in the report of the meeting held March 
 23, 1864, was not intended to alter, nor did it alter the 
 purpose hitherto expressed and still and until a much 
 later date held by the majority of those now seeking to 
 maintain a permanently independent organization. It 
 will be seen from that report that the male members at 
 Biddle St. made a request to be set off, whichwas granted 
 by Quarterly Conference of Central and official body was 
 requested to organize the church which was done. This 
 organization was effected under the provisions of the 
 Discipline of the M. E. Church of 1856, which having been 
 recognized as the law under which the Baltimore Con- 
 ference should act during its isolation, had been adopted 
 by the male members in so far as it suited their circum- 
 stances.'" 
 
 61 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Law and the Gospel. 
 
 In 1866, Rev. A. W. Wilson took a superannuate 
 relation and chose Baltimore as his home. In 1867, 
 1868 and 1869 he was listed as a supernumerary. 
 During these four years of cessation from the labors 
 of the itinerant ministry, in order to pay his debts 
 incurred during the war, he studied law, was ad- 
 mitted to the Baltimore bar, and practiced with his 
 brother-in-law John D. Lipscomb, the style of the 
 firm being Wilson and Lipscomb. 
 
 He was not long in winning recognition at the 
 bar, and establishing for himself a wide reputation as 
 a lawyer of no mean ability. Had he remained in 
 the legal profession he would have probably been a 
 commanding occupant of the bench, for his keen 
 analytical mind, his habit of thoroughness, his dis- 
 cipline and training admirably fitted him for the 
 judgeship. 
 
 But in 1870, when he had in hand the receipts for 
 his last debts, he yielded to the counsel of his friends 
 and the voice of his conscience, and once more en- 
 tered the active ranks. It is noteworthy that just 
 before starting for Conference to take an appoint- 
 ment he declined a retainer in a single case larger in 
 amount than the highest salary paid in the Con- 
 ference. His time spent in the study and practice of 
 law was not lost to the Church. Some one has said 
 that a peculiar providence influenced his retirement 
 for a time from the active ministry, for, being endowed 
 
 62 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 with a legal mind, this early experience enabled him 
 to render great service to the Church in after years. 
 
 At this Conference the Bishop appointed him 
 presiding elder of the Washington District to which 
 he was reappointed in 1871 and 1872. 
 
 In 1873 he became pastor of Mt. Vernon Place 
 Church, Washington, and continued in this pastorate 
 for four years, rendering invaluable service to that 
 congregation in the national capital in those days 
 following reconstruction. 
 
 The perilous financial condition of our Washing- 
 ton church demanded the strongest leadership 
 obtainable. Indeed, this condition called for a 
 special communication from the bishops to the 
 General Conference of 1874. The message was pre- 
 sented and read by Bishop Marvin in behalf of his 
 colleagues, and was received and unanimously 
 endorsed by the Conference. 
 
 The paper exhorted the whole Church to come to 
 the reUef of the Washington enterprise. It is of 
 historic interest and is well worth reprinting, par- 
 ticularly at this time, when the faith and heroic 
 struggles of our fathers have been rewarded by a dream 
 in marble with architectural proportions in which are 
 exquisitely blended grace, symmetry, beauty and 
 strength — a substantial expression of the interest of 
 Southern Methodism in its work at the national 
 capital. 
 
 "Communication in Reference to the Church 
 IN Washington, D. C. 
 
 "To the members of the General Conference: 
 
 "Dear Brethren: — Our attention has been called to the 
 financial condition of our Church in Washington City, and 
 
 63 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 from a consideration of the facts in the case, we deem the 
 matter of sufficient importance to demand your attention 
 at this time. 
 
 "Our brethren there undertook, soon after the war, 
 when tncy were few in number, to build a house which 
 should meet, not their own needs only, but also the wants 
 of our people who might have occasion to visit the national 
 capital. For this purpose they made an outlay far beyond 
 their own ability to meet, and up to this time have been 
 carrying a burden of debt too grievous to be borne. While 
 the house represents us respectably, yet, considered as a 
 representative building at the great central point of the 
 whole countn^ it is far from being extravagant. 
 
 "In carrying this great burden of debt our brethren 
 have been compelled to look abroad for aid; but up to this 
 time the response has been sufificient only to meet ac- 
 cruing interest, and reduce the debt by a very small 
 amount. 
 
 "This debt is a distressing incubus upon the local 
 Church, which bears the weight of it, making development 
 and progress almost impossible. Indeed, it is a matter of 
 very painful solicitude with those immediately concerned. 
 
 "Let it be remembered that this debt was created in the 
 interest of the Church at large, and that it meets a demand 
 which all feel to be imperative. It supplies our own 
 people visiting Washington City with the ministry of the 
 Church of their choice. Let it be remembered, also, that 
 our brethren there contributed freely at the first, and have 
 now patiently, for some years, borne up under this most 
 trying embarrassment." 
 
 In response to the author's request for informa- 
 tion concerning Dr. Wilson's Washington pastorate, 
 Mr. James T. Petty, one of the old and prominent 
 members of Mt. Vernon Place Church, has wTitten a 
 delightful letter in which he speaks of his association 
 with Dr. Wilson when pastor of the Church. The 
 letter is given a place in this chapter. 
 
 64 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 "Responding as best I may to your recent request, I 
 beg to say that my recollection of the late beloved and 
 lamented Bishop Alpheus W. Wilson reaches back to a 
 day in August, 1848, and to a camp meeting at Stafford 
 Court House, Virginia, which both of us attended, and at 
 which both of us were converted. Rev. Norval Wilson, 
 father of the Bishop, who was then stationed at Fredericks- 
 burg, was in charge of the camp. 
 
 "It was an old-fashioned Methodist meeting, of the 
 type then in vogue, but rare if not unknown in this day 
 and generation, with a crowded mourners' bench sur- 
 rounded by a jubilant band of earnest, consecrated men 
 and women, who made the air vocal with their songs of 
 praise, and whose prayers were so filled with the love of 
 God that 
 
 "'Heaven came down their souls to greet, 
 While glory crowned the mercy-seat. ' 
 
 "Amid such congenial surroundings it followed natural- 
 ly that two youths — he was several years my senior — 
 trained, as we had been, in Christian homes, where the 
 family altar held without challenge the highest place of 
 honor, and where the very atmosphere seemed instinct 
 with the spirit of worship, would gladly accept an invi- 
 tation to service in the army of the Lord. And so it came 
 to pass that when the call for recruits rang out upon the 
 summer evening air, in that sylvan temple, we joined the 
 eager throng that rallied under the standard of the cross 
 and gave ourselves up unreservedly to the Captain of our 
 Salvation for time and for eternity. 
 
 "Young Wilson, as a penitent, had been kneeling with 
 a companion, about his own age, son of a prominent 
 Methodist of the neighborhood, and as they rose, which 
 they did together, they embraced while their countenances 
 were radiant with the happiness of souls just bom into 
 the kingdom. It was a striking picture, and through all 
 the years which have fallen between that starlit scene and 
 the present moment, I have treasured the recollection of 
 it as one of life's most precious memories. 
 
 65 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 "At the great separation of 1844, the Wilson family, 
 and my own as well, remained in the communion of the 
 M. E. Church; but in 1866, we cast in our lot with the 
 M. E. Church, South. In 1867, I was enrolled as a mem- 
 ber of Mt. Vernon Place Methodist Episcopal Church, 
 South; and later on, to my great delight, the future bishop 
 became our local pastor, his pastorate covering the 
 quadrennium 1873-1877. 
 
 "During this period — in 1876 — I was called to the 
 superintendency of the Sunday School, on the voluntary 
 retirement of the late Henry F. Zimmerman, a veteran 
 superintendent, and one of the best and sainthest men it 
 was ever my good fortune to know. 
 
 "As I recall Brother Wilson's ministry, its great over- 
 shadowing characteristic was the apostolic purity and 
 simplicity of his preaching. The burden of his message 
 was that Pauline declaration — 'For other foundation can 
 no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.' 
 There was never a hint of worldy sensationalism, nor any 
 straining after effect in manner or method with him, but 
 always and under all circumstances, a clear, forceful, con- 
 scientious presentation of 'the truth as it is in Jesus.' 
 
 "Talking, not long since, with a leading layman of our 
 sister Methodism, I spoke of the Bishop as the most 
 profound thinker and masterful logician and reasoner of 
 whom I had any knowledge, concluding with the remark: 
 'I consider him the greatest preacher in all our connec- 
 tion.' His instant rejoiner was: 'Yes, or in any other 
 connection, and I never miss an opportunity to hear him. ' 
 
 "He always manifested the liveliest interest in the work 
 of the Sunday School, and, as superintendent, I foimd a 
 constant inspiration in his counsel and support. He 
 thoroughly believed in early conversions, and I can never 
 forget the joy which seemed to sweep through his great 
 soul one Sunday afternoon, as the Holy Spirit moved upon 
 the hearts of a number of the younger children. It was a 
 gathering then known as 'The Young People's Meeting,' 
 that preceded among us, the organization of the ' Society of 
 Christian Endeavor,' which later, in turn, was succeeded 
 
 66 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 by ' The Epworth League. ' The room was thronged, and 
 the interest so great that a dozen or more of little peni- 
 tents knelt for prayer, some of whom were converted, and 
 laid then and there the foundation for lives of Christian 
 usefulness. 
 
 "One thing that he stressed with all the earnestness of 
 his nature was the necessity for zeal and diligence in 
 laboring for the cause of missions, and he made it clear 
 that in his opinion a church or Sunday School that was 
 lukewarm, or inactive in this field of Christian effort, was 
 sadly lacking in love and loyalty for the Master. 
 
 "Under the stimulus of his direction the school made 
 the largest annual missionary contribution in its history, 
 one class alone raising $500. The School also pledged 
 itself to the support of a native Chinese student who be- 
 came a preacher of the gospel to his own people, taking 
 the name 'Vernon Wilson' in honor of both Church and 
 pastor. 
 
 "During brother Wilson's pastorate Mount Vernon 
 Place Church, as the present organization of Southern 
 Methodism in Washington, began to extend its borders and 
 enlarge the scope of its activities — a movement, which, in 
 its ultimate result, some years later, brought into our 
 family circle five thriving and progressive Southern 
 Methodist congregations. 
 
 "As a further evidence of this growth Mount Vernon 
 Place Congregation on Monday, October 8, 1917, under 
 the direction of Bishop Warren A. Candler, laid the- 
 corner-stone of a structure which in its magnificent archi- 
 tectural appointments will be an ornament to the Nation's 
 Capital and worthy to stand as a Representative Church 
 of the great denomination in whose service Bishop Wilson 
 labored so faithfully throughout his long and useful life. 
 
 "I am conscious, my dear Doctor Harris, that this is 
 but a feeble and imperfect response to your request, but 
 40 years have passed since the pastorate ended, of which 
 I have written, and the limitations of memory forbid 
 details which I would gladly supply were it possible. " 
 
 67 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 In 1877, Dr. Wilson was appointed pastor of 
 Calvary Church, Baltimore, and in 1878 was re- 
 turned to that pastorate, but at the General Con- 
 ference in May of that year he was elected Secretary 
 of the Board of Missions of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, South. 
 
 68 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Called to be Secretary of the Board 
 
 OF Missions. 
 
 The General Conference that met in Atlanta in 
 1878 was a memorable one in the life of A. W. Wilson, 
 for it elected him to an office which became the outlet 
 for his special gifts and energies and which was the 
 beginning of his phenomenal career in the Church. 
 The Baltimore Conference delegation to this body 
 was composed of Samuel Regester, A. W. Wilson, J. 
 S. Martin, Samuel Rodgers, David Thomas, R. R. 
 S. Hough, P. H. Whisner, and S. S. Roszell, as 
 clerical delegates; and Moses Walton, Patrick Hamill, 
 J. H. H. Figgatt, George Law, T. J. Magruder, E. B. 
 Prettyman, James W. Newton, J. Armistead Carter, 
 as lay delegates. 
 
 Though occupying a place among the leaders of 
 his own Conference no circumstances had ever oc- 
 curred in the life of t)r. Wilson to bring him promi- 
 nently before the connection. It is true that he had , 
 been a member of the General Conferences of 1870 
 and 1874. In the latter with Samuel Regester he 
 had represented the Baltimore Conference in rela- 
 tion to the grounds of appeal of the L. D. Huston 
 case, and was chairman of the committee on fraternal 
 relations from the Methodist Episcopal Church when 
 that body sent its first representatives with greetings 
 to our Church, but these occasions gave the General 
 Conference but little opportunity to judge of his 
 actual and potential ability. 
 
 69 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 Previous to this time, as has been intimated, his 
 superior intellect had brought him to the front rank 
 among the brethren of his own Conference, and had 
 attracted the attention of others. Bishop Hoss in 
 his characteristic manner speaks of his first meeting 
 with him and the impressions he received : 
 
 "I have known the Bishop since 1868, having met him 
 for the first time at the Baltimore Conference of that year. 
 He stood among an array of noble men, the equal in every 
 respect of the best of them. Samuel S. Roszell, Samuel 
 Regester, Thomas E. Bond, E. F. Busey, and many others 
 whom I should like to mention, were there in their prime. 
 It was beautiful to see the affectionate admiration with 
 which they regarded *Alph Wilson,' as they familiarly 
 called him. Twice or thrice during the session he appeared 
 on the floor. I cannot forget the ease, the dignity, the 
 definiteness, and the force with which he spoke. It 
 seemed to me that I had not before heard any man who 
 was quite his equal in public utterance. This first im- 
 pression that I got of him grew into a fixed conviction as the 
 years went by, I was not long in discovering, moreover, 
 that many other persons shared my judgment concerning 
 him. Talking to me once about the late Thomas Guard 
 he said of him without reserve : ' He is the most affluent 
 man in thought and speech that I ever heard.' Some time 
 later I mentioned this utterance to Dr. Samuel Roszell. 
 In a moment that kingly man rose up and said : ' It is not 
 true. Alph. Wilson is himself a more affluent man than 
 Thomas Guard ever dreamed of being. ' " 
 
 The afternoon session of May 23 of the General 
 Conference of 1878, was extended for the body to 
 elect a Missionary Secretary and the members of the 
 Board of Missions. 
 
 The territory generally served by the Church had 
 been swept and devastated by war and almost de- 
 stroyed by the outrages of the period of recon- 
 
 70 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 struction. The General Conference knew that it 
 would take a master spirit to awaken the Church to a 
 new sense of life and compel it to look out over its 
 own ashes and sorrows to the regions beyond. The 
 voice that would arouse the people from a state of 
 despondency because of their ruined churches and 
 their own poverty to a sense of obHgation to build 
 first the altar of God for a world-wide movement had 
 to speak with the authority and power of a Nehemiah 
 or Haggai. The Conference moved prayerfully and 
 cautiously in the selection of the man for this service. 
 
 On the first ballot for Secretary there were 215 
 votes cast but there was no election. D. C. Kelley 
 and A. W. Wilson, the leaders for the office of large 
 responsibihty, received 52 and 38 votes respectively, 
 but neither was near the goal. On the second ballot, 
 207 votes were cast, of which A. W. Wilson received 
 108 and D. C. Kelley 69, resulting in the election of 
 A. W. Wilson. 
 
 It may be of interest to our readers to see Article 
 7 of the Constitution of the Board of Missions, as it 
 was in those days, defining the duties of the Secretary 
 and also to know the names of those who composed 
 the members of the Board which co-operated with 
 A. W. Wilson in laying the foundations of a work 
 which has grown to proportions unthought of by 
 many of those pious and wise men. 
 
 This is the section from the Constitution as it was 
 amended by that General Conference: 
 
 "Article 7. The Secretary shall be a minister of the 
 gospel, and may be a member of any Annual Conference, 
 but shall reside where the Board is located. He shall be 
 ex officio Treasurer of the Board, and shall, before entering 
 
 71 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 upon his duties as Secretary and Treasurer, give good and 
 sufficient security for all moneys that may come into his 
 hands. He shall be allowed clerical assistance not to ex- 
 ceed five hundred dollars per annum. 
 
 "It shall be his duty to keep a permanent record of the 
 proceedings of the Board, and to publish an abstract of 
 them in the Church papers; to conduct its correspondence 
 to attend to all its legal business; to prepare its annual 
 report; and to publish monthly (either in a missionary 
 paper or in the Church papers, as the Board shall direct) 
 statements of the condition, needs, and prospects of the 
 various missions. 
 
 "He shall receive and receipt for all moneys, counter- 
 sign all drafts, hold the funds of the Board in safe deposit 
 which deposit shall be made by him as Secretary and Treas- 
 urer, subject to the draft of the President of the Board, 
 countersigned by the Secretary and Treasurer; but in no 
 case shall such funds be invested in his or any other busi- 
 ness. He shall furnish an annual report for pubhcation. 
 His salary shall be fixed by the Board, and all his necessary 
 traveling expenses shall be allowed. " 
 
 This is the Board as it was constituted at that 
 time : 
 
 T. O. Summers, President; N. H. Lee, Vice- 
 president; James W. Manier, Treasurer. Managers: 
 J. S. Martin, Baltimore Conference; W. G. E. Cun- 
 nyngham, Holston Conference; L. S. Burkhead, 
 North CaroUna Conference; H. A. C. Walker, South 
 CaroHna Conference; W. H. Potter, North Georgia 
 Conference; R. A. Young, Tennessee Conference; P. 
 A. Peterson, Virginia Conference; D. C. Kelley, 
 Tennessee Conference; A. H. Redford, Louisville 
 Conference; L G. John, Texas Conference; A. R. 
 Winfield, Little Rock Conference; J. W. Lewis, St. 
 Louis Conference; W. F. Johnson (Lexington), Mis- 
 souri Conference; J. C. Simmons, Pacific Conference- 
 
 72 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 O. P. Fitzgerald, Pacific Conference; J. D. Hamilton, 
 Tennessee Conference; C. B. Gallaway, Mississippi 
 Conference. 
 
 The office of Secretary, as was stated in the fore- 
 going, was combined in those days with that of the 
 Treasurer of the Board of Missions, entailing a 
 multiplicity of duties and details. One of the first 
 moves of the new incumbent was to separate the 
 offices that his energies might be concentrated upon a 
 few things rather than dissipated upon many. With 
 his breadth of vision and foresight he selected the 
 great things and placed such tremendous emphasis 
 upon them as to move the Church to its profoundest 
 depths. 
 
 He followed no precedents but blocked out plans 
 and methods that were wholly his own. He traveled 
 throughout the connection and preached and made 
 missionary addresses with tremendous effect. The 
 stricken Church throughout the South felt the im- 
 pelling obligation of its divine commission to preach 
 the gospel to every nation. Its intelligence was 
 satisfied and its faith quickened to a passion of 
 service. 
 
 The missionary anniversaries became the most 
 notable events of the Conference and the very atmos- 
 phere became charged with the spirit of missions. 
 The poor rejoiced to lay their offerings upon the 
 altar. Men of wealth with religious convictions 
 were greatly stirred by the truth being put before them 
 in a fashion entirely unknown to them before. This 
 is a specimen of the pungent utterances of the new 
 Secretary, revealing the naked and unpalatable 
 truth which proved to be "sharper than any two- 
 
 73 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of 
 soul and spirit : " 
 
 "The man of fifty thousand dollars who brings five, 
 twenty, or a hundred dollars to the altar of God and says : 
 * This is all I have to spare, ' lies to God, as Ananias never 
 did. Tens of thousands are living in luxury, spending 
 money for vanity and pride, gluttony and sensuality, and 
 submitting a mere bagatelle to the use of the Holy Ghost. " 
 
 Hardships and sacrifices characterized the jour- 
 neys of this missionary apostle, particularly in the 
 West where the means of transportation were still of a 
 primitive nature. By stage coach and carriage he 
 traveled rough roads, crossed deserts, forded swollen 
 rivers, climbed mountains and suffered all sorts of 
 bodily discomforts for the Gospel's sake. On one 
 occasion he carried $1,200 in gold in his belt by stage 
 and by boat from the state of Washington to San 
 Francisco, because at that time that was the method 
 of conveying money from one place to another. He 
 was never held up nor subjected to accident in that 
 comparatively new part of our country. 
 
 He often had rough accommodations, and dis- 
 comforts to endure ; but was at that period stronger 
 than he had been, and only made a jest of them. 
 Once he was in Texas, with Dr. R. A. Young, and 
 the only accomm.odation for toilet was at the pump 
 in the yard. Dr. Young went down the village 
 street to buy towels, and each pumped for the 
 ablutions of the other. 
 
 He always said there was no difficulty in getting 
 money for missions from the Church. All that was 
 necessary was to tell the people, tell them about con- 
 ditions, tell them how much was needed, and just 
 
 74 
 
BISHOP WILSON'S HOME 
 The gift of Governor and Mrs. E. E. Jackson in 1902 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 how it was to be used; they always would respond. 
 He would never ask people for money individually; 
 he made his statements pubUcly, and left them to 
 apply to their own hearts the fact and the possibility. 
 To illustrate the state of ignorance of the Church at 
 large, at the beginning of his term, he told how he 
 went to one Annual Conference. He was not met; 
 he went to the church, and when the host saw him — 
 recognizing him to be a preacher, he said, "Are you a 
 member of this Conference?" "No," was the an- 
 swer. "What is your name?" This was answered 
 and he confessed himself a member of the Baltimore 
 Conference. In reply to various questions he 
 finally stated that he was Secretary of the General 
 Board of Missions and had come to present his work; 
 and was introduced to the Conference, in the tem- 
 porary absence of the presiding Bishop, as "the Rev. 
 A. W. Wilson, missionary secretary of the Baltimore 
 Conference, seeking aid for missions." 
 
 His deliverances from the pulpit and rostrum were 
 reinforced by the "Advocate of Missions" of which 
 he was the editor. Its strong editorials and news 
 from every mission field in the world made it a force , 
 to be reckoned with by the indifferent and the opposer 
 of missions. That the cause was placed upon the 
 heart and conscience of the Church as never before, 
 and that the Church was awakened to an over- 
 whelming sense of its duty and responsibiUty was the 
 natural consequence of a quadrennium of such re- 
 markable m-ental and spiritual activity. 
 
 In response to the Board of Missions for all of the 
 available information it could furnish for this 
 chapter, in the absence of Dr. W. W. Pinson, the 
 
 75 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 General Secretary, because of illness, whose estima- 
 tion of Bishop Wilson's work is very high, Mr. J. D. 
 Hamilton, the Treasurer, sent two extracts from the 
 reports submitted by Dr. A. W. Wilson for 1879 and 
 1880 which throw light upon the Scriptural basis 
 upon which he built his work. 
 
 Mr. Hamilton wrote : 
 
 "On beginning his administration he made some read- 
 justments in the ofRce force in the interest of better book- 
 keeping and larger attendance to its correspondence. He 
 then secured the services, free of charge, of an honorable 
 and prominent merchant, Mr. J. W. Manier, as Treasurer 
 of the Board. These arrangements left him free to visit 
 the Church at large in the interest of the great cause of 
 missions, and there are traditions throughout the Church 
 that never was the cause so ably and forcibly presented as 
 it was by him during these four years. Many are now 
 living who can testify to the soul stirring speeches made by 
 him, and under this ministry there was a revival of the 
 Church's interest in missions which amounted to a new 
 birth. He so wrought upon the conscience of the people 
 that there was an immediate increase in the interest of 
 missions which began to show itself in the increased con- 
 tributions for the cause. In five years from the beginning 
 of his administration the contributions for foreign missions 
 increased from $65,139 to $160,272 per annum. There 
 was of course an equal enlargement of missionary work in 
 the foreign fields. I suppose no well informed Methodist 
 doubts that the present general interest in the cause of 
 missions throughout our Church had its rise in the almost 
 apostolic labors of this Pauline man during the four years 
 of his incumbency of the office of Missionary Secretary. " 
 
 From the Annual Report 1879. 
 
 "The whole question of missions is so intimately re- 
 lated to the religious life of the Church that it is at the 
 risk of its own extinction that any Church lapses into in- 
 
 76 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 difference or hardens into opposition to the work. Many- 
 men and women in these times have found, according to 
 their expHcit avowal, a great accession of spiritual power, 
 an increase of faith, a widening of Christian sympathy and 
 joy in Christian fellowship, and deeper, truer love to their 
 Lord, and keener delight in communion with Him, con- 
 sequent upon their hearty, active, self-sacrificing in- 
 terest in the mission work. It is not strange that it should 
 be so. Such interest is the expression of true, earnest 
 sympathy with the Lord in His love and His purpose, of 
 simple, sincere faith in His word and His power, and of 
 obedience to His highest, most comprehensive command. 
 His love is to all men. He died for all ; He will draw all men 
 to Him; He will have all to be saved. His purpose is to 
 overcome all opposition and make Himself known in all 
 the earth. He is expecting until His enemies be made His 
 footstool. Every knee shall bow, and every tongue con- 
 fess Him Lord. He has bidden the Church carry out His 
 purpose with simple faith in His presence and power. * Lo, 
 I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. ' 
 The great command, the commission to the Church, is im- 
 perative, and appeals still to the conscience, faith, and love, 
 of every believer. *Go ye into all the world.' Neglect 
 of that is frustration of the Lord's highest purpose. 
 Obedience to it is the guarantee of individual life and ec- 
 clesiastical prosperity. The Church will thrive upon its 
 sacrifices to fulfill that command. Faithful to that, it 
 cannot die, though it want many things. 
 
 "Our responsibility is great. It is high time for us to 
 put off the limitations by which we have restricted our 
 operations, and strive to give the fullest expression to the 
 word and will of our Lord. We have no measure of obli- 
 gation but His will. We are bound to break away from 
 every prejudice or constraint that would hold us to a lower 
 standard. Duty is all in one saying, ' Thus saith the Lord. ' 
 Now we make our appeal to you in view of the urgent and 
 increasing demands of our work. We have been afraid to 
 respond to the calls of our missions, lest we should go in 
 advance of the Church's wilHngness, and have felt con- 
 
 77 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 strained to deny many things that seemed to be necessary 
 in the growth of these fields. Yet our contributions show 
 a poor average for our membership. Will not our preach- 
 ers with deeper solicitude urge this matter upon the con- 
 science of our people, and appeal to them by the love of 
 the Lord Jesus to sustain His cause? Go bej'ond our 
 estimates, and give what is really needed. Not one dollar 
 is wasted. A strict and minute account of all expenditures 
 is open to the entire Church, and we shall rejoice to let you 
 see with what care your contributions are applied to best 
 uses. Let our rich men of their abundance give liberally, 
 and the poor give out of their deep poverty, that the 
 riches of their liberality may aboiuid, and that they may 
 have a full share in the great reward. 
 
 "We beseech you, brethren, by the grace of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, who, though He was rich, for your sakes 
 became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich. 
 
 "A. W. Wilson." 
 
 From the Annual Report 1880. 
 
 "We bring to the Church the report of another year's 
 work in its mission-fields, together with the statement of 
 supplies furnished for the prosecution of that work, and 
 plans projected and provision made for the coming year. 
 The figures furnished by the Treasurer show an increase in 
 collections in almost every Conference, and thus indicate a 
 growing appreciation of the importance of this vital enter- 
 prise. This result cannot be attributed to spasmodic 
 effort and short-lived enthusiasm. Many signs concur to 
 evince that the mind of the Church is becoming clearer, 
 and the conscience is being awakened upon this question. 
 There is a more thorough and earnest discussion of the 
 character and claims of missions in all our Church papers 
 than at any previous period, and a more urgent call for 
 efficient plans and vigorous work. There have been many 
 ready and generous responses to special appeals for help 
 made during the year. There is a more widespread sense 
 of responsibility among our people, and an expression of 
 purpose to rise among the measured demands to the height 
 
 78 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 of God's requirement in this matter. In many instances 
 whole communities of believers have declared their in- 
 tention to pass beyond assigned limits, and by free-will 
 offerings magnify the grace of God. There is a spirit of 
 inquiry abroad which promises enlargement and freedom 
 of movement. These and many other tokens foretell the 
 disfranchisement of the Church from the prejudice, nar- 
 rowness, and confinement of tentative, feeble, half- 
 hearted endeavor, and its entrance upon an era of enter- 
 prise worthy of its divine relations, endowments, and des- 
 tiny. 
 
 "A Church full of faith and Holy Ghost is always 
 aggressive. The word of the Lord sounds out from it 
 into all places. A lifeless, worldly Church moves nothing, 
 impresses nobody. Ntmibers and wealth count for little. 
 If the propagation of its style of piety could be effected by 
 means of these, what would be the gain? As was well 
 said some months back, 'When the current religious life 
 is of so low a grade, can we expect God to permit its wide 
 and swift diffusion? We see Him select the few — the 
 advance-guard of disciples — to bear the banner of the 
 cross into the enemy's country. He permits difficulties 
 and dangers to face them, so that all but devoted, heroic 
 souls, may turn back. And so He is today actually 
 diffusing in missionary fields a type of piety far in advance 
 of that foimd at home, and, in proportion to the number 
 of laborers and the means employed, the results are 
 threefold as great as at home. ' In proportion as we shall 
 abandon 'the course of this world,' and yield to higher 
 motives and impulses, and cultivate truer and sounder 
 Christian principles and affections, the missionary spirit 
 will grow, and the successes of the work multiply. When 
 we shall have something to give worth the taking, the 
 world will be ready to receive it. At the same time, by 
 this law of reaction, as old Andrew Fuller found in his 
 Church, there is no surer way of kindling the dying 
 embers into a flame than by fanning them with this spirit 
 of missions. Make this the theme of thought and study, 
 of prayer and preaching, and bring it to the social and 
 domestic circles of the Church, and you shall have the 
 
 79 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 enthusiasm of the Son of God kindled upon the heart, and 
 higher fonns and a wider extent of devotion to Christ 
 exhibited than has yet been known. 
 
 "We make, then, our urgent appeal to the entire 
 Church. We omit none. To the rich and the poor, to 
 the earnest and self-sacrificing, and the careless and self- 
 indulgent, to the preacher and the people, we bring the 
 Master's command, and charge you by your own imperiled 
 life, and by your deepest Christian joy, by your obliga- 
 tion and indebtedness, and by your hopes for the coming 
 world, see to it that, as far as in you lies, the word of God 
 and the promise of the gospel be given to every creature 
 under heaven. Let not one of Christ's redeemed be able 
 to say, in your presence, 'None cared for mv soul.' 
 
 "A. W. Wilson,' Secretary." 
 
 Dr. J. A. G. Shipley, a missionary to China who 
 went out from the Baltimore Conference, attributes 
 our success in that land largely to the administration 
 of Dr. Wilson as Missionary Secretary and his 
 subsequent supervision of that mission field and the 
 practical help and inspiration he brought to it as 
 Bishop. Dr. Shipley has expanded these ideas in 
 this language : 
 
 "1. His large part in shaping and directing the affairs 
 of the Mission while Missionary Secretary. 
 
 "2. His more direct contact with the work as Bishop 
 in charge of the field. His numerous visits to China — 
 more in number than those of any other Bishop of our 
 Church — his stay on the field of longer duration — he 
 always put the needs of the field to which he was assigned, 
 and the demands there placed upon him ahead of calls in 
 the home-land, and stayed until his work was done or in 
 shape, even though it was at times at the risk of his health 
 and life — his willingness to visit every part of the work, 
 whether occupied by missionaries or under the direction of 
 the Chinese, and his patient endurance of the hard con- 
 ditions of travel and life necessitated by such visits. His 
 
 80 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 knowledge of the work was thorough and full as to all its 
 branches, and his plans for it far-reaching and compre- 
 hensive — especially was this true of the educational branch 
 which he recognized at its full value of formative and 
 directive influence not only in individual, but in national 
 life. 
 
