{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_53014/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_53014","id":"gutenberg_53014","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/53014","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Biographies","Category: Psychiatry/Psychology","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Conversion -- Christianity","Conversion -- Psychology","Evangelistic work","Institutional missions","Psychology, Religious"],"text":"[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\n Twice-Born Men in America\n OR\n The Psychology of Conversion as Seen by a Christian Psychologist in\n Rescue Mission Work\n\n BY\n\n HARRIET EARHART MONROE\n\n ALSO AUTHOR OF \u201cCONVERSATION AS A SCIENCE AND AN ART,\u201d \u201cHEROINE OF THE\n MINING CAMP,\u201d \u201cHISTORICAL LUTHERANISM,\u201d \u201cTHE LIFE OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS,\u201d\n AND \u201cWASHINGTON\u2014ITS SIGHTS AND INSIGHTS\u201d\n\n\n PHILADELPHIA, PA.:\n\n THE LUTHERAN PUBLICATION SOCIETY\n\n\n\n\n COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY\n HARRIET EARHART MONROE\n\n\n\n\n PREFACE\n\n\nI taught psychology for fifteen years at the Atchison Institute, the\npredecessor of Midland College, located at Atchison, Kan. I was there\ngreatly impressed by the fact that the books gave no adequate analysis\nof the psychology of the greatest mental and moral change which can come\nto the human mind, namely, conversion and regeneration; yet these\nchanges make the great difference which we see between men and nations.\n\nA Rescue Mission gives a great opportunity to study mental and moral\nchanges, and my observations and conclusions, made from years of study,\nare herein embodied.\n\nThis book is sent forth with the earnest hope and prayer that it will\nlead many souls to Christ; also that it will show earnest laymen just\nhow to bring about that psychological change which we call conversion. A\nSunday school teacher who brings only ninety per cent of her students\nthrough the process of conversion and regeneration is ninety per cent a\nsuccess and ten per cent failure. The same is true of a pastor with a\nclass of catechumens.\n\n\u201cYe must be born again,\u201d is just as true to-day as it ever was, and if\nwe believed it as Paul believed it, what live wires we would be.\n\nThis book is to remind us that Jesus saves to the uttermost in our day,\njust as He did when He visibly walked this earth.\n\n HARRIET E. MONROE,\n 204 A Street, S. E., Washington, D. C.\n\n JULY 29, 1914.\n\n\n\n\n CONTENTS\n\n\n CHAPTER I\n\n PAGE\n\n HOW I HAPPENED TO BECOME INTERESTED IN RESCUE MISSION WORK 7\n\n\n CHAPTER II\n\n RESCUE MISSION WORK 22\n\n\n CHAPTER III\n\n INCIDENTS SHOWING THE POWER OF GOD TO SAVE 29\n\n\n CHAPTER IV\n\n AN ELEMENT OF HUMOR IN RESCUE WORK 36\n\n\n CHAPTER V\n\n BIG FEET 44\n\n\n CHAPTER VI\n\n HOW WE GOT A NEW MISSION BUILDING 49\n\n\n CHAPTER VII\n\n VARIETIES OF WORK IN A GOSPEL MISSION 59\n\n\n CHAPTER VIII\n\n THE NEED OF RESCUE WORK 69\n\n\n CHAPTER IX\n\n THE PENNY LUNCH AND FREE DISPENSARY 82\n\n\n CHAPTER X\n\n THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL 94\n\n\n CHAPTER XI\n\n HEREDITARY SIN 107\n\n\n\n\n Twice-Born Men in America\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER I\n HOW I HAPPENED TO BECOME INTERESTED IN RESCUE MISSION WORK\n\n\nIn January, 1908, a great calamity came to me in the form of destruction\nby fire of most of my earthly property and the death in the fire of a\nloved sister. The event had in it some other elements of great pain not\nnecessary to mention here. If my soul had not been anchored in Jesus,\nthe combination of sorrows would have broken down my mentality and sent\nme to the asylum. As it was, I stood steadily trusting God, knowing that\nall things worked together for good to those who love God. I was sure I\nwas a lover of God, and so, while every fiber of my body and soul ached\nwith unspeakable pain, I never doubted God's love, care and sympathy.\n\nIn the midst of this grief I received a letter from Mr. George W.\nWheeler, the President of the Executive Board of the Gospel Mission,\nsaying about this, \u201cCome down to the Gospel Mission, look it over and\nsee if you care to come in with us in the work of saving souls. Unless\nwe secure a woman of large executive ability, our work can scarcely go\nforward.\u201d\n\nI answered that I would be glad to join them, and the next week, the\nfirst week of September, 1908, I received a letter from the Secretary,\nS. M. Croft, saying I had been elected to the Executive Board of the\nGospel Mission, which met once every week.\n\nThe following Monday I met with the Board, where I heard a letter from\nMr. Tyson, saying that he withdrew from the Board because the\ndormitories were badly kept. Then followed a letter of the same kind\nfrom a Mr. Fritz, and another from Mr. Sidell. As soon as the session,\nwhich was largely a prayer service, was closed, Mr. Wheeler accompanied\nme to look over the dormitories.\n\nI never saw or dreamed of such conditions. The very walls were alive\nwith vermin. In the story above the chapel were fifteen vile beds, and\non the third story above us we saw a floor covered with dirty, wrinkled\nnewspapers. I said, \u201cWhere do the men sleep?\u201d \u201cOn the beds you saw in\nthe third floor and on these newspapers.\u201d\n\nIn my heart I said, \u201cDear Lord, surely not here, amid this vileness?\u201d\nThe answer was as sharp and distinct as though spoken through a trumpet,\n\u201cPrepare ye the way of the Lord.\u201d\n\n\u201cMr. Wheeler,\u201d I said, \u201cI see conditions, and I take charge.\u201d He left\nfor his work in the United States Treasury, and I went to the street and\nhired a force of cleaners, whitewash men, scrubbers, sweepers, etc., and\ncalled up Mrs. Claude Myers, the wife of a Presbyterian minister, and\ntwo other fully consecrated women who were not afraid of work. I asked\nthem to come at once and bring with them buckets, scrub brushes, rags,\nsoap, etc., while I put in a supply of chemicals for the vermin.\n\nThose women helped to burn the bedding and to send away some as trash.\nThey helped me clean the beds; the whitewashers even entered into the\nspirit of it, and every crack was filled with plaster of paris; they\nwent over the walls three times with lime and carbolic acid. The Health\nBureau in the Municipal Building gave me a preparation used on floors in\njails and in hospitals for contagious diseases. Some redeemed men came\nto our help, and by Saturday night we turned over a clean house.\n\nEvery one of us cleaners was obliged to go to the Turkish bath and have\nour clothing brushed and fumigated before we could go to our own homes.\n\nOn Saturday evening I told Mr. Wheeler and Mr. Gordon that besides the\ngood men and women who had helped us for the cause for five days, we had\nspent twenty-five dollars. Never will I forget the dismay of those two\ngood men. \u201cWhat! Twenty-five dollars! Where do you think we will get\nthat?\u201d I answered, \u201cFortunately I belong to a church that lives and\nworks by faith, and to-morrow, being Sunday, I shall tell the Sunday\nschool of the Luther Memorial Church, and we'll see about that\ntwenty-five dollars.\u201d\n\nThe next morning I went to the pastor, Rev. J. G. Butler, D.D., and he\nsecured permission from the superintendent of the Sunday school for me\nto speak three minutes. The superintendent hated innovations, but I can\nsay a lot in three minutes, especially when I state the needs of the\nlost men of the community. After the school was dismissed nearly every\nteacher and grown student gave me something, and in less than five\nminutes I had twenty-seven dollars.\n\nSunday night I told what the Lord had done for us, and I began to ask\nall persons present to contribute sheets and pillow-cases. I did this so\nmuch and so often that season that a little four-year-old girl of Mrs.\nClaude Myers upset the gravity of an entire meeting by saying out loud\none Sunday evening, \u201cThere comes Mrs. Sheets and Pillow-cases again.\u201d\nWell, before winter was over we had about fifty clean, well-equipped\nbeds for which, when they had it, men gladly paid ten cents per night.\nIf they did not have it, the beds were given as long as they lasted;\nbut, after the beds were filled, often fifty men slept on the floor with\nonly the boards under them and no covers.\n\nWe had no heat in the dormitories, but one day Mrs. Richard Butler, a\nwealthy woman of the city, was ordered by the Spirit to visit the\nMission. She came by Mr. Gordon's office in her carriage and he took her\nthrough our building. She saw our first need was heat. She sent\nimmediately to a hardware store and ordered a large stove for the third\nfloor with a drum for the fourth story, and through her kindness the men\nwere given heat, but not until after two deaths, caused by cold, hunger\nand wet clothing, had about broken our hearts.\n\nI remember a young, fair-haired man from Virginia, evidently well born\nand bred, coming in one night, slightly under the influence of liquor.\nIt was a rainy, snowy night; his clothing was wet and he was suffering\nfrom a severe cold. When the meeting was over he started to go up\nstairs, which had nearly a zero temperature. I begged him to stay by the\nfire and sleep on a bench, if needed, but he petulantly refused. He was\ndead by nine o'clock next morning. I had wept all the way home, for I\nfeared just what happened.\n\nMrs. Butler's stove put an end to that. She furnished coal for the\nentire winter.\n\nNow that we had beds and heat, I saw we could not keep the beds clean\nwithout bathing facilities. So at our next Board meeting I said,\n\u201cBrethren, we need a good shower-bath with warm and cold water so that\nmen soiled and weary can have the comfort of a warm bath.\u201d All the\nmembers of the Board demurred on account of the expense. Then I said,\n\u201cBrethren, if I make myself responsible for the eighty-five dollars\nneeded and you are in no way held for it, may I have the bath put in at\nonce?\u201d Of course, they wanted the bath, as they saw how much it was\nneeded, and gave cordial consent. I purchased a rubber stamp, and on the\noutside of our first circulars which we issued I stamped the words, \u201cI\nhave made myself personally responsible for the cost of a shower-bath.\nHelp a little.\u201d And with my own contributions the bath was paid for as\nper contract.\n\nThat fall we put out a circular folder, of which the following is the\nopen letter, and is introduced only to give the continuity of this work\nso that my friends may know the aim, object and history of the Mission\nfrom the beginning:\n\n GOSPEL MISSION,\n 1230 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE, N. W.\n WASHINGTON, D. C.\n\n DEAR FRIEND:\n\n Under the blessing of God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, a\n Rescue Mission has been opened at No. 1230 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.\n W., where nightly gospel services will be conducted and the Lord\n Christ held up to view as a Saviour \u201cmighty to save and strong to\n deliver.\u201d\n\n Our corps of workers is composed of consecrated and Spirit-filled\n men and women, many of whom have had long experience in efforts of\n this character. On the occasion of the opening service (Saturday\n evening, May 12) God set His seal to the work by drawing seven\n earnest seekers to our altar for prayer.\n\n Street meetings will be held nightly, and an earnest and aggressive\n work carried forward for the betterment of society and the salvation\n of lost men and women.\n\n Our hall is well located on the south side of Pennsylvania Avenue,\n N. W., in the midst of saloons and pool-rooms and in close proximity\n to that section of the city almost wholly given up to evil, and it\n will be the constant effort of the Mission and its workers to seek\n out and rescue the erring girls and reckless men who are found in\n large numbers in this immediate neighborhood.\n\n The management is determined that the expenses of this work shall be\n kept at the minimum figures\u2014not exceeding $100 per month\u2014and they\n confidently appeal to their Christian brethren and friends and to\n the public for such funds as shall be found necessary to carry\n forward this work. Can you, will you, aid us?\n\n With great respect,\n G. W. WHEELER, _Chairman_,\n J. S. MEWSHAW, _Secretary_,\n H. D. GORDON, _Treasurer_,\n _Executive Committee_.\n\nThese good men are at this writing (1913) yet connected with the work.\nMr. Mewshaw is an employee of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and has charge\nof a station some distance from Washington, but contributes and comes\nwith us occasionally. But no organization was ever more fortunate than\nthe Gospel Mission in its officers.\n\n\n TREASURER, MR. H. D. GORDON\n\nis a prominent lawyer of the city. He really gives more time to the\nMission than his business can afford. When we are under strain to make a\npayment on the building, he and Mr. Wheeler can go to their friends and\nraise $1000 more readily than the remainder of the Board can raise $100.\nThey ask largely of their friends. The others of us ask for one dollar\nmonthly contributions, and we each receive as we ask. Mr. Gordon's\ndevotion cannot better be illustrated than by the following: Mr. Gordon\nis a most effective singer. I have heard many singing evangelists, but\nnone with a finer pathos of voice than Mr. Gordon's. One evening in the\nfall of 1909, when each evening we were privileged to hold our outdoor\nmeetings in front of the city post-office, I was passing on the street\ncar when I saw Mr. Gordon with his guitar standing all alone, trying to\nsing salvation to some passing sinners. I found the tears coursing down\nmy cheeks, so I got off at the next corner and went back to help him,\nbut by that time other workers were on hand and it was less sacrifice\nfor me to speak for him. I acknowledge here a mean pride (which the Lord\nhas had to thrash out of me with many hard knocks) against speaking on\nthe street. I have had to remember many times that Jesus was an outdoor\npreacher all His days, and all the Apostles, and who am I that I am\nashamed to follow where He has led! But Brother Gordon can stand alone\nanywhere for Christ. He is greatly in demand in other cities as a\nsuccessful evangelist.\n\nI want to here bear testimony to the great good done by outdoor\nmeetings. If all evangelical churches who believe in conversion and\nregeneration would hold their meetings outdoors in the summer, they\nwould bring many souls, for which they will be held responsible, to\nChrist. If young people would hold alley meetings in the alley nearest\ntheir church they would bring sinners to Christ, there would be no slums\nand the young Christians would grow in grace.\n\n\n PRESIDENT, GEORGE W. WHEELER\n\nPresident, George W. Wheeler, of the Executive Board, is one of God's\nbest gifts to the city of Washington. He is the very best City Rescue\nMission worker I have ever seen, and I have seen most of the city\nmissions of the United States and Europe. In the summer of 1910, in\ncompany with Mrs. M. P. Spindle, I visited all the great cities of\nEurope, especially Glasgow, Edinburgh, London, Paris, Berlin and Rome,\nto obtain suggestions for improving our work, as we thought, at that\ntime, to plan for erecting a great mission building unequaled in all the\nworld. Most mission buildings are mere adaptations of old buildings. We\nhoped to do better, but God ordered otherwise. Among all these great\nmission workers I have seen none superior to George W. Wheeler in Rescue\nMission work and in conducting an interdenominational organized work for\nGod. First, his consecration is marvelous. He had been thirty or more\nyears in government service, to lose time means not only loss of money,\nbut even endangers a man's tenure of office.\n\nBut when Mr. Wheeler is called to see a soldier, a sailor, a sick man in\nthe hospital, who must be seen in business hours, he never, as all other\ngovernment members of the Board do, pleads loss of any kind, but goes at\nonce on the errand of love and mercy. Then he gets on well with his\nBoard of Directors; if debate runs high and a measure is carried without\nhis favor, he holds no grudge, he is universally kind. That means much.\nThen his acquaintance is so large he can secure good talent for helpers\nin every line; he has the absolute confidence of the community (which he\nrichly deserves), and by the blessing of God secures funds for our great\nwork; and, best of all, he leads many souls to Christ. He has probably\nseen more souls born into the kingdom of God than any other living\nrescue worker.\n\n(Mr. Wheeler died January 19, 1914. \u201cHe buries the workers, but the work\ngoes on.\u201d)\n\n\n MRS. M. P. SPINDLE\n\nis a Christian woman whom I found connected with the Mission when I went\nthere. My attention was first attracted toward her by her liberality\nwhen I made the calls for bedding, so now I borrowed $85 from her and\nput in the bath. She was kind enough to let me pay it back in driblets,\nand from that day to this she has given more money than any other\nworker. She has loaned or given the money to go forward in each venture\nof mine, and, above all, I have had the benefit of her counsel and her\nfavor in every form, and together we have prayed through many an\nobstruction which seemed an impassable barrier.\n\n\n THE FUMIGATOR\n\nNo sooner did we get the bath in place than I saw the necessity for a\nfumigator, not only that men should have their clothing purified from\ndisease and from vermin, but for the sake of the beds. I found that they\ncould not be kept clean without the men bathed and had their clothing\nfumigated.\n\nThe Board again did not feel able to put in the fumigator, which cost\n$125. In this work I found a friend in Mr. Ernest Gichner, who invented\na sheet-iron room with suitable fire-box and chimneys, which he anchored\non the roof of the building.\n\nIt did good service and added to the comfort of the men and the\ncleanliness of the house, not only while there, but later he moved it\nover to our new building. Mr. Gichner permitted me to make payments in\ninstallments of $25, which I was able to collect mostly from my friends\nin the Luther Memorial Church and the Mission workers themselves, who\nare always liberal even beyond their means.\n\n\n ENLARGEMENT\n\nI became Chairman of the House Committee in September, 1908, and the\nfollowing December Mr. H. W. Kline was made Superintendent. As soon as\nwe had nice beds to offer for ten cents a night, we had a steadily\nincreased patronage, so that by the fall of 1909 we were obliged to rent\na large room back of us. That winter we had eighty-four beds filled\nnearly every night.\n\nA friend in California sent me $25 as a Christmas present, and I put\nwhite spreads on the twenty-five best beds. Some members of the Board\nlaughed at me so much that I was obliged to remind them that the money\nof the Mission was not used. Long ago they have come to see that a white\nbed is a necessity if we are to keep a clean house.\n\nBy October, 1909, our expenses for rent, fuel and necessities had\nincreased from $100 to $150 each month.\n\nOur statistics for 1908, as shown by our circular, were as follows:\n\n _Statistics of the year and of the last quarter\u2014From January, 1908, to\n January, 1909_\n\n _Statistics of three months of 1908, as follows_:\n\n Attendance Req. for Prayer Seekers Conversions Services\n\n Dec. 1908 1961 165 86 14 41\n Jan. 1909 2487 217 73 37 46\n Feb. 1909 1245 51 34 13 28\n \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014 \u2014\u2014\u2014 \u2014\u2014\u2014 \u2014\u2014 \u2014\u2014\u2014\n Total 5693 433 193 64 115\n\n(Now we care for over 50,000 persons a year.)\n\nDuring the year employment was found for probably 300 men.\n\nWe accept it as a great privilege to have presented the gospel of Jesus\nChrist to this number of people.\n\nOur little circular of that period thus sets forth:\n\n\n THE NEED OF RESCUE WORK\n\n\u201cWashington is a dreadful place for a man out of work. The city having\nno manufactories, and all rough work, such as excavating, is let by\ncontract to men who prefer Italians or Negroes as diggers, while stores\nand offices have room for only the efficient young person, so that, when\nfrom age, inefficiency or lack of political influence, people are\ndropped from the government service, we are often at our wit's end to\nprovide means of subsistence for these worthy persons most anxious to\nlabor. We have some old men whose working days are over. These are for\nthe most part good men, for the wicked do not live out half their days.\nA few immigrants from northern Europe, sick men who are able to walk\nabout, but could not work if they had it; the shoestring man, the\numbrella man, the sandwich man, the men who are half insane for lack of\nfood and enforced lack of sleep, for they have no place to sleep oftener\nthan once a week. Then we have the criminal classes, which must be\ntouched with the Spirit of God, or they will become the dynamite which\nwill destroy our cities, also the men just out of prison. These are the\nspecial thought of the Mission, for unless they are made to feel that\nthey are but temporarily sidetracked from the great highway of success,\nthey will become an ever-increasing menace to society.\n\n\u201cAbove all, we have the drunkard, who has lost his grip, lost family,\nlost place in society, lost business and has become a mass of putrid\nflesh, utterly abhorrent to his fellow-men. When we look at these\npeople, whose weary eyes have looked long into unspeakable sorrow, our\nvery souls rejoice that we have proven beyond possibility of doubt that\n'the blood of Jesus Christ, His son, cleanses from all sin; that if we\nconfess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to\ncleanse us from all unrighteousness,' for we have seen some of every\nclass mentioned redeemed, placed back in society, among the producing\npower of the nation.\u201d\n\n\n \u201cOUR GOSPEL MISSION TIDINGS\u201d\n\n(a monthly paper) was issued first in October, 1909. All members of the\nExecutive Committee have helped in some measure on it, but the\nresponsibility has fallen heaviest on Mr. G. W. Wheeler and myself. Our\nentire income is the result of our paper, it is our means of\ncommunicating with the public.\n\n\n THE INDUSTRIAL PLANT\n\nwas really brought about by two tragedies. One cold day I went to the\nMission, and on the outside I saw a man, whom I shall call Kelly,\nshivering at the door. He looked like death, pale, trembling, the lips\nand nostrils drawn as if in extreme pain. \u201cWhat is the matter, Kelly?\u201d I\nsaid. \u201cI am starving to death; amid all these happy people I am left\nout. I have walked the streets hunting work till I can walk no more.\u201d\n\nAt that time we did not provide food of any kind, but I said, \u201cLet us go\nup stairs to the Mission,\u201d where Mr. Proctor, then acting as\nSuperintendent, provided bread and coffee. I set the man to\nre-whitewashing the dormitories, and we kept him till he secured work.