se

CORNELL
UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

 

 

 

 

Goodkind Book Fund

IN MEMORY OF
MARTIN H. GOODKIND
CLASS OF 1887

 

 
Cornell University Librar

The life of Chaplain McCabe :Bishop of t
THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN MCCABE
 

 

 

 
THE LIFE OF
CHAPLAIN McCABE

Bishop of the Methodist
Episcopal Church

BY

FRANK MILTON BRISTOL

ILLUSTRATED

OW

CINCINNATI: JENNINGS AND GRAHAM
NEW YORK: EATON & MAINS».
Copyright, 1908, by
FLEMING H, REVELL COMPANY

SECOND EDITION

New York: 158 Fifth Avenue
Chicago: 80 Wabash Avenue
Toronto : 25 Richmond Street, W.
London: 21 Paternoster Square
Edinburgh: too Princes Street
TO
HIS BELOVED REBECCA
PREFACE

T is with no little hesitation that I let this inade-
I quate biography of Bishop McCabe go to the pub-
lic. Yielding to the request made by friends,
whose kind partiality may have obscured their judg-
ment as to my fitness for such a task, I undertook
a work the demands and difficulties of which soon
embarrassed me. Bishop McCabe! Who of us did
not know, or think we knew, this unique and glori-
ous man? But he has been growing on us since
he passed from our company and we have been study-
ing anew his great life-work. We begin to see how
large he was by the vacancy which his death has
made in the ranks of our foremost leaders. He was
so many-sided, and so brilliant on every side, as is
the diamond of multitudinous facets, so like no man
but himself, that he well-nigh baffles adequate bio-
graphical characterisation. Our story must fall far
short of giving satisfaction to those who might have
done this work more skilfully and with a more com-
prehensive thought-grasp of Bishop McCabe’s person-
ality and mission. There are those among his thou-
sands of friends who will regretfully miss herein many
a worthy, wise, and witty thing that might have been
said of him; many an incident and anecdote that had
been tenderly associated with his life; but the limits of
this volume forbid the repetition of many of the lov-

7
8 PREFACE

ingly familiar incidents of his diversified career which
we cherish in memory.

It is to be hoped that the reader will be gratified to
find in this biography so much that may be called auto-
biography. Extensive use has been made of the Chap-
lain’s own words, letters, journals, and addresses. And
herein it will be found that the man is his own best
biographer.

It may be asked, “Why call this ‘The Life of
Chaplain McCabe’?” The answer is, it was as Chap-
lain McCabe that he first became widely and greatly
distinguished; as Chaplain McCabe he was known and
honoured, loved and remembered by the old soldiers
who would never hail him by any other name; as
Chaplain McCabe his name had been familiar as a
household word in the Methodist Church for more
than thirty years before he was made a bishop; and to
the close of his life the first word of greeting that
sprang to the lips of a friend on meeting him was:
“ Chaplain!”

In this instance the deference due to the dignity of
an ecclesiastical title, however high-sounding it may be,
will not seem to have been irreverently and unjustly
sacrificed to the humbler name of affectionate familiar-
ity, Chaplain McCabe! By that name we first learned
to admire him, love him, and follow him; by that name
we shall remember him—as with all the dignities of
higher office he ever remained, so shall he forever re-
main, our glorious Chaplain McCabe.

Washington, D. C., F. M. B.
May, 1908.
CHAPTER

I.
II.
III.
Iv.
V.
VI.
VII.

VIII.
Ix.

XI.
XII.

XIII.
XIV.

XV.
XVI.

XVII.

XVIII.
XIX.
XX.

XXI.

CONTENTS

PREFACE . : . s - $
Tue Lanp or His — ‘ . F
GENEALOGY AND BirtH 2 s 4 :
FATHER AND MoTHER . * é i
BoyHoop In ATHENS . -

Jowa—ConversION—CALL TO THE Minseray :
PREPARATION FOR THE MINISTRY—OHIO WES-
LEYAN UNIVERSITY . a é
Tse STuDENT— MENTAL Cuakserearerres _
Books . F - 3
ScHOooL TEACHING—MARRIAGE—PASTORATE
Tse Civit War—“ CHapiain ” McCase
Caprurep—‘* On to RicHMonp” : F r
Lippy Prison. : ‘ ‘ 4 $
LicHts AND SHADows—Lerims FRoM Lipsy
Prison. 3 : 3 Z : : A‘
Letters— THe FEver — RELEASE — HomEwArp
Bounp . a‘
LecTure—‘ THE Buicrr Swe OF ; tare IN Tame

Prison” . 3 3 : : z ‘ -
THe CuHrisTIAN CoMMISSION—PERSONAL Ex-
PERIENCE AND REFLECTIONS . 3 ‘5 -

WorK AMONG THE SOLDIERS—REVIVALS—Con-
VERSIONS . -

“DoomED To RAISE ‘Mowe _Suceiee—nien=
MATE OF MeEN—Fisx, VINCENT, SIMPSON,
AMES, MERRILL ‘ : ‘

‘Co-woRKERS—CHRISTIAN Pxreiors—D. L. Moony

—Jacop STtRAWN . 2 : s
Back To THE ARMY—WarR Scuuus—-Conver
SIONS AMONG THE SOLDIERS ‘
Tse Grrr oF Sonc—“ THE BATTLE Hyunt OF
THE REPUBLIC” ‘ 3 ‘
ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND THE Sarin Hymn :

9

PAGE

7
13
16
24
33
4o

47
53
64
70
80
87
92
105
118

146

155

163
173
181

188
197
10

CHAPTER

XXII.
XXIII.
XXIV,

XXV.

XXVI.

XXVII.
XXVIII.
XXIX.

XXX.
XXXI.
XXXII.
XXXII.
XXXIV.
XXXV.

XXXVI.

XXXVII

XXXVIII.

XXXIX,

XL,

Contents

Death oF ABRAHAM LINCOLN—FUNERAL—
BurtaL

CLOSE OF THE War—Rerurn * TO ore
Inner Lire

SECRETARYSHIP—CHURCH Eernsnin—Da A. J.
Kynetr—Tue Loan Funp

Success—FronTIER WorkK—LIserae LAYMEN
—GrEAT RESPONSIBILITIES—BIsHOP SIMPSON
AND PresipENT LINCOLN : 3

Tue Rescue or Sart Lake City ‘Cae
Power or Sonc—ReEsutts or Lecrures—In-
GERSOLLVILLE . :

Caplan McCase’s ee OF tuicensonpvaice«

A GLaNceE BACKWARDS

EVANGELISTIC Spror--Convenstons—Cob. H. H.
Haptey—BisHop Wrey—T. D. CoLttins—
BisHop SimMpson’s CoNverRT—~THE COoLOURED
SUPERANNUATE

MENTAL © ahpacrar rics eine TOWARD
RATIONALISM AND INFIDELITY

Promotion—A NEw Frety—Missiowany: Sec-
RETARY——-LTHE SLOGAN

“A MILLION For Missions”

VICTORY 7

ELECTION TO THE Rerscoracy ‘

Bishop McCase—IN THE Crram—Errscovat,
RESIDENCE—TEXAS—FoRWARD MoveMENT .

EpiscopaAL ADMINISTRATION—SPIRITUAL POWER
—SINGING CONFERENCES—BUSINESS AND RE-
LIGION

Mrxico—Chakierow: t OF Mosatnry—Buitrianr-
inc—Moopy’s “ Critic”’—GrowTH or METH-
ODISM. é 2 ‘ s ‘ 2 .

South AMERICA—EvROPE—AMERICAN UNI-
VERSITY .

PHILADELPHIA Resinence—Gunar “Lore
Giorious:Enp .

Osseguies—Evtocres—APPRECIATION

- 326

PAGE

204

217

230

242

252
262
268

-. 276

291

301
313

335

345

355

365
378

395
403
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

Cuartes CARDWELL McCase j ‘ 5 i . Title
Saraw Ropinson McCaze . : : . : - - 24
Ropert McCase . : ‘ - is ‘ i ® - 24
BisHop McCaze’s CuitpHoop Home, ATHENS, OHIO . - 34
Lorenzo Dow McCasz, D.D., LL.D. . : é ; . 43
CuapLain McCass, 1861 . ‘ ‘ é ‘ é . 66
Mrs. McCase, 1861 . é : 2 : i . 66
Cartes Carpwett McCase, 1857... : 3 ‘ - 70
CHarLes CARDWELL McCase, 1864 . . 3 i - 70
AvTOGRAPH LETTER FROM JULIA Warp Howe . : . 192

AuTocraPpH Copy or “Batrte HyMn oF THE REPUBLIC” 1094

CuHapLaIn McCaze, 1887 . ‘j 3 5 ‘ ¢ . 230°
SEcrETARY McCase, 1890 . ii : - ‘ ; + 302
Caartes CARDWELL McCase, 1896 . 5 F . 356

Mrs. Cartes C. McCase, 1906 ‘ s 5 . - 396

(
I
THE LAND OF HIS BIRTH

Field-Marshal of Methodism, was born on

historic ground, and came of a race whose
genius and energy had transformed the wilderness to
a garden and blazed the way for the westward march
of Empire.

Athens County, Ohio, with Washington County, of
which it was originally a part, may claim the distinc-
tion of being the site of the first white settlement made
in the Northwest Territory. The close of the Revo-
tionary War inaugurated a new epoch of westward
migration in which many of the officers and soldiers
who had won the battles of freedom and independence _
sought that inviting region just beyond the frontier of
civilization which only awaited the coming of thrifty
and intelligent toilers to make its savage wilds rejoice
and blossom as the rose.

The Ohio Country had been an attraction to the
more enterprising and adventurous from the time of
the French and Indian War. In the interests of Eng-
lish land-speculators and at the suggestion of Governor
Dinwiddie of Virginia, the youthful Washington, in
the fall of 1753, started for the West to secure, if pos-
sible, concessions of land in the Ohio Country from

13

CQ) en CARDWELL McCABE, the Grand
14. THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

the French and Iroquois. Although his mission was
not successful, Washington had reached the borders of
the great and mysterious Westland, had stood upon
the banks of the Ohio River, and had journeyed so far
north as to be able to look out upon the blue expanse
of Lake Erie. He returned to this country from Vir-
ginia a few months later, with the ill-fated Braddock,
to recapture from the French “the Key to the Ohio
Valley,” Fort Du Quesne. The complete rout of the
English and Virginians, the death of Braddock and the
narrow, almost miraculous, escape of Washington
within twenty miles of Fort Du Quesne, was all that
came of this expedition. Washington had seen
enough of the great West, however, to wish to see
more, yes, and to possess as much as possible of its
rich and fertile lands. Hence, in 1770, with Dr.
James Craik and two or three servants he started the
third time for the Ohio Country, reached the river,
and in a canoe descended as far as the Great Kenawha,
surveying with eager and speculative eye the very
banks which afterwards were included in the county
that took his name. A patent of 20,000 acres of land
was granted Washington, and with such advantages
and prospects he might have been tempted to go West
had not the Revolution called him to another destiny.

Benjamin Franklin was also lured by the prospect
that presented itself to the enterprising and ambitious
of his time in the opportunities of the great West, and
he went so far as to propose to the Rev. George
Whitefield that he join him in an undertaking to evan-
gelise those benighted regions,
THE LAND OF HIS BIRTH 15

On the eve of the Revolution, in 1774, Lord Dun-
more carried his war against the Indians as far into
Ohio as Circleville, where he made a treaty with the
Shawanees, which was a necessary preparation for
the mighty tide of immigration that was ready to pour
into the country as a new Israel into another Land of
Promise. The War of the Revolution retarded for a
season the westward march of emigration, but the
happy termination of the war in independence once
more set the face of the multitudes toward the Ohio
Country.

By the treaty of 1783 the territorial limits of the
United States were extended to the Mississippi River,
and although by the old English charters certain States
claimed ownership of vast tracts of land in the North-
west, those States, led by the generosity of Virginia,
waived their ancient claims and ceded the lands in their
possession to the United States. The officers of the
Revolution, just before the final disbanding of the
army, and while still at Newburg, petitioned Congress
to have regions in the West set aside as bounty lands.
In compliance with this request 1,500,000 acres in the
Ohio Country were thrown open to purchasers at one
dollar per acre, and to further the interests of the
Revolutionary heroes, the purchase price could be paid
in soldiers’ certificates. The Ohio Company, organ-
ised in Boston and chartered by the Government with
the hearty sympathy and co-operation of Washington,
offered such strong inducements to the recently retired
officers and soldiers that the tide of emigration from
New England swelled to impressive proportions. This
16 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

movement enlisted the interest of scholars, financiers,
statesmen, jurists, educators, missionaries, farmers,
artisans, and mechanics no less than soldiers. Among
the first to seek the advantages offered by the opening
of the Northwest territory were such men as Rufus
Putnam, Benjamin Tupper, Samuel H. Parsons, James
M. Varnum, Arthur St. Clair, and Anthony Wayne,
who had distinguished themselves in war. Associated
with them in promoting the westward emigration were
Dr. Manassah Cutler, Winthrope Sargent, Thomas
Cushing, John C. Symmes, President Willard of Har-
vard College, Governor Bowdoin of Massachusetts,
and others of equally high standing in the intellectual
life of New England. To borrow the figure of the
good old Boston divine and apply it to the settlement
of Ohio, “God sifted a whole nation that He might
send choice grain into this wilderness.”

It was the New England culture, not to say pedan-
try, that gave to the site of one of the Ohio Company’s
first settlements the classical name of Athens. If the
very name of this locality suggests the intellectual
aspirations of its first settlers, the names of those
worthy pioneers themselves reveal not only their New
England origin but their Puritan ancestry and train-
ing. Rarely does one of those first settlers of Athens
bear a profane or worldly name. Ebenezer, Jonathan,
Josiah, Daniel, Jethro, Ezekiel, Hezekiah, Amos, Ben-
jamin, Samuel, Elizur, Jabez, David, Simeon, Israel—
what an array of good old-fashioned Scriptural names!
And it was not in Virginia, Georgia, and the Caro-
linas, but in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hamp-
THE LAND OF HIS BIRTH 17

shire, and Connecticut that parents gave such names to
their children.

No country was ever settled by a higher moral,
intellectual, and patriotic type of men and women than
were the people who with

“Empires in their brains’

and millenniums in their souls took first possession of
the Ohio Country and laid the foundations of the
greatness of the West.

As the strong tide of emigration swept over the
Alleghanies and on to the rich and mysterious terri-
tory opening to the new civilisation many who had
settled in Pennsylvania caught the westward spirit and
joined the march of Empire.

Owen McCabe and his brother, from County
Tyrone, Ireland, had come into the locality, built
therein the first home, and had given the name to what
is now known as Tyrone, Pennsylvania. The English
Crown bestowed on these pioneers a grant of 3,000
acres of land. From these brothers sprang the red-
headed and the black-headed McCabes. Owen’s black-
headed descendants went into Ohio, his brother’s red-
headed progeny moved to Virginia.
II
GENEALOGY AND BIRTH

r | “= Scotch-Irish Owen McCabe of Tyrone
married Catherine Sears of Lancaster County,
Pennsylvania. Their son Robert, born in

1784, married Polly McCracken, and moved. from

Brownsville, Pa., to Marietta, Ohio, in 1813.

Polly McCracken’s father, Alexander McCracken,
was an eloquent Irish preacher and was descended from
the proud Hamiltons of Ireland and England. To
Robert and Polly McCabe ten children were born: six
sons and four daughters. Of these Robert McCabe,
Jr., the first son, was born in Brownsville, Pa., March
14, 1813. His mother, Polly, carried him in her arms
as with her husband she came down the Ohio River
on a flat-boat and settled in Marietta. This Robert
McCabe, who spent his childhood and youth in Mar-
ietta, married Sarah Robinson, of Belpre, and moved
to Athens.

Sarah Robinson as a child came to this country with
her parents from Kildwick, Yorkshire, England, in
1822, and settled in Marietta, Ohio. Her father was
Cuthbert Cardwell Robinson. His mother was a
Cardwell of Poulton-le-fylde in Lancashire. More re-
motely, the Cardwells were of Barton, Parish of Pres-
ton. Of this family was Lord Cardwell, Secretary of

18
GENEALOGY AND BIRTH 19

State for War at the beginning of Mr. Gladstone’s first
ministry, in 1868.

Four children were born to Robert and Sarah Rob-
inson McCabe. The third was Charles Cardwell
McCabe, born in Athens, Ohio, October 11, 1836.
The other children were Leroy Garrettson, Robert
Robinson, and Mary Elizabeth. Of this family the
last named, Mrs. Edward Starr, of Chicago, alone
survives.

To trace the genealogy backward on the father’s
side we find that Charles Cardwell McCabe was the
son of Robert McCabe, who was the son of Robert
McCabe, who was the son of Owen McCabe of Tyrone,
Pa., and County Tyrone, Ireland.

On his mother’s side he was the son of Sarah Robin-
son, who was the daughter of Cuthbert Cardwell
Robinson. The latter was descended from the ancient
Cardwell family of Barton, England. Certain genea-
logical enthusiasts have confidently traced the McCabes
by the McCrackens or the Cardwells to a relationship
with Mary, Queen of Scots. But while we read this
chapter of genealogy, proud or unpretentious as it may
be, we seem to see that simple-hearted, independent,
democratic Charles McCabe

“smile at the claims of long descent,”
as his clarion voice rings out the sentiment which
we have often heard from his lips:

“Howe’er it be, it seems to me,
*Tis only noble to be good.
Kind hearts are more than coronets,
And simple faith than Norman blood.”
20 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

It was with righteous exultation that Bishop McCabe
/ pointed backward to this ancestry of good, kind-
hearted folk of simple faith. His grandfather Robert
followed the trade chosen by Whittier, Carey, Senator
Wilson, Admiral Sir Cloudsley Shovel and many an-
other greater man than himself, for he was a shoe-
maker. He was one of the first converts of early Ohio
Methodism. Before the days of Methodist meeting-
houses his home was always open to the itinerant for
preaching services. This Robert McCabe was a man of
great good sense and earnest piety. As steward, class-
leader, and exhorter so untiring was his activity, so
fervent his zeal, so safe and sane his judgment, and so
absorbed was he in the evangelisation of the com-
munity, that he was called “the Little Bishop.” His
wife Polly was a woman of deep spirituality and of
uncommon mental endowments. Her education and
training in the home of a learned and eloquent minis-
ter of the Gospel, her sweet and simple piety, and her
remarkable gifts in prayer qualified her to share with
her devout husband the honor and happiness of making
their home the very centre of the early Methodist
movement in the Ohio Country.

In view of the extraordinary work in behalf of
Christian Missions accomplished by his grandson one
incident in the life of the class-leader, Robert McCabe,
becomes most interesting if it may not be regarded as
quite prophetic. In the year 1816, the negro, John
Stewart, was converted under the preaching of a Meth-
odist itinerant at Marietta. Robert McCabe became
John Stewart’s class-leader and spiritual adviser. He
GENEALOGY AND BIRTH aq

took a profound interest in the religious development
of this remarkable convert, often invited him to his
home, where by the class-leader’s Scriptural instruction
and by Polly McCabe’s sweet and powerful prayers
Stewart’s soul would seem lifted to the very gates of
Heaven. He soon began to hear voices calling him,
as he believed, to the Lord’s service. He wisely turned
to his class-leader for counsel and advice. Robert
McCabe, in the simple faith of those good old days,
believed Stewart had received a divine call, and fur-
nishing him with Bible, hymn-book, money, horse, and
the license of his blessing, with a recommendation to
the Ohio Conference he sent him forth as the first
missionary of Methodism to the heathen world. John
Stewart followed “the voice” until it led him to the
Wyandotte Indians at Upper Sandusky, where he
began his work by preaching a sermon to one old
squaw. A revival soon broke out, in which hundreds
were converted. The whole Church was thrilled by
the report that spread over the country. -A church or
chapel was needed to accommodate the congregation of
Indian converts. To build it and to sustain the work
among the Wyandottes, collections were solicited and
thereby the fires of missionary zeal were first kindled
in the heart of American Methodism. The chapel at
Upper Sandusky, after repeated restorations, stands
to this day as the first church ever built by the Metho-
dists for a heathen people. It has been claimed that
the interest awakened throughout the Church by this
revival among the Indians developed into a demand for
the organisation of the Missionary Society of the
22 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

Methodist Episcopal Church, which was founded in
the City of New York in the year 1819. What a re-
ward of joy unspeakable would have been his could
Robert McCabe, whose blessing sent John Stewart on
his mission to the Indians, have foreseen the day when
his own grandson would become the great Missionary
Secretary to inspire the Church with that glorious
slogan, “ A Million for Missions!” Is it too much to
claim for Bishop McCabe’s grandfather that the pow-
erful missionary movement of American Methodism
that has swept round the world received its original
impulse in the class-meeting which was held in the
home of that humble but godly layman, Robert
McCabe?

Too early, it would seem to our human wisdom,
Robert and Polly McCabe were called from the activi-
ties of their most useful and beneficent life. In 1823,
before either had’ reached the age of forty years, they
were both sleeping in the Mound Cemetery of
Marietta. The memory of these saints has ever been
in that community as ointment poured forth. Nine
children survived them. The oldest, Hannah, was but
nineteen years of age, and several were under six, when
Robert and Polly McCabe died. Of these nine chil-
dren, two at least became distinguished, Robert, as the
father of Bishop McCabe, and Lorenzo Dow, as an
astute thinker, a profound scholar, and an accom-
plished educator who made a deep impression upon the
character and exercised a lasting influence over the
mental and spiritual life of the Bishop, by whom he
was ever held in proud admiration and affectionate ven-
GENEALOGY AND BIRTH ' 23

eration. Few among the Methodist scholars, educators,
and authors of the Nineteenth Century are more wor-
thy the honor of the Church’s grateful memory than
Lorenzo Dow McCabe. As professor in the Ohio
State University at Athens, and for fifty years in the
Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, he impressed
his strong individuality, his rugged character, and the
authority of his virile, original thinking upon hundreds
of men who were destined to fill the highest places in
civil, political, and ecclesiastical life. Seven thou-
sand students passed under his instruction during his
long and distinguished educational career. Of these,
no less than five hundred became ministers of the
Gospel, sixty entered the missionary field, six hundred
became superintendents of schools, two hundred col-
lege professors, and forty-five college presidents.
Bishop McCabe never let pass an opportunity for pay-
ing to the memory of this truly good and great man
who had taken so deep an interest in his welfare,
every tribute of praise which an undying gratitude
could inspire.
TII

FATHER AND MOTHER

Bishop Charles Cardwell McCabe, was a man

‘of sterling worth: plain, practical and spir-
itually-minded, full of faith and good works. He was
the noble son of a noble father and seems to have
inherited from that father and from a mother of
precious memory the very genius of prevailing prayer.
This gift of extraordinary power in prayer, of faith,
boldness, unction, and irresistibility—was hereditary
in the McCabe family. The gifts of song and elo-
quence were also theirs in a marked degree. Among
the sons of the original Owen McCabe were several
who became noted as singers, while their voices, both
in speech and song, possessed that peculiar magnetism
which was so characteristic of the sweet singing and
persuasive eloquence of Bishop McCabe.

During the years 1864-5 Chaplain McCabe kept a
daily journal. It is now a mine of precious infor-
mation which one cannot explore without a feeling of
regret that it was not continued through his entire
long and useful life. In this journal frequent most
affectionate references are made to his father.

“Washington, Feb. 17, 1864. My father sends
word that I may expect him here soon. I only regret

24

R este McCABE, second, the father of
DN LUTAOU AVON NOSNIGOU HYUVS

aav

 
FATHER AND MOTHER 25

that so much of my life has been spent in absence
from him. My father is one of the best and kindest
of men.”

“Washington, Feb. 29, 1864. This afternoon I
was surprised by intelligence that my father had come
to Washington and wished me to come in (from
camp). I did not expect him until next Saturday.
I was delighted to see him. He came all the way
from New York to see me. No family has a kinder
head than ours. Long may my father live to bless us
with his presence! ”

“Washington, Mar. 1, 1864. Spent a day with
father. Had a pleasant time. How dear my father
grows to me as time moves on apace!”

“Detroit, Apr. 23, 1864. Father went right on to
New York. I disliked to part with him very much.
I part with him with more and more regret each
time.”

“ Chicago, Aug. 21, 1865. Arrived here this after-
noon just in time to see father, who is to leave on the
morning train for Cincinnati. It is very hard for
him to be separated from his family. No matter who
is here, it seems lonely enough without his cheerful
presence.”

With many business vicissitudes, not to say
reverses, to try his patience this godly man main-
tained a cheerful optimism and tranquillity of spirit
which exemplified the truth of the Scripture: ‘ Thou
wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed
on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee.”

With all the hereditary traits of the McCabes, the
26 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

McCrackens, and the Hamiltons that may have con-
tributed to the making of such a man as Bishop
McCabe, that precious mother, Sarah Robinson, with
the blood and genius of the Cardwells, gave to his
nature that added strength and assertiveness of will,
that celestial fire of rational exthusiasm, that poise
and independence of judgment, that superb dash and
courage of conviction and that refined poetical imagi-
nation which made him the embodiment of physical,
mental, and spiritual magnetism, at once a “soul of
song” and “a Son of Thunder.”

Bishop McCabe’s mother was a rare combination
of physical comeliness, mental refinement, and spirit-
ual sensibility. Her graceful form, her countenance
beaming with intelligence, her “ beautiful dark eyes,”
and her dignified but most kindly manners bespoke the
woman of Christian culture, the charm and ornament
of the social circle, and the queenly genius of the
home. With the utmost devotion to her family in all
the sweet and sacred domesticities of that ideal home
she found opportunity in her conscientious economy
and improvement of time for the studies in which she
delighted and for the literary productions with which
she often enriched the “‘ Ladies Repository ” of her
day. But her devotion to the Church, her passion for
missions, her gift of song, her moving yet womanly
eloquence in testimony, her tender unction and effec-
tual fervency in prayer endowed her with those ele-
ments of leadership which all who knew her willingly
recognised.

What the spiritual atmosphere of Sarah McCabe’s
FATHER AND MOTHER 27

home must have been may be judged by an incident
that was recalled by the death of an aged saint, whose
maiden name was Juliette Coe. Her pastor at the
time of her death in Lathrop, Mo., wrote the Bishop:
“When she was a young woman she was employed by
your mother as a seamstress, and while in her employ
was converted and joined the Methodist Episcopal
Church in Athens.” This woman was one of the
organisers of the Methodist Society in Lathrop.

Happily, there still survive a few, alas, too few, of
those associates of other days who knew Mrs,
McCabe in Athens, Ohio. Mrs. Isaac R. Hitt, of
Washington, D. C., when a child, knew this elect lady.
Mrs. Hitt’s father, the Rev. Arza Brown, was the
pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Athens
and baptised the infant Charles Cardwell McCabe.
Mrs. Hitt, then Mary Brown, was a child together
with the future Bishop in those early Athens days.
The pastor’s wife, Mrs, Hitt’s mother, became an inti-
mate companion of Sarah McCabe, the Bishop’s
mother. These godly women were congenial spirits
and found common interest and delight in their meet-
ings at the parsonage or at the home of Mrs. McCabe.
This is the picture which Mrs, Hitt tells us still hangs
on memory’s wall: “There were two tables in the
room, one laden with books—Latin, mental and moral
philosophy, botany, etc., and the other table displayed
an array of paints, brushes, velvet, and satin. And
while those elect ladies were studying, and painting so
beautifully on satin and velvet, they were also think-
ing and praying for the salvation of souls.”
28 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

Mrs. McCabe eagerly seconded the proposal of the
pastor’s wife to make up “a box,” which proved to
be a hogshead of clothing for the naked heathen of
Africa. A society was organised with Mrs. Arza
Brown as President and Mrs. Robert McCabe as Re-
cording and Corresponding Secretary. The whole
district at once became interested in “the box for
Africa.” The project succeeded beyond all expecta-
tion. In due time, the clothing was sent off with
prayers and songs of praise. It reached Monrovia
with a beautiful letter from Mrs. McCabe, just as the
missionaries were praying for garments with which to
clothe their converts and make them presentable in
the house of worship. Here again in the soul of
Sarah Robinson McCabe we find one of those springs
of missionary zeal from which her distinguished son
drank in the genius that roused Methodism to “A
Million for Missions.”

The Rev. William H. Sutherland, to whom the
Bishop referred as a man who had exercised a mould-
ing influence over his religious life in his boyhood,
wrote in response to the kind words of the Bishop:
“T have a very pleasant remembrance of you as a
young parishoner of mine in Athens; and especially a
most precious memory of your beautiful and talented
mother. What a power she was in prayer! I used.
to hold her in reserve to pray me over the hard places
in my meetings, and she always prevailed.”

We are indebted to Miss Helen Ames Walker, a
niece of Bishop Ames, for valuable reminiscences col-
lected as late as the year 1896 from several of the then
FATHER AND MOTHER 29

surviving associates of Bishop McCabe’s mother, who
knew her in Athens, Ohio. Among these precious
recollections are tributes like these: ‘‘ Oh yes, I re-
member Mrs. McCabe. She was a good woman. I
used to feel as I sat by her side in church that she
was constantly engaged in prayer.

“T remember Mrs. McCabe in the class-room. She
used to lead the female class sometimes. That was
the good old times of the Methodist Church here in
Athens. The Rev. Arza Brown was one among the
preachers we had about that time, and J. B. Boutecou,
Robert Spencer, Jacob Young, and John Stewart. It
all comes back to me so plain. Dear saintly Dr.
Merrick was then a professor in the University. Mrs.
Merrick was an intimate friend of Mrs. McCabe.
They were both fond of books, and used to study
together, and recite to some of the college professors.
In those days the women’s class used to meet at Mrs.
McCabe’s house and the preacher in charge was the
leader; but when he had to be away he would
often ask her to lead. We all liked that, for we
loved to hear her talk and pray. She always had
something good to say, and she was very able in
prayer.”

One who went “ to class ” with the Bishop’s mother
said: “I always associate her in my mind with a
certain text of Scripture, for it was so often upon her
lips. To this day when I open my Bible and read:
‘ As the hart panteth after the water-brooks so panteth
my soul after thee, O God,’ a vision of Mrs. McCabe
rises before me as I used to see her in that old class
30 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

meeting. I recall, too, quite clearly, her sweet voice
as she led in the singing.”

“She was a charming singer, able in prayer, un-
tiring in labors at the altar. The last time I saw her
was in 1839, at the camp-meeting below Athens; just
the same, sweet, affable friend. The lapse of near
threescore years leaves only delightful memories.”

“T shall never forget her last visit to Athens. The
day before she left, she met our Society, and opened
with prayer. It has seldom been my lot to hear such
eloquence as fell from her lips. In tones as sweet
as angels use, the Gospel whispered peace and joy to
all our fallen race.”

Thus the fragrance of that sweet and beneficent
life, scarcely reaching beyond young womanhood in
her early Ohio home, lingers still in the grateful mem-
ory of saints who in the even-time of their long pil-
grimage cannot forget the companionship of that
beautiful soul which left upon them long ago the bap-
tism of her God-loving inspiration. Although his
mother passed away when he was but sixteen years
of age, Bishop McCabe cherished most precious mem-
ories of her and left on record this tender filial tribute:
“I remember my mother as a patient, gentle, lovely
Christian. Her heart was always in the work of
God. She was a deeply pious woman. If any one
should ask me how my mother most impressed herself
upon my life I would be at no loss to answer. It was
by her prayers. It seemed to me that never did a
human being get so close to the mercy-seat of God
as did she when she led us in prayer. Whether at the
FATHER AND MOTHER 31

family altar, in the prayer-meeting, in the great con-
gregation, or in the camp-meeting, my mother’s voice
pleading with God had a power over me which words
cannot describe, and I have heard many others say
the same thing. She died when she was only forty-
two years old, of pneumonia, in Burlington, Iowa.
Her death was unexpected to us all. The day before
she died I was standing in her room with my hymn-
book in my hand. She called me to her, took the
book, and turned to Henry Kirke White’s beautiful

hymn:

“« Through sorrow’s night and danger’s path
Amid the deepening gloom,
We, followers of our suffering Lord,
Are marching to the tomb.’

She read it through to the close with an accent and
beauty of expression which I shall ever remember.
When the physician informed us the next day that
she must die, her farewell to her husband and children
was touching and beautiful. She had something to
say to us all. To me she said: ‘ Watch over Mary!’
I thought this was strange, as I was her youngest son.
To my brother Robert she said: ‘ Robbie, you have
always been a good boy.’ To my eldest brother,
Leroy, she said: ‘I have loved you with a mother’s
love.’ I did not hear the message she gave to my little
sister, Mary, now Mrs. Starr, of Chicago. Her mem-
ory is fragrant to her children as with the very breath
of heaven, and among the glorious events of the
future there is one anticipation which thrills my soul,
92 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

and that is the meeting with my mother in the better
land.”

During the exciting days of the Civil War and
while engaged in raising money for the Christian
Commission, Chaplain McCabe recorded these words
in his daily journal, under date of Chicago, January
14, 1864: “This day is the anniversary of my
mother’s death. Twelve years ago this night she died
in Burlington, Iowa. Soon after her death our fam-
ily was scattered abroad. Now all its living members
are assembled at my father’s home in Chicago. What
memories are brought up by the recurrence of this
day!

‘‘* Backward, turn backward, O Time, in your flight !
Make me a child again, just for to-night !’”

May we all meet in the better land!” Again he writes
under date of Burlington, Iowa, June 16, 1864:
“ After twelve years of wandering I am here where
were spent part of my boyhood days. My mother’s
grave is here. I shall go to it to-morrow and make
arrangements for adorning our family lot. I hope
some day to sleep beside my mother.”

In the quiet shade of the oaks and evergreens of
Aspen Grove Cemetery is the grave of this beautiful,
accomplished, and saintly woman. A more appropri-
ate spot, where Art has not robbed Nature of its god-
given charms, could not have been chosen as the last
resting-place of one so gentle, true, and loving as the
mother of Bishop McCabe. The unostentatious but
appropriate marble that marks her grave bears beneath
FATHER AND MOTHER 34

the bas-relief of a funeral urn capped with the sym-
bolic flame of memory and immortal hope, the follow-
ing inscription:

Sarah C. Robinson.
Sarah C,
wife of
Robert McCabe
Died
Jan. 14, 1852.
Aged 41 years,
5 Mo., 10 Ds.

Let sickness blast and death devour,

If Heaven must recompense our pains;
Perish the grass and fade the flower,

If firm the word of God remains.
IV

BOYHOOD IN ATHENS

the intellectual atmosphere of the old Uni-

versity. town of Athens was spent the: child-
hood of Bishop McCabe. In those days the
classic shades of Athens drew to the halls of
learning men whose. names adorn the brightest
pages of Ohio’s early history. President W. H.
McGuffey, of Eclectic Reader and Spelling Book
fame; Prof. Frederick Merrick, later the President of
Ohio Wesleyan University; Bishop T. A. Morris and
his brother, Calvary Morris, the class-leader congress-
man; Bishop E. R. Ames; Prof. L. D. McCabe, and
many other men of now venerated memory in Church
and in State, by their presence and influence lent a
charm and distinction to the place which attracted the
best society into its pure moral and intellectual life.
It is with a justifiable pride that this ancient seat of
Western learning contributed to the Methodist Epis-
copal Church three of her honoured and beloved
Bishops. For Bishops Earl Cranston, David H.
Moore, and Charles Cardwell McCabe were all Athen-
ians. Little “Dave” Moore and “ Charlie” McCabe
were playmates in their native village, but Earl Crans-
ton was removed from Athens in his infancy and did

34

[: a home presided over by such a mother and in -
OINO ‘SNAHLV ‘NOM GOOHATIHO S.AdVOON doOnsig

 

 

 

 
BOYHOOD IN ATHENS 35

not return until after “ Charlie” McCabe, four years
his senior, had grown to youth and moved away,
hence they were not playmates.

The careful training which Sarah McCabe bestowed
upon her children may be inferred from her own
intellectual aspirations, literary tastes, and studious
habits. She seems to have inherited Susannah Wes-
ley’s mantle and to have ordered her household with
a like motherly solicitude and genius. A single casual
expression from one of the “Chaplain’s” Libby
Prison letters to his wife throws a light into that home-
life of his boyhood which reveals the whole story of
his mother’s devotion to the early education of her
children. Referring to his own infant son, in whom
he found the full measure of a proud father’s happi-
ness, he wrote: ‘“ Can my little boy talk yet? Teach
him his letters at once! he must learn to read at the
age of three and one-half years. My mother did so.
Life is short, must commence early.”

From this we are left to conclude that Sarah
McCabe was the first teacher of her children in the
elements of education. From the mother’s instruc-
tion children in those days usually passed into a pri-
vate school, kept by some worthy dame, where they
were fitted for still higher schools and finally for the
Seminary and the College. It is quite certain that'
Athens did not in that early day offer to children such
advantages for common-school education as it fur-
nished the youth for the higher learning. “ Charlie”
McCabe was not a prodigy. No prophecies were
made, nor were any extravagant expectations of his
36 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

future fame entertained. He was a bright, hand-
some, boyish boy, with a will of his own and a temper
not all his own. He was happy, careless, and indepen-
dent, but clean, pure-minded, and generous, with a
tender conscience, and with the beautiful, expressive
eyes of his mother. While he was not a strikingly
precocious child, he was quick enough to learn when
he set himself the task. He was full of innocent fun,
a perfect mimic, and quite a “ boy orator.” He loved
the great world out-of-doors, the streets, the trees, the
College campus, the river where he learned to swim.
He was fond of his dog. He loved the boys and girls,
and they loved him. And even now in the gloaming
of these far-off years they have the vision still of his
strangely beautiful dark eyes that fascinated them in
childhood and of that smiling face, the index of a
happy heart that loved everything and everybody.
What that boyhood life in Athens was to him, what
influences were then and there making their lasting
impression upon his mind and character, may be
learned in part and by suggestion from a letter written
to a friend after he had revisited his birthplace in
1885. “Last night after supper I wandered about
Athens by moonlight; went over and saw the home we
used to live in on the other side of the College green.
It is a noble-looking house yet. It is right opposite
the old beech-tree into which we boys used to climb
and on whose limbs we used to cut our names. I
walked all around the green, along the walk where we
used to haul Mary in our little wagon, and stood on
the high terrace and looked over into the Hocking
BOYHOOD IN ATHENS 37

Valley, where we learned to swim. The old town
looks very natural somehow. I could find my way
about, even by moonlight, and trace out the old land-
marks. I wandered up to the old College building
and there is the steeple yet where the boys used to pen
the goat.

“Tt was delightful to me to saunter around by my-
self and look at those old houses and think of days
gone by. What a wonderful thing is memory! How
loved ones come gliding in at her bidding and sit
silently down at the feast of life! We had a happy
childhood at Athens. The boys were, I think, better
than they are now. Mothers could trust them out at
night. On the College green fence we used to sit in
long rows and tell stories and spin yarns till ten
o’clock. Mother never thought we could do any
wrong, and we repaid her trust by doing right always.
Not an oath or obscene word would pass our lips. Our
Spirits were innocent. It took so little to amuse us
then. A game of ball on the College green or of leap-
frog was fun enough for us. There were no thea-
tres, no saloons, no gambling hells anywhere to be
seen. The taverns kept liquor, but a drunken man
was rarely ever seen. Dear father; what a noble man
he was to his family! What a palace that home must
have seemed thirty-eight years ago, for it outranks all
the houses of that street yet. I peered into the win-
dows. Around the table a family of children were
gathered, reading by a brilliant lamp—boys and girls.
One, a beautiful young lady, who seemed an elder
sister to the group, with a very fair, sweet face. I
38 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

wonder if they ever think of those who in other days
trod that spacious hall and gathered, a happy group,
around that ingle side! Dear mother! What a noble
woman! How happy I would make her life if she
were with us yet! It is so long since she died, and I
am getting.old, and will soon follow her. It was into
that very room, where the family were sitting last
night, that father used to go at noon to pray. Every -
day he would go into that room to talk with God be-
fore he returned to his business, and came out with a
gleam in his face that used to fill me with awe, and I
would say in the very depths of my soul: ‘My papa
is a wonderful good man, I must never deceive him.’

“T looked at the green on which we boys used to play
and where sometimes for hours I would lie asleep,
with my dog for my pillow. He was always so glad
to let me put my head upon him and go to sleep in the
long summer afternoons. I enjoyed going through
the streets and reading the names on the signs. The
fathers are dead—the sons succeed to the business. I
did not make myself known to anybody. They knew
not Joseph. It is a new generation. B. and G. saw
my name in the register of the hotel and sought me
out, or I would have passed through my native town
without speaking to a soul. If I could have talked to
some who lie sleeping in the cemetery I would have
been glad. Well, I cannot say that life to me has
been a disappointment. The result has far surpassed
the day-dreams of my childhood. I had very humble
views of myself. I never expected to be anything in
the world. If a seer had told me that my station in
BOYHOOD IN ATHENS 39

life was on a farm or in a corner grocery, I would not
have been conscious of any want of harmony between
such a destiny and my own opinions of my deservings.
My_life has been far more successful than sust. I

thought it would be.”
Vv

IOWA—CONVERSION—CALL TO THE
MINISTRY

and settled for a short time in Chillicothe,

Ohio, whence, about the year 1850, they moved
to Burlington, Iowa. Charles was then a lad of four-
teen. ‘At the close of that year and in a revival
watch-night service, he experienced an overpowering
blessing which the people looked upon and shouted
over as his conversion, and he often referred to it as
such. A gracious revival was in progress in old Zion
Church, of which Rev. L. B. Dennis was the pastor,
and that good man seems to be the best authority for
the data that, shortly after midnight on January rst,
1851, Charles C. McCabe, with others, joined the
Church on probation. This was just after there had
been a wonderful manifestation of spiritual power
which has never been forgotten by that community.
There has been some difficulty in settling these moot
points of time and place and the ministerial agent of
the Bishop’s conversion. Even the Bishop’s own
statements at times seem to conflict. Where, when,
and under whose ministry was he converted, received
into the Church on probation, and then admitted to
full membership? One report is that he was con-

4°

Rie: McCABE, with his family, left Athens
CALL TO THE MINISTRY ‘41

verted in Athens, Ohio, at the age of seven or eight
years, and through the evangelistic efforts of “ Saint ”
Minturn. This is the Bishop’s own statement:
“When I was eight years old, during a revival I went
forward to the altar at a quarterly meeting and came
into conscious fellowship with Jesus Christ. There
was an old man stopping at our home during the meet-
ing. He was called ‘Saint’ Minturn. He was a
holy man of God, and he would sing for mother a
hymn beginning:
“* What's this that steals upon my frame—is it death?
If this be death, I soon shall be
From every pain and sorrow free

I shall the King of Glory see
All is. well.

Among the last verses, he sang:

“*Bright Angels are from glory come,
They’re round my bed, they’re in my room.
They wait to waft my spirit home.

All is well.’

He did not know that a little boy was listening
to his voice. He did not know what wonder he
awakened in my heart that he was not afraid to die!
Young as I was, I felt that I was afraid to die, but
here was a man who was ready to depart. That night
he exhorted, and I yielded to his pleading; and with
four other boys went forward to the altar and there
came into conscious fellowship with Jesus Christ, and
from that hour my call to the ministry was clear and
unmistakable,”
42 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

Again it was claimed that he was converted at Old
Zion Church in Burlington, Iowa, January 1, 1851,
under the ministry of the Rev. L. B. Dennis. And
still again the impression has obtained that he was
converted in Burlington during the pastorate of the
Rev. Landon Taylor.

The facts seem to be that in addition to the reli-
gious ideas and principles which had been instilled into
his heart by his godly father and mother there came
to him the first gentle convictions and emotions which
usually attend a sweet childish acceptance of an invita-
tion to “ come to the altar” in the church at Athens,
Ohio. It was at “Saint”? Minturn’s meeting that
little “Charlie” McCabe, with others, went to the
“altar”; there he accepted the Saviour and felt His
love, a love that never departed. But seven or eight
years later, in Burlington, he may have found him-
self somewhat indifferent to that Saviour’s love, and,
“going forward” at a midnight revival service of
remarkable spiritual power, he received a blessing
that threw him into a trance, or of which the exceed-
ing weight of glory caused him to faint to uncon-
sciousness. There and then he was probably justified
in believing that that was the time and place of his
real conversion. ‘There can be no doubt that the Rev.
L. B. Dennis received him into the Church on proba-
tion in Old Zion Church. But soon after this experi-
ence he removed with his family to a farm near Mt.
Pleasant, Iowa.

The next year, or later in the same year, he returned
to Burlington and to Old Zion. A new pastor had
CALL TO THE MINISTRY 43

been sent to the charge, the Rev. Landon Taylor, and
he evidently received the probationer into full mem-
bership. The profound impression which this able
and saintly man made upon the newly awakened soul
may have been and doubtless was the divinely or-
dained means used for his firm and complete establish-
ment in the faith and experience of salvation, and in
the conviction that he was called to the ministry.

At the request of a friend, the Bishop once dictated
this statement: “During a great revival that was
going on in Old Zion Church, under the pastorate of
the Rev. L. B. Dennis, I united with the church on
probation; shortly afterwards I moved to our great
farm near Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. We spent the winter
there; when we returned I found that there had been
a change of pastors and that the Rev. Landon Taylor
was in charge. He took hold of me at once and was
greatly interested in my spiritual welfare. He ap-
pointed me to lead a class when I was fifteen years old.
The class met in a private home and soon grew so
large that it required not only the front room, but the
front yard to hold the congregation. I have always
had a great veneration for L. B. Dennis and Landon
Taylor; they remain in,my memory as typical Meth-
odist preachers; they went through the West calling
men to repentance, building up the Church of God,
and sowing the seed of the Kingdom of Heaven far
and wide.” Before this, however, in a communica-
tion to the Burlington Hawk-Eye, under date of Jan-
uary 22, 1887, the Bishop told what some have called
“the story of his conversion.” He wrote: “TI joined
44 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

Old Zion Church in the year 1851; the Church itself
was on fire with religious zeal; it was in a constant
state of revival. L. B. Dennis was pastor. I was a
boy of fifteen—the perilous age, the age when great
questions are decided forever. It was a glorious
thing for me that just at this time my father moved
from a town where the Church was cold and formal
to one where it was full of spiritual power, and the
powerful appeals of Brother Dennis swept away my
refuge of lies and woke my conscience. In the sum-
mer of 1851, we moved to the country near Mt. Pleas-
ant, where my father owned a farm. Upon returning
in the fall, we found that Landon Taylor was the pas-
tor at Old Zion. He was the weeping prophet, a
shepherd indeed, for he looked after the lambs. I
yielded to the heavenly influences around me and
united with the Church. Dear Old Zion! I loved
the very dust upon its walls. Had it not been for
what transpired within those walls, I verily believe my
career on earth would have closed long ago. The
Rev. A. C. Williams was brought in at the same time.
We started a young men’s prayer-meeting which be-
came a great power in the city. Among those who
joined us was P. L. Underwood. We urged him to
enter the ministry with us, but he said: ‘ You boys
go and preach and I’ll make money for the cause of
God.” He kept his word, and I have known him to
give $25,000 at one time for a good object. I have
no doubt he has given a large fortune away for the
maintenance and spread of the Kingdom of Christ in
the world. Who can estimate the power for good of
CALL TO THE MINISTRY 45

such a man as Landon Taylor? He was tender and
noble. Our respect for him was boundless.” It is
not improbable that the McCabes left Burlington in
1851 and returned the next year, or in 1852, instead
of in the same year. That will explain the fact that
they were not at Old Zion during the Rev. Mr.
Brooks’ pastorate, which followed L, B. Dennis’s.

It seems quite clear from these statements that the
Bishop was converted at the age of eight, at Athens,
Ohio, through the immediate influence of “ Saint”
Minturn; that at the age of fifteen, “that perilous
age,” he had lost the bright glow of his religious
fervor and was beginning to question the reality of his
experience, if not the truth of the Gospel, and in his
mental perplexity was resorting to the quibbles of
scepticism, when, as he says, “by his powerful ap-
peals Brother Dennis swept away my refuge of lies
and woke my conscience.” In the further develop-
ment of his religious life, and in his first efforts
toward leading others, which resulted in his entering
the ministry, Landon Taylor was his spiritual guide
and father.

As to the claim that the Rev. Elias Skinner received
brother McCabe into full membership while he was
pastor at Cedar Rapids, there arises this difficulty:
According to the “ History of the Upper Iowa Con-
ference,” the Rev. Elias Skinner’s pastorate there was
from 1855 to 1857, which was after brother McCabe
had left the city. Elias Skinner did not begin his
pastorate there until at least a year after brother
McCabe had entered Ohio Wesleyan University,
46 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

which was in 1854. During some later visit of
brother McCabe to Iowa he may have become ac-
quainted with pastor Skinner and the two men may
have worked together in revival services, and in after
years the latter may have had the impression that
brother McCabe joined the church of which he was
the pastor.

The call to the ministry evidently came to Charles
McCabe in that first experience of the love and favor
of God when, as a boy, he went to the altar on
the invitation of “Saint” Minturn. With his sub-
sequent wonderful baptism of spiritual power in the
revival at Burlington the call became louder, clearer,
and more unmistakable. The Church likewise ac-
knowledged that he possessed the gifts and graces
that qualified him to become a candidate for the
ministry. It was the conviction of his pastors and
fellow church members that he was “called.” The
genius of success was early manifest in all the endeav-
orings of young McCabe. He possessed a magnetic
power that drew men to him and won their admira-
tion and confidence. He always made friends,
ardent, lifelong friends, wherever he went. He was
brave, even daring, and always optimistic and the em-
bodiment of good humor. As a born leader, he had
the. vision of a seer and would often startle others
from their quiet ease and indifference by the very
audacity of his faith and courage. His whole being
seemed to exemplify the divine precept, ‘ What thy
hand findeth to do, do with thy might.” Put in
charge of a great farm in the winter of 1851-2, when
CALL TO THE MINISTRY 47

but fifteen years of age, he justified his father’s confi-
dence in his ability by such a management of affairs
that in the spring the stock, for which he had built
shelters with his own hands and which he had care-
fully fed, was the fattest and sleekest in the country.
The next year after his successful farming experience,
he entered the store of Mr. Green, of Cedar Rapids,
Iowa, as a clerk, That winter he sang in the choir
of the Episcopal Church. By his diligence and devo-
tion to business and by his religious earnestness and
power of song he so completely won the confidence
and affection of his employer, who was an Episcopa-
lian, that he proposed to send Charles to college in
the East, if he would enter the ministry of the Prot-
estant Episcopal Church. But no, highly as he ap-
preciated Mr. Green’s noble and generous proposition,
with his Methodist antecedents and his warm Metho-
dist blood, young McCabe felt obliged to decline the
good man’s offer and to choose rather to be a Metho-
dist preacher. Thus far he had succeeded in every-
thing he had undertaken. He put his soul into every
work he had to do, that is to say, his whole energy,
will, enthusiasm, and conscience went into his task.
There can be no doubt that if he had chosen a com-
mercial or professional career, he would have dis-
tinguished himself and would have reaped those re-
wards of wealth and fame which are ever at the com-
mand of such force, genius, and tireless devotion to
duty as were combined in his success-compelling
personality.
VI

PREPARATION FOR THE MINISTRY—OHIO
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY

educational advantages which were offered by the

Ohio Wesleyan University, and as Prof. William
F. Whitlock thinks, he matriculated in the fall of 1854.
He had not enjoyed a very thorough training for
College. The limited advantages for schooling at
Athens, outside the University course, and the farm-
ing and clerking experiences in Iowa, prevented that
preparation for student life which would have fitted
him to at once enter the Freshman class in the Classi-
cal Course. He consequently began with preparatory
studies.

As with every young man who seeks the higher
education, so with Charles McCabe; his arrival at Col-
lege opens a new epoch in his life. His career has
been determined upon; he has heard the call of God,
a clear, unmistakable call. And now, having been en-
couraged by his uncle “ Dow,” he proceeds to Dela-
ware, Ohio, to study for the ministry. It is no exag-
geration, however, to say that while Charles McCabe’s
arrival in Delaware marked an important epoch in his
own life, it also made an impression on that pious and
classical community. Old students of Wesleyan and

48

|: preparation for the ministry Charles sought the
 

 

 

 

LORENZO DOW McCABE, DD., LUL.D.

 
PREPARATION FOR THE MINISTRY 49

citizens of Delaware remembered ever afterward the
coming of “Charlie’” McCabe. A refreshing breeze
of religious enthusiasm seemed to have struck the
town on his coming. During the Chapel service he
said “Amen” aloud and with an unction. The stu-
dents looked over their shoulders and the professors
stared at him over their spectacles. He carried into
the College prayer-meetings and into the village
Church the magnetism of a living, joyful, courageous
religious experience. The students and the people
were moved by his prayers and testimony, and thrilled
by the strangely sweet influence of his song. Not
many weeks passed before he was a popular favorite;
he won all hearts by his happy spirit, his cordial man-
ners, his handsome face, his magnetic voice, and his
genuine religious fervour. Here again were early
manifested those qualities of personality which in
after years attracted to him a world of friends and
won to every great cause of which he was the cham-
pion the princely laymen who under the spell of his
sanctified eloquence laid fortunes on the altars of God.
Who shall say that it is to be regretted that in those
College days he permitted his spiritual fervor to get
away with his academic studiousness? He did this;
religion was the greatest thing in the world to him,
then and always. He could not lay it aside, he did
not hold in abeyance his religious emotions, or quench
the spirit while seeking the mental training of the
University. He was a man of feeling, and because
a man of feeling a sincere man, a man of convictions,
a man of principle. Hence this man of deep, rational
50 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

emotion, of living, virile feeling, enjoyed the divinely
inspired emotion and feeling of religion, of patriotism,
of benevolence, of humanitarianism, of every great,
genuine soul experience. And this made his religious
life and work the inspiration of a mighty and im-
mortal spiritual impulse, an impulse which combines
principle, reason, conviction, judgment, faith, cour-
age, enthusiasm, and charity into the very genius of
initiative and of achievement. Yes, while at College
McCabe thought more of souls than of syllogisms and
was more deeply interested in prayer-meetings and
revivals than in Greek roots and logarithms. The
“reminiscences” of Dr. Isaac Crook and of Prof.
William F. Whitlock are very sweet reading where
they represent young McCabe as going from room to
room among the students to pray with them, comfort
the sick, reclaim the backslider, and win the uncon-
verted to Christ. He would leave College for days
and weeks at a time to hold revivals in the country
school-houses or in the churches of the towns and vil-
lages beyond. In that work he won the love and
confidence of thousands of God’s people in Ohio and
easily became the most popular student of Wesleyan.
Of course, his college standing suffered. In later
years he may have regretted that he was not a
more devoted student, and that he had not taken
better advantage of his educational opportunities.
‘But if a closer application to study would have re-
sulted in making of him anything other than what he
was, then in the estimation of many a judicious mind
it would have spoiled him. We learn from his old
PREPARATION FOR THE MINISTRY si

instructors and fellow-students just what those who
knew him in life’s activities would have surmised, that
in college he took to the languages, Greek, Latin,
Hebrew, to poetry, letters, history, and elocution
rather than to mathematics, logic, and philosophy. He
had a noble imagination, a natural eloquence, a poet-
ical temperament that took to what the old schoolmen
called “the humanities” of learning. With all his
spirituality he was not metaphysical. And while a
man was rarely found who thought more clearly or
reasoned more soundly and quickly, he seemed to
ignore the roundabout and tedious forms of learning
and to despise all pedantry. If in his mental pro-
cesses he was not formally mathematical, logical, and |
philosophical, he was more, grandly more; he was a
man whose vision the mathematics of the spheres
proved true, whose impulses and intuitions logic had
to approve, and whose masterful convictions would
make philosophy rewrite its categories. An evangel-
ist with a soul aflame with spiritual fire, that is what
this Charles McCabe was when, some will say, he
should have been “a grind.” If a greater devotion
to mathematics, logic, and philosophy would not have
spoiled him; if they could have made him still a
greater, wiser, more powerful, and more successful
man than he was, who will not join him in the regret
that he did not get more out of his College opportuni-
ties? His health failed him while he was at Dela-
ware—not from excessive application to his studies,
but from two other causes. He had exhorted, prayed,
sung, and preached himself almost to exhaustion in
52 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

his evangelistic work. Then his Uncle ‘“ Dow’’ fell
dangerously ill of typhoid fever and Charles nursed
him through it all, only to fall a victim soon after to
the same disease. He recovered slowly, felt the need
of a change of work at least, left Wesleyan, and, as
soon as his returning health permitted, he took a coun-
try school to teach. This ended his College career;
but though he did not graduate he was later credited
with having completed the course, and he became an
alumnus of Ohio Wesleyan University of the class
of 1860.
VII

THE STUDENT—MENTAL CHARACTER-
ISTICS—BOOKS

RAND old Ohio Wesleyan University gave
Charles McCabe the taste for learning and the

hunger for knowledge that remained with him
through life. We are wont to think of him as the
man of impulse and action that he was. His life was
an illustration of the Demosthenian definition of elo-
quence: “Action, action, action.” But he was
more of a student and scholar than one would imagine
his busy life could have permitted him to become.
After all, what are these terms: “ student,” “ scho-
lar,” “learning,” ‘education,’ but relative terms of
indefinite and uncertain value? Beyond a certain
narrow circumference, within which there is little
disparity of ability between college-bred men, but few
men distinguish themselves as great scholars to be
recognised as world-authorities in any branch of learn-
ing. Every man may be more learned than certain
other men, but he will also be less learned than still
others. The great majority of “scholars” are only
comparatively scholarly; few are superlatively learned.
And that few will not be among the superlatives to-
morrow. Was Bishop McCabe a student and a
scholar? ‘Yes, less a student and scholar than a few,

53
54 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

more a student and scholar than many. It is not
every graduate of a University that carries on into life
the desire to study and learn that characterised Charles
McCabe in those years of early manhood when men of
very active duties rarely find the time to devote to
books. Bishop McCabe was what is known as a
“well-read”? man. We find in his journal by the
revelation which he there makes of his sincerest heart
feelings that he had tasted only to forever after long
to drink deep of the Pierian spring. Six years after
he had left College and during the busy, exciting scenes
of the Civil War days which engaged his energies to
their utmost and crowded his time with multiplied ac-
tivities, he often recorded in his journal his love of
study and his desire for learning. “The life of a
student suits me well. Alas, how little have I been
able in my life to know its pleasures! From my early
childhood sickness has followed swiftly upon the heels
of close application, and when at College my religious
fervour led me to spend all my energies in holding
meetings and trying to win souls to Christ. But I do
not regret it.”

Again, in an almost pathetic strain, he writes, in that
1864 journal: “I want to be a student. O, how I
pine for the student’s life once more! I most heartily
wish I could go to Delaware, Ohio, for another term
of four years, so that I might study beneath the watch-
ful care of my uncle, Professor McCabe. I could
much better than ever before appreciate the value of
his society to me.” ;

Again and ‘again the only record in his daily
THE STUDENT 55

journal reads: “Spent the day chiefly in study,”
“Spent the day in rest and study,” “ Spent the day in
work, the evening in study,” “ I have been studying all
day.” Thus when resting for a day from his exces-
sive and exhausting labours, at home, in an hotel, on
the railway train, or with some hospitable citizen, he
turned with avidity to his books. He seemed to pen
with great satisfaction such records as these: “ Spent
the morning in study and reading, and much do I enjoy
it. The life of a student has every charm for me.
Yet the end draweth nigh, and I will soon be able to
plunge into the busy world again. It is well, my taste
runs in either way. I like a quiet or an active life.”

“ How glad I am to get a day which I can devote
almost entirely to study.”

His studious inclinations and real scholarly aspira-
tions were revealed in Libby Prison, where he organ-
ised what he called “ My College.” In one of those
precious Libby Prison letters to his wife he writes:
“We have classes in French, Spanish, Latin, Greek,
Rhetoric, English Grammar, Arithmetic, Algebra,
Geometry, Natural Philosophy, etc.” In other letters
he says: “I am making a careful and critical study
of the Bible.” “I am studying French and Butler’s
Analogy.” “I spend my time pleasantly, can already
read French and am acquiring its difficult pronuncia-
tion. I commit to memory and make a commentary
upon a Psalm each day.” “Iam nearly through my
French, have procured a German grammar and will
enter upon its study to-day. Got ‘Les Miserables’
and read it, wonderful book!” “I am nearly through
56 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

the French testament and ready to read the German.”
“T have translated and will copy a beautiful tragedy
for you from the French, ‘ Athalie,’ by Racine.”

A year after he had: been released from Libby
Prison, and when ill, he wrote in his journal: ‘“ Have
been trying to carry on my studies, but with very poor
success. Ever since my confinement in prison I have
tried to keep up my French. But my time has been
very small for such things.”

Much of his reading in those days, if not all of it,
was snatched up from the stream of literature as he
rushed along in his strenuous duties, as the real fighters
of Gideon’s band caught up with the hand the water
from the brook as they hurried on to the field of battle
nor took the time to kneel down at every stream and
lap their fill.

If his reading was not of the heavy variety, it was
always well chosen, both for its literary style and for
its educational value and patriotic and moral inspira-
tion. He did not waste his precious time poring over
tomes of theological and metaphysical dust, and he
cared little or nothing for those endless quibbles over
the “tweedledums” and “tweedledees” of philo-
sophical speculation. He did not have to run to the
last catalogue of books on German rationalism or
destructive criticism to find out whether or not the
foundations of Christianity had given way and the
Gospel had been proven a cunningly devised fable. To
his practical way of thinking there was a great body
of living literature which it was much more scholarly
and sensible to be familiar with than with all the specu-
THE STUDENT 57

lative philosophy and science falsely so-called that
impractical and supercilious pedants imagine one must
know in order to be considered scholarly and learned.
Real, living, practical learning was to Bishop McCabe’s
mind beyond price, and no man appreciated, admired,
coveted that genuine learning more than he. But no
man had a keener wit and saner common sense to dis-
criminate between real learning and sham learning, the
possession of scholarship and the pretence of scholar-
ship.

In this day with his great work done, and so nobly
done, we read with an admiring and affectionate inter-
est the brief notes made in his journal more than forty
years ago that tell us what books he read, how they
impressed him, and what he had to say of them at the
time. In addition to the common run of books such
as the commentaries on the Scriptures and the general
theological works, he delighted in perusing the
writings of the great English divines such as Newton,
Beveridge, Hall, Taylor, South, and Robertson, no less
than Wesley. He preserved copious extracts from
their sermons in his journal. Of Bishop Hall’s “ Con-
templations ” he said: “ It is a quaint old book, full of
the rarest gems of thought and worthy the study of
every Christian, and especially of every Christian min-
ister.” He was a diligent student of the hymnists and
with his own gift of song made himself master of the
poetry and music of Christianity’s sweetest hym-
nology. He placed Bonar next to Charles Wesley as a
writer of sacred songs.

