Missionary Heroes OF THE Lutheran Church NOV 6 1911 *j BV 2540 .W75 1911 Wolf, Luther Benaiah, 1857- Missionary heroes of the Lutheran church MISSIONARY HEROES OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH Edited by L. B. WOLF, D. D. Twenty-four years a missionary in India, and General Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions, Evangrelical Lutheran Church (General Synod) Author "After Fifty Years in India" ;* NOV 6 1911 PHILADELPHIA, PA. THE LUTHERAN PUBLICATION SOCIETY Copyright, 191 1 BY THE LUTHERAN PUBLICATION SOCIETY DEDICATION To THE NoBi^E Band of Lutheran Missionaries IN India and Africa, Among Whom are My Best Friends, Whose Labors I have Shared AND IN Whose Success I Constanti j"' ^'a ' "" ' ~ ■ '''h<^ ■; ^^H ^^^^ ''« ' ■^V^^^^^H ■ '' ■-'''' ,->■' '■ fsMm. It ,?:^-'..fM 1 '^''" w''-''' J^-J ':-^^^^f,B^ cj -;V.:'-?Cf9Hi^^^ z^-^ Wmb>. -.v^- , r« >-^^^^H ' ■Jf.i^- ''-'''"^'^^^^^H li. ^■r-^pr::^^,^^ (v.f'X'^ ;''^: t\,. 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He spent his youthful days playing around his father's shop, with the boys of the village, no one for a moment dreaming what an eventful and distinguished future was before him. John attended the village school, showed no more, certainly no less, interest in his school work than many another schoolmate. But times were coming in the near future that made boys men in a few days. The shadow of a mighty struggle was beginning to cast its gloom before. War-clouds were lowering, and soon the tempest shock was heard throughout the land. It echoed over hill and through valley and awoke to glory and to fame many a sturdy son of the land. The conflict was coming on apace when young Coming Harpster had scarcely completed his sixteenth conflict year, and before he knew it, it drew him into the whirlwind of conflict, and, in spite of the unwillingness of his father and the tears of his mother, as in the case of many a lad in 147 14S MISSIONARY HEROES those days, he left for the front — a volunteer before he had attained the seventeenth year of his age. His soul was set on fire by the prospect of conflict, and he was soon to show in the thick of battle of "what stufif he was made." He joined Company H, 7th Regiment, Pennsyl- vania Volunteers, April, 1861, and later Company G, 148th Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, ex-Governor Beaver, colonel, and was promoted from one position to another, being mustered out of the service June ist, 1865, at the close of the war, as captain, having declined promotion to higher rank, because of his preference for a staff position. He served on the stafif of Gen- erals Miles, Caldwell and Hayes, at different times, and at Gettysburg, in carrying out orders, was severely wounded and was borne off the field with but little hope of life. School life At the close of the war he was soon back at his books and getting ready for his life's work. He attended our educational institution at Selins- grove. Pa., then under the direction of Dr. Zieg- ler; and after a course there, went to Gettysburg, Pa., to study for the ministry at our Theological Seminary, having Dr. Dornblaser at Selinsgrove, and Drs. Clutz and Finkbiner at Gettysburg, and other well-known men in the Church, as class- mates. Turning ^^ ^^ appreciation from Dr. Dornblaser, the point turning point in Dr. Harpster's life is referred to. He was called home by the sickness of his mother. On her death-bed she said to him: JOHN HENRY HARPSTER 149 "My dear son John, you are my youngest child. Mother's When you were born I dedicated you to the P''*y^''^ Lord, and when you were in the army I prayed every day that your life might be spared and that the way might be opened for you to become a minister of the gospel. I must leave you very soon, but oh ! how happy I could die if I knew you were going to be a preacher." These dying ■words of his mother touched him so deeply that he promised to carry out her wish if the way was opened to him. Harpster came back from his mother's grave a new man. At the first mid-week prayer service he surprised Dr. Born and the rest of us by volunteering for the first time in public prayer, and himself pleading for grace and strength to help him carry out his new resolutions. From that time on his mind was set upon the work of the ministry. It was the heroic that appealed to his nature, and for this reason, as well as the great need, the foreign field was so attractive to him. The following touching incident shows how Pet canary deep was his love for his mother: Soon after his mother's death his pet canary, to which she had been greatly attached, died. He had a taxi- dermist preserve the bird, and for forty-five years carried its little lifeless body with him wherever he went. It always had a place in or on his study desk. Twice it went with him around the world ; three times to India and back. After his death it was found carefully wrapped up, in perfect condition, upon his study table, and 150 MISSIONARY HEROES was placed in his casket next the tender heart which had cherished it so long. Gettysburg It was at Gettysburg, in 1871, that he was experience discovered and became forever afterward a strong advocate of Foreign Missions. Dr. E. Unangst was home from India on his first fur- lough. He was looking out for men to accom- pany him to the field on his return. The war had not only demoralized the college work of the country, but also jeopardized the cause of missions. Our India Mission was in great peril of collapse, and only one missionary was on the field to save the day. Harpster's heroic spirit was stirred by the appeal made of the mighty work that could be accomplished if only the necessary means and workers could be secured. He was set on fire with the missionary motive, and it became the fixed star in his life's horizon. It never set. The cause was ever first in his thought, and the more difficult the undertaking, the more it appealed to the heroic and manly in him. And he was made on an heroic mold in- deed. Call to The call came to him in November, 1871; he India ^^^5 ^j-,gj^ twenty-seven years of age, with a brilliant war record that made him popular everywhere. With gifts as a public speaker of a high order, that won for him favor wherever he went, and with bright prospects for a noble and useful career in the home field. But the needs of the Church's India Mission had entered his soul, and with one of old, "immediately he JOHN HENRY HARPSTER 151 conferred not with flesh and blood," but as sud- denly as came the call so quickly came the re- sponse, and he said with soldier-like promptness and courage to the Great Captain of his salva- tion, "Here am I, send me." He was ready in a short time to sail away to far-off India, with his co-worker. Dr. Unangst. At a special called Ordination meeting of the Maryland Synod, on December departure 20th, 1 87 1, within a month after he heard the needs of our India field, he was ordained in Baltimore ; and on January 6th, 1872, a few weeks later, he begins his journey to the land which was to claim his best thought and deepest devotion for almost twenty-two years of his life. Going to India via Europe, the Levant Ports, Palestine and Egypt, made possible by the gifts of friends, he spent a few months on the way amid the scenes of great interest to him as a Bible student, and on April ist, 1872, en- tered the Guntur Mission at a time when the work was at its lowest ebb, having been left without an American missionary for a year and more. It was no easy situation that opened up to him. But he and Dr. Unangst were congenial souls, and he soon took hold of the work with a zeal and energy, with a love and devotion, that overcame all difficulties. He made rapid prog- ress in the vernacular, and Telugu, as he wrote later, became to him a more expressive tongue to him than his own. His life's plan contemplated only foreign work, but he was destined to have that purpose modi- 152 MISSIONARY HEROES fied. He worked in India the first time, from January 6th, 1872, to ]\Iarch 22d, 1876, a period of more than four years of most strenuous and self-sacrificing labor. Writing on his enforced withdrawal. Dr. Uhl says, "Brother Harpster was equal to the work as few men are and yet he was not equal to it. He was master in spirit and in will; but the old Torrid Zone over-mastered his physical endur- rance. May the Church ever be favored with such hearted men." Pastor John said of him on the same occasion, "We may see this missionary no more; but if he shall come here again it will be our gladdest day." Of his courageous spirit just before leaving hear him say, "Am I a coward fleeing from my work? Nay, truly the answer is given, that they who are carried off the field with their own blood upon their garments are not cowards." Enforced He left India most unwillingly. His health withdrawal compelled him to it. Arriving in America by way of the Golden Gate, after some time spent on the west coast, he began his work in the home- land, first at Hays City, Kansas; then at Trenton, N. J.; and finally at Canton, Ohio, spending more than seventeen years in the pastorate and giving full proof of his ministry. But all the while he longed for his India field. He hears his converts of the Palnad field calling him back. Again the vision of the great East and its needs rises before him, and soon he sets JOHN HENRY HARPSTER 153 his face toward the rising sun. Resigning his Canton pastorate, October ist, 1893, to spend his remaining days as a missionary, in the midst of his work he passses into the Great Beyond, from Mt. Airy, Philadelphia, February ist, 191 1 — thus dividing his public busy life of thirty-nine years into two parts : Seventeen and a half of which he gave to service in the home Church and nearly twenty-one and a half years to India. Let us follow somewhat in detail this outline of his life, noting how he fulfilled the high pur- pose thereof, and did the work God called him to do. We have followed him as he entered his for- First term, eign work. He spent the first months in the study India service of Telugu, and with his fellow-worker. Dr. Unangst, soon began to tour among the villages and to gain experience as a missionary by preach- ing and carrying on the work of those early days. As yet there was no organized Conference to guide the young missionary. But it was early in his first years, that more organized work was undertaken, and the India records show his hand in those early beginnings. Within a year he had accompanied Dr. Unangst to the different parts of the field, and shortly thereafter, had, with him, determined to start a new station at Bapatla, thirty-one miles to the south of Guntur, in which a site for a bungalow was secured and is held in part to-day by the mission. Subse- quently different counsels prevailing, in the re- distribution of the work. Brother Rowe was 154 MISSIONARY HEROES placed in the eastern and southern field, and the hard and feverish Palnad fell to Harpster's lot. Here he carried on the mission, first with his Eurasian assistant, Rev. Mr. Cully, and later on with Pastor John, after Cully withdrew from our mission. In the report of the mission in 1875, rnade at Baltimore, Md., it is recorded in the words of one of his fellow-workers : "Brother Harpster is faithfully at work in his field." And what a field ! He was the first American mis- Success sionary who resided in the Palnad since the days of Heyer and Groening. Conditions were hard and his was a lonely life. Guntur, the nearest European station, was over fifty miles away, and amid the deepest heathenism that must have tried his faith, he carried on his work, at a time when the home Church was confronted by serious financial difficulties and was too far removed from the scene of his work to even faintly ap- preciate his heroic efforts. This first term of service marked the first rapid advance in the work and the beginning of the mass-movement among the Telugus toward Christianity among the depressed classes of South India, in which our mission has so largely shared. During Harp- ster's first term of service the baptized member- ship of the Church increased from 1,543 to 3,593 ; or an increase of more than one hundred and thirty per cent, in four years. In this he greatly rejoiced. But his health, never too robust, began to fail him. His throat especially giving him great JOHN HENRY HARPSTER 155 trouble. He was compelled, when the work was most encouraging, to ask for leave to come home. It was reluctantly granted, because of the needs of the work and the paucity of the workers. On March 22d, 1876, he bade farewell with the hope and promise of a speedy return, and pro- ceeded home via China and Japan and the Pa- cific Ocean. But the way seemed closed to him. His re- turn became more and more doubtful, and fail- ing to realize his hopes for the foreign field, he became a home pastor, first as a home missionary and then in the large and influential church in Canton, Ohio. Thus was he at home, as well as abroad, ever a missionary. He had gone to India a single man. On Au- Marriage gust 1st, 1882, he married the daughter of Dr. Jacobs, Professor of mathematics, for a long time in Pennsylvania College at Gettysburg, and sister of Dr. Jacobs, Professor in the Theological Seminary at Mt. Airy, Philadelphia. She entered into all his plans at home and abroad; was his tried counsellor in his foreign work, and remains behind to mourn his great loss, but to rejoice over the success he won. His one settled pastorate was that of Trinity Church, Canton, Ohio, where he spent the hap- piest and most successful years of his ministerial life in the homeland. At the meeting of the General Synod, in his Determines own church in 1893, it was intensely dramatic ^o return when he announced his purpose to return to 156 MISSIONARY HEROES India. But it should be remembered that he had already, in March of the same year, offered him- self and been appointed by the Board. However, his determination was a surprise to his friends, as it was a shock to his church in Canton. But no objection prevented him from going, as no The call claim appealed to him as did India. He could from gj-jii iiQ2Lr his native brethren call to him as Macedonia i • , , i ^^tx t^ though it had been yesterday, Harpsteru Dorai- garu (Mr.), come back, come back." That cry he said he heard day and night. It would not down, through all the years of his home pas- torates, and as soon as conditions permitted him he was ready to answer the call. On the 2ist of October, he left the homeland accompanied by his wife, and on December i6th he reached Guntur — his feelings were those of a young man, and his joy and satisfaction of being back amid the familiar scenes of his previous labors knew no bounds. To those who met him he showed the keenest interest in the work and was soon deeply engaged in brushing up his Telugu, al- though he made a short address on the day he arrived, to the Telugu congregation, in the Telugu language, and in mastering the details of the work which in scope and development during the seventeen and more years of his absence, had far surpassed his dreams. When he left, the mission had a baptized membership of 3,594, and when he returned he found it grown to 13,889, or almost fourfold increase in seventeen years. Soon the grip of the old mission, with its new JOHN HRNRY HARPSTER 157 spirit of organized life, commanded his admira- Second tion, and he recognized the strength of that great ^^!