\n\nThe other was the case of a young man just released from Moundsville\nPenitentiary. After I had given the lesson one Tuesday night, I was led\nto tell in detail the story of Valentine Burke, a man converted in the\nSt. Louis jail, from reading one of Mr. Moody's sermons in a city\nnewspaper. Mr. Burke afterward became a valuable citizen, held the\nposition of assistant warden, and led hundreds of lost men into the\nclear light of the gospel. When I had finished, a well-dressed man on\nthe front seat said, \u201cI am just out of Moundsville; no one has spoken a\nkind word to me, I have had nothing to eat to-day, I see no way but to\nsteal again.\u201d He was only about twenty-two years of age. I put my arm\nover his shoulder and said, \u201cSon, we will take care of you and get you\nwork.\u201d The Superintendent took him up stairs, gave him bread and coffee,\nthen a warm bath, but he was so weary the men had to help him to get to\nbed. We all tried to get that boy work, but as soon as the word\npenitentiary was mentioned every door was closed. I remember walking up\nCapitol Hill, crying aloud to God, \u201cGive us an industrial plant or the\nsorrows of homeless, workless men will take my life.\u201d\n\nI paid for the food for a week. He tried also to obtain work, but I\nthink the sight of my anxious face worried him\u2014I have learned not to\ncarry sorrow in my face since then. That boy slipped through our fingers\nand went back to crime. Now, at whose hands will that soul, anxious for\nbetter things, be required?\n\nBefore I went for my summer vacation I urged before the Board an\nindustrial plant. Mr. Kline strenuously objected. During that vacation I\nlaid the matter very fully before God in prayer and felt constrained to\nurge the starting of an industrial work.\n\nAt our first meeting in September Mr. Kline said, \u201cBrethren, I have come\nto see the need of an industrial plant, not only so that men can earn\nlodging, but where, after conversion, we can keep a man a few days to\nteach him the way of life.\u201d A Mission worker often prays himself into\nlight.\n\nAgain I was forced to borrow money with which to purchase a horse and\nwagon. Mrs. Spindle loaned me the $150 needed. That fall my little book,\ncalled \u201cThe Life of Gustavus Adolphus,\u201d published by The Lutheran\nPublication Society, Philadelphia, came out. The house gave me $25 in\ncash, if I remember correctly, and 100 copies of the book, which I sold\nat 40 cents a copy. So I gave the $65 of my own on the horse and wagon\nin paying back Mrs. Spindle for the loan.\n\nIn some way we also secured a paper baler, thus we gave two men work in\ncollecting books, newspapers, etc., and two men at the baler. In the\nNovember _Gospel Tidings_ we announced that the wagon from the Gospel\nMission would call on the first and fifteenth of the month, and would\naccept papers, rags, clothes, bottles, etc., saying, \u201cWe have old men\nwho separate these things and label and bale this material.\u201d The money\nwas used to feed and care for these unfortunates.\n\nThe city people responded most generously, and in this way our\nindustrial branch was started, and greatly benefited the Mission for two\nand a half years.\n\nLater we obtained a wood-saw run by a gasoline engine, and we started\nthe penny bundling industry, where we could use eight or ten men and\nmake the double purpose of work for unfortunate men and yet make the\nindustry self-supporting.\n\nWhen the United States granted wood pulp to be brought into the country\nfree of duty, our paper industry was destroyed, as we could not sell the\npaper, and the government took our woodyard and killed our wood\nindustry, but they both did much good in their day.\n\nThe Gospel Mission in the fall of 1914 will again open a laundry, wood\ncutting, rope-making, printing, and chair caning in the line of\nindustries for men who will gladly work rather than eat the bread of\ncharity.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER II\n RESCUE MISSION WORK\n\n\nWhen I was called to assist in the Gospel Mission, I was not a novice in\nrescue work, having been among the workers of the Sunday Breakfast\nAssociation in Philadelphia, Pa., for twelve years under the direction\nof Mr. Lewis Bean, probably one of the ablest mission workers of this or\nany other country. The Sunday Breakfast is, so far as I know, the\nlargest Rescue Mission of this country.\n\n\n HOW GOD CALLED ME\n\nWhen I moved from Washington to Philadelphia, I found myself very\nlonely. I had been President of a Collegiate Institute at Atchison,\nKan., from 1870 to 1885, when, because of failure of health, I came\nEast, and took up literary work. At Washington, where I lived from 1885\nto 1888, I soon came in contact with literary people, and belonged to\nboth literary and scientific clubs, some of whose members are to this\nday strong personal friends. But in the twelve years in Philadelphia I\nnever became much acquainted with university people, authors' clubs,\nBrowning or Shakespeare clubs, although I knew they were all there. God\nhad to break me loose from too great devotion to that side of life in\norder to use me for more spiritual work.\n\nOne evening, in the summer of 1888, I came along Arch Street where, in a\nbasement room at Broad and Arch, some women were holding a prayer\nservice. I entered and joined with them. Three poor, ragged, soiled men\nwere converted. I saw the women were even more inexperienced with the\nphenomena of sudden conversions than I was. So I stepped forward and\npledged the converts to a Christian life. Then I appealed to the good\nmen present to see that the converts had a good meal that night, and\nasked for work for them. Good men at once promised both.\n\nWhen the meeting was dismissed a gentleman came to me and said, \u201cWe need\nyou at the Sunday Breakfast Association to speak next Sunday night. We\nshall have over 1000 men present, all needing to find God. You are one\nof the women who can speak without any of the Little Johnny death-bed\nscenes, and we need you.\u201d I replied, \u201cIf you asked me to talk on\nDickens, Shakespeare, or any literary character, I could easily do it,\nbut to win souls to Christ, I am not at all sure I could do it.\u201d He did\nnot argue, he simply said, \u201cI give you your opportunity.\u201d That startled\nme, and I said, \u201cI will try.\u201d\n\nSo the next Sunday evening at the Breakfast Association I made my first\ntalk before an audience largely of the submerged tenth. The galleries\nand the platform were filled with well-dressed people, and, instead of\ntrying to save some soul, I tried to make a fine speech. My rhetoric was\nperfect, my periods nicely rounded, my illustrations pertinent, and I\nsat down pretty well satisfied with my fine self. Mr. Bean saw what I\nhad done, so he shook a few grains out of all the chaff I had given\nthem, made the application, and let me down as easily as he could.\n\nBut while I sat there God's Spirit dealt with me. \u201cWhat if a mother of\none of these lost men had had your opportunity,\u201d said God's Spirit,\n\u201cwould she have talked platitudes to the galleries and the platform?\nWould she? Would she?\u201d I saw my sin. As I fled from the house I nearly\ncried aloud in my shamefaced grief. When I got to my room I went to my\nknees and I cried to God my deep shame, \u201cDear Father, I have sinned. I\nknow now that is not my work. My business is to instruct the intellect.\nI will leave the winning of souls to preachers and mothers. Help me to\nbear the testimony of a well-ordered Christian life, speaking for you in\nmy own social set, but I am not equal to facing those who have looked\nlong into the eyes of sin and suffering and sorrow, and are uncomforted\nwith a knowledge of Thy grace.\u201d\n\nSo I felt I had disposed of that, and determined to keep to literature\nforevermore. The next day the card of a woman whom I had met in the\nhighest social circles of Washington was sent to my room. As I came down\nthrough the hall I saw in front of the house her carriage with footman\nand driver and team of Kentucky-bred horses. When I entered she broke\nout in a sort of wail, \u201cI hear you spoke at the Breakfast Association\nlast night.\u201d \u201cYes, and made a great guy of myself. I do not expect to\never go there again, except as a spectator. I fear I am more literary\nthan religious.\u201d\n\nI wish I could describe the next few minutes. Her face blazed. \u201cYou,\nyou!\u201d she said; \u201cwhy you had a father a minister, your mother a praying\nwoman, and you not to go there to speak to lost men, if you have the\nopportunity! You have had everything which training can give, and you\nrefuse to reach a hand to lost men.\u201d\n\n\u201cWell, what does that concern you?\u201d\n\nShe sat down. The agony in her face became anguish. She turned white,\nthen red, then back to white, till I feared for her heart. \u201cWhat does it\nconcern me! What! What! Well, I must tell you. I have a son who sits\ndown in that awful crowd!\u201d\n\nIt was my turn now to be moved. \u201cYou?\u201d I said, \u201cwhy, you live in a white\nmarble palace, and can it be that your son is a homeless, friendless\nman?\u201d\n\n\u201cYes,\u201d she said, \u201cI live in a white marble palace and I hate it from\nturret to foundation stone, because my oldest son is not allowed under\nits roof. He is a drunkard, and will steal everything he can lay his\nhands on and sell it for drink, so that his father forbids me to see him\nor to give him money. The last time I saw him he was shoveling coal into\na manhole; he looked the part.\u201d\n\nHere she tried to give me a large roll of money, as she said, \u201cTake\nthis, and please go to the Breakfast Association and find my darling\nboy.\u201d \u201cMadam, I am not authorized to take money for the Association. Dr.\nHenderson is the Treasurer, do see him!\u201d \u201cI will not. Will know who you\nare. I told him much of meeting you in Washington. I want you to take\nthis money and find and clothe my sorrowful son; and oh, say what I\nwould like to say if I could talk like you! Tell him when he sees a\nlight at the top of the house that his mother is in the attic praying\nfor him, and will you pray for me that I shall not die under this? Will\nyou pray for my son?\u201d\n\nThen we two kneeled and poured into the heart of a loving Saviour that\nstory of woe. How she wailed over her own frivolous life, and promised\nher God a life for Him. Nearly all the persons referred to have died,\nso, though the parties may be recognized in Philadelphia, it cannot now\nharm anyone.\n\nI took the money offered. The next Sunday evening I went to the\nAssociation, and my face must have told the story, for when I said to\nMr. Bean, \u201cI have a message,\u201d he let me speak. I selected the words,\n\u201cSon, behold thy mother!\u201d I told many incidents of heart-broken mothers\nbecause of the sins of their sons, and then I told of Mrs. W., nearly in\nthe above language. Probably two hundred men requested prayer that\nnight, and I saw God could use me for other than literary work.\n\nMr. Bean said, \u201cThat man will not show up till the others have gone,\u201d so\nI sat down and waited.\n\nWhen nearly everyone had left the room a poor, blear-eyed youth came to\nthe platform. He said, \u201cMrs. Monroe, I am Will W. Do give me some\nmoney.\u201d I said, \u201cWill, do you intend to break your mother's heart? Do\nyou intend to keep on drinking?\u201d \u201cNow, see here, Mrs. Monroe, I have\nhonestly tried to quit.\u201d Then, pushing up his sleeve, he showed me\nscars. \u201cThere I have signed the pledge with my own blood, and I cannot\nquit.\u201d Howard McMasters, one of the Breakfast Association workers,\npointed the way to Christ far better than I could. Then he gave him\ntickets where he could get lodging. I met him the next day at a Turkish\nbath house. At first they refused to take him, and only by paying a high\nprice could I secure him a bath and proper barbering. I gave him a\ncomplete outfit of clothes, and he looked very respectable. Mr.\nMcMasters put a good man on the case to talk with him, to read the New\nTestament with him, to explain salvation and to help him find God, and\nto keep at his side whenever possible.\n\nMy business took me out of town for several weeks; when I came back to\nthe city, I went, of course, the first Sunday evening to the Breakfast\nAssociation. After the meeting was over Will W. came slouching up to the\nplatform as vile as when I first saw him. He had sold every article I\nhad given him for drink. This sorrowful experience was repeated about\nfive times, but as good is stronger than evil, the prayers of God's\npeople prevailed, and Mr. McMasters brought him forward to the altar and\nGod met him.\n\nHis mother's prayers, the word of God as shown by Howard McMasters and\nthat wonderful Divine Spirit made a clean work, and a soul was born to\nGod. We kept him as well guarded as we could. The smells of the street\ntroubled him, for that reason I went to his father's wholesale house on\nMarket Street. I had met Mr. W. with his wife in Washington, and he met\nme cordially, till I said, \u201cMr. W., I have come to talk to you about\nyour oldest son.\u201d He blazed at me, \u201cDon't you dare to speak to me of my\noldest son. He has broken my heart, his mother's heart, and disgraced my\nname. I will not permit even my wife to speak of him, much less a\nfriend.\u201d \u201cBut he is converted, Mr. W. It will be different now.\u201d \u201cOh! he\nhas a new dodge, has he?\u201d \u201cMr. W., you must talk to me fairly about this\nwrecked young life or refer me to someone who can act in your behalf.\u201d\n\u201cWell, see his brother,\u201d and a clerk showed me to the brother's\ncounting-room. He heard my story with sympathy. After stating the case,\nI said, \u201cI want you to put him on a truck farm down near Media, and get\nhim away from the smells of Philadelphia.\u201d This was done, though it took\nseveral weeks to bring it about.\n\nThe next Sunday night Will sat on the platform, and testified to the\npower of God to save. When the meeting had closed, a handsome young\nwoman, wearing a costly tailor-made gown and with the stamp of the\npatrician in every line of her dainty person, said to me, \u201cMrs. Monroe,\nI am going to marry Will W. this week.\u201d \u201cOh, my dear girl, do not risk\nit till he has proved himself for two years! Do not risk it!\u201d \u201cYou\nbelieve he is converted, do you not?\u201d \u201cWhy, yes; but we should see the\ntransforming power of the gospel before you risk your happiness.\u201d \u201cWill\nneeds me now to help him keep straight. You have not as much faith as\nyou ought to have yourself, or you would believe he will hold out.\u201d\n\nWhat more could I say? They were married. His mother was present at the\nceremony, and they went to the farm to live. Will was held by the power\nof God, and, after much blundering, they made a fair success with a\ntruck farm.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER III\n INCIDENTS SHOWING THE POWER OF GOD TO SAVE\n\n\nAmong the many other impressive cases of the power of God to suddenly\nchange a human life from evil to good occurred at the Breakfast\nAssociation in Philadelphia about the year 1898, and although fifteen\nyears have passed, every incident, every word is indelibly written on my\nmemory.\n\nI was coming off the platform one evening when I met a large,\nfierce-looking, scowling man, who looked as if he wanted to strike me. I\nstopped at once. \u201cFriend,\u201d I said, \u201cyou are in trouble.\u201d \u201cWhat is that\nto you and such as you?\u201d \u201cIt is much to me. You look like an employer of\nmen, yet here you have been taking the bread and coffee of charity.\u201d\n\u201cWell, I have been an employer of men, but now I cannot even get\nemployment. I have been behind bars; now what hope in life is there for\nme?\u201d \u201cMany men who have been behind bars have afterward made good\ncitizens and even made fortunes. Let us go down to the Board room and\ntalk this out.\u201d\n\nAs he went along growling that there was no hope for him, I motioned to\nMr. McMasters and another worker to come with us. When we were seated,\nhe said, \u201cNow, all I want of you people is to help me get work so that I\ndo not wander like a stray dog through the streets of the city where I\nwas born. My wife and family have deserted me and I am a desperate man.\u201d\n\n\u201cYes,\u201d I said, \u201cbrother, no woman could live with you as you are now,\none would as soon live with a wolf; your hand is against every man and\nevery man's hand is against you. But God can again make you an employer\nof men. He can make you a good husband and father, but you must find God\nfirst. Where is your mother?\u201d I saw him shrink, and I knew then I had\nthe key. \u201cMy going to prison killed my mother. I had a mill in a suburb\nof Philadelphia, and sometimes, after the day's work was done, I would\nstep into a saloon and take a glass of beer with my foreman. I was not\nwhat you would call a drinking man. One evening we got into a dispute\nabout something concerning the mill, and I picked up a monkey wrench and\nstruck my foreman just one blow, but I killed him. All our property went\nfor lawyer fees, all to no purpose, for I was sent to prison for ten\nyears. I have just been pardoned,\u201d and he drew the governor's pardon\nfrom his pocket. \u201cWhen I went to my home I found strangers in it, but at\nlast I found my wife and my children now nearly grown, but they would\nnot let me live with them.\u201d I knew perfectly well from other experiences\nthat he had gone in violence and had been met with violence.\n\nMr. McMasters now took the case. He said, \u201cIf your mother were now\nliving, do you believe she would have received you?\u201d \u201cI am sure she\nwould. The warden often told us that our mothers would stay by us, that\nchildren grew ashamed of a father in prison, wives persuaded themselves\nthat it only kept up their grief, but a mother's love is like that of\nthe God above, it remains. But mother died.\u201d\n\n\u201cWell, you want to meet her again, do you not?\u201d \u201cYes, but my mother was\na Christian.\u201d \u201cThat is it; let us kneel and talk to your mother's God.\u201d\nReluctantly, growling that God cared nothing for a poor devil like him,\nhe kneeled, and with the three of us kneeling about him, we each one\npresented the case to God, calling on the \u201cGod whom this man's mother\nloved and served, asking mercy for a broken life, a broken home and a\nbroken heart.\u201d By the time the last one prayed his head was on the chair\nand he was sobbing. Then he prayed for himself, and God came down and\nthe old alchemy of God turned the heart of stone to a heart of flesh,\nand George Gneiss was born into the kingdom of God. It was not difficult\nto get him a place as a skilled miller, and from that day to this he has\nmade good.\n\nThe transforming power of the gospel was plainly seen within a week in\nhis face, in his clothing, in his bearing at every meeting. After a few\nSundays I was called out of town for six weeks. When I came home, I went\nto the Breakfast Association and there, from the gallery, Mr. Gneiss\nlooked down on me. At his side was a Quaker woman in the plain dress of\nher Church, and with them was a manly boy of seventeen. After the\nservices, they all came to me (I motioned to others to come), and they\ntold us the story of their reunion. Tears stood in her eyes as she said,\n\u201cWe have family prayers now, and we pray for you every day. God is\nblessing us in every way. Pray for us.\u201d\n\nAfter that they came to see me, either at the Breakfast Association or\nat my home, as often as three or four times a year as long as I remained\nin Philadelphia.\n\n\n THE GOSPEL MISSION\n\nAfter telling about those two incidents connected with my small share of\nrescue work in Philadelphia, it is time now to resume the story of our\nGospel Mission. It is only because we see souls converted almost every\nnight that makes it possible for us to bear the sight and the foul smell\nof unclean bodies, of dead whisky and tobacco, and the revolting\ndrunkenness, then the remonstrances of one's own kindred and church\npeople are trying, unless God gave great recompense, first in one's own\nenlarged spiritual life, in order to fit us for the work, and almost\ndaily gave us the joy of seeing souls converted, it would be an\nimpossible work.\n\n\n CONVERSIONS AND REGENERATION\n\nConversion seems to me to be largely man's share in the greater fact of\nregeneration, which is entirely God's work in a human soul.\n\nAt a Rescue Mission the theologian could get a new and practical\nknowledge of the gospel he preaches; the professor of psychology sees\nhow spiritual powers, unseen to mortal eye, can grip the entire\nmachinery of the mind, and by a supernatural application of God's Spirit\nand the word of God make a man over again.\n\nHundreds of times have I seen the alchemy of God make men who steal to\ndo God's service; feet that have been in the way of the transgressor to\nwalk in the paths of righteousness, and tongues accustomed to blaspheme\nto sing God's praises.\n\nProfessor James defines conversion thus: \u201cTo be converted, to be\nregenerated, to receive grace, to experience religion, to gain\nassurance, are so many phrases which denote the process, gradual or\nsudden, by which a self hitherto divided and consciously wrong, inferior\nand unhappy, becomes unified and consciously right, superior and happy,\nin consequence of its firmer hold on religious realities.\u201d\n\n[Illustration: \u201cREMEMBER ME\u201d: HANDS UP FOR PRAYER]\n\n_The first element in conversion is first an influence from the Holy\nSpirit brought about by prayer._ Now, that prayer may have been sent up\nyears ago by a mother now dead, but is usually the result of a prayer\natmosphere in the meeting.\n\nThe Holy Spirit acts like a searchlight on the human soul, and the\nsinner for an instant sees himself as God sees him. I have seen men rush\nthrough the door, and, without taking a seat, come straight to the\naltar, because God's Spirit had met them. That is not the usual way, and\nit is usually some immediate message of His word, rendered in song or\nspoken word to the sinner's heart, by which he catches a glimpse of his\nlost condition.\n\nLet no parent be discouraged concerning a wandering child. Delayed\nanswer to prayer is not a denial. I know a minister whom God greatly\nuses who was a wild youth when his mother died, but God answered her\nprayer. He will answer yours.\n\nIt is important who presents the sinner to God. A perfunctory church\nmember who plays cards, dances, tipples or smells of tobacco, cannot\nacceptably bring a soul to God. God often accepts a soul without an\nintermediary, but the wrong person keeps a soul from God. It makes a\ndifference. You remember Ezekiel 14:20, \u201cThough Noah, Daniel and Job\nwere in it, they shall but deliver their own souls by their\nrighteousness,\u201d showing that as we abide in Him, God answers prayers\naccordingly. Then the word of God comes in. The helper tries to make the\nseeker lay hold of the promises. I have seen many conversions on Romans\n10:13, \u201cFor whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be\nsaved.