c-< *CJ <.' CC «5CC C: C ::G«rac , CX «C* Cj £ ocoS "c c j «GL C.-.C, . Il^OC c C ^ own good also in view. Being earnest Christian women, they resolved to escape from the conventionalities and distractions of city life, which, after long experience, they found so detrimental to the spirit of their calling, and to interfere so much with the satisfactory discharge of its duties. They hoped for more progress in the - divine life in a retirement from at least many of the vanities of the world ; and where, by a plainer and less expensive style of living, they could use more of their means as well as of their time in works of charity and usefulness." 34: ST. JOHNLAND : " Then they are not recluses flying from the duties of life for a sentimental piety?" . " Far from it. They are most useful auxiliaries in my work, especially among the mothers, showing them what so many of them need to learn — how to manage their children, and to be frugal and tidy housekeepers. I can't begin to tell how much they have done in improving the condition of families wanting to do right, but unused to any method or order in their living. The marked cleanliness of the houses and of the place generally which you noticed, is very much owing to the supervision and influence of these excellent persons. In visiting the old men ; in advising the orphan- mothers ; in comforting and directing how to nurse the sick, and sometimes acting the nurse themselves ; in looking after the boys of the shops — in all service of that kind, I don't know how I should get along without them." " And themselves," I added, "as happy as any of the hap- piest they make so ? " " Aye ; especially when they have the children for little parties at their villas. On Christmas, Easter, and other fes- tive days, the old folks as well as the young know them, I can assure you. The eldest of them, a widow of consider- able property (the others are single ladies of about middle ao'e), is our Lady Bountiful ; and seldom has bountifulness, as judicious as it is generous, found a sphere in which it is so largely rewarded in seeing its fruits." While the Rector was telling me this, I was thinking, Why couldn't Aunt Hatty come and live here ? She would find Dorcas committee business and parish visiting to her heart's content, and of a kind less disappointing than that she is accustomed to ; and there would be work for her leisure, too, besides crochet and netting ; and something to A RETRO-PROSPECTUS. 35 satisfy lier kind nature better than loading her rich nephews and nieces with more toys and jewelry than they know what to do with. Do show her my letter. She can bring her dog Gyp with her if she will. I then asked about the society of young men, some of the members of which I thought I saw in bluish-grey frocks sitting with a squad of boys. " You did," he sai , and then gave me an interesting ac- count of them, which I will condense for you in as few words as possible. It appears that they have been united for seve- ral years as a brotherhood, under the style of The Christian BrotJiers of St. Johnland, the leading but not exclusive ob- ject of which is the self-trial of its members as to their fitness for the ministry of Christ. The most of them are aspirants for that holy office, but consider themselves strictly on trial during the period of three, five, or seven years, the term for which, according to their education and other circumstances, they enter. At the end of it, if they are persuaded they have a divine call to the ministry, they will present them- selves for an examination of their intellectual ability, their acquaintance with and understanding of the Holy^Scriptures, their learning, general information, etc. Should any not be found qualified, they will probably have provided against that contingency by fitting themselves to become teachers, or for some business which they can learn here, and in which they can be virtual ministers in the lay ranks, or they may continue in the Brotherhood. " I see," I remarked. " They are probationers for the ministry, rather than candidates becoming ministers of course, unless chargeable with some positive moral delin- quency. This strikes me as wise and prudent, though not always necessary. A young man may be sufficiently sure ot 36 ST. JOHNLAND: himself at the outset ; but ordination considered always and from the first, as a settled thing on condition of success in intellectual and literary studies, and of general good conduct, is one cause of our having clergymen who have mistaken their calling. It may increase the quantity, but not improve the quality of the ministry. I like this self-imposed ordeal of your Brothers. It is at least humble and modest. Of course they are in earnest in it ? " " They are," rejoined the Rector. " They lead simple, self-denying lives, making a reality of taking up the cross. They have set times for study and devotion, spending a while every day in gardening or farming, in teaching, or in the workshops. They assemble in the evenings as a commu- nity, but they do* not all live together. Some have apart- ments in the Inn ; others live with the cottagers, partaking of their homely fare. Five or six have each the care of ten of the elder orphan or poor boys in separate cottages of their own. As the boys are all day at the shops, where there is a refectory for their meals, the Brothers having charge of them are not overburdened by it, and have time for their own duties." " How are they supported ? " I asked. "They have funds supplied by their friends outside, so that they ask of the corporation only the accommo- dation of house-room, though some of them pay for that. Two of them are the sons of rich men, who at first opposed their joining the community, but now furnish them with the small pecuniary means they need, besides adding some- thing, it is believed, to their general treasury. They have a library, of which several hundred of the most valuable works were given them by Dr. C , the beloved friend of our founder. It is in a commodious room of the Inn, where A RETRO-PROSPECTUS. 