^".' "''^ ' ° ° ° mission new advance in which he soon became a potent factor of further advance. His hope was that he might return to his former field — the Palnad — but he was not permitted to do so, owing to its success- ful occupancy by Dr. Albrecht. But a vast and needy field was found in the Guntur and Sat- tenapalli taluks, made vacant by the withdrawal of his former colleague. Dr. Unangst, and most fruitful and encouraging additions to the native church marked his second term of service. He baptized literally thousands of people in this part of our field. When, in 1893, he took charge of the work, there was a membership of 3,861, which during the years of his labors till their close in 1901, grew to 8,194, or more than doubled under his earnest administration. In the mission he found an increased and enthusiastic body of missionaries, constituting the American force, and a more intelligent and faithful native corps of teachers and helpers ; and the success in every part of the work filled his soul with joy. Noth- ing satisfied him so fully as the rapid advance that was made among the masses and into this movement he threw himself with an energy and zeal which taxed his strength to the utmost. For more than eight years he labored, doing evangel- istic, school and a considerable amount of medi- cal work. The closing days of this period were memor- able on account of the great famine of 1900, 158 MISSIONARY HEROES which rendered his work doubly hard and called out all his energies and taxed his sympathy to the utmost. As a member of the Committee to distribute the Klopsch Fund of Tlie Christian Herald, he did splendid work; at one time con- ducting a "famine kitchen," at which over two thousand were fed daily. When the worst was over, with the remaining funds he laid the foun- dation of our Mission Orphanage, arranging the purchase of our site of 40 acres, orphanage farm, and assuming the support of about one hundred orphan boys and girls. Second In March, 1901, he returned to America, was furlough ^|-,g principal speaker at the Des Moines Con- vention on the occasion of the Board's Anni- versary. He was soon called into a most vigor- ous campaign of deputation work among the churches, and everywhere he went his earnest and eloquent appeal for India turned the minds of men and women toward the foreign enter- prise as something worthy of their highest en- deavor and deepest consecration. Newrespon- While thus engaged the most serious work of sibihties j^jg |-£g bggan to claim his attention. In Decem- ber, 1901, the condition of the General Council Mission at Rajahmundry, India, called for an experienced missionary to avert impending dis- integration. He was called to this responsible post. Preliminary steps were taken between the Foreign Boards of the General Synod and Gen- eral Council. On February 17th, 1902, final conclusions were reached. How the matter was JOHN HENRY HARPSTER 159 viewed by Dr. Harpster is shown in a letter to Dr. Scholl, Corresponding Secretary of the General Synod Board, on December 12th, 1901 : "I sup- pose you brethren . . . following your traditions, will finally leave the matter to myself. ... I suppose this is one of the things a man must de- cide for himself. But, in this case, at least, it is mighty hard to make a decision." A day later he wrote on the same subject : "I had hoped the Board would decide the matter for me. I had been willing to believe that the voice of the Board would be the voice of God to me, as touching this thing; but, I gather, it will follow its tra- ditionary policy, say decide for yourself, and wash its hands. Perhaps in the ultimate issue that is all it can do." On April ist, 1902, he began his most difficult and trying India work to bring harmony into a mission where for many years circumstances had existed which made its realization almost im- possible. But having been led to it by the strong- est convictions, he enters this new door of use- fulness, and sets himself to his task with a consciousness that God had called him. On October 19th, 1902, he set sail again for y],j^^j ^^^^ his beloved land of adoption, and arriving, De- of stmice cember nth, during the meetings of the great Decennial Missionary Conference in ]\Iadras, he took part in its deliberations. He, like Heyer before him, visited his old field at Guntur for a few days, renewed old acquaintances, and on December 22d, commenced what, without doubt. 160 MISSIONARY HEROES was the most strenuous period of his foreign missionary career. Into the years of recon- struction it is not necessary to enter. It is suf- ficient to say they were most arduous years of labor. But he reconstructed to a great extent the mission, settled existing difficulties, was in- cessant in his labors as director and missionary, and in the words of Dr. Horn, the President of the General Council Board, "insisted on a re- organization of the mission on the basis of self- government and the entire equality of the mis- sionaries." In favor of such a government, he argued that it was the only one that would com- mend itself to Americans, and gave the largest promise of success. Severs his After three years — the time for which his relation with sej-yices were asked — had elapsed, it was evident General . ^ ^ Synod that his work had only fairly commenced, and after further conference between the Home Boards, he continued his connection with the General Council mission and severed his relations with the Synod, urged to this by the task which he saw he could not accomplish unless he stood in a closer ecclesiastical and official connection with those with whom he labored and whom he represented. But let him give his own reasons for the step. In his letter of resig- nation to the General Synod Board, dated Febru- ary 9th, 1906, he wrote : "I do not see any pros- pect of my returning to our mission work in Guntur. If, in the first instance, my coming to the Rajahmundry Mission had any good reason JOHN HENRY HARPSTER 161 for it, there is more reason now that I should stay in it. At all events, it is clear to my mind that I am needed here more than in Guntur. "A proper regard for the mission with which I am at present identified, and, as far as I can see, will be during the remainder of my mission- ary career, as well as a proper respect for the General Council, which has reposed so great trust in me, it seems to me, requires, if it does not demand, that I identify myself with it organic- ally. "I, therefore, tender my resignation as a mem- ber of the Guntur mission. "Brethren, believe me when I say that my separation from the mission in which I have been identified so many years, from the General Synod to which I have ever been loyal, and from the Board at whose hands I have never received any- thing but courtesy and kindness, is not without regret and personal pain." The wisdom of this was evident. He found Home again the Rajahmundry Mission a divided force with questions of all kinds unsettled, but he left it on April 7th, 1909, a harmonious body of workers with a great future before it, in one of the rich- est fields of South India. After more than six years, during which the native Church had more than doubled its membership and all the work had advanced in all directions, he sought once more deserved rest in the homeland, and, leaving his beloved work and returning via the Pacific route, landed in San Francisco, June 9th, 1909. 11 1()2 MISvSIONARY HEROES He attended the meeting of the General Coun- cil at Minneapolis, the same year, and laid his work before that convention and received the warm commendation of his brethren for his noble services. He helped to save the day in a time of crisis. The remaining years of his life were spent in advocating the cause of missions at home. It was while thus engaged that he fell sick and hastened home to his wife and the ministrations of his friends. He did not have long to wait the sum- mons to his eternal reward. On February ist, 191 1, at Mt. Airy, Philadelphia, his heroic spirit broke its earthly bonds and he entered on his deathless life, in his Father's home above. His mortal remains rest in the Evergreen Cemetery at Gettysburg, near the spot where, in 1863, he received those honorable marks of the warrior which so eloquently spoke of his fear- lessness in the shock of battle and which typify so fittingly the character he bore — fearless in life's struggles and conflicts. Such is a sketch of Dr. Harpster's life. Honored He was honored by Wittenberg College with the degree of Doctor of Divinity, but no college could honor him. The noble work of his life is his best claim to honor, and it will endure when all else shall be forgotten. He will live in the lives of the men and women who in America and in India were made better by his life. His name shall endure, and many a dusky son and daughter of India shall rise and call him blessed. JOHN HENRY HARPSTKR 1G3 Of his character what shall be said in the Characte limited space that remains ? As a man he was manly in the fullest sense. As a writer, clear and epigrammatic. As a preacher, calm, persuasive, forceful, and, at times, truly dramatic and eloquent. He tried to convince, to lead by the force of his logic and the efificacy of the truth; but he could also ap- peal to the feelings, and, when aroused, his fiery utterances commanded marked attention and stirred his hearers to intense feeling and prompt action. He was broad in his sympathies, liberal in his gifts to the needy; a good companion and a warm-hearted friend. His faith in mankind was deep and true. He believed in the message he was sent to proclaim, and was willing to trust to it rather than to fanatical representations of religious fervor. He was first of all a mission- ary. He should be allowed to tell his own feeling Letters in regard to the work in which he spent so large a part of his life, which as one has said, "has been an enviable lot, to do so much and to suffer so much for one of the noblest causes of the Church." Writing soon after he arrived in India, in 1894, to the Secretary of the Board, he said : "But as for me, I am immensely contented." How the India "hot winds" struck him, the fol- lowing shows after a residence of three months: "We are having hot winds just now ; 96° at ten o'clock at night. Phew !" Writing in reply to the report that the work in our India Mission 164 MISSIONARY HEROES was "discouraging and unpromising," he appears in splendid light. "I shall not be able to write elegantly (on board steamer), but, God helping me, I'll write truly. Extenuating nothing, con- cealing nothing. Now, I say at once that noth- ing can be further from the truth than this state- ment of yours, or rather, this rumor which has come to the ears of the Board." Then he takes up each department of the work, and in a few sharp, clear-cut sentences, he shows the con- dition of each worker's field. One instance will suffice to show his incisive, characteristic style : "Take Dr. Uhl; in all his long years of toil for Christ in this heathen land, his work has never been so prosperous or so big with results for Christ and His kingdom. He would indignantly deny the assertion that his work was not pros- perous, and he would prove the assertion by a hundred arguments and every one of them as true as the gospel. He is adding to the Church as has been done in no previous year in the history of Christian work in the Bapatla and Rapalli taluks. He is training the people, he is organizing the Church, he is laying broad, deep and permanent the foundation of Christ's king- dom in the field committed to his charge. He would hoot at such an utterly unfounded as- sertion as that his work under him was 'un- promising.' " In regard to his success after three years, he says: "When I left India twenty years ago there were about 1,300 bona fide Christians in JOHN HENRY HARPSTER 165 this Guntur jMission. Since my return, or in the last three years, I have baptized over 1,300 souls; in exact numbers 1,376. That, it seems to me, does not look so very 'discouraging or unpromising.' " Later on, when writing about the charge of disharmony among the missionaries, he contin- ues: "I say in regard to social relations of the missionaries, that with one or two exceptions, the relations of all with each other are all that could be expected of Christian men and women anywhere. The rumors referred to in your let- ter are false and misleading and ought not to be believed." He was ever jealous of the mission and the missionaries. After he left the old mission, he wrote what he deeply felt, concerning them and it : "I am free to confess that I miss my old yoke-fellows at Guntur. Then, I knew my teachers there — the stuff they were made of, what they could do and what they couldn't do; what they likely would, and what they likely wouldn't do. Thus I could arrange for and administer my work as I cannot do here. I often wish I was back in my old field. But I never did have things as I wanted them and have given up all hope that I ever will have. I see the mis- sionaries from Guntur frequently. The work is going forward grandly over there. It is a great mission. The missionaries stick. They are stay- ers. It is that that tells. The motto of the Gun- tur missionaries is, at least practically is: 166 MISSIONARY HEROES His policy toward native workers "Stick to your aim; the mongrel's hold may slip; But crowbars can't unloose the bulldog's grip." Even when he differed, as he often did, he was frank and open. Take his relation to his fellows in the question of ordination of native workers, on which they held variant views : "But we must not quarrel about this. We must discuss the matter and settle it by fair reason. But it must be settled ; and settled by ordaining a number of our tried and trusted native brethren. If it is not done, we will get so far behind the other missions in India that we will never catch up again." He was inclined in judgment to give his native brethren a much larger part in the work than .some of the other experienced men were willing to concede. This was due to his great love for his native brethren. He loved and trusted as he loved them. He was sure they would make good if responsibility was placed on them. Though often disappointed he never lost his confidence, though at the time of their misdeeds he would break out against them in fierce denunciation, but when the storm was past, he would continue to believe in them. Just as he held the most hope- ful views in the mass-movement among the de- pressed classes of India and expected certainly that God was leading them on to take the land finally for Christ, so he was ever confident that among them leaders would be found who were worthy now to lead the host in its struggle with caste and the thousand year bondage in which JOHN HENRY HARPSTER 167 India is held. He delighted to work among them, though many of their social habits were repulsive to him. His views find much currency among other missionaries, and it may be that in the years to come a Moses shall arise from these depressed classes, who shall lead the native Church to victory among every class in the land. Of his Christian spirit and devotion to his Christian work it is a great pleasure to write. His soldier- *P'"* life in the great Civil War made him military not only in his bearing, but also in his character. Many a time was he seen under a hot India sun, worn out and fagged, but the moment the ap- peal of the great cause and the struggle of the conflict acted on him, he responded as if the sound of drum and fife called, with erect head and firm tread, with his old fire burning in his eyes. His life was marked by singular devotion from start to finish. Of simple faith, of com- plete self-surrender to a great cause, it were hard to find his like. He caught his Master's spirit. His was really the spirit of the great apostle, revealing his mind and exemplifying "this one thing I do." This is the real touchstone of his character, and explains, next to his love of his native brethren, his success. He lost nothing in devotion as he grew older. The force of mis- sionary zeal and enterprise only burned the more brightly as he learned more about the nature of the struggle and more clearly apprehended the task to be done and its difficulties. Sublime and inspiring was his self-forgetfulness, in his at- 168 MISSIONARY HEROES tempted realization of his Master's mission for him. His voice only was heard amid all others, and he ever responded to His command, to realize which was the fulfillment "of the highest func- tion of a consecrated soul." As another said of him: "He thought missions, he spoke missions, he dreamed missions — missions for the world, but missions especially for India ; missions espe- cially among the Telugus; missions among the Telugus, particularly among these people to whom he was called." Other In his relation to missionaries of his own and relations those of Other societies, Dr. Harpster shows one of the best sides of his character. He was a member of the Committee on Comity and Co- operation for All India, and his broad catholic spirit was always seen on every occasion when tlie common work was being discussed, and the necessity of harmony and co-operation among the missions was emphasized. Points of differ- ence, which seemed large in the home Church, were deemed small by him before the heathen and Mohammedan world. Differences among Luther- ans did not appeal to him, and he stood for a Joint Theological School for those five Lutheran missions working in the Telugu area. His views on all missionary questions were broad and statesmanlike, and at general conferences of missionaries he was a forceful advocate and a commanding speaker — effective, direct, appealing to intellect and will, he carried conviction. Ear- nest and inspiring he moved the feelings and JOHN HENRY HARPSTER 169 compelled to action. The sketch of his life can be closed in no more fitting way than in the words of an editorial on his life in The Lutheran "The of February 9th, 191 1: "Dr. Harpster proved Lutheran' himself to be a man of warmth and tenderness, when once his acquaintance was fully made. He was genial and affable, and with a ready memory and a remarkable fund of information at his com- mand, he proved a most agreeable companion, as many will testify. He was a man of wide reading and a master of chaste, vigorous English, as the selection of his words and the mold of his sentences abundantly proved. There was something heroic and soldier-like in his spirit and manner. He had fought in nearly every battle in which the Army of the Potomac was engaged, and bore on his body the marks of a valiant soldier, carrying wounds with him which may in a measure have been responsible for his sud- den and unexpected death. No less was he a true soldier of the Cross, and as such bore the marks of the Lord Jesus as well as those which he carried with him on his body out of the Civil War. "Dr. Harpster was every inch a missionary. He looked upon the heathen world — and with especial tenderness and longing upon those in India among whom his lot was cast — as a part of God's promised but unrealized heritage; and if he had had a thousand lives, they would all have been spent to hasten the fulfillment of the prophecy concerning the Gentiles. To him the 170 MISSIONARY HEROES salvation of the heathen had become an intense passion and all-absorbing purpose. 