Conversion of a High Priest into a Christian Worker Part 3

Providence, considered in reference to all things existing, is termed by Knapp universal; in reference to moral beings, special; and in reference to holy or converted beings, particular. Every thing is an object of Providence in proportion to its capacity. The Disciples, being of more value than many sparrows, were a.s.sured of greater providential care. By Providence being universal is intended, not merely that it embraces cla.s.ses of objects or greater matters, but that nothing is too minute or insignificant for its inspection.

Providence is usually divided in three divine acts, Preservation, Co-operation and Government. 1. By preservation is signified the causing of existence to continue. 2. Co-operation is the act of G.o.d which causes the powers of created things to remain in being. It is not pretended that the existence of the powers of the things are ever separated, but only that they are distinguishable in mental a.n.a.lysis.

Co-operation varies with the nature of the objects towards which it is exercised. 3. Government, as a branch of Providence, is G.o.d's controlling all created things so as to promote the highest good of the whole. To this end every species of being is acted upon in a way confirmable to its nature; for instance, inanimate things by the laws of physical influence; brutes according to the laws of instinct; and free agents according to the laws of free agency. Moreover, as Providence has respect to the nature which G.o.d has been pleased to design to each various object, so, in common with every other divine act, it is characterized by divine perfections. It displays omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence, holiness, justice, and benevolence. It has been sometimes contended that Providence does not extend to all things, or to unimportant events, and chiefly for four reasons. Such an all-embracing providence, it is said, would (1) be distracting to the mind of G.o.d; or (2) would be beneath His dignity; or (3) would interfere with human freedom; or (4) would render G.o.d unjust in permitting evil to exist. In reply to these objections against a providence controlling all things without exception, it may be observed that the third and fourth suggest difficulties which press equally, in fact, upon all hypothesis, not only as to providence, but as to creation, and which shall be more fully explained in the sequel.

As to the first objection, that the minutiae of the creation are so multifarious as to confuse the mind of G.o.d, we are content to let it refute itself in every mind which has any just sense of divine knowledge and wisdom. The second objection, that some things are beneath G.o.d's notice, if it be not a captious cavil, must result from pus.h.i.+ng too far the a.n.a.logy between earthly kings and the King of kings. It is an imperfection in human potentates that they need vicegerents; let us not then attribute such a weakness to G.o.d, fancying him altogether such a one as ourselves. Again, it is to this day doubtful whether the microscope does not display the divine perfections as ill.u.s.triously as the telescope; there is therefore no reason to deny a providence over animalcula which we admit over the constellated heavens. What is it that we dare call insignificant? The least of all things may be as a seed cast in to the seed-field of time, to grow there and bear fruit, which shall be multiplying when time shall be no more. We cannot always trace the connections of things. We do not ponder those we can trace: or we should tremble to call anything beneath the notice of G.o.d. It has been eloquently said that where we see a trifle hovering unconnected in s.p.a.ce, higher spirit can discern its fibres stretching through the whole expanse of the system of the world, and hanging on the remotest limits of the future and the past. In reference to the third and fourth objections before mentioned, namely, that an all-embracing providence is incompatible with divine justice and human freedom, it should be considered that, in contemplating G.o.d's Providence, the question will often arise, why was mortal evil allowed to exist? But as these questions meet us at every turn, and, under different forms, may be termed the one and the only difficulty in theology, it is already considered in the previous chapter of this work, and may therefore require the less notice in the present article. We should in all humility preface whatever we say on the permission of evil (such as, mysticism, in religious bodies) with a confession that it is an inscrutable mystery, which our faith receives, but which our reason could not prove either to be or not to be demanded by the perfection of G.o.d. But, in addition to the vindication of G.o.d's ways which may be found in the over-ruling of evil for good, the following theories deserve notice:--

1. Occasionalism, or the doctrine that G.o.d is the immediate cause of all men's actions. It is so called, because it maintains that men only furnish G.o.d an occasion for what he does. It degrades all second causes to mere occasions, and turns men into pa.s.sive instruments.

