WILLIAM PEARCE

These studies in the history of Free Methodism have been cast in biographical form because I have always believed that the pregnant truth that the history of a country or an institution is found and personified in the biographies of the men who made it.

Carlyle said: "A good man living for high ends is the noblest picture to be seen on earth . . . great men lift us out of the vacancy and despair of a frivolous mind, out of the tangle and confusion of society buried in a bric a brac, out of the meanness of unfeeling mockery, and the heaviness of unceasing mirth, into a loftier and serener region." The Scriptures make the bold declaration "and God said, 'let us make man in our image, after our likeness . . . So God created man in his own image." About such a man this chapter will deal, a recreated man, the kind of a man only God, by his matchless grace can make -- Bishop William Pearce.

William Pearce was born in Hayle, Cornwall County, England, October 15, 1862, the youngest of ten children. His parents, John Richard and Ann Thomas Pearce, represented the sturdy, industrious Celtic stock which has made a colorful contribution to English history. In the words of Bishop Fairbairn, "He was Celtic by blood, Cornishman in particular, Britisher by birth, American by adoption, Christian by second birth, and saint by processes of grace and experience."

He was converted in England in 1882 in a revival that was born of the Holy Spirit, similar to the noted Welsh Revival in which there was no formal preaching by ordained ministers. It was truly a layman's revival inspired by the Holy Spirit. Nine months later he was sanctified while working alone in his father's fields. Coming to America in 1884, he spent a year working in the iron mines of North Michigan. He then moved to the Pacific coast where he met the Free Methodists in California, whom he joined in 1885 "by instinct and similarity of feeling."

In the following year he joined the California Conference of the Free Methodist Church and was duly ordained after completing his course of studies. In 1889 he married Alma E. Knoll, who passed away in 1908 only a few days before he was elected bishop. After serving as pastor and district elder in the California Conference until 1901, he transferred to the Oregon Conference. Three years later he came to the Genesee Conference as pastor of the church at Jamestown, New York. In 1905 he was again elected district elder and in October, 1908, he was elected bishop by the Executive Committee. He held this office until his retirement in June 1947 -- a period of thirty-nine years.

Bishop Pearce represented the church at the World's Missionary Convention at Edinburgh, Scotland in 1910. He spent a period of time in Japan in 1927 and held the Japanese Conference.

In 1915 he was joined in marriage to Sarah Allen Dickson of Philadelphia, Penna., who passed away two years later. In 1922 he married Mabel E. Kline of Evanston, Illinois, who died in 1958. He is survived by one son, Bernard A. Pearce, and two daughters, Emily Dixon Pearce and Gwendolyn Pearce Seidenburg.

Upon the completion of half a century in the service of the Lord in 1936, Bishop Pearce wrote the following interesting biographical editorial entitled "Fifty years in the ministry."

When Jacob appeared before Pharaoh, the king asked him, "How old art thou?" A part of the reply was, "Few and evil have the days of the years of my life been." Yet the good had far out-balanced the evil, and a little later as he blessed Joseph's sons he acknowledged that the Angel Jehovah had redeemed him out of all adversity. There was Bethel and the wondrous ladder; and Mahanaim and the company of angels; and, above all, Jabbok, where the wrestling Angel changed his name from Jacob to Israel.

I began my ministry among a people of whose existence I was ignorant until I was grown to manhood. Converted in a revival exactly like the Welsh revival, with itinerant preachers, evangelists and preaching absent; sanctified wholly nine months afterwards in the brushwood skirting one of my father's fields through reading "The King's Highway"; emigrating to a land of large opportunity, and meeting with the Free Methodists among the gold mines of California, I joined them by instinct and similarity of feeling; for after my conversion, and with my knowledge of the Holy Scriptures with their sweeping demands, easy pastorates and lavender positions had no charm for me. I would not invite privation. I would not shun it.

It would be too long a story to enter into detail; but suffice it to say that my first charge did not want a preacher. In the next two appointments I was junior preacher. After a while I had charge again, and in the aggregate gave twelve years to pastorates, ten years to district eldership, and twenty-eight to my present office.