 "His power and reputation as a preacher was high 
 among the Chinese and the foreign populations of China 
 who heard him, as it was at home; and when he addressed 
 EngHsh-understanding congregations in any of the ports 
 he invariably drew a full house, and there as here his 
 sermons revealed the fullness of his understanding of 
 Christ's Gospel. The pastor of the Union Church in 
 Shanghai — a Britisher — remarked to him that Bishop 
 Wilson was the greatest preacher he had ever heard, and 
 he had heard many. " 
 
 Dr. J. C. C. Newton, who has spent his life in the 
 Orient and is now president of the Kwansei Gakuin 
 of Kobe, Japan, the most largely attended Southern 
 Methodist institution of learning in the world, has 
 kindly contributed the following upon the work and 
 influence of Bishop Wilson upon the mission fields 
 of the Church : 
 
 "The first time I ever saw Bishop Wilson was in 1878 
 at the session of the Kentucky Conference in Shelbyville. 
 
 "The second or third night of the Conference, he and . 
 Dr. O. P. Fitzgerald came into the crowded church a 
 Httle late and walked into the chancel. Dr. Fitzgerald 
 walking in front. Having never seen Dr. Wilson I did 
 not know who it was, but was struck with his appearance 
 because he looked exactly Hke a Jew. But I certainly 
 found out who he was before the Conference adjourned. 
 At the anniversary of the Conference Board of Missions, 
 he addressed the large assembly. We soon discovered 
 that a giant was treading amongst us. He put the cause 
 of foreign missions upon higher ground, made the appeal 
 to our conscience and pressed the universal claims of 
 
 81 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 Christ in behalf of all nations — in fact it was plain that 
 he made not a few of us ashamed of our narrow and un- 
 worthy views. I chanced to be sitting where I coiild see 
 some of the elegantl}^ dressed women of the congregation, 
 and it was only too evident that Dr. Wilson had touched 
 their consciences and made them feel embarrassed over the 
 pittance they had been giving for the conversion of the 
 heathen — a pittance given out of their own plenteous and 
 indulgent living. Thus it became apparent that the new 
 Secretary of our Foreign Mission Board was going to lift 
 the whole missionar}^ movement of the Church in the 
 world to higher motives and to a wider vision of Christ's 
 redemptive work for the nations. 
 
 "During that same Conference session, Dr. Wilson 
 preached twice, and what preaching! Some of us had 
 never heard it in this wise before. The first sermon was 
 based upon the parable of the importunate neighbor — the 
 essential conditions of prayer. I had preached upon the 
 same subject using the same text on the Sunday night 
 previous. Well, I did not throw my own sermon away, 
 but there was a depth and a breadth of thought that served 
 me in good stead later. 
 
 "Bishop Pierce, easily the first pulpit orator of the 
 Church, was the president of that Conference, but on ac- 
 count of some throat trouble (from which he afterwards 
 died) was not able to preach at 11 o'clock on Sunday. 
 Dr. Wilson took his place. His subject was ' Christ in you 
 the hope of glory. ' That sermon was one of the greatest, 
 if not the very greatest, that I have heard. The effect 
 upon the preachers was strangely, almost mysteriously 
 impressive. For a good while the preacher moved quietly 
 along getting deeper and deeper into the Person and Nature 
 of Jesus Christ, His message and His work in believers, 
 gripping tighter and tighter the intellect of his hearers, and 
 so when later on he became more impassioned himself as 
 he in his own peculiar way touched our feeling and stirred 
 our hopes, there ensued a strange psychological condition. 
 We were unable to respond with the usual spontaneous 
 emotional expressions of joy and glory. Tears were re- 
 
 82 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 pressed, the muscles of many faces were tightly drawn, 
 hearts were almost bursting with joy, and our minds 
 overwhelmed with the transcendent vision of the glory of 
 Christ for us and to be realized in us. 
 
 "That sennon was the Christ of St. Paul as expounded 
 by Alpheus W. Wilson in his unique and wonderful way. 
 
 "On the mission field, first as Missionary Secretary and 
 then as Bishop in charge, he made a distinct and perman- 
 ent contribution. Not caring so much for details, he 
 brought large conceptions and was interested in com- 
 prehensive plans and measures. He lifted the China 
 mission field up to a higher plane. Perhaps it is too much 
 to say that he recreated it. 
 
 "But concerning the Southern Methodist mission in 
 Japan, it is true that he together with the Lambuths, 
 father and son, was one of the founders. 
 
 "Doctor, now Bishop, Walter R. Lambuth founded 
 what has become the greatest mission college and seminary 
 the Southern Methodist Church has ever planted in any 
 foreign field, the Kwansei Gakuin at Kobe. This was done 
 with the advice and approval of Bishop Wilson. 
 
 "The portraits of these two great leaders of missions 
 hang side by side on the walls of the President's office of 
 the Kwansei Galcuin. 
 
 ' ' He was president and presided at the organization of 
 the Japan Mission in August, 1886 ; and in later years doing 
 what no other Bishop of our Church ever did, he visited 
 Japan and China six times. 
 
 "As a sidelight into the Bishop's heart, I was once 
 rather surprised to see how keenly sensitive he was re- 
 specting his relation to those far away fields and his 
 services for them. 
 
 "On his episcopal visits to us out there, his preaching 
 was always great, deep, uplifting and permanently bene- 
 ficial. It is regrettable that some of those inimitable 
 sermons preached out there were not taken down in 
 shorthand and thus preserved to the Church. It is said 
 that once he preached at the Union Church in Shanghai. 
 A consular officer of Shanghai who had been present went 
 
 83 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 away amazed and stunned at the wonderful preaching. 
 The Bishop being invited to preach the second time in 
 that church, the same officer determined to go out and 
 hear him again, but offered to bet that the second sermon 
 could not reach to the same high level of the first. To his 
 amazement and delight the second effort reached a still 
 higher level of thought and power than the first. The man 
 left the church unable to make comment. It seemed im- 
 possible to mortal man. 
 
 "Thus has passed in and out amongst us both at home 
 and in the foreign fields a man of extraordinary thought, a 
 powerful preacher and a man of uncommon strength of 
 personality. That he had no limitations and handicaps 
 could not of course be affirmed. We shall never see such 
 a man again. A giant and a Prince in Israel has passed 
 away, but his influence and work will abide. Personally I 
 have been more richly blessed by his preaching than by 
 any other of the great preachers it has been my privilege to 
 have heard. " 
 
 The following estimates are given of his adminis- 
 tration as Missionary Secretary and his activities in 
 mission fields as Bishop by four of his colleagues, 
 Bishops Hoss, Hendrix, Denny and Lambuth, whose 
 close relation to the heart throb of the Church both 
 at home and abroad, has peculiarly fitted them for 
 forming judicious judgments. Bishop Lambuth, who 
 was intimately associated with him in the foreign 
 field, has perhaps a larger knowledge of liis con- 
 structive administrative work in the Orient than any 
 other living man. 
 
 Bishop Hoss: 
 
 "Though I was not a member of the General Con- 
 ference of 1878, I was present as a visitor, and was a 
 witness to the growing power and influence which Dr. 
 Wilson exercised over that body. If any new Bishop had 
 been chosen at that time he would probably have been the 
 
 84 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 man. As it was, when a vacancy was made in the Mis- 
 sionary Secretaryship by the transfer of the mighty John 
 B . McFerrin to the Book Agency, no one was much thought 
 of for the succession except Dr. Wilson. 
 
 "To say that he was elected without the slightest 
 effort on his part, is to speak the truth moderately and 
 soberly. For all sorts of wire-pulling and demagogism in 
 the Church, he had an aversion that amounted to horror. 
 Rather than have solicited any man's vote, he would have 
 plucked out his tongue. 
 
 "But it was not long before everybody knew that the 
 General Conference had made a wise selection. Dr. Wil- 
 son took hold of his new position without any parade, but 
 with an amazing vigor. The whole Church felt the thrill 
 of his touch. He worked not by manipulation but by 
 inspiration. To this day the great tides of interest and 
 activity that he set in motion are still flowing. Believing 
 in missions as he believed in Christ, to the bottom of his 
 soul, he communicated his faith to others. 
 
 "Doubtless, there are many still alive who heard his 
 great speech before the Holston Conference at Wythe- 
 ville in 1881. It was like the movement of an army with 
 banners. The Conference was literally electrified. No- 
 body went hotne to make thereafter an apology for taking 
 missionary collections. In all quarters the same story 
 was told of him. His addresses and sermons were enough 
 to wake the dead. " 
 
 Bishop Hendrix: 
 
 "Alpheus Waters Wilson was a wonderful organizer 
 He became known to the Church by his great missionary 
 secretaryship. There was a time in our history when we 
 faltered in the march, when we hesitated about going 
 forward. The war had involved us in serious difficulties. 
 Alpheus W. Wilson was chosen the Missionary Secretary, 
 the great Secretary of the Foreign Board of Missions in 
 1878, and from that time until today a new era in our 
 missionary life has existed. 
 
 85 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 "How delighted he was to study the field! How in- 
 tensely active he was in organizing new fields! Aided by 
 his good wife as private secretary, he often burned the 
 midnight oil in his efforts. Six times at least he went 
 abroad in this great mission, three times of the number 
 around the world. A favorite visitor in great mission 
 fields, it was his joy to organize the great mission in Japan, 
 and it was his joy to visit all the great fields except Mexico; 
 and his works abound, founded in great wisdom, in great 
 scholarship with a depth of mercy. 
 
 "He inspired men with confidence. They would put 
 into his hands sums amounting to fifteen or twenty 
 thousand dollars and say: 'Sir, do what you think best 
 with that — found a school, or do what you think best.' 
 A friend of mine said to him in my presence: ' Bishop, if 
 you go to China I authorize you to draw on me for $5,000 
 for such work as you deem most needed there. ' Out of 
 that came the great Moore Memorial Church founded by 
 a townsman of mine in Kansas City, recognized by all as 
 the best-equipped plant for missionary work ever known 
 in China. So in all his work he had the confidence of 
 men; they believed in him. 
 
 "He made a great secretary of missions. The Church 
 will never cease to honor the memory of him who laid the 
 foundation of our great missionars^ work. " 
 
 Bishop Denny: 
 
 "Not since the days of Thomas Coke, the first bishop 
 of American Methodism — indeed, the first bishop of any 
 Church in the United States — has such a missionary spirit 
 been given to the Methodist Church in America as was 
 given by Bishop Alpheus Waters Wilson. The breadth of 
 his vision, the sure ground upon which he placed the 
 missionary enterprises of the Methodist Episcopal Chiirch, 
 South, the weight with which he laid that dut}^ on the con- 
 science of the Church, have never been equaled among us. 
 From the day he was given charge of that work, there has 
 been no backward step on the part o£ our Church; and 
 indeed his influence has been broader than the Church. . . 
 
 86 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 Since his election to the Episcopacy, he has spent much of 
 his time in mission fields, giving personal attention to the 
 organization and administration of our missionary in- 
 terests, and many times circling the globe. Through all 
 these years his influence at home has been a steady stream 
 to raise yet higher the Church's appreciation of her duty 
 to the world." 
 
 Bishop Lambuth: 
 
 "Bishop Wilson was the Secretary' of the Board of 
 Missions from 1878 to 1882. During that short time he 
 created through his personality, his leadership and his 
 presentation of the claims of the Gospel, a new era in the 
 missionary' history of the Church. He exhibited a strong 
 grasp of fundamental principles underlying the Gospel, 
 and the missionary' enterprise. 
 
 "He sought to confront the conscience with God, and 
 thereby create a sense of personal obligation to earn,' out 
 that part of the scheme of redemption which is committed 
 to man. His appeal to motive was central and primary — 
 never secondary. That motive was sought for and found 
 in the great missionary epistles of the Apostle to the 
 Gentiles. 
 
 "The spirit of the great secretary was Pauline. While 
 dwelling upon the infinite measure of Divine grace he 
 believed profoundly in the sovereignty of God, and His 
 right to control a man's life. He therefore with the 
 Apostles stressed the call of God. He emphasized the 
 spirit and attitude of the Apostle in his Epistle to the 
 Romans when he successively declared ' I am debtor. . . . 
 I am ready. ... I am not ashamed of the Gospel of 
 Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to every 
 one that believeth. ' 
 
 "The stewardship of money was not discussed in parts, 
 but as a great whole. He did not withhold his own 
 slender resources. He was in the campaign without re- 
 servation. All he had was on the altar, and in this act of 
 sacrificial service he had the sympathy and co-operation 
 of his family. 
 
 87 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 "In his dealing with missionaries Dr. Wilson was 
 generous in his provision for the needs of their work, and, 
 especially, for their preparation and equipment that they 
 might render the most intelligent and efficient service 
 possible. In this he was far ahead of his generation for 
 he moved in those early days in line with the most ap- 
 proved and advanced modern policies in the setting up of a 
 mission whether it involved the building of churches, the 
 establishment of educational work or the equipment of 
 hospitals. Here was no timidity, no hesitation, no with- 
 holding of what was essential to the success of the largest 
 plans for the extension of the Kingdom. He planned and 
 worked with a master hand, and his strokes were strong, 
 bold, and true. 
 
 The Missionary Bishop. 
 
 "Upon the election of Dr. A. W. Wilson in 1882 to the 
 Episcopacy he was assigned to work abroad and plunged 
 at once into the world field. As a traveler he did not 
 spare himself any more than he did in the ofhce. Six 
 times the Oriental fields were visited, and the Latin 
 American fields repeatedly. These were not superficial 
 and hurried attempts at administrative work, but time 
 enough was given to deliberate and profotmd study of 
 missionary problems. He held tenaciously to his con- 
 victions but withal was open-minded, and reserved the 
 right to adjust his thinking to new conditions. 
 
 "In all the constant travel, and much of it was hard 
 and trying to a man of his age, I have never heard him 
 utter a complaint, nor did he count it a hardship to prose- 
 cute these long journeys and to encounter untoward 
 conditions including more than one severe epidemic of 
 Asiatic cholera in China and Japan, and the plague in 
 India. These things were incidental and were accepted 
 as a matter of course. They did not turn him aside, nor 
 did they cause a moment's hesitation in going to meet 
 his engagements in these distant fields. 
 
 Bishop Wilson was always ready to preach. I have 
 never known him to refuse. He presented a great Gospel 
 in preaching to small groups of missionaries or to larger 
 
 88 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 native gatherings through an interpreter. He gave the 
 best that was in him, and that best opened up a depth in 
 the Scriptures that became a well-spring of perennial life 
 and power to the missionary and to the native preacher. 
 His inspiration was not from crowds. It came from 
 within. In dealing with the missionaries he believed that 
 ' man grows with the greatness of his purpose. ' As God 
 reveals Himself to man, man grows. He grows with his 
 apprehension of truth, his enlargement of sjrmpathy, his 
 deepening motive, and in his ever-exalted faith and 
 growing purpose. The Bishop also held that the mis- 
 sionary must grow with his convert, with his group of be- 
 lievers, with the native Church, and what should be to 
 him, the very enlarging conception of the redemptive 
 piu-pose and plan. 
 
 "As a missionary master workman himself he ever fell 
 back upon Christ as the great personal dynamic. He 
 preached an imperial Christ — one in whom all faith must 
 be centered. He taught that all work must be related to 
 His work, and all life vitalized by His life. He insisted 
 that an imperial Christ must be represented by a gospel 
 which lays its claims upon every man, upon all of man, and 
 upon all mankind. 
 
 "During his administration Bishop Wilson, accom- 
 panied by Dr. Collins Denny, was present in Kobe, and 
 presided over the meeting in the summer of 1886 which 
 opened the Japan Mission. He heartily favored the evan- 
 gelistic policies of that Mission and gave his influence to ' 
 the establishment of the Hiroshima Girls' School, which 
 has grown to be one of the greatest Christian institutions 
 for young women in the Empire. He also approved of the 
 founding of the Kwansei Gakuin, our college for young men, 
 which, starting in his day as a night school, has grown to an 
 enrollment in all departments of over 1200 splendid young 
 men and boys. It was to this institution in 1889 that he 
 agreed to apply $10,000 for land and buildings a part of 
 the special contribution of Mr. Thomas Branch of Rich 
 mond, Va. 
 
 "In China, the Bishop organized the China Mission 
 Annual Conference in 1886, threw the strength of his in- 
 
 89 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 fluence into Buffington Institute at Suchow, and later on 
 favored the larger plans of Dr. Young J. Allen and others 
 in the establishment of the Anglo-Chinese College in 
 Shanghai, the McT^^eire Institute for Girls, and later on 
 the Suchow University. More might be said but these 
 lines of policy and of effort serve to indicate the masterful 
 grasp of the great basic elements which lie at the heart of 
 the missionary enterprise. It was to him, as to the Apostle 
 Paul, a world enterprise, and one worthy of all that was 
 potential and actual in a man's life. The constraining 
 motive throughout, did not lie in a propaganda nor in 
 denominational exploitation. While there was no re- 
 laxing of his hold upon the ideals and the doctrines which 
 were a part of his own beloved Church, this great mis- 
 sionary Bishop stood for what was deeper and broader — 
 the truth of the Fatherhood of God revealed in and 
 through Jesus Christ ; and what was the central motive of 
 all, the persistent love, the sacrificial death, and the 
 glorious resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the only hope of 
 Glory, and the only hope of the world. " 
 
 90 
 
-; ° 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 The Episcopacy and its Responsibilities. 
 
 The General Conference of 1882, which met in 
 Nashville, at the close of the quadrennium of Dr. 
 Wilson as Missionary Secretary, in recognition of his 
 prophetic vision and matchless leadership, elected 
 him bishop on the first ballot. He was the only 
 bishop elected on that ballot. Those who were 
 present say that when the result of the ballot was an- 
 nounced there was no change in his countenance and 
 no one could have told from his outward demeanor 
 that he was conscious that his life was to be so greatly 
 affected by it. It was the grave responsibility rather 
 than the honor that impressed him. He felt that a 
 new burden had been placed upon him, which he 
 could not shirk, as duty to him had a sacred meaning. 
 In this field of largest opportunities and responsibili- 
 ties he gave thirty-four years of service to the Church 
 and to Christianity at large, the value of which defies 
 all attempts of human measurement. Sixteen years 
 of the thirty-four he was Senior Bishop and presided 
 over the meetings of the College of Bishops, 
 
 Bishop Hoss has characterized the long and dis- 
 tinguished services of A. W. Wilson as a member of 
 the Episcopacy in this manner: 
 
 "At the General Conference of 1882, Dr. Wilson was 
 elected Bishop on the first ballot. Thouj^h he had sought 
 the office in no way, he accei^tcd it as coming in the 
 providential order, and held it with great distinction for 
 thirty-four years. His work as a bishop in ever}^ part 
 
 91 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 of the world was never less than distinguished. Whether 
 as a presiding officer in the Conference, or as a preacher in 
 the pulpit, or as a leader and guide in the deliberations of 
 the Cabinet, he ranked easily with the men of renown. 
 No man can write the history of the Church and leave him 
 out. There was no one of his colleagues with whom it is 
 easy to compare him. But I certainly do not go amiss 
 when I say that he was the equal of William McKendree 
 or of Henry B. Bascon, or of George F. Pierce, or of Hol- 
 land N. McTyeire, or of Enoch M. Marvin. Though 
 differing from each of them in certain respects, he was en- 
 tirely worthy to be mentioned in the same class with them 
 all. His older brethren used to speak of him as 'Web- 
 sterian. ' Strangely enough some persons have charac- 
 terized him as lacking imagination. In very truth, his 
 imagination was as glorious as a tropical forest. It 
 blazed at times like the sun descending through a sky that 
 was full of rifted clouds. Though scarcely anybody ever 
 thought of him as a rhetorician, yet he marshalled his 
 words with a masterly skill and ease. I have heard him 
 when it seemed that he would inevitably tangle and in- 
 volve himself in his thick rushing torrent of speech. But 
 he never did. Just when he appeared to be on the point of 
 confusion, he was sure to light upon the right word and 
 ride out in triumph. 
 
 "I have followed his tracks through many countries. 
 Always it was easy to see he had been there, and left an 
 impression. Especially, however, did he do a mighty 
 work in the Orient. Time will not obliterate the in- 
 fluence which he exerted upon the infant Churches of 
 Japan, Korea, and China, and no doubt it will appear 'in 
 that day ' when ' the books are opened ' by Him who sits 
 upon the throne. 
 
 "During all his later years he was Senior Bishop of the 
 Church, and discharged the duties of that position \\'ith 
 singular effectiveness. In the course of time, his judg- 
 ments of law and usage came to be accepted almost without 
 hesitation by his colleagues and brethren, and the admi- 
 ration with which they had always looked up to him 
 
 92 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 deepened into an almost fathomless love. He was not in 
 the least autocratic nor self-assertive. While he generally 
 spoke as one who knew, he was modest before all men. 
 
 "He represented his Church in four Ecumenical Con- 
 ferences, and never failed to attract the attention and 
 command the respect of those bodies. For many 3'ears 
 he was also a member of the Joint Commission on Fed- 
 eration, and no one of the Commissioners was listened to 
 more eagerly than he. The men of the North and of the 
 South alike looked up to him as a veritable Captain of the 
 Lord's hosts. At the close of the Chattanooga sitting in 
 1912 Bishop Cranston and all his colleagues rose to their 
 feet and pressed around him with eager interest as he 
 made his closing speech, which sounded as if one of the 
 old prophets had come back to earth with a message from 
 God. 
 
 "When he was superannuated at the age of eighty 
 years, I took occasion to say : ' My brethren, I fear that 
 you have made a mistake. It wotdd have been better in 
 my judgment, to have retired three or four of the rest of 
 us, and have left him in place. The vacancy in the Col- 
 lege of Bishops would not then have been so great. ' 
 That was my opinion then, and has been my opinion ever 
 since. Long, long will it be before another man arises fit 
 to be matched with him in intellectual vigor, or in the 
 depth of spiritual experience. Blessed be God for having 
 bestowed so great a gift upon the Church. He sits now in 
 the heavenly places of Christ, and meditates on the great 
 theme which he so long preached. " 
 
 Bishop Denny has thus spoken of his aged col- 
 league, whom he loved as a father : 
 
 "No one in the Church was surprised when at the close 
 of his quadrennium as Missionary Secretary the General 
 Conference of 1882 elected him to the Episcopacy, the only 
 man on the first ballot. For more than thirty-four years 
 he filled with power the chief office in the Church. More 
 than any of our Bishops since Coke he was sent across the 
 seas, and the Church had come to look upon him as our 
 
 93 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 chief missionary bishop. His labors at home were no less 
 constant, and throughout our borders and beyond he did 
 his work, everywhere commanding the confidence and love 
 of the people. Perhaps no man can meet the delicate and 
 heavy responsibilities of the Episcopacy without mistakes. 
 Bishop Wilson was a man who gave large trust to those in 
 whose character and piety he believed. At times he 
 trusted some of these men with work they were not 
 qualified to do. No man ever suffered at his hands. He 
 was a model of firmness, yet careful of the feelings of his 
 brethren. He was detached as are few men. His likes 
 and dislikes did not seem to enter into his work. He 
 knew the history and law of Methodism, and he passionate- 
 ly yet sanely loved the Chvirch. Keen of insight, knowing 
 men and measures, grasping with his giant mind the 
 tendencies of the times, knowing that the work of God 
 must be done, can be done only by the Spirit of God work- 
 ing the redemptive powers of the cross of Christ in the 
 hearts of men, he went his patient and courageous way, 
 without reliance on the temporal and vanishing powers of 
 this present world. He believed his Lord was equal to 
 every demand of time and eternity, and that out of the 
 dark chaos of this present day the Church of God would 
 stand forth with the light of her Lord on her face and the 
 song of his salvation breaking from her lips. We thank 
 God for Bishop Wilson's long, devoted, and honored 
 Episcopacy." 
 
 He interpreted the voice of the Church as the 
 voice of God, and never did he flinch in the face of 
 responsibility. Once when he was presiding over a 
 Conference, one of the candidates for admission into 
 full connection objected to answering the questions 
 concerning Christian perfection, on the ground that 
 he was already perfect. The Bishop told him that 
 he did not believe him and that thousands of better 
 men than he — all the generations of Methodist 
 preachers — had answered them, and that he would 
 
 94 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 not put the vote on his admission until the Con- 
 ference had expressed its mind. In a few minutes 
 the Conference made known its view of the case in 
 unmistakable terms. 
 
 "When the candidate found that he was not 
 taken at his own estimate of himself and was likely 
 to be left out," said the Bishop in speaking of the 
 incident, "he began to shuffle and tried evasion until 
 at the suggestion of one of the preachers, I repeated 
 the questions and insisted upon a direct answer. 
 Then he surrendered and the Conference laughed and 
 let him in. " 
 
 On one occasion he performed an official duty 
 from which most men would have shrunk. 
 
 "Did you not feel it unpleasant ?" he was asked 
 after it had been done. 
 
 "Yes, as a man, " he replied, "but as an officer of 
 the Church, I did not let myself have any feeling 
 about it. " 
 
 During the thirty-four years he was Bishop, he 
 saw the membership of the Church grow from 860,- 
 687 to 2,154,307, the membership of the Sunday 
 School increase from 524,763 to 1,924,698, the mis- 
 sionary offerings for the extension of Christ's King- 
 dom at home and abroad advance from $581,222 to 
 $1,749,283 and marvelous development made in the 
 mission fields. The Woman's Missionary work 
 which had its genesis in a society at Trinity Church, 
 Baltimore, and which has been referred to in another 
 chapter, has become of surpassing magnitude, en- 
 listing the intelligent and consecrated leadership of 
 the women of our Church. It was in its infancy at 
 the meeting of the General Conference which elected 
 
 95 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 him bishop, having been recognized for the first time 
 by the preceding General Conference, but it had made 
 such progress during the quadrennium as to call 
 forth this paragraph by the Bishops in their Episco- 
 pal address. 
 
 "A new chapter is to be written in this connection. 
 That timely auxiliary, the Woman's Missionary Society, 
 correlated by the General Conference four years ago, has 
 done well, and justified the recognition then made. So 
 far as results have appeared, its affairs have been managed 
 efficiently, economically, and judiciously. The manage- 
 ment has adhered to the line of collection and disburse- 
 ment prescribed by law, and instead of lessening the 
 amount flowing by ordinary channels into the treasury of 
 the Missionary Board, it is our opinion that the money 
 reported by the Woman's Missionary Society is a clear 
 gain. By their excellent monthly paper useful informa- 
 tion has been circulated, and by their personal efforts the 
 zeal for Missions has been generally quickened. The 
 Society has sent out five well-chosen missionaries — two 
 to China, one to Brazil, and two to the Mexican Border 
 Mission — who co-operate with the Board of Missions 
 harmoniously in their respective fields as teachers. The 
 Society is also building at Laredo, an important station on 
 the Rio Grande, a boarding-school for girls, and its agents 
 are occupying two such school-buildings, erected by its 
 own funds, in China. Ground has been secured, and 
 plans made for a girls' boarding-school in Piracicaba, 
 Brazil. Money raised to date $64,910. Their Mis- 
 sionary Advocate has paid its own expenses, and brought 
 $1,000 into the Society's treasury. We are advised that 
 a memorial will be sent up requesting certain readjust- 
 ments of the Society to the Board of Missions, and to its 
 own recognized field of operations. It is needless that 
 we recommend it to your most cordial and prompt con- 
 sideration. " 
 
 96 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 The women raised for their work in 1916 $594,039. 
 Southern Methodist has profound cause for grati- 
 tude to Almighty God for its noble womanhood. 
 
 He saw the educational institutions of the Church 
 increase from 73, which reported $2,389,000 worth of 
 property and endowments aggregating $978,000 to 
 140 imiversities, colleges and academies, classified on 
 a scientific basis and controlled by the Church, with 
 $16,091,809 worth of property and endowments ag- 
 gregating $9,160,467. Though the Vanderbilt Uni- 
 versity was lost to the Church during that period, the 
 result was the founding of two other great universi- 
 ties, Emory at Atlanta, Ga., and the Southern Meth- 
 odist University at Dallas, Texas, which promise to 
 exert a tremendous influence in shaping the civiliza- 
 tion of the South according to the highest standards 
 and in promoting the best interests of the Kingdom 
 of God. 
 
 He saw the Publishing House grow from an in- 
 stitution seriously crippled by debt into a great 
 agency for the publication and distribution of reli- 
 gious literature with sales exceeding $1,000,000 an- 
 nually and branches in Dallas, Texas, Richmond, 
 Virginia, and Shanghai, China. 
 
 He saw the Church Extension, the Epworth 
 League, the Deaconess and the Laymen's Missionary 
 Movements spring into being in response to the needs 
 of the Church. The growth of the Church Exten- 
 sion work under the administration of the present 
 Secretary has been little short of phenomenal, and 
 has created an epoch in this phase of the Church's 
 activity. Among other noteworthy achievements 
 
 97 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 its General Loan Fund has gone beyond the million 
 dollar mark. 
 
 He saw better provision made for the support of 
 the Church's claimants and the efficiency of Church 
 organizations improved by a change of their policies to 
 meet new conditions. 
 
 He saw the growing fraternal relations of the two 
 great Episcopal Methodisms result in the adoption 
 of a common hymnal. These are some of the things 
 done by the Church during his bishopric. All in all, 
 the progress of the Church, it has been said, is with- 
 out a parallel in the history of religious institutions. 
 The Bishop could have well looked back over that 
 period and exclaimed, "What hath God wrought!" 
 But he had no lust for numbers or desire to make a 
 showing that would commend itself to the world. 
 He had the conviction that, as the Church is spiritual 
 in character, the further it is removed from worldly 
 motives, standards and ambitions the more progress 
 it will make. He thought of the Church as dwelling 
 in an atmosphere far above that of principalities and 
 powers — an atmosphere created by the very presence 
 of Jehovah. He was never unduly elated over the 
 Church's prosperity but felt that after we had done 
 all that was commanded us we were unprofitable 
 servants. In some respects he was not unlike Joshua 
 Soule, especially in his unalterable opposition to 
 such innovations which he regarded as likely to be 
 hurtful to our Zion. 
 
 A volume of no small proportions could and prob- 
 ably will be written covering that long period when 
 Alpheus W. Wilson was a dominant force in the 
 Episcopacy, embracing his administrative work, his 
 
 98 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 interpretations of law, his constructive policies in 
 mission fields, his matchless preaching, and his 
 magnificent leadership, but the spirit of these things 
 has become a part of something more durable than 
 books — the very character and constitution of the 
 Church. 
 
 This modest volume simply touches a few of the 
 high places in his official life and leaves the rest to a 
 future biographer. 
 
