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 PRESENTED BY 
 
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Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive 
 
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 Princeton Tiieological Seminary Library 
 
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BISHOP JOB SMITH MILLS, A.M., Ph.D., D.D. 
 
■V 
 
 APk 
 
 Life of 
 Bishop J. S. Mills, D.D 
 
 Byy/ 
 REV. W. R. FUNK, D.D. 
 
 Introduction By 
 REV. S. S. HOUGH, D.D. 
 
 THE OTTERBEIN PRESS 
 
 DAYTON. OHIO 
 
 19 13 
 
United Brethren Publishing House 
 
 W. R. FUNK. Agent 
 
 Dayton, Ohio 
 
A WORD 
 
 ►T has been a pleasure to study the 
 hfe of that great man, Bishop Job 
 Smith Mills. One can not feel sat- 
 isfied with his effort when he knows 
 there are so many things that might 
 be said with profit to the reader. 
 The personal inspiration of his life was so refresh- 
 ing as he mingled among us that it seems almost 
 a presumption to try to write its history. 
 
 His family and close personal friends have 
 been so frank and candid that I have been helped 
 very much by them in reaching conclusions 
 both in point of character and dates of history. 
 I am indebted to a large number of Church men 
 and acquaintances, who have aided me in gather- 
 ing facts, for, aside from his missionary journeys, 
 Bishop Mills kept no records of events, no matter 
 how very important they might have been. His 
 family has been insistent that only facts be re- 
 corded about which there could be no question. 
 Mr. Alfred Keister Mills, the Bishop's son, has in 
 every way assisted me. 
 
 The Church is missing the enthusiastic, 
 optimistic, courageous influence of his energetic 
 leadership. This effort to set forth his life is made 
 with the hope that young men may seek success 
 in the Master's service in the face of all difficulty 
 as the Bishop did. I offer no apology, only that, 
 I am sorry this good and beautiful life does not 
 have a far better setting than that given it in this 
 volume. 
 
 W. R. FUNK. 
 
 Dayton, Ohio, August 1, 191S. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 JHE life of a Christian is a revelation 
 of God; it is the gospel in action. 
 The biography of a great man is 
 both an exhibition of the power of 
 the gospel, and a history of the 
 times in which the man lived. God 
 reveals himself through character. The Bible 
 itself is chiefly a book of biographies. God is still 
 speaking through the lives of men. What he de- 
 sires to put into the life of any generation he first 
 gives to the leaders of that generation. 
 
 Bishop J. S. Mills, D. D., whose life's story is 
 told in this book had large revelations from God 
 for the work of His church. The record of his 
 struggle, rise, service, and achievements as here 
 set forth is most inspiring. But few men have 
 overcome such giant difficulties, and risen to such 
 supreme heights in scholarship and service. 
 
 "He held no council with unmanly fears. 
 Where duty called he confidently steered; 
 Faced a thousand dangers at her call, 
 And trusting in his God surmounted all." 
 
 Dr. Funk, who had most intimate associa- 
 tions with Bishop Mills as a co-worker for more 
 than sixteen years has interpreted his life in such 
 a way as to make this biography extremely inter- 
 esting and faith stimulating. 
 
 This book takes the reader into the current 
 of a vigorous life — a life of intense study and 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 research — a life of action. It reveals a soul lit up 
 with the vision of God and pouring itself out in 
 self-sacrifice for the uplift of the race. 
 
 Bishop Mills was the only man in our denomi- 
 nation who served as pastor of a circuit, college 
 pastor, presiding elder, college professor, college 
 president, and bishop, and who then touched all 
 the conferences in the United States and all of our 
 five foreign fields with his impressive personality 
 and able addresses. His active work while living, 
 brought forth a large spiritual harvest. The 
 aftermath of his influence which will come to our 
 Church through the reading of this book will be 
 very great. It is the privilege of all who ponder 
 this message to seek to discover the principles 
 which made possible such a strong personality, 
 and to become a partner with Jesus Christ in carry- 
 ing to completion the tasks for the promotion of 
 which Bishop Mills lived and died. 
 
 S. S. HOUGH 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Chapter I. 
 His Ancestry 9 
 
 Chapter II. 
 Childhood Life ^S 
 
 Chapter III. 
 His Pulpit and Pastoral Ministry 39 
 
 Chapter IV. 
 His Influence as a College Pastor 51 
 
 Chapter V. 
 
 Episcopal Visits to the Mission Fields and 
 
 Foreign Travel 71 
 
 Chapter VI. 
 Student, Scholar, and Educator 109 
 
 Chapter VII. 
 
 The Churchman and Bishop, or the Ecclesi- 
 astical Leader 127 
 
 Chapter VIII. 
 The Son's Tribute to His Father 143 
 
 Chapter IX. 
 His Personal Traits and Character 161 
 
 Chapter X. 
 
 Estimate of His Life and Work by his 
 
 Cotemporaries 175 
 
 Chapter XL 
 Sermons and Addresses 205 
 
% 
 
THE HOUSE THE BISHOP HELPED HIS FATHER BUILD JUST BEFORE 
 LEAVING HOME TO BEGIN HIS LIFE WORK 
 
 THE OLD MILL WHERE THE FAMILY FLOUR WAS GROUND 
 
HIS ANCESTRY 
 
Chapter I 
 
 HIS ANCESTRY 
 
 ;VERY life has a real value. The 
 measure of its importance depends 
 upon its usefulness in the upbuild- 
 ing of personal character, the bet- 
 terment of society, the defense of 
 truth in national life, and the serv- 
 ice rendered in the kingdom of Jesus Christ. It 
 is not an easy task to place a proper estimate 
 upon a great life spent in the interest of humanity. 
 In the business world the calculation is more 
 easily made, for it is based upon the accumulations 
 of possessions; in the field of science, the conclu- 
 sion is quickly reached, because a new discovery or 
 extraordinary achievement attained by an indi- 
 vidual at once makes his reputation national or 
 international. In the field of letters and educa- 
 tion the same rule obtains — he who is willing to 
 pay the price of success wins a high position in the 
 public mind. But, in the field of self-sacrifice for 
 the betterment of others, the condition is changed; 
 for, in many cases, he who accomplishes most for 
 the individual and the community is the least 
 known, and the value of his life is much greater 
 than the common estimate placed upon it. 
 
 On this account, to write the life of a minister 
 of the gospel of Jesus Christ, whose purposes 
 were unselfish, and whose services were rendered 
 
12 HIS ANCESTRY 
 
 entirely to others, and place it in the proper set- 
 ting, is an impossibility, for only eternity itself will 
 reveal the true value of such a life. In writing 
 the life of Bishop Job Smith Mills, who was born 
 February 28, 1848, and died September 16, 1909, 
 I realize how limited words are to present to the 
 world the accomplishments of this noble man. 
 
 As one studies the biographies of great men, 
 the mind makes serious inquiry as to the causes 
 leading to the development of these characters that 
 stand out so prominently in each peculiar field of 
 activity and service. The accepted truism that 
 there is no object of existence without a cause, is 
 as true in the mental and spiritual, as it is in the 
 physical world; and, when a life is peculiarly 
 strong in the service it has rendered to men, one 
 naturally asks, "Why?" and, in answering this 
 question, is forced to seek antecedent conditions. 
 These preconditions have much to do with the 
 growth and development of a life that becomes 
 productive. In the life of Bishop Mills, the study 
 of his ancestry is most interesting; for, as we start 
 backward, we meet historic conditions that at 
 once account for the fundamental elements of 
 character that were so prominent in his life. 
 
 On the paternal side, the parentage of Bishop 
 Mills is easily traced, with unmistakable exactness, 
 to the colony of William Penn. Through the kind- 
 ness of members of the Mills family, the follow- 
 ing historic setting of the ancestral life of Bishop 
 Mills is given: 
 
 "The British government became indebted to 
 William Penn's father, who was an admiral in the 
 navy; and, on the death of the father, the son in- 
 
HIS ANCESTRY 13 
 
 herited a large sum, taking in settlement a vast 
 tract of land now embraced in the State of Penn- 
 sylvania. William Penn was a minister in the 
 Friends or Quaker Church, and, getting together 
 one hundred other men and women of like faith, 
 the little company set sail for America, where they 
 hoped to establish a settlement in which the col- 
 onists might worship God with religious liberty 
 and freedom of conscience. They had not been 
 long on the ocean until King Charles II., imitating 
 the act of a king who reigned many years previous- 
 ly, repented that he had arranged with the Quakers 
 to settle in America. Accordingly, the king sent 
 a detachment of soldiers to overtake, capture, and 
 exchange Penn and his associates for a cargo of 
 sugar. Providence, however, frowned upon the 
 dastardly attempt of the soldiers, their vessel 
 being wrecked and the expedition brought to 
 naught. The colonists, in due time, reached their 
 destination in safety and made the first permanent 
 settlement in Pennsylvania, where the city of 
 Philadelphia now stands. This was in 1683. 
 After making a treaty of peace with the Indians, 
 (which was never dishonored,) Penn divided his 
 grant among the colonists, giving each a very 
 liberal allotment; one, Thomas Wilhams, receiving 
 a whole township. This man Williams, who lived 
 to be more than one hundred years old, was a min- 
 ister, and belonged in the direct ancestral line of 
 the Mills family. 
 
 * 'After the expiration of some years, a num- 
 ber of the Quakers left Philadelphia and settled in 
 Georgia and North Carolina. In the latter State, 
 about the year 1775, was born Gideon Mills, 
 
14 HIS ANCESTRY 
 
 whose father's name was Reuben Mills. After a 
 sojourn of a few years in their new location, the 
 Quakers felt they must make a second move in 
 the western world, since slavery was quite in 
 opposition to their traditional ideas of freedom, 
 and the right of suffrage was restricted to owners 
 of slaves ; they then emigrated, some to Tennessee, 
 some to Ohio. 
 
 "Those who came to Ohio settled near Barnes- 
 ville, Belmont County. Gideon Mills was a 
 member of the settlement thus formed, and here, 
 on July 28, 1814, Lewis Mills, son of Gideon and 
 father of Bishop Mills, was born. The other 
 children born into this home were Eli, older than 
 Lewis, and, younger than he, Isaac, Esther, Hugh, 
 Reuben, Issachar, William, Thomas, and Ezra. 
 In 1821 Gideon Mills removed from Belmont 
 County and settled in Morgan County. Here 
 Lewis grew up and married Miss Sarah Balderston, 
 who died a few years later, and he was subsequently 
 married to Mrs. Ann Hopkins. 
 
 "Lewis Mills was a man of strong, vigorous 
 character, having a well-balanced mind with un- 
 usually good judgment, was very skillful in the use 
 of tools, a leader in church and educational work, 
 and scrupulously honest in all his dealings. He 
 was for several years a justice of the peace, and 
 so satisfactory were his decisions that very few 
 ever appealed from his judgments, and no superior 
 court ever reversed them." 
 
 Bishop Mills' father was twice married, the 
 name of his first wife being Sarah Ann Balderston. 
 To them were born a son and two daughters; 
 then death entered the home and deprived the f am- 
 
HIS ANCESTRY 15 
 
 ily of the love of wife and mother. Two years 
 after the death of his first wife, Lewis Mills was 
 married to Mrs. Ann Hopkins. Here, again, I am 
 privileged to use the family history as given by 
 the brother of Bishop Mills: "The second wife of 
 Lewis Mills was a native of Virginia, being stolen 
 from her native State when a girl of six years and 
 brought to Morgan County, Ohio. She was an or- 
 phan, and lived with a family by the name of 
 Smith for the first few years of her life, from which 
 it was supposed that her name was Smith, but 
 later developments indicate that her real name 
 was Jackson, and that she was related to those of 
 Southern fame bearing that name. She was a 
 woman of strong and beautiful character, a de- 
 voted wife and a most affectionate mother. 
 
 "The family home of Lewis Mills and Ann 
 Hopkins was established about three miles north 
 of the little town of Bartlett, Washington County, 
 Ohio. Here grew up five sons and two daughters, 
 Emma, the youngest daughter and child being 
 called to higher service when only five years old. 
 The names of the other children in order are: 
 Thomas W., Job S. [Bishop], George S., John A., 
 William J., Sarah L., and Rebecca Z." 
 
 Lewis Mills was brought up a member of the 
 Friends Church, belonging to that substantial 
 Quaker stock that produced such strong characters 
 in the communities in which they lived. His 
 mother, Ann Smith, was also reared in the church 
 of the Friends, though never uniting with the 
 church; but during the life of her first husband, 
 George W. Hopkins, they were both members of 
 the Methodist Episcopal Church. It is easy to 
 
16 HIS ANCESTRY 
 
 conclude that the ancestry of Bishop Mills was 
 religiously inclined. Shortly after the marriage 
 of Lewis Mills to Ann Smith Hopkins the United 
 Brethren in Christ began their work in the com- 
 munity in which the Mills family resided; and, 
 when this organization started, they cast their lot 
 with the new church and became members of the 
 United Brethren in Christ, remaining in that 
 communion until their death. 
 
 The home of Bishop Mills' childhood was one 
 of piety and Christian instruction. Family wor- 
 ship was regularly maintained; and this was one 
 cause of his earnestness in behalf of the contin- 
 uance of this form of Christian service, saying, as 
 he often did, that he was greatly strengthened 
 by the observance of this home devotion. His 
 parents did not doubt their right to seek divine 
 guidance each morning, and every evening closed 
 the day with thanksgiving and praise to their 
 Heavenly Father. This rule of the household was 
 also extended to include attendance at the Bible 
 school and the regular church services, and applied 
 to all members of the family, old and young alike. 
 This requirement brought the children into com- 
 plete touch with the church and made lasting 
 impressions in favor of the truth of God and 
 the advantage of a true Christian life. 
 
 Having recently visited the neighborhood 
 in which Lewis and Ann Mills hved, it was not 
 difficult to learn the reason why this family was 
 held in high respect in the community. 
 
 The father was a strong man, whose integrity 
 and will-power fitted him to hold the highest office 
 in the community — justice of the peace. It was 
 
HIS ANCESTRY 17 
 
 his delight to secure settlement of all disputes be- 
 tween neighbors rather than go to law; so his court 
 was, in most cases, the court of last resort, not 
 because an appeal could not have been taken, but 
 because his decisions were universally just and his 
 influence so great that the contestants were usually 
 satisfied with the verdict rendered. It is recorded 
 of him officially that no decision he ever rendered 
 was reversed by a higher court. This showed a 
 fairness and uprightness in judgment that marked 
 him as an exceptional officer. 
 
 The mother was a remarkable woman. She 
 was of medium size, with brown eyes, and rather 
 dark complexion, possessing a very generous na- 
 ture, and deeply sympathetic in all relations to 
 her home. It is said of her that her devotion 
 and care of her son Job was used of God to extend 
 his life. She especially nestled him close to her 
 bosom in the trying days of his childhood, when 
 life was a constant uncertainty to him. It is also 
 a matter of record that Mrs. Mills always encour- 
 aged her son to give himself to Christian service, 
 and never once entered any protest; but rather 
 opened the way as far as she was able, for him. 
 
 The trustworthiness, honesty, and generosity 
 in the life of the Bishop finds their antecedents 
 in the lives of both father and mother. Their 
 neighbors, some now living, bear unmistakable 
 testimony to this fact. The lives of these good 
 people fell as a rich benediction on the life of the 
 son who, in time, blessed the world with a noble 
 and fruitful life. 
 
 It is interesting to study the conditions of the 
 nineteenth century and to see the molding in- 
 
18 HIS ANCESTRY 
 
 fluences which preceded the beginning of the new 
 life of humanity as it was exemphfied in the ca- 
 reer of our distinguished brother. 
 
 All historians agree that the nineteenth cen- 
 tury was very widely removed from the conditions 
 obtaining in the eighteenth century, and a greater 
 difference is noted as, in retrospective view, we 
 look back into the preceding centuries. It is in- 
 teresting to note that not an ocean steamer, or 
 railroad car, or telegraph line was in operation 
 when Napoleon was defeated at the Battle of 
 Waterloo. The one word that analyzes the con- 
 dition of nations as they were related the one to 
 the other in their intercourse, whether social or 
 commercial, is the word "isolation." 
 
 The rule of monarchs, kings, and potentates 
 was almost absolute up until the beginning of 
 the nineteenth century. Personal freedom, moral 
 and intellectual, as well as social and national, 
 was almost a thing unknown in any national life. 
 Civilization had been retarded by this condition. 
 Slavery existed in all of its forms, whether legal- 
 ized in the ownership of chattels, or seen in that 
 milder form of national serfdom, where tribute 
 made the subject a peasant in name and a slave in 
 action; in every one of these cases, human liberty 
 was either ruined or crushed. Sympathy between 
 communities or nations did not exist, and he who 
 would study history must study it from this stand- 
 point, and he who would analyze a character must 
 seek its elements in this field of inquiry. 
 
 The march of civilization has been so rapid 
 during the nineteenth century that we who live 
 in the beginnings of the twentieth century can 
 
HIS ANCESTRY 19 
 
 scarcely appreciate what it has meant to the race 
 tohave the influence of the fraternizing of nations 
 such as we have to-day. To get the settings, there- 
 fore, of a hfe Hke Bishop Mills', where every pul- 
 sation beats in accord with the new order of things, 
 we need to analyze the national life and to see how 
 these things affected him and impelled him with 
 a serious consciousness, to do the work he ought 
 to do for humanity and God. 
 
 The French Revolution of 1815 preceded his 
 birth by only thirty-three years. This revolution 
 in France marked a change in the order of things 
 in Europe, for all historians agree that never again 
 did that continent return to, or resume its ancient 
 conception of complete subjection of the individual 
 to national life. 
 
 Thirty -two years before the birth of our sub- 
 ject the first steamer crossed the Atlantic Ocean. 
 Twenty years before his birth came the railway, 
 which, in subsequent years, became the mighty 
 medium of commercial life and development. 
 Only three years preceding his birth was the first 
 telegraph message sent from one city to another, 
 and the world began an interchange of knowledge 
 that has produced a great effect upon human in- 
 telligence, and brought to us a new era of life. It 
 was in the period of his birth that a new relation- 
 ship was established between the Old World and 
 the New. Up until this time the thought of Europe 
 had controlled the colonies; but the effect of the 
 War of 1812 and the establishment of peace, the 
 signing of that remarkable paper known as "The 
 Treaty of Ghent," and later the Monroe Doctrine, 
 
20 HIS ANCESTRY 
 
 as worked out by President Monroe, was a new 
 era of life and thought. 
 
 The trials of the new republic in the subse- 
 quent years were many, for the sword of Bonaparte 
 manifested itself in connection with complications 
 arising between the United States and the little 
 kingdom of Hayti. 
 
 When we remember that the father of Job S. 
 Mills was born one year previous to the Battle of 
 Waterloo, and his mother five years afterward, we 
 see the importance of a study of the history during 
 the period of their lives. The tariff question, 
 which has concerned almost every Congress since 
 1828, was first debated when Lewis Mills was 
 fourteen years of age. It was in this same year 
 that Andrew Jackson was elected President of the 
 United States, and the Whig Party was brought 
 into existence by Henry Clay and Daniel Webster. 
 The father and mother of Bishop Mills lived during 
 the period when Hayne and Webster had their 
 remarkable debate on "Nullification and Seces- 
 sion," Hayne supporting the doctrine of State 
 rights and Webster defending constitutional su- 
 premacy. 
 
 From 1814, the time of the birth of his father, 
 to his own birth in 1848, there were periods of 
 unrest and wars, following each other in close suc- 
 cession. It was during this time that his parents 
 formed their opinions and fashioned their lives, 
 which, in turn, influenced that of their son. Being 
 quiet, rural people, they heard with alarm the 
 meager reports that came of the Indian Wars. 
 The passing of the Revolutionary heroes, such as 
 Adams and Jefferson, had great effect upon them. 
 
HIS ANCESTRY 21 
 
 Monroe died in 1831 and Charles Carroll, the last 
 signer of the Declaration of Independence, in 
 1832. Thus passed those who were especially 
 instrumental in the forming of the new republic. 
 Chief Justice Marshall died in 1835 and President 
 Madison in 1836. The marking of this period of 
 transition is important in the lives of the parentage 
 of Bishop Mills. The coming in of Jackson, Clay, 
 Webster, Calhoun, Harrison, Van Buren, Scott, 
 Tyler and Zachary Taylor also has a bearing upon 
 the life that we are to study in this connection. 
 
 In 1840, just eight years before the birth of 
 Bishop Mills, the population of the United States 
 was only seventeen millions. This in itself is 
 cause for careful study of his life, with its bearing 
 upon conditions at the time of his death. The 
 Mormon question was raised just a few years 
 previous to his birth. The great riot of Car- 
 thage, Missouri, over the Mormon agitation was 
 in 1844. James K. Polk was nominated for Presi- 
 dent May 29, 1844, and the news of his nomination 
 was sent by telegraph from Baltimore to Wash- 
 ington — the first electric message ever sent. 
 This alone marked an epoch in the history of 
 civihzation. Professor F. P. Morris, of Mass- 
 achusetts, began his experiments in this field of 
 activity in 1832 and twelve years afterward sent 
 this message announcing the nomination of Presi- 
 dent Polk. The Mexican War was begun in 1846, 
 and Zachary Taylor won his distinction as a 
 commanding general. He was by many consid- 
 ered to be superior to General Scott, who was 
 Commander-in-Chief of the Armies of the Republic. 
 At this same time we hear the first of General John 
 
22 HIS ANCESTRY 
 
 C. Fremont, who was west of the Rocky Mountains 
 seeking to control the invasions of the Mexicans 
 in southern CaHfornia. In 1846 the treaty with 
 Great Britain, affecting the northwestern bound- 
 aries of our country, was consummated, in which 
 Great Britain won every point of advantage. 
 The treaty with Mexico, closing the Mexican War, 
 occurred in the winter of 1847-48, and the proc- 
 lamation of peace was made by President Polk 
 July 4, 1848. 
 
 As Bishop Mills was born February, 1848, he 
 came into the world at the time of the treaty with 
 Mexico, and was but a few months old when the 
 proclamation of peace with that country was 
 written. It was in the year of his birth, near Sac- 
 ramento, California, that Captain Sutter employed 
 a number of laborers to dig a ditch for a mill-race, 
 to conduct water for power, and his workmen dis- 
 covered gold, which resulted in the gold excite- 
 ment known in history as the "Gold Fever." 
 Bishop Mills was a baby when the city of San 
 Francisco was but a Spanish hut village. Henry 
 Clay and Daniel Webster were in the prime of their 
 influence at the time of his birth. Thus we can 
 see why there should come to him such influences 
 as would make for a strong and positive nature; 
 an energy in thinking that would result in a wide 
 vision and a broad comprehension of local, na- 
 tional, and international affairs, for Bishop Mills 
 as a thinker reached the remotest parts of the 
 earth and encompassed the globe. 
 
MILL DAM \VHP:RE HE WENT SWIMMING 
 
 THE HOME CHURCH. WHERE BISHOP MILLS WAS CON\'ERTED 
 AND JOINED CHURCH 
 
CHILDHOOD LIFE 
 
Chapter II 
 
 CHILDHOOD LIFE 
 
 tHE birthplace and residence during 
 the period of childhood and youth 
 have much to do with the forma- 
 tion of character in the individual. 
 No more striking example of this 
 truth can be obtained than that 
 found in the life of Abraham Lincoln, who was 
 born in the obscure and almost barren moun- 
 tains of Kentucky. No one can visit the old 
 Lincoln farm without the question arising, "Can 
 any good thing come out of this community.'^" 
 The same question was asked in reference to the 
 home city of our Lord and Master; and, without 
 reflecting upon the community in which Bishop 
 Mills was born, it might, with propriety, be asked 
 of that rugged, isolated locality in Washington 
 County, Ohio, where he first saw the light. Abrupt 
 hills, approaching the magnitude of mountains, 
 deep forests and rushing, bubbling streams mark 
 the place where he spent his childhood. 
 
 He was born near the little village of Bartlett, 
 in a small log house, one of the first built in that 
 community. At that time very little of the land 
 was cleared. Even now it is not considered very 
 productive, for it is difficult to maintain the soil in 
 a high state of cultivation on account of the un- 
 evenness of the ground and the steepness of the 
 hills. But there is a law of compensation entering 
 
26 CHILDHOOD LIFE 
 
 into everything that God has arranged; and, while 
 the earth has not been so fruitful in the production 
 of crops, it has been very productive of minerals 
 and oil, so that, from a financial standpoint, many 
 of the people of Washington and Morgan counties 
 have been reaping harvests of wealth from the 
 internal values of those great hills. This, however, 
 was not in the immediate locality where Bishop 
 Mills was born, and where his brother and family 
 still reside. 
 
 It is most interesting to study the effect of 
 these conditions, influenced as he must have been 
 by the simple surroundings of his childhood. His 
 great love of nature found its beginnings in the 
 experiences of these early days. No one loved 
 nature better than he. He lived in it; he breathed 
 its spirit. He was a student of nature all his life, 
 and many of his most telling illustrations in his 
 deepest discourses were drawn from this field of 
 inquiry. 
 
 The house in which he was born was, in itself, 
 an object of interest. As described by those who 
 saw it, it was the humblest of the humble. Its 
 appearance and arrangement were such as to give 
 conclusive evidence that the parents of Bishop 
 Mills did not make the physical home, with its 
 appointments and comforts, paramount; but, 
 rather, the people living their lives there were the 
 greatest element in the character of the home. 
 This is in bold contrast to the conditions as they 
 are to-day, when the character and quality of the 
 home is estimated by the exterior architectural 
 appearance and the internal furnishings. In many 
 instances the development of character is secondary 
 
CHILDHOOD LIFE 27 
 
 to the physical or material condition. The first 
 vision of this child revealed a substantial, unvar- 
 nished home, where love, not tapestry or glitter, 
 was the inspiration. 
 
 In a deep ravine, with hills surrounding on 
 three sides, and a small receding valley on the 
 other, was located the birthplace of Bishop Mills, 
 sheltered in every particular from the fierce north 
 and the blighting east winds. It would seem al- 
 most providential that he should have been thus 
 protected, for his childhood days were days of 
 physical weakness and struggle for continuing life. 
 The house in which he was born has passed out 
 of existence; not even a picture of it being pre- 
 served; but the house of his grandfather, located 
 on an adjoining farm, is given in illustration in 
 this book, and is said to be superior in every way 
 to the home in which Job S. Mills was born. 
 
 About a mile from his residence is the old 
 mill, a center of attraction, to which he went very 
 frequently when he was a boy. On a trip of in- 
 vestigation made by the writer and his son to this 
 community, the picture of this ancient mill was 
 taken especially for this volume. In a careful 
 study of the old mill and its surroundings, is re- 
 vealed the simple life of the communitj^ A pa- 
 tron had come to the mill just a short time before 
 we arrived, and, finding the miller away from 
 home, without suspicion and with a trustful heart 
 placed his grain on the platform at the front door 
 of the mill and went home, knowing full well that 
 the honest miller would care for his grist, and that 
 no intruding person would venture to molest it — 
 a simplicity of life that is delightful to contem- 
 
28 CHILDHOOD LIFE 
 
 plate in the presence of our locked and barred 
 doors, and ou^ stalwart policemen walking our 
 streets to protect our lives and property while we 
 sleep. 
 
 The mill dam, at the rear of the mill, presents a 
 scene of rare beauty. I was told that one of the fa- 
 vorite sports of the Bishop, when he was a lad, was 
 to go to the mill dam for a swim. The view at this 
 point is one of exquisite beauty and must have 
 had a telling eff-^ct upon the life of the boy, for in 
 that day it was even more charming than now, with 
 the woodland back of it covering the entire hill. 
 The scene beyond this mill dam is just in front of 
 his birthplace, and right over the hill in the valley 
 beyond was his home. A home it was, for brothers 
 and sisters, father and mother lived a beautiful 
 and simple hfe that made their fellowship complete. 
 This sparkling stream of water, as it took its way 
 on down through the valley, must have been an 
 inspiration. 
 
 Reference was made before to the home of 
 Bishop Mills' grandfather, located on the adjoining 
 farm. It was my privilege, on the trip previously 
 mentioned, to take a picture of this home, now 
 occupied by an old lady, considerably over eighty 
 years of age. The house is of logs, weather- 
 boarded, and is supposed to be one of the oldest, 
 if not the oldest house in this community. The 
 shades of the evening were falling when the 
 picture was taken. 
 
 The schoolhouse, where Bishop Mills attended 
 school has been rebuilt. It was located on the site 
 where the present schoolhouse stands, about a 
 mile and a half from his home. It has been re- 
 
CHILDHOOD LIFE 29 
 
 paired several times since it was rebuilt. The 
 foundation, however, is the original one. It is said 
 that his ill health in the early days of his life 
 prevented his regular attendance at the public 
 school. 
 
 The church of his childhood is seen in the 
 accompanying illustration. On a high elevation, 
 in a beautiful woodland about three-quarters of a 
 mile from his home, we found this building, nest- 
 ling among the trees — perfect in location. It is an 
 old structure, built on the old plan of country 
 churches, with a door in front and a door at the 
 side. It is not now occupied as a preaching-place, 
 and is rapidly falling into decay. It is almost pa- 
 thetic that conditions have so changed in the com- 
 munity as to make this church unnecessary. It 
 was in this church, when but a lad of seventeen 
 years, that Bishop Mills gave his heart to God, 
 and sought forgiveness of sins through Jesus 
 Christ, his personal Savior. 
 
 The house that Bishop Mills helped his father 
 build, when he was sixteen or seventeen years of 
 age, is presented in the illustration. It was built 
 only a few years before he left his home for his 
 life work. The original home of the Mills family 
 was just across the driveway. The house is 
 now occupied by his brother John. It was one of 
 the best in the community when it was built, and 
 the family lived comfortably in it during the 
 remaining years of the life of the father and 
 mother, the father dving in 1880, and the mother 
 in 1889. 
 
 With this description, one gets visions of 
 landscapes, rugged hills, valleys with rippling 
 
30 CHILDHOOD LIFE 
 
 streams, with trees and tiny shrubs, and lofty oak, 
 and pine, and deep, dark stretches of woodland, 
 which form the setting of the early boyhood days 
 of the one who truly loved nature and studied her 
 laws and loved her God. 
 
 The log cabin in which he was born was more 
 than a half mile from the public highway, and this 
 seclusion gave time and opportunity for thoughtful 
 meditation on the things immediately about him. 
 
 As has been intimated. Bishop Mills spent his 
 first fifteen years of existence in a struggle for life; 
 delicate physically, he was subjected to nearly 
 every physical ailment incident to childhood, and 
 in each recurring case his strength was almost 
 unequal to the shock and at times his very life 
 was threatened. But God had a work for him to 
 do, and, at fifteen years of age, he commenced to 
 gain physical strength. 
 
 Dr. H. A. Thompson, in writing the sketch of 
 Bishop Mills, says: 
 
 "Job S. was the sixth of this large family. He 
 was born with small vitality, and his tread of life 
 for many years was the feeblest possible. During 
 his first year his mother prepared his burial clothes 
 three times, not thinking it possible for him to live. 
 His pale face and delicate form were matters of 
 continual remark all through youth and until he 
 was thirty-six years of age. Neither parents nor 
 neighbors would have been surprised to have heard 
 of his death at any time. 
 
 "The lack of vitahty determined the method 
 of his education. He did not learn to read until he 
 was eleven years old; but at fourteen a mental 
 
CHILDHOOD LIFE 31 
 
 genesis came to him, and an insatiable appetite 
 for knowledge which has never been satisfied." 
 
 From this period he grew stronger with each 
 year mi til, in his mature manhood, he was con- 
 sidered one of the finest specimens of physical 
 figure and strength that could be found. His in- 
 domitable will overcame the symptoms of con- 
 sumption that threatened his life from the years 
 twelve to fifteen. 
 
 It ought not to be forgotten that the parents 
 of Job Mills were farmers and, on this account, 
 his school privileges were not the best. The com- 
 mon schools of his neighborhood were kept open 
 only three and four months in the year, part of 
 which time was during the winter season, and, 
 being a delicate boy, he could not attend regularly. 
 This handicapped him in his school work. It is 
 said of him that his desire for knowledge was so 
 great that he would carry a book with him to 
 the field where he was working, and, while the 
 horses rested, he worked with unabated energy on 
 his lessons. This alone reveals a determination of 
 spirit that later worked wonders in his life. 
 
 Among the ministers who visited his early 
 home were Rev. Wm. R. Miller, Rev. J. W. Sleeper, 
 and a local minister. Rev. Abraham Zumbro, an 
 uncle of the writer. It is said that these three men 
 had great influence over the life of this boy as he 
 grew up in his father's home. It was during a 
 revival held at the Otterbein Church on Plymouth 
 Circuit, by these three ministers, that he made his 
 profession of Jesus Christ. The ministry of the 
 word as given in that day was direct and pungent, 
 and Bishop Mills came under the influence of the 
 
32 CHILDHOOD LIFE 
 
 gospel of Jesus Christ as it affected the hfe of the 
 individual and changed it from a wrong to a good 
 course. His conversion was very pronounced, and 
 his determination to enter the ministry of Jesus 
 Christ followed very quickly. The state of edu- 
 cation and learning at this time was at a low ebb. 
 Emphasis was not put upon qualifications for the 
 ministry in the Church then as now, although Job 
 S. Mills at once completed the work of the common 
 schools, and in two more years finished the course 
 as given in Bartlett Academy, then located near 
 the town of Plymouth. 
 
 From the time he entered the Christian 
 ministry until the time of his death, he was recog- 
 nized as a profound student. His call to the 
 Christian ministry, which occurred in the year 
 following his conversion, is very interesting as re- 
 lated by his personal friend. Dr. H. A. Thompson: 
 
 "He had carried to the field of toil, one morn- 
 ing, a part of the New Testament to read while 
 resting. While alone, sitting in the shade of a 
 forest tree, he read the last chapter of Mark's 
 Gospel, with its, 'Go ye into all the world and 
 preach the gospel to every creature.' It came to 
 him with all the force of a personal message from 
 God; it overwhelmed him; and in tears he said, 
 'Open the way and I will go.' He was soon 
 given license to exhort (1867)." 
 
 Almost immediately following his receiving 
 his license to exhort, a desire developed in his 
 soul, which finally became a real purpose, to go as 
 a missionary, under the appointment of the Home, 
 Frontier and Foreign Missionary Society of the 
 Church of the United Brethren in Christ, t > Africa, 
 
WHERE BISHOP MILLS ATTEXDED Pl'BLIC SCHOOL 
 
 THE HOME OF BISHOP MILLS' GRANDFATHER 
 
CHILDHOOD LIFE 33 
 
 his chosen field. Here came one of the greatest 
 trials of his life, when, after negotiating earnestly 
 with Rev. D. K. Flickinger, missionary secretary, 
 he was finally rejected because of his poor physi- 
 cal health. 
 
 He went to Westerville, Ohio, in 1868 and 
 met the executive committee of the board of mis- 
 sions, with a view to going to Africa. "Edwards, 
 Flickinger, Hanby, Spangler and Billheimer were 
 present. After they had met and talked with the 
 pale, feeble-looking lad, they decided he could not 
 live through the year, and therefore it would be 
 unwise to send him to Africa. They advised him 
 to go as an assistant pastor on a field of work and 
 wait. Twice after this he earnestly sought to go 
 as a missionary to the frontier, once to California, 
 and again to Washington, but each time was dis- 
 appointed on account of feeble health." 
 
 It was at this period, 1868, that he entered 
 the Christian ministry and was received into 
 Scioto Conference. After his rejection as a mis- 
 sionary, he was appointed to the Palestine Circuit 
 with Rev. Joshua Montgomery, senior pastor. 
 His physical weakness gradually left him and he 
 grew stronger with each year, and now stood ready 
 for the conquest of life, which, in its sequel, marked 
 him as an able defender of the truth of Jesus Christ. 
 
 The period of his life from the time of his birth 
 in 1848 to his entrance into the Christian ministry 
 at the age of twenty, in 1868 comprised memor- 
 able days in the history of the nation. Coming 
 from the stock of Andrew Jackson, he inherited 
 somewhat the disposition of his ancestors. He was 
 ready for the contest, else he would have yielded in 
 
34 CHILDHOOD LIFE 
 
 his childhood to disease, and his hfe would have 
 been one of great disappointment. The nation 
 was undergoing a great change on very important 
 questions. The cause of slavery, which forced the 
 ancestry of the Mills family to leave slave territory, 
 was fast becoming a vital question that would test 
 the very existence of the republic. In 1846, two 
 years before the birth of Bishop Mills, Wilmot of 
 Pennsylvania introduced in Congress a bill to 
 prohibit slavery in all the territory which might be 
 acquired by the treaty with Mexico. In 1849, 
 one year after his birth, the admission of California 
 as a State came up by resolution in the House 
 of Representatives. California had previously 
 adopted a constitution in which slavery was pro- 
 hibited. The resolution to admit California raised 
 a storm of debate in Congress, lasting through 
 the winter and summer. Henry Clay, then in the 
 height of his power as a national character, intro- 
 duced what was known as "Clay's Omnibus Bill." 
 Among other things found in that bill was the 
 admission of California as a free State under the 
 constitution already adopted; the organization of 
 territorial governments for New Mexico and Utah 
 without conditions on the slavery question; that 
 the territory of Texas might be divided into four 
 States to permit of the excluding of slavery as the 
 people thereof should determine; the enactment of 
 a more rigorous law for the recovery of fugitive 
 slaves; and last in that bill was the provision for 
 the abolishment of the slave trade in the District 
 of Columbia. 
 
 In the autumn following the beginning of 
 this session, on the eighteenth of September, 1850, 
 
CHILDHOOD LIFE 35 
 
 Clay, by his eloquence, won the victory and every 
 clause of the Omnibus Bill was adopted. President 
 Fillmore signed the bill, thus giving it his sanction. 
 This likely was the most important national 
 transaction affecting the life of the boy who was 
 born when the nation was in its struggle for 
 existence. 
 
 In this atmosphere he started his life of earnest 
 thinking. With the campaigns of strenuous debate 
 preceding the change that came with the election 
 of Lincoln, young Mills received his first impres- 
 sions of national and social life, and this will 
 appear again and again as we study his career. 
 It was in this epoch of history that the great 
 Hungarian patriot, Louis Kossuth, came to Ameri- 
 ca and pled the cause of Hungarian liberty against 
 the oppression of Austria and Russia. The first 
 effort toward the investigation and exploration 
 of the arctic regions was begun under Dr. Kane 
 in 1853. 
 
 These items of history are noted here because 
 in the subsequent life of Mr. Mills they had great 
 influence. It is said that he spent much time 
 pondering over the history of our nation, its strug- 
 gles in the periods just preceding the time of his 
 birth and during the formative years of his child- 
 hood life. He frequently referred to the fact that 
 when he was five years of age Commodore Perry 
 entered the Bay of Yeddo, and for the first time 
 entered a Japanese port which, up until this date, 
 had been closed against the vessels of Christian na- 
 tions. It is supposed that this fact had much to 
 do with the decision of the young man to be a for- 
 eign missionary. Having caught the inspiration of 
 
36 CHILDHOOD LIFE 
 
 such a great deed as that performed by Commodore 
 Perry, he studied with a view to himself entering a 
 new field and thus impressing his life upon it. 
 Often during this period of twenty years the 
 question of slavery arose. In 1854 the United 
 States Senate took up the proposition of organizing 
 the territory of Kansas and Nebraska, and, in 
 accordance with the bill, these two territories, in 
 forming their constitutions, should decide for 
 themselves whether they, as new States, should be 
 free or slave holding. This was considered at vari- 
 ance with the Missouri Compromise. Nobody knew 
 the exact object of Stephen A. Douglas in this 
 effort to change conditions in reference to this 
 vast territory, extending over the States of Kansas 
 and Nebraska. Bishop Mills in after life studied 
 very carefully this history as he presided over the 
 conferences of this territory where these great 
 problems were practically worked out. The bat- 
 tle that followed the passage of this enactment 
 brought confusion and danger to the citizens of 
 that territory. 
 