A three-days' drive with horse and buggy from the charges of one district to those of the other marked my district eldership in California. Three hours would suffice now. A foot of dust at least in the Sierra Nevada foothills made a little unpleasantness. Salary less than six hundred dollars and no parsonage. But youth is buoyant, and God is good. The most striking experience and nearest my heart was an eleven-weeks' series of revival meetings and about forty joining the church. In such meetings several factors concur. The final Judge appraises.

Very naturally many with whom I have been associated have passed into "the unseen holy." Their friendship has still a powerful hold upon my heart. But there are still fast friendships and very highly esteemed.

I have known all of the General Superintendents, and all but three have been my colleagues in office. Men of fine endowment, yet all different. The depth of friendship depends upon ourselves; also upon others.

I have seen a degree of success, but by no means enough to blanket regret. I have seen a little opposition, but a full belief in God's providential dealings has produced the quietness promised to confidence. I am fully convinced that enough trial will be given us in the permissive will of God to fertilize our experience, if we rightly use it.

"Some will hate thee, some will love thee," etc.

If death were an eternal sleep well might despondency set in; but truly at every stage of life we can say in Christ, "We have just begun to live." "Live every day as though it were your last," said one. "No," said another, "live each day as though you would live forever, for you will."

The tremendously patent and striking thing about my conversion in addition to sins forgiven was the fact borne in upon me irresistibly that the infinite God had condescended to bring me into the rich relationship of sonship. That kindred spirit newly made, and its consequent communion, proved a delight to my soul. I was too young to have entered into business relations, hence preaching restitution financially would have been lost on me. Drink and tobacco never having had a hold upon my young life, very naturally no temptation would arise from that low source. Yet the sense of sin bore down upon me with violence as the terrific pressure of the intensely spiritual revival atmosphere supervened.

People were converted by the score from the village and the surrounding country, and in the larger area of the county by the thousand, in the spring of 1882. The countenance of the angry God changed toward me at that time; and from that glorious day, the seventeenth of February, to this glorious day all the hours have been hours of sonship. The bliss of divine communion was always too great to let go. Truly Chalmers spoke like a wise philosopher when he styled the cause of our holy religion, "The Expulsive Power of a New Affection."

I cannot boast, except in the Lord. I cannot repine, for good is the will of the Lord. I fully expect to be changed from glory to glory as by the Lord the Spirit.

"My Jesus, as Thou wilt;

Oh may Thy will be mine!

Into Thy band of love

I would my all resign;

Through sorrow or through joy,

Conduct me as Thine own,

And help me still to say,

'My Lord, Thy will be done.'"

William Pearce was a man of striking personal appearance -- tall, slender, erect, always clad in the pulpit in a black Prince Albert suit, a striking specimen of physical manhood. Gray-crowned, his finely sculptured face with its expressive lines of mouth and nose requiring generations of ancestry to bring to perfection, bore a striking resemblance to Emerson.

He consistently regimented his life. Like the trained athlete he put into practice Paul's injunction "Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things." "I am the stern master of my body." A very abstemious man in his eating, he never suffered any serious illness until at his Lord's appointed time he "ceased at once to work and live."

Through long years of association in general and annual conferences as well as in various conventions and revivals, my admiration of him increased. I would cite the aspects of his life and character which most deeply impressed me.

A MASTER MIND

It was in the realm of the mind and the soul that he shone most brilliantly. Few men are born with greater intellectual capacity. His mind roamed at will through the broad fields of literature, philosophy, history, music and art, with a versatility that was constantly surprising. A friend, who was a real intellectual, once exclaimed to the writer "How is it possible for Bishop Pearce to keep abreast of the times in so many fields of intellectual research?" Characteristic of the man, all offers to receive honorary degrees were declined.