'This one thing I do' was the grand motto of his life, and that one thing was missions. Those who were present in St. Mark's Church, Philadelphia, in 1901, when he, together with four others, were sent to India, will never forget his heroic, manly- words, in which he bade weeping friends to banish tears and catch the spirit of joy he felt on that eventful occasion. The friends this band of missionaries left behind could easily spare them; the Telugus in far-off India needed them. With their dire need rising up before him, like the soldier he was, he could hear only the march- ing orders of his Captain. There was something sublime and inspiring in this forgetfulness of self and this realization of his mission." ADAM D. ROWE ADAM D. ROWE ADAM D. ROWE "The Children's Missionary" by prof. jacob a. clutz, d.d. Probably no other missionary was ever so widely known, or so greatly beloved in the churches of the General Synod of the Evan- gelical Lutheran Church in the United States as the subject of this sketch, Adam D. Rowe, called everywhere among us "the Children's Mission- ary." He was born and grew to manhood in Sugar Birthplace Valley in Clinton County, Pa. His parents were ^"^ ^^!^y •' •' education John and Anna Mary Rowe, nee Moyer. He was the third in a family of twelve children, but as his older brother and sister died when small, he was practically the eldest brother among the four brothers and six sisters who lived to manhood and womanhood. While not unusually precocious, he was evi- dently a bright and promising child and youth. In a letter written soon after the death of Rowe, his father says this of him: "A. D. was a very bright and active child when quite young. The public school being somewhat unhandy, I commenced to teach him at home when he was between four and five years old. When he was 173 174 MISSIONARY HEROKS seven years old he commenced going to school. At that time he knew the spelling book by heart. Out of this he went into the fourth reader. He always took a great delight in studying his books. On Sundays, when other boys would come and ask him to walk with them, he would lock him- self in his room and study his lesson. When he was nine years old he recited three thousand verses of Scripture and hymns in Sunday school in three months. When he was twelve years old I took him along with me to work at the car- penter's trade. He always took his books with " him to work, and whenever he had a little spare time would be studying." Teacher When Mr. Rowe was sixteen years of age he applied to the superintendent of schools in his native county for examination as a teacher. He received a certificate, and during the winter of 1865-66 he taught a country school in Nippenose Valley. For five years he taught in the winter, and during the summer he attended various nor- mal schools, finally graduating in the scientific course from the normal school at Millersville, Pa., in July, 1870. County Though Still Under twenty-two years of age, Supenn- having been born September 9th, 1848, Mr. Rowe was at this time appointed by the State Superintendent of Public Schools to fill a vacancy in the county superintendency of Clinton, his native county. About this same time in his career he turned his attention to the study of Law. In the fall of ADAM D. ROWE 175 1870 he entered himself as a private student in the law office of Charles Corss, Esq., of Lock Haven, then a prominent member of the bar of Clinton County. He prosecuted his studies vigorously in connection with his duties as the County Superintendent of Public Schools. It is the testimony of Mr. Corss that he found Mr. Rowe "an apt student, and one who, if he had followed the law as a profession, would have been successful in every respect." But great and useful as are both these justly- honored professions, of teaching and of the law, God had other work for this promising young man. Like Saul of Tarsus, he was a "chosen vessel" unto the Lord to bear His name "before the Gentiles," and he was gradually being led on towards this work and prepared for it. During the winter of 1865-66, while Mr. Rowe First was teaching his first school in Nippenose Valley, '■*"S*°"? a mere boy of seventeen, he seems to have re- ceived his first deep and decisive religious im- pressions. He had been nurtured in a Christian home and had always been regular and faithful in his attendance at church and Sunday school. But the crisis of personal decision came to him in connection with a series of special services be- ing held at that time by the Rev. W. L. Heisler, the Lutheran pastor at Jersey Shore, Pa., in one of his churches in the neighborhood in which Mr. Rowe was teaching. Rev. Heisler himself writes of this experience: "During this meeting Brother Rowe became impressed, and was 176 MISSIONARY HEROES brought under powerful conviction. He was in- duced to seek the Lord, and in the course of a few days he rejoiced in the sense of pardoned sin. I do not know that I ever witnessed a brighter conversion than Brother Rowe's. His whole face beamed with joy. He at once re- sponded when called upon to lead in prayer." Unites with It was Mr. Rowe's desire to unite with Rev. church Heisler's church at once. But, in deference to the wishes of his parents, who were members of another denomination and hoped to have him join with them, he deferred the matter for a year or more. Then, with the full consent of his parents, he was confirmed March 7th, 1867, in the Lutheran church at Salona, Pa., by Rev. Mr. Heisler, who had meanwhile removed to Salona from Jersey Shore. Being deeply impressed with Mr. Rowe's rich gifts and unusual promise, his pastor at once coveted him for the ministry, and spoke to him on the subject on the same day on which he was confirmed, and frequently afterwards. He met with but little encouragement, however, from the young man at this time. His heart was then strongly set on teaching as a profession, and still later on the law. But from letters of Mr. Rowe, written after he had entered the Seminary at Gettysburg, and even after he had gone to India, it is evident that he had been more impressed by these conversa- tions than was then apparent, and that he really had but little peace of mind until he actually did ADAM D. ROWE 177 devote himself to the work of the gospel min- istry. On Christmas clay, in 1870, Christmas falling Lock Haven on a Sunday that year, Mr. Rowe became a mem- ber of the Lutheran church in Lock Haven, Pa., where he was then residing, being transferred by letter from the church in Salona in which he had been confirmed. Rev, J. W. Goodlin, after- wards for many years the efficient General Sec- retary of the Board of Home Missions, was then the Lutheran pastor at Lock Haven, and it is probably due to the influence and efforts of this godly and faithful shepherd of souls, more than to any other one man, that the Lutheran Church is indebted, under God, for the valuable services of this noble and useful missionary. Immediately following his union with the church in Lock Haven, a series of special serv- ices was begun by the pastor, Rev. Goodlin, in which Mr. Rowe became deeply interested, and which seems really to have been the turning point in his life so far as its main purpose was con- cerned. Referring to this Rev. Goodlin wrote : "One evening, after service, Mr. Rowe spoke to The gospel Mrs. Goodlin complaining of his indifference and °"°'^'''y inactivity, and said that he had resolved to enter upon a more active Christian life. He seemed much affected. Mrs. G. told me of the conver- sation. I immediately seized upon the oppor- tunity, believing that God's Spirit was calling him to a more noble office, and a higher position than the one in which he was then engaged. In a few 12 178 MISSIONARY HEROES months he decided to enter the mmistry and made his arrangements to go to Gettysburg." Rev. Good- Referring to this same time and experience, lin's opinion j^^^ -^^^^ himself afterwards wrote to Rev. GoodHn from India, as follows: "I should not wonder if the next mail or so would bring me a good long letter from you, such a one as will arouse all my faculties of mind and heart, and make me bless the day which brought you to Lock Haven, where it was first my pleasure to meet you. I do not think I have ever told you what an impetus for the better your interest in me gave to my life then. I shall never forget how your kind, loving treatment of me warmed my heart with love to God and man. I do not think I was a bad man, or even inclined to forget God altogether, but I was fast becoming entirely overwhelmed with business affairs, was making money and had prospects of making more, and was daily becoming a poorer church member, if nothing else. I think I must have seemed cold and indifferent to you when you first saw me. But you at once took me to your home, and into your confidence, as if we had been friends for many days. Your kindness had a wonderful effect on me. It is only now, when I find years have passed away, and I have learned a little more of the world and of myself, that I begin to appreciate it rightly. Brother Heisler also had a great influence for good on me. Under him I joined the church, and as long as I live I shall love him dearly, tenderly. It is a beautiful and ADAM D. ROWE 179 a blessed thing to lead the young into purer and better paths. God bless the good men and women everywhere who are engaged in this noble work." Mr. Rowe entered the Theological Seminary Seminary at Gettysburg in the fall of 1871. Here he experiences showed the same energy and vigor of character which had previously marked his life in other pursuits. In addition to his regular work as a student, which was always done faithfully and conscientiously, he assumed the editorial charge of the "Children's Department"' in Tlw American Lutheran, a weekly church paper then published in York, Pa., by the Rev. P. Anstadt. He soon became a favorite writer with all the children in the homes visited by this journal. He also be- came the superintendent of the Infant Depart- ment of St. James' Lutheran Sunday School of Gettysburg. Besides all this he also wrote many articles for the church papers, especially after he had decided to become a missionary. We come now to that interesting period in his life when he decided to give himself to the work in the foreign field. Just when he began to think of this as his life-work we do not know. But it must have been quite early in his seminary course. Dr. J. H. Harpster, for many years a most useful and successful missionary in India, first in the General Synod Mission at Guntur, and later in the Rajahmundry Mission of the General Council, was a student in the Middle Class in the Seminary at Gettysburg, when Mr. Rowe en- tered the Junior Class. He whites. "My first 180 MISSIONARY HEROES distinct recollection of Rev. Rowe dates from one night when he came to my room in the seminary, soon after my determination to go to India. We talked long and earnestly upon the subject of Foreign Missions. When we stood, late in the night, holding each other by the hand, he said, his eyes moistened with tears, 'God bless you, I wish I could go with you.' " The writer of this sketch, who was also a stu- dent in the seminary at this time, has a very clear recollection of an incident which occurred some months later. It was at one of the Sunday morning "conferences" in the seminary. The question under discussion was, "Should I be- come a foreign missionary?" The students spoke in turn, and several of them had spoken at some length of the great difficulty they found in reaching a satisfactory personal answer to this question. When it came Mr. Rowe's turn to speak, he arose promptly in his place and said in his own bright and cheery way, in substance: "This question has never given me the least dif- ficulty or perplexity. My pious old mother taught me that whenever God wants a man to do a particular work. He will let him know it in His own time and way. This I believe with all my heart. If God wants me to be a foreign mis- sionary, I have no doubt that He will make it plain to me, and then I will be ready to go. Un- til that time comes I shall not trouble myself about it." It was not very long after this, apparently, ADAM D. ROWE 181 that the call came to him, and his response was Caii to as prompt and as cheerful as he had promised F^'^^l^" t^ ^ ^ Missions that it should be. It was while attending a fare- well meeting in Harrisburg, Pa., December 5th, 1872, preparatory to the departure of Rev, L. L. Uhl and wife to India, that he seems to have reached a clear conviction that his duty and work lay in the same direction. He immediately made his decision known to the Foreign Board and offered his services. To his surprise and great disappointment they informed him that they were not able to accept his offer at once be- cause of an empty treasury. Yet this seemed only to stimulate his zeal and to arouse him to an effort to provide the means for his support. Finally, he said to the Board, "Give me per- mission to go to the Sunday schools of the Church and appeal to the children, and I will raise the necessary funds myself." This permission was granted, and imme- Work in diately Mr. Rowe went to work to carry out Sunday 1 • 1 TT- r • 1 i , • schools his new plans. His nrst meeting was held in St. James' Sunday School, Gettysburg, about the middle of January, 1873, and resulted in an offering of $72.00, "with the promise of more." Greatly encouraged by this auspicious beginning he prosecuted the work with great vigor. Nearly every Sunday found him out in the field visiting such schools as he could reach with- out interfering too much with his studies in the seminary. Sunday, March 9th, 1873, found him in Balti- 182 MISSIONARY HEROES more, Md., where he addressed a great mass meeting of the six Lutheran Sunday schools of the city, in the old First Church, on Lexington Street, afterwards destroyed by fire. His pre- sentation of the subject here made a profound impression, not only on the hundreds of children and young people present, but also on the older people, and especially on the pastors. Rev. J. H. Barclay, D.D., was then the pastor of the First Church. He suggested the organization of a society in the Sunday schools to give more permanence to the work, and to provide not only for the sending of Mr. Rowe to India, but also for his subsequent support. Out of this Cliiidren's Suggestion grew "The Children's Foreign Mis- Missioiiary sionary Society," with auxiliary societies in a bociety _, large number of our Sunday schools, and which did much during its continuance to spread in- formation and to stimulate more liberal giving, not only among the children and young people, but throughout the whole Church. No doubt, much of the subsequent development of interest in this great work and liberality in its support in our churches has been due to the seed thus sown in the minds of the young. This society supported Mr. Rowe during the entire time of his service in India, and also contributed largely towards the support of a second "Children's Missionary." At this time Mr. Rowe was expecting to go to India in the fall of 1873. With this in view he was married, June loth, to Miss Mary ADAM D. ROWE 183 E. Corson, of Doylestown, Bucks County, Pa. The General Synod met that year, June nth, in Canton, Ohio, and its sessions were attended by Mr. and Mrs. Rowe. As his efforts at col- lecting funds had been so eminently successful, and the Board's treasury was still in great need of replenishing, it