{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_24179/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_24179","id":"gutenberg_24179","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24179","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Biographies","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Golden, M. (Meletios)"],"text":"E-text prepared by Tamise Totterdell, Curtis Weyant, and the Project\nGutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net)\n\n\n\nNote: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this\n      file which includes the original illustrations.\n      See 24179-h.htm or 24179-h.zip:\n      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/1/7/24179/24179-h/24179-h.htm)\n      or\n      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/1/7/24179/24179-h.zip)\n\n\nTranscriber's note:\n\n      Text enclosed between equal signs appeared in bold face\n      in the original (=bold=).\n\n\n\n\n\nCONVERSION OF A HIGH PRIEST INTO A CHRISTIAN WORKER\n\nEdited and Presented by\n\nREV. M. GOLDEN\n\nSecond Edition\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: FARMHOUSE, WHERE REV. M. GOLDEN WROTE HIS CONVERSION]\n\n\n[Illustration: GREEK-AMERIKAN-CHRISTIAN-ASSOCIATION]\n\nNew York\n1912\n\nCopyright Office of the United States of America\nLibrary of Congress--Washington, D. C.\n\nIn conformity with section 55 of the Act to Amend and Consolidate the\nActs respecting Copyright, approved March 4, 1909, said book has been\nduly registered to the name of Rev. M. Golden, of Rutland, Mass.\n\nEntry: Class A, XXc., No. 251121, Oct. 29, 1909.\nCopyright, 1910, by REV. MELETIOS GOLDEN.\nEntry: Class A, XXc, No. 275323, Nov. 10, 1910.\n\nThe Trow Press\nNew York\n\n\n\n\nTO\n\nMy own loving father, who did sow the seed of a brave Christianity in my\nyoung heart, while only eight years of age, calling me by his death-bed,\non my knees, with his right hand resting upon my head, in his last words\nto me, saying:\n\n\"My boy, I leave you; God will be your Father, and Jesus His Son your\nSaviour; keep away from unholy associates, and heed not unlawful advice,\nbut work for righteousness and help those that are in need; and we shall\nmeet again.\" And his spirit went into eternity; to which destination I\ndirect all my efforts in life.\n\n                    This Book is dedicated by a grateful son,\n                                            REV. MELETIOS GOLDEN.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n    CHAPTER                                                 PAGE\n\n       I. FAREWELL                                            17\n\n      II. ARRIVAL                                             36\n\n     III. FIRST DAY IN NEW YORK                               49\n\n      IV. HIGH PRIEST                                         57\n\n       V. PHILOSOPHY VS. CHRISTIANITY                         66\n\n      VI. GOD'S PROVIDENCE                                    76\n\n     VII. NEW YORK TO CALIFORNIA                              92\n\n    VIII. HONORABLE SUBMISSION                               104\n\n      IX. PRACTICAL EFFECTS OF PRACTICAL TRUTH               114\n\n       X. GREEK-AMERIKAN-CHRISTIAN-ASSOCIATION               133\n\n      XI. CONCLUSION                                         151\n\n\n\n\nILLUSTRATIONS\n\n\n    Farmhouse                                        _Frontispiece_\n\n    Rev. M. Golden in Street Attire as High Priest               36\n\n    The World's Wonder, Acropolis of Athens, Greece              52\n\n    H. R. H. Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn,\n    K. G., etc.                                                  68\n\n    Rev. M. Golden, the High Priest in Church Ceremonial\n    Attire                                                       84\n\n    Rev. M. Golden, Captain of the Salvation Army               100\n\n    Rev. M. Golden, the founder of the\n    Greek-Amerikan-Christian-Association                        126\n\n    Greek Peasant Woman                                         132\n\n\n\n\nConversion of a High Priest into a\nPractical Christian Worker\n\nSECOND EDITION\n\n    _Edited and Presented by_\n     Rev. MELETIOS GOLDEN\n\n    _Founder of the Greek-Amerikan-Christian-Association._\n\n    _HIGH PRIEST OF THE GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH._\n\n    _Grand Representative of the St. Stephen's Monastery,\n     Mt. Athos, Turkey._\n\n    _Archimandrides of the Virgin Mary's Monastery, Salamis and\n     Athens, Greece._\n\n    _Lieutenant, Officer, in the Royal Gendarmery of Greece._\n\n    _Grand Chaplain and Orator of the Supreme Council of the A. A.\n     Scottish Rite, Greece._\n\n    _Captain of the Salvation Army, U. S. A._\n\n    _Member of the Massachusetts Consistory S. P. R. S., Thirty-second\n     Degree, Boston, Mass._\n\n    _Evangelist to the Greeks in the United States, etc., etc._\n\n    _New York._\n     1912.\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\nIn placing this second edition in the hands of my readers I most\ngratefully acknowledge the splendid assistance of my subscribers, and\nthe kindness with which this book has been received by the General\nPublic, who made it possible for me to accomplish my intended purpose,\never since I left home, that I should give, to the general public, an\naccount of my conversion into a practical Christian worker, knowing that\nthere are a great number of intelligent minds, among the priests, in the\nGreek-Russian and Roman Catholic churches, who would make good soldiers\nof Jesus Christ, and some of them might develop into heroes of Truth and\nRighteousness, if they could only deny themselves of the luxuries and\nlofty life attached to their priesthood. And this problem of selfishness\nis an absolute barrier not only to their own Salvation, but to many a\nsoul, who might have been saved from sin, and be converted to God, and\nusefulness, but for the Priest.\n\nThe solution of the problem was the clue which aided me to escape from\nthe labyrinth of doubt; and now, standing upon the rock of unshaken\nfaith, I offer the clue that guided me to others.\n\nA work of this kind is called for by the spirit of the age. Although the\nsigns of the times are said to be propitious, yet there are constant\ndevelopments of undisciplined and unsanctified minds both in Europe and\nAmerica, which furnish matter of regret to the philanthropist and the\nChristian; and though there are great controversies--going on at\npresent; in relation to the man's spiritual interests, central point of\nall this heated contest has been the \"Cross of Christ:\" yet the most\nobnoxious obstacle in the way of progress as to the realization of\n\"God's Kingdom on earth\" it is, and from all quarters the same\nexclamation uttered, the priest.\n\nMen and women entrusted with responsibilities of raising children in the\nChrist-like way, for the future development of this great country, will\nfind valuable facts in this volume, which I have endeavored to write, in\norder to meet the exigencies among, not only certain people, but among\nmany well-bred and well-cultured priests.\n\nIn criticising this work, the intelligent reader is respectfully\nrequested to take into account the peculiar circumstances under which\nthis book is written.\n\nI was only six years old--in the English language--many miles away from\nany literary assistance, and fifty miles from the Boston Public Library,\nwhere I could derive many testimonies and opinions of undisputable\nauthorities to strengthen my religious opinions and actions, which are\ntested in the most practical way by all conditions and under all\ncircumstances, from the ostentatious pomp of a high priest to a loving,\nlowly worker in the slums of Chicago.\n\nThe place, where this book is written, is a farm situated in the\npicturesque county of Worcester, and it might rightfully have attributed\nto the effect of the inspiring natural surroundings in this farm that I\nwas enabled to master my views in framing them according to the\nlinguistic requirements of the American reader, using the every day\nlanguage for the historical part of my subject; and maintaining the more\nclassical expression for the men with the tendencies to argue, just to\nmake a show of their higher knowledge, thus trying to excuse themselves\nfor not submitting all their powers to the Will of God.\n\nIt has been said, all misery comes to the human race mainly from two\ncauses; firstly, through misconduct: and secondly, through misfortune:\ntherefore; since there is the self-evident truth, in the axiom, that,\nwhen the cause is diagnosed, the remedy is near at hand, let us work\nunitedly to remove the cause of all misery, be it in the Greek people,\nor Jewish, or Gentiles, and by the light of the Gospel's truth, let us\nput forth all our efforts, while here on earth, in establishing\nhappiness and good will to all men.\n\n                                          REV. MELETIOS GOLDEN.\n\n                     NORTH RUTLAND, Mass., 1910.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\n_Farewell_\n\n\nIt was the year 1903, on a very beautiful day, one of those April days,\nthat are well known and appreciated by those who have been fortunate\nenough to travel around the purple bathed Mediterranean coast, that his\nroyal highness, the prince of Greece, Andreas, went abroad to meet his\nsweetheart, who afterwards became his wife and princess of Greece. It\nwas a confidential royal talk, the betrothal of Prince Andreas, but for\nthe newspaper man, who learns everything, and he can keep a confidential\ntalk as much as Mrs. Green did when she promised to her husband to keep\nall to herself that confidential talk they had one night, and the first\nthing in the morning speaking to Mrs. Jones over the fence she\nconfidentially delivered that confidential talk and in the same manner\nall over fences and telephones, wherever they were procurable, to save\nthe time, the talk went round the town and came back to Mr. Green's\nears, and he only blamed himself for being the fool to trust his wife.\nSo, when Prince Andreas, came down to Piraeus, the seaport of Athens, to\nboard on the fashionable French S. S. Messengerie-Maritime, he was\nsurprised by the throngs of people that gathered at the pier to greet\nhim \"good luck\" in his royal love affairs, because the Greeks pay more\nattention to the royal love affairs, than they do in paying their\nroyalties to fatten more highness and highnesses than any other Kingdom\non the face of the earth.\n\nThe Kingdom of Greece, little more than two millions of people, pay to\nKing George, for his annual allowances six times as much as the ninety\nmillions of people to the President of the United States. And every\ncreature of royal blood, in Greece, draws as high an allowance, as\nnearer to the throne his or her rights happen to be. Besides, many\nthousands of acres of the best land in Greece, is granted to the members\nof the royal family; thus causing the immense emigration of all these\nGreeks, whom you meet in every corner, in the United States, trying to\nmake an honest living, by shining your shoes, or working in the\nconstruction of railroads in America and Mexico.\n\nThe Greek, though born and raised among the most beautiful vineyards\nthat made the historical and famous Nectar for the Gods, yet when he\nleaves his home to go abroad, he takes his last glass of intoxicant,\ntill he settles himself, in a new adopted motherland, and makes a\ncomfortable home for the queen of his heart, because home life is the\nideal of every Greek and he is a model as head of the family, in his\nmoderate means trying to raise children to his generation and give them\nthe best he can afford. Hopeful, that some Socrates or Demosthenes might\ndevelop out of his offspring. The Greek has never been identified with\nany unlawful or criminal movement of the so-called Anarchistic or\nSocialistic. The Greek at all times and under all circumstances is an\nexample as a law-abiding citizen.\n\nGreek history is the pride of all the civilized world, and in the\nopinion of a most distinguished sociologist, the United States is the\nGreece of this age, and he thinks that it is the irresistible law of\ngravitation and sympathy that the tide of emigration draws the Greeks\nfrom the ancient Greece into this new and glorious Greece. And the\nwriter was very little surprised when told that Boston is the Hub of\nAmerica, or in the language of the Archaeologist, the Athens of the\nUnited States, and there and then he made his resolution to make his\nhome in Boston, should he ever find the way clear to come to America.\nThe joyful dream of his life has become reality, and for the last six\nyears from his personal observations traveling a little more, perhaps,\nthan the average American traveler, from Atlantic Ocean to Pacific\nCoast, he is privileged to know that the spirit of the Ancient Greece is\nnot only confined in the Hub, but, hospitality and the love of art and\nbeauty prevails in the very heart of every true American man and woman,\neven in the remotest village and hamlet, and he has yet to know the time\nor the place where he did not feel perfectly at home. Therefore, there\nis no regret on his part for bidding farewell to the land of the Gods\nand the city which had been the birthplace of taste, of art and beauty\nand eloquence. The chosen sanctuary of the Muses. The prototype of all\nthat is graceful and dignified and grand in sentiment and action.\n\nHistory and philosophy, oratory and the elements of mathematical science\nclaim as their birthplace the city of Athens, where Paul, the greatest\napostle of Jesus Christ, uttered his immortal oration to the Athenians,\non the Areopagus (Mars Hill). And he, dignified, temperate, high-minded\nand learned in all wisdom, of his age, Paul, confessed that he was\nstanding in the midst of the highest civilization, both of his own age\nand of the ages that had elapsed.\n\nPaul, with his face towards the north having immediately behind him the\nlong walls which ran down to the sea, affording protection against a\nforeign enemy. Near the sea on the one side the harbor of Piraeus, on\nthe other that designated Phalerum, with crowded arsenals, their busy\nworkmen and their gallant ships. Not far off in the ocean the Island of\nSalamis, ennobled forever in history as the spot near which Athenian\nvalour chastised Asiatic pride, and achieved the liberty of Greece. The\nApostle turning towards his right hand to catch a view of a small but\ncelebrated hill rising within the city near that on which he stood,\ncalled the Pnyx, where standing on a block of bare stone, Demosthenes\nand other distinguished orators had addressed the assembled people of\nAthens, swaying that arrogant and fickle democracy, and thereby making\nPhilip of Macedon tremble, or working good or ill for the entire\ncivilized world. Immediately before him looking upon the crowded city,\nstudded in every part with memorials sacred to religion or patriotism,\nand exhibiting the highest achievements of art. On his left, somewhat\nbeyond the walls, the Academy, with its groves of plane and olive-trees,\nits retired walks and cooling fountains, its altar to the Muses, its\nstatues of the Graces, its Temple of Minerva, and its altars to\nPrometheus, to Love, and Hercules, near which Plato had his country\nseat, and in the midst of which he had taught as well his followers\nafter him. But the most impressive spectacle laying on his right hand,\nthat small and precipitous hill \"The Acropolis\" where clustered together\nmonuments of the highest art, and memorials of the national religion,\nsuch as no other equal spot of ground has ever borne. The Apostle's\neyes, in turning to the right, would fall on the north-west side of the\neminence, which was here and all round, covered and protected by a wall,\nparts of which were so ancient as to be of Cyclopean origin. The western\nside, which alone gave access to what, from its original destination,\nmay be termed the fort, was, during the administration of Pericles,\nadorned with a splendid flight of steps, and the beautiful Propylaea,\nwith its five entrances and two flanking temples, constructed by\nMnesicles of Pentelican marble at a cost of 2012 talents, which is the\nequivalent of about four millions of American dollars. In the time of\nthe Roman emperors there stood before the Propylaea, equestrian statues\nof Augustus and Agrippa. On the southern wing of the Propylaea was a\ntemple to the Wingless Victory; on the northern, a Pinacotheca, or\npicture gallery. On the highest part of the platform of the Acropolis,\nnot more than 300 feet from the entrance-buildings just described, stood\nand yet stands, though shattered and mutilated, The Parthenon, justly\ncelebrated throughout the world, erected of white Pentelican marble,\nunder the direction of Callicrates, Ictinus and Carpion and adorned with\nthe finest sculptures from the hand of Phidias.\n\nNorthward from the Parthenon was the Erechtheum, a compound building\nwhich contained the temple of Minerva Polias; the proper Erechtheum,\ncalled also the Cecropium, and the Pandroseum. This sanctuary contained\nthe holy olive tree sacred to Minerva, the holy salt-spring, the ancient\nwooden image of Pallas, etc., and was the scene of the oldest and most\nvenerated ceremonies and recollections of the Athenians. Perhaps, for\nthis reason, King George of Greece, in celebrating his 25th anniversary\non the Throne, he gave upon this rock of Acropolis, that remarkable\nbanquet to all crowned visitors, 175 in number from every royal family\nof Europe. At this memorable event, the writer held the office of \"man\nat arms\" on the Acropolis, although he was the youngest officer in the\nRoyal Gendarmery of Greece, at the time.\n\nBetween the Propylaea and the Erechtheum was placed the colossal bronze\nstatue of Pallas-Promachos, the work of Phidias, which towered so high\nabove the other buildings, that the plume of her helmet and the point of\nher spear were visible on the sea between Sunium and Athens. Moreover,\nthe Acropolis was occupied by so great a crowd of statues and monuments,\nthat the account, as found in Pausanias, excites the reader's wonder,\nand makes it difficult for him to understand how so much could have\nbeen crowded into a space which extended from the southeast only 1150\nfeet, whilst its greatest breadth did not exceed 500 feet.\n\nOn the hill itself where Paul stood, was the temple of Furies, and in\nthe court house of Areopagus, there was the altar to Athene Areia.\n\nIn all historical probability, Paul, stood exactly on this place when,\n\"=to the unknown God=\" as his text, he delivered the understanding of \"The\nTrue and Living God,\" who made the world and all things therein, and he\nmade of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the\nearth.\n\nThe writer, consequently, in bidding farewell to his beloved Athens, he\nknew that he was going as a brother among members of the same family of\nhumanity in a land where man is free to worship God, not in hypocrisy\nand deceit, but in Spirit and in truth.\n\nOn the same beautiful April day that Prince Andreas was going abroad,\nthe writer went aboard on the same S. S. Messengerie-Maritime, unaware\nof H. R. H.'s presence there, notified only at the last moment by the\nagent of the company, Mr. Christopher of Piraeus, who was on board\nhimself going to Italy on a business trip. Mr. Christopher, by being a\nmember of the same fellowcraft in which the writer was the Grand\nChaplain, he took pains to secure a very comfortable stateroom for his\nbrother Chaplain.\n\nNow I was following Mr. Christopher and an officer of the S. S. to\nlocate myself in the suite provided for me, and as we were obliged to\npass through the reception hall there I found myself face to face with\nthe King George, and the following dialogue occurs.\n\nKing--Where are you going, Father?\n\nI--On a recreation trip, Your Majesty. (I should have said, on a\nreformation trip.)\n\nKing--I hope you will have a bon voyage.\n\nI--Your Majesty's wish, God grant it to be so, and I pray that His\nFavour shall crown with joy, all the desires of H. R. H.'s, the Prince,\nin his journey.\n\nKing--With your prayers, Father, I believe H. R. H. will be well\nsuccessful.\n\nAnd with one of his well known diplomatic smiles that contain manifold\nmeanings, King George bid us farewell, and in a few moments the big\nwhistle blew and a gentle vibration of the boat gave the notice that we\nwere on the move. I went into my cabin and looking through the hole that\nwas doing duty of a round window, I beheld the monument of Themistocles\npassing slowly, and when I could see that no more, I felt something\nmelting in my heart and over-flowingly coming up into my eyes in the\nshape of two drops of burning water. I took them on the tips of my\nfingers and after kissing them with all the tenderness of a loving\nheart, I sprinkled them into the apeiron, farewell to my loved ones left\nbehind me, while the big S. S. in full steam was now carrying me faster\nand faster into the unknown and uncertain.\n\nI did not leave my cabin and there took my meals for two reasons; first,\nH. R. H. expressed the wish to take his meals at the regular\nfirst-class dining table, with all the mortals therein, and I had little\ndesire to meet him anyway; and second because I wanted to be alone to\nindulge undisturbed in my thoughts and study them and keep notes of them\nfor my future use.\n\nThe history tells us that it took thirty years for the greatest\nphilosopher that was ever born to give his definite opinion as to the\nimmortality of the soul. And if a philosopher like Socrates, after\nthirty years of constant study, he knew one thing, that he knew nothing,\nit is absurd to dare say that we shall ever know more than Socrates did,\nand in regard to the most perplexed problem of the human soul we can\nonly rejoice in the fact that we are placed in a more advanced position\nabove Socrates, that we can look upon these problems with more light,\nand that is the light that comes from Galilee.\n\nAlone as I was in my cabin I thought of Socrates, I thought of\nConfucius, of Buddha, and in fact I thought of the many ancient and\nmodern leaders of great movements, and of new thoughts, my admiration is\ninsistent to everything that is noble and pure in sentiment and praxis,\nbut there is only one leader, whom my spirit admires the best and I\nworship him with love and devotion, the man who gave his life for me. I\nknew I was free through his death and I was happy. The Hierarchical\nchurch was opposing me unreasonably; my own dearest and nearest\nrelatives did not understand me, their strongest argument being, how\ncould I sacrifice such a high office and deny a promising greater\nfuture and still be in my right mind?\n\nNot being satisfied in my own heart, much less convinced in my mind, I\nmade a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, in order to find out whether Jesus was\nthe only Saviour of mankind without the necessity of a priest. It was\nthen and there, while kneeling on my knees upon that rock of Golgotha\nthat came to me with startling force and clearness that I must be a\nfollower of Jesus Christ and not a representative. All men may live on\nthe Christ-like way and be happy, but the man who dares personify\nhimself with the authorities belonging only to Jesus, that man must be a\nfaker; \"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life\nfor his friends\" and I knew Jesus was my friend, the only friend left to\nme, while every other friend had forsaken me. In that little cabin I\nfelt his companionship, and looking at the clock on the dresser I beheld\nin the mirror a pleasant face smiling at me. The hour was nearly\nmidnight and I retired, singing \"He promised never to leave me alone.\"\n\nThe voyage from Piraeus to Naples is said to be the best and grandest in\nMediterranean, and in company of a royal fellow traveller might have\nbeen interesting even to the most eccentric Yankee, but to me it was a\nmonotonous event, and the second evening while I was walking for some\nexercise on the deck, H. R. H. came up to me graciously expressing his\nregrets for not seeing me at the table, and inquiring if I was not\nfeeling well, but he soon noticed my laconical way in excusing my\nabsence, and he withdrew, leaving me alone in my admiration of a grand\nview on a moonlighted nature in the Mediterranean. And the only thought\noccupying my mind was; how soon could I get to America? For this reason\nperhaps, I decided to take steamship for New York at Naples, Italy,\ninstead of going to Marseilles, chief seaport of France on the\nMediterranean, thus forfeiting my rights on S. S. Messengerie-Maritime,\nthat had been paid from Piraeus to Marseilles.\n\nHappily, Mr. Christopher was also representing the S. S. Co., of Fabre\nLine, and the S. S. Germania of the same company was scheduled to depart\nfrom the harbor of Naples in a few days. It certainly was a pleasure and\nan opportunity of which we took advantage to visit the most interesting\nplaces in and around Naples, the city of far famous and at the same time\nnotorious, for there the stranger notices, in every step, the beauty of\nItalian art and the Neapolitan filth combined in the most peculiar\ntexture.\n\nMaking good use of the little time which we had at our disposal, we took\nthe train and went up to see the City in which the Pope entombed himself\na living mummy rather than to co-operate with the civilized world in\nbuilding God's Kingdom on earth.