Cibrarjp of t:b« t:hcoloo[ical ^tminavy 
 
 PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY 
 
 FROM THE LIBRARY OF THE 
 
 REVEREND CHARLES ROSENBURY ERDMAN 
 D.D., LL.D. 
 
 BX 7260 ,G38 G39 1892 
 Gates, Caleb Frank, 1857- 
 
 1946. 
 A Christian business man 
 
^u rim^ 
 
 I 1- ■" 
 
 ^**>oai:ALii'>'' 
 
 .♦ 
 
 CHRISTIAN BUSINESS MAN 
 
 BIOGRAPHY OF 
 
 DEACON C. F. GATES 
 
 BY HIS SON ^ / 
 
 CALEB FRANK GATES 
 
 BOSTON AND CHICAGO: 
 
 Congregational Suntrao^Scfjool anti ^Publisbing Soctetg 
 
Copyright, 1892, 
 By Congregational Sunday-School and Publishing Society 
 
Ea 0VLX iIH0tf)er, 
 
 WHO WALKED WITH OUR FATHER FOR THIRTY-NINE YEARS 
 
 AND REJOICED IN HIS LABORS, 
 
 THIS 
 
 SKETCH IS DEDICATED BY 
 
 HER CHILDREN 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2009 with funding from 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/christianbusinesOOgate 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 1824-1838. 
 His ancestors, birth, and parentage. — Childhood. — Life at 
 Middletown. — Aunt Nancy Griswold and her training. — 
 Church attendance. — Aunt Nancy's admonitions 9 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 1838-1846. 
 His Uncle Caleb Gates. — Life on the farm at East Haddam. 
 
 — Sister Elizabeth. — The district school. — Teaching school. — 
 Boarding round. — Sister's counsels. — Betrothal. — Uniting 
 with the church. — Aunt Nancy's letters and prayers ... 23 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 1846. 
 He leaves the farm In quest of employment. — Finding a 
 situation. — Small beginnings. — His faithfulness. — Promo- 
 tion.— Making friends. — Reading. — The lyceum. — Singing 
 school. — Keeping a journal. — Love of nature. — His mother's 
 counsels 38 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 1846-1851. 
 His religious life. — Remembering sermons. — Love of the 
 Sabbath. — Spiritual strivings. — Christian service. —Carrying 
 
 burdens.— Finding peace 60 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 1851-1855. 
 His removal to new scenes. — Marriage. — Life in New 
 Haven. — Activity in Christian work. —Birth of a daughter. 
 
 — Call to Middletown refused. — Going West. — Congrega- 
 tionalism in the West. — The mission church. — The American 
 Car Works. — Cholera 62 
 
6 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 1855-1867. 
 The closing up of the American Car Works. — Care for a 
 poor widow. — Entering into business. — Business principles. 
 
 — Failure in business. — Devotion to the church. — The South 
 Congregational Church. — Diligence in business. — Public 
 spirit — The war. — Testimony of Rev. W. B. Wright. — His 
 care for his pastor 77 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 1867-1878. 
 His life in Geneva, Illinois. — Love of the country.- De- 
 votion to his family. — Service in the village church. — Relations 
 towards his pastor. — Sending his sons to college. — Return 
 to the city. — His alert mind. — Relations to the Chicago The- 
 ological Seminary and the First Congregational Church. — 
 Sickness and death of his son Edward. — Giving a son to the 
 
 ministry 94 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 1878-1881. 
 His interest in foreign missions. — Consecrating a son to 
 foreign missions. — Aid to the cause. — Study of foreign 
 missions. — Addresses to the churches on missions. — Letters 
 
 to his son.— Prayer for missions 109 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 1881-1884. 
 His interest in home missions. — Branch churches. — The 
 Randolph Street Mission. — Sympathy with the poor. — Plans 
 for reaching the neglected classes. — His valuation of personal 
 service. — Beginnings of the Chicago City Missionary Society.— 
 Chosen president of the society. — His self-sacrifice for the 
 work. — Plea for the neglected classes. — Addresses to the 
 
 churches on city missions 125 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 1884-1890. 
 
 His work for the Bohemians. — Beginnings of the work in 
 
 Chicago. — The coming of Rev. E. A. Adams.— His study of 
 
 the Bohemians. — ^ Personal service. — Broad views of the 
 
 work. — Incessant activity. — Bible study. — Sense of ill desert. 
 
 — Prayer for guidance in business. — Love of the neglected 
 classes. — Organization of the Bethlehem Church. — Laid aside 
 
 by illness. — The building of the church. — Its dedication . . 148 
 
Contents. 7 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 1890. 
 The formation of the Chicago Congregational Club. — 
 His address, '' The Duties of Christian Laymen to the Neg- 
 lected Classes." — His last address before the Club .... 170 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 1890. 
 The return of his missionary son. — The journey to New 
 York. — Sickness. — Death 184 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 Memorial address of Rev. E. A. Adams 191 
 
A CHRISTIAN BUSINESS MAN. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE BEGINNINGS OF A LIFE. 
 
 IN May, 1662, twenty-eight men purchased 
 from the Indians a large and valuable tract 
 of land lying on both banks of the Connecticut 
 River, about thirty miles from its mouth, and 
 known as " Thirty Mile Island." The proprie- 
 tors began a settlement on the west bank of the 
 river, and the plantation grew rapidly. In 1668 
 it was incorporated under the name of Haddam, 
 which included the present town of East Had- 
 dam, then known by the Indian name of Mache- 
 moodus. 
 
 The first settlers were for the most part from 
 Hartford, Wethersfield, and Windsor. One of 
 these original proprietors was George Gates, who 
 came from Hartford to assist in founding the new 
 town. He was born in England in 1634. There 
 is a record in an old Bible of the Gates family 
 which styles him " the first from England." 
 When the town of Haddam was incorporated 
 he was chosen as its representative in the Colo- 
 nial Assembly, and served in that capacity four 
 
10 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 years — 1668-73. Later he became a captain of 
 militia, and was thenceforth known as Captain 
 George Gates. In 1685 he removed to the east 
 bank of the river, and from that time to the pres- 
 ent some of his descendants have always been 
 found in the town of East Haddam. 
 
 Captain George Gates married Sarah Olmsted, 
 granddaughter of James Olmsted, who came 
 from England in 1632 and became one of the 
 original proprietors of Hartford. Her mother 
 was a daughter of Joseph Loomis, who was one 
 of the earliest settlers of the town of Windsor. 
 Thus the founders of the Gates family in America 
 are numbered among the founders of those towns 
 in the beautiful valley of the Connecticut River. 
 
 Caleb Foote Gates, the subject of this 
 sketch, bore the names of his grandfather and 
 grandmother. His grandfather was Deacon Caleb 
 Gates, of East Haddam, and his grandmother 
 was Esther Foote, a descendant of Nathaniel 
 Foote, who came from England in 1634 and set- 
 tled in Watertown, Conn. Their children were 
 four — Caleb, Selden, Russell, and Esther. 
 
 Russell Gates, the father of Caleb Foote Gates, 
 was born July 16, 1786, and died of apoplexy 
 July 26, 1834, when his son Caleb was ten years 
 old. In his early manhood Russell Gates was 
 known and esteemed as a capable and respectable 
 young man, a worthy scion of the respectable 
 family into which he was born. He married a 
 widow, Mrs. Mabel Kelsey, the daughter of George 
 
The Beginnings of a Life. 11 
 
 Griswold, of Killingworth, Conn., a union which 
 did not prove in all respects a happy one, not 
 from any grave misdemeanors on either part, but 
 from a certain incompatibility of temperament 
 which in time, by mutual consent, led to theii* 
 separation. Mrs. Kelsey had two children by her 
 former husband, Sophia and Cynthia, and she 
 bore two children to Russell Gates — Esther 
 Elizabeth, born September 2, 1821, and Caleb 
 Foote, born April 20, 1824. 
 
 Russell Gates removed from East Haddam, and 
 made his home for a time in the Highlands, on 
 the banks of the Hudson River, nearly opposite 
 West Point. It was here that his son Caleb was 
 born, and he was christened in the chapel of the 
 West Point Military Academy. 
 
 Upon the breaking up of the home, the little 
 girl, who was always called by her second name, 
 Elizabeth, went to live with her father's brother 
 Caleb on a farm at East Haddam ; but the boy 
 was sent to his mother's sister, Nancy Griswold, 
 in Springfield, N. Y. He was then only four 
 years old and knew little of his father, who died 
 six years later. His mother lived nearly thirty 
 years longer. 
 
 Even before this date Caleb seems to have been 
 sent away from home for a time, and his infancy 
 was robbed of the sweet memories that should 
 cluster around that happy period of life. In his 
 di'ary of December 20, 1848, commenting on a 
 ghost story which had afforded him much amuse- 
 
12 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 ment, he recounts a little of his own experience 
 in childhood as follows : — 
 
 Owing to some things peculiar in the situation of 
 our family, I was early initiated into the mysteries 
 of "boarding out." When four years old I went to 
 
 reside in the family of Mrs. S , in Brooklyn, 
 
 N. Y. She was a fine, matronly lady in reduced cir- 
 cumstances, and so obliged to pursue some daily avo- 
 cation to sustain herself and her sick husband, who 
 died after a long illness. After his departure the 
 
 family consisted of Mrs. S , her two daughters, 
 
 and myself. The names of the two daughters were 
 Nancy and Melvina, and their employment " mantua- 
 makiug." Now so long as the mother was at home 
 I had fine times, and received every attention and 
 kindness to be expected by one in such a situation ; 
 but when she left home and the two girls had the 
 ordering of my person, farewell to all peace of mind 
 and rest of body. It seemed as if they tortured their 
 brains for the invention of some new and strange 
 ways in which to inflict suffering on my poor little 
 body. They used to trounce me with the prunings of 
 the garden trees, hang me up by my arms in the 
 garret, and cause me to abstain from food when a 
 crust of bread would have been relished, and, worst 
 of all, they used to scare me with such horrid lies 
 about Old Scratch as ought to have blistered their 
 tongues and burned their cheeks for shame. 
 
 I remember one day in particular. It was a glori- 
 ous afternoon, and, having escaped from the confine- 
 ment of an infant school, I frolicked merrily along 
 the street until a clay hole attracted ray attention, and 
 
The Beginnimjs of a Life. 13 
 
 with my fellows I plunged in and fell to making mar- 
 bles of clay. Soon my sister chanced to pass by and 
 espied my white head. Giving me a piece of licorice, 
 she told me to go right home. Miss Nancy met me 
 at the door and savagely demanded where I had been 
 so long. In my boyish simplicity I told the whole 
 story, and, by way of compensation for my frankness, 
 was ordered to go to bed without my supper, and was 
 told that Old Scratch would appear to me that very 
 night. It is utterly impossible for me to describe my 
 sensations as I stripped off my garments and en- 
 sconced my body in the bedclothes. Long and anx- 
 iously I awaited the coming of his highness, and as 
 some sound differing from the usual hum of the city 
 was borne into my chamber my heart would beat 
 wildly against its casement and my respiration was of 
 the shortest kind imaginable. At last I perceived 
 a most awful figure entering the chamber door, shak- 
 ing some iron chains and groaning out in sepulchral 
 tones, " W-h-e-r-e-'s t-h-a-t b-o-y?" Oh, the horrors 
 of that night ! With stealthy tread the figure neared 
 my bedside, grasped the bedclothes, and attempted to 
 uncover me. For a few seconds I clung to the clothes 
 with desperate energy, then, completely overcome with 
 fright, I fainted and knew no more until I waked 
 and found it was early dawn. It was almost twenty 
 years ago, and yet every trivial circumstance is as 
 fresh before my mental vision as if it had happened 
 yesterday. 
 
 It was probably this period of his life that he 
 had in mind when he wrote to his wife soon after 
 their marriage, while she was visiting the home of 
 
14 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 her childhood, illustrating his thought by an allu- 
 sion to a work of fiction whicli they had been 
 reading together : " I trust that you reached home 
 in safety. Would that I could sympathize with 
 you from personal experience instead of mere ob- 
 servation ! Would to God that it had been mine 
 to have had thrown around me in early days some 
 such affectionate care and love as Mrs. Hamil- 
 ton's ! How different might I have been in youth 
 and manhood! My nature was full of warm, 
 gushing, clinging affection once ; but harsh and 
 deceitful conduct on the part of those to whose 
 care I was entrusted soon dried up those bursting 
 springs and made me, while yet in infancy, a cal- 
 culating and, at times, a deceitful child, even 
 when my heart was longing to make a full dis- 
 closure and receive a fond caress as much as did 
 Ellen's." 
 
 He always felt that his life had been shorn of 
 a grace which only a happy infancy and the lov- 
 ing ministrations of fond parents can give, and 
 the experience through which lie had passed made 
 him careful not to terrify children or alarm them. 
 Any attempt to frighten children into good be- 
 havior was sure to awaken his indignation. He 
 found a refuge from such cruel treatment in the 
 home of his aunt. 
 
 Nancy Griswold was a maiden lady, living in 
 her own house in Springfield, N. Y., and known 
 to all the village as Aunt Nancy Griswold. It 
 was to her home that Caleb Gates came in 1828, 
 
The Beginnings of a Life, 15 
 
 when he was only four years old, and it was to 
 her training that he owed much of the sterling 
 character which he achieved in later years. 
 
 Aunt Nancy was a woman of marked Christian 
 character. A few years later she became a great 
 sufferer. A letter written by EUzabeth Gates to 
 her brother, August 13, 1849, speaks of her in 
 these words: "What a bodily sufferer she is! 
 but she always comes forth like gold purified by 
 the fire. There is not one of our relatives whose 
 character I respect and esteem more than Aunt 
 Nancy's. We both have much for which to 
 thank her. Her counsels to me have never been 
 forgotten, and T presume you prize her early 
 training more and more every year." 
 
 She was a typical New England woman, some- 
 what austere and prim, slow to reveal her affec- 
 tions, but with a very loving heart hidden under 
 this somber exterior. She never married, and it 
 was perhaps impossible for her to know how much 
 the little boy committed to her charge longed for 
 some sign of love, some fond caress. On one 
 occasion she did show her affection for him. 
 After he had been with her for some time he one 
 day ventured to tell her of the experience already 
 described, when he had been so badly frightened 
 by some thoughtless girls — an experience which 
 had left its impression on him, making him timid 
 and afraid of darkness, but which he had never 
 dared to relate to any one before. To his surprise 
 tears filled his aunt's eyes as she listened to his 
 
16 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 tale and she said : " You poor boy ! why did n't 
 you tell me of this before?" and then she gave 
 him a tender kiss. Those tears and that kiss were 
 treasured up in the boy's mind as a very precious 
 memory. 
 
 In Springfield Caleb attended a private school 
 taught by a Mr. Dixon, and there he received a 
 thorough training in the elements of an English 
 education and began the study of Latin. Out 
 of school he split wood, drew water, and ran 
 errands for his aunt. She did not consider her 
 duty towards him finished when she had sent him 
 to school, but exercised a strict watch over him 
 and labored for his improvement, striving to fill 
 his mind with good thoughts and to occupy his 
 time with good books. That he recognized his 
 indebtedness to her for thus forming his taste for 
 good reading appears from the following record 
 in his diary : — 
 
 February 23^ 1849. — The day has passed and I am 
 once more at home and happy among my dear folios. 
 Ah, how thankful I am that my good aunt instilled 
 into my mind a love for good reading, instead of 
 allowing me to spend the winter evenings among a 
 profane rabble from whom I could have gained nought 
 save vice, and who would, in all probability, have 
 stripped me of every semblance of vh-tue ! It used 
 to seem exceedingly hard to be debarred from en- 
 gaging in what was termed innocent sport with my 
 schoolmates, and many a time did I steal to the win- 
 dow and peep wishfully through the curtains as the 
 
The Beginnings of a Life. 17 
 
 sleds whirred past the house or the shouts of some 
 frolicsome game made the welkiu ring again. But 
 now I look back and thank God for the restraint 
 under which, through my aunt, he kept me, thus an- 
 swering my nightly prayer, " Lead us not into temp- 
 tation, but deliver us from evil." Verily it is good 
 for the child that he be early taught the great lesson 
 of subjection, without which 
 
 "None knoweth his place, yet all refuse to serve; 
 None weareth the crown, yet all usurp the scepter." 
 
 A pen picture of that Springfield home occurs 
 in his diary of July 27, 1848, written at a time 
 when his sister and half-sisters were there : — 
 
 While gazing on this scene, my mind involuntarily 
 flits to the home of my boyhood. There, in the little 
 front room, sits Aunt Nancy, sisters Sophia, Cyn- 
 thia, and, I hope, Elizabeth. How calm and pleasant 
 aunt's countenance as she talks of other days when 
 I was her boy and of the friends of that period now 
 scattered far o'er the surface of earth or resting in 
 quiet beneath it ! Her brow still wears the same quiet 
 serenity, betokening thoughts not so fanciful and gay 
 as encrao;e the minds of our misses and maidens of 
 this generation, but deep and fervent, freighted richly 
 with the weal of humanity and the cause of our God. 
 Ah, how I would like to creep slyly in and give her 
 a buss before she could utter a lecture on manners 
 and modesty ! And those sisters ! how pleasantly 
 strange to see them all together ! — a sight I have not 
 witnessed since the days of my infancy. Even to 
 think of this picture makes my heart beat quicker and 
 the wishes rise fast. 
 
18 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 Aunt Nancy required her charge to read his 
 Bible, the Westminster Catechism, and The Mis- 
 sionary Herald. Every month the missionary 
 magazine was read from cover to cover, not even 
 the notices of contributions being omitted. The 
 little child and the gray-haired woman together 
 bent over open charts and traced the onward 
 course of the gospel of salvation in the world. 
 In this way the kingdom of God became a very 
 real thing to the growing boy, and he acquired 
 a knowledge of the geography of the kingdom 
 and an interest in its affairs which were never 
 lost. He dated his interest in missions from the 
 lessons which he learned at his aunt's knee. His 
 aunt was poor, but she was accustomed to give 
 regularly to all charitable objects and especially 
 to the cause of missions. In 1838 some of her 
 neighbors honored her with a donation party. 
 Writing to her nephew of that occasion, she 
 said : — 
 
 My dear Son, — I fancy you will say, "I believe 
 aunt is going to receive this year all she ever put into 
 the treasury of the Lord." Let me tell you I have 
 been led to examine my motives in giving, and cannot 
 but hope that they are such as to secure a future 
 reward. I now say to you as I have often said 
 before, It is safe to do our duty. 
 
 Under Aunt Nancy's instructions her charge 
 learned to lay aside a part of his small earnings 
 for the work of the gospel ; and when the time 
 
The Beginnings of a Life. 19 
 
 came to distribute what he had thus accumulated, 
 the question of its use became a very serious one 
 to him, although the sum was small. He felt that 
 he was a steward of tliat money and must put it 
 to the best possible use ; and so he made a thor- 
 ough study of the several benevolent societies of 
 the Congregational Church, and obtained a knowl- 
 edge of their origin, aim, and methods which was 
 the basis of his giving even in later years. 
 
 Under her instructions too he formed the habit 
 of regular attendance on church services and the 
 Sabbath-school. In after years he spoke of this 
 period of his life in an address to children, as 
 follows : — 
 
 AmoDg the earliest memories of my hfe is that of 
 an infant-class room, with its little raised seats, aad 
 pictures of Bible scenes hung on the walls, and from 
 the time I was six until I was twenty-one years old 
 I cannot remember more than half a dozen Sundays 
 when I did not go to church — and those were Sun- 
 days when I was prevented by sickness. Very largely 
 my education came by attendance upon church and 
 Sunday-school. Twenty-five years of regular attend- 
 ance upon church, with all its precious privileges, is 
 enough to make any one grow in grace and in wis- 
 dom, and to lay the foundations of a character that 
 will win the favor of God and man. 
 
 Such were the influences surrounding the boy- 
 hood of Caleb Gates. We cannot close this chap- 
 ter better than by transcribing some of Aunt 
 
20 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 Nancy's words to her nephew, written after he 
 had left her fireside : — 
 
 My dear Boy^ — I have nothing new to say to you 
 by way of advice, but must beg you to remember and 
 practice what I have told you before. Always act 
 from principle ; do what is right, whatever sacrifice of 
 feeling or apparent interest it may cost you. Look to 
 God for strength to do your duty. Pray ! oh, pray 
 that you may be kept from the follies and vices that 
 are in the world ! 
 
 I trust that you will be very obedient, kind, and 
 obhging to your uncle ; in short, do all you can to 
 promote his happiness. Strive to make all around 
 you happy ; that is the best way to be happy yourself. 
 A person that is supremely selfish must be miserable. 
 I hope you will improve the opportunities you enjoy 
 in the best possible manner, and be sure you improve 
 the heart as well as the head. Cultivate the strictest 
 moral principle, and beware of the smallest deviation 
 from what is right. Small departures lead to greater 
 ones, and if your feet once begin to sHde in the 
 downward course, you know not where you will stop. 
 I hope you will be very particular about your asso- 
 ciates. Keep no company except with those who will 
 be calculated to make you wiser and better ; be par- 
 ticular about your manners, for you know a man who 
 possesses true, genuine poUteuess of manners can 
 have more influence in society, other things being 
 equal ; and by no means choose for your intimate 
 friends those who are low and vulgar in their habits. 
 Always treat the opinions of those who are older than 
 yourself with respect, and if in any case you feel 
 
The Beginnings of a Life. 21 
 
 obliged to differ from them, do it with all due defer- 
 ence to tlieir age and experience. 
 
 Endeavor to acquire the habit of denying yourself 
 in order to promote the happiness of others. In this 
 way you will lay a permanent foundation for your own 
 happiness, for in my opinion the less selfish we are, 
 the more happy. Be obliging and kind to every one, 
 but especially to those with whom you live. Remem- 
 ber the lessons I have often given you on this subject 
 and reduce them to practice, and, whatever else 3^ou 
 neglect, do not neglect the interests of your soul. 
 Everything else dwindles when compared to this. This 
 life is exceedingly short at the longest, but eternity ! 
 oh, the eternity that lies beyond this short state of 
 probation ! My dear boy, are you preparing for that 
 dread eternity ? Do you feel that Jesus is your Friend 
 and will plead your cause before the bar of your 
 offended Judge? Oh, be entreated to look well to 
 this thing ! The consequences of a mistake here are 
 tremendous. Oh, seek the Lord with all your heart, 
 and daily pray for grace to guide your youthful foot- 
 steps ! When you write, tell me your feelings on this 
 subject with the same frankness as of old, for be 
 assured your aunt will never cease to feel a deep 
 interest in your temporal and spiritual state. This 
 church has appointed six o'clock in the morning and 
 six in the evening as a concert of prayer in the closet, 
 and you are remembered by your aunt at these sea- 
 sons. I do not pray that you may be rich or great 
 (as the world estimates greatness), but I do pray that 
 you may be good and do good in the world, that you 
 may be kept from the snares that beset your path 
 through this world of sin, and that the great Shep- 
 
22 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 herd of Israel would carry you as a lamb in his 
 bosom. Now, my dear boy, will you not unite with 
 me at the throne of grace at the hour of six as often 
 as possible ? If you are obliged to be at work some- 
 times when the hour comes, think, "Now my dear 
 aunt has gone to her chamber and she will pray for 
 me," and lift your heart to God and ask him to give 
 me a spirit of prayer, not only for you, but for the 
 world of rebellious sinners, that they may be brought 
 home to God. 
 
CHAPTER IT. 
 
 THE FORl^IATION OF CHARACTER. 
 
 AUNT NANCY was the guardian of the 
 growmg boy for ten years, and then, in 
 1838, he went to live with his uncle, Caleb Gates, 
 on his farm at East Haddam. He went at his 
 uncle's request, accompanied by a promise that 
 he should receive a college education — a promise 
 which was never fulfilled. 
 
 Caleb Gates had been a soldier in the War of 
 1812, and could recollect many incidents of the 
 Revolutionary War told him by his father, who 
 participated in it. He was a hard-working, close- 
 fisted man, who made little money out of his 
 stony farm in Creek Row, but by dint of the 
 strictest economy contrived to save a considerable 
 portion of his earnings ; and in this way, so char- 
 acteristic of New England farmers, he had gath- 
 ered what was then considered a fair competence. 
 For twenty-six winters he had taught school, and 
 farmed it during the summers ; going over the 
 same ground year after year, both as to education 
 and as to culture of the soil. He was not a mem- 
 ber of the church, but was strictly honest and 
 upright in his dealings with his fellows. He 
 always attended church services on the Sabbath, 
 but did not attend religious meetings held between 
 
 23 
 
24 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 the Sabbaths ; such meetings seemed to him a 
 needless interruption of the work of the week. 
 He held that the Sabbaths were for the observance 
 of religious duties, and the week days for work. 
 " Six days shalt thou labour," he was wont to say, 
 as if that were a statement of the whole duty of 
 man. Every Sabbath he would bring forth the 
 family Bible, read a portion of Scripture, and offer 
 prayer ; but the book was seldom opened during 
 the week days following the Sabbath. In this 
 same Bible he was accustomed to mark the texts 
 of the sermons which he heard from week to week, 
 and to make note of any unusual events. 
 
 His maiden sister Esther lived with him, but she 
 was an invalid, and his cousin Maria kept house 
 for him. Uncle Caleb was fond of talking about 
 self-made men. A self-made man, as he under- 
 stood it, was one who attained success without 
 any help from others, and he was careful that his 
 nephew's chances of becoming such a man should 
 not be marred by any unnecessary help from him. 
 Still he was fond of his nephew and proud of his 
 ability. The young man recorded his impressions 
 of his uncle in his journal : — 
 
 He was, in many respects, a narrow-minded man, 
 but this was owing more to early training, or lack of 
 training, than to any natural deficiency. He had few 
 books, and those were of a severely Calviuistic cast. 
 In the course of his early manhood he was thrown 
 under influences exactly the opposite of those in whicli 
 he had been trained in youth, namely, Universalistic. 
 
The Formation of Character. 25 
 
 I imagine that be never really believed these tenets, 
 but they shook his faitli in the old doctrines of tlie 
 New England churches so far that he was considered 
 by many a '' free thinker." 
 
 The inliuences of this houseliold were quite 
 different from those of the home in Springfield. 
 The home of Uncle Caleb was lacking in the peace 
 and the warm piety of Aunt Nancy's cottage. 
 Uncle Caleb and Cousin Maria had grown some- 
 what crabbed in their daily intercourse, although 
 they were not lacking in true affection for each 
 other. 
 
 During the summer months young Caleb worked 
 on his uncle's farm. His old friend, Mr. Timothy 
 F. Green, thus speaks of that work : — 
 
 '' The first I remember of him was when he 
 came to live with his uncle, Caleb Gates, in Creek 
 Row. He was a boy of fourteen years. The 
 prospects before him were anything but encourag- 
 ing. The farm was small and not highly produc- 
 tive ; in fact, the only thing in sight was hard 
 work and small pay. Uncle Caleb was a good 
 man, no doubt, but he had no sympathy with a 
 young man who Avanted to do something better on 
 the farm than had ever been done before. The 
 old way was good enough for him; but '3'oung 
 Caleb,' as we then called him, was determined to 
 improve whatever he took hold of ; and the work 
 of strong hands, backed by a willing spirit, soon 
 began to show itself on the farm. The barn was 
 
26 A Christian Business Mem. 
 
 repaired ; the stone fences were straightened up ; 
 trees were set out. Some people are yet living 
 who can remember the row of quince trees which 
 Caleb F. Gates planted. They grew to be fine 
 bearing trees ; but have long since, like the old 
 uncle and aunt, passed away, having finished their 
 work in this life. The general improvement was 
 a subject of remark among the neighbors, and 
 established the young man in public favor." 
 
 With much that was hard and cheerless in this 
 life on the farm, there were also gentler and 
 brighter influences. For a few years Caleb Gates 
 enjoyed the companionship and sympathy of 
 his sister Elizabeth, who was still a member of 
 their uncle's household. She afterwards went 
 to Housatonic, Mass., at the earnest entreaty of 
 her most intimate friend, Elizabeth Clark. Upon 
 her marriage to Mr. Albert Whitmore, of Housa- 
 tonic, she desired Elizabeth Gates to share her 
 new home and be her companion. 
 
 Elizabeth was nearly three years older than 
 lier brother Caleb, and was a girl of very lovely 
 Christian character. Her sisterly love for him 
 was mingled with a motherly care, even in their 
 childhood. Her affection for her brother and 
 tender solicitude for his welfare are manifested in 
 lines written to him February 23, 1845 : — 
 
 I love to thuik of those days of infancy, when we 
 were all in all to each other, when your head rested on 
 my bosom in quiet slumber, and my kiss and caress 
 
The Formation of Character. 27 
 
 were sufficient to heal all the little troubles and many 
 of the big ones ; but you were too young to recollect 
 those days. You do not know how much pleasure 
 your letters afford me now. Remember that I am far 
 from home, far from friends dearly loved, and never 
 greeted by my brother's cheerful voice, and never is a 
 lonely hour divested of its sadness by his smile ; and 
 thus it has ever been. In infancy we were together 
 and loved each other with all the ardor of which our 
 young hearts were capable ; then came separation and 
 its blighting effects. At East Haddam we again en- 
 joyed each other's society long enough to revive the 
 tlame, only to be parted again. Oh, what a sweet 
 thought that there will be no parting in heaven — no 
 tears, no sighs, no sounds of discord — all harmony 
 and praise ! 
 
 Do you not find, my dear brother, that the moment 
 you cease praying you go far astray? Often when I 
 feel very much perplexed aud do not know what to 
 do, memory turns to that sweet interview on the hill. 
 Dear place ! how often do I wish I were there ! Then, 
 as I knelt by your side with naught but the canopy of 
 heaven to o'erspread us and the book of nature open 
 before us — then and there did I feel the soothing 
 influence of prayer. I was strengthened ; my duty 
 seemed plainer, and I felt willing and able to under- 
 take the task of performing it. Ever shall I remem- 
 ber my brother's sympathy and support at that time, 
 and it will bind him still nearer to my heart. 
 
 The brother and sister never lived together 
 again, after the separation at East Haddam, until 
 they reached the heavenly home. 
 
28 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 In the winter months young Caleb attended the 
 district school. His impressions of that school 
 are recorded in his diary of November 10, 1848 : 
 
 Confined as I had been under the guardianship of 
 Aunt Nancy, " queen of maids," there was all the 
 luxury a fatted calf feels when turned out to exercise, 
 in running, roaming, studying, skating, and visiting 
 when and where I would. Up to that time I had been 
 under a disciplinary regime, but with the good-by of 
 my aunt I was free. Yes ; fourteen and free ! Used 
 to an academic thoroughness in everything, the leeway 
 of the district school was fine, and the way I wrote 
 pretty lines for fair maidens on the other side of the 
 schoolroom and sketched hands and hearts for their 
 special consideration was anything but prosperous for 
 me in the science of mathematics. And then those 
 fairy trippings round the old trembling stove to the 
 tune of "Green grow the rushes, oh!" And those 
 short, sharp, electric smacks, which caused such 
 strange vibrations among the nerves of all new begin- 
 ners — how vividly do I see them all ! 
 
 Three years later he reviewed the same period 
 as follows : — 
 
 At fourteen I went to uncle's, pleased with the idea 
 of release from books and engaging in the training of 
 colts and cattle. Uncle is a peculiar man, and in some 
 points a very small one. He saw I had some talent, 
 and, compared with the boys of the neighborhood, not 
 a little mental advancement ; so he concluded that I 
 
TJic Formation of Character. 29 
 
 would learn enough in a poor district school to answer 
 all my purposes, and there he sent me. From my 
 entrance there I date a retrograde course. I was 
 naturally vain, and my decided superiority to the rest 
 of the school llattered my vanity while it strengthened 
 habits of indolence by rendering it unnecessary for 
 me to make much exertion to keep up with my classes. 
 The winter was fooled away and summer came with 
 its toils, and I struggled through with it after a fashion. 
 Another winter came, and now thoughts of the fu- 
 ture flashed upon my mind, making me ashamed of my 
 neglect in times past. A select school was started. I 
 persuaded my uncle to let me attend, and after many 
 reiterations of his old saws about men becoming men 
 in spite of obstacles if they only had manliness 
 enough within them, he consented. That winter I 
 studied hard and gained somewhat, or rather regained, 
 for at the end of the winter I was actually not much 
 farther advanced in some branches than when I left 
 Mr. Dixon's school in Springfield. The next winter 
 too I studied hard, to Mr. Griswold's satisfaction 
 and my own profit ; but on the return of the next win- 
 ter I took what seemed to me a false step. My desire 
 was to go to Brainard Academy, or some other good 
 school, and get the elements of a thorough education ; 
 and then, I thought, I could go on and perfect it by 
 degrees. My uncle decided, on considerations of 
 dollars and cents, that 1 must teach school, and so be 
 earning something. I protested, declaring that 1 was 
 no more fit to teach school than a mule, and that I 
 ought to learn more of the rudiments myself first. 
 His will, of course, prevailed, and in IMillington, 
 Northeast, 1 launched my pedagogical bark upon the 
 
30 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 troubled sea of a teacher's experience. How many 
 dark hours I passed in that old schoolhouse, with its 
 oaken stools, its cracked stove, its rents and fissures 
 through which the winds and storms kept up a free 
 circulation of air and snow and rain ! And then that 
 " boarding round " ! How often did my heart sink 
 within me at the thought of exploring some new region 
 and making myse4f agreeable to some new family ! 
 But I lived through it, and taught the second winter 
 in the same place, and the next winter in Deep River, 
 for which I was not at all fitted. 
 