William Pearce was born with the scholarly instinct. He had the elegance of an aristocrat and the literacy of a scholar. He was not only possessed of a logical mind but he had a memory that was amazing. Although he had the training common in the schools of England in his day, he never received a college education. He learned to read the Greek New Testament without a teacher. As a basis for this study, he committed to memory the entire Greek vocabulary of the New Testament. It was his custom to go through the English dictionary, a letter at a time, and master every word. No wonder he became the marvelous master of diction that he was. His use of the fine shades of meaning of words was extraordinary.

We present the first of two editorials from the Free Methodist of May 31 and June 7, 1935 on "The Preacher and His Reading" which shows both his mastery of language and the wide range of his knowledge in the field of literature. As a critic he is at once precise and pungent.

THE PREACHER AND HIS READING

Receiving a request from high sources to write on the above theme, the writer addresses himself to the pleasing but fallible task. A work of this kind is sure to be individualistic, partial and inadequate. Then, too, tastes will always differ, and one man's delight may be another man's disgust. Still there will be some common ground and, to begin with, the Holy Bible will, to every true preacher, be the ne plus ultra, or no more beyond, the book (Biblos) that contains a "moral winnowedness" such as no other book contains.

The Bible is a revelation from God, and if the heavens declare His glory in nature the Bible reveals the glory of His grace and salvation. Its inspiration is patent upon its face to all who are willing to live upon its truths, and it will bury all its foes in oblivion, whether the men who burned it or they who in higher criticism would emasculate it, or they who disregard it as unimportant.

A word concerning the translations of the Bible into English. In general it may be said that the translations by massed scholarship, as the committee of A.D. 1611 -- The Authorized Version -- or that of 1881 by English and American scholars, or the succeeding American Revision, are superior to private translations. The personal, or sectarian, bias is very likely to appear in the solitary author of the translation. When "baptize" is uniformly made, by hook or crook, to mean "immerse" the translator forfeits his right to be taken seriously. Even the scholarly Dr. Moffatt leaves "logos" untranslated in John's Gospel, and the reader is left to guess what its meaning might be, or, as though only the dwellers in the Royal Arcanum of superlative knowledge could cognize the hidden, untranslatable meaning. This would not be revelation but a hiding of truth. When the learned doctor translates "basanismos" by "torture" he runs counter to all other translators. These use "torment" rather, although the word has both meanings. Hell surely is not like the Spanish Inquisition. Individual translations of that type are interesting, but they are neither standard nor superior. The Twentieth Century New Testament is not a translation but a paraphrase, and much liberty is taken with the text, a little too much. Newspaper English applied to the Scriptures shears them of the reverence that is their due.

Next to the Bible in importance come the books on Bible doctrine. Some are very comprehensive as commentaries: Clarke's, Benson's, Lange's, Henry's, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's, Parker's, "People's Bible," "The Preachers' Homiletic Commentary," "The Expositor's Bible." The mention of the latter contains the suggestion of a very interesting question, namely, "Shall the preacher absolutely confine his reading to that literature that contains no errors?" If so, would he not be restricted to a very small literary area? Ought he not to have discernment enough, and grace enough, to be able to separate the precious from the vile, for all outside the Bible is subject to error. The last-named book by various authors is very heterodox when it comes to the story of Jonah in the Minor Prophets. The matchless prayers as to language in Parker's "People's Bible" contain weekly confessions of what seem to be inevitable sins. Spurgeon's "Treasury of David" bulges here and there with Calvinism. Finney's "Systematic Theology," which shades every other book on theology," on the vital question of personal obligation to God and man, carries a denial of birth sin, a most egregious error. In actual church life, as Asa Mahan pointed out, Finney was puzzled at the conduct of his converts. A belief in original sin and Wesleyan holiness would have been the key to the situation. Even Adam Clarke denies the eternal Sonship, while yet believing in the deity of Christ. He saves both Saul, king of Israel, and Judas Iscariot to his own entire satisfaction, yet he does not clear the doubt from the minds of the body politic. The Holy Spirit will instruct the preacher as to discrimination in reading. The man who will read nothing but what he can entirely indorse will doubtless be very pure, but he will also be very ignorant. Wesley was a purist in the best sense, but it is evident that he read the Greek poets. He mentions Anacreon and Menander, but his range must have gone much farther. The Apostle Paul quotes a Cretian poet against the Cretans. Watson's "Institutes" is probably the best body of theology, but like many other good books is out of print.

Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" stands alone as the finest continued allegory in existence. From it preachers may derive abundant illustrations. "The Imitation of Christ" by Thomas a' Kempis has been a source of blessing to many. Geikie's "Life of Christ" is full of valuable matter. Farrar's "Life of Christ" and his "Life of St. Paul" will repay a careful perusal, but one wants to know why a man of such profound scholarship and research should hold the false doctrine of Eternal Hope. He seems to be akin in thought to a much lauded living writer who in a recent work gives as his opinion that "sin, suffering and death will be banished from the universe in the ultimate triumph of the kingdom of God." Universalism is in the air, and the reading of "Doom Eternal" by Reimensnyder would brace up many a limping theologian. Edersheim's "Life and Times of the Messiah" and Conybeare and Howson's "Life and Epistles of St. Paul" are very informing. Josephus' "Antiquities" is enlightening, if not always reliable. The "Boston Monday Lectures" by Joseph Cook are models of language and profound thought. It is a pity that he believed, in common with McCosh, in a theory of evolution, but not including man in its scope.

Books upon special doctrines and phases of divine truth are plentiful. Of these only a few comparatively can be mentioned, lest the article should prove unduly long. Denney on the "Death of Christ" is instructive. The doctrine of holiness has been ably taught in Wesley's "Plain Account of Christian Perfection," Lowrey's "Possibilities of Grace," Steele's "Love Enthroned," Mantle's "The Way of the Cross," Upham's "Divine Union" and his "Interior Life," Peck's "Central Idea of Christianity." Eschatology, too, has a voluminous literature. The postmillennial viewpoint is best advocated by Brown of Haddington, the premillennial, by Joseph Seiss. Almost always there is a master in the various departments that call for literature. Finney's "Revival Lectures" have no equal in that department. Paget Wilkes has written well on revivalism in his "Dynamic of Service." Mission books: The famous Taylors, Judson, Carey, Livingstone, etc.

In the polemical field much interesting literature has been written. It seems quite as necessary on due occasions to defend the faith once delivered to the saints as to carry on in other fields of service. Against Calvinism Fletcher's "Checks to Antinomianism" has no equal, and to it there is no successful answer. Yet even today the preaching here and there of "Eternal Security" is encouraging many a reckless person in his lawless ways, because, forsooth, he fancies himself among the elect. "Christian Science," by Mark Twain, is by far the best refutation of that Satanic witchery begotten of Mrs. Eddy and propagated by infidels. Canright's "Adventism Renounced" is the finest antidote extant to that Adventist poison with its Jewish Sabbath continued, its soul sleep and its annihilation untruth. Landis on "Immortality" powerfully confutes all annihilationist theories. Wilford Hall's "Problem of Human Life" renders the doctrine of evolution so ridiculous by quoting Darwin against himself and disproving his positions, and those of men of similar views, that one must be fortified in unscholarly stupidity if he is not thoroughly convinced of both the foolishness, as to science, and the wickedness, as to the moral, of evolution. Hall, too, wrote an annihilating book on "Universalism Against Itself." See also "The Problem of the Old Testament" by James Orr on higher criticism.

As a rule only fragments of the writings of the early church fathers have come down to us. Augustine's "City of God" can still be read. It is a strange mixture of true religion and childish superstition. Valuable as showing the ideas of the times, it would be a strange standard for any church of the present day.

A few of the church histories may be mentioned -- Mosheim, Kurtz, Hurst, etc. The church in the apostolic age, the great apostasy, the Reformation, the great revivals of religion, the history of the various denominations -- all enlist the interest, and enlighten the intellect, of the inquiring mind. Luther looms large in history. See D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation."

