^ - ^X OF P/?%^ OCT 1 9 1911 *) ^^^,,:7'^'-.\..^^/ DivisioQ B X mi Frank Field Ellinwood / T^ t^^i^t^^^<.i^-z^^^^ ^>■■ Frank Field EUinwood His Life and Work 1* OCT 19 1911 MARY G. ELLINWOOD New York Chicago Toronto Fleming H. Revell Company London and Edinburgh Copyright, igii, by FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY New York: 158 Fifth Avenue Chicago: 123 N. Wabash Ave. Toronto: 25 Richmond St., W. London : 21 Paternoster Square Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street TO LAURA The wife to whose unselfish devotion he owed the happiness and tranquillity of mind which more than any other earthly cause contributed to his length of days and the success and usefulness of his career. PREFACE The biography was undertaken by request, for the benefit of relatives, intimate friends, and espe- cially for the grandchildren of my Father. Hence many details pertaining to his childhood and youth have been given which might otherwise have been omitted. I wish gratefully to acknowledge the assistance given by my Mother, whose memory has supplied many interesting incidents. And thanks are also due to the Rev. Andrew Morse, whose care- fully preserved letters from his College chum have enabled me to present those days, and the follow- ing Seminary years, as largely autobiographical. But warmest and most especial gratitude is rendered to the two devoted friends of my Father, Miss Ellen C. Parsons, editor of Woman's Work, and Mr. Robert E. Speer, who gave time from their busy lives to contribute — in chapters xv and xvi — the best pages in the Memorial. This record, of a life so full of high endeavour, and so far-reaching in its influence for good, and of a nature simple, tender, true and pure, — is given as a precious heritage to his descendants, and as an inspiration to them, and possibly to others, to struggle and achieve, and as far as in each lies, to leave like " footprints in the sands of time." Contents PAGE Chapter I. — 1826-1845 Birth — Ancestry — Childhood — Academy Days — Teaching 11 Chapter II. — 1845-185 1 College Days — Graduation — Teaching in Al- bany and Batavia 27 Chapter III. — 1851-1854 Seminary Days — Marriage — Pastorate at Bel- vedere, N. J 35 Chapter IV.— 1854-1866 Pastorate at Rochester, N, Y. — The Civil War — First Trip Abroad — Personal Charac- teristics — Death of His Wife — Journey to Spain and the Holy Land — Leaves Rochester 44 Chapter V. — 1866-1871 Removal to New York — Secretary of Church Erection Committee — Marriage — Home at Orange, N. J. — Journey to California — As- sociate Editor of New York Evangelist — Sec- retary of the Five Million Memorial Fund . 56 Chapter VI. — 1871-1877 Secretary for the Board of Foreign Missions — Journey Around the World 63 CONTENTS rAGE Chapter VII. — 1877-1887 Publishes First Book — Visit to Mexico — Con- nection with Clifton Springs Sanitarium — Leaves Orange and Settles in New York — Pro- fessor of Comparative Religions • • • 73 Chapter VIII.— 1887-1890 World Conference on Missions — Appeal to King Leopold — Visit to Scotland — Letters . 8i Chapter XI. — 1890-1897 Missionary Guests — Lectures at Andover and Union Theological Seminary — Publishes "Ori- ental Religions and Christianity " — Letters — Degree of LL. D. Conferred — Address to Li Hung Chang — Reply of the Viceroy ... 89 Chapter X. — 1897-1900 Appointed Guardian of Korean Prince — Con- nection with Korea — Establishment of the Philippine Mission — President of Chi Alpha Circle — Brings out Third Book on Missions . 105 Chapter XL — 1900-1903 Home Life in Cornwall — Trip to Bermuda — Death of His Grandson — Letters — Mutual Esteem Between Colleagues — Secretarial La- bors Lightened . 116 Chapter XII. — 1903-1905 Death of Daughter — Founding of Manila Training School — Physical Infirmity — Fare- well to Office — Dignity and Patience Under Suffering 129 CONTENTS PAGE Chapter XIII. — 1905-1908 Letters — Winters in the South — Resignation — Letters — Death 135 Chapter XIV. Funeral Services in Cornwall, New York, and Rochester 151 Chapter XV. Dr. EUinwood and the Women's Boards : By Miss Ellen C. Parsons, M.A 160 Chapter XVL As Secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions : By Robert E. Speer, D.D. 187 Chapter XVIL Tributes 234 ILLUSTRATIONS Frank Field Ellinwood , . . Frontispiece FACING PAGE Ellinwood Residents ...... 96 Ellinwood Girls' School, 1909 .... 134 Frank Field Ellinwood When About Seventy Years of Age 214 I— I826-I845 BIRTH ANCESTRY CHILDHOOD ACADEMY DAYS — TEACHING FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD was born in Clinton, Oneida County, N. Y., on June 20, 1826. He was the fourth in a family of eleven children born to Eli Ellinwood and his wife, Sophia Maria Gridley. Seven years before this date the bride of eighteen had mounted on a pillion behind her young husband and ridden with him through the village from her father's home to his house on Brimfield Street, where he himself had been born, and where in years to come eight of their children were born. That bride, many dec- ades later, was heard to say, — a. glimmer of pride lighting her faded eyes, — " In those days your Grandfather was called Handsome Ellinwood." The Brimfield Street house had been built in 1793 by Samuel Ellinwood, father of Eli. He was doubtless something of a pioneer in the neighbour- hood, as the street was named for his native town in Massachusetts; to which place he journeyed in the following January for his bride, Rebecca Groves. The substantial old building is still stand- ing, and the street retains its ancient name. 12 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD Frank Ellinwood was the seventh in descent from Ralph ElHnwood, a Welshman, whose name is recorded in the London Custom House as em- barking on the ship True Love, in September, 1635. He landed in Salem, then a town only nine years old, and there married and settled. In recog- nition of a service later rendered to the township, a grant of land was made to Ralph, which has for his descendants a particular interest. Quotations from a copy of this land conveyance follow. There was held " a meeting of ye Selectmen, ye 6th of ye 2nd month 1661, there being present Major E. Hathorne, Sergeant J. Porter, Mr. Wil- liam Brown, Henry Bartholomew and Mr. Cor- win," to carry out the terms of an agreement en- tered into by Ralph Ellinwood "ye nth month of 1659, whereby He, the said Ellinwood is to have all the waste land that is common from the East side of his lot, to the Point, and so round before the river, so farr as his land goeth; with all the marsh or creek therein. And further he hath Liberty to fence on the east side of his lot down to low water marke." " A true copy of Town Record as exam- ined in Salem. Attest — Thomas Barton." On these same " marshes, creeks, and waste lands " now stands the city of Charlestown, Massa- chusetts, and a part of Cambridge. Ralph Ellinwood became a member of the First Congregational Church of Salem; and there are recorded the baptisms of six of his children. In ANCESTRY 13 1666, — a quarter of a century before Salem lighted her witch fires, — he removed to Beverly, Massachu- setts, and the church records of that town show that on the 23rd of April, 1667, Ralph Ellinwood and some fifty other members " petitioned the Salem Church for a separate church at Beverly." He and his descendants appear to have been faithful in attendance on the New England Meeting House, a faithfulness especially commendable in those bitter winters when the chill of the churches mocked at the glowworm heat of a few footstoves. One branch at least of the family moved later to Brim- field, Mass., and in a History * of that town there is an account of " ye seating of ye Meeting House," wherein is given the location of the respective pews of Thomas Ellinwood, and Thomas Ellinwood, Junior. This Thomas Junior was a man of prominence in Brimfield, and was one of those Selectmen, who, " on July 14th, 1773, as mem- bers of the War Grievance Committee, signed a protest to King George." It is certain that the Ellinwoods of a more recent date have been equally good citizens, public-spirited and characterized by uprightness, dignity, and purity of mind and life. A peculiar and lovable simplicity of nature has been common to many of * See, in the Congressional Library at Washington, " The Historical Celebration of the town of Brimfield, Hampden County," by Rev. Charles M. Hyde. (Clark Bryan Co., Springfield, Mass., Printers.) 14 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD them, combined with gentleness of manner, and in speech, great purity of diction. Eli Ellinwood, a man of superior intelligence, was especially fastidi- ous in his language. In old age he spent a year or two with his son Frank, and as one grandchild has remarked, " Grandfather never corrected us unless it were for some childish slip in grammar." But his oft-repeated request to " Parse that sentence " some- times caused dismay. It frequently happens that the boy who amounts to most in life has inherited from the mother's side of the family some of his best qualities, and this was true in the case of Frank Ellinwood. His force and aggressiveness were clearly derived from the Gridleys,* while his mother's family, on the mater- * The Gridleys trace their descent from Albertus Greslet, who entered England with William the Conqueror and was present at the battle of Hastings. He and his descendants were Barons of Manchester from the Conquest till 1315. The name underwent, from generation to generation, many changes in orthography, but there was never a change in the warlike spirit of its representatives. Albert de Gredle, a grandson of Albertus, was killed in " the wars in Wales." Robert de Griedley took part with the rebellious Barons, and in King John's time forfeited all his lands in Lincoln, Norfolk, Suf- folk, Oxfordshire, and Lancashire (twelve Knight's fees in all), but later made his peace with Henry HI and received them back. He married the niece of William de Longchamps, the famous Chancellor of Coeur de Lion ; and was one of those Barons who witnessed the confirmation of the Magna Charta at Westminster in 1225. The first to spell his name as we do was Thomas de Gridley, who served in Gascony in 1242, ANCESTRY 15 nal side, belonged to a circle of devoted Christian pioneers, who laid the foundation for religious and educational institutions in Central New York. His mother's sister was a most consecrated Christian woman, and a favourite aunt of Frank's. Her two brothers were Presbyterian clergyman, the Rev. Samuel Gridley, D.D., of Waterloo, being especially well known and esteemed in Central and Western New York; while her cousin was that intrepid heroine, Mrs. Eliza Hart Spaulding, who in 1836 with her husband and Dr. and Mrs. Marcus Whit- man responded to the Macedonian call of the Nez Perces, and made a wonderful and historic over- land trip, " crossing the Rocky Mountains and es- tablishing a mission on the wilds of the Pacific Slope." In a book entitled " American Heroes on Mission Fields," there is an article by Dr. Ellin- wood giving a thrilling account of this journey. Mrs. Spaulding and Mrs. Whitman were the first white women to follow the overland trail, and this six years before Fremont, treading in their foot- steps, gained the name of the " Path Finder." They were both young and delicate women, had been against the Scots in 1244, and against Wales in 1260. It was nearly four hundred years later, — in 1630, — that Thomas Grid- ley, twenty-third in descent from Albertus, emigrated from Essex, England, with his two brothers, and founded the American family. Six years after landing he joined a band of thirty men from Windsor, Conn., who volunteered to fight the Pequots. i6 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD tenderly nurtured, and Mrs. Spaulding was recently risen from a sick bed. No wheel had yet pressed the sage brush, and they were obliged to travel thou- sands of miles on horseback, fording great rivers on rafts improvised from buffalo skins. Often their only subsistence was buffalo meat; they were tortured by thirst, and hostile Indians sometimes surrounded their camp by night. Finally Mrs. Spaulding, desperately ill, was laid by the roadside to die. She only said, " Leave me. Go on and save yourselves. Tell mother I'm glad I came." She rallied, however, and lived to aid her husband in establishing the Mission, labouring many years for the Nez Perces, and outliving Dr. and Mrs. Whit- man, who were massacred by Indians in 1847. In the article referred to. Dr. Ellinwood recalls hear- ing, when a child, his " mother and grandmother discussing letters received from this far-away cousin." And he concludes, " her chief pre-emi- nence lay in the element of religious trust. It is doubtful whether there has ever appeared a higher type of missionary heroism than that of Mrs. Spaulding." If some of the more dominant characteristics in Frank Ellinwood were inherited from his mother's side of the family, the same seems to have been true in the case of his distant cousin, the famous New England philanthropist, Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe. From the time when Thomas, Richard, and Samuel Gridley landed in Boston, early in the seven- ANCESTRY 17 teenth century, there has cropped out, every now and then, a distinguished descendant of that name. Thomas, the ancestor of Frank, settled in Connec- ticut, and became the great-uncle of the two brothers Jeremy and Richard, who in the eighteenth century made for themselves a name; Jeremy becoming Attorney General for the province of Massachu- setts Bay, while Richard attained the rank of Major General in the Revolutionary War.* Of the three original brothers, Samuel died not long after landing, and his name reappears from generation to generation in the descendants of his brothers. It was the name of Frank EUinwood's grandfather and of his uncle, and it was the name which in 1801 the beautiful Patty Gridley Howe * The encyclopedias tell us that — "Jeremy was born in Boston in 1702; was educated at Harvard; became, for a short time, editor of a paper; was eminent for his classic attainments; acquired great reputa- tion as a lawyer, and finally was appointed Attorney General for the province of Massachusetts Bay. His brother Richard, born in 171 1, was in 1745 in the engineer service at the Siege of Louisburg. Ten years later he was made Chief Engineer and Colonel of Infantry; and in 1756, took part in the Crown Point Expedition, erecting the fortifications at Lake George. In 1758 he served under Am- herst, and later under Wolfe, with such distinction that Mag- dalen Island and half pay were given him as reward. And when the Revolution broke out he directed the construction of the works on Breed's Hill the night before the Battle of Bunker Hill. He rose to the rank of Major General." The Connecticut Records also mention one Abraham Grid- ley, descendant of Thomas, who, as a youth in his late teens, served in the Siege of Louisburg. i8 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD gave to the son who was destined to become " one of our great Americans, and one of the best men who ever lived." That is the opinion expressed by John Jay Chapman in an enthusiastic review of the " Life of Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe," recently brought out by his daughter, Mrs. Laura E. Richards. He variously styles him, " A great romantic hero"; "an extraordinary and unique personality," and a " man whose response to any call for help was automatic." It was that divine pity which stirred him as a youth to fight for six long years with the Greek patriots against Turkish oppression; to endure many hardships, " subsisting at one time on fried wasps, with only a stone for a pillow." And later, to raise funds for the starving refugees; and to found and maintain for them a colony at Corinth, where he was himself " governor, clerk, and con- stable." And it was the same spirit which in 1837 helped him to free from imprisonment the darkened mind and soul of little Laura Bridgeman, performing a miracle which startled the world; and which has since given to us the genius of Helen Kellar. In following the life history of Frank Ellinwood, it will appear that in force and executive ability, in the humanitarian impulse, and in the faculty for leadership, he was not unlike his more famous kinsman. One other militant Gridley of recent date is CHILDHOOD 19 worthy of mention, Captain Charles Vernon Grid- ley, who in the battle of Manila received from Admiral Dewey the command, " You can five when you are ready, Gridley." Frank Ellinwood's great-grandfather, Abraham Gridley, was born near Hartford, Conn., and married Theodosia Hossington. They afterward moved to Clinton, where their sons, Sylvester and Samuel, married two sisters, Laura and Chloe Hart. Samuel inherited from his mother a fine voice, and sang in the choir of the Clinton Congregational Church with Thomas Hastings, the well known writer of hym.ns. This gift of song descended to* Frank, and to two, at least, of his brothers. The boyhood environment of young Frank was, in many respects, a fortunate one, laying founda- tions for a healthy body and a wholesome mind. As one of many brothers and sisters on his father's farm, he early learned habits of work, and general helpfulness; while the atmosphere of a nearby col- lege furnished an intellectual stimulus which, in later years, had its effect on the ambitious boy. It was a primitive life. In those days cooking stoves were unknown; and baking was done in brick ovens. Meats were broiled over the coals; and matches were so expensive that they were used only by the wealthy. Flint and punk were utilized for kindling a blaze; and an uncle writes that as a boy he " well remembers going to the neighbours to borrow fire." At that period home-made candles 20 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD furnished light; and as there were no ice chests, in winter certain articles of food, such as pies or sauces, were kept frozen. His children have heard their father tell of the barrel of frozen cider apple- sauce which stood on his mother's back porch, and of how, as a youngster, he used to balance on the edge of the half empty barrel and excavate with a stout spoon. In the spring of 1834 EH Ellinwood moved with his family from Clinton, to Pembroke, N. Y., a distance of one hundred and sixty miles. As no railroads crossed New York State at that time,* the journey had to be made by wagon, and a descrip- tion of it is furnished by Henry Ellinwood, younger brother of Frank. " We moved in lumber wagons, one heav- ily loaded with household effects, the other lighter, fitted up for the occupancy of mother and the children. Father drove the loaded team, and brother Emory followed close behind with the family. The lighter wagon was fitted up somewhat after the style of the Prairie Schooner of more recent date. The cover was an extemporized one, the bows being made out of some tough kind of timber bent into proper shape and covered with striped bedticking. The latter was used as an eco- nomic measure, as it could be utilized in the manu- facture of bedding after our arrival. There were no springs under the wagon, but mother and the * There were, in 1830, but twenty- four miles of railroad in the United States. CHILDHOOD 21 two younger children had a spring seat, while Emory, your father and I sat upon a box in front which contained eatables. ... I remember that our first stop was at Vernon, for dinner, and that later when the extemporized canopy top drew up to the hotel for the family, the landlord announced that ' the stage was ready,' which was very gratifying to my boyish pride." In a letter written seventy-two years later by Frank to his eldest brother, Emory, he says : — " I well remember the journey from Clin- ton to Pembroke; the cold winds and deep mud; the old black mare with her abbreviated tail, and the one or two experiences of borrowing rails from the fences to pry up our sinking wagons. I remember the long Cayuga Bridge, and Clifton Springs with its mysterious odour (of Sulphur), and memory recalls the piping of the early frogs which cheered us on every side." After ten weary days the family caravan reached Pembroke and the future home on " Goss hill." In his letter of reply to that just quoted, Emory Ellinwood continues the reminiscences of those days. " We had no fruit that first year, owing to a severe frost the fourteenth day of May (mourn- ful date, to be remembered nearly four-score years!), but the next year there was a great abun- dance. I remember that we boys slept in the South chamber of the old house, and during the night time we could hear those luscious striped apples 22 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD drop from the trees; and at break of day there was leaping from beds and a rushing downstairs, dressed or otherwise, to grab apples and put them in store for future eating, or for sale to stage passengers when ascending Goss hill." In those days a stage line ran from Albany to Buffalo, over the old State road, the four horses being changed at certain sub- divisions of the route. Such a change was made at Pembroke; and in writing of his brother Frank, Henry Ellinwood continues, " Your father was quite a financier in those days. In regard to the * apple deal,' he operated through an agency, em- ploying brother George and me as his salesmen. He had a fine patch of watermelons, and he paid little George for selling, in melons: and when the older brothers used to chide him for not selling in his own interest, he would reply that he ' loved the melons more than he did the money.' The pro- ceeds of these sales amounted at one time to about a quart of pennies, big old-fashioned red ones ! and these were stored in a chest in the attic. I have a relic of those early days, in the shape of a ' sap- yoke.' This implement Frank made with a limited supply of tools. It consisted of a stout piece of timber fitted to the shoulders, and extending out from each side a foot or more, from each end of which hooks were depended by strong cords, and these hooks held the pails, so that the weight of the sap rested upon the shoulders. With this yoke we carried sap over the hills of the old South ACADEMY DAYS 23 Woods, climbing over logs and dodging brush heaps. I prize the relic highly." This practical ingenuity and inventive faculty characterized not only his boyhood, but his later years. He was ever fertile in expedients. At the age of fifteen Frank left home to attend the old Clinton Academy, " at which time," — so writes his brother, — " he was a robust healthy boy; more so than any of us. He and mother went together, travelling from Rochester to Utica by the Erie Canal." This mode of travel, compared with the earlier wagon journey across the State, seemed luxurious as well as novel to the boy. In after life he recalled the pleasant deck covered with awnings and furnished with easy chairs; the com- fortable cabin and berths, and the coloured men waiting at table — these being the first negroes ever seen by him. When restless he would vary the monotony by a run along the towpath. For three years Frank remained away, studying and teaching, and then returned home for a vaca- tion before entering College. To this period of his youth he refers in a letter written many years later: " I am led to speak of the many kind Provi- dences which I gratefully recall during my life. For one thing it was most fortunate that in leaving home at fifteen I was thrown under the best of influences. Had they been quite different my head- strong nature might have led me to ruin. I remem- ber that at one time as a young boy, I aspired to 24 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD a position as a circus rider, or a canal driver. At Clinton the people of whom I had heard father and mother and grandmother Gridley talk so admir- ingly threw a more elevating influence over me, and the presence of Hamilton College inspired me. God led me more wisely than I knew." And again he writes, '' I have always believed that conversion occurs in many cases at an earlier period than was once commonly supposed, judging therein some- what from my own experience. I recall some very vivid religious experiences when I was about eleven or twelve years old, but it was not then commonly supposed that conversion could occur at so early an age, or at least that it was wise to encourage children to make a profession of religion, as they were not supposed to be old enough to form proper judgment in the case; but the impressions at that time made upon my mind and heart were very deep, and the love I felt for the Saviour was as sincere as any that I have ever felt in my life. Not being encouraged to consider myself a Christian, — though no word of discouragement was spoken to me, — I dismissed the subject and lived a careless life in many respects; and yet I never gave up the idea that sooner or later I should be a Christian, and I even began to look forward to the ministry as my vocation in life. This purpose was strength- ened by a little incident that occurred when I was fifteen years of age. The late Dr. Seth Hastings of Clinton, N. Y., took me into his sleigh while I was on my way home from school, and learning that I was preparing for college, he strongly advised me to go on with my study, to give my heart tp ACADEMY DAYS 25 God and myself to the work of the ministry, I was influenced in this perhaps by the fact that both my maternal uncles had chosen that calling. A year later, or when I was sixteen years of age, I learned with great pleasure that there was deep religious interest in the Congregational Church of Clinton where I was living, and I resolved to im- prove the opportunity to the utmost. Meanwhile, young as I was, I was engaged in teaching the com- mon district school. While on my way from the Academy to visit the Trustees of this school and seek the position, I had, I remember, turned aside to a retired spot and prayed for success. Success was granted me, and when finally I became more deeply interested in the subject of religion, the crucial question with me was whether in taking that stand, I would confess Christ by opening school each morning with reading the Scriptures and with prayer. This seemed too much. I hesitated for about a week, but found no rest until one evening I resolved that at all hazards I would do my duty. I was sixteen years old, and small for my age, and had several young men as pupils, older and larger than myself; but with my mind once made up, all fear passed away, my mind was entirely at peace, and I even looked forward to the coming day in order that I might carry out my purpose. When the school convened, it was a matter of great aston- ishment to the pupils when I told them that we would lay aside all study and attend to the reading of a passage of scripture, after which I would offer prayer. There was, however, no disposition on the part of any to make light of the occasion, but 26 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD quite the reverse; and within a month I had the satisfaction of seeing nearly all the older pupils in the school apparently brought to Christ. The reward of simply doing my duty seemed to me very great, and that experience was of great service to me in after years." II_i845-i8si COLLEGE DAYS — GRADUATION TEACHING IN ALBANY AND BATAVIA IN the autumn of 1845 the cherished hope of years was reaHzed, and Frank entered Hamil- ton College. At the house on College Hill where board was obtained, a seven months' infant held sway, who was doubtless regarded with scant tolerance by the college boys, they failing to per- ceive in him a distinguished statesman in embryo. This was Elihu Root, and the house belonged to his maternal grandfather, Major H. G. Buttrick. The Rev. Andrew B. Morse, now of Santa Bar- bara, Cal., a classmate and life-long loyal friend, furnishes the following recollections : — " Frank was a hard student, altogether too hard for his strength. In temperament he was poised, quiet, genial, and at times even jovial; and was the finest looking youth in his class. He was re- spected and admired by all, and dearly beloved by those admitted to his inner life. He became a member of the * Alpha Delta Phi ' fraternity, and later was, with four or five others, honoured by election to the highest literary society, Phi Beta Kappa. 27 28 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD In its junior year the class indulged in an esca- pade; the only one in which I ever knew Frank to engage. It was on this wise. A beautiful October day, our class lazing around on the grass of the campus, gazing wistfully off to the distant Tren- ton hills. Some one, possessed, shouted, * Let's go and explore them ! ' It took, and after circling hand-in-hand in an Indian war dance, off we shot to * follow the leader,' some of us in dressing gowns and slippers. We tramped and tramped for miles, until footsore and famished we levied on farmers' wagons and orchards. Darkness fell before the end of the twenty miles. Finally, reaching a little tavern, we were glad at last to tumble into hard beds and cots up in the attic. The boys could or would not sleep. About 3 a.m. in crowded a lot of half drunken lumbermen, talking and singing. Frank and I bunked together; somewhat dispirited we * chirked ' each other up, but wondered and foreboded what was to come. Day at last brought light, and light a supply of food, and great supping of fun in ' do- ing ' Trenton Falls. Again a long tramp and pull, and the small morning hours brought us once more to dear Alma Mater. ' Mater,' or rather * Prex North,' had five ' rods in pickle ' for each of us, and our fathers or guardians were notified by auto- graph letters of the faculty's having conferred five warnings on each Junior, for absence from class and college without permission, and that six would secure suspension." (This letter of November ist, 1847, is before me.) That particular College year seems to have been COLLEGE DAYS 29 full of adventure for the young student, for later in life he writes : — " In April of my Junior year, in company with Martin L. Kimball, my classmate, I went to Cape Cod on a mackerel fishing voyage, — I for my health, and he for a lark. After making our shipment agreement, about two weeks elapsed in order to make preparation for the voyage. This time we spent in tramps over the Cape, to Plymouth, to Marshfield where Webster had lived, and to Cohas- set. We were full of adventure and puffed with boyish independence; but money was always low." It was characteristic of him that in such straits he always sought any honourable employment, and this occasion was no exception. "Meanwhile, (and this seems to have been a part of the joke, mutually agreed to), Kimball lived at the hotel and took great delight in playing gentleman, borrowing money from my scanty store. In due time we set sail, going down the Jersey coast, and almost immediately were swept by a storm which lasted six days. As eight of us lived in the fo'castle, where all the cooking for the crew was done over a hot stove, scarcely a yard from our bunks, and as the pot liquor (flavoured with cabbage) slopped over on the stove, the air was rendered ten- fold more sicken- ing. If we ventured for a breath of fresh air into the midships, then a quantity of tainted fish, which had burst from the barrels, greeted our nostrils. It was six days of purgatory. At last we crept around Sandy Hook, and cast anchor under the 30 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD brow of Navasink, glad to be free from tossings without and tossings within. After a good night's sleep, we appeared above deck, and were greeted by spring, a chorus of early robins, and the full foliage of a wooded height. Sunday morning we reached Newport, where, as the vessel would lie by for a day, my companion and I went on shore to church. Knowing something of the Rev. Dr. Thayer, pastor of the Westport congregation, and one of our Alpha Delta Phi fraternity, we resolved to hear him. We were in sailor dress, and our red flannel shirt sleeves, without a coat, attracted attention, if not admiration. We reached the church during the noon intermission, and sat upon a little nearby terrace. Dr. Thayer, passing out from the Sunday School, eyed us curiously, but passed on. Under an impulse of conscience, how- ever, he turned back and asked if we would like to attend the service, to which we gladly assented, and were directed to the free seats of the gallery. He told us that they ' often invited sailors to wor- ship with them, notwithstanding which we were awkwardly consciously of presenting a brilliant red patch on the face of a well-dressed audience. We made a good haul of Mackerel, and in a few days returned to Provincetown. We had forfeited our share of fish by resolving to turn at once inland, and on the wharf the captain, — who was a fearful stammerer, — auctioned off our fishing outfit to a weather-beaten crowd of fishermen, securing for us from the sale barely enough to keep us over Sunday, and pay our passage on a schooner to Boston. We sailed away on Monday with not enough left to GRADUATION 31 purchase a dinner. As we were in high spirits, however, and attracted no little attention from the captain and passengers, we were invited to amuse the company with college songs, in con- sideration of which we were made the captain's guests for the day and for the night in Boston harbor. In the morning we shipped our baggage for home C.O.D., and with each a small bundle of personal effects strung on a cane over his shoulders, and with a joint exchequer of nine cents, we started on a foot tramp to Vermont. We breakfasted at a bakery on four cents, and with a rare flow of spirits proceeded on our way, but not without first encountering a college classmate residing in Boston, wealthy, and doubtless willing to loan us any amount, if so desired. We made no report of our finances, however, but gave him a hearty hand- shake, and left him greatly puzzled. Before night we had hired out for a month to a market gardener." Here the written fragment ends, but it may be added that while working for this man the students sometimes talked in Latin, much to the mystifica- tion of their employer. Finally one day he burst out with, "Who he ye anyway?" and when they enlightened him, said " Wall, I vimi! I always knowed ye was something." It is worthy of mention that these were the two honour men of their class, the next year Martin Kimball graduating as Valedictorian, and Frank Ellinwood as Salutatorian. Of the latter, Mr. Morse writes, " His masterly Commencement oration on 32 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD * The Dignity That Acts Within,' was a noble illus- tration of his own character, personality and career." Immediately after graduation these two chums, Frank and his Fidus Achates Andrew, began a correspondence which continued for a number of years, and which indeed never completely died out till within a few years of the death of the former. These letters of half a lifetime were, it seems, carefully treasured by Mr. Morse, and several years ago were sent by him to my father, thinking they might interest his family. In them it is interesting to trace how truly " the youth was father of the man; " and as his experiences as teacher and the- ological student were marked by many changes, it seems best, so far as possible, to quote from this correspondence his own words of explanation. Upon leaving Clinton Frank had carried with him the following letter : — " Hamilton College, July 26th, 1849. Mr. F. F. Ellinwood was one of the very best scholars in the class which graduated yesterday; and I have no hesitation in recommending him cordially as a young gentleman of industry, good manners, of a good mind, and a good heart. He has my warmest wishes for the success which he eminently deserves. Anson T. Upson, Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory." With these cordial words to aid him he ventured the following autumn to Albany, N. Y., where TEACHING IN ALBANY AND BATAVIA s^ he opened and gradually built up a private school of twenty-seven boys. Of this undertaking he thus writes : — " Only a spirit of commingled confidence, perse- verance and desperation helped me to succeed. These city boys are much worse than those in the country. They are wise beyond what is written, crafty, bold, nervous; and what aggravates every bad quality, they are the sons of wealthy parents who have left them to the care of nurses, which means that they have been allowed to do as they please." In this school work he was assisted by his younger brother, Henry, who was at that time pre- paring for College, but who later was obliged, on account of ill health, to forego this plan. While in Albany Frank attended the church of Dr. Kennedy, and writes of " busy Sabbaths," being " a member of the choir, attending two sessions of Sunday School and two church services." In the early spring of this year he received from Michigan an offer to act as principal in a school of seven hundred pupils; but shortly after decided to accept a similar position proffered him in Ba- tavia, N. Y., as this was nearer home. His friend, Andrew, fell heir to his Albany school, and to him he sold his classroom outfit, giving him meanwhile the benefit of his experience : — " The employment of teaching is an honourable 34 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD one when honestly and patiently pursued. One has no reason to be ashamed of the calling. But you must expect to act boldly, to make your elbows felt among the jostling crowd; and you must expect many a fit of the blues. In the Batavia school I shall have seven teachers under me, and as it is one of the first schools in Western New York, I rather fear the high responsibilities of the station; but my experience in Albany has afforded a disci- pline which forbids me to shrink from any under- taking because it appears hard. . . . The in- crease in salary is not my main object in going. My duties here are growing easy — and lose their interest to some extent. Perhaps this characteristic is a peculiarity of mine. In Batavia my interest and attention will be constantly on the stretch, and I shall feel myself grappling with a great responsi- bility. This, I take it, is the true discipline for a young man — the real pabulum of improvement." (How like his kinsman. Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, whose homely watchword it was, that " obstacles were things which were made to be overcome.") On May ist he left for Batavia, where he re- mained for almost a year. Ill— I85I-I854 SEMINARY DAYS — MARRIAGE — PASTOR AT BELVEDERE^ N. J. IN 185 1 Cincinnati must have seemed to the young man well toward the setting sun, but a twofold bait drew him thither early in that year, — the fame of Dr. Beecher at Lane Seminary, and the opportunity to prepare two young men for College. " Necessity," he writes, " has been my mistress thus far in life, and still holds on. Perhaps I have some reason to thank her for what she has done, and yet, her grasp of hand, and her stern voice seem very harsh and unlady-like at times." The family with whom he lived, and where he taught, were people of wealth and fashion, which had its effect upon his susceptible youth. " I find," he says, " that I have to struggle hard against a sort of worldly ambition which is constantly trying to get itself mixed with my best purposes of consecration. I know not where the assailable point will be with you, Andrew (his friend was about to study for the ministry), but you must expect to be attacked, and that desperately. You will be almost over- come in the ' Slough of Despond ' sometimes, but 35 36 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD always, like Christian, be sure and get out of it on the side toward Heaven." The many-sided tem- perament of the young student presented, in truth, no dead level of goodness. He was fastidious, often critical in tendency, and caustic in expression. In the following description of a bore, written later in his Seminary experience, he evidently gives vent to long pent-up disgust. " N. is here; entertains me with his eating and drinking as in days of yore. The noises which he makes are about all that break the solemn silence. Confound his everlasting innocence! He does not know but that I am pleased with his performances. Man can't offend him or shame him, and there is no use in fighting with him. It is like kicking a dead sheep." The same fastidiousness caused him, when a child, to provoke battle with another small boy, who in eating would smear himself with butter. The reasons for his next important step are given in a letter under date of August i8th, 1851. "It is now almost a certainty that I enter upon my second Seminary year at Auburn, at the opening of the coming term. Why do I leave Cincinnati? One of my boys is ready for college and will enter Yale in September, and the other is so much out of health of late, that he will probably not be able to study through the year. And as the opportunity for teaching was my chief reason for coming to Lane Seminary, so will the loss of this opportunity send me at once to some better appointed Institution at SEMINARY DAYS 37 the East. Since I came West Doctors Beecher and Stowe have resigned, they who formed in my opin- ion the chief attractions of the place. I attended Dr. Beecher's lectures in the Spring, and by hear- ing, questioning, sponging and copying, I succeeded in getting his whole system of Theology, which I think is the very best in the country — in the world. During the summer I have copied Dr. Stowe's lec- tures from the copious notes of students, and have been over the history of the first year. Hebrew I have been studying without a teacher, save a few lessons at first on the pronunciation." In his choice of Auburn he was influenced by Professor North of Hamilton College, and by his uncle Dr. Samuel Gridley. " Moreover," he says, " in one important respect Auburn is decidedly ahead, viz. : the high tone of piety, of true mission- ary consecration; and what most I need is deep heartfelt devotion to my work." And again, under date of December 4th, he wrote from that Seminary: — " With the studies which are now occupying me, the middle year at Auburn is truly precious. If you wish to behold the truths of Mental Philosophy, Ethics, and Theology (gen- erally much confused), brought out and placed in rank and file, with details clear and the perspective straight, you must hear Dr. Hickok." This Seminary year was further enriched by a spiritual experience which profoundly impressed the young man. Sunday School work in both hi§ 38 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD church and the prison engaged his attention, and to his friend he writes : — " I have a class of young ladies in the First Church of Auburn, nine in all — two professing Christians, and seven impenitent. One day after a faithful sermon from Dr. Hickok I threw aside the ordinary lesson and talked to them individually on Procrastination, the subject of his discourse. All were free to talk, and expressed a desire to become Christians. On being asked the question, they an- swered that they were willing to ask God to make them such. I then proposed that for one week we all at 9 o'clock p.m. retire to our closets and pray for that blessing for the unconverted, and they pray for themselves. All agreed. When next we came together all were feeling deeply. During the week I made calls for conversation and prayer. The 9 o'clock prayer was kept up. Next Sabbath four were indulging a hope and last Sabbath the whole seven were in the same joyful condition. A whole class all rejoicing! Never was I permitted to enjoy such an interview before. I felt like falling to the dust when I remembered that God's blessing had been so richly poured out upon those under my care, when I was so cold, so destitute of faith. It seemed almost as if the class had passed over me in my sleep and come to the Cross. It taught me two things ! First, that it is God and not man that converts the soul. Second, that He does it often by very feeble and imperfect instruments. Andrew, I love that class, oh how much! Is this the joy that a pastor is to have when he labours to bring the SEMINARY DAYS 39 young to the Great Shepherd? Then let me be a Pastor ! " In later years he " had occasion to learn that one and another of this class had dated their conversion from that time, and so far as known, all had re- mained faithful." His convict class also claimed his sympathy and interest. " Of course," he writes, " v^e meet with much craft and hypocrisy among such men, and learn to detect it readily, but one of my class has, I trust, found the Saviour." Throughout this period of his life, ill-health was often added to other discouragements. His college course had been more than once interrupted by that cause, and during the year out West he had spent several weeks in Cleveland for the baths, and had taken a horseback tour of 260 miles. " A roll- ing stone, you will say," he writes, " but I have been obliged to roll for my health." In the spring of 1852 he was again much reduced in strength by reason of repeated bronchial colds, " induced," he says, " by the winds from these New York lakes, which have been hard on many of our students." This fact seems to have turned his thoughts to the milder climate of California, and the mission field there opened by the gold diggers of '49. It appears that he wrote to the Home Mission Board in regard to such a position; but the question was 40 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD finally settled otherwise, for on May 27th he writes : — " I am to go to Princeton, if spared. Only three weeks more here. Dr. Hickok has taken me through his entire course, and Dr. Hodge may so far modify me as to get a fair medium between the theological Scylla and Charybdis of the present day." His friend, Andrew Morse, who was with him at Princeton, writes many years later : — " Coming from Auburn and imbued with its theology, he yet in classroom, chapel, and Dr. Hodge's home study, impressed all with his scholar- ship, manliness and Christian character." It was during this winter that the young man enjoyed his first great musical treat. He heard Jenny Lind sing in New York, and never after could decide which captivated him the more, her voice or naive and charming personality. P. T. Barnum had brought her to America; she was thrilling great audiences at Castle Garden, and on this particular evening brought down the house by a little touch of nature. Suddenly forgetting the words of her song, she stood for one instant startled and blushing, then broke into a little laugh, and clapping her hands before her mouth, ran off the stage. The preceding summer had proved an important SEMINARY DAYS 41 one in Frank Ellinwood's life. He had been licensed to preach in May, and July found him fill- ing the pulpit of the Rev. Mr. Shumway in Newark, Wayne County, N. Y. While there he met Miss Rowana Hurd of New York, who was at that time visiting her sister, Mrs. Orrin Blackmar of Newark. This acquaintance ripened into mutual affection, and later into an engagement of marriage. Toward the close of his Princeton year he preached at Belvedere, N. J., and for several months thereafter the march of events was rapid. He writes : — " I have been enticed into spending a week in Belvedere, the charms of via New York to the con- trary notwithstanding. There is a good work to be done here, and I find that even / can be sober and thoughtful and experience a desire to bring men into the kingdom of Heaven! ... I long to sit down some day and make the acquaintance of myself — to analyze this strange fusion of strong and conflicting elements — to take my latitude and longitude, make an invoice of my mental and moral furniture, and then invest to some advantage for somebody. I pray that God will suppress or control the power of impulse within me, and train me for His service." On May 10, 1853, he graduated from Prince- ton Semiinary; in the same month was licensed by the Presbytery of Cayuga; on June 21st, was or- 42 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD daiiied by the Fourth Presbytery of Philadelphia, and installed in the Second Presbyterian Church of Belvedere; and on June 30th was married to Miss Rowana Hurd. The wedding took place in New York at the home of her father, Orville Hurd. The house, a broad, old-fashioned, red brick resi- dence, adorned with iron balconies and steps, still stands on East Twenty-seventh Street. He writes : — " You have seen in the Tribune and the Observer that we were married by the Rev. Mr. Bauman, Dr. Cheever, Dr. Adams and Dr. James Alexander on whom I called, being out of town. The cere- mony was at 3 p.m. and we left the Hudson River Railroad station at 4 : 30 for Albany. Next day to Niagara, next to Pembroke. We visited in our course, Batavia, Newark, Clifton, Palmyra, and Geneva. My relatives were delighted with the new daughter and sister." And again in September : — " Andrew, I am fairly out on the ocean life. I feel it. I am not the boy who could run about the fields of Princeton, or into the room of a chum to chat, independent of the opinions of others. I am a measured quasi man, and have to lay aside my nonsense (except when handwriting to you) and guard my tongue. . . . Our cottage is beautiful and we shall soon be in it. But I long for more life and stir than we have here. My \ MARRIAGE 43 sympathies are west, where one need not have to wait for souls to be born and grow to manhood, before one can build up a church." Belvedere was in truth ill-suited to one so ener- getic, and ambitious for growth in his work. It was a small place dominated by one or two rich families, and at that time visited only by a daily stagecoach. And though the young couple made lifelong friends, and members were added to the church, still the husband chafed at the narrowness of the field. The following spring brought him two calls — one to Kalamazoo, Mich., and one to Harris- burg, Pa. Both of these he refused, as he had promised his congregation not to leave them that summer. But in the autumn he accepted a call to Rochester, N. Y., and in October took charge of the Washington Street Church of that city. IV— i8s4-i866 PASTOR AT ROCHESTER^ N. Y. THE CIVIL WAR FIRST TRIP ABROAD PERSONAL CHARACTERIS- TICS DEATH OF HIS WIFE JOURNEY TO SPAIN AND THE HOLY LAND — LEAVES ROCHESTER IN Rochester the young pastor found full scope for his powers. The church was small, with a membership of less than 300, and into the work of building up he threw himself with all that enthusiasm, untiring energy, and zeal for Christ's kmgdom which always distinguished him. In these labours he was nobly seconded by his young wife, a woman of consecrated Christian character, self- sacrificing and conscientious. Results soon fol- lowed; the congregation grew so rapidly that in eighteen months the church society began looking for a location whereon to build a larger edifice ; and two years later they completed and dedicated a beautiful new church on Sophia Street, renaming it " The Central Church." It was doubtless during these days that the following incident took place. Funds were imperatively needed, and an uncle re- lates that he was present during an informal meet- ing held to discuss this subject. There appeared to be but one avenue of assistance open. A wealthy 44 PASTOR AT ROCHESTER 45 bachelor lived in the outskirts of the city who might be induced to give, but whom nobody liked to ap- proach, as he was not noted for liberality. Finally the young pastor volunteered to undertake it, where- upon an elder jumped to his feet, exclaiming: " No time like the present. My sleigh is at the door." It was a bitter night, but wrapped to the ears in a big grey shawl, — such as men in the fifties af- fected, — Mr. Ellinwood was driven away, while the others waited. He returned shortly, triumphant. It was at about this time that the city passed through a great spiritual awakening. Dr. Lyman Beecher has since said that " the religious revival conducted by Mr. Finney in Rochester, N. Y., was the greatest revival of the Christian Era." Whether he referred to the one held there in 1855, or to that which occurred a few years previously, cannot be definitely stated. But Mr. Ellinwood never forgot the impression made on his mind by these meetings. In after years he spoke many times of the wonderful power which Mr. Finney exer- cised, not only over the popular mind, but over the lawyers, the deep thinkers, and the business men. In Rochester the young clergyman speedily at- tained reputation as a forceful and eloquent preacher. The large auditorium, always well filled at morning service, was in the evenings crowded, the galleries and even the aisles being full. Wm. A. Hubbard, Jr., of Rochester, writes : — 46 FRANK FIELD ELIJNWOOD " Your father was pre-eminently the young peo- ple's pastor. His preaching and pastoral work, the Sabbath School, the children's concerts, all combined to draw them in such large numbers that the ' Cen- tral ' became famous as the church especially popu- lar with the youth of the city. I can myself remem- ber the carrying in of chairs, filling the aisles until the fire marshal forbade it. Then were laid the foundations of the large Sunday School classes, and prosperous young people's Societies which have ever since distinguished the church. In this feature of his work your father had a grand co-worker in George W. Parsons. I wish some record had been made of the wonderful evan- gelistic services held in the winters of 1863 and '64 in the Central Church." Mr. Hammond, " the children's evangelist," aided in this work, and at one communion service over one hundred people joined the church. Mr. Hubbard continues : — " From 1 86 1 to 1864 nearly four hundred men, if I remember correctly, entered the army and navy from our school and congregation." (The Bible classes contributing one hundred and sixteen, of whom twenty gave their lives for the Union.) There was a thrilling evening service in the early months of the war, when the first company which left, filed into the body of the church for a farewell meeting. The young pastor rose to the occasion, and when at the close of his solemn service the THE CIVIL WAR 47 soldier boys marched out, many of them never to return, there was a moment of intense emotion. Two of those boys, David Maguire and Theron Parsons, attended recently, as gray-haired veterans, the funeral of that beloved pastor. It so happened that at the time Fort Sumter was fired upon, Mr. Ellinwood was enjoying his first trip abroad, whither he had gone with Dr. George Dana Boardman, the popular pastor of the Baptist Church of Rochester. Though shocked and sad- dened by the tidings, they carried out their itinerary, visiting England, Scotland, France, Italy, and Swit- zerland; but the keen edge of their pleasure was destroyed. Throughout the war his heart was w4th the men at the front, and particularly with those who had gone from his church. In April, 1864, in company with Dr. Booth and Dr. Duryea of New York, he visited Washington under the auspices of the Christian Commission, and during his ten days' stay preached fifteen times to the soldiers, riding many miles from camp to camp. It was during his Rochester pastorate that Mr. Ellinwood gave, perhaps for the first time, full play to his social instincts. His years of struggle and preparation were past. He was young, successful in his work, and in a congenial atmosphere ; and he possessed to a marked degree the faculty for making friends. To an attractive face, and genial, respon- sive manner, were added good conversational powers, a musical well-modulated voice, a keen 48 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD sense of humour, and a genuine love for his fellow- men. But that which rendered him especially be- loved was the deep well-spring of sympathy within his heart. It was the keynote of his success as a pastor. In all cases of sickness, bereavement, or desperate need, it was given so abundantly as to often exhaust him. Sympathy gave to his prayers a peculiar fervour and efficacy. Just before the death of Dr. George Bacon in Orange, N. J., he requested that Dr. Ellinwood come and pray with him, adding that ** his were the only prayers he wished for, unless he might have those of his own father " (the venerable Dr. Bacon of New Haven). And in late years one of Dr. Ellinwood's sons-in-law has said of his prayers that he " never heard any to equal them, except those of his fa- ther " — the late President Woolsey. The pastor's sympathy was not confined to his fellow-men. Like Lincoln and Charles Kingsley he was tender-hearted toward animals and all living things. The " under-dog " appealed to him figuratively and literally, for once in the streets of Damascus he broke a cane in pieces be- labouring a large dog which had attacked a smaller one. That law of the animal kingdom which provides for, or at least allows, the strong to prey upon the weak, found him always unreconciled. His family remember his sudden depression, when he was ill at one time in New York, over the death of a half-grown stray kitten, PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 49 which had been killed overnight in the area by larger cats. And in his Cornwall home he once devoted hours to the nursing of an injured bird, till finally it devolved upon him to put the little thing out of misery. This cost him a real pang, and hours afterward he confessed to " still feeling the flutter of the tiny heart against his palm as he held it under water." His sense of humour was almost as keen as his sympathy, and is well illustrated by the following incident. While still a young man he took, one sum- mer, a trip to the Adirondacks, his travelling com- panion being again Dr. George Dana Boardman, and also the Rev. Dr. Fowler of Auburn. At Blue Mountain Lake they encountered three bears; and on the shores of this lake many years later Dr. Ellinwood built for his family a rustic camp. Fur- ther in the wilderness they visited a mountain Sun- day School, and during the exercises had more than once difficulty in restraining unseemly mirth — but when a small boy rose to read his Bible verse, and spelled out " J-o-r-d-a-n — Jordan," and the teacher solemnly corrected him "Jurdan" Dr. Fowler's amusement became audible. To cover his embar- rassment he sought the water pail, but when he lifted an empty dipper and stood for a moment helpless, all three disgraced themselves and beat a hasty retreat. That night Mr. Ellinwood was to preach in the same room, and he fully determined to retrieve his dignity, but his purpose was well- 50 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD nigh thwarted by a fat baby who escaped from its mother, crept upon the platform, and clinging to his legs, tried to rise and stand beside him. In after life he would recount this experience with tears of helpless laughter. It was during the earlier days of their Rochester life that the young couple experienced their first keen sorrow. In the summer following their arri- val in the city a little daughter was born, but two years later the father wrote: — " Sad changes have come over my home — Our dear little Hattie, after weaving her golden web around our fond hearts for nineteen months, left us for Heaven. She had become old enough to watch for me when I came home; and her little silver utterance of ' Papa,' at the bottom of the hall stairs at the hour of tea will never cease to echo in my ears and heart. But, Andrew, it is good to have a tender chord sadly vibrating day by day. It is good to be afflicted." Throughout his life, children gave to Dr. Ellin- wood such keen delight, — they formed for him so large a part of the joy of living, — that it is well others were sent to take the place of the little one who had died. As a fitting home for his growing family, he built an attractive house on Plymouth Avenue, one of the desirable residence sections of the city. One short happy year was spent in this DEATH OF HIS WIFE 51 home when a crushing blow fell. The wife and mother was suddenly taken from them. The fol- lowing tribute to her memory is quoted from a Rochester paper: — " We write this week from the depths of a sud- den and peculiar sorrow. The wife of our dear friend and beloved brother, Rev. F. F. Ellinwood, of the Central Church of this city, died on Monday evening of this week, August 29th, at the age of thirty-three years. Her disease was diphtheria. She was, to all appearances, in her usual good health only four days before. Her husband had just re- turned from his summer vacation, and their home was full of joy and promise. To-day all is changed. Her Christian character was marked by great con- scientiousness, and she set her standard high. To those who knew her best, her character seemed al- most faultless; the model wife of a model pastor. Certainly, one more discreet, more unselfish, more ready, more constant in all good offices, both in her public and private relations, it has never been our happy privilege to know. The law of kindness was always on her lips. Gentle, earnest and effi- cient, tender-hearted, loving and self-denying, yet firm and resolute, like one moved by mighty impulses from heaven, she went about doing good. She visited much among her husband's large parish, never forgetting or neglecting the poor, the sick and the afflicted. She had no enemies, and all the parish are mourning for her as for a particular personal friend." 52 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD Left with three little motherless girls, the young- est a baby of a year, the lonely man struggled on with his work, but two months later, at the close of a Sunday morning service, he seriously collapsed. His sympathetic congregation decided that he must have change and a rest, and shortly thereafter he embarked at Boston on a fast sailing vessel for the south of Spain, going later to Egypt and the Holy Land. William Ailing, Jr., of Rochester accom- panied him. The Spain of that day is thus described by Maurice Hewlett: — " A great roomy, haggard country, half desert waste and half bare rock, immemorially old, immut- ably the same." But this forbidding aspect did not strike Dr. Ellinwood. Washington Irving's "Al- hambra " had companioned him on the voyage, and he saw Granada and all Spain through the glamour of its pages. On the banks of the Nile he came in touch with a romance in real life, so extraordinary as to sug- gest an Arabian Nights' tale. The handsome young Maharajah of India — Duleep Singh — was its pic- turesque hero. A little slave-born Copt maid, living in a back street of Cairo and eating with her fingers, was the heroine. Deprived of throne and country by the British Government, the Prince was yet pet- ted by the Queen, and feted by the nobility, while more than one high-born dame manifested the will- ingness of a " Barkis." But an English wife wavS TO SPAIN AND THE HOLY LAND 53 not to his mind. He wanted an Oriental and yet a Christian. Passing through Cairo the previous year, he had visited the American Presbyterian Mis- sion, where the face of a young native teacher ar- rested his attention. The visits to the Mission were repeated till finally he interviewed the mission- aries, and through them laid at her feet his royal title and the wealth of the Indies. Her reply was a flat refusal. But eager friends finally overruled all objections. At the wedding, princely sums were set- tled upon her, and jewels literally worth a king's ransom; while the Mission profited likewise from the generosity of the Prince. On their bridal trip, Duleep Singh * took a fancy to, and purchased the missionary dahabeah which had been already en- gaged by Dr. EUinwood and his party, providing, however, another equally good. The princess, in the meantime, had become familiar with the use of knife and fork, and with other social amenities, and during these business negotiations Dr. EUinwood called upon her at the home of a mutual friend, finding her modest sweetness as yet unspoiled. * In July, 1909, the following paragraph appeared in the New York Times: — " Princess Pauline Duleep Singh arrived yesterday on the North German Lloyd liner Kronprinsessin Cecilie, on a three months' visit to this country. She is the eldest daughter of the late Maharajah Duleep Singh by his second wife whom he married in Russia. She has two half-brothers, Prince Victor and Prince Frederick Duleep Singh. Her father was the son of the ' Liqn of Lahore.' " 54 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD His letters from Spain and tlie East were pub- lished in the Rochester Democrat and in the New York Evangelist, being received with such marked favour that the editors, Robert Carter ^d Henry M. Field, wrote to him recommending their publi- cation in book form. On his return in the spring he took up once more the full burden of pastoral work, but only to lay it down in the fall for ever. It was a sad day for church and pastor when his resignation was handed in, but his strength was found to be no longer equal to the strain. When the news of this step spread through the city, Mr. Levi A. Ward (who built St. Peter's Presbyterian Church in Rochester) re- marked, " There is a man who never said a foolish thing." It was at this crisis in his affairs that a letter was received from Chancellor Ferris, stating that the University of the City of New York had conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. Upon leaving Rochester, a small house at Clifton Springs was taken for himself and chil- dren, and the winter was devoted to recuperation, but though devoted friends from the Central Church cheered him by repeated visits, it was nevertheless a period of deep depression and loneliness. The spring found him still so far from strong that out- door occupation was recommended, and he turned to grape culture. Seven miles above Geneva, on the western shore of Seneca Lake, his wife's uncle LEAVES ROCHESTER 55 had a beautiful and extensive farm. A deep ravine ran back from the Lake to a waterfall, and on its sunny slopes the trees were felled, the land re- claimed, and in partnership with his uncle he planted one of the pioneer vineyards of Western New York. The venture was a marked success, and the vineyard is still in operation, though it has long since changed hands. V— 1866-1871 REMOVAL TO NEW YORK SECRETARY OF CHURCH ERECTION COMMITTEE MARRIAGE HOME AT ORANGE, N. J. JOURNEY TO CALIFORNIA AS- SOCIATE EDITOR OF NEW YORK " EVANGELIST " SECRETARY OF THE FIVE MILLION MEMORIAL FUND. IN the autumn of 1866 Dr. Ellinwood entered upon his New York work, becoming secretary for the Presbyterian Committee of Church Erection. And in the following April he married Miss Laura Hurd, the younger sister of his first wife. The ceremony took place at Fair Haven, Vt., where Miss Hurd had been spending the win- ter with relatives. In the meantime he had purchased land at High- land Station, Orange, N. J., and on a hillside com- manding a wide view of the beautiful Orange Moun- tains, had built his house. To this home he brought his family in the following October; here they con- tinued to live for eighteen years, and here his two younger daughters were born. In the earlier months of their residence in Orange, he attended with his family the First Presbyterian 56 HOME AT ORANGE, NEW JERSEY 57 Church of that city, and a Httle incident records the impression he made upon a member of that church, Mr. William Iddings. It was at a business meeting called after the regular prayer meeting, during which a heated debate took place. No agree- ment seemed possible " till finally," said Mr. Id- dings, " a stranger arose, and in a few quiet words suggested a solution. It was oil upon the troubled waters, and brought the meeting to a harmonious close." At that time no street cars ran between Orange and Highland station, a distance of over a mile. Therefore when the beautiful Congregational Church of which Dr. George Bacon was pastor, was completed next door to Dr. EUinwood's home, the family attendance was transferred to that church. Here he became a power in the prayer meetings and later taught a large Bible class. The church and so- cial relations were delightful, and the music excep- tionally fine. Dr. William Mason, one of the most notable musicians in the country, was the organist, and for five minutes before each Sunday morning service, he improvised with a beauty which touched and subdued all hearts. In the earlier years the congregational singing was inspired by the presence of his father. Dr. Lowell Mason, whose name is associated with many of our most beautiful hymns. Sitting well forward he generally rose a little in advance of the others, his venerable white head, crowned by a black velvet skull cap, being visible 58 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD to all, while he led perhaps in the singing of his own Naomi, Ariel, or Olivet. To this church came also General George B. Mc- Clellan. He was at that time living on the Orange Mountain, and was a great friend and admirer of Dr. Bacon. In 1869 Dr. Ellinwood made a memorable jour- ney to California. His trip was in connection with Church Erection work, but it took on a particular interest from the fact that this was the first summer in which railroad trains crossed the Continent. It was, indeed, not long after that celebrated loth of May when the Union Pacific tracks met those of the Central Pacific near Ogden, and in commemo- ration, the golden spike was driven by Governor Leland Stanford of California. The new railroad ran through many sections of a truly Wild West, and in at least two stops which he made, the traveller found himself in the rudest environment. The buildings were frontier make- shifts, filled with rough miners; and on one occa- sion the room allotted him for the night was next the barroom, where he was kept awake by a mid- night shooting affray, and the reflection that only a thin board partition protected him from chance bullets. At Salt Lake City he spent a day or two, inter- esting himself in the study of the Mormon problem. Here he was introduced to Brigham Young, and was asked by that Prophet to preach for him, but JOURNEY TO CALIFORNIA 59 declined the honour. He attended, however, a meet- ing in the Tabernacle, where he chanced upon a corn- munion service, and where, instead of wine, dip- pers of water were passed around. One of his pleasantest California experiences was a trip through the Yosemite Valley. This was only five years after its conversion into a State park, and many years before it became a national reserva- tion. His party, mounted on horseback, picked its way for weary miles over a narrow trail, till suddenly it came upon the wonderful Bridal Veil Falls, pouring in a white torrent from a height of nine hundred feet. Here they followed the example set by Charles Kingsley and his party the previous year, in remaining over Sunday and enjoying a service under the shadow of Cathedral Rock. In order to give those at home some conception of the grandeur of the falls, Dr. Ellinwood made a pen-and-ink drawing. He had always loved to sketch whatever appealed to him as beautiful in nature, and though entirely untaught, his real artis- tic ability was evident. When, at the age of seventy, he first tried painting in oils, the results achieved, were, as to colour, proportion, and perspective, ex- tremely creditable. In the fall of this year Dr. Henry M. Field asked Dr. Ellinwood to become associate editor of the New York Evangelist, the position having recently become vacant by the death of Dr. Craighead. This offered a field of labour particularly congenial to 6o FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD him, and he accepted, but the arrangement was of only a few months' duration. David Dudley and Cyrus W. Field represented to their brother that he would have done better for himself, had he sim- ply hired some editorial assistance and kept the proceeds of the paper undivided. This came to the ears of Dr. Ellinwood, and fearing that Dr. Field regretted the offer he had made, he was quick to suggest a dissolution of the partnership. The friendship between the men, however, suffered no break, as many letters and gifts of books received later from Dr. Field can testify. In the spring of this same year Dr. Ellinwood had been a delegate to that famous General Assem- bly held in New York, in which the reunion of the Old and New School Presbyterians was consum- mated : and he attended the adjourned meeting of the Assembly at Pittsburgh the following Novem- ber, when that memorable procession formed in the street as the delegates of both Schools poured out of their respective places of assembly and met — " the Old and New grasping each other, and amidst welcomes, thanksgivings, and tears locking arms and marching together in their re-formed relations." When, in the spring of 1870, the Reunited Pres- byterians proposed to raise as a thank-offering five million dollars, and a Memorial Fund Committee was formed, with Winthrop S. Oilman as chairman, and Wm. E. Dodge as treasurer, Dr. Ellinwood was chosen as the right man for Secretary. This SECRETARY OF MEMORIAL FUND 6i choice he abundantly justified, begging through speech and pen with such splendid success that, at the next General Assembly held in Chicago, he was able to rise before a great audience and announce as raised a fund of eight million dollars instead of five. The enthusiasm inspired by this announce- ment seems to have lived long in the minds of some of those present. In after years Dr. John Hall referred to it more than once in Sunday morning services as a fine achievement, and twenty-two years after its occurrence a member of the family, during a visit in Savannah, Ga., was told by Dr. Dripps, pastor of the Independent Presbyterian Church of that city, that his admiration for her father dated from that Memorial Fund speech, and that he had ever since followed his career with interest. For the chairman of his committee, Winthrop S. Gilman, the Secretary formed an especially strong regard. Mr. Gilman was a New York banker, and one of the splendid Christian laymen of that time. Their office was " No. 19 Cliff Street, third floor," and it is hard to realize that few New York buildings of that date exceeded three stories in height. A. T. Stewart's great retail structure with its five or six stories, was a landmark. No Brooklyn bridge spanned the river; the old Broad- way omnibus rumbled up and down over the cob- bles; and the lamplighter, with his little ladder, was a familiar figure at dusk. VI— 1871-1877 SECRETARY FOR THE BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS — JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD WHILE still engaged on the Memorial Fund, Dr. Ellinwood was elected to the Chair of Homiletics, Church Government, and Pastoral Theology, in the Allegheny Theological Seminary. This position he had definitely engaged to fill, when he was asked to become Secretary for the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions in New York. Regarding this, he wrote in March, 1871 :— " I am in hot water about going to Allegheny, or staying here as Secretary of Foreign Missions. I have left it to Allegheny to say — The Lord di- rect." The Seminary finally released him from this en- gagement, and he settled down to thirty-four years of service to the cause of Foreign Missions. A let- ter recently received from the veteran missionary, Rev. Samuel Jessup of Sidon, Syria, refers affec- tionately to the early days of the secretaryship : — " I learned long ago to admire and love your hus- band, — beginning when I first knew him in 1872 62 SECRETARY BOARD OF MISSIONS 63 and 1873, when he so often took me with him to your deHghtful home in Orange, and where your young children quite stole my heart. I love to recall those days. He was so active and earnest; so thoughtful for others; so kind to missionaries. It was a great pleasure and an education to go with him on a tour among the churches, and hear his inspiring and rousing addresses. It seemed as if he could raise up a dead people into life and he often did. His lovely character in his own home when his children were small, I love to recall, and to think of how much strength he got from the home life to nerve him for the incessant toil of his secretary's life. He was one of the marked men of his times, and for an unusually great number of years." In the spring of 1874 Dr. Ellinwood's eyes gave out, as the result of nerve strain and overwork. He consulted Dr. Agnew, the oculist, and that gentle- man said : "You must take a sea trip," and added, " Tell the Board to send you to China." For some time, and from one and another of the mission fields, the cry had been coming, " O, if the Board would only send some one out here to see for him- self, and better understand conditions," and to the Secretary the time now seemed ripe for answering this call. He accordingly proposed to the Board that he himself should take a trip around the world, visiting all stations connected with their work. And, as the condition of his eyes rendered him help- 64 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD less for writing or reading, he proposed to take his wife. This was suggesting so radical an innovation in the routine work of a secretary, that it naturally met with some opposition from the more conserva- tive, but it was finally decided to send him. In order not to draw heavily upon the treasury, he raised a large part of the funds for his expenses from outside sources. And it may be said here that this tour of inspection resulted in such widespread benefit to missionary work, that since those days some five or six secretaries have, at different times, gone over the same ground, and in each case the Board has been willing to meet all expenses. Just before starting a letter was received from D. Stuart Dodge, son of William E. Dodge, begin- ning thus : — *' New York, July i^th, 1874. Dear Dr. Ellinwood: No conviction was stronger in my mind during my journey just ended than the absolute necessity of occasional visits to the foreign stations by the men who are attempting to direct the missions of our churches. It is useless for them to expect to obtain a full and exact knowledge of even the general operations of the Foreign work in any other way. I am greatly rejoiced that the way has been opened for you to take this trip, even (I was al- most tempted to say) if sickness had to be the key to remove the obstacles. . . . Do take uncom- mon care of your mortal framework, and cram JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD 65 every niche of your head with bristling facts, and the dear Master watch over and keep you at every step. Ever affectionately yours, D. Stuart Dodge." Some hesitation had at first been felt about taking a lady on such a trip. This was just before the day of the feminine globe-trotter, and unavoidable hardships were anticipated in journeying through Oriental lands. But the young wife of the Secre- tary possessed qualities which go to make up a good traveller, fortitude, patience, and physical endurance; moreover, she had what Robert Louis Stevenson calls "that belle hiimeur and spirit of adventure which makes a pleasure out of what is unpleasant," and she was keenly eager to accompany her husband. The disposal of the five children dur- ing their year's absence, and the desperate pangs of parting with them, were all that dismayed her. This final parting took place at Rochester in late July. At Omaha, where a few days were spent with friends, they found a city not six years old, the streets unpaved, but with a population of over twenty thousand. Later, when nearing Salt Lake City, a rather interesting acquaintance was made with a young and pretty woman, wife No. 19 of Brigham Young. She had left him, how- ever; had been lecturing against polygamy in the 66 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD East, and was now about to carry her campaign into the very stronghold of Mormonism. At Ogden, where cars were changed for Salt Lake City, she was met by a large delegation of prominent Gen- tiles from the latter city, headed by the mayor, and escorted to her hotel. There, after supper, she was serenaded, and a speech from her was called for; and that night a reception in her honour was held at the hotel, to which she invited Dr. and Mrs. Ellinwood, and which they accordingly attended. One other feature of the overland trip was a ride on the cow-catcher through Weber Canon. An enthusiastic companion had, by a bribe of cigars, won the engineer's consent, and huddled together upon this small space, the three Travellers, with bated breath, felt themselves propelled for twenty miles through the most marvellous scenery. The voyage across the Pacific consumed twenty- three days, and was one of the last made on the old side-wheel steamers. A letter dated " August 13th, Steamer Alaska," says: — " Neither my wife nor myself are seasick. She is a capital sailor, and is the only lady on board who has been able to appear at table at every meal. I should have been well-nigh helpless without her, and am a thousand times glad that I brought her." At Yokohama a landing was made in the edge of a typhoon and passengers were conveyed to land JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD 67 in small boats rowed by half-naked Japanese. Women were first passed over the ship's side, and it was a terrifying experience for Mrs. EUinwood when she stood balanced between husband and Cap- tain, watching the tiny skiffs as they bobbed on the angry ocean. " When that boat beneath us next rides on that wave, be ready," said the cap- tain, " and jump when I tell you." .... " Jump ! " And closing her eyes, she sprang into space. From Yokohama to Tokyo ran the only rail- road which Japan at that time could boast; and a novel feature of its train service consisted in the odd little short cars. It was in that city that they saw, publicly posted on a bridge, an edict threaten- ing " death to all believers in the Christian faith." Now the protected Christians of Japan number tens of thousands. Two other stops were made, at Kobi and at Nagasaki, before the travellers sailed away, charmed with the little Island Empire and its people. On reaching China they went direct from Shang- hai to Chefoo where Dr. John Nevius and his wife were stationed. Here they made one of the pleas- antest visits of their trip, forming for their genial hosts a lifelong friendship. And here Mrs. Ellin- wood remained while her husband proceeded to Peking. " We won't make the inland journey too easy," said Dr. Nevius, " we'll show you how the missionaries have to travel ! " But the Secretary 68 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD was still far from strong, and this decision to make him rough it proved disastrous. A large part of the way lay over indescribably bad roads, travelled in ox carts, and he reached Peking in a state of col- lapse. Dr. Martin, president of the Imperial Col- lege, was his host, and the visit would have been delightful had he not been obliged to spend most of it in bed. When, after a stay of two weeks, he started on the return trip, he travelled in style, being carried to the Peiho River in Dr. Martin's private chair, with carriers in uniform. That the effects of this ox-cart experience were still visible when the travellers reached Canton is evidenced by a letter received by him from Dr. Henry Noyes, dated, " Canton, June 23rd, 1903," in which he says : — " I remember when you were here in 1874 I said to Mr. Preston, ' I greatly fear that Dr. Ellin- wood will not live to reach home.' He encour- aged me by saying that he had known you in the Seminary and that you were subject at times to bodily weakness. What an amount of work has been accomplished between that time and this! I have wondered at it ! " In January the Secretary and his wife reached India, and passages from a letter written by him at Agra, to his young daughter Laura, give their impressions of that country : — " I would be glad to tell you of even a hundredth JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD 69 part of our strange adventures since we landed in India, but the throng of experiences which crowd even a single week is such that I know not where to begin. We had yesterday a rare treat in a visit to the renowned Taj Mahal, the tomb built by Shah Jehan, one of the old Mogul Sovereigns of India, in honour of his favourite wife." (Here fol- lows a description of the wondrous tomb, nowadays so much more familiar to the tourist.) " To-day we have been spending at a large Or- phanage near Agra. It furnishes a home for nearly four hundred native children. We have enjoyed the day very much, as the guests of some earnest German