 The fourth winter I had learned somewhat in the 
 bitter school of experience, and so accomplished more 
 in my mission as a teacher. But how poorly did these 
 intellectual tasks and the visions of the winter fit me 
 for the wearying toils and dull routine of the farm ! I 
 was not contented. I felt that I must be either one 
 thing or the other, that half schoolmaster and half 
 farmer was not the way to do it. 
 
 The places in which he taught school were five 
 or six miles distant from his uncle's farm, to which 
 he returned every Saturday afternoon. On Mon- 
 day morning he would set out early for his school, 
 in order to get there in time to light the fires 
 and sweep out the room before his scholars 
 should arrive. He generally walked this dis- 
 tance, and often when the snow lay deep upon 
 the yet unbroken roads. 
 
 During his first term, his sister wrote to him the 
 following cheering letter : — 
 
The Formation of Character. 31 
 
 New York, December 29, 1842. 
 My dear Brother^ — If you are in school, I pre- 
 sume you often go from your schoolroom tired in body 
 and worried in mind, feeling that you would like to be 
 alone and commune with your own heart ; and instead 
 of this quiet you are obliged to make yourself socia- 
 ble and agreeable through a long winter's evening. 
 Perhaps yo^L are never thus troubled, but your spirits 
 always keep the same even temperament, let come 
 what will. I wish it might be so with you, but should 
 it be otherwise, remember you have your sister's sym- 
 pathy, for I know by sad experience how to pity you. 
 But, let me add, some of the happiest hours of ray 
 life have been passed in the schoolroom, when left 
 alone at the close of the day, with naught to disturb 
 the quietude. 'T is then I have sought forgiveness, 
 guidance, and direction from my God, and found sweet 
 consolation in prayer. Oh, how should our hearts be 
 poured out in thankfulness that we, poor guilty worms 
 of the dust, have a Father in heaven that will hear 
 and answer us if we do but seek him aright ! And 
 how important it is that we should keep near to God, 
 and constantly strive to hold our hearts in subjection 
 to our Maker ! Elizabeth. 
 
 He began to teach in 1841, when he was seven- 
 teen years old. There is still in existence the 
 certificate given him by Mr. Octavius Emmons, 
 his last teacher in East Haddam. It reads as 
 follows : — 
 
 This certifies that Caleb F. Gates is a young man of 
 good moral character and industrious habits. He has 
 
32 A Christian Busmess Man. 
 
 attended my school during the past winter. His dili- 
 gence and close application to his studies merit much 
 praise, and I can cheerfully recommend him as well 
 qualified to teach a common district school, and think 
 he may profitably be employed in that business. 
 
 To this was appended the high-sounding certifi- 
 cate of the Visiting Committee : — 
 
 Having a desire to encourage the youth of the rising 
 generation in the pursuit of Learning, Virtue, and 
 Good Morals, and considering Encouragement the life 
 of Action, and a Good Name rather to be chosen than 
 Great Wealth, and having knowledge of the facts 
 stated by Mr. Emmons, we most cheerfully give our 
 assent to the above statement made by his instructor. 
 
 In the spring following his first term of teach- 
 ing, he received a letter from his sister from which 
 something may be inferred as to his success in 
 teaching and in laboring for the conversion of his 
 scholars : — 
 
 Dear Brother^ — I can rejoice with you in the bless- 
 ing the Lord has poured out upon your school the past 
 winter. What a consolation to see those under our 
 care walking in the ways of the Lord and choosing the 
 pearl of great price in the days of their youth ! I 
 trust you will continue faithful, looking to God for 
 direction and strength. A teacher's situation is truly 
 a responsible one, if we view it as we should. We 
 ought always to bear in mind that those under our 
 charge have immortal souls, and that we must one day 
 give an account for the manner in which we have 
 
The Formation of Character, 33 
 
 labored for their salvation. Oh, that we ma)' ever 
 walk in Wisdom's ways, and be enabled to teach her 
 precepts to all who may feel our influence ! 
 
 Elizabeth. 
 
 A little later she wrote again : — 
 
 I feel truly glad for your success in teaching the 
 past season. In every situation we must not forget 
 to ascribe the glory and honor to our heavenly Father, 
 remembering that of ourselves we are nothing ; and 
 unless we are continually supplied with grace and up- 
 held by the wisdom of God, we shall fail, however 
 sure we may feel in our own strength. I feel that it 
 is a great work to live the life of a Christian, to take 
 up the cross daily, and to so live that men may take 
 knowledge of me that I have been with Christ : but it 
 is my earnest prayer that I may be guarded and guided 
 and kept from all evil, seen and unseen, and may you, 
 likewise, my dear brother. 
 
 Mr. Gates' life in East Haddam was marked by 
 two events which had much to do with the shap- 
 ing of his life. It was there that he became en- 
 gaged and that he united with the church. 
 
 Just when his friendly interest in Mary Eliza 
 Hutchins ripened into love and was avowed in a 
 betrothal we cannot say ; it is a question whether 
 the awakening that took place in the mind of the 
 schoolboy, and the thoughts of the future which 
 spurred him to more diligent application, were 
 not the result of a kindling affection for a little 
 maiden who was the best scholar in the school. 
 
34 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 However that may be, when Caleb F. Gates left 
 East Haddam there was a very good understand- 
 ing between him and the maiden of his choice, 
 and the desire for a home was one of the motives 
 which was prompting him to seek to win his way 
 in the world. 
 
 The love of these two for each other was 
 strengthened and purified by their mutual love 
 for Christ, which was manifested in open profes- 
 sion at about the same time. The foundations of 
 Mr. Gates' Christian character were doubtless laid 
 under the instructions of his Aunt Nancy, while 
 he was living with her in Springfield. The seed 
 sown at that time slowly ripened into convictions 
 which led him to make open profession of his 
 faith in Christ by uniting with the church July 4, 
 1841, in company with his sister Elizabeth and 
 twenty-three others. Mary Eliza Hutchins had 
 united with the church at the previous commun- 
 ion. This ingathering was the result of a series of 
 revival meetings. In the old family Bible, Uncle 
 Caleb marked the text of the discourse deliv- 
 ered on that occasion by the pastor, Rev. Isaac 
 Parsons : " Our heart is not turned back, neither 
 have our steps declined from thy way " (Ps. 44: 
 18). And Elizabeth Gates thus recalls that event 
 in a letter written to her brother seven years later : 
 
 East Haddam is not the pleasantest place in the 
 world, but 'tis still home to me, and ever will be. I 
 have the recollections of childhood to endear that 
 
The Formation of Character, 35 
 
 place to me, which you have not ; but there are some 
 ties which we both have in unison. Our uncle we 
 both love and respect ; the dependence and obligation 
 rest more upon myself than upon you. It was in that 
 place that we stood side by side and took upon us the 
 vows of Christ's visible Church. How sacredly those 
 vows have been kept our heavenly Father alone knows 
 — mine but imperfectly. Were I judged according to 
 my works, there would be no hope for me. There, 
 too, is the grave of our father — there will he sleep 
 until tlie resurrection morn ; but where shall we be, 
 and what shall be the meeting between the members 
 of our family? Will it be still a divided family? O 
 Father, grant it otherwise ! 
 
 When he began to teach school, Caleb Gates 
 carried with him the Christian principles he had 
 thus openly professed ; and in after years he often 
 looked back on that period of his life with great 
 pleasure because of the scholars who found Christ 
 through his labors for them. 
 
 In this Christian work he was remembered and 
 aided by the same good woman who had watched 
 over him in his boyhood. His Aunt Nancy still 
 watched over him and counseled him while he 
 was teaching school. She wrote : — 
 
 I do rejoice that you feel your need of assistance to 
 enable you to discharge your duty in a manner that 
 will be acceptable both to God and to your employers. 
 You may be assured that you are not forgotten by your 
 aunt at the throne of grace. And, Caleb, I have felt 
 too deeply the responsibilities of a teacher, even of a 
 
36 A Chrhtian Business Man. 
 
 small school, not to pi:ay for one in whose success and 
 usefulness I feel the deepest interest. Continue to 
 look to God for aid, and ever cultivate a deep sense 
 of your dependence on him. We are told that it is the 
 blessing of the Lord that makethrich, and it is equally 
 true that it is his blessing which makes useful and 
 happy. I have often thought that young people were 
 generally disposed to undervalue their influence. Now 
 the truth is we do exert a powerful influence on the 
 community in which we live, whether we will or not ; 
 how important, then, that we bring our influence to 
 bear on the right side ! I once heard the remark that 
 our influence, so far as it went, was to make others 
 just like ourselves. What a powerful motive to effort 
 to be what we should be ! 
 
 I wish you to cultivate a deep sense of the value of 
 time ; try to improve every moment to some good pur- 
 pose. Read your Bible much. I believe it is a great 
 fault common to most young people of the present 
 day, even to those who are pious, that they neglect 
 their Bibles too much. In forming a consistent Chris- 
 tian character, there is no book like the Bible. It 
 gives me great pleasure to see that you appreciate my 
 feeble efforts to instruct 3'ou in the good way when 
 you were young. Believe me, my dear boy, many are 
 the hours of tender anxiety I have had for you, and 
 yet since you have been away from me I have often 
 had an almost overwhelming sense of my failure in the 
 full discharge of my duty towards you. I hope you 
 will profit by the little I did, and forgive me what I 
 neglected to do. I hope you will make great effort to 
 be spiritually minded. Set your standard high, and 
 feel that, with the help of God, you can make great 
 attainments in piety and usefulness. 
 
The Formation of Character, 37 
 
 As I have often told you before, so I tell you again, 
 Always act from iirincqile. Never, from the impulse of 
 feeling, do what your best judgment does not approve. 
 Being wildly led by the passions has been the ruin of 
 thousands of young men. Therefore I beg you will 
 be on your guard ; when contemplating any particular 
 course of conduct ask yourself, not whether it will be 
 popular, not whether it will be for your worldly inter- 
 est or emolument, but, Is it right? Will God approve 
 it? I have never prayed that you might make a great 
 display in the world, but I have prayed hundreds 
 of times that you might be a consistent Christian, a 
 man of integrity and uprightness, one whose influence 
 might be for good in the church and community ; and 
 so I will continue to pray, the grace of God helping 
 me, and I hope 1 may not be disappointed. 
 
 Those who knew Mr. Gates in the last years of 
 his life, and in the ripeness of his Christian char- 
 acter, will read these words with almost a sense of 
 awe, as if standing in the presence of one who 
 has wrestled with God and prevailed, so exactly 
 does her prayer seem to mirror the character 
 afterwards achieved by him for whom she prayed. 
 A lonely woman, in a qniet little town, by her 
 prayers is molding the lives of many whom she 
 never knew ; and we see her counsels embodied 
 in the character of the boy who was committed to 
 her faithful keeping. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 STARTING OUT IN LIFE. 
 
 SO long as he was in his minority, Caleb Gates 
 served his uncle faithfully, considering that 
 he was under obligation to do so ; but as soon as 
 he attained his majority he felt that it was equally 
 his duty to seek larger opportunities for his own 
 advancement and usefulness. Mr. Green says of 
 this period : — 
 
 Then another move must be made. The boy had 
 attained his majority and must strike out for himself. 
 The old uncle thought that the farm would give him 
 a livino- and that it was danoerous to venture into 
 untried paths, but the boy knew that something must 
 be done. There were a mother and a sister looking to 
 him for a future home and support, and he could not 
 see how the old farm would do it ; and then, he was 
 not content to spend his life as a mere Creek Row 
 farmer. He had begun to buy books, and had ac- 
 quired a taste for reading and study. Something 
 must be done ! Saturday night, after he had come 
 home from this half -day school, generally found him 
 at the old brick store, and there in the countingmom 
 the question of what to do was often talked over and 
 fully discussed. He liad what Andrew Carnegie, the 
 rich iron king, calls the three requisites for success, 
 namely, " pluck, perseverance, and poverty." He had 
 
Starting Out in Life. 39 
 
 them all, and the result was just exactly as Carnegie 
 said. 
 
 He left the farm April 1, 1846, and went to 
 Middletown by boat. He arrived there early in 
 the morning with only a small sum of money in 
 his pocket, knowing no one to whom he could 
 turn for assistance. As soon as the stores were 
 opened he went from one to another asking for 
 employment. At last he obtained a situation in 
 the dry goods store of Griswold & Smith. He was 
 to receive $200 per year, with permission to 
 sleep in the store. These terms having been 
 agreed upon, he went back to East Haddam, ob- 
 tained his trunk, brought it from the boat to the 
 store on his shoulder, and entered at once upon 
 the duties of his new employment. 
 
 In accepting this offer, with the small salary 
 attached to it, he was only acting upon principles 
 which in after years he commended to a friend 
 who was not willing to accept any situation unless 
 it brought him the compensation wliich he thought 
 he deserved for his services. "Now, my friend," 
 wrote Mr. Gates, " I feel that you have greatly 
 erred. I should have taken anything that would 
 have given me a bare living, and then, once at 
 work, 1 should have been proving to those around 
 me that I was not only not ashamed of work, but 
 was able to do more than was required of me. 
 You want right oft' what time alone can bring. I 
 worked five years for less than $500 when I knew 
 
40 A Christian Bumiess Man. 
 
 that I was worth more ; but I would have worked 
 for |5200 rather than be out of employment for 
 a day." 
 
 In his journal Mr. Gates recorded his thoughts 
 as he looked back upon his start in life : — 
 
 It is no small thing for a young man to launch his 
 untried bark upon the ocean of life, with no knowledge 
 of the shoals and rocks, and but a few shillings ven- 
 ture money ! It may seem quite romantic when we 
 read of it or hear of it, or when we look at it from 
 a distance ; but when you come to the real bona fide 
 voyage the azure hues depart. The rich may read and 
 laud the winners, but the thousands that go down ! 
 Who sings their ruin or drops a single tear ? 
 
 He wrote again on this theme November 28, 
 1852, soon after coming to New Haven : — 
 
 I have been perusing a little Sabbath-school book 
 entitled "Frank Harper ; or. The Country Boy in 
 Town," and it has not only brought up vividly before 
 me some sad days in my own experience, and the 
 trials to which I was exposed during the first years of 
 my semi-city life, — those hours of great loneliness, 
 when amid strangers I was sometimes sorely tempted, 
 — but it has also set me to thinking of the situation 
 of thousands of young men at this present moment. 
 There are many young men in this city, following the 
 various pursuits of life, who are as destitute of prof- 
 itable acquaintances as I was, and who are tempted 
 every day more mightily than I was. Some of these 
 young men come from pious families in the country, 
 
Starting J Out in Life. 41 
 
 where they have been used to hear the voice of prayer 
 morning and evening, and have been reguhir attend- 
 ants upon the worship of the sanctuary and students 
 of tlie Word of God. They have brothers and sisters 
 at home amid whose endearments the days of cliild- 
 hood and youth have passed quickly and joyously. 
 They have been accustomed to sympathy, and have 
 never known the want of a listening ear or words 
 of comfort in their griefs and trials ; but now, how 
 changed their lot ! Jhey are thrown into a board- 
 ing house, among hardened sinners, it may be, or care- 
 less trillers, or, perhaps, youths like themselves, in all 
 but the keen regrets at loss of home influences, wliich 
 in them have been dulled by time and new pursuits. 
 
 The experiences of those days gave him a very 
 tender sympathy with young men placed in simi- 
 lar circumstances, and he was always glad of an 
 opportunity to help them. 
 
 In his new situation, it was his duty to take 
 down the shutters in the morning, light the fires, 
 and sweep out the store, hi order to find time 
 for study he was accustomed to rise at four o'clock 
 and do his work ; then he would sit down with his 
 books until the business of the day opened. Now 
 there was a merchant in Middletown — Mr. At- 
 kins — who prided himself on having his store 
 open before any one else on the street. Soon 
 after Caleb Gates began his service wdth Griswold 
 & Smith, Mr. Atkins noticed that their store was 
 open before his own, and he took note of the fact 
 that they had a new clerk; but he said to him- 
 
42 A Chrlstiaii Business Man, 
 
 self, " A new broom sweeps clean," and waited, 
 expecting to see a falling off in promptness as 
 time passed by. In this he was disappointed ; 
 Griswold & Smith's store was still opened early 
 every morning as regularly as clockwork. The 
 new clerk, all unconscious that he was being 
 watched, applied himself to his work and was 
 growing steadily in tlie estimation of new friends 
 and acquaintances, whom he met in different 
 places where business took him ; while his employ- 
 ers were learning to esteem him for his kind and 
 gentlemanly manner and his faithful service. 
 
 He had been in Middletown about a year when 
 the directors of the old Middletown bank held a 
 meeting, as usual, but with an unusual matter to 
 talk about. The theme was stated in the form 
 of a question : — 
 
 " Who knows of a young man whom he can 
 recommend for the position of bookkeeper and 
 teller?" 
 
 Mr. Atkins was one of the directors of this 
 bank and one of the oldest merchants in the town. 
 He said that he knew a young man whom he 
 would recommend. 
 
 " Who is he ? " was the first question. 
 
 " A young man by the name of Gates," was the 
 reply. 
 
 '^ What do you know about him ? " 
 
 " I know that my store used to be the first one 
 in tlic street to bo opened in the morning, but now 
 wlien I come down the street I find that Gates has 
 
Starting Out in Life. 48 
 
 his employer's store opened and swept. I never 
 see him coming out of saloons or wasting liis 
 money smoking cigars, as most young men do, and 
 I see him at church and Sunday-school every 
 Sabbath; therefore I recommend Mr. Gates." 
 
 Mr. Gleason, the cashier, said that he knew 
 that wliat Mr. Atkins had said was true, and the 
 directors decided to offer the situation to Mr. 
 Gates ; but to their surprise the young clerk 
 declined it. He said : "1 know nothing of book- 
 keeping." 
 
 " Never mind," said Mr. Atkins ; " you can 
 learn." 
 
 " But," said the clerk, " I have agreed to stay 
 with my employers for one year, and it would not 
 be right for me to leave them before the expira- 
 tion of that period." 
 
 " I offer you a higher salary," said the aston- 
 ished merchant. 
 
 But Mr. Gates' ideas of honor were very strict, 
 and he would not even ask his employers to release 
 him from his agreement. Mr. Atkins, however, 
 was determined not to lose this opportunity for 
 securing an employ^ who could be so faithful 
 to his employer's interests; so he himself went to 
 Griswold & Smith and stated the case to them, 
 whereupon they summoned Mr. Gates and told 
 him that he had better not lose this opportunity 
 for bettering himself, as their own business was 
 small and did not present opportunities to rise. 
 So Mr. Gates became teller in the Middletown 
 
44 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 bank, and was afterwards advanced to the position 
 of bookkeeper. From that time he never again 
 sought a situation ; the situations sought him. 
 
 On the first of March, 1848, he summed up in 
 his journal the results of the venture he had 
 made in leaving the farm : — 
 
 I liave this morning started square Avith the world 
 in money matters, owing no man anything save good- 
 will, with S3. 52 in my pocket, good claims to the 
 amount of SO. 16, and doubtful claims to the amount 
 of $2; wardrobe, $60; hbrary, $50; making iu all, 
 S121.68, at low estimates. Then I have a good name, 
 worth at least the amount of my bond, $2,000, which 
 gives me the pretty sum of $2,121.68. Now if that 
 is not doing a fair business for such a blunderhead as 
 I, then I am no judge. One year and eleven months 
 ago I launched my bark upon the troubled sea of life, 
 without money or friends, among strangers and in 
 business of which I was as ignorant as Crusoe's man 
 Friday ; with but one decent change of raiment to my 
 back. Bending all my energies to the work of rising 
 in the world, not swiftly, but slowly and surely, I 
 gained the confidence of my employers and the public 
 before the first year was gone. Here again, in a new 
 place and a new business, I had to establish a new 
 name, and, thanks be to God ! I have in a measure 
 done it, so that now I feel strong and full of hope. 
 Notwithstanding many dark hours and numerous dis- 
 couragements, I have steadily advanced in worldly 
 store, in the number and worth of friends, and in 
 useful knowledge of books and men. So long as 
 blessed with henlth I am sure of a competence here, 
 and shall therefore let the future take care of itself. 
 
Startiyig Out m Life. 45 
 
 He soon found a pleasant boarding place and 
 home in the family of Mr. Charles Newton, whose 
 kindly interest and thoughtfulness for him find 
 frequent mention in his journal. 
 
 The five years spent in Middletown were event- 
 ful ones to Mr. Gates in the formation of his 
 character. It was a time of mental awakening 
 and invigoration. He formed friendships with 
 young men of kindred spirits — Jonathan Barnes, 
 John Summers, and others. In their walks they 
 talked over the books they were reading, and when 
 absent one from another their letters were full of 
 discussions of poets, politics, history, events of the 
 day in their own country and in foreign lands. 
 In his journal, Mr. Gates mentions the names of 
 thirty-one books which he read during his stay in 
 Middletown, all of them standard works, and his 
 friend, H. W. Barnes, declares the secret of his 
 success in this direction in a letter written to him : 
 "I know that you make it a practice to read at 
 least a little every day, and we are undoubtedly 
 of the same opinion, that a vast amount of infor- 
 mation is obtained by thus husbanding time." 
 The love of good reading clung to him through 
 life, and he became a wide reader, but one who 
 only cared for the best books. 
 
 Mr. Gates became a member of the Middletown 
 Lyceum, May 21, 1846, about tw^o months after 
 his arrival in that city, and he trained himself to 
 take part in its discussions. 
 
 He also attended the singing-school, and found 
 
46 A Christian Business Man, 
 
 both pleasure and profit in its sessions, where he 
 came in contact with the young people of the 
 town. One of his friends in a letter to him, writ- 
 ten at this period, thus enthusiastically eulogized 
 the singing-school of that day : " I said I had 
 been to singing-school. Ah, yes; and what a place 
 for enjoyment! If I were endowed from on high 
 with the power of trying to make the world 
 happy, and could do as I thought best to effect 
 that object, I believe I should make the whole 
 world one vast singing-school and myself the 
 master." 
 
 Soon after coming to Middletown, he formed 
 the habit of recording his daily experiences and 
 reflections in a journal. Three of these journals 
 cover the years 1848 to 1851. The entries were 
 very full and detailed at first, but became more 
 fragmentary toward the latter part of this period. 
 His journal gave him free scope to utter the 
 thoughts and fancies that crowded his active 
 mind, and at the same time it was a means by 
 which he trained himself in the art of expressing 
 his thouglits. Oftentimes the record is full of 
 fanciful similes and metaphors. At first, not a 
 month closed without a parting address to it, and 
 each nevv month was hailed with apostrophes, de- 
 scriptions, and meditations. Often he resorted 
 to verse to express his fancies. But he was grow- 
 ing fast, though himself unconscious of the fact. 
 From year to year his style became ever more 
 chaste and forcible, his spirit less perturbed and 
 
Starting Out in Life. 47 
 
 more peaceful. His journal was his academy in 
 which he was schooling himself. It covers the 
 period when the boy was rapidly becoming a 
 thoughtful, earnest man, and it was one of the 
 instrumentalities by which his thoughtfulness and 
 habits of observation were developed and trained. 
 His love of nature is often revealed in such 
 records as the following : — 
 
 August 7, 1846. — There is a continual freshness in 
 the country prospect that no city view can give. Long, 
 winding alleys, with their rotten, tottering tenements 
 and squalid populations, or even the broad, well-paved 
 street, with its stately mansions becomes dull and des- 
 titute of beauty when contrasted with the green hills, 
 dark forests, and cool valleys which surround our 
 country villages. 
 
 He had a sensitive, poetic nature, over which 
 the very changes of the weather cast their lights 
 and shadows. 
 
 August 10, 1846. — To-day is one of those regular- 
 built, drowsy, sleepy, drizzling days, than which I had 
 rather see almost anything in the shape of atmospheric 
 changes. 
 
 August 12. — Never did man enjoy a more beautiful 
 morning than this. There is not a cloud to hide the 
 freshness of the blue arch above, or even a hoverinff 
 mist to dim the vision while scanning earth beneath. 
 The sun, all glorious, is just now ascending his golden 
 throne, while, one by one, the queen of night's fair 
 nymphs are dropping off to sleep. On such a morning 
 
48 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 as this how the spirit pines and pants for the richness 
 of countr}' scenery ! How w^e desire to turn our eyes 
 from brick and mortar to the green fields of childhood, 
 the purling brooks and stately groves in which we had 
 full many a frolic ! How foolish men are to be willing 
 to forego all the peaceful bliss and quiet enjoyment 
 of a country life for the noise, bustle, and confusion, 
 the care, anxiety, and toil incident to a city life ! 
 
 April 7. — A bright and glorious morning. Not a 
 cloud veils from view the light of heaven. All is calm 
 and still, as if nature were waiting with great anxiety 
 the coming of some great event or messenger. And 
 so it is ; that mellow light that streams up the eastern 
 sky and now grows golden and now fiery red pro- 
 claims that the king of day is near at hand. He 
 comes, fresh risen from his chambers in the east, and 
 rejoicing as a strong man to run a race. How glad- 
 some seem those first warm, golden beams he throws 
 aslant our western world ! First the mountain tops 
 catch and hold the golden light, and finally the dark 
 shadows disappear from e'en the lowly vale. 
 
 His mother cheered and encouraged him in his 
 struggle for a place and competence. She wrote 
 to him the year he went to Middletown : — 
 
 I rejoice to hear that you have chosen the people of 
 God for your friends ; continue to do so, and I shall 
 not fear for your prosperity. Your situation is as good 
 as I expected and even better. I beg of you not to 
 be too much depressed about your poverty. If we 
 have food and raiment, let us be content. Look for- 
 ward ! There is nothing which a truly brave and per- 
 
Startimj Out in Life. 49 
 
 severing young man may not accomplish. He pushes 
 ahead until his designs are achieved. The history *of 
 all noted men shows that it was energy and persever- 
 ance that made them distinguished above their fellow 
 men. The reason why so many turn out badly is their 
 lack of courage and their fear of the world, \yhat 
 has an honest man, or a man of virtue to fear? All 
 are but shadows that look dark before you, and these 
 vanish before the light of truth and generous ambition. 
 I do not wish you, my dear son, to belong to that 
 class of men who care nothing about the politics of the 
 day. I do not mean that I wish you to become a 
 public disputant, to contend with every man you meet 
 who happens not to think as you do ; but I wish you 
 to study well the laws of your country, and make 
 yourself familiar with every article of our Constitu- 
 tion. It was formed by wiser and better men than any 
 we have now. If you found your political creed on 
 that, I do not fear that you will be in the wrong. I 
 iiad rather see you with the minority than going with 
 the multitude to do evil. You need not fear that the 
 subject of politics will be uninteresting to me. I think 
 tkat every woman ought to know enough of politics 
 to guide her sons and friends. 
 
 I rejoice to hear that you keep the Sabbath strictly. 
 Never let the love of money induce you to occupy 
 a situation where you cannot thus keep the Sabbath. 
 God will not bless you except in the performance of duty. 
 
 I am very happy to hear you say that you owe no 
 one and live within your income. Ever retain that 
 principle. I consider a man independent that owes 
 nothing ; it is the ruin of many that they contract 
 debts without knowing how they shall be able to 
 cancel them. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 EXERCISESTG HIMSELF UNTO GODLINESS. 
 
 AS has already been stated, Mr. Gates united 
 on confession of his faith, July 4, 1841, 
 with the Congregational Church of East Haddam, 
 under the pastoral care of Rev. Isaac Parsons. 
 When he went to Middletown he lost no time in 
 uniting with the South Congregational Church of 
 that place. Rev. Andrew L. Stone was then 
 pastor. A few years later he was called to the 
 Park Street Church of Boston. Mr. Gates made 
 his journal minister to his spiritual as well as his 
 mental development. He trained himself in the 
 art of listening to public discourses and remem- 
 bering them. From week to week he wrote out at 
 home what he could remember of the sermons 
 which he had heard in church. Sometimes several 
 days passed by before he committed these notes 
 to writing, but they were often so full it seemed 
 as if the sermon must have been largely repro- 
 duced in them. In this way he acquired the 
 habit and power of treasuring up in memory 
 the addresses to which he listened. In later 
 years he could always give a full resumd of 
 any discourse which he had heard recently, 
 and remembered many which he had heard years 
 before. 
 
 60 
 
Exercising Himself Unto Godliness. 51 
 
 Mr. Stone's sermons are regularly reported in 
 his journal, often with a few words of apprecia- 
 tive comment or self-application, but never with 
 words of criticism. 
 
 Mr. Gates loved the Sabbath day, and was sel- 
 dom absent from church services. This love for 
 the Sabbath finds frequent expression in his jour- 
 nal. He was never willing to sleep late on Sab- 
 bath mornings. He says of this habit : — 
 
 There is perhaps no practice more universally preva- 
 lent in regard to keeping the Sabbath than that of 
 sleeping late in the morning ; and yet I am sure, from 
 my own experience, that it is most fatal in its effects 
 upon spiritual life ; in fact, that such a commencement 
 of the holy hours surely leads to leanness and an un- 
 profitable conclusion. If we hired a man to labor for 
 us, we should by no means be content with a day 
 beginning at nine o'clock, and it seems to me that it 
 is just as much robbery of God to spend three or four 
 hours of his day in sleeping. 
 
 Often Monday morning opened with a record 
 like the following : — 
 
 August 17, 1846. — The oasis of the Sabbath is 
 passed, and once more 1 must wind my way through 
 the desert of care and toil. Wilt thou keep me, O 
 Lord God of Sabaoth, through the hours of this week, 
 and guide me in the path of duty ! Let me so live 
 that the world shall be compelled to acknowledge that 
 I am actuated bv right principles ! 
 
52 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 The same love for the Sabbath inspired the 
 record written on Sabbath evening, December 
 17, 1848 : — 
 
 The evening shades steal on apace, the sable clouds 
 of night are shrouding half the globe, and all in 
 nature without and my heart within is hushed and 
 tranquil. I have been meditating on the communion 
 of God with his people ; and, as my thoughts winged 
 their upward flight through the starry worlds and ever- 
 circling systems of space, into the very presence cham- 
 ber of the infinite One, my soul breathed freer and 
 fuller than for a long time past. How much we lose 
 of this blessed communion with God by our sins in 
 departing from the path of duty and allowing the 
 world to occupy so much of our time ! And how slow 
 is our advancement in the divine life, compared with 
 what it might be, did we but live up to our privileges ! 
 
 A little later (January 7, 1849) he wrote : — 
 
 Again does the silence of the Sabbath evening pre- 
 vail, hushing all the boisterous mirth and even sadden- 
 ing the thoughts which in the bright glare of day rioted 
 so wildly in pleasures and pastimes forbidden. I can 
 never sit down at such a time without much thought- 
 fulness. There is something in the hour which 
 awakens all that is noble and good in the mere world- 
 ling, if he be not too hardened, and certainly to the real 
 Christian — to him who has feasted on the treasures 
 of the gospel during the hours of lioly time now past 
 — there ought to be an exquisite interest and delight 
 in the calm twilight season. It is a most fitting time 
 
Exercising Himself Unto Godliness. 53 
 
 for self-examination and the review of our lives, for 
 repentance and prayer, and for making new resolu- 
 tions as to our future walk and conversation in the 
 name of Him who ever liveth to plead our cause. I 
 greatly fear that with many of our churchgoers there 
 is a sad neglect of these duties. We are prone to 
 take up with forms without the power, with outward 
 service of the lips unaccompanied by that spiritual 
 fervor of the heart which alone in God's sight consti- 
 tutes worship ; with a mere attendance upon public 
 ordinances instead of practical self-application and 
 appropriation. Such services will be of none effect 
 unless we, in the silence and solitude of our closets, 
 bring home all these truths to our hearts and, by the aid 
 of the sealing Spirit, engrave them upon their tablets. 
 
 Often he confessed to his journal that he had 
 not attained the high purposes towards which he 
 was ever striving : — 
 
 August 21, 1846. — Weather dull, trade duller, and 
 myself the dullest of all. 
 
 " Oh, for a closer walk with God, 
 A calm and heavenly frame, 
 A light to .shine upon the road 
 That leads me to the Lamb ! " 
 
 How strange that our affections cleave so close to 
 earth when heaven alone ought to be the center of our 
 plans and expectations ! We have had two days of 
 quite stormy weather, rendering trade exceedingly 
 dull. How proper at such a time is self-examination 
 and a thorough review of past life, and yet how few 
 practice it ! 
 