\n\nIn looking over my memorandums I have just discovered a description that\nI kept about the Eternal City. The historical facts therein are\nsupported by undisputable authority. And I think it apropos beneficial\nto my readers, if it will be placed at their hands before the closing of\nthis chapter.\n\nOn the river Tiber, about fifteen miles from its mouth in the plain of\nwhat is now called the Campagna, stands the famous capital of the\nWestern World, and the present residence of the Pope, the City of Rome.\nThe surrounding country is not a plain, but a sort of undulating\ntable-land, crossed by hills, while it sinks towards the southwest to\nthe marshes of Maremma, which coast the Mediterranean. In ancient\ngeography the country, in the midst of which Rome lay, was termed\nLatium, which, in the earliest times, comprised within a space of about\nfour geographical square miles the country lying between the Tiber and\nthe Numisius, extending from the Alban Hills to the sea, having for its\nchief city Laurentum. Here, on the Palatine Hill, was the city of Rome\nfounded by Romulus and Remus, grandsons of Numitor, and sons of Rhea\nSylvia, to whom, as the originators of the city, mythology ascribed a\ndivine parentage. The origin of the term Rome is in dispute. Some derive\nit from the Greek Romee, \"strength,\" considering that this name was\ngiven to the place as been a fortress. Cicero says the name was taken\nfrom that of its founder Romulus. At first the city had three gates,\naccording to a secret usage. Founded on the Palatine Hill, it extended,\nby degrees, so as to take in six other hills at the foot of which ran\ndeep valleys that in early times were in part overflowed with water,\nwhile the hill-sides were covered with trees. In the course of the many\nyears during which Rome was acquiring to herself the empire of the\nworld, the city underwent great, numerous, and important changes. Under\nits first kings it must have presented a very different aspect from what\nit did after it had been beautified by Tarquin. The destruction of the\ncity by the Gauls caused a thorough alteration in it: nor could the\ntroubled times which ensued have been favourable to its being well\nrestored. It was not till riches and artistic skill came into the city\non the conquest of Philip of Macedon, and Antiochus of Syria, that there\narose in Rome large handsome stone houses. The capture of Corinth\nconduced much to the adorning of the city: many fine specimens of art\nbeing transferred from thence to the abode of the conquerors. And so, as\nthe power of Rome extended over the world, and her chief citizens went\ninto the colonies to enrich themselves, did the masterpieces of Grecian\nart flow towards the capital, together with some of the taste and skill\nto which they owed their birth. Augustus, however, it was, who did most\nfor embellishing the capital of the world, though there may be some\nsacrifice of truth in the pointed saying, that he found Rome built of\nbrick, and left it marble. Subsequent emperors followed his example,\ntill the place became the greatest repository of architectural,\npictorial, and sculptural skill, that the world has ever seen: a result\nto which even Nero's incendiarism indirectly conduced, as affording an\noccasion for the city's being rebuilt under the higher scientific\ninfluences of the times. The site occupied by modern Rome is not\nprecisely the same as that which was at any period covered by the\nancient city: the change of locality being towards the north-west, the\ncity has partially retired from the celebrated hills. About two-thirds\nof the area within the walls, traced by Aurelian, are now desolate,\nconsisting of ruins, gardens, and fields, with some churches, convents,\nand other scattered habitations. Originally the city was a square mile\nin area. In the time of Pliny the walls were nearly twenty miles in\ncircuit: now they are from fourteen to fifteen miles round. Its original\ngates, three in number, had increased in the time of the elder Pliny to\nthirty-seven. Modern Rome has sixteen gates, some of which are, however,\nbuilt up. Thirty-one great roads centered in Rome, which, issuing from\nthe Forum, traversed Italy, ran through the provinces, and were\nterminated only by the boundary of the empire. As a starting point a\ngilt pillar (Milliarium Aureum) was set up by Augustus in the middle of\nthe Forum. This curious monument, from which distances were reckoned,\nwas discovered in 1823. Eight principal bridges led over the Tiber: of\nthese three are still relics. The four districts into which Rome was\ndivided in early times, Augustus increased to fourteen. Large open\nspaces were set apart in the city, called Campi, for assemblies of the\npeople and martial exercises, as well as for games. Of nineteen which\nare mentioned, the Campus Martius was the principal. It was near the\nTiber, whence it was called Tiberinus. The epithet Martius was derived\nfrom the plain being consecrated to Mars, the god of war. In the later\nages it was surrounded by several magnificent structures, and porticoes\nwere erected, under which, in bad weather, the citizens could go\nthrough their usual exercises. It was also adorned with statues and\narches. The name of Fora was given to places where the people assembled\nfor the transaction of business. The Fora were of two kinds--fora\nvenalia, \"markets,\" and fora civilia, \"law courts, etc.\"\n\nUntil the time of Julius Caesar there was but one of the latter kind,\ntermed by way of distinction Forum Romanum, or simply Forum. It lay\nbetween the Capitoline and Palatine Hills: it was eight hundred feet\nwide, and adorned on all sides with porticoes, shops, and other\nedifices, on the erection of which large sums had been expended, and the\nappearance of which was very imposing, especially as it was much\nenhanced by numerous statues. In the centre of the Forum was the plain\ncalled the Curtian Lake, where Curtius is said to have cast himself into\na chasm or gulf, which closed on him, and so he saved his country. On\none side were the elevated seats or suggestus, a sort of pulpits from\nwhich magistrates and orators addressed the people, usually called\nRostra, because adorned with the beaks of ships which had been taken in\na sea-fight from the inhabitants of Antium.\n\nNear by was the part of the Forum called the Comitium, where were held\nthe assemblies of the people called Comitia Curiata. The celebrated\ntemple, bearing the name of Capitol, of which there remain only a few\nvestiges, stood on the Capitoline Hill, the highest of the seven: it was\nsquare in form, each side extending about two hundred feet, and the\nascent to it was by a flight of one hundred steps. It was one of the\noldest, largest, and grandest edifices in the city. Founded by\nTarquinius Priscus, it was at several times enlarged and embellished.\nIts gates were of brass, and it was adorned with costly gildings: whence\nit is termed \"golden\" and \"glittering,\" aurea, fulgens. It enclosed\nthree structures, the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus in the centre, the\ntemple of Minerva on the right, and the temple of Juno on the left. The\nCapitol also included some minor temples or chapels, and the Casa\nRomuly, or Romulus, covered with straw. Near the ascent to the Capitol\nwas the asylum (Cities of refuge). We also mention the Basilicae, since\nsome of them were afterwards turned to the purposes of Christian\nworship. They were originally buildings of great splendour, being\nappropriated to meetings of the senate, and to judicial purposes. Here\ncounsellors received their clients, and bankers transacted their\nbusiness. The earliest churches, bearing the name of Basilicae, were\nerected under Constantine the Great. He gave his own palace on the\nCaelian Hill as a site for a Christian temple. Next in antiquity was the\nchurch of St. Peter, on the Vatican Hill, built A.D. 324, on the site\nand with the ruins of temples consecrated to Apollo and Mars. It stood\nabout twelve centuries, at the end of which it was superseded by the\nmodern church bearing the same name.\n\nThe Cirei were buildings oblong in shape, used for public games, races,\nand beast-fights. The Theatra were edifices designed for dramatic\nexhibitions: the Amphitheatra (double theatres, buildings in an oval\nform) served for gladiatorial shows and the fighting of wild animals.\nThat which was erected by the Emperor Titus, and of which there still\nexists a splendid ruin, was called the Coliseum, from a colossal statue\nof Nero that stood near it. With an excess of luxury, perfumed liquids\nwere conveyed in secret tubes round these immense structures, and\ndiffused over the spectators, sometimes from the statues which adorned\nthe interior. In the arena which formed the centre of the amphitheatres,\nthe early Christians often endured martyrdom by being exposed to\nravenous beasts.\n\nIn modern Rome there are various things to excite the curiosity of the\nstranger, but in my observations I could only see four elements\npredominating above everything, monks, nuns, priests and beggars. They\nform a continued procession all day long of the most spectacular\ncarnival that could be seen in any of the Babylons of the world.\n\nAnd now while in Rome, we might ask the question: Who founded the church\nat Rome? The question is equally interesting, if not important to the\nProtestant and to Catholic. The Romish church assigns the honour to\nPeter, and on this grounds an argument in favour of the claims of the\nPapacy. But strict search in and about all the obtainable sources of\nknowledge, it does give no sufficient reason for believing that Peter\nwas ever even so much as within the walls of Rome. Thus, by all inspired\ndocuments there is one title clear left to Pope and his scheme,\n\"unaccountable falsifier.\" As an ordained High Priest in the Greek\nOrthodox Church, I have been for many years studied in this particular\nsubject. The Libraries in Mount Athos gave me all the opportunities that\nthe high and exalted position, which I held, could afford, to find the\ntruth concerning the claims of the Pope. The Fathers of the Church,\nBasil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostomus, and all the\nhost of Ecclesiastical authorities agree unanimously that the Lord Jesus\nnever intended to concede any right of supremacy, to Peter, over the\nother apostles. Otherwise He (Jesus) would never have said those\nwonderful words (Matt. 20, 25, etc.), and Peter himself disclaiming the\nassertions of the Papacy (Pet. 1, 5, 3, etc.). And it is certain that\nthere is no instance on record of the apostle's (Peter) having ever\nclaimed or exercised this supposed power, but on the contrary, he is\noftener than once represented as submitting to an exercise of power upon\nthe part of others, as when, for instance, he went forth as a messenger\nfrom the apostles assembled in Jerusalem to the Christians in Samaria,\nand when he received a rebuke from Paul. Now as a matter of fact, if\nPeter was ever Great, that was, when he repented for denying his Master.\nRepentance, therefore, is the only hope left for the Pope, if he ever\nexpects to hear the blessed voice \"Feed my sheep.\"\n\nIn these days of enlightenment and progress, while humane feelings are\ntaking the place of spite and hatred among the civilized nations, and\nreligious prejudice is giving way to good will and tolerance, Rome is,\nfrom the Vatican point of view, the stumbling-block of every honest\neffort in the purification of the individual heart and the uplifting of\nthe millions of souls that are downtrodden under the sandals of hyenical\nmonks. When the Pope, a few months ago, rejected Mr. Roosevelt and Mr.\nFairbanks, two models of manhood and virtue, he made it clear to the\nworld that he is suffering incurably, from barbaritis, and that his case\nis hopeless. But, it is to be hoped that as Rome is already regenerated\npolitically and socially, so, we pray that in not far distant day, Rome,\nshall also be regenerated spiritually.\n\nIn the meantime we shall continue our journey, and now we hurry back to\ntake the S. S. Germania from Naples to New York. And when I was well\nlocated on board, I kissed good-bye to my friend and brother\nChristopher, thanking him for his assistance and bidding to the old\nworld FAREWELL! FAREWELL!\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\n_Arrival_\n\n\nSunday morning the 16th of May, 1903, the very handsome S. S. Germania,\ncast anchor in the docks of Brooklyn. Indeed, there is no particular\nsignificance in a steamship arriving in the harbor of Brooklyn and New\nYork, for they come by hundreds from all parts of the world, every day\nin the week and many of them every Sunday of the year. It is for the\ndiligent observer that there are more lessons to be drawn from a day\npassed along the Brooklyn bridge than there are in the most exclusive\ncircles of the 400. And if I am allowed to make any comparison at all I\nshould put it in the following short sentences. The former lessons would\nbe of a heart from which all arteries transport the necessary elements\nto keep up undiminished the vitality of this great cosmopolitan body,\nwhile the latter uncontrovertibly is only a part of the body, and\nunfortunately it is the stomach that consumes lavishly even to the core\nall that the whole body can produce. Yet to an every day passer-by\nneither when he travels across the Brooklyn bridge rubbing elbows with\nthe scores of the masses of humanity that hasten their way unconsiderate\nby nobody, nor when in his big red or yellow automobile hurrying up\nFifth Avenue he is planning in his mind a new scheme how to make more\nmoney, or he is the heir of riches untold and many millions are waiting\nfor him to be scattered in all winds, his social standard to keep up and\nhis neighbor's honor to bring down and as a rule to accomplish his own\ndestruction, the time is of no value unless there is some profit in it\nfor the only scope in his life is self gratification.\n\n[Illustration: REV. M. GOLDEN In His Street Attire as High Priest]\n\nThe S. S. Germania in splendor and commodities could proudly be called\nthe Mauretania or Lucetania of the Fabre Line, a very commendable\ncompany judging from the good officials and desirable attendants we had\non board the Germania. Her arrival at the present voyage had exceptional\nsignificance, and if every S. S. which arrives this side of the ocean\nhad parallel instances it would be only a matter of time when all the\nlegislators which are engaged in making the emigration laws would find\nthemselves out of business, because the Kingdom of God that knows no\ndivisions and no distinctions of nations and races should soon be\nestablished to make a heaven on earth and there it would be one\nLord--one faith--one baptism for all human races, and all men could then\nmove in the different parts of the world without any credentials and\nthey could be welcome everywhere as members of the same family do when\nthey live within the boundaries of love.\n\nSince the invention of Logos in the art of making history worth\nreading, through the ages the historian derives his intelligence from\nall sources apt to contribute to his object and unsparingly he treats\nzoology, botany and all kingdoms ending in some kind of y, just to serve\nhis purpose successfully. And the writers of the Scriptures are not\nexempted to this rule, inspired as it were, they mentioned almost every\nknown and unknown animal which our forefather Noah saved in his Ark, and\nif the ass plays so an important part in the Book of books, Germania\nsurely is entitled to some consideration in the history of my\nconversion.\n\nIt will be impossible for me to even attempt to skiagraph all that took\nplace on board the Germania from the time we left Naples of sunny Italy\ntill we arrived in the docks of Brooklyn, eleven and one-half days'\nvoyage with only a short stop at Gibraltar, that fortified rock for\nwhich Great Britain is ready to play all her power just to maintain that\ndry and ungraceful rock, but, the key of two seas, and in Azores Islands\nto exchange mail, our journey was a never to be forgotten continual\nholiday.\n\nOne odd incident that kept our merriment all these days, was the\nsymptomatical number thirteen. The S. S. Germania was carrying on board\nseveral hundred emigrants, mostly from sunny Italy, they were\nrepresenting all conditions and descriptions coming to America to make\ntheir fortune, which but a few exceptions is a sweet hope into every\nemigrant's heart and though often proves to them that it was only a\ndream, and there are millions of emigrants all over this land who after\nmany years of hard work they are still struggling for a mere existence,\nyet they come and they shall continue to come for it is the rule of the\nuniverse; they simply cannot resist the law that governs and moves the\nSympan. And the S. S. Germania was well occupied in its various\ncompartments, but there were only ten of us voyagers in the reserved\nfirst cabins, and at meal time with the first Captain at the head of the\ntable and one Commissioner representing the Government and the first\nphysician of the boat then we made up the number 13; and though I am not\na superstitious person I was the first one to call the attention to that\nfact, and there the fun began. The fellow voyagers insisting that should\nany danger of tempestuous and stormy gale threaten their safety they had\nto cast lots to know for whose cause the evil came, and as I was the\nonly representative of the religious sentiment, in all probability I had\nto undergo the same experience as Jonah had, yet our fears did not even\napproach any realization but instead as it was desirable to all on board\nwe enjoyed a very pleasant voyage all the way and the Captain himself\nunreservedly with his boyish cheerfulness expressed his gratification\nfor all that came out so perfectly satisfactory. And the Captain being\ndesirous to commemorate the agreeable event he gave the night before our\narrival at Brooklyn a unique banquet in the big reception hall with\nvarious symbolical decorations in honor to his excellency the number 13.\nAnd to make the event more memorable the Captain himself went around the\nboat visiting all the emigrants and selecting 13 of the most musical\nItalian boys and girls with their harps, mandolins and tambourines, a\nperfect stringed band, and while our merriment was in its zenith he\nconducted them on the upper deck where the reception hall was located\ninto the adjoining room and without warning we began to hear the waves\nvibrating through the walls into our hall and soon our ears were filled\nwith divine melodies. They were playing Tosca, Puccini's most inspired\ncomposition and the translation of these people behind the walls it\nreally contained that pathos which all artists agree, yet unable to\nexplain how so many children of sunny Italy became world-wide famous for\nthe embodiment of that musical and harmonious pathos of which Tosca is\nthe favorite piece of the greatest living tenor Caruso.\n\nIn an unfortunate event that occurred to me some time ago I lost the\nnames of my fellow voyagers on that memorable trip on the Germania, yet\nI can well recollect that there were two American newly-wedded couples\nfrom the western cities, just returning home from their extensive\nhoneymoon trip abroad, and there was a gentleman, very refined and well\ncultured in literature whom we called, the Athenian, as he hailed from\nBoston, which in the language of all foreigners is the Athens of the\nUnited States, and there was the Jew merchant from Chicago, and another\ngentleman, an Italian professor, who was going to occupy an exalted\nposition in one of the Roman Catholic Institutions in New Orleans, and\nto our delight there was Miss Maria, the only beloved daughter of Dr.\nAchilles Rose of New York. Dr. Rose is not only a very prominent\npractitioner as a physician in New York, but he is acknowledged as an\neminent authority by the most exclusive Academies of Europe concerning\nmedical matters, as well as a great linguist in the ancient and modern\nlanguages, and a number of publications contributed to the scientific\nresearch are the monuments of his convincing penmanship. His daughter\nhad just finished a long course in the best college \"Arsakeion\"\nexclusive institution for girls in Athens, Greece; and she was well\nqualified to teach the Ancient and Modern Greek language as well as any\nprofessor in the American colleges and universities. I had to go\ncarefully myself in order to keep pace with her in the exactness of\npronunciation of the Greek words, and when listening to her telling some\nof the joyful experiences she experienced in learning this wonderful\nGreek language I felt like a Sunday school scholar impressed by her\nrhythmical and melodious harmony in pronouncing every word and sentence\nthat sound like the old Greek music which even Apollo himself would be\nglad to listen to.\n\nWith Miss Maria Rose there was Miss Margaret, a tall slender figure with\nevery characteristic of a genuine Kentucky girl, a very respectable\nmaiden, she was caressing for Miss Maria Rose with motherly tenderness,\nshe was the playmate and constant companion of Miss Maria now passing\nthe bridge of her teens; yet Miss Margaret could not tolerate seeing her\nleaning on the rails of the Germania, she appeared presumably afraid\nthat some terrible whale might swallow her little Maria whom she loved\nas much as a mother could love her own child, a pleasure which she\nnever had, to know and to love a child of her own, and Maria appeared to\nappreciate the kindness of her governess.\n\nNow to make up the list of the ten voyagers there was also your obedient\nservant, coming over to America to study religious, social and\nindustrial conditions. An account of his reasons for taking this step\nshall be given later on. At this time I must proceed to complete my\nacquaintances on board the Germania. From the first day on board I find\nmyself in very friendly terms with every one of my fellow voyagers, and\nbefore I knew it I was the father of them all. As a High Priest dressed\nin my church garbs, they just pasted in front of my name the monkish\ntitle, Father, which I never accustomed myself though my official church\nname consists of about a half a dozen titles.\n\nThe Captain of the Germania, a typical French gentleman very agreeable\nin all his ways, with my little French enabled me to make myself\nunderstood. I had the pleasure of passing many a moment in pleasant\nconversation with him, and when I wanted to speak to the Americans, my\nheart was longing to learn all I could from them, as they were so kind\nto me, and with Miss Maria's assistance I never went lonesome, her\nacting as interpreter between me and the Americans, for by that time I\nwas not able to even pronounce correctly a sentence in the English\nlanguage.\n\nWith all these acquaintances my time was well occupied and to my\npersonal delight, by chance, I found my constant companion in the person\nof Dr. Lucretius, the first physician of the Germania, an Italian\ngentleman. By tokens and signs we found that both of us belong to that\ngreat body of men that knows each other as brothers in every corner of\nthe inhabited world. It was he, Dr. Lucretius, who came to my cabin on\nthe morning of the 16th of May, at about 5 a. m., and knocking at the\ndoor, said, Father Golden, we are now entering into the harbor of New\nYork, and if you want to enjoy a grand view of the surrounding country\nyou had better come out on the upper bridge. I shall be there waiting\nfor you to explain some of the most beautiful sceneries that you have\never looked upon in your life. And he was correct, without any\nexaggeration, for when I leaped from my bed and dressed myself as fast\nas I could I went to meet my friend and brother, Dr. Lucretius.\n\nRushing up to the bridge I greeted him \"Bonjorno, mio fratello\" shaking\nhis hand at the same time, almost I cried out, this certainly is an\nartificial imitation of the entrance to Bosphorus, and if it were not\nfor that great statue and mausoleum of Liberty, which I could see ahead\nof me, I would surely believe that I was dreaming, it is like entering\nthe harbor of Constantinople, and just at this point, looking into the\nface of my esteemed friend, Dr. Lucretius, I said to him; let us hope\nthat the day is not far distant when we shall salute the God-giving\nLiberty in the heart of the great city of Constantinople. That was six\nyears ago and every word I said it came out of my mouth as a prayer of\nmy heart in all my sincerity. Today I do thank God for it is a reality.\nTurkey is free! But she is like a child; she needs the guidance of a\nstrong hand to guide her in the path of righteousness and love to God\nand bring her to Christ who is the only one to give Liberty and Freedom\n\"For whom He made free, is free indeed.\" Turkey has accomplished the\ngreatest part of her own salvation, yea, she has done more than many of\nthe so-called Christian empires expected her to do. They are now rubbing\ntheir eyes, and of course it is their purpose in order to save their\ncommercial interests, they are going to put in her way all the obstacles\nthey can to overthrow the new Constitution, and if Turkey fails in her\nreformation this time, it would not be only her own fault. A great share\nof the responsibility rests upon the shoulders of every American man and\nwoman who solemnly declares to stand by and be a protector of the\nprinciples laid down by Washington, the father not only of his own\ncountry, but most of the civilized world. Unless America arises equal to\nthe occasion there is every reason to entertain all kinds of fears from\nthe Middle and Western Europe's diplomats.