He was particularly interested in history and biog-
58 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

raphy, as he found in events and in the lives of men
the evidences of the Gospel’s divine influence in the
world. His reading included Mosheim’s “ Eccle-
siastical History,” Stevens’ “ History of Methodism,”
the works of Gibbon, Hume, and Macaulay, and he
was a great admirer of the productions of Victor
Hugo and of Shakespeare. He read nearly all of
Washington Irving’s books, and in his admiration for
this elegant writer he was not satisfied with perusing
the most important of them but once, but read them
over and over again. The comments which he made
upon Irving’s works give us an insight into the thor-
oughness of his study, and his quick appreciation of
the best points made by an author. He lays down
“ Knickerbocker ” with the reflection: ‘I have been
greatly amused with the book. I suppose the New
York Dutchmen can scarcely forgive the author for
raising a national laugh at the expense of their
worthy ancestors.” His remarks after reading ‘“‘ The
Alhambra” are truly valuable, as they open to our
view the romantic tendencies of his own mind. He
writes: ‘‘ The author has a great power to hold the
attention by the relation of old Moorish legends and
hobgoblin stories. I confess to a considerable share
of the author’s liking for such matters. When I was
a child the mysteries of the ‘Arabian Nights’ pos-
sessed no difficulties for my credulity. ‘Although per-
haps I am somewhat wiser than when, with eyes fairly
starting from their sockets, I pored over the won-
drous tales, still I do not find it difficult even now to
: follow the fortunes of some enchanted warrior with a
THE STUDENT 59

deal of real interest, really possessing a bona fide desire
that some influence might be brought to break the
magic spell. Irving has made me think better of
Spain; a journey thither would not be without its
attractions. I would enjoy it, if for no other purpose
than to see the Alhambra.”

‘While this extract reveals a mind appreciative of
the artistic, poetical, and romantic, another reflection
shows how plain matters of fact of only common-
sense interest impressed him: “ The author tells us
what I never knew before, that Seville is renowned for
its good bread. If that be so, some ladies I wot of
might be profited by a short sojourn there. All ladies
should know how to make good bread themselves, or
should know at least how to instruct others. I will
say, however, that my wife need not go to Seville.”

After reading the “Crayon Sketches” he writes:
“Irving was an observing traveller. He would note
events and make them of great interest in the telling,
which hundreds of travellers would entirely over-
look. And those events, too, which more than any
others give us the best conception of a character, or
bring most readily before us the scenes through which
the author passed. True to the very life are the
descriptions of Irving; what we read brings the whole
thing before us.”

“* Newstead Abbey ’ I read with little interest. The
very name of Lord Byron inspires gloomy recollec-
tions. What an amazing prostitution of brilliant
genius to the work of the destroyer! Would that
when he flung away the boon of pardon and faith in
60 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

our Lord Jesus he might also have flung away the
resplendent talents which bewildered and bewitched
the world and lured so many young men from the path
of duty!”

We can easily appreciate this tender-hearted man’s
admiration for the character of Oliver Goldsmith, as
portrayed by the graceful and sympathetic pen of
‘Washington Irving. Nothing more spontaneously
natural appears in these literary comments than Chap-
lain McCabe’s appreciation of the great and tender
humanity of Goldsmith. It touches a warm spot in
every kind heart to read these words: “ I am charmed
by the character of Goldsmith as presented by Irving.
I like his very faults. His generosity and extreme
poverty were unpleasant companions pecuniarily, yet
who is not rich that has learned to give, to give even
all his living, to relieve the wants of those around him?
No more magnificent compliment could be paid Gold-
smith than that the distressed never applied to him in
vain! This book will make me a more careful student
of Goldsmith’s writings. I know now amid what diffi-
culties he composed them all. How he compelled his
overtaxed brain to labour on so that he might have
the means to pay debts contracted by his improvident
generosity!’’ Alas, was the great-hearted McCabe a
Goldsmith raised to a higher power and in helping the
poor, in assuming the great debts of churches, did he
not often mortgage all his energies and hypothecate all
his future time and strength with optimistic cheerful-
ness? Possibly he was thinking of what his dearest
friends might have called his own “improvident gen-

a
THE STUDENT 61

erosity ” when he wrote: “ Irving winds up his Biog-
raphy with this remark, ‘Let not his frailties be re-
membered,’ said Johnson, ‘he was a very great man.’
But for our part we rather say let them be remem-
bered, since their tendency is to endear; and we ques-
tion whether he himself would not feel gratified in
having his reader, after dwelling with admiration on
the proofs of his greatness, close the volume with the
kind-hearted phrase so often and familiarly ejaculated
of: ‘ Poor Goldsmith.’ ”

Irving’s voluminous “ Life of Washington” is in-
deed a very comprehensive history of the American
Revolution. It is no light undertaking to read it
through, but it seemed a delight to the Chaplain to feast
his patriotic soul on its fascinating pages. He writes:
“T am reading to-day Irving’s ‘Life of Washington,’ 2d
Vol.; have read it before, but the charm of the author’s
style, together with a desire to refresh my memory
concerning the events of the Revolution, have lured
me to the book again. One thing strikes me as never
before: The doubtful patriotism of the army in the
first two years of the war with Britain. Our troops
now (1864) fighting to preserve the nation lose noth-
ing by comparison with those who fought to give it
birth. Had they such a foe as we, our independence
had never been won. Live the Republic!”

“ Am already in the midst of the 3d volume of the
‘Life of Washington.’ God’s hand is plainly visible
in all this history. Surely he is our God yet and will
not forsake us in our hour of gloom. God save the

Republic!”
62 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

These and many other similar reflections show with
what a thorough spirit of inquiry and appreciation he
tread all the books to which he devoted the spare hours
of those most laborious years.

On January 22, 1864, he wrote in his journal: “TI
propose the following for a course of study to be faith-
fully pursued by me until finished:

Modern Languages.

English. French. German.
Ancient Languages. Greek.
Hebrew. Homer’s Iliad, 4 Books.
Latin. Herodotus, 2 Books.
Greek. Xenophon’s Memorabilia.
Greek Testament.
Mathematics. Prometheus,
Bourdon. Demosthenes, De Corona.
Geometry. .
Mechanics. 5: Latin.
Livy.
Hebrew. ; de Senectute.
G : Cicero de Amicitia,
esenius, and vs
Hebrew Bibl de Officiis.
PPO iret Virgil.
Horace.
Tacitus.

To what extent the Chaplain carried out his pro-
posal to master this course of study does not appear.
It is enough for us to know that the spirit and aims
of the student were not sacrificed even in those trying
days when overwork weakened his bodily powers and
endangered his very life. Moreover, this one thing is
clearly manifest in his reading and study, that he
wasted no time either on things trifling and superficial,
or on books of bottomless depth and endless specu-
THE STUDENT 63

lation devoid of practical utility and inspiration. To
him who turned every possession of blood, nerve, brain,
heart, knowledge, eloquence, song, magnetism, and
life into action and achievement for the promotion of
the Kingdom of God, the salvation of men, and the
preservation and glory of his country, only the books
that increased his resources of available and practical
power seemed interesting enough to challenge his con-
scientious attention. How do the mere boast of
learning, the pride of academic scholarship, and the
pretence of supercilious pedantry fade into puerility
in the light of that splendour of beneficent achieve-
ment which crowns the life of tireless and glorious
action !

“For the dreamer saw the sorrow and he heard the bitter cries,

And he left his dreams of morning, and his earthly Paradise;

And he changed his lyre of music, for the bugle of the fight,

And he sounded forth his challenge to the myrmidons of night,

To the tyrant and oppressor who had done the people wrong,

While he led the marching millions with the summons of his
song.”
VIII

SCHOOL-TEACHING—MARRIAGE—
PASTORATE

OON after young McCabe had recovered from
S his illness at college and had found a little
country school to teach, a request came to the
University for a student to fill the principalship of the
High School at Ironton. McCabe was recommended
by Bishop Thompson, then President of Wesleyan, and
was called to the position, which for two years he filled
with conspicuous success. He raised the standard of
study and discipline and carried an enthusiasm into his
work that was quickly imparted to the students. One
of those Ironton schoolboys, Mr. Edward S. Wilson,
writes his interesting recollections of Mr. McCabe’s
advent as principal:

“T was a member of the school at the time and
recall with what interest the pupils gathered at the
windows and watched for the appearance of the new
teacher. Some of us who had seen him at Sunday
School the day before were crowded with questions
as to his looks. One boy said he had eyes like Daniel
Webster, and another that his brow was like Napoleon
Bonaparte’s, all of which opinions were symptoms of
softening toward the new teacher. A third boy
rounded up the opinions by saying: ‘I’ll bet we'll like

64
SCHOOL-TEACHING 65
him.’ In the meantime he had disappeared in the
building and went to the superintendent’s room, where
he remained until the bell rang for school to begin, and
then he entered the room and took his seat on the plat-
form. The pupils were all in their places and the
silence was almost solemn on the interchange of
glances. Mr. McCabe then arose, and in a moment
broke the silence thus: ‘My young friends, I am a
Christian, and I intend to conduct this school on Chris-
tian principles and the doctrine of the Golden Rule.’
In this manner ‘he spoke for two or three minutes and
then called out the first class. From that moment the
school was under the spell of a lofty personality. The
discipline was largely the influence of an affectionate
friend and not often was this benign sway disturbed.

. . In those days, Mr. McCabe was often invited
out into the country to preach and he always asked me
to go with him. Those were delightful experiences.
Here it is fifty years since I was his pupil. It is not
simply the recollection that comes to me across that
half-century that I record, but the memory that
touched the every-day experiences in that long lapse
of years with a joy and gratitude that I had the good
fortune to be associated with so charming and noble a
man as Mr. McCabe. I remember him as one of the
purest, sweetest souls I ever knew.”

Many an old pupil with Mr. Wilson and many an old
resident of Ironton remembers how Principal McCabe
enlisted the pupils in the beautifying of the school
grounds by planting trees, many of which still flourish
there to tell how happy and mutually inspiring was that
66 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

comradeship of master and students fifty years ago.
Principal McCabe continued that earnest evangelistic,
soul-winning preaching which distinguished his sin-
gularly devoted life at college. Ironton and the
surrounding country felt his spiritual power as had
Delaware, and with all the energy that he put into
the school, for he never did any work half-heartedly,
he still found time and strength and a most zealous
disposition to lead souls to Christ.

During the Civil War the Chaplain revisited Iron-
ton and noted in his journal the memories and senti-
ments which were then awakened in his mind. “ Iron-
ton, Ohio. In my old home once more. Here some
delightful years glided away. I was happy here and
I trust useful. The boys and girls of my old school
have nearly all turned out well. They are blessings to
the communities where they live. The most of my
‘boys are in the army. Some have been killed and
others have died of wounds and disease. My school
grounds look splendidly. I want to rear a monument:
in their midst in memory of the noble dead of the
school and of the town, who have given their lives
for their country. I do not doubt such a project
would succeed.”

But those two years of school teaching were made
more memorable still in their bearing upon Charles
McCabe’s future destiny of happiness and success, by
his meeting there with Miss Rebecca Peters, the
daughter of John Peters, one of Ironton’s prominent
iron manufacturers. This acquaintance, which was
formed during the vacation which Miss Peters was
HAVO Suv GAdVOeM NIVIGVHO

 
SCHOOL-TEACHING 67

spending at home, ripened into an engagement after
she had graduated at the Wesleyan Female Seminary
of Cincinnati, and on July 6, 1860, they were married.
Thus began that happy union of forty-six years
which were filled with uninterrupted domestic felicity.
Not only was Charles McCabe a lover to his dying
day, but he never concealed the affection which he
had for the woman who was the pride of his eyes
and the joy of his life. With a naive gallantry char-
acteristic of his honest, ardent nature, he took delight
in letting the world know how tenderly he loved the
wife whom God had given to him as an helpmate.
His beloved “ Rebecca’ must share in all his suc-
cesses and honors as she shared in all his trials and
struggles.

In the humble beginning of his ministry, when they
had no luxuries and but scant supply of the common
necessaries of life, she was the cheerful sharer of his
burdens. During the dark days of the Civil War,
when the call of his country separated them in their
young married life, and when his imprisonment in
Libby filled her with sorrow, anxiety, and fearful ap-
prehension, her every thought was of him; but noth-
ing could quench her patriotic devotion to the Union
cause, for which her husband was ready to lay down
his life. In the work of the Christian Commission
she frequently attended her husband on his rapid jour-
neys, and in his weariness and exhaustion often
nursed him back, as it seemed, from the very gates of
death. Then in all the zeal and unremitting toil of
those great secretarial years on and up to the high
68 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

and holy dignity and consecrated devotion of his
Episcopal career, she proved herself the God-given
helpmate to whom he took every fitting opportunity
to award the meed of affectionate and grateful praise.
From the many tender paternal expressions found in
his journal and letters we learn how full was his joy
in the gift of a son with whom God had blessed their
union. John P. McCabe, the only child of Charles
Cardwell and Rebecca Peters McCabe, was born De-
cember 29, 1861, in Putnam, Zanesville, Ohio.

In those days a rule of the Ohio Conference required
that a young minister should be in the Conference at
least two years before he married. But brother
McCabe used to say that he “ married first and read the
rule afterwards, for he was afraid some one would
carry Beccie off if he waited.” He joined the Ohio
Conference and was ordained a Deacon by Bishop
Matthew Simpson, at Gallipolis, Ohio, September
23, 1860.

His first appointment was Putnam, since incorpo-
rated into the city of Zanesville. Though the salary
was very meagre, he and his devoted wife, who had
been reared in luxury, entered upon the work most
cheerfully, and without a thought or ambition, save
that of doing the duties of the Methodist preacher
in saving souls and shepherding the flock of God
in a quiet and contented pastorate. This, however,
was not to be his destiny. Attractive and useful as
the most circumscribed pastorate may have seemed to
his zealous but unambitious nature, events were im-
pending that were to call him from this peaceful and
SCHOOL-TEACHING 69

congenial field of labour into prominent public activi-
ties wherein his extraordinary genius for leadership
was to be demonstrated and utilised and the way
providentially opened through which his entire life,
with the exception of a brief respite of a few months,
was to be consecrated to most arduous but brilliant

and successful official service for his country and the
Church.
IX

THE CIVIL WAR—“ CHAPLAIN ” McCABE

P “HE Fall of 1860 was epochal, Abraham Lin-

coln was elected President of the United

States and the Nation trembled on the brink
of civil war. The inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, on
March 4, 1861, was effected amid the ominous growl-
ings of that spirit of rebellion which soon in madness
cried: “Havoc! And let slip the dogs of war.”
Pastor McCabe had been settled in his charge at
Putnam but a few months when Fort Sumter was
fired upon, and armed and organised secession was
threatening the downfall of the national Union. To
so ardent a patriot as young Pastor McCabe the
news of the insult offered the flag of freedom came
like'a bugle call to duty. The peace and quiet of a
pastoral charge lost their charm for him, while the
screech of fife and roll of drum thrilled his blood
with unwonted excitement, fired his tongue with a
new eloquence, and roused his spirit to the highest
pitch of patriotic enthusiasm. To this end Charles
McCabe had been trained from infancy. He drew
the love of liberty from his sainted mother’s breast.
The sweet and vital air of freedom pervaded his boy-
hood home. He grew up among a people who hated
slavery and were the first and foremost in opposing

70
FAGVON TIAMGUV) SATUVHO

 
THE CIVIL WAR. 71

its extension and labouring for its extirpation. The
original founders of the Commonwealth of Ohio, with
Jefferson’s codperation, insisted that the great Ordi-
nance of 1787 should include the prohibition of
slavery. And though defeated in its first wise and
righteous aims for the widening of the bounds of
freedom, Ohio, from its organisation into Statehood,
fronted her noble river with a kindly but dignified and
unflinching resistance of slavery’s extension. And
to the black and swelling tide that threatened to break
all barriers and sweep in unrestrained cruelty over all
the land she said: “ Thus far, but no further!” And
there, there at the Ohio, were slavery’s dark waves
stayed. Ohio had been the main route of the famous
Underground Railway by which thousands of fugi-
tive slaves had been aided in their flight for Canada
and freedom. When young McCabe entered Ohio
Wesleyan University he found it a hotbed of aboli-
tion, liberty, and patriotic unionism. The McCabes,
led on by that noblest Roman of them all, Professor
Lorenzo Dow McCabe, were the blackest kind of black
abolitionists. The Methodist Episcopal Church, in
her spirit and laws, in her laymen and ministers, was
pledged to universal freedom, and to the resistance and
destruction of the demoniacal institution of slavery.
Men like Chase, Giddings, Wade, and John Brown had
been teaching their radical views to the rising genera-
tion, and this pure air of freedom and patriotism did
Charles McCabe inhale into his soul. Ohio had re-
sponded promptly and gloriously to Mr. Lincoln’s call
for soldiers to defend the Union, and the whole State
72 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

‘ was aflame with patriotism when Pastor McCabe was
invited by the citizens of Putnam and Zanesville to
speak at the union meetings, and with his eloquent
tongue, now a very tongue of fire, inspire men to vol-
unteer by thousands to join the Union armies. It was
largely through his influence and by the inspiration of
his eloquence that the 122d Regiment of Ohio Volun-
teer Infantry was raised. Of this famous regiment
he was appointed chaplain on October 8, 1862, and he
received his commission from Governor William Den-
nison. That he might be able to exercise all the func-
tions of an ordained minister, and administer the
sacraments in the army, the disciplinary requirements
were not insisted upon in his case, and he was ordained
an elder by Bishop Thomas A. Morris, at Zanesville,
Ohio, September 7, 1862.

What a record Ohio has to boast of in the history
of the Civil War! She sent 313,180 men into the
Army and Navy, and 35,475 of her brave sons perished
in defence of their country. Foremost in the counsels
of the Nation, as foremost on the field of war, stood
the men of that great Commonwealth. Stanton, the
Secretary of War; Chase, the Secretary of the Treas-
ury and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, were of
Ohio. Joshua R. Giddings, a tower of strength in the
National House of Representatives; Senator Ben
Wade, Chairman of the Committee on the Conduct of
the War, and Senator John Sherman, Chairman of the
Finance Committee, hailed from the same State. Gen-
erals Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan were sons of Ohio,
as were McClellan, Rosecrans, Buell, McDowell, Custer,
THE CIVIL WAR 73

McCook, Mitchell, Schenck, Steedman, Garfield, and
Hayes; and so too was young McKinley, who as Quar-
termaster-Sergeant distinguished himself on Antie-
tam’s bloody field. And as Ohio furnished the great
Secretary of War, the great Secretary of the Treasury,
and by nativity the great Commanding General, so did
she give to the Union Army its most popular and dis-
tinguished Chaplain, Charles C. McCabe, ever after
known and universally honoured as “Chaplain
McCabe.” As the Boys in Blue learned to love him
in those great war days, and as the old soldiers of our
country continued to cherish his friendship and revere
his character, while their hearts thrilled responsively at
the very mention of his name, so through life did that
sympathetic, eloquent, glorious Chaplain hold in the
deepest affection of his patriotic heart the veterans of
the Civil War. He never lost his interest in the old
soldier. The sight of the little bronze button on the
lapel of even the shabbiest coat always prompted the
outstretched hand and the hearty greeting of the com-
rade. Many an old soldier among the living and
among the dead could testify to the generosity of Chap-
lain McCabe, who never saw a comrade in distress that
he did not minister to his needs. From his own pocket,
and by contributions from his friends among the rich,
he helped many a poor comrade out of want and helped
also to keep the roof over the heads of many a dead
hero’s widow and orphans. Nor did he ever neglect
an opportunity to give an old comrade the godly,
spiritual admonition that might lead him to lay hold
on eternal life, One of the most touching yet per-
74 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

fectly characteristic scenes in the closing years of his
life was enacted on the streets of Trenton, New Jersey.
He had come to the city to assist at the service of
burning a mortgage that had been paid off on Warren
Street Methodist Episcopal Church, of which Rev.
John Gourley was the pastor. As he stepped out from
the station upon the street he saw a man staggering
along under the influence of liquor. Upon his coat was
the sacred little bronze button of the Grand Army of
the Republic. The Bishop stepped to his side, took his
hand, and greeted him as comrade. Then he walked
along arm in arm with him, telling how sorry he was
to see an old soldier in that condition and urging him
to accept Christ and promise to meet him in Heaven.
Strange sight, indeed, was it for the passers-by to look
upon, a Bishop walking up the street with a drunken
man! But it was just like McCabe.

The widow of an old Libby Prison comrade had
nothing to depend upon but a brief manuscript left by
her husband, describing the famous escape through the
tunnel of Libby. Most generously the Century Com-
pany had it printed in pamphlet form and without
charge; then Chaplain McCabe was instrumental in
selling 20,000 of those pamphlets at ten cents a copy,
enabling the poor widow to realise $2,000. Just like
McCabe! One of his last acts of generous comrade-
ship was coming to Washington and lecturing in the
Metropolitan Church for the benefit of the temporary
Home for Old Soldiers. Never did he face a more
magnificent audience, and never did he lecture more
acceptably. How tender, how eloquent, how inspiring
THE CIVIL WAR 75

he was! How the old soldiers wept and laughed and
cheered! How they surged about him and shook his
hand and hailed him “ McCabe,” and “‘ Comrade,” and
“Chaplain,” and “ Charlie,” and forgot to call him
“Bishop”! How many who knew him in camp or.
hospital or prison cell, on the march or on the battle-
field, or by the quiet fireside, or in the Grand Army En-
campment in the later years of peace, could truly have
said:
‘*« We loved him so, followed him, honoured him,
Lived in his mild and magnificent eye,

Learned his great Language, caught his clear accents,
Made him our pattern to live and to die.’ ”

Chaplain McCabe was a true and devoted spiritual
shepherd of his regiment. He carried into the Army
the same evangelistic spirit that had distinguished him
at College. To win men to Christ was his consuming
passion. What an evangelist he would have made!
With his great zeal, his emotional nature, his splendid
eye, lighted with celestial fire, his wonderful command
of vigorous,' clean-cut, Anglo-Saxon language, his
knowledge of the Scriptures, his great humanity, his
magnetic eloquence, and his power and pathos in song,
he would have made an evangelist of that high and
noble order to which belonged such glorious soul-
winners as Finney, Edwards, Tennant, and Whitefield.

The chaplaincy of a regiment of volunteer soldiers
was not sought by him as a mere sinecure, it was a field
of Christian and patriotic labour, to which he brought
all the intense devotion and earnestness of his religious
nature. How he loved the men! How tenderly he
76 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

cared for them in their trials and sufferings! How
solicitous was he for their welfare, temporal and spir-
itual! How he laboured for their conversion and with
what joy did he hear them confess Christ! He could
not have been more zealous in building up a Church
than he was in developing the spiritual, religious life of
the regiment. His preaching and singing charmed the
boys; they called him “the singing Chaplain.” His
great-hearted kindness and sympathy won their confi-
dence, their veneration, and their affection; they came
to look upon him as their truest friend. His spiritual
power over them grew with the trials, hardships, and
dangers of war. His meetings were always well at-
tended, and they were not mere formal religious exer-
cises, but seasons of spiritual refreshing from the
presence of the Lord. He was always evangelistic and
preached for immediate results in conviction and salva-
tion, and rarely did a meeting close without some con-
versions.

Chaplain McCabe’s indifference to, if not his con-
tempt for, all red tape in ecclesiastical, parliamentary,
or military law and discipline was one of his amusing
weaknesses. He had no patience with petty tech-
nicalities that hindered him in his good work. The
parliamentary quibbling that blocked the great wheels
of important legislation in a General Conference or the
minor details of camp rules and regulations that inter-
fered with a revival meeting among the soldiers, he
could nonchalantly sweep aside. His breaches of the
technicalities of official and parliamentary rules were
generally condoned with the same good nature with
THE CIVIL WAR 77

which they were committed, for who did not know that
he never transgressed a petty rule of form but to more
quickly and surely get at the accomplishment of a great
good. His disposition to ignore the restraints of regu-
lation and the technicalities of discipline, in his zeal to
carry out a wise and godly purpose, did not always
meet with the same good-natured indifference in the
Army that it was treated with later in Secretarial office,
the General Conferences, and the annual Conferences
of the Church, when brethren would smile and say:
“That is just like McCabe.” No, his very zeal for
the spiritual welfare of the soldiers once, at least, led
him to an offense of insubordination that resulted in
his arrest and his repentance. In his speech at a recep-
tion in Philadelphia, in 1904, he gave this charming
bit of reminiscence which illustrates several character-
istics of his nature: “I went down to the army and
joined my regiment. It was not yet quite time for
the forward move, and I got the boys to help me build
a big arbor church and we started a protracted meeting
—meeting every day and every night; fully five hun-
dred souls were converted at those meetings. I met
my old Colonel the other day; he is in his eighty-fourth
year, and he reminded me of an incident I had for-
gotten. He said that one day during that protracted
meeting, when he went out for the usual three o’clock
dress parade, the soldiers were not present. He stood
there almost alone on the parade ground. The bugle
had called the men to the order of the day, but they
did not respond. The Colonel shouted to the Adju-
tant: ‘Where are the men?’ and he said, ‘The
78 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

Chaplain has them all in that church, and he declares
that the meeting is so good that he won’t let them
come.’ The Colonel was angry. He sent a message
to me and ordered me to dismiss the meeting. I sent
back word that I could not dismiss the meeting; it was
going on with such great power that I did not feel
it would be right. The Colonel then sent a guard and
arrested me and brought me up to headquarters, where
he remonstrated with me for interfering with the mili-
tary discipline of the camp. The Colonel said I was
out of sorts for two or three days, but that I came one
day and lifted up the flap of his tent and put my head
in and said: ‘Colonel, you were right and I was
wrong; henceforth I will obey orders.’” Just like
McCabe! Yes, and another act was just like McCabe,
brave, unconventional, unselfish McCabe! It was the
act that resulted in his capture by the Confederates and
his incarceration in Libby Prison. But let his old Col-
onel, W. H. Ball, tell how Chaplain McCabe was appre-
ciated by the boys of the 122d Ohio, and how it was
-for them he sacrificed his liberty and endangered his
life. The brave Colonel, whom the Chaplain loved
and honoured as a patriot and hero, once introduced
him to a Zanesville audience in part as follows:
“Tn the summer of 1862 he was ministering to
a Methodist congregation in Putnam, now the tenth
ward of this city. The 122d Regiment was fortunate
in securing his services as Chaplain. From the first
his sympathies went out to the boys. They could be
subjected to no exposure, no hardship, no danger,
which he did not desire to share with them, none which
THE CIVIL WAR 79

he did not share with them if in his power todoso. In
the hospital he was like a gentle ministering angel. He
was by the bedside of the dying to receive the last mes-
sage and to give the last consolation. He was the life
of the regiment. I can recall his strong musical and
eloquent voice as it went out in Union war songs on the
banks of the South Branch and at Winchester. It is
difficult to believe that in this Christian country a man
would be captured and imprisoned in Libby for teach-
ing the precepts of Christianity and ministering to the
dying, yet it was for this only that the Chaplain was
sent to Richmond, where he acquired his prison ex-
perience. I believe, in my heart I believe, he was the
most efficient, the best, the most manly and perfect mili-,
tary chaplain that ever trod the soil of America. With
a heart as large as humanity, he would not have swerved
from a moral or religious or a patriotic duty to save
his life. I honour and I love him.” If they could
speak to-day, would not all the gallant boys of the 122d
Ohio once more follow their grand old Colonel and
with him rise up and call him blessed who in the days
that tried men’s souls was their beloved, brave, and
glorious Chaplain?
X

CAPTURED—* ON TO RICHMOND”

EE was pressing on toward Pennsylvania with
his bold but desperate purpose to invade the

North, and, as many supposed, to seize Harris-
burg, capture Baltimore, and strike the heart of the
nation by marching with triumph into Washington.
General Milroy’s brave but wholly inadequate force in
the Shenandoah Valley was powerless to check or even
daunt the advancing Confederates, who, under the
leadership of Ewell and Early, easily swept them aside.
The affair at Winchester * impressed the Confederates
as a good omen and an auspicious opening of Lee’s
campaign of Northern invasion. The tide rolled
proudly on, in assumed contempt of Hooker and the
Army of the Potomac, only to reach its high-water
mark in less than three weeks’ time and to dash itself
in utter defeat against the Gibraltar of the Union
power under Meade at famous Gettysburg.

On the 16th of June, two weeks and three days be-
fore the first day’s fight at Gettysburg, Chaplain
McCabe was captured at Winchester. His regiment,
with others, and General Milroy himself, after defeat
by Early, escaped to Harper’s Ferry. But the Chap-
lain and the regimental surgeon, Dr. W. M. Houston,

* Not the battle famous for Sheridan’s ride.

80
“ON TO RICHMOND” 81

in their devotion to the wounded and dying, refused to
leave the field of battle. The Chaplain had seen but
eight months of service. His capture was the result
of his humanity and his unflinching devotion to the
wounded and dying on the bloody field of Winchester.
Then by the inhumanity of General Early, who seemed
to love a brutal joke more than he pitied wounded and
dying soldiers, he was sent to Richmond to be incar-
cerated in Libby Prison. Because Chaplain McCabe
was a preacher of the Gospel, Early argued that he,
with other Northern preachers, had been responsible
for the war and were needlessly zealous in their pa-
triotism and had raised the cry, “ On to Richmond; ”
therefore this Chaplain should go “on to Richmond.”
How Early’s brutal treatment contrasted with the hu-
manity and soldierly magnanimity of General John B.
Gordon! On the solicitation of Chaplain McCabe,
Gordon placed ambulances at his disposal to convey the
wounded from the battlefield into Winchester, where
they could be humanely and surgically treated. Chap-
lain McCabe always entertained the highest regard
for the soldierly qualities and humane magnanimity of
General Gordon, than whom the South did not possess
a more gallant soldier or a more high-minded
gentleman.

It is due General Early to say that his feelings
toward the Chaplain evidently softened and that he
permitted the Yankee preacher to pursue his mission
of mercy among the soldiers. There is still preserved
the following order in the autograph of General
Early:
82 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

“Hd. Qu’ts., Winchester.
June 17th, 1863.
Permit C, C. McCabe, a Chaplain of the 122d Ohio
Regiment, to visit the prisoners in the fort when he
desires,
“J. A. EARLy,
Maj.-Genl.
Com’g.”

The Chaplain’s first letter to his wife was dated,
Winchester, Va., June 16, 1863.

“We have been fighting for the past three days.
The battle went against us. I am alive and well, and
I do earnestly hope this will reach you and relieve the
suspense which you must have felt. I am trying to
relieve the sufferings of the wounded. War is terri-
ble. Cheer up, Becca. I shall see you ere long, I
hope. I do hope you can get this. I will write again
soon and tell you how to write to me if I am compelled
to remain here. I have not time to write any more
now.

Write the following letters at once and put them
into the Postoffice at Xenia.

Mrs. Doctor Houston, Urbana, Ohio.

Mrs. E. B. Brady, Cadiz, Ohio.

Mrs. Charles Ferris, Cleveland, Ohio.

Tell them their husbands are well.”

This letter did not reach Old Point Comfort before
July 4th, the last day of Gettysburg’s great battle, and
“ON TO RICHMOND” 83

it was not received by Mrs. McCabe at Jamestown,
Ohio, until July 14th, or nearly a month after the
Chaplain was taken prisoner at Winchester.

When the above letter was written the Chaplain evi-
dently did not know what was to be his fate. He
doubtless supposed, in the humane generosity of his
own nature, that chaplains and surgeons who were
found on the field of battle, ministering to the wounded
and the dying, would not be molested and that when
their beneficent work was done they would be immune
from capture. But he had not to deal with a Gordon
or a Lee; his fate was in the control of Early, and
Early thought the safest place for Union chaplains and
surgeons was in Libby Prison. Chaplain McCabe
rose cheerfully superior to his misfortune, nor
could his own gallant Christian heart find room for
bitterness or complaint. The rather did he even
then look on the “bright side” of life in military
captivity.

His second letter after the battle was written from
Winchester, June 19, 1863. The Chaplain does not
seem to have fully realised that he was then a prisoner
of war. His letter indicates that he expected soon to
complete the duties that kept him in Winchester, min-
istering to the sick and wounded Union soldiers. He
seemed to be in blissful ignorance of the fact that he
had been captured by the enemy and was not at liberty
to leave Winchester even when his merciful work was
done, or else he wished to encourage his wife with that
idea. This second letter is of personal and historic
interest.
84 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

“ My Dear WIFE :—

“T wrote you, via Richmond, that our regiment had
been in battle; 125 of them were captured, and quite a
number killed and wounded. The most escaped to
Harper’s Ferry. I might have done so, but Dr. Hous-
ton and I preferred to remain behind with the sick and
wounded. I am glad I did so, as my services were
greatly needed. J amin excellent health. Dismiss all
anxiety. Iam exceedingly joyful in the performance
of my duty; never was I more tranquil, never more
cheerful. We have been treated so kindly by our
captors! I shall never forget some of them while I
live. General Early * placed enough ambulances at my
disposal to bring our wounded to town. I cannot write
as I would under other circumstances, and for your eye
alone. I saved nothing of my property but your let-
ters, which have so greatly contributed to my happi-
ness. I shall not leave Winchester until our sick and
wounded are out of danger.”

Thus it will be seen that his devotion to the wounded
soldiers left on the field prevented his escape to
Harper’s Ferry. after the battle of Winchester, and his
very humanity and courage gave the enemy the oppor-
tunity to make him a prisoner. But in it all, Chaplain
McCabe was a true hero, rejoicing in his very perils
that he could be of help to the more unfortunate, who

* He evidently means Gordon, as in his lecture he always re-
ferred to Gordon, instead of Early, as having done this kind-
ness. In this letter he may give the credit to Early simply
because he ranked Gordon.

“sg
“ON TO RICHMOND ” 85

had been wounded and captured in battle. This cheer-
ful, optimistic, and most triumphant Christian spirit
he maintained through all his imprisonment.

Nothing more clearly reveals his generous, forgiving
nature than the bright aspect which he was ever throw-
ing upon his situation and the credit which he gave the
Confederates for treating him as considerately as the
exigencies of war allowed. Extracts from his letters
throw light on the prison life in Richmond and reveal
his own spiritual experiences, and especially his dispo-
sition always to look on the “bright side.” Indeed,
his greatest solicitude was for his wife and father and
the other dear ones at home, lest they should be need-
lessly anxious and distressed in mind over his situation.
He is always urging them to cheer up, be hopeful, and
look on the bright side, for all will be well.
XI

LIBBY PRISON

EFORE he wrote his next letter the Chaplain’s
B fate had been determined, but it did not seem
to cast a single cloud over the serenity and
cheerfulness of his spirit. This letter is written in
lead-pencil, and is dated Richmond, July 1st, 1863:

“ My Dear WIFE :—

“T am now in Richmond; don’t know how long I
shall be kept here; hope to see you soon. I am in fine
health and the best of spirits. Be cheerful, Beccie; all
will be well.”

Although he had not received a word from his wife
since his capture and was solicitous for her health and
peace of mind, the same Christian cheerfulness is mani-
fest in his next letter, which was written July 4th, and,
though he knew it not at the time, on the day of
Meade’s great victory over Lee at Gettysburg.

“ Richmond, Va., July 4, 1863.
“ My Dearest BETTY :—
“T have no doubt you are longing to hear from me
often, and I will write as often as I can. I hope you

86
LIBBY PRISON 87

have received my former letters. How I wish I could
learn of your good health. I am perfectly well;
indeed, I never had better health than to-day. Take
good care of my little boy. I hope to see you at the
appointed time. There is a large number of officers
here. Willie, my little boy, is with me. Write to
Mrs, Dr. Houston, Urbana, Ohio, and tell her you have
heard from me and that her husband is well and cheer-
ful. I remained behind at Winchester to take care of
our wounded. Our regiment escaped capture and I
could have done so, but thought it my duty to stay and
I am so glad I did so. Be happy, Betty. All will
be well. I must not write a long letter, as this must
be read by the Captain who has charge of us, and we
are of course limited as to space.”

It is evident from the following letter that he does
not anticipate a long imprisonment, but expects soon
to be exchanged. His hopes, however, were to be
dashed to the ground, but his good cheer was not to
fail him.

“Richmond, Va., July 10, 1863.
“My Own Dear WIFE:

“Here I am still in Richmond. There is some
trouble about the cartel. I don’t know what it is.
Nearly 300 officers are here now. My greatest, indeed
my only, anxiety is for you. Promise me that you
will be cheerful and happy. Wait patiently for my
coming. Think of the years of our blessed future and
‘save yourself for prosperous days.’ That last line
88 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

is a beautiful quotation from Virgil, of which I have
often told you. My health is still first-rate. I am
trying to improve my time as best I can in a careful
and critical study of the Bible. Time does not hang
heavily. Conscious of my own integrity, and looking
forward to a blessed immortality, Iam happy. Take
care of Johnnie, my darling boy. Were I permitted
to do so, I would write you a long, long letter, just as
I used to, but the rule is just. I have not one word
of complaint to make.”

Thus it will be seen that he was already looking on
the “bright side of life in Libby Prison,” and with
Christian fortitude and good humour was making the
best of his situation.

He now begins to date his letters from “ Libby
Prison.” From that day to this the names “ Chaplain
McCabe” and “ Libby Prison” have been intimately
associated in the minds of the American people. In
the great work of his subsequent ministry his expe-
rience in that famous, if not infamous, prison was
providentially used for the advancement of patriotism,
universal freedom and civilisation, and the Kingdom
of God by the multiplication of churches in our own
land and by the promotion of Christian missions in all
the world. What a power for good came into Chap-
lain McCabe’s life through the so-called misfortunes
of his capture at Winchester, and how God made His
enemies to praise Him when He permitted them to send
this Chaplain to Libby Prison! From that prison he
was to come with a message which for nearly half-a-
LIBBY PRISON 89

century was to thrill as with a bugle’s blast the heart
of freedom and the soul of Christian philanthropy.
No tongue or pen has given to the world a more vivid
portrayal of prison life in Libby than was conveyed in
the burning eloquence of Chaplain McCabe. It is due
to his memory to say that all the arguments and ex-
planations which Confederate apologists have advanced
in extenuation of the miseries and cruelties charged
against the management of Libby Prison have never
equalled in their influence upon the Northern mind the
eloquent, generous, and magnanimous utterances of
Chaplain McCabe. His famous lecture on, “ The
Bright Side of Life in Libby Prison,” not only threw
a mantle of charity over his enemies, but illumined the
very misery and darkness of military imprisonment
with the light of cheerfulness, wit, humour, and broth-
erly humanity. And to the end of life the spirit and
teaching of that lecture will relieve of sad and gloomy
recollections and fill with brightness the memory of
every old soldier that was ever a prisoner in ‘‘ Libby.”
No man, soldier or civilian, while serving the high
interests of his country as a patriot, ever did the South
a more generous, honourable Christian service than did
the Chaplain in showing the bright side of Libby
Prison. Few influences have been more potent in the
reconciliation of the Blue and the Gray than the elo-
quence of Chaplain McCabe and the gallant General
John B. Gordon. From the platform of every city in
our land the generous words of those great orators
bound up the wounds, sweetened the bitter cup of sec-
tional enmities, and lighted up with mutual respect,
go THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

honour, and fraternal good-will the dark, sad memories
of a fratricidal war.

The notorious prison at Richmond took its name
from the old sign that decorated one corner of the
building: “Libby and Sons, Ship Chandlers and
Grocers.” Captain Libby succeeded the original ten-
ant and builder, John Enders, a tobacco dealer. At
the breaking out of the war it was again used as a
tobacco warehouse for the manufacture and storage of
tobacco, by Liggon Co. It was a large three-story
brick structure, 140 feet long and 105 feet wide,
located at the southwest corner of Twenty-fifth and
Main Streets. In 1861 it was converted into a mili-
tary prison. It was undoubtedly the most commodi-
ous and comfortable building in the city that could
have been used for the purpose. If the cruel exigen-
cies of war often overcrowded it, and if the sanitary
conditions were more productive of disease than con-
ducive to health, no such horrors of inhuman admin-
istration were ever charged against General J. H.
Winder, the Military Governor of Richmond, or
against Major T. P. Turner, the Commander of the
Prison, as formed the terrible indictment that brought
to the gallows the inhuman Wirtz, of Andersonville.
Indeed, Chaplain McCabe often generously acknowl-
edged that everything was done for the comfort of the
prisoners at Libby that seemed possible to the limited
resources of the Confederate Administration. Libby
was principally an officers’ prison, the privates were
sent to Belle Isle and Castle Thunder. It has been
estimated that during the war from 40,000 to 50,000
LIBBY PRISON gt

prisoners passed through this prison; there were often
from 1,000 to 1,200 Union officers imprisoned therein
at a time. This building was taken down in 1888,
removed to Chicago and rebuilt there as a Libby Prison
Museum, which attracted many visitors during the
World’s Columbian Exposition.
XII

LIGHTS AND SHADOWS—LETTERS FROM
LIBBY PRISON

NCIDENTS which illustrated the peculiar and
l pathetic character of the great Civil War are

brought out in the Chaplain’s first letter dated
from Libby Prison. It has been noted that the descend-
ants of Owen McCabe went into Ohio, while those of
Owen’s brother migrated to Virginia. Of the Vir-
ginian McCabes was the Rev. John Collins McCabe,
D.D., an eminent minister of the Protestant Episcopal
Church in Richmond when Chaplain McCabe was a
prisoner in Libby. This high-minded gentleman and
godly minister of Christ visited the Chaplain in prison,
and did all that was in his power to ameliorate his mis-
fortune. He doubtless had considerable influence with
the Confederate authorities on the Chaplain’s behalf,
particularly when he was stricken with the illness that
threatened his life. The Chaplain never ceased to be
grateful to this man for his kind attentions to him in
Richmond, and he was proud to know and to boast
that so noble a specimen of manhood belonged to his
kindred and adorned the name of McCabe.

Another incident is not less touching. It chanced
that the Quartermaster of the Post at Richmond, a
Captain Warner, of the Confederate Army, had come
from Ohio and had gone to school to the Chaplain’s

92
LIGHTS AND SHADOWS 93

mother. What more was necessary than the thought
that Chaplain McCabe was the son of his affectionately
remembered school teacher, Sarah Robinson, to stir
that gentlemanly and soldierly heart with commisera-
tion for the prisoner and to inspire him with the pur-
pose to do all that was possible to minister to his com-
fort! How such incidents relieve in memory, as they
did in experience, the darkness and miseries of those
awful years of war! What the Chaplain might have
experienced at the hands of this Quartermaster but for
the influence of his mother’s memory may only be
imagined if we credit the statement of Col. Louis
Palma Di Cesnola that he, “an Ohio renegade, was a
greater scoundrel than any of the Southern race.” Let
it be hoped that even Di Cesnola wrote in haste and has
repented in leisure this hot-worded estimate of the
once boy-pupil of Chaplain McCabe’s mother.

The Chaplain’s first letter dated from Libby Prison
is both interesting and characteristic:

“July 17th, 1863.
“ Libby Prison, Richmond, Va.
“ My DEAREST WIFE:

“T wish I could write you a good long letter. I
must be brief and to the point. My health is first-rate;
my spirits above par. Gen. Neal Dow was brought in
lately, author of the Maine Liquor Law. He gave us
a speech Monday. Doctor John Collins McCabe, of
this city, an eminent minister of the Episcopal Church,
has called twice upon me. He is a perfect gentleman.
Looks like Uncle Dow. Has furnished some impor-
94 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

tant information with regard to my ancestry. Capt.
Warner, the Quartermaster of the Post here, used to
go to school to my mother. He is very kind to me.
Be as happy as a bird, darling. Go where you please,
buy what you want. Borrow all the money you need
of the doctor, or of uncle, or of your father. Tell
Rob * not to go into the army; his health is not good
enough. Write me at once and direct it to me at
Libby Prison, Richmond, via Fortress Monroe. I
only want to know whether you are well. Be short.
I am studying hard. Libby Prison is large and airy,
the weather cool and delightful. Read my old letters
in place of long ones. 2nd Epistle of John, 12th
verse: ‘ Mizpah,’ Gen. 31-49.”

The Chaplain was a living benediction to the pris-
oners in Libby, not only on account of his happy,
cheerful disposition, his perennial good humour and
his inspiring helpfulness, but also because he brought
into the prison the spiritual power and religious fervour
that had kept the camp in a state of perpetual revival.
And what a blessing to that prison life was the “ Sing-
ing Chaplain,’ who, with the music of his glorious
voice, dispelled the gloom of many’a sad, desponding
soul! The first notes of that magnetic voice created a
sensation in Libby. It was evening, the prisoners were
more than usually depressed and ‘early sought their
hard beds on the floor, to find surcease of sorrow in
pleasant dreams. Soon they heard a song that roused
them to attention; they sat up and listened to sweet,

* His brother Robert R. McCabe.
LIGHTS AND SHADOWS 95

old, familiar melodies of home and loved ones, as they
were sung by a quartette over in one corner of the
prison. In a moment the men were all on their feet
and gathering about the singers. When.a pause came
in the singing they asked the leader, “ Who are you?”
“McCabe, of the 122d Ohio.” And the quartette
which he had organised, struck up another sweet, fa-
miliar song. From that night one of the most inevi-
table expressions heard in old Libby in a time of
depression and gloom was: “Chaplain, sing us a
song.” Chaplain L. N. Beaudry, a fellow prisoner
with the “ Singing Chaplain,” and his intimate friend,
relates an experience similar to the above:

“The gloorn of night was settling upon our gloomy .
spirits. An indescribable dread made the moments
silent and oppressive. We were like men at the portal
of the tomb, and inscribed on that portal these words:
‘Who enters here leaves all hope behind him forever.’
But this dread was on us but a few minutes. Sud-
denly we heard nearly over our heads several voices
singing lustily:

“* Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host,
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.’

“The heavy load that oppressed us all seemed as
by magic to be lifted. The words of the sacred dox-
ology came to us with a new meaning, and the Divine
One seemed to say: ‘Be of good cheer, it is I, be not
afraid.’ I was instantly filled with inexpressible joy.
96 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

I remarked to Turner,* who stood not far off: ‘ What
isthis? Are they holding a religious meeting in there?
And do you permit the like?’ With a sneering voice
and manner he replied: ‘Oh, yes; you Yankees seem
disposed to sing anywhere, and we have jto endure it
even here.’

“‘ What he said to wound me only comforted me. I
was not many days among ‘the spirits in prison’ be-
fore I learned whose voice it was, on that memorable

‘Saturday night, that led and sustained the grand in-
spiring doxology. There is a certain something in
Chaplain McCabe’s voice, a deep and tender pathos,
which once heard is forever remembered. Until he
was taken down with the fever, his voice could be
heard almost night and day. At times not a few of
the rebel guards and passers-by grouped themselves on
Cary Street to hear us. McCabe’s voice was wonder-
fully powerful and inspiring at such times as these.
Many of us looked upon him as the ‘ canary’ in that
desolate cage. Other good singers were there, but
none of them attracted the same attention.”

The Chaplain’s religious work, his studies and his
perfect contentment with the prison régime make up
the contents of his next letter.

“Libby Prison, July 22d, 1863.
* My Dearest WIFE:

“T am anxious to hear from you. Write often;
direct to me, Libby -Prison, Richmond, Va., via
Fortress Monroe. I am having a pleasant time. My

*The Commandant of the Prison.
LIGHTS AND SHADOWS 97

health is fine. I am studying French and Butler’s
Analogy. No moment hangs heavily. I see you and
Johnnie often in my dreams. I love to think you are
so far away from the alarms of war. Willie and I
cook for twenty men; they compliment us every day.
The surgeons and chaplains form a pleasant company.
Be happy, Beccie. I preached to the prisoners last
Sabbath; we have good meetings. One man (an offi-
cer from Grant’s army) who had been an infidel for
ten years, told me that after the meeting last Sabbath
he went to his cot with the prayer on his lips: ‘ Show
me the way, the truth, and the life.” He is now an
earnest seeker of religion and is not far from the King-
dom of God. There are others. The prison is kept
clean as a new pin; food plain, and wholesome, first-
rate bread. I do not know how soon they will get the
cartel arranged. Send me half a sheet of paper with
each letter. Be patient. Allis bright for time and in
eternity. Take good care of my little boy. Love
to all.”

As yet the Chaplain had not heard from his wife
since his capture. His only anxiety seemed to be with
regard to her health and happiness, but his letters were
full of good cheer and assurance. The results of his
faithful evangelistic work among the prisoners show
how Divine Providence may make the apparent mis-
fortunes of men contribute to their highest spiritual
welfare. What came of the impressions made on the
convicted officer mentioned in the Chaplain’s last letter
may be learned from the next:
98 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

“Libby Prison, Richmond,
“July 27th, 1863.
“My Dearest WIFE:

“T feel a great desire to write to you every oppor-
tunity, for I am constantly fearing lest unnecessary
anxiety about me should impair your health. Let me
say again, be cheerful and look on the bright side.
Wait patiently. In heaven there will be no need of
patience, because of the absence of sorrow, but the
state of mind produced by patience will form part of
the bliss of heaven. My health is good. There is not
one very sick man among us. The Major of whom I
spoke, once a great infidel, has been powerfully con-
verted. Said last night that his coming to Libby
Prison was the greatest event of his whole life. He
lives near Cincinnati. If all goes well, you and I will
call on him some day. . . . I am waiting longingly
for the first glimpse of your handwriting. Rec’d a
long call from Dr. McCabe to-day.”

At last, after a long month’s imprisonment, the
Chaplain with joy receives a letter from his wife, to
which he replies in his usual cheerful and optimistic
tone. In this letter he tells of the intellectual and
spiritual work that occupies his time and engages his
heart:

“Libby Prison, Richmond,
“ Aug, 4th, 1863.
“ My Dearest WIFE:
“Your dear letter of the 14th of July came to-day.
Although old, never was a letter more warmly received.
LIGHTS AND SHADOWS 99

Our situation here is unchanged. I see no immediate
prospect of release. I am happy here in comparative
solitude. I spend my time pleasantly. Can al-
ready read the French and am acquiring its difficult
pronunciation. I commit to memory and make a com-
mentary upon a Psalm each day. A blessed work is
progressing among the prisoners. We have speaking
meetings of intense interest. Nothing can be more de-
lightful. I never was happier in my life, never so con-
fident, never so accustomed to a peace which the world
cannot give. . . . I am treated with great kindness
and respect by all. My health is perfect.”

While the Chaplain was in Libby Prison his Con-
ference, the Ohio, met, and one of his severest trials
was in being deprived of the privilege of meeting with
his brethren at Conference.

“ Libby Prison, Aug. 11th, 1863.
“ My Dearest WIFE:

“T have little hope of being at home in time to go
to Conference with you. This pleasure to which I
have been looking forward all the year is denied me,
but I have learned in whatever state I am therewith to
be content. . . . I am well and would be in fine
spirits if I could hear from you oftener. Be cheerful.
The exchange of prisoners will be resumed some day
and then, darling, I will come to you. Write freely
tome. I have become acquainted with the gentleman
who reads our letters. He is a fine man, and I have
no objections to his seeing everything you write. My
100. ©THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

health is perfect. I am growing fleshy, for we get
plenty to eat.”

Here again does the Chaplain gratefully acknowl-
edge the kindness and consideration with which our
Union soldiers were treated in Libby Prison. In the
following letters it will be seen how the Chaplain
usually employed his time and what true pleasure he
derived from his literary pursuits and his religious
work among his fellow prisoners.

“Libby Prison, Aug. 20, 1863.
“ My DaRLING WIFE:

“Tt is eight weeks to-day since we came to Rich-
mond. The time has passed so swiftly! I have been
usefully employed every moment. . . . I am well.
Last evening I distributed a large number of books to
the prisoners. J am nearly through my French; have
procured a German grammar and will enter upon its
study to-day. I see no prospect of any immediate
exchange of officers. The only way is to be patient
and trustful. By the grace of God I can do all things
required of me. Believe me, I am happy. Our
prison is large and airy and in the coolest part of the
city. We suffer no inconvenience from the heat.”

“Sabbath Day, Aug. 23d.
“This is the Holy Sabbath. We had prayer meet-
ing last night; it was very largely attended. Great
good is being accomplished. We have a debating so-
LIGHTS AND SHADOWS 101

ciety organised for the amusement and profit of the
officers. We also have a paper called, ‘The Libby
Chronicle,’ published every Friday. Its columns are
filled by contributions from among ourselves. . . .
I am sorry I cannot go to Conference with you. Iam
well, perfectly.”

“Libby Prison, Aug. 28, 1863.

“Your letter of the 7th came to-day. How happy
it made me! Thank God, you are all well and seem
to be hopeful. That is my great care: I want you to
be cheerful. I fear despondency for you more than
anything else. I know your anxiety for my welfare,
but I know also your fervent trust in God. This has
been a busy week. Our prison is transformed into a
college. The hitherto idle prisoners are students now.
Classes are formed in various useful sciences. I have
bought, through the kindness of the authorities, a large
number of books, and all is changed. The men do not
seem to feel their captivity as they did before. Only
one has died of our number since we came here. He
had contracted disease before—Major Morris, grand-
son of the great Robt. Morris. I was permitted to
read the service at his grave. Becca, I am happy, my
health is first-rate; we have wholesome food and a
good dessert after dinner of lively conversation and
laughter. . . . Every prisoner can spend his time
profitably if he so desires. The Major of whom I
spoke * is writing me a history of his life. I should
not be surprised if he would enter the ministry. He

* Recently converted in the prison.

\
102 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

lectured for us Friday; held the large audience spell-
bound for an hour and a half. Five weeks to-day since
I came to Libby Prison. Get ‘Les Miserables’ and
read it; you can get it at Xenia at the book store.
Wonderful book! I have but one shirt, that nearly
worn out. I have friends here, however, who will
supply me all I need. It is so hard to stop writing.
Hope the Adjutant will pardon me for transcribing
my limits.”

The last few sentences of the above letter are writ-
ten on the back of the single page which was evidently
the limit allowed by the rules of the prison, hence the
Chaplain’s plea for indulgence, which was of course
granted by the Adjutant.

It is in the following letter, of August 30, that he
mentions his translation from the French of one of
Racine’s Tragedies. In this letter, written on the
Sabbath day, he says: ‘I preached this morning to a
large assembly. A Colonel from -New York City
started for the better land, if we mistake not. I wish
I had space to tell you about him. I have written my
tailor to send you by express a full suit of clothes for
me, which you will take care of till I come. No news
in our little world. My college is prospering. Ask
the Doctor if he has any boys to educate. You ask if
I need anything. I answer, no! Don’t send me any
clothes or eatables, I can get along without. Senda
stamp with each letter and one-half sheet of paper. I
am nearly through the French Testament and ready to
read the German.”
LIGHTS AND SHADOWS 103

“ Libby Prison, Sept. rst, 1863.
“ DEAREST REBECCA:

“Your letters of Aug. 18th and 22d have just come
to hand. Iam sorry you are suffering so much from
anxiety of mind. You must not feel so. As at other
times, trust in God. There is not a calmer, happier
man in Virginia than I all the time. God is with me.
Souls are converted. If I had room I might tell much
that would thrill your soul. God is in it. ‘Even so
Father. . . . Don’t believe anything you read in the
papers about ‘ fearful diseases in Richmond.’ From
all I learn the city was never more healthful. As for
me, I am able to surprise Mary when I sit down at the
table once more and partake of viands served up in the
Peter’s style. It always seemed to me you girls had a
peculiar way of making good things to eat. So at
Mary’s, so at mother’s, and, begging pardon for the
vanity, so in my own house. . . . Some rumours of
exchange; but I don’t let them bother me. Let us be
content. See if you can decipher this, Sept. 1st.: De
hoc tempore, Deo volente per annos decem. That is
the expression of a vow which will take for its fulfil-
ment ten years of time if my life is spared. We have
classes in French, Spanish, Latin, Greek, Rhetoric,
English Grammar, Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry,
Natural Philosophy, etc.”

The Chaplain seemed to grow in grace while a pris-
oner. His spiritual ardour never cooled; his experience
became deeper and richer, and his zeal in winning his
fellow prisoners to Christ increased. The joy of sal-
vation filled his soul and found expression in his letters.
104 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

“Libby Prison, Sept. 6th, 1863.
“My DEAREST WIFE:

“T have just returned from listening to an excellent
sermon by Brother Beaudry, my French teacher. His
theme was ‘The Judgment.’ The congregation was
large and attentive. I could not help thinking of you
and home all the time. This beautiful weather! These
bright September days! I go to my grated window
often and look out over the green fields and then I sigh
for my liberty. Then I turn to the world within me,
which was once so dark, but now illuminated by a sun
which shall never go down, and then I am content.
Hallelujah, blessed be our Rock and let the God of our
salvation be exalted! The Sabbath is a blessed day
even in prison. Upon that day more especially do I
give myself unto prayer and to the word of God. This
is my eleventh Sabbath in Libby Prison. Some
rumours of a speedy exchange. It is the great topic
of conversation. From my manner no one would
guess how I long to see my family. I seem so cheer-
ful, so full of life, they have even accused me of indif-
ference as to whether we get out soon or not. The
events of the past four months have been a blessing to
me. Henceforth my trust in God will be firm and
unshaken. Oh, I have proved my Father. I know
Him now. I want no higher bliss than to do His holy
will, or, what is still more difficult, to suffer it. I am
well. My health is wonderfully preserved. My con-
stant intercession has doubtless much to do with it.
Be cheerful, Betty. Jé will all be well.”
XII

LETTERS—THE FEVER—RELEASE—
HOMEWARD BOUND

Pr | “HERE can be no doubt that the Chaplain with-

held from the picture of his captivity many

a shadow for the sake of his wife, who was
harassed with doubts and fears and was disposed very
naturally to look only on the dark side of her hus-
band’s condition. If the cheerful and magnanimous
Chaplain found the bright side of life in Libby Prison
there was, nevertheless, another side which he was too
discreet or too generous to describe. In his next
letter, while reassuring his wife as to the conditions at
Richmond and relieving her of the fear which had been
created by the newspaper reports of alarming epi-
demics in Libby Prison, he indicates that his own
health is not as good as it had been, and it proved that
the very symptoms which he describes to his wife were
the premonitions of the severe illness which soon fol-
lowed, and which nearly cost him his life.

“ rath Sabbath in Libby Prison,
“ Sept. 14th, 1863.
“ DEAREST REBECCA:
“ Your letter of the 26th of Aug. was received day
before yesterday. I also had a good long letter from

105
106 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

father. It seems he has been to Washington on my
behalf. Of course, he could accomplish nothing.
Mary will have a delightful house in Chicago. Father
wants us to visit him soon. I am not in a condition to
make any promises just now. . . . Iam just getting
well of one of my severe headaches. I caught cold
from going without a shirt while my only one should
be washed. I have sent to a friend of mine in Colum-
bus to send me a good supply of clothes. They will be
here soon. The authorities here have assured us re-
cently that they would be delivered to us. Col. Powell
is now in our part of the building. He is in our mess.
His wound is almost well. He bathes my head with
the tenderness of a woman. I am now propped up in
his bunk. I shall be well soon, to-morrow. Be
patient. I have told you all the truth. Check your
imagination. I will see you again. There are no
epidemics in Richmond. There is not a seriously ill
man among us that I know of. Do not you send me
any clothing. I only want it of the plainest material.
Keep whatever you may have for me till I get
home.”

In this letter the Chaplain mentions Col. Powell, the
man to whose nursing he ever after attributed his re-
covery from the fever that threatened his life. The
next letter was not as reassuring as the Chaplain may
have hoped it would be. Indeed, it lacks much of the
usual cheerfulness and indicates a letting down of the
physical forces which soon will be prostrated with the
fever.
LETTERS 107

“Libby Prison, Sept. 2oth,
“ Sabbath Day, 1863.
“My Darine WIFE:

“ Your two letters of the 5th and the 8th were rec’d
to-day. It gives me so much happiness to know that
you keep well. My cold turned into a fever, which
weakened me very much. I am entirely free from
fever now, however, and expect soon to regain my
wonted health. . . . No prospects as yet that I can
see of anexchange. Still must we wait, and be cheer-
ful. And, thank God, the outlook is as bright as it is.
The purest joy my heart ever can know on earth will
be to meet my family once more. How long! How
cruel the separation! How have I laid my heart, my
soul, upon the altar and have stood like the anvil to
the stroke! Duty with me has been the all of life... .
Feel no anxiety for me. All will be well!”

The following letter was the last he was able to
write with his own hand before he was confined to his
bed with the fever. While this letter lacks the abound-
ing cheerfulness which had filled his correspondence
since his capture, it expresses the hope that he will soon
be able to throw off his indisposition and be himself
again.

“Libby Prison, Sept. 25th, 1863.
“ My Dearest WIFE:
“Just rec’d five letters all at once. Two from you,
one from Mary, one from Col. Ball of Zanesville.
Yours were dated Sept. 11th and 15th. How like a
108 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

broad gleam of sunlight are your letters to me! . . .
Col. Granger says he wrote to you from Harper’s
Ferry after the retreat. Did you ever get the letter?
Brother Scanlin, doubtless, gave you more news than I
can about the exchange business. . . . I am getting
better in health, hope to be entirely well soon. I have
been threatened with my old enemy, the ague, but I
feel confident I shall escape it now. How I was dis-
appointed at not getting to Conference. I had been
looking forward to it all the year, but perhaps we can
go together at another time and more prosperous. I
think of you so much during the day. This short let-
ter seems but a mockery, but I shall see you some day.
God bless and keep you.”

The cold which the Chaplain had contracted when
his only shirt was in the wash, and the aguish or
malarial feeling of which he was conscious when he
wrote his last letter, proved to be the incipient stages
of the fever which shortly prostrated him. The next
communication to his wife was dictated to Col. Powell,
the Chaplain’s devoted friend, who nursed him through
his illness,

“Libby Prison Hospital,
“Oct. 3d, 1863.
“ Richmond, Va.
“My Dartine WIFE:
“T cannot write myself to-day, as I am covered with
sweat from head to foot. The least exposure would
make me take cold. Col. Powell, however, will write
LETTERS 109

for me. I am still very weak, but my fever is almost
entirely departed. The doctors all say that I am doing
finely, and that all I need is a little patience and care to
come through safely. I feel so sorry for you, but I
don’t know how I can help you any. There is an
effort being made to have me exchanged. I hope it
may be successful. Whatever you do, don’t try to
come here, nor let any other member of the family try
to do so. No one could do me any good. I have
every attention paid me that is necessary to my com-
fort. TI love to think that all my family are far away
in peace and safety. I think myself that I am getting
better, and hope that it will not be long until I am able
to be up and about all the time. Put your trust in the
Lord, He is our sure support. Don’t let your anxiety
injure your health. Take care of Johnny. Write
father as comforting a letter as you can. This is all
I want to say now.”

Colonel Powell kindly added:

“DEAR MADAM:
“TI wrote home yesterday and requested my wife to
inform your father of your husband’s condition.”