\u201d It comes like a wireless message from on high. It becomes\npersonal as the praying sinner cries to God, he believes he is heard, he\nbelieves he is forgiven, he accepts the pardon and rises to his feet a\nredeemed man. A supernatural power has come into his soul. Another verse\nwhich brings men through is 1 John 1:9, \u201cIf we confess our sins, He is\nfaithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all\nunrighteousness.\u201d\n\nThe religion of Christ has two elements in it\u2014a destructive element and\na constructive element. The destructive element is what we figuratively\ncall \u201cthe blood of Christ.\u201d It not only pardons or washes away the past\nsins, but it takes out of the soul lying, drinking, lust, laziness,\ndeceit, fraud of any kind, and with the constructive element it puts\ninto the soul honor, truth, industry, integrity or wholeness. It creates\nin the soul the desire to walk in companionship with Christ.\n\nThe recognition of sins forgiven and the conscious presence of God is\nwhat in emotional natures makes some shout, some weep, some tremble as\nwith an ague, but regeneration in all souls brings unspeakable joy. It\nnot only energizes for action, but it puts into the soul the power of\nendurance before unknown.\n\n\n I HAVE KEPT THE FAITH\n\nOne cold night in November, 1908, the writer had charge of the Gospel\nMission service. In the testimony meeting a fine looking young man arose\nand said about this: \u201cI am a graduate of a college in Maine, also of a\nmedical department of a college of this city. I have had a good practice\nand a good home. I have lost all of these from hard drink. Last spring I\nwas converted in a street meeting held by this Mission at the\npost-office corner. Soon after that I obtained a situation in a large\ndepartment store in this city, where I did good work, but I lost my\ntemper at the inefficiency of a driver. I learned then and there that\nonly proprietors have the right to lose their tempers, and I lost my\nplace. I have had a hard time since. God only knows the suffering of a\nman without money, friends, or even acquaintances in a great city.\u201d And\nwith a wail, like a cry of anguish, he said, \u201cBut I've kept the faith!\nI've kept the faith!\u201d\n\nAfter the close of the meeting, a worker said, \u201cI fear that man has had\nno food to-day.\u201d I went to him and said, \u201cSon, when did you eat last?\u201d\nHe answered, \u201cYesterday morning.\u201d I slipped into his hand a dollar bill\nand my card, and said, \u201cCome and see me to-morrow morning.\u201d\n\nWe had no difficulty in getting him back into the department store where\nhis quick and clear penmanship, his great executive ability, have been\nmost highly appreciated for nearly five years.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER IV\n AN ELEMENT OF HUMOR IN RESCUE WORK\n\n\nUnless one can see the humor in rescue work, the tragedy of it all would\nbreak the heart, ruin one's health, and keep one's mind all the time on\nthe sorrowful stories that we hear daily.\n\nA part of successful rescue work is the ability to bring each sorrowful\ncase to God, lay it on His altar, and leave it behind us when we leave\nthe Mission.\n\n\n AUNT MARY\n\nOne very cold night, a few years ago, we had present among our visitors\na wealthy lady and gentleman from Pittsburgh. We were most anxious that\nthe Mission should make a good impression on them, hoping a donation of\nat least $25. It was a very cold night. Soon after the services opened a\nperson, whom I shall call Charles Winters, son of an old Virginia\nfamily, came in. He was much under the influence of liquor, and began at\nonce to make a disturbance.\n\nI remembered his dear old gray-haired mother and his accomplished\nsister, and knew in a moment that if he were put out he would freeze to\ndeath or be placed in prison. Two of the helpers started to put him out;\nthat was the easy way, and there were my guests and that prospective\ndonation.\n\nThe men already had hold of him, when I said, \u201cStop, men; please let me\nspeak to him.\u201d Laying my hand kindly on his shoulder, I said, \u201cCharles,\nsit down and behave yourself.\u201d With a drunken laugh, he said, \u201cI'll sit\ndown for you, Aunt Mary, but not for these toughs.\u201d All evening I had to\ngo back every few minutes to quiet him, much to the amusement of my\nfriends, who frequently to this day call me Aunt Mary. But I saved a\nfamily from shame and my donation came all right.\n\nIn most businesses old age is a handicap, but every gray hair of my\nwhite head is an asset. Nearly every evening some poor, vanquished\nsoldier of fortune, ragged, unshaven and unshorn, comes to me and says\nwith quivering lips, \u201cYou look just like my mother, to-night, will you\ncare a little for me?\u201d And I lay my arm across the soiled coat and say,\n\u201cSon, the trail of every sin is on your poor soiled body; you have tried\nsome by yourself to be good, now let us ask Jesus to help. But I shall\nsend you up stairs under guard and to the bath-room, where you must take\na very warm bath while I go to the workroom and get you clean clothes\nfrom the skin out; your clothing will go into the fumigator over night;\nyou shall have enough to eat and be physically comforted, then we will\ntry again with Jesus as yoke-fellow. You and I will talk to Him about it\nand we will try again, shall we?\u201d\n\nThere is no use talking salvation to a hungry man or a man physically\nuncomfortable. We usually help a poor fellow several days before\nanything more than the above is said, then we show him the tendencies of\nhis life; he sees them in the wrecks all around him. He hears the\ntestimony of redeemed drunkards, thieves and gamblers, and sees them\nclothed and in their right minds; then the teachings of some Christian\nmother, Sunday school teacher, or preacher comes back, and lo! he prays.\nGod's Holy Spirit acts as a searchlight, and he sees his abhorrent self\nas God sees him, and he cries for mercy. God comes down when the sinner\ncalls for redeeming power, and a great psychological change takes place.\nIf a soul really agrees to give up every sin, to take Jesus Christ as\npattern and friend, Christ Himself enters into covenant relations with\nthat soul and the man is born again. He usually lays hold mentally of\nsome one verse of Scripture, which becomes to him a personal message\nfrom on high. I have seen many take the verse, \u201cSeek ye first the\nkingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be\nadded unto you,\u201d and use it as the stepping stone into the higher life.\nThey seek God and live His righteousness. Take the case of\n\n\n MR. E. C. CONNAUGHT\n\nas an example. One very cold morning in January, 1912, Mr. Kline\nreceived a telephone message like this, \u201cThere is a drunken man with a\nwife and four children set out on the street at so and so. Bring coffee\nand food at once.\u201d Just as quickly as they could get the food, Mr. and\nMrs. Kline hastened to the relief of that family. The wind was blowing\nsnow and sleet, though it seemed too cold for either. The family,\nincluding the drunken father, were brought immediately to the Mission,\nthough their household stuff was left standing on the street, where it\nremained four days. It was such a miserable collection that even the\ncolored people did not steal any of it. Then it was brought to the\nMission and stored in the cellar.\n\nOne child was in the hospital from a blow from the father. They were\nphysically comforted and put in the \u201cShelter,\u201d a place reserved for\nstranded women and children. By night the father was fairly sober and\nthey were all taken to the religious services in the chapel, where Mr.\nConnaught heard man after man rise and testify that God had saved him\nand taken away the appetite for drink. At first there was a sneer on his\nface, but gradually, as one well dressed man after another bore the same\ntestimony, he cried out, \u201cI have been an infidel, not believing in God\nor immortality, but if the God you worship can cure me of this awful\nappetite, I want Him.\u201d He kneeled at one of the front benches, and an\nawful spectacle of rags and dirt and bloated flesh he was.\n\nI remember thinking, \u201cSurely this case is beyond help,\u201d but God is\nbetter than we even dare hope. Several prayers were offered in his\nbehalf, then he prayed for himself, and lo! he prayed with the tongue of\nthe learned. He said, \u201cO God, if there be a God, hear the prayer of the\nvery lowest of Thy children. I need Thee, I am totally undone, I put\nmyself in Thy hands for forgiveness and for discipline. O Lord, save\nme!\u201d\n\nHe kneeled a moment longer, then rose to his feet with a clear brain,\nand, looking about like one dazed, said, \u201cWhat has happened, you all\nlook different?\u201d Mr. Kline laid his arm lovingly over the man's\nshoulders as he said, \u201cBrother Connaught, you have received your sight.\nThe Lord Jesus has come into your soul.\u201d\n\nThe next morning the Associated Charities had him arrested for\nnon-support of his family. Judge DeLacy, a good man, was on the bench.\nOne of our workers said to the judge, \u201cThis man was converted last\nnight, and if you will give him a chance he will now support his\nfamily.\u201d \u201cOh, yes, most anyone would be converted rather than go to\nOccoquan\u201d (name of the workhouse). \u201cBut, judge, this is no fake case;\ntry him.\u201d\n\nThe bloated face, the soiled clothing were against him, and the judge\nsent him up for eleven weeks. The little woman and her children were\nsent to her relatives in North Carolina by the Board of Charities and\nChildren's Guardians. Some of our workers kept at his side, reminding\nhim that he had put himself in God's hands for discipline, and assuring\nhim that if he could stand true, God had a useful life in store for him.\nA marked New Testament was given him when he left for down the river.\nThere his head was shaved in the very cold weather, his clothing\nchanged, so that he took a severe cold which came near carrying him off\nwith pneumonia. It took about two weeks to bring political and social\ninfluence to bear to have him paroled and sent back to the Mission.\n\nJanuary and February of 1912 were very cold months, it was hard to get\nany kind of work for men to do, and the only thing we could secure for\nConnaught was passing circulars at sixty cents a day. That amounts to\n$3.60 per week; of this he was obliged to pay to the judge $3, to be\nsent to his wife. In two or three days Mrs. Kline phoned me, \u201cConnaught\nis trying to live on the rolls and coffee given in the bread line at six\no'clock in the morning.\u201d I replied, \u201cConnaught must have oatmeal with\ncream\u2014real cream, for his diseased stomach; he must have eggs and meat\nand strong coffee, or he will lose his religion.\u201d \u201cWell, who is going to\nprovide all that?\u201d \u201cThe Lord has money enough for that.\u201d \u201cWell, suppose\nyou bring some of it right along,\u201d which of course I did.\n\nAbout the tenth day after he began circulating papers, the work gave\nout. We really prayed night and day, for we feared he would be\nrearrested and we had no money to support him. In a few days he secured\nwork at digging on the streets at $1.25 per day. He had never been\naccustomed to manual labor, so when I sympathized with him on his poor\nblistered hands, he said, \u201cI am so glad to get the work that the hurt is\nnothing.\u201d Think of that for a man who had not done a lick of work,\nphysically or mentally, for months and months.\n\nLong before this we had found that he was a graduate of an English\nuniversity, had lived in good style, keeping servants, he had possessed\na nice home when he was first married, but when he found the habit of\ndrink had fastened itself upon him, he came to this country hoping to\nbreak away from old companions and surroundings, and thus get away from\nthe sin which bound him.\n\nHe tried all the cures; in fact, all his property not spent in drink\nwent to the cures, but nothing cured him. We found he had been a\nfirst-class bookkeeper for one of the great railroads centering at\nWashington, so we applied to them. I am glad to say they took an\nimmediate interest in the case.\n\nA man was sent to see him, then Mr. Connaught was put in charge of an\noffice building at $40 per month, and at once he wanted his family back.\nThey came first to the Mission, for we desired to keep him attending\nservices every night till he would understand better the word of God and\ngrow strong in faith. The railroad now pays him $80 a month, for he is a\ngood executive, and he has bought a little home in the suburbs on which\nhe is paying monthly; a home where he can have a garden, an orchard and\nchickens. About once a week the father, the mother, and children come to\nthe Mission. No better looking or happier looking people enter that\nbuilding. He comes, as he says, to bear testimony to the saving and\nkeeping power of the dear Lord Jesus.\n\n\n PSYCHOLOGY\n\nNow, science could not cure this case; all that science could do had\nbeen done for him. He had become so low that if he saw his children\nstarving and he had ten cents, the money went to the saloon and not for\nbread. It is, as Professor James says, that \u201cConversion is the only\nmeans by which a radically bad man can be changed into a radically good\nperson.\u201d The agencies in any conversion are first prayer, then the Holy\nSpirit and the word of God. This man was so far gone that he did not\nbelieve in the existence of God. But the sympathy of the workers made\nthem pray most earnestly for God's Spirit, which came with convicting\npower. The verse of Scripture which came like a wireless message to his\nsoul was, \u201cIf we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us\nour sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.\u201d He claimed and\nstill claims the last clause as a message to him personally.\n\nThe reason that hundreds of sermons fail to comfort a saint or convert a\nsinner is because they fall on prayerless pews. You remember how what is\nknown as the Great New England Revival came about. Dr. Jonathan Edwards\nwas accustomed to go to his church every Saturday afternoon to think and\nto pray for his people.\n\nOn one occasion a beggar, known in the town as Old Betty, sat unseen in\na back pew. The great preacher put his head down on the Bible and\nsobbed. As he came out Old Betty said, \u201cWhat is it, Dr. Edwards, that so\ntroubles you?\u201d \u201cBetty, I have not seen a soul converted in this church\nfor a year. Why is it?\u201d \u201cIt is because these pews are prayerless.\u201d \u201cWill\nyou pray till you get the answer that God will come in power to this\nchurch?\u201d \u201cI will.\u201d Betty hid when the janitor came to close the church,\nand the answer to her soul did not come till the dawning of the morning.\n\nThe following day Dr. Edwards started as usual to read his sermon, but\nhe soon put it away and began a straight evangelistic talk, professed\nChristians stood in their places and asked for prayers, elders and\ndeacons prostrated themselves before God, the whole town became a prayer\ncircle, and the New England Revival had begun.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER V\n BIG FEET\n\n\nOne day a very large man, well over sixty years, and with three fingers\noff each hand, in a very modest way said to me, \u201cI am so ashamed to tell\na lady my needs,\u201d and he turned up his foot and showed me where the sole\nwas worn out, so that at every step he made he left a track in blood.\n\u201cYou poor fellow, you need not be ashamed to tell me of need like that.\nI shall arrange for you to stay at the Mission till I get shoes for\nyou.\u201d\n\nHe was of the class who sell shoestrings and pencils, but in very cold\nweather people do not stop to buy from street merchants. That night,\nafter the midweek service of my church, I rose in my place and asked for\na pair of shoes number 9\u00bd or 10. The men hooted, no one of them ever\nwore that size, declaring, of course, that I wanted them to wear myself.\n\n\u201cWell,\u201d I said, \u201cwhether you wear them or not, you get them for me,\u201d and\nI told the story of the bleeding feet. I did the same at my boarding\nhouse. By the next day one of the elders of the church came with two\npairs of shoes which looked nearly big enough for boats, also one of the\nmen of the boarding house sent to Annapolis to his father, a very large\nman, for a pair of shoes, which came to me by express. I put the three\npairs into a basket and rushed to the Mission, when lo! the poor man\ncould barely get his toes into the shoes. With trembling lip, he said,\n\u201cIt is simply disgraceful to be old and poor and so awful big that even\none's friends cannot help a fellow.\u201d \u201cIndeed, it is no disgrace to be\nold, poor and big, but it is a disgrace to be a bad man of any size or\nage. Don't you worry, I shall find the shoes.\u201d\n\nThat afternoon I met a Board composed mostly of men eminent in city\naffairs, among them was a distinguished lawyer, a very large man. He sat\nwith his foot across one knee, when I leaned over and said, \u201cBrother,\nwould you mind walking home in your hose, and giving me those shoes for\na poor chap as large as you are?\u201d \u201cDo you really mean it?\u201d \u201cYes, I do;\nonly I will let you wear them home, then send them to me with hose,\nunder clothes, and any other clothing you can spare.\u201d\n\nBy the next morning I had clothing for the poor fellow, and Mr. G.'s\nnumber 11 shoes fit as if made to order.\n\nIf the poor man had successfully sold pencils and shoestrings all winter\nhe could not have been so well clothed as he was that day. But, best of\nall, while he was obliged to wait he read the four Gospels through\nseveral times, and he sought and found salvation in Jesus Christ. That\nwas November, 1911. Since that he has gotten a place as night watchman\nin a large building, and he is a good and faithful man.\n\nIn Missions we have a large number of deserted wives with children, whom\nwe clothe. By that help they can by their own labor keep their little\nfamilies together, and then on every holiday, such as Christmas,\nThanksgiving, etc., we bring them all to the Mission for reunion and a\nbig dinner. The joyous seasons for the rich are the saddest times for\nthe poor and the bereaved. It is such a privilege to be the\nadministrators of the church people who send money and clothing for\nthese purposes. In return, the Missions are the real protection of the\ncity. A hungry man is dangerous, and a man with a hungry family is a\nmenace.\n\nMy maid told me, one extreme cold day, that a man was at the door to see\nme. I found there one of the most dangerous housebreakers in the\ncountry. \u201cMurphy,\u201d I said, \u201cI do not want to see any of you men at my\nhome. What do you want?\u201d \u201cI am starving.\u201d \u201cWell, go to the Mission, we\nnever turn a man away there.\u201d \u201cI wouldn't be caught dead there.\u201d \u201cWhy\nnot?\u201d \u201cWell, I hate Kline (the Superintendent) and the whole outfit, but\nI am starving, I tell you.\u201d\n\nI knew by that he had been stealing at the Mission. Thieves fold up the\nsheets and pillow-cases, even when they have been entertaining free, put\nthe bedding under their coats and get away with it. In time we get to\nknow them and will not put them in the dormitories, but only in the\nbarracks fitted with shelving but with no pillows or covers, but fire is\nkept all night. The bath and toilet-room adjoins or is part of the\nbarracks, so that men are made comfortable. I took Murphy to an eating\nhouse near by and filled him up, but at the same time warning him to get\nout of town as soon as possible or change his course and become a good\nman. Now, if that man had not been given food he would surely have\ngotten it, if it cost a human life. Bad as he was, he would have been\nfed had he gone to the Mission. I feared he would not go, but would\ncommit some depredation. Speaking of thieves, reminds me of the case of\na man whom I shall call\n\n\n JAMES MANN.\n\nOne evening a tall, fine-looking man came into the Mission chapel. One\ngets to know thieves somewhat as you know an Englishman, a German, an\nItalian, by the marks environment have left on the person. I knew on\nsight that he was a thief. We had a Salvation Army man at the Mission\nthat night from West Virginia, who gave the message. His subject was,\n\u201cBe sure thy sin will find thee out.\u201d\n\nHe had been a thief, had served time, but now he told how happy and safe\nhe felt serving God and in being a good citizen. Several men knelt at\nthe altar that night, so when 9.30 P.M., the time for dismissal, came,\nthe men were permitted to go to the dormitories while one or two workers\nprayed with the penitents.\n\nMr. Mann retired, but he could distinctly hear the praying. He declared\nthat a voice said, \u201c_Mann, now or never_.\u201d He tried to go to sleep, the\ninward voice persisted, \u201cNow or never.\u201d He put on his clothes, went back\nto the chapel, threw himself down at the altar and cried to God for\nmercy for himself.\n\nThe workers gathered about him, he told God his story of sin and shame,\nand God heard his cry for mercy, and he rose a forgiven sinner. His kit\nof burglar tools were thrown into the Potomac River. He had come to\nWashington to burglarize in the northwest section of the city during the\ntime when Mr. Taft was being inaugurated. His portrait could have been\nseen in the rogues' gallery in every large city of the country, but in a\nfew weeks God so changed his face that the man could not have been\nrecognized by the old portrait.\n\nWe told Major Sylvester, Chief of Police, of the case, and Mann was put\non the special police force at the Union Station at inauguration time,\nand never before nor since was there ever such a quick nabbing of the\nnoted thieves as at the Taft inaugural occasion.\n\nMr. Mann's mother came on from her western home. She is a sincere\nChristian woman. It was doubtless the answering of her prayers which\nbrought conviction, then salvation to that dangerous man. Once she said,\n\u201cJames, I never heard of you for two whole years; where were you then?\u201d\nHe made an evasive answer, but we knew that he had spent them behind\nbars.\n\nAfter the inauguration the special police were discharged, and Mr. Mann\nwent to work as a carpenter. He made a good assistant carpenter. About\nsix months after that one of the Northern States was making a search for\nlarge men for their mounted police. Major Sylvester recommended Mann, as\nhe was six feet four inches tall, and from that day to this he has been\non the mounted constabulary of a great State, engaged in enforcing the\nlaw, rather than breaking the laws of his country.\n\nNow, is not that real service to the State? This man was restored to his\nfamily, to society, to God. He became a factor for righteousness,\ninstead of an element of danger to the commonwealth.