"The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree; he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon; they that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God, they shall still bring forth fruit in old age, they shall be fat and flourishing, to show that the Lord is upright; He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him."

The subject of this memoir was one of the trees of the Lord. The Lord planted it. The Lord watered it. The Lord pruned it. The Lord rejoiced in it. If David called the stately cedars of Lebanon "trees of the Lord," how would his soul have gone out into lofty flights of holy meditation had he beheld the forests of California! In the kingdom of our Lord, Leighton Wilson was one of the monarchs of Yosemite; in its branches the birds of the air found lodging, and under its shade the pilgrims of earth joyfully rested.