Byrne, Alexander Sturgeon

Byrne, Alexander Sturgeon a precocious Methodist minister in Canada, grandson of Rev. Alexander Sturgeon (Irish Conference), and son of Rev. Claudius Byrne (Irish and Canada Conferences), was born at Dungannon, Ireland, June 20, 1832. He was converted at thirteen, and was led by a train of providences, almost immediately after his conversion, to exercise his gifts in public, which were of such an extraordinary character as to open his way, when not more than fifteen years of age, into many of the first pulpits of the Irish connection. In the winter of 1848-49 he came with his father to Canada. He was at once received into the ministry in that country; preached in Toronto and London; made an extraordinary impression; but was cut down at Brantford, Ont., Feb. 11, 1851. Young Byrne's character was a rare combination of dignity and modesty, fidelity, forbearance, prudence, zeal, gravity, and cheerfulness; a most faultless religious character, an eloquent and searching preacher. Few have enjoyed so much popularity, and few have been so little affected by it. See Carroll, Life and Remains of Rev. A. S. Byne (Toronto, 1852, 12mo); Case and His Contemporaries, v, 48, 94.