\n\nHow many American active missionaries are there in Constantinople,\nSmyrna, Aidin, Saloniki, Adana, Ephesos and every city in Turkey today\nworking for the regeneration of the people who dared and successfully\nbroke down from his throne a Sultan? Wake up, my dear reader and gird\nyourself with the noble armor of your manhood and your womanhood and do\nthe best, the very best of your ability to help the millions of mothers\nand children over in Turkey, they are starving for spiritual food, they\nare crying to you as your own brothers and sisters of the same family of\nhumanity; will you close your ears and not listen to their cry? or will\nyou open your heart, your sympathy and your pocket-book and send off all\nthe missionaries you can to do the work? I pray that you will, and God\nwill reward you in Heaven and down here He will keep the days of your\nlife sweet in splendid memory that you have done your part in the\nsalvation of all mankind.\n\nThe opportunity may occur again to discourse this very heart aching\nsubject. Now, as we approach the colossus of Liberty, Miss Maria Rose\nmade her morning appearance and before we all could exchange the \"Bon\nJour\" salutations to her, she gracefully grasped the gentleman from\nBoston by the arm and walking up and down the bridge with soldierly\nstep, began in an apparently joyful voice to sing, audibly \"My Country\n'tis of thee, sweet land of Liberty\" and just as she was getting more\nenthusiastic in her song, the gentleman from Boston uttered a loud cry\n\"Strawberries--fresh strawberries,\" and as by explosion a heartiest\nlaughter went out of every mouth on the bridge, and the waves received\non their wings that expression of our gratitude to carry it to the end\nof their destination, while the Germania drew us nearer and nearer to\nthe land of the free and the home of the brave.\n\nA call came to us all at this moment that the custom officers from New\nYork were already in the reception room waiting for us to make our\ndeclarations in accordance with the customary law, and by the time I had\ncomplied with my duties, to that respect, I heard a stentorian voice\n\"Cast Anchor\" and turning around in a semi-circle, with center on my\nright toe I endeavored to unfold the meaning of the exciting motion.\nSailors and officers of the boat rushing in all directions, it seemed as\nthough they were preparing for a great battle, and determined to win.\nThe big S. S. Germania was tied in the docks of Brooklyn and every\nvoyager was ready to bid her farewell. The steward of my cabin,\nuncalled, he was on my side, and the thought came to me that it was his\nlast chance for his gratuities from me anyway. He looked upon my face\nlike a child expecting his Christmas presents, and said, with a fainting\nsmile, Father, your trunk is on its way to your destination and here is\nyour valise and I am awaiting your pleasure to direct you to the Sixth\nAvenue Elevated Station, which will take you to the 123rd Street and\nSeventh Avenue, Harlem, according to your wishes to reach your dwelling\nplace. The bell of the Germania was ringing eight o'clock a. m., when I\nwas bidding farewell to my steward with the instructions how to reach\nthe Elevated Station, and turning to the first corner from the docks of\nBrooklyn, a familiar voice I heard behind me calling \"Father,\" and\ninstantly a hand took hold of the sleeve of my garment, and looking\nbackward I saw Miss Maria Rose with her governess, Margaret, and the\ngentleman from Boston, who was still holding my garment, and in good\nhumor said, he, in his broken French, Now Father, we could not tolerate\nto see you go all alone in the streets of New York dressed in these\nrobes, because if you only attract the curiosity of some mischievous\nchildren there is no telling what may happen to you, if they mistake you\nas a carnival dressed this way just for sport; but, Miss Maria Rose,\nhastened to aid, interrupting the gentleman, Father, you have good luck,\ntoday is Sunday and early in the morning you will be saved from great\nthings which might happen to you otherwise. Besides we are going as far\nas 59th Street and the gentleman from Boston, he is going to take the\ntrain at 125th Street, Harlem, and there you will be within a few blocks\nfrom the house you desire to go to.\n\nThey bought the ticket for me and soon the Elevated was crossing the\nBrooklyn bridge. The grand panorama on both sides of the bridge brought\nthe thought into my mind that if the architects of America were able to\naccomplish such a wonder as this, they would certainly have easier times\nto build the Babel Tower without any confusion of tongues; but my breath\nwent out of my breast and for a moment I thought that the beating of my\nheart stopped, when we reached that curving at 110th Street and 8th\nAvenue, New York. The magnificent sight from that tremendous height,\nlooking to my left at the mammoth advertising boards, the velvety green\nfields and at the top of the hill that Episcopal church, which will be\nwhen finished another architectural wonder, and looking to my right at\nthe Central Park which we just swiftly passed, now I see the flat roofs\nof the buildings and on many of them the washing of the family hanging,\nforgotten perhaps, from last Saturday, it is indeed a grand sight which\nthe inhabitants of New York in that section, by being accustomed to it,\nvery little appreciate.\n\n9.30, my friend from Boston, said, as we were descending the stairways\non the 125th Street and 8th Avenue, as he looked at his time-piece. If\nit were not for my train which I must take at 9.58 I would gladly\naccompany you to your place, yet, said he, you only have two blocks to\nwalk southward and one eastward and you will see the number on the left\nhand side, and with a cordial hand shake he jumped on the electric car\npassing at the moment on 125th Street towards New York-Boston R. R.\nstation, to board his train, and I started on my way to the place where\nI was going to make my temporary home.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\n_First Day in New York_\n\n\nIt is not my purpose in this little volume to make any boast of myself\nas an historian. Bookmaking is not my profession; neither do I propose\nto go into extensive details more than it is necessary to harmonize the\ncoincidents of events as they occurred and the effect they produced in\nthe development of an unusual Christian career, and God knows that my\nonly desire is to reconcile the opposing privileges of a meek and lowly\nChristian worker, to be equal if not greater to those of a High Priest\nwho in his fulness of life though one of the most active ecclesiastical\nofficials in the highest circles of church and society, his firm belief\nin success, knowing of no fear, and daringly climbing up in higher ranks\namong philosophical societies, holding such an exalted position in the\nmost ancient Christian church. The church that holds the undisputable\nproof as the first authentical apostolic establishment with founder the\napostle of the Gentiles himself. And who is the student of the\nScriptures, be he a Christian or philosopher of the Epicurean or the\nStoic system that could reasonably argue that the oration on the\nAreopagus made by Paul to the Athenians being the masterpiece and model\nof the most convincing speeches ever made in the Christian era? That\nthis High Priest, while enjoying all the comforts and privileges\nbelonging to his high office, together with its honors and gorgeous\ntrappings, does not attach any over-weening importance to ecclesiastical\ndignity, neither does he consider a \"comedown\" the step he has taken,\nbut he gives the simple, yet convincing reason that he just follows the\nprocess of evolution in Christianity, doing the will of his Master who\npromised to all mankind one Lord--one Faith--one Baptism. And for the\nlast six years he has proven that it is possible for a man to begin from\nthe very bottom of life, his nearest and dearest relatives opposing him,\nwith no friends to understand his desires and his ambitions, to be a\nwanderer in a great country like the United States, and travel from the\nAtlantic Coast to the Pacific Ocean, proud to always be able to support\nhimself and also help someone on his way. Exercising the principle of\nthe Apostle Paul, working hard for his living, stranger not only to the\nethics and customs of the people whose sympathetic hearts he was coming\nto win, but unable to even put two sentences together in their own\nlanguage, and today here he is to tell you the story, as true as your\nbeautiful breath that keeps your soul and body alive, and the only favor\nhe asks from you is that when you severely criticise the grammatical and\nsyntactical site in the execution of this work, you may in your\nkindness, remember that his only resource to derive any philological\nassistance, was a twenty-five cent Webster's dictionary, bought from a\nsecond-hand book store.\n\nThis is my first day in New York. And looking around to find the number\nof the house where I was going to stay, my thoughts were so animated as\nto feel that all the arteries and veins of my body through my feet were\nkissing the ground upon which my heart would soon appease with its\nMaker.\n\nA few people, going to the Low Mass, I should judge by the solemnity of\ntheir walk, men and women, sent curious glances at the stranger dressed\nin the robes on the street. By this time approaching the 7th Avenue and\nnot finding the desired number I was just directing my steps towards a\ngentleman dressed in some kind of uniform to inquire about the place,\nwhen a young man tipped his hat in front of me and raised the finger of\nhis right hand and pointed to the sign of the florist's store just a few\nsteps backwards. I could then plainly read the name on the board above\nthe door. It was the name very dear to me, which, with longing heart I\nwas looking for. Almost immediately a man came out from that same store\nwith a broad smile on his face and with a gentle bow, as though asking\nmy permission, he took my valise thus relieving me just in time, and\nleading the way into the store I saw another gentleman behind a counter\npreparing a large floral design from the rarest flowers of the season,\nfor the funeral of a most distinguished politician of Harlem.\n\nAlthough I yield to no man in the appreciation of a good smiling face\nand here I had two of them and the most typical faces which are\nprominent in the making of this heterogeneous republic, John,\nrepresenting the Huguenot and Dutch, and Jack whose father and mother\nwere Irish, and Jack was Irish too. Both these gentlemen with pantomimic\nactions in a few words which now I know were English words but at that\ntime I could not tell if they were Chinese or Hindoo. They tried to make\nme understand that Mr. George N., whom they knew I was looking for, as\nthey had heard him speaking of me and they saw my photograph, and they\nwere waiting notification of my coming, and that they were struck by\necstasy at my sudden appearance, he was at breakfast and that he would\nsoon be back so I had better step into his office and rest myself while\nwaiting for him. The expectancy to meet my friend George N., it\nlengthened every moment for me waiting in that little office.\nTwenty-four years since I saw him last when I was only ten years old,\nand even if I had not seen his photograph in all these years I could\ndistinguish him among ten thousand. He was my first teacher in the\ngrammar school; neighbor in my home and a very great distant relative.\nHe always took especial interest in my scholarship. My childhood and\nschool days were not all that I could desire for me, to be, for I was an\norphan, yet it was that orphan who always carried the first or the\nsecond honors in the annual examinations. It was for this reason,\nperhaps, that my teachers were all well pleased with my progress. The\npast is only a memory, yet when we look back in the light of our\nsincerity we can trace every point and every reason that contributed to\nour success or failure in our lives. It is not a vision neither is there\na mere kinetoscope procession. The High Priest is here waiting to\nmeet his teacher with the same solemnity as in the old school days when\nhe had to meet his teacher after some of his occasional mischiefs. With\nthese and other agreeable memories relishing my time in that office, I\nheard a loud applause in the store and the words \"Father is here,\"\naroused my inquisitiveness and before I could leave my chair, there was\nat the door of the office standing the man whom I wanted to see. Sturdy\nand resolute with two slow steps he now extends a welcome hand to me and\nas he called me by my childish nickname in response said, I, my teacher!\nYes, said he, How do you do my Father? Why didn't you let me know when\nyou were coming so I could meet you at the pier; How long have you been\nwandering to find this place? And many other complimentaries, but, you\nmust, he went on saying, change your appearance at once, for I am not\ngoing to disgrace myself and you too, if we dare to walk on the streets\nwith you dressed in robes like this. Let us go up stairs in my room, and\nI believe you can be fitted with a new suit of clothes made to order for\nme which I was ready to try on today, as the tailor just sent them here\na little while ago. Then you must have a very clean shave, my goodness,\nthere is a whole mask to come off your face and the long black hair you\nhave, you can make some money by selling it to any fashionable lady.\nNow, Father, you have to hurry, because the barber shop closes at 12\no'clock and you only have the necessary time to change your dress.\n\n[Illustration: THE WORLD'S WONDER, ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS, GREECE]\n\nThe clothes which George N. offered for my transfiguration with the\nexception of being made for a man one inch taller than my own stature\nthey didn't look very awkward upon me and to escape curiosity he took me\nthrough the alleys of a narrow passage into the 124th Street, where an\nelderly German kept a barber shop and when he was through cleaning that\nover burdened head of mine, he was almost exhausted, and liable to a\nfine, if any policeman happened to see him working on Sunday after 12\no'clock. The barber closed the door of his shop allowing time for us to\njust step out and we hastened our way back to the store, now walking on\n7th Avenue. Jack, whose name already is mentioned here, is one of the\nleading flower decorators in New York City. He could make a cross of\nflowers look like a picture, and he could make a bouquet for the most\nparticular bride, he could decorate a little chapel around the corner\nand make it look as artistic as he could decorate a rich mansion in the\nmost exclusive Riverside Drive. Jack made as much money as any of his\nhigh grade fellow traders in Harlem, and he had no home\nresponsibilities, his widow mother being what we might call well-to-do,\nfor she owned considerable real estate in that vicinity, yet, Jack,\nevery Monday morning had to obtain a loan for his carfare, and more than\nhalf a dozen young ladies all around Manhattan were particularly\ninterested in Jack's welfare. This is Sunday and one o'clock in the\nafternoon, and Jack should be enjoying his holiday, and there were\nalready two of his female chums waiting for him on the sidewalk. Yet\nJack had always some more time to spare to accommodate his employer\nGeorge N., who as now entered the store he gave the synthematical\npass-word \"that's all,\" which in the language of the employer and\nemployees it means \"The boys may now go home.\"\n\nBut Jack, as he took a glimpse on me, in all his Irish calibre he almost\nscreamed: Help! St. Patrick, what a metamorphosis is this? Is that you,\nFather? You look now to me more like a butterfly out of a caterpillar\nthan anything in Ireland. Say, girls, calling his friends from the\noutside, come in you girls, I take the honor to introduce you to the\nFather ..., but, my soul, I am ashamed to call you Father, so\nfashionable a gentleman as you look now. You shall not call me Father,\nsaid I, as long as you see me dressed like a gentleman. I shall not,\nJack said, and with his girls took his departure, while George N., who\ninterpreted all this merriment, took a fresh white rose and put it in my\nbuttonhole. Let us go for lunch, said he and I followed gladly for I\nfelt it was a timely call.\n\nAs George N. is a bachelor he takes his meals in no particular place,\nanywhere from Harlem Casino or Palm Garden or Manhattan Club to a ten\ncent lunch counter. Today he took me into a dollar a plate restaurant on\n125th Street. Before I was through with my dinner, George N. made the\nremark to me saying \"if you always enjoy the American cooking the way I\nobserve you doing, you will never starve in America, I assure you.\" It\nwas the wisest prophecy that George N. ever made about my future in\nAmerica.\n\nAfter dinner we visited Grant's Tomb on Riverside Drive and on our\nreturn he gave me instructions how to find the Waldorf Astoria hotel\nwhere Aleck, one of his nephews had a position, and that Aleck would\nmake arrangements for the night for me and that the following morning\nGeorge N. would wait for me to discuss my plans for the future. I left\nhim and when I was in my room which Aleck provided for me, the time was\nwell nigh midnight.\n\nAfter the day's excitement I hoped that a good night's rest would\nrefresh me anew and the next morning would find me prepared for the work\nI chose to devote my future life in this New World. With a lightning\nquickness my mind examined all my past life and with the same speed I\nmade my conclusions that there was no more any pleasure for me to look\nback, neither was there any attraction in that garb which so often is\nthe representation of hypocrisy itself. I felt so happy for my decision\nand with a grateful heart I bent on my knees in prayer to Him who lay\ndown His life for my freedom and my salvation, and as an evidence of my\ngood health, the night passed undisturbed in sound sleep and in the\nmorning when Aleck called me for breakfast I felt that every fibre of my\nbody was springing for action, and with the last touch leaping from my\nbed the first day of new life went into history.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\n_High Priest_\n\n\nFor the benefit of those who ignorantly, if not deliberately by deceit,\nmisled to believe that the priest has any authority, which the truly\nconverted Christian could not exercise, the present chapter is offered\nin the spirit of love without any fear of contradiction or dispute,\nbecause the facts given here are well established upon the Scriptural\nTruths and the reader may at all times maintain the proofs to disprove\nrefutable arguments of persons whose only purpose is to serve their own\nindividual interests.\n\nThe priest, one who officiates in secret offices, it is the definition\ngiven in Webster's dictionary. And from the most authentic Biblical\nconcordances we derive the following information: The priest under the\nlaw was a person consecrated and ordained of God, not only to teach the\npeople and pray for them, but also to offer up sacrifices for his own\nsins and those of the people. The priesthood was not annexed to a\ncertain family, till after the promulgation of the law of Moses.\n\nBefore that time the first born of every family, the fathers, the kings,\nthe princes, were priests, born in their city and in their own homes.\nCain and Abel, Noah, Abraham and Job, Abimelech and Laban, Isaac and\nJacob, offered themselves their own sacrifices. In the solemnity of the\ncovenant that the Lord made with his people at the foot of Mount Sinai,\nMoses performed the office of meditator, and young men were chosen from\namong the children of Israel to perform the office of priests. But after\nthat the Lord had chosen the tribe of Levi to serve him in his\ntabernacle, and that the priesthood was annexed to the family of Aaron,\nthen the right of offering sacrifices to God was reserved to the priests\nalone of this family.\n\nDuties of the priests: The priests were required to prove their descent\nfrom Aaron, to be free from all bodily defect or blemish; must not be\nobserved mourning except for near relatives; must not marry a woman that\nhad been a harlot; or divorced, or profane. The priest's daughter who\ncommitted whoredom was to be burned, as profaning her father. The\npriests were to have the charge of the sanctuary and the altar, which\nbeing once kindled the priest was always to keep it burning. In later\ntimes, and upon extraordinary occasions, at least, they flayed the\nburnt-offerings and killed the Passover. They were to receive the blood\nof the burnt-offerings in basins and sprinkle it around about the altar,\narrange the wood and the fire, and to burn the parts of the sacrifices.\nIf the burnt sacrifices were of doves, the priest was to nip off the\nhead with the finger nail, squeeze out the blood on the edge of the\naltar, pluck off the feathers, and throw them with the crop into the\nash-pit, divide down the wings, and then completely burn it. He was to\noffer a lamb every morning and evening, and a double number on the\nSabbath, the burnt-offerings ordered at the beginning of months, and the\nsame on the feast of Unleavened Bread, and on the day of the First\nFruits; to receive the meat-offering of the offerer, bring it to the\naltar, take of it a memorial, and burn it upon the altar; to sprinkle\nthe blood of the peace-offerings upon the altar around about, and then\nto offer of it a burnt-offering; to offer the sin-offering for the sins\nof a ruler or any of the common people; to eat the sin-offering at the\nholy place; and the same way to offer offerings for all the kinds of sin\nand the priest should eat these offerings at the holy place; to offer\nfor the purification of women after child-birth; to judge of the leprosy\nin the human body or garments (it is remarkable that the Jewish race\nfrom the beginning, has been all through the ages a heavy victim of\nleprosy). The priest was to make the ointment of spices; to prepare the\nwater of separation; to act as assessor in judicial proceedings; to\nencourage the army when going to battle, and probably to have charge of\nthe law.\n\nThe emoluments of the priests: The perquisites of the priests were many\nand various, and as Philo calls them very rich, and this statement holds\ngood all the way down to the Christian priest who inherited most of the\nvirtues of his Jewish predecessors. Thus no wonder for the priests to\nkeep their people in dense ignorance of the historical originality of\nthe priesthood. And the high priest, besides all duties and privileges\nalready mentioned as common to him and the ordinary priest, he must not\nmarry a widow, nor a divorced woman, or a profane, or that had been a\nharlot, but a virgin Israelitess. He must not eat anything that died of\nitself, or was torn by beasts; must wash his hands and feet when he went\ninto the tabernacle to offer the mass. The high priest was the divinely\ninspired judge and truly he was the supreme ruler till the time of\nDavid, and again after the captivity. He would ask counsel of the Lord\nif a new ruler was worthy or not and accordingly grant or regret the\nappointment of the ruler. It is the privilege which the Pope derives\nfrom Eleazar and trying to exercise this privilege against the rulers of\nEurope for fifteen centuries became the menace in the progress of\nhumanity. The high priest had also unlimited power upon the funds of the\nsanctuary. And it may be out of proportion in this book to give a\ncomplete description of all the privileges and regalia of the high\npriest, yet the reader could easily imagine the frivolities\nunfortunately existing even today in the ceremonial dress of the high\npriest, and to confirm this fact he only has to enter in the first\nRussian or Greek or Roman Catholic church at any day of some special\ncelebration and there he cannot help but observe an imitation of the\nlamentable vanity of a high priest of the old Jewish faith. And the\ntruth is visible to the naked eye. Would ever sincerity and priesthood\nmeet in one and the same person it would make the most paradox\nphenomenon, and such exceptional occurrences are very rare in the\necclesiastical horizon, for virtue and priesthood are the very logical\nantithesis, and chemically speaking they are protogon matters not\nyielding to adulteration. Between priesthood and Christ there is an\nabyss of argument, but there is no bridge to join both sides. Priesthood\non one side in the most pharisaic manner imposing its superfluous\nauthority upon all mortals. And Jesus the Christ of God with his wounded\nside, in the most emphatic manner, condemning the pharisaic scheme,\nwhich is a continuation in the Greek--Russian--Roman Catholic church:\n\"For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on\nman's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of\ntheir fingers.\" And if the words of the blessed Christ himself speaking\nin the 23d chapter of Matthew, have no effect upon the consciousness of\nthe priest, there is all vain to any other way trying to bring him into\nthe light of wisdom. In the history of all mankind there are three\ndistinct stages of priesthood, and in its two former stages it had been\na complete failure, in its present stage is falling so fast, and it is\ncondemned, already, by all reasoning minds, that it is only a matter of\ntime before the human race shall be free from these parasites. The\npriest, of the Jewish faith, failed because he was inhuman, the priest\nof the Greek idolatry failed, because he was a philosophical fraud; and\nthe priest of the present time, shall fail, because he is the very\nopposing visible enemy of God's kingdom. The sacerdotal office of the\npriest, is anti-christian.