The peerless orator: the Rev. Matthew Simpson, D.D., LL.D., bishop of the Methodist Episcopal church...

Front matter

Gass

Book ,S 55Ws>_ i

E. M. Wood.

Contents

Page

Foreword Introduction

I. Forebears and Native Heath 17-26

Foreword

Few names in Methodist history, since the days of John Wesley, are as widely and favorably known as that of Bishop Matthew Simpson. As a preacher he had no superior and few equals. The announcement that he would preach in a given church or lecture in a public hall always crowded either to its utmost capacity however spacious. Who, that heard his sermon on "When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy", or his oration on "The Future of our Country" can forget the spell and resistless power of his eloquence. His fame as a preacher and orator was equally great in America and in England. As a bishop he was trusted and honored for his executive ability and loved and revered for his saintliness of character. Distance of time does not diminish his fame or detract from his greatness.

Such a life should be constantly held up as a splendid ideal to inspire the ministry of the Church to strive for the highest possible attainments in character and effectiveness. The author of this volume, Dr. E. M. Wood, by intimate association with Bishop Simpson for a considerable period as assistant in the preparation of the Encyclopedia of Methodism had special facilities for studying his subject, and has given a concise and yet sufficiently comprehensive portraiture of the man, the minister, the bishop and the masterful orator. This book is worthy of a place in every Methodist home and especially in the library of every minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and of any other home or library.

REV. A. B. LEONARD, D. D.

New York City.

Mrs. Bishop Simpson.

Introduction

Contrary to what may be the general opinion, to write a correct autobiography is a most difficult task, first for the reason that if the writer is very modest he may place less emphasis upon those great facts most meritorious, and second, what might seem most interesting to himself might not appear so to others.

And to write a biography is no easy task. The writer may be almost overwhelmed with the abundance of material, and to select from this material such as will set forth the true life properly requires great care and impartial wisdom. Every public man especially, owes it to his successors to leave his estate in as satisfactory condition as possible, and none the less so of his literary estate. But in both cases most men are very prone to postponement. Such persons often excuse themselves on the ground that they are too busy for such work, but we owe it to those who shall come after us to leave our best thoughts and works in as complete and systematic form as possible. If all inventions, discoveries and valuable acquisitions were scattered, lost or destroyed, at our death, how exceedingly slow and difficult would be the advancement of our civilization.

In preparing this sketch we have often found a most unfortunate hiatus where we greatly desired a fullness of material. A large volume could be made up from the opinions of eminent men who heard him at different times and places but these would hardly fairly portray the real life of Bishop Simpson. And what a uniformity there would be in these statements as most of them would speak of his wonderful power over men either in the pulpit or on the platform. Hence we have chosen to speak of some of those characteristics not so generally known but not forgetting, however, to mention the others also with due fullness. And reasons, I think, will be found in the following chapters why it has been to me a most delightful task to which I have set my hand. But I have not written of him who is just a little and for a little while beyond our vision, out of gratitude and love only but as a worthy example and a holy inspiration for young men with poor personal and social environments but with an indomitable will and unflagging perseverance that they may attain to like eminence in usefulness and power.

Besides a general acquaintance with Bishop Simpson it was my good fortune to be with him in his own home in Philadelphia and to enjoy the hospitality of his family and to work with him in his large library in the preparation of the "Cyclopedia of Methodism". Thus I came to know the real, the inner life, of this great man. I desire here to acknowledge my indebtedness to Dr. George R. Crooks for his "Life of Bishop Simpson". But I have chosen a different outline and many new facts by which to present the predominant characteristics of this eminent scholar, preacher, bishop and orator. The "Cyclopedia of Methodism" has been very helpful in the preparation of this work.

E. M. WOOD.

Sarah Simpson, The Bishop's Mother.