54 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 " Guide me, O thou great Jehovah, 
 rilgrim through this barren land I" 
 
 August 23^ 1S46. — I have to-day attcnrled chiircb as 
 usual, but to what spiritual profit I cannot say. It is 
 with shame and sorrow that I confess my coldness and 
 stupor in spiritual things. I do not enjoy the presence 
 of God as when first I breathed the prayer of repent- 
 ance and faith. My wanderings I can trace to one 
 first departure from the duty of secret prayer. O 
 God, guide me again, I pray thee, to the path of duty, 
 and let the light of thy reconciling countenance shine 
 upon me ! 
 
 At the close of a month he thus examined him- 
 self:— 
 
 What have I done during the month now closing ? 
 what victory over easily besetting sins ? what strength 
 in the Christian warfare? what clearer views of the 
 character of God and of his moral government over 
 man? What have I done to alleviate human suffer- 
 ing, to help on the great cause of human progress, and 
 the greater, holier cause of pure and undefiled religion. 
 What have I done for the development of my own 
 moral and intellectual character? How have I per- 
 formed my duties to myself, my fellow men, and to 
 God, my Creator? I must answer these questions 
 truthfully and strive in the next month to do better. 
 
 The communion season brought him peculiar 
 heart searchings : — 
 
 Sabbath, July 9, 1848. — This has been the com- 
 munion season, and I would that I could record in my 
 
Exercising Himself Unto Godliness. 55 
 
 journal some great triiiinph over easily besetting sins, 
 some signal victories over the carnai law ruling in my 
 members, some increase of spiritual knowledge, some 
 growth in grace — but alas ! I tremble for the result of 
 all these privileges upon my soul ; I tremble lest they 
 should meet me at the last only to frown upon me and 
 condemn me. 
 
 One of the later records shows a more peaceful 
 spirit : — 
 
 April 6, 1850. — My religious experience for the 
 week has been, on the whole, rather more encouraging. 
 I have enjoyed some precious seasons of secret com- 
 munion with God, and have not been so cast down in 
 spirit as during several preceding weeks. Yet I have 
 much to mourn over and repent of, concerning which 
 to make new resolutions for the future. At times I 
 greatly fear that I have no genuine piety at heart. 
 Self and self-seeking is the law of action within me 
 rather than Christ and his glory and the advance- 
 ment of Ills cause. I want depth of feeling — that 
 positiveness and earnestness which is the result of a 
 complete transformation from darkness to light, from 
 death to life, from sin to holiness. This, O God, give 
 unto thy servant, and let me live to thee alone ! 
 
 Although he longed for more of the spiritual 
 affections and emotions, yet he did not trust to 
 these ; indeed he charges himself with erring in 
 the direction of too much emotion : — 
 
 December 24, 1850. — I am aware of a great defect 
 
56 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 in my character, namely, too much sensitiveness, too 
 much mere feeling, easily elated and easily cast 
 down. 
 
 He was not one who could be content with any 
 merely formal performance of religious duties, 
 but was urgent in demanding of himself that the 
 spirit keep pace with the lips in worship : — 
 
 Sabbath, November 19, 1850. — Again have I been 
 permitted to join the worshiping assembly in the house 
 of our God. My voice has mingled with the voices 
 of others in songs of praise ; my ears have heard 
 the truths of the gospel from the living preacher ; and 
 I hope my heart has gone up in pure and fervent 
 desire with the prayers of the assembled multitudes. 
 But if it be otherwise, if all this outward performance 
 of duty on my part is simply soulless, wanting that 
 spirit of truth which is the essence of accepted prayer, 
 better, far better will it be for Korah and his company, 
 for Sodom and Gomorrah, and all the human race 
 drowned in the flood, than for me in that great day, 
 when the Judge of the quick and the dead shall appear 
 in power and glory to render unto every one according 
 to the deeds done in the body, whether they be good 
 or evil. I know and feel how transcendently impor- 
 tant this question is, and I would to God I might say 
 with holy boldness : " In God have I put my trust ; I 
 will not fear what flesh can do unto me." But alas ! 
 1 am so unfaithful, so slothful in the service of my 
 Master, that I walk in darkness. O God, forgive my 
 sins and grant me the aid of thy Holy Spirit to guide 
 and direct my steps ! 
 
Exercising Himself Unto CrodUness. 57 
 
 A few months later he recorded a protest against 
 merely formal worship : — 
 
 I have heard six sougs of praise, two sermons, five 
 prayers, and two benedictions to-day ; and I am 
 going this evening to hear some more. What a round 
 of formalism do we pursue ! How faithfully we serve 
 Mammon all the week and do penance Sundays, hop- 
 ing thereby to get to heaven, and delight forever in 
 what is now so irksome to us ! 
 
 Soon after coming to Middletown, Mr. Gates 
 identified himself very actively with the work of 
 the church, took a class in the Sabbath-school, and 
 was chosen first secretary and then superintendent 
 of the school. He recorded his idea of the re- 
 sponsibilities of a Sabbath-school teacher : — 
 
 If I understand rightly the teacher's duty, it is, in 
 relation to the scholars of his class, similar to the 
 relation which the pastor bears to his church. He 
 should come to them as richly furnished as may be 
 with wisdom temporal and spiritual, and should in all 
 things throw upon the side of his precepts the whole 
 moral weight of a good example. If he admonish 
 his pupils to be regular in their attendance upon the 
 Sabbath-school, and then for a small thing stays 
 away himself, what avails his counsel? Will not those 
 scholars be well armed with excuses from his example 
 whenever they may have occasion to be absent ? 
 
 While laboring in the Sabbath-school of his own 
 church, he also found time to teach a class in a 
 
58 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 school for colored people, called Zion's Sabbath- 
 school, which held its sessions at noon. Of this 
 class he writes, in June, 1848 : — 
 
 After church T spent an hour with my class of Afri- 
 cans very pleasantly. It is composed of four young 
 ladies and one quite elderly woman who is rather igno- 
 rant. The manner of teaching is to have the class read 
 in rotation two verses each from some of the Gos- 
 pels, and then I make running comments on the same. 
 Whether my instruction is profitable to them or not, 
 I find many benefits resulting from it to my own self. 
 . . . When I see the ignorance of some of my class 
 concerning the great things which make for eternal 
 life, I am led to rejoice in the more full and glorious 
 knowledge with which I have been favored, and to re- 
 turn devout thanks to God for all his benefits. Surely 
 ours is a goodly heritage, and the lines are fallen to us 
 in pleasant places ! 
 
 During the latter part of his stay in Middle- 
 town, Mr. Gates was burdened with cares. His 
 salary was small, and he was carrying the burdens 
 of others. His mother was dependent upon him 
 for a part of her support, and he aided other rela- 
 tives. The officers of the Middletown bank had 
 promised to promote him, but they were slow in 
 fulfilling their promises. In order to provide for 
 his mother, he undertook to keep the books of 
 a merchant, Mr. W. A. Camp. After the day's 
 work at the bank was over, he would go to Mr. 
 Camp's store and write up his books. He was 
 
Exercising Himself Unto Godliness, 59 
 
 overworked and somewhat discouraged, and the 
 entries in his diary show it : — 
 
 December 1, 1849. — Well, the day has gone, the 
 month too — the dull, dreadful mouth of November. 
 During its passing I have not registered many 
 thoughts — in fact I have not had many thoughts. 
 My days have been devoted to stocks, ledgers, and 
 bills, and my evenings to posting books for W. A. C. 
 'Tis a dog's life, and I hate it. No time for cool, un- 
 troubled thought, no time for social intercourse, none 
 for meditation. Work, work, work ! My companions 
 in the store are what the world terms " moral men," 
 but in truth they are far otherwise. They take the 
 name of their Creator in vain and discourse fluently 
 upon subjects unfit for an immortal's consideration. 
 Now what will be the result of this intercourse ? Am 
 I to be assimilated to them, or are they to perceive in 
 me a light not in their own souls ? 
 
 A week later he recorded a conversation with a 
 young man on whom he had called for the purpose 
 of persuading him to become a Christian. He 
 was thus unconsciously answering his own ques- 
 tion, and a later record near the end of the 
 month shows that his longing for spiritual bless- 
 ings remained unquenched : — 
 
 The storm is pleasant to me, for it brings me a 
 leisure hour, and that I prize as a thing most precious. 
 My soul thirsts and my mind hungers for other drink 
 and meat than can he found in accounts current, sales 
 of stock, or items of profit and loss. This world of 
 
60 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 the actual, ph^^sical, material is good, all good in its 
 place ; but there is another world, another life towards 
 which this continually points, for which this is but 
 preparatory. I am prone to forget it ; often I strive 
 to forget it, but in vain. I am forced to believe it, 
 remember it, and act upon the great truth. My hope 
 is that, by God's grace assisting me, I may yearly gain 
 something more of heavenly knowledge and lose at 
 least a little of the love of earth. 
 
 In addition to the financial burdens he was bear- 
 ing, there were others brought upon him by his 
 keen sympathy with those he loved. His sister 
 Elizabeth became engaged to an Episcopal clergy- 
 man. She agreed to join with her lover in wor- 
 shiping God according to the rules of his church 
 and he was satisfied with this ; but later he came 
 
 under the influence of Bishop C , of Ohio, an 
 
 ai'dent churchman, and his own views underwent 
 such a change that he endeavored to persuade 
 his betrothed to acknowledge that none could be 
 saved through any other medium than that of the 
 Episcopal Church. She refused to assent to this, 
 and after many painful interviews and long-con- 
 tinued expostulations with her, he deserted her, 
 breaking the engagement. She was almost heart- 
 broken. Her affections clung to her lover, even 
 while her sense of honesty and better judgment 
 dissented from his views and refused his demands. 
 She was sick for nearly three years, the symptoms 
 of consumption appeared, and she finally died of 
 that disease. 
 
JSxercising Himself Unto Godliness. 61 
 
 Her brother shared her sufferings and lightened 
 them by his tender sympathy, stilling as best he 
 could his indignation at her lover's course. 
 
 All these trials were refining his character, 
 which grew ever sweeter and truer. Traces of 
 this refinement through service and suffering 
 appear in his journal; — 
 
 February 24, 1S50. — At noon I spent an hour 
 with my class most delightfully, never more so that 
 I can remember. The theme was the translation of 
 Elijah and the resurrection of the dead. My soul 
 was full and the running waters gushed forth freely. 
 God in great mercy bless the truth to their salvation 
 and sanctification ! 
 
 April 6, 1850. — For two or three days my atten- 
 tion has been turned to the beautiful adaptation of 
 various plants and animals to the climes which they 
 inhabit. How wonderful is all this, and how plainly it 
 speaks of a great design on the part of Him who, by 
 the word of his power, spoke it into being and action ! 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 NEW SCENES. 
 
 CHANGE of place often works injury to the 
 Christian life, just as transplanting causes 
 the^plant to wither which fails to take root in the 
 new soil. But it was not so with Mr. Gates. His 
 Christian life was no exotic which could not bear 
 transplantation, but a rugged plant which found 
 a home in any soil. 
 
 In 1851 he was married to Mary Eliza Hutchins, 
 of East Haddam, whom he had known and loved 
 for a long time. Ever since his coming to Middle- 
 town, he had been looking forward to this event 
 and striving to lay up money in order to hasten 
 its consummation. The ordinary course of his 
 life had been broken by occasional visits to East 
 Haddam, from one of which he returned on foot, 
 a distance of fifteen miles. The influence of his 
 betrothed had already been exercised in the di- 
 rection of his best interests. At her request he 
 abandoned the use of tobacco, a habit which he 
 had formed in Middletown, and signed a pledge 
 of total abstinence from intoxicating liquors, be- 
 cause she was fearful that he would be exposed 
 to temptation, through the influences surrounding 
 him in the company of militia of which he had 
 been appointed major. 
 
Neiv Scenes. 63 
 
 The wedding took place at East Haddam, in 
 the house of the bride's father, Deacon Jeremiah 
 Hutchins, Wednesday morning, May 7, 1851, at 
 half-past ten o'clock, and they began their wedded 
 life in Middletown, in the family of Mr. Newton, 
 where Mr. Gates had already boarded for several 
 years. 
 
 The Hutchins family was also among the early 
 settlers of the American colonies. Deacon Hutch- 
 ins traced his ancestry back to Nicholas Hutchins, 
 who came over from England in the reign of 
 Charles II, about the year 1670, and settled in 
 Lynn, Mass. ; and his wife, Lucretia Spalding, 
 claimed descent from a large and respectable 
 family founded in America by Edward Spalding, 
 who died February 26, 1670. In 1834, nine of his 
 name had graduated from Yale College, two from 
 Harvard, and eighteen from other New England 
 colleges. 
 
 Mr. Gates' salary was small, but by careful 
 management they succeeded in laying by some- 
 thing every year. He often commended the thrift 
 and prudence of his wife to their children as an 
 example worthy of their imitation. In 1884 he 
 wrote to one of them : — 
 
 When I look back, I cannot be thankful enough that 
 God gave me such a wife. We married on a salary 
 of $G00 a year, but never ran into debt, and in all the 
 years of struggle and disappointment she made every 
 dollar go further than most women, doing her own 
 work quietly and lovingly in New Haven, and the 
 
64 A Clirutian Busi7iess Man, 
 
 sewing for all you children in Chicago. We all owe 
 a great deal to your dear mother. 
 
 In his thought the poet was right when he said : 
 
 It shall be felt that she whose care 
 
 The lamp of thrift makes burn, 
 Can take with him an equal share 
 
 Of all their lives may earn. 
 
 After his marriage his journal received less 
 attention ; in the fall of that year he noted this 
 fact with the following characteristic comment : — 
 
 How far apart the datings in this once well-kept 
 journal ! Sometimes I philosophize in this wise : 
 "Diaries and sketch-books will do very well for old 
 bachelors, on whose hands time hangs heavy ; but for 
 married men, keeping journals is idle, very idle busi- 
 ness. Indeed it is for the want of wives with wliom 
 to talk over matters that we sit down and write about 
 them in diaries.*' 
 
 November 1, 1851, Mr. Gates accepted the offer 
 of a situation as bookkeeper in the City Bank of 
 New Haven, tendered him by the directors, who 
 were seeking a suitable person for that place. He 
 removed to New Haven, but the change of place 
 made no change in his Christian activity, nor did 
 he seek rest from service even for a time. Before 
 the close of the month he had taken a class in 
 the Sabbath-school of the Center Church of New 
 Haven, and he soon united with that church, 
 which was then under the pastoral care of Dr. 
 Bacon. His Christian life was still his chief inter- 
 est and concern. Dr. Bacon's sermons find place 
 
New Scenes, ^b 
 
 regularly in his journal, and he was careful to 
 maintain a strict watch over his spiritual life, as 
 the following entry shows : — 
 
 Sabbath^ December 14, 1851. — To-day has passed, 
 as so many before it, without any very remarkable state 
 of feeling on my part as to the great themes of sal- 
 vation in which I have in fact so fearful an interest, 
 although it moves me so little. This morning was 
 sadly wasted in bed, and of course there was no 
 time to review the Sabbath-school lesson and become 
 imbued with the spirit of it ; so that exercise flagged 
 in interest and profited neither me nor the class, as it 
 ought to have clone. The sin of the sluggard is a great 
 one, and I do not wonder that the wise man waxed 
 warm as he sang of his folly. 
 
 The closing months of that year were darkened 
 by the shadow of affliction in the death of his only 
 sister. He writes, December 28, 1851 : — 
 
 At this time sad thoughts claim possession of my 
 mind, for my sister Elizabeth lies dangerously ill of 
 that fatal disease, consumption. Perhaps she may 
 have already taken her flight from scenes of time 
 and entered upon those of an eternal nature. For 
 many days she has been waiting for her Lord's coming, 
 ready and anxious to be at rest. She is happy and 
 full of peace and joy, feeling assured that it will be 
 well with her, and that to depart and be with Christ 
 is far better than to remain here in the bondage of sin. 
 Her life has been one of many sorrows, but I trust 
 that she will soon enter upon those joys that know no 
 alloy and never dim. Oh, that I may so live that 
 
66 A Ohristian Business Man, 
 
 when my turn comes I too may go in peace, having 
 the blessed promises for my support ! 
 
 January IS. — After much severe suffering, she ex- 
 pired on the night of Tuesday, the sixth instant, and 
 one week ago to-day we buried her remains in the little 
 cemetery of Housatonic. Her death was accompanied 
 by evidences of sincere piety and an unshaken trust in 
 Christ, her Saviour and her All. Her mind retained 
 its clearness and force to the end, and she signified her 
 peace and joy by a pressure of the hand at the last. 
 
 In 1852, Mr. Gates and bis wife began to keep 
 house and greatly enjoyed their own home. That 
 same year their first child was born, a daughter, 
 who received the name of Sarali Elizabeth, her 
 second name commemorating the sainted sister 
 who had so recently passed away, while her first 
 name was given in memory of her mother's sister 
 who died a few months after the marriage of her 
 parents. Soon after the birth of this little girl, 
 the mother went to East Haddam for a visit to her 
 father's family, taking her babe with her; then 
 the neglected journal began to receive attention 
 again, and often it was called to be the confidant 
 of the fond father as he voiced his affection for his 
 wife and child. 
 
 About this time he was enabled to realize a long- 
 cherished wish and offer to his mother the refuge 
 of his home. 
 
 In December, 1852, the directors of the Middle- 
 town Bank gave him an invitation to succeed Mr. 
 Gleason as cashier of that bank, at a salary of 
 
^ew Scenes. 67 
 
 $1,000. Th^ directors of the City Bank of New 
 Haven at once increased his salary to the same 
 figure and he declined the call to Middletown. 
 At first thought he had been ready to accept it. 
 His affections drew him toward Middletown, where 
 he had many dear friends. This call seemed to 
 him the pledge of his reunion with them. He 
 said : " I was eLated as a schoolboy who turns his 
 face towards home, having bidden farewell to 
 his books for a season." But when he came to 
 analyze the situation, his judgment pronounced 
 against the acceptance of this offer. He con- 
 sulted with a gentleman of experience and good 
 judgment, who said to him : " I consider your 
 prospects fairer than those of any other man now 
 in the business in this city ; indeed I know of but 
 one man who would stand the least chance as a 
 competitor." He refused the call to Middletown, 
 but lie was not to remain long in New Haven. 
 
 He had made the acquaintance of Mr. Timothy 
 Dwight, who had his office in the City Bank build- 
 ing, and their acquaintance soon ripened into 
 friendship. Mr. Dwight was engaged in manu- 
 facturing. His factory, known as " the brass 
 works," was situated at Ansonia, a few miles west 
 of New Haven. He had been very successful in 
 business and was a man of good character and 
 Christian principles, and was quite intimate with 
 the officers and directors of the City Bank. 
 
 Mr. Dwight was acquainted with Colonel Mason, 
 tlie cliief engineer of the Illinois Central Railroad 
 
68 A Christian Business Man, 
 
 Company, and through him and the* directors of 
 the railroad he procured a large contract for the 
 manufacture of the rolling stock of the road. 
 Mr. Gates had for some time been desirous of find- 
 ing an opening in manufacturing business. The 
 new venture looked inviting, and when Mr. 
 Dwight asked him to engage in it, it did not 
 require much urging to persuade him to accept the 
 invitation and to go to Chicago to take charge of 
 the books of the American Car Works as secretary 
 and bookkeeper. 
 
 He left New York, April 12, 1853, at six o'clock 
 in the morning, but the train was delayed by 
 storms, so that he arrived at Chicago at nine 
 o'clock in the evening of the 14th, having been 
 on his way three days and two nights. He 
 was fatigued with the journey, almost sick and 
 quite alone, having left his family in New Haven. 
 
 For the first two weeks he stayed at the Garden 
 City Hotel, going to the American Car Works 
 every morning. Omnibuses ran as far as Twelfth 
 Street, and he walked the rest of the way, about 
 a mile and a half. Afterwards he found a home 
 in the family of Mrs. Long, whose house was in 
 the vicinity of the car works. 
 
 He threw himself into his new employment 
 with all his energy. The American Car Works 
 brought many workmen to that part of the city 
 and hastened its growth, so that in nine months 
 it changed from an unbroken prairie to a flourish- 
 ing settlement, known by the name of Carville, 
 
Isfeio Scenes. 69 
 
 containing a population of several hundreds, and 
 with new houses going up every day. 
 
 One of the first questions which confronted Mr. 
 Gates was that of his church connection, for he 
 was not one who could long remain a stranger in 
 the house of God. But he found that this ques- 
 tion was beset with peculiar difficulties. For the 
 first three Sabbaths he attended church with the 
 First, Second, and Third Presbyterian churches, 
 and was urged to cast in his lot with one of them. 
 In a letter to his wife he thus stated the condition 
 of things in which he found himself : — 
 
 I find that CongregationaHsiii here is not what it is 
 in old Connecticut. The Presbyterian Church is the 
 dominant one, and the tendency in that church is to 
 treat the Congregationalists as intruders or dissenting 
 ultraists. The first people are members of Presbyte- 
 rian churches, and there is not the best of feeling 
 between the two denominations ; hence many young 
 men who come from the east strong in their Congrega- 
 tional belief, for expediency's sake pass into the Pres- 
 byterian Church, and are soon lost to the denomination 
 in which they were trained. Now take my case ; my 
 letters of introduction are all to prominent men in the 
 Second Presbyterian Church, the aristocratic society 
 of the city, and by going to that church I should 
 probably be quickly settled in the best society. You 
 see at once how strong the inducements are to sacrifice 
 my Congregationalism to ease, comfort, and, perhaps, 
 lucrative connections with rich and influential members 
 of that society. But suppose I came seeking a place 
 with these same letters and received a place from these 
 
70 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 men, how much more powerfully would I be tempted 
 to fall in with them ! Now that is exactly the way it 
 works. I find numbers of young men who were 
 Congregationalists at the cast, but are now firm sup- 
 porters of the other order through the working of such 
 circumstances. But I love the beautiful simplicity of 
 our New England order too well to quickly give it up. 
 I am heartily persuaded that it is the form of church 
 government most in accord with the teachings of the 
 apostolic age and the genius of our institutions, and 
 that, on a fair trial, it will be found to work as admi- 
 rably here as in old New England. 
 
 A desire to find the place where he could be 
 most useful entered into the solution of the prob- 
 lem, and he was mindful of his influence over 
 others. He said : " These worldly and irreligious 
 men around us will be keen to notice Avhether we 
 act upon the line of duty or mere pleasure seek- 
 ing, and it behooves us to be circumspect." 
 
 He at once allied himself with a few others in 
 attempts to provide religious services for the peo- 
 ple in the vicinity of the car works. At first their 
 meetings were held in a schoolhouse, and they 
 found it hard to arrange their services so as to 
 avoid conflicting with the Methodists, who also 
 held services there. Ten days after his arrival in 
 Chicago he wrote to his wife : — 
 
 As soon as I get settled at Mrs. Long's I shall com- 
 mence operations in the way of Sunday-school and 
 Bible-class efforts, and I hope to be able to draw in 
 some from the fields and street, who are now open 
 
New Scenes. 71 
 
 violators of the holy day. You have no idea of the 
 amount of open violation of the Sabbath there is here. 
 Teams of all kinds meet your gaze at every turn, and 
 men and boys accoutered for hunting and fishing or 
 sporting of some kind. Still, there are a great many 
 churches of all kinds, and the permanent inhabitants 
 may be called churchgoing. Several of our most 
 popular churches have services only once on the Sab- 
 bath. There is great need of faithful religious effort 
 here, both among those who were moral in Connecticut 
 and among those who acknowledge no restraint. The 
 former are prone to break loose from old habits of 
 Sabbath-keeping and churchgoing, and to seek their 
 own pleasure in hunting, rambling, and manual labor ; 
 while the latter spend the day in drinking, gambling, 
 and vicious indulgence generally. Oh, that I may 
 have grace to keep me in the paths of rectitude and 
 guide me in my labors for this people ! 
 
 Rev. E. F. Dickinson had been holding services 
 in the schoolhouse for nearly two months before 
 Mr. Gates' arrival in Chicago. He also preached 
 at another place about a mile away, holding one 
 service in each place. 
 
 In a letter to his wife, Mr. Gates says of the 
 first service he attended there : — 
 
 For singing-books we had three Carmina Sacras, 
 and as all were afraid and none were acquainted with 
 each other, the singing went rather funny. But we 
 are going to have some books and a singing-school 
 next Tuesday, and a rehearsal next Sabbath, half an 
 hour before church time ; I am going into it full drive. 
 
72 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 He did go into this church work in the same 
 way that he went into his business and all other 
 lines of activity — with all his energy. He did 
 nothing by halves. The little church on the 
 corner of Twenty-sixth Street and Calumet Ave- 
 nue was built largely by the subscriptions of the 
 American Car Company, and Mr. Gates was in- 
 strumental in securing many of the subscriptions. 
 It was not always easy to collect what had been 
 subscribed. At times, when work was not press- 
 ing in the shops, Mr. Gates would ask Mr. McRoy, 
 the foreman, who was a warm friend, to take the 
 subscription list and collect the sums promised by 
 the subscribers. On one of these occasions, Mr. 
 McRo}^ came to a man who had subscribed 125, 
 and asked him for that sum. The man answered : 
 "I am not going to pay that." 
 
 " Is not that your signature ? " asked Mr. 
 McRoy. 
 
 "Yes," said the subscriber; "but I never in- 
 tended to pay that ; I reckon that my singing in 
 the choir is worth |25 to them." 
 
 Having completed his list, Mr. McRoy returned 
 and told Mr. Gates of the reception accorded him 
 by the subscriber. Mr. Gates' reply showed a 
 Christian spirit and a vein of humor, both charac- 
 teristic of him: "Well, Mr. McRoy, let us be 
 charitable ; let us hope that there may be salvation 
 even for such a man." 
 
 Mr. Timothy Dwight was in full accord with 
 Mr. Gates in all his plans for the welfare of the 
 
New Sce7ies, 78 
 
 little church and community, and did not wait to 
 be asked to become a liberal subscriber to these 
 causes. A circulating library was started by sub- 
 scription, wliich was much used and appreciated 
 by the workmen in the car works. 
 
 Mr. Gates was very popular with the men 
 because of his ready sympathy with them and his 
 manifest interest in them. Often when he became 
 tired of bending over his books, he would go out 
 into the shops, seize a hammer or plane, and work 
 with them. They had the utmost confidence in 
 him, and there was not one of the workmen who 
 would not gladly go out of his way to serve him. 
 
 The separation from his family upon coming to 
 Chicago, with the uncertainty as to the time of 
 their reunion, was no light trial to Mr. Gates, who 
 was of an affectionate nature. May 1, 1853, he 
 wrote to his wife as follows : — 
 
 Sabbath eve. — In the providence of God we have 
 been guided and kept thus far, and have taken these 
 last steps not without earnest prayer for light to shine 
 upon the path of duty ; and now we must try to see 
 and feel the hand of our heavenly Father in all the 
 circumstances of the change. I have no doubt that 
 God has something in store for us in connection with 
 my coming here, which we shall by-and-by perceive 
 clearly, though at present it may be hidden behind 
 clouds of gloomy anxiety and trembling forebodings. 
 Let us commit ourselves, then, and all our interests 
 into the keeping of Him who knowoth what is best for 
 us, and who has declared that he will deliver all who 
 
74 A Christian Business Man, 
 
 put their trust iu him. Let us go right forward in the 
 discharge of every duty, assured that we shall thus 
 find relief quicker than in any other way. Perhaps, 
 Mary, this is the very trial God has been preparing for 
 us, that we may be perfected in character and prepared 
 for the greatest usefulness here and hereafter. How 
 precious is the privilege of prayer ! Do not neglect 
 it, dearest, and grace shall fill your soul according to 
 your hour of need. Take good care of our precious 
 treasure. Bend over her much in prayer, that she 
 may earh' learn the form and attitude thereof, and be 
 impressed by the act. I trust she daily hushes her 
 little prattle at the table when grace is asked. The 
 picture of you and her is a treasure to me, although 
 the sight of it always starts a tear. God bless you, 
 dearest ones, and keep you under the shadow of his 
 wings ! 
 
 His family came to him in the fall of 1853, but 
 returned to East Haddam for a visit in the spring 
 of the next year. While they were gone, the 
 cholera broke out in Chicago, and many fled from 
 the city. Mr. Gates remained at his post and did 
 not hesitate to attend those who were stricken 
 with the plague. He thus wrote to his wife : — 
 
 I am very glad you and the children went just as 
 you did, for I should have felt dreadfully had either 
 of you fallen victims here, and when once the panic 
 had commenced, I should have been loath to leave my 
 post and thus head a stampede among our men. The 
 two head men in the macliinc sliop did thus leave to 
 accompany their wives east, and their example has 
 
New Scenes. 75 
 
 cost us hundreds of dollars, besides going far to 
 increase fear in others and thus lay them open to the 
 disease. I have seen the workings of cholera in all 
 its stages, and, though I should prefer not to inhale 
 the breath of a person in the third stage, yet I should 
 no more shrink from attendance upon a patient stricken 
 with this disease than one sick with bilious fever. At 
 the same time, so great is the power of sympathy and 
 the influence of mind over body, that it is especially 
 becoming for every person to use all reasonable dili- 
 gence in guarding against the first approach of danger 
 and in keeping himself steadily stayed upon Christ, 
 the Hope of the soul. 
 
 At first he felt that it was his duty to go 
 promptly to the bedsides of the sick and dying 
 and labor for their restoration in order to check 
 the panic and inspire the timid with confidence. 
 But as the community became accustomed to the 
 disease and learned how to treat it the necessity 
 for doing thus was lessened. Mr. Gates was care- 
 ful of his diet, and his Christian faith enabled him 
 to maintain a steady quietude of spirit Avhich 
 brought great comfort and peace. He said : '^ How 
 full of consolation is the thought, He ordereth all 
 things well ! God knows what is needed in order 
 to our proper discipline, l^et us learn, then, to 
 receive all our experiences as coming directly from 
 his hand and to profit by them." 
 
 The weather was exceedingly trying during the 
 time of the cholera. September 3, 1854, Mr. 
 Gates wrote : — 
 
76 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 Ah, never before did I know such longing for a con- 
 tinuously cool breeze, a cloudy day, and a refreshing 
 shower ! Night after night, as long, low banks of 
 clouds skirt across the north and west, we watch them 
 with intensest interest, and as the lightnings dart, or 
 an occasional low muttering of thunder is heard, hope 
 kindles anew, and we rejoice in the promised shower. 
 But alas for the tokens of the next morning ! Cloud- 
 less and brazen the heavens are outstretched, resem- 
 bling more a glowing furnace than the mild, ethereal 
 blue. Never have I experienced anything like it before. 
 
 And yet nothing could be wiser than the 
 admonitions which he wrote to his wife in these 
 trying days : — 
 
 In regard to your own health, I hope you will be 
 careful and not overdo. Try to take things easily. If 
 all does not go well about the house, let it pass as an 
 idle tale, unless firm, quiet action will remedy the evil. 
 Above all, cultivate that spirit of simple trust and 
 confidence in God that always proves more efficacious 
 than aught else in smoothing the rough ways of life. 
 A free, cheerful mingling with old friends and acquaint- 
 ances ; a course of light, pleasurable reading mixed 
 with enough of sound, practical thought to keep the 
 mind stable and firm and give a wholesome check to 
 the flights of fancy ; and, as the basis of all, such an 
 intimate and continual communion with Christ as shall 
 make the atmosphere at all times heavenly, in spite of 
 all the clouds, smoke, and dust of disappointment, 
 apprehension, and care, — these, dearest, seem to me 
 the best means to render your days and weeks pleas- 
 ant and profitable. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 DILIGENT IN BUSINESS, FERVENT IN SPIRIT, 
 SERVING THE LORD. 
 
 IN 1855 the American Car Works wound up 
 its affairs and closed out its business. The 
 settlement was effected through Mr. Gates, who 
 bought the stock, giving his notes for $250,000, 
 and carried on the business until all contracts 
 were completed and debts paid. This entailed 
 upon him severe labor and great care, and when 
 it was at last accomplished his health gave way 
 and he was sick for weeks. When he got up 
 from this sickness his physicians advised a change 
 of climate for his health, and he accordingly made 
 a journey down the Great Lakes, from which he 
 was called home by the severe illness of his second 
 child, Charles, occurring about the time of the birth 
 of the third child, William, in September, 1855. 
 
 Near the close of the same year an incident 
 occurred which illustrates Mr. Gates' thoughtful- 
 ness for others. He was himself in poor health 
 and out of business, his financial resources at a 
 very low ebb. A poor man living in the same 
 block had died in the spring, leaving to his widow 
 a house and lot on which only two payments had 
 been made. Mr. Gates went to the man who held 
 
 77 
 
78 A Christian Busineas Man. 
 
 the notes, paid the balance clue on them, and 
 placed the notes in liLs pocket. He also paid the 
 taxes for two years and aided the widow in other 
 ways of which she knew nothing. In December 
 her house and furniture were damaged by fire. 
 Mr. Gates labored with other neighbors to save 
 the house from destruction, and after the fire a 
 purse was made up on the spot, which was enough 
 to repair the damage to the building. The next 
 morning Mr. Gates started out with a subscrip- 
 tion paper to endeavor to secure enough to cover 
 the losses on the furniture. Entering the store 
 of a friend he made an appeal to liim, obtained 
 a subscription, and was about leaving the store 
 when a well-dressed lady, who had listened to his 
 earnest appeal, modestly asked the privilege of 
 adding her contribution. Her gift was thank- 
 fully received, and Mr. Gates went on his way 
 cheered and gladdened by this unexpected help. 
 In his journal he recorded his gladness that even- 
 ing and his sympathy with the poor widow, say- 
 ing, '* It is a dreadful thing to be left a widow 
 without means in this cold world." 
 
