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Title: Conversion of a High Priest into a Christian Worker
Author: Meletios Golden
Release Date: January 6, 2008 [eBook #24179]
Language: English
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CONVERSION OF A HIGH PRIEST INTO A CHRISTIAN WORKER
Edited and Presented by
REV. M. GOLDEN
Second Edition
[Illustration: FARMHOUSE, WHERE REV. M. GOLDEN WROTE HIS CONVERSION]
[Illustration: GREEK-AMERIKAN-CHRISTIAN-ASSOCIATION]
New York
1912
Copyright Office of the United States of America
Library of Congress--Washington, D. C.
In conformity with section 55 of the Act to Amend and Consolidate the
Acts respecting Copyright, approved March 4, 1909, said book has been
duly registered to the name of Rev. M. Golden, of Rutland, Mass.
Entry: Class A, XXc., No. 251121, Oct. 29, 1909.
Copyright, 1910, by REV. MELETIOS GOLDEN.
Entry: Class A, XXc, No. 275323, Nov. 10, 1910.
The Trow Press
New York
TO
My own loving father, who did sow the seed of a brave Christianity in my
young heart, while only eight years of age, calling me by his death-bed,
on my knees, with his right hand resting upon my head, in his last words
to me, saying:
"My boy, I leave you; God will be your Father, and Jesus His Son your
Saviour; keep away from unholy associates, and heed not unlawful advice,
but work for righteousness and help those that are in need; and we shall
meet again." And his spirit went into eternity; to which destination I
direct all my efforts in life.
This Book is dedicated by a grateful son,
REV. MELETIOS GOLDEN.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. FAREWELL 17
II. ARRIVAL 36
III. FIRST DAY IN NEW YORK 49
IV. HIGH PRIEST 57
V. PHILOSOPHY VS. CHRISTIANITY 66
VI. GOD'S PROVIDENCE 76
VII. NEW YORK TO CALIFORNIA 92
VIII. HONORABLE SUBMISSION 104
IX. PRACTICAL EFFECTS OF PRACTICAL TRUTH 114
X. GREEK-AMERIKAN-CHRISTIAN-ASSOCIATION 133
XI. CONCLUSION 151
ILLUSTRATIONS
Farmhouse _Frontispiece_
Rev. M. Golden in Street Attire as High Priest 36
The World's Wonder, Acropolis of Athens, Greece 52
H. R. H. Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn,
K. G., etc. 68
Rev. M. Golden, the High Priest in Church Ceremonial
Attire 84
Rev. M. Golden, Captain of the Salvation Army 100
Rev. M. Golden, the founder of the
Greek-Amerikan-Christian-Association 126
Greek Peasant Woman 132
Conversion of a High Priest into a
Practical Christian Worker
SECOND EDITION
_Edited and Presented by_
Rev. MELETIOS GOLDEN
_Founder of the Greek-Amerikan-Christian-Association._
_HIGH PRIEST OF THE GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH._
_Grand Representative of the St. Stephen's Monastery,
Mt. Athos, Turkey._
_Archimandrides of the Virgin Mary's Monastery, Salamis and
Athens, Greece._
_Lieutenant, Officer, in the Royal Gendarmery of Greece._
_Grand Chaplain and Orator of the Supreme Council of the A. A.
Scottish Rite, Greece._
_Captain of the Salvation Army, U. S. A._
_Member of the Massachusetts Consistory S. P. R. S., Thirty-second
Degree, Boston, Mass._
_Evangelist to the Greeks in the United States, etc., etc._
_New York._
1912.
PREFACE
In placing this second edition in the hands of my readers I most
gratefully acknowledge the splendid assistance of my subscribers, and
the kindness with which this book has been received by the General
Public, who made it possible for me to accomplish my intended purpose,
ever since I left home, that I should give, to the general public, an
account of my conversion into a practical Christian worker, knowing that
there are a great number of intelligent minds, among the priests, in the
Greek-Russian and Roman Catholic churches, who would make good soldiers
of Jesus Christ, and some of them might develop into heroes of Truth and
Righteousness, if they could only deny themselves of the luxuries and
lofty life attached to their priesthood. And this problem of selfishness
is an absolute barrier not only to their own Salvation, but to many a
soul, who might have been saved from sin, and be converted to God, and
usefulness, but for the Priest.
The solution of the problem was the clue which aided me to escape from
the labyrinth of doubt; and now, standing upon the rock of unshaken
faith, I offer the clue that guided me to others.
A work of this kind is called for by the spirit of the age. Although the
signs of the times are said to be propitious, yet there are constant
developments of undisciplined and unsanctified minds both in Europe and
America, which furnish matter of regret to the philanthropist and the
Christian; and though there are great controversies--going on at
present; in relation to the man's spiritual interests, central point of
all this heated contest has been the "Cross of Christ:" yet the most
obnoxious obstacle in the way of progress as to the realization of
"God's Kingdom on earth" it is, and from all quarters the same
exclamation uttered, the priest.
Men and women entrusted with responsibilities of raising children in the
Christ-like way, for the future development of this great country, will
find valuable facts in this volume, which I have endeavored to write, in
order to meet the exigencies among, not only certain people, but among
many well-bred and well-cultured priests.
In criticising this work, the intelligent reader is respectfully
requested to take into account the peculiar circumstances under which
this book is written.
I was only six years old--in the English language--many miles away from
any literary assistance, and fifty miles from the Boston Public Library,
where I could derive many testimonies and opinions of undisputable
authorities to strengthen my religious opinions and actions, which are
tested in the most practical way by all conditions and under all
circumstances, from the ostentatious pomp of a high priest to a loving,
lowly worker in the slums of Chicago.
The place, where this book is written, is a farm situated in the
picturesque county of Worcester, and it might rightfully have attributed
to the effect of the inspiring natural surroundings in this farm that I
was enabled to master my views in framing them according to the
linguistic requirements of the American reader, using the every day
language for the historical part of my subject; and maintaining the more
classical expression for the men with the tendencies to argue, just to
make a show of their higher knowledge, thus trying to excuse themselves
for not submitting all their powers to the Will of God.
It has been said, all misery comes to the human race mainly from two
causes; firstly, through misconduct: and secondly, through misfortune:
therefore; since there is the self-evident truth, in the axiom, that,
when the cause is diagnosed, the remedy is near at hand, let us work
unitedly to remove the cause of all misery, be it in the Greek people,
or Jewish, or Gentiles, and by the light of the Gospel's truth, let us
put forth all our efforts, while here on earth, in establishing
happiness and good will to all men.
REV. MELETIOS GOLDEN.
NORTH RUTLAND, Mass., 1910.
CHAPTER I
_Farewell_
It was the year 1903, on a very beautiful day, one of those April days,
that are well known and appreciated by those who have been fortunate
enough to travel around the purple bathed Mediterranean coast, that his
royal highness, the prince of Greece, Andreas, went abroad to meet his
sweetheart, who afterwards became his wife and princess of Greece. It
was a confidential royal talk, the betrothal of Prince Andreas, but for
the newspaper man, who learns everything, and he can keep a confidential
talk as much as Mrs. Green did when she promised to her husband to keep
all to herself that confidential talk they had one night, and the first
thing in the morning speaking to Mrs. Jones over the fence she
confidentially delivered that confidential talk and in the same manner
all over fences and telephones, wherever they were procurable, to save
the time, the talk went round the town and came back to Mr. Green's
ears, and he only blamed himself for being the fool to trust his wife.
So, when Prince Andreas, came down to Piraeus, the seaport of Athens, to
board on the fashionable French S. S. Messengerie-Maritime, he was
surprised by the throngs of people that gathered at the pier to greet
him "good luck" in his royal love affairs, because the Greeks pay more
attention to the royal love affairs, than they do in paying their
royalties to fatten more highness and highnesses than any other Kingdom
on the face of the earth.
The Kingdom of Greece, little more than two millions of people, pay to
King George, for his annual allowances six times as much as the ninety
millions of people to the President of the United States. And every
creature of royal blood, in Greece, draws as high an allowance, as
nearer to the throne his or her rights happen to be. Besides, many
thousands of acres of the best land in Greece, is granted to the members
of the royal family; thus causing the immense emigration of all these
Greeks, whom you meet in every corner, in the United States, trying to
make an honest living, by shining your shoes, or working in the
construction of railroads in America and Mexico.
The Greek, though born and raised among the most beautiful vineyards
that made the historical and famous Nectar for the Gods, yet when he
leaves his home to go abroad, he takes his last glass of intoxicant,
till he settles himself, in a new adopted motherland, and makes a
comfortable home for the queen of his heart, because home life is the
ideal of every Greek and he is a model as head of the family, in his
moderate means trying to raise children to his generation and give them
the best he can afford. Hopeful, that some Socrates or Demosthenes might
develop out of his offspring. The Greek has never been identified with
any unlawful or criminal movement of the so-called Anarchistic or
Socialistic. The Greek at all times and under all circumstances is an
example as a law-abiding citizen.
Greek history is the pride of all the civilized world, and in the
opinion of a most distinguished sociologist, the United States is the
Greece of this age, and he thinks that it is the irresistible law of
gravitation and sympathy that the tide of emigration draws the Greeks
from the ancient Greece into this new and glorious Greece. And the
writer was very little surprised when told that Boston is the Hub of
America, or in the language of the Archaeologist, the Athens of the
United States, and there and then he made his resolution to make his
home in Boston, should he ever find the way clear to come to America.
The joyful dream of his life has become reality, and for the last six
years from his personal observations traveling a little more, perhaps,
than the average American traveler, from Atlantic Ocean to Pacific
Coast, he is privileged to know that the spirit of the Ancient Greece is
not only confined in the Hub, but, hospitality and the love of art and
beauty prevails in the very heart of every true American man and woman,
even in the remotest village and hamlet, and he has yet to know the time
or the place where he did not feel perfectly at home. Therefore, there
is no regret on his part for bidding farewell to the land of the Gods
and the city which had been the birthplace of taste, of art and beauty
and eloquence. The chosen sanctuary of the Muses. The prototype of all
that is graceful and dignified and grand in sentiment and action.
History and philosophy, oratory and the elements of mathematical science
claim as their birthplace the city of Athens, where Paul, the greatest
apostle of Jesus Christ, uttered his immortal oration to the Athenians,
on the Areopagus (Mars Hill). And he, dignified, temperate, high-minded
and learned in all wisdom, of his age, Paul, confessed that he was
standing in the midst of the highest civilization, both of his own age
and of the ages that had elapsed.
Paul, with his face towards the north having immediately behind him the
long walls which ran down to the sea, affording protection against a
foreign enemy. Near the sea on the one side the harbor of Piraeus, on
the other that designated Phalerum, with crowded arsenals, their busy
workmen and their gallant ships. Not far off in the ocean the Island of
Salamis, ennobled forever in history as the spot near which Athenian
valour chastised Asiatic pride, and achieved the liberty of Greece. The
Apostle turning towards his right hand to catch a view of a small but
celebrated hill rising within the city near that on which he stood,
called the Pnyx, where standing on a block of bare stone, Demosthenes
and other distinguished orators had addressed the assembled people of
Athens, swaying that arrogant and fickle democracy, and thereby making
Philip of Macedon tremble, or working good or ill for the entire
civilized world. Immediately before him looking upon the crowded city,
studded in every part with memorials sacred to religion or patriotism,
and exhibiting the highest achievements of art. On his left, somewhat
beyond the walls, the Academy, with its groves of plane and olive-trees,
its retired walks and cooling fountains, its altar to the Muses, its
statues of the Graces, its Temple of Minerva, and its altars to
Prometheus, to Love, and Hercules, near which Plato had his country
seat, and in the midst of which he had taught as well his followers
after him. But the most impressive spectacle laying on his right hand,
that small and precipitous hill "The Acropolis" where clustered together
monuments of the highest art, and memorials of the national religion,
such as no other equal spot of ground has ever borne. The Apostle's
eyes, in turning to the right, would fall on the north-west side of the
eminence, which was here and all round, covered and protected by a wall,
parts of which were so ancient as to be of Cyclopean origin. The western
side, which alone gave access to what, from its original destination,
may be termed the fort, was, during the administration of Pericles,
adorned with a splendid flight of steps, and the beautiful Propylaea,
with its five entrances and two flanking temples, constructed by
Mnesicles of Pentelican marble at a cost of 2012 talents, which is the
equivalent of about four millions of American dollars. In the time of
the Roman emperors there stood before the Propylaea, equestrian statues
of Augustus and Agrippa. On the southern wing of the Propylaea was a
temple to the Wingless Victory; on the northern, a Pinacotheca, or
picture gallery. On the highest part of the platform of the Acropolis,
not more than 300 feet from the entrance-buildings just described, stood
and yet stands, though shattered and mutilated, The Parthenon, justly
celebrated throughout the world, erected of white Pentelican marble,
under the direction of Callicrates, Ictinus and Carpion and adorned with
the finest sculptures from the hand of Phidias.
Northward from the Parthenon was the Erechtheum, a compound building
which contained the temple of Minerva Polias; the proper Erechtheum,
called also the Cecropium, and the Pandroseum. This sanctuary contained
the holy olive tree sacred to Minerva, the holy salt-spring, the ancient
wooden image of Pallas, etc., and was the scene of the oldest and most
venerated ceremonies and recollections of the Athenians. Perhaps, for
this reason, King George of Greece, in celebrating his 25th anniversary
on the Throne, he gave upon this rock of Acropolis, that remarkable
banquet to all crowned visitors, 175 in number from every royal family
of Europe. At this memorable event, the writer held the office of "man
at arms" on the Acropolis, although he was the youngest officer in the
Royal Gendarmery of Greece, at the time.
Between the Propylaea and the Erechtheum was placed the colossal bronze
statue of Pallas-Promachos, the work of Phidias, which towered so high
above the other buildings, that the plume of her helmet and the point of
her spear were visible on the sea between Sunium and Athens. Moreover,
the Acropolis was occupied by so great a crowd of statues and monuments,
that the account, as found in Pausanias, excites the reader's wonder,
and makes it difficult for him to understand how so much could have
been crowded into a space which extended from the southeast only 1150
feet, whilst its greatest breadth did not exceed 500 feet.
On the hill itself where Paul stood, was the temple of Furies, and in
the court house of Areopagus, there was the altar to Athene Areia.
In all historical probability, Paul, stood exactly on this place when,
"=to the unknown God=" as his text, he delivered the understanding of "The
True and Living God," who made the world and all things therein, and he
made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the
earth.
The writer, consequently, in bidding farewell to his beloved Athens, he
knew that he was going as a brother among members of the same family of
humanity in a land where man is free to worship God, not in hypocrisy
and deceit, but in Spirit and in truth.
On the same beautiful April day that Prince Andreas was going abroad,
the writer went aboard on the same S. S. Messengerie-Maritime, unaware
of H. R. H.'s presence there, notified only at the last moment by the
agent of the company, Mr. Christopher of Piraeus, who was on board
himself going to Italy on a business trip. Mr. Christopher, by being a
member of the same fellowcraft in which the writer was the Grand
Chaplain, he took pains to secure a very comfortable stateroom for his
brother Chaplain.
Now I was following Mr. Christopher and an officer of the S. S. to
locate myself in the suite provided for me, and as we were obliged to
pass through the reception hall there I found myself face to face with
the King George, and the following dialogue occurs.
King--Where are you going, Father?
I--On a recreation trip, Your Majesty. (I should have said, on a
reformation trip.)
King--I hope you will have a bon voyage.
I--Your Majesty's wish, God grant it to be so, and I pray that His
Favour shall crown with joy, all the desires of H. R. H.'s, the Prince,
in his journey.
King--With your prayers, Father, I believe H. R. H. will be well
successful.
And with one of his well known diplomatic smiles that contain manifold
meanings, King George bid us farewell, and in a few moments the big
whistle blew and a gentle vibration of the boat gave the notice that we
were on the move. I went into my cabin and looking through the hole that
was doing duty of a round window, I beheld the monument of Themistocles
passing slowly, and when I could see that no more, I felt something
melting in my heart and over-flowingly coming up into my eyes in the
shape of two drops of burning water. I took them on the tips of my
fingers and after kissing them with all the tenderness of a loving
heart, I sprinkled them into the apeiron, farewell to my loved ones left
behind me, while the big S. S. in full steam was now carrying me faster
and faster into the unknown and uncertain.
I did not leave my cabin and there took my meals for two reasons; first,
H. R. H. expressed the wish to take his meals at the regular
first-class dining table, with all the mortals therein, and I had little
desire to meet him anyway; and second because I wanted to be alone to
indulge undisturbed in my thoughts and study them and keep notes of them
for my future use.
The history tells us that it took thirty years for the greatest
philosopher that was ever born to give his definite opinion as to the
immortality of the soul. And if a philosopher like Socrates, after
thirty years of constant study, he knew one thing, that he knew nothing,
it is absurd to dare say that we shall ever know more than Socrates did,
and in regard to the most perplexed problem of the human soul we can
only rejoice in the fact that we are placed in a more advanced position
above Socrates, that we can look upon these problems with more light,
and that is the light that comes from Galilee.
