William X. Ninde

William X. Ninde

21 June 1832 - 3 January 1901


Bishop W.X. Ninde

William Xavier Ninde, eldest son of Rev. William Ward Ninde, was born in Cortland, New York, June 21, 1832, and died in Detroit, Mich., Jan. 3, 1901. At the age of eighteen he entered the Academy in Rome, N.Y., and two years later began his college course at the Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn. He graduated with high honors in 1855. After a short time spent in teaching in the Rome Academy, he joined the Black River Conference. In 1861 he was transferred to the Cincinnati Conference to take the pulpit of Trinity Church, Cincinnati. In 1870 he was transferred to the Detroit Conference, and stationed at Central Church. At the end of this pastorate he was elected the professor of pastoral theology in Garrett Biblical Institute, Evanston, 111., and six years later became president of that school. He was elected bishop at the General Conference of 1884. He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from the Wesleyan University in 1874, and later the degree of Doctor of Laws. During the four years preceding the last General Conference Bishop Ninde was president of the Epworth League. During December, 1900, he held three conferences, from the last of which he had returned home only a few days before his death.

Death came peacefully and quietly Jan. 3. Though still ailing from the effect of an attack of pneumonia there was nothing in his condition Wednesday evening to occasion alarm. During the afternoon he had attended the funeral of Rev. Nelson Green, an old Methodist minister, and when he returned home complained of symptoms of a coming cold. He retired to his study and worked there during the afternoon until about 4:30, when he complained of an aching pain in his chest and arms. He was persuaded to go to bed. Mrs. Ninde summoned a physician, who pronounced the bishop’s condition serious, but gave the family to understand there was no danger.

At a late hour the bishop persuaded the family to retire, but on going to him in the morning it was found that he had departed to be with Christ, at the call of the heavenly messenger.

Testimonials and tributes from those who knew and loved him well appeared in all our church and many of the secular papers. It is difficult to select from these the most appropriate, but we will permit his colleague in the Episcopacy to speak.

Bishop Merrill writes: "Bishop Ninde’s career was one of the noblest we can imagine. Through all the years of his ministry he was an example of what culture and grace can make of one whose delight is in knowing the will of God and doing it."

"His preaching was of a high order. His command of language was remarkable. As an educator he was a success. He won the confidence and esteem of all students and was regarded by them as a model instructor, and as a minister worthy to be imitated as far as it is lawful to imitate anyone in manner or method. His tastes were simple and practical, so that when put into the Episcopal office he found it comparatively easy to get hold of the work of a bishop. None loved him more than did his most intimate associates, his colleagues. In the Episcopal board his gentleness, his consideration, his intelligence and his modest demeanor endeared him to everyone."

At his funeral, Bishop Andrews said: "I mention first, the supreme sincerity and absolute righteousness with which he undertook to execute the great trust committed to him, and with which he continued to execute it, even to the end. He had come to the office by a divine providence; under God’s all-searching eye would he therefore do the work appointed unto him. He had no friends whom he wished to reward. He had no enemies whom he desired to punish. I think I know of no man with whom I have been acquainted in this high office who seems to me to have more sincerely undertaken to follow the law of conscience -- the indication of the divine law."

"I notice, secondly, the unusual and most remarkable calmness of spirit which characterized him. He was imperturbable and passionless whatever fiery debates might rage around him, whatever human aims and passions might be displayed before him. There was a calm, judicial hearing of all arguments and appeals. Such was the quiet poise of his mind, the trained impassivity of his countenance, that no hint would be given of his judgment on the case."

"It followed in part from these qualities, the sincerity of his aim and the poise of his soul, that be was a man also of admirable judgment. They made opportunity for his natural breadth of view and keenness of insight. No one would wish to affirm that he was exempt from infirmities of intellect or that he was infallible. *** And yet so well did he do his varied work that I cannot recall any case where his decisions or actions were questioned in the Judicial Committee of the General Conference. And I cannot recall an instance where his decisions in the Annual Conferences created any considerable dissatisfaction. This statement of his qualities as a bishop will not be complete unless I refer to the continuous and all embracing love that animated him. He had by nature and his early training habitual courtesy. He could not have been rude, I take it, even if he had not been a Christian. But upon these natural qualities had supervened that divine visitation by which his heart was brought in sympathy with his divine Lord, and filled him with the love which brought the Saviour from the skies. We called him, as you all know, and it has recently been published among us, the 'St. John of the Episcopal Board.'"