missionaries. We have seen here a great curiosity. Two or three years ago there was an account in the papers of some children who had been found living with the wolves, and had been placed in an Orphanage. This is the place. One of them was so very wild that he could not be tamed, and he died last year. The other one we have seen to-day. He was brought here when about seven years old, and for some time continued to walk like a wolf on all fours; and would snap and bark like a wolf. He would eat at first only raw meat and ate it as an animal would. His clothing he tore in shreds. He is now about fifteen years old, and is a very strange specimen of an idiot. He still tears his clothing, but not as badly as formerly. While we looked at him, he grinned strangely and showed his teeth, though he did not appear at all in a savage mood. I noticed that mamma seemed quite excited while looking at so remarkable an 70 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD object and it is not to be wondered at. In the ' History of Ancient Rome ' you have read that the twin brothers Romulus and Remus were nour- ished in their infancy by wolves, and of course I always looked upon it as a piece of mythologic hum- bug, not dreaming that I should ever witness an actual specimen of that very thing. The general supposition is that these children were carried off in their early infancy by the wolves, and that moth- erly wolves, in a strange freak of instinct, took a fancy to protect and feed them. What is remark- able is that the circumstance has occurred more than once, as this boy was found eight years ago, while the second one was found six years after in an entirely different place. Within the last ten days we have crossed the Sewalic Mountains to the beautiful valley of Dehra, in which we spent a day or two at the Dehra Girls' School; visited a plantation of six hundred acres of tea, nestled among the haunts of the wild tiger and leopard; and rode home at night on an elephant. The next day we climbed the sides of the Himalayas to Woodstock and Lai Tibba, where from a hilltop we saw a panorama of the snow-cov- ered Himalayas such as I never expect to see equalled. They were about eighty miles distant from us, and presented for two or three hundred miles from right to left, a wall of gleaming sum- mits, ranging from 20,000 to 24,000 feet in height. On leaving Lahore we came down to Delhi, which is, I think, the most interesting city that I have ever visited. It is the capital of the old Moslem x JOURNEY AROUND THE WORLD 71 power, and presents one constant succession of magnificent ruins, if, indeed, these can be called ruins which are so wonderfully preserved." . . . (And he concludes) : " Nowhere but in the Ara- bian Nights' tales does one get any conception of such marvels as are here presented; but I cannot de- scribe them. I only hope that we may be spared to tell you by word of mouth some of the wonders of this wonderful land. On the nth of December Uncle E. sent us a tele- gram consisting of merely the two precious words — ' All well.' — Notwithstanding all delays at in- termediate offices, it came under the Atlantic, through Europe, across the Mediterranean, along the African coast, down the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean, and half across India to Allahabad in five hours. So the oceans and the continents were levied upon to let us know that our dear ones at home were well ! " The tour was extended from India to Egypt; from there to Syria, and from Syria through Italy to France and England, from whence they turned their faces homeward. Throughout the Orient the novel modes of travel afforded constant entertain- ment. They mounted elephants and donkeys. They drove behind oxen and mules, in two-wheeled, three- wheeled, and four-wheeled vehicles, whose motion sometimes rivalled a Swedish movement treatment. They were pulled by men, they were carried by them. But camel riding they left for those who 72 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD had not been, as Dr. Ellinwood once was, thrown over the head of a camel. The Secretary's return was so timed that he might attend the General Assembly in May, and there — filled with enthusiasm and " bristling with facts " — he made such stirring appeals that it was said by more than one, and among them William E. Dodge, that " he seemed to be inspired." From that time on for many years he was constantly an- swering calls in the Northern and Western States, to make missionary addresses. VII— 1877-1887 PUBLISHES FIRST BOOK — VISIT TO MEXICO — CON- NECTION WITH CLIFTON SPRINGS SANITARIUM — LEAVES ORANGE AND SETTLES IN NEW YORK PROFESSOR OF COMPARATIVE RELIGIONS THE trip around the world not only furnished matter and inspiration for addresses, but also supplied part of the material for Dr. Ellinwood's first book on Missions, entitled " The Great Conquest," which was published in 1877; and of which Winthrop S. Oilman wrote : " Beginning as it should with the prophetic basis, and the logic of the Gospel, it conveys a great mass of apt and valuable instruction on the subject. It is very interesting, and just such a compendium as should circulate largely in the churches." And among minor fruits of the trip was the following little note: — "March 15, 1877. Rev. F. F. Ellinwood: — Dear Sir : — I have your most excellent Report on Mr. Stuart's article on Japan. It is a comfort to find a man who knows what he is talking about, and gives no uncertain sound when he speaks. May 73 74 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD I beg the privilege of sending you the current num- ber of Scribner, beginning with the volume in No- vember? I have entered your name on the compli- mentary list. Yours truly, RoswELL Smith." During these years the Secretary had been brought into correspondence with Mrs. James Lori- mer Graham, the first President of the New York Branch of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Board. And she and her large-hearted husband were among his most interesting New York friends. Concerning them a few words of digression may perhaps be pardoned. The Wheel of Time wrought dramatic extremes in their career, but at this period their beautiful and spacious home on North Washington Square was a delightful social and literary centre. In Mrs. Bayard Taylor's book entitled, " On Two Continents," she says, " James Lorimer Graham and his wife, Josephine, were numbered among our most intimate New York friends. Each Sunday evening we saw a small select circle in our rooms : the Stoddards, the Sted- mans, the Grahams, T. B. Aldrich, and others." At a later date the Grahams occupied a palace in Flor- ence where literary friends sought them out — Emerson, the Taylors, and Ouida. But the reli- gious faith of this interesting couple was sorely tested in old age. The husband suffered a sun- stroke, his mental powers and business grasp failed, VISIT TO MEXICO 75 and his large fortune melted away. The last time my father went to see them, he found them ex- tremely poor, but bearing all with Christian forti- tude and resignation. In the years 1880 and 1881 two honours came within the Secretary's reach. He was urged to accept, in the first instance, the Presidency of Ham- ilton College, his old Alma Mater, and the follow- ing year was asked to consider the Chancellorship of the Pittsburgh University. But it now seems clear that it was God's purpose to keep him where he was, and though from a worldly standpoint these titles would have conferred a higher distinc- tion than that of Secretary of Foreign Missions, still he was content to forego this, in order to devote thirty- four years to the cause of World Evangelization. It was at about this time that Dr. Ellinwood made a delightful visit to Mexico accompanied by the treasurer of the Board, Mr. Rankin. They went to investigate and adjust some difficulty which had arisen in the Mexican Mission field; and dur- ing a stay of six weeks or more he became deeply interested in the history of Maximilian and Carlotta. Their brief reign and tragic fate so ap- pealed to his heart and imagination, that he wrote a lecture on the subject which he later delivered before the New England Society of Orange. This was a literary society of some local importance, and the following year he was elected its president. 76 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD On December 28, 1881, when the Board of Trustees of the CHfton Springs Sanitarium was organized, he was invited to be present, and became one of the original members of that body. His interest in this famous Bethesda dated from 1851, when, as a theological student, he first visited the springs, and found a small '' water cure," only one year old. His admiration for its founder. Dr. Henry Foster, only increased with time, and when many years later (January, 1901) that noble friend and benefactor of humanity, died, he wrote to a daughter : " I suppose that you have been told how he died on Tuesday morning, or rather was translated ' in the twinkling of an eye.' His was the saintliest personality I have ever known." As Dr. Ellinwood's connection with the Sani- tarium covered many years, and it seems wiser to present everything regarding it at once, it may be said here that he was elected president of the Board of Trustees in July, 1894, and continued to serve for ten years, till the infirmities of age compelled him to resign. Among the trustees at that time he found particularly interesting the personality of Bishop McCabe, a man whose wonderful mag- netism and gift of song had made him, during the Civil War, the most popular chaplain in the Union Army; and who, in 1887, as Secretary for the N, CLIFTON SPRINGS SANITARIUM ^y Methodist Board, spurred his church on to raise in one year a " MilHon for Missions." Though Dr. ElHnwood lacked his magnetism, in many other respects the men were alike. There were the same force, fire, and enthusiasm; the same evangelistic spirit and genius for initiative; and both were ardent and successful beggars for the Great Cause. In 1894 Bishop McCabe wrote: — "All hail! You are our Major-General ! As such I salute you ! " These words would equally well have described his own position in the Methodist ranks. When, on July 10, 1896, the beautiful new Sanitarium building and chapel were dedicated, Dr. Ellinwood in presiding said : — " I want to state my conviction that aside from the incalculable value of this institution in giving health to hundreds and thousands, and even to tens of thousands — for I believe that at least seventy or eighty thousand have been here — there has gone from this institution the most positive spiritual influence that has gone from any institution within my knowledge." In reply to his letter of resignation Mrs. Foster wrote: — " We grieve that the time has come when the tried and trusted friend of Dr. Foster and the Sani- tarium, and the honoured president of the Board of Trustees, finds it necessary to sever the connec- tion which has so long bound us together. Your 78 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD presence has ever been a blessing and your wise and helpful counsels a comfort and certain reli- ance." But to return to the year 1885. During that spring the pleasant home life in Orange came to an end. One of several reasons contributing toward this break-up was the fact that Dr. Ellin- wood was beginning to feel the strain of suburban life, with its incessant journeyings to and fro, by train and ferry. Accordingly in the autumn, after the usual season in the Adirondacks, the family settled in New York, wfeere they continued to live for twenty years. Twice during the two following years were ef- forts made to induce him to consider Theological professorships, but his decision was always the same. It was about this time that he wrote a let- ter which contained a prophecy speedily fulfilled. It bears date of August i, 1887, and says: — " Yesterday, in Dr. Cuyler's church in Brooklyn, I heard a young man present two very interesting sermons; and altogether he struck me as a man of great promise. It was Rev. Maltbie D. Babcock of Lockport, N. Y. I should say that he was per- haps, thirty-two years of age." Some thirteen years later when Dr. Babcock was enjoying an almost unprecedented popularity and PROFESSORSHIP 79 affection as pastor of the Brick Presbyterian Cliurch, New York, the writer heard him dehver a sermon on Foreign Missions in which he referred to " Dr. ElHnwood, that noble Christian statesman, diplomatist, and philosopher, God bless him and spare him I " It was in this year that the Secretary accepted the Professorship of Comparative Religions in the Graduate Department of the New York University. He was the first man to fill this chair, and though sixty-one years old at the time, he entered upon the preparation of these lectures with all the enthusiasm of youth, working every night till late bedtime. He always insisted that for him " the best recreation lay in change of work," and never liked to admit that relaxation formed any part of recreation. As this subject is more fully dealt with in Mr. Speer's chapter, we give in this connection only one testimonial, that from Dr. John Bancroft Devins, editor of the New York Observer: — " Dr. Ellinwood's lectures upon * Religions of the Orient ' were masterful. Having had the privilege of taking the course under him, it is a great pleasure to testify to their worth. He did not minimize the virtues of the non-Christian religions; no advocate of Brahmanism, or Buddhism could have brought out more forcefully the strong points of this cult; but when they were compared with the virtues and beauties of Christianity the superiority of the Gos- pel of Christ was made manifest." 8o FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD A year after the course was opened, Elliott F. Shepard wrote : — " It seems to me a great pity that your lectures should be to so limited an audience. I would like to see it a hundredfold larger. Is there no way to enlarge the usefulness of your efforts in the remain- ing lectures? I only wish it had been possible for me to hear every one of them; and if you will allow me, and will send me word in advance, I will endeavour to attend the examinations." VIII— 1887-1890 WORLD CONFERENCE ON MISSIONS — APPEAL TO KING LEOPOLD VISIT TO SCOTLAND LETTERS IN 1888 occurred the Ecumenical Missionary Conference in London. For the success of these great meetings the Secretary had been labouring for many months; and in May he sailed for England to attend it, accompanied by his wife.* He afterwards wrote : — " About fifty sessions were held in that renowned structure known as Exeter Hall, the historic centre of more numerous and varied movements for reli- gion and humanity than any other edifice of modem times. The Earl of Aberdeen was its honorary president, and presided on its chief occasions. Many distinguished men, who, as civil administra- tors, or military commanders in England's Oriental possessions, have had the fullest opportunities fairly to estimate the success of missions, gave to the Conference the hearty support of their presence and their co-operation. The large American delegations were received into the homes of their British kins- * In the Minutes of the Presbytery of New York on the death of Dr. Ellinwood, it states that "he may be said to have created the two World Conferences of missionary societies, which were held in London, and New York" (the latter in 1900). 8x 82 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD folk with the most cordial hospitality, and the two nations were more closely united by the new bonds of a common impulse for the advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom." We quote also from a letter written home, during the progress of the sessions : — " The Conference is a grand success ! Five hun- dred were expected, fifteen hundred have come. It is a great thing to be here. All parts of the world are represented, and it is sublime to see such throngs interested day after day in missions, and among them the first men of the kingdom. . . . We are staying in a very pleasant home, that of an old India civil service officer. And yesterday we took luncheon at a large hotel dining hall. It was given by Cornelius Vanderbilt in behalf of the American delegates to their English friends, and was magnificent, four hundred being at table. From there we went by train to DoUis Hill, the country seat of the Earl and Lady Aberdeen, who gave a garden party to the members of the Conference. Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone are their guests, and we all shook hands with them. We had a group photograph taken on the lawn, and they made me sit, modest as I am, among the honoured Americans.* On the way home Mamma * This was a large photograph taken in a semicircle, the Earl and Lady Aberdeen with their four children reclining on rugs on the grass. Behind them were seated the principal delegates, Dr. Wm. M. Taylor of New York and Dr. Ellin- wood in the centre, while the others stood — a dense mass of heads — filling the background. This photograph was loaned to the New York Conference in 1900 and was lost. WORLD MISSIONARY CONFERENCE 83 saw the Prince of Wales and his wife and oldest son just starting for the Royal German funeral. Everybody here is deep in sorrow. To-morrow I expect to go to the House of Commons to hear Gladstone speak on the death of the Emperor." On the last night of the Conference a great fare- well meeting was held, and an hour or two before it opened the Earl of Aberdeen came to Dr. Ellin- wood and asked him to make the address for the Americans. This left practically no time for prepa- ration; but the enthusiasm of the occasion, the splendid success of the Conference, and the vast representative audience inspired him to the utmost of his powers. Among many who warmly con- gratulated him was Lord Aberdeen, who showed his appreciation by cordially inviting him and his wife to pay them a little visit. This, however, was found to be impossible, as Dr. Ellinwood had been made chairman of a committee appointed by the Presby- terian Council to wait upon the King of the Bel- gians with reference to the liquor traffic in the Congo; and before starting on that mission had promised to make a flying trip to Berlin, where two of his daughters, Jean and Marjorie, were taking a two-years' course in music and German. On reach- ing Berlin, matters pertaining to the Congo liquor traffic detained him two or three days, after which his daughters accompanied him back to London, where they arrived just in time to attend a breakfast given to their father by Sir John and Lady Kenna- 84 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD way. Among members of Parliament and several Bishops present on this occasion was Bishop Crow- thers of Africa, a full-blooded negro, who as a child had been on a slave ship bound for America when it was intercepted by a British vessel. The University of Oxford had conferred on this man the degree of doctor of divinity, entitling him to wear upon occasion a scarlet hood, which, taken in combination with his ebony skin, proved highly effective. On the 1 6th of July the committee of nine men appointed to wait on King Leopold, met in Brussels, where the following telegram awaited them : — " Ellinwood — Hotel Empereur, Rue Nueve — His Majesty will receive you at Ostend to-day at half -past four. Von Estrelde." The committee accordingly repaired to the sum- mer place at Ostend, where they were presented to the King by Baron Prisse. The chairman then made a brief address. King Leopold at that time was enjoying more of the respect of Christian nations than was later accorded him. Moreover, before the audience, the committee had been inter- viewed by his Administrateur d'Affaires de Congo, who represented (or misrepresented) the case in such a light as to " measurably affect the character of the interview," so says the report. The address, therefore, was not in the nature of a protest; but APPEAL TO KING LEOPOLD 85 stated, after its opening formalities, that " their council represented nearly twenty millions of Chris- tian people in Europe, the United States, Australia, and the Dominion of Canada, who were carrying on missions in Africa and other unenlightened lands," and it ended by earnestly begging the co-op- eration of his Majesty in efforts to suppress the liquor traffic in the Congo Free States. The report says that " the King listened atten- tively and courteously, and replied in good English, making towards the close of his remarks, a promise which is truly edifying in the light of present-day revelations, namely, " to do all in his power to avert evil from the native tribes of the great Congo basin." " At the close of his reply," continues the report, " His Majesty led on to some general con- versation, then thanked the delegation for their visit, and shook each cordially by the hand as they re- tired." Fortunately, the humane policy of King Leo- pold's successor now promises real hope for the Congo. Before leaving England for the Continent a letter had been received from Lord Balfour of Burleigh, asking Dr. Ellinwood to come up to Scotland and make an address. This invitation included his wife and daughters, and promised that if they would pay a week's visit to himself and Lady Balfour, he would take them on a trip through the Trossachs. The acceptance of this hospitality gave them four 86 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD most delightful days, including on their journey to Edinburgh visits to the Cathedrals of York and Durham. From a letter written home we quote the following : — " I have to speak to-night in a Union Missionary meeting, and Lord Balfour, whose guests we are, has advertised me in printed handbills. This Bal- four family, is in its real name the Bruce family, and it is also on the wife's side, a scion of the Stuarts. The old castle of Robert Bruce is half a mile away, or at least one high tower of it, in which he spent the night before the battle of Ban- nockburn. Bruce conquered the small tribes, and founded Scotland as a nation. I have just had a good night's sleep in a bed which was given to the family by Queen Mary of Scotland. Lord Balfour is a special favourite of Queen Victoria, and when in attendance at the House of Lords spends much time at Windsor. Yesterday our host took us on an all day's tour through the Trossachs and the lakes. It was a fine day, and you may be sure it was a red-letter day. I send you a wild rose from the Trossachs." It is an interesting coincidence that at the time of the present writing (June, 1910) there is in progress in Edinburgh the third great World Mis- sionary Conference, with Lord Balfour of Burleigh, K.T., as president; and Sir John Kennaway, Bart., M.P., as one of the three vice-presidents. Twenty- LETTERS 87 two years ago some fifteen hundred people at- tended from all parts of the world, while now from America alone, six hundred delegates are present. On August 28th, Dr. Arthur Mitchell wrote : — " Dear Dr. Ellinwood: Welcome home ! I wish I were in New York to get the first taste of your experiences as you un- bottle them. ... I want to thank you for your letters to me while you were away. I don't see how you found time to write them, judging from the accounts I have received of your tremendous labours; but you put in your strokes at the very centre of the world. Everybody says you did two men's work, and did it better than the two men." Some five years later when this beloved friend and colleague died, the following letter was re- ceivod : — *' My Dear Dr. Ellinwood : The thanks of us all are due to you for the mag- nificent eulogy which you pronounced upon Dr. Mitchell this afternoon. It was an uplift to us to listen to the solid truthfulness of your utterances, inwardly warmed as they were by the tenderness of your affection for him. You do not need to have this said to you, and I have written it only because it was difficult for me to leave it unwritten. I wish there were some means by which we could learn fully to appreciate, and to pass fully under 88 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD the power of Christian excellence so royal as was that of Dr. Mitchell, before the personality in which the excellence is incarnated moves up beyond our reach. Yours gratefully and sincerely, Chas. H. Parkhurst/' IX— 1 890- 1 897 MISSIONARY GUESTS — LECTURES AT ANDOVER AND UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY — PUBLISHES " ORIENTAL RELIGIONS AND CHRISTIANITY " LETTERS DEGREE OF LL.D. CONFERRED AD- DRESS TO LI HUNG CHANG REPLY OF THE VICEROY DATING from their trip around the world in 1874, when Dr. and Mrs. Ellinwood were the guests of hospitable missionaries in China, Japan, India, and other countries of the East, they were in turn, for many years thereafter, privileged to be the hosts of numerous returned mis- sionaries in this country. These noble men and women represented many different social grades, ranging from the most highly cultivated people to those whose chief adornment lay perhaps in charac- ter — in the graces of a consecrated self-denying life. Among these many guests, memory recalls an at- tractive, bright-faced little lady. Dr. Chestnut, who, during the Lien Chou massacre a few years later, bore herself with such conspicuous bravery as to win special mention in the later reports, and who met a violent death at the hands of the Chinese mob. Others are recalled who had just escaped from the 89 90 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD Boxer uprising, and their confinement in the Peking Legation, their faces still bearing eloquent testi- mony to their sufferings. But among them all one personality stands out pre-eminently, that of the Scotch saint and hero, Dr. John G. Paton, who was sent out by his own country to the New Heb- rides. A man small in stature, but a giant in prow- ess and moral courage, whose life for years on the island of Tanna was one long miracle of hair- breadth escapes from death. No literature of ad- venture in the nineteenth century can equal his simple record of the manifold ways in which God intervened between him and the heathen hatred of savages. He was, in 1890, a white-haired man, still vigorous and erect, unassuming and of an engaging simplicity, who brought to New York the unconventional habits of his island life, scorning such luxuries as easy chairs and late dinners. In June, 1890, occurred the first meeting of the Mohunk Negro Conference, and Dr. Ellinwood and his wife were among those who accepted a cordial invitation from Mr. and Mrs. Smiley to be present. For several successive years thereafter they attended the conferences, always finding much to enjoy in the interest of the meetings; the pictu- resque beauty of the resort; and in the people whom they met — among these notably General Armstrong, whose genial magnetic personality and pre-eminent services for the Negro and Indian, naturally made him a prominent feature of the meetings. LECTURES 91 The years of '91 and '92 were especially full, as, in addition to the duties of Secretary and the lectures on Comparative Religions, he accepted a unanimous appointment as Hyde Lecturer on For- eign Missions at the Andover Theological Seminary, and also delivered a course on the Ely foundation in the Theological Seminary, New York. Mean- while, he was busy in the preparation of a book entitled, " Oriental Religions and Christianity." This was published in '92, and we quote a few lines from a long and appreciative review of it by the Rev. James S. Dennis : — " This volume, as might be expected from one so eminently fitted for the task, is a happy combina- tion of discriminating scholarship and practical wisdom, and is written with a full appreciation of the existing need for an evangelical treatise on this theme which would have the true ring of loyalty to the Gospel, and yet be free from unguarded and indiscriminate denunciation of the great ethnic religions. The book is timely both at home and abroad, and is a vigorous and sufficient reply to all false admiration for Eastern religions, and is full of phil- osophical instruction and apologetic power, and high missionary inspiration." In September, 1891, he also found time to attend, at Rochester, the dedication of the beautiful new auditorium which the Central Church had been 92 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD building; and to preach the dedicatory sermon. A Rochester paper thus commented on it : — " The sermon of Dr. F. F. Ellinwood, Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions, was a brilliant and comprehensive review of the progress of a generation, the period of thirty-three years inter- vening between the dedication of the Central Church in 1858, of which he was then the pastor, and the present occasion. He touched on the local history of the city and the church, but the discourse was mainly a splendid, logical and powerful argu- ment to prove the speedy, complete and world-wide triumph of the Gospel." It has been said that Dr. Ellinwood's sympathies were broad and deep, and nothing could illustrate this better than extracts from two letters belonging to this period, the first from Dr. Herrick Johnson : — " Chicago, Nov. 16, 1893. My Dear Dr. Ellinwood: Now that I am getting ' out of the woods ' I want to tell you how grateful have been your words of appreciation and affection. Nothing has more deeply touched me during my illness, than the mes- sages that have come into my sick-room from you. They have been so hearty and sympathetic. I did not know you leaned toward me with so dear a regard. / like to know it. It does a tired worker 'ts*^ Sfood now and then to be cheered. And I wonder & if we are quite right in getting so absorbed in our LETTERS 93 work, that we fail to get in touch with each other in the place of tenderness and tears. . . . God bless you, dear old heart. Good-bye. With warm regard, Herrick Johnson." The second letter was received some three or four years later, from Dr. Benjamin Labaree, a missionary from Persia, who at that time was visit- ing this country with his family. His daughter, a lovely Christian girl and a chronic invalid, was taken to the Presbyterian Hospital for an operation, and her devoted mother accompanied her. There, within a few days, they both lay dead, the mother from pneumonia. " My Dear Dr. Ellinwood: My heart prompts me to come in to New York for a personal interview, that I might express in the most direct and the warmest manner possible, something of the affectionate gratitude I feel to- ward you for all the comfort you have been to me and my children in these days. But I think I will wait awhile until chastened body and emotions are more rested. I wish, however, that you should know how very soothing your words in public and in private, in formal address, in prayer, and in print, have been to us. We are very grateful to you, and I am convinced that the Lord has simply made you His special servant to minister to us the consolations which He designed for us at this time of His afflictive providences. 94 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD I have received your several letters with their overflowing expressions of sympathy, and their most surprising tokens of practical fellowship in my sorrow, from yourself and others. I am over- whelmed by the superabundance of these gifts. They considerably exceed my needs, and some of them I am constrained to return, among them your own. What you have done for me and mine at this time, far exceeds in value to us any of the pecuniary contributions which generous friends have sent us." In 1895 the University of the City of New York conferred on Dr. Ellinwood the degree of LL.D., his name being presented by the venerable Charles Butler, president of the university council. This eminent lawyer, for sixty years connected with the growth and development of the University, — the friend of Froude, of Carlyle (who called him " the truest gentleman he had known "), and of Matthew Arnold, — who was also one of the founders of the Union Theological Seminary; had for many years been the warm personal friend of Dr. Ellinwood. When, in the following April, a daughter of the lat- ter was married, Mr. Butler attended the ceremony, tall and erect, though at the age of ninety- four. The following year he died, and the last time my father called to see him, this dear old friend drew his face down, and kissed him good-bye. It was in June of this year that the Secretary completed his quarter of a century in the service of the Foreign Mission Board; and on the 20th ADDRESS TO LI HUNG CHANG 95 of the same iiionth attained to his seventieth birth- day. To quote from Dr. Henry M. Field, in the New York Evangelist: — " Such a coincidence could not, of course, be kept a secret. The Board heard of it, and at the annual meeting, the venerable president. Dr. John D. Wells, read suitable resolutions; and he and other members of the Board spoke in cordial terms of the long and faithful service that had been rendered. The pro- ceeding was of the nature of a surprise to Dr. Ellin- wood, as was that of the following day, when a procession was formed which brought up at his desk, the leader, Dr. Arthur J, Brown, bearing a serviceable present in the shape of a leather satchel, which was presented and received with fitting words." In the late summer of this year there came to our shores a picturesque and most illustrious guest in the person of Li Hung Chang, special Ambassador of His Majesty, the Emperor of China. He was the foremost man in that great Empire; had been variously styled the Bismarck or the Gladstone of China, and was acknowledged the world over as the greatest Oriental of the age. In recognition of his well known friendliness toward foreign mis- sionaries in his own country, it seemed fitting that the different American Missionary Boards and Societies should unite in extending to him a greet- ing and welcome; and Dr. Ellinwood was appointed 96 FRx\NK FIELD ELLINWOOD to prepare and deliver the address on this occasion. The denominations represented were the Presby- terian, the Protestant Episcopal, the Methodist and Baptist. Congregational and Reformed. And through the courtesy of the Hon. John W. Foster, ex-Secretary of State, and counsel for the Chinese Government in the peace treaty vi^ith Japan, an interview was arranged for nine o'clock on the morning of September i, at the Hotel Waldorf. Among those present were: Hon. Darwin R. James, Dr. Donald Sage Mackay, Bishop Andrews, and Colonel John J. McCook. When the venerable Viceroy entered the room, accompanied by his interpreter and Mr. Foster, the delegation at once rose in greeting. With a slight bow the Viceroy seated himself while his interpreter said : — " He is very weak in his constitution, if you will allow him to take his seat." Mr. Foster then introduced the chairman, Dr. Ellinwood, who read the following address, a copy of which had been given the Viceroy before the interview : — " To His Excellency, Li Hung Chang, Grand Secre- tary, and Special Ambassador of his Majesty, the Emperor of China: Among the thousands of our countrymen who are seeking opportunity to do honour to you and be H W ADDRESS TO LI HUNG CHANG 97 your August Sovereign, we, the representatives of various Boards and Societies engaged in Christian Missions in China, beg leave to present to you our most hearty greetings, and to assure you of the profound respect which we cherish toward that great and ilhistrious Empire which you so worthily represent. For the last fifty years the missionaries of these Boards have been favoured with the protection of your Government, and we are frank to say that in no nation of the world have American mission- aries received more just and even generous treat- ment than that accorded to our missionaries by the Imperial Government of China. It is remarkable how very few of our mission- aries, out of the many hundreds who have lived in China, have lost their lives through violence, and we recall no instance in which such casualties have occurred with the sanction or even connivance of your Government. On the contrary, there have been many instances in which local officials who have been remiss in affording proper protection, have suffered punishment for their neglect. We take special pleasure in paying this tribute to the justice and humanity shown by that August Power which you have the honour to represent. We remember with lively gratitude the various edicts and proclamations which have been issued by the Imperial Government direct, or by subordi- nate officials, not only enjoining protection to our missionaries, but assuring the people of their peace- able intentions and the disinterested character of their work. A very remarkable edict of this kind 98 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD was issued in the year 1891 in the name of his Majesty, the Emperor. We recall many kindly expressions uttered by yourself and others of the appreciation with which you regard our educational work, the services of missionaries, both men and women, in the hospitals and dispensaries, and the self-denying efforts put forth by missionaries in the distribution of relief in time of famine. On our part we have been conscious from the first of only the most disinterested motives. Our missionaries have not sought for pecuniary gains at the hands of your people; they have not been secret emissaries of diplomatic schemes; their labours have had no political significance; they have only desired to communicate good. We are frank to say that while our work has aimed to relieve suffer- ing and to improve the minds of the young by edu- cation, we have been moved by still higher con- siderations. We do not believe that religion is a thing of ethnic limitations, but that whatever of Truth the Great Author of our being has made known to men of any nation is the rightful heritage of all mankind; and that as matter of natural and imperative obligation, those who believe that they have received the truth are bound to make it known to others. If it is of advantage to mankind that the coinmerce of material interests, and of ideas in science or philosophy shall be promoted, we deem it still more important that free intercommunication shall be accorded to those greatest of all truths which concern the immortal destinies of men. And ADDRESS TO LI HUNG CHANG 99 it is with great satisfaction that we have learned of the assurance which you gave some months since to an American Bishop, that the medical and educa- tional work of our missionaries would continue to be welcomed and protected in China. Indeed, you have for many years given abundant proofs of your generous spirit in this regard. We have endeavoured to prosecute our work in a courteous and appreciative spirit. Our most intelligent missionaries have always shown great respect for those illustrious sages, Confucius, Men- cius, and others. It was a missionary who trans- lated the Confucian Classics into our language, and others have set forth their just merits in many a publication for American readers. We have not hesitated to express our admiration for the stability of your government and institutions, the principles of filial reverence and domestic order on which your institutions rest, the admirable regulation which bases political preferment not upon the suc- cess of partisan power or skill, but upon competitive merit. We believe that in many of these things we may well profit by your example, and on the other hand, our only motive in offering to your people our medical and educational systems, and the great and salutary teachings of our Christian faith, is our deep conviction that they will prove a blessing. While we send missionaries to China, we are not unmindful of our duty to those of your people who have come to our own shores. They have in many instances been rudely treated by certain loo FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD classes amongst us, mostly immigrants from other lands, but our Christian people have uniformly shown them kindness. They have been gathered into Sunday Schools and evening schools; their rights have been defended in the courts, and many times have deputations from the Missionary Boards and other benevolent societies petitioned our Gov- ernment in the interest of just legislation for the Chinese. Were you to visit our Pacific Coast, you would observe with interest the homes and refuges which, with the co-operation of the Chinese Consul-General, the Christian women of that coast have provided for unfortunate Chinese girls who have been sold into the most debasing slavery. We believe that all these best impulses of philanthropy which lead our people to forget all divisions of nationality and of race, and to stretch our their arms in true brotherhood to your people, whether here or in China, are the direct fruit of the teachings of the Divine Founder of Christianity. Having through the influence of the Christian faith received so rich an inheritance of blessing we feel constrained, in gratitude to God, to regard ourselves as debtors to all men. For this reason we strive to proclaim in all lands the knowledge of our Divine Teacher and only Saviour, Jesus Christ. In closing, permit us to express anew the satis- faction which we have felt in being permitted to meet your Excellency, and to thank you for your repeated kindnesses to our missionaries. We thank the Great Father of mankind that He has so long REPLY OF THE VICEROY loi spared your life in the midst of many perils; that He has permitted you to be of such eminent service to your country in many trying emergencies, which few men of any nation could have met with such great ability and success. And we commend you to His care as you return to your distant home, where you will enjoy the consciousness that not only your country- men, but all mankind unite in honouring your name." As the reply of the Viceroy excited much favour- able newspaper comment, we also give that : — " Gentlemen : — It aflfords me great pleasure to acknowledge the grateful welcome to this country offered to me by you as representatives of various Boards and Societies which have engaged in China in exchanging our ideas of the greatest of all truths which concern the immortal destinies of men. In the name of my August Master, the Emperor of China, I beg to tender to you his best thanks for your approval and appreciation of the protec- tion afforded to the American missionaries in China. What we have done, and how little we have done on our part, is but the duty of our government; while the missionaries, as you have so well ex- pressed, have not sought for pecuniary gains at the hands of our people. They have not been secret emissaries of diplomatic schemes. Their labours have no political significance; and the last, not the 102 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD least, if I might be permitted to add, they have not interfered with or usurped the rights of the terri- torial authorities. In a philosophical point of view, as far as I have been able to appreciate, Christianity does not differ much from Confucianism, as the Golden Rule is expressed in a positive form in the one, while it is expressed in the negative form in the other. Logically speaking, whether these two forms of expressing the same truth cover exactly the same ground or not, I leave to the investigation of those who have more philosophical tastes. It is, at the present, enough to conclude that there exists not much difference between the wise sayings of the two greatest teachers, on the foundations of which the whole structure of the two systems of morality is built. As man is composed of soul, intellect and body, I highly appreciate that your eminent Boards, in your arduous and much esteemed work in the field of China, have neglected none of the three. I need not say much about the first, being an un- knowable mystery of which even our great Con- fucius had no knowledge. As for intellect, you have started numerous educational establishments which have served as the best means to enable our countrymen to acquire a fair knowledge of the modern arts and sciences of the West. As for the material part of our constitution, your Societies have started hospitals and dispensaries to save not only the soul but also the body of our countrymen. I have also to add that in the time of famine in some of the provinces you have done your best for REPLY OF THE VICEROY 103 the greatest number of sufferers to keep their bodies and souls together. Before I bring my reply to a conclusion, I have only two things to mention. The first, the opium smoking, being a great curse to the Chinese population, your Societies have tried your best not only by anti-opium societies, but to afford the best means to stop the craving for the opium; and, also, you receive none as your converts who are opium smokers. I have to tender, in my own name, my best thanks for your most effective prayers to God to spare my life when it was imperilled by the assas- sin's bullet, and for the most kind wishes which you have just now so ably expressed in the interests of my Sovereign, my Country and my People." The report states that : — " The members of the delegation were then pre- sented by Dr. Ellinwood to the Viceroy, who shook hands cordially with each one, occasionally pausing and asking some question through his interpreter. Dr. Wells, president of the Presbyterian Board, whose white beard and venerable appearance at- tracted the Viceroy's attention, was asked by the latter, 'How old are you?' and on his replying ' eighty-one,' the Viceroy responded, ' God has kept you; may He keep you still.' At the close of the presentation the Viceroy asked Dr. Ellinwood, * How many Boards and Societies are there in China from America?' 