\n\nWe are not always fortunate enough to see men of that class seek God. On\none occasion three young thieves came into the Mission, they were of the\ntraveling men of their base business. After I returned to my home I\ncalled up the police and told them my suspicion, and asked them to watch\nthe Mission very closely from eleven o'clock until morning. They were\nall captured between twelve and one o'clock midnight as they were\nleaving the building and escorted to the station and told to leave town,\nwhich, of course, they did immediately.\n\n[Illustration: FREE SUPPER SERVICE]\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER VI\n HOW WE GOT A NEW MISSION BUILDING\n\n\n (A CHAPTER ON FAITH)\n\nAlthough by January 1, 1911, we had eighty-four beds filled nearly every\nnight with homeless men, we felt ourselves very much hampered for room.\nWe turned many away. Many a poor fellow that winter walked the streets\nall night to keep from freezing.\n\nWhen we pray for a thing which we think the work of the Lord requires,\nwe begin at once to arrange for it, as if the money to do the work were\nalready at hand. Our paper, _The Gospel Tidings_, of January, 1911,\nsaid, \u201cOur Mission now does business in three different localities, and\nwill soon be obliged to rent two more places for the wood cutting\ndepartment and for opening a penny lunch-room.\u201d\n\nWe were so sure that the Lord's work needed enlarging that we went to\nthe very best architects we knew, Gregg & Leisenring, and told them our\nplans and needs, and they prepared with the greatest care, drawings for\na building costing at the very least $50,000, besides the cost of the\nland. Then the writer visited the seats of the mighty in New York City\nwith the best introductions that the District Commissioners and leading\nstatesmen could give. While I was received with great kindness and\ncourtesy, I was distinctly told by one magnate that he helped only the\nyoung and those starting in life; by another that his charity could\nnever take a local form, that he gave along the line of research for\ncauses and remedies of diseases. The women, whose secretaries I met,\nthemselves not being visible to plain people, I was assured had planned\nall their surplus income for five to eight years ahead, so that I came\nback convinced that God's way for the Gospel Mission was not by way of\nNew York City.\n\nAbout that time a great fire occurred in an eastern city, and many men\nand women lost their lives, and the order went out in Washington that\nevery building where a large number of people worked or slept must have\nplenty of fire-escapes.\n\nWe found to put fire-escapes on the Gospel Mission would cost $125, an\nimmense sum to us, but we were preparing to put up the fire-escapes when\nthe owner refused his permission. We told the police, and asked time to\nrelocate, but were peremptorily ordered out of 1230 Pennsylvania Avenue,\nN. W. We could find no suitable building obtainable within our means.\n\n\n A MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS\n\nwas called at my house for prayer. There were thirteen members present.\nThe object of the meeting was stated by President Wheeler, a few of\nGod's promises read from His word, and we went on our knees for prayer.\n\nEach one asked for a suitable home to do the Master's work as seen and\ndone by the Gospel Mission. It was noticeable that after the eighth\nperson had prayed, each prayer took more and more the form of\nthanksgiving, as if we already had received the building, or money to\nbuild it.\n\nThere had been offered to us a very large double building which had once\nbeen used as the District Building, and upon which it was claimed that\nthe government of the United States had once put $60,000 to make it\nfireproof. It is situated at 214-216 John Marshall Place, N. W., not far\nfrom the foot of Capitol Hill. After having the distinct answer to\nprayer that God was working with us, a letter was written to Mrs. John\nHay, wife of the deceased great Secretary of State, asking her to\npurchase that building for $25,000 for us and to permit us to pay her a\nfair interest and pay the principal in annual payments. The letter was\nwritten about the first of March. Almost by return mail Mrs. Hay replied\nthat she did not care to make so large an investment, but if we cared to\ngo forward and purchase the building ourselves, that on April 1 she\nwould give us $5000 on the first payment. Never will I forget the scene\nwhen that letter was read.\n\nMr. H. D. Gordon had received the letter just as he was starting for the\nBoard meeting, his face was radiant. When Mr. Wheeler came in the letter\nwas put in his hands without comment. As soon as he read the words, \u201cI\nwill give you $5000 on the first payment,\u201d without waiting to finish the\nletter, he said, \u201cLet us pray.\u201d We, on our knees, each one thanked God\nfor the gift dictated by His Spirit, and asked God's blessing on the\nmagnanimous woman who had obeyed the Spirit's order.\n\nThe Building Committee eventually secured the property for $22,000, of\nwhich $5000 was to be a cash payment, and by agreeing to pay $1750\nannually, and to pay semi-annually a 5\u00bd per cent interest.\n\nThink of the growth in spiritual power of a little organization which in\nSeptember, 1908, shuddered at a bill of $25, in the early spring of 1911\njoyously making itself responsible for $17,000 bearing a semi-annual\ninterest amounting in the year to $850!\n\nSince that time we have made three annual payments of $1750 each, and we\nhave met all interest to date.\n\nProbably in no civilized country was there ever a dirtier house. The\nbuilding had been occupied by some foreigners until it had become so\nvile that the police condemned it and obliged them to move out. They\ntook with them all gas fixtures, all sewerage, heating and water pipes;\nin fact, wrecked the building, but a mission band is brave, and went\nvaliantly to work.\n\nMore than one hundred wagon loads of dirt were taken from the cellars.\nWe know, for we paid ten cents a load to the dump. When we had put in\n$100 in glass, it scarcely made a mark, so large is the building. It has\nsixty-six rooms, some of them as large as the chapel of an ordinary\nchurch.\n\nThe walls have been scraped and calcimined and whitewashed; the entire\nwoodwork inside and all the outside has been painted; new gas pipes and\ngas fixtures have been placed; new sewerage and bath-rooms have been\nprepared. Four new fire-escapes and an electric fire-alarm system\ninstalled; a splendid French steel range has been set in the kitchen;\nhot and cold water supplied to various parts of the building, etc.\n\nThe first meeting was held in our new building, 216 John Marshall Place,\nN. W., on the evening of April 15, 1911, Mr. Wheeler presiding.\n\nWe found the roof leaked so badly that in case of storm some rooms\nbecame uninhabitable. Again I was obliged to personally guarantee the\npayment of $500 for a new roof. Again, Mr. Ernest Gichner came to my\nhelp. He put on a good roof, built up and pointed the thirteen chimneys,\nput ventilators in many chimneys, saw to resetting, reglazed all\nskylights, and permitted us to pay him $25 per month till the debt was\npaid off.\n\nWhen the possibility of completing the first cleaning seemed most\nhopeless, when heat, water and gas pipes had to be replaced, several\nmembers of the Board pledged $100 each. To some of us that meant great\nself-denial. Mrs. Richard Butler gave $500 and Mrs. Spindle $200; in all\nwe spent $5000 in repairing and cleaning that building. Every step was\nmade in faith.\n\nIt was wonderful how our people sacrificed to get all this done; women\nwho do not do such work at home came and scrubbed and cleaned; many a\npoor man gave a day's work. Three men who readily command $3 per day,\nworked three months each at $1 a day with room and board. The people of\nWashington sent us piles of old furniture, for which we were deeply\ngrateful. Then Superintendent Kline got a great quantity of furniture\nand many feet of piping for conducting heat, and secondhand radiators at\nthe sale of the old Riggs Hotel. We secured a good mechanic, and with\nour mechanics at the Mission, installed the heating plant. The expenses\nduring that time were at least $200 per week. At our Board meeting one\nTuesday, Treasurer Gordon reported $4.84 on hand. All business was\nstopped immediately and we went to prayer telling our Father that we had\nbut $4.84 and the bills of the week would be due on Saturday. We had\neach of us done all we could afford. The following Tuesday the Treasurer\nreported all bills paid and $284 in the treasury. Thus God not only\nsupplied all our wants, but graciously relieved our anxiety.\n\n\n SPEAKER CHAMP CLARK\n\nRather an amusing incident occurred when our cleaning was most\nstrenuous. We have a large number of good women who will do good work if\nI lead, so on one occasion I took a tin bucket with rags, soap,\nscrub-brush, etc., and went to help on work rather out of my line. I\nstarted to return with the bucket in hand. When I came to the car I saw\nthe Hon. Champ Clark, who had then very recently been elected Speaker,\nat the front of the car. I was careful to take the back seat, hoping he\nwould not see me. I had barely got seated when he came back and took a\nseat beside me. I tried to apologize for my appearance and impedimenta.\nHe said, \u201cOh, bother! Never mind. What fault are you Republicans finding\nwith me now?\u201d and we went at the Reciprocity Bill, then before the\nHouse, with hammer and tongs. When I got off at Second Street, S. E.,\nthe Speaker carried the bucket and handed it to me in his gallant way,\nstill talking of the measure before Congress. I doubt if he recognized\nwhether it was an old tin bucket or a jewel case which he transferred to\nme.\n\nAs long as this is a faith chapter, I shall here insert a statement of\nhow God sent the last $300 on our annual payment and semi-annual\ninterest due and paid May 7, 1913.\n\nThis is from the June, 1913, number of _Gospel Tidings_:\n\n\n HOW THE LORD PAID THE DEBT\n\nMrs. Monroe's Letter in _Lutheran Observer_ of May 16:\n\n\u201cOn May 1 (1913), we were owing at the Gospel Mission on the building\n$15,500 with $406 semi-annual interest. We have agreed to pay $1750 each\nyear, so we were responsible for $2156 on May 1; by special agreement it\nwas not paid until the 7th. I want to tell my friends who have prayed\nwith me in this struggle how the Lord led us.\n\n\u201cAt the Board meeting, Tuesday, April 29, we had $1140 in the treasury.\nBy Wednesday morning we had $1200. Thursday we had $1300, and on Friday,\nat Dr. Stearns's class, I reported $1400 in the treasury and requested\nGod's children to ask for the $756 yet due. By Sunday, May 4, we had\n$1659, when Hon. B. H. Warner subscribed $200, bringing our fund to\n$1859. A small bill reduced it to $1856.\n\n\u201cThe gentleman who held the note telephoned from Baltimore that he would\nnot come for his money until Wednesday, May 7. At the Tuesday evening\nmeeting five of us prayed definitely for $300. On Wednesday morning,\njust after breakfast, a friend telephoned, 'Please come up at once.'\nNow, that is my writing day, and I felt I could hardly go, but my times\nare in His hands, and if He said 'Go,' then that was my orders. I went\nat once, and my friend said, 'I feel you are needing $300 on your debt,\nand the Lord woke me up to tell me to hand you $300, and I am prepared\nto pay it.'\n\n\u201cTo say how grateful we all are cannot be put into words. But at this\ntime, when the city was being scoured for $300,000 for the Emergency\nHospital, when the Ohio sufferers had claimed all we thought we could\nspare, for the Board of a little mission, dependent mostly on the poor,\nas the poor man's church, to pray down from heaven $2156 of a special\nfund, besides the running expenses, which are always very heavy, means\nmore than money to us. It seems to be the divine seal of God's approval\non our work. I had subscribed $500 for myself and friends. He graciously\npaid through me $656, and now, with the $300, He has made my share $956.\n\n\u201cSome of the readers of the _Observer_ sent me money, but more prayed\nfor our work. Now, join with us in praising God for a message straight\nfrom the throne of our dear, loving heavenly Father.\n\n\u201cTo everyone who helped, even to the amount of five cents; to those who\ndenied themselves usual comforts to help the Mission; to those who gave\nto help provide shelter for the poor\u2014to each of us He sends, I am sure,\nthis dear message, 'I glorify you in order that your faith may be\nstrengthened and that you may glorify me.' If any of us has ever had any\ndoubt of God's special providence to His children, let this concrete\nexample be a permanent love-message of assurance to every such doubter.\u201d\n\n\n NEXT STEP OF FAITH\n\nBy June, 1913, we found that nearly every Sunday night more than one\nhundred persons had to be denied entrance on account of lack of room. We\nsaw by taking down a partition on the north side of the chapel between\nchapel and hall, we could seat at least one hundred more. We were just\nover the strain of the last payment, and we were loath to ask our\nfriends for more help, but as God continues to each of His children the\nblessings which they daily enjoy, so each child of God must continue to\nhelp in His work, and relying on Him \u201cwho worketh with us,\u201d we ordered\nthe wall taken out at a cost of about $900, which afterward proved to be\n$1300. Again I had to make myself responsible for the payment of that\namount. It was all paid on time.\n\nIn this faith chapter I desire to insert the following from the _Gospel\nTidings_ of June, 1913:\n\n\n MR. WHEELER'S STORY\n\n\u201cAt the Sunday evening service, December 18, 1912, Mr. Wheeler said:\n'When I was in charge of religious work at the United States jail some\nyears ago, one Sunday, after service, I went round, as was my custom, to\nshake hands with the men behind the bars. I came to a fine-looking man,\nto whom I said, \u201cWhy are you here? I have often seen you on the street,\nand I have thought of you as a good citizen.\u201d \u201cO Mr. Wheeler, I have\nbeen a good citizen. My wife and I have a little store in Georgetown,\nwhere we sell oysters in the winter and ice cream in the summer. My wife\ngave me $65 to settle our bill with the wholesale oyster man, and I took\na number of drinks, and finally went into the marble saloon and took a\ndrink with some strangers, and as surely as I tell you I do not remember\nanother thing until I found myself in a cell at the station house.\u201d'\n\n\u201cOn further inquiry Mr. Wheeler found that the prisoner was charged with\npassing counterfeit money. It appeared that after he came out of the\nsaloon a Jew was crying clothing on D Street. This man went into the\nJew's clothing store, bought a suit of clothes, for which he offered a\n$50 bill in payment. The Jew could not make change, so took it to a\nneighbor, who assured him the bill was bad, and the man's arrest\nimmediately followed.\n\n\u201cMr. Wheeler went often to the cell to pray with and for the poor\nprisoner, who devoted his time to the study of the Gospels. He was\nsoundly converted. Mr. Wheeler said, 'Do not trust alone to your lawyer.\nAppeal to Jesus Christ now to clear you, for, as far as I can see, man\ncannot.'\n\n\u201cHis lawyer told Mr. Wheeler that the court would surely send the\nprisoner to the penitentiary. On the morning of the trial several\nChristian men met together and prayed over the case. The court convened\nat 10 A.M., and the case was immediately called. A stranger asked to be\nsworn as a witness. He said about this: 'I was in Washington on the day\nthis affair occurred. I do not often take a drink, but I happened to be\nin the saloon when this man came in. He took a drink with two young\nfellows who happened to be there, and the liquor made him drunk at once,\nwhen one of the young fellows said, \u201cIt is my turn to treat, and I will,\nif any of you can change a $50 bill.\u201d This man brought out lots of\nmoney, and got the $50 bill in exchange. I left Washington the next day,\nthat is how I was fortunate enough to remember the date. I got back\nyesterday, and happened to see a statement of this case in the evening's\npaper, and I felt simply compelled to come and give my testimony.'\u201d\n\nThe prisoner was reprimanded (which was unnecessary, as he was a new\ncreature in Christ Jesus), but the case against him was dismissed, as it\nwas apparent there was no intent to defraud the Jew. His family nearly\nsmothered him with kisses and embraces, and he walked out a free man.\n\nSkeptics may say this was mere chance. But how did it happen that the\nman came back on that day, saw that account in the paper, felt compelled\nto testify? No, God directed the case after it was committed to Him.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER VII\n VARIETIES OF WORK IN A GOSPEL MISSION\n\n\nWe are apt to think that all persons who accept the hospitality of the\nMission are low-born people; we have not found it so. There have knelt\nat the altar of the Gospel Mission, priests and preachers, lawyers,\ndoctors, merchants, engineers, college men and poor chaps who have had\nno education but that of the street.\n\nI remember one night when we were located at 1230 Pennsylvania Avenue,\nthere knelt at the altar three men, one an ex-preacher, one a graduate\nof the University of Virginia, and one the nephew of an ex-President of\nthe United States. We believed they were all converted. The preacher was\nin bad physical condition, and we felt it necessary to put him into a\nChristian institution for such as he for medical treatment. The taste\nfor liquor had gone, but the ulcerated stomach and bowels remained, also\nhis nerves were in a dangerous condition. How we ever obtained money\nenough to pay that man's bills for six weeks is yet a marvel, but we did\nit. He came out a redeemed, humble man. He went to the pastor of a large\nchurch in Brooklyn, whom he had known at college, and before that large\nchurch he acknowledged his sin with shame and deep contrition. The\nchurch had grace enough to accept him. The congregation opened a rescue\nmission, supported entirely by that church, where for five years he has\npreached the gospel and has saved a hundredfold more souls than the big\nchurch which supports the mission.\n\nThe Virginian never again crossed our path, but Mr. Buchanan died after\nthree years of a good life, an honored member of an Episcopal church in\nWashington.\n\nMen who have been dissipated, even when redeemed and reformed do not, as\na usual thing, live to old age. The wages of sin is death to the body,\nthough the soul may enter upon eternal life.\n\nAmong the sorrowful who nightly are to be found at the missions of this\ncity either pensioned by their family or the government, but not\npermitted to return to their homes, is one man who was once one of the\n_best_ mail agents between Washington and New York City. Another, the\nson of an ex-cabinet officer. Another has been Chief Mathematician in a\ngovernment bureau, besides about twenty wrecks of various government\ndepartments.\n\nI remember the case of a well-known man in Philadelphia. He was\nconverted one extremely cold night at the Breakfast Association. No\nprovision is made there for beds, so that poor fellow started \u201cto carry\nthe banner\u201d\u2014that is to walk the streets all night. About three o'clock\nin the morning he was taken with a congestive chill. A kind policeman,\nseeing the man was ill and not drunk, sent him at once to that blessed\nlittle Presbyterian hospital in West Philadelphia.\n\nIt happened that one of the Board of Directors of the Breakfast\nAssociation, Mr. Tibbals, had given the poor fellow his card. The\nauthorities, finding the card, sent for Mr. Tibbals. The sick man had\nrevived enough when Mr. Tibbals arrived, to give his true name and the\naddress of his parents, which was a number on Fifth Avenue, New York\nCity. That street was then a residence street for very wealthy people.\nJust as soon as it could be done, a telegram for $100 was received in\nreply and we were directed to do all we could for him. But the man died\nbefore night, and Mr. Tibbals was asked to take the body to New York.\nThe coffin was carried into one of the handsomest brown-stone residences\non that handsome avenue.\n\nThe mother and father met Mr. Tibbals, and in the parlor the coffin was\nopened for identification. It was the body of the only son of that proud\nfamily. The father gave one look, one great sob, then seized his hat and\nfled. The mother said, \u201cO Mr. Tibbals, you think I am grief-stricken\nover his death! But I am not even sorry. This son has been a drunkard\nfrom childhood. We could not keep him at home, for he would steal\neverything he could carry away and sell it for whisky. Since we lost\nsight of him, I have never opened a paper without fearing I should read\nhis name in connection with some awful crime. No, I am relieved. I shall\nknow where he is. I have often gotten into my carriage and have had the\ndriver go up and down this street (which was then covered with\ncobblestones) as fast as the law permitted him to drive, and I have\nscreamed and screamed my heart out. I have gone to the seashore to\nscream to let off my nervous strain. Had I given just one such scream in\nmy own house, I would this day be in a mad house. Oh, no, for this\ndeath, after what you hope was a conversion, I am deeply grateful to\nGod!\u201d\n\nAnd yet people wonder at Carrie Nation. It is a wonder that grief like\nthat does not make iconoclasts of all mothers whose sons go down the\nJericho road.\n\nThe following testimony, given in the winter of 1911, by one who had\nstood on many rounds of the social ladder, a man who accepted\nredemption, and is now kept by the power of God:\n\n\n A REMARKABLE TESTIMONY\n\n\u201cWhen Brother Wheeler requested me to address this meeting, I felt\nsomewhat nervous, for the simple reason that I had never in my life\naddressed a religious meeting before, and I so stated to Mr. Wheeler.\nHowever, I could not refuse him, and here I am.\n\n\u201cTrue, in years gone by, while down South, I have spoken to political\ngatherings. Since I got religion, I stopped that. If I should ever make\na political address again, it will be in the interest of the Prohibition\nparty. I regret that I have no experience in addressing a religious\nmeeting, and I, therefore, ask you to be patient with me, especially as,\ndue to previous engagements, I was unable to prepare myself, except in\nso far that I have decided to make a few remarks on personal salvation,\nand by the term personal I have my own in mind.\n\n\u201cI want to tell you something about my own experience, how I had lost my\nGod and found Him again. A man born and reared on the Bowery or any of\nits side streets in New York City, a man who from his childhood on has\nbeen influenced by evil-minded and sinful people, has never heard of\nChrist, and in the course of time becomes a hardened criminal, such a\nman may be condemned by mankind, but never by God.\n\n\u201cA man born and raised in a comfortable, refined home, who has been\ntaught the doctrines of Christ, has confessed his belief that Christ is\nHis Saviour, has a full knowledge of right and wrong and of the duties\nhe owes his fellow-man\u2014if such a man becomes a willing victim to sensual\npleasures, he may not be condemned by mankind, but God will condemn him,\nunless he repents and starts to lead a new, clean life.