On the death of General W. H. Powell the
Chaplain paid him a fine eulogy, in which he refers
to his own illness in Libby Prison, to the General’s
nursing, and to other incidents of prison life which il-
lustrate the characters of these patriotic comrades.
The Chaplain said of General Powell: “He was a
i190. THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

fellow prisoner with me in Libby Prison in 1863. In
the battle of Wythesville, Virginia, he was terribly
wounded, and it was supposed that his days were num-
bered, but he recovered sufficiently to be brought to
Libby Prison, and there in his suffering condition a
charge of murder was brought against him. One day
I saw the sergeant of the guard take him out, and I
learned afterward that they put him into the dungeon
to await his trial upon the charge above mentioned. He
was kept there thirty-seven days and the case was never
brought to trial, because no proof whatever was forth-
coming. There was no furniture whatever in his cell,
except a little wooden bench, and it was dark and dis-
mal enough. The rats, which abounded in the prison,
were his only companions. We had a fashion in our
room in Libby Prison of singing an evening hymn.
One day I received a note from General Powell,
brought to me secretly by a coloured man, which read
as follows: ‘Dear Chaplain: Sing a little louder. I
can just hear you.—William H. Powell.’ Always
after that until his release from the dungeon we pitched
our tunes upon'a little higher key, so that our lonely
and suffering comrade far below could hear the hymns
he loved so well. I had with me a little copy of the
New Testament and Psalms. I wrote on the margin
of the Forty-second Psalm: ‘ Hope thou in God, all
will be well.’ The General carried that little book with
him (the Chaplain gave it to him) for many years |
afterwards, and many a time in addressing Sabbath
Schools and other religious assemblies he took it out,
held it aloft, and told the story.
LETTERS as

“ Just before he came out of the dungeon I was sent
to the hospital, very ill with typhoid fever. General
Powell was sent there, too, as he was still suffering
greatly from his wound. His sons have in their pos-
session a journal of those days, in which he tells what
he did for me. He found me covered with vermin
from head to foot and supposed to be dying with the
fever. He sat down by my side and took out his little
pocket scissors, which he carried with him, and cut my
long hair, which hung down to my shoulders. Then
he cut my long beard. He then secured from the phy-
sician of the prison an insect exterminator and soon
relieved me from the suffering I was enduring on this
account. He gave me a bath with his own hands, then
went down to the prison kitchen and tried his hand at
cooking for me, and brought me some nourishing food.
In an old scrap book, which I have recently come
across, there is pasted a letter bearing date Oct. 3d,
1863, Richmond, Virginia, and addressed to my wife.
He took it down from my lips sentence by sentence,
and while the tone of it is hopeful of recovery, I
thought myself that it was the last letter my wife
would ever receive from me. I wish to record the
fact, which I have often mentioned in public, that I
owe my life to the tender ministry of this great and
good man. And he was a great man. When his
wound made it necessary for him to retire from the
service and he sent his resignation to the Secretary of
War, General Sheridan, in approving it, said: ‘The
army could better spare me.’ General Powell always
reminded me of that little strain in Bayard Taylor’s
112 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

poem about singing Anmie Laurie at the siege of
Sebastopol :

««¢ The bravest are the tenderest,
The loving are the daring.’

General Powell was a Christian man, an honoured
member of the Presbyterian Church. He died calmly
and even triumphantly, bidding his family and his com-
rades who gathered about him to meet him in the
heavenly world.”

For this distinguished soldier and truly Christian
gentleman the Chaplain ever entertained the most
tender affection and the highest veneration; and
a life-long friendship bound together in mutual
love and esteem those brave and patriotic hearts.
Their correspondence was always full of the most
brotherly expressions, and their meetings in after
years were occasions of great satisfaction and
pleasure.

On his release from prison, General Powell, then
Colonel Second Volunteer Cavalry, wrote to Mrs.
McCabe: “Iam again a ‘ free man,’ left Libby Prison
last Friday morning, reached this point [Washington]
Sunday evening. And to my great surprise and inex-
pressible pleasure met your dear husband and my dear
friend this morning. Allow me to say that on meet-
ing him I could not, though in the presence of a large
number of strangers, refrain from clasping him in my
arms. Iam very much pleased to find him enjoying
such fine health.”
LETTERS 113

As late as 1903, the General supposed that he still
had the Testament which the Chaplain had sent him
when he was confined in the dungeon of Libby Prison,
but he wrote to his dear old comrade, in response to an
inquiry concerning it: ‘I have searched in vain for
the precious little Testament you sent to me when I
was in the Libby Prison dungeon. It was evidently
stolen from my library table.”

In a letter urging the Chaplain to attend an army
reunion, the General is reminded of the flight of time,
the brevity of life, and the near approach of the last
reunion of the old comrades who saved the Union,
and he recalls or unconsciously reproduces the beauti-
ful thought that was expressed in the dying words of
“ Stonewall” Jackson. He wrote: “ The time of our
final separation is nigh at hand. Come, dear brother,
and let us ‘reune’ once more under the old flag be-
fore we cross over the River to rest under the shade of
the trees on the eternal Shores.”

The General’s deep affection for Chaplain McCabe
was perhaps most tenderly expressed in the closing
words of a letter written in 1899:

“ Dear Friend McCabe: Should you be living when
my days are numbered it is my wish that you
shall close up my record on earth in a brief ad-
dress, at my home or grave. My family lot is in
Graceland Cemetery, Chicago. (Simply to Thy Cross
I cling. )

“Your Sincere Friend and Comrade,
“Wn. H. Powe.t.”
114. THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

It is in justice to the humanity of their military
enemies, no less than to the soldierly honour of the
loyal General and Chaplain, that we add to the record
of that Libby Prison experience this statement of Gen-
eral Powell:

“ During the early part of October, 1863, a general
exchange of Chaplains, held as prisoners of war, was
agreed upon by the authorities at Washington and
Richmond, Va., whereby all Chaplains held as pris-
oners of both armies were exchanged. At which time
about 100 Chaplains of the Union Army in Libby were
sent forward to City Point for exchange. Chaplain
McCabe’s condition was such that he could not go.
The day following I was especially detailed * by the
rebel authorities (through the influence of the Chap-
lain’s uncle) to nurse the Chaplain, who was then in
the hospital building near the Rockets, in the eastern
portion of the city. . . . In three weeks’ time he
was able to safely undertake the journey to Wash-
ington, and in due time to his home. . . . On his
departure, I was sent back to Libby Prison.”

While the other Chaplains were happily on their way
home from their long imprisonment, Chaplain McCabe
was lying at the very point of death in the hospital, too
ill to realise his disappointment in not being able to
enjoy the liberty for which he had been so bravely and
patiently looking for four anxious months. In reply
to his father’s inquiry about him, this official communi-
cation was received :

* Italics are our own.

 

 
LETTERS 115

“ Office Commissioner for Exchange,
“Fortress Monroe, Va.,

“ Oct. 12, 1863.
“R. McCasz, Esq.,
“Sherman House, Chicago.
“Si:

“Your letter of the 2d inst. is just received and in
reply I will state that all Chaplains are released. Your
son would have been sent North were it not that he is
suffering from typhoid fever, and too ill at present to
be removed. I am in hopes he may be well enough to
come in the next Flag of Truce, which will be here in
a few days.

“Very Respectfully,
“Yr. ob’dt serv’t,
“S. A. MEREDITH,
“ Brig. Gen’l. and Com. for Exch.”

In a few days the Chaplain was able to leave the
hospital, and in the next Flag of Truce reached Wash-
ington, whence he sent to his wife the telegram:

“T am coming home, but slowly. Health im-
proving.”

This telegram was sent in care of William I. Fee,
of Xenia, Ohio, who immediately forwarded it to Mrs.
McCabe, with the following letter:
116 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

“ Xenia, O., Oct. 20, 1863.
“Mrs. R. McCabe.
“ DEAR SISTER:

“Enclosed I send you a dispatch, which I received
this morning. It affords me unspeakable pleasure to
convey such pleasing intelligence to you. I hope soon
to have the pleasure of seeing your husband and to
have the privilege of congratulating you both on your
reunion. I shall look for him soon. Do not feel
uneasy about him. It may require some days for him
to get here. I shall expect to entertain him until he
can get out to Jamestown. You had better come to
our house and remain until he comes. You would see
him sooner. Mrs, Fee joins me in this request. Do
come. We have a great Union celebration here to-
night, etc.”

Of his journey home the Chaplain speaks in his
great lecture on “The Bright Side of Life in Libby
Prison.” No tongue or pen can give a more touching
and eloquent recital of the incidents immediately
following his release than is to be found in that
lecture.

One of the first missions the Chaplain felt called
upon to perform after his return home, was that of
securing the release from Libby Prison of Dr. W. M.
Houston, the surgeon of the 122d Ohio Volunteer In-
fantry, and his companion at Winchester, where they
were captured while caring for the sick and wounded
soldiers. He went to Johnson’s Island with the fol-
lowing letter: .
LETTERS 117

“The State of Ohio,
“ Executive Department,
“ Columbus, Nov. 12, 1863.
“ Maj. Pierson,
“ Johnson’s Island.
“ DEAR SIR:

“This is to introduce to you the Rev'd. C. C.
McCabe, who visits your Post with a view to negotiat-
ing with some rebel prisoner for the exchange of Dr.
Houston, Surgeon of the 122d O. V. I., now in Libby
Prison. Please give the Parson every facility in your
power to accomplish this mission.

“Yours Resp’y,
“Davip Top, Gov.”
XIV

LECTURE—“ THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE IN
LIBBY PRISON ”

“The Bright Side of Life in Libby Prison”

was originally written out in full and was
loaned to a friend only to be lost or mysteriously de-
stroyed. The Chaplain never rewrote it and was never
after quite satisfied with his extemporaneous or mem-
oriter delivery of it. Perhaps no lecture as popular
and familiar as this was ever so difficult to report.
The Chaplain would never consent to have a reporter
‘shorthand the lecture. But how could any stenog-
rapher catch the spirit of the Chaplain’s magnetic
oratory? The voice of McCabe, his gesture, expres-
sion, and glorious eye were essential, component parts
of his eloquence. As with Bishop Simpson, John B.
Gough, George Whitefield, Savonarola, St. Bernard,
and Peter the Hermit, the orator’s personality gave
power to his ideas and the charm of eloquence to his
words, The Chaplain’s lecture cannot, when read in
cold type, produce the impression upon the mind of one
who never heard him deliver it that its fame might lead
one to anticipate. But those who were ever fortunate
enough to have heard it from the Chaplain’s own burn-
ing lips will have the memory of the sensations then

118

Crm McCABE’S famous lecture on
LECTURE 119

produced recalled as they read it again from these
pages. Unknown to the Chaplain a shorthand re-
porter once caught it as best he could, and as here
reproduced:

THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE IN LIBBY PRISON

THE first time I delivered this lecture was before a
company of Sunday-school children in Philadelphia,
just after the war. The pastor of the First Presbyte-
rian Church there asked me to come and speak to the
children of his Sunday-school about my experiences in
Libby Prison. Because I was going to speak to chil-
dren I did not wish to relate to them the horrors of
prison life, so I prepared a little address and called it
“ The Bright Side of Life in Libby Prison,” in which I
told them of the stories we told and the jokes we got
off, and I do not doubt that the children went away that
day thinking that Libby Prison was a pretty good place
to be in. I afterwards loaned the manuscript, which
I then used, to Mr. George H. Stuart, and it was some-
how lost, so that I never got it again. But I am al-
ways meeting comrades who remind me of things I had
forgotten, and thus I am always gaining new matter
out of which to make my lecture; and so, though it
bears the same title, it is not the same lecture. I have
not laid it aside, because it has been so useful in help-
ing me in the great causes in which I have been en-
gaged. Many a time when the pastor of a church
would have announced that I would speak on church
extension or the missionary cause when we needed
money I have said to him, “ Announce that I will lec-
120 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

ture on ‘ The Bright Side of Life in Libby Prison.’ ”
And then how the people would turn out! I talked to
them of Libby Prison and then of church extension. I
let them in free and charged them for going out.
Many and many a time they paid a thousand dollars to
go out, and I have found out from careful investiga-
tion that fully one hundred and fifty thousand dollars
have gone into churches and parsonages and into the
pockets of poor preachers in this way during these
forty years and more. That is one good reason why I
shall not give it up yet. There is another reason why
I do not get tired of it. As I speak, I see the faces of
my old comrades, the faces of the noblest men I ever
1 knew, the men of the 122d Ohio Volunteer Infantry.
It was a regiment of boys whose average age was
Ltwenty-five—nine hundred and seventy-five of them
when they marched out of Zanesville in September,
1862, with new and beautiful flags flying in the breeze,
all unsoiled and unstained, marching to the front to
help save their country. They were with Grant at
Petersburg; they followed to Philadelphia; they were
under Grant at Richmond. Five hundred and eighty-
two of them were shot down and many wounded,
bringing down the remainder to twenty-two of the
, original number. They were with Grant at Appomat-
tox when Lee surrendered. It was a glorious regi-
ment. I have written to Emperors about that regi-
ment. I once wrote to the German Emperor about it,
and this is the reason why I did it. When he was a
very young man he made a speech in which he spoke
approvingly of duels. He said they made men brave.
LECTURE 15%

I wrote and told him of the 122d Ohio. Not one of
those boys ever fought a duel. The American soldier
needs nothing brutal to make | him brave. A college
professor made a speech not long ago defending the
modern game of football. He said it was a good thing
to play football that way because it accustoms men to
danger. I wanted to write him about my regiment.
We played football when I was a boy, but it was the
old honest game in which we would kick the ball high
in the air and let it reach the goal. We do not need
anything brutal to develop the courage of the Ameri-
can soldier when the country is in danger. F Cal the
boys from the farm, the shop, the office; unfurl the
old flag above their heads and let the band strike up
the music, and in six months you have a conquering
regiment of the soldiers of this Republic.) That is the
kind of regiment we had in the 122d Ohio.

It is surprising how much the modern editor knows
about conducting a campaign, especially when he is
about a thousand miles from the seat of operations.
Perch him on a three-legged stool in his sanctum, with
his pen in his hand, and he can tell the greatest gen-
eral just how to do it. In those days the Southern
editors were saying to Lee: ‘‘ March into the North.
Lead the army clear to Boston; ” and they expected to
call the roll on Bunker Hill. The Southern heart was
fired. ;

Our division was under General Robert Milroy.
Robert Milroy! Why, he would attack a force ten
times his own number without hesitating a moment!
Milroy was at Winchester. They telegraphed him
122 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

from Washington to fall back to Harper’s Ferry. He
had six thousand men and six pieces of artillery. Lee
had seventy-five thousand men; and yet with that hand-
ful of troops Milroy proposed to fight Lee with his
grand army. I was down at headquarters one night.
We had a good quartette and while we were singing
for Milroy, he put his head out of a window and saw
a scout who was rapidly approaching. He rode up and
said: “General, the enemy is coming, and in my
opinion it would be a good thing for us to be getting
out of this.’ “In my opinion!” just think of it!
In England a scout would not dare to say that. But
in our army scouts had opinions, and they were not
backward in expressing them; and I must confess that
we all agreed with the scout that we had better get out
of there when Lee was coming; but Milroy had no no-
tion of going. Lee, however, scorned to attack our
little force. He did not want to lose his men fighting
with Milroy. He was on his way to fight the army of
the Potomac. He had tested the qualities of that army
so often, that there must have come a doubt in his
mind whether he could meet them upon anything like
equal terms. Milroy had one gun which was his espe-
cial pride. It would send a three hundred pound shot
“for five miles. It was called the “ baby-waker,” and
I suppose it must have waked all the babies for miles
around. He was a Presbyterian, and when I saw him
Sighting that gun I thought to myself, “Suppose I
should ask him now ‘ What is the chief end of man?’ ”
I know what the answer would have been. “ Just now
it is firing this gun.” And he blazed away at the rebels
LECTURE 133

with all his might. They went further and fur-
ther to the right to escape his fire. I saw Milroy
go along the lines making little speeches to the
boys and these were his very words, “Now, boys,
we're in for it; keep cool! keep cool!” It is not
always possible to keep cool. Your hair will lift
a little, if you have any, on such an occasion as that.
“ Fire low and fire often.” Our boys did it and they
fired well. The enemy retired and we held Winchester
another day. We saw miles and miles of Lee’s men
pass by the next day. On the third day, Milroy sum-
moned a council of war. Every way of escape was
closed but one, and, as an Irishman would s say, that
was closed, too! but it was closed four miles out of
town. We marched silently along; not a soldier spoke
a loud word, not a buckle rattled against a canteen.
The camp-fires of the enemy were blazing everywhere.
I thought them all asleep, and I wished them sound
sleep and pleasant dreams. But they were not asleep.
They were waiting for us, and when we got four miles
out of town they captured us en masse. Our commis-
sary had loaned me a tent to hold my meetings in, for
I had three hundred and sixty-two members of Chris-
tian churches in my church, and we had meetings every
night. There was an everlasting protracted meeting

in our regiment. While we_were retreating the com-
missary asked me what I did with his tent. “I folded
it_up,” said I, and was about telling him what I had
done with his tent, when the enemy’s guns went off
on our right and he ran one way and I ran the other.

[never met him again until two years afterwards away

 

 

 
124 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

out in Iowa, when, running up to him and all out o of
breath, I told him what I had done with his tent. “So
it took me two years and seven hundred miles to get it
said. That was the hardest work I ever had to get a
thing s: said, “but T did it at - last, and I am thankful for
that. “Ee and I were thrown into confusion, but our
regiment was not. They simply cut their way through
the enemy’s lines. The doctor and I held a council of
war behind a tree; it was on the other side of the tree.
“ Chaplain,” said he, “ I want you to stay with me and
help with the wounded soldiers.” So we remained be-
hind. A rebel provost-marshal came up and we were
taken into the presence of General J. B. Gordon—the
same General Gordon who rose in the Senate of the
United States when Debs was threatening to overthrow
the country, and 7 to be the commander
of the Veteran Cofifederate League, and I can lead a
bigger army to the Potomac in defence of the flag than
Lee ever led to destroy it, and if necessary I will do itY
And the beautiful thing about it was that every South-
ern senator said {Amen % to it, and we realised for
the first time singe THE Gea that we were one nation.
And I tell you it was no idle threat. If this country
ever goes to war again, the Blue and the Gray will fight
side by side for the Stars and Stripes. We were taken
into the presence of General Gordon, and when he
found what we were doing, he said, “ Let them have
fifty soldiers and all the ambulances they want to help
get their wounded off the field.” When we had fin-
ished our work, we went to see General Early, who
had by this time assumed command. They made me
LECTURE 125

Sareauns of the party, and I addressed him thus,
“General Early, we are a company of surgeons and
chaplains who have stayed behind to look after the
wounded; we have finished our work and would like
very much to be sent through to our regiment.” He
smiled and turning to me said, “ You are a preacher,
are you?” J answered that I was. ‘“ Well,” said he,
“you preachers have done more to bring on this war
than anybody and I’m going to send you to Richmond.”

“To Richmond,” said I; “ that is one hundred and
fifty miles away, and it is only thirty to Harper’s
Ferry, and we would rather go to Harper’s Ferry.”

“ They tell me you have been shouting, ‘ On to Rich-
mond’ for a long time,”’ he said, “and to Richmond
you shall go.”

Up to this time all captured chaplains had been re-
leased, but owing to some dispute that had arisen sur-
geons and chaplains were now detained. We marched
on to Richmond, and in due time stood in the presence
of the grim old walls of Libby Prison and waited for
somebody to come out and invite us in. We went in.
We were invited to register. We registered. Then
we were taken into another large room and searched.
They took out of our pockets everything that we
possessed. If it was not worth anything they gave
it back, but if it was worth anything they kept it. I
had eighty dollars in greenbacks on my person. Now
you will wonder how it was that a preacher ever had
eighty dollars in greenbacks in his pocket at one time.
It did not belong to me; that was the reason; it be-
longed to the boys. They had said, “ Take this and
126 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

’

send it home to my wife or my mother,” and I was
saving the very bills for the dear ones at home when
this fellow was taking them away from me. “ Sir,”
said I, “ that is not my money.” “I know it,” said he,
“it is mine now.” And he took it away with him.
After a while a receipt was given me which pledged
that the Confederate government would pay the bearer
in Confederate money at the rate of seven to one, and
so I got five hundred and sixty dollars in Confederate
money when I left the prison. At that time fifty Con-
federate dollars would buy a pair of boots. It got so
bad that a barrel of flour cost eight hundred dollars!
I took my five hundred and sixty dollars, but I could not
buy a breakfast with the whole of it in the North. My
friend General di Cesnola, who has been for many
years in charge of the Metropolitan Museum in New
York, had seven hundred dollars in greenbacks on his
person. “Now,” I thought, “they have struck a
bonanza.” I remember wondering whether he would
lie about it, and I fell to wondering whether if he did,
under these trying circumstances, it would be laid up
against him. “General,” said the guard, “have you
no money?” “Look and see,” said he. They did
look, but not a dollar did they find. Oh, how I bless
him to this hour! For I borrowed some of it after-
wards. If you had plenty of money in Libby Prison
you could get along pretty well. One Confederate dol-
lar would buy about six apples, or a quart of milk, and
as one greenback would buy twenty-five or fifty Con-
federate bills we could get along pretty well. That
is the best example of fiat money I have ever known.
LECTURE 127

I remember some years ago seeing a five-hundred-dol-
lar Confederate note framed and hanging on the wall
of a friend’s house, and on the back of it were written
these pathetic lines by Major S. A. Jones, subsequent
to the great surrender. I thought they were so beau-
tiful that I committed them to memory.

“Representing nothing on God’s earth now,
And naught in the water below it;

As a pledge of a nation that’s dead and gone,
Keep it, dear Captain, and show it.

Show it to those that will lend an ear
To the tale this paper can tell,

Of liberty born of the patriot’s dream,
Of a storm-cradled nation that fell.

“Too poor to possess the precious ore,
And too much of a stranger to borrow,
We issue to-day, our ‘ Promise to Pay,’
And hope to redeem on the morrow.
Days rolled by, and weeks became years,
But our coffers were empty still;
Coin was so rare that the Treasurers quaked
If a dollar should drop in the till.

“But the faith that was in us was strong, indeed,
And our poverty well we discerned,

And these little checks represented the pay
That our suffering veterans earned.

We knew it had hardly a value in gold,
Yet as gold the soldiers received it;

It gazed in our eyes with a Promise to Pay,
And each patriot soldier believed it.

“But our boys thought little of price or pay,
Or of bills that were over-due;

We knew if it bought our bread to-day,
’Twas the best our country could do.
128 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

Keep it! it tells all our history over,
From the birth of the dream to the last;
Modest, and born of the Angel Hope,
Like our hope of success it passed.”

After we were all searched we were allowed to go
upstairs. There a great surprise awaited us. I
thought that I should see dead men lying around on
‘the floor and that all would be looking sad and broken-
hearted. I saw nothing of the kind. As we new-
comers began to come in, some one cried out, “ Fresh
fish! fresh fish!” And one man whom I had never
seen before came up to me and shook me roughly and
warmly by the hand and said, ‘“ How are you, old fel-
low? How have you been?” I said that I had been
well. “Why didn’t you come sooner?” and then,
turning to an imaginary porter, he said, “ Here, Jim,
take the gentleman’s baggage and show him to room
thirty-six, and see that he does not want for anything
while he is with us.” Baggage, thought I! I had some
baggage once, but it was all gone long ago. Every
stitch of clothes I had but those on my back were gone,
and I was afraid they would take those too, for that
was a way they had. If your clothes were pretty good,
they would trade with you; and so it came about that
many of our boys in prison had on Confederate grey
while the guard outside had on the Union blue. When
I first saw them I took them for a company of Union
soldiers; but by and by one of them spoke and then
I knew that I was mistaken. He said something like
this: ‘ Post number foah. All right.’”” When I heard
LECTURE 129

that kind of talk, I knew which side of the line I was
on.

“Where shall we three sleep?” said I. There were
three of us always together. Dr. Houston, Willie
Morgan, and myself. Willie Morgan was a lad of fif-
teen years of age. His mother consented to his going
to the war, providing he would keep near the chap-
lain and surgeon, and keep out of danger! Willie was
our cook. Such a beefsteak as he would toss off the
end of a stick on my tin plate, and potatoes cooked in
the ashes, and coffee hot as blazes! When I go into
the country hotels now, and the girls come in with their
arms full of little dishes and set them around my plate,
a little dab of this and a little dab of that, I almost
wish for another war and that I could again be at the
front with the Doctor and Willie. One year after this,
at the age of sixteen, Willie was swinging a sabre in
the cavalry service. The age-limit for mustering in
was eighteen, but the claim of “ going on nineteen ”
admitted many a boy who was several years short of
that age. What boys we had in those days! and I
think if we should ever have occasion again, we could
call as brave boys to the rescue of the country as their
fathers were before them.

“‘ Where shall we three sleep to-night? ” I asked the
officer of the day. “ Put your heads up against the
door,” said he, “ and don’t obtrude to the right or left,
for it’s occupied.” I laid me down, but not to sleep.
After many hours, I was just dozing off when I was
awakened by a shout, “ Right wheel!” I sat up in bed
and looked on. Libby Prison was rolling over on its
130 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

left side. I asked an old residenter what it meant.
He said, “ When your bones get sore on one side don’t
roll over without giving the word of command, or
things will get into confusion here.” After a while
a voice called out, ‘ Left wheel!” and we all rolled
back again.. I had often seen Hardee’s tactics in the
perpendicular, never in the horinzontal before.

The night passed away and with the morning came
aman to count us. I said to Mr. Stark, who was
standing by me, “ What makes him do that?” “ To see
if we are all here, to be sure,” said he, “ Why,” said
I, “can you get out of here?”

“Have you ten dollars?” said he. “If you have
you can bribe the guard, but after you get out you will
have to look out for the bloodhounds.” It was too
true, the guards were always ready to mount their
horses and scour the country to recapture fugitives.
They kept bloodhounds to hunt us. In the books of
the Congressional Investigation Committee you can
find pictures of these terrible dogs. I confess, I was
afraid to meet them. One day an old coloured man
came into the prison and I took him aside and said to
him, “ Uncle, tell me how you coloured people get
along with the bloodhounds.” He grinned and said,
“When I comes in again I’ll fotch you a little cayenne
peppah, and when you gits out a ways put a little pile
of peppah in yo’ tracks. By and by, along comes dat
dog, sniff! sniff! sniff! and when he sniffs dat cayenne
peppah, for a few weeks he’s gwine to fergit all about
fh war.” I knew some of the men who escaped

nrough the famous tunnel. I do not know but that
LECTURE 131

they would all have escaped if it had not been for an
accident. A fat man tried to go through. Now, fat~
men love liberty as well as thin men, and a big fat”
Dutchman tried to go through. When he got half-
way through he stuck fast. He roared for help; he got
help from the next man behind him. Imagine your-
self in that next man’s place—Libby Prison behind
you, and liberty before you, and nothing but a fat man
in the way! At last they jammed him through, and
so the fat man and the lean man escaped, and in all
one hundred and nineteen prisoners escaped. in one
night. Many of them were afterwards recaptured,
with the help of the bloodhounds. Among these was
Captain Moran, who afterwards lived to write a most
interesting account of the escape through the tunnel,
which was published by The Century Magazine some
years ago. The boys dug the tunnel from the cellar of
Libby Prison to an old shed some distance away across
the street. They had no tools except an old broken
case-knife. They would go down to the cellar two at
a time at night and one would dig while the other
would gather up the dirt in his hands and pile it up in
another corner of the cellar. The hole was made from
an old fireplace. When morning came they would
cover up their dirt with some straw that was down
there, and so clever were they at their work that the
discovery was not made by the guards until a tunnel
large enough for a man to crawl through had been
completed. It was gruesome work. They dared not
have a light, and the place was infested with rats, so
much so that they had to fight the hungry creatures off
132 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

while they worked. After Libby Prison was trans-
ported to Chicago, I went to see it one day, and there it
was, true as life, every brick and timber in its old fa-
miliar place. The guide took me down into the cellar
and showed me the hole where the prisoners escaped.
“Wonderful enterprise,” said I, “to transport a hole
all the way from Richmond to Chicago.” One day
~Captain Warner, a commissary, entered Libby Prison
and enquired for me. When I presented myself, he.
said that he had gone to school to my mother in Mari-
etta, Ohio, and that she was the best friend he ever
had. He enquired if there was anything he could do
for me. I told him I would like a bath-tub. I could
have one. Three bath-tubs were provided, and then
we had Cites ean ano two hundred
men toatub. We took turns, and after a while all got
clean once more. I asked him if he could get me a
book, which he very kindly did. When the men saw
me with a book they said, ‘Why cannot we have
books, too?” To be sure they could. I made a long
list of the books the men wanted, which list I still
have. The men gave him the money and he procured
as many of them as he could. We had a notable com-
pany of men in Libby Prison. There were doctors,
and teachers, and editors, and merchants, and lawyers.
There were forty lawyers there. Now some of you
will wonder how we could have a good time at all
with forty lawyers in prison at once. I do not say
that there ought not to be forty lawyers in jail at once,
but, I do say, it is an unusual thing to get so many of
them there at one time. One of these was Benjamin F,
LECTURE 133

Blair, of New York. Then there were editors, in-
cluding Junius Brown, of the New York Herald, and
Richardson, of the Tribune. They got up a paper
which was published weekly and called the “ Chronicle
of Libby Prison,” and the guards used to listen eagerly
to the reading of these journals. We established a
university, called the University of Libby Prison. We
had classes in German, French, Spanish, and Italian,
and natives to teach all these languages. We bought
books when we needed bread. I was cook for twenty
men. What I had to do was to make soup out of a
quart of wormy beans and put in enough water to go
around for twenty men. We made it a rule that no
one should have anything to eat at all until he could
ask for it in French, and so we would sit at our table
empty as Mother Hubbard’s cupboard and say Avez-
vous this and Avez-vous that and Voulez-vous this and
Voulez-vous that. There was more of the “ Voulez ”
than of the “ Avez,” I assure you.

One of the grand events of our captivity was the
celebration of the Fourth of July. A committee was
appointed on programme and one on decorations. °
Some of the men were appointed to speak and others —
to sing. We had great rehearsals. The audience”
was present at every rehearsal. Everything was go-
ing well except that we had no flag. A bright idea
dawned on some one. We found a man with a blue
shirt and then we found one with a red_shirt; then
came the tug of war. It was harder to find a white
shirt. But finally one was found that had been-white,
and the three were given into the hands of a tailor,
134 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

who in due time produced a tolerably good flag. I
saw the committee examining his work and heard one
man remark, “’Tis distance lends enchantment _to the
view.” And another, “I can see the stitches four feet
away.” But the flag would do. It was rolled up and
put away in a crack in the wall, and on the morning
of the Fourth of July Captain Reed climbed up and
fastened it to the rafters.

When you think of Libby Prison you must not
think of it as one great room, but as a large warehouse
divided into several large rooms, When we had our
concerts and celebrations we would crowd into one
room. On the morning of the Fourth of July we all
crowded into Colonel Straight’s room, where our flag
was suspended. The Colonel made us a speech. He
said, “Gentlemen, if there is anything said here to-
day that pleases you do not cheer, for if you do they
will know what is going on. Keep still and cheer in
your hearts.” I know it was bad advice, for we had
never been still before and they would think it was a
conspiracy. They would think we were going to break
out and capture the guards and march north with
the whole Confederacy. We often talked of it, but
never did it. Sure enough, the guard soon came up to
see what we were about. He stood looking at our
flag. “ Who put that thing up there?” he said. Oh,
how mad the tailor was when he called his flag a
thing! “Take it down,’ commanded the guard.
Did not General Dix say, “If any man tears down
the American flag, shoot him on the spot?” We
didn’t want to be shot, so we did not take down our
LECTURE 135

flag; but the guard climbed up and took it down
himself and disappeared with it downstairs and we
never saw our beautiful banner any more; but we
celebrated just the same. It must have required a
good deal of patience for the rebels to hear us sing-
ing, “ We’re Coming, Father Abraham, Six Hun-
dred Thousand More,” and “ Rally Round the Flag,
Boys.” They liked to hear us sing, and frequently
crowds of people would gather outside the prison
windows and occasionally some one would shout out,
“Sing us that song about Old Abe!” They stood it
all very well till we came to ‘“ Yankee Doodle,” but.
that always made them mad.

Bad news began to come into Libby Prison thick
and fast. We heard one day that there had been a
great battle at Gettysburg and that forty thousand
men had been captured on their way to Richmond.
On the morning of the sixth of July, old Ben, a negro
who had permission to sell us papers, came in as
usual. He looked around upon the prostrate host and
then cried, ‘ Great news in de papers!”” If you have
never seen a resurrection, you could not tell what hap-
pened. We sprang to our feet and snatched the
papers from his hands. Some one struck a light and
held aloft a dim candle, and by its light we read these
headlines, “ Lee is defeated! His pontoons are swept
away! ‘The Potomac is over its banks! The whole
North is up in arms, and sweeping down upon him!”
We sang all our national airs from “ Yankee Doodle ”
to “Old Hundred.” Every voice rang out with the
words of the Doxology; it was sung on the key of
136 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

“©,” as I remember it. Some time before, I had cut
out of The Ailantic Monthly Julia Ward Howe’s
“ Battle Hymn of the Republic,” and committed it to
memory; discovering that it would go well to the tune
of “John Brown’s Body,” we learned to sing it in
Libby Prison, and we made the welkin ring with its
chorus of “ Glory, Glory, Hallelujah!” The rebel guard
came up and compelled us to stop, but the song was
out and it still echoes over the city. A few days after-
wards, we got the sequel of our celebration. There
was in the prison a coloured man whom they called
General Jackson, a member of a Pittsburg regiment,
that had been captured. They made him the janitor
of the prison, and he came up every morning to smoke
us with a pine-knot by way of fumigating the prison.
Every morning he would shout, “ Here’s your good
Union smoke, without money and without price!”
On the morning of the eighth of July he came up and
_ shouted, “ Here’s your good Union smoke all the way
from Vicksburg!” ‘“ What do you know about
Vicksburg?” asked a hundred voices. “Grant is in
Vicksburg.” We went to the windows and looked
out and saw the newsboys selling extras. The people
in the street read them and looked gloomy and sad.
Somebody brought us a copy, and the man who got it
stood on a table and read aloud these words: ‘“‘ Ad-
jutant-General Cooper: Compelled by circumstances,
I surrendered the post of Vicksburg on the Fourth of
July to Major-General U. S. Grant of the Federal
Army.” And it was signed “ Pemberton.” When we
heard this, we sang all our national songs over again.
LECTURE 137

A guard put his head in at the door and shouted, “ You
Yanks up there, you’ll be singing out of the other side
of your mouths in a few days!” Ina few days Port
Hudson fell, and then we sang them all over again.
At the risk of being shot, I saw a man put his head
out of the window and call out, “ We’re a-singing out
of both sides now!” Vicksburg captured? Some/
one asked what day it was and what time of day. It
occurred to us that it was the same day and the same
time of day when that fellow was pulling down our '
little old shirt flag, General Grant was pulling down the
Rebel flag at Vicksburg. Gentlemen, that was the
finest coincidence of the war.

One day seventy-three captains were sent for to
come downstairs and two chaplains, of whom I was
one. We were formed into a hollow square and
the officer in charge addressed us thus, ‘“ Gentlemen,
I have an unpleasant duty to perform. I am ordered
to select two of you for execution; and as the fairest
way to do this I have written your names on slips of
paper and put them in this hat. One of the chap-
lains will take out two names and the other captains
can go back upstairs.” The other chaplain, Father
Brown, as we called him, nearly eighty years of age,
picked the names from the hat. They were Captains
Sawyer and Flynn and they were put into the dun-
geon and were to have been executed the next day,
but owing to some disagreement among the authori-
ties the execution was delayed. A letter to Mr. Lin-
coln was written by the prisoners and I saw one of
them, by the name of MacDonald, who had just been
138 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

exchanged, pry open the sole of his boot and hide the
letter therein. As soon as he reached Washington he
took it to Mr. Lincoln. It so happened that Captain
Fitzhugh Lee and Captain Winder, a son of General
Winder who had ordered this execution, had just been
captured. Mr. Lincoln sent this message, “If you
execute Sawyer and Flynn, I will execute Lee and
Winder. A. Lincoln.” They never were executed.
That was a way the President had, and I think it was
a pretty good way.

I never thought I should cry “Fresh fish!” to a
man I had never seen before and had never been in-
troduced to, but one day the cry of “ Fresh fish!”
rang through the prison and we ran to see who had
“ome. There was Brigadier-General Neal Dow, of
Maine. He was that grand old dreamer who was the
first_to conceive that it is possible to have one State
.free from the curse of rum. . We made him make us
a temperance speech and then Ghe rebels laughed) I
had never seen them laugh before, and I remember I
used to wonder whether their faces would crack if they
smiled, they looked so solemn. But they laughed at
our temperance meetings. They said, “ Why, you
couldn’t get a pint of whiskey in Libby Prison to save
your life. What’s the use of holding temperance
meetings?’’ The newspaper reporters got hold of it,
_and they | would come come and report his speeches and
print’ them in the papers of Richmond. One day a an
invitation came for him to make a tour of the South.
He was the guest of the most distinguished citizens
of Georgia. He was gone six weeks and came back to
LECTURE 139

the prison merry as a lark. One day he told us
what a fine time he had had. He said that the Con-
federacy was nothing but a shell. That there was
nothing left but old men and boys for them to recruit
from. Just then the sergeant came in. I supposed he
would stop talking at once, but he went right on as
though nothing had happened and said with great em-
phasis and a forcible gesture of his right fist, “ As I
was remarking, gentlemen, intemperance is the great-
est evil in the world!” We all looked as though we
thought so too, and the sergeant went off downstairs
saying, “That old crank is delivering another tem-
perance lecture.”

We got up a singing society and had a concert. ‘It
was a grand success. Everybody was present. We
had solos, duets, and trios, and a grand chorus. We
had Irish songs, French songs, Hungarian songs,
Scotch songs, German songs. Sometimes we would
wind up our concerts by singing, “ There’s no Place
like Home.” One day an Irishman was very much
depressed and he sat dejectedly crooning to himself:

“ Backward, turn backward, O Time, in your flight,
Make me a child again just for to-night,”
when another Irishman heard him and exclaimed,
“Vis, and a girrd child at that!”

One night when we were giving a concert, the
guard outside shouted, “ Lights out up there!” The
lights went out, but the concerts went on. We had
only one tallow-dip, which we fastened to the table by
its own grease, and it was so dim that it only served
to make the darkness visible. We were a noisy com-
140 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

pany and it was hard to sleep. I moved that hereafter
at nine o’clock everybody should get quiet. I was
voted down unanimously. By and by, another fel-
low got up and said: “.With the privilege of this asso-
ciation I have a conundrum to propound. Why is
Libby Prison like a church?’ His answer was, “ Be-
cause we have fasting and prayer.” Up sprang an-
other fellow and said, ‘ Why is Libby Prison like a.
literary institution?’ Nobody could guess. His an-
swer was, “ Because it is a lyceum.” “ Put him out!
Put him out!” they cried. We didn’t want anybody
to know that, and here’s a fellow who blurts it right
out in meeting. There was one man there who could
never see a joke for five hours, and after that he
would laugh. How many of us have laughed at John
B. Gough’s story of the man who said to another
man, “A fine day for the race, isn’t it?” “ What
race?”” “The human race.” That was a fine joke,
and he thought he would get it off on the next man he
met. Meeting a friend soon after, he said, “ Fine day
for the trot, isn’t it?” “ What trot?” “ Well, I
thought I had a joke, but somehow it is gone from
me.” So this man who could not see a joke for five
hours kept saying to himself, ‘See “em! See ’em!”
“You can’t see ’em, but you can feel ’em all the
time.” And so we could. Vermin dropped down on
us from the ceiling and crawled out on us from the
walls. We were covered with vermin from head to
foot. This was not one of the least of our troubles in
Libby Prison. Men, the peers of any who listen to me
to-night, intellectual, refined, sensitive, were forced to
LECTURE I4I

endure daily and hourly torture of this kind, and

there was no release night or day. But if you could

have seen that company, what would you have

thought if you had heard the laugh that greeted this

joke! We had seven Irishmen with us who were the

delight of my heart. Such wit as they had! If you

were dying of starvation and an Irishman would get

off a joke, such as I have heard them relate in Libby

Prison, it would make you laugh. Dr. Buckley told

a joke once which reminded me of these Irishmen. .
He said, “ There was an Irish tax assessor in New

York whose friend had a pet goat. He sent hima tax‘
bill for eight dollars. The man came into his office '
very much incensed and asked why he had made such

a tax as that on his goat. The Irishman took down his

book of instructions and showed him the page which

said, ‘ All property abounding and abutting on the front

street must be taxed four dollars a front foot.’’’ Two

Irishmen were going along the road and they saw a

gallows.. One of them said to the other, “ Pat, if

those gallows had their just dues where would you

be?” “Sure, I would be walking along here alone.”

Such wit we were accustomed to all the time in Libby

Prison. I think it kept us alive.

One day Dr. Sebal, the Confederate surgeon, who
still lives in Jacksonville, Florida, and whom I love,
came to me and said, “ Chaplain, I will have to ask
you to go to the hospital.” The fact was, I was com-
ing down with typhoid fever. When I was last in
Richmond I saw the canal that flowed by the prison
and remembered how we used to get our water to
142 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

drink from it, and how our sewer pipe emptied into
it, and I wondered that we did not all die. I was
taken to the hospital to wrestle for six weeks with the
dread fever. As they took me downstairs, I heard
footsteps behind me and as I looked around there
came Willie Morgan. ‘ Where are you going, Wil-
lie?” I asked. “I’m going with you, sir.” “You
had better go back and stay with the doctor.” ‘ No,”
he said, “I’m going to take care of you.” I saw him
prepare my bed of straw with a dirty blanket laid over
it. I saw him brush off the vermin with his hand. °
He folded up my old overcoat and it was the only pil-
low I had. I went down to the gates of death. One
day I awakened to consciousness and they were hold-
, ing a consultation about me. I knew by their faces
that they thought I could not get well. The doctor
said something to Willie in low tones and then I heard
him say, “ You’re a good boy. Just give him this
medicine every hour.” One day soon after Major-
General Powell, a dear friend, came in and sat down
beside me. He took out his pocket scissors and cut
off my long beard and unkempt hair and gave me a
bath with his own hands. He afterwards told my
wife that the condition in which he found me as he
turned back the soiled blanket and saw me lying cov-
ered with vermin was a sight he could not well endure.
After he had made me as comfortable as possible,
he said, “ Chaplain, there is a letter for you; would
you like to hear it?” The letter was from Dr. Isaac
Crook, a member from my own Conference. He told
me that they had just had a session of Conference
LECTURE 143

and that when my name was called they had said,
“ He is in Libby Prison.” The bishop who was pre-
siding spoke of the time when Paul and Barnabas
were prayed out of prison and suggested that they
pray for me. Two hundred and fifty Methodist
preachers got down on their knees and asked for my
release. I was used to suffering; I could endure
loneliness without tears, but I was not used to tender-
ness, and that tender letter broke me down. The
tears rolled down my cheeks like rain. As soon as I
could control myself, I began to sing. I broke out
into a profuse perspiration and the tide was turned.
In the evening the doctor came in and felt my pulse
and started back in surprise. “ Why,’ said he,
“there’s a big change in you. That last medicine has
helped you wonderfully,” and he rolled up a big blue-
mass pill and gave it to me with a drink of water; but
I got well all the same!

In twelve days Willie Morgan stood by my side, his
face all aglow, and said, “ Chaplain, we’re exchanged!
We are going home this morning and the ambulance is
standing at the door. They have sent me to wash and
dress you.” Then they picked me up and carried me
down to the ambulance. I weighed less than one hun-
dred pounds.

We went to Petersburg by water and there took the
train. A man came into the car with a basket and
walked right up to me and gave me a piece of fried
chicken and some bread, and also gave some to Willie
Morgan; and I said to him, “Sir, what is your
name?” “T am Captain Hatch,” he said. I asked
144 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

him how he knew me, and he answered, “ Ask your
father when you get home.” When I reached home
I asked my father how Captain Hatch happened to
know me, and he said, “‘ My son, I went clear down to
Fortress Monroe after you and, when I could get no
further, I sent word along the line; and if you were a
Mason you would understand.” So I never knew
how Captain Hatch happened to know me; but some-
how I have always associated Masonry and fried
chicken; and if any one asks me what Masonry is, I
answer, “It is a thing that gives a fellow fried chicken
when he is hungry.”

Oh, friends, not a word of exaggeration shall pass
my lips, when I tell you of the voyage home. What
was it just to be going home! They laid me down
on the deck of the vessel under the flag that was float-
ing above me. Willie was by my side, his blue eyes
out on the James River down which we were steaming.
By and by, a Union soldier stepped in front of me and
called out, “ Hello, don’t you want something to
eat?’ Then he put a tin plate down on my breast and
on it was a piece of beefsteak and a baked potato.
Friends, I have seen Niagara, I have walked amid the
grandeur of Yosemite Valley, but I never saw any-
thing that moved my soul like that beefsteak and
baked potato! Then they brought me coffee and it
was hot, and in half an hour I was able to walk. I
took Willie’s arm and we strolled about the boat.
There were four hundred men on it. I saw that two
of them were dying. The doctor was leaning over one
to catch his words. He was saying, “‘ Doctor, couldn’t
LECTURE 145

you give me something to strengthen me a little so I
could just get home? I want to get home once more.”
But the doctor could not. They placed the men in
rude coffins and nailed them up and sent them home to
their loved ones.

Down the James we went and up the Potomac, and
landed at Washington. As soon as I put my foot on
land I enquired for a telegraph office and sent this
message, “ We are safe and coming,” and a few hours
afterwards the despatch was thrown into the lap of
a blue-eyed lady out in Ohio, and she and our little
boy went aside to give thanks. I cannot forget that
many a wife and mother in this audience had a differ-
ent message from that. When we went away, the
regiment turned the corner of the road and the band
was playing and the flags flying and your boy turned
and lifted his cap and swung it over his head and sent
back a cheerful smile, which meant that he would
come back again; but he never came back. He sleeps .
in a soldier’s honoured grave.

God bless you who have lost your loved ones, and
God bless you, old soldiers, whom I see before me to-
night! You are the men who saved your country!
If it had not been for you and men like you, the
Republic would have been lost and we would have
had no flag flying over our homes to-night. God
bless you! and when Death beats his low tattoo for
you, I hope that the next sound you hear will be the
reveille of angels, and that you will hear God’s voice say-
ing, “ Well done, old soldier, the war is over. Come
unto me and rest,” and may I be there to greet you!
XV

THE CHRISTIAN COMMISSION—PERSONAL
EXPERIENCE AND REFLECTIONS

FTER his release from Libby Prison and dur-
A ing the closing months of 1863, while recover-
ing his health, the Chaplain became interested

in the United States Christian Commission. It ap-
pealed so strongly to his patriotic and Christian sym-
pathies that he gladly accepted invitations to take part
in their meetings, and when it was discovered that his
magnetic song and oratory roused and thrilled his
audiences the managers of the Commission lost no
time in enlisting him in this beneficent cause. Resign-
ing his chaplaincy, January 8, 1864, he soon after, on
March 29, 1864, received his commission as a dele-
gate of the United States Christian Commission and
entered more fully into the work in which he had al-
ready proven his marvellous efficiency. The Christian
Commission was an organisation that grew out of the
efforts of the various Young Men’s Christian Asso-
ciations of the North to minister to the physical and
spiritual needs of the soldiers and sailors in camp, and
field, and hospital. Many young men from these Asso-
ciations had gone to the war. Their friends at home
conceived the idea of sending them such help as could
be furnished in special articles of clothing, food, del-

146
THE CHRISTIAN COMMISSION 147

icacies, religious reading, and the consolation of men
who had been commissioned to visit them in the army.
At a convention of these Associations, held in New
York, November 16, 1861, it was resolved to organise
the United States Christian Commission. In the first
report of the Commission, published in 1862, the
design of the organisation is stated to be as follows:
“The design of the Commission has been to arouse
the Christian Associations and the Christian men and
women of the loyal States to such action towards the
men in our army and navy as would be pleasing to the
Master; to obtain and direct volunteer labours and to
collect stores and money with which to supply what-
ever was needed, reading matter and articles necessary
for health not furnished by Government or other agen-
cies, and to give the officers and men of our army and
navy the best Christian ministries for both body and
soul possible in their circumstances.” Of this Com-
mission George H. Stuart, a wealthy and philanthropic
Christian layman of Philadelphia, was the chairman,
and among the members were such prominent minis-
ters and laymen as Bishop Matthew Simpson, Bishop
Edmund Janes, Bishop C. P. McIlvaine, Rev. Rollin
H. Neal, D.D., Rev. F. Wayland, D.D., Rev. W. E.
Boardman, D.D., General Clinton B. Fisk, Jay Cook,
J. V. Farwell, W. E. Dodge, Hon. Schuyler Colfax,
and others. The Commission issued its last report in
1866 with the statement: “ By the blessing of God on
the Federal Arms, this the fifth Annual Report closes
the work of the United States Christian Commission.”
And what a noble work it had accomplished! Dur-
148 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

ing the four years of its existence it had collected and
distributed money and supplies to the sum of $6,-
291,107.68. The Commission established agencies
throughout the loyal States and sent out delegates to
solicit funds. In every city the cause was presented
and collections were taken to aid the work. Agents
or delegates followed the armies and codperated with
the surgeons, chaplains, and nurses in distributing
food, clothing, medicine, fruits, tracts, Bibles, and
other reading matter. The work expanded into a dis-
tinctly religious and evangelistic movement, Gospel
meetings were held in thé camps, and revivals of great
interest were conducted in which hundreds and thou-
sands of soldiers were converted.

It may well be imagined how congenial such a work
as this was to the intense evangelistic temperament
of Chaplain McCabe. How splendidly did his glori-
ous song and burning eloquence fit him for this mis-
sion among the soldiers whom he loved! And what
a power to move great audiences had he acquired
in the experiences of Libby Prison! In both de-
partments of the work he was one of the most effi-
cient agents of this great Commission. Whether
pleading for money throughout the North or sing-
ing and preaching to the soldiers in Southern camps,
he was equally happy and successful. His love
of church and of country was a consuming passion,
and his very zeal did well-nigh eat him up. It
cannot be said that at any time during these years
of 1864-1865 he was a well man. His excessive
labours, travelling, preaching, singing, delivering ad-
THE CHRISTIAN COMMISSION 149

dresses, holding revivals, and collecting large sums
of money, often so exhausted him that several days
of painful illness would follow his tremendous exer-
tions.

But Chaplain McCabe never suffered so much from
the: pain of illness as he did from the idleness
which an illness necessitated. He was never patient
when doing nothing. In his journal of those years are
frequent expressions revealing his love for work, his
impatience with enforced idleness, and his apprecia-
tion of the value of time. “Spent the day in hard
work. In one thing I want to rival the great apostle.
In labours I would be abundant. A life of ceaseless
activity is a life of ceaseless pleasure.” “ Kept my
bed all day. It is well to suffer; it is well to do; it is
sometimes better to suffer than to do, because it re-
quires more self-denial. I am so sorry to be compelled
to leave my work at this time. The place of labour
and sacrifice is my Peniel, where I see God face to
face. What a joyful chapter this history of the past
three weeks forms in my life. I have been happy be-
cause I have been successful in my great work. What
joy is like the joy of harvest? If I had been more care-
ful of my health I might have prolonged my labours;
perhaps I am to blame in the matter; yet it is hard
to be prudent when there is so much to do. I suppose
I shall lecture a while for the Christian Commission
when I get able to do anything.” ‘There is no place
like home, and there is no home like mine. To me
it is an enchanting place. I would never leave it did
not duty so peremptorily call me. I very much re-
150 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

gret that I am compelled to be inactive at the present
time, but ‘they also serve who only stand and
wait.’ ”

“Labouring and enjoying seem to go together in
my Christian experience ; seldom do I enjoy near views
of the glory of God unless some flash of light from
the Cross of Jesus upon the path of some poor sinner
led thither by my hand reveals it to me. Yet I know
this is not as it should be; why not grow in grace in
the sick-room? Others have! Why may not I?
Here I am, just at the moment I fondly expected to be
winning an immortal fortune in the army, a helpless
invalid. I have not even the consolation of saying:
“Let God’s will be done,’ because I have brought this
last sickness upon me by my own excesses. Who can
preach four or five times upon the Sabbath without
soon impairing his health. Yet I have been foolish
enough to think that I could do so. The temptation ,
is very great in the army to excessive labour. There
are men ready, eager for the word of life. There is
the Gospel, the blessed Gospel—the waiting host and
the everlasting promises. Who can help utter them?
Oh, who that has ever felt a Saviour’s love in his own
heart can refrain from lifting up his voice like a
trumpet and calling the sorrowful and sin-burdened
souls around him to the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sins of the world? I would give anything
to be able for duty.” “Resting, reading, chafing, I
wish I could go to work with vehemence. I weary of
doing little or nothing.”

“From all accounts I must be a very stubborn and
THE CHRISTIAN COMMISSION 151

self-willed sort of person. That is the character I get
from all my relatives, even from my wife. I hope
I do not deserve all they say of me. They think I am
killing myself. That I will fill an early grave as the re-
sult of my own excesses. Well, be it so, rather than my
zeal should be quenched or even dampened. At the
risk of being thought self-willed then I hope to con-
tinue my labours for others’ weal with even more in-
tensity than ever. I cannot blame my friends, how-
ever, for their anxiety, but the place of labour and
of sacrifice is my Peniel! Until I get there my soul is
not at rest. My family talk to me as though I was
stubbornly bent on suicide. They do not know how
I want to live on and accomplish something ere I
fall asleep. While I do not think that death would in
the least appal me, I am not anxious to die until I can
afford it. It is a great matter to wind up a proba-
tion on earth and close forever one’s opportunity for
doing good. I aspire to rival Paul in one thing, and
that is hard work. I tried it in the army last spring,
and wore my body down until I was forced to
abandon the field. A life of activity is the life for
me, and especially when I labour directly for Christ in
the work of saving souls.”

“God repays me so amply for the little service I
render Him, and how small that service is! How easily
might another perform it and I be unmissed in the
round of duty and in the Lord’s vineyard! Yet God
more than repays me for each effort J make for the
advancement of His Kingdom. With the work of
the Lord, when prosecuted with vigour, there is con-
152 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

nected a richness of enjoyment not elsewhere to be
found. Labour is my rest.”

Few men have ever put 4 more conscientious value
on time than Chaplain McCabe. His was a life
crowded with unremitting activity. His work com-
pletely absorbed him. He was consecrated, soul,
mind, and body, to the promotion of the interests of
God’s kingdom in this world. He seemed to be
dominated by the idea, “The King’s business re-
quireth haste.” While in the world he was not of it.
From childhood to the hour in which he heard “ the
one clear call,” time was to him a sacred thing, life
one holy day, and the greatest satisfaction and glory
of living was found in noble duties nobly done. If
in speaking of the value of time he now and then be-
comes facetious, he is none the less sincere. ‘“‘ Wasted
most of this day shopping,” he writes in his journal;
“Job never shopped all day, or there might have been
at least one stain on his marble reputation. It may
be a pleasure to ladies to pull down goods and examine
them, but I never could see just where the pleasure
lies. My chief regret is, however, the loss of time
which can never be made up. We can waste years of
time, but we are utterly unable to create a moment.
All our wisdom, all our efforts, could not delay one
moment the knell of time. It is of time I wish to
be careful. I have lost much, and it seems to me my
progress has been slow, considering the efforts I have
made.” “ Spent the day wasting time, fearful work!”
Again he writes, on a late December day, in 1864,
“ The old year is dying, and I have not accomplished
THE CHRISTIAN COMMISSION 153

what I have intended. Did any one ever come up to
his ideal? I suppose not; if it were so, there would
be nothing left to aspire for. I would see the year
close with better feelings if there were not so many
actual transgressions to set over against the mercy of
God.”

At ten o’clock of New Year’s eve of that closing
year, he wrote: “ I am taking leave of the old year. It
is a sad parting: I have not fulfilled the promises I
made to myself and the blessed Master when the year
opened. ‘ Thou that takest away the sins of the world
have mercy on me.’ I have been greatly blamed for
hard work, but my only answer to all such accusations
is, I have not done enough; profitless came the year,
profitless it departs; yet I would not take a gloomy
view of 1864, some sheaves I shall bear in the great
day when angels shout the ‘ Harvest Home,’ which
shall bear the mark of the year that is dying now. My
labours in the army last spring afford me much pleas-
ure in memory. God was with me there. Souls were
converted and many quickened. Would that I could
labour thus until the end of the war.”

He begins his journal for 1865 at 12:30 o’clock on
New Year’s morning with these reflections and reso-
lutions: “I live to see the beginning of another year,
a year which I trust, should I live to see its close, will
prove the most profitable of my life. I have seen the
old year die and the new year begin to live. Almighty
Father, forgive the errors of the one and assist me to
fulfil in my life and labours the hopes of the other!
I desire during the year that lies before me or during
154 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

that part of it in which my life may be spared to live
to purpose, to accomplish more for God and the truth.
I hope to improve my mind more diligently than ever;
to study the Scriptures with greater care and pa-
tience; to commit to memory at least five verses per
day; to perform better. and more constantly the duty
of self-examination; to preach more earnestly and to
aim more directly to save souls; to pray more than
ever, lingering at the throne of grace; to magnify
Christ, whether by life or by death; to be ready to die
at any moment. It is a mighty task, but God is mighty.
In Him is everlasting strength and He is my inherit-
ance.”
XVI

WORK AMONG THE SOLDIERS—REVIVALS—
CONVERSIONS

HAPLAIN McCABE was never happier than
CO when at the front, holding revivals and lead-
ing the soldiers to Christ. When the request
came to him at Washington, in February, 1864, that
he prepare to take the home field for a while in the
financial interests of the Christian Commission, he
wrote in his journal: “I will do so rather under pro-
test from my own conscience. I feel a yearning to be
at the front, and to share the dangers and privations
of my old comrades. Yet I suppose I can go to the
front in a few weeks at the farthest.”

The extent and success of his labours, and the great
joy he experienced in preaching and discharging the
other duties of a delegate of the Commission to the
soldiers, he recorded with great satisfaction, as the
following extracts from his journal testify:

“Instead of rest, I have had exceptional labours
to-day (Sunday). Have held four or five meetings
in the different hospitals and camps around the city.
Started this morning upon my preaching tour. I
preached at Kendal Green and in the afternoon at
Camp Barry. Mrs. Beck, daughter of Judge Greer,
one of the judges upon the supreme bench, accom-

155
156 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

panied me to Camp Barry. There we had a most de-
lightful meeting. Many tears were shed. It is a
solemn sight to gaze upon a large body of soldiers
waiting for the Gospel. Mrs. Beck is a most delight-
ful singer: she has been with the Army of the Poto- |
mac a great while. In the evening I preached at As-
bury Chapel to the coloured people. The congrega-
tion was immense. The well-trained choir gave us
some music, the equal of which I never heard from
any choir. They sang one anthem, ‘ Behold what
manner of love,’ that thrilled the depths of my soul.
I had a good time preaching.”

This reference to the singing of the coloured peo-
ple and his preaching to them with much liberty and
satisfaction will justify the insertion here of other
extracts from the Chaplain’s journal, in which he re-
fers with pride and pleasure to the people for whose
liberty he was fighting, and in whose possibilities he
had the greatest faith, and of whose mental, spiritual,
and political future he never ceased to prophecy with
abounding hope and confidence.

'“T have passed a delightful day,” he writes at Camp
Stoneman. “Brother Adams and I went about to
visit the soldiers, carrying with us reading matter and
distributing it to them. We found some in whom
we were greatly interested. We also visited the
coloured hospital. I asked one coloured man, who
was very sick, whether he knew how to pray. ‘I do,’
said he. ‘ What do you say when you pray?’ I asked.
‘Our Father which art in heaven,’ then looking me
steadily in the face with a feeble voice and many tears
WORK AMONG THE SOLDIERS 157

he repeated the whole prayer through. I sang him a
song and prayed for and with him. This evening we
had a meeting in the chapel tent. My chains fell off
and God made my great commission known. Three
noble young men came forward for prayers. The
work is deepening. I am getting more interested in
its progress. . . . I feel happy to-night; God smiles
upon me.”

When the Chaplain was at City Point, in October of
1864, and visited all the important localities, he wrote
in his journal: “ The negro troops hold much of the
line between this Fort and the extreme right. If they
are chattels, a mighty trust is reposed in them.
Should they prove unfaithful, it would be disastrous
to the entire army. But no one expects anything from
them like unfaithfulness. They will be true. I could
but admire their cheerfulness. They are fighting in
no common way. If captured, their death is well-
night certain. Fort Pillow is still unavenged, yet still
they fight on. They still enlist, and God grant that
they may fight their way to liberty and social posi-
tion.”

Chaplain McCabe lived to see not only the freedom
of the negro, who had been unrighteously held in
bondage on this continent for two hundred and fifty
years, but also to witness the marvellous development
of the race in all that fits them for American citizen-
ship. In domestic economy, industrial efficiency,
mechanical skill, professional ability, in education,
morals, self-reliance, patriotism, and spirituality of
religion, no race ever made such improvement in
158 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

forty-five years’ time as the negro race has made in
the United States since Abraham Lincoln signed the
Emancipation Proclamation. But to continue the
Chaplain’s record of his work while at the front as a
delegate of the Christian Commission: “I love to
preach to the soldiers. They are the best men of the
country. I hope I shall never forget ‘what they have
done for me.’

“ Everything looks favourable for a good work at
this station (Camp Stoneman). This preaching place
is like an oasis amid the wild wastes of war.” “A
most laborious day, I have attended two prayer-
meetings, and have preached three times. The con-
gregations were all large and attentive. The work is
progressing. We are hoping for a great ingathering
of souls. Iam weary in the work of my Master, but,
thank God, I never weary of it. How I love it!
Oh, that all my powers might be consecrated to this
blest employ!” “Brandy Station. Came down to
the army to-day. Had no difficulty in finding my old
regiment. Was warmly greeted by all. I tried to
preach this evening from these words: ‘If any man
will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up
his cross and follow Me.’ Two seekers of religion
presented themselves. The meeting was a very profit-
able one, and I doubt not much good may be accom-
plished here. There is a general desire for me to
come back into the regiment as Chaplain. I will wait
awhile before I decide to do so. In the meantime, I
will pray for the direction of the Holy Spirit. I am
glad I am back in the army again. It is good to be
WORK AMONG THE SOLDIERS 159

here. I love to labour among these noble men. No
man, surely, could ask a better field of usefulness.”
“Our meeting to-night was well attended. The
chapel was full. Fourteen souls asked the prayers of
God’s people. The conflict deepens. Hell is gather-
ing its forces, but our Jesus will conquer, as usual.
In His name I will set up my banner. I feel a longing
desire to win an immortal fortune. Lord, breathe
upon my soul and let it live anew in Thee! ”

“ Delightful day! How sweet a Sabbath thus to
spend! I arose this morning with a great desire to
see the salvation of God. Held my seekers’ meeting
at nine o’clock; it was a good time. My heart was
greatly melted. No one was converted, however.
Can it be it is through our want of faith that souls do
not enter into the light and liberty of God’s dear chil-
dren with more rapidity? I preached to the regiment
from ‘ Behold, I stand at the door and knock.’ The
congregation was large and attentive. I felt consider-
able liberty in preaching. I feel an increase in my
longing to see souls converted. Preached to-night in
the chapel from Isaiah 48:18. Had a charming meet-
ing. Four new souls asked the prayers of God’s peo-
ple. There are now eighteen. O for convicting
power !”