\n\nHere we shall attempt to only describe one piece of the dress of the\nhigh priest, the breast-plate (rationale); a gorget, ten inches square,\nmade of the same sort of cloth as the ephod, and doubled so as to form a\nkind of pouch or bag, in which was to be put the urim and thummim, which\nare also mentioned as is already known. The external part of this gorget\nwas set with four rows of precious stones; the first row, a serdious, a\ntopaz, and a carbuncle; the second, an emerald, a sapphire, and a\ndiamond; the third, a ligure, an agate, and an amethyst, and the fourth,\na beryl, an onyx and a jasper, set in a golden socket. Upon each of\nthese stones was to be engraven the name of one of the sons of Jacob. In\nthe ephod in which there was a space left open sufficiently large for\nthe admission of this pectoral, were four rings of gold, to which four\nothers at the four corners of the breast-plate corresponded; the two\nlower rings of gold being fixed inside. It was confined to the ephod by\nmeans of dark blue ribbons, which passed through these rings; and it was\nalso suspended from the onyx stones on the shoulder by chains of gold,\nor rather cords of twisted gold thread, which were fastened at one end\nto two other larger rings fixed in the upper corners of the pectoral,\nand by the other end going around the onyx stones on the shoulders, and\nreturning and being fixed in the larger ring. And a splendid ornament\nupon the breast was a winged scarabaeus, the emblem of the Sun, and the\nunavoidable portion of the ceremonial dress peculiar to the high priest\nwas the miter, mitre or Cidaris, a head gear of gold and silver and\nprecious stones whose magnificence we would not dare to describe in\nthis work, but the reader may in his life be fortunate enough to see one\nof these wonderful paraphernalia on the head of some of the now-a-days\nself-styled representatives of Jesus Christ, who came to seek and save\nthe lost and he did not make of himself a show in these follies of the\nold Jewish faith that proved a failure.\n\nThat the priests in Israel more than once by their indulgence went down\nto idolatry, the old testament abounds in evidences, but I shall only\nmention the incidents of Eli the high priest and his two sons, Hophni\nand Phinehas. Josephus says, the high priest had also the very\nidolatrous symbolical meanings of every part of his dress, which being\nmade of linen signified the earth; the blue color denoted the sky, being\nlike lightning in its pomegranate, and in the noise of its bells\nresembling thunder. The ephod showed that God had made the universe of\nfour elements, the gold relating to the splendor by which all things are\nenlightened, the breast-plate in the middle of the ephod resembled the\nearth, which has the middle place in the world. The girdle signified the\nsea, which goes around the world. The sardonyxes declared the sun and\nmoon. The twelve stones are the twelve months of signs of the zodiac.\nThe mitre is the heaven, because above all. The seven lamps upon the\ngolden candlesticks represent the seven planets, and so on every article\nhad a reference to some particle of the Egyptian Deities. But the time\ncame when man understood better God's plan of salvation. And divinely\ninspired they fearlessly stopped all these idolatrous practises.\n\nWho could dare say, at the beginning of the sixteenth century that God\ncould only through Jesus Christ save a soul without the necessity of a\npriest? Yet today even the priest himself would not dare say, not in a\ncivilized community, that his presence is necessary for the forgiveness\nof sin. But what of the millions of people that are drifting away from\nGod with the idea, that the priest is taking care of their souls? Am I\ncriticising the priest? God forbid, for I am not. There are good and bad\npriests, as far as their personal character is concerned, as there are\ngood and bad professional Christians, I have met in my Christian\nexperience. But I will say, in the authority of the word of God, that\nthe man who diligently searcheth the Scriptures and sincerely read his\nBible and still he insists in holding his sacerdotal office and call\nhimself a priest, he is deceived or he is deceiving.\n\n\"Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedec.\" Christ is\nthe only priest, holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and\nmade higher than the heavens, who needeth not daily, as those high\npriests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the\npeople's; for this he did once, when he offered up himself.\n\nThe Church makes men high priests which have infirmity but the power of\nGod makes every man a high priest, who offers up himself to live and\nwork for the salvation of all. \"Whosoever believeth in Him should not\nperish, but have everlasting life.\" God's promises are true and the\nreader has only to study the Epistle of Paul to the Hebrews, to be\nconvinced that the sacerdotal office of the priest sooner or later has\nto go out of existence as the spirit of Christ spreads upon the hearts\nof men and women and the knowledge of His salvation makes them \"Priests\nunto God and His Father\" and thus establish God's kingdom upon the solid\nfoundations of love. Then shall they all be made unto kings and priests,\nand they shall reign upon the earth. (Rev. 1-6, etc.)\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\n_Philosophy vs. Christianity_\n\n\nIn Plato's dialogue upon the duties of religious worship, a passage\noccurs the design of which appears to be to show that man could not, of\nhimself, learn either the nature of the Gods, or the proper manner of\nworshiping them, unless an instructor should come from Heaven. The\nfollowing remarkable passage occurs between Socrates and Alcibiades:\n\nSocrates--\"To me it appears best to be patient. It is necessary to wait\ntill you learn how you ought to act towards the Gods, and towards men.\"\n\nAlcibiades--\"When, O Socrates, shall that time be? And who shall\ninstruct me? For most willingly would I see this person, who he is.\"\n\nSocrates--\"He is one who cares for you; but, as Homer represents Minerva\nas taking away darkness from the eyes of Diomedes; that he might\ndistinguish a God from a man, so it is necessary that he should first\ntake away the darkness from your mind, and then bring near those things\nby which you shall know good and evil.\"\n\nAlcibiades--\"Let him take away the darkness, or any other thing, if he\nwill; for whoever this man is, I am prepared to refuse none of the\nthings which he commands, if I shall be made better.\"\n\nPhilosophy, led the Greeks to Christ, as the Law did the Jewish. The\nwisdom of the world in their efforts to give truth and happiness to the\nhuman soul, was foolishness with God, and the wisdom of God--Christ\ncrucified--was foolishness with the philosophers, in relation to the\nsame subject; yet it was divine Philosophy. An adopted means, and the\nonly adequate means, to accomplish the necessary end. Said an apostle in\nspeaking upon this subject, the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek\nafter wisdom; but we preach Christ Crucified, unto the Jews a\nstumbling-block and unto the Greeks foolishness. But unto them which are\ncalled, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the Power of God, and the wisdom of\nGod. The Jews, while they require a sign, did not perceive that\nmiracles, in themselves, were not adopted to produce affection. And the\nGreeks, while they sought after wisdom, did not perceive that all the\nwisdom of the Gentiles, would never work love in the heart. But the\napostle preached--Christ crucified--an exhibition of self-denial, of\nsuffering, and of self-sacrificing; love and mercy, endured in behalf of\nmen, which, when received by faith, became \"The power of God, and the\nwisdom of God,\" to produce love and obedience in the human soul. Paul\nunderstood the efficacy of the Cross. He looked to Calvary and beheld\nChrist crucified as the Sun of the Gospel system. Not, as the Moon,\nreflecting cold and borrowed rays; but as the Sun of righteousness,\nglowing with radiant mercy, and pouring warm beams of life and love into\nthe open bosom of the believer.\n\nIt is stranger that among philosophers of succeeding ages there has not\nbeen wisdom sufficient to discover, from the constitutional necessities\nof the human spirit, that demand for the instruction and aid of the\nMessiah which Socrates and Plato discovered, even in a comparatively\ndark age. And in the whole history of human mind there is not a more\ninstructive chapter at once stranger and sad, interesting to our\ncuriosity and mortifying to our pride, than the history of Platonic\nphilosophy sinking into gnosticism, or in other words, of Greek\nphilosophy merging in Oriental Mysticism; showing, on the one hand the\ndecline and fall of philosophy, and, on the other, the rise and progress\nof Syncretism. Perhaps, also, it is the most remarkable instance on\nrecord, that out of the religious, moral, and political, in one word,\nthe intellectual corruption which brings on the fall of great and mighty\nnations, as it doubtless was with Babylon and Thebes, and so we know it\nto have been with Athens and Rome, God's providence educes pure\nprinciples and higher hopes for the nations and people that rise out of\ntheir ashes, and who, if they will be taught wisdom and principle,\nrighteousness and peace, by the errors and sufferings of those who have\npreceded them, may rise to higher destinies in the history of men's\nconduct and God's providence.\n\nThe reader most sincerely is asked to devote the required time in any\npublic library and study this very interesting subject of \"Gnosticism\"\nfrom which the most detrimental system in the Christian era was\noriginated, \"The Monasticism.\" In this ecclesiastical order the writer\nhad been distinguished with the rank of \"Archimandrites.\"\n\n[Illustration: H. R. H. PRINCE ARTHUR, DUKE OF CONNAUGHT AND STRATHEARN,\nK. G., ETC.]\n\nTo what extent the celibacy of monks and nuns debased the fundamental\nprinciples of Christianity there are a number of publications whose\nauthors are eye-witnesses of the orgies practised in their own\nmonasteries, and the writer in his superior office in two of the leading\nmonasteries had had the opportunity to acquire all the necessary\nevidence to demolish every one of these hell-pits, to many a young man\nand young woman innocent, otherwise, before entering there, and drive\naway all these parasites that have no consideration to any civil or\nmoral law and live upon the sweat of the brow of the long-suffering\nChurch slaves.\n\nWithin the bounds of philosophy, at this stage of our progress it will\nbe useful to recapitulate the conclusions at which we have arrived, and\nthus make a point of rest from which to extend our observations further\ninto the plan of God for redeeming the world, for \"I am not sent but\nunto the lost sheep of the House of Israel.\" This view is the more\nappropriate as we have known in the history of God's providence with\nIsrael, which presents them as a people prepared (so far as imperfect\nmaterial could be prepared) to receive the model which God might desire\nto impress upon the nation. They were bound to each other by all the\nties of which human nature is susceptible, and thus rendered compact and\nunited, so that every thing national, whether in sentiment or practise\nwould be received and cherished with unanimous, and fervent, and lasting\nattachment; and, furthermore, by a long and rigorous bondage, they had\nbeen rendered, for the time being at least, humble and dependant. Thus\nthey were disciplined by a curse of providence, adopted to fit them to\nreceive instruction from their Benefactor with a teachable and grateful\nspirit.\n\nTheir minds were shaken off from idols; and Jehovah, by a revelation\nmade to them, setting forth his name and nature, had revealed himself as\nDivine Being, and by his works had manifested his Almighty power: so\nthat when their minds were disabused of wrong views of the Godhead, an\nidea of the first, true, and essential nature of God was revealed to\nthem, and they were thus prepared to receive a knowledge of the\nattributes of that Divine essence.\n\nThey had been brought to contemplate God as their protector and Saviour.\nAppeals the most affecting and thrilling had been addressed to their\naffections; and they were thus attached to God as their Almighty\ntemporal Saviour, by the ties of gratitude and love for the favor which\nhe had manifested to them.\n\nWhen they had arrived on the further shore of the Red Sea, thus prepared\nto obey God and worship him with the heart, they were without laws\neither civil or moral. As yet, they had never possessed any national or\nsocial organization. They were therefore prepared to receive, without\npredilection or prejudice, that system of moral instruction and civil\npolity which God might reveal, as best adapted to promote the moral\ninterests of the nation.\n\nFrom these conclusions we may extend our vision forward into the system\nof revelation. This series of preparations would certainly lead the mind\nto the expectation that what was still wanting, and what they had been\nthus miraculously prepared to receive, would be granted: which was a\nknowledge of the moral character of God, and a moral law prescribing\ntheir duty to God and to men. Without this, the plan that had been\nmaturing for generations, and had been carried forward thus far by\nwonderful exhibitions of Divine wisdom and power, would be left\nunfinished, just at the point where the finishing process was necessary.\n\nBut besides the strong probability which the previous preparation would\nproduce, that there would be a revelation of moral law, there are\ndistinct and conclusive reasons, evincing its necessities.\n\nThe whole experience of the world has confirmed the fact, beyond the\npossibility of scepticism, that men cannot discover and establish a\nperfect rule of human duty. Whatever may be said of the many excellent\nmaxims expressed by different individuals in different ages and nations,\nyet it is true that no system of duty to God and man, in any wise\nconsistent with enlightened reason, has ever been established by human\nwisdom, and sustained by human sanctions; and for many reasons, such a\nfact never can occur.\n\nBut, it may be supposed that each man has, within himself, sufficient\nlight from reason, and sufficient admonition from conscience, to guide\nhimself, as an individual, in the path of truth and happiness. A single\nfact will correct such a supposition. Conscience, the great arbiter of\nthe merit and demerit of human conduct, has little intuitive sense of\nright, and is not guided entirely by reason, but is governed in a great\nmeasure by what men believe. Indeed, faith is the legitimate regulator\nof the conscience. If a man has correct views of duty to God and men, he\nwill have a correct conscience; but if he can, by a wrong view of morals\nand of the character of God, be induced to believe that theft, or\nmurder, or any vice, is right, his conscience will be corrupted by his\nfaith. When men are brought to believe--as they frequently do in heathen\ncountries--that it is right to commit suicide, or infanticide, as a\nreligious duty, their conscience condemns them if they do not perform\nthe act. Thus that power in the soul which pronounces upon the moral\ncharacter of human conduct, is itself dependent upon and regulated by\nthe faith of the individual. It is apparent, therefore, that the\nreception and belief of a true rule of duty, accompanied with proper\nsanctions, will alone form in men a proper conscience. God has so\nconstituted the soul that it is necessary, in order to the regulation of\nits moral powers, that it should have a rule of duty, revealed under the\nsanction of its Maker's authority; otherwise its high moral powers would\nlie in dark and perpetual disorder.\n\nFurther, unless the human soul be an exception, God governs all things\nby laws adopted to their proper nature. The laws which govern the\nmaterial world are sketched in the books on natural science; such are\ngravitation, affinity, mathematical motion. Those laws by which the\nirrational animal creations are controlled are usually called instincts.\nTheir operation and design are sketched, to some extent, in treatises\nupon the instincts of animals. Such is the law which leads the beaver to\nbuild its dam, and all other animals to pursue some particular habits\ninstead of others. All beavers, from the first one created to the\npresent time, have been instinctively led to build a dam in the same\nmanner, and so their instinct will lead them to build till the end of\ntime. The law which drives them to the act is as necessitating as the\nlaw which causes the smoke to rise upwards. Nothing in the universe of\nGod, animate or inanimate, is left without the government of appropriate\nlaw, unless that thing being the noblest creature of God: the human\nspirit. To suppose, therefore, that the human soul is thus left unguided\nby a revealed rule of conduct, is to suppose that God cares for the less\nand not for the greater: to suppose that He would constitute the moral\npowers of the soul so that a law was necessary for their guidance, and\nthen revealed none: to suppose, especially in the case of the\nIsraelites, that he would prepare a people to receive, and obey with a\nproper spirit, this necessary rule of duty, and yet give no rule. But to\nsuppose these things would be absurd; it follows, therefore, that God\nwould reveal to the Israelites a law for the regulation of their\nconduct in morals and religion.\n\nBut physical law or necessitating instinct would not be adapted in its\nnature to the government of a rational and moral being. The obligation\nof either to the soul would destroy its free agency. God has made man\nintelligent, and thereby adapted his nature to a rule which he\nunderstands. Man has a will and a conscience; but he must understand the\nrule in order to will obedience, and he must believe the sanction by\nwhich the law is maintained before he can feel the obligation upon his\nconscience. A law, therefore, adapted to man's nature, must be addressed\nto the understanding, sanctioned by suitable authority, and enforced by\nadequate penalties.\n\nIn accordance with these legitimate deductions, God gave the Israelites\na rule of life--the moral law--succinctly comprehended in the Ten\nCommandments. And as affectionate obedience is the only proper obedience\nhe coupled the facts which were fitted to produce affection with the\ncommand to obey; saying, \"I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out\nof the land of Egypt, and from the house of bondage.\" Therefore, if ye\nlove the Lord ye shall surely keep His commandments.\n\nFurther, the only begotten Son of God, who, in order to fulfil the law\ngave himself a ransom for the salvation of all mankind, made the plan\nclearer to \"Whomsoever believeth on Him?\" saying; \"This is My\ncommandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.\"\n\nTherefore, John, whom history acknowledges as the Socrates of the\nChristian philosophy in his personal knowledge of Divine revelations,\nwas glad to testify to the fact that \"God is Love.\"\n\nAnd now with my whole soul lifted up to God I can sing:\n\n    My heart is fixed, eternal God: fixed on Thee,\n    And my unchanging choice is made, Christ for me!\n    He is my Prophet, Priest, and King, who did for me salvation bring\n    And while I've breath I mean to sing, Christ for me.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\n_God's Providence_\n\n\nIn facts from Christian and philosophical standpoints it has been\ndemonstrated that the infallible Supreme Ruler of all human spirits has\nmade His final provision for the safety of each and every individual\nsoul for its temporal and eternal welfare. Now I must prove to my\nreaders' perfect satisfaction that to discard all the dignities and\nprivileges of a high priest and become a lowly worker for Christ, it is\nnot a mere accident nor is it an act of necessity as far as temporal\nnecessities are concerned; but, it is a magnificent living monument of\nGod's Providential manifestations. In order to protect my reader in his\njudgment from any undue prejudice I have taken pains to present herewith\nall the obtainable facts in regard to God's Providence existing and\nexercising its office upon even to the most microscopical atom. Because,\nit is required by the law of justice, to comprehend this great attribute\nof God's Providence, in order to understand, how, all things work\ntogether for good to them that love God, to them who are the called\naccording to His purpose.\n\nThe Latin etymology of the word Providence is from (Providentia,\nPro-videre), and originally meant foresight. The corresponding Greek\nword (Pronoia) means forethought. By a well-known figure of speech,\ncalled metonymy, we use a word denoting the means by which we accomplish\nanything to denote the end accomplished; we exercise care over anything\nby means of foresight, and indicate that care by the word foresight. On\nthe same principle the word Providence is used to signify the care God\ntakes of the universe. As to its inherent nature, it is the power which\nGod exerts, without intermission, in and upon all the works of his\nhands. In the language of the school-men it is a continual creation\n(creation continua). But defined as to its visible manifestations, it is\nGod's preservation and government of all things. As a thing is known by\nits opposites, the meaning of Providence is elucidated by considering\nthat it is opposed to fortune and fortuitous accidents.\n\nProvidence, considered in reference to all things existing, is termed by\nKnapp universal; in reference to moral beings, special; and in reference\nto holy or converted beings, particular. Every thing is an object of\nProvidence in proportion to its capacity. The Disciples, being of more\nvalue than many sparrows, were assured of greater providential care. By\nProvidence being universal is intended, not merely that it embraces\nclasses of objects or greater matters, but that nothing is too minute or\ninsignificant for its inspection.\n\nProvidence is usually divided in three divine acts, Preservation,\nCo-operation and Government. 1. By preservation is signified the\ncausing of existence to continue. 2. Co-operation is the act of God\nwhich causes the powers of created things to remain in being. It is not\npretended that the existence of the powers of the things are ever\nseparated, but only that they are distinguishable in mental analysis.\nCo-operation varies with the nature of the objects towards which it is\nexercised. 3. Government, as a branch of Providence, is God's\ncontrolling all created things so as to promote the highest good of the\nwhole. To this end every species of being is acted upon in a way\nconfirmable to its nature; for instance, inanimate things by the laws of\nphysical influence; brutes according to the laws of instinct; and free\nagents according to the laws of free agency. Moreover, as Providence has\nrespect to the nature which God has been pleased to design to each\nvarious object, so, in common with every other divine act, it is\ncharacterized by divine perfections. It displays omnipresence,\nomniscience, omnipotence, holiness, justice, and benevolence. It has\nbeen sometimes contended that Providence does not extend to all things,\nor to unimportant events, and chiefly for four reasons. Such an\nall-embracing providence, it is said, would (1) be distracting to the\nmind of God; or (2) would be beneath His dignity; or (3) would interfere\nwith human freedom; or (4) would render God unjust in permitting evil to\nexist. In reply to these objections against a providence controlling all\nthings without exception, it may be observed that the third and fourth\nsuggest difficulties which press equally, in fact, upon all hypothesis,\nnot only as to providence, but as to creation, and which shall be more\nfully explained in the sequel.\n\nAs to the first objection, that the minutiae of the creation are so\nmultifarious as to confuse the mind of God, we are content to let it\nrefute itself in every mind which has any just sense of divine knowledge\nand wisdom. The second objection, that some things are beneath God's\nnotice, if it be not a captious cavil, must result from pushing too far\nthe analogy between earthly kings and the King of kings. It is an\nimperfection in human potentates that they need vicegerents; let us not\nthen attribute such a weakness to God, fancying him altogether such a\none as ourselves. Again, it is to this day doubtful whether the\nmicroscope does not display the divine perfections as illustriously as\nthe telescope; there is therefore no reason to deny a providence over\nanimalcula which we admit over the constellated heavens. What is it that\nwe dare call insignificant? The least of all things may be as a seed\ncast in to the seed-field of time, to grow there and bear fruit, which\nshall be multiplying when time shall be no more. We cannot always trace\nthe connections of things. We do not ponder those we can trace: or we\nshould tremble to call anything beneath the notice of God. It has been\neloquently said that where we see a trifle hovering unconnected in\nspace, higher spirit can discern its fibres stretching through the whole\nexpanse of the system of the world, and hanging on the remotest limits\nof the future and the past. In reference to the third and fourth\nobjections before mentioned, namely, that an all-embracing providence is\nincompatible with divine justice and human freedom, it should be\nconsidered that, in contemplating God's Providence, the question will\noften arise, why was mortal evil allowed to exist? But as these\nquestions meet us at every turn, and, under different forms, may be\ntermed the one and the only difficulty in theology, it is already\nconsidered in the previous chapter of this work, and may therefore\nrequire the less notice in the present article. We should in all\nhumility preface whatever we say on the permission of evil (such as,\nmysticism, in religious bodies) with a confession that it is an\ninscrutable mystery, which our faith receives, but which our reason\ncould not prove either to be or not to be demanded by the perfection of\nGod. But, in addition to the vindication of God's ways which may be\nfound in the over-ruling of evil for good, the following theories\ndeserve notice:--\n\n1. Occasionalism, or the doctrine that God is the immediate cause of all\nmen's actions. It is so called, because it maintains that men only\nfurnish God an occasion for what he does. It degrades all second causes\nto mere occasions, and turns men into passive instruments.