\n\n\u201cOnly too often men are so completely wrapped up in their personal\nmatters, as, for instance, in their business affairs, that they\nabsolutely lose sight of the obligations they owe God, and also their\nfellow-men, and, as a natural result, neglect their souls.\n\n\u201cI honestly believe that such a man is more to be pitied than the ones\nwho, either through their own fault or being victims of circumstances,\nhave lost their hold in life and finally found themselves 'down and\nout.' A man may temporarily be without food and shelter, but this is\nnothing compared to trying to live without God. However, a man who is a\nwanderer on the face of the earth and who has lost his God, is indeed a\nwretched being. I am speaking from experience.\n\n\u201cFor years I had violated the divine laws. I had been what is generally\ntermed a society man, 'way down South. I enjoyed a large income, but I\nspent everything for worldly pleasures. Finally, I became disgusted with\nmy surroundings; but, better still, I became disgusted with myself. I\ndrifted to New York City, determined to live a new life. This occurred\nabout fourteen years ago. Up to that time I had not been within or even\nnear a church for seven years. The New York atmosphere apparently did\nnot agree with me. Instead of leading a clean, moral life\u2014by that I\nunderstood at that time a life simply conforming to the requirements of\nthe social laws (the divine laws did not exist for me)\u2014I became worse\nthan I had ever been.\n\n\u201cAlthough I made good money, as the saying is, I was, nevertheless,\nbroke all the time. I voluntarily gave up several splendid positions\nbecause objections had been made to my reporting late in the morning for\nduty, and, having become rather nervous, I practically found it\nimpossible to get along with anyone. I had become a slave to my habits,\nand finally associated with the 'has beens,' as they are sometimes\ncalled.\n\n\u201cThere is not a man in this room who knows more about the life on the\neast side of New York than I do. I know full well what it means to be\nhungry and homeless. I have worked as a longshoreman, newspaperman,\ncook, bookkeeper and correspondent. I have been running hot frankfurter\nstands, etc., sometimes I had two jobs in one day. I was given a\nwonderful taste of the ups and downs in New York City, especially the\ndowns. I certainly am grateful to Providence for subjecting me to that\nawful experience in New York City, for in that way I learned to know\nhuman nature. I learned to know that the so-called submerged masses were\ncomposed of human beings, not brainless individuals; that, as a matter\nof fact, there are better people, especially morally, among the poor\nthan among the so-called society people.\n\n\u201cI might be asked why it was that I did not find God again, when I was\ndown and out in New York City. Christ was knocking, knocking all the\ntime to enter my heart, but I had become a cynic and would not let Him\nin. I used to think in those times that if there was a just God I would\nnot be in such a sorrowful plight. The trouble with me was, I did not\nhave enough sense to admit that my condition was simply due to my own\nfaults and to nothing else.\n\n\u201cDuring my stay in New York I have met many saintly people, men and\nwomen who devoted their time, energy and money to the uplift of the\nhomeless and the friendless. Those good people tried their best to have\nme converted. They did not succeed because I was not willing and because\nI actually believed most of my friends who were in charge of the several\nmissions that I was in the habit of attending were suffering from\nhallucinations, although perfectly honest in their self-imposed task.\n\n[Illustration: PENNY LUNCH ROOM]\n\n\u201cThe greatest evil in New York City is, as everywhere, the saloon. The\nmajority of you men present here this evening must admit if it were not\nfor the saloon you would not be here as applicants for bodily\nassistance. There are evil spirits in us and around us to lead us\nastray; the devil's worst temptation is whisky or any other intoxicating\ndrink. Man was made in the image of God; when a man gets drunk he is\nworse than a beast. A man will get drunk again and again, a beast will\nnot, having seemingly more sense than a man. The saloon is the greatest\nfoe to the spread of the gospel. In most cases the saloon-keeper knows\nquite well that he is a highway robber, that his business is ruining\nuntold thousands of men, women and children, but as his so-called\nbusiness is a legalized one, he may continue indirectly committing\nmurder.\n\n\u201cReally I have more respect for the highwayman and robber than for a\nsaloon-keeper. During my voluntary and involuntary observations in New\nYork and elsewhere, I have come to the conclusion that Christ would\nconquer the world in much less time if only the awful saloon and dive\ncould be eliminated.\n\n\u201cIn my travels in this country and in the foreign countries, I have met\nmany people who by word and deed were spreading the gospel. Some of them\nnaturally inquired of me whether I had been converted. My answer was\n'No,' because, as a matter of fact, I did not know the meaning of the\nword converted. I was told to seek Christ and the meaning would be made\nplain to me. Evidently I was not sufficiently willing to meet Christ\nhalf way, and thus I wasted years of my life before I finally submitted\nto the pleadings of the Saviour.\n\n\u201cWhile I was in the Philippine Islands, twelve years ago, I was deeply\nimpressed with the different attitudes of the officers and enlisted men\nwhen on the firing line. It was plain, even to the casual observer, that\nthe men who were thoroughly devout Christians\u2014and there are many\nthousands of Christians in our army\u2014were not afraid to face the bullets,\nbut the men who were agnostics and unbelievers, whatever that may mean,\nwere so nervous and excited that they hardly knew what they were doing,\nor they were downright cowards.\n\n\u201cIn my own case I was not afraid of death, as I had given very little\nthought to such a possibility; besides I had become more or less\nindifferent to life and possible death. One hot summer day, while\nfighting the Filipinos, I was shot through the head. An army surgeon\nbandaged me up as best he could and then assured me I was very likely\nnot to live through the day.\n\n\u201cIf I ever got scared, it was then, and if ever I prayed, it was then,\nin spite of the excruciating pains I suffered. The words of a comrade,\nwho was a fine soldier, though not a thorough Christian, uttered by him\nshortly before I was wounded, were constantly ringing in my ears,\nnamely, 'A man may possibly live without Christ, but he cannot die\nwithout Christ.'\n\n\u201cFor a month or so the doctors and nurses did not think I would live,\nbut God spared my life, and no doubt for a purpose. For six months I was\nunable to utter a word, as the bullet had passed through my tongue. It\nwas well for me I could not talk to any human being, but I could talk to\nGod. During those months I lived my entire life over again. I promised\nGod to become a better man. True, I became more earnest in my views of\nlife, I realized the value of the golden rule, but I was not converted.\nI could not yet understand the meaning of the word.\n\n\u201cThe Red Cross nurses, who at the beginning of the trouble in the\nPhilippines were in charge of the hospital, were not only experts in\ntheir profession, but were splendid types of self-sacrificing\nChristians, and their presence alone made the patients think of their\nmothers or sisters or other dear ones at home, thousands of miles away,\nand thus unconsciously these nurses, noble representatives of womanhood,\nfrequently wrought a change for the better in the hearts of the wounded\nsoldiers.\n\n\u201cWhile I was a patient at Manilla I saw many a man pass out of this\nlife. The man with Christ in his heart died with a smile on his lips,\nknowing he had done his duty and that Christ would meet him. The\nunbeliever suffered agonies.\n\n\u201cI was wounded almost twelve years ago, not a day has passed without my\ncommunicating with God, and God was always willing to talk with me, when\nI addressed Him. As a result of my experience in the Philippines I spent\nalmost three years in the hospital. I thank God He made me suffer, it\nwas the only possible way for me to find Him again. My conversion did\nnot take place all at once, it took place gradually. God used different\nmeans and ways in recalling me. I cannot mention them here without\nbaring my life to you, which may be of no interest to you. Let me assure\nyou no man can succeed without Christ. A man may amass a fortune, but if\nhe neglects his soul his life is of little value.\n\n\u201cAmong the applicants at different missions, I have met men who claimed\nthe good people in charge were nothing but hypocrites. It is certainly\nstrange that those fellows apply to hypocrites for help. Why don't they\ngo to the agnostic or to the unbeliever?\n\n\u201cFollow my advice, first seek Christ; He is always ready and willing to\naccept you; the rest is easy. A drunkard cannot become sober by taking\nthe Keeley cure or anything like that. The desire for drink is often\ninherited, medicine will not cure the sufferer, only God's grace can\ncure him.\n\n\u201cWhy is it that the man who lives with Christ is always happy, even\nunder adverse circumstances, and the man without Him is, as a rule,\nnothing but an egotist? You can easily find the answer yourself. Come to\nChrist, and, if you are willing to come, why not now?\u201d\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER VIII\n THE NEED OF RESCUE WORK\n\n\nAs early as the fall of 1909 we put out this call:\n\n\n CENTRAL BUREAU OF LABOR\n\n \u201cThe District of Columbia needs a Labor Bureau to which our Mission\n and the Associated Charities can send men and women out of\n employment. The Bureau, being a government affair, should know where\n labor is needed and should furnish transportation to such places,\n whether it be to the cotton fields of the South, the harvest fields\n of the West, or the manufactories of New England.\n\n \u201cSuch a Bureau should secure from the railroads concessions, such as\n they give to immigrants, in sending our unemployed to the fields of\n labor.\n\n \u201cUnless Society, with a big 'S,' reaches a hand to the unemployed\n these people will surely become a menace to our great cities, and on\n some sad day they will dynamite our public buildings.\n\n \u201cWe, who work among them, know their sorrow, their anguish, their\n despair, which will end in desperation, unless relief is furnished.\n\n \u201cUse your influence to secure a Central National Bureau of Labor for\n the unemployed. The strong and wealthy can care for themselves, but\n a good government should concern itself with its weaker members.\u201d\n\n_The Survey_ (published in New York) is now (1913) steadily advocating\nsomething of this kind, and now Congress (October, 1913,) is considering\nthe matter.\n\n\n FOR THE UNEMPLOYED\n\nAn organization or industrial army of the United States was provided for\nin a bill presented to the Senate by Senator Poindexter, upon the\nrequest of R. A. Dague, of Creston, Iowa. Eligible to membership in the\narmy would be any unemployed man more than sixteen years old. The\nSecretary of Labor would be the recruiting officer, but an \u201cindustrial\ngeneral,\u201d at a salary of $250 a month, would command the forces. The\narmy, according to the bill, would not bear side arms or fight bloody\nbattles, but would be employed in labor at harbors, forts, government\nbuildings, irrigation ditches, canals and other public works of the\nnation, state and municipality. Residents in the United States who\nbecome members would receive $2 a day, \u201ctogether with board and\nlodging,\u201d while those who have been in America less than five years\nwould receive only $1.50. Foreigners who hereafter come to America would\nreceive only 25 cents a day, which would be wrong. We expect from the\nUnited States government that ideal justice, even to a foreign workman,\nwhich we shall each receive when we stand in the presence of Eternal\nJustice.\n\nAll this shows that the idea of a Bureau of Labor which will help the\nlaborer is steadily growing.\n\n\n AN INCIDENT OF THE WINTER OF 1910\n\nOne day Mrs. Kline, the wife of the Superintendent of the Gospel\nMission, phoned me, \u201cWe have a man here so covered with vermin that I\ncannot let him into the house, yet he seems to be an educated man. [This\nwas at the Industrial Department on Fourteenth Street, before we had our\nnew building.] What shall I do now?\u201d \u201cCall Donavan, Hall and Happy, and\ntake him to the woodshed and have a tub of warm water; let the men give\nhim a thorough bath, barber him and wrap him in blankets, till we can\nget clothes for him.\u201d That was done. We found Taylor an educated man, a\ngraduate of the University of Pennsylvania, the editor of a paper in a\nsuburb of Philadelphia. He claimed that he had been \u201cshanghaied,\u201d that\nis, drugged and carried on board an oyster boat as a common laborer. He\nhad gone to Baltimore to go on a drunk, hoping his friends would not\nfind him out, but his Nemesis was there waiting for him.\n\nHe had been kept six weeks on the oyster boat, had been forced to bunk\nwith negroes and common roustabouts. After he became sober, I fancy the\nowners of the boat saw that they had captured the wrong man, and would\ngladly have gotten rid of him. They did not dare approach land lest\ntheir entire crew escape; at last he was put aboard a passing boat and\nsent to Washington. He was over six feet high, of fine physique, about\nthirty-two years of age. We did not find it easy to get clothing\nsuitable for such a person. The day came when he was able to attend the\nservices at the Mission. He kneeled at the altar, and we hoped he was\nconverted. We greatly wanted him to bring suit against the oyster men,\nbut that would have made his case public, and he did not desire that. He\nreadily secured a place on one of our city papers as the purveyor of\nautomobile news, but when pay day came he got drunk and fell down the\nstairs and broke his arm. His system was in bad condition and he was\nobliged to go to the free ward of Providence Hospital. We now wrote to\nhis family, and his mother came for him in a big touring car from\nPhiladelphia and took him home, but the exposure and dissipation had\ndone their perfect work, and he only lived a few months. He seemed, from\nall accounts, a truly penitent man, but only at the judgment day shall\nwe know whether he entered into the rest prepared for the children of\nGod only.\n\nAnother experience in the winter of 1911 gave us a still lower opinion\nof the oyster men of the lower Chesapeake Bay. Mr. Hall telephoned me,\none cold slippery day, \u201cDo come down at once, the oyster men are in. Mr.\nKline is away, and the men are in bad condition.\u201d I went at once. The\nhalls were full of them; many had only overalls, shirt and shoes without\nstockings; they looked frozen. I ordered coffee and rolls at my expense\ntill I could call help. I feared if I opened the clothing room they\nwould raid it, so great were their needs.\n\nIt was too slippery for women to venture out, so I began phoning to\nmembers of the Lutheran Church whom I believed would come. One man in a\nbank said, \u201cI am not a clerk. I can't go out this kind of weather for\nthat class of men.\u201d I replied, \u201cI saw you at communion last Sunday, and\nI venture you promised your God to serve wherever you were needed; here\nis your first call.\u201d \u201cI shall come at once and bring three other members\nof the church with me.\u201d\n\nThat winter the Luther Memorial Church, of Erie, Pa., had sent us a\nlarge box of men's clothing, every article mended, clean and in good\ncondition, and just the week before a charitable organization, at Chevy\nChase, Md., had sent us two large barrels of men's clothing, and a full\nhalf bushel of socks nicely darned and every article clean.\n\nSo we put trousers on one pile, coats on another, vests on another,\nunderclothes on another, a churchman at each pile. I had charge of the\nsocks, then Mr. Ifft, of the Luther Memorial Church, in the next room\nsuperintended the trying on, fitting and exchanging garments. As we\nhanded each garment we said about this, \u201cThe ladies of the different\nchurches send you these garments with their love and sympathy.\u201d Many a\npoor fellow, all unused to blessing, said, \u201cGod bless the churches for\nremembering such as us.\u201d In an hour's time we clothed over seventy-five\nmen. A few did not need complete outfits. We never supposed we had that\nmany garments on hand, but that day cleared out all we had in reserve.\n\nAmong these men were two Welsh boys, both Christians, not long in this\ncountry. They had not known the strength of American liquors (which were\ndoubtless drugged); they were very contrite and were at once put to\nwork, one as a furnaceman, the other in the wood yard. We hear the\nUnited States revenue cutters have been after the oyster men and\nshanghaiing is no longer a common crime.\n\nWhen a friend looked in on that crowd of superior business men helping\ndistribute clothing and saying words of consolation to the broken men,\nhe said, \u201cI believe in my soul you would order in the President of the\nUnited States to help at the Gospel Mission.\u201d \u201cOh, no!\u201d I replied,\n\u201cPresident Taft, good man as he is, would not be permitted to drive so\nmuch as a tack at the Gospel Mission. He does not recognize Jesus as His\nSaviour; only orthodox Christians who can tell the sinner of the\nredeeming power of Jesus the Christ can successfully work in a rescue\nmission like this.\u201d\n\n\n THE HOLIDAYS\n\nare a sore trial to the homeless or to the recently bereaved. Often\nwomen of the highest social rank come to the Gospel Mission on\nThanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's, when we give a good dinner to\neveryone who applies. (These women forget their own woes as they serve\nothers.) The subjoined newspaper letter will give you a good picture of\none such occasion:\n\n\n THANKSGIVING DAY AT THE MISSION OF 1910\n\n\u201cIt is a very curious thing to say, that while I saw no relative of\nmine, being far separated from all of my kindred, while I had no time to\naccept the hospitality of friends, but ate my dinner at my boarding\nhouse, so as to be at the Mission for service, yet it was one of the\nhappiest days of my life. It is wonderful the kindness God puts into the\nhearts of His people at this season. Not a member of the Mission has\nwealth, yet God gave us means through His children to feed between three\nand four hundred people. A little Ohio Joint Synod Lutheran church at\nFulton, Md., sent us a dozen chickens, two bushels of potatoes, some\nfine apples, turnips, beets, cabbage, etc. We bought fifteen turkeys, a\nlot of hams, then the New Willard Hotel prepared our fowls and other\nmeats, and the Raleigh Hotel prepared and cooked all our vegetables,\nadding enormous pans of baked beans, and all this they did free of\ncharge.\n\n\u201cBakers sent us bread and pies, florists sent us great quantities of\nflowers, so that we were able to feed all comers and send out a number\nof baskets to poor families. This was the bodily side; the spiritual\nside was even better.\n\n\u201cThe services began at twelve o'clock noon, and lasted until ten at\nnight, with a change of leaders, musicians and varying audiences each\nhour.\n\n\u201cTwo boys, about sixteen and eighteen years old, had walked all the way\nfrom Richmond, Va. As they fed their famished bodies, one said, 'O Jim,\ndid you ever before hear of such a place where one can really get all he\nwants to eat, can get a hot bath, can get one night's lodging all for\nnothing? I am so tired I just couldn't walk any more!'\n\n\u201cOne man, about thirty years of age, simply prostrated himself at the\naltar, and cried aloud to God for pardon. After he rose he said about\nthis, 'I came from the workhouse this morning an angry, outraged man,\nafter thirty days' sentence. I felt my punishment was a great injustice.\nMy hand was against every man, for I felt every man's hand was against\nme. I was ready for any crime. Someone met me and said, \u201cGo to the\nGospel Mission.\u201d I answered, 'I prefer to go to the saloon and get drunk\nand forget for a few hours my sorrows and loneliness.' But the friend\nbrought me here. You have given me a good dinner, but that is the least,\nyou have reached the friendly hand. Brother Wheeler says I can make this\nmy headquarters till I get work. I am a skilled mechanic, and I can soon\nget my place back again, and now I want to say God has forgiven me my\nsins, and they are so black and so many. I was a Christian in my early\nlife, so I know what I am talking about when I promise my God and all\nyou, my friends, that, God helping me, I, this day, take Christ for my\nSaviour and I will love and serve Him all the days of my life.' That of\nitself paid me for all I could do.\n\n\u201cFrom three to five people came to the altar for prayer each hour, and\nthe last hour saw nine young men pleading for forgiveness, and promising\na new life. In all, I should say, that about fifty people asked for\nprayers and twenty-five people sought pardon.\n\n\u201cWe had a great singer, Mrs. Fitch, whose singing was greatly used of\nGod to call men to repentance. Thanksgiving Day was a great day on\nearth, at the Gospel Mission, and a great day among the angels of heaven\nwho saw sinners redeemed.\u201d\n\n\n CHRISTMAS AT THE GOSPEL MISSION\n\nof 1909 was described by the writer in the following sketch of the\nJanuary, 1910, _Gospel Tidings_:\n\n\u201cChristmas at a mission takes on a great element of thanksgiving; first\nfor the great gift of God\u2014and no anthems sound so sweet, so deep,\nreaching into the deep places of the soul as, 'Now, when Jesus was born\nin Bethlehem.'\n\n\u201cThe first thing on Christmas Day was to remember our brothers in bonds.\nDown at the barracks in the guard-house, we have two converted men. One\na soldier whom we believe is receiving four times the punishment for\nneglect of target practice which he ought to receive; we can only\ncounsel patience, comfort by our visits and send him a good dinner.\n\n\u201cThen a dear Jewish brother is there. He had been in the army two years\nago, but he was baited, tormented and outraged in his poetic soul until\nhe deserted. After that he was converted, and felt with us that he must\ngo back and take whatever the United States had for him. One of our\nworkers went with him to the Secretary of War, who said, 'Why, man,\ndon't come to me; take a carriage for fear you be arrested on the\nstreet.' Mr. Ellison, our helper, took a carriage and went directly to\nthe Commandant at the barracks. The Commandant said, 'We are sorry for\nMr. L., but he will get two years in the penitentiary at hard labor.'