CHAPTER I. Forebears and Native Heath

li t OT many authors in this hurrying age will agree \ with Horace when he says that your literary compositions should be kept from the public eye at least for nine years. But it is true that many important works have been much longer in preparation than his time limit. Perhaps more will agree with Carlyle who says that biography is the most universally pleasant, the most universally profitable, of all reading as biography is the only true history. Indeed there could be no history without biography for it is man-made. The best illustrations and inspirations come from the reading of real and not fictional biography. And perhaps no man knew better than Carlyle, not by the reason of his failures, but because of his wide reading, that a well written life is almost as rare as a well spent one, but as the latter does not discourage us from trying to live the best we can so the former should not prevent us from placing on record a life whose influence may be emphasized and extended to new lives yet to appear in the history of the race. But Emerson greatly comforts and instructs us when he says that great geniuses have always the shortest biographies.

The law of heredity is not invariable and inexorable, otherwise there could not be varieties or species. This law has permitted the wild rose to be developed into more than 300 luscious varieties. Moral heredity as is now believed holds for good as well as for evil. The Bible rightly interpreted recognizes the two-fold operation of this law. There are no less than twelve instances where it speaks of the consequences of evil upon descendants. But on the other side it speaks of the mercy of the Lord unto children's children. But examples and customs are almost as persistent as the law of heredity. Common law holds about as mighty a sway as statute law. As a rule at about 35, if not before, ancestral traits and peculiarities will begin to show themselves. No philosopher ever uttered a wiser sentiment than that "no man liveth unto himself." "We must not press the theory of heredity too far. There are so many missing links that it is doubtful if it is worthy of the name of a chain. We must remember that while in some cases it is an encouraging law, in others it is equally discouraging. We challenge the

FOREBEARS AND NATIVE HEATH 19 statement even as a general proposition, and more so if it be made universal, that children inherit their moral bent from the mother. Facts as we read them do not sustain the affirmation. 'Blood will tell' we admit, but whose blood, that of the father or the mother, the male or the female, no naturalist or moralist can determine.

Samuel's mother was a good praying mother, but the mother of Joseph and Benjamin had her household gods. Providence finds great men when they are greatly needed; a Washington for independence, a Lincoln for emancipation, a Grant for victory and a McKinley for expansion. Young men trusted and proved in lower positions are called to higher and more responsible work. Samuel from being janitor of the tabernacle to ancient kings and deliver prophecies and rescuing a nation.

When God calls we must be patient and accept the unfoldings of His purpose. Not every boy would keep his temper if called up four times in one night before the purpose was made known, as was Samuel. Self-possession is the master key to the temple of fame.

Readiness for duty is a prophecy of promotion and success; ready cash gets the best bargain ; ready talent will first step upon the throne ; the ready speaker carries the multitude. The 'initiative' has won for the American soldier universal admiration. 'Here am I' should be placarded on the breast of every young Christian.

In the face of the greatest combinations of capital ever known, of the largest number of organizations among men, of almost bewildering mechanical appliances, individualism was never such a potent factor as now. It is the man behind the gun, the man with the hoe, the man must be counted on, the man is not lost in the complex machinery of society. In all the whirr of machinery, in all the vast crowds of society, in all movements, moral, industrial or religious, stand forth young men, under your own banner, proudly saying 'Here am I.' "

In Europe the tendency is to trace lineage on an ascending scale, but in America on a descending scale, perhaps not always wisely.

Bishop Simpson's grandfather on the father's side was from England, and for some time was in the service of the English Government as a horse dragoon. Later with his family he emigrated to Tyrone County, Ireland, and died in middle life, leaving five sons and one daughter,

Uncle Matthew Simpson.

FOREBEARS AND NATIVE HEATH 21

Andrew, John, William, Matthew, James and Mary. In 1793 the widowed grandmother and family came to America and landing at Baltimore they removed to Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, and William located in Erie County, Pennsylvania but most of the family settled in Harrison County, Ohio.

