METHODIST REVIEW.

SEPTEMBER, 1892.

ART. I.-JAMES WILLIAM MENDENHALL.

ANOTHER prince in Israel has fallen. The methodical, earnest, and enthusiastic student has laid aside his researches. The voice of the scholarly and spiritual preacher has been hushed. The pen of the skillful writer has dropped from his hand. nature rich in its endowments, richer in its acquisitions, ripe in its developed powers, definite and commanding in its purposes, intense in its thought, feeling, and aspirations, has ceased its earthly activities and passed into higher and more potent relations. The hero has fallen in the midst of the battle. A day of singular promise and brightness has ended at its meridian.

In the last quadrennium death made saddening inroads into the editorial ranks of the Church. Drs. Bayliss, Krehbiel, and Fry were taken away when their ripened experience and matured strength seemed most needed. Only a few days of the present quadrennium had passed when the incumbent of the first editorial position in the Church yields to the withering touch of death and joins the colleagues that had preceded him to the spirit-world. The Church keenly feels the loss of its distinguished servant, and a multitude of parishioners, readers, colaborers in service, and personal friends weep with the wife, son, parents, and brothers whose hearts cry out from the depths.

James William Mendenhall was born in Centerville, Montgomery County, O., November 8, 1844, and died in Chicago, June 18, 1892, in the forty-eighth year of his age. His parents are Elijah and Mary A. Mendenhall, who still survive him, and live in Indianapolis, Ind. They have been honored and 45-FIFTH SERIES, VOL. VIII.

useful members of the Methodist Episcopal Church for more than fifty years. There were born of these parents four sons, James being the second in order of birth, but the first to break in death the family circle. The father and the three surviving brothers are all practicing physicians, and are men of recognized ability and skill in their chosen profession.

Dr. Elijah Mendenhall was born in Preble County, O., in 1816. He was by birthright a Quaker, or Friend, and belonged to the sixth generation from John Mendenhall, who came from England to America in 1685. The generations intervening between John and Elijah were steadfast in the Quaker faith, and the latter was the first of the long line to seek a home in another communion.

The mother was born in Covington, Ky., in 1819. She is the daughter of Samuel Graves, a Virginian by birth and education. Her ancestry were Methodistic for several generations.

James's childhood was spent in the Miami Valley. The father's professional duties and pecuniary investments led him to change several times his residence during the elementary school life of his children. In 1856 he moved to Hamilton, O., whose city and academic schools proved a great incentive and encouragement to James. In the city schools he attained marked proficiency in the common branches and algebra. In a private academy he began the study of the foreign languages and the higher mathematics.

While in the academy at Hamilton, however, although at the head of his classes, he became dissatisfied with the nature and degree of progress made. His ambition outran his achievements. His eager mind and clear insight detected the imperfection of his acquisitions and the lack of power to apply the principles or theories he had learned.

The father, realizing the need of greater educational facilities for his sons, moved to Delaware, O., in 1860, and placed them in the Ohio Wesleyan University. When James entered college he was nearly sixteen years of age. He received the degree of bachelor of arts in 1864, when not yet twenty years of age. His private journal bears testimony to the fact that his college life was a perpetual delight to him. He says, "It was interesting from the beginning to the end, and very profitable." It seemed to him like a beautiful poem in four parts, each

intensifying his enthusiasm and enjoyment. His already wellformed habits of study, quick perceptions, phenomenal memory, and absorbing application placed him among the most successful in his classes. When graduation came his mental discipline and scholarship were equal to those of our best students graduated several years later in life. His college life was a model of method, fidelity, and industry. His duties were never a task, but always a privilege; never were allowed to lag; were never made secondary, but were always anticipated and promptly performed.

His education was symmetrical. In his tastes he was partial to some departments of study, but having determined to excel in all he gave to each like attention. In the second year of his college life he joined a literary society. He selected the one that regularly required the most work of its members. When the performance of forensic duty confronted him, however, he suffered for a time most severely from fear and a consciousness of poor preparation; but, stimulated by an inward faith and by parental counsel and sympathy, assurance erelong took the place of fear. In time he became very fond of argumental contests, and in his society developed a spirit which he never lost. His success in debate was recognized by his fellow-students, and he was more than once honored by the special appointments he received.

In habits of work, purity of purpose, symmetrical discipline, varied acquisition, and enthusiastic devotion his college life was a preparation for and a prophecy of the honorable, useful, and distinguished career he has made.

Immediately after graduation he went into the service of the Christian Commission, and spent the summer months of 1864 in the central South.

In the fall of 1864 he was received on trial into the Cincinnati Conference, and was successively appointed, as junior preacher, to Concord, Camden, Centenary, and Madisonville Circuits. Upon each appointment he was well received, popular with the people, and influential in preaching and in pastoral visitation.

While on Madisonville Circuit he was invited to take the presidency of Fremont Collegiate Institute, located at Sidney, Ia. After consulting his presiding elder, Dr. (now Bishop) Walden, and Bishop Clark, he accepted, and by his enthusiasm in teaching, preaching, and financiering he added to the numbers