\n\n\u201cMr. Ellison said, 'Commander, this man is the servant of the living\nGod; you will give to this Jew that mercy you yourself will at the last\nexpect from the Judge of all the earth, who came to this world as a\nJew.' Well, it would be a long story to tell of the court-martial, but,\nin answer to prayer, the Jew got only six months in the guard house, and\nthat time will expire this month.\n\n\u201cThen two poor workmen are in the hospital, and four sinners who\npromised reformation in the workhouse, must have a remembrance. Kindness\nin shame often leads men to Christ.\n\n\u201cBut the great event of the day was the service from twelve to one\no'clock, followed by a dinner at which from two hundred to three hundred\nlonely men were fed. In the evening a service, at which the old, old\nstory of love is told, heart-broken men are redeemed, and we all go home\nwondering at the never-ending miracle of the gospel, which takes tongues\nwhich blaspheme and makes them sing God's praises, feet that walk in the\nways of sin and makes them run in the ways of righteousness, hands that\nsteal and makes them do God's service. Oh, it is a wonderful gospel, and\na wonderful Saviour!\n\n\u201c'O ye priests of the Lord, bless ye the Lord, praise and exalt Him\nabove all forever. O ye servants of the Lord, bless ye the Lord, praise\nand exalt Him above all forever. O ye spirits and souls of the\nrighteous, bless ye the Lord, praise and exalt Him above all forever. O\nye that are holy and humble of heart, bless ye the Lord, and praise and\nexalt Him above all forever.'\u201d\n\n\n NEW YEAR'S EVE\n\nAnd New Year's at a Rescue Mission is an interesting time. Men have\nwandered the streets for a week, when it seemed to them every other\nhuman being on earth was happy but themselves; they see happiness in\nevery passing face, they have caught glimpses of Christmas trees through\nopen doors, they have sensed the appetizing smells of good dinners, they\nhave witnessed at the railroad stations and even on the streets the\nreunion of families, they have heard the deep-toned organs from\nchurches, they have heard the ragtime music of happy people about the\nhome piano, and they only unloved, unloving, uncomforted, lonely men\nwalk the lonely streets of our great cities.\n\nIs it any wonder that memory calls up the time when they too were in\nhappy homes, when mothers' arms encircled them, when a father's\nbenediction was on their young heads, and, like the prodigal son, they\nsay, \u201cI will arise and go to my Father\u201d?\n\nEvery one of them knows that sin is the cause of his downfall, and they\nalso know that they must get right with God before they can forsake evil\nhabits. Scarcely one of them but what has tried again and again to leave\noff their grosser sins but have failed, but when at the watch-night\nservice they are told of a Saviour mighty to save, hope comes again to\nthe broken-hearted.\n\nI remember one occasion at the Breakfast Association, Philadelphia, at\nthe twilight service, New Year's Eve, I saw five hundred men stand for\nprayer at one time. Our Mission is much smaller, but on New Year's Eve\nand during New Year's Day, when we have a continuous service from 12\no'clock midday to 9.30 P.M., with an entire change of leaders and\nmusicians each hour, I have seen your nominal Christian, the toper, the\ncriminal, all so overcome by the convicting power of the Holy Spirit\nthat social differences melted away and they knelt side by side at the\nmercy seat; we have seen fifty people enter into covenant relations with\nGod in that pivotal period of the year, and we have seen most of them\nkeep the faith.\n\nThink of a church holding a meeting nine and a half hours long; in most\nchurches the pastor and the elders would have the last three hours or\nmore all alone. But at the Mission the interest deepens so that it is\nhard to dismiss even at a late hour.\n\n\n THE FORGER FROM NEW HAVEN\n\nIt was at one of those long services I saw a New England man brought\nunder deep conviction, and at last yield to the Spirit, make confession\nand receive Christ.\n\nIt was about 4 P.M. when he arose to tell his story of sin. He said, \u201cI\nhave committed a crime against the State, and I want to know if I can be\nforgiven before that is made good. I want to see three members of the\nBoard alone.\u201d Three of the men went into consultation with him. It\nproved that he had forged a check at New Haven for $300, had collected\nthe money and had escaped.\n\nHe was told, \u201cGod will forgive you now and undertake for you in case you\npromise full restitution.\u201d He kneeled at the altar, began to pray out\nloud, promised restitution and promised to bear patiently any punishment\nthe State demanded.\n\nA worker was sent with him to New Haven. He went first to his own\nfather, who said, \u201cJohn, I never want to see your face here; you had no\nbusiness to come back, for you will be sent to prison and disgrace us\nall.\u201d \u201cBut, father, I am converted, I mean to take my punishment, then\nlive a true man ever after.\u201d \u201cOh! that is different; in that case, I\nwill help you all I can.\u201d\n\nThey went at once to the man whose name had been forged. They found him\nvery bitter at first, but when John told his story of how ashamed and\nsorry he was, and added, \u201cI have come back to take my punishment, then I\nwant to be a good man and a good citizen all the rest of my life.\u201d At\nthis point the father said, \u201cMr. Percy, I will gladly pay back the $300\nand interest if you think you can forgive John.\u201d That was done and the\nprosecution withdrawn.\n\nThe episode had a little after-clap. John came back to Washington, and\ncame at once to the writer. He said, \u201cMrs. Monroe, I want you to ask\nMiss Stanislaus if she will marry me.\u201d \u201cWhy, ask her yourself, man; I am\nnot in practice in handling love matters.\u201d \u201cNo, you see my red head and\nfreckled face and freckled hands make me so homely I am afraid to ask.\nDo see her for me.\u201d This I did. She accepted him, and he obtained a\nsituation in the mountains of North Carolina as a school teacher. He\npreaches on Sunday and they both teach all week and seem to be doing\ngood work.\n\nThe _Gospel Tidings_, of December, 1910, had this notice:\n\n WHAT WILL YOU DO, FELLOW-CHRISTIANS?\n\n \u201cEleven men, cold, hungry and friendless, the night of December 5,\n said, 'Mr. Kline, for God's sake, give us work!' He replied, 'We do\n not have the work to give until we get wood-cutting machines.' Mrs.\n Monroe said, 'I shall trust God's people to help me on that, even\n though the horse and wagon are not yet paid for.' So she personally\n took the risk of the 50 needed to put in the machinery. Her friends\n will remember that a great fire three years ago not only destroyed\n her property, but also her means of making money.\n\n[Illustration: 10 AND 15 CENT DORMITORIES]\n\n \u201c'Blessed is he that considereth the poor, the Lord will deliver him\n in the time of trouble.'\n\n \u201cThe Gospel Mission Board feel that when the necessities of men are\n so great as in this call that it is God's call to help by giving\n them means to help themselves. Maybe in these suffering men your\n Saviour passes by.\u201d\n\nThe Christian people of Washington made a generous response to that\ncall, and by the next issue of the _Tidings_ we announced that we could\ngive fifty cents a day for six hours' work, leaving time to hunt a\nbetter place, and yet pay lodgings and food.\n\nThe October _Tidings_ of 1910 said:\n\n A MENACE\n\n \u201cWhat is the most important question now in Washington? From our\n standpoint it is the care of the unfortunate and the sinful. Why? In\n order to protect your home. When a man walks the streets hungry,\n cold and friendless, and looks through the window of your happy home\n and he sees you surrounded with the comforts he lacks, do you know\n you are in danger? Unless the unfortunate are comforted, they will\n surely dynamite our great cities.\n\n \u201cThe Gospel Mission stands between you and this danger. We make\n these sons of sorrow realize that they need be only temporarily\n sidetracked from the great highway of success, that the grace of\n God, their renewed will power and our friendly hand may yet restore\n them to home, friends and society, and make them useful men.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER IX\n THE PENNY LUNCH AND FREE DISPENSARY\n\n\nThe following is a letter written by Mr. George W. Wheeler, which was\npublished in our _Gospel Tidings_, of February, 1911:\n\n\n PENNY LUNCH\n\n \u201cIn an experience of twenty-six years in active, earnest, aggressive\n Rescue Mission work in this city, the writer cannot recall that any\n line of secular work taken up for the amelioration of the poor has\n ever called forth such universal expressions of interest, sympathy\n and co-operation as the 'Penny Lunch and Newsboys' Waiting Room,'\n opened by the Gospel Mission, at 304 Fourteenth Street, on Saturday,\n February 4. The city papers published pictures of the interior and\n exterior, and a portrait of our Superintendent, Mr. Kline, and were\n most generous in their endorsement of the enterprise, while the _New\n York Times_ and other papers spread the news far and wide that the\n cost of living had been solved in Washington by the Gospel Mission\n '_Penny Lunch_.'\n\n \u201cThe opening of this lunch-room was made possible by a noble\n Christian woman of wealth, who was born, reared and now resides in\n this city. Her interest was aroused by reading a statement of the\n work and needs of the Gospel Mission, prepared by our\n Superintendent, and she came to see about the matter, learned its\n approximate cost, and sent a check to pay the expenses.\n\n \u201cFor two weeks or more Mr. Kline and his assistants were busy\n papering, painting, etc., and finally the steam table and coffee\n urns, with many other essentials of a twentieth century up-to-date\n lunch-room were installed and the doors were opened to a waiting\n crowd. Mrs. Kline oversees the cooking, and everything is as clean\n and neat as in one's home.\n\n \u201cThe menu consists of the following articles: Coffee, 1 penny; bread\n or rolls, 1 penny; beans, 1 penny; doughnuts, 1 penny; sour, 1\n penny; beef stew, 3 pennies; one-half pie, 3 pennies. A lunch,\n consisting of soup, meat, vegetables, bread and coffee, 5 cents.\n This brings a well-cooked, clean, nourishing meal within the reach\n of all who have any income whatever.\n\n \u201cIt was amusing to see the class of men and boys who came to have\n their appetites satisfied at the lowest cost. Newsboys, messenger\n boys, laboring men, teamsters, and all kinds of indescribables came,\n and they appeared greatly surprised to find such an attractive room\n with all the 'latest improvements' found in a lunch-room. And how\n they did eat! A big soup plate filled to the brim with bean soup, a\n big china cup filled with steaming hot coffee, a big brown roll or\n three slices of Corby's 'Mother's Bread.' These were good, and\n 'mighty filling at the price.'\n\n \u201cWell, the 'Penny Lunch' is launched, and whether the prices charged\n will pay the cost of the material, cooking and serving, or not, we\n feel certain that any little deficiency that may occur will be\n cheerfully met by the well-to-do of our community.\n\n \u201cA coffee-roasting firm has pledged five pounds of good coffee each\n week for use at the 'Penny Lunch' room, and we are sure dealers in\n other lines will be glad to assist. Corby Brothers have been\n furnishing from fifty to seventy-five loaves of bread for our 'bread\n line' for many months, and Browning & Baines, coffee dealers, have\n supplied six pounds of coffee a week for a long time past.\n\n \u201cWe greatly appreciate the generous co-operation of all these dear\n friends, who help us to help others to help themselves.\u201d\n\nThe benefits of the Penny Lunch can never be told till the books of\neternity are opened, but some idea may be gathered when we state that\nthe report of the bread line from May 12, 1911, to May 12, 1912, was\n41,750, but the report from May 12, 1912, to May 12, 1913, was 18,950.\nThe Bread Line is the name of a service at 6 A.M., the year round, when\nbread and black coffee is served to all who come for it. If people will\ncome before daylight in the winter, or at that early hour in the summer\nfor coffee, without cream or sugar, and a quarter of a loaf of bread, we\nbelieve they need it, and we gladly give it, not as a charity, but as a\nvisible token of our sympathy. Now, the fact that 22,800 fewer people\ntook bread and coffee free in the year 1912 to 1913, compared with the\npreceding year, can only be accounted for that when a man has a few\npennies in his pocket he could buy a satisfactory breakfast, and gladly\ndid so rather than to line up for an unrequited kindness.\n\nHow shamed many men were to take food in the bread line, but the loving\nword sweetened many a bitter cup. Once a hand so unusually white and\nwell-kept reached for the cup of coffee. Mrs. Kline looked up and saw\nthe face of a man who had been a minister of the gospel. She said,\n\u201cBrother, take only the coffee, we want you to take breakfast at our\nfamily table this morning.\u201d He sat down to drink the coffee with bitter\ntears coursing down his shamed face. Of course, every kindness was shown\nhim, \u201cfor need has its right, and necessity its claim,\u201d then the blessed\nSpirit came in and lo, he prayed, and God received back to a useful life\na man who had found sorrow and sin bitter and the tears of remorse salt.\n\n\nWHAT DR. HALLIMOND, OF THE NEW YORK BOWERY MISSION, SAYS ABOUT THE BREAD\n LINE\n\n\u201cThere are in the Bowery men who never sleep in a lodging house because\nthey have not the price, and they get their bed either by stealing or\nbegging, and eat out of the garbage boxes. You who have never been to\nthe Bowery know nothing of the agony or remorse that these men feel.\nNow, what are we to do with them? There is not anybody to look after\nthem but us. Oh, the horrors of the homeless man! It is the many little\ncomforts that go to make our comfortable life. They cannot keep clean.\nThey cannot brush their clothes or comb their hair, they cannot take\ntheir shoes off their poor tired feet. These men gather there in the\ngreat meetings, and among them are many that are in the last stages of\nphysical weakness. Many of them ought to be in the hospital instead of\nwalking the street day and night. Many of them are dying of hunger.\nSometimes we cannot get men to understand that we have people in our\nmeetings that are dying of hunger. I am not using any figure of speech.\nIt is not an unheard-of thing for men to drop dead in our meetings. That\nis why we have the 'bread line.' We dare not fail to help these people.\nPeople sometimes come to us with the very best of intentions, talking to\nus of the sin of indiscriminate charity; but, bless your life! is not\nGod indiscriminate, for does not He cause the rain to fall on the just\nand unjust? Did Jesus Christ ever go through the hungry crowds and find\nout who was worthy and who was unworthy? Did He not spend His life to\nhelp just such men? These dear people some of them are spending\nseventy-five cents to find out where the other twenty-five cents is to\ngo. I have made up my mind that if I ever find a man dying on my\ndoorstep of hunger, and I can do anything to save him, I am going to do\nit, whether he deserves it or whether he does not.\n\n\u201cThat is the origin of our bread line about which you have heard so\nmuch. We cannot help but have a bread line. In fact, I refuse to allow\nour work to be called a charity. It is not a charity, it is brotherly\nkindness. It is not a charity, but a kind hospitality, just a little\nevidence, just a little token, that there is somebody who cares for\ntheir poor weary hearts which these destitute brothers of ours possess.\nAs long as the bread line exists, and God helping, it shall exist as\nlong as there is need for it, people must know that there is something\nwrong with our social system, a problem that we cannot solve but that is\nup to the politician. As long as we are in this great, rich country with\nall the extravagances of wealth, then the bread line shall tell that\nthere is something wrong, and that our Declaration of Independence,\ndeclaring, as it does, for 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,'\nis but a delusion and a snare.\u201d\n\nThis seems a long interlude to the Penny Lunch chapter, but you can see\nthe lunch counter where five cents can buy beans, bread and coffee,\nsaves many a man from feeling that he takes charity. The bread line was\ninstituted to fortify a man's stomach against needing to go to the\nsaloon in the morning for the free lunch, also to give strength to a\npoor fellow so he could search for work.\n\nThe bread line food given each morning will not of itself sustain life,\nas we found out to our sorrow. One Tuesday night, as the writer entered\nthe Mission for the purpose of conducting the service, I found the men\nat the door excited. On inquiry, I found a man lying on the front seat\ndying. The Emergency Hospital ambulance had already been called. I found\na man who twenty years ago had been a leading patent attorney of this\ncity. I saw the soul was about to depart. I said, \u201cMr. West, say, 'Lord\nJesus, receive my spirit.'\u201d \u201cNo, I have lived wicked, I shall die\nwicked.\u201d \u201cO son, say, 'Lord Jesus, forgive me.'\u201d \u201cToo late, too late; I\nhave heard you all, night after night, and I have rejected Christ. I\nmust die as I have lived.\u201d\n\nI motioned the choir to sing softly, \u201cJesus receiveth sinful men.\u201d I\nbent over him, urging repentance; the ambulance men were at my side,\nthey picked him up and laid him carefully on the stretcher. I said,\n\u201cDear Mr. West, we are praying for you, pray for yourself.\u201d I kept my\nhand tenderly on his head as the stretcher was slowly carried out, but\nhe continued to say, \u201cToo late, too late for me.\u201d\n\nHe died within an hour, and the post-mortem showed he had died of\ninanition caused by slow starvation. We found he had tried to live on\nthe bread and coffee of the bread line alone; he was too poor to buy\nfood, too proud to tell his needs, and we were too stupid and too busy\nto realize his awful need. We thereby learned a good lesson, and the\nSuperintendent and helpers now all look more carefully after the man who\nsits down claiming either exhaustion or sickness.\n\nNo man, woman or child is ever refused food because without money, but\nif a man can buy whisky, we think he ought to be able to buy food,\nthough even then we look after him.\n\nWe cannot leave the granting of food to employees, so when the\nSuperintendent and his wife are absent we have some pathetic cases. Mr.\nGordon found a little fellow crying at the door. \u201cWhat is the matter,\nlittle man?\u201d said the big man. \u201cMother gave me ten cents to buy food for\nour family, and I have lost the money.\u201d You may be sure Mr. Gordon\nobtained much more than ten cents' worth of food for the child. Very\nmany families live in one furnished room and get all their food at the\npenny lunch counter. Seamstresses, all the dollar a day men for many\nsquares, girls from the Agricultural Seed Bureau, come in and buy at\ncost the luncheon at the middle of the day. Many well-to-do people come\nin and take luncheon to watch the various grades of humanity who solve\nthe cost of high living by taking meals at the Mission. All the street\npeddlers, the umbrella man, the shoestring and pencil man, the rag\ngatherers, eat at the counter, the better class sit at the tables.\n\nMr. Gordon saw a little altercation between a waiter and a customer, the\nwaiter demanding four cents while the man had but three cents. \u201cBut you\nshould not have ordered food unless you could pay for it.\u201d The poor man\nlooked dreadfully embarrassed, at last he looked up and said, \u201cWill you\nlend me a cent, sir?\u201d which was gladly done.\n\nMany who come only for the cheap meal are induced by the kindness shown\nand by the good music and bright lights in the chapel, to go in to the\nservices. There some song, some word from the speaker, some devout\nprayer, touches the chord of memory of what a mother, a faithful teacher\nor almost forgotten preacher has taught years ago, and, backed by the\nHoly Spirit, a prodigal son or a prodigal daughter returns to the\nFather's house.\n\nMr. Kline reports the meals furnished in the Penny Lunch Room from May\n12, 1912, to May, 1913, to be 87,856, at an average cost of four and\none-third cents per meal.\n\n\n THE DISPENSARY\n\nwas opened February 1, 1912, after the need was very apparent, and\nfurther neglect of this branch of work seemed impossible.\n\nNever will I forget the day when I first called up Dr. C. H. Bowker, one\nof the leading physicians of the city, living on Massachusetts Avenue,\nnear Thomas Circle, the very heart of the city, and told him of a man\nwho had pneumonia, and of a woman in the shelter with a severe cold, and\nasked him to go to the Mission free of charge. I waited with bated\nbreath for the reply. It was, \u201cI am an exceedingly busy man, but I shall\ntry to go within an hour.\u201d Very much emboldened, I said, \u201cCould you stop\nin once a day to see if anyone there has a contagious disease, or if\nanyone should be sent immediately to the hospital?\u201d\n\nThe answer seemed very slow, and I fairly trembled, for our need was so\ngreat. At last he said, \u201cWell, I have noticed if I put a duty on my\ndaily program, I manage in some way to get it in.\u201d From that day to this\nthat blessed doctor has been at the beck and call of the Mission day and\nnight; only God knows what a help and a comfort he has been to broken\nmen and sorrowful women in that part of the city.\n\nThe February _Gospel Tidings_, of 1912, had the following:\n\n\n GOSPEL MISSION DISPENSARY\n\n\u201cFor several months we have had a house physician, and the use and need\nfor him has steadily increased. The establishment of regular hours at\nwhich patients could see the doctor, and a proper place for\nconsultation, naturally suggested the establishment of a dispensary.\nThis appeared feasible to the Executive Committee, and Mrs. Monroe,\nSuperintendent Kline and Dr. Bowker were appointed a committee to study\nthe advisability of such an addition to our work. The report from this\ncommittee was favorable to the project, and active steps were at once\ntaken to the establishment of a free general dispensary for the\ntreatment of all classes of cases, or their reference, where necessary,\nto special institutions.\n\n\u201cThe location of the Mission for dispensary work could not be better\nfrom any point of view. It is accessible to the hundreds needing its\nhelp. There is no conflict in its field by any other institution doing\nthis class of work. Four rooms on the first floor of the Mission, with\nthe chapel for a waiting-room, will serve admirably for dispensary needs\nat present. And these rooms are rapidly being put in shape by carpenters\nand painters. Shelves are being made for the pharmacy, a door cut\nthrough the partition, and running water is to be installed.\n\n\u201cOur printing plant will again demonstrate its usefulness by furnishing\nthe necessary record blanks, labels, treatment cards, etc.