 In 1855 General John C. Fremont, of Califor- 
 nia, was nominated by the free-soil people or Re- 
 publican party for President. James Buchanan, a 
 native of Pennsylvania, was nominated by the 
 Democracy and was elected. I have heard Bishop 
 Mills refer very frequently to this interesting cam- 
 paign, in which the new doctrines of the Republi- 
 can party as such were outlined by the speakers 
 who defended the platform of that party in that 
 campaign. 
 
 It was in 1857 that Chief Justice Roger B. 
 Taney, speaking for the Supreme Court of the 
 
CHILDHOOD LIFE 37 
 
 United States, decided that negroes, whether free 
 or slave, were not citizens of the United States; 
 that they could not become such by any process 
 known to the Constitution; that, under the laws 
 of the United States a negro could neither sue nor 
 be sued, and, therefore, the court had no juris- 
 diction in the Dred Scott case; that the slave was 
 to be regarded simply in the light of a personal 
 chattel, and that he might be removed from place 
 to place by his owner as any other piece of property; 
 that the Constitution gives to the slave-holder the 
 right of removing to, or through any State or terri- 
 tory, with his slaves, and of returning at his will 
 with them to a State where slavery was recognized 
 by law; and that, therefore, the Missouri Com- 
 promise of 1820 as well as the compromise measures 
 of 1850 were unconstitutional and void. In these 
 opinions six Associate Justices of the Supreme 
 Bench — Wayne, Nelson, Grier, Daniel, Campbell, 
 and Catron — concurred, while two Associate Jus- 
 tices — McLean and Curtiss — dissented. 
 
 All these questions then debated had untold 
 influence on the mind of young Mills as he studied 
 the sociological problems of human hfe; for no 
 one stood more earnestly for the broad princi- 
 ples of American liberty than he, whether in the 
 state, society, or Church. 
 
HIS PULPIT AND PASTORAL MINISTRY 
 
Chapter III 
 
 HIS PULPIT AND PASTORAL MINISTRY 
 
 ;HE ministry of Job S. Mills was one 
 of almost unbroken service from the 
 time he received his exhorter's 
 license, May 18, 1867, until the 
 time of his death. The historic 
 setting of his entrance into this field 
 of activity, in which he became renowned as a 
 worker, is seen in the exhorter's license which he 
 received at the date above mentioned. This li- 
 cense is as follows: 
 
 "To Whom it May Concern: 
 
 This is to certify that Job S. Mills is authorized to ex- 
 hort among us the United Brethren in Christ so long 
 as his life and doctrine is in accordance with the 
 teachings of the Bible. 
 
 Given at a Quarterly Conference Convened May the 
 18th, 1867, on Plymouth Cr. Scioto A. C. 
 
 Jas. H. Dickson, p. e., Protem." 
 
 Under the authority thus given him, he exer- 
 cised the privilege of exhorting the people to live 
 in accordance with the teachings of the Word of 
 God, and at once showed ability to persuade men 
 to leave their sins and to accept the ways of 
 righteousness. 
 
 On August 15, 1868, he received his quarterly 
 conference license on Plymouth Circuit, Scioto 
 Conference. This license was signed b J. W. 
 Sleeper, presiding elder, one of the men who was 
 
42 HIS MINISTRY 
 
 instrumental in influencing young Mills to enter 
 the Christian life, and to decide in favor of the 
 Christian mi istry as his life work. This hcense 
 is given in the exact form in which it was issued: 
 
 "This is to certify bro J. S. Mills is authorized 
 to preach the Gospel of Christ, done by order of the 
 4 Quartly conference of the United Brethren in 
 Christ Plymouth circuit Scioto conference Ohio Au- 
 gust 15th, 1868. 
 
 "J. W. Sleeper, p. e. 
 
 Having pursued his courses of study as re- 
 quired by the Church in his relation as quarterly 
 conference preacher, on the fifteenth day of 
 September, 1870, he was received into the Scioto 
 Conference and granted a license by that con- 
 ference, signed by Bishop J. J. Glossbrenner, as 
 follows : 
 
 To Whom It may Concern: 
 
 "This is to Certify, That Job. S. Mills is an 
 approved Preacher of the Gospel in the Church of 
 the United Brethren In Christ, so long as his 
 conduct and doctrine are comformable with the Gos- 
 pel of Christ. 
 
 Given at an Annual Conference held in 
 Hocking County Ohio 
 this 15th day of September in the year of our Lord, 
 1870 
 Signed and Sealed in behalf of said Conference. 
 
 "J.J. Glossbrenner, Bishop." 
 
 This license put him in the rank of the active 
 workers of his conference, in which he soon be- 
 came one of the leaders. Soon after he received 
 his exhorter's license he made application to 
 the missionary society of our Church to be 
 
HIS MINISTRY 43 
 
 appointed as a missionary to Africa. This strong 
 desire to thus serve God in the opening up of a new 
 continent, which at that time was almost closed 
 to every ray of spiritual life, gives emphasis to 
 the depth of thought and the world vision that 
 this young man had at these beginning years of 
 his eventful life, and accounts for the great ac- 
 tivity which he manifested during all of his pastoral 
 and ministerial life in favor of missions. It is not 
 so hard to reach a conclusion to be a missionary 
 at this period of the world's development, as it 
 was when Job Mills made application to the mis- 
 sion board. 
 
 As stated in a preceding chapter, he was in- 
 fluenced by the ever changing current of national 
 and international affairs. If he had not been in 
 touch with these movements, there would have 
 been no inspiration in his mind and heart to thus 
 consecrate himself to a task in which, at that time, 
 only a few had faith. It is pathetic that one so 
 earnest, so broad-minded, so spiritually consecra- 
 ted, should have been rejected as he stood before 
 the door of open possibilities, seeking entrance into 
 the dark continent of Africa. But the commit- 
 tee of the mission board could not be blamed for 
 their action in rejecting young Mills, as he came 
 before them with his frail, delicate body; for 
 they realized that to send him to the "white 
 man's grave," as Sierra Leone, West Africa, has 
 always been called, would be disastrous and result 
 in the unnecessary sacrifice of life. That they 
 were divinely led to reject his application is fully 
 established by the wealth of service that Bishop 
 Mills has rendered, during the subsequent years, 
 
44 HIS MINISTRY 
 
 to the home church and to the foreign field through 
 the board of missions. 
 
 Beginning his ministry soon after the close 
 of the Civil War, in the period of reconstruction, 
 when the enmity of sections was still fired by the 
 shedding of blood, and when the ambitions of men 
 were leading them to the sacrifice of the nobler 
 principles by placing undue burdens upon the fallen 
 foe, this young preacher was made to feel, by 
 these events and conditions, the need of a con- 
 structive life, and at once began his life work 
 with the high ideal of helping to hft the world, 
 rather than to destroy it. 
 
 It was during the period of his life from the 
 age of thirteen, when the war began, and his 
 entrance into the ministry two years after it closed, 
 that he formed his permanent opinions of right 
 and wrong as relating to the sociological problems 
 that were paramount in his work as a minister, 
 teacher, and Christian. 
 
 It was during one of the raids made by that 
 daring and dangerous warrior, Morgan, that Mills 
 was taken a captive, and carried aw^ay from home. 
 He was later released and permitted to walk 
 home, while the raiders appropriated his splendid 
 horse and placed it in their cavalry. 
 
 Mr. Mills' love of freedom was very strong 
 and manifested itself in his relation to men, in his 
 study of doctrines, and in his administration of 
 the affairs of the Church; he was not bound by 
 iron-clad rules and a forced application of each 
 rule to every case; hence, his great sympathy was 
 shared alike by victor and vanquished, and he 
 always stood for a just reconstruction of the affairs 
 
HIS MINISTRY 45 
 
 of the nation in the land where civil revolution 
 had wrought such carnage. 
 
 That he was a warrior, no one will doubt. 
 Brave and fearless, he met opposition without 
 consideration of danger to himself. That he was 
 a general is also evidenced by the fact that he 
 considered well the position of those who opposed 
 him, and, knowing this, was able to meet any at- 
 tack that might be brought against him. 
 
 All this was the result of his thought, study, 
 reading, and experience in the formative period 
 of time just preceding his entrance into the minis- 
 try, as is clearly shown in looking over the limited 
 records that he has left. 
 
 Though desiring to go to the foreign field, Mr. 
 Mills was equally interested in the work of home 
 missions. He made application, and pressed his 
 claim for an appointment as a missionary to the 
 frontier, once to California, and then to Washing- 
 ton, but was hindered in both cases by feeble 
 health, not being considered rugged enough to bear 
 the heavy burdens and privations that would come 
 upon him in that remote field at that period. 
 
 It was in 1868, from the Scioto Conference, 
 held at Westerville, Ohio, that he was sent as 
 assistant pastor to the Palestine Circuit, the Rev. 
 Josiah Montgomery being the senior pastor. We 
 quote from "Our Bishops" a description of his 
 work on this charge: 
 
 "The circuit had eight appointments, on the 
 west side of the Scioto River, from the present 
 town of Galloway on the north to within six miles 
 of Circleville on the south. He was a timid lad, 
 only twenty years of age, having tried to preach 
 
46 HIS MINISTRY 
 
 but three times, among total strangers, one 
 hundred miles from home. All his books and 
 extra clothes he carried in a modern-sized satchel, 
 as he rode from place to place on horse-back. A 
 good brother, Asbury, offered him a pair of saddle- 
 bags, but his bashfulness made him wish not to 
 appear on the highway as a preacher, and he 
 declined the gift. On his first round, he stopped 
 at Rev. George Bowers', one of the old German 
 preachers. In looking over his library he found 
 a book entitled, 'Five Hundred Sketches and 
 Skeletons of Sermons.' It seemed just the book 
 for a young preacher, so he at once purchased it 
 and began to examine its contents. He copied 
 the 'skeleton' on Isaiah 35: 8-10 to deliver at 
 Dennison Chapel. There was a crowded house 
 to hear the young preacher. After the intro- 
 ductory services were over, the long text was 
 announced. The first proposition was read from 
 the sketch lying in the Bible before him. The 
 preacher was dumb, could not think of a word to 
 utter, so the next proposition was read. Still 
 dumb, he read each proposition to the final one; 
 and in about five minutes the task was finished 
 and the preacher was standing there with nothing 
 to say. So he picked up the hymn-book and tossed 
 it to the leader (Henry Bowers), saying, 'Please 
 close the service; I can't preach.' Then the 
 preacher sat down and cried like a baby, humili- 
 ated almost beyond recovery. Service over, he 
 thought to go and find his colleague, resign to 
 him, and return home and never try to preach 
 again. But the people persuaded him, and his 
 fatherly colleague was specially sympathetic, so 
 
HIS MINISTRY 47 
 
 he remained. However, he took that 'sketch- 
 book' back to its former owner, and sold it to 
 him for one-half the price he had paid for it just 
 before, having learned for life the most valuable 
 homiletical lesson known in that art." 
 
 At the end of this year — the first year of his 
 ministry — his health was greatly impaired, and it 
 seemed he would be compelled to give up his 
 chosen work. An indomitable will, a perseverance 
 that knew no defeat, .caused him to return to his 
 father's home and seek a renewal of health. 
 
 The winter of 1869-70 he spent in teaching in 
 the public schools, and, his health continuing 
 to improve, on September 15, 1870, he was 
 received into the annual conference and appointed 
 to the Deaverstown Circuit. The results of his 
 labor on the Deaverstown Circuit showed his 
 ability as a worker among the common people. 
 These rural people flocked to hear him preach the 
 gospel in a simple form, and they were greatly 
 strengthened and benefited by his year of ministra- 
 tions. The year was one, also, of ingathering and 
 strengthening for the church, for Mr. Mills believed 
 in revivals. 
 
 It was during the winter of 1869 and 1870 
 that he was associated with Miss Sarah S. Medsgar 
 as teacher in the public schools and, on July 31, 
 1870, they were united in marriage. Miss Mads- 
 gar was brought up in the same community with 
 Mr. Mills and he had known her from their child- 
 hood. She was an admirable woman, whose ster- 
 ling qualities fitted her for the position she was 
 to assume as the wife of a minister. She was 
 a talented teacher in the public schools, and, as 
 
48 HIS MINISTRY 
 
 such, exerted a strong influence for good in the 
 community. She was a descendant of the "Meds- 
 gar" family, prominently known in Westmoreland 
 County, Pennsylvania. Her uncle. Rev. Joseph 
 Medsgar, was one of the strong leaders in Allegheny 
 Conference of the United Brethren Church. The 
 married life of these people was delightful, but was 
 of very short duration, Mrs. Mills dying August 
 18, 1874. A son and daughter were given them, 
 but the daughter, an infant, preceded her mother 
 to the heavenly land only a few weeks. Mrs. 
 Sarah Medsgar Mills was a woman of extraordinary 
 beauty and splendid natural ability. Her mind 
 was keen, and her brilliant intellect and noble 
 character made her home-going a great loss to the 
 young preacher, who had found her in every way 
 a helper and source of encouragement, and a 
 standby in difficulty. 
 
 At the end of the first year's service, as ren- 
 dered at Deaverstown, Mr. Mills was appointed, 
 by the Scioto Conference, as pastor in the city of 
 Columbus, which charge he served for one year. 
 As this was home missionary work, and our Church 
 was unknown in the city, the task was a very 
 heavy one. At the close of the first year of 
 his work here, he felt the need of greater prep- 
 aration for his life work. In accordance with 
 this conception, he asked for a local relation, and 
 was granted the same by his conference in order 
 that he might pursue a special course of study in 
 New York City. This course of study included 
 such subjects as the "Science of the Human Organ- 
 ism," "Mutual Relations of Body and Mind," 
 "Influences of the Science of the Natural History 
 
HIS MINISTRY 49 
 
 of Man," as well as the "Doctrine of Man in His 
 Relation to God." "Personality" formed one of the 
 strongest elements in the course, and one in which 
 he excelled in his subsequent life. Having the in- 
 tuitions of a scholar, he grasped these great themes 
 quickly and in a most comprehensive manner, be- 
 coming at once a master in this field of thought. It 
 is important to know this fact in connection with 
 his early educational qualifications, in order to 
 understand the keenness of his thinking in later 
 years, when his mind analyzed to the remotest 
 point the relation of man to man, as well as the 
 relation of faculties to faculties in the man. 
 
 On his return from this year of study in New 
 York, he was assigned to the Oak Hill charge, 
 which he served for the year 1873 and 1874. On 
 this charge his work was laborious; he was re- 
 quired to preach three times each Sunday, and, 
 in addition to this, the record shows, he preached 
 every other Saturday night. This was the year 
 of the great panic, known as the "Panic of 1873," 
 when every district in which the iron industry 
 held sway was affected. All over the eastern 
 part of Ohio and the western part of Pennsylvania, 
 soup houses were established in order that the 
 workmen and their families might be protected 
 from starvation. For the year's work, the young 
 preacher received the sum of $135.00, and the peo- 
 ple felt over-taxed even by this gift. To care for 
 his household, he spent some of his time in man- 
 ual labor, working at whatever he could obtain in 
 order to supplement the small salary he was 
 receiving as a minister. During part of this year 
 he taught school, and during this period he held 
 
50 HIS MINISTRY 
 
 a revival and organized a new class of twenty 
 members. Dr. H. A. Thompson, in his "Life of 
 the Bishops," gives the following account of the 
 care which the Lord manifested over him and his 
 family while he was faithfully engaged in his 
 services : 
 
 "As he was starting for the schoolroom, one 
 morning, his wife asked him to bring home some 
 meat, as there was none in the house. He assented 
 and intended to do so, but was so busy with the 
 work of the day that he forgot his meat and came 
 home in the evening without it. When he came in, 
 his wife said, 'That was a nice piece of meat you 
 sent up.' He, thinking she meant thereby to 
 reprove him for his carelessness, said, T forgot all 
 about the meat, but will go and get it at once.' 
 She answered, 'Why, the meat came all right.' 
 More surprised than ever, he replied, 'Surely you 
 are joking.' With a smile she said, 'Come and 
 see.' Sure enough, there was a nice ham, but 
 how it came he could not guess, for he was very 
 sure he had not ordered it. Some six months 
 after this, a man who lived three miles away stated 
 that on that day he was passing the house with a 
 load of meat for the market, and suddenly it 
 occurred to him that he should leave a ham there, 
 which he did. The preacher in charge always 
 regarded it as providential, for he would have been 
 compelled to go in debt had he purchased it at 
 the shop, as he originally intended." 
 
 During the latter part of this year his wife and 
 daughter died, leaving him alone with his son, 
 Walter, a boy of unusual intelligence, and with 
 a future of great promise. 
 
REV. J. S. MILLS, WHEN HE BEGAN HIS PASTORATE 
 AT OTTERBEIN UNIVERSITY 
 
HIS INFLUENCE AS COLLEGE PASTOR 
 
Chapter IV. 
 
 HIS INFLUENCE AS COLLEGE PASTOR 
 
 :N the fall of 1874, Rev. J. S. Mills 
 began his pastorate at Otterbein 
 University, Westerville, Ohio, as 
 university pastor. His ministry at 
 the college was a benediction, from 
 the very first sermon that he deliv- 
 ered, to faculty, students, and citizens of this little 
 Athens of culture and refinement. Likely no man 
 has influenced more of the student body, as a pas- 
 tor, than did Rev. Job S. Mills during the period 
 of his pastorate from 1874 to 1880. It is also true 
 that the institution had beneficial influences on his 
 life as well, for he began to develop mentally as he 
 used the opportunities afforded him by the school. 
 On December 27, 1876, he was united in 
 marriage to Miss Mary Keister, a graduate of 
 Otterbein University. She was the only daughter 
 of Mr. Solomon Keister, of Scottdale, Pa., a sister 
 of the Keister brothers, six of whom, like herself, 
 graduated from the college. Seven from this fam- 
 ily have completed a full college course in the 
 institution. This, in itself, places them high in the 
 scale of intelligence and ability, and, when Mr. 
 Mills won the hand of the cultured and refined 
 daughter of this home, he opened the door of great 
 possibility in the development of his own life as a 
 worker in the kingdom of Jesus Christ, for Mrs. 
 Mills at once became his most earnest coworker 
 
54 COLLEGE PASTOR 
 
 in the work of the kingdom. Quiet and reserved 
 in manner, she was a balance-wheel for him as he 
 went forward with great strides and energy in the 
 work that was given to him to do. Five children 
 blessed this home, four of whom with their mother 
 are still living, the youngest son having died in 
 infancy. Those living are Mr. Alfred Keister 
 Mills, Mrs. Alice R. Rush, Mrs. Ellen W. Clip- 
 pinger and Mrs. A. Lucile Gerberick. 
 
 It has been my privilege to look over the 
 records of the annual conference during the 
 period of Mr. Mills' pastorate at the college. It 
 was also my delight to come under the ministry 
 of this magnificent man when I entered school 
 in the fall of 1879. While this was the last year 
 of his six years' pastorate, it was the crowning 
 year of the service that he rendered to the people, 
 and the records sustain the recollection and 
 memory of the older membership of the church, 
 as they talk with delight of his work. 
 
 A friend writes of his work as college pastor as 
 follows: The preacher preceding him was Rev. 
 E. S. Chapman, an active, energetic, vigorous 
 man, a good preacher. He had lived a number 
 of years in Washington City, where he served as 
 private secretary to Congressman James Ashley 
 and as a Washington newspaper correspondent, 
 this experience giving him a good knowledge of 
 men. Dr. Chapman gave up this pastorate to 
 take up the work of the First United Brethren 
 Church in Dayton. To step into such a vacancy 
 was a hard thing for an uncultured man to do, and 
 especially one like Mr. Mills who had but a limited 
 
COLLEGE PASTOR 55 
 
 experience in the ministry and a more limited 
 knowledge of men and things. 
 
 He was now among strangers who could not 
 enter into his sorrow, caused by the death of his 
 wife only a few months before. True, he had at- 
 tended conference in Westerville some years before, 
 but had learned little or nothing of its people. It 
 is our memory that he was sent here at this time 
 not of his own choice or request, but induced to 
 come by a ministerial friend, of the same confer- 
 ence, who resided here. The older minister thought 
 he saw in the young man a promise of future 
 growth and development. If he should measure 
 up to the new responsibilities which were sure to 
 come upon him, it would prove a great good to him 
 as well as to the local congregation. If he should 
 fail to grasp the situation and become discouraged 
 under the burdens, it would cripple his life for 
 years to come. All men must be tested sooner or 
 later, and this was his testing time. 
 
 He was a little past twenty-six years of age 
 when he began his work as college pastor. His 
 knowledge of books was quite limited, and yet he 
 had always had a desire to acquire knowledge. 
 In his younger years he had written to the president 
 of Otterbein University asking for a catalogue of 
 the institution, and, at the same time, telling of 
 his limited means and his desire for a better educa- 
 tion, and inquiring if there was any way whereby 
 he might labor and defray a part of his expenses. 
 If a kindly letter had been written him opening 
 up the way whereby such an earnest searcher for 
 truth could have found his way to college, how 
 different the outlook on life might have been to 
 
56 COLLEGE PASTOR 
 
 him. The tried boy was disappointed and gave 
 up his efforts to acquire a college education. Do 
 you say he should have redoubled his efforts and 
 pushed forward in the face of discouragements 
 as others have done and have won? Yes, but in 
 the case of these "others" there was usually some 
 wiser one to advise and counsel and encourage, 
 while this boy was blessed with no such helpful 
 surroundings. He now concluded that whatever 
 additional knowledge he should get must be by 
 his own personal, persistent effort. He had, at 
 the time of which we are writing, a good knowledge 
 of the ordinary English branches necessary for 
 teaching school. 
 
 There is no doubt that he had, at least, a 
 reasonable appreciation of the situation con- 
 fronting him. Westerville is a college town, and the 
 people to whom he was now to minister were much 
 above the average in intelligence. In this church 
 are members of the faculty, some older and some 
 younger, who have given years of study to their 
 specialties, and are experts in the teaching that 
 belongs to their respective departments. True, 
 they are sinful men like all others and need a 
 simple gospel, but, to have its due effect on them, 
 the man who brings the divine message must do 
 it with such a knowledge of the human heart, with 
 such versatility of thought and illustration, and 
 with such grace and elegance of diction as will 
 not offend a cultured taste and make the message 
 of no effect. Here also are gathered the young 
 men and women from the best families in the 
 Church. Happy is that pastor who can meet the 
 needs of both these classes, and so guide their re- 
 
COLLEGE PASTOR 51 
 
 ligious life that they may have a mature and 
 steady development, thus fitting them for life's 
 sternest duties; to so win the young people that, 
 ere they leave college, they may find the better 
 way, which shall prevent them from making ship- 
 wreck of their lives, and make them successful in 
 all their work. 
 
 No one can do as much as the college pastor, 
 if he be a man of high ideals, with a good knowl- 
 edge of human nature, and a ready tact, which 
 will help him to say the right word at the right 
 time, and do the right thing at the right place, as 
 he associates with students. 
 
 Mr. Mills went into this work determined to 
 succeed. We had hoped to recount something 
 of the steady growth of the congregation as it 
 would be recorded in the minutes of the official 
 board or quarterly conference. In no other place 
 would this growth likely be recorded. These rec- 
 ords should measure the joys and sorrows, the 
 disappointments and failures of the congregation 
 so far as these things could be made a matter of 
 record. We made application to the official guar- 
 dians of these records, but they could not be 
 found. Mr. Mills kept no diary at any period of 
 his life except while on his trips abroad, so we 
 have no way of judging of his own estimate of the 
 work. When urged to keep a record, he always 
 objected, saying it was very distasteful to him to 
 be writing things about himself, and, besides this, 
 it seemed a great waste of time. The only other 
 method left was to consult the memories of stu- 
 dents who were then in college and came under his 
 ministrations. Also the recollections of the older 
 
58 COLLEGE PASTOR 
 
 people who sat under his preaching, and who are 
 still living. 
 
 Some men write for the church papers and, in 
 their writings, reveal much of their work, their 
 plans, and their ambitions. Mr. Mills never did 
 this. When he wrote articles for the press they 
 touched only the subject matter in hand and were 
 devoid of any personal reference, so it has been 
 difficult to get concrete material covering this 
 eventful period of his life. 
 
 Near the beginning of his pastorate, without 
 consulting any one, he made application to be sent 
 to California. If he had been accepted, he would 
 have resigned his place at Westerville and entered 
 the new work as early as possible. This was all 
 done quietly, but, somehow, information of it came 
 to the older minister to whom reference has else- 
 where been made. He at once made inquiry and 
 concluded it was a case of a discouraged preacher 
 who, for some reason, had conceived the idea that 
 the church did not want him. To have allowed 
 him to go away under such circumstances might 
 have embittered his life and crippled his future 
 usefulness. This minister at once prepared a pa- 
 per protesting in the name of the congregation 
 against his leaving, expressing the confidence of 
 the people in him and in his work and urging him 
 to continue as their pastor. This was unani- 
 mously signed by all the influential members of 
 his congregation. When this was submitted to 
 Mr. Mills, it relieved his mind and he withdrew his 
 application from the missionary board and re- 
 turned to his work with new zeal and new aspira- 
 tions. 
 
COLLEGE PASTOR 59 
 
 The students who remember these early years 
 of his ministry remember him as a great student. 
 No doubt he felt the need of hard study. Dr. 
 T. J. Sanders says: 'T have a vivid picture of him 
 as college pastor. The dominant impression I 
 have of him is as a thinker, a student, a scholar — 
 the typical scholar, pale as the proverbial potato 
 sprout in the cellar. He lived much and intensely 
 with his books, in his study. It was my first 
 conspicuous example of a student preacher. Once 
 he took me into his study 'den' — a square room 
 and in its center a kind of hollow square desk 
 where he sat with books all around him." 
 
 Having failed to get an education at college, 
 he must get it by his own persistent effort. Rev. 
 Dr. Higginson in his "Atlantic Essays" has an 
 able and interesting article entitled, "Shall Women 
 Learn the Alphabet.^" The determination of this 
 question is vital, for, if you concede this privilege 
 to them, there is no other department of knowledge 
 from which they can properly be shut out. This 
 young minister could read, so the treasures of 
 knowledge were all within his reach and he had 
 the pluck and energy to enter in and possess the 
 land. This is the more remarkable in his case, for 
 so many of the country preachers of his day and 
 earlier had been taught to open their mouths 
 (without study) and the Lord would fill them. 
 He had tried this plan in his first sermon and it 
 proved for him a miserable failure. The better 
 way for him was to enter his room, shut the door, 
 and, in the quiet of his own chamber, try to read 
 God's mighty thoughts after him. Night after 
 night, his lamp was lit and he was at work. This 
 
60 COLLEGE PASTOR 
 
 was a good example to all the students. They 
 saw their pastor busily at work seeking to bring 
 to others the best possible message on the following 
 Sabbath, and the lesson of his shining lamp was 
 for them to go and do likewise. 
 
 One of the students still living and in active 
 work says: "I remember the first time I saw Mr. 
 Mills. He was sitting on the platform among a 
 number of college dignitaries. I turned to the 
 student next me and inquired who that distin- 
 guished-looking man was with the scholarly and 
 refined face covered with a black beard. I was 
 informed he was the new college pastor. I was 
 not then a member of the church, but I remember 
 him well. He was a student and a thoughtful man. 
 His sermons were intellectual and appealed to the 
 student body, although his voice and delivery 
 were somewhat disappointing. He was a pro- 
 gressive, up-to-date pastor, intellectually and 
 morally honest. While progressive in his methods 
 and ideas, he was not reckless in his statements. 
 He did not believe in claiming too much, and 
 believed the truth was best conserved by absolute 
 honesty. I always felt that he had a real message 
 to deliver to his congregation. The sermons all 
 bore marks of careful preparation." 
 
 Dr. Sanders says: "As a preacher, he was 
 thoroughly vigorous, but not a fluent speaker. 
 He would have an idea, open his mouth, and then 
 wait for the right word." 
 
 He knew little of the tricks or graces of oratory, 
 yet he was a forceful speaker. He could not with 
 propriety be called an elegant speaker. He had 
 been first a teacher, and this had influenced his 
 
COLLEGE PASTOR 61 
 
 style of speaking. He was plain, simple, and direct. 
 He spoke very deliberately, and at times with 
 hesitation. He would now and then catch his 
 breath as if laboring to find the exact word with 
 which to express his thought. He would at times 
 hold his hand in the air with impressive gesture, 
 while his mind labored to get the most suitable 
 word with which to follow it. He did not always 
 have that vividness of attack which looks his 
 hearer directly in the eye, as much as to say, "Thou 
 art the man," but would raise his eyes a slight 
 distance above their heads. He was not an 
 emotional speaker; his sentences were not ornate, 
 or embellished with literary finish, for he sought 
 not beauty but directness. He did not write his 
 sermons, but thought them through clearly and 
 definitely, took with him a few notes into the 
 pulpit, and then trusted God to help him reach the 
 people. 
 
 One who heard him often, and who was a 
 competent judge says: "His coming was a sort of 
 a new era to us in the matter of preaching. He 
 preached Christ more as a Savior and friend than 
 as an enemy of sinners and an uncompromising 
 and revengeful judge. This appeared both in the 
 sermons he preached and in the hymns he used. 
 One of his favorite hymns contained this stanza, 
 
 'For the love of God is broader than the 
 measure of man's mind 
 
 And the heart of the Eternal is most 
 wonderfully kind.' 
 He seemed to give this a new and broader meaning 
 than any other minister I have ever heard. I 
 hold him in mind as a kind and true friend, a man 
 
62 COLLEGE PASTOR 
 
 of noble physique, lovable and beloved beyond 
 that which is usual to one of his calling, especially 
 to those not of his way of thinking and speaking." 
 
 In his early ministry at Westerville, he found 
 pastoral visiting a difficult thing to do. This in 
 part grew out of his shrinking nature and his lack 
 of experience. In later years, as his experience 
 increased, this bashfulness wore away and his pas- 
 toral work was not so irksome to him. Rev. A. 
 Orr, his presiding elder, who Hved next door to 
 him in Westerville says, "He often insisted on my 
 going with him to make pastoral calls, which I fre- 
 quently did, and I have always remembered how 
 gentlemanly and tender, and how devotional he 
 was on these occasions." The poor and the sick, he 
 always carefully looked after and helped. 
 
 A physician of the town pays him this tribute, 
 which is well deserved: "I considered him a true 
 friend and a model pastor. A few days after begin- 
 ning my professional work here, he came to me and 
 said, 'You will do me a great favor in case you 
 have patients who are members of my church or 
 of no church whatever, if you will inform me of 
 that fact at your earliest opportunity. In many 
 cases, you will learn of these things before I can, 
 and I like to know of these cases as soon as possi- 
 ble.' I always tried to do as he requested, and, 
 in every case, so far as I remember, he called upon 
 those patients. This experience was a unique one 
 in my thirty-two years of practice as a physician. 
 I mean, no other pastor ever made a like request 
 of me," 
 
 A student of that period, now a successful 
 teacher, says, "My impressions of Mr. Mills as a 
 
COLLEGE PASTOR 63 
 
 man are that he was a thorough gentleman; 
 courteous and dignified in bearing; a man who 
 honored his calHng and who was a credit to the 
 ministry and the church." He then adds a httle 
 pleasantry which will be appreciated by those who 
 remember the minister referred to. "There was, 
 as you may recall, a retired minister, an elderly 
 gentleman by the name of John Dorcas, who was a 
 member of the congregation, and a very helpful, 
 attentive, and appreciative listener. The pastor, 
 in completing his sermon, was in the habit of 
 winding up his discourse with the sentence, 'For 
 all of which will Father Dorcas lead us in prayer?' 
 Then we were regaled with a recapitulation of the 
 sermon just presented, in a most graphic, impres- 
 sive manner from the eloquent minister. It always 
 seemed to me the discourse was not complete when 
 Father Dorcas was not present to sum up the 
 points of the sermon." 
 
 Not only was he a pastor efiicient and well 
 beloved by his own membership, but he was in- 
 terested in those who had no church membership. 
 Says the same physician to whom reference has 
 already been made: "I never knew one in his 
 calling who had more friends among those who were 
 not of church, and who, in many cases, did not 
 seem to have much respect for the church. He 
 searched them out and made them feel that he 
 was their friend, and from that class I have heard 
 more expressions of good feeling toward him than 
 for any other one who had occupied the place he 
 was then filling." 
 
 A little town, with the population that 
 Westerville then had, often has family cliques or 
 
64 COLLEGE PASTOR 
 
 political divisions which take pleasure in warring 
 against each other. There are many times in 
 the history of a community when co-operation of 
 all good citizens is needed. Mr. Mills devised a 
 plan whereby this co-operation could be secured. 
 With the president of the university, he organized 
 a society called "The Round Table." The mem- 
 bership was composed of the members of the 
 faculty, all the resident ministers, physicians, law- 
 yers, the superintendent of the public school, and 
 their wives, and such other men and women suit- 
 able to be selected for place in the club. The asso- 
 ciation met in turns at the homes of the members. 
 An essayist was chosen who prepared a fifteen-min- 
 ute paper on the subject selected, and then followed 
 an open discussion. Following this a little time was 
 allowed for social converse. The idea was to get 
 the people of different views together, and if any 
 matter of special interest occurred in the town 
 which would likely produce a division of senti- 
 ment, it could be threshed out here first by these 
 leaders and makers of public opinion. It had the 
 desired effect; for what the majority agreed upon 
 here could be carried out before the general public. 
 The organization lasted a number of years, and did 
 good service. 
 
 The whisky war, which made Westerville fa- 
 mous, occurred in an effort to open a saloon there, 
 in 1875, in opposition to the wish of a large major- 
 ity of the people. This was the second year of Mr. 
 Mills' pastorate. A full account of this fierce con- 
 flict is given in Dr. Henry Garst's "History of 
 Otterbein University," beginning on page fifteen. 
 With Mr. Mills' hatred of the whole whisky 
 
COLLEGE PASTOR 65 
 
 business, and his interest in the protection of the 
 college and the community, he could not keep out 
 of the struggle. He was a princely man, keeping 
 his own counsel, but thoroughly courageous and 
 willing to advise radical measures when they 
 seemed best. When the college building was 
 threatened by "lewd fellows of the baser sort" and 
 had to be guarded, Mr. Mills took his turn with 
 members of the faculty and the students in helping 
 to watch the buildings. The press, subsidized 
 for the most part then as now by the liquor 
 interests, criticized in an unfriendly manner the 
 citizens of the town for the blowing up of the 
 saloon. The council offered a reward of $300 for 
 the arrest of the guilty parties. The citizens in a 
 public meeting increased this by an additional $300. 
 The guilty parties, so far as we know, have never 
 been found. It is our conviction that, had Mr. 
 Mills been so disposed, he could have secured both 
 of these rewards. 
 
 Doctor Garst, in the "History of Otterbein 
 University," page 243, says: "Mr. Chapman was 
 followed by another young man destined to great 
 usefulness and high distinction in the United 
 Brethren Church. It was J. S. Mills who was 
 pastor first for six years from 1874 to 1880, and 
 from 1885 to 1887. It was during the pastorate 
 of Mr. Mills that both the attempts to establish 
 a saloon in Westerville were made, and Mr. Mills 
 bore a full and honorable part in defeating the 
 attempt though he did not share with his co- 
 pastors of the Methodist and Presbyterian churches 
 the distinction of being arrested and prosecuted 
 by the saloon keepers. His pastorate was one of 
 
66 COLLEGE PASTOR 
 
 the most successful, as well as the longest in the 
 church." 
 
 It is our judgment that Mr. Mills could have 
 given Doctor Garst some additional information 
 concerning this saloon war had he been disposed 
 to do so. 
 
 A word or two may not be out of place as to 
 his use of money. He never would have become 
 wealthy from his own saving, for he could not 
 well save in the sense of hoarding money. He was 
 not a spendthrift, but there were so many good 
 causes to which money could be applied. Where 
 ever he saw hunger, poverty or suffering, he wanted 
 to relieve it, and if there was any money in his 
 pocket, it soon got out. He was a very generous 
 giver. He inherited this disposition from his 
 mother. The first year he was in Westerville his 
 salary was $800. This was so much more that he 
 had ever received that he selected a personal 
 friend to be a treasurer for him to help him keep 
 his money until he could use it. A minister, a 
 member of the congregation to which Mr. Mills 
 preached, had a very large family, and, during the 
 panic, they were in very shortened circumstances. 
 When Mr. Mills heard of it, he at once went to 
 their relief. He delighted to drop a little money 
 into the hands of the poor. Hundreds of students 
 will remember a good old lady, "Aunty Price," 
 a very devoted friend of the church, who, in her 
 later life, was at times in need of help. Mr. Mills 
 had known her from the beginning of his pastorate. 
 Even when back to visit in the town, he would 
 hunt her up and leave a little money for her use. 
 She would say after his visits, "There are other 
 
COLLEGE PASTOR 67 
 
 ravens in the world besides those Elijah saw, and 
 they are not black either." Liberality was a pre- 
 vailing trait of his character to the day of his death. 
 In 1880, he was elected presiding elder of 
 his conference, which position he held for three and 
 a half years. Being a man of strong impulse to 
 organization, he at once set about to effect a new 
 condition of things from that which had obtained 
 under the old presiding eldership as known in 
 the Church. Presiding Elder Mills was not only 
 a man who held great meetings, but was concerned 
 about the organic life of the churches, and, as 
 presiding elder, inquired closely into the work of 
 each charge, bringing a system much in advance of 
 the times to many of the congregations that were 
 willing to adopt the new order of things. He was 
 an exceptional presiding elder in this particular. 
 It was hard for him to think in any routine course. 
 The rut was not the place in which he liked to run. 
 It was his deHght to break down old methods that 
 had become stale and ineffective, and establish 
 new methods, which, in themselves, would produce 
 results, and which, if used, would bring new vigor 
 and strength to the organization. I have been 
 told, by men who labored under him as their 
 presiding elder, that sometimes he was severe 
 in his criticism of the methods used, and would 
 subject the pastor to a strong reprimand for 
 neglect of certain things requisite to success in 
 the handling of a charge. While he was sym- 
 pathetic in his treatment of his pastors, he was, 
 nevertheless, candid and sincere in urging them 
 to the fullest possible success of which they were 
 capable. 
 
68 COLLEGE PASTOR 
 
 He resigned his position as presiding elder 
 to assume what seemed to him a more important 
 station, the pastorate of the church at Gahon, 
 Ohio, in 1884, reahzing that the work he was 
 doing as presiding elder was not as great as that 
 which he could do as pastor of this good and strong 
 church. With no thought of holding a position 
 of authority or power, he resigned this place 
 to assume what, in the mind of many, would have 
 been considered a subordinate one, but which, in 
 his own mind, was the highest position that any one 
 could hold in the world or in the kingdom of Jesus 
 Christ; namely, the pastorate of a church. In 
 the life of Bishop Mills this fact should be em- 
 phasized, as it is the disposition of many men to- 
 day to seek general positions instead of holding 
 fast to the pastorate, which, as a matter of fact, 
 is the strongest position one can occupy. 
 