was determined at this meet- ing of the General Synod, or very soon after- wards, to ask Mr. Rowe to remain in this country at least another year, and to continue his work in the Sunday schools and churches. Some even suggested that he should be kept in this country permanently to stir up the churches and raise money for the prosecution of the work abroad. To the latter proposition Mr. Rowe would not listen, but he did consent, with a good deal of reluctance, however, to devote another year to this work before going to India. He provided himself with a full outfit of maps, charts and pictures, illustrating the work of Foreign Mis- sions as was then available, making many of them himself, so as to address the eyes of the people as well as their ears. All his time from this until August ist, 1874, was devoted to this work, and with great success. The next biennial report of the Foreign Board gives these facts concerning this year's work: public meetings held, 223; children addressed, 33,810; adults addressed, 30,940; money collected, $5,831.08; members of the Children's Foreign Missionary 184 MISSIONARY HEROES Society, 21,136; Sunday schools having auxili- ary societies, 315. Starts for On September 12th, 1874, Mr. and Mrs. Rowe India sailed from Philadelphia, with a little daughter who had been born to them March 8th. They arrived at Guntur, India, December nth. We have no record of Mr. Rowe's own feelings on thus at last reaching the field and the work to which he had devoted his life, but Dr. Harpster, who had preceded him to India several years, gives the following very graphic account of his arrival: "Probably two years after I went to India, I received a letter from Brother Rowe, full of anxious inquiry concerning our work. I re- plied. The return mail brought me a character- istic letter from him containing the laconic an- nouncement, T am coming; look out for me!' So one day in November I hitched up my ox-cart, and, mounting one horse and leading another, went down to meet him and his brave wife at the boat landing at Bezwada. I see him now, as I stand once more on the pier watching the approach of the boat drawn by a dozen lascars. As he distinguished me, standing by a crowd of natives, he rises to his feet, takes off his hat and swings it about his head in joyful recognition. It was a beautiful sight; the handsome, fair- haired Saxon hero standing there in the prow of the boat, waving his hands to India, the light of health and youthful enthusiasm in his eye, and the love of Christ in his heart', coming with God's message of salvation to the dusky men ADAM D. ROWE 185 and women who stand silentl}' waiting his ap- proach. It was a picture for a painter. The boat touches the landing; he leaps on shore; seizes my hand, and, with a voice broken with feeling and the excitement of the occasion, says, 'I am here to help you.' " Of Mr. Rowe's work iji India it is impossible Early years to give any extended account here. A very im- ° ^""^ portant part of this work was the many ex- pedients which he devised for arousing the in- terest of the Church at home and stimulating the people to an increased and more intelligent liberality in the support of Foreign Missions. He sent many interesting and most informing letters to the church papers ; with great care and labor he prepared many baskets of "India curi- osities," which were sent back to America for sale among the friends of the mission ; he scat- tered thousands of photographs of India people and scenes all through the Church; he carried on an extensive correspondence with the patrons of the boarding schools and of other special forms of work, most of whom had been secured through his own personal efforts ; he wrote and published three very interesting and instructive books giving such information about India and its people and the work of the missionaries among them as he had found to be needed among the people at home. Two of these books, "Talks About India" and "Talks About Mission J Work in India," were intended more especially for Sunday school libraries, and were issued in 186 MISSIONARY HEROES 1876 and 1878, respectively, by the Lutheran Publication Society. Some time later he issued a larger work, "Everyday Life in India," through the American Tract Society. All of these books had an extensive sale. But these activities were only incidental to his real work as a missionary, the occupation, as it were, of his leisure moments, if one who was always so hard at work can be said to have had any leisure moments. In connection with his evangelistic work among the heathen he de- vised, and executed as far as possible, many and varied plans for the upbuilding and im- provement of the native Church, for the better organization of the Christian congregations in the villages, for the introduction of Sunday schools among them, for the enlargement and increased efficiency of the staff of native workers, for the education and development of the natives towards self-support, and for reaching more largely and more effectively the higher castes to which belong all the educated and more wealthy and influential classes of the people. Dr. Charles A. Stork, then President of the Foreign Board, wrote of Mr. Rowe in The Lutheran Observer of September 29th, 1882: "He had what Locke calls a 'round-about com- mon sense,' which made him singularly happy in his apprehension of what was practicable, and quick to hit on the best means to effect his purpose. There was something of a statesman- like ability in his power to catch the lay of the ADAM D. ROVvE 187 land, to fix gn the essential elements of any problem, and adapt his plan to the circmnstances of the case." A very notable feature of Mr. Rowe's work Famiue fund in India at this time was his connection with famine relief work during the great famine of 1876-78, when it was estimated that from two to five millions of the natives actually died from the lack of food. More than 20,000 rupees (about $10,000.00), of the Mansion House Famine Relief Fund raised in England was en- trusted to him for distribution, and he made every rupee tell in genuine relief. It was the testimony of those who had charge of the dis- tribution of these funds in the Madras Presi- dency that they were nowhere more wisely or efficiently administered than in the district superintended by Mr. Rowe. Two of his fellow- missionaries, Rev. Uhl and Rev. Schnure, in a "Historical Sketch" published in The Lutheran Observer after his death, say of this work: "He developed one plan after another, and for two years blended together gospel work and famine relief work, mission and ministry, in his cus- tomary energetic style. He received pleasing commendation of his plans and efforts from Mr. Digby, of ]\Iadras, and the superintendent of the distribution of England's gifts to the Madras Presidency." One of the best results of this famine relief Inquirers work, and the one which Mr. Rowe had always kept prominently in view in the conduct of it, 188 MISSIONARY HEROES was the large increase of "inquirers" and the many additions to the mission in 1879 and 1880. It gave the missionaries access to thousands of people who would not otherwise have listened to their message of salvation. It opened their eyes as never before, to the vast superiority of the Christian religion over their own. The dullest of them could not fail to see the contrast be- tween the utter selfishness and indifference to their fate shown by the worshipers of Brahma and Vishnu, and the sympathy and generous relief given to them in their distress by Chris- tian England and by the Christian missionaries. It was not strange, therefore, that multitudes of them wished to know more of Christianity. or that many of them renounced their old faith and were baptized in the name of Christ, That some of these should be actuated by selfish motives was to be expected, and that many of these should afterwards become backsliders was also but natural. Human nature is not so very different, after all, in India from what it is in America, or in any other Christian country. But the majority of the converts added to the mis- sion at this time, largely as the direct or indirect result of the famine relief work, remained faith- ful, and they now form a very considerable and substantial element in the native Christian Church. Furlough In the spring of 1880 Mr. Rowe asked and home received from the Foreign Board permission to return to America, partly to recruit his own ADAM D. ROWE 189 health, on which the cHmate of India and his arduous labors, especially during the famine, had begun to tell, but more especially for the bene- fit of his wife, who was in ill health. They left India April i6th and landed in Philadelphia June 13th, 1880. After a few weeks of rest Mr. Rowe located his family in York, Pa., and announced to the Board that he was ready for work. He then began, under the direction of the Board, a very remarkable series of visits to the Synods, churches and Sunday schools, which resulted in a great quickening of interest wherever he went. And he seemed to go every- where. It seemed almost incredible that one man could accomplish so much in so short a time. He was at the work only a little more Year's work than a year, and yet the States of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, New York, Ohio, and parts of Indiana and Illinois, were visited in turn, and the Synods and Conferences quite thoroughly canvassed. As many as twenty and thirty meetings were held each month, and often as high as eight and ten in a single week. Besides this, he constantly kept up a large cor- respondence, amounting often to ten and twenty letters a day, with those who were interested in special features of mission work, or who desired information, or whom he was trying to interest in order that they might give more liberally. On his return to his home in York, after a few days' absence, he often found as many as a hun- dred letters and cards on his table requiring 190 MISSIONARY HEROES answer, in addition to those he had received and answered while absent. The strain of all this began to tell on him seriously, and it was his own opinion that he could not possibly have kept up the work at the same rate for another year. It is but just to the Foreign Board to say that they protested again and again against the excessive strain to which he was subjecting him- self, and urged him to work more moderately. Burning zeal But he Seemed to be filled with a burning zeal for the cause wdiich drove him on irresistibly, and which consumed him more rapidly in rest than in action. Finally, when his early return to India was determined upon, the Board in- sisted that he should rest absolutely from the middle of July until the time of his departure. When Mr. Rowe had come back to the United States it had been his intention to remain in America for at least two years. But the call of India was too strong for him. When the tidings came of the large accessions to the mission in 1880 and 1881, and of the imperative need of more missionaries properly to care for these new converts, and to instruct the hundreds of inquirers who were still presenting themselves, he regarded it as a providential call for his im- mediate return. If a new missionary had been sent, with the language yet to learn, it would have required nearly two years before he could have been of much assistance to those on the field. So Mr. Rowe said again, "Here am I, send me." And it seemed best, almost necessary, indeed, ADAM D. ROWE 191 that he should go. Accordingly he and his fam- ily sailed from New York, Saturday, September 24th, 1881, a farewell meeting having been held previously in Lancaster, Pa., where the East Pennsylvania Synod was then in session. From London they passed over to the con- Retnm to tinent and went to Trieste by rail, thus saving ^'^'^"^ considerable time and much fatigue. They ar- rived in Guntur November 23d, 1881. Mr. Rowe found plenty of work awaiting him, and soon he was in the full swing of it and as busy as ever. Before leaving America he had been authorized by the Foreign Board and the Women's Mission- ary Society to erect two new houses or bungalows, one for his own residence and the other for the use of the female missionaries of the Woman's Society. He had purchased much of the material for these new houses, such as windows and doors, and had shipped them to India in advance. He very soon had both of them under way, and pushed them forward with unusual rapidity for India. By the last of June, 1882, the one intended for his own family was finished and he was able to move them into it, to his very great delight. In a letter written July 1st, the next to the last one he ever sent to the Foreign Board, he wrote : "We have moved into our new house and are very comfortable." Only a week or two before his final illness he told his wife that for the first time in his life he was fixed just as he wished to be. The house for the women missionaries was finished a few 192 MISSIONARY HEROES weeks later. The same day on which he took his bed with the fatal typhoid, he came from the new "women's house," as he was wont to call it, and said to his wife, "The last thing is done, and now I can rest." Did he realize how, and how long he was to "rest"? Although the building of these houses must have taken much of his time, and no small amount of care and labor, he did not in the least neglect his other work. Before he was taken sick he had visited the whole of his district in the mission field, and he was delightedly planning to accompany Rev. Schnure, a new missionary, on his first tour through the section which had been assigned to him. He was also busily en- gaged in writing the annual letters to the patrons of the Boarding School, and of the temporary Training School, and in taking photographs of their proteges to send with the letters. In the midst of these multitudinous labors he was stricken down with typhoid fever, the result, no doubt, of over-work and nervous prostration, and of germs taken into his system while visit- ing in the district. Illness and The story of his last illness and death may be death briefly told. It is a story similar to that which has become all too familiar to us in these days, and especially in this country, when and where everything is done with the rush of an express train, as if men were locomotives, made of iron and steel and brass, and were warranted, as no locomotive is, never to wear out or break. For PASTOR PARAVALU ABRAHAM ADAM D. ROWE 193 some time he had been complaining more or less of ''feeling so tired all the time." He was un- able to sleep at night, or was roused from fitful slumbers by the twitching of his nerves. Finally, when he could go on no longer, he called in a physician and took his bed on Saturday, August 1 2th. For thirty-six days the fever burned on with little or no abatement, while the patient gradually sank under its wasting power, until death and "rest" came together on Saturday, September i6th, 1882. During the greater part of his sickness he was delirious. But even in. his delirium his beloved work was still on his mind and in his heart, and he could frequently be heard exhorting the native Christians to love the Saviour, and to abide faithful. On Sunday, September 17th, his wasted body was laid away in the cemetery at Guntur, where lie the remains of a number of other faithful missionaries who have sealed with their lives their devotion to the great work of evangelizing the heathen, there to await the resurrection of the just. On Sunday evening, the same day of the burial. News of this message was received at the office of the ^^^^^ ^^ Foreign Board in Baltimore : "Rowe dead. Ty- phoid." It was cabled from Guntur on the previous day, immediately after the sad event. Within a few days it was generally known throughout the Church, and never has there been deeper or more general sorrow in the Church over the loss of a master workman, and a loved and trusted leader. A score of pages might be 13 194 MISSIONARY HEROES filled with the many tributes of affection and high esteem which were paid to his memory. One incident was at once so impressive and so illustrative of the feeling throughout the Church, that it deserves to be given here. It was the effect produced by the announcement of Mr. Rowe's death on the floor of the West Pennsyl- vania Synod, then in session in St. Paul's Church, Littlestown, Pa. This was the Synod by which Mr. Rowe had been licensed and or- dained, and in which he still held his member- ship. The scene is thus described by Rev. Luther A. Gotwald, D.D., then a pastor of St. Paul's Church, York, and who was called on to lead the Synod in prayer immediately afterwards : "No one who was present at the meeting of the Synod of West Pennsylvania, where on