“Had a most blessed meeting this morning at nine
o’clock. Quite a large number present. To-night, at
the call for seekers of salvation, there were seventeen
new ones. They now number thirty in all since last
Friday evening. Several were converted this evening.
The work goes forward. To God be all the glory!”
160 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

“The work goes on with power. Souls are being
converted. I am full of labours, and I love to work
for the weal of others. Jesus has shown me the secret
of happiness.”

“ Preached a dedicatory sermon this evening in the
new chapel of the 110th Ohio. We had a large con-
gregation, and there is every prospect of a harvest
there also. The regiment has a Chaplain, but the re-
ligious element is so strong in the army meetings, and
religious services can be kept up with or without a
preacher. The number of names upon my seekers’
list now amounts to thirty-seven. I have commenced
a Bible Class with the young converts. We shall
doubtless find it exceedingly profitable. I find a lib-
erty in preaching and talking to the enquirers such
as I never felt before. The convictions are pungent.
The conversions are clear and powerful.”

“Our meeting this morning was of great interest.
I never knew a service more easily managed than this
is. It is no trouble. Everything is done so promptly.
When I call the seekers of religion to the altar, they
come at once. Even before the words of invitation
are spoken, the altar is full. The speaking is done
with great promptness. There are none of those long,
chilling pauses which are so common in many meet-
ings. ‘Love makes labour light.’ Our Bible Class
is getting very large. I shall divide it to-morrow. It
is too large for me to manage; I think of dividing it
into four classes. Our meeting to-night was a suc-
cess. Eight new souls started in the way of life. We
have now in all fifty-three. Blessed be God! One
WORK AMONG THE SOLDIERS 161

week ago to-night, I met with the brethren here for
the first time. To God be all the glory!”

“Attended my meeting for enquiring souls this
morning at seven-thirty. It was well attended. Held
a meeting in the chapel of the 6th Maryland at half-
past ten. At one, I went to the prayer-meeting of the
110th Ohio, where God is working in a glorious man-
ner. At three-thirty I met my Bible Class. At night
I preached for the 6th Maryland. It was a time of
refreshing from the presence of the Lord. Four were
converted and testified to the power of Christ to save,
before the congregation. I feel quite weary to-night,
but I love this blessed work far more than I can tell.”

“A most delightful day (Sunday)! I have been
very happy in the Saviour’s love all day long. My
meeting at the chapel this morning for the benefit of
seekers of religion was of great interest. It does seem
that this blessed work had but just commenced. At
ten-thirty I preached to the 6th Maryland assembled
in front of regimental headquarters. At half-past
two attended a communion service at the chapel of
the 126th Ohio. It was a precious service. How it
nerves my heart to see those brave men weeping
around the Cross! Many communed; several were
baptised. Took tea with Chaplain Foote of the 151st
New York. I preached for him this evening. Now
worn out with manifold labours I seek my bed. I
am happy in God. I rejoice in the privilege of labour-
ing for Christ. I am glad I was called to preach the
Gospel. I put the seventieth name upon my seekers’
list to-night.
162 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

‘‘« Breathe, blessed Jesus, a Sabbath o’er my soul.’”

It was in the midst of these strenuous labours in
which he found so much joy and satisfaction that his
strength gave out and he was obliged to leave the front
and return to his home, then in Chicago, to regain his
health. During these spells of exhaustion he suffered
much pain, but bore it heroically, complaining only of
the time lost in lying idle when his eager spirit longed
to be in the thick of the toil and battle.

With all the power and success of his later secre-
tarial activities with which we are most familiar there
is no part of this good and great man’s life more
worthy of his Church’s and his country’s gratitude, ..
and of every preacher’s, every Christian’s, every army
chaplain’s study, praise, and emulation, than the part
of his life which was so fully consecrated to evangel-
istic work among the soldiers of those Civil War days,
XVII

“DOOMED TO RAISE MONEY ”—SUCCESS—
ESTIMATE OF MEN—FISK, VINCENT, SIMP-
SON, AMES, MERRILL

S soon as he was able to leave his bed, the Chap-
A lain was in the home field pushing forward
with extraordinary vigour and success the fi-

nancial interests of the Christian Commission. Wher-
ever he appeared to present the cause vast multitudes
greeted him, eager to hear the “ Singing Chaplain”
tell the thrilling story of his Libby Prison experiences,
describe the glorious work of revival among the sol-
diers at the front, and sing the songs which melted
them to tears or roused them to a wild pitch of pa-
triotic enthusiasm. The Chaplain was assigned to
the district which comprised the States of Iowa, Wis-
consin, and Illinois, and it was his desire and pur-
pose to raise no less than $250,000 for the work of the
Commission. While in this field he laboured so con-
stantly if not intemperately that he was often sud-
denly attacked with complete exhaustion and a pain-
fut illness that alarmed his friends. But he was
always buoyed up with the hope: “I shall soon be able
to again take up the work.” Nevertheless, with all
the success that attended his efforts in the North, he
longed to be with the soldiers at the front. It was

163
164 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

when in this mood that he recorded in his journal
what may be considered as nearly as anything a proph-
ecy of his future career. He wrote in his journal of
1864 these significant words: “ I seem doomed to raise
money. And I hope I am not grieving the Lord when
I do it.” Yes, that was, indeed, his destiny. But
little could he have imagined what that reflection fully
meant. He had no vision of that great future which
awaited him in the Church Extension and Missionary
secretaryships, yet was he “ doomed to raise money.”
Was not God fitting and training him for his remark-
able career in which he was “ doomed to raise money ”
by millions for the Church and for the Kingdom of
Heaven? It was while engaged in raising money for
the Christian Commission that he first became ac-
quainted with the noble men who in their Christian
patriotism and their patriot Christianity codperated
with him in organising meetings and enlisting the sym-
pathy of the liberal-minded people in their communi-
ties. Men who have since reached distinction were
then pastors in comparatively obscure fields. Their
names frequently appear in the Chaplain’s journal in
connection with the records of those stirring days.
It is interesting now to read this extract from his
record of a visit to Detroit:.“ Brother Palmer, a
young man of this city, came to take me to his Sab-
bath-school. I addressed the children. I went there
to hear brother Buckley * preach at Woodward Ave-
nue Church. He was a stranger to me, a young man
from New Hampshire recently. Brother Palmer at
¥*Dr. J. M. Buckley, now editor of The Christian Advocate.
“DOOMED TO RAISE MONEY” 165

the close of the service told him of my presence and
I was permitted to announce our Christian Commis-
sion meeting for to-night. When the benediction was
pronounced hosts of friends gathered around me in
good old Methodistic style and invited me to dine. I
went with the host of brother Buckley, and found a
charming family.”

In the record of his visit to Rockford, Illinois, we
find this charming reference to a Sunday’s experience:

“Was invited to preach, but declined; am not well
enough to preach. Went to hear brother Vincent.*
His sermon was refreshing to my soul. His subject
was the temptation of Christ in the wilderness. It was
an excellent discourse and was delivered with great
power.”

“JT became acquainted with brothers Chadwick,
Mead, Vincent, and Blanchard. The last named is
the Presiding Elder of the District.”

“Am invited to breakfast this morning with bro-
ther Vincent.”

“Met some pleasant society around brother Vin-
cent’s table.”

An interesting extract from the record of a Sun-
day’s work at St. Louis reads: “ This morning I
visited the Sabbath-school at brother Cox’s church.
I way perfectly delighted, and made them a short ad-
dress. The singing was glorious. Mrs. General Fisk
presided at the organ. I tried to preach to the mighty
congregation from, ‘If thou hadst known, even thou,
at least in this thy day, the things that belong to thy

* Bishop John H. Vincent.
166 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

peace, but now they are hid from thine eyes.’ Was
invited to dine with General Fisk. The country is
happy in having a few generals at least who are Chris-
tian men; seldom have I met any more deeply religious
than General Fisk.” ;

It was during these years of extensive travel
throughout the country, in the work of the Christian
Commission, that the Chaplain had the opportunity
of meeting and hearing the most distinguished preach-
ers and orators of the day, and in several instances
he recorded his impressions of them. “New York.
Called upon Dr. Foster * and family. Randolph Fos-
ter’s name is like a household word to me. His work
on ‘Christian Purity’ I regard as one of the most
beneficial I have ever read. I met it years ago, and
have read it often since.”

“ Altoona, Pa. Was pleasantly surprised by meet-
ing Bishop Ames at the hotel. He is one of the most
genial of men. It is a very great pleasure to spend
a few hours in his society. He is now fifty-nine years
old, yet he is seldom hindered by want of perfect
health from the performance of any of his duties. I
wish I could attain such health; but perhaps an experi-
ence in the hands of the rebels such as mine would
break his constitution also.”

It was during the session of his Conference, which
met in Chillicothe, Ohio, in the month of September,
1864, that the Chaplain enjoyed one of the most de-
lightful experiences of his life. It was the first Con-
ference after his release from Libby Prison, and, as

* Became a Bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church.
“DOOMED TO RAISE MONEY ” 167

he said, he “ was anticipating a most delightful time
of it.” His anticipations were fully realised, as may
be learned from his journal, in which he sets down his
just and generous appreciation of the great men whom
he there met and heard. A few of their number are
still living and will recall the memorable experiences
of that Conference as they read these extracts from
the Chaplain’s diary, written forty-four years ago.
“ September 8, 1864. Conference opened this morn-
ing with most of the members present. Bishop Ames
is presiding. The venerable Bishop Morris is here
and sometimes takes the chair. He is almost home.
Never did a man enjoy more perfectly the confidence
and esteem of all his brethren than does this good old
man. He has seen the little one become a thousand
in this western land. Immediately is his history bound
up with the history of Methodism in this part of the
country. There is a prospect of having a good spirit-
ual Conference.”

“ Sept. 9. I was invited to preach to-night, but de-
clined and secured the services of brother Thoburn,*
the returned missionary, in my place. The congrega-
tion was intensely interested in the account he gave of
life in India, and while he gave some portion of
his religious experience shouts of praise filled the
house.”

“ Sept. 10. The business of the Conference is pro-
gressing so rapidly that there might be a probability
of being able to adjourn very soon, but we are to re-
main here until next Wednesday in order to meet the

* Since became Missionary Bishop for India,
168 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

Cincinnati Conference. I am very glad of it, for the
whole thing is a delight to my soul. I am happy every
way. God is with me, and I am with my brethren of
the past. Men who have known me from my boy-
hood are here. The Missionary Anniversary was held
this evening. Addresses were made by Dr. Reid,
brother Thoburn, and Dr. Durbin.”

“ Sunday, Sept. 11. One of the days of the Son of
Man! A high day! <A pentecost! I shall never,
never forget it. The love feast in the morning was
overwhelming. I shall not attempt a description.
Bishop Ames preached in the morning upon Faith.
It was glorious; not one of the Bishop’s mightiest
efforts, but a sweet, mellowing, heart-searching ser-
mon, full of the Word of God and heartfelt experi-
ence. It wastoo short. That was its only fault. This
evening we heard brother Thoburn preach again.”

“ Sept. 12. Spent almost the entire day in the Con-
_ ference room. This evening I was invited to tell a
part of my Libby Prison experience. I did so to a
large congregation. Brother Philips,* of Cincinnati
Conference, conducted the singing. I never heard a
sweeter singer in all my life. To-morrow we are to
meet the Cincinnati Conference.”

“ Sept. 13. The Conference assembled at the usual
hour and transacted business until the arrival of the
Cincinnati Conference. The Lord’s Supper was first
administered, after which the time was taken up by
the rehearsal of Christian experience. It was a
blessed time. On motion of brother Van Anda,

* Philip Philips.
“DOOMED TO RAISE MONEY ” 169

Bishop Simpson was requested to deliver an address
upon the affairs of the country at 2 o’clock in the
afternoon. The Bishop assented, and at the appointed
hour we assembled again. I never heard the equal of
that effort, I know.”

No other man of his time seems to have made so
profound an impression upon the Chaplain by his
preaching as Bishop Simpson. He writes: “ Heard
John B. Gough to-night. It was a fine effort. His
acting is to the life. Surely no man can tell a story
more effectively than can he. There are many speak-
ers, however, I would rather hear. Bishop Simpson
is my beau ideal of an orator. He stirs the founda-
tions of my soul.” ‘“ Went this morning to hear
Bishop Simpson preach at Liberty Street, Pittsburg.
His text was the 6th verse of the 4th of Malachi:
“And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the
children and the heart of the children to their fathers,
lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” The
discourse closed with a powerful appeal to parents
which thrilled the audience, moving them to tears, and
doubtless causing the forming of many resolutions of
reform in family government.”

“Philadelphia, Sunday, June 25, 1865. Heard
Bishop Simpson preach the dedicatory sermon of
Spring Garden Street Church this morning. It was
a great sermon on Faith: ‘This is the victory that
overcometh the world, even our faith.’ Gen. Grant
was in the audience. The desire of the people was so
great to see the General that he was compelled to
stand up and let the audience greet him. There was
170 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

no demonstration of applause, at the request of the
Bishop.”

Of Daniel Dougherty, one of America’s finest ora-
tors and the most distinguished ornament of the
Philadelphia Bar, the Chaplain wrote, during the sec-
ond Lincoln campaign: “ Attended the meeting this
evening and heard a magnificent address by Mr.
Dougherty, of Philadelphia. In his own city and
among his own friends he can draw a larger audience
than almost any speaker they have had during the cam-
paign. I failed to report myself in time to speak. I
was very glad I got out of it, for there was nothing
more necessary to be said after Mr. Dougherty got
through. It would be folly to add any ornament to
the Greek Slave.”

His visit to Baltimore, in 1865, was memorable
in the Chaplain’s experience. He there heard Dr. Lit-
tleton Morgan, one of the giants of his day, and he
was most gratefully impressed with his preaching:
“ Heard brother Morgan preach upon ‘ The Work of
the Spirit’ this morning. It was like manna. I go
hungry for the most part, for the Word of God. Oh,
how refreshing to find a man who is not a mere essay-
ist, who feels and knows the power of the grace of
God and who earnestly desires to benefit his hearers.
Preached at old Light Street this afternoon. Upstairs
in the building in the rear of Light Street Church is
the old Conference room. Once within its narrow
limits was held the General Conference. The little
one has become a thousand. The walls of the old
room have enclosed the noblest men that ever trod this
“DOOMED TO RAISE MONEY” 171

continent, men who lived and laboured and suffered
for the truth. Became acquainted with some noble
people to-day. My short visit to Baltimore will result
in the formation of immortal friendships.”

It was an impressive coincidence that at the Gen-
eral Conference, held in Baltimore in May, 1908,
the memoir of Bishop McCabe was read. Many there
heard the soul-thrilling record of his life with sym-
pathetic hearts who were among those with whom
years ago he formed “immortal friendships”; but
some, yea many, are fallen asleep, and those “ im-
mortal friendships ” have been transferred to Heaven.

It was in the years of his early ministry, and be-
fore he had reached the age of thirty, that Chaplain
McCabe began to admire and appreciate the great abil-
ity of that Daniel Webster of the pulpit and John
Marshall of the Methodist Episcopacy, Stephen M.
Merrill. As both rose to the highest office in the
Church, and as both were called to their reward of
immortality during the same quadrennium, McCabe’s
estimate of Merrill, as it was penned when they were
comparatively young men, is now read with interest.
“ Portsmouth, Ohio, Sept. 23, 1865. In Conference
all day. Brother Merrill gave us an overwhelming
sermon this afternoon. It stirred our souls com-
pletely. He is a mental giant.” We read these
recorded estimates of men written years ago to learn
with what generosity of feeling, unenvious apprecia-
tion, and wise discrimination and judgment this be-
loved minister of God measured the mental and spirit-
ual stature of his brethren in the Gospel. He was a
172 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

keen and fair-minded judge of men. And this gift or
genius to read character, weigh the true qualities of
men, and to interpret their feelings, aims, and pur-
poses gave him such a power over them as few men
of his generation possessed. It was this gift of know-
ing men and of knowing how to approach and appeal
to the right men that made him the most consum-
mate money-getter that was ever “doomed to raise
money ” for preparing the way in this world for the
coming of the Kingdom of God.
XVIII

CO-WORKERS—CHRISTIAN PATRIOTS—
D. L. MOODY—JACOB STRAWN

( 7 eitione o McCABE’S generous and grateful
opinions of noble-minded laymen were no less
marked than his high and unselfish apprecia-

tion of the preachers whom he knew in his early minis-

try. He found in their patriotism, religious devotion,
and philanthropy an inspiration to his own unflag-
ging zeal and tireless activity. Nor did he ever as-
sume any supercilious ecclesiastical dignity in the
presence of godly laymen whose experience and spirit-
ual power may have been an incentive to the higher
aspirations of any clergyman. Long before Mr.

Moody was known to the wide world as the most suc-

cessful evangelist of the nineteenth century, Chaplain

McCabe made this reference to him in his journal of

1864: “ Chicago. Attended Church to-day at Wabash

Avenue. This afternoon went to Plymouth Church

Sunday-school, afterwards went to the mission school .

over on the North Side. Became acquainted with

Brother Moody, one of the most zealous and untiring

labourers in the vineyard of the. Lord I have ever

known. His praise is in all the churches of this city,
and his name a household word in the homes of the

”

poor.
173
174 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

Among other public-spirited and loyal Christian
laymen whom the Chaplain found ready to cooperate
with him in the noble work of the Christian Commis-
sion was John V. Farwell, “one of the merchant
princes of this city,”” who “ is an earnest Christian and
makes his great influence tell for the cause of Christ.”
B. F. Jacobs, of Chicago, an earnest Baptist layman,
still of blessed memory, and M. P. Ayers, a devout
and most patriotic business man of Jacksonville, Illi-
nois, gave him very hearty and generous support in
this work. Mr. Ayers was a man of reputation and
influence throughout central Illinois; he was a most
excellent platform speaker and was enthusiastically
devoted to the Union cause. The Chaplain wrote in
his journal, under the date of July 19, 1864: “ Here I
would record how deeply grateful I feel to Mr. M. P.
Ayers and his dear family for the delightful visit we
have had at their home. Mr. Ayers gave us his time,
going with us through the country and stirring the
people up by his telling speeches to deeds of munifi-
cence.”

William Reynolds, a wealthy banker of Peoria,
Tilinois, was one of the Chaplain’s most liberal and
indefatigable co-workers. He was one of God’s noble-
men, a Christian layman of powerful and widespread
influence,.a philanthropist, and a sterling patriot. By
a mysterious Providence this great-hearted man out-
lives his splendid fortune, but did not outlive his good
name or the influence of his beneficent life. Day after
day and night after night, in company with the Chap-
lain, he turned aside from his extensive business affairs
CO-WORKERS—CHRISTIAN PATRIOTS 175

to press upon the people the cause of the Christian
Commission. He liberally gave his time to travelling,
holding meetings in all the cities and towns of con-
sequence, looking up the leading business men of every
community, and securing donations of money. from
all who were generously disposed. It was in com-
pany with Mr. Reynolds and Mr. Ayers that the
Chaplain secured the largest single subscription
that was made to the cause. The journal, under
the date of June 6, 1864, contains this recorded
incident :

“ Jacksonville, Ill. Went out with some friends to
visit a singular old gentleman by the name of Jacob
Strawn, Esq. He lives about four miles from the
city. He has an immense farm. Is said to be worth
$1,000,000. He was not at home; we saw his wife,
however, who gave us some insight into the old gen-
tleman’s character. His liberality is worthy of men-
tion. We hope to get to see him, after a while at
least.”

How they got to see him has been most interest-
ingly told by the Chaplain, who, years after the inci-
dent, recited its details as accurately as memory would
allow, as follows:

“When I had the work of the Christian Commis-
sion in hand during the war, I got on the train in
Illinois one day in company with Mr. William Rey-
nolds and Mr. Marshall Ayers, of Jacksonville. We
had been holding a meeting in Jacksonville. I saw a
rugged, uncouth, but great-looking man and inquired
who he was. Mr. Ayers told me that he was the giant
176 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

farmer of the west, Jacob Strawn, who had thirty
thousand acres of land under cultivation. He was a
great cattle king. I thought I might perhaps get a
hundred dollars out of him for our work, but was as-
sured that he would not give me anything, that he
hated ministers, and would repulse me if I spoke to
him. This quickened my curiosity, and I went and
sat down in the seat with him. I think I was divinely
guided in my treatment of him. He sat looking out
of the car window. When I sat down beside him I
turned my back partly toward him and looked out of
the opposite window. By and by, his curiosity got
the better of him and he said to me, ‘ Who are you?’
I responded just as bluntly, ‘I’m aman. My name is
McCabe.’

“* Where are you going?’ said he.

“To Springfield,’ said I.

“* Where did you come from?’

“From Jacksonville.’

“* What did you do there?’

“*“ Made a speech.’

“* What about?’

“The Christian Commission.’

“* Are you the man,’ he said, ‘ the gals talked about
last night?’

“*T don’t know,’ I said. ‘ What did they say?’

“* Well, they said a fellow made a speech, and right
in the middle of the speech he sang a song.’

“*T suppose I am the man,’ said I. ‘For that is
what I did.’

“* Well,’ he said, ‘ sing now.’
CO-WORKERS—CHRISTIAN PATRIOTS 177

“*T can’t sing now while the train is going,’ I ex-
plained.

“He replied, ‘When I was a youngster I could
sing too.’

“IT said that I would be very glad to hear him sing.
Whereupon he took a very much soiled scrap of news-
paper out of his wallet and on it was a long hymn. I
think it was something about the Revolutionary War.
He sang it entirely through in a cracked and wavering
voice and when he had finished he asked me how I
liked it. I said I didn’t like it very well.

“*Can you beat it?’ said he.

“* Yes, I can beat it.’ I took the paper from his
hand. As he had been singing I noticed that the words
would go very well to the tune of ‘Bonnie Doon.’ I
called Mr. Reynolds and Mr. Ayers, who were both
good singers. They looked over my shoulder and we
three sang the hymn to the good old tune of ‘ Bonnie
Doon,’ and, when we had finished, he said, ‘ Well, that
is pretty good.’ He asked me if I was going to speak
that night in Springfield, and I said that I was, and
that Mr. Reynolds and Mr. Ayers were going to be
there and that we were going to sing. Then I began
talking about the work of the Christian Commission
and what we were doing for the soldiers at the front.
He took a letter out of his pocket and asked me to
read it. It was from his boy who was in the army, and
in it his son said that he had just been converted; that
he should always be glad he had gone to the war on
that account. It was a good letter, and before I had
finished reading it the old man’s head was bowed and
178 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

tears were raining down his cheeks. He came to the
meeting that night, and after the meeting he came to
me and asked me to call at the hotel to see him the
next morning, which I did. I was shown up to his
room and rapped at the door. A gruff voice called
out, ‘Come in! Come in!’ He was lying on the bed
resting. When he saw who it was he said, ‘Come
here, sonny; can you put on my shoes?’ He swung
his feet off the bed, and I took his old cowhide shoes
and tied them on for him. He arose and put on his
coat and took a small vial from his vest pocket. in
which he had a little piece of ink-soaked cotton. He
put a few drops of water into it and shook it up, then
took out a quill pen and began to write, remarking that
that was a good way to carry ink about with you.
I took out my gold pocket pen and gave it to him.
He looked at it, put it in his pocket and went on
writing with his quill pen. ‘ Now,’ said he, ‘I give
you this check for five hundred dollars; if you’ll come
down to my county and make the farmers there give you
ten thousand dollars, I will write you a check for nine
thousand five hundred dollars more. They’re a stingy
lot, but they ought to give you something.’ I was de-
lighted. We canvassed the county and planned our
meetings. We had them every morning, noon, and
evening, in different parts of the county. I told them
what Jacob Strawn had said. The old farmers would
walk up to the table and throw down their bills, and
say, ‘ There, that means that old Strawn will have to
double it. We'll sock it to him!’ By the end of the
week the money was all raised, and we called upon Mr.
CO-WORKERS—CHRISTIAN PATRIOTS 179

Strawn at his home. He had all his farmhands come
in to dinner, and we sat down at an immense table
loaded with everything good to eat. He was happy
and talkative that day. He said he always believed in
treating his help to as good as he had himself. He
was a strict disciplinarian, and among his rules for
his household and farm were these:

“*When you wake up in the morning, don’t roll
over but roll out.’

“* Always pay a poor hand as much as you promise
him and a good hand a little more.’

“He remarked to a lady of our party who was
rather slender and delicate, ‘ You'll never get fat, your
neck is too long. Long-necked steers never get fat.’

“ After dinner he took us up to the cupola of his
house and showed us with pride his lands. He pointed
east and west, and north and south, and as far as
the eye could reach he owned it all. He would say,
‘Do you see that herd of cattle way over there? That’s
on my land.’ Mr. Reynolds said to him, ‘ Mr. Strawn,
there is one direction in which you have not pointed.’
‘Which is that?’ said he. Mr. Reynolds pointed up-
ward and said, ‘How much.have you up there?’ His
countenance fell and he said solemnly, ‘I believe it all,
just as you do, boys, but I’ve been so busy that I
haven’t had time to think about that.’ We had prayers
with the old gentleman and his large family, and then
we left him after he had given us the check for the rest
of the ten thousand dollars.

“When I got home I sent him a beautiful Bible in
large type. I never saw him again. In a few months
180 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

he was called to his reward, but his wife wrote me that
he was a very much changed man after our visit—
that he would sit for hours by the window with his
Bible on his knee, and a great peace seemed to come
over him. I believe that I shall meet him again.”

About a year after this interesting event, the Chap-
lain made the following tender entry upon the page
of his journal: “I am going to Jacksonville to-night
to attend the session of the Morgan County Sabbath-
school Convention. Hope to meet many of my old
friends there and have a pleasant and profitable time.
Jacob Strawn is dead! He will not be there to bid
us welcome. Only last summer he entertained us and
sent us away with the magnificent present of $10,000
for the Christian Commission. He was a singular
man, but he had a generous heart.”
XIX

BACK TO THE ARMY—WAR SCENES—CON-
VERSIONS AMONG THE SOLDIERS

in raising money for the Christian Commission

his heart was with the soldiers at the front.
“TI. wish my work were assigned me in the army.
There I would rather be than anywhere else. How
delightful to be permitted to preach the Gospel to the
men in the trenches, as they lie patiently waiting the
order to advance. This is a glorious army. It is the
Old Guard of the Republic now and as such should
live in the Nation’s history.”

In the fall of 1864 he is again with the army, hold-
ing meetings, singing and preaching, and leading the
soldiers to Christ. What a joy to him to be again with
the brave men who were fighting for human freedom
and for our national Union! It was during this visit
to the army that he went to City Point, where he
wrote: “I have just returned from a ride of thirty-
five miles through the army. Have been twelve hours
in the saddle. Saw a great deal to interest me and I
trust to profit me. From a hill just outside this place
I comprehended for the first time the extent of this
city of tents. There are here from six to eight thou-
sand sick and wounded men. What a work is here

181

B= with all the success that attended his efforts
182 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

for the faithful ministers of Christ! We have about
twenty delegates here all the time. Each man’s work
is assigned him, and an effort is made to extend the
beneficence of the Commission to each man every day
in some form. Meetings are held here every day for
those able to be out of their tents. At the meeting last
night twenty rose for prayers. There is an indica-
tion of a blessed work of grace among the dear de-
fenders of the Union. Oh, how I long to give myself
to it!”

It appears that on this ride during which he in-
spected the Commission stations he wore a grey coat
of which he writes: “ My grey coat attracted much at-
tention among the boys as I rode along. Some play-
fully remarked that I must be ‘a Reb.’ They said I
looked like one. We rode out beyond our lines, and
in returning some of the soldiers seemed to think we
were captured rebels and called attention to us.
Brother Cole suggested that I should say a few words.
I rode up into their midst and commenced to speak.
Several hundred men gathered round us at once. I
talked to them in a patriotic strain for some time,
I sang for them ‘ The Battle Hymn of the Republic,’
and then I talked to them of Jesus and His dying love.
Oh, it was a magnificent opportunity! We were
within six miles of Richmond. We sang the Doxology
with might and main. The old woods rang with the
sublime song, and, doubtless, far away the rebels heard
it. It was an inspiring moment for me. I love such
a work as that. I so much wish I could spend my life
at it, or rather my time so long as the war lasts.”
BACK TO THE ARMY 183

Incidents of thrilling interest came to the Chaplain’s
attention as he laboured among the soldiers. Mrs.
Beck, the daughter of Justice Greer, of whom mention
has been made, told him of a young lieutenant who
had been converted and at once began labouring for
Christ. “His efforts were greatly blessed. A revival
broke out in which eighty souls were converted. The
battle below the Rapidan came on. They passed away
and when the army went into winter quarters at City
Point all of the fruits of that revival, save the young
officer himself, had been swept away. Every man of
the eighty was killed or wounded.”

During the war the Chaplain was quite a popular
correspondent and often sent letters to the newspapers,
which were eagerly read by the people. One of those
letters was on “ A Night in the Hospital.”

“The orderly of Company B and I are sitting up
at the hospital to-night. I was down during the day,
and in passing around had spoken a few words to a
young soldier of the roth Virginia. Little did I think
that at that moment he was seeking the salvation of
his soul, for he answered me nothing, being very sick.
While the attendant was down to supper he heard a
wonderful uproar in the room he had just left, and
hastened back to find this young man shouting the
praises of God and calling for his clothes, saying God
had healed him, soul and body, and he must go to camp
and tell the wondrous story. The attendant thought
he was crazy and called for help; but they soon found
that he was in his ‘ right mind and sitting at the feet
of Jesus.’ As soon as I came down this evening they
184 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

told me about it, and I went to his bedside to hear
from his own lips what God had done for his soul.
Oh, how sweetly did he tell his experience! ‘ When
the Lord blessed me,’ he said, ‘I was saying: “ Here’s
my soul and body and all I have and am,” and, glory
to God! He took me at my word.’ He began to
shout again. I thought it best to check him a lit-
tle, lest it would prove too much for his strength.
However, I have never known any one to be
injured, even when sick, by any religious exercises
whatever.

“Lying in the same room is a young man, by name
E. S. D., a fine-looking fellow, with high forehead,
dark, luxuriant hair, and an exceedingly pleasant
countenance. He is the son of praying parents. He
spoke of them to-night, and said he knew they prayed
for him before they slept. He has been a prodigal;
says he was convicted at one of our prayer-meetings
this winter, has been unhappy ever since. As soon as
I returned from Ohio he sent for me. I found him in
deep distress about his soul. I pointed him to Jesus,
and told him I would come and spend the night with
him. The conversion of the young Virginian right
by his side greatly encouraged him. When I came this
evening he was not far from the Kingdom of God.
His chief difficulty seemed to be to get rid of the
memory of his past sins long enough to think of the
willingness of Christ to save. He talked so much
about the past; he seemed to love to repent. We had
a glorious season of prayer together. He began to
comprehend the plan of salvation more fully. His
BACK TO THE ARMY 185

sorrow was turned into joy, his darkness into light.
His face shone. He sang with me:

“© Then quick as thought I felt him mine,
My Saviour stood before me;
I saw his brightness round me shine,
And shouted glory, glory!’

His cup of repentance has been bitter, indeed, but the
cup of salvation is all the sweeter for that. While I
write this note in my pocket diary he lies upon his
pallet before me praising God in a whisper. I hear
him say: ‘O blessed Jesus! He is my Saviour, halle-
lujah! My heart is full.” The orderly sits by his
side, listening first to the Virginian and then to brother
D , and trembling with fulness of joy; and I, did
not I fear to wake the inmates of this great hospital,
would not refrain longer to shout the praise of God
till heaven and earth might hear.

“What scenes have I witnessed in this hospital!
How many have passed from my gaze to the better
land, often leaving for a while the pearly gate ajar
till I have almost longed to depart also! But I turn
to the life before me with new vigour, saying:

 

“This work shall make my heart rejoice.’ ”

An incident that impressed the Chaplain was told
him by a fellow-worker among the soldiers; he was
ministering to the wounded during the fight of the
Wilderness, “ A son of Germany, a smooth-faced Teu-
ton, was lifted from an ambulance all covered with
blood and dust. He was carried into the hospital and
186 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

made as comfortable as possible. As the delegate was
going, the soldier said: ‘Chaplain, can you get me a
German testament?’ He said he thought he could, and
added he would try. The Commission furnished the
book. The delegate wanted him to read but little and
turned to the 14th of John and asked the soldier to
translate it for him. He put it into English thus:
‘Don’t let your heart be afraid. You have believed
in God, believe in Me, too. In the house of My Father
‘there are a great many palaces, if it were not so I
would tell you all about it. Iam going to fix one place
for you. And if I goI will come back again and take
_you away to be with Me all the time.’ ”

As an instance of fortitude and loyalty on the part
of a Union soldier the Chaplain used to relate the fol-
lowing incident, for which at the time the papers of
the country quoted him as the authority.

“Tn an hospital at Nashville a wounded hero was
lying on the amputating table, under the influence of
chloroform. They cut off his strong right arm, and
cast it bleeding upon the pile of human limbs. They
then laid him gently upon his couch. He awoke from
his stupor and missed his arm. With his left arm he
lifted the cloth and there was nothing but the gory
stump. ‘ Where’s my arm?’ he cried; ‘Get my arm; I
want to see it once more—my strong right arm.’
They brought it to him. He took hold of the cold
clammy fingers and, looking steadfastly at the poor
dead member, said: ‘ Good-bye, old arm. We have
been a long time together. We must part now. Good-
bye, old arm, You'll never fire another carbine nor
BACK TO THE ARMY 187

swing another sabre for the government,’ and the
tears rolled down his cheeks. He then said to those
standing by, ‘ Understand, I don’t regret its loss. It
has been torn from my body that not one State shall
be torn from this glorious Union.’ He might have
added :

“Some things are worthless, some so good,
That nations that: buy them pay only in blood;
For Freedom and Union each man owes his part,
And here I pay my share, all warm from my heart.’”

Such scenes and incidents as these made the front
very attractive to the great-hearted Chaplain, who
had such unwonted power to win men to God, and
such a magnetic tenderness in comforting the sick and
dying. But he is soon compelled to return North and
resume the work to which he was “ doomed,” and in
which he continued to be engaged to the close of the
war.
XX

THE GIFT OF SONG—“ THE BATTLE HYMN
OF THE REPUBLIC” ’”

HE Chaplain was endowed with a rich baritone

voice which, for power and pathos and what,
for a better term, may be called magnetism,

will forever be remembered by all who ever heard it.
Many a stubborn heart was melted to repentance by
the tender unction of that wonderful voice. Great
audiences were thrilled and roused to patriotic en-
thusiasm by its clarion tones. Thousands of “ de-
sponding freemen ”’ lifted up their eyes with new hope
at its clear triumphant accents. The soldiers in camps
along the weary march, in hospital, and within the
gloomy prison, heard that sweet and manly voice to
take heart again,’to weep and shout and set the dun-
geon or camp or battle line on fire with patriotic ardour
and aflame with song. Men would saunter about the
breastworks, and lie patiently upon the sick-cot, and
march into battle whistling or humming or with gusto
singing the Chaplain’s songs. Bishop Ames once paid
a tribute to McCabe’s power in song which thousands
of men and women would gladly acknowledge as the
expression of their own sentiment. The Rev. J. W.
Cheney sent to The Christian Advocate an account

188
THE GIFT OF SONG 189

of the Chaplain’s singing at a session of the Iowa Con-
ference, held at Albia in the fall of 1870: “ One day
Bishop Ames said: ‘ Well, brethren, we have been
working hard this morning; i us rest a little while
Chaplain McCabe sings for us.’ The Chaplain went to
the organ and began to sing, ‘I love to tell the story.’
The most of us had never heard the song or the
singer. I sat in the ‘Amen’ corner where I could see
the people well, and noticed in a little while that they
were being deeply moved—and soon about all of them
were weeping. A preacher at my side began a strug-
gle for self-control. He put his hands to his face and
bowed upon the back of the seat in front of him; for
a moment I could feel him swell and sob against me,
then he broke down utterly and sobbed like a school-
boy.
“Just before Conference opened the next morning
a group of us were in front of the church talking
about the singing. Bishop Ames came along and over-
heard us. He stopped and said: ‘ The Chaplain’s sing-
ing is perfectly wonderful. He has been with me in
the Conferences this fall. I have heard him sing that
song a half dozen times and I cried every time. Yes-
terday I resolved that I would control myself, but
soon saw the people breaking down and felt myself
going. I thought if I could look at some brother who
was not crying it would brace me up. I looked about
for brother Cowles, but when I found him a tear or
two had already started down his face. Then I said
there is Dr. John H. Power—he never cries. I soon
saw him sitting bolt upright as usual, but his eyes were
190 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

shut and his face wrinkled as never before; then I gave
it up and cried with the rest of them.’ ”’

Who has not paid to that plaintive, pleading, tender,
and triumphant voice the tribute of his tears? It
possessed a quality no training could have imparted to
it, no art could have developed, no analysis could have
described or classified; a quality that came from
heaven, a gift of nature from his God. And what a
glorious use did he make of that glorious voice!

It was in those great Christian Commission meet-
ings through the North during the war that the Chap-
lain often achieved triumphs with his song which
would have been impossible to the logic and eloquence
of oratory. Thousands came to those meetings just to
hear the Chaplain sing. And they heard, never to for-
get, the strange, irresistible, fascinating spell which
that singing threw over their feelings, and with which
it won their hearts to the cause for which he pleaded.
It was the singer and his song that made those meet-
ings memorable, and that fairly charmed thousands
of dollars from the people whose purse strings they
had loosened while their money flowed as freely as
their tears.

Among the vast number of songs which the war
inspired were a few that belong to our best poetry and
have been assigned a rank in our imperishable litera-
ture. While no one will deny the temporary popu-
larity and thrilling influence of such songs as ‘‘ Yankee
Doodle,” ‘“ Dixie,” “ Kingdom Comin’,” and “ John
Brown’s Body,” the poetry of the songs is the veriest
doggerel.
THE GIFT OF SONG 19!

Still another class of songs, heard more frequently
in the homes of the people than on the street or in the
political meetings, songs that touched the heart of the
sorrowing millions, was represented by: “ Tenting on
the Old Camp-Ground,” “Just before the Battle,
Mother,” “‘ When the Cruel War is Over.” These
tender songs served the time and the cause that called
them forth, but they cannot be assigned a place in our
national literature. The same may be said of such
heroic, eloquent songs as, “ The Battle Cry of Free-
dom,” “Tramp, Tramp, Tramp,” and “ Marching
through Georgia.”

But the war gave birth to at least two great poems
that take their place with the world’s best patriotic
songs. ‘ The Song of a Thousand Years ” and “ The
Battle Hymn of the Republic” rank with “ The Star-
Spangled Banner,” “ Hail, Columbia!” and “ Columbia,
the Gem of the Ocean,” as valuable contributions to
the literature of American patriotism.

Chaplain McCabe had as fine a taste for good poetry
as for good music, and he made use of the nobler,
more dignified war songs to stir the feelings and kindle
the loyal devotion of the people. Who that heard him
in the days of his magnificent voice can ever forget the
thrill, the enthusiasm, the patriotic exultation, pro-
duced by the singer as the majestic strains in baritone
power rolled forth:

“Lift up your eyes, desponding freemen! '

Fling to the winds your needless fears!
He who unfurl’d your glorious banner
Says it shall wave a thousand years!
192 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

“© A thousand years’! My own Columbia;
’Tis the glad day so long foretold!
’Tis the glad morn whose early twilight,
Washington saw in times of old.”

But of all the war songs of the sixties, Julia Ward
Howe’s “ Battle Hymn of the Republic”’ has by com-
mon consent, as well as by the best literary judgment,
been accorded the preéminence. Its patriotic fervour,
its religious spirit, its prophetic glow, its majestic
stride and glorious swing of thought and measure, em-
bodied the very soul of the Union cause.

Next to the all but inspired authoress we are in-
debted to Chaplain McCabe for this great war song.
He with his glorious voice introduced it to the coun-
try and made it popular with the people. And who
shall say that swords and guns, forts and battleships,
did more to save the Union than that magnificent song
which roused the North to an enthusiasm such as battle-
pean never roused an army for victorious combat?
McCabe sang it in Libby Prison; he sang it to the sol-
diers in camp and field and hospital; he sang it in
schoolhouses and churches; he sang it at camp-meet-
ings, political gatherings, and the Christian Commis-
sion assemblies, and all the Northland took it up:

“Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are
stored ; : ;
He ‘hath loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.

“T have seen him in the watchfires of a hundred circling camps;
They have builded him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
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THE GIFT OF SONG 193

T have read his righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps;
His day is marching on.

“T have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:
‘As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall
deal ;’
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel,
Since God is marching on.

“He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat:

He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment seat;

Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer him; be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.

“In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,

With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me;

As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.”

The authoress of this immortal Battle Hymn, and,
happily, she is still living, tells us in her “ Reminis-
cences”” how the hymn came to be written. She was
visiting Washington with friends, among them Gov-
ernor Andrew of Massachusetts and her pastor,
the Rev. James Freeman Clarke. After an inter-
view with President Lincoln they attended a
review of the troops at some distance from the
city, and on their return in the evening they sang
from time to time snatches of the army songs
so popular at the time, among them “ John Brown’s
body lies a-mouldering in the ground.” * As they
sang the last verse of the song, Mr. Clarke said:
“Mrs. Howe, why do you not write some good
words for that stirring tune?” “TI replied,” says Mrs.
Howe, “that I had often wished to do this, but had

* “ Grave.”
194 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

not as yet found in my mind any leading toward it.”
Mrs. Howe further writes: “I went to bed that night
as usual and slept, according to my wont, quite
soundly. I,awoke in the grey of the morning twilight,
and as I lay waiting for-the dawn, the long lines of
the desired poem began to twine themselves in my
mind. Having thought out all the stanzas, I said to
myself, ‘I must get up and write these verses down,
lest I fall asleep again and forget them.’ So with a
sudden effort I sprang out of bed, and found in the
dimness an old stump of a pen which I remembered ©
to have used the day before. I scrawled the verses
almost without looking at the paper. Having com-
pleted my writing, I returned to bed and fell asleep,
saying to myself: ‘I like this better than most things
that I have written.’ ”

The literary. merit of this poem received the ap-
proval of so ‘high an authority as The Atlantic
Monthly, in which it was published.

Chaplain McCabe read it in the magazine, com-
mitted it to memory, heard it sung at a war meeting,
then carried it with him to the front, where he was
soon captured and sent to’Libby Prison, whose walls
were to echo and re-echo with that “ Battle Hymn.”

In a letter written to Mrs. Howe acknowledging
the receipt of an autograph copy of the hymn, the
Chaplain says: “‘ The Hymn came out first, I think, in
The Atlantic Monthly for February, 1862. I was so
charmed with it that before I arose from my chair I
committed it to memory, not knowing it would go to
the tune of ‘John Brown’s body lies mouldering in
THE GIFT OF SONG 195

the grave.’ Shortly after I learned it I heard the peo-
ple sing it at a great war meeting in Zanesville, Ohio.
The following year, in the month of June, I was cap-
tured at the battle of Winchester under General Mil-
roy, while taking care of my wounded men. I was
taken to Libby Prison. When we heard of the battle
of Gettysburg I had your hymn all ready to sing.
Everybody knew the chorus, but I knew the hymn and
sang it through without a break, and the men joined
in the chorus, making the welkin ring. I have sung
it a thousand times since, and shall continue to sing it
as long as I live. No hymn has ever stirred the na-
tion’s heart like ‘ The Battle Hymn of the Republic.’ ”

Of the Chaplain’s part in making this hymn so uni-
versally popular, Mrs. Howe speaks in her interesting
“ Reminiscences ”’ :

“The poem was somewhat praised on its appear-
ance, but the vicissitudes of the war so engrossed pub-
lic attention that small heed was taken of literary mat-
ters. I knew, and was content to know, that the poem
soon found its way to the camps, as I heard from time
to time of its being sung in chorus by the soldiers. As
the war went on, it came to pass that Chaplain McCabe,
newly released from Libby Prison, gave a public lec-
ture in Washington, and recounted some of his recent
experiences. Among them was the following: He
and the other Union prisoners occupied one large com-
fortless room, in which the floor was their only bed.
An official in charge of them told them, one evening,
that the Union arms had just sustained a terrible de-
feat. While they sat together, in great sorrow, the
196 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

negro who waited upon them whispered to one man
that the officer had given them false information, and
that the Union soldiers had, on the contrary, achieved
an important victory. At this good news they all re-
joiced, and presently made the walls ring with my
Battle Hymn, which they sang in chorus, Chaplain
McCabe leading. The lecturer recited the poem with
such effect that those present began to enquire, ‘ Who
wrote this Battle Hymn?’ It now became one of
the leading lyrics of the war.”

Thus does the generous authoress give full credit to
Chaplain McCabe for popularising her noble hymn.

When the Chaplain was released from Libby and
returned to the North, as soon as his health would
permit he took up the work of the Christian Commis-
sion, and in this cause made wonderfully effective use
of the Battle Hymn, and with it sang thousands of
dollars out of the people’s pockets into the treasury
of the Commission.
XXI
ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND THE BATTLE HYMN

HUS the great war lyric became identified with
the name of Chaplain McCabe. It did seem

that the song was composed for his voice and
his voice had been created for that song. Not only
were his fellow prisoners in Libby cheered out of their
despondency by the Chaplain’s singing of that “ Battle
Hymn,” and not only were Northern audiences fairly
lifted to their feet and soldiers in camp and on the
march roused to new enthusiasm and valour by its
power, but Abraham Lincoln heard it—for the first
time—with the tears rolling down his cheeks as the
Chaplain sang it one memorable night in Washington.
On the evening of February 2, 1864, a meeting was
held in the Hall of the House of Representatives in the
interests of the Christian Commission. Under date
of February 1, 1864, the Chaplain wrote in his journal,
“Started this morning with Mr. Stuart * and others
for Washington, where to-morrow evening is to be
held a Christian Commission meeting in the Hall of

Representatives.”
At the close of the next day, February 2d, he wrote:
“ Spent the day in looking round the city with my dear
old friend, Col. Powell, whom to my great joy I find

* President Christian Commission.
197 :
198 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

here just released from Libby Prison. He had a hard
time there, but it is over now and he has the satisfac-
tion of knowing that while there he tried to do his duty
as a Christian soldier. The meeting to-night was a
grand affair for the most part. The audience was im-
mense. Vice-President Hamlin presided, speeches
were made by Speaker Colfax, Senator Sherman, two
delegates of the Commission, and others. The Presi-
dent honoured the meeting with his presence. He was
greeted upon entering by loud applause. Huis popu-
larity is wonderful.”

Before he slept that memorable night, the Chaplain
wrote to his wife and described the scene in which he
had taken a conspicuous part:

“Feb. 3, 1864, 2 A. M.
“ DEAREST WIFE:

“T have just returned from the room of Mr. Stuart,
whither we repaired after the great meeting in the
Capitol. I wish beyond measure you had been there.
It was in the Hall of the House of Representatives.
That room was crowded to its utmost capacity. Vice-
President Hamlin presided. Mr. Colfax received us
in his own private room and treated us with the great-
est cordiality. Mr. Hamlin made the opening speech.
It was very short, but contained some good points.
Mr. Stuart then gave a statement of the doings of the
Commission during the past year. It was enough to
cause one’s heart to swell with gratitude to God that
so much good has been accomplished. While Mr.
Stuart was speaking, Mr. Lincoln walked in. The
THE BATTLE HYMN 199

audience rose to their feet and sent forth cheer upon
cheer. My seat was just in front of the one he occu-
pied. Often during the speeches that followed, those
of Brothers Parvin and Mingins, the tears rolled down
the rugged cheeks. The band gave us now and then
some fine music.

“ Next Mr. Colfax addressed us. His was a mas-
terly effort, but it was difficult to realise that a man so
young as he should hold the 3d office in the U. S.
Government. Colfax is not much of an orator, yet he
has great power over an audience, from the fact that
he weighs well his words and every sentence is bur-
dened with truth.

“Gen. Martindale then addressed us. It was a
speech abounding in genius. He showed that the re-
ligious element was the powerful bulwark of liberty.
Senator Sherman was then called out. He only made
a few remarks, as the hour was late.

“Then, after all these great men, your ‘little
hubby’ was called out and Col. Powell and I stood
side by side. I made a brief address and wound
up as requested, by singing the ‘ Battle Hymn,’ Col.
Powell singing bass. When we came to the chorus
the audience rose. Oh, how they sang! I hap-
pened to strike exactly the right key and the band
helped us. I kept time for them with my hand and the
mighty audience sang in exact time. Some shouted
out loud at the last verse, and above all the uproar Mr.
Lincoln’s voice was heard: ‘ Sing it again!’ Then I
told them of that man who said to me, ‘ Tell the Presi-
dent not to back down an inch,’ ‘and here,’ said I,
200 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

‘I deliver my message to you, Mr. President, .in the
name of the martyrs of Liberty.’ What an uproar!
Father Abraham rose to his feet and the people
cheered him again and again. Dear old man, his very
appearance is the signal for applause.”

On the 5th of February the Chaplain, in a letter to
his wife, refers again to this impressive incident and
explains one or two points more fully. “ Yesterday I
spent in visiting places of interest: Mr. Stuart, Col.
Powell, and I called upon the President, but we did not
try to see him as he was in close conference with some
committees. If Mr. Stuart had sent in his card we
would have been admitted at once. We went up to the
House; we did not stay long. We went over to the
Senate. Senator Foster, of Conn., had said to me
the night before: ‘When you come up to the Senate
send in your card.’ I had a notion to do so, but then
I thought what if he should—well! what if he should
make me speak or sing before that remarkable body!
For the first time for years my courage utterly failed
me, and I did not send my card, although I had prom-
ised to do so. Mr. Hamlin came out and greeted our
whole party with great warmth. We were shown
through the magnificent Capitol. It was a grand sight.
Col. Forney, secretary of the Senate, came out to see
us and to welcome us to his private room.

“ Our dinner over, our whole party got into carriages
we had ordered and went out to Camp Convalescence,
about four miles from the city, on the Virginia side.
The Commission had built a tabernacle there which will
hold one thousand persons. It was the night for their
THE BATTLE HYMN 201

temperance meeting. The house was filled to its ut-
most capacity. An address was delivered by a re-
formed drunkard, a roll of honour was exhibited
containing 1,500 names. The address was splendid. |
Others followed. Mr. Stuart arose and told them that
now they would listen to a man from Libby Prison.
It is a far greater bore to me than ever to hear this so
much, but I must endure it. Mr. Stuart went on and
told them about my singing in the Capitol and about
the President saying, ‘Sing itagain.’ Mr. Stuart said,
I told the audience about a man who, enduring all the
horrors of Libby Prison, said to me when leaving,
‘ McCabe, if you see the President tell him not to back
down an inch on our account,’ and then he told them
about the applause and shouts of the multitude. Old
Abraham himself said, ‘I won’t back down’ loud
enough to be heard by all in his immediate neighbour-
hood. When Stuart told them about the President
saying ‘I won’t back down,’ as Wesley says, ‘ they tore
things up by the roots.” Oh, how they shouted, and
then I sang and spoke and spoke and sang, and when
the meeting was over shook hands with hundreds of
the boys. Ah! Beccie, it was a sight worth the seeing.
Col. Forney told Mr. Stuart that nothing like our
meeting in the Capitol had ever been held in Wash-
ington.”

There are those still living who witnessed that
scene, and they declare it to have been the most thrill-
ing event in their lives. The singing of Chaplain Mc-
Cabe electrified the great throng, men and women
202 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

sprang to their feet and wept and shouted and sang,
as the Chaplain led them in that glorious Battle Hymn;
they saw Abraham Lincoln’s tear-stained face light
up with a strange glory as he cried out, “ Sing it
again,” and McCabe and all the multitude sang it
again. The question has been raised as to whether Mr.
Lincoln called out and said, “Sing it again,” or
whether he simply wrote the request on a slip of paper
and had it passed to the singers. This first descrip-
tion of the scene as it is preserved in the Chaplain’s
letter, written the very night of the event and the day
or two after, puts beyond all question the fact that
Mr. Lincoln called out for the repetition of the song;
but the statement was frequently made in after years
by the Chaplain, as it was also made by Col. Powell,
that the President wrote out the request on a piece of
paper and had jt sent up to the singers. It would seem
therefore that Mr. Lincoln called for a repetition of
the song both vocally and in writing. He may have
thought his voice was not heard above the uproar of
the shouting and repeated the question in writing;
while some heard the President call out, others saw
or were told of the written message. Hence there have
arisen contradictory reports as to just how Mr, Lin-
coln made his request known. The reasonable solu-
tion of this apparent difficulty is to be found in the
assumption that he made his request known both
vocally and in writing. A further reference is made
to this great meeting, in which the Chaplain sang be-
fore President Lincoln. Under date of Feb. 20, 1864,
the Chaplain’s journal contains this entry:
THE BATTLE HYMN 203

“ Attended the reception of the President to-day.
Mrs. Lincoln was present; they received their guests
with the utmost cordiality. Mr. Lincoln recognised
me as the man who sang the ‘ Battle Hymn of the Re-
public’ at the Capitol and was kind enough to com-
pliment both the song and the singing. My vanity was
considerably delighted. Sure, and how could I help
it?’’ The Chaplain afterwards stated that in his con-
versation with Mr. Lincoln at his reception the Presi-
dent said to him, “ Take it all in all, the song and the
singing, that was the best I ever heard.”
XXII

DEATH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN—FUNERAL—
BURIAL

HAPLAIN McCABE’S great admiration for
O Abraham Lincoln is frequently manifest by
expressions in his journal. Absorbed as he
may have been in his work, he kept his eye on the
political situation during Mr. Lincoln’s second cam-
paign for the Presidency. He writes: “I have no
doubt Mr. Lincoln will be elected by a large majority;
I sincerely hope so.’ On the night of the election, he
wrote: “ Greatly cheered by what little election news
we have received: Mr. Lincoln is without doubt
elected. Thanks be to God.”

It was with most profound emotion, however, that
he referred to the assassination of the President and
how he first received the sad intelligence. He gives in-
teresting and historically valuable details of the funeral
in Chicago and of the burial in Springfield, Illinois.

‘April 14, 1865, the Chaplain with patriotic exulta-
tion wrote in his journal:

“ Cincinnati, Ohio. To-day the old flag is to be
raised over Sumter. This day will be had in everlast-
ing remembrance. Four years ago the rebels compelled
this nation to look upon what well they knew they
must not endure, if they desired to have a place among

204
DEATH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 205

the people of the earth. To-day the same flag with
every star remaining, with a higher and holier mean-
ing attached to the blessed symbol of our nationality,
that flag is to rise again above the walls of Sumter.
Who does not feel that we are saved at last? This
has been a joyful day. This city has been given over
to enthusiastic demonstrations of rapture upon the part
of the people; cannon and fireworks have filled the air
with sounds familiar to every soldier’s ear, and which
cannot fail even in the midst of this rejoicing to bring
to memory the terrible field of carnage. O! what it
has cost to save this land, yet we are saved; thank
God, we are saved.”

What an ardently patriotic spirit pervades this
diary! The Union cause had no more devoted a
champion than this great-souled Chaplain McCabe.
But, alas, how suddenly his rejoicing was turned
into mourning and lamentation! On the opposite
page of this journal, and facing his fervent expres-
sions of joy over the re-raising of the flag upon Sumter,
we find the startling exclamation, “ Abraham Lincoln
is dead!” The page seems to sob with the grief of
him who penned the impassioned lines.

“ Saturday, April 15, 1865. Steamer Telegraph.
Abraham Lincoln is dead! Oh, that I could have
saved his precious life by the offering of my own!
How freely would it have been laid upon the national
altar. Never did we seem to need him more than now.
Yet he is dead, and Seward, too, the great, the wise,
the good! The Champion of Liberty, Seward, lies
at the point of death. Cursed be slavery! for it was
206 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

that which nerved the assassin’s arm. Cursed be
slavery! Let it perish from the Earth! O God, help
this land to free itself forever from human bondage;
my soul is sick with grief! My heart is heavy. ‘The
beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places.’ Last
night I left Cincinnati after participating in the joy-
ful celebration of the recent victories. As we neared
Portsmouth to-day, I observed a flag at half-mast,
and then another and another. Then we knew that
something awful had happened. A man with whom I
was acquainted answered my question too suddenly.
I came near falling overboard. I retired to my state-
room to feel for the pillars of everlasting strength.”

For several days thereafter the Chaplain’s journal is
burdened with the grief of his soul. As we read these
pathetic pages they reflect not only the feelings of the
patriot who wrote them, but they express the feelings
of the nation, and tell us again as we read them to-
day how the people suffered and mourned over the
tragic death of the great and good Abraham Lincoln.

“Tronton, Ohio, Sunday, April 16, 1865. Be-
hold how they loved him! The people are in tears;
universal gloom prevails. I tried to preach this morn-
ing; while I was reading the lesson the pent-up foun-
tains burst forth, the congregation wept aloud; it was
to-day our Bochim, ‘ The beauty of Israel is slain upon
the high places: how are the mighty fallen! Tell
it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon;
lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph. Ye
mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let
there be rain upon you, nor fields of offerings: for the
DEATH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 207

shield of the mighty is vilely cast away, the shield
of Saul, as though he had not been anointed with
oil. Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in
their lives, and in their death they were not divided:
they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger
than lions. How are the mighty fallen in the midst of
the battle! O Jonathan, thou wast slain upon the high
places. I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan:
very pleasant hast thou been unto me. How are the
mighty fallen!’ ”

“Steamer Telegraph, April 17. I am restless
and want to rush out into the great world; yes-
terday and to-day my soul has been oppressed. O
Lord, I am oppressed, undertake for me. Mine
eyes fail with looking upward. This to me is a per-
sonal bereavement. It seems to be to all. These two
men were the champions of truth. O Lord, why
could not our Moses have entered the promised land
of Liberty? Often I fancied him living and enjoying
the prosperity of the land he saved for years to
come. At a green old age we would have chosen
that he might descend to his grave, but he is gone, in
the prime of life, in the glory of his manhood, in the
noontide splendour of his fame. Each moment he
grows upon me; his character brightens with each
passing hour. The cause for which he died will live.
His enemies have taken his life, but they cannot rob
the nation of the priceless boon which he gave us,
when he said, ‘ upon this act I invoke the considerate
judgment of mankind and the gracious favour of
Almighty God.’ Abraham Lincoln is dead! farewell,
208 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

great soul, passed to the realms of light. Take thy
station with Moses, whom thou hast indeed made
thy great exemplar.”

“ Cincinnati, Ohio, April 18. This evening was
held at Mozart Hall the anniversary of the Cincin-
nati Branch of the Christian Commission; the hall
was crowded of course. It was rather a pleasant
affair, not much money, however; I fear we are going
to feel the effect of approaching peace in our treas-
ury too soon. It will come inevitably, nothing more
sure. When the people know that the soldiers are
being sent home, that the hospitals are being emptied,
they will cease to give so liberally. However, they
have been giving here constantly. Members of this
branch have held meetings in some one of the churches
each Sabbath night. The occasion was a wonderful
one. How could it be otherwise! Our President is
dead! Abraham Lincoln is dead! ‘Our Atlas has
gone to the shades of Erebus; who now sliall uphold
the falling skies?’ The people seemed depressed to-
night. To-morrow is the day for services in all the
churches. It is well for the people to go up to the
House of the Lord, for God is known in the palaces
of Zion for a refuge.”

“ Cincinnati, Ohio, April 19. Attended services to-
day at Morris Chapel. The sermon upon the life and
character of Abraham Lincoln was by the pastor,
brother Runiche. It was a good discourse, but no
part of it so moved my heart as his quotations
from the sayings of the departed statesman. Many
of these sayings are worthy to become immortal
DEATH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 909

maxims. If followed, the advice contained, and the
policy indicated therein, will make the nation immor-
tal. It does seem that God raised up that man for the
very work which he so ably performed. It is wonder-
ful now to look and see the hand of God in his men-
tal, moral, and political training. Oh, he has lifted
from the nation the awful burden of slavery. Moses
was a deliverer, but his ransomed host was only three
millions, while Abraham Lincoln was God’s almoner
of the priceless boon of Liberty to four million
human beings. Nothing is more sad than the silent,
undemonstrative sorrow of that long-suffering race
whose best friend he was.”

The Chaplain’s journal contains many of the most
valuable details of Abraham Lincoln’s funeral in
Chicago and Springfield that have been preserved of
that melancholy event. The Christian Commission
was holding its convention in Chicago at the time, and
the Chaplain was attending as one of its delegates,
when in his thoughtfulness he recorded in his diary
the thoughts, feeling, and incidents connected with the
funeral of the martyred President.

“Chicago, Ill., April 27. Convention adjourned
to-day after a short session. The funeral of the
President is to take place earlier than first announced,
and I will have to recall some of my appointments in
order to be present. Slowly, slowly, they bear on the
dead; his march is like the march of a conqueror.
The whole nation rises up to greet him sadly as he
passes on to the grave. Nothing can comfort this
bereaved people. Time will accustom us, in some de-
210 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

gree, to the presence of this sorrow, but in many a
heart it will be life-long. We wanted him to live in
the nation that he saved. It was expedient for him
that he should go away; yet he is more powerful now
than ever, more mighty in his influence. It is proved
that a man can be successful who does right. That
was doubtful for a long time. Steadfast adherence
to principle without regard to party was not so much
admired in a man by politicians as steadfast adher-
ence to party without regard to principle. Alas! my
brother! would God I had died for thee! He is still
our President. In calm and storm, we will still feel
his hand 6n the helm.”

“ Chicago, April 28, The brethren have gone home,
I shall remain to witness the funeral pageant of Mr,
Lincoln. Great preparations are being made to re-
ceive his remains with solemn splendour. Nearly
every house is already draped in mourning. The man-
sions of the wealthy and the cottages of the poor are
all clad in these significant emblems of national be-
reavement. More tears are shed for Mr. Lincoln than
for any. man that ever lived and died. It seems to
bring the people nearer together to have one object
whom they all loved so fervently.

““"We know him now: all narrow jealousies
Are silent; and we see him as he moved,
How modest, kindly, all-accomplished, wise,
With what sublime repression of himself,
And in what limits and how tenderly!
Whose glory was redressing human wrongs,
Not making his high place the lawless perch
Of wing’d ambitions, nor a vantage ground
DEATH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN art

For pleasure, but thro’ all this tract of years
Wearing the white flower of a blameless life’ ”

“ Chicago, Sunday, April 30. We went down to
hear the address of Mr. Colfax. It was gloriously
sad. The people wept profusely. Bryan Hall was
crowded to its utmost. Mr. Colfax gave us the graver
side of Mr. Lincoln’s character. How many things
he revealed from which the death of the President
removes the seal of privacy. Ah, what a wild, weird,
solemn, sorrowful enthusiasm swept through the audi-
ence! Tears came to my relief; I wept freely and my
overcharged heart found a little rest. More than ever
before, I bewail his loss. Yet, blessed be God that he
ever lived. His fame was full. His work was done.
After the address I was requested to sing the ‘ Battle
Hymn of the Republic’; I did so. It did not seem
appropriate to me at first, but, as we sang on, it was
the natural expression of our gloomy joy.”

