LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. Class JOHANN HlNRICH WlCHERN. THE INNER MISSION A HANDBOOK FOR CHRISTIAN WORKERS BY THE REV. J. F. OHL, MUS. D. Superintendent of the Philadelphia City Mission of the Evangelical Lutheran Church PHILADELPHIA GENERAL COUNCIL PUBLICATION HOUSE 1522 Arch Street 191 1 Copyright, 1911, by the Board of Publication of the General Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in North America All rights reserved PREFACE DURING the last decade the term "Inner Mission" has obtained wide currency in the Lutheran Church of Amer- ica. It is the purpose of this volume, which has been pre- pared at the request of the Inner Mission Committee of the General Council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in North America, to help those whose interest has been awakened to a better understanding of said term, and to place at their command information concerning forms and methods of Inner Mission work. Much of what the author has previously written and published on the subject is here, for the first time, issued in a permanent form. Any one acquainted with German Inner Mission literature will at once discover for how much of his material the author is indebted to the writings of Schafer, Wurster, Hennig, Uhlhorn, and others; yet while making the freest use of these he has endeavored to keep in view American conditions and needs. To designate a movement rather than a multitude of sep- arate activities, and in accordance with the general usage, the appellation " Inner Mission " rather than " Inner Mis- sions " is used throughout the book. PHILADELPHIA, EPIPHANY, 1911. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION PAGB General Statement JI The Term "Innere Mission" 12 Wichern's Definition of Inner Mission 13 The New Testament Basis of Inner Mission 22 PART FIRST I. PRELIMINARY HISTORY OF THE INNER MISSION A. IN THE EARLY CHURCH 33 First Three Centuries 33 A. D. 300 to 600 41 B. IN THE MEDIEVAL CHURCH 44 A. D. 600 to 1500 44 C. IN THE REFORMATION ERA AND BEYOND 47 II. THE INNER MISSION IN ITS MODERN FORM A. ITS IMMEDIATE ANTECEDENTS 54 Urlsperger, Spittler, Kiessling, Pestalozzi, C. H. Zeller, Oberlin, Falk, von der Recke-Volmarstein, von Kottwitz, and Amalie Sieveking in Germany; John Howard and Eliza- beth Fry in England; Thomas Chalmers and David Nasmith in Scotland; Hauge in Norway. B. ITS SYSTEMATIC DEVELOPMENT 64 Wichern, Fliedner, Lohe, Mez, Kobelt, von Bodelschwingh, Stocker, Uhlhorn, Schafer, and others in Germany; Knudsen in Norway; Guthrie in Scotland; Barnardo in England; Passa- vant and W. A. Muhlenberg in America. 3 4 CONTENTS PAGE C. ITS ORGANS 85 1. The Diaconate 86 a. The Modern Male Diaconate 91 b. The Modern Female Diaconate 93 2. Associations 99 3. Institutions 102 4. Official Representatives 103 5. Volunteer Helpers 104 6. Material Support 105 PART SECOND FORMS OF INNER MISSION ACTIVITY I. THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL 108 a. Evangelization 108 b. City Missions 116 c. The Dissemination of the Scriptures 125 d. The Circulation of Christian Literature 127 e. People's Libraries ; . 129 f. Music and Art 131 II. THE CARE AND TRAINING OF CHILDREN 133 a. Day Nurseries 134 b. Little Children's Schools 136 c. Sunday Schools 139 d. Shelters and Industrial Schools for Poor Children 143 e. The Care and Training of Dependent Children 144 III. THE TRAINING AND PRESERVATION OF YOUNG PEOPLE 150 a. Schools for the Training of Domestics 150 b. Shelters for Domestics 152 c. Young Men's Societies 153 d. Young Women's Societies 155 CONTENTS 5 PAGE IV. THE PROTECTION OF THE IMPERILED 156 a. Diaspora Missions 156 b. Emigrant Missions 157 c. Seamen's Missions 158 d. Christian Inns for Men 161 e. Hospices 163 f. Some Other Forms of Protective Work 164 V. THE SAVING OF THE LOST 167 a. Rescue Homes for the Young 167 b. Warfare Against Immorality: Magdalen Homes 171 c. Warfare Against Intemperance: Asylums for Inebriates 177 d. Care of Convicts and Discharged Prisoners 183 VI. THE CARE OF THE SICK AND THE DEFECTIVE 192 a. Hospital Care of the Sick 192 b. Institutions for Physical and Mental Defectives 194 1. Deaf-mutes 195 2. The Blind 195 3. The Crippled 196 4. The Epileptic 197 5. The Idiotic and Insane 199 6. The Enfeebled and Convalescent 202 7. Invalid Children 203 c. Homes for the Aged and Infirm 203 VII. THE CONFLICT WITH SOCIAL ILLS 204 a. The Relief of Parish Needs 207 b. The Care of the Poor 211 c. Labor Colonies and Relief Stations 216 d. The Relief of Needs Occasioned by War and Pestilence 221 6 CONTENTS PAGE e. Miscellaneous 222 1. Evangelical Workingmen's Societies 222 2. Efforts for the Improvement of Housing Conditions .... 222 3. The Promotion of Sunday Rest and Observance 223 4. The Encouragement of Thrift 223 f. Settlements 22 4 CONCLUSION 228 APPENDIX A I. Statistics of the Deaconess Motherhouses Comprised in the Kaiserswerth Union 231 II. Fields of Deaconess Labor 235 III. German Diakonenkauser 236 APPENDIX B LUTHERAN INNER MISSION INSTITUTIONS IN THE UNITED STATES I. Deaconess Motherhouses 237 II. Orphans' Homes 238 III. Home Finding Societies 239 IV. Old People's Homes 239 V. Hospitals 240 VI. Institutions for Defectives 241 VII. Immigrant and Seamen's Missions 242 VIII. Hospices 242 IX. Miscellaneous 242 X. Inner Mission Societies and City Missions 243 BIBLIOGRAPHY 244 INDEX 247 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE WICHERN Frontispiece KAISERSWERTH INSTITUTIONS 71 FLIEDNER LOSE VON BODELSCHWINGH KOBELT STOCKER UHLHORN SCHAFER 76 PASSAVANT 84 RAUHES HAUS AT HAMBURG 91 FRANCKE ORPHANAGE AT HALLE 91 MARY J. DREXEL HOME, PHILADELPHIA, PA 94 INSTITUTIONS AT MILWAUKEE, Wis 98 DEACONESS MOTHERHOUSE, BALTIMORE, MD 103 DEACONESS HOSPITAL AT JERUSALEM 106 SWEDISH INSTITUTIONS AT ST. PAUL, MINN 106 BERLIN CITY MISSION (CHURCH) 116 BERLIN CITY MISSION (HOSPICE, BUILDINGS) 121 WARTBURG ORPHANS' FARM SCHOOL, MT. VERNON, N. Y 133 ST. JOHN'S ORPHANS' HOME, SULPHUR SPRINGS, N. Y 138 ORPHANS' HOME, PHILADELPHIA, PA 144 GERMAN SEAMEN'S HOMES 157 IMMIGRANT HOUSE, NEW YORK CITY, N. Y 160 SEAMEN'S HOME, PHILADELPHIA, PA 160 SEAMEN'S HOME, HOBOKEN, N. J 160 LUTHER HOSPICE, PHILADELPHIA, PA 164 HOSPICE FOR YOUNG WOMEN, MINNEAPOLIS, MINN 164 7 8 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGB HOSPICES: FRANKFORT, DRESDEN ^4 PASSAVANT HOSPITAL, PITTSBURG, PA 192 COLONY OF MERCY, BIELEFELD I9 7 INSTITUTION FOR CRIPPLES AT CRACAU 197 KENSINGTON DISPENSARY, PHILADELPHIA, PA 200 PASSAVANT HOMES FOR EPILEPTICS, ROCHESTER, PA 200 ASYLUM FOR AGED AND INFIRM, PHILADELPHIA, PA 204 CHURCH HOME FOR AGED AND INFIRM, BUFFALO, N. Y 209 AUGUSTANA HOSPITAL, CHICAGO, ILL 214 NORWEGIAN HOSPITAL, MINNEAPOLIS, MINN 222 THE INNER MISSION I send thee, to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in Me.-Acts 26 : 17, 18. OTnrk I was an hungred, and ye gave Me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave Me drink : I was a stranger, and ye took Me in : naked, and ye clothed Me: I was sick, and ye visited Me: I was in prison, and ye came unto Me. Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me. -Matth. 25 : 35, 36, 40. THE INNER MISSION INTRODUCTION General Statement WHEN Wichern, on the afternoon of September 22, 1848, delivered his famous address at the Wittenberg Kirchentag, he sounded a trumpet call that aroused all Protestant Germany. For almost two decades he had been favored with extraordinary opportunities for observing the spiritual, moral , and physical wretchedness of large masses of the people; he had made a careful study of the causes which led to their degradation; he had clearly discerned through whom and by what means and methods the required relief must be brought about; and now, filled with warmest love to his Lord and to suffering humanity, and with a glowing zeal for service, he called upon the entire Protestant Church of Germany to make the work of the Inner Mission, which so far had been only sporadic, a part of her own life and being, and thus to demonstrate her faith by her love. That hour marked the beginning of the Inner Mission as a general and systematized movement. As the immediate result of the impulse given by Wichern, the Central Committee for the Inner Mission of the German Evangelical Church was or- ganized at Berlin, January 4, 1849, to De followed since then by many similar associations, provincial and local, in all parts of Germany, in the Scandinavian countries, and now even in America. In his classical document, known as the Denkschrift, pre- pared at the request of the Central Committee, and dated April 21, 1849, Wichern outlined the Program of the Inner 11 12 THE INNER MISSION Mission. It was to prevent, if possible, the dechristianiza- tion of Germany; to combat the growing indifference and un- belief among all classes and conditions alike; by a more ex- tensive preaching and diffusion of the Gospel, and by the ministrations of Christian love and mercy, to aid the Family, the Church, and the State in the removal of existing evils; and, by virtue of the principle of the universal priesthood of believers, to enlist and utilize in this work the living and active members of the Church without interfering at any point with the prerogatives of the Family, the Church, or the State, where these faithfully performed their God-given duties. As regards the practical life of the Church the Denk- schrift was the most significant document of the nineteenth century. It, indeed, contemplated nothing new, but it asked in incisive tones for the restoration and application to existing conditions of principles and methods as old as Christianity itself. Hence those engaged in the Inner Mis- sion cause must ever continue to go to it for instruction and inspiration if they would guard their work against degenerat- ing into mere humanitarianism on the one hand or a senti- mental evangelism on the other. The Term " Inner e Mission" The term Innere Mission was first publicly used by Pro- fessor Fr. Lucke of Gottingen in an address at a mission conference on the i3th of November, 1842. But about the same time, and altogether independently, Wichern was also employing it in connection with his work at the Rauhe Haus, Hamburg, begun in 1833. At the Stuttgart Inner Mission Congress in 1857 he said: " In upholding the right to do mission work within Christendom as distinguished from similar work outside of it, the term Innere Mission was coined, and was current in the life and vocabulary of the Rauhe Haus before anyone else had used it"; 1 and in the 1 Gesammelte Schriften, Vol. iii, p. 964. INTRODUCTION 13 first report of his Training School (Diakonenhaus) in 1843 he called said institution a " Seminary for the Inner Mission among German Protestants." Thus the term originated almost simultaneously in two places. In more recent times other names have been proposed. Thus Uhlhorn 1 and Lehmann 2 treat of the work of the Inner Mission under the designation Christliche Liebesthatigkeit (i. e., Christian Charity). Others have suggested the term Diakonie. 3 But neither of these terms fully covers the work and purpose of the Inner Mission. There are other works of Christian mercy that have no connection whatever with the Inner Mission as an organized movement, e. g., the work of foreign missions and private charity. Moreover, in limiting the scope of the Inner Mission chiefly to the works of Christian mercy among the poor and sick and needy in general, its character and purpose as a Gospel missionary force among all classes is almost entirely overlooked. Wichern's Definition of Inner Mission As the Inner Mission in the form in which Wichern con- ceived of it had been antedated by various private and in- dividual efforts of like nature, none of which entered into the life of the Church and of society as a whole, he defined it as " the collective and not isolated labor of love which springs from faith in Christ, and which seeks to bring about the internal and external renewal of the masses within Christendom who have fallen under the dominion of those evils which result directly and indirectly from sin, and who are not reached, as for their spiritual renewal they ought to be, by the established official organs of the Church. It does not overlook any external or internal need, the relief of which can be made an object of Christian love. It recog- nizes the Christ-bought and indestructible unity of life in l Die Christliche Liebesthatigkeit, Stuttgart, 1882-90. Vol. iii. 2 Die Werke der Liebe, Leipzig, 1883. 3 Thus WARNECK: Evang. Missionslehre, Gotha, 1892. Part I, p. 4. 14 THE INNER MISSION State and Church, in the nation and family, in all the ranks of Christian society, and lays hold of it with its saving powers. And amid the extraordinary and distorted conditions of the present, before which those in authority are impotent and the Church is silent, it distinguishes the voice of the people as these ask for its saving work, and hopes that by divine aid society may be so benefited that Church and State may come to newness of life an aim that will set a bound to its own labors." 1 Eight years later Wichern made substantially the same statement when, in a series of theses at the second Stuttgart Inner Mission Congress, he said: " The Inner Mission is the unfolding and active exercise of the faith and vital powers of the entire body of believers in the Church, in the State, and in all forms of social life, for the conquest of everything unchristian and antichristian that seeks or has found a place in the home or community, in usages and laws, in science and art, in all the departments of the material and spiritual life of the masses and of the nations within Christendom." 2 Quite in harmony with these declarations the Statutes of the Central Committee declare the purpose of the Inner Mission to be " the relief of the spiritual and physical needs of our evangelical people by means of the preached Word and the ministrations of Chris- tian love." 3 An analysis of these several statements will yield the fol- lowing result: 1 Gesammelte Schriften. Vol. iii, p. 268 ff. 2 Ibid. Vol. iii, p. 943. Thesis 9. 3 Other definitions : SCHAFER : " The Inner Mission is that ecclesiastical reformatory movement of the nineteenth century which seeks to improve the internal condition of the Church (i. e., of the organized, visible Church) by permanently incorporating into it and making effective within it both the free proclamation of the Gospel and the works of mercy." Leitfaden der Inneren Mission, 4th ed. p. 3. WURSTER: "In so far as it represents the systematic efforts of living evangelical Christendom, the Inner Mission of the last hundred years is that reform movement within. the Church which seeks to relieve those ethico-religious needs of society and of evangelical communities for the amelioration of which the Family, the Church, and the State, as ordained factors, no longer sufficed; but with the express purpose of leading those won by it into the Church, and through all its efforts to make the existing Church in the truest sense a Church of the people." Die Lehre von der Inneren Mission, 1895, p. 127. INTRODUCTION 1 5 i. The Inner Mission seeks to serve the entire mass of society, and not merely a class. It is a mistake to assume that it addresses itself only to the lowest and most degraded elements, somewhat after the fashion of the Salvation Army. It recognizes the fact that great evils affect society in gen- eral that greed, extravagance, covetousness, dishonesty, oppression, licentiousness, discontent, lack of conscience, indifference to things spiritual, and a host of other wrongs, with all their direful consequences, are to a greater or less extent found among all classes and conditions; that even among the educated and well-to-do, as among those far beneath them, there are also many who, yielding to the seductions of wealth, the spirit of the times, and those forces by which Christian principles and practice are undermined, have had their hearts alienated from the Gospel of Christ and the things of the kingdom of God. 1 Hence, as these evils are not confined to a particular class, the Inner Mission aims at the renewal of society as a whole by influencing at every possible point the units which compose it. In every such unit it sees sin as the root from which all social evil springs; and as social improvement cannot take place without moral renovation, the Inner Mission, when rightly directed, bends all its energies toward reaching and changing the fountain of evil the natural, sinful human heart. Endeavoring thus to purify the polluted stream at its very source, it be- comes a force " for the conquest of everything unchristian and antichristian that seeks or has found a place in the home or community, in usages and laws, in science and art, in all the departments of the material and spiritual life of the masses and of the nations within Christendom." To the Family the Inner Mission extends its aid in the care and instruction of children not otherwise provided for: in the maintenance of servants' training-schools and homes, and of homes for working women, of Christian inns and 1 " In defining the sphere of the Inner Mission it is a great mistake to assume that it has in view only the saving of the poor and illiterate: the rich and richest and most cultured equally need this." WICHERN: Gesammelle Schriften. Vol. iii, p. 237. l6 THE INNER MISSION hospices, young people's societies, and like preventive means for those imperiled by their surroundings; and in conducting Magdalen homes for the rescue of fallen women, homes for the reformation of inebriates, and labor colonies for the unemployed. It aids the Church in the work of diaspora, seamen's and city missions, in parish work among the sick and poor, in the dissemination of the printed Word, in the circulation of Christian literature, in seeking to bring about a better observance of the Lord's Day, and in other like efforts. It comes to the assistance of the State in the Chris- tian care of prisoners and discharged convicts, of dependent, defective, and delinquent children, of the sick and poor, and of the needy in times of war and pestilence. Many of these it takes into its own institutions, thus relieving the State of their care; while in other instances it supplies the trained helpers in State institutions. Furthermore the Inner Mission takes note of such questions as the better housing of the poor, and the encouragement of thrift among these; and in the proper solution of social problems in general, it seeks to co-operate with the State. 2. The methods of the Inner Mission are, however, not those of the State. While in its combat with the grossest forms of evil it may, indeed, now and then find it necessary to invoke the strong arm of the law; nevertheless, as sin is in every case the prime evil to be eradicated, it does not hope to effect a radical cure by means of legislative enactments, but through the Gospel. In this alone it sees the power God's power by which nations as well as individuals are brought to newness of life. Upon this alone it relies to renew, purify, and strengthen the spiritual man. It is the one great means above every other that it uses to shape the character of the young, to serve as a protection to the tempted and imperiled, to lift up the fallen, to bring real comfort and cheer to the sick and suffering, and as the source from which all may obtain the true riches the means under the in- fluence of which it would have all social, civic, and business relations adjusted and regulated, and have the second great INTRODUCTION 17 commandment come to its own: " Thou shalt love thy neigh- bor as thyself." 3. Hence the Inner Mission is. above all, to be regarded as a missionary force, whose ultimate purpose it is to reach all to whom it ministers with the saving Gospel. The concep- tion which limits it to the works of Christian mercy is alto- gether too narrow. Nevertheless it makes a most extensive use of these, but always in the service of the Gospel; and it is this combination of a large benevolent activity with the communication of the Word that differentiates it from the work of home missions in our American sense. 1 4. It must now be apparent that Inner Mission work is far above mere humanitarian and philanthropic effort. The latter is, indeed, not to be despised so far as it goes; but it does not go far enough. It is a mistake, therefore, to confuse what is in these days called Sociology with Inner Mission. The two do not agree either in their diagnosis of the funda- mental cause of all the evils which they seek to combat, or as regards the remedy to be applied. The terms " sin " and " Gospel " are hardly known in the vocabulary of the sociologist, and he may moreover be Christian, Jew, or agnostic. Hence the character of his work is largely con- ditioned by his view-point. In most cases he would bring about a new mode of thought and life by simply changing the environment, which, however important as an adjunct, does not go to the root of the trouble; or he may even attempt to eradicate great moral defects and vicious propensities, which our Lord says " proceed out of the heart," by means of a surgical operation ! But all such efforts are only ex- ternal. This is not the way of the Inner Mission. " If we would alleviate external distress," says a German writer, " we must, above all things, relieve the internal necessity. Moral ruin is as much the premise as the result of external decay. It is just the appreciation of the mutual influence of these two sides, the aiming at the removal of both the inward and the outward poverty, which are so emphatically 1 For the further elaboration of this phase of the subject see pp. 22-32. 1 8 THE INNER MISSIQN insisted on in the so-called Inner Mission. Such an institu- tion is both the offspring and the need of our times. And what has it not already effected? Its field of operation is truly an extensive one. Here we behold asylums in which children are sheltered from destitution, there houses of refuge in which men are helped out of moral ruin; here homes in which travellers are preserved from temptation, there institutions which offer a dwelling to female servants; here the navvies on our railroads are sought out that they may not be destitute of the Word of God, there the emigrants are visited that they may take the Gospel away with them; here every energy is devoted to the oversight of prisoners, there to the care of the sick and wounded, and to many like purposes. And the soul of all this is that compassionate love which seeks the lost. This and nothing else rules in every institution really belonging to the Inner Mission, all objections to which come to naught in the presence of its blessed results. And these all accrue to the profit of the Church." 1 5. Another characteristic of the Inner Mission is that in its operations it seeks to enlist the entire body of believers, in closest touch with the Church's ministry and means of grace. In defining more fully the ninth thesis at the sec- ond Stuttgart Congress (p. 14) Wichern said: "When we speak of the universal priesthood of believers we have in mind the privilege which all such have of direct access to the Father, through Christ, and in Christ's name at all times to worship and serve God, thus bringing Him their life and entire person as a sacrifice. But the offering of such a sacri- fice, as an act of faith in the Son of God, transforms the believer into a fountain of blessing, in whom is fulfilled the gracious promise that out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. The congregation of believers thus becomes a blessing-dispensing congregation of priests, a royal people of God, in which each one who has received the witness of God, himself becomes a witness of the life that God gives, BRUCKNER: The Church, Edinburgh, 1867, pp. 250, 251. INTRODUCTION 1 9 and in the power of that life feels impelled to show forth the praises of Him who hath called him out of darkness into His marvelous light. As such the priesthood of believers con- secrates itself to missionary labors, including those of the Inner Mission. Whether it be the housefather in his family, the artist or scientist engaged in his studies, the government official, the soldier or tradesman, man or woman each in his or her calling and position, however diverse, will labor for the extension of God's kingdom, that it may come not only to them, but also to those who are not yet in it." 1 And that those already of the Church might learn thus to view their duties and responsibilities, he said on another occasion: " It often happens in societies that there is such unceasing wrangling over rules and regulations that all desire for and pleasure in the service of the Lord is destroyed. But let it not be forgotten that the preaching of the Divine Word is the prime requisite for the maintenance of the Church's life. Above all must the doctrine of the univer- sal priesthood of believers be emphasized, so that each one may come to realize that it is his duty to labor for his Master and his Master's kingdom wherever God has placed him and given him the opportunity." 2 It was a living Church that Wichern had in mind, not a Church galvanized into the appearance of life by sensational, sectarian, or mechanical and artificial methods, but a Church made genuinely living by the living Word of God, preached in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. And if we of to-day would successfully cope with the needs which Inner Mission seeks to relieve, let us not forget whence the Church must derive her life. As the Church in Germany is closely affiliated with the State, the Inner Mission movement is independent of the Church's control, and yet the Church's most efficient helping hand. It does not take the place of the Church, but seeks to bring into unity of purpose and action the Church's living members. It 1 Gesammelte Schriften. Vol. iii, pp. 957, 958. 2 Ibid. Vol. iii, pp. 584, 585. 20 THE INNER MISSION recognizes the constituted Church authorities and is recognized by them. Its methods have been largely adopted by the State Churches; its trained helpers are employed by them; official representatives of the State Churches appear at its congresses; professors of Practical Theology lecture on the subject; special short courses of instruction are held in populous centers; and thus the work of the State Churches and that of the Inner Mission have in many instances become practi- cally one and the same. The Inner Mission movement was at first opposed in Germany, chiefly from two sides the rationalistic (Darm- stadter Allgemeine Kirchenzeitung, Diesterweg, etc.) and by individual members of the strictly confessional side (Claus Harms, Petri, Lindner, Lohe). The latter contended: i. That the free associations (Inner Mission societies) by and through which the work was carried on were not of the Church, nor in the Church (in her organized capacity), but alongside of the Church, and therefore a menace to churchly life and order. 2. That the movement was in conflict with the teachings of the New Testament regarding the Church and her ministry. 3. That a movement which was not in every one of its details directed by the established ecclesiastical authorities was in constant danger of degener- ating into sectarianism. Nevertheless it was most heartily welcomed and met with some of its earliest and most pro- nounced successes in regions whose Lutheranism was of the strictest type (Mecklenburg, Bavaria); and, as experience by degrees demonstrated that the movement was neither antagonistic, separatistic, nor sectarian, but, on the contrary, most helpful in reaching those in soul and body whom the organized Church for lack of a proper agency had failed to reach, it began to enlist the active interest and co-operation of an ever-increasing number of pastors, opposition practi- cally ceased, and Petri and Lohe themselves became cham- pions of the cause, the one by taking an active part in organiz- ing the Inner Mission Society of the Evangelical Lutheran INTRODUCTION 21 Church of Hanover, the other by establishing a similar society in Bavaria. The following observations by Schafer will now serve to give a somewhat comprehensive answer to the question: " What is the Inner Mission?" 1 " The Inner Mission is a product of that faith which worketh by love. Whatever is not undertaken in this spirit is not Inner Mission. " The Inner Mission is an extra-official activity. It does not emanate from any professional obligation imposed by the Family, the Church, or the State, but solely from a heart actuated by the love of Christ. " The Inner Mission does its work within the pale of the Church. Those not of the Church, e. g., the Jews and the heathen, are not Inner Mission objects. " The tools of the Inner Mission are the Word and the Work. Very often these are found in closest connection, the latter not infrequently predominating. In such case the labor of love is intended to pave the way for the Word. " Extraordinary and overwhelming needs brought the Inner Mission into existence, and must still require its labors. " The work of the Inner Mission is in most cases voluntary, though organized as in the institution and association." In America we are to-day confronted by needs quite similar to those which called the Inner Mission into being in Germany. The revolution in industry and commerce since the Civil War; the extraordinary increase in material wealth; the greed that characterizes the laboring classes equally with the capi- talist; the corrupt practices in politics and business; the congestion of population in the cities; the excesses, follies, and sins of the idle rich on the one hand, and the needs of the genuinely poor on the other; the perils to which child- hood and youth are often exposed; the loose views on the marriage tie and the sanctity of the family; the disappear- ance of the home with its ennobling and restraining in- fluences wherever wealth makes luxurious hotel life and 1 Die Inner e Mission in der S chide, p. 95. 22 THE INNER MISSION migratory habits possible or poverty compels refuge in the overcrowded and unsanitary tenement; the very wide dis- semination of more or less pernicious literature; the growing indifference of large numbers towards everything spiritual; the changes in modes of thought and belief to which the last two or three decades have given rise; and the gradual lower- ing of ethical standards as institutions of learning and pulpits have departed from the explicit teachings of revelation all these and other conditions thrust before us problems, social and religious, of so grave an import that as Christians, holding fast to the old truths, we cannot ignore them without proving unfaithful to our profession. Nor can they be solved in a superficial way. As all evils in the life of the nation and of the individual have their root in sin, neither legislative enactments, nor hysterical and evanescent evangelistic movements, nor anything else short of the faithful, persistent inculcation of the inspired Word and the labor of Christian love will effectually meet the case. Regarding both much may be learned from the Scriptural, sober, and practical methods of the Inner Mission of Germany. Nevertheless in the application of these due note must be taken of our changed conditions. Here we have not only those to deal with who as members of the Church need her protection and succor, or who, having lapsed from the Church, need to be reclaimed; but with large masses besides who have never had even the most remote connection with the Church. It might be urged indeed that to reach and win these is the legitimate work of home missions; but would not home mis- sion work prove vastly more effective if carried on in the spirit and according to the principles and practice of the Inner Mission ? The New Testament Basis of Inner Mission A careful study of the work of the Inner Mission discloses the following characteristics: It is both preventive and reformatory. It looks for the causes of moral and physical INTRODUCTION 23 ruin, and seeks to remove these. It goes after the lost and makes every effort to save them. It is concerned for man's physical and intellectual well-being as well as for his spiritual. It believes, that next to the preaching of the Word as the supreme redemptive means, it is the duty of the kingdom of God on earth to alleviate external misery and to provide those agencies that make for nobler manhood and woman- hood. It therefore suits the practice to the preaching, gives the Gospel a concrete form, and utilizes every point of contact that presents itself. As such it does not presume to take the place of the Family, the Church, or the State when these do what belongs to them, but only supplies to the best of its ability what they often fail to do. Its impulse is that love of God and man which is born of a living faith; and all its purely benevolent deeds have for their ultimate purpose the preparation of the soil for the living Word, as the renewing, vitalizing, and strengthening power in the life both of the individual and of society. Hence, without regarding Him merely in the light of a social reformer, 1 the Inner Mission finds the warrant for its 1 " Christ sees in every man, even in the poorest and most miserable, a human being whose privilege it is to become a member of the kingdom of God. This is in all cases attainable, even though we have to allow that it is not in our power to relieve all the distress and misery in the world; for misery and distress are no hindrance to any man's being or becoming a member of the kingdom of God. It is a truly heathen idea to say, as a reason for desist- ing from works of mercy: ' All this is of no use; we can never make all men happy.' For this is not the only object of Christian charity. It has a much higher end in view, and all that is done in the way of removing or alleviating misery and distress is only done as a means towards this higher end, the advancement of the kingdom of God. Accordingly, it is a fundamental mis- conception of the work of Christ and Christianity to say, speaking from the social point of view, that the work of Christ has failed, and that Christianity has not succeeded in fulfilling the task set before it, since there is at the present time quite as much distress and misery in the world as before. As though Christ had wished to be a social reformer; when what He really did was to proclaim that in comparison with the highest end in life, social position is a matter of absolute unimportance, and to appoint to human life an object attain- able by every one, namely, the kingdom of God, in which every one may have a share, be his outward position what it may, be he rich or poor, high or low, freeman or slave. It was not to take away poverty that Christ appeared; on the contrary, He says: 'The poor always ye have with you' (John 12 : 8). He came to bring the poor into the kingdom of God. He did not come to put an end to all the distress in the world; on the contrary, He says to His disciples: 'In the world ye shall have tribulation' (John 16 : 33). He came to comfort the broken-hearted and sorrowing. Not social reform, but the founding of 24 THE INNER MISSION aims and methods in the Words and Works of Jesus. 1 He Himself distinctly announced the purpose of His coming into the world in the words: " The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19 :io). To the lost He therefore turned with the message of pardon through His obedience and sacrifice the Gospel message that " God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3 :i6). But His concern for the lost went beyond their purely spiritual needs. Recog- nizing the close connection between sin and human misery, their temporal and physical needs also appealed to Him. Hence His preaching and teaching were throughout His ministry accompanied by works of mercy (Matt. 4 : 23 ; 9 : 35; Mark i : 39-42; 6 : 34 ff, et al.). Nevertheless His evident purpose in so closely combining the Word and the Work was to make the latter serve the former, but in various ways. Sometimes His works were meant simply to direct attention to His person and doctrine, that is, they were an appeal to the mind. Thus after the stilling of the tempest " the men marvelled, saying, what manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?" (Matt. 8 : 27); after the healing of the paralytic " the multitude marvelled, and glorified God, which had given such power into men " (Matt. 9:8); and again, after the healing of a dumb man possessed with a devil, " the multitudes marvelled, saying, It was never so seen in Israel" (Matt. 9 : 33). 2 In addition to the preaching of the Gospel Jesus also distinctly points the kingdom of God was His life's work. And he did found that kingdom which is in Himself, and when this is realized, then are the influences which flow from Christ and play upon the social side of our life found to be sancti- fying and healing; but they are only the consequences of the inner change, and hence only indirectly experienced. They are of the things which are ' added unto' those who seek first after the kingdom of God. Hence it must appear that it would be imputing an erroneous motive to Christian charity, and adopting a wrong standard whereby to judge of its history, were we to ask how far it has succeeded in doing away with all poverty, and in making all here on earth outwardly happy." UHLHORN: Christian Charity in the Ancient Church, pp. 60-62. 1 Cf. SCHAFER: Die Inner e Mission in der Schide, p. 132 ff. 2 Cf. Mark i : 27; 4 : 41; 7 : 37. INTRODUCTION 25 to His works as the other mark of His Messiahship, when, in answer to the question of John, " Art Thou He that should come, or do we look for another?" He says to the two disciples of John: "Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see; the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the Gospel preached to them" (Matt, n : 4, 5). Still other works of Jesus had for their specific purpose either the manifestation of His own glory, or the manifestation of the works of God in man, that seeing, men might believe. Thus the very first miracle per- formed by Jesus " manifested forth His glory," with the result that " His disciples believed on Him " (John 2 : n); the man born blind, to whom Jesus gave sight, confessed, " Lord, I believe," and " worshipped Him" (John 9 : 38); and of the nobleman whose son Jesus had healed it is said: " And him- self believed, and his whole house" (John 4 : 53). l In the Feeding of the Five Thousand (Matt. 14:15-21; Mark 6 : 34-44; Luke 9 : 12-17; John 6 : 5-14) and the Feeding of the Four Thousand (Matt. 15 : 32-39; Mark 8 : 1-9). Jesus, furthermore, gave ocular demonstration how those who first seek the kingdom of God shall have all these things added unto them (Matt. 6:33). Finally, to some of His benevolent deeds, like the healing of one deaf and dumb (Mark 7 : 32-37) and of the blind man at Bethsaida (Mark 8: 22-26), Jesus did not add one word of spiritual instruc- tion, but allowed the naked labor of love to be the impressive sermon to those who witnessed it. Jesus Himself expressed the ultimate purpose of all His works of mercy when He said, as He healed the man who was born blind: " Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him " (John 9:3). These works were to be the proof that the kingdom of God had come indeed, that He was now present in the world who " was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil," and that, therefore, men ought to iCf. Luke 7 :i6; 18 143. 