Bio 11g Daniel Wilson

Conclusion 2 (the last five points)

11. Missionary zeal. His willingness to go to India in his fifties speaks volumes. His perseverance there too. It all grew out of a zeal that had begun long before. Back in 1797 and just converted he had felt “great desires to go or do anything to spread the name of Jesus”. He wrote “I have even wished, if it were the Lord's will, to go as a missionary to heathen lands." The reason he stayed and died in India was not a lack of interest in his homeland – far from it – but a sense of commitment to the work. 12. Growing charity. No-one was more of a churchman than he; but he was always ready to hold out the right hand of fellowship to those that differed. His warfare was defensive. This catholicity increased with his years, till, at length, he uttered what Bateman calls 'those memorable words, significant, at all events, of his own aspirations for India': "Unity and love prevail amongst the different divisions of the Protestant family here. We no longer maintain the old and fatal mistake that Christian men are not to co-operate for anything, till they agree in everything. We now hold the antagonistic and true maxim, that Christian men should act together so far as they are agreed." 13. Unbounded liberality. None will know its extent; but very nearly all that he ever received from India was returned to India. By dint of self-denial he must have passed on thousands of pounds to the work of God in India. 14. Fearlessness in a righteous cause. He feared the face of no man in a righteous cause. When he saw anything which required a word of caution, the rank of the individual never daunted him. The fitting occasion was watched for, the friendly word spoken, or the private note sent. If the desired effect was produced, he rejoiced ; if the interference was resented, he bore it as "a cross," but it never made him angry. Public scandals, however, drew from him public condemnation; and it often made the breath come short, to hear him from the pulpit denounce an offence, and almost name the offender. On one occasion of a public scandal, after frequent public demonstrations of this kind, he invited thirty or forty influential ladies to his house, and entreated them in private to stem, by their influence, the current of immorality which was setting in. 15. Peculiarities. He suffered them to grow, and they became marked features. It was not originality or eccentricity, so much as peculiarity and oddity - an odd way of saying and doing odd things. And yet there was something of originality in what was thus done and said - something of set purpose - something which gave point to the expression, and took firm hold upon the memory. Speaking of a missionary who had sought and obtained a chaplaincy, he said, "Ah! he was a true missionary; perhaps there was not a better in India. But Satan and Eve have persuaded him to quit the work." One of the chaplains in the upper provinces had preached a sermon, in his presence, strongly directed against Calvinism. The argument was elaborate, and claimed to be triumphant. The bishop said nothing at the time ; but when about to step into his palanquin, and leave the station, he shook hands kindly with the chaplain's wife, and thanked her for her courtesy, adding: " Please to tell your husband that he has not settled that question." He would often join together a commendation and a caution. Introducing a chaplain to the governor, he mentioned him as one "who bids fair to be very valuable to us, if only God keeps him humble." It characterised his expositions of Scripture. One of his chaplains was ordered up to the Punjab, but his wife was unwilling to go. In the course of the morning's reading, it happened that this passage occurred : " Having his children and his household in subjection with all gravity." — "Now," said the bishop, commenting upon it, "I don't call it having his household in subjection with all gravity, when one of my chaplains is ordered up to Lahore, and his wife says she won't go." His lectures on the Epistles to Timothy or Titus, to his candidates for ordination, have been already alluded to. They were invaluable, full of force, and calculated to impress the mind most beneficially. But here, also, he sometimes forgot himself, and said more than he meant. The candidates were required to take down the lectures, and the examination of their notes formed part of the preparatory trial. On one occasion, some quick, clever candidates took down every word ; but before the papers were submitted to the bishop, they brought them to his chaplain, pointing out many 'odd remarks and strong expressions, and asking whether they should be left out. "Not a line, not a letter," said the chaplain. The papers were accordingly handed in, and the perusal of them was to the bishop like a man beholding his natural face in a glass. He could scarcely believe that the expressions were correct; but, undeceived on this point, the last morning's lecture was very much taken up in modifying the previous statements, and preventing all consequent misunderstandings. Especially - having said that "he would rather be a poor little Baptist, with God's grace in his heart, than the Archbishop of Canterbury without it" - he was anxious to explain, that though he stood to the sentiment, he would not have them picture to themselves an Archbishop of Canterbury without grace in his heart. But still there is such a thing as being too much at home in the pulpit; and, many times, things were said by the bishop which had better have been left unsaid. But, though men might smile, they never slept. India is a sleepy place, and he effectually roused it. And it may be surmised that he intended to do so. Hence short, strong, pithy sentences, which might be fixed like goads. Hence familiar anecdotes of other times and earlier days. Hence reference to matters of local interest — to offensive paragraphs in newspapers, to unlawful, though fashionable amusements. These were the outpourings of the heart, and the impulse, often, of the moment — graphic, pungent, and sometimes ludicrous. But all these peculiarities affected not the great features of his character. There is something of affection in the smile they raise. Bateman admits the faults in Wilson – he cannot deny them but using the word of another he ends by calling him A BRAVE AND NOBLE SOLDIER; A WISE, BOLD LEADER. I ESTEEM IT THE GREATEST PRIVILEGE OF MY LIFE TO HAVE KNOWN HIM. One understands such sentiments.