2. Mechanism. Many, alarmed at the consequences which occasionalism would seem to involve, have embraced an opposite scheme. They criticise the definition of the laws of nature, and contend that occasionalism derives all its plausibility from adroitly availing itself of the ambiguities of language. They would have us view the creation as a species of clock, or other machinery, which, being once made and wound up, will for a time perform its movements without the a.s.sistance or even presence of its maker. But reasons press too far the a.n.a.logy between the Creator and an artisan. So excellent a man as Baxter was misled by this hypothesis, which evidently is as derogatory to G.o.d as occasionalism is fatal to the moral agency of man.

3. The authors of the third scheme respecting the mode in which Providence permits sin sought to be "Eclectics" or to find a path intermediate between Mechanism and Occasionalism. In their judgment, man is actuated by G.o.d, and yet is at the same time active himself. G.o.d gives man the power of action, and preserves these powers every moment, but he is not the efficient cause of free actions themselves. This they say, is involved in the very idea of a moral being, which would cease to be moral if it were subjected to the control of necessity, and not suffered to choose and to do what it saw to be the best according to the laws of freedom. But it is asked, why did G.o.d create men free, and therefore fallible? It were presumption to think of answering this question adequately. It belongs to the deep things of G.o.d. But, among the possible reasons, we may mention, that if no fallible beings had been created, there could have been no virtue in the universe; for virtue implies probation, and probation a liability to temptation and sin. Again, if some beings had not become sinful, the most glorious attributes of G.o.d would never have been so fully exerted and displayed.

How could His wisdom and mercy and grace have been adequately manifested, except by suffering a portion of His creatures to become such as to demand the exercise of those attributes? How else could He have wrought the miracle of educing good from evil? In this connection we may allude to the third chapter of Romans, where as in other pa.s.sages, it is declared, that the good which evil may be over-ruled to produce, cannot palliate, much less excuse, the guilt of sinners, or of those who say, "Let us do evil that good may come."

Among the proofs of Divine Providence may be reckoned the following:--1.

One argument in proof of Providence is a.n.a.logous to one mode of proving a creation. If we cannot account for the existence of the world without supposing its coming into existence, or beginning to be; no more can we account for the world continuing to exist, without supposing it to be preserved; for it is as evidently absurd to suppose any creature prolonging as producing its own being. A second proof of Providence results from the admitted fact of creation. Whoever has made any piece of mechanism, therefore takes pains to preserve it.

Parental affection moves those who have given birth to children to provide for their sustenation and education. It is both reasonable and scriptural to contemplate G.o.d as sustaining the universe because He made it. Thus David, having promised that the world was made by G.o.d, immediately descends to the course of his Providence. (Ps. xxiii. 6.) The creation also evinces a Providence by proving G.o.d's right to rule, on the admitted principle that every one may do what he will with his own.

A third proof of Providence is found in the divine perfections. Since, among the divine perfections, are all power and all knowledge, the non-existence of Providence, if there be none, must result from a want of will in G.o.d. But no want of will to exercise a Providence can exist, for G.o.d wills whatever is for the good of the universe, and for His own glory; to either of which a Providence is clearly indispensable. G.o.d therefore has resolved to exercise His power and knowledge so as to subserve the best ends with His creation. "He that denies Providence,"

says Charnock, "denies most of G.o.d's attributes; he denies at least the exercise of them; he denies his omniscience, which is the eye of Providence; mercy and justice, which are the arms of it; power, which is its life and motion; wisdom, which is the rudder whereby Providence is steered; and holiness, which is the compa.s.s and rule of each motion."

This argument for a Providence might be made much more impressive, did our limits allow us to expand it, so as to show, step by step how almost every attribute, if not directly, yet by implication, demands that G.o.d put forth an unceasing sovereignty over all His works.