26 THE INNER MISSION believe in Him (Luke 11:20-22; i John 3:8; John 10:37, 38). For the same reason those who were sent out to plant the Church were commissioned not only to preach the Gospel, but to show by works of mercy that the kingdom of God was come nigh (Mark 3 : 14, 15; 6 : 12, 13; Luke 9:2, 6; 10 : i, 9, 10, n). Thus it came that the service of love and mercy, in demonstration of the Gospel's power, was the spe- cial characteristic of the first Christians, and a most power- ful factor in the conquest of the heathen world. 1 And in all this the Church of to-day must see what it behooves her to do, as the institution, divinely ordained, to mediate the coming of the kingdom of God. 2 Among the Lord's parables that have a very direct bearing on our subject are those of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10: 30-37), the Lost Sheep (Luke 15 : 3-7), and the Lost Coin (Luke 15 : 8-10). The first of these teaches that every son and daughter of Adam, as a member of the great human 1 " The Church, born of love, and living in love, was the appropriate organ for the practice of love. It interested itself first in those of its members who needed help in any way, then it went beyond them to embrace in its love those who stood without. For these were to be won for the Church. Love worked in a missionary way. It excluded none, as the grace which kindled it excluded no one, not even enemies and persecutors. . . . The heathen recognized this sign. With amazement they gazed upon this new strange life of love, and it is not too much to say that the victory of the Church, like that of her Lord, was a victory of ministering love." UHLHORN: The Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism, pp. 197, 191. 2 " As there could be no kingdom of God upon earth without the Church, so would charity soon die out in all other spheres if the Church desisted from it; and whatever rendering of assistance and care for the poor there might remain would be of quite a different character from compassionate love. For all love has its origin in the love of God in Christ Jesus, of which the Church is witness, not only by her words, but also by her deeds, inasmuch as she practices the works of charity. From her is derived the call to, as well as the strength for, charity in all its spheres; she shows to its every form that its highest end lies in the advancement of the kingdom of God; she leads us to love, just as our Lord, while He Himself did works of mercy, taught His disciples to do the same. Just as the idea of the kingdom of God is more comprehensive than that of the Church, while the Church is the central point of the kingdom of God upon earth; so also is Christian charity more com- prehensive than that of the Church, but the Church is and remains the central point. Let us remember that there could not be any real charity in the heathen world because there was no community. There is one now; our Lord has founded it. The day of Pentecost was, as it were, the birthday of the Church; and it was also the birthday of that Christian charity which is in- separable from the Church." UHLHORN: Christian Charity in the Ancient Church, pp. 71, 72. INTRODUCTION 2f family on earth, is to be regarded as a neighbor; and that only he who shows mercy to those in actual need is possessed of true neighborly love. This love does not ask: "Who are you?" "What is your nationality?" "To what creed do you hold?" and the like; but to any one actually fallen among thieves, robbed and wounded, it is at once ready to give adequate relief. It is compassionate; it in- vestigates to determine actual conditions; it renders personal service; it sacrifices comfort, time, and means; it does not grow weary in well doing; and in all that it does it is ab- solutely unselfish. The Good Samaritan loved, not in word, neither in tongue, but "in deed and in truth"; and having done so, he departed and did not even reveal his name. In the parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin the reference is to those who were once in the kingdom of grace, but who are there no longer. Both the sheep and the coin were lost, but the one through its own fault, by straying from the flock of itself; the other through the lack of care and watchfulness on the part of the woman. The shepherd speaks of his sheep which was lost, the woman, of the coin which she lost. Both parables, therefore, set before us a condition which has always existed, and which it is the very specific object of the Inner Mission to overcome. Both are also illustrations of the seeking love and the personal effort which characterize Inner Mission methods. Only one lost sheep ! Only one lost piece of silver ! Yet what efforts are put forth to find the one ! The man goes after the lost sheep, and does not cease to seek until he finds it ! The woman lights a candle, sweeps the house, and searches dili- gently for the lost piece until it comes to view ! The Church's duty is thus made plain. Her work must be aggressive, personal and individual. With her Word and Sacraments, her ministry of mercy, her willing men and women, and all her saving agencies she must seek the lost until she finds them. The Lord's own ministry was a seeking and saving ministry, in many cases a laboring with individual souls (Nicodemus, the woman of Samaria, etc.); and His express 28 THE INNER MISSION command is: "G0, and make disciples" (Matt. 28:19); "Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind" (Luke 14 -.21). And in this kind of service the Lord requires persistent faithfulness. Those whom He has called into His Church are not to be idlers, but workers (Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard, Matt. 20 : 1-16). All such are to regard themselves as servants to whom their Master has entrusted gifts, abilities, means, and opportunities which they are to utilize to the utmost (Parable of the Talents, Matt. 25: 14-30; of the Pounds, Luke 19:11-27; and of the Unjust Steward, Luke 16 : 1-9). To fail to do so is to invite con- demnation. The servant who hid his talent in the earth is called " wicked and slothful"; he who laid up his pound in a napkin is also denominated " wicked "; and the steward who had wasted his master's goods is termed " unjust." All of them were unfaithful to their trust, and were dealt with accordingly. In endeavoring to mold society by changing the units which compose it, the Inner Mission recognizes the truth conveyed in the Parable of the Leaven, to wit, that the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ is the great, though silent transforming power not only in the heart and life of the in- dividual, but also in the thought and life of the world. The Church (the woman of the parable) , with her means of grace, is the institution through which the Holy Spirit applies redemption. The Gospel which she preaches and teaches is the new and quickening force brought into human life from above. And this Word of the kingdom, hidden in the mass, silently but effectually changes it from within out- ward. " The true renovation, that which God effects, is ever thus, from the inward to the outward; it begins in the inner spiritual world, though it does not end there: for it fails not to bring about, in good time, a mighty change also in the outward and visible world." 1 Thus it has always 1 TRENCH: Notes on the Parables of Our Lord, p. 118. INTRODUCTION 29 been. The Gospel, at first received and believed by only a few, made of these new creatures in Christ Jesus, and fitted them to become the bearers of salvation to others. Working from center to circumference the leaven thus introduced finally permeated more or less the entire Roman empire. It transformed the Teutonic nations. It is to-day the great vitalizing and uplifting force in heathen lands; and would we see what changes it is capable of producing in isolated com- munities we need but point to a single illustration like that furnished by Oberlin in his remarkable work in the Steinthal. The Inner Mission, while neglecting no external agency by which human needs can be relieved, is then altogether right in laying stress chiefly on the means whereby the Holy Spirit renews and purifies the heart of man. Individuals, communities, and nations are changed and made better only as they come under the transforming power of the Gospel. Numerous other sayings of Jesus are also to be noted in this connection. Thus Matt. 9:37, 38: "The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth labourers into His harvest." Jesus had just made a tour of the cities and villages of Galilee, " teaching in their synagogues, and preach- ing the Gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people." What He saw of the spiritual and physical misery of the multitudes filled him with compassion; and this compassion found utterance in the above words to His disciples. But what He then declared to be the case is equally true to-day. How large is still the number of the churchless and Christless, of the indiffer- ent and neglected, of the distressed and needy ! And how few in comparison are those who, as real laborers, put their gifts and talents into actual use whenever and wherever they have the opportunity ! We have largely accustomed ourselves to an easy-going Christianity. We love to take, but not to give. We seek ease and enjoyment, but shun service and sacrifice. We are satisfied with ourselves when we have fulfilled, as we think, our obligations to God, and forget 30 THE INNER MISSION too often our obligations to our fellows. We make our service of God to consist of the hymns we sing and the pray- ers we offer, and fail to remember that " pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world" (James i : 27). In a word, we too often overlook the intimate relation between the two great commandments. We do not fully recognize the truth taught in the second, that as members of the kingdom we are to serve men as well as God, and that he loves and serves God best who, in Christ's name and for Christ's sake, most lovingly and faithfully discharges his duties to his fellow- men. Therefore we need to pray that the Lord will send forth laborers into His harvest. We need to ask not only that He will make others willing, but that He will also make us willing. We need to beg for increased light, warmer love, larger views of duty, a more self-sacrificing spirit, more ready obedience. Yes, we need to pray for the disposition of which Paul speaks when he says: " Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant" (800X0$ = a bond-servant, a slave, Phil. 2:5-7). And the more we pray for this mind, the more will we be- come like the Master, until with Him we will find ourselves compelled to say: " I must work the works of Him that sent me while it is day; the night cometh, when no man can work " (John 9:4). As touching the question of service, Jesus says of Him- self: " The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many " (Matt. 20 : 28). The terms used in this connection (v. 26, dtdxovo? = servant; v. 27, 3ovlo$ = bond-servant; v. 28, dtaxovtw = to serve) indicate clearly how Jesus regarded Himself and His work, and how He would have those called into His kingdom regard themselves. Paul (Rom. i : i), Peter (2 Peter i : i), James (i : i), Jude (i), and John INTRODUCTION $1 (Rev. 1:1) employ the second of the above terms to desig- nate their relation to Christ as their Lord and Master; and in a similar sense it applies to all Christians. Jesus was in the highest sense the servant both of His heavenly Father (John 6 : 38; 5 : 30; 4 : 34) and of those whom He came to save (Luke 22 : 27). To serve both He laid aside the glory which He had with the Father, entered upon a life of deepest humiliation, of constant self-denial, of incessant toil, of pa- tient sacrifice and suffering, and finally endured the cross, despising the shame. Even the most menial service, such as ordinarily only the slaves of the household were expected to perform, was not beneath Him (John 13:1-17). Again, therefore, He sets the example which all believers, no matter how exalted their position or how high their social standing, must seek to imitate. For the glory of God and the good of others genuine Christian love does not hesitate to perform the meanest and most repulsive service when the necessity for it arises; and only he who is willing and ready to do so is truly great. Among other sayings of Jesus pertinent to our subject are the following: " Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven " (Matt. 5 : 16). Jesus never meant that believers should hide themselves in cloisters. On the contrary, He would have them be lights in the world, reflecting in their good deeds the light they receive from Him, preeminently the Light of the world. And they are to be and do this not to attract attention to themselves, but to demonstrate the heart and life-renewing power of the Gospel; not to have men praise them, but that men may have cause to glorify God. A light cannot help shining. So genuine Christians do good un- consciously, because it is their nature. Light shines without making a noise. So do the good works of believers send forth a silent yet none the less powerful influence. Light warms and enlivens. So do the ministrations of love and mercy in Christ's name bring brightness and cheer into the lives of 32 THE INNER MISSION the suffering and needy. Light is diffusive. Thus the Christian simply by what he is and does becomes a mission- ary to the unenlightened about him. " She hath done what she could" (Mark 14 : 8). It was a sacrifice of sincerest love that evoked this commendation from Jesus. So great was the woman's love that she brought the Lord the costliest gift she had. Love and sacrifice al- ways go together. Where the former is, the latter will not be wanting. Where Christ dwells in the heart, time, means, and comfort will be willingly and abundantly offered for the extension of His kingdom. The best that can be given will not be withheld. From the days of the apostles until now the work of the kingdom has gone forward because men and women, in love to their Lord, have done what they could; and this in numberless cases meant the giving of themselves. " This poor widow hath cast more in than all they which have cast into the treasury. For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living" (Mark 12:43, 44)- Here again the lesson of sacrifice is taught, but in a different way. This woman had no costly offering to bring she was only a poor widow; but she brought " all that she had, even all her living," and this was only two mites. Here was a far greater sacrifice than all those had made who had cast in of their abundance. With the Lord it is not the intrinsic value of the gift that counts, but the motive and the cost to us. Thus the poorest in earthly goods, if rich in faith, may become rich in good works. PART FIRST I. PRELIMINARY HISTORY OF THE INNER MISSION A. In the Early Church FIRST THREE CENTURIES IN the Acts of the Apostles we find in merest outline a picture of the religious and moral life of primitive Chris- tianity. Heathenism had asked the question, What is truth? And Judaism, Who is my neighbor? To both these questions Christianity gave the answer. In the person of Jesus Christ the Truth and Love had become incarnate. The one comprised the substance of all His preaching and teaching; the other was the moving principle of all His works. " And Christians learned to find both in Him; they learned to possess the truth in faith, to practise love in life. The former was their religious, the latter their moral, life. Faith and love constitute the new life which entered into the world with Jesus Christ." 1 To beget faith and establish His kingdom in the world Christ instituted His Word and Sacraments, and gave com- mand to preach the Gospel to every creature (Matt. 28: 19, 20; Mark 16 : 15). By the foolishness of preaching men were to be saved (i Cor. i : 21), and through Word and Sacrament the new life which Jesus brought into the world was to be communicated and find its expression in the lives of believers. Preaching, therefore, became the chief busi- ness of Christ's disciples after His ascension. Beginning ^UTHARDT: The Church, Edinburgh, 1867, p. 69. 33 34 PRELIMINARY HISTORY OF THE INNER MISSION with Peter, through whose sermon on the day of Pentecost three thousand were led to repentance, and were baptized and added to the Church, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers proclaimed the Gospel wherever they went, not only to fit believers more perfectly for service in the work of building up the body of Christ (Eph. 4 : 11-16), but also to win those who were still without. Nor was the privilege of prophesying restricted to a class. The later distinction between clergy and laity was not yet made. As every Christian was a priest (i Peter 2 : 5, 9), every one who had the gift was permitted to speak, but always only within the limits of decency and order (i Cor. chap. 14). Extraordinarily gifted preachers and teachers of this kind were Stephen (Acts, chaps. 6 and 7) and Apollos (Acts 18: 24; 19 : i) in the apostolic Church, and in the post-apostolic Church Origen (185-254) before his ordination as a pres- byter. The fruit of the living faith begotten by the Word was love. The mind of Him in whom the first Christian confessors believed reproduced itself in their minds, His life flowed through their lives. In rich measure they fulfilled His word: " By this shall all men know that ye are my dis- ciples, if ye have love one to another" (John 13:35). A new commandment He had given them, namely, that they love one another, as He had loved them (John 13:34); and this meant self-denial and sacrifice (John 6 : 38; Rom. 15: 3; Eph. 5:2; Matt. 16 : 24; Luke 14 : 27 et al.}, and included all men foes as well as friends (Luke 23:34; Matt. 5: 44, 45), those that had done them evil, as well as those that had done them good (Matt. 5:46, 47; Rom. 12:20), the poor and lowly, as well as the rich and favored (Rom. 12: 16; James 2 :i-io). Here was a new principle, a principle to which Heathenism was a stranger, and which even Judaism with its legalistic spirit failed to understand. " The world before Christ came was a world without love." 1 Especially did the charity of 1 UHLHORN. IN THE EARLY CHURCH 35 post-exilian Judaism lack universality and freedom, and, confining itself within the narrow limits of nationality and legal requirement, become something done only for the sake of reward; while in the writings of pagan authors we find such expressions as these: " He does the beggar but a bad service who gives him meat and drink; for what he gives is lost, and the life of the poor is but prolonged to their own misery." 1 "Canst thou by any means condescend so far as that the poor shall not appear unto thee loathsome?" 2 " Of everything praiseworthy, the generous man takes as his own share the best." 3 Plato contends that all beggars should be driven out; that no one should interest himself in the poor when they are sick; and that when the constitu- tion of a laboring man cannot withstand sickness, he is good only as a subject for experiments. Though here and there in the writings of the heathen philosophers noble sentiments are also expressed; 4 and though the State extended aid to the poor in the free distribution of corn, bread, etc., and those who belonged to the numerous guilds received regular bene- fits, we yet nowhere find pure and genuine charity. The State often gave only to prevent the revolutionary uprising of the populace; the gifts bestowed by rulers were frequently intended only to hide and further ambitious designs; and the benefits conferred by the guilds and societies were shared only by the members. Thus all was characterized by an intense selfishness, a supreme egoism. No wonder that in contrast with this the heathen were impressed when they saw the charity (love) of the Christians, which " seeketh not her own." In the parent congregation at Jerusalem this at first manifested itself in a voluntary community of goods (Acts 2 : 44, 45; 4 : 32, 34, 35), a pro- i PLAUTUS. 2 QTJINTILIAN. ' ARISTOTLE. Thus SENECA: "It belongs to beneficence to give willingly to any one whom I esteem worthy, and to reap joy as the reward of my good deed." "Kindness persisted in subdues at last even the wicked." "I will therefore not weary, but will go on the more diligently, as a good husbandman con- quers the barrenness of his land by a double sowing of seed." "It is not the sign of a noble spirit to give and to lose, but it is the sign of a noble spirit to lose and still to give." 36 PRELIMINARY HISTORY OF THE INNER MISSION cedure which naturally became impracticable when Chris- tianity spread over the whole of Palestine and to other countries. This was, however, " not an external community of goods, as communism imagines, but such a compensation of all inequalities as the free spirit of love could alone effect." l The Church bore the character of an enlarged family. Just as the adult members of a family would use their separate possessions to help one another in their individual needs, so it was then; and as the communal life of the family finds its fullest expression in the common meals, so the Agapce, or love feasts, with which the administration of the Lord's Supper was connected, formed the center of the life of the Jerusalem congregation. When, at a later period, this same congregation needed help the Gentile Christians manifested their love by making liberal collections for it (Rom. 15 : 25, 26; i Cor. 16 : 1-4). At first the free-will offerings were brought to the apostles and were dispensed by them (Acts 4 : 34, 35); but the large accessions to the body of believers soon made a distribution of functions necessary. The murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews " because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration " (Acts 6 : i) furnished the occasion for the institution of a new office to which the apostles com- mitted the distribution of the alms, while they henceforth gave themselves " continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word" (Acts 6:8). This was the beginning of the New Testament diaconate, to which women were also sub- sequently admitted (pp. 86-90). This new office was, however, not meant to relieve individual Christians of the exercise of charity. This must remain a duty of every Christian, no matter how much may be done by the appointed officials and the organized activities of the Church. In the post-apostolic Church until about the time of Constantine Christian charity assumed an organized form and became in the best sense Gemeindepflege, i. e., a congrega- tion as such took care of its needy, deacons, deaconesses, and i LUTHARDT: The Church, p. 74. IN THE EARLY CHURCH 37 godly women of the congregation being employed in the service under the direction and oversight of the bishop (presbyter or pastor). Of institutions of mercy there could yet be no thought, inasmuch as it was a period of persecu- tion. Nor were they needed. Christians were still in the flush of their first love. They were ready and willing to give and sacrifice and be sacrificed, and regarded no personal service of love and mercy too great to render. And as long as the houses of Christians everywhere stood open for the care of needy brethren and the entertainment of strangers, so long institutions of mercy were not required. There were two forms of giving, the one observed at the morning worship, the other at the celebration of the Lord's Supper. For the former a box stood in the place of meeting, in which was placed every week a free-will offering for the poor. The other and usual form of giving was that of the oblations, or offerings at the Lord's Supper, brought by the communicants. These offerings consisted chiefly of natural products. Sufficient bread and wine was reserved for the Communion, and the remainder was set aside for the support of the clergy and the poor. Offerings were also often made on special and joyful occasions, like the day of baptism. What was in these several ways brought together by the Church was at once expended. Reputable widows, for whose maintenance Paul gave special directions (i Tim. 5: 3-16), were cared for during life, and these hi turn again served the Church in various capacities. " Destitute orphans were reared by widows or deaconesses under the supervision of the bishop. The boys learned a trade, and when grown up received the tools necessary for its prosecu- tion. The girls, unless they joined the number of those who remained unmarried (the deaconesses, for instance), were married each to some Christian brother. Often children who had been abandoned by the heathen and the number of such was large were received and given a Christian education together with the orphans. Even slaves were also accepted, their freedom purchased with the church 38 PRELIMINARY HISTORY OF THE INNER MISSION funds, and help afforded them to earn a living. Or, where captives had fallen into the hands of the barbarians, a ransom was paid for their liberation. Those who had been im- prisoned on account of their faith needed special care. They were visited in their prisons and provided for as far as pos- sible." 1 Concerning the treatment of slaves Uhlhorn says further : " No less did Christianity transform the relation between masters and servants. . . . They looked upon each other now as brethren, as Paul writes to Philemon of the slave Onesimus, ' that thou shouldest receive him, not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved.' As members of the Church there was no difference between them. They came to the same house of God, acknowledged one Lord, prayed and sang together, ate of the same bread, and drank from the same cup. . . . The Church, it is true, would not receive a slave without a certificate of good con- duct from his Christian master, but when this condition was complied with he became a full member without any limita- tions. He was even eligible to its offices, not excepting that of bishop. Not infrequently it occurred that a slave was an elder in the same church of which his master was only a member." 2 Nor did a congregation confine its charitable work only to itself. Collections were also made for the suffering elsewhere. We have already seen how the Gentile Christians aided the needy congregation at Jerusalem. In his Second Epistle to the Corinthians Paul devotes two entire chapters (8th and gth) to the subject of contributing to the necessities of the saints. Eusebius informs us that in A. D. 150 the church at Rome sent rich gifts into the provinces to alleviate the miseries of a famine. " An active benevolence," says Uhlhorn again, " extended its net over the whole empire, and wherever a Christian went, even to the borders of bar- barous tribes, and beyond these too, he knew that he was 'UHLHORN: The Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism, p. 202. See also JUSTIN MARTYR'S First Apology, Ante-Nicene Fathers, Amer. ed. Vol. i, ch. Ixvii, p. 1 86. 2 Conflict, pp. 185, 1 86. IN THE EARLY CHURCH 39 near to brethren who were ready at any time to minister to his need." * " The churches of the first two and a half centuries may be regarded as so many compact organiza- tions for charitable work. Its oversight being entrusted to the bishops, there was an immediateness and directness of relief which otherwise were not possible. The close affiliations of the bishops with each other, and the system of circular letters which had been adopted, enabled the entire Church to concentrate its gifts upon a single locality which had been visited with sudden or peculiar distress. More- over, the association of the bishop with sub-helpers, as elders, deacons, the widows and the deaconesses, allowed of faithful and minute supervision, and of a consequent wise and economical administration of the charities."' And still more than this. The benevolence of the Chris- tians also reached the heathen. When, for instance, in times of great pestilence (Carthage, Alexandria) the heathen abandoned their sick, and cast the dying and dead out into the streets, the Christians cared tenderly for those still living and buried the dead. Such deeds of mercy were com- mon in all the departments of charitable activity, and that too " immediately after the Christians had been most hor- ribly persecuted, and while the sword still hung daily over their heads." 3 And in the labor of love in giving and doing all took part according to their abilities and opportunities, even though the Church also had her special organs for it. The love which originally inspired the Christians continued to manifest itself with unabated warmth and vigor beyond the apostolic age. Both Jewish and Gentile Christians gave freely and labored self-denyingly because they realized in fullest measure from what bondage of legalism on the one hand, and of corruption on the other, they had been delivered. They loved much because much had been forgiven and given them. 1 Conflict, p. 203. 2 BENNETT: Christian Archaeology, p. 494. ' Conflict, p. 205. 40 PRELIMINARY HISTORY OF THE INNER MISSION But with all her diffuse liberality the Early Church prac- tised benevolence with a wisdom that modern charitable organizations are in many cases just beginning to learn. Her charity was not indiscriminate and did not tend to pauperize. She obeyed the injunction of Paul: " This we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat," and withdrew from such, as he directed (2 Thess. 3 : 6-10). The thoroughness of her organiza- tion and administration afforded the best possible guarantee against abuses. " First, accurate lists were kept of those who received stated assistance, so that immediate and thor- ough inspection was possible. Second, the aid afforded was usually of the necessaries of life. Third, the support of such as had abandoned a trade, or otherwise suffered peculiar hardship for the sake of Christ, was of a simple and inexpensive nature, thus reducing to a minimum the temptation to deception and fraud. Fourth, the special pains to have orphans of Christian parents adopted by childless couples, and trained in habits of industry, was a most beneficent provision which kept alive the spirit of purest charity, and most effectually guarded against the increase of pauperism. Fifth, the solemn charge to bishops that they be solicitous to aid the truly needy, but at the same time do all in their power to place everybody, so far as possible, in a condition of self-help." l All these, and other particulars that we learn from the Apostolic Constitutions, go to show that the practice of charity in the Early Church had a solid Scriptural foundation; and that where similar principles are put in effect to-day it is merely a return to the old. Thus the work of mercy continued to be administered by and through the congregations down to the close of the third century. Deacons, deaconesses, volunteers, and Chris- tians in general all did their duty, following faithfully the admonitions and directions of their presbyters and bishops. And here we find the pattern for much of the work which churches of to-day ought to do; and when once the needs of BENNETT: Christian Archeology, p. 495- IN THE EARLY CHURCH 41 to-day are met by them as were the needs of those days, then may we also look for like results. Among those who during this early period were espe- cially distinguished for their benevolence were Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, and Laurentius, deacon at Rome, both of whom suffered martyrdom in 258. Immediately after his conversion, Cyprian, who was a man of wealth, gave part of his fortune to the poor. During the Decian persecution, when he was already bishop, he did the same. And when many Christians were made prisoners of war in Numidia, and the bishops of that country applied to him for help, he ordered a collection in his congregation for their ransom, which yielded a large sum. Of Laurentius it is said that when the treasures of his church were demanded from him, he brought forward the sick, the poor, and the orphaned of his congregation and said: " These are my treasures." A. D. 300 TO 600 In the period lying between A. D. 300 and 600 many changes took place. A marked distinction now began to be made between ciergy and laity, preaching was almost entirely restricted to the former, and the administration of the Church's charities took on a greatly altered form. The cessation of persecution, the adoption of Christianity as the religion of the Empire, the influx of the masses into the Church, who too often sought her only for the sake of temporal advantage, and who, while themselves strongly influenced by the Church, in turn also influenced her these are the characteristic features of this period. It was only natural that the powerful changes induced by these features should also affect the charities of the Church to a marked degree. In place of comparatively small num- bers, the Church now had the care of multitudes on her hands. The more she became a power in the life of the people, the more they turned to her for help in all manner of needs. Especially great were the demands entailed by the constantly 42 PRELIMINARY HISTORY OF THE INNER MISSION increasing poverty of the masses, for which a multitude of causes in the decaying Empire were responsible. To meet new and growing demands it became necessary for the Church to adapt herself to the changed conditions. This she did in part by reconstructing congregational methods, and in part by establishing institutions of mercy; and it is a special char- acteristic of this period that for the first time in the Church's history congregational and institutional charity are found side by side. Congregational methods were now adapted to meet larger needs. The latter made larger contributions necessary. Nor were these wanting. Gifts, legacies, and endowments flowed into the coffers of the Church in rich profusion. Unfortunately, however, it was no longer always the simple love of Christ that inspired benevolence, and made it a blessed service which each believer delighted to render for His sake, without hope of reward, as was the case in the martyr period. The doctrine of merit by good works was already gaining strength; the simple congregational epis- copate was rapidly giving way to the more formal and stately diocesan government; a special priesthood, with functions of peculiar sanctity, was beginning to take the place of the priesthood of all believers, and all this " tended to tarnish the charities of the Church, ... to confound pure charity with a kind of perfunctory service which was delegated to chosen officials who must deal with masses rather than with individual sufferers." 1 How impossible it was at this time to individualize work may be seen in the case of the congre- gation at Constantinople, which numbered 100,000 souls. Though one hundred deacons and forty deaconesses were at work in it, what were these among so many? To aid congregations in the general work institutions were also established, and from the last half of the fourth to the sixth century multiplied rapidly in number. They were of two kinds: monasteries and hospitals. The former were places of refuge for the needy of almost every class, but i BENNETT: Christian Archeology, p. 498. IN THE EARLY CHURCH 43 especially for the poor; the latter at first opened their doors not only to the sick, but also to the poor, to widows and orphans, to homeless strangers, etc. Among those who during this period were most active in the work of mercy, by word and act, preaching, giving, founding institutions and the like, may be mentioned Ephraim, the most celebrated poet, exegete, and preacher of the national Syrian Church, who founded a hospital at Edessa; Basil the Great, bishop of Caesarea, who devoted all his property to the poor, and established the great colony of mercy at Caesarea; Chrysostom, who ministered to the large congregation at Constantinople, erected two hospitals, and daily maintained 7700 poor people; the noble deaconess Olympias, 1 the friend of Chrysostom; Ambrose, bishop of Milan; Augustine, bishop of Hippo Regius; Jerome; and Gregory the Great, bishop of Rome. In spite of the extraordinary efforts made by the Church to cope with the growing needs of this period, and much as she did to alleviate them, she yet did not succeed in overcom- ing them. This was no doubt in very great measure due to the adverse conditions produced by the rapid decay of Graeco-Roman civilization, but the Church herself was in part to blame. She departed from her earlier practice and committed the fatal mistake, against which all charity workers must constantly be on their guard to-day, namely, that of extending aid indiscriminately to all who asked, without investigation, and altogether forgetful of the apos- tolic injunction that he that will not work, when he can, should not eat. This is the mistake that is always made where charity work is not, and cannot, be individualized; 1 Left a rich and beautiful widow at eighteen, the Emperor Theodosius insisted on marrying her to a relative of his. This she refused to do, and became a deaconess. The Emperor thereupon deprived her of her property, for which she only thanked him, inasmuch as it relieved her of many cares and anxieties. When the Emperor found that he could not move her, he restored her property, which she now devoted entirely to the work of mercy with the most liberal hand, in which service she was guided by the pastoral advice of Chrysostom. When the latter was banished she continued her good work at Constantinople, and was in constant correspondence with the exiled bishop. She died in 420. 44 PRELIMINARY HISTORY OF THE INNER MISSION and where it is made, the inevitable result is that idleness and mendicancy are encouraged, and paupers are manufactured by wholesale. B. In the Mediaeval Church . A. D. 600 TO 1500 During the Middle Ages the dearth of preaching by the clergy no less than the growing corruption in doctrine and life became responsible for the revival here and there of lay preaching. In France, Peter Waldus, of Lyons, and his followers still known as the Waldenses began to preach in the streets, in houses, and even in the churches of their native city. When they were finally expelled they traveled two by two over the southern part of France, penetrated into Switzerland and northern Italy, and preached as they went. In England Wiclif sent out lay preachers who, going from place to place, opened the Scriptures which their leader had translated wherever they found hearers. In Italy it was St. Francis of Assisi who, as a layman, became famous as a preacher, and who founded the order of preaching monks which bears his name. In the domain of benevolence it is the special characteristic of this period that congregational charity as such ceased entirely, and all benevolent work came to be done through the medium of innumerable institutions and orders that sprang up within the Church. The Church with her insti- tutions and orders stood between the giver and the recipient. The Church took and the Church gave. Congregational and individual benevolence had become a thing of the past. Retirement from the world was looked upon as the only way in which to reach a high standard of Christian living, yet " too frequently the cloisters became the seats of dissolute- ness, debauchery, idleness, crimes, and unnatural vices/' 1 especially so towards the close of this period. The diaconate 1 KURTZ: Church History. American ed. Vol. i, p. 472, IN THE MEDIAEVAL CHURCH 45 ceased to be a ministry of mercy the deacons becoming a sub-order of the clergy to serve at the altar, the deaconesses turning into nuns. The doctrine of merit by good works was now fully established and became the chief impelling motive in the work of mercy. The possession of property was re- garded as an incumbrance and temptation, and its devotion to the Church as a work of extraordinary sanctity on the part of the giver. To beg was looked upon as a virtue, inasmuch as it afforded an opportunity to bestow alms as a work of expiation. Thus charity became essentially selfish and degenerated into almsgiving for the benefit of the one who gave. The result, on the one hand, was a most marvelous growth in the number and wealth of institutions and orders, and, on the other, a constantly growing army of mendicants. Every monastery now had a hospital, but not in the modern sense. This consisted of an infirmary for the monks, nuns, and other inmates of the cloister, in which these were nursed when sick, and from which a certain amount of relief for the sick went out into the neighborhood; a hospice for the enter- tainment of the better class of travelers and strangers, such as priests, monks, messengers, etc. ; and the hospitale pauperum, or shelter for the poor, in which paupers and needy ones of every kind found relief. For lepers there were special hospitals, leprosy having been introduced into Europe and widely disseminated through the Crusades; and the number of such hospitals it is said at one time reached 19,000. When toward the close of the Middle Ages a reaction set in against the abuses which had grown up, numerous municipal hospi- tals also began to be established, altogether disassociated from Church control. Hospitallers, or Hospital Brethren, " is the common name of all those associations of laymen, monks, canons, and knights which devoted themselves to nursing the sick and the poor in the hospitals, while at the same time observing certain monastic practices." 