\n\n2. Mechanism. Many, alarmed at the consequences which occasionalism\nwould seem to involve, have embraced an opposite scheme. They criticise\nthe definition of the laws of nature, and contend that occasionalism\nderives all its plausibility from adroitly availing itself of the\nambiguities of language. They would have us view the creation as a\nspecies of clock, or other machinery, which, being once made and wound\nup, will for a time perform its movements without the assistance or even\npresence of its maker. But reasons press too far the analogy between the\nCreator and an artisan. So excellent a man as Baxter was misled by this\nhypothesis, which evidently is as derogatory to God as occasionalism is\nfatal to the moral agency of man.\n\n3. The authors of the third scheme respecting the mode in which\nProvidence permits sin sought to be \"Eclectics\" or to find a path\nintermediate between Mechanism and Occasionalism. In their judgment, man\nis actuated by God, and yet is at the same time active himself. God\ngives man the power of action, and preserves these powers every moment,\nbut he is not the efficient cause of free actions themselves. This they\nsay, is involved in the very idea of a moral being, which would cease to\nbe moral if it were subjected to the control of necessity, and not\nsuffered to choose and to do what it saw to be the best according to the\nlaws of freedom. But it is asked, why did God create men free, and\ntherefore fallible? It were presumption to think of answering this\nquestion adequately. It belongs to the deep things of God. But, among\nthe possible reasons, we may mention, that if no fallible beings had\nbeen created, there could have been no virtue in the universe; for\nvirtue implies probation, and probation a liability to temptation and\nsin. Again, if some beings had not become sinful, the most glorious\nattributes of God would never have been so fully exerted and displayed.\nHow could His wisdom and mercy and grace have been adequately\nmanifested, except by suffering a portion of His creatures to become\nsuch as to demand the exercise of those attributes? How else could He\nhave wrought the miracle of educing good from evil? In this connection\nwe may allude to the third chapter of Romans, where as in other\npassages, it is declared, that the good which evil may be over-ruled to\nproduce, cannot palliate, much less excuse, the guilt of sinners, or of\nthose who say, \"Let us do evil that good may come.\"\n\nAmong the proofs of Divine Providence may be reckoned the following:--1.\nOne argument in proof of Providence is analogous to one mode of proving\na creation. If we cannot account for the existence of the world without\nsupposing its coming into existence, or beginning to be; no more can we\naccount for the world continuing to exist, without supposing it to be\npreserved; for it is as evidently absurd to suppose any creature\nprolonging as producing its own being. A second proof of Providence\nresults from the admitted fact of creation. Whoever has made any piece\nof mechanism, therefore takes pains to preserve it.\n\nParental affection moves those who have given birth to children to\nprovide for their sustenation and education. It is both reasonable and\nscriptural to contemplate God as sustaining the universe because He made\nit. Thus David, having promised that the world was made by God,\nimmediately descends to the course of his Providence. (Ps. xxiii. 6.)\nThe creation also evinces a Providence by proving God's right to rule,\non the admitted principle that every one may do what he will with his\nown.\n\nA third proof of Providence is found in the divine perfections. Since,\namong the divine perfections, are all power and all knowledge, the\nnon-existence of Providence, if there be none, must result from a want\nof will in God. But no want of will to exercise a Providence can exist,\nfor God wills whatever is for the good of the universe, and for His own\nglory; to either of which a Providence is clearly indispensable. God\ntherefore has resolved to exercise His power and knowledge so as to\nsubserve the best ends with His creation. \"He that denies Providence,\"\nsays Charnock, \"denies most of God's attributes; he denies at least the\nexercise of them; he denies his omniscience, which is the eye of\nProvidence; mercy and justice, which are the arms of it; power, which is\nits life and motion; wisdom, which is the rudder whereby Providence is\nsteered; and holiness, which is the compass and rule of each motion.\"\nThis argument for a Providence might be made much more impressive, did\nour limits allow us to expand it, so as to show, step by step how almost\nevery attribute, if not directly, yet by implication, demands that God\nput forth an unceasing sovereignty over all His works.\n\nA fourth proof of God's Providence appears in the order which prevails\nin the universe. We say the order which prevails, aware of the\noccasional apparent disorder that exists, which we have already noticed,\nand shall soon treat of again. That summer and winter, seed time and\nharvest, cold and heat, day and night, are fixed by law, was obvious\neven to man who never heard of God's covenant with Noah. Accordingly the\nancient Greeks designated the creation by a word which means order\n(cosmos). But our sense of order is keenest where we discern it in\napparent confusion. The motions of the heavenly bodies are eccentric and\nintervolved, yet are most regular when they seem most lawless. They were\ntherefore compared by the earliest astronomers to the discords which\nblend in a harmony, and to the wild starts which often heighten the\ngraces of a dance. Modern astronomy has revealed to us so much\nmiraculous symmetry in celestial phenomena, that it shows us far more\ndecisive proofs of a Ruler seated on the circles of the heavens, than\nwere vouchsafed to the ancients. Moreover, many discover proofs of a\nProvidence in such facts as the proportion between the two sexes, the\ndiversities of the continents, as well as human nature and the nature of\nall things continuing always the same; since such facts show that all\nthings are controlled by an unchanging power.\n\nAn objection to proofs of Providence, derived from the order of the\nuniverse, is thought to spring from the seeming disorders to which we\ncannot shut our eyes. Much is said of plagues and earthquakes, of\ndrought, flood, frost and famine, with a thousand more natural evils.\nBut it deserves consideration whether, if there were no Providence,\nthese anomalies would not be the rule instead of the exception; whether\nthey do not feelingly persuade us that that curse of nature is upheld by\na power above nature, and without which it would fall to nothing;\nwhether they may not be otherwise necessary for more important ends than\nfall within the scope of our knowledge.\n\n[Illustration: REV. M. GOLDEN\n\nThe High Priest in Church Ceremonial Attire]\n\nA fifth proof of Providence is furnished by the fact that so many men\nare here rewarded and punished according to a righteous law. The wicked\noften feel compunctious visitings in the midst of their sins, or smart\nunder the rod of civil justice, or are tortured with natural evils. With\nrighteous all things are in general reversed. The miser and envious are\npunished as soon as they begin to commit their respective sins; and some\nvirtues are their own present reward. But we would not dissemble that we\nare here met with important objections, although infinitely less, even\nthough they were unanswerable, than beset such as would reject the\ndoctrine of Providence.\n\nIt is said, and we grant, that the righteous are trodden under foot, and\nthe vilest men exalted; that the race is not to the swift, nor the\nbattle to the strong; that virtue starves, while vice is fed, and that\nschemes for doing good are frustrated, while evil plots succeed. But we\nmay reply:\n\n1. The prosperity of the wicked is often apparent, and well styled a\nshining misery. Who believes that Nero enthroned was happier than Paul\nin chains?\n\n2. We are often mistaken in calling such or such an afflicted man good,\nand such or such a prosperous man bad.\n\n3. The miseries of good men are generally occasioned by their own\nfaults, since they have been so fool-hardy as to run counter to the laws\nby which God acts, or have aimed at certain ends while neglecting the\nappropriate means.\n\n4. Many virtues are proved and augmented by trials, and not only proved,\nbut produced, so that they would have had no existence without them.\nMany a David's noblest qualities would never have been developed but for\nthe impious attempts of Saul. Job's integrity was not only tested but\nstrengthened by Satan being permitted to sift him as wheat. Passions,\nexperience and hope were brought as ministering angels to man, of whom\nthe world was not worthy, through trials of cruel mockings and\nscourgings.\n\n5. The unequal distribution of good and evil, so far as it exists,\ncarries our thoughts forward to the last judgment, and a retribution\naccording to the deeds done in the body, and can hardly fail of throwing\nround the idea of eternity a stronger air of reality than it might\notherwise have done. All perplexities vanish as we reflect that, \"He\ncometh to judge the earth.\"\n\n6. Even if we limit our views to this world, but extend them to all our\nacquaintances, we cannot doubt that the tendencies, though not always\nthe effects, of vice are to misery, and those of virtue to happiness.\nThese tendencies are especially clear if our view embraces a whole\nlife-time, and the clearer the longer the period we embrace. The\nPsalmist was at first envious at the foolish, when he saw the prosperity\nof the wicked; but as his views became more comprehensive, and he\nunderstood their end, his language was, \"How are they brought into\ndesolation as in a moment; they are utterly consumed with terrors.\" The\nprogressive tendency of vice and virtue to reap each its appropriate\nharvest is finally illustrated by Bishop Butler, best of all perhaps in\nhis picture of an imaginary kingdom of the good, which would peacefully\nsubvert all others, and fill the earth. Indeed, as soon as we leave what\nis immediately before our eyes, and glance at the annals of the world,\nwe behold so many manifestations of God, that we may adduce as a sixth\nproof of Providence the facts of history. The giving and transmission of\na revelation, as the Mosaic and the Christian--the raising up of\nProphets, Apostles and Defenders of the Faith--the ordination of\nparticular events, such as the Reformation--the more remarkable\ndeliverance noticed in the lives of those devoted to the good of the\nworld, etc., all indicate the wise and benevolent care of God over the\nhuman family. But the historical proof of a Providence is perhaps\nstrongest where the wrath of man has been made to praise God, or where\nefforts to dishonor God have been constrained to do him honor. Testimony\nin favor of piety has fallen from the impious, and has had a double\nvolume, as coming from the unwilling. They who have fought against the\ntruth have been used by God as instruments of spreading the knowledge of\nit, awakening an interest in it, or stimulating Christians to purify it\nfrom human additions, and to exhibit its power. The scientific\nresearches also with which infidels have wearied themselves to overthrow\na revelation have proved at last fatal to their daring scepticisms. Too\nmany histories, like Gibbons', have been written as if there were no God\nin the heavens, swaying the sceptre of the earth. But a better day is\napproaching; and it is exhilarating to observe that Alison, the first\nBritish historian of the age, writes in the spirit which breathes in the\nhistorical books of the Bible, where the free actions of man are\nrepresented as inseparably connected with the agency of God. If we may\njudge of the future by the past, as the scroll of time unrolls, we, or\nour posterity, and some think glorified spirits in a yet higher degree,\nshall see more and more plainly the hand of God operating, till every\nknee shall bow. Judgments, now a great deep, shall become as the light\nthat goeth forth. The tides of ambition and avarice will all be seen to\nroll in subserviency to the designs of God. To borrow the illustration\nof another, \"we shall behold the bow of God encircling the darkest\nstorms of wickedness, and forcing them to manifest His glory to the\nuniverse.\"\n\nAs a seventh ground for believing in Providence, it may be said that\nProvidence is the necessary basis of all religion. For what is\nreligion? One of the best definitions calls it the belief in a\nsuper-human power, which has great influence in the human affairs, and\nought therefore to be worshiped. But take away this influence in the\nhuman affairs, and you cut off all motive to worship. To the same\npurpose is the text in Hebrews: \"He that cometh to God must believe that\nHe is, and He is a rewarder of such as diligently seek Him.\" If then the\nreligious sentiments thrill us not in vain--if all attempts of all men\nto commune with God have not always and everywhere been idle--there must\nbe a Providence.\n\nIn the eighth place, we may advert for a moment to the proof of\nProvidence from the common consent of mankind, with the single exception\nof atheists. The Epicureans may be classed with atheists, as they are\ngenerally thought to have been atheists in discourse, and a God after\ntheir imaginations would be, to all intents and purposes, no God. The\nStoics were also atheists, believing only in a blind fate arising from a\nperpetual concatenation of causes contained in nature. The passages\nacknowledging a Providence in Cicero, Seneca, Plutarch, and all the\nancient moralists, are numerous and decisive, but too accessible or\nwell-known to need being quoted.\n\nIn the last place, the doctrine of Providence is abundantly proved by\nthe Scriptures. Some times it is declared that the Most High ruleth in\nthe kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will; as much as to\nsay that nothing can withstand His power. Again, lest we may think some\nthings beneath His notice, we read that He numbereth the hairs of our\nheads, careth for lilies, and disposeth all the lots which are cast. The\ncare of God for man is generally argued, a fortiori, from His care for\ninferior creatures. One Psalm (xci) is devoted to show the providential\nsecurity of the Godly: another (xciii) shows the frailty of man; and a\nthird (civ) the dependence of all orders in creation on God's Providence\nfor food and breath. In Him, it is elsewhere added, we live, and move,\nand have our being. He, in the person of Christ, sustaineth all things\nby the Word of His power, and from Him cometh down every good and\nperfect gift. But nowhere perhaps is a Providence so pointedly asserted\nand so sublimely set forth as in some of the last chapters of Job; and\nnowhere so variously, winningly, and admirably exhibited as in the\nhistory of Joseph.\n\nAnd nowhere could be found more brilliantly illuminating its substance\nthan in our own hearts and lives. The fool hath said in his heart, there\nis no God. To undervalue God's Providence it is the most dreadful insult\nthat a fool could dare conceive in his mind against God's existence. But\nthe wise hearken to His voice.\n\n    My son, if thou wilt receive my words,\n    And hide my commandments with thee;\n    So that thou incline thine ear to wisdom,\n    And apply thy heart to understanding;\n    Yea, if thou criest after knowledge,\n    And liftest up thy voice for understanding;\n    If thou seekest her as silver,\n    And searchest for her as for hid treasures;\n    Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord,\n    And find the knowledge of God.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\n_New York to California_\n\n\nWhen I was but a little boy, I can well recollect, a nice little pond in\nthe hollow of two hills beautifully situated, near the school house\nwhere the pupils would enjoy the intervals of their school time. How I\nwould wonder at the experiment of throwing a stone in the pond and\nwatching anxiously the circles of water growing larger and larger till\nreaching the banks of the pond and there they would break, as though in\ndespair for the limitations of their enlarging tendencies. It seems to\nme, now, a parallel despair threatens my heart, for being obliged to\ncompact this story of my conversion. Yet, in view of the fact that the\nAmerican reader is a greater admirer of quality rather than quantity, I\nmust content myself by giving a brief account on the practical side of\nmy personal experience as a Christian worker, among the rich and the\npoor, the high and the low classes and masses, in cities and towns,\nsunshine or clouds, rain or snow, by day or by night; I made myself\nservant unto all men, that I might by all means save some, and this I do\nfor the Gospel's sake. And, it is only proper, to confess, publicly,\nthat I am prepared to suffer all things, for the love which I feel in my\nheart to be of some service to my own people, an historical race of\npeople they are, drifting away from God, blindly allowing blind priests\nto lead them into the ditch. There is a cheering prospect about this\npeople, for whose salvation I have devoted my life, that when Christ\nenters into the heart of a Greek, there is very little hope left for the\ndevil to induce him to be a backslider. A truly converted Greek soul is\nworthy of all the joy that the angels in heaven rejoice over one sinner\nthat repenteth. How much more rejoicing shall be there, if we get\nconverted all the Greeks that are living in the United States and use\nthem as a kindling matter to start the fire of salvation in the hearts\nof the millions of people under the Greek and Russian church slavery,\nall round the Mediterranean countries?\n\nWith this and many other social and industrial problems laying upon my\nheart, I find the atmosphere, in New York, too close for any opening and\nvery little encouragement for a beginning. And the atmosphere grew more\nasphyxiating every day with the arguments of my friend George N. He\nnever had any sympathy with the subject so dear to my own heart, his\nhighest ambition being money-making, for which end he relinquished the\nPresbyterian pulpit, after being duly graduated from a Presbyterian\nSeminary for ministerial ordination. It was only natural that our\nthoughts and our ambitions should face each other suspiciously from the\ndiametrical opposite ends. And with all due respect to my old teacher\nand gratefully acknowledging his hospitality for entertaining me many a\nday, I find out that at the best I had to be in his mercy, as long as I\nwas not able to explain myself, to the American people, speaking in\ntheir own language. And, as difficulties have always had a peculiar\neffect upon my personal character; to face them, and fight them out with\none object in view to die or to win, I left New York right after\nChristmas of 1903, in the midst of an unusually severe winter, rather a\nwanderer; but determined to ramble among the American people and learn\nthe language by ear, which proved in my case, and I believe, it is in\nevery case, to be the best school for learning the correct pronunciation\nof any language you might desire to speak, and be not laughable when you\naddress the natives of that language.\n\nWhere should I direct my wandering steps, it was the all important\nquestion, under my consideration in the first place. Boston: I had been\nscouring the ground before, and from a thorough-going I was convinced\nthat to begin in a place where the most superstitious, if not fanatic,\nGreeks are situated, at all appearances it should be a wonderful failure\nwithout any dose of wisdom in it; while I was not able to take my stand\nbefore the people, whose sympathies I needed in judging my purposes and\nmy efforts. In the great wild West, way out there, where some of the\nbest easterners by leaving their homes and their comforts therein, and\nenduring all the hardships of pioneering life they succeeded at last to\nput a solid foundation of a new and permanent civilization\nastonishingly wonderful not only in the development of this great land\nof liberty but revolutionizing the whole commercial and social system of\nthe world.\n\nWho hath known the mind of the Lord? We have been taught, that His\npurpose is to glorify Himself through human agency, and we know that all\nthe great movements in history were originated in an insignificant way\nby insignificant persons at the beginning. Who could say, at the time,\nwhen the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river, and\nthere she drew out of the water an ark with a child in it, that that\nchild would be the chosen one of God to deliver his people from the\nEgyptian bondage? Or, when, a poor carpenter with his wife went up from\nGalilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea in a small village of\nBethlehem, and Mary brought forth her first-born son, and wrapped him in\nswaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room\nfor them in the inn; that that baby was the King of Kings, Christ the\nLord and Saviour of all mankind?\n\nThat, humble fishermen would be the heralds of glad tidings, to those\nwho accept Christ as their Saviour? That an altruist monk should leave\nhis monastery, thus violating his vows to Pope and the church, to be the\nmouthpiece of the Truths of Christ's Gospel, and become the father of a\nReformation that brought down the Romish pride, for all time and raised\nthe banner of personal liberty in Him who is the Only One to save every\nsoul that cometh unto Him without the necessity of a priest? That such\nmen as John Wesley, Moody, and a number of others, to accomplish great\nthings for the advancement of God's kingdom? And the greatest religious\nliving man, General William Booth, who, with his ingenious and prototype\nsystem, is doing more for God and humanity, than all religious bodies\nput together? Their beginning was insignificant.\n\nThese names, a few of the many, I thought to mention for the\nencouragement of those who always try to find some excuse, for not doing\nall they can, to realize that for which they every day pray, \"Thy\nKingdom come.\" As for me, I know, that there is nothing impossible with\nJesus, and it is only according to our faith, and the work which we put\nin it, that we reap the results of our efforts.\n\nWhen I left New York, I made a short stop-over at New Jersey, and one\nsnowy morning I went to the R. R. station and purchased my ticket for\nAthens, Ohio, because, in studying geography, I noticed that there are\nquite a number of towns in the United States by the name of Athens, and\nI was very desirous to visit the Athens, Ohio, and see if there was any\nAcropolis or monuments to compare with the Athens, Greece. The train\narrived at Athens, Ohio, R. R. station just on time, not to miss my\ndinner at a nearby restaurant, where I inquired if there were any Greek\npeople in the town. A very gentle young lady, waiting on the table gave\nme instructions to find a candy store kept by a Greek, where she took\nher ice cream. I found the place and the Greek who was a real good\nnatured middle-aged man and his family living on the floor above the\nstore. He received me kindly and after a short conversation he said he\nthought I could make a suitable help for him and he offered me the job\nwithout asking any questions as to my identification. I had no thought\nof staying at that place and declined the offer. By the same Greek I was\nglad to learn that Athens, Ohio, though there is no Acropolis and no\nSocrates there; yet, she is a nice little college town and the Greek was\ndoing a rushing business with the students. The next train was for St.\nLouis, Missouri, and I was very anxious to see the Mississippi river, so\nI went on that train. The great bridge on the Mississippi river and the\nUnion station at St. Louis are two buildings that could make honor to\nany city in the world. I left my luggage at the parcel-room and started\nout to find a hotel, where I could have the best accommodations for the\nsmallest amount of money. When I located myself the best that I could,\nthe next thing I thought to look around for a job, as I liked to stay in\nSt. Louis till the opening of the World's Fair in the year 1904. I\nbought a newspaper: I could then read some English, but speak very\nlittle yet. The advertisement which attracted my attention was a short\none \"Wanted young man willing to work, apply, at given number and\nstreet.