 Coming back to the pastorate of Otterbein 
 University in 1885 and serving for two years he 
 closed his work as a pastor. From that time for- 
 ward until the time of his death he occupied the 
 position of college professor, college president, and 
 bishop. It would be useless for me to seek to por- 
 tray the magnificent work done in these years of 
 toil as Mr. Mills dealt with the people as their spir- 
 itual adviser. College boys and girls of great num- 
 ber are ready to proclaim him as their friend, their 
 associate, their inspiration, their protector, and 
 their guide during the period of their sojourn in 
 the school days at Otterbein. Much could be 
 said about his relation to the student body. By 
 nature and by cultivation, he himself was a 
 student and had the student heart and spirit, 
 
COLLEGE PASTOR 69 
 
 and, as such, was capable of entering into the joys 
 and disappointments of the student hfe. It was 
 no uncommon thing for this preacher-pastor of 
 the college to find boys engaged in college pranks 
 and talk with them about their doings, some 
 innocent and others not so innocent; but, in each 
 case, he, with a wisdom that was exceptional, 
 held the boys, seeking in every way to develop 
 them into noble manhood, and prepare them, by 
 their associations in school, and their relations 
 to the church for the work of life, whether that 
 be in the ministry or business vocations. Once 
 I heard him say that he believed he had been in- 
 strumental in turning the current in the life of a 
 very bad boy in school — one who had completely 
 disgusted his teachers, and whom the president of 
 the school was about ready to advise to go home. 
 By his strong and helpful influence over that life, 
 he was enabled to see that young man enter the 
 Christian ministry, and become one of the strong- 
 est workers in the vineyard of Jesus Christ. In 
 no case did he lose the respect and esteem of the 
 students by betrayal of them, or by severe criti- 
 cism, but rather held them to that which was pure 
 and good, thus becoming a controlling power in 
 the personal conduct and life of the student body. 
 This second term as college pastor lasted two 
 years, beginning in 1885 and ending in 1887. 
 Doubtless this pastorate would have continued 
 for many years had he not been called to accept a 
 position in Western College. He assumed this 
 position at the opening of the school year in 
 September. 
 
EPISCOPAL VISITS TO THE MISSION 
 FIELDS AND FOREIGN TRAVEL. 
 
Chapter V. 
 
 EPISCOPAL VISITS TO THE MISSION 
 FIELDS AND FOREIGN TRAVEL. 
 
 IN AFRICA. 
 
 ^T the request of The Home, Fron- 
 tier, and Foreign Missionary Soci- 
 ety, Bishop J. S. Mills made his 
 first missionary journey to Sierra 
 Leone, West Africa, in the years 
 1896-97. 
 
 He sailed from New York, October 10, 1896, 
 on the steamship Lucania, reached Liverpool, 
 October 17, and left there within three hours, on 
 the steamship Angola, for Freetown, West Africa. 
 The Grand Canaries were reached on October 
 24, and he remained there until the twenty-sixth, 
 reaching Freetown on the afternoon of November 
 1, 1896, which was Sunday. He was met by Dr. 
 and Mrs. J. R. King, of Shenge, and Rev. and 
 Mrs. L. A. McGrew, of Rotifunk, with whom he 
 went ashore at once. He took up his residence 
 in the mission house rented by our missionaries 
 from Mrs. Caulker. 
 
 On Wednesday, the fourth of November, he 
 laid the cornerstone of the sanitarium on Mt. 
 Leicester, four and a half miles above Freetown. 
 He was assisted in the ceremony by the United 
 States Consul, Hon. Robert P. Pooley, the Rev. 
 Mr. Maude, superintendent of the Wesleyan 
 
74 EPISCOPAL VISITS 
 
 missions, and the six missionaries — Dr. and Mrs. 
 John R. King, Rev. and Mrs. L. A. McGrew, and 
 Rev. and Mrs. F. S. Minshall. He took as his 
 text on this occasion the following words: "Come 
 ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest 
 a while." "And he took Peter, James and John 
 into a mountain to pray." 
 
 It would be interesting to produce the outline 
 of that address, as he traced the events in the 
 private life of Jesus with their lessons: the thirty 
 years at Nazareth; the forty days in the wilderness; 
 the retirement sometimes for physical rest, and 
 the retirement for social recreation; concluding 
 with a description of the retirement to the Mount 
 of Transfiguration for glorious visions and reve- 
 lations. 
 
 On that same evening he received news of 
 the election of William McKinley, President of 
 the United States. 
 
 In looking over his diary, we find that he 
 visited Governor Cardew and Cannon Taylor 
 Smith. He also visited the Fourah Bay College, 
 and examined in detail the work of this excellent 
 school. He describes the teachers as being very 
 courteous in their treatment of him, and very help- 
 ful in giving information. 
 
 On November 11, he left by boat, at 11:00 
 P. M., for Shenge, our oldest mission station, 
 reaching there on the thirteenth. Here he was 
 met by Rev. A. T. Howard and wife and Miss 
 Minnie Eaton; many natives also came to the 
 landing to welcome him. He visited and inspected 
 all the buildings and grounds. Bishop Mills, in 
 his visits to Africa, gave close attention to every 
 
EPISCOPAL VISITS 75 
 
 detail pertaining to our work. He preached twice 
 on the following Sunday, morning and evening; 
 and on the sixteenth left by boat for Rotifunk, 
 reaching there on the morning of the seventeenth. 
 On the eighteenth he visited Palli and Bompeh 
 and spoke at these missions. This running de- 
 scription is given to show with what minute detail 
 Bishop Mills entered into the work of the mission 
 field; and no one can read his record of that trip 
 without realizing that he gave to it his very best 
 thought and attention. 
 
 Writing in his diary on January 29, 1897, he 
 says: "Arrived in Freetown. Took the fever 
 about one hour before reaching town." On the 
 thirteenth he says, "At Mt. Leicester resting. 
 Fever continues." On February 1: "Came back 
 to Freetown. Missionary conference in the even- 
 ing at Anna Walsh school-building." In writing of 
 this conference, he says: "All except the C. M. S. 
 wanted to recognize certain lines or fields of work 
 for each body; but the C. M. S. General Secretary 
 declined in a way that showed much bigotry. It 
 was a mistake that he was made chairman, as he 
 was very arbitrary in his method. Cannon Taylor 
 Smith, now Bishop-elect, made a fine impression 
 of liberality on me, but this secretary produced 
 the opposite effect." 
 
 On February 2, after three strenuous months, 
 Bishop Mills left Freetown on the steamship Daho- 
 may. The Bishop carried with him the African fever, 
 from which he never fully recovered. He reached 
 Liverpool on February 22. He says in reference 
 to the trip: "Reached Liverpool after a long but 
 
76 EPISCOPAL VISITS 
 
 pleasant voyage. Good weather all the way. 
 Nothing of special note except the surprising 
 amount of liquor Englishmen can drink without 
 getting drunk. It seems to be natural with them." 
 Of himself he says, "I have put in the time studying 
 German and French, eating, and sleeping." 
 
 After arriving at Liverpool, Bishop Mills 
 decided to spend a little time in side trips on his 
 way to Germany, where he would visit the missions 
 we then had in the German Empire. In looking 
 through his record, I find that he reached London 
 February 23. He gives a description of the 
 beautiful country, of the yards and parks and 
 fields that impressed him as very interesting and 
 delightful. He speaks of the most interesting 
 thing to him as being the place where Wallace was 
 imprisoned and died. "The old ax and block used 
 in the death of many noble souls, are still shown." 
 
 In the British Museum, the place of special 
 interest to him was the library and reading room 
 or consulting room, where is found the Alexandrian 
 Codex of the Bible. His student mind made this 
 place a Mecca for him. 
 
 In writing of Westminster Abbey, which he 
 visited on February 25, he speaks of the Poets' 
 Corner and the special chapel containing the 
 royal remains and monuments being of chief in- 
 terest. He says, "Here lie the good and the great 
 of England's past history." 
 
 He reached Berlin on the evening of February 
 26, and the following day was met by Rev. H. 
 Barkemyer. They stopped with the Rev. Mr. 
 Eichmiler, where the Bishop was taken ill with 
 African fever and the doctor was called. On 
 
EPISCOPAL VISITS 77 
 
 February 28 he delivered his first lecture on Africa, 
 Rev. Mr. Barkemyer being the interpreter for 
 him. It is interesting to note this personal refer- 
 ence, in writing of that day: "This is my birth- 
 day, though no one here knows it. It will be 
 remembered at home." 
 
 He visited every station in our German work, 
 and gives a vivid description of the property and 
 people as he went from place to place. He was 
 especially strong in his ability to get an inside view 
 of the work of each station. 
 
 On March 4, he came back to Berlin and 
 visited the university and the museums, and on 
 March 8, he was at Dresden, and visited the art 
 galleries and museum. From Dresden he went to 
 Leipsic, where he spent some time in the university 
 and other places of interest. Later on, he spent 
 some time at Weimar, attending a ministerial 
 association meeting. He gives interesting de- 
 scriptions of the museums and monuments which 
 he saw throughout Europe. Few travelers could 
 gather is so short a time such full notes as he has 
 in his diary of this trip. 
 
 On March 11, he met the German Conference 
 and presided over this body. He refers to the 
 good spirit found in the conference. He complains, 
 in his notes, of the church being kept so cold that 
 the vapor of one's breath could always be seen in 
 the air. He says: "I expressed a doubt as to the 
 wisdom of such a cold room, but the chairman 
 thought he liked it, yet I noticed he kept his over- 
 coat on. However, the cough and sneeze heard 
 convinced me of the unwisdom of such cold 
 churches. The reports and discussions made a 
 
78 EPISCOPAL VISITS 
 
 favorable impression on me, only I have a vague 
 fear of the future of the work. Two or three men 
 control the conference and have parceled out the 
 lion's share of money and honors, etc., to them- 
 selves. This will give trouble in the future. The 
 preachers are too conservative in methods to 
 succeed well in America. Maybe they can get on 
 in Germany. The work should have been more 
 concentrated, not separated over so wide a field. 
 The brethren made me a fine present of a case of 
 photos of Goethe and Schiller memorials." 
 
 Speaking of the Sunday, he said, "I preached 
 in the morning and lectured on Africa in the 
 evening." 
 
 On March 15, he tells of being in Berlin, where 
 he saw the Emperor and Empress ride down 
 "Unter den Linden" in an open carriage. 
 
 After leaving Berlin, he visited London; and 
 from there went to Cambridge University, then to 
 Oxford. Having studied these two great schools 
 of England, for a number of days, he left for 
 Liverpool, and sailed for home on the steamship 
 Umbria, March 19, 1897, landing in New York 
 City at 9:00 A.M. March 28, and reaching his 
 home March 30, after nearly six months' absence. 
 
 He closed his description with these beautiful 
 words, "God's providence has been over us all 
 for good, to whom be glory and honor forever." 
 
EPISCOPAL VISITS 79 
 
 NOTES AND INCIDENTS OF THE VISITS 
 
 OF BISHOP MILLS TO AFRICA 
 
 By Rev. J. R. King, D.D. 
 
 Superintendent of Missions, West Coast, Africa 
 
 The First Visit 
 
 November and December, 1896, and January, 
 1897, three months, were spent by Bishop Mills 
 in this visitation — the longest time spent in 
 Africa by any bishop except Bishop Flickinger, 
 who was solely a foreign Bishop. 
 
 The first work of Bishop Mills on landing 
 was the laying of the cornerstone of Bethany 
 Cottage, at Mt. Leicester. He suggested that 
 name because Jesus had found such rest and quiet 
 in the "Bethany Home" of Mary, Martha, and 
 Lazarus. His address on the occasion was beau- 
 tiful, based on the text, "Come ye apart and rest 
 awhile." The first station he visited was Shenge, 
 where he spent a Sabbath and looked into the work 
 of the Rufus Clark and Wife Training School. 
 From there he went to Rotifunk, and from this 
 place as a center, visited all the stations at the 
 time under the Woman's Missionary Association — 
 Bompeh, Palli, and Rokon. 
 
 At Rotifunk he proved a great blessing to 
 the missionaries; for he found them greatly dis- 
 couraged over the possibility of losing some of 
 their best native workers, owing to a salary scale 
 to which they felt they could not submit. His 
 influence upon the native workers was helpful, 
 and his counsel to the missionaries practical. 
 
 At this place the trip to the interior was 
 organized. The party consisted of himself, Rev. 
 
80 EPISCOPAL VISITS 
 
 and Mrs. McGrew, Miss Cronise, and J. R. King, 
 with nearly forty carriers, and George Keister as 
 interpreter. The tour was made primarily for 
 investigation of the most suitable places for 
 locating future mission stations, and we had with 
 us letters of introduction to the important chiefs 
 from the Secretary of Native Affairs of the colony 
 and protectorate. We visited first Senehu, at 
 that time the home of Madam Yoko, the strongest 
 chief of the Mendi Country. Other important 
 towns visited were Yoyema, Moyamba, Kwellu, 
 Taiama, Gonduma, Mongherri, Dodo, Panguma, 
 and Lailehun. 
 
 While the trip was primarily for new stations, 
 it was no less evangelistic. A magic lantern was 
 carried, and, at the stops for the night, we preached 
 to large audiences, and at the halt for the noon-day 
 meal a good service was held. 
 
 Into all this work the Bishop entered most 
 enthusiastically. He often referred during this 
 visit to his offering to come as a missionary when 
 he was a young man and his rejection by the board. 
 Many of these people were hearing the gospel for 
 the first time, and he took up the work with the 
 zeal of a young missionary. It had been his 
 ambition to reach Kanre Lahun on the eastern 
 frontier of the protectorate. We made forced 
 marches, for our time was limited; at times march- 
 ing as much as nine or ten hours in the day. When 
 we reached Panguma we were still three daj^s or 
 over from Kanre Lahun, and the English officer 
 in charge would not allow us to proceed, for there 
 had been a tribal war in that district just a short 
 time before and a punitive expedition had just 
 
EPISCOPAL VISITS 81 
 
 returned with stores of old guns and swords that 
 they had captured. We proceeded as far as 
 Elailehun, a half day east of Panguma, and then 
 spent the Sunday at Panguma, where we were the 
 guests of the officer in charge, Captain Cave- 
 Brown-Cave. He was of a genial disposition and 
 was very much pleased with the Bishop. At this 
 place the Bishop shot a "bush fowl," very similar 
 to the pheasant, at a long range, and the captain 
 was so excited that he forgot himself, for the time 
 being, and used profane language in his exclama- 
 tion, much to his own embarrassment when he 
 realized what he had done. 
 
 The captain greatly admired the Bishop's 
 insight into character and heredity. He told the 
 captain that his father was probably a clergyman, 
 which was true. 
 
 At that time we had not the facility for 
 traveling that we now have, and we took conditions 
 pretty much as we found them. We depended 
 largely upon native food, which was practically 
 confined to rice and an occasional chicken. 
 
 On our return trip, the party separated at 
 Kunduma, Rev. and Mrs. McGrew and Miss 
 Cronise going direct to Rotifunk, and the Bishop 
 and myself going by way of Damballa, Mano, 
 G'Bambaiah and Avery Station at Bonthe, 
 Sherbro. At Damballa the chief gave us a goat 
 and a large amount of rice, and the Bishop greatly 
 enjoyed the change of food. Especially did he 
 enjoy the oranges that we found at this place. 
 He thought they were the best that he had ever 
 eaten. He later advised me to try to get some of 
 them to plant at our mission stations, because they 
 
82 EPISCOPAL VISITS 
 
 were extra fine. On subsequent visits to this 
 place I have sampled them and found they were 
 no better than many others I have found in the 
 country. We had been so long on one kind of food 
 and had not been able to find oranges on the trip, 
 that he thought them of superior quality. 
 
 On this return journey the Bishop developed 
 a slight touch of dysentery, probably due to the 
 water we had to drink, and the eating of wild 
 fruit of a very acid nature, known as chinchi. 
 The carriers, however, attributed his illness to 
 his having touched a fetish that was suspended 
 from a kola tree to prevent the nuts being stolen. 
 The natives were sure this was the cause of his 
 sickness, and reproached him for not observing 
 their views. 
 
 The trip was full of delays and annoyances. 
 At times the carriers thought he was too heavy, 
 although we had an extra set of men for him, in 
 order to give them a chance to change off. This 
 complaint was probably due, as it is in most cases 
 of such sort of complaint, to their finding him very 
 kind and sympathetic, and wishing to take ad- 
 vantage of it. They thought they could obtain 
 extra pay from him by this method. 
 
 We reached Mano on the return trip late in the 
 evening, and wanted to leave the next morning, 
 as soon as we could have an interview with the 
 chief with reference to opening a station there. 
 When we were ready to start, several of our men 
 could not be found. It was a trick to keep us 
 back so that we would spend the Sunday there. 
 We could not gratify their wish in this, and started 
 
EPISCOPAL VISITS 83 
 
 on the way and spent Sunday in a small dirty 
 village about three hours' walk from Mano. 
 
 On Monday evening, a little after dark, we 
 reached G'Bambaiah after a march of nearly 
 thirty-five miles. The Bishop was still weak from 
 his illness, and had used both his carriers and mine 
 to enable us to get on without his having to walk 
 so much. 
 
 At G'Bambaiah we stopped with Rev. D. F. 
 Wilberforce and family, and it was the first time 
 we had slept in a proper bed for over three weeks. 
 I shall never forget how he enjoyed the good, soft, 
 clean bed. 
 
 On this trip, he manifested his remarkable 
 powers for observation. He mentions in his book 
 on Africa, the discovery of a falls that he named 
 Lucile, in honor of his youngest daughter. He was 
 the only one of the party whose keen ear had caught 
 the sound of the waterfall. He was constantly 
 picking up bits of information both in the folklore 
 of the people and the flora and fauna of the country. 
 
 The names* he would give to mountain peaks 
 and waterfalls revealed to us how much his family 
 was in his mind, although he seemed to be so 
 perfectly given up to a study of his surroundings. 
 
 Reaching Bonthe just before the time for the 
 meeting of the conference, he officiated at the 
 wedding of Mr. and Mrs. Anthony. Mrs. Anthony 
 was a Roman Catholic, and at the last yielded to 
 the plan of the priest to be married by them in 
 their church. The Bishop, with the rest of the 
 missionaries, attended the marriage at the Roman 
 Church, and then headed the procession to our 
 
 ♦These names will be found in his book "Africa." 
 
84 EPISCOPAL VISITS 
 
 church, where he proceeded to perform the cere- 
 mony according to our rites. That Mr. and Mrs. 
 Anthony appreciated this, was evident from the 
 fact that they called their first son, Job Mills 
 Anthony. 
 
 In addition to holding the conference, he 
 lectured on the subject, "Will Power in the Battle 
 of Life." The lecture was so much appreciated 
 that a number of persons requested him to repeat 
 it in Freetown when he returned on his home 
 journey, which he did. 
 
 After the conference, he undertook not only 
 to visit the remaining stations which were open 
 at that time, but he insisted on visiting the sites 
 of abandoned stations, and wherever we had any 
 title to lands. He wanted to see all. This necessi- 
 tated a visit to the Cockboro River and its trib- 
 utaries. In attempting to reach Rembe, one of 
 the unoccupied stations, we were misled as to the 
 distance we had to walk overland. Leaving the 
 boat at a town called Marthyn, we started for 
 Rembe, which we were led to believe could be 
 reached by a half hour's walk. We finally reached 
 the place after two hours of most laborious 
 walking, a good part of the way through soft 
 sand. He was too tired to preach to the people 
 when we arrived, and rested while I talked to 
 them. We were obliged to return, although it 
 was then dark, for our food and bedding were in 
 the boat. After resting awhile, we started back; 
 but it was necessary for him to rest several times 
 on the way. On reaching the boat, he was too 
 tired to eat. We slept in the boat out in the 
 river and, although we were under an awning, 
 
EPISCOPAL VISITS 85 
 
 in the morning we were quite wet from the damp- 
 ness of the air. 
 
 We next visited some unoccupied stations 
 on the Tucker River and its principal branch, the 
 Pah River. After ascending the latter river, we 
 were obliged to send the boat back to take some 
 missionaries to Shenge. We undertook to reach 
 ».ur destination by road along the river, which 
 proved to be very swampy, and the two men that 
 we had taken along to carry him through these 
 swampy places found it difficult to do so. Just 
 before we reached the town, we came to a long 
 swamp, probably a quarter of a mile long. They 
 attempted to carry him in the hammock and suc- 
 ceeded very well till they got into mud above their 
 knees, and had some short turns to make around 
 the trees. Then they stuck fast, and he had to 
 climb on to the low spreading mangrove trees 
 and swing himself from one to another, thus 
 reaching the river. In the meantime, I had secured 
 a broken dug-out canoe and got him into it and 
 sent him across the stream. I noticed him lying 
 on the bank while the canoe was returning for me, 
 and found, on reaching him, that he had almost 
 fainted from weakness. 
 
 The chief's head wife had died a short time 
 before this, and the Bundoo Society (a female 
 secret organization) was doing her the honor of 
 nightly dances. This they did through the whole 
 night we were there. The Bishop had been hav- 
 ing fever of a low type and this added greatly to 
 his discomfort. 
 
 On going to the Tucker River, we stopped on 
 our way and settled a dispute between a native 
 
86 EPISCOPAL VISITS 
 
 pastor and his principal member, so that the way- 
 might be clear to put some finishing touches on 
 a native chapel, and have it dedicated on our 
 return. The Bishop dedicated this church as we 
 came back. We reached Otterbein station on 
 Saturday, a little after twelve o'clock, after a 
 wearisome march. Shortly after arriving, we 
 heard that a strange sea animal had been caught 
 at a town a mile and a half away. Weary as he 
 was, and under a noon-day tropical sun, yet he 
 could not be persuaded not to go to see it. 
 
 The dedication above referred to, took place 
 January 24, 1897. 
 
 He had now visited all the stations occupied 
 or unoccupied, and shortly afterward we went to 
 Freetown on his return trip. In Freetown, he 
 assisted in arranging an interdenominational con- 
 ference of the heads of the different missions and 
 participated in the discussions. This conference 
 was continued yearly for several years afterwards. 
 The last month of his stay, he was in the grip of 
 a low malarial fever, and all the missionaries 
 breathed easier when they knew he was in a 
 healthier climate. 
 
 The Second Visit 
 
 He arrived on his second visit a few days 
 before Thanksgiving, 1903. At this time, the 
 mission had headquarters in Freetown, and he 
 soon ingratiated himself into the esteem of those 
 he met here, at a reception given in his honor, and 
 also in the homes of church and state, where he 
 was invited with open-hearted colonial hospitality. 
 
EPISCOPAL VISITS 87 
 
 A more limited itinerary was planned for this 
 trip than the former one. On November 29, 1903, 
 he dedicated our chapel at Mano, and the next 
 day visited Taiama. Then we returned to the 
 railway, and from Rotifunk took a boat journey to 
 Shenge, Otterbein, Daymah, and Bonthe. While 
 at Bonthe, we heard of the death of Mrs. Riebel. 
 She had then been buried three days when the 
 news reached us. He was greatly grieved that he 
 could not have been present to comfort and help 
 in this time of sore bereavement. His visit came 
 at a time of much sickness in the mission. In 
 addition to Mrs. Riebel's fatal illness, Mr. Riebel 
 himself was having frequent fevers, Mrs. Snyder 
 had to be sent away to the Canary Islands, owing 
 to a breakdown, and Mr. Snyder was too ill to 
 accompany her. Shortly after this, Miss Murrel 
 was sent home after a severe attack of black-water 
 fever. It is needless to say that his counsel and 
 sympathy were of incalculable help to the mission 
 at this time. 
 
 From Bonthe, we went up the Bargru River 
 and its tributaries, visiting the Mo Banta station 
 and the one at Sembehu. Then came an overland 
 journey to Moyamba, where the church was re- 
 opened and new windows and carpet dedicated. 
 We arrived in Freetown just a few days before 
 Christmas, but the malaria had already made 
 itself felt and he had a fever. He was sufficiently 
 well to attend a dinner on Christmas Day at the 
 home of the Bishop of Sierra Leone, and the next 
 day start for Rotifunk, where the conference was 
 to be held. The conference was in session from 
 December 26, 1903, to January 3, 1904. He held 
 
88 EPISCOPAL VISITS 
 
 a most helpful Bible conference and assisted each 
 night in the evangelistic services. His remarkable 
 energy and application were shown in that, not- 
 withstanding all this work, he read a new book on 
 theology during this week. At the close of the 
 conference, missionaries and native pastors alike 
 said that it was the most helpful one they had yet 
 attended. 
 
 While on this visit he did not travel as much 
 as on the former one, his work was equally helpful 
 to the mission, for this was just before the estab- 
 lishing of a church in Freetown, and a school for 
 the training of workers was also under consider- 
 ation. His advice and vision were very helpful 
 in planning for these agencies and since estab- 
 lished they will continue to benefit from his help 
 given in days before they came into being. 
 
 A Personal Word 
 
 I wish to add a personal word of appreciation, 
 and yet language would fail me utterly in ex- 
 pressing the high regard in which I held Bishop 
 Mills. In the whole of his two visits, there were 
 not two weeks that I was not with him. I walked 
 with him under a blazing sun, through sands and 
 over mountains, I traveled up and down the tidal 
 rivers and on the open sea in small boats. At the 
 home of the bishop or governor, or sleeping in a 
 rude hut or open boat, or stooping over the small 
 box that contained our food, I found him always 
 the same dignified gentleman, considerate for 
 others, keen for information, and willing to impart 
 help. 
 
EPISCOPAL VISITS 89 
 
 A question would always reveal the fact that 
 his master mind was constantly working upon some 
 problem. He fulfilled faithfully the special mission 
 upon which he came to Africa, but he saw farther 
 and deeper than the routine of the work; for while 
 he worked faithfully for the church of his choice, 
 he had a vision wider than its pales. His large 
 soul knew no limit less than the entire race. I 
 think this explained his deep interest in the 
 question of church union. I remember one night 
 at the interior town of Mano, we were looking for 
 the "southern cross," and talking of the prospects 
 for union between the three denominations at that 
 time contemplated. He told of his plan for union 
 in creed and polity, and said that he had, upon 
 request, left his plan before sailing, lest he might 
 not return. Then he turned to me and said, 'T 
 would rather never return to my home and coun- 
 try than to have this movement fail, for I see so 
 much in it for the advancement of the kingdom of 
 God." 
 
 Personally, his life has been a great inspiration 
 to me. Had I been true to all the impulses for 
 study and research that association with him has 
 produced, I would be a much stronger and more 
 efficient servant of the Church to-day than I am. 
 Yet, as I look backward, I can see places where 
 the current of his helpful life has caught my little 
 bark and carried it to a point it otherwise would 
 not have attained. What I say for myself, I say 
 for all the missionaries who came under his direct 
 influence in Africa. 
 
90 EPISCOPAL VISITS 
 
 IN PORTO RICO. 
 
 By Alfred Keister Mills. 
 
 Mr. Mills accompanied his father on this visitation. 
 
 First Visit, October — November, 1902. 
 
 Our work in Porto Rico was started soon after 
 the occupation of the island by the United States, 
 during the Spanish-American War. In the section 
 of the island allotted the United Brethren Church 
 in which to work — the section comprising the dis- 
 tricts of Yauco, Guayanilla, Penuelas, Ponce, and 
 Juana Diaz — the work had gone forward steadily 
 under the leadership of Rev. N. H. Huffman and 
 Rev. Philo W. Drury. In the beginning the mis- 
 sionaries had rented halls in which to hold their 
 school and church services; but the advancement 
 in numbers and influence had warranted the build- 
 ing of an excellent church at Ponce, in the summer 
 of 1902. 
 
 As no bishop of the Church had visited the 
 island, it was strongly urged that one be sent to 
 dedicate the new church, and to look over the field 
 with a view to extension of work. It was felt that 
 such a visit by a bishop would encourage the mis- 
 sionaries in the field, add prestige to the work, and 
 put the home church in possession of facts leading 
 to increased interest in missionary endeavor in 
 Porto Rico. 
 
 It was decided that Bishop Mills should make 
 such a visitation, and November 2, 1902, was set 
 as the date for the dedication of the new church. 
 
 Bishop Mills, accompanied by Bishop W. M. 
 Bell, then missionary secretary, and myself, sailed 
 
EPISCOPAL VISITS 91 
 
 from New York the last of October, and reached 
 San Juan in the course of a week. From San 
 Juan they drove across the island of Porto Rico, 
 by the famous military road to Ponce. 
 
 A very amusing thing happened on the road 
 to Ponce. The drive had taken from daybreak 
 until dark. As they were nearing Ponce, night 
 had already fallen, and a tropical storm was coming 
 up. As they were fording a shallow river, the 
 horses stopped in the middle of the stream, and 
 the Spanish driver, in his excitement, excited the 
 horses, with the result that the tugs of the harness 
 were broken and the party stranded in the middle 
 of the stream. Bishop Mills promptly took off his 
 shoes, and jumped from the carriage into the river, 
 to assist. Bishop Bell, a man of portly frame, sit- 
 ting in the same seat, took his shoes off to do the 
 same, and, in his movements in the narrow confines 
 of the carriage, knocked one of Bishop Mills' shoes 
 into the river. The scrambling of those two large 
 men after one drifting shoe, was most laughable. 
 Those shoes were the only ones Bishop Mills had 
 with him, the time was Saturday night, and a dedi- 
 cation awaited him on Sabbath morning. But all 
 ended well; the shoe was recovered, the carriage 
 was pulled from the sands, and the journey re- 
 sumed. With both men in the rear seat of the 
 carriage the space was too small to allow Bishop 
 Bell to put on his shoes, and most of the way to 
 Ponce, he lamented bitterly his inability to appear 
 in fitting attire in the city that evening. 
 
 The next day, Sunday, November 2, 1902, the 
 Ponce United Brethren church was dedicated to 
 
92 EPISCOPAL VISITS 
 
 Protestantism and to God, in that center of Roman 
 Catholic influence. The church was filled with 
 people, many Americans being present, besides a 
 large native congregation. 
 
 There followed two weeks filled with visits 
 to all the mission stations in the surrounding ter- 
 ritory. Bishop Mills was never satisfied, on a trip 
 of inspection, unless he actually inspected all the 
 places where missions had been established or 
 were contemplated. So it made little difference 
 to him as to weather or means of travel. He was 
 there to see the work, and see it he did, before he 
 would leave for the homeland to report. 
 
 As he went from mission station to mission 
 station and met the native leaders, he would say 
 again and again, "If I were a young man, I would 
 be a missionary." 
 
 The work in Porto Rico impressed him greatly, 
 and during the remainder of his life it kept his 
 deepest interest. 
 
 In the winter of 1906 he and Mrs. Mills went 
 down to Porto Rico again and during that visit 
 he inspected all the work and the new mission 
 stations, and held the Porto Rico conference. 
 This was his last visit to the Porto Rico mission 
 field. 
 
 In The Orient 
 
 He left home for the Orient in October, 1907, 
 arriving at Honolulu, October 6; Yokohama, 
 Japan, November 17; Shanghai, China, November 
 26. Then he proceeded up the river to Hankow, 
 
EPISCOPAL VISITS 93 
 
 and then to Peking, December 8, and Canton, 
 December 15. Here he spent about one month. 
 He arrived at Manila, Phihppine Islands, January 
 14; left the Philippines, March 1, and arrived in 
 Tokyo, March 18; left Tokyo May 1, 1908, and 
 arrived in Dayton, Ohio, June 1, 1908. 
 
 This general view of his great missionary 
 journey made in the Orient is given in order that 
 the reader may understand something of the dis- 
 tances covered by this globe traveler. Bishop 
 Mills always wanted to share the trials of the mis- 
 sionaries' life, and, on this account he was always 
 seeking to reach the remote places and stations, 
 even though it meant hardship and danger to him. 
 
 When he left home for this extended and last 
 missionary journey, his daughter Lucile was very 
 sick, and he says in his diary, "While I greatly 
 regret to leave home, duty calls and I obey." 
 After a busy time in San Francisco, attending 
 receptions and making a number of addresses, he 
 sailed on the steamship Nippo7i, October 30, 1907. 
 He made a brief study of conditions at Honolulu, 
 upon arrival there, November 6. He criticized 
 the education system. He found that in the 
 matter of immigration into the island, the Japanese 
 do not long remain laborers, but soon become 
 owners and employers, and storekeepers, while 
 the Chinese remain laborers. Because the island 
 is so nearly foreign in population, he deemed 
 advisable the subsidizing of all American merchant 
 marine, as an aid to the islands, and a safeguard to 
 the nations. On the eleventh of November he 
 crossed meridian 180 and dropped a day. Strange 
 experience to lose a whole day! 
 
94 EPISCOPAL VISITS 
 
 On November 17, he was met by Dr. A. T. 
 Howard at Yokohama, and with him went by 
 train to Tokyo, Japan, where at 3:00 P. M. he 
 preached to the EngHsh-speaking people. He 
 speaks tenderly of his fellowship with Dr. and Mrs. 
 Howard, Rev. and Mrs. B. F. Shively, Rev. and 
 Mrs. J. Cosand. He then sailed for Nagasaki 
 through the Island Sea. On this trip he was at 
 Shanghai, China, when he carefully investigated 
 the missionary work of the China Inland Mission. 
 This mission had at that time over eight hundred 
 persons at work in China, and these were sup- 
 ported by funds received in answer to prayer. He 
 also visited the representatives of the Methodist 
 missions, both northern and southern branches of 
 the church. 
 
 On November 26, he speaks of his trip up the 
 Great River; of its low banks, and its yellow water, 
 made so by the clay through which it flows. Along 
 this river he saw ruins of cities destroyed during 
 the rebellion, and never rebuilt. On November 
 28, while on the Great River, he wrote: "This is 
 Thanksgiving Day in America. May grace, mercy 
 and peace be given to all our rulers and to all our 
 people; to all the nation. Praise, honor, and 
 thanksgiving, majesty, power, and glory to our 
 God for personal and national blessings of past 
 year." 
 
 Bishop Mills gives a very vivid description of 
 the country through which he passed, as he went 
 up the river. He speaks of the Sirens; of having 
 passed a rock in the river one hundred feet high, 
 on the top of which was a pagoda, and a monastery 
 on the east. The hills and distant mountains were 
 
EPISCOPAL VISITS 95 
 
 covered with a smoky haze, and snow could be 
 seen on the mountains. His description of this 
 trip and the country is most interesting. 
 
 It was on this trip that he met a young EngHsh 
 customs officer and had a long talk with him. 
 "The officer expressed a lack of confidence in 
 Chinese Christians or missionaries; but his swagger 
 and swearing were an easy clew to his opinions." 
 The Bishop exhorted him to act as a Christian 
 out among the heathen. 
 
 On November 29, Bishop Mills preached at 
 Hankow in the early morning, and called on Rev. 
 Lewis Jones at the Chinese Inland Mission, and 
 then proceeded to Hong-Kong and Shanghai. After 
 making a trip into the native city, he complains 
 of the horrid odors ever^/ where that he went, and 
 wonders that the people are not stricken down with 
 an epidemic, because of the lack of sanitary con- 
 ditions surrounding them. 
 
 On December 1, the boat started on the return 
 trip down the river. He speaks of the trip as 
 being one of great results in the gathering of valu- 
 able information. The town of Kiukiang is the 
 great center for the manufacture of plate dishes, 
 vases, etc. The Methodist Episcopal Church 
 missions are located at this place. 
 
 He reached Shanghai on the return trip on 
 December 4. Speaking of the native houses along 
 the rivers, and other things seen on these trips, he 
 said: "They are of clay or boards with thatch 
 roofs. Deer, wild hogs, ducks, and geese are 
 plentitui throughout the country. The streets 
 of the town have a different odor for each day in 
 the year. Everywhere along the river the trees 
 
96 EPISCOPAL VISITS 
 
 and grass are very green. The trees are low and 
 bushy and large trees are found away from the 
 river." The Methodist Episcopal Church has a 
 publishing house at Shanghai. It was here that 
 Bishop Mills met Bishop and Mrs. Bashford of 
 the Methodist Church. Bishop Mills said that 
 everywhere he met the China Inland missionary 
 workers and was cordially received by them, and 
 every information possible was given. In describ- 
 ing the native city he says: "Went to-day to the 
 native city; passed the narrow streets crowded 
 with people, dirty and stinking with filth. There 
 must be as many different stinks as there are days 
 in the year, but my sense is not acute enough to 
 distinguish all of them. Saw the ivory workers 
 doing fine work in the little shops open to the 
 street. Also other workers in metals, minerals, 
 woods, furs, cloth and horn." 
 
 He continues: "I went down into the great 
 Buddhist temple, where the people were bowing 
 down to the josses or images of gods and men; 
 also burning sandalwood and incense. Great 
 crowds present." 
 
 It was at the Chinese Inland Mission on Sat- 
 urday evening that Bishop Mills met the return 
 missionaries from the borderland next to Thibet, — 
 2,000 miles away, forty days from any railroad. 
 Here he says: "They speak of progress. One of 
 them had been ten days journeying into Thibet 
 to visit the great Buddhist monastery. Mr. 
 Stevenson read letters from other missionaries, 
 giving hopeful accounts of the work. These were 
 followed by prayer for the success of each field." 
 
EPISCOPAL VISITS 97 
 
 On December 8, he attended worship in the 
 morning at the Union Church and gives in his notes 
 an outHne of the pastor's sermon, showing his care- 
 ful interest in everything that he touched in that 
 far-away land. In his notes of December 9, he 
 gives an account of his reading which he had 
 carried on during this trip. He speaks of having 
 read a dozen volumes, giving the titles, showing 
 that he was keeping up his studious habits every- 
 where he went. 
 
 On the tenth of December he went on board 
 the ship, Mongolia, at 9:00 A. M., and at once 
 made the acquaintance of a number of persons who 
 were bound for the Phihppine Islands. Speaking 
 of the islands and their government, he says: 
 "Here no one speaks well of Secretary Taft. His 
 policy with the Philippines is thought to be too 
 easy." 
 
 He landed at Hong-Kong December 13, and 
 was met by the Rev. E. I. Doty. In his description 
 he speaks of a visit to the hill-tops round about 
 Hong-Kong. In the evening he took a boat for 
 Canton. On the morning of the fifteenth he 
 found his vessel anchored in the Pearl River, near 
 our mission house in the city of Canton. Rev. 
 B. F. Bean, one of our missionaries, came on board 
 to greet him. Speaking of Dr. Bigler's work, he 
 says that she is the busiest and best and most 
 useful one there, not because she is any more 
 faithful, but because of her medical ability to meet 
 the actual needs of the people. He speaks of all 
 the missionaries as being earnest and devoted in 
 every way, and that all are needing a change of 
 cHmate. On Sunday Rev. Mr. Lansing preached ^ 
 
98 EPISCOPAL VISITS 
 
 and he describes him as "a fine old man — the 
 patriarch of the mission." 
 
 On the eighteenth and nineteenth of De- 
 cember, Bishop Mills went to Hang Tan and or- 
 ganized a church of over thirty members; took an 
 offering to repair the chapel amounting to $9.00; 
 visited Sheung Ti and Lak Lau, and then returned 
 to Canton. On the twenty-first, twenty-second, 
 and twenty-third he was at San Tong; organized a 
 church at this place, returning to Canton to spend 
 Christmas. On the twenty-sixth he went by water 
 to Kwai Chau, where the church was celebrating 
 Christmas, having a Chinese feast with nearly 
 all meats. 
 
 He left the same evening through the rain for 
 Siu Lam. At this place, he says, "We met Rev. and 
 Mrs. E. B. Ward." Here he spent three days, 
 looking over the work in the city and community, 
 and then returned on the thirtieth of December 
 to Canton and began the conference session, 
 which lasted seven days. Speaking of the con- 
 ference, he says: "Good attendance and a fine body 
 of people. Chinese preaching nearly every even- 
 ing. I preached once at night and gave an ex- 
 position of Matthew 5 :7 in the morning. Reports 
 and discussions were had in the afternoon, and the 
 early morning prayer meeting was always held. 
 Good spirit, throughout. Conference closed on 
 January 5." The sixth, seventh, and eighth of 
 January he spent in an inspection of work. "The 
 proposed new site, near the Baptists', and four 
 miles east of Beth-Eden, is to be bought if we can 
 get it on reasonable terms," he writes. "Also, met 
 Dr. Greene and others at the Baptist house, and 
 
EPISCOPAL VISITS 99 
 
 had a delightful and cordial fellowship with them. 
 Visited the Presbyterian College; also the Christian 
 College. As this was the week of prayer, I 
 preached Sunday evening. Went to see the temple 
 of five hundred Genii and the Chambers of Horror. 
 It is surprising how many things Buddhism and 
 Romanism hold in common." 
 
