The Biographical Dictionary of America/Alexander, James Waddel

ALEXANDER, James Waddel, clergyman, was born in Louisa county, Va., March 13, 1804, son of Archibald and Janetta Waddel Alexander, and maternal grandson of James Waddel, the blind preacher, made famous by William Wirt. He entered Princeton college, and was graduated in 1820, followed with a four years' course at the theological seminary. In 1824 he was tutor in that institution, and was licensed to preach by the presbytery of New Brunswick, N. J. For three years following he was pastor in Charlotte county, Va. From 1828-'32 he had charge of the first Presbyterian church in Trenton, N. J. He gave up preaching on account of failing health, and took charge of the Presbyterian, of Philadelphia, as editor. From 1833 to 1844, he was professor of belles-lettres and rhetoric at Princeton college, and for the next five years he served the congregation of the Duane street Presbyterian church of New York city. At the end of his pastorate he returned to Princeton, to take the chair of ecclesiastical history and church government in the theological seminary. In 1851 he returned to New York to accept a call to the Fifth avenue Presbyterian church, where he exerted a great power in the pulpit and with his pen. In preaching and writing he aimed at being practical rather than scholarly, and in the pulpit was intensely spiritual. He wrote many translations of popular German hymns; one of which found its way into many hymn books: Gerhardt's passion hymn, "O Sacred Head now Wounded." His published works include: "Consolation," "Family Worship," "Plain Words to a Young Communicant," "Discourses on Christian Faith and Practice," "Gift to the Afflicted," "A Biography of Dr. Archibald Alexander," and over thirty volumes prepared for the American Sunday school union. He contributed to the Princeton Review and the Biblical Repertory. Rev. Dr. John Hall published in 1880, in two volumes, "Forty Years' Familiar Letters of James W. Alexander." He died at Red Sweet Springs, Va., July 31, 1859.