\" It was Saturday yet I was anxious and willing to work, so, I\nwent to answer the ad. By asking in every corner some man in uniform,\nnot knowing at the time if they were policemen or conductors in the\nelectric cars, I find the street and presently I saw the number above\nthe door of a great big livery stable. I looked over the newspaper, and\nthe number was correct. I was not prepared for the surprise and for a\nmoment I hesitated to enter. The thoughts came to me by bunches: for the\nfirst time in my life I was looking for an honest work to make an honest\nliving, and the first place, God's Providence, brought me, was a stable;\nand what a big stable that was. I never knew anything about stables and\nhorses: what could I do there? Instantly my feet began to move backwards\nwhen a thought came as a lightning: what do you care if it is a stable,\nor a dowager's palace? It is work that you want, and it is much more\nhonorable to work in a stable and be right with God, than to live in the\nluxuries as a High Priest and be an hypocrite. Labor, it has always been\nan object of my admiration, though, labor is set forth as a part of the\nprimeval curse, \"in the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread\" and\ndoubtless there is a view of labor which exhibits in it reality as a\nheavy, sometimes a crueling burden. But labor is by no means exclusively\nan evil, nor is its prosecution a dishonor.\n\nThese impressions, false though they are, have wrought a vast and\ncomplicated amount of harm to men, especially to the industrious\nclasses, causing these classes, that is, the great majority of our\nfellow-creatures, to be regarded, and consequently to be treated even in\nChristian lands, as a parish caste, as hereditary \"hewers of wood and\ndrawers of water\" doomed by Providence, if not primarily by the Creator\nhimself, to a low and degrading yoke, and utterly incapable of\nentertaining lofty sentiments, or rising to a higher position; to be\nrestrained therefore in every manifestation of impatience lest they\nshould temporarily gain the upper hand, and lay waste the fair fields of\ncivilization; and to be kept under for the safety of society, if not for\ntheir own safety, by social burdens and the depressing influences of\ndisregard and contempt.\n\nA better feeling, however, regarding labor and laborers, is beginning to\nprevail: these motions, which breathe the very spirit of slavery whence\nthey are borrowed, are in a word dishonored, while they are gradually\nlosing their hold on the heart, and their influence on the life.\nIndividuals arising from time to time from the lowest levels of social\nlife to take, occupy, and adorn its loftiest posts, have irresistibly\nshown that there is no depression in society which the favors of God may\nnot reach. Especially has a wider and more humane spirit begun to\nprevail since man has learned more accurately to know, and more\npowerfully to feel, the genius and the spirit of the Gospel, whose\noriginator was a carpenter's son, and whose heralds were Galilean\nfishermen. Reason and experience too, in this as in all cases, have come\nto revealed truth, tending forcibly to show that labor, if under certain\ncircumstances it has a curse to inflict, has also many priceless\nblessings to bestow. Yet, when it fell to my lot, to submit myself in\nthat class and be a laborer and earn my bread by the sweat of my brow,\nit was a critical moment to decide upon. And just at this moment a man\nof small stature came out of the stable, and as I looked suspiciously,\nhe asked me if I wanted anything. I want this job said I, showing to him\nthe ad in the paper. With a few sharp glances at me standing now like a\nmarble; all right, he said; you just put on your working clothes and\ncome here on Monday morning at 5 a. m., and we will have something for\nyou to do. I left him and on my way back home I entered the first\nclothing store and purchased an outfit of working-man's clothes. The\nnext day was Sunday and I spent the day in my room, praying that God\nwould sustain me in my new career. At night I had very little sleep,\nmaking my plans for the future, or building my castles in the air, and\nearly Monday morning I was at the stable before 5 a. m. Soon the little\nman appeared and after the customary ceremony in taking my name and\naddress, he led the way into the inner part of the stable in front of a\nhuge heap of horse manure. There, he says, you just shovel that out of\nthe window, and handing to me a big fork, for the operation, he\ndisappeared.\n\nThere are certain happenings in our lives indelibly written in our\nmemory, which cannot be effaced by the stream of time, and one week's\nexperience in this stable was sufficient to engrave the deepest lines in\nmy heart of sympathy and mercy for sinful, suffering humanity. It has\nbeen said in the old Greek mythology that the greatest achievement of\nHercules was when he undertook to clean the stable of the king Augeus\nat Argos. But should Hercules lived in this stable for one week, I doubt\nthat his name would ever appear in the list of demigods.\n\n[Illustration: REV. M. GOLDEN\n\nCaptain of the Salvation Army]\n\nIt is beyond the limits of self respect to even attempt a brief account\nof all that took place in that stable, but sufficient to say that I went\nin there one individual and by Saturday I came out ten thousand strong.\nAnd I had to put up in St. Louis one more week in a bath house, with\nmuch work and expense to get back into my one individual, and hasten my\nwandering steps towards Chicago, with a stop-over at Springfield,\nIllinois, where I had references to meet a gentleman, professor of the\nGreek language in one of the colleges there. When I arrived at the house\nof the dear professor, he, began to speak to me from a book, in an\nexameter homerean tone, and I understood about as much as the faithful\nwho goes to church and the priest reads the mass in Latin. At\nSpringfield I lost my satchel and with it my Greek documents, which\nmight have been very interesting to the reader, yet, I hope in my next\npublication to have reproductions of those documents from the original,\nwhich I can easily obtain from Athens.\n\nChicago is my next stop. The Babylon of the West. Last week of January,\n1904, the weather 12 degrees below zero. All the idles of Chicago hired\nby the city hall could not keep control of the snow on the streets. I\nlocated myself in a furnished room on Wabash Avenue, and bought a paper\nto find a job, but my experience in the stable at St. Louis, took away\nfrom me all the courage to select any kind of work from the paper, yet I\nwas very anxious to settle for a while in Chicago, in that third\ncosmopolitan city of the world, London and New York being respectively\nfirst and second.\n\nChicago offers great opportunity to a student of religious, industrial\nand social conditions, and when, by chance, I secured employment in a\nleading warehouse, a very good paying position, under the circumstances,\nI devoted all my spare time visiting the Greek quarters, incognito, and\nstudying everything that came within my observation, and attending all\nkinds of public meetings of various denominations and societies, which\nproved a great help to me in learning the proper pronunciation of the\nEnglish words, in fact for five years I did not speak five times in the\nGreek language.\n\nOne morning I read in the paper the following announcement: \"The Knights\nTemplar of the United States have made their plans to celebrate the 29th\ntriennial conclave of Knights Templar to be held in San Francisco, Cal.,\nSeptember 4 to 9. The occasion will be of universal character,\nrepresentatives from all the world; and Great Britain will send to this\nimposing ceremony the highest officials that control the affairs of the\nchivalric order of Freemasonry in the British Isles. The Earl of Euston,\nmost eminent and supreme grand master of great priory of England and\nWales and the dependencies of the British crown, were coming with\ncredentials to represent Edward VII, the king of England.\" I was\nlooking forward to my visit to California, since I left New York, but I\nnever expected the time for me to go there would come so soon as it did.\nI was longing to see a great gathering of Freemasons, of this class of\nmen, that, in every country represents the highest ideals of good\ncitizenship.\n\nWith a few days preliminary preparations, I bade good-bye to my\nemployer, and well supplied with recommendations from some influential\nfriends and acquaintances which I had made in Chicago, I saw myself off\nto California, on the forenoon train, the 25th of June, 1904.\n\nThe trip was uneventful, excepting the unbearable heat and dust,\nespecially going through the States of Oklahoma, Arizona and New Mexico,\nand the number of Indians, which, for the first time in my life I beheld\nin their own skin living and moving contented as though they still were\nthe dominating race on the continent, with their square faces painted in\nvarious colors, wrapped in their blankets, and bare-footed, their feet\nbeing very much like those of a mud turtle, they were the real thing.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\n_Honorable Submission_\n\n\nThere was a time when the Eastern part of the United States looked upon\nSan Francisco as the coming New York of the Pacific Coast, but since the\ndisastrous earthquake in the year 1906, the stream of progress as a\ngreat commercial center has been turned rather towards the Northern\nPacific Coast, yet San Francisco with its great harbor, the ever\nincreasing commercial developments and number of other advantages, still\nis a magnificent attraction to the homeseeker, who for the last few\nyears has been very sceptical in his preference on account of existing\nunfavorable conditions regarding the city's government which is the prey\nof dishonest politicians. For this and many other reasons I should never\nmake my home within the limits of the city of San Francisco. There are\nbeautiful localities within short distances, desirable in every respect\nand beyond the claws of the city hall of San Francisco.\n\nMount Tamalpais, I believe, is a most pleasant location for the lovers\nof nature. Words fail, and it is beyond the ability of my pen, to even\nattempt to describe, the beauties which nature has bestowed upon the\nMount of Tamalpais. Situated just across the bay of San Francisco, by\nthe way of Socialito, on the train to Mill Valley and whence on the\ncrookedest railroad in the world, climbing 2000 feet above the tide of\nwater, we reach the lower top of the mountain, and there we find\naccommodations to entertain kings and princesses, and the most eccentric\nYankee. Yet, I am assured, that scarcely one-tenth of the visitors to\nCalifornia, have ever had the exceptional privilege to spend 24 hours,\non the top of Mount Tamalpais, and thereafter all through their lives\nenjoy the most wonderful recollection in all God's creation.\n\nThe Alps in Europe are too stupendous to be compared with this\nmajestically magnificent mount of Tamalpais. The Himalaya in Asia are\ntoo brutish to be considered as a rival of this gentle and illustrious\nsky-scraper. The Olympus and Parnassus of Greece are out of season to be\nparalleled with this up-to-date marvelous throne of their Majesties the\nKings of America. There is the Tamalpais Hotel, a real palace, where the\nguests can rest and from the verandas or the windows of their own rooms\nobserve the animating sights on the left hand side the snow-covered\ntop-heads of the mountains and following to the right look down upon the\nvalleys and behold the myriads of orange and lemon and all the\nfruit-bearing trees blooming all the year around and decorated like\nbrides in their wedding procession, not only for a few moments, till the\nlaw ties the knot, but forever as long as the life-giving climate of\nbeautiful California lasts and time shall be no more.\n\nWhen I went up to the Mountain, looking for employment, because I\nwanted to locate myself in such a place, if I could, till the\ncelebration of the Knights Templar was over, I was surprised to find\nthat the General Manager of the Hotel and the R. R. Station was a lady,\nof a striking majestical appearance, she was the controlling power of\nthe whole business on Mount Tamalpais, and she was not a suffragette\neither. But she was a loving mother of two beautiful children, a typical\nYankee girl, well up in her teens, supervising over the chambermaids,\nand variously assisting her mother, and an active boy of sixteen, the\ngood-fellow of everybody, and especially to the Chinamen employed in the\nkitchen. Mr. Johnson was the husband and father of this happy family,\nand he occupied the position of butler of the house, receiving orders\nfrom his beloved wife.\n\nI presented my credentials to Mrs. Johnson and she, being satisfied, was\nvery kind to give me the charge of two tables to wait upon in the dining\nroom. It seemed as though I made good as a waiter, judging by the coins\nwhich the customers, began to forget, beneath their plates, in leaving\nthe table, some call it tips, I called it real money.\n\nSeptember was well at hand, one day old, and Mrs. Johnson was very\nanxious to have the premises well decorated, and a big arch should be\nerected at the entrance, with the sign, \"WELCOME,\" to Knights Templar,\nas news came from San Francisco, that the Knights were already in\npossession of the Golden Gate. Mrs. Johnson was almost in despair,\nunable to find someone among that great army of employees, to have any\nartistic ideas of decorating or even to make a few flower designs and\nput up the arch out of some green foliage. We were all green, in that\nrespect. But as I always find myself at hand, wherever help is to be\nrendered, I offered my services, and by what I could remember from my\nfriend Jack, in New York, how he could decorate everything to a good\ntaste, I have been able to put up a nice decoration and the third of\nSeptember, 1904, the flags of all nations were waving and everything was\nready for the reception of the Knights Templar. Mrs. Johnson was pleased\nto the extent of presenting me with an extra three dollars and relieving\nme from the dining room, she appointed me in charge of the pavilion, an\nout-doors building, where the Knights Templar would privately entertain\ntheir families and lady friends. In this position I was enabled to see\nmore of the high American life than I ever dreamed of before. The\nEnglish Lord, and the Parisien Dame de Honor, were eclipsed as they\nwould look like pygmies by the side of the sunshining, bright-hearted\nAmerican gentlemen, and the sweet and graceful demigoddess American\nlady. But my enthusiasm reached its zenith when a gentleman from\nPittsburg, in company with his ladies, after an enjoyable dinner, at the\npavilion, he left under his plate a shining five dollar gold piece; at\nthe sight of the unexpected I made a sign to which the gentleman was\nobliged to respond, and that settled it, there was no mistake about it,\nthe man and I were brothers and the coin was intended as my tip. And\nafterwards the incident occurred repeatedly during the celebration of\nKnights Templar in San Francisco.\n\nNow, if everything in this world was just a procession like that of\nKnights Templar in San Francisco, and everybody was happy as the people\nI have seen on Mount Tamalpais, then there would be no sorrow, and there\nwould be no pain; in fact this world would be the paradise on earth.\nBut, alas! regretful as it may be, yet it is only the simple truth, that\nit is only the minority that are real happy, while the vast majority of\nmen and women and children in this world are just a mass of suffering\nhumanity, and if the investigations of religious societies,\nsociologists, and psychologists, are true, the cause of all misery in\nthis world is misconduct or misfortune, which in one word is, sin, that\nbrings misery. And there is where my purpose in life begins. I am out\nagainst sin. But to fight sin, it is absolutely necessary to be a\nsoldier of the man who gave his life for the salvation of all mankind.\n\nPresident Emeritus Eliot of Harvard University, a man of colossal\nthought-machine, man, who controls the unprejudiced intellectual minds\nof America, in his address on \"The Religion of the Future,\" is quoted as\nsaying: \"I venture to add that I am not at the hold of any proud\nworld--whatever; second, that such little part of the world as I am best\nacquainted with loves the Lowly Nazarene--and does not hate Him;\nthirdly, that I have met during my life most of the sorrows which are\naccounted heaviest; fourth, that Jesus will be in the religion of the\nfuture, not less, but more, than in the Christianity of the past.\" All\nefforts without Jesus, trying to better the world, shall fail. It is and\nwill be the opinion of all sane minds for many generations yet to come.\nThis was my opinion and the only imposing motive that brought me down on\nmy knees on the 14th of October, 1904, in a poorly furnished hall where\nthe Salvation Army had the Sunday night's meeting. I gave my heart to\nJesus, for life and for eternity, to be his and his alone. And I knew,\nthere and then, that I was honorably converted.\n\nTo make the surrender complete I offered my services to the Salvation\nArmy, that I should use all I had, my time and my talent, to uplift the\ndown-fallen humanity and help to make this world better. Major Harris\nConnett and Adjutant Allison Coe, were the officers in charge of the Los\nAngeles Salvation Army and they received me into their ranks and for ten\nmonths I was engaged in this wonderful organization, visiting the sick,\npraying in the saloons, in the slums and everywhere doing all that I\ncould to promote the cause of Jesus in bringing souls into his fold. But\nnothing gave me so great pleasure as the poor children of Los Angeles at\nChristmas time when I was dressed in the Santa Claus clothing\ndistributing presents to them. I never felt happier in all my life even\nin the best days as a High Priest.\n\nAfter passing successfully my preparatory studies in Los Angeles, word\ncame from the Headquarters that they wanted me in the college Training\nHome, in Chicago, to take the course of officership; and the 15th of\nAugust, 1905, finds me sweeping the back yard at the Training Home, West\nAdams St., Chicago, Illinois.\n\nWere it possible for every man and woman who pretends to be a minister\nof Jesus, to pass six months in any of the Training Colleges of the\nSalvation Army, then there should be fewer ministers, but far more\nuseful, in the betterment of the world, than many of them that are under\nthe present conditions.\n\nIt is the most psychological system, in these Training Colleges that\nbrings out all the virtues that every heart possesses and every bit of\niniquity that may be hidden in the personal character of the man or\nwoman who willingly denies himself or herself of all prospects and\npleasures in this world just for the only purpose to live and love and\nserve the suffering humanity. There are exceptions to the rule among the\nofficers of the Salvation Army, once in a great while some one will\nprove unworthy to the cause, but these exceptions are common in every\nhuman institution, and they are so few in the Salvation Army that fully\njustifies the public confidence upon this marvelously developing great\nmovement.\n\nI went through the theoretical and practical work for which I could make\na whole volume of the experiences in the slums of Chicago, where I had\nto reprove a policeman, whom I found in a saloon drinking in full\nuniform, while in the back room there was a girl not over fifteen years\nold, in the company of a most reckless middle-aged man, both\nexceedingly intoxicated and still drinking. I dismissed the man, and\nsent the girl to the rescue home, where she would be taken care of.\n\nThe 17th of January, 1906, I received my diploma as an active member of\nthe National First Aid Association of America, and my commission as a\nCaptain in the Salvation Army, and I was appointed in charge of No. 4 in\nChicago. I went to my quarters and there was not kindling wood enough to\nstart a fire, and no coal; and the weather 14 degrees below zero, half\nthe glass panes of the windows broken, and everything in the house\nfrozen, and the Corps indebted to the extent of 175 dollars, that I was\nexpected to pay. You have to put yourself in a position of this kind in\norder to appreciate the circumstances under which I was placed. Yet,\nwhen everything seems dark, and there is no visible way out of the\ndifficulty, it is then that with Jesus on our side, we shall always find\nsome way. The first consideration in a missionary work should be to get\nsouls converted to God. With much prayer and great faith upon the\nAlmighty, I began my work, and when the Spirit spread all round that\ncommunity and the sinners began to flock into the fold of Jesus, there\nwas a change in a very short time. The old debt was paid, and we had\ncomfortable quarters to lay our heads; and the roll-call of the Corps\nincreased, and God was glorified, and there is a Corps, till this day,\nin Chicago, which they call the big 4 of the Salvation Army.\n\nThe San Francisco disaster came and the Salvation Army called me into\nits relieving department to help the sufferers. After which they\nappointed me assistant to the Illinois Division, where for two years I\nmade a deeper and more thorough study of the various departments in\noperation.\n\nIn April, 1908, I visited England with the desire to study closer and\nmore extensively the methods, and see for myself the great works which\nthe Salvation Army has accomplished in the British Isles.\n\nOn my return to the United States I was appointed divisional solicitor\nfor the Northern New England, where, splendid success was the result of\nmy efforts, and there was a great field to work in and every opportunity\nto do good.\n\nBut in searching my heart's ambition I find that it was high time for me\nto turn all my energies toward the people for whose Salvation I was\nordained a High Priest in the Church, and although the Church failed in\nits mission, yet, to uplift my people is still the aim of my life.\n\nAfter much thought and due consideration of my obligations to the\nSalvation Army, I came to the conclusion that in view of the fact that\nfollowing an unsuccessful correspondence with the Salvation Army, the\nNational Headquarters refused to grant me a leave of absence, and\ninsisted that I should go back West, while I knew that the field where I\nwas called to fight the battle of my life was right here in New England,\nthe best thing for me to do remained to send in my resignation, and I\ndid so, thus thrusting myself entirely upon the hands of God.\n\nAnd though as yet I have received no reply from the National\nHeadquarters, my resignation is final, and now I am free, and my work\nunmolested of all denominational differences, dogmas and doctrines,\nwhich in the light of the Ecclesiastical history has always been the\nfatal cause of failure, in the Churches, to accomplish their mission in\nthe Salvation of the world.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\n_Practical Effects of Practical Truth_\n\n\nThe necessity of faith, as a primary element in all acceptable religious\nexercises, has already been noticed. A feeling of entire dependence upon\nGod for spiritual mercy is the only right feeling, because it is the\nonly true feeling. It is necessary, according to the foregoing view of\nthe subject, in order to offer acceptable prayer, that man should\npossess a spirit of faith and dependence upon Christ. The principle upon\nwhich Christ acted in relation to this subject, as well as His\ninstruction concerning the duty of prayer, fully confirm the preceding\nthoughts. He seldom performed an act of mercy, by miracle or otherwise,\nunless those who received the mercy could see the hand of God in the\nblessing:--\"If thou canst believe, thou mayest be cleansed,\" was His\nhabitual sentiment. As if He had said--Your desire for the blessing is\nmanifest by your urgent request; now, if you can have faith to see God\nin the blessing, so that He will be honored and praised for conferring\nit, I will grant it; but if you have no faith, you can receive no favor.\n\nThis little book could easily occupy thrice as large a size as its\npresent volume, had I taken into account all the blessings which God\nhas bestowed upon my faithful prayers and upon His children, using me as\nan instrument of His hand. But I must content myself by referring to\nonly two cases, which had had exceptional significance and gratifying\njoy not only to my own heart, but to every Christian worker.\n\nWith the individuals spoken of I am well acquainted, having frequently\nconversed with them all on the subjects of which I shall speak. Their\nwords in these cases may not have been exactly remembered, but the sense\nis truly given.\n\nThe first case, is a story, told all by itself, and the second case, is\na letter of a dear girl, whose mother was a down to the bone Roman\nCatholic. The daughter accidentally came to our meeting and gave her\nheart to Jesus. The mother thinking that the worldly pleasures might\ndrive her newly converted daughter away from Jesus, and being very\nanxious to get her daughter back into the Catholic parish, she gave a\nparty to all the young people from the same parish. And there was plenty\nof song and dance, but the daughter did not show up. The mother with a\nnumber of the guests went into the daughter's room where the girl in\nseclusion was reading her Bible; the young people almost carrying her\ninto the reception hall, sat her upon the stool in front of the piano,\nearnestly asking her to play for them while they were dancing. But, the\ngirl, lifting up to God her angelic heart and voice, she began to play\nand sing, softly \"Nearer My God To Thee,\" the tears streaming down her\ncheeks; they were tears of joy for the saved girl, but the young people\ncould not stand it and they ran away, while the converted girl bended on\nher knees in prayer for them, and her own mother's salvation.