 Before he was elected Bishop he was a member of 
 the General Conferences of 1870, 1874, 1878, and 1882. 
 It was not long after his election to the Episcopacy 
 that our mission fields were placed under his special 
 supervision, in addition to his duties in the home 
 land. In 1886, 1888, 1890, 1898, 1900 and 1907 he 
 made official visits to our missions in the Orient; in 
 1892 and 1902 his Episcopal duties led him to Brazil. 
 He was president of the Board of Missions from 1900 
 to 1914. He represented our Church in the organi- 
 zation of the Methodist Church in Japan, and his 
 views were accorded great weight by his colleagues. 
 He was fraternal delegate to the British Wesleyan 
 Conference in London in 1912— the last delegate from 
 our Church to that body. He was a member of the 
 Ecumenical Conferences of 1881 and 1901 held at 
 London, and of those of 1891 and 1911 held at Wash- 
 ington and Toronto respectively. He was a member 
 of the Federal Council and of the Commission on 
 Unification from our Church, and had been appointed 
 to preach the sermon on the occasion of the meeting 
 of the Joint Commission in December 1916 in Balti- 
 more. 
 
 99 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 At the General Conference in Birmingham in 
 1906, there was a strong movement in favor of the re- 
 statement of the Articles of Religion. After the 
 question had been thoroughly discussed, in view of 
 its importance, the Conference requested the Bishops 
 to give their opinions on the subject. Bishop Wil- 
 son, Candler, Hoss, Hendrix and Galloway ad- 
 dressed the Conference. Bishop Wilson's speech on 
 that occasion, entirely impromptu, has been con- 
 sidered by some of his friends to have been one of his 
 most notable utterances. At its conclusion the Con- 
 ference arose and sung "How Firm a Foundation." 
 It is more than probable that if a vote had been taken 
 immediately after this speech that the re-statement 
 report would have been lost, but its supporters 
 wisely arranged for a postponement of the vote for 
 several days when the report was adopted. The 
 College of Bishops against the protest of Bishop Wil- 
 son made him Chairman of the Commission on the 
 Ecumenical Statement of Methodist Doctrine which 
 selection was approved by a rising vote of the Con- 
 ference. As is well known the whole movement 
 ultimately came to naught. 
 
 The report on re-statement, as it passed the Con- 
 ference, and the speech of Bishop Wilson are of 
 sufficient interest in connection with his life to be 
 reprinted in this chapter. 
 
 Special Committee on the New Statement of Meth- 
 odist Faith and Doctrine. 
 Report No. 1. 
 
 "Your committee, to whom was referred the resolu- 
 tion on the need at this time of a new statement of Metho- 
 dist faith and doctrine, desire to report that they have 
 
 100 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 given the resolution careful consideration, and believe 
 it is wise to take such action as is proposed in the resolu- 
 tion. The resolution reads as follows: 
 
 "'Believing that the different branches of world-wide 
 Methodism that are represented in the Ecumenical Method- 
 ist Conference can and should unite in the preparation of 
 such a statement of our common faith as is needed, and be- 
 lieving that this General Conference should take such steps 
 as may be necessary to secure in the early future the co- 
 operation of other representative Methodist Churches in 
 the preparation of a new statement of our faith, we there- 
 fore offer the following resolution : 
 
 "'Resolved, That the College of Bishops be requested 
 to appoint a commission of five members, one of whom 
 shall be a bishop, who shall be members of the next 
 Ecumenical Conference, this commission to invite other 
 branches of Methodism to unite with us in the preparation 
 of our doctrinal system as it is called for in our day, and 
 this commission shall represent our Church in the pre- 
 paration of the same. ' 
 
 "We recommend the passage of the resolution herein 
 proposed, with the understanding that the preparation of 
 this new statement of doctrine shall be undertaken by the 
 commission only when such co-operation on the part of 
 the other representative branches of Methodism shall 
 have been secured as shall give to the statement prepared 
 an ectunenical character and make it an expression of the 
 faith of world-wide Methodism. This commission shall 
 report back to this General Conference, four years hence, 
 the result of their labors. We further recommend that 
 the Publishing Agents be authorized to meet whatever 
 expenses may be incurred by the commission in the dis- 
 charge of their duties. 
 
 "W. F. TiLLETT, 
 
 "W. R. Lambuth, • 
 "C.W.Carter." 
 
 The speech is printed as it appeared in The Daily 
 Christian Advocate of the Conference. 
 
 101 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 "Bishop Wilson: I am at a ver}' great disadvantage. 
 I had no idea of entering into this discussion at all, and it 
 is not a matter to be enterprised or taken in hand un- 
 advisedly or suddenly. It requires some thought, and I 
 do not want to express myself carelessly or indefinitely or 
 vaguely, so I can only speak very briefly and with reference 
 to but one or two points that I have heard stated in the 
 speech of Dr. Tillett. I did not hear the paper read, and I 
 am somewhat at a loss on that account. In the first place, 
 I want it distinctly understood, whatever changes may go 
 on in the world, or in the Church, I stand by this funda- 
 mental thing — Jesus Christ the same yesterday and to-day 
 and forever. And the thing that expresses him most 
 satisfactorily and clearly to the conscience, I will say, 
 using an apostolic form of speech, of the people is the 
 thing that is most likely to endure throughout the genera- 
 tions. There are a good many things that are shaken. 
 Our polity will change, our very speech will change, and 
 our forms of life will change. Two or three generations 
 hence our Methodists, just as true as ourselves to the fun- 
 damental faith, will take very different xdews of the ap- 
 pHcation of great spiritual facts to the conditions and facts 
 of our hves. But there are some things that do not 
 change, and never will change, and the statement of 
 them for the most part is made in terms so simple 
 that they cannot be misunderstood; and they are so 
 broad at the same time and, as I think, adequate that 
 it will be very difficult for any man to add anything 
 to them. I do not agree with Dr. Tillett as to the 
 inadequacy of our Twenty-five Articles of Religion. 
 There are two or three of the Articles which perhaps, if 
 they were to be vtTitten over again, I might put in other 
 form. He might have gone further back than Archbishop 
 Cranmer if he had sought for the sources of them. Arch- 
 bishop Cranmer copied almost Hterally what he had found 
 in the old Latin Fathers and in the Greek Fathers before 
 them, and these terms of our faith can be traced back al- 
 most to apostolic times. We are not getting up new 
 things, we have hold of the expression and utterance of the 
 
 102 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 faith of the Church as they have come down to us through 
 the ages. There is very little exception to be made to this 
 statement. The first of our Articles of faith deals with 
 the fundamentals of Christianity and as to these things 
 they state nothing new, that had not been held by the 
 Church through the centuries before. What he named as 
 the anti-Romish Articles were the statements of our 
 Protestant faith; not as new things at all, though they 
 might have been set in controversial form, but they were 
 the statements of things our Protestant fathers believed, 
 and they sustained their behef by the proof; and these 
 things were held in the apostolic times and by the sub- 
 apostolic fathers. There is not a new thing in our Articles 
 of faith, and they all cluster about the one central figure, 
 you cannot separate a single one from him, unless it be, if 
 you want to look at it in the secular light, our article in 
 relation to citizenship and the country we belong to; and 
 we get our authority for that direct from him. Even to us 
 through the ages, there is very little want to look at it in 
 the secular light, or vary its form from our form of faith in 
 Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I rather pity the man who 
 cannot find the materials of our faith in those twenty-five 
 articles. (Applause.) I think if I should undertake a 
 course of lectures on them it would require an exhaustion 
 of even almost those terms that Dr. Tillett required to be 
 stated for the first time as distinctively "Wesley an. " 
 
 "J. J. Tigert: Dr. Summers wrote over a thousand 
 octavo pages on them. 
 
 "Bishop Wilson: You can go to Summers' book if 
 you want to find out about them. It is true for the most 
 part, our people, the great body of Christians, are not 
 dependent upon these Articles of Faith as written out and 
 handed down to us. Their religion does not depend upon 
 them. They get religion in the first instance — that is, 
 they are converted and filled with the Holy Ghost, but 
 their faith, if you come to examine it, you will find con- 
 forms to these Articles of Faith, even if they have never 
 read them. They are the normal outcome of our spiritual 
 experience, and have been always there. The Church did 
 
 103 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 not formulate Articles of Faith first, and then proceed to 
 shape its Christian experience upon the ground and after 
 the model of those Articles of Faith. It was a very simple 
 faith in the beginning. They believed in Jesus Christ our 
 Lord, and as the inevitable outcome of that they began 
 to broaden in their views of him and put him in his true 
 place in relation to thought and life and everything, and by 
 and by these found expression in the terms of faith as we 
 have them, the manifold creeds, and we cannot get rid of 
 them, and never will until we get rid of that which is funda- 
 mental and lies below the whole of our spiritual experience. 
 The rock on which we build is not a creed and not a literal 
 statement of any fact, or anything except Jesus Christ and 
 Him crucified. The rock on which we build is the revela- 
 tion of Jesus Christ, who is in us by the spirit of the living 
 God; and the Church and Wesleyanism has revived it in 
 the Church more perhaps than any other ecclesiastical 
 system — the Church has built upon that from the begin- 
 ning. It has not pretended to have any other foundation 
 than Jesus Christ, and it is simply in all its Articles the 
 faith of the heart giving expression to these convictions 
 which have necessarily and normally resulted from their 
 faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God — a faith wrought 
 within them by the spirit of God ; and we cannot get away 
 from those elements of our life. Now, I am perfectly 
 satisfied myself with the Articles as we have them. I 
 think they will satisfy the faith of the world for many 
 generations to come; but there is just one thing I am a 
 little afraid of. This is not the time to be making changes 
 in the old, venerable, the soHd, the established statements 
 of our faith which we have had throughout the centuries 
 and which have satisfied the broadest and best of the minds 
 of our fathers. We have not done with higher criticism. 
 Wait until it reaches its conclusions. (Applause.) We 
 have not done with the assaults, the needless assaults, of 
 science upon our faith. Wait until these things are 
 settled. When you get the last and best conclusion of 
 these investigations into the Scriptures of God and their 
 relations to our common life, when you have settled the 
 points of agreements and difference between us and the 
 
 104 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 men who are holding out the materialism of the world as 
 its best and highest thing — when you have all these mat- 
 ters settled, you can come then to fix upon some state- 
 ment in advance of anything you have, and that will 
 perhaps move and satisfy the heart and conscience of the 
 Church, but you make your changes now while the air is 
 full of discord and the notes of dissonance are jarring upon 
 our ears from day to day, many of our young men going 
 into our theological schools do not know exactly where 
 they stand. 
 
 ' ' Bishop Hoss : And don't know when they come out, 
 either. 
 
 "Bishop Wilson: Yes, and do not know when they 
 come out — and I will venture to affirm you cannot phrase 
 an Article of Faith to-day that will satisfy the mind of the 
 great body of theological students as they come out from 
 our theological schools. The time has not come for it yet 
 brethren. Let us stand where we are until we can see 
 through the mists a little more clearly and the darkness 
 shall be dissipated and out of the clearer heaven shall come 
 to us the only thing that can settle our faith and satisfy 
 our consciences, the revelation of the Son of God to the 
 heart of the whole Church. Then may we be able to state 
 a little more definitely and accurately, perhaps, what we 
 have in our present form of statement. 
 
 "I am a Httle afraid of putting these spiritual ex- 
 periences into the frigid forms of a creed, and things that 
 we have stated creedally. Paul would not do it, 'We 
 have no dominion over your faith, ' he wrote to the Cor- 
 inthians, *we are helpers of your joy.' The form of 
 spiritual experience varies with the characteristics of the 
 man, and you cannot put any statement of it in such shape 
 as that it will meet the requirements of all who have or 
 profess to have faith in Jesus Christ our Lord. We had 
 rather a sad instance of it — it is true it comes from outside 
 and the reference may be criticised on that ground — but 
 we had a sad instance of the utter hopelessness of any such 
 attempt in Mr, James's ' Varieties of Christian Experience.' 
 But if you imdertake to put your Christian experience in 
 frigid form, in letters graven in stone instead of being 
 
 105 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 written in the heart you will inevitably offend some of 
 God's choicest ones. You will come athwart some of the 
 finest and subtlest experiences of our spiritual life. You 
 will make many wonder if they have ever known Jesus 
 Christ. You will start doubt and bring disaster where now 
 there is the satisfaction of assured faith. I do not want 
 anything of that kind; and when we touch that side of 
 things, I would rather leave that to go out in God's Spirit 
 than put it down in bald letters on paper and print it out 
 for the criticism of the critical ones of our theological 
 schools. Don't let us do it, brethren. 
 
 "There is only one point on which I might find agree- 
 ment with Dr. Tillett's statement. I have no objection to 
 the Commission that shall take Wesley's fifty-two sermons 
 and his Expositor}^ Notes and glean out of them the essen- 
 tial things and shape up what are standards of doctrine, 
 not the Articles of Faith, if you please. We have never 
 regarded ourselves as bound by ever>'thing that is written 
 in the fifty-two sennons, but they contain the essence of 
 our faith, and are the things about which men can preach. 
 We can preach them a great deal easier than we can put 
 them in creedal form. We want that understood. A man 
 may preach about a great many things, and ever}' man will 
 have his own way of preaching them. You don't preach 
 them as I do. (Laughter.) And my brethren of the Col- 
 lege of Bishops don't preach them as I do. We have the 
 same fundamental truths and the fundamental experience, 
 but it shapes out in manifold form. Sometimes it glows 
 like the glory of the sunset, sometimes the very heavens 
 are opened and the cr}-stal clearness of the throne is before 
 us. Sometimes it is a mere glimmer of the light along the 
 darkness of a shaded valley ; sometimes it comes in splendid 
 landscape fonn ; sometimes it is a mere oasis in the desert — 
 it doesn't matter when or how it comes, the same fact is at 
 the bottom of it, that the Spirit of God is working there, 
 and we want every man to tell just what he knows about 
 it. If he doesn't know anything about it, don't let him 
 preach — in God's name don't let him preach. If he knows 
 anything, let him tell it in his own way. He will not tell 
 
 106 
 
1. House oil Chark'8 Circuit, where Biiihop Wilson boarded duriug 
 
 the first year of hia ministry 
 
 2. Bishop aud Mrs. Wilson at McTyeire Home, Shanghai, China 
 
 (1901) 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 it in my way, or in your way, but in the way God intended 
 him to tell it. 
 
 " Touch the Ark of God lightly, brethren. It may get 
 to be obsolete sometime. The old Tabernacle is laid 
 away, and the Ark is lost; but while we have it, don't put 
 profane hands upon it. It holds within its covers sacred 
 things. A higher law and testimony than Moses ever gave, 
 a more fruitful branch than ever Aaron offered to be laid 
 away, and we cannot afford to let those things perish 
 lightly. Holy everything that touches the inner exper- 
 ience of man as among the sanctities of life, only to be laid 
 bare in the presence of Him who searches the hearts and 
 tries the reins of the children of men. (Great applause.) " 
 
 At the Birmingham General Conference the 
 Bishops presented to Bishop Wilson a written re- 
 quest, signed by all of them, for him to preach the 
 sermon at the ordination of the new Bishops. 
 Though he made the point that it was not his turn, 
 he finally yielded to the persuasions of his colleagues. 
 At the Asheville General Conference, four years 
 later, the same honor was thrust upon him, making 
 three times he had preached the ordination sermon, 
 something unprecedented in Southern Methodism. 
 This is one of the many evidences of the high estimate 
 that was placed upon his preaching abiUty by his 
 fellows in the College of Bishops. 
 
 He was retired from active service by the General 
 Conference at Oklahoma City in 1914, at the ad- 
 vanced age of eighty, but his counsel and services 
 w^ere eagerly sought by his colleagues and other 
 brethren to the time of his death. His sermons, 
 speeches and presence exerted a commanding in- 
 fluence wherever he went. The people were only 
 too willing to listen to and be influenced by a man 
 
 107 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 who had placed his great talents at the disposal o 
 the Church all the years of his life. 
 
 Respecting his retirement he wrote to his daugh- 
 ter that he was satisfied ; that he had always brought 
 everything that concerned his life to the Lord, and 
 had left it with Him. This was no exception and 
 the retirement seemed to be His ordering. He ac- 
 cepted it as coming from His hand. Furthermore, 
 he wrote of the kindness and generosity with which 
 the Church had uniformly treated him and expressed 
 himself as not having deserved such consideration. 
 
 His farewell address to the General Conference is 
 ranked among Methodist classics. When the hour 
 for the adjournment had come. Bishop Hendrix 
 called upon Bishop Wilson, who spoke as follows: 
 
 "It is my last message, brethren, and it is perhaps 
 appropriate, and you will not blame me, at least, if I in- 
 dulge in a few personal reflections. It is something more 
 than sixty-two years now since I began my ministry. I 
 preached my first sermon on the 28th of March, 1852. It 
 is a long time as I look back upon it. Almost two genera- 
 tions have passed away. The men whom I knew as 
 leaders in the Church and men who made Methodism what 
 it is are all gone to their reward. Sometimes I feel as if I 
 had fallen into an entirely different sphere of being. The 
 changes have been great. You perhaps have not noted 
 them as carefully and minutely as those of us who have 
 come to be watchful of the drift and movement of things. 
 Through it all I have tried, first of all, to maintain the 
 character of a Methodist preacher, than which there is 
 none higher on earth. I have sought to preach the gospel, 
 only the gospel. I have not cared for side issues that 
 have been raised. I have paid but little attention to the 
 opposition of the world. I have drawn my lessons and my 
 inspiration from the Word of God, and from that only. 
 I dare to say that I have not suffered the manifold vagaries 
 
 108 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 of the neophytes of our time, of various eccentric writers, 
 to influence me to any extent. I have not been unmindful 
 of them as perils to the Church or dangers to which we 
 were seriously exposed, but I have never feared for the 
 issue and never doubted for a moment that the final 
 result would be the triumph, the glorious triumph, of the 
 kingdom of God, and especially of that kingdom of God 
 as it has been manifested in our own much-blessed Church. 
 "When I look at our own Church and its history I am 
 surprised, and yet I can say that my personal history has 
 some sort of comparison with it. In my earlier days I had 
 to go through great difficulties — was often worn and 
 weary, broken in health, and in the midst of conditions that 
 threatened my very life. Yet I staggered on and stumbled 
 and again arose and went the way the old fathers went, 
 and, I may say it frankly and honestly, without fear. I 
 have gone through every experience of the Methodist 
 preacher from the top to the bottom, as a preacher on the 
 circuit and then to the station and to the presiding elder's 
 district, until you put me where I have had the heaviest 
 burden of my life. Nobody can know what I have had to 
 bear in the last sixteen years. Thank God that I have 
 come through it all so surely, peacefiilly, and without any 
 disturbance of my faith and without any loss to the 
 Church! 
 
 "Our Church had to go through the calamity of the 
 war broken, and when the war ceased there seemed but 
 little prospect of its survival. Every force in the land was 
 against it ; and yet it gathered itself up in the strength of 
 its great Leader and Head, determined to pursue its course 
 unflinchingly in spite of appearances and evil conditions. 
 And it grew steadily until in its course it outstripped every 
 form of Methodism in its gain, its conquests over sin and 
 the world, on the continent. It was a surprise to me, I 
 confess, that at the Ecumenical Conference at Toronto, 
 when the reports of the gains of Methodism on the con- 
 tinent in all its branches were spread out, it was seen that 
 our own Methodist Episcopal Church, South, had made 
 more than half of all the gains that the Church had made. 
 We may well congratulate ourselves upon such reward of 
 
 109 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 fidelity to the Church and to God. Only God could have 
 brought us through with such measures of gain. I thank 
 God for it all. 
 
 "I am perfectly content with what you have done. I 
 lay down the burden that you laid upon me with a sense of 
 relief that no man can know. I would gladly have labored 
 on had you said so. I might have done something more; 
 but God has willed it otheruase, and it has been my course 
 all the way through to leave everything in the hands of 
 God. And I am sure that it is His will that I should be 
 where you have said that I must remain. I thank you 
 for all the courtesy and kindness that }^ou have shown me 
 through all these years. I have dealt with you, in the 
 Annual Conferences and here, with perfect fairness and 
 honesty. I can say before my God that I have suffered no 
 partiality or prejudice or personal consideration to in- 
 fluence at any point or to any extent my administration 
 anywhere. I have always, at all times, laid all matters 
 concerning the Church and myself before God and left it 
 to him to decide the issue. I am grateful for what has 
 come out of it all. 
 
 "The world is just opening up before you. You have 
 no conception of what is coming within the next few years. 
 One who reads the signs of the times and carefully con- 
 siders the movements of all the forces in earth can hardly 
 fail to see that we are going to meet the most tremendous 
 issues that have ever confronted the Church, and that 
 within a very short time. Look at the vast combinations 
 on one side and the other. The Churches are getting to- 
 gether, consolidating their forces, determining the issues 
 of all their joint work. The combinations on the other 
 side, the secular forces, are being made with a rapidity and 
 a power that none of the legislative influences of earth can 
 control. And they are bound to clash. That clash has 
 begun, in fact, and it will become more intense and wide- 
 spread as the 3'ears go on. And they will compass about 
 the cainp of the saints, I have no doubt, by and by, and we 
 shall find it necessary to rely not upon our organization and 
 not upon our wise legislation, but simply and solely upon 
 the presence and power of the Spirit of God and upon the 
 
 110 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 living Word of God as He shall direct its use. You may 
 depend upon that. 
 
 "We have come to think a little too much, I fear, at 
 times, of our elaborate organizations. We have many of 
 them. There is hardly a department of the Church and 
 ministry and religious hfe that we have not tried to put 
 into some form of machinery, and ofttimes the machine is 
 so perfect that the man is lost sight of. Such perfect 
 machiner}' must produce results, but of what sort? We 
 may gain on one side, and by neglect of things that make 
 up the realities of life we may lose on the other. We must 
 be very careful, brethren, and not let our notions of the 
 methods and the means employed set aside our views of 
 what the means were intended for and the methods ought 
 to lead to. We must be careful about that. Our business, 
 first of all, is to save men. Remember that. I do not 
 care how perfect your order is. There are magnificent 
 organizations in this country. In the Churches, too, there 
 are organizations so perfect, so well planned, so thoroughly 
 equipped with everything that seems needful to the ac- 
 complishment of their ends that the world itself looks upon 
 them admiringly and wonderingly; yet, after all, they do 
 not reach down after the masses of the people and save 
 them. They are dying still, growing more degraded still, 
 sinking lower still. The pressure is upon them as hard as 
 ever. And the more largely these great combinations 
 continue to grow, the less hope there is for the lesser and 
 feebler and weaker men. Take care of them. Your 
 Heavenly Father, who looks after the sparrow that falls, 
 looks after the least of them, and your neglect of them and 
 disregard of them while you are furbishing up your weapons 
 and perfecting your machinery will bring upon you a curse 
 instead of a blessing. 
 
 "Be careful, I say. First of all, save men. Save them. 
 Do not let them die, whatever may become of your various 
 plans and schemes of every sort. I don't condemn them, 
 but be careful that they do not supersede the great pur- 
 pose for which the whole Church was set up on earth. 
 The Church of the living God, which He purchased with 
 His own blood, was intended to be simply the channel 
 
 111 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 through which the mighty forces of His love and truth and 
 power should come down upon men for their salvation. 
 The old Church of the catacombs, the Church of the 
 martyrs, the Church of the confessors — that was the 
 Church of power. They had none of your associations and 
 none of your organizations. The one association that they 
 had was the Church, the Church of God, alive, alert, 
 ready to act, ready to die for Him who died for it. And 
 that is what we want to-day. We want a Church that will 
 stand in the face of all the world and say: 'You may 
 destroy every building we have, you may tear down all our 
 defences, you may put away from the midst of us every- 
 thing that we count precious and dear to us ; but you can- 
 not take our gospel and our Christ and our God from us, 
 and in the name and by the power that is His, and by this 
 only, we will conquer. We will die in conquering if need 
 be, but we will conquer at the last. ' I want you to go to 
 your homes with this conviction in your hearts. Build up 
 all the waste places. Do the best you can with your or- 
 ganizations for every class of men. But don't lose your 
 interest in the gospel, your personal right to save men. 
 You laymen, God has called you, as much as He has called 
 the preachers of the gospel, to administer to men in the 
 highest and holiest things, to save them. You cannot 
 talk with a man on the street, in your business, in your 
 homes socially without influencing him one way or the 
 other. You make an impression, good or evil. You help 
 him toward God or the other way. Be careful, I say. Let 
 your light shine so that all men may see it. And wherever 
 you are and whatever you are doing, in your business, in 
 your courts, in your legislative halls, in your social as- 
 semblies — whatever you are doing, let Christ be first and 
 foremost in your thought and purpose. It is He that has 
 laid His hand upon you to save you and through you to 
 save those about you and those far off. Take care that 
 you live up to the demand of God. 
 
 "I am very grateful to you. I can never express the 
 debt I owe to the Church. It has guarded me. It has cared 
 for me. While I have labored for it and suffered for it, it 
 has been tender in its dealings with me. It has made me 
 
 112 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 feel as though it regarded me as some precious thing. I 
 want you to have that same care for my brethren who fall 
 into the same line of work behind me. I love them. I 
 shall miss their fellowship. We have been one in heart. 
 We have had strong divisions sometimes; but we have 
 never lost the heart of love for each other, and, through 
 God's grace, we never will. We may differ as widely 
 hereafter. But we are striving together for the faith of the 
 gospel, for the upbuilding of the Church of God, for the 
 redemption of the world; and we are one in the great 
 purpose of God, and we intend to remain one. It will be 
 so as long as I live, and I pray God that the time may 
 never come when we shall have an Episcopacy that is 
 divided in heart. I do not care what their differences of 
 opinion may be, and I do not care how plainly they speak 
 them out. But one in heart they must be, or the Church 
 will be divided. Remember that. Pray for these men. 
 They need your prayers. Honor them. You have put 
 them in their high position. Don't distrust them and 
 treat them as though they required to be fettered all the 
 time. Give them all the freedom that the high place in 
 which you have put them requires. Let them do the work 
 that belongs to their place, with their eye upon God and 
 their hands in God's hand. And so may they be blessed in 
 their personal experience, in their work, and in the results 
 of their work among you and in all lands. 
 
 "Methodism is world-wide to-day — ^more than world- 
 wide; it has reached up to the throne. The principalities, 
 and powers in heavenly places learn the manifold wisdom 
 of God through it as much as through any other Church in 
 all the earth. It is a great thing. See that you keep it 
 great. Don't belittle it. Don't speak slightingly of your 
 church. It may be a homely church in a lonely situation. 
 It may be out in the woods. It may be a log cabin. But 
 it is the church of the living God, no matter where you 
 find it. And it is worthy of your uttermost thought and 
 care and ought to be treated with all reverence and regarded 
 as sacred because it is God's. God's hand is upon it. 
 Care for it. Lift it up. Make it honorable among men 
 by its purity and the integrity of your life and your fidelity 
 
 113 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 to your high profession. And may the blessing of Al- 
 mighty God rest upon the entire Church in all its parts, 
 in all places, until the day shall come when He shall as- 
 semble us all before Himself and speak to us one by one ! 
 He will then take us up separately, brethren, for ever}' one 
 of us shall give an account of himself. And He will say to 
 each one: "Well done, well done, good and faithful 
 servant." I would rather hear that voice from His lips 
 than hear the choir of angels sing the loftiest song that 
 ever pealed through the skies of heaven. Just to hear that 
 voice, "Well done!" May God keep you and guide you 
 and guard you ! A word of prayer : 
 
 " O Father, great God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 the Maker and Ruler of all things, who hast given Thy Son 
 to be Head over all things to the Church, which is His 
 body, do thou mercifully look upon these Thy servants. 
 They have labored here from day to day in their effort to 
 find the right thing for Thy Church to do and to make the 
 right plans upon which the Church shall operate in its 
 conflicts with sin and the world. Let them go from here 
 with the consciousness that Thou dost approve their work. 
 If they have done any wrong, pardon them. If they have 
 mistaken the end, forgive their error. Let it be that Thy 
 hand shall turn to good all the evil, if there be any, among 
 all their doings. And may the work be wrought with such 
 vigilance and care in years to come as that in the ages to 
 come God's exceeding kindness toward us through Christ 
 Jesus shall be clearly seen ! Bless us in our homes. Make 
 our families ChristHke. Fill them all with the Spirit. 
 Let our children grow up in the faith of their fathers, the 
 faith of the apostles. Let them grow up into the likeness 
 of the Son of God. And may the generations coming on 
 be better than this, purer, truer, more devoted ! May we 
 not lose any element of power that has been handed down 
 to us from the generations behind us, but rather may there 
 be accretions until we shall be fully furnished for every 
 good word and work in this world ! God hear us and bless 
 us, for Christ's sake. Amen. " 
 
 114 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Holy Land and the Orient. 
 
 On Bishop Wilson's first Episcopal visit to the 
 Orient in 1886-87, he was accompanied by Rev. 
 Collins Denny, who afterwards was elected to the 
 Episcopacy, in whose father's home Bishop Wilson 
 had for years been a welcome and an honored guest. 
 An affection sprung up between the Bishop and his 
 young friend, similar to that of Paul and Timothy, 
 which developed and ripened through all the years 
 which followed. The telegram which Bishop Denny 
 sent Bishop Wilson's daughter upon learning of the 
 death of her father reveals a love for his aged col- 
 league "passing the love of women. " 
 
 The Bishop wrote a series of delightful travel 
 letters to Mrs. Wilson while on this visit in which he 
 often referred in affectionate terms to his traveling 
 companion. These letters are well worth being pre- 
 served in permanent form not only because of the 
 graphic and picturesque style of the writer enabling 
 the reader easily to visualize the objects described, but 
 because of his full and accurate information respect- 
 ing places of interest which have changed but little 
 since his visit, as the conservative East is not re- 
 markable for progress. Several Palestine letters are 
 given in full with the exception of some personal 
 references, and generous extracts are given from the 
 others. 
 
 In a letter from Delhi, India, January 16, 1887, he 
 spoke of preaching in Calcutta, and visiting Benares, 
 the sacred city of the Hindus, and witnessing 
 
 115 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 evidences of appalling immoralities practiced under 
 the name and protection of religion. It is not sur- 
 prising that with his knowledge of the low moral 
 state and the need of the heathen that his whole 
 nature turned to the great work of missions, and that 
 he on one occasion wrote this line from Japan to his 
 wife: 
 
 "My interest in this work is as intense as it ever was. 
 I could live and die for it. Let them locate me as a mis- 
 sionary Bishop out here and send you and the little ones 
 to me, and I shall be content to spend the rest of my days 
 here." 
 