 That same day he helped an escaped slave on 
 his way to Canada; and in regard to that he 
 wrote : — 
 
 I was richly rewarded b}' his thanks for the interest 
 I manifested in his case. God grant the time may 
 soon come when such cases" shall be unknown, for the 
 simple reason that slavery does not exist. On the 
 whole, the day's experience has been very pleasant. 
 
Diligent in Business. 79 
 
 How blessed it is to have the power to help others ! 
 Verily, it is more blessed to give thau to receive. 
 
 He entered into business again, February 1, 
 1856, forming a partnership with Thomas George 
 and Edward Hamilton in the manufacture of 
 wares made of copper, brass, tin, and sheet-iron, 
 and in the sale of stoves, pumps, etc. He entered 
 upon this connection with high hopes of success, 
 and recorded in his journal the principles on 
 which he expected to conduct his business : — 
 
 I am now fairly embarked on the sea of business 
 life, and feel that spiritually I am in great danger. 
 The seductions of business are powerful, and espe- 
 cially so when one is prosperous. Amid the storms 
 of adversity and the darkness of disappointment, the 
 soul turns its eyes upward and seeks comfort from on 
 high ; but when the sun of prosperity shines and there 
 are no clouds to darken the heaven of our success, 
 then the soul forgets God and relies on itself and is 
 in extremest danger. I have no ambition to be great 
 in this world and have too just an estimate of my 
 abihties, I trust, to ever dream of any such thing ; but 
 I would be useful, and as a means of usefulness I 
 would acquire property, I care not how fast. Toiling 
 for money merely for the sake of money, I despise, but 
 the possession of money with a heart to use it for the 
 good of others is a rich gift. To me there is greater 
 pleasure in the power to relieve the wants of the truly 
 needy than in aught else I know of. I would, then, by 
 industry, thrift, aud enterprise acquire wealth, and I 
 intend to labor hard for such an end. I mean to do 
 
80 A Christian Business Mayi. 
 
 business on truly honest principles, to get trade wher- 
 ever I can without any sacrifice of self-respect or 
 compromising of integrity. I do not believe in doing 
 business at a loss, for that will endanger our safety 
 as a firm and be wronging our creditors. I shall there- 
 fore strive to make every transaction yield its fair 
 quota of profits and no more. I dislike the method 
 sometimes adopted of urging men to buy on credit 
 what the seller knows they do not really need and 
 may perhaps find it difficult to pay for. I have often 
 seen men get into difficulty from entering into specu- 
 lations outside of their regular business, and I consider 
 the plan dangerous in the extreme ; consequently I 
 shall not do it myself and shall try to discourage it in 
 my partners. 
 
 There can be no success without labor and steady 
 perseverance ; I shall therefore rise early and pursue 
 my appropriate line of duty with untiring stedfast- 
 ness, thus setting an example to those in my employ. 
 
 I hold to the accountability of a firm as well as of 
 an individual. I shall therefore be in favor of a gen- 
 erous response to those calls of public charity and 
 benevolence that are always made in a community like 
 this. It is with such general views that I enter into 
 this partnership, hoping for the blessing of God. 
 
 This partnership ended in failure in the great 
 financial depression of 1857, leaving Mr. Gates 
 burdened with care and debt. He blamed him- 
 self for not investigating the affairs of the firm 
 more thoroughly before entering into the partner- 
 ship and for not resisting more strenuously the 
 temptations to enlarge the business on a scale 
 
Diligent in Business, 81 
 
 beyond their means, and he acknowledged to 
 himself that he had been blinded by his haste to 
 get rich. 
 
 In 1884, writing to one of his children, he said 
 of this period of his life : — 
 
 God has been very good to us. Losses came that 
 swept away everything but character, and yet we never 
 lacked for bread. Your dear mother's character came 
 out in those days. I gave up everything to my credit- 
 ors and she never had a word but of approval. 
 
 At the time of the failure he wrote : — 
 
 All release me and I leave all, being indeed worse 
 off than nothing at the present valuation of my real 
 estate. One thing gives me comfort : every one keeps 
 confidence in my integrity, and I could ask a favor 
 of any of our creditors with no fear of rejection on 
 the ground of ill-will. 
 
 In the hour of his discouragement and depres- 
 sion over the failure, Mr. E. W. Blatchford came 
 to Mr. Gates with words of cheer and encourage- 
 ment, was helpful to him in the settlement of his 
 affairs, and offered him employment which finally 
 resulted in the formation of a partnership between 
 them. 
 
 Notwithstanding all these business troubles, 
 Mr. Gates was untiring in his labors for the little 
 church of which he was a member. It was em- 
 barrassed for lack of funds, and parties at the 
 East held a note against the property of the 
 
82 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 church. In these circumstances some of the 
 members, with the pastor, conceived the idea of 
 seeking help from the Presbyterian Society and 
 turning the church over to that denomination. 
 A meeting was called to consider this plan. Mr. 
 Gates was not notified of the meeting and knew 
 nothing of the plan. But a lady calling upon his 
 wife mentioned that such a meeting had been 
 called. As soon as her caller had left, Mrs. Gates 
 put on her bonnet, went to her husband's place of 
 business, and told him what she had heard. He 
 acted with characteristic promptness : telegraphed 
 to the parties holding the note of the church that 
 he wished to take up the note, and, when he had 
 obtained their answer to the effect that the note 
 was his, he attended the meeting with this answer 
 in his pocket. The promoters of the plan had 
 come fortified with arguments to show that it 
 was for the good of the church that they should 
 induce the Presbyterian Society to raise the note 
 and take them under its wing. They presented 
 these arguments and everything seemed favorable 
 to their views. At last one member said he 
 should like to inquire who held the note of the 
 church. At this juncture Mr. Gates rose and 
 said, " I do, sir," and resumed his seat. It was 
 a short speech, but very effective. A reaction 
 at once set in which resulted in the church's 
 maintaining its place in the Congregational body. 
 The most ardent advocates of Presbyterianism 
 united with churches of that denomination in the 
 
Diligent in Business. 83 
 
 vicinity. Those who remained bravely maintained 
 the struggle with greater unity of purpose, 
 though diminished in numbers. 
 
 Rev. J. H. Dill, an earnest and devoted man, 
 became their pastor. Mr. Gates rejoiced in his 
 coming and spared no effort to support him. 
 Often he lighted the fires and swept out the 
 church for the public services. He advanced 
 money to the church for the payment of the pas- 
 tor's salary. Indeed he embarrassed himself, bor- 
 rowing money in order that the work of the 
 church might go on without interruption. In 
 his journal he wrote, under the date of August 
 7, 1859: — 
 
 My heart sinks within me at times when I think of 
 Mr. Dill's salary and my advances to the church. I 
 have embarrassed myself for the sake of the church 
 and it worries me at times, but I hope for the best. 
 I feel deeply how hard it is to live aright, but I do 
 hope and pray for grace to gain the mastery over pas- 
 sion, pride, and selfishness. I would know more of 
 God, realize more deeply my own sinfulness, and 
 enjoy a greater nearness to Christ, my Redeemer, 
 Helper, and Friend. Our church rejoices in the serv- 
 ices of Mr. Dill, and has reason to rejoice, for he 
 seems most thoroughly devoted to our welfare and 
 upbuilding. Our weekly prayer-meetings are better 
 attended and more interesting, our Suuday-seliool is 
 filling up, and the hearts of Christians are being 
 drawn more closely together. Oh, for a revival of 
 religion that would blend us all together in the com- 
 
84 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 mon cause of our Master and gather sinners into the 
 church ! This is what we most need and what I hope 
 we are praying for. 
 
 Mr. J. H. Clough, an old-time friend of Mr. 
 Gates and a member with him of the South Con- 
 gregational Church, says of Mr. Gates' devotion 
 to that church : — 
 
 I first knew him as a member of the little church on 
 the corner of Twenty-sixth Street and Calumet Avenue. 
 It was in the fall of 1858. We had just moved into 
 the neighborhood, and were visiting the struggling 
 churches of different denominations in that vicinity 
 with a view to selecting our church home. Attracted 
 more by the cordial and friendly manner of Mr. Gates 
 than by any other incident, we became attendants of 
 the little church on the corner. He seemed to have 
 the burdens of the Lord's work upon him as few men 
 have. He was looked to as the chief support of the 
 church, financially and spiritually. I suppose he was 
 not at that time a wealthy man, yet he was the first 
 and largest contributor to the ordinary expenses of 
 the church, besides giving in other ways. He was 
 treasurer of the church, and when some of the mem- 
 bers were unable to pay their pew rent he would credit 
 the amount to the subscriber, paying it from his own 
 purse that the society might not suffer loss, and 
 nothing was known of it by others. There was a 
 poor girl in the congregation who could help herself 
 and parents if she only had a piano. Mr. Gates found 
 the way to supply the instrument. When the minister 
 needed a better watch to insure his prompt appearance 
 in the pulpit, Mr. Gates furnished the timekeeper 
 
Diligent in Business. 85 
 
 at the next donation party. He seemed to be al- 
 ways seeking opportunities for helping others. 
 
 I remember at one time he seemed very much dis- 
 couraged. Our good minister, Mr. Dill, had joined 
 the army of the Union as chaplain, and the church 
 needed some one to preach the gospel. A very ac- 
 ceptable young man from another city had visited us 
 and preached to us, and we desired to secure his serv- 
 ice, but there was no money and not much prospect 
 of replenishing the treasury except from one source, 
 and that was Mr. Gates' purse, which was ever at the 
 command of the cliurch. Twelve hundred dollars 
 must be raised for the pastor's salary, besides other 
 expenses. A few of the church members came to- 
 gether to consider the situation. We sat in silence 
 for some time, Mr. Gates with bowed head as if en- 
 gaged in silent prayer. At last some one in the little 
 group from whom perhaps little was expected broke 
 the silence by proposing to subscribe Si 00. Mr. 
 Gates seemed at once to have gained new hope, not 
 so much on account of the sum named, as from the 
 feeling that he was not entirely alone in his willing- 
 ness to do for the church. The amount needed was 
 made up by his strong support and earnest efforts, 
 and the pastor was secured, greatly to the happiness 
 of Mr. Gates and the growth and spiritual life of 
 the church. 
 
 That pastor was Rev. W. B. Wright, of Cin- 
 cinnati, Ohio, between whom and Mr. Gates a 
 friendship was formed of more than ordinary 
 stedfastness and intensity. Mr. Wright says, 
 writing to one of Mr. Gates' sons : — 
 
86 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 At that period of a man's life when his boyhood is 
 over and manhood beginning ; when he feels, in con- 
 fronting the forces of actual life all entirely new to 
 him, as a little child, inexperienced and wholly un- 
 trained to cope with them ; while at the same time he 
 knows he must act a man's part and may not look for 
 the sympathy, help, and consideration which are given 
 spontaneously to children, — at that period your father 
 was given to me. He understood me, put his virile 
 strength under my weakness, loved me, bore with me. 
 I clung to him as an ivy clings to an oak. I loved 
 him as Jonathan loved David, and to the end my 
 grateful prayer of thanksgiving shall be that our 
 relations were what they were. 
 
 While Mr. Gates was so active in labors for 
 the church, he was equally diligent in business. 
 In September, 1859, the Chicago Lead Works, 
 in which he was engaged with Mr. Blatchford, 
 burned down in a disastrous fire, which visited 
 that portion of the city. The buildings had to 
 be rebuilt and the accounts of the firm copied 
 from charred books, entailing upon Mr. Gates 
 severe and exhausting labors. But nothing inter- 
 rupted his fervent devotion to the service of his 
 heavenly Father. On the Sabbath following the 
 fire we find the following record in his journal : — 
 
 Again has the Sabbath of rest dawned 'upon me, 
 and I look forward to the services of God's house 
 with pleasure. "How amiable are thy tabernacles, 
 O Lord of hosts ! A day iu thy courts is better than 
 a thousand iu the tents of sin." Grant us, O God, 
 
Diligent in Business. 87 
 
 a rich feast this day, a spirit of deep and earnest 
 prayer that great good may be accomplished in the 
 name of the Lord ! Clothe thy minister with salva- 
 tion, and make his words quick and powerful to the 
 salvation of sinners and the upbuilding of saints ! 
 
 He continued to live in the vicinity of the 
 church after he had entered into business with 
 Mr. Blatchford, although his home was nearly 
 four miles from his office. He went to business 
 very early in the morning and returned so late 
 that his younger children often saw nothing of 
 their father save on Sundays. He labored with 
 his own hands, often himself measuring lead pipe 
 and rolling out barrels of oil for customers. He 
 put his own strength and vitality into his business, 
 and gave equal diligence to his work for Christ. 
 To him the Master's business was his business, 
 and all business was the Master's. 
 
 Says one who met him daily in business rela- 
 tions : — 
 
 He was too firm in his convictions and too outspoken 
 in stating them to be what the world calls popular, 
 but he had what was better than popularity — the es- 
 teem and respect of all who came in contact with him 
 in a business way. During a business association of 
 over twenty years I have rarely known him to be 
 mistaken in his judgment regarding business matters. 
 
 He had to a rare degree the ability to grasp a 
 situation, to look on both sides of a question, and 
 promptly to make up his mind as to the best course to 
 pursue. In business, as in every other interest, he 
 
88 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 was an untiring worker. If anything was to be done, 
 he never waited for some one else to do it, but would 
 take hold of the work with such energy that it would 
 perhaps be completed before another man would have 
 made up his mind to begin. 
 
 Another says : — 
 
 I have known him for the last thirty-five years. I 
 always considered him a model business man. I loved 
 to meet him at the lunch table. It was a treat to hear 
 him at such a time discourse upon the drift in the busi- 
 ness world and also in the political, as bearing upon 
 the interests of righteousness and good government. 
 His public spirit was an element of his nature manifest 
 to all who knew him. 
 
 This public spirit was manifested in the struggle 
 for the election of Lincoln. Mr. Gates was deeply 
 interested and took an active part in that contest. 
 When Fort Sumter was threatened he wrote in 
 his journal : — 
 
 I say to every man of the North, Stand firm. Ask 
 nothing that you would not readily grant, and grant 
 nothing of which your children will be ashamed and 
 which the noblest instincts of humanity will not en- 
 dorse. There is one consolation amid all these sad 
 occurrences : God reigns supreme and he is able to 
 overrule all that which seems evil to us for the highest 
 good of this nation. 
 
 And in 1862 he wrote again : — 
 
 The great question of to-day is. What shall be 
 
Diligent in Business. 89 
 
 done with the negro? I say, Let freedom go with our 
 armies. Liberate every slave of disloyal masters and 
 confiscate the property of rebels. Then initiate move- 
 ments for the education of the negroes, and put them 
 in the way of becoming the owners in small parcels of 
 their masters' large estates. 
 
 When the draft was made for soldiers Mr. Gates 
 did not wait to see whether he would be drawn. 
 Knowing that his circumstances did not permit 
 him to go to the front, he secured a substitute to 
 go in his place. One evening coming home from 
 business he gathered his children about him and 
 gave to them a slip of paper on which was written 
 the name and address of this substitute, and bade 
 them love the man who had gone in their father's 
 stead and pray for his safety. It meant much to 
 those little ones that somewhere out at the front 
 a jnan was marching and fighting in the j^lace of 
 their beloved fathei*, and so he was spared to them. 
 
 In 1861 Mr. Gates' health showed signs of seri- 
 ous impairment, and he was apprehensive that he 
 might be taken away suddenly, so he wrote direc- 
 tions as to the disposition which he wished to have 
 made of his affairs. In closing he said : — 
 
 My great desire for our children is that they may all 
 receive a good education, and be brought up to habits 
 of industry and economy, and, above all, be thoroughly 
 instructed in those duties which they owe to God. 
 With reUgion and industrious habits I feel that they 
 can take care of themselves as their father did before 
 
90 A Christian Business Mayi. 
 
 theiu, while without these qualifications no amount of 
 property I could leave them would secure to them re- 
 spectability, real success, or happiness. I commend 
 my eternal interests to Him who gave me being, feel- 
 ing deeply my great sinfulness and unworthiness, but 
 trusting in the blood and in the mercies of Jesus Christ 
 for my salvation. 
 
 Mr. Wright began his labors with the South 
 Congregational Church, November 2, 1862. The 
 friendship formed between him and Mr. Gates was 
 so close and tender that the pastor was wont to 
 style himself Jonathan and his parishioner David. 
 The home of each was another home to the other. 
 A few years later when the pastor was yet not 
 fully settled in his Eastern home he wrote to his 
 friend : — 
 
 As the Jews found in Jerusalem the type of heaven 
 — the symbol and evidence of a rest remaining — it 
 is the simple truth that I look to your home as the one 
 place on earth where I can feel absolutely at rest. 
 
 And the pastor's memory still lingers in the 
 home of his friend like a loving presence felt but 
 not seen. 
 
 After the last service of the Sabbath they were 
 wont to walk together, talking over the services of 
 the day and exchanging counsels for each other's 
 spiritual upbuilding, and often they would retire to- 
 gether to the closet to pour out their united pray- 
 ers for the church, for themselves, and for individ- 
 uals iu whom they were interested. The revivt^l 
 
DlUyent in Business, 91 
 
 came, for which Mr. Gates had been longing and 
 praying. Thirty-nine were added to the church 
 by letter during the five years of Mr. Wright's 
 pastorate, and twenty-seven on confession of their 
 faith. A few years later Mr Wright wrote : — 
 
 The ideal communion that lingers iu my memory 
 like a whisper from heaven is the one when we all 
 sat down together after the sweet revival iu the little 
 church, when L and others united with us. 
 
 And after Mr. Gates' death he wrote again : — 
 
 I will tell you of an incident, which is a fair speci- 
 men of countless others, showing his care for his pas- 
 tor. It was June, I think. The year had been a try- 
 ing one for business men. There had been a revival in 
 our church. Meetings had been multiplied, and he had 
 w^orked in them with an energy which never flagged. 
 He looked worn and jaded. I grew anxious for his 
 health, and urged him to take a rest, but he said it was 
 impossible. I could not move him. He said his time 
 was not his own, his business required his presence, 
 the church needed him. But one who need not be 
 named here, one to whom his leaving earth has given 
 a joy scarcely less than the sorrow his departure has 
 given me, intimated to him that I was flagging from 
 overwork and needed a change. The second morning 
 after he heard that his carriage stopped at my door, 
 and he asked me to take a ride with him. I accepted 
 without a thought of anything more than a morning's 
 ride. At noon we stopped somewhere for dinner; at 
 night we reached a snug inn. He proposed that we 
 spend the night there, His eyes twinkled as he took 
 
92 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 from the rumble my own valise packed with all that 
 could be needed for a week's journey. He told me 
 that he had provided for the supply of the pulpit on 
 the coming Sabbath, that thoughts neither of the fac- 
 tory nor of the church should intrude upon us. He 
 brought me back after seven days, himself refreshed 
 by the journey, but still more by the conviction that he 
 had done me good. 
 
 There were few tasks more difficult than to make him 
 care for himself, none easier than to move him by the 
 lever of carefulness for others. Wherever he could 
 be of service, there he loved to be. It mattered little 
 what the kind of service was. When there seemed to 
 be small interest in religion he would come to my study 
 and pray with me for spiritual power ; when it was 
 given and inquirers began to ask. What shall we do? 
 he would spend evening after evening with them in 
 conference and prayer. When cholera came and many 
 were mastered by panic, his joy was to visit the homes 
 of the poor where the disease had entered, and bring 
 to them help and cheer. Once when smallpox had 
 become epidemic, I found him quietly watching by the 
 bedside of a man dying of that disease, watching 
 while the sick man's wife slept in obedience to his 
 orders. The memory of these facts enables me to 
 understand the wisdom and devotion he afterwards 
 showed, and to appreciate the joy he felt in his larger 
 ministrations at the Bohemian Mission and as presi- 
 dent of the Chicago City Missionary Society. Others 
 will tliink of him as the able man of business, the in- 
 structed man of affairs, the eloquent speaker, the 
 astute organizer, the able Bible teacher, the faithful, 
 patriotic citizen, the loving father, the tender husband ; 
 
Diligent in Business, 93 
 
 but I see the face of my beloved friend, the face that 
 often looked so careworn, those bright eyes of his 
 glowing with light, in which even their familiar beauty 
 is quenched, as he hears, " Sick and in prison and thou 
 visitedst me. Enter into the joy of thy Lord." 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN LAYMAN. 
 
 IN 1867, Mr. Gates removed his residence to 
 Geneva, 111., thirty-five miles west of Chi- 
 cago. He did business in the city as before, 
 returning to his home by train every evening. 
 His health had become impaired, and the enforced 
 cessation of activity during the rides to and from 
 the city, together with the quiet of the country, 
 did much to restore his wasted energies. The 
 parting from his beloved pastor was a sore trial. 
 Each grasped the other's hand and said in a tone 
 tremulous with emotion: ''God bless you, dear 
 fellow ! " and then their ways diverged. It was 
 not long afterwards that the pastor accepted a call 
 to the Berkeley Street Church of Boston, and the 
 distance between them was increased ; but a corre- 
 spondence began which was rich in its evidences 
 of warm and unselfish Christian love. The year 
 after the separation, Mr. Wright wrote the follow- 
 ing tribute to his friend : — 
 
 I have seen many men, I have known many inti- 
 mately, and have been loved tenderly by a few whom 
 the world calls great ; but I have known none other 
 whose character is an inspiration to me, as is yours. 
 I have thought that one of the uses of your hard but 
 splendid life is to stimulate weak men to strive more. 
 
 94 
 
Tlie Christian Layman. 95 
 
 In Geneva, Mr. Gates found opportunity to 
 gratify that love of the country which had lin- 
 gered in his heart from his youth. Coming home 
 from the work of the day, out of the toil and tur- 
 moil of the city into the quiet and freshness of 
 his beautiful home, he delighted to go out into 
 the garden, to work among the plants and flowers, 
 or to ride through the country with his wife and 
 children, often calling at some farmhouse. On 
 one of these visits, he found the farmer just going 
 to the barn with the milkpails upon his arm. 
 Mr. Gates accosted him with hearty greeting and 
 said: "Don't you want me to help you milk?" 
 The farmer, who only knew Mr. Gates as the city 
 manufacturer, replied rather contemptuously: "I 
 should like to see you milk." Mr. Gates at once 
 jumped from his carriage, seized a milkpail, and 
 soon outstripped the farmer in the speed with 
 which he milked the cows. 
 
 At other times he would join his children in 
 their sports and run to and fro in the ample 
 grounds surrounding his house, himself the swift- 
 est runner of them all and as young in spirit 
 as any. 
 
 He was always an early riser, and at Geneva it 
 was his habit to ride from five to ten miles on 
 horseback before breakfast, returning in time to 
 eat breakfast and conduct the morning devotions 
 with his family before he took the seven o'clock 
 train for the city. With the freshening and in- 
 vigorating of his physical nature all the traits of 
 
96 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 the fond father and loving husband came out in 
 stronger, clearer lines. He loved to gather his 
 children about him under the trees and read 
 to them from Ruskin's Beauties of Nature, or 
 The Schonberg-Cotta Family, or other works of 
 good authors which would kindle their interest 
 in God's world and God's thoughts. Often on 
 Sabbath afternoons they would walk together, the 
 children delighting in the opportunity to vary 
 the quiet of the Sabbath and rest the active limbs, 
 tired with the enforced inactivity of the morning 
 service, by using them ; then, when some shady 
 nook was found, they would sit down upon the 
 ground and listen while he read to them. He 
 was a sympathetic reader, the tones of his voice 
 changing with every shade of thought of the 
 author whom he was interpreting. Often in the 
 Sabbath evenings, or when the weather made it 
 impossible to gather out-of-doors, he would open 
 the Bible and teach its sacred lessons with per- 
 sonal applications and appeals that left no doubt 
 in the minds of his children as to what he most 
 desired for them. Together they studied the his- 
 tory of Israel, with the aid of maps, learned the 
 divisions of Palestine, and placed the stories of 
 Old Testament worthies in settings that brought 
 out clearly the lessons of their lives. And often 
 when bedtime came he would be found sitting by 
 the bedside of some one of those children, point- 
 ing them to the Lamb of God that taketh away 
 the sin of the world, while he held the little 
 
The Christian Layman. 97 
 
 hands in a clasp that spoke of the earthly father's 
 love, and gave a very tender interpretation to the 
 words, " Our Father, which art in heaven." And 
 then he would kneel there and pour out his 
 heart's desire, pleading for the divine blessing 
 upon his children, that they might accept the 
 truth and yield their hearts to the Saviour whom 
 he had presented to them. There was no doubt 
 in the minds of his children as to his sympathy 
 with them, and they knew that nothing gave 
 him greater joy than to have them come to him 
 to know the way of righteousness. One Sabbath 
 evening, when all had retired except himself, and 
 he was seated at the library table writing, a white- 
 robed figure stole in and came to his side. Look- 
 ing down into the troubled face, he asked with 
 kindly tone; "What is it?" The answer came 
 with a burst of tears : '' I want to find Jesus." 
 " My child," he said, " Jesus wants to find you." 
 And then after words of counsel and prayer, the 
 little one went back to bed ; but the father still 
 kneeled in gratitude to God, and then and there 
 he consecrated his child to the Lord's ministry, 
 if it should be his will to accept the offering. 
 Years afterward, in writing to one of his sons, 
 Mr. Gates said : '' Among the bright spots along 
 the years of care and toil are the Sundays spent 
 with you children. How sweet thc}^ were to me! 
 and they lifted the week-day load of care, anxiety, 
 and labor." 
 
 In Geneva, Mr. Gates found a struggling church 
 
98 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 to be aided. He deplored the fact that a village 
 of two thousand inhabitants should have seven or 
 eight churches. This seemed to him a waste of 
 strength and money, which he could never have 
 tolerated in his own business, and was no less 
 grievous to him in his Lord's business. But he 
 felt that the church where he worshiped had a 
 right to his support, and he gave it freely. He 
 threw himself into the work so earnestly that the 
 faithful pastor and counselor of former years soon 
 wrote to him in this strain : — 
 
 I cannot sleep until I warn you against the danger 
 of taking the Geneva church bodily upon your shoul- 
 ders. I greatly fear that you are doing so. In Chi- 
 cago I am sure that it would have been better for the 
 church if you had not suffered it to lean upon you so 
 much. It is better to strengthen a man's legs than to 
 carry him upon your shoulders. Is it not so, my dear 
 friend ? 
 
 For a year he served as superintendent of the 
 Sabbath-school, besides carrying a large share of 
 the burdens of the church. In 1868, Rev. H. M. 
 Whitney became pastor of the church, and a cor- 
 dial friendship at once sprang up between him and 
 Mr. Gates. Mr. Whitney says : — 
 
 I valued him beyond expression as a parishioner 
 and as a personal friend. He knew what I was trying 
 to do. A good sermon was likely to be followed by 
 an appreciative word or a warm grasp of the hand. 
 A poor sermon or a mistaken step of the pastor was 
 
The Chrlstimi Layman, 99 
 
 considerately dealt with, if only by kindly silence. 
 He had frequent headaches, and his daily ride of 
 seventy miles on the cars was a poor preparation for 
 attendance at the prayer-meeting ; but bis talks were 
 rich in their spiritual helpfulness. Among my most 
 valued recollections are those of walks taken with him 
 in the darkness after evening service, for then we 
 uttered our largest and most aspiring and most Chris- 
 tian thoughts. He little knew how the young man 
 who was struggling to master himself and to do the 
 work of an evangelist lived and grew on the spiritual 
 aliment that he received from his lay elder brother in 
 those eager walks. 
 
 Here, as in Chicago, Mr. Gates showed what 
 a layman may do for his minister, how the parish- 
 ioner may strengthen his pastor. 
 
 In 1871, Mr. Whitney was called to the chair 
 of rhetoric in Beloit College. In the interim that 
 followed his departure, before the church secured 
 a pastor, Mr. Gates often filled the pulpit, either 
 by reading a sermon or giving one of his earnest 
 talks. One Sabbath morning the people assem- 
 bled for worship and discovered that no provision 
 had been made for the su})ply of the pulpit. Mr. 
 Gates was not 2)resent. One of the deacons went 
 to his house and found him in bed suffering from 
 a sick headache. But when he knew that the 
 people were waiting for the word of God, he arose 
 and went and ministered unto them. 
 
 In the fall of 1871, two of Mr. Gates' sons, Will 
 and Frank, followed their pastor, Mr. Whitney, 
 
100 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 to Beloit College, entering the preparatory depart- 
 ment, and in the following year Mr. Gates re- 
 turned to Chicago and made his home upon the 
 west side of the city. In the years that followed, 
 while his sons were in college, Mr. Gates visited 
 Beloit from time to time, and showed his interest 
 in the college in many ways. Professor Whitney 
 says : — 
 
 His visits were always greatly enjoyed. I have 
 especially in mind one visit when, as superintendent 
 of the Sabbath-school, I pressed him into service to 
 speak at the Sunday-school concert. The study for 
 the quarter had been upon the life of Joseph, and 
 he drew lessons from that life in a way that fairly 
 entranced us all. The form was wholly extempora- 
 neous, but for strictness of method, naturalness of 
 connection with the subject, purity of diction, aptness 
 of vocabulary, sweetness of tone, and combination of 
 instructiveness and helpfulness, I have never known 
 it surpassed by the most elaborate sermon. Our pas- 
 tor, Dr. Bushnell, came to me as soon as he could, to 
 say : " Who is your friend, and where did he get such 
 extraordinary command of the Anglo-Saxon ? " He 
 was a diligent reader of the very choicest books and 
 the one book he studied most was the Bible. 
 
 It may be added that he was reaping now the 
 harvests of those years of self-discipline in his 
 early life, when he schooled himself to express 
 his thoughts in his journal, and by much writing 
 acquired the chaste and forcible diction of his 
 later years. 
 
The Christian Layman. 101 
 
 Men were drawn to him by the sweetness of 
 his character and the surety they felt of his sym- 
 pathy. Professor Whitney says: "I never felt 
 toward any other man, not of my own blood, as 
 I felt towards him. Our inability to keep hold 
 of him after the graduation of his boys was to 
 my wife and myself one common grief. When 
 we spoke of it to him, he had that far-away look 
 that used to come into his eyes at times, which 
 meant that the zeal of the Lord's house had eaten 
 him up." 
 
 When Mr. Gates returned to the city, refreshed 
 and strengthened by his sojourn in the country, 
 his active mind still carried on the processes of 
 thinking and investigating, only the themes were 
 no longer those of Nature, but rather those which 
 pertained to the good of his fellow men. As he 
 lived and moved among the crowds, he longed to 
 help them and do them good. His mind was ever 
 active. Says Dr. Wright : — 
 
 One of the most characteristic qualities of his mind 
 was its alertness. He interested himself in all things, 
 and few men could talk so intelligently upon so many 
 subjects. I remember, a few years — perhaps eight 
 years — before his death, while he was visiting rae in 
 Boston, the conversation brought in the name of the 
 Providence Tool Company. The theme once broached, 
 he delighted the company with a complete history 
 of a watch-spring from the time it left the mine, 
 through the pig iron, until it was set in a Walthara 
 watch. This was wholly outside the line of his own 
 
102 A Christia7i Business Man. 
 
 business, but it did not surprise me. His infor- 
 mation also was sure to be exact. He had one of the 
 rarest of gifts, the ability to distinguish between what 
 he knew and what he did not know. It was this fac- 
 ulty of close observation and iron memory which made 
 his talks so interesting upon all subjects that were 
 suggested at missionary meetings. He felt keenly his 
 inability to go through college and resolved to make 
 up for that deprivation as best he could. He began 
 early in life by training himself to remember and write 
 down as much as he could of the Sunday sermons, 
 and he gained such facility that in later years, after 
 listening to an address on any theme, he could report 
 all the important thoughts and much of the language ; 
 and to this faculty, acquired by long and laborious 
 practice, is attributable in large measure his wide and 
 accurate information. 
 
 Few men have used time so scrupulously. He never 
 learned how to be idle and he never learned how to 
 rest. His life would have been longer if he had. 
 Indeed he was one of God's burden-bearers. If there 
 was a load to be lifted, his irresistible impulse was to 
 put his shoulders under it and lift. Even when per- 
 suaded by those who loved him better than he loved 
 himself to take a vacation, he did not know how to 
 stop working. The intense energy that he showed in 
 his business was not relaxed in his play and he did 
 more work, though of a different kind, perhaps, in a 
 six weeks' vacation than many a man does in a year of 
 business. 
 