Devotional literature, too, is plentiful. "The Life of Madam Guyon" by Upham, the holiness philosopher, "Rests by the River," "Messages of Hope," "Voices of the Spirit," etc., by George Matheson, and many other books, appeal to the truly devout, and cause the soul to exult in Christ as Redeemer and Lord.

Rutherford (Not Judge Rutherford), with his exceedingly quaint language and flowing devotion, regales the Christian reader with choice expressions.

Andrew Murray and E. M. Bounds are excellent on the subject of prayer.

Sermonic literature, the cream of the study of the authors, is voluminous. To mention only a few: Bascom, Hall, Guthrie, MacLaren, Robertson, Jowett, Spurgeon, Talmage, Wesley, Finney, Dale, Chalmers, Bushnell, etc.

The books and sermons of the above-mentioned authors and preachers contain abundant proof that secular learning was interwoven into the fabric of their thinking.

The prescribed course of study in school or college is perhaps usually for the advantageous mental training of the student, although it must be admitted that Satanic influences have determined some of the subject matter, as for instance where the thrice-evil doctrine of evolution has wormed its way into even the lower grades, thus subverting in its aim, in the plastic minds, the Bible account of the creation. If the Apostle Paul could quote the Greek poets and Wesley, Anacreon, to point a moral or adorn a tale, surely benefit may be derived from acquaintance with the course of history, art, science, philosophy and the advance of thought in this mundane sphere. All for the glory of God should be the ambition of the reader of books.

AS A MINISTER

The preaching of the gospel is different from every other vocation. It is a high and holy calling. This is embedded in the grandeur of its purpose -- to save men from their sins in time and to present them faultless before the throne of God throughout eternity. The sacredness of this calling has been its peculiarity through the ages. The basis of this universal conviction lies deep in the nature of the office.

The ministry of Word was the very life of William Pearce -- the keynote of his whole character, the focal point around which all his faculties centered, the central sun holding all his powers in harmonious order and illuminating the whole with baptismal glory.

Bishop Pearce had a sermonic method and a manner of preaching that was all his own -- a natural part of himself. He did not usually use many gestures and was deliberate in his manner but when the Spirit of the Lord fell on him, he was a veritable Elijah.

B. H. Gaddis, formerly Publishing Agent, very aptly designated him as a "Minister of Ministers." His rich ministry with its many facets was especially appreciated by the preachers. Mr. Gaddis continues: "Everyone recognized his eloquence and his greatness as a preacher. I shall never forget the tribute he paid to Rev. Harry F. Johnson at the memorial service held by the Board of Administration. I have no recollection of hearing any address at any time that equaled it for beauty of diction and phrasing as well as its originality and uniqueness. It was a classical gem."

Of philosophic turn of mind, he not only read theology but took delight in it. [25] He knew theology from the apostolic age to the present as few men of this generation. Consequently he was a distinctive expository preacher. The writer considers that Bishop Hogue and Bishop Pearce have had few equals in the field of expository preaching.

Through a period of his later years he furnished at varying intervals a series of editorials, about seventy in number, under the title "Hellenic Language Depths." They were rich and scholarly expositions based upon words or passages in the Greek of the New Testament.

We quote as an example one of the briefer numbers in the series which is especially Pearcesque in style and thought (Free Methodist, May 30, 1947):

The fact of the mind is an exceedingly strong hint in favor of its education without limit. Who can set its bounds? The divine revelation given in the Bible spreads out without surcease to the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills of God.

The common branches of learning, as they are called, and the rich fields of science and philosophy necessarily occupy a realm outdistanced and outshone by Holy Writ. Christ is indeed the first and the last, and His person and work draw upon the mind as nothing else could, so that an illiterate who adventures his all upon Christ in redemption would transcend beyond all reckoning the rank of the selfish-brilliant or the world-famed despiser of God.