1 Some of these orders, like the Knights 1 SCHAFF-HERZOG : Encyclopedia. First ed. Vol. ii, p. 1025. 46 PRELIMINARY HISTORY OF THE INNER MISSION of St. John and the Teutonic Knights, combined the pro- fession of monasticism with knighthood, and originated with the Crusades. " There were also hospital sisters; and the female associations originating in the twelfth century achieved a still greater success than the male ones. They united to the duty of nursing the sick and the poor also that of educating young girls, especially orphans, and rescuing fallen women." * The Beghards and Beguines and the Brethren and Sisters of the Common Life were associations or communities the members of which were not under any monastic constraint, but who voluntarily agreed to retire from the world that they might devote themselves more fully to their own spiritual advancement and to labors of Christian love. It was a special characteristic of the Brethren and Sisters of the Common Life that they condemned begging, placed a high estimate on work, and concerned themselves about the spiritual as well as the temporal well-being of those to whom they ministered. Of individuals who during the Middle Ages by precept and example greatly encouraged and aided the work of mercy should be mentioned the Emperor Charlemagne (742-814); St. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226); and St. Elizabeth (1207-1231), the wife of Ludwig, Land- grave of Thuringia. Through her many institutions and orders the Church of the Middle Ages unquestionably relieved a vast amount of human misery, in many cases too with a measure of self- sacrifice that must call forth our admiration. But the same ecclesiastical influence that originated these agencies and made them great was also responsible for their degeneration. Besides the change hi motives growing out of increasing corruption in doctrine, the Church had totally lost the finely devised congregational system of dispensing charity to which the Christians of the first centuries were accustomed. Institutions and orders were now the almoners, but in a detached and indiscriminate way, without coordination and investigation. And as they became richer and more worldly 1 SCHAFF-HERZOG : Encyclopaedia. First ed. Vol. ii, p. 1025. IN THE REFORMATION ERA AND BEYOND 47 they also became increasingly powerless to deal intelligently and effectively with a problem whose solution requires the largest measure of sanctified wisdom. C. In the Reformation Era and Beyond In accordance with its formal principle that the Holy Scriptures are the only infallible source and rule of faith and practice, the Reformation again assigned to preaching, which during the Middle Ages had occupied a very subordin- ate place in public worship, the place, importance, and func- tion that it had in the Early Church. " Infinitely much did the Reformation owe to the preaching of the Gospel; without this it would never have been begun, or if begun, not have been carried to completion." * Luther himself was the great preacher of the Reformation. His preaching " introduced and long gave a tone to a new era, while at the same time it kindled new light and life in the souls of individuals, and poured into the minds of the desponding the consolations of Divine grace." 2 Luther had learned from the Scriptures and experienced in his own heart that man is saved by grace, through faith, solely on the ground of the all-sufficient merits of Christ; and that the sinner in seeking salvation through Christ, and union with Him, can have direct access to the throne of grace, without priestly and saintly intercession. To set forth these great fundamental truths of the Gospel was in his mind the chief business of the Church's ministry. Nor was only the ministry to do so. That the laity might read and learn for themselves he gave them the Bible in the vernacular. That they might further- more have a handy and simple compendium of Scripture truth he prepared his Small Catechism. And that no one might remain ignorant of the truth which saves, he was will- ing under very extraordinary circumstances even to permit a layman to preach (p. 114). 1 VAN OOSTERZEE: Practical Theology, p. 114. 2 LUTHARDT: The Saving Truths of Christianity, p. 269. 48 PRELIMINARY HISTORY OF THE INNER MISSION We have already seen that with the corruption in doctrine during the Middle Ages had also come a corresponding degeneration in the work of mercy. The very foundation upon which it rested had become a false one. Righteousness by works was its chief inspiration. Its exercise had become a business for personal spiritual advantage; gifts to the Church for charitable purposes were " merely a method of securing a satisfactory balance on the books of the recording angel, a way of getting out of purgatory or of getting others out"; 1 and the huge funds thus given and bestowed, instead of substantially improving conditions, only helped to foster indolence, imposture, and pauperism. As in matters of faith, so in the domain of mercy, the Reformers, therefore, found it necessary to lay a new founda- tion; and that foundation was none other than the old one the New Testament doctrine of justification by faith. Men had to be taught again that faith is the appropriation of the merit of Christ; that only such faith saves; that genuine brotherly love is found only where this faith is found; that all good works are but the fruit of this faith and not in them- selves meritorious; that poverty does not commend one to God; that begging is not a virtue; and that Christian service does not consist in retirement from the world, but in being faithful stewards of the manifold gifts of God in whatever station of life one may find himself. For the practical application of these principles many of the Church Orders gave special directions. To do away as much as possible with begging and indiscriminate giving they provided that all gifts, legacies, offerings, etc., for benevolent purposes were to flow into a common treasury, to be jointly administered by the ecclesiastical and civil authorities. In accordance with Acts 6 those chosen to do so were to be men " of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom " chiefly laymen, who were to meet regularly, investigate carefully, and extend aid only where actually needed. Parents who sent their children out to beg were 1 WARNER: American Charities, p. 8. IN THE REFORMATION ERA AND BEYOND 49 to be punished, orphans and neglected children were to be cared for, the sick in hospitals and infirmaries visited, the poor relieved as long as necessary, and various other chari- table offices performed. 1 Thus an effort was made to return again, to an extent at least, to the practice of the Early Church, or, in other words, to restore Gemeindepflege (p. 36). But pure congregational charity in its primitive sense could not again be fully realized, owing partly to the fact that in the administration of charity, as in other things, the func- tions of Church and State were not strictly kept apart; and perhaps still more because properly qualified persons for such work could not always be had. Luther himself greatly desired the restoration of the primitive diaconate as a ministry of mercy and the helping hand of the pastoral office. " It were well," he said, "if we had the right kind of people to begin with, to divide a city into four or five districts, and to assign to each district a pastor and several deacons, who would supply it with preaching, distribute alms, visit the sick, and see to it that no one suffered want. But we do not have the persons for it. I therefore fear to undertake it until our Lord God shall make Christians." Here there was a want which only the last century began to supply (pp. 91-97). Meanwhile the administration of charity passed largely into the hands of the State. It was different in the Reformed churches of France, the Netherlands, and the Lower Rhine. These established a well-organized parish diaconate, and employed deacons and deaconesses in numerous forms of charitable work. In the Roman Catholic Church Vincent de Paul (1576-1660) in 1634 founded the now extensive and active order of Sisters of Charity, These are not nuns. After a novitiate of five years they take a vow which binds them only for a year, and is annually renewed. The spirit of their remarkably liberal discipline is indicated in the words of the founder: "Your convent must be the house of the sick; your cell, the chamber 1 As an illustration see the Wurttemberger Kastenordnung of 1536, in RlCH- TER: Die Evangdischen Kirchenordnungen. Vol. i, p. 261. 50 PRELIMINARY HISTORY OF THE INNER MISSION of suffering; your chapel, the parish church; your cloister, the streets of the city or the wards of the hospital; your rule, the general vow of obedience; your grille, the fear of God; your veil, to shut out the world, holy modesty." Vin- cent de Paul also established the order of Mission Priests (Lazarists), who traveled over the country ministering to the souls and bodies of men. In the Protestant Church of Germany the first half of the seventeenth century was altogether unfavorable to the development of even a fair measure of activity in the field of practical Christianity. A highly scholastic theology had to a great extent externalized religion, and the Thirty Years' War had devastated the country not only physically, but spiritually and morally as well. A change came with the rise of Pietism. Its leaders, Philip Jacob Spener (1635- 1705) and August Hermann Francke (1663-1727), while professing entire harmony with the doctrines maintained in the Lutheran Confessions, insisted on more than a mere intellectual apprehension of these as a correct exhibit of revealed truth. They would have these doctrines so received and applied as to result in genuine piety. As the Reformation protested against Romish externalism and self-righteousness, restored the life-giving Gospel, and re- vived again the thought of an active, participating congre- gation of living believers, so the movement promoted by Spener and Francke was the reaction against ossified or- thodoxy and a lifeless acceptance of Gospel truth, and laid special stress on the spiritual renewal of the individual. The latter, however, in the end proved to be the weakness of Pietism. While the design in the beginning was to revive an entire congregation by reviving its component parts an undertaking which, if consistently carried out, could only have resulted in the highest good, the later Pietism, as it became increasingly subjective and exclusive, completely lost sight of the congregation and the Church as such, gath- ered its adherents together for worship and the study of the Scriptures in small private assemblies (conventicles), grew IN THE REFORMATION ERA AND BEYOND 51 indifferent towards purity of doctrine, and fell into many extravagances both in speech and life. Thus Pietism in the end fostered narrowness and spiritual pride, became a nursery of fanaticism and sectarianism, failed to affect the Church and society as a whole, and by its intense subjectivism prepared the way for Rationalism. And yet hi its earlier and purer form it revived and set in motion forces that even Rationalism could not destroy, and that make themselves felt the world over to this very day. It emphasized the necessity of a living faith, labored to promote personal piety, laid renewed stress on the doctrine of the universal priesthood of believers, and demanded that all who call themselves the children of God should manifest their faith by their love. It was this " faith which worketh by love " that gave birth to the Francke Institutions at Halle (p. 146), and made these a center of manifold and widespread Christian activities. " The students, teachers, and inspectors from these schools, as well as those who attended the university, proceeded from Halle in all direc- tions, to diffuse the spirit they had acquired there. In 1705 Ziegenbalg and Pliitschau went forth as the pioneer mis- sionaries to India, to be followed by others from Halle, greatest of whom were Schultze and Christian Frederick Schwartz (1726-1798). Callenberg became active in efforts to convert the Jews and Mohammedans. Zinzendorf in- spired the Moravians with the zeal which was enkindled at Halle, hi which he was ably supported by Bishop Spangen- berg, also from Halle. Encouraged by Francke, his friend, Baron von Canstein, founded his Bible Institution at Halle in 1712, the forerunner by nearly a century of the Bible societies of later times. Halle sent its alumni to England, who, as pastors in the Royal Chapel and other Lutheran churches, exerted a wide influence upon the House of Hanover, that had succeeded to the English throne, and were promi- nent agents in many important Christian enterprises. From Halle, Boltzius and Gronau went to Georgia, and Muhlen- berg, with a large number who followed him, to Pennsylvania. 52 PRELIMINARY HISTORY OF THE INNER MISSION From the printing establishment in the Halle institutions were issued those full reports of the missions, both in India and in America, so highly prized, even to-day, for their full accounts of the humble efforts made by heroic men to carry the knowledge of God to the ends of the earth." 1 To Baron von Canstein (1667-1719), mentioned above, belongs the credit of first having devised a plan for supply- ing the poor with the Scriptures at a nominal price. In Berlin he became acquainted with Spener, whose influence on his future life was decisive, and who brought him into intimate relations with Francke and his institutions. In 1710 he issued a small publication in which he undertook to show that by printing from types which were kept standing the New Testament could be sold for two groschen (about five cents), and the entire Bible for six. To actualize this plan he himself provided the capital, partly out of his own means and partly by collections. In 1712 the first edition of the New Testament appeared in an issue of 5000 copies, and in the following year the entire Bible. Since then the Canstein Bible Institution has published and circulated over seven million Bibles and New Testaments. Pietism had a special fondness for the institutional form of work, particularly so with children. The Francke Insti- tutions became the embodiment of this idea, and orphans' homes patterned after the one at Halle sprang into existence in all parts of Germany. But the narrowness which charac- terized Pietism in many other respects also made itself felt even with children. Though in their instruction much attention was given to secular and practical branches, the constant introspection to which the children were admon- ished, the free prayers they were asked to offer, the unending religious exercises in which they were obliged to participate, the close supervision to which they were subjected, and the want of innocent recreation, all tended to produce an un- healthy, hot-house species of piety. Thus Francke, in his concern for the spiritual welfare of his orphans, would not 1 JACOBS: American Church History Series. Vol. iv, pp. 138, 139. IN THE REFORMATION ERA AND BEYOND 53 even permit them to play ball; and at their one so-called " recreation hour " a week, a few hymns were sung, prayer was offered, the Gospel or Epistle for the following Sunday was explained, and in conclusion the children were treated to rolls and fruit! But, as we shall see later, such a miscon- ception of the child-nature and its requirements was soon bound to give way to a better understanding and more in- telligent methods. Whatever other forces Pietism in its purest form may have started, it can nevertheless hardly be regarded as the real source of the Inner Mission of the last century, as is some- times claimed. For this contention Wurster assigns the fol- lowing reasons: 1 1. Pietism had a one-sided, false, ascetic conception of the relation between Christianity and the world. In its genuine form it regarded civil and political life, art, and the like as spheres in which those who would be truly godly can have no interest, inasmuch as contact with them is calculated to hinder rather than to promote piety. Such one-sidedness could not fail to make its unfavorable influence felt, espe- cially so in the work of education (Erziehungsthatigkeit} , and thus retard the development of a system of popular education on a Christian basis. 2. In proportion as it made private edification in small circles and personal certitude of salvation its aim, it failed to regard the entire Christian congregation as the object and still more as the subject of love's labors. The circles which supported the charitable work of Pietism were too narrow. 3. The chief thought of Pietism was the ecclesiola in ecclesia, not the Church of the populace, the coetus wcatorum. The conversion of the individual was the purpose of Francke's methods; and though Spener, through his collegia pietatis, aimed to vitalize the congregation and the community at large, the movement nevertheless remained confined to the conventicle system. 1 Die Lehre von der Inneren Mission, pp. 18, 19. 54 THE INNER MISSION IN ITS MODERN FORM II. THE INNER MISSION IN ITS MODERN FORM A. Its Immediate Antecedents The beginnings of the Inner Mission movement in its modern form may be traced to the latter part of the eight- eenth and the first part of the nineteenth centuries. The condition of Germany during this period was deplorable in the extreme. Politically it was a dismembered country; economically it had been desolated by the Napoleonic wars which everywhere left physical misery and destitution in their wake; socially it was beginning to undergo those changes for the worse which the rapid accumulation and congestion of population in the cities is always sure to bring about; while religiously all classes felt the influence of the then dominant Rationalism. Nevertheless here and there were found those who still cherished the old faith, and who gave evidence of its transforming power in their lives. To bring these into union of effort against the reigning unbelief, and to provide an agency for combating ills with which society and the Church as then constituted found themselves unable to cope this was the thought in the mind of JOHANN AUGUST URLSPERGER (Nov. 25, iy28-Dec. i, 1806), pastor at Augs- burg. Relinquishing his pastorate in 1 7 76, and first traveling over England, Holland, Germany and Switzerland in the in- terest of a common movement, he effected the organization of the Society for the Promotion of Pure Doctrine and Genuine Piety at Basel, in 1780, later known as the Christianity Society. This was patterned after the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (1698) in England, and a similar society in Sweden. Branch societies were formed in various centers, and in 1784 a periodical was begun (Sammlungen filr Lieb- haber christlicher Wahrheit und Gottseligkeit) , which be- came the organ of the society. Though it was Urlsperger's original intention by means of lectures, publications, etc., of an apologetic character to make the society chiefly a ITS IMMEDIATE ANTECEDENTS 55 defender of the faith, it gradually turned its efforts more towards missionary and philanthropic work. Out of it grew the Basel Bible Society (1804), the Basel Missionary Society (1815), the institution for neglected children at Beuggen (1820), the deaf and dumb asylum at Riehen (1838), and other enterprises in and about Basel, in the creation of which CHRISTIAN FRIEDRICH SPITTLER (April 12, 1782-Dec. 8, 1867), for many years secretary of the society, was espe- cially active. About this time other movements also began to take shape. To combat Rationalism and nourish faith, provision was made to give the printed Word the widest possible circula- tion, and in addition to the already existing Canstein Bible Institution and the Basel Society, a whole series of Bible societies was organized, all of which have been active ever since. Thus the Wurttemberg, 1812; Prussian, 1814; Saxon, 1814; Bergische, 1815; Schleswig-Holstein, 1815 until 1830 a total of 31. Following the example of England, tract societies for the dissemination of Christian literature in cheap, popular form were founded. From 1811 to 1833 five such came into ex- istence (North German, 1811; Wupperthal, 1814; Prussian, 1814; Lower Saxon, 1820; Calwer, 1833), to which have since been added other agencies having the same object in view. During this period work in behalf of neglected, dependent and delinquent children also began to receive considerable attention (pp. 144, 167); the Kleinkinderschule (p. 136) had its inception; the work of diaspora missions had its first representative; new experiments in poor relief were attempted; the first great improvements in the treatment and care of prisoners and discharged convicts were made; the sick and defective awakened more sympathetic interest; the city mission was instituted; and lay preaching here and there again came into vogue. Among those who, besides Urlsperger and Spittler, figured conspicuously in these different forms of work were the following: 56 THE INNER MISSION IN ITS MODERN FORM JOHANN TOBIAS KIESSLING (Nov. 3, i743-Feb. 27, 1824), a merchant of Nuremberg. Twice a year during half a century he was obliged to make business trips into Austria. Here he learned to know the spiritual destitution of his brethren in the faith, scattered as they were among Roman Catholics; and he determined to relieve them to the extent of his ability. On his visits he personally ministered to them in spiritual things, and during the rest of the year, besides contributing liberally himself, he gathered large sums of money from his business friends and from his associates in the Christianity Society, with which to build churches, school-houses, and parsonages. In addition he was also active in securing efficient pastors for the scattered sheep, aided Austrian students for the ministry, and made liberal donations of Bibles and devotional literature. In all these operations he thus became a forerunner of the Gustav- Adolf Society (p. 156). JOHANN HEINRICH PESTALOZZI (Jan. 12, iy46-Feb. 17, 1827), the reformer of modern pedagogy, was the son of a physician at Zurich. He first studied theology, then juris- prudence, but as neither appealed to him he turned his atten- tion to educational and philanthropic work. The former brought him eminence; in the latter he failed, having, as he himself said, an " incomparable incapacity for organiza- tion." In 1775 he opened a species of poor school at Neuhof, in which the children maintained themselves by manual labor between the hours of instruction. Educationally this was a great success, but as the school could not be made self-supporting Pestalozzi was obliged to close it in 1780. He then devoted himself for eight years to literature, and attracted much attention by his writings. In 1798 he made another institutional experiment. Into a deserted convent at Stanz he gathered eighty children who had been orphaned through the French invasion of Switzerland, and who, it is said, " after the lapse of a few months, looked physically, intellectually, and morally as if they had gone through a transformation mill." Here Pestalozzi found opportunity ITS IMMEDIATE ANTECEDENTS 57 for the exercise of his intense love. He was everything to the children father, teacher, and servant; but in 1799 the French put an end to the institution by taking possession of the place for hospital purposes. Pestalozzi then became a teacher at Burgdorf, and here he opened a school of his own in 1800. Five years later he removed it to Yverdon on the Lake of Neufchatel, where, during the next ten years, it served to establish Pestalozzi's reputation as an educator. But his lack of administrative talent, dissensions among his teachers, and other causes compelled him to close the school in 1825. The great idea which lay at the basis of Pestalozzi's method -of intellectual instruction was that " nothing should be treated of except in a concrete way. Objects themselves became in his hands the subject of lessons tending to the development of the observing and reasoning powers not lessons about objects." With this he sought to combine moral and religious training; but as he was a naturalist in religion, though not opposed to Chris- tianity, his work in this respect was a failure. When toward the close of his life he visited Zeller's institution at Beuggen, and there saw what living faith and specifically Christian training were accomplishing, he exclaimed: "This is what I wanted to bring about." CHRISTIAN HEINRICH ZELLER (March 29, i799~May 18, 1860), by birth a Wiirttemberger, likewise studied jurispru- dence, but became a private tutor, and subsequently a school principal and inspector. In 1820 he was called to the super- intendency of the newly-established child-saving institution at Beuggen, near Basel, where, on his coming, this inscrip- tion greeted him: " Welcome, brother; build the institution upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone." This program he actualized with distinguished success during the forty years he remained with the institution. Though deeply in- terested in other departments of Christian work, he esteemed it his duty to give himself with unwearied diligence to his own particular sphere of labor. And he did so with such 58 THE INNER MISSION IN ITS MODERN FORM genuine simplicity that Professor Auberlen said at his funeral: " His greatness consisted in this, that he remained humble." JOHANN FRIEDRICH O BERLIN (Aug. 31, 1740- June i, 1826) was one of the first to demonstrate how the spiritual and temporal welfare of people can be simultaneously promoted. In 1767, several years after graduating from the University of Strassburg, he was appointed pastor at Waldbach in the Steinthal, a barren tract on the borders of Alsace and Lorraine. Here he found a densely ignorant and wretchedly poor people. He at once set himself to work to improve their condition. Besides preaching the Gospel most effectively, "he built school-houses, introduced improved methods of agriculture, went at the head of the people with spade and hoe to build roads and erect bridges, established stores, savings banks, and agricultural associations for the distri- bution of prizes, induced the heads of factories to remove to the Steinthal, etc. Liberal himself, he was very successful in exciting the liberality of others for his enterprises, even beyond the limits of his own parish. In the pulpit and as a pastor his influence was patriarchal. His sermons were distinguished by unbounded sympathy for the needs of his hearers, and simplicity." 1 The twofold result of such labors was that the Steinthal " began to blossom as the rose," and its people were raised from semi-barbarism to a high plane of Christian living; nor has its prosperity suffered interruption since Oberlin's death. Oberlin was also the originator of the Kleinkinderschule (p. 136). JOHANNES FALK (Oct. 28, i768-Feb. 14, 1826), of Danzig, studied theology for a time, then turned to literature, and settled at Weimar. Moved by the distress occasioned by the Napoleonic wars he founded the Society of Friends in Need, and began his "Lutherhof " at Weimar (1821) for orphaned and neglected children. In both undertakings Falk was in- spired by genuine missionary zeal. " We would save souls and convert the heathen, not in Asia and Africa, but in our own midst," he wrote. And again: " In the pursuit of this ISCHAFF-HERZOG: Encyclopedia, ist ed. Vol. iii. ITS IMMEDIATE ANTECEDENTS 59 object we forge all our chains from within." In his dealings with children he had no use for locks and bolts. The love born of faith was his all-conquering power; and the results he achieved were the sufficient justification of this principle. COUNT ADELBERT VON DER RECKE-VOLMARSTEIN (May 28, i79i-Nov. 10, 1878), likewise deeply moved by the miseries Which the Napoleonic wars entailed, founded the institution for children at Overdyk, Westphalia. When the quarters at this place became too contracted, he purchased the Trap- pist Monastery Diissethal, near Dusseldorf, whose massive buildings and extensive grounds offered superior advantages. After twenty-five years of service, during which he was faithfully aided by his wife, broken health compelled him to retire to his estate in Kraschnitz, where, at the age of seventy, he founded the deaconess house, and a large institution for the feeble-minded and epileptic. BARON VON KOTTWITZ (Sept. 2, i757~May 13, 1843), born in Silesia, was in his youth a page of Frederick the Great, and later an army officer and a man of the world. By association with the Moravians he became interested in the things that are spiritual and eternal, and thenceforth lived and labored for others. In 1806, when there was much distress among the laboring classes, he gathered hundreds of men into some unused barracks at Berlin, provided work and bread for them, and at the same time brought them the Word and Bread of Life. For ten years he lived among them as a preacher of righteousness in word and act. Even when the city relieved him of their care he did not forsake them, but until the day of his death remained with those for whom he had lived and labored so long. In the circle in which von Kottwitz other- wise moved were men like Tholuck, Otto von Gerlach, Neander, Stier, and Wichern, upon all of whom his conse- crated personality exercised a profound influence. His deeply religious nature is illustrated by a conversation he once had with Fichte, the philosopher. The latter had said: " The child prays, but the man wills." To this von Kott- witz replied: " Professor, I have six hundred men dependent 60 THE INNER MISSION IN ITS MODERN FORM on me for bread, and when I do not know where to get it, the only thing I can do is to pray." For a moment Fichte was speechless, and then, with tear-moistened cheeks, he an- swered: " Yes, dear Baron, my philosophy does not reach that far." AMALIE SIEVE KING (July 25, i794~April i, 1859), known as " the Hamburg Tabitha," in 1823 conceived the idea of forming a Protestant sisterhood, patterned somewhat after the Sisters of Charity of the Roman Catholic Church. In 1831, when the cholera appeared in Hamburg, she made an effort to put her plans into execution. She issued an appeal in which she entreated others of like mind to join with her in nursing the sick. When no one responded she undertook the work alone, soon became the superintendent of the cholera hospital, and by her devotion to duty earned the undying respect and confidence of the community. Aban- doning the idea of a sisterhood, she organized, in 1832, a women's society for the care of the sick and poor of her native city, which is still in existence, and which has served as the model for many similar societies in other parts of Germany. When Fliedner later began his work at Kaiserswerth he made an effort to win her for the deaconess cause; but she would not consent to relinquish the work to which she believed herself called of God at Hamburg. JOHN HOWARD (Sept. 3, 17 26- Jan. 20, 1790), the apostle of prison reform. Interest in prisons and prisoners was first awakened in this eminent English philanthropist by his own experiences as a prisoner. On his way to Lisbon in 1756 the vessel on which he was a passenger was captured by a French privateer, and he was thrown into a dungeon, first at Brest and then at Morlaix, where, in common with others, he was obliged to suffer the greatest barbarities. On his release he returned to England, where he remained until after the death of his second wife in 1765. In 1769 he began his series of tours on the Continent and in Great Britain, on which he made the most careful investigation into the condition of prisons, gathered numerous details, of the most shocking ITS IMMEDIATE ANTECEDENTS 6l character, and everywhere endeavored to inculcate the thought that the ultimate purpose of imprisonment must be the refor- mation of the convict. Only in Belgium and Holland did he find better conditions; and here he learned to know the beneficent results of labor, instruction, and religious exercises in prisons. In 1785 Howard also began to study methods for suppress- ing the plague. On a second trip to the Continent for this purpose, he was himself stricken, and died at Cherson, on the Black Sea. A monument eulogizing the deceased was placed in St. Paul's Cathedral, London. To Howard belongs the credit of having inaugurated the great reforms which have made the present prison system of most countries so vastly different from what it was a century ago. ELIZABETH FRY (Feb. 2, i78o-Sept. 7, 1845), after John Howard, the chief promoter of prison reform in Europe, was the daughter of John Gurney, a Friend, and was born near Norwich, England. Somewhat worldly minded in early life, her religious character did not begin to assume shape until her eighteenth year, at which time she was profoundly impressed by the preaching of an American Friend, William Savery. In August, 1800, she married Joseph Fry, a London merchant. Amid increasing family cares she still found time to look after the poor and the neglected of the neighborhood. Early in 1813 she made her first visits to Newgate Prison, and was deeply moved by the deplorable physical, mental, and moral condition in which she found the three hundred women incarcerated there. After several years of personal work among them she formed the Association for the Im- provement of the Female Prisoners in Newgate in April, 1817, whose objects included the entire separation of the sexes, classification of criminals, female supervision for women, and adequate provision for their religious and secular instruction, as also for their useful employment. Through the efforts of the Association, and largely of Mrs. Fry herself, such radical changes for the better were effected, and so many depraved characters were permanently reformed, that the 62 THE INNER MISSION IN ITS MODERN FORM work done at Newgate began to attract general attention. Similar societies were organized in other parts of Great Britain and on the Continent. In 1818 Mrs. Fry, with her brother, visited the prisons of Northern England and Scot- land, and in 1827 those of Ireland. From 1838 to 1843 she made five trips to the Continent for the same purpose; whilst in 1839 her efforts brought about the formation of a society for the care of discharged convicts and for the visita- tion of vessels that transported convicts to the colonies. Among the eminent men of Germany influenced by Mrs. Fry were Frederick William IV., Bunsen, Fliedner, and Wichern. Her motto was " Charity to the soul is the soul of charity," and she has very properly been called the " female Howard." THOMAS CHALMERS (March 17, i78o-May 31, 1847), the eminent Scotch divine, comes to notice here chiefly because of his labors in behalf of the poor. It was during his pastorate in St. John's parish, Glasgow (1819-1823), that he first put his plans into execution. He did away with public relief, and made it the Christian duty of his parishioners to provide for the care of the poor in their midst through voluntary contributions. The parish was made up chiefly of weavers, laborers, factory workers, and other operatives. " Of its 2000 families," says the Rev. Dr. Hanna, his son-in-law and biographer, " more than 800 had no connection with any Christian church, while the number of its uneducated children was countless. He broke up his parish into 25 districts, each of which he placed under separate management, and estab- lished two week-day schools, and between 40 and 50 local Sabbath-schools, for the instruction of the children of the poorer and neglected classes, more than 1000 of whom attended. In a multitude of other ways he sought to elevate and purify the lives of his parishioners. The management of the poor in the parish of St. John's was intrusted to his care by the authorities as an experiment, and in four years he reduced the pauper expenditure from 1400 to 280 per annum." The latter was accomplished " by careful scrutiny ITS IMMEDIATE ANTECEDENTS 63 of every case in which public relief was asked for, by a summary rejection of the idle, the drunken, and the worth- less, by stimulating every effort that the poor could make to help themselves, and, when necessary, aiding them in their efforts." Only as a last resort were the poor funds of the church drawn upon. Strange to say, however, the sys- tem that yielded such excellent results was soon violently opposed by the civil authorities, and survived only fourteen years after Chalmers had resigned the pastorate of St. John's in 1823, to accept the chair of moral philosophy in the University of St. Andrews. In 1828 he was trans- ferred to the chair of theology in Edinburgh. Here he became the leader of the Free Church movement, which on the 1 8th of May, 1843, culminated in his withdrawal from the Established Church, followed by 470 other clergymen. The four remaining years of his life were spent by him in perfecting the organization of the Free Church, and as principal of the Free Church College. DAVID NASMITH (March 21, i799-Nov. 25, 1839), born at Glasgow, a layman of intense zeal and self -consecration, but not always clear in his views, was the originator of city missions (p. 116). As secretary of twenty-three Christian societies of Glasgow he had come to the conviction that some agency was required to serve, as it were, as an extension of the pastoral office; or, in other words, that persons were needed to go after and bring in those that stood aloof, to assist in the cure of souls, and to hold services in neglected localities. With thoughts like these, and assisted by eight laymen, Nasmith established the first city mission, in Glas- gow, in 1826. In 1835 he founded the now extensive London City Mission. The impulse given by him led to many similar undertakings in Europe and America. HANS NIELSEN HAUGE (April 3, lyyi-March 29, 1824) was a powerful lay preacher of Norway. Born of godly parents, reared in an atmosphere of genuine piety, from his early youth a zealous student of the Bible, and a constant reader of the devotional writings of Luther, Arndt, and Pontoppidan, 64 THE INNER MISSION IN ITS MODERN FORM he began as a young man to hold religious meetings, produce and circulate controversial writings, and finally, as a lay preacher, to travel from place to place delivering the old Gospel message, in order to rescue the nation, if possible, from the blighting effects of Rationalism. As was to be expected the widespread movement he inaugurated met with violent opposition from the rationalistic clergy, by whom he was slandered and persecuted, and who had him re- peatedly imprisoned. Finally, broken in health and bereft of his business, he remained in comparative retirement until his death. While laying a one-sided emphasis on certain articles of the Christian faith, Hauge nevertheless claimed that he sought to follow the doctrines of Christ and His apostles as set forth in the Scriptures and in the Symbolical Books of the Lutheran Church; and as " the Spener of the North " his influence was pronounced in the revival of evangelical faith and piety. B. Its Systematic Development Until the middle of the last century all the movements and undertakings now denominated as Inner Mission work were of a private and individual character, and still awaited a master hand to bring them into proper coordination. Whether consciously so designed or not, they were destined ultimately to become a part of a greater movement, whose purpose it was to influence the Church and society as a whole. It was Wichern's powerful plea at the Wittenberg Church Congress that brought together the scattered elements, united them in a common cause, aroused all Protestant Germany to the need of the hour, and gave the impulse that brought into being so many of the vast and varied activities sketched in the remaining pages of this volume. Among these activities, all of which are the outgrowth of a reawak- ened faith, we find again the Gemeindepflege of the Early Church, the institutional system of a later period, and the associational method of work which in some form or other has ITS SYSTEMATIC DEVELOPMENT 65 always existed in the Church. In their cooperation with one another these have but one object in view, namely, the cure of social ills, not, indeed, by external and mere mechan- ical means, but from within, and by those means that impress and give proper shape to the moral and religious side of man's being. What the Inner Mission movement has in the last sixty or seventy years become is, under God, due to its great leaders. Foremost among these was Wichern. JOHANN HEINRICH WICHERN, commonly called the "father of the Inner Mission," was born in Hamburg, April 21, 1808. His youth fell into the period when Germany was still suffering from the spiritual desolation wrought by Rationalism and the physical ills resulting from the Napo- leonic wars. The oldest of seven children, he was obliged at the age of fifteen, on the death of his father, to interrupt his studies more or less by giving private instruction in order to earn something toward the support of the family. After his confirmation at seventeen he became tutor in a private school near Hamburg, and at the same time pursued studies in the academic gymnasium of his native city, an institution designed to be a connecting link between the ordinary gymnasium and the university. After many internal and external conflicts, through all of which he preserved his childlike faith, Wichern was at last enabled by the aid of friends to enter the University of Gottingen in the fall of 1828. Here he remained three semesters, and was espe- cially attracted toward Prof. Liicke, whose lectures on the harmony between revelation and science greatly strength- ened his faith. From Gottingen Wichern went to Berlin. Here he came into close personal contact with men like Schleiermacher, Neander, Baron von Kottwitz, and Dr. Julius, all of whom left their impress upon him, and had much to do with shaping his subsequent career. In the fall of 1831 he returned to Hamburg, and, having successfully passed his theological examination, became a " candidate," and was ready to accept a call to a pastorate. 