Alone as I was in my cabin I thought of Socrates, I thought of
Confucius, of Buddha, and in fact I thought of the many ancient and
modern leaders of great movements, and of new thoughts, my admiration is
insistent to everything that is noble and pure in sentiment and praxis,
but there is only one leader, whom my spirit admires the best and I
worship him with love and devotion, the man who gave his life for me. I
knew I was free through his death and I was happy. The Hierarchical
church was opposing me unreasonably; my own dearest and nearest
relatives did not understand me, their strongest argument being, how
could I sacrifice such a high office and deny a promising greater
future and still be in my right mind?
Not being satisfied in my own heart, much less convinced in my mind, I
made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, in order to find out whether Jesus was
the only Saviour of mankind without the necessity of a priest. It was
then and there, while kneeling on my knees upon that rock of Golgotha
that came to me with startling force and clearness that I must be a
follower of Jesus Christ and not a representative. All men may live on
the Christ-like way and be happy, but the man who dares personify
himself with the authorities belonging only to Jesus, that man must be a
faker; "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life
for his friends" and I knew Jesus was my friend, the only friend left to
me, while every other friend had forsaken me. In that little cabin I
felt his companionship, and looking at the clock on the dresser I beheld
in the mirror a pleasant face smiling at me. The hour was nearly
midnight and I retired, singing "He promised never to leave me alone."
The voyage from Piraeus to Naples is said to be the best and grandest in
Mediterranean, and in company of a royal fellow traveller might have
been interesting even to the most eccentric Yankee, but to me it was a
monotonous event, and the second evening while I was walking for some
exercise on the deck, H. R. H. came up to me graciously expressing his
regrets for not seeing me at the table, and inquiring if I was not
feeling well, but he soon noticed my laconical way in excusing my
absence, and he withdrew, leaving me alone in my admiration of a grand
view on a moonlighted nature in the Mediterranean. And the only thought
occupying my mind was; how soon could I get to America? For this reason
perhaps, I decided to take steamship for New York at Naples, Italy,
instead of going to Marseilles, chief seaport of France on the
Mediterranean, thus forfeiting my rights on S. S. Messengerie-Maritime,
that had been paid from Piraeus to Marseilles.
Happily, Mr. Christopher was also representing the S. S. Co., of Fabre
Line, and the S. S. Germania of the same company was scheduled to depart
from the harbor of Naples in a few days. It certainly was a pleasure and
an opportunity of which we took advantage to visit the most interesting
places in and around Naples, the city of far famous and at the same time
notorious, for there the stranger notices, in every step, the beauty of
Italian art and the Neapolitan filth combined in the most peculiar
texture.
Making good use of the little time which we had at our disposal, we took
the train and went up to see the City in which the Pope entombed himself
a living mummy rather than to co-operate with the civilized world in
building God's Kingdom on earth.
In looking over my memorandums I have just discovered a description that
I kept about the Eternal City. The historical facts therein are
supported by undisputable authority. And I think it apropos beneficial
to my readers, if it will be placed at their hands before the closing of
this chapter.
On the river Tiber, about fifteen miles from its mouth in the plain of
what is now called the Campagna, stands the famous capital of the
Western World, and the present residence of the Pope, the City of Rome.
The surrounding country is not a plain, but a sort of undulating
table-land, crossed by hills, while it sinks towards the southwest to
the marshes of Maremma, which coast the Mediterranean. In ancient
geography the country, in the midst of which Rome lay, was termed
Latium, which, in the earliest times, comprised within a space of about
four geographical square miles the country lying between the Tiber and
the Numisius, extending from the Alban Hills to the sea, having for its
chief city Laurentum. Here, on the Palatine Hill, was the city of Rome
founded by Romulus and Remus, grandsons of Numitor, and sons of Rhea
Sylvia, to whom, as the originators of the city, mythology ascribed a
divine parentage. The origin of the term Rome is in dispute. Some derive
it from the Greek Romee, "strength," considering that this name was
given to the place as been a fortress. Cicero says the name was taken
from that of its founder Romulus. At first the city had three gates,
according to a secret usage. Founded on the Palatine Hill, it extended,
by degrees, so as to take in six other hills at the foot of which ran
deep valleys that in early times were in part overflowed with water,
while the hill-sides were covered with trees. In the course of the many
years during which Rome was acquiring to herself the empire of the
world, the city underwent great, numerous, and important changes. Under
its first kings it must have presented a very different aspect from what
it did after it had been beautified by Tarquin. The destruction of the
city by the Gauls caused a thorough alteration in it: nor could the
troubled times which ensued have been favourable to its being well
restored. It was not till riches and artistic skill came into the city
on the conquest of Philip of Macedon, and Antiochus of Syria, that there
arose in Rome large handsome stone houses. The capture of Corinth
conduced much to the adorning of the city: many fine specimens of art
being transferred from thence to the abode of the conquerors. And so, as
the power of Rome extended over the world, and her chief citizens went
into the colonies to enrich themselves, did the masterpieces of Grecian
art flow towards the capital, together with some of the taste and skill
to which they owed their birth. Augustus, however, it was, who did most
for embellishing the capital of the world, though there may be some
sacrifice of truth in the pointed saying, that he found Rome built of
brick, and left it marble. Subsequent emperors followed his example,
till the place became the greatest repository of architectural,
pictorial, and sculptural skill, that the world has ever seen: a result
to which even Nero's incendiarism indirectly conduced, as affording an
occasion for the city's being rebuilt under the higher scientific
influences of the times. The site occupied by modern Rome is not
precisely the same as that which was at any period covered by the
ancient city: the change of locality being towards the north-west, the
city has partially retired from the celebrated hills. About two-thirds
of the area within the walls, traced by Aurelian, are now desolate,
consisting of ruins, gardens, and fields, with some churches, convents,
and other scattered habitations. Originally the city was a square mile
in area. In the time of Pliny the walls were nearly twenty miles in
circuit: now they are from fourteen to fifteen miles round. Its original
gates, three in number, had increased in the time of the elder Pliny to
thirty-seven. Modern Rome has sixteen gates, some of which are, however,
built up. Thirty-one great roads centered in Rome, which, issuing from
the Forum, traversed Italy, ran through the provinces, and were
terminated only by the boundary of the empire. As a starting point a
gilt pillar (Milliarium Aureum) was set up by Augustus in the middle of
the Forum. This curious monument, from which distances were reckoned,
was discovered in 1823. Eight principal bridges led over the Tiber: of
these three are still relics. The four districts into which Rome was
divided in early times, Augustus increased to fourteen. Large open
spaces were set apart in the city, called Campi, for assemblies of the
people and martial exercises, as well as for games. Of nineteen which
are mentioned, the Campus Martius was the principal. It was near the
Tiber, whence it was called Tiberinus. The epithet Martius was derived
from the plain being consecrated to Mars, the god of war. In the later
ages it was surrounded by several magnificent structures, and porticoes
were erected, under which, in bad weather, the citizens could go
through their usual exercises. It was also adorned with statues and
arches. The name of Fora was given to places where the people assembled
for the transaction of business. The Fora were of two kinds--fora
venalia, "markets," and fora civilia, "law courts, etc."
Until the time of Julius Cæsar there was but one of the latter kind,
termed by way of distinction Forum Romanum, or simply Forum. It lay
between the Capitoline and Palatine Hills: it was eight hundred feet
wide, and adorned on all sides with porticoes, shops, and other
edifices, on the erection of which large sums had been expended, and the
appearance of which was very imposing, especially as it was much
enhanced by numerous statues. In the centre of the Forum was the plain
called the Curtian Lake, where Curtius is said to have cast himself into
a chasm or gulf, which closed on him, and so he saved his country. On
one side were the elevated seats or suggestus, a sort of pulpits from
which magistrates and orators addressed the people, usually called
Rostra, because adorned with the beaks of ships which had been taken in
a sea-fight from the inhabitants of Antium.
Near by was the part of the Forum called the Comitium, where were held
the assemblies of the people called Comitia Curiata. The celebrated
temple, bearing the name of Capitol, of which there remain only a few
vestiges, stood on the Capitoline Hill, the highest of the seven: it was
square in form, each side extending about two hundred feet, and the
ascent to it was by a flight of one hundred steps. It was one of the
oldest, largest, and grandest edifices in the city. Founded by
Tarquinius Priscus, it was at several times enlarged and embellished.
Its gates were of brass, and it was adorned with costly gildings: whence
it is termed "golden" and "glittering," aurea, fulgens. It enclosed
three structures, the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus in the centre, the
temple of Minerva on the right, and the temple of Juno on the left. The
Capitol also included some minor temples or chapels, and the Casa
Romuly, or Romulus, covered with straw. Near the ascent to the Capitol
was the asylum (Cities of refuge). We also mention the Basilicæ, since
some of them were afterwards turned to the purposes of Christian
worship. They were originally buildings of great splendour, being
appropriated to meetings of the senate, and to judicial purposes. Here
counsellors received their clients, and bankers transacted their
business. The earliest churches, bearing the name of Basilicæ, were
erected under Constantine the Great. He gave his own palace on the
Caelian Hill as a site for a Christian temple. Next in antiquity was the
church of St. Peter, on the Vatican Hill, built A.D. 324, on the site
and with the ruins of temples consecrated to Apollo and Mars. It stood
about twelve centuries, at the end of which it was superseded by the
modern church bearing the same name.
The Cirei were buildings oblong in shape, used for public games, races,
and beast-fights. The Theatra were edifices designed for dramatic
exhibitions: the Amphitheatra (double theatres, buildings in an oval
form) served for gladiatorial shows and the fighting of wild animals.
That which was erected by the Emperor Titus, and of which there still
exists a splendid ruin, was called the Coliseum, from a colossal statue
of Nero that stood near it. With an excess of luxury, perfumed liquids
were conveyed in secret tubes round these immense structures, and
diffused over the spectators, sometimes from the statues which adorned
the interior. In the arena which formed the centre of the amphitheatres,
the early Christians often endured martyrdom by being exposed to
ravenous beasts.
In modern Rome there are various things to excite the curiosity of the
stranger, but in my observations I could only see four elements
predominating above everything, monks, nuns, priests and beggars. They
form a continued procession all day long of the most spectacular
carnival that could be seen in any of the Babylons of the world.
And now while in Rome, we might ask the question: Who founded the church
at Rome? The question is equally interesting, if not important to the
Protestant and to Catholic. The Romish church assigns the honour to
Peter, and on this grounds an argument in favour of the claims of the
Papacy. But strict search in and about all the obtainable sources of
knowledge, it does give no sufficient reason for believing that Peter
was ever even so much as within the walls of Rome. Thus, by all inspired
documents there is one title clear left to Pope and his scheme,
"unaccountable falsifier." As an ordained High Priest in the Greek
Orthodox Church, I have been for many years studied in this particular
subject. The Libraries in Mount Athos gave me all the opportunities that
the high and exalted position, which I held, could afford, to find the
truth concerning the claims of the Pope. The Fathers of the Church,
Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostomus, and all the
host of Ecclesiastical authorities agree unanimously that the Lord Jesus
never intended to concede any right of supremacy, to Peter, over the
other apostles. Otherwise He (Jesus) would never have said those
wonderful words (Matt. 20, 25, etc.), and Peter himself disclaiming the
assertions of the Papacy (Pet. 1, 5, 3, etc.). And it is certain that
there is no instance on record of the apostle's (Peter) having ever
claimed or exercised this supposed power, but on the contrary, he is
oftener than once represented as submitting to an exercise of power upon
the part of others, as when, for instance, he went forth as a messenger
from the apostles assembled in Jerusalem to the Christians in Samaria,
and when he received a rebuke from Paul. Now as a matter of fact, if
Peter was ever Great, that was, when he repented for denying his Master.
Repentance, therefore, is the only hope left for the Pope, if he ever
expects to hear the blessed voice "Feed my sheep."
In these days of enlightenment and progress, while humane feelings are
taking the place of spite and hatred among the civilized nations, and
religious prejudice is giving way to good will and tolerance, Rome is,
from the Vatican point of view, the stumbling-block of every honest
effort in the purification of the individual heart and the uplifting of
the millions of souls that are downtrodden under the sandals of hyenical
monks. When the Pope, a few months ago, rejected Mr. Roosevelt and Mr.
Fairbanks, two models of manhood and virtue, he made it clear to the
world that he is suffering incurably, from barbaritis, and that his case
is hopeless. But, it is to be hoped that as Rome is already regenerated
politically and socially, so, we pray that in not far distant day, Rome,
shall also be regenerated spiritually.
In the meantime we shall continue our journey, and now we hurry back to
take the S. S. Germania from Naples to New York. And when I was well
located on board, I kissed good-bye to my friend and brother
Christopher, thanking him for his assistance and bidding to the old
world FAREWELL! FAREWELL!
CHAPTER II
_Arrival_
Sunday morning the 16th of May, 1903, the very handsome S. S. Germania,
cast anchor in the docks of Brooklyn. Indeed, there is no particular
significance in a steamship arriving in the harbor of Brooklyn and New
York, for they come by hundreds from all parts of the world, every day
in the week and many of them every Sunday of the year. It is for the
diligent observer that there are more lessons to be drawn from a day
passed along the Brooklyn bridge than there are in the most exclusive
circles of the 400. And if I am allowed to make any comparison at all I
should put it in the following short sentences. The former lessons would
be of a heart from which all arteries transport the necessary elements
to keep up undiminished the vitality of this great cosmopolitan body,
while the latter uncontrovertibly is only a part of the body, and
unfortunately it is the stomach that consumes lavishly even to the core
all that the whole body can produce. Yet to an every day passer-by
neither when he travels across the Brooklyn bridge rubbing elbows with
the scores of the masses of humanity that hasten their way unconsiderate
by nobody, nor when in his big red or yellow automobile hurrying up
Fifth Avenue he is planning in his mind a new scheme how to make more
money, or he is the heir of riches untold and many millions are waiting
for him to be scattered in all winds, his social standard to keep up and
his neighbor's honor to bring down and as a rule to accomplish his own
destruction, the time is of no value unless there is some profit in it
for the only scope in his life is self gratification.
[Illustration: REV. M. GOLDEN In His Street Attire as High Priest]
The S. S. Germania in splendor and commodities could proudly be called
the Mauretania or Lucetania of the Fabre Line, a very commendable
company judging from the good officials and desirable attendants we had
on board the Germania. Her arrival at the present voyage had exceptional
significance, and if every S. S. which arrives this side of the ocean
had parallel instances it would be only a matter of time when all the
legislators which are engaged in making the emigration laws would find
themselves out of business, because the Kingdom of God that knows no
divisions and no distinctions of nations and races should soon be
established to make a heaven on earth and there it would be one
Lord--one faith--one baptism for all human races, and all men could then
move in the different parts of the world without any credentials and
they could be welcome everywhere as members of the same family do when
they live within the boundaries of love.
Since the invention of Logos in the art of making history worth
reading, through the ages the historian derives his intelligence from
all sources apt to contribute to his object and unsparingly he treats
zoology, botany and all kingdoms ending in some kind of y, just to serve
his purpose successfully. And the writers of the Scriptures are not
exempted to this rule, inspired as it were, they mentioned almost every
known and unknown animal which our forefather Noah saved in his Ark, and
if the ass plays so an important part in the Book of books, Germania
surely is entitled to some consideration in the history of my
conversion.
It will be impossible for me to even attempt to skiagraph all that took
place on board the Germania from the time we left Naples of sunny Italy
till we arrived in the docks of Brooklyn, eleven and one-half days'
voyage with only a short stop at Gibraltar, that fortified rock for
which Great Britain is ready to play all her power just to maintain that
dry and ungraceful rock, but, the key of two seas, and in Azores Islands
to exchange mail, our journey was a never to be forgotten continual
holiday.
One odd incident that kept our merriment all these days, was the
symptomatical number thirteen. The S. S. Germania was carrying on board
several hundred emigrants, mostly from sunny Italy, they were
representing all conditions and descriptions coming to America to make
their fortune, which but a few exceptions is a sweet hope into every
emigrant's heart and though often proves to them that it was only a
dream, and there are millions of emigrants all over this land who after
many years of hard work they are still struggling for a mere existence,
yet they come and they shall continue to come for it is the rule of the
universe; they simply cannot resist the law that governs and moves the
Sympan. And the S. S. Germania was well occupied in its various
compartments, but there were only ten of us voyagers in the reserved
first cabins, and at meal time with the first Captain at the head of the
table and one Commissioner representing the Government and the first
physician of the boat then we made up the number 13; and though I am not
a superstitious person I was the first one to call the attention to that
fact, and there the fun began. The fellow voyagers insisting that should
any danger of tempestuous and stormy gale threaten their safety they had
to cast lots to know for whose cause the evil came, and as I was the
only representative of the religious sentiment, in all probability I had
to undergo the same experience as Jonah had, yet our fears did not even
approach any realization but instead as it was desirable to all on board
we enjoyed a very pleasant voyage all the way and the Captain himself
unreservedly with his boyish cheerfulness expressed his gratification
for all that came out so perfectly satisfactory. And the Captain being
desirous to commemorate the agreeable event he gave the night before our
arrival at Brooklyn a unique banquet in the big reception hall with
various symbolical decorations in honor to his excellency the number 13.