37 they make their recitations and hold their evening meetings. For their instruction they have the pastor of the place, to whom they are subordinate as his parishioners, and his assist- ant, a Moravian Brother ; two clergymen who come for a day every week from the city ; and their Senior Brother, who is a good scholar in the ancient languages." " Then, among your other good things here, you have a school of theology ? " " An humble one — of Christology" he remarked, " we should prefer saying. The Brothers profess a supreme study of Christ both for their lives and their doctrine. The Gos- pels are their text-books from the beginning to the end of their course, with the Epistles as their great expounders. With constant prayer for the guidance of the Holy Spirit (so the rules of their community enjoin upon them), they are learners of the teaching, the spirit, the character, the offices, the perfections, and glory of Jesus the Christ. It is their axiom that, independently of all other proofs, He is self- evidencing to every mind taught by the Spirit. By His light they interpret all Scripture ; and their very belief of Scripture rests ultimately on their faith in Christ. But this is more than a theme for conversation. I only wished briefly to explain why the Brothers, so far as they are stu- dents, are young Christologians more specifically than Theo- logians." " Such a peculiar Christianism of their studies," I re- marked, " ought to have a Christianizing effect upon their lives." " I think it has. They aim to be Christ-like Christians. Their rules for their daily life, going into the particulars of eating and drinking, dress, recreation, etc., and their holding themselves always ready for any service of charity, help 38 st. johnland: them to a near following of their Lord. Some of them I call my sub-deacons, and send on Sunday afternoons to do missionary work in the neighborhood. Of course, there is a difference among them in their earnestness ; sometimes there are faults and inconsistencies which call for reproof, or even discipline." " Are any of them already candidates for orders ?" " Five or six, I think, are in this diocese, with the under- standing, however, that their candidateship is the ordeal we have been speaking of. Some have come from different orthodox Churches, in which they may continue when they «nter on their missionary life, for it is that which they gene- rally look forward to rather than the parochial ministry. Several of them are young Germans, full of zeal to labor among their countrymen in Kew York. In fact, they go there already on lay missions. These will probably be ordained for the Lutheran or Reformed Ministry. Thankful shall we be to send forth heralds of the Cross, whatever be their name, as long as they are true and loyal men to our God and His Christ. After the trial of the Brother- hood, we should have good hopes of their never proving false." Would, I thought with myself, that cousin Frank would come and try himself here. You know he talks of being a parson. He is a lovely youth, of studious habits, well posted in church matters ; but sometimes I fear his notion of a par- son's life, or that of his doting parents, does not get much beyond a nice church and a genteel congregation. " From what I have told you of these Brothers," continued the Rector, " you must not fancy them a sort of monks. They are not that. They are unmarried for the time, but are not bound by vows of celibacy, or even to continue in A RETRO-PROSPECTUS. 39 the society. They are expected to complete the term for which they enter, at the end of which matrimony will be with them a matter of choice. If, as missionaries, they shall judge a single life best, for awhile at least, the discipline to which they have been used will have been a good prepara- tion for it. Our place is thoroughly pervaded with the idea of family life. The monastic or ascetic spirit is foreign to its genius. Nothing here is in violence with God's appoint- ments. Roman Catholicism may have its converts ; it is for Evangelical Catholicism to make St. Johnlands." I had further pleasant and instructive conversation with my kind host and his family until it was time for the child- ren's church in the afternoon. That, I found, was not wholly a juvenile affair ; a number of the parents and other adults being present, whom the Pastor has in his mind in his cate- chising and familiar lectures as well as his younger hearers. He depends mainly upon these afternoon exercises for the sound indoctrination of his flock, preparing himself for them, he told me, as carefully as for his sermons. I thought him exceedingly happy, engaging and not merely entertaining the children ; thus affording a good specimen of such teaching to those of the Brothers who were present to witness it, as well as to have some eye to the boys. The subject was the pro- mises at Baptism, as that sacrament was going to be adminis- tered ; and most effectively and affectionately did he bring it home to the parents before him who had made those promises, some perhaps with too little thought, and to the children who had just been saying in their catechism that they believed themselves bound to keep them. A youthful couple, followed by some elderly people, came tip to the font, with their first-born dressed in the plainest and purest white. When the questions were put slowly and 40 st. johnland: distinctly, the congregation seemed to hearken how the spon- sors, after what the minister had been saying, would answer them. They did it audibly, and as if they meant what they said. With a smiling interest all gazed at the little one enfolded in the surpliced arms, listening for the name — Johanna. As soon as the sacred act was done, and the infant replaced in the arms of the mother, washing it again with her tears of quickened love, the hymn was sung — u Saviour, who Thy flock art feeding." After the service there was a lingering in the church to get a peep at the new St. Johnlander. Many a baby had been born and baptized in the colony, but in this instance the young parents had come there when boy and girl, and were universal favorites with the people. I took supper with the ancients of the Inn. One of them, who had been at church in the afternoon, said u that the young fellow who had had his baby christened was a sort of great-nephew of his ; that he had lost his mother when very young, and was left by his father, a miserable idler, to the chances of the street, infested by vicious urchins that would have made him no better than themselves; that he (the old uncle) had succeeded in getting him from his father, and placed him here, where he has turned out a promising young man, very much from one of the Brothers taking a great liking to him ; that he was now a smart journeyman carpen- ter, and had had a hand in putting up some of the cottages. The place has been the saving and the making of him." " Aye, and of a lot more," added a voice. A company of us sat out on the piazza, my friend of the morning keeping at my side. " The sun," he said, " will set clear. It is getting through the clouds. So may it be with us. We have had clouds overhead in our afternoons. I A RETRO-PROSPECTUS. 