Typical of the spirit of self-sacrifice that animates the chorus is the fact that for nearly ten years after the choir was organized, one of the members, in order to reduce the expense for sheet music, copied on a mimeograph all the music used by the members. It was a gigantic task, but he never faltered while the need was felt.

In order to avoid confusion both in rehearsals and at each service, every singer has an appointed seat. There is also a system of signals employed by the organist, clearly understood and promptly responded to by the chorus, for rising, resuming their seats, and for any other duty. This regularity of movement, the precision with which the great choir leads the attitudes and voices of the congregation in all the musical services, the entire absence of confusion, impresses the thoroughness of the chorus drill upon every one, and adds greatly to the effectiveness and decorum of the service.

Most remarkable of all the work of the chorus, perhaps, is the fact that it has not only paid its way, but it has in addition contributed financially to the help of the church. Most choral societies have to be supported by guarantors, or friends or members must reach down in their pockets and make up the deficits that occur with unpleasant regularity. But the chorus of The Temple has borne its own expenses and at various times contributed to the church work.

At the annual banquet in 1905, the following statement was made of the financial history of the chorus since 1892:

Amount Received— Collections from members $ 2,564.60 Fines paid by members 975.60 Gross receipts from concerts 11,299.40 ————- $14,839.60 Amount Disbursed— For music $ 2,167.80 For sundry expenses for socials, flowers for sick, contributions for benevolent purposes, etc. 1,035.81 Expenses of concerts 8,506.34 Contributions to church, college, hospital, Sunday School, repairs to organ, etc. 3,050.51 ———— $14,760.46

The chorus has furnished a private room in the Samaritan Hospital at a cost of $250, pays half the cost of the telephone service to a shut-in member, so that while lying on his bed of sickness he can still hear the preaching and singing of his beloved church, and has contributed to members in need; in fact, whatever help was required, it has come forward and shouldered its share of the financial burdens of the church. It is a chorus that helps by its singing in more ways than singing, though that were enough.

Out of the chorus has grown many smaller organizations which not only assist from time to time in the church and prayer meeting services, but are in frequent demand by Lyceums and other churches. All the money they earn is devoted to some part of The Temple work.

The organ which rears its forest of beautiful pipes in the rear of the church is one of the finest in the country. It was built under the direct supervision of Professor Wood at a cost of $10,000. The case is of oak in the natural finish, 35 feet wide, 35 feet high, 16 feet deep. It has 41 stops, 2,133 pipes, four sets of manuals, each manual with a compass of 61 notes; there are 30 pedal notes, 9 double-acting combination pedals; all the metal pipes are 75 per cent pure tin.

In loving Christian fellowship the chorus abides. No difficulty that could not be settled among themselves has ever rent it; no jealousies mar its peaceful course. Professor Wood is a wise leader. He leaves no loophole for the green-eyed monster to creep in. He selects no one voice to take solo parts. If a solo occurs, he gives it to the whole of that voice in the chorus or to a professional.

Dr. Conwell reads the hymns with so much expression and feeling that new meaning is put into them. The stranger is quietly handed a hymn book by some watchful member. The organ swings into the melody of the hymn, the chorus, as one, rises, and a flood of song sweeps over the vast auditorium that carries every one as in a mighty tide almost up to the gates of heaven itself. And as it ebbs and sinks into silence, faith has been refreshed and strengthened, hardened hearts softened, the love of Christ left as a precious legacy with many a man and woman there.



CHAPTER XXVI

SERVICES AT THE TEMPLE

A Typical Sunday. The Young People's Church. Sunday School. The Baptismal Service. Dedication of Infants. The Pastor's Thanksgiving Reception to Children. Sunrise Services. Watch Meeting.

Sunday is a joyous day at The Temple, and a busy one. It is crowded with work and it is good to be there. Services begin at half after nine with prayer meetings in the Lower Temple by the Young Men's Association and the Young Women's Association. The men's is held in the regular prayer meeting room; the women's in the room of their association. Each is led by some member of the association who is assigned a subject for the morning's study. These subjects, together with the leaders' names, are prepared in advance and printed on a little schedule which is distributed among the church members, so that they may know who has charge of the prayer meeting and the topic for thought.

Dr. Conwell has for twenty-two years presided at the organ in the men's meeting, and usually before the services are over takes a peep into the women's gathering, leaving a prayer or a brief word of cheer and inspiration. The meetings are not long, but they are full of spiritual strength. Men and women, tired with the business life of the week, find them places of soul refreshment where they can step aside from the rush and press of worldly cares and commune with the higher, better things of life.

By the time the prayer meetings are over, the members of the chorus are thronging the Lower Temple, receiving their music and attendance checks, waiting for the signal to march to their seats in the church above.

The morning services begin at half after ten, with the singing of the Doxology, the chanting of the Lord's Prayer by the choir and congregation, followed by the sermon. At the close of the service, Dr. Conwell steps from the pulpit and meets all strangers or friends with a hearty handclasp and a cordial word of greeting.

While morning service is being conducted in The Temple, a Young People's Church is held in the Lower Temple. Dr. Conwell has not forgotten those wearisome Sundays of his boyhood when, too young to appreciate the church service, he fidgeted, strove to keep awake, whittled, and ended it all by thoroughly disliking church. He wants no such unhappy youngsters to sit through his preaching. He wants no such dislike of the church imbedded in childish hearts and minds. So he planned the Young People's Church. Boys and girls between three and fourteen attend it, and Sunday morning the streets in the neighborhood of The Temple are thronged with happy-faced children on the way to their own church, the youngest in the care of parents, who are able later to enjoy more fully The Temple services, since they are not compelled to keep a watchful eye on a restless child.

Before the services begin, the children are very much at home. No stiff, silent formalism chills youthful spirits. They are as joyous and happy as they would be in their own homes. As the moment approaches for the services to begin, they take their seats and at a given signal rise and recite, "The Lord is in His holy Temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him." A hush falls and then the sweet, childish voices begin that beautiful psalm, "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want," and without break or faltering, recite it to the end. Songs follow, bright, cheerful songs full of life, which they sing with a will. Then responsive readings and the Lord's Prayer and always plenty of singing. A short talk is given by the leader, often some one especially secured for the occasion, a talk not over their heads, but into their hearts, a talk whose meaning they can grasp and which sets young minds to thinking of the finer, nobler things of life and inspires them to so live as to be good and useful. Sometimes lantern exhibits to illustrate special topics are given. The mere sight of their bright, happy faces in contrast to the dull, bored expression of the usual child in church proves the wisdom of the work.

The children, as far as possible, perform all the duties of the services. A small boy plays the music for their songs, two small girls keep a record of the attendance, children take up the offering. But it is a church in more than mere services. Committees from among the children are appointed for visiting, for calling on the sick, to plan for entertainments, provide the games for the socials, and to look after all details of this character. There are also two officers, a secretary and treasurer. An advisory committee of ladies, members of The Temple, keep an oversight and guiding hand on the work of the children. The instruction is all in the hands of trained teachers, mostly from the college, including as Director the lady Dean of the College, Dr. Laura H. Carnell.

In the afternoon the Sunday Schools meet. The youngest children are enrolled in the primary or kindergarten department. This has a bright, cheery room of its own in the Lower Temple, with a leader and a number of young women scattered here and there among the children to look after their needs and keep them orderly. Hats are taken off and hung on pegs on the wall and the youngsters are made to feel very much at home.

One of the prettiest features of the service in this department is the offering of the birthday pennies. All the members who have had a birthday during the week come forward to put a penny for each year into the basket. Then the class stands up and recites a verse and sings a song on birthdays. Very pretty and inspiring both verse and song are, and then the honored ones return to their seats, wishing, no doubt, they had a birthday every week.

The taking of the offering is also a pretty ceremony. Verses on giving are recited by the children, then one small child takes his stand in the doorway, holding the basket, and the children all march by and drop in their pennies.