 On the tenth of January, Bishop Mills reached 
 Hong-Kong, and on the eleventh left on the boat 
 Zafiro for Manila, reaching his destination on the 
 fourteenth. He writes as follows: "We were here 
 met by Mr. E. S. Eby, Mr. Myers of Lancaster, 
 and called upon Mr. E. F. Durr." He met many 
 Americans at the home of Rev. H. Farmer, where 
 he had his home during his stay. Speaking of the 
 cost of things about Manila, he said: "I had two 
 suits of drilling, one white and the other yellow, 
 made for $7.50. Cheap — cheapest I have worn 
 since I was a child, but they are cool and good." 
 He met Mr. and Mrs. Mumma, and left on the 
 railway on the seventeenth for Dagupan in com- 
 pany with M. E. and P. E. Lyons and Rev. and 
 Mrs. M. W. Mumma. On the eighteenth he was 
 at San Fernando. "It is here that the superin- 
 tendent of our missions lives," he says, "and they 
 tendered to me a reception at his house in the 
 evening." On the morning of the nineteenth he 
 preached, and in the evening went to Barrio for 
 the service. 
 
 From January 21 to January 29 Bishop Mills 
 visited all the various local churches in the southern 
 part of the district in which our Church was work- 
 ing, preaching once or twice a day during the 
 whole journey. On February 1, 1908, he went 
 
100 EPISCOPAL VISITS 
 
 north with Rev. Mr. Mumma to San Juan, and 
 was given a native feast and reception. He 
 preached on Sunday, February 2, and on the third 
 of February, Rev. Mr. Widdoes came to San Juan, 
 and went with him to see the Rev. E. J. Pace at 
 Balaoan. The fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, 
 and ninth of February he spent in this community, 
 visiting all the stations, and on the tenth returned 
 to San Fernando, and began the holding of the 
 annual conference on February 12. Speaking of 
 this conference, he says, "Fine conference; a hope- 
 ful body, both natives and foreign." After closing 
 conference on Wednesday, he started over the 
 mountain. It was on this trip that his horse broke 
 through a bridge and threw him to the earth, 
 causing injury to his shoulder and neck. 
 
 At Baguio he spent two days looking over the 
 situation for a mission rest-house, and, because of 
 the good water, fine air, and cool place, he recom- 
 mended it as a good location. 
 
 He then came to Manila, and the Evangelical 
 Union being in session for two days, he attended 
 the sessions. By invitation he gave a devotional 
 Bible study each morning and preached on the 
 first evening, the twenty-fifth of February. On 
 the twenty-sixth, he preached at McKinley Post 
 of the Young Men's Christian Association, and at 
 Cava the evening of the twenty-seventh. He left 
 Manila for Hong-Kong on the steamship, Yuen 
 Sang, arriving there on the third of March. On the 
 fifth of March, he reached Canton, where he found 
 all the missionaries well except Rev. E. B. Ward. 
 He records his being almost prostrated by over- 
 work and climatic influences. 
 
EPISCOPAL VISITS 101 
 
 On March 6, after a pleasant day, he left, 
 with Rev. Mr. Doty, for Hong-Kong. Here he 
 transacted necessary business and went aboard the 
 steamship Manchuria, for the trip to Japan. By 
 request of the officials of the ship, he preached on 
 Sunday, March 8, at 11 A. M. When the vessel 
 had reached a point just opposite Shanghai, 
 March 10, the captain died suddenly. This 
 caused considerable delay and loss of time. On 
 March 12, they entered the harbor of Nagasaki. 
 He writes: "It was a great sight to witness the 
 putting of four thousand tons of coal on the vessel 
 by the hands of men and women, boys and girls. 
 It took from noon of the thirteenth until the next 
 morning at seven o'clock to coal the ship." 
 
 He reached Yokohama, Japan, on the morn- 
 ing of the seventeenth of March ; went ashore with 
 Dr. A. T. Howard, and went to Tokyo, spending 
 from the eighteenth to the twenty-first visiting 
 places of interest in Tokyo — Ugeno Park, Asakusa 
 temple, Methodist Episcopal book store, etc. On 
 the twenty-fifth, he preached at Honjo Church, 
 and on the twenty -sixth preached at the Thomp- 
 son Memorial Church. On the twenty-seventh 
 he spoke to the Chinese students at the Young 
 Men's Christian Association, and on the twenty- 
 ninth preached at Union Church. 
 
 On April first, he spoke at Odawara; on the 
 second, went to Kanagava to a Christian Endeavor 
 convention, speaking in the afternoon and even- 
 ing. He reached Otsu on the third and preached 
 in the evening; on the fourth looked after lots for 
 the mission house, and lectured before students in 
 the evening; saw jiu-jutsu practice; also witnessed 
 
102 EPISCOPAL VISITS 
 
 fencing, which is so much practiced by the Japa- 
 nese; on the fifth came to Kyoto; preached at the 
 Doshisha in the morning; laid the ashes of Rev. 
 Monroe Crecehus in the cemetery on the top of 
 the mountain. The cemetery is owned by the 
 Doshisha; visited the grave of Neesima and 
 preached at the church in the evening; on the 
 sixth visited the royal palaces in Kyoto; also 
 visited the temple of thirty-three thousand three 
 hundred and thirty-one images, and factories of 
 cloisonne and other wares. On the seventh he 
 went to Nara and saw the Dai Butsu and the 
 temples, which, he says, "are the greatest I have 
 yet seen." 
 
 The eighth was spent at Nagoya, and on the 
 ninth he arrived at Numazu. One of the in- 
 teresting notations he makes in connection with 
 this visitation is the fact that most of the nights 
 he slept and ate in native hotels, which, in itself, 
 showed his democracy of spirit and his willingness 
 to meet conditions as they were, and learn the 
 inner life of the people of the country. Bishop 
 Mills was a remarkable traveler in this respect, 
 as I learned to know on my following of his visi- 
 tations in Africa. 
 
 He reached Tokyo on the tenth, and on the 
 eleventh spoke at the Sunday-School Association 
 convention. Speaking of the convention, he says 
 the young man who preceded him spoke fifty -five 
 minutes, adding, "These people have no sense of 
 courtesy in sharing time on a program, but each 
 speaks as long as he can." It would seem as 
 though the Japanese had visited America and 
 learned the method of those who are on programs 
 
EPISCOPAL VISITS 103 
 
 here, and applied the information gained in their 
 own country. 
 
 The twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, and 
 fifteenth were spent in the examination of different 
 stations, the preparation of articles for the home 
 papers, and in general visitation of the work. 
 
 On the sixteenth he went to Shizuoka, where 
 he held the Japanese Annual Conference. The 
 first evening was given to a dinner to the members 
 of the conference. "It consisted wholly of eels 
 and rice. It was very good, and tea was served 
 at the close of the feast." The conference con- 
 vened at 9:00 A. M. on the seventeenth, and, in 
 describing the conference, the Bishop says, "The 
 singing was good and the prayers fervent." He 
 at once entered into the work of the conference, as 
 is shown by his expository preaching, in giving 
 to the conference members a description of thirty 
 of the best chapters of the Bible and urging them 
 to become especially acquainted with them. In 
 the evening there were three sermons in succession 
 in Japanese, and the Bishop says, "I remained at 
 the hotel." This statement is significant. "The 
 next day I entered a protest (mildly) against 
 having two or three sermons at one session, hoping 
 that one would satisfy them hereafter. It seems 
 the custom here to have two or more addresses 
 on each occasion. After the stationing committee's 
 report was read on the evening of the eighteenth, 
 two sermons were delivered." 
 
 Sunday was a great day in the conference, he 
 says. He preached at 10:00 A. M., after which 
 "five fine young men were ordained to the Christian 
 ministry." This was followed by the observance 
 
104 EPISCOPAL VISITS 
 
 of the Lord's Supper, the wine being served by 
 the use of teaspoons. "On Sunday evening, 
 before the service, a feast was served to all the 
 conference in my honor. It consisted of rice, 
 chicken, beef steak ( for myself and Dr. Howard), 
 ham, omelet, cakes, and tea. I had a knife and 
 fork. Except at this meal, I ate native food at 
 the hotel, using chopsticks. Three days at the 
 hotel cost $1.50 for meals and lodging." "Thus 
 closed one of the finest conferences that it was 
 ever my privilege to hold." 
 
 On the twentieth, Bishop Mills reached Tokyo 
 and was at the home of Dr. A. T. Howard and 
 wife, feeling "very weary," as he describes it. On 
 the twenty-second, he visited Nikko. This is 
 the greatest shrine of the Shinto worship. On the 
 afternoon of the twenty-third, he visited the 
 shrine of leyassu. "This shrine and his grave 
 are the most important objects. Monkey figures 
 are on the cornice of the stable before reaching the 
 entrance proper to the shrine. These figures are 
 not objects of worship, but are symbols of truth 
 they wish to teach. After passing the gate and up 
 two more flights of stone steps, we come to the 
 sacred shrine. Its chief ornament is a metal 
 mirror and an altar. Very elaborate ornaments 
 of carving in wood, and gorgeously painted 
 Chinese pheasants, the fabled Phoenix, and pictures 
 of impossible lions. The carvings are chiefly on 
 the outside of the buildings; the paintings on the 
 inside. The room used as a shrine is flanked on 
 each side by a finely adorned sleeping-room for 
 royalty when it visits the temple (for the shrine 
 may now be called a temple). The grave of 
 
EPISCOPAL VISITS 105 
 
 leyassu is behind this temple on the top of the 
 mountain, one hundred steps higher than the 
 temple and wearies one to reach it. It is behind 
 a small shrine under a dome of bronze which rests 
 on a platform of hewn stone. 
 
 "The red lacquer bridge over the stream at the 
 foot of the mountain is crossed only by royal 
 persons and their guests. The site is located in 
 a place of great natural beauty. Nature and art 
 are made to fortress Shintoism, and the stronghold 
 will require ages to capture for our Christ and 
 King." 
 
 Bishop Mills visited Chizenji Lake on horse- 
 back. On this trip he passed beautiful falls along 
 the river, passing through pine groves, yet he says, 
 "this lake, which is of national fame, is no finer 
 than many of our little inland lakes." 
 
 On the twenty-sixth he preached at the union 
 service in the German Reformed Church, where he 
 had a great hearing. Then he visited the college 
 plant of the North Japan College, and says of 
 it, "Everything is in fine order, and good work 
 being done." The balance of the week he says he 
 spent in preparation for his trip home; and on May 
 second sailed on the Steamship Monteagle for 
 Vancouver. He had a good voyage. *'Cool, but 
 not more than I had expected. The shi^ rocked 
 a good deal and many were sick, but I enjoyed the 
 trip. After the first day fog covered the water. 
 Often the fog horn was blown." He says he had 
 two Fridays the first week crossing the one hundred 
 and eightieth meridian. 
 
 He reached Vancouver on the evening of the 
 fifteenth of May and landed the next morning. 
 
106 EPISCOPAL VISITS 
 
 On the eighteenth he started his trip overland for 
 Dayton, Ohio, thus ending one of the greatest 
 missionary journeys made in the interest of hu- 
 manity by one of the greatest lovers of the race 
 that ever entered the work of the Master's vine- 
 yard. It was Bishop Mills' last journey, and is 
 referred to by those who were touched on the 
 journey as being one of great inspiration to the 
 workers. Unselfish and devoted, he spared neither 
 effort nor time to make the journey one of absolute 
 encouragement and inspiration to all who were 
 on the field. Bishop Mills was a world man and 
 in sympathy with world movements, and, as such, 
 spared not himself as he joined the workers in the 
 field, leaving them to greater devotion and con- 
 secration in the service that they were rendering 
 to the King. There is no doubt at all that this 
 journey, strenuous and severe in its physical 
 exertion, hastened the closing of the earthly 
 journey of Bishop Mills. 
 
 BISHOP MILLS AS A FATHER 
 
 TO MISSIONARIES 
 By Bishop A. T. Howard, D.D. 
 
 Superintendent of the Orient 
 
 No book on the life of Bishop Mills could be 
 quite complete without a tribute to his devoted 
 life from the young people who represented our 
 Church in the Far East in the years of 1907-08, 
 when Bishop Mills visited our missions in the 
 Orient. He was so broad in his views of what 
 goals the missions should place before themselves, 
 so interested in the life and all the achievements of 
 the peoples of the east, so appreciative of all that 
 
EPISCOPAL VISITS 107 
 
 was best among them, so hopeful of their future. 
 He made us missionaries feel, too, that he trusted 
 us; yet, by his own wide reading and familiarity 
 with such a great variety of books, and with the 
 greater book of nature, he made us keenly con- 
 scious of our own limitations. 
 
 He was eager to learn lessons himself from the 
 people about him. One day, on a crowded train, 
 when a selfish Japanese passenger was allowed to 
 sleep and monopolize a comfortable seat for hours, 
 while others made themselves uncomfortable rather 
 than disturb the sleeper, Bishop Mills said, "I 
 believe if I were to live in this country long, I 
 would become gentle, too. I am tempted to take 
 hold of that fellow and roll him off in the aisle, but 
 these polite Orientals allow him to sleep on." 
 
 One day, in speaking of the quality of gentle- 
 ness, he said he thought the most suitable monu- 
 ment for his grave would be a rough boulder out 
 of the mountains, without other mark of the chisel 
 upon it than the word "Mills," and the appropriate 
 dates. 
 
 His ambition, too, inspired us. There was no 
 satisfaction over past achievements with him. He 
 wished to be free from the burden and distraction 
 of travel that he might write three books — one on 
 duty, one on doctrine, and one on devotions. 
 
 He frankly told us he would never cross the sea 
 again, but he made the most of his opportunity on 
 that visit, for he never hesitated to carry out the 
 program outhned for him, but would go anywhere, 
 make any sort of an address, eat any kind of food, 
 sleep anywhere without complaint, and frequently 
 
108 EPISCOPAL VISITS 
 
 would suggest additional meetings that naturally 
 were of burden to him. 
 
 The writer knows now that Bishop Mills' 
 great strength of body had begun to fail before he 
 began his tour in Japan; but there was no flagging, 
 no quitting the field until he could make a full 
 report on every phase of the work of the Church. 
 
 He was a charming guest to have in one's 
 home, one who could take the place of a grandfather 
 in the hearts of all our mission children while 
 satisfying their natural desire to meet a great man 
 from America, the land of their dreams. He 
 preached some great sermons, sermons that were 
 eloquent and profound, but his chief emphasis was 
 expository preaching. 
 
 We cannot say what his life meant to others 
 in other lands, but to us who knew him in the 
 intimacy of our own homes in the East, he will 
 be remembered as a friend, a father, and wide 
 indefatigable student, a servant of the Church 
 devoted to duty, and a man who delighted to in- 
 terpret the Word^of God. 
 
STUDENT, SCHOLAR, EDUCATOR 
 
Chapter VI. 
 
 STUDENT, SCHOLAR, AND EDUCATOR 
 
 kUCH has been said in reference to 
 the self-made man, or the man who 
 has accomphshed, through his own 
 personal efforts, supplemented by 
 whatever help he could obtain, the 
 complete development of his mental 
 powers, in distinction from the man who has, by 
 earnest application, followed a full college curric- 
 ulum and obtained a diploma. Bishop Mills did 
 not have the privilege of a college education as 
 such, but he was, nevertheless, a scholar — a 
 scholar of peculiar ability; one whose deductions 
 were as well founded on the facts of logic, philos- 
 ophy, history, science, and language as the able 
 scholars of the day who had pursued a full col- 
 lege course. 
 
 As stated in a preceding chapter, the early 
 life of Bishop Mills was not promising, due to his 
 physical condition. No one would have thought, 
 when the lad was ten years of age, that he would 
 master nearly all departments of learning* and 
 shine among scholars as authority on many 
 branches of research. He came into his own very 
 slowly. His father, being a farmer with limited 
 means, was not able to send his son away to college, 
 even after he had outgrown his physical weakness 
 
112 STUDENT, SCHOLAR, EDUCATOR 
 
 and had shown extraordinary abiHty as a student. 
 There are few young men who would have under- 
 taken what Mr. Mills did as a farmer lad. His 
 application of mind in the days of his young man- 
 hood was remarkable. Shrouded as his early life 
 was with poor health, no one who knew him 
 entertained a thought of the possibilities that were 
 achieved by him in the sixty-one years that he 
 lived, much of this time having been spent in 
 fighting the inroads of disease on a weak con- 
 stitution. 
 
 At the age of fourteen, a divine impulse filled 
 his life, causing an insatiable desire for knowledge; 
 while it was true that he had not learned to read 
 until he was ten years of age, yet, in a few years 
 he had not only recovered the lost time, but had 
 forged to the front among his associates as a 
 student and thinker. He soon mastered every- 
 thing that was taught in the primary schools of 
 his community, and, having earned a little money, 
 entered Bartlett Academy, near his old home. It 
 was here that he showed himself to be an extraor- 
 dinary student, attracting the attention of all of 
 his teachers because of his ability to think, a trait 
 of character that has marked his entire life. 
 
 Going home from the academy, he engaged to 
 help his father in the work of the farm. While 
 in the fields, he carried his Greek Testament, and, 
 when the horses were resting, he worked with un- 
 abated energy on his lessons in Greek roots. Never 
 once did Bishop Mills refer to his own ability. No 
 one has ever heard him sound such a note of 
 egotism. Hence, few people knew that he was 
 able to read the sacred Word in the original 
 
STUDENT, SCHOLAR, EDUCATOR 113 
 
 language, for he had not taken a course in the 
 Greek or the Hebrew language, in any college. 
 True, he was enrolled as a student of Otterbein 
 University for three years; as a student of the 
 Ilhnois Wesleyan University for four years, and 
 in his examination received the degrees of bachelor 
 of philosophy, master of arts, and doctor of philoso- 
 phy. To these he added a course of three years in 
 the Chautauqua University of Theology, doing 
 all this extra work while he was busy as a pastor, 
 and in no way interfering with the service he was 
 rendering to his congregation. 
 
 It was in his years between fourteen and eight- 
 een that he did the good primary work that laid 
 the foundation for the splendid concentration of 
 mind that is seen in his untiring efforts to obtain 
 better preparation for his work as he followed the 
 different courses of study. After completing the 
 courses as indicated in the schools named above, 
 Bishop Mills outlined for himself carefully thought- 
 out courses of study in philosophy, sociology, 
 phrenology. Christian evidences, and literature, 
 which he conscientiously pursued. Later, he be- 
 came a professor of English literature and philoso- 
 phy in one of our colleges, in which position he 
 not only made good, but excelled — a striking 
 evidence of the success of his work as a student. 
 
 But Bishop Mills was peculiar, in that from 
 the beginning of his effort to acquire knowledge, 
 until the day of his death, he was a thinker and a 
 close critical student, carefully analyzing every 
 line of thought that came under his notice. It is 
 worthy of mention that the first thing this re- 
 markable man did was to learn to control his own 
 
114 STUDENT, SCHOLAR, EDUCATOR 
 
 mind ; and it is believed by many that his course in 
 science in Professor Fowler's school in New York, 
 taken in the year 1872-73, laid the foundation for 
 his success in subsequent years. He was heard to 
 say, on one occasion, that he believed the man 
 who controlled his mind and could command it as 
 nearly perfectly as possible, increased his own 
 power in proportion to this ability. His great 
 address on will power is, without doubt, the out- 
 growth of this conception, for, if any one will 
 study the outline of that marvelous address, 
 analytic in every particular, he will see at once the 
 force of this statement in relation to his own 
 intellectual activities. 
 
 He was not only a great student and scholar, 
 but also a great reader. The Church has pro- 
 duced few men who were universal readers such 
 as was Mr. Mills. His field of inquiry was not 
 limited to any one side of the question. It was 
 not uncommon to find him with the book of a 
 skeptical author in his hand, analyzing, criticizing, 
 and mentally digesting all that was being said on 
 the subject in hand. He mastered a number of 
 languages to the point of being able to read intel- 
 hgently — German, French, Italian, and Spanish — 
 in order that he might investigate subjects where 
 the authorship was principally in these languages. 
 It was my privilege to go into his library and ex- 
 amine a number of the books in the different lan- 
 guages. When he made his trips abroad, he was 
 in a position to make himself understood very in- 
 telligently in many of the different countries in 
 which he traveled. All this was due to his ability 
 to concentrate his mind and do in a very short 
 
STUDENT, SCHOLAR, EDUCATOR 115 
 
 time what it requires many students years to ac- 
 complish in the mastering of languages. 
 
 Of course, it must be remembered in this 
 connection that he was aided by a wonderful 
 memory. Bishop Mills believed that the memory 
 could be cultivated. Hence, in his childhood, he 
 was often found in the throes of memory gymnas- 
 tics, causing his powers of retention to be so devel- 
 oped that he seldom forgot anything. Indeed, he 
 did not seem to have a "forgetter," and if, by 
 chance, there came a lapse of memory, he, above 
 all others, was most annoyed by it. Even when 
 he was bearing the responsibility of many cares, 
 it was remarkable how he could retain details and 
 give account of minute matters that would have 
 been over-shadowed in the memory of most per- 
 sons. 
 
 With an ascending vision, with a compre- 
 hensive ambition tempered by divine grace, he 
 pressed forward, as few men do, to the accomplish- 
 ment of his purpose; that purpose was to know, 
 and, knowing, to live for the glory of God and 
 the betterment of humanity. The extraordinary 
 strength of his will kept him steady in all of his 
 work as a student and scholar, for he never left 
 home without carrying with him some book or 
 books bearing upon a definite line of investigation 
 which concerned society, state, or church. He 
 was not a reader of fiction as such. He absolutely 
 ignored the popular novels of the day and fed his 
 mind on stronger meat; thus developing a master- 
 ful disposition, until it became a habit for him to 
 know the historic and philosophical settings of 
 every department of human activity. 
 
116 STUDENT, SCHOLAR, EDUCATOR 
 
 Strange to say, he studied natural science with 
 the same avidity that he did the philosophical and 
 metaphysical departments of human thought. He 
 was especially interested in botany. This is seen 
 in the fact that, when he established his home at 
 Annville, he at once undertook to lay out a plan 
 for a botanical garden, supplying it with such 
 plants as would flourish in that climate. It is 
 remarkable what he knew about trees, both ornate 
 and fruit, and his knowledge of botany enabled 
 him to have a fine flower-garden, with the richest 
 varieties of roses, and flowering plants of rare 
 beauty and selection. It is also notable that, 
 although especially interested in other lines of 
 thought, he could give the botanical names of all 
 the plants that were found about his place, as 
 though they were common, every day friends. 
 
 As a student and scholar, therefore, his vision 
 seemed to be comprehensive; so rounded out was 
 his information, that he is easily classed as a man 
 of liberal education. 
 
 Added to all these elements of scholarship was 
 his fertile imagination. Few men had such native 
 ability in this particular as Bishop Mills. It led 
 him into the field of investigation; it was the key 
 to unlock many of the treasure-houses of knowl- 
 edge. It was interesting to hear him discuss the 
 possibilities of the flying-machine. His unbounded 
 faith was born of an imagination, the vision of 
 which may extend into the centuries. He did not 
 hesitate to express his belief that in time to come 
 the human family would pass from one continent 
 to another by aid of this new invention, perfected 
 in such a manner as to guarantee greater safety 
 
STUDENT, SCHOLAR, EDUCATOR 117 
 
 than the best ocean hner that now plows the 
 waves between the western and eastern hemis- 
 pheres. 
 
 Bishop Mills only had begun his work as an 
 author. He had in almost complete form the 
 outline of many manuscripts which he intended to 
 finish in subsequent years. He wrote the following 
 books which have been published: "Africa," 
 "Hohness," "Missionary Enterprise," and "Family 
 Worship." 
 
 His scholarly attainments are set forth in the 
 following degrees that were conferred upon him: 
 Master of arts from Otterbein University in 1884; 
 doctor of divinity from Lebanon Valley and West- 
 field Colleges in 1890; doctor of laws from Lane 
 University in 1898; doctor of philosophy from the 
 Wesleyan University, Illinois. 
 
 He was a member of the American Academy 
 of Christian Philosophy, the American Academy 
 of Political and Social Science, and a corresponding 
 member of the Iowa Academy of Science. 
 
 As teacher, he began work in Western College, 
 now Leander Clark College, located at Toledo, 
 Iowa, in the year 1887. He was invited to the 
 professorship of English by President Beardshear, 
 who was known as the strongest educator at that 
 time in our denomination. The wisdom of his 
 selection for this position was evident through the 
 two years that he occupied the chair of English 
 literature and rhetoric in the college, for Mr. Mills 
 showed complete mastery of his subject, and the 
 students recognized his great strength, as, from 
 time to time, he led them along these important 
 lines of study and development. 
 
118 STUDENT, SCHOLAR, EDUCATOR 
 
 When President Beardshear resigned the pres- 
 idency in 1889, Mr. Mills was elected president 
 and professor of philosophy, which position he 
 held for three years, during which time the college 
 made positive achievement and growth. Upon 
 an examination of the catalogues of the school, 
 issued for this period, we find an enrollment of 
 above four hundred students each year, and a 
 faculty composed of eight professors and four 
 teachers, and quite a number of lecturers. 
 
 It is interesting to notice the remarkable 
 development of this man from his humble begin- 
 ning in educational lines, not being able to read or 
 write at the age of ten, and then coming to the 
 position of a college professor of English at the age 
 of thirty-nine, and college president at the age of 
 forty-two. The fact that he was not a graduate in 
 any college did not seem to interfere with his 
 work as teacher or president, for his ability was 
 recognized on every hand, and his scholarship 
 was never questioned. 
 
 Mr. Mills was successor to Professor A. L. 
 DeLong, the first distinct professor of English 
 literature and rhetoric in Leander College. Pro- 
 fessor Ward, in his History of Western-Leander 
 Clark College, says of this appointment by Presi- 
 dent Beardshear, "Professor Mills brought logical 
 scholarship, much Church prestige, and great 
 personal dignity, qualities that gave him the 
 presidency of the college upon the retirement of 
 President Beardshear." During the period of 
 1893 and 1894 there was what is called, in the 
 history of Leander Clark, the third crucial period 
 in the life of the college. This period is known as 
 
STUDENT, SCHOLAR, EDUCATOR 119 
 
 that of the burning of the main building and the 
 burden of rebuilding same, the outcome of which 
 was the growing financial embarrassment. Pro- 
 fessor Ward, in writing of this period, says: 
 "Such, then, was the situation when President 
 Beardshear laid down the mantle of the presi- 
 dency and Professor J. S. Mills was chosen to 
 succeed to the burdens of that office. President 
 Mills accepted the position believing that the col- 
 lege authorities understood th-e great responsibili- 
 ties that they were laying upon him, and assured 
 by the board in strongest terms that the warmest 
 sympathy and the heartiest support were back of 
 him in his great undertaking. The new adminis- 
 tration started out hopefully, only to be over- 
 taken in a few short months by a calamity that 
 tried the souls of all the friends of the college 
 and almost crushed President Mills — the calamity 
 of ^a disastrous fire." 
 
 This calamity occurred on the night of De- 
 cember 25, and, by the morning hours, the magnifi- 
 cent college building was entirely destroj'^ed. This 
 building had been erected at a cost of seventy-five 
 thousand dollars, and, with its burning, many 
 gave up the hope of the maintenance of Western 
 College as then known. Professor Ward, writing 
 of it, says: "The dawn of Thursday presented an 
 appalling spectacle to the eye. There were the 
 bare walls, smoking and smouldering, the only 
 monument left to tell where a few short hours 
 before one of the finest college buildings in Iowa 
 had stood. A few scattering pieces of furniture, 
 books, papers, etc., lay strewn about the premises — 
 all that was saved of the extensive outfit of West- 
 
120 STUDENT, SCHOLAR, EDUCATOR 
 
 ern College. The Thompson Cabinet, presented 
 by Mrs. Charles Mason, and considered the finest 
 in the State, had vanished, alas, in a few brief 
 moments, in smoke. The value of this cabinet 
 alone is estimated at $50,000. The mammoth 
 library, the pride of the college, was gone with the 
 remainder of the equipments. The loss is esti- 
 mated at from $125,000 to $150,000, with an 
 insurance of $22,000 on the same. The wreck 
 seemed complete, and the question arose. Can we 
 rebuild?" 
 
 President Mills was in the East on the night 
 of the fire; was arranging for help to come to the 
 institution when the message, announcing the 
 burning of the building, reached him in the Union 
 Station, at Columbus, Ohio. He quickly arranged 
 his matters and rushed back to Western to join 
 the executive committee in their heroic effort to 
 restore the building; for no time was lost in bring- 
 ing about the reorganization of the forces with a 
 view to building. This brought to him an extra 
 burden of toil and effort, and, as he was already 
 weighted with the responsibilities that were upon 
 him, it was a question of his endurance and strength 
 to meet the emergency. But, with a determination 
 that knew no defeat, he entered into the project 
 of restoring the building. Within eighteen months 
 from the time the building was burned, it was 
 replaced by a better, stronger, and more com- 
 pletely-equipped building than the old structure. 
 
 Quoting again from the History of Leander 
 Clark College: "President Mills was relieved from 
 class work for a time that he might aid in the 
 canvass for funds. * * * * President Mills soon 
 
STUDENT, SCHOLAR, EDUCATOR 121 
 
 returned from field work to the more congenial 
 duties of the classroom. His office gave him the 
 chair of mental and moral philosophy, a field for 
 which he was peculiarly well fitted both by training 
 and by temperament. He was a born logician and 
 thinker, and had disciplined himself by profound 
 study of philosophical subjects. His magnificent 
 personal appearance, his dignified bearing, and 
 judicial utterance gave his opinions great weight, 
 though he often failed to reach down where the 
 students daily lived, and to realize with quick 
 human sympathy the student's matter-of-fact 
 problems and daily needs. He won the highest 
 esteem and admiration of his pupils, but did not 
 quite enlist their spontaneous love and adoration. 
 President Mills recoiled from the material prob- 
 lems and endless perplexities inseparably connected 
 with the presidency, and so resigned that office 
 after three years and gave himself wholly to class- 
 room work for one year, at the end of which time 
 he was elected Bishop by the General Conference 
 of his Church. An exalted office in which he soon 
 took eminent rank, and in which he continued 
 until his death, September 16, 1909." 
 
 President Mills was succeeded as president of 
 the college by Professor A. M. Beal, who occupied 
 the presidency for one year. 
 
 Dr. Thompson, in "Our Bishops," referring 
 to the time of the burning of the building, says: 
 "When this happened, he was on a visit to Ohio. 
 I was talking with him in the depot in Columbus 
 when the telegram reached him announcing the 
 great disaster. At once the resolution was formed 
 that he must go back and rebuild. It meant an 
 
122 STUDENT, SCHOLAR, EDUCATOR 
 
 extra burden of toil and anxiety to a man already 
 weighted down with care, but he went to work 
 with intense energy and a prayerful heart, and the 
 people responded. The building was restored 
 and finished from top to bottom in eighteen 
 months. This was done and the faculty paid 
 without any increase of liabilities except a part of 
 the interest on the previous debt." 
 
 Thus closed a strong administration of the 
 college under the work of Mr. Mills as college 
 president. 
 
 In order that the Church may understand 
 Bishop Mills' real position on the question of 
 education, I quote the paragraph from the Bishop's 
 address read at the beginning of the General 
 Conference at Canton, in 1909, on the subject, 
 "Education." 
 
 "Our people share in the educational spirit 
 of the land. Our schools have all made commend- 
 able progress, but some have excelled. Each 
 school is the favorite project of our Church in the 
 region where it exists. The growth of the interest 
 of our people in education is attested by the in- 
 creased attendance in all our schools and the en- 
 larged contributions to the support of the same. 
 
 "The Church has always stood for scholar- 
 ship. From the days when the apostles had Mark 
 for a minister of the word, it has held to the ne- 
 cessity of training its youth. There are few insti- 
 tutions of learning in America which do not owe 
 their foundation to the need of an educated minis- 
 try. Within later years, it is true, provision for 
 the education of the young men and women has 
 been made by large appropriations by both Fed- 
 
STUDENT, SCHOLAR, EDUCATOR 123 
 
 eral and State Governments; but even in such 
 institutions the great body of instructors are at 
 least nominally connected with some church. 
 Universities no longer care primarily for the 
 training of ministers, and seldom maintain theo- 
 logical departments, but they are none the less 
 due in a large measure to the initial impulse which 
 was given collegiate education by the demands of 
 religious bodies. 
 
 "The church of to-day is living in the midst 
 of the most extraordinary transition that the world 
 has ever seen. The church cannot maintain itself 
 in this age and stand aloof from the movements 
 in education. It can meet cultured skepticism 
 only by the culture and experience of believers. 
 While the church places a high estimate upon 
 knowledge and culture, it still more highly prizes 
 character. It therefore demands as high a type 
 of character in its teachers as in its ministers. 
 Thus, by both training and example, it carries 
 forward its educational work. 
 
 "The choice sons and daughters of our 
 churches are in our college halls, or have already 
 gone forth from them. We owe it to them and to 
 the great nation of which we are a part, to bring 
 our schools up to the highest degree of efficiency 
 possible. We do not need more schools, but the 
 thorough manning and equipping of those we have 
 is the imperative demand of the hour." 
 
 These words are worthy of careful consider- 
 ation at the present time as we study the edu- 
 cational problems that are before us as a denomi- 
 nation. 
 
124 STUDENT, SCHOLAR, EDUCATOR 
 
 Bishop Mills had decided to move to Balti- 
 more, Maryland, after he was sent to the East 
 District in 1901, but strong pressure was brought 
 to bear on him, to have him move to Annville, 
 Pennsylvania, where Lebanon Valley College, the 
 only United Brethren college in the East, was 
 located. So he, on that account, decided to move 
 there. 
 
 After settling in Annville, he and his family 
 took a very deep interest in the college, and 
 became active in every department of its work. 
 Three of his children graduated from the college, 
 his son, in the class of 1904, his daughter Ellen, 
 in the class of 1905, and his daughter Lucile, in the 
 conservatory of music class of 1906. 
 
 Bishop Mills himself became a member of 
 the board of trustees of the college and remained 
 on the board for some years, a most devoted, 
 enthusiastic, hopeful friend of high education and 
 honest administration. His wise counsel and 
 unfaltering adherence to the policy of conservative 
 administration helped the college over some of 
 the roughest days of its history. 
 
 During the last two years of his life, he was in 
 very close touch with the affairs of the college 
 constantly, and it was a great pleasure to him to 
 have Doctor Bierman, the college treasurer, come 
 in and discuss with him its needs and the hopes 
 for its betterment. He was especially anxious 
 for an adequate endowment, not only for Lebanon 
 Valley, but for all of the Church schools. 
 
 He, and his brother-in-law. Dr. Lawrence 
 Keister, who was then president of Lebanon 
 Valley, would talk and plan by the hour for the 
 
STUDENT, SCHOLAR, EDUCATOR 125 
 
 betterment of the college, and for a better response 
 from its constituency. He recognized that the 
 United Brethren Church had not come to recognize 
 the value of education to the Church. He himself 
 recognized that if any church moves constantly 
 on in a direct line of advance, it must have efficient 
 leaders, and he further recognized the fact that 
 our leaders come largely, or almost altogether 
 from our own communion, and that to prepare 
 our future leaders, we must educate our young 
 people to the point of highest efficiency for them- 
 selves, the denomination, and for God. So he 
 constantly advocated, as a college president, as 
 a member of the Church board of education, and 
 as a Bishop, the need of awakening to the value 
 of education, and then providing means to satisfy 
 that need. 
 
 He liked to discuss all subjects, and questions 
 relating to every phase of the educational and 
 administrative side of our schools, and the coming 
 of Doctor Bierman or Doctor Keister was always 
 most welcome. 
 
 The sudden death of Doctor Bierman, in 
 August, 1909, was a shock to Bishop Mills, but 
 it never occurred to him that in less than a month, 
 he would follow Doctor Bierman. 
 
 While Bishop Mills had never been able to 
 accumulate much money, because of his great 
 liberality, and the large demands upon him for all 
 kinds of Christian work, he showed his interest 
 in education, and in Lebanon Valley College, by 
 leaving the college one thousand dollars, the in- 
 come from which was to go to some poor boy 
 each year to help him in securing a college edu- 
 
126 STUDENT, SCHOLAR, EDUCATOR 
 
 cation; and, preferably, a boy who was studying 
 for the Christian ministry. He said that one 
 of the best memorials a man could leave, with his 
 material possessions, was a fund put in such a way 
 that it would benefit not only the boy who was 
 helped to an education, but also all those who 
 would come under the influence of such a boy's 
 later ministry. 
 
THE CHURCHMAN AND BISHOP, OR 
 THE ECCLESIASTICAL LEADER 
 
Chapter VII 
 
 THE CHURCHMAN AND BISHOP, OR 
 THE ECCLESIASTICAL LEADER. 
 
 BISHOP of another denomination 
 said, in speaking of Bishop Mills, 
 "He was the greatest churchman 
 I have ever known." There was 
 a dignity and strength about him 
 that few men possess, and the ele- 
 ments that entered into his leadership were so 
 striking and splendid as to merit mention in the 
 history of his life. 
 
 As a churchman, he was always true and 
 genuine. That he was mistaken sometimes in 
 his judgment, both as to men and to policies, is 
 certainly true; but even when he was mistaken, 
 either as to the man he supported or the policy he 
 advanced, no one could doubt his unselfishness 
 in the case; and while he sometimes has stood 
 for men who were unworthy of his support, yet 
 it must be remembered that, in every case of this 
 kind. Bishop Mills believed in the man he support- 
 ed with an earnestness and sincerity born of a 
 true heart. Never once did he seek the advance- 
 ment of another individual in order that he him- 
 self might be advanced; and it is known to many 
 that he suffered personally by his faithful devotion 
 to individuals in whom he believed, and who were 
 his personal friends, and for whom he stood under 
 all circumstances. This characteristic of the man 
 
130 THE CHURCHMAN AND BISHOP 
 
 was manifested not only in his relation to his 
 personal friends and policies, but also was true in 
 reference to all men and all policies that affected 
 the denominational life of the Church. His plan- 
 ning was always unselfish. Never once did he 
 institute a program, the sequel of which was to be 
 his own advancement. This statement is only 
 fair to make in the life of any man where it can 
 be made with such absolute truth. 
 
 No one can doubt his position on the great 
 policies of the Church affecting its future, who 
 recalls his uncompromising stand in favor of a new 
 order of things as carried out by the Church 
 Commission, when the Constitution and Con- 
 fession of Faith and Disciplinary enactments were 
 revised and made up to date, as relating to all 
 Christian activity in this new century. Bishop 
 Mills was never a conservative or middle-of-the- 
 road man; he was always on the constructive, 
 progressive side of every question that touched his 
 life. Hence, he was considered by some as being 
 so progressive that he was unsafe. Indeed, some 
 called him visionary and others were inclined to 
 say of him that he was seeking these things for 
 his own advancement and preferment. However, 
 those who were near him — those who understood 
 him — quickly refuted this charge as unfair to him 
 as a Church leader. 
 
 After the reconstructive period, in 1889, when 
 our Church broke the fetters that bound it, and 
 entered into a new life, when the General Con- 
 ference, at York, approved the work of the Com- 
 mission, Bishop Mills threw all his energy into 
 the work of the denomination, and, from that time 
 
THE CHURCHMAN AND BISHOP 131 
 
 forward, became one of the aggressive leaders in 
 the progressive measures and was always found 
 standing with those who were seeking to build 
 up the Church. 
 