\n\n\u201cThe Executive Committee has placed Dr. Charles Harvey Bowker, 1204\nMassachusetts Avenue, in full charge of the Gospel Mission Dispensary,\nand he will have associated with him at first Dr. O. C. Cox, 1320\nEleventh Street, N. W. A number of leading physicians and surgeons have\nevinced an interest and willingness to give their services, and Dr.\nBowker will add them to the dispensary staff and assign them work as the\nclinic grows and they are needed.\n\n\u201cDr. Bowker's experience in managing a hospital in his home city, and\nhis hospital and dispensary work in Washington, assure us a businesslike\nmanagement of this new branch of our work.\n\n\u201cOur need at present is for drugs and surgical dressing, and it is hoped\nthat the druggists of the city may contribute.\n\n\u201cThe dispensary opened Thursday, February 1, 1912, at 10 A.M., which\nwill be the regular daily hour, and all those who are interested are\ninvited to inspect the new rooms.\u201d\n\nYou notice that we opened February 1, 1912, and our annual report in May\n_Tidings_, 1913, shows the following:\n\n THE MISSION FREE DISPENSARY\n\n _Staff_\n\n Physician in charge, Dr. Charles H. Bowker, 1204 Massachusetts\n Avenue, N. W.\n\n _Associates_\n\n Dr. Oliver C. Cox, 1320 Eleventh Street, N. W.\n Dr. W. O. Owen, Southern Building.\n Dr. William F. Hemler, 706 Eighth Street, N. W.\n Dr. C. A. Simpson, 1217 Connecticut Avenue, N. W.\n Dr. C. F. Dufour, 1347 L Street, N. W.\n Dr. Adam Kemble, Cecil Apartments, Fifteenth and L Streets, N. W.\n Dr. Jesse Ramsburgh, The Portner.\n\n _Hours for Treatment_\n\n Medical and surgical cases treated daily, 11 to 12 A.M.\n Diseases of Women\u2014Monday, Wednesday and Friday.\n Diseases of Men\u2014Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.\n Diseases of Children\u2014Monday, Wednesday and Friday.\n Diseases of Ear, Eye, Nose and Throat\u2014Monday and Thursday.\n\n _Report for the Year Ending April 30, 1913_\n\n Cases treated 2500\n Referred to Hospital 80\n Treated at homes 80\n\nThe dispensary is in need of a sterilizer and a special fund for medical\nsupplies for those too poor to pay.\n\n * * * * *\n\nThe sterilizer later was the gift of Dr. Jesse Ramsburgh, and we have a\ncomplete set of lenses for testing the eyes of school children.\n\nIt would break your heart to see the women with babies, the aged on\ncrutches, the hosts of children, the aged victims of every vice, now\nbroken and often repentant, seek the aid of these good men. Often we run\nshort of remedies. \u201cWhat do they do then?\u201d you ask. Well, they simply go\ndown in their own pockets and buy the necessities, and no one is turned\nempty away.\n\nThink of a procession of sick and needy persons, 2500 human beings in\nline, and you will see in your mind what that blessed dispensary has\ndone for the sorrowful of this city in one year.\n\nI wish I dare to tell you the particulars of one of these great\nphysicians who had not been living close to God, seeing our work of\nfaith, seeing how the Mission people lay their many needs before a\npatient God, who meets every demand in answer to their prayer, and\npossibly feeling that in a mission he could not minister to a mind\ndiseased without himself being in touch with the living God, was led to\nrevise his views, make public confession of his faith and enlist in\nGod's organized method of evangelizing the world by joining the church.\nWe all need God, but the hand that reaches down to help sinful men must\nhave the other hand clasped close in God's strong hand if he would do\neffective work.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER X\n THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL\n\n\nSt. Paul says, \u201cI am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the\n_power_ of God unto salvation.\u201d\n\nYes, the gospel is the _power_. The soul is as dead as a street car with\nthe power gone, till it is touched by that special power. I could kneel\nat the side of a sinner and quote the very best things of Shakespeare or\nMilton, and the soul would step to no higher ground; but when the right\nverse of God's word is shown with the New Testament in hand, and the\nHoly Spirit makes that soul see that the passage before him is God's\nrecorded wireless message for his soul alone, the power comes on and\nthat verse again proves true, \u201cBut as many as received Him, to them gave\nHe power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His\nname,\u201d and a soul is born into the kingdom of God. Dan Crawford, the\ngreat missionary to Africa, says not Livingstone, not Taylor, not Dan\nCrawford, are the real pioneer missionaries, but the Spirit of God\nHimself, and when the word is brought to a prepared soul it is a spark\nof powder. He tells of one besotted Negro who read John's Gospel. The\nNegro said, \u201cI was startled that Christ could speak Chulba; I heard Him\nspeak out of the printed page, and what He said to me was, 'Follow me.'\u201d\nMr. Crawford says, \u201cWhen the guncotton of John's Gospel came in contact\nwith the tinder of his rebellion, he was literally exploded into the\nkingdom,\u201d and by continuing to study St. John's Gospel the transforming\npower of the gospel made him a good earnest Christian man, fit for the\ncompanionship of good people.\n\nAt a rescue mission we have such scenes almost every night of the year.\nIn our case it is usually the word first implanted in the human heart\neither at a mother's knee or by some Sunday school teacher, or by a\nfaithful preacher in early life, then the very room of the Mission is\nfilled with the Holy Spirit in answer to the prayers of God's people.\nNow, when a heart-broken, world-buffeted sinner comes into the room, the\nwords or music of some song, or the presentation of God's word, is used\nby God's Spirit to bring to memory all the sinner has known of these\nthings; he hears redeemed men tell how God cured them of lust, of\nalcoholism, of gambling, of profane language, of all sin; he sees these\nmen well clothed, radiantly happy, and sees and feels his own\ndegradation; is it any wonder he drops on his knees and cries out, \u201cMen\nand brethren, what shall I do to be saved\u201d? When he wants God more than\nhe wants deliverance from his besetting sin, when he wants God more than\nhe wants his deserted wife and children, when he wants God for what God\ncan do for his poor soul, the God of his soul comes down, and at that\nsecond the soul passes from death unto life eternal, for that soul the\ndecisions of the judgment day have been settled, for Jesus said,\n\u201cVerily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my words and believeth\non Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into\ncondemnation, but is passed from death unto life.\u201d\n\nThat verse comprehended and lived has power enough to carry a soul\nthrough all besetments into the very presence of God.\n\n\n THE CASE OF MR. ABBOTT\n\nDuring the winter of 1910, there came into the Gospel Mission a man,\nragged, soiled, blear-eyed, doped and utterly down and out; he came only\nfor the coffee and rolls given Sunday night. Before coming up the steps\nhe had said to a friend, \u201cI don't want to hear any of their blank\nsermons, but I am starving.\u201d He heard no sermon, instead he received a\nwarm hand-shake, he heard bright singing, but, best of all, he heard\nredeemed men tell how God had saved them from the alcohol habit, till he\ncried out, \u201cIf God has power to save me from the sin of drink, I want\nGod!\u201d He kneeled and poured out his soul in prayer. As soon as he began\nto pray aloud, we saw he was an educated man. The Spirit came upon him\nin great power, he really had the searchlight of God on his soul, and he\nsaw himself for a short time as God saw him. Then God forgave him, he\nrose justified, strong, happy, a new man in Christ Jesus. The Mission\ngave him a bed for the night, and the next morning this man, who had not\nworked or desired work for two years, begged that we should find a place\nfor him to earn his way. He obtained a situation to solicit business for\na laundry, about as hard work as one can imagine, but he made good, and\nin six months he was made foreman of the laundry in which he was\nemployed. He modernized its methods and doubled its business by the end\nof the year, and the company made him a present of five hundred shares\nof stock and elected him president of the company. Then he received\n$3000 a year salary, besides his percentage of all gains made by the\nhouse. His friends claim his income is now about $5000 a year. In the\nmeantime, after he had been redeemed, probably four months, his wife, a\nmost beautiful and accomplished Philadelphia woman, brought their lovely\nson, aged about eight, and they began housekeeping again. The home has\ngiven needed physical comfort, the companionship has given the mental\nand the spiritual help needed to make this former tramp into a\nfirst-class citizen. At night, during the last winter, he has been\nstudying law in one of the university law schools, and on Sunday he acts\nas usher and vestryman in one of the largest Protestant Episcopal\nchurches. As a child he had been a choir boy in a church in\nPhiladelphia. Doubtless the knowledge gained there as a child made him\nable to understand his duty to God and man after his conversion better\nfar than an ignorant, uninstructed person could have done after months\nof instruction.\n\n[Illustration: CHILDREN OF ALL NATIONS]\n\n[Illustration: SETTLEMENT HOUSE]\n\n\n THE PSYCHOLOGY\n\nof just this case is worth considering. This man was spiritually dead,\nso far as we could see. He did not desire to live. The people of the\nMission had been more or less in prayer from three o'clock to eight when\nthis man came in. He saw religion in action in the person and speech of\nredeemed men. But even if these testimonies were factors it was the Holy\nSpirit that did the work. It was the divine spark to human tinder, or,\nas Henry Drummond better puts it, \u201cThe spiritual world reached down and\ncarried this worldly soul into the world above it.\u201d \u201cHe that hath the\nSon hath life, he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.\u201d Life\ndepends upon contact with life, it cannot develop out of anything that\nis not life.\n\nEven as the physiologist cannot explain how the human seed generates in\na human body eventually becoming a new-born man child, neither can\ntheology fully explain how the Holy Spirit can touch a human soul out of\nwhich will be born another soul in the same body with marks of its\ndivine parentage in every line, or, as St. Paul says, a new creature in\nChrist Jesus.\n\nI heard a distinguished man who had long been in official connection\nwith prisons and reformatories, say, \u201cA reformed man is always in\ndanger; he may stand twenty years and then fall back into sin, but a\nregenerated man is as safe from his sinful besetments as if they had not\nbeen the weakness of his life.\u201d\n\nI fancy I can hear some preacher say, \u201cIf it is the word and the Holy\nSpirit do the work, why does not the church have as many conversions as\na mission?\u201d The very first element of spiritual power is lacking in most\nchurches. If the preacher, the official members, then every member of\nthe church first sought God's special blessing in private, then came\ntogether offering first praise, then united prayer to God from the very\ndepths of their hearts, there would be conversions every Sunday in every\nchurch.\n\nSpurgeon and Moody expected conversions every Sunday, and they had them.\n\nIn presenting a soul to Christ no perfunctory Christian can do it and\nhave that soul received. To present a person to the King of England, let\nus say, the presenter needs to be acquainted with the king; so a person\nunacquainted with God has no power at the throne; he even impedes the\nsoul coming into the light. I have seen many a dancing, card-playing\nChristian at the side of the penitent, praying earnestly, then rise\nbaffled, troubled, helpless; not able to reach the throne, they had no\naccess to God.\n\nOften people from the States write me to present such and such a paper\nin person to the President of the United States. I am obliged to reply,\n\u201cI have no access to the President of the United States,\u201d but I daily\nthank God that I have access to the throne, for I am acquainted with\nGod.\n\n\n RELIGION WITH THE DEFECTIVE DELINQUENT\n\nI venture to take the two following short articles from the November\nnumbers of 1913 of the _Survey_, the most valuable weekly magazine which\ncomes to my desk on all social questions:\n\n \u201cWHAT ABOUT JEFF?\u201d\n\n \u201cJeff is a white boy sixteen years old. I am estimating this, as\n Jeff says he doesn't know how old he is and doesn't know his\n surname. He has every appearance of being a little less than half\n witted.\n\n \u201cI found Jeff this morning working, with two other white boys and\n ten or twelve Negro boys, as an inmate of the County Workhouse. He\n was carrying stone on a public hitch-lot. One of the white boys and\n two of the Negro boys were in chains.\n\n \u201cJeff has been in the workhouse for sixty days. He was placed there\n for beating a ride on a railroad train. Next Monday Jeff will be\n released. He will have not a cent to his name, not very good\n clothes, not a relative in the country, no place to sleep and\n nothing to eat.\n\n \u201cI have put this predicament before our city inter-church\n organization, and we have seen no solution. About the best thing we\n can see for this half-witted boy is that he will do something that\n will again bring him within the clutches of the law in order that he\n may be immediately sent back to the workhouse. At the age of sixteen\n he is a human derelict, yet he has capacity to work, to love, to\n respect, to enjoy, and to feel sorrow.\n\n \u201cThere is another mentally weak boy in this same gang. If we knew\n what to do with Jeff we might be able to do more for the other one.\n What do you suggest?\u201d\u2014_W. H. Swift, Greensboro, N. C._\n\n \u201cSUE AND JEFF\u201d\n\n \u201c'What about Jeff?' was shown to a New York settlement worker.\n 'Print it,' he said, 'in the hope that someone may stir up the\n inter-church organizations of Greensboro to find another solution.\n The question is: What about that organization? rather than poor\n Jeff. He is a victim of wrong social conditions, plus his weak head;\n but if there is no one in his neighborhood who can see any other\n solution than the workhouse for a lad who has the \u201ccapacity to work,\n to love, to respect, to enjoy and to feel sorrow,\u201d then I suggest\n that the community is worse off, a good deal, than poor Jeff. To\n begin with, why don't the inter-church organization take him under\n its own wing?'\n\n \u201cNow, it would be very easy for the inter-church organization of\n Greensboro to take care of Jeff if there were only one of him.\n Unfortunately, there are many hundreds of him. How many of the boys\n of sixteen sent to the island from the New York City courts are of\n Jeff's class? Nobody knows for certain, because nobody tries to find\n out. Those of us who have lived for years among defectives and have\n visited reform schools know that the number is large. Yet the\n inter-church organizations of New York City do not take them under\n their wings.\n\n \u201cThe proportion of the feeble-minded Jeffs in various reformatories\n has been to range from twenty to fifty per cent of all the inmates.\n Every intelligent worker with prisoners knows there are many\n weak-minded among them; yet the usual method of treating the\n defective-delinquent (and every defective is a potential delinquent)\n throughout the United States is to do with them just what our\n Greensboro friend hopes to do with Jeff\u2014send him to the workhouse as\n soon as he commits his next petty crime. And we keep on doing it\n over and over and over again.\n\n \u201cMeanwhile the proper method with the Jeffs and the Sues is so\n simple and plain, so patently economical in this generation, and so\n tremendously profitable for the next, that its very simplicity makes\n it neglected. The colony at Templeton, Mass.; the one just organized\n at Menantico, N. J.; the farm colonies at Fort Wayne, Ind.; Lincoln,\n Ill.; Faribault, Minn.; Columbus, Ohio; and Letchworth Village, N.\n Y., all point the way with greater or less success.\n\n \u201cYet Letchworth Village was enacted by the legislature of New York\n nearly five years ago. Its first commission reported 29,000 suitable\n inmates pressing for care. To-day it has only 100 inmates; and the\n Inter-church Federation says nothing.\n\n \u201cIt is not worth while to get all stirred up and excited about Jeffs\n in North Carolina. What have we to say about the defectives in\n jails, workhouses, penitentiaries, reformatories, and prisons under\n our noses in New York? Is our beam so big that we cannot see\n it?\u201d\u2014_Alexander Johnson, Director Department of Extension, Vineland,\n N. J._\n\nNow, that was the churches' opportunity. Federation work should see that\na religious school should be started in each community for its Jeffs and\nSues. A city rescue mission could easily find work for Jeff.\n\nI saw a Jeff come into the Sunday school of my own church. He was a\ngreat lumbering chap of eighteen years of age, he was not quite clean,\nthere was the odor of the unwashed about him. He immediately went to the\nclass of about thirty young men of his own age. I was gratified to see\nthat youth seek the society of the church people rather than the saloon,\nbut he was not welcome with the young men. The teacher visited his home,\nthere was no help to be expected from the home, so the teacher, or the\nclass, whether by actual request or by treatment, caused Jeff to stay\naway. Now, in the great day of accounts, of whom will that soul be\nrequired? If the defective intellect, what there is of it, can be turned\nto believe God, the defective is prevented from becoming a criminal. We\nhave them at the Gospel Mission. The very first thing is to have the\nphysician talk to Jeff of the sacredness of his own body to absolutely\nprevent all secret habits which injure the body and brain, and the\nmotive of self-restraint both for physical habits and for drink must be\nthat these things offend a loving Saviour who walks with each one of us.\n\nEach year I meet Dr. H. M. Freas, of Philadelphia, at Northfield. His\nwork as a physician frequently takes him to the asylum for the insane.\nHe feels most keenly that these institutions should be in the hands of\nChristian people only. Many a brilliant intellect could be restored to\nperfect sanity if the loving care of some saintly Protestant sisterhood\nor brotherhood were in charge to bring the human love, which even the\nsanest of us need, to bear on the tottering brain. These human\ndeficients are found in the public schools; as soon as discovered they\nshould be transferred to a religious school where they can be\nscientifically studied, what intellect they have developed, and the\nreligious side of each one fostered. If then they are found permanently\ndeficient, especially in the moral sense, or in physical self-control,\nthen they should be segregated on farms for the sake of the race. People\nof deficient brains become fanatics; now, if these unbalanced people\nbecome filled with an enthusiasm of righteousness they absolutely do\nmuch good. They constitute three-fourths of the street preachers, and\nthey reach many a soul who never enters a church. Religion prevents\ninsanity. There is no doubt that fanaticism run riot leads to the\nasylum. We had one man who was insufficiently fed, badly clothed, who\nspent the entire night in prayer, two or three nights of the week. Of\ncourse, he was brought up in the insane asylum, but when he had food\nenough at the asylum where he was not permitted to pray aloud, he soon\nbecame normal, and was set free. It taught him a needed lesson.\n\nBut religion sustains us through the breaking ties of life, through the\nloss of fortune, through the defection of friends, through blasted\nhopes, through the anguish of children going wrong, and their punishment\nby the State which follows.\n\nReligion holds many a woman whose son is a wanderer, either criminal or\notherwise, from insanity. I know a woman who has not looked into the\nface of her wandering son for six years. She stands up and sings with\nradiant face, \u201cI am going through whatever others do, I am going through\nwith Jesus,\u201d and in spite of what looks an unbearable sorrow, leads a\nuseful and apparently happy life. A mission is a blessed thing for\nenthusiasts. It sends them with flowers and literature to hospitals and\njails, it sends food to private families in need, it gives the\nenthusiasts tracts to distribute, it puts musical instruments into their\nhands and says, \u201cPraise the Lord with pleasant sounds,\u201d it sets women to\nrepairing clothing for the poor, to caring for little children, while\nmothers earn money for food. As we do these things we talk religion, we\ntell of Jesus, the friend of sinners, we make a steady effort in very\nmany directions to have each soul brought into harmony with God. In\nalmost every instance where sorrow in a family has been the result of\nsin; and Jesus is allowed to become to each of them a personal Saviour;\nthe home is electrified by a new enthusiasm; the parents become\nefficient, self-supporting, happy; the children become self-respecting;\nare taken from the class needing help; and become helpers. Religion\neases the burden of life and heals the welts of adversity.\n\nWe have in Washington a club known as \u201cThe Monday Evening Club,\u201d a\nclearing house for all forms of philanthropy. At the different banquets\nand at their monthly meetings all forms of reforms, from purely a\nhumanitarian standpoint, are discussed, but we, who go at the open sores\nof the world with the only sure cure earth has yet received, the\nreligion of Jesus Christ, we receive no recognition, we are given no\nhearing at banquets, and are never spoken of as part of the city's force\nfor betterment, yet we comfort the prisoner, we bring hope to the\nhopeless, and we are the real protection of the city. No hungry man is\nturned from our door unsatisfied. A hungry man is a danger, a man with a\nhungry family is a menace. He will get food even if it costs a life to\nobtain it. Like Him whom we serve we are rejected of men. We work amid\nthe social dynamite of a great city. Unless the religious part of this\nnation assumes its rightful place as arbiter in all labor troubles,\nsaying to the rich man, \u201cThou shalt not defraud,\u201d and to the poor man,\n\u201cThou shalt do no violence\u201d; unless Christian people see to it that\nremunerative labor can be had by every person willing to work; unless\nChristian people close the saloons (the author of seventy-five per cent\nof the sufferings of the poor), on some sad day our great cities will be\nsystematically dynamited. As Christians we must go down among them and\nmake the broken man feel that he is only temporarily sidetracked from\nthe great highway of success. That the grace of God and his own will can\nand will bring him back to the great highway of prosperity.