The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1884-09-18
"0Ng OF TIE KINGS JEwELs.y
a Tribute to tho Memory OF the Late is.sh-
op Pierce.

op Pierce.
The mournful interest that has every.
Where been excited, especially in the
south, among people of all denomiua.
LIONS, by the news of the death of Bishop
fierce Ia In measure explained in the
following warm tribute to his memory
written by q member of la. Ners and
Courier staff, who owes his collegiate edu
cation to the generosity of the Bishop:
bishop George F. Pierce came from
good stock, and his lineage could be
traced back to the settlement of James
town. He was son of the world .re.
nowned DR.. Lovick Pierce, who died in
1879, aged SO, and who has been preach.
ing the gospel sixty. years. Bishop
Pierce was "a at the time of Lis death
and had been preaching nearly fiev.fiye
years. Father aud son have left great.
er impress upon Southern Methodism
than any other two men that ever lived
not excepting the scholarly Wesley, who
was its founder, nor the awful and
anomalous orator Whitefeld, whose flute.
like voice wooed sinners into listening
while his arguments frightened them
into repentance. The elder Pierce
learned to read after he was 81, and at
oO was acknowledged to be the greatest
preacher OF his denomination in America
AS Methodist pulpit orator he WAS
never surpassed until his own son eclipsed
him. Bishop Pierce had all the advau.
tages OF the schools, mind as clear as
sunbeam and heart like the heart of
little child. He graduated at the Uni.
versity of Georgia in the same class with
Gen. Robert Toombs, with whom he
maintained most unreseryed intimacy
up TO the time of his death. Aside from
their transcendent intellects two men
more widely different never lived.
Their friendship, covering a period of
nearly sixty years, is another illustration
Of the affinity of extremes. Gen.
'roombs sought the good things of ibis
world, and he obtained them if any m.
since Solomon has done 80. Ancestry,
wealth, Inherited and acquired, intellect,
social position, political preferment and
even personal attractions of the highest
order combined to make this man happy.
Las: year in Washington, Georgia, where
he lived all his life, he wss baptized and
received into the Methodist Church by
Bishop Pierce. That day he said:
Georges life (meaning that of the Bish.
OPP has been perpetual sermon to me,
and the great mistake Of my life was
leaving Christ out of my calculaticaa."
AS an orator, Bishop Pierce was both
made and born. As a bellies lettre
rhetorician he had few equals among
English speaking people. At the age Of
80 he was pronounced by Henry Clay 10
6e the most eloquent man IL America"
He met with and was momter of per.
haps as many distinguished deliberative
assemblies as any man that ever lived
and in every one without dispute he was
pointed out as the oratorical Corypheus
of them al. In debating tilt whoever
was second he was first. He was versa.
tile to the last degree. He could be
May morning or September storm, as il
suited bin best. The first General
Assembly of his church to which he was
ever elected was the most historic; in its
debates he made for himself q fame
which has climbed the mountains of two
hemispheres and built for itself neat
beside the eagles. The Assembly was
the great General Conference of 1914,
which, to use the trite phrase, "Split tile
two Methodisms." Up to the meeting of
that Conference the Methodist Church
in the United States had been one organ
ic body. AS is well known it divided
upon the slavery issue. One of the
Southern bishops, Andrew. had married
lady VINO owned slaves, and the North.
ern, especially the New England, dele.
gates urged that he must either manumit
the slaves or give up his Office in the
Ep:scopacy. The Southern delegates
stood by Bishop Andrew, and the two
sections divided as Methodists, at least.
When the papers announced the division
of the Methodist Church Daniel Webster,
who was then in the Senate, said it was
the first wedge of secession" 1t was
in the great debate on the resolution to-
expel Bishop Andrew that Bishop Pierce,
then young man of 80, distinguished
himself. One of the speakers, Dr.. Peck,
having threatened that unless Bishop
Andrew was deposed for holding slaves
the New England churches would with
draw from the connection, Bishop Pierce
replied at some length and closed with
this sentence: "Let New England 60
joy 60 with her and peace will stay be-
hind heT; sh5 has for many year been
thorn in the flesh and an emissary of
harshest sentence that has ever been re.
corded Of him, and that was fully ius,i-
fed by the provocation.
1t is difficult for one who has never
been in Georgia to understand exactly
the extent of Bishop Pierce's influence
and popularity. The love-literal love
for thi. man was not more confined to
people of the same denomination than
it was to people of the same complexion.
1t Is said of him that he never had an
enemy. Certainly he was every mans
friend. Barring politics, he had more
influence than any Fifty men in Georgia
when he died. His home, "Sunshine,"
is situated several miles from any station,
but Immediately on the railroad. For
twenty-five years it has been q standing
order from the authorities of the road
that any train signalled must stop for the
accommodation of the Bisop and his
family. A man In Georgia once beat
another for speaking disrespectfully of
Bishop Pierce. Neither of them were
members of any church, and neither bad
ever seen the Bishop.
While Bishop Pierce shone in debste
and was mighty in counsel, it was as
"camp meeting preacher" that he was at
bis best. Camp meetings have always
been distinctive feature of Methodism.
Bishop Pierce was their champion.
Camp meetings, as they once were, are
rapidly passing away, and their champi.
on is already gone. But they have be.
come part Of Methodist history. At
these gatherings, all through the South.
ern States, for forty years past Bishop |
Piercs's = essence has been coveted, priced |
cd urpoh1o ~, 80,