And to make the event more memorable the Captain himself went around the
boat visiting all the emigrants and selecting 13 of the most musical
Italian boys and girls with their harps, mandolins and tambourines, a
perfect stringed band, and while our merriment was in its zenith he
conducted them on the upper deck where the reception hall was located
into the adjoining room and without warning we began to hear the waves
vibrating through the walls into our hall and soon our ears were filled
with divine melodies. They were playing Tosca, Puccini's most inspired
composition and the translation of these people behind the walls it
really contained that pathos which all artists agree, yet unable to
explain how so many children of sunny Italy became world-wide famous for
the embodiment of that musical and harmonious pathos of which Tosca is
the favorite piece of the greatest living tenor Caruso.
In an unfortunate event that occurred to me some time ago I lost the
names of my fellow voyagers on that memorable trip on the Germania, yet
I can well recollect that there were two American newly-wedded couples
from the western cities, just returning home from their extensive
honeymoon trip abroad, and there was a gentleman, very refined and well
cultured in literature whom we called, the Athenian, as he hailed from
Boston, which in the language of all foreigners is the Athens of the
United States, and there was the Jew merchant from Chicago, and another
gentleman, an Italian professor, who was going to occupy an exalted
position in one of the Roman Catholic Institutions in New Orleans, and
to our delight there was Miss Maria, the only beloved daughter of Dr.
Achilles Rose of New York. Dr. Rose is not only a very prominent
practitioner as a physician in New York, but he is acknowledged as an
eminent authority by the most exclusive Academies of Europe concerning
medical matters, as well as a great linguist in the ancient and modern
languages, and a number of publications contributed to the scientific
research are the monuments of his convincing penmanship. His daughter
had just finished a long course in the best college "Arsakeion"
exclusive institution for girls in Athens, Greece; and she was well
qualified to teach the Ancient and Modern Greek language as well as any
professor in the American colleges and universities. I had to go
carefully myself in order to keep pace with her in the exactness of
pronunciation of the Greek words, and when listening to her telling some
of the joyful experiences she experienced in learning this wonderful
Greek language I felt like a Sunday school scholar impressed by her
rhythmical and melodious harmony in pronouncing every word and sentence
that sound like the old Greek music which even Apollo himself would be
glad to listen to.
With Miss Maria Rose there was Miss Margaret, a tall slender figure with
every characteristic of a genuine Kentucky girl, a very respectable
maiden, she was caressing for Miss Maria Rose with motherly tenderness,
she was the playmate and constant companion of Miss Maria now passing
the bridge of her teens; yet Miss Margaret could not tolerate seeing her
leaning on the rails of the Germania, she appeared presumably afraid
that some terrible whale might swallow her little Maria whom she loved
as much as a mother could love her own child, a pleasure which she
never had, to know and to love a child of her own, and Maria appeared to
appreciate the kindness of her governess.
Now to make up the list of the ten voyagers there was also your obedient
servant, coming over to America to study religious, social and
industrial conditions. An account of his reasons for taking this step
shall be given later on. At this time I must proceed to complete my
acquaintances on board the Germania. From the first day on board I find
myself in very friendly terms with every one of my fellow voyagers, and
before I knew it I was the father of them all. As a High Priest dressed
in my church garbs, they just pasted in front of my name the monkish
title, Father, which I never accustomed myself though my official church
name consists of about a half a dozen titles.
The Captain of the Germania, a typical French gentleman very agreeable
in all his ways, with my little French enabled me to make myself
understood. I had the pleasure of passing many a moment in pleasant
conversation with him, and when I wanted to speak to the Americans, my
heart was longing to learn all I could from them, as they were so kind
to me, and with Miss Maria's assistance I never went lonesome, her
acting as interpreter between me and the Americans, for by that time I
was not able to even pronounce correctly a sentence in the English
language.
With all these acquaintances my time was well occupied and to my
personal delight, by chance, I found my constant companion in the person
of Dr. Lucretius, the first physician of the Germania, an Italian
gentleman. By tokens and signs we found that both of us belong to that
great body of men that knows each other as brothers in every corner of
the inhabited world. It was he, Dr. Lucretius, who came to my cabin on
the morning of the 16th of May, at about 5 a. m., and knocking at the
door, said, Father Golden, we are now entering into the harbor of New
York, and if you want to enjoy a grand view of the surrounding country
you had better come out on the upper bridge. I shall be there waiting
for you to explain some of the most beautiful sceneries that you have
ever looked upon in your life. And he was correct, without any
exaggeration, for when I leaped from my bed and dressed myself as fast
as I could I went to meet my friend and brother, Dr. Lucretius.
Rushing up to the bridge I greeted him "Bonjorno, mio fratello" shaking
his hand at the same time, almost I cried out, this certainly is an
artificial imitation of the entrance to Bosphorus, and if it were not
for that great statue and mausoleum of Liberty, which I could see ahead
of me, I would surely believe that I was dreaming, it is like entering
the harbor of Constantinople, and just at this point, looking into the
face of my esteemed friend, Dr. Lucretius, I said to him; let us hope
that the day is not far distant when we shall salute the God-giving
Liberty in the heart of the great city of Constantinople. That was six
years ago and every word I said it came out of my mouth as a prayer of
my heart in all my sincerity. Today I do thank God for it is a reality.
Turkey is free! But she is like a child; she needs the guidance of a
strong hand to guide her in the path of righteousness and love to God
and bring her to Christ who is the only one to give Liberty and Freedom
"For whom He made free, is free indeed." Turkey has accomplished the
greatest part of her own salvation, yea, she has done more than many of
the so-called Christian empires expected her to do. They are now rubbing
their eyes, and of course it is their purpose in order to save their
commercial interests, they are going to put in her way all the obstacles
they can to overthrow the new Constitution, and if Turkey fails in her
reformation this time, it would not be only her own fault. A great share
of the responsibility rests upon the shoulders of every American man and
woman who solemnly declares to stand by and be a protector of the
principles laid down by Washington, the father not only of his own
country, but most of the civilized world. Unless America arises equal to
the occasion there is every reason to entertain all kinds of fears from
the Middle and Western Europe's diplomats.
How many American active missionaries are there in Constantinople,
Smyrna, Aidin, Saloniki, Adana, Ephesos and every city in Turkey today
working for the regeneration of the people who dared and successfully
broke down from his throne a Sultan? Wake up, my dear reader and gird
yourself with the noble armor of your manhood and your womanhood and do
the best, the very best of your ability to help the millions of mothers
and children over in Turkey, they are starving for spiritual food, they
are crying to you as your own brothers and sisters of the same family of
humanity; will you close your ears and not listen to their cry? or will
you open your heart, your sympathy and your pocket-book and send off all
the missionaries you can to do the work? I pray that you will, and God
will reward you in Heaven and down here He will keep the days of your
life sweet in splendid memory that you have done your part in the
salvation of all mankind.
The opportunity may occur again to discourse this very heart aching
subject. Now, as we approach the colossus of Liberty, Miss Maria Rose
made her morning appearance and before we all could exchange the "Bon
Jour" salutations to her, she gracefully grasped the gentleman from
Boston by the arm and walking up and down the bridge with soldierly
step, began in an apparently joyful voice to sing, audibly "My Country
'tis of thee, sweet land of Liberty" and just as she was getting more
enthusiastic in her song, the gentleman from Boston uttered a loud cry
"Strawberries--fresh strawberries," and as by explosion a heartiest
laughter went out of every mouth on the bridge, and the waves received
on their wings that expression of our gratitude to carry it to the end
of their destination, while the Germania drew us nearer and nearer to
the land of the free and the home of the brave.
A call came to us all at this moment that the custom officers from New
York were already in the reception room waiting for us to make our
declarations in accordance with the customary law, and by the time I had
complied with my duties, to that respect, I heard a stentorian voice
"Cast Anchor" and turning around in a semi-circle, with center on my
right toe I endeavored to unfold the meaning of the exciting motion.
Sailors and officers of the boat rushing in all directions, it seemed as
though they were preparing for a great battle, and determined to win.
The big S. S. Germania was tied in the docks of Brooklyn and every
voyager was ready to bid her farewell. The steward of my cabin,
uncalled, he was on my side, and the thought came to me that it was his
last chance for his gratuities from me anyway. He looked upon my face
like a child expecting his Christmas presents, and said, with a fainting
smile, Father, your trunk is on its way to your destination and here is
your valise and I am awaiting your pleasure to direct you to the Sixth
Avenue Elevated Station, which will take you to the 123rd Street and
Seventh Avenue, Harlem, according to your wishes to reach your dwelling
place. The bell of the Germania was ringing eight o'clock a. m., when I
was bidding farewell to my steward with the instructions how to reach
the Elevated Station, and turning to the first corner from the docks of
Brooklyn, a familiar voice I heard behind me calling "Father," and
instantly a hand took hold of the sleeve of my garment, and looking
backward I saw Miss Maria Rose with her governess, Margaret, and the
gentleman from Boston, who was still holding my garment, and in good
humor said, he, in his broken French, Now Father, we could not tolerate
to see you go all alone in the streets of New York dressed in these
robes, because if you only attract the curiosity of some mischievous
children there is no telling what may happen to you, if they mistake you
as a carnival dressed this way just for sport; but, Miss Maria Rose,
hastened to aid, interrupting the gentleman, Father, you have good luck,
today is Sunday and early in the morning you will be saved from great
things which might happen to you otherwise. Besides we are going as far
as 59th Street and the gentleman from Boston, he is going to take the
train at 125th Street, Harlem, and there you will be within a few blocks
from the house you desire to go to.
They bought the ticket for me and soon the Elevated was crossing the
Brooklyn bridge. The grand panorama on both sides of the bridge brought
the thought into my mind that if the architects of America were able to
accomplish such a wonder as this, they would certainly have easier times
to build the Babel Tower without any confusion of tongues; but my breath
went out of my breast and for a moment I thought that the beating of my
heart stopped, when we reached that curving at 110th Street and 8th
Avenue, New York. The magnificent sight from that tremendous height,
looking to my left at the mammoth advertising boards, the velvety green
fields and at the top of the hill that Episcopal church, which will be
when finished another architectural wonder, and looking to my right at
the Central Park which we just swiftly passed, now I see the flat roofs
of the buildings and on many of them the washing of the family hanging,
forgotten perhaps, from last Saturday, it is indeed a grand sight which
the inhabitants of New York in that section, by being accustomed to it,
very little appreciate.
9.30, my friend from Boston, said, as we were descending the stairways
on the 125th Street and 8th Avenue, as he looked at his time-piece. If
it were not for my train which I must take at 9.58 I would gladly
accompany you to your place, yet, said he, you only have two blocks to
walk southward and one eastward and you will see the number on the left
hand side, and with a cordial hand shake he jumped on the electric car
passing at the moment on 125th Street towards New York-Boston R. R.
station, to board his train, and I started on my way to the place where
I was going to make my temporary home.
CHAPTER III
_First Day in New York_
It is not my purpose in this little volume to make any boast of myself
as an historian. Bookmaking is not my profession; neither do I propose
to go into extensive details more than it is necessary to harmonize the
coincidents of events as they occurred and the effect they produced in
the development of an unusual Christian career, and God knows that my
only desire is to reconcile the opposing privileges of a meek and lowly
Christian worker, to be equal if not greater to those of a High Priest
who in his fulness of life though one of the most active ecclesiastical
officials in the highest circles of church and society, his firm belief
in success, knowing of no fear, and daringly climbing up in higher ranks
among philosophical societies, holding such an exalted position in the
most ancient Christian church. The church that holds the undisputable
proof as the first authentical apostolic establishment with founder the
apostle of the Gentiles himself. And who is the student of the
Scriptures, be he a Christian or philosopher of the Epicurean or the
Stoic system that could reasonably argue that the oration on the
Areopagus made by Paul to the Athenians being the masterpiece and model
of the most convincing speeches ever made in the Christian era? That
this High Priest, while enjoying all the comforts and privileges
belonging to his high office, together with its honors and gorgeous
trappings, does not attach any over-weening importance to ecclesiastical
dignity, neither does he consider a "comedown" the step he has taken,
but he gives the simple, yet convincing reason that he just follows the
process of evolution in Christianity, doing the will of his Master who
promised to all mankind one Lord--one Faith--one Baptism. And for the
last six years he has proven that it is possible for a man to begin from
the very bottom of life, his nearest and dearest relatives opposing him,
with no friends to understand his desires and his ambitions, to be a
wanderer in a great country like the United States, and travel from the
Atlantic Coast to the Pacific Ocean, proud to always be able to support
himself and also help someone on his way. Exercising the principle of
the Apostle Paul, working hard for his living, stranger not only to the
ethics and customs of the people whose sympathetic hearts he was coming
to win, but unable to even put two sentences together in their own
language, and today here he is to tell you the story, as true as your
beautiful breath that keeps your soul and body alive, and the only favor
he asks from you is that when you severely criticise the grammatical and
syntactical site in the execution of this work, you may in your
kindness, remember that his only resource to derive any philological
assistance, was a twenty-five cent Webster's dictionary, bought from a
second-hand book store.
This is my first day in New York. And looking around to find the number
of the house where I was going to stay, my thoughts were so animated as
to feel that all the arteries and veins of my body through my feet were
kissing the ground upon which my heart would soon appease with its
Maker.
A few people, going to the Low Mass, I should judge by the solemnity of
their walk, men and women, sent curious glances at the stranger dressed
in the robes on the street. By this time approaching the 7th Avenue and
not finding the desired number I was just directing my steps towards a
gentleman dressed in some kind of uniform to inquire about the place,
when a young man tipped his hat in front of me and raised the finger of
his right hand and pointed to the sign of the florist's store just a few
steps backwards. I could then plainly read the name on the board above
the door. It was the name very dear to me, which, with longing heart I
was looking for. Almost immediately a man came out from that same store
with a broad smile on his face and with a gentle bow, as though asking
my permission, he took my valise thus relieving me just in time, and
leading the way into the store I saw another gentleman behind a counter
preparing a large floral design from the rarest flowers of the season,
for the funeral of a most distinguished politician of Harlem.
Although I yield to no man in the appreciation of a good smiling face
and here I had two of them and the most typical faces which are
prominent in the making of this heterogeneous republic, John,
representing the Huguenot and Dutch, and Jack whose father and mother
were Irish, and Jack was Irish too. Both these gentlemen with pantomimic
actions in a few words which now I know were English words but at that
time I could not tell if they were Chinese or Hindoo. They tried to make
me understand that Mr. George N., whom they knew I was looking for, as
they had heard him speaking of me and they saw my photograph, and they
were waiting notification of my coming, and that they were struck by
ecstasy at my sudden appearance, he was at breakfast and that he would
soon be back so I had better step into his office and rest myself while
waiting for him. The expectancy to meet my friend George N., it
lengthened every moment for me waiting in that little office.
Twenty-four years since I saw him last when I was only ten years old,
and even if I had not seen his photograph in all these years I could
distinguish him among ten thousand. He was my first teacher in the
grammar school; neighbor in my home and a very great distant relative.
He always took especial interest in my scholarship. My childhood and
school days were not all that I could desire for me, to be, for I was an
orphan, yet it was that orphan who always carried the first or the
second honors in the annual examinations. It was for this reason,
perhaps, that my teachers were all well pleased with my progress. The
past is only a memory, yet when we look back in the light of our
sincerity we can trace every point and every reason that contributed to
our success or failure in our lives. It is not a vision neither is there
a mere kinetoscope procession. The High Priest is here waiting to
meet his teacher with the same solemnity as in the old school days when
he had to meet his teacher after some of his occasional mischiefs. With
these and other agreeable memories relishing my time in that office, I
heard a loud applause in the store and the words "Father is here,"
aroused my inquisitiveness and before I could leave my chair, there was
at the door of the office standing the man whom I wanted to see. Sturdy
and resolute with two slow steps he now extends a welcome hand to me and
as he called me by my childish nickname in response said, I, my teacher!
Yes, said he, How do you do my Father? Why didn't you let me know when
you were coming so I could meet you at the pier; How long have you been
wandering to find this place? And many other complimentaries, but, you
must, he went on saying, change your appearance at once, for I am not
going to disgrace myself and you too, if we dare to walk on the streets
with you dressed in robes like this. Let us go up stairs in my room, and
I believe you can be fitted with a new suit of clothes made to order for
me which I was ready to try on today, as the tailor just sent them here
a little while ago. Then you must have a very clean shave, my goodness,
there is a whole mask to come off your face and the long black hair you
have, you can make some money by selling it to any fashionable lady.
