[Illustration]
Twice-Born Men in America
OR
The Psychology of Conversion as Seen by a Christian Psychologist in
Rescue Mission Work
BY
HARRIET EARHART MONROE
ALSO AUTHOR OF “CONVERSATION AS A SCIENCE AND AN ART,” “HEROINE OF THE
MINING CAMP,” “HISTORICAL LUTHERANISM,” “THE LIFE OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS,”
AND “WASHINGTON—ITS SIGHTS AND INSIGHTS”
PHILADELPHIA, PA.:
THE LUTHERAN PUBLICATION SOCIETY
COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY
HARRIET EARHART MONROE
PREFACE
I taught psychology for fifteen years at the Atchison Institute, the
predecessor of Midland College, located at Atchison, Kan. I was there
greatly impressed by the fact that the books gave no adequate analysis
of the psychology of the greatest mental and moral change which can come
to the human mind, namely, conversion and regeneration; yet these
changes make the great difference which we see between men and nations.
A Rescue Mission gives a great opportunity to study mental and moral
changes, and my observations and conclusions, made from years of study,
are herein embodied.
This book is sent forth with the earnest hope and prayer that it will
lead many souls to Christ; also that it will show earnest laymen just
how to bring about that psychological change which we call conversion. A
Sunday school teacher who brings only ninety per cent of her students
through the process of conversion and regeneration is ninety per cent a
success and ten per cent failure. The same is true of a pastor with a
class of catechumens.
“Ye must be born again,” is just as true to-day as it ever was, and if
we believed it as Paul believed it, what live wires we would be.
This book is to remind us that Jesus saves to the uttermost in our day,
just as He did when He visibly walked this earth.
HARRIET E. MONROE,
204 A Street, S. E., Washington, D. C.
JULY 29, 1914.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGE
HOW I HAPPENED TO BECOME INTERESTED IN RESCUE MISSION WORK 7
CHAPTER II
RESCUE MISSION WORK 22
CHAPTER III
INCIDENTS SHOWING THE POWER OF GOD TO SAVE 29
CHAPTER IV
AN ELEMENT OF HUMOR IN RESCUE WORK 36
CHAPTER V
BIG FEET 44
CHAPTER VI
HOW WE GOT A NEW MISSION BUILDING 49
CHAPTER VII
VARIETIES OF WORK IN A GOSPEL MISSION 59
CHAPTER VIII
THE NEED OF RESCUE WORK 69
CHAPTER IX
THE PENNY LUNCH AND FREE DISPENSARY 82
CHAPTER X
THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL 94
CHAPTER XI
HEREDITARY SIN 107
Twice-Born Men in America
CHAPTER I
HOW I HAPPENED TO BECOME INTERESTED IN RESCUE MISSION WORK
In January, 1908, a great calamity came to me in the form of destruction
by fire of most of my earthly property and the death in the fire of a
loved sister. The event had in it some other elements of great pain not
necessary to mention here. If my soul had not been anchored in Jesus,
the combination of sorrows would have broken down my mentality and sent
me to the asylum. As it was, I stood steadily trusting God, knowing that
all things worked together for good to those who love God. I was sure I
was a lover of God, and so, while every fiber of my body and soul ached
with unspeakable pain, I never doubted God's love, care and sympathy.
In the midst of this grief I received a letter from Mr. George W.
Wheeler, the President of the Executive Board of the Gospel Mission,
saying about this, “Come down to the Gospel Mission, look it over and
see if you care to come in with us in the work of saving souls. Unless
we secure a woman of large executive ability, our work can scarcely go
forward.”
I answered that I would be glad to join them, and the next week, the
first week of September, 1908, I received a letter from the Secretary,
S. M. Croft, saying I had been elected to the Executive Board of the
Gospel Mission, which met once every week.
The following Monday I met with the Board, where I heard a letter from
Mr. Tyson, saying that he withdrew from the Board because the
dormitories were badly kept. Then followed a letter of the same kind
from a Mr. Fritz, and another from Mr. Sidell. As soon as the session,
which was largely a prayer service, was closed, Mr. Wheeler accompanied
me to look over the dormitories.
I never saw or dreamed of such conditions. The very walls were alive
with vermin. In the story above the chapel were fifteen vile beds, and
on the third story above us we saw a floor covered with dirty, wrinkled
newspapers. I said, “Where do the men sleep?” “On the beds you saw in
the third floor and on these newspapers.”
In my heart I said, “Dear Lord, surely not here, amid this vileness?”