A fourth proof of G.o.d's Providence appears in the order which prevails in the universe. We say the order which prevails, aware of the occasional apparent disorder that exists, which we have already noticed, and shall soon treat of again. That summer and winter, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, day and night, are fixed by law, was obvious even to man who never heard of G.o.d's covenant with Noah. Accordingly the ancient Greeks designated the creation by a word which means order (cosmos). But our sense of order is keenest where we discern it in apparent confusion. The motions of the heavenly bodies are eccentric and intervolved, yet are most regular when they seem most lawless. They were therefore compared by the earliest astronomers to the discords which blend in a harmony, and to the wild starts which often heighten the graces of a dance. Modern astronomy has revealed to us so much miraculous symmetry in celestial phenomena, that it shows us far more decisive proofs of a Ruler seated on the circles of the heavens, than were vouchsafed to the ancients. Moreover, many discover proofs of a Providence in such facts as the proportion between the two s.e.xes, the diversities of the continents, as well as human nature and the nature of all things continuing always the same; since such facts show that all things are controlled by an unchanging power.

An objection to proofs of Providence, derived from the order of the universe, is thought to spring from the seeming disorders to which we cannot shut our eyes. Much is said of plagues and earthquakes, of drought, flood, frost and famine, with a thousand more natural evils.

But it deserves consideration whether, if there were no Providence, these anomalies would not be the rule instead of the exception; whether they do not feelingly persuade us that that curse of nature is upheld by a power above nature, and without which it would fall to nothing; whether they may not be otherwise necessary for more important ends than fall within the scope of our knowledge.

[Ill.u.s.tration: REV. M. GOLDEN

The High Priest in Church Ceremonial Attire]

A fifth proof of Providence is furnished by the fact that so many men are here rewarded and punished according to a righteous law. The wicked often feel compunctious visitings in the midst of their sins, or smart under the rod of civil justice, or are tortured with natural evils. With righteous all things are in general reversed. The miser and envious are punished as soon as they begin to commit their respective sins; and some virtues are their own present reward. But we would not dissemble that we are here met with important objections, although infinitely less, even though they were unanswerable, than beset such as would reject the doctrine of Providence.

It is said, and we grant, that the righteous are trodden under foot, and the vilest men exalted; that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; that virtue starves, while vice is fed, and that schemes for doing good are frustrated, while evil plots succeed. But we may reply:

1. The prosperity of the wicked is often apparent, and well styled a s.h.i.+ning misery. Who believes that Nero enthroned was happier than Paul in chains?

2. We are often mistaken in calling such or such an afflicted man good, and such or such a prosperous man bad.

3. The miseries of good men are generally occasioned by their own faults, since they have been so fool-hardy as to run counter to the laws by which G.o.d acts, or have aimed at certain ends while neglecting the appropriate means.

4. Many virtues are proved and augmented by trials, and not only proved, but produced, so that they would have had no existence without them.

Many a David's n.o.blest qualities would never have been developed but for the impious attempts of Saul. Job's integrity was not only tested but strengthened by Satan being permitted to sift him as wheat. Pa.s.sions, experience and hope were brought as ministering angels to man, of whom the world was not worthy, through trials of cruel mockings and scourgings.

5. The unequal distribution of good and evil, so far as it exists, carries our thoughts forward to the last judgment, and a retribution according to the deeds done in the body, and can hardly fail of throwing round the idea of eternity a stronger air of reality than it might otherwise have done. All perplexities vanish as we reflect that, "He cometh to judge the earth."

6. Even if we limit our views to this world, but extend them to all our acquaintances, we cannot doubt that the tendencies, though not always the effects, of vice are to misery, and those of virtue to happiness.

