. The gift of swift,
magnetic, eloquent speech was his. Words with the quality and vigor of
intuitive imagination poured out of him. Yet preaching was never easy
for him, and as it was dominated by his characteristic intensity and
fervor, he was nervous beforehand and exhausted afterward. His emotional
range sometimes led him off the main thread of a discourse; at times he
ranted; and more than once preached an entirely different sermon from
the one outlined in his written notes. His preaching was "feeling warmed
up to vision," and the word of God passed through him to men. He
believed tremendously in preaching; there were few services in Christ
Church at which he did not preach,[15] but he was not a so-called
popular preacher; crowds did not constantly fill the pews. To some his
driving power was wearing, and even some of his admirers would exclaim,
"Oh, I do wish Mr. Nelson would not tear his throat so when he
preaches." But his very force of delivery, and his vehemence were a part
of the man, and he no more could have preached in another manner than
have changed his stature.

But these characteristics had compensations or off-setting factors.
After Mr. Nelson's exchange with the rector of St. Paul's Church, Rome,
Italy in 1912, a certain dowager commented, "Mr. Lowrie's sermons made
me feel comfortable, but Mr. Nelson makes me feel a miserable sinner!" A
newcomer, on his first Sunday in Cincinnati, went to Christ Church
intending to "sample" several churches before casting his lot with one.
The choir came in, followed by a young, boyish-looking clergyman whom
the man presumed to be the assistant. During the sermon Mr. Nelson
continually entangled himself in his stole and gave the impression of
one so inextricably caught up in his message that he was a part of it,
stole and all! The newcomer was Frederick C. Hicks, later the President
of the University of Cincinnati. He did not go elsewhere but continued
at Christ Church and eventually became a vestryman.

Mr. Nelson did not talk in an amiable sort of way about the Christian
virtues; his sermons, thank God, were not colorless essays on the
doctrine of God, and the Church. He preached with abandon, and there
issued forth a fiery stream of conviction that stabbed his hearers into
life. Within those in whom the seed found good soil there was
reproduced his hunger for righteousness, his integrity of character.
What we heard from the pulpit of Christ Church was the produc