The bishop's father, James, the youngest of the family, was a man of great energy and business tact and was for some time a clerk in Pittsburg with John Wrenshall, the family residing here for a short time when the bishop was a small boy. After this Wrenshall began the manufacture of weaver's reeds, and with the bishop's uncle, Matthew Simpson, they set up a store with these goods in Cadiz, Ohio, with John Wrenshall, who was a merchant, as partner in Pittsburg. He was an Englishman and is supposed to be the first local preacher of Methodism in the town. He resided on Market Street and owned an orchard in the rear of his house, where preaching was sometimes held.

Grandmother Simpson was a woman of wonderful memory and more than ordinary intellect. John Wesley visited Ireland annually for several years, and on one of these tours she heard him preach shortly after she became a widow, and she was converted. From that time the entire family attended the Methodist Church and at an early age they all united with that society. She had been raised a Presbyterian, but from this on, although she lived past ninety, she was happy and cheerful and lived to see all her children occupying respected positions.

James Simpson, the bishop's father, married Sarah Tingley, June i, 1806, when they had all lived for a brief time on Short Creek, Jefferson County, and then removed to Cadiz, Ohio, but his health failing, he moved to Pittsburg and resided on Fourth Street between Market and Ferry, where he died of consumption, June 15, 1812, when Matthew, the bishop, was six days less than one year old. The widow soon returned to Cadiz, Ohio.

His mother, Sarah Tingley, was born near Stony Brook, about twenty miles from South Amboy, New Jersey, May 23, 1781. Her father, Jeremiah Tingley, served in the Revolutionary War after which he located for a number of years in Winchester, Virginia, and in 1801, moved to Ohio and settled on Short Creek near Hopewell, Jefferson County. They were Bap-

FOREBEARS AND NATIVE HEATH 23 tists, but all finally joined the Methodist Church. Here Jeremiah Tingley, the bishop's maternal grandfather, died. The Tingleys were well educated. William, the bishop's maternal uncle, was clerk of the Court of Harrison County for thirty years, in which office the bishop spent much time as assistant clerk. Joseph Tingley, Ph. D., a cousin, was born in Cadiz, Ohio, in 1822, and he entered Allegheny College but finished in Asbury, now DePau, University, Greencastle, Indiana, in 1846. He was then in 1849, after serving as tutor, elected professor of Natural Science. The other cousin of the bishop was Jeremiah Tingley, Ph. D., who was born in Cadiz, Ohio, in 1826, and entered Asbury University and graduated in 1850. After teaching for some time in a female seminary, he was elected professor of Natural Science and Chemistry in Allegheny College. Afterwards he was professor of Chemistry in the West Penn Medical College in Pittsburg. These are some of the eminent persons on his mother's side.

The family of which the bishop was the youngest and was the only son are as follows : Hattie, the eldest, was born in Cadiz, April 3, 1807. In 1829 she married Mr. George McCullough who afterwards bought a farm near Liverpool, Ohio, Here the bishop's mother and his uncle Matthew lived with them and all were engaged at odd times in the manufacture of neck stocks for which there was a good trade at that time. Afterwards the McCulloughs removed to Cincinnati, where for many years he was a successful merchant. The second sister, Elizabeth, was born February 2, 1809. She was married to a physician by the name of Curtis W. Scoles, who became a minister of the Pittsburg conference in 1842 and died in 1847 having served Johnstown, Ligonier, Elizabeth, Carmichels and Brownsville. Being of a delicate nature she died of consumption when only twenty-four years of age, and was buried in Cadiz.

The elder sister was five years old, the other sister three years old, and the bishop only one year old when their father died. Thus was the mother left with a responsible charge besides the care of an unmarried uncle, a man of delicate health, who made his home with them. No wonder that the bishop remained but two months at Madison College. With his deep affection for his mother and the other members of the family, he could not afford to be sup-

FOREBEARS AND NATIVE HEATH 25 ported by them but must go home to help support them. His father had purchased a home in the center of the town of Cadiz, and was successful in business until his health failed. The house in which they lived was a small, unpainted frame house of four or five rooms. The house was later removed from its first location, and although a plain one-story and a half house, was probably as good as the average houses at that time.