The intermediate department claims the next oldest children. It is led by an orchestra composed of members of the Sunday School, and the singing is joyous and spirited. The superintendent walks around among the scholars during the opening exercises, smiling, encouraging, giving a word of praise, urging them to do better. The fresh, clear voices rise clear and strong. Outside, on Broad Street, people stop to listen. Men lean up against the windows and drink in the melody. No one knows what messages of peace and salvation those songs carry out to the throng on the city street.

The classes of the senior department meet in the various rooms of the college, and the adult class in the auditorium of The Temple. This Dr. Conwell conducted himself for a number of years, until pressure of work compelled him to use these hours for rest. A popular feature of his service was the question box, in which he answered any question sent to him on any subject connected with religious life or experience or Christian ethics in everyday life. The questions could be sent by mail or handed to him on the platform by the ushers. They were most interesting, and the service attracted men and women from all parts of the city. The following was one of the questions, during the year of building the college:

"Five thousand dollars are due next week, and $15,000 next month. Will you set on foot means to raise this amount or trust wholly to God's direction?"

And the pastor answered from the platform:

"I would trust wholly in God's direction. This is a sort of test of faith, and I would make it more so in the building of the College. I do not know for certain now where the money is to come from next Wednesday; I have an idea. But a few days ago I did not know at all. I do not see where the $15,000 is to come from in December unless it be that the Feast of Tithes will bring in $10,000 towards it; that would be a marvelous sum for the people to give, but if it is necessary they will give it. We are workers together with God. I have partly given up my lecture work this month, as the church thought it was best, but suppose there should come to me from Boston, Chicago, St. Louis, or some other place a call to go and lecture on the 10th or 12th of December, and they should offer me $500 or more—I would say immediately, 'Yes, I will go'; that is God's call to help the College; that would be the direction of God. Such opportunities will come to those who should give this $15,000. If God intends the amount due on the College to be paid (and I believe he does), he will cause the hearts of those who desire to help to give money toward this cause. We trust entirely to God. I don't believe if I were to lie down, and the church should stop, that it would be paid. But I am sure that if we work together with God, He will never fail to do as He promises, and He won't ask us to do the impossible. I tell you, friends, I feel sure that the $5,000 will be paid next Wednesday, and I feel sure the $15,000 will be paid when it is due."

It may be interesting to know that the $5,000 was paid; and when the $15,000 was due in December, the money was in the treasury all ready for it.

From half after six on, there are the meetings of the various Christian Endeavor Societies in the Lower Temple. At half after seven the evening services begin and an overflow meeting is held at the same time in the Lower Temple for those who find it impossible to gain admittance to the main auditorium.

The preaching service is followed by a half-hour prayer meeting in the Lower Temple in which both congregations join, taxing its capacity to the utmost. It is a half hour that flies, a half hour full of inspiration and soul communion with the "Spirit that moved on the waters," a fitting crown to a day devoted to His service.

After the solemn benediction is pronounced, a half hour more of good fellowship follows. The pastor meets strangers, shakes hands with members, makes a special effort to hold a few words of personal conversation with those who have risen for prayer. Friends and acquaintances greet each other, and the home life of the church comes to the surface. The hand of the clock creeps to eleven, sometimes past, before the last member reluctantly leaves.

Baptism is a very frequent part of the Sunday services at The Temple, usually taking place in the morning. It is a beautiful, solemn ordinance. The baptistry is a long, narrow pool, arranged to resemble a running stream. Years ago, when Dr. Conwell was in Palestine, he was much impressed with the beauty of the river Jordan at the place where Jesus was baptized. Always a lover of the beautiful in nature, the picture long remained in his memory, especially the leaves and blossoms that drifted on the stream. When The Temple was planned he thought of it and determined to give the baptismal pool as much of the beauty of nature as possible.

It is fifteen feet wide, sixty feet long, and during the hour of the solemn ordinance, the brook is running constantly. The sides of the pool, the pulpit and platform, summer or winter, are banked with flowers, palms, moss and vines. On the surface of the water float blossoms, while at the back, banked with mosses and flowers, splashes and sparkles a little waterfall. Over all falls the soft radiance of an illuminated cross. It is a beautiful scene, one that never fades from the memory of the man or woman who is "buried with Christ by baptism into death," to be raised again in the likeness of His resurrection. The candidates enter at the right and pass out at the left, the pastor pressing into the hands of each, some of the beautiful blossoms that float on the water. During the whole service the organ plays softly, the choir occasionally singing some favorite hymn.

When the number of candidates is large, being on occasion as high as one hundred and seventy-seven adults, the associate pastor assists. It is no unusual thing to see members of a family coming together to make this public profession of their faith. Husband and wife, in many cases; husband, wife and children in many others; a grandmother and two grandchildren on one occasion, and on yet another, a venerable gray-haired nurse came with four of the family in which she had served for many years, and the five entered the baptistry together.

"Among the converts," says one who witnessed a baptismal service, "there were aged persons with their silvered hair. There were stalwart men, fitted to bear burdens in the church for many years to come. There were young men and maidens to grow into strong men and women of the future church. There were little children sweet in their simplicity and pure love of the Savior, little children who were carried in the arms of those who assisted, and whom Dr. Conwell tenderly held in his arms as he buried them with Christ."

Another solemn service of the church is the dedication of infants. Any parents who wish, may bring their child and reverently dedicate it to God, solemnly promising to do all within their power to train it and teach it to lead a Christian life and to make a public profession of faith when it has arrived at the years of discretion. The service reads:

QUESTION.—Do you now come to the Lord's house to present your child (children) to the Lord? ANSWER.—We do.

QUES.—Will you promise before the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you will, so far as in you lieth, teach this child the Holy Scriptures, and bring him (her) up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord? Will you train his (her) mind to respect the services of the Lord's House, and to live in compliance with the teachings and example of our Lord? When he reaches the years of understanding, will you show him the necessity of repentance, explain to him the way of salvation, and urge upon him the necessity of conversion, Baptism, and union with the visible Church of Christ? ANS.—We will.

QUES.—By what name do you purpose to register him (her or them) at this time? ANS.—

* * * * *

Beloved: These parents have come to the house of God at this time to present this child (these children) before the Lord in imitation of the presentation of the infant Jesus in the Temple as recorded by the Evangelist Luke, saying, "When the days of her [Mary's] purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord and to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons." These parents have learned from the Lord Jesus himself that he desires that all the children should come unto him, and that he was pleased when the little children were brought unto him that he might put his hands on them and pray. Therefore, in obedience to the scriptures, these parents are here to present this child unto the Lord Jesus in spirit, that he may take him up in his arms, place his spiritual hands on him and bless him.

We will turn, therefore, to the Holy Scriptures for direction, as they are our only rule of faith and practice, and ascertain the wishes and commandments of the Lord in this matter.

I Sam. I, 26, 27, 28:

And Hannah said, O my Lord, as thy soul liveth, my Lord, I am the woman that stood by thee here, praying unto the Lord.

For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him;

Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the Lord. And he worshipped the Lord there.

* * * * *

Mark X, 13, 14, 15:

And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them; and his disciples rebuked those that brought them.

But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of God.

Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.

And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.

* * * * *

Luke XVIII, 15, 16, 17:

And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them; but when his disciples saw it, they rebuked them.

But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of God.

Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein.

* * * * *

Matt. XVIII, 2-6, 14:

And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them.

And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.

But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

Even so it is not the will of your father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.

Therefore, believing it is wise and that it is a sacred duty to dedicate our precious little ones to God in this solemn manner; believing that all the dear children are especially loved by Christ; and that when taken from this world before active, intentional participation in sin, they are saved by His merciful grace; and believing that Christ by His example, and the apostles by their direct teaching, reserve the sacred ordinance of baptism for repentant believers, we will now unitedly ask the Lord to accept the consecration of this child (children), and to take him in His spiritual arms and bless him.

PRAYER.

HYMN.

BENEDICTION.