Evil angels and evil men are formed to admire the righteous. It is not easy to see how they can help it. Upon the same principle men may preach the moral grandeur of Christ and expatiate with splendid oratory upon His incomparable life, yet antagonize His vicarious death in bitterly fighting mood while destruction lingers and the death warrant becomes a certainty.

Over against that lethal stupidity and soul trifling is the certainty of accurate knowledge of redemption through the atoning blood of Jesus. In I John 5:20 "dianoian," the accusative or objective of "hath given," is introduced. The mind adorns the word, and the dia reveals the intense, the thorough, thought-sparkling, understanding, gripping intellect at its highest, sense finding its utmost range, knowledge glorified, imagination satisfied, and all those mighty powers of mind bowing down to the true, "ton alethinon" (the truth) .

"What we have felt and see with confidence we tell,

And publish to the sons of men the signs infallible."

He also published a volume of sermons under the title "Our Incarnate Lord" which is now out of print.

As an example of his method of developing a scriptural exposition, we present the following editorial from the Free Methodist of January 22, 1937.

THE TABLE AND THE FOE

The Twenty-Third Psalm has spread its beneficent influence through the ages. Howbeit it does not minister comfort to the unconverted. The people who profit by it are those who choose the sublime Shepherd.

Its literary merit is of the most valuable, and its solace and encouragement superb. Extended comment upon the various features of the Psalm shall not here be indulged in, but rather attention shall be called to one of the gems of provision, namely, "Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies."

"The carnal mind is enmity against God, and is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Our Lord when here on earth warned His disciples that the world would hate them even as it hated their Master. There seems to be an ingrained spirit of mischief, unruliness and animosity on the part of the unregenerate against the God of heaven and His followers on earth. The Scriptures are full of examples of such hate, and the history of the human race abounds with accounts of words and deeds of malice for which not real reason can be found. There is an Esau for every Jacob; a Doeg for every David; a Jezebel for every Elijah; an Alexander for every Paul; a Diotrephes for every John, and so on through the passing ages.

Israel cannot pass on their miraculous way, even after the terrible opposition of Pharaoh, but Moabite and Amalekite and other breeds of enemies must attempt to cut off the people of the Lord and bring to naught the counsels of the God of Israel. And even in Christian circles men have to beware lest remaining carnality should induce a mean and even hateful feeling and action toward others.

But this is only one side of the question. The extreme care of the divine Shepherd for His own is far more striking than the malice of the enemies. If one would study closely the Book of Psalms he would find the word "deliver" and its cognates used a most wonderful number of times; and these describing the interference of God in the affairs of His people, even to rid them of the evil designs of their adversaries. It would be an excellent oil to a person beset by enemies to peruse those glowing pages, and if he is sure that he comes within the scope of those mighty Scriptures he could rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory to find that no weapon that is formed against him could prosper, and that his Lord comes swiftly to his rescue and works out a deliverance in the face of the sternest opposition and malice.

We may picture to ourselves the person of the Twenty-Third Psalm surrounded by his foes. Deadly insult and malicious threatenings fill the air with mischief. Words of hate would menace the peaceful person, and the weaponry of forensic malignity is leveled at the devoted servant of the Lord.

The scene changes. The Shepherd of souls honors the man who puts his trust in Him. The glow and glory of the great banquets in the "Arabian Nights" are set in the frame of fiction; but this scene is both real and glorious. A table appears, spread with all the bounties of the land of promise. Haroun-al-Raschid never beheld such a sight. The banquet is of the Shepherd's providing. The rarest viands and the most beautiful flowers are placed with exquisite taste for the sustenance and the delectation of the Lord's guest.

Mere deliverance from enemies would be a boon indeed. Their absence would bring a species of gladness. But here is something that is far better: the utter defeat of their malignity, the utter freedom from the power of their wiles, and a demonstration that their presence is perfectly harmless as the Shepherd cares for His own. If the Hebrew youths in Chaldea's ancient days could "flourish unconsumed in fire," the person of the Psalm could feel, as he partakes of "the feast of fat things, and wines upon the lees well-refined," that the fiery malice of his enemies only makes the extreme care of the Shepherd of all the more conspicuous. Vain are the evil counsels and bitter attempts at destruction on the part of the malignant if the Shepherd not only protects fully but adds a feast that no enemy can in the least mar.