'Eleven,' was the reply, ' but we represent about eight millions of people.' 104 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD ' They are all represented here ? ' ' Yes.' * Then,' said he, ' you will be good enough to convey the Viceroy's thanks to all those people. The Viceroy fully appreciates the philanthropic objects you have And later, when the delegates were beginning to disperse, he again spoke to Dr. Ellinwood, laying his hand upon his arm, and saying: " I greatly appreciate the kind expressions which you gentlemen have made to me, and especially your kind wishes for my safe return home." How little could Li Hung Chang or the Ameri- can representatives foresee the Boxer uprising which four years later was to horrify Christendom with its roll of martyred missionaries. X — i897-i9c>o APPOINTED GUARDIAN OF KOREAN PRINCE — CON- NECTION WITH KOREA ESTABLISHMENT OF THE PHILIPPINE MISSION PRESIDENT OF CHI ALPHA CIRCLE — BRINGS OUT THIRD BOOK ON MISSIONS IN the summer of 1897 the King of Korea sent to America his second son, young Prince Oui Wha. It was his Majesty's purpose to have this son prepare under Christian influences for either a college course or a military training, and it was hoped that thus he might become of great future use to poor Korea in her struggles against Japanese aggression. The King consulted with Dr. Horace N. Allen, at that time United States Minis- ter to Korea, as to a suitable guardian for his son in this country and Dr. Ellinwood was named. In explanation of this choice a few words concerning Korea may not be amiss, for though the facts are well known in the Presbyterian Church, they may not be equally familiar to others. Up to 1882 Korea was a Hermit Kingdom, but in that year made her first treaty with a Western power. Here was an opening for a new mission field, and Dr. Ellinwood seized the opportunity, being the chief instrument in establishing two years later the first 105 io6 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD mission station in that country; and in sending to Seoul station the medical missionary, Dr. Allen. The young physician likewise embraced his oppor- tunity when shortly after this an insurrection broke out, and he found the native doctors about to pour boiling oil into the wounds of the King's nephew. He persuaded them to allow him to treat the case, saved the life of the Prince, and won the King's friendship. Upon the arrival of Prince Oui Wha in New York, two or more interviews took place between himself and his guardian, after which he and his small suite were located in Washington, probably that he might be near the Korean minister. He was placed under tutors, and plans were formed to send him later to Roanoke College. But royal charges have often proved refractory, and the Prince was no exception to this rule. During a short residence in Japan in his earlier youth, he had formed a preference for that country, and as he was obliged to sail from Japanese shores, advantage of this was taken to insinuate into his suite a Romanist interpreter, unknown to the friends who were guarding him. This man steadily undermined all Protestant influences. For several months His Highness remained in Washington, evincing more inclination for pleasure than for study, and showing only antipathy to the Korean minister. That offi- cial family came to New York to consult with Dr. Ellinwood, but before any new plans for his wel- CONNECTION WITH KOREA 107 fare could be carried out, the Prince took matters into his own hands. Weak in character, untrue in spirit to his own country, and the victim of many powerful and conflicting influences, he finally re- sented so much surveillance, made his plans in secret, and quietly escaped across the continent to Japan. In this connection it may not be out of place to anticipate, and give a letter received by Dr. Ellin- wood in 1908 only a few months before his death, in which Dr. Allen writes : — " I was in New York two weeks ago and attended a banquet given by the Board in the in- terest of Korea. ... It would have cheered your heart to hear the stirring speech of Dr. Underwood regarding the wonderful awakening of these poor Koreans, with whom you and I have been so closely associated through these many years. It must be a great consolation to you that you are being spared to see the fulfilment of your prayers and of your greatest hopes; for it seems as though that whole nation were turning to Christ. This action may have greater effects upon Asia, particularly upon China, than we may at first realize; for that little peninsular people have in former times exerted a great influence upon Asiastic thought. . . . It is a great satisfaction to me to have been instrumental in opening up this work, even if I was but the instrument for holding the medical scalpel which actually pried open those closed doors, and I want io8 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD to thank you for placing such faith in an obscure young man, as to send me that memorable tele- gram authorizing me to go to that new field." We also give extracts from two other letters, the first written by Dr. Ellin wood, September 26, 1899, to Rev. James S. Gale, missionary to Korea : — " I want to thank all the brethren and sisters of Seoul Station for the kind message of congratu- lation from the station which is conveyed in your courteous and graceful letter of August 23. I scarcely realize that I am seventy-three years old until something of this kind reminds me, though at the same time I can see symptoms of more or less shakiness occasionally. I may say that I have no gloomy feelings as the result of the plain arith- metic which measures my life. I thank God for all the good that I have received in His service and am impressed with the forbearance which has been shown toward me by my Master, not only, but by the church and my friends generally, amid all the imperfections of which I am conscious through- out my life." To this Mr. Gale replied : — " Seoul, Nov. 22, 1899. ... I may say before closing that Seoul Sta- tion was much touched by your letter of September 26. We all remember that your years of labor correspond exactly with the steady increase in num- bers and influence of American Presbyterian work, THE PHILIPPINE MISSION 109 until it has reached its present magnificent propor- tions. A monument of bronze and marble is no- where to be compared with it. May we each be privileged even in the smallest degree to leave behind such a remembrance of us on earth." The American occupation of the Philippines, fol- lowing our war with Spain, also opened up new territory for Mission work, and immediately Dr. Ellinwood was fired with zeal to enter in and there establish a Protestant station. As he said, " the call of Providence was mandatory, and the opportunity at our door." Among other earnest appeals which he sent forth, was the following characteristic article (slightly abbreviated) which was published in November, 1898, in the Church at Home and Abroad, and entitled The Diplomatic Situation from a Missionary Standpoint. " The great body of American people, save the soldiers who have fought so bravely, have scarcely felt the shock of the hundred days' war with Spain. Our shores have not been in- vaded by hostile armies, there has been no perceptible inter- ference with the general prosperity of the country, and yet seldom have issues so momentous been decided. ... I doubt whether any people ever entered upon a foreign war with so little prospect of self-aggrandizement. The keynote of the President's message to Congress and his declaration of war was that of philanthropy. Both were of the nature of an appeal for humanity, and such was the appeal that was so generously responded to. Thoughtful people soon came to feel that over and above, or rather perhaps underlying the action of President and Con- gress, there were great providential designs far transcending no FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD the forecast of the Government and the public press. From the start, everything assumed grander proportions than had been expected. The Government had no plans for Porto Rico; Manila and the Ladrones had scarcely been thought of by the people at large, and it may be doubted whether the cabinet had any thought of national aggrandizement ; but the one decisive victory in Manila Harbour on May ist, not merely destroyed Spain's Pacific Fleet, but left the Philippine Archipelago a helpless dependency on our hands. . . . But the most striking element in this three months' history is the way in which Providence seems to hold us to the logical conclusions of our professed aim and intent. We had pro- claimed to the world that we were moved by broad considera- tions of humanity — Cuba was only a specialization of the principle, and it was the great principle and not the mere geographical situation of an island, that was supreme. We had only thought of Cuba, but it looks very much as if God had thought of something more. Humanity is not a mat- ter of geography. Our enemy was guilty of other oppressions in the Eastern Hemisphere as well as in the Western, and as Divine ordering would have it, we had made our conquest in the East before Cuba was ever touched; and by common consent there was greater need of deliverance in the Philip- pines than in the Antilles. What was it then that we had been fighting for? Was it really for the uplifting of humanity wherever oppressed, or was it for some narrower and more selfish consideration growing out of mere vicinage and the embarrassment of having a disagreeable neighbour. Judging from the standpoint of Foreign Missions we must refuse to consider the question of near or far, and we must repudiate the argument of those, some of them the best of men, who claim that because our Government had only men- tioned Cuba, that therefore, it is pledged to carry its conquest no further. . . . Another argument often presented of late is that the ignorant and tropical peoples, whether in the East or in the West, are not worth the outlay. But can we forget that the heathen are loved, not for what they are, but for what grace can make of them? Can we forget that God's DIPLOMATIC SITUATION iii love even for His Church is based not so much upon a present estimate, as upon that glorious prospective in which a thou- sand years are as one day? The thousands of missionaries who, from the time of Paul and Titus in the island of Crete, down to the devoted missionary who has spent his life for the Dwarfs of West Africa, rise up as witnesses, and put to shame their argument that the United States has been squan- dering its resources for worthless people. If we are right in believing that this has been a providential war — that the hand of God has been in the marvellous victories which have been gained with such celerity and with comparatively so little expenditure, we may conclude that it was in effect a mission- ary war, for Missions are simply the current work of God's Providence for the redemption of the world. We have fought not merely for the Cubans of to-day, or the Filipinos of to- day, but for the coming generations in these tropical island groups. The real question has been whether Cuba shall re- main for four centuries more as in the past, or shall take her place among the enlightened and prosperous nations of the earth; and whether the papal hierarchy under the flag of an effete nation shall longer continue to oppress the Philippines as in the past, or whether the standard of liberty, good govern- ment, and Christian regeneration shall be raised. There was still another significant providential force which urged upon the United States the crusade which it has under- taken with so great success. Three years ago the Christian world witnessed atrocities among the Armenians which were a disgrace to the century in which we live, while Christian nations looked upon the slaughter with folded arms. In this country there was a universal outburst of indignation, and from the pulpit and press, condemnation was poured upon the cold and heartless policy of the great Powers across the waters which held each other in a deadlock of inaction. The outrage seemed aggravated still further when these same Powers actually abetted the Turk in his war upon the help- less Greeks. Comparing these things with the more prac- tical sympathy which at earlier periods had been shown for the oppressed of Turkey and the slaughtered Greeks of 112 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD Scio and Missilonghi, it seemed as if the shadow on the dial was turning back, and the Christian world was receding towards the spirit of the dark ages. Humanity was apparently subordinated to political interests, as if common ethics had disappeared from the policy of governments. Along the same line France had inflicted unspeakable outrages upon our weaker governments in Madagascar and in Siam. Rus- sia with the menace of brute force had driven Japan from Port Arthur and occupied the position herself, as a lion would rob a jackal of its prey, and the mailed fist of Germany had with indecent haste wrested half a province from China upon the smallest pretext. * Might makes right ' was becoming practically the motto of Christendom." [But in answer to the universal condemnation expressed in America by the pulpit and press, came back the retort : — ] ' How about Cuba, only ninety miles from your boasted land of freedom? You are not hampered by any international com- plications.' We were shut up to the plain logic of all we had said, we stood self-convicted before mankind. For the eman- cipation of humanity, we were like Israel, driven into the sea by forces which we could not control. We can understand it now. This nation was placed in the vanguard of a new and holier crusade for the twentieth century. As Victor Hugo would have expressed it, the eternal fitness of things had issued its decree against the old selfish policies, and had in- augurated a new code of national morality. It was shown that no more can a Christian nation live unto itself or die unto itself than a Christian man. Humanity is one. . . . And it seems proper that Christians should recognize the hand of God in what has so strangely transcended all ex- pectations. Especially does it become us to ask what are the duties which the interests of Christ's advancing kingdom now lay upon us." . . . His hopes and prayers were answered when, in the following April, a Mission station was estab- lished at Manila, the Presbyterian Board being PRESIDENT OF CHI ALPHA CIRCLE 113 the first in the field. And the two succeeding years saw one opened at Iloilo and another at Dumaguete. For over ten years Dr. Ellinwood had greatly enjoyed his membership in the Chi Alpha Circle, a society comprising most of the well known Pres- byterian clergymen of New York and Brooklyn. For its meetings, held at the homes of different members, every Saturday afternoon during each winter, papers on various subjects were prepared; at which time they were read and discussed. A pleasing social feature came at the close of each gathering when the ladies of the household were wont to appear, and a light collation was served. On January 7, 1899, Dr. Ellinwood received noti- fication that he had been unanimously elected presi- dent of this circle for the ensuing year. And a few days later Mrs. Ellinwood was told by Mr. Hand, treasurer of the Board of Foreign Missions, that she " would have been pleased to have heard her husband speak on January 11, be- fore the business men of New York. There was," he said, " all the fire and enthusiasm of a man of thirty. It was fine! And the next day I looked to see him exhausted, but he seemed fresh and strong." During this year the Secretary brought out his third and last book entitled " Questions and Phases of Modern Missions." The manuscript of this was handed to Mr. Dodd (of the publishing house of Dodd & Mead) with the request that he 114 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD would have some one look it over. Later a note Mras received from Mr. Dodd saying that " it was not his habit to show the opinion of the expert to the writer of the book, but in this case he would do so." The following was enclosed : — " Anything from Dr. Ellinwood is worthy of careful attention. He is broad-minded; open to new ideas; a slave to no theory; and he can write good, clear, even brilliant English. The present work appears to be made up of ad- dresses or lectures delivered on various occasions. The origin of these papers has brought out some of Dr. Ellinwood's most remarkable powers. There are passages in some of them of thrilling eloquence. And as he has always been a scholar and a teacher, rather than a rhetorician; and an organizer and administrator, rather than a theorist, the disadvan- tages of a collection of papers such as the present, are reduced to a minimum. There is order and progress in their arrangement, and the subjects treated are some of the live questions of the day. Especially interesting are the chapters on the Chris- tian ideas which are to be found in the religions of India, China and Japan. Dr. Ellinwood speaks as an expert on these subjects, and what he says is needed; not only for the enlightenment of the public, on the heathenism of the East; but as a correction of certain growing superstitions here at home. His treatment of the subject is thorough, and original. The second part begins with a chap- ter on the ' Regeneration of Mexico,' and one upon THIRD BOOK ON MISSIONS 115 ' The Dawn of Hawaii,' etc. I should think you would make this book ' go.' Dr. Ellin wood's name alone would be a strong lift. I think some one will certainly publish it, if you do not." The book was brought out by Dodd & Mead. At about this time a little paragraph appeared in the New York Evangelist which speaks for itself :— " Dr. F. F. Ellinwood, the senior Secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, was made to realize last Monday afternoon in what high honour and love he is held by a very large circle of friends. The occasion was the unveiling of an oil portrait of the doctor and it was a memorable one, replete with tender feeling. It was to com- memorate the long years of service of the beloved Secretary that the idea originated with Dr. Arthur J. Brown, to present to the Board this portrait which now graces the walls of the Board room. Dr. George Alexander, pastor of the University Place Presbyterian Church in this city, made the address of the occasion, and it was one of Dr. Alexander's happiest efforts; while Dr. Ellinwood's reply was tender and felicitous, voicing his deep feeling of gratitude for such an appreciative ex- pression of regard from his friends in the Board, who, by defraying the cost of the portrait, thus testified their love for their colleague." XI — 1 900- 1 903 HOME LIFE IN CORNWALL TRIP TO BERMUDA DEATH OF HIS GRANDSON LETTERS MUTUAL ESTEEM BETWEEN COLLEAGUES SECRETARIAL LABOURS LIGHTENED IN the spring of 1900 Dr. Ellinwood purchased a home in Cornwall, Conn.; and here, amid the beautiful foothills of the Berkshires, he spent the last nine summers of his life, and many of his happiest days. It afforded no small part of his pleasure to employ leisure hours in cultivating a small garden, in aiding his wife with her flowers, and in pruning his apple orchard. His two married daughters, Jean and Marjorie, lived near him here, the former now Mrs. George Woolsey of New York, the latter, Mrs. John Edward Calhoun of Cornwall, and their children were a never failing source of delight to their grandfather. One after another he had baptized them, till, on the last occa- sion, he was so enfeebled that it was necessary to steady his shaking hand as it sprinkled the water on the head of a little namesake. One abiding phase of his home life was touched on in a letter from his niece, received several years 116 HOME LIFE IN CORNWALL 117 later, after his death. She was speaking of his wife, and said, " What an object lesson to young people of to-day their married life was ! Your father used to make such beautiful and chivalrous speeches to and about her, . . . and nothing pleased him more than to have people adore her ! " During his earlier summers here he never failed to attend and take part in the weekly prayer meet- ings, and one evening when the subject was Paul, a note was taken of his tribute to the great Apostle : — " Paul was," he said, " the most wonderful man — merely human man — the world had ever known, not even excepting Moses, and certainly not David. His influence in the world was next to that of Christ himself, and flowed through and permeated the ages." In the early fall of 1900 he returned to his New York home and office, well equipped as he thought, for a long winter of hard work, but alas ! only three or four months more of really able-bodied labour were granted him. With the coming of the new year his wife's health began to fail, and soon she was prostrated with a long and serious illness. His two older daughters — one of them at that time an invalid, — were spending the winter in Florida, and thus, weighed down by anxiety and loneliness and hard work, he fell a prey to his hereditary ene- ii8 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD my paralysis agitans. Some slight indications of this disease had already been observed, but the nerv- ous strain of these months greatly hastened its approach. With the beginning of 1902, both Dr. Ellinwood and his wife were literally taken out of sick beds and sent to Bermuda. They had always been en- thusiastic travellers, and for him an ocean voyage with its enforced quiet had often proved the best prescription for tired head and jaded nerves. He had crossed the ocean some fourteen times alto- gether; but this was his last sea trip. As if realizing this he extracted from every moment its full measure of enjoyment, and sent home happy letters. A short note to his little five-year-old grandson, Pierpont Woolsey, is here given: " Dear Little Pierpont : Grandma and grandpa send you ever so much love, and a lot for Peggy, and enough left over for your papa and mamma. I'm glad those ' sparks that flied down from the hotel ' didn't reach to thirty-sixth Street. It was in the night, too, so that you couldn't get out your * fire engy.' Too bad ! This letter is going to New York on a big steamship, almost as long as your street. It is the one that brought us down here. I hope we can get some shells for you. Our lawn is full of roses and lilies, and we have some little white chicks. The donkeys here are queer, and they haven't good voices for singing. When men first saw these DEATH OF HIS GRANDSON 119 islands the only inhabitants were pigs. Now they are covered with beautiful white houses. Your affectionate Grandpa." It was a heavy blow to the tender heart of the grandfather when, ten months later, this splen- did boy, his first grandson, was fatally stricken with diphtheria. It was the verdict of even impar- tial acquaintances that he was a lad of peculiar promise. Of handsome face and figure, and bright mind, he possessed what was of even more worth, an innate nobility of nature. Unselfishness, warm- heartedness, and a sensitive consideration for the feelings of others, early distinguished him. Yet withal he was mischievous and merry. A many- sided temperament; and much had been expected of his future. His death held one element of consolation for the grandfather, who said with tears in his eyes, " I shall not dread my own going now, so much, since he has gone on before, and is waiting for me." A few days later he wrote from a full heart to the sorrowing parents — " Sunday morning, December 21, 1902. My Dear Children : It is not yet a full week since the spirit of dear little Pierpont took its flight to a better world. The wounds of the heavy blow to our earthly hopes are still fresh and sore in all our hearts. Yet as we I20 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD think of it all more and more, many and great com- forts arise. His departure is what Dr. Babcock meant by ' emancipation.' He has * run home from school/ or rather he has been promoted to a higher and better school. He is to-day among the ' saints made perfect '; he is with the great Teacher of us all, who makes no mistakes. Our precious little boy suffered much here, for one so young, and it is not unlikely that with his peculiar susceptibility he might have been liable to much sickness in later years. The watchword for us now is, not ' lost,' but * safe.' Our lives and those of the surviving children are yet serious problems; his has reached completeness and perfection. How many thou- sands of doting parents are disappointed in the development of their children as they grow up! and what a blessing it would be if they could know just when it were best that their earthly curriculum should close ! Well, the only way is to let God de- cide that question. He only knows the end from the beginning. For the dear Pierpont, God has decided, and ' He doeth all things well.' As it is, the brief life of five and a half years is a beautiful thing — beautiful to us as a memory, and an inspi- ration, beautiful as the first chapter of an immortal career. I have thought often since Pierpont's death, of the slight and casual nature of the change. A few moments before, he was perfectly conscious. . . . How did the last breath differ from the pre- ceding ones, except that it was the last ? How did the last pulse differ from all the rest, except that it was the last? None of them, the breath, DEATH OF HIS GRANDSON 121 the pulse, the nerve of the heart, could rep- resent the conscious soul. It was only the ' earthly house of this tabernacle that was dissolved,' the spirit now dwells ' in a house not made with hands ' ; not of corruptible material. We love the little body, because that also shall be raised again in glory; but Pierpont, Pierpont, is not in the tomb; nor is the realm of spirit in which he dwells far away. It may be all about us here, separated only by a thin veil — only hidden perhaps from our blind eyes. Nor have we any reason to think of our dear one as lonely. Not only is he ' cuddling in the arms of Jesus,' * but he has there a grandfather, and two grandmothers who doubtless greeted him with tender love. It is a pleasant thought to me that ere very long I shall be with him, and that you may think of us as walking together again as we did on Thanks- giving Day. I only wish I could be as confident of my own salvation as I am of his. God grant that this parting may be a means of grace to us all. With love and sympathy. Your Father," During these last summers a family reunion was always held on Dr. Ellinwood's birthday, June 20, and many beautiful letters were received. The fol- lowing from Mr. Speer, came on this his seventy- sixth anniversary : — *0nly a few months before this, at a time when he was perfectly well, he was seated on his mother's lap, talking about heaven, when something prompted her to ask — "Would you be lonely if you were in heaven now ? " "Oh, no," he replied, " I'd just cuddle down in Jesus' arms." 122 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD " My Dear Dr. Ellinwood : To-day is your birthday I think, and I want to write you a note of congratulation and of love. I could not tell you if I tried, all that you have been to me; and how fully I trust and admire you, or how deeply I love you. Again and again you would have been tried with me, in these eleven years that we have worked together, if you had not been the Christian that you are. In kindness, in generosity, in high-mindedness, in charity such as Paul extols, in patience, I have just seen no flaw in you all these years, and you have been as a father and brother alike in all the rela- tions of our work. I count my association with you one of the rarest and best blessings of my life, and I have had many, rare and good. It has been a constant stimulant and delight to see you always open to anything new, that is also good, and trying all things while holding fast only what is worth keeping. You have set before us always an illustration of right liberality and progressiveness of views, and I hope I shall never forget the great lesson you are ever teaching in this regard. If I were going to tell you all I owe to you, I should have to write a volume; and all I began to say was, that I love you with my heart and mind, and wish you many, many returns of the day. Very affectionately yours, Robert E. Speer." The friendship between these two men was very ESTEEM BETWEEN COLLEAGUES 123 beautiful. From the time, eleven years before, when the senior Secretary set his heart upon securing for the Board the services of the young Princeton theological student, and to that end journeyed to Princeton and Syracuse persuading and arranging, — he had felt an ever-growing love for his young colleague. The relation was — as indicated by Mr. Speer — twofold; that of father and son, and also that of brothers. My father felt an enthusiasm of admiration for the splendid abilities of the younger man, and for his consecrated Christian character. In a fine address delivered the next year in Pitts- burg by another beloved colleague. Dr. A. W. Hal- sey, the following generous tribute was paid : — " Take these two, Robert E. Speer and F. F. Ellinwood, one representing in his intellectual and spiritual capacity the youth of the Church, and the other in his old age, the ripened thought of the Church, his mind and spirit vigorous as of yore, and they will stand comparison with the best officials in any similar organization in the world. To-day the judgment of Dr. Ellinwood, his far-reaching vision, his broad statesmanlike grasp of mission problems, his unerring insight, mark him as a leader among leaders, while Robert E. Speer easily ranks among the leaders of the young people of our own and other denominations." Dr. Arthur Brown also wrote : — 124 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD " June 30, 1902. My Dear Dr. Ellinwood: It was delightful to receive your letter of the twenty-seventh inst. Any one who did not per- sonally know you, would infer from these vigorous and enthusiastic sentences that you were fifty-six, rather than seventy-six. It would be a great relief to me if I could feel that I would have at your age half the intellectual clearness and power that you manifest. . . . The influence you have exerted during the years of your active labours, has had a mighty power both in the Board, and on the Mission field." The reciprocal love and esteem between the Sec- retary and all his colleagues was perfect. When, some three years later the treasurer of the Board, Mr. Charles W. Hand, came to resign his position, the following letter was received from him : — " 457 Clinton Avenue, Brooklyn. My Dear Friend: I thank you for your kind and beautiful letter. It has indeed been a hard thing for me to leave the work. The idea has been forced on me, and I have had it in mind about two years. ... I value your letter, as does my family, more than I can express, and I can truthfully say that the personal relationship I have had with you is among the sweetest and most helpful experiences of my life. I have loved you from my first entry upon the work, and have always held you in the highest respect SECRETARIAL LABOURS LIGHTENED 125 and esteem. I know of no one who has rendered the Church more valuable and consecrated service. ... I pray for your comfort and for the privi- lege of seeing you many times in the flesh." In spite of failing powers, Dr. Ellinwood had been loath to give up his lectures on Comparative Religions; but in the spring of 1903, he was compelled to resign; and was appointed Professor Emeritus. For the same reason he was obliged to relinquish, about this time, another portion of his work; and the tender consideration of Mr. Speer hastened to inform him of the step the Board had taken for his relief. " My Dear Dr. Ellinwood: The Board has just this minute unanimously adopted the action which Mr. James and Dr. Shaw showed you, only modifying it so as to make clear that you are still to keep, if you will, your full place in the council, and at the head of it, but be relieved of all detailed responsibility for correspondence with the Missions. I want to write at once to tell you how glad we all are at this action — that is, if you are glad. We love and respect you so much that nothing that does not commend itself to you, could please us. There is nothing that we who have been associated with you, would not do to make everything as free from being a needless burden to you as possible. We long to have you with us for years to come, and it was the earnest wish of the Board, strongly expressed, that your judgment 126 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD was to be exercised as ever, but that you were to be free to do henceforth, as Mr. James said, ' just as you please.' I am only sending this note from the Board meet- ing to tell you how joyful I am that the Board has provided thus for your freedom from all needless care, and to assure you of our deep and abiding love. With deepest affection, Robert E. Speer." The following notice of the Board's action was received a day or two later: — " In view of the long and splendid services of our senior Secretary, the Rev. Dr. Frank F. Ellin- wood, and in the conviction that the duties of his office are at present altogether too exacting, the Board, with high appreciation of his personal worth and a deep sense of its obligation to him, hereby relieves him from all further executive correspond- ence with the Missions, with the understanding, however, that his present rank as active senior Sec- retary remain unchanged. In taking this action, the Board desires to express to Dr. Ellinwood its affectionate regard, and to assure him of its earnest prayer for the long con- tinuance of his health and vigour. John Balcom Shaw, In behalf of the Nominating Committee. Darwin R. James, In behalf of the Finance Committee. New York, May 7, 1903." LETTERS 127 When it became known on the Mission fields that the Secretary had laid aside his pen, many touching letters of regret came in from the different stations. Nowhere was it more keenly felt than in Korea. The following extract is from a letter signed, " Committee of Missions, C. A. Moffet, C. C. Vinton." " We are loath to sever the intimate relation we have held with yourself for nineteen years as a Mission. These have been years of the full blessing of God upon our joint work — yours and ours. They have been years in which we have been drawn into a close and happy relation to yourself. And they are years in which we have come to look on you as the truest of counsellors, the most untiring of advocates and the most faithful on our behalf at the throne of grace; and as one altogether worthy of our highest love and affection. It is not over- stating to say that we are convinced, from a human standpoint, the beginning of Christian work in this peninsula would but for you have been still longer delayed. To you in a pre-eminent measure, for this and other reasons, it is due that there is to-day a Church of Christ in Korea, and that that Church is so wide- spread, so vigorous and so firmly planted. Our feeling therefore at receiving the announcement that you will no longer be our Secretary, is akin to that of the fledgling cast from the nest, of the son that went out to make his own way in the world. We are losing our father, our faithful adviser." 