The Daily Dispatch: March 7, 1862., [Electronic resource]

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Consecration of Dr. Wilmer.

St. Paul's was filled yesterday by a large audience, on the occasion of the consecration of Rev. Richard Wilmer, D. D., to the Episcopate af Alabama. The Bishops present and officiating were Bishops Meade and Johns, of Virginia, and Bishop Elliott, of Georgia. The sermon, an able and eloquent one, was preached by Bishop Johns. The solemnity of the time hallowed services, the impressiveness of those august words in which, for so many centuries, the servants of Christ have been commissioned to go forth and disciple all nations, and the peculiar respect and affection universally entertained for the Bishop elect, made this consecration a scene long to be remembered. In securing the services of Bishop Wilmer, the Episcopal Church in Alabama has obtained the services of one who, in all the qualities of the Christian and the man, has no superior in Church or State. A finer specimen of a genuine Virginia gentleman, or of true, thorough manhood, is nowhere to be found. Of his pulpit addresses, we may say with truth that we have never heard one sermon of his which, in originality, vigor, and impressiveness, did not furnish more food for thought and incentives to action than a hundred ordinary discourses. And yet their chief power undoubtedly consists in the force which the profound convictions and deep earnestness of the speaker impart to every word which he utters.

Bishop Wilmer carries with him to Alabama the heartfelt love of all Virginia.