Now, Father, you have to hurry, because the barber shop closes at 12
o'clock and you only have the necessary time to change your dress.
[Illustration: THE WORLD'S WONDER, ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS, GREECE]
The clothes which George N. offered for my transfiguration with the
exception of being made for a man one inch taller than my own stature
they didn't look very awkward upon me and to escape curiosity he took me
through the alleys of a narrow passage into the 124th Street, where an
elderly German kept a barber shop and when he was through cleaning that
over burdened head of mine, he was almost exhausted, and liable to a
fine, if any policeman happened to see him working on Sunday after 12
o'clock. The barber closed the door of his shop allowing time for us to
just step out and we hastened our way back to the store, now walking on
7th Avenue. Jack, whose name already is mentioned here, is one of the
leading flower decorators in New York City. He could make a cross of
flowers look like a picture, and he could make a bouquet for the most
particular bride, he could decorate a little chapel around the corner
and make it look as artistic as he could decorate a rich mansion in the
most exclusive Riverside Drive. Jack made as much money as any of his
high grade fellow traders in Harlem, and he had no home
responsibilities, his widow mother being what we might call well-to-do,
for she owned considerable real estate in that vicinity, yet, Jack,
every Monday morning had to obtain a loan for his carfare, and more than
half a dozen young ladies all around Manhattan were particularly
interested in Jack's welfare. This is Sunday and one o'clock in the
afternoon, and Jack should be enjoying his holiday, and there were
already two of his female chums waiting for him on the sidewalk. Yet
Jack had always some more time to spare to accommodate his employer
George N., who as now entered the store he gave the synthematical
pass-word "that's all," which in the language of the employer and
employees it means "The boys may now go home."
But Jack, as he took a glimpse on me, in all his Irish calibre he almost
screamed: Help! St. Patrick, what a metamorphosis is this? Is that you,
Father? You look now to me more like a butterfly out of a caterpillar
than anything in Ireland. Say, girls, calling his friends from the
outside, come in you girls, I take the honor to introduce you to the
Father ..., but, my soul, I am ashamed to call you Father, so
fashionable a gentleman as you look now. You shall not call me Father,
said I, as long as you see me dressed like a gentleman. I shall not,
Jack said, and with his girls took his departure, while George N., who
interpreted all this merriment, took a fresh white rose and put it in my
buttonhole. Let us go for lunch, said he and I followed gladly for I
felt it was a timely call.
As George N. is a bachelor he takes his meals in no particular place,
anywhere from Harlem Casino or Palm Garden or Manhattan Club to a ten
cent lunch counter. Today he took me into a dollar a plate restaurant on
125th Street. Before I was through with my dinner, George N. made the
remark to me saying "if you always enjoy the American cooking the way I
observe you doing, you will never starve in America, I assure you." It
was the wisest prophecy that George N. ever made about my future in
America.
After dinner we visited Grant's Tomb on Riverside Drive and on our
return he gave me instructions how to find the Waldorf Astoria hotel
where Aleck, one of his nephews had a position, and that Aleck would
make arrangements for the night for me and that the following morning
George N. would wait for me to discuss my plans for the future. I left
him and when I was in my room which Aleck provided for me, the time was
well nigh midnight.
After the day's excitement I hoped that a good night's rest would
refresh me anew and the next morning would find me prepared for the work
I chose to devote my future life in this New World. With a lightning
quickness my mind examined all my past life and with the same speed I
made my conclusions that there was no more any pleasure for me to look
back, neither was there any attraction in that garb which so often is
the representation of hypocrisy itself. I felt so happy for my decision
and with a grateful heart I bent on my knees in prayer to Him who lay
down His life for my freedom and my salvation, and as an evidence of my
good health, the night passed undisturbed in sound sleep and in the
morning when Aleck called me for breakfast I felt that every fibre of my
body was springing for action, and with the last touch leaping from my
bed the first day of new life went into history.
CHAPTER IV
_High Priest_
For the benefit of those who ignorantly, if not deliberately by deceit,
misled to believe that the priest has any authority, which the truly
converted Christian could not exercise, the present chapter is offered
in the spirit of love without any fear of contradiction or dispute,
because the facts given here are well established upon the Scriptural
Truths and the reader may at all times maintain the proofs to disprove
refutable arguments of persons whose only purpose is to serve their own
individual interests.
The priest, one who officiates in secret offices, it is the definition
given in Webster's dictionary. And from the most authentic Biblical
concordances we derive the following information: The priest under the
law was a person consecrated and ordained of God, not only to teach the
people and pray for them, but also to offer up sacrifices for his own
sins and those of the people. The priesthood was not annexed to a
certain family, till after the promulgation of the law of Moses.
Before that time the first born of every family, the fathers, the kings,
the princes, were priests, born in their city and in their own homes.
Cain and Abel, Noah, Abraham and Job, Abimelech and Laban, Isaac and
Jacob, offered themselves their own sacrifices. In the solemnity of the
covenant that the Lord made with his people at the foot of Mount Sinai,
Moses performed the office of meditator, and young men were chosen from
among the children of Israel to perform the office of priests. But after
that the Lord had chosen the tribe of Levi to serve him in his
tabernacle, and that the priesthood was annexed to the family of Aaron,
then the right of offering sacrifices to God was reserved to the priests
alone of this family.
Duties of the priests: The priests were required to prove their descent
from Aaron, to be free from all bodily defect or blemish; must not be
observed mourning except for near relatives; must not marry a woman that
had been a harlot; or divorced, or profane. The priest's daughter who
committed whoredom was to be burned, as profaning her father. The
priests were to have the charge of the sanctuary and the altar, which
being once kindled the priest was always to keep it burning. In later
times, and upon extraordinary occasions, at least, they flayed the
burnt-offerings and killed the Passover. They were to receive the blood
of the burnt-offerings in basins and sprinkle it around about the altar,
arrange the wood and the fire, and to burn the parts of the sacrifices.
If the burnt sacrifices were of doves, the priest was to nip off the
head with the finger nail, squeeze out the blood on the edge of the
altar, pluck off the feathers, and throw them with the crop into the
ash-pit, divide down the wings, and then completely burn it. He was to
offer a lamb every morning and evening, and a double number on the
Sabbath, the burnt-offerings ordered at the beginning of months, and the
same on the feast of Unleavened Bread, and on the day of the First
Fruits; to receive the meat-offering of the offerer, bring it to the
altar, take of it a memorial, and burn it upon the altar; to sprinkle
the blood of the peace-offerings upon the altar around about, and then
to offer of it a burnt-offering; to offer the sin-offering for the sins
of a ruler or any of the common people; to eat the sin-offering at the
holy place; and the same way to offer offerings for all the kinds of sin
and the priest should eat these offerings at the holy place; to offer
for the purification of women after child-birth; to judge of the leprosy
in the human body or garments (it is remarkable that the Jewish race
from the beginning, has been all through the ages a heavy victim of
leprosy). The priest was to make the ointment of spices; to prepare the
water of separation; to act as assessor in judicial proceedings; to
encourage the army when going to battle, and probably to have charge of
the law.
The emoluments of the priests: The perquisites of the priests were many
and various, and as Philo calls them very rich, and this statement holds
good all the way down to the Christian priest who inherited most of the
virtues of his Jewish predecessors. Thus no wonder for the priests to
keep their people in dense ignorance of the historical originality of
the priesthood. And the high priest, besides all duties and privileges
already mentioned as common to him and the ordinary priest, he must not
marry a widow, nor a divorced woman, or a profane, or that had been a
harlot, but a virgin Israelitess. He must not eat anything that died of
itself, or was torn by beasts; must wash his hands and feet when he went
into the tabernacle to offer the mass. The high priest was the divinely
inspired judge and truly he was the supreme ruler till the time of
David, and again after the captivity. He would ask counsel of the Lord
if a new ruler was worthy or not and accordingly grant or regret the
appointment of the ruler. It is the privilege which the Pope derives
from Eleazar and trying to exercise this privilege against the rulers of
Europe for fifteen centuries became the menace in the progress of
humanity. The high priest had also unlimited power upon the funds of the
sanctuary. And it may be out of proportion in this book to give a
complete description of all the privileges and regalia of the high
priest, yet the reader could easily imagine the frivolities
unfortunately existing even today in the ceremonial dress of the high
priest, and to confirm this fact he only has to enter in the first
Russian or Greek or Roman Catholic church at any day of some special
celebration and there he cannot help but observe an imitation of the
lamentable vanity of a high priest of the old Jewish faith. And the
truth is visible to the naked eye. Would ever sincerity and priesthood
meet in one and the same person it would make the most paradox
phenomenon, and such exceptional occurrences are very rare in the
ecclesiastical horizon, for virtue and priesthood are the very logical
antithesis, and chemically speaking they are protogon matters not
yielding to adulteration. Between priesthood and Christ there is an
abyss of argument, but there is no bridge to join both sides. Priesthood
on one side in the most pharisaic manner imposing its superfluous
authority upon all mortals. And Jesus the Christ of God with his wounded
side, in the most emphatic manner, condemning the pharisaic scheme,
which is a continuation in the Greek--Russian--Roman Catholic church:
"For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on
man's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of
their fingers." And if the words of the blessed Christ himself speaking
in the 23d chapter of Matthew, have no effect upon the consciousness of
the priest, there is all vain to any other way trying to bring him into
the light of wisdom. In the history of all mankind there are three
distinct stages of priesthood, and in its two former stages it had been
a complete failure, in its present stage is falling so fast, and it is
condemned, already, by all reasoning minds, that it is only a matter of
time before the human race shall be free from these parasites. The
priest, of the Jewish faith, failed because he was inhuman, the priest
of the Greek idolatry failed, because he was a philosophical fraud; and
the priest of the present time, shall fail, because he is the very
opposing visible enemy of God's kingdom. The sacerdotal office of the
priest, is anti-christian.
Here we shall attempt to only describe one piece of the dress of the
high priest, the breast-plate (rationale); a gorget, ten inches square,
made of the same sort of cloth as the ephod, and doubled so as to form a
kind of pouch or bag, in which was to be put the urim and thummim, which
are also mentioned as is already known. The external part of this gorget
was set with four rows of precious stones; the first row, a serdious, a
topaz, and a carbuncle; the second, an emerald, a sapphire, and a
diamond; the third, a ligure, an agate, and an amethyst, and the fourth,
a beryl, an onyx and a jasper, set in a golden socket. Upon each of
these stones was to be engraven the name of one of the sons of Jacob. In
the ephod in which there was a space left open sufficiently large for
the admission of this pectoral, were four rings of gold, to which four
others at the four corners of the breast-plate corresponded; the two
lower rings of gold being fixed inside. It was confined to the ephod by
means of dark blue ribbons, which passed through these rings; and it was
also suspended from the onyx stones on the shoulder by chains of gold,
or rather cords of twisted gold thread, which were fastened at one end
to two other larger rings fixed in the upper corners of the pectoral,
and by the other end going around the onyx stones on the shoulders, and
returning and being fixed in the larger ring. And a splendid ornament
upon the breast was a winged scarabaeus, the emblem of the Sun, and the
unavoidable portion of the ceremonial dress peculiar to the high priest
was the miter, mitre or Cidaris, a head gear of gold and silver and
precious stones whose magnificence we would not dare to describe in
this work, but the reader may in his life be fortunate enough to see one
of these wonderful paraphernalia on the head of some of the now-a-days
self-styled representatives of Jesus Christ, who came to seek and save
the lost and he did not make of himself a show in these follies of the
old Jewish faith that proved a failure.
That the priests in Israel more than once by their indulgence went down
to idolatry, the old testament abounds in evidences, but I shall only
mention the incidents of Eli the high priest and his two sons, Hophni
and Phinehas. Josephus says, the high priest had also the very
idolatrous symbolical meanings of every part of his dress, which being
made of linen signified the earth; the blue color denoted the sky, being
like lightning in its pomegranate, and in the noise of its bells
resembling thunder. The ephod showed that God had made the universe of
four elements, the gold relating to the splendor by which all things are
enlightened, the breast-plate in the middle of the ephod resembled the
earth, which has the middle place in the world. The girdle signified the
sea, which goes around the world. The sardonyxes declared the sun and
moon. The twelve stones are the twelve months of signs of the zodiac.
The mitre is the heaven, because above all. The seven lamps upon the
golden candlesticks represent the seven planets, and so on every article
had a reference to some particle of the Egyptian Deities. But the time
came when man understood better God's plan of salvation. And divinely
inspired they fearlessly stopped all these idolatrous practises.
Who could dare say, at the beginning of the sixteenth century that God
could only through Jesus Christ save a soul without the necessity of a
priest? Yet today even the priest himself would not dare say, not in a
civilized community, that his presence is necessary for the forgiveness
of sin. But what of the millions of people that are drifting away from
God with the idea, that the priest is taking care of their souls? Am I
criticising the priest? God forbid, for I am not. There are good and bad
priests, as far as their personal character is concerned, as there are
good and bad professional Christians, I have met in my Christian
experience. But I will say, in the authority of the word of God, that
the man who diligently searcheth the Scriptures and sincerely read his
Bible and still he insists in holding his sacerdotal office and call
himself a priest, he is deceived or he is deceiving.
"Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedec." Christ is
the only priest, holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and
made higher than the heavens, who needeth not daily, as those high
priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the
people's; for this he did once, when he offered up himself.
The Church makes men high priests which have infirmity but the power of
God makes every man a high priest, who offers up himself to live and
work for the salvation of all. "Whosoever believeth in Him should not
perish, but have everlasting life." God's promises are true and the
reader has only to study the Epistle of Paul to the Hebrews, to be
convinced that the sacerdotal office of the priest sooner or later has
to go out of existence as the spirit of Christ spreads upon the hearts
of men and women and the knowledge of His salvation makes them "Priests
unto God and His Father" and thus establish God's kingdom upon the solid
foundations of love. Then shall they all be made unto kings and priests,
and they shall reign upon the earth. (Rev. 1-6, etc.)
CHAPTER V
_Philosophy vs. Christianity_
In Plato's dialogue upon the duties of religious worship, a passage
occurs the design of which appears to be to show that man could not, of
himself, learn either the nature of the Gods, or the proper manner of
worshiping them, unless an instructor should come from Heaven. The
following remarkable passage occurs between Socrates and Alcibiades:
Socrates--"To me it appears best to be patient. It is necessary to wait
till you learn how you ought to act towards the Gods, and towards men."
Alcibiades--"When, O Socrates, shall that time be? And who shall
instruct me? For most willingly would I see this person, who he is."
Socrates--"He is one who cares for you; but, as Homer represents Minerva
as taking away darkness from the eyes of Diomedes; that he might
distinguish a God from a man, so it is necessary that he should first
take away the darkness from your mind, and then bring near those things
by which you shall know good and evil."
Alcibiades--"Let him take away the darkness, or any other thing, if he
will; for whoever this man is, I am prepared to refuse none of the
things which he commands, if I shall be made better."
Philosophy, led the Greeks to Christ, as the Law did the Jewish. The
wisdom of the world in their efforts to give truth and happiness to the
human soul, was foolishness with God, and the wisdom of God--Christ
crucified--was foolishness with the philosophers, in relation to the
same subject; yet it was divine Philosophy. An adopted means, and the
only adequate means, to accomplish the necessary end. Said an apostle in
speaking upon this subject, the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek
after wisdom; but we preach Christ Crucified, unto the Jews a
stumbling-block and unto the Greeks foolishness. But unto them which are
called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the Power of God, and the wisdom of
God. The Jews, while they require a sign, did not perceive that
miracles, in themselves, were not adopted to produce affection. And the
Greeks, while they sought after wisdom, did not perceive that all the
wisdom of the Gentiles, would never work love in the heart. But the
apostle preached--Christ crucified--an exhibition of self-denial, of
suffering, and of self-sacrificing; love and mercy, endured in behalf of
men, which, when received by faith, became "The power of God, and the
wisdom of God," to produce love and obedience in the human soul. Paul
understood the efficacy of the Cross. He looked to Calvary and beheld
Christ crucified as the Sun of the Gospel system. Not, as the Moon,
reflecting cold and borrowed rays; but as the Sun of righteousness,
glowing with radiant mercy, and pouring warm beams of life and love into
the open bosom of the believer.
It is stranger that among philosophers of succeeding ages there has not
been wisdom sufficient to discover, from the constitutional necessities
of the human spirit, that demand for the instruction and aid of the
Messiah which Socrates and Plato discovered, even in a comparatively
dark age. And in the whole history of human mind there is not a more
instructive chapter at once stranger and sad, interesting to our
curiosity and mortifying to our pride, than the history of Platonic
philosophy sinking into gnosticism, or in other words, of Greek
philosophy merging in Oriental Mysticism; showing, on the one hand the
decline and fall of philosophy, and, on the other, the rise and progress
of Syncretism. Perhaps, also, it is the most remarkable instance on
record, that out of the religious, moral, and political, in one word,
the intellectual corruption which brings on the fall of great and mighty
nations, as it doubtless was with Babylon and Thebes, and so we know it
to have been with Athens and Rome, God's providence educes pure
principles and higher hopes for the nations and people that rise out of
their ashes, and who, if they will be taught wisdom and principle,
righteousness and peace, by the errors and sufferings of those who have
preceded them, may rise to higher destinies in the history of men's
conduct and God's providence.