These tendencies are especially clear if our view embraces a whole life-time, and the clearer the longer the period we embrace. The Psalmist was at first envious at the foolish, when he saw the prosperity of the wicked; but as his views became more comprehensive, and he understood their end, his language was, "How are they brought into desolation as in a moment; they are utterly consumed with terrors." The progressive tendency of vice and virtue to reap each its appropriate harvest is finally ill.u.s.trated by Bishop Butler, best of all perhaps in his picture of an imaginary kingdom of the good, which would peacefully subvert all others, and fill the earth. Indeed, as soon as we leave what is immediately before our eyes, and glance at the annals of the world, we behold so many manifestations of G.o.d, that we may adduce as a sixth proof of Providence the facts of history. The giving and transmission of a revelation, as the Mosaic and the Christian--the raising up of Prophets, Apostles and Defenders of the Faith--the ordination of particular events, such as the Reformation--the more remarkable deliverance noticed in the lives of those devoted to the good of the world, etc., all indicate the wise and benevolent care of G.o.d over the human family. But the historical proof of a Providence is perhaps strongest where the wrath of man has been made to praise G.o.d, or where efforts to dishonor G.o.d have been constrained to do him honor. Testimony in favor of piety has fallen from the impious, and has had a double volume, as coming from the unwilling. They who have fought against the truth have been used by G.o.d as instruments of spreading the knowledge of it, awakening an interest in it, or stimulating Christians to purify it from human additions, and to exhibit its power. The scientific researches also with which infidels have wearied themselves to overthrow a revelation have proved at last fatal to their daring scepticisms. Too many histories, like Gibbons', have been written as if there were no G.o.d in the heavens, swaying the sceptre of the earth. But a better day is approaching; and it is exhilarating to observe that Alison, the first British historian of the age, writes in the spirit which breathes in the historical books of the Bible, where the free actions of man are represented as inseparably connected with the agency of G.o.d. If we may judge of the future by the past, as the scroll of time unrolls, we, or our posterity, and some think glorified spirits in a yet higher degree, shall see more and more plainly the hand of G.o.d operating, till every knee shall bow. Judgments, now a great deep, shall become as the light that goeth forth. The tides of ambition and avarice will all be seen to roll in subserviency to the designs of G.o.d. To borrow the ill.u.s.tration of another, "we shall behold the bow of G.o.d encircling the darkest storms of wickedness, and forcing them to manifest His glory to the universe."

As a seventh ground for believing in Providence, it may be said that Providence is the necessary basis of all religion. For what is religion? One of the best definitions calls it the belief in a super-human power, which has great influence in the human affairs, and ought therefore to be wors.h.i.+ped. But take away this influence in the human affairs, and you cut off all motive to wors.h.i.+p. To the same purpose is the text in Hebrews: "He that cometh to G.o.d must believe that He is, and He is a rewarder of such as diligently seek Him." If then the religious sentiments thrill us not in vain--if all attempts of all men to commune with G.o.d have not always and everywhere been idle--there must be a Providence.

In the eighth place, we may advert for a moment to the proof of Providence from the common consent of mankind, with the single exception of atheists. The Epicureans may be cla.s.sed with atheists, as they are generally thought to have been atheists in discourse, and a G.o.d after their imaginations would be, to all intents and purposes, no G.o.d. The Stoics were also atheists, believing only in a blind fate arising from a perpetual concatenation of causes contained in nature. The pa.s.sages acknowledging a Providence in Cicero, Seneca, Plutarch, and all the ancient moralists, are numerous and decisive, but too accessible or well-known to need being quoted.

In the last place, the doctrine of Providence is abundantly proved by the Scriptures. Some times it is declared that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will; as much as to say that nothing can withstand His power. Again, lest we may think some things beneath His notice, we read that He numbereth the hairs of our heads, careth for lilies, and disposeth all the lots which are cast. The care of G.o.d for man is generally argued, a fortiori, from His care for inferior creatures. One Psalm (xci) is devoted to show the providential security of the G.o.dly: another (xciii) shows the frailty of man; and a third (civ) the dependence of all orders in creation on G.o.d's Providence for food and breath. In Him, it is elsewhere added, we live, and move, and have our being. He, in the person of Christ, sustaineth all things by the Word of His power, and from Him cometh down every good and perfect gift. But nowhere perhaps is a Providence so pointedly a.s.serted and so sublimely set forth as in some of the last chapters of Job; and nowhere so variously, winningly, and admirably exhibited as in the history of Joseph.

And nowhere could be found more brilliantly illuminating its substance than in our own hearts and lives. The fool hath said in his heart, there is no G.o.d. To undervalue G.o.d's Providence it is the most dreadful insult that a fool could dare conceive in his mind against G.o.d's existence. But the wise hearken to His voice.