66 THE INNER MISSION IN ITS MODERN FORM Such a call, however, never came to him, as the Lord had chosen him for a different sphere of work. In 1825 Pastor Rautenberg and J. G. Oncken had begun a Sunday-school in a suburb of Hamburg the first in Germany: with this Wichern connected himself, and became its principal teacher. Among the children gathered in this school and in his visits from house to house he learned to know the spiritual, moral, and physical wretchedness of thousands as he had never known it before. How to relieve this now became the upper- most thought in his mind. Accordingly, on the 3ist of October, 1833, he, with his mother and sister, moved into a small house which had been placed at his disposal in another suburb of Hamburg, known as Horn. Here a child-saving institution was to be established. The beginnings were most humble. Bread, salt, and the Bible were all that the dining- table of the living room had to offer; and two pictures, " Christ Blessing Little Children " and " Christ's Entry into Jerusalem/' adorned the otherwise bare walls. A few days later the first three children were received, and by the end of the year this number had grown to twelve. Thus was begun the famous institution known as Das Rauhe Haus, which, in its subsequent extraordinary development and the methods which it introduced, became the pattern for many similar institutions not only in Germany, but in other lands. Two characteristic principles in Wichern's child-saving work were change of environment and the " family system." To realize the latter he divided his depraved boys into groups of ten or twelve in separate houses. This, however, neces- sitated a " housefather " for each group or family; and thus Wichern became a pioneer in another branch of Inner Mission work. He began the training of men not only for service in his own institution, but for the work of mercy elsewhere. And to-day Germany has seventeen so-called Bruderhauser with over three thousand " brothers," engaged in upward of twenty-five different spheres of labor. Possibly the most important day in Wichern's life was the ITS SYSTEMATIC DEVELOPMENT 67 22d of September, 1848. A Church Congress had been called to meet at Wittenberg, in the Castle Church, where Luther lay buried, and upon whose door the great Reformer had nailed his Ninety-five Theses. The chief purpose of the Congress was to bring about a federation of the Protestant Churches of Germany, to meet and, if possible, overcome the constantly growing evils in the life of the nation. Though Wichern was to be privileged to speak in the interests of the Inner Mission cause, the subject was then still so little under- stood and deemed of such small importance that it was given the last place on the last day's program. But this did not satisfy Wichern. On the afternoon of the first day he re- minded the Congress of the fact that he attended it only on condition that the subject so near to his heart should receive adequate consideration. After sketching in briefest outline the conditions to be met and the methods that must be followed, the Congress, deeply impressed by his statements, resolved to change the order of the program and to permit Wichern to speak on the following day. That afternoon marked not only a new epoch in Wichern's life, but in the Church of Germany as well. Speaking altogether extemporaneously, but with fervid eloquence, he pictured to the Congress the spiritual indifference and desti- tution of entire classes; the distressing conditions resulting for large numbers from the rapid growth of the cities; the antichristian sentiments entertained, and the heathenish mode of life followed by many in the ranks of the wealthy and cultured as well as among the poor and ignorant; and how the Church and Christian people in general had hitherto been blind to these things. In support of his statements he cited names, figures, and numerous personal experiences. He called attention to the fact that here and there isolated efforts had been made to stem the tide of evil; but now " the time has come," he said, in conclusion, " when the entire Evangelical Church must make the Inner Mission her work and demonstrate her faith by her love. This love must burn in her as the torch lighted 68 THE INNER MISSION IN ITS MODERN FORM of God, to show that Christ lives in His people. As the whole Christ reveals Himself in the living Word of God, so must He also declare Himself in divine acts, and the highest, purest, and most churchly of these is saving love. If the Inner Mission be viewed in this light, the Church will have a new future before her." The effect of this matchless plea on the Congress, and, indeed, on the whole of Protestant Germany, was instant and powerful, and resulted in the organization on the 4th of January, 1849, of the Central Committee for the Inner Mission of the German Evangelical Church, of which Wichern naturally was the leading spirit. His famous Denkschrift, issued in April, 1849, became the Program of the Inner Mission. In order to permit Wichern to present the cause in other parts of Germany, he was in 1850 given an assistant at the Rauhe Haus. The need of such a helper and substitute became still more evident when in 1851 the Prussian govern- ment commissioned him to inspect the penal and reformatory institutions of the kingdom, and when in 1857 he was ap- pointed to a position in the Department of the Interior and a member of the High Consistory. This required him to live in Berlin during the winter, and here he began the J ' ohannesstift for the training of brothers, and laid the founda- tion of the City Mission, now the most important in Germany. The first City Mission in Germany was begun by him at Hamburg, November 10, 1848; and he aided materially in bringing others into existence. For the wars of 1864, 1866, and 1870 Wichern organized the Prussian military diaconate; but in 1871, under the burden of work, domestic afflictions, and other cares, his health began to fail. In 1874 he became entirely disabled by a stroke of paralysis. Compelled to relinquish all work, he retired to his much-loved Rauhe Haus, where, after seven years of suffering, he passed to his eternal home, April 7, 1881. Wichern's wife was Amanda Bohme, whom he first met in connection with his work in Pastor Rautenberg's Sunday ITS SYSTEMATIC DEVELOPMENT 69 school, but did not marry until 1835, two years after the opening of the Rauhe Haus. This union was blessed with nine children, four sons and five daughters. One of the sons, Johann, succeeded his father as director of the institution. Gifted with extraordinary insight into existing conditions, great resourcefulness, and the power of eloquent speech, Wichern became the incarnation of the Inner Mission move- ment in its wider scope. In the program mapped out by him he placed the Word above everything, and regarded the works of mercy done in Christ's name, not as the chief object of the Inner Mission, but only as the active demonstra- tion of that love through which the faith wrought by the Word exercises itself. Wichern and his labors are to-day known to a large part of the Christian world; the movement he inaugurated is being studied with increasing interest; and its methods have unconsciously influenced Christian work in other lands besides Germany. Of no less consequence in the development of the Inner Mission movement, though in some respects less gifted than Wichern, was THEODOR FLIEDNER, the son of a poor pastor at Eppstein, Nassau, born January 21, 1800, died October 4, 1864. Left an orphan at thirteen, it was only through the greatest self-denial that he was enabled to get an education. He pursued his theological studies at the Universities of Giessen and Gottingen, where, in spite of their rationalistic atmosphere, he retained his faith in the miracles and resur- rection of Christ. After spending another year in the Theo- logical Seminary at Herborn, and serving for a time as tutor in a private family at Cologne, he became pastor in 1822 of the small Protestant congregation in the Roman Catholic town of Kaiserswerth, on the Rhine, at the meagre salary of 1 80 Prussian dollars. The financial distress of his con- gregation was greatly increased by the failure of a manu- facturing concern upon which the town largely depended for a living. This led Fliedner to undertake a collecting tour for the congregation, at first in the Rhine Province, and in 70 THE INNER MISSION IN ITS MODERN FORM 1823 through Holland and England. This not only yielded him enough money to put his congregation on a firm finan- cial basis, but his intercourse with active Christians of other lands greatly stimulated his own faith, and the institutions of mercy he saw suggested to him the thought of undertaking similar work in his own country. Speaking of his visit to Holland and England he says: " In both these Protestant countries I became acquainted with a multitude of charitable institutions for the benefit of both body and soul. I saw schools and other educational organizations, almshouses, orphanages, hospitals, prisons, and societies for the reforma- tion of prisoners, Bible and missionary societies, etc.; and at the same time I observed that it was a living faith in Christ which had called almost every one of these institutions and societies into life, and still preserved them in activity. This evidence of the practical power and fertility of such a principle had a most powerful influence hi strengthening my own faith." Inspired by the example of the English Quakeress, Eliza- beth Fry, Fliedner was the first in Germany to interest him- self in behalf of prisoners. For years he visited the peni- tentiary at Diisseldorf every two weeks in order to give the inmates pastoral care; and in 1826 he founded the Rhenish- Westphalian Prison Society, the first of the kind on the Continent. It was in connection with his visits to Diissel- dorf that he met his first wife, Fredericke Minister, whom he married in 1828, and in whom he found such a wise and faith- ful help-mate in his subsequent work. In September, 1833, a discharged female convict, named Minna, who had found no place of shelter elsewhere, came to Fliedner's house and begged for protection and help. Flied- ner and his wife lodged her in the small summer-house of the parsonage garden; a second applicant soon appeared who was given shelter in the same place; as others continued to come the first Magdalen home began to assume shape; and thus the little building became the cradle of the Kaiserswerth institu- tions. g g I S - s w ""^ <-> W i* H . 1 -2 CO = I s M S 'S S S "^ H Pi s 5 " ^ ~ ^- JS u< 21^!!. an or n aus Hom ' y and fo ale eh s' orgue. undr ylum agd irsorg phan tekee llfsil 2_!< feO on 6> 6 M ri 1! ^ . rt ^ jXti M Sllljll 21 J-S-s Hl-i g cjh^W^uJ ITS SYSTEMATIC DEVELOPMENT 71 Three years later that work was begun with which Flied- ner's name will always continue to be most closely associated. Among the Mennonites in Holland he had found deaconesses. Others before him had advocated the restoration of the ancient office, but had found no practical way of doing so. He himself had become fully persuaded that no one was so well fitted by nature and grace for the work of ministering love as a devout Christian woman; and to his mind the solu- tion of the problem lay in establishing institutions for the special training of unmarried women in the various branches of diaconal activity, and in associating these as a close com- munity. Accordingly, in the spring of 1836, with no money, but a large measure of faith, he bought the largest and best house in Kaiserswerth, through his efforts the Rhenish- Westphalian Deaconess Association was organized, and on the i3th of October of the same year the first Deaconess Mother- house was opened. The first woman to offer herself for the service was Gertrude Reichardt. To-day over 1300 sisters are attached to the House, and almost 20,000 to the 84 motherhouses that constitute the Kaiserswerth Union. These labor in all parts of the world and in almost every line of benevolent activity. Kaiserswerth alone had 340 fields of labor in 1910, some of these in Asia and Africa; while the total number of houses comprised in the Kaisers- werth Union had sisters laboring on over 7200 stations. Besides furnishing hundreds of sisters to institutions not under its control and to congregations, the Kaiserswerth Motherhouse maintains fifty institutions of its own twenty- two at Kaiserswerth, eleven in other parts of Germany, and seventeen in foreign lands. It may well be questioned whether in the great modern revival of practical Christianity any one life was more potent and more far-reaching in its influence than that of Fliedner. In restoring the female diaconate he again gave to the Church the most effective agency for the systematic exercise of Christian charity that she ever had an agency that in these days has made possible many forms of work that could hardly 72 THE INNER MISSION IN ITS MODERN FORM be successfully undertaken without it. It has brought into existence many new charities, and has in many instances revolutionized the methods of the old. The Christian care of epileptics, the care and training of neglected children, the protection and instruction of young women in working girls' homes, the rescue of the fallen, and the enormous improvements in the nursing of the sick, are, among many other things, most intimately associated with the revival of the female diaconate; while, above all, the deaconess has become the most efficient aid of the pastoral office in the benevolent work of the parish. Indeed, without deaconesses the vast work carried on by the German Inner Mission for more than half a century would have been impossible; nor might the charities of other lands have increased so fast and improved their methods so rapidly had it not been for the example set by Protestant Germany. When we think of all that Fliedner accomplished and see to what proportions the work begun by him has grown, we may well exclaim: " This is the Lord's doing; it is mar- velous in our eyes!" Fliedner himself was not a great man such as the world calls great. He had neither brilliant learn- ing to attract attention, nor the fire of eloquence to move the multitude; but as a man of prayer and childlike faith and deep humility he had power with God. Endowed with extraordinary practical wisdom and a wonderful talent for organization and adaptation, and having exceptional capacity for work and untiring energy, he desired only to know the mind of God that he might use all his gifts for the glory of Him whose servant he was. " He must increase, but I must decrease," was the regulative principle of his life. Therefore the Lord blessed him in his work, and wherever the Fliedner spirit has since been preserved there the great work inaugurated by him has made progress. The example of this plain man of God should teach us anew that in the kingdom of our Lord only he is truly great who is least; and that large blessings come only to those who use the Lord's gifts as His faithful servants. The extra- ITS SYSTEMATIC DEVELOPMENT 73 ordinary growth of the Kaiserswerth institutions and of the deaconess cause in general from a very insignificant begin- ning is a most remarkable illustration of the principle an- nounced by our Lord in the parable of the mustard seed a principle that in these days of large enterprises and noisy demonstrations is too often forgotten. Above all does it teach us that when the Lord wants His work done He does not in the first instance require material things, but willing, consecrated persons, who would be nothing more than in- struments in His hands for the accomplishment of His pur- poses. When once He has the latter, He never fails to open plenty of hearts and hands to supply the former. To the names of Wichern and Fliedner must now be added that of WILHELM LOHE (Feb. 21, i8o8-Jan. 2, 1872), a man " of clear vision, of great heart, of gentle hand," whose " name is deeply inwoven into the history of the Lutheran Church in Bavaria, of 'Germany, of America, of Inner Mis- sions, and works of mercy the world over." Lohe was the son of pious parents, lost his father at eight, attended the gymnasium at Nuremberg, and entered the University of Erlangen in 1826, where his spiritual life was greatly in- fluenced by Professor KrafTt of the Reformed Church. After a brief stay at the University of Berlin (1828) he became vicar at various places, and everywhere attracted attention by the earnestness and eloquence of his preaching. In 1837 he was called to Neuendettelsau, a small and unattractive village in Bavaria. Here he unfolded his great powers as preacher, liturgist, catechist, and pastor, and attracted people from near and far to reap the benefit of his ministra- tions. A rich literary activity also helped to extend his influence far beyond the bounds of his parish. In his writings, as in his public ministrations, he represented the strictest type of Lutheran orthodoxy. In 1841 Lobe's attention was directed to the spiritual dis- tress of German Lutherans who had emigrated to the United States. To relieve this he made provision for the training of missionaries, first at Nuremberg, then in the Missionary 74 THE INNER MISSION IN ITS MODERN FORM Institute he founded at Neuendettelsau. The first of the men sent over united with the Saxon Lutherans in forming the Missouri Synod in 1847. Lohe was also active in the founding of its seminary at Fort Wayne, Indiana, and in fostering missionary activity among the Michigan Indians. When differences arose between him and the Missouri Synod and his relations with it were severed, the Iowa Synod was formed by a few men whom Lohe had sent (Grossmann, Deindorfer, S. Fritschel), and of the ministers subsequently added to this body many had received their theological training at Neu- endettelsau. In 1850 Lohe organized the Society for Inner Missions as understood by the Lutheran Church, whose ob- jects were to be various, but which in reality found its chief sphere of activity in the promotion of the work of the Mis- sionary Institute. The work by which Lohe will always be best known is the Neuendettelsau Deaconess House and the institutions of mercy that cluster about it. In the creation and develop- ment of these he found abundant opportunity for the utiliza- tion of his peculiar and extraordinary gifts. Besides the practical training which the sisters here received, his preach- ing, teaching, and Seelsorge, and the wonderful richness of his liturgical services served to give them a very high degree of mental and spiritual culture. He understood, as few do, how to use beauty of form unto edification, and as a vehicle for the expression of the deepest spirituality. At Neuen- dettelsau psalmody was again introduced, church music of the purest type found a home, and ecclesiastical embroid- ery became for the first time a branch of deaconess work; all this, however, in the service of Him who is to be worshipped in spirit and in truth, and in the beauty of holiness. In the institutions created at Neuendettelsau " the wealth and the depth of the spirit of Lohe, as well as his incomparable power of organization, developed without hindrance in a wonderful manner. The rich blessing which flowed forth in every direction compelled the admiring recognition even of those who did not share his churchly position. In this ITS SYSTEMATIC DEVELOPMENT 75 many-sided activity the inner life of Lohe bore fruit even to his end, without, however, externalizing itself. He was a person of wonderful concentration, endowed with quiet power and peace, full of ardor, and withal enriched with the soberest discretion, conscious of the power given him, and yet abounding in deep humility, without a trace of sentimen- tality or emotionalism, and still of a deeply apprehending inwardness, devotion, and sympathy. He had a delicate appreciation of all that was humanly great and beautiful, but the element in which he lived was the superlative beauty (hochgelobte Schonheit} of Christ. In his company one was impressed as though he were always praying, and even when he spoke of small, outward things it was as the breath of the Spirit of the kingdom of God." 1 As leading representatives of special forms of Inner Mission work the following may be mentioned: KARL MEZ (April 20, i8o8-May 28, 1877), the proprietor of a silk mill at Freiburg, Baden, in which he had one thousand female operatives. Realizing to what moral dangers such are often exposed, he undertook to make his establishment a conservator of morals. To this end he built the first home for factory women (p. 153). In this board and lodging were furnished at a minimum price, its atmosphere was that of the Christian household, Mez and his family were in daily contact with it, he himself conducted daily prayers, and thus by word and example left an impress for good upon his employes. That they might also become good housekeepers they were required to do a certain amount of housework after factory hours. Demoralizing amusements, like public dances, were forbidden. A hospital was established in which sick employes received free treatment, and a savings bank con- nected with the establishment paid five per cent, on deposits. Smaller factories were opened in neighboring villages and towns, where girls who worked in them could live at home and enjoy all the advantages of home life. The results of Mez's experiment proved highly successful; and his methods are a 1 Dr. S. FRITSCHEL in the Lutheran Cyclopedia, p. 285. 76 THE INNER MISSION IN ITS MODERN FORM rebuke to the proprietors of manufacturing and mercantile establishments who have no concern either for the physical or the moral well-being of their employes. KARL ULRICH KOBELT (Nov. 5, i847-April 6, 1899), born in the Province of Posen, and in his youth and student years brought into contact with many of the religious leaders of his day, in 1875 became pastor and superintendent of the institutions at Neinstedt in the Harz Mountains, begun by Philipp and Marie Nathusius in 1850. When he took charge these consisted of a rescue home for children and a Diakonen- haus ("Lindenhof "), and two homes for feeble-minded and epileptic (" Elisabethstift," "Kreuzhiilfe"). While his man- agement of all these interests was marked by unusual pastoral fidelity, he gave special attention to the work of training deacons, and never grew weary in his advocacy of this cause. He was highly gifted as a preacher, liturgist, and musician, and equally competent in giving direction to the secular affairs of his institutions. Under the burden of his incessant labors his health began to fail, and when he passed away at the comparatively early age of fifty-two, the Inner Mission lost one of its most capable representatives. FRIEDRICH VON BODELSCHWINGH (March 6, i83i-April 2, 1910), in many respects the most remarkable of recent Inner Mission leaders, was the son of a Prussian Minister of Finance, and a playmate of the Crown Prince, subse- quently Frederick III. After completing his theological studies he served for a time as pastor in Paris and in the Westphalian village of Belling. In 1872 he became the head of the small institution for epileptics at Bielefeld, Westphalia, which under his management developed into the vast " colony of mercy " that it is to-day. Here dwell several thousand afflicted ones epileptic, feeble-minded, and idiotic grouped into families in separate buildings. All who are able are kept busy with some indoor or out- door employment suited to their capacity. Wholesome and steady occupation is found to be their best tonic, and prac- tically all the work of the colony is done by those who com- STOCKER KOBELT SCHAFER ITS SYSTEMATIC DEVELOPMENT 77 pose it. A Diakonenhaus (" Nazareth ") and a Deaconess House (" Sarepta "), both a part of the colony, furnish the trained care-takers. A church seating upwards of 1 500 is the center of the colony, and the place where the sufferers find comfort, and those who minister to them renew their strength. Another creation of von Bodelschwingh is " Wilhelmsdorf," the labor colony in the Senne, ten miles from Bielefeld. The secret of von Bodelschwingh's success is to be found in his marvelous resourcefulness and his extraordinary talent for organization and administration, combined with a child- like faith and a most tender and sympathetic love. He was a nobleman of God's making; and in the results achieved by him he does not come behind Wichern, Fliedner, and Lohe. ADOLF STOCKER (Dec. n, i835~Feb. 7, 1909), whose name will always remain most intimately associated with the development of the Berlin City Mission, was born in Halber- stadt, Saxony, studied theology and philosophy at Halle and Berlin, served for a time as a private tutor, was called to his first pastorate in 1863 and his second two and a half years later, and finally became court and cathedral preacher in Berlin, October 18, 1874. Here he was in 1877 placed at the head of the City Mission, which he succeeded in making the effective agency for good that it is to-day (p. 118). Stocker was an eloquent preacher and public speaker, who attracted large audiences from all ranks of society wherever he appeared. Perhaps since the days of Wichern there was no one who had a better understanding of the social problem, nor one who perceived more clearly whence its solution must come. It was in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testa- ment that he found those principles that must lie at the foun- dation of a proper social order; and these principles he un- ceasingly emphasized in his writings and public utterances. Among the best known and most prolific writers on Inner Mission subjects are Uhlhorn and Schafer. GERHARD UHLHORN (Feb. 17, i826-Dec. 15, 1901) became private instructor at the University of Gottingen in 1852, consistorial councillor and court preacher at Hanover in 1855, 7 8 THE INNER MISSION IN ITS MODERN FORM a member of the consistory in 1866, and abbot of Loccum in 1878. As court preacher he also served the Deaconess House at Hanover in the capacity of pastor, and was for many years before his death the presiding officer of the Inner Mission society of his province. The practical knowl- edge thus gained, added to his mastery of historical material, resulted in the preparation of a number of publications dealing with Inner Mission subjects, chief among them Die Christliche Liebesthdtigkeit, in three volumes, of which the first has been translated into English (Christian Charity in the Ancient Church). The most voluminous writer on Inner Mission subjects, and their acknowledged scientific expositor, is THE ODOR SCHAFER (born Feb. n, 1846), since 1872 pastor of the Deaconess House at Altona, Hamburg. The most note- worthy of his many publications are his Leitfaden der Inneren Mission, and Die weibliche Diakonie in ihrem ganzen Umfang dargestellt, the latter in three volumes. Many of his addresses have been issued under the title of Praktisches Christenthum, in four volumes. From 1877 to the close of 1910 he was the publisher of a monthly known at first as Monatsschrift fur Diakonie und Inner e Mission, and since 1881 as Monats- schrift fur Innere Mission mit Einschluss der Diakonie, Diasporapflege, Evangelisation und gesamten Wohlthatig- keit. This is a veritable treasure-house of information on all phases of Inner Mission work. Among other German Inner Mission workers of more or less prominence may yet be mentioned Johannes Gossner (1773-1858), founder of the Elizabeth Hospital and Deaconess House in Berlin; Christian Gottlob Barth (1799-1862), of the Calwer Tract and Publication Society; King Friedrich Wilhelm IV. (1795-1861), founder of the Deaconess House Bethanien in Berlin, and the warm friend and supporter of other Inner Mission enterprises; Professor Clemens Theodor Perthes (1809-1867), originator of the Berber gen zur Heimath; Franz Heinrich Harter (1797-1873), founder and for many years rector of the Deaconess House at Strassburg; Aug. ITS SYSTEMATIC DEVELOPMENT 79 Gottlieb Ferd. Schultz (1811-1875), rector of Bethanien in Berlin; Otto Gerhardt Heldring (1804-1874), who though a Dutch pastor, was very influential in Germany in the pro- motion of Magdalen homes; Ludwig Adolf Petri (1803- 1873), a powerful preacher, and one of the founders of the Inner Mission Society of Hanover and of the Lutheran Gotteskasten ; Johann Karl Heinrich Frohlich (1826-1881), the eminently gifted and successful rector of the Dresden Deaconess House; the Christian physician, Aug. Hermann Werner (1808-1882), a pioneer in the work of caring for invalid and crippled children and who until his death had housed 10,475 m m ' s institutions; Gustav Werner (1809- 1887), another friend of children, and founder of a series of benevolent institutions; Wilhelm Baur (1828-1897) and Carl Wilh. Theo. Ninck (1834-1887), remarkable for their Inner Mission labors in connection with St. Ansgar's Church, Hamburg, and elsewhere; Julius Disselhoff (1827-1896), the assistant and successor of Fliedner at Kaiserswerth; Johannes Deinzer (1842-1897), instructor in the Missionary Institute at Neuendettelsau, and assistant and successor of Lohe in the Motherhouse; Karl Krummacher (1830-1899), the active promoter of young people's societies; and Joh. Sam. Biittner (1831-1905) of the Deaconess House at Hanover. In Denmark HANS KNUDSEN (Jan. n, i8i3~Feb. 16, 1886) is held in high esteem for his work in behalf of crippled children. On the completion of his theological studies he was in 1837 sent to Tranquebar, East India, as a missionary; but as neither he nor his wife could endure the climate he returned to Copenhagen in 1843. After serving a number of congregations, and engaging for a time in literary work, he became pastor of the Deaconess House at Copenhagen. At the end of three years and a half he was also obliged to relinquish this post on account of increasing infirmities. But his work was not yet finished. In 1872 he one day saw a little girl wearily dragging herself along on a pair of poor crutches. This incident made a deep impression on his 80 THE INNER MISSION IN ITS MODERN FORM mind and led him to organize a society whose object it was to treat crippled children by means of surgery and ortho- paedic appliances, and to give them such industrial training as would enable them to become self-supporting. Soon adult cripples were also included in the society's operations. So successful was its work that it attracted widespread at- tention and rapidly found imitation elsewhere. Until 1904 over 10,000 sufferers had been benefited by the society's efforts. In Scotland THOMAS GUTHRIE (July 12, i8o3~Feb. 23, 1873), the friend of Chalmers, and another distinguished divine and eloquent preacher of the Free Church, became interested in the neglected condition of many children in Edinburgh, where he was pastor, and in 1847 issued his first Plea for Ragged Schools. In these, children whose poverty and ragged appearance kept them out of other schools were to receive secular and religious instruction. The movement he in- augurated spread rapidly over Scotland and England, and in 1884 the Ragged School Union was formed, the president of which until his death was the active and eminent Christian statesman and philanthropist, the Earl of Shaftsbury (1801- 1885). When the State finally made the work of the ragged schools superfluous by providing a sufficient number of ele- mentary schools for all classes of children, the Union became active in other directions; known to-day as the Ragged School Union and Shaftsbury Society, it does an immense work among poor, defective, and invalid children, combining with its care of the body a large measure of religious instruc- tion and spiritual nurture. In England there has been no worthier representative of genuine Inner Mission principles and practice than Dr. THOMAS JOHN BARNARDO (July 15, i845~Sept. 19, 1905), one of the great Christian philanthropists of the nineteenth century. Born in Dublin, he early in life came under strong religious influences, and resolved to become a medical missionary to China. With this in mind, he entered the London Hospi- ITS SYSTEMATIC DEVELOPMENT 8 1 tal, in 1866, as a student of medicine. Soon thereafter an epidemic of cholera broke out in the East End; and when volunteers were called for to serve the sick, Barnardo was one of the first to respond. This gave him an opportunity of seeing life in London's slums. Deeply moved by the poverty and suffering of the people, and especially by the horribly neglected condition of the children, he resolved to do for them what he could. When the epidemic was over, he con- tinued to visit the poor in their wretched homes, and used his Sundays and some of his week-day evenings in teaching a few ragged urchins the truths of Christianity, in a rough and improvised school-room, in Stepney, which had once done service as a donkey-stable. On a bitter cold night, towards the close of 1866, there came into this "school- room," for shelter and warmth, a shoeless, hatless, shirtless little fellow named Jim Jarvis, who asked to be permitted to remain all night by the fire, on the promise that he would do no harm. To this Barnardo objected, and told the boy to go home. " Got no home!" was the quick response. " Got no home?" exclaimed Barnardo; " Be off, and go home to your mother; don't tell me!" " Got no mother!" replied the boy. " Then go home to your father," Barnardo con- tinued. " Got no father!" said the little fellow. " Got no father? But where are you friends? Where do you live?" " Don't live nowhere; got no friends!" Further questioning as to whether there were any other such forsaken and homeless boys as he, brought the answer: " Oh yes, sir; lots 'caps on 'em; mor'n I could count." To prove his statement, the boy, at Barnardo's request, led him into the neighborhood of Petticoat Lane, and there, on the roof of an old shed, eleven boys were found asleep, all homeless, with no other covering to protect them from the frosty night air than the thin, ragged clothing they were wearing. Shortly afterward Barnardo was quite unexpectedly called on to speak at a large missionary gathering in Agri- cultural Hall, and, in the course of his remarks, related his extraordinary adventure under the guidance of little Jim. 82 THE INNER MISSION IN ITS MODERN FORM The story found its way into the newspapers, and came to the notice of the Earl of Shaftesbury, who sent Barnardo an invitation to dine with him at Grosvenor Square. At the dinner-table the Earl requested Barnardo to repeat the story to the gentlemen present. They listened to it with interest, but received it skeptically. There was only one way of settling the difficulty : to convince them of the absolute correctness of his statements Barnardo eagerly agreed to Lord Shaf tesbury's proposition to take the entire company to places where children were actually to be seen sleeping out of doors, under the open sky. Cabs were ordered, and the whole party, in evening dress, drove off to the squalid quarters of East London. Strangely enough, for a time not a boy could be found. Barnardo began to feel embarrassed, when a policeman directed him where to look. " They'll come out if you'll give 'em a copper," the officer suggested. " A half-penny a head was offered, and then, from out of a great confused pile of old crates, boxes, and empty barrels, which were piled together, covered with a huge tarpaulin, seventy- three boys crawled out from the lair where they had been seeking shelter for the night." Barnardo had proved his case, and had