“ Chicago, Ill., May 1. To-day the body of the
Martyred President arrived at the metropolis of his
own State. Never did my eyes witness such a sight!
An arch was built in Park Avenue. The train ar-
rived precisely on time. The body was borne out
by private soldiers and placed upon a platform
under the arch where the people could see it.
After some delay, it was placed in the hearse made
for it and the procession began to move. On we
marched, the people uncovering their heads, the vast
multitude silent and awed. No confusion, no noise.
What orders were necessary were given in a low tone.
212 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

Men whispered a sentence now and then into some
listening ear, which told the mighty love they bore
their fallen Chief. -All classes were in that proces-
sion. All nations were represented there; all re-
ligions too. The Hebrew stood side by side with the
Roman Catholic. They forgot in that great moment
the strife and hatred of centuries. The son of Africa
was there, too, and his mute grief moved me most of
all. There, in that coffin, was the hand that had smit-
ten off his fetters. His Moses was dead, dead on the
border but still on this side Jordan.”

The Chaplain went on to Springfield to witness the
burial of the President, and there he continues his
account of the incidents of the solemn obsequies.

“ Springfield, Ill., May 2. Came down to-day in
advance of the crowd. Last night I had the privilege
of spending several hours with Mr. Colfax. To a little
circle of us he told many things in Mr. Lincoln’s
private history which were of intense interest. We
begged him to write them all out and give them to the
public. He will do so after a while. Ages hence,
anything said by that great man will live in the re-
membrance of millions. Dr. Eddy and I went to-
gether last night at 12 o’clock to look upon the face of
the President. The crowd had greatly diminished on
account of the lateness of the hour and of the heavy
rain. Seizing a favourable opportunity to go in
when but few were there, we were permitted to stand
for several minutes and look upon that craggy coun-
tenance, always so sublime to me, more so than ever
now.
DEATH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN ar 3

“They were chanting dirges on the left. The sing-
ers were screened by a large black curtain, and there
they wailed out, with inexpressible sweetness, the sor-
row of each beholder as he looked upon the dead.

“ Farewell, Abraham Lincoln! ”

“ Springfield, Ill, May 3. All day long the people
have been passing through the State House to look
upon the remains of the President. They came this
morning at eight o’clock. Old men and women go
up, take their last look at him they loved so well, and
weep all the way downstairs and into the street.
It is wonderful, wonderful! ‘The city is full of peo-
ple, yet to close one’s eyes it would not be difficult to
imagine that a little company were in the midst of a
great wilderness.

“T was put upon the committee from Chicago to-
day and permitted to wear their badge and share their
lodgings. This evening, Dr. Eddy delivered a beauti-
ful address upon the life and character of Abra-
ham Lincoln. I sang the ‘Battle Hymn’ when he
finished his lecture. We all called upon Governor
Oglesby afterwards. I was requested to repeat the
‘Battle Hymn’ there, which I did, the whole com-
pany of civil and military officers joining in the.
chorus. They wanted it sung because Mr. Lincoln
loved it so.”

“ Springfield, Ill., May 4. My soul will ever revert
to this as one of the saddest days of life. The Presi-
dent’s funeral was to-day. Last night at midnight
I went to take my last look upon his dear, dead face.
The crowd had greatly diminished and the guard per-
214 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

mitted us to stand by his coffin for several minutes.
There lay my Brother, my Friend, my Liberator, for
such he is to me. Never have I been so free as since
he said, ‘ Let us disenthral ourselves and then we shall
save our country.’ Abraham Lincoln is dead! Be-
hold how the nation loved him! For fifteen hundred
miles they have brought his body, his poor mangled
body, through crowds of mourners who hastened to
pay their last tribute of respect to the saviour of his
country. The procession to-day was most imposing.
The address of Bishop Simpson was like all his efforts,
masterly. The nation needs just such a voice as his
to utter for them their mighty sorrow and just such
a heart to feel it.

“ Abraham Lincoln is dead! I turned from his
sepulchre to-day thanking God that he ever lived, and
that his brilliant example shines upon the nation’s
pathway.”

“ Chicago, Ill, May 5. Left Springfield this morn-
ing at 11 o’clock. Bishop Simpson and his good
lady were on the train, so that I had a most pleasant
interview with them. The Bishop still desires me to
come to Philadelphia. I feel almost that my occupa-
tion is gone, now that the war is over, or nearly so. I
begin to long for the pastoral work; I wish I could
go into it, but I will permit the Bishop to control my
destiny. I have little heart just now to do anything.
We left the great man in the cemetery just outside
Springfield. The triumphal march is over and he
sleeps quietly now. Abraham Lincoln is dead! Oh,
what a bereavement! It is no comfort to think that
DEATH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN O15

his murderer is slain. A thousand worthless lives like
his would be no compensation for the death of Abra-
ham Lincoln. The nation will perform its pilgrimages
to his tomb year by year. The lovers of Liberty in
other lands will comeeand stand by his resting-place
and say: ‘ Here lies the saviour of his country.’ Fare-
well, Father Abraham, or rather, All Hail! Thou art
to live forever in my heart, and already thy memory
is there embalmed and there shall it always be.”

The religious nature of Abraham Lincoln, his faith
in God and in the efficacy of prayer, were touchingly
illustrated by an incident which was related to Chap-
lain McCabe by Bishop Simpson. “ He told me,” said
the Chaplain, “ once on a train as we were sitting to-
gether, that Abraham Lincoln was a man of prayer,
and that once in the darkest time of the war after a
long conversation in the White House, Mr. Lincoln
rose and turned the key in the door and said: ‘ Bishop
Simpson, I feel the need of prayer; won’t you pray
for me?’ Bishop Simpson told me they fell on their
knees and while he led in prayer the President re-
sponded fervently all through it.”

On another occasion, the Chaplain himself wit-
nessed an impressive scene that revealed the religious
side of Mr. Lincoln’s nature, which he thus describes:

“Once upon a time, in the year 1864, I went with
a company of fifty men, members of the Christian
Commission and officers of the army, to thank Mr.
Lincoln for what he had done for the soldiers and
sailors of the army and navy. We formed in semi-
circle in the East Room to receive the President. He
216 ‘THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

came in, and our chairman, George H. Stuart, Esq.,
of Philadelphia, made a grand speech, fully ten min-
utes long, full of complimentary remarks to Mr. Lin-
coln. When he had finished, the President replied:
‘Gentlemen, I owe you no thanks for what you have
done; you owe me no thanks for what I have done.
You have done your duty, I have done mine. Let us
keep on doing our duty, and by the help of God we
may yet save our country. I should be glad to take
each of you by the hand.’ He passed around and
shook hands with all present. Bishop Janes said:
“Let us pray.’ We all fell on our knees, and such a
prayer as followed seldom has been heard on earth.
Mr. Lincoln responded heartily all the way through.
It was next door to heaven in the White House that
day.”
XXIII

CLOSE OF THE WAR—RETURN TO PASTOR-
ATE—INNER LIFE

HE work of the Christian Commission was

| drawing to a close with the war. The last

convention of the Western Branches met in

Chicago in April, 1865. The Chaplain, who was one

of the most prominent and highly honoured delegates,

recorded his estimate of the good accomplished by the
Commission.

“ Thank God that it has been so well done. That
our armies are to return to us as an element of moral
power among the people instead of coming like a wave
of desolation, I verily believe is chiefly owing, under
God, to the labours of the Christian Commission.
For once the Church has been in some degree ade-
quate to the demands of the times upon her. And O
what a blessing she has thrown upon the darkest page
of our national history! Glory be to God for all His
mercy and long-suffering to us as a people!”

Reflecting upon the future of the Commission, he
wrote: “ Will it end with the war? Is its mission
well-nigh done? or will it become a permanent or-
ganisation? It seems too glorious an institution to
disband its forces. It is Christianity in a more earnest,
a more efficient type than we have seen it since the

217
218 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

days of the Apostles. It is a brotherhood of Good
Samaritans; how blessed have been its labours! How
wonderful has been its success! In the oblivion of its
mighty charity seem buried forever all demonina-
tional differences and sectarian prejudices. It seems
the answer to the prayer of the Blessed Master, ‘ that
they all may be one as thou, Father, art in me and
I in thee, that they all may be one in us.’ Ah, fel-
low-labourers, henceforth we are brothers beloved in
the Lord. One work, one victory, one rest!”

The work and influence of the Christian Commis-
sion did not end with the great civil war, if we may
believe that the Red Cross movement of these modern
days is but an evolution of the humane idea embodied
in that Commission. True, a broader, an interna-
tional scope has been given to the Red Cross organ-
isation, and a more scientific, medical, and sanitary,
if a less directly moral and religious, character.
Nevertheless, the seed-thought of this humane care
for the sick and wounded in war, if not planted in the
hearts of the nations by the beneficent work of the.
Christian Commission, was greatly nourished thereby;
and philanthropists at home and abroad were encour-
aged by its successful operation to perfect the society
which had been dreamed of since the Crimean War.

But with all the devotion which he had shown to
this religio-patriotic Christian Commission the Chap-
lain longed for the work of the regular ministry, and
with great joy anticipated his return to the pastorate.
The evangelistic spirit that characterised his college
days and his first pastoral work had not been quenched
CLOSE OF THE WAR 219

by the experiences of the war, rather had it been
kindled to a brighter flame. Hence the feelings which
he records in his journal during those April days of
1865. “‘ Went over this evening to attend service at
Brother Moody’s church. It was full, and a great
solemnity pervaded the congregation. Every time
I get into such a meeting a longing which I cannot
describe comes over me to get back into the regular
work of the ministry and labour for the salvation of
souls alone, Yet this unspeakable pleasure seems de-
nied me now; some day I shall, thank God! Blessed
work! Oh, what can equal the rapture of its harvest!
What joy is like the joy of saving souls? It is the
only way to conceive of what is their eternal fulness
who dwell near the Everlasting Throne. There is a
whole Heaven in this one joy. Blessed Lord, make
me successful!”

After a summer filled with travel and devoted to
evangelistic work, church dedications, and the raising
of Missionary and Freedman’s Aid collections, the
Chaplain had the satisfaction of meeting with his Con-
ference at Portsmouth, Ohio, in September, 1865.

Fresh from revival scenes among the soldiers, his
heart aflame with patriotic fervour and evangelistic
zeal, he was evidently expecting too much of the occa-
sion, and therefore showed no little feeling of dis-
appointment with the spirit of the Conference. He
frankly said: “ The attendance at Conference is quite
large. Very little spirituality, however. I fear we
are not going to have a very good time.”

“It is currently reported that I am going to Spencer
220 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

Chapel (Portsmouth). I have no uppermost wish in
the matter. May the Lord direct me in the future
as He has done in the past!”

“Conference adjourned unexpectedly to-night.
The evening session was hurried and unprayerful.
The brethren have an absurd fashion of being in haste
to get home again when they come to Conference.
The appointments were read about midnight. My
appointment is Spencer Chapel, Portsmouth. I am
glad of it. I have already begun to love this people.”

Pastor McCabe entered upon his work with the
true evangelistic spirit, and a gracious revival fol-
lowed his appointment to Spencer Chapel. His first
prayer-meeting in the new charge was held on his
twenty-ninth birthday. Shortly after the close of the
Conference, and before he had settled at Portsmouth,
he received a despatch that summoned him to the
deathbed of his uncle, Wesley McCabe, in Delaware,
Ohio, where, on October 8th, the Chaplain wrote in
his journal:

“All is over. Wesley died in holy tranquillity on
Friday evening (Oct. 6th). His last words were: ‘I
want to go home.’ President Merrick preached his
funeral sermon. The students were present in a
body.”

The prayer-meetings and Sabbath preaching serv-
ices at Spencer Chapel were now generally revival-
istic. If great power did not attend his preaching and
if sinners were not awakened, Pastor McCabe was
prone to charge the lack of interest and the dearth of
spiritual results to himself. This only deepened his
CLOSE OF THE WAR 221

‘concern for souls, intensified his spirit of consecra-
tion, urged him to more constant and fervent prayer,
until the unction of Heaven came upon him, and
he was able with joy to see the ingathering of a
great harvest. In less than three months thirty per-
sons were received into the Church on probation
and the little society was on fire with the revival spirit.
Conversions followed every preaching service.

It is not to be supposed that the journal of this true
man of God reveals a fickle mind that caused him to
waver between faith and doubt, earnestness and indif-
ference, in his religious experience; but rather that he
was an honest, sincere man who never tried to deceive
himself or his God, and who had very clear and Scrip-
tural conceptions of the spiritual life and of the secret
of Christian joy and power. He never professed an
experience which he did not possess; he never claimed
a spiritual power which was not manifest and demon-
strated in the effects of his preaching. Never did he
superciliously exalt himself above his brethren and
assume a superior virtue when he had it not. Many a
good man has been honest enough with himself to
search his own heart, deplore his own lack of spiritual
life, and condemn his own faults, who has not pos-
sessed the courage to put on record his experiences
and make his daily journal a perfect mirror of his
soul, as did this man during the early years of his
ministry.

His diaries of the years 1864 and 1865 permit us
to look into his inner spiritual life, for there he
sets down in the most naive simplicity and ingenuous
222 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

plainness the diagnosis of his feelings, and often
records his spiritual temperature with the greatest
frankness of speech. We are not accustomed to think
of this strong, energetic, resourceful, and independent
man as the slave of rules and petty forms. He was no
military or ecclesiastical martinet, but in his personal
experience he placed less emphasis on the form than
on the power, on the letter than on the spirit. Never-
theless, he was given to laying down very strict rules
for himself for the government of both his intellectual
and spiritual life; and when he failed to measure up
to the high standard of his ideal it caused him humili-
ation and sorrow, which often approached melan-
choly. The intense spiritual purpose of his life is
revealed in the aspirations, the rejoicings, and even
the lamentations, which are found in his journal. He
writes: “ There are two duties which in my earnest,
active life I too much neglect. They are self-exami-
nation and fasting. I propose hereafter to be more
diligent in the performance of these duties. I hope
God will assist me. I want hereafter to spend the
first Friday of each month as a day of fasting and
prayer for the continued evidence of my pardon, and
the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit. In
order to facilitate the work of self-examination, I
desire to propound to myself the following questions
at the close of each day:

“Question 1st: Did I strive to begin this day with
God?

“Question 2d: Have I diligently studied some pas-
sage of Scripture?
CLOSE OF THE WAR 223

“ Question 3d: Have I committed to memory some
portion of the Word of God?

“Question qth: Has my conversation been in
heaven ?

“Question 5th: Have I made any personal effort
for the salvation of souls to-day?

“ Question 6th: Have I enjoyed this day the evi-
dence of my acceptance with God?

“ Question 7th: Have I reason to think that I am
growing in grace?

“Question 8th: Am I looking for full redemp-
tion?

“ These are close questions, but I ought to live up to
the standard they indicate. May God help me so to
do!

“This has been a blessed day. God is carrying
forward His work.”

That he observed the first Friday of each month as
a day of fasting would seem quite evident by the oc-
casional reference in his journal to omissions of this
duty which he had imposed upon himself. He now
and then wrote such statements as these:

“ Failed to fast to-day. Was not in a condition to
spend the day as I desire to do. Hope to be more
regular in the performance of this duty after a
while.”

“Last Friday was my fast day. Passed it unob-
served on account of my illness.”

These expressions indicate that the Chaplain was
most earnestly devoted to fasting on the appointed
Friday, and that these very rare occasions of neglect
224 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

or even unavoidable omissions were causes of regret:
so tender was his conscience on this matter.

‘His experience was honestly and frankly recorded,
whether in praise or sorrow, as these extracts from
his journal reveal:

“T feel uneasy until I am labouring for the good of
souls with all my might. Alas, how poorly am I
keeping my vows made upon my bed while near
death’s door! How I thought I would gladly live in
a higher and purer atmosphere if permitted to come
back to life once more. I have but poorly kept those
sacred promises. O, my God, when shall I be wholly
thine?”

“My mind to-day has not been in a very peaceful
state. I am sorry I am not more conformed to
my Master’s image. Lord, arouse me from my
lethargy!”

“This journal does not record much of my re-
ligious experience. It has not afforded me as much
worthy of record as I hoped it would at the begin-
ning of the year.. I cannot but feel mournful as from
this midnight hour I look over the way which I have
come. My wasted opportunities, my broken vows,’
my waywardness, all come up before me. ‘I the
chief of sinners am.’ I wonder if God will ever for-
get my sins! He will remember them no more against
me, but will He always remember, even should I reach
the better land, that here upon earth I grieved His
love so often? ‘Thou that takest away the sins of
the world, have mercy upon me.’ Wherefore should
IT renew my vows to God; yet I will do so: perhaps
CLOSE OF THE WAR 225

I shall be more watchful hereafter, and if I only
watch and pray I shall conquer all my spiritual
enemies. God has been calling me to a higher life.
Oh, at what influence I ought to aim for the Church
of God! The maxim deduced from the last sermon
I made still rings in my ears—‘ Obey and be at
rest.’ Perfect obedience will bring perfect peace.
None save a cleansed spirit can keep the law of
God.”

“What are the outward hailings of my immortal
spirit? Do I seem to be what I profess? I fear not.
Lord God of my Fathers, help me to live for Thy
glory!”

As we read these revelations of the good man’s
inner experience, nothing impresses us more pro-
foundly than the simple honesty and genuineness of
his religious life. The success that attended his
labours, the power which he had over vast audiences,
the applause that greeted him in every city, did not
deceive him into the notion that these were the evi-
dences of a perfectly satisfactory religious experi-
ence. He entertained very exalted ideas of the spirit-
ual life and of the heights of joy and power attain-
able by faith in Jesus Christ. These recorded experi-
ences breathe the most earnest spiritual longings.
Rather than indicating a lack of divine life, they re-
veal the mighty struggle of a soul pressing toward
the mark for the prize of the high calling of God
in Christ Jesus with the sincere consciousness of
having nat as yet attained his ideal or reached the goal
of his holy aspirations. It is from this view-point
\

226 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

that we must interpret the Chaplain’s written testi-
mony. And how noble, true, and conscientious are
these longings and regrets, these expressions of self-
depreciation, of soul-hunger, and of desire for the
realisation of the joys of the higher life! They are
no less spiritual, no less the evidences of the life and
power of God within, than the feelings of ecstasy
which often swept through his soul. Here are the
expressions of a devout religious nature:

“Spent the day [Sunday] in silence and solitude.
Read much of the bléssed Word of God and some-
thing from Bishop Hall. It is irksome to be sick upon
the Sabbath, more so than upon any other day. ‘I
long for the courts of the Lord.’ I am not impatient
during my days of confinement. God forbid! I
think I have also learned, in whatsoever state I am,
therewith to be content. The severe lessons of my
past have not been lost upon me. My life is changed
to a very great extent. What were mountains once
are molehills now: What would once appear to me
severe afflictions now come and go almost unnoticed.
My imaginary sufferings have also disappeared, put
to flight by the real calamities which have become
my richest blessings. ‘Blessed be our Rock, and let
the God of our salvation be exalted!’ ”

“Am troubled that I am not more holy, more truly
the Lord’s. Would that I might be His, soul, body,
and spirit! My seasons of prayer are liable to be
brief and interrupted. When, oh, when, shall I wear
His image?”

“Happy will it be for me if I can maintain that
CLOSE OF THE WAR 227

inner tranquillity which only comes from deep and
constant communion with the Throne of God.”

“Arose quite early and had before commencing
the labours of the day a most delightful season of
prayer. What a glow of peace comes upon the heart
at the mercy seat which imparts a steady cheerfulness,
not otherwise acquired! ‘Thou shalt keep him in per-
fect peace whose mind is stayed on thee, because he
trusteth in thee.’ ”

“Raining hard all day. I have spent this entire
day in study. Have enjoyed it so much. I have had
access to the Throne. God has permitted me to ap-
proach His blessed mercy-seat, and I have rejoiced.
What shall I render unto the Lord for all His mer-
cies! I would I were a better exemplar of my own
teachings! How often my very soul has been stirred
as with a trumpet peal when I have been trying to tell
in the pulpit what is the privilege of a child of God.
Oh, what a grand uplifting to the eye of faith, that
eye that learns to look undazzled for a time upon
glories far outshining anything that belongs to earth!
Yet how little ardour to prove the possibility of at-
taining to such a state myself! Oh, to be free from
sin! to be the victor in my long contest with myself!
To be disenthralled and ready for the journey toward
the land of Beulah!

“¢*For in the blue long distance
By lulling breezes fanned,
I seem to see the cloudless shore
Of old Beulah’s land.’
228 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

Oh, I long to be there, to live a witness of God’s power
to save, to sit by the wayside a saved and redeemed
soul, and tell forever what a power there is in a word
falling from the lips of Jesus of Nazareth!”

It was on a Christmas day during the war that he
wrote: “The world rejoices in the gift of a Saviour,
and millions of souls are celebrating His birth to-day
in Heaven. Christ came to hush the sounds of war,
to procure universal emancipation of the race from
the servitude of sin. He will accomplish the object
of His mission. How glorious to think that He for
whose parents there was no room in the inn, He who
came into the world, His own world, welcomed by so
few of those He came to save, He who came unto His
own and His own received Him not, must reign over
this very earth when it has again been reinstated to a
lost position amid the sisterhood of worlds and shall
be again pronounced very good! O Jesus, I trust to-
night there is room for Thee in my poor heart. Oh,
cast out all things thence that grieve the ever-blessed
Spirit. Come and dwell in me, and let my life be hid
with Thee in God.”

The life of this earnest and consecrated man was
controlled by the very maxim and prayer which we
find in his journal: “It should be the serious ques-
tion with every Christian at the evening of each day,
‘What has been the influence of my life during the
day now closing?’

“O Lord, search my heart; remove all that is sin-
ful, and help me to cast out of my heart whatsoever
is not pure and lovely.”
CLOSE OF THE WAR 229

Need we look elsewhere for the philosophy of this
man’s power and success as a minister of God than
into that deep, strong, pure heart of his, filled with
spiritual life, permeated with the very genius of re-
ligion? God was with him; his whole being seemed
to be enveloped in a religious atmosphere. He looked
upon every life problem from a religious point of
view. The Gospel was the divinely ordained panacea
for all the ills of human life, for all the distractions
of society, for all the.sins and wrongs of men and na-
tions. Believing this, and believing that he was di-
vinely called to preach that Gospel and to live it as he
preached it, he threw his whole being by masterful
achievements into the mission whose accomplishment
made his life splendidly useful and gloriously great.
XXIV

SECRETARYSHIP—CHURCH EXTENSION—DR.
A. J. KYNETT—THE LOAN FUND

almost uninterrupted revival during Pastor

McCabe’s two years’ administration. A new
church was built and the society became strong and
prosperous. But, happy and successful as were the
two years of his pastorate at Portsmouth, the occa-
sion arose which opened the doors to a wider world
of usefulness for this man, whose every step thus far
in his ministry seems to have been ordered of the
Lord. The voice of the Church, which was to him
the voice of God, called him away from the peaceful
and congenial pastorate to the battlefield of great
problems and vast issues in the mighty movement of
the Church, which was to evangelise a continent and
Christianize the world. It was that call and his loyal
response that settled irrevocably the destiny which
he had predicted when he wrote in his journal: “I
seem doomed to raise money.”

Here was the most genius-gifted, divinely-anointed,
and irresistible money-raiser of his generation just
quietly and comfortably settled in the pastorate, where
much of his superlative light must have been hidden
under a bushel, when the call of God lifted the bushel,

230

S PENCER CHAPEL in Portsmouth enjoyed an
 

 

 

 

 

CHAPLAIN McCABE, 1887
 
SECRETARYSHIP 231

placed the lamp of his extraordinary gifts upon the
stand, and it began to give light to all that were in
the house.

The observance of the Centenary of American
Methodism marked a turning-point in the career of
Chaplain McCabe. Of the many projects conceived
as most fitting to signalise the triumphs of Methodism
and to express the Church’s gratitude to God for a
century of His favour and blessing, one was that of
raising a great educational fund for the better en-
dowment and equipment of our schools of learning.
Chaplain McCabe was called into the field by his Alma
Mater, dear old Wesleyan University, of Ohio. He
loyally responded to the call, and with the same mag-
netic power of song and persuasive eloquence with
which he had raised so many thousands of dollars
for the Christian Commission, he went forth to raise
no less than $87,000 for the University endowment.
In those days the raising of such a sum of money was
regarded as a great achievement.

The Chaplain’s remarkable success in this under-
taking attracted still more widely and intently the
attention of the Church and especially of the leaders
among the pastors, educators, secretaries, and bishops.

Two of the then but recently organised benevolent
societies of the Methodist Episcopal Church in par-

ticular had their eyes upon him. He had already
taken a deep interest in the Freedmen’s Aid Society,
had championed its cause, and had raised considerable
sums of money for it throughout the country. His
great heart went out to that work. He would have
232 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN. McCABE

gloried in devoting his life to the education of the race
which he had suffered to help emancipate, and of
whose future he entertained such high and rational
hopes.

The coloured race never had a truer friend than
Chaplain McCabe. He believed that the churches of
all denominations ought to pour money into the South
to educate the negro, in whose bravery and patriotism
he had the greatest faith. He took pleasure in illus-
trating these virtues in his army reminiscences. He
used to say: “The negroes are a patriotic people. You
will not find an anarchist among them. We are in
far more danger from foreign anarchists than from
our negro population. I used to think the negroes
lacked courage; that they wouldn’t make good soldiers;
that they couldn’t stand before white men in battle.
Let me tell you a story. In 1864 General Grant’s
battle line was forty-two miles long. I took a notion
to ride from one end to the other, and I stopped now
and then, and with my horse for a pulpit, preached to
the soldiers. I came to a black place in that line.
There was not a white soldier to be seen, except the
officers. I called an old coloured man, in his shabby
uniform of blue, to my side and said to him: ‘ How is
it that General Grant trusts you with these lines?
Suppose the enemy should break through here?’ The
old darkey was mad in a minute. He showed the
whites of his eyes and his white teeth, as he replied:
‘General Grant trusts us with these lines, because we
took them.’ And that indeed was the fact, as I after-
ward learned, These coloured soldiers had been pitted
SECRETARYSHIP 233

against the very flower of the Confederate army, and
had beaten it back and held the position from which
they had driven the sons of the South. They turned
their own guns upon them as they fled from the field,
and the Confederates never attempted to go back
through that black spot in General Grant’s army. Be-
fore any one gets prejudiced against the coloured race,
let us wait awhile until we see what the Monroe Doc-
trine is going to bring us. If it brings us a war with
any nation of Europe, we can depend on the coloured
men to enlist by the hundreds of thousands. The best
way to help the coloured race is for all the church de-
nominations to pour their money into the South, build
churches, establish schools, and the negro will demon-
strate his ability to take care of himself.”

What a work could have been done for the coloured
race by the man who spoke those courageous and hope-
ful words can only be imagined.

But the Church Extension Society was more
prompt in appreciating the opportunity and in solicit-
ing his services than the other society which might
have had them for the asking. It is claimed, how-
ever, that a letter from the Freedmen’s Aid Society,
inviting him to enter the field in their interests, never
reached him. It was through the influence and by the
urgent request of Bishop Simpson and of Dr. A. J.
Kynett and by the appointment of Bishop Kingsley,
that Chaplain McCabe took up the Church Extension
work as financial agent of the Society.

Although the establishment of this Society was

‘authorised by the General Conference of 1865 and
234 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

Drs. Monroe and Kynett had already done heroic
work in introducing the great enterprise, Chaplain
McCabe must forever be recognised with them as
identified with the deep, broad, and sure foundation-
building of the Society. Up to the time of his becom-
ing associated with the work the contributions had
been only encouraging, but through his efforts they
began rapidly to increase and multiply. This new voice
fairly electrified the Church. Chaplain McCabe’s con-
ference addresses were anticipated with keenest in-
terest and enjoyed with infinite pleasure by the preach-
ers and the people. Whatever he put his heart into,
whatever cause his eloquent tongue advocated, what-
ever message he had to deliver, became a live, glow-
ing, interesting subject to the listening multitudes.
His presentation of “ Church Extension” before a
Conference was never to be forgotten. His power as
a mere money-raiser, great and unequalled as it was,
was by no means his highest gift. His power to
awaken interest in and enthusiasm for his cause, his
power to make men feel religious and spiritual and
happy in giving, his power to move the feelings, stir
the convictions, rouse the conscience, and awaken the
slumbering spark of spiritual life to a flame of joy
and fervour of devotion, was manifest wherever he
went with his message. Not only did young minis-
ters go home from Conference after hearing him with
a new devotion to the cause of Church Extension,
but they went to their work with revival fire in their
souls which insured both a spiritual awakening
throughout the Conference and a revival of benevo-
SECRETARYSHIP 235

lence, with an increase in the collections, all along the
line. Very rarely have these two qualities, the finan-
cial and the evangelistic, been so conspicuously united
in one secretary. The gift of clear, methodical, busi-
ness-like statement has been and is possessed by many.
But who ever made a business proposition heart-
reaching, who ever set statistics on fire, who ever
made men give with a “hallelujah” of joy, like Mc-
Cabe?

One of the most thrilling portions of Methodist
history has been the glorious church-building record
of the Church Extension Society. Methodism has
marched westward with empire; it has blazed the track
for freedom through the wilderness; it has been the
forerunner of our expanding and progressive Ameri-
canism through the agency of this divinely inspired
movement. The men who were foremost in building
up this Society, and by their counsel or their money
filled the great growing West with churches and
lighted the frontier with the Gospel, contributed to
their country’s development in power, wealth, and
grandeur, while they were promoting the spiritual in-
terests of the Kingdom of God in the world. To
Christianise the national genius, to preserve the soul
of this country, to give character—high, virile, divine
character—to American life, was this Society most
manifestly ordained by Providence. The true philos-
ophy of the prosperity and greatness of the still mar-
vellously developing West, the philosophy of the won-
derful beginnings and of the mighty unfoldings of that
social, industrial, educational, political, and religious
236 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

life cannot be written without a recognition of the
work and influence of that organisation which for the
past forty years has been planting churches from
ocean to ocean and thereby furnishing a moral and
spiritual impulse and impetus to the growth of Ameri-
can society.

It was Chaplain McCabe’s intense patriotism and
his enthusiastic Americanism, glowing with religious
fervour and evangelistic zeal, that qualified him in
a preéminent degree for this work of Church Ex-
tension.

A more fortunate relationship could not have been
created than that which existed between Alpha J.
Kynett and Charles C, McCabe. As unlike in tem-
perament, mode of thought, method of work, style of
address as two men well could be, they were like David
and Jonathan in their attachment and worked together
in the most effective harmony. No two men just
like Kynett, no two men just like McCabe, could ever
have accomplished what Kynett and McCabe accom-
plished during those sixteen years of their codperation
in the Church Extension Society.

Dr. A. J. Kynett was one of Nature’s noblemen
and a stalwart son of God, magnificent in soul-
stature as in physique. A more unselfish and devoted
workman God’s vineyard has rarely known. He
brought to the initiation of this work an intelligence,
a devotion, a business sagacity, a brain power, and a
genius for hard, painstaking toil without which this
Church Extension movement could never have been
successfully inaugurated.
SECRETARYSHIP 237

When this great and good man laid down
his work and passed to the company of the heavenly
immortals, his comrade, his friend, his brother,
McCabe, then Bishop, penned these noble words of
eulogy:

“ The first time I ever saw Dr. A. J. Kynett was in
the pulpit of old Zion Church, Burlington, Iowa, in
the year 1851. We were having a revival. Lan-
don Taylor, the ‘Weeping Prophet,’ of the Iowa
Conference, was our pastor. The interest was very
deep in the church and in the city. Kynett had come
to our help. He rose in the pulpit to give out his
hymn. What a noble-looking man! He was tall and
straight as a pine tree. His face was lit up with holy
joy. I loved him as soon as I saw him, before he had
spoken a word. The sermon that followed made a
profound impression on me. Nearly forty-eight years
have rolled away since I heard it, and it lingers with
me yet. The forceful logic, the pathetic appeal, the
powerful unction of that sermon helped to shape my
whole life.

“In 1868, when he was elected secretary of the
Church Extension Society by the General Conference,
after a visit to Philadelphia, and careful investiga-
tion of the affairs of the Society, he came to Ohio to
ask me to come to his help. Bishop Kingsley, at his
request, appointed me, and we became yoke-fellows
from that hour. For sixteen years we worked to-
gether. In all those years not one harsh word ever
passed between us. I had such confidence in Dr.
Kynett that, when I differed with him on any ques-
238 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

tion, I reviewed my opinions, generally to find that he
was right. He was a delightful man to work with.

“T will not attempt an analysis of his character.
Think of all the noble and manly qualities which form
a character fitted for the society of the best, the purest,
the greatest on earth or in heaven, and I will say A.
J. Kynett was the possessor and illustrator of every
one of them. I knew him. You cannot live and
work with a man sixteen years and not know him
well. I pronounce him an ‘Israelite indeed in whom
there was no guile.’ His work will live on. He has
built for himself a monument which will endure
forever.” *

It was an auspicious day when, in 1868, Chaplain
McCabe was called by this strong man to come to his
help as the financial agent of the Church Extension
Society. In 1872, the title of “ financial agent ” was
dropped, and on motion of Bishop Harris the Chap-
lain was elected Assistant Corresponding Secretary.

There were at that time few platform speakers in
‘America that could rival Chaplain McCabe in true,
heart-moving oratory. There were Wendell Phillips,
John B. Gough, Daniel Dougherty, Henry Ward
Beecher, and other orators of national fame, but
those who heard these men at their best will not claim
that Chaplain McCabe was inferior to any one of them
in wit, humour, pathos, imagination, command of
forceful language, power of persuasion, real and ef-
fective eloquence. He was a true, heaven-born orator:
not the declaimer, not the pedantic lecturer, not the

* The Philadelphia ‘‘ Advocate.”
SECRETARYSHIP 239

elegant and graceful essayist, but the orator and
the mighty mover of men. When he advocated his
high cause, his thoughts did breathe and his words did
burn. What a providence that with the great official,
Kynett, was associated this Grand Field-Marshal,
McCabe! Let who may have planned the campaign,
it took a McCabe to fight it. Whoever furnished the
fuel, McCabe always furnished the fire. The desk
was not his place, nor could he tie himself down to
an office chair. The field, the fight, the world of
action and execution was his place. As the Assistant
Corresponding Secretary he was called to undertake a
special work for the Society. In 1867, the Board
established its Loan Fund, and the following year the
Chaplain was invited to take the field in the interests
of this Fund. It may almost be said that he created
this Loan Fund. It was largely through his efforts that
it was augmented to $500,000 by 1884, when he sev-
ered his connection with the Society.

One of the Chaplain’s letters to the Church was so
characteristic, had such a clear, clarion, McCabe tone
of faith and courage in it, and so well represents the
very spirit and genius of his work in building up the
Loan Fund, that our pulse moves to quicker motion as
we read it again:

“ The loan fund of the Board of Church Extension
has been increased since January 1st from $329,000
to $353,775, paid up. The last $25,000 of a half-mil-
lion is pledged already when the paid-up capital shall
reach a total of $475,000. Please give the Board
$121,000 more very soon. M. De Lesseps wants
240 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

350 millions to carry out a commercial enterprise.
He will get it, too. The Board of Church Extension
asks for one million in its loan fund, to secure the
erection of 1000 churches every five years. Can we
have it? Of course, we can. Give it to us and we
will set a thousand bells ringing all along the frontier
line. Give it to us and we will add 300,000 people to
your great Methodist army every time the financial
wheel makes a revolution, and it will make a revolu-
tion every five years. Lesseps wants to connect the
stormy Gulf with the Pacific Ocean. Give us the
money to build the churches, to create the pulpits, to
organise Sabbath-schools, to inspire the erection
of the family altars, and who doubts but that we shall
open the way before myriads of sin-wrecked souls into
the Pacific Ocean of God’s everlasting love? Send
for a copy of our last annual for full information.
Address Rev. A. J. Kynett, D.D., No. 1026 Arch St.,
Philadelphia.

“Tf you are trying to get the better of your love
of money, and want a little help in your tug with
‘Old Natur,’ send for me. I would love to help you.
Let us sing a little now:

‘« ‘Salvation! let the echo fly
The spacious earth around,
Till all the armies of the sky
Conspire to raise the sound.

*«*Salvation! O thou bleeding Lamb!
To thee the praise belongs,
Salvation shall inspire our hearts
And dwell upon our tongues.’
SECRETARYSHIP 241

Now after you pray I think you will subscribe.”
A collection of Secretary McCabe’s “ Reports,”
‘* Addresses,” ‘“‘ Calls,” “Circulars,” and “ Letters,”
making up the leaflet and pamphlet literature of his
secretarial work, would make very interesting read-
ing; they might be gathered into a text-book for the
Conference Course of Study, just to kindle the flame
of benevolent money-raising enthusiasm in the heart
of every newly-consecrated minister of Methodism.
XXV

SUCCESS—FRONTIER WORK—LIBERAL LAY-
MEN—GREAT  RESPONSIBILITIES—BISHOP
SIMPSON AND PRESIDENT LINCOLN

knowledge, nor was his enthusiasm without

business discretion. He was most careful and
painstaking in all his accounts with the Christian
Commission and with the Benevolent Societies, as he
was in his own private business affairs. Moreover,
with all his power to stir the emotions, he was
endowed with a still higher and greater power to
enlighten the understanding and inspire the convic-
tions. While many under the spell of his holy elo-
quence would give with the laughter of joy and the
tears of devout feeling, others were moved only by
enlightened judgment to consecrate their thousands to
the evangelising of our country as the religious, pa-
triotic, and business duty of Stewards of the Lord.
Secretary McCabe won to the cause he advocated the
heart and brain of many a calm, sagacious, worldly-
wise business man. And by his influence over those
cool-headed, rather unemotional men of affairs the
Society became familiar with the names and the
princely benefactions of such men as David McWil-
liams, Bowles Colgate, J. Perkins, T. T. Tasker,

242

G wows McCABE’S zeal was not without
GREAT RESPONSIBILITIES 243

Amos Shinkle, A. V. Stout, H. W. Drakely, James
Long, E. Remington, W. C. De Pauw, H. C. Sigler,
Clem Studebaker, William Deering, George I. Seney,
John D. Slayback, J. B. Hobbs, Ex-Vice President
W. A. Wheeler, and many others who were among
the first to respond to Secretary McCabe’s appeals in
creating the Loan Fund and developing his plans for
the frontier work. The letters written to him by
these men were couched in the most affectionate
terms, showing that they believed in him, loved him,
and trusted his judgment. Every contribution made
by them was sent with a hearty good will. Banker A.
V. Stout’s letters were those of a brother, loving and
beloved. George I. Seney was fond of beginning
a letter: “Boss McCabe,” or “ The Great American
Champion Beggar, Chaplain C. C. McCabe,” and clos-
ing with: “ Take the inclosed check in reply to yours,
etc.”

His influence with men of business sense and benev-
olent spirit was illustrated by the development of
Eliphalet Remington’s devotion to the Church Ex-
tension cause. This broad-minded and most liberal
layman of the Wyoming Conference, who had been
accustomed to donate ten dollars a year to the work,
heard McCabe preach on the subject, and under the
inspiration of the sermon gave five hundred dollars.
The Chaplain went back the next year, and told the
congregation what had been done with the money they
gave the year before and Mr. Remington gave a thou-
sand dollars. “The next year,” said McCabe, “I
preached again, and when the subscription was taken
244 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

he gave nothing. I was greatly disappointed. But
the next morning we stopped in at his place of busi-
ness on the way to the train, and he said: ‘ You are
not going yet? I thought you were not going to leave
till afternoon. I have something for you.’ He took
me into his office, drew out his check-book and began
to write. He made a figure one, then a cipher, an-
other cipher, and another cipher. Then he held his
pen in his hand as though undecided what to do. I
said, ‘Lord help him,’ and down went another cipher,
and he gave me his check for ten thousand dollars.
He said he had not been able to decide what he ought
to give the day before. Next year he gave twenty
thousand. I saw him a short time ago, and he said,
“My. only regret is, I did not give a hundred thou-
sand when I could.’ ”

‘Among the most devoted friends of the Chaplain
was Ex-Vice President W. A. Wheeler, a true blue
Presbyterian, but a believer in men like McCabe, of
whatever denomination. The Chaplain greatly prized
and often quoted in conversations and in Conference
speeches the now well-known letter addressed to him
by that distinguished gentleman; a letter worthy of
preservation as reflecting honour alike upon its author
and its recipient:

“Malone, New York.
“ April 17, 1882.
“ DEAR CHAPLAIN:
“ Please get out of this region while I have some-
thing left. To reconcile you in some measure to
GREAT RESPONSIBILITIES 245

going I inclose my check for $1000. Put the money
into your frontier work and in multiplying the foun-
tains of Christian Citizenship and may God’s blessing -
go with you, as mine does. When you get the coun-
try well ‘ underbrushed ’ we will send out some Pres-
byterians and put on the finishing touches.
“Very cordially yours,
W. A..WHEELER.”

On the occasion of the twenty-fifth wedding anni-
versary of Chaplain and Mrs. McCabe this same
Christian gentleman wrote in response to an invita-
tion to be present: “I shall be with you in spirit on
the twenty-fifth anniversary of your marriage, for
T love you as tenderly as if our brotherly blood flowed
from the same fountain. There is coming a mar-
riage supper, from which, with God’s grace, no earthly
ailment or distance shall prevent my sitting at the
table with both of you—the marriage supper of the
Lamb.”

Not only was the Loan Fund of the Church Ex-
tension Society in large measure the creation of his
herculean efforts, but the important frontier work was
inaugurated and prosecuted with remarkable success
by Chaplain McCabe’s sagacity and untiring labours.
In 1879, he explored the great Northwest, saw the
needs of that vast and rapidly developing portion of
our country, and recognised the opportunity which
there presented itself for the promotion of God’s
Kingdom in the building of churches to Christianise
new communities and spiritually care for the thou-
246 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

sands who were pouring into the land from the East
and from Europe. The resources of the Church Ex-
tension Society were of course whiolly inadequate to
meet the demands of that vast frontier. But, inspired
by the Chaplain’s report and on his suggestion, the
Society inaugurated a plan by which Methodist so-
cieties were encouraged to build hundreds of com-
modious churches throughout the West. By the
donation of $250 the erection of many a church edi-
fice to cost not less than $1250 was made possible.
Special subscriptions of $250 were solicited from in-
dividuals and from societies, and each subscription in-
sured the building of a church somewhere on the
frontier. Hundreds of loyal Methodists responded to
this novel and attractive proposition and churches be-
gan to spring up in the wilderness with remarkable
rapidity, churches ranging in value from $1250 to
$g000, which were to be the religious centres of what
have since become large and flourishing communities.
During his connection with the work, the Chaplain and
his associates secured nearly $70,000, which encour-
aged the building of about 270 churches at an aggre-
gate cost of more than half a million dollars. At
this day no less than 850 churches at a cost of nearly
$2,000,000 attest the wisdom of that great frontier
plan which had its inception in the fertile brain of
Chaplain McCabe.

In his devotion to this work of building new
churches and redeeming others from debt he often
assumed personal obligations and made sacrifices
which not only transcended the legitimate demands of
GREAT RESPONSIBILITIES 247

his office but conflicted with the judgment and stag-
gered the confidence of his dearest friends and most
generous supporters. But Chaplain McCabe’s cour-
age, his confidence in the generosity of the people, the
very audacity of his faith in God, never met with dis-
appointment or defeat. Though he took upon himself
obligations that might have crushed an ordinary man,
and which only a man of astonishing faith in God
and in God’s people could ever have had the courage
to assume, the benevolent spirit of the Church in the
contributions of her noble laymen always came to
his relief. Atlas with the world upon his shoulders is
not a more inspiring conception of personal respon-
sibility and obligation than was this soul of faith and
courage, with the great debt of a church like Metro-
politan at Washington or the church at Salt Lake City
resting upon his personal promise and honour. But,
Atlas-like, he never staggered with the load, for un-
derneath were the everlasting arms of the infinitely
more than Atlantean power. To save Metropolitan
Memorial Church in Washington he went on personal
notes of large amounts with Bishop Simpson and
trusted the Methodist people of the nation to help
him to pay the notes and save the church. -

As is well known, this National Church of Method-
ism originated in the mind of Bishop Simpson. From
the foundation stone, laid before the Civil War, to its
completion and final redemption from all debt, the
great Bishop took a pride and interest in it as the child
of his brain. It was when he was apprehensive that the
church might be lost to Methodism by reason of the
248 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

large debt resting upon it that he persuaded Chaplain
McCabe to come to the rescue. Bishop Simpson had
great love for the Chaplain and regarded him as the
most successful money-raiser in the country. He was
instrumental in securing his services for the Church
Extension Society, and he believed that Society could
not do a grander thing than to save Metropolitan
Church and preserve the good name of Methodism at
our national capital. The Bishops as a body approved
the employment of the Chaplain for this great under-
taking, and Bishop Harris communicated the decision
of the Board to him.

* Rev. C. C. McCabe, D.D.,

“My Dear BROTHER:

“The Bishops have instructed me to say that you
are requested and authorised to raise money to pay
the claims against the Metropolitan Church in Wash-
ington City. The Church is in imminent financial
peril, and its loss would be a denominational dis-
honour, and an almost measureless calamity. We do
most sincerely and heartily commend this cause to
the liberality of the friends of Methodism in this land
and earnestly pray for your complete success.

“Yours truly,
“'WILLiaAM H, Harris.

“ New York, Dec. 1, 1880.”

The Chaplain quickly and cheerfully responded to
this appeal and saved Metropolitan. One of the last
cares that rested upon the mind of Bishop Simpson
GREAT RESPONSIBILITIES 249

was that of the heavy obligation which he and the
Chaplain had assumed in putting their names to per-
sonal notes for large amounts in behalf of the church
which he had been instrumental in having built. The
original note had been gradually reduced by payments
to a final obligation of $10,000. And one of the
noblest acts of the always noble and generous Mc-
Cabe was the strenuous and successful effort which
he made to secure from loyal ministers and laymen
subscriptions to pay this note. The Chaplain was par-
ticularly fond of telling how Oliver Hoyt treated
him when he came to him, for perhaps the third time,
in the interests of the National Church. “ No,” said
Mr. Hoyt, “I have helped to pay off that debt two or
three times and I am through with it.” The Chap-
lain, undaunted, told him he must give once more, and
named the amount which he expected that generous
layman would give him. Then he told Mr. Hoyt of
the note for $10,000, of Bishop Simpson’s anxiety of
mind in his serious illness, and before the Chaplain left
his office that great-souled layman gave him twice the
sum he had asked him to subscribe. One of the happi-
est moments in the Chaplain’s life was when he assured
the then dying Bishop that the note had been paid and
his obligation had been discharged; they had raised the
money which they had promised to raise, and had not
trusted to the loyalty and generosity of the Method-
ist laymen of our country in vain. That, too, was
a happy moment to the Bishop as the Chaplain placed
in his hand the last cancelled note and he felt the last
burden lift, the last cloud of anxiety drift away, and
250 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

a great peace and quiet come into life’s closing hours.
Bishop Simpson and Chaplain McCabe raised no less
than $52,000 to save Metropolitan Church. In a let-
ter from Washington, given to the press January
31, 1865, the following incident in the history of
Bishop Simpson’s relation to the building of Metro-
politan Church is narrated:

“Last Wednesday evening the people of Washing-.
ton had the privilege of listening to the great lecture
of Bishop Simpson on ‘ Our National Conflict.’ The
Bishop, by that lecture, added greatly to his reputa-
tion, which had already placed him among the first
orators of the country. The proceeds of the occasion
were for the benefit of the Metropolitan Church, com-
menced here a few years ago, on the foundation of
which exists a debt of about $5000. An interesting
episode occurred as the audience was passing out.
The Bishop in the course of his lecture had alluded
to the great mineral resources of our country, and
spoke particularly of the gold and silver mines of the
Rocky Mountains and Pacific Coast. At the conclu-
sion of the lecture, President Lincéln, who was pres-
ent in the congregation with his son, and with whom
the Bishop is on intimate terms, waited for an oppor-
tunity to greet the speaker. As soon as he came near
he extended his hand, and. remarked in a peculiar way:
‘ Well, Bishop, I don’t know that I ever heard a better
lecture, but I notice you never struck oil!’

“After a little conversation the President good-
humouredly said: ‘ Well, now, Bishop, I would like to
know whether you regularly put into your lecture that
GREAT RESPONSIBILITIES 251

little allusion you made to the “ Rail-splitter,” or just
slipped it in to-night because I happened to be pres-
ent?’ The Bishop assured him that he had always
made use of it, but on that night had really hesitated
whether to mention it or not. ‘All out of deference
to my modesty, I suppose,’ added Mr. Lincoln.”

Chaplain McCabe was in Washington at that time
and was doubtless present at the lecture, if he did not
witness the scene and hear the conversation between
the great Bishop and the great President.
XXVI

THE RESCUE OF SALT LAKE CITY CHURCH—
POWER OF SONG—RESULTS OF LECTURES
—INGERSOLLVILLE

ing the entire debt of the church in Salt Lake

City, put himself under a burden of $40,000.
But while this was a courageous thing to do,
it was not a reckless and ill-judged assumption
of financial obligation. He knew the generosity of
the people. If he was a great money-getter, the lay-
men who knew and loved and trusted him were
great money-givers. Thousands of loyal and liberal
Methodists followed him and had all confidence in
his daring but consummate leadership.

His productive brain and confiding heart again con-
ceived a plan for raising the last of this debt on the
Salt Lake church which he had assumed. It was
original, like McCabe himself. He called upon the
women of Methodism to save the church that
had been planted as a light in the very centre of
Mormon darkness. He issued a card with one hun- ,
dred squares upon it, each representing ten cents
and the entire card representing $10. The card
read:

Cine en McCABE, in personally assum-

252
POWER OF SONG 253

“T hereby pledge myself to be one of One Thou-
sand Ladies to raise the sum of
Ten Dollars Each
for the rescue of our Church at Salt Lake City.
“ Signed ——”

Not less than 1175 women took these cards, signed
them, and pledged themselves to this Christian and
patriotic work. More than 800 responded with the
cash. Later calls upon individuals and Sunday-
schools met with the response that completed the
raising of the last dollar. For this church Secretary
McCabe raised in round numbers $43,000.

Undertakings of such magnitude are not required
of our secretaries, but when McCabe achieves these
marvellous victories of faith and courage and self-
sacrificing energy, while we may not say: “ would
that every secretary were a McCabe!” we must ad-
mire the leadership, emulate the courage, and aspire to
that faith in God and His people which makes men
great and masterful; we must catch the spirit of that
devotion to and absorption in the work of God’s
Kingdom which such a man as McCabe has proven to
be possible to the called and consecrated minister of
the Gospel.

But these incidental cases of the assumption of
great personal obligations, of which there were many,
with the building up of the Loan Fund and the in-
auguration and successful operation of the frontier
plan of church building, constituted only a part of the
tasks of this indefatigable Secretary. The annual
254 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

collections of the Church Extension Society rolled
up to magnificent proportions, and by the impetus
which his strong mind and burning eloquence gave
the work, the Society secured a place of importance
and consideration in the thought and conscience of
the people, if second to any only to that of the Mis-
sionary Society. With all the credit due to Dr. Kyn-
ett, and that is very great, for the extraordinary de-
velopment and achievements of the Church Extension
Society, Secretary McCabe’s name will forever be
identified with its most brilliant and marvellously suc-
cessful undertakings, and his work in that great
religio-patriotic benevolence will remain in the
Church’s history as a monument to his faith, elo-
quence, and genius; as a monument perpetuating the
memory of achievements such as may well be recog-
nised as sufficiently important for the life-work of any
truly great man.

To this field Secretary McCabe consecrated all his
splendid powers. His gift of song contributed largely
to his success in the work. Here was a new influence
which had never before been fully appreciated or
utilised in secretarial work. The power of song in
revival had been known from the beginning in the
history and evolution of Methodism, but it remained
for Secretary McCabe to introduce it into the pro-
motion of the church benevolences. What vast audi-
ences would pack the churches at Conferences to hear
Chaplain McCabe sing! And how he moved and
melted the listening throngs by the sweet and subtle
power of his song! In the Church Extension work
POWER OF SONG 255

the Chaplain could with a forceful and thrilling elo-
quence present the patriotic phase of the subject to
the audience,and, with the spirit of the old war-
times, how often would he rouse them with “The
Battle Hymn of the Republic,” “ A Thousand Years,
My Own Columbia,” and “ The Sword of Bunker
Hill”! But with even a more strangely sweet and
touching charm there linger in the ears of mem-
ory the simpler, more religious songs, which he sang
so plaintively and with such a heart-melting pathos.
Can one ever forget how he sang, as no other could
sing, “ The Lost Chord,” “My Ain Countrie,” and
“ Beautiful Hands ” ?

So popular did this last touching song become that
wherever the Chaplain preached or presented the cause
of Church Extension, the request would be made that
he sing it. Many will be pleased to read again the
words written by Mrs. Ellen H. Gates, set to music
by Dwight Williams, and so tenderly sung by Chap-
lain McCabe:

“Such beautiful, beautiful hands!
They're neither white nor small,
And you, I know, would scarcely think
That they were fair at all;
T’ve looked on hands whose form and hue
_ A -sculptor’s dream might be,
Yet are these aged, wrinkled hands
Most beautiful to me.

“Such beautiful, beautiful hands!
Though heart was weary and sad,
These patient hands kept toiling on
That the children might be glad;
256 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

I often weep as, looking back
To childhood’s distant day,

I think how these hands rested not
When mine were at their play.

“Such beautiful, beautiful hands!

They’re growing feeble now,

And time and pain have left their mark
On hand and heart and brow.

Alas! Alas! the nearing time
The sad, sad day to me,

When, ’neath the daisies cold and white,
These hands will folded be.

“But oh, beyond these shad’wy lands

Where all is bright and fair,

I know full well these dear old hands
Will palms of victory bear,

Where crystal streams through endless years
Flow over golden sands,

And where the old grow young again,
T’'ll clasp my mother’s hands.”

There was a charm in the Chaplain’s voice beyond
the gift of the schools and all the possibilities of art—
a strange, plaintive sweetness, a thrilling, magnetic
power, a spiritual unction, rarely possessed by the
most artistic singers of the world. It may be truly
said that Chaplain McCabe sang many thousands
of dollars into the Lord’s treasury, many a soul to
Christ, and many a splendid church into existence.
Nevertheless, it must be acknowledged that he did
not wish to have the credit of his success given
to the power of his song, nor should it be. It was
a tule of his to sing after, rather than before, the
collection was taken. It was his eloquent, intelligent,
POWER OF SONG 257

masterly presentation of his subject that moved the
people to liberality. His most powerful appeals were
to individuals in the quiet of the office or the home,
where great-hearted laymen were moved to give their
thousands for the cause of Christ. And when any
great victory of debt-raising had been won it was after
long, careful, and most wise planning: never on the
spur of the moment and under the exciting influence of
a song or an address. The Chaplain very justly re-
sented the notion that he was phenomenal. If men
who lacked the genius to move the people to large giv-
ing superciliously insinuated that they could do the
same thing if they were singers it hurt the Chaplain’s
feelings, especially after he had worked for weeks to
make possible the final victory of a great money-
raising campaign. To others, such insinuations
brought the memory of Charles Lamb’s witticism on
Wordsworth. The author of ‘ The Excursion” once
said of the plays of Shakespeare: “I might have writ-
ten them myself if I had the mind.” “ Yes,” said
Lamb, “ but he hadn’t the mind.”

It was intellect, power of thought, the genius of
initiative, high generalship, that made this servant of
God and of the Church the master of the situation that
he ever was. It cannot be said that he was most suc-
cessful as a subordinate. Where he sat, that was the
head of the table. He was at his best in planning and
fighting his own campaign, not in simply executing the
plans and orders of others. He was not a Marshal
Ney, but a Napoleon with a genius both to initiate and
to execute, to plan a battle and to fight it.
258 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

In the use of his famous lecture on “ The Bright
Side of Life in Libby Prison” he might have made a
personal fortune. No lecturer in his time ever gave
greater and more invariable satisfaction to his audi-
ences. He might have commanded the highest fees
from lecture bureaus had he given them his entire time,
and ten thousand dollars a year would have been a
moderate estimate of his income had he not again and
again refused tempting propositions. But all his
powers were consecrated to God and belonged to the
Church, and he would not sacrifice his convictions of
duty for gain or for public applause. Consequently,
the Church was the sole beneficiary of his genius. His
eloquence belonged to Christ and the Kingdom of —
Heaven; and by a single lecture, often delivered
throughout the country, no less than $300,000 have
been realised by churches and by the various benevo-
lent interests of Methodism. It may be doubted if
any pastor, secretary, or bishop in the history of the
Methodist Episcopal Church has been so popular on
the lecture platform, and certainly no one else has
turned into the Church treasuries such magnificent re-
sults of his eloquence. Perhaps no man since George
Whitefield’s day has possessed such money-raising
genius and eloquence as Chaplain McCabe.

It was while he was engaged in this Church Exten-
sion Secretaryship that he thrilled the Church with his
famous reply to the infidel Robert G, Ingersoll. The
Chaplain was on a railway train one day, and as he
read the newspaper his eye fell upon the report of a
freethinkers’ convention in which Mr. Ingersoll had
POWER OF SONG 259

said in an address: “ The churches are dying out all
over the land; they are struck with death.” At the
first station on the line where the opportunity offered
the Chaplain left the train and sent this telegram:

“DEAR ROBERT:
¢ All hail the power of Jesus’ name.’ We are
building more than one Methodist church for every
day in the year and propose to make it two a day!
“C. C. McCase.”

This incident fairly electrified the Church and in-
spired the Rev. Alfred J. Hough to write the follow-
ing song:

“The infidels, a motley band,

In council met, and said:

‘The Churches die all through the land,
The last will soon be dead.’

When suddenly a message came,
It filled them with dismay:

* All hail the power of Jesus’ name!
We're building two a day.’

“The King of Saints to war has gone,

And matchless are his deeds;

His sacramental hosts move on,
And follow where he leads;

While infidels his Church defame,
Her cornerstones we lay;

‘All hail the power of Jesus’ name!
We're building two a day.’

“« Extend,’ along the line is heard,
‘Thy walls, O Zion fair!’
And Methodism heeds the word,
And answers ev’rywhere,
260 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

"A new Church greets the morning’s flame,
Another evening’s ray,

‘All hail the power of Jesus’ name,’
We're building two a day.’

“When infidels in council meet

Next year, with boastings vain,

To chronicle the Lord’s defeat,
And count his Churches slain,

O may we then with joy proclaim,
If we his call obey:

‘ All hail the power of Jesus’ name!
We're building three a day.’”

‘This song immediately spread like fire over the land
and the Chaplain sang it from ocean to ocean, and by
its note of faith and victory the song, as the singer
sang it, gave a new and wonderful impetus to all the
benevolent enterprises of the Church. Thus was the
ignorant boast of infidelity gloriously refuted and the
very wrath of man made to praise our God.

As clever an argument against Ingersollism as ever
appeared at the time of the infidel’s greatest popularity
was “Chaplain McCabe’s Dream of Ingersollville.”
It reads like a product of a John Bunyan and possesses
many literary felicities that remind one of the im-
mortal “ Pilgrim’s Progress.” Dry and subtle argu-
ments of academic merit, which even the schoolmen
never wasted their time to read and which the people
could not understand, were very weak defences of the
Gospel and very harmless answers to infidelity com-
pared to this simple, witty, yet unanswerably logical
allegory of “Chaplain McCabe’s Dream of Ingersoll-
ville.” If one’s highest interest in such a Bunyanesque
POWER OF SONG 261

production passes with the controversy that called it
forth, as was the case with many a tractate from the
pen of Bunyan and even of Milton, the wit and homely
wisdom of it remain to amuse if not to instruct the
reader,
XXVII

CHAPLAIN McCABE’S DREAM OF
INGERSOLLVILLE

HAD a dream which was not all a dream. I
I thought I was on a long journey through a beauti-

ful country, when suddenly I came to a great city
with walls fifteen feet high. At the gate stood a senti-
nel whose shining armour reflected back the rays of
the morning sun. As I was about to salute him and
pass into the city, he stopped me and said:

“Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ?”

I answered, “ Yes, with all my heart.”

“Then,” said he, “ you cannot enter here. No man
or woman who acknowledges that name can pass
in here. Stand aside!” continued he, “they are
coming.”

I looked down the road and saw a vast multitude
approaching. It was led by a military officer.

“Who is that?” I asked the sentinel.

“That,” he replied, “is the great Colonel Robert
I——,, the founder of the City of Ingersollville.”

“Who is he?” I ventured to inquire.

“ He is a great and mighty warrior, who fought in
many bloody battles for the Union during the great
war.”

I felt ashamed of my ignorance of history, and

262
DREAM OF INGERSOLLVILLE 263

stood silently watching the procession. I had heard
of a Colonel I who resigned in presence of the
enemy, but of course this could not be the man.

The procession came near enough for me to recog-
nise some of the faces. I noted two infidel editors of
national celebrity, followed by great wagons con-
taining steam presses. There were also five members
of Congress.

All the noted infidels and scoffers of the country
seemed to be there. Most of them passed in unchal-
lenged by the sentinel; but at last a meek-looking in-
dividual with a white necktie approached, and he was
stopped. I saw at a glance he was a well-known “ lib-
eral’ preacher of New York.

“Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ?” said
the sentinel.

“ Not much!” replied the doctor.

Everybody laughed, and he was allowed to pass in.

There were artists there, with glorious pictures;
singers, with ravishing voices; tragedians and come-
dians, whose names have a world-wide fame.

Then came another division of the infidel host—
saloon-keepers by thousands, proprietors of gambling-
hells, brothels, and theatres.

Still another division swept by: burglars, thieves,
thugs, incendiaries, highwaymen, murderers—all—all
marching in. My vision grew keener. I looked, and
lo! Satan himself brought up the rear.

High afloat above the mass was a banner on which
was inscribed, “ What has Christianity done for the
country?” and another, on which was inscribed,

 
264 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

“Down with the Churches! Away with Christianity
—it interferes with our happiness!”” And then came
a murmur of voices, that grew louder and louder until
a shout went up like the roar of Niagara: “ Away with
him! crucify him!” TI felt no desire now to enter
Ingersollville.