The Epworth League shall speak by its editor:

"As president of the Epworth League he was often in this office, and we were co-laborers at Conferences and conventions. We knew his heart. No purer soul ever blessed the Methodist Episcopal ministry or our Episcopal Board. Bishop Ninde believed good of everybody. His temperament was sensitive. He was essentially modest, and ever depreciated his own abilities and worth. His faith in God was absolute and glorified his whole life."

"Although Bishop Ninde was not the president of the Epworth League at the time of his summons, yet our young people everywhere will feel a sense of keen personal bereavement. Many a tear will fall, and many lips will instinctively exclaim, 'My friend has gone away.' But that friend was a glorious Christian, and has gone to receive a Christian's crown. While we mourn, he is learning something of the unspeakable richness of that inheritance which is tne reward of God’s loyal servants."

On the 29th of August, 1870, the transfer of Dr. W.X. Ninde from the Cincinnati Conference was announced to us. It so happened that I was present, as a member of the Detroit Conference, and rose with the entire Conferenoe to greet our brother. From that day until the day of his death we called him ours, and although the church called him to a wider sphere of honor and usefulness, we followed him; rejoiced in his labors, and on sea or land, by night and day, surrounded him with our prayers, our sympathy and our faith.

Of our brother and bishop we can say that he was a Christian man. He received the Holy Scriptures as the word of God and the interpretation of them that we as a church give. Humbly, reverently, and without doubt, in substance I have listened to his strong assertions of faith in our Lord. But his was more that a mere profession of faith and experience; he proved to the world that he was a Christian by living the truth. If there ever was a man who walked the streets of Detroit or any other city and illustrated in his life the full fruition of high Christian character it was Bishop Ninde. He was a preacher of the gospel, and, in my estimation, a great preacher. He would take the Bible in his hands and as an ambassador of the Lord Jesus Christ, representing the law, the will and the mercy of heaven, would say, these are my credentials. He dared not to be other than a man of one book, or have any other gospel to present to a sinful world than the truth of divine mercy and reconciliation that he found in this book. There were times and occasions when he rose so much superior to what was supposed to be his ordinary preaching that men were astonished at his power. At the General Conference at Omaha on Sunday afternoon it was almost beyond comprehension that this man who swayed the great congregation was the mild-mannered and gentle bishop whom we knew and loved so well.

He was a Methodist, but more. He was in perfect sympathy and ready to co-operate with any man or church working for I the Lord Jesus and the salvation of men. When invited, he preached as readily in the pulpits of other denominations as his own, and no man would think by his presence and preaching that he was other than the pastor of that church and people. He was a man of profound sympathy and striking simplicity. When in conversation about the many lands he had visited it was pleasant to observe that he ever turned from the land to the people, for he believed that the Japanese, Korean, Chinaman or the Hindoo was as much a man as the brightest intellect of the Anglo-Saxon race. God loved him the same, and there was as much hope for him and his race in the future if he could be brought to accept the Gospel. Bishop Ninde was broad, tender, deep and loving, and yet these characteristics did not interfere with his work as a bishop.

We his brethren of the ministry, he loved us all, and his sympathies were for us and with us all in our work. He would do all he could for us, but when the time came that the adjustments must be made, and he was responsible for them, the cause of our Lord Jesus Christ and the salvation of men always was first. It might be with tearfulness on his part, with profound sympathy and prayer, and yet we were placed at last where as the result of his careful consideration and sound judgment he thought God wanted us. So also he settled the great questions of policy, the great and perplexing problems that come to a church organized as ours is, for at last when the final argument was made, and carefully considered, with a steady, strong will he settled the question, so far as he was responsible for it; and yet no man was hurt, for everyone knew that it was done in the fear of God, and for the best interests of all. Such was our bishop.

This man came home from all his journeyings to die. He saw the dawnings of the new century! He knelt at the altar of the Central Church as the old past away and the new one entered. He spent a few hours looking into the future. Then in the bosom of his family he was stricken. Not very hard was he smitten. A physician was called, and he rested at night expecting to meet his family in the early morning. But some time in the night the angel of the Lord who smote Peter in prison appeared and touched him, saying, "Bishop, brother, child of God, thy work on earth is done; follow me." The clay casket was left, and out of it, arising without ever seeing death, as certainly as Enoch did, he awakened from his slumbers in the very presence of Jehovah, while the glory of God met his astonished gaze.

Oh, bishop, pastor, brother, friend, from the low portal of earth where we stand, we greet you to-day, we give thee joy in the nearer presence. As thou hast followed Christ, we will follow thee.

W.H. SHIER, D.D.

- Detroit Annual Conference minustes of 1901, pp. 51-53

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