What a famous city is Cadiz ! As early as 1809, two years before the bishop was born, we find among the names and occupations of its citizens, James Simpson, reedmaker, and William Tingley, school teacher. Later here were Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, Lincoln's Secretary of War, and Hon. John A. Bingham, the prosecutor of Lincoln's murderer. These remind us of the saying of Carlyle, as Bishop Simpson also was born here, "great men are not born among fools". Bishop Simpson had a paternal uncle who resided in Harrison County from whom descended John Simpson, Mary A. Simpson, wife of Mr. J. C. Patterson, now of Cadiz, and Matthew W. Simpson and William Simpson. Some of these long ago moved to Illinois, some to

Kansas and others to California. Young Simpson might have thought like Tennyson when he said, "I believe the discipline of those who are to live in the coming age is different from that of any previous one. I can only look at the strange providences in my own life with wonder as to what they were intended to fit me for".

SCHOLAR AND EDUCATOR.

CHAPTER II. Schorr and Educator

Sometimes it is seen that a precocious intellect is indicative of a feeble body, but that such an intellect should so overcome the weakness of the body as to live long and do a vast amount of exhausting work approaches close to a modern miracle. And yet such was the life of Bishop Simpson. Without assistance and before he was three years of age he had learned the alphabet, to spell and to read. He said he was astonished when ministers stopping at his mother's home should even ask him if he could read, and before he was five years of age he had learned the multiplication table and the elements of arithmetic. Here we see the early beginnings of what was afterwards shown in him, namely, a most accurate speller, a rapid reader, an expert mathematician and a thorough linguist. When seven years of age he attended school a few months, studying arithmetic and grammar, and this was followed by a short period in a select school, studying grammer and geography. Next he attended an academy in Cadiz under the celebrated physician Dr. McBean, to learn the ancient languages. He believed with the ancients that the morning hour had gold in its mouth. Dr. McBean died in 1875 and the bishop wrote the widow a beautiful tribute to his memory. Between five and ten years of age he had access to a public library in his native town and had read a large number of volumes on travel, history and biography. He has often told me that from his earliest recollection he regarded writing as the merest drudgery, and this greatly handicapped him, especially while in the editorial office. He was sent to a private tutor to improve his penmanship and his long experience in the County Clerk's office greatly improved his handwriting, so that to the last of his life he wrote a fair hand, but never without the feeling of drudgery. This was also at a great expense to him so that in nearly all of his public life he employed a stenographer.

He especially disliked declamation, reciting the language and thoughts of another, and to escape this he often traded with the students, preferring essays or original orations. His memory, however, was marvelous and at one time while in Madison College, he recited fifteen

Madison College, Uniontown, Pa.

propositions in geometry and at another twenty-four, and this wonderful faculty rendered him good service in recalling the conjugations, the declensions and the vocabulary of the ancient and modern languages. He sc 1 dom memorized his sermons, and so when he delivered one such sermon his friends told him that it was a great failure and he never attempted it again.

A work on surveying, embracing geometry and trigonometry was put into his hands when a boy, and it gave him great delight and was soon mastered without a teacher, except an occasional suggestion from his uncle Matthew.

Simpson, who was a fine mathematician and a superior linguist, when only eight years of age began the study of the German and soon read the German Bible through, and when at family worship he would read the German and his uncle or his mother would read the English Bible, and they would compare the translations. Afterwards when holding German Conferences he occasionally preached in German.

From his practice as clerk he often listened to famous men before the courts, and thus acquired not only the methods of legal procedure, but the general principles of law which served

THE PEERLESS ORATOR.

him well in his official position as president of the general and annual conferences, and in the various business church committees of which he was a member.

