METHODIST REVIEW. JANUARY, 1903. ART. L-BISHOP NINDE: AN APPRECIATION.* Ir is not easy to say what Bishop Ninde was to those who did not know him; it is quite as difficult to say this to those who knew him, in a way that they would feel satisfying. To be sure, the outstanding recollection of the man is that of Coleridge's Good great man! Three treasures-love and light But love and light and peace are just the elements of character least susceptible of verbal exposition. They represent an atmosphere rather than any ponderable or identifiable entity; one must live in them, and, as it were, feel the play of them, to realize their power and beauty when embodied in a plenary nature and lovable personality. To take first things first, Bishop Ninde had a notable and gracious presence. His choice of the "clerical" garb was the outcome of a simple and perfect taste in dress; nor, perhaps, was it without consideration of its special appropriateness to his particular face and figure, and of its use as auxiliary to his special work. The erect and stately form with its * William Xavier Ninde was born in Cortland, N. Y., June 21, 1832; prepared at the public schools of Lowville, N. Y., and Rome, N. Y.; was graduated from Wesleyan University 1855; entered Black River Conference 1856; stationed at Second Church, Fulton (1856), at Adams (1857-58), and at Rome (1859-60); transferred to Cincinnati Conference and stationed at Trinity (1861-62), Morris Chapel (1863-66), and Union Chapel (1866-67), all in Cincinnati; traveling in Europe 1868; stationed at Christie Chapel 1869; transferred to Detroit Conference and stationed at Central Church, Detroit, 1870-73; appointed to professorship in Garrett Biblical Institute 1873-76; reappointed to Central Church, Detroit, 1876-79; elected president of Garrett Biblical Institute 1879-84; elected to episcopacy 1884; ed January 3, 1901. See the noble Memoir by his daughter, recently published by the Methodist Book Concern. deliberate and dignified habit of movement, the gentle and benign face with eyes blue as a summer sky, and the strongly modeled head crowned with abundant hair, fair and fine, were all enhanced by the modest framework of black, and made him look just what he was-"every inch a bishop." To this was added an exceptional graciousness of manner, the winsome urbanity of the high-minded man who is conscious only of an affectionate good will toward all men and eager that they should know it and believe it. Every accent of his greeting rang true; and it was the same to all classes. Because he had the princeliest of natures he was the most democratic of men. This combination of dignity and graciousness was of the very texture of his being; it was with him no acquisition of the schools. And so he could perform the lowliest service without abating a whit of his dignity, and he could invest the simplest courtesy with a charm which lifted it to distinction. Bishop Ninde had the good fortune to be born well. He was a veritable son of the manse, being himself a preacher of the fourth generation. His great-grandfather, James Nind, was a Gloucestershire yeoman of substance and culture, the friend of Wesley and a local preacher; the grandfather, William Nind, was a minister of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Maryland, greatly useful and beloved; his father, William Ward Ninde, though dead at thirty-five, was one of the most eloquent evangelists and one of the most cherished pastors of his generation. Quite as significant was the lineage on the maternal side. His grandmother Cole was a daughter of John Cole, founder of Methodism in western New York, whose daily prayer for years was, "May the God of all grace convert and sanctify to the latest generation all my posterity;" and granddaughter of Joseph Cole, whose intimacy with Wesley is commemorated in a print representing the two (with another friend) walking arm in arm apparently in earnest conversation. The mother of Bishop Ninde, Mary Moore, was the daughter of a Methodist home, distinguished alike for probity, piety, and generous hospitality. There is a hint of daring humor in William Ward Ninde's taking for a text on the morning of his espousing the young woman, "For Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her." The temper of our times is to put emphasis upon environment and education; but one's ancestry is also a potent factor in life. A man into whom has gone three generations of clean living and high thinking has an enviable start; it is quite as likely that such a man will modify his environment as that his environment will make him. The atmosphere of his home and the character of his early training were also congenial discipline for one whose work was to be that of religious leadership. Naturally, among his earliest text-books was the Bible, the beauties of which were opened to him by his father, who seems to have had a special gift of vivid exposition and vital interpretation. The relishing study of the book in these early years he maintained to the end, and to his familiarity with it is due not a little of the simple beauty and vigor of his literary style. Later in life, when he was a lad of about seventeen, he was the subject of a definite and memorable