The answer was as sharp and distinct as though spoken through a trumpet,
“Prepare ye the way of the Lord.”
“Mr. Wheeler,” I said, “I see conditions, and I take charge.” He left
for his work in the United States Treasury, and I went to the street and
hired a force of cleaners, whitewash men, scrubbers, sweepers, etc., and
called up Mrs. Claude Myers, the wife of a Presbyterian minister, and
two other fully consecrated women who were not afraid of work. I asked
them to come at once and bring with them buckets, scrub brushes, rags,
soap, etc., while I put in a supply of chemicals for the vermin.
Those women helped to burn the bedding and to send away some as trash.
They helped me clean the beds; the whitewashers even entered into the
spirit of it, and every crack was filled with plaster of paris; they
went over the walls three times with lime and carbolic acid. The Health
Bureau in the Municipal Building gave me a preparation used on floors in
jails and in hospitals for contagious diseases. Some redeemed men came
to our help, and by Saturday night we turned over a clean house.
Every one of us cleaners was obliged to go to the Turkish bath and have
our clothing brushed and fumigated before we could go to our own homes.
On Saturday evening I told Mr. Wheeler and Mr. Gordon that besides the
good men and women who had helped us for the cause for five days, we had
spent twenty-five dollars. Never will I forget the dismay of those two
good men. “What! Twenty-five dollars! Where do you think we will get
that?” I answered, “Fortunately I belong to a church that lives and
works by faith, and to-morrow, being Sunday, I shall tell the Sunday
school of the Luther Memorial Church, and we'll see about that
twenty-five dollars.”
The next morning I went to the pastor, Rev. J. G. Butler, D.D., and he
secured permission from the superintendent of the Sunday school for me
to speak three minutes. The superintendent hated innovations, but I can
say a lot in three minutes, especially when I state the needs of the
lost men of the community. After the school was dismissed nearly every
teacher and grown student gave me something, and in less than five
minutes I had twenty-seven dollars.
Sunday night I told what the Lord had done for us, and I began to ask
all persons present to contribute sheets and pillow-cases. I did this so
much and so often that season that a little four-year-old girl of Mrs.
Claude Myers upset the gravity of an entire meeting by saying out loud
one Sunday evening, “There comes Mrs. Sheets and Pillow-cases again.”
Well, before winter was over we had about fifty clean, well-equipped
beds for which, when they had it, men gladly paid ten cents per night.
If they did not have it, the beds were given as long as they lasted;
but, after the beds were filled, often fifty men slept on the floor with
only the boards under them and no covers.
We had no heat in the dormitories, but one day Mrs. Richard Butler, a
wealthy woman of the city, was ordered by the Spirit to visit the
Mission. She came by Mr. Gordon's office in her carriage and he took her
through our building. She saw our first need was heat. She sent
immediately to a hardware store and ordered a large stove for the third
floor with a drum for the fourth story, and through her kindness the men
were given heat, but not until after two deaths, caused by cold, hunger
and wet clothing, had about broken our hearts.
I remember a young, fair-haired man from Virginia, evidently well born
and bred, coming in one night, slightly under the influence of liquor.
It was a rainy, snowy night; his clothing was wet and he was suffering
from a severe cold. When the meeting was over he started to go up
stairs, which had nearly a zero temperature. I begged him to stay by the
fire and sleep on a bench, if needed, but he petulantly refused. He was
dead by nine o'clock next morning. I had wept all the way home, for I
feared just what happened.
Mrs. Butler's stove put an end to that. She furnished coal for the
entire winter.
Now that we had beds and heat, I saw we could not keep the beds clean
without bathing facilities. So at our next Board meeting I said,
“Brethren, we need a good shower-bath with warm and cold water so that
men soiled and weary can have the comfort of a warm bath.” All the
members of the Board demurred on account of the expense. Then I said,
“Brethren, if I make myself responsible for the eighty-five dollars
needed and you are in no way held for it, may I have the bath put in at
once?” Of course, they wanted the bath, as they saw how much it was
needed, and gave cordial consent. I purchased a rubber stamp, and on the
outside of our first circulars which we issued I stamped the words, “I
have made myself personally responsible for the cost of a shower-bath.
Help a little.” And with my own contributions the bath was paid for as
per contract.
That fall we put out a circular folder, of which the following is the
open letter, and is introduced only to give the continuity of this work
so that my friends may know the aim, object and history of the Mission
from the beginning:
GOSPEL MISSION,
1230 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE, N. W.