41 know I have. And some of ns have weathered rough storms. Never mind, if it is clear at last. Can't some one strike up that verse, ' And at my life's last setting sun.' ' : " Wait, until the boys come," said another ; " they'll be here presently." It seems that the choristers of the church came every Sunday evening to sing for the old men. We sat looking over the fading landscape. The village in the foreground was in strong light and shade from the golden horizon. The half moon above us shot its silver rays through the foliage of the trees, and the evening-star began to sparkle in the west. My old friend expatiated on the glorious scene, when the singers appeared. " Now, youngsters," he said, " let us have ' The spacious firmament on high.' " "Why, sir, that's just what we have been practising for you," cried a little fellow ; " Brother Henry said it would be so nice on such an evening as this." Sweetly they carolled Addison's lines, then some chants, ending with Bishop Ken's never-failing vesper lay, " Glory to Thee, my God, this night." We were in a musing mood. The boys sat making the most of the cakes brought them by the matron, and then watching the moon-white sails on the water. Two of the aged ones leaned over the far end of the railing, solacing themselves with their pipes. My friend had one of the boys between his knees, with his hands on his head, as if breathing a blessing on the child. A swell of psalmody from a neigh- boring cottage, where one of the Brothers was holding a prayer-meeting, came softly wafted to our ears. The tree- frogs and katydids mingled their notes with the woodland hum. " Good-night, good-night," said the boys politely with a bow, then sprang down the steps, and ran singing over the 42 ST. JOHNLAND. lawn. A good night I had, and next morning bade good-day to St. Johnland, thanking God for what I had seen and heard in it. Yours always, * 3 K I have told my dream . And shall that be the end of it? Shall it be no more than a dream? Before answering the question, my Christian reader, tc whom I beg to address it, allow me to ask you to look at that which is no dream. Let me turn your eyes to that which exists in no aerial regions of the brain, but in regions earthly enough and not miles away from your own doors. Look at those quarters of your city where the people herd by fifties and hundreds in a house, street after street. Look at them huddled together in narrow rooms with surroundings and effluvia where a half-hour's stay would sicken you. See places which might rather be stalls or sties than human abodes. Look at the swarms of children in the streets, os. the stoops, at the windows, half-naked or in unwashed rags. See the crowds of rough, half-grown boys in knots at the corners, quick at all sorts of wickedness, loud in foulness and blasphemy, the ready and the worst element of your riots. Mark the looks and the talk of the populace of the dram- shops, and then the exhibitions of godlessness, drunkenness, and licentiousness on the Lord's day, turning it, I had almost said, into Satan's day. And why do I ask you to look at such a revolting state of things among those thousands of your neighbors ? In the hope that aught which you or I can do will better it ? To propose any scheme for its mate- 44 st. johnland: rial improvement? Alas, no. The evil is too gigantic for any grasp of reform at all conceivable. It calls for legisla- tive interference ; and that, could any practicable mode of melioration be shown, would call for more public virtue than exists. This massing of human beings, prolific of those vices and miseries, is profitable to too many pockets. The exorbitant rents of the smallest dens or of the larger tenements swell the gains of landlords, who have the plea for any amount of rapacity, that they only meet a demand. Their receptacles overflow with those who must have stop- ping-places where they can get their bread. The insular city cannot be expanded into space for any fit or healthful housing of the poor in those quarters of it where they must consort.* This stowage of souls and bodies — our municipal disgrace — is, I fear, a necessity — in view of its terrible evils, a dire necessity — how dire we have not yet seen. Our benevolent, reformatory, and religious agencies do not stand aloof. They work on with a persistent zeal, encouraged by the least success; but anything like the ele- vation of a whole locality is beyond their hopes. They cannot change circumstances and their inevitable conse- quences. They cannot remove causes, and, of course, not effects. "What they do to-day is undone to-morrow, to be done - again the next day, and then again undone. The good seed is perseveringly sown, but the field is already rank with tares. The means of salvation are proffered and urged, but amid overpowering means of destruction. The noxious physical and moral are ever acting and reacting with cumu- lative force. The cleanliness which is next to godliness, * Unlike Philadelphia, with innumerable separate domicils for its laboring and mechanic population — the chief beauty of that beautiful city. SHALL IT BE? 45 among the degraded poor finds no place. In filth sin is in its element, and has its most disgusting outgrowths. Again, then, why do I ask you to look at a state of things confessedly so hopeless? Hopeless in the aggregate, but not in the particulars. It would be sad, indeed, if in our dark delineation it w T as all dark; dreadful, if in those masses of humanity it was all vile. But it is not. There are green spots even in those deserts, and doubtless far more than we see. The forbidding aspects do not indicate universally corre- sponding facts. There are exceptions, and often most in- teresting ones. Every here and there are individuals and families having a keen sense of the wretchedness of their condition, but powerless to escape it. Many of them once used to other modes of life, while they submit to their lot, yet for its worse than temporal ills cannot be reconciled to it. Strangers to aught of domestic comfort, they are unrepining, yet