* * * * *

The pastor's reception to the children Thanksgiving afternoon is a service the youngsters await from one year to another. Each child is supposed to bring some article to be given to Samaritan Hospital. One year each child brought a potato, which in the aggregate amounted to several barrels. A writer in the "Temple Magazine," describing one of these services, says:

"The children came from all directions, of all sizes and in all conditions. One lad marched up the aisle to a front seat, and his garments fluttered, flag-like, at many points as he went; others were evidently rich men's darlings, but all were happy, and their bright eyes were fixed on the curtained platform, rather than on each other. They came until four or five thousand of them had arrived, filling every nook and corner of the Upper Temple."

"Then Dr. Conwell came in, made them all feel at home—they already were happy—and music, songs and entertainment followed for an hour or more. At the close he shook hands with every happy youngster who sought him—and few failed to do it—gave each a cheery word and hearty handclasp, and then the little ones scattered, swarming along the wide pavements of Broad Street till the Thanksgiving promenaders wondered what had broken loose and whence the swarms of merry children came."

Sunrise services are held Easter and Christmas mornings at seven o'clock. These beautiful days are ushered in by a solemn prayer meeting, spiritual, uplifting, which seems to attune the day to the music of heavenly things, and to send an inspiration into it which glorifies every moment.

Another service very dear to the members of Grace Baptist Church is watch meeting. The services begin at eight o'clock New Year's Eve with a prayer meeting which continues until about half after nine. An intermission follows and usually a committee of young people serve light refreshments for those who want them. At eleven o'clock the watch meeting begins. It is a deeply spiritual meeting, opened by the pastor with an earnest prayer for guidance in the year to come, for renewed consecration to the Master's service, for a better and higher Christian life both as individuals and a church. Hymns follow and a brief, fervid talk on the year coming and its opportunities, of the record each will write on the clean white page in the book of life to be turned so soon. As midnight approaches, every church member is asked to signify his re-dedication to God and His service by standing. Then the solemn question is put to others present if they do not want to give themselves to God, not only for the coming year, but for all years. As twelve o'clock strikes, all bow in silent prayer while the organ, under the pastor's touch, softly breathes a sacred melody.

A few minutes later the meeting adjourns, "Happy New Years" are exchanged, and the church orchestra on the iron balcony over the great half rose window on Broad Street breaks into music.

Sometimes an audience of a thousand people gather on the street to listen to this musical sermon, preached at the parting of the ways, a eulogy and a prophecy. A writer in the "Philadelphia Press" relates the following incident in connection with a watch meeting service:

"For the last half hour of the old and the first half hour of the new year the band played sacred melodies to the delight of not less than a thousand people assembled on the street. Diagonally across Broad Street and a short distance below the church is the residence of the late James E. Cooper, P.T. Barnum's former partner, the millionaire circus proprietor. He had been ailing for months and on this night he lay dying.

"Although not a member he had always taken a personal interest in Grace Church, and one of his last acts was the gift of $1,000 to the building fund. On this night, the first on which The Temple balcony had been used for its specially designed purpose, among the last of earthly sounds that were borne to the ears of the dying man was the music of 'Coronation' and 'Old Hundred,'—hymns that he had learned in childhood. The watch meeting closed and from a scene of thanksgiving and congratulation Rev. Mr. Conwell hurried to the house of mourning, where he remained at the bedside of the stricken husband and father until the morning light of earth came to the living and the morning of eternity to the dying."

Sacred music on the balcony at midnight also ushers in Christmas and Easter. "On the street, long before the hour, the crowds gather waiting in reverent silence for the opening of the service," writes Burdette, in "Temple and Templars." "The inspiring strains of 'the English Te Deum,' 'Coronation,' rise on the starlit night, thrilling every soul and suggesting in its triumphant measures, the lines of Perronet's immortal hymn made sacred by a thousand associations—'All hail the power of Jesus' Name.'" "This greeting of the Resurrection, as it floats out over Monument Cemetery just opposite, where sleep so many thousands, does seem like an assurance sent anew from above, cheering those who sleep in Jesus, telling them that as their Lord and King had risen, and now lives again, so shall they live also. Men looked at the graves of them that slept, listened to the song of triumph that was making the midnight glorious, remembered the risen Christ who was the theme of the song, thought of that other midnight, the riven tomb, the broken power of Death a conquered conqueror, and seemed to hear the Victor's proclamation as the apostle of the Apocalypse heard it, pealing like a trumpet voice over all the earth, 'I am the first and the last: I am He that liveth and was dead; and behold, I am alive forevermore; Amen; and have the keys of hell and death!'

"The music continues, the band playing 'The Gloria,' 'The Heavens are Telling,' 'The Palms'; now and then the listeners join in singing as the airs are more familiar, and 'What a Friend we Have In Jesus,' 'Whiter than Snow,' 'Just as I Am,' and other hymns unite many of the audience on the crowded streets about The Temple in a volunteer choir, and when the doxology, 'Praise God from whom all blessings flow,' closes the service, hundreds of voices swell the volume of melody that greets the Easter morning."



CHAPTER XXVII

A TYPICAL PRAYER MEETING.

The Prayer Meeting Hall. How the Meeting is Conducted. The Giving of Favorite Bible Verses. Requests for Prayer. The Lookout Committee.

The prayer meetings of Grace Baptist Church are characterized by a cheery, homelike atmosphere that appeals forcibly and at once to any one who may chance to enter, inclining him to stay and enjoy the service, be he the utmost stranger.

But underneath this and soon felt, is the deep spiritual significance of the meeting, which lays hold on men's hearts, inspiring, uplifting, sending them home with a sense of having "walked with God" for a little while.

The large prayer meeting hall is usually crowded, the attendance including not only members of the church but hundreds who are not members of any church. It is no unusual sight to see all the various rooms of the Lower Temple thrown into one by the raising of the sashes, and this vast floor packed as densely as possible, while a fringe of standers lines the edges. People will come to these prayer meetings though they cannot see the platform, though they must lose much of what is said. But the spirit of the meeting flows into their hearts and minds, sending them home happier, and with a strengthened determination to live a more righteous life.

Frequently Dr. Conwell arrives ten or fifteen minutes before the time for the service to begin. As he walks to the platform, he stops and chats with this one, shakes hands with another, nods to many in the audience. At once all stiffness and formalism vanish. It is a home, a gathering of brothers and sisters. It is the meeting together of two or three in His name, as in the old apostolic days, though these two or three are now counted by the hundreds.

When Dr. Conwell thus arrives early, the time is passed in singing. Often he utilizes these few minutes to learn new hymns. So that when the real prayer meeting is in progress, there will be no blundering through new tunes or weak-kneed renditions of them. The singing, Dr. Conwell wants done with the spirit. He will not sing a verse if the heart and mind cannot endorse it. After singing several hymns in this earnest, prayerful fashion, every one present is fully in tune for the services to follow. Prayer meeting opens with a short, earnest prayer. Then a hymn. It is Dr. Conwell's practice to have any one call out the number of a hymn he would like sung. And it is no unusual thing to hear a perfect chorus of numbers after Dr. Conwell's "What shall we sing?"

A chapter from the Bible is read and a short talk on it given. Then Dr. Conwell says, "The meeting now is in your hands," and sits down as if he had nothing more to do with it. But that subtle leadership which leads without seeming to do so, is there ready to guide and direct. He never allows the meeting to grow dull—though it seldom exhibits a tendency to do so. If no one is inclined to speak, hymns are sung. An interesting feature, and one that is tremendously helpful in leading church members to take part in the prayer meeting, is the giving of Bible verses. It is a frequent feature of Grace Church prayer meetings. "Let us have verses of Scripture," or "Each one give his favorite text," Dr. Conwell announces. Immediately from all parts of the large room come responses. Some rise to give them, others recite them sitting. Hundreds are given some evenings in a short space of time, sometimes the speakers giving a bit of personal experience connected with the verse.

The prayer meetings are always full of singing, often of silent prayer; and never does one end without a solemn invitation to those seeking God and wishing the prayers of the church, to signify it by rising. While the request is made, the audience is asked to bow in silent prayer that strength may be given those who want God's help to make it known. In the solemn hush, one after another rises to his feet, often as many as fifty making this silent appeal for strength to lead a better life. Immediately Dr. Conwell leads into an eloquent, heartfelt prayer that those seeking the way may find it, that the peace that passeth understanding may come into their hearts and lives.