The reader most sincerely is asked to devote the required time in any
public library and study this very interesting subject of "Gnosticism"
from which the most detrimental system in the Christian era was
originated, "The Monasticism." In this ecclesiastical order the writer
had been distinguished with the rank of "Archimandrites."
[Illustration: H. R. H. PRINCE ARTHUR, DUKE OF CONNAUGHT AND STRATHEARN,
K. G., ETC.]
To what extent the celibacy of monks and nuns debased the fundamental
principles of Christianity there are a number of publications whose
authors are eye-witnesses of the orgies practised in their own
monasteries, and the writer in his superior office in two of the leading
monasteries had had the opportunity to acquire all the necessary
evidence to demolish every one of these hell-pits, to many a young man
and young woman innocent, otherwise, before entering there, and drive
away all these parasites that have no consideration to any civil or
moral law and live upon the sweat of the brow of the long-suffering
Church slaves.
Within the bounds of philosophy, at this stage of our progress it will
be useful to recapitulate the conclusions at which we have arrived, and
thus make a point of rest from which to extend our observations further
into the plan of God for redeeming the world, for "I am not sent but
unto the lost sheep of the House of Israel." This view is the more
appropriate as we have known in the history of God's providence with
Israel, which presents them as a people prepared (so far as imperfect
material could be prepared) to receive the model which God might desire
to impress upon the nation. They were bound to each other by all the
ties of which human nature is susceptible, and thus rendered compact and
united, so that every thing national, whether in sentiment or practise
would be received and cherished with unanimous, and fervent, and lasting
attachment; and, furthermore, by a long and rigorous bondage, they had
been rendered, for the time being at least, humble and dependant. Thus
they were disciplined by a curse of providence, adopted to fit them to
receive instruction from their Benefactor with a teachable and grateful
spirit.
Their minds were shaken off from idols; and Jehovah, by a revelation
made to them, setting forth his name and nature, had revealed himself as
Divine Being, and by his works had manifested his Almighty power: so
that when their minds were disabused of wrong views of the Godhead, an
idea of the first, true, and essential nature of God was revealed to
them, and they were thus prepared to receive a knowledge of the
attributes of that Divine essence.
They had been brought to contemplate God as their protector and Saviour.
Appeals the most affecting and thrilling had been addressed to their
affections; and they were thus attached to God as their Almighty
temporal Saviour, by the ties of gratitude and love for the favor which
he had manifested to them.
When they had arrived on the further shore of the Red Sea, thus prepared
to obey God and worship him with the heart, they were without laws
either civil or moral. As yet, they had never possessed any national or
social organization. They were therefore prepared to receive, without
predilection or prejudice, that system of moral instruction and civil
polity which God might reveal, as best adapted to promote the moral
interests of the nation.
From these conclusions we may extend our vision forward into the system
of revelation. This series of preparations would certainly lead the mind
to the expectation that what was still wanting, and what they had been
thus miraculously prepared to receive, would be granted: which was a
knowledge of the moral character of God, and a moral law prescribing
their duty to God and to men. Without this, the plan that had been
maturing for generations, and had been carried forward thus far by
wonderful exhibitions of Divine wisdom and power, would be left
unfinished, just at the point where the finishing process was necessary.
But besides the strong probability which the previous preparation would
produce, that there would be a revelation of moral law, there are
distinct and conclusive reasons, evincing its necessities.
The whole experience of the world has confirmed the fact, beyond the
possibility of scepticism, that men cannot discover and establish a
perfect rule of human duty. Whatever may be said of the many excellent
maxims expressed by different individuals in different ages and nations,
yet it is true that no system of duty to God and man, in any wise
consistent with enlightened reason, has ever been established by human
wisdom, and sustained by human sanctions; and for many reasons, such a
fact never can occur.
But, it may be supposed that each man has, within himself, sufficient
light from reason, and sufficient admonition from conscience, to guide
himself, as an individual, in the path of truth and happiness. A single
fact will correct such a supposition. Conscience, the great arbiter of
the merit and demerit of human conduct, has little intuitive sense of
right, and is not guided entirely by reason, but is governed in a great
measure by what men believe. Indeed, faith is the legitimate regulator
of the conscience. If a man has correct views of duty to God and men, he
will have a correct conscience; but if he can, by a wrong view of morals
and of the character of God, be induced to believe that theft, or
murder, or any vice, is right, his conscience will be corrupted by his
faith. When men are brought to believe--as they frequently do in heathen
countries--that it is right to commit suicide, or infanticide, as a
religious duty, their conscience condemns them if they do not perform
the act. Thus that power in the soul which pronounces upon the moral
character of human conduct, is itself dependent upon and regulated by
the faith of the individual. It is apparent, therefore, that the
reception and belief of a true rule of duty, accompanied with proper
sanctions, will alone form in men a proper conscience. God has so
constituted the soul that it is necessary, in order to the regulation of
its moral powers, that it should have a rule of duty, revealed under the
sanction of its Maker's authority; otherwise its high moral powers would
lie in dark and perpetual disorder.
Further, unless the human soul be an exception, God governs all things
by laws adopted to their proper nature. The laws which govern the
material world are sketched in the books on natural science; such are
gravitation, affinity, mathematical motion. Those laws by which the
irrational animal creations are controlled are usually called instincts.
Their operation and design are sketched, to some extent, in treatises
upon the instincts of animals. Such is the law which leads the beaver to
build its dam, and all other animals to pursue some particular habits
instead of others. All beavers, from the first one created to the
present time, have been instinctively led to build a dam in the same
manner, and so their instinct will lead them to build till the end of
time. The law which drives them to the act is as necessitating as the
law which causes the smoke to rise upwards. Nothing in the universe of
God, animate or inanimate, is left without the government of appropriate
law, unless that thing being the noblest creature of God: the human
spirit. To suppose, therefore, that the human soul is thus left unguided
by a revealed rule of conduct, is to suppose that God cares for the less
and not for the greater: to suppose that He would constitute the moral
powers of the soul so that a law was necessary for their guidance, and
then revealed none: to suppose, especially in the case of the
Israelites, that he would prepare a people to receive, and obey with a
proper spirit, this necessary rule of duty, and yet give no rule. But to
suppose these things would be absurd; it follows, therefore, that God
would reveal to the Israelites a law for the regulation of their
conduct in morals and religion.
But physical law or necessitating instinct would not be adapted in its
nature to the government of a rational and moral being. The obligation
of either to the soul would destroy its free agency. God has made man
intelligent, and thereby adapted his nature to a rule which he
understands. Man has a will and a conscience; but he must understand the
rule in order to will obedience, and he must believe the sanction by
which the law is maintained before he can feel the obligation upon his
conscience. A law, therefore, adapted to man's nature, must be addressed
to the understanding, sanctioned by suitable authority, and enforced by
adequate penalties.
In accordance with these legitimate deductions, God gave the Israelites
a rule of life--the moral law--succinctly comprehended in the Ten
Commandments. And as affectionate obedience is the only proper obedience
he coupled the facts which were fitted to produce affection with the
command to obey; saying, "I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out
of the land of Egypt, and from the house of bondage." Therefore, if ye
love the Lord ye shall surely keep His commandments.
Further, the only begotten Son of God, who, in order to fulfil the law
gave himself a ransom for the salvation of all mankind, made the plan
clearer to "Whomsoever believeth on Him?" saying; "This is My
commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you."
Therefore, John, whom history acknowledges as the Socrates of the
Christian philosophy in his personal knowledge of Divine revelations,
was glad to testify to the fact that "God is Love."
And now with my whole soul lifted up to God I can sing:
My heart is fixed, eternal God: fixed on Thee,
And my unchanging choice is made, Christ for me!
He is my Prophet, Priest, and King, who did for me salvation bring
And while I've breath I mean to sing, Christ for me.
CHAPTER VI
_God's Providence_
In facts from Christian and philosophical standpoints it has been
demonstrated that the infallible Supreme Ruler of all human spirits has
made His final provision for the safety of each and every individual
soul for its temporal and eternal welfare. Now I must prove to my
readers' perfect satisfaction that to discard all the dignities and
privileges of a high priest and become a lowly worker for Christ, it is
not a mere accident nor is it an act of necessity as far as temporal
necessities are concerned; but, it is a magnificent living monument of
God's Providential manifestations. In order to protect my reader in his
judgment from any undue prejudice I have taken pains to present herewith
all the obtainable facts in regard to God's Providence existing and
exercising its office upon even to the most microscopical atom. Because,
it is required by the law of justice, to comprehend this great attribute
of God's Providence, in order to understand, how, all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called
according to His purpose.
The Latin etymology of the word Providence is from (Providentia,
Pro-videre), and originally meant foresight. The corresponding Greek
word (Pronoia) means forethought. By a well-known figure of speech,
called metonymy, we use a word denoting the means by which we accomplish
anything to denote the end accomplished; we exercise care over anything
by means of foresight, and indicate that care by the word foresight. On
the same principle the word Providence is used to signify the care God
takes of the universe. As to its inherent nature, it is the power which
God exerts, without intermission, in and upon all the works of his
hands. In the language of the school-men it is a continual creation
(creation continua). But defined as to its visible manifestations, it is
God's preservation and government of all things. As a thing is known by
its opposites, the meaning of Providence is elucidated by considering
that it is opposed to fortune and fortuitous accidents.
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 assured of greater providential care. By
Providence being universal is intended, not merely that it embraces
classes 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 God
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 analysis.
Co-operation varies with the nature of the objects towards which it is
exercised. 3. Government, as a branch of Providence, is God'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 God 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 God; or (2) would be beneath His dignity; or (3) would interfere
with human freedom; or (4) would render God 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 God, 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 God's
notice, if it be not a captious cavil, must result from pushing too far
the analogy 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 God, 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 illustriously 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 God. It has been
eloquently said that where we see a trifle hovering unconnected in
space, 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 God'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
God. But, in addition to the vindication of God'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 God is the immediate cause of all
men's actions. It is so called, because it maintains that men only
furnish God an occasion for what he does. It degrades all second causes
to mere occasions, and turns men into passive 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 assistance or even
presence of its maker. But reasons press too far the analogy between the
Creator and an artisan. So excellent a man as Baxter was misled by this
hypothesis, which evidently is as derogatory to God 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 God, and yet is at the same time active himself. God
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 God create men free, and
therefore fallible? It were presumption to think of answering this
question adequately. It belongs to the deep things of God. 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 God 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
passages, 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 analogous 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 God as sustaining the universe because He made
it. Thus David, having promised that the world was made by God,
immediately descends to the course of his Providence. (Ps. xxiii. 6.)
The creation also evinces a Providence by proving God'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 God. But no want of will to exercise a Providence can exist,
for God wills whatever is for the good of the universe, and for His own
glory; to either of which a Providence is clearly indispensable. God
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 God'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 compass 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 God
put forth an unceasing sovereignty over all His works.
A fourth proof of God'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 God'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 sexes, 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.
[Illustration: 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
shining 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 God 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 noblest 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. Passions,
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 illustrated 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 God, 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 God over the
human family. But the historical proof of a Providence is perhaps
strongest where the wrath of man has been made to praise God, or where
efforts to dishonor God 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 God 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 God
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 God. 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 God 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 God. To borrow the illustration
of another, "we shall behold the bow of God 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 worshiped. But take away this influence in the
human affairs, and you cut off all motive to worship. To the same
purpose is the text in Hebrews: "He that cometh to God 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 God 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 classed with atheists, as they are
generally thought to have been atheists in discourse, and a God after
their imaginations would be, to all intents and purposes, no God. The
Stoics were also atheists, believing only in a blind fate arising from a
perpetual concatenation of causes contained in nature. The passages
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 God 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 Godly: another (xciii) shows the frailty of man; and a
third (civ) the dependence of all orders in creation on God'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 asserted
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 God. To undervalue God's Providence it is the most dreadful insult
that a fool could dare conceive in his mind against God'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 God.
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 quantity, 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 classes and masses, in cities and towns,
sunshine 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 God, 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 pronunciation
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 superstitious, 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 hardships of pioneering life they succeeded at last to
put a solid foundation of a new and permanent civilization
astonishingly 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 God 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 God's kingdom? And the greatest religious
living man, General William Booth, who, with his ingenious and prototype
system, is doing more for God 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 rushing 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 advertisement which attracted my attention was a short
one "Wanted young man willing to work, apply, at given number and
street." It was Saturday 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, God'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 God, 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
classes, causing these classes, 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 God 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
circumstances 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 class 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 God
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 demigods.
[Illustration: 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 Saturday 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 mass in Latin. At
Springfield I lost my satchel and with it my Greek documents, which
might have been very interesting to the reader, yet, I hope in my next
publication to have reproductions of those documents 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.
Chicago offers great opportunity to a student of religious, industrial
and social conditions, and when, by chance, I secured employment in a
leading warehouse, a very good paying position, under the circumstances,
I devoted all my spare time visiting the Greek quarters, incognito, and
studying everything that came within my observation, and attending all
kinds of public meetings of various denominations and societies, which
proved a great help to me in learning the proper pronunciation of the
English words, in fact for five years I did not speak five times in the
Greek language.
One morning I read in the paper the following announcement: "The Knights
Templar of the United States have made their plans to celebrate the 29th
triennial conclave of Knights Templar to be held in San Francisco, Cal.,
September 4 to 9. The occasion will be of universal character,
representatives from all the world; and Great Britain will send to this
imposing ceremony the highest officials that control the affairs of the
chivalric order of Freemasonry in the British Isles. The Earl of Euston,
most eminent and supreme grand master of great priory of England and
Wales and the dependencies of the British crown, were coming with
credentials to represent Edward VII, the king of England." I was
looking forward to my visit to California, since I left New York, but I
never expected the time for me to go there would come so soon as it did.
I was longing to see a great gathering of Freemasons, of this class of
men, that, in every country represents the highest ideals of good
citizenship.
With a few days preliminary preparations, I bade good-bye to my
employer, and well supplied with recommendations from some influential
friends and acquaintances which I had made in Chicago, I saw myself off
to California, on the forenoon train, the 25th of June, 1904.
The trip was uneventful, excepting the unbearable heat and dust,
especially going through the States of Oklahoma, Arizona and New Mexico,
and the number of Indians, which, for the first time in my life I beheld
in their own skin living and moving contented as though they still were
the dominating race on the continent, with their square faces painted in
various colors, wrapped in their blankets, and bare-footed, their feet
being very much like those of a mud turtle, they were the real thing.
CHAPTER VIII
_Honorable Submission_
There was a time when the Eastern part of the United States looked upon
San Francisco as the coming New York of the Pacific Coast, but since the
disastrous earthquake in the year 1906, the stream of progress as a
great commercial center has been turned rather towards the Northern
Pacific Coast, yet San Francisco with its great harbor, the ever
increasing commercial developments and number of other advantages, still
is a magnificent attraction to the homeseeker, who for the last few
years has been very sceptical in his preference on account of existing
unfavorable conditions regarding the city's government which is the prey
of dishonest politicians. For this and many other reasons I should never
make my home within the limits of the city of San Francisco. There are
beautiful localities within short distances, desirable in every respect
and beyond the claws of the city hall of San Francisco.
Mount Tamalpais, I believe, is a most pleasant location for the lovers
of nature. Words fail, and it is beyond the ability of my pen, to even
attempt to describe, the beauties which nature has bestowed upon the
Mount of Tamalpais. Situated just across the bay of San Francisco, by
the way of Socialito, on the train to Mill Valley and whence on the
crookedest railroad in the world, climbing 2000 feet above the tide of
water, we reach the lower top of the mountain, and there we find
accommodations to entertain kings and princesses, and the most eccentric
Yankee. Yet, I am assured, that scarcely one-tenth of the visitors to
California, have ever had the exceptional privilege to spend 24 hours,
on the top of Mount Tamalpais, and thereafter all through their lives
enjoy the most wonderful recollection in all God's creation.
The Alps in Europe are too stupendous to be compared with this
majestically magnificent mount of Tamalpais. The Himalaya in Asia are
too brutish to be considered as a rival of this gentle and illustrious
sky-scraper. The Olympus and Parnassus of Greece are out of season to be
paralleled with this up-to-date marvelous throne of their Majesties the
Kings of America. There is the Tamalpais Hotel, a real palace, where the
guests can rest and from the verandas or the windows of their own rooms
observe the animating sights on the left hand side the snow-covered
top-heads of the mountains and following to the right look down upon the
valleys and behold the myriads of orange and lemon and all the
fruit-bearing trees blooming all the year around and decorated like
brides in their wedding procession, not only for a few moments, till the
law ties the knot, but forever as long as the life-giving climate of
beautiful California lasts and time shall be no more.