WASHINGTON, D. C.
DEAR FRIEND:
Under the blessing of God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, a
Rescue Mission has been opened at No. 1230 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.
W., where nightly gospel services will be conducted and the Lord
Christ held up to view as a Saviour “mighty to save and strong to
deliver.”
Our corps of workers is composed of consecrated and Spirit-filled
men and women, many of whom have had long experience in efforts of
this character. On the occasion of the opening service (Saturday
evening, May 12) God set His seal to the work by drawing seven
earnest seekers to our altar for prayer.
Street meetings will be held nightly, and an earnest and aggressive
work carried forward for the betterment of society and the salvation
of lost men and women.
Our hall is well located on the south side of Pennsylvania Avenue,
N. W., in the midst of saloons and pool-rooms and in close proximity
to that section of the city almost wholly given up to evil, and it
will be the constant effort of the Mission and its workers to seek
out and rescue the erring girls and reckless men who are found in
large numbers in this immediate neighborhood.
The management is determined that the expenses of this work shall be
kept at the minimum figures—not exceeding $100 per month—and they
confidently appeal to their Christian brethren and friends and to
the public for such funds as shall be found necessary to carry
forward this work. Can you, will you, aid us?
With great respect,
G. W. WHEELER, _Chairman_,
J. S. MEWSHAW, _Secretary_,
H. D. GORDON, _Treasurer_,
_Executive Committee_.
These good men are at this writing (1913) yet connected with the work.
Mr. Mewshaw is an employee of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and has charge
of a station some distance from Washington, but contributes and comes
with us occasionally. But no organization was ever more fortunate than
the Gospel Mission in its officers.
TREASURER, MR. H. D. GORDON
is a prominent lawyer of the city. He really gives more time to the
Mission than his business can afford. When we are under strain to make a
payment on the building, he and Mr. Wheeler can go to their friends and
raise $1000 more readily than the remainder of the Board can raise $100.
They ask largely of their friends. The others of us ask for one dollar
monthly contributions, and we each receive as we ask. Mr. Gordon's
devotion cannot better be illustrated than by the following: Mr. Gordon
is a most effective singer. I have heard many singing evangelists, but
none with a finer pathos of voice than Mr. Gordon's. One evening in the
fall of 1909, when each evening we were privileged to hold our outdoor
meetings in front of the city post-office, I was passing on the street
car when I saw Mr. Gordon with his guitar standing all alone, trying to
sing salvation to some passing sinners. I found the tears coursing down
my cheeks, so I got off at the next corner and went back to help him,
but by that time other workers were on hand and it was less sacrifice
for me to speak for him. I acknowledge here a mean pride (which the Lord
has had to thrash out of me with many hard knocks) against speaking on
the street. I have had to remember many times that Jesus was an outdoor
preacher all His days, and all the Apostles, and who am I that I am
ashamed to follow where He has led! But Brother Gordon can stand alone
anywhere for Christ. He is greatly in demand in other cities as a
successful evangelist.
I want to here bear testimony to the great good done by outdoor
meetings. If all evangelical churches who believe in conversion and
regeneration would hold their meetings outdoors in the summer, they
would bring many souls, for which they will be held responsible, to
Christ. If young people would hold alley meetings in the alley nearest
their church they would bring sinners to Christ, there would be no slums
and the young Christians would grow in grace.
PRESIDENT, GEORGE W. WHEELER
President, George W. Wheeler, of the Executive Board, is one of God's
best gifts to the city of Washington. He is the very best City Rescue
Mission worker I have ever seen, and I have seen most of the city
missions of the United States and Europe. In the summer of 1910, in
company with Mrs. M. P. Spindle, I visited all the great cities of
Europe, especially Glasgow, Edinburgh, London, Paris, Berlin and Rome,
to obtain suggestions for improving our work, as we thought, at that
time, to plan for erecting a great mission building unequaled in all the
world. Most mission buildings are mere adaptations of old buildings. We
hoped to do better, but God ordered otherwise. Among all these great
mission workers I have seen none superior to George W. Wheeler in Rescue
Mission work and in conducting an interdenominational organized work for
God. First, his consecration is marvelous. He had been thirty or more
years in government service, to lose time means not only loss of money,
but even endangers a man's tenure of office.
But when Mr. Wheeler is called to see a soldier, a sailor, a sick man in
the hospital, who must be seen in business hours, he never, as all other
government members of the Board do, pleads loss of any kind, but goes at
once on the errand of love and mercy. Then he gets on well with his
Board of Directors; if debate runs high and a measure is carried without
his favor, he holds no grudge, he is universally kind. That means much.
