Luke Hoult Wiseman
Luke Hoult Wiseman [1]
a Wesleyan Methodist minister, was born in the city of Norwich, Jan. 19, 1822. He "was a saint at twelve and a preacher at fourteen." He entered the ministry in 1840; was elected missionary secretary in 1868, a position which he held until the close of life; was raised to the presidential chair at the London Conference of 1872 by the largest number of votes ever recorded at such an election; and died in London, in the midst of his work and honors, Feb. 3, 1875. "As a Christian, he had deep veneration for the spiritual nature of Christianity; as a man, a love of freedom that amounted to a passion. Hence to contend for the rights of conscience, to enlarge the sphere of free action, and to assert liberty of difference among Christian churches while promoting fraternal union and co-operation, and independence of the commonwealth while maintaining patriotic loyalty and an enlightened citizenship, were to him the most sacred of all duties and he ever discharged them with matchless courage and fearless independence. As an administrator, Wiseman had learned to combine in the happiest manner the fortiter in re with the suaviter in modo, Never flurried, never in a hurry, always at ease and at home, courteous to all, servile and obsequious to none he succeeded in guiding skillfully the course of discussion and business, and in uniformly maintaining Christian courtesy and urbanity with judicial fairness and impartiality. Such was Wiseman a man of open soul and loving heart, massive alike in body and mind, with a splendid physique and a character to match — a universal favorite with preachers and people, admired, trusted, loved by all. His heart was too high for pettiness, too large for selfishness or envy. Faith without superstition or fear, religion without bigotry or cant, the, grandeur of intellect covered with the sincerity of childhood, were found in him as found in few" (Lond. Watchman; see N.Y. Methodist, March 20,1875). Wiseman passionately loved the missionary cause. He eloquently advocated it and unselfishly worked for it. Like Frankland, Perks, Coley, and other eminent men in the British Conference, he worked too hard, and his sudden death was at once a surprise and a warning. Besides occasional published Sermons, Wiseman wrote, Lectures on Industries Prompted by Conscience, and Not by Covetousness (1852; 3d ed. 1858): — The Employment of Leisure Time (Lond. 1856, 12ino): — Things Secular and Things Sacred (ibid. eod.): — Agents in the Revival of the Last Century (ibid. 1855): — Men of Faith, or Sketches from the Book of Judges (ibid. 8vo): — Thoughts on Class Meetings and their Improvement (ibid. 1854, 12mo): — Christ in the Wilderness: Practical Views of our Lord's Temptation (ibid. 1857, 12mo). See Minutes of Conference (ibid. 1875), p. 18; Osborne, Bibliog. s.v.; Wesl. Meth. Magazine, 1875, p. 288.