 To him rest meant a change of employment, 
 not inactivity, wliich was irksome. His readiness 
 
The Christian Layman. 103 
 
 to assume burdens finds illustration in an incident 
 related by Rev. G. S. F. Savage, d.d. : — 
 
 In 1872, before Mr. Gates had any official connec- 
 tion with the Chicago Theological Seminary, much 
 against my will 1 was elected treasurer of that insti- 
 tution. Tlie seminary was deeply in debt and its 
 income wholly insufficient to meet its annual expenses. 
 It was just after the great Chicago lire, which had 
 crippled many of the supporters of the seminary in 
 their resources, and the condition of its affairs was ex- 
 tremely critical. I was very unwilling to assume the 
 responsibility of caring for its finances ; but finally 
 agreed to leave the question of acceptance to the 
 decision of a few personal friends. After laying 
 before them the embarrassed condition of the semi- 
 nary's finances and saying to them that if they advised 
 me to accept the treasurership I should expect them to 
 contribute generously to its funds, I laid the matter 
 before Mr. Gates and said: " Now if you advise me 
 to take this responsibility, I shall expect you to back 
 it up with a contribution of 85,000." "Well," he 
 said, " I think it is a clear case as to your duty, and if 
 you had come to me last week, I would have considered 
 the proposition ; but I have just pledged $3,000 to the 
 church at Geneva, on condition they enlarge their 
 church building, and I do not see how I can do more 
 than that at present." But after a few moments' re- 
 flection he said : " If you will accept the treasurership, 
 I will pledge you $1,000 to-diiy and I will talk with 
 my wife ; if she consents, I will make it S''),000." He 
 afterwards paid the last-named sum in full, and from 
 time to time added other thousands. 
 
104 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 He once gave up a summer vacation which he 
 greatly needed in order that he might contribute 
 to the seminary. 
 
 For about six years Mr. Gates was a member 
 of the First Congregational Church, having the 
 Rev. E. P. Goodwin, d.d., for his pastor. He was 
 one of the deacons of the church and had a class 
 of girls in the Sunday-school, many of Avhom 
 found the Saviour under his guidance. He was 
 always in his place at church and Sunday-school, 
 unless prevented by illness. The pastor's wife 
 says : " One of my clearest recollections of him 
 was his attendance upon the early morning prayer- 
 meetings during the Week of Prayer. He would 
 come in the coldest weather, taking the time from 
 business." And his pastor said in a memorial 
 address : " The church has now and then a happy 
 illustration of what the grace of Christ can do in 
 the hearts and lives of his disciples. Such an 
 illustration is furnished by Deacon Caleb F. Gates. 
 I knew him for some years as his pastor; knew 
 him when the sky was unclouded and the home 
 circle unbroken ; knew him when the shadows 
 thickened and the death angel came ; knew him 
 in years of financial stringency, when the carry- 
 ing on of church enterprises and the raising of 
 church debts proved men ; knew him in the Pru- 
 dential Committee, in the Sunday-school and in 
 the mission school, in the prayer room and in the 
 inquiry room, and he was to me as a sort of John 
 Knox or Augustine." 
 
The Christian Layman. 105 
 
 In his journal we find frequent records of Dr. 
 Goodwin's stirring sermons, to which he w^as a 
 sympathetic and attentive listener. 
 
 In 1874, Mr. Gates was chosen a member of the 
 Auditing Committee of the Chicago Theological 
 Seminary, and in 1885 he was elected a member 
 of the Board of Directors and of the Executive 
 Committee, to which was added the office of vice- 
 president in 1888. In regard to these offices he 
 wrote : '' I am unworthy of all these trusts and 
 keenly feel my lack of fitness. Pray for me, that 
 God may give me the needed wisdom and grace." 
 
 In his relations to the seminary he was thrown 
 into frequent intercourse with Dr. Savage, who 
 has recorded his impressions of him in these 
 words : — 
 
 I had abundant opportunities to note the qualities 
 of mind and heart which made him so beloved and 
 useful. He was always prompt and faithful in attend- 
 ing the meetings of the directors and of the Execu- 
 tive Committee. He gave much valuable time and 
 business ability to caring for the finances of the semi- 
 nary, and was himself a generous giver. He not only 
 gave large gifts of thousands of dollars toward per- 
 manent endowments, but very frequently gave smaller 
 amounts to meet temporary emergencies. Often at 
 the meetings of our Executive Counnittee there would 
 be small bills to be paid when there were no funds in 
 the treasury, or there was some aid to be given or 
 some desirable object to be secured for which there was 
 no provision. In such cases, his favorite expression 
 
106 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 was, "Well, brethren, let us chip in and pay it." 
 And he was always ready to "chip in " to the full 
 measure of his proportion. At one time, being desir- 
 ous that the students in the seminary should all take 
 part in the chapel services by responsive readings of 
 the Bible, he purchased one hundred and fifty Bibles 
 and donated them for this purpose. His rare business 
 qualities, his kind and genial nature, his unselfisluiess, 
 his practical good sense, his generosity, and his deep 
 and abiding interest in every good cause won my 
 highest respect and my love. Seldom, if ever, has any 
 man attached me so strongly or held me so closely. 
 
 Mr. Gates was anxious that the theological stu- 
 dents should engage in practical Christian work, 
 and at their request he came to the seminary and 
 delivered an address, in which he urged the impor- 
 tance of such work both for the good they could 
 do and the benefit to themselves. 
 
 His interest in the Chicago Theological Semi- 
 nary led his son Frank thither to prepare for the 
 ministry instead of going to an eastern seminary, 
 as he had desired. His father said : " I would 
 like to give the seminary a son ; I have already 
 given it money." At the same time his son Wil- 
 liam was studying medicine, so that there were 
 realized in the service of his sons two aims which 
 were dear to him — care for the bodies and the 
 souls of men. 
 
 The same interest in the seminary led him later 
 on to give f5,000, which was to be expended in 
 furnishing an alcove Avith missionary books and 
 
The Christian Layman. 107 
 
 charts, in order that the students might be able to 
 study the cause of missions. And in 1889 he 
 gave the reports of the London Missionary Con- 
 ference to every member of the graduating class 
 to awaken their interest in missions. 
 
 In 1878, Mr. Gates' family suffered a sore be- 
 reavement. Death had already visited the house- 
 hold and taken away three little ones in their 
 infancy. Now the fifth son, Edward, a bright lad 
 of sixteen years, was removed. He had been 
 injured internally the year before, in a railroad 
 accident, and the injury finally developed an 
 abscess from which he suffered greatly for eight 
 months, slowly wasting away. Mr. Gates was 
 most constant in his loving attentions to the sick 
 boy, and especially did he labor and pray that he 
 might find his Saviour. Edward had been care- 
 less in matters of religion, and was at first rebel- 
 lious against the Providence which had laid him 
 on a bed of sickness and pain ; but after a time 
 he yielded himself without reserve to God. From 
 that time there was a marked change in his char- 
 acter. His Bible and Bible Text Book were con- 
 stantly by his bedside, and the little Bible soon 
 showed the course of his reading and study in 
 its marked passages. The severest suffering was 
 borne without a murmur. Day and night those 
 who watched beside him heard no complaint. He 
 was solicitous that all his brothers should know 
 his faith and share it with him. At his own 
 request he was received into the church and 
 
108 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 partook of the communion in the sick room, and 
 when at last his frame was worn out with cruel 
 suffering and the spirit took its flight, th3 pallid 
 lips were murmuring, "Nearer, my God, to thee, 
 nearer to thee." 
 
 In his father's journal this record of his last 
 hours was found : — 
 
 About an hour and a half before his death, I was 
 sitting beside the cot, and was not sure whether he 
 was asleep or not, but ventured to sing in a low tone 
 '' Nearer, my God, to thee." He immediately caught 
 up the first few words in feebleness. I sang through 
 the first verse and then said : " Eddie, would you like 
 to have Lizzie play and we sing a few of our familiar 
 hymns?" He replied quickly : "Oh, yes." T called 
 Mary, Lizzie, Will, and Frank. While we were hesi- 
 tating a moment as to what we should sing first, Eddie 
 said distinctly, "Number thirty-three," thus showing 
 in a way very precious to us whither his thoughts 
 tended. Ah, that when my last hour comes I too may 
 say : " Trusting Jesus, that is all " ! 
 
 The example of that sick room was not lost. 
 The victory won there stilled every doubt in the 
 mind of his brother and shaped the course of his 
 life. It was after Edward's death that his father's 
 long-cherished wish was gratified by seeing his 
 son Frank choose the Christian ministry as his 
 profession. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 FOREIGN MISSIONS. 
 
 MR. GATES was always interested in the 
 cause of foreign missions. He dated his 
 interest in missions from the lessons he learned in 
 childhood at the knee of his Aunt Nancy. In 1882 
 he wrote to Mr. Charles Hutchins, of the American 
 Board : — 
 
 The June number of The Missionary Herald is un- 
 usually good. I learned to read out of The Herald tifty 
 years ago, under the supervision of my aunt, who is 
 now in heaven. I had to get the sense and then give 
 it. If it had been then what it is now, I think I should 
 have enjoyed it more, but it was a good schooling, 
 and mv love for missions dates back to that time. 
 
 Mr. E. W. Blatchford, who was for many years 
 associated with Mr. Gates in business, writes of 
 his interest in missions : — 
 
 A prominent trait of Mr. Gates' character was the 
 thoroughness with which he studied every subject that 
 interested him, amounting oftentimes to enthusiasm. 
 His interest in missions was shown in the Monthly 
 Concerts when he was connected with the Old South 
 Congregational Church of this city. The means for 
 obtaining information about the work of our mission- 
 aries were not so abundant then as now. Whatever 
 
 109 
 
110 A Christian Business 3fan. 
 
 books and maps could be obtained, Mr. Gates had, and 
 when he could not find the maps he needed, he often 
 made them himself, in order that he might exhibit to 
 the church a clear view of missionary work in the world. 
 
 Some idea of the effect of those talks may be 
 gained from the words of his pastor, written many 
 years after: " I felt almost no interest in foreign 
 missions until your talk in the Sunday evening 
 meeting about Polynesia, which was followed by 
 a series of talks on the Zulus." 
 
 " I well remember," said Mr. Blatchford, " his 
 joy when the decision was made that his son Frank 
 would represent him in the Christian ministry. 
 During a business trip made about this time to 
 Colorado he learned much of the needs of this 
 and the adjoining states ; and from his familiarity 
 with their growth, their prospects for a grand fu- 
 ture, and their spiritual needs, his mind naturally 
 turned toward our western states and territories as 
 the field for his son's labors. His son also made 
 a trip of observation through the same region and 
 his interest was kindled in the West. But during^ 
 the closing months of his seminary course he heard 
 a voice calling in another direction with divine 
 power. The Turkish missions were brought to 
 his attention through the secretaries of the Ameri- 
 can Board, and Mardin station was presented to 
 him as a field of great need, offering possibilities of 
 large usefulness. After much prayer and delibera- 
 tion, he recognized the call as of God and i)r()mptly 
 
Foreign Missions, 111 
 
 communicated to his father the decision he was 
 compelled to make. To liini it was a surprise and 
 at first a disappointment. The night after his 
 son's letter was received was a sleepless one. 
 Through its long hours he paced the floor, his 
 parental heart wrestling with the question which 
 involved so many and such conflicting elements. 
 But then and there the fact was realized that God 
 had called his son to the foreign field and that he 
 must move forward in that work." 
 
 The consecration made so many years before in 
 the library at Geneva was renewed again with 
 tears of parental love and pain. He had given 
 his son to the Lord again. The question was 
 never reopened. In every way in his power he 
 encouraged and aided his son to prepare for the 
 work upon which he entered a few months later, 
 in September, 1881. 
 
 " How thoroughly Mr. Gates identified himself 
 with this beloved son's work," says Mr. Blatch- 
 ford, *' can only be realized by those to whom in 
 the intimacy of daily life he spoke of this sub- 
 ject which lay with constant and tender pressure 
 upon his Christian father's heart. The thoughtful 
 household preparation for that untried foreign life 
 was made as if the journey were his own ; the 
 weariness of the long journey by sea and plain 
 and mountain to that distant Mesopotamian home 
 was his weariness ; the multiform trials in those 
 early days, he bore ; the discomforts of the Mardin 
 house and its inhospitable surroundings his sym- 
 
112 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 pathetic nature realized ; and when he placed in 
 my hands the cable message announcing that the 
 Good Shepherd had gathered to his own bosom 
 the one lamb, — the anticipated source of joy and 
 cheer in that little home, — it was to him as if 
 one of his own home circle had been taken 
 away. 
 
 " But from the bright side of that earnest and 
 successful missionary labor he derived ever-in- 
 creasing comfort. The work in the consecrated 
 home ; in the school ; in the house-to-house visita- 
 tion ; in personal pleadings ; in missionary gath- 
 erings; the life on the field; the conversions to 
 Christ ; the development of character, — • from all 
 these experiences and more, conveyed in the let- 
 ters which he always carried with him, Mr. Gates 
 derived real and constant satisfaction that not only 
 dwelt in his own heart but was communicated to 
 others in the meetings of the church, especially in 
 the Monthly Concert, and in the daily intercourse 
 with friends.' 
 
 Among the papers found after his death was 
 one entitled " Memoranda of Frank's Journey." 
 With his wonted thoroughness and accuracy in 
 details, he had noted down the incidents of the 
 journey, the places where they tarried for a night, 
 with often a brief description of the Koordish vil- 
 lages and the rough houses. The reception of the 
 newcomers by the missionaries and people found 
 a place in tliis paper, and then Mr. Gates had 
 turned to ancient history and traced out the history 
 
Foreign Missions. 113 
 
 of Diarbekir and Nisibis and other places in the 
 vicinity of the mission, gathering all the informa- 
 tion he could concerning the past history of places 
 in whose present history he had become so deeply 
 interested. He studied the Mardin missionary 
 work not only through the regular and frequent 
 correspondence of his son, but through works of 
 geography, history, biography, and travel. In his 
 library, after its studious occupant was called 
 hence, prominent place was found given to mis- 
 sionary literature. During the last years of his 
 life this had been a chief topic of study with him. 
 Soon after returning from business, at a time 
 which most men devote to rest or recreation, his 
 habit was to read and study on this and kindred 
 themes, and then write out his own views. The 
 unusual number of papers found since he left 
 bear witness to the thoroughness and breadth of 
 his investigations. One of these discusses the 
 subject of " Cooperation in Turkey," with respect 
 to the relations between the missions and the Turk- 
 ish churches. This paper shows an acquaintance 
 with the conditions of the field seldom attained 
 by one not a resident of the Turkish empire. 
 Another paper discusses ''The Darkness of Hea- 
 thenism," drawing from heathen nations its fearful 
 illustrations. Another is on " Religious Sects in 
 Turkey," in which the Greek and Armenian 
 churches, the Maronites, the Jacobites, the Nesto- 
 rian and the Roman Catholic churches and their 
 peculiar doctrines, their numbers and influence are 
 
114 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 clearly presented. There is a paper on " Turkish 
 Missions," and another on the question: "What 
 has been the result of the action of the American 
 Board at Detroit in regard to Turkish Missions ? " 
 The same careful research and wise conclusions 
 are manifest in them all. 
 
 All this study was not simply for his own re- 
 freshment. He realized that tlie work in foreign 
 fields is dependent in a very large degree on the 
 prayers and sympathetic support of the churches 
 at home ; and he used the information he had 
 gathered to awaken such interest in the churches. 
 He never failed to remember the missionary work 
 in the prayers that ascended from the family altar 
 night and morning. And as a help to prayer, he 
 had a little book of " Missionary Items," in which 
 he was wont to record the names of the mission- 
 aries, the dates of their arrival upon their fields, 
 and the names and ages of their children. These 
 items were a guide to his own prayers and often 
 some little gift sent across the seas cheered the 
 hearts of the lonely toilers with the assurance that 
 they were remembered. 
 
 He often visited the neighboring churches at 
 their monthly concert of prayer for missions and 
 spoke to them of the work of the kingdom of 
 Christ in words that glowed with enthusiasm. He 
 sought accurate and full information concerning 
 the students in the schools at Mardin, their homes, 
 their character and attainments, and he made 
 use of this information to interest individuals, 
 
Foreign 3Ilss{ons. 115 
 
 Sunday-schools, and churches in tlie home land 
 in their support, although this involved the writ- 
 ing of many letters on his part. He kept a 
 record into which he copied extracts from mis- 
 sionary letters, so as to make up a short sketch of 
 each student's life, and from this record he drew 
 the material for letters which seldom failed to win 
 a favorable response. He helped to build and 
 furnish the school at Mardin by frequent gifts of 
 money. When the mission field was smitten with 
 famine, he was active in collecting and forwarding 
 generous sums for the relief of the sufferers, while 
 his weekly letters were a constant source of cheer 
 and strength to the missionary. It would be hard 
 to find a clearer example of the participation of the 
 individual at home in the work abroad than is 
 given in the life of Mr. Gates. He went into all 
 the world and preached the gospel as truly as if 
 he had gone in person. He wrote at least one 
 letter a week to his son, and often more, and these 
 letters came to be expected as one expects daily 
 food. His son leaned on them, knowing that he 
 was sure to find in them comfort and counsel for 
 his work. In the fall of 1881, while the son was 
 on his way to the field, came the cheering 
 words : — 
 
 Grandma Moore has the right of it ; the short way 
 to our friends is by the way of heaven. Only a prayer 
 up and an answer down ! Oh, how sweet to have such 
 a sense of a personal Christ and a personal Father as 
 makes us restful at the mercv-seat ! 
 
116 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 And a little later he wrote : — 
 
 Remember that what God said to Moses, when he 
 called him to go down to Pharaoh, is just as true for 
 you: "Certainly I will be with thee" (Ex. 3: 12). 
 Lean heavily on him and you will be stayed up. En- 
 dure hardship as a good soldier and your Captain will 
 lead you to victory. 
 
 December 2^ 1881. — I hope God will give you all 
 needed wisdom and grace for the duties of 3'our station 
 and that you will be able to give good counsel to native 
 teachers and churches ; but in this make haste slowly. 
 Prove yourself first, then your friends, and then you 
 can draw them by the bands of sympathy as well as 
 sound logic. 
 
 Aiyril 23^ 1882. — Our hearts go out to you, our 
 prayers go up for you every day. Sometimes the tears 
 will come and blur the vision, as we read and meditate 
 npon your letters and the life we see through them, 
 but it is not in any spirit of wavering or drawing back. 
 No, no, my son ! As I look back, about the only 
 consolation I have is that through God I have been 
 able to help you to a preparation for this great work. 
 So far as my own direct labors are concerned, they 
 seem but as ashes scattered to the winds or water 
 poured out upon the ground. 
 
 One letter expressed the faith which made it 
 possible to dismiss anxiety for the absent one : — 
 
 August 17^ 1882. — Of course our papers are full of 
 rumors about Egyptian and Turkish affairs, of decla- 
 rations of war by fanatical Moslem leaders, in which 
 
Forehjn Missions. 117 
 
 all Christian clogs are to be exterininated ; and such 
 headlines are not soothing to mothers. I am too far 
 away to judge correctly of the issue, but of this I am 
 persuaded : God never calls his servants into a field 
 where he is not able to take care of them. " Go, 
 . . . and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the 
 end of the world." We believe he called vou to 
 Turkey and Mardin, and that be has you in his divine 
 care and keeping, and there we propose to leave you 
 with daily prayer for your guidance and protection. 
 
 In 1883 the missionary son returned to his home 
 for four months, and went back to his field with 
 a wife by his side. One more household was 
 linked to the mission field, and Mr. Gates was 
 drawn closer to his old friend, S. M. Moore, be- 
 cause his daughter had gone to set up the new 
 home in Turkey. Together they bade farewell to 
 the loved son and daughter, and watched them 
 fade from their sight as they sailed out of New 
 York harbor. Mr. Gates had written a letter to 
 be delivered on board the vessel. In it he said : — 
 
 M}) dear children Frank and Nellie^ — AVhen you 
 read these lines I shall be on my way across plains 
 and mountains westward, and you on your way across 
 the ocean eastward, toward your new home on the 
 plains and among the mountains whence came Abra- 
 ham of old. Each passing hour will increase the 
 distance between us by the measurements of earth, 
 but we shall be nearer and nearer each other b}' the 
 way of tiie throne of heavenly grace. I go to my 
 work in Chicago, you to your work in Mardin — and 
 
118 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 the work is one. It is our work to leave the impress 
 of our Lord and Master upon those with whom we 
 come in contact. Yours is especially a glorious call- 
 ing, and lias had through all the ages the peculiar 
 blessing of Him who came to seek and to save the lost. 
 To you are many very tender and precious promises 
 and they are Yea and Amen in Christ Jesus our Lord. 
 Don't fail to let me know in what ways I can help you, 
 for it will be my greatest joy to second you in your 
 labors of love. 
 
 His prayer often repeated for his son was : " God 
 bless you and make you a winner of souls ! " 
 And from that time on his letters bore at the head 
 of the page the motto : '' Turkey for Christ ! " 
 Nothing less than that could satisfy him. 
 
 That same year he occupied the time of an 
 evening service at the First Congregational Church, 
 reading a paper which he had prepared for the 
 Illinois Home Missionary Society, on " The Great 
 and Pressing Demand for Ministers in the Home 
 Field." After showing the urgent and immediate 
 need of two hundred men, and the further need of 
 one hundred and fifty men each year, he urged the 
 necessity of a mighty volume of prayer to be 
 going up from all the churches in order that the 
 young men in our colleges and preparatory schools 
 might be consecrated to this work ; and then he 
 laid it tenderly upon the hearts of fathers and 
 mothers at once to select one at least from each 
 family group and give to the Lord by a solemn set- 
 ting apart for this service, so that son or daughter 
 
Foreign Missions. 119 
 
 should know that he was thus dedicated, and 
 then, by prayer and daily influence, to cooper- 
 ate with the Holy Spirit in bringing about the 
 ratification of the covenant. He said : " Some- 
 how God seems to have laid this burden upon my 
 heart and I must carry it home to the people." 
 
 To his son his letters supplied in large measure 
 the lack of stimulating and inspiring influences in 
 the Turkish empire. A few extracts will show 
 something of their power : — 
 
 November 4, i<9<95. — Turkey for Christ! My ear- 
 nest prayer for you is that you may come more and 
 more into the light of His countenance and may feel 
 more and more the undergirdings of His love. You 
 have work in laying foundations, work in the line of 
 literature and teaching, but along with them all no- 
 thing can compensate for a lack of personal effort and 
 success in winning individual souls. In that work we 
 seem to come into closer intimacy and fellowship with 
 the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit than in any- 
 thing else. Jesus died to achieve that work and the 
 Holy Spirit is sent to make it effectual, and we are 
 called to be co-laborers with them and to enter into 
 their fellowship. 
 
 I am confidently expecting to hear of great things 
 in Mardin this winter. Single out a few of the most 
 spiritually-minded native Christians, and, with the 
 missionaries, band together to pray and labor until the 
 blessing comes. The Lord Jesus spent the whole 
 night in prayer previous to selecting his twelve disci- 
 ples. It seems to me God is constantly saying to us, 
 " O ye of little faith ! " Oh, for such power in 
 
120 A Chnstian Business Man, 
 
 prayer as signalized Moses, Samuel, Daniel, and that 
 host of ancient worthies, and not less the consecrated 
 workers of our day. We trust ourselves too much, and 
 of course are taught our own weakness by severe les- 
 sons, when we ought day by day to be testing more and 
 more the power and grace of God in answer to his 
 challenge : " Bring ye all the tithes into the store- 
 house." 
 
 Decembei' 9^ 1891. — I will only repeat what I have 
 so often urged before : — Have a plan of study and 
 stick to it. A few moments each day, systematically 
 used, will accomplish wonders. Keep your Hebrew 
 fresh. There is so much in that land to make it inter- 
 esting, and its value is great in reading the Old Testa- 
 ment ; and keep your Greek fresh for the New Testa- 
 ment, and with all this be much in prayer for the 
 quickening influences of the Holy Spirit to give not 
 merely the true interpretation but such quick appre- 
 hension of the circumstances in any given case as shall 
 secure the word in season to the souls that wait on 
 your ministry. The induement with power must come 
 from on high, but God can use a well-furnished mind 
 more effectively than a poorly disciplined one. The 
 more I know of men the more fully persuaded I am 
 that we want our best men to preach to the masses. 
 We want also house-to-house work that shall make 
 men feel that we have not simply a preaching interest 
 in them. Of all places, keep poor men away from 
 missionary fields at home and abroad. Laying foun- 
 dations is important work, and bad work there en- 
 dangers every course that shall be built above . God 
 says to you : " Bring in the tithes," that is, all your gifts, 
 — all you can do or make of yourself, — ^' and see if 
 
Foreign Missions. 121 
 
 I will not pour out my blessing upon them." Make 
 yourself as efficient as possible that with some gift you 
 may win souls to the Master. Oh, for a revival in 
 Mardin ! We pray for it daily. 
 
 January IS, 1884. — Turkey for Christ! First of 
 all, we have prayed with great longing that you might 
 be filled with the Holy Spirit and fitted for your work, 
 and that the native church at Mardin might be revived 
 and quickened and made instrumental in winning souls 
 to Christ. Somehow it has seemed to me as I have 
 wrestled with God for you that the answer was given : 
 *' Behold, I will pour out my Spirit upon them." We 
 long for the good news. How it would gladden our 
 hearts ! The Lord bless you and keep you in health of 
 body and clearness of intellect, but above all in such 
 health of soul as shall make vou mighty for the proclama- 
 tion of the truth and the winning of souls. " What shall 
 a man give in exchange for his soul?" That question 
 means to you and to me that the winning of one soul 
 from eternal death to life eternal outweighs in God's 
 estimate the winning of the whole world for however 
 noble a purpose outside of the one great end for which 
 Christ died and rose again. 
 
 February 5, 1884. — My heart was gladdened to 
 hear that there were manifestations of the Holy Spirit's 
 presence in your Week of Prayer and that the meetings 
 were to be continued. It has seemed to me that the 
 blessing must come. I have borne your native church 
 and the dear missionary circle on my bended knees 
 before the mercy-seat day in and day out, and week in 
 and week out, ever since you went back. And as I 
 read Dr. Thom's account of the communion service 
 and his action and that of the committee and church 
 
122 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 tears came into my eyes for very joy. Oh, that you 
 may be blessed beyond all our thought ! 
 
 March 15, 1884. — Your letter gave us great joy. 
 Who can doubt that God hears and answers prayer ! 
 For all the weeks and months before January 1 , I had 
 such burden for you all that God would give grace and 
 wisdom and that the churches and pastors and helpers 
 might receive a fresh baptism from on high, and then, 
 somehow, I felt the burden lifted. I prayed on, but 
 with thanksgivings, and more than once I said : " I feel 
 sure that the blessing is being received in Mardin." 
 The longer I live and the more I study God's Word and 
 providence, the more persuaded I am that the fervent 
 effectual prayers of God's people are very precious in 
 his sight. 
 
 April 21, 1884, after the death of Mrs. Moore, 
 he wrote : — 
 
 And now, dear ones, if we can only take the inspira- 
 tion that our heavenly Father seeks to send us through 
 this affliction, how blessed it will be for us ! Blessed 
 are the dead that die in the Lord ! — there is no doubt 
 about that. Your mother has gone into the rest that 
 remaineth for the people of God, but God spares us — 
 for what? Ah, if we could only answer that question 
 in our lives ; for the great end that we may glorify 
 Him. And how can we most and best glorify him ? 
 By bearing much fruit, by coming into closer sympathy 
 with Jesus Christ in his great work of saving souls. 
 Yesterday morning ushered in my sixtieth birthday, 
 and your mother said : " Now you are entitled to rest." 
 But it seemed to me that if I ever got to heaven I would 
 
Foreign Missions. 123 
 
 look back with more pleasure upon that birthday if it 
 were spent pleading with men in the name of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, and so I went out to plead for city 
 missions. 
 
 At the opening of each new year he would 
 write : " I have given you the first writing of my pen 
 for this new year." January 1, 1888, he wrote : 
 
 I have sent up my prayer for a New Year's bless- 
 ing, and God may have given it rich and full already, 
 but for thirty days you cannot know of my thought 
 through this letter. How much better is the way to 
 Mardin by way of heaven ! I plead last night with 
 God for a rich blessing upon you and Nellie, Mr. and 
 Mrs. Dewey, Miss Nutting, Miss Dewey, the pastor 
 and all. the native church and all the workers, during 
 this Week of Prayer. I expect to hear good news of 
 the precious work of grace. I thank God that he is 
 able to accomplish very much with very feeble instru- 
 mentalities. You may be helping to train a man who 
 may be to Turkey what Huss was to Bohemia ; what 
 Luther was to Germany ; Calvin to France, and John 
 Knox to Scotland. The kingdom of heaven is like 
 unto a woman who hid a handful of leaven in three 
 measures of meal until the whole was leavened. What 
 we want is true Christian leaven to put among the 
 masses everywhere, and in God's good time they will 
 be leavened. But alas, if the leaven has lost its life 
 or the salt its savor ! 
 
 His interest in missions took practical shape in 
 many ways. He gladly paid the freight on his son's 
 outfit in order that the money of the Board might 
 
124 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 be free to go in other directions, in which, he said, 
 many would be glad to give who would not give 
 for such an object as that. He wrote words of 
 commendation when an unusually good number 
 of The Missionary Herald appeared, and he pur- 
 chased and distributed many copies of the Board's 
 yearly Almanac, hoping thus to kindle an interest 
 in missions. 
 
 In 1881 he was made a corporate member of the 
 Board, and wrote acknowledging the appointment : 
 " I have received the certificate of corporate mem- 
 bership in your society, and, though feeling myself 
 unworthy of the trust, I hereby accept it, looking 
 unto Him who has promised wisdom and grace unto 
 all who diligently seek them. I appreciate the re- 
 sponsibility resting upon the members of such an 
 organization and cannot hope to be of great service 
 to you, but to the extent of my ability I will try to 
 do what I can to help on the good work to which 
 you are committed." 
 
 He was much in demand for addresses at mis- 
 sionary meetings and monthly concerts. Often 
 he would take up the life of some missionary and 
 study it until he had made himself familiar with 
 the conditions of that field and the details of the 
 missionary's work, and then in his simple yet 
 graphic way portray it to the great interest and 
 profit of the hearers. Many such sketches are 
 among liis papers, and these addresses did much 
 to awaken and sustain the interest of tlie churches 
 in the foreign work. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 HOME MISSIONS. 
 
 "TTTITH Mr. Gates the field of Christian activ- 
 ' ^ ity was one, whether the operations were 
 to be conducted at home or abroad. Having 
 given a son to the work in foreign lands, he re- 
 turned from the seaport where he had said fare- 
 well, to take up with renewed earnestness the 
 work in his own city and country. 
 
 Professor Samuel Ives Curtiss, d.d., had been 
 called in 1878 to the chair of Old Testament Lit- 
 erature and Biblical Interpretation in the Chicago 
 Theological Seminary. He united sound biblical 
 learning with an earnest evangelistic spirit. He 
 soon began to make explorations in the western 
 part of the city with a view to establishing mis- 
 sions which could be worked by students from 
 the seminary, and eventually grow into self-sup- 
 porting churches. This idea commended itself to 
 Mr. Gates, and he seconded Professor Curtiss' ef- 
 forts with much earnestness and enthusiasm. They 
 were both at that time members of the First Con- 
 gregational Church. The proposition was made 
 that the first missions should be worked under the 
 fostering care of the First Church, as branches 
 of it. Mr. Gates did all in his power to assist in 
 cariying out the plan, which commanded his 
 
 125 
 
126 A Christian Business Mayi, 
 
 hearty approval and interest. Professor Curtiss 
 says : — 
 
 He never allowed any good cause to suffer through 
 waiting and indecision when it was in his power to 
 help. He was quick to see and embrace an opportu- 
 nity- He stimulated the spirit of city missions in the 
 churches with which he was connected. In 1879 an 
 appeal was sent to the {pastor of the First Congrega- 
 tional Church to provide $450 to secure preaching in 
 three missions. The money was raised at once in a 
 meeting of the Prudential Committee ; largely, there 
 is reason to believe, through the example and encour- 
 agement of Mr. Gates. This response was timely 
 and had a most important influence in developing 
 our branches. He was an important member of the 
 committee which formulated the plan of our branch 
 churches. None of us who were then members with 
 him of the First Church can forget the enthusiasm 
 with which he led the way in taking up the work at 
 the Randolph Street Mission and how he shared in the 
 labors of that noble enterprise. 
 