\n\nCase 1.--For love of the Christ:--John Davis was the only child of a\nChicago banker. The wealth and social prominence of his father had\nsurrounded him with every comfort and luxury, and his growth from\nboyhood to incipient manhood had been tenderly watched over by his fond\nparents.\n\nAll the hopes of his parents were centered in their only child. Mr.\nDavis looked forward to the time when John would become his partner, and\nthat his son might be fitted in every way, engaged the best tutors\nprocurable to attend to his education. John had graduated with honors\nafter four years of college work, which was marked by the thorough and\nearnest application on his part. His father watched his progress with\ngrowing pride and with fullest confidence in his son's ability, arranged\nto take him into partnership at the proper time.\n\nSeemingly the future for John was one of brilliant promise. But John did\nnot show an eager anticipation for the future as planned for him. A life\ndevoted to business was to him a selfish one. Something within him was\ninsistently calling him to a higher vocation; although apparently\nacquiescing to his father's plans, the prospect daily became more and\nmore distasteful to him.\n\nFrom his mother, a woman of singular devoutness and piety, John had\nreceived a careful religious training, and he could not reconcile the\nidea of a life devoted to self with the truths he had reverently\naccepted as his faith. Daily he met with examples of shamefully degraded\nmanhood, of pitiful want, and of unhelped suffering. His soul went out\nin pity towards these unfortunate ones, and at such times the voice\nwithin imperiously summoned him to follow in the footsteps of Him whom\nhe worshiped as Lord and Saviour.\n\nOn the other hand Reason urged filial obedience to the wishes of his\nfather. That his mother would understand and encourage him should he\nheed the call of his soul, John did not for an instant doubt. Not less\nclearly, however, did he recognize the attitude his father would take to\nsuch a course; for his father, while refraining from scoffing at beliefs\ncherished by his wife and friends, made no secret of his own disbelief\nin them.\n\nThe life which would appear to his mother and himself as noblest of all\nwould seem quixotic and senseless to his father. Besides, his father had\nset his heart on John's becoming his partner in business. John dreaded\nto disappoint him, yet stronger and stronger grew the call of that inner\nvoice which now all but dominated him.\n\nOne evening as he sat with his parents he surprised them by saying: \"Now\nthat I have finished my college course it is time for me to choose my\nvocation, to strive to be of benefit to my fellow men.\"\n\n\"All arrangements have been made, John,\" responded Mr. Davis, \"you may\nbegin at once if you so desire. Your mother and I thought, however, that\nyou were entitled to a vacation after your college work. However we can\nuse you at the bank the moment you are ready,\" laughed Mr. Davis.\n\n\"That is just what I desire to talk over with you, father,\" returned\nJohn. \"For weeks I have felt that the future you have designed for me is\ntoo narrow--too selfish. With my Master's Call sounding in my ears, the\nthought of devoting my life to any business, however high its position\nin the eyes of the world, is intolerably repugnant.\n\n\"I know how firmly your heart has been set upon my joining you in\nbusiness, and I cannot tell you how hard it is for me to disappoint you\nat this late hour, but Christ has called me to preach to His people. I\nfeel and know that only in so doing shall I find true happiness and\ncontentment.\n\n\"You surely, father, will not oppose my doing that which every fibre of\nmy body tells me is my duty.\"\n\nThe eyes of Mrs. Davis filled with glad tears, and a prayer for Divine\nguidance for her son went up from her heart; but annoyance and\ndispleasure plainly showed on Mr. Davis' face. At length he said:\n\n\"I had thought it definitely settled that you were to assist me, and on\nthe strength of that belief I have made several important changes in my\nbusiness with the view of affording a proper position for you. Your\ndecision declining to accept it will inconvenience me not a little.\n\n\"With all due consideration for your religious beliefs, I feel it my\nduty as your father, John, to express my disappointment of the\nprofession you at present seem inclined to adopt. However you are\nentering man's estate, and it is for you to decide as to your career. I\nshall, however, insist upon one thing: that you take a good vacation\nbefore making your final decision.\n\n\"If, upon your return you are of the same mind, I shall not oppose you,\nalthough to speak frankly, John, I am not a little disappointed.\n\n\"Anyway a good western trip will greatly benefit you, and I shall not be\nat all surprised if on your return your conception of your duty has\nundergone important modifications.\" As if signifying that he desired to\ndiscuss the subject no farther, Mr. Davis rose and left the room.\n\nKeenly feeling his father's disappointment and displeasure, John\ninstinctively turned to his mother for sympathy. Mrs. Davis stepped to\nhis side and with a fond caress said:\n\n\"Thank God you have made this choice; I shall do all in my power to help\nyou.\"\n\n\"Thank you, mother dear. I believe you understand me, and know how\nsincere is my desire to do what I can for my fellow men.\n\n\"I do so long to lead some of them to Christ; for many are wandering in\ndarkness, just waiting for some one to reach them a helping hand.\n\n\"In deference to father's wishes I shall take a vacation; though it can\nby no possibility alter my determination. On my return I shall begin\nactive work without delay.\n\n\"I have education enough to preach the simple truths of God's love. I\nwish to preach to sinners, not to saints. I shall ask no salary and have\nno denomination. My Church will be Christ.\"\n\nAfter tenderly embracing his mother, during which the souls of mother\nand son united in a prayer to the Most High, John bade her \"Good night\"\nand retired.\n\nThe following week found John on his way to South Dakota, his plan being\nto make his first stop of any length at Aberdeen.\n\nHe arrived there at night and the following morning mounted his bicycle\nfor a trip through the surrounding country.\n\nIt was a new world to him. His first thought was: how splendid the roads\nwere for wheeling, they seemed even better than the paved streets of the\ncity.\n\nHe cast his eyes over his surroundings. On all sides was the vast\nexpanse of prairie, ending only in the horizon--the fields of grass and\ngrain, moving in the wind like the waves of the sea; overhead the blue\nsky, stretching out in a dome unbroken by hill or forest. The sun above\nhim seemed to shine with a brighter splendor than he had before known.\n\nThe beauties of nature filled the soul of this city-bred youth with\nwonder and admiration.\n\nHe rode on and on.\n\nAt one moment the joyous song of a lark captivated him; at another, the\ncapering of some colts, or a sleek herd of cattle quietly grazing in a\nnearby pasture attracted his attention; or a colony of prairie gophers\nwhich dived excitedly into their burrows at his approach, amused him\nwith their antics.\n\nAt last he began to wonder how far he had gone.\n\nSeeing nearby a large, well kept farm-house, he rode up to it, to\nprocure such rest and refreshment as it might afford him, before\nundertaking his long ride back to town.\n\nHis knock at the door was answered by a beautiful girl, apparently about\nfifteen years of age. John explained his errand to her, and requested\nsuch courtesies as could be granted without putting the people of the\nhouse to undue inconvenience.\n\nThe girl expressed her regrets that her parents were away in town, but\nsaying that she expected them home very soon, she invited him in, and\nushered him into a cool, spacious sitting-room.\n\nMutual introductions followed and John learned that the name of his fair\nyoung hostess was Lily Long, \"but,\" said she, with a slight blush,\n\"father calls me the Queen of the Prairie.\"\n\nThey visited together for some little time, until Lily, exclaiming that\nher father and mother were coming, went out to greet them.\n\nLeft to himself, John glanced around him.\n\nAn old-fashioned piano stood in one corner of the room. He noted also an\nample, well filled book-case at one end of the room.\n\n\"Music, books, and Prairie Queen. If this is a typical example of\ncountry life, I must say that I rather like it.\"\n\nMr. and Mrs. Long greeted him heartily and gave him a cordial invitation\nto stay to dinner--an invitation which he gratefully accepted.\n\nAnd what a dinner it was; vegetables fresh gathered from the garden in\nabundance; fried chicken prepared as only a farmer's wife can prepare\nit; and the countless other good things which go to make dinner on the\nfarm. To this dinner John brought an appetite sharpened by his brisk\nmorning ride; he did full justice to the tempting viands, nor could he\nremember so thoroughly enjoying a dinner before.\n\nEverything on the farm was so clean and well arranged that John began to\nwish he could board there instead of in town during the remainder of his\nvisit; so when they had adjourned to the sitting-room, he informed Mr.\nLong of his wish, and asked if it were possible.\n\n\"But before you answer me,\" he added, \"I should like to make myself\nbetter known to you.\"\n\nThen he told them of his father and mother, of his own youth, and of his\ncollege life. A natural question on the part of Mr. Long as to what\nbrought him so far West led to an explanation from John, who presently\nfound himself telling his new-found friends his future plans and\nambitions.\n\n\"My boy,\" said Mr. Long, reaching out his hand, \"I honor you for your\nchoice. You are welcome to share our home as long as you care to stay.\"\n\nMrs. Long wiped her eyes as she pressed John to stay with them, for she\nthought of her own son whom God had called home.\n\nLily must have been thinking of him too, for she said: \"I am glad you\nare going to stay, for then I can play you are my brother.\"\n\n\"I certainly shall be proud to be your brother,\" John answered\ngallantly.\n\nThat evening when the family gathered for prayers, Lily took her seat at\nthe old piano. Then John realized why they called her \"Queen,\" for never\nhad he heard such a magnificent voice, so sweet, so soft, and so full of\nfeeling. It seemed as though she carried them nearer Heaven with her\nsong.\n\nBefore John retired he wrote to his mother, telling her of the home he\nhad found, and of \"The Queen of the Prairie.\" This rather amused Mrs.\nDavis, for hitherto, John had had little to say in praise of young\nladies, although he was a favorite among them.\n\nThe summer passed merrily on, and John's vacation was drawing near its\nclose, when one morning he received a telegram telling him that his\nmother was dangerously sick. The message filled him with anxious\nforeboding, and he quickly prepared to return home at once.\n\nTears were on Mrs. Long's cheeks as she helped him pack, for she had not\nrealized before to what an extent John had taken her own boy's place in\nher heart. His own eyes were moist as he bade her farewell, promising to\nreturn as soon as possible.\n\nMr. Long was ready with a team to drive him to town, and Lily was\nstanding beside her father. She raised a tear-stained face to him, and\nsaid: \"Goodbye, dear brother, we shall miss you.\"\n\nJohn was not ashamed of his own tears, for this little girl who called\nhim \"Brother,\" had grown dearer to him than all the world. He stooped\nand reverently kissed her snow white brow, then sprang in the buggy and\nwas gone.\n\nWhen John reached home, his father met him at the door. Mr. Davis' face\nwas ghastly pale; he had grown old with grief.\n\nJohn's eyes asked the question his lips could not frame.\n\n\"She still lives, but the doctor says she cannot last long,\" said his\nfather in answer to his son's mute appeal.\n\n\"She is paralyzed. She will probably recognize you, but she can neither\nspeak nor move.\"\n\nWithout speaking John went to his mother's bedside, and saw that this\nwas indeed true. His mother lay as one dead. A faint spark of\nrecognition showed in her fast dimming eyes as he approached but other\nsigns of life there were none.\n\nOvercome with grief, John stood motionless at the bedside.\n\nThen in agony he turned to Him who faileth not, he fell on his knees and\nprayed reverently for his mother's recovery.\n\nHis father tried to lead him away, but John continued to pray.\n\nThen suddenly in that hour of anguish the grief-stricken man found his\nGod. Kneeling at his son's side, he implored mercy from Him whom\nhitherto he had denied.\n\nAll at once Mrs. Davis spoke, \"My son.\"\n\nThe doctor hastened to her side.\n\nIn a moment he turned to Mr. Davis and said, \"She is better, she will\nlive.\"\n\nDr. Gordon was an unbeliever, but at that moment he realized that\nsomething had control of life, which could act after science had failed.\n\nHe looked at John who had not yet risen from his knees, at Mr. Davis who\nwas pouring out thanks to the God he had just found, then at the woman\nwho had been saved at the point of death.\n\nLike a flash came to him the knowledge of a merciful Christ, and he\njoined the father and son in their prayer of thanksgiving.\n\nMrs. Davis rapidly recovered her health, and John soon entered upon his\nlife work. He received hearty encouragement from his father this time,\nfor Mr. Davis had learned the Truth and found his God at the bedside of\nhis dying wife in such a way as to leave no place in his heart for\nopposition to work in His service.\n\nJohn's work was among the poor. He visited from house to house,\npreaching and praying, and extending material help when such help was\nmost needed.\n\nHis sincerity and earnestness were the means of bringing light into many\ndarkened lives, and the message of Christ crucified was eagerly received\nin response to his pleadings.\n\nAt one broken-down house he was met by a frail woman who carried a\nhalf-starved child in her arms. It was plainly apparent that in better\ndays she had been a handsome and refined woman.\n\nJohn introduced himself and asked if he could be of any help to her.\n\n\"No,\" she answered, \"I am afraid you cannot aid me. I am Rose Williams.\nMy father is a man of wealth. He is living today in luxury in a\nneighboring city, and if I would leave my husband I could be clothed in\nsilk and satin instead of these rags, but as long as I stay with him, my\nfather will not help me, not even to keep me from starving. But I would\nrather starve with my husband than leave him to kill himself with drink,\nfor I love him.\n\n\"Drink is the cause of all my poverty and misery. Oh, if Ralph would\nonly let it alone.\"\n\nShe ended her story in a frenzied cry which plainly showed the tension\nto which she had been wrought, but John's voice was low and soothing as\nhe said, \"Suppose you and I pray for your husband. I have great faith in\nthe power of prayer. Shall we not pray together?\"\n\nTogether they knelt down, and offered up an earnest prayer. Mrs.\nWilliams spoke in low tones at first, then with great excitement. At\nlast she tried to rise, but fell in a swoon on the floor. John placed\nher on a couch in the room and sent at once for Dr. Gordon.\n\nAfter his examination, Dr. Gordon looked serious.\n\n\"This is going to be a bad case of brain fever, John. From all\nappearances it has been hastened by lack of proper food, but she may\npull through if she has proper care.\"\n\n[Illustration: REV. M. GOLDEN\n\nThe Founder of the Greek-Amerikan-Christian-Association]\n\nJohn saw that the service of the physician was only part of what was\nneeded for the woman's safety.\n\nHe went out and procured bedding and food, and his mother sent over one\nof her maids, also a trained nurse.\n\nSoon things were made comfortable for Mrs. Williams, but she could not\nrest.\n\nIn her delirium she called continually for Ralph to come home and bring\nher something to eat.\n\nAnd where was Ralph? For three days he had been laying in a drunken\nstupor in the cellar of a saloon, but this evening he had sobered\nsomewhat, and remorse for his cruel neglect of his wife and children was\nfinding a place in his heart. He recalled the starving condition in\nwhich he had left them.\n\nPerhaps for the first time he began to realize how dearly his wife must\nlove him to give up the pleasure and luxury of her girlhood home for\nhim, and there in that room not fit for cattle, this man cried out in\nhis anguish, \"Oh, God, protect my wife and forgive me.\"\n\nHe started at once for home but as he neared the house his heart was\nfilled with fear, his head began to whirl. Where was Rose? Why was\neverything so still?\n\nHe opened the door and was met by a little girl dressed in white and\nwith golden curls.\n\nHow beautiful she was; she ran to him and cried, \"Papa has come, Papa\nhas come!\"\n\nThen he knew she was his own little daughter.\n\nShe led him to the bed on which lay his wife, but the only words which\ngreeted him were, \"Ralph come home and bring us something to eat.\"\n\nHe called her name but she heard him not.\n\nAgain he spoke: \"Dear Rose, forgive me, forgive me.\"\n\nDr. Gordon laid his hand on the shoulder of the stricken man and said:\n\"Ask your God to forgive you, your wife knows not what you say.\"\n\nHe looked at the doctor a moment, then said in a low voice, \"I did that\nbefore I started home. God has forgiven me and saved me. But tell me\nwhat I can do for my poor wife.\"\n\nIt was indeed true, Ralph Williams was a changed man. The God who had\nheard the prayers of the father and son at the dying woman's bedside,\nand restored her to them, vouchsafed his mercy to the starving wife who\nprayed for her drink-sodden husband, and in answer to it the dulled\nconscience of the husband was aroused.\n\nSlowly Mrs. Williams improved, until one morning she said: \"Is this\nHeaven, and are Ralph and my children here?\"\n\n\"Yes, Rose,\" her husband replied, \"Ralph and the children are here, and\nhenceforth I will do all I can to make this home Heaven on earth.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe years rolling by saw John still fighting the fight for his Maker.\nOut of the gratitude Ralph Williams had felt for the Divine mercy shown\nhim, had sprung a determination to do all in his power towards\nuplifting others. John eagerly accepted his services, and thus the\nnucleus of a rapidly growing power for good was formed.\n\nAs more and more came to know the meaning of \"Christ Crucified,\" they\nentered heart and soul into the work of spreading the truth to others\nand soon a mightly cohort of Christian workers spread over the city.\nIndividually and with them John labored night and day sustained by his\nfaith and enthusiasm.\n\nThe work of directing the efforts of so many, the nightly vigil at the\nbedside of sick and dying, the continual breathing of the vitiated air\nof the lower quarters of the city, gradually sapped the strength of\nJohn, who did not know the meaning of fatigue when a call on the service\nof his Christ sounded.\n\nAt last an attack of nervous prostration made him realize his position,\nand yielding to the importunities of his parents and fellow-workers, he\nconsented to take a vacation.\n\nWhere should he go but to the broad, sunny prairies of Dakota, to his\ndearly remembered friends, the Longs and Lily.\n\nShe met him with outstretched arms and a glad smile of welcome. With the\nglory of dawning womanhood about her she was more than ever the \"Queen\nof the Prairie,\" but by the soft light in her eyes John saw that she was\nstill his Lily.\n\nDuring the long pleasant vacation which followed, John gained strength\nand vigor once more, and its close found him ably equipped to take up\nChrist's work once more.\n\nMr. and Mrs. Long were doubly sorrowful at their second parting from\nhim, for his heart had found its mate and Lily was accompanying him.\n\nHe had gained a lovely bride, and more than that, an enthusiastic\nhelpmate.\n\nTogether they took up the work where John had left it. Ere long the\nerstwhile \"Queen of the Prairie\" was known as \"Angel of the Poor,\" for\nher womanly sympathy could often find its way into darkness which even\nJohn's earnestness failed to penetrate.\n\nOne Friday night they both came to take part in our holiness meeting,\nand the Spirit revealed to them that should they submit all their powers\nunreservedly to the will of God, He could use them to still higher and\nmore effective purposes of the cause of Jesus. So, John and Lily, side\nby side, came out at the altar and offered their lives and their\nservices to Jesus for time and for eternity, they, becoming active\nmembers in my corps, and a great blessing to the suffering humanity in\nthat community.\n\nCase 2.--The following letter was received from the girl already\nmentioned, as the daughter of a Roman Catholic woman, who tried to drive\nher converted daughter, by the worldly pleasures, away from Jesus:\n\n                                 \"Chicago, Ill., Oct. 5, 1906.\n\n    Captain Golden,\n      Salvation Army.\n\n    Dear Friend:\n\n    I feel that I must let you know what the Lord has done for me,\n    'through you.'\n\n    Why I ever went to the Salvation Army meeting is more than I\n    know, because I have always been told that the Salvation Army\n    was nothing more than street beggars and a great deal more.\n\n    So I never went to their meetings until I went to No. 4, and I\n    do sincerely thank God that I went, because now I can see how\n    far from the Lord I was wandering and so unintentionally\n    because I never meant to be a sinner, but I just wanted to have\n    a good time. But now, I can see where some of those good times\n    lead us.\n\n    Captain, I often think how brave you must have been to go on\n    with the work at No. 4, with so little help, 'that is, earthly\n    help.' I am sorry that I could not help you, but you see I was\n    not brave like you. I could not talk about Jesus to those who\n    scoffed, but I do want Jesus to help me and strengthen me to do\n    His will. Captain, do you know there is a song that always come\n    to me when I am in any difficulty, 'Lead Me Saviour.'\n\n    Yours sincerely,\n\n        FLOY MAYHEN,\n        2207, 63d St., Chicago.\"\n\nIt is simply wonderful, that there is no one to lead us like the\nSaviour, dear Jesus. Who died on Calvary's Cross for our redemption. And\nnow, dear reader, just a word to you. This volume is written for you; if\nyou are a converted Christian enjoying the blessings of a clean heart,\nindeed, blessed you are, for \"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they\nshall see God.\" But, if for some reason, if there can be a reason for\nnot being saved, you kept back until this hour, I pray that you may go\ndown upon your knees, at this very moment, just as you are, and open\nyour heart to God, and let Jesus come in: and I know and you will know\nthat the remaining days of your life will be sweet and happy; and when\nthe roll is called up yonder you'll be there, in a robe of white with\nthe angels in the air to meet the Lamb of God, Who will say unto all\nthat loved Him and worked for Him, \"Well done, thou good and faithful\nservant: enter thou into the joy of Thy Lord.\"\n\n[Illustration: GREEK PEASANT WOMAN]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\n_Greek-Amerikan-Christian-Association_\n\n\nIt is said, by Him who never told a lie, that every tree is known by its\nown fruit, and the confirmation of the statement is conclusive to the\nstudent of natural and human history.\n\nIt was an idea of King Maximilian of Bavaria, to transmit to history a\nreminder of his reign. He instructed the architects of Germany to design\na new style to be named after him. Such a style of Maximilianesque was\ncreated. An architect--it was Semper, if I am not mistaken--when asked\nto take a part in this creation of the so-called Maximilian style,\nanswered that such a thing could not be made to order, that a style of\nbuilding is the consequence of the history, the culture, life, and\ndoings of a great period of people. If such be the case with a style of\narchitecture, how much more must it be the case in regard to religion?\n\nThe history of this style of Maximilian's is, that it has no history,\nand consequently all efforts of pursuing eminent architects to adopt the\nMaximilian style failed. This short history is that of the attempts to\ncreate a very much needed world religion. It is not the dogma nor the\ndoctrines or the profession that will make it possible for all right\nthinking minds to unite efforts in building a universal religion,\nsufficient to satisfy the intellectual want of every people and of every\ntime. Attempts, all-powerful, such as Papism and Mohammedanism, failed\nin their egotistic purposes to enforce upon the world an exotic\nstructure. Neither the fires of Torquemadas, nor the sword of Islam\ncould deter the bravery of civilization. The blood that was spilled by\nthe millions of martyrs of the lowly Nazarene served to make the history\nof the man who died upon the Cross, more effective and heartfelt\nworld-need for the only aristurgimatical shrine in which all human\nfamilies may live in peace and prosperity.