He had an uncle, Tingley, who for several years was editor and publisher of the county paper, and he often assisted in every department of the paper, even to setting type, as well as writing editorials, and this knowledge was of great use to him when called upon to edit the Western Christian Advocate, as well as in publishing his books.

The bishop began the study of Latin with two young men who were boarders in his mother's home and attending the academy, and such was his success that in about three months he studied Ross' Latin grammar, read Historia Sacra, four books of Caesar and a large part of Cataline. He then entered the academy and finished his full course in Latin and began the study of Greek grammar. In a little over four months he had finished the Graeca Minora, the first volume of Graeca Majora, part of the second volume, and a number of books of Homer, thus finishing what was then regarded by the colleges a complete course in Latin and Greek in about seven months of actual work. Besides these studies under the direction of his uncle he studied French, Spanish and Italian, besides botany, chemistry and geology. When only fifteen years of age, his uncle, having opened a select school, he became his assistant often taking entire management of the school and hearing advanced classes in the sciences, mathematics and the classics.

After this time Dr. Charles Elliott, a professor in Madison College, was visiting at the home of his mother and offered him a position as teacher in that institution. Dr. Homer J. Clark, the financial agent of that college, was about this time visiting Cadiz, and also urged him to go to that school. Uniontown, Pa., the seat of Madison College, was ninety miles from Cadiz, Ohio. He determined to make the journey on foot, partly on account of economy, and also as no stage road went through Cadiz. So, tying up a little bundle of clothes and a few books and with eleven dollars and twenty-five cents in his pocket, he started and traveling the whole distance on foot he arrived after three days on the third day of November, 1828. He was then a young man of seventeen, and Dr. Elliott received him cor-

THE PEERLESS ORATOR.

dially and by invitation he boarded with the family in company with Simon Elliott, then a student, and brother of Charles. He at once commenced reviewing Hebrew, Greek and Latin, and geometry, and he assisted Dr. Elliott in the languages and often heard all of his classes in the absence of the doctor. At family prayer it was the custom to read from the Hebrew, the Septuagint, the Vulgate, the French and the German, each one noting the various readings and discussions followed. Here at college he read Vergil, Cicero, Livy and Tacitus. He said that Dr. Elliott told him that he would need no instruction from him in Latin or Greek. He was soon elected a tutor in the college. Here were about forty students in the classics and thirty in the English course. Here he also continued his rigid rule of early rising in November and December at five o'clock, four and sometimes as early as half past three, and reviewing his studies and recitations for the day.

Now came a great crisis in the bishop's life, having been in Madison College less than two months. His success in college was most remarkable, but his thoughts would ever and anon turn to the home he had left. The little property

SCHOLAR AND EDUCATOR.

left by his father in support of the family was melting away, and his uncle was in poor health. His oldest sister was to be married soon, his youngest sister was in poor health, and his mother becoming very frail, and he felt it his duty to give up his college work and return to his home where at least he would not be a tax on them for his support but where he might be a comfort and a help to them. And so he wrote to his uncle an unusually long and very wise letter for a boy of seventeen years, asking for his advice in the dilemma. He said that he was comfortably situated there and therefore was well satisfied to stay if they were comfortably situated at home. He decided to return home during the holidays, which he did again walking the whole distance. He said that he found such a change in the circumstances of the family as seemed to make it necessary that he should remain at home. He was obliged reluctantly to give up his college pursuits and the tutorship to which he had been promoted. He again assisted in school at Cadiz, and for three years pursued the study of medicine, accumulated a medical library, and commenced the practice. The courts had offered him an official position, but he finally declined all else and entered the ministry, and was appointed to St. Clairsville Circuit, and the second year was sent to Pittsburg. He, however, did not give up his ambition to complete his college course and so arranged with Rev. Dr. Bruce, president of the Western University of Pennsylvania, to attend his lectures on moral science, and they would give him the degree of A. M. He entered upon the course of lectures, but on his way home one morning he was informed that Allegheny College had conferred the degree upon him.