128 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD And again, later, Dr. Moffett wrote : — " Whenever we are being especially blessed in our work here, the longing to share with you the joy of this service comes over me; for I always think of you in connection with the inception of the work in Korea, and always feel that your foster- ing care of it, your interest and your prayers, have constituted one of the greatest factors in its success. ... It cannot be many years before you are called to your reward in the presence of the Saviour, and as I think of it, one of the thoup^hts that gives me great joy, is that there you will meet with some of our loved Koreans, and that there they will come to know you, and their great debt of gratitude to you that the Gospel was brought to Korea. I love to think of my old teacher and assistant, Leader Yi, and you meeting up there." XII— 1903-1905 DEATH OF DAUGHTER — FOUNDING OF MANILA TRAIN- ING SCHOOL PHYSICAL INFIRMITY FAREWELL TO OFFICE DIGNITY AND PATIENCE UNDER SUF- FERING HENCEFORWARD the shadows gradually deepened about his path. In the late sum- mer it became apparent that his youngest daughter was seriously ill, and on October 5, less than ten months from the time his little grandson was taken, he stood beside her deathbed. There were many elements of pathos in this sudden close of a young life. She was a gentle-voiced, attract- ive girl; unselfish, conscientious, and of unassum- ing Christian character. Her last illness taught a lesson in submissive patience and thought fulness for others. After the funeral services in Cornwall, the sorrowing father, accompanied by other members of the family, went on to Rochester for the inter- ment in the family plot at Mount Hope cemetery. He returned home much exhausted, and this second blow made itself felt in an added tremulous- ness of nerves and body, from which he never re- covered. But the capacity and will for work were still strong in him, and a few days later found him 129 I30 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD back at his office desk, where he remained for two more winters. Here, though reheved of executive correspondence, he still wrote to the dififerent sta- tions, especially urging increased efforts along the line of evangelistic itineration. He took part in all meetings of the council, and in the Board meetings, and it is the opinion of Mr. Speer and Dr. Halsey that " he gave much time to the raising of money to pay off the debt on the Presbyterian building." In a letter from the latter, dated September 5, 1905, he says : — " I believe that your work has, in the last two or three years, in many respects been more potent in advancing the interests of our Board than in all your previous years of service." As a memorial of his daughter Lou, Dr. Ellin- wood conceived the idea of founding a much needed missionary training school in Manila, using as a nucleus for this fund a small bank balance left by her. To this, different members of the family con- tributed, and from this small beginning, by the generous co-operation of many friends of Missions, there finally grew a fund sufficient to warrant the erection of two good-sized buildings, one for young native women, and the other for young men. Dur- ing the months when this money was being raised, the following appeal, written by Dr. ElHnwood, was sent out by the Women's Foreign Missionary Society of Philadelphia: — MANILA TRAINING SCHOOL 131 " These statements in regard to the movement for the estabhshment of a Christian Training School at Manila are respectfully submitted to those who are interested in the enterprise : — First — As to the situation on the field, the deepest interest is expressed by different members of the Mission in regard to the matter, and beginnings have been made at Manila, Iloilo, and Cebu in the training for limited periods of the native helpers scattered through the villages of the surrounding districts. These gatherings though continued only for two or three weeks, have abundantly vindicated the wisdom of the plan of short-cut courses of training for the work whose claims are pressing hard upon the Mission at all points. The little coun- try congregations have been asked to send their most promising candidates for instruction. Thus far, only the men have been in attendance, but they have shown quickness of mind, enthusiastic interest in study, and in every way unusual capabilities for the work for which they are supposed to be trained. The outline of study has been limited almost en- tirely to the Bible, and the methods of presenting the truth. As the work goes on, wider ranges of knowledge will be communicated. The work has advanced far enough already to show its immense possibilities, and it is the deep conviction of our missionaries that an institution should at once be provided at the Capital in which selected students may enjoy much longer periods of study, and a broader range of instruction. It seems probable that for some time to come the students will be 132 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD selected from among those adults who are already employed in some form of Christian work. The whole movement is in response to an urgent demand for Christian propagandism in the outlying villages to be commenced at once, and pursued with ever higher and better preparation. The work for women will follow speedily, for in and around all the Mission Stations there are boundless opportunities for Bible reading, house- to-house visitation, visits to the sick and suffering, and for the Christian instruction of young girls, the holding of prayer meetings, etc. An interesting letter from Mrs. Rodgers of Manila has borne wit- ness to the deep interest with which the ladies of the Mission look upon this movement, and stating what beginnings have been made in a limited way in this kind of labour among women of Manila. The same may be said of Iloilo and Cebu." The magazine article from which this was quoted goes on to state that " Since the above was written the Board has decided to call the school the Ellin- wood Training School." In June, 1905, he finally took the step which was felt to be the beginning of the end when he said good-bye to his office, and at the same time gave up the New York home. From early manhood it had been his oft-repeated wish that when his time came he might die in the harness. That especially he might be spared long months or years of inaction. But Providence ordered it otherwise. To him more than to most men it had been given to see the fruit PATIENCE UNDER SUFFERING 133 of his labours, and to enjoy the praise of men; but by outliving his usefulness he was led to attach little importance to this; while the long years of helplessness chastened his naturally ardent and ag- gressive spirit, till in the end a most touching patience and humility were attained, and to a rare degree he dignified the infirmities of old age. Often the only sign given of nervous restlessness or weari- ness of the flesh was the bowed head upon the shaking hand, and the momentary closing of the eyes in silent prayer for help. During these last years when his voice could no longer be raised in family worship, great comfort was found in a little book entitled, *' Ancient and Modern Prayers," com- piled by Mary Wilder Tileston. Among many beau- tiful and helpful supplications was the following by Cardinal Newman, of which he often used to say, that " every word of it applied to himself." " Oh, my Lord, my whole life has been a course of mercies and blessings, shown to one who has been most unworthy of them. Year after year Thou hast carried me on, removed dangers from my path, refreshed me, borne with me, directed me, sustained me. O, forsake me not when my strength faileth me. And Thou wilt never forsake me. I may securely repose upon Thee. While I am true to Thee, Thou wilt still, and to the end, be superabun- dantly good to me. I may rest upon Thy arm; I may go to sleep in Thy bosom. Only give me, and increase in me, that loyalty to Thee, which is the 134 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD bond of the covenant between Thee and me, and the pledge in my own heart and conscience that Thou, the Supreme God, wilt not forsake me. Amen." Probably his greatest happiness during these days, consisted in listening to his wife as she read aloud. Countless books were thus consumed — history, biography, books of travel, missionary literature, and fiction. During early and middle life he had been too busy, and his reading too ex- clusively along the line of his work, to admit of much novel reading; and, indeed, he considered it somewhat of a waste of time; but this opinion was modified in later life, when he became better acquainted with the masters of fiction, and he brought to such reading the unjaded taste and keen interest which usually only youth supplies. Music, either instrumental or vocal, had also the power to soothe and rest him, and his favourite composers were Beethoven, Wagner, Schumann, Handel, and Mendelssohn. Till almost the end his hearing remained unimpaired, and that his eye- sight continued to minister to his pleasure was evi- denced in his daily drives among the Connecticut hills, where a quiet touch would draw the attention of his companion to some widespread panorama of beauty, to a new effect of light and shadow on a mountain side; or to a vivid patch in the autumn- tinted landscape. w XIII — 1905- 1908 LETTERS — WINTERS IN THE SOUTH — RESIGNATION — LETTERS DEATH A MONG the many letters which brightened this summer of 1905, we select two as being es- pecially comforting and beautiful : — *' June 20. My Dear Dr. Ellinwood : Official congratulations from the Board can hardly express what some of us would like to say to you on your birthday; even a personal letter is inadequate. It is thirty-three years since I ventured to intro- duce myself to you on a New York Central train. Little did I imagine then that for more than twenty years I should have the privilege of association with you in the great work of your life. My affec- tion for you, and my sense of gratitude have grown with each passing year, and I don't think we ever had a disagreement, or a misunderstanding even, unless it was when I awkwardly tried to lift your burdens from your shoulders, and possibly gave the impression that I was trying to lay you on the shelf. There is no shelf broad enough to hold you. Some of the infirmities of age have come to you. 135 136 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD But that parable about the express company horse — good as it is — does not apply. Your legs have been somewhat afflicted by ' the pace that kills,' but thank God, your soul, like John Brown's, is * marching on.' But I only started to say that we love you, and hope you may have just as many more birthdays as you are willing to spend below, and then the youth eternal. Affectionately yours, George Alexander.^^ The second letter, from his dear friend, Miss Ellen Parsons, is given only in part : — " 156 Fifth Avenue, Oct. 28, 1905. Dear Dr. Ellinwood: You are greatly missed here this fall. There is a sort of loneliness without you : in fact I have felt that loneliness for many months past. ... I am distressed to hear that your infirmities increase upon you. They are all battle scars ! When I con- sider, for a moment, how you laboured without grudging, and without sparing yourself, through the long years, in behalf of the Board of Foreign Missions — when I think of the thousand times you stuffed that gripsack, dictating to the stenographer on important affairs until the last item was pushed into the bag, and your hand was on the doorknob, and how you flew from Synod to Synod, and Pres- bytery to Presbytery, convincing and persuading men that their parish is the world, I look upon WINTERS IN THE SOUTH 137 every physical infirmity of yours as a medal worn on the veteran's breast: . . . You can afford to sit still in your chair now, up at your beloved Corn- wall home, and enjoy the reflection that no man more than yourself has seen the result and crowning of his labours with the Board. ... As for what you have wrought, — a revolution — for the women to have opportunity for active service, I never expect to see your lineal successor. They may try to wear your mantle, but it will be manifestly a case of Saul's armour." The last three winters of Dr. Ellinwood's life were spent in different parts of the South, where he delighted in the balmy climate, and found pleasure in every novel phase of his surroundings — in the long-needled pines and moss-hung oaks; in the scent of the jessamine, and the "light-wood" fires; in the flight of the buzzard, in the typical Southern dishes, and the more comical aspects of negro life and character. He also took great pleasure in renewing some old friendships, and forming new ones among the genial people of that section. In February, 1906, he wrote from Au- gusta, Ga., to Mrs. Halsey Wood: — " After spending two months at Milton, N. C, which was a flourishing little commercial town ' befo' the wah,' but is now suffering from the encroachments of the tobacco trust, we came on to Charleston, where we found a boarding place 138 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD beautiful for situation, but smitten, alas! with typhoid — fifteen cases — so that we had no alter- native but to flee. We came on to Augusta in about as much uncertainty as Abraham felt on leaving Paran. We can truly say, however, that this Canaan is delightful. We are among the Pines, on the Sand Hills, a suburb of the city, and are en- joying an almost perfect climate. Violets by the thousand, with crocuses, daffodils, etc., bespangle the borders, and peach and plum trees vie with each other in displaying their spring adornments. ... Of the various choirs and choruses the mocking bird is the prima donna. We are occupy- ing a dainty little cottage, and, on the whole, have been mercifully cared for." The following is to his dear old friend, the pas- tor of the Presbyterian Church at Milton: — " The Hill, Augusta, Ga., March 3, 1906. My Dear Dr. Harding : Your beautiful letter gave me very great pleasure. One would think from your references to the so- called hamlet of Milton, that you were a good deal of a hermit, but really you have about as populous a fellowship as any man of my acquaintance. Men in the highest and broadest sense cannot be de- scribed or contemplated in the terms of time and space. According to Madame Blavatsky we have astral bodies of tenuous and invisible texture, capable of cognizing the past as well as the present, and including all lands, with their successive gen- erations of mankind. It is on this principle that LETTERS 139 you talk with Horace as if he were your next door neighbour, and you say ' good morning ' to Mat- thew Arnold, or Carlyle, as if they were just over the way, so to speak. My old Greek professor at Hamilton College gave as his reason for not visit- ing Greece, that he did not want to waste the time necessary for studying Greek History and Litera- ture in his library. Dr. Charles Hodge of Prince- ton told a student of my class, who asked his ad- vice about spending a year or two in Germany, that * if he wanted to visit Germany as a country, to go by all means; but if he wished to study theology, he could do about the same amount of work in a room twelve feet square, on either side of the Atlantic' A man who has books and loves to commune with them, need not envy the distracted city pastor who is rushed and whirled about by conflicting calls and cares; and by pressing throngs of people. Very pleasant are my remembrances of Milton and its people, not to specialize the beloved ' Pope ' of the Presbyterian Church. And never have we as a family met with greater kindness, li Milton as a town is by-gone, so am I, and there is this difference, that whereas the village and surrounding country will soon renew their youth, and put on fresh beauty, and call back the song of birds and humming of bees; / can expect no more leaves, much less fragrant blossoms. I can only shamble on down the hill, toward the setting sun. How important in old age, is the ques- tion of immortality. It then becomes the All. But 140 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD do not get the impression that I am gloomy, the strength of four-score years is not all ' labour and sorrow ! ' . . . It is Sunday and I have been reading a sermon of Phillips Brooks on * Keeping the Faith.' He seems to take little account of traditional faith, or an intellectual belief in venerable testimony, but places great emphasis on personal experience. Now, I am so constituted that I have learned to look upon personal professions of inward light with a great deal of distrust. Many of the most volatile and airblown professors that I have known, prove most unreliable — ' let him that thinketh he stand- eth, take heed lest he fall.' Amid many changes and cross-currents that now sweep the world of re- ligious thought, my faith is largely a matter of will; I am resolved to hold on to the best. One thing that I am sure of is that there is no other safe trust. Between the merit and demerit of my past life, the latter tips the scale against me. Any analysis which I might make of my past experiences would probably prove incorrect. I often distrust even my peace of mind, lest it may be a species of spiritual coma. My belief in immortality rests almost wholly on the testimony of Christ who died and rose again. Professor Osier says that science is silent on the subject, but I hold on, resting wholly in Christ. With best love to your family in which Mrs. Ellinwood joins. Your friend and Brother, F. F. Ellinwood." RESIGNATION 141 Three months later Dr. Ellinwood sent to the Board the following letter : — "' To the President and Members of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church, U. S. A.: Dear Brethren : I have a deepening conviction that on account of great and increasing bodily infirmity, I ought to resign my position as Secretary of the Foreign Mis- sions Board. Accordingly I hereby tender my resig- nation, to take effect at the date of its acceptance. I entered the service of the Board soon after the reunion of the Presbyterian Church, having previously served four years as Secretary of the New School Board of Church Erection; and one year as Secretary of the Memorial Committee of the United Assembly. In the Providence of God I have survived all the members of the Board as constituted at the time of my appointment. In the same period of thirty-five years, four Secretaries have gone to their rest. The thought which deeply impresses itself on me, is that while individual men grow old and enfeebled, and pass away, the Board lives on, and becomes ever more vigorous and effective. This fact inspires and assures an abiding confidence in the progress and triumph of the great cause which is not human but divine. In resigning my position, I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude for the uniform kindness and forbearance which the Board has ever shown to- 142 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD wards me; and its tender consideration for the feebleness of my declining strength. Frank Field Ellinwood." A day or two later brought a letter from Mr. Speer beginning thus : — " June 6, 1906. My Dear Dr. Ellinwood: The Annual Meeting of the Board was held on Monday and Dr. Alexander read your letter of resignation, and also your personal letter to him. I need not say that your letter aroused the deepest interest. It was at first moved that the resignation be unequivocally declined. The annual election had been held early in the meeting and you had been re- elected Secretary. Reference was made to this fact, and to the feeling on the part of all who spoke that this relationship should be continued. In order that there might not be any hasty action, however, and that just that might be done, which would com- mend itself to your judgment, the matter was re- ferred to a special committee, consisting of Dr. Alexander, Dr. Richards, and Mr. James." . . . In final reference to this matter we quote from the minutes of the Board, a copy of which was sent him the following year, shortly after the action which it records : — " The Board having twice postponed considera- tion of the resignation tendered by Secretary F. F. Ellinwood, D.D., bearing date June 4, 1906,— but RESIGNATION 143 having on March 18, 1907, elected Rev. Stanley White to succeed him September i, 1907, it was voted that Dr. Ellinwood be now elected Secretary Emeritus, with the understanding that his salary will be continued until his successor shall assume office." ... In taking this action they desired to place on record and to express to Dr. Ellinwood their sense of the inestimable service which he had rendered to the Presbyterian Church, and to the work of the world's evangelization ; to assure him that his enforced withdrawal from active service has not im- paired the love and honour in which he is held by those who are trying to build upon his foundations ; and to remind him once more that " in all his afflictions we are afflicted." Of many beautiful letters received by him on June 20, 1906, only one remains to commemorate the day, the package containing the others being unfortunately lost : — " My Dear Dr. Ellinwood : May I send you just a word of greeting on your eightieth birthday? If you knew the inspiration that your wonderfully strong letters of faith and resignation have been to those of us on the Board, you would never say even in your great weakness, that your work was done. I can only pray that this may bring comfort to you, and that it may rest your heart to know that some of the younger men have pledged themselves to greater devotion to the cause of Missions, in order that your labour and your ideals may be car- 144 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD ried out. May the peace, and calm of faith abide with you continually. Affectionately yours, Stanley White." In the autumn of 1907 the family went to Char- lotte, N. C, where the winter was spent in a particu- larly attractive environment; and here one Sunday afternoon in the new year was witnessed a brief but solemn service, when the pastor and elders of the First Presbyterian Church kindly came to the house, and the veteran pilgrim — so near his goal — partook for the last time of the communion. In the meantime bodily weakness was steadily increasing, bringing with it occasional but inevitable hours of depression. It can, therefore, be under- stood how comforting were letters such as the fol- lowing : — " February 17, 1908. Dear Dr. Ellinwood: Many kind thoughts were expressed as to you during the recent Missionary Conference in Phila- delphia, and our Committee on Resolutions had the delightful privilege of sending you the message of the love of the Conference by wire. It is in my heart, however, as the Chairman of that Commit- tee, as well as personally, to tell you how earnestly we believe that much of the progress now being made in the East in the advancement of Christ's kingdom, is due to the faith, wisdom and energy of your own strong self, as you have been led by LETTERS 145 the Holy Spirit in years gone by. Surely the Church has no more blessed heritage than the love and faithfulness of our leaders, and your life has touched so many hundreds whom, like myself, you may not know personally, but whom you have strengthened and instructed by word and pen, and more than all by the statesmanlike policy and world- wide vision which you have advocated and revealed. We hope that benefit and comfort are coming to you from your stay in the South, and long to have you know how deeply we value your life, leadership, wisdom and prayer. Faithfully and affectionately, John Timothy Stone." A few weeks later the following letter was dic- tated : " Charlotte, N. C. My dear Mr. White: I have too long deferred acknowledging your two good letters. I have been perplexed in deciding what to say to your request that I would suggest some thought or inspiration to supplement your address to the General Assembly. From the standpoint of my own estimate of my abilities, even when at the best, the idea seems preposterous, but in my present condition, I must decide that it is impossible. My mind is fast becoming an empty void. I consciously fail from month to month. I can receive and appreciate the thoughts of others, but I have no initiative. In a new sense the problems of Missions are world prob- lems ; all the great nations and races in these coming decades will have a part to act. All types of civilization and religion will contend together for supremacy. The navies of all the great nations will be increased in power and destructiveness. Whether ' peace on earth, good will to men ' shall be pro- 146 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD moted by this braced and menacing deadlock is a grave ques- tion. The leading thought seems to be, that the drift and supremacy of trade will control the situation. A very large place is assigned to education also, and science in all forms is urged by all Agnostic educators, as the hope of the world. Japan and China are opening their hands to receive educa- tion and practical arts without accompanying Christianity. They will not only build warships, but will in time build mercantile shipping which in its cost, and operating expense, will defy the competition of Western nations, and will control the trade of the great Pacific. The labour unions in their determination to maintain and raise the price of labour, cannot control the mechanics of the Orient, they can only weaken the resources of the competing West. Such is the present drift. Civilization with no spiritual element may prove even detrimental, may only set the nations by the cars. The one only hope of the world is the Gospel of Christ with its moral and uplifting power. The best minds in India and Japan admit the salutary and purifying influ- ence of Christian faith upon their people. More and more of this then ! So plain a path of duty was never before opened to the Christian Church. Korea furnishes an object lesson of comparative results as between ambitious Japan and the Presbyterian Board, and now is the time for you leaders. I wish you could give me a call this morning, and hear the mocking-birds and delight your eyes with the beautiful blos- soms of the peach, the plum, and the pear. Affectionately yours, F. F. Ellinwood. March 21, 1908." In reference to the foregoing, Dr. White wrote : — " After a long search I have found a letter from your father which is very precious to me as the inheritor of his office. . . . LETTERS 147 I wish I could convey to you something of the feehng of affection that there is in the Church at large for your father. Everywhere I go. East or West, expression is given to this thought. Only last night, at my table, was a lady formerly from Pittsburgh in whose house your father had often visited. Her testimony to his life and influence would have gladdened your heart. The beautiful thing about such a life is that it is only the visible presence which we lose here on earth, the influence goes on. Very cordially yours, Stanley White.'* The final intelligence from the far East which reached him came in midsummer in a letter from Dr. Halsey, and it concerned, most appropriately, the two " latest born in his mission family " — to quote Mr. Wright of Manila :— " Things are moving on the Mission field. I have just received a letter from Korea, from Mr. Swallen. . . , The work that he describes, and the wonderful progress he shows in his field would be marvellous had we not become hardened to it. Korea is a marvel; there seems to be no diminishing, either in the number of converts, in the deep interest manifested by the Christians in their work, in the evangelistic fervour, and in the splendid consecration of time and money on the part of these followers of Jesus Christ. The strict Government of the Japanese, not to say much oppression, has rather 148 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD developed robust and virile qualities in the Koreans than otherwise. It is the old story. The pressure on the part of the Government seems to have devel- oped a finer quality of Christians. The Philippine Mission is also bounding aloft. The interesting fact there, as brought out in the An- nual Report, is the development of the evangelistic spirit of the native Church. They too are doing wonders." In August a memorable letter was dictated, — his last — and as no other words can so fittingly close this chapter, we quote, with Mr. Speer's per- mission, his concluding paragraph in an article pub- lished in October of that year in the Missionary Review of the World. The letter follows : — "August 13. My Dear Mr. Speer: You are a saint to keep on writing occasionally — and very profitably — in spite of the laxity of my re- sponses. It may help your patience to know that I am dictating this in whispers — My voice comes and goes and my articulation is clumsy. Your letter is a sort of search-light, bringing out salient points here and there all round the missionary horizon. ... I am glad you are writing up some of our best biographies. Men like Dr. Cochran must not die into silence. . . . About myself there is not much to be said. I am as inactive as a clam, though I am persuaded LETTER ON IMMORTALITY 149 there is something within that the clam has not. I have thought much lately of consciousness as an abiding proof of immortality. I remember things which occurred when I was two years old, so that I have the memories of four-score years as a posses- sion. What is this strange power of memory ? Evi- dently it is spiritual and not material. Visible and tangible objects have passed away, the substance of my body, even of my brain, have changed many times, and yet I am conscious of a continuity of thought, affection, and experience. It is unthink- able that this stored up life of eighty years should inhere in this wretched clod which is still visible, and it is equally impossible that it should pass away with the collapse of some organ which must soon occur. Even the doctrine of evo- lution calls for some worthy continuation and advance. Professor Olsen tells us that it is not the indi- vidual, but the type, that is immortal; and George Eliot assures us that our immortality is simply the modicum of good influences which we bequeath to unborn generations. Against all this my memory and my immaterial consciousness protest. It makes the trivial inheritance tax more important than the estate or the testator. A Western College professor once defined Transcendentalism as being like a bank of swallow holes, which, being washed away, should leave the holes still remaining. I have a better grip than that upon the personal life of eighty years. I should be afraid of the influ- ence of it upon my destiny but for the grace of I50 FRANK FIELD ELLIN WOOD life in Jesus Christ. I am conscious that this hand- ful of bones will not be the last of me. " On September 30, he passed forward into the certainties of the life everlasting, and we may be sure his tireless and far-ranging spirit is busy now in the work of Christ in the Kingdom of his Father." XIV . FUNERAL SERVICES IN CORNWALL^ NEW YORK, AND ROCHESTER ON the day following Thursday, October i, a brief funeral service was held in Corn- wall, conducted by the Rev. Edward C. Starr. The main service took place on Friday in New York, while the interment was in the beautiful Mount Hope Cemetery at Rochester. There the ceremony of commitment was preceded by a short service in the Cemetery Chapel, led by Dr. Stebbins, and attended not only by a touching gathering of the surviving members of Dr. Ellinwood's early congre- gation in the Central Church, but also by relatives from adjacent towns. At the side of his grave stood three tall brothers, * while the only remaining sister lay ill many miles away. Within a brief score of months, all four had joined him on the other side. * All three were men of stainless Christian life and char- acter; and at the death of one of them, Dr. Albert G. Ellin- wood, for over fifty years a physician in Attica, N. Y., and surgeon for the Erie Railroad, the respect and affection for his memory were such that, during the hours of his funeral and burial, all places of business were closed. 151 152 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD The following is from an obituary article by Dr. John Bancroft Devins, in the New York Ob- server: — " THE GREAT MISSIONARY LEADER PASSES AWAY. The Reverend Frank Field Ellinwood, D.D., LL.D., Secretary Emeritus of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church, died at Corn- wall, Conn., on September 30. The funeral was held at the home of Mrs. George Woolsey, one of his daughters, on Friday afternoon, and the burial was in Rochester, N. Y., on Saturday. . . . Dr. George Alexander, president of the Board, had charge of the services, and the quartette of the University Place Church sang ' Sun of my Soul,' and ' Hark, hark, my soul.' Robert E. Speer and Dr. Arthur J. Brown, Secretaries of the Foreign Board, took part, Mr. Speer delivering a just tribute to their associate, and Dr. Brown offering 'a prayer of consolation and triumph. ... In Mr. Speer's tribute of love, the salient features of Dr. Ellin- wood's beautiful life are sketched by a master hand." The following is his address in full : — " It is inevitable as we gather here to-day, that our hearts should feel the burden of their sorrow and grief. It cannot be wrong that they should do so. Our Lord Himself knew grief and sorrow, and it must be of His spirit that our hearts in this hour feel so keenly the sense of their bereavement and loss. And yet we should be very unfaithful to the memories of the great life which has entered now MR. SPEER'S ADDRESS 153 upon its grander career, if our grief were not up- lifted and transfigured by a great peace. We could not wish our friend, however deep our love for him has been and is, to be called back from the joys and glories that have come to him. We know how for many months, even years, his spirit has striven against the limitations that have shut it in here, and longed to pass onward into the infinite liberties of God. And we could not wish him to return now from the beauty of that city, where the servants of the King look ever upon the King's face as they do Him service. We can only be glad that at last that has come to him for which he so deeply longed, and that with larger capacities, and freed from the limitations and restraints of earth, his great spirit has soared out into the eternal ministries of the kingdom of the Father. It is not only for the love that we bore him that we can rejoice to-day in that which has come to him, but it is right for us to be both thankful and glad, as we gather here, because of the rich inheritance which we are conscious he has left with us, and of the memories that come flooding back over our hearts in this hour from the years in the past, sweetened and enriched by our fellowship with him in the service of our common Saviour. We recall to-day and rejoice in the lessons that we have learned from him. We thank God for the lesson which his life taught us, of the richness and glorious range of the service of Christ, and of the possibility of a soul's complete fidelity in many and great and diverse 154 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD responsibilities. Ever since, more than a genera- tion ago, Dr. Ellinwood became associated with the more pubHc activities of the Church, he has been identified with the great and far-reaching interests of Christ's kingdom. Beginning his public work in connection with our Board of Church Erection, and the Reunion Fund, and then later with the Board of Foreign Mis- sions, he never subsided into any perfunctory or pro- fessional performance of duty, but his great heart reached out to lay hold of every possibility of service which might be open to him. For years he was the acknowledged leader in the missionary interests of the Presbyterian and Reformed Alliance. It was he who conceived the possibility of gathering to- gether the representatives of all our missionary so- cieties in annual conference over their common interests, and who prepared for the first of those gatherings. He was a leading spirit in each of the two world's missionary conferences, in London and New York, and the thought must have come sor- rowfully home to many of us, day before yesterday, of how much we had lost, when the tidings of his death were brought to us, as we sat planning for the world's next missionary conference, and remem- bered what he had planned and carried through in connection with these conferences years ago. No interest with which he had ever been identi- fied failed to be enriched by the service which he rendered it. He carried to the last an affectionate interest in his alma mater, Hamilton College. Some of us here to-day know with what wisdom and devo- MR. SPEER'S ADDRESS 155 tion and rich practical judgment he served for many years as president of the Board of Trustees of the Sanitarium at Chfton Springs. For more than ten years he was professor in the University of the City of New York, as well as secretary of the Foreign Board. To him more than to any other one man, save Dr. John G. Paton, was due the action of our government in defending the poor savages of the South Seas against the importation of noxious things from Christian lands. And he led the mis- sionary forces of the country in the effort to miti- gate the severity of our legislation against the Chinese. These are only a few of the many great services he rendered, which come back to our memories, as we sit here to-day, and think of all that this life has meant to the Church of Christ; and he rendered to each of these great trusts the most faithful, the most loving, the most energetic service. His work was never diffuse or indefinite. It was precise, di- rect, efiicient in practical result. We thank God to- day as we look back at the object lesson which his life presents of the richness of the service of God, and the power of God's grace to enable the true- hearted, simple, faithful soul to be loyal to all its trusts. And we recall to-day and rejoice in, the fertility and originating courage of the great spirit that has gone. He told us once in one of our noon-day prayer-meetings of an experience in his earlier years in Rochester, when he laid aside whatever fear of the freedom of God he might have had, and yielded 156 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD himself up to a serene trust in the onward leadings of the divine Spirit. From that day he never shrank from any of the callings of God to larger under- takings, new undertakings, and the great ventures of faith. As much as any one man it was he who created the new missionary literature of our day, both the new appeal to Christians at home, and the new discussion of the problems of missions abroad. He was the great leader of the thoughts of Christians in this land to a new study of the religions of the non-Christian peoples, and to a surer missionary apologetic. Some feared the effects of such study. He had no fear of the truth. He, more than any other one man, saw the great possibilities in the unused forces of the king- dom of God in this land, and in our church planned for and advanced the organizations of the women and the young people and the students. Christ lived in his church, to Dr. Ellinwood's faith, and he wel- comed the ever new outputtings of that divine life. We rejoice as our memories turn backward over the noble lesson which his life presents to us of the fear- less follov/ings of the leadings of God. Even more than any of his great services, of which these are only fragmentary suggestions, we rejoice as we recall the memory of what he was to those of us who knew and loved him. We feel still, and shall feel all our days, the stimulus of that great mind with its out-reaching visions. His mind and heart were far rangers. Nothing that affected human-kind anywhere was strange to his interest. The spirit which in latter days chafed against its MR. SPEER'S ADDRESS 157 limitations had always looked afar, and as years passed by all of us who knew him watched with awe that eagle soul soaring higher and higher in its great free confidence in God, seeing in all the tangle of human strife and passion the lives of God's sovereign will, and gazing off into the vast purposes of eternity. We rejoice to recall his strategist imagination — that gift of God which enabled him to see where in the world the call of God was loudest and the hope of the gathering in of Christ's harvest richest and most abundant, where in the great conflict the heaviest blow should be struck. He was the father of the most fruitful mis- sions of our church, and in scarcely a land in the world where the representatives of our church have gone preaching Christ, does there lack a monument to his far-reaching faith and vision. We remember his calm, unperturbed judgment, resting securely on great and thoroughly wrought convictions, undeflected by small prejudice or the accidents of the passing hour, and his temperate con- siderateness of younger men who were not as wise as he, his fearless courage of opinion, his patience and tenacity of purpose and view, and, I think, above all else, that wonderful balance of mind which led men to trust him as the sure leader of their ways; a student, who yet was a great man of action, a man of vision who effected practical results; one who thought of all the outreachings of men's hearts toward the truth, and whose own heart rested in the simplest evangelical faith. And we remember even more to-day — his pure, 158 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD child-like, spiritual character, unostentatious, never ebullient, but always deep and tender and true. I remember a letter which he wrote to us in the spring of his eightieth year, these sentences of which are inscribed in the fly-leaf of this little Testament : ' One who has seen so many years of blessings has no right to complain. The one thing which is most clear and emphatic to my consciousness is the fact that any hope which I cherish must rest outside of my life. I have no complacency in the record of my life. From my present standpoint I see more clearly than ever before the absolute need of a vicarious salvation. I shall go down to the tomb resting in this alone.' We are reminded of the words in General Armstrong's last memoran- dum. (I am quoting only their substance.) ' I do not need any long utterance. Simply to Thy Cross I cling, is enough for me.' That was the fundament of his faith and life. He felt no complacency in the record of his life, but we who worked side by side with him for long years, who saw him in the daily routine, under the pres- sure of great problems, where it was inevitable and desirable that diverse views should be brought to- gether, we who watched him day by day can bear testimony, that during all these years we never saw aught of selfishness or malice or pettiness or un- charitableness in his pure and unselfish spirit. I do not believe he ever spoke one word or cherished one thought whose object was the advancement of his personal interest or the promotion of his own prominence. He walked in a cheery selflessness of MR. SPEER'S ADDRESS 159 devotion to a great cause, in the calm and quietness of the yielding up of himself to the service of his Master; and in the lofty rest of his mind and heart in such a devotion, he lived above our lower regions of turmoil, with all their pettiness and strife. We rejoice to-day in all these great memories of a true and splendid and noble life, and are glad that he is gone where he would be. And yet in the hearts of some of us the words arise, which cannot be suppressed, of the younger prophet of the ages long past : * My father, my father, the chariots of Israel, and the horsemen thereof.' For he who led us these long years has been taken from our head this day. Bnt we know that he would have us, in- stead of mourning for that which we feel that we have lost, do him honour if we must by fulfilling that which was dearest to him, and by devoting our lives afresh to the cause to which he gave, without withholding, all that he had and all that he was. Blessed be his dear and noble name forever ! " XV DR. ELLINWOOD AND THE WOMEN's BOARDS (By Miss Ellen C. Parsons, M./1.) WHEN the young Secretary was inducted into his office with the Board of Foreign Missions, four women's organizations were already launched and each was flying its own colours. None, however, was more than a year old. Between the four there was no co-ordination, and relationship between them and their head was vague. Methods of procedure, which long since have been settled and established in grooves, were then in the experimental stage; no pattern was set up to which the eyes of all looked for one rule. No one foresaw into what the movement was to grow. The day would come, but it was decades in the future, when, rank upon rank, the women's societies should stand in harmonious inter-dependence from the Atlantic to the Pacific, each wearing its own dis- tinctive graces, wielding its own peculiar influence, and all a unit in loyalty to the Assembly's Board, and a contributory force to bring the non-Chris- tian world to God. It was self-evident that upon the new Secretary, 1 60 THE WOMEN'S BOARDS i6i with the flashing eyes and a princely courtesy of manner, would fall the brunt of the burden to " help those women." To Dr. Ellinwood, more than any other human helper, the Women's Boards owe their development and the status which they reached. If women of some other churches in our country had been blessed with a leadership like his, there could not have existed such breaches between them and their brethren as are visible to this day. How was the task accomplished? How could he guide with- out interfering? How did he deal with the inexperi- enced? Dr. Ellinwood sometimes referred laugh- ingly to the " Wars of the