Monday, September i8th, the announcement of the death of Brother Rowe was made to us, can ever possibly forget the sad hour or occasion. The Synod, refreshed both physically and spiritually by the joyous rest of the Lord's Day, was cheer- fully and gladly prosecuting its work. The Presi- dent of the Synod, Rev. A. Stewart Hartman, was in the chair, A telegram was handed him. Sitting near and immediately in front of him, with my eye at the time fixed upon him, I noticed that his face at once became ashy pale, and assumed a dazed and bewildered look. I dis- tinctly recall it now. In a moment, however, realizing the sad truth, and waiving all parlia- mentary formalities, he asked the Synod's atten- ADAM D. ROWE 195 tion, and with a voice husky with emotion, read to us the brief but depressing message, 'Rowe of India is dead.' For a moment or two there was silence still as death, as though every tongue had been suddenly paralyzed, and every heart under the weight of grief which had thus come upon it had ceased to beat. Then in every part of the church sobs and broken ejaculations and suppressed prayers rose upon the stillness. The place was a Bochim. Every heart seemed broken. Every eye was blind with tears. God, we felt, had touched us sorely. But the throne of grace is ever, in times of trouble, the resort of God's children. As a Synod, therefore, we all, at the suggestion of the President, bowed in prayer." The death of this fine young man seemed then, Brief life and it might still seem almost like an uncalled- for sacrifice. It might seem as if he ought to have spared himself more in the work, and that then he might have been longer spared to the work, and that this would have been better. But we do not know. He did a great, grand work in his brief life of just a few days beyond thirty-four years. His work still abides both in the Church at home and in the Church in India. Through all the years it has been a joyous in- spiration to all who labored with him, whether here or there, and it will be a bright example to all who shall follow him. It was a work that might have fully occupied, and would have worthily crowned a long life. Certainly this is 196 MISSIONARY HEROES better, a thousand times better, than an easy, list- less, useless life, such as is led by many men. Who that has any worthy conception of life and its responsibilities would not rather be the lordly battleship that goes down in the midst of the fight, riddled with shot and shell, after but a few years of active service, than to be the lazy, dismantled hulk that lies unused, rocking and rotting in some quiet harbor, even though the latter may remain afloat ten times as long as the former ? "We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts not breaths; In feelings, not in figures on a dial ; We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best." DAVID A. DAY DAVID A. DAY DAVID A. DAY BY GEORGE SCHOLL, D.D. Secretary Emeritus Board of Foreign Missions A close observer and profound student of hu- man nature has defined a hero as ''one who can defy the demands of a Hfe so full that it almost smothers him, and can insist upon the definite line along which his life shall be lived." Goethe says: "Believe me, most part of all the misery and mischief, of all that is denominated evil in the world, arises from the fact that men are too remiss to get a proper knowledge of their aims, and when they do know them, to work intensely in attaining them." In other words, the man who, taking a broad and comprehensive view of life, including time and eternity, decides what, for him, is the su- preme end of being, and then presses toward the attainment of that end with an unfaltering pur- pose that counts all else secondary and compara- tively unimportant, has unconsciously enrolled himself as one of the world's heroes. This, from my intimate personal knowledge of the man, I unhesitatingly assert, accurately de- scribes David A. Day. Two instances may be cited in proof of this Always a assertion, although his whole career as a mission- missionary ary bears testimony to this fact. There was a 199 200 MISSIONARY HEROES time when, by some persons in the home Church, he was seriously considered for the position of Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions. No one, it was thought, was so well qualified as he to arouse a lethargic Church to an adequate sense of the importance and magnitude of the! work. When this came to the knowledge of Day it did not take him a week or a day or even an hour to consider and decide the question, but instantly, with a look that was even more expressive than his words, he said to me, "I am a missionary." Years before he had chosen his calling. His goal was set, and nothing could swerve him from his course by so much as an inch. Personal com- fort, family relations, health, life itself, — these he did not take into consideration. The proposition had no temptation for him. With another mis- sionary hero of old he, too, could say, with equal depth of conviction and unwavering purpose, "This one thing I do." Washington The Other incident transpired in Washington. It so occurred that a prominent official, connected with the United States Weather Bureau, heard him speak at a Sunday evening service. In the course of his address Dr. Day, in a few graphic sentences, flashed out a brilliant description of an equatorial electrical storm such as occasionally sweeps over that section of Africa. Next morn- ing that official called at our stopping place and sought an interview with the speaker of the previous evening. Before meeting Day he said to me, "That man, I judge, knows more about the incident missionary DAVID A. DAY 201 meteoric phenomena of the west coast of Africa than any man in this or any other country." After more than an hour's conference, at which our host, Dr. Parson and the writer were present, we all discovered, to our surprise, that the mis- sionary's knowledge of the phenomena referred to was not simply of a general and superficial character, but, in a large degree, thoroughly scien- tific. It appeared that he had carefully studied the whole subject as a recreation from his more serious engagements. The conference resulted in the official asking "My work is Dr. Day to undertake the work of observing, with the aid of such appliances as the Depart- ment would furnish him, the weather conditions of his section of the country and regularly re- porting the same to the Bureau at Washington. He added that while there was no provision made in his Department for that particular work he felt confident there would be no difficulty in provid- ing suitable remuneration by a special act of Con- gress. The work, he thought, could be done with- out seriously interfering with his duties at Muhlenberg Mission. To this highly compliment- ary and tempting offer. Dr. Day, with a look and a smile and a shake of the head that was quite un- mistakable and conclusive in its meaning, replied, "I cannot do it. My work is that of a mis- sionary." If that official had been a man of a different type of mind he probably would have made fur- ther effort to induce him to accept the position by 202 MISSIONARY HEROES offering larger remuneration, but he had not an- other word to say, for he at once recognized the fact that he had come up against an Alpine hero who was immovably planted on the Rock of Ages. Our host had planned to take us to the capitol that day to hear a famous debate that was on in the Senate. Later on Dr. Parson said to me, "Aren't you glad we didn't go over to the capi- tol?" and I replied, "Yes, for the United States Senate couldn't have given us anything half so interesting." Unswerving loyalty to his Master, expressing itself in untiring devotion to the interests of God's poor children in Africa, was the center around which his whole life revolved. That, and nothing else, was his work. To it he had irre- vocably consecrated himself. Many-sided While the spiritual uplift of his people was the character work in hand, and on the doing of which he con- centrated all the powers of his being, it must not be supposed that there was anything of narrow- ness either in his ideas or methods. His was a symmetrical, well-balanced and many-sided na- ture. There have been and still are missionaries who take the position that they have been called of God simply to preach the gospel to the heathen, but early in his long-sustained and successful work on the St. Paul River he recognized the fact that this was not sufficient in dealing with the savages of the jungle. Something more was needed. Accordingly schools were organized for their intellectual training and development that DAVID A. DAY 203 they might not only be Christians but intelligent Christians. But he did not stop with church and school. Out of the rude barbarism of their jun- gle life a new civilization must be created. In- dustrial operations were accordingly made a prominent feature at Muhlenberg. Through do- nations by the Liberian government and by pur- chase a farm of several hundred acres was ac- quired. Largely through the generosity of a Christian business man in New York, a black- smith, carpenter and machine shop was furnished with the necessary tools, and all the boys who were brought under the influence of the mission were required to learn one or the other of the occupations represented by the farm and the shop. A skilled mechanic, Clement Irons, a col- ored man from the States, was placed in charge of the industrial work of the mission, and under his training a number of fairly competent me- chanics were developed. These native mechanics and their foreman, under the direction and with the assistance of Dr. Day, built a small steamboat that for a number of years plied between Millsburg, the mission landing, and Monrovia, twenty-eight miles down the river. The engine for the side-wheeler, the first steam craft that ever navigated the St. Paul River, was shipped from this country, but all the rest of the work was done at Muhlenberg Mission. 'The 'Sarah Ann,' named in honor of Mrs. I^T^^f ^' Irons," wrote Dr. Day, "is a nondescript affair River 204 MISSIONARY HEROES of a boat, but nevertheless she paddles up and down the river two or three times a week, with much puffing and groaning, carrying both freight and passengers. The 'smoke canoe,' as the natives call the craft, has completely revolutionized the traffic of the river. I can now make the trip to Monrovia and return for fifty cents, and in less time, whereas I was formerly compelled to pay a crew of natives five dollars to row me in their dugout." Alex. Harris The evolution of Alcx. Harris furnishes an interesting illustration of what has been and is still being done at Muhlenberg Mission toward helping those people up to a higher plane of liv- ing. The case shows the wisdom of Day in combining the church, the school and the various forms of manual labor, in dealing with the diffi- cult problem by which he was confronted. This boy, along with a number of others, came out of the woods, naked as the day he was born and as ignorant as the other creatures that live in the jungle. He was suitably clothed and placed in a primary school, where, in the course of time, he acquired the rudiments of an education. In the Sunday school he advanced from the position of scholar to that of a teacher of a class, and later on became the superintendent of the school and a deacon in the church. He married one of the mission girls, moved out several miles from the mission farm, pre- empted a tract of land, built himself a cabin and settled down to the work of a pioneer farmer. DAVID A. DAY 205 Soon after he was settled in his new home Mr. Harris wrote to the Secretary of the Board re- questing that a supply of primary books be sent to him, as he proposed to start a school for the benefit of the neglected children in his neighbor- hood. The letter was well written, the spelling was correct and the sentences were grammatically constructed. The writer expressed the belief that he could teach the children at night after his day's work on the farm. At any rate he was go- ing to see what could be done. The books were promptly sent and he paid for them, al- though they were offered to him as a donation from the Board. Some seven or eight years later I received an- other letter from Harris enclosing a bill of exchange on a London bank for an amount sufficient to pay for a small steam engine and some other machinery. I was not a little sur- prised and gratified to learn, in the further read- ing of the letter, that Harris' farm had produced a good crop of coffee, rice and sugar cane and that he needed a coffee and rice huller, a winnow- ing machine and rollers and evaporating pans for making molasses and a steam engine to run his machinery with. A generous-hearted manufac- turer in York, Pa., on hearing the story of the young African farmer, said, "I believe in helping those fellows who are trying to help themselves," and at once instructed his foreman to carefully pack and ship the entire outfit to Mr. Harris at forty per cent. off. 206 MISSIONARY HEROES A few years later there came a letter from Dr. Day in which he said, "Last Sunday we dedi- cated a new church over in Alex. Harris' neigh- borhood, which grew out of the school which he organized some years ago. He shipped his coffee to Baltimore and his molasses to Liverpool, and with the proceeds built the church all himself. He sent to England and bought corrugated iron for the roof and siding of the building so that it would the better stand this trying climate, A large number of people assembled to attend the dedicatory exercises, some of them coming a distance of many miles. The little church was soon filled to its utmost capac- ity; and as others continued to come, the men went out and gave their seats to the women until the church was entirely filled with women, while the men gathered about the door and windows to listen to the services. On a cer- tain occasion when I preached in a native town a number of women came to the service. The petty chief or headman with his 'king whip,' as it is called, laid on vigorously right and left and drove them all away saying, 'This God-palaver is not for women.' On this occasion, however, the men voluntarily gave up the entire church to the women while they stood on the outside. This will give you an idea of the change wrought by the work of Alex. Harris. The entire neighbor- hood has been revolutionized." Bishop Dr. Day's knowledge of African human nature and his skill in handling the people are well illus- Penick DAVID A. DAY 207 trated by the following incident related to the writer by Bishop Penick of the Protestant Epis- copal Church. The Bishop, after spending a number of years in Africa superintending the work of his Church on the west coast, during which time he had paid several visits to Muhlen- berg Mission for the purpose of studying its methods of work, was home on furlough. After a somewhat prolonged conference with him con- cerning the work in that section of the country and as we were about to separate he said, "Give my respects to your Board and tell them that your man Day is worth any ten men on the west coast." On intimating that his estimate of our missionary was possibly somewhat over-stated he replied, "No, sir; I mean just exactly what I say. He ought to be a Bishop or Superintendent with ten or a dozen men under him instead of being com- pelled to do all the work himself. He so thor- oughly understands those people and is so fully in their confidence that he can do anything with them that is reasonable, and they, on their part, stand faithfully and loyally by him in all he undertakes to do." As an illustration of his tact in deaHng wdth them he related the following incident : A native "medicine man" or witch doctor had Medicine established himself in vicinity of the mission and was proceeding to practice his profession, which consisted of selling charms and fetiches to the people. As the influence of the "doctor" was prejudicial to the cause he was endeavoring to advance, Day quite naturally was anxious to rid man 208 MISSIONARY HEROES the community of his presence. How to accom- plish his purpose without incurring the enmity of the natives was the question, and the way he did it showed his wisdom and splendid tact. One day, when there were a number of natives loung- ing in and about the medicine man's office, Mr. Day joined the group and engaged in a friendly palaver concerning the merits of the charms of- fered for sale. Worn about the neck these fet- iches were guaranteed to ward off all kinds of disease, prevent accident, protect the wearer from the assault of enemies or the attack of wild ani- mals, and, in general, keep him from all harm. One particular kind of medicine prepared by