 As was said of him as a teacher, so it can be 
 said of him as a bishop, that the weight of his 
 influence was always found on the side of those 
 who were seeking to lay foundations upon which 
 to build a greater structure in the years to come. 
 To this end he was the friend of young men. One 
 of the principal elements in his work was to inspire 
 young men, and thereby to multiply his own life 
 by injecting into the lives of others, as he met 
 them in the conferences and in the homes, his own 
 progressive spirit, giving them an outlook, giving 
 them an ambition to do things worth}^ He thus 
 inspired their manhood and became very sympa- 
 thetic in his relation to them. He often helped 
 them to buy books, loaned them books, and 
 started them toward the goal of higher attainment 
 and service. In this particular he was not afraid. 
 He walked by faith as well as by sight. He was 
 willing to try out men and policies in order that 
 he might know the result, both in the individual 
 life and in the Church. 
 
 One of the ministers of his old conference, the 
 Scioto, tells that when but a boy of thirteen, 
 Bishop Mills met him and asked him the question, 
 "Don't you want to become a Christian and a 
 minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ .f^" at once 
 placing before him not only the question of pro- 
 fession of Christ, his Savior, but opening the door 
 of usefulness in the service of Jesus Christ as a 
 minister. So many persons would not have 
 
132 THE CHURCHMAN AND BISHOP 
 
 thought of the second statement. A minister, 
 in writing in reference to his work in the Oak Hill 
 charge, says: "In addition to his work as pastor, 
 he taught a select school in the summer of 1874. 
 Many of the young men who attended his school 
 are now in the ministry of different churches." 
 This, in itself, bears testimony to his work as a 
 churchman. 
 
 He was always concerned as to the future of 
 the individual who came under his influence. As 
 a leader in the Church, he was the exponent of 
 higher education, always urging young men to 
 go to college and to the Theological Seminary to 
 secure the advantages of these schools of learning. 
 He said to a young man who was uncertain as to 
 his course, "Young man, if there was a choice 
 between $25,000 and a college course presented 
 to you to-day, I would advise you to take the 
 latter." This showed his opinion not only of 
 education as such, but of the college as a means to 
 the development of mental power, and his great 
 faith in the educational institutions of our de- 
 nomination. 
 
 His gifts to our schools were as liberal as he 
 could possibly make them. He never denied the 
 appeals that came to him from our institutions, 
 but was a financial supporter of all of our colleges, 
 academies, and Seminary. His great earnestness 
 caused him to have an active interest in every 
 department of our Church life, as an official of 
 the denomination. Secretaries of departments 
 can all bear testimony to his wilHngness to present 
 their work with all the power of his mind, at every 
 time and place where opportunity was afforded. 
 
THE CHURCHMAN AND BISHOP 133 
 
 Thus, as a churchman, he was ready to supplement 
 and second the effort of all the workers in the 
 denomination. 
 
 Mr. Mills was elected to the office of Bishop 
 in the Church of the United Brethren in Christ 
 at the General Conference held in the city of 
 Dayton, May, 1893, and served in this office until 
 the time of his death. 
 
 As Bishop, he served the West District for two 
 quadrenniums, from the time of his election until 
 1901. This district was composed of what is now 
 known as the Pacific Coast District and a major 
 part of the present West District. He made his 
 home in Denver, Colorado, and traveled this 
 immense district, touching all parts of it at least 
 once a year. 
 
 Bishop Mills was a liberal. His spirit and 
 life were in sympathy with the progressive move- 
 ments for the betterment of society and the 
 enlargement of the usefulness of the Church to 
 which he belonged. With this conception, he 
 entered the work of his office as Bishop of the 
 Church, and any one who will carefully study his 
 rulings will find that on every occasion he sought 
 to support every effort for advancement in the 
 departmental work of the denomination. Es- 
 pecially was this true in reference to Christian 
 education, for he firmly believed, after his years of 
 experience as a teacher and as president at Western 
 College, that the time was here for our Church 
 to take broad grounds on all questions affecting 
 human conduct and life. He greatly regretted 
 the errors made in the location of our institutions 
 of learning — all of them, without an exception, at 
 
134 THE CHURCHMAN AND BISHOP 
 
 that time being located in little villages, away 
 from the centers of influence and the currents of 
 life. Many times did he say, "I am so sorry that 
 our students can not catch the inspiration that 
 comes from mingling with the people, but are 
 narrowed in their vision and conception of life by 
 living their lives as students in secluded little 
 villages, thus deprived of the benefit of experience 
 in the commercial and social life of the greater 
 communities." It was on this account that he 
 stood so heroically for the removal of Otterbein 
 University to the city of Dayton, Ohio, believing 
 that, by thus removing the school, the institution 
 itself would be helped in their preparation for 
 future service in the world. In this view he was 
 supported by a vast majority of the ministers and 
 people of the co-operating conferences, nine out 
 of the ten conferences voting, as he urged them to 
 vote, for the removal of the institution. 
 
 From 1901 to the time of his death, he served 
 the East District, living at Annville, Pennsylvania, 
 where Lebanon Valley College is situated. His 
 methods as Bishop were different from those of 
 many of his predecessors. He was very practical 
 in all of his undertakings, being a great planner 
 and organizer. He undertook to work out certain 
 distinct plans which he thought would be bene- 
 ficial, not only to the conferences but to the local 
 churches. He believed in raising the standards 
 of efficiency of the ministry, and also the work of 
 the local church. Hence his efforts were directed 
 in this channel both at the annual conferences 
 and in his visits as Bishop to conference con- 
 ventions, and to the local churches as well. He was 
 
THE CHURCHMAN AND BISHOP 135 
 
 especially particular in the reports of pastors, 
 insisting that they be accurate, and holding many a 
 pastor to account during the annual conference 
 sessions; not only pleading with, but reproving 
 them for their lack of care in the reports they were 
 then submitting to the annual conferences. 
 
 As the territory over which he presided during 
 the first quadrennium was frontier mission terri- 
 tory for our denomination, Bishop Mills felt the 
 necessity of urging constructive work on the part 
 of those who were to be the pastors in this field. 
 He was in favor of concentration, making a few 
 strong churches rather than a number of weak ones ; 
 and thus build up the influential side of a de- 
 nominational life in this new territory. Whether 
 he was right or wrong is not for us to discuss in 
 his biography; only to state the fact, which may 
 have accounted for some of the positions that he 
 took in reference to the work of home missions 
 in this territory during the period when he served 
 as the Bishop of the district. He has often been 
 heard to say, "One strong church of five hundred 
 or a thousand in one of the great cities of my 
 district, is worth a whole conference of struggling 
 congregations, dependent upon the missionary 
 board for their support and existence." His 
 purpose, therefore, was to conserve by strength- 
 ening these local churches. Hence, he was not 
 found planning many new churches or conferences 
 on his district, and it accounts for his attitude on 
 the board, as he applied for larger individual 
 appropriations, in order that he might obtain the 
 service of men of ability and strength to enter 
 the larger cities of his district. 
 
136 THE CHURCHMAN AND BISHOP 
 
 Bishop Mills was a very careful student of 
 conditions. There seemed to be a special power of 
 discernment in his study of the future of the work 
 of the Church. Hence his position on the boards 
 and commissions of the Church proved him to be 
 a very valuable counselor and helper. He was 
 always very earnest in his support. 
 
 A peculiar incident is found in one of his 
 records in reference to the Church Commission, 
 which met to revise the Confession of Faith in the 
 Constitution of the Church of the United Brethren 
 in Christ. Said meeting occurred in the First 
 United Brethren Church, Dayton, Ohio, Novem- 
 ber 17, 1885. Mr. Mills recorded all the pro- 
 ceedings of that meeting, going into the minutest 
 detail, and giving an outline of the opening ad- 
 dress of Bishop Weaver on that occasion. He had 
 carefully written down the name of every mem- 
 ber of the commission, both ministerial and lay. 
 
 In reporting the third day, he said: "This 
 was a fine day — sunshiny; different from the 
 two days preceding, which were gloomy and 
 rainy. Perhaps the beauty of the day may have 
 helped the good fellowship of the body. This has 
 been exceptionally pleasant and sweet all the way 
 down." 
 
 After going through all these preliminaries 
 and marking every move by the commission, he 
 enters into a personal analysis of the membership. 
 In this analysis he reveals his discerning power in 
 the description he gives of the churchmen who 
 composed the commission. The relative position 
 of the men on that commission, their importance 
 as affecting the different questions that arose, and 
 
THE CHURCHMAN AND BISHOP 137 
 
 the effect of their hves upon the future of the 
 Church — all combine to reveal his keenness of per- 
 ception as relating to not only the subject matter 
 of Church life but the personnel back of it. 
 
 This same peculiar element of leadership was 
 manifest in all of his work, and especially in the ne- 
 gotiations between the Congregationalists, Meth- 
 odist Protestants, and United Brethren during 
 the period of their effort for church union. Bishop 
 Mills was a leader among men and was recognized 
 as such by the churches mentioned. He was 
 always on the alert to help forward an interest of 
 this kind and stood among those in the front rank 
 favoring this triple alliance, which would have 
 brought these churches into final organic union. 
 All his public utterances, his writings and his 
 correspondence reveal his intense interest in the 
 promotion of church unity, even to the point of 
 organic union. He was always anxious to know 
 who would represent the other churches, for then 
 he could form his opinion of the possibility of 
 accomplishing the end desired. He was seldom 
 wrong in his opinion of men as relating to their 
 position — affirmative or negative — on the questions 
 at issue. 
 
 In the annual conferences which he held he 
 was always progressive, standing for the new order 
 of things in nearly every case. He was very 
 pronounced in favor of conference superintend- 
 ency as against the old routine presiding elder. 
 This led to some contests in the conferences that 
 he held, but he succeeded in bringing the new 
 plan into operation. As a leader in this matter, 
 he never seemed to take into account what it 
 
138 THE CHURCHMAN AND BISHOP 
 
 might do for him personally to stand so decidedly 
 for the progressive measures that he believed 
 would open a new ear to the conference. 
 
 As a churchman, he was especially charitable 
 to an erring brother; disposed to give him another 
 chance. He was scathing sometimes in his repri- 
 mands, but it was usually given privately; yet after 
 he had brought the brother to a realization of his 
 wrong-doing Bishop Mills would then support him 
 to the measure of his strength, provided the man 
 showed a disposition to do right. He was often 
 heard to say that he considered it Christlike to 
 thus forgive. 
 
 From the time he entered the work of the 
 office of Bishop he was prominent in all the councils 
 of the Church, an incessant worker on every board 
 of which he was a member, never shirking a 
 responsibility that was placed upon him. He 
 accomplished much for the kingdom of Christ 
 and for the Church; and for this reason it is 
 interesting to study him in his official relation to 
 the Church. There was one subject to which 
 he often referred and which was very much on 
 his mind; that was, that the Church might have 
 a book literature. He felt that if the denom- 
 ination was to continue to grow, there must be 
 developed an authorship which would produce 
 the books necessary to meet the needs of the 
 children as they grew up into manhood and woman- 
 hood. There was not a new book issued in the 
 name of the Church that he did not give to it 
 hearty support, in order that others might be en- 
 couraged to produce manuscripts of permanent 
 value and real worth to the denomination. This, 
 
THE CHURCHMAN AND BISHOP 139 
 
 in itself, showed his far-sighted judgment, for no 
 one can doubt the wisdom of his position on this 
 subject. 
 
 In all, Bishop Mills' leadership was a great 
 inspiration to the Church during the period of his 
 active service. He stands out as pastor, college 
 pastor, college professor, college president, and 
 Bishop as a very unique character in the history 
 of our denomination. 
 
 It was his impulse to act quickly on his first 
 judgment, considering it the best. On this account 
 he sometimes chafed just a little because measures 
 that he favored were not at once accepted and 
 pushed to a final issue, but he would always move 
 forward, even if he did not have his own way and 
 his own plan adopted. So the Church mourns 
 his loss because of the absence of his construc- 
 tive inspiration. 
 
THE SON'S TRIBUTE TO HIS FATHER 
 
Chapter VIII 
 
 THE SON'S TRIBUTE TO HIS FATHER 
 
 :N the fall of 1907, father left home 
 to go to China, Japan, and the 
 Philippine Islands on a tour of in- 
 spection. He was, at that time, in 
 a weakened physical condition; and 
 he was obliged to leave during the 
 serious illness of his daughter, Lucile. But he 
 regarded the wishes of the Church as of first im- 
 portance always, and so left on the long journey. 
 While away he went wherever the Church 
 had mission stations, regardless of weather con- 
 ditions or of his own physical welfare, and covered 
 the whole mission territory of the Church in the 
 Orient. 
 
 When in the Philippine Islands, while travel- 
 ing to a distant station on horseback, in crossing 
 a bamboo bridge, the horse broke through the 
 bridge and threw him. He lit on his head and 
 shoulder, and severely twisted his neck; but he 
 resumed his journey and did not in any way allow 
 this fall to interfere with his trip. 
 
 He returned home in the following June, much 
 more worn than when he started. The mass of 
 work that had accumulated during his absence 
 made great demands upon his time and strength, 
 giving him no opportunity to rest after his long 
 journey. He tackled the work with his usual 
 determination, and, after the extremely hot 
 
144 THE SON'S TRIBUTE 
 
 weather of the summer had passed, in the cool, 
 pleasant days of autumn he seemed to gain some 
 strength. He even planned a hunting trip for 
 deer after the close of the fall conferences, and had 
 the place selected and the party made up; but at 
 the close of the conferences he was so exhausted 
 that he went to a sanitarium instead. He stayed 
 there for some weeks, and seemed to think that he 
 had received great benefit. 
 
 In December and January he undertook some 
 work at various points, but in February came 
 home ill, and was advised by his doctors to cancel 
 all engagements and stay indoors, taking treat- 
 ment for an affection of the throat. For some 
 time he seemed to improve, and when the warm 
 weather of spring again came he was taken out 
 daily into the open air, and gained strength rapidly. 
 The doctors assured him it was but a question of 
 time until he would be in good health again, and 
 until within two days of his death he never doubted 
 that he would entirely regain his former strength 
 and vigor. 
 
 As the time approached for General Con- 
 ference to convene, the doctors agreed that he 
 could attend safely and take part as his official 
 position demanded. He attended the General 
 Conference at Canton, and took part in the de- 
 hberations as he was able. Previous to this, he 
 had attended all the Church board meetings of 
 which he was a member, at Dayton. 
 
 Being assured by his physicians that he soon 
 would be in normal health, he stood for re-election 
 to the bishopric, and was re-elected. 
 
THE SON'S TRIBUTE 145 
 
 Near the close of the sessions he made too 
 large demands upon his strength, and one day, in 
 the conference room, suffered a serious and almost 
 fatal collapse. From this he rallied, largely 
 through the professional skill of his old-time 
 friend, Dr. E. R. Smith, of Toledo, Iowa, who was 
 a delegate to the General Conference. After two 
 days' rest, he again attended the sessions of the 
 Conference. 
 
 After the General Conference he came home, 
 hopeful, full of courage and faith, but very weak 
 in body. He was advised by all of the Church 
 officials to take a long rest and recuperate his 
 strength; and he was assured that his work would 
 be cared for by his friends. These kind words 
 and acts of his co-workers eased his mind of worry 
 over his own work, and gave him the opportunity 
 to get the rest he so much needed, and which, 
 taken earlier, might have saved his life. 
 
 He spent the spring and summer quietly with 
 his family in his home at Annville, Pennsylvania, 
 always cheerful, hopeful, and full of courage, 
 never doubting that time would bring back to 
 him the health which he so earnestly desired. If 
 at any time, during his illness of almost two years, 
 he was discouraged, he never said anything that 
 would indicate it. On the contrary, he was as 
 keenly interested in everything, and as hopeful 
 of the progress of the Church and of his own future 
 ability to work in and for it as he had in the past, 
 as a young minister is who has been successful, 
 and whose work has been interrupted by a short 
 period of illness. 
 
146 THE SON'S TRIBUTE 
 
 All that long, hot summer he rested, and 
 planned, and thought. He was under the constant 
 care of three physicians, and every known remedy 
 was resorted to that the diseased throat might 
 yield to treatment. He suffered no pain of any 
 kind, nor did he at any time during his illness; the 
 nerves which naturally would have caused pain 
 were practically paralyzed by the growth in the 
 throat. 
 
 As the summer days were drawing to a close, 
 and fall was again approaching, his physician 
 realized that the condition of his throat was not 
 improving, but was slowly and steadily growing 
 worse. Father was not aware of his condition, 
 but insisted that, if there was any change at all, 
 it was only temporarily for the worse, and that he 
 would soon begin to regain strength. He had 
 strength at this time barely sufficient to walk 
 around in the house, but sometimes he insisted on 
 trying to walk out into the yard, to see how his 
 flowers were growing. He was exceedingly fond 
 of trees and plants, and especially flowers of a 
 blue color. 
 
 He had acquired a small tract of land adjoin- 
 ing the rear of the house, and there set out an 
 orchard of apple, peach, plum, cherry, and pear 
 trees, and always said that after he retired from 
 the bishopric, which would be in 1913, he intended 
 to farm, and to write some books; the latter he 
 had never been able to find time to do. 
 
 As he sat on the porch, day after day, during 
 the summer of 1909, too weak to read or write, he 
 planned the work in his diocese, and also some of 
 the writing he intended doing as soon as he had 
 
THE SON'S TRIBUTE 147 
 
 time and leisure. He had in mind a book on 
 "Deaconess Work," and also several other works 
 of a theological nature, which one of the large 
 Eastern publishing houses of the country con- 
 templated issuing. It was his habit not to discuss 
 his work in his home, but to keep out of the home 
 everything except of a cheerful or optimistic 
 nature. If some part of the work went well, he 
 occasionally mentioned it, but usually refrained 
 from discussing any phase of his work that might 
 bring worry to any member of the family. 
 
 That he never committed to paper any of his 
 lectures, and very few of his sermons, is a source 
 of profound regret to his family and friends. His 
 notes were always brief, so brief that they con- 
 stituted the merest general outline of either sermon 
 or address; but each was thought out to great 
 length, and thoroughly prepared before he at- 
 tempted to deliver it from the pulpit or platform. 
 At intervals during that summer friends came from 
 a distance to see him, and he was always glad to 
 see them; they never failed to arouse him to the 
 enthusiasm of his better days, and always left him 
 convinced that he would soon be in good health 
 again. One of the most constant of these friends 
 in attendance was Mr. Charles B. Rettew, now 
 deceased, of Harrisburg, a layman, and a man of 
 iron will, whose coming was always an inspiration 
 to my father. 
 
 One of the first questions father asked of all 
 visitors was, "What is the last thing you have 
 read.'^" and, on hearing of a new book read, 
 usually asked for a brief outline. He kept in close 
 touch with all discussions dealing with theology. 
 
148 THE SON'S TRIBUTE 
 
 whether constructive or destructive, and always 
 was prepared to defend constructive criticism. 
 In his Hbrary to-day are books on destructive 
 criticism marked at the end in his firm, well- 
 known handwriting with the single word "Bosh" 
 — an expression of his attitude on the questions 
 discussed in the volume. He not only read every- 
 thing along the line of theology that came out 
 from time to time but was equally well informed 
 along the lines of philosophy, sociology, and 
 psychology. 
 
 Whenever he took up any subject for study, 
 he at once sent for all the standard works on that 
 subject and read them. He always said that a 
 man ought never to buy a book unless he would 
 read it at once. He had early in life acquired the 
 habit of very rapid reading, together with intense 
 concentration, so that he could get the gist of a 
 volume of philosophy or sociology as quickly as 
 most rapid readers are able to follow the thread 
 of a plot in an absorbing novel. 
 
 When he became interested in fruit raising, 
 knowing little of the results of recent scientific re- 
 searches in that line, he made the subject a study, 
 and obtained many of the latest authoritative 
 works. He visited orchards and nurseries, talked 
 with practical horticulturists, and then planted 
 his orchard. This is only one example of his 
 careful preparation for any line of work, whether 
 it was a sermon, lecture, or something in the line 
 of practical farming. 
 
 As he sat on the porch that summer, he 
 planned new flower-beds, and many other improve- 
 ments to the home property to be made yet that 
 
THE SON'S TRIBUTE 149 
 
 fall, to show results in bloom the next spring. 
 One thing in particular that he planned was four 
 great beds of red and yellow tulips, and daffodils, 
 and a bed of blue hyacinths ; of all these he was 
 very fond. Those flowers were all planted as he 
 had directed, and year after year they bloom, 
 bright and beautiful, emblems of hope and faith 
 and cheer; a constant reminder of his love of all 
 things good and beautiful. 
 
 As August came he became weaker in body 
 but as strong in courage as he had ever been. His 
 children were informed of the serious turn of his 
 illness, and came home. Nothing dehghted him 
 more than to be surrounded by his children. In 
 a Christmas address once, he said that that season 
 was the best and most beautiful of the whole year 
 to him, for it meant the birthday of the Savior, 
 and the coming together of earthly families for 
 another reunion under the parental roof. 
 
 He was greatly pleased that his children all 
 came home, and never for a moment suspected 
 that his own weakened condition was responsible 
 for their presence. He was always fond of sur- 
 rounding himself with little children and telling 
 them stories— of animals, fairies, and all those 
 things which children like best to hear, and which 
 serve to develop their imaginations. During the 
 days he felt able, he would have his two little 
 granddaughters, Mary Ellen and Katherine, sit 
 by his side, and by the hour he would tell them of 
 conditions when he was a little boy,, of his child- 
 hood home, and of the various pets and animals 
 they had on the farm. The little girls never tired 
 of these stories, and their grandfather never tired 
 
150 THE SON'S TRIBUTE 
 
 of the presence of the Kttle girls, nor did he ever 
 become impatient with them. 
 
 Late in August, when it was seen that his 
 condition was serious, a nurse was installed to care 
 for him. He had protested against this, as he 
 said that he was not really very ill at all, and that, 
 the presence of the nurse would not be of any aid, 
 and would only be a reminder that he was sick. 
 But he was finally persuaded that it was necessary, 
 as the months of constant watchfulness, anxiety, 
 and care had made serious inroads upon the 
 strength of his wife, who had been constantly at 
 his side day and night during all his long illness. 
 
 In September, on Labor Day, father, although 
 feeble, wanted to walk out in the yard and see 
 some of the roses, one or two of which were in 
 bloom. The day was hot, but he thought, with 
 the assistance of the nurse, he was strong enough 
 to do it. But it was too great a tax upon his 
 strength, and, after walking but a short distance, 
 he came back to the porch, and sat there much of 
 the day. In the afternoon some friends came to 
 see him, but he was so exhausted that he could not 
 arouse himself more than to greet them and answer 
 their questions. In the early evening, he had a 
 chill, and was put to bed and the doctor hastily 
 summoned. This left him very weak, and he 
 was never down stairs and in the open air again. 
 
 These chills were succeeded by a high fever, 
 and were the same to which he had been subject 
 since a serious attack of African fever in 1896, 
 while in Sierra Leone, West Africa. From 1896 
 until his death in 1909, he had had repeated re- 
 turns of the African fever, and in 1897 in Denver, 
 
THE SON'S TRIBUTE 151 
 
 his life had been threatened by a serious attack. 
 Whenever he was greatly overworked, this fever 
 would manifest itself. It seemed to have left a 
 poison in his system, which finally helped shorten 
 his life. 
 
 From Labor Day on, it was only a question 
 of time as to how long he could live. The doctors 
 thought it might be some months, but as day after 
 day he became weaker, they recognized that the 
 end was rapidly approaching. They asked that 
 noted specialists be summoned, and this was at 
 once done. What the exact trouble was, had not 
 been clearly understood; but the diagnosis made 
 by the attending physicians and the specialist 
 coincided, and later was proved to be correct by 
 a post-mortem examination. 
 
 Friday night, of the week before father died, 
 the physicians told my mother and the family, 
 not only that he could not live, but that his life 
 was only a question of a few days at best. It 
 came as a very great shock to her, as she had 
 had the most implicit confidence in her husband's 
 great recuperative ability and in his strong will 
 power. Even at this time, father never for a 
 moment questioned but that he would ultimately 
 fully recover his health. 
 
 On Sunday, September 1?, an effort was made 
 to give him nourishment by absorption. The 
 difficulty was, and had been, through all those 
 months of illness, that he could not swallow food. 
 He suffered no pain of any kind, nor did he suffer 
 any during his entire illness. It was pitiful, to his 
 friends and especially to his family, to see him 
 surrounded by food, and yet unable to swallow 
 
152 THE SON'S TRIBUTE 
 
 except in the most minute quantities. His throat 
 was slowly closing, and he, a large and powerful 
 man, with a normal weight of two hundred and 
 twenty -five pounds, was gradually relinquishing a 
 useful and efficient life, because of a small growth 
 in his throat. Every means that could be em- 
 ployed was used to relieve him. Specialists were 
 employed who consulted other specialists, but all 
 to no purpose; his throat continued slowly but 
 surely to close. 
 
 On Monday afternoon, September 13, he 
 asked me to write to his friend. Dr. John R. King, 
 who was about to sail for Africa from New York, 
 and, among other things said, "It is a little dis- 
 couraging now, but I hope soon to be improved in 
 health." That letter was the last he ever dictated 
 as a matter of regular correspondence. 
 
 That night he was very restless. At the mid- 
 night hour the nurse became alarmed, and fearing 
 the end was near, called the family. Up to this 
 time father had not the least suspicion that his 
 case was hopeless. He had not been told of the 
 unanimous opinion of all the specialists and of his 
 regular physicians — that he not only could not 
 recover, but that his life was only a question of 
 days; so when the nurse informed the family of 
 his dangerous condition, it was decided that he 
 ought to know that his death was perhaps a matter 
 of but minutes or hours. To me was given this 
 sad task; and at one o'clock, on the morning of 
 September fourteenth, with my mother and oldest 
 sister at his bedside to help sustain him in the 
 knowledge that his useful life was at an end, as 
 
THE SON'S TRIBUTE 153 
 
 gently as I could, I told him that his doctors said 
 he could not recover. 
 
 He was greatly startled, and insisted that it 
 could not be possible. He said to me: "You are 
 surely mistaken. What makes you draw the 
 conclusion that I must die-f^ Why do you tell me 
 ihsit? I cannot die. I have not the time. I have 
 not nearly completed my work. Why, I have 
 at least ten years' work yet to do." So he talked, 
 and I had to prove to him, as proof would be 
 required in a case in court, that he could not live. 
 After father and I had talked for perhaps fifteen 
 minutes, and all that the specialists had said was 
 laid before him, he turned to my mother and 
 sister and said, "Well, if you will take it as brave- 
 ly as I, it will be all right." In so suddenly having 
 the absolute knowledge of his death laid before 
 him, he made no complaint whatever, but accepted 
 the fact philosophically and with the fullest faith 
 in the Christian religion in the ministry of which 
 he had labored for forty years. 
 
 He was asked whether he desired to see any 
 one, or to leave any message, and he at once said 
 that he wished to see his brother. Rev. WilHam J. 
 Mills, a Presbyterian minister of Zanesville, Ohio, 
 now of Arapahoe, Colorado, and also his intimate 
 friend and fellow churchman. Rev. W. R. Funk, 
 of Dayton, Ohio. These men were at once sent 
 for. 
 
 During the remainder of the night he was 
 quiet. He was perfectly conscious, and while he 
 did not sleep, he rested. He did not seem to care 
 to talk, but spent the time in thought. As morn- 
 ing approached, he asked that his physicians be 
 
154 THE SON'S TRIBUTE 
 
 sent for. On their arrival, he asked them if he 
 could not recover; and they answered that he 
 could not. He then told them that he had thought 
 of a method by which he could be operated upon 
 and that that would surely save his life, and allow 
 him to recover and go ahead with his work. He 
 emphasized to them that he was too busy a man 
 to die; he had too much work still to be completed. 
 With deep regret they explained to him that the 
 operation suggested was out of the question, it 
 would hasten his death. He asked, then, if noth- 
 ing could be done to help him, and was told that 
 only by his taking nourishment and swallowing it 
 could his life be prolonged. He exclaimed, "I will 
 take snake eggs, and swallow them too, if that will 
 do any good," and laughed, 
 
 That morning a desperate effort was made to 
 open his throat and put a tube down by which 
 nourishment could be administered to him, but 
 it was of no avail. Everything failed that was 
 tried. As he saw and understood that all had 
 failed, he knew that he must die; but he said to me: 
 "You need not worry. I will fight as hard to get 
 well as if I were going to get well. I will get well 
 if it is humanely possible." 
 
 Later on in the day, he said to me: "I was 
 never in a better state of grace to die. All the 
 time I have been lying here, I have prayed con- 
 stantly, and now I have conquered my temper, 
 and I have conquered my tongue." His temper 
 and his tongue were his worst enemies, and he told 
 me that it had been a life-long fight to keep them 
 in control. 
 
THE SON'S TRIBUTE 155 
 
 His family were constantly around his bed, 
 but he said no word of farewell. He did not wish 
 to distress them more deeply than he could help. 
 The only farewell which he wished to send, was to 
 his life-long friend. Rev. H. A. Thompson, D.D. 
 He had me receive the dictation, in which he said 
 that he had a secret to tell Docto" Thompson, and 
 this was that he would have to get some one else 
 to preach his funeral sermon. Father had agreed 
 to do that, should Doctor Thompson, an older 
 man than he, be called first. He closed his letter 
 with "Goodby," as simply as if he were going only 
 on a short journey, and expected soon to return. 
 
 During the day he talked over many things 
 about the house, planned a new flower-bed, and 
 gave directions to care for some berry bushes in 
 his new orchard. All these things he did quietly 
 and just as if he were leaving directions for things 
 to be done while he was on a journey from which 
 he would soon return. He planned just as he always 
 did before he went on any long journey. The only 
 thing that seemed to trouble him was the possible 
 loneliness of mother, and the fear that she might 
 not be tenderly cared for. After I had promised 
 to look after this, he had no more worries, and 
 prepared cheerfully for the end of his life on this 
 earth. 
 
 On that Tuesday evening, the family sat with 
 him and he talked cheerfully of the events of the 
 day, was interested in everything around him, 
 and would let no gloom into the atmosphere. 
 He rested fairly well during the night and woke 
 early on Wednesday morning. On the early 
 train he expected his brother, and also Doctor 
 
156 THE SON'S TRIBUTE 
 
 Funk. They came, and he was very glad to see 
 them. He spent the day in talking to them of old 
 friends, neighbors, and people known to them and 
 to him, of the years long since gone. He even 
 joked cheerfully, and told pleasant stories, and 
 laughed heartily at them. 
 
 He thought that it was his duty to resign from 
 the bishopric of the Church, so that another man 
 could be at once appointed; but his family, and 
 especially myself, urged most strongly against 
 that step. I contended that insomuch as he was 
 giving his life to the Church, he was entitled to 
 die as a soldier would fall in battle, with his full 
 powers of office intact. Father finally consented 
 to do this, and to die an officer of the Church, 
 stricken at his post of duty. 
 
 He did not discuss Church matters, nor did 
 he leave any plans for the Church at large, as has 
 frequently been said since his death by certain 
 men within the Church. This his family desires 
 to be emphasized. But the labors of the years 
 gone, were talked of and with Doctor Funk he 
 also talked of his funeral arrangements. He had 
 agreed with his family that he would be buried 
 in the Scottdale cemetery at Scottdale, Pennsyl- 
 vania, the home of Mrs. Mills and her people. 
 
 He also talked to Doctor Funk of his uncom- 
 pleted literary work, and of the fact that he had 
 almost no manuscript of his sermons and lectures, 
 as he had intended, after his active work was over, 
 to devote the latter years of his life to writing them 
 and doing much other literary work, mostly of a 
 theological nature. Doctor Funk had to leave 
 that afternoon, the last of the Bishop's life, to 
 
THE SON'S TRIBUTE 157 
 
 dedicate the church at Greensburg, Pennsylvania. 
 Father himself was to have officiated at this 
 dedication. 
 
 Wednesday evening the entire family were 
 again with him — his wife, his three daughters, his 
 son, his son-in-law, his brother, and his brother- 
 in-law, Albert Keister. He was in excellent 
 spirits, laughing and joking, and telling stories of 
 his boyhood. He was interested in everything 
 that went on around him, and also in the events 
 of the past. He asked his brother, whom he had 
 not seen in some years, all about the people with 
 whom he associated in his boyhood, and of several 
 told funny stories connected with them. 
 
 That night there was little sleep in the house- 
 hold, for it was realized that the end was near at 
 hand. A heavy fog had settled over the valley 
 and toward morning there was a cold drizzling 
 rain. Father awoke with a raging fever, and 
 spoke of extreme thirst. He said that if he had a 
 drink from a beautiful little spring not very far 
 distant, he felt certain that that would quench 
 his thirst. The water was obtained, but the thirst 
 and the fever increased. The doctors saw that the 
 end could not be very far away, and father himself 
 evidently realized it. He said little, but was 
 interested in all that went on around him. Being 
 interested in the study of psychology in college, I 
 asked father, who was known as a psychologist, 
 if he would not communicate with me from the 
 other side, and he replied that he would do so, 
 were it in any way possible. When I asked him 
 to leave a sign by which he might be known, he 
 declined to do so, saying that if he could com- 
 
158 THE SON'S TRIBUTE 
 
 municate, he would do so in such a way that I 
 could not be mistaken; while if he left a sign or 
 signal, I might sometime think that he had com- 
 municated when he had not. 
 
 As the morning advanced, the fever seemed 
 to rise and he was very restless. My sister, Mrs. 
 Rush, brought in her little girls to see grandpa, 
 who had so often amused them with his stories. 
 He was very fond of the little girls, Mary Ellen 
 and Katherine, and shook hands with them, saying 
 to the younger, a little fair-haired girl in her 
 mother's arms, "Good-by, Tattie." That was the 
 only farewell which he spoke to any member of 
 his family, although he realized that his life was 
 fast slipping away. 
 
 The doctors, D. P. Gerberich and Guy Ger- 
 berich, the latter a throat specialist, were with him 
 constantly, and on this last forenoon Doctor D. P. 
 Gerberich stayed with him until the end. At his 
 bedside were his wife, his daughters, Mrs. F. P. 
 Rush, Uniontown, Pennsylvania, Mrs. A. R. Clip- 
 pinger, Dayton, Ohio, and Miss Lucile Mills, 
 now Mrs. Guy A. Gerberich, Lebanon, Pennsyl- 
 vania, his son, Mr. Alfred Keister Mills, his son- 
 in-law, Rev. A. R. Clippinger, his brother. Rev. 
 W. J. Mills, of Arapahoe, Colorado, and his 
 brother-in-law, Mr. Albert Keister, of Scottdale, 
 Pennsylvania, and his nurse, Mr. William Rankin. 
 
 Father was fully conscious, and while con- 
 sumed with a burning fever, did not become 
 delirious. He answered questions at once, but 
 did not speak except to ask for bits of ice. After 
 noon, he began to fail rapidly, and while I was 
 sitting by the bed, I said to him: "Father, do you 
 
THE SON'S TRIBUTE 159 
 
 know what is going on about you? Do you know 
 us?" He glanced at each around his bed, and an- 
 swered, "Yes." I then said: "Father, can you see 
 over to that other side? Can you distinguish 
 faces?" and he answered, "Not yet." After that he 
 was not aroused again, and at about one fifteen in 
 the afternoon lost consciousness, and at one twen- 
 ty-seven his spirit passed to God. Not once had his 
 brilliant mind become clouded in all these months 
 of illness; not once had it failed, but had remained 
 clear and strong up to within a very few minutes 
 of the close of his life. 
 
 He died, as he had lived and preached, in the 
 full faith and hope of the Christian religion, trust- 
 ing absolutely in the infinite mercy and justice of 
 God, and in the full belief of heaven and his reward 
 after a faithful life, full of toil and service for his 
 Master. He wished to live longer, not for the 
 sake of life, but for the sake of the work which he 
 was doing. That he did much for his Church, all 
 must agree. If he made mistakes, he was faithful 
 to the end and gave all that one man can give — 
 his best life and service. 
 
BISHOP MILLS AT HOME 
 
HIS PERSONAL TRAITS AND CHARACTER 
 
Chapter IX 
 
 HIS PERSONAL TRAITS AND CHARACTER 
 
 JEW men stood so high morally as 
 did Bishop Mills. Never was the 
 breath of scandal associated with 
 his name. Personally, he was clean 
 in thought, principle, and action. 
 He abhorred evil as a community 
 does a contagion. This caused him to be an 
 extremist on matters of personal character and 
 community vices. He stood opposed to every 
 tendency that degraded manhood or womanhood, 
 whether in the open dens of wickedness or in 
 the secluded, sheltered places — palaces of wealth. 
 All these social conditions caused him great con- 
 cern, as he studied the problems of state and 
 church; and they made him an ardent defender 
 of the "pure life" as it relates to human conduct. 
 In the study of the outlines of his discourses and 
 addresses, this fact is made very prominent; for 
 conduct in its different aspects was one of the 
 richest fields in which he applied the Christ 
 principles of life. 
 
 It can be said of this man, "Out of the abun- 
 dance of the heart the mouth speaketh." No 
 utterances of his lips, whether pious or rash, were 
 uttered that did not have a basis of feeling in his 
 inner soul. Born with an unyielding will power 
 and a high temper, he was often in desperate 
 
164 TRAITS AND CHARACTER 
 
 struggles with himself and others; and, in moments 
 of excitement, he would utter words for which he 
 was afterwards very sorry. It was said of him, 
 sometimes, that his words were keener than the 
 razor blade. But, with all this, he seldom yielded 
 to this frame of mind. His sympathetic nature 
 would finally prevail, and, in nearly every case, 
 he was ready to make amends for any harsh state- 
 ment he might have made. 
 
 These traits of character mark him as an 
 exemplary man. No one knew the contest he had 
 with himself. When he met an individual of like 
 temperament, and a difference arose between them, 
 there was certain to be a lively contest; and, as 
 Bishop Mills did not know how to retreat, the 
 contest was always to a finish, or until the opponent 
 subsided. It is said of artists, philosophers, and 
 men of mechanical genius that they are men of 
 strong and unyielding wills, easily stirred by 
 opposition, and, as a result, severe in their retali- 
 ation. Whether this element is one of strength or 
 weakness, is still a debatable question. Without 
 it, these individuals who stand out so marked 
 because of their achievements in the historic world 
 might have been lost in the crowd, and their works 
 remained unaccomplished. Without this element 
 of will and temper, there is little doubt that 
 Bishop Mills would have yielded, first of all, to 
 disease in his childhood; and then have drifted 
 away from his life work because of the trying cir- 
 cumstances surrounding the first years of his 
 ministerial career. 
 
 When, after the death of his first wife, he 
 attended the Scioto Annual Conference, at Wes- 
 
TRAITS AND CHARACTER 165 
 
 terville, Ohio, he pubHcly denounced the annual 
 conference as being responsible for the death of his 
 wife, due to the fact that, during the year previous 
 they had not provided him with a field of labor 
 such as would give his family the support necessary 
 for their protection; and, as a result, as he claimed, 
 his wife was taken from him. Of course, this was 
 but another evidence of the strong, positive temper 
 and impulsive nature of this great man. 
 
 But Bishop Mills' disposition was versatile. 
 While he was quick to resent, he was just as quick 
 to appreciate, and any kindness shown him by 
 friend or foe was always reciprocated to the fullest 
 extent. 
 
 He also appreciated a joke, either at his own 
 expense or the expense of another, as long as 
 neither was injured; but he always resented any- 
 thing that was injurious in this line. One day 
 when he arrived at Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, 
 with his two heavy suit-cases partially filled with 
 books, which he always carried with him for the 
 purpose of study as he went from place to place, 
 a slender little fellow, a minister, came to meet 
 him and undertook to carry his suit-cases for him. 
 As he could not make much headway with the 
 load, the Bishop, with a twinkle in his eye, said to 
 him, "You cannot yet carry the load of a Bishop, 
 young man." 
 