But Dr. Conwell doesn't let the matter rest here. A committee of church members already appointed for just such work, is posted like sentinels about the prayer meeting room, ready to extend practical help to those who have asked for the prayers of the church. After the services are over, each one who has risen is sought out, by some member of this committee, talked with in a friendly, sympathetic way, and his name and address taken. These are given to Dr. Conwell If time permits, he writes to many of them. All of them he makes the subject of personal prayer.

Frequently, before asking those to rise who wish the prayers of the church, Dr. Conwell asks if any one wishes to request prayers for others. The response to this is always large. A member of the staff of "The Temple Magazine" made a note at one prayer meeting of these requests and published it in the magazine. Three requests were made for husbands, eight for sons, one for a daughter, three for children, ten for brothers, two for sisters, two for fathers, one for a cousin, one for a brother-in-law, four for friends, eleven for Sunday School scholars, one for a Sunday School class, four for sick persons, two for scoffers, twenty-one for sinners, four for wanderers, five for persons addicted to drink, three for mission schools, five for churches—one that was divided, another deeply in debt, another for a sick pastor and the other two seeking a higher development in godliness.

As many of these requests come from church members, both pastor and people pay especial attention to them and practically, as well as prayerfully, try to reach those for whom prayers are asked. In many cases distinct answers to these prayers are secured, so evident that none could mistake them. At an after-service on Sunday evening a mother asked prayers for a wayward son in Chicago. Dr. Conwell and some of the deacons led the church in prayer for the boy, very definitely and in faith. At that same hour, as the young man afterward related, he was passing a church in Chicago, and felt strangely impressed to enter and give his heart to Christ. It was something he had no intention of doing when he left his hotel a few minutes before. But he went in, joined in the meeting, asked for forgiveness of his sins and the prayers of the church to help him lead a better life, and accepted Christ as his personal Savior. In the joy of his new experience, he wrote his mother immediately.

At another prayer meeting, Dr. Conwell read a letter from a gentleman requesting the prayers of the church for his little boy whom the doctors had given up to die. He stated in the letter that if God would spare his child in answer to prayer, he would go anywhere and do anything the Lord might direct. After reading the letter, Dr. Conwell led earnestly in prayer, beseeching that the child's life might be saved since it meant much for the cause of Christ on earth. Several members of the church made fervent prayers for the child, and at the close of the meeting, many expressed themselves as being confident that their prayers would be answered. At that same hour, the disease turned. The child has grown to be a young man, and with his father is a member of Grace Church.

Such direct, unmistakable answers to prayer strengthen faith, give confidence to ask for prayers for loved ones, and make it a very earnest, solemn part of the prayer meeting service. Thus working and praying, praying and working, the church marches forward.



CHAPTER XXVIII

THE TEMPLE COLLEGE

The Night Temple College Was Born. Its Simple Beginning and Rapid Growth. Building the College. How the Money was Raised. The Branches it Teaches. Instances of Its Helpfulness. Planning for greater Things.

In a letter written to a member of his family, from which we quote the following, Dr. Conwell tells how the idea of Temple College was born in his mind one wintry night.

"A woman, ragged, with an old shawl over her head, met me in an alley in Philadelphia late one night. She saw the basket on my arm, and looked in my face wistfully, as a dog looks up beside the dinner table. She was hungry, and was coming in empty. I shook my head, and with a peculiarly sad glance she turned down the dark passage. I had found several families hungry, and yet I felt like a hypocrite, standing there with an empty basket, and a woman, perhaps a mother, so pale for lack of decent food.

"On the corner was a church, stately and architecturally beautiful by day, but after midnight it looked like a glowering ogre, and looked so like Newgate Prison, in London, that I felt its chilly shadow. Half a million cost the cemented pile, and under its side arch lay two newsboys or boot-blacks asleep on the step.

"What is the use? We cannot feed these people. Give all you have, and an army of the poor will still have nothing; and those to whom you do give bread and clothes to-day will be starving and naked to-morrow. If you care for the few, the many will curse you for your partiality. While I stood meditating, the police patrol drove along the street, and I could see by the corner street lamp that there were two women, one little girl and a drunken old man in the conveyance, going to jail! I could do nothing for them.

"At my door I found a man dressed in costly fashion, who had waited for me outside, as he had been told that I would come soon, and the family had retired. He said his dying father had sent for me. So I left the basket in a side yard and went with the messenger. The house was a mansion on Spring Garden Street. The house was inelegantly overloaded with luxurious furniture, money wasted by some inartistic purchasers. The paintings were rare and rich. The owners were shoddy. The family of seven or eight gathered by the bedside when I prayed for the dying old man. They were grief-stricken and begged me to stay until his soul departed. It was daylight before I left the bedside, and as the dying still showed that the soul was delaying his journey, I went into the spacious, handsome library. Seeing a rare book in costly binding among the volumes on a lower shelf, I opened the door and took it out My hands were black with dust. I glanced then along the rows and rows of valuable books, and noticed the dust of months or years. The family were not students or readers. One son was in the Albany Penitentiary; another a fugitive in Canada. At the funeral, afterwards, the wife and daughter from Newport were present, and their tears made furrows through the paint. Those rich people were strangely poor, and a book on a side table on the 'Abolition of Poverty' seemed to be in the right place.

"That night was conceived the Temple College idea. It was no new truth, no original invention, but merely a simpler combination of old ideas. There was but one general remedy for all these ills of poor and rich, and that could only be found in a more useful education. Poverty seemed to me to be wholly that of the mind. Want of food, or clothing, or home, or friends, or morals, or religion, seemed to be the lack of the right instruction and proper discipline. The truly wise man need not lack the necessities of life, the wisely educated man or woman will get out of the dirty alley and will not get drunk or go to jail. It seemed to me then that the only great charity was in giving instruction.

"The first class to be considered was the destitute poor. Not one in a thousand of those living in rags on crusts would remain in poverty if he had education enough of the right kind to earn a better living by making himself more useful. He is poor because he does not know any better. Knowledge is both wealth and power.

"The next class who stand in need of the assistance love wishes to give is the great mass of industrious people of all grades, who are earning something, who are not cold or hungry, but who should earn more in order to secure the greater necessities of life in order to be happy. They could be so much more useful if they knew how. To learn how to do more work in the same time, or how to do much better work, is the only true road to riches which the owner can enjoy.



"To help a man to help himself is the wisest effort of human love. To have wealth and to have honestly earned it all, by labor, skill or wisdom, is an object of ambition worthy of the highest and best. Hence, to do the most good to the great classes, rich or poor, we must labor industriously. The lover of his kind must furnish them with the means of gaining knowledge while they work.

"Then there was a third class of mankind, starving, with their tables breaking with luscious foods, cold in warehouses of ready-made clothing of the most costly fabrics; seeing not in the moon-light, and restless to distraction on beds of eiderdown. They do not know the use or value of things. They are harassed with plenty they cannot appropriate. They are doubly poor. They need education. The library is a care, an expense and a disgrace to the owner who cannot read. To give education to those in the possession of property which they might use for the help of humanity and which they might enjoy, is as clear a duty and charity as it is to help the beggar. And, indeed, indirectly the education of the unwise wealthy to become useful may be the most practical way of raising the poor. There is a need for every dollar of the nation's property, and it should be invested by men whose minds and hearts have been trained to see the human need and to love to satisfy it.

"The thought that in education of the best quality was to be found the remedy for hunger, loneliness, crime and weakness was most clearly emphasized to my mind by the coming of two young men who had felt the need from the under side. They had received but little instruction; they were over twenty years of age, and they wished to enter the ministry. Was there any way open for a poor, industrious laborer to get the highest education while he supported his mother, sister and himself? I urged them to try it for the good of many who would follow them if they made it a clear success. I was elated almost to uncontrollable enthusiasm the night they came to my study to begin their course. They brought five with them, and all proved themselves noble men. One is not, for God took him. But the others are moulding and inspiring their world."