Roses." Provincialism among Christian women, which is not wholly eradi- cated yet, was much in evidence in the '70s of the last century. H nothing else had been effected through their Boards than the composing of sec- tional jealousies and knitting together in sympathy of women members of the same church, in far sepa- rated parts of our country, it were a result worth all the outlay. How did the great Secretary influ- ence the result ? By setting up an exalted standard. Nothing petty allowed. He sent the banner to the masthead and held it there. Who ever found Dr. Ellinwood bringing the argument for Foreign Missions dov/n to a drawing-room level, or using his own person- ality to gain allegiance for what Christ commanded ? The motive must stand on high religious grounds, and his personal dignity as a minister of Jesus i62 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD Christ was impregnable. Because he worked in that way, he imparted a certain elevation to the machinery of the societies. When he found ideas about Foreign Missions lying flat in the dust of nar- rowness and selfishness, he picked them up and swung them high upward, as we have seen masses of granite swinging up into the blue. Millions of women groping in the darkness of heathenism — that was the great fact, and he held it up and applied to it the principle of proportion. This was his way of writing to officers of the Women's Boards : — " Suppose the idea of equality or justice to the Boards should come to take the place of the world's comparative wants ! You and your sisters have enlisted for the heathen women of your generation, for all of them, and in just pro- portions, for a few in our country and the millions abroad. Will you lose sight of your sublime errand, to balance funds with mere Boards? Labour to give according to real de- mands in woman's proper work. Do nothing to please Sec- retaries or for any kind of vainglory to anybody. The world is perishing, your sex is crushed the wide world over. You have a most solemn work and your time is short." (1878.) To another (1876), regarding a small book he had printed called " The Great Conquest " : " You will think it a little book with a big name and rightly: but I was bound not to belittle the great cause because its advocate was a pigmy." To a leader in New York State : — " We have in two years allowed 15,000,000 of Chinese to perish with famine, with only here and THE WOMEN'S BOARDS 163 there an individual case of practical sympathy, whereas if a community of Kansas or Utah had been starving, we would have so heaped our gifts upon them in two weeks that they would have asked us to stay our hands. And there is about the same difference in our distribution of the Bread of Life. Let us not forget that only we, who now live in the possession of the truth, can send the Gospel to those of our day who never heard of Christ." A foundation principle with Dr. Ellinwood was that the new movement among women of the Church had been spontaneous and the societies were not subject to ecclesiastical control. He did not go about proclaiming this in women's meetings. He found the situation and respected it. It was thor- oughly congenial to his mind, for Dr. Ellinwood had large confidence both in Christian liberty and in the practical devotion of Christian women. He could sincerely treat them as comrades and they said of him at the time of his death, " He never patronized us." There was frequent occasion for expressing himself on this point to pastors and others. In the first period of his secretaryship Dr. Ellin- wood found himself engaged in " a rush of conven- tions " and not pleased with the usually small oppor- tunity offered for presenting Foreign Missions. He said he wanted " to hold the subject before popular attention long enough to make a distinct impression, i64 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD not a ' church- work blur.' " In 1871 he writes to a pastor: "As to union of all church work, that is just what we are fleeing from. It would be the Synod over again, in which fifty things are ground out in succession without even time to clean the hopper." And again to another : *' The tendency of this machine work is to reduce all causes, great and small, to the sameness of a row of pins." In answer to a pastor's request to deliver an address (1874): " I am very glad that you are moving for a Woman's Presbyterial Missionary Society. It is a new promise of the coming time when this great work shall not depend upon the Board of a Gideon's small army, but when everybody will be at work by Presbyteries and churches and hamlets. . . . We have found that a convention manned by Pres- byters on the ground, with such facts as mission- aries can give, accomplishes more than those which simply listen to Secretaries. I have attended con- ventions with Dr. Dickson in the interest of Home and Foreign Missions where they made us talk by the hour to passive audiences, and we went home feeling that little had been done. On the other hand, such meetings as those recently held at Ouincy and Peoria, by subsidizing the local talent — and you are always surprised to find how much there is — cultivate fibre instead of adipose. Rev. Wm. F. Johnson * of India, is superb. He and * Still in India after fifty years' service. THE WOMEN'S BOARDS 165 Mrs. Rhea will make you strong with home talent." To an inquiring woman in Ohio (1876) : " I have consulted my brethren here with regard to a State Missionary Convention and we feel that a Woman's Conven- tion would be more efifective : because it would throw the responsibility on those who have the most tact and deepest interest in the subject, and because it would secure the at- tendance of quite as many men as a general convention. Be- sides, it would escape the red tape of Synodical management which 'killeth.'" To Rev. (1878): " As to whether your Woman's Auxiliary Society should change its relations, it must be decided by the ladies them- selves, who undoubtedly have the right so to do. We have a rule never to influence a society to change its relations, or in any way to aid one against another." To a woman at large (1878) : " Your kind letter came in my absence at Synods. ... I believe that I was the first to propose Presbyterial and Synod- ical Societies (i.e., in a missionary convention held several years ago — Newark, N. J.), but I never thought of anything more than merely to observe, for convenience, the same boundaries as our Church courts, and to keep up a close sym- pathy with them. ... I see no more reason why a Synod should appoint or nominate officers for your missionary so- cieties than for the Orphan Asylum in your city. Your societies are voluntary and independent, therefore no organic part of our ecclesiastical system." This view he corroborated from the minutes of the General Assembly. i66 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD The annual meeting became very important in each Woman's Board, It was held now in one city, the next year in another, its sessions covering sev- eral days. For addresses on these and many other occasions, Dr. Ellinwood was in great request. No other Secretary in the country ever faced so many churches packed with women. The influence of his public speeches was powerful, and yet his best work for the training of a solid phalanx of allies within the societies, was probably done, not through the brilliant platform address but through a constant, patient, luminous correspondence with their ap- pointed officers. Forty-three letters written by him in the course of two years, to the industrious secre- tary of one Woman's Society, may be found copied into one of his many old letter-books. Secretary Anderson of the American Board said : — " I shall die easy since the formation of the Woman's Board." Dr. Ellinwood might have said that the Women's Boards never left him an oppor- tunity to die. They were constantly communicating with him, springing something new, wanting to know. Yet not a line from his pen can be found intimating that they ever wrote too often, too per- sistently or too minutely. To one woman deprecat- ing, he replied : " Do not be afraid of teasing us. We appreciate the help we receive from question- ings, even severe criticisms, of women of the Church, both East and West." In this correspondence. Dr. THE WOMEN'S BOARDS 167 Ellinwood was always open, vital, and unhackneyed. Though many letters were concise, few ended with- out a graceful touch, and the meaning was so distinctly on the face of them, that a person was un- savingly dull who had to ask for a second explana- tion. It was his habit to frequently quote his senior associates. " Our wise man Dr. Irving says " ; or, " Dr. Irving with his wonted generosity " ; again, " What I am saying represents the mind of all the secretaries." The subject-matter of this correspond- ence included everything which concerned the women, either in their relation to the Assembly's Board or to the Missions. The new Secretary had scarcely taken his desk, when he wrote (Nov. i, 1871) accepting an invitation to deliver an address in Philadelphia, and added this counsel: "If you want your first experimental convention to be leaven, it would be wise to see that it is well written up for the Church papers (afterwards). Many a capital impression, locally made, falls to the ground for want of this." To another who was lukewarm : — "We are quite willing — nay, desirous — that you shall en- gage zealously in every good work in our own country, under such organizations as you shall choose to form. Give in such proportions as you choose; set down to each distinct society as much or as little as you think best — only let us know that your Foreign work, whatever it be, shall be solid, permanent, and distinct. We send a lady to China not for a year but for life. Were the permanent help of the women i68 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD seriously diminished, we should have nearly a hundred ladies scattered over the earth vi^ithout any certain means of support." Realizing that a missionary might occasionally call out more compassion for herself than her case warranted, he wrote (1875) to a Woman's Board : — " There is a sort of inventiveness sometimes among missionaries as to things desirable and use- ful, which can hardly be a criterion. It is natural. They see only the one field and cannot know the comparative uses to which funds can be put. They do not know that $100 or $500 is made up of small sums which it is hard to raise. Now, as to Miss 's house, it seems to me less in need of an addition than any other property which I saw in China. It is on a breezy hill." Dr. Ellinwood did not pose as instructor to the Women's Boards; he would have said that he learned from them. Yet, line upon line, he was educating them to take the measure of their duties. Of self-support in the Missions : " It is desirable from the start that Mexicans shall understand that we are stimulating them, not carrying them in our arms." (1874). How difficult for societies, when they had raised the standard amount for running their pet girls' school, to realize that they were en- gaged in " team work " and losses must be shared by those who had not lost : — " I would be glad if the woman's work could be so adjusted as to fully sympathize with ours — THE WOMEN'S BOARDS 169 shrink or expand with the rest. For how will it affect Dr. Happer, Messrs. Farnham and Mateer, if we take $200 off from their schools, in- stead of dividing the $200 deficit between theirs and the girls' schools by their side?" (1876). Again in the same year : — " As to the unpopular work which we offer, we leave it to the ladies to take it or not. It will at least show you what a multitude of odds and ends there are, and will explain why we cannot select a ' picturesque charity ' for every one. If you were acting on the basis of the Union Society, you would need to assume a thousand expenses which our Board now covers : passages, freights, ex- change, medical bills, rents, taxes, etc. Do not think that I am losing my interest in woman's work. I only wish that its narrow restrictions could be thrown off. Have you not some auxiliaries which will take the higher ground of giving to the general cause of heathen women? " Again, to the same (Dec. 1876) : — " I see the force of your reasoning about shrink- ing the gifts of your auxiliaries. Suppose they were to occupy this position : * We give this money for a certain specific object, but in a larger sense we give it to the Divine Master for his great cause. If you, or the Board, or the Mission, can make it accomplish more than was expected, in these times of retrenchment, we are very glad. We know that the surplus, and a great deal more, will be needed I70 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD somewhere.' Can you bring your societies up to such a spirit ? Must we always pay out given sums for certain objects, whether needed or not ? . . . I went to Binghamton the other day to attend a meet- ing. The ladies afterwards sent me $20 to cover expenses. As it had cost me only $15, I credited them with $5 as a donation and wrote them accord- ingly. Was it bad faith not to use all the money for the specific object? . . . Still, you may be sure we shall at all times try to conform our plans as much as possible to your views, and not insist on our own — even when we do frankly state our own." It was not a waste of time and strength, though both were lavishly expended, for Dr. Ellinwood to fully spread out the principles for which he stood to his representative correspondents. And he knew it. The women composing the Boards were of the flower of the Presbyterian Church. Among them were many who inherited ancestral devotion to the Church, staunch qualities, faith in the cove- nant-keeping God. When they should clearly understand and have gained experience, they would become reliable allies — none more so. Looking back over the years, one of the beauti- fully wrought offerings laid on the altar of Foreign Missions — and moth nor rust can ever corrupt it — was the fidelity with which such early officers as Mrs. S. C. Perkins of Philadelphia, Mrs. A. Holmes Hoge, and Mrs. Benjamin Douglass of Chicago, THE WOMEN'S BOARDS 171 Mrs. John Lorimer Graham of New York — not to mention the living — passed over to their constitu- ency lessons which they had learned from the great Secretary. They were the best of pupils. A first quality of his letters was clarity of thought and un- equivocal expression. They also were clear-headed, and what they received they gave out, not warped, not dwarfed. They passed it on in every accent required for rural community or for city society, for the plain woman or the polished, until thousands who had never seen Dr. Ellin- wood's handwriting nor heard his voice, were aiming at his standards and acting upon his counsel. Was ever a Secretary so quick with generous recognition of efforts and loyalty? " We admire the spirit with which you yield to the provi- dential indications with regard to Miss . I trust that all shocks which the missionary spirit of the ladies received from the corre- spondence have passed, leaving only a firmer faith, a higher resolve and nobler forbearance. I believe you make fewer mistakes than we do here. God speed you!" Again (1874): "This steady, unflagging supply from your treasury renders it impossible for any member of the Board to fail of appreciation of your efforts." To an- other (1877) : "Your Board is our tower of strength in the West. It is a chief barrier against the grasping selfishness, which the colder-blooded and more calculating spirit of men would put upon the Christianity of the West." To another: " Your Board has done more for us — I say it advisedly — than all the Synods as Synods and all the Presbyteries as Pres- byteries, West of the Lakes." 172 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD The Secretary and his correspondents did not in- variably agree. " I am still compelled to differ from the views which prevailed in your Committee, so let us see what the Mission will say." To another : " I opposed; but when the judgment of others has over- borne mine, I generally acquiesce, and not as a foe." To another : " I welcome your letters. I would rather you give us your honest opinions, even when we cannot agree with them. We do not always agree with each other, and the Board decides and we cheerfully acquiesce." Dr. Ellinwood loved to cultivate the sympathetic side in the societies. We find him appealing to them to bring home to America the mother of Mr. Dan- forth, a missionary who had died in Syria. " This does not come within our rules," he wrote. " Can- not something be done on the same principle that boxes are sent to the wives of Home Missionaries? " Concerning a comfortable house for a missionary with delicate lungs : " The Board has not yet de- cided upon a house, but would, I think, if the women were disposed to furnish the funds. Nothing seems to me more appropriate for women than thus to provide for the comfort of missionary families, and it is a solid, permanent help to the Board," When Dr. Ellinwood came into office the Women's Boards were publishing two separate magazines. In 1873 he proposed a consolidation. The plan was rather elaborate and was not adopted, but it became the seed-thought for the union maga- THE WOMEN'S BOARDS 173 zine which was realized in 1885. The rejection of his proposal did not in the least cool the Secretary's ardent interest in this and all of the women's pub- lications. Of their magazine for children he wrote : — " I am glad you are taking steps to make the most of it. It is impossible to do too much to gain the eye and ear of the Church for the great work of Missions, when so many other things are constantly making their appeals, and when the din and confusion of ten thousand objects are likely to deafen, if not to craze, the Church." After Dr. Ellinwood's death the editorial report of the union magazine contained the following pas- sage : — Woman's Work weeps for the loss of Dr. Ellinwood ! There was no one in a position to so befriend it, and it never had a truer friend. The last time he came to my office, frail though he was, his eyes were clear to their depths, and in his speech was a sparkle as of old. " I came to say good- bye," he said. " Mrs. Ellinwood and I have been reading Woman's Work all winter. I shall read it always." He shook my hand and crossed the threshold, then paused and, looking up to the inscription on the door, in a tone that was both farewell and benediction, he said, " God bless Woman's Work " — and slowly repeated — " God bless Woman's Work." Another proposition which Dr. Ellinwood early advanced and defended, with delicious sarcasm on the false economy which opposed it, — was to create the office for a woman secretary who should be a connecting link between the Boards of Women and that of the Assembly. This was under discus- 174 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD sion for a dozen years before the position was estab- lished and filled in the autumn of 1885. Words he often used, " We shall be entirely im- partial," were consistently borne out in Dr. Ellin- wood's office. Injustice to missionaries, especially, his spirit could not brook. Many a time he sent a scorching answer to some newspaper slur. When an officer at home desired his interference with cer- tain young women on the field, his reply occupied the first paragraph of his next letter : " We do not feel at all like smothering those women. We make our boast of them, and are only too glad that they share the perplexities of a work full of details, which must be administered ten thousand miles off, on the foundation of meagre reports and corre- spondence." That was all he had to say, and his pen moved on to the next subject. In 1 88 1 there were some occurrences which led him to formulate his views regarding the position which a woman missionary holds in her Mission. They are summed up in a sentence : '* Give the ladies a voice in regard to their own work." Fur- ther light is thrown by the following extract from a letter to a leading ordained missionary : — " We do not understand how Miss , who is equally a missionary with Mr. , should hold her stewardship from him, or how he should be invested with any authority to accept a resignation from her. ... By his own showing, he has simply notified her, from time to time, that her work would be changed, she would do this or that, or not do this and not do that, without consulting her opinions even to the THE WOMEN'S BOARDS 175 extent of courtesy. Are the relations of men and women such in the Mission, that mere difference of sex con- stitutes the right in such cases, and that in woman's own proper sphere of work, to direct and command? . . . In- justice cannot pass unnoticed." A hint of Dr. Ellinwood's everyday manner at Board headquarters, may be gathered from Woman's Work (December, 1908) : " I well remember seeing him late one afternoon, getting off for the train on a tour of the Synods. He was standing in his office and bending over, as he gave a mighty push to sundry articles of clothing, books, and manuscripts with which his gripsack bulged out. At the same time he was dictating to his stenographer, in a calm, unruffled voice, the polished paragraphs of a lecture to be delivered before the University of New York. He accepted interruptions gracefully. Many a time some woman, from a little town in Delaware or Idaho, begged to be introduced to the senior Secretary. With hesitation I opened his door and, no matter what momentous concerns filled his mind, he was on his feet before we were fairly inside and all attention to the visitor, like a gentleman of leisure. His resources of learning made it a pleasure to ask Dr. Ellinwood questions. One always received more than she went for. When, once, he began to reply ' I don't kn ,' I exclaimed : ' Oh, I cannot have you say that ; you never said " I don't know " before ! ' ' Didn't I ? ' he replied, laugh- ing, ' I ought to ; ' and he then proceeded to light up the sub- ject with keen suggestions. When the Boards moved into their present building, where all our departments could be gathered for the first time on one floor, a daily prayer-meeting was instituted. It did not occur to my mind that any one would lead that meeting — that any one would dare — except the Secretaries. It soon appeared, however, that all who were willing, younger or 176 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD older, were invited to lead in turn. This must have been a new style in Dr. Ellinwood's experience, but he adopted it as naturally as if he had grown up in a Christian Endeavour Society. I have seen him enter the room looking tense and fatigued ; and, leaning back in a restful attitude, his face would beam with a fatherly expression as some inexperienced young man or woman stepped up to the table and read the Scriptures. I think their youth and their willingness re- freshed him. And what nuggets of wisdom he gave ua in those meetings I" " When I first came to be Secretary of the Board," he said one day, " amid my early experi- ences of disappointments, of the apparent indiffer- ence of God to the value of human life, failure of health, etc., I was greatly strengthened by some- thing said to me by one more experienced. ' We must face the fact that this work is to be done under human conditions.' And so it is. Men fall in the Senate, in Wall Street, in every enterprise : we are all subject to human conditions. Go into a forest and see it in its length and beauty. It is easy to note the dead logs and withered branches, but come again and you will see the evidence of the forest renewing itself with fresh life. The forest stands and grows. So we must be willing to step aside and be no more counted; but the work goes on in renewed power." One day the subject was mentioned of sending a representation to General Otis at Manila, regard- ing beer shipped from the United States. " Yes," said Dr. Ellinwood ; " a little later, when things THE WOMEN'S BOARDS 177 become more positive; and also send an expression upon absolute religious equality. Commissioners are more timid about Protestants going into the Philippines than about beer. If one begins ducking and trimming, now, to the friars and Archbishop Ireland, what will it be farther on ? " " Fruits, fruits ! " exclaimed the Secretary, ad- dressing the Conference of young outgoing mission- aries. " After seed has been sown in old missions, we must expect fruit. Men like and and " (naming living missionaries) " would not be content to go on and gather no fruits. For the rest of my days, my prayer is going to be for fruits." At another similar Conference, the missionary, Mrs. Hepburn, had been speaking, and a letter written by a missionary in China about Dr. Eleanor Chesnut, had been read. Dr. Ellinwood rose and remarked that he would drop what he had intended to say and would, instead, call attention to some things which those present had been listening to. " Young people, if you think things are going hard with you when you get over there in your various fields, remember Mrs. Hepburn and rally your courage! Remember her ship, and her one window. Instead of the mission circle that will greet you, and the houses ready for you, remember Dr. and Mrs. Hepburn wandering around in Yoko- hama and, through the Consul, trying to get a place to live in." He pointed to Dr. Chesnut's linguistic 178 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD acquirements. " Often doctors write that medical work crowds so, they are behind in language study — they have to defer examinations. This is a doc- tor who has learned three languages in four years and, as you see from the letter, she has also been crowded with medical work." For thirty-seven years, without a flaw, without a break, Dr. Ellinwood maintained the same inti- mate relation with the Board's constituency of Pres- byterian women. Many of the voices which cheered him on in early years were hushed in the long silence, before his death. Fortunately a few ladies of the " Old Guard " survive and this chapter shall close with their Recollections. " Englewood, N. J., Jan. 26, 1910. I am delighted to hear of the forthcoming Memoirs of Dr. Ellinwood. It will enrich the church and the world, and will spread the mission- ary contagion that is enkindling and encircling the earth. Dr. Ellinwood was a scholar, a reader, a teacher. His voice was not the loudest in the world, but clear and commanding, and he held his audience with unrelaxing grip from start to finish. He was especially a man's speaker. They could not get around his logic. And how we women sat at his feet receiving instruction and encouragement ! He made foreign missions fascinating, convincing. I can see him now, his face glowing and the people hold- THE WOMEN'S BOARDS 179 ing their breath to listen, and we, women of the societies, thanking God that we had such a cham- pion. I heard him often, and have travelled with him several times on long journeys from one ap- pointment to another, conferring with him in the cars on matters of the kingdom, and have shared with him the riches of western hospitality, espe- cially in Chicago, at Mrs. Hoge's bountiful table. We passed him along the line of the Northwest as generously as we could. None but the initiated can realize the fatigue of travel from one strategic point to another, from Minnesota to Kentucky, Ohio to Colorado, fields ripe for the harvest, much land to be possessed, and only one Dr. Ellinwood ! It was not easy to get over so much ground, amid the un- certainties of winter, and our soldier-leader was not one to tax poor societies and demand the costly luxuries of modern travel. Alas, there were many places he could not visit, and many hungry and thirsty ones have never heard Dr. Ellinwood. May this book reveal him to them. (Mrs.) Sarah J. Rhea." " Chicago, Jan. 26, 1910. Dr. Ellinwood's sympathy and advice meant much to us in those early days, when many of the fathers and brothers had little confidence in the new movement. With not a few it was a serious question what St. Paul would have thought of our Annual Meetings. We were always more or less fearful, during a meeting of the General Assembly, that some action would be taken to limit us in our i8o FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD plans. But we always felt confident that Dr. Ellin- wood would stand by us. I never heard him deliver but one address, but that was a notable one and made a strong impres- sion. It was during a meeting of the General Assembly at Chicago, and was delivered in old Farwell Hall— the Y.M.C.A. building. The hall was crowded. A number of women connected with our Northwest Board sat together in the gallery. The platform was large. Dr. Ellinwood stood easily at the end of a long table. If he had notes at all, they were for only occasional reference. His appearance was prepossessing; a slender, erect figure, dark hair and beard and lustrous dark eyes. He spoke a full hour, holding the close attention of his audience from first to last. It was the annual presentation of Foreign Missions as carried on by the Assembly's Board. I can now recall but a few sentences. He was pleading for larger contributions from Presbyterians in the West and said something to this effect : It was not that Western men were narrow in their views and close in money matters^ that they gave so little to Foreign Missions. He did not know any men with broader views, who looked farther into the future than Western men. No small farm such as we find in the Eastern States would satisfy them; they went to the broad prairies and took up a claim or bought a farm of several hun- dred acres. They mortgaged this to build large barns so as to house their large harvests, and to procure the best approved machinery for cultivating the land. As time passed the mortgage was reduced THE WOMEN'S BOARDS i8i and the farmer considered that he could cultivate more land with greater profit; so he added largely to his holdings, giving another mortgage. In the meantime he had no money for Foreign Missions, little time or thought for ' the white harvest field,' for which the Saviour bids us pray. In the address there was a mixture of humour, fire and enthusiasm which was inspiring. The daily press eulogized the orator and wondered that a man of such talent could confine himself to such a cause. As soon as the speaker closed, we women hurried from our seats to overtake him as he was leaving the hall, and surrounded him at the door. We tried to tell him what we thought of his address and to congratulate him. He smiled upon us, looking very pale from nervous weariness, and said, ' You must let me go to my room, I cannot say another word.' (Mrs. Wm.) Sarah B. Blair." " Chicago, Jan. 29, 19 10. Blessed Dr. Ellinwood was not only a tower of strength to us in his knowledge and judgment, but his delicate and unfailing courtesy and kindness, his willingness to receive and consider and answer all our appeals, made us happy, for we realized the value and sincerity of his friendship. The impres- sion of his face, serious yet illuminated — his large dark eyes compelling absolute confidence — is abid- ing. I knew that he was often worn and always busy, but when I called to see him at his New York ofiice, he never made me feel that he had no time i82 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD for me. His constancy of ' vision,' his personal serenity, during all the painful limitations of his later years, seem to me simply wonderful. He was surely called and ordained and inspired by God for very unusual service. (Mrs. Albert) Harriette S. Keep." " Philadelphia, Feb. 15, 19 10. We loved and revered the other Secretaries, but they were not always willing, like Dr. Ellinwood, to give us the free hand in carrying on our work, or to work for us. He could move an audience as I doubt whether any other Secretary, before or since, has been able. We always wanted him for our public meetings, and sometimes had to manage in order to get him, so as not to seem to neglect other speakers. His facts were never cold and hard, though we had plenty of them, thrown out with such vigour and warmth and tenderness and eloquence as to go straight to the heart. I am sure he did more than any other one man in the whole Church to help on our woman's work, and to make us feel that ours was depended upon as a part of the church's work. I remember how, almost every year, a few weeks be- fore our books closed, I used to get a letter from him asking what money we had on hand and how we expected to come out; telling how Mr. Rankin's books stood and what they hoped and feared. Then when I would send my last big check, how often he would write thanking us, and commending us for our year's work. The women of those days THE WOMEN'S BOARDS 183 did not work for praise any more than they do now, but it was pleasant when we had done our best, to be told so in such a sincere and appreciative way. I know it helped us to aim at larger work for the next year. I only express what I am sure was the feeling of all the ' ancients ' of our Society, that Dr. Ellinwood was the best friend our work ever had. (Mrs.) Julia M. Fishburn." " San Francisco, March 24, 19 10. A very interesting feature of the General Assem- bly held in Cleveland, O., in 1875, was Dr. Ellin- wood's address. He had just returned from a trip around the world. He was eloquent, forceful, in- structive, vivacious. He opened up the life and con- ditions of the non-Christian peoples so vividly, that we had a new vision of the momentous question to be solved by the Church of Christ, The impression made upon us, who were new in the Occidental Board, was deep and lasting. Later on, he paid a visit to San Francisco, and a lecture he delivered in Calvary Church gave an equally vivid picture of the need for money and missionaries, and the call to the churches. Not long before the death of Dr. Ellinwood, I talked with him at his office in New York. Although age and infirmities were creeping upon him, his animated conversation about our growing work was inspiring. (Mrs. E. V.) Pauline Robbins." i84 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD " New York, Feb. 15, 1910. Mrs. Perkins and I used to say, ' But for Dr. Ellinwood, the Presbyterian women would have been thwarted in their Foreign Missions move- ment.' He was pre-eminently the women's cham- pion. It was a somewhat delicate position which he held. While the reunion of Old and New School Churches had broken down external barriers, an unvoiced meum et tuum kept the whole Church consciously or unconsciously watchful lest one or the other of the contracting parties should gain pre- eminence. I laugh at this distance, as I recall how we women in Philadelphia were affected by such unworthy considerations. To some of us Dr. Irving (O.S.) was the oracle in the Board of Foreign Mis- sions, while to others Dr. Ellinwood (N.S.) was the man of the hour. The saying of Coleridge to his pupils, * If you would understand me you must believe in me,' illus- trates Dr. Ellinwood's relation to the Women's Boards. He had faith in a woman's purposes and aims when these were energized by Christian love. I have never heard finer tributes to woman paid by anybody than used to fall from Dr. Ellinwood's lips, when addressing General Assembly, in behalf of the various Women's Missionary Societies. As an orator. Dr. Ellinwood was, in Church Courts, without a peer; fluent, graceful, attractive, at the start — but as he struck out and gripped his audience, he cast off formalities and concentrated his effort on convincing his hearers of the claims which For- eign Missions laid upon them. Then it was that THE WOMEN'S BOARDS 185 he rose to the subHme. I recall occasions when I fairly trembled under the outbursts of his impas- sioned oratory. Bear with me a little longer, for the sake of get- ting a sidelight on what I call Dr. Ellinwood's fair- mindedness. There was a time when we women were disturbed by too many local organizations, as we thought. There were those of Philadelphia, of New York, of the Northwest, of the Southwest, and a distinct organization in Brooklyn, N. Y. Those of a later generation can hardly realize (and I am ashamed to own it) how much bitter feeling cropped out. There must have been times when the poor Secretaries were * put to it,' to wisely advise us. It was at a great meeting where each of these Societies and Boards was represented, that Dr. Ellinwood rose to speak. He began by calling attention to Guido Reni's Aurora — ' a wonderful picture ' — and to his mind ' a striking illustration.' Instead of painting but one female figure the artist had brought five into service on his canvas for ush- ering in the dawn. This was ' a type of the Mil- lennial Day toward which all Christian effort is hastening.' You see his point, and can imagine how small some of us seemed to ourselves as we * caught on.' While this business of organization was going forward, it happened that Mrs. Prentiss, author of ' Stepping Heavenward,' and of well-known hymns, was my guest in Philadelphia, and Dr. Ellin- wood was also there. As we were chatting about one thing and another, I quoted the proverb, ' Wise i86 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD as serpents and harmless as doves/ Mrs. Prentiss picked me up instantly, by asking, ' Did you ever stop to think how the prescription should be com- pounded? It is three pounds of snake to one ounce of dove.' Dr. Ellinwood went off to bed laughing, came to the breakfast table next morning laughing, and said to me as he left our house, ' That prescription is worth taking back to headquarters ia New York.' You see it is a dangerous thing to wake the memory of an old lady who poses as the Survivor of august events in the Presbyterian Church of forty years ago. I feel as if I had opened a drawer filled with lavender. (Mrs. Z. M.) Harriette L. Humphrey."