\n\nThe Church is waking up to its full duty in social service. Bishop\nSimpson, even in his day, eloquently described the mission of the Church\nin the world: \u201cThe Church must grope her way into the alleys and courts\nand purlieus of the city, and up the broken staircase, and into the bare\nroom and beside the loathsome sufferer; she must go down into the pit\nwith the miner, into the forecastle with the sailor, into the tent with\nthe soldier, into the shop with the mechanic, into the factory with the\noperative, into the field with the farmer, into the counting-room with\nthe merchant. Like the air, the Church must press equally on all the\nsurfaces of society; like the sea, flow into every nook of the shoreline\nof humanity, and, like the sun, shine on things foul and low, as well as\nfair and high, for she was organized, commissioned and equipped for the\nmoral renovation of the world.\u201d\n\nIn closing this chapter we cannot do better than to quote from the\nfourth volume of the Jewish Encyclopedia, which pays this remarkable\ntribute to Christianity:\n\n\u201cChristianity, following the matchless ideals of its Christ, redeemed\nthe despised and outcast, and ennobled suffering. It checked\ninfanticide, and founded asylums for the young. It removed the curse of\nslavery by making the humblest bondsmen proud of being a child of God.\nIt fought against the cruelties of the arena, it invested the home with\npurity and proclaimed the value of each human soul as a treasure in the\neyes of God, and it so leavens the great masses of the empire as to\nrender the cross of Christ the sign of victory for its legions in place\nof the Roman eagle.\n\n\u201cThe Galilean entered the world as a conqueror. The Church became the\neducator of pagan nations; and one race after another was brought under\nher tutorship. The Latin races were followed by the Celt, the Teuton and\nthe Slav. The same burning enthusiasm which sent forth the first\nApostles, also set the missionaries aglow, and brought all Europe and\nAfrica, and finally the American continent, under the scepter of an\nomnipotent Church. Christianity is not an end, but the means to an end,\nthe establishment of the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XI\n HEREDITARY SIN\n\n\nIt was an exceedingly cold night when Jake Grossman burst into the\nmission, having on the apparel of a hotel cook. He did not take a seat,\nbut marched to the front and prostrated himself at the altar, crying,\n\u201cGod be merciful to me, a sinner.\u201d In such cases, no difference what we\nare doing, all formal program is suspended and we go at once to prayer.\nJake was in deep earnest, men and women acquainted with God kneeled all\nabout him, presenting his case to the Saviour of men. We did not then\nknow his special need, but a soul in the depth of conviction wanted God,\nnot for one sin, but he needed cleansing from all the sins of his past\nlife. It must have been an hour before that soul received light. The\nchoir had sung softly, \u201cI'm coming home to-night,\u201d and like melodies;\nothers had come to the altar, been forgiven and gone to their seats,\nwhen Jake Grossman rose to his feet and rejoiced that he had found peace\nand pardon through the blood of Christ.\n\nWe found afterwards that Grossman was the son of the great Swiss\nengineer, who had planned the great tunnel through the Alps, whose\ngenius had built bridges over roaring, impassable canyons, who had\nplanned the electric roads in all parts of Switzerland, until he was\nwined and dined by scientists not only in his own country but in many\ncountries, so that he had acquired the alcoholic habit, after which his\nbrain became sluggish and at last he fell from his high estate, became a\ncommon drunkard and died poor. The memory of the wicked shall perish.\n\nWhile he was yet prosperous, using expensive wines, his only legitimate\nson was born. The mother noticed that, as a child of six or seven, Jake\nwanted a sip every time wine was used on the table; by twelve he could\ndrink a large glass of wine and not show drunkenness. By his twentieth\nyear Jake was a drunkard, the father dead, the mother poor and\nheart-broken. Friends and relatives all advised sending Jake to America,\nwhere wine is not used on the table, and also to get Jake away from old\ncompanions.\n\nHe came with letters to good people, but alcoholism is not baffled by\nchange of location. His money gave out, the people to whom he had been\nintroduced refused to receive him. Fortunately his mother had taught him\nto cook, so he obtained a place as an assistant cook in a Washington\nhotel; later he developed into a first-class chef. When he came to the\nMission he had been discharged for drunkenness, and now, being a\nredeemed man, he went back to the hotel, gave up his white clothing,\ngathered up his belongings, and sought other work.\n\nThat was five years ago. Jake has often been asked by the hotels of this\ncity to cook for them at a salary of $100 or more a month, but Jake\ndaily prays, \u201cLead us not into temptation,\u201d and he does not knowingly\nwalk into it. He shovels coal at a wage of $10 per week. He says, \u201cYou\nsee, it keeps me in the open air; I do not have to taste wine or smell\nit; I get black on the outside, but I keep white within, which was more\nthan I did as a cook.\u201d\n\nAll the heroes are not in high places. \u201cHe that ruleth his spirit is\nbetter than he that taketh a city.\u201d We believe God cleansed Jake\nGrossman from inherited sin.\n\n\n HEREDITY\n\nI see that scientists are now claiming that a tendency to use alcohol is\nnot hereditary. We who work among alcoholics know that it is. God says\nthat the sins of the fathers shall be visited on the children unto the\nthird and fourth generation, and they are. God gives a high premium for\nvirtue to all who would take the responsibility of bringing another life\ninto the world.\n\nI remember a man converted at the Breakfast Association, Philadelphia. I\nhad spoken on the power of God to take away even inherited tendencies of\nsin from our souls. A young chap in the audience sent an usher to ask me\nto see him in the after meeting. I went down the aisle till I stood by\nhis side. He said, \u201cCan God save me from drink? My father was a\nsaloon-keeper and died drunk. My mother died a drunkard; she fed me beer\nas an infant. I am now twenty-two years old; I do not remember a day in\nmy life that I have not used beer.\u201d Looking over that blear-eyed crowd,\nhe said, \u201cI do not want an old age like these wretches. Do you know that\nI recognize among these bloats at least twenty men who are the sons of\nsaloon-keepers? You Christians have not yet discovered that no man puts\nliquor to his neighbor's lips without destroying his own family. Now,\ncan God save me from the sin and shame of the old age of an alcoholic\nparalytic?\u201d\n\n\u201cWell, let us go to the altar and ask Him.\u201d We knelt long at the altar.\nAt last he claimed that he had been accepted of God. As he started to\nleave the hall he came back and said, \u201cDo pray for me; I am afraid of\nthe smells of the street; I am afraid of my old companions. Pray for\nme.\u201d\n\n\u201cWell,\u201d I said, \u201cyou come home with me, you are young enough to be my\nson. If you were, I would want some good woman to mother you.\u201d The next\nday I took him to Lancaster, Pa., where at that time I had a number of\nacquaintances among business men. I took him to quite a number before I\ncame to a man who would take him at all, and to a number who would take\nhim but not agree to help save a soul. At last I came to a Christian man\nin the leather business, who agreed to take him into his family,\ninstruct him in the very rudiments of religion, take him to church and\nSunday school with him; in fact, to nourish this new-born soul in\nChrist. We prayed together, then I left him. For a very short time I\nreceived a postal-card each week, which I failed to answer; then, amid\nthe cares of a very busy life, I forgot him. About three years after\nthat I was walking along a street in Lancaster when a fine-looking chap\ncame rushing from behind me, and, placing his arm over my shoulder,\nsaid, \u201cOh, God bless you! God bless you!\u201d\n\nI turned and found a fine-looking man with tear-dimmed eyes blessing me.\n\u201cSon,\u201d I said, \u201cwhat is your name?\u201d\n\n\u201cOh! do you not know me? I have prayed for you every day for three\nyears, and you have forgotten me.\u201d\n\n\u201cWell,\u201d I said, \u201cI fancy you are so much better looking to-day than you\nwere then so that your own mother might not know you now.\u201d\n\nI walked back to the leather store with him and found my friend behind\nthe counter. \u201cMr. S.\u201d I said, \u201cis John Schmidt a good man?\u201d\n\nHe did not wait to go around the counter, but, coming right over it, he\nplaced a hand on each of John's shoulders as he said, \u201cI am glad to bear\nwitness that John is a true, good man. At first he was sorely tried to\nassociate only with our kind of people, but he has worked all day, gone\nto school at night, gone to church and Sunday school every Sunday, and\nhe is about to marry one of the best young women of our church.\u201d God had\ndone a perfect work of grace, and the hereditary drunkard became a good\nman and a useful citizen. It must be so, for the word says the blood of\nChrist Jesus cleanses from _all_ sin.\n\n\n MR. KLINE'S TESTIMONY\n\nOn the evening of September 16, 1913, Mr. Kline, our Superintendent of\nthe Gospel Mission, gave, in substance, the following:\n\n\u201cIt is ten years ago to-night since God, for Christ's sake, forgave my\nsins. It was a day like this has been, a perfect day in September. I had\nbecome a confirmed drunkard, so that every waking moment I kept myself\nunder the influence of whisky. I was a good workman, but I was conscious\nthat my strength had gone. Three days before I had been attacked with a\ntrembling which seemed like palsy. As I looked in the glass I saw the\nface of a dying man. The barkeeper saw it. He said, 'Kline, take a\ndrink; you will shake to pieces.' It took four or five drinks to make my\nhand steady enough to work. Then the barkeeper said, 'Now you need work\nto bring you to strength. You may paper and fix up this bar-room.' I\nwent to a paper house, selected my paper, and had the man make a bill\nfour times what it should have been. The bill was paid and I went back\nto the paper store and got my rake-off. You see, I had become dishonest\nas well as a drunkard. I had been brought up in a Lutheran household in\nHarrisburg by a Christian aunt, who was a member of old Zion Lutheran\nChurch.\n\n\u201cMy mother had died in my infancy. I never saw her to remember her\nappearance; I never saw a likeness of her, a lock of hair or a garment\nwhich she had worn; but when dying she left a message with my aunt, a\nmessage which never left me, even when I was farthest from God. It was\nthese words, 'Bring up my boy to meet me in heaven.' It was those words\nwhich really brought me back to my mother's God.\n\n\u201cWhen I quit work in that saloon that 16th day of September, 1903, I was\nall in. I saw my face in the mirror over the bar, and when I am dead I\nshall not be more colorless. The barkeeper filled my bottle, and instead\nof going, as usual, to my home in the southwest, I made my way up\nFour-and-a-half Street. I was simply impelled by an unseen force. Behind\nevery tree I took a nip from the bottle, till I came to Pennsylvania\nAvenue. Then I knew I dared not drink where a policeman would see me;\nso, hardly knowing where I was or what I was doing, I staggered to the\nold bank corner at Seventh Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. They tell me\nI disturbed the meeting, but when they adjourned to the Mission Hall I\nfollowed weeping and crying, 'I shall not go out of this hall till I am\ndead or saved.'\n\n\u201cI have been told by Brothers Gordon and Wheeler that no drunkard we\nhave ever seen disgrace himself in this mission ever behaved worse than\nI did. God gave them that night the grace of patience.\n\n[Illustration: BOY SCOUTS]\n\n[Illustration: CAMP FIRE GIRLS]\n\n\u201cI cried to God, 'This poor man cried, and God heard him.' I rose to my\nfeet, sobered and in my right mind. I gave the bottle to Brother Bratz,\nand when I got out on the street I threw away my cigarettes and tobacco,\nand from that day to this I have not touched or tasted either liquor or\ntobacco. The next morning my hand was as steady as it is this minute.\nWhile I was wondering what to do, a rap came to the door. It was the\nsaloon man's messenger, telling me to come and finish my job. I was\nweak, but I was praying. In the meantime Satan was giving me the battle\nof my life. The devil is a hard loser. He said, 'Well, if God could keep\nDaniel in the lions' den, and the Hebrews in the fiery furnace, He could\nsurely keep you in the saloon.'\n\n\u201cBut God has done better than that for me. He has kept me out of the\nsaloon. In my distress of mind as to whether I should finish that job or\ngo for my tools, I picked up my wife's Bible and I opened at these\nwords, 'Fear not, for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy\nname, thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters I will be with\nthee, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou\nwalkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the\nflame kindle upon thee.' It was a message straight from heaven to my\nsoul. I so accepted it.\n\n\u201cI never finished the job. I never went after my tools, and from that\nday to this I have not entered a saloon. Satan has camped on my trail\nmany times. I have had trials and temptations, but God has delivered me\nfrom the sins of the flesh, whisky, tobacco and their accompanying sins.\nNo man who has been a drunkard can ever again safely use tobacco. An\nexperience of ten years in mission work, where I have seen thousands of\nsouls born into the kingdom, convinces me that the convert who retains\ntobacco will surely slip back. Christ's redeeming blood cleanses from\nall sin.\n\n\u201cI was a good workman and I soon had permanent work. I never failed to\nmake the arrangement before I entered into a contract that I was not to\nbe expected to enter a saloon or any other disreputable place.\u201d\n\nThat was Mr. Kline's testimony, and I would like to say for him that God\ngreatly uses him and his testimony to bring fallen men back to God. He\nis an acceptable preacher of righteousness in almost any pulpit in this\ncity, and he has done acceptable evangelistic work in many large eastern\ncities. His presence in the Gospel Mission, we believe, is helpful to\nall the men who come under its roof. He is an honored member of the\nLuther Memorial Church.\n\nI reaffirm, as long as one man dead in sin can be transformed into a\nliving, active, aggressive Christian, the words of the Scripture are as\ntrue to-day as when the angel said, \u201cThou shalt call His name Jesus, for\nHe shall save His people from their sins.\u201d Nothing now known to science\ncan accomplish what happened to Mr. H. W. Kline that night; that is, as\nProf. James so pertinently says, \u201cConversion is the only means by which\na radically bad person can be changed into a radically good person.\u201d\n\nHarold Begbie, as a psychologist, says: \u201cWhatever we may think of the\nphenomenon itself, the fact stands clear and unassailable that by this\nthing called conversion, men consciously wrong, inferior and unhappy,\nbecome consciously right, superior and happy. It produces not a change\nbut a revolution. It creates a new personality.\u201d We would say a new\ncreature in Christ Jesus.\n\nThe religion of Christ differs from all other religions. They take the\nrich, the happy, the successful, as their expositors, but Christ takes\nthe broken, the sorrowful, the beaten in the race, and makes them the\nrich, the successful and the happy expositors of His religion.\n\n\n EMOTION IN RELIGION\n\nProf. H. W. Wynn, D.D., one of the great writers of the _Lutheran\nObserver_, has these wise words concerning the elements of emotion in\nreligion:\n\n\u201cWe have discovered that religion as a purely emotional experience may\nhave no religion in it at all, though kindled by the emotional stimuli\nthat religion commands. There is an emotional element in religion, of\ncourse, deep, powerful, pervasive; and when you give way to it,\nenveloping your whole being as in an atmosphere of flame. Those tender\nfeelings which enter so largely into the deeper currents of our domestic\nand social life\u2014love, pity, joy, hope, the striking of the glad hand,\ncomradeship locking arms under the same great banner to do deeds of\nheroism in the same great cause\u2014religion calls them all up, and fires\nthem all with a conquering zeal.\n\n\u201cBut, manifestly, the zeal may burn out before the deeds of heroism have\nbeen begun. We have learned to know that the same emotional fires may be\nkindled when religion is not the theme. A great crowd, an orator of\nfluent and persuasive speech, music filling the air with the imaginary\nshouts of an \u201cIo triumphe\u201d come to stay\u2014it matters very little what may\nbe the occasion that has called these people together, the emotional\npart of their campaign has been achieved. But, whether in religion or in\npolitics, it would be stupidly unwise to conclude that the excitement\nitself was the end to be attained\u2014emotion being set down as the deed\nitself; or, in some way, an assured equivalent of the deed.\n\n\u201cIn all such cases fanaticism is the result, and fanaticism has never\nbeen an aid, but always, in the long run, an embarrassment to any great\ncause. Fanaticism stops with the excitement\u2014absurdly confounds\nexcitement with the cause to be maintained.\n\n\u201cIn religion, especially, this unhappy 'transvaluation of value' is\nlikely to be made. For long ages it has been systematically taught that\nthe emotional element in religion either summed it all up or was an\nunmistakable token that, then and there, it had been all summed up for\nus in the exchequer of the skies. The great transaction had passed, the\nthing was done when your religious ecstasy swelled to the highest, and\nyou found yourself, as you confidently believed, borne on its billows to\nthe bosom of God.\u201d\n\nNow, we all recognize this emotional element only as a helpful factor in\nreligion, but not a permanent element. I have seen a few men accept\nChrist without any emotion whatever. I remember a blue-eyed, fair\ncomplexioned man saying, \u201cI have no especial emotion. I am truly sorry\nfor my sins. I confess them now and here, and I claim 1 John 1:9, 'If we\nconfess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to\ncleanse us from all unrighteousness.' I ask God to cleanse me. I need it\nand accept it, because He has said so.\u201d Tracy lived all right as long as\nwe knew of him. If converts made in evangelistic meetings were taken\ninto careful Bible school, they would develop into useful Christians,\nand there would be no backsliding.\n\nNow, religion, in the sense in which we use it, is a \u201cbuilding\u201d process,\nnot \u201cinflation,\u201d as the aeronaut would inflate his balloon. We all know\nthe class of religionists who hop, jump and shout in religious meetings;\nthey are so busy they do not see the basket as it passes; they give no\nmoney, they do nothing that the world would call religious except these\nphysical manifestations. They are intolerant to all who do not believe\nas they do, they are simply to be tolerated and petted along as\ndeficients who mean well but cannot be counted as part of the great\norganized force of believers which God is using to bring about the\nkingdom of God until by training and experience they can be used among\ntheir own class. But, among these, every now and then there comes a man\nof good mentality but without education, whom God can use. His church\nhas no room for him, yet he has the same orders that Jesus gave to the\neleven, \u201cGo ye and preach the gospel to every nation,\u201d and we find him\npreaching on the side streets, later a hall or church is hired, and we\nhave a new sect.\n\nYou remember Jane Addams tells of the young college graduate who had\ntaken a course in a Bible training school and in a school of\nphilanthropy, who, on her return home, asked the rector for religious\nwork, and he replied, \u201cYou might arrange the flowers on the pulpit each\nSunday.\u201d Think of that to a soul aflame with God!\n\nMacaulay touches off this kind of blindness in his essay on \u201cRanke's\nHistory of the Popes,\u201d in this way: \u201cFar different is the policy of\nRome. The ignorant enthusiasts whom the Anglican Church makes an enemy,\nand, whatever the learned and polite may think, a most dangerous enemy,\nthe Catholic Church makes a champion; she bids him nurse his beard,\ncovers him with a gown and hood of coarse dark stuff, ties a rope around\nhis waist, and sends him forth to teach in her name. He costs her\nnothing. He takes not a ducat away from the revenues of her beneficed\nclergy. He lives by the alms of those who respect his spiritual\ncharacter and are grateful for his instructions. He preaches not exactly\nin the style of Massillon, but in a way which moves the passions of the\nuneducated hearers, and all his influence is employed to strengthen the\nchurch of which he is a minister. To that Church he becomes as strongly\nattached as any of the cardinals, whose scarlet carriages and liveries\ncrowd the entrance of the palace on the Quirinal. In this way the Church\nof Rome unites in herself all the strength of establishment, and all the\nstrength of dissent. Even for female agencies there is a place in her\nsystem for devout women; she assigns them spiritual functions, dignities\nand magistracies.\u201d\n\nHow different from these enthusiasts who have not entered a church for\nyears; their stock in trade is largely vituperation of the churches\nuntil they are trained into a better understanding of relative social\nservice. The Church is doing the real Christian work of the world in\nkeeping people from going wrong. Missions and their branches only hope\nto catch the driftwood of humanity before it floats out into the great\nocean of eternity.\n\nBut every church in the land should have an investment in money or\npersonal representatives in the nearest city rescue mission. The young\npeople of the churches should be the choirs of the missions. They will\nget inspiration as to how to do work for God in securing the conversion\nof every soul committed to their care in the church and community work.\n\n\n\n\n TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES\n\n\n 1. On p. 51, interest on $17,000 at 5.5% would be $935 instead of $850.\n 2. Added \u201cwas\u201d between he and brought on p. 103.\n 3. Silently corrected typographical errors.\n 4. Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed.\n 5. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.","title":"Twice-born Men in America: or, The Psychology of Conversion as Seen by a Christian Psychologist in Rescue Mission Work","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":33153}