Thus was conceived the idea of the institution that is now educating annually three thousand men and women. The need for it has been plainly proven. Rev. Forest Dager, at one time Dean of Temple College, said in regard to the people who in later life crave opportunities for study:

"That the Temple College idea of educating working men and working women, at an expense just sufficient to give them an appreciation of the work of the Institution, covers a wide and long-neglected field of educational effort, is at once apparent to a thoughtful mind. Remembering that out of a total enrollment in the schools of our land of all grades, public and private, of 14,512,778 pupils, 96-1/2 per cent are reported as receiving elementary instruction only; that not more than 35 in 1,000 attend school after they are fourteen years of age; that 25 of these drop out during the next four years of their life; that less than 10 in 1,000 pass on to enjoy the superior instruction of a college or some equivalent grade of work, we begin to see the unlimited field before an Institution like this. Thousands upon thousands of those who have left school quite early in life, either because they did not appreciate the advantages of a liberal education, or because the stress of circumstances compelled them to assist in the maintenance of home, awake a few years later to the realization that a good education is more than one-half the struggle for existence and position. Their time through the day is fully occupied; their evenings are free. At once they turn to the evening college, and grasping the opportunities for instruction, convert those hours which to many are the pathway to vice and ruin, into stepping stones to a higher and more useful career ... An illustration of the wide-reaching influence of the College work is the significant fact that during one year there were personally known to the president, no less than ninety-three persons pursuing their studies in various universities of our country, who received their first impulses toward a higher education and a wider usefulness in Temple College."

In 1893, in an address on the Institutional church, delivered before the Baptist Ministers' Conference in Philadelphia, Dr. Conwell said:

"At the present time there are in this city hundreds of thousands—to speak conservatively, (I should say at least five hundred thousand people) who have not the education they certainly wish they had obtained before leaving school. There are at least one hundred thousand people in this city willing to sacrifice their evenings and some of their sleep to get an education, if they can get it without the humiliation of being put into classes with boys and girls six years old. They are in every city. There is a large class of young people who have reached that age where they find they have made a mistake in not getting a better education. If they could obtain one now, in a proper way, they would. The university does not furnish such an opportunity. The public school does not.

"The churches must institute schools for those whom the public does not educate, and must educate them along the lines they cannot reach in the public schools.

"We are not to withdraw our support from, nor to antagonize, the public schools; they are the foundations of liberty in the nation. But the public schools do not teach many things which young men and young women need. I believe every church should institute classes for the education of such people, and I believe the Institutional church will require it. I believe every evening in the week should be given to some particular kind of intellectual training along some educational line; that this training should begin with the more evident needs of the young people in each congregation, and then be adjusted as the matter grows, to the wants of each."

So, because one poor boy struggled so bitterly for an education, because a man, keen-eyed, saw others' needs, reading the signs by the light of his own bitter experience, a great College for busy men and women has grown, to give them freely the education which is very bread and meat to their minds.

Most people use for their own benefit the lessons they have learned in the hard school of experience. They have paid for them dearly. They endeavor to get out of them what profit they can. Not so Dr. Conwell. He uses his dearly bought experiences for the good of others, turning the bitterness which he endured, into sweetness for their refreshment.

The Temple College was founded, as was stated in its first catalogue, for the purpose "of opening to the burdened and circumscribed manual laborer, the doors through which he may, if he will, reach the fields of profitable and influential professional life.

"Of enabling the working man, whose labor has been largely with his muscles, to double his skill through the helpful suggestions of a cultivated mind.

"Of providing such instruction as shall be best adapted to the higher education of those who are compelled to labor at their trades while engaged in study, or who desire while studying to remain under the influence of their home or church.

"Of awakening in the character of young laboring men and women a strong and determined ambition to be useful to their fellowmen.

"Of cultivating such a taste for the higher and most useful branches of learning as shall compel the students, after they have left the college, to continue to pursue the best and most practical branches of learning to the very highest walks of mental and scientific achievement."

A broad, humanitarian purpose it is, one that grew out of the heart of a man who loved humanity, who believed in the practical application of the teachings of Christ, who knew a cause would succeed if it filled a need.

Dr. Conwell's own experience, his observations of life had told him that this great need existed, but it was brought home to him practically in 1884, when these two young men of whom he speaks in the letter quoted came to him and said they wanted to study for the ministry but had no money. His mind leaped the years to those boyhood days when he longed for an education but had no money. He fixed an evening and told them he would teach them himself. When the night came, the two had become seven. The third evening, the seven had grown to forty. It was in the days when pastor and people were working hard for their new church and his hands were full. But he did not shirk this new task that came to him. Forty people eager to study, anxious to broaden their mental vision, to make their lives more useful, could not be disappointed, most assuredly not by a man who had known this hunger of the mind. Teachers were secured who gave their services free, the lower parts of the church where they were then worshipping at Berks and Mervine streets were used as class rooms and the work went forward with vigor.

The first catalogue was issued in 1887, and the institution chartered in 1888, at which time there were five hundred and ninety students. The College overflowed the basement of the church into two adjoining houses. When The Temple was completed the College occupied the whole building. When that was filled it moved into two large houses on Park Avenue. Still growing, it rented two large halls.

The news that The Temple College had enlarged quarters in these halls brought such a flood of students that almost from the start applicants were turned away. Nothing was to be done but to build. It was a serious problem. The church itself had but just been completed and a heavy debt of $250,000 hung over it. To add the cost of a college to this burden of debt required faith of the highest order, work of the hardest. But God had shown them their work and they could not shirk it.

"For seven years I have felt a firm conviction that the great work, the special duty of our church, is to establish the College," said Dr. Conwell, in speaking of the matter to his congregation. "We are now face to face with it. How distinctly we have been led of God to this point! Never before in the history of this nation have a people had committed to them a movement more important for the welfare of mankind than that which is now committed to your trust in connection with the permanent establishment of The Temple College. We step now over the brink. Our feet are already in the water, and God says, 'Go on, it shall be dryshod for you yet'; and I say that the success of this institution means others like it in every town of five thousand inhabitants in the United States."

"One thing we have demonstrated—those who work for a living have time to study. Some splendid specimens of scholarship have been developed in our work. And there are others, splendid geniuses, yet undiscovered, but The Temple College will bring them to the light, and the world will be the richer for it. By the use of spare hours—hours usually running to waste—great things can be done. The commendation of these successful students will do more for the college than any number of rich friends can do. It will make friends; it will bring money; it will win honor; it will secure success."

An investment fund was created and once more the people made their offerings. The same self-sacrificing spirit was evident as in the building of the church. One boy brought to the pastor fifty cents, the first money he had ever earned; a woman sent to the treasury a gold ring, the only gift she could make, which bore interest in the suggestion that all who chose might offer similar gifts as did the women in the day of Moses. A business man hearing of this said, "If a day is appointed, I will on that day give to the College all the gold and silver that comes into my store for purchases." Every organization of Grace Church contributed time, work, money, and prayer to the building of the College. Small wonder then that obligations were met and payments made promptly.

