Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-03-24
Clergyman in QQall Street.
Views of Rev. William Wilkinson on New York's
Great Financial District

mony. But what is more remarkable, IL
has said the Christian religion furnishes its
highest motives.
This being true. ii was a thing to be
looked for that preacher of righteousness,
who knew how to teach, would meet warm
welcome and would receive such support as
was needful to make that work effective. I
knew this from the start of the plan to
hold service there. What l inferred must
take place did take place. / said: These
men need to hear a high standard of NOR
ais, ana OF living; they not fools who
need to be Cajoled nor are they knaves who
want to be fiattered. They are men with
earnest plans in life, men with clear heads,
busy hands and they no doubt have warm
hearts which know joy and suffer sorrow.
They have rocked cradles and stood by
open graves. They are not an isolated
breed of men. They know common life
through all its windings and know common
hopes and fears. They are men, and men
who know the truth when they See and
hear ii.
And so far the evangeistic committee
of New York, of whose work Rev James
ELY was and still Is president l began to
preach in Wall street | had the backing
OF men like ID. w. r. Huntington and Rev.
Morgan Dix. With no flourish of any kind,
with no song or shout with four-le gged
stool for a pulpit, with a New Testament
for authority, with Christ for teacher
and savior, with the Holy Ghost as The
Lord and Giver of Life and as the prom
lsed Comforter, l began to work in Wall
street. l wore black cassock and spoke
IN plain words in homelike way on sub
Jects of deep, vital, eternal wide general
interest, and which are of eternal value
principles which have stood the closest
scrutiny and the severest tests and which
have been tried in the furnace and have
proved pure, which have been declared ster-
ing by the general consent of mankind,
and which are visibly stamped with the
image and superscripton of the most Ugh
God
Never for one instant did defect from
thls plan and purpose, never confounded
right with wrong, never made right living
look an easy end to achieve; never made
goodness look anything but noble or bad
ness other than a wicked, a mean thing:
never let the spirit of sectarianism come In
to mar and spoil the design. I tried with
all my heart, mind, soul and strength to
snow and prove how much God-fearing men
and women have in common, how mighty
are the principles which unite us how few
and of how little Importance seen as God
sees them, are the things which divide u.s.
L gave great emphasis to the three car
dlnals of all right religion-dong justly
loving mercy and walking humbly as seen
in the words and works of Jesus the
Savior. l tried to show that virtue rever-
ence for God and service of man are in
strictest line with the nature of man and
the good of the world.
~
ITO all this, Wall street men and women
in crowds gave heed. Captains who came
to the custom house, as all captains who
| enter the port of New York have to do:
travellers from all lands, idle passersby,
clerks, telegraph operators. bankers, brok-
ers, l.: esidents of trust companies-in short,
| all sorts and conditions of men came and
| al! behaved with a propriety which left
nothing to be desired. Every man took off
| his lat at the prayers and in the two sum-
| mcrs' work-which were my holidays
/ thousands of persons thanked me. When
We held service in Trinity Church at the
head of Wall street. it would not seat the
men who came.
From all this hope it is most clear
that Wall street men are not unlike other
men. They have not horns and hoofs
They are mixed multitude, some bad,
/ many good, some very good. They are
not an irreligious lot, they are anxious to
hear good things when good things are told
in a sane, sensible and instructive way
They appreciate common sense, and the
plain religion of the gospel they love. There
was nothing more noticeable in all the serv-
ices or the things which concerned them
than the reports of the newspapers. They
gave long and good accounts of the serv-
ices. and were anxious to serve the highest
good
Il love my Minnesota home. friends and
work, but in my summer holidays commend
me to Wall street men and Wall street
preaching"