by Rev. H.L. Powell
Rev. Alpheus Eli WILEY was born in Guilford county, near Greensboro, N.C., Dec. 26, 1848, and died at Cliffside, Rutherford county, N.C., Jan. 31, 1915. During his last sickness he was in the home of his daughter, Mrs. Ella HAMES.
In 1872 Brother WILEY was happily married to Miss Mary Claudia KIRKMAN, also of Guilford county. In the home, in the church and in the social service of the community Mrs. WILEY measured and an itinerant’s wife. She preceded him to the celestial city a little more than two years. To them were born eleven children, nine of whom are still living, as follows: T. Marvin WILEY, Ella J. HAMES, Mary Claudia TUCKER, Nancy Elizabeth SELLERS, Maggie Mae WALL, Gussie F. NIVEN, Ida E. NIVEN, L. Raymon WILEY, W. Herbert WILEY.
Brother WILEY felt the call to preach in very early life, even prior to his conversion. At about twelve years of age he was converted. Not uniting himself with the church immediately he soon found himself in a backslidden state. Three or four years later he attended a service in a series of meetings conducted by one of our local preachers. As he listened to the sermon from the text, “How long halt ye between two opinions?” 1 Kings 18:21, he felt that it applied directly to him. He decided the matter once for all, renewed his covenant with God and joined the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. In 1872 he was granted license to preach. In the local ranks until 1883 he was a true and faithful preacher of the gospel. In this relation he served as supply on Columbus Mission, now Green River charge, in 1878 and 1879.
In 1883 he was admitted into the North Carolina Conference on trial at Statesville, N.C. He was received into the Conference at Reidsville, N.C., in 1886. He was ordained Elder by Bishop HARGROVE at Greensboro in 1889.
The following are the appointments served by Brother WILEY: 1884-86, Clayton circuit; 1887-90, Pleasant Grove circuit; 1891-93, Wilkes circuit; 1894-96, Iredell circuit; 1897-98, Mt. Pleasant circuit; 1899-1900, Lincolnton circuit; 1901, Table Rock circuit. He was appointed to Table Rock circuit again for 1902, but was removed in the interval of the Conference to fill a vacancy that had occurred on the Connelly Springs circuit. He served this circuit again in 1903. In 1904-07 he was on the Lilesville circuit. While on this charge he suffered a stroke of paralysis on the 9th of April and was never able for work of the pastorate again. He took the superannuate relation and remained in this relation until the time of his death.
“He was a true man; we all loved him; we love him still.” These words in a letter from one of our veteran preachers express the Conference’s estimate of Brother WILEY and the attitude of the Conference toward him.
Brother WILEY was altruistic to the heart’s centre. He was always interested in the needs of others and spared no effort to do for them what the true Christian spirit prompted. Along with this characteristic was the happy gift of tactfulness. He would help you in such a way as to make you feel that you were not a beneficiary. The writer will always remember with gratitude how, when he was a young local preacher at Rutherford College, Brother WILEY used to take him into council about the problems that presented themselves on the work. He then felt that he was called into these councils to help Brother WILEY decide some difficult problem. He now feels that Brother WILEY was trying to train him for the work of the pastorate. This spirit of helping without appearing to help was characteristic of the true man he was.
In his preaching he was not the meteoric phenomenon that for an instant paints a rod of light across the heavens and then dissolves into dust so minute that it is bourne unconsciously on the most of gentle zephyr, but he was the beacon light that, getting down among the shoals, warns the bark of destiny from the fatal rock and into the channel that leads to the harbor of eternal life.
He never filled the great appointments of the Conference. I mean “great” to be understood in the sense of paying the larger salaries. But he did where he was needed a work that has told in the conversion of precious souls.
On his knees beside the penitent soul, helping him; with prophetic fearlessness, warning the guilty soul; with the person of flickering faith, giving encouragement; at the bedside of the sick and dying, bringing the consolations of the gospel, you could have found him ready like his Lord to lend a helping hand. Indeed, “he was a true man.”
Brother WILEY was a good citizen. His interest in civic righteousness was intense. He stood fearlessly by the right and fought the wrong. He could hate, with tremendous hatred, wrong and at the same time love the wrong door. While he sought to drive out evil he strove with all his might to save the one who was the perpetrator of the wrong.
He was a staunch advocate for the very best educational advantages for our young people. It was nothing short of the heroic that enable him on a meagre salary and with a large family to give his children the splendid intellectual training they ahve.
During the latter part of Brother WILEY’s life the writer was with him frequently. He always found him sweet and cheerful. When he spoke of himself he would say, “I am in the Lord’s hands and am only waiting His will to be done.” More perfect resignation or sweeter confidence would be hard to find anywhere than was shown by him. “In the evening time it was light.”
On Sunday morning at about six he took his departure so quietly that loved ones thought he had fallen asleep. In truth he had fallen
“Asleep in Jesus! blessed sleep.
From which none ever wakes to weep!”
So long deprived of the privilege of public worship in the sanctuary his disembodied spirit went to join the celestial choir around the throne on high that Sunday morning.
Source: NC Christian Advocate, 4 March 1915. Available online at the Internet Archive.
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