Born: Illinois, 1855.Died: Illinois, 1912.
Born: Illinois, 1855.
Died: Illinois, 1912.
Mr. Gilliland was born on his father's farm near Vermont. While a boy he lived and worked there. He graduated from Abingdon College in 1875, and from Eureka in the class of 1880. The following year he received from the latter institution his master's degree.
He served the church at Mechanicsburg four years and at Harristown until he was called to Bloomington in February, 1888. His service in that city has been well called "a monumental ministry." Under his wise leadership and forceful, Scriptural preaching the congregations there grew from one to three, with large, modern, well-equipped buildings paid for, and the number of Disciples increased from four hundred to about twenty-five hundred. The ministry of very few men is crowned with such substantial and abiding results.
As a man and a minister, Mr. Gilliland was unassuming and wholly without ostentation. His master ambition was to be a capable and faithful preacher of the Word. He read widely and wisely, and thought profoundly and clearly upon all the great religious problems of our time. His last work was the preparation of an address on "Twenty-five Years of Christian Work in Bloomington," read by another at the seventy-fifth anniversary of the formation of the Christian Church in that city. In its closing he said: "The ministry of the Word is the transcendent calling. It is a God-revealing, Christ-uplifting and Bible-interpreting calling. The preacher may well visit the critic's school, but his residence is at the interpreter's house. The ministry is a man-saving, a truth-seeking, a world-redeeming calling. The minister is the champion of the needy, the advocate of the poor, the protector of the helpless, the apostle of every good cause. Honored with the presence of God and his power, clothed with the authority of Jesus and the truth, directed by the principles of faith, love and sacrifice, the ministry is the supreme calling among men."
In his passing, the cause of truth and righteousness sustained a distinct loss. The hearts of thousands were touched with sincere regret and sorrow. "He sets as sets the morning star that goes not down, but melts away into the light of heaven."