not without longings for the sweets and decencies of home. They are parents, and cannot be indif- ferent to the perils of their offspring. They are hard workers. They are above begging, and to keep above it they must live as and where they do. For the sake of these it is I show you those hapless multitudes — these among them, yet not of them ; these toiling, suffering poor ; these Chris- tians steadfast amid unchristian influences and antichristian forces which would try a more enlightened faith than theirs ; these fellow-members of the household of faith, perchance of your own particular communion. To the rescue of these and theirs, whom they love as you love yours, I invoke you. For these I beg Christian homes and privileges, and some little share of family enjoyments, to which you cannot think they have forfeited every right. You will not say that their poverty is their righteous excommunication. To show how 46 ST. JOIINLAND I they may be rescued, I have dreamed of them, transplanted by your bounty, to where they can live, and not merely exist. I have pictured their colony, with its accessories, such as I have long pleased myself with imagining, and as time might bring forth. Whether it is all likely to be realized, whether some of the forms of the vision are not fond fancies rather than probable future facts, matters not. Set down as much as you please to the score of imagination ; amend, change curtail as you will, only saving the one main idea — a Chris- tian industrial community, a rural settlement in which the worthy, diligent poor may have becoming abodes, with the means and rewards of diligence, together with the provisions of the Gospel — will that be dismissed as a dream ? It cannot be. It is not to be conceived of Christians who are in the midst of plenty, encompassed by a gracious and bountiful Providence, having scarce a wish within the wide limits of their means ungratified, and acknowledging their responsibility for the use of their manifold gifts and opportunities, that they will turn aside from a practical philanthropy commending itself, so entirely as this must, to their minds and hearts : a scheme not to increase, but to lessen the numbers of dependents upon alms-giving ; not to encourage and so multiply the indolent poor, but to help them to help themselves; to lift them up to an honest inde- pendence; to give them what on any scale of Christian jus- tice is their due; to save them from ever struggling in vain ; to extricate them from necessities binding them hand and foot, a prey to wretchedness, sorely tempting them to seek relief in sin ; to give a brotherly hand to them, amid all their homeliness, as to brothers and sisters in Christ. A scheme not for to-day or to-morrow, but to make virtuous and happy generations of those who else would swell the generations of SHALL IT BE? 47 vice and misery in this metropolis, where they are already bo frightfully augmenting. Or do you, or you my reader, yet hesitate ? Let me come down from generalities to actual every-day sights, and those immediately around myself. Look at that sad woman who the other day brought her emaciated boy to the Hospital, needing food more than medicine. She had lost her hus- band in the war ; had not got the bounty ; had six other children, which she was trying to keep together by such work as she could get ; " but oh, the rear basement," she said, " where we stop, is always so wet !" Or that young man who lately sought admission to our wards, with incipient phthisis, for which the doctor recommended him the country. No wonder he was consumptive, for he had long been sewing, early and late, on the tailor's board, with fourteen others, in a close, dark room in the rear of the shop. Or that good old brother of eighty-live, who, in intelligence and piety, might compare with the venerable one fancied in our sketch. He does not require medical or surgical treat- ment. He is a beneficiary of one of the hospital associations, who begged us to receive him, as his only home must be here or on Blackwell's Island. Shall we send him there ? Or that other aged one of seventy-six, who has been a consistent com- municant of our Church since he was thirty ; a well informed, reading old man, driven here by sickness from his sky par- lor, where his bed has been sometimes drenched with rain. Or that sweet-faced young girl, waiting for the last agony of a heart disease, contracted by bending over her needle sixteen hours out of the eighteen, to support her enfeebled mother. Or that hard-working woman, who was sent here by a dispensary physician, hoping we might give her woik while she was being treated for her eyes, which would never 48 st. johnland: be better while she lived on tea and bread * Or in another direction, look in at the Factory, where I lately saw children who the overseer told me are confined there thirteen and a * On asking the Superintending Sister of the Hospital for some further instance among ourselves, she penned me the following, which had occurred that day. It is too long for the text, but it is so much to the point, that, rather than omit or abridge it, I insert it here: Mrs. M., the mother of one of our little patients in the Children's Ward, came to my room this morning, looking neat and respectable as usual, but with a more worn and anxious face than is common with her. She is a favorite with us foi her tidiness, her tenderness to her children, and the courage and industry with which she turns her hand to any honest employment that may help support the family, left by the feeble health of her husband almost wholly to her care. A message had been sent her, to say that Johnny was cured of the long and tedi- ous sickness for which he came into the Hospital, and that we should like her to take him home, to make room for one more needing it. I supposed that hei visit had reference to this ; and after we had talked together a little of her hus- band's health, and the beauty of the new few-weeks-old baby, so delightfully clean and nice, which she had brought with her, I thought nothing remained but to bid her and her boy good-bye. But she lingered near me as if unwilling to leave, and then (she is not used to begging) said, hesitatingly: " Would it be a thing not to be thought of, Sister, that Johnny should stay another month or so?" "And why do you ask that?" I inquired. " Well, you see, my husband's worse nor common, and this little young one hinders me