the "doctor," which especially interested Day, af- forded protection against fire. A house in which it was kept would never burn down. Ex- pressing a doubt as to the validity of this claim. Day was assured that if he kept this medi- cine in his house it would be simply im- possible for fire to destroy it, "I suppose,'* said the missionary, "you have some of this medicine in your house ?" Pointing to the fetich suspended from a rafter under the thatched roof of his office, the doctor said, "Fire no burn dis house," and by way of emphasis repeated the as- sertion, "Fire no burn dis house." By this time the interest of the natives was thoroughly aroused and they crowded into the little hut to hear the palaver of the missionary and the doctor. Day seemed to have been con- vinced that the medicine was good and said he DAVID A. DAY 209 supposed he would have to buy some to put in his house ; but before investing he would have to test its merit. Striking a match he held it to the dry- thatch overhead near the charm, and in an instant the hut was a flaming torch. So sudden and com- plete was the destruction that the doctor and his visitors barely had time to escape without being scorched, but the hut, with the medicine chest and its contents, was speedily reduced to a heap of glowing embers. Day pretended to be greatly surprised and disappointed at the failure of the medicine to act, but the natives, vociferously denouncing the doctor as *'too much humbug," set upon him with sticks and stones and drove him out of the community. "Had I attempted such a thing as that," added the Bishop, "I would have been a dead man by next morning." Only in one instance, during all the years of Lost his residence in Africa, did the faith of the peo- confidence f restored pie in their missionary suffer a temporary eclipse. In speaking to them of his homeland he, in an unguarded moment, made the statement that in America the water sometimes got so hard people could walk on it. The many wonderful things he had told them they believed, but here they drew the line. He, too, like the rest of them, was a liar. While at home on furlough he confessed to the writer that his people's faith in him had suf- fered a shock that greatly impaired his influence among them and would be extremely difficult to overcome. At the suggestion of the writer, Day on returning to Africa took out with him a small 14 210 MISSIONARY HEROES ice machine costing about one hundred dollars. On his arrival at Muhlenberg he made the an- nouncement that he was going to make water hard after the "Merican fash.," and a large crowd of the skeptics gathered about him to witness the performance. In a short time a quart of pure "soft" water, which one of the men brought from the creek that supplied the mission, was transformed into a solid block of ice. "I not only vindicated my reputation for truth- fulness," wrote Dr. Day, "but also had some rare fun out of the occasion, I gave a stalwart native with a cavernous mouth a small chunk of 'hard water' to eat. No sooner had he put it into his mouth than he spit it out and yelling 'fire, fire' at the top of his voice ran into the bush and did not appear again for some time. While another broad-shouldered fellow was stooping over curi- ously examining the machine I slyly laid a chunk of ice on the back of his neck. He also took to the bush yelling 'fire' at every jump. This was practically the only use I ever made of the ice machine, but it was worth all it cost, for it re- stored me fully in the confidence of the people. They never doubted me again." Early The early youth of David A. Day was one of hardships poverty, neglect and hardship. "Many were the nights," he once said to the writer, "that I cried myself to sleep on my bed of straw in a livery stable in Harrisburg, Pa., because there was no one who cared for me." That was the school in which he learned the divine art of Christly sym- DAVID A. DAY 211 pathy for God's poor and neglected children in Africa. He was born in Adams County, Pa., February 17th, 1851, and died at sea, on board the Cunard Line Steamer "Lucania," December 17th, 1897, thirty-three hours before landing in New York, aged forty-six years and ten months. He pursued his studies at the Missionary Insti- Marriage tute, Selinsgrove, Pa., where he was married in ^° ^™ ^ May, 1874, to Miss Emily Virginia Winegarden, and in the same month sailed for Africa, arriv- ing in Muhlenberg Mission in June following. Two children were born to Rev. and Mrs. Day in Africa, a boy and a girl, the former dying at six months of age and the latter at eight months. A third child, Leila, was born in this country, February 25th, 1881, went with her mother to Africa in 1889, and died April 17th, 1890. Mrs. Day died in this country, August loth, 1895, and was buried at Selinsgrove, Pa., where her hus- band lies by her side, while the three children sleep under the palms in far-away Africa. During the twenty-three and a half years that Dr. Day served in Africa he was home on fur- lough only twice. The first time in 1883, arriving in New York April i6th and sailing from the same place October 6th. His second brief visit to America extended from May 15th to October 2 1 St, 1893. During this second furlough Dr. Day, accompanied a good part of the time by the Secretary of the Board, visited churches, Sunday schools and institutions of learning in twelve dif- ferent States and in Canada, traveling about 212 MISSIONARY HEROES 14,000 miles and delivering 181 addresses on the work in Africa. December 6th, 1896, Dr. Day was married to Miss Anna E. Whitfield, of Dundas, Ontario, Canada, who had been engaged in mission work on the west coast since 1887. Leaves field During the last year of his service his failing health admonished him, as well as his colleagues in the mission, that he could no longer remain in the field, and accordingly, accompanied by his wife, he left Muhlenberg, October 25th, 1897, and two days later sailed from Monrovia in the steam- ship "Tenerieff." Rev. August Pohlman, M.D., his associate and helper in the mission, accom- panied them as far as Free Town, Sierra Leone, from which place he returned to the mission. Dr. and Mrs. Day reached England November 24th, and on the 29th, he entered the Royal In- firmary in Liverpool for treatment. Having ap- parently improved somewhat they sailed from Liverpool December nth, by the "Lucania," which arrived in New York Saturday afternoon at four o'clock, December i8th, 1897. ^^v. L. Kuhlman, President of the Board, and W. F. A. Kemp, M.D., brought Mrs. Day and the remains of her husband to the home of the Secretary in Baltimore on Sunday afternoon, and on Monday afternoon the body was taken to the First Luth- eran Church, where, lying in state, it was viewed by a large number of friends. The following day funeral services were con- ducted by the Board of Foreign Missions, the DAVID A. DAY 213 President and Secretary delivering addresses, and the same evening the remains were conveyed to the Lutheran Church in Selinsgrove, Pa., where services were conducted the following day, addresses being delivered by Dr. J. H. Weber, of Sunbury, President Zeigler, of the Missionary In- stitute, and by the President of the Board. The interment, attended by a large number of clergy- men, took place December 22(1, 1897. David A. Day was endowed by nature with one Endow- of the prime requisites for the service in which he °^^°*^ engaged. He was the possessor of a splendid body. The verdict of one well qualified to judge in such matters was that tested by the highest standards of physical excellence, comparatively few young men could be found that would meas- ure up to what he was. This body, with all its capacity for toil and the endurance of hardship, he consecrated to the service of the Master. His intellectual powers were of no ordinary character. Those who came into closest touch with him knew that, in the breadth of his general information, in the accuracy and thoroughness of his knowledge of the various sciences, his careful observation of the phenomena of nature, his ex- tensive familiarity with the governmental affairs of the nations of the earth, his profound and in- telligent interest in the sociological questions of the day, and in his clear and comprehensive grasp of weir nigh every question that touches human life and interest, Dr. Day had few if any peers among those engaged in the same calling of life. character 214 MISSIONARY HEROES These powers of intellect he so fully consecrated to the service of the Master that, with the great apostle to the Gentiles, he, too, could say that he was determined not to know anything save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Alpine But it was in heart and soul especially that David A. Day stood forth as an Alpine character. In faith as simple as a child ; his hope unquench- able ; a love as broad as humanity ; a courage that knew no fear; a will that he ever sought to co- ordinate with the Divine Will ; a heart as tender as a woman's; and a devotion to his work that left out of consideration all personal comforts and temporal emoluments, he possessed the qual- ities of greatness in no ordinary measure. In short, a well framed body, a diversely cultured intellect, a great and manly soul, a lofty reason, an indomitable will, a lion-like courage, a burn- ing zeal, a heroic devotion, an iron constitution, a Pauline faith, and a Christlike love — this was David A. Day as I learned to know him through months of close companionship and twenty years of official and personal correspondence with him. The question is sometimes asked, *Ts it right to send such a man to such a field?" We need not concern ourselves overmuch about answering the question. All we need to do is to remember that the Master sent Day to Africa, and that in going to that hard field he simply obeyed the Master's command and followed the Master's example, with this difference only, that the Mas- ter came down from an infinitely higher altitude DAVID A. DAY 215 and descended to a far greater depth of humilia- tion and shame than has been the lot of any fol- lower of His. It is, indeed, the crowning glory of our humanity, the very essence of the Christian religion, that there is implanted in our nature something which impels us to give ourselves to the work of helping and saving our fellow-men without raising the question as to financial emolu- ment and personal reward of any kind, or whether the saviour or the saved is intrinsically the more worthy. We rejoice in the fact that there always have been and still are to be found not a few men and women who are ready, gladly and joyfully, to take their lives in their hands and go to the ends of the earth in answer to the Master's call — men and women who seem not to have the least trace of the materialistic spirit in them. In the presence of the devotion and sacrifice of our Christ shall His soldier show less heroism, and shall the Church of the living God exhibit less interest in the men and women she sends to the field, or accord to them a less hearty and generous support? St. Francis Xavier said : "If the lands of the savages had scented woods and mines of gold, Christians would find courage to go there, nor would the perils of the world prevent them. Shall love be less hearty and less generous than avarice ?" Of all others, we of the Lutheran Church should be the very last to show a lack of courage 216 MISSIONARY HEROES in carrying on the work of the world's evangeli- zation. Of all others we, who have our ecclesias- tical descent from the indomitable, much-endur- ing and storm-braving hero of the Reformation days, should not be found wanting in bone and sinew, in moral grit and iron in the blood. Such a one was David A. Day, who so cour- ageously stood at his post and endured to the end. Again and again he wrote home: "Under no circumstances will I consent to leave the field until everything is in good shape." To make such a stand, in view of failing health and confronted by all but insurmountable difficulties, required the heroism of a Paul, and inspiration and an impulse from above, that, in the face of the deadliest dan- gers, enabled him to say : "None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto my- self, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God." It thrills one's heart and renews one's faith in the unseen and eternal to contemplate the life of such a man, and at the same time our own past doing and giving for the cause shrivel and shrink into comparative insignificance in con- trast with the self-sacrificing devotion of such a man. His life's With him the main business of life was not to main avoid fatiguc, or seek personal comfort, or the business , , , . , , ,. , supply of his temporal wants, but to accomplish the work to which he felt, with a conviction that amounted to a certainty, that he had been called DAVID A. DAY 217 of God. Like Livingstone in the African jungle, pushing his way into the very heart of the Dark Continent, he will die in the doing of his work rather than permit his God-given powers to fall into decay amid the tropical luxuries of a genteel good-for-nothingness. Of like spirit, too, was Mrs. Day, his help- Mrs. Day mate and untiring worker in the mission for more than twenty years, and who preceded him to the celestial world by two years and four months. Only a short time before her death she, with undaunted faith and Spartan courage, so weak she could hardly wield her pen, wrote to her husband, standing like the hero he was, in his place at the front, "Do not come home. Stay where you are. Africa needs you more than I do." Taking all the circumstances into considera- tion, few mortal lips ever gave utterance to braver and more heroic words — words that sounded the very depth of a self-sacrificing and heroic devotion to the Master's cause. No wonder that she, too, with her husband, was Touching enshrined in the hearts of the people for whom incident she had so faithfully labored. When the great sorrow of his life came to Dr. Day the little chil- dren in the mission soon learned the nature of the sad news from America. Gathering a bunch of snow-white lilies they placed them in the hands of one of their number, a little girl, who bore them to his room, silently laid them at his feet, and then humbly kneeling before him kissed his 218 MISSIONARY HEROES feet and quietly withdrew without speaking a single word. The dying message of Mrs. Day is equaled only by the words which, at one time, were thought to be the last utterance of Dr. Day. "Close up the ranks — more men wanted — close up." These utterances of Dr. and Mrs. Day are worthy of being engraved not simply on the mar- ble tomb that marks their last resting place, but on the living, pulsating, consecrated heart of the Church which they loved and served so well. With such examples of courage and consecration before us no one should hesitate to do his part in carrying forward the work to which they devoted their lives. "The pitying Christ Himself, with heart of love. Is loudly calling through the Spirit's power: The sound is world-wide, but the few alone Have ears attuned to catch the trumpet-tone ; The rest, unheeding, seek for earthly dower. Nor care for treasures stored above. "li eyes could pierce, as did the seer of old, The veil that dimly shuts our vision in, The fiery chariots of a heavenly host Would greet our gaze, equipped to guard each post Where trusting hearts dare all to lead from sin God's bleeding lambs into His fold. "And still brave men are waiting, doubting God, And weakly pleading : 'Ah ! it costs too much.' Too much, when every soul that tastes death's sting Is worth the mighty ransom of a king? Too much, when Christ gave all to rescue such, And bids us follow where He trod? DAVID A. DAY 219 "Oh ! that the Church of God might rouse from ease, Cast off her robes of state ; might grandly move Impetuous to the mighty fray, and girt With Christ's own presence, fear not loss nor hurt. 