When I went up to the Mountain, looking for employment, because I
wanted to locate myself in such a place, if I could, till the
celebration of the Knights Templar was over, I was surprised to find
that the General Manager of the Hotel and the R. R. Station was a lady,
of a striking majestical appearance, she was the controlling power of
the whole business on Mount Tamalpais, and she was not a suffragette
either. But she was a loving mother of two beautiful children, a typical
Yankee girl, well up in her teens, supervising over the chambermaids,
and variously assisting her mother, and an active boy of sixteen, the
good-fellow of everybody, and especially to the Chinamen employed in the
kitchen. Mr. Johnson was the husband and father of this happy family,
and he occupied the position of butler of the house, receiving orders
from his beloved wife.
I presented my credentials to Mrs. Johnson and she, being satisfied, was
very kind to give me the charge of two tables to wait upon in the dining
room. It seemed as though I made good as a waiter, judging by the coins
which the customers, began to forget, beneath their plates, in leaving
the table, some call it tips, I called it real money.
September was well at hand, one day old, and Mrs. Johnson was very
anxious to have the premises well decorated, and a big arch should be
erected at the entrance, with the sign, "WELCOME," to Knights Templar,
as news came from San Francisco, that the Knights were already in
possession of the Golden Gate. Mrs. Johnson was almost in despair,
unable to find someone among that great army of employees, to have any
artistic ideas of decorating or even to make a few flower designs and
put up the arch out of some green foliage. We were all green, in that
respect. But as I always find myself at hand, wherever help is to be
rendered, I offered my services, and by what I could remember from my
friend Jack, in New York, how he could decorate everything to a good
taste, I have been able to put up a nice decoration and the third of
September, 1904, the flags of all nations were waving and everything was
ready for the reception of the Knights Templar. Mrs. Johnson was pleased
to the extent of presenting me with an extra three dollars and relieving
me from the dining room, she appointed me in charge of the pavilion, an
out-doors building, where the Knights Templar would privately entertain
their families and lady friends. In this position I was enabled to see
more of the high American life than I ever dreamed of before. The
English Lord, and the Parisien Dame de Honor, were eclipsed as they
would look like pygmies by the side of the sunshining, bright-hearted
American gentlemen, and the sweet and graceful demigoddess American
lady. But my enthusiasm reached its zenith when a gentleman from
Pittsburg, in company with his ladies, after an enjoyable dinner, at the
pavilion, he left under his plate a shining five dollar gold piece; at
the sight of the unexpected I made a sign to which the gentleman was
obliged to respond, and that settled it, there was no mistake about it,
the man and I were brothers and the coin was intended as my tip. And
afterwards the incident occurred repeatedly during the celebration of
Knights Templar in San Francisco.
Now, if everything in this world was just a procession like that of
Knights Templar in San Francisco, and everybody was happy as the people
I have seen on Mount Tamalpais, then there would be no sorrow, and there
would be no pain; in fact this world would be the paradise on earth.
But, alas! regretful as it may be, yet it is only the simple truth, that
it is only the minority that are real happy, while the vast majority of
men and women and children in this world are just a mass of suffering
humanity, and if the investigations of religious societies,
sociologists, and psychologists, are true, the cause of all misery in
this world is misconduct or misfortune, which in one word is, sin, that
brings misery. And there is where my purpose in life begins. I am out
against sin. But to fight sin, it is absolutely necessary to be a
soldier of the man who gave his life for the salvation of all mankind.
President Emeritus Eliot of Harvard University, a man of colossal
thought-machine, man, who controls the unprejudiced intellectual minds
of America, in his address on "The Religion of the Future," is quoted as
saying: "I venture to add that I am not at the hold of any proud
world--whatever; second, that such little part of the world as I am best
acquainted with loves the Lowly Nazarene--and does not hate Him;
thirdly, that I have met during my life most of the sorrows which are
accounted heaviest; fourth, that Jesus will be in the religion of the
future, not less, but more, than in the Christianity of the past." All
efforts without Jesus, trying to better the world, shall fail. It is and
will be the opinion of all sane minds for many generations yet to come.
This was my opinion and the only imposing motive that brought me down on
my knees on the 14th of October, 1904, in a poorly furnished hall where
the Salvation Army had the Sunday night's meeting. I gave my heart to
Jesus, for life and for eternity, to be his and his alone. And I knew,
there and then, that I was honorably converted.
To make the surrender complete I offered my services to the Salvation
Army, that I should use all I had, my time and my talent, to uplift the
down-fallen humanity and help to make this world better. Major Harris
Connett and Adjutant Allison Coe, were the officers in charge of the Los
Angeles Salvation Army and they received me into their ranks and for ten
months I was engaged in this wonderful organization, visiting the sick,
praying in the saloons, in the slums and everywhere doing all that I
could to promote the cause of Jesus in bringing souls into his fold. But
nothing gave me so great pleasure as the poor children of Los Angeles at
Christmas time when I was dressed in the Santa Claus clothing
distributing presents to them. I never felt happier in all my life even
in the best days as a High Priest.
After passing successfully my preparatory studies in Los Angeles, word
came from the Headquarters that they wanted me in the college Training
Home, in Chicago, to take the course of officership; and the 15th of
August, 1905, finds me sweeping the back yard at the Training Home, West
Adams St., Chicago, Illinois.
Were it possible for every man and woman who pretends to be a minister
of Jesus, to pass six months in any of the Training Colleges of the
Salvation Army, then there should be fewer ministers, but far more
useful, in the betterment of the world, than many of them that are under
the present conditions.
It is the most psychological system, in these Training Colleges that
brings out all the virtues that every heart possesses and every bit of
iniquity that may be hidden in the personal character of the man or
woman who willingly denies himself or herself of all prospects and
pleasures in this world just for the only purpose to live and love and
serve the suffering humanity. There are exceptions to the rule among the
officers of the Salvation Army, once in a great while some one will
prove unworthy to the cause, but these exceptions are common in every
human institution, and they are so few in the Salvation Army that fully
justifies the public confidence upon this marvelously developing great
movement.
I went through the theoretical and practical work for which I could make
a whole volume of the experiences in the slums of Chicago, where I had
to reprove a policeman, whom I found in a saloon drinking in full
uniform, while in the back room there was a girl not over fifteen years
old, in the company of a most reckless middle-aged man, both
exceedingly intoxicated and still drinking. I dismissed the man, and
sent the girl to the rescue home, where she would be taken care of.
The 17th of January, 1906, I received my diploma as an active member of
the National First Aid Association of America, and my commission as a
Captain in the Salvation Army, and I was appointed in charge of No. 4 in
Chicago. I went to my quarters and there was not kindling wood enough to
start a fire, and no coal; and the weather 14 degrees below zero, half
the glass panes of the windows broken, and everything in the house
frozen, and the Corps indebted to the extent of 175 dollars, that I was
expected to pay. You have to put yourself in a position of this kind in
order to appreciate the circumstances under which I was placed. Yet,
when everything seems dark, and there is no visible way out of the
difficulty, it is then that with Jesus on our side, we shall always find
some way. The first consideration in a missionary work should be to get
souls converted to God. With much prayer and great faith upon the
Almighty, I began my work, and when the Spirit spread all round that
community and the sinners began to flock into the fold of Jesus, there
was a change in a very short time. The old debt was paid, and we had
comfortable quarters to lay our heads; and the roll-call of the Corps
increased, and God was glorified, and there is a Corps, till this day,
in Chicago, which they call the big 4 of the Salvation Army.
The San Francisco disaster came and the Salvation Army called me into
its relieving department to help the sufferers. After which they
appointed me assistant to the Illinois Division, where for two years I
made a deeper and more thorough study of the various departments in
operation.
In April, 1908, I visited England with the desire to study closer and
more extensively the methods, and see for myself the great works which
the Salvation Army has accomplished in the British Isles.
On my return to the United States I was appointed divisional solicitor
for the Northern New England, where, splendid success was the result of
my efforts, and there was a great field to work in and every opportunity
to do good.
But in searching my heart's ambition I find that it was high time for me
to turn all my energies toward the people for whose Salvation I was
ordained a High Priest in the Church, and although the Church failed in
its mission, yet, to uplift my people is still the aim of my life.
After much thought and due consideration of my obligations to the
Salvation Army, I came to the conclusion that in view of the fact that
following an unsuccessful correspondence with the Salvation Army, the
National Headquarters refused to grant me a leave of absence, and
insisted that I should go back West, while I knew that the field where I
was called to fight the battle of my life was right here in New England,
the best thing for me to do remained to send in my resignation, and I
did so, thus thrusting myself entirely upon the hands of God.
And though as yet I have received no reply from the National
Headquarters, my resignation is final, and now I am free, and my work
unmolested of all denominational differences, dogmas and doctrines,
which in the light of the Ecclesiastical history has always been the
fatal cause of failure, in the Churches, to accomplish their mission in
the Salvation of the world.
CHAPTER IX
_Practical Effects of Practical Truth_
The necessity of faith, as a primary element in all acceptable religious
exercises, has already been noticed. A feeling of entire dependence upon
God for spiritual mercy is the only right feeling, because it is the
only true feeling. It is necessary, according to the foregoing view of
the subject, in order to offer acceptable prayer, that man should
possess a spirit of faith and dependence upon Christ. The principle upon
which Christ acted in relation to this subject, as well as His
instruction concerning the duty of prayer, fully confirm the preceding
thoughts. He seldom performed an act of mercy, by miracle or otherwise,
unless those who received the mercy could see the hand of God in the
blessing:--"If thou canst believe, thou mayest be cleansed," was His
habitual sentiment. As if He had said--Your desire for the blessing is
manifest by your urgent request; now, if you can have faith to see God
in the blessing, so that He will be honored and praised for conferring
it, I will grant it; but if you have no faith, you can receive no favor.
This little book could easily occupy thrice as large a size as its
present volume, had I taken into account all the blessings which God
has bestowed upon my faithful prayers and upon His children, using me as
an instrument of His hand. But I must content myself by referring to
only two cases, which had had exceptional significance and gratifying
joy not only to my own heart, but to every Christian worker.
With the individuals spoken of I am well acquainted, having frequently
conversed with them all on the subjects of which I shall speak. Their
words in these cases may not have been exactly remembered, but the sense
is truly given.
The first case, is a story, told all by itself, and the second case, is
a letter of a dear girl, whose mother was a down to the bone Roman
Catholic. The daughter accidentally came to our meeting and gave her
heart to Jesus. The mother thinking that the worldly pleasures might
drive her newly converted daughter away from Jesus, and being very
anxious to get her daughter back into the Catholic parish, she gave a
party to all the young people from the same parish. And there was plenty
of song and dance, but the daughter did not show up. The mother with a
number of the guests went into the daughter's room where the girl in
seclusion was reading her Bible; the young people almost carrying her
into the reception hall, sat her upon the stool in front of the piano,
earnestly asking her to play for them while they were dancing. But, the
girl, lifting up to God her angelic heart and voice, she began to play
and sing, softly "Nearer My God To Thee," the tears streaming down her
cheeks; they were tears of joy for the saved girl, but the young people
could not stand it and they ran away, while the converted girl bended on
her knees in prayer for them, and her own mother's salvation.
Case 1.--For love of the Christ:--John Davis was the only child of a
Chicago banker. The wealth and social prominence of his father had
surrounded him with every comfort and luxury, and his growth from
boyhood to incipient manhood had been tenderly watched over by his fond
parents.
All the hopes of his parents were centered in their only child. Mr.
Davis looked forward to the time when John would become his partner, and
that his son might be fitted in every way, engaged the best tutors
procurable to attend to his education. John had graduated with honors
after four years of college work, which was marked by the thorough and
earnest application on his part. His father watched his progress with
growing pride and with fullest confidence in his son's ability, arranged
to take him into partnership at the proper time.
Seemingly the future for John was one of brilliant promise. But John did
not show an eager anticipation for the future as planned for him. A life
devoted to business was to him a selfish one. Something within him was
insistently calling him to a higher vocation; although apparently
acquiescing to his father's plans, the prospect daily became more and
more distasteful to him.
From his mother, a woman of singular devoutness and piety, John had
received a careful religious training, and he could not reconcile the
idea of a life devoted to self with the truths he had reverently
accepted as his faith. Daily he met with examples of shamefully degraded
manhood, of pitiful want, and of unhelped suffering. His soul went out
in pity towards these unfortunate ones, and at such times the voice
within imperiously summoned him to follow in the footsteps of Him whom
he worshiped as Lord and Saviour.
On the other hand Reason urged filial obedience to the wishes of his
father. That his mother would understand and encourage him should he
heed the call of his soul, John did not for an instant doubt. Not less
clearly, however, did he recognize the attitude his father would take to
such a course; for his father, while refraining from scoffing at beliefs
cherished by his wife and friends, made no secret of his own disbelief
in them.
The life which would appear to his mother and himself as noblest of all
would seem quixotic and senseless to his father. Besides, his father had
set his heart on John's becoming his partner in business. John dreaded
to disappoint him, yet stronger and stronger grew the call of that inner
voice which now all but dominated him.
One evening as he sat with his parents he surprised them by saying: "Now
that I have finished my college course it is time for me to choose my
vocation, to strive to be of benefit to my fellow men."
"All arrangements have been made, John," responded Mr. Davis, "you may
begin at once if you so desire. Your mother and I thought, however, that
you were entitled to a vacation after your college work. However we can
use you at the bank the moment you are ready," laughed Mr. Davis.
"That is just what I desire to talk over with you, father," returned
John. "For weeks I have felt that the future you have designed for me is
too narrow--too selfish. With my Master's Call sounding in my ears, the
thought of devoting my life to any business, however high its position
in the eyes of the world, is intolerably repugnant.
"I know how firmly your heart has been set upon my joining you in
business, and I cannot tell you how hard it is for me to disappoint you
at this late hour, but Christ has called me to preach to His people. I
feel and know that only in so doing shall I find true happiness and
contentment.
"You surely, father, will not oppose my doing that which every fibre of
my body tells me is my duty."
The eyes of Mrs. Davis filled with glad tears, and a prayer for Divine
guidance for her son went up from her heart; but annoyance and
displeasure plainly showed on Mr. Davis' face. At length he said:
"I had thought it definitely settled that you were to assist me, and on
the strength of that belief I have made several important changes in my
business with the view of affording a proper position for you. Your
decision declining to accept it will inconvenience me not a little.
"With all due consideration for your religious beliefs, I feel it my
duty as your father, John, to express my disappointment of the
profession you at present seem inclined to adopt. However you are
entering man's estate, and it is for you to decide as to your career. I
shall, however, insist upon one thing: that you take a good vacation
before making your final decision.
"If, upon your return you are of the same mind, I shall not oppose you,
although to speak frankly, John, I am not a little disappointed.
"Anyway a good western trip will greatly benefit you, and I shall not be
at all surprised if on your return your conception of your duty has
undergone important modifications." As if signifying that he desired to
discuss the subject no farther, Mr. Davis rose and left the room.
Keenly feeling his father's disappointment and displeasure, John
instinctively turned to his mother for sympathy. Mrs. Davis stepped to
his side and with a fond caress said:
"Thank God you have made this choice; I shall do all in my power to help
you."
"Thank you, mother dear. I believe you understand me, and know how
sincere is my desire to do what I can for my fellow men.
"I do so long to lead some of them to Christ; for many are wandering in
darkness, just waiting for some one to reach them a helping hand.
"In deference to father's wishes I shall take a vacation; though it can
by no possibility alter my determination. On my return I shall begin
active work without delay.
"I have education enough to preach the simple truths of God's love. I
wish to preach to sinners, not to saints. I shall ask no salary and have
no denomination. My Church will be Christ."
After tenderly embracing his mother, during which the souls of mother
and son united in a prayer to the Most High, John bade her "Good night"
and retired.
The following week found John on his way to South Dakota, his plan being
to make his first stop of any length at Aberdeen.
He arrived there at night and the following morning mounted his bicycle
for a trip through the surrounding country.
It was a new world to him. His first thought was: how splendid the roads
were for wheeling, they seemed even better than the paved streets of the
city.
He cast his eyes over his surroundings. On all sides was the vast
expanse of prairie, ending only in the horizon--the fields of grass and
grain, moving in the wind like the waves of the sea; overhead the blue
sky, stretching out in a dome unbroken by hill or forest. The sun above
him seemed to shine with a brighter splendor than he had before known.
The beauties of nature filled the soul of this city-bred youth with
wonder and admiration.
He rode on and on.
At one moment the joyous song of a lark captivated him; at another, the
capering of some colts, or a sleek herd of cattle quietly grazing in a
nearby pasture attracted his attention; or a colony of prairie gophers
which dived excitedly into their burrows at his approach, amused him
with their antics.
At last he began to wonder how far he had gone.
Seeing nearby a large, well kept farm-house, he rode up to it, to
procure such rest and refreshment as it might afford him, before
undertaking his long ride back to town.