 He was himself superintendent of that mission 
 for nearly two years, and employed a Bible reader 
 to work in the homes of the people and obtain 
 information as to their temporal and spiritual con- 
 dition. His sympathies were at once enlisted 
 with the people of that destitute district. He 
 found his way into their homes, and by personal 
 contact with them informed himself of the con- 
 dition of those he was trying to help. In a letter 
 to his son he wrote : — 
 
Home Missions. 127 
 
 One of our mission-school children was dying this 
 afternoon and is probably at rest ere this. Miss 
 Alford, the visitor, told me of the family and the 
 boy's condition ; and so, as soon as I had opened the 
 school, T went up to see them at No. 10 North Halsted 
 Street. The poor little fellow was past recognizing 
 any one, dying by inches. I could do nothing but say 
 a few words of sympathy and take each member of 
 the family by the hand. The older sister said the 
 little fellow pleaded hard last Sunday to be dressed 
 and taken to the mission school, that he might hear 
 the children sing again. Who can measure the power 
 of these songs ? And who knows but they were used 
 by the Spirit as the medium of showing to his soul 
 Jesus the Saviour for him ? It was a pleasant thought 
 to me. And it was pleasant to receive the kindly 
 greeting of the parents and older brothers. I said to 
 myself. Only be faithful in sowing beside all waters, 
 and God will care for the seed, that it fail not of 
 fruition. 
 
 A little later he wrote : — 
 
 Only as we can see in every man, woman, and child 
 the outlined possibilities of a new creature in Christ 
 Jesus, can we have the completest success, nay, any 
 success, in winning souls. Oh, if we could only see the 
 jewels hidden beneath ill-shapen exteriors and rough 
 garments as Christ saw them, how we would work to 
 dress away the roughness and bring out the precious 
 stones and put them into new settings ! I am ashamed 
 of professing Christians sometimes when I hear them 
 talk of " the lower classes," the " mudsills," " nig- 
 gers," " pigtails," etc., as if it never entered their 
 
128 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 minds or touched their hearts that God "• hath made 
 of oue blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all 
 the face of the earth," and sent his only begotten Son 
 into the world to suffer and die for them, that not one 
 need perish, but that all should know Him whom to 
 know aright is eternal life. It makes my heart ache as 
 I look upon the uncared-for children upon the streets 
 and think of their future lives. Men and women give 
 money and widen the chasm. What is needed is 
 to give loving, personal service. That would clear 
 away all the mists from the spiritual vision of the givers 
 and make them know the doctrine of Christ; and then, 
 how it would bridge over the valley full of all unclean- 
 ness that is daily separating the two ends of society 
 more and more widely ! Where does woman come 
 nearer to the angel than when with modest dress she 
 enters the homes of sin and suffering and with gentle 
 ways watches beside the beds of the sick and ministers 
 to their wants ; puts God's cup of salvation to the 
 lips of the dying and teaches the little ones to say 
 '* Our Father who art in heaven"? Oh, for a new 
 baptism to come down from heaven upon women ! 
 
 At the end of the first year of his service as 
 superintendent of this mission, he gave a report 
 in which he outlined his thoughts regarding the 
 kind of work needed in the destitute parts of 
 the city. He said : — 
 
 I hope ere long, through the labors of an inteUigent 
 Bible worker, to know the number of families in all 
 this district, and the facts relating to them as to nation- 
 ality, church connection and the lack of it, occupation, 
 
Home Missions, 129 
 
 number and names of children and their ages, whether 
 they attend day-schools or not, what Sabbath-schools 
 they are connected with, if any, and who among 
 them need temporal help as well as spiritual. I 
 propose when possessed of these facts to have them 
 so recorded that they can be easily turned to, and the 
 names of families placed in pencil upon maps drawn 
 upon a large scale. I will use pencil so that when 
 removals and changes occur the old names can be 
 erased and the new ones inserted, thus keeping a live 
 map of each block. 
 
 In setting forth the needs of that work, he 
 placed first the need of consecration, and later 
 he drew oat a plan of city mission work which he 
 ever kept in mind, and toward the realization of 
 which he was ever striving, in one field and 
 another. 
 
 We want a Home for such work. In my judg- 
 ment there should be on every half-mile square of the 
 neglected portions of this and every other city of our 
 land a center of religious work, not in any strictly 
 denominational sense or way, but Christlike, all-com- 
 prehensive. During the last year, again and again 
 have the children asked if we could not have meetinsfs 
 to which their parents could come ; but our hall is 
 engaged every night of the week in the interest of 
 trades unions and labor societies of various kinds. 
 As the result of my observations on my field, I am 
 sure that a home or building of this kind should give 
 ample accommodation for a small family, the heads of 
 which should have general and particular care of the 
 
130 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 whole, keeping it neat and clean and suitably warmed 
 and properly lighted for all meetings. It ought to 
 have on its first floor a pleasant room, well-ventilated, 
 warmed and lighted by night, under the care of the 
 Women's Christian Temperance Union, if you please, 
 with "Welcome to All" as fully and clearly dis- 
 played upon its lamps as " Tom and Jerry" are upon 
 the saloons. I would have in charge a suitable matron 
 or man to welcome every wanderer that crossed the 
 threshold, and make his call a pleasant and profitable 
 one. I would have papers there for the poor man to 
 read the daily news ; and, to keep him from tempta- 
 tion, I would have somewhere in the room a counter 
 where in winter a cup of hot coffee and a sandwich 
 could be procured for five cents, and in summer some 
 cooling drinks, with a pleasaut word of interest thrown 
 in. I would have on the tables for reading and for 
 free distribution such pithy presentations of the laws 
 of health, temperance. Sabbath-keeping, personal and 
 family economy and thrift, as would be helpful in the 
 households. On every hand I would have posted 
 prominently notices of the Sunday-school and Bible 
 classes, with invitations to attend. I would have in 
 the building a well-arranged group of rooms for the 
 Sunday-school, Bible classes, infant class, etc., so 
 arranged that they could be easily thrown together for 
 general exercises and preaching services. I would 
 have in this building the place where the Industrial 
 School work of the district should center, supplement- 
 ing the work of the Sunday-school and of the Bible 
 readers. There the mothers should be gathered for 
 familiar talks by suitable leaders upon practical sub- 
 jects relating to the care of children, the best methods 
 
Home Missions. 131 
 
 of cooking ordinary articles of food for relish, econ- 
 omy, and value, hints as to housekeeping, and such 
 instruction in the rudiments of art and good taste as 
 shall enable them with an insignificant outlay of money 
 to make beautiful to husband and children the one 
 window and the circumscribed walls of their narrow 
 homes. I would have on this building a cheerful, 
 clear-toned bell that should ring out upon the sur- 
 rounding neighborhood its invitations to services by 
 day and by night, and at the open door below that bell 
 I would always have in waiting warm-hearted, cheer- 
 ful-looking, pleasant-speaking men and women, giving 
 personal invitation to enter and enjoy the service. I 
 would have a working room in this home which should 
 be the depository for statistics of the district, so com- 
 plete, so constantly reviewed and renewed that it 
 should at any time afford information of the suffering 
 that needed either temporal or spiritual relief ; and I 
 would make this Home a safe channel for gifts to the 
 really poor and needy. 
 
 I believe that such a work is needed and is practi- 
 cable ; and steadily carried out, would clasp the ave- 
 nues and alleys with something better than hooks of 
 steel — even the bonds of Christlike love. It is 
 sadly true that many homes in this great city are 
 not Christian in spirit and life. What is our duty 
 in regard to them? Simply to make them Christian 
 by doing just what the Master did and commanded 
 his disciples to do — let the blessed influences of 
 Christianity radiate into all the homes of the city. 
 To do this is not an easy task, but it is the appointed 
 work of Christians, and woe be to them if they neg- 
 lect it ! 
 
132 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 This extract from his report shows what his 
 thought was in regard to the social problems which 
 he studied constantly from the standpoint of a 
 servant of Christ. He was deeply impressed with 
 the importance and power of personal influence 
 and individual effort. He considered that these 
 are after all the main factors on the human side 
 in the work of reforming and Christianizing the 
 masses. He wrote to his son, January 22, 1882 : — 
 
 I have been thinking of several things, and among 
 others this : Why are not the windows of heaven 
 opened and a blessing poured out in answer to our 
 Week of Prayer? Perhaps the short cut to the correct 
 answer would be found by changing the question and 
 making it more personal : Why am I not blessed ? 
 Would not this way of putting the question be the 
 first step toward obtaining the blessing with very 
 many ? It seems to me that there are two tendencies, 
 not to say how many more, that stand in the wa}^ of 
 the desired result. First, churches look too much to 
 machinery that, after all, can be purchased with money. 
 Not that machinery is not necessary ; it is quite neces- 
 sary ; but fine churches and chapels, good music, a 
 popular and entertaining minister, an efficient church 
 visitor, etc., may be, and I fear often are consistent 
 with spiritual deadness in the rank and file of the 
 church. Said a professing Christian to whom I ap- 
 plied for help and invited him to visit the charity : 
 " Oh, you must be contented if I give you the money 
 and you do the work." Would not Christ have some- 
 thing to say to such an one, if he could get liis ear? 
 Along this same line churches ask for extra efforts 
 
wme 
 
 Missions, 133 
 
 with some great leader to rouse into temporary activity 
 the working force of the church. Now in all these 
 things there is a quiet resting upon money as that 
 which (to use a coarse but emphatic expression) 
 makes the mare go. As one goes over the pages of 
 the 01(1 Testament, and still more the New, how all 
 such thinking and acting are rebuked ! How the indi- 
 vidual is called out from the crowd and set face to 
 face with God, and plied w^ith questions that pierce to 
 the inmost depths and unlock chambers of the soul 
 that will not bear the light ! When we, as church 
 members, hear God speaking to each one of us and 
 saying, '' What are you going to do about it?" then 
 " Bring ya all the tithes into the storehouse '" will have 
 a personal bearing that means something. Giving 
 money is a good thing, but it will not answer as a 
 substitute for personal work for Christ. I have been 
 struck by the pleas urged against the Week of Prayer 
 by good people this year: "It comes in a very bad 
 time for business men, when they have so much to do 
 in striking balances, taking account of stock, and pre- 
 paring for annual meetings"; "I really don't think 
 anybody has a right to impose on us a whole week of 
 prayer just at the holidays, when we must exchange 
 congratulations and have party gatherings " ; and 
 again, "It is too bad to have the Week of Prayer just 
 when the boys are home from college for a few^lays, 
 and we want to make it pleasant for them." These 
 are hasty remarks, but they come from the heart and 
 show the drift of the current down these lines. Sup- 
 pose one of these Christian mothers spending time and 
 strength to get up and carry through a great entertain- 
 ment, right in the midst of the Week of Prayer, for 
 
134 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 the sake of her college boy, should meet the Jehovah 
 angel in her dressing-room just as the last touches 
 have been given to hair and costume, and hear the 
 question, What do you most covet for your boy? 
 Would the visitor and the question add to the pleasure 
 of the evening? And as she numbered among her 
 guests many who, rather than slight her invitation, 
 have concluded to forego the prayer-meeting for that 
 evening, would the reflection increase her power with 
 God in the secret place of devotion ? When Christian 
 men and women have gone out into the highways, like 
 the apostles, and preached to men the words of eter- 
 nal life, there have been wonderful conversions of 
 drunkards and harlots and thieves ; but our churches 
 slide back from the effort of extra prayer-meetings 
 into the pleasanter work of receptions, and all goes 
 merry as a marriage bell. Oh, for personal cries out 
 of the depths, O Lord, revive thy work in my heart ! 
 In the second place it seems to me that if our pas- 
 tors preached as if certain things were to be taken for 
 granted and not to be forever debated, we should have 
 more of the direct, personal " Thou art the man," that 
 drives home conviction and brings out the confession, 
 '' I have sinned against the Lord." I find so much 
 evil in my own heart and life that I would speak with 
 great carefulness about those to whom is committed 
 the unsearchable riches of the Wortf; but I notice 
 that those who handle the Word with directness and 
 simplicity seem to have the most power given them 
 from on high. Dear son, let us pray that we and all 
 we love may dwell more and more in the secret place 
 of the Most High, and abide under the shadow of his 
 wings. Then we shall certainly know more of his will, 
 
Home Missions. 135 
 
 for we shall each for himself do more and more of his 
 bidding. The greater frequency of bodily ailments 
 that lay me by and leave me shorn of my power ought 
 to make me more open to all spiritual suggestions and 
 keep me attuned to the harmonies of the better life ; 
 but alas for the power of old habits, the tyranny 
 of business, the abject slavery of toil pursued for 
 unworthy ends ! 
 
 It was his ardent desire that the neglected 
 classes of the city should be reached, which 
 caused him to hail with delight the formation of 
 the Chicago City Missionary Society. He was 
 active in all the preliminary meetings which led to 
 its formation. Says Professor Curtiss : " The Chi- 
 cago City Missionary Society was largely the 
 product of his mind. It is true that no one man 
 was the founder of our City Missionary Society. 
 When our churches were made aware of the needs 
 of the city, there were men raised up by the Lord, 
 who were admirably fitted to work together. But 
 there was no one man on the original committee 
 of seven who prepared the way for the society 
 and who drafted its constitution, that did more to 
 form and develop it than Mr. Gates." 
 
 He was far from claiming any such honor for 
 himself. He was not seeking praise for himself, 
 but for his Master. He was quick to recognize 
 the services of others and give them their due 
 merit. In speaking to the Lincoln Park Church 
 regarding the City Missionary Society, he said: 
 " It is less necessary to speak of its beginnings and 
 
136 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 growth in this church than almost anywhere else, 
 for your beloved pastor was largely responsible 
 for the thought of it. We shall not soon forget 
 that first public meeting, held in the lecture room 
 of the Union Park Church, to consider the religious 
 destitution of the city. How the facts gathered, 
 arranged, and presented by Rev. Burke F. Leavitt 
 smote upon our ears, stirred our minds, and 
 touched our hearts, and how his faithful labors 
 and wise counsels helped the band of busy men 
 who met from week to week to compare notes and 
 formulate plans for the work ! " 
 
 Rev. J. C. Armstrong, superintendent of city 
 missions, writes of the beginnings of the City 
 Missionary Society in these words : " During the 
 autumn of 1881 the question of city evangeliza- 
 tion began to be discussed by the Chicago Minis- 
 ters' Union. Attention was called to the fact that 
 Chicago, like other large cities, was growing more 
 rapidly in population and in material wealth than 
 in churches. It was found that there were large 
 tracts, some of them a mile square, without a church 
 or Sunday-school. At the close of the discussion of 
 the city's needs, held February 6, 1882, a commit- 
 tee, of which Mr. Gates was a member, was ap- 
 pointed to secure a conference of the churches at 
 an early day to inaugurate a thorough system of 
 city evangelization." 
 
 The call for this conference was issued on the 
 twenty-first of February, and it met in the Union 
 Park Church on the second of March and listened 
 
Home Missions. 137 
 
 to statements of the spiritual destitution of Chicago 
 from Rev. B. F. Leavitt and others, of which Mr. 
 Gates, acquainted as he was with the facts, said : 
 '' They almost staggered our belief." Later Mr. 
 Gates said of these facts: "It is found that a sin- 
 gle district with only two Protestant evangelical 
 churches embraces a population as great as that 
 of the entire New West. A single ward with one 
 Protestant church and two Sunday-schools has a 
 population as large as that of Peoria or Quincy, 
 with all their churches ; and one district almost 
 entirely without English Protestant efforts of any 
 kind numbers seventy-five thousand people, and 
 the population is growing more rapidly than ever 
 before. In the providence of God, it will depend 
 largely upon our efforts whether the oncoming 
 generation in these districts receives the gospel 
 or not." 
 
 The meeting in Union Park Church was one of 
 intense interest, and it adjourned to meet in the 
 New England Church, April 6. Over one hun- 
 dred and twenty-five ministers and laymen, repre- 
 sentatives of the churches, assembled there and 
 decided to recommend to the churches the appoint- 
 ment of seven gentlemen from the various congre- 
 gations as an Executive Committee of Missionary 
 Effort, and to apportion the necessary expenses 
 among the churches. The members of the com- 
 mittee were C. F. Gates, R. E. Jenkins, W. E. 
 Hale, S. M. Moore, F. S. Hanson, G. F. Ensign, 
 and Rev. Burke F. Leavitt. 
 
138 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 "The meetings of that first committee," says 
 Mr. Armstrong, " were necessarily numerous, but 
 the record shows that Mr. Gates was always pres- 
 ent, even though at times only three were in 
 attendance. He was made either chairman or a 
 member of all the sub-committees appointed to 
 raise funds, to publish the early reports, and to 
 present the needs of the society in the various 
 churches. The records of those first meetings 
 are all in his handwriting. He spared neither 
 time nor money to make the society what it is, the 
 right hand of the churches in city evangelization. 
 It was the fitting thing that he should be made the 
 chairman of the first committee, and later presi- 
 dent of the society which he had helped to incor- 
 porate. He retained this position until the annual 
 meeting, held in April, 1887, when he resigned 
 it. And so eminent had been his services and 
 so highly was he appreciated that no one could 
 be found willing to occupy the position he had 
 vacated until the annual meeting of the following 
 year. He was also one of the most faithful of the 
 society's committeemen. He was a member of 
 three or four committees to the day of his death. 
 In some cases he served in the capacity of an asso- 
 ciate trustee of mission churches, meeting with 
 them at regular intervals to discuss their financial 
 problems, aiding them by his practical wisdom 
 and by gifts from his own pocket when the soci- 
 ety's treasury was empty. It was his custom to 
 visit various fields with the superintendent, that 
 
Home Missions. 139 
 
 he might see their wants and aid them, or that 
 he might share in the joy of their triumphs. His 
 presence carried cheer and courage to many strug- 
 gling churches and missions." 
 
 His love for the churches and desire to help 
 them were greater than his strength. He thus 
 expressed himself to his son : — 
 
 I would love to go out with our home missionary 
 superintendent among the churches, stirring them up 
 to self-support and house-to-house work. It is for 
 lack of cultivation that so many fields once beautiful 
 are gone to waste. Our ministers should study Paul 
 more as he went from house to house in Corinth for 
 three years, the eagerness of his soul speaking 
 through his tears. 
 
 And a little later he wrote : — 
 
 I am busy stirring up the weaker churches to vigor- 
 ous lifting at the wheels before calling on Hercules, 
 and also in inciting the stronger churches to pray and 
 give the needed funds. With the depressed business 
 of the year it makes my back ache sometimes, but I 
 prefer to deny myself the expense of travel, concerts, 
 lectures, etc., and lift steadily during these hard times 
 when so many let go. Oh, how sick and tired I get 
 of soliciting money ! 
 
 All this was not accomplished without sacrifice 
 and hard labor. In a letter to his son he wrote : 
 
 I have been placed by the churches at the head of 
 the Evangelization Committee. I cannot act as chair- 
 man and assume the responsibilities of the position. 
 I am overloaded now, and groan, being burdened. 
 
140 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 His business made heavy drains upon his time 
 and strength, but when he became convinced that 
 it was his duty to assume these new burdens, he 
 went right forward, although often days of busi- 
 ness toil were followed by evenings of labor on 
 committees for Christian work, for every day in 
 the week. He made no complaint. Only to his 
 son he wrote : — 
 
 So time gets filled to the full. Better wear out than 
 rust out, but sometimes I get weary with the perpetual 
 drag. Oh, for such uplifting by the Spirit of God as 
 to make labor a joy because every part of it is a means 
 to the one great end, the glory of God ! The earth 
 clasps us with a tight grip, while heaven draws so 
 gently that we easily break away. 
 
 He was well aware that the burdens he was 
 bearing were too many and too great for his 
 strength, and that they were shortening his life. 
 He wrote, April 23, 1882 : — 
 
 On the twentieth instant, time marked off for me 
 fifty-eight years of life. By the average tables of 
 mortality there are left to me possibly fifteen years 
 more, but with the extra strain put upon the working 
 machinery for so many years of the fifty-eight, the in- 
 ternal evidence is against the mortuary tables. 
 
 But when once the question of duty was settled, 
 it was with him as with the Apostle Paul. Though 
 his lips were silent, his life said more eloquently 
 than words : " I hold not my life of any account, 
 as dear unto myself, so that I may accomplish my 
 
Home Missions. 141 
 
 course, and the ministry which I received from 
 the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace 
 of God." And yet at that same time he was so 
 conscious of his own un worthiness that he wrote 
 under date of June 10, 1882 : ^^ When I look 
 upon my own life and see so little of God in it, so 
 much of selfishness, so little of that which caused 
 the Master to press right on to Jerusalem and the 
 cross, I feel, at times, as if there could not be 
 salvation for me." He thought he had nothing to 
 offer his Master, but to his friends he seemed to 
 be truly giving his life for others. 
 
 A little later he wrote : " It seems as if each 
 week brought a little addition of burden and 
 care, and sometimes I long for rest." 
 
 He was not contented with the mere perform- 
 ance of the official duties which fell to him in the 
 society, but gave personal efforts and sympathy 
 as well. He said in describing the work of the 
 society : — 
 
 A second line of work is the assistance of the weaker 
 churches already planted on missionary fields which 
 have attained more or less of growth and development. 
 From our experience and observation we are persuaded 
 that, in many cases, money, though essential, is by no 
 means the most precious gift we can bestow upon such 
 organizations. They need sympathy in their strug- 
 gles, advice in their church and society affairs, words 
 of cheer in their prayer-meetings ; in short, a practical 
 giving to them of the right hand of fellowship. It is 
 only in this way that we can understand their needs, 
 
142 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 and so time our pecuniary help as to make it most 
 effectual in keeping them out of the slough of discour- 
 agement and stimulating them to fresh and more 
 vigorous endeavors. 
 
 He carried out this principle in his own practice, 
 and was often seen and heard in the meetings of 
 the weak churches and missions, where his visits 
 came to be hailed with gladness for the cheer and 
 hope they brought. He was quick to see and im- 
 prove opportunities for helping these churches. 
 In one of his visits he saw that a certain church 
 would in time need to enlarge its building, so he 
 purchased the adjacent lots and held them until 
 the time came when they were needed. The pas- 
 tor of one of the weak churches had incurred a 
 debt while acquiring his education which he had 
 never been able to pay off. Mr. Gates learned 
 this fact. The pastor made an address at a public 
 gathering which was very well received. Mr. 
 Gates seized the opportunity to remove that load. 
 He whispered his thought to one and another, and 
 in a few moments the money was subscribed and 
 the pastor relieved of the burden he had carried 
 so long. Overcome with emotion, he could only 
 grasp Mr. Gates' hand and say, " \ thank you." 
 To help another was a joy to Mr. (Jates. 
 
 But the neglected classes of the city lay upon 
 his heart with especial solicitude. He longed to 
 see the work of the City Missionary Society pros- 
 ecuted vigorously in the most needy districts. He 
 urged that the name of the society should be the 
 
Home Missions. 143 
 
 Chicago City Missionary Society, not the Chicago 
 Congregational City Missionary Society, hoping 
 that it would furnish a platform so broad that all 
 denominations might work upon it for the neg- 
 lected ones of the city. In 1883 he read an 
 address before the Congregational Club, which 
 was remarkable, not only for its thorough treat- 
 ment of the subject, but for its literary merits as 
 well. It was published in a pamphlet under the 
 title, " The Needs of Chicago." In this address 
 the desire of his heart for the neglected classes 
 found expression, as he spoke of the work which 
 the society was called to do : — 
 
 Labor in and for the neglected districts of the city : 
 districts where pawnshops flourish and absorb the 
 accumulations of former thrift and often the gifts of 
 charity ; where saloons, with all their power for evil, 
 keep open doors by day and night ; where vice takes 
 no pains to conceal itself and crime finds many a 
 refuge ; where such homes as our memory recalls are 
 few indeed, but children swarm in the streets and 
 alleys ; where there are no steeples pointing upwards 
 to heaven, no church bells calling men and women to 
 the place of prayer ; where too often sickness and 
 death come without any of those blessed ministries 
 that marked the life of Him who went about doing 
 good. We speak of them as rieglected^ and so they 
 are by us ; but they are not neglected by the politi- 
 cians. In them are the precincts where repeating is a 
 trade, and where all that is necessary is to know the 
 majority needed, and for the proper consideration it 
 is immediately forthcoming. They are not neglected 
 
144 A Christian Business Man, 
 
 by the arch-enemy of souls. Oh, how he plies his 
 recruiting business all up and clown their streets and 
 alleys ! How he watches for the boys and girls and 
 spreads his nets about their pathways ! How he lures 
 them into poolrooms and concert-halls, and laughs 
 with fiendish joy as they take their first steps in the 
 downward course that leads through idleness, intem- 
 perance, lust, and crime, to everlasting shame and 
 death ! Once in a while the veil is lifted from some 
 of the»se districts by the public press and the com- 
 munity is shocked at the revelations. But, alas for 
 us ! we have become so used to the daily recitals of 
 vice and crime that we are conscience-seared and soon 
 relapse into indifference. 
 
 Then, after setting forth the facts as to the 
 spiritual destitution of some of these districts, he 
 adds : — 
 
 What shall be done for such districts? I answer, 
 just what was done for the great cities in the early 
 days of the church. Philip went down to the city of 
 Samaria and proclaimed Christ unto them, and there 
 was great joy among the people. Paul, the great 
 apostle to the Gentiles, and his co-laborers were 
 chiefly engaged in the great cities of their times ; and 
 at Antioch, Ephesus, Athens, Corinth, Rome, we get 
 glimpses of their labors that show how deeply they 
 had partaken of the spirit of the Master and entered 
 into his plans. " Go ye into all the world, and preach 
 the gospel to every creature." Only in our case we 
 should read, beojinninor at Chicasjo instead of Jeru- 
 salem. Divine Providence has armed the religion of 
 Christ with power adapted for aggression upon the 
 
Home Missions. 145 
 
 ignorance, the vice, the misery which we seek to en- 
 lighten, to purify, and to mitigate, and to it we must 
 look for final victory. 
 
 The method of pushing such work, Mr. Gates 
 held, was by establishing in each sub-district of 
 the city such a Mission House or church as was 
 described at the beginning of this chapter. 
 " Work of this kind," he said " ought to be done 
 simply In His Name, and without any regard to 
 denominational lines; but if we cannot secure 
 that union of all Christians that would enable us 
 to occupy many fields at once, let us, as Congre- 
 gationalists and citizens, at least enter some one 
 such district and give a practical illustration of 
 our thought and plan to which we can invite the 
 attention of others and thus incite them to kin- 
 dred enterprises." 
 
 The motives which urged him to such work as 
 he described are not left for us to infer. He has 
 himself thus recorded them : — 
 
 There is need of a deeper, keener sense of the value 
 of human souls. The Lord Jesus Christ, with his 
 infinite knowledge of the issues of this probationary 
 existence, gave us the standard by which to measure 
 it in those wonderful words, " What shall it profit a 
 man if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own 
 soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his 
 soul?" And he expressed it still more emphatically 
 by the price he willingly paid for their redemption. 
 When we and the churches we represent enter into 
 fellowship with liini in his i)lans and purposes for those 
 
146 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 in danger of eternal loss, then there will be hope for 
 Chicago and every other city. We must have a fresh 
 enduement of power from on high, a new and mightier 
 baptism of that Spirit which wrought such marvels in 
 the days of the apostles. Nothing short of this will 
 furnish the men and women needed as teachers and 
 visitors, the superintendents with personal magnetism, 
 wisdom, zeal, and ability to organize and lead, the 
 business men to give their supervision and practical 
 aid in financial matters. That alone will fill our The- 
 ological Seminary with the choicest young men our 
 families can furnish to be trained and fitted for mis- 
 sionaries to these thousands and thousands of practi- 
 cally heathen that live at our very doors. 
 
 In closing the address of which these words are 
 a part, he said : — 
 
 Gentlemen, as Christians and as citizens of Chicago, 
 this work is ours. We cannot expect any one else to 
 do it. We ought not to indulge any such thought. 
 In the name of the seventy-five thousand children of 
 suitable age not in attendance upon any Sunday- 
 school, and for most of whom no adequate provision 
 is made for their accommodation, and in the name of 
 the homes represented ])y these children, we plead that 
 you will take this burden upon your hearts and carry it 
 back to the churches you represent, until they shall 
 answer to the call for laborers and money by an out- 
 pouring in keeping with the interests at stake. 
 
 Mr. Gates was in constant demand to address 
 the churches on this theme. The superintendent 
 of city missions says : " Mr. Gates rendered the 
 
Home Missions, 147 
 
 society invaluable service by the numerous ad- 
 dresses he made in its behalf. Its wants as voiced 
 by him, either in carefully prepared papers or 
 coming impromptu out of his full heart, were 
 never heard without exciting interest. He was 
 always in demand when our churches wanted to 
 take a collection for the society, because he knew 
 what to say and how to say it." 
 
 Frequently he was in receipt of calls to address 
 three or four gatherings on the same Sabbath. He 
 did not speak as an advocate for the society so 
 much as he pleaded in the name of his Master. 
 He never allowed the society to come between 
 him and the Christ to whom he belonged and 
 whom he served with such fidelity and singleness 
 of purpose ; and he never looked upon the work 
 of the society of which he was president as his 
 work, but only as the work of his Lord. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 WORK FOP. THE BOHEMIANS. 
 
 DR. WRIGHT says of Mr. Gates : " The key 
 to his character was loyalty. Whatever he 
 believed his duty he did as an automaton obeys 
 its motor. It never occurred to him to ask 
 whether the duty was pleasant or painful. He 
 simply did it, and found his satisfaction as an 
 incident. This was illustrated in his use of money 
 for benevolence. He never waited for the impulse 
 of sympathy to move him, but gave — and his liber- 
 ality has been rarely equaled — from principle and 
 systematically. I remember when the idea was 
 first suggested to him that the giving of a fixed 
 portion of time for charitable purposes might be 
 the teaching of the Jewish tithe system, as well as 
 the giving of a certain proportion of income, he 
 approved the suggestion and at once began to 
 regulate his life in accordance with it. 
 
 " I do not know any other man so controlled as 
 he was by the consciousness of stewardship. He 
 felt that all he was and all he had belonged to 
 God, and was entrusted to him as depositors 
 entrust their money to a bank. When asked for 
 help of any kind he considered that there were 
 only two questions for him to decide : first, Was 
 the signature genuine, that is, was it God's work ? 
 
 148 
 
Work for the Boheynlans. 149 
 
 second, Was he the banker on whom the check 
 was drawn ? In deciding these questions he was 
 as little swayed by love of money or thought of 
 self as any man I have ever known.'' 
 
 But his performance of duty was never mechan- 
 ical. He loved the work of the Lord with all his 
 heart, and found a satisfaction in it which he 
 could not find in other things. His services to 
 the cause of the Bohemians were services of love 
 as well as the performance of a duty to which he 
 felt that he was called of the Lord. 
 
 In the autumn of 1883, while attending the 
 meeting of the American Board, Mrs. E. W. 
 Blatchford had a conversation with Rev. H. A. 
 Schauffler, who had recently begun his noble work 
 among the Bohemians of Cleveland. The conver- 
 sation turned to the thousands of Bohemians in 
 Chicago and their needs, and Mrs. Blatchford 
 urged Mr. Schauffler to come to Chicago and 
 examine the field for work among the Bohemians. 
 He came and a breakfast was given for him in the 
 home of Mr. and Mrs. Blatchford, November 14, 
 1883. A number of persons interested in city 
 missions assembled and listened to a statement of 
 facts from Mr. Schauffler, which awakened their 
 interest and aroused their sympathies. " What 
 are you doing," asked Mr. Schauffler, "for the 
 thirty-eight thousand Bohemians in your city?" 
 They could only reply, "Nothing." "Chicago," 
 he continued, " has the largest number of Bohe- 
 mians of any city in the United States. The 
 
150 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 Bohemian newspapers are teaching atheism, and 
 many influences are at work which will make them 
 dangerous to the welfare of the city and the state 
 unless they can be brought under the power of 
 the gospel." 
 
 From his large experience Mr. Gates was able 
 instantly to understand the conditions under 
 which work among the Bohemians might be under- 
 taken with hopes of success. " It would be use- 
 less," he said to Mr. Schauffler, *'to undertake 
 such a work without the right sort of a man, one 
 who thoroughly understands the Bohemians and 
 their language." " You are right," answered Mr. 
 Schauflier, " and I do not now know where the 
 man is who is suited to this work, but if God 
 wants the work taken up he can raise up the man, 
 and you must be praying for him." Two or three 
 months later Mr. Schauffler wrote : " God has 
 answered your prayers, I believe, for dear Brother 
 Adams, who was my associate in Prague, will 
 probably not go back to Bohemia, and he is of all 
 others the man for this work." 
 
 Two hundred dollars were raised to defray the 
 expenses, and Rev. E. A. Adams came to Chicago 
 to look over the field. The first meetings were 
 held in a store rented for the purpose, on the 
 corner of Twenty-first Street and Center Avenue, 
 where a mission had been carried on for two or three 
 years under the name of " The Lumbermen's Mis- 
 sion." This was relinquished for the distinctively 
 Bohemian work, which was prosecuted there until 
 
Work for the Bohemians. 151 
 
 the first of April, 1886. The location was unfav- 
 orahle, and there were many disadvantages from 
 the lack of Sunday-school helps and literature of 
 an evangelical character in the Bohemian language. 
 At first the Bohemians were suspicious, and felt 
 sure that there must be some ulterior design back 
 of these efforts for their advancement. 
 