 This is what he says in the Delhi letter : 
 
 "On Tuesday morning I preached in the Wesleyan 
 Church in Calcutta to a congregation of four or five 
 hundred. The annual meeting of the Wesleyan Mission 
 was in session and almost all the missionaries were present. 
 At 6:30 p. m. I preached again in the M. E. Church, Dr. 
 Thobum's, to the largest congregation I have ever seen 
 since I left America. There were at least fifteen hundred 
 people present .... What I had seen of heathen de- 
 filements prompted me to preach from 'Purge me with 
 hyssop and I shall be clean : wash me and I shall be whiter 
 than snow. ' The same night at 9 o'clock we took the 
 train for Benares, passing by Serampore, where Carey did 
 his work. We reached Benares, the sacred city of the 
 Hindus, about 4 p. m. on Monday .... The next 
 morning we hired a carriage and went before breakfast to 
 the river Ganges, the sacred river. We hired a boat and 
 were rowed up and down the stream for an hour and a 
 half. This gave us the view of the finest buildings in the 
 city, which in their palmy state must have made a very 
 brilliant and imposing appearance. At present they do 
 not answer to the glowing description given of them by 
 some travelers. They are largely gone into decay. The 
 gilding is rubbed off and the whiteness is soiled. Some of 
 them — the Mosque of Aurungzebe for instance — still 
 
 116 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 retain their unbroken proportions and their architectural 
 splendor .... The most interesting sight of the morning 
 was the long row of bathing ghauts or landing places where 
 the people come to bathe, to wash their clothes and to 
 worship the river. The ghauts are broad, massive stone 
 stairways reaching from the high bluff on which the city- 
 stands down to the river. Most of them have a good deal 
 of architectural decoration about them. They extend 
 for some miles up and down the river and, at the early 
 hoiu- when we saw them, they were crowded with men, 
 women, children and cows, who had come, or been brought, 
 to wash in the sacred water and offer their devotions to 
 the river. It was pitiful to see them kneeling with 
 clasped hands and bowed heads, muttering their prayers 
 to the filthy stream. After breakfast, we took our car- 
 riage again and went to see the principal temples and 
 other points of interest in the city. I cannot describe 
 them. They are too many and would require too minute 
 details. I can only say that the carved work on some of 
 them was more foully disgusting and loathsome than I had 
 any idea of, and I had read much of the debasements and 
 defilements of idolatry. What is worse these representa- 
 tions are but too true exponents of the life and practices 
 of the people who worship in these temples. The specu- 
 lative discussions of the ulterior moral and spiritual 
 significance of the symbolism of idolatry and the rose- 
 water sentimental condoning the sin and crime of idola- 
 trous systems so fashionable with some classes of people > 
 are the sheerest nonsense in face of the facts on exhibition 
 here. Paul was literally right when he wrote the first 
 chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. The pollutions and 
 degradation of idolatry are unspeakable. The sacred city 
 of the Hindus is indescribably worse than any community 
 in the worst and most lawless sections of any Christian 
 country. Yet here Hindus in multitudes come to die and 
 believe that dying here they have direct entrance into 
 their heaven." 
 
 Writing from Bombay, India, under the date 
 January 26, 1887, he gave a description of his visit to 
 
 117 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 the "Towers of Silence" of that city and the revolt- 
 ing use to which they are put, which one cannot read 
 without an uncanny sensation: 
 
 "Dr. Stone came in one afternoon to take me to his 
 house to meet the ladies of the M. E. Mission, Dr. Stevens 
 and wife and take tiffin and then to go to the 'towers of 
 silence.' I had just taken all the tiffin I wanted; but went 
 with him, spent a pleasant hour with the ladies — American 
 and native — and Dr. Stevens, and then we drove to the 
 towers. These are Parsee burying places. Burying is 
 not an appropriate word. They do not bury. There are 
 five towers, twenty-eight feet high and ninety feet in 
 diameter. The lower half of each tower — that is fourteen 
 feet of the height — is of solid masonry with a well in the 
 center one hundred and fifty feet in circumference. The 
 upper half is only an inclosing wall a couple of feet thick, 
 through which is an iron door opening upon the top of 
 the masonry around the wall. This surface is terraced 
 so as to provide for the deposit of dead bodies in three 
 rows, the lowest next the well for infants, the next above 
 for women, the third, nearest the outer wall, for men. 
 There is a walk between the terrace for men and that for 
 women ; and another between the women and the children, 
 going around the circle of the tower. Along these walks 
 the carriers of the dead bear the bodies until they reach 
 the place of deposit. The living, except these carriers, 
 are not permitted to come within thirty paces of the tower. 
 The dead are carried into the tower, stripped entirely 
 naked and laid in the place provided and the carriers re- 
 tire and lock the door. The tower is open at the top ; and 
 in five minutes the vultures have eaten up the dead body. 
 A funeral procession preceded us as we went up to the 
 towers and we had to wait until the body had been de- 
 posited and the party returned. The delay was not ten 
 minutes; but when we came to the tower the gorged 
 vultures had finished their task and were sitting close 
 packed on the wall of the tower waiting for their next 
 meal. Nothing was left of the dead man but a few pieces 
 
 118 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 of bone and the liquid parts that ran down into the well. 
 That is a Parsee funeral. The towers stand on a high hill 
 in the midst of the most populous part of Bombay and are 
 surrounded by highly ornamental grounds, above which 
 clouds of vultures hover continually. There is a fine view 
 of the entire city of Bombay and the harbor from the 
 eminence. But it is a loathsome place with all its beauty. 
 Strong efforts have been made to compel the removal of 
 the towers from the city; but the Parsees are very rich and 
 influential and have baffled the Christian sentiment and 
 decency of Bombay in every endeavor. " 
 
 Concerning Cairo, Egypt, which on account of its 
 wonderful climate in winter, has developed into a 
 famous resort for the wealthy during that season of 
 the year, he wrote: 
 
 "It has a thousand attractions — not the least of which 
 is the vast variety of real life to be seen in its streets. It is 
 a cosmopolitan city. There are more nationalities rep- 
 resented there than in any city I have yet seen. I read 
 signs over stores and cafes in Hebrew, Greek, German, 
 Italian, Spanish and English and saw others in Syrian, 
 Arabic, Coptic, Turkish and other languages. The various 
 races live in separate quarters bearing their names; but 
 mingle freely in the business parts of the town. In the 
 older parts you may see repeated the scenes of the Arabian 
 Nights — the open shops, the cross-legged owners waiting 
 with eastern imperturbability for customers, or chaffering 
 over a trade and calling upon the voluble crowd gathered 
 as always to help in the transaction, the noise, the con- 
 fusion, the donkeys, camels — all. It would not be difficult 
 to imagine, after standing for awhile in one of the thorough- 
 fares and becoming somewhat identified with the sur- 
 roundings, that the Sultan Haroun and his vizier Giaour, 
 were passing by taking notes. " 
 
 His description of the landing at the dangerous 
 port of Joppa will vividly recall the experiences of 
 those who have disembarked at this rocky harbor. 
 
 119 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 The coast of Palestine is known as one of the most 
 inhospitable in the world. George Adam Smith in 
 his "Historical Geography of the Holy Land" says: 
 
 "Thus while the cruelty of many another wild coast is 
 known by the wrecks of ships, the Syrian shore south of 
 Carmel is strewn with the fiercest wreckage of harbours. 
 
 "I have twice sailed along this coast on a summer 
 afternoon with the western sun thoroughly illuminating 
 it, and I remember no break in the long line of foam where 
 land and sea met, no single spot where the land gave way 
 and welcomed the sea to itself. On both occasions the 
 air was quiet, yet all along the line there was disturbance. 
 It seemed as if the land was everywhere saying to the sea : 
 I do not wish you, I do not need you. And this echoes 
 through most of the Old Testament. Here the sea 
 spreads before us for spectacle, for symbol, for music, for 
 promise, but never for use — save in one case, when a 
 prophet sought it as an escape from bis God. " 
 
 This letter dated Jerusalem, Palestine, February 
 27, 1887, contains a thrilling description of the land- 
 ing at Joppa, notes the places of historic interest of 
 that ancient seaport, describes an uncomfortable jour- 
 ney to Jerusalem, and the wonders of the "Holy 
 City." 
 
 A railroad has been constructed from Joppa to 
 Jerusalem since the Bishop made his visit, so that the 
 journey can be made today in comparative comfort. 
 
 "Friday morning at 11," the letter reads, "we came 
 to Jaffa and found the sea so high that I feared we could 
 not land. The Captain of the steamer shared my fear. 
 After half an hour, in answer to our signal, we saw some 
 boats put out from shore and watched and waited with 
 some anxiety to see if they could ride the waves. They 
 seemed at times to go under; but after all came safely to 
 the ship's side. The labor then was to get into them. 
 The steamer and the boats were tossing up and down at 
 
 120 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 a furious rate ; and no little address was required to make 
 the passage from one to the other. I went first. Watch- 
 ing carefully, I seized the moment when the steamer went 
 lowest and the boats came on the crest of the wave and 
 dropped on my feet all right. Collins made a narrow 
 escape. Caught by two Arab boatman he was held up- 
 right as he came down into the boat; but just as he 
 touched the boat a tremendous sea threw it up against the 
 gangway. Fortunately one of the men holding him 
 stumbled backwards against some baggage and drew 
 Collins over with him. But for that accident Collins 
 would most certainly have been crushed ; and I do not see 
 how he could have escaped with life. It was a very nar- 
 row escape ; and Collins was the only one who did not see 
 it. Before we left the ship Mr. Rollo Floyd, to whom we 
 had written wishing to contract with him for our passage 
 through Palestine, came to us and took charge of us and 
 our luggage. He is a Maine man, looks like a country 
 farmer, is as familiar with Palestine as you are with the 
 room you live in, knows the Bible as well, can give books, 
 chapters and verse for every place and name in the 
 country, knows its profane history as well and withal is a 
 very devout Christian man. We told him what we 
 wanted; and he is to see that we go through. It will cost 
 us about seven dollars and a half a day, which includes 
 dragoman, horses, tents, provisions, everything needed 
 for the trip. 
 
 "The port of Jaffa — Joppa — is the traditional neigh-' 
 borhood of Jonah's expedition in the whale. We saw no 
 whale. The rocks just off shore make it a very dangerous 
 landing place, so that I wondered how Hiram, King of 
 Tyre, could land there the timber he sent to Solomon for 
 the temple. Afterwards I was shown a pond, or lake half 
 a mile inland which is said to have communicated in 
 Solomon's time with the sea and to have been the place 
 where Hiram's vessels were unloaded. Old anchors and 
 ships and timbers have been brought up from the bottom 
 of it showing that it had once been an anchorage for ves- 
 sels. As soon as we got on our land legs, we started out 
 to survey Joppa. We took another look at the sea 
 
 121 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 through whose surf and dangerous rocks we had come — 
 among which, I forgot to say above, is the rock to which 
 Andromeda was chained to be devoured of the monster 
 and from which she was delivered by Perseus .... and 
 then went down the street to look for one ' Simon, whose 
 surname is Peter. He lodgeth with one Simon the tanner, 
 whose house is by the seaside. ' .... We found the house 
 said to be on the spot where Simon lived and lineal suc- 
 cessor to his dwelling place. There is an ancient well by 
 it which has been in use for a tannery. That is the reason 
 for fixing on this site, there being no other within the city, 
 by the seaside, that has been used as a tannery. We went 
 on the roof; but we had had our lunch and fell into no 
 trance. We saw the spot where Peter raised Dorcas — so 
 it is said. There is a pubHc fountain there now. Then 
 we went up to the mission school conducted by some 
 ladies of the Scotch church, had a pleasant talk with them 
 and heard the girls sing in Arabic ' Over There, ' and one 
 or two other familiar tunes; and ended our explorations 
 for the day with a visit to a medical mission conducted by 
 half a dozen ladies of the English Church. They were 
 very agreeable and showed us all the buildings and ar- 
 rangements, new and very thorough and with the finest 
 situation in Jaffa, overlooking sea and land. We were in 
 the portion of Dan and looked out over the plain of Sharon, 
 beyond to the sandy hills of Philistia and still farther to 
 the mountains of Judea. It was a goodly land as we saw 
 it. Jaffa agreeably surprised me. It is very imposing in 
 its appearance from sea, crowning the hill that risesup 
 from the shore, well and closely built and very attractive. 
 Within it has the usual features of an eastern city, narrow, 
 dirty, ill-paved streets; houses often built quite across so 
 that in walking the streets we passed under them, noisy 
 crowded bazaars, ill-dressed, dirty people, dogs, etc., etc. 
 The foreign part of it is neat and pleasant. 
 
 "Yesterday morning we started early for Jerusalem 
 and had a cold, wet, stormy ride — forty miles. It would 
 have been a delightful ride'on a fair day. We passed by 
 many places of scriptural interest and historic. Vine- 
 yards and olive groves the first part of the way; then the 
 
 122 
 
s 5; 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 plain of Sharon, broad, rich and beautiful, but no roses; 
 then Ramleh, the traditional Arimathca (by the way, the 
 first native I met was Joseph of Arimathea), then, Latrin, 
 or Latrone, where it is said, the penitent thief was brought 
 up; from the tower of Ramleh we saw Gezer, which Pha- 
 raoh took and gave to his daughter, Solomon's wife, and 
 Lydda, where Peter was when they sent for him to come 
 to Joppa on Dorcas's account. Then we passed Am was 
 which, if the Sinaitic manuscript is right, is the Emmaus of 
 the New Testament, then the vale of Elah, which, it is 
 contended, is the place where David slew Goliath of Oath. 
 Then we came to the narrow mountain pass where Judas 
 Maccabaeus with his handful of followers so terribly de- 
 feated the Greeks. Up this we ascended, by many a place 
 of historic interest, until at 5 P. M. we came to the Holy 
 City. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole land, 
 is Mount Zion. Our hotel looks in front upon the valley 
 of the Son of Hinnom ; and from my window, in the rear, 
 across the city rises the Mount of Olives. The church of 
 the Holy Sepulchre and the Mosque of Omar are in sight; 
 and indeed I look dov/n upon almost all the city. My 
 cold was rather aggravated by the cold, wet ride yesterday 
 and kept me in the house this morning. This afternoon I 
 followed our dragoman and went to a religious meeting of 
 an American colony settled here, for what purpose I am 
 unable to say. They say that they were directed by the 
 Spirit to come. But they are not missionaries — making 
 no effort to convert the people; they renounce all business, 
 attending only to personal and household affairs; and, 
 while living in community, have discarded the married 
 relation. They claim to live exclusively by faith. They 
 had a Bible reading about Nebuchadnezzar. Then some 
 comments by men and women, all being on the same 
 footing, a prayer by a woman, some very pleasant 
 singing and the doxolog>'. I remained an hour after- 
 wards talking with them and went to the top of their 
 house, which is built against the city wall, and had a 
 perfect view of the entire city and its environs. Then we 
 went into the church of the Holy Sepulchre to see 'the 
 place where the Lord lay. ' There are too many things in 
 
 123 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 this same enclosure — Adam's tomb, the place where 
 Abraham offered Isaac, Calvary, the Sepulchre and I 
 know not how many others. I do not believe in any of 
 them. The church, however, is well worth a visit, with 
 its manifold arrangements for different creeds, Greek, 
 Latin, Armenian, Coptic, and is furnished with great cost. 
 I want to see it lighted, with its silver and golden lamps 
 and hope to be able to do so before I leave. 
 
 "This day, the 28th, I have wandered about Zion's 
 Hill and Mt. Moriah. A great many things are shown— 
 very few verified. The city is a great mass of lying 
 traditions and puerile superstition. It is painful to follow 
 the ways marked out for credulous visitors and note how 
 the blessed facts of our Gospel have been perverted to 
 purposes of gain and sectarian domination. The general 
 outHnes of the city are easily traceable. Mt. Zion, Mt. 
 Moriah, Mt. Acra, Bezetha, the four quarters of the city, 
 are known beyond dispute. The temple was on Mt. 
 Moriah and some of its remains — especially the subter- 
 ranean — are unquestionable. I very strongly incline to 
 the beHef that the huge rock in the center of what is 
 erroneously called the Mosque of Omar was the altar of 
 burnt offerings; and from this may be traced the general 
 outlines of the temple. But I have not the slightest faith 
 in the localities designated as the scenes of the manifold 
 occurrences in New Testament history. I cannot name 
 them all ; but a specimen, or two will serve for the whole 
 mass. In the Mosque of El-Aksa is shown a print in a 
 stone said to be that of the foot of Jesus when He stood in 
 the temple disputing — at twelve years of age — with the 
 doctors. On the Via Dolorosa is shown in a wall the print 
 of His hand when He fell under the weight of the cross. 
 The houses of Caiaphas, Annas, Simon, the Cyrenian, 
 Veronica, Dives are to be seen on the same road. Under 
 the Mosque of Omar is the place Solomon and David were 
 wont to pray. And many such like traditions they hold. 
 I ^\nll not recount them. It is enough for me that the Son 
 of God lived, walked and talked with men within these 
 precincts and probably trod the stairway — now subter- 
 ranean — upon which I passed today, as He went to the 
 
 124 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 temple. The wonderful drama of old Jewish history was 
 enacted here. This is the chosen seat of the exposition of 
 the processes of the providence of God. There is very- 
 much, too, of interest that does not belong to Biblical his- 
 tory. The Maccabees and the Crusaders have left their 
 mark here. The Mohammedans have recorded their name 
 and prowess here. Their Mosques are almost as rich in 
 tradition as Christian churches. They lay claim to the 
 inheritance of patriarchal history equally with the Jews 
 and do not refuse a place of honor to Jesus as a prophet of 
 the one God. So I went the round of their records in the 
 Mosque of Omar, the Mosque of El-Aksa, the Church of 
 the Holy Sepulchre, the church of St. Anna, mother of the 
 Virgin, the church where the Son of God was said to have 
 been scourged and crowned with thorns, and saw His foot 
 prints, His cradle, His prison, etc., etc." 
 
 His second letter from Palestine was written from 
 Jerusalem, March 6, 1887, and records his journey to 
 Hebron in which, it is said, live the most fanatical 
 and dangerous Arabs in Palestine. They guard with 
 a mad devotion the Mosque-enclosed tomb of 
 Abraham. The ride to Jericho and the Dead Sea 
 was not without its perils because the rocky bridle 
 path they had to travel led around the edges of cliffs 
 and other dangerous places. In 1898 a few years 
 after the Bishop had seen Palestine on the occasion of 
 the visit of the Emperor of Germany to Jerusalem to 
 attend the dedication of the Church of the Redeemer, 
 the Sultan of Turkey built a splendid roadway from 
 Jerusalem to the Dead Sea by way of Jericho and 
 also another from Jerusalem to Nazareth for the 
 convenience and comfort of that royal personage who 
 wished to make a pilgrimage to those sacred places. 
 This letter reads : 
 
 "I am still sniffling and coughing and conclude that it 
 is better for me to stay by the fire and write to you than 
 
 125 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 face this strong, cold March wind in order to witness the 
 mass at the church of the Holy Sepulchre. I have very 
 little inclination to be a witness to such performances and, 
 however splendid and imposing they may be, I have much 
 more of Paul's feeling in the midst of the magnificence of 
 Athenian art — ' His spirit was stirred in him when he saw 
 the city wholly given to idolatry. ' There is no English 
 service in the city except the reading for the first Sunday 
 in Lent at the Anglican Church. 
 
 "We had fine weather for our trip to Hebron, and the 
 Dead Sea, which we made according to our programme. 
 On Tuesday morning we started on very good horses, 
 passed within sight of Bethlehem and through the wilder- 
 ness of Judea, by the pool of Solomon, from which he 
 brought water to Jerusalem, stopping to lunch in the open 
 air, under the shade of a ledge of rocks, in which a series of 
 tombs had been cut in ancient time, and came to Hebron 
 about 4 P. M. We found accommodations at a Russian 
 Convent and, after disposing there of our chattels, rode on 
 to the city, about a mile distant. The first five miles of 
 our way from Jerusalem took us over an excellent road; 
 but from that on we had only rough and narrow bridle 
 paths over the mountains, rocky and steep, and were com- 
 pelled to move at a slow pace. In Hebron we could see 
 but little. There is a Mohammedan Mosque built over 
 the reputed cave of Machpelah, where Abraham and 
 Sarah, Isaac and Jacob, were buried. The Mussulmans 
 here are a fanatical, hostile tribe, ready on the slightest 
 provocation to attack any Christians coming that way. 
 We could only, through favor of the old Sheik, look 
 through an opening in the wall into the Cave and, as it was 
 totally dark inside, could see nothing. By a special firman 
 from the Sultan of Turkey the Prince of Wales was ad- 
 mitted into the Mosque some years ago and took Dean 
 Stanley with him. The description of it is given by 
 Stanley in his ' Sinai and Palestine ' which you can read 
 when you get at my books again. The city itself is unlike 
 all other cities of Palestine, situated in a valley and a very 
 fertile one. There is an ancient oak at the Convent 
 where we stayed which is said to be the oak of Mamre, 
 
 126 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 where Abraham sat when the angels came to him ; or, at 
 least, a descendant of it, on the same spot. 
 
 "Early in the morning we retraced our steps and came 
 to Bethlehem, where we looked through the church of the 
 Nativity, which contains the manger in which the Lord 
 was laid, the altar on which the wise men worshipped, the 
 tomb of the Innocents whom Herod slew, and many other 
 things wanting verification. There is a grotto there in 
 which Mary is said to have nursed her son, and, having 
 dropped some of her milk on the rock, gave it the property 
 of imparting to mothers whose milk fails the power to 
 nurse their children. The nuns grind the rock to powder, 
 put some of it into small cakes, or lozenges and sell them. 
 I declined to purchase. We rode through the fields of 
 Boaz where Ruth gleaned and David watched and guarded 
 his father's flocks. In two hours we came to Mar Saba, a 
 convent founded by St. Sabas in the fourth centur>-, where 
 we found rest for the night. There is here a fine old libra- 
 ry, in which Tischendorff found some valuable manu- 
 scripts, but from which the ignorant monks, themselves 
 unable to make any use of it, exclude everybody. The 
 convent is built on the side of the mountain and cannot be 
 seen until it is reached. From the door of entrance we 
 had to descend more than a hundred steps to reach the 
 great chamber. The only occupation of the monks seems 
 to be the performance of their various services, to which 
 they have added such gardening as the place admits, and 
 feeding the wild birds of the surrounding country. The, 
 birds of all sorts come at the ringing of a bell at certain 
 hours and take food from the hands of the monks. The 
 country for miles in every direction is as desolate as can 
 well be conceived. I saw no habitation of man on the way 
 from Bethlehem to Mar Saba; nor from Mar Saba to the 
 Dead Sea except some Bedouin camps. We left Mar 
 Saba at daylight, guarded by two Bedouins, one on horse- 
 back, one on foot, besides our dragoman, and by 10:30 
 A. M. came to the Dead Sea. The road, or path, for it 
 was no more, lay along the side of the mountains, with only 
 a footing of twelve or fourteen inches wide to save us from 
 a sheer descent of twelve or fifteen hundred feet. It was 
 
 127 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 the only ride I have had since I left home on which I felt 
 thankful that you were not with me. I doubt if you 
 could have made it, though some ladies have ridden by 
 this way. I was very agreeably disappointed in the ap- 
 pearance of the Dead Sea. It lies in a very deep basin, 
 twelve hundred and ninety feet below sea level, washing 
 the base of the mountains of Moab on the east side and the 
 mountains of Judea on the west. It reminded me some- 
 what of Lake George. The tales of my youth concerning 
 the utter deadness of all the surrounding regions were not 
 confirmed. The mountains of either side, though rugged 
 and seamed, had much of verdure on them; and at the 
 head of the Sea, where we stopped, the low brush gave 
 shelter to partridges and many other birds, which flew out 
 as we rode along. From the Dead Sea to the Jordan we 
 passed over a tract of four or five miles of salt land, 
 wholly unproductive. We took a bath in the salt waters 
 and found them so heavy it was almost impossible to get 
 under them. I folded my arms and lay on my back and 
 called for a pillow. The waters were very irritating to the 
 skin, and required to be washed off with fresh water. We 
 had some with us and I used it as soon as I came out. 
 Denny took a bath in the Jordan an hour aftenvards. 
 I did not. One cold bath in this March season was 
 enough for me, though it was much warmer in the basin of 
 the Dead Sea than it is here in Jerusalem. There is nearly 
 thirty-six himdred feet difference in altitude, Jerusalem 
 being twenty-three hundred feet above sea level. On the 
 banks of the Jordan we met a party of ladies from Man^- 
 land and Virginia .... The place where we stopped and 
 took our lunch was where Joshua led Israel over. There 
 can be very little doubt as to this locality. It is the only 
 crossing within reach of Jericho, and leads directly to 
 Gilgal, where Joshua encamped and renewed the rite of 
 circumcision. We went after lunch to Jericho, saw the 
 fountain — reputed — whose waters Elisha healed for the 
 benefit of the city and lodged that night in another Russian 
 convent. The plain of Jericho is ver}^ beautiful and very 
 fertile ; but I saw not a single palm tree in what was known 
 as the "City of Palms." Nor did I see a sycamore — 
 
 128 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 properly S3^camine — such as Zaccheus climbed to see Jesus. 
 The site of Zaccheus' house was shown — a tower now built 
 on it. In the morning we started in the rain, which soon 
 ceased, on the way to Bethany. The wind was fierce and 
 our horses full of life and we galloped at full speed a great 
 part of the way along the steep mountain paths. At 
 Bethany we encountered a severe hail storm, but never- 
 theless visited everything of interest — the house of Mary 
 and Martha, the tomb of Lazarus — or tombs, for there are 
 two; his first from which he was raised, and his second and 
 his final one — one claimed by Christians, one by Moham- 
 medans — the house of Simon the leper, the Mount of 
 Ascension and other places of later interest; then came 
 down the Motmt of Olives to the tomb of the prophets and 
 paid another visit to Gethsemane, and came in a driving 
 hail storm back to Jerusalem. This last afternoon was 
 the only unseasonable period we had during our trip and 
 we considered ourselves fortunate in that nothing in the 
 uncertain weather of March has interfered with any of our 
 plans. " 
 
 The third Palestine letter is dated Jenin, March 
 10, 1887. Jenin is a camping place familiar to all 
 Palestinian tourists. This letter is a w^onderful 
 description of the sacred places of Northern Palestine, 
 with Scriptural references to them. There are two 
 things in connection with these letters that are 
 marvelous to the author who in 1913 covered practi- 
 cally the same ground "With Tent and Donkey." 
 The first is the almost inexhaustible sources of in- 
 information, historical. Biblical and scientific, the 
 Bishop had at his command, and the second is the 
 time he found in the roughing it through Palestine to 
 write such brilliant and informing letters. The 
 reader will necessarily get an intelhgent and just 
 conception of that land which on account of its hal- 
 
 129 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 lowed associations will always hold within itself a 
 perennial fascination for every Christian heart. 
 
 "I am sojourning in tents," he wrote "as my father 
 Abraham did, being heir with him to the same promise. 
 Our outfit looks extensive for two small men. There are 
 two tents with their furniture, consisting for the one of two 
 bedsteads with their mattresses and clothing, a table, three 
 camp chairs, and a couple of rugs; for the other, of all 
 needful cooking utensils, and sleeping rugs for our em- 
 ployees. We have a dragoman, a very intelligent, accom- 
 modating and good tempered young Arab, a hostler, whose 
 business it is to be at hand whenever and wherever we 
 stop, to look after our horses, himself going afoot — no easy 
 task for men who go as fast as we and will see everything 
 within reach, and four mule drivers. Three horses and 
 four mules make up our live stock. We pay seven dol- 
 lars and a half a day each for this array, which also includes 
 our provisions and backsheesh. In the morning our first 
 business is to get up and make a hasty toilet. Then our 
 breakfast is brought in and before we are fairly through 
 with it the tent is taken down. By eight o'clock we are 
 in the saddle. We stop at 12 :30 or 1 P. M. for lunch, under 
 a tree, against a rock, in a house, or wherever we con- 
 veniently can. In an hour, or hour and a half, we start 
 again and ride to the predetermined end of our day's 
 journey. We left Jerusalem on Tuesday morning, going 
 first to Neby-Samwil— the ancient Mizpeh — passing in 
 sight of Gibeah and Ramah .... From Mizpeh we had 
 our last view of Jerusalem. We went on to Biren, ancient 
 Beeroth, to lunch in a Mohammedan house, which for a 
 consideration was opened to us. After lunch we rode 
 steadily on to Sinjil, a place of no special importance, where 
 we pitched our tents for the night. The next morning we 
 rode to Jacob's well, 'near the parcel of ground which he 
 gave to his son Joseph. ' The well is still there, although 
 the masonry which covered it in has, for the most part, 
 fallen in. We sat and lunched very near where our Lord 
 sat while the disciples went away into the city to buy meat. 
 A few hundred feet ofif is a tomb said to be Joseph's, 
 
 130 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 Just above are, on the left hand Alt. Gerizim, with its old 
 altar of sacrifice, now a Mohammedan Mosque: in full 
 view on the right hand, Mt. Ebal .... We went to the 
 Samaritan synagogue and had a sight of what I suppose is 
 the oldest manuscript of the Pentateuch in existence. It 
 dates back to our Lord's time .... The Rabbi first 
 brought out one of later date; but I told him I must see 
 the oldest. He consented and I bought his likeness with 
 the old manuscript in his hand for a franc. We pitched 
 our tents just this side Nablous. This morning we went 
 first to Samaria. On the hill, just before reaching it, we 
 had our first view of 'snow-clad Hermon, ' standing out in 
 the morning sun beyond a long roll of mountains and 
 plains. We expect to encamp on its side one night next 
 week. We halted to see Samaria, ' at the head of the fat 
 valleys,' as it is, indeed, a beautiful situation, hardly 
 inferior to Jerusalem. We saw where Omri built his ivory 
 palace, the king's gardens and the colonnade of Herod's 
 time. Then we came on to Jeba and lunched in a beauti- 
 ful olive grove. After lunch we rode to Dothan, where 
 Joseph sought his brethren and was by them tlirown into a 
 pit and then sold to Egypt, and whose sides were once 
 covered with horses of fire and chariots of fire in defense of 
 Elisha against the Syrians. From there we rode to Jenin, 
 ancient En-gannim, or, Fount of the Gardens, where we are 
 encamped in the edge of the plains of Esdraelon. Our 
 whole way from Jerusalem has been across mountains and 
 valleys, a rough, rocky ride, in many places very steep. I 
 am becoming quite accustomed to horseback. The soreness 
 and excessive weariness of my first days last week, going to 
 Hebron and the Jordan, have passed away and I am as 
 much at home in the saddle as in my younger days. I 
 have a good horse and our dragoman says we are not 
 travelers but hunters, i. e. we go too fast. We are making 
 the most of our opportunities. The jackals — Samson's 
 foxes — have been howling around our camp, and Denny 
 has gone out to see if he can shoot one by moonlight. We 
 saw several on our way today ; but could not get a shot at 
 them. 
 