His knock at the door was answered by a beautiful girl, apparently about
fifteen years of age. John explained his errand to her, and requested
such courtesies as could be granted without putting the people of the
house to undue inconvenience.
The girl expressed her regrets that her parents were away in town, but
saying that she expected them home very soon, she invited him in, and
ushered him into a cool, spacious sitting-room.
Mutual introductions followed and John learned that the name of his fair
young hostess was Lily Long, "but," said she, with a slight blush,
"father calls me the Queen of the Prairie."
They visited together for some little time, until Lily, exclaiming that
her father and mother were coming, went out to greet them.
Left to himself, John glanced around him.
An old-fashioned piano stood in one corner of the room. He noted also an
ample, well filled book-case at one end of the room.
"Music, books, and Prairie Queen. If this is a typical example of
country life, I must say that I rather like it."
Mr. and Mrs. Long greeted him heartily and gave him a cordial invitation
to stay to dinner--an invitation which he gratefully accepted.
And what a dinner it was; vegetables fresh gathered from the garden in
abundance; fried chicken prepared as only a farmer's wife can prepare
it; and the countless other good things which go to make dinner on the
farm. To this dinner John brought an appetite sharpened by his brisk
morning ride; he did full justice to the tempting viands, nor could he
remember so thoroughly enjoying a dinner before.
Everything on the farm was so clean and well arranged that John began to
wish he could board there instead of in town during the remainder of his
visit; so when they had adjourned to the sitting-room, he informed Mr.
Long of his wish, and asked if it were possible.
"But before you answer me," he added, "I should like to make myself
better known to you."
Then he told them of his father and mother, of his own youth, and of his
college life. A natural question on the part of Mr. Long as to what
brought him so far West led to an explanation from John, who presently
found himself telling his new-found friends his future plans and
ambitions.
"My boy," said Mr. Long, reaching out his hand, "I honor you for your
choice. You are welcome to share our home as long as you care to stay."
Mrs. Long wiped her eyes as she pressed John to stay with them, for she
thought of her own son whom God had called home.
Lily must have been thinking of him too, for she said: "I am glad you
are going to stay, for then I can play you are my brother."
"I certainly shall be proud to be your brother," John answered
gallantly.
That evening when the family gathered for prayers, Lily took her seat at
the old piano. Then John realized why they called her "Queen," for never
had he heard such a magnificent voice, so sweet, so soft, and so full of
feeling. It seemed as though she carried them nearer Heaven with her
song.
Before John retired he wrote to his mother, telling her of the home he
had found, and of "The Queen of the Prairie." This rather amused Mrs.
Davis, for hitherto, John had had little to say in praise of young
ladies, although he was a favorite among them.
The summer passed merrily on, and John's vacation was drawing near its
close, when one morning he received a telegram telling him that his
mother was dangerously sick. The message filled him with anxious
foreboding, and he quickly prepared to return home at once.
Tears were on Mrs. Long's cheeks as she helped him pack, for she had not
realized before to what an extent John had taken her own boy's place in
her heart. His own eyes were moist as he bade her farewell, promising to
return as soon as possible.
Mr. Long was ready with a team to drive him to town, and Lily was
standing beside her father. She raised a tear-stained face to him, and
said: "Goodbye, dear brother, we shall miss you."
John was not ashamed of his own tears, for this little girl who called
him "Brother," had grown dearer to him than all the world. He stooped
and reverently kissed her snow white brow, then sprang in the buggy and
was gone.
When John reached home, his father met him at the door. Mr. Davis' face
was ghastly pale; he had grown old with grief.
John's eyes asked the question his lips could not frame.
"She still lives, but the doctor says she cannot last long," said his
father in answer to his son's mute appeal.
"She is paralyzed. She will probably recognize you, but she can neither
speak nor move."
Without speaking John went to his mother's bedside, and saw that this
was indeed true. His mother lay as one dead. A faint spark of
recognition showed in her fast dimming eyes as he approached but other
signs of life there were none.
Overcome with grief, John stood motionless at the bedside.
Then in agony he turned to Him who faileth not, he fell on his knees and
prayed reverently for his mother's recovery.
His father tried to lead him away, but John continued to pray.
Then suddenly in that hour of anguish the grief-stricken man found his
God. Kneeling at his son's side, he implored mercy from Him whom
hitherto he had denied.
All at once Mrs. Davis spoke, "My son."
The doctor hastened to her side.
In a moment he turned to Mr. Davis and said, "She is better, she will
live."
Dr. Gordon was an unbeliever, but at that moment he realized that
something had control of life, which could act after science had failed.
He looked at John who had not yet risen from his knees, at Mr. Davis who
was pouring out thanks to the God he had just found, then at the woman
who had been saved at the point of death.
Like a flash came to him the knowledge of a merciful Christ, and he
joined the father and son in their prayer of thanksgiving.
Mrs. Davis rapidly recovered her health, and John soon entered upon his
life work. He received hearty encouragement from his father this time,
for Mr. Davis had learned the Truth and found his God at the bedside of
his dying wife in such a way as to leave no place in his heart for
opposition to work in His service.
John's work was among the poor. He visited from house to house,
preaching and praying, and extending material help when such help was
most needed.
His sincerity and earnestness were the means of bringing light into many
darkened lives, and the message of Christ crucified was eagerly received
in response to his pleadings.
At one broken-down house he was met by a frail woman who carried a
half-starved child in her arms. It was plainly apparent that in better
days she had been a handsome and refined woman.
John introduced himself and asked if he could be of any help to her.
"No," she answered, "I am afraid you cannot aid me. I am Rose Williams.
My father is a man of wealth. He is living today in luxury in a
neighboring city, and if I would leave my husband I could be clothed in
silk and satin instead of these rags, but as long as I stay with him, my
father will not help me, not even to keep me from starving. But I would
rather starve with my husband than leave him to kill himself with drink,
for I love him.
"Drink is the cause of all my poverty and misery. Oh, if Ralph would
only let it alone."
She ended her story in a frenzied cry which plainly showed the tension
to which she had been wrought, but John's voice was low and soothing as
he said, "Suppose you and I pray for your husband. I have great faith in
the power of prayer. Shall we not pray together?"
Together they knelt down, and offered up an earnest prayer. Mrs.
Williams spoke in low tones at first, then with great excitement. At
last she tried to rise, but fell in a swoon on the floor. John placed
her on a couch in the room and sent at once for Dr. Gordon.
After his examination, Dr. Gordon looked serious.
"This is going to be a bad case of brain fever, John. From all
appearances it has been hastened by lack of proper food, but she may
pull through if she has proper care."
[Illustration: REV. M. GOLDEN
The Founder of the Greek-Amerikan-Christian-Association]
John saw that the service of the physician was only part of what was
needed for the woman's safety.
He went out and procured bedding and food, and his mother sent over one
of her maids, also a trained nurse.
Soon things were made comfortable for Mrs. Williams, but she could not
rest.
In her delirium she called continually for Ralph to come home and bring
her something to eat.
And where was Ralph? For three days he had been laying in a drunken
stupor in the cellar of a saloon, but this evening he had sobered
somewhat, and remorse for his cruel neglect of his wife and children was
finding a place in his heart. He recalled the starving condition in
which he had left them.
Perhaps for the first time he began to realize how dearly his wife must
love him to give up the pleasure and luxury of her girlhood home for
him, and there in that room not fit for cattle, this man cried out in
his anguish, "Oh, God, protect my wife and forgive me."
He started at once for home but as he neared the house his heart was
filled with fear, his head began to whirl. Where was Rose? Why was
everything so still?
He opened the door and was met by a little girl dressed in white and
with golden curls.
How beautiful she was; she ran to him and cried, "Papa has come, Papa
has come!"
Then he knew she was his own little daughter.
She led him to the bed on which lay his wife, but the only words which
greeted him were, "Ralph come home and bring us something to eat."
He called her name but she heard him not.
Again he spoke: "Dear Rose, forgive me, forgive me."
Dr. Gordon laid his hand on the shoulder of the stricken man and said:
"Ask your God to forgive you, your wife knows not what you say."
He looked at the doctor a moment, then said in a low voice, "I did that
before I started home. God has forgiven me and saved me. But tell me
what I can do for my poor wife."
It was indeed true, Ralph Williams was a changed man. The God who had
heard the prayers of the father and son at the dying woman's bedside,
and restored her to them, vouchsafed his mercy to the starving wife who
prayed for her drink-sodden husband, and in answer to it the dulled
conscience of the husband was aroused.
Slowly Mrs. Williams improved, until one morning she said: "Is this
Heaven, and are Ralph and my children here?"
"Yes, Rose," her husband replied, "Ralph and the children are here, and
henceforth I will do all I can to make this home Heaven on earth."
* * * * *
The years rolling by saw John still fighting the fight for his Maker.
Out of the gratitude Ralph Williams had felt for the Divine mercy shown
him, had sprung a determination to do all in his power towards
uplifting others. John eagerly accepted his services, and thus the
nucleus of a rapidly growing power for good was formed.
As more and more came to know the meaning of "Christ Crucified," they
entered heart and soul into the work of spreading the truth to others
and soon a mightly cohort of Christian workers spread over the city.
Individually and with them John labored night and day sustained by his
faith and enthusiasm.
The work of directing the efforts of so many, the nightly vigil at the
bedside of sick and dying, the continual breathing of the vitiated air
of the lower quarters of the city, gradually sapped the strength of
John, who did not know the meaning of fatigue when a call on the service
of his Christ sounded.
At last an attack of nervous prostration made him realize his position,
and yielding to the importunities of his parents and fellow-workers, he
consented to take a vacation.
Where should he go but to the broad, sunny prairies of Dakota, to his
dearly remembered friends, the Longs and Lily.
She met him with outstretched arms and a glad smile of welcome. With the
glory of dawning womanhood about her she was more than ever the "Queen
of the Prairie," but by the soft light in her eyes John saw that she was
still his Lily.
During the long pleasant vacation which followed, John gained strength
and vigor once more, and its close found him ably equipped to take up
Christ's work once more.
Mr. and Mrs. Long were doubly sorrowful at their second parting from
him, for his heart had found its mate and Lily was accompanying him.
He had gained a lovely bride, and more than that, an enthusiastic
helpmate.
Together they took up the work where John had left it. Ere long the
erstwhile "Queen of the Prairie" was known as "Angel of the Poor," for
her womanly sympathy could often find its way into darkness which even
John's earnestness failed to penetrate.
One Friday night they both came to take part in our holiness meeting,
and the Spirit revealed to them that should they submit all their powers
unreservedly to the will of God, He could use them to still higher and
more effective purposes of the cause of Jesus. So, John and Lily, side
by side, came out at the altar and offered their lives and their
services to Jesus for time and for eternity, they, becoming active
members in my corps, and a great blessing to the suffering humanity in
that community.
Case 2.--The following letter was received from the girl already
mentioned, as the daughter of a Roman Catholic woman, who tried to drive
her converted daughter, by the worldly pleasures, away from Jesus:
"Chicago, Ill., Oct. 5, 1906.
Captain Golden,
Salvation Army.
Dear Friend:
I feel that I must let you know what the Lord has done for me,
'through you.'
Why I ever went to the Salvation Army meeting is more than I
know, because I have always been told that the Salvation Army
was nothing more than street beggars and a great deal more.
So I never went to their meetings until I went to No. 4, and I
do sincerely thank God that I went, because now I can see how
far from the Lord I was wandering and so unintentionally
because I never meant to be a sinner, but I just wanted to have
a good time. But now, I can see where some of those good times
lead us.
Captain, I often think how brave you must have been to go on
with the work at No. 4, with so little help, 'that is, earthly
help.' I am sorry that I could not help you, but you see I was
not brave like you. I could not talk about Jesus to those who
scoffed, but I do want Jesus to help me and strengthen me to do
His will. Captain, do you know there is a song that always come
to me when I am in any difficulty, 'Lead Me Saviour.'
Yours sincerely,
FLOY MAYHEN,
2207, 63d St., Chicago."
It is simply wonderful, that there is no one to lead us like the
Saviour, dear Jesus. Who died on Calvary's Cross for our redemption. And
now, dear reader, just a word to you. This volume is written for you; if
you are a converted Christian enjoying the blessings of a clean heart,
indeed, blessed you are, for "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they
shall see God." But, if for some reason, if there can be a reason for
not being saved, you kept back until this hour, I pray that you may go
down upon your knees, at this very moment, just as you are, and open
your heart to God, and let Jesus come in: and I know and you will know
that the remaining days of your life will be sweet and happy; and when
the roll is called up yonder you'll be there, in a robe of white with
the angels in the air to meet the Lamb of God, Who will say unto all
that loved Him and worked for Him, "Well done, thou good and faithful
servant: enter thou into the joy of Thy Lord."
[Illustration: GREEK PEASANT WOMAN]
CHAPTER X
_Greek-Amerikan-Christian-Association_
It is said, by Him who never told a lie, that every tree is known by its
own fruit, and the confirmation of the statement is conclusive to the
student of natural and human history.
It was an idea of King Maximilian of Bavaria, to transmit to history a
reminder of his reign. He instructed the architects of Germany to design
a new style to be named after him. Such a style of Maximilianesque was
created. An architect--it was Semper, if I am not mistaken--when asked
to take a part in this creation of the so-called Maximilian style,
answered that such a thing could not be made to order, that a style of
building is the consequence of the history, the culture, life, and
doings of a great period of people. If such be the case with a style of
architecture, how much more must it be the case in regard to religion?
The history of this style of Maximilian's is, that it has no history,
and consequently all efforts of pursuing eminent architects to adopt the
Maximilian style failed. This short history is that of the attempts to
create a very much needed world religion. It is not the dogma nor the
doctrines or the profession that will make it possible for all right
thinking minds to unite efforts in building a universal religion,
sufficient to satisfy the intellectual want of every people and of every
time. Attempts, all-powerful, such as Papism and Mohammedanism, failed
in their egotistic purposes to enforce upon the world an exotic
structure. Neither the fires of Torquemadas, nor the sword of Islam
could deter the bravery of civilization. The blood that was spilled by
the millions of martyrs of the lowly Nazarene served to make the history
of the man who died upon the Cross, more effective and heartfelt
world-need for the only aristurgimatical shrine in which all human
families may live in peace and prosperity.
At a time when the world was imperilled by the treatment accorded to
Galileo for believing in the motion of the earth; and though 69 years of
age he was cast, by the tools of Vatican, into a dungeon, where he lost
his sight and ultimately his life; and Copernicus was facing the same
fate, for accomplishing a noble astronomical discovery; and Martin
Luther was persecuted by the Roman Catholic church, for trying to bring
the people nearer to God. The Greeks, a brave people, who, in the face
of starvation, for lack of food, and horrified by the sword of the
conqueror, dishonored in their holiest sacreds, pure maidens slain after
being used in the most beastly way, mothers put to death after their
children were torn off into shreds of flesh under the sword of the
barbarous Turk, young people and old aged having no rescuing place to
escape from horror and death; when all crowned heads of Europe should
bow on their knees and kiss the slipper of the holy father before they
could attain their rights to the throne of their own kingdoms; when all
the known world was trembling equally in the name of Mohammed and Pope,
these people (the Greeks) stood up, and with all the strength that was
left in their lungs, they cried out, "we prefer political slavery rather
than to be the slaves of the Pope," and for more than three centuries
the Greeks suffered such a martyrdom which if only printed it would be
more than a human heart could bear.
The history of Greece shall remain until the end of time, and as the
peoples of the world grow intelligently and intellectually more
enlightened they will come to the appreciation of the fact that the
Greek people has contributed more material in paving the way to the
spiritual freedom and the individual liberty of the world than any other
nation on the face of the earth, and that the Greek spirit is still
living and ruling in principle in the very heart of the civilized world.
It is essential that every nation in making up the list of its
benefactors should give the first place to the most distinguished one.
In accordance to the general law the Greek nation of today not only owes
its literary language, in part at least, to the exertions of the great
patriot Korais, but to him is accredited the prophecy, that, "the Greek
nation shall never be great again, unless regenerated in Christ."
Adamantios Korais was born April 27, 1747, in Smyrna. From early youth
he devoted himself to the study of old and new languages. In obedience
to his father's wishes, he followed a mercantile career during the year
1772-78, without, however, neglecting the sciences. From 1782-88 he
studied medicine in Montpellier and established himself as a practising
physician in Paris. From there he worked incessantly for the education
of his compatriots, and endeavored to awaken a favorable opinion of his
nation in the Occidental countries. In 1800 he received the prize of the
Academy for an edition of the writings of Hippocrates, but before this
time he had attracted the attention of the world of learning by his
ability, and Napoleon the Great conferred upon him many honors and
titles and appointed him the medical adviser of the Court. Later on he
gained fame by his Greek translation of Beccaria's work on crimes and
their punishments. This was followed by a work entitled "De l'etat
actuel de la civilization en Greece" (Paris, 1803). This was the first
publication in Europe which gave true information on the intellectual
and moral conditions of the new Greeks. During the period from 1805-27
he published a collection--twenty volumes--of old Greek classics, with
critical explanations and prolegomena. In the latter he gave his
patriotic teachings and advices. His greatest merit consisted in his
promoting the Greek morals and the Greek language; he eliminated as much
as possible all foreign elements, but retained all that was good and
useful from all centuries, rejecting the one-sided retention of the old
words and forms as not compatible with the understanding of the people.