'Tis he who loses life below to please His King, wins life with Him above." The question may be asked, "What is the secret of such a Hfe as the one here under review? What molding influence, what shaping hand, what transforming power wrought this miracle? Who was it that took the poor, homeless, ragged, bare-foot boy, crying himself to sleep under a horse blanket in a livery stable, and set him high up on a pedestal of loving hearts as a recog- nized Missionary Hero of His Church? Only He could work such a miracle, by His saving grace and renewing power. Who Himself was born in a stable and cradled in a manger. SAMUEL CHRISTIAN KINSINGER SAMUEt CHRISTIAN KINSINGER SAMUEL CHRISTIAN KINSINGER BY REV. E. G. HOWARD It was in the autumn of the year 1888 that a Early days young man from the West presented himself at Wittenberg College for admission to prepare for a chosen life-work. His appearance was that of a typical Westerner, tall and slender, somewhat more mature than the ordinary student upon entering college, being at this time twenty-four years of age. He wore a broad-brimmed hat of light-brown felt, neglige shirt and belt, suggestive indeed of the great rolling prairies from which he had just come. His maturity of appearance was the result not only of the slight advance in years beyond many of his fellows, but of a variety of experience. His name was Samuel Christian Kinsinger. His earliest home was near the little village of Somerville, Butler County, Ohio, where he was born March 31st, 1864. His devout German parents had but recently immigrated from the Fatherland. His father died when Samuel was but nine years of age. To his mother he was deeply attached by more than an ordinary filial affection. She was a real "Hannah"' whose ear- nest desire was that her children might serve the Lord. The incense of her prayers filled the house and left an abiding impression upon the life of 223 224 MISSIONARY HEROES the young boy. Often was the child rocked to sleep to the accompaniment of his mother's prayer. Long after, upon the anniversary of her death, he recorded in his diary this appreciation : "Twenty-four years ago this evening my sainted mother fell asleep in Jesus. . . , She left me the legacy of a holy life. Her prayers went up as a memorial to God. To all these I owe much. To-night I recall that holy life with a feeling of tender and sacred awe." Her life was ever hallowed to him as the holiest he had ever known. Moves to ^^ ^^^^ spring of 1870, the family removed to Missouri Cass County, Missouri. As a farmer lad he grew in years, and was fond of sport, always honest and fair, never quarrelsome or malicious, and a favorite with all his playmates. As he grew older there developed a marked interest in the conversation of older people, which grew stronger than his love for play. A retentive memory enabled him to recount the things he had heard, and he seldom missed the strong points of a story or argument. Until fourteen years of age he was fond neither of study nor books, and seldom read anything except what was required of him at school. He made no marked progress in his studies, although manag- ing to keep up with his classes. However, he did delight and excel in declamation, which made for him many friends and undoubtedly assisted much in the work of later life. When his father died the work of the farm SAMUEL CHRISTIAN KINSINGER 225 devolved upon him and an older brother, and although he was not fond of it, he never com- plained except to say that he took no pleasure in it. In the early spring of 1877 Samuel was con- His con- verted at a revival meeting held in a school- ^"^'"° house, there being no church in the town. Later he was received into the membership of the Mennonite Church. In 1878 he was bereft of his mother, and his brother-in-law, Mr. D. L. Kenagy, was appointed his guardian and took him into his own home for a time. Samuel, desiring to be self-support- ing, found work during the summer upon a farm not far away. During this summer he had access to a good library and developed a taste for read- ing. In his leisure hours he read the lives of Lincoln and Douglas, and also the famous Lin- coln and Douglas debates of 1858. The follow- ing winter he made his home with an invalid neighbor, doing chores for his board and attend- ing the village school. He now had a good teacher of literary tastes, and to his liking. A deep interest in literature and history, with great fondness for reading, developed. It may be termed the period of his intellectual awakening. Near the close of the term, Mr. Cass, the neighbor with whom he spent the winter, died; and Mrs. Cass, having become much attached to the boy, asked that he might accompany her to Illinois, where she had decided to make her future home. Her request was granted, as Sam- 15 226 MISSIONARY HEROES Moves to Illinois Iowa life Agent American Express Company uel was eager to go, and so, in the early spring of 1880, he accompanied her to her new home. The summer was spent on a farm near Jackson- ville, and at the close, he sent his guardian his savings, which after deducting necessary ex- penses and the cost of a trip farther east, amounted to twenty-live dollars. He then visited an uncle in the same State and remained with him during the winter of 1880-81, attending school. Towards the close of the term, an aunt, Mrs. Hickathier, of Fairfield, Iowa, visited the place, and taking a deep interest in the lad, offered him a home in Iowa. Having here the advantage of a good school, he made marked progress and increased in popularity and esteem. Of Kinsinger's life at the time, Prof. J. B. Mon- lux, the Superintendent of the Fairfield High School, writes: "From the very first he im- pressed me by his earnestness, faithfulness and strict attention to duty, and presaged definitely the spirit of noble self-sacrifice that character- ized his short but splendid career." Mrs. Hick- athier recalls his hearty Christian life, as pure and honest, but jovial, participating in all pleas- ures, and appreciating keenly any joke, whether at his own or another's expense. For a time in the early summer of 1882, em- ployment was found in a tile factory, where he remained until he secured, through the influence of his brother, a position as driver for the Ameri- can Express Company. He was promoted a year later to route agent, having several different SAMUEL, CHRISTIAN KINSINGER 227 runs, until he finally located in Burlington, run- ning from that city to Omaha. HIS CONNECTION WITH THE LUTHERAN CHURCH At Fairfield he attended the Lutheran Sunday school and church, and when he removed to Burlington he was introduced to the Lutheran pastor, Rev. J. H. Culler, in charge of the mis- sion. Feeling at home in this church he united with the same and threw himself with character- istic energy and devotion into the work of the mission. His pastor testifies that his faith in- volved every spiritual force within him. In the pew he was a good hearer. In the Sunday school, the Young People's Society, the prayer meeting, the choir, and the social relations of the church, he was active and efficient. He always wanted to help. He revived another mission Sunday school in the city of which he was chosen super- intendent, and here found a joy in the work which prepared the way for the dedication of his life to definite Christian service later. In these relationships he demonstrated his aptness to teach and showed administrative and executive ability of a high order. His remarkable influence over individuals was also already manifest. The children of the school, the adult members of the congregation, and even the men in the train service, responded to his interest in a most cor- dial way. He was repeatedly promoted by the Express Company until he was local agent at Albia, Iowa, 228 MISSIONARY HEROES Settles his life's work Enters Wittenberg College where he advanced the company's business in a marked degree. It was while located here that he received the letter from his pastor, Rev. J. H. Culler, that most deeply influenced his life. It was a message calling him to consider the claims of the Chris- tian ministry. In his reply he lays bare the struggle of his own soul as he had alone faced this problem, but had been unable to reach a decision. He refers to the hope the letter had aroused with him, saying: "Why should I not accept the 'high calling of God?' If I under- stand the promptings of my own heart and soul, there is no place that I would not go, if I knew He were calling me." After further correspondence the matter was settled through much prayer and thoughtful con- sideration, and the conclusion was sealed in a communication with these words : "I willingly yield and will consecrate my entire service to the Lord, God helping me. This is not done with- out a bitter cost after all, but I make the self- denial willingly for Jesus' sake." After the decision had been reached he pre- pared to enter Wittenberg College. His educa- tional qualifications were somewhat limited, so far as the schools were concerned, but he had received a preparation that schools could not give. His employment had brought him in con- tact with men at their worst and at their best. His sensitive soul felt the needs of humanity and realized that the gospel alone could meet those SAMUEI. CHRISTIAN KINSINGER 229 needs. He came, therefore, not merely to en- joy the pleasures of a college life, but to enter upon the most serious business that could con- cern a man. So keenly did he feel this that the first, deepest and most lasting impression that he made on everyone was that he was "dead in earnest." His age, as well as his limited means, and the urgent need of Christian workers, forbade his taking the full college course. Having elected two years of college and three of seminary work, » he addressed himself energetically to his tasks. The handicap of imperfect preparation, together with the fact that he had been for so long a time engaged in other pursuits, made the same ex- ceedingly difficult. Gradually, however, his abil- ity to handle his studies grew until he was able to rank above the average in most of his classes. Those years of educational preparation were CoUegedays also years of most valuable service. No sooner had he entered college than he threw himself with rare devotion into the religious activities of the same. Nor did he wholly turn aside from other features of college life. The work of the literary society, of which he became a member, called for a very considerable portion of his time and interest. But the religious work was to him para- mount in importance. His capacity for leader- ship was recognized early in his course and the close of the first year finds him President of the Young Men's Christian Association. He also kept in touch with the Springfield City Associa- 230 MISSIONARY HEROES tion and gave it valuable service. But the college field offered him one of his life's great oppor- tunities, and it is questionable if elsewhere he rendered service of more far-reaching importance than during those student days. He enjoyed the privilege of attending the Student Conference at Northfield, Mass., during his first vacation, and with the information and inspiration there gained, applied himself to the work among the students with such success that it is probable that the tide of spiritual life has never since risen higher than when his influence was being so vitally felt, A certain seemingly icy coldness and heartless indifference gave way to a warm feel- ing of Christian fellowship, so that it was said that for twenty years the religious tone and moral conditions had not been as good as at that time. Prayer meetings, Bible classes and personal work produced results in conversions and in quickening of spiritual life. Kinsinger's spirit- ual power was everywhere felt. In committee meetings, in the devotional services, in missionary gatherings, and in the leadership of Bible classes, he exerted an influence that left a marked im- pression. One of the students, then inclined to be careless and indifferent, has since written of him : "We did not so much respect his ability as his simple and earnest ways. His respect and love for the Scriptures were remarkable — so much so as to inspire a similar feeling among his stu- dents. The fact that he induced — simply by a request — a majority of his class to study their Christian SAMUEIv CHRISTIAN KINSINGER 231 Bibles an average of seven hours a week, evi- dences his power." He was constantly engaged in personal work and conducted a workers' training class for a time. In the confidential report of this class, for the year 1892-93, he stated that he believed God had used him that year in bringing thirt}'- six souls to Christ. He also gave time and thought to association General work beyond the limited field of his own college. Through his attendance at the conventions of the State and his hearty participation in the programs of the same, he not only increased in personal power, but contributed to the larger work. Consequently he was one of the picked young men of the Ohio colleges to be called into deputation work and so visited, under the auspices of the State Association, other colleges of the State, strengthening the Associations therein. Likewise did he interest himself in the work of the church with which he was identified during his student days. Having selected the Second Lutheran Church of Springfield as the one pre- senting to him the greatest opportunity for use- fulness, he addressed himself to the work that lay before him. With the consent and co-opera- tion of the pastor, he proceeded to organize the young people into a Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor, and had the joy of seeing it develop from its organization to a membership of ninety during the first year. So well were 232 MISSIONARY HEROES the foundations laid that it has continued a strong and active organization to the present time. The Sunday school also felt the efifect of his earnest endeavors. His vv^ork as a teacher was effective here as elsewhere. He attended a little school not far from the college in the afternoons, and for a time superintended the same. With all these activities, which were leaving a marked impression upon other lives, he personally felt that he was somewhat slothful and inactive in the service of his Lord. At this time, like most colleges, Wittenberg had no regular course of Bible study provided in its curriculum. A committee of students, among whom Kinsinger was prominent, addressed themselves to the matter, with the result that largely through his personal efforts Bible study has since been a regular feature of the courses offered students. Early work Evcn before his admittance to the Seminary in the pulpit the invitation came to him to supply the pulpit of the vacant Vandalia Charge near Dayton. Here he spent a summer vacation or two, and some additional time, with such marked results that when the Troy Church seemed a forlorn hope and about to succumb, he was urged by the President of Synod to give it his attention. The result was that from an attendance of thir- teen people to whom he preached the first Sun- day, he had the joy of seeing constantly increas- ing numbers until eighteen months later three lumdred and fifty people greeted him at his SAMUEL CHRISTIAN KINSINGER 233 farewell service. The church membership had increased in that period threefold, reporting eighty communicants and its apportionment raised in full, at the meeting of Synod that fall. The work had been done during his vacations and while pursuing his seminary course with the occasional assistance of other students. Such success had impressed some of Kinsinger's friends with his special fitness for Home Mission work, and led them to urge him to devote him- self entirely to it. But he had received a larger call ; it was of c^n to fields beyond the seas white unto the harvest, foreign where there were few laborers. This call he could not refuse to heed. His interest in the foreign work was gradual in its awakening, The missionary appeal was probably strongly presented at Northfield in 1889. That fall he had the privilege of hearing Dr. Kugler present the needs of the India work and of meeting her personally. His information concerning the need was increased by his reading. Finally, the de- cision was reached that he should become a for- eign missionary. "To me," said he, "it is a very simple matter. I believe God wants me where I can do the most good. I can surely do the greatest good where the greatest need is." That India needed him most became his settled con- viction. To bring this need of the heathen world to other hearts became a ruling purpose of his student days. By public address, through his mission study classes, in personal interviews, he 234 MISSIONARY HEROES pressed home the appeal. There are not wanting those who believe that as a volunteer at college and among the students, he gave the foreign cause a mighty impetus. The missionaries on the field were appealing for reinforcements when his application for a commission was presented to the Board, but funds were not available. His application could not, therefore, be accepted. Nothing daunted, he again wrote offering to raise among the churches of Springfield and the students of the college, subscriptions for his support, if he could be commissioned under this condition. The re- ply was that there were no funds available even for his outfit and transportation, and that unless subscriptions sufficient for these also were se- cured, the Board could not see its way to send him