Then his acquaintance is so large he can secure good talent for helpers
in every line; he has the absolute confidence of the community (which he
richly deserves), and by the blessing of God secures funds for our great
work; and, best of all, he leads many souls to Christ. He has probably
seen more souls born into the kingdom of God than any other living
rescue worker.
(Mr. Wheeler died January 19, 1914. “He buries the workers, but the work
goes on.”)
MRS. M. P. SPINDLE
is a Christian woman whom I found connected with the Mission when I went
there. My attention was first attracted toward her by her liberality
when I made the calls for bedding, so now I borrowed $85 from her and
put in the bath. She was kind enough to let me pay it back in driblets,
and from that day to this she has given more money than any other
worker. She has loaned or given the money to go forward in each venture
of mine, and, above all, I have had the benefit of her counsel and her
favor in every form, and together we have prayed through many an
obstruction which seemed an impassable barrier.
THE FUMIGATOR
No sooner did we get the bath in place than I saw the necessity for a
fumigator, not only that men should have their clothing purified from
disease and from vermin, but for the sake of the beds. I found that they
could not be kept clean without the men bathed and had their clothing
fumigated.
The Board again did not feel able to put in the fumigator, which cost
$125. In this work I found a friend in Mr. Ernest Gichner, who invented
a sheet-iron room with suitable fire-box and chimneys, which he anchored
on the roof of the building.
It did good service and added to the comfort of the men and the
cleanliness of the house, not only while there, but later he moved it
over to our new building. Mr. Gichner permitted me to make payments in
installments of $25, which I was able to collect mostly from my friends
in the Luther Memorial Church and the Mission workers themselves, who
are always liberal even beyond their means.
ENLARGEMENT
I became Chairman of the House Committee in September, 1908, and the
following December Mr. H. W. Kline was made Superintendent. As soon as
we had nice beds to offer for ten cents a night, we had a steadily
increased patronage, so that by the fall of 1909 we were obliged to rent
a large room back of us. That winter we had eighty-four beds filled
nearly every night.
A friend in California sent me $25 as a Christmas present, and I put
white spreads on the twenty-five best beds. Some members of the Board
laughed at me so much that I was obliged to remind them that the money
of the Mission was not used. Long ago they have come to see that a white
bed is a necessity if we are to keep a clean house.
By October, 1909, our expenses for rent, fuel and necessities had
increased from $100 to $150 each month.
Our statistics for 1908, as shown by our circular, were as follows:
_Statistics of the year and of the last quarter—From January, 1908, to
January, 1909_
_Statistics of three months of 1908, as follows_:
Attendance Req. for Prayer Seekers Conversions Services
Dec. 1908 1961 165 86 14 41
Jan. 1909 2487 217 73 37 46
Feb. 1909 1245 51 34 13 28
———— ——— ——— —— ———
Total 5693 433 193 64 115
(Now we care for over 50,000 persons a year.)
During the year employment was found for probably 300 men.
We accept it as a great privilege to have presented the gospel of Jesus
Christ to this number of people.
Our little circular of that period thus sets forth:
THE NEED OF RESCUE WORK
“Washington is a dreadful place for a man out of work. The city having
no manufactories, and all rough work, such as excavating, is let by
contract to men who prefer Italians or Negroes as diggers, while stores
and offices have room for only the efficient young person, so that, when
from age, inefficiency or lack of political influence, people are
dropped from the government service, we are often at our wit's end to
provide means of subsistence for these worthy persons most anxious to
labor. We have some old men whose working days are over. These are for
the most part good men, for the wicked do not live out half their days.
A few immigrants from northern Europe, sick men who are able to walk
about, but could not work if they had it; the shoestring man, the
umbrella man, the sandwich man, the men who are half insane for lack of
food and enforced lack of sleep, for they have no place to sleep oftener
than once a week. Then we have the criminal classes, which must be
touched with the Spirit of God, or they will become the dynamite which
will destroy our cities, also the men just out of prison. These are the
special thought of the Mission, for unless they are made to feel that
they are but temporarily sidetracked from the great highway of success,
they will become an ever-increasing menace to society.