 131 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 "Sunday, March 13, 1887. I am writing in the open 
 air, sitting in the shadow of my tent. The sun is shining 
 in his strength, lending a Sabbath glory to the hills and 
 fields and olive groves that lie around us. The spring- 
 time is come; for the fig-tree shows a tender branch and 
 putteth forth leaves. The summer is nigh in this land. 
 We left Jenin on Thursday morning, crossing the plain of 
 Esdraelon to Shunem, where dwelt the woman whose son 
 Elisha raised; through the fields of Naboth, which Ahab 
 coveted, to Jezreel; to Nain, where Jesus raised the son of 
 the widow ; by Endor, whose witch brought up Samuel at 
 Saul's instance, to Mt. Tabor, on whose top, after as steep 
 and difficult ascent as I ever made on horseback, we 
 lunched. To our right hand, as we rode over the plain, 
 were the mountains of Gilboa, across the sloping end of 
 which we passed, and in front of us. Little Hermon, 
 around which we traveled. All these villages lie on small 
 hills projecting out from the mountain ranges, or rising 
 from the midst of the plain and, at a little distance, look 
 very beautiful in the bright sunlight in the midst pf the 
 fresh verdure of spring, which covers the plain and sides of 
 the mountains. Off to our left and forward lay Mt. 
 Carmel, on whose top we could see the church standing 
 where, it is said, Elijah offered his sacrifice. Mt. Tabor 
 gives sight of a wide sweep of landscape, Mt. Hermon on 
 the north, the mountains of Moab and Bashan, north and 
 east of the Jordan, the sea of Galilee, to the northeast, the 
 Jordan with the mountains beyond, to the east. Little 
 Hermon, Gilboa, the plains of Esdraelon and Megiddo, and 
 the hills of Ephraim and Judah, on the south; and Carmel 
 and the mountains of Galilee, on the west. Tabor has on 
 it the ruins of an old Roman castle and of a town that was 
 four miles in circuit, which seems to negative the idea that 
 it was the scene of the transfiguration. It was by no 
 means a lonely site in our Lord's time, but was the seat of 
 a considerable population. Yet the Greek and Latin 
 churches have, each, a convent and a church there, claim- 
 ing to be on the very ground where he was transfigured. 
 After lunch and an exploration of the ruins, we descended 
 the mountain and made our way across the mountains of 
 
 132 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 Galilee to Nazareth, where we found our tents pitched in 
 a valley at the base of the city, commanding an upward 
 view of the entire place which lies on the sides of a semi- 
 circle of hills and has a fresh and attractive appearance. 
 There is a Latin church built on the spot where it is said 
 the Nazarenes would have thrown Jesus down; and 
 another on the site, it is said, of the house where Joseph and 
 Mary lived. The spot is shown where the angel appeared 
 to Mary. Of course, it assumes that Joseph and Mary 
 were living in the same house before their marriage and 
 both at Nazareth, which assumptions require proof. Yes- 
 terday, leaving our tents at Nazareth, we rode to 
 Mt. Carmel, straight across the plain of Esdraelon, 
 after leaving the hills of Nazareth. The weather was 
 delightful and we made the distance in four hours 
 to the top of the mountain. We had from there an- 
 other fine view of the plain of Esdraelon. It looks like 
 a carpet, laid off in oblong figures, well cultivated and 
 very beautiful in its variety of colors. There is hardly a 
 tree in its entire extent, which is due to the fact that the 
 Turkish government exacts a heavy tax for every tree. 
 The Mediterranean Sea lies off to the west of Carmel and, 
 on the east, we had from another point of view, the same 
 broad and variegated landscape that we had seen from 
 Tabor. The country is picturesque beyond my anticipa- 
 tion and is in better condition by far than I expected to 
 find it. The valleys are almost all thoroughly cultivated ; 
 and the hill sides are being taken up, cleared of stones and 
 made available. It is an immensely fertile land and, when 
 God's purpose in it shall be fulfilled, will be one of the 
 richest, for its extent, and most beautiful on earth. Here 
 at Nazareth we rest on the Lord's day and tomorrow go on 
 to Tiberias. I ought to say that Nazareth is a Christian 
 city, that is to say, the majority of its population belong 
 to the Greek, Latin and Protestant churches. What a 
 change since Nathaniel asked 'Can any good thing come 
 out of Nazareth? ' It is the most thriving and busy look- 
 ing place I have seen in Palestine. There is but one small 
 Mohammedan mosque in the place. " 
 
 133 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 This letter dated Tuesday, March 15, is the last 
 of those written from the Holy Land. 
 
 "We left Nazareth on Monday morning, taking our 
 way over the hills of Nazareth northward. Passing Gath- 
 Hepher, the birthplace of the prophet Jonah, where, also, 
 his tomb is shown, we came to Cana, or rather one of the 
 two places claiming to be the scene of the Lord's first 
 miracle. In the Greek church I was shown two of the 
 water jars which He had filled and in which He turned the 
 water into wine. (?) Thence we rode to Kum Hattin 
 said to be the Mt. of Beatitudes, where our Lord delivered 
 the Sermon on the Mount. There is no certainty that it is 
 the place ; but I see no reason why it may not be. It is well 
 situated for the purpose, a central point for the multitudes 
 to gather from Nazareth, Cana, Tiberias, Capernaum, 
 Bethsaida, etc. ; and its sloping sides and the plain below 
 could well accommodate the throng that followed Him. 
 I climbed to the top on my horse, the hardest ascent I ever 
 made on horseback, worse than Tabor, though much less 
 of it, and sat down where I thought the Master might have 
 sat and imagined the whole scene before me. To the 
 northwest; on the very top of a mountain, in full view is 
 Safed, the ' city set upon a hill that cannot be hid. ' Mul- 
 titudes of birds are singing in the bright sunshine all 
 around, while the flowers of the field in this spring time 
 cover the plain and sides of the hill. Stones and scorpions, 
 also, abound. Off to the east lies the Sea of Galilee; and 
 mountains are on ever}^ side. Hermon shows its snowy top 
 and sides far off to the northeast. Nothing seemed 
 wanting but the living figures. From there we rode down 
 to Tiberias, a large part of which is still in ruins from the 
 earthquake of 1837. It seems strange that there is no 
 record that our Lord ever entered this city. We hired a 
 boat here to take us up the lake to the mouth of the Jordan, 
 where it enters the sea of Galilee, and had a delightful sail. 
 The sea was as smooth as a mirror ; a light haze was upon 
 the mountains around; the air was soft and spring-like. 
 The surface of the sea is six hundred and eighty-two feet 
 below the level of the Mediterranean. From the mouth of 
 
 134 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 Jordan, at the north end of the sea, we coasted along by 
 Tell Hum by many thought to be Capernaum — where we 
 found masses of ruins and not a single habitation. Among 
 the heaps, we saw the remains of what was perhaps a 
 Christian church, mtich of the material of which dated back 
 further than the Christian period and may have belonged 
 to the synagogue which the centurion built for the Jews. 
 Then we passed by what is supposed to be Bethsaida, 
 where a few huts alone remain. From there we sailed on 
 to our camp for the night at Khan-Minyeh, which, also, is 
 claimed as Capernaum. There is nothing there to show 
 that it was once a city. Our Lord's woe pronounced upon 
 Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum have taken full 
 effect, since even the sites of the two last are uncertain, and 
 utter desolation reigns over and around all three. We left 
 our camp at 8 o'clock this morning and rode slowly over a 
 rough, rocky country, leaving the ruined site of Chorazin 
 on our right hand and passing nothing of note until we 
 came to the waters of Merom, near where Joshua fought 
 with Jabin, King of Canaan, and his confederates, and 
 routed them. The lake is now called Huleh and looks 
 ver}^ attractive at a little distance; but it is almost inac- 
 cessible, being surrounded by marshes and steep cliffs. 
 We are encamped for the night at Ain-Balatha, whose 
 chief and, indeed, only attraction is a full flowing spring of 
 bright, clear water. Numbers of Bedouins are on the 
 plains in front of us watching their cattle and the steep, 
 rocky mountain sides are immediately behind us. The 
 Bedouin women are passing continually to and from the 
 spring, with water jars on their heads. We are still 
 wonderfully blessed in the weather. Before coming 
 Cook's agents warned us that we would be flooded with 
 rain and find the roads impracticable. We have not had 
 a drop of rain since leaving Jerusalem. 
 
 "March 18. On Wednesday we came from Ain- 
 Balatha, skirting around the edge of the marshy ground 
 that lies north of the Waters of Merom and making our 
 way over very rough and rocky paths, to Banias — ancient 
 Caesarea Philippi. We stopped to lunch under some huge 
 trees on the outskirts of the city of Dan, once called Laish, 
 
 135 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 an account of whose capture is given in Judges. Here is 
 one of the main sources of the Jordan, a full flowing spring 
 breaking out from the midst of the hill on which Dan was 
 situated and running in a large stream — the Leddan, I 
 think it is called — into the Jordan a short distance below. 
 An hour after lunch we were at Banias, at the foot of Mt. 
 Hermon. The main source of the Jordan is a magnificent 
 spring, the largest I ever saw, bursting out from under the 
 solid rock that forms the base of the mountain, through 
 many passages, in a semi-circle of a hundred and fifty feet 
 and rushing down the sides of the hills in beautiful cata- 
 racts until it reaches its bed. There is an old Roman 
 castle in ruins standing on an isolated eminence, two 
 thousand feet, I suppose, above the town. The ascent is 
 very difficult; and, as I would have a good view of the 
 whole of it in going up Mt. Hermon and knew very well 
 what was to be seen, I did not go to it ... . Thursday 
 morning we climbed five thousand feet over one of the 
 passes of Mt. Hermon, stopped a while to eat some snow, 
 the first we had seen for more than a year, and take a look 
 at the Hauran, the land of the Amorites, stretching away 
 to the eastward and to get our first view of Damascus in 
 the distance. Then we came slowly down the mountain 
 on the northern side and encamped for the night at Kefr 
 Hauwar by the side of one of the branches of the river 
 Pharpar. This morning we started at da3dight, passed 
 over a succession of broad, rocky hills, and about midday 
 came down into the plain of Damascus. By two o'clock 
 we were in our hotel, putting an end to our tent life in 
 Palestine and Syria. " 
 
 136 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 The Bishop As a Preacher. 
 
 Bishop Hendrix has said that Bishop Wilson was a 
 four-fold man — a profound student, a great preacher, 
 a wonderful organizer and a commanding bishop. 
 But after all has been said of his accurate scholar- 
 ship, his organizing genius, his administrative ability, 
 he stands out preemdnently as a preacher. He had 
 none of the studied arts of the orator, nor the artificial 
 ornamentation of the rhetorician. His manner in the 
 pulpit was quiet and his delivery calm and unim- 
 passioned except when he rose in magnificent flights 
 of oratory with a compelling sweep and range of 
 thought, that seemed bounded only by the eternities, 
 and lifted his hearers to such spiritual heights that 
 through heaven's unfolding portals they beheld 
 visions of ineffable things. He spoke with the 
 authority of a Hebrew prophet, with the dynamic 
 force of a Saint Paul, and sometimes with the rap- 
 turous mysticism and seraphic sweetness of a saint , 
 John. As a forest is swayed by a tempest, he swayed 
 vast assemblages by his marvelous expositions of the 
 Scriptures and his inescapable applications of the 
 truth. 
 
 His matchless insight into the meaning of God's 
 word and his power of organizing and marshalling his 
 thought in a fashion peculiar to himself enabled him 
 to present the truth with almost irresistible force. 
 Some one has said that his chief differentiation was in 
 his preaching, that he was so unlike other men and 
 
 137 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 yet so free from the extraordinary as to be inde- 
 scribable; and furthermore he had never known any 
 other man who even with cold, incisive sentences, in 
 a dispassionate exordium could often send a thrill 
 through all the avenues of the being of his hearers. 
 Truly as a preacher he baffled all classification. 
 
 The age has had few stronger thinkers or abler 
 Christian philosophers than he. He dwelt in a realm 
 of high thinking and holy living. It could not have 
 been otherwise that he should have preached from a 
 full heart and mind. 
 
 Bishop Wilson placed the largest estimate upon 
 preaching of the proper sort, and throughout his life 
 gave the full strength of his energies not simply to 
 preaching, but to preaching the gospel; and this may 
 account in some measure for his phenomenal power 
 in the pulpit. In his farewell message to the General 
 Conference of 1914, speaking of his ministry of more 
 than sixty years, he said: 
 
 "Through it all I have tried, first of all, to maintain 
 the character of a Methodist preacher, than which there 
 is none higher on earth. I have sought to preach the 
 gospel, only the gospel. I have not cared for side issues 
 that have been raised. I have paid but little attention to 
 the opposition of the world. I have had implicit faith 
 in the power of the truth when it makes its appeal to the 
 consciences of men in the sight of God, and I have drawn 
 my lessons and inspirations from the Word of God, and 
 from that only. " 
 
 In 1901 he was a delegate to the Ecumenical Con- 
 ference which met in London. One morning an 
 eminent man who was to speak on "The Influence of 
 Methodism in the Promotion of International Peace" 
 failed to appear. An American who was on the 
 
 138 
 
ST. PAUL'S M. E. CHURCH, SOUTH. BALTIMORE, MD. 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 executive committee suggested that Bishop Wilson 
 take his place. The leaders thought it impossible that 
 any man, without a moment's notice, could speak to 
 and hold that throng from all nations of the earth. 
 But he captivated his listeners in a fifteen-minute 
 speech, one of the shortest of his life. 
 
 This address is reproduced, but it is impossible to 
 reproduce the electrically charged atmosphere of the 
 occasion, the subtle influences of the personality of 
 the preacher permeating his utterances and filling the 
 house, and the spiritual triumph which followed. 
 Though the principles he emphasized are as sound 
 today as they were at that time, without any of the 
 attending circumstances, no conception can be 
 obtained of the power of this deliverance. The 
 Bishop spoke as follows : 
 
 "I shall not waste any time making apologies. If I 
 say anything good, it is my own; and if I do not, charge it 
 to the original, who ought to be here, and is not. 
 
 "The question itself is narrowed down, I think, to a 
 very small space. A simple exhortation of the Apostle 
 will show the place that we, as Methodists, and as a 
 Church of God, occupy in relation to international peace: 
 'exhort, therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, 
 intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; 
 for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may 
 lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and hon- 
 esty .... I will, therefore, that men pray everywhere, 
 lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting. ' My 
 impression is that the secret of the whole matter lies there. 
 We may organize Peace Conference and pass peace reso- 
 lutions in our Conference, and express ourselves in the 
 newspapers, and all that sort of thing. But they are mere 
 incidents, and if they be not sincere and genuine expres- 
 sions of the spirit and power that underlie our relations to 
 
 139 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 God and to humanity, they are nothing more than the 
 passing breeze, and amount to nothing. 
 
 "The element of power in Methodism has always been 
 at the bottom. We have laid great stress upon personal 
 spiritual life, we have insisted upon vital godliness. We have 
 insisted in every other department of our religious life that 
 is the essential thing, and nothing is available for use, 
 or effective in service, without that. Is it not so also in 
 this case? We do manufacture public opinion, but we do 
 it by that subtle, invisible process which works within the 
 secret chambers of human souls, and through the agencies 
 of living experience — Christian life. There is more power 
 to accomplish the peace of the world in our own rooms 
 than there is in all the open Conferences that can be held. 
 The men that move the world are the men that keep talk- 
 ing with God day by day. I have no doubt that the 
 multitude of these saintly women who have influenced so 
 largely the modern life of Christendom, unobtrusively and 
 quietly, have done more to bring about a condition of 
 things that promises peace in the future than we have done 
 with our more open demonstrations and more active ef- 
 forts. 
 
 "I am satisfied that at the bottom, after all, we have 
 to get back to those first principles. John the Baptist and 
 our Lord Jesus Christ preached to the soldier, and gave 
 them directions as to their methods of life, but did not say 
 a word about wars, or the causes of wars, except that they 
 would be. They taught us nothing as to the reason why 
 wars should be carried on, or why wars should cease. 
 They only let us know that underlying all the commotion, 
 tumult, disturbance, passion and strife of this world there 
 were elements at work which in time would cause them all 
 to subside and settle down into permanent and final com- 
 posure and rest. It is to these elements that we are looking 
 under a sort of chemical process that we cannot see or 
 define ; but the element is there and the force is there — the 
 vital force. When Methodism takes its true place in re- 
 lation to the nations of the world and international rela- 
 tions, it will be found that the power that has controlled 
 and influenced and directed the whole course of events was 
 
 140 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 simply the individual religious life of the great body of the 
 Church of God. 
 
 "I am quite satisfied that must be the case. We have 
 had a great deal of effort made in these last years to in- 
 fluence legislation. I never had much faith in it. I do 
 not look to law to promote temperance, or almost any- 
 thing else that is good. I have never been satisfied that 
 methods and agencies of that sort, except as the voluntary 
 expression of an uncontrollable and all-powerful principle 
 and vital element within, would avail anything. You may 
 put some obstacles out of the way and bring in some in- 
 cidental agencies that may smooth things over, but, after 
 all, that which will work the result will be the conscious- 
 ness that God is at work within men, and through the 
 whole course of society and of nations too. ' The nations 
 and the kingdoms ' — that was the lesson which we heard 
 this morning — 'shall sei-ve Him'; and unless they come 
 to the recognition of Him we shall never get to that state 
 of civilization and that position in relation to all the ele- 
 ments of a highly refined, cultured, and pure life that we 
 are seeking. 
 
 "Our Methodism needs, first of all, cultivation of its 
 spiritual power and life — recourse to the private room 
 more than anything else, ceaseless daily prayer to God, 
 which avails more than aught else besides; prayer for 
 kings, and for all that are in authority, with a distinct view 
 to the fact that we may lead quiet and peaceable lives. 
 If I should speak for an hour, I do not know that I could' 
 say anything more than that. I hold St. Paul to be a first- 
 class authority, and I am very well satisfied that when we 
 get outside the range — narrow as it may seem — of the 
 prescriptions and provisions of the Gospel and the New 
 Testament, we shall be very apt to go astray. All the 
 rest of it is mere conjecture, and speculation, and effort, 
 oftentimes baseless, of our human reason and human 
 energies; but when we get to that, we are on solid ground. 
 We cannot make any mistake there. 
 
 "What Jesus Christ says is absolutely certain. What 
 St. Paul says we take upon Divine authority. We are 
 sure that things that they tell us to do are exactly the 
 
 141 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 things that we ought to do, and that if we do them, the 
 necessary result will follow: We complain that we have 
 lived so long since Christ spoke, and Paul talked, without 
 having achieved the result. Well, have we done any- 
 better on any other line? Our great aim has been right 
 against sin. We have been fighting it through all these 
 centuries; yet it is about us every day, open, barefaced, 
 unashamed. We see it, and we scarcely take notice of it. 
 We simply shrug our shoulders if it is a little more pro- 
 nounced than usual, and turn away and smile. We do 
 not feel that awful horror at its presence which took the 
 Psalmist when he saw people violating the law. So it is 
 with wars and tumults, and things of that sort. We have 
 to get rid of the sin first, and then we shall get rid of the 
 wars. Strike at that, the root of the whole business. 
 Aim at the very fundamental and essential evil of the 
 matter, and when you have that out of the way you will 
 get all the rest out ; for Christ came, ' not to send peace on 
 the earth, but a sword, ' until the sword should hew down 
 everything that stood against Him. When that is done, 
 we can look for quietness and assurance forever. " 
 
 Wlien it was announced that he would speak at 
 St. James Hall a few evenings later, a vast throng was 
 present and all eyes were turned upon the American 
 Bishop. The meeting was presided over by the Hon- 
 orable R. W. Perks, M. P. This time the Bishop 
 spoke over an hour on "The Moral Unity of the 
 English-Speaking Peoples. " When he had finished, 
 the large audience rose and pressed toward the plat- 
 form to bear him in triumph on their shoulders; but 
 with his accustomed modesty, he would have none of 
 this. It was pronounced by many of the pulpit 
 orators present as the greatest missionary sermon 
 they had ever heard, for his theme was susceptible of 
 a missionary application of the largest dimensions. 
 
 142 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 The question has been asked : Did Bishop Wilson 
 ever make what men call a failure? Did he ever fall 
 below his standard because of adverse physical con- 
 ditions and lack of mental stimulus? Rarely. His 
 mind was so constituted and trained, his spirit was 
 so well poised, and his faith built upon such im- 
 pregnable foundations that he was not usually de- 
 pressed by unfavorable environments. He felt that 
 preaching was a matter of duty and privilege and 
 always did his best. 
 
 Once at a District Conference where he had 
 preached and had charmed and inspired the people 
 with his uplifting utterances, there was a general 
 desire that he should preach again on the closing 
 night of the Conference. He consented. The Church 
 was crowded with people eager to hear him. The 
 Bishop rose, announced the hymn, and afterwards his 
 text, and began his sermon, but had difficulty in 
 proceeding. After speaking for five or six minutes, 
 he grew pale and sat down. He had been seized with 
 an attack of vertigo which detained him at the seat 
 of the Conference for several days after its adjourn- 
 ment. 
 
 Dr. S. A. Steel has given an account of a time 
 when he says Bishop Wilson did not measure up to 
 expectation. He writes: 
 
 * ' I was with him at a District Conference once. It was 
 in August. The weather was hot, close, and stifling. 
 It wilted everything. An archangel's plume would have 
 drooped in such an atmosphere. Bishop Wilson preached 
 at eleven o'clock, but not with his usual sweep and power. 
 The people went away disappointed. Many had come for 
 miles to hear the great preacher. The humid atmosphere 
 had proved too much for him. " 
 
 143 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 But Dr. Steel had to preach at night. Bishop 
 Wilson was in the pulpit, and the same brand of 
 atmosphere was in both pulpit and pew. Dr. Steel 
 describes his experience: 
 
 "My machine would not work. After perhaps fifteen 
 minutes of useless struggle to sta'*t something, I stopped 
 and said: ' Brethren, I'm in the brush. I know it. God 
 knows it. I expect you know it. But one other thing I 
 know, salvation is free, hallelujah!' Some brother 
 shouted out 'Amen,' then another said 'Hallelujah,' and 
 others joined in shouting 'Amen. ' It started a whirlwind 
 and we broke up with a grand ' old-time rehgion ' meeting. 
 Some time after I met Bishop Wilson. He greeted me 
 cordially, and said, 'I haven't seen you since you were in 
 
 the brush at District Conference.' 'Yes,' 
 
 I replied, 'if I remember aright, you were "in the brush, " 
 too. I got out and you didn't.' 'WeU, ' he said, 'you 
 hollered your way out. ' He sometimes failed; but that 
 seldom happened, and even his failures were beyond the 
 bestof mostof us. " 
 
 Dr. Steel adds: "I have often wondered how our 
 Bishops preach as well as they do at an Annual Conference, 
 when from Wednesday to Saturday they are engaged with 
 the business of the session, often involved in much anxiety 
 about the appointments of the preachers, and pressed 
 with a hundred details. But if these things ever got in 
 Bishop Wilson's way, he never showed any trace of it in 
 preaching. And when he swung loose, it was good to be 
 there. He was slow getting started, like a big ocean liner. 
 But once in the channel, my, my, how majestically he 
 moved! You did not have the dazzling imagination of 
 Munsey; you missed the polished periods of Galloway; 
 there was none of the emotional eloquence of Kavanaugh, 
 or Marvin's rapturous flights. But you were lifted by a 
 tidal wave of spiritual power and borne upward and on- 
 ward until heaven seemed to be all around you, and the 
 Delectable Mountains and the Land of Beulah were in ivll 
 view." 
 
 144 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 The question can with better grace be asked, 
 "Has the Church ever produced any other man who 
 has preached a larger number of great sermons or 
 whose preaching has been more uniformly great?" 
 
 Has it ever produced any other man who was 
 such a masterly interpreter of the mind, and such a 
 luminous expositor of the Epistles of Saint Paul? 
 In this field he was almost peerless. His expositions 
 were so clear, so profound, so inspiring and convinc- 
 ing, that many have regarded him as the mightiest 
 expository preacher of the world. Bishop Hoss says 
 of him in this connection : 
 
 "It is safe to say that no Methodist minister has ever 
 been more thoroughly saturated with the Pauline Epistles 
 than Bishop A. W. Wilson. To use the language of Lord 
 Bacon, he has literally 'chewed them inwardly and di- 
 gested them.' They have been his meditation day and 
 night for more than fifty years. Whenever he spoke con- 
 cerning them, it is with the authority of a fxill and pene- 
 trating knowledge. " 
 
 But, as Bishop Hoss so well says, he did not 
 confine his thinking to Paul : 
 
 "Nearly everybody that has written of him has re- 
 ferred to the Pauline tone of his preaching, and justly so. 
 But this does not mean that he was shut up to Paul. He 
 literally reveled in the Gospels, and found immense satis- 
 faction in the great passages of the Old Testament. Many 
 have referred to his familiarity with the Greek Testament. 
 In this respect, we have had no man in my day, with the 
 possible exception of Dr. Gross Alexander, who began to 
 be his equal. In his prime, he was also very fond of the 
 Hebrew Psalter. 
 
 "More than any man I have ever kno\\Ti he resembled 
 an old Hebrew prophet. In his preaching he was never a 
 logic chopper, laying down premises and drawing painfully 
 
 145 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 a narrow conclusion, but he always spoke with authority 
 as a man who had heard the Word of the Lord and felt that 
 he must deliver it. Whether he made this impression upon 
 others to as great an extent as he did upon me I cannot 
 tell, but I am sure that I never listened to a man in my 
 life whose utterances seemed to come more straight from 
 an intuition of the eternal truth." 
 
 The author is indebted to Bishop Hoss for an in- 
 cident concerning a sermon that Bishop Wilson 
 preached in the far South and that had a marvelous 
 effect on his hearers. This is the story as Bishop Hoss 
 tells it : 
 
 "I suppose, however, in his entire career he was never 
 greater than in a Thanksgiving sennon which he preached 
 before the North Texas Conference at Wichita Falls. 
 Dr. J. W. Hill, who tells the story so admirably, once gave 
 me an account of it. He went to Church that day with 
 Judge E. B. Perkins. The house was crowded, and as the 
 services progressed, a deepening sense of awe fell upon the 
 audience, so that when the benediction was pronounced, 
 nobody moved. After a few minutes of silence, however, 
 Hill said to Judge Perkins ; ' It's time to go, isn't it ? ' 
 
 "'No,' replied the Judge, 'Please let me alone. Hill, 
 I haven't lit yet. ' 
 
 "After a pause, he added: 'Hill, I used to think that 
 you and J. W. Clark were great preachers, but I was alto- 
 gether in error about that. You can't begin to preach; 
 you can't even take a text. " 
 
 On the occasion of his eightieth birthday, Bishop 
 Candler wrote this estimate of him as a preacher: 
 
 ' ' In the English-speaking nations are found the greatest 
 living preachers, and after hearing all of the greatest 
 among them, I sincerely believe Bishop Alpheus W. Wilson 
 is greater than any of them. He expounds the Scripture 
 with a clearness, power, and authority such ais no other 
 preacher whom I hear can equal. He is a great believer, 
 
 146 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 and preaches with strength because he believes with 
 strength. " 
 
 Bishop Denny on the same occasion said: 
 
 " More than anything else Bishop Wilson is a preacher. 
 He was divinely called to preach the gospel, and to him to 
 proclaim the message of his Lord has always been a solemn 
 and a happy privilege. At times the effect of his sermons 
 is overwhelming, and his audiences disperse knowing that 
 they have heard a man of rare gifts, great intellect, and 
 spiritual power. " 
 
 Later Bishop Denny wrote: 
 
 "Perhaps no man in Methodism has been so unani- 
 mously acclaimed as the greatest preacher ever raised up 
 among us. He was a careful and constant student of the 
 sacred Scriptures in their original tongues, and he also 
 read and loved his English Bible. He thought deeply and 
 constantly of the truth God has revealed to men. He dug 
 deeply, patiently, persistently into its treasures. He 
 made Paiil his very own and joyed in his fellowship in 
 Christ in company with the master apostle; not that he 
 neglected or disparaged other prophets and apostles, for 
 this he never did, but that he advanced far beyond his 
 brethren in his grasp of Pauline theology and in sympathy 
 with the truth the apostle to the Gentiles was chosen to 
 teach. He was given to prayer, ejaculatory prayer, much 
 prayer, and more and more prayer. He loved prayer, yet 
 was free from ostentation in that holy exercise, as in 
 everything else he did. 
 
 ' ' His preaching was marked by the dominant note of 
 certitude and authority, and he eschewed the matters of 
 probability. His Lord had spoken in his word and also 
 in his own heart, and he spoke out what had come to him 
 from the heavens. Not only was his preaching marked by 
 this dominant and persistent note, but also by constant 
 bursts of originality, by the steady flame of genius, by 
 rare fertility of suggcstiveness, by amazingly wide reaches 
 of thought, and by unflagging devotion to his Lord. No 
 
 147 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 part of his work appealed to him so strongly, and in none 
 did he so greatly rejoice and exercise himself more con- 
 stantly than in preaching with power the blessed gospel 
 of the glorious God. He believed that a dispensation of 
 the gospel was committed to him, and throughout the 
 world the multitudes of people who heard him for more 
 than sixty-five years also believed that he was sent of 
 God. " 
 
 Rev. F. J. Prettyman, D. D., Chaplain of the 
 United States Senate, and former pastor of the family 
 of Bishop Wilson, gave this estimate of his preaching 
 before the Baltimore Conference: 
 
 "We may narrowly escape being presumptuous to 
 mention the great constructive lines which were especially 
 characteristic of his preaching. Some of these were : The 
 essential unity of the Old and New Testament in the revel- 
 ation of the will and purpose of God; the divine witness 
 which is alone sufficient to attest a divine fact; the self- 
 attesting power of revealed truth; the essential deity of 
 Christ ; who is the image of the invisible God ; the fact and 
 quality of Christ's personality as the value and merit of 
 His work of atonement; the direct spiritual illumina- 
 tion of Paul which qualified him for the theological leader- 
 ship of the church in all ages ; the universal function of the 
 church in transforming the world by the word of His 
 truth; the absolute freedom of humanity in Jesus Christ. 
 These at least indicate the general sphere of his preaching. 
 With a voice of commanding quality of tone, and a pre- 
 sence of prophetic mold he delivered his message to a 
 world whose only problem is sin and whose only Savior is 
 Jesus Christ the Lord. " 
 
 Hon. Josephus Daniels, Secretary^ of the Navy, 
 wrote several years ago of the effect one of Bishop 
 Wilson's sermons had upon his life. 
 
 "One night twenty years ago hearing that Bishop 
 Alpheus W. Wilson was to preach a mid-week sermon in a 
 
 148 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 small Methodist Church in Raleigh, I made one of a con- 
 gregation of less than one hundred which heard him preach 
 the greatest sermon to which I have listened. After the 
 passing of a fifth of a century that sermon remains with me 
 still. It has helped me all the succeeding years. " 
 
 At his funeral services in Trinity Church, Balti- 
 more, which had been founded largely through his 
 instrumentality, and with which he had been pe- 
 culiarly identified for years, these tributes were paid 
 to his marvelous power as a preacher. 
 