out, although expressing its appreciation of the splendid spirit that prompted his application. He at once prepared to meet the conditions. The churches and students came to his support. Friends and churches which he visited in Cali- fornia during the summer, and on his return trip, with the help of voluntary supplementary offerings by the Synods which he visited before his departure, completed his outfit. He felt that God thus sealed his purpose with His approval. After a great farewell meeting in which the churches of Springfield and the Wittenberg stu- dents united, on the morning of October 14th, 1894, he began the journey which was to bring him to the long-desired field. At New York he SAMUEL CHRISTIAN KINSINGER 235 was joined by Misses Amy Sadtler, Jessie Brewer and Katherine Fahs, who were to accompany him. He sailed October 17th, and reached Gun- tur, India, December 6th, 1894. Of his personal feelings and desires during those early days, we have a glimpse from a letter written a friend at home : "Do you know I have never known such sweet and blessed peace in all my life as that which has filled my soul since turning my footsteps toward the shores of this dark land ? . . . Oh ! how much I long for spirit- ual power in this dark land of sin and sorrow, to do my Master's holy will and to lead many of these benighted souls one by one to Him. ... I am trying to cling close to Jesus that His strength may be made perfect in my weakness, that the excellence of His sweet grace may be of God and not of man." Upon reaching India, his first home, though but for a brief time, was with the family of Rev. John Aberly, with whose children he soon be- came a favorite. His first important task was the acquisition of the Telugu tongue. This, though difficult of acquirement, through God's grace and persistent eflfort he could use with comparative ease and fluency. During this period he had a great desire to be of service, but could do little directly with the people. To acquire the language more rapidly and to mingle with the natives more freely the Conference sent him to the District, where he lived in the bungalow lately vacated by ]\Iiss Kistler. Of this period he speaks 236 MISSIONARY HEROES Success in language First field, Vinukonda thus in a letter: "During this time of patient waiting until I can tell the sweet old story of love in the sanctuary, I must be content to simply shine for Jesus." Not quite a year after his arrival in India, he made his first address in Telugu. The India Conference meeting on January nth, decided that Kinsinger should assist as a Bible teacher in the College at Guntur. He re- moved thither and took up his residence with Dr. Uhl. Such was his success in his work that Dr. Aberly could write : "The Principal of the Col- lege and I frequently talked over the matter and thought that had we workers enough on the field to admit of it, no wiser thing could be done than to make him a permanent Bible teacher in the College." Besides his work of teaching he also occasionally conducted chapel worship, where he had the privilege of addressing four to five hundred heathen boys, on gospel themes. After a few weeks' sojourn in the summer of 1896, at Dindi-by-the-Sea, for rest and to escape the heat of the plains, he took up the district work in Vinukonda, his appointed field. Here he lived in a little one-room native hut. While it may be a question whether it was wise for him to live in such narrow and cramped quar- ters, in a climate hostile at best to Americans, we are sure no one will question his consecration in doing so, that he might have more intimate contact with the natives whom he had come to reach with the gospel. In his little native house, SAMUEI. CHRISTIAN KINSINGER 237 built of walls of mud and stone, roofed over with tiles, with a mud floor, two small windows and two doors, the walls whitewashed to cover the smoke stains left by the previous native oc- cupants, Kinsinger lived for over a year. Five days after taking up his abode he dedicated this humble place with these words : "To-night I solemnly set this house apart to God to be to Him a holy home, one in which His presence shall dwell and His name be glorified while I Hve here." A little later he wrote : "As I sit here in my one-room house to-night, it really seems a little close and cramped after a few weeks in one of the delightful large bungalows in Guntur. But the place is very dear to me. I would not to-night exchange it for any condi- tion at home, either high or low." It was at this time that he quoted the following lines in a letter to the churches of Springfield : "Lonely ? Xo, not lonely While Jesus standeth by ; His presence fills my chamber, I know that He is nigh. "Saddened ? Oh ! yes, saddened By earth's deep sin and woe ; How can I count as nothing What grieved my Saviour so? "Helpless? Yes, so helpless, But I am leaning hard On the mighty arms of Jesus, And He is keeping guard. 238 MISSIONARY HEROES "Happy? Yes, so happy. With joy too deep for words; A precious, sure foundation, A joy that is my Lord's." Into the detail of missionary service during the months that followed we cannot fully enter. The conference of the Lutheran missionaries at Rajahmundry in September, an inspiring con- ference at Guntur in October, together with the Sunday school convention at the same place, were events that left their impression upon his mind and heart. There followed a tour of the district in company with Rev. Yeiser. Miles upon miles of travel over plains, across mount- ains and through jungles, with the joyful priv- ilege of preaching the gospel, often several times a day, and in many places where the name of Jesus had never before been spoken, were experi- ences that were crowded into those few Decem- ber weeks. Months of initiatory service were followed by a year filled to overflowing with missionary activities. Two long tours were made in the Vinukonda-Kanigiri field, to which he was now assigned. Each tour took him eighty miles or more from home. Other shorter tours were also made. Amidst the hardships of these journeys, with the climate unfriendly, swamps and jungle infested with fever, he would fall back upon the assurances of the ninety-first Psalm as espe- cially meeting a missionary's needs. "There shall SAMUEL CHRISTIAN KINSINGER 239 no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy tent." The elementary schools of his district, paroch- ial in character, were under his supervision. Special efforts v^ere constantly made to develop his workers. Some of the congregations had been temporarily broken up by the famine. De- spite the peculiar difficulties of the year, progress was being made. On one day of that eventful year his cup of Early fruits joy was full to overflowing. Thirty-nine souls were baptized in one village — his own spiritual children. Shortly after he removed to Vinu- konda, a man came to him sixteen miles on foot to learn about our God, When Kinsinger told him about Jesus he wanted to be baptized at once. But owing to a mission rule this could not be done, and he was given some portions of Scripture to take with him to learn and to teach his neighbors. He proved a true Andrew. Several times he returned within a few months bringing one or two others with him each time. When finally a tour was arranged through that village, the missionary received an ovation — men, women and children came forth to meet him! Upon examination he found that this man had actually taught all — men, women and children — the truths he himself had learned. Because there was no teacher to put in charge of the village he could not baptize them, but later, on a day ap- pointed, he visited the village again and received them into the church by baptism. 240 MISSIONARY HEROES On New Year's day, 1898, while returning to Vinukonda, Kinsinger fell from his horse in crossing a vagu full of water. He was thor- oughly wet and chilled, but rode on into Vinu- konda. A chill followed while he was holding a village meeting, from which he did not fully re- cover, but thought nothing of it until, late in February, he suffered a hemorrhage of the lungs. Upon consulting a physician he was informed that one lung had collapsed and that the other was in a suspicious condition. The physician ordered him to lay aside all work and to remain in Gun- tur under medical care. Kinsinger felt that he was now just ready for work in the mission be- cause of his acquisition of the language. To lay aside was a great disappointment, relieved only by the thought that he could spend the time be- fore the throne in praying for the mission. "If I cannot serve God and the mission by working, I can by praying," he wrote. With the hot sea- son coming on, his physician advised a trip to some cooler climate. Leaving Guntur, not know- ing just where he was to go, God led him stage by stage of his journey, until he came to the beau- tiful Island of Jaffna, just north of Ceylon, whose climate was softly tempered by the sea breezes and very equable. Here he remained from April until October, and here he found the companionship of friendly missionaries and skilled medical care. During these months he was able to continue the' preparation of the Telugu Sunday school Narasarow- pet SAMUEL CHRISTIAN KINSINGER 241 lesson helps, a work in which he had taken great interest. In October, 1898, Kinsinger was permitted New field, to return and was assigned to the Narasarowpet field. Though prevented by the condition of his health from touring, he was able to gather his workers together for prayer, the study of the Scriptures, for consultation concerning the con- dition of the field, and to plan the work to be done by them. He assisted in organizing at this time an annual conference of workers. His fight for life and health and further serv- ice on the India field must command the admira- tion of all conversant with it. It was not a bat- tle for life and health alone. It was the tre- mendous struggle of a great spirit to realize in his life his Master's will. It ended in a glorious victory. When he returned to take up his work he was far from completely recovered. In the ear- lier period of his affliction he had felt unable to bow to the Divine will, should God call him, as he feared he might, to a long and lingering ill- ness. It was only after wrestling long in prayer that he finally could yield himself wholly to God in this, and, strange as it may seem, when he had thus surrendered, the more severe and danger- ous features of his illness passed away. But when he had returned to the field, another temp- tation tried his soul. He was still far from well. Fever clung to him and he could not completely rid himself of it. Compelled to go to the hills 16 242 MISSIONARY HEROES and expecting relief there, a severer attack of fever than any he had suffered came upon him. The physician told him he would not insure his life six months longer in India, if the fever con- tinued. Every mail brought letters from home urging him to come back to America. The Board had arranged for it and even ordered it. Fel- low-missionaries urged him to return. But he believed that if he should return he would never be permitted to come back to the India work. He preferred, as he said, to die at his post if neces- sary. Finally, when this last and severest attack came, Kinsinger said : "Well, I have held out long enough. If it please thee, dear Lord, I am Ready to ready to go home." He began to plan the jour- go home ney ; but, in a day or two, all symptoms of the fever had left him and he soon felt better than for years, save for a lingering pain in the chest. He then sought and was granted the privilege of remaining in India six months longer at a re- duced salary, to test his ability to stand the cli- mate. Slowly, but surely he fought his way back to health again. After great and patient care, faithful physical exercise, and large dependence upon the power of God, the physician could pro- nounce him sound. He seemed just ready for a great life-work. Had he not at last conquered self in utter surrender to the will of God? Dr. Baer writes of this period : "He came back to us again as one restored and again plunged into the work, with his great soul chas- SAMUEL CHRISTIAN KINSINGER 243 tened by his enforced vacation, and his mind bent on doing all he could to redeem the time which disease had stolen from his working days. I shall never forget the first conference when he returned to us after that long stay in Ceylon where he found health again. What an inspira- tion he was to us all ! He seemed to see further than anyone else, and as a prophet carried things that day. He seemed to be coming into his in- heritance, to be about to become a mighty force among us." When Kinsinger was placed in charge of the Third Boys' Boarding School and the Telugu congrega- appointment tion at Guntur, in the early spring of 1900, he was able to do his full share of work. His heart was buoyant with the expectation of many years of service. His general cheerfulness was in marked contrast to an often ill-concealed de- pression of the previous year. But at the very outset of what promised to be a missionary career of great usefulness, he was again struck down. The text of his last sermon to his Telugu con- Last sermon gregation at Guntur was, "The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; pray ye there- fore the Lord of the harvest that He would send forth laborers into His harvest." That after- noon, while attending another service, he was stricken with acute pains, which the physicians diagnosed as appendicitis, and he was hurried to the hospital at Madras for an operation as the 244 MISSIONARY HEROES only means of saving his life. The long and wearisome journey was accompanied with grow- ing weakness, and, despite all that loving hands could do, he was in a collapsed condition when he reached the hospital. At an early hour of July 26th, 1900, the end of earth came peacefully and the joys of heaven opened to his spirit. The end That evening faithful friends accompanied his body back to the mission at Guntur, where all the missionaries awaited their arrival, together with a multitude of the native people who came from motives of respect and love. A great crowd wit- nessed his interment in Guntur; Christians, Hindus, Mohammedans, Parsees, all were there. His remains were laid to rest according to a de- sire expressed some time before, not with those of Gunn and Snyder, Nichols and Rowe, but alone of his race, in the little Christian cemetery of his native brethren for whom he had given the last full measure of devotion. The heartbroken native Christian, after laying away his beloved dead, often turns to Kinsinger's grave and finds comfort in the fact that one who came so far to point out the path of life to him lies also in the same acre to await the resurrec- tion trumpet. His last will Upon his death it was learned that he had bequeathed his life insurance of $2,000.00, after a few incidental expenses had been met, to the establishment of a new station. Having erected a modest stone above his grave, bearing the in- SAMUEL CHRISTIAN KINSINGER 245 scription in the Telugu, according to his request, "Jesus is mighty to save," his name, date of birth and death, the proceeds were used as he had willed. The mission station for which he prayed and labored in his life has been estab- lished at Chirala. The bungalow erected there is called the Kinsinger Memorial. It is hoped that soon a modest yet substantial church may also rise upon those Chirala sands. But his true memorial lies in the hearts of the many touched by his wonderful spiritual influence. Short as his life was and hampered by illness, a fellow- wherever it touched men it left an impress that missionary's tribute they could not soon forget. To this influence and its source, Dr. J. H. Harpster alludes in a letter : "He left behind him here a memory redolent and sweet, the memory of a man the like of whom for gentleness, for sweetness of disposition, for gen- eral lovableness of character, one does not often meet. There passed from among us, on the threshold of his missionary career, one of the most devoted Christian missionaries that ever came over to this India Mission. His dedication of himself to the cause of Christian India was utter. Having put his hand to the plow he never gave even a glance backward. In heart, mind and soul he utterly expatriated himself from the land of his birth that, living or dying, he might give himself to India." So Samuel Christian Kinsinger lived and died. We fain would have detained him on earthly 246 MISSIONARY HEROES fields of service, but as Florence Nightingale said of David Livingstone, "If God took him it was that his life was completed in God's sight." 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