In 1837 he was elected professor of Natural Science in Allegheny College, Meadville, Pa., and in the same year was elected vice-president of the faculty. This change in the faculty seemed necessary as Dr. Ruter, then president, was about to resign and undertake missionary work in Texas, then just opened to Protestantism by annexation to the United States. Dr. Homer J. Clark was elected president and retained the professorship of mathematics. Before this Dr. Ruter had been invited to the presidency of La Grange College, Alabama, and he agreed to accept if Bishop Simpson would take a position under him in the faculty. This he declined to do, and Dr. Ruter went to Texas instead. Simpson was required to teach besides the natural sciences some of the higher mathematics as surveying and navigation. At that time Professor G. W. Clark, a graduate of the college and later professor in Mount Union College, O., had charge of the Latin and Greek. Subsequently he became one of the three founders of Mount Union College, Ohio, with O. N. Hartshorn and I. O. Chapman. At that time also Calvin Kingsley, another graduate of the college, afterward Bishop Kingsley, was tutor of some classes and Simpson evidently was pleased with his surroundings in the college. He said the main building was good, the library large, having 8,000 volumes, the laboratory fair, and the apparatus for natural science was excellent. Soon a graduate of West Point, Professor Alden, was elected to the chair of mathematics. He was an efficient mathematician, and his sister married the famous financier, Jay Cooke. Inside of two years he left for a professorship in Kentucky and Dr. Joseph Barker was elected in his place, and subsequently was elected president of the college.

While in the college, Simpson had a class on

Sunday afternoon in his house reading the Greek Testament, and among these persons were Gordon Battelle, who was a famous preacher and educator in West Virginia, and also Frank H. Pierpont. These two men were members of the State Convention which organized the State of West Virginia. Battelle was appointed chaplain of a regiment during the Civil War and died of typhoid fever. Pierpont became a distinguished lawyer and then Governor of the State. These items briefly related will show the intelligent environment of Bishop Simpson while in Allegheny College.

In the spring of 1838 he was elected professor in Asbury University, an institution just opening in Greencastle, Indiana. His health was poor and his cough troublesome, and so he declined but in the winter of the same year he was elected president and accepted to begin his work in the spring. At this time he was only twentyseven years of age and how rapid had been his promotion ! There was perhaps no more diligent student in Allegheny College than Professor Simpson himself. He used his opportunities to the full for reading the Greek and Eatin fathers in the original and studying Origen, the Koran,

Calvin's Institutes and of all his readings he made copious notes, all of which experiences had generously fitted him for his new position as president of Asbury University.

Simpson arrived in Greencastle in April, 1839. The charter for the University had been secured in 1837. The village then had about five hundred inhabitants, living mostly in one story and a half frame or log buildings. It was a county seat, and the little forbidding hotels were full, and such were the rude surroundings that I have heard the bishop and his wife say that never had they felt so despondent as that Saturday afternoon when they arrived in Greencastle with their only child, a little boy not yet two years old. Simpson soon found warm hearted friends, especially in the board of trustees, among whom was that humorist, the sanguine and hopeful Peter Cartwright. Here was only a preparatory school, meeting in a two-story building, two rooms below and one room above. Simpson took charge of the upper room where he heard his classes. At the opening of the summer session there were enrolled between seventy and eighty pupils. Surely here was occasion for the highest exercise of faith and hope. At the first commencement which took place in the new college chapel in September, 1840, besides the graduating exercises in the evening before the literary society Henry Ward Beecher, then at Indianapolis, delivered a characteristic address. The Governor of the State, David Wallace, gave the address of welcome and then delivered to Simpson the keys of the University and then followed the inaugural address. His uncle Matthew knew the time was coming for the preparation and delivery of this address and he wrote him a very wise letter in which after referring to some embarrassments surrounding him at that time he said that there were few men if any who have had greater facility in acquiring a knowledge of literature, language and science than himself.