 Mr. Gates was very desirous that money be 
 raised and a building erected at once ; but he 
 found it so hard to get people interested in the 
 new enterprise that it was thought best to rent 
 the building for one year and raise only the money 
 for running expenses, with the hope that the 
 results of a single year would so demonstrate the 
 expediency of the work that all would recog- 
 nize it. 
 
 He threw himself into this new work with all 
 the ardor of his heart burning with love for the 
 neglected classes. Not content with giving and 
 raising money for the support of the mission, he 
 placed himself at once by the side of Mr. Adams 
 and his devoted family in their personal labors 
 among the Bohemians. His health was never 
 robust, and for many years it was always precari- 
 ous ; but in a closed buggy which he had built for 
 the purpose he drove from his home to the field 
 of liis labors among the Bohemians, five miles 
 away, and was never absent from his class in the 
 Sabbath-school unless prevented by illness or 
 absence from the city. In answer to the question 
 why work for the Bohemians was undertaken he 
 
152 A Christimi Business Man. 
 
 said: "Why? Because God wanted it com- 
 menced and led us into it step by step." 
 
 The confidence that God was in the work 
 upheld and sustained him in the struggle that fol- 
 lowed. The store in which they met was soon 
 crowded beyond its capacity. Four hundred and 
 fifty children were crowded into a room which 
 could not seat more than 285, and they were 
 forced to close the doors, admitting only as many 
 as they could seat. For a time two services were 
 held, the children who presented red cards being 
 admitted to one, and those who presented white 
 cards to the other. The room was absolutely 
 without ventilation and the air soon grew foul. 
 In an appeal to the churches for help Mr. Gates 
 said : " We are now crowded to such an extent 
 that it is impossible to do good work, and the air 
 is often so foul that it is quite seriously detrimen- 
 tal to health; indeed some excellent workers have 
 had to give up going there because it made them 
 sick." But neither foul air nor the winter storms 
 kept him from the work in which he had enlisted. 
 He wanted to know all about the people in whom 
 he had become so deeply interested, so he applied 
 himself to study, with his wonted accuracy and 
 thoroughness, the geography and history of Bohe- 
 mia. The results of this study appear in his 
 papers. Among them we also find sketches of 
 the lives of Bohemian heroes, and studies as to 
 the number, cliaracter, and condition of the Bohe- 
 mians in this country. 
 
Work for the Bohemians, 158 
 
 Rev. Henry A. Stimson, d.d., of St. Louis, has 
 recorded the following in regard to Mr. Gates' 
 work for the Bohemians : — 
 
 The sight of this single-minded and simple-hearted 
 business man giving himself so unselfishly to help 
 them and their children produced an impression in 
 the Bohemian community, hardened as it is by infidel 
 teachings and anarchical clubs, which was deepened 
 by the following incident : Mr. Gates had purchased 
 three unoccupied lots in the edge of the Bohemian 
 district, the only lots which could then be obtained, 
 and he was holding them until the money could be 
 raised to build a chapel. He had been sick for a few 
 weeks, and on his return to the field he discovered 
 that a brick building was going up on one of his lots. 
 He began to make inquiries in the neighborhood, and 
 soon found himself surrounded by an eager and 
 excited crowd whose words he could but imperfectly 
 understand. He gathered from what he heard that a 
 Bohemian was putting the savings of many years into 
 a house on a lot w^hich he had mistaken for his own. 
 In the course of a few days he sent for the man to 
 come to his office. He came, accompanied by a Bohe- 
 mian lawyer ; but Mr. Gates amazed and delighted 
 him by transferring the lot to him at the price at 
 which he had acquired it, with the addition only of 
 interest on the investment. Meanwhile the account 
 of the situation had spread among the Bohemians, and 
 they were commenting upon it. " Now," it was said, 
 " you will see what these Christians are after. They 
 will get you into their power, and then squeeze every 
 dollar out of you " — with more to the same effect. 
 
154 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 When at last the facts were known the revulsion of 
 feeling was tremendous. This quiet pale-faced busi- 
 ness man, who came so regularly from his beautiful 
 home and his great business, in all weathers, to teach 
 them about Jesus Christ, was generous after a fashion 
 which they could not understand. 
 
 Mr. Gates wrote concerning this new work to 
 which he had set his hand : — 
 
 It certainly looks as if the Lord were leading us 
 into that field, and as if the way had been prepared for 
 a bountiful harvest by-and-by. Of course it will be 
 slow, save as the Spirit is manifest in power and gives 
 efficacy to the work; but the young Bohemians have 
 lost all faith in the Catholic Church, and want some- 
 thing better than the atheistical tirades served out to 
 them in their communistical halls. 
 
 From the first he had large views of the 
 methods of work to be used, and desired that 
 suitable provision be made in the new building for 
 many lines of effort. In June, 1884, he wrote to 
 his son : — 
 
 My health has not been sufficiently vigorous the last 
 few weeks to admit of as much work as I ought to 
 have done in view of the demands of our Bohemian 
 work, which is to be taken up permanently by Rev. 
 E. A. Adams next September. We must have lots 
 and a building, and I want one with a high basement 
 and two stories. The basement is to be used for a 
 reading-room and kindergarten ; the first floor for 
 the Sunday-school, Bible classes, and preaching serv- 
 ices ; and the second floor shall have rooms for the 
 
Work for the Bohemians. 155 
 
 janitor and the Bohemian missionary, and for socie- 
 ties, and one or two bedrooms for missionaries who 
 may carry on special work in French, Norwegian, and 
 Swedish. I wish that our business was profitable just 
 now, that I might spare larger sums for this work 
 and that I could labor more hours without such 
 depressing weariness of body and mind. 
 
 Shortly after this he wrote again : — 
 
 I mean to ease off in the line of business, but ex- 
 pect to have my hands full of Christian work, much 
 of w^hich involves care and anxiety. For your expres- 
 sions of love, confidence, and respect, I thank vou. 
 My life has been to me one of many failures and 
 much hard service ; I have other things to live for 
 besides money. With so much wealth assured to our 
 country by the abundant harvests, it seems as if there 
 must come a change for the better in business before 
 long, and I hope to so organize my business as to 
 have more leisure for travel and work for the Master. 
 [It was his long-cherished desire to visit his son in his 
 missionary field.] I have no desire to amass a for- 
 tune, but I do love to be able to give for Christ's work 
 and to help my children. Oh, for more of Christ! 
 This is the want of the Church ; it is my want. " Thou, 
 O Christ, art all I want ! " If each professed follower 
 were really filled with Christ, how the world w^ould 
 ring with notes of victory ! 
 
 At this time his life was one incessant round of 
 activity. Frequently he would attend three mis- 
 sions on the Sabbath besides the morning service 
 of the New England Church. Leaving his home 
 
156 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 at eight o'clock in the morning in order to arrive 
 at the Bohemian Mission in time for the English 
 Sunday-school, which was held at nine o'clock, he 
 would teach his class of girls and return to the 
 New England Church, arriving, as he often said 
 '' in time for the collection," which he considered 
 an important part of the service. In the after- 
 noon he often went to the Sedgewick Street Mis- 
 sion, which had been established by the New 
 England Church largely through his efforts, 
 where he would teach a class if any were left 
 without a teacher. The hour of evening service 
 often found him in some mission church. 
 
 He was a thorough and systematic Bible stu- 
 dent and an interesting teacher. His habits of 
 Bible study made it possible for him on short 
 notice to explain the meaning of Scripture pas- 
 sages, illustrating the truth with the results of his 
 close observation and ripe experience. On one 
 occasion, entering the little church in the village 
 where he was spending the summer, he was 
 informed that the preacher who was expected had 
 failed tliem, and he was invited to occupy the 
 pulpit. He gave a talk full of interest and spiritual 
 helpfulness, which held the attention of all. 
 Among the papers he has left are notebooks filled 
 with the results of his searching study of the Sun- 
 day-school lessons, and papers on such themes as 
 the following : Laying aside the Weights, The 
 Cliild Jesus, The Tabernacle, The Practical Nature 
 of the Christian Heliijfioii, The Bible Doctrine of 
 
Work for the Bohemians. 157 
 
 Responsibility applied to Corporations, Spiritu- 
 ality, The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit. 
 With him a clear word of God was the end of 
 every matter, and it was to the Word of God that 
 he was accustomed to go for guidance, inspiration, 
 and strength. This habit of recourse to the Word 
 and patient study and comparison of its passages 
 made him an instructive and inspiring speaker. 
 His own estimate of his services, however, was 
 a very modest one, and in the last years of his 
 life he gave frequent expression to his sense of 
 sin and shortcoming. January 1, 1885, he wrote 
 to his son : — 
 
 I have been housed up since last Saturday night 
 by a cold and its effects. When I catch cold at this 
 time of the year it shakes me all to pieces and leaves 
 me so weak that I lose my grasp on Him who should 
 be my covert and hiding-place in all such hours. Phys- 
 ical weakness has something to do with it no doubt, 
 but lack of faith and entire consecration lie close 
 behind the trouble and, I am afraid, are the sources 
 of it. I am sorry to have my income cut off at this 
 time of year for two reasons : first, because it will be 
 impossible to give as much for the spread of the gos- 
 pel as I have been giving ; and second, because it may 
 require some more self-denial in personal expenses 
 than we have practiced of late years. And yet per- 
 haps the heavenly Father saw that I needed to give 
 more of sympathy and personal help in winning souls 
 and that I had unwittingly been doing my work by 
 })roxy altogether too nuich. 
 
158 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 He was wont to say that we must invest our- 
 selves in the Master's work. 
 
 In August, 1886, he again gave expression to 
 his consciousness of ill-desert : — 
 
 Surely if our God were not longsuffering and ready 
 to pardon abundantly all who go to him with broken 
 and contrite hearts there would he nothing left for us 
 but despair. The longer I live the more the sense of 
 the sinfulness of my own heart alarms me. I find, as 
 Paul found, that the old, carnal heart is there unsub- 
 dued by grace, and the fight still goes on. But thanks 
 be to God, there is victory for us all through Jesus 
 Christ our Lord. To him I cling, in him I trust, and 
 his promise is good. 
 
 Ten days later he wrote again : — 
 
 As I spent the week before last in the house it 
 gave me time for thinking, serious thinking, and as I 
 have studied from day to day the subjects on the card 
 for the Week of Prayer I have been led to self- 
 examination and, I trust, to confession of sin and a 
 more hearty consecration of myself to God. With 
 my income cut off so largely this year I have had to 
 go over the question of benevolence and study the 
 law of Christian giving and plan my own course by it. 
 When one who has been used to giving generously, 
 according to the world's estimate, is obliged to cut 
 down some appropriations and forego others entirely, 
 and cannot go into particulars as to his reasons for 
 doing so, he is liable to be misjudged and perhaps 
 censured, and yet one must act in view of all his cir- 
 cumstances. If one has reserved capital upon which 
 
Work for the Bohemians. 159 
 
 he can draw at such times without prejudice to his 
 creditors aud his family, I think he ought to keep up 
 his gifts, all the more because so many have no re- 
 serves upon which to fall back, and when income is cut 
 off have only the mites to cast into the treasury. I 
 have tried to look at the question from God's side as 
 well as my own, and have decided that I ought not to 
 make obligations this year beyond the tithe of the 
 income I can reasonably expect. If, by the blessing 
 of God, 1 have more to give, I must be sure to remem- 
 ber the obligation. It was not without considerable 
 struggle that 1 came to this conclusion, but having 
 settled it, I am at rest. 
 
 Mr. Gates was deeply impressed with the tTieme 
 of the Holy Spirit, as he studied it at home during 
 that Week of Prayer when he was confined to the 
 house by sickness. He expressed his thoughts in 
 the weekly letter to his son : — 
 
 There can be no doubt about the efiBciency of the 
 Spirit and his sufficiency ; the trouble is with us in our 
 lack of desire and failure to comply with the condi- 
 tions. One thing I do believ^e : that his power is 
 largely to use the truth, and that unless we go prayer- 
 fully to the Word of God (Ps. 119: 18), unless We 
 appreciate the saving power of the Word (Ps. 119: 
 11), unless we love it (Ps. 119: 97-105) so that 
 l>ours of musing and meditation are given to its sacred 
 truths, the material will be lacking which the Spirit 
 has appointed for his own steady and effectual use. 
 1 believe, furthermore, that there must be prompt and 
 willing obedience to the commands and suggestions 
 
160 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 of the Spirit. " He that hath my commandments, and 
 keepeth them, he it is that loveth me : and he that 
 loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love 
 him, and will manifest myself to him. . . . But the 
 Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father 
 will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, 
 and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever 
 I have said unto you. ... If ye keep my com- 
 mandments, ye shall abide in my love." The promise 
 is not simply to hearers of the Word, but to doers 
 of the Word, and 1 profoundly believe that if we 
 habitually respond to the suggestions of the Spirit 
 and do practical work for Christ we shall come more 
 and more into a condition in which we shall be able to 
 discerli the mind of the Spirit. Lack of conformity 
 to God's law ; God not in all our plans ; only a par- 
 tial surrender ; something between us and Jesus 
 Christ, — these are hindrances to holiness, to a faith 
 with wings and a peace and joy that make the heart 
 sing. 
 
 He said: "As I read my Bible, there is but one 
 thing for the Christian when the Lord clearly 
 makes known his will, and that is, to up and 
 do it." 
 
 It was the constant influence of such motives 
 as these which kept him so incessantly engaged in 
 Christian work. 
 
 But it was not only in Christian work that Mr- 
 Gates recognized the need of divine guidance. 
 He was equally conscious of his need of the 
 direction of the Holy Spirit in business affairs. 
 A month later he wrote again : — 
 
Work for the Bohemians. 161 
 
 As president of the Union Shot Association I was 
 enabled so to preside as to secure prompt attention to 
 business, clear the table of a large amount of trouble- 
 some matter, and render a more than ordinarily large 
 number of decisions to the satisfaction of all, at any 
 rate so far as impartiality was concerned and a 
 correct interpretation of our constitution. I give 
 God the thanks, for 1 went into the meeting from 
 long and earnest pleading on my knees for divine 
 guidance. 
 
 At another time he said : " Oh, how easy it 
 would be to do business if all professing Chris- 
 tians looked upon the things of others as well as 
 their own, and were willing to bear one another's 
 burdens." 
 
 The work for the Bohemians lay upon his heart 
 continually with a close and tender pressure. He 
 could hardly engage in any prolonged conversa- 
 tion without shaping the talk to this theme. It 
 was a grief to him that all his brethren did not 
 see the wisdom and importance of pushing that 
 work as he saw it. He wrote : — 
 
 I am well aware that I have not the full sympathy 
 of the churches in this special branch of our city mis- 
 sionary work. Many say: "What is the use of 
 spending so much time and money on such unpromis- 
 ing material, when there are so many open doors 
 among the Scandinavians with promise of quicker 
 harvests? " I answer : " Admitting all you say about 
 the Swedes and Norwegians, what do you propose to 
 do with the Bohemians? Will they become better by 
 
162 A Christian Business Man, 
 
 neglect? As they throw off the papacy, will they be 
 made safer citizens by falling into the hands of atiie- 
 ists and communists? An avowed atheist publishes 
 the Bohemian newspaper which is most widely circu- 
 lated in this country, and while he is doing much to 
 break the power of the Romish priesthood, he is also 
 destroying the confidence of the people in God and 
 the Bible by illustrated articles published every Sun- 
 day in which he makes fun of sacred things." I say 
 to men not Christians : " You can well afford to give 
 largely to me to help permeate their homes with the 
 gospel of Christ, because it will make them better 
 citizens and render your property more secure." I 
 believe the Lord is in this work and he will lead us on 
 with larger and better results. I never so longed for 
 money as now, simply that I may spend it in carrying 
 on Christian work. I find greater pleasure in this line 
 than in visiting or attending club meetings, and yet 
 my health has prevented me from doing as much as 
 nsual this winter. However, the Lord knows what is 
 best, and I am content to do what I can. 
 
 A little later he wrote again : — 
 
 A slight friction has developed between the members 
 of the board of directors of the City Missionary 
 Society. Some would prefer to spend their money on 
 the better class of fields, where by the aid given Con- 
 gregational churches may reasonably be expected at 
 an early day, and they did not approve of taking up 
 work among the Bohemians with the large expense 
 attending it. 1 have heard sundry reports, and seen 
 the drift of opinion for some time back. While I 
 fully appreciate the necessity of seizing strategic 
 
Work for the Bohemians, 1G3 
 
 points and holding them for Congregational churches, 
 I should never have given time, strength, and money 
 as I have, had not the thought of the neglected classes 
 been constantly before me. From that quarter dan- 
 gers to state and city thicken ; from those godless 
 homes issue streams full of deadly ])oison, fatal not 
 only to themselves but to us all ; hence I would push 
 work among these classes simply in His name and by 
 the power of the gospel to purify these homes and 
 sweeten them. If life and health are spared to me, 
 I can appeal to business men of other denominations 
 for help to carry on the work at Clinton Street and 
 among the Bohemians, where I could not appeal to 
 them for church extension. I have no desire to bend 
 the society to any plans of my own, but if the churches 
 endorse that policy I shall have to go out among my 
 business friends and secure funds to give the Bohe- 
 mian enterprise a fair trial. If God is in the move- 
 ment, a way will be opened ; if he is not, then we had 
 better drop it. 
 
 A way was opened ; the opposition gave way 
 as niucli before his own earnestness and devotion 
 to the work as from any other cause. 
 
 The money came slowly. In April, 1886, the 
 mission was moved to somewhat better quarters 
 at No. 670 Throop Street, but these also were soon 
 overcrowded. A church of thirty-six members, 
 called the Bethlehem Church, was organized on 
 the thirtieth of March, 1888, a few days after the 
 organization of the first Bohemian church in this 
 country at Cleveland. The Bethlehem Church 
 numbered among its members Rev. E. A. Adams, 
 
164 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 Mrs. Adams, and three of their daughters. This 
 devoted family had taken up their residence near 
 the church in order that they might the better 
 forward its work. On this occasion Mr. Gates 
 presented a communion set to the newly formed 
 church. It was received by the people with tears 
 of gratitude and many words of thanks spoken in 
 broken English, or poured forth in their own lan- 
 guage. The words were unintelligible, but the 
 language of the eyes and the warm pressure of 
 the hand were unmistakable. Mr. Gates rejoiced 
 over the formation of the church and was deeply 
 impressed with the importance of this event in 
 the life of that community. Writing about it he 
 said : " If I lived nearer, I would take a letter and 
 join the little Bohemian church, and try to get a 
 few others to do the same. Thus we would form 
 a nucleus of experienced workers and help to 
 develop these young Bohemian Christians. I 
 really believe this is the only way to do it with 
 any hope of success." 
 
 In the spring of 1888 Mr. Gates applied himself 
 earnestly to the work of raising money for the 
 building which was so greatly needed, and ground 
 was broken the following year. Two or three 
 times Mr. Gates was laid aside by illness while 
 the work was going on. It was a great trial to 
 him to be forced to give up even for a day the 
 work which was so dear to him. One of these 
 times of illness came when money was urgently 
 needed for the prosecution of the work on the 
 
Work for the Bohemians. 165 
 
 building, and his anxiety in regard to it was 
 retarding his recovery. Some of his friends dis- 
 covered this when they came to visit him. When 
 they spoke of the Bohemian church his eyes filled 
 with tears and he turned his face to the wall. 
 They went away determined that he should carry 
 that burden no longer. Many friends responded 
 nobl}^ to their appeals, the money needed to com- 
 plete the building was raised, and the burden 
 lifted from Mr. Gates' heart. It was an act which 
 gave him greater joy than anything which could 
 have been done for himself. He referred to it 
 with gratitude at the dedication of the church, 
 saying, " I shall never forget the alacrity with 
 which so many sprang to the rescue and provided 
 funds when I lay upon a bed of sickness for weeks 
 unable to continue the work of solicitation." 
 
 Health came back to his enfeebled frame and he 
 said : '' If I can only get the building up, I shall 
 feel that I have not lived in vain." 
 
 The burdens were weighing him down. He 
 strove to conceal them from those who were 
 carrying on the work, lest they should become 
 discouraged, but to his son he wrote : •' Some- 
 times it seems as if I must lay the burdens down 
 and rest. I find that while the spirit is willing the 
 flesh is weak." 
 
 And as another year was drawing towards its 
 close he wrote : " When I think of what I might 
 have been and done had I only planned my life 
 first for Christ, and made all of business and 
 
166 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 pleasure adjust themselves to that, I mourn that 
 the harvest is not richer. We try to grasp too 
 much of earth and find our arms filled with 
 emptiness and no sheaves for the Master. Oh, 
 that my life and cliaracter might be brought more 
 into harmony with God's Word, for I know that if 
 I am out of harmony with that I am out of har- 
 mony with God himself." 
 
 When the new year had opened he said : '' The 
 year past has had so much weariness of the flesh 
 for me, especially in its beginning and ending, it 
 has shown me conclusively that I have lost my 
 grip so far as doing hard work is concerned and 
 that I shall have to be careful of my strength if I 
 am to last long. There is so much to be done in 
 the kingdom of God ; it is such a crisis in the 
 history of our own land and the world ; the con- 
 dition of our great cities cries so mightily to heaven 
 for justice among men and mercy from God, that 
 I would like to be strong and vigorous a little 
 longer and give even the remnant of my life for 
 Him who gave his life for me." 
 
 In every letter he spoke of the need of the 
 new building and his longing to see it completed, 
 and told of the numbers crowded into the unven- 
 tilated rooms and the numbers turned away for 
 lack of room. He grieved to have any turned 
 away, because he counted every opportunity for 
 teaching them the Scripture most precious. He 
 said: "The Bible in the mind, its spirit in the 
 hearts and homes of men, is the great want of the 
 
Work for the Bohemians, \Q\ 
 
 masses here and everywhere. With practical love, 
 common-sense, and plenty of courage and staying 
 qualities, we can plant ourselves in any neighbor- 
 liood and revolutionize it. We must not gather 
 up the skirts of our garments for fear of soiling 
 them, but take the little ones on our laps and 
 sit right down with tired mothers and wives and 
 husbands in their homes, and give the sympathy 
 they crave, and when confidence is gained we Cctn 
 give counsel and advice. We must go down 
 among the people if we would do them good." 
 
 While the building was going up Mr. Gates 
 gave his time freely for the supervision of the 
 work. He went often to the place, and watched 
 over every detail of the work. Said one who 
 visited the building with him : " Some months 
 since he took me through the building then Hear- 
 ing completion. I did not know which to admire 
 most — the edifice or the quiet elderly gentleman 
 whose soft blue eyes were aglow with heaven's own 
 light as he placed his hand on the shoulders of 
 some smiling Bohemian children who had gathered 
 about us and to whom he spoke of the building as 
 all theirs." 
 
 At last the building was completed. It was 
 dedicated on the first of May, 1890, and Mr. 
 Gates' cup of joy seemed full as he told the his- 
 tory of the building and outlined the purpose for 
 which it was built. When prostrate on tlie bed 
 of sickness he had prayed that his life might be 
 spared to complete the work, and his prayer had 
 
168 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 been answered. We cannot describe the building 
 better than by using his own words on that 
 occasion : — 
 
 We have sought to make it substantial but plain. 
 You will notice that our basement is very high, which 
 gives us pleasant and airy rooms in it. The one on 
 your right as you enter is for work among the girls 
 and for their societies, with anterooms for their com- 
 fort. On the left in front is the reading-room and 
 behind it another of the same size for the Boys' 
 Union, and the two are connected by a large doorway 
 so that they can be occupied for religious services in 
 Bohemian at the same time that services are being 
 conducted in English in the upper room. You will 
 notice a large space in the basement not occupied as 
 yet. We hold this for development. It may give us 
 quarters for manual training where boys may be 
 taught the use of tools to such an extent as to give 
 them a better start in life than they would otherwise 
 have. In the rear is a suite of rooms for the janitor's 
 family, and a kitchen where we hope many a girl who 
 has learned to speak English may be taught plain 
 cooking, and thus be fitted for service in American 
 families. On the first floor we have in the rear a 
 beautiful room with equipment for the Kindergarten 
 and the Primary Department of the Sunday-school. 
 By throwing up the rolling wood partitions it may be 
 united with the central auditorium. And the same is 
 true of the Prayer Room and Bible Study Rooms, 
 thus giving us seats for twelve hundred. In the 
 southwest corner we liave secured a study and office 
 for Mr. Adams, and above that a pleasant room in 
 
Work for the Bohemians. 169 
 
 which to print the weekly paper issued by him. The 
 large room in the second story is for the social and 
 missionary gatherings of the women. 
 
 In the erection of this building we have had in 
 mind first of all the carrying of the gospel of the 
 Lord Jesus into the homes and hearts of the people 
 who assemble here and live in this vicinity ; but we 
 also hope by appropriate lectures and concerts to help 
 the people to understand our history and know what 
 is needed to become true and loyal American citizens. 
 
 When he had finished his address a band of 
 girls came forward and presented him with a 
 handful of beautiful flowers. It was their own 
 gift and prompted only by their love and grati- 
 tude to him for his loving services in their behalf. 
 He was deeply touched by this act. The girl 
 chosen by her fellows to present the offering 
 said: "These flowers will fade and perish, but 
 our thankfulness will never fade." 
 
 The Bethlehem Church became the strongest 
 argument to allay the suspicions of the Bohe- 
 mians and convince them that the Christians of 
 Chicago cared for them. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 LAST WORDS. 
 
 YERY soon after the formation of the Chi- 
 cago City Missionary Society, the Chicago 
 Congregational Club was organized. The objects 
 of the club were thus stated : " To encourage 
 among the members of the Congregational 
 churches of Chicago and vicinity a more friendly 
 and intimate acquaintance ; to promote the intel- 
 lectual and spiritual culture of its members ; to 
 secure concert of action, and to promote the gen- 
 eral interests of the cause of Christ as represented 
 by these churches." 
 
 From the first the cause of city missions held 
 a large place in the deliberations of the Club, one 
 meeting each year being devoted to a considera- 
 tion of the work and needs of the Chicago City 
 Missionary Society. Mr. Gates was often called 
 upon to present this cause to the Club. His 
 thoughts were clothed in well-chosen and vigorous 
 language and his addresses were eloquent with his 
 own earnestness. One thought, one love, one pur- 
 pose run through them all. He had caught the 
 thought of Him who came to seek and to save 
 that which was lost; and his love for the neg- 
 lected men, women, and children of the city and 
 his longing for their salvation found utterance at 
 
 170 
 
La^t Words. 171 
 
 every opportunity. His words seemed more like 
 the utterance of some Old Testament prophet 
 than like the formal addresses often given on such 
 occasions. He had always as the foundation of 
 his words some Scripture truth which was glow- 
 ing and burning in his own heart and which he 
 tried to apply to the ways of men in our times. 
 
 In 1885, at the May meeting of the Club, he 
 was called to speak on the theme : " The Duties of 
 Christian Laymen to the Neglected Classes." His 
 address was as follows : — 
 
 A clear definition of words is often essential in the 
 statement of a case. I desire to emphasize the word 
 " Christian " in its connection with my theme. If we 
 were living in the time of Paul and in the city of 
 Antioch, there would be no need of explanation. 
 Christ had just died on the cross, risen from the dead, 
 given his great commission, ascended to glory, ful- 
 filled his promise, and sent the Holy Spirit and the 
 enduement of power from on high. Christians then 
 were simply Christ-men and women, who believed in 
 him as their personal Saviour, to whom they had unre- 
 servedW surrendered their own wills, simply asking. 
 Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? and prepared at 
 whatever sacrifice to do it. Christ set an example of 
 self-sacrifice, going about doing good, and he called 
 all his followers to be workers together with him. 
 Himself the first great missionary from heaven to 
 earth, his disciples accepted the missionary work as 
 the natural consequence of accepting Christ. Here 
 we have our ideal Christian — one who has given him- 
 self to a loving service of a loving Saviour. Every 
 
172 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 such person knows from his own experience the reno- 
 vating, purifying, elevating, and sanctifying power of 
 the gospel, and that, as it was the only thing that 
 could change his character, so it is the only thing that 
 can change the character of the neglected classes and 
 thus cure the evils that afflict the city, state, and nation. 
 We take for granted in this discussion that the 
 ministers are fully alive to the claims of God upon 
 them, and are doing all they can to reach the masses, 
 but that when they have done their very best there 
 are great, outlying fields of power and usefulness into 
 which laymen are called to enter. The ordained min- 
 istry is a part of God's plan for the redemption of 
 human souls and the renovation of society, but only a 
 part. It was never intended that ministers should 
 have all the work cast on them. The idea of Christ 
 was that each and every one called into his kingdom 
 should at once become a worker. " Son, go work to 
 day in my vineyard." The law of spiritual growth is 
 spiritual exercise. God's plan is that every heart that 
 believeth unto righteousness shall be wedded to a 
 mouth making confession unto salvation. Growing in 
 grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour 
 Jesus Christ is as impossible without constantly doing 
 his will as is the development of muscle without physi- 
 cal exercise. When Christ had nearly finished his 
 ministry in the flesh, and the shadows of the cross 
 were already falling upon him, he lifted up his eyes to 
 heaven and prayed unto the Father with his disciples 
 and for them : " As thou hast sent me into the world, 
 even so have I also sent them into the world " ; and 
 again he said: " Neither pray I for these alone, but 
 for them also which shall believe on me through their 
 
Last Words. 173 
 
 word." Dear brethren and sisters, that pra\'er in- 
 chided you and me and . every Christian layman of 
 Chicago. If, therefore, we can establish the supreme 
 thought of God in sending Christ into the world, we 
 shall also have the thought of Christ in sending us 
 into the world. Let the words of Scripture answer: 
 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only 
 begotten Son, that whosoever belie veth in him should 
 not perish, but have everlasting life " ; and Jesus said : 
 "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save 
 that which was lost." Here is our commission as 
 laymen, and personal service is the plan of our 
 campaign. We are to be workers together with Christ 
 in the saving of Chicago, the Jerusalem in which 
 he has given us our homes. We should be alive 
 to the situation, growth, and power of our city and 
 the vast possibilities that open up to the eye of faith 
 along its future development, in order to act wisely 
 in the present and forecast that development for 
 Christ. 
 
 The very large proportion of foreign elements in 
 our population and their rapid increase, such that 
 there is not time to assimilate them, lay upon us very 
 heavy responsibilities ; but, as Christian men and 
 women, we must accept them and discharge them in 
 the fear and love of God. We cannot ignore the 
 neglected classes, and it becomes us to see to it that 
 they are no longer neglected. Said Judge Talfourd, 
 on whom death was at the moment laying its hand : 
 " What is the great want of English society to mingle 
 class witli class? I would say in one word. It is the 
 want of sympathy." It is as true to-day of Chi- 
 cago as of England when he uttered it. It is said : 
 
174 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 '^ Jesus . . . saw much people, and was raoved with 
 compassiou toward them, because the}' were as sheep 
 not having a shepherd ; and he began to teach them 
 many things." He did not stop with simply teaching : 
 he cared for their bodies, healing the sick, feeding 
 the hungry and showing himself their friend. If we are 
 to have any power for good among the neglected 
 classes, we must go and do likewise. We must ac- 
 quaint ourselves with their numbers, their condition, 
 their previous environments, and the tendeucies of 
 their lives. We shall find our interest in them kin- 
 dling as we work among them. We know that in a 
 country like ours, where government derives its au- 
 thority, not only in abstract theory but in actual fact, 
 from the popular will, the obvious method of attempt- 
 ing to shape the character of society and discipline 
 the nation is to apply Christian influence to the very 
 source of the nation's power and authority — the wills 
 and consciences of the people themselves ; and that 
 the place of all others for this educating process to 
 begin is the family — that divinely ap[)ointed institu- 
 tion for the education of the human race. Our duty 
 to the strangers is to give them a Christian welcome 
 and, just in proportion as they are ignorant and vi- 
 cious, redouble our efforts to let the blessed influences 
 of the gospel radiate into all their abodes until by its 
 saving power they become Christian homes. God has 
 given clear and unmistakable evidence of a prepared 
 way by which we may gain access to the homes we 
 seek to bless. The prophet said, " A little child shall 
 lead them," and in these days we are realizing 
 what a mighty truth was bound up in the prophecy. 
 Caring for the children of the neglected classes by 
 
Last Words. 175 
 
 kindergartens, Sunday-schools, industrial schools, etc., 
 makes liouse-to-house visitation easy, natural, and 
 blessed work for teachers, Bible-readers, missionaries, 
 and pastors, and opens the way for gospel preaching. 
 This is a practical way to gain accurate knowledge of 
 each home and its peculiar trials and wants, and, by 
 wise and loving counsels. Christian literature, and 
 timely charity, prove that the same mind is in us that 
 was in Christ Jesus. To do this work even as it has 
 been commenced demands a largely increased supply 
 of faithful officers and teachers, and it is preeminently 
 the duty of Christian laymen to offer themselves freely 
 for this service. We want business men to become 
 practically interested, to gather classes of young men, 
 and so invest in them that mutual confidence shall be 
 inspired and love begotten. What a power for good 
 a thousand consecrated men and women might exert 
 among the neglected classes by such labors, and how 
 quickly it would tell for an intelligent exercise of the 
 ballot as well as for an honest count and correct re- 
 turns ! Such personal work would so interest all doing 
 it that the raising of money would be easy. Many 
 business men who profess to be Christians excuse them- 
 selves from personal work, lose their interest in the 
 work of Christ, and then the world of fashion, amuse- 
 ment, and business engrosses their time and exhausts 
 their energies. Some claim they are too old to take 
 up such work. What a mistake ! Surely nothing can 
 better prepare us for dwelling with Christ than coming 
 into closest sympathy with him and cooperation with 
 him in his great plans in our last days here on earth. 
 
