WILLYMOTT
1005
WILSON
1851, when, owing to ill-health, he retired with the title of emeritus professor. He died Sept. 29, 1853. Dr. VVillson, in intellectual reach, and comprehension and acuteness, ranked among the first of men. He had a wide-spread reputation as an eloquent preacher. There were moments when he was overwhelming in the maj- esty of his descriptions and in the awful character of his denunciations. He was pre-eminently a man of prayer ; faithful to his convictions; a man of unwavering integ- rity. He published, A Historical Sketch of Opinions on the- Atonement, etc. (1817): — Alphabetical Writing and Printing (1826): — Prince Messiah's Claim to Dominion, etc. (Albany, 1832, 8vo) :— TAe Written Law (1840) :— also a number of occasional sermons, addresses, etc. See Wilson, Presb. Hist. Almanac, 18G6, p. 293; Allibone, Diet, of Brit, and Amer. Authors, s. v.; Sprague, An- nals of the Amer. Pulpit, ix, 40. (J. L. S.)
"Willyniott, Williaji, LL.D., an English clergy- man, was born at Royston about 1675. He was ad- mitted a scholar at King's College, Cambridge, in 1692; became usher at Eton; was tutor in King's College; became rector of Milton in 1735; and died in 1737. He published numerous school-books, and Collection of De- votions for the Altar, etc. (1720). See Chalmers, Biog. Diet. s. V.
"Wilmer, William H., D.D., a Protestant Epis- copal clergyman, was born in Kent County, Md., Oct. 29, 1782. He graduated at Washington College, Md., and immediately engaged in mercantile pursuits, but eventually abandoned them to study theology. In 1808 he was ordained, and then appointed to Chester Parish, Md. Tlie convention of the diocese named him one of the standing committee in 1811. The following year he received a call to St. Paul's Church, Alexandria, Va., and, after his removal to this charge, became one of the standing committee of the diocese of Virginia. He was one of the originators in 1818 of the Education Society of the District of Columbia, designed to aid theological students at the seminary in Fairfax County. Until his removal from Alexandria he was president of this association. When St. .John's Church in Washing- ton, D. C, was erected in 1816 he was chosen its first minister, but did not accept the office, though he sup- plied the Church until a rector was secured. Of the Washington Theological Repertory, a periodical begun in 1819, he was one of the editors until 1826. After re- moving to Virginia, until the close of his life, he was a delegate of every general convention ; and was presi- dent of the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies in 1820, 1821, 1823, and 1826. When the Theological Seminary of Virginia opened its sessions in Alexandria in 1823, he became professor of systematic theology, ecclesi- astical history, and church polity. In the spring of 1826 he was chosen assistant rector to bishop Moore, in the Monumental Church at Richmond, Va., but was in- duced by the friends of the seminary to decline the call. A few months after, however, he was elected president of William and Mary College, an<l rector of the Church at Williamsburg. Before the expiration of a year from the time of his entrance upon these duties he died there July 24, 1827. His preaching was characterized by great simplicity ; and although his manner was not con- sidered oratorical, it was fervent. See Sprague, A nnals of the A mer. Pulpit, v, 515.
■Wilna, Elijah, also called the Pious (l^Onrt), was born in 1720 at Selz, near Brisk, in Poland. His natu- ral endowments were so extraordinary that when eleven years of age he was not only a thorough Hebraist, but unravelled the mysteries of the Cabala, and was master of astronomy, geometr}', grammar, etc.; and at the age of thirteen (1733) was appealed to as a great authority and teacher. In addition to his marvellous native pow- ers, he possessed a real love of learning and great assi- duity, as well as an independent fortune, and lived till 1797. Like Mendelssohn and Wessely, Wilna was labor- ing to produce a reformation in Poland with the special
purpose to check the mischief wrought in the Jewish community by the Chasidim, who at his, time had be- come verj' powerful. Wilna's writings are very numer- ous. Up to the year 1760 he had written the prodigious number of sixty volumes, of which fifty-four appeared between 1802 and 1854. We mention the following : Commentary on the Order Zeraim (Lemberg, 1797, aixl often; last ed. Stettin, 1860) : — Commentary on the Order Toharoth (Briinn, 1802, and often ; last ed. Stettin, 1860) : — Text-critical Glosses on the Mechilta (Wilna, 1844) : — Critical Notes on the Babylonian Talmud (Vienna, 1807, and often): — Critical Notes on the Pirke de R. Elieser (\Varsa^v, iSb'i') •.^Critical Notes on the Pesikta (Bres- lau, 1831): — Scholia to the Greater and Lesser Seder Olam (Wilna, 1845) : — Glosses on the Thirty-tivo Uer- meneutical Rules of R.Jose (Sklow, 1803) : — The Mantle of Elijah, a commentary on the Pentateuch (first printed in the Pentateuch edition published at Dobrowna, 1804, and again at Halberstadt, 1859-60) : — A Commentary on Isa.i-xii and Habukhik (Wilna, 1820; 2d ed. ibid. 1843, edited and supplemented by his grandson Jacob Moses of Slonim) : — A Commentary on Jonah (ibid. 1800) : — A Commentary on Proverbs (Sklow, 1798, and often) : — A Commentary on Job i-vi (Warsaw, 1854) : — A Commenta- ry on the Song of Songs (Prague, 1811; Warsaw, 1842) : — A Commentary on the Chronicles (Wilna, 1820; 2d ed. ibid. 1843) : — A Commentary on the Book Jezira {GxoAno, 1806) : — .4 Commentary on the Zohar (Wilna, 1810) : — A Hebrew Grammar (ibid. 1833): — A Topographical Description of Palestine, and a Treatise on the Solomonic Temple (Sklow, 1802, and often) : — A Commentary on the Third or EzekieVs Temple (Berlin, 1822). See Ftirst, Bibl. Jud. iii, 516-521 ; Jost. Gesch. d. Judenth. u. s. Sek- ten, iii, 248 sq. ; Kitto, Cyclop, s. v.; Griitz, Gesch. d. .Tuden, xi, 118 sq.; Heschel, "inibx nrby O (Wilna, 1856); Finn, n^-aXJ fTilp (containing a history of the congregation of Wilna, biographies of its rabbins, etc. [ibid. I860]), p. 133 sq. (B. P.)