He above all, helped to establish a noble literary language. On account
of his old age he could take no part in the rising of his fatherland in
1821, but aided it greatly by his patriotic pen. When Greece had gained
her independence he took an active interest in the new formation of his
country. In 1830-31 he attacked the government of Kapodistria in two
publications. He died in 1833. His autobiography appeared in Paris in
the same year. The name of Adamantios Korais will never die from the
memory of every patriot Greek, and yet his sincere opinion that "the
Greek nation shall never be great again, unless regenerated in Christ,"
had little effect upon the hearts of the people, or rather upon the
hearts of the leaders of the people.
Great nations have failed, and in every case it was the government's
corruption and neglect of duty that caused the sufferings and failures,
of which the political history is too abounding and too accessible to be
quoted. We only mention the Greek nation, perhaps the greatest and most
illustrious of all nations that ever failed in their political career,
because we are well informed and personally acquainted with the details
that brought this formerly world-wide respected and valued gem of
civilization into insignificance in the eye of the scornful, and a
plaything in the hands of the so-called great powers of Europe.
In the year of 1902, while I was a High Priest, Archimandrites, grand
representative of the Saint Mary's Monastery, Salamis; Orator and Grand
Chaplain of the Supreme Council of Greece; and confessor in the most
exclusive societies of Athens, hearing confessions and granting
absolutions; the following incident, which is published for the first
time, and only in parts that are printable, brought me to a final
decision, that I should leave my home, my loved ones, and all the
flourishing prospects to be a Bishop, with all the comforts and luxuries
attached to a Bishopric, just because I had witnessed a few scenes of
the manifold political plots that caused the downfall of my own nation,
and my own people scattered to the four corners of the world, wandering,
struggling for their existence, while Greece, the land of the Gods, and
the home of art and beauty, was left in the hands of a few parasites,
strangers and unsympathetic feudals who have shown no mercy in straining
every material and spiritual bit from the people that still honors them
as their kings and sovereigns.
At the time spoken of, there was an open secret to every well informed
Greek that the Queen of Greece, Olga, had been the tool of the Russian
bureaucracy, trying by means of religious influences to keep the Greeks
under the Russian political control; that the Queen Olga paid the
expenses for the education of a monk, who, on his return from Russia,
where he was graduated from the theological academies of Kiev and
Moskow, became the Queen's personal confessor, and afterwards by the
Queen's very earnest and almost scandalous activities that monk was
raised to the Metropolitan Throne of Athens, which position placed him
at the head of the Greek Church, and made him the President of the Holy
Synod of Greece.
The Metropolitan Throne of Athens is the highest and most exalted
position that a mortal Greek could approach, and it is, in fact, the
next to the King's Throne, most influential occupation, and more
powerful, even than the Royal Throne, because, the Metropolite of Athens
is the spiritual leader of all Greeks.
There was plenty of rejoicing in the Queen's camarilla, at the
installation of Procopios (that was the name of the monk) as the
Metropolite of Athens, and every effort, Queen Olga leading the fight,
had gone forth to assure a complete victory for the Russian bureaucracy,
over the few remaining unspoiled patriotic Greeks.
All the characteristics of a civil war were enacted in the streets of
Athens when Queen Olga attempted to enforce upon the Greek people a new
inferior language in their Bibles, and in their holy mass--a language,
which the Greek people considered as a means to confound their
historical and religious customs and habits and subdue them into a
Russian spiritual dependency. Against the attempt there was the very
best element of the Greek scholars. Adamantios Korais fought the fight,
100 years before this attempt was made, and he distinctly and clearly
made it understood that the Attic Greek language has been, it is and
must be the safeguard of all that is beautiful in the Greek history.
Faithful to their traditions the Greeks of the present generation fought
and won a triumphant victory. The innocent blood of the people that was
slain on the streets of Athens by orders from the Royal Palace, have
wrote with indelible letters, the anathema, which, frenzied mothers in
the sight of their assassinated sons, and overwhelmed in grief, cried
against Queen Olga, and her crown all but torn to pieces by the wronged
multitudes.
Within 24 hours from that terrible bloody day, that will remain an
indelible stigma in the history of Queen Olga's life, the most exalted
Metropolite Procopios was a fallen ragmuffin and the most hated person
in all Greece. And when every one of his colleagues deserted him and the
King and Queen shut their door in his face, leaving him a pitiful victim
of the political plots to save the royal skin, and while there was no
visible friend to give him a helping hand when fallen from the
Metropolitan Throne, and while this monk-metropolite Procopios, in all
his glorious days had been a profound enemy against every honest effort,
especially against young priests who refused to serve his unlawful
appetites, and my own experience with this monk-metropolite Procopios is
not of the kind to be printed, yet, it was I who put my own life in a
probable danger to save him from the mob, that was ready to attack him,
and probably kill him, the day after I made his escape possible into
the Saint Mary's Monastery, Salamis, where at the time I was
Archimandrites.
Procopios, in the opinion of his own friends, was the last man in the
Greek priesthood, qualified to occupy the Metropolitan Throne of Athens,
and totally lost his will power when he became Metropolite by Royal
favor. There was an organized clique around the Metropolitan mansion,
but the controlling power should be located within the walls of the
Royal Palace. Procopios was only an instrument transmitting orders. And
if I was allowed to publish all that Procopios himself told me, in
Salamis, it would make the Greek people sit up and take notice, but in
my vows as confessor I have to carry the confession of the fallen
Metropolite Procopios with me to my grave, unless the need arises to
serve the best interests of my beloved country. It was his last
confession upon the earth. He died and went there, where, at the great
Judgment Day, he, surely will give account for all his deeds done in the
body.
For the first time in the ecclesiastical history of the Greek Kingdom, a
Metropolite abdicated from his throne, rejected by his closest friends,
helpless under the anathema of the people, above whom he was called to
be the spiritual leader, his life imperilled by the injured public
sentiment, Procopios, left a real wreck cast by the shore, as a warning
sign of those dangers to which every public man is exposed, when
corrupted by higher favours and neglects his duties to the people who
entrusted him with responsibilities of national importance.
This incident, which I hope will never occur again, and many other minor
opportunities, in which I had a part to play, during that fateful Queen
Olga's attempt to adulterate the beautiful and pure Attic Greek
language, gave me the exceptional privilege to study all the works of
the political machinery in Greece. I have seen the drama enacted behind
the scenes. It is a dreadful drama that could break the neck of the
strongest long-suffering. The awful drama that is enacted in Greece at
the expenses of the people is a long, very long story; perhaps it has
its beginning with the reign of King George and Queen Olga, I will not
say, but the people of Greece, the poorest people of Europe, are
contented and well pleased that they have a King who is a great
diplomat, and he is one of the richest Kings in Europe, and their Queen,
Olga, they believe (the ignorant do) that she is a saintly woman (as all
the Russian saints are), and this ignorant Greek people, they simply
feel glad to leave their homes and their children and go into war, like
sheep into the butcher's shop, sacrifice their lives, thus destroying
their homes and the hopes of their loved ones, every time King George
calls them to arms to fight against the Turks. And King George has
always a great patriotic cause to fight the Turks. And the Greeks could
not appreciate more highly a privilege than to fight and die for the
deliverance of their brethren in Crete and for the salvation of the
unfortunate Christians in Macedonia.
Yet, for half a century, in fact, since King George came to Greece,
there are hundreds of thousands of the best Greek patriots that have
been killed, slain, or assassinated, and nearly a billion drachmas
national debt, hanging upon the neck of every Greek, like the Damoclean
sword, but there is no deliverance for the Cretans, and there is no
salvation for the Macedonians, instead there are the traps strategically
placed across the Greek borders, so, every time the Greek patriots, in
answer to the call of their King, are sent to render a helping hand to
the sufferers, they cross the border, only to find, but too late, that
they have been trapped, under the sword of the enemy, the Turk; or they
are left at the mercy of their assassins, the Bulgars. This drama is
going on repeatedly with great success, and to the amusement of the
observing great powers of Europe.
Occasionally there is some crippling of the territory already belonging
to the possessions of Greece, because the places are of some strategical
importance, and this reason is enough, that they should be taken away
from the Greeks. And there is a financial commission appointed by the
great powers, because King George is a great diplomat and he wants to be
sure that his allowance is coming to him increasingly, every year, from
the coffers of the Greek treasury, while the international commission
should count every penny that the Greek expends in bread for his
children.
In the evolution of events, I believe, that there is a time coming, when
the Greek people shall rise, from the lethargy, in which they
unnaturally are slumbering, for a long time, and they shall awake and
break every fetter, and shake off their feet every chain, and their eyes
shall be opened and they shall see things that will horrify them as a
nation; then shall they know the persons responsible for their
sufferings and for the sufferings of the Cretans and Macedonians and why
Carditses was beheaded in a dungeon, without giving him the privilege of
free citizenship, to prove his reason or his sanity, without any chance
to protect his life; and where and by whom that plot was framed up, just
to turn the tide of public anger against a royal gang, thus causing the
destruction of two beautiful Greek girls, that left alone in the world
to suffer from consumption, in agony, to die with the stigma as sisters
of a would-be royal assassin. It was my privilege to take care of these
two unfortunate sisters, both suffering, and the story of these two
girls and the uprising of the Greek people against the adulteration of
their language by Queen Olga, settled my determination to fight for the
rights of my own people and my beloved country. But, the time for the
Greek people to stand up and walk on their own feet, shall come when the
prophecy of the great patriot Adamantios Korais, is no more prophecy,
but in reality the Greek people will be regenerated in Christ, and there
and then shall be a great Greek nation, not only within the boundaries
of the feudatory of King George, but within the bounds of love that
unites all the millions of people that speak the historical Attic Greek
language, and a great Greek nation shall attract the attention of all
the civilized world, once more as in the days of old.
I know the dangers in which I am exposed for the step I have taken,
because, I know the character and the principles of the Greek people,
perhaps, as well as any living Greek, the demagogues, the priests, the
church, and the drones and parasites of the royal gang, they each and every
one and all together are going to use all their power and money that is
at their disposal, and with no regards as to the honesty of means they
shall move earth and hell to quench this movement for the regeneration of
the Greek people, but having all my trust upon the Almighty and Omnipotent
God, in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, Who died that all men may be
happy, and in the right Spirit of love to God and to my fellow men, I dare
launch the Greek-Amerikan-Christian-Association.
Every Greek of reputable character, and all the lovers of the Greek
ancient and modern history, are eligible to membership. It is my purpose
to endeavor by all the Christian means to bring the Greek and American
people into a mutual, intellectual and intelligent understanding. It has
been my experience in studying conditions for the last six years, that
the Greeks in the United States know very little or nothing of the
American history, government, political, social, customs and habits of
the American people, which, also, unfortunate as it may appear, yet it
is the truth, that only a very limited number of Americans whom I have
found all over the United States, are well informed of the doings in
Greece, and still fewer well acquainted and unprejudiced as to the
historical and classical importance of the Greek nation.
It is estimated that there are about 300,000 Greek people in the United
States, representing the 12,000,000 of Greek-speaking people that is the
Greek nation extended all around the Mediterranean countries.
When it is considered that the vast majority of the Greeks in the United
States, has never had any opportunity to attend a Christian meeting, or
hear the Gospel preached in their own language, it is to their credit
that, with all the temptations and the ambiguous associations which the
laboring class is often in contact with they have not been worse than
they are; it is an indication that the primitive and strong character of
the Greek seldom yields to temptation; they hold fast to their
historical energy and honesty.
There has never been an attempt of any importance, neither has there
ever been any organized effort, for the regeneration of the Greek
people, and while the Home and Foreign Missions of America for the last
25 years have given the best of their spiritual leaders for the
conversion of the Zulu and the Mogul and millions of American dollars
have been expended, with insignificant returns, in trying vainly to make
real Christians out of a barbarous and semi-human race of people, and
trying to civilize the jungles of Africa, the most urgent duty has been
neglected, and some spasmodical efforts that have been put forth by the
zeal of earnest individuals, were soon exhausted, and failed, not only
for lack of financial support, but, the worst, by spiritual
discouragements, and today a noble and the most historical race of
peoples, the Greeks, are drifting in despair, away from God, politically
perishing, blind, and ignorant priests, and political demagogues leading
them fast into the ditch.
The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; who will help
us to garner in? HELP! is the cry, the most earnest cry, that was ever
uttered from the lips and from the heart of a sincere Christian worker.
In organizing the Greek-Amerikan-Christian-Association, all the latest
and most effective, spiritual and industrial methods will be employed.
It is hoped that the organization will be incorporated under the laws of
the United States, as soon as there are members sufficient in number to
assemble in their first meeting and vote the Constitution and the
By-Laws of the Association.
Much consideration will be given to the methods of the Y. M. C. A., and
Y. W. C. A. This two-fold Institution, which in the opinion of Christian
leaders, and the most distinguished sociologists, of the present time,
is the very best agency to approach all nations, and spread
civilization, well established upon the fundamental principles of
Christianity.
For the last few months in my struggle trying to establish the
Greek-Amerikan-Christian-Association and at the same time keep my soul
and body together providing a lean livelihood by selling this book, I
can truthfully say that I had more experiences than in all my life
before. One clergyman of the high Episcopal church in the most
fashionable Back Bay, Boston, offered to grant me the use of his church
any time I wanted to offer the mass as high priest according to the
ritual of the Greek Orthodox Church, if I would only "break off all
relations with Protestant bodies here in America." I have a letter from
this clergyman which is the most astounding fact of his inconsistency,
because he himself is an active member of the Bible Club, a purely
Protestant organization: he invited me to one of their meetings, but he
would not purchase my book to help me to my bread and butter. Another
clergyman, a member of the executive committee of City Missions, Boston,
would not purchase my book, unless I offered myself to be employed by
them at a certain salary, and he gave me his card introducing me to the
chairman of that organization.
Last winter I began to preach to the Greeks at Kneeland street, Boston,
in the open air, and when I went to see the police captain of that
district he promised to co-operate with me and gave me his consent to go
on with my work, but the following Sunday his Lieutenant came up to me,
while I was preaching on the street, he stopped me, on the pretense,
that he was informed of a plot among the Greeks to take my life. And
when I made my complaints to the General Secretary of New England
Missions, he told me that I should have known that Boston is a Catholic
town, and that the police being informed that I was an ex-priest, they
simply would not tolerate me. Horror stricken by this statement I went
to see the captain myself, and the very same man who promised
co-operation, only a few days hence, he stood up in front of my face and
in a savage manner told me that he would not tolerate me to preach on
the streets of Boston.
The names of all concerned are in my possession and open to
investigation by the general public. But I will omit them here for
reasons well understood.
A number of other discouraging instances, only worked together to deeper
impress upon my heart the importance and the excellency of my high
calling. Sooner or later, in the inevitable law of evolution and
universal progress, the Greek nation must be regenerated in spirit and
in truth: and I believe that it is not only a case of courtesy, but,
there is a sense of duty for every true American man and woman to
co-operate in the uplifting of all mankind. As for me I fully appreciate
the privilege to suffer for the benefit of my fellow men, and I can
hopefully repeat Tennyson's immortal words:
Once in a golden hour
I cast to earth a seed,
Up then came a flower,
The people said, a weed.
To and fro they went
Thro' my garden bower,
And muttering discontent
Cursed me and my flower.
Then it grew so tall,
It wore a crown of light,
But thieves from o'er the wall
Stole the seed by night.
Sow'd it far and wide,
By every town and tower,
Till all the people cried,
"Splendid is the flower:"
Read my little fable,
He that runs may read:
Most can raise the flower now,
For all have got the seed.
_Conclusion_
Allow me, dear reader, to say in closing, that it is my sincere opinion
that in view of the reasonings and facts presented in the preceding
pages, every individual who reads this Book intelligently, and who is in
possession of a sound and unprejudiced reason, will come to the
conclusion that there is only one religion worth having, and that is the
religion by Jesus, of Jesus, for Jesus, which is the revelation of the
Bible, Divinely adapted to produce the greatest present and eternal
spiritual good to the human family. And if anyone should doubt His power
(which, in view of its adaptations and its effects as herein developed,
would involve the absurdity of doubting whether an intelligent design
had an intelligent designer), still, be the origin of the Gospel of
Jesus where it may, in heaven, earth, or hell, the demonstration is
conclusive that it is the only religion possible for man, in order to
perfect his nature, and restore his lapsed powers to harmony and
holiness, which is the only avenue to usefulness and happiness.
***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CONVERSION OF A HIGH PRIEST INTO A
CHRISTIAN WORKER***
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