One of the most successful methods by which money was raised for the College was the "Penny Talent" effort in 1893. Burdette, in his "Temple and Templars" has made a most painstaking record of the various ways in which the talent was used. He says:

"Each worker was given a penny, no more. Four thousand were given out at one service. One man put his penny in a neat box, took it to his office, and exhibited his 'talent' at a nickel a 'peep.' He gained $1.70 the first day of his 'show,' A woman bought a 'job lot' of molasses with her penny, made it into molasses candy, sold it in square inch cakes, after telling the customer her story; payments were generous and she netted $1.80. Then the man who sold her the molasses returned her penny. Another sister established a 'cooky' business, which grew rapidly. One boy kept his penny and went to work, earned 50 cents, the first money he ever earned in his life. It was a big penny, but he was bubbling over with enthusiasm and in it all went; he brought it straight to his pastor. One worker collected autographs and sold them. A boy sold toothpicks. One young man made silver buttonhooks and a young lady sold them. A woman traded her penny up to a dollar, made aprons from that time on until she earned $10. One class of seven girls in the Sunday-school united its capital and gave a supper at the Park and netted $50. The Young Men's Bible Class constructed a model of the College building, which they exhibited. The children gave a supper in the Lower Temple, which added $100 to the College fund. There came into the treasury $1.00 'saved on carfares'; 'whitewashing a cellar' brought $3. Thrice, somebody walked from Germantown to The Temple and back, saving 75 cents; a wife saved $20 from household allowances. A little girl of seven years went into a lively brokerage business with her penny, and took several 'flyers' that netted her handsome margins. Here is her report—

"'Sold the "talent penny" to Aunt Libby for seven cents; sold the seven cents to Mamma for 25 cents; sold the 25 cents to Papa for 50 cents. Aunt Caddie, 10 cents; Uncle Gilman, 5 cents; Cousin Walter, 4 cents; cash, 25 cents,—$1.04 and the penny talent returned.'

"'Pinching the market-basket' sent in $2.50; 'all the pennies and nickels received in four months, $12.70'; 'walking instead of riding, $6.50'; 'singing and making plaster plaques, $7.' A dentist bought of a fellow dentist one cent's worth of cement filling-material; this he used, giving his labor, and earned 50 cents; with this he bought 50 cents' worth of better filling, part of which he used, again giving his labor, and the College gained $3.00. A boy sold his penny to a physician for a dollar. The physician sold the 'talent penny' for 10 cents, which he exchanged at the Mint for bright new pennies. These he took to business friends and got a dollar apiece for them; added $5.00 of his own and turned in $15.00. Donations of one cent each were received through Mr. William P. Harding, from Governor Tillman of South Carolina, Governor McKinley of Ohio, Governor Russell of Massachusetts. From Governor Fuller of Vermont—a rare old copper cent, 1782, coined by Vermont before she was admitted to the Union; the governors' letters were sold to the highest bidders. Everybody who worked, everybody who traded with the penny, did something, and every penny was blessed, so lovingly and so zealously was the trading done. It was the Master's talent which they were working with. All the little things that went into the treasury; lead pencils, tacks, $3.00 in one case and $5.00 in another; 'beefs liver, $14.00'—think of that! How tired the boarders must have grown of liver away out on Broad Street—stick pins, hairpins, and the common kind that you bend and lose; candy, pretzels, and cookies; 'old tin cans,' wooden spoons, pies; one man sent $50.00 as a gift because he said 'his penny had brought him luck'; another found 16 pennies, which good fortune he ascribed to the penny in his pocket.

"So in October the workers who had received their pennies in April came together to show what they had done. Four thousand pennies had been given out; $6,000 came directly from the returns, and indirectly about $8,000 more.

"The 'Feast of Tithes,' held in December of the same year, was a great fair, extending through seven week days. The displays of goods and the refreshment booths were in the Lower Temple, while fine concerts and other entertainments were given in the auditorium. The Feast of Tithes netted $5,500 for the College fund."

Thus the work progressed. No one could give large amounts, but many gave a little, and stone by stone the building grew. In August, 1893, the corner stone of the College building was laid. Taking up the silver trowel which had been used in laying the corner stone of The Temple, in 1889, Dr. Conwell said:

"Friends, to-day we do something more than simply lay the corner stone of a college building. We do an act here very simply that shows to the world, and will go on testifying after we have gone to our long rest, that the church of Jesus Christ is not only an institution of theory, but an institution of practice. It will stand here upon this great and broad street and say through the coming years to all passersby, 'Christianity means something for the good of humanity; Christianity means not only a belief in things that are good and pure and righteous, but it also means an activity that shall bless those who need the assistance of others.' It shall say to the rich man, 'Give thou of thy surplus to those who have not.' It shall say to the poor man, 'Make thou the most of thy opportunities and thou shalt be the equal of the rich.'

"Now, in the name of the people who have given for this enterprise, in the name of the many Christians who have prayed, and who are now sending up their prayers to heaven, I lay this corner stone."

The work went on. In May, 1894, a great congregation thronged The Temple to attend the dedication services of "Temple College," for it was in its new home; a handsome building, presenting with The Temple a beautiful stone front of two hundred feet on the broad avenue which it faces. Robert E. Pattison, governor of Pennsylvania, presided, saying, in his introductory remarks, "Around this noble city many institutions have arisen in the cause of education, but I doubt whether any of them will possess a greater influence for good than Temple College." Bishop Foss, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, offered prayer. The orator was Honorable Charles Emory Smith, of Philadelphia, ex-minister to Russia. Mr. James Johnson, the builder, gave the keys to the architect, Mr. Thomas P. Lonsdale, who delivered them to the pastor of Grace Church and president of Temple College, remarking that "it was well these keys should be in the hands of those who already held the keys to the inner temple of knowledge."

President Conwell, receiving the keys, said that, "by united effort, penny by penny, and dollar by dollar, every note had been paid, every financial obligation promptly met. It is a demonstration of what people can do when thoroughly in earnest in a great enterprise."

Academies were also started in distant parts of the city for the benefit of those who could not reach the college in time for classes. Unfortunately these academies were compelled to close on account of lack of funds. Many pitiful letters were received at the college from those who were thus shut out of educational advantages. One in particular, poorly spelled but breathing its bitter disappointment, said that the writer (a woman) was just beginning to hope she would get her head above water some day. But that now she must sink again. A little light had begun to glimmer for her through the blackness, but that light had been taken away. She was going down again into the depth of hopeless ignorance with no one to lend a helping hand—the tragedy of which Carlyle wrote when he penned "That there should be one man die ignorant who is capable of knowledge, this I call a tragedy."

The College at first was entirely free, but as the attendance increased, it was found necessary to charge a nominal tuition fee in order to keep out those who had no serious desire to study, but came irregularly "just for the fun of the thing." When it was decided to charge five dollars a year for the privilege of attending the evening classes, the announcement was received with the unanimous approbation of the students who honestly wished to study, and who more than any others were hindered by the aimless element.

Not only did the poor and those who were employed during the day come, but before long the sons and daughters of the well-to-do were knocking at the doors, not for admission to the evening classes but for day study. So the day department was opened. Not only has it proved most successful in its work, but it has helped the College to meet expenses.

The curriculum of the College is broad. A child just able to walk can enter the kindergarten class in the day department and receive his entire schooling under the one roof, graduating with a college degree, taking a special university course, or fitting himself for business.

Four university courses are given—theology, law, medicine, pharmacy. The Medical and Theological Departments take students to their graduation and upon presentation of their diploma before the State Board they are admitted to the State Examination. The Theological Course, of course, graduates a man the same as any other theological seminary.

Post-graduate courses are also given.

The college courses include—arts, science, elocution and oratory, business, music, civil engineering, physical education. The graduates of the college course are admitted to the post-graduate courses of Pennsylvania, Yale, Princeton and Harvard on their diplomas. Students pass from any year's work of the college course to the corresponding course of other Institutions.

The preparatory courses are college preparatory, medical preparatory, scientific preparatory, law preparatory, an English course and a business preparatory course. Thus, if one is not ready to enter one of the higher courses, he can prepare here by night study for them.

The Business Course includes a commercial course, shorthand course, secretarial course, conveyancing course, telegraphy course, advertisement writing and proofreading.

There are normal courses for kindergarteners and elementary teachers, and in household science, physical training, music, millinery, dressmaking, elocution and oratory.

Special courses are given in civil engineering, chemistry, elocution and oratory, painting and drawing, sign writing, mechanical and architectural drawing, music, physical training, dressmaking, millinery, cooking, embroidery, and nursing, the last being given at the Samaritan Hospital.

All of these courses, excepting the Normal Kindergarten, can be studied day or evening, as best suits the student.

The kindergarten and model schools cover the work of the public schools from the kindergarten to the highest grammar grades, fitting the student to enter the first year of the preparatory department. These classes are held in the daytime only.