As the last of the procession entered, a few men
and women with broad-brimmed hats and plain bon-
nets made their appearance, and wanted to go in as
missionaries, but they were turned rudely away. A
zealous young Methodist exhorter, with a Bible under
his arm, asked permission to enter, but the sentinel
swore at him awfully. Then I thought I saw Brother
_ Moody applying for admission, but he was refused. I
could not help smiling to hear Moody say, as he turned
sadly away:

“Well, they let me live and work in Chicago; it
is very strange they won’t let me into Ingersollville.”

The sentinel went inside the gate and shut it with a
bang; and I thought, as soon as it was closed, a mighty
angel came down with a great iron bar, and barred
the gate on the outside, and wrote upon it in letters
of fire, ‘ Doomed to live together six months.” Then
he went away, and all was silent, except the noise of
the revelry and shouting that came from within the
city walls.

I went away, and as I journeyed through the land I
could not believe my eyes. Peace and plenty smiled
everywhere. The jails were all empty, the peniten-
tiaries were without occupants. The police of great
cities were idle. Judges sat in court rooms with noth-
DREAM OF INGERSOLLVILLE 265

ing todo. Business was brisk. Many great buildings,
formerly crowded with criminals, were turned into
manufacturing establishments. Just about this time
the President of the United States called for a Day of
Thanksgiving. I attended services in a Presbyterian
church. The preacher dwelt upon the changed condi-
tion of affairs. As he went on and depicted the great
prosperity that had come to the country, and gave rea-
sons for devout thanksgiving, I saw one old deacon
clap his handkerchief over his mouth to keep from
shouting right out. An ancient spinster, who never
did like the “ noisy” Methodists—a regular old blue-
stocking Presbyterian—couldn’t hold in. She ex-
pressed the thought of every heart by shouting with
all her might, “ Glory to God for Ingersollville!” <A
young theological student lifted up his hand and de-
voutly added, “ Esto perpetua.” Everybody smiled.
The country was almost delirious with joy. Great
processions of children swept along the highways,
singing,
“We'll not give up the Bible,
God’s blessed word of truth.”

Vast assemblies of reformed inebriates, with their
wives and children, gathered in the open air. No
building would hold them. I thought I was in one
meeting where Bishop Simpson made an address, and
as he closed it a mighty shout went up till the earth
rang again. O, it was wonderful! and then we all
stood up and sang with tears of joy:

“All hail the power of Jesus’ name!
Let angels prostrate fall;
266 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

Bring forth the royal diadem,
And crown him Lord of all.”

The six months had well-nigh gone. I made my
way back again to the gate of Ingersollville. A dread-
ful silence reigned over the city, broken only by the
sharp crack of a revolver now and then. I saw a busy
man trying to get in at the gate, and I said to him,
“ My friend, where are you from?”

“T live in Chicago,” said he, “‘ and they’ve taxed us
to death there; and I’ve heard of this city, and I want
to go in to buy some real estate in this new and grow-
ing place.”

He failed utterly to remove the bar, but by some
means he got a ladder about twelve feet long, and with
its aid he climbed upon the wall. With an eye to busi-
ness, he shouted to the first person he saw:

“ Hello, there!—what’s the price of real estate in
Ingersollville ? ”

“Nothing!” shouted a voice; “you can have all
you want if you'll just take it and pay the taxes,”

“What made your taxes so high?” inquired the
Chicago man. I noted the answer carefully; I shall
never forget it.

“We've had to build forty new jails and fourteen
penitentiaries—a lunatic asylum and orphan asylum
in every ward; we’ve had to disband the public schools,
and it takes all the revenue of the city to keep up the
police force.”

“ Where’s my old friend I
man.

“QO, he is going about to-day with a subscription

 

?” said the Chicago
DREAM OF INGERSOLLVILLE 267

paper to build a church. They have gotten up a peti-
tion to send out for a lot of preachers to come and
hold revival services. If we can only get them over
the wall, we hope there’s a future for Ingersollville
yet.”

The six months ended. Instead of opening the
door, however, a tunnel was dug under the wall big —
enough for one person to crawl through at a time.
First came two bankrupt editors, followed by Colonel
I himself, and then the whole population crawled
through. Then I thought, somehow, great crowds of
Christians surrounded the city. There were Moody,
and Hammond, and Earle, and hundreds of Methodist
preachers and exhorters, and they struck up, singing
all together :

 

“Come ye sinners, poor and needy.”

'A needier crowd never was seen on earth before.

I conversed with some of the inhabitants of the
abandoned city, and asked a few of them this question:

“Do you believe in hell?”

I cannot record the answers: they were terribly
orthodox.

One old man said, “ I’ve been there on probation for
six months, and I don’t want to join.”

I knew by that he was an old Methodist backslider.

The sequel of it all was a great revival, that gath-
ered in a mighty harvest from the ruined City of
Ingersollville.
XXVIII
A GLANCE BACKWARDS

HE Chaplain’s love for the Church Extension
work never died. After he had been pro-
moted to a new field by the call of the Church,

he continued to take a deep interest in the cause to
which he had given so many of the best years of his
life. One of the most telling productions of his pen is
‘a four-page pamphlet on “A Glance Backwards,” in
which he gives a résumé of the work of the Society
for the previous twenty-one years and expresses his
hopes for its future great success and usefulness. It
may appropriately close these chapters that record his
achievements as Secretary of the Church Extension
Society.

A GLANCE BACKWARDS

When a man has spent sixteen years of his life in
trying to build up a great cause, it is impossible for
him ever to lose interest in it.

With the most pleasurable emotions I take up the
Twenty-first Annual Report of the Board of Church
Extension. There is the familiar map of our country,
spangled more thickly than ever with crosses, showing
where 511 churches have been helped into existence
during the year 1886—nearly one and one-half per

268
A GLANCE BACKWARDS 269

day. Surely the time is rapidly approaching when the
Board of Church Extension may without rebuke open
their monthly meetings by singing, “All hail the
power of Jesus’ name: we’re building two a day!”

The dreamers of this world have their way at the
last. Joseph and Isaiah, John of Patmos and John of
Epworth, all saw their dreams fulfilled. And the
dreamers of to-day who plan and struggle and hope
and sing and pray for the coming Kingdom of our
Lord, are permitted sometimes to see their dreams ful-
filled here and now. The stalwart dreamer of the
Congo will see his dreams fulfilled; and his successors
in office will hold great conferences and send presiding
elders to their districts and pastors to their charges
with shout and song when the last vestige of heathen-
ism shall have disappeared from Africa forever.

Sometimes the fulfilment of the dream far exceeds
in glory the vision itself. The Lord of the Harvest
does not “ make a word of promise to the ear and
break it to the hope.”” He fulfils His promise accord-
ing to His interpretation of its meaning and not ac-
cording to ours.

Not many have ever heard much about the un-
fortunate beginning of the Church Extension Society;
how it was involved in debt at the very start; how the
dreadful word “ protested” was written across the
drafts upon its treasury for fifty thousand dollars;
how its credit was gone and its best friends were
despairing. Fortunately for the Church, the cause
seemed so hopeless that the office of its Corresponding
Secretary was not an object of ambition. The task of
270 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

saving this apparently ruined cause, after Dr. Mon-
roe’s tragical death, fell upon Dr. A. J. Kynett—a
man, I verily believe, chosen of God to shape its policy,
to make a strong administration in which everybody
might have confidence, to project its Loan Fund, to
guard it from spiritual weakness in high places, until
to-day, whether men realise it or not, whether men ac-
knowledge it or not, the Board of Church Extension
is one of the most marvellous evangelistic forces in,
this or any other land.

This Report tells us that since the Board be-
gan its work in the year 1865, it has helped to
build 5805 churches—more than half of the en-
tire increase of Methodism since this work began.
It has collected and disbursed nearly $3,000,000.
It has built up a permanent Loan Fund of $555,000.
Out of this fund it has loaned $954,792, aiding
by loans 1763* churches worth $6,918,950, with
sittings for 507,515 persons; and if we average the
5805 churches aided by both grants and loans as hav-
ing a seating capacity of 300 for each church, the
Board of Church Extension has helped to furnish a
place to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ to 1,741,500
persons.

I look back to those old days,—those days of anxiety
and trouble,—and realise how blessed a thing it is sim-
ply to follow the infallible counsel of the Spirit of
God.

The first official act I saw Dr. Kynett perform was
to sign a note for $25,000, which was indorsed by two

* Loans return and are again loaned,
A GLANCE BACKWARDS 271

members of the Board, to take care of those protested
drafts.

I received a letter from one of the leading men of
one of our greatest conferences, which contained this
sentence in reference to the Church Extension Society:
“ Let the thing sink. It is hopelessly bankrupt.” He
was a good man, but on that subject he had no revela-
tion. Agabus was a prophet, and a good man. He
took Paul’s girdle and bound himself and said, “So
shall be bound the man that owneth this girdle.” But
even a prophet could not turn Paul from his purpose to
go up to Jerusalem. The divine revelation made to
him at his conversion was, “ I will show him how great
things he must suffer for my sake.’’ And so some
men, good and true, do not understand how God is
leading other men; and hence, sometimes, little short-
lived divisions among the workers, little contentions
which are sure at the last to end in tears and songs at
Calvary, because the love of Jesus conquers all.

The pages of this Report not only furnish an argu-
ment for greater collections, but they are a prophecy
of the future. Methodism has secured the erection
of 3800 more houses of worship in twenty-three —
years than the entire possessions of the Roman
Catholic Church in this country. What is going
to be the future of a Board that helped to build
half of all those churches! Its income is steadily in-
creasing. Its Loan Fund has passed the half-million
limit and is sweeping on to the million. That Loan
Fund is already large enough to secure the erection, in
its quintennial revolutions, of four churches for every
o42 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

Sabbath morning that shall dawn upon the world for-
ever.

Well do I remember the night when Bishop Morris,
then the primate of Methodism, gave the first hun-
dred dollars to this fund. I glance down the list
of donors since. Dr. Kynett speedily inaugurated
the plan of allowing any person contributing $5000
or more to name the fund, and promised that a sepa-
rate account should be kept with it, and that a state-
ment of its working and success should be furnished
the donor every year. That was a happy thought. If
you put it into the scales and weigh it, it is worth at
least one million of dollars. Armed with that promise
I was taken into the counsels of men who desired that
their money should work for the increase of the King-
dom when they should have gone to stand with the
ransomed army before the throne of God. That
promise is a direct appeal to one of the most powerful
and holy instincts of a redeemed soul. I have seen its
power on the rich man who was able to draw his check
for $10,000. I have seen its power upon the poor
widow who by dint of toiling and saving for many
months could heap together enough money to secure
the building of one church every five years forever.

There are twenty-five of these named funds; and
then there is a great fund of nearly a quarter of a mil-
lion made up of the contributions of the many. Into
that have gone the gifts of the ploughboy and
the mechanic, the seamstress and the servant-girl.
Into it has gone a gift of $3000 from a widow upon
the one condition that the Board of Church Extension
A GLANCE BACKWARDS 273

—composed of men she never saw—would promise
that the meal should not waste in the barrel nor the
oil in the cruse.

Many of the donors to this sacred fund are gone.
The A. V. Stout loan fund of $10,000 has aided in
the erection of 55 churches with 13,695 sittings.
The Freeborn Garretson loan fund of $20,000, given
in his name by his daughter Mary, has aided in the
erection of 82 churches worth $327,925, furnishing
24,300 sittings. The John Stewart loan fund of
$10,000 has helped to build 65 -churches worth
$105,000, with 17,050 sittings. But the time would
fail to speak of all. Some of the givers are with
us still and think with ever-increasing pleasure of what
has been done with their money. The Eliphalet
Remington loan fund of $30,000 has furnished
$77,000 in loans, and has aided in the erection of
97 houses of worship worth $494,055, furnishing
28,820 people an opportunity to hear the Gospel.

The special effort to secure $250 subscriptions to be
used as grants in aid of frontier churches has brought
in $82,500; the number of churches built through its
instrumentality, 329, valued at $665,750. These gifts
were accompanied,’ however, by loans amounting to
$67,700.

Thank the Lord! Let us take courage! The in-
come to the General Fund will increase. The Loan
Fund, like the wheel in Ezekiel’s vision, erect, self-
moving, full of eyes to see the wants of the little strug-
gling bands of my Father’s children all over this Re-
public, will roll on through all the coming years, and
e

274 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

the income from it at two per cent. per annum will
soon be more than sufficient to pay all the current ex-
penses of administration.

Guard against the impression that this fund is a
vested fund like the endowment of an institution of
learning. It is far better than that. The principal
itself is loaned to needy churches at a low rate of in-
terest, and sometimes without interest, to be paid in
small annual instalments. And thus the same money
is used over and over again forever. A million of
dollars is not too large a sum for such a magnificent
work.

It was not, then, a spasmodic effort. The prophets
of evil have again been disappointed. Wise men are
still bringing their gifts of gold to lay them at Jesus’
feet. The General Conference may be depended upon
not to seriously interfere with plans which have
worked so well, and it may be relied upon to put this
great trust in the charge of men who love the Church
better than life itself. Moses is still at the head of
his army, while Joshua is out in the field preaching,
praying, singing, holding conventions, helping people
to decide what to do with their money, loyally telling
them to give the most to missions and to stand by
the whole work of connectional Methodism.

To my friends everywhere, I would like to send
this message: Stand by Kynett and Spencer. Give
them the quarter of a million for which they ask. You
can do it so easily. The story of the work from each
pulpit will bring the money. The money will build
the churches. The churches will bring the congrega-
A GLANCE BACKWARDS 275

tions. Our missionaries can have pulpits in which to
preach the Gospel, and the children will be gathered
into Sabbath-schools, to be taught of the Lord.

The work is one. In five years we may have three
millions of members if we are faithful to our trust.
Let us work as though the judgment fires were about
to kindle upon the earth, and for His glory who sends
us this message:

“Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with
me.”

e
XXIX

EVANGELISTIC SPIRIT—CONVERSIONS—COL.
H. H. HADLEY—BISHOP WILEY—T. D. COL-
LINS—BISHOP SIMPSON’S CONVERT—THE
COLOURED SUPERANNUATE

ITH all the burdens of his official responsi-

W bilities resting upon him and with his mind

constantly preoccupied with the planning
and executing of his financial campaigns, the Chaplain
nevertheless did not lose his evangelistic spirit, nor
for a moment cease to be interested in the salvation
of men. Many a touching incident of his personal re-
ligious influence over individuals in the chance meet-
ings of daily life might be mentioned, of which a few
will suffice to offer an illustration. When urging
Christians to make personal efforts to win individual
souls to Christ, he said:

“ Single out some soul to pray for. Be in earnest.
Avoid everything that will hinder your communion
with your Heavenly Father. From His presence go
and invite the soul for whom you pray to come to
Christ. Try it. You will be amazed at the result.
Let me tell you a story. It concerns myself. I hesitate
to publish it, but it illustrates the fact that great op-
portunities for doing a world of good by a single word
‘spoken for the Master are ever before us. Thirty

276
EVANGELISTIC SPIRIT | 277

years ago, I was on a train going from Lancaster,
Ohio, to Zanesville. The war had been over one year.
A young man was in the car whom I knew to be an
ex-soldier. We had a conversation. That night I had
him in my congregation. His name is Col. H. H.
Hadley. Here is a letter from him received this year.*

“*DeEaR CHAPLAIN:

“*Tn the fall of the year 1866 I was coming from
Lancaster, Ohio, to Zanesville on the cars, having been
recently mustered out of the army, after five years’
service. I had become a hard drinker during the
war and had been having quite a high time with some
of my friends in Lancaster. I remember when sitting
in the seat behind yourself in the car, that I intro-
duced myself to you, having in some way found out.
who you were, and I told you that I had heard my sis-
ter, Mrs. R. H. McCann, formerly Miss Lucy Had-
ley, speak of you. You did not chide me particularly,
though you seemed a little surprised that I was a
brother to so good a woman as Lucy was, and you
told me you were going to speak that night in Put-
nam. I went over with my sister to hear you. After
the sermon you sang: “ There is a fountain filled with
blood,” to the tune to which it is now usually sung. It
was the first time that I had heard that tune. It was
one of the first hymns set to your tune, which I placed
in my book of rescue songs. Your remarks to me on
the car, your manner toward me, the fact that you had
been in the army, so impressed me that I have never

* 1896.
278 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

forgotten that interview. It had its weight toward
bringing me to a better life. Of course, many things
combined to do it, but my memory of that interview
was one of the agencies.

“*T ask you to pray for me—whenever you think
of me—that God may make me more and more useful,
and that He may give me physical strength to pursue
the wonderful work which He has led me into, the
nature of which, and the results of which, are simply
so amazing that the days of miracles are not past, but
“ He is with us, even to the end of the world.” God
has permitted me since I was converted to start thirty-
eight different missions, which are attended by over a
million a year, more than half non-churchgoers, and
in which last year sixteen thousand drunkards came
forward for prayer. In the St. Bartholomew Mission
alone, over five thousand came forward, and I have
personally kneeled and prayed with over thirty-five
thousand drunkards, whole regiments of whom have
been converted, since Jesus set me free.

‘Ber since by faith I saw the stream
Thy flowing wounds supply,

Redeeming love has been my theme
And shall be till I die.’

“* Your yokefellow and comrade,
“A. H. Hapey.’

“When I read that letter,” said the Chaplain,
“praise and prayer broke from my lips. ‘ Father, I
thank Thee that I was permitted to be the channel of
Thy power to such a soul as that, to help him on to
EVANGELISTIC SPIRIT 279

God’; and then the prayer, ‘ Father, forgive me for
opportunities I have missed, because I was not on the
alert to win souls.’ ” *

It is interesting further to know that one night the
Chaplain was lecturing in the Presbyterian church,
called “ The Brick Church,” on Fifth Avenue, New
York, when he saw a tall, handsome, soldierly-looking
man coming down the aisle towards the front seat and
he said to some one sitting by his side: ‘ Who is that
fine-looking man?” ‘The reply was: ‘“ That is Col. H.
H. Hadley, the man who has reclaimed thousands of
drunkards here in New York City and has established
missions for them in other cities.” It was early.and
the audience was not yet seated, so the Chaplain
walked down the aisle and spoke to him. “ Col. Had-
ley,” he said, “ you don’t know me, but I want to shake
the hand of a man who has done what you have done.”
“J don’t know you, don’t I?” said he, and the tears
came into his eyes. “I should think I ought to know
you. Don’t you remember getting on a train years ago
on the way to Zanesville, Ohio? I was on the train
and I was drunk, as I had been for days. You saw
my condition, but you came and sat down beside me.
You took my hand and said, ‘Comrade, don’t you
think it’s about time you were giving your heart to the
Lord Jesus Christ?’ I was sullen and angry and I’m
afraid I was not very polite to you, but I never got
over that question. It haunted me day and night. I
had a devout sister who I knew was praying for me,
and between your kindness to me that day and my sis-

*“ Epworth Herald,”
280 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

ter’s prayers, I gave my heart to God. I have since
knelt and prayed with thirty thousand drunkards and
have seen thousands of them converted.” What a
bright star for his crown of rejoicing did the Chap-
lain win by his kindly word to Col. Hadley, asking
him to give his heart to Christ! Years later, when
seeking health in Colorado, the Colonel wrote the
Chaplain these fervent lines:

“My Precious Friend and Chaplain, Rev. C. C.
McCabe, whom I met on the train between Lancaster
and Zanesville, Ohio, in 1866, when half-drunk and
when you, by kindly reproof, tried to save my soul by

words that never left me. Praise the Lord! I’m
saved now and have been for seventeen years, Halle-
lujah!”

Col. Hadley has finished his work on earth and
joined the innumerable company of the redeemed in
heaven. How God honoured his efforts to save the
drunkards of New York and of our country! Maulti-
tudes rise up to call him blessed. In the homes of
the poor and among the thousands who have been re-
deemed from the power of strong drink, his memory
is precious. His life reads like a romance and the suc-
cess of his rescue missions attests the miracle-working
power of divine grace in saving men and transform-
ing lives. To have been instrumental in the conver-
sion of such a man were quite enough to crown Chap-
lain McCabe with the crown of eternal rejoicing.

The spiritual influence that radiated from the Chap-
lain’s personality over all who came in contact with
him is illustrated in a letter written to him by a hum-
EVANGELISTIC SPIRIT 281

ble servant-girl, who was serving in the home of a
college professor.

“T want to send you just a few lines,” she writes,
“to tell you how much good it did me to have you
with us those three days. . . . I think I shall never
forget those days, although I seldom saw you except
at meal times, and I suppose you never thought then
that you were doing anything special for me at that
time. Yet, I drank in every word that you said, and
I enjoyed it as much as those at the table with you.
How easy it was always to be cheerful then, and I
even went so far as to think that if we could only have
you with us always, I would never be tempted to feel
discouraged or downcast. I resolved then that when
I became discouraged I would think of you, and it has
helped me, I believe, to live better in the short time
that has passed since you left us. . . . I want you
to remember me in prayer. I feel that I need that
above all things, and that it will help me to know that
you pray for me especially.”

Thus did the spirit of the kind and compassionate
Christ fill the heart and radiate from the life of this
man who, though often the companion of Bishops,
Statesmen, Generals, and Presidents, was not above
feeling the tenderest sympathy for the poor and show-
ing the most genuine brotherly kindness to the hum-
blest human being. With all his association with the
rich and the influential, with all the power he had
over men of wealth and position in inspiring them to
large liberality, and with all the regard shown him and
all the praise and even flattery bestowed upon him in
282 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

the highest circles of the intellectual, political, and
philanthropic life of our country, he never toadied to
mere aristocracy, he never fawned upon wealth and
power. But he thought as much of the poor as of the
rich, of the lowly as of the exalted, and the soul that
was wrapped in a shabby coat or a faded shawl was in
his eyes and to his noble nature as precious as the soul
arrayed in purple and fine linen. .

The Bishop was once accused of saying that when
riding on the cars he preferred sitting with a rich man
to sitting with a poor man. This charge against his
democracy went the rounds of the papers with the
thrusts at his “ ministerial snobbery and toadyism ”
which such a charge would be apt to inspire. His
answer was that he had not said just that, but, demo-
cratic as he was in his feelings, he explained that he
had said he would as gladly sit with a poor man as a
rich man under ordinary circumstances; but if he was
out after money for a Church or a University or for
Missions he would prefer to find a rich man on board
the train and sit down beside him for an hour or two,
as he had done when travelling with his rich and
benevolent friend, D. H. Carroll of Baltimore.

A few years ago he visited a town in New England
and as he arrived at the station it was evening and
the rain was falling, which necessitated his calling a
cab. When he arrived at his destination, which was the
home of the pastor, he paid the cabman his fare and
then shook hands with him, with the kindly remark,
“Good-night, I hope I shall meet you in heaven.”
The man looked astonished, whipped up his horse, and
EVANGELISTIC SPIRIT 283

drove away. Late in the night after all had retired,
the door-bell rang, and the pastor answered the sum-
mons. At the door stood the cabman, and apologising
for the disturbance at so late an hour, he asked if he
might see the man he had driven to the house in the
evening. He said that he must see him at once. The
pastor went to the Chaplain’s room and said, “ That
cabman you had this evening is at the door and says
he wants to see you.” “‘ Show him up,” said the Chap-
lain. He came up and stood in the doorway, whip in
hand. He was a tall, fine-looking man, and he stam-
mered out: “ Sir, you asked me to meet you in heaven,
and I have been thinking about it ever since. Nobody
ever said that to me before. If I meet you in heaven,
I shall have to turn around, for I am not going that
way.” The Chaplain took him in and talked and
prayed with him and the cabman left with a new light
in his face and, let us believe, with a new hope in his
heart.

The Chaplain had such a passion for the salvation
of men that any story of a soul’s conversion had a
wondrous charm for him, and he loved to repeat it as
though it were the most interesting recital that could
claim the attention of the saints. How he enjoyed
telling and writing the story of Bishop Wiley’s con-
version !

“ Yesterday I visited Mother Stoner. She resides
in Lewiston, Pa. Mother Stoner is eighty-five years
old and lies upon a bed of pain. Heart and flesh are
failing fast. Many years ago she was called ‘the
shouting Methodist.’ Even the little boys used to fol-
284 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

low-her in the streets and cry, ‘Glory!’ after her, as
she passed along. She has been shouting ever since.
Yesterday we were singing,

‘Let me go, ’tis Jesus calls me,’

and the old familiar ‘Glory’ came from her lips and
her dim eyes lighted up with joy and she waved her
hands in token of victory. Brother Sears, her pastor,
shouted with her. Who is Mother Stoner? Many
years ago she was exalted to the high position of Sab-
bath-school teacher. One day she saw a little white-
haired boy lingering about the door of the church.
She went out and laid her hand upon his head and in-
vited him into her class. Some time afterwards she
led him to the mourners’ bench. He was converted,
and Mother Stoner shouted over him. That boy be-
came an able preacher of the Gospel. He has been a
missionary to China, editor of the ‘Ladies’ Reposi-
tory,’ is now Bishop Wiley,* and will some day be a
redeemed saint before the throne of God.”

‘We are also indebted to the Chaplain’s love of the
story of a conversion for the record of a touching in-
cident in the ministry of Bishop Simpson. The Chap-
lain sent to the papers this item: .

“ Bishop Simpson, in his recent sermon before the
Ohio Conference, expressed the hope that, through
his ministry, some souls had been converted to God
and saved in heaven at last. There is no doubt that
a mighty host awaits the Bishop on the other shore,
who have been brought to Jesus through his long and

* Died 1884.
EVANGELISTIC SPIRIT 285

faithful ministry. Here is the history of one of them.
Rev. Mr. Hingeley, of the East Ohio Conference, was
called to see a dying man. He was dying in sight of
Heaven and, among the joyful exclamations that fell
from his lips, he constantly kept crying, ‘ Thank God
for Bishop Simpson!’ He explained the meaning of
his singular thanksgiving by telling the story of his
conversion. He had been an infidel for years. He
hated the Bible, the Church, and the Ministry. One
Sabbath morning a friend accosted him and said:
‘Bishop Simpson is going to preach this morning.
You must go and hear him.’ He had not darkened a
church door for thirty years, but the fame of the
preacher and the urgent entreaty of his friend pre-
vailed. He went to hear the sermon. The Gospel,
that he thought an exploded fable, exploded once more
beneath his fable of lies and blew it up and left a heap
of ruins around him. He surrendered, gave his heart
to Jesus, became teachable, and as a little child re-
ceived the Kingdom‘ of God. He lived an earnest
Christian; did all he could to undo the work of his
sinful life, was especially anxious to meet and con-
verse with the young men who had been poisoned by
his teachings, and died at last, uttering a thanksgiving
in which all Methodism and Protestant Christianity
in this nation will unite with him, ‘Thank God for
Bishop Simpson!’ ”

The Chaplain took great pleasure in telling of the
conversion of Truman D. Collins, who through the
influence of the Chaplain gave $29,000 to missions in
1906, and at the great Cleveland Convention sub-.
286 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

scribed $100,000o—perhaps the largest contribution to
missions in Methodism if not in the Protestant world.
Bishop Janes was holding a session of the Erie Con-
ference; at the close and after he had read the list of
appointments, one of the preachers arose and asked:
“Bishop, haven’t you got some place for me, some
little place where I may preach the Gospel?” ‘“ Why,
brother,’ said the Bishop, “didn’t we give you a
place? That was an oversight. But there is a little
place here that no one has been found willing to go to.
It is called the Big Woods. If you are willing to take
that, I will put your name down there.” The preacher
went to the humble charge and worked faithfully.
Mr. Collins, who was a wealthy lumberman and lived
in the Big Woods, went to hear the new preacher.
He afterwards related that when he saw this plain, un-
gainly man, he said: “If the Methodist Conference
cannot send us a better man than that, it had better
send none at all. But when I heard him preach, I
found out that he understood the Gospel.” Mr. Col-
lins’ wife was a devout Christian who had been pray-
ing for him, and under the preaching of this plain
man, who was forgotten by the Bishop, he was con-
verted. This man, with his thirty thousand acres of
timber land, said, after settling sufficient upon his
family, “ Every dollar I make goes to the Kingdom.”

Whether Bishop Janes ever knew the result of that
appointment to the Big Woods may be doubted ; never-
theless, it was part of his great work, and the Bishop
who made that appointment and Chaplain McCabe,
who, under God, inspired Truman D. Collins to con-
EVANGELISTIC SPIRIT 287

secrate his wealth to the Kingdom of Heaven upon
earth, must share in the glory and happiness of this
man’s conversion and benevolent life.

This interesting incident connected with the Epis-
copal career of Bishop Janes recalls another which
was also related by Chaplain McCabe. In a letter
which he did not intend for publication, but which
found its way into the papers, he said:

“T am just from Iowa Conference. Had a most
delightful session. The power of God rested upon the
preachers from the first day to the close. It was
Bishop Hurst’s first Conference and he was filled with
the Spirit of God. Oh, for spiritual Conference ses-
sions! Bishop Hurst gave us an incident in the life
of Bishop Janes. One stormy night the Bishop was to
preach in a church of which Brother Hurst was the
pastor. ‘I fear you will have a small congregation to-
night,’ said the pastor to the Bishop, as they went on
through the darkness. ‘Will the sexton be there?’
‘Yes.’ ‘ Well, you will be there, and that’s a larger
congregation than my Master had at the well of Sa-
maria.’ While the Bishop told this incident, it came
to my mind that the sermon Jesus preached on that
occasion to that one auditor was one of the best of His
life.”

It was the writer’s good fortune to be present with
a company of preachers, among whom were Chaplain
McCabe and Dr. Minor Raymond, Professor of Sys-
tematic Theology in Garret Biblical Institute and one
of the grandest preachers American Methodism ever
produced. The conversation turned upon the style
288 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

and merits of the great preachers which it had been the
privilege of those who were in the company to hear.
It was the consensus of opinion that Bishop Simpson
was supreme. ‘“ Nevertheless,” said Dr. Raymond,
with that deep, impressive, and solemnly deliberate
voice, “if Bishop Janes and Bishop Simpson were to
preach this day in this place, the one here and the other
yonder, I would not pass by Janes to hear Simpson.”

Chaplain McCabe had a great admiration for
Bishop Janes and vastly enjoyed any anecdote relating
to him. One about ‘‘ The Coloured Superannuate ” he
used to tell most pathetically and finally he wrote it out
for the press.

“ Bishop Janes was presiding. The roll of the super-
annuates was being called. ‘Samuel Johnson! Any-
thing against Samuel Johnson?’ said the Bishop. All
eyes were turned to the ‘ Amen Corner.’ There, with
his head bent forward upon the seat before him, sat
a trembling old man. He was eighty-four years old
‘come next harvest.’ Last year he was superannuated
without his consent. He was nearly blind. Hard
work and much sorrow had left their trace upon hand
and heart and form. One ambition remained to him,
and that was to die on the field of battle; to go to
heaven from the ranks of effective men. When the
Bishop read in the opening hymn,

‘**My body with my charge lay down,
And cease at once to work and live,’

a stifled sob was heard from the corner, and every-
body knew who was suffering and weeping there.
EVANGELISTIC SPIRIT 289

When the brethren sang the chorus, ‘ Die on the field
of battle with glory in my soul,’ one voice that in
tremulous tones used to lead off in the song was silent.
‘Nothing against Brother Johnson,’ said the presid-
ing elder. Bishop Janes loved old men. He was an
old hero himself; brave enough to go to the stake for
Christ’s sake, but had a heart of tenderness unutter-
able. Dropping his voice and speaking with great
gentleness, he said: ‘ Would Brother Johnson like to
say a word to the Conference before his name is
passed?’ There was no response. Again and yet a
third time the Bishop asked the same question. The
old man slowly arose. He was as tall as Abraham
Lincoln. He looked at the Bishop, then at the visiting
brethren, then at the Conference, and then, stretching
his trembling hand towards his brethren, who by their
votes had sent him into retirement, he said, ‘ Dey say
I’s superannuated. I s’pose I is. I don’t feel super-
annuated; but,’ shaking his head mournfully, ‘ dey say
I is, and I s’pose I is. Brudder Bishop, I preached
ebery Sabbath dis whole yeah. I walk to all my ’pint-
ments, but dey say I’s superannuated, and I s’pose I is.
Brudder Jones axed me to help him with his ’tracted
meetin’. Dar was more dan forty souls converted in
dat meetin’. But dey say I’s superannuated; I s’pose
T is.’

“ Everybody was weeping. Somehow the glorious
resistance of the old man’s spirit to the ravages of
time and sorrow, seemed sublime. If another vote
could have been taken just then, the work of the
previous session might have been undone; but Brother
ag90 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

Johnson did not seem to expect it. The Bishop’s
face was buried in his handkerchief and he was weep-
ing no unmanly tears. Suddenly the ‘ power’ seemed
to come on Father Johnson as in the days of other
years. He jumped full two feet. He clapped his
hands for joy. He shouted with all his might, and
then said: ‘Brudder Bishop, I comes up heah to dis
Conference, and I feels just like some old war-hoss
what’s been turned out to die—but when he sees de
banners and hear de drum, and listen to de bugle blow
—he feels he kin run in de charge; but he finds he’s
los’ his wind.’

“The old man’s gloom was gone. Clear through
the cloud he had prayed, and sung and shouted, and
now, with an air of triumph, and with perfect acquies-
cence in the judgment of his brethren, he waved his
long arm like a banner of victory in front of the little
band of Methodist preachers, and shouted as he sank
into his seat, ‘Dey say I’s superannuated, and I s’pose
T is.’ ”
XXX

MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS—ATTITUDE TO-
WARD RATIONALISM AND INFIDELITY

HAPLAIN McCABE was a man of action
C and achievement rather than of theory and

speculation. He was not always academic
enough to suit those who chose a life of quiet study
and contemplation rather than a career of eventful
activity in the great world. Many who could not or
would not understand this modern Son of Thunder
affected to disparage his transcendent ability and dis-
count his work because he was in little or no sympathy
with a merely academic method of bringing things to
pass. Many seemed to be impatient with the man who
accomplished such tremendous tasks when even more
highly trained schoolmen proved themselves pigmies
in the hurly-burly world of action. He knew well
enough the value of study and learning, but he also
knew that on the firing line of the world’s moral battle-
field there was something else to do than shine but-
tons, scour bayonets, play with the silken tassels of
the sword, and criticise the army tactics and the rules
of war. He believed in fighting the battles and gain-
ing the victories. Hence with the dust of battle on
his epaulets and the mud of advance marches on his
spurs and usually in undress uniform or blouse, like

291
292 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

Grant, he did not always please the scholastic man-
milliner who could not understand how such an un-
conventional, unacademic man reached preéminence
while so many bookish men never got themselves heard
of.

Why that sort of men, who spend their lives in the
classic shades of philosophic speculation and of liter-
ary enjoyment, should have imagined that Chaplain
McCabe was not a most devoted friend and admirer of
the schools, a man who held true scholarship in almost
reverential awe, is beyond comprehension. He loved
truth and was too brave a man to be afraid of it. He
venerated the scholar and never treated him but with
the utmost courtesy. He did too much for the pro-
motion of learning in raising endowments and in
clearing off debts for Colleges and Universities to have
been suspected by the most narrow-minded pedant of
a lack of interest in higher education. So spare your

“ Well-meant alms of breath,”

kind apologist, and do not try to defend Chaplain Mc-
Cabe against the charge that he was not in sympathy
with the highest scholarship of our schools or with the
most progressive truth and learning of his time. _
What of his attitude toward the rationalism of his
day? No servant of the Church in pulpit, professorship,
or editorial chair understood more clearly than he the
character and true function of genuine scholarship,
and no one had a keener mental penetration to discern
the sham and pretence of rationalistic pedantry, the
mere cant of learning, and the supercilious arrogancy
MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS ~ 293

and bigotry of destructive criticism. He believed the
Bible to be the inspired word of God. He believed
Jesus Christ to be God manifest in the flesh. He be-
lieved that Jesus Christ died for the sins of the whole
world, and “that there is none other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.”
He believed in the Holy Ghost as the third person of
the Trinity of the Godhead. He believed that man
must be born again to partake of the divine nature and
to inherit eternal life, and he believed that the new
creature was born of the Spirit and that this regenera-
tion by the Spirit is secured by faith in Jesus Christ
for “as many as received him, to them gave he power
to become the sons of God,” “ He that hath the Son
hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not
life.”

These great truths he accepted as forever settled
by the Word of God, the test of the ages, and the ex-
perience of men, hence he had no patience with that
weak and vacillating attitude of scepticism which char-
acterises those would-be and so-called thinkers who
are “ever learning and never able to come to the
knowledge of the truth.” He was so keen and analyti-
cal a logician that he saw the absurdity of a fallacious
line of reasoning at a glance. His mind worked so
quickly that, while others were labouring and lumber-
ing through the mire of a false syllogism, his logical
sense, like a flash, discovered the error and revealed it.

It may be charged that, like the destructive critics
themselves, he treated his opponents with scant respect,
if not with a spirit approaching contempt. To his
294 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

thought, Christianity was no longer, if it ever had
been, an experiment; the Word of God was no longer,
if it ever had been, on trial; the divinity of Jesus
Christ was no longer, if it ever had been, open to ques-
tion or discussion. The foundations of religion were
sure, and he imagined it to be a waste of time and ©
learning to pursue lines of study and inquiry by which
it must be assumed that the Gospel has not as yet
demonstrated its divine origin, authority, infallibility,
and finality as religion. .If with one breath of elo-
quence he swept away a whole page or chapter of ra-
tionalistic cobwebs, the disconcerted, destructive critics
insinuated that he was not a scholar, not a thinker, not
a critic, when at the same time just as good critics, as
erudite scholars, as learned authorities were on his
side of the question as on theirs, and he had the ad-
ditional support of the Word of God, the spiritual
experience of the people, and the testimony of history
in the world-transforming progress of the Gospel.
He did not believe that it was necessary to prove or
defend by human philosophy the religion of Jesus
Christ, but that the Gospel should be taught, declared,
preached with the boldness and authority of a “ thus
saith the Lord.” He could quite agree with Heine, who
said, ‘‘ From the moment that a religion solicits the aid
of philosophy its ruin is inevitable. In the attempt at
defence it prates itself into destruction. Religion, like
every other absolutism, must not seek to justify itself.”
How nearly alike in essential mental mood and in their
attitude toward Gospel truth were Chaplain McCabe
and the scholarly John McClintock! Dr. McClintock
MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS 295

once told Moncure D. Conway that no theological
statement had ever satisfied him so much as the voice
of Jenny Lind singing, “I know that my Redeemer
liveth.” “With the heart man believeth unto right-
eousness.” So could the Chaplain sing:

“What we have felt and seen
With confidence we tell,
And publish to the sons of men
The signs infallible.”

Man of initiative and action that he was, he was
never hampered and shackled by the theological un-
certainties and mental hesitancy that render too many
teachers inefficient and ineffective. He took the great
truths of the Gospel for granted and applied those
truths in a positive, non-apologetic, and, therefore,
most forceful style of preaching to the saving of men,
to the formation of their characters, and the guide and
comfort of their lives.

He was logically consistent, and mentally as well as
morally true and honest. He believed that it was
hypocritical to preach as a saving religion a merely
human system of ethics, that had in it no divine au-
thority and no supernatural light of revelation or
power of grace. He frankly and logically insisted
that the denial of the supernatural wisdom of the
Bible and the power of the Gospel was a denial that
rendered the preaching of that Gospel as a saving re-
ligion an act of hypocritical impertinence.

If the Bible is not inspired, if it does not present
the infallible standard of moral conduct and spiritual
296 THE ‘LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

life, if Jesus Christ is not divine, and if He did not die
the just for the unjust to bring us to God, if the Son
of God did not rise from the dead in actual, historic,
physical triumph over the bondage of the grave, and if
the Church of God was not divinely endowed with
spiritual power and authority to preach this Gospel to
every creature, he could imagine no greater fraud and
wrong than the institution and professional mainte-
nance of the Christian ministry. With such convictions
and with nothing namby-pamby in his mental makeup,
and nothing shilly-shally in his moral constitution,
there is no wonder that he made the dilettante critics
wince by his bold declarations of the truth. In his
attitude toward destructive criticism he had much of
the spirit of Robert Hall, who, when asked what he
thought of Tom Paine’s “ Age of Reason,” replied,
“A mouse nibbling at the wing of an archangel.”
Yes, to his clear eye this attempt of rationalism,
whether in the Church or out of it, to quench the
supernatural light of the Word of God and destroy the
authoritative voice of inspiration, was like the gnat
trying to obscure the splendours of the sun, or the owl
hooting to silence the thunders of Niagara. The ar-
rogance and intolerance of destructive criticism were
so irritating to his frank, honest mind that its preten-
sions became impertinence worthy of rebuke, or ap-
peared so ludicrous and laughable as to become the
target of his bitter, if just and clever, witticisms. If
the enemies of the supernatural in the Bible and in
the Christ-nature and ministry winced under his criti-
cism it was because he for the time adopted the
MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS 297

methods of the critics themselves and fought them
with the same weapons of ridicule and contempt which
they had used in assailing the truth and the defenders
of the truth. .

If the Chaplain had a way of making a happy turn
in a story by an innocent witticism, perpetrated at the
expense of “ Darwinism,” “ Evolution,’ or ‘ Ad-
vanced Thought,” only the most shallow-minded could
take umbrage at it. He often illustrated in his own
felicitous style what he called his theory of “ evolu-
tion,” by reciting this story:

“Far down in my vast diocese of South America,
in a little town in Paraguay, there lives an Indian by
the name of Bogado. A marvellous evolution has
taken place in that man’s soul. If in that town in
Paraguay any boy of fifteen years had been asked,
“Who is the most wretched drunkard in all Para- |
guay?’ he would have answered, ‘ Bogado.’ ‘Who
is the biggest liar?’ he would have answered,
‘Bogado.” ‘Who is the most blasphemous sin-
ner you know of?’ he would have answered, ‘ Bo-
gado.’

“One day Bogado found a leaf—a single leaf—of
the New Testament. He read it; it charmed his soul.
‘The Word of God is quick and powerful.’ He took
it to the Roman priest. The priest tore it up and
stamped it beneath his feet. Bogado’s curiosity was
excited. He never rested till he owned a copy of the
New Testament of the dying love of Jesus. By and by
the great evolution took place. Bogado became an ad-
vanced thinker. He was prepared to be a higher critic
298 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

of that wonderful statement, ‘ God can be just and the
justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.’ He stopped
drinking, stopped swearing, stopped lying. The ex-
pression of his face was one of joy unspeakable and
full of glory. Bogado was converted, pardoned, re-
generated, saved, and started on the march for
heaven. He is now a local preacher in our Church,
and has services in his own house.

“Tf anybody can think of anything beyond that,
please write it tome. If there is any evolution greater
than that, let me know about it.”

Chaplain McCabe was always evangelistic. He
preached to win souls. He raised money for build-
ing churches, and for missions, and for college en-
dowments, that men might be converted to God and
this world transformed into the Kingdom of Heaven.
If any teaching, any mere speculation in science,
theology, or philosophy opposed the Gospel of Jesus
Christ he felt called upon by his very commission to
denounce it. And so independent a thinker was he
that he could fearlessly adopt the attitude of one of
old: “If the world is against the truth, McCabe is
against the world.”

In his address to a class about to be admitted into
the ministry he once said: “ When you change your
doctrine, change your Church. Be honest. Don’t
continue to preach in the Methodist Church. If you
lose your faith in the divinity of Christ, join the
Unitarian Church. They need you. They are nice
people—lovely people—but they don’t believe in the
divinity of Christ,”
MENTAL CHARACTERISTICS 299

And the good Bishop was as honest as he expected
others to be.

As he earnestly contended for the faith once de-
livered to the saints he did not allow a browbeating
infidelity, masquerading under the high-sounding title
of “rationalism” or “ advanced thought” or “new
theology,” to go on unrebuked in its destructive work
of undermining the people’s faith. Nor did he per-
mit the titles and degrees conferred on men to em-
barrass or daunt him in his championship of truth.
Let no excuse be offered for his treatment of atheistic
evolution or of “ advanced thought,” falsely so-called.
Those who knew him well, and understood the logical
honesty of his mind, knew that he did not speak with-
out premeditation, but that he always knew what he
was talking about. He knew that he was always
backed by as many and as good authorities as were
those who did not agree with him and who assumed
superior learning, and on that assumption presumed
to superciliously and condescendingly tolerate his
opinions as those of a sincere man but not of a
scholarly critic. One thing he was at least logical
enough to see, and that was that whichever is right or
wrong, there is a vital and eternal distinction to be
made between Methodism and Unitarianism. He be-
lieved that a Church that preached one thing in its
theological schools and quite another in the mission-
ary field, one thing through its university professors
and quite another thing through its evangelists, one
thing through its critics and quite another through its
class leaders was not sincere, but that it was two-faced
joo THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

and not true to truth in its mental and spiritual life.
That so intense, ingenuous, and spiritual-minded a
man should at times take an extreme view of the dan-
ger threatening the faith of the Church need not seem
remarkable. But that he was a vigilant, sincere, and
fearless watchman on the walls of Zion, ready to
break a lance with any real or imaginary foeman, will
be admitted by all who knew him well enough to ex-
press an opinion worthy of consideration. That he
had been:a dilettante of the subtleties of criticism, a
juggler of words and a quibbler in argument; that he
had been less robust, less aggressive, less positive and
unequivocal in his preaching, no lover of honesty,
strength, sincerity, and creative force in a man of God,
can now or can ever wish.
XXXI

PROMOTION—A NEW FIELD—MISSIONARY
SECRETARY—THE SLOGAN

A FTER a career of sixteen years of unexampled

success in the Church Extension Secretary-

ship, Chaplain McCabe was promoted to what
was regarded as a wider field of usefulness, and at the
General Conference of 1884 was elected Correspond-
ing Secretary of the Missionary Society of the Method-
ist Episcopal Church. In searching for the initial im-
pulse that created this society we recall the incident of
John Stewart’s training in the class meeting of Robert
McCabe, the grandfather of the Chaplain. We read
with new interest the story of the negro’s conversion,
of Robert McCabe’s influence in sending him forth as
a missionary to the Indians of Upper Sandusky, and
of the revival which resulted in the building of a
church for the new converts from savagery and
heathenism, of the call made upon the Methodist peo-
ple for subscriptions to this cause and of the conse-
quent organisation of the Missionary Society in 1819
in the City of New York. It seems like one of the
equities of history that the grandson of that devout
class-leader, who was so providentially instrumental in
sending the first Methodist missionary to the heathen
Indians should be called to lead the mighty missionary

301
3o2 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

hosts of the Church in the campaign which was to
characterise the missionary triumphs that closed with
glory the historic nineteenth century. It is also re-
membered with no little interest that Chaplain Mc-
Cabe’s mother, of blessed memory, the beautiful and
accomplished Sarah Robinson, was one of the most
earnest and untiring missionary advocates and work-
ers of her day. From that mother’s devotion her illus-
trious son not only inherited the evangelistic instinct,
but also caught the missionary spirit which made him
a unique figure in the benevolent work of Methodism
and one of the most interesting and representative em-
bodiments of Christian patriotism in the modern re-
ligious life of our country. Happy indeed and justly
proud would that mother have been, could she have
lived to see her son leading the missionary. millions
to the spiritual conquest of the world in the name of
Him before whom every knee shall bow and every
tongue confess as King of Kings and Lord of
Lords.

The Chaplain entered this new field when serious
problems were pressing upon the Missionary Society,
and when the Macedonian cry was fairly rending with
pity the heart of the Church, and the men of strongest
faith and stoutest courage were asking, “ Who is suffi-
cient for these things?”

Chaplain McCabe had won lasting fame in the cause
which never lost its place in his heart. Had he done
nothing more than make the record which he did make
as Secretary of the Church Extension Society, his
name would forever be brilliantly associated with the
 

 

SECRETARY McCABBE, 1890
MISSIONARY SECRETARY 303

grandest triumphs of nineteenth-century Methodism.
His Church and his country owe to his memory the
tribute of eternal gratitude for the share which he took
in laying broad and deep the religious foundations of
the mighty West. There is hardly a city or town
from the Great Lakes to the Pacific Ocean, that is not
indebted to Chaplain McCabe for help rendered in
its church-building and debt-paying enterprises through
the Loan Fund and the Frontier Plan of the Church
Extension Society, which he was so largely instru-
mental in developing. To many who had been won to
him and his cause through those sixteen strenuous
years it seemed that his personality had become so
closely and vitally identified with church extension
that the work must suffer irreparable loss if he were
to sever his connection with the Society. And those
same admiring friends and supporters thought the
Chaplain could hardly be expected to succeed as
grandly, and achieve equally remarkable victories by
his eloquent powers, in any other field of activity. But
there remained at the head of the Church Extension
Society that masterful man, Kynett, and, though the
parting of these secretaries was like the parting of
David and Jonathan, the Society continued to develop
in usefulness with the vigorous life that had been in-
fused into it by the efficient and harmonious labours of
these great and most congenial co-workers. As to
Chaplain McCabe, even his most constant friends and
admirers did not know the versatility of his genius and
his ability to fill any place assigned him by the Church.
But as he had always been master of the situation, so
304 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN: McCABE

was he to prove his greater mastery of even more ex-
tensive and more difficult situations.

The condition of the Missionary Society in 1884,
as it stood before the rapidly opening doors of oppor-
tunity, called for the highest order of secretarial ability
that the Church could command. Here again the
urgent call was for a Grand Field-Marshal. Taking
for granted that Dr. Fowler would be elected Bishop
at the ensuing General Conference, Dr. J. M. Reid,
with all his solid, safe, and conservative administrative
talent, felt the need of the secretarial companionship
of a man who could thrill the Church with new mis-
sionary life and marshal the hosts for a splendid ad-
vance and for fresh conquests in all the heathen world.
It seemed to be the conviction of the Church that new
blood, new fire, new genius of initiative, new vision,
new dash and force, new leadership, if not generalship,
were needed in the emergency and, if secured, it would
guarantee fresh impetus to the world-wide missionary
movement.

What man could meet the demand of the hour like
Chaplain McCabe, who was still providentially
“doomed to raise money”? His election to the new
secretaryship, to succeed Dr. C. H. Fowler, was re-
ceived with rejoicing by all the mission forces at home
and in the foreign field.

The reélection of Dr. J. M. Reid as Secretary of the
Society insured a safe, if a conservative, administra-
tion. Again Chaplain McCabe found hirnself asso-
ciated with a man who, like Dr. Kynett in the Church
Extension Society, was a careful, painstaking, re-
MISSIONARY SECRETARY 305

sourceful, and most devoted office Secretary. The
services which he had already rendered entitled him
to the confidence of the Church and to the handsome
recognition of his valuable abilities, which he received
in his reélection by the General Conference of 1884.
McCabe’s election was an omen for good. There
was a spirit of expectancy abroad. What would Mc-
Cabe do? He had made a conspicuous success of
every undertaking in his life, had never failed in any
position of responsibility, had never been defeated in
any campaign of his Napoleonic generalship, and he
was never destined to meet a Waterloo. With the
same power of clear and prophetic vision, the same
faith in God and the people, the same dauntless cour-
age, and splendid audacity of confidence with which he
had mastered every situation in the past, he entered
upon this new field to achieve new triumphs for the
Gospel under the leadership of the Lord of Hosts.
Chaplain McCabe was a devout believer in Provi--
dence. He was no ecclesiastical schemer, no office-
hunter, no ambitious grasper of place and personal
fame. He coveted no brother’s office; he envied no
brother his success; he undermined no brother’s popu-
larity that he might seize his position, and he never
rose by tearing another down. Never did he seek the
place; the place always sought him. From the day on
which the soldier boys called him to be their Chap-
lain, to the day the Church called him to be a Bishop,
and the day Christ called him to sit with Him in His
throne in the heavenly places, he believed not that he
was a child of destiny, but that he was a son of Provi-
306 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

dence and that the ways of service were the paths of
glory and the voice of duty was the voice of God.

Hardly had he been well settled in the new secre-
tarial chair or, rather, let us say, the new secretarial
saddle, than he began to think out a campaign, which,
for its boldness, prescience, aggressiveness, and asser-
tiveness of will and faith, well-nigh paralysed men of
weaker vision and more conservative optimism. Little
did they understand Chaplain McCabe who volun-
teered to advise him to master the petty details of an
office and spend his time holding down a chair and per-
forming mere clerical work. As well ask a Grant or
Sherman or Napoleon to make out the muster rolls of
the camp, assign the pickets to their posts or perform
the duties of an adjutant or a quartermaster, as ask
McCabe to confine himself to the routine details of an
office located at 150 Fifth Avenue, New York City.

* A Million for Missions!”’ and the battle was on.
How that voice rang out like the note of a golden
bugle! Methodism heard it and awoke. The mission-
aries afar off heard it as it came vibrating under the
seas and across the continents and they rejoiced. All
Protestantism heard it and caught its thrilling inspira-
tion. Heathenism in its hiding-places of darkness
heard the bold and mighty challenge and trembled for
its ancient superstitions. That slogan marked, if it
did not create, a new epoch. All the hosts of God
heard in it the call to advance.

There is not a more inspiring chapter in the history
of Methodist benevolence than this great and victori-
ous struggle to bring the Church up to the “ Million-
MISSIONARY SECRETARY 307

Dollar Line.” No general ever more carefully thought
out a military campaign, no political leader ever more
wisely prepared for the contest in a Presidential elec-
tion, no navigator ever more fearlessly and_intelli-
gently reasoned out the plans of a voyage of dis-
covery and conquest, than Chaplain McCabe planned
and launched the project of “ A Million for Missions.”

True, the man of the vision was called “a vision-
ary.” He dreamed dreams, and was called “a
dreamer.” Many a good man shook his pessimistic
head at the Chaplain’s superb, almost audacious, optim-
ism. Few seemed to understand this unique man, this
man “ doomed to raise money,” this man who had no
such word as “ impossible ” in his vocabulary. There
were those who pretended to think him reckless and
dangerous, because, having eyes, they saw not. So
great faith as his had they not seen in all Israel; and
they did not comprehend it, much less have the courage
to follow the leading of its bat-blinding light.

But at last even such men came over to his side, as
such men generally do come over to the winning side
in time to do the shouting. It is said of “ Long
John ” Wentworth, at one time an influential politician
of Chicago and a representative in Congress from
Illinois, that his influence was solicited in the cause
of Prohibition. It was well known that “ Long John”
was not even a moderate abstainer. But an enthusi-
astic preacher once said to him: “ Mr. Wentworth,
why don’t you come over to our side in this great
movement? Such a man as you would carry great
weight [he was a giant in stature], and with your in-
go8 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

fluence we might win the day!” “ Yes, yes,” grunted
Wentworth, “temperance is a good cause, my friend.
Keep on, keep on, and you will gain the day. And
when victory perches on your banner we will all be
with you; and more than that, we will swear we always
were with you.”

When the Chaplain had succeeded in persuading the
Missionary Committee to commit itself to the Million-
Dollar plan, of course the Bishops stood behind it with
their acquiescence, if not with enthusiasm. Soon,
however, the Bishops began to see, they too caught the
vision, and began to speak out vigorously in advocacy
of the forward movement. They wrote to the Chap-
lain letters of confidence and encouragement, assuring
him of their faith in the success of the movement and
promising their hearty codperation.

It was with great joy that the Chaplain received
from the Bishops and published to the world these ex-
pressions of their sympathy with his vast under-
taking:

Bishop Bowman wrote: “It looks as if your call
for a million will be answered; God grant it.”

Bishop Andrews: “ The recent marvellous success
of our missions is God’s signature to the missionary
plan. May our dear Church signalise its entrance upon
its second century by this advance to a million a year.”

Bishop Harris: “The need for missionary money
was never so pressing as now; our people were never
so well-to-do as now; and the million for which you
ask the Church should be given in this year of grace
eighteen hundred and eighty-five,”
MISSIONARY SECRETARY 309

Bishop Merrill: “I desire to express my gratifica-
tion that the call for a million for missions is put so
squarely before the Church, and that the outlook is so
encouraging. There is need for every dollar of it
without attempting to open a new mission anywhere on
the broad earth.”

Bishop Warren: “If the Church would give one
hundredth as much money per year to save the world
as she gave to save the nation, your ideal million would
be called the day of small things.”’

Bishop Foss: “ We must march up to the million-
dollar line at once; the perishing world demands it of
us and we are able to do it.”

Bishop Ninde: “ The call has come none too soon.
The million can and must be raised. J have just closed
my second Conference. Both Conferences are on the
million-dollar line. Interest at blood-heat. Up with
the banner and keep it up.”

‘Bishop Mallalieu: A million for missions means
many souls converted and saved who would be lost
forever if only three-quarters of a million should be
given. Philanthropy, patriotism, and Christianity de-
mand that we should do more for missions. Men are
perishing for lack of knowledge we might bestow.”

Bishop Fowler: “I expect the West will give a
grand response.- The East will complete the offering
as soon as it has a chance. God wants the million;
‘We are labourers together with Him.’ ”

‘Bishop Foster: “My prayer is that you may not
fail of the million. The perishing world joins in that
prayer. The love of Christ pleads for it. The Church
310 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

will respond; I hear nothing but encouraging words
for the grand effort. Go forward in the name of the
Lord, and may His blessing be with you.”

Bishop Walden: “ At every Conference my heart
sickens over the fields calling for our Church that must
be turned empty away. Providence is enforcing your
call by a thousand facts.”

Bishop Hurst: “The battle-cry you have raised
is a good one. The people will give what we ask
them, and let us not make the mistake of asking too
little.”

Thus did the Bishops express themselves with a
courage never to be regretted.

Chaplain McCabe believed in the providential mis-
sion of the printing press, and no business man
knew better than he the effectiveness of printers’
ink. In the highest sense of the word he was an
educator and believed in the power of information
to enlighten men’s judgments and quicken their
consciences. Up to his time he was the greatest
secretarial educator the Church had known. He be-
came perfect master of the literature of missions, and
gathered together such a mass of useful material for
publication to enlighten the people as few ever dreamed
was in existence. What a book covering every phase
of Christian missions would that material make if
edited for the purpose—a cyclopzedia, indeed, more ex-
haustive than any that has ever been written. Maps,
charts, diagrams, bulletins, addresses, statements,
tracts, song services, Sunday-school exercises, letters
to presiding elders, to pastors, to laymen, to the mis-
MISSIONARY SECRETARY 311

sionaries by the thousands and the millions fell in
showers over the land.

“ Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks
In Vallombrosa.”

The religious and secular press of the country was
kept informed as to the progress of the good work.
“Copy ” was constantly being prepared and kept on
hand to furnish the newspapers of every city and con-
siderable town in the United States. This material was
sent to the pastors and presiding elders or influential
laymen, who saw to it that the papers of their com-
munities were every now and then supplied with good
Methodist missionary news along the Million-Dollar
line. With the wisdom of the serpent and the harm-
lessness of the dove, the Chaplain brought the press of
the country into the service of Christ and Christian
missions. The mental labour demanded in the creation
of this literature of the Million-Dollar campaign was
almost inconceivably great. Many a day and night
would the Chaplain walk the floor dictating “ circu-
lars,” “ addresses,” “ copy,” “letters to the pastors,”
and other leaflet material, until fairly exhausted with
the physical tax and mental strain. He had gotten
the missionary committee fully committed to the Mil-
lion-Dollar plan and, as the chosen leader, he, too, was
committed heart, body, and intellect to the enter-
prise. He therefore could not spare himself, nor did
he ever dream of rest. He was the very soul of ear-
nestness, the embodiment of the kinetic energy of life.
Few men were able to keep pace with him in his quick

9d 66
312 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

stride and movement. How even so good a con-
stitution as his stood the unremitting activity of his
tremendous mental and spiritual powers and the almost
constant travel to which he subjected himself, caused
astonishment to his physicians. That his great heart
and brain did not pound his body to pieces is a marvel.
But he ever seemed driven to the utmost tension of his
physical possibilities by the thought that inspired his
Master, “ I must work the works of Him that sent me
while it is day; the night cometh when no man can
work,”
XXXII
“A MILLION FOR MISSIONS ”

r [ Million-Dollar Campaign was opened

with the publication of the Address of the

General Missionary Committee, in the prep-
aration of which the Chaplain doubtless had much
to do. As that address marks an epoch in the history
of Methodist Missions, it will be a valuable contribu-
tion to this chapter in the life of the Great Secretary
as a document for future reference by those who may
wish in coming days to trace the origins of this great
forward movement and understand the spirit that made
possible that first victory of A Million for Missions,

““ ADDRESS OF THE GENERAL MISSIONARY COMMITTEE

“The General Missionary Committee of the Metho-
dist Episcopal Church closed its session on the evening
of November 1. An entire week had been spent in
patient and prayerful review of our whole mission
field. We found the work most encouraging, and
many new fields were inviting us to enter. The un-
paralleled immigration into the newer sections of our
own land, and the success we had already had in estab-
lishing Methodism there, as well as the vastness of the
interests involved to ourselves and our children, in-
duced us to pay special regard to this branch of our

29
314. THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

mission work. But for prudential regard for the treas-
ury of the Missionary Society, it would have been im-
possible for us to have satisfied ourselves with such
limited appropriations to this wide-spread and pressing
home work, and $341,300 was the most we dared to
venture to pledge for this department.

The sum of $354,979 was all we could appropriate
to the work of God in all the world besides. Yet one of
these fields—China, in which we have four missions—
extending from the Pacific shore to its most western
boundary, contains one-third of the population of the
globe. There is another—India—with an area more
than equal to all that part of our own country east of
the Mississippi River, and having a population five
times that of the United States. A third field lies
south of us, within our own hemisphere, among go,-
000,000 of Spanish-speaking peoples, deeply in need of
our labours among them. They are near neighbours,
the railroads and commercial bonds linking our destiny
to theirs.

The dead formalism of the European Churches
has led us to Germany, Scandinavia, Italy, and Bul-
garia, where in some places revivals of great power
and extent have prevailed, and the old State Churches
have felt their influence and in some instances awak-
ened to better spiritual life. Japan is ‘ booming ’ be-
yond all our ability to meet its pecuniary demands, and
Ethiopia stretches our her hands and piteously cries
to us for help. Our latest born—Korea—is the only
heathen field that we could by any possibility be the
first to enter, and we are only among the first even
“A MILLION FOR MISSIONS”  —318

there. We could not refuse to enter this open door,
for, in God’s order, opportunity is God’s command.

To this foreign field, so vast and so full of thrilling
interest, we could give only a fraction of what was
needed and asked. To many it will seem that our ap-
propriations, so disproportionate to the extent and
wants of the foreign field, have only a seeming justifi-
cation in that we so nearly divide the contributions of
the Church in equal parts between the Home and For-
eign fields.

Having completed our appropriations, we became
convinced that the amount was far above what we
might reasonably expect the Church, with its present
culture, to give during 1885; and we finally struck out,
almost with tears, all appropriations for new property,
thus entirely suspending, for the year, Church Ex-
tension work in the foreign fields. This, too, though
we knew it would leave whole regions without any
Christian sanctuary, important schools without any
shelter, and crowd two or three missionary families,
for at least a twelvemonth, into a single small par-
sonage.

But with all these prudent precautionary steps, our
call upon the Church is for $785,279; and adding to it
$64,721, for the debt, we are in need during 1885 of
the round sum of $850,000, to meet which an advance
upon last year’s income of sixteen per cent., or about
one-sixth, will be required.