 When he was a little fellow at home, it was 
 unusual to see negroes, and, as a small boy, he 
 hardly knew what to think of them. One day. 
 when going along the road, he met a little negro. 
 He looked at him intently for a while, and then 
 said slowly, "Two pealed onions in a bucket of 
 
166 TRAITS AND CHARACTER 
 
 tar"; then, turning quickly, he took to his heels, 
 and ran away as fast as he could. 
 
 As strange as it may seem to those who were 
 not closely associated with Bishop Mills, he was, 
 nevertheless, a great hunter, and enjoyed the sport 
 with rare relish. When in Oregon, while Bishop 
 on the Pacific Coast, he frequently went out after 
 bear, cougar, and deer. This story is told of him: 
 While hunting on Mt. Hood on one occasion he 
 was gone for several days. When he came home 
 he said little concerning the trip, except that he 
 had enjoyed the trip. Some time afterwards, 
 when a member of this party was again in the 
 community hunting, he learned that, when the 
 Bishop had been up there previously after bear, a 
 small black calf had jumped up and the Bishop, 
 quickly aiming his rifle, brought the supposed 
 bear down; but, upon investigation, had found his 
 mistake. It is said that the farmer received full 
 pay for his calf. Whether this story is false or 
 true, the Bishop was compelled to submit to a 
 good many jokes concerning it. 
 
 This humorous trait of character was often 
 manifested in the home and in social fellowship 
 but never appeared in his pulpit work. In op- 
 position to this humorous trait, stands one word 
 which, possibly, represents his severest contest; 
 that word is "timidity." No man suffered more 
 from this trait of character than did Bishop Mills. 
 He has said to the writer, time and time again, that 
 he never rose to speak on any occasion but he had 
 to summon his will power to assist him over the 
 first few moments of agony caused by this feeling. 
 This would account for his very deliberate manner. 
 
TRAITS AND CHARACTER 167 
 
 almost universally obtaining as he began his 
 discourses. It is said of him, when in Westerville, 
 when pastor of the university, that he arose on one 
 occasion to preach. He read his text and under- 
 took to speak, but he could say nothing. He stared 
 at the congregation for a moment, in what seemed 
 to be supreme agony and fright; then, turning to 
 Rev. J. B. Resler, who was sitting near the front 
 of the church, he said, "My God, Brother Resler, 
 start a hymn." After the hymn, he dismissed the 
 congregation. So broken and discouraged was 
 he as a result of this experience, that he intended 
 to resign his pastorate and leave the school, but 
 was pursuaded by Mr. Resler to remain, assuring 
 him that perseverance would bring to him a victory 
 over this feeling of stage fright. 
 
 A close study of his character in the light 
 of what has just been said revealed the following 
 elements. He was very sensitive. He was sus- 
 ceptible to the very slightest sensation about him. 
 He responded quickly to appeals for sympathy or 
 assistance. No one ever approached him for help 
 in vain. He was the friend of any one in distress. 
 He invariably took the part of the man who was 
 down. Once, when traveling in Virginia, he had 
 a negro pastor join him in an ordinary day coach. 
 The conductor, coming in, said that the negro 
 would have to leave that car, as there was a 
 special car for people of his race on the train. 
 Bishop Mills said that the negro was in the car 
 because he had asked him there. The conductor, 
 however, insisted that he would have to leave. 
 The Bishop then informed the conductor that he 
 would encounter trouble right there if he did not 
 
168 TRAITS AND CHARACTER 
 
 leave them alone; and the sequel was, the con- 
 ductor left the negro minister with the Bishop. 
 
 Another incident is related, in which he took 
 very positive grounds for this rejected race. It 
 was on an occasion when, in a New York restau- 
 rant one night, the Bishop had, as his guest, one 
 of our negro workers from Africa. The manager 
 of the restaurant told Mr. Mills that they would 
 not feed negroes. The Bishop arose, in his com- 
 manding way, and told the waiter to serve the 
 food. After sizing up the Bishop, he decided to 
 go ahead, and the food was served, and our African 
 brother from Sierra Leone remained as his guest 
 at the table. 
 
 His sensitiveness was also manifested in 
 another direction, for he felt very keenly any in- * 
 sinuation made, or snub that might be given him. 
 This feeling caused him to be very pronounced 
 in favor of his friends and as positive against his 
 opponents. No one could oppose him without 
 measuring, with the sword of debate, up to the 
 final issue in the contest. 
 
 Another element in his character, closely 
 associated with that of his sensitiveness, was his 
 mighty intellect. No one who knew him will 
 question the statement that he had a great brain, 
 marvelously developed. It was perfectly natural 
 for Bishop Mills to think. It was his daily meat 
 and drink. It was not a habit; it was his life. In 
 his thinking he was so universal that no line of 
 thought escaped him. 
 
 Bishop Weekley, in his words of appreciation, 
 raises the question of the value of his universal 
 reading; but this universal reading was only the 
 
TRAITS AND CHARACTER 169 
 
 outgrowth of an unsatisfied intellectual acumen 
 that knew no limit. Hence, he could converse 
 intellectually on any subject of current literature, 
 or recite the ancient mythologies. It was this 
 intellectual power that gave him strength for in- 
 terpretation and investigation in Latin, Greek, 
 Hebrew, French, German, Spanish, and Italian, 
 and made him a master teacher in English. In 
 his library are found books in these languages, 
 in which he delved, searching for additional 
 information on lines of study that he had marked 
 out for himself. Only a man with a colossal in- 
 tellect could have mastered what he did in his 
 study. The books referred to above bear his 
 pencil marks, showing what he achieved along these 
 lines. 
 
 Associated with his study and investigation 
 was his close application as a student. One of the 
 difficulties in the educational work of our day is 
 the lack of application. Bishop Mills for himself 
 overcame this obstacle. No problem was too great 
 for him to investigate. He did not think it 
 egotistical to delve into the very hardest problems, 
 in the investigation of which specialists had given 
 their lives, in order that he himself might have 
 first-hand knowledge on these subjects. Instead 
 of getting translations of books from other lan- 
 guages, he did not consider it a task too serious to 
 master the language to the extent that he could 
 interpret the book himself and for himself. This 
 is restated here in order to emphasize the fact of 
 his concentration of mind. Pursuing his way as 
 a student, at the beginning in the mazes, but, 
 afterwards, in the full light of the noon-day sun 
 
170 TRAITS AND CHARACTER 
 
 of knowledge, he arrived at what satisfied him as 
 truth, on many of the noted questions of the day. 
 Necessarily, he was a wide reader, and that oft- 
 repeated question, as he traveled here and there 
 and yonder, and met men in every station of hfe — 
 "What is the latest book you have read?" — 
 became almost a by-word throughout the denomi- 
 nation. 
 
 One great element that he possessed was his 
 memory, which he so developed that he seldom 
 forgot anything. In his last sickness, when he 
 found a lapse of memory, no one was more dis- 
 turbed over it than he himself. He was unwilling 
 to admit that there was any indication of a weak- 
 ness in this respect. His contest was to overcome 
 this tendency. By the aid of his memory, he was 
 able after gathering the contents of a book on any 
 subject, to appropriate it in his own thinking, re- 
 casting and remolding the thought into his own lan- 
 guage, and making it a part of his own thinking. 
 Thus, when he came to his addresses, he would 
 clothe this thought, which he had accepted into 
 his own life as a part of his own thinking, and give 
 it forth in his own setting, using his own words 
 to emphasize the truth. All this was the result 
 of his unerring memory. In conversation with a 
 gentleman on one occasion, he said, "I have de- 
 veloped the law of association in my thinking in 
 order that my memory may be aided to as nearly 
 the point of perfection as possible." No one can 
 study him without understanding that this man 
 knew himself as nearly perfectly as any human 
 being can. 
 
TRAITS AND CHARACTER 171 
 
 He could not have accomplished what he did 
 had it not been for his indomitable will. Bishop 
 Mills may have been defeated, but was never 
 conquered. When he believed he was right, he 
 never changed his opinion or position. This 
 caused those who differed with him to look upon 
 him as stubborn and unyielding. No apology 
 need be made for this element of character, for 
 it is that which has led to success in the lives of 
 all men in all centuries who have attained to any 
 marked degree of success. It was the striking 
 element in the life of President Jackson, and it was 
 the absence of this that was the one weakness in 
 the Hfe of Daniel Webster. This will power, as 
 has already been said, was the anchor in the life 
 of Bishop Mills that held him steady, working 
 out his purposes, and bringing him, at last, to a 
 place of triumph and victory. If we were to mark 
 the greatest weakness in the elements of his 
 character, it would be stated in the word, "im- 
 petuous." Easily stirred, easily annoyed, he 
 reminds one of the calm sea, which, in a few 
 moments of time, is heaped into a leaping, raging 
 tempest. This he fully understood, and, it was a 
 weakness which he had marked with a manly 
 purpose to overcome to the best of his ability. 
 If critics in this line had exerted as much effort 
 as he, possibly the contests, in which they found 
 themselves when they met him, would not have 
 been so frequent or so severely fought out. 
 
 In giving a description of Bible characters 
 on one occasion. Bishop Mills said that the dis- 
 ciple of Jesus Christ whom he liked best was 
 Peter, "because he was a big, rough, quick-tera- 
 
172 TRAITS AND CHARACTER 
 
 pered fellow, with a kind heart, impetuous nature; 
 but sorry when he was wrong, and always trying 
 to make amends." The Bishop said that he 
 himself was just like Peter, having these same 
 characteristics, and, therefore, he liked Peter 
 best. From this statement, from his own pen, 
 one can gather his estimate of himself, and can 
 understand something of his own effort to over- 
 come in his own life this besetting trait of char- 
 acter. Most beautifully has it been related by 
 his son, in his tribute to his father, how, as he 
 came down near to the end of his life, he was heard 
 to say: "I was never in a better state of grace to 
 die. All the time I have been hnng here, I have 
 prayed constantly, and now I have conquered 
 my temper, and I have conquered my tongue" — 
 the last enemies over which he felt that a complete 
 victory needed to be won. Let the critic take 
 notice how the hero won and died. 
 
 The one element which stood out most promi- 
 nently in the character of Bishop Mills was his 
 unselfishness. He was in a position to have 
 gained wealth and affluence had he been desirous 
 of gratifying his inclinations for personal comforts, 
 and his ambitions. Associated, as he was, with 
 men of influence and wealth, he could have entered 
 several different fields of activity, and worked out 
 for himself a line of achievements that would have 
 brought to him honor, position, and wealth; but 
 he chose, rather, to continue his work in his Church, 
 as co-laborer with those who had been his associates 
 through his whole life. 
 
 As a public speaker. Bishop Mills was peculiar. 
 His influence over his audiences was pronounced. 
 
TRAITS AND CHARACTER 173 
 
 Few men carry the weight of influence that he 
 did with the multitude. There was a seeming 
 self consciousness in his address. When he arose 
 to speak he seemed to study himself, as well as the 
 people about him, and one wondered just what the 
 outcome would be. This trait of character was 
 so manifest that people who did not know him, 
 but who were scholarly in the attainments, ques- 
 tioned whether or not he would fail in his efl'ort. 
 But, before he had proceeded very far, he would 
 gain control of himself and of the audience, and 
 swayed them at will. He would pause in the 
 midst of a sentence until it would be almost 
 painful, and yet that pause would be turned to 
 account in the rounding up of the thought which 
 he desired to express. At times he would become 
 fluent and eloquent. The inspiration seemed to 
 come upon him. Who has not heard him, at the 
 end of those periods of supreme victory, quote 
 that marvelous Psalm: 
 
 "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye 
 lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of 
 glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory .^ 
 The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in 
 battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift 
 them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of 
 glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory.? 
 The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory." 
 
 One of his old parishoners said recently that 
 this favorite quotation closed so many of his ser- 
 mons while he was pastor of the church at Wester- 
 ville; and, having heard him just previous to his 
 death, he again used this scripture, quoting it in 
 the most impressive manner, convincing the one 
 
174 TRAITS AND CHARACTER 
 
 who referred to it that he had Hved much in the 
 thought of these words, and had brought himself 
 nearer to a complete submission to this wonderful 
 King, who was Lord and Master of his own life. 
 
ESTIMATE OF HIS LIFE AND WORK BY 
 HIS COTEMPORARIES 
 
Chapter X 
 
 ESTIMATE OF HIS LIFE AND WORK BY 
 HIS COTEMPORARIES 
 
 By N. Castle. 
 
 ;HE Church mourns the departure 
 of this remarkable man, and it is 
 well that he should be remembered 
 and honored. We must all admit 
 J-^^S|s?ij^^ how empty and comfortless are all 
 !^'^0qO\>.-^j^3 human words, however fitly spo- 
 ken, at such a time as this. Some sorrows 
 may be assuaged by human sympathy; others 
 must be suffered in solitude. Gethsemane is 
 for solitary feet. No sympathizing ones can go 
 far into that sacred silence. The atmosphere is 
 too oppressive, and the loneliness too deep to be 
 broken by any but a loved and lonely one. All 
 others must "stay here," like the disciples of old, 
 while this lone one "goes yonder." What heart 
 has not passed into that midnight shade and 
 cried, "Oh, for the touch of a vanished hand, and 
 the sound of a voice that is still." 
 
 May we not sometimes magnify sorrow that 
 we desire to soothe, and for this reason hesitate 
 to break the sacred silence by hasty footsteps, 
 or by words of comfort and cheer too vocal and 
 untimely.'^ The grief is too great, the sorrow too 
 new, the wound too fresh for any human comfort 
 
178 ESTIMATES OF LIFE AND WORK 
 
 to avail. Alone with God and the unseen — the 
 mystic realm where comfort alone can be found. 
 How empty-sounding all words of the merely 
 mortal tongue in such a sacred presence. 
 
 But while we admit the emptiness of human 
 words at such a time, there come through the 
 ages words full of meaning and comfort, "The 
 Eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the 
 everlasting arms." 
 
 Public sympathy and lamentation over the 
 fall of personal and official greatness is very proper 
 and becoming. The valley of Moab was a "vale 
 of tears" when Moses departed. All Judah and 
 Jerusalem lamented when Josiah fell. Respect 
 for the departed is interwoven with the very fiber 
 of our being. When one falls who was so well 
 known, whose character was so highly esteemed, 
 and whose labors were so extensive and vital to the 
 Church as in the case of Bishop J. S. Mills, it 
 becomes no less a melancholy privilege than a 
 sacred duty to bear witness to his worth and the 
 Church's loss. 
 
 Of few men in the Church could it be said with 
 greater emphasis and more truth than of him, 
 "Thou shalt be missed; because thy seat shall be 
 empty." Like Tennyson wrote of his departed 
 friend, Arthur Hallam, "I weep a loss forever 
 new." Whittier says of another, 
 
 "Peace with thee, O our brother, 
 
 In the spirit land. 
 Vainly seek we for another 
 In thy place to stand." 
 
 There is not one throughout the Church that 
 knew Bishop Mills, but confesses to a sense of such 
 
ESTIMATES OF LIFE AND WORK 179 
 
 a loss. Others may succeed him in the Bishop's 
 office, and do great honor to the office, but few 
 can take his place in the peculiar admiration and 
 affection which grappled to him with hooks of 
 steel his friends, admirers, and acquaintances. 
 
 Had he no faults and no weaknesses? Cer- 
 tainly he had. He would have been lonely among 
 us without them. But in all the relations of life, 
 as a husband, as a father, as a scholar, as a preacher, 
 and as a bishop, he was a pillar of strength and a 
 fountain of joy. In days to come, when those who 
 to him were dearest sit in the solitude of a now 
 broken circle, these sweet memories will come 
 back to them to hallow the twilight hours. Do we 
 not sometimes hear the voices of our departed 
 loved ones, speaking to us in accents sweeter than 
 the Aeolian harp, and there falls upon us a spell 
 we could not break, nor would we if we could .^^ 
 
 As a student Bishop Mills was most remark- 
 able. Not having been able to complete a regular 
 college curriculum, and not being of vigorous 
 health when young, he became, nevertheless, one 
 of the finest scholars in the Church. He applied 
 himself assiduously to reading and study, and 
 thus compensated for the loss of educational 
 training by systematic habits of study. He was a 
 great lover of literature, a student of books, patient 
 in research, persistent in industry, with wonderful 
 power of acquisition. Profound, yet like Thomas 
 Chalmers, "in simplicity he was a child," a strange 
 quality of heart and life; a beautiful unconscious- 
 ness of self. He believed what he said; and had 
 the courage to say what he believed. He was 
 profoundly sincere, and this made him dear to 
 
180 ESTIMATES OF LIFE AND WORK 
 
 others. While he was humble, he did not distrust 
 his own power, or hesitate to express his opinion. 
 
 The appeal of his work was, to him, supreme. 
 He spared not himself; seemed to care nothing for 
 himself as compared to his work. His ambition 
 was to serve his Church. Home and friends never 
 interfered. 
 
 He was alwaj^s ready to sacrifice himself and 
 his own needs for the good of others. The word 
 "service" defined his life and mission. He was 
 firm but not obstinate; helpful but not officious. 
 He was not only a great thinker, he was a great 
 teacher. He found time amidst the cares of a 
 busy career to read miscellaneous literature. He 
 soon and easily mastered a book and then passed 
 it on. 
 
 He was careful and faithful in the details of 
 his work, untiring in his preparation for pulpit 
 and platform; patient and courteous toward all, 
 even those differing with him; mild in manner and 
 conservative of feeling in his association with the 
 lowly in culture and manner of living, thus making 
 friends of all. In him the poor had an advocate, 
 the oppressed an ally, and the penniless a friend. 
 
 He was clear in his processes of thought, 
 earnest and forceful in speech; his was the elo- 
 quence of persuasion. Rhetorical embellishments 
 adorned his utterances, but were rendered largely 
 useless by the force of conviction. 
 
 He had a judicial turn of mind, which served 
 him and the Church in a masterful way. His 
 natural analytical faculty, sharpened by years of 
 ample practice, enabled him to uncover a moral 
 and scientific principle from a mass of sophistry. 
 
ESTIMATES OF LIFE AND WORK 181 
 
 extract truth from any web of accidental or extra- 
 neous circumstances, and hold it up in the clear, 
 pure light of reason. 
 
 Thus, he wrought conscientiously and scrup- 
 ulously, desiring, and bravely determining to do 
 what his deliberative judgment decided was right. 
 He listened to the reasonings of others, but was 
 guided by his own reason. No corrupt motive 
 influenced his administrative work. He brought 
 to the office of bishop an enlightened intellect by 
 broad and careful study, which made his services 
 invaluable to the board and the Church. It is not 
 strange that his efforts challenged favorable com- 
 ment, and early placed him among the best ad- 
 ministrators that the Church has ever had. 
 
 He was more a Christian than a churchman, 
 and yet he was unquestionably^ loyal to his denomi- 
 nation. He kept the lofty plane of Christian 
 brotherhood, and sought the largest possible 
 unity of the whole family of God. He would not 
 stoop to the petty arts of a narrow ecclesiasticism 
 to build his own Church. This fully verified in the 
 part he bore in the tri-councils held in the recent 
 past, and in the marvelous address which he 
 prepared for delivery at the last General Con- 
 ference. No comment is needed on that address. 
 It challenged the admiration of the whole Church 
 when dehvered in his lifetime, and now at this 
 side of his grave all unite to bestow deserving and 
 well-earned eulogies upon him and his work. 
 
 Was he a successful pastor.^ Let the charges 
 he served, some of the very best in the denomi- 
 nation, answer. Was he a successful teacher.^ 
 Let the hundreds of college students and the 
 
182 ESTIMATES OF LIFE AND WORK 
 
 hundreds of preachers and pastors through the 
 Church answer. Was he a successful Bishop? 
 Let the hundreds of conference sessions held in 
 this and foreign countries answer. Was he suc- 
 cessful as a parliamentarian and an administrator 
 of law.'* Let the many boards on which he served 
 through the Church answer. 
 
 His life was charming with kindly words, 
 generous deeds, thoughtful action, and friendly 
 smiles. These may be common things to name, 
 but true character is largety a composite of such 
 things. These small things, if you wish to so call 
 them, make or unmake the life. 
 
 He was scrupulously honest. No ill-gotten 
 gain clung to his fingers. He knew that no man 
 was ever rich by what he stole. His friends were 
 not confined to his associates in office, to those 
 regarded as hfs peers, but were found among those 
 in humblest birth and plainest homes as well. He 
 could kneel beside the poorest and most unlettered, 
 forgetful that any dignity attached to him that 
 would separate him from the humblest follower of 
 the lowly Nazarene. While he sometimes seemed 
 imperious, he was withal gentle, and there beat 
 within that manly breast a heart as tender as that 
 of a woman's. He had a head always cool, and a 
 heart always warm. Preacher or layman, ditcher 
 or dignitary, cobbler or congressman, porter or 
 president, bishop or baker, he would have been the 
 same. 
 
 To speak of him as a friend, would be to open 
 thousands of floodgates through which would pour 
 a lachrymal sea. To thousands, he was a father 
 in tenderness of counsel, a brother in promptitude 
 
ESTIMATES OF LIFE AND WORK 183 
 
 of aid. Deep in his bosom were rooted the rare 
 quaHties of unspeakable affection, and when he 
 was carried away in his coffin the affection of 
 thousands of hearts went with him. 
 
 As a Christian and a minister, he beheved in 
 the great fundamentals of Christianity. He 
 planted his feet firmly on the doctrine of immor- 
 tality. With him, if immortality was not a fact, 
 then life is a hideous absurdity. He believed in 
 the divine nature of the Savior. He believed in 
 the Galilean carpenter. He believed if ever man 
 was God, or God man, Jesus was both. Cultured 
 as he was, he did not believe that culture could 
 cure sin; he believed in the remedy divine. So he 
 lived and so he died, trusting in the infinite merits 
 of the sacrifice of the Son of God. 
 
 If to live in hearts we leave behind is not to 
 die, then Bishop Mills is not dead. He lives in 
 the memory of thousands of hearts. He needs no 
 other monument to perpetuate his name. There 
 are statues of bronze and marble, gilded like the 
 sunset sky, or white like the snow on an untra versed 
 mountain, erected to the memory of the departed. 
 There are graveyards where storied urn rehearse 
 the virtues of the sleepers underneath. The lofty 
 shaft that marks the resting place of some loved 
 one on the shore of the restless sea; the stately 
 mausoleum at Springfield, that contains the ashes 
 of the martyred Abraham Lincoln; the costly 
 tomb on Euclid Avenue, in Ohio's city by the 
 lake, that guards the precious dust of the immortal 
 Garfield; the vault under the weeping willows of 
 Mt. Vernon on the Potomac, where repose the 
 bones of Washington, our George the First — all are 
 
184 ESTIMATES OF LIFE AND WORK 
 
 monuments of art, whose fame will be long lasting. 
 But these will perish sometime. Even that said 
 to be the tallest monument on earth, erected to 
 the memory of the Father of our Country, will 
 crumble to dust. In Trafalgar Square, Lord 
 Nelson is held in memory, and in Westminster 
 Abbey, England's mighty dead are on marble 
 slabs, beneath your feet. All over this earth 
 monuments are built to the memory of our mighty 
 dead. 
 
 Wliere shall we build a monument to the 
 memory of this servant of Jesus Christ? Out of 
 what material shall we make it.'^ Bronze will 
 corrode, and marble will molder. To what country 
 do his labors belong? Shall we build it in Palestine 
 not far from the eastern end of the Mediterranean 
 Sea? Or shall we build it in China, or Japan, or 
 the Philippine Islands, or in Africa, or in America? 
 May not Africa have first claim? Was it not there 
 that he virtually laid down his life? He came home 
 from that country never to be well again. If we 
 were to build a material monument to his memory, 
 we should need one on many a mountain side, in 
 many a verdant vale, one in many a park and 
 flower-garden, in many a thronging and crowded 
 city, in many a little town and quiet village, as 
 well as country neighborhood. 
 
 Where, then, shall we build this monument? 
 Never again on earth shall we see his manly form. 
 Never again will he bow and raise his hat, and 
 shake hands as he was always wont to do in street, 
 and home, and hall, and church. May I answer 
 the question, where? He has answered it himself, 
 He has already built his own monument. He has 
 
ESTIMATES OF LIFE AND WORK 185 
 
 built it in the undying souls he has helped on and 
 up to heaven. Many of the things that our 
 friend and brother achieved of an earthly nature 
 will fade and wither away, but every atom he 
 wrought into the slowly rising monument of a life 
 redeemed to goodness, will survive the floods and 
 fires of time. Winter snows will drift above his 
 grave, warm spring-time rains will woo the flowers 
 from the sod that covers him, summer suns and 
 autumn winds with blooming flower will weave 
 above him wreathes of green and gold; but he will 
 live on, and in many a mind will abide the recol- 
 lection of his words and works. 
 
 Did we love him. ^ This I need not tell. Then 
 let us emulate and imitate those graces that 
 distinguished him. I address you Christians, 
 members of this Church who have worshiped with 
 him and have bowed with him in prayer, and have 
 knelt with him at the sacramental altar; I address 
 you and admonish you, by the speedy coming of 
 the guest whom few invite, whom all must enter- 
 tain — death — and by the approaching judgment, 
 that as you loved him in life, respect and honor 
 him now, by trusting now and always his God, 
 our God, and our father's God. 
 
 Here we say our good-by — our "God be with 
 you" — till in the purple East the morning dawns, 
 and the death shadows flee away. Why our 
 Bishop, brother, friend, lover was taken, and 
 others, "cumberers of the ground," remain, we 
 do not know. 
 
 As we pay tribute to our departed brother, 
 we easily recall how he stood by our side and 
 helped to bear the burdens of our Church through 
 
186 ESTIMATES OF LIFE AND WORK 
 
 some of its hardest struggles, filling with efficiency 
 the high office of bishop. We think of him now 
 no longer amid the struggles of earth, but amid 
 the joys of heaven; no longer fighting the battles 
 which he believed important to the Church, but 
 wearing a crown, and at home in the city of God. 
 His life was a great success, and his death a great 
 victory. 
 
 By G. M. Mathews. 
 
 The removal from earth of a great Christian 
 leader and toiler, like Bishop Mills, to human 
 judgment, seems a pathetic event; and yet, death 
 has its mission in human experience. It closes 
 the gate to suffering and gives immunity to the 
 sufferer. It buries in oblivion all infirmities, and 
 canonizes all virtues. It breaks the downward 
 pull of life, and enables the liberated soul to rise 
 to the heights of life immortal. 
 
 Such an event, overtaking a noble Christian 
 leader so early, is mysterious and perplexing; 
 and yet God sees from the beginning to the end. 
 His thoughts are not as our thoughts, and his 
 ways are not as our ways. Now we know in part, 
 then shall we know even as we are known. Down 
 in the valley, the mists of ignorance envelop us. 
 The summits above us are radiant with heavenly 
 light. Until we reach those heights, our refuge 
 is in God's infinite holiness and unerring goodness 
 and widsom. We humbly bow before his soverign 
 will and wait for the clearer, fuller light. 
 
 I was not so well acquainted with Bishop 
 Mills in the earlier years of his ministry in the 
 Church. My knowledge of his commendable 
 
ESTIMATES OF LIFE AND WORK 187 
 
 qualities came through intimate association with 
 him in the work of the general superintendency 
 of our Church. Bishop Mills was a commanding 
 figure in every assembly. His attractive presence 
 was always recognized because of his superb 
 physique, and air of leadership. High culture 
 had added much to the rich endowments of nature. 
 His carriage invariably indicated unwavering de- 
 termination, and inflexibility of purpose. Once 
 entering upon a chosen course of procedure, he 
 never faltered or fainted in that course. His 
 posit iveness was very marked. No one was ever 
 in doubt on which side to find him in a given 
 contest. He stood squarely and courageously in 
 the advocacy of the principle or cause he espoused ; 
 it was difficult ever to deflect him from that 
 course. 
 
 Bishop Mills possessed masterful leadership. 
 He was a man of vision, with the power to carry it 
 towards its realization. He was always in the 
 front rank of aggressive leadership. Sometimes, 
 he was in peril of carrying this aggressive leadership 
 to rashness, and yet his tremendous energy was 
 his tower of strength. He was no timeserver or 
 laggard. In the denomination, this positive force 
 made him a leader, which all his peers recognized. 
 This commandership was not confined to narrow 
 limits, but was recognized outside of his denomi- 
 nation. 
 
 His equipment was broad and versatile. He 
 was not a man of one idea. It was impossible for 
 him to live a circumscribed life. No environment 
 could bind him into supine mental servitude, as 
 against liberty of thought and freedom of action. 
 
188 ESTIMATES OF LIFE AND WORK 
 
 He lived in different worlds of thought and medi- 
 tation. He breathed the free air of theology, 
 science, history, psychology, apologetics and 
 devotional study. This enriched his active mind, 
 and gave him unusual versatihty of conviction and 
 statement. One could not mingle at any time 
 with him without discovering his ardent love for 
 books, even the very best. This led him, in the 
 years, to erect a magnificently selected library, 
 containing the finest productions of the up-to-date 
 authors extant. 
 
 He carefully studied the history of the origin, 
 growth, polity, and distinctive spirit of his de- 
 nomination, and spoke with accuracy and authority 
 upon all subjects pertaining thereto. 
 
 As pastor, professor, college president, and 
 Bishop, he was unusual in his intellectual endow- 
 ments and trained mental powers. 
 
 He possessed marvelous will-power. In this 
 respect, he may be classed with those who have 
 reached the true aim and goal of education; namely, 
 the development of the human will into such 
 strength and tenacity that enables it to put the 
 whole being under adequate motives of service 
 and action. In this, Bishop Mills attained far 
 toward the highest goal of education. His will 
 was the throne of his peculiar power. 
 
 Bishop Mills was a strong thinker and preach- 
 er. He not only possessed thoughts and ideas, 
 but also handled them with grace and self-poise 
 before an audience. He was an intellectual rather 
 than an emotional preacher. And yet, he was 
 always careful to emphazise the spiritual by 
 differentiating between that and the emotional. 
 
ESTIMATES OF LIFE AND WORK 189 
 
 Whenever he spoke, one felt that an unusual 
 thinker was speaking. His lectures, sermons, 
 writings, books always reflected the workings of 
 an active, original, cultured brain. 
 
 Above all, and better than all. Bishop Mills 
 was a Christian. His colossal Christian character 
 rose high and was abiding. He held, to the end, 
 evangelical, biblical truth and interpretation. He 
 believed in God, and Christ, and the Holy Spirit, 
 and eternal life and felicity in Jesus Christ, to- 
 gether with the doctrine of personal accountability 
 and the judgment; and he preached those biblical 
 truths with positiveness and power. He eloquent- 
 ly presented the glories of the immortal life into 
 which he had an abundant, triumphant entrance. 
 
 We greatly miss him because of his individu- 
 ality, so different from others; and for what he 
 might yet have accomplished on earth. The 
 Church has a sense of poverty in his absence. 
 
 He is gone, but his light is not out. Astron- 
 omers tell us that there are stars so far away that 
 if blotted out would shine on for many years. So 
 Bishop Mills, our distinguished and lamented 
 associate, is still alive, and will continue to shine 
 in the realms of the blest forever and ever. His 
 memory is blessed. 
 
 By W. M. Weekley. 
 
 As Bishop Jonathan Weaver was of the 
 Abraham Lincoln type, and Bishop E. B. Kephart 
 of the Senator Allison make-up, so Bishop J. S. 
 Mills resembled Daniel Webster. Many of the 
 characteristics of that great constructive states- 
 man were prominent in the life of the late Bishop. 
 
190 ESTIMATES OF LIFE AND WORK 
 
 Like Webster, he was profound in research. 
 No man in the Church, and but few anywhere else 
 read as many books as he did. He understood 
 the art of going through a volume rapidly, and of 
 getting the gist of what it contained. Whatever 
 his policy of reading or perusing so many publi- 
 cations was, it need not be discussed in this con- 
 nection, but it is well known that he kept himself 
 in touch with everything that transpired in the 
 religious and literary worlds. It was difficult to 
 speak of a book or magazine that he did not know 
 something about, and in most instances he could 
 give the author, publisher, and price. Like 
 Webster, he often formulated illustrations while 
 hurriedly going through a book, that he did not 
 use till years afterward, but at the proper time 
 utilized it with telling effect. 
 
 His mind was philosophical. His power of 
 deduction and analysis was rare. He knew how 
 to read between the lines, and to apprehend implied 
 truths. Even when wrong in his conclusions, 
 like Webster, he was hard to dislodge from his 
 position, as he never failed to fortify it with the 
 strongest arguments to be had. He came to every 
 discussion with elaborate and complete prep- 
 aration. 
 
 Like W'ebster, he alwaj^s spoke with a posi- 
 tiveness and emphasis which impressed his hearers 
 with his sincerity and honesty of conviction. 
 While he did not possess Mr. W^ebster's remarkable 
 gift of oratory, and lacked somewhat in the 
 elements of humor and pathos, he, nevertheless, 
 was one of the most convincing pulpiteers the 
 Church ever produced. Lie was not wordy, but 
 
ESTIMATES OF LIFE AND WORK 191 
 
 his utterances carried weight and conviction. 
 His very presence on the floor of a conference, or 
 any other pubHc assembly, was the signal for 
 attention. He possessed the gift of leadership 
 in a remarkable degree. He was bold in his con- 
 ceptions, vigorous in execution, and unflinching 
 in the face of the gravest responsibilities. He 
 loved to work, and, as naturally sought activity 
 as a growing plant seeks light and air. The truth 
 is, the burdens he assured in his later life were too 
 heavy; his intense zeal for the Church carried him 
 beyond his strength, and hastened the consum- 
 mation of a career which ought to have continued 
 many years. 
 
 Bishop Mills measured up to the requirements 
 of whatever office he assumed. The church has 
 no severer test of a man's ability than service in 
 a general office. The reputation previously ac- 
 quired does not count for a great deal. But little 
 mercy is shown for the feelings and failures of 
 beginners. Success is won by sheer force of 
 character, and dint of toil. If he fails, no sym- 
 pathy awaits him in the ranks. Here the survival 
 of the strongest, as a rule, is recognized. Pretense 
 and glamour cannot deceive and mislead. 
 
 But no test was too severe for the Bishop. 
 No matter where or how the plumb line of efficiency 
 was applied, he was full grown. 
 
 For nearly a third of a century, I knew J. S. 
 Mills, and found his companionship most congenial. 
 For twenty years, we were associated most inti- 
 mately. We did not always agree on everything. 
 No two men will who think independently, but I 
 found him gentlemanly and brotherly in his 
 
192 ESTIMATES OF LIFE AND WORK 
 
 bearing, willing to listen, and when convinced, 
 ready to yield. 
 
 It will be a long while before the denomination 
 will produce another such character, so highly 
 gifted in so many ways, and who will leave his 
 impress so thoroughly stamped upon every ag- 
 gressive movement of the Church. 
 
 By W. M. Bell. 
 
 My personal acquaintance with Bishop Mills 
 parallels his election to the bishopric, which took 
 place at the General Conference held at Dayton, 
 Ohio, in 1893. The fact that, at the same General 
 Conference, the writer was selected for the sec- 
 retaryship of the missionary department, brought 
 immediate contact with this superior officer in 
 the general work of the denomination. The good 
 Bishop was just then coming into the fullness of 
 his power, and the struggles through which he 
 had made his way to distinction were all too likely 
 to be overlooked, in view of the manifest strength 
 of the stalwart churchman. 
 
 It was almost impossible to realize that this 
 giant in ecclesiastical life had come up through 
 much and harassing physical weakness, which 
 to one less courageous would have meant the 
 abandonment of the ministry entirely. His 
 emergence from painful and discouraging physical 
 infirmities to such rugged and royal manliness, 
 discloses the essential power of the man. Here at 
 once is the key to the whole life and character 
 of the really great clergyman. For one of such 
 notable strength to have had all his life the ad- 
 vantage of high grade physical power and per- 
 
ESTIMATES OF LIFE AND WORK 193 
 
 fection would be the logical deduction, but the 
 conquest made over weakness by sheer persistence 
 of will, reflected the type of this noble personality. 
 In the order in which the characteristics were 
 disclosed to the writer, they will be discussed. 
 
 1 . The Strong and Commanding Personality. — 
 One only needed to be about Bishop Mills for a 
 short time to be impressed with the fact that he 
 based his actions and attitudes on positive con- 
 victions. Whatever one might think of the 
 opinions of the Bishop, of one thing he was im- 
 mediately assured, and that was that the Bishop 
 never reached a conclusion or announced an 
 opinion until he had been exercised in such mental 
 processes as to his mode of thinking made his 
 pronounced judgment the only one with which 
 the man could be satisfied, and assured of his own 
 self-respect. He thought with such intensity as 
 to make his advocacy an element to be reckoned 
 with in the outcome of any presentation for action 
 before a deliberative body of which he was a 
 member. He always counted more than one in 
 any debate in which he participated. Tall and 
 commanding in figure, he also towered in argument 
 and discussion. 
 
 His intellectual method was direct, and he 
 was impatient with what he might regard as 
 subterfuge or evasion. One understands better 
 now, that when he dwelt among us, how inevitable 
 it was that at times the impression should be made 
 that he was a merciless opponent and critic. He 
 reached conclusions quickly, and in such rapidity 
 of mental action that he illustrated the principle 
 in mechanics that the first result of motion is heat. 
 
194 ESTIMATES OF LIFE AND WORK 
 
 Reviewing him, now after his absence from us for 
 these months and years, he appears more colossal 
 with the lapse of time. What a glorious friend 
 and advocate he was, how like a prince he moved 
 among his fellows. He was a giant well at home in 
 the twentieth century. 
 
 2. The Ardent Intellectualist. — Bishop Mills 
 exemplified, as but few men comparatively have 
 been able to do, a high type of adult mental 
 alertness. It is in evidence all about us that far 
 too many people, who have been fairly alert while 
 in student life, abate their intellectual devotion 
 and activity when once they have reached the 
 period of settled life and occupation. That man 
 will be a benefactor of his race who shall devise a 
 curriculum for adults after the school period which 
 will so appeal to them as to keep them in the field 
 for continuous mental growth. It was evident to 
 the friends and acquaintances of the Bishop that 
 whatever were his natural tendencies, he held him- 
 self strictly to schedule in the upward march of 
 his mental life and attainments. Special courses 
 of study were undertaken and conquered with a 
 marvelous avidity, and books were his constant 
 companions. One never could be in his presence 
 for any length of time without an inquiry as to 
 what books had been read and with what measures 
 of interest and satisfaction. His fondness for 
 study was one of his most noteworthy character- 
 istics. He was not only a student of books and 
 literature, but of human nature as well. He was 
 capable as a discerner of human nature. 
 
 3. The Splendid Traveler and Companion. — 
 It was the writer's privilege to journey often with 
 
ESTIMATES OF LIFE AND WORK 195 
 
 the Bishop. He was always vivacious, observing, 
 courteous, versatile, and, withal, companionable. 
 His wide reading and fullness of knowledge gave 
 him ready ability to converse about countries, 
 peoples, and all matters that are always coming 
 in modern travel. He was a keen observer, and 
 it was always a delight to close the day with 
 conversation as to what had been seen and learned 
 during the day. 
 