religious experience. Those who remember Bishop Ninde only in the ripeness of his gracious and saintly manhood would hardly credit him with a period of life when "his religious convictions had become seriously undermined and he had swung far away from the simple faith of his childhood." Nevertheless, the experience was real, and necessary. He was to be the herald of personal experience; he must have the experience as the heart of his message. It came about this way: A series of sermons on Christian evidences by the pastor at Lowville arrested the lad's attention. He faced the problems thus presented in manly, straightforward fashion; with characteristic fidelity he fought his way to the full and firm belief in the Bible as a trustworthy revelation from God; and, later, to the determination to embrace Christ as a personal Saviour to be confessed before men. A struggle was involved in deciding for the ministry; an even greater struggle in making open con fession of his conversion. By dint of earnest prayer he found courage to attend the week-night prayer meeting. Less than a dozen were present, but all true saints. The hour passed. To his dismay, the anxious lad saw the pastor rise to close the service. With a supreme effort he struggled to his feet and said, weak of voice but stout of heart, “I want to be a Christian, and I ask you to-pray for me." The first step taken, the next was easier. The boy joined the church at once, and honored his commission in true apostolical fashion by bringing first his own brother Henry to the Master. The very hardships of his youth contributed to a discipline which aided his ministry. Bishop Ninde had to work his way through school. During the time spent in the schools of Lowville and Rome he learned the printer's trade, and passed in rapid and sure progress from the case to the editor's chair. In the university he tutored and preached. The discipline was severe but fruitful. It gave him an intelligent appreciation of the workingman's lot and a ready sympathy for hard conditions of life. "The poor in my churches," he was wont to say, "could never complain that I neglected them; if any were slighted it was the rich, for I felt they could more easily spare me." This anecdote is characteristic: Seeing an aged colored woman struggling with an overloaded pushcart, he stepped to her side and said with gentle courtesy, "Auntie, that is heavy for you; let me wheel it." Out of the experience of hardship in his youth came the enthusiasm for pastoral work, for the work of city missions, and for all phases of the problems of labor. A further experience which added greatly to his pastoral efficiency was the beauty and felicity of his domestic life. In the home of his father and mother, and later in that of his grandfather and grandmother Moore, he had known all his boyhood long only the ministries of loving, loyal, and mutually adoring family affection. In his own home, marrying as he did the love of his youth, and being himself the chivalric lover to the end, there was, with the advent of the chil dren, a center of happiness which to him seemed the sum of all blessings. Such happiness it was his eager concern to promote among all the families of his parish. He knew that the secret lay in the law of Christ being accepted as the rule of the household; and that that law should prevail he sought everywhere, by public instruction and by the most painstaking pastoral supervision, to show its worth and power. Many a family owes to his ministry a new and better order of home life; and hundreds of young people can trace to his instruction and personal influence the view of married life which lies at the very foundation of all domestic happiness. From the first Bishop Ninde seems to have commended himself as a preacher. His presence and voice were in themselves a recommendation to public favor. Other gifts, however, were not lacking. He had literary style of exceptional grace and force, he had imagination, insight, sympathy. Had he so decided, there is reason to believe that he might have achieved celebrity as a pulpit orator of the first rank. Witness his address on Sunday Observance at Omaha, and some of his Conference sermons. There are, however, two conditions attaching to oratorical "celebrity" both of which would have been unconquerably distasteful to him; first, the conscious aiming at oratorical effect, which is, in essence, insincerity; and, secondly, the conscious selection of topics which favor oratorical treatment by which a larger selection of topics, more prosaic but even more practical from the pastoral point of view, would have been slighted or ignored. The distinguishing feature of all Bishop Ninde's ministry—not simply of his preaching, but also of his educational and episcopal work-was its pastoral quality. The test of success with him was not personal popularity, but usefulness. He, for himself, might have delighted in a sermon of brilliant parts; he could construct sonorous sentences and round periods with any man; but what of the sheep who look up and would be dazzled but not fed? Just as truly he might have exploited educational theories and made a name for himself in the educational world, but he preferred to shepherd the |