But, after all, what is this sum for a Church whose
membership is nearly 1,800,000 strong, headed by
nearly 12,000 pastors, and having 22,500 Sunday-
316 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

schools, attended by neatly 1,700,000 scholars. We
are now giving on an average but 37 cents each, cer-
tainly but a trifle for a Church rich as well as numer-
ous. Individual congregations do indeed average $50
per member, but they grade down from this to a dollar,
or a few cents, per member. There is scarcely a case,
we are glad to say, in which a Methodist congregation
is guilty of the great sin of failing to do anything in
the course of the year toward this stupendous work,
though only a few individuals in many of these con-
gregations help with their money. But is it not a
shame for whole Conferences to average less than half
a dime per member! They may be poor, they may be
wronged and oppressed; but no situation in this land
can apologise for so small a gift for so great an object.
Is it not time that givers of a single dollar a year to
. save a whole world should increase this to ten, and the
tens become fifties, and the fifties hundreds, and
the hundreds thousands? No financial embarrass-
ment of the country need prevent us from reaching
a missionary collection of One Million by November
next.

How shall we do it? It shall be even as every man
purposeth in his heart. Such a mighty host of re-
deemed men and women, lovingly grateful to Him
who hath saved them, and tenderly touched for the
present wretchedness and eternal peril of the almost
countless millions of the unsaved, fired with the holy
purpose of Jehovah and His angels to crown our ador-
able Redeemer Lord of all—such a host with such a
spirit would cast away the baser metals, and gladly
“A MILLION FOR MISSIONS ” 317

fling down their gold and their silver at His feet, and
cry Hosanna to the Son of David!

Each of the pastors is a sub-commander, and must
lead his company or regiment to the struggle and the
victory. We beg you to organise for prayer and effort
to this end. Establish monthly concerts for the pur-
pose of increasing missionary intelligence, convening
the people and leading them out in supplications to God
for our missions and missionaries. Organise every.
Sunday-school that it may be a school of liberality, and
thus save the coming Church from the sin of avarice,
and lead them out in holy enterprises for the weal and
salvation of this race.

Preach on the subject of Missions. It is the grand-
est of themes. Tell the story of our work. Give one
whole Sabbath in the year to the cause—mmorning,
afternoon, and night. Bring the children into the oc-
casion; call for neighbouring pastors to come and help,
or missionaries, if they be at hand, or Bishops, or
Secretaries. Let the Missionary Sabbath be the great,
glad day of the year. Don’t be satisfied with a few
trifles cast into a basket or plate, but get the names of
donors upon cards, and then call privately upon all
whose names do not appear. Don’t rest satisfied with
the mere apportionment, for in some cases this cannot
be met, and you must supply the lack. One grand
united rally of this kind, and we have our million to-
ward saving a lost world, have extinguished our debts,
and can go on our way rejoicing.

District conventions and conferences may greatly
aid this movement, and here presiding elders will be
318 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

specially influential. They are generals of this Army
of Salvation, and there can be no success without their
marshalling skill.

Where are the million members who are not repre-
sented in the contributions for the salvation of the
world? By a careful study of our returns since 1866,
when we had 1,032,184 members, who gave us $671,-
090.66, we are forced to believe that we have a million
members who give not one cent for the eight hundred
million of heathen for whom Christ died, eighteen
hundred and fifty years ago, but who have never yet
heard of Him.

These million members profess to be saved. But it
is a solemn question in the shadow of the judgment
throne to be determined what they are saved for that
is good, or what they are saved from that is narrow
and selfish. Brother Pastor, called of God and
anointed of the Holy Ghost to be a leader and a teacher
of these members, how many of your members are
found in this barren million?

We have sixteen hundred thousand members who
give less than $5 each for these blood-bought millions.
Shepherds of souls, can’t you increase the number in
your flock who reach or excel this moderate sum?
They are intrusted to you for cultivation, instruction,
and enlargement. Have you exhausted your resources
of instruction and persuasion to secure some suitable
contribution from each member. May God help you
to help the dying millions!

We are in a stress of heavy times. Many of our
liberal supporters are stricken to the earth by financial
“A MILLION FOR MISSIONS” 319

reverses. ‘ The call is now upon the poor people and
those in straitened circumstances to come up to the help
of the Lord. Even the poorest can give something.
If their hearts feel Christ’s dying agony for the
world, they can give at least two cents a week, or
a dollar a year. Let this mighty reserve force
march nobly to the front in this trying time. Let
those who gave last year ask God for grace to do
as much this year as they did last year. Also, let
the non-giving, poorly saved million come forward
with something.

Dear Pastor, in Christ’s stead we call upon you to
personally solicit something from each member. We
beseech you, dear Presiding Elder, to aid the pastors
by putting a brave heart and a brotherly hand up
against those on your district. May the Holy Ghost,
who waits for the bringing in of the tithes that He
may fall upon the Church, impress this great duty
upon you and upon each pastor on your district. A
contribution from each member and from each Sun-
day-school scholar will maintain all our missionaries,
increase our collections to a million dollars, and ad-
vance the whole line of battle. Don’t let the line break
where you are in command.

We appeal with no ordinary fervour on this occa-
sion. The necessities are very great, absolutely im-
perative. We firmly believe God Himself calls upon
us to meet fully the demands of the year for this great
and holy cause. To hear and regard this voice from’
God will bring blessings to your hearts, to your fam-
ilies, to the congregations of which you are a part, and
320 ‘THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

to the world of mankind; and great will be the glory to
‘God over all, blessed for evermore.’

Signed on behalf of the General Missionary Com-
mittee of the Methodist Episcopal Church, this 28th
day of November, 1884.

W. L. Harris,
J. B. Cornett, ©
C. B. Fisx, Committee.”

J. M. Ren,
C. C. McCasz,

This address was followed by Statements, Charts,
Diagrams, Maps, Letters, and other forms of leaflet
and pamphlet literature, ad infinitum, published over
the names of Secretaries Reid and McCabe.

One of the first statements of the Secretaries con-
taining the gist of the whole matter was published with
the caption: “ The Million-Dollar Line.”

This leaflet contained material of which, the fol-
lowing extracts furnish an example:

“Tt is time to more fully explain the meaning of
this phrase which is rapidly becoming the watchword
of Methodism, and is destined to become more and
more so until the denomination lays a Million Dollars
annually down. upon God’s altar for Domestic and
Foreign Missions.

“There are two Million-Dollar lines; not two lines
for two millions, but two lines for one million. The
first line is to be reached by counting the money re-
ceived upon the bequest account, which generally
amounts to from $50,000 to $70,000.
“A MILLION FOR MISSIONS” 321

“The second Million-Dollar line is to be reached
without counting anything but collections from the
churches. . . . Many churches have already reached
the first Million-Dollar line, and many districts and
several Conferences have swung up to the second
Million-Dollar line.

“This world can never be saved by dividing the
work and the sacrifice off into shares, and each one
saying: ‘You do your part and I will do mine.’ It
always has been true, is now, and ever will be, that
some do more than their proper share, some do less,
and many do nothing.

“Those who have caught the spirit of the Master
must be willing to work all the harder and to give all.
the more because of the many who fail to appreciate
their privilege in Jesus Christ. When the Son of God
stood at Pilate’s bar, wearing His crown of thorns and
enduring the cruel blows, and the more cruel taunts of
His enemies, He surely had enough sorrow of His own
without making room in His great-heart for yours and
mine. And yet from Pilate’s bar they led Him away
to crucify Him, and, as the coloured people sing in the
South:

**T saw him going up Calvary,
And as he went he remembered me.’

‘The disciple is not above his master : it is enough that
he be as his master.’

“Let us who work and hope and pray for the swift
coming of the time when every creature on earth shall
hear the name of Jesus, give up forever the heartless
322 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

policy of only doing our share and no more of the
toil and of the suffering and of the sacrifice that are
necessary to usher in the Kingdom of our blessed
Lord. To him shall be given of the widow’s mite and
of the gold of Ophir. ‘ Yea, all kings shall fall down
before him; all nations shall serve him. For he shall
deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and
him that hath no helper.’ There is no little word so
crowded and weighted with meaning that ever fell
from human pen as the conjunction that binds those
two sentences together. The statement of the uni-
versal royal sway of Jesus, and the reason for it. He
shall be King of Kings because He delivers ‘ the needy
when he crieth,’ and the poor that ‘hath no helper.’
When was reason ever given for royal sway like that
before? He shall reign because He will win the heart
of the world. Millions would die for Him to-day, and
redeemed hosts, outnumbering the stars of heaven, are
casting their crowns at His blessed feet and saying:
‘Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power,
and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour,
and glory, and blessing, for evermore.’

“ There is no expectation to bring the Church up to
the Million-Dollar line under the pressure of any
other motive than this: ‘ Do it for the sake of him who
spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us
all.’ No appeal to denominational pride, no creation
of the spirit of rivalry among districts, no effort to
stimulate the pride of conference standing; every-
thing of that sort is out of place in presence of
Calvary.
“A MILLION FOR MISSIONS” — 393

“*Behold the Saviour of mankind
Nailed to the shameful tree;
How vast the love that him inclined
To bleed and die for thee!’

Many a business man, who thinks more of his ledger
than he does of his Bible, may smile at this. But
that smile reveals his ignorance of the history of the
Church of God; for love of Jesus, Paul and Silas and
all the Apostles, and Augustine, and Coke, and Jud-
son, and Livingstone, and William Butler, and Wil-
liam Taylor, and a great company of devoted men
and women, of whom the world is not worthy, have
left home and friends, and everything they held dear,
to face persecution and cruel mockings and toil, in
weariness and painfulness and even death, to tell to
a few more of the suffering, sinning, and weeping chil-
dren of their race that glorious message which out-
weighs in value all the wealth of the world, ‘ He that
believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life.’
‘And then there will be other business men who know
that the true philosophy of life is to serve God for a
living and to be diligent in business to pay expenses,
who will rejoice that it is in their power to help on so
glorious a movement. And there will be tradesmen and
artisans and day-labourers, ay, and poor widows, who
will come with their gifts to lay them at Jesus’ feet,
and myriads of children claiming citizenship in the
kingdom of heaven, who will gladly pay tribute to the
King Himself. O, brethren, the second Million-Dollar
line is somewhere on the slope of Calvary. Not very
near the summit, but it may be near enough to see
324. THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

Him, as the burden of the sorrows and agony of a
fallen world break on Him like an avalanche, and to
hear Him cry, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou for-
saken me?’

“Surely no disciple, after such a vision, can turn
away from a cause which seeks to obey the very last
command He uttered before ascending to His Father:
‘Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to
every creature.’

“Do not cavil; do not say, ‘The plan of apportion-
ment bears hard upon those who have done well al-
ready.’ Do not reprovingly say, ‘It makes the great-
est demand upon those who have done the best.’ The
heart basis is the only true basis, and that is indicated by
what has been done already. Many a seamstress, out
of love for Christ, will outgive the capitalist who
knows nothing of self-denial. Many a poor pastor will
be the largest giver in his flock. If we go upon the
basis of financial ability we shall fail. If we go upon
the basis of an awakened conscience and a loving heart
we shall succeed. Do not doubt our ability to hold
the position after it is won; but let this great Church,
with centennial hosannas, sweep up to the Million-
Dollar line, and thus send joy and courage to the
hearts of the sentinels upon the most distant outposts
of our Zion throughout the world!

“The morning breaketh. Methodism may now go
forward with quickened step and loftier courage in
the blessed work of evangelising the world. Let there
be mighty prayer. Let us assemble with full ranks at
the mercy-seat. Let the solitary worshipper, in the
“A MILLION FOR MISSIONS” — 325

secret place, pray for the cause of missions. Let
twelve thousand prayer-meetings agree as touching
this one thing. Let our twenty-four thousand Sab-
bath-schools remember to pray at each session for suc-
cess in this grand advance. And at every family
altar in Methodism, with the morning and evening
sacrifice, the prayer of Jesus, ‘ Let thy Kingdom come,’
should be blended with a petition that our Church may
consecrate a Million Dollars annually to this blessed
work. Then it shall come to pass that, ‘the Lord
will create upon every dwelling-place of Mount Zion,
and upon her assemblies, a cloud of smoke by day,
and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all
the glory shall be a defence.’ ”
XXXTIT

VICTORY

HE “ Advocates” wheeled their batteries up
along the Million-Dollar line, led by the ring-
ing editorial indorsement of Dr. J. M. Buck-
ley, who was always a strong supporter of Chaplain
McCabe in his forward movements, as were also Drs.
Abel Stevens, Arthur Edwards, William V. Kelley, John
P. Newman (afterwards Bishop), W. S. Edwards,
Luke Hitchcock, Charles J. Little, William Butler, A.
J. Kynett, J. M. Thoburn (now Bishop for India), Earl
Cranston (now Bishop), J. O. Peck, and the clearest-
sighted men in Methodism. The Chaplain in his wise
planning called to his aid the presiding elders of all
the Conferences and put every district of every Con-
ference under missionary discipline along the Million-
Dollar line, and issued bulletins giving the outlook of
the spring and fall Conferences, with the hopeful, ring-
ing assurances of success coming up from all the land.
The pastors caught the spirit of the new, aggres-
sive movement and began to plead for missions with
an earnestness and eloquence never before heard in
our Methodist pulpits.

But at that critical time the Chaplain was particu-
larly encouraged by the confidence and support of
such representative laymen as J. B. Cornell, Clinton

326
VICTORY 327

B. Fisk, Oliver Hoyt, George I. Seney, Warner Mil-
ler, A. V. Stout, E. Remington, T. D. Collins, J. D.
Slayback, A. P. Strout, James Long, and Jacob
Sleeper, who either by subscriptions or words of cheer
or both held up his hands with an unwearying fidelity
that insured a glorious victory. Unfortunately, to
human ways of thinking, such financial stringency as
that of 1884 and 1885 had not been experienced in
this country since the Civil War. Hence many busi-
ness laymen who were in hearty sympathy with the
Chaplain’s undertaking did not, to their regret, feel
warranted in giving as liberally as the call for the
Million demanded.

That the Million-Dollar line was not quite reached
the first year of the forward movement should not
have occasioned surprise, as, indeed, it did not, except
to those who always have a shrug of simulated dis-
appointment when a cause to which they do not con-
tribute either money or encouragement halts on its
way to success. Had the Million-Dollar line been
reached under the circumstances it would have been
little less than marvellous. A wonderful advance was
made, however, and the battle line pushed up to $826,-
828, an advance over the preceding year of $95,703.

Nothing daunted, the Chaplain immediately issued a
stirring appeal:

‘$1,000,000 FOR MISSIONS FoR 1886

“With a feeling akin to disappointment we haul
down the colours, ‘A Million for Missions for 1885,’
328 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

and ‘ full of immortal hope,’ we run up in their place,
‘A Million for Missions for the fiscal year closing
October 31, 1886!’”

And on he pushed the battle, with indomitable will
and courage. The gain in 1886 was $165,300 over the
previous year; $992,128 was raised. The Million-
Dollar line not quite reached, but in sight! On and on
the hosts advanced and in 1887 they poured over the
line with $1,044,795, and then mingling with the paean
of victory was heard the new battle-cry: “A Million
by collections only.” And that advance line was
reached and triumphantly crossed when the intrepid,
insatiable McCabe, fairly intoxicated with the joy of
battle, sent ringing down the conquering line:
“Twelve Hundred Thousand Dollars for 1888!”
And the Church, flushed with victory, pushed on to-
ward the Twelve Hundred Thousand’ Dollar line.

New forces came into the field when the eloquent
J. O. Peck and the forceful, indomitable A. B. Leon-
ard were elected Missionary Secretaries by the Gen-
eral Conference of 1888. At this Conference Chap-
lain McCabe was reélected Secretary on the first bal-
lot by an overwhelming majority, having received 355
votes of the 415 that were cast. Dr. J. M. Reid,
after sixteen years of most faithful and efficient serv-
ice, during which the “little one had become a thou-
sand,” was permitted to enjoy the rare but well-
merited distinction of being made “an honorary
Secretary of the Missionary Society, taking the same
place as that which was given to Dr. John P. Durbin.”

By the year 1891, the Missionary Committee felt
VICTORY 329

justified in making the magnificent appropriations of
the grand total of $1,200,000 for Foreign and Domes-
tic Missions. The call upon the Church was for a
million and a quarter, and the apportionments to the
Conferences aggregated $1,238,291 for that year. A
more thorough and scientific working of the field than
was continued along this Million and a Quarter Line
cannot be imagined. All the energy, tact, industry,
genius, eloquence, press power, and educational facili-
ties at the command of the Society were brought into
requisition. In addition to appeals made rich and
effective by the terse, epigrammatic, Anglo-Saxon
vigour and fire of McCabe, the common-sense, rugged
force of Leonard, and the rhetorical grace and evan-
gelistic unction of Peck, there were added to the leaflet
literature of the campaign, a stirring, illuminating ap-
peal for Home Missions by Bishop Goodsell and an
appeal, full of spiritual fervour, for Foreign Missions
by Bishop Newman.

At the General Conference of 1891, the General
Missionary Committee was able to report that during
the quadrennium ending with 1891 there had been an
advance in the Society’s income, in round figures, of
$918,869. By 1892, the million and a half line was
passed. At the General Conference of 1892 Chaplain
McCabe was reélected to serve his third term as Secre-
tary of the Missionary Society. During the next
quadrennium the gain was not quite a quarter of a
million, showing that the relative advance had not
equalled that of the preceding quadrennium. This
was largely, if not entirely, due to the serious financial
330 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

depression of those latter years. But by the year 1895
the Society began to regain the ground lost during the
“hard times” of the country, and that year gained
nearly $37,000 over the preceding year and fell about
$83,000 short of its most prosperous year, which was
1892.

The Society hovered along the Million and a
Quarter line, now short of the line, then over the line,
until in the restoration of “good times” it finally
made the magnificent advance to the million and a
half line by the year 1903, and in 1906 approached
two millions.

One of the touching and inspiring incidents of
Chaplain McCabe’s million-dollar campaign was that
in which a little boy did his part in helping to raise
the million. Charles Cardwell McCabe Howe was the
little four-year-old son of Lieutenant W. C. Howe, a
fellow prisoner with the Chaplain in Libby. He be-
came very fond of the Chaplain and wonderfully in-
terested in Missions. He cried with grief when his
friend left his parents’ home, where he had been visit-
ing. Some days afterwards, the little fellow came
home from play calling to his mother, “ Mama, I’ve
got five cents; I want to send it to Chaplain McCabe.
I want to send it in a letter, and I want to write the
letter myself. You hold my hand, and please write
just as I tell you, and write it printing, so I can read
it. The mother wrote as he dictated:

“Dear Chaplain McCabe:
“T am glad you are getting a million dollars for
VICTORY 331

missions. I send you five cents to help, and if you
want any more, just write to me.
“ CHARLES CARDWELL McCase Howe.”

The Chaplain made great use of this little letter and
he often told the boy that his five cents had garnered
a harvest every time he told the story.

With all the credit that is due to others for this
no less than wonderful achievement the Church will
remember, and the history of missions will record, the
fact to his undying fame, that it was Chaplain McCabe
who first caught the vision and dreamed the dream of
which that triumphant missionary progress was but
the glorious consummation. “ A Million for Missions ”
originated in his optimistic brain. It may be said
without undue and fulsome praise of Chaplain Mc-
Cabe that the whole Protestant Church in all its
denominations felt the contagion of his splendid en-
thusiasm, and with Methodism and her slogan of “A
Million for Missions” began to advance all along the
line. Many were the expressions of encouragement
and the pledges of prayerful sympathy that came to
the Chaplain from ministers and laymen of other de-
nominations in those days that tried men’s faith and
courage. Characteristically, Dr. T. De Witt Talmage
wrote him: “ What a mighty work you are doing, and
I hail you and bless you and thank you and congratu-
late you. We will talk it all over when we get to
heaven. Hosannah to the Son of David!”

Equally characteristic of another type of man was
the letter of Dr. R. S. Storrs of Brooklyn, one of
332 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

‘America’s greatest preachers, and President of the
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mis-
sions: “ With all my heart I join you in your joy on the
magnificent result of ‘A Million for Missions ’ reached
this year in the Methodist Episcopal Church! It will
give glow and fervour to the spiritual life within the
Church as well as nobly advance all effort for the ex-
tension of the Kingdom of our Lord. Other sym-
pathetic communions will feel the mighty impulse of
it. It is a demonstration of loyalty to Christ, of faith
' in His Gospel, and of enthusiasm for the welfare of
man, which even infidelity must recognise and respect.
I hope that no step backward will ever be taken from
the front line of this great achievement.”

It was at this time also that the generous and en-
couraging words came to the Chaplain from Phillips
Brooks, “ May all God’s blessings be with your good
work and with you.”

That all the demoninations of the Protestant com-
munion in our country were baptised with a new mis-
sionary spirit by the “ Million for Missions” cry
cannot be doubted. That unanimity of missionary
sentiment and zeal brought the Churches more closely
together in the unity of the spirit and had much to
do with the subsequent meetings of these Churches in
inter-demoninational congresses and missionary con-
ventions. It was his brilliant and consummate leadership
of the missionary hosts in their advance to the Million-
Dollar line that made Chaplain McCabe, who was the
“best loved man in Methodism,” the most widely-
known Methodist preacher in America. Of course, ex-
VICTORY 333

ception will not be taken to the claim that Bishop John
H. Vincent’s name, by reason of the great Chautauqua
movement, was as widely and admiringly known be-
yond the borders of Methodism as the name of Chap-
lain McCabe. And in their love one for the other,
splendid Christian gentlemen that they were, each re-
joiced in his brother’s fame, “in honour preferring
one another.” These two men who so distinguished
themselves and their beloved Methodism in the entire
Protestant communion were bound together in a life-
long brotherhood of mutual sympathy, admiration, and
love.

It was with great comfort and satisfaction that the
Chaplain received words of cheer and commendation
from his fellow-secretaries. Their feelings towards
him were those of admiration and loving veneration.
A letter from Dr. J. O. Peck reveals his own noble and
unselfish nature, while it shows in what high esteem
he held the Chaplain and how generously he gave to
him the credit and the praise for all that had resulted
from the Million-Dollar movement. Speaking of a
certain bequest made in 1890, Dr. Peck writes: “ This
big bequest is due to you and your ‘ Million’ cry.
God has wonderfully blest and used you!. . . Now
as to the ‘ Appeal.’ It is grand! The best thing you
have written since I came in with you. It stirs me
like a bugle blast! God make it a clarion cry to
the whole Church! Glorious news from the St.
Louis Conference! About $5,750 advance! This is
grand. . . . But, my dear brother, no, no; your
task is not done when $1,200,000 is reached. Two
334. THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

millions await your inspiring leadership, and your
‘boys’ will shout the cry after you and work with
you. One victory, yes two, only challenge you to a
greater.” Generous, manly tribute from a generous,
manly man!

Any story of the Million-Dollar campaign and vic-
tory must seem very tame to those who watched the
struggle and were familiar with many of the hidden
and unseen influences that were at work forcing the
mighty movement to successful issue. It was one of
the decisive conflicts in the spiritual warfare of this
age which is witnessing the universal conquests of the
Cross and hailing the dawn of the final and everlast-
ing supremacy of Jesus Christ. Back of those gal-
lantly fought and gloriously won battlefields of a Mil-
lion for Missions the Church will never retreat; they
mark an epoch in the coming of the Kingdom of God
from which the Captain of our salvation will lead His
hosts to the final and speedy dominion of the world.

“Out of the shadows of night
The world rolls into light;
It is daybreak everywhere.”
XXXIV
ELECTION TO THE EPISCOPACY

"Ts General Conference of 1896, which met
in Cleveland, Ohio, was not disposed to elect
any new Bishops, but the Committee on Epis-
copacy brought in a report recommending “that the
Board of Bishops be strengthened by the election of
three General Superintendents.” The report was
amended by striking out the word “ three ” and insert-
ing the word “two” and was then adopted.

While the Bishops themselves did not encourage an
addition to their number, and while there was not a
very strong conviction among the delegates that an in-
crease in the Board was at that time seriously de-
manded by the exigencies of the work, there were
nevertheless certain powerful considerations which in-
fluenced the majority to finally vote for the election
of two Bishops. Among those considerations was the
feeling that Chaplain McCabe was deserving of this
high honour, and that at his time of life, as he was then
in his sixtieth year, if he was ever to be a Bishop, that
was probably the last opportunity his friends would
have to elect him to the office. Another consideration
was quite a general belief that the time was ripe for
the election of a coloured man to the Episcopacy. As
it developed in the balloting, the popularity of other

335
336 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

men whom their friends had made candidates, Drs,
Earl Cranston, Henry A. Buttz, and John W. Hamil-
ton in particular, helped to decide the question. Among
these candidates, as well as others, were men who,
like Chaplain McCabe, were approaching the “age
limit,” and their loyal supporters believed that with
them it was “ now or never.”

The battle of the ballots was long and fluctuating,
until, wearied with voting, many were ready to sup- ,
port the motion for an indefinite postponement of the
election. That motion, however, did not prevail.
Why did it take so many ballots to secure an election?
It was the rule requiring two-thirds of the votes cast
to elect, the popularity of the candidates, and the
tenacious loyalty of their friends and, especially, the
brave struggle of the coloured delegates to elect a
coloured man to the Episcopacy that prolonged the
contest through nine sessions of the Conference and
to the fifteenth ballot before an election was secured.
Chaplain McCabe was elected on the fifteenth ballot,
. having received 344 of the 504 votes that were cast.
On the sixteenth ballot Dr. Earl Cranston was elected.
It was a happy and striking coincidence that these men,
who were born in the same town of Athens, Ohio, and
had been life-long friends, should have both been
elected to the Episcopacy on the same day in that
General Conference convened in their native State of
Ohio.

But for the two-thirds rule it may be doubted
whether Chaplain McCabe would have been elected.
If under a majority rule the ballots had been cast as
ELECTION TO THE EPISCOPACY 337

they were cast, Dr. Henry A. Buttz would have been
elected on the fifth ballot. Only one other possible
result of this election of Bishops at the Cleveland Gen-
eral Conference would have given the Church greater
satisfaction than did the election of Chaplain McCabe
and Dr. Cranston, and that would have been the elec-
tion of three Bishops, as the original report of the
Committee on Episcopacy contemplated, and one of
the three had been that eminent scholar and educator,
Dr. Henry A. Buttz.

Charles Cardwell McCabe took his place on the
Board of Bishops as the forty-third General Super-
intendent of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

His election was hailed with joy by the multitudes of
his friends in America and in foreign lands, where
preachers and missionaries had learned to love his very
name as the synonym of victory. His life-long
friends, who always in affection called him “ Charlie,”
rejoiced in the honour that had come to him. The old
soldiers, who to his dying day thought “ Chaplain ”
was a more distinguished title than “ Bishop,” felt
honoured with him by his ecclesiastical promotion. No
less highly pleased were those in the rank and file of
the Ministry who believed in his evangelistic spirit,
his loyalty to Scriptural standards of faith and life,
and in his brotherly tenderness and great-hearted
sympathy.

How the thousands upon thousands of laymen
thanked God that this whole-souled champion of an
orthodox evangelical Methodism had been honoured
for the truth’s sake and for his very work’s sake! If
338 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

the whole Church could have expressed its will, at that
General Conference, undoubtedly Chaplain McCabe
would have been elected on the first ballot by an over-
whelming vote. This feeling came to be quite gen-
eral in the Conference as the balloting proceeded, and
many were convinced that the Church, in its ministry
and laity, desired to bestow this honour upon him and
it expected this action of its delegates.

It must be acknowledged that many of the Chap-
lain’s best friends and greatest admirers did not wish
to see him elected a Bishop, simply because they looked
upon him as the one man of his generation to lead
the Missionary hosts on to the greatest Gospel tri-
umphs of the age. There were a thousand bishop-
timber men in the ministry, but there was only one
Chaplain McCabe, only one so providentially ‘“‘ doomed
to raise money,” and to bring the Church up to the
Multimillion-Dollar line. If he had been defeated it
would have been by men who were his staunchest
financial supporters in every good cause, who felt that
the Missionary Secretaryship furnished a wider field
for his or for any truly great man’s powers than the
Episcopacy, just as very wise and godly men may think
that a college presidency is a higher honour and a
grander field of usefulness for a man of great ability
than the office of a Bishop.

Again, it may be said that if a good Secretary was
spoiled in making Chaplain McCabe a Bishop, he was
not spoiled to make a poor Bishop. If power in man-
hood, like power in mechanics, is to be measured by
work done, and if true greatness is based on power,
ELECTION TO THE EPISCOPACY 339

few greater men than Chaplain McCabe ever received
the honour of an election to the Methodist Episcopacy.
If that high office should ever be conferred as a re-
ward of merit and as the Church’s recognition of the
genius and self-sacrificing toil by which her treasuries
have been filled with millions of dollars to condition
the achievements of the most splendid history of
Methodism, then no man of modern years, if since
the days of Asbury, was ever more justly and worthily
rewarded than Chaplain McCabe when he was elected
a Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church. And it
would be the rankest ingratitude to argue that no such
consideration as that of rewarding a great and use-
ful servant of the Church should influence a General
Conference in the selection of men for the Episcopacy.

“He deserved it,” said many, as the news flashed
over the world: “ McCabe has been elected a Bishop.”
Who had done for Methodism a work more deserving
of such honouring and honourable recognition? What
Bishop of all the venerated number from the begin-
ning had mounted to that height by the steps of such
magnificent achievements? Men have been elected
to this office because they were great preachers;
others have been elevated by what the Church
has recognised as their superior administrative ability.
Several have reached the position by force of their
noble forensic genius or by their legal acumen and
judicial equipoise and strength, and a few for qualities
not so distinguishing. None, it is our. boast, climbed
up some other way.

Chaplain McCabe was elected for what he was and
340 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

for what he had done. But in that long life of doing
and of deeds, he clearly and grandly revealed what he
was and brought into exercise many of the most ster-
ling attributes of mind and heart which belong to the
character of the ideal Methodist Bishop. It was the
Church’s generous recognition of a generous soul and
of a gloriously generous life of toil and sacrifice that
made a Bishop of Chaplain McCabe. Never before
did love, the Church’s love for one of her most gifted
and useful servants, play so conspicuous and effective
a part in an election to the Episcopacy. ‘Truly, the
world might have said on the day of his consecration:
“Behold how they loved him!” Was he not indeed
“the best loved man in Methodism ’”’?

Chaplain McCabe was not the Bishops’ candidate,
he was the preachers’ and the people’s candidate. Offi-
cialism, moreover, had little to do with his election.
He was too independent and too unconventional a man
to please mere office-holders. Like William Taylor,
the St. Paul of the nineteenth century, he was made
a Bishop in spite of the Bishops—and in spite of the
secretaries and editors. In fact, the time had then
arrived, so welcome to the Church, when it was dan-
gerous to a man’s chances for preferment if it came
to be known that the Bishops were offensively anxious
to have him elected, as the sentiment has been growing
among the pastors that it is an impertinence for the
Bishops to use their Episcopal influence to further the
election of one of their favourites, or even for the
Secretaries, Editors, or Book agents to use their official
positions and their advantages in visiting Conferences

1
ELECTION TO THE EPISCOPACY 341

to urge the qualifications and claims of their particular
friends as candidates for high office.

An ecclesiastical system like the Methodist Epis-
copal may easily be abused by unscrupulous officials,
if, in their despicable ambition, they do not hesitate to
turn it into a mere machine to promote ecclesiastical
politics. With holy men a great system of ecclesiasti-
cism may be an engine of power for a most benign in-
fluence, but in the control of place-seekers, bent only
on personal aggrandisement, it may become a Jugger-
naut to crush the freedom and independence of the
ministry and to destroy the spiritual life of the Church.

As Methodism, in harmony with the spirit and
genius of our ‘American life, becomes more and more
democratic, the Episcopacy becomes less and less ar-
bitrary and dictatorial, more and more representatively
official. Thomas Jefferson was not agreeably im-
pressed with the undemocratic pomposity and the
lordly assumption of the Bishops of the Church in his
day, believing that they had departed from the ancient
and apostolic simplicity. He was historically correct
when he said: “ A modern bishop to be moulded into
- a primitive one must be elected by the people, un-
diocesed, unreverenced, unlorded.”

The Methodist Bishop never was and never will be
diocesed or lorded; he never was, he never will be,
reverenced as of another order than elder in the
Church of God.

In the Methodist Episcopal Church, happily and
apostolically, the Episcopacy is only official. The best
authorities even in the Church of England admit that
342 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

in apostolic times a Bishop did not belong to a third
order of the Christian ministry but stood on an equal
footing of ordination with the elder or presbyter.
Methodists, accepting this Scriptural meaning of the
Episcopal character and function, simply elect an elder
to be a Bishop or General Superintendent, not to exer-
cise functions which are divinely inherent in the Epis-
copacy as an order, but to discharge those official
duties which are determined by the Constitution and
by the General Conference of the Church. To this
highest law-making body of the Church the Bishop is
amenable for his personal conduct and for his official
administration. But while the Methodist Episcopal
Church does not recognise the Episcopacy to be a
third order in the Christian Ministry, she clothes her
Bishops with much greater power than the Bishops of
the Episcopalian or the Roman Catholic Church possess.
The Episcopal government of a diocese with the func-
tion of ordination and confirmation is a much lighter
and less responsible work than is contemplated in the
administration of a Methodist Episcopal Bishop in his
relation to the Itinerant General Superintendency.
Any power of an Anglican or of a Latin or a Greek
Bishop, so far as his relation to the body of the minis-
try is concerned, is quite insignificant in comparison to
the appointing power of the Methodist General Super-
intendent. It is the appointing power of a Bishop that
might become a very dangerous power in the hands of
unscrupulous men. No power which any other Church
authorises its Bishops to exercise can ever be turned
to such oppression and harmfulness as are possible in
ELECTION TO THE EPISCOPACY 343

the exercising of the appointing power of a Methodist
Bishop. Hence is it that the greatest care and wisdom
must be exercised in the selection of men upon whom
this power is to be conferred. The elements that go to
make up the ideal Methodist Bishop are many and
varied. Not only should a Bishop be a man of God, of
clean lips, pure life, and spotless reputation, a man
of learning and sufficiently a scholar, a man of judg-
ment and discretion, and a gentleman of cultivated
manners and noble instincts, but he should be a great
preacher, an impressive and eloquent orator on the
public platform, endowed with the true evangelistic
spirit and power; he should be able to understand men,
to appreciate the highest qualities of ministerial char-
acter and work; he should be a man of large soul.
tender, kind, sympathetic, brotherly, but never lordly.
He should be so richly endowed, mentally and spirit-
ually, that the ministry and the Church by the compul-
sion of his noble nature would look up to him with
admiring pride and loving veneration. Of such a
Bishop it would never be blushingly asked: “ Why
was that small man elected to that great office? Why
was he madea Bishop?” ‘The pastors and the laymen
had long been asking: “‘ Why don’t they make McCabe
a Bishop?” After he was elected no one asked: ‘ Why
did they make McCabe a Bishop?”

He was a genial, large-hearted, and brotherly man,
with whose kindness, sympathy, and loyalty no
preacher would hesitate to leave his very destiny in the
appointments. He possessed the true evangelistic
spirit and was a master in the use of the Scriptures.
344 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

His preaching ability was above the average, as
was his scholarship, He saw truth and duty.
in their large, heroic forms; he had the telescopic
rather than the microscopic vision, hence the petty de-
tails often escaped his notice, while in administration
he reached the high and important end by unconven-
tionally cutting the red tape or the Gordian knot. He
was a fair, just, gentle-spirited man, and humble as a
child in wearing the honours of office. He was never
puffed up with his self-importance and could only
laugh inwardly at all assumptions of ecclesiastical
superiority and dignity. Whatever he had to do in
word or deed, he did all in the name of the Lord Jesus.
There was nothing perfunctory in his ministry. He
was religious,—always, everywhere devoutly religious,
—and he believed that “‘ the Father’s business ” should
always be conducted in the religious spirit. With all
his cheerfulness he never treated life as a joke, nor
could he appreciate a joking manner in a man or a
body of men who had been divinely sent to do God’s
work. No minister of the Gospel ever took his minis-
try or ever took himself more seriously—not more
solemnly, but more seriously, than did he.

No Bishop ever occupied so exalted a place of
superiority as to warrant his looking down upon the
man to whom the whole Church looked up with grate-
ful admiration and love. That is to say, Bishop Mc-
Cabe in the sum of his powers and in the record of his
life achievements was the peer of any Bishop in the
Methodist Episcopal Church. That is not too much

praise for him, and yet is praise enough for any man.
XXXV

BISHOP McCABE—IN THE CHAIR—EPISCOPAL
RESIDENCE — TEXAS — FORWARD MOVE-
MENT.

r ee first act of Bishop McCabe after his elec-
tion to the high and dignified office of the
Episcopacy was just like him. It reminded

one of Abraham Lincoln, who one day out in Illinois,

when travelling the circuit to attend the courts, dis-
mounted from his horse to tenderly replace some little
birdlings that had fallen from their nest in the branches
of a tree, and on another occasion when on his way to

a party, dressed in his best suit, saw a hog desperately

struggling in a pond and waded in to help it and keep it

from drowning by freeing its foot from a root in
which it had been caught. As the newly-elected

Bishop was leaving the Conference with his wife he

saw a horse driven by a teamster slip and fall in the

street; instantly he rushed out to help the teamster
get his horse to its feet again. As his good wife
remonstrated, ‘“ Why, Charles, that is your best suit
of clothes,” he brushed the dirt from his coat, with
his familiar laugh, as if to say: “ What of it, Beccie?

That old horse needed my help, poor fellow!” Thus

his “honours ” had not dignified the humaneness out

of his great heart.
343
346 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

At the Consecration, which took place Tuesday, May
26, Bishop Bowman, the Senior Bishop, presided and
announced the hymn, “Go forth, ye heralds, in my
name.” Bishop Vincent led in the reading of the Col-
lect. The Epistle was then read by Bishop Thoburn,
and the Gospel lesson by Bishop Taylor. The Call to
Prayer was presented by Bishop Ninde and the Prayer
was offered by Bishop Fitzgerald. Bishop Andrews
examined the candidates and offered the Invocation,
after which Bishop Mallalieu led the Conference in the
“Veni Creator Spiritus.” The prayer preceding the
Laying on of Hands was read by Bishop Fowler, and
the prayer following by Bishop Joyce. Bishop New-
man announced the hymn: “Jesus! the name high
over all,” and Bishop Foster pronounced the Benedic-
tion.

Charles Cardwell McCabe was presented for Con-
secration to the office of a Bishop in the Methodist
Episcopal Church by his uncle, Rev. Lorenzo Dow
McCabe, D.D., and Rev. T. C. Iliff, D.D.

The Bishops who with these elders consecrated him
by the laying on of hands were, Foster, Bowman, and
Hurst.

It was not until near the close of the Conference, on
May 27, that Bishop McCabe took the chair for the
first time to preside over a General Conference. It
was during the evening session of the day preceding
adjournment that Bishop Fitzgerald, then presiding,
said: “I beg now to present as President for the re-
mainder of the session, Bishop McCabe.”

The newly-elected Bishop took the chair with the
BISHOP McCABE 347

remark: “I have remonstrated against this in vain.
There is a book called ‘ Cushing’s Manual,’ but I have
not read it. There is a book called ‘ Neely on Parlia-
mentary Law,’ but I have never read that. But I shall
read them both now. What is the further pleasure of
the Conference?”

The first business of the Conference was on a
“ question of privilege,” offered by Dr. W. F. Whit-
lock, one of the Bishop’s beloved old college classmates,
to take up a collection. At noon of that day Julian F.
Scott, M.D., a lay delegate from the North China
Conference, had died. Contributions to assist Mrs.
Scott were made at the afternoon session, and under
the “ question of privilege ” the matter was again pre-
sented at the evening session, just after Bishop Mc-
Cabe took the chair. Thrusting his hand into his
pocket to make a liberal contribution himself, the
Bishop said: “ May I inquire how much you want to
raise for this lady? I am at home now.” And thus
did this man, “ doomed to raise money,” enter upon his
Episcopal career by announcing a “ collection ”’!

With peculiar satisfaction the good people of the
First Methodist Episcopal Church of Rochester, New
York, remember that the first act of Bishop McCabe
after the General Conference was the laying of the
cornerstone of their new Sunday-school building.

Bishop McCabe’s first Episcopal residence was Fort
Worth, Texas, to which he went in the spirit of peace,
good-will, and fraternity. The assignments were not
then made by the General Conference as now, but ac-
cording to seniority in office the Bishops made their
448 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

own selection and hence Bishop McCabe was left with
but one short of Hobson’s choice.

He was heartily received in Texas and immediately
electrified the Church in that region with his holy en-
thusiasm.

Although he had been a Union soldier and was well
known in all the South as Chaplain McCabe, author
of the famous lecture on “ The Bright Side of Life
in Libby Prison,” the people of other political views
and belonging to other denominations, recognising his
broad-minded philanthropy, his fraternal spirit, his
religious fervour, his evangelistic zeal, and the un-’
paralleled achievements of his Church Extension and
Missionary Secretaryships, gave him a cordial wel-
come to the Southland.

By December of the year 1896 the Bishop was in
Texas and with his proverbial energy was quickly ab-
sorbed in the work of visiting the Churches, preach-
ing incessantly, and responding to the many demands
that were made upon him for lectures, dedications,
missionary meetings, debt-raisings, and revival serv-
ices. He visited every important Church among the
Methodist Episcopal people in Texas and many of the
Churches of the coloured people. On one visit to New
Orleans he preached every day for twenty-one days.
The coloured schools of Louisiana and Texas received
his special attention. Of his visit to Dallas it was
said: “ January 3 was a great day for Methodism in
Dallas, Texas. Bishop McCabe preached in Taber-
nacle Church both morning and night, also at one of
the mission churches in the afternoon. A remarkable
BISHOP McCABE ‘349

feature of the afternoon service was that every man,
woman, and child present went to the altar. The
Bishop’s presence, deep interest, and stirring words
gave great impulse, life, and courage to our Churches
in this important centre of Methodism in the great
Southwest. Tabernacle Church will spend all of Janu-
ary in earnest revival effort.”

The Itinerant General Superintendency of the Metho-
dist Episcopacy precludes the possibility of a Bishop’s
remaining at his residence or even anywhere in the
vicinity more than a few weeks in the year. The Bishop
of a diocese often has no larger area of country to
travel over in his Episcopal supervision than has a
District Superintendent in the Methodist Episcopal
Church, and rarely does his diocese include one entire
State. But the world is literally the parish or diocese
of a Methodist Bishop.

During a single year the duties of Bishop McCabe
called him into not less than twenty-seven different
States and to not less than 100 different towns and
cities of the country. His field of operations ex-
tended from Texas to Vermont and from New
York to California. During the first quadrennium of
his Episcopacy he travelled 80,000 miles and held
thirty-seven Conferences, appointing 3,815 different
preachers to their charges. With addresses, lectures,
and sermons, at missionary meetings, church dedica-
tions, Epworth League conventions, debt-raisings,
conferences, revivals, Chautauqua assemblies, he was
in the pulpit or on the platform oftener than every
third day in the year for the entire four years. And
350 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

all this work was in addition to his strictly official
duties and his extensive travelling from one end of
the country to the other at an average of 700 miles a
week.

As he entered upon the duties of a General Superin-
tendent, the Bishop carried with him all his old undy-
ing interest in the great benevolent causes which he
had so devotedly served for nearly thirty years. He
seemed, even as a Bishop, to find no discharge in that
war in which he was divinely “doomed to raise
money.” The Church Extension and Missionary
causes were ever upon his heart, and he seemed to
blend the two in what he called “ The Special Relief
and Forward Movement.”

This was a movement inaugurated by the Bishop
for the special relief of Churches, missions, schools,
and preachers that had no claim upon, or at least,
could not be helped in the administration of the funds
of the other organised societies. In this relief work,
the Bishop raised during two quadrenniums more
than $65,000 by giving lectures and securing indi-
vidual subscriptions. This help was particularly, but
not exclusively, given to aid the work in North and
South America and in our possessions among the
islands of the seas, and was scattered from Alaska to
Mexico and from Venezuela to Argentina.

The following expenditures of these special relief
funds are given as specimens only:

Gift to Black Hills’ College.................cceceees $250.00
To place new ceiling in our Italian church in New
Orleans” veciseiasisales ome er deaseeade einen Goes 85.00
BISHOP McCABE "361

To start mission work in Alaska...............005- $ 400.00
For relief of frontier preachers.............0.cceeuee 215.00
For support of first missionary to the Philippine

TSlaNAS? ssaviromcete vs oe vewlace wees o sasteumicamaneuaene 300.00
Cash to Methodist preacher in Tennessee to buy a

HOPsSO: sss Sceeedeads ceasies ms deeds brea avayay Staye e Seateudaed ere 55.00
To care for in sickness and bury young Methodist

Preacher esis sie sawawinsidosien sameweaas Leaves 95-13
For new church at Pachuca, Mexico................. 500.00
To assist student at Lima, Peru...............cc00008 50.00
For church lot at Iquique, Chili..................5. 1,000.00
For Indian school in Nevada............cccceceeeee 25.00
On deficiency of salaries of missionaries in Chili...... 500.00
For church at Montevideo, Uruguay................ 2,000.00
New church at Chivilcoy, Argentina................ 200.00
Subscription to church in Manila.................00. 500.00
For church lot in Aracibo, Porto Rico.............. 200.00
Subscription to McKendree College................ 250.00
For family of Methodist preacher in New York Con-

FELENCE Secisnd nce satis oSoude coe enaiouanwdenes eo 100.00
To help save Wesleyan University of Montana....... 500.00
For relief in Finland, sent direct to preachersthere... 1,100.00

No Bishop in the history of Methodism ever before
carried upon his heart so many and such varied
benevolent interests as appealed to the sympathy of
Bishop McCabe. The needs of the whole wide world
seemed to have a claim on his generous nature and on
his divine gift for raising money, from the funeral
expenses of a poor dead missionary to the rescue of a
University or the establishment of Methodist Missions
on a new continent. How he could carry the burden
of so many benevolent causes even upon so great a
heart as his was and not break down, was long a mar-
vel to those who knew the vastness of the work he
undertook to do.
352 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

Again, even in this special relief movement, he
boldly assumed great personal obligations and respon-
sibilities. Many was the time, as he assures us, espe-
cially in Mexico and South America, that he gave his
noté in bank for the money he pledged, so that he was
often in debt from five to ten thousand dollars.
His habit was to give his notes for the money when it
was needed and raise it afterwards. Such was his
faith in, God and in those true men of God to whom
he never appealed in vain for money to promote the
Kingdom of Heaven in the earth.

In view of such incurring of personal obligation
for large amounts of money, and in view of his inces-
sant labours in Episcopal supervision, the criticisms of
men who could not comprehend the magnitude of his
work nor the multiplicity of his responsibilities,
seemed as ungrateful as they were thoughtless. He
often let such criticism pass unanswered and unre-
buked, for he had little time in his busy consecrated
life to waste on carping critics. But he accidentally
and with some little righteous indignation overheard
a lay delegate to a General Conference criticise the
Bishops in general for not giving the Churches more of
their personal attention and supervision. The lay-
man, objecting to the cost of securing a Bishop for a
lecture or dedication, said: “It cost us $75 to see a
Bishop last summer.” The layman evidently referred
to Bishop McCabe and the Bishop’s reply was: “I had
made several appointments in Wisconsin for the pur-
pose of earning some extra money to help me with
my special Church enterprises. I was paid $75 each
BISHOP McCABE 353

for these lectures, but out of that I had to pay my
travelling expenses, which were considerable. A few
days after the occasion to which this delegate referred,
I credited $600 in my ledger from lecture account to
the account known as ‘ The Forward Movement and
Special Relief’ account. Into that account during
the quadrennium have been charged the following
items: To save the Church at Fort Worth, Texas,
$1,750; to plant the mission in Alaska, $1,500; to send
a missionary to the Philippine Islands, $1,300; to save
the First Norwegian Church in Portland, Oregon,
$500; to help on the work in Mexico, $3,400; to build
an Orphanage in the Hing Hua Mission in China,
$3,000; and many other items which it would weary
you to have me recite. During that year I had credited
to this account $3,060 from my lecture account, and
during the quadrennium over $12,000, besides numer-
ous subscriptions secured from my friends. If the
delegate thinks I am open to criticism for this, I
would quote Paul to him: ‘I robbed other Churches,
taking wages of them, to do you service.’ I thought
I had a very good precedent for this sort of
work.”

After such a statement, who could ever imagine
that Bishop McCabe charged $75 for a lecture simply
to add to his own personal income? He lectured to
secure money to build up the cause and Kingdom of
Jesus Christ. What other Bishop ever undertook to
assume the personal obligations required to relieve a
thousand and one needy causes in the interests of the
Gospel of humanity and sweet charity as Bishop Mc-
354 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

Cabe had the faith and courage and generosity of heart
to do?

What man in all Methodism, whether layman, pas-
tor, secretary, or Bishop, was ever less deserving of
criticism for lack of energy and disinterested devo-
tion in the cause of Christ or more deserving of praise
for the services which he rendered the Church in the
magnificent millions of money he raised for her
benevolences than Bishop McCabe? “ In labours more
abundant ” he outstripped us all, and in the achieve-
ments of his manifold ministry he was the peer of the
greatest in the Church of God.
XXXVI

EPISCOPAL ADMINISTRATION — SPIRITUAL
POWER — SINGING CONFERENCES — BUSI-
NESS AND RELIGION

was just what might have been expected of such

a unique combination of brains and heart, com-
mon sense and business tact, good humour and tender
pathos, personal magnetism and spiritual unction, in-
dependence, originality, and evangelistic fervour.
Singularly enough, the Bishop, who had not been
credited with great parliamentary skill and knowledge,
proved one of the very best in expediting the business
of a conference, and whether he presided at an Annual
or a General Conference, his common sense, good
humour, and religious sincerity often extricated the
conference as well as himself from an embarrassing
parliamentary tangle, and in spite of “points of
order,” “ questions of privilege,” and other obstructive
difficulties hastened discussions to their final issue to
the delight of all. Perhaps no other presiding Bishop
ever had the audacity to so nonchalantly sacrifice the
letter to the spirit of parliamentary law; indeed, such
parliamentary independence would not have been toler-
ated in any other Bishop, for no other Bishop could
have said with his good-natured sangfroid, “ Never

355

Beis McCABE’S conference administration
356 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

mind your point of order, brother; let’s take a vote and
get through the business.” Everybody enjoyed hav-
ing Bishop McCabe preside at a General Conference
just for the good feeling that pervaded the conference
while he was in the chair. His own unpretentious,
brotherly manner always appealed to the democracy of
the conference and brought it into heart-touch with
himself. Bishop McCabe never discharged any duty
more sympathetically, considerately, and religiously
than presiding at a General Conference. He was
never afraid of the face of man, even of a parliamen-
tary quibbler or bully, and no man, however humble,
was ever afraid of him or had occasion to feel that
the great-hearted Bishop had ever humiliated him with
a joke that got the laugh on him or with a rebuke that
sent him to his seat with chagrin.
. Inthe Annual Conferences his presence was a bene-
diction. His own evangelistic fervour and brotherly
kindness became infectious. In his tender treatment
of the superannuates and his marked consideration for
the heroic men who were doing the hardest work on
the most difficult charges, and by his custom of taking
up collections and personally contributing himself
liberally to help a poor brother out of financial trouble,
he would set the conference weeping and singing and
shouting :
“As often for each other flowed
The sympathizing tear.”

Tt may well be imagined that scenes like the fol-
lowing were not infrequent in conferences over which
Chaplain McCabe presided as Bishop: “ Last week the
 

CHARLES CARDWELL McCABF, 1896
EPISCOPAL ADMINISTRATION 357

South Kansas Conference in its session at Parsons was
the scene of an outburst of extraordinary fervour and
excitement in which patriotic and religious emotions
were deeply blended. When the name of Allen Buck-
ner—now on the superannuated list—was called, he
arose and said, ‘I am a superannuated preacher and a
wounded soldier, but my soul is happy in the Lord!’
As he turned to sit down, Chaplain McCabe, sitting on
the platform beside the presiding officer, with one of
his felicitous impulses that sometimes capture him and
his audiences, exclaimed, ‘Bishop Mallalieu, Allen
Buckner was a colonel in the Union Army and led the
advance up Missionary Ridge.’ Instantly the Bishop
stood up and cried, ‘Colonel Buckner, I want your
hand.’ The whole congregation rose with one impulse,
transfixed with a common emotion, swept with a wave
of feeling that seemed cyclonic. The Chaplain started
up, ‘ My Country, ’tis of Thee,’ while the people cried,
shouted, sang, shook hands, gathered in tumultuous
throng about the veteran, and made the Church re-
verberate with their praises and their songs. The
scene illustrated how closely the fibres of patriotic de-
votion are interwoven in the texture of the religious
life. They blend in the warp and woof of character
sometimes like the threads of gold and silver.”
Bishop McCabe’s Conferences seemed to “ enjoy re-
ligion ” under the influence of his spiritual power. The
revival spirit was present and the preachers often for-
got their anxieties about their appointments in the en-
joyment of a new baptism of the spirit that filled them
with soul-winning enthusiasm. By the time the Bishop
358 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

was ready to read the appointments it often occurred
that every preacher was willing to go anywhere to
preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to dying men.
Although the Bishop often expressed himself as
having to bear a cross when he heard himself called
the “ Singing Chaplain ” or the ‘‘ Singing Secretary,”
the cross seemed heavier when they called him the
“Singing Bishop.” But this gift, which he prized so
little, and of which he never seemed proud to be the
possessor, the preachers and the people recognised as
a truly divine gift and they would not permit Episco-
pal dignity to despise it or cease to use it for the glory
of God and the inspiration of the Church. That the
spiritual power of his song had not waned or lost its
charm for the hearts of men was evident in the con-
ferences over which the Bishop presided. His first
conference, in this respect, was characteristic of nearly
all that he held during his Episcopal administration.
The Black Hills Conference, held at Hot Springs,
South Dakota, may claim the honour of having been
Bishop McCabe’s first conference. Of that confer-
ence the report went forth to the Press: “ The Church
has been enthused with the voice of Chaplain McCabe.
In appeal and song he has moved hearts as few men
have been privileged to do. Thursday morning of
last week as the Bishop took the chair, as presiding
officer of a conference session for the first time, the
regular routine was dispatched with the skill that his
older colleagues would have shown. The Lord’s Sup-
per was partaken of by a goodly company; but at the
love-feast came the tempest. The Bishop sang. Who

.
EPISCOPAL ADMINISTRATION 39

would stop Bishop McCabe singing? ‘Almost as well
administer capital punishment. The place was holy.
The Spirit of God moved every heart. Souls and
eyes overflowed. The Conference took flame. During
the shouts and ‘Amens,’ Dr. J. W. Haucher, Presi-
dent of the Black Hills College, stood up and declared
that it was sometimes necessary for men to take things
into their own hands. He thought he must do so now
and did so accordingly in the following timely and
happy statement, ending with a motion, which was
unanimously adopted. ‘It is well known that Chap-
lain McCabe owed much of his value in the last third
of a century to the power of song. Many of his
friends have expressed concern in conversation and in
the Church press as to his future practise. And I am
sure that the Bishop himself has not been entirely free
from the question: “ Will it be unepiscopal for Bishop
McCabe to sing?” How glorious is this hour under
the inspiration of his song and the baptism of the
Holy Spirit! I move that it be the action of this con-
ference and the sense of this worshipping company
that it is not unepiscopal for Bishop McCabe to sing,
but rather that the episcopal office intensifies the power
of his song.’ His first conference in its first business
session has settled the question. Bishop McCabe
would no more be Bishop than he would have been
Chaplain or Missionary Secretary without his heaven-
tuned voice. Who has not seen him? Squarely
built, a massive head mounting a sturdy frame, a
strong, benevolent face, lit with eyes of fire, and
crowned with black hair mingled with grey, and, il-
360 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

luminating his whole being, a soul full of love for God
and man. Truly an evangelist Bishop. The Church
has cause for gratitude that the Bishop declares his
singing cannot be stopped. Let him sing his way
round all the Conferences, re-echo Calvary’s story in
Judea’s angel melody, and the Church will get nearer
to God. Ministers will take their appointments for
the Kingdom. No trust is so sacred that it hushes
the gift of God; no dignity so lofty but that it is made
sacred in the humility of Jesus Christ.”

This sentiment prevailed in all the conferences, and
preachers and laymen rejoiced that the spirit of
“ Chaplain’ McCabe survived in the Bishop. From
other conferences reports similar to the above from
the Black Hills found their way into the newspapers
and the “ Advocates.” “ Bishop McCabe has just
closed two remarkable Conference Sessions in Missouri
—St. Louis Conference at Springfield, and Missouri
Conference at Hannibal. These sessions were largely
attended, exceedingly spiritual, and aflame with higher
aims and new inspirations. The love-feasts were
memorable. The Bishop’s sermons were signals of
faith, calls to duty, touches of Pentecost, high waves
of enthusiasm, and bright glimpses of victory. The
Springfield session of the St. Louis Conference will
go down into history as the ‘ Singing Conference.’
The Bishop sang; duets and quartettes sang, the choir
sang, and the preachers and people sang. We never
before heard such singing and so much singing at any
Annual Conference.”

But with all this singing, shouting, and enjoying of
EPISCOPAL ADMINISTRATION 361

religion, what became of the serious business of the
Conference? Let no one imagine that Bishop Mc-
Cabe ever lost his head in his religious fervour, spirit-
ual ecstasy, and evangelistic zeal. Let no one suppose
for a moment that he relied on song to help him
through the difficulties of a Conference Session.

In the report of the Bishop’s visit to the South
Kansas Conference a member * wrote:

“We have exceedingly enjoyed the administration
of the great-hearted McCabe, sometime Bishop, and
Chaplain forever. With what tenderness, and yet
ample firmness, he guided us on till the drudgery of
routine matters took on the fragrance of flowers, and
we wept and shouted and took up collections for all the
needy projects, civil and religious, day by day till the
golden hours were all gone, along with much of our
silver, and we stood, like Eggleston’s Conference, with
a glory on our faces ‘ born not of sun or star’ and the
‘peace that passeth knowledge’ in our hearts, ready
for our new Bishop’s last duty—the appointments and
the benediction.

“ Bishop McCabe’s methods of transacting business
and arranging cabinet work reveal some new and bet-
ter things. Many of us feared that the years’ absence
from the pastorate might lead the great Chaplain to
lean too strongly toward the influence of officialism.
But we were most agreeably surprised at the utter
groundlessness of our fears. He went straight to the -
humblest circuit-rider and sought to find his desires
for the coming year. To the presiding elders he was

* Dr, J. W. Wright.
362 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

most princely, so high is his estimate of the office
which he intimated may well be considered the great-
est office in Methodism.

“The great congregations were charmed. The old
soldiers came from many miles away to see this
Knight of Libby Prison; and from all the sister
Churches came chosen men and women to see this
royal son of a loyal Church.”

The Rock River Conference, one of the largest and
most important Conferences in Methodism, held its
sixty-second session in October, 1901, at Evanston,
Illinois. Bishop McCabe presided. In that great edu-
cational centre, the seat of the Northwestern Univer-
sity and of the Garrett Biblical Institute, the Bishop’s
administration was most satisfactory. “‘ Bishop Mc-
Cabe surprised even his best friends. He rushed busi-
ness, unravelled the tangled threads of administration
with a master’s hand, relieved the monotony and strain
of the session, introduced many pleasing features, and
brought a wealth of enthusiasm, cheerfulness, and
courage that cannot fail to inspire ministers to do and
dare wonderful things for the Kingdom during the
coming months. The last hours reminded us of
the closing session of a conference of the olden
times. Men forgot their disappointments and heart-
aches, and resolved to do their ‘level best’ for the
Master.”

One enthusiastic correspondent wrote to Zion’s
‘Herald: “ Bishop McCabe! Who does not know
him? Some of us have questioned the wisdom of his
election to the Episcopacy. He had many gifts and
EPISCOPAL ADMINISTRATION 363

peculiar graces, but he was not bishop-timber, we have
said. We take it all back! No Bishop ever sat in
Rock River Conference who presided more admirably
and more impartially. He hastened slowly, but the
conference business progressed rapidly. Who will
forget the song and the prayer when the names of
Dr, Spencer and Dr. Fawcett were called? Who will
forget the ordination addresses? . . . Come again,
Bishop McCabe, if you will bring to us your song and
prayer, your sense and love, your inspiration and man-
hood! You have the golden key that will turn the
rusty bolts and open the doors of our hearts. May
you take to others somewhat of the alabaster box of
spikenard you broke for us!”

No mistake had been made by the General Confer-
ence of 1896 in electing Chaplain McCabe a Bishop;
his administration of that great office fully justified
his election. He grew upon the Church year by year
in his Episcopal stature.

‘Many were the expressions of pleasure and of grati-
tude to God that came up from the Annual Confer-
ences over which Bishop McCabe had presided. He
brought with him the influences of heaven. Under the
spell of his holy eloquence the preachers felt anew
the spirit of prophecy coming upon them and saw as
never before the dignity and glory of their high call-
ing. Back to their work they went with a strange and
awful sense of their obligations, with a sweet tender-
ness of heart, a peace that flowed like a river, with
exaltation of mind and with glory in their souls. They
had been in touch with a great man; they had seen the
364 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

seraphic fire of his eye, had listened to the heart-break-
ing pathos and soul-thrilling thunder of his voice; they
had seen the prophet and the ministry had a new mean-
ing, the Gospel trumpet had a more golden note of joy
and hope, of invitation, and command.
XXXVII

MEXICO—CHAMPION OF MORALITY—BULL-
FIGHTING—MOODY’S “CRITIC ”—GROWTH
OF METHODISM .

Y appointment of the Board of Bishops the duty
of holding the Mexico Conference was assigned

to Bishop McCabe. It may well be imagined

how eagerly the Bishop accepted this appointment
when it is remembered that he had particularly gloried
in the spread of Methodism over countries that had
been religiously and politically subject to the yoke of
Roman Catholicism. Nothing so stirred his patriotic
American blood as any news of the advance of a free
Gospel against what he considered as the Anti-Chris-
tian bigotry and superstition of Romanism. He was
eager for and hopeful of the conversion to simple
and apostolic Christianity of the whole Latin world.
He had taken great interest in Mexico as Missionary
Secretary, and from his earliest ministry one of his
ideal men and missionaries had always been Dr. Wil-
liam Butler, the founder of Mexican missions. With
particular pleasure he went to Mexico, and on the
twenty-fifth anniversary of the Conference was able to
look upon the work God had wrought during the first
quarter of a century of Methodist missions in that Re-
public. He arrived at the City of Mexico on the 24th |
365
366 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

day of December, 1899. His first sermon was a Sun-
day-morning Christmas sermon to the English-speak-
ing congregation. The watch-night service may best
be described by the Bishop himself:

“ Saturday night, December 31st, we had a won-
derful watch-night service. The large auditorium
was crowded with Mexicans and Americans. Some
came a hundred miles to attend that meeting. The
services consisted of a sermon, prayers, testimonies,
songs of praise, and the baptism of children, and finally
the communion service. As the hour of midnight ap-
proached Dr. Butler called upon the people to recon-
secrate themselves to God. The whole congregation
were in silent prayer when the clock tolled the begin-
ning of the New Year and they broke into songs of
thanksgiving, and there were as hearty greetings and
salutations among those Christian people as I have ever
witnessed in the West or South. If William Butler,
the founder of that mission, could have walked down
those aisles and could have seen all those people sitting
‘in an heavenly place in Christ Jesus,’ and could have
seen His honoured son, John Wesley, at their head,
beloved and revered by all, his heart would have flamed
with joy.”