My son, if thou wilt receive my words, And hide my commandments with thee; So that thou incline thine ear to wisdom, And apply thy heart to understanding; Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, And liftest up thy voice for understanding; If thou seekest her as silver, And searchest for her as for hid treasures; Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, And find the knowledge of G.o.d.

CHAPTER VII

_New York to California_

When I was but a little boy, I can well recollect, a nice little pond in the hollow of two hills beautifully situated, near the school house where the pupils would enjoy the intervals of their school time. How I would wonder at the experiment of throwing a stone in the pond and watching anxiously the circles of water growing larger and larger till reaching the banks of the pond and there they would break, as though in despair for the limitations of their enlarging tendencies. It seems to me, now, a parallel despair threatens my heart, for being obliged to compact this story of my conversion. Yet, in view of the fact that the American reader is a greater admirer of quality rather than quant.i.ty, I must content myself by giving a brief account on the practical side of my personal experience as a Christian worker, among the rich and the poor, the high and the low cla.s.ses and ma.s.ses, in cities and towns, suns.h.i.+ne or clouds, rain or snow, by day or by night; I made myself servant unto all men, that I might by all means save some, and this I do for the Gospel's sake. And, it is only proper, to confess, publicly, that I am prepared to suffer all things, for the love which I feel in my heart to be of some service to my own people, an historical race of people they are, drifting away from G.o.d, blindly allowing blind priests to lead them into the ditch. There is a cheering prospect about this people, for whose salvation I have devoted my life, that when Christ enters into the heart of a Greek, there is very little hope left for the devil to induce him to be a backslider. A truly converted Greek soul is worthy of all the joy that the angels in heaven rejoice over one sinner that repenteth. How much more rejoicing shall be there, if we get converted all the Greeks that are living in the United States and use them as a kindling matter to start the fire of salvation in the hearts of the millions of people under the Greek and Russian church slavery, all round the Mediterranean countries?

With this and many other social and industrial problems laying upon my heart, I find the atmosphere, in New York, too close for any opening and very little encouragement for a beginning. And the atmosphere grew more asphyxiating every day with the arguments of my friend George N. He never had any sympathy with the subject so dear to my own heart, his highest ambition being money-making, for which end he relinquished the Presbyterian pulpit, after being duly graduated from a Presbyterian Seminary for ministerial ordination. It was only natural that our thoughts and our ambitions should face each other suspiciously from the diametrical opposite ends. And with all due respect to my old teacher and gratefully acknowledging his hospitality for entertaining me many a day, I find out that at the best I had to be in his mercy, as long as I was not able to explain myself, to the American people, speaking in their own language. And, as difficulties have always had a peculiar effect upon my personal character; to face them, and fight them out with one object in view to die or to win, I left New York right after Christmas of 1903, in the midst of an unusually severe winter, rather a wanderer; but determined to ramble among the American people and learn the language by ear, which proved in my case, and I believe, it is in every case, to be the best school for learning the correct p.r.o.nunciation of any language you might desire to speak, and be not laughable when you address the natives of that language.

Where should I direct my wandering steps, it was the all important question, under my consideration in the first place. Boston: I had been scouring the ground before, and from a thorough-going I was convinced that to begin in a place where the most superst.i.tious, if not fanatic, Greeks are situated, at all appearances it should be a wonderful failure without any dose of wisdom in it; while I was not able to take my stand before the people, whose sympathies I needed in judging my purposes and my efforts. In the great wild West, way out there, where some of the best easterners by leaving their homes and their comforts therein, and enduring all the hards.h.i.+ps of pioneering life they succeeded at last to put a solid foundation of a new and permanent civilization astonis.h.i.+ngly wonderful not only in the development of this great land of liberty but revolutionizing the whole commercial and social system of the world.

Who hath known the mind of the Lord? We have been taught, that His purpose is to glorify Himself through human agency, and we know that all the great movements in history were originated in an insignificant way by insignificant persons at the beginning. Who could say, at the time, when the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river, and there she drew out of the water an ark with a child in it, that that child would be the chosen one of G.o.d to deliver his people from the Egyptian bondage? Or, when, a poor carpenter with his wife went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea in a small village of Bethlehem, and Mary brought forth her first-born son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn; that that baby was the King of Kings, Christ the Lord and Saviour of all mankind?