from doing as much washing and house-cleaning as I did afore he was born — and everything's so dear, I don't know at all how to give the blessed boy the food he'll be looking for, after living here so long. We've got a poorer way of getting along than ever, these times — just one room and a bit of a bed- room; sometimes a fire, and sometimes not; sometimes a good meal, and more times not. But that isn't the worst; Johnny's getting so good now, and learning so good ; and if he comes home he'll grow to be just as bad as he was afore you took him ; for the children in our alley are an awful wicked lot, and I can't keep him always shut up in our close place ; and when I'm out working I can't watch him." " I know how that is," I said ; " and it is very sorrowful." " Oh > Sister, indeed you don't begin to know what it is! You can't think whal SHALL IT BE? 49 half hours every day, allowing a half-hour for each of their meals. In the winter they come long before light, through frost and snow, and are not free until eight at night. Or if you must see with your own eyes, go to the places where so many of the youth of the lower classes spend their working hours, the upper floors of mills and factories, horse-hair workers, artificial flower makers, and other of the lighter departments of our various manufactures where young women, especially, are congregated. Visit some narrow, ill-ventilated workroom at the back of a second class milliner's store. From twelve to fifteen young girls are employed there, collected without reference to morals, manners, or any other qualification than the skill with which they can ply their needle and shape to the fashion of the day the gay fabrics given to their hand. They the poor children hear and pick up ! "Why, my youngest little girl, not three year old, curses dreadfully ; and the more I say about it the worse she does it." " Curses ! She can't know the meaning of the words ?" "I can't tell," said the poor mother; " only I know she is always ready with some bad word when anything angers her, and what to do I can't tell. Johnny's so sweet and good spoken- now, wouldn't it be a pity for Mm to come back to the like of that ?" Surely it would, and what could I say to comfort the distressed mother? Your St. Johnland naturally came to my mind. " Wouldn't it be good," I said, " if you could have a little home in some quiet country place, with work enough, and godly people to help you bring up the children rightly?" " Oh, Sister, sure it would ; but what's the use of the like of me thinking of that?" " That's true ; but some one else might think of it for you, and by-and-by, per- haps, bring it about ; and then it wouldn't grieve you to have Johnny home again." " Ah, no !" she sighed out, incredulous of the possibility of any such boon to her and hers. " But what about Johnny now, Sister ?" And she did not leave me until it was agreed that, for the present at least, he should remain with us. 4 50 st. johnland: work together from ten to eleven consecutive hours, with a brief intermission at noon for the cold, scanty meal they have with them. Their occupation is in itself conducive to vanity ; light thoughts and words spring up almost naturally where it is carried on, and a moral atmosphere is engendered which few can breathe without deadly hurt ~Not that this is a picture of all such establishments, but it is a type of too many. And now see the homes to which many of them go when they leave their work. "What wonder if their dreariness and dulness drive them to the theatre, the dance house, and still lower haunts. Most of these, sad to think, may be doomed to such a life, having learnt to love it. But some, to the joy of their parents, might be transferred to a better, and how many others we know not might be saved from it beforehand, by giving them employment in such a colony as we have imagined. Spare a morning to accompany to his district a visitoi of The Society for Improving the Condition of the Poor Go with him around his accustomed beat. Passing through scenes varied, but alike in cheerlessness, stop with him at a room, forlorn, yet not untidy, where the inmates receive you with mingled courtesy and shame. You see at once they are worthy of far other circumstances. Hear their past, see their present, and for their future will you say, " Am I my brother's keeper ?" Pursue your exploring with the visitor in foul and dingy rears, in blind alleys, in walled up courts, where the sun has not leave to shine, nor the air to stir; see pale weavers in damp earthy cellars, seamstresses in closets, mothers with babies in stifling pens, friendless widows in attic cells, children with white faces and bright eyes crawling in the dirt — among them wild flowers of beauty that you would fain transplant, to grow and bloom in a gar- SHALL IT BE? 51 den of the Lord* — So use a few hours, and then, returning to your own goodly mansion, survey it with the sights through which you have just passed still in your eye. Look through your suites of apartments with all their apparatus of com- fort and ease, their adornments of luxury and elegance — see how much might be taken away and still superfluities re- main — consider your daily mode of life, your table, your dress, your equipage, your entertainments, your domestic and social pleasures — see them in the light of those con- trasts which it pained you to behold, and methinks you too must have dreams of a St. Johnland ; — God grant you may not only dream. Will it be said, that these are not the times in which to expect the means for such an enterprise ? But the times sup- ply the means for new enterprises of every kind, and for all that people desire to the last extremes of indulgence. Rather these are the very times for turning money, now of more uncertain value than ever, into foundations of permanent good. Now, when the stocks of the market are so fickle, is the opportunity for investments in the stocks of charity and benevolence, of which the rates of interest never change. * In representing the condition of the poor in the overcrowded districts of our city, I have drawn but a faint picture of the reality. The last Report of the Society for Improving the Condition of the Toor — a document full of practical thought and. wisdom, which deserves to be pondered by every citizen, says of Cellar Residences : " It is the reproach of our city government, after all the startling developments which have been made on this subject, that not less than six thousand families, consisting of about eighteen thousand persons, con- tinue to live in these unhealthy underground habitations.' 