 He was patient with travel discomfits and 
 uncertainties to a remarkable degree. His self- 
 control was made apparent on a sea voyage to 
 Porto Rico. About five hundred miles off Cape 
 Hatteras, the machinery of our otherwise well- 
 behaved steamer broke down, and for well nigh 
 a half day we were helplessly adrift, much to the 
 confusion and unhappiness of almost all on board. 
 The officers and crew would give out no information 
 as to how serious the break was, and to cap the 
 climax the southern sky was covered with massive 
 clouds, betokening an approaching storm of un- 
 certain magnitude and intensity. All afternoon 
 the passengers paced the deck, among them the 
 writer and the Bishop's son, Alfred K. Mills. We 
 missed the Bishop from the deck, and finally went 
 in quest of him, only to find him sound asleep in 
 his state room. When we had aroused him and 
 expressed our surprise at his being able to sleep 
 under such trying circumstances, he coolly replied, 
 "I am in no way responsible for our situation, and, 
 since the matter is beyond my control, I propose 
 to rest and bide the time." While we were at the 
 evening meal, the machinery of the great ship began 
 
196 ESTIMATES OF LIFE AND WORK 
 
 to move, and we were off and away, to the joy of 
 all the passengers. 
 
 The writer can never efface the memory of 
 the days in which the good Bishop was a guest in 
 his home at Berkeley, California, en route to the 
 Orient in what proved to be his last trip abroad. 
 He was an interesting guest to all in the home, and 
 the leisure of those sweet days gave opportunity 
 for rare communions and most delightful discussions. 
 We saw him aboard the Nippon Maru, and gave 
 him reluctantly to the great sea. 
 
 4. The Genial Host and Loyal Friend. — It 
 was difficult to avoid being entertained by Bishop 
 Mills. If on a journey, he was never satisfied 
 until he had made all in company with him his 
 guests. If in reach of his home, he would not be 
 refused if he invited one to his home; and, when 
 once there, the old time hospitality, in which Mrs. 
 Mills so graciously joined the Bishop, was at once 
 extended. He seemed to be never so happy as 
 when he was serving as host in his own home. His 
 hospitality was of the hearty and informal type, 
 and a quest was at once at ease, as if in his own 
 home. He was the ideal host, and to share his 
 home life, even for a brief period, was an event 
 never to be forgotten. Then, what a friend he 
 was. With him, friendship was no empty senti- 
 ment, but was the love bond which no vicissitude 
 of time could change or cancel. It was an essential 
 part of his religion to be true to his friends, and he 
 was never happier than when he was having an 
 opportunity to prove his friendship as genuine 
 and true. He counted on his friends being true, 
 and he would himself be true at all cost. 
 
ESTIMATES OF LIFE AND WORK 197 
 
 5. TJie Loyal Churchman and Servant of the 
 Kingdom. — The institutions of the Church of the 
 United Brethren in Christ had in Bishop Mills 
 a zealous friend and supporter. Any contribution 
 he could make of time, service, or money, was 
 made with such complete abandon and good cheer 
 as to make his example contagious. He was an 
 especial friend to our educational work, and 
 brought to its management the keenest interest 
 and concern. He never failed to encourage young 
 men and women to enter our educational insti- 
 tutions and make the fullest possible preparation 
 for the work of life. He believed in generous and 
 progressive policies for all of our institutions. 
 
 He was broad minded and public spirited. 
 It would have been easy for him to have given 
 himself to the career of the statesman, for all 
 social and political questions were of deep interest 
 to him. He was a citizen of the kingdom of God, 
 and that kingdom, in his conception, was as wide 
 as the race in its purpose and scope. He conceived 
 the kingdom as determining the ultimate social 
 order. He was a constant student of sociology, 
 and gave out his findings with wisdom and power. 
 He took the greatest delight in emphasizing the 
 social message and import of the Christian gospel. 
 He had dreams and visions of things as they should 
 be, and rested not in things as they were. His 
 eagle eye caught the light from the hills of God, and 
 in that light he formed this program and ordered 
 his goings. He was a real reformer without ever 
 for a moment losing sweetness or hope. If he 
 could not get all men to see as he saw in regard to 
 policies and measures, he, nevertheless, kept on 
 
198 ESTIMATES OF LIFE AND WORK 
 
 his upward way, being well assured that at the last 
 the best would be crowned. He was a lover of 
 high aims and challenging programs and invariably 
 he was a prophet of the better order. If the way 
 seemed dark and lowering, he would persist in a 
 song of triumph, and hold on for the break of day. 
 His faith was of the optimistic sort, and he could 
 more readily command the enthusiasm of his 
 great heart for a challenging program than for an 
 abbreviated one. He believed that generous 
 things were justified for the Church of his choice, 
 and reckoned that all her policies should be broad 
 gauge and ample. May his greatness inspire us all. 
 
 By T. C. Carter. 
 
 Few men in the history of our Church have 
 been more widely known or more greatly honored 
 than Bishop J. S. Mills; and few have merited the 
 consideration of the whole denomination in great- 
 er measure than he. It was my good fortune to 
 share his noble friendship, and by years of close 
 official relations and personal fellowship, I came 
 to know him well. As I have studied the qualities 
 which distinguished him, his manly proportions 
 have grown upon me; and while I can but im- 
 perfectly express my conception of his character 
 and characteristics, I regard him as one of the 
 greatest men in our history. A few of the domi- 
 nant elements which so strikingly marked his 
 career, I venture to recount: 
 
 1. Bishop Mills had a commanding and 
 majestic personality. His tall, portly figure, and 
 his stately bearing fulfilled the popular conception 
 which is always associated with high position. 
 
ESTIMATES OF LIFE AND WORK 199 
 
 Wherever he appeared — on the platform, in the 
 pulpit, in conference or convention, in social 
 circles or on the street, he was always conspicuous 
 and impressive in the splendor of his rare personal 
 endowment. His very walk, his first appearance, 
 told the stranger that he was no ordinary man. 
 Erect in form, his countenance animated, his eye 
 at times intensely piercing, the tread of a giant 
 marking his physical movements, men turned 
 instinctively and looked at him with that sort of 
 deference that is always shown to the man of 
 great distinction. 
 
 2. Bishop Mills was a man of charming social 
 qualities. He met his friends with a frank and 
 cordial greeting, and in politeness he was a Chester- 
 field. Gentility seemed as natural to him as 
 breathing, and in no circle of life did the practice 
 of good manners ever desert him. He was as 
 gallant and courtly in the homes of rural people 
 as he was in the drawing rooms of the great city, 
 and these refined and polished qualities made a 
 profound impression wherever he mingled with 
 his fellow men. 
 
 3. Bishop Mills was a man of superior in- 
 tellectual qualities. His mind was characterized 
 by robust vigor. He stood up before the Church 
 as a scholar and thinker worthy of its honor. He 
 was mentally a hard worker, and whatever he 
 lost by tlie disadvantages of early youth in the 
 opportunity to gain knowledge, he more than 
 made up by his persistent studies in manhood. 
 With tireless energy, he pursued those lines of 
 reading and research which broadened his scholar- 
 ship and made him at home in the company of 
 
200 ESTIMATES OF LIFE AND WORK 
 
 the learned and philosophical. He was a great 
 student of the Bible, and trusted it so profoundly 
 that he was not afraid to read the latest results of 
 scholarly investigation, or to examine the boldest 
 pretensions of the destructive critic. No one 
 could be with Bishop Mills an hour without being 
 impressed with his extensive reading and versatile 
 knowledge. His contact with the ministry of the 
 Church tended to quicken their mental activities, 
 and many of his brethren remember the question 
 which he scarcely ever failed to ask, "What is 
 the last book you have read?" If one had not 
 been reading some of the latest things in literature, 
 he always felt himself at a disadvantage before 
 the Bishop was done talking with him. As we 
 recall the splendid gifts of Bishop Mills, it will 
 probably be agreed that he has had few equals 
 and no superiors intellectually in all the history of 
 our general superintendents. 
 
 4. The career of Bishop Mills was marked 
 by great energy and decision of character. Action 
 was his life. An enterprising spirit and energetic 
 will, a conscientious desire to do his duty aided in 
 resisting the early influence of disease and length- 
 ened his days far beyond the expectation of those 
 who knew him in boyhood and early youth. 
 These inflexible qualities were seen in the tenacity 
 with which his sharply defined opinions were held. 
 On any question that concerned him, he never 
 remained in an unsettled condition, and no one 
 else was left in doubt or uncertainty as to his 
 opinion. None who were acquainted with his 
 vigorous nature ever thought of him as "a reed 
 shaken by the wind." His views were reached 
 
ESTIMATES OF LIFE AND WORK 201 
 
 without regard to their acceptance or rejection 
 by others; and, though he loved the approval of 
 his brethren, he would not surrender a conviction 
 in order to secure it. Such a nature is not easily 
 disheartened by difficulties, and will not falter in 
 carrying out plans which command his own approv- 
 al. This was perhaps the most marked character- 
 istic in the life of Bishop Mills — the unflinching 
 courage of his convictions and the unswerving 
 persistence with which he maintained them. It 
 is to this class of leaders that the world is indebted 
 for its great progress. This spirit of dauntless 
 self-reliance never failed him in any duty or trial 
 through which he was called to pass. 
 
 5. In the pulpit and on the platform, Bishop 
 Mills was a striking character. All who heard 
 his public addresses will remember that his manner 
 was earnest, graceful, vigorous, and dignified; that 
 his enunciation was clear, ringing, and impressive, 
 and that his discourses were marked by the sternest 
 simplicity of diction. He preached without a 
 single unnecessary rhetorical flourish or flight of 
 fancy. He seemed to think that he had a message 
 from God to the people, and delivered it with a 
 candor and earnestness becoming an embassador 
 of Christ. His clear, terse style, his short, simple, 
 and pointed sentences, delivered in extemporan- 
 eous manner, never failed to hold the closest 
 attention of his hearers, or to bring the truth home 
 to their consciences with telling effect. 
 
 6. In the office of Bishop, our translated 
 brother was aggressive and highly efficient. He 
 was built for leadership, and in the office of general 
 superintendent of the Church, he filled its exacting 
 
202 ESTIMATES OF LIFE AND WORK 
 
 and multifarious responsibilities with conspicuous 
 ability. His vision swept the whole world when 
 he considered the spread of the Master's kingdom. 
 In his death the mission boards of the Church, 
 home and foreign, lost a mighty friend. His 
 apostolic missionary fervor constrained him to 
 labor and plan and travel for the spread of the 
 gospel to the ends of the earth. At the call of 
 duty, we see him going to the help of a discouraged 
 pastor in a hard field of the home land, walking 
 with tired feet among the camps of the miners, 
 or putting his brave heart by the side of a brother 
 as he struggled to build up the church in a crowded 
 city, and always giving of his means as well as his 
 strength to every field that engaged his attention. 
 Again, he is beyond the ocean, holding conferences 
 in Africa, in China, in Japan, in the Philippine 
 Islands, and, in the breadth of his great field 
 work he traveled continents till their surface 
 became almost as famihar to him as the retreats 
 of his own community. In this spirit he went 
 right on, year in and year out, knowing no vaca- 
 tion, and asking no rest but hard work. 
 
 This wide-wandering servant of the Church 
 came home from his last visit to the Orient jaded 
 and broken by the long journeys and exhausting 
 labors. When the General Conference met at 
 Canton, his iron will brought him to that great 
 gathering, but it was apparent to all who met him 
 that his last round of conferences had been made, 
 and his last visitation across the seas had been 
 completed. Still, he refused to believe that his 
 work was done. He needed rest and relief from 
 all cares and anxieties, but, like one who was 
 
ESTIMATES OF LIFE AND WORK 203 
 
 determined to rest not until the grave should 
 unveil its bosom to receive him, his great, active, 
 restless mind was busy with thought of the Church 
 till the last. Up to the closing moments of his 
 life, he read the current literature of his Church 
 and of the Christian world, and showed as much 
 interest in the living questions of the times as when 
 in perfect health. He responded to the demands 
 for his service as long as he was able to stand on 
 his feet. Every sermon and address which he 
 delivered after his last return from the foreign 
 fields was a triumph of will power; but he insisted 
 upon performing the duties of his office when 
 almost staggering with weakness of body. It was 
 a source of comfort to his brethren and friends 
 throughout the Church that when the sun of his 
 life was declining, there were no clouds in the 
 evening heavens. Brave in death as he had been 
 in life, his great soul passed away in peace to its 
 God. There the travel- worn pilgrim is safe. No 
 storm has pursued his ship. He has reached the 
 land on whose shore there breaks no wave, and 
 whose air is distempered by no winds or storms. 
 Let us cherish his noble qualities and heroic deeds, 
 and think of him at his best. 
 
 "Think of him as the same, I say; 
 
 He is not dead — he is just away." 
 
SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 
 
Chapter XI 
 SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 
 
 The Kingdom of God, the True Socialism. 
 
 [Delivered before the students of Union Biblical Seminary. 1891.] 
 
 "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as in 
 heaven, so upon earth." — Matthew 5:10. 
 
 This is an age of social strife and unrest, as 
 witnessed in all parts of the world. But Chris- 
 tianity has a solution to this serious problem which 
 confronts us. 
 
 An ideal state, in which all the people are 
 prosperous and happy, has been sought through 
 all the ages. It has been the dream of the poet, the 
 ambition of the philosopher, and the hope of the 
 patriot. Such plans are found in Plato's "Re- 
 public," Cicero's "Commonwealth," Moore's 
 "Utopia," and Spencer's "Social Statics," and 
 Bellamy's "Looking Backward." 
 
 A universal kingdom, embracing the whole 
 race in one realm, has been a vision of many a 
 dreamer. Oriental, Grecian, and Roman monarchs 
 tried to subdue the world, and, by force, unite it 
 into one empire; but the efforts only proved that 
 such an ideal can never be realized through the 
 selfishness of either rulers or people. During the 
 time of these experiments, there lived in Judaea a 
 nation whose God was their king, whose prophets 
 foretold that this king would establish a universal 
 
208 SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 
 
 empire, whose people should be all righteous, and 
 whose realm should be full of peace. 
 
 Immediately before the beginning of the 
 public ministry of Christ, his herald went forth 
 proclaiming, "The kingdom of God draws nearer." 
 When Christ began his work he declared, "The 
 kingdom of God is at hand." This kingdom was 
 the theme of all his preaching. His parables are 
 parables of the kingdom of heaven. His gospel is 
 the glad tidings of the kingdom of heaven. 
 
 The terms, "kingdom of God," and "kingdom 
 of heaven," are interchangeable. This realm is 
 sometimes spoken of as a present reality; at other 
 times it is referred to as a thing of the future. 
 Both statements are in harmony with fact; it is a 
 growing empire, present, but not yet complete, 
 its ideal not yet realized. 
 
 I. What is the kingdom of heaven? It is 
 the spirit of Christ in human society, remedying 
 its ills and uniting it into social unity, ultimately 
 redeemed and perfected. It will be more clearly 
 defined by showing its relation to certain other 
 things: 
 
 ]. Its relation to the world. "The world" 
 has two very distinct meanings. In the one case 
 it means society under the dominion of selfishness 
 — abnormal, unreal, and transitional, as seen in 
 contrast to its divine ideal. In this sense we 
 speak of the "world" or "worldly people." This 
 was the spirit of the age when Christianity was 
 introduced, and a conflict at once began between 
 the two. This conflict, and the one which soon 
 followed between Christianity and the Roman 
 Empire — the world-empire of that age — made the 
 
SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 209 
 
 impression upon the church that the world in every 
 sense is evil, and evil only; and that beyond re- 
 covery. This impression abides to this day, in 
 many minds. Out of it has grown the spirit that 
 takes man away from society to live a secluded 
 life, the life of the hermit, to mortify his body 
 because it is a part of this world. The same spirit 
 leads others to look upon many of the most serious 
 interests of life, such as natural science or politics, 
 as secular or profane. From the same mistaken 
 view, others regard as sinful all recreations and 
 amusements, however innocent. For the same 
 reason salvation is looked upon as the deliverance 
 out of the world of individuals, forgetting or ig- 
 noring the fact that salvation is promised for the 
 life that now is. It must be admitted that this 
 world is very imperfect, and frequently unjust. 
 It is perverted ; but its whole structure bears witness 
 to a higher destiny reached through redemption. 
 
 The second meaning of "the world" is "the 
 organized constitution of things in which we live, 
 including the material universe, but chiefly, hu- 
 manity, as its head." The world that God so 
 loved, that he gave his only begotten Son that it 
 might not perish. It is this world that the Son 
 gave his life to redeem. It is this world that the 
 Holy Spirit has come to sanctify. It is this world 
 of which Paul says: "For the earnest expectation 
 of the creation waiteth for the revealing of the sons 
 of God. For the creation was subjected to vanity, 
 not of its own will, but by reason of him who hath 
 subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also 
 shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption 
 into the liberty of the glory of the children of 
 
210 SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 
 
 God. For we know that the whole creation groan- 
 eth and travaileth in pain together until now. 
 And not only so, but ourselves also, who have the 
 first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves, groan 
 within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to-wit, 
 the redemption of our body. For in hope, we are 
 saved." It is this imprisoned, suffering, yet hope- 
 ful and expectant world that is the subject of 
 redemption, and that is to be leavened by, and 
 transformed into the kingdom of God. 
 
 2. Its relation to the church. The kingdom 
 of God and the church are often thought to be 
 identical. They are very closely related, but not 
 the same. The church is a rehgious idea; the 
 kingdom of God is a moral idea. The church 
 seeks to obey the first command, "Love God;" the 
 kingdom of God seeks to obey the second command, 
 "Love thy neighbor." The church is theological; 
 the kingdom of God is socialistic. The church is 
 Mary sitting devoutly at the feet of Jesus, the 
 kingdom of God is Martha serving her Lord by 
 doing the duties of the hour. The church is the 
 discijples on the mount of transfiguration, enjoying 
 the vision and the glory, and desiring always to 
 stay there; the kingdom of God is the same dis- 
 ciples with their Master going down into the dark 
 valleys where men are in bondage and possessed 
 by evil spirits, and bringing deliverance unto them. 
 The church has too far assumed that this world 
 is necessarily evil, and hence has pre-empted a 
 place in another world as the fruition of its hopes; 
 the kingdom of God seeks to change and restore 
 this world, until all things are made new. The 
 church has made a bad bargain with Satan by 
 
SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 211 
 
 accepting its inheritance in another world and 
 allowing him to have this world; the kingdom of 
 God repudiates this bargain, and declares the 
 kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdom 
 of our Lord. 
 
 This antithesis is not a necessary antagonism 
 between the church and the kingdom. They 
 represent two ways of manifesting the Christian 
 life. They unite in every perfect Christian. But 
 as the churchly or theological idea has chiefly 
 dominated in the past, the socialistic idea must be 
 emphasized now. Love not God less, but man 
 more. 
 
 3. It has a relation to whatever is pure and 
 right and good everywhere. There is no difference 
 between natural virtue and Christian virtue. 
 "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from 
 above, and cometh down from the Father of 
 lights." This is true of moral as well as of all 
 other good gifts. Of the eternal word of God, it 
 is declared, "He lighteneth every man coming 
 into the world." All goodness is a beam of that 
 light, and is therefore essentially Christian. There 
 is no essential difference between the same kind 
 and grade of fruit growing in the garden, and that 
 outside the wall. The fruit is the best of the tree. 
 
 In the old world and in the modern heathen 
 world, in their systems of morality, religion, and 
 philosophy are found many gleams of this true 
 light, a sort of unconscious Christian faith in the 
 better things to come. The Old Testament recog- 
 nizes people of God outside of Israel. The New 
 Testament declares, "God is no respecter of 
 persons; but in every nation he that feareth him, 
 
212 SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 
 
 and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him." 
 As it is the same universal spirit who inspires the 
 Hfe of the plants, and paints the beauty of the 
 flowers, and perfects the fruits of the trees in every 
 land, so he is the same God who inspires all moral 
 excellence of every kind; it is his kingdom that is 
 leavening society, consciously or unconsciously. 
 "Wherever justice and love are found in any of 
 their various manifestations, the love of kindred 
 and of country, the generous and courteous de- 
 meanor of man to man, valor, love of truth, able 
 device, self-discipline, purity; wherever there is 
 anything that is lovely and of good report, there 
 the kingdom of God is silently working and trans- 
 forming, even though men know not its name. 
 Multitudes are thus affected; some of whom may be 
 unwilling to acknowledge the source of their good- 
 ness; but we know an evil tree cannot bring forth 
 good fruit, neither can a good tree bring forth evil 
 fruit. "Whatever stands this test is essentially 
 Christian," 
 
 4. It has a definite relation to all right modes 
 of life, of activity, and of human progress. The 
 family, the school, the vocations of life, the fra- 
 ternal associations of men, the citizen's relations 
 to his country, and the civil government, as well 
 as the church, are all to be transformed by the 
 spirit of Christ, and become organs, instruments 
 of the kingdom of God, and to help bring its 
 blessings to the world. To the Christian, instead 
 of one day being holy, and without depreciating 
 the necessity of that one day, all days are holy; 
 instead of one place being holy, the whole earth 
 is sacred ground, a glorious temple in which God 
 
SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 213 
 
 dwells; instead of one class of men being sacred to 
 God, all the redeemed are ministers and priests 
 with God; instead of some work being sacred and 
 other secular, all right work is holy work, according 
 to the command, "Whatsoever ye do in word or 
 deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus." Thus 
 everything in life is holy, because it partakes of 
 redemption as man shares the spirit of Christ. 
 Hence the culture of man and of the earth; the 
 progress of science and of art; the increase of 
 knowledge and of learning; the triumphs of me- 
 chanical inventions and the works of genius; the 
 growth of the means of alleviating pain, and of 
 producing human happiness; the eloquence of the 
 orator and the vision of the statesman; the inspi- 
 ration of the human spirit and the advance of 
 moral reforms; righteousness in governments and 
 liberty among the people, in a word "civilization" 
 finds its highest inspiration, its truest unity, and 
 its final goal in the kingdom of God. 
 
 "The genius of Christianity requires us to con- 
 ceive of the spiritual not as separate from, but as 
 interpenetrating and vivifying the material; of 
 God, not as separate, but as a spirit pervading the 
 universe of redemption; not as making men sepa- 
 rate by removing the redeemed into a different 
 sphere of existence, but as drawing them and all 
 their surroundings with holy and loving relations; 
 of the kingdom of God, not as a separate body, 
 but as seeking always, and destined finally to 
 embrace the whole race of mankind." 
 
 II. The fundamental 'principles of the king- 
 dom of God: 
 
214 SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 
 
 1. The fundamental idea. This is not the fact 
 of human sinfulness, though it shows why sin 
 is so great a matter. This is not the possibility 
 of an eternal loss through sin, though it shows 
 why that possibility is such a fearful one. This 
 is not the offer of salvation to all men, though 
 it shows why God was pleased to make the offer. 
 This is not the joy of the redeemed in heaven, 
 though it reveals the source and ground of that 
 joy. This fundamental idea upon which the 
 kingdom of God rests is the fatherhood of God, and 
 the childhood of all men to him, and the brother- 
 hood of all men to each other. Phillips Brooks 
 says, "Upon the race and upon the individual, 
 Jesus is always bringing into more and more perfect 
 revelation the certain truth that man, and every 
 man is the child of God." This is the sum of the 
 word, of the incarnation. A hundred other state- 
 ments concerning him are true; but all statements 
 concerning him hold their truth within this truth — 
 that Jesus came to restore the fact of God's father- 
 hood to man's knowledge, and to its central place 
 of power over man's life. 
 
 Jesus is mysteriously by the word of God made 
 flesh. He is the worker of amazing miracles upon 
 the bodies and souls of men. He is the Savior by 
 suffering; but behind all these, as the purpose for 
 which he is all these, he is the redeemer of man into 
 the fatherhood of God. It would be deeply in- 
 teresting to dwell upon any one of these special 
 aspects of his wondrous life; but to gather with one 
 great, comprehensive statement the purpose for 
 which Jesus lived, and the power which his life 
 has had over the lives of men, we must seize his 
 
SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 215 
 
 great idea, and find his power there. Every man's 
 power is his idea multiphed by, and projected 
 through his personahty. His special actions are 
 only the points at which his power shows itself, 
 not where it is created. And so the power of Jesus, 
 in founding a kingdom, is the idea of Jesus multi- 
 phed by, and projected through his personality. 
 That idea is, the relation of childhood and father- 
 hood between man and God, and the relation of 
 brotherhood between all men. Man is the child of 
 God even though he is sinful and rebelhous. He 
 is the prodigal child of God, ignorant of his father. 
 But his rebellion breaks not that first relationship. 
 To reassert this fatherhood, childhood, and brother- 
 hood as an everlasting truth, and to re-establish 
 its power as the central, formative idea of society 
 was the mission of Jesus to earth. 
 
 It is sometimes asserted that man is not the 
 child of God by nature, that he becomes such by 
 adoption, through redemption. But it is more in 
 harmony with the Word of God to understand 
 adoption to mean a restoration to last privileges 
 and relations which man has forfeited by his sins, 
 and from which he has alienated himself by wicked 
 works. When the Spirit witnesses to man's 
 salvation, he becomes conscious of God's father- 
 hood, and cries. "Abba, Father." Paul taught 
 the Greeks that their own poet uttered the truth 
 when he said, referring to their relation to God, 
 "For we are also his offspring." And Luke traces 
 the genealogy of man to God. 
 
 Open the Bible at the parable of the prodigal 
 son, "A certain man had two sons," and from the 
 
216 SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 
 
 embrace of the father's love neither of them ever 
 departed. The prodigal in his wanderings in the 
 far-off land is still a son, though he has alienated 
 himself from the privileges of a son. His return 
 does not for the first time make him a son, it 
 restores him to what he had lost in the home. 
 Or, turn to another scene, and hear Jesus teaching 
 men to pray, "Our Father which art in heaven." 
 Not only the needy child who prays for bread, 
 but the sinful child whose lips tremble with the 
 prayer to be forgiven begins his petition with the 
 claim of the son upon the father. Or, again, 
 under the solemn circumstances beside the tomb 
 from which Jesus has just risen, when he draws 
 back the curtains and proclaims his life and his 
 disciples' life together, he declares, "I ascend unto 
 my Father and to your Father." Or, once more, 
 hear John's testimony, as he sums up the effect of 
 his Master's life and teaching, "To as many as 
 received him, to them gave he power to become 
 the sons of God." "Behold, what manner of love 
 the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should 
 be called the sons of God," 
 
 In harmony with the old Greek idea, this one 
 who is the Father of all men is the sovereign of the 
 kingdom. And the kingdom is built upon the fact 
 of the brotherhood of all men. For there is neither 
 Jew ncr Greek, bond nor free, male nor female in 
 Christ Jesus, but all are one common brotherhood. 
 
 2. The second great principle is a natural out- 
 growth of the first. It is love as the supreme law 
 of the kingdom. All moral evil is an outgrowth of 
 selfishness. This is the heart, the inner life, the 
 very principle of all sin. Out of it are the issues of 
 
SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 217 
 
 death. Selfishness is separating our lives, interests, 
 efforts, sympathies from our fellowmen. It is 
 living a self-centered life, as if all the world were 
 made simply to serve our wants and wishes. Love 
 is to identify ourselves with a larger whole of which 
 we are but parts. Christ stated the law of his 
 kingdom thus: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
 with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy 
 mind, and thy neighbour as thyself." The second 
 command, as if in more danger of being neglected 
 than the first, was given a working method in 
 these words, "Whatsoever ye would that men 
 should do unto you, do ye even so unto them." 
 Paul sums up both in the one, saying, "All the law 
 is fulfilled in one word, thou shalt love thy neighbor 
 as thyself." Thus making neighbor-love carry 
 with it the love of God. John declared that our 
 love for our brethren is the test of our love to God. 
 Love has been compared to the law of gravity. 
 As that mighty energy holds all the parts of the 
 physical universe in harmonious balance as they 
 revolve around a common center, so the power of 
 love will finally hold in perfect harmony all the 
 members of God's kingdom, as they move about 
 him, as their supreme center. "The command of 
 supreme love toward God cannot fittingly be laid 
 upon men except in connection with such a dis- 
 closure of God's character and of his relations to us 
 as is fitted to call out and sustain this love. The 
 injunction, when made, gains its full scope only 
 as the revelation which accompanies it becomes 
 complete. It is a feeble and ineffectual thing to 
 command love, unless its conditions are at the 
 same time supplied. The force which is to evoke 
 
218 SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 
 
 this great love of man toward God is not the word 
 of authority, but that absolute rationahty, that 
 supreme excellence, that patience of power, that 
 overflowing love of God which removes all distrust, 
 all fear, and enables the mind to draw near to God 
 and to abide in his wisdom and grace. The father- 
 hood of God, in its fullest scope, is the idea which 
 answers to the perfect moral law, and gives that 
 law the possibility of fulfillment. 
 
 "The possibility of that obedience to the 
 second command which shall make the flow of our 
 affections toward our fellowmen inspiring and 
 helpful, is double. It involves first, a recognition 
 of the fact that they are by constitution the mem- 
 bers of one household, under one law, harmonious 
 in its action; and, secondly, our hearty acceptance 
 of this fact, with corresponding desire to secure 
 its complete realization. Not till we find God as a 
 father, can we love him; and not till, standing with 
 our fellowmen, we find him as our Father who art 
 in heaven, can we feel the full flow of the reflex 
 love we owe to them. If there is no theoretical 
 unity in the spiritual kingdom, if men do not, by 
 constitution, belong to one kingdom, then it is 
 vain to strive to construct a kingdom out of dis- 
 cordant materials by mere authority." But they 
 do all rightly belong to one kingdom, which is 
 the family of God, including him as father. 
 
 Taking the first command and the parable 
 of the prodigal son as the exponent of our relation 
 to God, and the second command and the parable 
 of the good Samaritan as its working formula, and 
 the life of Christ as an illustration of both, we have 
 a divine plan of social unity clearly outlined. 
 
SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 219 
 
 This land of unity is not a mere sentiment. 
 It is obedience to a universal law, that nothing is 
 made for itself alone, but everything is a part of a 
 universal system. Everything belongs more to the 
 organism of which it is a part than to itself. Every- 
 thing gives up its individual will for the will of 
 the whole. This is the law of sacrificial love. It 
 is an unconscious law in nature. The sun shines 
 not for self, the rain falls not for self, the grass 
 grows not for self, the flowers bloom not for self, 
 the fruits and grains ripen not for self. Each 
 lives its life, performs its appointed task for the 
 good of others. God obeys the same law of love. 
 He gives all good gifts, even his Son. The Son 
 gives even his life. They are parts of this great 
 whole and obedient to the law of sacrificial love. 
 Mans life must come under this law or he remains 
 a discordant element in the universe. Christ rep- 
 resented his relation to redeemed humanity as the 
 vine and its branches — mutual dependence. Paul 
 represents redeemed humanity with Christ as the 
 heart, as one body "members one of another." 
 The will of God, which is love, is the gravitation 
 of the whole moral universe. Hence, "Thy will 
 be done," is the most rational prayer the soul can 
 offer. 
 
 Any effort at social unity that omits either 
 of these two factors — God and humanity as one 
 family, and love as its lock — will be a repetition 
 of the old effort to build the tower of Babel up to 
 heaven out of earthly materials, and the end will 
 be confusion and separation. But according to 
 this divine plan the world is progressing toward 
 unity. A symbol and prophecy of this was 
 
220 SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 
 
 witnessed on the day of Pentecost, when strangers 
 from all parts of the world gathered at Jerusalem. 
 When baptized into the same spirit, each heard 
 and understood, in his own tongue wherein he was 
 born, the wonderful things of God. 
 
 3. Its supreme end is the highest good of so- 
 ciety. Individualism regards the single man as an 
 independent and complete being. Each aims first 
 at his own welfare and happiness. The good of 
 others is very subordinate and indifferent. This 
 has been pushed to its extreme limits, which is 
 systematic selfishness. Communism is the op- 
 posite extreme in which the single man is lost in 
 the social organism. 
 
 4. Next in order is the law of life in the king- 
 dom. Man, by his physical organism is mated 
 in nature, and shares its common life. By his 
 spirit he is related to God and capable of sharing 
 God's life. Thoughtful minds have even contem- 
 plated God as not simply above nature, but also 
 as imminent in nature. He not only transcends 
 all nature and works upon it from without, but 
 he is in all nature as its moral and spiritual center, 
 its guiding force, the "power that makes for 
 righteousness." A distinguished Christian philos- 
 opher speaks of all material existence as "a mode 
 of the divine energizing," a revelation of God's 
 presence and power. He would trace all force to 
 God as its ultimate origin, the whole world as a 
 revelation of his indwelling life. He was not only 
 in the world, but the world was made by him and 
 for him; and as men have been able to receive 
 him, he has more and more entered into fellowship 
 with them. "That was not first which is spiritual, 
 
SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 221 
 
 but that which is natural; afterward that which is 
 spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy; 
 the second man is the Lord from heaven. . . . "As 
 we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall 
 also be the image of the heavenly." This presents 
 an order of growth. Christianity, or the kingdom 
 of heaven, is a synthesis of these two extremes. 
 It teaches the individual to "seek first the kingdom 
 of God, and his righteousness" as the highest good, 
 and then puts upon him the obligation of service 
 for the good of others ; thus, to give to the social 
 organism, a comparative perfection, harmony, and 
 happiness. But as in the past ages, individualism 
 has been pushed to an extreme, it remains for this 
 age to see what Christianity can do for society. 
 
 Bishop Westcott has recently said: "While 
 socialism has been discredited by its connection 
 with many extravagant and revolutionary schemes, 
 it is a term which needs to be claimed for noble 
 uses. It has no necessary affinity with any form 
 of violence or confiscation, or class selfishness, or 
 financial arrangement. It is a theory of life. In 
 this sense, socialism is the opposite of individual- 
 ism, and it is by contrast under a new type, the 
 Lord from heaven. Since the incarnation of God 
 in Jesus Christ, he has become in a true sense the 
 life of the world. Humanity has become grafted 
 into the divine stock and draws its life from a 
 divine fountain. There is now community of life 
 between God and his people. 
 
 The life which Christ manifested in the world 
 becomes the life of the Spirit. He says: "It is 
 expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not 
 away the Comforter will not come unto you; but 
 
222 SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 
 
 if I depart, I will send him unto you. . . AVhen he, 
 the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you unto 
 all truth; for he shall not speak of himself; but 
 whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak. . . . 
 He shall glorify me ; for he shall receive of mine, and 
 shall show it unto you. All things that the Father 
 hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take 
 of mine, and shall show it unto you." 
 
 "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and 
 that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Under 
 this reign of the Spirit, the soul is brought into a 
 realm of new ideas, new impulses, and new life. 
 Man is now made a partaker of the eternal life, 
 which is to know God, and Jesus Christ whom he 
 hath sent. His real life henceforth becomes the 
 life of the Spirit. Men are the temples of the 
 living God. God dwells in them, not as inert 
 matter, but as life. Wherever there is a vacuum 
 in a human soul into which he is welcome, God fills 
 it. He is thus the complement or completion of 
 our little fragmentary lives, by uniting them in 
 faith and hope and love, to the great system of 
 which he is the center, lighting us up to a conscious 
 union with him. The prophet looked forward to 
 this time of the union of God and man when human 
 life should expand in all directions, filled with wis- 
 dom and adorned with all graces. They compared 
 it to the effect of rain upon the earth after a long 
 drought, saying: "The wilderness and the solitary 
 place shall be glad for them, and the desert shall 
 rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom 
 abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing 
 and the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it." 
 
SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 223 
 
 In the fullness of the life of the Spirit, the 
 selfishness of the human heart will be expelled, 
 and the soul will grow into its type and attain its 
 true perfection in Christ. 
 
 I have tried to show you that the kingdom of 
 God is the spirit of Christ in society organizing 
 men into social unity — ultimately the whole world 
 redeemed. Its underlying idea is the fatherhood 
 of God, the childhood of all men to him, and the 
 brotherhood of all men to each other — one family. 
 Its law is love, which is the gravitation of the moral 
 universe. Its life is the life of God in men. Its 
 aim is righteousness on earth. The hope of its 
 realization is that it is God's plan, and his plan 
 will prevail. 
 
 What is here said of socialism can all of it be 
 affirmed of Christianity as taught in these passages 
 of Scripture: "Whosoever will save his life shall 
 lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake, 
 shall find it." "We are members one of another." 
 "We then that are strong ought to bear the infirm- 
 ities of the weak, and not to please ourselves." 
 "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the 
 law of Christ." 
 
 III. What can we do to hasten the realization 
 of this ideal of human society? 
 
 1. Recognize that each is only a part of a 
 greater whole. In this land where each is a sover- 
 eign, individualism has been carried to an extreme, 
 and thus has become a source of evil. Christianity 
 teaches that each is but a part of a greater body, 
 as a branch is a part of the vine; and thus the true 
 character of socialism can best be discerned. Indi- 
 vidualism and socialism correspond with opposite 
 
224 SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 
 
 views of humanity. Individualism regards human- 
 ity as made up of disconnected or warring atoms; 
 sociahsm regards it as an organic whole, a vital unity 
 formed by the combination of contributory mem- 
 bers mutually interdependent. It follows that so- 
 cialism differs from individualism both in method 
 and in aim. The method of socialism is co-opera tion ; 
 the method of individualism is competition. The 
 one regards man as working with men for a common 
 end ; the other regards men as working against man 
 for private gain. The aim of socialism is the fulfill- 
 ment of service; the aim of individualism is the 
 attainment of some personal advantage, riches, 
 place, or fame. Socialism seeks such an organi- 
 zation of life as shall secure for every one the 
 most complete development of his powers; in- 
 dividualism seeks primarily the satisfaction of the 
 particular wants of each one, in the hope that the 
 pursuit of private interest will in the end secure 
 public welfare. If men were perfect, with desires 
 and powers harmoniously balanced, both lines of 
 action would lead to the same end. As it is, how- 
 ever, experience shows that limitations must be 
 placed upon the self-assertion of the single man. 
 The growing sense of dependence, as life becomes 
 more ana more complex, necessarily increases the 
 feeling of personal obligation, which constrains 
 us each to look into circumstances of others. At 
 the same time, in the intercourse of a fuller life, 
 we learn that oui- character is impoverished in 
 proportion as we are isolated, and we also learn 
 that evil or wrong in one part of society makes 
 itself felt throughout the whole. 
 
SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 225 
 
 Already society has been greatly blessed by 
 the silent progress of the kingdom of heaven. Its 
 humane spirit has largely banished cast and slavery; 
 but many other evils afflict society, causing it to 
 cry out for remedial help. Intemperance, com- 
 pulsory child-labor, extreme poverty, bad sanitary 
 conditions, inharmonious relations between labor 
 and capital, corners on the necessaries of life, and 
 greedy monopolies, and many other forms of 
 social evils must be removed before society can be 
 perfect, harmonious, and happy. It will not do 
 for the fortunate members of society to-day to 
 exclaim, in the language of that first godless polit- 
 ical economist, "Am I my brother's keeper.-^" It 
 is not only the duty, but it is to the interest of the 
 well-to-do and refined that no class should grow 
 up wretched. Dickens well states this community 
 of interest when he describes the miserable London 
 quarters of one of his characters: "There is not an 
 atom of his slime, not a cubic inch of any pestilential 
 gas in which he lives, not one obscenity or degra- 
 dation about him, not an ignorance or a wicked- 
 ness, not a brutality of his committing but shall 
 work its retribution through every order of society 
 up to the proudest of the proud, and to the highest 
 of the high." 
 
 Christ came to give abundant life. As he 
 was the life and light of men before his incarnation, 
 so is he still. Not as one sitting in the heavens, 
 but as "the power that makes for righteousness" 
 in this world. It is for you to teach this idea to 
 the solidarity of the race, until man, not only 
 through charity for the unfortunate, but through 
 the instinct of self-preservation, will seek to remove 
 
226 SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 
 
 the evils under which society groans. The Chris- 
 tian people must not get anxious to emigrate to 
 heaven, but they must seek to bring the kingdom 
 of heaven down to earth, and fill society with its 
 righteousness, joj% and peace. 
 