The power to confer degrees was granted in 1891. The teaching force has been greatly enlarged until at present there are one hundred and thirty-five teachers and an average of more than three thousand regular students yearly.

The number of students instructed at Temple College in proportion to money expended and buildings used is altogether out of proportion to any other college in America. Some idea of the breadth of study presented at Temple College may be had from a comparison with Harvard. Harvard has more than five thousand students, four hundred instructors, and presents five hundred courses of study. Its growth since 1860 has been wonderful. In 1860, while one man might not have been able in four years to master all the subjects offered, he could have done so in six. It was estimated in 1899 that the courses of study offered were so varied that sixty years would have been required. It would take one student ninety-six years to take all the courses presented by the Temple College.

From the time of the opening of Temple College up to the closing exercises of 1905, its students have numbered 55,656. If an answer is desired to the question, "Is such an institution needed," that number answers is most emphatically. That more than fifty thousand people, the majority of them wording men and women, will give their nights after a day of toil, to study, proves that the institution that gives them the opportunity to study is sorely needed.

The life story of men and women who have studied here and gone on to lives of usefulness would make interesting reading. One young girl who lived in the mill district of Kensington was earning $2.50 a week, folding circulars, addressing envelopes and doing such work. Her parents were poor. She had the most meagre education, and the outlook for her to earn more was dark. Some one advised her to go to Temple College at night and study bookkeeping. A few years after, her well-wisher saw her one evening at the college, bright, happy, a different girl in both dress and deportment She had a position as bookkeeper at $10 a week and was going on now and taking other courses.

That is the ordinary story of the work Temple College does, multiplied in thousands of lives. Others are not so ordinary. One of the early students was a poor man earning $6.00 a week. To-day he is earning $6,000 a year in a government position at Washington, his rise in life due entirely to the opportunities of study offered him at Temple College. A lady who had been brought up in refined and cultured society was compelled to support herself, her husband and child through his complete physical breakdown. She took the normal course in dressmaking and millinery, and has this year been appointed the Director of the Domestic Science work in a large institution at a very good salary, being able to keep herself and family in comfort. One of the present college students was a weaver without any education at all, getting not only his elementary education and his preparatory education here, but will next year graduate from the college department. He has been entirely self-supporting in the meantime, and will make a fine teacher of mathematics. He has been teaching extra classes in the evening department of the College for several years.

One of the students who entered the classes in 1886 was a poor boy of thirteen. For nineteen long years he has studied persistently at night, passing from one grade to another until this summer (1905) his long schooling was crowned with success and he was admitted to the bar. All these weary years he has worked hard during the day, for there were others depending upon him, and at night despite his physical weariness, has faithfully pursued his studies. He deserves his success and the greater success that will come to him, for such a man in those long years has stored away experiences that will make him a power.

Another student in the early days of the college was a poor boy who had no education whatever, having been compelled to help earn the family living as soon as he was able, his father being a drunkard. For fifteen years he studied, passing from one grade to another until in 1899, he had the great joy of being ordained to the ministry, six of his ministerial brethren gathering around him in the great Temple and laying on his head the hands of ordination, feeling they were setting apart to the struggles and hardships of the Gospel ministry one who had shown himself worthy of his exalted calling.

One of the official stenographers connected with the Panama Canal Commission was a breaker boy who came to Philadelphia from the mining district poor and ignorant, and studied in Temple College at night, working during the day to earn his living.

Such records would fill a book. They prove better even than numbers the worth of such an institution. If only one such man or woman is lifted to a happier, more useful life, the work is worth while.

Such an institution can do much for the purification of politics. Before the students are ever held high ideals of right living, of honesty, of purity. All the associations of the College are conducive to clean character and high ideals. As the largest number of the students are men and women from active business life, they are keenly alive to the questions of the day. They know the responsibility for honest government rests with each voter, that to have clean politics every man and woman must individually do his share to uphold high standards in political and social life, that only men whose characters are above reproach should be elected to office. That the President of their college shares these views and knows also what a power lies in their hands, is shown by the following letter:

"Fraternal Greetings: The near approach of an important election leads me to suggest to you the following:

"First. There being now in this city over seven thousand voters who have been students in the Temple College, you have by your votes and your influence, either by combination or as individuals, a considerable political power. You should use it for the good of your city, state, and nation.

"Second. In city affairs I urge you to think first of the poor. The rich do not need your care. Vote only for such city candidates as will most speedily secure for the more needy classes pure water, clean streets, cheaper homes, cheaper and more useful education, healthier environment, cheap and quick transportation, the development of the labor-giving improvements, and the increase of sea-going and inland commerce. Select large-hearted, cool-headed men for city officers, regardless of national parties.

"Third. Let no man or party purchase your patriotic birthright for a fifty-cent tax bill or any other sum.

"Fourth. In selecting your candidates for state offices remember the needs of the people. Favor the granting to the submerged poor a more favorable opportunity to help themselves. Move in the most reasonable and direct way toward the ultimate abolition of the sale of intoxicating liquors as a beverage, and for the increase of hospital and college privileges for the afflicted and the ignorant.

"Fifth. In national politics, remember that both parties have a measure of truth in their principles, and the need of the time is noble, conscientious lovers of humanity, who will not be led by party enthusiasm into any wild schemes in either direction which would result in the destruction of business and the degradation of national honor. Think independently, vote considerately, stand unflinchingly against any measure that is wrong, and vigorously in favor of every movement that is right. This is an opportunity to do a great, good deed. Quit you like men. With endearing affection,

"RUSSELL H. CONWELL."

Even now the press of students is so great the trustees are planning larger things. The "Philadelphia Press,' speaking of the new work to be undertaken, said:

"A city university, with a capacity of seven thousand students, more than are attending any other one seat of learning in the United States, is to be built in Philadelphia. It will be the university of the Temple College and will stand on the site of the old Broad Street Baptist Church at the southeast corner of Broad and Brown Streets, and the lot adjoining the church property on the south side on Broad Street.

"The new structure will cost $225,000, while the ground on which it will be built is worth $165,000, making the total value of the new institution $390,000.

"Rev. Russell H. Conwell, D.D., pastor of the Grace Baptist Church, at Broad and Berks Streets, and President of Temple College, said yesterday that the new university will be completed and ready for occupancy by September, 1906. In the twenty years of its existence Temple College has grown as have few educational institutions in America, until now it has more than three thousand students enrolled yearly.

"With the erection of the university building the institution will have facilities for educating four thousand more students, or a total of seven thousand.

"Some idea of how the other great universities of the country compare with regard to the number of students attending them with this new university of Philadelphia is shown by the following table:

Name. Number of Students,

Temple University 7,000

Harvard 5,393

Yale 2,995

Pennsylvania 2,692

Princeton 1,373

"The Temple University building will be eight stories high, at least that is the plan the trustees have in mind at present, but the structure will be so built that a height of two stories may be added at any time. It will have a frontage of 129 feet on Broad Street and 140 feet on Brown Street. The corner property was deeded as a gift to Temple College by the Broad and Brown Streets Church and the College then purchased the adjoining property on Broad Street. In appreciation of the gift the College has offered the use of the university chapel, which will be built in the building, to the Broad and Brown Streets Church congregation for a place of worship.

"The university will be built of stone, and while not an elaborate structure, it will be substantial and suitable in every respect and imposing in its very simplicity.

"In addition to the university offices there will be a large gymnasium, a free dispensary, departments of medicine, theology, law, engineering, sciences, and, in fact, all the branches of learning that are taught in any of the great universities. There will be a library and lecture room for every department, pathological and chemical laboratories and a sufficient number of classrooms to preclude crowding of students for the next ten or fifteen years.

"There are now one hundred and thirty-five instructors in Temple College, but when the university is opened this number will be increased to three hundred.

"The present college building, which adjoins the Baptist Temple, will continue to be used, but only for the normal classes and lower grade of work. The building will be remodeled. The dwelling adjoining the college which has been occupied as the theological department will be vacated when the university is completed.