\n\nAt a time when the world was imperilled by the treatment accorded to\nGalileo for believing in the motion of the earth; and though 69 years of\nage he was cast, by the tools of Vatican, into a dungeon, where he lost\nhis sight and ultimately his life; and Copernicus was facing the same\nfate, for accomplishing a noble astronomical discovery; and Martin\nLuther was persecuted by the Roman Catholic church, for trying to bring\nthe people nearer to God. The Greeks, a brave people, who, in the face\nof starvation, for lack of food, and horrified by the sword of the\nconqueror, dishonored in their holiest sacreds, pure maidens slain after\nbeing used in the most beastly way, mothers put to death after their\nchildren were torn off into shreds of flesh under the sword of the\nbarbarous Turk, young people and old aged having no rescuing place to\nescape from horror and death; when all crowned heads of Europe should\nbow on their knees and kiss the slipper of the holy father before they\ncould attain their rights to the throne of their own kingdoms; when all\nthe known world was trembling equally in the name of Mohammed and Pope,\nthese people (the Greeks) stood up, and with all the strength that was\nleft in their lungs, they cried out, \"we prefer political slavery rather\nthan to be the slaves of the Pope,\" and for more than three centuries\nthe Greeks suffered such a martyrdom which if only printed it would be\nmore than a human heart could bear.\n\nThe history of Greece shall remain until the end of time, and as the\npeoples of the world grow intelligently and intellectually more\nenlightened they will come to the appreciation of the fact that the\nGreek people has contributed more material in paving the way to the\nspiritual freedom and the individual liberty of the world than any other\nnation on the face of the earth, and that the Greek spirit is still\nliving and ruling in principle in the very heart of the civilized world.\n\nIt is essential that every nation in making up the list of its\nbenefactors should give the first place to the most distinguished one.\nIn accordance to the general law the Greek nation of today not only owes\nits literary language, in part at least, to the exertions of the great\npatriot Korais, but to him is accredited the prophecy, that, \"the Greek\nnation shall never be great again, unless regenerated in Christ.\"\n\nAdamantios Korais was born April 27, 1747, in Smyrna. From early youth\nhe devoted himself to the study of old and new languages. In obedience\nto his father's wishes, he followed a mercantile career during the year\n1772-78, without, however, neglecting the sciences. From 1782-88 he\nstudied medicine in Montpellier and established himself as a practising\nphysician in Paris. From there he worked incessantly for the education\nof his compatriots, and endeavored to awaken a favorable opinion of his\nnation in the Occidental countries. In 1800 he received the prize of the\nAcademy for an edition of the writings of Hippocrates, but before this\ntime he had attracted the attention of the world of learning by his\nability, and Napoleon the Great conferred upon him many honors and\ntitles and appointed him the medical adviser of the Court. Later on he\ngained fame by his Greek translation of Beccaria's work on crimes and\ntheir punishments. This was followed by a work entitled \"De l'etat\nactuel de la civilization en Greece\" (Paris, 1803). This was the first\npublication in Europe which gave true information on the intellectual\nand moral conditions of the new Greeks. During the period from 1805-27\nhe published a collection--twenty volumes--of old Greek classics, with\ncritical explanations and prolegomena. In the latter he gave his\npatriotic teachings and advices. His greatest merit consisted in his\npromoting the Greek morals and the Greek language; he eliminated as much\nas possible all foreign elements, but retained all that was good and\nuseful from all centuries, rejecting the one-sided retention of the old\nwords and forms as not compatible with the understanding of the people.\nHe above all, helped to establish a noble literary language. On account\nof his old age he could take no part in the rising of his fatherland in\n1821, but aided it greatly by his patriotic pen. When Greece had gained\nher independence he took an active interest in the new formation of his\ncountry. In 1830-31 he attacked the government of Kapodistria in two\npublications. He died in 1833. His autobiography appeared in Paris in\nthe same year. The name of Adamantios Korais will never die from the\nmemory of every patriot Greek, and yet his sincere opinion that \"the\nGreek nation shall never be great again, unless regenerated in Christ,\"\nhad little effect upon the hearts of the people, or rather upon the\nhearts of the leaders of the people.\n\nGreat nations have failed, and in every case it was the government's\ncorruption and neglect of duty that caused the sufferings and failures,\nof which the political history is too abounding and too accessible to be\nquoted. We only mention the Greek nation, perhaps the greatest and most\nillustrious of all nations that ever failed in their political career,\nbecause we are well informed and personally acquainted with the details\nthat brought this formerly world-wide respected and valued gem of\ncivilization into insignificance in the eye of the scornful, and a\nplaything in the hands of the so-called great powers of Europe.\n\nIn the year of 1902, while I was a High Priest, Archimandrites, grand\nrepresentative of the Saint Mary's Monastery, Salamis; Orator and Grand\nChaplain of the Supreme Council of Greece; and confessor in the most\nexclusive societies of Athens, hearing confessions and granting\nabsolutions; the following incident, which is published for the first\ntime, and only in parts that are printable, brought me to a final\ndecision, that I should leave my home, my loved ones, and all the\nflourishing prospects to be a Bishop, with all the comforts and luxuries\nattached to a Bishopric, just because I had witnessed a few scenes of\nthe manifold political plots that caused the downfall of my own nation,\nand my own people scattered to the four corners of the world, wandering,\nstruggling for their existence, while Greece, the land of the Gods, and\nthe home of art and beauty, was left in the hands of a few parasites,\nstrangers and unsympathetic feudals who have shown no mercy in straining\nevery material and spiritual bit from the people that still honors them\nas their kings and sovereigns.\n\nAt the time spoken of, there was an open secret to every well informed\nGreek that the Queen of Greece, Olga, had been the tool of the Russian\nbureaucracy, trying by means of religious influences to keep the Greeks\nunder the Russian political control; that the Queen Olga paid the\nexpenses for the education of a monk, who, on his return from Russia,\nwhere he was graduated from the theological academies of Kiev and\nMoskow, became the Queen's personal confessor, and afterwards by the\nQueen's very earnest and almost scandalous activities that monk was\nraised to the Metropolitan Throne of Athens, which position placed him\nat the head of the Greek Church, and made him the President of the Holy\nSynod of Greece.\n\nThe Metropolitan Throne of Athens is the highest and most exalted\nposition that a mortal Greek could approach, and it is, in fact, the\nnext to the King's Throne, most influential occupation, and more\npowerful, even than the Royal Throne, because, the Metropolite of Athens\nis the spiritual leader of all Greeks.\n\nThere was plenty of rejoicing in the Queen's camarilla, at the\ninstallation of Procopios (that was the name of the monk) as the\nMetropolite of Athens, and every effort, Queen Olga leading the fight,\nhad gone forth to assure a complete victory for the Russian bureaucracy,\nover the few remaining unspoiled patriotic Greeks.\n\nAll the characteristics of a civil war were enacted in the streets of\nAthens when Queen Olga attempted to enforce upon the Greek people a new\ninferior language in their Bibles, and in their holy mass--a language,\nwhich the Greek people considered as a means to confound their\nhistorical and religious customs and habits and subdue them into a\nRussian spiritual dependency. Against the attempt there was the very\nbest element of the Greek scholars. Adamantios Korais fought the fight,\n100 years before this attempt was made, and he distinctly and clearly\nmade it understood that the Attic Greek language has been, it is and\nmust be the safeguard of all that is beautiful in the Greek history.\n\nFaithful to their traditions the Greeks of the present generation fought\nand won a triumphant victory. The innocent blood of the people that was\nslain on the streets of Athens by orders from the Royal Palace, have\nwrote with indelible letters, the anathema, which, frenzied mothers in\nthe sight of their assassinated sons, and overwhelmed in grief, cried\nagainst Queen Olga, and her crown all but torn to pieces by the wronged\nmultitudes.\n\nWithin 24 hours from that terrible bloody day, that will remain an\nindelible stigma in the history of Queen Olga's life, the most exalted\nMetropolite Procopios was a fallen ragmuffin and the most hated person\nin all Greece. And when every one of his colleagues deserted him and the\nKing and Queen shut their door in his face, leaving him a pitiful victim\nof the political plots to save the royal skin, and while there was no\nvisible friend to give him a helping hand when fallen from the\nMetropolitan Throne, and while this monk-metropolite Procopios, in all\nhis glorious days had been a profound enemy against every honest effort,\nespecially against young priests who refused to serve his unlawful\nappetites, and my own experience with this monk-metropolite Procopios is\nnot of the kind to be printed, yet, it was I who put my own life in a\nprobable danger to save him from the mob, that was ready to attack him,\nand probably kill him, the day after I made his escape possible into\nthe Saint Mary's Monastery, Salamis, where at the time I was\nArchimandrites.\n\nProcopios, in the opinion of his own friends, was the last man in the\nGreek priesthood, qualified to occupy the Metropolitan Throne of Athens,\nand totally lost his will power when he became Metropolite by Royal\nfavor. There was an organized clique around the Metropolitan mansion,\nbut the controlling power should be located within the walls of the\nRoyal Palace. Procopios was only an instrument transmitting orders. And\nif I was allowed to publish all that Procopios himself told me, in\nSalamis, it would make the Greek people sit up and take notice, but in\nmy vows as confessor I have to carry the confession of the fallen\nMetropolite Procopios with me to my grave, unless the need arises to\nserve the best interests of my beloved country. It was his last\nconfession upon the earth. He died and went there, where, at the great\nJudgment Day, he, surely will give account for all his deeds done in the\nbody.\n\nFor the first time in the ecclesiastical history of the Greek Kingdom, a\nMetropolite abdicated from his throne, rejected by his closest friends,\nhelpless under the anathema of the people, above whom he was called to\nbe the spiritual leader, his life imperilled by the injured public\nsentiment, Procopios, left a real wreck cast by the shore, as a warning\nsign of those dangers to which every public man is exposed, when\ncorrupted by higher favours and neglects his duties to the people who\nentrusted him with responsibilities of national importance.\n\nThis incident, which I hope will never occur again, and many other minor\nopportunities, in which I had a part to play, during that fateful Queen\nOlga's attempt to adulterate the beautiful and pure Attic Greek\nlanguage, gave me the exceptional privilege to study all the works of\nthe political machinery in Greece. I have seen the drama enacted behind\nthe scenes. It is a dreadful drama that could break the neck of the\nstrongest long-suffering. The awful drama that is enacted in Greece at\nthe expenses of the people is a long, very long story; perhaps it has\nits beginning with the reign of King George and Queen Olga, I will not\nsay, but the people of Greece, the poorest people of Europe, are\ncontented and well pleased that they have a King who is a great\ndiplomat, and he is one of the richest Kings in Europe, and their Queen,\nOlga, they believe (the ignorant do) that she is a saintly woman (as all\nthe Russian saints are), and this ignorant Greek people, they simply\nfeel glad to leave their homes and their children and go into war, like\nsheep into the butcher's shop, sacrifice their lives, thus destroying\ntheir homes and the hopes of their loved ones, every time King George\ncalls them to arms to fight against the Turks. And King George has\nalways a great patriotic cause to fight the Turks. And the Greeks could\nnot appreciate more highly a privilege than to fight and die for the\ndeliverance of their brethren in Crete and for the salvation of the\nunfortunate Christians in Macedonia.\n\nYet, for half a century, in fact, since King George came to Greece,\nthere are hundreds of thousands of the best Greek patriots that have\nbeen killed, slain, or assassinated, and nearly a billion drachmas\nnational debt, hanging upon the neck of every Greek, like the Damoclean\nsword, but there is no deliverance for the Cretans, and there is no\nsalvation for the Macedonians, instead there are the traps strategically\nplaced across the Greek borders, so, every time the Greek patriots, in\nanswer to the call of their King, are sent to render a helping hand to\nthe sufferers, they cross the border, only to find, but too late, that\nthey have been trapped, under the sword of the enemy, the Turk; or they\nare left at the mercy of their assassins, the Bulgars. This drama is\ngoing on repeatedly with great success, and to the amusement of the\nobserving great powers of Europe.\n\nOccasionally there is some crippling of the territory already belonging\nto the possessions of Greece, because the places are of some strategical\nimportance, and this reason is enough, that they should be taken away\nfrom the Greeks. And there is a financial commission appointed by the\ngreat powers, because King George is a great diplomat and he wants to be\nsure that his allowance is coming to him increasingly, every year, from\nthe coffers of the Greek treasury, while the international commission\nshould count every penny that the Greek expends in bread for his\nchildren.\n\nIn the evolution of events, I believe, that there is a time coming, when\nthe Greek people shall rise, from the lethargy, in which they\nunnaturally are slumbering, for a long time, and they shall awake and\nbreak every fetter, and shake off their feet every chain, and their eyes\nshall be opened and they shall see things that will horrify them as a\nnation; then shall they know the persons responsible for their\nsufferings and for the sufferings of the Cretans and Macedonians and why\nCarditses was beheaded in a dungeon, without giving him the privilege of\nfree citizenship, to prove his reason or his sanity, without any chance\nto protect his life; and where and by whom that plot was framed up, just\nto turn the tide of public anger against a royal gang, thus causing the\ndestruction of two beautiful Greek girls, that left alone in the world\nto suffer from consumption, in agony, to die with the stigma as sisters\nof a would-be royal assassin. It was my privilege to take care of these\ntwo unfortunate sisters, both suffering, and the story of these two\ngirls and the uprising of the Greek people against the adulteration of\ntheir language by Queen Olga, settled my determination to fight for the\nrights of my own people and my beloved country. But, the time for the\nGreek people to stand up and walk on their own feet, shall come when the\nprophecy of the great patriot Adamantios Korais, is no more prophecy,\nbut in reality the Greek people will be regenerated in Christ, and there\nand then shall be a great Greek nation, not only within the boundaries\nof the feudatory of King George, but within the bounds of love that\nunites all the millions of people that speak the historical Attic Greek\nlanguage, and a great Greek nation shall attract the attention of all\nthe civilized world, once more as in the days of old.\n\nI know the dangers in which I am exposed for the step I have taken,\nbecause, I know the character and the principles of the Greek people,\nperhaps, as well as any living Greek, the demagogues, the priests, the\nchurch, and the drones and parasites of the royal gang, they each and every\none and all together are going to use all their power and money that is\nat their disposal, and with no regards as to the honesty of means they\nshall move earth and hell to quench this movement for the regeneration of\nthe Greek people, but having all my trust upon the Almighty and Omnipotent\nGod, in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, Who died that all men may be\nhappy, and in the right Spirit of love to God and to my fellow men, I dare\nlaunch the Greek-Amerikan-Christian-Association.\n\nEvery Greek of reputable character, and all the lovers of the Greek\nancient and modern history, are eligible to membership. It is my purpose\nto endeavor by all the Christian means to bring the Greek and American\npeople into a mutual, intellectual and intelligent understanding. It has\nbeen my experience in studying conditions for the last six years, that\nthe Greeks in the United States know very little or nothing of the\nAmerican history, government, political, social, customs and habits of\nthe American people, which, also, unfortunate as it may appear, yet it\nis the truth, that only a very limited number of Americans whom I have\nfound all over the United States, are well informed of the doings in\nGreece, and still fewer well acquainted and unprejudiced as to the\nhistorical and classical importance of the Greek nation.\n\nIt is estimated that there are about 300,000 Greek people in the United\nStates, representing the 12,000,000 of Greek-speaking people that is the\nGreek nation extended all around the Mediterranean countries.\n\nWhen it is considered that the vast majority of the Greeks in the United\nStates, has never had any opportunity to attend a Christian meeting, or\nhear the Gospel preached in their own language, it is to their credit\nthat, with all the temptations and the ambiguous associations which the\nlaboring class is often in contact with they have not been worse than\nthey are; it is an indication that the primitive and strong character of\nthe Greek seldom yields to temptation; they hold fast to their\nhistorical energy and honesty.\n\nThere has never been an attempt of any importance, neither has there\never been any organized effort, for the regeneration of the Greek\npeople, and while the Home and Foreign Missions of America for the last\n25 years have given the best of their spiritual leaders for the\nconversion of the Zulu and the Mogul and millions of American dollars\nhave been expended, with insignificant returns, in trying vainly to make\nreal Christians out of a barbarous and semi-human race of people, and\ntrying to civilize the jungles of Africa, the most urgent duty has been\nneglected, and some spasmodical efforts that have been put forth by the\nzeal of earnest individuals, were soon exhausted, and failed, not only\nfor lack of financial support, but, the worst, by spiritual\ndiscouragements, and today a noble and the most historical race of\npeoples, the Greeks, are drifting in despair, away from God, politically\nperishing, blind, and ignorant priests, and political demagogues leading\nthem fast into the ditch.\n\nThe harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; who will help\nus to garner in? HELP! is the cry, the most earnest cry, that was ever\nuttered from the lips and from the heart of a sincere Christian worker.\n\nIn organizing the Greek-Amerikan-Christian-Association, all the latest\nand most effective, spiritual and industrial methods will be employed.\n\nIt is hoped that the organization will be incorporated under the laws of\nthe United States, as soon as there are members sufficient in number to\nassemble in their first meeting and vote the Constitution and the\nBy-Laws of the Association.\n\nMuch consideration will be given to the methods of the Y. M. C. A., and\nY. W. C. A. This two-fold Institution, which in the opinion of Christian\nleaders, and the most distinguished sociologists, of the present time,\nis the very best agency to approach all nations, and spread\ncivilization, well established upon the fundamental principles of\nChristianity.\n\nFor the last few months in my struggle trying to establish the\nGreek-Amerikan-Christian-Association and at the same time keep my soul\nand body together providing a lean livelihood by selling this book, I\ncan truthfully say that I had more experiences than in all my life\nbefore. One clergyman of the high Episcopal church in the most\nfashionable Back Bay, Boston, offered to grant me the use of his church\nany time I wanted to offer the mass as high priest according to the\nritual of the Greek Orthodox Church, if I would only \"break off all\nrelations with Protestant bodies here in America.\" I have a letter from\nthis clergyman which is the most astounding fact of his inconsistency,\nbecause he himself is an active member of the Bible Club, a purely\nProtestant organization: he invited me to one of their meetings, but he\nwould not purchase my book to help me to my bread and butter. Another\nclergyman, a member of the executive committee of City Missions, Boston,\nwould not purchase my book, unless I offered myself to be employed by\nthem at a certain salary, and he gave me his card introducing me to the\nchairman of that organization.\n\nLast winter I began to preach to the Greeks at Kneeland street, Boston,\nin the open air, and when I went to see the police captain of that\ndistrict he promised to co-operate with me and gave me his consent to go\non with my work, but the following Sunday his Lieutenant came up to me,\nwhile I was preaching on the street, he stopped me, on the pretense,\nthat he was informed of a plot among the Greeks to take my life. And\nwhen I made my complaints to the General Secretary of New England\nMissions, he told me that I should have known that Boston is a Catholic\ntown, and that the police being informed that I was an ex-priest, they\nsimply would not tolerate me. Horror stricken by this statement I went\nto see the captain myself, and the very same man who promised\nco-operation, only a few days hence, he stood up in front of my face and\nin a savage manner told me that he would not tolerate me to preach on\nthe streets of Boston.\n\nThe names of all concerned are in my possession and open to\ninvestigation by the general public. But I will omit them here for\nreasons well understood.\n\nA number of other discouraging instances, only worked together to deeper\nimpress upon my heart the importance and the excellency of my high\ncalling. Sooner or later, in the inevitable law of evolution and\nuniversal progress, the Greek nation must be regenerated in spirit and\nin truth: and I believe that it is not only a case of courtesy, but,\nthere is a sense of duty for every true American man and woman to\nco-operate in the uplifting of all mankind. As for me I fully appreciate\nthe privilege to suffer for the benefit of my fellow men, and I can\nhopefully repeat Tennyson's immortal words:\n\n    Once in a golden hour\n      I cast to earth a seed,\n    Up then came a flower,\n      The people said, a weed.\n\n    To and fro they went\n      Thro' my garden bower,\n    And muttering discontent\n      Cursed me and my flower.\n\n    Then it grew so tall,\n      It wore a crown of light,\n    But thieves from o'er the wall\n      Stole the seed by night.\n\n    Sow'd it far and wide,\n      By every town and tower,\n    Till all the people cried,\n      \"Splendid is the flower:\"\n\n    Read my little fable,\n      He that runs may read:\n    Most can raise the flower now,\n      For all have got the seed.\n\n\n\n\n_Conclusion_\n\n\nAllow me, dear reader, to say in closing, that it is my sincere opinion\nthat in view of the reasonings and facts presented in the preceding\npages, every individual who reads this Book intelligently, and who is in\npossession of a sound and unprejudiced reason, will come to the\nconclusion that there is only one religion worth having, and that is the\nreligion by Jesus, of Jesus, for Jesus, which is the revelation of the\nBible, Divinely adapted to produce the greatest present and eternal\nspiritual good to the human family. And if anyone should doubt His power\n(which, in view of its adaptations and its effects as herein developed,\nwould involve the absurdity of doubting whether an intelligent design\nhad an intelligent designer), still, be the origin of the Gospel of\nJesus where it may, in heaven, earth, or hell, the demonstration is\nconclusive that it is the only religion possible for man, in order to\nperfect his nature, and restore his lapsed powers to harmony and\nholiness, which is the only avenue to usefulness and happiness.","title":"Conversion of a High Priest into a Christian Worker","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":35600}