* * Since writing this letter, Mrs. Humphrey has herself passed on " where saints immortal dwell." XVI AS SECRETARY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF FOR- EIGN MISSIONS (By Robert E. Speer, D.D.) DR. ELLINWOOD was one of the ablest Mission Board secretaries this country has known. He came to his work with a rare equipment of mind and will, and the thirty-seven years of his connection with the Presbyterian Board witnessed the rich development of all his great powers. In 1 87 1 he was elected Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church, and until his death at Cornwall, Conn., on Septem- ber 30, 1908, he retained his connection with the Board, though failing health had compelled him several years before his death to lay aside all work. For more than a generation, however, he was en- gaged actively in the administration of the mission- ary enterprise, and his career set before men a new conception of the richness and vitality and power of such administrative service. Dr. Ellinwood was never a mere routine official. He did his routine work with accuracy and fidelity, but it did not engulf him. He poured into it the inspirations which came 187 i88 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD from the broadest conception of the missionary en- terprise, and office routine and correspondence were the mere tools, with him, of a great intellectual and spiritual ministry, both to the Church and to the cause. He began his secretarial work under the old re- gime. There were no stenographers then. The literature of missions was poor and narrow. The different missionary organizations were isolated units without common knowledge or council. Secre- taries were not supposed to need a first-hand knowl- edge of the field, perhaps because some of the exist- ing secretaries had been missionaries. The whole plane of missionary appeal and administration and apologetic needed elevation. The old had done its work well and had now made ready for something better to succeed it. In a paper read in 1901 at one of the Presbyterian Board's Conferences of New Mis- sionaries, Dr. Ellinwood described some of the con- ditions which he found at the beginning of his secre- taryship. " One thing which I soon learned in connection with this work, and the thing whose importance has grown upon me ever since, was the desirability of comprehending so far as possible the total of mis- sionary effort, as carried on by all Boards and Soci- eties. About three years after entering upon my work as Secretary, I visited our Missions. Up to that time our missionary literature had concerned itself almost entirely with our own work, and had VISIT TO MISSION FIELD 189 consisted mainly of letters from the fields; that is, our fields. The general work of missions was not discussed either in our own or other missionary magazines to any extent. But when I reached some of the great mission fields and saw there the full array of men and women representing different societies in different lands, the effect upon my mind was very similar to that which I had ex- perienced some years before while visiting one of our regiments in the army of the Potomac. As I arrived, there seemed but a handful of men compared to the total force to be met, but when the next morning I heard the bugle calls in all directions and saw the camp-smoke curl- ing up from other unseen regiments, and learned that the country was full of soldiers, my courage took a sudden start. So, when I saw the full front of missionary forces and came to look upon their labour and success as a common stock of encourage- ment for each and all, my faith in missions was wonderfully strengthened. " Some of you will remember that ex-President Harrison used this same simile in describing the impression made upon him by the Ecumenical Con- ference — with this advantage, however, that he spoke from his own experience as an old soldier. " After that visit to the missions I began to culti- vate a new interest in all missions, the varieties of their work, their comparative success, their total success, and, when finally it fell to my lot to edit the Foreign Missionary Magazine, I enlarged it from 32 to 48 pages, and while doing justice to our own Mis- I90 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD sions gave some place to the total work of the king- dom. " Many of our exchanges also began about that time to take the wider view; and the movement led to the establishment of the Missionary Reviezv of the World, by the late Rev. R. G. Wilder. " About the same time we adopted the plan of taking up one mission field at a time, assigning a particular month to each. This had great influence in developing the interest of the young and old. In the woman's auxiliary societies and zenana bands, persons were appointed, often mere girls, to present sketches of the countries named, their institutions, and the Missions of our own or other Boards. New attention was given to the monthly concert, and one special result was the increased knowledge and in- terest of the pastors. Many a pastor who had been remiss found it necessary, in self-defence, to learn something about missions, for it was humiliating to find that even children in his congregation were better informed than he. Great impetus was given to all these movements by the accession of the lamented Dr. Arthur Mitchell, whose eloquence of voice and pen will not soon be forgotten. " I need not dwell upon the general growth of missionary knowledge, nor the interchanges which have been made between different societies in the use of their statistics and other literature. All this is well known. Conferences have been held not merely in this country and in Great Britain, but on the large mission fields. There has been not only a great increase of knowledge in all the branches of MISSIONARY KNOWLEDGE GROWS 191 the church, but there has grown up an emulation in pushing forward the work. Missionary maps have been much more fully used than formerly. The critics of missionary work who previously could scoff at the work in detail, as if it were a very little thing, came to find a combined army rising up be- fore them. The policy of Balak was in vain. The tents of Jacob in their full array could not be put down by any sort of divination. The secular press has come to respect the cause of missions and to deal with it as one of the great world movements of the age, and polite literature finds it much more difficult than formerly to sneer at the Mrs. Jellybys who happen to be interested in this greatest of causes. What had been done in anthropology and sociology, in the massing of vast numbers of facts and generalizations into a scientific system, is being done also in the w^ork of foreign missions, and the materials are already well in hand for what may be called a science of missions. " The crowning result of this wider search for all missionary knowledge, and the convincing and over- whelming power which it is calculated to exert is seen in the masterly work of Dr. James S. Dennis on Missions and Sociology. " Another line on which I think substantial prog- ress has been made is the use of the principle of multiplying one's work through the help of others. Twenty-five years ago we had no such thing as type- writing or stenography. For several years no clerk of any kind was employed in the Mission House. There were only an assistant treasurer, an office boy 192 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD and a janitor. The time came when an editor was needed to take charge of the Foreign Missionary Magadnc. There seemed to be no candidate pro- posed except a venerable pastor in New Jersey, who, it was thought, might conduct this organ of the Board in connection with his pastoral work. While the question was pending, it was suggested that one of the secretaries might edit the magazine if the Board would give him a stenographer. This was a new and very wide departure. No such thing was known in any missionary Board in this country. The subject was very fully discussed. Some were in favour; others opposed. It was objected that while short and routine business letters might be written by such means, it would be impossible to write a careful missionary letter by dictation; one must think with his pen. To which it was replied that one Paul of Tarsus had written some very re- spectable foreign missionary letters through an amanuensis, and that the few short epistles which he had written with his own hand were rare exceptions. The point was carried. A stenographer and type- writer was found, and the Foreign Missionary Magazine was supplied with an editor. Now, behold the change! These Mission rooms and those of the Home Board, and the offices of all missionary societies and almost all similar institutions fairly rattle with the music of the typewriter, and books filled with hieroglyphics of Sanskrit or Syriac are multiplied almost by the cord. How, otherwise, could we do our work? How could our young high-pressure secretaries and IMPROVED METHODS 193 the treasurer get on without all the stenographers they can find ? And even, at that, the carbon copies and the mimeograph must be added. At the same time, there are far more of printed leaflets, circulars and what not, than ever before. And this in the Woman's department as well. " But great as is the total result accomplished by this multiplication of ourselves by the help of others. we feel that we still fall far short of educating the people as thoroughly as seems to be necessary to so great a work. It would be a pitiful contrast with the rush of things in our day, when newspapers and magazines and every form of printed matter are deluging the land and books are multiplied without limit, if the work of Missions, — the greatest enter- prise of all — should fail to keep abreast with the onward movement. Not only is a far greater work accomplished, but it is also of better quality. It was impossible to write many individual letters when a secretary was obliged with his own pen to write every word and every punctuation mark, cross every ' t ' and dot every ' i,' then copy the letter, superscribe the envelope, take from his drawer a stamp, and see that it was properly affixed. It was impossible to do much more than write Mission letters with the bare acknowledgment of the corre- spondence received. The advantage of multiplying tenfold the individual letters to the missionaries, of whom each Secretary has many score as correspond- ents, is great for other reasons. In these personal epistles one can come into much closer sympathy with the individual missionary, and I am sure that 194 FRANK FIELD ELLINVVOOD the receipt of a personal letter is more satisfactory to him than to have a bare recognition in a general epistle. " This leads me to mention another great advance which has been made in Mission work for the last quarter of a century by the organized efforts of the Woman's Boards, for if it is of great advantage to, missionaries to receive personal letters from the secretaries here, it is no less satisfactory to the women of the Missions to receive such sympathetic communications from the Boards and Auxiliaries of their own sex. The bonds of sympathy which have been strengthened by these correspondences have been woven over the earth's surface in a grand net-work of Christian love. Truly their lines have gone out through all the earth." And he added, pressing on those to whom he spoke the lesson of the duty of self-multiplication, " Every one whose soul is alive with the love of Christ will be inventive of means and resources." His soul was so alive. His editing of a missionary magazine, which he lifted at once into a remarkable success, was only part of his literary work. He prepared a new type of pamphlet and began at once a great stream of contributed articles which appeared in magazines in Great Britain and America, and which presented a fresh and powerful restatement of the grounds of missionary obligation. He had a remarkable power of keen argument, and again and again in AS A MISSIONARY APOLOGIST 195 the papers and magazines took up the traducers of missionaries, or of the missionary principle or of Christianity. Dr. J. H. Barrows wrote home from India to thank him for an article in the Open Court, in which Dr. Ellinwood had dismembered and dissected some representations of Shaku Soyen, one of the Buddhist priests from Japan who had been at the Parliament of Religions. Foreign Mis- sions had to fight hard for life in the earlier days, and no one did more than Dr. Ellinwood to bring the cause to its present advanced stage in the work of the Church and the thought of men. Before he died he had issued a number of books. " The Great Conquest " was the first of them, and it was an arsenal of new weapons for the friends of Mis- sions. His style was as clear and simple as a moun- tain brook, and philosophy, scholarship, and delicate humour mingled in all that he wrote and said. " I can see the whole scene," wrote a prominent pro- fessor to him of an article about a visit to the Sioux Indians. " It was refreshing to read it. There is a substratum and an undercurrent of humour under- neath the whole, that for so good a man as you are is charming, — I was going to say surprising, — ' a breaking out in a new spot,' so to speak." In his office work this humour was always present. He had a stock of original words which were in no dictionary, but which exactly described human quali- ties which ordinary men had to describe by circum- locution. But more than anything else his relent- 196 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD less and earnest logic made his articles and speeches notable. His mind worked with almost perfect pre- cision, and in reading or listening to him one had the comfortable feeling which comes with confidence in the integrity and absolute reliability of a great and able mind. All his life he was a student, read- ing many books, never allowing the wells of his mind to go dry, so that when he took up any subject he at once lifted it above what was commonplace, set it in loftier relations, and clothed it in a wealth of exact and far-sought knowledge. Dr. Ellinwood's openness of mind and eagerness to welcome all new forces led him to perceive that the day for the development of women's work had come. He did not resent it. He rejoiced in it. This was in part, doubtless, because he was such a gentle- man. The old-school courtesy lingered with him. He always treated women in his office as he would have treated them in a drawing room. And when their work began he met it in the spirit of a gentle- man. But also he realized how great a force had been neglected, and he planned with the women for the free establishment and expansion of this work in the Presbyterian Church. The result has been that in no Church has there been more unity and concord between the work of the women and the work of the ecclesiastically appointed organization. *' I need not speak of the grand development of woman's work in Missions. It is too well known," HIS PROGRESSIVENESS 197 he once said. " I only congratulate myself on the fact that I have been permitted to see the whole of it from its first beginnings until now, and if there were no other cause for gratitude in my experience and observation, this would fill me with satisfaction. I remember when Elizabeth Blackstone first had the hardihood, as many people thought, to study medi- cine, woman though she was ; and I remember when Miss Swayne, who I believe was the first woman to undertake medical missions, went to India." He welcomed and facilitated, also, the develop- ment of the Young People's work, the foreign work of the Y.M.C.A., the Student Volunteer Movement, and the work of laymen. In a commandingly com- prehensive paper on " The Progress of a Genera- tion " in 1902, he wrote: — " It is another auspicious fact that our generation has developed, as no other age of the Church has done, the co-operation of the laity. Applied Chris- tianity has ceased to be a function merely of the priestly class, the old pulpits of our fathers have descended in more senses than one much nearer to the level of the pew. The body of the Church has ceased to be a flock, and has now become an army. The idea prevails that everybody, old and young, has a work to do. This is true not merely of the multiplied forms of Sabbath School work. Church work, settlement work, rescue work, etc., but the change pervades all society. It has become fashion- able with our great universities to elect lay presi- 198 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD dents. Our Board of Missions has chosen a lay sec- retary. Even the General Assembly has now a lay Vice-Moderator, and the time may be near when it will lay aside the ' Vice.' It is certainly neces- sary that all classes of believers shall be subsidized and mobilized if the world is to be won to Christ, and the trend is now in that direction." In his work as Secretary he was fearlessly cour- ageous in entering newly opened doors. Through his influence the Missions in Korea and the Philip- pines were established, and he had a larger part than any other one individual in the development of the Missions of the Board in China. He had the strate- gist imagination which enabled him to realize what was an opportunity, and he had the administrative courage to achieve actually what he had seen in his visions. He prepared careful papers outlining policies as to fields, setting forth his reasons for believing that certain fields should be occupied and where the emphasis should be placed. In one of these papers, which was an elaborate study of the whole enterprise of the Board, he began by say- ing:— " I have long thought that some re-examination should be made of our mission fields, their relative importance and claims. The difficulty has been that in the all-absorbing care of our work as it has gone on from year to year, there has seemed to be no time to take broad questions and give them a thor- ough treatment. We have lived in a hand-to-mouth HIS LARGE POLICIES 199 way, attending simply to the things that impera- tively demand attention, and so we have simply drifted from year to year, if not from decade to decade. We have acted upon the principle that, first of all, vacancies should be filled, and that with- out much respect to the relative claims of different fields. And in given fields we have acted upon the principle that the old work should first have atten- tion, whereas there may be some vacancies that ought not to be filled; and there may be forms of old work which have not half the importance of some new work. Indeed, if we were always to act upon these principles, real progress would be well- nigh impossible; no change for the better, whether in fields or in work, or in anything else, could be introduced. " I would divide our mission fields into about three classes : first, those in which our work should be kept up to its present force of missionaries and its present geographical extent of work (except as the extent could be enlarged by native workers and out-stations as distinguished from increase of mis- sionaries and forming of new stations); second, those which should be given up, not suddenly per- haps, but gradually; third, those promising fields which seem to call for extension and decided ad- vancement. Then he proceeded to survey all the fields of the Board and the methods of work in use. He was as ready for improvement in the home administra- tion, and submitted as comprehensive and radical 200 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD papers on this subject as he would draft on the work abroad. He was always thinking on questions of Mission policy. In his letters to the Missions and in his home speeches and articles, and in the office consul- tations he was ever reaching after and setting forth fundamental principles. " There are some problems," he said in a paper in 1901, " which have long existed and which I have had greatly in mind, for which no solution has yet been found. How, by careful comparison and just estimates of respective claims, can we learn where and how to make the wisest outlays and realize the best use of the resources which Providence pro- vides? No one who studies the history of Missions can feel assured that the best assignments of men or the wisest methods have always been made. Often it seems as if comparative waste and loss had been suffered. In the inception of missionary enterprise in different lands, societies have generally been moved by some providential circumstance or pecu- liar opening. A mission has been formed with little reference to others, but mainly for its own particular reasons, and it is very natural when a number of Missions have been entered upon the list to treat them all more or less alike, and in providing for them to deal with the rights and claims of the missionaries, rather than the comparative claims of the fields they represent. Vacancies must be filled; certain proportions must be observed in supplying pecuniary support, or if there are from time to time HIS SCIENTIFIC SENSE 201 departures from this levelling method, it is because particular emergencies have arisen and those emer- gencies are considered apart; the sympathetic in- terest which they excite is acted upon without weigh- ing the comparative demands of other Missions; possibly some missionary comes home who has a particular talent for arousing people to help in his field or his special work, or some large-hearted giver conceives an interest in a particular missionary, or a particular institution, and so the work advances on various lines in accordance with the drift of cir- cumstances. And there never seems to be time to weigh up the whole subject and if possible devise the best methods of securing the largest possible aggregate of results, with the means. Of course, the guiding hand of the Divine Providence is our chief trust, but under that I think that just here we need a science of Missions. Perhaps we do the best that we can in the circumstances, but I have long since been persuaded that a more scientific adjustment is desirable. This has been for many years the unfulfilled desire of my heart. There are certainly great differences in the opportunities afforded us in different parts of the world. There are some Mission fields which are yellow for the harvest and in respect to which we are in danger of losing our opportunities; there are others in which the growth at best must be slow, and which, therefore, present less urgent claims. There are some lands, for example, which have for centuries enjoyed at least a partial light of the Gospel, and the influence of some ancient and decrepit Christian 202 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD Church, while there are others in which the knowl- edge of Christ in any form has never been made known, and if, according to the Prophet Ezekiel, a distinction shoiikl be made between those who have been warned and those who have not, we ought to heed that difference, and discriminate in favour of the most needy. *' Again, there are races whose geographical posi- tion, or entrenched false systems, or waning race energies, give little promise of their future influence on the world about them or beyond them, and there are others whose geographical position or racial relationships, or greater numbers, or stalwart vigour seem to point them out as nations which may mould others and greatly advance the civilisa- tion of the world. On any business principle, on any wise and far-seeing estimate, missionary effort should study the proper place of emphasis, and put forth its labours as a wise husbandman would do, as a skilful miner would choose between the richer and the poorer ores, as a wise general would dispose his forces for the best results. I think that in this coming century some of these problems must be considered as they have not been heretofore, and when we think that a generation of men passes off the surface of the earth in every third of a century, and that for the generations now living we who are now working must be held responsible, it would seem as if not much time should be lost. And mission- aries as well as administrators should study and weigh these world problems and not consider only the interests of their own particular fields. At VIEWS OF MISSION PROBLEMS 203 least they should be patient with the Board if some- times a cherished object is made subordinate to the good of the great cause as a whole." Among the particular problems which concerned him in later years was the development of self-sup- port, the missionary fruitfulness of educational operations on the foreign field, the administrative independence of the native Church, the raising up of native leadership and the promotion of an intense evangelistic spirit. Pages could be filled with his careful, earnest discussion of these questions. To- ward the close the last of them especially concerned him. " Another thing," he said, " which I would place in the very forefront among the impressions which have grown upon my mind is this; that the impor- tance of our work, whether in the actual contact of the missionary on the field, or the planning and stimulus of the work here at home, should be the conversion of men. Do you ask why I utter such a truism as this? I do it because I think that too often a feeling has grown up that our work is to prepare the way for somebody hereafter to reap the harvest. There is no phrase so much abused as that of ' seed-sowing.' There is a legitimate sowing of the seed, but neither the phrase nor the idea should be made a subterfuge or an excuse for a limp and self -contented inefficiency. As a friend put it, * A missionary in Benares belonging to one of the British societies, once told me that he had preached 204 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD the Gospel in that city ten years, but he had never, so far as he knew, been the means of any conver- sion, and when I showed some surprise at his appar- ent freedom from concern, he said that it was his business to preach the Word — he really had nothing to do with results.' Quite different was the feeling of Mr. Hudson Taylor the other day, when in the great conference he urged the missionaries to aim at the conversion of men at once, even though it might be the first and possibly the only opportunity, and he gave instances in which the work of the Spirit had thus directly owned the message and made it effectual. As we turn back to the New Testament, I think we find that that was very much the way in which believers were expected to respond when Peter and John and Stephen and Paul pro- claimed to them the message of salvation. " I once heard the Secretary of a missionary Board say that about the least concern of all to the missionary was the question of numbers received into the Church. His meaning was good, but it was a careless and one-sided statement. It must be ad- mitted that sometimes a great and exclusive empha- sis is put upon the statistics of Church membership. But dissent from this view has, I think, been carried too far and indicates a lack of that travail for souls of which Paul speaks. I am fully persuaded that the unit of measurement in preaching the Gospel of reconciliation is the individual soul." No one realized more clearly or stated more ade- quately than he the broad relations of the missionary THE CHIEF WORK OF MISSIONS 205 enterprise and its place as a great general force among the agencies of God, yet he longed for definite results in saved men. One of his last services was to write to all the Missions a letter which he closed with the words : — " If I may speak of myself as an individual, I would say that as the result of more than thirty years of observation and experience I have become increasingly impressed with the belief that in what- ever department of Christian labour, soul- winning, soul by soul, is the chief work of the Christian disci- ple. The Master explained this whole matter per- fectly when He said, in the first place, that the fruit bearing of the branch must depend on its vital con- nection with the rooted vine; that no man, depend- ing upon his own wisdom or worthiness, could hope to accomplish anything in this sacred stewardship. But in the second place, He taught that the degree of fruitfulness is a consideration with the Master of the vineyard. ' Herein is My Father glorified that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be My disciples.' " Much of our Mission work within these years has consisted in the laying of foundations. Several new mission fields have been entered, schools and church organizations have been formed, hospitals have been established. All these are needful prepa- rations for future Pentecosts, which we hope may soon appear. In some fields the in-gathering of souls has already been large; others are beginning to show abundant results. It is the most earnest desire and prayer of my closing years of service, 2o6 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD that along all the lines and ranks of our harvest work the time for accessions, beyond our fondest hopes, may now come with its cheering witness for the triumphs of the truth." He had the primitive Spartan ideals of duty and work. If he thought he detected in our easier days any departure from the early simple frugalities and heroisms of the missionary work it distressed him. He had no indulgence or habit which cost a penny, and his tastes were of the simplest and his self-disci- pline the most austere. He wished to retain this spirit in the missionary service. Dr. Ellinwood had a capacity for wise, succinct, large-minded, graceful, tactful statement that was simply masterly. He was an ideal spokesman of a deputation or representative of a body of people united in a cause. He made the valedictory address in behalf of the American delegates at the London Missionary Conference in 1888. And it was as near to perfection as such an address could come. He largely organized the deputation which met Li Hung Chang when he visited the United States in 1896, and he wrote and presented the address which called forth a remarkable testimony to Missions from the Viceroy. In any special piece of work like this, Dr. Ellinwood was unsurpassed. For many years he was the life of the Foreign Missions of the Western Section of the Presbyterian Alliance. If ever difficulties were in the way of any special DIPLOMATIST AND FINANCIER 207 services which he undertook, he was never discour- aged and his pertinacity could not be worn down. He was the chairman of the committee of the Pan- Presbyterian Council which co-operated with Dr. John G. Paton in seeking to secure action by the U.S. Government, protecting the South Sea Islands from the traffic in liquor and firearms. He revised Dr. Paton's appeals. He arranged meetings in Washington. He directed the awakening of public sentiment. He was undiscourageable. No diplo- matist could exceed him in patience, resourcefulness, in tact, and no diplomatist could equal him in moral conviction and force. He was a masterhand at financing the missionary enterprise. Interested as he was in the large phil- osophic aspects of Missions, no one could surpass him in planning a financial campaign, in devising plans, in commanding confidence, in effecting re- sults. Again and again he raised the funds for spe- cial advance movements or to clear off heavy defi- cits, and the Presbyterian Building in New York City, the handsomest and largest church business building in the city, owes its existence and its free- dom from indebtedness more to him than to any other one man. One of the leading laymen of the Church, Dr. H. B. Silliman, who had given hun- dreds of thousands of dollars through Dr. Ellin- wood, said once that he regarded him as one of the wisest and most sagacious men of business he knew^ It was beautiful to see him attack one of these great 2o8 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD financial problems. It was with him day and night. Each time he came to the office it was with some fresh idea, and he would never let go until he had prevailed. He had a clear and comprehensive conception of the motive and aim of missions. He had thought on these things and among his papers are many sug- gestive discussions of them. In one of them he writes : — " The question has often been asked, What is the chief motive for the work of Missions found in the New Testament? Various motives have been urged with almost exclusive methods according to different theories and habits of Christian thought. Is the chief motive that of witness-bearing? This is sometimes urged very prominently, but we might perhaps find some light thrown upon the question by the actual procedure of our early church. The apostles were witnesses and they probably under- stood our Lord aright, but their method was not to proceed from town to town, and city to city, pro- claiming the Gospel till the people had but to hear merely and become responsible for the message deliv- ered, but they evidently interpreted the Saviour's commissions given at different times, one by an- other. They understood that they were to be wit- nesses for Christ in Jerusalem and in Judaea and unto the end of the earth, but remembering the first commission they understood that their errand was to disciple all nations, not merely announcing to them that Christ had come in the flesh, THE MISSIONARY MOTIVE 209 but teaching them all things whatsoever He had taught His disciples. In other words, the witness-bearing was to follow His methods of indoctrination, training, qualifications for work to be done, on the principle that every Christian becomes an embassador of God. And in fact the apostles, while they preached the Truth far and wide, proceeded upon the assumption that their great work was actually to win men to an acceptance of the Gospel, and not only that, but to train them that they should grow up into the full stature of men in Christ Jesus. Some have urged that the great motive was the love of Christ, and there is much to be said for this. ' If ye love me, keep my commandments ' and again the question to Peter, ' Lovest thou me ? ' If so, that love was to be shown by feeding His lambs, and while unquestionably the love of Christ is the mainspring of all Christian activity, it was distinctly taught that love should take the form of pity to men. A cup of cold water should be given to the thirsty, though it should be given in Christ's name; the sick were to be healed, the poor to be cared for with as tender a pity as if there were no associated motive, and sympathy with their suffering was the only impulse. In Christ's comiUiission to Paul the motive of compassion to the heathen is made most prominent; it is a work of rescue, it is delivering men from darkness into light and from the power of Satan unto God; it is reveal- ing unto them the great blessing of remission and making them heirs of eternal life through faith in Christ. There is then, in the word of God, no war- 2IO FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD rant for any extreme or one-sided interpretation of Christ's command as to motive. The fact that the command was given, the fact that it is given by Christ, the fact that we are commanded to have in us the same spirit of self-sacrifice which He had, when from the equal glory of heaven He became poor that in His poverty we might become rich; the fact that He pitied the lost multitudes, who were as sheep without a shepherd, all these show that a variety of motives is to move the heart. In one aspect the motive looks toward Christ, in another, towards those for whom He died ; all these different views are presented by different apostles. Paul, in view of what had been done for him, esteemed himself a debtor, but the debt was payable to the lost men, whether Jew or Greek, bond or free. " Leaving the direct teaching of the New Testa- ment, there is a great variety of motives of still dif- ferent character which should urge us forward in the work of missions. There is a consideration of our own indebtedness to those who brought the Gospel to us or to our ancestors. It is a worthy motive to pity the physical sufferings of the heathen and to desire to improve their condition in this world, by teaching them our industrial arts, and especially by giving them better medical instruction, and a more efficacious healing art. There is a real motive in promoting a better civilisation throughout the world, advancing the estate of mankind as a whole, even in their earthly life. There is a motive and a strong one in the reflex benefits of the mission VIEWS ON MISSIONS 211 work to those who engage in it. To this I ask at the present time particular attention." Another paper, which was a closing lecture in a series of lectures, begins with the summary: " I wish to show in this closing lecture how the work of Missions is inwrought in the whole life of the Christian Church and in its origin, its com- mission, its history, its doctrine, its hope of per- petuity and final triumph : I — It truly interprets and illustrates the New Testament and the entire word of God. 2 — It represents dogmatic truth in greater vitality and power by embodying it in living personality and Christ-like activity. It develops the Church through a divine ambassadorship. 3 — It illustrates in a peculiar degree Christ's presence and providential superintendency in the world. 4 — It gives special emphasis to the supernatural character of Christianity. 5 — It has shown the universal applicability and value of our Christian ethics." On a scrap of paper in 1893 he wrote: — ■ " We have a magnificent example of the mission- ary polemics in the Epistle to the Hebrews. Rev. George T. Candlin, missionary of the London Mis- sionary Society in China, in speaking of its unknown author, very properly characterized him as the mightiest controversialist of the apostolic age. And 212 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD he was the mightiest, because wisest and most tact- ful. One might say the most charitable. His great aim was to supersede Judaism with the broader and grander scheme of sacrificial redemption as pre- sented in Jesus Christ — the truly availing sacrifice offered once for all. What should we do ? On the one hand, he did not denounce Judaism. He did not proceed to show its departures from the original intent of bloody sacrifice. This might all have been true enough, but it was not wise. Nor, on the other hand, did he waste time and strength upon any fanciful and sentimental union or brother- hood to be established between Judaism and Chris- tianity. The one was to be superseded by the other." And among his papers was a memorandum with the following heads : — " I — The Great Aim in Mission Work is the winning of souls to Christ, and every form of mis- sionary work should keep this end steadily in view. There is a good deal said and written about insti- tutional work, about preaching the Gospel as a wit- ness. All these are important, but the aim is that of beseeching men in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God. The medical missionary as well as the preacher should keep in sight the supreme aim, and the man who is called to lay foundations, and even he whose work is that of removing rubbish out of the way that the foundations may be laid, should have in view the one fact that there are before him MISSION METHODS 213 millions of souls whom he will meet before the throne of God, and whom it is his duty to win to Christ. " 2 — In Order to Win Souls, the first thing humanly speaking, is to secure their confidence, and this means that one should come as near to them as possible, should placate them, should learn to re- spect them and to establish the relation of mutual respect. It is a mistaken idea that one goes forth with the Gospel simply to preach it at the people, whether they will or whether they forbear. All the force of a sanctified personality should be brought to bear, else it might be better to simply send them copies of the written Word. The advantage of the living preacher lies in his living fellowship, and the measure of his work will be generally in accordance with the intensity of his desire. " 3 — Respect the Convictions of the Heathen, however erroneous these convictions may be. Re- member that generally they are sincere. There should be no blundering in methods of preaching, there should be nothing like contempt or an effort to make them see the absurdity or grotesqueness of their beliefs. This should be done by instruction, by showing them better ways. I think there has been a mistake in all missionary circles in these years that are past, in the fact that so contemptuous treatment has been given to idolatry. " 4 — Another Means of Success is found in over- coming, as far as possible, the social barriers be- tween the missionary and the people. It is unfortu- nate that our civilization is on so much higher a 214 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD plane than that of the heathen nations. There is a sharp contrast between our conquest and that of the early churches. I think that one of the very greatest handicaps that weighs upon the missionary work in our time is just this. Even the plainest type of liv- ing for a missionary is, in the eyes of the heathen, the highest and most worldly of self-indulgent lux- ury. In one form or another this difficulty comes up again and again. . . . The missionary must show that notwithstanding the different status he is in hearty sympathy with the people, is not averse to receiving their hospitality, that he knows how to enter into their wants, while there are some un- doubtedly who stand up and look upon the heathen as an inferior order of being. " 5 — Not Only Rccogni::c the Truth, which un- doubtedly is to be found in fragments in the re- ligions of heathen, but make use of that truth as a sort of poll sto. A keen-minded traveller has drawn an illustration on this point. If you were attempting to build a fortress on some wind-blown and sea-washed beach of sand, would you not gladly seize upon an outcropping rock which you might use in your foundation ? So whatever there be of truth, ethical or otherwise, in the systems of the heathen, make use of it. The apostles did this. They rea- soned with the Jews out of their own Scriptures. Paul pursued the same course on Mars Hill in taking advantage of the altar to the unknown god, to which he gladly pointed and said, ' Whom ye igno- rantly worship Him declare I unto you.' He found also one point in common between the Gospel and Frank Field Ellinwood When about seventy years of age ATTITUDE TO OTHER RELIGIONS 215 the heathen poetry of Eratus, where the latter said, ' We have Zeus, we are his offspring.' In the early church the wisest and saintliest followed the example of the apostles. Augustine speaks most appreciat- ively of the philosophy of Plato, and of the fact that something from the pen of Cicero which he read, embodying the stoic and Platonic philosophy, was the means in the hand of God's spirit of trans- forming his desires, and leading him to see the worthlessness of the desires which he had cherished in comparison with a longing to know God. He speaks of these lessons which he and others had learned through the illustration of the gold and the silver which the Israelites found in Egypt and bore away for the adornment of the true tabernacle of God. ' All truth,' he said, ' wherever found, be- longs to God, and if we spoil the Egyptians for the sake of God's temple, we are only acting the part of wise and tactful men.' " 6 — Study the Systems of the Heathen." It was in this matter that Dr. Ellinwood was a pioneer in our country. He began early his study of the non-Christian religions. It seemed to him that a missionary secretary could very poorly per- form his duty as a missionary advocate at home or a missionary administrator abroad, if he did not know the non-Christian religions. As he went on with these studies and urged others to them, some people were disturbed. They feared the effects of the introduction of the study of comparative reli- gion. But Dr. Ellinwood was never afraid of any 2i6 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD truth. He was sure that all truth was of God and that the Missionary Movement would gain and not lose from an open-minded attitude toward the Ori- ental religious systems. He was much encouraged in his purpose by a letter from the Rev. Dr. N. G. Clark, Secretary of the American Board, who wrote shortly after Dr. Ellinwood had begun his lectures : — " I beg to assure you of my great pleasure in the work you are doing in broadening the scope and aims of our missionary effort. It is not now as it was when we began our works as secretaries. The questions now pending are quite differenjt. The age of beginnings is past. We are meeting ob- jectors in the foreign field whom we have educated and trained to an ability to oppose the very Gospel which has given them their culture and character. In the general advance of civilization and of scien- tific studies the world over, and by the frequent communication with all parts of the world, the ene- mies of the truth are enjoying the same advantages with ourselves in the wide diffusion of their ideas. I am sure that there is no better work that you can do than that you are now doing, by calling the at- tention of all friends of missions to the importance of a most thorough mastery of heathen systems of thought, and to a just comparison of those sys- tems with Christianity. This work is different from simply preaching the Gospel to a few individuals whom you may gather around you at some mission station. It is different from the general work of HIS PROFESSORSHIP 217 education in which we are seeking to prepare men to become native helpers. It follows on to com- pleting the matter by raising up men here in this country who are competent to meet the various questions which are now pressing on the attention of Christians the world over, and to enable them in their time to raise up a body of native preachers and professors." In 1887 he took up, accordingly, in addition to his secretarial duties, the professorship of comparative religion in the University of New York. Narrowly limited in his physical resources he did not do this without consulting his doctor as to his ability to do the work without impairment of health or ability to fulfil his duty to the Board, and he sought, also, the Board's assent as to his undertaking the new work. Both the doctor and the Board approved, and he began a unique and valuable service to edu- cation in America and to the cause of Missions. He organized the American Society for the Study of Oriental Religions, and he gave annually a course of lectures in his professorship which were grate- fully acknowledged by those who took them to have been among the great intellectual and spiritual expe- riences of their lives. Three letters from ministers, the first of them