“Above all, we have the drunkard, who has lost his grip, lost family,
lost place in society, lost business and has become a mass of putrid
flesh, utterly abhorrent to his fellow-men. When we look at these
people, whose weary eyes have looked long into unspeakable sorrow, our
very souls rejoice that we have proven beyond possibility of doubt that
'the blood of Jesus Christ, His son, cleanses from all sin; that if we
confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness,' for we have seen some of every
class mentioned redeemed, placed back in society, among the producing
power of the nation.”
“OUR GOSPEL MISSION TIDINGS”
(a monthly paper) was issued first in October, 1909. All members of the
Executive Committee have helped in some measure on it, but the
responsibility has fallen heaviest on Mr. G. W. Wheeler and myself. Our
entire income is the result of our paper, it is our means of
communicating with the public.
THE INDUSTRIAL PLANT
was really brought about by two tragedies. One cold day I went to the
Mission, and on the outside I saw a man, whom I shall call Kelly,
shivering at the door. He looked like death, pale, trembling, the lips
and nostrils drawn as if in extreme pain. “What is the matter, Kelly?” I
said. “I am starving to death; amid all these happy people I am left
out. I have walked the streets hunting work till I can walk no more.”
At that time we did not provide food of any kind, but I said, “Let us go
up stairs to the Mission,” where Mr. Proctor, then acting as
Superintendent, provided bread and coffee. I set the man to
re-whitewashing the dormitories, and we kept him till he secured work.
The other was the case of a young man just released from Moundsville
Penitentiary. After I had given the lesson one Tuesday night, I was led
to tell in detail the story of Valentine Burke, a man converted in the
St. Louis jail, from reading one of Mr. Moody's sermons in a city
newspaper. Mr. Burke afterward became a valuable citizen, held the
position of assistant warden, and led hundreds of lost men into the
clear light of the gospel. When I had finished, a well-dressed man on
the front seat said, “I am just out of Moundsville; no one has spoken a
kind word to me, I have had nothing to eat to-day, I see no way but to
steal again.” He was only about twenty-two years of age. I put my arm
over his shoulder and said, “Son, we will take care of you and get you
work.” The Superintendent took him up stairs, gave him bread and coffee,
then a warm bath, but he was so weary the men had to help him to get to
bed. We all tried to get that boy work, but as soon as the word
penitentiary was mentioned every door was closed. I remember walking up
Capitol Hill, crying aloud to God, “Give us an industrial plant or the
sorrows of homeless, workless men will take my life.”
I paid for the food for a week. He tried also to obtain work, but I
think the sight of my anxious face worried him—I have learned not to
carry sorrow in my face since then. That boy slipped through our fingers
and went back to crime. Now, at whose hands will that soul, anxious for
better things, be required?
Before I went for my summer vacation I urged before the Board an
industrial plant. Mr. Kline strenuously objected. During that vacation I
laid the matter very fully before God in prayer and felt constrained to
urge the starting of an industrial work.
At our first meeting in September Mr. Kline said, “Brethren, I have come
to see the need of an industrial plant, not only so that men can earn
lodging, but where, after conversion, we can keep a man a few days to
teach him the way of life.” A Mission worker often prays himself into
light.
Again I was forced to borrow money with which to purchase a horse and
wagon. Mrs. Spindle loaned me the $150 needed. That fall my little book,
called “The Life of Gustavus Adolphus,” published by The Lutheran
Publication Society, Philadelphia, came out. The house gave me $25 in
cash, if I remember correctly, and 100 copies of the book, which I sold
at 40 cents a copy. So I gave the $65 of my own on the horse and wagon
in paying back Mrs. Spindle for the loan.
In some way we also secured a paper baler, thus we gave two men work in
collecting books, newspapers, etc., and two men at the baler. In the
November _Gospel Tidings_ we announced that the wagon from the Gospel
Mission would call on the first and fifteenth of the month, and would
accept papers, rags, clothes, bottles, etc., saying, “We have old men
who separate these things and label and bale this material.” The money
was used to feed and care for these unfortunates.
The city people responded most generously, and in this way our
industrial branch was started, and greatly benefited the Mission for two
and a half years.
Later we obtained a wood-saw run by a gasoline engine, and we started
the penny bundling industry, where we could use eight or ten men and
make the double purpose of work for unfortunate men and yet make the
industry self-supporting.
When the United States granted wood pulp to be brought into the country
free of duty, our paper industry was destroyed, as we could not sell the
paper, and the government took our woodyard and killed our wood
industry, but they both did much good in their day.
The Gospel Mission in the fall of 1914 will again open a laundry, wood
cutting, rope-making, printing, and chair caning in the line of
industries for men who will gladly work rather than eat the bread of
charity.