demonstrated that in the very heart of this great and rich city there were thousands of children without home or friend, who, by day and by night, lived in the streets. "All London should know this," remarked the Earl; and now the Lord had wonderfully brought the work of the poor medical student to the notice of many of the city's leading philanthropists, who, in the years to come, could and did render it most effective service. It was not without a great internal conflict that Barnardo gave up his cherished plan of becoming a medical missionary; but after much and long-continued prayer it became in- creasingly evident to him that God meant him to remain where he was, and continue the work he had begun among the homeless waifs of London. The first money he received for it 6f d. was given him by an unknown servant girl at the close of the missionary meeting in Agricultural Hall. ITS SYSTEMATIC DEVELOPMENT 83 Soon larger gifts came; and in 1867 the first of the " Barnardo Homes " was opened in Stepney Causeway. And what wonderful things God wrought subsequently through the instrumentality of His devoted servant! When Dr. Barnardo died, on September 19, 1905, there were 121 branches, with 8493 boys and girls under their care; and the income for 1904 was 187,509 (over $900,000). Every twenty-four hours 13 children were admitted. The number wholly maintained in 1904 was 10,905. Throughout the years of their existence the Homes have saved over 60,000 " unwanted " destitute children. Over 17,000 have been emigrated to Canada and South Africa. Less than ij per cent, of these have proved failures. The beautiful Girls' Village, at Barkingside, Ilford, consists of 64 cottages and 9 other build- ings; and here 1200 girls are in residence, who are trained in everything that tends to make good and useful women. The total amount of money received and expended by Dr. Barnardo for his various undertakings is said to exceed fifteen million dollars. Here is a record of successful work that is truly marvelous. And the secret of it all? God had found a man who was more than a great organizer and executive, and whose impulses were not merely those of the humanitarian, namely, a man of heroic faith, all of whose efforts, as he himself said, were " watered and tended in the spirit of prayer and of love to Christ." And God gave the increase not only in material things, and made of the Barnardo institutions not simply a social and philanthropic, but also a most powerful spiritual, agency. Regarding the latter, Barnardo wrote: " A purely moral training would, doubtless, restore many a little vaga- bond as a respectable member to society; but the Christian faith desires something more than merely social or even moral reform. If nothing more than this is gained, I am sadly disappointed, and the work will fail of its most enduring harvest. My heart's desire and prayer to God for the children is that they might be SAVED ; not only for the present life, but also for the life to come; and I know not how the 84 THE INNER MISSION IN ITS MODERN FORM latter can be effected, except through such an education, prayerful training, and example as shall connect each child's heart by faith and love with the person of Christ as a crucified and risen Saviour. Indeed, I have little confidence in any reformation which does not begin in the heart, and, working outward by divine grace, change and renew the affections and will first, and then influence the habits and conduct." This is so pre-eminently the method and purpose of the Inner Mission, that Dr. Barnardo may well be enrolled among its most illustrious representatives, though having at no time been connected with the great movement on the Continent. Like all the men conspicuously associated with said movement, he was, above all, a Christian, and as such laid all stress upon the saving efficacy of the Word. Hence the large place which the Word, and faith, and prayer oc- cupied in his work. Nevertheless, he was not a sentimental dreamer nor a wild enthusiast. ' His undertakings were all carefully planned and organized, and whilst spending much time in laying his needs before God, he was said to be the busiest and most hard-working man in London; in this respect strikingly like our own Dr. Passavant. The man who in the Lutheran Church of America above all others deserves to be called an Inner Mission leader was the Rev. Dr. WILLIAM ALFRED PASSAVANT (Oct. 9, i82i-June 3, 1894). He was the first to attempt the introduction of the female diaconate in America (p. 98), founded orphanages at Zelienople and Rochester, Pa., hospitals at Pittsburgh, Chicago, Milwaukee, and Jacksonville, 111., and was instru- mental in establishing the Lutheran orphanages at German- town, Pa., Mt. Vernon, N. Y., and Boston, Mass., and the Emigrant House, now at No. 4 State St., New York City. It would be impossible at this place to give an adequate account of the missionary, benevolent, educational, and editorial labors of this eminent man of God; and for this the reader is therefore referred to "The Life and Letters of the Rev. W. A. Passavant, D. D.," by the Rev. Dr. G. H. Ger- berding (The Young Lutheran Co., Greenville, Pa., 1906). j PASSAVANT ITS ORGANS 85 A man of similar type in the Protestant Episcopal Church was the Rev. Dr. WILLIAM AUGUSTUS MUHLENBERG (Sept. 16, 1776-April 8, 1877), the great-grandson of Heinrich Melchior Muhlenberg, patriarch of the Lutheran Church in America. Born in Philadelphia and baptized in the Lutheran Church, he early attached himself to the Episcopal Church because the Lutheran churches of his native city at that time used only the German language, with which he was not familiar. After his ordination in 1820 he served a church at Lancaster, Pa., where he remained six years. In 1846 he entered upon the pastorate of the Church of the Holy Communion, New York, having in the meantime given himself chiefly to the work of Christian education. Here he began his charitable activities. The two great Christian philanthropies with which his name will always remain most intimately associated are St. Luke's Hospital, New York, and the industrial settlement at St. Johnland, Long Island. C. Its Organs " Neither money, nor houses, nor castles, nor estates placed at the disposal of the Inner Mission," declared Wichern, " can be of any avail, so long as the persons are wanting, who with consummate skill and zeal make the work their own." However necessary material resources ultimately become, these are not the first requisite. The provision which Jesus made for the planting of His kingdom consisted not in silver and gold, nor in an elaborate code of rules and regulations, but in men. Those whom He chose for this purpose were not only carefully instructed by Him, but they were also plentifully endowed with the gifts of the Holy Spirit; and thus furnished they went forth, and in obedience to His command testified of Him in word and in act (John 15 : 26, 27). Wichern, indeed, summoned the entire body of believers into the service of the Inner Mission; but, like Fliedner, he also saw that for its varied activities specially trained workers 86 THE INNER MISSION IN ITS MODERN FORM were needed, and that those who would become such must possess certain natural and spiritual endowments. In the tasks which the Inner Mission imposes zeal without knowl- edge, good intentions without judgment, impulses that are only humanitarian, and, above all, mere sentimentalism, will not suffice. Among the natural gifts required are tact, discretion, patience, executive ability, a fair measure of good health, and a mind capable of grasping both principles and practice. But special training can only then make these gifts really effective when they are the possession of living believers, whose hearts burn with love to their Lord, and who regard all their efforts in behalf of His needy brethren in the world as a service unto Him. i. THE DIACONATE The means for the application of redemption are the Word and the Sacraments committed by Christ to His Church. For the administration of these means He instituted the ministry of the Word (Matt. 28 : 19, 20; Mark 16 : 15; John 20 : 21 ; Eph. 4: n, 12; Augsburg Confession, Art. V.). To this ministry originally also belonged the administration of the Church's external affairs; e. g., the reception and dis- tribution of the income and the care of the poor (Acts 4 : 35- 37; 5:2; 6:2); but when the rapid growth of the Church made the introduction of more systematic methods neces- sary, and compelled a division of functions, the ministry of the Word (dtaxovta TOO M-yoo), with the consent of the Church, created a new ministry (dcaxovfa y xadrjusptv-rj, the " daily ministration," or " every-day ministry "), since known as the diaconate. The occasion of its origin is narrated in Acts 6 : 1-6. When an apparently unequal distribution of the alms caused one portion of the congregation at Jerusalem to murmur against the other, the apostles, in order per- manently to remove the cause of complaint, " called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the Word of God and serve tables. ITS ORGANS 87 Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give our- selves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word." The assembled believers did as they were bidden, and, having chosen seven men with the required qualifica- tions, set them before the apostles, and these, " when they had prayed, laid their hands on them," i. e., ordained them to serve in this newly created office. To this ministry of mercy, as distinguished from the min- istry of the Word, were primarily committed the relief of the poor and sick, and the oversight of the Church's tem- poral affairs, under the supervision of the ministry of the Word. Nevertheless, as men " full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom," but only as a secondary function of their office, some of the deacons, under extraordinary circumstances, also performed the duties of the ministry of the Word. Thus Stephen preached (Acts 7), and Philip both preached and baptized (Acts 8 : 5-40) and labored as an evangelist (Acts 21 : 8). That this ministry, chiefly as a ministry of mercy, soon found its way from Jerusalem into other congregations estab- lished by the apostles is evident from i Tim. 3 : 8-10, where Paul enumerates the qualifications which deacons should possess. These " are just of that nature to fit them for mingling with the church in most familiar relations, to ascer- tain and relieve the wants of the poorer members with deli- cacy, appropriate reticence, and freedom from temptation to avaricious greed. It is noticeable that gravity, honest words, temperance, unselfishness, probity in themselves and in their households, and an honest faith outrank ' aptness to teach/ which in the context is said to be an indispensable qualification of the presbyter or bishop." 1 Thus, in the pecu- liar work assigned them, " the deacons became the first preachers of Christianity; they were the first evangelists, because they were the first to find their way to the homes of 1 BENNETT: Christian Archeology, p. 330. 88 THE INNER MISSION IN ITS MODERN FORM the poor. They were the constructors of the most solid and durable of the institutions of Christianity, namely, the insti- tutions of charity and beneficence." l The purpose of the primitive diaconate may then be said to have been the following: i, To relieve the ministry of the Word of the more or less distracting cares incident to the external affairs of the Church, so that this might devote itself, without interruption, to its own proper and higher functions; 2, to provide a properly authorized and accredited agency for the administration of the Church's charities, and for the performance of such duties as might be assigned it by the presbyters; and thus, 3, to serve as one of the " helps " (i Cor. 12 : 28) of the ministry of the Word in the extension and building up of the Church, and to prepare the way for said ministry. The primitive diaconate was a congregational office for the administration of the congregation's charities. But as the hierarchical and sacerdotal principle gained ascendency in the Church, the position and functions of the deacons underwent a change. As some presbyters became " bishops " and all other presbyters " priests," the deacons came to be regarded as Levites, sustaining the same relation to the " priests " as did the Levites to the priests of the old dis- pensation. Though continuing for quite a time to be dis- pensers of charity and visitors of those in distress, this be- came more and more a secondary function as institutions of mercy for the relief of the needy kept on multiplying. Fi- nally even this fell away, the congregational male diaconate as a ministry of mercy ceased to exist, and the deacons be- came a sub-order of the clergy. At a very early date women were also admitted to the diaconate. The necessity for this arose from the fact that " the strict seclusion of the female sex in Greece and in some Oriental countries necessarily debarred them from the minis- trations of men." 2 Less than thirty years after the institu- 1 STANLEY: Christian Institutions, pp. 210, 211. *LIGHTFOOT: The Christian Ministry. New York, p. 23. ITS ORGANS 89 tion of the diaconate Paul speaks of one Phebe, " our sister, which is a servant (dtdxovos) of the Church which is at Cenchrea " (Rom. 16 : i). He describes her office and work by saying that she had been a succorer of many and of him- self also; and therefore asks the Christians at Rome to " receive her in the Lord, as becometh saints," and to assist her in whatsoever she had need of them. Many distin- guished commentators agree that the directions given by Paul in i Tim. 3:11 refer not to the wives of the deacons, but to women deacons. Thus evidence does not seem to be wanting that long before the close of the first century the Church had a female as well as a male diaconate. Though the female diaconate appears to have spread with the growth of the Church, we find but a single reference to it between the apostolic age and the close of the third century. It is contained in the well-known letter of Pliny the Younger, Governor of Bithynia, to the Emperor Trajan, written soon after A. D. 100, in which he says: " In order to get at the truth of the matter (i. e., concerning the life and customs of the Christians) I deemed it necessary to put to the rack two maids, who are called ministry (servants, deaconesses). But beyond a most corrupt and boundless superstition, I could extort nothing from them." The female diaconate reached its prime during the fourth century in the Eastern Church, and now references to it become frequent. Thus very full information regarding the qualifications, duties, etc., of deaconesses is found in that body of writings known as the Apostolic Constitutions. According to this document, faithful and holy women were to be appointed as deaconesses because the Church had need of them; and the bishop was to induct them into office by prayer 1 and the laying on of hands, in the presence of the 1 Ordination Prayer: " Eternal God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator of man and woman; Who didst fill with the Spirit Miriam and Deborah, Hannah and Huldah; Who didst not disdain that Thine Only- begotten Son should be born of a woman; Who also in the tabernacle and in the temple didst appoint women-guardians of Thy holy gates : Do Thou also look on this Thy hand-maid, now being set apart unto service (i in lieu of fees or tips (except for special services) an adequate addi- tion to the regular bill (usually loper cent.). The Verband christlicher Hospize in 1908 comprised besides the 49 in Germany, 3 in Switzerland, 2 in Italy, and i in Norway, besides 6 rest houses (Erholungsh'duser) in Germany. Like numerous Herbergen, many of the hospices also serve as Vereinshduser, i. e., as headquarters of Inner Mission societies. The hospice idea has been transplanted to America, but to meet somewhat different needs, and therefore in a some- what different form. Here the several institutions of the Lutheran Church passing under this name are meant to be chiefly permanent Christian homes for young men or women who come to the larger cities either to study or to engage in some occupation. Perhaps for the first time removed from the wholesome atmosphere of the Christian family and brought into contact with the numerous demoralizing influences of a large city no one needs the nurture and protection of such a home more than these. Left without friendly advisers, exposed to many temptations, and often compelled by lack of meahs to find quarters in a cheap boarding-house located 164 FORMS OF INNER MISSION ACTIVITY perhaps in a vile neighborhood, it need not be a matter of surprise that many are quickly caught in the current that sweeps them away from the Church and everything spiritual, and are carried to ruin in body and soul. Against this de- structive current, which only those of mature character suc- cessfully resist, the hospice seeks to erect a barrier in its en- deavor to actualize as nearly as possible the life of the Chris- tian household. A Christian housefather or housemother (pastor or deaconess) is placed at the head, daily prayers are held, a personal interest is taken in each inmate, friendly counsel is given, regular church going is encouraged, and thus the hospice becomes a conservator of character and of the spiritual life. In laying large stress on these features, whilst offering at the same time all the comforts and refinements of a well-conducted home, the Lutheran hospices in America differ from somewhat similar institutions for women found in leading cities, which often are little else than very respectable boarding-houses. The Luther Hospice for Young Men, at No. 157 N. Twen- tieth Street, Philadelphia, opened by the Inner Mission Society of said city September i, 1905, was the first Lutheran hospice in America. Since then hospices have been estab- lished in Minneapolis, St. Louis, and Chicago. f. SOME OTHER FORMS OF PROTECTIVE WORK i. Kellner-Mission, or Mission among Waiters. " The vocation of a waiter," says Hennig, " is a vocation without a Sunday, without evening leisure, without the pleasant asso- ciations of family life, and generally without a settled home. What a menace the constant confinement in a vitiated at- mosphere is to the body! And how the soul is endangered by association with people whose only object is pleasure, and by the wretched tipping system!" In 1880 the City Missions of Berlin, Hamburg, and other cities, together with various young men's societies, began work among this class of employes by serving them with LUTHER HOSPICE, PHILADELPHIA HOSPICE, FRANKFORT-ON-THE- MAIN HOSPICE, DRESDEN HOSPICE FOR YOUNG WOMEN, MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. PROTECTION OF THE IMPERILED 165 Christian literature and arranging night meetings for relig- ious purposes; but no great progress was made until the establishment of the Kellnerheime in London and Frankfort- on-the-Main, in 1892 and 1898 respectively, and the founding of Der Kellnerfreund as the organ of the Committee for the Promotion of Christian Life among Waiters, now the Inter- national Society of Hotel Waiters. In addition to the two mentioned above, Kellnerheime are now found in Cannes, Diisseldorf, Berlin, Breslau, Hamburg, Geneva, Paris, Leipzig, Cologne, and New York. Among the features of these homes are the following: Agreeable entertainment at moderate prices for those out of employment or on a vacation ; counsel and information; rooms for reading and writing; library; opportunities for music; lecture courses; facilities for obtaining positions and depositing savings; daily devo- tions and stated gatherings for religious purposes; all the advantages of a Christian home. The person in charge usually reads the lessons and prayers for the day, together with a sermonette, from a volume especially prepared for this purpose, but attendance at such services is purely voluntary and religion is obtruded upon no one. In the smaller cities in which there are no Heime, more or less in- terest is beginning to be taken in waiters by pastors and city missionaries. 2. The Fluss-schiffer-Mission, or Mission among Rivermen, labors among the 150,000 Protestants who navigate the streams of Germany. For a large part of the year these have their " home " often with wife and children on the water, and are now here, now there. Subject to constant change, and practically without a Sunday, they have few oppor- tunities for spiritual improvement, whilst at the same time encountering many moral dangers. To provide the former and guard against the latter is the purpose of the Fluss- schiffer-Mission. It does so by distributing large quantities of Christian literature, arranging for services on vessels and in other places, and in caring for the religious instruction and training of the thousands of children who are obliged to 1 66 FORMS OF INNER MISSION ACTIVITY accompany their parents. Thus an association in Berlin has had built and maintains a large boat containing a chapel, in which regular sevices are held, and baptisms, communions, marriages, and confirmations take place. Two deacons are employed to visit boats and render helpful service to the crews. A boatmen's home has been established, and a boatmen's association organized. Two children's refuges annually care for upwards of 5000 rivermen's children, who on Sundays attend service in the above-mentioned floating chapel. Since 1907 a home for rivermen's children has been in operation at Teltow, in charge of a deacon from the Rauhe Haus; at Ruhrort, Hamburg, Magdeburg, Konigs- berg, Memel, and Neufahrwasser rivermen's homes are found; Saxony and Silesia support special pastors for the work; and at several scores of places pastors and laymen render volunteer service. 3. Other classes for whose spiritual care special provision is made are the Hollands ganger, the Sachsenganger, and the laborers on canals and railroads. For more than two hundred years large numbers of men have every summer gone from northwestern Germany to Holland to work as peat cutters, grass mowers, tile makers, and stucco workers; while more than 50,000 men and women, mostly under thirty years of age, every season leave their homes in eastern Germany to find employment as farm hands in Saxony and other parts of middle Germany. This separation from home, church, and family for half a year or more often brings with it a train of evil consequences partial dissolution of family ties, dimin- ished respect for parental authority, abuse of one's freedom from restraint, contraction of evil habits, gradual alienation from the Church and things spiritual, and frequently quite unconscious absorption of socialistic and anti-christian views and principles. Similar and perhaps still greater dangers threaten those engaged in the construction of new railroads and canals, brought into contact as they often are with the very worst elements of widely different nationalities. As the needs of all these classes are essentially the same, SAVING OF THE LOST 167 the methods for relieving them are in each case almost identical. Whenever practicable those going away for a season are for the time being committed to the care and oversight of the pastors into whose parish they come; while in other cases itinerant preachers and colporteurs are em- ployed especially so among the workmen on canals and railroads. In not a few instances special services mark the departure and return of these sojourners. V. The Saving of the Lost On the principle that prevention is better than cure, and with a view to their elimination as far as possible, the causes which lead to delinquency have in recent years been much more carefully studied than formerly. Nevertheless, how- ever many preventive agencies may be set in motion, and however much good these may accomplish, there will always be some who are either unfortunate enough not to come under their influence, or who, if they do, fail to be benefited by them. For these still further provision must be made in order to save them, if possible, and thus prevent them from becoming a menace to or a charge on society. a. RESCUE HOMES FOR THE YOUNG Among the most blessed fruits of German Inner Mission work are its 324* rescue homes for neglected and delinquent children. The causes which produce juvenile delinquency are many. Perhaps in the majority of cases the parents are at fault. They may be altogether incompetent to train children. They may be too indulgent on the one hand or too rash and stern on the other. They may be compelled to earn their living away from home to the utter neglect of their children; or, where child-labor laws do not prevent, and sometimes in spite of them, the children themselves may be put to work while they should still be at school, often amid surroundings 1 In 1907. 1 68 FORMS OF INNER MISSION ACTIVITY that do them vast physical and moral injury. Then there are the parents who drink, the parents who loaf, the parents who teach their children to beg, steal, and lie, the parents who allow their boys to run with the " gang," and their girls to be out late at night. What wonder that children to whom the sweet influences of a real home are unknown, who, instead of prayers have heard oaths, in place of virtue have seen vice yes, what wonder that such become subjects for the rescue home? 1 But some also find their way there whose surroundings and opportunities have been of the best. " The one black sheep of the family " is not a mere phrase, but only too fre- quently does it designate a reality that has broken many a father's and mother's heart. Because of its incorrigibility refused admission to public and private schools, the reform school in the end remains the only alternative for such a child. All such cases, unless mentally defective, present a psychological enigma which can be explained only on the ground of the exceeding sinfulness of the human heart. The first efforts in behalf of such children were made by the Swiss educator Pestalozzi, in an institution which he opened at Stanz in 1798. This was in operation only one year. Others, however, with more positive Christian con- victions than Pestalozzi had, soon followed in his footsteps and established institutions having a similar purpose, but thoroughly permeated by the spirit of the Gospel. Thus, Count von der Recke-Volmarstein, at Diisselthal, in the Rhine Province, in 1819; Christian H. Zeller, at Beuggen, Baden, in 1820; Johannes Falk, 2 at Weimar, in 1821; C. A. Dr. Rudolph R. Reeder, Superintendent of the New York Orphan Asylum, Hastings-on-the-Hudson, says: "The delinquent child of to-day is the product of city and town life. Out of one hundred and thirty thousand children in our reformatories, ninety-eight per cent, come from cities, towns, and villages. In Baltimore crime is said to be fifty per cent, greater in the slum tenement district than in the city at large; in Chicago over two hundred per cent, greater." How Two Hundred Children Live and Learn, p. 160. 2 "It was a principle of Falk's that the root of the evil had its chief source not in ignorance, but in sin; that it was not enough, therefore, to teach writing and arithmetic; that that was the least part of education; that it was more im- portant to impart the secret of a righteous life." STEVENSON: Praying and Working, p. 38. SAVING OF THE LOST 169 Zeller, at Lichtenstern, Wiirttemberg, in 1836; and in Great Britain the Scotch divine, Thomas Guthrie, who established the so-called "ragged schools" (see biographical sketches, PP- 56, 57 5 8 > 59> and 8 )- First in importance among the institutions under considera- tion is the Rauhe Haus, begun by Wichern at Hamburg in 1833 (p. 66). Here Wichern introduced the following char- acteristic features: In separate houses the children were grouped into " families " of ten or twelve each, so as to make it possible to give each child the utmost individual care, not only spiritually but also in every other respect; over these " families" housefathers were placed for whose training a special insti- tution (the first Diakonenhaus) was established; provision was made for manual training. As the number of children increased and new activities were added, building after build- ing was erected, so that to-day the institution is an aggrega- tion of structures, forming a small village in themselves. For the education and training of the insubordinate sons of wealthy parents a Pensionat or pay school, now known as the " Paulinum," was opened in 1852. Of the first dozen boys received by Wichern one had committed ninety-two thefts before he was twelve years of age; another had worn prison chains from which he had also managed to free himself; eight had stolen; and one of these was already half feeble-minded as the result of secret sins. The first dozen girls admitted seemed to Wichern to be still more degraded. After undergoing several changes of location the girls' department was in 1886 incorporated with Pastor Ninck's institution at Eppendorf , near Hamburg. Rescue homes of the Wichern type do not have the char- acter of an asylum or penal institution, but altogether that of the Christian home and family. On entrance the past is forgiven and never mentioned; no child is allowed to speak of its previous history to a companion; there are no rigid rules nor anything like military espionage, but as much freedom is allowed as is consistent with good order; and, above all, is every effort made to win a child's confidence and love. 170 FORMS OF INNER MISSION ACTIVITY The reformatory means employed comprise a judicious com- bination of work and recreation; instruction in the school- room; and, as the most potent of all, careful religious train- ing in and out of chapel, and constant and conscientious attention to the proper spiritual development of each child. It is, therefore, of the highest importance that those charged with the administration of rescue homes, whether for boys or girls, be men and women of ripe Christian experience, sound judgment, and much patience, who, lacking neither the loving heart nor the firm will, can, both by word and example, create an atmosphere in which those committed to their care are almost unconsciously influenced for better things. Hence deacons and deaconesses are, by reason of their training, especially well fitted for such work, and several hundred are so employed. The methods introduced by Wichern have been largely followed in other countries, especially that of grouping into " families." In our own land this is now the practice in quite a number of the newer juvenile reformatories. Unfortunately in most of them the number of children comprising a " fam- ily " is too large (20 to 50) ; and it is questionable whether in any of them due stress is laid upon Wichern's fundamental principle of individual care and oversight. Still more is it to be regretted that in this country we have hardly yet learned to estimate the importance of giving Christian men and women a special training for work of this kind. Children who have been inmates of a German rescue home, and who, if fitted for it, have been confirmed (usually at about fourteen), are thereafter, whenever possible, placed in good families, but the institution's interest in them does not cease. For boys and girls beyond this age who for some time still need correctional care, or who have never had it, a considerable number of special institutions, and special departments in existing institutions, have in recent years been provided. These are conducted in the same manner and spirit as the homes for younger children, but additional stress is laid on manual labor in field, garden, and shop. SAVING OF THE LOST 171 b. WARFARE AGAINST IMMORALITY: MAGDALEN HOMES In the social evil sin is met in its most hideous and debasing form. Of all evils it is the most far reaching hi its frightful consequences to the individual, the family, and society. It is the sin above every other whose ravages can be traced through generations, and whose unbridled gratification is one of the infallible signs of national decay. " Careful observers believe it to be a more constant and fundamental cause of degeneration than intemperance. It certainly effects degeneration of a more or less pronounced type in a much larger number of persons. It persists almost to the end in the most degenerate stock, while at the same time it is operative among the healthier classes." 1 "There was nothing which so ruined the ancient world as the domin- ion of fleshly lusts; and nothing would be so sure a sign of our own approaching destruction as their unrestrained indulgence." 2 Prostitution is an evil that at any time may, and repeatedly does, reduce youth to premature, helpless old age; transforms the body into a rotten shell; affects not only the sinner, but his posterity; and makes the kiss of love the means of carrying contagion and foul disease to pure brides and innocent children. 3 Against no other form of evil does Holy Writ, therefore, warn with more fre- quency and greater earnestness. Only twice has this species of vice to any considerable extent been arrested, namely, during the first centuries of the Christian Church and at the time of the Reformation, demonstrating conclusively that serious evils disappear only in proportion as the Gospel becomes a power in the social and national life. Among the causes which lead to prostitution are to be mentioned, first, certain social and industrial conditions which facilitate the fall, such as overcrowded tenements and unattractive homes from which girls seek the street for 1 WARNER: American Charities, p. 66. *LUTHARDT: The Moral Truths of Christianity, p. 121. 'The Encyclopedia of Social Reform, ist ed., p. 981. 172 FORMS OF INNER MISSION ACTIVITY fresh air and recreation; low wages and the ease with which improper intimacies are formed in store and factory, in counting-room and office; dance halls, and cheap theatres; erotic and obscene literature; ignorance regarding matters of sex; and the lack of some one to counsel, direct, and pro- tect. Nevertheless prostitution can never be regarded as a necessary product of social conditions. The chief factor in bringing it about is always personal, both on the side of the tempter and on the side of the tempted. While the former is driven by his lusts, the latter often has visions of more money, fine clothes, and a good time, or may even yield herself only for pleasure's sake. "The money returns fur- nish a very great temptation to girls to part with their virtue. Some fall because they cannot find work; some because they do not wish to work. Many a girl who is strong, and healthy, and comely, and lazy, learns that there is a market for such as she; that she can earn more money in a night by sin than she can in a week or a month by work, and she sells herself accordingly." 1 But the income of the great majority soon begins to decrease, and in a few years they are reduced to utter want and wretchedness. Out of 2000 cases investi- gated to ascertain causes, 525 were attributed to desti- tution, 513 to inclination, 258 to seduction, and 181 to drink. Disclosures in recent years establish the fact that there is a systematic traffic in girls. According to a German author- ity London is the center of this traffic. "The London houses of ill-fame," he says, "maintain agents of both sexes in every country of Europe, who furnish them with fresh ' goods.' Numberless girls who are enticed to England as seamstresses, milliners, servants, governesses, etc., lose their maidenhood in London resorts of ill-fame." 2 Shocking revelations of this kind have also been made in our own land; and it is claimed that a very large number of prostitutes in the 1 Rev. F. M. GOODCHILD, in The Arena, March, 1896. *Dr. GASTON VORBERG: Freiheit oder gesundheMiche Ueberwachung der Gewerbsunzitcht, 1907, p. 43. SAVING OF THE LOST 173 United States have been snared and trapped, bought and sold, among them thousands of immigrant girls. 1 In its presentment, June 29, 1910, the Grand Jury charged with the investigation of the alleged existence of the "white slave" traffic in New York, makes the statement that there are in the county of New York a considerable and increasing number of creatures who live wholly or in part upon the earnings of girls or women who practice prostitution. "With promises of marriage, of fine clothing, of greater personal independence, these men often induce girls to live with them, and after a brief period, with threats of exposure or of physical violence, force them to go upon the streets as common prostitutes and to turn over the proceeds of their shame to their seducers, who live largely, if not wholly, upon the money thus earned by their victims." Prostitutes are found mainly in the cities, but their male companions come from everywhere. Especially prevalent is this species of vice in the large cities of the world, where housing conditions are often the poorest, wages the lowest, and temptations the greatest. Paris is believed to support 100,000 prostitutes; Berlin, 40,000 to 50,000; London, a far greater number; and New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia, a total of 80,000 to 100,000. In 1906 Miss Kate R. O'Hara, a rescue mission worker of large experience, estimated the number of public prostitutes in the United States at 600,000, and "possibly as many more who sacrifice their chastity in connection with some other form of livelihood." Every fallen woman is supposed to mean at least five fallen men; and it is maintained that in the large cities 90 per cent, of the men are guilty of sexual sin. Statistics furthermore show that in the country at large over 50 per cent, of all young men are infected with some form of venereal disease before they reach the age of thirty. 2 As the average life of a professional prostitute is only about five years, it will be !See article on "The Girl that Disappears," by General Theodore A. Bingham, former Commissioner of Police for Greater New York, in Hamp- ton's Magazine, November, 1910. 2 Dr. ROBERT N.WILLSON: The American Boy and the Social Evil, p. 105. 