The whole scene is in a setting of glorious triumph for the trusting soul and the utmost chagrin and conspicuous discomfiture for the enemies. Utmost peace and plenty in the view of a spiteful coterie of malignants whose weapons are stricken out of their hands, and whose prospects of conquest are forever quelled and canceled, mark the scope of a perfect day, the natural lifetime of the Shepherd's ward.

This protection and ample provision have all the saints. The Twenty-Third Psalm among its other glories has that of universal application to those who trust in the Good Shepherd and obey His voice.

AS A PRESIDING OFFICER

Bishop Pearce was blessed with a natural poise that reminds one of John Wesley. This made him an efficient presiding officer. He never appeared to be in a hurry yet he always expedited business when in the chair. Like Wesley he was "always in haste but never in a hurry." He knew parliamentary law in all its intricacies and, as presiding officer, could perfectly conceal his own feelings during heated debate. In his administration he was far removed from personal prejudices. He had a keen sense of humor. On his first circuit an officious man took him aside to inform him he was not making good on the work and then proceeded to instruct him how to preach. In the early days in California, when it was the order of the day in the annual conference to elect district elders, the presiding Bishop said that after carefully looking over the preachers of the conference, he was convinced that there were no preachers competent to fill the office. Therefore he advised the conference to elect local district elders. With a smile Bishop Pearce added "Bishop Griffith and I were among the unqualified preachers."

We present a refreshing appraisal of Bishop Pearce, entitled "God-Gifted Mind and Heart," by Bishop J. Paul Taylor:

Bishop William Pearce, a man admired, loved, and trusted as very few have ever been, has gone from us. He led the church, which he joined "by instinct," almost as many years as Moses led the children of Israel. Everywhere he was recognized as a superior man. "His soul was like a star, and dwelt apart," not in selfish isolation but in spiritual and intellectual elevation. He had a "God-gifted" mind which ranged through every field of learning, and there was profound depth as well as breadth in his thinking. We were often amazed at the wealth of knowledge he possessed; and he "wore all that weight of learning lightly like a flower." His utterances had a literary finish and a poetical flavor which charmed the educated, coupled with a simplicity and conciseness which held the uneducated.

The name of William Pearce was almost a synonym for Wesleyanism. He so thoroughly believed entire sanctification to be the "central idea of Christianity" that he made it central in his preaching. Whatever his theme, it was a road leading to this shining goal of the Gospel. His mind was saturated with the Wesleyan doctrine, his heart was aflame with the Wesleyan experience, and his tongue was "the pen of a ready writer" when he preached about it.

Bishop Pearce's life was a daily exemplification of the thing he preached. "The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit" graced him. With all of his hatred of sham and antagonism to iniquity, love for the souls of men beautified him. His natural dignity was clothed with the soft raiment of humility.

He believed in a life beyond life. He had no sympathy with the pagan sentiment that "no man wakes up on whom once falls the icy pause of life." He knew the cold touch of death is not felt by the immortal spirit. He knew the worst death can do is to hold the body as a hostage temporarily until the resurrection ultimatum brings release, and meantime the inner man lives a fuller, finer life in the Paradise of God. In characteristically serene manner, he said, a few days before his departure, "I have no morbid desire to die. On the other hand I do not fear death. After all, I shall live a long time on the other side." This modern "prophet of the long road" has reached the endless home at the end of the way. We follow in his train until we meet him in the morning.

Bishop Pearce realized his ambition to complete his term of service as Bishop at the General Conference of 1947. Returning home fatigued he knew surgery awaited him. Due to complications following the operation, he came to the end of the journey in the hospital in Rochester, New York. Shortly before his passing he aroused from a state of coma and repeated the beautiful words of Isaiah, "Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty; they shall behold the land that is very far off."