 Bishop Eugene R. Hendrix, senior Bishop of our 
 Church : 
 
 "Was there ever a more devoted student of the word 
 of God than Alpheus W. Wilson? Prepared by his 
 scholarly training in early life, he formed the habit of 
 reading God's Word in the original languages, especially 
 the New Testament. It is said that he read it through 
 entirely every few weeks. He thought in terms of the 
 Greek Testament; especially did he explore the life of 
 Paul. Was there ever such a Pauline preacher, such an 
 interpreter of the Pauline mind ? Was there ever one who 
 expounded more fully Paul's great teachings? What a 
 delight to hear him ! He preached as some one has vitally 
 described: 'It is not in circles that he preached, but in 
 spirals : higher and higher he rose until he brought us to the 
 cross and made us feel with him, ' For me to live is Christ. '' 
 He was a reader of many books, but his chief study was 
 God's Word, and men everywhere accepted from his lips 
 great expositions of God's truth. I doubt whether 
 Methodism has ever had but one such a preacher — Stephen 
 Olin. Alpheus W. Wilson was more generally known as 
 an expositor, and noted as a preacher of the Gospel. " 
 
 Bishop Earl Cranston, of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church : 
 
 "Sometimes we hear of a preacher that 'he was not at 
 his best. ' Never have I heard Bishop Wilson preach when 
 
 149 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 he was not at his best. I never knew him to lack in clear- 
 ness of thought, in appropriateness of expression. I had 
 almost said in completeness of logic, in clearness of faith, 
 because that is an element in the proper presentation of 
 the Scriptures. I have never known him to fail to do his 
 best, such were his resources of mind with the great top- 
 ics of gospel truth, such the very close communion of 
 his soul with Christ, such his absolute reHance at all times 
 upon the Holy Ghost. It never could be truthfully said: 
 'Well, the Bishop was not himself to-day.' He was a 
 marvelous preacher, as Bishop Hendrix has well said. " 
 
 Bishop Luther B. Wilson, of the Methodist Epis- 
 copal Church: 
 
 "I cannot forbear to pay my tribute to him as the 
 mightiest pieacher that it has ever been my privilege to 
 hear, one who made as clear as crystal, and yet as glowing 
 as the burning sun, the truth as it is in Jesus Christ — one 
 so clear in all the purposes of his intellect, and of his faith, 
 made it easy for one to follow him and climb up and see 
 visions of open gates, and of the diademed Lord. " 
 
 Rev. B. W. Bond, D. D., who had enjoyed a 
 friendship of long standing with the Bishop : 
 
 "The preaching of Bishop Wilson was as unique as it 
 was great. Utterly devoid as it was of any effort after 
 elocutionary or rhetorical oratory, it nevertheless showed 
 him to be one of the greatest masters of effective speech. 
 While upon the platform and in the discussion of other 
 subjects also, he wielded the weapons of debate with such 
 readiness and effect that few cared to enter into combat 
 with him, the pulpit was preeminently his throne of power. 
 There the word, and the word alone, was his theme. His 
 expositions of the Truth were always fresh. _ During fifty 
 years I have heard him, at times at short intervals, but 
 never without new and most instructive views presented 
 by him. His sennons always seemed born of a deep, 
 spiritual apprehension of the inner meaning of the Divine 
 word, attained by few men, gained by constant meditation 
 
 150 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 and still more by constant communion with God. Massive 
 yet penetrating, deep yet opening clearly new vistas of 
 thought and revelation, he preached with 'logic on fire,' 
 his whole being, mind and heart and spirit aglow with the 
 glorious message of salvation with which he was com- 
 missioned by his Master, expressing himself, as he always 
 did, in the choicest and most expressive language. He 
 seemed as one of the old prophets declaring the counsel of 
 Jehovah, yet breathing forth also an apostolic spirit of 
 love; a modern John, beloved and loving, yet also of truth 
 and righteousness. " 
 
 Rev. John O. Willson, D. D., President of Lander 
 College, who heard the sermon Bishop Wilson 
 preached in Greenwood, S. C., shortly before his 
 death, which was the last that ever fell from his lips : 
 
 "There is no question about the greatness of Bishop 
 Wilson. He was the greatest preacher I ever heard or 
 ever expect to hear, and I have heard many great preach- 
 ers, and 'never a man spake like this man. ' I trust the 
 quotation is not sacrilegious. But he spake for his Lord, 
 and spake like his Lord's servant, that wonderful Apostle 
 to the Gentiles. 
 
 "I make no hesitation in saying that from the first 
 sermon that I heard him preach in 1878, and all the ser- 
 mons down, this sermon was the climax of them all. It 
 seems to me now that that must have been his swan song, 
 the sweetest of them all. All that profoundness of learning, 
 all that clearness of vision, all that we never, never shall 
 hear again. We sat there, the congregation of which I 
 was a part, we sat there and listened and listened and 
 listened and our hearts were fixed on better life in time to 
 come and better service, and better admiration for this 
 wonderful preacher. Oh, the pity of it — why didn't I 
 know it was to be the last time, why didn't I have my 
 stenographer there to take down those wonderful words — 
 I could not take the tone, but I might have had the words. 
 Oh, it is a pity, indeed, to think that that preaching will 
 not be heard by us again. " 
 
 151 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 The Bishop Asa Man: His Mental Habits 
 AND Powers. 
 
 Bishop Wilson was known as a profound thinker 
 and scholar throughout the Church. He was 
 blessed with a high order of intellectual powers and 
 was most diligent in their development and im- 
 provement. From his early years he held his mind 
 to strict discipline and training and naturally formed 
 studious habits which became more and more pro- 
 nounced as he grew in years. He was a critical 
 student to the time of his death. Besides his study 
 of Hebrew, Greek and the Bible, not only in the 
 English versions but in the original tongues, he read 
 philosophy, science, histor3^ biography, and theology. 
 He was familiar with the fruits of modern scholar- 
 ship, but never for a moment was his well grounded 
 orthodoxy colored by the drifting opinions of what is 
 popularly known as "advanced theology." He 
 gave no little study to the world's religions and their 
 comparative values, but gave his heart and his al- 
 legiance to the religion of Jesus Christ to which none 
 of them can be compared. The human character 
 and impotence of the one accentuates the divine 
 character and strength of the other. The contrast 
 reveals a firm foundation for the Christian faith. 
 
 His masterly mental grasp and retention of what 
 he mastered made him one of the best equipped and 
 readiest public speakers of the age. The wealth of 
 his great mind made contribution to every sermon he 
 
 152 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 preached and every address he made. To the 
 thoughtful, either in private or pubHc speech, he was 
 an overflowing foiintain of knowledge and inspira- 
 tion. 
 
 One of the reasons for his ripe scholarship was not 
 only because he had a massive, well trained intellect, 
 but because he had so wisely improved his time. 
 He was never triflingly employed, but whether at 
 home or abroad, on a railway train, a steamship, in a 
 buggy crossing the country, or making his way in 
 primitive fashion through Oriental lands, he general- 
 ly had a book in his hand and was engrossed in study. 
 Bishop Hoss in writing from Korea on the occasion 
 of an official visit, to that land some years ago, said 
 concerning him: 
 
 "When Bishop Wilson first visited the country, he 
 made the trip back and forth in a chair, carried by four 
 coolies, consuming two days each way. The tradition 
 among the brethren is that he spent most of the time 
 reading the Greek Testament; and I can well believe it. 
 Lying down, or rising up, abiding at home or going abroad, 
 on land or on sea, that Greek Testament has been his most 
 constant companion ever since I first knew him. And 
 what wonderful things he has managed to get out of it! 
 Is there any one of his brethren left who will ever be able 
 to sound its shoreless depths as he has done? While fol- 
 lowing even remotely in his footsteps, I cannot help feeling 
 as if I were in the King's highway. " 
 
 Lord Bacon in his essay entitled, "Of Studies" 
 makes this observation ; ' ' Reading maketh a full man, 
 conference a ready man, writing an exact man." 
 The impression generally prevails that though the 
 Bishop was a great reader, and speaker, he was never 
 given to writing. This is a mistake. During the 
 
 153 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 early part of his life he not only wrote many lengthy 
 letters but also some of his sermons in full and care- 
 fully prepared many logical outlines. The author 
 has before him one hundred and twenty-eight of the 
 latter ; seventy-eight of them are based upon texts in 
 the Pauline Epistles and fifty upon texts from all other 
 sources, showing the bent of his mind even in the 
 early period of his ministry. It was not until his 
 right hand was maimed in a railroad accident in his 
 latter years that he was compelled to forego in a 
 large measure the use of his pen. This injury coupled 
 with his general aversion to writing, correcting, and 
 revising stenographic reports of his sermons and 
 lectures, has resulted in a serious loss to the theologi- 
 cal world. The only products of his brain preserved 
 in book form are the Cole Lectures for 1894 and 1910, 
 entitled "The Witnesses to Christ," and "The Life 
 and Mind of Saint Paul," respectively. These 
 books have been so well wrought from the Scriptural 
 material interpreted by the mind and heart of the 
 author, and are so fundamental in character that 
 time will only add to their permanent value. 
 
 As an illustration of the thoroughness with which 
 he mastered a subject and the retention of the re- 
 sults of his investigations, a paragraph is quoted 
 from a letter to a friend who had written to him in 
 1887, while he was at Kobe, Japan, expressing fear 
 that the Revised Version of the New Testament 
 which was then a burning subject before the people, 
 might overthrow some cardinal doctrine. 
 
 This paragraph on Biblical inspiration written in 
 the midst of his Episcopal duties in the East with no 
 
 154 
 
Ill 
 
 TRINITY M. E. CliUUCH, SOUTH, HAl.TI.MdHi; MD. 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 books of reference to consult shows a remarkable 
 familiarity with the subject. 
 
 "The revision of the translation has really nothing to 
 do with the question. Holy men of old spalce as they were 
 moved by the Holy Ghost : but does that imply that their 
 words would never be lost by the world's negligence, or 
 corrupted by the world's sin? It rather seems to me that 
 the preservation in their integrity and purity of the words 
 spoken was one of the tests to which men were subjected — 
 part of their trial to prove whether the\^ or any of them 
 were worthy to become custodians of the truth of God and 
 to reap its fruits. God did not propose to operate b}' a 
 continuous and unending miracle for the perpetuation of 
 the truth. In this, as in all other matters. He made the 
 provision and put the responsibility of making it effective 
 upon men. Nor was it ever claimed that the translators 
 of the Bible were inspired, or their translation infallible. 
 That would be to continue the miracle in another form. 
 Good men, holy men used all the knowledge at their com- 
 mand to translate the Scriptures out of the original Greek 
 and Hebrew into English. Wyclif , Tyndale, Cranmer, and 
 others did marvelously good work in this line: but the 
 Hebrew and Greek languages were not so well known by 
 them as they are now: nor had the many manuscript 
 copies and versions in other languages with which we are 
 now familiar been discovered in their time. Their work 
 was revised and improved by the translators of King 
 James' time, who gave us the version known as the 
 authorized and used by the English speaking Church of 
 God all over the world. That version was to its pre- 
 decessors just what the late version is to it: and it met 
 with the same sort of opposition and foolish comment and 
 made its way very slowly. It was never authoritatively 
 adopted by any church : and its only claims to the designa- 
 tion ' authorized ' found on its title page — no, not found on 
 its title page, but universally employed to distinguish it. 
 is that it gradually won its way to universal acceptance 
 and supplanted every other. To this day the Common 
 Prayer Book of the English Church and the Protestant 
 
 155 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 Episcopal Church sets forth by authority another version. 
 It was never pretended that the authorized version was 
 a perfect translation, or that it always followed the best 
 readings. It was simply the best available and con- 
 tained all things necessary for eternal salvation. The 
 revision is in many respects an improvement: but in not 
 one item of our faith has it made the smallest change. 
 The things proved from the authorized are equally proved 
 from the revision. The appeal is still, as it always was, 
 in disputed points to the original: and differences in un- 
 derstanding and interpretation will exist as long as men 
 are fallible. " 
 
 Contrary to popular belief, his great mind could 
 take up small things and extract their real substance. 
 There was formerly at Trinity a young ladies' mis- 
 sionary society called the Argosy. To this most of 
 the girls of the church belonged. Once a year they 
 held the usual open meeting, with refreshments and 
 music, and set forth their small results and made the 
 occasion a festivity. Several years he was asked to 
 make a brief talk on these anniversaries. He never 
 declined when well enough to speak. He would go, 
 sit through the exercises, hearing about the fifty or 
 sixty dollars gathered in with such pride, and then 
 make a talk of a few minutes that would stir everj'- 
 girl present and make her desire earnestly to do more 
 than her share in the Church's work for missions. 
 
 Every great scholar has some mental diversion. 
 Bishop Wilson's was detective stories of the Sherlock 
 Holmes type, and these he read with avidity. "The 
 Three Musketeers" was one of his favorites, and the 
 periodicals "Adventure" and the "Popular Maga- 
 zine" were not strangers to him. This class of liter- 
 ature was not only restful to his mind after a study 
 
 156 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 of volumes of ponderous thought, but its psychologi- 
 cal suggestiveness helped him in his thinking. 
 
 Bishop Wilson when at home lived chiefly in his 
 study reading and thinking. The studious habits of 
 a life time which yielded the fruits of such ripe and 
 accurate scholarship, were not broken in his latter 
 years of physical infirmity. In the midst of suffering 
 his well-trained mind performed its functions with 
 a force scarcely less than in the days of his fullest 
 vigor, and grappled and mastered the great problems 
 confronting the Church. He was a constant student. 
 When for five months in 1908 he was so seriously ill, 
 when there was scarcely a night when his mind did 
 not temporarily wander, he read and mastered five 
 volumes by such authors as Denney, Hort, Orr, and 
 Swete — notwithstanding one third of Swete's w^ork 
 was in Greek with Latin footnotes. This showed the 
 usual triumph of his mind over his bodily afflictions. 
 During the last thirteen years of his life he read his 
 Greek Testament through seventy-six times. 
 
 When over against his mental achievements is 
 placed the fact that Bishop Wilson was never a 
 robust man, that he suffered from various ailments, 
 and as some one has well said, "dragged a weak and 
 often a sickly body through his whole life, " what he 
 accomplished in the intellectual realm cannot be 
 regarded as short of marvelous. He knew what it 
 was to suffer prolonged spells of illness, and even to 
 have his physicians inform him that death was not 
 far away. But none of these things moved him. 
 He met suffering with the patience and fortitude of 
 a stoic but influenced by far loftier motives. He 
 endured as seeing Him who is invisible. During one 
 
 157 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 of his spells of serious illness a member of his family 
 said that if he knew that he would die that afternoon 
 that knowledge w^ould not even perceptibly quicken 
 his pulses. Indeed, it is probable, had it been pos- 
 sible, he would have continued his thinking and 
 studying to his last hour, as he had fully committed 
 himself to God years ago, and was ready at any 
 moment to obey the final summons. It is likely that 
 at the beginning of the brief illness that terminated 
 in his death he knew that the end was at hand; but 
 his last hours with his family, ill as he was, were as 
 calm and unrufSed as if they had been a part of the 
 ordinarv course of his life. 
 
 158 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 The Bishop as a Man: His Home Life and So- 
 cial Qualities. 
 
 Although Bishop Wilson was undemonstrative 
 and reserved by nature yet within the sacred pre- 
 cincts of his home he relaxed and bestowed upon his 
 family the treasures of his affection and love. 
 
 His marriage was the culmination of a romance 
 which had its beginning in an old-fashioned ex- 
 perience meeting. On one occasion he visited a 
 girls' class in company?" v/ith an old preacher of the 
 Puritan type who abjured the vanities of this sinful 
 world, would not wear buttons on his coat, or sleep 
 in a feather bed, or touch food prepared on Sunday. 
 One of the girls had a feather in her hat or some or- 
 nament on her person. She was duly rebuked by 
 the old man for her godless pride, and burst into 
 tears. The heart of the chivalrous young preacher 
 went out to the weeping girl, who four years later 
 became his wife. 
 
 But he did not win her without great effort. For 
 a long time he was kept in suspense regarding her 
 answer. But he was a constant and persistent 
 lover. He felt that in her word were wrapped up 
 his success and happiness for all time. 
 
 As her home was in Baltimore, it was not unusual 
 for him to make engagements that would lead to that 
 city. But like Paul to whom he referred in this con- 
 nection, his chief strength was in his epistles. His 
 letters to her, though largely occupied with his ex- 
 
 159 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 periences concerning his work, usually closed with 
 several sentences, which were the very quintessence of 
 an effective appeal to the heart of a cultured young 
 woman. Their number had a cumulative effect and 
 accomphshed the end he so ardently sought. It was 
 an epoch in his life when she finally consented to 
 become the sharer of the joys and sorrows of the 
 young itinerant, and brought to him the wealth of 
 her young womanhood. 
 
 Years afterward when on an official visit to the 
 Orient, he sent this beautiful sentiment to the 
 sweetheart of his youth on the occasion of the an- 
 niversary of two important events in her life, showing 
 that time had but strengthened and matured the 
 affection of his earlier days : 
 
 "Next Saturday is your birthday. Last Friday was 
 the thirtieth anniversary of our marriage. 1 am not 
 with you to do the honor and show the affection you so 
 richly merit on either day. Absence does not affect the 
 heart and the sentiment in this case. I think of all your 
 love and care, your patience and suffering and thank God 
 that you have "been given to me and are still spared to me. 
 I can never tell how much I owe to }'ou. May our 
 Heavenly Father reward you with all the good you de- 
 serve and make your life brighter and richer as the years 
 go. Age can take nothing good from us. It will bring 
 many consolations with it. " 
 
 Again in a subsequent letter, he referred to her 
 birthday after it had passed : 
 
 "I did not forget that yesterday was your birthday and 
 was thinking of you all the day and wishing I could be 
 with you and show you how glad I am that God has so 
 long spared you to me. May He add many, many years 
 yet to your life and make them abundant in blessing. 
 You are not yet awake this Sunday morning. The hour 
 
 160 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 with you is 4:30 A. M. May the whole day be full of 
 comfort, peace and blessing to you and the children. " 
 
 These tender little attentions mean so much to a 
 woman who keeps the fires of love and worship 
 burning upon the altar of the home while her husband 
 is far away. 
 
 Mrs. Wilson was a great comfort and strength to 
 her husband through all the years of their wedded 
 life. She often accompanied him on his long jour- 
 neys to the mission fields of the Church, when as 
 Bishop he made his official visitations. On one of 
 these visits, the last in 1908 when Mrs. Wilson was 
 with him, they went out of their way to India to 
 ascend Kinchinjunga, one of the highest peaks of 
 the Himalayas and of the world, the ascent of which 
 had long been one of the Bishop's greatest desires. 
 They reached the foot of the peak one night and were 
 to make the ascent the next day. But on that 
 morning Mrs. Wilson was taken ill and could not go. 
 He did not leave her in care of some one and make 
 the ascent without her as many men would have 
 done under like conditions, but after having come 
 that far, he cheerfully sacrificed a cherished hope of 
 a life time and remained with her at the foot of the 
 mountain. He never had another opportunity to 
 climb the noted peak. 
 
 Her death in 1908 after their return from the 
 Orient was a blow from which the Bishop never 
 fully recovered. He silently bore his grief. Though 
 there were few outward manifestations, his heart was 
 rent and torn. What inexpressible pathos can be 
 read between the lines of this part of a letter to his 
 daughter, written from Montreal, June 22, 1908, 
 
 161 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 whither he had gone shortly after he had laid his 
 loved one away : 
 
 " I sometimes feel that I acted selfishly in coming away 
 and leaving you alone in the midst of associations and 
 memories that cut me to the quick every hour. Yet, if I 
 had remained I should have but added to your cares and 
 aggravated your sorrows. I v/anted you to recover your- 
 self, because you have years of life before you and much to 
 do. My course must be run in a few more years and my 
 work is practically done. My colleagues and the_ church 
 at large are generous and kindly and give me entire free- 
 dom in my life; but I have lost the spring from my move- 
 ments and can hope to do but little more. The wound is 
 deadly. Fifty-one years of such intimacy and vital 
 oneness cannot be broken into and leave nature unim- 
 paired. " 
 
 For several years previous to her death, Mrs. 
 Wilson had been a severe but an uncomplaining 
 sufferer from a trouble that apparently arose from a 
 trifling occurrence. About 1899 a small abrasion on 
 a finger began to annoy her. Remedies suggested by 
 her physician would help at first, but shortly lost 
 effect. In 1902 pain set in which, in the following 
 years, increased to agony. For hours every day she 
 could only sit with eyes half-closed and endure the 
 suffering. The least alleviation, however, would 
 renew her sprighthness and energy. She never gave 
 up her interest and labor in her Church. Her Sun- 
 day School class of young men, students at the col- 
 leges of Baltimore, was a joy always to her — and 
 through them for years inquiries and affectionate re- 
 minders came from all over the Church. She spent 
 Saturdays in study of the lesson; and would come 
 home after Church service on Sunday with a vivid 
 
 162 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 account of the discussion held with her class. The 
 pain always seemed to modify in time to allow her to 
 do this work. But it was pain. It was treated with 
 Roentgen ray; everything was tried that was known; 
 but in 1905 surgery was resorted to, and two fingers 
 removed. This seemed effectual; she was free from 
 suffering, and while she minded the mutilation, no 
 one ever heard a word of complaint from her lips, 
 during the whole time. 
 
 In the fall of 1906, while at a missionary meeting 
 in Winchester, Virginia, she had a bad fall; and from 
 this her daughter dated the return of her disease. 
 The Golden Wedding celebration was held March 4, 
 1907; the next day Bishop and Mrs. Wilson started 
 for China, to share in the centenary of missions held 
 that year. They were gone more than ten months. 
 Mrs. Wilson's disease must have made rapid pro- 
 gress. Her letters showed all the time a longing to 
 be home with her children. She was devotedly at- 
 tached to her friends in China and Japan; enjoyed 
 their society, loved their work, would write the 
 smallest details of missionary life and talk, and found 
 more and more spiritual intercourse opening with 
 them. But she was homesick, and growing feebler 
 all the time — though she stood the trip to the Ming 
 Tombs, and the Great Wall in China, better than 
 anyone else in her party. 
 
 They returned by India and Europe. She had 
 begun to see her condition at that time and wrote 
 from Ceylon that she feared she might be quaran- 
 tined at Calcutta for bubonic plague, as she had some 
 symptoms; but Dr. (now Bishop) Lambuth had 
 said she must refer to him if she had any trouble. 
 
 163 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 Later on in their journeying, she said to Dr. Lam- 
 buth she felt she had her death warrant; but had 
 no fear. On her arrival in Baltimore in January, 
 1908, she tried to persuade Bishop Wilson to tell 
 their daughter what she feared — but he was like men 
 mostly are — he couldn't bring himself to deal the 
 blow — she had it to do herself. It was received as 
 she had expected; and the only word that showed 
 her endurance was strained too far, during all her 
 suffering, came as she saw her daughter's grief — "I 
 can't stand that!" in sharp tones. Another sur- 
 gical operation in a day or two showed that the 
 cancer had extended too far for more than prevention 
 of some pain; her arm was removed and her family 
 knew that her life was limited to a few months. 
 
 It was a strange period. Mrs. Wilson was able 
 in a little while to move about, to go out, occasionally 
 to visit friends, to walk, and was cheerful, even for- 
 getful of the loss of her arm. She tried to learn to 
 write with her left hand, so she could keep up cor- 
 respondence with her husband. She was most 
 courageous, never anticipating a future weakness. 
 Her enjoyment of letters, attention from friends, her 
 devotion to the Church at large, her details of the 
 eastern tour, her estimate of the missionaries, and 
 appreciation of all their kindness to her, was re- 
 markable to her family, who understood that she 
 could not long withstand the progress of the disease. 
 Certainly it was a marvelous aid to them, as they 
 bore their own grief and anxiety. In April there was 
 the hint that the mind was not going to last as long 
 as the body. Most remarkable at this stage was the 
 evidence that her mind had been stayed on her 
 
 164 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 Saviour so long that she would know Him longer than 
 any other. When the preachers whom she loved would 
 come, they would go into her room and pray with 
 her, and the words of prayer would quiet her nervous 
 restlessness. The day before her death Rev. E. V. 
 Regester, presiding elder of the Baltimore district 
 and a former pastor, came and knelt beside her — his 
 words were the last she ever heard of prayer on this 
 side. Her husband tried once to pray with her; but 
 the effort was so hard his daughter would not let him 
 again make it. But his prayer was beautiful — ' ' Thy 
 child is suffering. Thou hast the power to heal; 
 Thou didst heal those who were afflicted when Thou 
 wast here on earth. If it be Thy will, touch her 
 with that hand of love; allay the pain; and be here 
 with her to the time when she shall pass into the 
 land of joy and light. " Such words as these would 
 calm and soothe. One night she was overheard to 
 say to herself ' ' I reckon this is as easy a way to go to 
 meet Jesus as any could be. " Another time she had 
 a fancy to have hymns sung. A favorite niece sang 
 most of her hymns, and when those lines came — 
 "When through the deep waters I call thee to go" — 
 she pointed to the place of the missing arm and ex- 
 claimed "He has not let even this be too much for 
 me!" She would say "I need not be anxious as to 
 how I'll get along — my husband and my children 
 cannot do too much for me — they will never get 
 tired of helping me." Even in her utter break up 
 her vagaries were interesting. Old war memories 
 were tangled in with later events. The grand- 
 daughter was in a hospital part of this time; and it 
 was touching to hear how Mrs. Wilson would try to 
 
 165 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 spare this beloved child the news of her own illness. 
 On one occasion she went to see the child. On the 
 street cars was a man who had lost both arms, and 
 wore a sign asking passengers and conductors to lend 
 kindly aid. Mrs. Wilson remarked, "He is not so 
 fortunate as I am, poor fellow ! ' ' 
 
 At last, June fourth, 1908, her spirit left the 
 earth, which she had dearly loved, for the heaven 
 which had been her goal since her conversion at six- 
 teen — ^fifty-eight years. No one ever enjoyed life 
 more than she did; and surely life eternal must be a 
 wellspring of pleasure to her. 
 
 After a simple funeral service at her home con- 
 ducted by Dr. Forrest J. Prettyman, Dr. B. W. Bond, 
 and Revs. J. A. Anderson and E. V. Regester, all that 
 was mortal of this saintly woman was laid to rest 
 under many lovely flowers in Loudon Park to keep 
 her three little boys company, who for years had been 
 quietly sleeping after life's fitful fever. 
 
 Telegrams and letters of sympathy came from all 
 over the country. A letter from Bishop Honda of 
 the Methodist Church of Japan, in which the Jap- 
 anese Bishop in beautiful simplicity expresses his 
 sympathy in an unfamiliar language, has been 
 selected from the many others and is given a place in 
 this volume. 
 
 Arima, Settsu. Japan. September 4, 1908. 
 
 "Bishop A. W. Wilson, D. D., LL. D., Baltimore. 
 
 "Dear Bishop Wilson, 
 
 "I am sorry that I did not know of Mrs. Wilson's 
 removal to the higher world till the recent time. I sym- 
 pathize with you from my heart. I don't know what 
 shall I say. I have an experience that I lost my young 
 
 166 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 companion, but there must be some difference with older 
 people. 
 
 "I can suppose only you must be very lonely. Of 
 course not as worldly man. The Father and the Lord will 
 give you or be giving you much comfort. 
 
 * ' I came here yesterday to visit the mission conference, 
 Bishop Ward presiding. Missionary Brother and sisters 
 are doing well. Principal native preachers are here too. 
 It is a good sight to have workers, foreign and native, so 
 intimated. This is our characteristic among the missions 
 in Japan. The united church is in encouraging condition. 
 Several districts are engaging in second evangelistic cam- 
 paign giving good records. 
 
 "Sincerely yours, 
 
 "Y. Honda." 
 
 The memory of Mrs. Wilson's beautiful and 
 saintly life has been a benediction to a host of people 
 both in this country and in the Orient whose privilege 
 it was to know her. 
 
 Bishop and Mrs. Wilson were blessed with six 
 children — three boys and three girls. By a strange 
 providence, the three boys died : the first in infancy 
 July, 1859; the second, Norval, was born April, 1868, 
 and died January, 1869; the third, Alpheus Waters, 
 was born September, 1872, and died of smallpox 
 February, 1873. The death of the Bishop's Httle 
 namesake from this dread disease was particularly 
 distressing. Mrs. Wilson, quarantined in the third 
 story of the home, nursed the child till death claimed 
 him. The three daughters survived their parents. 
 They are Maybelle and Nina and Mrs. William L. 
 Weber, all of whom live at the old home in Baltimore, 
 
 A study of Bishop Wilson's home life would be 
 incomplete without at least a hint of his tenderness 
 and love toward his eldest child, ' ' May. " From her 
 
 167 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 birth she was Hmited as to mental powers; but her 
 loving disposition drew from her father the warmest 
 devotion. He never failed to show her marked con- 
 sideration, and welcomed her presence and attentions 
 always with beautiful appreciation and courtesy. 
 
 The Bishop was happy in having a daughter, 
 Nina, who from the time of her mother's death de- 
 voted her life to the care of her father, anticipating 
 his every want and providing for his every comfort. 
 A few days before his death, in the home of Bishop 
 Denny, his life-long friend, he paid this tribute to 
 her : ' ' Nina is the best woman I ever knew. I have 
 never seen any one so unselfish; and what she has 
 been to me, no one will ever know, not even she her- 
 self. " What a priceless legacy are these words which 
 come as from the other world to her lonely heart! 
 
 In a description of his home and family, it seems 
 fit to mention his cook, Kate Lear, who had lived 
 with him about forty years. She was brought from 
 Germany, her native country, when two years old. 
 She possessed the best traits of her race. When the 
 baby Alpheus was taken with smallpox, she was told 
 she had better leave — as it was a terribly infectious 
 disease. With the toss of her head which was always 
 a characteristic, she replied "Mr. Wilson couldn't 
 manage those three children and wait on Mrs. Wil- 
 son and the baby;" and she stayed — which was 
 always deeply appreciated. Her relation to the 
 family was always far above that of a servant. She 
 was a friend, in their confidence, always interested in 
 their affairs; the cooking for the failing appetite of 
 Bishop Wilson required careful attention, and she 
 watched over his coffee and general diet with special 
 
 168 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 care — though in later years the cooking for the rest 
 might not always have been perfect. He never re- 
 buked or found fault with her; nor did she stand at 
 all in awe of him; she did not hesitate to contradict 
 him, when she pleased; and the only notice of this 
 would be an amused twinkle of his eyes ! One of her 
 best qualities was her unfailing patience and tender- 
 ness toward his oldest daughter; a kindness which 
 was never forgotten. She saw almost the last 
 minutes of Bishop and Mrs. Wilson; and went to 
 their burials with their children. Few people can 
 claim so long and close service from a domestic; and 
 it is perhaps another significant fact in characterizing 
 his life that the atmosphere of his home would hold 
 such a woman that long. 
 
 There was something magnetic about the Bishop 
 in spite of his reserve. His little girls always clung 
 to him with peculiar affection; and among his de- 
 voted friends were several poor and ignorant women 
 — one a laundress, a member of his church in Wash- 
 ington. At Wesley Grove, after a night service, 
 when he had exhorted powerfully, a poor laboring 
 man was suddenly converted, and rushed up into the 
 pulpit and flung himself on Bishop Wilson's breast 
 sobbing with joy. 
 
 His cultivated tastes, and interest in what are 
 called the fine arts, made him an agreeable companion 
 for people who could enjoy worldly advantages. He 
 took great pleasure in collecting such little mementos 
 of his travels as were within his reach; and his house 
 was in a modest way a museum of foreign curios. 
 He had a story of how he got each ; where he bought 
 it, what kind of dealer sold and chaffered, or what 
 
 169 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 materials it was made of. One year he took pleasure 
 in bringing silks home to his daughters and nieces; 
 not that they were more beautiful than could have 
 been bought at home, but they were oriental — and 
 therefore had a special charm, as woven in strange 
 looms in foreign countries. Pictures, pottery, silks, 
 ivory, all suggestions of strange quarters of the 
 earth, and stranger peoples, were deeply interesting 
 to him ; and in late years he would say ' ' I should like 
 to see Australia; I have seen all the other quarters of 
 the earth." In 1907, his last journey to China, 
 with his wife he made a second trip to the Ming 
 Tombs and the Great Wall ; and wrote how well they 
 two, his wife and himself, at seventy-three stood that 
 excessively rough, severe travel. 
 