174 FORMS OF INNER MISSION ACTIVITY seen how large an army of fresh victims must constantly be recruited to take the place of those that die. In view of the wide extent of this evil and of its awful train of wrecked families, diseased bodies, and lost souls, we may well ask: What can be done to check or overcome it? Method after method has been tried in Europe and America registration, segregation, licensing and all have signally failed. Nor dare the State compromise with sin. When God says: "Thou shalt not," the State cannot say: "Thou mayest," without itself becoming a partner of sin and incur- ring the gravest guilt. The "Committee of Fifteen," New York City, 1902, declared in its report that a system of vice regulation as practiced in most of the cities of continental Europe was no radical or adequate remedy for the evil even in its physical aspects, and made the following recommendations: "The better housing of the poor, purer forms of amusement, the raising of the conditions of labor especially of female labor better moral education, minors more and more withdrawn from the clutches of vice by means of reformatories, the evil itself unceasingly condemned by public opinion as a sin against morality and punished as a crime, with stringent penalties whenever it takes the form of a public nuisance." Furthermore, there should be an equal standard of sexual morality for both sexes; age of consent laws should protect a girl's virtue until she is of age as completely as the law protects her property; and parents should at the proper time instruct their children regarding the use and destiny of the body (i Cor. 6 : 15-20). The writer 1 already quoted again says: "Ignorant innocence leads most girls astray. A prudish silence lands many a girl in the brothel, and provides cus- tomers for her as well. It ought to be possible to impart to our children some instruction about these most important relations of life without mantling the cheeks of parents or child with a blush. It is little short of criminal to send our young people into the midst of the excitement and tempta- Rev. F. M. GOODCHILD. SAVING OF THE LOST 175 tions of a great city with no more preparation than if they were going to live in Paradise." And what a responsibility regarding this whole subject rests upon the ministry! Surely in the face of so great an evil it cannot be silent. It must set forth the divine law against sexual uncleanness as fully and forcibly as any other part of the decalogue. It must warn the old and the young, the married and the single against its awful consequences in time and in eternity. It must point out how the wrath of God pursues its votaries with unerring certainty. And it must plead for purity in word and deed as a prime necessity for physical and spiritual well-being, and for the preservation of the family, of society, and of the State. Uncleanness of this kind is a sin, and must be dealt with as sin. Hence not human enactments and police regulations must be relied upon to eradicate it, but that Word of divine truth which is alone able to change hearts and lives. The former may serve to keep the evil in check, but never to cure it. In England, on the Continent, and in the United States various societies are engaged in the work of promoting social purity among men and women alike. The White Cross Society, organized in England in 1884 by Bishop Lightfoot, pursues the same object with boys and young men from 13 to 19 years of age. In Germany, Wichern already called attention to the great need of waging a determined battle against public immorality, but not until 1885 was the first society founded for this purpose. Since then numerous similar societies have come into existence in the different provinces. The majority of these are now united in a general conference for aggressive work along many lines. In 1889 a branch of the White Cross Society was organized in Ber- lin under the auspices of Dr. Braun, General Superintendent; and only ten years later no less than 179 such branches could be counted in Germany, with a membership of about 20,000. Among the means which the Inner Mission employs for the rescue of fallen women are the so-called Magdalen 1 76 FORMS OF INNER MISSION ACTIVITY homes. The first of these was established by Fliedner at Kaiserswerth, and had its modest beginning in 1833 (see p. 70). But it was the Dutch Pastor Heldring who first awakened a general interest in this cause, and who, in 1848, opened an asylum for fallen women at Steenbeck, Hol- land, which became a model for many others of the same kind. It was a fundamental principle with Heldring that such an institution must be neither a prison nor a cloister, but a place to which unfortunates will come of their own choice, and in which they are never detained against their will. It must always be located in or near the town or city where the evil is found. It is brought to the notice of those whom it seeks to benefit through printed appeals, midnight missions, prison chaplains, city missionaries, parish deaconesses, and es- pecially through deaconesses engaged in the venereal wards of hospitals. For the inmates of a Magdalen home an abundance of work is provided in laundry, kitchen, field, garden, etc.; in small homes all live together as a family, usually under the watchful eye and loving care of a deaconess; in larger homes the method of grouping into "families" of ten or twelve is observed, each "family" having its own "mother"; at night all occupy one room, but so arranged that each one has her own compartment, and all are under the oversight of the sister or attendant who sleeps with them; whilst at all times the greatest care is taken that one is not unfavorably influ- enced by the other. The religious life of a German Magdalen home is that of the Christian family. The pastor at its head must be a man of more than ordinary pastoral efficiency, who, in all his ministrations, must know how to divide the Word of truth most profitably; and the housemother must be a woman of large heart, child-like piety, sound judgment, fine tact, and infinite patience. For her rehabilitation the unfortunate one should reside at least two years in the home, after which the home seeks a situation for her amid favorable surroundings, and keeps in close touch with her. SAVING OF THE LOST 177 Results in this most difficult kind of rescue work are, as a rule, not very encouraging. It is claimed that only about one-third are permanently saved. Nevertheless the winning back to right life of but one girl or woman is already a great gain, not only in view of the Lord's declaration regarding the value of a single soul (Matt. 16 : 26; Luke 15 : 7, 10), but also because thereby at least one more source of moral and physical infection is removed. The work of the Magdalen homes is supplemented by that of the so-called Versorgungshduser, or shelters, begun by Miss B. Lungstras, in Bonn, September isth, 1873. The purpose of these houses is to provide a retreat for girls who have been betrayed, give them and their illegitimate offspring the necessary care and protection, and thus to prevent, if possible, their still deeper fall. After a time a suitable place is found for the mother (usually as a domestic) ; and, to serve as a bond of fellowship with the house, the child is retained until its third year. Including the Frauenheime (p. 219) there were, at the beginning of 1910, 67 Inner Mission institutions in Germany devoted to the saving and care of fallen women and the protection of imperiled girls. With very few exceptions these are conducted by pastors and deaconesses. The number of homes engaged in similar work in the United States Protestant and Catholic is said to be over 200. c. WARFARE AGAINST INTEMPERANCE : ASYLUMS FOR INEBRIATES Closely allied to the social evil, both as a cause and as an effect, is the drink evil. Like the social evil, this is also a most prolific cause of degeneracy. It impairs the bodily and mental faculties, leads to congenital idiocy, brings wretchedness into the home, disrupts families, induces pauperism, fills prisons, reformatories and workhouses, shortens life, and sends the drinker to everlasting perdition. Like the unclean person the drunkard shall not inherit the kingdom of God (i Cor. 6 : 9, 10). 178 FORMS OF INNER MISSION ACTIVITY How to deal with this evil has long engaged the thought and effort of men and women in many lands. Some have sought a solution in legislation. Prohibition, local option, high license, and other expedients have been tried, but with only partial success. These may help to remove the tempta- tion, and, when supported by an almost unanimous public sentiment, may reduce the traffic almost to the vanishing point. Nevertheless the fact remains that character and morals cannot be changed by law. The appetite for drink laughs at laws, and finds ways to evade even the most stringent. Another method of combating the evil is attempted through the educational and restraining influence of societies formed for this purpose. This movement dates from the beginning of the last century and originated in the United States. In 1808 the first modern temperance society was organized in Saratoga County, New York, but had only a brief exist- ence. This was followed in 1813 by the Massachusetts Temperance Society, and in 1826 by the American Society for the Promotion of Temperance (Boston), now known as the National Temperance and Publication Society, with headquarters in New York City. More recent are the Sons of Temperance (1842), the Independent Order of Good Tem- plars (1852), and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (1874). From this country the movement spread to Great Britain and the Continent. These and similar societies, in this and other lands, have undoubtedly accomplished much good. They have laid bare the evil of intemperance in all its features. They have educated public opinion and awakened a healthier public sentiment. They have taught people to regard excessive drinking as disreputable, and even the best conducted saloon as more or less of a nuisance in a neighborhood. They have saved many from becoming drunkards and others who were. They have brought about much restrictive legislation, and have in many places, through their educational propaganda, succeeded in eliminating the traffic almost entirely. "With SAVING OF THE LOST 179 the exception of the Church Temperance Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church, which has the 'double basis,' all the temperance societies of the United States are based on the doctrine of total abstinence, and with the exception of the Father Mathew Total Abstinence Societies of the Roman Catholic Church, they all advocate the principle of prohibition." 1 The radical advocates of temperance reform have, however, also been guilty of much bad exegesis and fanaticism. As early as 1833 the first national temperance convention, altogether regardless of the New Testament (John 2 : i-n; Matt, ii : 18, 19; Luke 7 : 33, 34; i Tim. 4 : 4, 5), resolved that the use of ardent spirits as a beverage and their sale was morally wrong. To make this theory fit in with certain passages of the Old and New Testament, some of which com- mend wine while others warn against it, the further untenable theory was propounded that in the olden time there were two kinds of wine, unfermented and fermented, and that it was only the use of the former that the Scriptures tolerated. Thus it came about that many churches began to use only so-called unfermented wine some even water in the ad- ministration of the Communion. This same fanatical spirit would also bring about total abstinence by means of universal prohibition, legally enforced. It fails to grasp the New Testament principle that " intem- perance never lies in the use of any creature of God, whether meat or wine or marriage; but in its abuse, either by excess injuring soul and body, or by offense given the weak (i Cor. 8 : 8-13; Rom. 14 : 20, 21). The determination of these limitations cannot be fixed by any universal law, but must be decided in individual cases, and by the individual Christian conscience, as they arise. The greatest care must be taken not to declare that to be sin which God has not for- bidden, and that not to be sin which God has forbidden. Total abstinence has its justification only in so far as it is a voluntary surrender by the Christian of a right which he 1 Encyclopaedia Britannica: Art. Temperance Societies. l8o FORMS OF INNER MISSION ACTIVITY acknowledges to belong to him, while it refrains from making its decisions of the claims of Christian expediency determining one's own conduct a standard to be enforced upon others. Temperance legislation, so-called, suggests, however, other questions. Legislation often justly restricts the use of what is per se sinless, because of serious abuses from which society suffers. Water is free and a good gift of God, but such evils may threaten the community by its waste that legislation restricting its use may be absolutely necessary." * The American Good Templar order was introduced into England in 1868, into the Scandinavian countries in 1877-80, and into Germany in 1883-89. Wherever it is found it is organized into lodges after the manner of secret societies, with ritual, passwords, grips, regalia, etc. It exacts not merely a pledge, but the equivalent of an oath from those who join that they will never make, buy, sell, use, furnish, nor cause to be furnished to others, as a beverage, any spirituous or malt liquors, wine or cider, and will discountenance the manufacture and sale thereof in all proper ways. Into its juvenile temples it receives children from 6 to 16 years of age, whom it pledges in practically the same manner to total abstinence for life from all intoxicating drinks, tobacco, gambling, and vulgar language. But such unevangelical methods commend neither this nor any similar organization to those who see in intemperance a work of the flesh which can be effectually overcome, not by pledges and laws, and other man-made expedients, but only by the grace of God. The temperance organization in Germany which most fully represents Inner Mission principles is the Blue Cross Society founded by the Swiss Pastor Rochat in 1877, and introduced into Germany in 1883. This rests altogether on a Scriptural basis and pursues Scriptural methods. It does not regard the drinking of a glass of wine or beer by those who understand the right use of all things as a sin, but advocates strict abstinence, self-imposed and voluntary, for those to whom this would be a temptation to excess, and i JACOBS: Lutheran Cyclopedia, p. 508. SAVING OF THE LOST l8l for all who have already been enslaved by drink but wish to be freed. It believes that even the most moderate indulgence in distilled liquors is prejudicial to health and, therefore, warns against it. It asks those who engage in the work of reforming others to be total abstainers for love's sake and to set a good example (Rom. 14 : 20, 21; i Cor. chap. 8). But in no case does it look for substantial and lasting results apart from the Gospel. Those whom it would protect or save must first learn to see that intemperance is a sin, whose chains cannot be broken by self, but only as power is sought from above; and those who labor with the intemperate must derive their inspiration and strength from the same source. In a word, the Blue Cross Society begins within, and by seeking to bring the heart to God would change the life. An association numbering among its founders some of the most eminent divines, physicians, jurists, government officials, political economists, and business men in Germany is the Society Against the Abuse of Spirituous Liquors ( Verein gegen Missbrauch geistiger Getranke), organized March 29, 1883. The primary purpose of this society is social rather than individual reform. This it seeks to bring about by the wide dissemination of information regarding the drink evil in all its aspects; and by endeavoring to secure such legisla- tion and police regulations as will at least put a check upon it as far as possible. In the Scandinavian countries the so-called Gothenburg system has yielded remarkable results. Under this system "the authorities of each town, city, or district are legalized to grant all licenses for the sale of alcoholic drinks to a company consisting of persons who engage in the undertak- ing, not for the sake of profit, but solely for the good of the working classes, and who do not derive the slightest profit from the concern beyond the ordinary rate of interest on capital invested. The premises of the company on or in which the liquors are sold must be in full view of the public; must be clean, light, and roomy, and at the same time serve as eating houses for the working classes; and no liquors can l82 FORMS OF INNER MISSION ACTIVITY be sold on credit or pawn tickets, on Sundays or holidays, or after 6 P. M. in the evening of the days preceding these." This system, together with years of persistent temperance agi- tation, has resulted in a vast reduction in the number of places where liquor is sold, has diminished to a correspond- ing extent the consumption of spirits and drunkenness, has decreased the death-rate from chronic alcoholism to a fraction of what it was before, and greatly increased the amount of money in savings banks. Victims of alcohol who can no longer control themselves or be controlled belong in an asylum for the cure of inebri- acy. A properly conducted institution of this kind is, however, not a quack establishment that regards chronic alcoholism as a disease, and seeks to cure it by purely medical means. Intemperance in drink is not a disease which a person inherits or contracts against his will, but it is an acquired habit, a sin, involving moral responsibility, and that must in the last analysis be dealt with as sin. True, the drinker has so abused his body, deranged its functions, and weakened its powers that he needs first of all to be built up again physically. And this is the first thing that the asylum seeks to do for him. It deprives him at once of liquor, sup- plies him with the most nourishing diet, subjects him to a well-regulated system of exercise and out-door labor, and pos- sibly administers a few simple remedies to aid his nervous system in regaining its equilibrium. Soon, however, he is made to feel those ethical and religious influences which can- not be separated from a home in which all dwell together as a Christian family, where God's Word and the language of prayer are heard, and where one is taught to see, if pos- sible, that he can hope to be permanently cured only through Him who has made atonement for sin, and who says: "With- out Me ye can do nothing." The first inebriate asylum in the world was opened in 1851 at Lintorf, near Dlisseldorf, on the Rhine, by Candidate Dietrich, of the Duisburger Diakonenhaus. According to Schneider's Jahrbuch of 1909 there are now upwards of fifty SAVING OF THE LOST 183 such institutions in Germany, six of them Roman Catholic, and most of the remainder under Inner Mission auspices. A similar institution (and, so far as the writer knows, the only one of the kind in the United States) is the Franklin Home, Nos. 911-15 Locust Street, Philadelphia, begun in 1872. Its methods are essentially those of the Inner Mission asylums. We read in one of its publications: " The inebriate who enters the Franklin Home is treated as an invalid, as well as a sinner, the attempt being first to restore his normal mental and physical condition, and then to arouse his con- science to a realization of his moral and religious duties and responsibilities." The words of Paul, "By the grace of God I am what I am," emblazoned on a banner in the chapel, indicate on what the institution places its chief reliance in dealing with inebriates; nor has its confidence been mis- placed. Without cant, without excitement, without sen- sationalism, but with confidence in the quiet power of that Word which maketh wise unto salvation, the Home has brought about the permanent reformation of fully 40 per cent, of the 8000 men who have entered it since it was opened. Moreover, this Home does not seek to make money out of its inmates like numerous " institutes " that treat inebriacy as a " disease," with quack remedies, for so much a week. Almost half of its work is purely charitable. In the United States farm colonies, under State control, are being established here and there, to which habitual inebri- ates, who cannot be controlled in any other way, are com- mitted by legal process. d. CARE OF CONVICTS AND DISCHARGED PRISONERS Perhaps no department of present day philanthropic work is so much indebted to Christianity for its inspiration and achievements as the work for and among prisoners. In the ranks of modern Christians there are four whose names will ever continue to be associated with the great move- ment towards prison reform, namely, John Howard and 1 84 FORMS OF INNER MISSION ACTIVITY Elizabeth Fry in England, and Fliedner and Wichern in Germany. Prior to the last century the barbarities and cruelties inflicted on prisoners form one of the darkest chapters in history. Men and women were incarcerated on the slightest pretext, often on the merest suspicion. They were locked up for debt, and put out of the way for political and religious reasons. In England prison officers were not paid salaries, but were dependent for their livelihood on fees which they extracted from the prisoners. Until these fees were paid even those were detained against whom juries found no evidence of guilt, or whose prosecutors had not appeared. Over two hundred offenses, many of them comparatively trivial, were punishable with death; and not until 1861 did England abolish the death penalty for all offenses excepting murder and treason. Deplorable conditions, moreover, existed in the prisons themselves, not only in England, but in other lands as well. In his tour of inspection, begun in 1773, Howard found that "they were for the most part pestiferous dens, densely overcrowded, dark, foully dirty, not only ill ventilated, but deprived altogether of fresh air. The wretched inmates were thrown into subterranean dungeons, into wet and noisome caverns and hideous holes to rot and fester, a prey to fell disease bred and propagated in the prison house, and deprived of the commonest necessaries of life. For food they were dependent upon the caprice of their jailers or the charity of the benevolent; water was denied them except in the scantiest proportions. They were half naked or in rags: their only bedding was putrid straw reeking with exhalations and accumulated filth. Every one in durance, whether tried or untried, was heavily ironed; women did not escape the infliction. All alike were subject to the rapacity of their jailers and the extortions of their fellows. Jail fees were levied ruthlessly 'garnish' also, the tax or contribution paid by each individual to a common fund to be spent by the whole body, generally in drink. Drunkenness was universal and quite unchecked; gambling SAVING OF THE LOST 185 of all grades was practiced; vice and obscenity were every- where in the ascendant. Idleness, drunkenness, vicious intercourse, sickness, starvation, squalor, cruelty, chains, awful oppression, and everywhere culpable neglect in these words may be summed up the state of the jails at the time of Howard's visitation." 1 The revelations made by Howard and his persistent agitation of the subject led to the Act of 1799, which laid the foundation of the modern penitentiary and reformatory system. The object in view was thus stated: "It was hoped, by sobriety, cleanliness, and medical assistance, by a regular series of labor, by solitary confinement during the intervals of work, and by due religious instruction, to preserve and amend the health of the unhappy offenders, to mure them to habits of industry, to guard them from pernicious company, to accustom them to serious reflection, and to teach them both the principles and practice of every Christian and moral duty." 2 Under this act, after many delays, the great peni- tentiary at Millbank was built and opened in 1816, but, with few exceptions, the common prisons throughout the United Kingdom remained deplorably bad in spite of con- siderable progressive legislation for the amelioration of prisoners. This led to the formation in 1817 of the first English prison society for the improvement of prison dis- cipline, of which Elizabeth Fry was the moving spirit. The results achieved by this organization, largely through the personal efforts of Mrs. Fry herself, almost at once attracted general attention, and as a consequence other similar societies were soon formed in England and on the Continent. The first prison society in the world was, however, organ- ized in America, in the city of Philadelphia, February 2, 1776, only two years after Howard made his first report. Interrupted in its work by the war, it was reorganized May 8, 1787, as the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Mis- eries of Public Prisons, but is now known as the Pennsyl- Britannica. Vol. xix, Art. Prison Discipline. Ubid. 1 86 FORMS OF INNER MISSION ACTIVITY vania Prison Society. Over one hundred prominent citizens of Philadelphia among them Benjamin Rush and Benjamin Franklin signed its original constitution. In its member- ship the Society of Friends has always been largely represented. Its first president was Bishop White of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and the Rev. Dr. Helmuth of the Lutheran Church was one of its first two vice-presidents. For a century and a quarter it has continued its beneficent work. Before the close of the eighteenth century and twenty years before Elizabeth Fry exposed the horrors of Newgate in London it had already secured much remedial legislation. Since then its efforts in behalf of the physical and moral well- being of prisoners have never been relaxed. Its official rep- resentatives are regular visitors in the penal institutions of Philadelphia and vicinity and in other parts of the State; by means of visits and correspondence the general secretary keeps the society informed of conditions in the county jails throughout the State; and in 1909 it was one of the prime movers in securing the enactment of the law providing for adult probation, the indeterminate sentence, and parole. The example set by Pennsylvania was followed in other States, and all the societies that have since been formed have actively promoted legislative enactments and brought about many reforms. Besides, Pennsylvania, Massachussetts, New York, Ohio, Indiana, and Minnesota are especially conspicuous for the advances they have made in the admin- istration of their penitentiaries and reformatories. Unfor- tunately, in nearly all the States the county jails show the least progress. Within the last forty years scientific penology has been greatly advanced in the United States by the National, now the American Prison Association, formed in 1870; and throughout the world by the International Prison Congress, which held its first meeting in 1872, and assembles every five years. In Germany it was Fliedner who first became actively interested in prisons and prison reform. He had learned to SAVING OF THE LOST 187 know the horrors of prison life in his visits to the convicts at Diisseldorf, had been impressed by the beneficent work of Elizabeth Fry in England, and, with this before his mind, organized the Rhenish- Westphalian Prison Society in 1826 for similar work in Germany. This society, the first of the kind on the Continent, had for its specific purpose the appointment of prison chaplains and teachers, the establishment of libraries and the distribution of good literature in prisons, and the care of discharged prisoners. Through its influence many needed reforms were brought about; and, like the several other general societies that have since been formed, it has numerous local branches for the care of prisoners whose terms have expired. Of such branches, representing all the general societies, there are to-day about 430. Wichern strongly advocated prison reform in his Denk- schrifl and in other papers and addresses. Not merely im- proved buildings, nor a particular system of discipline, were in his mind the chief factors in seeking to bring about the rehabilitation of the prisoner, but an improved administra- tive personnel. With him persons counted more than things, and according to his way of thinking character could only be formed again by contact with character. Hence, we hear him say: " One of the first duties of the Inner Mission is to look after the imprisoned not only through the printed Word, but in the living person, who, quickened and strengthened by that Word and in the spirit of love and wisdom through earnest work and loving deed can approach these erring brethren in the flesh." l It was a part of his program to furnish brothers from the Rauhe Ham for such service, and, warmly supported by King Frederick William IV, he suc- ceeded in 1856 in placing thirty-seven as overseers in the Moabit prison at Berlin. His appointment in 1857 to a posi- tion in the Department of the Interior, and as a member of the High Consistory, led him to hope that he would ulti- mately be permitted to render a like service to other prisons; and, with this in view, he established the Johannesstift in i Gesammelte Schriften. Vol. iii, p. 297. 1 88 FORMS OF INNER MISSION ACTIVITY Berlin, in which men were to be trained specially for work in prisons and city missions. But by degrees he encountered much opposition, and his hopes were not realized. For persons convicted of State prison offences two systems of imprisonment are in vogue the separate (only one prisoner to a cell, day and night) and the congregate (separate cellu- lar confinement at night, congregate work during the day). The former originated with the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, and is known throughout the world as the " Pennsylvania System." This system, which at first met with much favor, has been abandoned in all other convict prisons in the United States, and largely in other countries. Even at Philadelphia it is no longer enforced. The congre- gate system was first introduced in the State prison at Auburn, N. Y. (hence also called the " Auburn System "), and is to-day, with various modifications, the prevailing system in the penitentiaries of the United States. For prisoners await- ing trial, and for short term prisoners, the separate system is, however, almost universally considered desirable; but, as in many county prisons this is not enforced, and prisoners of every grade and age are often permitted to commingle in- discriminately, these institutions are not infrequently and justly denominated " schools of vice." Penal institutions should be so located and constructed as to safeguard the health of their inmates. The State itself commits a crime if it incarcerates a person in a place so unsanitary that it wrecks his physical health. Besides sanitary buildings, nourishing food in sufficient quantity and well prepared should be furnished, and provision be made for abundant physical exercise. But the prison reformer of to-day looks far beyond the merely physical and material. He seeks the reformation of the criminal. He would, if possible, return him to society so improved in his moral nature as to make him a law-abiding citizen. Hence, he asks that the prisoner be given such opportunities and have such influences brought to bear upon him as will tend to cure him of his criminal propensities; or, in other words, he SAVING OF THE LOST 189 would have the place of incarceration regarded and conducted rather as a hospital for the recovery of moral well-being than as a place of vindictive punishment. Among the means to this end are industries which provide steady employment and prevent the certain demoralization which results from a long period of enforced idleness; prison schools; well-selected libraries and periodicals; the cultiva- tion of vocal and instrumental music; a wisely administered grading and parole system; and, above all, such a presenta- tion of divine truth and such individual pastoral care on the part of the chaplain as will lead to genuine repentance. But the success of the best devised reformatory means will be jeopardized if wardens, superintendents, and overseers are not themselves animated by Christian principles and a sincere purpose by all that they say and do to benefit their charges. A system of special training as advocated by Wichern would, therefore, serve a most useful purpose. All the means above indicated can and should be employed in State prisons and reformatories, and as many of them as can find application in county prisons. A new departure that has in recent years received wide recognition in the United States and yielded excellent results is the one under which an indeterminate sentence is passed upon the person adjudged guilty, between the minimum and maximum of which he may be paroled into the care of a parole officer, who will act as his first friend and adviser. If by industry and good habits the paroled person approves him- self, he is finally discharged on the expiration of the maximum, sometimes sooner; if he violates the terms of his parole he is remanded back to prison to serve the full penalty provided by law. The most critical time in the life of a convict is the day and hour of his release from prison. If he has been long in con- finement he is more or less out of touch with the world's life and activities, and at first hardly fitted physically or otherwise again to undertake life's duties. If he is known as an ex-convict the public and the police are against him, and FORMS OF INNER MISSION ACTIVITY he finds it difficult to get and retain employment. The sum of money given him on his discharge usually much too small is soon exhausted; and, unless he had some to his credit for working overtime in prison, or has a home to which he can go, where shall he find bread and where lay his head? What wonder that many who come out with good resolu- tions again lapse into evil ways! It is to take such by the hand, relieve their immediate needs, find work for them, and by friendly counsel and watchful care to put them on their feet again, that prisoners' aid societies and homes for dis- charged prisoners have come into being. In Germany, as has already been mentioned, there is a complete network of such associations, and in this country a number of societies and homes devote themselves to work of this kind. Fre- quently it is also found necessary to render a measure of assistance to families whose bread winner is in prison. But in spite of all that Christian love may do there are always some who are not amenable to it. They will again begin their depredations on society almost as soon as dis- charged; and it is not unusual for prison workers to find those in State prisons who had served several sentences before, and are likely to come back again. From such society must protect itself as it does from lepers and the dangerously insane, namely, by permanent segregation. This is the method now followed in several States of our own land. For dealing with juvenile offenders the Juvenile Court has come into vogue in the United States. Under this system a delinquent child, pending an examination, is usually not taken to a lock-up, station house, or prison, but to a house of detention, where it is not brought into contact with hardened criminals. Its case is heard in a special court, having its own judge, and, as a rule, only before persons whose presence is deemed necessary. A probation officer assists the court in obtaining information regarding the child's family, bringing- up, associations, etc. The child may be dismissed with an admonition from the judge, which in many cases is all that is needed; or it may be committed to the care of the probation SAVING OF THE LOST officer, to be watched over, guided, and reported, without being sent to a reform school. If this does not prove effective, the delinquent may be placed in a country home, but still under the supervision of the probation officer; and only when this does not answer is it sent to an industrial or reform school, and, last of all, to the reformatory. This same principle is in a number of States also applied to adult first offenders whose previous record has been good, and who are not charged with any of the more serious crimes. Known as " adult probation," it is a substitute for imprison- ment. Massachusetts was the first to introduce it, and after an experience of more than twenty years has become its stanchest advocate. : ' The advantages of probation over imprisonment are many. A very large proportion of those who are convicted for the first time are not criminal in char- acter, but have committed their offenses under exceptional circumstances. If imprisoned with habitual offenders they are likely to return worse than when they were sent away. They are also saved from the prison stigma, which makes it difficult for a discharged convict to obtain employment. The family shares the stigma and the disgrace when one if its members is imprisoned. Probation saves from this. If the convict is the head of the family, and is the wage-earner, imprisonment deprives the family of support and fosters pauperism. If placed on probation he continues to support his family. When imprisonment ends, restraint ends. It is needed when the prisoner is free. Probation furnishes re- straint to the free man, and reinforces all his good purposes. It controls his companionships, keeps him out of the saloon, and inspires a wholesome fear of the consequences of wrong- doing, as he may be surrendered and sentenced for any cause. " The results have justified the adoption of the method. A large proportion of the probationers do well during the probationary period. The courts that have made the largest use of it and have seen most of its results are heartiest in its support." l 1 Bulletin No. 19. Massachusetts Prison Association. 