Bishop Marston preached the funeral sermon from the text, "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death" (1 Cor. 15:26), excerpts from which are given below.

In Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California, there is a statuary group of twenty-three life-sized figures standing on the brink of a stream of living water which flashes for a moment in the sunlight and then disappears. The sculptor seeks to portray "The Mystery of Life" by means of these figures, each representing an age or phase of human existence. Children are there, absorbed in the world about them and stretching toward life. A young mother attempts to restrain her lad who too eagerly seeks to explore life's stream. Another mother peers into the face of the babe at her breast and there catches a glimpse of life's meaning. An aged woman with drawn features has given up the quest, resignedly surrendering to the inevitable mystery. The scientist with magnifying glass attempts in vain to peer beneath the surface of life's rushing stream. The monk and the nun have turned their backs upon life and are leaving the group. The sage is there with questioning gaze; the philosopher with detached contemplation; the fool with empty grin.

Is life this brief flash in the sunlight, this quick passage from birth to death -- then nothingness?

The words of our text strike at the very heart of the great mystery -- "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." Paul wrote these words to a church surrounded by sensualism in life, materialism in philosophy, and confusion in religion which made the problem of the resurrection and eternal life especially difficult. Under these influences the city of Corinth had become corrupt, licentious, working all uncleanness with greediness." Corinthians lived in the now, attempting to press from each moment as it passed its last drop of sensuous sweetness. Lived thus, life loses its dimensions, shriveling to a mere point of momentary existence.

But how different was the life of him whose memory we honor! That life had heroic dimensions: in length of days with eternity planted in his heart, in breadth of worthy interests, in depth of God-given convictions, in height of holy aspirations.

The nobility of sentiment, the integrity of character, the passion for holiness, the vigor of intellect, the flashes of inspiration which characterized Bishop Pearce in this life all point to his continuing activity and growth in that world he has now entered. I believe it -- oh, I know it! For if death can freeze or congeal human personality at its highest reach in this life, then death is victor in stopping the progress of human character and holiness. But death does not halt our spiritual growth. John wrote, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God. And it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." Thus, death for the saint but accelerates his progress to the "measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."

Is death the last and final sleep? "No," answered Sir Walter Scott, "it is the last and final awakening." Sharing this conviction we say of our departed friend and leader:

"No, not cold beneath the grasses,

All forgotten in the tomb:

Rather, in my Father's mansion,

Living in another room.

 

Living, like the one who loves me,

Like yon child with cheeks abloom,

Out of sight, at desk or school book,

Busy in another room.

 

Nearer than the youth whom fortune

Beckons where the strange lands loom;

Just behind the hanging curtain,

Working in another room."

William Pearce was self-evidently born for the ministry. When leaving England to embark for America, the parting word of his faithful schoolmaster was, "William, some day you will be a bishop." Preaching the gospel was the ruling passion of his life. He carried a spiritual empire in his heart. Possessed of an intelligence of penetrating sagacity, he always kept an unblurred line of distinction between trivials and fundamentals. A master of assemblies he would not be stampeded or dismayed. He held to the central truth of the rugged gospel with the austerity of a Puritan.

The Lord granted his expressed desire, "To pass from the pulpit to his grave. Only three months after being created Bishop Emeritus by the General Conference of 1947, this Patriarch of the Church, after serving sixty-one years as a minister, thirty-nine years as a bishop, heard the call of his Master to lay down his armor. As the horizon of eternity loomed in view he said to a friend, "I am waiting to fade away into glory." As the end drew near he did not look into an open sepulcher but into the open heavens -- he saw a great light, the light of the land where the sun never sets. In triumph the Knight of the Cross has joined the knightly throng whom the ages have assembled on the other side of the river.

Beloved bishop, patriarch and saint, farewell!

25 The basis for his ardent belief in Wesleyan doctrine was laid by hearing a sermon three times a week while a student in a Wesleyan school.