1 '' These, of course, would not be likely families for our colony, but one in a hundred might — and sure they are worth the saving. The cellar missionaries must sometimes wish for such a place. 52 ST. JOHNLAND: Especially are these the times for making provision for those who are the greatest sufferers by the times — the bereaved families, the widows and orphans of the fallen defenders of our country. To make homes for such, is one of the objects of St. Johnland. Let us now consider the scheme in a practical light. Tarn not from it as one of too great magnitude. While admitting it to be excellent and in every way desirable, set it not down as beyond the bounds of practicability. It would be so, were it proposed to be accomplished at once — of course it is not ; no one would think of it, except as a thing of growth and gradual development. Its beginning may be comparatively small and easy. In our retrospect we have looked at it in its maturity, and as what it might come to be at the end of some eight oi\ten years. Besides, in that range of anticipation there are adjuncts which would be valuable but not integral parts of the plan. For instance, the Church of the Testimony and the Society of Christian Brothers.* In determining the feasibility of the project, let it be considered simply as a plan for providing homes, work, and the Church, in the country for the deserving poor, in- cluding the Old Men's Home, and leaving other desirable things to come about as they may. The first requisite, in order that the scheme may go into * These have been long cherished hopes of my life. As I may not see them realized, and wishing to give them an ideal existence, I took the opportunity of exhibiting them as I have done in the letters. Some such organization as the Christian Brothers' we must have in our large cities, if we are ever to deal effectually with their poor. Should that come to pass fancied in our colony, and the latter be not too distant, it might do good service working in our city, for which the Brothers might be detailed in companies,.. and by turns, according to a system having due regard to their studies. SHALL IT BE? 53 effect, is that it be adopted by a number of gentlemen, who in due time shall be incorporated as the Trustees of St. Johnland, — to secure which is the primary object in the circulation of the present pamphlet. Supposing it accomplished, the enter- prise will come before the public under the auspices of names which will show that it is no longer a dream, and that it is really to have a place on terra firma. The measures to be taken at its outset, the raising of money necessary for a begir. ning, the finding of suitable land, will be the initiatory busi- ness of the Trustees ; — accordingly what here follows is only suggestion on my part, offered with the view of showing how the work might proceed. The site of land, chosen with regard to comfort in winter as well as in summer, nigh to woods and water, of some two or three hundred acres, should be about thirty miles from the city of New York, within the State, and not distant from a station on a railroad, the Harlem or Hudson River Road to be preferred. It would greatly facilitate the undertaking if the land had upon it a house commodious and large enough — or capable of being made so — to serve for the Old Men's Home, with which part of the plan it would be desirable to make a beginning, not because it is the first in importance, but because the want of such an institution is very generally felt. I have already several thousand dollars contributed towards it, in view, too, of its being located in the country rather than in the city. The house for a while might be the residence of the pastor, and its hall, or one of its apart- ments, the place of public worship. In the event of the enterprise going no further, the house with a few acres could be set off as a separate establishment, complete in it- self, and the remainder disposed of at the option of the trus- tees. But waiving that contingency, trusting it would not 54 st. johnland: occur, and supposing the funds to be secured for the erection of a number of cottages, double ones, perhaps, to begin with, attention should then be turned to the selection of the right sort of families to occupy them. This should be done with great care. A vast deal would depend on the character of the first settlers. They must be pattern people to give the right tone to the society — the leaven to leaven the lump, and that to be gradually added to with homogeneous materials. With respect to employment for the people at the com- mencement, there would be no difficulty. I hear of women in the country getting a living by sewing caps, garmentr, upper leathers, carpet bags, &c, and sending their work regu> larly to the city. An extensive manufacturer, on my men- tioning the scheme to him, said he could supply a large num- ber of female hands with work, who could do it without inconvenience to him, at a moderate distance from the city. Various employments would also be found for men, espe- cially as the settlement increased. One desideratum, of prime and early importance, remains to be mentioned, and that is the devotion to the work of some capable minister of the Episcopal Church, who shall feel drawn towards it by what is said in the foregoing pages, and be willing to give himself to it without reserve. Considered as a domestic mission, it would be a most promising one, and as such well worthy the labors of almost any clergyman cal- culated for it. I hope to enter upon it myself (not resigning for the present St. Luke's Hospital), but at my time of life I cannot expect to do much beyond a beginning. I should at once need a coadjutor qualified to become the principal ; a man with his heart in the pastoral office, a plain and earnest preacher, affectioning the poor, and conversant with them, of some experience in life, with energies still fresh, and now SHALL IT BE? 55 in exercise in some field of active Christian work. Happy shall I be to hear of such an associate, who at first would have more or less of the duties of Superintendent. In conclusion, I beg earnestly to commend the undertaking to the consideration of my Christian brethren, especially those who have the means to carry it into effect, with the prayer that they may be disposed to do so by Him, whose good Spirit I humbly trust has put it into my mind. Communications offering aid, or naming suitable land, or touching any point in the letters which may excite interest or inquiry, may be adddressed to the subscriber, W. A. MUHLENBERG. St. Luke's Hospital, New York, November 18, 1864. 