That, humble fishermen would be the heralds of glad tidings, to those who accept Christ as their Saviour? That an altruist monk should leave his monastery, thus violating his vows to Pope and the church, to be the mouthpiece of the Truths of Christ's Gospel, and become the father of a Reformation that brought down the Romish pride, for all time and raised the banner of personal liberty in Him who is the Only One to save every soul that cometh unto Him without the necessity of a priest? That such men as John Wesley, Moody, and a number of others, to accomplish great things for the advancement of G.o.d's kingdom? And the greatest religious living man, General William Booth, who, with his ingenious and prototype system, is doing more for G.o.d and humanity, than all religious bodies put together? Their beginning was insignificant.

These names, a few of the many, I thought to mention for the encouragement of those who always try to find some excuse, for not doing all they can, to realize that for which they every day pray, "Thy Kingdom come." As for me, I know, that there is nothing impossible with Jesus, and it is only according to our faith, and the work which we put in it, that we reap the results of our efforts.

When I left New York, I made a short stop-over at New Jersey, and one snowy morning I went to the R. R. station and purchased my ticket for Athens, Ohio, because, in studying geography, I noticed that there are quite a number of towns in the United States by the name of Athens, and I was very desirous to visit the Athens, Ohio, and see if there was any Acropolis or monuments to compare with the Athens, Greece. The train arrived at Athens, Ohio, R. R. station just on time, not to miss my dinner at a nearby restaurant, where I inquired if there were any Greek people in the town. A very gentle young lady, waiting on the table gave me instructions to find a candy store kept by a Greek, where she took her ice cream. I found the place and the Greek who was a real good natured middle-aged man and his family living on the floor above the store. He received me kindly and after a short conversation he said he thought I could make a suitable help for him and he offered me the job without asking any questions as to my identification. I had no thought of staying at that place and declined the offer. By the same Greek I was glad to learn that Athens, Ohio, though there is no Acropolis and no Socrates there; yet, she is a nice little college town and the Greek was doing a rus.h.i.+ng business with the students. The next train was for St.

Louis, Missouri, and I was very anxious to see the Mississippi river, so I went on that train. The great bridge on the Mississippi river and the Union station at St. Louis are two buildings that could make honor to any city in the world. I left my luggage at the parcel-room and started out to find a hotel, where I could have the best accommodations for the smallest amount of money. When I located myself the best that I could, the next thing I thought to look around for a job, as I liked to stay in St. Louis till the opening of the World's Fair in the year 1904. I bought a newspaper: I could then read some English, but speak very little yet. The advertis.e.m.e.nt which attracted my attention was a short one "Wanted young man willing to work, apply, at given number and street." It was Sat.u.r.day yet I was anxious and willing to work, so, I went to answer the ad. By asking in every corner some man in uniform, not knowing at the time if they were policemen or conductors in the electric cars, I find the street and presently I saw the number above the door of a great big livery stable. I looked over the newspaper, and the number was correct. I was not prepared for the surprise and for a moment I hesitated to enter. The thoughts came to me by bunches: for the first time in my life I was looking for an honest work to make an honest living, and the first place, G.o.d's Providence, brought me, was a stable; and what a big stable that was. I never knew anything about stables and horses: what could I do there? Instantly my feet began to move backwards when a thought came as a lightning: what do you care if it is a stable, or a dowager's palace? It is work that you want, and it is much more honorable to work in a stable and be right with G.o.d, than to live in the luxuries as a High Priest and be an hypocrite. Labor, it has always been an object of my admiration, though, labor is set forth as a part of the primeval curse, "in the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread" and doubtless there is a view of labor which exhibits in it reality as a heavy, sometimes a crueling burden. But labor is by no means exclusively an evil, nor is its prosecution a dishonor.