1 92 FORMS OF INNER MISSION ACTIVITY VI. The Care of the Sick and the Defective Just as Jesus went about and, in connection with the preaching of the Gospel, healed all manner of sickness and disease among the people (Matt. 4 : 23 et al.) ; as He helped the blind and lame, the deaf and dumb, the leprous and palsied, and those possessed of evil spirits, so the Inner Mission regards it as one of its chief duties to serve the sick and defective to the utmost of its ability. Its purpose in doing so is not only to relieve suffering, but to glorify the Master by demonstrating through its own acts of love that His love is still operative in the world. It would thus in effect say to those to whom it ministers: " I beseech you ... by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God" (Rom. 12:1, 2). a. HOSPITAL CARE OF THE SICK The hospital system of caring for the sick is the direct product of Christian charity. Among the heathen of pre- Christian times the care of the sick devolved upon the slaves of the household; and where there were no slaves the sick were obliged to care for themselves as best they could. The life of a citizen was considered valuable only so long as he could contribute to the welfare of the State; and when he was no longer able to do this, he could be abandoned without scruple. That human life was in itself sacred, and that those in health owed any special duties to the sick, was a thought utterly foreign to the heathen mind. This continued to be the case until Christianity triumphed over heathenism. In the meantime the Chris- tians, in sharp contrast with the brutal practice of the heathen, gave the sick, and especially those of their own CARE OF THE SICK AND THE DEFECTIVE 193 number, the most loving attention; and when Christianity finally became the dominant religion, it also added the care of the neglected sick in general to its other forms of benevo- lent activity by establishing hospitals for this purpose. Chief among these was that of Basil the Great at Cassarea in Cappadocia, founded in A. D. 369. This hospital, which might more properly be called a colony of mercy for the sick and needy of every kind, consisted of numerous buildings patterned after a private house. This style of arrange- ment continued to the Middle Ages, when the large pal- aces of the rich and noble, in quadrangular form, having a court in the center, began to be followed as the pattern, and the care of the sick also passed into the hands of the different orders, brotherhoods, and sisterhoods. After the Reformation this work, in Protestant lands, fell into the hands of the civil authorities, and of men and women who often had little or none of the spirit of the great Healer in their hearts. It is not surprising, therefore, that for two centuries and more the management of many institutions for the sick was marked by much neglect and inhumanity. It remained for Fliedner and others, aided by the restored female diaconate, to re-establish this work on a thoroughly Christian basis. To the great improvements in hospital construction and equipment, and the vast progress made in medical and surgical science, have now also been added vastly improved methods of management, nursing, etc., all of them the conscious or unconscious outgrowth of Christian charity. In 1910 the 84 motherhouses comprised in the Kaiserswerth Union had 7286 deaconesses stationed in 1115 hospitals; and even those hospitals in which only so-called trained nurses are employed have come under the influence of the great upward movement set in motion by Theodor Fliedner. For did not Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), the " mother " of the trained nurse system, get her chief inspiration and the bulk of her training among the deaconesses at Kaiserswerth? * 1 In the years 1850-51 Miss Nightingale spent four months in the Kaisers- werth Deaconess House. There, according to Fliedner himself, she labored 194 FORMS OF INNER MISSION ACTIVITY The Roman Catholic Church has never ceased to be active in hospital work, and its institutions for the care of the sick continue to be among the best. While it is true that the larger number of hospitals are not church hospitals, it can hardly be said that they are entirely independent of religious influence and control. There are few indeed in which clergymen are not always welcome to minister to the spiritual needs of patients; whilst church hospitals, as a rule, have their regular chaplains. But besides this, much depends on the atmosphere created by those in direct charge. A patient needs more than fine material surroundings, skilful treatment, and scientific nursing. To all this the nurse, whether deaconess or not, must, above everything else, add the loving sympathy of a Christian heart, and by word and example demonstrate to the one in her charge that she has a living interest both in his physical and in his spiritual well-being. It was thus that the Master dealt with the sick and infirm, and the more closely a hospital follows His practice the more Christian and helpful it will become. b. INSTITUTIONS FOR PHYSICAL AND MENTAL DEFECTIVES Under this general head are included the institutions for the deaf and dumb, the blind, the crippled, the epileptic and the feeble-minded, idiotic and insane, in the conduct of among the sick "with a modesty, humility, self-denial, tact, and devotion such as only the Spirit of God can produce, and at the same time gave evidence of such accurate Christian knowledge, and such a sound faith as to demonstrate in the highest degree that she was absolutely uninfluenced by anything like Romish and Puseyite work-righteousness." She first won general recog- nition for her extraordinary labors in reforming the sanitary condition of the British army during the Crimean War. On her return to England a testi- monial fund of $250,000 was subscribed, which she accepted only on condition that she might devote it to benevolence. Her first thought was to establish and personally conduct a deaconess house of the Kaiserswerth type: but the hardships endured in the army had already so seriously affected her health that she feared to undertake a work which in its details required so much exact- ing labor. She therefore used the fund at her disposal to establish and main- tain a training-school for nurses (1860) in connection with the St. Thomas Hospital, London, and an institution for the instruction of midwives at Kings College Hospital. CARE OF THE SICK AND THE DEFECTIVE 195 which organs of the Church or the Inner Mission participate to a greater or less extent. In all these the highest peda- gogical and medical skill should go hand in hand, so as to bring about the largest measure of physical and mental im- provement, whenever possible. In Germany by far the greater number of the 121 institutions for deaf-mutes and the blind are to-day under State control; and of the 115 such institutions in the United States, 66 were in 1904 public, 34 private, and only 15 ecclesiastical. 1. Deaf-mutes. Inability to speak is, as a rule, not due to any defect in the vocal organs, but is the result of congenital or very early deafness. A French clergyman, Charles Michel de 1'Epee (1712-1788), was the first to interest him- self in behalf of such unfortunates. He invented the so- called sign language and manual alphabet, and in 1770 began an institution for deaf-mutes in Paris. His method has, however, been almost entirely superseded by the oral method in which articulation and lip reading form the basis of in- struction. This was introduced by the German, Samuel Heinicke (1729-1790), in an institution which he founded at Leipzig in 1798, and was subsequently improved by others. This system is to-day everywhere yielding excellent results. Those who enjoy its advantages not only learn to articulate fairly well, but to converse with others by reading what they say from their lips. By far the larger number of the 91 insti- tutions for deaf-mutes in Germany are to-day maintained by the State, and can, therefore, not be classified as Inner Mission institutions. 2. The Blind. The causes of blindness are various. Perhaps the most frequent is the neglect of sore and inflamed eyes in early childhood; hence, the large number of blind found among the poor and ignorant. Only during the last century and a quarter have the blind, like the deaf and dumb, become a very special object of Christian care. The pioneers in this kind of work were Valentin Haliy (1756-1822) in Paris, and Joh. Wilh. Klein (1765-1848) in Vienna. In 1806 the first institution for the IQ FORMS OF INNER MISSION ACTIVITY blind in Germany was opened at Berlin. In 1910 there were 33. Nearly all of these, though begun as private institu- tions, are to-day wholly or in part subject to State control. In our own land most of the States have made provision for the instruction of the blind, and some of the institutions are not excelled by any in the world. Haiiy invented the system of teaching the blind to read by means of raised letters. This and its modifications have been almost entirely superseded, especially for writing, by the Braille system, a combination of dots for the letters, in various positions. Besides giving instruction in the branches usually taught in other schools, an institution for the blind must also seek to fit its pupils for life by giving them a measure of manual training. This generally consists in such occupations as broom-, basket-, mattress-, and brush-making, carpet weav- ing, cane-seating, and piano-tuning for men; and sewing, crochetting, knitting, fancy work, and sometimes cane-seat- ing for women. Many blind show an extraordinary apti- tude for the higher branches of learning, especially for music; and under the excellent system of instruction in our own leading institutions many of their graduates have achieved success as scholars and musicians, and nearly all are made in part or wholly self-supporting. For those who do not be- come so, special asylums or working-homes are necessary if they have no home of their own. 3. The Crippled. While the care and instruction of deaf- mutes and the blind has everywhere become almost exclus- ively the work of the State, the care of the crippled still remains as a form of Inner Mission activity in Germany and the Scandinavian countries. The first institution in the world designed especially for cripples was founded by a Roman Catholic, Johann Nepo- muk von Kurz, at Munich, in 1832. In 1853 and 1858 this was followed by two others in Paris, likewise under Roman Catholic auspices. The Reformed Pastor Bost received cripples into his institutions at Laforce, France; INSTITUTION FOR CRIPPLES AT CRACAU THE " COLONY or MERCY " AT BIELEFELD CARE OF THE SICK AND THE DEFECTIVE 197 and in 1861 and 1864 two institutions for crippled girls sprang into existence in Switzerland. But the real develop- ment of this work began with Hans Knudsen (1813-1886), a Danish Lutheran pastor, who, in 1872, organized a society at Copenhagen for the care of lame and crippled children. In the first twenty-five years of its existence this society relieved the needs of over 6000. It conducts a clinic and an industrial school, and maintains an asylum for cripples. From Copenhagen the work spread to Norway, Sweden, Finland, England, Germany, and the United States. Of the 40 institutions of this character in Germany, most of which are under Inner Mission auspices, the " Oberlinhaus " at Nowawes, near Potsdam, founded in 1886, and the " Samariterhaus " at Cracau, near Magdeburg, founded hi 1892, are probably best known. The latter is said to be the largest home for cripples in the world. The design of all these institutions is to give the children who are brought to them the very best orthopaedic treatment, and such intellectual and industrial training as will enable improvable cases to become at least measurably self-support- ing. Among the comparatively few institutions of this kind in the United States the splendid Widener Memorial Industrial Home for Crippled Children in Philadelphia, opened in 1906, is especially noteworthy. The Good Shepherd Home for Crippled Orphans at Allen town, Pa., is the one institution of the kind in the Lutheran Church of America. 4. The Epileptic. Perhaps no sufferers deserve so much sympathy as those afflicted with that mysterious disease known as epilepsy. The epileptic is always in suspense. He is con- stantly haunted by the fear of a seizure in public. If his infirmity becomes known he is shunned. It excludes him from school and church, from workshop, office, and society. No one will have him; and when the seizures become so frequent and violent that even his own family can hardly continue to care for him, whither shall he go? The malady, moreover, is incurable; and unless the sufferer is mercifully 198 FORMS OF INNER MISSION ACTIVITY relieved by an early death, his nervous irritability increases, his mind by degrees becomes clouded, and not infrequently he reaches a state of partial or complete idiocy. Until the epileptic becomes imbecile or dangerous he is not a subject for an insane asylum; nor should he at any time be consigned to an almshouse. To make life endurable for him three things are essential: industry suited to his ability; an inviting home in the company of those similarly afflicted who will not regard him as an object to be avoided; and, above all, the comforts of the Christian religion. These essentials are best provided in an institution that is the direct outgrowth of intelligent Christian charity, and is conducted not chiefly along medical lines (for medicine can do little or nothing for the epileptic), but as a place in which pastoral care and the patient ministrations of Christian love take precedence. It was von Bodelschwingh who characterized the properly conducted epileptic institution as " the quiet working-place in which the epileptic can still employ his waning powers in a useful way, and prepare himself in peace for his heavenly home." To Pastor von Bodelschwingh belongs the credit of having given the work for and among these unfortunates its first powerful impulse. Called in 1873 to the little home at Bielefeld, established in 1867, he there introduced the cottage and family system as the number of patients increased, made provision for suitable industries, began to train deacons and deaconesses for the work, and developed " a colony of mercy " that has become the wonder and admiration of the world. Here over 2000 sufferers now have their quiet home, minis- tered to in body and soul as only those can minister whose hearts are filled with sincerest love to their Lord and His needy brethren. Including Bielefeld there are now nine private institutions for epileptics in evangelical Germany. The largest next to Bielefeld are found at Rastenburg in East Prussia and at Stetten in Wlirttemberg. It was at the latter place that the care of epileptics as a separate branch of German Inner CARE OF THE SICK AND THE DEFECTIVE 199 Mission work was first begun in the year 1866. Epileptics who are feeble-minded are also received into institutions for the latter; and those who have become so violent as to be dangerous are in large numbers taken by the asylums for the idiotic and insane. Only at a few places in the United States have the begin- nings been made for the separate care of epileptics. Ohio took the lead by establishing its Hospital for Epileptics at Gallipolis in 1891. This was followed by the Craig Colony at Sonyea, Livingston Co., N. Y., in 1896, and the Village for Epileptics at Skillman, N. J., in 1898. These are State institutions. There are small private institutions in Massa- chusetts, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. Possibly the nearest approach to the Bielefeld idea is found in the Passavant Memorial Homes at Rochester, Pa., begun in 1895, and in charge of a Lutheran pastor and Lutheran deaconesses. For further information concerning this subject and the various other operations carried on at Bielefeld the reader is referred to Julie Sutter's fascinating book entitled " A Colony of Mercy; or, Social Christianity at Work." 5. The Idiotic and Insane. " Idiocy is a defect of mind which is either congenital or due to causes operating during the first years of life, before there has been a development of the mental faculties, and may exist in different degrees." J The great majority of idiots are the offspring of parents of low vitality and mentality, or who were blood relatives, or who were given to intemperance and sexual excesses. So- called accidental idiocy may result from diseases and in- juries in childhood affecting the brain and spinal cord, and often follows epilepsy. There are many degrees of idiocy, varying " from the child that is simply dull and incapable of profiting by the ordinary school to the gelatinous mass that simply eats and lives." 2 When mental imbecility accompanies physical deformity it is called cretinism. 1 MAUDSLEY: Responsibility in Mental Diseases. Ch. 3, p. 66. 2 On this whole subject see WARNER: American Charities. Ch. xii. 200 FORMS OF INNER MISSION ACTIVITY The first to interest himself seriously in the idiotic was the Swiss physician, Dr. Louis Guggenbuhl (1816-1863), wno in 1836 founded an institution for such unfortunates near Interlacken. Though this at first met with considerable encouragement and support, it soon became evident that idiocy was an incurable malady, and that for those thus afflicted least of all could be done by medical means. Gug- genbiihl's institution, therefore, had a comparatively brief existence; but, if it failed to accomplish anything else, it served to direct attention to a class for whose relief nothing had hitherto been done. About the same time a French physician, Dr. Edouard Seguin (1812-1880), opened a school in Paris (1838) for the training and instruction of idiots. So excellent were his methods and their results that he has come to be regarded as the founder of the modern system of dealing with imbeciles. It was Dr. Seguin who first fully demonstrated that the feeble- minded are responsive only to patient training and not to medical treatment. According to his method " each bodily organ is to be perseveringly taught to perform the normal functions in which it is deficient by mechanical contrivances, by imitation, by object-lessons, and by music or other appro- priate sounds. On this basis is superimposed training in moral and social duties as the pupil becomes susceptible to it." 1 This is the system now followed in Europe and America. In Germany it was Pastor Julius Disselhoff , of the Kaisers- werth Deaconess House, who first awakened a general interest in behalf of the idiotic, though in several places some slight provision had already been made for such. The publication in 1857 of his treatise on the subject led to the establishment of nearly all the 46 institutions for the feeble-minded and idiotic found on German soil to-day, most of which are dis- tinctively Inner Mission undertakings, supported by volun- tary contributions. Including those established and main- tained by the State, as well as the public and private institu- 1 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Stoddart ed. Vol. xxi, p. 916. KENSINGTON DISPENSARY, PHILADELPHIA, PA. PASSAVANT HOMES FOR EPILEPTICS, ROCHESTER, PA. CARE OF THE SICK AND THE DEFECTIVE 2OI tions designed exclusively or in part for epileptics, it is said that considerably more than one hundred minister to this class of sufferers. Even under the best training a really idiotic child never becomes entirely normal, though the milder cases of feeble- mindedness can often be much improved. The aim to be kept in view in dealing with these unfortunates is to make their existence more tolerable. Careful attention must be given to hygiene and the building up of the physical constitution by means of nourishing diet, baths, exercise, fresh air, out-door employment, and the like. To this must be added such educational influences, patiently applied, as will tend to bring about a development of the intellectual and spiritual life. For all this the institution is needed; and that institu- tion, moreover, can count on the best results in which pastor, physician, and the teaching force are all actuated by the same Christian motives, and whose work is done in utmost harmony. In many of the German institutions deacons and deaconesses are employed as teachers and care-takers. In the United States similar institutions, nearly all of which are under State control, take very high rank. Insanity is the term employed to designate mental aberra- tion manifesting itself in persons with brains congenitally perfect. It is due to a variety of causes, assumes many forms, and is often curable. There was a time when the treatment accorded the insane was inhuman and brutal. Not more than a century ago the unhappy inmates of so- called mad-houses " were immured in cells, chained to the walls, flogged, starved, and not infrequently killed"; 1 nor are conditions to-day very much better in some almshouses to which insane persons are still unfortunately committed. 2 The first institution especially for the insane was St. Luke's Hospital, London, opened in 1751 ; but to Dr. Philippe Pinel (1745-1826) of France, and Drs. Robert Gardiner Hill (1811-1878) and John Conolly (1794-1867) of England, 1 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Stoddart ed. Vol. xiii, p. 117. * See article in The American Magazine, June, 1910, pp. 214-222. 202 FORMS OF INNER MISSION ACTIVITY belongs the credit of having inaugurated the first real reforms in the treatment of the insane. They did away with all mechanical restraint and introduced the so-called non- restraint system now practiced in all well-conducted insane asylums with happy results. The extensive and humane provision which Christian lands to-day make for the care and treatment of the insane in public and in private institutions is another demonstration of the pervasive and enlightening influence of the Gospel. In our own country, besides the private institutions, practi- cally every State has one or more asylums for the insane poor. The latter are largely the result of the philanthropic labors of Dorothea L. Dix (1805-1887), who about 1840 visited every State of the Union east of the Rocky Mountains, and sought to impress leading citizens and legislatures with a sense of their duty towards those who were mentally defective and diseased. In the insane asylum, as in the training-school for the feeble- minded and idiotic, the character of the attendants and their moral influence over their charges is of the first importance; and it is especially in this respect that the Inner Mission seeks to aid. Besides the very extensive provision which Germany makes for the insane in state institutions, there were in 1899 nine others under Inner Mission auspices. The first of these was begun by Fliedner at Kaiserswerth in 1852, the second by von Bodelschwingh in 1889, and the rest were added during the last decade of the nineteenth century. The largest of these is " Tannenhof," at Luttringhausen, in the Rhine Province, opened in 1896, and having to-day up- wards of five hundred patients. In all these deacons and deaconesses are at work. 6. The Enfeebled and Convalescent. The exhausting de- mands made upon human energy by modern industry, and the felt need of a place to which hospitals and physicians can send patients to recuperate after sickness, have brought into being a multitude of rest and convalescent homes in Europe and America. Of the seventy or more institutions of this CARE OF THE SICK AND THE DEFECTIVE 203 kind established by Inner Mission agencies since 1852, more than one-half are served by deaconesses, and their specifically Christian character is made manifest by the fact that in nearly all of them daily devotions are held. Thus they con- tribute not only to physical but also to spiritual health. The pioneer in this kind of work was Pastor Blumhard of Wiirttemberg. 7. Invalid Children. The Inner Mission also has a special concern for invalid children. Work in behalf of these was first suggested and undertaken by the Christian physician, Dr. August Hermann Werner, of Ludwigsburg, who opened an establishment for this class of sufferers as early as 1854, and another in 1861. By 1895 there were 39 in different parts of Germany. In 1876 the first seashore resort for sick children was opened. Through the efforts of Dr. Benecke, of Marburg, who especially recognized the curative virtues of sea-air and salt-water baths for children afflicted with scrofula, others of the same kind speedily came into existence. Of the several classes of German health institutions for chil- dren, the statistics of 1899 showed a total of 59. A few of these are open the entire year, the majority only during the summer, and nearly all are in charge of deaconesses, with a physician at the head. Extensive provision is also made by Inner Mission socie- ties and institutions, often in conjunction with associations of a merely philanthropic character, for giving poor and feeble children of the cities a brief summer vacation in the country. The first attempts of this kind were made by Pastor Schoost in Hamburg and Pastor Bion in Zurich, in 1876. Since then this work has grown to large proportions, and, like the work for invalid children, finds its analogue in many similar under- takings in America. c. HOMES FOR THE AGED AND INFIRM The situation of the aged and infirm is often pitiful in the extreme. Perhaps they are left alone in the world, or the 204 FORMS OF INNER MISSION ACTIVITY children and relatives who remain cannot or will not care for them. Poor, but of good character, decrepit and no longer able to earn a living, suffering possibly from some in- curable disease that will etc long make them bed-ridden and helpless invalids, whither shall they go? To the alms- house to become the wards of the State, when they have been communicants of the Church? No; for such Christian love must likewise provide a place in which they can spend the evening of their life in comfort, receive the consolations of the Gospel, and prepare themselves in peace for their eternal rest. Nor has Christian love neglected this duty. The many hundreds of permanent homes for the aged, infirm, and incurable, Protestant and Catholic, in Europe and America, testify as few other things do that Christian love is not dead in the world. Thus in 1904 there were in the United States alone 457 private and 236 ecclesiastical insti- tutions mostly for the class of needy ones now under consider- ation; while in 1910, 1013 deaconesses were active in 460 similar institutions of Germany. VII. The Conflict with Social Ills Social ills are in part due to social mal-adjustments which can to an extent be corrected by legislation, and in still greater measure to the wicked ways of individuals themselves. Much of the social unrest of to-day can no doubt be traced to the feeling that certain favored classes have it in their power to exploit those less favored; that these classes often use this power for their own aggrandizement; and that in their lust for gain they oppress the weak, and in various ways prevent them from obtaining an equitable share of the fruits of industry. It is claimed, and not without reason, that these same classes, altogether regardless of the effect on health, family, and the standard of living, often pay the minimum of wages for the maximum of work; that they make no distinction between week-days and Sundays; that they look upon their employes as mere machines; that they dis- CONFLICT WITH SOCIAL ILLS 205 claim all liability for those injured and killed; and that they compel even wives and children to enter the ranks of wage- earners in order to make up the family expenses. The feeling of injustice thus engendered finds expression, on the one hand, in the extravagant statements and demands of Socialism, whose most radical advocates, in order to bring about a new social order, would overthrow the Christian religion itself; and, on the other, in the more rational efforts of those philanthropists who would regulate wage scales, working hours, child labor, labor disputes, factory and house inspection, and a multitude of other things affecting the social order by judicious legislation and arbitration. But the matter is not altogether one-sided. Those who are often foremost in making the outcry against the more favored may be equally culpable, only in another way. They may make demands of their employers that are utterly un- reasonable and indefensible; they may want the maximum of wages for the minimum of labor, even in times of depres- sion; they may render service with an envious spirit and a hostile mien; they may have extravagant ideas, and may even with a good income live beyond their means or spend much of it in dissipation. Thus both classes are guilty of wrong- doing, and neither can charge the responsibility for social ills exclusively upon the other. In the last analysis the primary source of social ills is in the sinful human heart, whether that heart beat in the breast of the more highly favored or in that of the less favored. " The obvious fact is, that for a very large part of social dis- order the chief responsibility lies in the passions and ambi- tions of individual men, and that no social arrangement can guarantee social welfare unless there is brought home to vast numbers of individuals a profounder sense of personal sin. A social curse, for instance, like that of the drink habit is legitimately attacked by legislation and organization; but these external remedies will be applied in vain if there is any slackening of the conviction that with most persons drunken- ness is not a misfortune for which society is responsible, but 206 FORMS OF INNER MISSION ACTIVITY a sin for which the individual is responsible. Or, again, the problem of charity will remain an ever-increasing problem of relief and alms unless there is included, within the problem of relief, the stirring of individual capacity to do without relief, and to enlarge the range of initiative and self-respect. Or, once more, the problem of industry will open into no permanent adjustment between capital and labor so long as capitalists are rapacious and merciless, and laborers are passionate and disloyal. To whatever phase of the social question we turn, we observe, within the sphere of social arrangements, the interior problem of the redemption of character. Much social suffering is due to the social order; but much, and probably more, is due to human sin." l And what must be the attitude of the Church and the Church's ministry towards all the questions pertaining to the social welfare? Shall the Church stand aloof, and her ministry be silent? No; but both must be careful not to lose sight of their proper mission. That mission is primarily to save men from the power and condemnation of sin by bringing them into captivity to the Gospel and into conscious union with Jesus Christ. Thus only can individual and social righteousness be brought about. Social betterment must begin with the units which compose society; and only in proportion as these are renewed, spiritualized, and energized in all human relations to do the will of God will social ills disappear. That preacher utterly mistakes his calling who in his pulpit ministrations is first a sociologist and only second- arily an expounder of Divine truth. 2 Nevertheless, he must seek to keep himself informed regarding existing conditions, so iPEABODY: Jesus Christ and the Social Question, pp. 116, 117. 8 "Many a Christian preacher, stirred by the recognition of social wrong, and not infrequently by the burning message of Carlyle or of Ruskin, is called to be a prophetic voice, crying in the wilderness of the social question; but many a prophet mistakes his office for that of the economist, and gives a pas- sionate devotion to industrial programmes which are sure to fail. Neither ethical passion nor rhetorical genius equip a preacher for economic judgments. It is for the prophet of righteousness to exhort and warn rather than to ad- minister and organize. A different temper and training are required for wisdom in industrial affairs." PEABODY : Jesus Christ and the Social Question, PP- 35, 36. CONFLICT WITH SOCIAL ILLS 207 that as a fearless preacher of righteousness he may call social sinners of every grade and class to repentance, and set before them the teachings of Scripture concerning social morality. The mutual duties of employers and employes, the steward- ship of wealth, the responsibilities and obligations of those charged with public and private trusts, the subordination of selfish interests to the common good, honesty in business, proper regard for the welfare of others, the sanctity of marriage and the family, the sacredness of human life all these and others of like nature are themes about which the Scriptures have much to say, and for the treatment of which preachers in those churches that have retained the Gospels and Epistles of the Christian year will find abundant opportunity. As Divine truth is thus again and again brought home to the hearts of the hearers, and as the thought is emphasized that there can be neither personal nor social righteousness apart from Christ and His teachings, the Church, faithful to her primary mission, becomes the effective power for righteousness in the life of the nation. Neverthe- less as not all the component members of the social fabric are thus savingly influenced, many ills are bound to remain, and for the relief of these Christian charity must likewise find ways and means. And to some of these let us now turn our attention. a. THE RELIEF OF PARISH NEEDS The comprehensive German term employed for this is Gemeindepflege, i. e., the care which a parish as such, and apart from institutions, gives the poor and sick, the forsaken and neglected within its bounds, and the various efforts it makes in behalf of children. In its present form Gemeinde- pflege is administered almost exclusively by deaconesses; and as it includes practically the entire range of benevolent labors it is very properly called " the heart and climax, the flower and pearl " of deaconess activity. Gemeindepflege had its beginning in the Church of the first 2C>8 FORMS OF INNER MISSION ACTIVITY century (p. 36). Phebe, the first deaconess of whom we read, was a parish deaconess in the congregation at Cenchrea (Rom. 1 6 : i). Besides the deacons, deaconesses under the direction of the bishop (presbyter) were active in the churches far beyond the time of Constantine. Chrysostom, bishop of Constantinople (397-407), employed 40 deaconesses in his congregation. During the Middle Ages this form of Christian service disappeared. Efforts to revive it at the time of the Reformation met with little success, as the persons properly qualified for such work were wanting. Only after the restoration of the female diaconate by Fliedner did it again become possible. Since then the parish diaconate has been extensively introduced, especially in the large cities, where the need for it is greatest. Thus, according to the 1910 statistics of the 84 motherhouses in the Kaiserswerth Union, 5486 sisters were then employed in 3454 congregations. Ideal work of this kind in a city parish is constituted as follows: At some convenient place within the parish a central sta- tion is established. Here the two or three sisters live and keep house, assisted when necessary by a girl or woman of the congregation. From here they go out to their work and here they may be found by those requiring their services. The station is also a depot of supplies, such as contributions of clothing, food, bedding, sick-room requisites, and such other articles as the sisters may need among the sick and poor. These articles should come from the well-to-do members of the congregation, and in soliciting them the sisters form the connecting link between the rich and the poor, though without thought of exempting the former from personally participating in the work whenever practicable. A certain amount of money should likewise at all times be at the dis- posal of the sisters for supplies not otherwise furnished; and of their receipts and expenditures they should regularly render account to the proper authorities. In most cases the major part of the work is among the poor and sick. Sickness is often a cause as well as a result CONFLICT WITH SOCIAL ILLS 2OQ of poverty. The relief of both must, therefore, go hand in hand, but care must be taken not to encourage indolence and dependence when the emergency is past. The most useful service that the sister can then render is to seek to bring about such a change of conditions as will enable her charges to win their own bread. If by reason of incurable disease this is not possible, and aid can no longer be con- tinued, a place of refuge must be found in a permanent home. Another important branch of parish work by sisters is the care and instruction of children in Christian kindergartens and the Sunday school. Besides the benefit this brings the children, it gives the sister an opportunity to learn something about the homes from which they come, and often enables her, through the children, to win her way to the hearts and into the lives of parents. Indeed, a city congregation whose church is located among the poorer classes of working people can engage in no more effective form of missionary service. In addition to these more usual forms of parish work there are others in which parish sisters may engage as circumstances suggest and demand, such as conducting sewing classes, directing the work of women's and girls' societies, finding proper lodgings for unemployed women and girls, making the necessary arrangements for placing neglected, feeble-minded, blind, and deaf-mute children in institutions, following up the imperiled, fallen, and imprisoned, and the like. Such work will of necessity bring the sister into contact with all sorts of conditions, and with all manner of persons the rich and the poor, the high and the low, officials and private citizens. Hence not every sister is fitted for parish work. " The deaconesses employed in a parish need practi- cal wisdom and active energy. They must, with com- mon sense, circumspection and kindness, discriminate be- tween truth and falsehood, distinguish real from mistaken help, be able to act with readiness and yet with forethought, and be prepared to face the deepest misery, the most pitiable depravity. They must be equally at home in the kitchen, at the wash-tub, by the sick-bed, and in the manager's offices. 210 FORMS OF INNER MISSION ACTIVITY They must procure assistance where their own strength is not sufficient, as for instance, in night-watching, but must at all times themselves set the example. They see much sorrow, wretchedness, and danger. They dare not despond with the faint-hearted nor become excited with the restless, and yet they must be able to weep with them that weep and rejoice with them that do rejoice. They must learn to ask without being importunate; they must, with ready tact, assist the physician and adapt themselves to difficult situations among rich and poor. They must be communicative and yet discreet; motherly toward the children, the poor, and the sick; given to prayer, and be able without obtrusiveness and vanity to serve souls by faithful intercession and heartfelt words of comfort. 'Blessed wonder-workers' some one has called them. There is no faculty of Christian womanhood which does not find employment in this work. May the Lord grant that persons be found in increasing numbers who count it grace, in humility and faithfulness, to strive to fulfil this office so necessary and so precious." * The chief purpose of the parish diaconate is to aid the poor, though a sister may under certain circumstances also do private nursing in the homes of the rich. But even when laboring for these she is in a position to benefit the poor; for it is the wealthy who must fill her hands with gifts for the needy. Nevertheless, for what she does neither she nor her motherhouse will accept actual remuneration. If in grati- tude for service rendered the rich make a donation, as they should, this is again used in behalf of the poor. Parish deaconesses should be under the general direc- tion of the pastor, who should regard them as the connecting link between himself and the needy, and as his chief assist- ants in providing for their physical and spiritual relief. The means required should be furnished by the congrega- tion or by a society within the congregation. " Such parish work," says Wacker, " in addition to its 1 WACKER: The Deaconess Calling. Mary J. Drexel Home, Philadelphia, P. 120. CONFLICT WITH SOCIAL ILLS 211 spiritual importance and its immediate benefit as an evidence of practical Christianity, contributes largely to the solution of the social problem." b. THE CARE or THE POOR In its broadest aspects the care of the poor presents many other phases not touched upon in the preceding section. Were it possible to have in every community an ideal parish system, administered by trained workers, other methods of relieving the poor would be reduced to a minimum. But this is manifestly not universally practicable, least of all in American communities, with their denominational differences and overlapping parish boundaries; nor could such a system provide for that residuum of wrecked humanity that will have nothing to do with the Church except as it can exploit her charity. It is, however, important that, in order to obtain the best results, there should be a proper understanding and cordial cooperation between the different relief agencies. " Poor relief by civil authorities, by church officers, and by free associations are in their place and measure justified; and they should organically work together," 1 the Church by her teachings furnishing the motive, and through her own labors seeking to bring spiritual as well as material benefit to those aided; and the civil authorities and free associations in many cases supplying the means. In spite of the theories of some modern sociologists poverty can never be entirely abolished, even though such beneficent improvements are brought about as will change the character of the social fabric. The Lord's statement that " ye have the poor always with you " will remain true to the end of time. The reasons for this are manifold. However much may be done to remove some of the social and economic causes of poverty, other causes personal and general, self-inflicted and unpreventable will never cease to operate. Wars, failure of harvests, industrial depressions, etc., will continue i Frankfort Inner Mission Congress, 1854. 