 Bishop Wilson did not have many visitors. 
 Preachers and laymen who would have considered it 
 an honor to visit him refrained from doing so because 
 they thought that he preferred seclusion. He lived 
 chiefly to himself and in association with the master 
 minds of ancient and modern times, by means of his 
 carefully selected books. He is remembered by the 
 inner circle of his friends who were privileged to see 
 him in his study, as clad in a dressing gown and 
 slippers, and sitting in a comfortable, reclining chair, 
 his feet upon a high leather-cushioned footrest, with 
 his Greek Testament open before him on a reading 
 stand. A large meerschaum pipe, which the Bishop 
 would slowly smoke when talking to his visitors, was 
 generally within convenient reach. There was a 
 period in his life when he abjured the use of tobacco, 
 but after a time he resumed smoking which seemed 
 to be quite a comfort to him in his latter years. 
 
 170 
 
•^v^-j^ 
 
 CENTRAL M. K. CIHRCll, SOUTH, BALTIMORE, ML). 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 There was no atmosphere of conscious superiority 
 about Bishop Wilson. Though not without a certain 
 knowledge of his powers and gifts, he was simple in 
 life and like many other great men was not without 
 humility. 
 
 As Bishop Denny aptly expresses it: 
 
 "He did not strain himself nor pose; he was just 
 quietly natural. He did not presume upon his gifts, his 
 attainments, or his position. He was a tremendous 
 personality, and did not seem to know that palpable 
 fact. . . . He was modest, and, except when his re- 
 sponsibilities demanded, he was not self-assertive; but he 
 was not abashed in any earthly presence, and no man 
 could have made him cower. " 
 
 He had never aspired to popularity in the social 
 circle and cared little to be known as a good mixer, 
 for he felt there was something better. When a 
 young preacher he gave his undivided energies to the 
 mastery of the art of preaching rather than the 
 development of what he conceived to be his poor 
 conversational gifts. The product was a great 
 preacher rather than a past-master of men of the 
 anecdotal type. 
 
 Rev. H. W. Kinzer, a superannuate of the Balti- 
 more Conference, has published an account of an in- 
 cident in the Baltimore Southern Methodist, which 
 occurred when he was junior preacher and Dr. A. W. 
 Wilson was his presiding elder, and which shows the 
 value the Bishop placed upon preaching at the be- 
 ginning of his ministry, and incidentally reveals the 
 interest he had in his younger brethren. 
 
 Rev. H. W. Kinzer's interesting story is as follows : 
 
 171 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 "Bishop A. W. Wilson was my first presiding elder in 
 the Baltimore Conference. 
 
 "At the Conference held in Salem, Va., where I joined, 
 in 1871, which was presided over by Bishop Pierce, I was 
 sent as junior preacher to Piedmont Circuit, now called 
 Marshall Circuit, and Dr. Alpheus W. Wilson was made 
 presiding elder of the Washington District. 
 
 ' ' I remember an amusing incident that occurred at the 
 first quarterly conference of my second year on that circuit. 
 
 "Under the head of Miscellaneous Business, Dr. Wilson 
 inquired if any provision had been made for a home for 
 the junior preacher? 
 
 "One brother after another responded by saying: 
 * Brother Kinzer is welcome to my home any time he may 
 choose to come and stay as long as he pleases. ' Dr. 
 Wilson said: 'That is very generous, and kind, brethren, 
 but a junior preacher needs some place where he can keep 
 his trunk and books and prepare his sermons; and can 
 think of it as his home. When I was a junior preacher I 
 had no home, but was expected to keep going around 
 among the people and I soon found that I had to decide 
 between two things — either to gain the reputation of being 
 considered sociable at the cost of making a preacher, or 
 trying to make a preacher of myself at the cost of being 
 thought unsocial. I chose the latter, and so got the repu- 
 tation of being very unsocial. " 
 
 "Instantly, an old brother present, who was affection- 
 ately known among his brethren and friends on the circuit 
 as ' Bishop ' Diggs, because of his devotion to the church 
 and its ministry, said in a clear, strong voice, without 
 meaning the slightest discourtesy: 'You've got it yet, 
 sir ! ' The brethren broke out in hearty laughter, but Dr. 
 Wilson gave no sign that he had heard it. 
 
 "There were those who thought him cold and lacking 
 in sympathy, but it was not so. No man ever had a 
 warmer or more sympathetic heart than Bishop Wilson — 
 when you reached it. 
 
 "At the end of my second year on that circuit, when he 
 came to our fourth quarterly meeting, he and I were taking 
 a walk when he greatly surprised me by saying : ' Brother 
 
 172 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 Kinzer, do you wish a married man's appointment at 
 Conference?^ He had seen some things that gave him a 
 lurking suspicion that I was contemplating an early mar- 
 riage. I said to him: 'I have onh' been in the Con- 
 ference two years (though I had doubled my work on the 
 Conference course, which we were allowed to do at that 
 time, and expected to be ordained elder at the approaching 
 Conference) and feel that I scarcely have a right to ask for 
 or expect a married man's appointment. You can send 
 me where you please, and if Providence should open the 
 way for me to marry during the coming year, I may do so. ' 
 Here he showed a delicate and tender sympathy and a 
 knowledge that he knew how to understand and appreciate 
 the secret springs of a brother's heart." 
 
 Bishop Wilson carried with him all through life a 
 painful consciousness that he lacked the facility for 
 happily expressing himself when occasion required 
 the language of the heart rather than that of the 
 head. That consciousness embarrassed him, and 
 was chiefly responsible for his not having cultivated 
 the habit of mingling more largely with the people 
 socially. He often referred to this source of embar- 
 rassment in his letters. 
 
 Excerpts from two are given — one written near 
 the beginning of his ministry and the other near the 
 end. In a letter from Elk Ridge, October 18, 1856, 
 he wrote : 
 
 "Destitute of conversational power, and equally want- 
 ing in epistolary talent, topics that would expand in 
 other hands into agreeable and interesting communica- 
 tions, or pleasant chit-chat, are disposed of by me in two, 
 or three concise, dull sentences, awakening no pleasurable 
 emotions and attracting no attention. ... I would like, 
 if I had the time, to tn^ to acquire the art of making my- 
 self agreeable. But the pursuit of the various depart- 
 ments of study required in my vocation, comprising the 
 
 173 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 abstruse investigation of metaphysical theories, the 
 various branches of widely-extended literary criticism and 
 ntimberless other matters altogether without the range of 
 topics of general interest, is not at all favorable to and 
 leaves but little time for the cultivation of the more 
 familiar art. In addition to this I am too largely defec- 
 tive in the qualities essential to a conversationalist, and 
 letter-writer-imagination and fancy to admit of success in 
 either department. So, if any one makes inquiry of you, 
 why I am so silent and reserved, as is often done here, you 
 may give this as the exposition of the matter. 
 
 "There is, however, one topic upon which I find that I 
 excite interest whenever I am called to allude to it in 
 conversation — that is, religion, with all that appertains to 
 it, comprising the faith, experience and practice of the 
 Christian life. I often find mj^self in company with 
 Christians — sometimes indeed with the irreligious — earn- 
 estly enforcing some point of Scriptural doctrine, exper- 
 ience, or conduct; dwelling upon my own past experience, 
 or dilating upon the prospect of the Redeemed; while all 
 are apparently intently fixed upon the theme and deeply 
 interested in it. Why it is, I know not. Certainly not 
 because of the talent displayed in the elucidation of such 
 subjects. Rather I should attribute it to the inherent in- 
 terest of the subjects and the earnestness inseparably con- 
 nected with their discussion in my case. Hence it is my 
 endeavor to carr>^ into the pulpit the same topics. And 
 when I can succeed in this endeavor I find always more 
 earnest attention and more generally awakened interest 
 on the part of my congregation. " 
 
 The other is dated May 4, 1900, and was written 
 from Louisville, Ky., and shows that after long years 
 this obsession of his youth still held its place in his 
 mind. 
 
 "It is always a pleasure to receive expressions of af- 
 fection from those whom we love, even though we be 
 thoroughly assured of our place in their hearts, without 
 any formal utterance. It is, perhaps, the misfortune of 
 
 174 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 many of us — constituted like myself— that we can take 
 and appreciate such expressions more readily than we can 
 return them. I have constantly regretted all my life that 
 I was so dumb and unresponsive when occasion and my 
 own heart alike demanded recognition of love and service 
 of which I was consciously unworth3^ The highest 
 authority has said that 'out of the abundance of the heart 
 the mouth speaketh. ' It is, of course, true in the region 
 to which the saying is more immediately applicable. But 
 in the relations of our common life it is quite as often true 
 that the full heart can find no utterance. " 
 
 Though the Bishop's social qualities were not re- 
 garded generally as his largest asset, those who were 
 fortunate enough to win his confidence and friend- 
 ship found him delightful company. Bishop Warren 
 A. Candler, in speaking of this side of his nature, 
 said: 
 
 "As may not have been known to some, he was a most 
 charming man in the social circle, provided it was not a 
 circle filled with frivolity and the frivolous. He had no 
 gift for small talk, and was mighty poor company for light- 
 headed people; but in a circle in which intelligence and 
 piety prevailed, he was mighty good company. Lovable, 
 genial, and brotherly, and withal possessing a delightful 
 and delicate humor, he was a man with whom a sensible 
 person could spend a day without taking account of the 
 hours. " 
 
 Bishop E. E. Hoss in this connection has said: 
 
 ' ' There used to be a current report in the Church that 
 he was a man of somewhat chilly and repellent manner. 
 But nothing could have been less true. While he was not 
 garrulous nor given to adulation he was a most genial 
 companion. He loved to be loved, and he gave himself 
 most unreserv^edly to his friends. I count it among the 
 great honors of my life that for many years I was so sure 
 of his good will towards me that I could approach him 
 
 175 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 directly on any subject. There was never a cloud nor a 
 mist between us. When we parted for the last time, only 
 a few weeks before his death, I felt that the kiss which he 
 left upon my lips was nothing less than the sealing of our 
 friendship for eternity." 
 
 Bishop Collins Denny, who, on account of 
 his intimate relation to Bishop Wilson, knew his 
 heart as few men k;new it, has expressed his deeply 
 rooted convictions in these words : 
 
 "Bishop Wilson was misunderstood by some of our 
 people. He was by no means hard to approach ; but every 
 strong man in a responsible position is open to such misap- 
 prehensions. The same misapprehensions are likely to 
 exist concerning ever}^ strong Bishop of the Church. No 
 man who had any matter of moment to bring to the at- 
 tention of Bishop Wilson ever found him difficult to ap- 
 proach. He was as easy to approach as any man I ever 
 knew, as attentive to what one said, and as ready to give 
 all that was in him for worthy ends. 
 
 "I am not so patient as perhaps I should be when I 
 hear of suggestions that Bishop Wilson was imperialistic 
 and severe. He was a Christian gentleman who loved 
 God a,nd his fellowmen. He did not carr>' his heart on his 
 sleeve, nor did he waste his s^nnpathy, but when the call 
 came he held back nothing of his great nature, nothing of 
 his tenderness. He was more nearly a father to me than 
 was any man after the death of my own father. He was 
 with me in my sorrows, and I was with him in some of the 
 many sorrows he had to bear. To the suffering he was 
 tender. He was glad to receive sympathy, yet he took 
 his own troubles to God, bowing submissively imder the 
 heavy rod and making no outcry. " 
 
 Though he enjoyed the conversation most when it 
 moved on a high intellectual plane, he was not 
 averse to a bit of pleasantry now and then, and was 
 never at a disadvantage in repartee. It is scarcely 
 
 176 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 necessary to say that in repartee and in every walk of 
 life he was always a high-minded Christian gentle- 
 man. During the early part of his ministry, when 
 his future as a preacher did not seem to be very 
 promising, an older colleague advised him to give up 
 the ministry and enter some other calling, adding in a 
 spirit in which seriousness and pleasantry were min- 
 gled: "You will never learn to preach." The 
 young preacher retorted in the same spirit: "When I 
 have preached as long as you and can't preach any 
 better, IM try something else. " The older preacher 
 lived to see the man whom he had chided a bishop 
 and one of the greatest preachers of his day, and to 
 receive an appointment from him. He had no 
 patience with light, trifling conversation. His calm- 
 ness which nothing could disturb, and his ready wit, 
 often served him well in presiding over Annual Con- 
 ferences. It is currently reported that in a Con- 
 ference down South a preacher who had made a 
 record for placing stumbling-blocks in the way of 
 presiding bishops arose and made this suggestion: 
 ' ' Mr. President, you have been a bishop for twenty- 
 odd years, and this is your first visit here. You will 
 probably never return. So, if you wish to be re- 
 membered among us and erect for yourself a living 
 monument I would suggest that you send me to the 
 District." The Bishop pulled his venera- 
 ble beard once or twice and remarked: "Brother, I 
 thank you for your kindly suggestion, but I have no 
 desire for monuments of brass. " 
 
 His closing years were marked by a mellowness 
 and sweetness of spirit that threw a charm about him 
 and made it a benediction to be in his presence. 
 
 177 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 On account of his official position the author saw 
 perhaps more of the Bishop during the last three 
 years of his life than any one else outside of his 
 family. More than once when he had left the 
 Bishop's study he felt that he had been in a hallowed 
 place and in a holy atmosphere and went forth into 
 the world with a consciousness of a stronger grip on 
 unseen things. 
 
 178 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 Honors and Unofficial Events. 
 
 A mention of the honors denoting scholarship and 
 a brief record of the unofficial events in the life of 
 Bishop Wilson may not be without interest to the 
 readers of this book. 
 
 He never sought or placed great value upon hon- 
 orary adornments from literary institutions, for he 
 knew that many titles were bestowed without proper 
 discrimination, resulting in the impairment of the 
 significance of such degrees so far as scholarly habits 
 and lofty attainments are concerned. If a man is 
 without ability, honorary degrees are generally a 
 hindrance rather than a help. One of his contem- 
 poraries told the author that soon after Rev. A. W. 
 Wilson received the degree of Doctor of Divinity, one 
 of his friends facetiously asked him the meaning of 
 D.D. 
 
 "Double Dunce," was his immediate reply. 
 
 Universities and colleges have been quick to 
 recognize the truth, however, that they have honored 
 themselves by honoring him. The degree of Doctor 
 of Divinity was conferred upon him by Randolph- 
 Macon College in 1875, and a like degree by Victoria 
 University of Toronto in 1911, during the meeting of 
 the Ecumenical Conference in that Canadian city. 
 
 Concerning the elaborate ceremonies attendant 
 upon the bestowal of this and other degrees he wrote 
 a very entertaining account. There were about ten 
 persons who were to be thus complimented on the 
 evening of the Commencement, and each was ex- 
 
 179 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 pected to make a five-minute speech setting forth his 
 fitness for the honor. The Bishop wrote that in view 
 of the number of candidates such a thing was "no 
 small strain upon the audience." The imagina- 
 tion is powerless to fancy Bishop Wilson making that 
 sort of speech. He could not laud himself ; it was not 
 in him. But his remarks had an attractiveness that 
 was peculiar to himself. 
 
 The degree of Doctor of Law was conferred upon 
 him by Central College of Missouri, and by Wash- 
 ington and Lee University; by the former in 1884 
 and by the latter in 1885. 
 
 He was a member of the Board of Trustees of 
 Randolph-Macon College from 1871 to the time of 
 his death in 1916, and was President of the Board 
 from 1882 to 1896. He was elected a trustee of the 
 American University in 1891, and a year later was 
 made Vice-Chancellor, which office he held to the 
 time of his death. 
 
 There were but few noteworthy events in Bishop 
 Wilson's unofficial life, but the few are too important 
 to be omitted from this study. As was stated in a 
 previous chapter he cared little for social life and 
 preferred the quiet of his home with his books and 
 wife and children. During his last twenty years even 
 the simple spending of an evening with friends meant 
 a sleepless night and prostration the next day. 
 When he reached the fortieth anniversary of his 
 marriage, however, he was in far better condition 
 than Mrs. Wilson expected, and he thought that the 
 occasion should be celebrated; so he invited his 
 Baltimore friends to spend the evening with him and 
 
 180 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 it proved so bright and cheerful an event that he 
 said, "I mean to celebrate my Golden Wedding. " 
 
 When that time had arrived, March 4, 1907, many- 
 changes had taken place. Of the friends who had 
 been present ten years previously, thirty had pre- 
 ceded them over Jordan's dark and stormy flood. 
 That made a difference; they began to feel lonely, 
 since few old friends were left. Mrs. Wilson's 
 health was poor, and Bishop Wilson had gone through 
 many severe illnesses. They were no longer strong 
 enough to carry through the arrangements, which 
 were necessarily left in the hands of their daughter. 
 This led the Bishop to say several times when he was 
 questioned about plans, "Nina knows — it is Nina's 
 Golden Wedding," which jest he always repeated 
 with quiet enjoyment when that celebration was re- 
 ferred to. But the completion of half a century of 
 married life is no small event ; and though many dear 
 faces were absent, and though the Bishop and Mrs. 
 Wilson were not unconscious of their own advancing 
 years, they got much pleasure out of the event. 
 Their friends, mostly of a younger generation, were 
 truly kind and thoughtful. The house was filled with 
 flowers; gifts poured in — of all sorts — silver, gold, 
 porcelain, glass; the preachers sent a purse of gold, 
 and several friends sent their congratulations in the 
 form of poems. The Bishops sent a gold-lined silver 
 bowl which was a highly appreciated treasure. The 
 marriage had been according to the pretty old- 
 fashioned custom ; four bridesmaids and four grooms- 
 men, with the bride's father to perform the ceremony 
 in his own parlor, and as many friends as possible to 
 witness it. Two bridesmaids were present on the 
 
 181 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 anniversary, Bishop Wilson's sister Augusta, and 
 Mrs. Wilson's sister Mary, now Mrs. Thomas Fitz- 
 gerald. Another still living was prevented from 
 being with them. The Rev. P. D. Lipscomb, his 
 wife and all the groomsmen Rev. J. Newman Hank, 
 Rev. B. Peyton Brown, Rev. Theodore M. Carson, 
 and Rev. E. H. Wilson had long been dead. 
 
 Bishop Wilson looked well and enjoyed the even- 
 ing, even though it was evident he often thought of 
 friends whom he would naturally have expected to 
 see had they not been in the world of spirits. It was 
 more a season of reminiscense to him than a social 
 hour. Mrs. Wilson was already ill, though not 
 definitely aware of it ; she looked very white and frail, 
 but made a brave effort not to show how she felt. 
 It seemed like a brilliant sunset hour, before the 
 twilight and night came on. The next morning they 
 started for San Francisco, and thence they sailed in a 
 few days for China, the last earthly journey they ever 
 took together. 
 
 In Bishop Wilson's family, birthdays were always 
 marked, generally by gifts and a special dinner — 
 anything to add brightness to the idea that each 
 member had added something to the world by com- 
 ing. His birthday, February fifth, was always cele- 
 brated. For several years it was Mrs. Wilson's 
 pleasure to invite the preachers of his Church residing 
 in Baltimore to spend the evening with him. The 
 talk on such occasions was good to hear; a group of 
 Methodist ministers always have something to say 
 and at such times are at their best. The family en- 
 joyed these functions highly. On one of these oc- 
 casions the brethren decided to mark the day by a 
 
 182 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 present. A set of beautiful plates was chosen, and 
 the late Rev. Dr. J. H. DuLaney was selected to 
 present them. He made a charming little speech 
 and ended by giving the plates to Mrs. Wilson, to the 
 great amusement of all, because as he said she was 
 the housekeeper. 
 
 Another time the brethren asked Bishop Wilson 
 to celebrate his birthday by giving them a series of 
 studies in Romans. This was much to his taste, and 
 on his birthday, and on a day for several successive 
 weeks a number of ministers gathered in his study 
 and he talked on each occasion for an hour or so, 
 encouraging interruptions in the shape of questions 
 and arguments. He enjoyed the hours very much, 
 and doubtless the ministers present found them ex- 
 ceedingly profitable. But each succeeding year 
 found him weaker physically. He grew too feeble to go 
 downstairs regularly to meals ; and after while only a 
 dinner party for the family living in the city cele- 
 brated the day, but he liked it to be held, even when 
 he was not at the table. 
 
 When the eightieth birthday approached, the 
 pastor of the family. Rev. John Paul Tyler, con- 
 ceived the idea of making it a general celebration. 
 Mr. Tyler spared no pains to make a suitable obser- 
 vance, and it developed into a beautiful occasion. 
 Trinity Church was decorated, and at eight o'clock 
 a reception was held, attended by the preachers of the 
 three Methodisms in Baltimore, and by personal friends 
 from Washington and Virginia. Refreshments were 
 served, and speeches were delivered. Among others 
 Bishops Denny and Kilgo who had come to Balti- 
 timore expressly for the occasion, paid deserved 
 
 183 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 tributes to their colleague; Dr. Tagg of the Methodist 
 Protestant Church, and Dr. St. Clair Neal of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church, made addresses and 
 Revs. E. V. Regester and F. J. Prettyman of his own 
 Church gave delightful talks on Bishop Wilson's 
 work and personal relation to the men of his former 
 Conference. It was a gathering the like of which is 
 rarely seen, and gave great pleasure to Bishop Wil- 
 son. Letters and telegrams had poured in all during 
 the day; too many in number to repeat here. But 
 one telegram deserves to be preserved, on account of 
 the reference to his father. 
 
 "Winchester, Virginia, February 5, 1914. 
 "Bishop Alpheus W. Wilson. 
 
 "Allow me to present you my congratulations upon 
 your eightieth birthday. My father, who knew and 
 loved your father, joins me in good wishes. In Winchester 
 where your father lived and labored so many years his 
 name is always associated with yours; indeed, I may say 
 that the memory of his saintly life somewhat overshadows 
 the achievements of his son. This is not displeasing to 
 you. I am sure, today, when the Churches are celebrating 
 your birthday you will be glad to know that an old friend 
 in Winchester has placed a little spray of blossoms on his 
 grave. 
 
 Wm. G. Hardy." 
 
 This reference to his father, whom he deeply 
 revered and loved, was most prized by Bishop Wilson, 
 who always said his father was a magnificent 
 preacher, to whose sermons his own did not compare. 
 
 Bishop Wilson enjoyed this celebration greatly, 
 but said if he had known it was contemplated, he 
 would not have allowed it. "Such things should 
 never be said of a man until he is dead!" was his 
 remark, when it was over. 
 
 184 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 In October, 1915, during the pastorate of Rev. 
 Joseph H. Balthis, the half-century of Trinity Church 
 was observed. As the edifice had been built chiefly 
 through the efforts of Bishop Wilson, and as he had 
 been the Church's first pastor, he was glad to take 
 part in the celebration. Four services were held 
 during the week beginning Sunday, October 24, when 
 he preached the semi-centennial sermon. A banquet 
 was held one evening in the basement of the church, 
 at which a prayer of thanksgiving for Trinity's work 
 was offered by Rev. I. W. Canter, D. D., one of our 
 veteran ministers, and speeches were made on dif- 
 ferent departments of the church by the members of 
 Trinity, and by the few who could recall the organi- 
 zation of the Church. Bishop Wilson's talk was 
 necessarily brief, but it abounded in facts relating to 
 Trinity's history. In fifteen minutes he reviewed the 
 inception and development of Trinity; what it had 
 done as a Church to help the Churches of the South, 
 which had been wrecked by the war; and what the 
 early membership had striven against and overcome. 
 An historical paper recalling the important happen- 
 ings in the Church's life, prepared by the pastor, was 
 one of the features of the program. Another evening 
 of the same week Bishop Wilson made a more formal 
 speech, on the history of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, South, its formation, and the conditions 
 under which it originated in Baltimore. The Rev. 
 Forrest J. Prettyman, D. D., a former pastor of the 
 Church, and Honorable Josephus Daniels, the Secre- 
 tary of the Navy, a warm friend of Bishop Wilson, 
 were also speakers of the evening; and by the law of 
 association of ideas their remarks had a trend of 
 
 185 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 eulogy in relation to the Bishop. But it was not 
 strange, for the life of Bishop Wilson had so colored 
 that of Trinity that it was difficult to speak of one 
 without the other. 
 
 On July 2, 1889, Bishop Wilson met with the only 
 accident of all his travels. He was returning from 
 Dalton, Georgia, and it was raining heavily. A 
 culvert on the Norfolk and Western Railroad, near 
 Thaxton, Virginia, which was reached about two 
 o'clock in the morning, had been washed away, and 
 the train fell through. The car in which he was 
 sleeping broke in half, the rear half hanging over the 
 guUy, while the front end went down. Five pas- 
 sengers were killed. Bishop Wilson woke suddenly 
 with the consciousness of falling but did not feel the 
 impact of the fall. Mrs. Wilson was always fond of 
 associating the fact of his not having been killed with 
 the scripture, "He shall give his angels charge over 
 thee." The train caught fire, and the usual horror 
 of such an accident was added to this disaster. In 
 the dark he could not see the extent of the wreck; he 
 crawled out of the debris, lay quietly in the mud and 
 rain all night, but escaped any serious injury. He 
 must have struck his hip, for it was so deeply bruised 
 that a large carbuncle formed during the following 
 month. In the early morning, a relief train carried 
 him with the other survivors back to Roanoke. 
 When he went into the hotel lobby, he was so covered 
 with mud, that a friend standing by did not recog- 
 nize him. 
 
 Dr. CoUins Denny, then stationed at Salem, was 
 sent for, and accompanied him home the next day. 
 His right hand had a large splinter about the size of a 
 
 186 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 match, run through the palm. This had to be re- 
 moved, and as the process promised to be painful 
 chloroform was suggested, but he declined anything 
 in the shape of an anodyne saying, "If I can have a 
 good cigar, I'll not be a trouble to the doctor. " He 
 bore the cutting and the sewing with an occasional 
 wincing. He never wrote with ease afterward; and 
 the hand grew more and more stiff, so that letters 
 were reduced to the shortest possible length. It was 
 remarkable, however, how well he came off, in such a 
 catastrophe. Frail as he was he might have had 
 pneumonia from exposure in the rain, but he escaped 
 and not even a bone was broken. 
 
 He lost all his clothing, and a dearly prized Greek 
 Testament, given him about 1870 by his old friend 
 Dr. J. Asbury Morgan. These two used to meet 
 every Tuesday night for years at each other's house, 
 to read the Greek; and it was likely that Bishop 
 Wilson's habit of reading his Greek Testament 
 regularly, four chapters daily, began in this custom. 
 He lost his watch also, which was replaced by some 
 of his brethren of the Baltimore Conference, and 
 some other personal belongings. It seemed for 
 years he would recollect and want something "lost 
 at Thaxton." Though he had suffered the loss of 
 some prized belongings his was a remarkable deliver- 
 ance, which did not fail to fill him with gratitude for 
 his preservation. 
 
 In 1901, the first great missionary conference of 
 his Church was held in New Orleans. Bishop Wil- 
 son, with Mrs. Wilson, had arrived at San Francisco 
 from a visit to China, just in time to make the jour- 
 ney to New Orleans. The bubonic plague had 
 
 187 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 broken out in the Chinese quarter of San Francisco, 
 and Texas had quarantined against that city. Not 
 knowing this, Bishop and Mrs. Wilson secured their 
 tickets and started for New Orleans. At the Texas 
 border as they had no physician's certificate, they 
 were turned back. They decided to go to St. Louis, 
 and see if they could reach New Orleans that way. 
 They found that route practicable, but the Bishop 
 was late and missed his part on the program. After 
 a warm reception from the whole Conference, some- 
 body asked if he had heard that the train on which 
 he had reached the Texas border had been wrecked, 
 and nearly a hundred people killed? He had not 
 heard it, but realized anew what he had always felt, 
 that God had him in His keeping. 
 
 188 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The Fall of the Earthly Temple. 
 
 And, like the baseless fabric of a vision, 
 The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, 
 The solemn temples, the great globe itself, 
 Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve; 
 And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, 
 Leave not a rack behind. — The Tempest. 
 
 As the clock in his study struck eight on Tuesday 
 morning, November 21, 1916, the tired heart of 
 Alpheus Waters Wilson stood still and the work of 
 his massive intellect was at an earthly end. Thus 
 passed to the heavenly world from the room in which 
 his profoundest thinking had been done, a man who 
 for years had been a colossal figure in American 
 Methodism and who is considered by many compe- 
 tent judges to have been the greatest preacher of his 
 generation. 
 
 No one, least of all himself, ever thought that he 
 would reach the ripe old age of more than four-score 
 years, for his health had not been good from his boy- 
 hood. Two young sisters died of tuberculosis of the 
 lungs; and his father. Rev. Norval Wilson, had a 
 siege of hemorrhages lasting about five years. The 
 lung healed, but he was never robust again. 
 
 Bishop Wilson was subject to heavy colds, 
 frequently resulting in bronchitis; and even before 
 definite mischief developed, he had to struggle 
 against weakness and languor. After preaching he 
 was always prostrated; unable to eat for hours, and 
 rarely able to sleep at night. In 1864 he went north 
 
 189 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 for a change, and consiilted a physician in New York, 
 who assured him his lungs were in a critical condi- 
 tion, and gave him slight hope of a long life, even if 
 he could use the care necessary. In 1869, he had an 
 attack of pneumonia; and while he seemed to re- 
 cover, it is from that time that the condition of his 
 last twelve years dates. His nerves also seemed in- 
 volved; and he was one who quickly developed ail- 
 ments now called infections. Pain of exquisite 
 nature usually attended his illness. And it was 
 during such trials that, to his family, his lofty char- 
 acter showed its deeply religious quality most in- 
 tensely. One or two special sieges stand out; in 1884 
 he had an attack of typhoid malaria; after which in- 
 flammation of periosteum set in — anguish so intense 
 that opiates and narcotics failed entirely, and there 
 was a period of eight or nine weeks when loss of sleep 
 from suffering caused delirium. It is no small mark 
 of self-control that not one word of impatience or 
 irritability was ever heard from him during those 
 seven long months of illness and pain. 
 
 For the four years he served the Board of Mis- 
 sions, and part of the first decade after he was 
 elected Bishop, he seemed to improve, from constant 
 change of air and scene. But soon his old tendencies 
 began to show themselves again. His was a busy 
 life. He had no time to be sick. But time after time 
 on the eve of important engagements he was too ill 
 to meet them. He fought against it ; would often go 
 when unable to do so; once in answer to a remon- 
 strance from his daughter he said, "It would be 
 worth while to die, if that is the result, for my Mas- 
 ter's work." He could brace himself up tremen- 
 
 190 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 dously at times, for a short while. More than once 
 he preached while suffering untold agony ; and would 
 say afterwards, "It was worth the pain." He did 
 not like to admit that he was ill ; always made light of 
 it to outsiders, and only his family knew how intense 
 was the pain he bore, in most of the illnesses that 
 afflicted him. 
 