These impressions, false though they are, have wrought a vast and complicated amount of harm to men, especially to the industrious cla.s.ses, causing these cla.s.ses, that is, the great majority of our fellow-creatures, to be regarded, and consequently to be treated even in Christian lands, as a parish caste, as hereditary "hewers of wood and drawers of water" doomed by Providence, if not primarily by the Creator himself, to a low and degrading yoke, and utterly incapable of entertaining lofty sentiments, or rising to a higher position; to be restrained therefore in every manifestation of impatience lest they should temporarily gain the upper hand, and lay waste the fair fields of civilization; and to be kept under for the safety of society, if not for their own safety, by social burdens and the depressing influences of disregard and contempt.

A better feeling, however, regarding labor and laborers, is beginning to prevail: these motions, which breathe the very spirit of slavery whence they are borrowed, are in a word dishonored, while they are gradually losing their hold on the heart, and their influence on the life.

Individuals arising from time to time from the lowest levels of social life to take, occupy, and adorn its loftiest posts, have irresistibly shown that there is no depression in society which the favors of G.o.d may not reach. Especially has a wider and more humane spirit begun to prevail since man has learned more accurately to know, and more powerfully to feel, the genius and the spirit of the Gospel, whose originator was a carpenter's son, and whose heralds were Galilean fishermen. Reason and experience too, in this as in all cases, have come to revealed truth, tending forcibly to show that labor, if under certain circ.u.mstances it has a curse to inflict, has also many priceless blessings to bestow. Yet, when it fell to my lot, to submit myself in that cla.s.s and be a laborer and earn my bread by the sweat of my brow, it was a critical moment to decide upon. And just at this moment a man of small stature came out of the stable, and as I looked suspiciously, he asked me if I wanted anything. I want this job said I, showing to him the ad in the paper. With a few sharp glances at me standing now like a marble; all right, he said; you just put on your working clothes and come here on Monday morning at 5 a. m., and we will have something for you to do. I left him and on my way back home I entered the first clothing store and purchased an outfit of working-man's clothes. The next day was Sunday and I spent the day in my room, praying that G.o.d would sustain me in my new career. At night I had very little sleep, making my plans for the future, or building my castles in the air, and early Monday morning I was at the stable before 5 a. m. Soon the little man appeared and after the customary ceremony in taking my name and address, he led the way into the inner part of the stable in front of a huge heap of horse manure. There, he says, you just shovel that out of the window, and handing to me a big fork, for the operation, he disappeared.

There are certain happenings in our lives indelibly written in our memory, which cannot be effaced by the stream of time, and one week's experience in this stable was sufficient to engrave the deepest lines in my heart of sympathy and mercy for sinful, suffering humanity. It has been said in the old Greek mythology that the greatest achievement of Hercules was when he undertook to clean the stable of the king Augeus at Argos. But should Hercules lived in this stable for one week, I doubt that his name would ever appear in the list of demiG.o.ds.

[Ill.u.s.tration: REV. M. GOLDEN

Captain of the Salvation Army]

It is beyond the limits of self respect to even attempt a brief account of all that took place in that stable, but sufficient to say that I went in there one individual and by Sat.u.r.day I came out ten thousand strong.

And I had to put up in St. Louis one more week in a bath house, with much work and expense to get back into my one individual, and hasten my wandering steps towards Chicago, with a stop-over at Springfield, Illinois, where I had references to meet a gentleman, professor of the Greek language in one of the colleges there. When I arrived at the house of the dear professor, he, began to speak to me from a book, in an exameter homerean tone, and I understood about as much as the faithful who goes to church and the priest reads the ma.s.s in Latin. At Springfield I lost my satchel and with it my Greek doc.u.ments, which might have been very interesting to the reader, yet, I hope in my next publication to have reproductions of those doc.u.ments from the original, which I can easily obtain from Athens.

Chicago is my next stop. The Babylon of the West. Last week of January, 1904, the weather 12 degrees below zero. All the idles of Chicago hired by the city hall could not keep control of the snow on the streets. I located myself in a furnished room on Wabash Avenue, and bought a paper to find a job, but my experience in the stable at St. Louis, took away from me all the courage to select any kind of work from the paper, yet I was very anxious to settle for a while in Chicago, in that third cosmopolitan city of the world, London and New York being respectively first and second.