 Another pressing duty of Christian laymen is to 
 supplement tlieir own personal services by supplying 
 
176 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 missionaries to give their whole time to work among 
 the poor and the outcast. 
 
 Another is to at once provide ministers of the 
 gospel thoroughly furnished for the work of building 
 up churches among the vast populations of our city 
 and all through the Northwest. It is a terrible thing 
 to know how few ministers are available of the right 
 sort. The remedy is with us. How many of the 
 fathers and mothers here to-night have fully settled 
 it in their own minds that the Christian ministry is the 
 noblest and highest calling open to human effort, 
 and are selecting their brightest and best sons and 
 daughters and educating them for that end? There 
 are many Christian laymen who ought to form conse- 
 crated partnerships with sons, educating them for mis- 
 sion work, and then putting in the plants of lots and 
 buildings and the money for their support over against 
 the labor of the son. What a blessed partnership that 
 would be, with Christ as the senior partner ! And 
 what a blessed influence such investments would have 
 upon the neglected masses in this city ! Such invest- 
 ments would soon solve many of the troublesome 
 questions between labor and capital and purify our 
 municipal government. 
 
 God holds Christians to strict accountability for 
 their talents and wealth. He has said; "Ye are the 
 salt of the earth." For lack of the preserving power 
 of ten men and women Sodom and Gomorrah per- 
 ished. Greece and Rome had wealth and art and 
 culture but lacking Christianity they were destroyed. 
 Let us be careful lest with all our wealth and material 
 success we administer it in the line of self-satisfaction 
 instead of self-sacrifice for the good of others and 
 
Last Words. 177 
 
 thus bring ourselves under the condemnation of those 
 who are not rich toward God. 
 
 Dear friends, rising above duty, we should count it 
 our highest privilege to enter with fresh ardor and 
 new consecration upon this work of saving the souls 
 of the neglected classes and thus save the city. This 
 is the Biblical way of saving the state. It is as true 
 now as when Solomon uttered it, that " righteousness 
 exalteth a nation ; but sin is a reproach to any peo- 
 ple." Sin levels down and drags all classes into one 
 common ruin. Eighteousness levels up and makes us 
 all brethren, with one Saviour, one hope of eternal 
 life, and one Golden Rule: "Whatsoever ye would 
 that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." 
 
 The treasures of heaven are redeemed souls, saved 
 b}^ the blood of Christ and through the iustrumentalit}^ 
 of Christian men and women. Christ says: "Lay 
 up for yourselves treasures in heaven." We shall 
 obey just in proportion as we make our time, our tal- 
 ents, wealth, all we have, count for the winning of 
 souls, and this is the supreme duty of the Christian 
 layman to the neglected classes. 
 
 This address reveals the burden of his heart, 
 the consuming passion of his life. 
 
 In 1890 the April meeting of the Club was 
 given to the subject of city missions, as usual, 
 and Rev. H. A. Stimson, d.d., read a carefully 
 prepared paper on '* Congregational City Missions 
 the Successful Experiment." He was followed by 
 Professor Curtiss, president of the society, in a 
 review of the ten years of the society's work, 
 showing the grand results already accomplished 
 
178 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 and what it could do if it only had the funds at 
 its disposal. When he had taken his seat, the 
 members of the club began to call for Deacon 
 Gates, and he arose and delivered an address 
 which left a marked impression on all who heard 
 it. It was delivered without notes and was evi- 
 dently impromptu, but papers found after his 
 death show that, according to his habit, he had 
 been thinking and studying along the line of this 
 address and had recorded his thoughts in the form 
 of notes, from which and from the remembrance 
 of friends present on that occasion we may gather 
 at least approximately the thoughts of that address. 
 
 He began with the following quotation from a 
 newspaper concerning the province of Congrega- 
 tional clubs : — 
 
 " We believe that the Congregational Club has a 
 mission and is feeling its way toward it. While 
 we would not have it ignore the great problems of 
 the day which are everywhere agitated, it best 
 fulfills the end of its existence when it has regard 
 to the local field immediately under its survey and 
 care. Influences ought to go forth from every 
 club which will strengthen the weak churches, 
 lead to the planting of new ones, and unite all 
 the Congregationalists in the vicinity, and all the 
 Christians if possible, in wise and earnest labor 
 for the Master and for men. By thus building 
 over against its own house each club will share in 
 the erection of that temple, the glory of which 
 even now is silently but certainly filling the earth." 
 
Last Words. 179 
 
 Said Mr. Gates : — 
 
 I heartily indorse this statement. It has been a 
 source of great satisfaction to me to feel that this 
 Ckib has from the first acted along this line. The 
 very fact that the April meeting is set apart by com- 
 mon consent for the Chicago City Missionary Society 
 bears testimony to its deep and abiding interest in 
 city missions as the most powerful agency at work 
 among our masses for securing morality, industry, 
 thrift, and good government by carrying the gospel of 
 the Lord Jesus Christ into their homes and securing: 
 its lodgment in their hearts. I also rejoice to know 
 that a large number of our members are actively en- 
 gaged in the work of saving the city. The multiplica- 
 tion of our missions makes an increasing demand for 
 superintendents of Sunday-schools, for teachers, and 
 for practical business men to serve as associate trus- 
 tees in the new enterprises. It is impossible to com- 
 pute or to put into words the value of such services 
 both in the direct effects upon the little band of poor 
 but earnest Christians who have not had much experi- 
 ence in Christian work, and indirectly upon the church 
 from which such men and women go out, as they tell 
 in their prayer-meetings the story of the new enter- 
 prise and its needs. City missions have often suffered 
 sadly for lack of just this element in their inception 
 and development. I know of no work where practi- 
 cal, sanctified common-sense and good business habits 
 and methods are more needed than in the starting and 
 developing of missions ; and, dear friends, it is a 
 glorious work ! The want of to-day is the same as 
 the want of the world when Christ looked upon the 
 
180 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 multitudes and saw them as sheep without a shepherd, 
 and had compassion on them and worked miracles to 
 heal and feed their bodies, and then taught them as 
 never man taught before. 
 
 Sympathy with the masses cannot be purchased for 
 money alone. There must be the loving touch, the 
 kindly inquiries, the practical show of friendliness. 
 We owe pecuniary help to those less favored than 
 ourselves, but that is not all. In the words of Bishop 
 Harris: "The rich have something vastly more pre- 
 cious and helpful than money, which they ought to 
 give, but which under our present system is too often 
 not given, and that is personal sympathy, personal 
 interest, personal friendship and good-will, to be 
 manifested, as they only can be manifested, in the 
 frank and unrestricted intercourse between the rich 
 and the poor. One of the evil results of our present 
 system is that the poor are largely bereaved of the 
 personal sympathy of the rich ; and not less is the 
 loss to the rich themselves. They are deprived of the 
 gratitude, the friendship, the friendliness of the poor. 
 The softening, elevating influence of benefactorship is 
 taken away from them. Princely though their gifts 
 may be and large their charities, yet they go too often 
 through second hands of institutional channels and 
 meet no return of thanks or even of gratitude. They 
 hear not that sweet music, the benedictions of the 
 poor and lowly." 
 
 From whom, if not from such bodies as this, shall 
 the remedy come? We are professedly Christian, 
 have entered into fellowship and sympathy with Jesus 
 Christ in his great work of saving a lost world. We 
 have enlisted in his service and accepted his marching 
 
Last Words. 181 
 
 orders : '* Go, carry my gospel to every creature." If 
 we would attain any high degree of spirituality and 
 power for good, we must do jyersonal ivork. 
 
 This is the first time in two or three years that 1 
 have been able to attend an April meeting because 
 of sickness, and increasing infirmities warn me that I 
 must rapidly lay aside the active duties that for years 
 I have gladly performed, leaving to younger men the 
 heat and burden of the day. Will you bear with me 
 a few moments as I give you my thought about this 
 work? Jesus Christ went about doing good. He 
 was a great preacher, and yet how small a portion of 
 his public life was taken up with preaching. He saw 
 the gathered multitudes and was moved with compas- 
 sion for them, sympathized with them, and attended 
 his generally short, pithy, and practical sermons with 
 acts of healing and care for their bodily wants, and 
 the common people heard him gladly. He had sym- 
 pathy with them and expressed it in a practical way. 
 I affirm with no fear of contradiction that of all 
 others, every Christian business man needs the Sab- 
 bath-day personal work for Christ such as is offered in 
 the Sunday-school and the house-to-house visitation in 
 connection with mission work. Sometimes men say to 
 me : " I am too tired ; I want rest Sundays." You of 
 all others need the entire change of thought and action 
 that study of God's Word and practical application 
 of it brings. You need the inspiration of touching 
 human souls, of seeing eyes grow tearful and hearing 
 speech tremulous with emotion as you press upon men, 
 or upon your Sunday-school class, the great, vital 
 truths of the gospel. Oh, what a virtue there is in such 
 work, prosecuted at least on every Sabbath, to break 
 
182 A Christian Business Man, 
 
 the power of this world and return one to his busi- 
 ness on Monday fresh and vigorous for life's rational 
 duties. 
 
 There was a power in the address that was not 
 so much in the words as in the man. When his 
 hearers looked into his face, whitened by illness 
 and exhausting labor for the Master, and thought 
 of his self-denying toil and the Bohemian chapel 
 fast nearing completion, they yielded to him not 
 only their earnest attention, but also the silent 
 assent of the heart, speaking through their eyes 
 and their faces. Says one of those present: 
 " Called upon at the close of the meeting to say a 
 few words, he spoke out of his own rich experi- 
 ence as though inspired. As he stood before the 
 Club, his face lighted up with his subject, his 
 words were exceedingly weighty, not only because 
 so aptly chosen and so tersely put, but because he 
 himself was a living illustration of their truth." 
 
 Another said : " As we looked upon his face 
 aglow with a heavenly expression, as we heard his 
 impassioned words, as we realized his joy over his 
 own great achievement, we were made to feel 
 that, like one of the old prophets, he had been in- 
 spired to deliver that message of the urgency of 
 his Master's work, and that very likel}^ it was his 
 last ' burden of the Lord ' to be delivered unto us. 
 It will long abide in the memory and in the heart 
 and purpose of all of us who heard it." 
 
 Says a third : " It seemed to me and to others 
 that God had touched his lips as with a live coal 
 
Last Words. 183 
 
 from off his altar, and fired his soul with a holy 
 enthusiasm, as he urged in eloquent and persua- 
 sive words that which he so fully exemplified in 
 his own life, the duty and the blessedness of con- 
 secrating personal work and wealth to the Lord's 
 service. If he had known that it was to be his 
 last public message to the business men of Chi- 
 cago, he could not have spoken more wisely or 
 more earnestly." 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 LAST DAYS. 
 
 ONE long-cherished desire had been granted 
 in the completion of the Bethlehem Chapel, 
 and it had brought great joy to Mr. Gates. There 
 was still another desire burning in his heart, and 
 that was to look again upon the face of the son 
 and daughter who had been absent seven years. 
 And now they were coming home, and all the 
 father's thoughts seemed turned toward that home- 
 coming. The chamber was prepared for them, 
 and he entered into all the preparations with much 
 ardor. He longed with a great longing to greet 
 his children once more and talk with them of the 
 work he had come to love as if it were his own ; 
 and it was indeed his own, for he had shared in it 
 by his prayers, by his gifts, and by his counsels to 
 so large an extent that he might well be counted 
 as one of the workers in that mission field. 
 
 Often in those last days, as he kneeled at the 
 family altar and offered the petitions for the 
 absent ones, which had been going up morning 
 and evening during the years of their absence, he 
 would add the petition : " May these eyes behold 
 the loved ones far away ! " The prayers of those 
 last days were like the familiar converse of one 
 made ripe for heaven with his God, he seemed to 
 
 184 
 
Last Bays. 185 
 
 come so near the Saviour as he prayed. But 
 nothing of this longing was allowed to find place 
 in the letters sent across the seas. He wholly 
 suppressed his own parental longings, so that his 
 letters might sometimes have seemed cold, had we 
 not known and felt his love and seen it evidenced 
 by his constant thoughtfulness for our comfort 
 and our welfare. His letters were full of words 
 of cheer and comfort and encouragement to help 
 us bear the discomforts of the way. 
 
 Says one who often met him in those days: 
 " With gladness he told me of the joyous return 
 near at hand. The beautiful home fronting the 
 early summer foliage of Lincoln Park had been 
 specially prepared for the full family gathering. 
 With his accustomed accuracy he went over each 
 step in the route of the travelers, with the prob- 
 able dates of arrival and departure ; the ride over 
 the Mesopotamian Plain, across the Euphrates 
 Valley to the sea, and the prolonged sea voy- 
 age through the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. 
 Every day of the long journey was calculated, 
 even the very day when he might welcome them. 
 All was clear to his cheerful vision and told with 
 an emotion that moistened the eyes of us both. 
 He left for the anticipated meeting and his prayer, 
 so oft-repeated, was answered; those eyes did 
 'behold the loved ones from far away.'" 
 
 He was accompanied on his journey to the sea- 
 shore by Mr. S. M. Moore and his daughter, Mrs. 
 Wiley, the father and sister of the brave but frail 
 
186 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 little woman who had shared the toils, trials, and 
 discomforts of the missionary life with a faith in 
 God that had never failed and a loving spirit that 
 admitted no complaints. Mr. Gates had been so 
 happy and hopeful of late that he seemed stronger 
 and better, though he told one of his friends that 
 it seemed to him that his vitality was leaving him. 
 On the way to New Yoi'k he read aloud and 
 talked in his own instructive and interesting way, 
 making the journey seem short, though all were 
 eager for its end and for the fruition of their 
 hope and longing. There was a sudden change 
 of the weather during the journey, and Mr. 
 Gates' enfeebled frame could not withstand its 
 effects. They arrived in New York, Friday, May 
 30, and on Saturday morning he was taken with 
 a chill. A doctor was called at once, and Mr. 
 Gates took to his bed by his orders, although he 
 did not consider the attack serious. 
 
 Meanwhile the steamer Umbria was drawing 
 near with its eagerly looked for cargo. The 
 travelers caught sight of their native land and 
 hoped that they should arrive Saturday evening 
 and spend an unbroken Sabbath with the sister, 
 who was married with them on that very day 
 seven years before. But they arrived off quaran- 
 tine just too late to enter the harbor and an- 
 chored there for the night. 
 
 The next morning liow eagerly they strained 
 their eyes to see the faces of the loved ones on 
 the dock ! One was missing, and when they came 
 
Last Days. 187 
 
 within hail they could not restrain the inquiry 
 shouted across the water that still separated them, 
 ''Where is father?" 
 
 As soon as the first greetings were over, Mi-. 
 Gates desired to return home. He had planned 
 to visit the youngest son and attend the exercises 
 of his graduation at Amherst on the way home, 
 but his sickness changed his plans and made him 
 anxious to get back to his family and his home. 
 And so, the physician assenting to his removal, 
 the whole party started homeward on Tuesday 
 morning, June 3, 1890. As the train passed 
 swiftly along the valley of the Hudson, Mr. Gates 
 spoke of scenes familiar to him in early years, and 
 seemed to take pleasure in seeing them from the 
 windows, but after a little the fever returned, and 
 he became weary with the motion of the cars and 
 exhausted with the fever. His son ministered to 
 him, keeping his head wet with cloths dipped in 
 ice water. He bore the journey well, although 
 it wearied him. As night came on he repeated 
 slowly the Twenty-third Psalm. 
 
 And so they came home, Wednesday morning, 
 June 7. Soon the disease took a more pronounced 
 character, and the doctor announced that it was 
 pneumonia. On Saturday he asked his son to 
 read and pray with him. He chose the One Hun- 
 dred and Third Psalm, and prayed that God would 
 make his word piecious and impress it on our 
 hearts. And his father made answer, feebly but 
 clearly repeating the words of the Psalm : " ' Who 
 
188 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 forgiveth all our iniquities.' Oh, how much more 
 ready he is to forgive than we are to ask ! " On 
 Sunday he was very weak, and for a time it 
 seemed as if his faith were clouded, for he whis- 
 pered feebly : " Have you no word of hope ? " 
 His son made answer: " God says, 'Fear not: for 
 I have redeemed thee.' " 
 
 A little later he said : " Jesus, where art thou ? " 
 and again the son answered : '' He is here." After 
 a little pause, he said feebly : " From everlasting 
 to everlasting. Oh, how precious ! " 
 
 On Monday he was still weaker and distressed 
 in breathing. He was too weak to talk, but the 
 words of Scripture repeated to him seemed to 
 bring him comfort: "Fear not: for I have re- 
 deemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; 
 thou art mine. When thou passest through the 
 waters, I will be with thee ; and through the 
 rivers, they shall not overflow thee." 
 
 He sank slowly and painlessly into the valley 
 of the shadow of death, and passed away at six 
 minutes past eight o'clock, June 9, 1890, in his 
 sixty-sixth year. There was nothing dreadful in 
 his death. Even in the moment when the first 
 sense of loss fell upon the bereaved ones, there 
 was a sense of the blessedness of the one who 
 had gone from earth into the presence of Him 
 whom he loved, such that he who closed the eyes 
 from which the light had departed said in broken 
 accents: "Thine eyes behold the King in his 
 beauty." His family was gathered about his bed ; 
 
Last Days. 189 
 
 Lis wife and daughter, and the four married sons, 
 Charles and William and Frank and Henry. Her- 
 bert, the youngest of the sons, was at Amherst 
 College, and, owing to a delay in the delivery of 
 the telegram sent to him, did not arrive until 
 after his father had passed away. It was his 
 father's desire that he too should study for the 
 ministry, and that desire has since been realized. 
 Indeed it seemed as if the heavenly Father had 
 taken pleasure in gratifying the desires of his 
 servant in his last days. In a former sickness he 
 had prayed that he might be spared to see the 
 Bethlehem Chapel completed, and it was granted 
 to him. He prayed that he might look upon the 
 face of his children, and that too was granted. 
 And then it seemed as if the stimulus of hope 
 and desire was removed and he departed in peace, 
 leaving the memory of his love and his prayers 
 to draw his children nearer to God. When 4iis 
 son Herbert decided to enter the ministry, his first 
 thought was of his father, and he said : " I wish 
 that I could tell him and see his face light up." 
 
 When the hour came for the last tributes to the 
 memory of the deceased, the church was filled 
 with those who had come from all parts of the 
 city to unite in testifying their love and esteem 
 for one whose life had won their confidence. But 
 there were none whose presence so touched the 
 hearts of the mourners as the sight of the little 
 band of poorly clad men and women from the 
 
190 A Christian Business Man 
 
 Bohemian quarter. One poor woman had carried 
 her baby in her arms clear across the city rather 
 than fail to come ; and they brought a wreath of 
 flowers to be laid upon the coffin, on which was 
 inscribed, '-'•Mi loval nas " (He loved us). The 
 grocer sent a wreath of flowers, saying with tears 
 in his eyes, "He was such a good neighbor ! " And 
 the flower-woman sent a little bunch of flowers 
 "for his hand." The rich and the poor met to- 
 gether in showing honor to one who loved them 
 both. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 A LIFE WORTH LIVING. 
 
 IT is hard to gather up the impressions made 
 by a life which seemed so fully to respond 
 to the touch of the Holy Spirit as the one we 
 have recorded. 
 
 He was a loving father and husband. It was 
 his delight to plan and execute pleasant surprises 
 for those he loved. On one occasion his daughter 
 was to go to a western city and there seemed to 
 be no opportunity to provide companionship for 
 her. Mr. Gates was pressed with business, but 
 he decided that he would take the time to accom- 
 pany her to her destination and then return. 
 He would not allow her to be told of his inten- 
 tion, but himself accompanied her to the station, 
 bade her farewell, and took his seat in another 
 part of the train until it was well under way, 
 when he appeared to her delighted and wonder- 
 ing eyes, and removed every apprehension in 
 regard to the journey by announcing that he 
 intended to accompany her. 
 
 Often when his family were spending the 
 summer in the pleasant cottage he had built for 
 them at Charlevoix, Mich., he would plan sudden 
 visits, arriving all unannounced and entering by 
 the back door in order that he might enjoy their 
 
 191 
 
192 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 surprise and gladness. During his visits he added 
 to the pleasure of all at the resort by his genial 
 presence, by his ministrations, and especially by 
 his words and petitions so full of spiritual power 
 when he led their thoughts in the morning de- 
 votions, which were a part of the life in that 
 summer home. 
 
 We cannot better convey the impression he 
 made on those with whom he came in contact 
 than by transcribing the Memorial Address of the 
 Rev. E. A. Adams, with whom he was so closely 
 and intimately associated in the Bohemian work 
 which they both loved : — 
 
 Never shall I forget that morning when in hope 
 and yet in fear I took up the paper to look for what 
 I dreaded most of all to find, and found what I 
 had feared and not what I had hoped. Never shall I 
 forget how the tears started from the eyes of every 
 member of our family, and how the stillness at the 
 breakfast table told of the grief, too deep for words, 
 which had taken possession of all our hearts. F'or we 
 knew that he who had been associated with all our 
 planning for the Bohemian work, without whose pres- 
 ence no Sunday had been complete, no picnic satis- 
 factory, and no Christmas festival a success, had taken 
 part with us in these exercises for the last time. 
 
 The fact that impressed us perhaps the most of all 
 was this : that he gave himself to the Bohemian work 
 as if it were his only work. We knew at the time 
 that it was only one of the many directions in which 
 his energies were turned, and it has become clearer 
 
A Life Worth Living. 193 
 
 to us since his death. The demands of his business 
 were exacting ; it seemed to us increasingly so during 
 these last years. The work of foreign missions filled 
 his heart, it would seem almost to the exclusion of 
 everything else. The Chicago Theological Seminary 
 and its interests were never off his mind. Indeed, 
 scarcely a single object in which our churches are 
 interested was in any sense forgotten by him. Never- 
 theless he seemed to us to be just as full of plans 
 for the Bohemian work, as full of methods to awaken 
 and increase the interest in it, as if it were the only 
 thing for which he thought, or for which he cared. 
 To me this was a marvel at first, and the marvel only 
 grew with my increasing knowledge of the multifarious 
 interests he was constantly forwarding. I do not 
 know that I ever made a suggestion of any importance 
 to him that he had not already thought of. In all my 
 desires for enlargement I found that he had invariably 
 gone before me, and when it came to carrying out the 
 suggestion it was always done in a way so much larger 
 than I had even hoped, that in this respect my rec- 
 ollection of him is, as it were, of an unbroken series 
 of surprises, which culminated as I saw Bethlehem 
 Church taking form and realized how completely he 
 had arranged for every possible use to which it might 
 be put. Many a call, intended on my part not to 
 overrun three minutes, has been lengthened into hours 
 of consultation with regard to the interests of the 
 work, when I knew that work late into the night would 
 have to compensate for the time he was so cheerfully 
 giving to me. And a word dropped now and then 
 in these conversations showed clearly that if he had 
 been talking with some one else, he would have shown 
 
194 A Christian Business Man, 
 
 the same enthusiasm in any one of twenty or more 
 objects that lay near his heart. 
 
 Another characteristic of Deacon Gates was his 
 apparently entire independence of visible outward en- 
 couragement. Not that he did not see encouraging 
 signs. No one saw them more clearly, or knew better 
 how to use them than he did ; but it was perfectly 
 evident that his courage and enthusiasm were not 
 derived from them. If any one at any time had 
 reason to lose heart in an enterprise, that person was 
 Deacon Gates, and that time the early history of 
 the Bohemian work. This is not the place to tell of 
 discouragements, which, until I knew him, I supposed 
 must dampen his ardor ; there were plenty of them, 
 but none of them ever turned him aside a hair's 
 breadth from his purpose. Indeed it was clear to me 
 at the time, and has been made clearer since, that 
 in addition to all his other burdens he took upon 
 himself and carried this one of concealing from us, 
 who were directly in the work, everything which might 
 tend to our discouragement. He always made as 
 much as possible of favorable signs, and as little as 
 possible of the opposite. He had entered upon the 
 work after much prayer, and not until possessed by the 
 conviction that God had called him to it, and he never 
 seemed to doubt that God would carry him through. 
 
 Another characteristic was the completeness with 
 which he could enter into the feelings and experiences 
 of the Bohemian people, with whom he was previously 
 wholly unacquainted. The various temptations which 
 beset them because of their previous and present sur- 
 roundings he instinctively appreciated. All the spirit- 
 ually benumbing influences of a dead state church, all 
 
A Life Worth Living. 195 
 
 the blighting results of a formal acceptance of Chris- 
 tianity which works no change in the life, all the 
 depressing and degrading influences of a church with- 
 out Christ and of a government regardless of the real 
 interests of the people, seemed to be as familiar to him 
 as if he had made a special study of them on the 
 very ground where they exist. Resulting from this 
 was his wonderful patience with them, even in matters 
 where he feared danger to the dearest interests of our 
 country and her Christian institutions. The bitter 
 hatred of the Bible and Christianity on the part of 
 freethinkers among them he could overlook, because 
 he realized how utterly ignorant they were of that 
 which they opposed. 
 
 Deacon Gates knew what real success in Bohemian 
 work as well as in all other Christian work involves. 
 He saw clearly that the radical change in character 
 which Christianity demands and, if genuine, produces 
 cannot be brought about in an instant. He cared not 
 for fruit which was not genuine and which would not 
 stand the test of God's Word. He knew the power 
 of the gospel in his own life, and he dreaded most 
 of all to have any one imagine that he is a child of 
 God until he has with all the force of his character 
 entered the narrow way that leads directly to the 
 throne of God. He knew, what we all say and think 
 we believe, that one soul filled with the Spirit of God 
 is mightier than an army of halfway Christians. 
 And this was his ideal for the Bohemian people. His 
 hope for the new Bethlehem Church was not chiefly 
 to have it call forth the approval of the Bohemian 
 people, or that it should serve merely as a place of 
 entertainment, though both of these objects seemed 
 
196 A Christian Business Man. 
 
 to him worthy as a means to something better. His 
 real wisli, as it came out in his prayers and in all his 
 conversations, was that it should be a center of Chris- 
 tian power- for Bohemians in this city and, to some 
 extent, in all this laud, and thus become the means 
 for carrying the pure gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ 
 to the widely-extended Slavic races, who occupy so 
 large a portion of eastern Europe as well as of west- 
 ern Asia. He looked forward with the fondest antici- 
 pation to see the Bohemian people take up the work 
 which John Huss was forced to lay down, and do for 
 their own and sister races that work for Christ of 
 which he believed them capable. It was this deep- 
 seated longing that made him say more than once : 
 "If I were a younger man, I would plant myself in 
 their midst, and thus let the whole of my influence 
 tell upon them." 
 
 This leads me to mention the one characteristic of 
 Deacon Gates which manifested itself in the Bohe- 
 mian work as well as in all his other work, and which 
 gathers up into itself all the rest. He was a conse- 
 crated Christian man. He had given himself to the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and had not the slightest desire to 
 recall the offering he had made. This offering carried 
 with it his whole being; and when, in the providence 
 of God, it came to him to take up the burden of the 
 Bohemian work, in addition to all the other burdens 
 he was carrying, he bowed himself to allow his Mas- 
 ter to place that burden just where he would, then 
 arose and went on his way cheerfully, gladly, happy 
 himself and making all around him happy and enthu- 
 siastic by the contagion of his own God-given enthu- 
 siasm and Christian joy. Unless I utterly misread 
 
A Life Worth Living. 197 
 
 him, it was his highest joy to serve Him who had died 
 for his salvation. He loved the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 Nothing would touch him more keenly, or bring a tear 
 to his eye more quickly than the thought that some 
 one was dishonoring that name which was to him, in 
 the fullest sense, above every other name. He loved 
 the Church because it is Christ's Church ; he loved 
 men because Christ died for them, and he loved the 
 Bohemian work because he saw in it a means of 
 serving Christ. 
 
 His love for Christ was so strong that he could for- 
 get himself. As I look back upon the time spent 
 with him, I am astonished to see how little he ever 
 told me of his own personal history — practically no- 
 thing, except as it would illustrate some plan of work, 
 or suggest some method of dealing with a soul that 
 needed help. This personal history, as I have read 
 it since his death, was one of which any man might 
 be proud, and which not a few men would have often 
 repeated. He had no time for this. The most im- 
 portant things must be talked about first, and in his 
 conversations with me that meant the things which 
 would help bring the gospel, with all its power to lift 
 up and save, into contact with the lives and hearts 
 of the Bohemian people. During the six years and 
 a half of my acquaintance with him I do not know 
 of a single instance when he failed to be at our Sun- 
 day-school, five miles away from his home, unless he 
 was out of the city or physically unable to be present. 
 And he was never absent that we did not speak of it 
 and feel a deep sense of loss. He loved the children 
 and they all loved him. At our picnics he was as 
 young as the youngest, entering into all their sports 
 
198 A Christian Busiriess Man. 
 
 with the zest of a boy. The first question of the 
 older boys and girls when talking of an entertainment 
 was: "Will Mr. Gates be there?" No cheers were 
 so hearty as those they gave for him when, at the 
 close of some picnic, they were reminded that he had 
 provided it all. 
 
 His love for Christ, his purpose to elevate and 
 dignify the life of the people, and the love with 
 which he loved them are built into an enduring 
 monument in Bethlehem Church. He devoted to this 
 building his time, his money, and all the powers of 
 his fertile mind. There is hardly a stone, hardly 
 a brick or a board that he did not know and 
 about whose location he had not thought. This 
 church has called forth the highest encomiums from 
 Bohemians, and the more it is used the more evi- 
 dent becomes its almost perfect adaptation to its 
 woik. 
 
 But to think of Deacon Gates as having closed his 
 connection with the Bohemian work when he cast aside 
 the veil of flesh and entered upon his heavenly inher- 
 itance is wholly to misapprehend the truth. We know 
 that his works do follow him, and should know it if 
 it were not written in the Book. We meet him now 
 as we go among the people whom he loved so much. 
 There are boys and girls, and adults as well, whose 
 conception of what is best in human life is derived 
 from their knowledge of Deacon Gates. The mother 
 who carried her infant on that summer day from Ran- 
 dolph Street to the New England Church in order to 
 be present at his funeral will tell that child in after 
 years the story of his life, and the child's life will 
 be enriched thereby. His Sunday-school class, whose 
 
A Life Worth Living. 199 
 
 loving hands draped his chair and kept it draped for 
 six weeks, because they could not bear to have it 
 removed, will carry to their dying day, yea, we trust 
 to the very throne of God, the impress stamped 
 upon their hearts by his consecrated life. And the 
 boys, who, in their debates, use him as a sufficient 
 proof that wealth and genuine Christianity are not 
 necessarily hostile to each other, will be wholly differ- 
 ent men from what they would have been had they 
 not been acquainted with him. But more than this : 
 not only will his memory continue — he himself con- 
 tinues here among us. Those streets made sacred 
 by his tread in days gone by are to be trodden in days 
 to come by those whom he started on their errands 
 of love. That soul who loved the Bohemians so ten- 
 derly in days gone by has not ceased to love them 
 now. And that love which never dies will continue 
 its blessed ministry in all the years between this and 
 the final consummation. Yes ; and his own mantle 
 shall fall not on one only, or two or three of those 
 who knew and honored him in this city of Chicago, 
 but many will be raised up and the work which he 
 seemed to drop will be taken up with fresh vigor and 
 renewed consecration, so that not only Bohemians, 
 but all the nations who are knocking at our doors 
 shall receive that which many of them do not seek, 
 for which most of them care so little, even the gospel 
 of Jesus Christ ; and this land shall become in reality 
 as well as in name that blessed land whose God is 
 the Lord. 
 
 Yesterday I heard the little children, whose voices 
 he so much loved to hear, singing this verse from 
 Sears' beautiful Christmas hymn, — • 
 
200 A Christian Business Man, 
 
 For lo, the days are hastening on 
 
 By prophet bards foretold, 
 When, with the ever-circling years, 
 
 Comes round the age of gold. 
 When peace shall over all the world 
 
 Its ancient splendors fling, 
 And the whole earth send back the song 
 
 Which now the angels sing. 
 
 And I said to myself, If all, according to their 
 opportunity and ability, would do as much toward 
 ushering in that blessed day as Deacon Gates did, 
 the world would not wait very long for the glory of 
 its dawning. 
 
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