 Bronchitis nearly always came, once a year, from 
 about 1894 to the year of his death. His various 
 other ailments began about that time to appear more 
 frequently — ten times he had erysipelas. He was 
 twice extremely ill in China, and during the last visit 
 to Japan in 1908 he was extremely ill several times. 
 The death of Mrs. Wilson after her long illness had a 
 serious effect on him, and the next year, beginning in 
 January, 1909, came the long attack with what the 
 X-ray showed to be a pinched nerve. The exhaus- 
 tion from long pain, with prostration for want of 
 sleep and inability to eat, apparently roused the 
 affected lung into activity ; and from that time Bishop 
 Wilson's life seemed hung by a thread. He never 
 recuperated, for more than two or three weeks. His 
 weakness was excessive. The least exertion of hand 
 or arms aggravated the asthma, and often he was too 
 feeble to feed himself ! Think of a man in that state 
 of prostration still traveling! He felt his work a 
 solemn call, loved it, loved to preach, and to meet 
 his brethren, and made strenuous effort to go when- 
 ever there was a duty to be performed. Twice in the 
 last ten years of his life he went to the railroad 
 station and came home because he realized that his 
 condition was such he could not improve in time to 
 do the work demanded of him. He felt very keenly 
 
 191 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 this inability ; but took great pleasure in the assurance 
 of his colleagues that they would gladly assist him 
 and take care of him whenever he could manage to 
 get to their meetings or to his Conferences. More 
 kindness and attention from the Bishops, one and all, 
 could not have been given. Indeed, friends all over 
 the Church lavished most tender love and kindness 
 upon him in these attacks so frequent when avv^ay 
 from home. 
 
 While the failure was gradual, it was definite 
 through the years from 1909 to 1914. But from the 
 summer of 1914 it was more marked. He counted 
 on the summers north for many years to find vigor 
 and strength; but when 1915 came, he found he 
 could not leave home; the service of his daughter 
 could not be dispensed with. The next year, 1916, 
 both winter and summer he had fewer acute attacks ; 
 but notwithstanding he steadily lost ground. In 
 August he met at Tate Springs the Commission on 
 Federation to complete the number. He had ar- 
 ranged to go to Lake Junaluska from there, but was 
 not able. He came home, deeply depressed, which 
 was unusual with him; and said "I wish I had not 
 been placed on the Commission. I am not able to 
 do the work. But I felt I could not refuse, I have 
 never refused to do anything my Church has laid on 
 me. " His feelings never changed ; he must have had 
 a forecast of the end. 
 
 In October he went to Salisbury, Maryland, to 
 visit a close friend. He preached on the Sunday; 
 but was not strong enough to leave his room more 
 than twice or thrice afterwards. Yet he left home 
 
 192 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 nine days later, and was away four weeks, returning 
 only in time to die. 
 
 From October 26-28 he was with his colleagues in 
 their fall meeting in Atlanta. From Atlanta he went 
 to Birmingham and spent several days with friends. 
 From November 1-6 in response to a pressing invita- 
 tion, he was with Bishop Denny at the North 
 Alabama Conference, where he made the address to 
 the class admitted into full connection, and on Sun- 
 day morning preached a great sermon at the High- 
 lands Church, Birmingham. 
 
 From Birmingham he journeyed to Greenwood, 
 South Carolina, where he enjoyed a week with his 
 friends of long standing. Dr. and Mrs. John O. 
 Willson, at Lander College. On Sunday, October 12, 
 he preached his last sermon on earth in the church at 
 Greenwood. The next day he went to Richmond to 
 be present by invitation at the sessions of the Vir- 
 ginia Conference. Bishop Kilgo, the president of 
 the Conference, and he were fellow guests of Mrs. 
 Collins Denny, Bishop Denny being absent on 
 episcopal duties. He told Mrs. Denny he had been 
 sick in the night on the train. She put him to bed 
 and ministered to him, not thinking him worse than 
 she had seen him many times. 
 
 He quickly rallied and attended the Conference 
 until Saturday at noon November 18, when he be- 
 came too ill for further attendance and for the special 
 service he had promised to render. The last hymn 
 he ever heard was one of the old songs of Zion which 
 speak with irresistible power to the soul that is in 
 constant communion with God. It was sung on that 
 Saturday morning at the close of the morning ses- 
 
 193 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 sion of the Conference, and was prophetically 
 significant in its relation to Bishop Wilson, for in the 
 language of Bishop Kilgo, "the heavenly hosts were 
 invisibly gathered around him." It was Bishop 
 Marvin's favorite: 
 
 My latest sun is sinking fast, 
 
 My race is nearly run, 
 My strongest trials now are past, 
 My triumph is begim. 
 O come, angel band, come and around me stand; 
 O bear me away on yoiu" snowy wings to my immortal 
 home. 
 
 The details of the Bishop's last week on earth are 
 given in a personal letter to Miss Nina Wilson from 
 Bishop Denny's daughter, Mrs. Edith White, the 
 wife of Rev. Roscoe White. The author takes the 
 liberty of publishing this letter, warm with sympa- 
 thy and love, which was written in the shadow of the 
 great sorrow, for he knows that the many friends of 
 the late Bishop are eager to know everything that 
 took place in his last not-uneventful week. 
 
 "Richmond, Virginia, Tuesday, Nov. 21, 1916. 
 "Dear Miss Nina: 
 
 How my heart goes out to you in a great sympathy, 
 and how little able I feel equal to writing you what I 
 should like to say. I loved Bishop Wilson as I loved my 
 own dear grandfather, his presence in our home these past 
 few days has been a benediction, and it has been our dear 
 delight to wait on him. I thought it might be a comfort 
 to you for me to write you some of the details of his stay 
 with us; when I put myself in your place it is what I 
 should like. 
 
 " He reached here Tuesday morning and spent the day 
 upstairs in his own room. He did not seem very ex- 
 hausted after his trip, and as always was interested in the 
 
 194 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 family news we had to tell him. He came down stairs for 
 dinner Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 
 nights, and after dinner would sit for a while in the library 
 with us. About ten thirty every morning Dr. Potts came 
 by for him in a machine and he went to Conference. 
 Friday night Governor Stuart and Judge Kelly were here 
 for dinner. Bishop Wilson talked of a number of Chiirch 
 matters. The guests did not stay very late, and Bishop 
 Wilson went right up stairs after they left. Shortly after 
 that I had to go up to put Denny in bed and I went into 
 Bishop Wilson's room to see what I coiild do for him. He 
 seemed to be having more difficulty than usual in getting 
 his breath, and told me, for the first time in a month he 
 had just taken a dose of morphine. I got him some water. 
 I recollect now, it was Saturday night he took the medicine, 
 for we sent for Dr. Harrison. Dr. Harrison said it would 
 not be wise for Bishop Wilson to try to preach Sunday 
 morning. Bishop Wilson went to Conference Saturday 
 morning, but he did not come down to dinner Saturday 
 evening. In fact, I think he did not come down again 
 until he left. 
 
 "Bishop Wilson seemed so appreciative of the least 
 little thing we would do for him. Saturday morning be- 
 fore he went to Conference I put on and laced up his shoes 
 for him, and he told me then he was having more difficulty 
 than usual in getting his breath. His room communicated 
 with Bishop Kilgo's room, and Bishop Kilgo and Roscoe 
 helped him every morning and evening. When Bishop 
 Kilgo came down to breakfast Sunday morning, he told us 
 that Bishop Wilson was not so well. I took his breakfast 
 up each morning. Monday morning he said he did not 
 feel equal to eating much, but for me to butter him a 
 biscuit. I did that for him. Then he told me I might 
 butter the other two biscuits and put them in his overcoat 
 pocket, that he would eat them on the train for limch 
 before reaching Baltimore. I wanted to prepare a regular 
 lunch but he said he did not care for it ; he said : ' If I 
 take the biscuit that will be all I need, for Nina may not 
 have any one there to help her when I reach home. ' He 
 spoke of you a number of times with great affection, and 
 
 195 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 one evening told Mamma and Lucy that you were the most 
 unselfish woman he knew. I asked him Monday morning 
 if he felt equal to making the trip, and he replied that he 
 felt he had better get home. When he got down stairs and 
 was waiting for the machine he took a big red apple out of 
 his pocket and told Lucy ' Give this to Edith and tell her 
 to fix it for Denny. ' Sunday night Dr. and Mrs. Frank 
 Day were here for supper and after supper Bishop Wilson 
 had quite a little talk with them in his room. 
 
 "We have sent a telegram to Papa, he is in Florida. 
 If the message reaches him promptly he may be able to 
 reach Richmond or Baltimore tomorrow evening. 
 
 "I am so thankful that Bishop Wilson reached home. 
 Bishop Kilgo and all of us here send you our love. We are 
 praying for you, our hearts are full. Siirely on high this 
 day there must be great rejoicing, for he is with his Lord. " 
 
 Mrs. White omitted to mention the fact that on 
 Stmday Bishop Wilson asked her husband to sit with 
 him, as he "felt a little nervous." He had never 
 said such a thing before, and this was evidently a 
 sign that he w^as conscious of unusual prostration and 
 felt that the breaking down was at hand. 
 
 On Monday a number went to the railroad station 
 to see him start home. He was so weak that they 
 begged him to allow some one to travel with him. 
 He would not consent, saying the porter could do all 
 he required. 
 
 His train arrived in Baltimore at half-past four. 
 Some time in the journey he grew worse. He was 
 not met at the station, as he had not said what road 
 he would take, or what time he was due. But when 
 his cab drew up at his residence, and the chauffeur had 
 to help him from the cab to the house, it was evident 
 he was extremely ill. He sat down on a chair at the 
 parlor door, to rest; but his loud breathing did not 
 
 196 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 abate. In a moment or two liis daughter went out 
 doors to get help to take him upstairs. He was 
 unable to stand long enough to have coats and hat 
 removed but fell into his chair at once. 
 
 His grand-daughter, a trained nurse, called for his 
 physician. Doctor Henry F. Hill, and then began 
 various preparations to make him comfortable. He 
 had a hard chiU lasting ten minutes perhaps, after 
 which his mind wandered a little. This soon passed 
 away, but speech was very difficult. He tried to tell 
 his daughter everything he thought would interest 
 her about the people he had met. Conference hap- 
 penings, and as she was his Treasurer, to explain 
 about the moneys in his purse. 
 
 He noted family affairs and asked if the study 
 paper was new — confusing it with another room 
 which had been papered. At half past eleven, he 
 asked his niece, who was sitting by the bed, for a 
 pipe — said his throat was so dry he needed it. She 
 had long been deaf, and looking at her tenderly, he 
 said to his daughter, "How I wish she could hear." 
 This was his last remark, except in answer to direct 
 questions. Later his daughter said to him, "I 
 think you must know how very ill you are." Not 
 very quickly, but calmly, he replied, "Yes." A 
 little later she inquired, "Is there anything you 
 want?" He answered without opening his eyes, 
 ' ' Nothing you can do for me. ' ' 
 
 At eight o'clock in the morning, surrounded by 
 his three daughters, his granddaughter, and two 
 nieces, in the room that had been his study for many, 
 many years, he departed for the "Better Country." 
 
 197 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 He was greatly attached to his nephews and 
 nieces, and the nieces who were present, together 
 with his daughters, counted it a special privilege that 
 he was at home when the end came. 
 
 The news of his death produced a profound sensa- 
 tion throughout the Church. Messages of love and sym- 
 pathy came from all sections to the stricken family, not 
 only from our own people but from the friends and ad- 
 mirers of the fallen chieftain in other Churches. The 
 feeling in our own Church was that of Elisha when 
 upon witnessing the translation of Elijah he cried: 
 ' ' My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the 
 horsemen thereof. " 
 
 His funeral services were held in Trinity Church, 
 on Thursday afternoon, November 23, at two o'clock. 
 It was the great regret of the family and intimate 
 friends of the Bishop that some of those who were 
 closest and dearest to him in personal and official 
 relations, associates in the College of Bishops and 
 others could not reach Baltimore in time to speak 
 beside his bier, for it was felt that the tributes these 
 who had been bound to him by such tender and in- 
 timate ties could have given to his life would have 
 been just the interpretation the great Bishop would 
 have desired. While grateful for the loving trib- 
 utes of those who spoke, his family and his friends 
 were naturally grieved on account of the unavoid- 
 able absence of others. 
 
 Notwithstanding the falling rain the church was 
 crowded with a vast concourse of people, including 
 Dr. Thos. N. Ivey, editor of the Nashville Christian 
 Advocate, Dr. E. H. Rawlings, Secretary of the De- 
 partment of Foreign Missions, and Dr. Charles D. 
 
 198 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 Bulla, Corresponding Secretary of the Sunday School 
 Board, connectional men of Nashville; a delegation 
 from the Virginia Conference; our preachers of 
 Washington and a large company from Mt. Vernon 
 Place Church of that city, and a host of ministers of 
 the three Methodisms of Baltimore and elsewhere, 
 the three Methodisms uniting in the services to 
 honor the life and character of the Bishop with 
 Bishop E. R. Hendrix, Senior Bishop of our Church 
 in charge. Bishop Atkins had left a Conference to 
 come to the service, arriving at the church at two 
 o'clock, and returning by a train that went south at 
 five. 
 
 Dr. F. T. Tagg, of the Methodist Protestant 
 Church, made a tender prayer at the home before the 
 funeral cortege went to the church. Rev. John 
 Paul Tyler, a former pastor and intimate friend, oc- 
 cupied a seat with the family in the brief service at 
 the home and the public service in the church. 
 
 Rev. W. H. Best, the pastor of Trinity, read the 
 solemn words of the ritual beginning with "I know 
 that my Redeemer liveth, " as the funeral procession 
 moved down the aisle of the historic church. 
 
 After an organ prelude, "Flee as a Bird," Mr. 
 Everett Blake sang Bishop Wilson's favorite hymn, 
 "The God of Abraham Praise. " The first Scripture 
 lesson was read by Rev. E. V. Regester, a former 
 pastor, and the second by Dr. F. J. Prettyman, 
 chaplain of the United States Senate. "Rock of 
 Ages" was announced by Bishop James Atkins, and 
 prayer was offered by Dr. T. H. Lewis, president of 
 the Western Maryland College. Addresses were 
 made by Bishop Hendrix, and Bishops Earl Cranston 
 
 199 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 and Luther B. Wilson, of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, and by Rev. B. W. Bond, D. D., presiding 
 elder of the Alexandria District, and Rev. John O. 
 Willson, D. D., president of Lander College, Green- 
 wood, S. C. Both Dr. Bond and Dr. Willson had been 
 life-long friends of Bishop Wilson. 
 
 These addresses are reproduced in part. The 
 tributes the speakers paid to Bishop Wilson's preach- 
 ing are omitted in this connection as they appear in 
 another chapter. 
 
 After "Asleep in Jesus " was sung, the benediction 
 was pronounced by Bishop John W. Hamilton, of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church. 
 
 The services at Loudon Park Cemetery were con- 
 ducted by Rev. D. H. Kern, D. D., presiding elder of 
 the Baltimore District, assisted by Rev. John A. 
 Anderson, presiding elder of the Winchester District, 
 by Rev. W. H. Best and Rev. CD. Harris. 
 
 The active pallbearers were six of the city pastors 
 —Revs. T. J. Lambert, C. M. Hesser, W. P. John- 
 ston, J. W. Smith, G. G. Oliver and W. C. Boswell. 
 The honorary pallbearers were Rev. Drs. B. W. 
 Bond, J. A. Anderson, L W. Canter, Charles W. 
 Baldwin, J. St. Clair Neal, H. L. Hout, J. J. Ringer, 
 E. K. Hardin, F. T. Tagg, H. M. Willson; Messrs. 
 E. B. Magruder, R. G. Mowbray, L. W. Davis, F. 
 E. Bond, J. E. Norwood, C. E. MuUer and C. M. 
 Armstrong. 
 
 200 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM THE ADDRESSES. 
 
 Bishop Hendrix. 
 
 "A devout man was Stephen, and when he died his 
 followers made great lamentation over him. It was be- 
 cause his life had been cut prematurely short. It had been 
 concentrated into only one great sermon. It was like the 
 century plant. It spent itself in one noble effort, in 
 which the whole life is given. The chtirch well felt that 
 there was more back of that, more of preaching, more 
 of service, and no doubt the lamentations were deep and 
 widespread and sincere because the young life had been 
 cut short. Our Lord never raised an old man from the 
 dead, always young men and young women. When they 
 had rounded out their life — three score and ten, or four 
 score — He was not going to bring them back to life to take 
 up their duties again. They rest in peace. But the little 
 girl of twelve, the widow's son, the young man whom the 
 mother needed, and the noble brother of those two pre- 
 cious sisters of Bethany were called back to live, to take up 
 their work, and to do more in their later life than ever be- 
 fore, for it was said of Lazarus that many came to see 
 Lazarus whom Jesus had raised from the dead, and to 
 hear the testimony of his life and of his words all through 
 his life whose eyes had twice looked on death. 
 
 "There was another man of whom it was said — having 
 served his generation by the will of God he had fallen on 
 sleep. David in the fulness of his years was laid to rest, and 
 that sleep was unbroken, for he had rounded out his life as 
 a man of God's own heart. So, today, we do not make 
 great lamentation over our sainted brother. He has 
 served his generation, nay, two generations, by the will of 
 God, and he has fallen on sleep after sLxty-four years as a 
 record of his wonderful ministry. Two generations are in- 
 debted to him for his marvelous preaching. He deserves 
 to rest in peace. We would not call him back, if we could, 
 for his weary years are ended, and he is in the bosom of 
 God. We know where to find him. Bishop Wilson has 
 fallen in a war in which there is no surcease, but whose out- 
 
 201 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 come cannot be questioned, and his is the crown, and his 
 is the throne, for he shared it with his Lord. The church 
 is the only thing that endure th. 
 
 "In this hour of peciiliar serenity and peace, we re- 
 joice in Him in whom he beUeved and in whom we beHeve, 
 the Captain of our salvation, the Lord of our conduct, our 
 faith, oiu" life. 
 
 " Alpheus Waters Wilson was a child of Baltimore, bom 
 in this city eighty-two years ago. He gave much of his 
 great life to this city. This church where we meet today 
 is the fruit of his labor. Many other churches in this city 
 and in this Conference shared his activities, and it is in a 
 peculiar sense the privilege of Baltimore to receive today 
 his hallowed dust. 
 
 "Alpheus Waters Wilson was a four-fold man. It was 
 said of Michael Angelo that he was four men in one — a 
 great architect, a great sculptor, a great painter and a 
 great poet. It is said that great men are not so different 
 from ordinary m^en, except that there is so much more of 
 them. John Wesley was one of those known as a four-fold 
 man, in so much that you can make a life of him as a 
 traveler, 3^ou can make a life of him as a preacher, you can 
 make a life of him as an organizer alone, and you could 
 make a Hfe of him as a wonderful writer of books alone — ■ 
 author, preacher, organizer, traveler — what a four-fold 
 life was there. 
 
 "Alpheus Waters Wilson led such a life as that — first 
 of all, a humble, devoted, convinced believer in our Lord 
 and Savior Jesus Christ — he might well say : ' For me to 
 live is Christ.' The genuineness of his faith, the devout- 
 ness of his spirit, his well-grounded trust in God, every- 
 where showed him a true believer whose life ran out into 
 marvelous activities, whose faith abounded unto life ever- 
 lasting. We knew him as such. We had communion with 
 him in the private places of worship, in the sweet fellow- 
 ship of council. We honored him as a brother beloved of 
 the Lord. 
 
 "He was widely known as a preacher. Especially was 
 he known for his sermon on the ' Church in the Mind of 
 
 202 
 
KATE LEAR 
 Cook in Bishop Wilson's household for forty years 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 God, ' a wonderful line of thought. It was published after 
 a careful stenographic report. 
 
 "Alpheus Waters Wilson for thirty-four years made a 
 great bishop, fitted for this work by long experience, by his 
 great power of intellect, the great riches of his heart and 
 his \\'ill, he led the hosts of Israel. And for the last sixteen 
 years, as our Senior Bishop, he was honored and loved and 
 revered by the whole church. With the knowledge of men , 
 with the courage to do his duty, with a singleness of pur- 
 pose, with a conception of the needs of the church, he 
 wrought faithful!}^ and well, and like Moses he could well 
 pray: 'Establish thou the work of our hands upon us, 
 yea, the work of our hands establish thou it. ' 
 
 "We lay him to rest today, one of the great citizens of 
 this commonwealth, of which he was a native, and of this 
 country of which he was an honored citizen. 
 
 "Bishop Wilson is widely known as a man of God, as a 
 great preacher, as a wonderful organizer — a commanding 
 Bishop of the church, he sleeps today honored of his 
 brethren, loved of all men. 
 
 "We recognize the mellowing influence of time on his 
 character. He grew more and more tender as he grew 
 older. His colleague for thirty years, I have known him 
 well, and I have many dear memories of his love. Just 
 three weeks ago in parting from me, he said, affectionately : 
 ' I pray for you every day. I will probably never see you 
 again. The sands are running out. My time is well nigh 
 come.' 
 
 "And so today we lay him to rest, amid our tears. 
 Thank God for Alpheus Wilson. Thank God for his 
 honored father, thank God for his noble wife who helped 
 so much to make him what he was to God and to the 
 church." 
 
 Bishop Earl Cranston. 
 
 "Sisters and brothers, it has fittingly fallen to Brother 
 Hendrix to characterize in the way he has the work and 
 service of Bishop Wilson. 
 
 " I don't want to appear exactly as a representative of 
 the Methodist Episcopal Church. I know that I must 
 
 203 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 speak for my colleagues here, and I know that I must tell 
 of the high esteem in which Bishop Wilson was held by all 
 the ministry of our church and by the people of our church 
 who knew his work. I don't believe there will be any 
 feeling other than that one of our own has gone, and I am 
 telling no secret when I say to you that myself and my 
 colleagues in the episcopal office have made it almost a 
 promise between us that we shall pray every day for each 
 other and also for the members of your College of Bishops, 
 and it seems to us as if one of our own number has gone. 
 
 "To you, my brethren of the chiu-ch that he loved, I 
 bring the sympathy of our ministry. I know what you 
 thought of him, at least, I think I do. 
 
 "Never did I see the touch of man upon man, the 
 embrace of man upon nmn, when it moved me more than 
 when I saw Bishop Wilson was leaving us at Chattanooga. 
 He had given us a most wonderful address, teaching his 
 loyalty to all that he believed and to his people, full of 
 faith in God. When he started to leave, his worthy col- 
 leagues in the Episcopate gathered abouthim, threw their 
 arms about his shoulders and embraced him. 
 
 Bishop Luther B. Wilson. 
 
 "It seems strange to stand here and Bishop Wilson to 
 be lying there. As Bishop Hendrix has said, I have known 
 Bishop Wilson as long as I have known anyone, almost, 
 and I have revered him as long as I have known him, and 
 my love for him has deepened with the years. To me he 
 stands out quite apart from the brotherhood devoted to 
 Jesus Christ and to the spread of His gospel among men. 
 It has all been said here this afternoon. But I sat and 
 Hstened to him again and again, listened to him in those 
 golden days when the sunlight came through the trees, and 
 in silence the multitudes hung upon his words. 
 
 "I pay the tribute of my love to him this afternoon. 
 As a great churchman he belonged to a goodly fellowship, 
 but as I have thought of him and as I have thought of 
 those who went before him, it seems to me that he comes 
 nearer to that fine type of ecclesiastical statesmanship than 
 is represented to us by any other than Joshua Soule — a 
 
 204 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 man of the same order of mind, and with the same keenness 
 of analysis, and with the same calmness of synthesis also 
 as this man of God, this prince of our common Israel today. 
 As I think of Joshua Soule today so I think of Bishop Wil- 
 son. 
 
 "I cannot test 3^our patience, but as I sat here, I 
 thought of what after all must have been the essential 
 thing in the fashioning of such a preacher, in the making of 
 such a master of assemblies, in the arm of one so keen in 
 his power to construct, and so well able for that con- 
 structive policy to which he gave himself, and it seems to 
 me that the logic of the mind was like the logic of his heart, 
 like the logic of his life. You who knew him, you who knew 
 him through the days, like the common days and then the 
 golden days and the epochal days, you who knew him 
 know this of him, that he was a follower of the Lord, just 
 as certainly as Israel in the olden day followed the pillar 
 of fire, so he followed the pillar of fire and of cloud, just as 
 evidently as in that old day when our diademed Lord 
 touched that great apostle to the Gentiles, and in a moment 
 fired the mind and heart of that apostle with warring de- 
 votion to Himself, so that same Master spoke to him, and 
 so to that same Master, his heart and mind and life were 
 pledged in an avowal as unmistakable and as loyally 
 maintained. I think of that apostle whom he loved, and 
 with whom he had such characteristic fellowship. I have 
 been thinking of the words that we heard read here this 
 afternoon: 'Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye 
 steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the 
 Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain 
 in the Lord. ' 
 
 "Therefore, the life of this great servant of the Lord, 
 the genuineness of this great servant of God is a logical 
 sequence to the things that he believed and knew. Living 
 as I have been privileged to live, where I saw him now and 
 again, and still more frequently heard of him, knowing of 
 those days of physical weakness that sometimes came to 
 him, and that multiplied in the latter years, I have come 
 to feel almost as though Death would find it difficult to 
 overtake this gre^t man, Death would find it difficult to 
 
 205 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 master this servant of the King. And it seemed to me 
 that when he went away he had defied death, he had out- 
 run death. Death came so near to him that reaching 
 after him death grasped his mantle, but the nmner has 
 entered through the gates into the city, and he shall not 
 see death. And as I think of Bishop Wilson absent from 
 the body and present with the Lord, it seems to me that 
 the memory of his life with its vision and with its victories 
 shall come to steady our steps as we go on our way. If 
 the memory of the just is blessed, how blessed the memory 
 of this life. And if sorrow possess us when we part, how 
 glad shall be the day when in the presence of the King 
 and of that glorious company that I think must already 
 have gathered at the gates to greet him, we shall see his 
 King, and the great miiltitude, and shall see again the 
 face of this man of God, faithful unto death, and devoted 
 with the last energy of his life. May it be so, and may his 
 mantle fall upon us. " 
 
 Dr. B. W. Bond. 
 
 "I do not need to say anything in regard to the great- 
 ness of Bishop Wilson in his official work. I will simply 
 say something as to his private character. I have known 
 him nearly all my life, and closely so many years. I have 
 always found him the same true, sincere, simple-hearted 
 man. I have known him in his official capacity, never 
 swerving from the straight line, never failing in his desire 
 and effort to be true, and doing everything in every way 
 that he could to promote the welfare of those about him, 
 those that came to him. I would speak of his unfailing 
 courtesy, kindness of spirit, and sympathy for all with 
 w^hom he came in contact. In private life he was one 
 among thousands, one altogether filled with God's spirit, 
 desiring to benefit all with whom he came in contact. 
 This was not only to all those who were in fellowship with 
 hrm in church relationship, but as it happened to me be- 
 fore I was a preacher, or even a member of the church. In 
 the troublous days of 1864 he did me a kindness at risk to 
 himself, without any obligation on his part whatsoever. 
 It is not meet that I should go into details at this time, but 
 
 206 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 there was danger to him and his family, and yet without 
 any hesitation whatever, and without making any to do 
 about it, he simply did this kindly act for me. In after 
 years I had the pri\Hilege of sharing his ministiy regularly 
 at the old Emmanuel Church of this city, where he labored 
 for a time after he had retired from the active work of the 
 ministry, but he filled that place, and it was the memory of 
 that occasion in 1864 that never left me, that drew me to 
 him and his ministry, and though I did not join the church 
 or profess religion for some time, yet it was his ministry 
 which I felt brought me at last to the foot of the cross, and 
 the fellowship in the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. He 
 was full of sympathy and kindness in all the relations of 
 life, in his private character and in his official capacity. 
 He was my friend. He honored me with his friendship and 
 love, and I feel that I have lost a father indeed, this day, 
 and I pray that by God's grace I will see him again and I 
 will meet him in the better land. " 
 
 Dr. J. O. WiLLSON. 
 
 " It would be selfish for me to speak for myself, rather 
 I would speak for South Carolina — the state of William 
 Wightman, of Coke Smith, of John Kilgo, the state from 
 which came the first missionary abroad of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church, South, and the state where Stephen 
 Olin was bom. 
 
 "From the year 1878, when Bishop Wilson came to 
 South Carolina, to the last day he spent there, that man 
 held our hearts and minds, and led us wheresoever he 
 pleased. I am not speaking alone for the Methodists of 
 South Carolina, though they loved him with a surpassing 
 love, but I am speaking of those of other communions and 
 other churches who heard him, and who gave him. their 
 hearts, and more and more were taught by him to love 
 God. 
 
 "There is no question about the greatness of Bishop 
 Wilson. He was the greatest preacher that I ever heard 
 or ever expect to hear, and I have heard many great 
 preachers, and ' never a man spake like this man. ' I trust 
 the quotation is not sacrilegious. But he spake for his 
 
 207 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 Lord, and spake like his Lord's servant, that wonderful 
 apostle to the Gentiles. 
 
 " I will not take your time to talk about him, for living 
 here as you have lived, you must know him, perhaps a 
 little better than I did, though I am not sure of that. One 
 thing I charge you to remember, you Baltimoreans, and 
 all the rest of you, love him as you may, you cannot love 
 him more than South Carolina, honor him as you must, 
 you cannot honor him more than the people of the Palmet- 
 to State, for in the length and breadth of our little com- 
 monwealth the name of Alpheus Waters Wilson is a name 
 that is set above and apart from all other names. 
 
 "I had the privilege of having the great Bishop visit 
 me for nearly a week just a few weeks ago. This is the 
 reason why I take up your time at all. I heard the last 
 sermon that Bishop Wilson spoke, before he went home, 
 and in shaking hands wdth him, I looked into the face of 
 Him whom he and Paul loved with a wonderful love. He 
 came to my home on the 8th day of November, and he was 
 not as strong as I would have liked to find him, and it was 
 a pleasiu-e to minister to him, and a pleasure when he left 
 me the following Monday to see he was stronger than when 
 he came. Indeed, it was a great shock to hear of his 
 death, for he was stronger than when with me a year ago. 
 
 "On Sunday, the 12th of November, we went down 
 together to the church in Greenwood, South Carolina. 
 He did not tell me what he was going to preach about. I 
 had not asked him . He took his text from the first chapter 
 of the book of Colossians: 'Whereof I am made a minis- 
 ter, according to the dispensation of God, which is given to 
 me for you, to fulfill the word of God; even the mystery 
 which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but 
 now is made manifest to his saints. ' I wish you could 
 have seen his expression as he said that 'To whom God 
 would make known what is the riches of the glory of this 
 mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the 
 hope of glory. ' 
 
 "Right now, this very moment that we are thinking of 
 him, he is with the Lord, and looking into the face of Jesus, 
 and he is telling Jesus all the things that are in his head and 
 
 208 
 
ALPHEUS W. WILSON 
 
 his heart, and he is worshiping and loving Him as fev/ can 
 worship and few can love. 
 
 "Farewell, my dear old friend whom I love, and whom 
 all of us love. Farewell imtil we meet again in the city of 
 God." 
 
 Many high tributes have been paid the life and 
 character of Bishop Wilson by those who knew him 
 well and many papers extolling his marvelous ca- 
 reer have been adopted by ecclesiastical bodies, but I 
 question whether any of them do him full justice. 
 We of the present have Hved too close to this towering 
 personality to get the proper perspective for measur- 
 ing his real greatness. 13 nlike most men, he will loom 
 larger with the passing years. He is destined to be 
 recognized as a great historical character that has 
 been a tremendous factor in shaping the history of 
 Methodism on this continent and in the regions be- 
 yond. In a half century or more men will be better 
 able to place a true value on the mighty influence and 
 power of this man, who lived, moved, and had his 
 being in the midst of us. 
 
 209 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 FonnL9 — 15m-10,'48(B1039)444 
 
AIdL ous 
 
 BX 
 
 8495 
 
 VfS91H2