an Episcopal rector who had moved away from New York, but is now minister of one of its leading churches, must suffice, though many others could be quoted to show what his course did for men. 2i8 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD " The fall days remind me of the reopening of your work in Comparative Religion at the Uni- versity. I cannot express to you how much I wish I were where I could continue the study with you, nor how much benefit the attention already given to it has been to me. The hold such work takes upon one is so gradual that it is not until afterwards that he fully realizes the great profit of it. I am sure you will be glad to hear me say that the lines of thought we followed when together crop out everywhere in my thinking, in my reading, in my writing. At most unexpected times they come upon me like a flash, and no reference to them in print or in conversation escapes me, but is jotted down where it belongs in the outline so admirably presented in the class. I am personally indebted to you and to the University, for I do not know where else the same work is done. " In thanking you for it all, let me hope for abun- dant prosperity in continuing the same to the benefit of all who shall engage in it." " I desire to express to you my high appreciation of the course of study in heathen religions and phi- losophies, through which I have gone with you during the past year. It has seemed to me one of the most helpful post-graduate lines of work that a minister can possibly take. The facts and thoughts which it presents are almost or quite essen- tial to pulpit work. Its bearing upon the great work of foreign missions, — the grand call of the Church in these days, — is most close. It opens up a world of thought. Incidentally it furnishes an AS A TEACHER 2ig inexhaustible fund of illustration for pulpit use. I speak from the standpoint of a minister in active work — it is a most delightful side study, interweav- ing itself with every line of pulpit effort. " But it has a deeper interest and importance. In these later times one of the great lines of attempted attack on Christianity is by a revival of ' heathen ' thought and by misleading comparisons of the re- ligions of Central and Eastern Asia with that from Judaea. The Church at large is not aware of the importance of this movement. I know of no syste- matic attempt in this country to meet this need, other than this course of instruction in which you so admirably lead. ** I feel deeply grateful that I have been able to be with you in this." ** I wish to express to you my thankfulness for the benefit derived from your lectures in the Uni- versity in Comparative Religion, Course iii. I am frank to confess that had I known you would con- sider the philosophy of religion I would not have joined the class, because while in college in 1882, lectures on the history of philosophy so confused me that I came to have a dislike for the subject. I soon saw that you were going over the same ground I had determined never again to attempt to tread, but having once started I would not turn back. " The course has been filled with hard work, but what a delight it has been to me ! The subjects have been presented in such a comprehensive, concise 220 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD and clear manner that by faithful work one can get a good idea of the whole field of philosophy in its relation to religion. " By means of your lectures and my study and reading in connection with them, my former dis- taste for the subject has been replaced by such an interest that I intend to pursue the course farther as one of my studies in Berlin the coming fall. The impetus given me in the post-graduate Seminary of the university has had much to do with my de- cision to study in Germany for a year or two." His courtesy, large-mindedness, evangelical fidelity, and philosophical freedom of spirit and amplitude of knowledge made his class work a unique experience to his students. His sympathetic study of the non-Christian re- ligions affected all his thinking and speaking on missions, and it exerted a wide influence in this coun- try. People saw that instead of weakening mis- sionary zeal and evangelical faith, such a study in- terested and inspired them. This was the growing effect on his own mind. He knew that Christianity had nothing to fear from the most merciless com- parison with the world's religions. He did not like the Parliament of Religions in Chicago, not because it brought the religions of the world into compari- son, but precisely because it did not do so, but imposed upon the West untrue representations of the Oriental religions, and proclaimed a fictitious brotherhood. PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 221 " The speakers," he wrote to Dr. Barrows in a long letter, just before Dr. Barrows went to India as Haskell lecturer, in reply to a letter from Dr. Bar- rows, " presented only mixtures of Oriental phi- losophies with western speculations and even western shibboleths learned in the universities of Bombay or Calcutta. Typical Hinduism was not represented. The Ceylon Buddhists made a better show, but it was that of a Godless system from which Christianity has nothing to fear. " The chief difficulty with the parliament to my mind was the vague proclamation of a brotherhood of religions. Judging by your sermon you mean by brotherhood something very different from what Mozoomdar meant, or Darmapala, or any of our American friends who regard Christ not as a living being or an atoning sacrifice, but only as a teacher somewhat greater than Confucius. There can be no religious brotherhood without at least an ap- proximate unity of religion, and this cannot be found in the existing faiths and un faiths of the world. Religious unity must centre in God, one God and the only God, recognized by all. Between Polytheists and Monotheists how can there be a religious brotherhood ? Between Jews who worship the one Jehovah, and the Buddhists who avow their disbelief in any personal God, how can there be a theistic basis of unity or brotherhood ? " I somewhere saw Paul Cams' article on the * Parliament Extensions ' and proposing Monism as a common basis for the universal religion. I was surprised to see what a following he claimed. I 222 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD am frank to say that I dissent from all such com- pacts. Monism may add personality to the current Pantheism, but it will still leave the groping souls of men in a nebulous haze; it points them to the Milky Way instead of the Sun of Righteousness — the true light of the world. If this new Gospel is to have any influence at all, it will be fatal not only to Foreign Missions but in its last logical result fatal to our Christianity here at home. I also pro- test against the assumption constantly presented or implied by the advocates of the new gospel — and most emphatically and persistently by Theosophists — that the Christian Church and its missionaries are and always have been a hindrance to the realiza- tion of the brotherhood of mankind. If a brother- hood of humanity growing out of our relation to a common Father or Creator is meant, then Christian- ity was the first to give that conception currency, Peter, Paul, and even Christ Himself plainly taught it as against the narrowness of Judaism and the teachings of even Plato. And to-day the best and almost the only practical promoters of universal humanity — whether in hospitals or orphanages or in famine relief, to men of all races, are the repre- sentatives of the Christian Church; and those angels of mercy who minister comfort and help amid the smoke and din of the battlefield bear the ensign of the Cross. *' If, secondly, the brotherhood which springs from union in Christ, and the only brotherhood which implies Divine and transforming power and likeness to the Son of God is meant, the Church CHRISTIANITY AND BROTHERHOOD 223 alone represents and promotes it; and this is the great aim of Christian Missions. Paul recognized both of these conceptions of brotherhood, but he kept them distinct. He regarded the borrowed slave, Onesimus, as a son of a common Creator, and as one for whom Christ had died, and his sym- pathetic interest won him to the Cross. But this was a very different brotherhood which he con- templated in his letter to Philemon, in which he reminded him that Onesimus was now * no longer a servant but a brother.' " If, thirdly, the brotherhood is to be one, and not so much of men as of religions, — reducing them to the one dead level of Monism, ignoring both the first and the second of my category, neither preach- ing any definite glad tidings for the soul, nor pro- viding healing or relief for the body, then I must dissent. It will not only prove destitute of that re- generative power which the world so much needs, but it will be paralyzing. Its first virtual message will be, ' Ye shall not surely die.' " Of my earnest and repeated advocacy of a can- did, charitable, conciliatory, and even fraternal spirit and method in dealing with the heathen and their, to them, sacred faiths, I need not remind you; but the great Unity is of Christ's Eternal Kingdom." Toward the close of his work, in 1901, Dr. Ellin- wood summarized in one of his papers the change he had witnessed in the attitude of the Church to- ward the study of Oriental systems : — " I have witnessed within recent years and with 224 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD great satisfaction the changed attitude of the Chris- tian Church of every name toward non-Christian religions. As early as 1872 the late Dean Stanley in a sermon delivered in Westminster Abbey spoke of this change as one of the auspicious indications in the missionary outlook of the world. But the public mind was not thoroughly aroused to the im- portance of this thing until the Church was scared, so to speak, by the publication of Edwin Arnold's * Light of Asia/ It was such a clever and plausible attempt to eclipse, or at least rival, the Christian faith and turn a flank movement upon its mission- ary propagandism, that very few persons were able to answer it even in their own minds. It was not by any means the first specious presentation of Oriental religions in Europe and America. Much had been written in various forms to the same in- tent, but this by its great popularity created a pro- found impression, yet most people clung to the old method of denouncing all the Oriental faiths as mere superstitions, unworthy of our study, illus- trating missionary lectures and sermons by grim idols, with the implication that these senseless things were the sum total of what heathenism could show. " When I was called a dozen years ago to lecture once a week on * The Relations of Oriental Religions to Christianity and the Work of Missions,' there were very few who recognized the necessity for any such superfluous service. The late Secretary Clark, of the American Board, urged me forward with the argument that in his opinion there was just then no MISSIONARY POLEMICS 225 greater need in the broad outlook of the missionary conquest of the world than that the Church should be brought to a proper understanding of the false systems to be overthrown, and of directing mission- ary effort intelligently, or as Sir William W. Hun- ter expressed it, ' fighting with weapons of pre- cision.' " When the late Baron Hardy Hickey published a four-column article in the New York Herald de- signed to show that Christianity was an essential plagiarism from the earlier history and doctrine of Gautama Buddha, and I attempted a reply and sent it to our missionary magazine, it was returned to me with the remark that there was no danger of Christian people being disturbed about Buddhism. The reply was published, however, in the Mail and Express and Dr. Paxton of Princeton having read it, urged its publication in a leaflet to be sent to every minister in the Presbyterian Church, and he en- closed a check for $25.00 toward defraying the ex- pense. I believe that now there is not a considerable Theological Seminary in the country which does not, in the sphere of apologetics, give more or less atten- tion to comparative religions, and I understand that at the time of the death of our missionary, Dr. S. H. Kellogg of India, a movement was on foot to elect him, on an endowment, to a Chair of Comparative Religions in Princeton Theological Seminary. " During the late Conference two masterly ad- dresses were given along similar lines by Drs. Rob- son of Edinburgh and Purves of this city. Some words from the latter you were permitted to hear 226 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD in this place on Saturday morning, last. When the proud and arrogant systems of non-Christian belief, which are rife in our day, shall be as thoroughly understood as are the mythologies and philosophies of Greece and Rome, there will be no more fear of them from the Christian standpoint than there is of those classics which every schoolboy is ex- pected to study; and then our missionaries will go to their mission fields equipped and prepared for the keen dialectics with which heathen assailants have sometimes worsted them." From the beginning of his work he opened his interest to take in the activities of all Christian agencies. To him more than to any other one man is due the Annual Conference of Foreign Mission Boards of the United States and Canada. He was the leading spirit in the early conferences, and no voice was waited for with more confidence in all discussions of difficult problems. Every one trusted his calm, unperturbed judgment, free from all flight- iness, from all self-illusion, from all deflecting and petty prejudice. " My experience," he told the Conference of New Missionaries in 1901, just after the Ecumenical Con- ference, " in the study of missionary operations in all these years has greatly enlarged in me the spirit of toleration toward those bodies of Christians who differ from my own with respect to minor things. Though a Calvinist more and more in my philosophy of religion, and a Presbyterian in polity, I have HIS EVANGELICALISM 227 observed that the divine blessing rests abundantly upon Arminians as well as Calvinists; upon High Church and Low Church; upon Prelatists and upon the democracy of the congregation; on Pedo-Bap- tists and immersionists ; upon lovers of high ritual, and the simplest and most unobtrusive of the So- ciety of Friends. " Without yielding in any degree the doctrines which seem to me logical and clear, I have been con- strained to believe that there is indeed ' a wideness in God's mercy like the wideness of the sea,' and that the great tide of salvation flows over many fences and landmarks and walls of division. " What a blessed thing it was in our recent Con- ference that men with so many shades of belief, with such varying forms of worship and methods of work, could for ten days lay aside their non- essentials and agree to study and ponder the things in which all were agreed, and to pray together and rejoice together over the triumphs in which all were permitted to have a share. But harmony would be a very different thing if it involved the casting down of essential barriers between truth and fatal error. As Dr. Purves well said on Saturday, the work of Evangelical Missions cannot be successfully car- ried on upon Unitarian or Universalist grounds. These denominations have existed through all this closing century of missions; yet where have they substantial results to show on heathen soil? It is around Christ as very God and very man; Christ as a mediatorial and vicarious Saviour; Christ as the Head of the Church and Captain of our salva- 228 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD tion; Christ as an intercessor able to save unto the uttermost all who come unto God by Him; Christ as everywhere present through His Spirit in the hearts of His people, — it is around Him that evangelical missions gather and marshal themselves for conquest; and it is well to have learned that He welcomes the sincere efforts of all who thus fully trust in Him, reminding us as He reminded His disciples of old, that whoever is not against Him gathereth the fruits of His Kingdom." This deep evangelical conviction was the root of his life and work. All that he ever did he did in faith in Christ and with the loyal purpose to exalt Him. This gave to all that he wrote or spoke a flavour of spiritual sincerity, which breathed through even his formal reports. Thus Dr. H. B. Silliman wrote to him in 1899, after reading the draft of his report to the Presbyterian Alliance as chairman of its missionary section : — " I have just returned from Northfield, and not to delay further the return of the enclosed paper, I have devoted my first time to the perusal of your report. " It seems like a continuance of the rich spiritual feast which I have enjoyed, and my faith in Missions and zeal in the great cause have been strengthened by it. " I do not find anything to correct nor to suggest in relation to the report. And you know me too well to think I mean to flatter when I say I thank CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 229 God that the church, and especially our branch of it, has a man with such complete knowledge of the subject and the ability to present it in such attractive form. May the Master use it for the advancement of His Kingdom." He was a sincere, manly, genuine Christian, who meditated day and night upon truth and who lived in prayer. Among his papers was found a clear analysis of the Sermon on the Mount in which he has summarized each section in the terms of a prin- ciple, and it was by these principles that he lived. Those whose offices adjoined his and who saw him daily testify that he practised these principles. He always sought for the truth and was ready to learn it from any quarter. As younger men came to be associated with him he treated them with absolute fairness; always placing them on an equality with himself and always disregarding any idea of author- ity because of his seniority or his ability. He was utterly devoid of the spirit of self-seeking, self- exaltation, or selfish ambition. He was the soul of honour and high-mindedness and generosity. He held aloof from all ecclesiastical politics. He lived above all smallness and selfishness. He exem- plified the loftiness of mind of which Daniel sings in his Epistle to the Duchess of Cumberland : — " He that of such a height has built his mind And reared the dwelling of his thoughts so strong As neither fear nor hope can shake the frame Of his resolved powers, nor all the wind 230 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD Of vanity or malice pierce to wrong His settled peace, or to disturb the same — What a fair seat hath he, from whence he may The boundless wastes and wealds of man survey! "And with how free an eye doth he look down Upon these lower regions of turmoil ! Where all the streams of passion mainly beat On flesh and blood ; where honour, power, renown, Are only gay afflictions, golden toil ; Where greatness stands upon as feeble feet As frailty doth, and only great doth seem To little minds who do it so esteem." But he was not removed from human sympathies. He felt the burden of the world's woe and sin. It was for the lifters of that burden that he lived. Attractive calls to service which he felt were more remote from the whole world's need than his secre- taryship, were pressed on him in vain. As the years passed on toward the end he was physically incapacitated for active work, but his mind was unshaken. And it was wonderful to watch the eagle spirit soar aloft above the wreck of its dwelling place and survey the far-surging forces of God at work upon the world, and pierce at times almost through the veil into the eternity for which every day the soul was repining. He could not write with his own hand, but from his whispered dictation letters were written from which these quotations are taken : " I cannot urge the plea ' too busy,' for I am ut- terly useless; but my family, by whose help I carry LETTERS 231 on correspondence, have been occupied and weary by the cares of getting settled. " This morning good Dr. Phraner sends me a copy of the Assembly's action expressing sympathy for me in my infirmity and decline, and its apprecia- tion of the supposed service which I may have ren- dered to Foreign Missions. " I am so sensible of shortcomings that any com- mendation increases my self-rebuke. Still, I appre- ciate most highly the kindly sentiments of brethren toward me. " I most highly approve of the plan you are form- ing in the adjustment of the Secretaryships. You know I have always favoured a distribution of the Mission fields, in order that the opportunities and influence of each Secretary may subtend the whole great work at home and abroad. He should be a complete link of communication between the Church and the Mission force at the front. A foreign cor- respondent and administrator, if excused from all share in enkindling home interest and raising funds, will become academic and diplomatic; while the Home Secretary will feel handicapped and subordi- nated and will grow weary of the monotony of his narrow sphere. " What a great, complicated and sublime enter- prise has the Divine Providence entrusted to you and your associates. I have confidence in its suc- cess because divinely directed. " Your very last letter, with its statement of the Board's action in appointing me Secretary Emeritus, has touched me, — has touched us all very deeply. 232 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD The question of accepting my resignation was very- kindly and considerately handled, and the course marked out for the future is all that I could wish. I am sending to Dr. Alexander an expression of my gratitude to the Board for its great kindness to me, past, present and prospective. " The 23rd and 103rd Psalms have been exempli- fied and verified in my case. I feel that I do not go down into the dark valley comfortless and alone. " Day after to-morrow I shall, if spared, complete my nine times nine." " I was glad of your extended and interesting tour on the Pacific Coast. Events of the last year have shown that in religion, and still more in politics, California must be held in close and vital union with the best sentiment and character of the Atlantic Slope. The most notable example of this need is seen in the wholesale bribery and corruption of city officials and business corporations, by Abraham Ruef and others. The Anti- Japanese movement presents only one phase of the Oriental problems that now confront us. Not only is this hostile senti- ment likely to create an inimical feeling toward all Americans, but it will stimulate Japan to multiply her naval resources. " It points to a time when in business spheres, both China and Japan will defy the competition of American commerce, both on land and sea. " Their more frugal habits and better economy of expenditure will enable them to drive our means of transportation off the Pacific. " It seems impossible that nearly a year has passed OPINION OF JAPANESE 233 since I presented my resignation. I could hardly have expected to survive till the present time, for really it is with me a process of gradual decay; I may say of death. Being now^ utterly helpless, I marvel that so much vitality remains. " Recurring once more to the Japanese problem, I recently read ' Bushido,' which you doubtless have seen. It is an able book and has a plausible argument for those who are not thoroughly conversant with the whole question. I appreciate the feudal code of honour which characterized the military power and the heroic spirit of Japan. But the credit which this university professor accords is excessive. I felt, while reading it, a wish that you would write a reply — not covering the same ground exhaustively, but pointing out the significance of certain admissions made by the author himself, — especially in the last two chapters — wherein it is made very clear that Bushido can never transform and uplift the masses. And, secondly, that it is showing already its inability to face and control the commercial spirit of the twentieth century. It can never become a mission- ary compass. Already the spirit of scientific enquiry and the alertness of Japanese commercial enterprise are accomplishing more than the feudal pride of the military class." The Foreign Mission cause has been served by a long roll of unusual men, but from the days of Wor- cester and Evarts and Swift and Lowrie down to our own day, it has had no better, more capable, more efficient servant than Dr. Ellinwood. XVII IN MEMORIAM Tributes to Dr. F. F. Ellinwood The Minute of the Presbytery of New York On His Death WHEN Frank Field Ellinwood, D.D., LL.D., Secretary Emeritus of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church, died at Cornwall, Conn., on September 30, 1908, in the eighty-third year of his age, a great missionary leader passed away. . . . Dr. Ellin- wood did many things beside a secretary's work, but all that he did had a direct bearing upon For- eign Missions. He led in the formation of the Presbyterian and Reformed Alliance: he may be said to have created the two world conferences of missionary societies which were held in London and New York. He was trustee and president of Clifton Springs Sanitarium, where many a weary missionary has found rest and new vigour; he was a trustee of the Canton Christian College for many years, a lecturer in the New York University upon 'Religions of the Orient'; he wrote many articles for the religious press and published several books; but all that he wrote as well as what he did, came within the circle of his one idea of Foreign Missions — the world for Jesus Christ. His motto 234 NEW YORK PRESBYTERY MINUTES 235 was not ' This one thing I do,' but ' All that I do is for the glory of God.' Dr. Ellinwood was not a modest and retiring man. He was a man of decided convictions, and he had a fearless courage and tenacity of purpose which was born of sound judgment and zeal for truth. But he was entirely free from vanity or self-asser- tion. His spirit was pure and noble, his aspirations were for heavenly things, and his endeavours were always and everywhere for the honour of his Lord and Master Jesus Christ. For him, to live was Christ, and when he could no longer actively serve, he was willing to stand and wait patiently, as a mentor and example of whatsoever things are pure, lovely and of good report. The Presbytery of New York records with sor- row the death of Frank Field Ellinwood, their friend and associate for thirty-six years, and gives glory to God who enabled him to live for more than four-score years an unusually useful and beautiful Christian life. The Presbytery also desires to convey to the widow and family of Dr. Ellinwood its official and personal sympathy in this bereavement and to com- mend them to divine consolation." Minute on the Death of Dr. Ellinwood Adopted by the Woman's Board of Missions of the Presby- terian Church. " It is with grief and a deep sense of bereave- ment that the Women's Board of Missions of the Presbyterian Church record the death of the Rev. 236 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD Frank F. Ellinwood, D.D., LL.D. It was on Sep- tember 30, 1908, at Cornwall, Conn., that he passed from his earthly home to his ' house eternal in the heavens.' His long life was beautiful in all human charm, strong intellectual power, consecrated service, and loving loyalty to his Lord and Master. He lived for the advance of the Kingdom of God. This was his supreme interest. In its triumphs his soul re- joiced. With broad views, and a statesman's grasp of mind, he planned largely, and with rare intelli- gence, for its conquests. He knew the foes he had to meet. With an open mind and careful study, he learned to gauge the strength and weakness of those non-Christian religions which have enthralled so many millions. With all this breadth of outlook, he was never- theless mindful of the details of mission work, and of the humble efforts by which great results are attained. He cared for individual interests. The missionaries who were in his special charge will long remember his friendliness and his compre- hension of the often perplexing problems in their personal lives and work. To them we extend our heartfelt sympathy, that their wise counsellor and faithful friend will no longer send them his wel- come messages. The women of our Board in New York desire to express their appreciation of the privilege which has been especially theirs of close personal touch with such a friend, whose wisdom and large experi- ence were ever available for their help. He appre- MINUTES OF WOMEN'S BOARDS 237 ciated in an unusually sympathetic way the work the women of the Church are trying to do. We mourn that we shall see his face and hear his voice no more. For his colleagues in the stupendous enterprise to which his life was given, we would express our sense of their great loss and our sympathy in their sorrow. To his family we would send our loving sym- pathy for their loneliness, and we pray that the Comforter may speak to their hearts with the cheer which He alone can give. We rejoice with them in the noble life so victoriously passed, and in the glorious anticipations of the future now unfolding to the vision of the one they love." Minute Adopted by the Woman's Foreign Mission- ary Society of the Presbyterian Church, Phila- delphia. " Whereas it has pleased our heavenly Father to take home after a long life of usefulness and influence our friend and co-labourer, the Senior Sec- retary of the Assembly's Board, the Rev. Frank F. Ellinwood, D.D. : Therefore be it resolved. That we offer our sym- pathy to his family and colleagues of the Board of Foreign Missions, and our thanks to Almighty God for the lesson of his rich life. His courtesy, his learning, his faithfulness to duty were unfailing, and we are all under a debt of gratitude for the inspiration of his spoken and written words. Dr. Ellinwood was of the former days in For- eign Mission work and he knew what it was to be 238 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD identified with an unpopular cause. But his courage never faltered, and he never flinched from any call, nor from his firm belief in the rightness and far-reaching purpose of the missionary work of the church. What a wise counsellor he was. How prompt and explicit in answering letters, and how patient with our weakness and inexperience. Yet he never patronized us, and was always interested, sympathetic, and wise. His whole life was spent for God and his fellowmen, and he entered into reward even before he left us, for able successors to carry on his work, and his advancing years saw his mind not only unimpaired, but with even added insight as he seemed to catch the first gleam of the eternal dawn. So on September 30, 1908, at Cornwall, Conn., he peacefully and hopefully departed to ' love's own country,' honoured of God, loved by his fellows, mourned by all who knew him. The Woman's For- eign Missionary Society makes record of ' having loved and lost awhile,' this great and good servant of God, and with their sympathy and love sends a copy of this minute to his family, and the Assem- bly's Board. (Signed) Mary W. Thorpe. President." From the Conference of Foreign Mission Boards. " 156 Fifth Avenue^ New York, January 23, 1909. My Dear Mrs. Ellinwood : In behalf of the Conference of Foreign Mission Boards and Societies in the United States and FOREIGN MISSION BOARDS 239 Canada, I desire to communicate to you the Minute presented by a special committee on January 14, in commemoration of Dr. Ellinwood : — Since the last meeting of this Conference the Rev. F. F. Ellinwood, D.D., one of the Secretaries of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presby- terian Church of the U.S.A., has been called home. It is most fitting that this Conference should place on record its deep sense of loss in his death. To him more perhaps than to any other, the Confer- ence owes its existence. For many years, and until prevented by physical infirmities, he was a regular and influential attendant upon its sessions. His wide learning and profound knowledge not only of the history and principles of Missions, but of the religions with which Christian Missions are brought into contact, made his contributions to the discus- sion of Mission problems, whether written or oral, of the greatest value. The soundness of his judg- ment guided the Conference in many times of per- plexity, and helped materially to mould the charac- ter and policy of its gatherings. For his personal character those who have been associated with him here will ever cherish the highest respect, admira- tion and affection. We thank God for him, and for the fact that, in the midst of the physical infirmity of his latest years, the eye of his intellect was not dim nor his spiritual force abated; and that he steadfastly looked forward to and anticipated the triumph of the great cause of making Christ known to the world, to which his life was devoted. The Conference desires to extend the assurance 240 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD of its sympathy to his family, and to the Board of Foreign Missions which he so long and ably served. Henry N. Cobb, ) John H. Prugh, y Committee. S. H. Chester, ) Much more might be added to the above expres- sion of our admiration and love. Sincerely, W. Henry Grant, Secretary." At the meeting of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in May, 1909, the following was submitted and adopted by the Assembly : — " The Standing Committee on Foreign Missions would respectfully present the following report: — At the outset, we recall to the attention of the Assembly the loss to the great cause of world evan- gelization in the death of that great Christian states- man, the veteran Secretary of the Board, Dr. Frank Field Ellinwood, who for thirty-seven years brought a breadth of vision, keenness of judgment, and genuine sympathy with the difficulties incurred by the workers at the front, never sur- passed in the history of the Board." (From the New York Observer.) " The entering class of the New York University, which recently held its seventy-sixth annual opening exercises, was the largest in the history of the Uni- versity, numbering one hundred and fifty students. vTRIBUTE FROM PROF. PENFIELD 241 The death of the beloved professor, F. F. Ellinwood, has cast a shadow over the University, although he had retired some time ago from active labours as a teacher. He was a man of rare mind, keenest logical power, varied learning, genial disposition and general popularity, and his course in Oriental Religions was justly famous. Less well known but not the less valuable was the course he gave to a smaller number of students in the Philosophy of Religion. A man of that scholarly and spiritual type is a sore loss, when God calls him home, to any institution." At the monthly meeting of the Presbyterian Union of New York, held in March, 1909, the even- ing was devoted to a centennial celebration of Chopin and Darwin. Among the guests present was Professor Smith N. Penfield, who gave a biograph- ical sketch of Chopin, illustrating it by piano selec- tions from the great composer. We quote from the New York Observer: " In introducing the Funeral March, he said that when he was organist of a church in Rochester of which the Rev. F. F. Ellinwood, D.D., was pastor, he played it at a memorial service on the death of President Lincoln. In 1881 when organist of the Lafayette Avenue Church in Brooklyn, Dr. Cuyler asked him to play it at the memorial service follow- ing the death of President Garfield; and in 1901, after the death of President McKinley he played it at the memorial service held in the West End 242 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD Presbyterian Church, of which Dr. John Balcom Shaw was pastor. Two of the three clergymen mentioned, Drs. Ellinwood and Cuyler, have also passed away during the last year, and the speaker said that as he played the march this time, he wished to do so partly as a tribute to those two great men." " Dr. Ellinwood as a Friend." (Published in the New York Observer.) " In the various references and tributes to Dr. Frank F. Ellinwood, which have appeared in various publications, there is one feature of his work which has not been alluded to, so far as I have observed; and yet which illustrated his kindly and generous nature, required a great deal of time, and called for much self-denying labour and thought. I allude to the personal service which he rendered to many foreign missionaries; not as Secretary of the P)Oard, but as a friend in looking out for their children when they were sent home to this country to get an education; in interesting generous Chris- tian men and women in underwriting the amount necessary to put them through school and College; and to seeing to the application of these funds when raised; not to mention a still more kindly hos- pitality, so beautifully seconded by his wife and daughters, in receiving at their home at different holiday times the lonely and temporarily orphaned students in whom he had taken an almost fatherly interest, and over whom he acquired an almost fatherly influence. Thirty years ago I came to this DR. ELLINWOOD AS A FRIEND 243 country a boy of fourteen, and until I was graduated at Princeton in 1886 I was at school with my brother in Albany or at College in Princeton, and every provision that was made for our expenses and comfort we owed to Dr. Ellinwood. We have never known the names of all those kind people whom he interested in the matter of our education, although we have learned of some; but I wish to record in this manner on behalf of the many whom I know are similarly situated the debt of gratitude that can never be measured nor ever repaid which we owe to that dear man; and it must be added that there was never in all the years in which we were furthered in our education by his kindness and help, the slightest describable sense of being burdened by our obligation. In look- ing back upon it now it seems to be as natural a thing to owe our education to Dr. Ellinwood, as to owe it to Father. . . . Henry W. Jessup." The final beautiful tribute comes from that body of men with whom for many years he came in closest contact. Minute Adopted By the Board of Foreign Missions. " The Board of Foreign Missions of the Presby- terian Church with deep and tender feeling records the death of its Senior Secretary, Rev. Frank F. Ellinwood, Doctor of Divinity, at his home in Corn- wall, Conn., Sept. 30, 1908. 244 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD In sympathy with his devoted family, it rejoices that the rest for which he sighed has been granted, and that his aspiring soul, being delivered from the burden of the flesh, is in joy and felicity. Thankfulness for his release from great tribula- tion is mingled with a sense of bereavement and loss, because a great friendship is severed, a great life work ended, and ' Our Chief State Oracle Is Mute.' Thirty-seven years ago. Dr. Ellinwood gave him- self to the Foreign Mission work of the Presby- terian Church, and gave himself without reserve. His powers, trained and disciplined in other depart- ments of Christian effort, expanded as he caught the significance of that great enterprise, the world's evangelization. Though devoid of personal ambi- tion and self-assertion, the breadth of his knowl- edge, the fervour of his spirit, his prophetic grasp of things to come, his courage and chivalry, thrust him speedily into a place of leadership which he retained even after the ' grasshopper had become a burden and desire failed.' Every great missionary movement of the past generation has been made a greater movement by reason of his contributions. As student of non-Christian religions, as teacher and author, he made all his acquisitions and output minister to the advance of the kingdom of God among men. More than any one individual, he ral- lied the women and children of our Church to mis- sionary service, and promoted their organization. No one has done more than he to create our modern FOREIGN MISSION BOARD MINUTES 245 mission literature, and to shape mission policy. In more than one time of financial stress and peril, his matchless powers of statement, and kindling en- thusiasm have aroused the interest of large-minded, large-hearted men, and brought deliverance. To his foresight and initiative v^e owe our two great missions in Korea and to the Philippines, where the triumph of the Gospel in recent years marks a new epoch in missionary annals. It is not too much to say that myriads to-day are walking in the light of the Gospel, who would have been in the dark, but for the wisdom with which he planned and the vigour with which he wrought. He magnified the work of the Presbyterian Board because, while a most loyal Presbyterian, he was more than a Presbyterian. He was swift to recog- nize the urgent need of comity and co-operation with all evangelical Christians in missionary effort, and was foremost in promoting those fraternal confer- ences by which men of conflicting opinions and dis- cordant methods were induced, under the constrain- ing power of Christ's love, to make common cause and strive together for the extension of Christ's kingdom. It is largely due to his initiative that the Church to which we owe allegiance has been lifted into a place of acknowledged leadership in that movement which in heathen lands is obliterating lines of division, resulting from past religious con- flicts, and is giving unity and solidarity to the forces of the Kingdom. His keen intelligence, his grasp of fundamental principles, and his powers of persuasive speech. 246 FRANK FIELD ELLINWOOD made him not only a master of assemblies but a master in the statesmanship of the Kingdom of God. His breadth and poise and symmetry of character gave him commanding influence in the counsels of the Board. His courtesy and kindness and mag- nanimity, the simplicity and fearlessness of his faith and his abounding charity, endeared him to his asso- ciates while he lived. They cherish his memory now that he has gone. * Gone, but nothing can bereave him Of the force he made his own Being here, and we believe him Something far advanced in State, And that he wears a truer crown Than any wreath that man can weave him.' " Date Due