The Bishop visited the schools at Puebla, where he
looked with joy upon the work which was to redeem
Mexico from the ignorance that Romanism had fast-
ened upon its people. He visited the Churches, only
to be surprised with what had been accomplished and
to exclaim, “All this in twenty-five years! What
will the next twenty-five years bring us?’ Wherever
CHAMPION OF MORALITY 367

he went he was received with delight by the people,
while the girls and boys of the schools greeted him
with cheers and strewed flowers in his way. He
wrote: “ They make me sing everywhere, and I have
been singing a hymn I learned in my boyhood, writ-
ten, I think, by William Hunter :

“**Come sing to me of heaven
When I am called to die;
Sing songs of holy ecstasy
To waft my soul on high.
We'll be there, we'll be there;
Palms of victory, crowns of glory,
We shall wear,
In that beautiful world on high.’

One of the pupils at the Puebla school, Juan Placio,
translated it into Spanish and we have been singing it
ever since in the meetings,”

In fact, since the Bishop’s first visit to Mexico the
native people have been singing the songs he sang to
them which have been translated into Spanish.

The Bishop enjoyed an audience with President
Diaz, who received him most cordially and in his pres-
ence manifested his interest in the work of our mis-
sionaries by his most friendly greeting of Dr. John
W. Butler, whom he chided good-naturedly for not
more frequently visiting him. Of the conference Dr.
Butler speaks: “Before the first session of the con-
ference was over the Bishop had captured all hearts.
His genial face, his rousing songs, his brotherly bear-
ing toward the humblest worker, and the patriotic vein
so frequently followed in his public addresses gave him
368 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

complete entrée to all hearts. Conference Sunday the
Bishop made use of his happiest hits. The chapel was
full to overflowing. Never was our English-speaking
congregation in all Mexico roused to a greater sym-
pathy with mission work. While these services were
drawing to a close, the native people were gathering in
the auditorium. Bishop McCabe invited Americans
and English to join them, while the native conference
gathered on and around the platform and led the great
congregation in singing the Mexican national hymn,
which was followed by the singing of our own na-
tional hymn. A month has passed, but we hear peo-
ple still talking of the inspiration of that wonderful
hour.”

The way Bishop McCabe had of seizing the oppor-
tunity for initiating new work was illustrated in sev-
eral instances during his Episcopal supervision of the
work in Mexico, But no pen can report those scenes
with such charm as belongs to his own eloquent and
picturesque language. “On Saturday,” he writes,
“we rode out eight miles to Oaxaca, to Tachili, the
capital of the Tapotec tribe of Indians. Prince Perez
is their king, and he is the last of his line. He is a
Methodist now, and was waiting our coming with joy.
He brought to each member of our party a bouquet of
flowers freshly cut from his own gardens. This was
in the month of January. He made me a speech in
florid Indian style, bidding us welcome, and then he
said: ‘ Three times I have asked you to establish a
girls’ school among this people. You have established
a school for boys, but what is the use of educating the
CHAMPION OF MORALITY 369

boys unless you also educate the girls?’ I did not
reply at once. We went into the chapel and held a
service. After a short sermon from the text: ‘Come
unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I
will give you rest,’ we sang a hymn, the refrain of
which in Spanish was as follows:

“*Llegaré por la fé,
La victoria y la gloria gozaré
En la patria celestial.’

The translation is:

“*By faith we will arrive,
The victory and the glory

We will enjoy
In the heavenly country.’

Prince Perez arose and walked up and down the aisle.
He did not shout but he breathed hard, so that I could
hear him clear to the pulpit. I shouted, ‘ Prince
Perez, you shall have your girls’ school.’ He stopped,
turned to the people, and told them what I said. Their
dark faces lit up with joy, and shortly afterward Dr.
Butler found them a suitable teacher and established
for them a school. Not many weeks afterward, a
week-night address on Mexico, under the patronage
of Rev. W. H. Pearce, of Wilkesbarre, Pa., produced
$308, $200 of which was given by one elect lady.
This was enough to support the school for a year and
help out with other Mexican work.”

This bold and masterful way that Bishop McCabe
had of doing things when others would have hesitated
until “ the money was in sight,” is just what made him
370 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

the consummate leader that he was. The philosophy
of his courage and power of initiative is found in
his treatment of the situation at Querétaro and in his
reference to the “ Bank” on which he relied in every
case of emergency.

“ Querétaro is a most fanatical city. It has been
only a few years since Protestant missionaries were
stoned in the streets. We have here a school for boys.
If I should give my real opinion of that school some
of you might charge me with exaggeration. It is a
mighty power for good for our Church and for the
Republic. Rev. B. N. Velasco, a brave, courtly, and
devout Mexican, is at the head of it. At the supper
table that first night he showed me letters from some
of the first people in the land offering to send him their
boys, but he had to answer, ‘ I have no room for them,’
Later in the evening he took me to the rear of the build-
ing and showed me some unfinished walls. ‘ There,’
said he, ‘if those rooms could be completed I could
take those boys and many more.’ ‘ How much will
it cost?’ I said. ‘ Three thousand dollars, Mexican,’
was the reply. ‘When do you wish to begin?’
‘Next Monday morning.’ This was Saturday night.
‘All right,’ I said, ‘send for your workmen and
begin.’

“There is a bank called ‘ The Bank of Faith and
Works. I have long been a depositor in it. The
President is always good and kind to me. He often
says, ‘Ask and ye shall receive.’ There for many years
I have deposited my faith, my love, my hope, my hard
work, and drawn out money. I am astonished myself
CHAMPION OF MORALITY 371

when I reflect that out of this bank I have drawn $200
a week for twenty-five long years. I gave my note for
Querétaro school to John W. Butler, payable at this
bank.”

It was in brave, daring, and intelligently impetuous
acts such as these that Bishop McCabe manifested his
extraordinary genius of leadership.

When in Mexico he certainly made himself felt and
did not hesitate to declare the high ethical standards
of Protestant Christianity as against the low and
brutal moral sentiments that had long prevailed with-
out rebuke from the once dominant Romanism. The
conference passed ringing resolutions against the
brutal and brutalising Spanish pastime of bullfighting.
The Bishop supplemented the action of the conference
by publishing this appeal to the tourists from the
United States:

“The Methodist Episcopal Conference, recently
held in this city, passed certain resolutions concerning
bullfights, which I submit to your careful considera-
tion.

“We trust you will help us in this effort and not
contribute your influence toward the demoralisation of
Mexico by attending these bullfights. It certainly is
an idle and vain curiosity which would lead you to
look at such an abominable spectacle, simply that you
may have it to say that you attended a bullfight in
Mexico.

“Crispi, the great Italian statesman, at the outbreak
of the Spanish war, said: ‘The priests have ruined
372 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

Spain.’ If that statement needs any modification
whatever, it should be that the bullfight has contributed
its share toward the demoralisation of the Spanish
world. The Mexican people ought to abolish bull-
fighting. It is part of the inheritance they obtained
from their oppressors.

“Let me entreat American tourists not to help to
perpetuate this infamy by their money and their
presence.

* CuHarLes C. McCass,
* Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church.”

This courageous attack upon one of the very “ in-
stitutions ” of Mexico created a stir and resulted in
a lively controversy in the public press, in which the
Bishop handled the subject without gloves, to the dis-
comfiture of the champions of brutality, and to the
exultation of the friends and promoters of a higher
civilisation for Mexico.

It was during his Episcopal visitation of this coun-
try that the Bishop had the opportunity to defend the
good name and to praise the magnificent evangelistic
work of D. L. Moody. The Mexican Herald, pub-
lished in the City of Mexico, had paid a high and
worthy tribute to the memory of the great evangelist,
when a “critic,” so-called, felt inspired to rebuke the
Herald for praising one whom he did not think
worthy of such high eulogy. The “critic” said: “I
am sorry to see the Herald defend that back num-
ber in theology, the late Mr. Moody, the evangelist.
He shut his eyes to the progress of biblical criticism
CHAMPION OF MORALITY 373

and belonged to the uncritical epoch of Whitefield and
Wesley. Such men may be personally good, but their
intellectual dulness leads them into error. The world
moves in theology as in other things.”

Bishop McCabe could not by his silence seem to
acquiesce in the publication of any such shallow non-
sense, so he spoke out in no uncertain terms in reply to
the would-be critic:

“To the Editor of ‘The Mexican Herald ’—Sir:
You were right in your praise of D, L. Moody. The
unknown correspondent who criticises you for it shows
himself to be ignorant of the condition of affairs in the
theological world.

“The theology of the Wesleys, so far from being
obsolete, was never so vigorous and so triumphant as it
is to-day. In the Methodist Church: of the United
States, taking all branches, North and South, there are
5,800,000 communicants. We have 11,600,000 peo-
ple who believe the theology of John Wesley and sing
the hymns of Charles Wesley. The Methodists alone
outnumber the whole Roman Catholic population of
the United States by 3,600,000, -

“The Congregational Church of which Mr. Moody
was a member, is teaching and preaching Arminian
theology, which was the theology of the Wesleys, and
is the theology of the Bible.

“Let the destructive biblical critics who vainly try
to rob us of this glorious heritage find a man in their
number who can go to New York, Philadelphia, Bos-
ton, Chicago, London, and Glasgow and draw congre-
374. THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

gations beyond the seating capacity of their greatest
convention halls, and do it not once only but many
times through a lifetime, before they call D. L. Moody
a ‘back number.’

“Moody did indeed belong to the epoch of Wesley
and Whitefield and that was the secret of his power.
Your correspondent is one of a long line of prophets,
When I was a boy, more than half a century ago, I
heard a man say: ‘ The Methodists will soon run out.’
I was sorry to hear it, for my parents belonged to them.
I have lived to see them ‘ run out’ all over the world
and for half of my lifetime I have been running after
them to see that congregations have Churches and
Churches have pastors, and I can record with truth
that more than 1,000,000 new members have been
added to the Methodist Episcopal Church within the
last fifteen years, and millions more will follow in the
years to come.

“ Cuar_es C. McCase,
“ Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church.”

Surely, Bishop McCabe’s superintendency of the
work in Mexico was not a mere perfunctory exercise of
his Episcopal duties, but a strong, aggressive ad-
ministration and = supervision that made Mexican
Methodism lift up its head with holy confidence and
bravely advance to new and glorious conquests.
Bishop McCabe had no apologies to offer, no excuses
to make, to the prevailing spirit of anti-Christ, and no
favours to ask of “the powers that be;” but with
a bold front he led on the hosts of God to higher
CHAMPION OF MORALITY 375

ground, from the vantage of which they entered upon a
new epoch both of religious freedom and spiritual
progress. Long will Mexican Methodists remember
the aggressive courage and power, the eloquence and
evangelistic fervour, the mighty faith and tender sym-
pathy, of the good Bishop who sang and.prayed and
preached them to the very gates of heaven and inspired
them anew with the conviction of their right to exist
and to work in that Republic until the land of flowers
shall see the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Val-
ley bloom on every hillside and in every smiling vale of
Mexico.

The General Conference of 1900 designated Omaha
as Bishop McCabe’s Episcopal residence for the fol-
lowing quadrennium. The good Methodists of Ne-
braska were very emphatic in their expressions of
satisfaction and hailed with joy the coming of this
“best loved man in Methodism.” The Church in that
vicinity instantly felt the touch of his genius and
power. He entered upon the work of familiarising
himself with the character, needs, and possibilities of
Methodism in that great and growing section of our
country. He took special interest in the Wesleyan
University and led on the heroic hosts in fighting the
battle to glorious victory that freed the institution
from embarrassing debt. During the quadrennium
the Bishop was sorely afflicted by the loss of his
two brothers. Le Roy Garrettson McCabe died in the
month of November, 1900, and Robert Robinson Mc-
Cabe passed away February 8, Igo1.

Pressing family conditions following the death of
376 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

his brothers, with special official duties calling him
from the country to foreign lands, necessitated his mak-
ing Evanston, Illinois, rather than Omaha, Nebraska,
his residence, in so far as he had any fixed dwelling
place other than mere headquarters. No one regretted
this more than the Bishop himself. He appreciated
the honour of a residence in Omaha and loved the peo-
ple of that western country as he admired their broad,
progressive type of Methodism. But the very de-
mands of his office during the quadrennium made a
residence in any one place impossible. Most consider-
ately and generously, but with profound regret, the
brethren of Omaha released the Bishop from obliga-
tion to keep his headquarters in that city. He was,
however, always ready to respond to the demands of
that district when not on official duties in other coun-
tries; and in dedications, debt-raisings, Epworth
League conventions, and evangelistic services was most
zealous and effective throughout Nebraska, Kansas,
Missouri, South Dakota, and Western Iowa.

During the quadrennium he presided over thirty-
nine Conferences, which with the travelling involved
consumed not less than ninety-eight weeks, nearly half
of his time. The Board of Bishops also sent him
twice to South America and once to Europe on official
business. Moreover, on the death of Bishop Hurst,
the Board of Trustees of the American University
elected him Chancellor of that institution, with the
expectation that this money-raising giant would lift
the magnificent enterprise to his broad shoulders and
carry it to the foundation of success. It would seem
CHAMPION OF MORALITY. 377

that the Church had come to think that no burden or
accumulation of burdens was too heavy for this mighty
heart to bear. But Bishop McCabe found joy in labour,
and he gloried in the cross that imposed such onerous
and manifold duties and obligations upon him.
XXXVIIT

SOUTH AMERICA—EUROPE—AMERICAN
UNIVERSITY

r [ HE Board of Bishops during the quadrennium
opening with the year 1900, sent Bishop Mc-
Cabe twice to South America. He sailed for
that continent January 8, 1901, and with the same
avidity that he had manifested in taking up the work
in Mexico, he entered upon the Episcopal supervision
of the Methodist work of the Romanised countries of
the southern continent.
The Protestants of South America well knew what
a champion they had in this brave, independent, ag-
gressive Bishop. They could hear his voice coming
to them with a great religious meaning:

“* Lift up your heads, desponding freemen.’ ”

The Bishop’s first official duty was to preside over the
Western South America Conference, which was held
in Iquique, Chili.

Until then it had been a Mission Conference, but
Bishop McCabe, by taking advantage of an enabling
act of the General Conference, organised it into a full-

‘fledged Annual Conference. It has since been divided
into the Andes and North Andes Conferences. The
territory included in the West South America Confer-

378
SOUTH AMERICA 379

ence was about a hundred miles wide and three thou-
sand miles long, stretching down the west coast of the
continent. Think of a Conference a hundred miles
wide, extending from New York to San Francisco!
At that time there were only twenty-three full mem-
bers of the Conference. The difficulty of the preachers
attending the sessions of such a Conference, with the
expense of travel, had to be met by holding the Confer-
ence in sections or districts. A supplementary Con-
ference was therefore held at Concepcion, in more
southern Chili.

The Bishop was not only welcomed to South Amer-
ica by the faithful few of the preachers and people
called Methodists, but the character and name of the
Bishop as a distinguished citizen and patriot had much
to do with insuring him the greatest courtesies from
our national representatives who were there, and from
the political authorities of the countries which he
visited in his Episcopal capacity. He received special
attention from the United States ambassadors in Peru,
Chili, and Ecuador, as in Uruguay and Argentina.
He was most cordially greeted by President Romafia
of Peru and President Cuestus of Uruguay, to whom
he bore autograph letters of introduction and com-
mendation from President McKinley. These Presi-
dents, as well as Alfaro of Ecuador and Pasido of
Bolivia, promised the Bishop that the Methodists
should be protected in the exercise of their right to
worship God “in their own way.”

At Montevideo, Uruguay, where the Bishop held the
old South America Conference, March 14, 1901, he
380 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

had the honour of an invitation from Rear-Admiral
Schley, commanding the South Atlantic Station, to
dine with him on the United States Flagship ‘“ Chi-
cago.” With his wife the Bishop accepted the invita-
tion and was received with great kindness and cor-
diality by the distinguished hero of Santiago.

A rare experience was his during his stay in Mon-
tevideo, such indeed as few men, however eminent,
have had the satisfaction of recording among the most
pleasant memories of life. He was invited to deliver
his famous lecture on Libby Prison on board the flag-
ship “ Chicago.” He gladly accepted the invitation,
and he had a glorious time singing and telling the
grand old story again to the gallant officers and
men of the good ship. It was an occasion long to
be remembered by all who were fortunate enough to
Participate in its enjoyments. The ship was beauti-
fully decorated with flags and lights for the event and
the Bishop was enthusiastically greeted as on the deck
he arose to deliver his lecture. He afterwards had the
satisfaction and pleasure of receiving this most friendly
and appreciative letter of thanks from Rear-Admiral
Schley:

“U.S. S. Chicago,
“ Montevideo, Uruguay,

“March 23rd, 1901.
“My Dear BisHopr: Se ete

“ T cannot allow you to return to God’s country and
people without expressing to you how deeply you grati-
fied the officers and men of my command as well as my
humble self in consenting to deliver your famous lec-
SOUTH AMERICA 3 81

ture on Wednesday evening on board the Chicago, _
reciting your experiences and those of other brave fel-
lows in Libby Prison during the Civil War. I ought
to add that your delightful and inimitable treatment
of the subject was only another lesson in patriotism
to us all, and therefore in the name of my splendid offi-
cers and men I thank you sincerely.

“T am at a loss to find words to adequately tell you
the great delight I felt in this opportunity to renew our
acquaintance and fellowship and to meet Mrs. McCabe
and your niece, and I venture the hope that it may
foster a friendship as warm as my admiration of you
has been. Certainly the privilege of knowing you and
those near and dear to you will be held in high honour
in the years yet remaining to me.

“ Believe me, always, my dear Bishop,

“Very sincerely yours,
“W. S. Schley.
“* Bishop McCabe,
“‘ Montevideo, Uruguay.”

Something of the vast extent of the then two Con-
ferences in South America may be imagined when one
considers their limits as prescribed by the General
Conference Committee on Boundaries: ‘“‘ South Amer-
ica Conference shall include the republics of Argen-
tina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, and that part of
Bolivia lying east of the Andes.” “The West South
‘America Mission Conference shall include all that
part of South America not included in the South
America Conference.”
382 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

During this and his subsequent visit to South
America in the following winter the Bishop fairly
revelled in the outlook for Methodism and for Prot-
estant Christianity in general in those Romanised
countries. Not only was he, with his magnetic en-
thusiasm, an inspiration to the noble and self-sacrificing
missionaries and teachers there and to the native con-
verts and preachers, but they, too, by their whole-
souled type of Methodist experience, religious activity,
and martyr-like loyalty, fairly set his own soul on
flame for the evangelisation of South America. As
he visited Iquique, Concepcion, Valparaiso, and San-
tiago in Chili, Lima in Peru, Buenos Ayres in the
Argentine Republic, and Montevideo in Uruguay, and
saw the possibilities for the promotion of the King-
dom of Heaven, his money-raising spirit actually
tormented him. How he longed for the money to
plant schools and churches in that land which had so
long been neglected by the whole Protestant Church!
How he righteously coveted the millions of the rich
to put into the Kingdom of God right there in what he
considered the most needy and hopeful missionary field
open to the Gospel.

Nothing can be more tenderly pathetic or more
thrillingly eloquent than his references to the great
pioneers of South American Missions. Writing of
the work on the west coast, he says: “It was a great
day when William Taylor set foot on this coast. He
lives to see an Annual Conference now where he
preached the Gospel all alone in 1878. Well was it for
the cause of Missions that his great heart, longing
SOUTH AMERICA 383

to see the world converted to God, felt a throb of
sympathy for this long-neglected land. . . . The holy
audacity with which this field was occupied, before re-
ligious liberty had been proclaimed in these republics,
challenges my admiration. Who does not now see that
the hand of God was in all this?

“ Notwithstanding the difficulties of the situation,
the work here is most inspiring. I am glad every day
that I was sent to South America. Bishop William
Taylor knew what he was doing when he planted
these missions and compelled the Church to follow
him.” ,

The Bishop found as loyal and consecrated preachers
and educators on that west coast of South America as
ever went forth to lay the foundations of future Chris-
tian empire. Thomas B. Wood, T. H. LeFetra, W. C.
Hoover, G. F. Armes, E. E. Wilson—what true and
valiant heralds of the Kingdom they have been! The
great future of those progressing republics will rise up
and call them blessed. How very proud of their work
was Bishop McCabe! With men like these, putting their
noble powers into the work of Christian education and
Gospel evangelisation in that country, the Bishop might
well have said: “ The redemption of Chili is assured
and it draweth nigh,” yes, and of Peru, Ecuador,
Bolivia, and all the land that fronts the Southern
Pacific. The Bishop was profoundly impressed with
the Methodist situation in Buenos Ayres in the South
America Conference. In a communication to the
Western Christian ‘Advocate he becomes reminis- -
cent if not rhapsodical in his exultation over the
384 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

progress and triumphs of the Gospel in that splendid
city:

“‘ There are many facts in the history of the Church
of God on earth that are more wonderful to me than
any romance ever written. Follow me for a few mo-
ments, and see what I mean,

“Many years ago, in northern New York, a little
boy was converted to God in a camp-meeting. The
preachers and the people were disappointed that they
had failed to break into the ranks of the unsaved and
bring scores of them to Christ: and with a partial
sense of failure upon them, they went away saying,
‘ Nobody converted but a little boy!’ That boy’s name
was John Dempster—unus sed leo. I never saw him,
but I find his name thrills the South America Con-
ference to this day. That little boy became a man.
He became a preacher. He became a very great
preacher. He was sent to South America as a mis-
sionary in 1836. In Buenos Ayres he preached over
a stable long before the days of religious liberty, when
it was against the law for a Protestant to preach in the
Spanish language. His congregation had to pass
through a stable yard and climb a narrow stairway
to reach the preacher. And often that humble room
was lit up with the divine presence and often it be-
came what Paul used to call ‘a heavenly place in
Christ Jesus.’ There John Dempster opened the first
muster roll of Methodism on the South American con-
tinent, wrote down the names of his first converts, and
made the first rift in the cloud of Roman superstition
which overspread the land. The First Methodist Epis-
SOUTH AMERICA 385

copal Church of Buenos Ayres is the fruit of that hum-
ble beginning.”

In this South America Conference what stalwart
men of God; what brave, aggressive leaders did the
Bishop find! John F. Thompson, W. P. McLaughlin,
William Tallon, G. P. Howard, A. W. Greenman, S.
P. Craver, C. W. Drees are names that shine among
the missionary stars of the southern hemisphere. Nor
has the light ceased to shine from the well-remembered
names of Dempster, Kidder, Lore, Goodfellow, and
Jackson, and though others have entered into their
labours they were the sowers who went forth to sow
the precious seed from which the harvests are spring-
ing to-day, harvests which the reapers are reaping with
rejoicing song.

If any part of that South American work impressed
the Bishop more favourably and hopefully than any
other, it was the educational work so heroically and
successfully conducted by Brother and Sister G. F.
Armes, at Concepcion, Chili, and Brother and Sister
T. H. LeFetra at Santiago, Chili, in the Western Con-
ference; and by Miss Long and Miss Hewett of Mon-
tevideo, and Miss LeHuray of Buenos Ayres in the
South America Conference.

The ninth session of the South America Conference
which Bishop McCabe held at Montevideo, March 14
to 18, 1901, was memorable for the wisdom and spirit-
ual enthusiasm of the Bishop’s administration. The
report reads*: “ With unprecedented despatch of
routine business, consideration of and definite results
in many important matters, fair and frank treatment

* Rev. W. F. Rice.
386 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

of every subject raised for discussion and investiga-
tion, wise readjustment of the work for the coming
year, and most inspiring counsel and direction with
regard to material and spiritual forward movements,
this session has been characterised by many as the
most satisfactory and productive in our history. The
Conference was unanimous in requesting the return
of Bishop McCabe next year. His clear utterances
against the destructive criticism of the Scriptures, his
enthusiastic aid in the financial enterprises begun
under the stimulus of his presence or lifted over diffi-
cult places by his powerful codperation, his continuous
activity while among us, and last, but not unimpor-
tant, his approachableness and conscientious interest in
and attention to all persons and matters that needed
his attention, have greatly endeared him to the mem-
bers of our Conference and the community at large,
so that we shall hail with delight his reappointment to
the presidency of our Conference.”

The Bishop’s reputation as a lecturer and platform
orator had preceded him and he was frequently re-
quested to deliver his famous lecture on “ The Bright
Side of Life in Libby Prison,” and in such -principal
cities as Valparaiso, Buenos Ayres, and Montevideo
large audiences from the English-speaking population
greeted him with delight, while the press praised his
eloquence in no measured terms. His preaching was
always in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.

Of his second voyage to South America the Bishop
wrote to the Christian Advocate in a style at once
so felicitous and really poetical that the reader is im-
SOUTH AMERICA 387

pressed with the idea that his literary ability was of
no common order, and that he was a man whose soul
was filled with God and with the consciousness of
God’s omnipresence. “ We sailed from New York for
South America on December 31, on the good ship
* Allianca,’”’ he writes. “‘ The passengers were few.
Most people are sensible enough to stay at home on the
last day of the old year and the first day of the new.
This South American trip that our Bishops have to
take is a very long one. Our tickets read, ‘ Valparaiso,
Chili,’ which is six thousand miles from New York—
as far as twice across the Atlantic Ocean from New
York to Liverpool: To one who is at all afflicted with
seasickness the voyage must be irksome indeed; but
as for me, I love the ocean. I look over its vast ex-
panse and often say: ‘The sea is His. He made it.’
‘He hath measured the waters in the hollow of His
hand and meted out the heavens with a span.’ ‘ Be-
hold, He taketh up the isles as a very little thing.’ All
sailors ought to be Christians. Unbelief and aliena-
tion from God are fearfully out of place upon the sea.
The sea is glorious whether in storm or in calm:
whether you listen to its roar or look upon its smile.
Nor does it bring to the devout heart the far-away
feeling, the pain of loneliness, the sense of separation,
but rather the sweet sense of the divine Presence, as
Faber sang it:

‘ * Dear Lord, Thy loving greatness ever lies
Outside us like a boundless sea;
We cannot lose ourselves where all is home,
Nor drift away from Thee.’
388 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

But David puts the thought even more beautifully
than that: ‘If I take the wings of the morning, and
dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there
shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall
hold me.’ In a few hours we are in the Gulf Stream,
that mighty river in the ocean that seems commis-
sioned of God to bear warmth and life and verdure to
the British Isles and to the far-away northern lands of
the Eastern Hemisphere. Who can account for that
river? Who can tell why it flows as it does, unless
he acknowledges the ‘immanence of God’? To ac-
count for it in any other way is to trifle. ‘ He spake,
and it was done. He commanded, and it stood fast.’
So with the compass. A strange, mysterious influ-
ence comes from the north that holds the needle true
to the pole in the wildest storm, so that the pilot, who
is responsible for the safety of a thousand lives, has no
fear as he stands with his hand upon the wheel, for he
knows there is another Pilot who is guiding him.
David says, in the last psalm he ever wrote: ‘ He only
doeth wondrous things.’ All man can do is to find
out what God has done before him, and man ought to
fall in holy reverence at His feet and cry: ‘ Great and
marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty: in
wisdom hast thou made them all.’ ”

On this last Episcopal journey to South America,
having stopped at Colon and Panama he proceeded
down the west coast, visiting Paita, Callao, and Lima
in Peru, Iquique, where he dedicated a new Church;
Valparaiso, where he started a new Church enterprise,
and Santiago, where he held the West South America
SOUTH AMERICA 389

Conference; all in Chili. Then he crossed the Andes,
visiting Mendoza, Buenos Ayres, and Rosario in the
Argentine Republic. In the last-named place he ex-
ercised his money-raising powers in securing the
money for a new Methodist parsonage. At Buenos
Ayres he held the South America Conference, then
proceeded to Montevideo, taking in Lomas de Lamora
and Mercedes. At Montevideo he helped to inaugu-
rate a new Church enterprise of importance. It was
with great zest'that he afterwards described the be-
ginning of a movement to erect a new Church in a
very desirable location in that city which had for him
so many attractions and of the future of which he
had the most glowing expectations. He wrote of this
initiative work in the new enterprise in the following
happy strain: “Our first Sabbath was Easter. We
observed the day with songs, prayers, and sermons
suitable for the holy and universal festival. The Lord
is risen! the Lord is risen!—blessed message, that
passes from lip to lip, and from heart to heart, all
round the world!

“ Tuesday night we had an official meeting. It isa
very conservative body of men; but the outlook for a
new Church was so bright, they voted to begin to build
when we should have a good, reliable subscription of
$10,000. This, with their old church property, will,
give them the victory.

“ Wednesday, at the prayer meeting, I sprang the
collection on them. We raised $2,300 in the prayer
meeting. Sabbath morning I brought the matter be-
fore the English-speaking brethren, and we added
390 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

$1,000 to the amount. The money received for the
rent of our lot for business purposes had accumulated
in the treasury, and amounted to $2,000. I pledged
$2,000 from my Bank of Faith and Works. The
Ladies’ Aid Society pledged $1,000. They had made
$350 recently in a bazaar, and had the money in bank.
They have also a little fund of $300 to offer. And in
the evening we sent the total far beyond the limit of
$10,000, and found we had $11,700.

“Tt was announced that on Monday afternoon we
would break ground on the lot. It rained hard all the
morning. The meeting was to take place at four
o’clock. At three, Pastor Howard and I went to the
ground to send the people home, and to announce the
ground-breaking for Wednesday. But suddenly the
clouds vanished, the sun came out in splendour, the
congregation gathered. Four hymns were sung, two
chapters read from the Word, four speeches made, and
then—Ah !—then a collection. I dug a hole as near
the spot as I could where the corner-stone is to be laid,
and in the hole placed a large basket, with the Uru-
guayan flag wrapped around it. Then I led the people
in procession across the lot, down one side, across the
end, and up the other side, past the hole containing
the basket, having told all to toss some money into
the basket. We found that they had given $110 in
gold in this way. We sang a hallelujah chorus and
the doxology, and went home. The clouds gathered
again, and the rain began to fall. It had stopped long
enough to allow the Methodists to hold their first re-
ligious service on their splendid lot.”
SOUTH AMERICA 391

It was on the suggestion of Bishop McCabe that
the Church Extension Society for the Spanish-speaking
Methodists was organised in South America. The
. Bishop had the pleasure of ‘dedicating churches in
Iquique, Valparaiso, and Pefioral, and from the day of
his arrival to the hour of his departure he was com-
pletely absorbed in the work that taxed his strength to
the utmost but filled his soul with triumphant joy.
How he came to love South America! It filled his
generous heart; and to his dying day, he prayed for
that great country, talked with fervid eloquence of her
needs and possibilities, and longed to see the money
pour into the treasury of the Lord that would found
and develop schools, build churches, and extend the
Kingdom of God over all that mighty hemisphere
whose industrial, political, and religious future must
rival in splendour and true greatness the dream of our
own country’s highest civilisation.

The Bishop departed from South America at Monte-
video and, as he was not to look upon that city again,
or again in this world see the faces of that brave and
devoted people, his last thoughts on taking ship for
Europe now seem very beautiful and tenderly elo-
quent. ‘“ Thursday afternoon we departed. A large
crowd gathered at the dock. They loaded us down
with flowers so that we could not carry them, and
had to ask help. They sang, ‘God be with you till
we meet again,’ in English, and we regretfully took
our departure.

“ Farewell, beautiful Montevideo! You have been a
Mount of Vision to my soul! I know that in your
392 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

fair city a thousand loyal Methodist hearts are beat-
ing in unison with mine, and they respond to my shout
across the dividing sea, ‘ All Uruguay for Christ.’ ”
And in his heart of hearts even to the last, was the
great prayer: “ All South America for Christ.”

In the spring of 1901 and again in 1902 Bishop
McCabe sailed from South America to Europe to hold
Conferences with Bishop Vincent. During the spring
of 1902 Bishop Vincent was absent from his European
field visiting this country and Bishop McCabe pre-
sided over seven of his Conferences, viz.: Switzer-
land, South Germany, Northern Germany, Denmark,
Finland, Sweden, and Norway.

On his return from Europe in the spring of 1go1
the Bishop devoted himself most earnestly and suc-
cessfully to raising the last portion of the amount of
money necessary to secure the full payment of the debt
of the Nebraska Wesleyan University.

He remained in Europe five months, from May to
September, of the year 1902, and on his return to the
United States filled up the fall and winter with a faith-
ful visitation of the churches in dedications, Mission-
ary meetings, and conventions, debt-raisings, lectures,
and evangelistic work. There were times when for
weeks in succession he would be on the platform or in
the pulpit every night, preaching or presenting some
benevolent cause or addressing some religious con-
vention.

In December of 1902 the Bishop was elected Chan-
cellor of the American University. Bishop Hurst,
who, dreamed the magnificent dream of this post-
SOUTH AMERICA 393

graduate culmination of the educational system of
pan-Methodism in the United States, left his chan-
cellor’s mantle of responsibility upon the broad, strong
shoulders of his dearest friend and most confidential
adviser, Bishop McCabe. And this man of splendid
visions saw the amazing glory of the enterprise that
swept across the imagination of Hurst like the golden
city that stood between the sea and sky and filled the
wondering gaze of John the Revelator as he stood on
the great and high mountain. Yes, they were vision-
gifted seers, Hurst and McCabe. They too stood on
the great and high mountain and they saw what the
inhabitants of the valleys could not see, they saw the
wings of the morning spreading wide and glorious
while others saw not the prophetic dawn and waited
long and slept in the darkness where there is no vision.

Bishop McCabe firmly believed in the future pos-
sibilities of the American University. With all his
dreaming he was the most common-sense, practical
man that ever built visions into realities and dreams
into history. But he was already too heavily laden
with obligations in his forward movement and spe-
cial relief work. The mission world still called him.
South America was on his heart, Church debts, frontier
Church extension, the poverty of poorly-paid ministers,
every needy cause and every needy soul seemed to be
tugging at his sympathies. How could he get at this
University enterprise with his call: “$5 each from
one million people”? That was his new slogan, and
he longed to sound it and rouse all Methodism to the
grandest educational achievement of the age. To the
394 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

Committee on Episcopacy of the General Conference
of 1904 he said: “If the General Conference desires
me to undertake to place the enterprise of the Ameri-
can University beyond all question of failure and will
give me its benediction and approval, I will attempt
to do it in the name of God. It is a tremendous task,
but we cannot, must not fail. We must plant securely
in the Nation’s Capital a great University which will
stand for Protestant Christianity, for an open Bible,
and for civil and religious liberty.”

But, alas, before he could get foot-loose and throw
his full energies into this work as the final mission of
one divinely “‘ doomed to raise money,” he heard the
call: “ It is enough.”
XXXIX

PHILADELPHIA RESIDENCE—GREAT
LABOURS—GLORIOUS END

HE General Conference of 1904, which met

at Los Angeles, California, assigned Bishop

McCabe to the Episcopal residence of Phila-

delphia. The cordial, affectionate reception that was

tendered the Bishop and his good wife by the hos-

pitable Methodists of ‘Philadelphia was a great joy to

them. During his long association with the Church

Extension Society Chaplain McCabe had greatly en-
deared himself to the people of that city.

When Bishop Foss was retired from active Epis-
copal supervision the loss of the services of that ac-
complished gentleman, finished scholar, eloquent
preacher, and truly great Bishop was keenly felt by
Philadelphia Methodism. If any action of the Gen-
eral Conference could in any measure have reconciled
that people to their loss it was the assignment of
Bishop McCabe to that Episcopal residence. As he
entered upon the new field, with press and people ex-
tending most enthusiastic welcome, the holy ambition
seemed to possess Bishop McCabe to clear off all the
debts that were burdening the churches of Phila-
delphia. These debts amounted to nearly three-
quarters of a million of dollars. The Bishop at once

395
396 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

took the leadership of this enterprise. He did not
spare himself, but with all his old-time vigour he
pushed the financial battle and helped to raise fully a
quarter of a million of dollars before his work ended.

No years of his Episcopacy were crowded with more
unremitting toil than these. He seemed inexhaustible
in resources, and in his visitations ubiquitous. His
energy never seemed to flag and he could easily tire
out any three ordinary men that undertook to catch
and keep his progressive stride. He was in demand
for lectures, Epworth League Conventions, corner-
stone layings, debt-raisings, dedications, sermons,
Chautauqua addresses, and all possible occasions for
oratory and preaching. No Bishop was ever more
popular or in more constant demand than he. He con-
tinued to grow into more and more of an ideal Bishop.
He combined so many high qualities of common sense,
tact, wisdom, intelligence, good humour, wit, pathos,
eloquence, sympathy, judgment, and fairness that he
made every conference session which he held memo-
rable, an occasion of never-to-be-forgotten spiritual
power and enjoyment.

But in the midst of his labours, with great benevo-
lences pressing upon his heart, with vast projects for
the promotion of the Kingdom of God filling his mind,
with splendid dreams still haunting his imagination,
and with all the tense energies of his forceful manhood
eager for achievement, his step faltered and he heard
the call: “It is enough.” Our captain in the front of
battle, our white-plumed Navarre, with his helmet and
his fighting harness on him, was leading up the heights,
 

MRS. CHARLES C. McCABE, 1906
GREAT LABOURS 397

still eager for the fray, when suddenly he fell, fell at
the top where the mountain pierced the sky and the
victory for both worlds was gloriously won.

How better could he have died? It was not reserved
for him to grow feeble and to decline, it was not for
his life to pass into “ the sere and yellow leaf.” No
decrepitude, no loss of force and fire, no superan-
nuation, no waning of his glorious fame, no vanish-
ing from public view into ungrateful forgetfulness
and oblivion, no lingering illness to sap his leonine
strength awaited him. ‘‘ His eye was not dim, nor his
natural force abated.” He died with the prophetic
vision bright and splendid as in the early days. He
was looking upon “ the triumph from afar,” the world
for Christ, “by faith he brought it nigh.” And God
gave him to the last that transcendently hopeful view
of the future of the Church which made his death but
a Pisgah-top translation. ‘“ And Moses went up from
the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the
top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the
Lord showed him all the land of Gilead unto Dan.

“ And all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim, and
Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, unto the utmost
sea.

“And the south, and the plain of the valley of
Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto Zoar.

“And the Lord said unto him, This is the land
which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto
Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have
caused thee to see it with thine eyes.”

The last six months of the Bishop’s life were
398 -THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

crowded with work in which it seemed that to the very
last he was “ doomed to raise money.” His last letter
to Dr. J. M. Buckley reveals his unabated devotion
to the Kingdom of God.

“ Sabbath Morning, June 17, 1906.
“ DEAR Dr. BUCKLEY:

“ Did you know I have had a breakdown, an attack
of vertigo, which has left me in a weakened condition?
I am trying to fill a few engagements that seem quite
important and then will rest for seven days... .
They keep me dedicating churches and addressing Ep-
worth League Conventions and Chautauquas.

“T ought to do nothing of that work for awhile.

“ How I do rejoice over the outcome for the Hos-
pital effort and for the Woman’s College of Balti-
more. Over one million of dollars for these two inter-
ests alone! It is wonderful. . . . What evidence of
the strength and loyalty of our Church . . . I never
saw the time when we were building as many fine
churches as now. . . . They do not count always in
the number because so many new churches are replac-
ing old ones. Last Tuesday I laid the corner-stone
of the new Emory Church in Pittsburg; Dr. Wedder-
spoon is pastor. It will cost $250,000 and seat 2,900
people. It will be a good place to hold'the next Gen-
eral Conference. . . . How blessed that the great
work will go forward when I am gone.

“These days of weakness and sleepless nights I find
myself repeating parts of this little poem, found under
the pillow of a dead soldier in Port Royal in 1862:
GREAT LABOURS 399

“** Tlay me down to sleep
With little care
Whether my waking find me
Here or there.

“*T am not eager—bold,
All that is past.
I’m ready not to do
At last—at last.

““* My full day's work is done,
And that is all my part ;
I give a patient God
My patient heart—

«« “And grasp his banner still
Though all the stars be dim—
For stripes no less than stars

Lead up to Him.’

“Yours faithfully,
“C. C. McCase.
“ Evanston, Il.
“'N. B.—Not for publication. The soldier wrote,
‘My half day’s work.’ I changed it to full.
“C. C. McCase.”

The Bishop was so eager to continue his labours
that he would not have any but his most intimate
friends know that he was ever overworked, or in need
of a physician’s care. Hence his suggestion to Dr.
Buckley: “ Not for publication.”

The indisposition of the early summer did not alarm
him and it soon passed away like many another similar
attack which he had experienced from back in the old
war days. There were occasions, however, when he
indicated that he believed the time was approaching
400 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

when it would be necessary for him to set his house in
order.

Through the summer and fall he continued in his
strenuous fashion to meet all the demands that were
made upon him by his Episcopal office and the benevo-
lent and evangelistic causes that appealed to his gen-
erous nature. His last mission was to aid a debt-
burdened church pay off a mortgage of $10,000.
Sunday, December 9, 1906, he preached for Rev. L.
R. Streeter, the pastor of the Methodist Episcopal
Church in Torrington, Conn., and during the day he
managed with great skill and success the mortgage-
raising campaign. The next night, Monday, Decem-
ber 10, he delivered his still famous lecture on “ The
Bright Side of Life in Libby Prison,” and never spoke
more eloquently. The audience was profoundly moved
by the unwonted power of his oratory; the old soldiers
in particular were held spell-bound by his war-time
reminiscences; they wept and laughed and lived the
war-days over again during that never-to-be-forgotten
hour.

It was his last utterance to the public which for
forty-five years had been listening to his burning elo-
quence. Nothing could have been more fitting than
that the last Sabbath message Bishop McCabe was
destined to deliver should have been a sermon preached
to raise money to free a church from debt. His text
that day was in Genesis xiii, 18, “ And (he) built there
an altar unto the Lord.” Church building! What a
theme that had been in the ministry of this man! No
less fitting was it that his last message from the plat-
GREAT LABOURS 401

form should have been that grand patriotic lecture
which all Americans had learned to admire and love
as the greatest of all lectures, “ The Bright Side of
Life in Libby Prison”!

The morning after this lecture he left Torrington
for New York, intending to lecture in New Jersey
that night, but on his way home to Philadelphia, he
proceeded from. the Grand Central Station to the
Twenty-third Street ferry and at the corner of Twelfth
Avenue he staggered, dropped his valise, and called to
the men near at hand to help him. “I feel ill,”’ said he,
“will you hold me up?” The car men, aided by a
policeman, tenderly held him and bore him to a near-
at-hand hotel, whence an ambulance quickly conveyed.
him to the New York Hospital. It was immediately
apparent that the Bishop was suffering from a stroke
of apoplexy and his entire right side was helpless. A
despatch was sent, summoning his wife from German-
town, Pennsylvania, and a telephone message called
Dr. George P. Mains of the Methodist Book Concern
to the Hospital. Quickly responding to the call, Dr.
Mains visited the beloved Bishop. Of the situation, he
wrote in answer to Dr. Buckley’s inquiry:

“TI immediately went to the Hospital and was con-
ducted to the room where the Bishop was lying.

“He without doubt promptly recognised me, and
with the first statement said: ‘This is the end with
me.
“T said, ‘I hope not, Bishop.’

“* Ves,’ said he, ‘ this is the end; but it is all right.
Let nobody be disturbed about it.’

?
4o2 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

“‘T asked him if he were suffering pain. He said:
‘No.’ With his left hand he then took hold of his
right hand, his paralysed hand, and said: ‘ This seems
like another man’s hand; it does not seem like my own
hand.’

“ He expressed a desire that his wife might be com-
municated with. He requested me to be careful that
she should not be frightened by the message given.
I asked if he could give me his home address. This
he was unable to do, merely saying that he lived in
Germantown, but he seemed unable to recall his street
and number.

“T then asked him if he had a telephone in his home.
He said ‘ Yes.’ I assured him that his wife would
come on the first train which could bring her to New
York. He said: ‘ That is good; I am so glad.’

“ Giving him to know that we would leave nothing
undone that might minister to his comfort, and in-
structing the Hospital authorities that’ everything
should be done within their power for his relief and
care, I came away.”

By eight o’clock that evening Mrs. McCabe was at
the bedside of her stricken husband. For eight days
the unequal struggle between life and death continued.

It is the dawn of December 19, at five-twenty of the
clock; a solemn hush falls upon the little group,
pathetically watching beside the still-pulsed warrior of
the Cross. The end has come; our glorious McCabe
responds no more to love’s caress or hope’s inquiry.
For him, time ends, eternity begins,

“‘ Heaven's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows flee.”
XL
OBSEQUIES—EULOGIES—APPRECIATION

HE sudden illness and the death of Bishop

McCabe sent round the world a pang of

grief. No greater loss could have befallen
Methodism by the death of any man.

Funeral services were held in New York, Phila-
delphia, and Evanston, Illinois. On the evening of
December 20 the body was borne from the residence
of E. M. F. Miller, 797 Lexington Avenue, to St.
Paul’s Methodist Episcopal Church; Dr. George P.
Eckman presiding as pastor of the Church. The
casket was covered with the flag of our country. In
the assembly gathered to honour the memory of the
fallen leader were not less than one hundred ministers.
Noble words were spoken there of the character and
life-work of this remarkable man.

The now lamented Bishop Andrews, with his calm
judgment and careful mode of expression, paid a high
tribute to his departed associate when he said: “ The
Creator chooses to form some men to be very con-
spicuous and unique. Such were Asbury and Simp-
son, such was Chaplain and Bishop McCabe.”

Bishop Fowler, so soon to follow him, sent the
words of eulogy:

“A revolving light on the coast of Methodism has

403
404. THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

been extinguished. Bishop McCabe, who was quick
and prompt for everything needing immediate encour-
agement or reproof, has closed his lips here forever.
We shall look for him in our great assemblies and in
our great enterprises and along our wide frontier in
vain; yet we shall have him in our thought for many a
long year. It is difficult to measure him and estimate
aright his power. He was so unlike any of the rest of
us that we are without a unit of measurement. Per-
haps it is not too much to say that he had more and
greater gifts than any man in the Church at this time.
The first impression he made upon us was by his pecu-
liar and pathetic singing. Perhaps that gift, though
not his greatest, was the one most frequently recalled
in. connection with his name. My earliest recollection
of him was hearing him sing in Bryan Hall, Chicago,
at a war meeting. His voice thrilled every one and it
seerned as though every one, as he sang ‘My Own
Columbia,’ would certainly start right off that night
for the front. From that day till a week ago Tues-
day he presented before us a constantly growing figure
till it seemed to fill the whole land.

“He must be measured by what he has done. The
great enterprises with which he has been identified
will indicate somewhat of his proportions.

“ His great activity was equalled only by his great
personality. He had that peculiar type of genius that
attracted to him almost everybody he touched. Doubt-
less more people throughout the length and breadth of
Methodism loved him than were drawn to anybody
else. This gave him a power over men and women to
OBSEQUIES 405

make them identify themselves with the interests he
was trying to serve.

“But he has passed into the worlds out of sight.
More people will mourn his absence than would mourn
for any man among us. In our sorrow we will not
measure him by the hard and fast lines that apply
to most men, but will look at the great work he accom-
plished and wonder who can take his place. Carry-
ing all the great interests with which he has been iden-
tified, he seemed like a pack-horse whose load almost
concealed his presence, and yet he moved like a racer,
hardly. touching the ground in his speed.

“We will not forget to pray for her who was the
deepest in his heart and whose name was last on his
lips.

“It remains for us only to imitate his courage and
faith; and in so doing we will not hinder the cause
by stumbling at the ‘exceeding great and precious
promises.’ ”’

Dr. J. M. Buckley, editor of the Christian Advo-
cate, had known the Chaplain and Bishop for nearly
half a century and had been his constant friend and
supporter in all the great benevolent projects of his
secretarial and Episcopal career. He knew his friend
as few others knew him, and of him he spoke with
tender and just appreciation. “ The personal appear-
ance of Bishop McCabe was both striking and sym-
pathetic. Before he spoke either in private inter-
course or in public assemblies his aspect and nobility
of features ingratiated him. His voice, indescribable,
flowed rather than penetrated into the ear of the
406 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

listener. It was capable of every modification in pitch,
tone, and rhythm. Fascination was the natural result.

“ Energy, versatility, and agreeable persistence were
among the sources of his influence. Persuasiveness
often wrought wonders that logic could never have
achieved.

“ Wit, humour, and pathos were his weapons, all
directed from the centre of the soul. His intuitive
perception was such that it seemed that the heart and
mind of a brilliant woman had in some way possessed
his manly frame.

“ The familiar phrase often misused that ‘ we ne’er
shall see his like again,’ was, in speaking of him, self-
evident truth.

“The achievements of his life were too numerous
to recount, too important to be easily measured, and
so closely connected with his country and his Church,
his friends and his fellowmen wherever he met them,
that thousands, rather than one, should be called to
the stand in the Court of Humanity. But as these
would not be adequate it is a supreme consolation that
they are all recorded in the books which shall be opened
in the great day of destiny.”

Dr. William V. Kelley, editor of the Methodist
Review, spoke of Chaplain McCabe, the soldier, ora-
tor, and lover. It was a funeral oration of rare elo-
quence, of which the following are extracts:

“ Though only a chaplain in the army, Chaplain Mc-
Cabe had a soldier’s heroism, a soldier’s experience,
and a soldier’s patriotism. It is simply unthinkable
that a man constituted as he was, with such blood as
OBSEQUIES 407

he had in his veins, and with the ideals and hopes he
had in his heart, at the age of twenty-five when the
war broke out, should have stayed at home and re-
frained from answering when the bugles sounded the
call for the defence of freedom and the Union. When
that call sounded, this man, whom we have heard so
often sing ‘The Battle Hymn of the Republic,’ said
to himself:
‘* « Be swift, my soul, to answer,
Be jubilant, my feet,’

and he went forth, a soldier every inch of him, ready
for the hardships and the daring, and the death if need
be. There were many men who rose to the rank of
general and commanded brigades and army corps and
wore brilliant epaulettes, who did not succeed in identi-
fying themselves one-tenth as conspicuously in the
mind of the nation with the tremendous titanic strug-
gle by which the Union was saved, as did the chaplain
of the One Hundred and Twenty-second Ohio. Chap-
lain McCabe to the people of this nation through the
years after the war came to represent to them more
than any other man in the land the memories and the
patriotism of the war. . . . A soldier and a great
patriot, no man in the land loved his country more
purely or ardently than did he. And no better evan-
gelist of patriotism has gone up and down the land
in all the years since the war kindling in the hearts of
men, of all ages, the fires of patriotism and of devo-
tion to their country.

“This is the funeral of a great orator, one of the
most triumphant and irresistible of men in speaking to
408 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

his fellow-men. He was an emotional man, and this
helped to make him the orator he was. . . . Hecould
stand on his feet and in five minutes overflow with
emotion a conference that did not dream it was coming.
I remember a typical occasion such as happened many
times when he presided at conferences.

“It was one of the Ohio conferences some two or
more years ago, a sultry September morning. The
routine business of the conference went on in a hum-
drum kind of way, nothing stirring, no throb or thrill.
The machinery ground on regularly, turning out the
grist, the necessary, useful grist. The only unwearied
thing visible to the eye from the pew was the coun-
tenance of that man who sat on the platform. The
strong, square jaw, that ample, oratoric mouth, that
well-chiselled nose, those dark, cavernous, deep-seated
eyes, with a glow in them as of a bed of coals lying
back there in the brain, eyes that had in them always
the possibility of flame, he sat there, quietly attending
to business. Presently he set aside the other business
of the Conference and rose and called before him the
young men who were to be admitted to Conference,
that he might address them. The address was not long,
not half so long as the address to which I listened
when I was admitted. The address was no ‘set’ ad-
dress, but a succession of flashes. Everything began
to stir. There was a sense in the air of something
like a wind blowing from the hills of heaven. Some-
thing of Pentecost came over him and over us; every-
thing was electric and alive; the quietly spoken sen-
tences had a thrill, and they were full of the power
OBSEQUIES 409

of the Gospel; it was like a succession of heart-beats,
full of divine grace, full of the Spirit. And he gave
those young men something better than logic, some-’
thing better than a disquisition on theology, something
better than even detailed instructions about the
minutiz of their ministerial duties. He gave them
inspiration.

“He was a great lover. Some one has suggested
that he was the most ardently loved man in
Methodism. If that was true, the secret of it was
that he was a great lover, for only love begets love.
O, what a wealthy soul he was! What an affluent man
in the true, indestructible riches of human existence!
Ruskin has said that ‘a man’s wealth is measured by
the number he loves and is loved by.’ That doctrine is
' not taught in the text-books on political economy, so
far as I know, by Adam Smith or any of his succes-
sors. I thank God for a man like Ruskin who could
see the spiritual, the principal, the eternal values of
human life and seein them thé substance of real wealth.
O multi-millionaire Chaplain and Bishop McCabe!
How rich he has gone into the skies! ‘ How much did
he leave?’ said some one concerning a very rich man
who had died. ‘ He left it all; all he had,’ was the reply.
But say of this man that he was a multi-millionaire
in the greatest wealth that humanity can acquire. And
say not that he left it all. Say rather he has carried
it all up with him to lay it at his Master’s feet, crying,
“I used all this love for thee, O Master, for thy glory,
for thy service, while I was on the earth.’ ”

A guard of honour composed of Philadelphia min-
410 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

isters and laymen escorted the body of Bishop McCabe
to the city of his Episcopal residence, and in Arch
Street Church an imposing and most impressive service
was held. Although the services were announced for
the early hour of 9.30 o’clock on the morning of De-
cember 22, the church was crowded, and fully three
hundred ministers were present. All preparations for
the service having been made by Dr. G. H. Bickley, the
pastor of Arch Street Church, Dr. A. G. Kynett pre-
sided, and Drs. J. M. King and C. M. Boswell delivered
the addresses.

Among the finest and most highly appreciated
tributes that were paid to the memory of Bishop Mc-
Cabe was this contributed to the Philadelphia Led-
ger by the pen of the broad-minded and great-hearted
Bishop Alexander Mackay-Smith. It is with peculiar
feelings of veneration and gratitude that the great
Methodist Communion of America and of the world
read this golden-lettered encomium:

“To THE EpITor OF THE ‘ Pusiic LEDGER’:

“Will you allow one who was prevented from at-
tending the funeral services of the late Bishop Mc-
Cabe, through ignorance of the hour and place, to pay
this little tribute of respect to his memory?

“ The loss of such a man to his own body, as well
as to others in the Christian work of Philadelphia,
‘seems for the time being to be inexpressible. He had,
among other great gifts, that which one so seldom
finds in this tired age—the enthusiasm of Christianity.
His face alone was a benediction, Wherever he went
OBSEQUIES 4ll

he seemed to make all things new. In his presence
faith in human nature revived and the atmosphere
above him became fragrant with hope. In the annals
of the past Philadelphia (to a greater extent than most
American cities) has been the home of great Christian
men, on whom have leaned multitudes of other souls
who had come to believe in God because they believed
in the men whom He has consecrated. Among them
all there were few as great as McCabe. When one
considers his life in detail, his record as an army chap-
lain and in those years since that time, in which, by the
magnetism of his presence and the eloquence of his ap-
peal, he has drawn vast sums for unselfish purposes
from the hands of men little accustomed to be moved
by arguments addressed to the ‘higher life’ within
them, one cannot but feel that here was a life testify-
ing to the Spirit of God moving amid His people. Men
tell us that Jesus Christ passed away nineteen centuries
ago and has never returned. Yes, but here was one of
His beacon lights, standing on a headland, far away
from Palestine, and in a distant age, yet illumined by
the electric stream of that great dynamo which passes
invisibly to baser minds, through the ground and over-
head, until it finds some sympathetic point from which
to irradiate the darkness of material civilisation.

“The world will be a lonelier place to many now
that McCabe has gone, but heaven will be a friendlier
home because of his presence there. Men such as he
have been the glory of the great Methodist body. I
congratulate them with all my heart on the fact that,
although they have been called upon to suffer this
412 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

severe loss, yet the life of their great leader calls atten-
tion to the truth that their communion has not lost its
power of attracting and winning many of the noblest
souls who merit, indeed, the title of the ‘ Jewels of the
Lord.’
** ALEXANDER MACKAY-SMITH,
[Bishop Coadjutor of Pennsylvania. ],
“The Church House, December 22, 1906.”

The final obsequies took place in Evanston, Illinois,
December 24, 1906. Dr. T. P. Frost, pastor of the
First Methodist Episcopal Church, presided. There,
too, were spoken eulogies that proved the love men
had for Bishop McCabe and that set forth the true
greatness of his genius and the beneficent usefulness of
his life. Bishop Warren uttered words of high ap-
preciation and of discriminating praise when he said
of his departed friend and associate:

“This man, this hero, was a statesman. He saw
broadly. He saw the world’s destiny hanging on the
conflict that he went to wage in the ‘ sixties. He saw
broadly—shall I say, rather, highly? Gladstone was
a great statesman, and he reckoned that the world’s
woes and ignorance might be overcome by English
arms, English policy, English bravery, English cus-
toms, and the Gospel. McCabe saw that the world’s
woes would all be healed by the Gospel—the Gospel and
the outcome of it, American ways, American customs,
and American arms. And so he stood forth, seeing
world-wide. The last time I saw him his heart was all
overflowing with gladness at the news from Bolivia,
OBSEQUIES 413

that twice had passed the General Assembly of Bolivia
liberty of conscience, freedom to worship God; and
his soul was filled like a fountain with infinite joy and
power at the news. And then he had Spain’s declara-
tion of liberty of: conscience, and Russia’s, and he sym-
pathised with France in her struggle. Oh, broad and
high and glorious was the man we miss and over whom
we are breaking our hearts to-day—glorious and
great.”

Bishop Berry presented another facet of the dia-
mond-like splendour of his character:

“Tf I were asked to give in a word our brother’s
dominating characteristic, I would say that it was his
perennial optimism; in other words, his unfaltering
faith, for (the dictionary to the contrary, notwith-
standing) faith and optimism are about the same thing.
Our friend was a magnificent believer. He was little
troubled with doubts; he beliéved in God; he believed
in people; he believed in the Church; he believed
in the Bible; he believed in the Gospel; he be-
lieved in the conquering power of Jesus, and he
looked confidently to His triumph all over the
world. He was as sure that the King is preparing
a reign on the earth to-morrow as he was that the sun
would rise to-morrow—that is why he was so sunny,
faith works that way; faith and hope are very near
neiglibours, doubt and despair also live close to-
gether.”

Bishop Moore could speak only in apostrophe, but
his words came welling up from the great deep heart
of a genuine and manly love:
414 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

““O matchless leader, how our hearts warm as we
think of thee to-day! Shall we never see thee again?
Shall thy warm hand never take ours again? Shall
we never hear thy magic voice that was as potent to
smite the hearts of men until they poured out peniten-
tial sorrow as to smite the greed and selfishness of men
until they ‘poured out streams of benefaction for the
good of the world? Are we not to see thee again?
No! no! no! none can take thy place; thou art alone;
thy niche none other shall fill. It was for thee to do
thy work. ‘Too many like thee would not have done
in this strange world of ours. Conservatism is our
palladium, but thou hast taught us how it shall not
be our sepulchre. And so we loved thee, and so we
will love thee evermore.”

Bishop Walden, ever looking on the practical side
of life and judging men by their deeds and possibilities,
said: “I have sometimes wondered what would have
been the result of his strange and marvellous activity,
his wonderful sympathy, and his deep interest in the
elevation of the coloured people, if he had come into
that position (Freedman’s Aid) instead of the one
into which he was providentially called. And yet I
wonder what would have been the effect upon the
other great movement (Church Extension) into which
he put his life and to which he gave an impulse it had
not had before.”

Bishop McDowell’s eulogy was academically careful
but not the less sincere and hearty. He said in part:

“Tt is one hundred and forty years since Philip
Embury, a Methodist preacher from Ireland, began
OBSEQUIES 41s

to preach in New York. In that time we have had
a good many types, characteristic and striking—some
with Irish blood in their veins. Our Church has given
large hospitality to unique men. We have had abun-
dant use for many kinds and our history is rich in
individual character. But we have never had another
like the one whose body lies before us to-day, silent
and motionless and strange in its repose. He was not
a copy of any one else, no one else has successfully
copied him. We do not therefore compare him with
any other. And if any one should say that he was
incomparable, we should not be careful to deny it.
His unique personality and extraordinary career will
long be remembered in our annals. He always seemed
to be a vital projection of the older and more char-
acteristic days upon our more conventional and prosaic
times. But after all our varying judgments and
opinions, I am sure this opinion will abide: his per-
sonality was unique, and his career extraordinary.”
A thrilling incident connected with the funeral serv-
ice at Evanston was the singing of “ The Battle Hymn
of the Republic ” by Mr. George Iott, a baritone singer.
of magnificent voice. When this was proposed for the
first time as part of the service, there were friends who
questioned the propriety of the selection. But as it
was remnembered that he about whose coffin the Stars
and Stripes were draped that day had made the patri-
otic battle hymn popular and immortal with his own
glorious voice and that he had sung it at the funeral
of Abraham Lincoln, the grand old hymn was sung,
the audience joining in the well-known chorus. The
416 THE LIFE OF CHAPLAIN McCABE

effect was magical; every heart was thrilled and many
a strong man shook with emotion. It then seemed
that nothing could have been more fitting on that
solemn and heart-moving occasion of the obsequies of
the most famous Chaplain in the great Civil War.

Bishop McCabe was buried in Rose Hill Cemetery
near Chicago. Consecrated ground! Yes, consecrated
by the dust of noble dead, for there sleep Dempster,
Hamline, Cummings, Harris, Bannister, Hemenway,
Kidder, and Merrill, of blessed memory, and there too
sleeps many a soldier who in the days that tried men’s
souls gave his life a holy sacrifice in defence of our
National Union. Consecrated ground! Consecrated
anew, that he now sleeps there who led the Church
from victory to victory in the spiritual conquest of this
world and whose very name, Chaplain McCabe, has
become to Christendom a glorious memory and an im-
mortal inspiration.

Words that may appropriately close this volume, and
words that might with justice adorn our great leader’s
monument, come from the pen of Bishop Earl Cran-
ston in appreciation of his beloved colleague, Bishop
Charles Cardwell McCabe : “‘ Few men have done more
to make the world better.”

 

THE QUINN & BODEN CO, PRESS, RAHWAY, N. J.