212 FORMS OF INNER MISSION ACTIVITY to bring want to some; drink, immorality, waste, ineffi- ciency, and indolence to others; and accident, sickness, physical defects, and old age to a still further number. In the end much poverty has its root in human sinfulness and will, therefore, remain to trouble the world until sin is no more. The relief of the poor, which in the Early Church was purely individual and personal, has passed through many stages of deformation and reformation, and is to-day ad- ministered largely by the State, to a considerable extent by associations, in part by the Church, and often quite indis- criminately by individuals. Of these the personal or individual method, were it still administered as in the Early Church, would seem to be the simplest and most natural; and yet, as practiced to-day, this is, of all methods, the worst. Indiscriminately to hand out nickels, and meals, and clothing to everyone who solicits alms is in most cases to help to manufacture and support tramps and hobos and other parasites. Giving that en- courages imposture and idleness, and that leads directly to confirmed pauperism was certainly not in the Lord's mind when He said, " Give to him that asketh thee"; but under- stood in the light of other passages (e. g., 2 Thess. 3 : 10; i John 3 : 17) He meant to teach that the act of giving should be guided by combined Christian wisdom and love. When circumstances and conditions are not known, and a personal investigation cannot be made, it is, therefore, always a safe and, indeed, the only proper course to refer the appli- cant to some organization that makes it its business to ascer- tain these. State relief of the poor, i. e., through institutions or agen- cies entirely under the control of the State, county, township, or municipality, is the exact opposite of the personal or indi- vidual method. Aside from the humanitarian considera- tions involved, and the further fact that the State should have a concern for its dependents from motives of self- preservation, this system has the great advantage of having the necessary financial resources regularly provided. But CONFLICT WITH SOCIAL ILLS 213 it is largely impersonal and mechanical, with " less kindness on the part of the giver, and less gratitude on the part of the receiver," encourages the indolent and shiftless to claim the State's relief as a right, has little or no moral influence over those in its care, and in our own land is in special danger of being administered by officials who owe their appointment to partisan politics and who use their position for personal gain. A great forward step will be taken when the State will furnish the means for such institutions, but commit their management to men and women whose Christian character and special training will guarantee their proper administration. To supply the State's deficiencies and furnish the trained workers would seem to be the special province of the form of poor relief usually denominated as ecclesiastical. Where such trained workers as deacons and deaconesses are avail- able, a personnel can be furnished that is actuated by the loftiest motives, and that with bread for the body also seeks to supply the bread of life. But whilst the Church in many cases could do this, lack of interest, organization and means, and utter forgetfulness of the Early Church's practice respecting the poor often stand in the way of an effective development of this species of relief. Yet no Christian con- gregation should ever permit one of its own members to be- come an inmate of an almshouse. In the large cities of the United States considerable relief work is done by associations specially formed for this purpose. Many of these were organized more than half a century ago under the title of " Societie-s for the Improvement of the Condition of the Poor," and had the highest purposes in view. " In fact, most of their announced objects agree quite closely with those of the most modern societies. It was their purpose to find work for all willing to do it, to in- vestigate all cases thoroughly, to raise the needy above the need of relief, and incidentally to relieve directly such want as seemed to require it. But as these Societies for the Im- provement of the Condition of the Poor were dispensers of 214 FORMS OF INNER MISSION ACTIVITY material aid, this function, as Mr. Kellogg puts it, submerged all others, ' arid they sank into the sea of common almsgiving.' Their work was done more or less well; but there is a general agreement that twenty years ago (in the seventies) private almsgiving in American cities, for the most part through organized and even incorporated societies, was profuse and chaotic, while still not meeting the demands made upon it. It was dispensed in tantalizing doles miserably inadequate for effectual succor where the need was genuine, and dealt out broadcast among criminals and impudent beggars." 1 To bring about a better and more orderly system of dis- pensing relief, the charity organization movement, which had its origin in London in 1868, was introduced, and the first Charity Organization Society established in Buffalo, in December, 1877. Since then such societies have multiplied rapidly. According to Dr. Warner, their objects and methods are the following: To bring about the cooperation of all charitable agencies in a given locality, and the best co- ordination of their efforts, and thus prevent the overlapping of relief; to obtain an accurate knowledge of all cases treated; to find prompt and adequate relief for all that should have it ; to expose imposters and prevent wilful idleness; to find work for all able and willing to do anything; through volunteer visitors, who are willing to go to the poor as friends and not as almsgivers, to establish relations of personal interest and sympathy between the poor and the well-to-do; to prevent pauperism; and, finally, to collect and diffuse knowledge on all subjects connected with the administration of charities. Thus these societies serve as a sort of clearing-house for the relief agencies of a city, and have done not a little to sys- tematize the work. A method of out-door relief that has met with great suc- cess in Germany is the so-called Elberfeld system, first in- troduced in the city from which it derives its name in 1852, 1 WARNER: American Charities, p. 376; paraphrased from Charles D. Kellogg's paper in the Proceedings of the National Conference of Charities and Correction, 1893, pp. 53, 54- AUGUSTANA HOSPITAL, CHICAGO, ILL. CONFLICT WITH SOCIAL ILLS by Daniel von der Heydt, the head of an old-established banking firm, and for years a member of the City Council. Following in the footsteps of Chalmers, who had undertaken to revive the congregational or parish method of poor relief in Glasgow (p. 62), and having before his mind Jethro's counsel to Moses, Exodus 18:21: "Thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness, ... to be rulers over thousands, rulers over hundreds, rulers over fifties, and rulers over tens," von der Heydt introduced a communal form of poor relief, adapted to modern conditions, of which the method pro- posed by Jethro is the working principle. Under this sys- tem an entire city is divided into districts, over each of which is set an Armenpfleger or helper. These districts are so small that a helper will, as a rule, have no more than four cases to look after, and can, therefore, do his work carefully and thor- oughly. A certain number of these small districts again form a precinct, presided over by a superintendent, and these superintendents again constitute a central administrative board for the entire city. All the helpers in each precinct gather fortnightly as a local board to report on the needs of their districts and to devise the best means of relief for each case. Each helper can furnish minute information regarding the families in his care. " He knows the wage-earning capacity of each member; he knows what they have been earning, and he knows any reason why earnings have stopped. He finds out the character of the people whether they are sober or not, industrious or not, good parents or not, whether they are in good health or not. In fact, these helpers are something like a family doctor inquiring into everything and prescrib- ing accordingly. Nor is it even now merely a giving, but every effort is made to help them to find work; to encourage them to look for it; to recommend them to employers if possible ; to assist them to new means of work if old channels have failed. All this is done; but in the meantime and this is the grand principle no man shall be left in want. If it is an urgent case, the helper is fully empowered to give the 2l6 FORMS OF INNER MISSION ACTIVITY weekly allowance at once out of his own pocket, being re- paid at the next helpers' meeting; but, as a rule, he waits to report the case at his next board meeting, having in the mean- time made all due researches." 1 The allowance to be granted is decided by vote of the board on recommendation of the helper, but holds good only for one fortnight, i. e., until the next meeting of the board. Meanwhile the helper continues his visits, takes note of any changes for the better or worse, again reports the case to the board, and asks for such action as befits the case. While the support is adequate as long as actually needed, every effort is made to induce self-help as speedily as possible. Under the Elberfeld system and its modifications in differ- ent cities "a city recognizes the duty of looking after its own people, and when the yearly budget is fixed for civic expenditure, they fix the year's poor budget as a part of it, guided by the past year's requirements, and leaving a margin for special effort in time of special need." 2 It is, moreover, a remarkable feature of this system that for its administra- tion it never lacks men. Citizens of every rank, from trades- men to bankers, merchants, professors, lawyers, and doctors, esteem it an honor thus to serve their city and community. For a very intelligent discussion of this whole complex subject, upon which there seems to be no general agreement, the reader is referred to Warner's " American Charities," Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., New York, 1894. c. LABOR COLONIES AND RELIEF STATIONS Labor colonies originated with the Rev. Dr. von Bodel- schwingh. It was in the winter of 1881, after a period of industrial depression, that day after day hungry men applied at the various cottages of the Bielefeld colony for something to eat. They belonged to the army of 200,000 unemployed who were then roving over Germany, and who threatened to become a serious menace to the nation. At first all who 1 SUITER: Cities and Citizens, pp. 32, 33. *Ibid. t p. 25. CONFLICT WITH SOCIAL ILLS 217 came were fed. But by degrees it was discovered that the same men would return again and again, and that probably a very considerable number were quite unwilling to work even if they could. It was then that von Bodelschwingh con- ceived the idea of the first labor colony, based on the Pauline principle that if any will not work, neither should he eat (2 Thess. 3 : 10). In other words, von Bodelschwingh de- termined that only those should be fed, clothed, and housed by him who were disposed to do honest work in return. These he would seek to put on their feet again, leaving pro- fessional vagrants to be dealt with by the civil authorities. About ten miles from Bielefeld, on the western slope of the Teutoburger Forest, lies an unproductive, sandy plain, some thirty miles long and ten broad. At the depth of a few feet this is underlaid by a species of bog iron ore, which neither roots nor moisture can penetrate, but which, when brought to the surface, speedily disintegrates and becomes a natural fertilizer, turning the sandy waste into fruitful soil. Here was work for the unemployed who were still willing. Von Bodelschwingh laid his well-matured plans before the officials and leading citizens of Westphalia, obtained a loan of money from the province, bought a section of the plain, provided the necessary buildings, put a company of farm laborers from Bielefeld with a brother as housefather in charge, and on the iyth of August, 1882, opened the first labor colony in the world, under the protectorate of the Crown Prince Frederick William, naming it " Wilhelmsdorf," after the aged Emperor, who had become interested hi the project. So successful did this first colony prove that others speedily sprang into existence. To-day there are 36 in Germany (5 of these Roman Catholic), into which over 200,000 men have been received since 1882; and from Germany the move- ment has spread into other countries, including our own. Labor colonies of the Wilhelmsdorf type are the creations of Christian love. Then: purpose is through industry and Christian influences to save men from becoming confirmed vagabonds. They serve at the same time to distinguish 2l8 FORMS OF INNER MISSION ACTIVITY and separate the unfortunate from the good-for-nothing, and are, as far as possible, helpful to the former in securing places of steady and profitable employment. After the man- ner of Wilhelmsdorf most of the colonies are located on waste land that can be made productive by irrigation, fertilization, etc., and hence provide work almost the entire year. Where necessary indoor industries are also intro- duced. The support is derived from free-will offerings, public subventions, and the labor of the colonists. The external i. e., business interests of a colony are committed to a board, while its internal management is entrusted to a housefather and his associates, who usually come from a Diakonenhaus. These must be men of decided Christian character, and possess a large measure of discretion, firmness, and practical wisdom. The colonies receive " all men, of whatever religion or rank, who are able and willing to work." While the rules are strict, they are kindly administered; and only repeated insubordination subjects one to dismissal. The duration of a man's stay at the colony is voluntary, but cannot exceed one year and eleven months. A stay of over two years would, under the law, permit him to claim it as his permanent home. He may, however, return after a first stay. The labor colonies have a bond of union in their Central Committee composed of representatives of the several colo- nies. This committee, with headquarters in Berlin, meets regularly for investigation, consultation, and the exchange of experiences and ideas. It issues a monthly called Der Wanderer, and publishes detailed reports of the work. Closely affiliated with the labor colonies are the so-called Naturalverpflegungsstationen, or relief stations. These are found all over Germany, a half a day's march apart. Their purpose is to prevent house-to-house begging. At the first station entered the wanderer is given a Wander schein, a small blank-book ruled off into squares, into the first square of which the said station enters its stamped signature and the date. " The second square must be filled by the next CONFLICT WITH SOCIAL ILLS 219 station in the order of the road, and so forth; and if your tramp turns aside from his appointed, indeed, self-appointed, way, the next station will not receive him this is his dis- cipline ; and if he arrives at the last stage as unhelped as when he started, that is, without having found regular employ- ment (every station being a labor agency), he is likely to be a man who will not work, and the house of correction may receive him in the end. For at the stations any employer of the district makes known his want of hands, and a man who can and will work need not tramp for ever. The Wander- schein, also, is valid for two or three months only, after which it has to be renewed; and it would not be renewed without inquiring into a prolonged want of employment. The inveterate out-of-work is thus brought to book." * Besides being a labor agency, each relief station requires those who come to do a half day's work, usually wood-chopping, some- times stone-breaking. A man arrives from the previous station at noon, gets his dinner, works during the afternoon, has supper and a social evening, a decent bed in the dormitory, and next morning after breakfast is obliged to start for the next station, half a day's tramp away. Only over Sunday can he remain two nights at a station, without work on Sunday, of course. The support of these stations comes in part from the labor done and in part from the province. When well conducted and in connection with the labor colonies, they serve to save many a man from a worse fate, and have helped greatly to reduce professional vagrancy. What the labor colonies are designed to be for men, the Frauenheime are meant to be for homeless, moneyless, and friendless women. These homes or refuges, of which there were 14 in 1904, owe their origin to Pastor Heinersdorf, prison chaplain at Elberfeld. One evening a woman who had served several terms, and whose dire need had for a time led her to prostitution, came and begged him " for Jesus' sake " to help her to a respectable life. She refused to go to a i SUTTER: A Colony of Mercy, p. 148. 220 FORMS OF INNER MISSION ACTIVITY Magdalen asylum on the ground that she must earn some- thing for the support of an aged mother. To find work as a domestic or in a factory she must have decent clothing and good references. Would he not aid her in securing a position at a living wage? The good pastor could not withstand her pathetic appeal; he found a place for her; she proved a most faithful and industrious servant, married, and became a devoted wife and mother. When other unfortunates con- tinued to apply, Heinersdorf began his Elberfeld Refuge in 1882, at first in rented quarters, but since 1891 housed in its own well-appointed buildings, as a labor colony for women. In 1884 Pastor Isermeyer began a similar institution at Hildesheim, in Hanover. This has become the largest and most important of the labor colonies for women. The work in all of them consists chiefly in washing, ironing, sewing, and gardening, for which each inmate, according to her industry and behavior, is weekly credited with a money allowance over and above her support. When this reaches ten marks it becomes a savings bank account. Absolute freedom in coming and going, individual treatment, and (as over against the necessarily opposite method of the Magdalen asylums) as much freedom of movement within the colony as is con- sistent with good order these are the fundamental principles introduced by Isermeyer, and that are still followed in the various institutions. The results have in many cases been very satisfactory. Probably to this manner of dealing with the unemployed, combined with the efficient Elberfeld system of poor relief, is due the fact stated by the British Fortnightly Review that less than 30,000 people are maintained in institutions for the poor in Germany, while in British workhouses there are between 300,000 and 400,000 paupers. CONFLICT WITH SOCIAL ILLS 221 d. THE RELIEF OF NEEDS OCCASIONED BY WAR AND PESTILENCE The extraordinary needs resulting from war and pestilence have also claimed the attention of Inner Mission workers. Harrowing details are given of the sufferings of the wounded during the German wars of liberation at the beginning of the last century. Thus we are told that eight days after the battle of Leipzig (1813) 2000 sick and wounded were still without a shirt, bed, mattress, or cover. During the Crimean War (1854) decided improvements were introduced by Florence Nightingale and her staff of nurses. But it was the Lombard campaign of 1859 that really gave birth to the present-day system of caring for the sick and wounded in times of war. The Genevan physician, Henri Dunant, published a startling account of what he had seen in two military hospitals on the field of Solferino. The agitation which he started resulted in an international conference at Geneva, at which an agreement was drawn up (the so-called Geneva Convention) and signed August 22, 1864, providing for the neutrality of ambulances and military hospitals as long as they contain any sick and wounded, and designating, in addition to the flag of their nation, a red cross on a white field as the distinctive flag and arm-badge by which such ambulances and hospitals, together with their personnel, should be known. To the movement begun at Geneva the Red Cross Society owes its existence. It was in the wars of 1864, 1866, and 1870-71 that deacon- esses and deacons gave proof of their eminent qualifications as nurses. Especially did the Franco-Prussian War, during which no less than 764 deaconesses were at work in 225 army hospitals, help to direct attention to the diaconate and bring it into popular favor. But during the Schleswig- Holstein War, in which Roman Catholic Sisters of Charity and others were likewise active as nurses, it already became evi- dent that for the highest efficiency the service had to be organized, systematized, and directed. By degrees and in 222 FORMS OF INNER MISSION ACTIVITY various ways this was brought about. To-day the Associa- tion of Volunteer War Nurses a continuation of Wichern's military diaconate (p. 68) and the Knights of St. John make it their business in times of peace to prepare and hold nurses in readiness, in order to be able to offer them for service to the Central Committee of the Red Cross Society when war breaks out. The Knights of St. John have ar- rangements for this purpose with various deaconess houses, and the Association offers special courses of instruction to aspirants. The forces thus trained are also always ready for service where pestilence rages. Schafer mentions no less than ten great epidemics of typhoid fever, small-pox, and cholera in different cities and provinces of Germany, during the prevalence of which deacons and deaconesses from various houses rendered most efficient aid. e. MISCELLANEOUS Among other movements recognized and fostered by the German Inner Mission are the following: 1. Evangelical Workingmen's Societies. Of these there are upwards of 700 with over 125,000 members. Their primary object is the application of the world-renewing powers of Christianity to present-day industrial conditions, and their reconstruction in accordance with the ethical ideas contained in and derived from the Gospel a program far different from that of the so-called labor unions, and the only one that furnishes a sound basis for bringing about right relations be- tween capital and labor. 2. Efforts for the Improvement of Housing Conditions. The worst conditions respecting homes are usually found in rapidly growing cities. Building operations often do not keep pace with the increase of population, unsanitary tene- ments are erected which soon become overcrowded, landlords ask exorbitant rents, families are obliged to double-up or take lodgers, and some must even seek refuge in cellar rooms rr rw nr nr nr nr rw rr n! nr rr rm rr nr rr CONFLICT WITH SOCIAL ILLS 223 below the level of the street. 1 All the large cities, of Europe and America, together with many smaller ones, reveal con- ditions like these. Hence, for their own people, German Inner Mission workers, mindful of the fact that the well- conducted normal home, with plenty of room, air, sunlight, and privacy, is not only most conducive to physical well- being, but, next to the Church, also the most potent conserva- tor of morals, give all the encouragement possible to the various enterprises that promise to bring the needed relief, especially to building associations. 3. The Promotion of Sunday Rest and Observance. The keeping of one day out of seven as a day of rest is not only a Divine requirement, but an absolute necessity. Uninter- rupted labor soon drains body and mind, unfits one for really efficient service, and deprives fathers of fellowship with their families. But Sunday rest is also necessary for spiritual reasons. Without it there can be no proper observance of the day in the sense of Luther's explanation of the Third Commandment: " We should so fear and love God as not to despise His Word and the preaching of the Gospel, but deem it holy, and willingly hear and learn it." Hence, in view of great abuses, this subject has regularly found a place on the programs of Inner Mission societies ever since the first Inner Mission Congress of 1849. 4. The Encouragement of Thrift. In addition to the public savings banks, there are throughout Germany about 5000 penny and school savings funds which offer facilities for i Of such inhabited cellar rooms Greater New York is said to have 25,000. According to th e State Tenement House Commissioner's report of 1903, 2,372,079 persons, or two-thirds of New York's population, were then living 1^82,652 tenements. In these tenement houses were found 350,000 dark interior rooms, whose only light and ventilation came from a so-called "air-shaft," about 28 inches wide, 50 or 60 feet long, and as high as the building of five or six stories. Said air-shaft, the report further states, is often used by the tenants "as a receptacle for garbage and all sorts of refuse and indescribable filth thrown out of the windows, and this mass of filth is often allowed to remain rotting at the bottom of the shaft for weeks without being cleaned put." In London over 2,250,000 people are said to live singly or in companies in a single room "sleeping, cooking, eating, bathing, if at all, within the same four walls." Conditions in sections of Berlin and other German cities are not much better. 224 FORMS OF INNER MISSION ACTIVITY depositing small amounts. Most of these have been es- tablished by pastors, teachers, and school authorities, and are managed entirely by voluntary agency. Interest is allowed, and children are encouraged not to withdraw their deposits until they can take them out as a lump sum at their majority. In case of protracted illness, accident, or other emergency requiring the use of the money, it can be with- drawn at any time. Meanwhile the system, while providing for just such emergencies, also serves to teach forethought and economy. The savings and loan funds introduced by Fr. W. Raiff- eisen (1818-1888) serve a somewhat different purpose. These are intended for the small farmer and tradesman of limited means. Raiffeisen had learned how these in their extremity often became the victims of conscienceless usurers. To prevent this, and to help all worthy and struggling ones to come to something, was the motive that stirred Raiff- eisen to action. The associations originated by him limit their operations to a small territory. They receive deposits and make loans at a low rate of interest; place all surplus earnings in a reserve fund; buy and distribute farm imple- ments and other necessaries on the co-operative plan; pay a small salary only to the bookkeeper; and thus literally fulfil the apostolic injunction to bear one another's burdens. On July i, 1906, there were 13,600 such savings and loan funds in the German Empire, with deposits amounting to 1050 million marks. So carefully have the beneficiaries been chosen and so skilfully have the funds been managed that not one of the associations has ever become bankrupt. f. SETTLEMENTS Those who are familiar with conditions in large cities well know how in certain localities Jews and Gentiles, Catholics and Protestants, believers and unbelievers, representing among themselves divers nationalities and tongues, are in- discriminately huddled together in dense masses; how entire CONFLICT WITH SOCIAL ILLS 225 families are often obliged to live in a single room; how the children of these sections learn to know enough of the hard- ships of the factory and sweat-shop, and of the temptations and vices of the neighborhood, but nothing of the pleasures and joys and virtues of a real home ; how among these people there is often a degree of ignorance and poverty, misery and suffering of which the rest and better part of society knows nothing; and how, under existing circumstances, they never even have the opportunity to learn the art of decent living. Among the agencies which the social awakening of recent years has set in motion for the betterment of such conditions is the Settlement. A Settlement consists primarily of a group of educated men and women, who take up their resi- dence in the poorer quarters of a city in order to come into daily personal contact with the people, and by cooperation with them, through various avenues and means, to work out individual and social problems for the common good of the neighborhood. The Settlement is distinctively an English product, and is found almost exclusively in the cities of Great Britain and the United States. We trace its origin to Oxford University, and to two young men, Edward Denison and Arnold Toynbee, and upon the early death of these, to the Rev. S. A. Barnett, Vicar of St. Jude's, in Whitechapel, London, who maintained that " every message to the poor would be in vain did it not come expressed in the life of brothermen." In other words, this gentleman clearly recognized the principle that the first requisite for successful work among London's neglected masses was personal contact and personal service. His plan, therefore, was to have a group of university men reside together and make their home a living center of elevating influences. Thus, in 1885, originated the first Settlement, known as Toynbee Hall. Concerning the principle of personal service, Robert A. Woods, sometime resident of Toynbee Hall, and later head of Andover House, Boston, says: " Settlements stand dis- tinctly for the fact, not before accepted, but now growing 226 FORMS OF INNER MISSION ACTIVITY more and more clear, that social work demands the close, continued care of men and women of the best gifts and train- ing. They show that if society would start afresh the glow in its far-out members, it must bring there the same fulness and variety of resource that is needed to keep life glowing at the center. They are also the beginning of a better un- derstanding of the truth which is confessed, but not believed, that where one member suffers all the members suffer with him. In a just view of the case, the massing together of the well-to-do over against the poor, neither group knowing how the other lives, involves as great evil to the one side as to the other." Although Settlements are primarily designed to be a social rather than a direct religious force, the motive of the work is, after all, essentially religious. " In no case known to the writer," says Dr. C. R. Henderson, " is there a Settlement which is hostile or even indifferent to religion." 1 And again: " Perhaps it would be a fair representation of the general and dominant thought of the residents that religion must be expressed in action and services in order that words may gain force and significance. The people are already familiar with the ideas of Christianity. But ideas are feeble until they are incarnated. Religion is not a separate interest of men, but a bond which unites all. The Son of Man came into the flesh, and made eternal truth visible and tangible." 2 In some Settlements, of course, more emphasis is laid on the religious element than in others, and a few are distinctly denominational. Mansfield House, conducted by the Con- gregationalists in East London, for instance, declares: " Mansfield House is a University Settlement, founded for practical helpfulness, in the spirit of Jesus Christ, in all that affects human life. We war, in the Master's name, against all evil selfishness, injustice, vice, disease, starvation, ig- norance, ugliness, and squalor; and seek to build up God's kingdom in brotherhood, righteousness, purity, health, truth, and beauty." Bermondsey Settlement in South London, 1 Social Settlements, p. 173. *Ibid., p. 177. CONFLICT WITH SOCIAL ILLS 227 organized by the Wesleyans, formulates its relation to religion as follows: " The whole is dominated and held together by a supreme spiritual concern to minister in the spirit of Christ to the manifold wants of human nature, and thus to set forth, as we see it, the Divine power and the breadth of sympathy to be found in Christ. For us the work of evan- gelization is the highest and noblest; but so great is it that it includes all the faculties, relationships, and conditions of human life. Any advance of the kingdom of God must fulfil itself in all these. And thus we must soon be seeking to build, by our Master's help, an earthly city of God in which regenerated individuals may walk. The law of Christian service will make all gifts with which men are endowed contribute to this end, and it is our business to try to lay hold of them for it." And in a report of the Church Settlement House, New York, we read: " We are more than ever convinced of the futility of presenting religious truth to the masses without a practical demonstration of the brotherhood of man, and the equal hopelessness of attempted social reform based on any other foundation than that of the Incarnation." Thus the Settlement, while not a missionary force in the sense of the Church, is nevertheless a form of service which, when thoroughly permeated by the spirit of Christ, is not only an active demonstration of brotherly love, but also an agency which helps to promote individual and social welfare. Viewed in this light, and founded on the principle that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is in the end the only satisfactory and adequate resolvent of the social problem, the Settlement can be added to the other forms of Inner Mission work, as has already been done by the Inner Mission Society in Philadel- phia. 228 THE INNER MISSION CONCLUSION In this sketch of a great and widely ramified movement it has been manifestly impossible to give more than a bare out- line. For the detailed treatment of its many phases readers familiar with the German language are referred to its extensive literature on the subject. It is hoped, however, that enough has been said in this volume to indicate the general character of the Inner Mission, and to show that it is a movement which in the soundness of its principles, the comprehensive- ness of its work, the intelligent Christian zeal of its personnel, and the results achieved is most worthy of study and imita- tion. To the readers of these pages it should also be evident that Germany is to-day not the unbelieving, unchristian country that it is in some quarters reputed to be. Because it has been the home of Rationalism, and because some university professors still make themselves conspicuous by advocating heretical views, many are tempted to ask, What good can come out of Germany? But a land that still lays such stress upon the saving power of the Gospel, that annually publishes and circulates such a volume of Christian literature, that has such an array of institutions and associations devoted to the service of Christian love, such an army of earnest men and women as workers in these, and that for their support can raise such sums of money mostly in small amounts from the many, can surely not be spoken of as a country of universal unbelief. " There exists in the German Church at large a depth of Christian convictions and positive evangelical faith that must convince candid observers that the Gospel is a power of the first magnitude in the heart and soul of the Germans. In some respects the German Christians are the superiors of the Christians of all other countries, especially in the intelligent understanding of the great facts, history, and teachings of Christianity. This is one of the fruits of the educational system of the country, which makes relig- CONCLUSION 229 ious instruction a necessary element and a most important factor in the training of the young. From the kindergarten, through the public schools, the high schools, the colleges, up to the very door of the university, instruction in Biblical history, Catechism, Church history, etc., is one of the leading parts of the curriculum. The German Christians are not content, as in most cases the American are, to depend for the religious training of the children on the instructions of one hour weekly only in the Sunday school, and then often by incompetent and superficial teachers. Through their school training the Germans are thoroughly informed on all matters pertaining to Christian faith, and have a most in- telligent knowledge of what they as Christians are expected to know and to do. ... The critical views of the theological professors do not find permanent lodgment, as a rule, in the minds and hearts of the ministers, who find that when they are actually to take charge of souls only positive and old- fashioned doctrines will do any good. The Christians of Germany by their actions are constantly demonstrating the fact that they are positive in their creed. The churches of the preachers of the evangelical faith are filled with auditors, while those of the ' advanced ' men are empty. The people flock there where they will receive substantial spiritual food. ... It is certain that there are many thousands es- tranged from the Church, especially in the large cities and under the influence of the Social Democrats, but it is doubtful if the churchless masses in Germany are numerically stronger than they are in some other Protestant lands, such as England and America. . . . But aside from this unruly element, German Protestantism is positive to the core. Luther's translation of the Bible, his Catechism, the magnificent hymns that constitute such a grand treasury of the Church, its ascetic literature, such as Arndt's True Christianity and other noble inheritances from the days of faith and struggle, have a hold on the German heart, and are such powerful agents in its education that the fleeting notions of a passing phase of antichristian philosophy or theology cannot 230 THE INNER MISSION uproot an oak that the Spirit of God planted nearly four centuries ago, and has been faithfully protecting all these years." 1 In the Lutheran Church of America the Inner Mission movement is now likewise going forward with increasing momentum, and it asks to be placed on the same plane as other beneficent agencies within the Church. It would be to the Family, the Church, and the State what it has been and is in Continental Europe. It would enlist the active sym- pathy and cooperation of pastors on the one hand, and the labors, prayers, and material support of our believing people on the other. It would come into direct contact with those whose spiritual and physical needs only Christian love can adequately relieve, demonstrate to them that Christ still lives in His people, and thus bridge over the chasm which to-day separates so many from the Church. In a word, the Inner Mission would so faithfully use and apply the Word, and make Christianity so living and concrete, as to prove to all men that the Church is not only " the pillar and ground of the truth " (i Tim. 3:15), but also the assembly of those "created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2 : 10). 1 SCHODDE: The Protestant Church in Germany ', pp. 41, 43, 44. 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I ............. . a I ;;;i;;;;;i &i ; i u| i jrs to rt too t^OO ON O M Pi CO Tf too r^OO ON O H O to ^ toO APPENDIX A 233 O O t^-OO 00 i- i-T \ coc O O HI O O O NO H Ou-)OC\P\OO 5 * O O r-.t-.oo O M co to wo r-00 -c5oOTl-coHiT}-Tj- cor-OcsN ooo^ co O^ fO O r^ < ^ co r , cx i 2 ^ 1 O, 00 ^ ^ "2 - 1> C PO ^00 rf t^ 10 O * O O^O O rO X \O 1 O CO ^"sO O ^4" cs O O CO OO t \O O^CQ to O vO to too to too OW fOOO O\t-^toO O TtHt^toCON MlOCO 1O O ^-O OO * O ONOO Ot t-MCO tot^-N Orf- VOOO O OO 000 - 75 IQ 16 3 4 5 6 Minneapolis, Minn. -Norwegian Dea- coness Institute, 2312 isth Ave., S. .. Omaha, Neb. Immanuel Deaconess In- stitute, 34th Street and Meredith Ave. Milwaukee, Wis. Lutheran Deaconess Motherhouse, 23d and Cedar Streets.. Baltimore, Md. Lutheran Deaconess Motherhouse of the General Synod, 2600 W. North Ave. 1889 1890 1893* i8