56 COKRESPONDENCE. CORRESPONDENCE I have great pleasure in subjoining the following letter from Robert M. Hartley, Esq., Secretary of the Society for Improving the Condition of the Poor in this city : 39 Bible House, New York, September 30, 1864. Rev. ¥m. A. Muhlenberg, D.D. : My dear Friend: I have met with interruptions, or you would have heard from me sooner. It now affords me sincere pleasure to comply with your request in giving you my impressions of the embryo enterprise you have so happily delineated in the manuscript you read to me. As I listened with deepening interest to your graphic account of "St. Johnland," with its various assemblages of kindred objects harmoniously adjusted into a system for beneficent ends, I was delighted with the picture, and dis- covered nothing incongruous or incoherent in its parts, or impracticable in the plan so ingeniously projected. Your dream is not all a dream. It develops a new method of doing good, and invests that method with pecu- liar attractions. If I correctly apprehend the scheme, it involves no action at variance with the philosophy of phi- lanthropy, or the principles of social science, so called ; and certainly none that are unsanctioned by the Gospel. On the contrary, it appears to be based on sound practical views which are fitted, when carried out, to produce in a good degree the results you anticipate. Judging your plan, CORRESPONDENCE. 57 therefore, in the light of its own principles and objects, it should commend itself to the confidence and patronage of all who care for these things. What are the objects referred to ? I may not from memory enumerate them all ; but, if I recollect correctly, it comes within their scope to discriminate between honest poverty and imposture ; to elevate and not debase by inju- dicious kindness ; to reclaim the intemperate ; sympathize with the suffering ; counsel the erring ; stimulate the indo- lent ; give work to the idle ; thrift to the thriftless ; instruc- tion to the ignorant ; an asylum to the aged ; moral and industrial training to the young — and, peradventure, re- formers to the world ; to make, in fine, all influences — sanitary, social, physical, moral, and religious — subservient to the elevation of a class which abounds in the crowded purlieus of this great city — the poverty-stricken and the tempted — who are suffering, sinking, perishing, in the ab- sence of such a provision as it is the design of your enter- prise to secure. It is neither undervaluing the importance nor the efficiency of Christianity to affirm that it acts not in opposition to the laws of nature, but in accordance w T ith them ; success, therefore, can only be predicated of such agencies and operations as harmonize with these laws. Reason and Revelation both teach that the spiritual is no tfirst, but the natural ; and afterwards that which is spiritual. Nor should this order be reversed. Physically constituted as man is, such regard should be had to his physical condition as shall have a favorable bearing on his discipline and development. His senses being the inlet to those influences which either exalt or degrade character, it is necessary to his improve- ment that such influences be of a kind which shall neither corrupt the soul nor neutralize good impressions. Excep- tional cases do not invalidate, but establish the rule. If it were a gratuitous mockery of wretchedness to tell men to live by faith who were famishing for food, would there be greater consistency in expecting purity of heart and cha 58 CORRESPONDENCE. racter among those whose physical circumstances were utterly incompatible with the common decencies of life? Such methods of reform are as contrary to nature and the dictates of experience as to the teachings of Christianity, and can only result in disappointment. Men do not gather grapes of thorns, nor figs of thistles; neither should we expect social elevation from the depths of physical degrada- tion, nor yet moral purity from the hot-beds of vice and corruption. Without more effective exertions than have yet been made to improve the wretched domiciliary condi- tion of large masses of our population, it is to be feared that most other efforts for their benefit, however faithfully prose- cuted, will signally fail of their object. The direction of your thoughts, therefore, to this subject is most opportune; and I think I do not misjudge in saying that, to the extent your vision of " St. Johnland " is practically realized, it will aid in meeting a great public necessity. Although this letter is unexpectedly lengthened, allow me to refer very briefly to one feature of your scheme, which is so peculiar as to merit notice. Your enterprise once in operation, though purely beneficent, will be mainly self- supporting. And this result is secured by avoiding the too common mistake of making that a charity which should be the earnings of prudent industry. As no gratuitous benefits are designed for your tenantry, self-reliance will not be undermined, nor improper motives be presented to induce any to seek your establishment. On the contrary, the prospect of a healthful and comfortable home for less rent than is paid for miserable city tenements would stimulate exertion, while its possession would exert a very salutary influence in reforming and elevating character. Commer- cial remuneration, in a word, so far as practicable, with benevolent results, is the only sound principle, either on a large or smaller scale, of improving the domiciliary condi- tion of the poor. If, in conclusion, I may venture to touch another topic, it would be the denominational character of your enterprise^ CORRESPONDENCE. 