"Dr. Conwell, the father of Temple College and who in years to come will be spoken of as the father of Temple University, said yesterday:

"'It will be a university for busy people, the same as the college has been a college for busy people. Our institution reaches and benefits a class—in some respects the greatest class—of persons who want to study and enlarge their education, but cannot attend the other universities and colleges for financial reasons and because of their business.

"'There's many a man and woman, young and middle-aged, who is not satisfied with himself—he wants to go on farther, he wants to learn more. But his daily work won't allow him to complete his education because of the inconvenient hours of the classes and lectures in other colleges. And he comes to Temple, as there classes are held practically all day and for several hours at night. The terms of the course at Temple College are reasonable, and thus many young men or women may prepare themselves for higher and more remunerative work, whereas they would not feel that they could afford to pay the tuition fee at some other institution. The Temple University will be similar to the London University, a city university for busy persons.'"

Thus Temple College grows because it is needed. And such an institution is needed in other cities as well as in Philadelphia. This is but the pioneer. It can have sister institutions wherever people want to study and Christian hearts want to help.

It grows also because in the heart of one man, its founder, is the bitter knowledge of how sorely such an institution is needed by those who want to study, and who himself works hand, heart and soul so that it shall never fail those who need it.

Says James M. Beck, the noted lawyer: "There have been very wealthy men who, out of the abundance of their resources, have founded colleges, but I can hardly recall a case where a man, without abundant means, by mere force of character and intellectual energy, has both created and maintained an institution of this size and character,'"

Far back in the dim light of the centuries, Confucius wrote, "Give instruction unto those who cannot obtain it for themselves." This is the great and useful work the Temple College is doing and doing it nobly, a work that will count for untold good on future generations.



CHAPTER XXIX

THE SAMARITAN HOSPITAL

Beginning in Two Rooms. Growth. Number of Beds. Management. Temple Services Heard by Telephone. Faith and Nationality of Those Cared For.

His pastoral work among his church members and others of the neighborhood brought to Dr. Conwell's mind constantly the needs of the sick poor. Scarcely a week passed that some one did not come to him for help for a loved one suffering from disease, but without means to secure proper medical aid. Sick and poor—that is a condition which sums up the height of human physical suffering—the body racked with pain, burning with fever, yet day and night battling on in misery, without medical aid, without nursing, without any of the comforts that relieve pain. Nor is the sick one the only sufferer. Those who love him endure the keenest mental anguish as they stand by helpless, unable to raise a finger for his relief because they are poor. Through the deep waters of both these experiences Dr. Conwell had himself passed. He knew the anguish of heart of seeing loved ones suffer, of being unable to secure for them the nourishing food, the care needed to make them well. He knew the wretchedness of being sick and poor and of not knowing which way to turn for help, while quivering flesh and nerves called in torture for relief. His heart went out in burning sympathy to all such cases that came to his knowledge, and generously he helped. But they were far too many for one man, big-hearted and open-handed as he might be. More and more the need of a hospital in that part of the city was impressed upon him. Accidents among his membership were numerous, yet the nearest hospital was blocks and blocks away, a distance which meant precious minutes when with every moment life was ebbing.

He laid the matter before his church people. Down through the centuries came ringing in their ears that command, "Heal the sick." They knew it was Christ's work—"Unto Him were brought all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and he healed them."

So they decided to rent two rooms where the sick could be cared for, and later built a hospital for the poor, where without money and without price, the best medical aid, the tenderest nursing were at the command of those in need.

"The Hospital was founded," says Dr. Conwell, "and this property purchased in the hope that it would do Christ's work. Not simply to heal for the sake of professional experience, not simply to cure disease and repair broken bones, but to so do those charitable acts as to enforce the truth Jesus taught, that God 'would not that any should perish, but that all should come unto Him and live.' Soul and body, both need the healing balm of Christianity. The Hospital modestly and touchingly furnishes it to all classes, creeds, and ages whose sufferings cause them to cry out, 'Have mercy on me!'"

So far as buildings were concerned, it began in a small way, though its spirit of kindness and Christian charity was large. After one year in rented rooms, a house was purchased on North Broad Street, near Ontario Street, and fitted up as a hospital with wards, operating room and dispensary. It was situated just where a network of railroads focuses and near a number of large factories and machine shops, where accidents were occurring constantly. Almost immediately its wards were filled. The name "Samaritan Hospital" was given as typical of its work and spirit, its projectors and supporters laying down their money and agreeing to pay whatever might be needed, as well as giving of their personal care and attention to the sufferer. But though Dr. Conwell's heart is big, his head is practical. He does not believe in indiscriminate charity.

"Charity is composed of sympathy and self-sacrifice. There is no charity without a union of these two," he said, in an address years ago at Music Hall, Boston. "To make a gift become a charity the recipient must feel that it is given out of sympathy; that the donor has made a sacrifice to give it; that it is intended only as assistance and not as a permanent support, unless the needy one he helpless; and that it is not given as his right. To accomplish this end desired by charitable hearts demands an acquaintance with the persons to be assisted or a study of them, and a great degree of caution and patience. It is not only unnecessary, but a positive wrong to give to itinerant beggars. There is no such thing as charity about a so-called state charity. It is statesmanship to rid the community of nuisances, to feed the poor and prevent stealing and robbery, but it should not be called 'a charity.' The paupers take their provision as their right, feel no gratitude, acquire no ambition, no industry, no culture. The state almshouse educates the brain and chills the heart. It fastens a stigma on the child to hinder and curse it for life. Any institution supported otherwise than by voluntary contribution, or in the hands of paid public officials, can never have the spirit of charity nor be correctly called a charity. Boston's public charitable institutions, so called, are not charities at all; the motive is not sympathy, but necessity. The money for the support of paupers is not paid with benevolent intentions by the tax-payers, nor do the inmates of almshouses so receive it. I have been engaged in gathering statistics, and have found sixty-three per cent of all persons who applied for assistance at the various institutions were impostors, while many were swindlers and professional burglars."

The sick poor are never turned away from Samaritan Hospital, but those who are able to pay are requested to do so. Dr. Conwell believes it would be a wrong to treat such people free, an injustice to physicians, as well as an encouragement of a wrong spirit in themselves. The hospital has a number of private rooms in which patients are received for pay. Many have been furnished by members of Grace Baptist Church in memory of some loved one "gone before," or by Sunday School classes or church organizations.

It may have been the fact that it started in an ordinary house that gave the Hospital its cheery, homelike atmosphere. It may have been the spirit of the workers. But its homelike air is noticeable. While rules are strictly enforced, as they must be, there is a feeling of personal interest in each patient that makes the sick feel that she is something more than a "case" or a "number."

"The lovely Christ spirit," says Dr. Conwell, "which inclines men and women to care for their unfortunate fellowmen, is especially beautiful when in addition to the healing of wounds and disease, the afflicted sufferers are welcomed to such a home as the Samaritan Hospital has become. All such kind deeds become doubly sweet when done in the name of Christ, because they carry with them sympathy for those in pain, love for the loveless, a home for the homeless, friendship for the friendless, and a divine solace, which are often more than surgical skill or medical science. Such an institution the Samaritan Hospital is ever to be. It began in weakness and inexperience, but with Christian devotion and affection, its founders and supporters have conquered innumerable difficulties, and can now say unreservedly that they have a hospital with all the conveniences and all the influences of a Christian home."

The hospital was opened February 1, 1892. It did not take long to prove the need of the work. Before the year was out it was so crowded that an addition had to be built, and now magnificent buildings stand adjoining the original "house" as a monument to the untiring work and zeal of Grace Church members and their friends. It is now an independent corporation.

The hospital is fitted with all modern appliances for caring for the sick. It has a hundred and seventy beds, and a large and competent staff of physicians numbering many of the best in the city. There is also a training school for nurses, the original hospital building being now fitted up and furnished as a nurses' home. More than five thousand different cases are ministered to during the year in the beds and dispensary. The annual expense of running the hospital is more than forty thousand dollars, the value of the property more than three hundred thousand dollars.