59 • l r our preferences attach you to one branch of the Church militant, mine to another. "Is, then, Christ divided?" Nay ; if we are His, are we not one in Him ? Why not, then, forget our differences, a'nd labor together in His work as brethren of the same household? If (as you believe) less exclusiveness would actually impair its harmony and effi- ciency, then, I say, it should come under the jurisdiction of one denomination. To some this may prove an objection ; but to me it matters not whether of "Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas," if all be of Christ. That you may be divinely guided and prospered, is the wish of Yours very sincerely, Robert M. Hartley. Kew Tore, October 8, 1864. My dear. Mr. Hartley : I thank you for your letter. Your cordial approbation of the scheme submitted to your opinion, with your philosophic examination of it, gives me increased confidence in its success. The endorsement of one who is known to have devoted him- self so long and so ably to the true interests of our city poor, and who so well understands their wants and how they should be met, will secure for me the attention of many who otherwise might take me at my word, and set me down for a dreamer. Allow me to say a few words touching the last paragraph of your letter. I think you seem to prefer that the proposed settlement, in its religion, should not be what we call denomi- national ; but if you keep in view one main feature of the plan, you will perceive that that is both necessary and desir- able. The people are to have pastoral care and supervision. That is to be one great means of their spiritual and moral improvement, and a main security for the general good or- der. Now the Pastor will necessarily be of some one denomi- nation of Christians, according to the order of which he will 60 CORRESPONDENCE. conduct his ministrations. This implies conformity on the part of the people, else there could be no faithful or effective pastorate ; and without such a pastorate, the place, in its reli- gious or ecclesiastical character, would be quite another thing from that contemplated. Were the people to depend for their Church-services upon a succession of ministers, they would look up to no one as their spiritual teacher or overseer. They would be sheep without a shepherd. The only prac- ticable course, if the religious element is not to be seconda- ry, is to have one church, and one pastor, with such aid of his own choosing as he might need — a Pastor, however, who would have regard for the religious predilections among his people in the spirit of charity, but not of indifference to vital error. St. Johnland originating with Episcopalians, its Church would of course be theirs. But probably others than Epis- copalians would be more or less among the inhabitants. Certainly there could be no exclusion of them. Suppose that some of these should proceed to set up a place of worship of their own, separating themselves from the charge of the Kector, that is from the Church jurisdiction of the place. This would be a violation of the understanding on the subject, and, more than that, might be the beginning of unhappy dis- sensions. Yet to forbid it might look like intolerance. It must be prevented— t -forestalled / and how? JSTot by not esta- blishing one particular form of Christianity, but by adminis- tering that form in the spirit of a wider Christianity. In other words, by having a Rector or Pastor acting and feeling like the one sketched in the prospectus — a man true to his own Church, but not ignoring her sister Churches, and pleased to show his fellowship with them by a practical recognition of their preachers as fellow- evangelists with him in the testi- mony of the Gospel. This would be good policy on his part ; but it must be more. It must be an enlarged Christian spi- rit, and a conciliatory temper which would also allow the indulgence of religious tastes and preferences in private ways, not interfering with the Church order of the place. CORRESPONDENCE. 61 Still, some might not be satisfied. If so, they would have the spirit of schismatics, and should find their abodes somewhere else. In this, however, I have been anticipating a state of things not likely to occur in a community of no greater size than that projected. I have endeavored to state sound prin- ciples of general application. Thus, should you set on foot a Church Industrial Settlement, it would of course be Pres- byterian — not excluding, I well know, all non-Presbyterian preachers of the Gospel. Bat if some Episcopalians among your settlers should separate from your Pastor, and attend only services of their own, you would remonstrate with them; showing them how unbrotherly, and therefore un- churchlike, their conduct was in refusing to worship with their fellow-Christians. If they persisted, you could convince them that they were out of place in your St. Johnland. The multiplication of such denominational institutions of industry and benevolence, and so conducted, would not increase among us the denominational spirit. It would les- sen it. Working in and for them, we should realize the one- ness of our common faith. Conscientiously maintaining our respective forms and doctrines, yet looking at one another less through their disguising medium and more through the clearer and higher atmosphere of charity, we shall see more and more of our family likeness in the one household of the Lord. With these explanations, in which I have been more dif- fuse than may have been necessary, I am sure you will allow that while my St. Johnland must be " denominational," it will not be exclusive ; and that consistently I may join you in asking with the Apostle, " Is Christ, then, divided?" With great esteem, Yours sincerely, W. A. Muhlenberg. 62 CORRESPONDENCE. 39 Bible House, October 12, 1864. Key. Dr. Muhlenberg : My dear Sir: After reading jour favor just received, I do not regret writing the last paragraph of my letter, since it has drawn from your pen so lucid and satisfactory an expo- sition of your views on the matter there referred to. Allow me, however, to say, that I neither misapprehended that important feature of the plan which you have now more fully unfolded and explained, nor, for myself, conceived the least objection thereto. On the contrary, such a denomina- tional connection and pastoral oversight as your enterprise suggests and provides, appeared to me, as you have expressed it, " both necessary and desirable." And if, on a first view of your organization, other minds, as I feared, might be dif- ferently impressed, such impressions, I now rejoice to believe, will soon disappear in the clear and convincing light your letter has shed upon the subject. Accept the renewed assurance of my high regard, Yours very truly, E-. M. Hartley. w. • c LCtd! c- c C ' CM C CT. 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