 As each member of the body is a part of the 
 whole body, or as each person is a part of the whole 
 family, let each member be as perfect as possible, 
 that he may add to the perfection of the whole 
 organism. This is the true theory of Christian 
 culture. Be as perfect as you can become, but 
 hold every power as a trust for the good of your 
 fellowmen. Get all the knowledge and wisdom 
 possible, but hold it for the good of the common 
 brotherhood. Get all the mental and moral wealth 
 you can acquire, but regard it as a sacred trust for 
 the kingdom of God. 
 
 2. The law of love must be carried into all 
 the relations of life. Its demands are very prac- 
 tical, "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so 
 fulfil the law of Christ." Man must not be a 
 stagnant pool with all the streams flowing inward ; 
 but he must be a living fountain, out of which 
 issue blessings to others. He must not be a 
 Sahara desert, making no response to the sunshine 
 and the rainfall, but he must be a fertile field that 
 reciprocates the blessings of heaven by an abun- 
 dant harvest. 
 
 The law of love, and doing to others as we 
 would have them do to us, must be carried into 
 our theories of political and social economy, and 
 these sciences must be revised on the basis of 
 Christian ethics. The labor and the laborer will 
 cease to be regarded as commodities, in the sense 
 
SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 227 
 
 in which material things are commodities; and co- 
 operation will take the place of competition in 
 many cases; and love will help to regulate the 
 relation of work and wages. 
 
 3. The kingdom of God has a message to men 
 of wealth. It does not join in the communistic cry 
 against riches; but it touches each man to improve 
 the talents given him of every kind. The possess- 
 ion of any power implies the right to use it. The 
 man who by industry, economy, and thrift, has 
 accumulated wealth, may do more for humanity 
 with it than by any other means. It will all de- 
 pend upon the use he makes of his riches. A 
 reservoir of water may be a motive power to move 
 the machinery and carry on the industries of a 
 whole community; or it may be a Johnstown flood. 
 Great wealth is such an accumulated power. Its 
 good or evil depends upon the use made of it. The 
 Christian theory is that all riches are a trust for 
 the good of humanity, not a selfish possession. 
 Mr. Andrew Carnegie, who has given millions of 
 dollars to found public libraries, says, "Every rich 
 man should administer his own estate while living, 
 and distribute the chief part of his wealth for the 
 pubhc good of his fellowmen." Such men are 
 benefactors of the race. 
 
 If men should not selfishly use their riches, 
 neither should they thoughtlessly give them to 
 others, as that tends to make men dependent, 
 and thus to increase pauperism. Help the fallen 
 onto their feet; give them a word of sympathy 
 and cheer, and thus encourage them to depend on 
 self, and you will do them more good than if you 
 give them a fortune and let them live without 
 
228 SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 
 
 work. The poor Indian is a sample of what 
 pubHc annuities will do. Private annuities are 
 equally pauperizing. 
 
 For the rich to take a kindly interest in the 
 poor man is more than to give money. It allays 
 the discontent of the latter by letting him know 
 that he is a recognized part of the social organism, 
 if he cannot be the head, the hands are equally 
 honorable if they do their work equally well. 
 Social discontent will still further be removed by 
 recognizing that all honest laborers are "co-work- 
 ers with God," and in toil they have fellowship 
 with him who came not to be saved, but as a 
 servant to give his life for many. 
 
 My subject suggests a thought about the 
 churches. No one denomination is the kingdom 
 of God. All of the invisible churches united are 
 not as extensive as this kingdom. They may be 
 called training-schools for the kingdom. They are 
 a part of a common body; if one suffer, they all 
 suffer with it; if one is honored, they all rejoice 
 together. Such an alliance between them as will 
 secure practical co-operation is near at hand. An 
 interdenominational alliance is the hope of men of 
 the noblest soul in all the churches. This is the 
 spirit of the age. International treaties for the 
 spread of knowledge and the increase of commerce, 
 international laws for the securing ot righteousness, 
 international conciliation for the securing of peace 
 and good will, international aUiances for Christian 
 work among the nations already exist. These 
 are providential. In God's light we shall see light. 
 When Christian co-operation exists between all 
 the members of the visible body of Christ, the 
 
SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 229 
 
 whole earth will soon be covered by the idea of 
 brotherhood, the principle of sacrificial love and a 
 community of life. Then the evils that afflict 
 society — like a disease preying upon the body — 
 will be eliminated by the very fullness of life. 
 Then the Church will take full proof of her divine 
 mission in the same manner her Redeemer did, 
 when he said: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, 
 because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel 
 to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken- 
 hearted; to preach deliverance to the captives, and 
 recovering" of sight to the blind; to set at liberty 
 them that are bruised; to preach the acceptable 
 year of the Lord." 
 
 Do you ask if it will pay to identify your lives 
 with this divine movement? He that saveth his 
 life by selfish isolation from this larger whole, 
 shall lose it. But he that loseth his life by 
 identity with this completive organism, shall find 
 it again. 
 
 Pay.^ Go ask the students who have spent 
 their lives for the perfecting of knowledge; and 
 let the knowledge of to-day that floods the earth 
 as the light of the noonday sun be your answer. 
 
 Go ask the inventors who spent their lives in 
 completing the works of mechanical genius, and 
 let the triumph of mind over matter in this age be 
 your answer. 
 
 Go ask the patriots who died for love of 
 country, and let the glorious civil institutions of 
 this age be your answer. 
 
 Go ask the martyrs and liberators of earth 
 if it pays to die for an idea, and let the happy voices 
 of the millions of the free be your answer. 
 
230 SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 
 
 Go ask the missionaries of the cross if it pays 
 to die for love of man; and let the voice of the 
 redeemed host, as the voice of many waters, be 
 your answer. 
 
 Class of Union Biblical Seminary, 1891 : It is 
 your privilege to make your creed fertilize the 
 world, and your lives furnish meat and drink for 
 mankind. It is your privilege to cause the wilder- 
 ness and the solitary places to be glad, and the 
 desert to rejoice and blossom as the rose. It is 
 your privilege to hasten universal fraternity, 
 charity, and social unity, as the new Jerusalem, 
 descending out of heaven to dwell among men, 
 lighting up the whole earth with its glory, the 
 nations walking in the light of it as they hasten 
 through its open gates, to heal their ills by the 
 leaves of its trees, and quench their immortal 
 thirst by its flowing fountains, as they look up 
 to God the Father, with gratitude, exclaiming, 
 * 'Thine is the kingdom and the power and the 
 glory forever. Amen." 
 
 A SHORT ADDRESS ON THE AMERICAN 
 NATION. 
 
 Ruskin once exclaimed, "What a thought was 
 that when God thought a tree." It was a greater 
 thought when God thought a continent. It was a 
 still grander thought when he thought a Chris- 
 tian nation with all its wealth of thought, 
 feeling, and action. A nation is as surely the 
 realization of a divine thought and purpose as is 
 
SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 231 
 
 an individual. In the history of Israel, of Greece, 
 of Rome, the divine plan is apparent. The pro- 
 gram of the divine plan for America is at least 
 partially revealed. It is for the people this day to 
 read this program, and dedicate themselves to 
 its realization. 
 
 Confessedly, there are great difficulties in 
 grasping this broad American life, as it is formative 
 and not fixed; it has taken no final shape. The 
 European traveler who thinks he can do America 
 in "six weeks," gauge its size and announce its 
 final destiny, is not the man of historic authority. 
 He has seen only some of the physical features of 
 the land. He has not even had time to locate its 
 pulse, or feel its throb. 
 
 This baffling vastness and elusive changeful- 
 ness is only the expression of the manifold con- 
 tradictory forces at work. The Mayflower that 
 brought the Pilgrims to the shores of New England, 
 afterward brought slaves to Virginia; but this 
 only exemplifies the rapid co-mingling of all sorts 
 of men and nations on our shores, out of which, 
 by the law of the survival of the fittest, there is 
 to come the last, best plan of God for man. 
 
 It has been very happily said that America 
 was God's great charity to the human race. He 
 gave it to the suffering millions of older countries. 
 As first settled, it has ever continued to be settled 
 by the poor. 
 
 The birth-throe of this nation was the effort 
 to make a home where the humbler classes might 
 give to God a type of man grander and nobler than 
 that had ever been its birth-motive, to create on 
 
232 SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 
 
 a new continent, amidst unimpeded areas, a race 
 better in opportunities, better in results, tenderer, 
 truer, and wider in sympathies, loftier in spirit — 
 a race showing at length God's ideal of man or- 
 ganized into a nation. 
 
 To do this, the best blood of all the nations of 
 the earth has been poured into the American veins. 
 In the last fifty years, over 20,000,000 foreigners, 
 mostly young, vigorous, thrifty, determined in 
 purpose, positive in ideas, great souled, looking 
 forward to a brave future and resolved on it, have 
 gone into the rich life of America. 
 
 For want of such fresh blood, the old nations 
 of Assyria, Egypt, Greece, and Rome, perished. 
 Our later civilizations have been better fed. Five 
 times has England been soaked and saturated 
 with foreign inundations. Again and again had 
 the original Kelts of France been recruited and 
 vitalized by such enriching floods. England's 
 roots have gone down into Australia, India, Africa, 
 America; but the whole world volunteers to bring 
 its richest treasures to us, for the strengthening, 
 for the enriching and perfecting of our national 
 life. 
 
 Europe is broken into fragments. Differences 
 of language, faith, political organization, rigid and 
 well nigh invincible alienations separate the people. 
 Solid walls of bayonets divide its life; but our 
 vast national life is bound together, as in a divine 
 union, by common origin, language, political 
 institutions, culture, hopes, and religion. 
 
 A great and eager mutual sympathy runs 
 through the whole body. The telegraph is swift; 
 
SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 233 
 
 the telephone is instant, but that spirit of sym- 
 pathy, quicker than hght, is forever present through 
 every part; a land which cannot perish, a life 
 which cannot die. The thought of the old world 
 is also our heritage. Take the physical sciences 
 alone, physics, chemistry, geology, astronomy, 
 then prove all were born since our history began. 
 It would seem, indeed, that well nigh the whole 
 mass of this helpful modern knowledge had sym- 
 pathetic birth with our nation — both of them 
 children of liberty returned to earth. 
 
 The Reformation of religion was effected since 
 our birth, that America might have the purest 
 form of Christianity unfettered by superstitious 
 traditions. 
 
 To these advantages add our system of school 
 from primary to the university, our national dis- 
 cipline by experience, and all our material riches 
 and environments, and see how fully the means 
 are given to America to bring forth the queenliest 
 womanhood, and the kingliest manhood the earth 
 has ever known, and by means of this divine 
 humanity to solve all the problems that now^ baffle 
 and vex the world. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN COLLEGE 
 
 College Finances 
 
 In the beginning, the writer asks that the 
 question may be considered in the abstract; that 
 is, apart from any particular college of men. And 
 
234 SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 
 
 further, that he may take for granted, as true, the 
 following propositions: 
 
 1. That Christian colleges are of God — a 
 part of his plan. 
 
 2. That God owns all wealth. 
 
 3. That when God's conditions of usefulness 
 and success are met, he will send the money to 
 equip and support the colleges. This will reduce 
 the discussion to two topics: 
 
 I. Wise measures, or plans. 
 
 While a plan of college finances can be sepa- 
 rated in thought from the other plans of the col- 
 lege, the plans all combine in reality to secure the 
 common success or failure of the college. In most 
 cases, to try to remove college debts without tak- 
 ing into account the general plans and the men of 
 the college, is like doctoring a mere symptom on 
 the surface of the body, when the disease is organic 
 and chronic, demanding constitutional treatment. 
 The essential plans of the college, as well as the 
 men associated with it, must be in harmony with 
 the conditions of success, or it is useless to worry 
 about the finances. 
 
 Having these convictions, the writer chooses 
 to suggest what seems to him to be some of the 
 genera] conditions of success in our college work: 
 
 1. The location selected for the college 
 should be such as will contribute to its success, by 
 patronage, by physical and moral healthfulness, 
 and in other ways. After proper experiment, if 
 it be found that these elements of success are 
 wanting in the locality where the college has been 
 established, it may be best to remove it to a more 
 
SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 235 
 
 favorable place. Let the question of removal and 
 location be determined on the principle of the 
 greatest good to the greatest number. 
 
 2. If the college is denominational, and looks 
 wholly to a sect for its financial support, then its 
 measures and its men must be in complete har- 
 mony with the spirit of that denomination. To 
 violate this principle is to alienate the sympathy 
 and to lose the support and patronage of the 
 denomination. If, however, the college seek large 
 financial help and patronage outside of the de- 
 nomination to which it belongs, it may, and often 
 must vary its plans and select its men to meet this 
 outside aid and patronage. The college must pre- 
 serve the good will and favorable opinion of its 
 patrons. 
 
 3. The business policy of the college must be 
 such as will meet the approval of business men; in 
 other words, it must be in harmony with the natural 
 conditions of financial success, so far as these 
 conditions are known. Providence will no more 
 protect a college from bankruptcy when it vio- 
 lates essential business principles, than he will 
 protect a private person from such an effect follow- 
 ing a like cause. It is possible for a college to be 
 infatuated by a blind presumption that God will 
 help it; or to be misled by a vain ambition to equal 
 or to excel a more prosperous competitor, and 
 therefore make debts beyond all wise prudence. 
 The folly of such a course would be seen and con- 
 demned by everybody, if a private person should 
 pursue the same policy. 
 
 For several years, to avoid increase of debt, 
 the men in Oberlin College did hard work on very 
 
236 SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 
 
 low salaries; and instead of this policy driving 
 away her best men, (as it is thought such a policy 
 would do,) it secured and retained such moral and 
 intellectual giants as Charles G. Finney and his 
 colleagues. When the nature of the case demands 
 it, resort must be had to such extreme measures to 
 reduce the debt, or at least to prevent its increase, 
 and at the same time, to show to the patrons that 
 the men in the college are willing to make sacrifices 
 along with others for the common good. 
 
 Many other measures are suggested, but I 
 care now to emphasize only the three named. 
 But, however wise the plans, they will not work 
 themselves. This suggests the second topic: 
 
 II. Able men. 
 
 1. Able agents must he secured. It is not 
 enough that the agent be an honest man, or a good 
 bookkeeper, or one who can manage the college 
 finances by a continual increase of the debt with- 
 out any increase of the assets. If money is to be 
 solicited, then the agent employed to do this must 
 have the ability to secure money, or he is a failure. 
 
 Sometimes an agent is selected because it i^ 
 said that he has managed his own finances success- 
 fully, when a careful examination would prove that 
 his "wise management" consists only in excessive 
 stinginess — never giving anything away. The pri- 
 vate policy of such an agent is damaging to the 
 cause he represents, discouraging the benevolence 
 of other men. On the other hand, another man is 
 thought to be not fit for an agent because he has no 
 private fortune to attest his financial skill. But it 
 is evident that this latter man may be the better 
 
SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 237 
 
 financier. The best college agent we have ever 
 found, the one who has secured the most money, 
 has no private fortune "to attest his financial skill." 
 This superficial method of selecting agents puts a 
 premium on stinginess and a stigma on benevo- 
 lence. Failures of agents and alienations of pat- 
 rons are partly due to this method of judging and 
 selecting men. Let the agents of ability be se- 
 lected, who have the wisdom to reap the harvest of 
 this year, and at the same time, by prudent plans 
 and right example to sow the seed for a more 
 abundent harvest next year. 
 
 2. The men who teach ought to be more 
 than teachers; they must be that. The number 
 of educated persons desiring to teach, makes it 
 impolitic to retain any one, who, through infirmity 
 or incapacity, fails to give satisfaction as a teacher. 
 He ought also to exert influence through other 
 channels, to aid the finances of his college. Some 
 of the personal-influence methods used by teachers 
 in normal school could be wisely used for the 
 benefit of colleges. If prejudice could be laid 
 aside long enough to thoroughly study the causes 
 of success in the normal schools, and then wisely 
 use such of these elements of success as are adapted 
 to the college, surely great good would result, 
 
 3. Last, and greatest of all, we must learn 
 from the history of college work to place a higher 
 estimate upon the college president as a factor 
 of financial success. It is seen everywhere that 
 the successful college president is more than a 
 teacher. He is more than a good man of approved 
 scholorship — he is a leader among men. His 
 fertile brain originates the plans, and his tireless 
 
238 SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 
 
 energy executes the same. His humanity is broad 
 enough to touch and warm all his followers; and 
 his heart is large enough to carry the faith and 
 courage and enthusiasm necessary to infect all of 
 his patrons. What the general is to his army, 
 what the leader is to his party, he is to his college. 
 No general every carried on a successful campaign 
 by correspondence. No leader ever led his party 
 to victory by newspaper articles. 
 
 Let our college presidents be clothed with the 
 power and responsibility of leadership. Let them 
 be sent out among the people to arouse them and 
 to organize the force. Then, if they be true leaders 
 of men, the people will follow them, and they will 
 have faith in the college because they have faith in 
 the leader, and they will love the college because 
 they love the leader. 
 
 Men cannot be organized for a common 
 effort without a recognized leader, and they will 
 not recognize a leader if they know nothing about 
 him. They must feel the power and recognize the 
 ability of the man before they will follow him with 
 any degree of enthusiasm. 
 
 Let our college board of trustees look to such 
 able leaders as the chief means of solving the 
 problem of college finances. 
 
 AN EARLY SERMON 
 
 [ Preached near the beginning of his ministry] 
 
 Text — "Ought not Christ to have suffered 
 these things, and to enter into his glory.?" (Luke 
 
 24:26.) 
 
SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 239 
 
 In this language, the Savior more than inti- 
 mates the necessity of his sufferings. The apostle 
 also teaches that it "became" God "to make the 
 Captain of our salvation perfect through suffer- 
 ings." 
 
 The Savior said to Nicodemus, "As Moses 
 lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so 
 must the Son of man be lifted up." And again, 
 "Thus it is written, and thus it behooved [or be- 
 came] Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the 
 third day ; and that repentance and remission of sins 
 should be preached in his name among all nations, 
 beginning at Jerusalem." 
 
 I. Let us inquire first, Why was it necessary 
 that Christ should suffer .^^ 
 
 We will all say that this necessity did not 
 arise from his own sinfulness, for he was "holy and 
 undefiled, and separate from sinners." We cannot 
 believe that the sufferings of Christ were necessary 
 in that absolute sense in which we cannot conceive 
 of a thing being otherwise than it is, that is, we do 
 not believe that the sufferings of Christ were the 
 necessary and unchangeable effect of a given cause; 
 but those sufferings were necessary in order to 
 secure a certain end, or to accomplish a certain 
 design. They were necessary as a cause to produce 
 a certain effect, or, in other words, the sufferings 
 of Christ were necessary to secure the salvation of 
 man. 
 
 1. It was necessary to satisfy the justice of 
 God. Man owes entire obedience to the law or 
 will of God at all times; but he has not rendered 
 this obedience, hence his guilt, or debt to God, for 
 sin is debt. 
 
240 SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 
 
 The debt cannot be paid by beginning to 
 serve God anew, by present and future obedience. 
 Satisfaction is demanded for the debt we owe for 
 past disobedience; but man has not the means 
 to satisfy the demand. Could not God, moved by 
 love and compassion, forgive the debt? No, it 
 would be setting such an example, establishing 
 such a precedent in God's moral government as 
 would show to his subject his disregard for sin and 
 his willingness to exercise his prerogative in pardon- 
 ing the guilty, at the expense of justice. "It would 
 contradict divine justice itself, if the creature 
 could defraud the Creator of that which is his due, 
 without rendering satisfaction for the robbery." 
 Hence, if God would show his hatred of sin and his 
 love of justice, he must demand, and receive the 
 satisfaction due him. 
 
 There are two ways by which this demand 
 may be satisfied: First, by the punishment of the 
 transgressor. "But this, of course, would forever 
 prohibit his salvation from sin and his eternal hap- 
 piness, because the punishment required is eternal, 
 in order to offset the infinite demerit of robbing 
 God of his honor. It is plain, therefore, that man 
 cannot be his own atoner, and render satisfaction 
 for his own sin. A sinner cannot justify a sinner, 
 any more than a criminal can pardon his own crime. 
 The second, and only way by which the demands 
 of justice can be satisfied, and, at the same time, 
 man's happiness secured, is by substituted or 
 vicarious suffering — some other agent must suffer 
 as man's substitute. But the efficacy of this sub- 
 stituted suffering depends upon the nature and 
 character of the being who renders it. It would 
 
SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 241 
 
 not be lawful to defraud justice by giving a less 
 for a more valuable satisfaction. If a true vica- 
 rious satisfaction is made, something must be 
 offered to justice for the sins of man that is greater 
 than the created and finite, something "that is 
 greater than everything else that is not God," for 
 the claims of justice upon every created being are 
 as great as it can satisfy; hence no created be- 
 ing can render a vicarious satisfaction for the sins 
 of another. Therefore, if one be offered to suffer 
 as a substitute for man, he must be uncreated, one 
 upon whom justice had no prior claims, that one 
 alone is God. Therefore, God alone can make 
 this satisfaction. In this case. Deity above can 
 satisfy the claims of Deity ; but though this is the 
 the case, man must render it, or it would not be a 
 satisfaction for man's sins. For this reason the 
 required satisfaction must be rendered by a God 
 man. This is why God, in coming into the world, 
 "took not on him the nature of angels," but human 
 nature, that the same party that sinned might 
 suffer; the Deity, being so associated with that 
 party which suffered as to stamp those suffering 
 with sufficient merits to atone for the sins of the 
 whole world. 
 
 As Christ was pure and holy, justice had no 
 claims upon him to suffer; hence, those sufferings 
 were to make reconciliation for the sins of others — 
 the human race. 
 
 2. God's veracity demanded the sufferings 
 of Christ. God cannot be false in either his 
 promises or threatenings. He had threatened to 
 inflict sufferings upon man if he disobeyed, and 
 man did disobey; therefore, God, in accordance 
 
242 SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 
 
 with the immutabihty of his nature, must inflict 
 the threatened punishment; which punishment I 
 conceive to be greater than the sufferings man 
 endures in this Hfe, even eternal in their duration 
 and infinite in their realm. If man escape from this 
 curse, a substitute must bear the curse and suffer in 
 his stead ; and no other substitute would answer the 
 demands of justice but the God man, as we have 
 already shown. Therefore, it was necessary that 
 Christ suffer. 
 
 We think these two are the chief reasons why 
 the sufferings of Christ were necessary to pi'ocure 
 the salvation of man; namely, to satisfy the de- 
 ' mands of justice, and to maintain the veracity of 
 God. There are other secondary reasons, such as 
 the following : 
 
 (1) The promises of God to Adam, that 
 the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's 
 head; also to Abraham, "In thy seed shall all the 
 nations of the earth be blessed," and various other 
 promises, to fulfill which "ought not Christ to 
 suffer, and enter into his glory?" (2) The 
 various sacrifices of the Jews only typified, or 
 referred to a greater or more glorious one of infinite 
 valor to be made in "the last days." They were 
 only valuable in the eyes of God, and efficient for 
 the salvation of the people, as the means of directing 
 their minds, hopes, and hearts to that greater 
 sacrifice. In view of which, ought that sacrifice 
 to be made, those sufferings endured. (3) God's 
 prophets had predicted and minutely described 
 the sufferings of Christ. Read Isaiah 53: "Surely 
 he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; 
 yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, 
 
SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 243 
 
 and afflicted. He was wounded for our transgres- 
 sions, bruised for our iniquity: the chastisement 
 of our peace was upon him: and with his stripes 
 we are healed. . .He was oppressed, and he was 
 afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. . .Yet it 
 pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him 
 to grief." In consideration of these predictions, 
 was it necessary for Christ to suffer .^^ As all the 
 ceremonies, sacrifices, and oblations under the 
 old covenant were designed to impress the human 
 mind with the necessity of some greater offerings 
 being made than present and future obedience, to 
 propitiate the wrath and to satisfy the demands of 
 the justice of Deity, ought not that offering to be 
 made.^ Was it not necessary .^^ 
 
 "It is the greatest of wonders that the very 
 same divine justice which is armed with an eternal 
 law of threatening and condemnation towards the 
 transgressor, should, in the day and hour of judge- 
 ment, not only hold back the sword of vengeance, 
 and absolve from the punishment threatened, but 
 should raise the criminal to heights of glory and 
 happiness. Who does not wonder to see the truth- 
 fulness of threatenings converted into the truth- 
 fulness of promises, so that strict truth is kept on 
 both sides, and in both aspects? These two con- 
 tradictions are reconciled in the Lamb of God, the 
 infinite atonement of Christ. Christ himself God, 
 himself the priest, himself the sacrifice — has made 
 satisfaction to himself, for himself, of himself. 
 In Christ we behold not only a reconciled, but a 
 reconciling Deity; an incarnate of God who, in the 
 sinner's place, and for the sinner's salvation 
 
244 SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 
 
 furnishes what his own attributes of hoKness and 
 justice require." 
 
 The author of "The Philosophy of the Plan of 
 Salvation," has assigned, also, another reason for 
 the sufferings of Christ — that he might win the love 
 of man, by thus exhibiting his love and sympathy 
 for man, and perhaps it was this great manifestation 
 of God's love that prompted John to say, "We love 
 him, because he first loved us." It also moved him 
 to say, "Unto him that loved us, and washed us 
 from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us 
 kings and priests, unto God and his Father: To 
 him be glory and dominion for ever and ever, 
 Amen." Certain it is, if we cannot see the love 
 of God for man, in the gift of his son, and his suffer- 
 ings, and be constrained to reciprocate the same, 
 we shall never know that love, in this world nor the 
 world to come. 
 
 II. The nature of the sufferings of Christ. 
 
 All the sufferings that Christ endured were 
 necessary. He suffered not more nor no less than 
 was necessary to complete the atonement. This 
 is evident from the fact that Christ was guiltless, 
 and God would not inflict or suffer to be inflicted 
 any unnecessary sufferings upon an innocent being. 
 The sufferings of Christ have been divided into 
 three classes — humiliation, physical torture, and 
 mental distress. 
 
 1. Humiliation. He "made himself of no 
 reputation, and took upon him the form of a 
 servant, and was made in the likeness of man ; and 
 being found in fashion as a man, he humbled him- 
 self, and became obedient unto death, even the 
 death of the cross." "Ye know the grace of our 
 
SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 245 
 
 Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet 
 for your sakes he became poor." "The foxes have 
 holes, the birds of the air have nests; but the Son 
 of man hath not where to lay his head." 
 
 2. His physical torture. See him in the gar- 
 den of Gethsemane, bowed to the earth, the great 
 drops of blood bursting from every pore, and hear 
 his agonizing petition. Follow him through the 
 various scenes of the awful tragedy, until he hangs 
 between the darkened heavens and the trembling 
 earth — then turn your mind, — 
 
 3. To the deeper distress of his mind, which 
 was the principal seat of his wondrous sufferings. 
 Hear that more than mortal cry, "My God, my 
 God, why hast thou forsaken me.'^" God, in some 
 mysterious way, forsook, or hid his face from Christ 
 while the piercing arrows of wrath, and the fiery 
 thunderbolts of justice were hurled against him, 
 perforating his immortal soul. 
 
 III. The glory into which Christ entered. 
 
 "The sufferings that Christ should endure, 
 and the glory that should follow," the prophets 
 diligently enquired about, and even "the angels 
 desired to look into." 
 
 1. The glory of his resurrection. 
 
 2. The glory of his ascension. "Leading 
 captivity captive, and giving gifts unto the sons 
 of men." 
 
 3. The descent of the Holy Spirit, which the 
 Savior says "should glorify him." 
 
 4. The glorious exaltation of his humanity 
 to sit on the mediatorial throne, at the right hand 
 of God, the last link of the mysterious chain of 
 human nature is forged. Man is united to the 
 
246 SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 
 
 Deity, in the person of Jesus Christ, who now 
 sways the scepter of power and authority in 
 heaven and earth. 
 
 OUTLINE OF AN ADDRESS 
 
 A Revival of Righteousness In the Nation 
 
 I. Cause of our rapid financial growth. 
 Following the Civil War, our country had a period 
 of great financial prosperity. Clearly defined 
 conditions caused this rapid increase in wealth: 
 
 1 . Entering into our vast national inheritance 
 of fertile soil and virgin forests, and turning these 
 into money. 
 
 2. Gaining possession of the mineral resources 
 of our land — the gold, silver, iron, coal, copper, 
 zinc, lead, oil, and gas. 
 
 3. Creating the live stock and the packing- 
 house industries. 
 
 4. Creating vast factories of steel, textile, 
 leather, and food products. 
 
 5. The building of great railways, with aid 
 of government subsidies of land, and the more 
 recent electric roads. 
 
 6. The world-wide foreign trade of our na- 
 tion. 
 
 7. A large body of superior native, and the 
 largest body of immigrant wage earners known in 
 the history of the world, whose services have made 
 immense fortunes for employers. 
 
 8. A large number of men of rare financial 
 ability, as well as opportunity, captains of industry, 
 leaders in the employment of labor and in the 
 exploiting of the natural resources of our country. 
 
SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 247 
 
 9. The civil laws allowing, or, at least, not 
 preventing one man's owning, controlling, and 
 using for his own advantage all the wealth he can 
 secure. 
 
 These facts and conditions are a sufficient 
 explanation of our nation's unparalleled growth 
 in material riches. 
 
 II. The abuses to which these conditions 
 have led. 
 
 A man's possessing great and irresponsible 
 powers is always tempted to be a tyrant. A man 
 haying great wealth and limited public responsi- 
 bility is tempted to abuse his riches, and indulge 
 in the flaunting of costly clothes, jewelry, and 
 equipage. The purchase of honors and office have 
 tempted Americans to believe that wealth is the 
 chief thing; and the whole land has cried: "Get rich 
 quick. Get money by honest means if you can, 
 but get it any way." This ideal of life has led to 
 many pubhc scandals: 
 
 1. Railway corporations have not been con- 
 tent with the large bonuses of land given them by 
 the State, but have watered their stock to the 
 injury of the public; and have further increased 
 their gains by monopohes, rebates, and other 
 unjust discriminations. Other corporations have 
 been found guilty of equal crimes, as in the Standard 
 Oil monopoly, the New York insurance frauds, 
 and the Chicago packing house scandal. 
 
 2. The cry of the laborer who is oppressed 
 in his wages, or compelled to toil seven days each 
 week, the employment of women in the sweat- 
 shops, and the toil of the children in the mines 
 
248 SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 
 
 and factories, when they ought to be in school or 
 at play, are notorious facts. 
 
 3. The cocain and opium joints, and the 
 saloons and bar-rooms are created and sought to 
 stimulate the flagging energies of an overwrought 
 people. Their twin sister is the white slavery of 
 our great cities, by which womanhood is made to 
 minister to the lust and animalism of man. 
 
 4. Politics, as the science of government, is 
 worthy of the best powers of the statesman, but it 
 has been often corrupted, both in the purchase of 
 ofhce, and in its administration for the benefit of 
 the official, ruling for private gain and for public 
 good. Out of this condition, "bosses" have come 
 into our cities, and our States, and our Nation, as 
 corrupt and autocratic as the worst ruler in the 
 Old World, who have encouraged all forms of 
 vice and crime that they might have the aid of 
 criminals in their own vicious reign. 
 
 5. Under the influence of the greed of gain, 
 courts have been slow and uncertain in the punish- 
 ment of criminals; this has led to an increase of 
 crime. Add to this the fact that the rush for 
 wealth has increased the nerve-tension, and the lack 
 of self control of multitudes, and a ready explana- 
 tion is found for the mobs, lynchings, and burnings 
 which are our great shame in the eyes of the whole 
 world, and the humiliation of every good citizen. 
 
 6. This dark picture would not be complete 
 if I did not refer to the cancer of Mormonism in 
 the West, and the often equally unrighteous mar- 
 riages and divorces over all parts of our nation. 
 
 III. A revival of national righteousness is be- 
 gun. It is said that when things have become as bad 
 
SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 249 
 
 as possible, they commence to grow better. Things 
 have begun to grow better. The forces engaged, 
 and the men leading this revival are significant. 
 
 1. From the beginning of his public life, with 
 as much love of the people as Lincoln, and as much 
 courage as Grant, the reform forces in city and 
 State, and Nation have been inspired and led by 
 that first of American citizens, Theodore Roose- 
 velt, President of the United States. 
 
 2. Distinguished governors of great States 
 have entered the field to fight for righteousness. 
 Such men as Folk, Hoch, Hanley, Stewart of Penn- 
 sylvania, LaFollette, and the late Patterson of 
 Ohio, and others, will be followed by a larger num- 
 ber of like spirits in the future. 
 
 3. Senators and assembly-men in State and 
 Nation, make a long list enrolled in the cause of 
 rescuing public justice and honor from their foes. 
 
 4. These are reinforced by the work and 
 triumph of mayors, prosecutors, and distinguished 
 citizens who have arisen in the cities to dethrone 
 the bosses, and to secure the rule of decency, as in 
 New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Minneapolis, 
 Cleveland, Milwaukee, and Toledo. 
 
 5. Add to these persons, these excellent 
 leaders, the noble work done by the National 
 Reform Association, the churches, the reform 
 leagues, associations for law and order. The Anti- 
 Saloon League, The Women's Christian Temper- 
 ance Union, and women's clubs, and the never-to- 
 be-forgotten masses of incorruptible voters who 
 stand for the right, and you have an invincible 
 army which, when mobilized, will sweep the enemy 
 
250 SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 
 
 of our fair land from the field, and bring in the 
 reign of righteousness. 
 
 IV. Proofs that the revival is now advancing. 
 
 1. The nation will not produce less wealth, 
 it will not be less prosperous under the reign of 
 justice, but prosperity will be more equally shared, 
 and a larger number of persons will enter into the 
 rewards of their labors. 
 
 2. There will not be fewer railways, nor less 
 money and persons employed in great public and 
 private enterprises, but there will be less of watered 
 stock and more of the Golden Rule. 
 
 3. It is a significant sign that during the past 
 year there was an increase of conscience money 
 returned to its right owners, and less betrayal of 
 financial trust. The gifts for public welfare were 
 the greatest in the world's history. The one gift 
 of Mr. Rockefeller of $32,000,000 for education 
 added to a former gift of the same kind of $11,000,- 
 000, has never been equaled by any other man in 
 any age. Mr. Carnegie's gifts have also been 
 princely, and the gifts of others should all be 
 received in that optimistic spirit of good will which 
 these gifts show, the just efforts of men to aid their 
 fellowmen. 
 
 4. The increasing efforts of lawyers and 
 judges and courts to bring to speedy and certain 
 justice the violations of law in high, as well as low 
 places, are triumphs of righteousness, and will 
 secure greater respect for law and order. 
 
 5. The public press, both newspapers and 
 magazines, as well as books, have given publicity 
 to unrighteous conditions, and, while this has 
 made pessimists of some, it has put to shame and 
 
SERMONS AND ADDRESSES 251 
 
 banished many of the enemies of society, as the 
 daylight scatters the prowlers of the night. 
 
 6. Fairer wages and better opportunities are 
 now offered the sons of toil. A recent trustworthy 
 public statement says: "During the last quarter of 
 the last year, about one hundred million dollars 
 were added to the wages of railway men in this 
 country. The great manufacturing industries dis- 
 tributed presents to their workmen at the holidays. 
 The United States Steel Corporation gave each of 
 its seventy thousand general laborers, unsolicited, 
 an advance of ten cents a day, and renewed the 
 opportunity to men in the employ of the company 
 to buy stock in the corporation below the market 
 price. Last year, twelve thousand men accepted 
 this offer." Other companies are also awaking to 
 righteousness, and the movement, if not universal, 
 is at least, extensive. 
 
 7 . Finally , the Church of Jesus Christ, accept- 
 ing the Golden Rule and the law of love as its 
 social ideal, has commenced to flow together for 
 co-operant action, to make that ideal effective on 
 earth. A federation has been formed of over 
 eighteen millions of church people in America, 
 which will include as many more adherents. This 
 providential movement must mean that we are to 
 have Christian ideals at the ballot-box, in our 
 laws, and in our officials, throughout our land. 
 
OUTLINES 
 
OUTLINES OF ADDRESSES 
 
 THE WILL 
 
 [One of his great addresses, in outline only.] 
 
 L Difference in men. What makes it? 
 
 1. Heredity. Illustration: Indian, of same 
 family. 
 
 2. Environment, climate, land, sea; social, reli- 
 gious. 
 
 3. Will, habit; the Negro, the Englishman. 
 
 II. What is ivill? Self activity. 
 
 1. Power to choose, to do, to achieve, to go, self. 
 
 2. Mind a unit; modes of activity. 
 
 3. What will power has. 
 
 III. Freedom of proofs. 
 
 1. Conscience. 
 
 2. Social order and law. 
 
 3. Practical — "acts as if free." 
 
 IV. Proofs of free will. 
 
 "The freedom of man in the act of choosing." 
 
 1. The moral convictions of every man — right, 
 wrong. Illustration — murder. 
 
 2. The convictions of society law, and penalty 
 it implies. 
 
 3. Practical convictions of freedom — all act as if 
 free. Spencer's theory. 
 
 V. Will power. 
 
 1. The will a creative energy. 
 
 2. If architects, etc., creators of our own charac- 
 ters. 
 
 3. Will has cleared away the forest, tunneled the 
 mountains, turned the river from its course, and 
 dotted the surface of the earth with evidence of its 
 power. 
 
25Q OUTLINES 
 
 4. Vast realms unconquered. (1) In material 
 world, (2) in self conquest, (3) in social world. 
 
 VI . The power of will illustrated from history and biog- 
 raphy. 
 
 1. Will power is purpose in life. The battle 
 won is the plan. Illustration: the German and the 
 French. Success of the journey — plan; life the same. 
 
 2. Two thrones — chance, providence. 
 
 3. How early choose? Illustration: Warren 
 Hastings. 
 
 4. How choose? Enemies, friends. Bias fol- 
 lows, then your path is God's plan. 
 
 5. Vice. (1) Habit 
 
 "No change in childhood's early day. 
 No storm that raged, no thought that ran 
 But leaves a track upon the clay, 
 Which slowly hardens into man." 
 
 (2) Conquers the world. 
 "He who is firm in will moulds the world to him- 
 self" — Goethe. 
 "Where there's a will, there's a way." 
 
 ADDRESS ON CHINA 
 Introduction: Program; good wishes; rest weary ones. 
 
 I. Land. 
 
 1. Immensity, size 4,000,000 sq. miles. Loca- 
 tion, mountains, rivers, plains, wall, canal, resources. 
 
 2. People. (1) Whence? (2) appearance, little 
 or large. 
 
 3. Customs. (1) Domestic — marriage, children, 
 boys, girls, house; (2) economic — bread and butter, 
 farmers, sick, fish, trade; (3) educational — boys and 
 girls; (4) political — emperor, cabinet, graft. 
 
 II. New China. 
 
 1. Modern education. 
 
 2. Opium trafiic and habit. (1) Government 
 action; (2) voluntary reform society. 
 
 3. Railways. 
 
OUTLINES 257 
 
 4. Post-office, telephone, and telegraph. 
 
 5. Army and navy. 
 
 6. Women awakening. (1) Woman's journal; 
 (2) foot binding; (3) education of girls. 
 
 III. Christian China — An Ideal. 
 
 1. Bible. 
 
 2. Christian schools. 
 
 3. Missionaries 4,000. 
 
 4. Centenary conference Shanghai. (1) Review 
 — 200,000 communicants, estimate of Milne; (2) cam- 
 paign planned; (3) Chinese church union. 
 
 ADDRESS ON THE PHILIPPINES 
 
 I. Before Spanish Conquest. 
 
 1. Negritos, Mohammedan 
 
 2. Malays. 
 
 3. Chinese and Japanese. 
 
 II. Under Spanish Rule. 
 
 1. Magellan, 1521 (1) Era of explorations; (2) sub- 
 dued the islands, Spanish government; (3) Spanish 
 priests or friars; (4) nine-tenths Roman, Christian; 
 (5) Rule of the friars. 
 
 2. Benefits of Spanish rule. (1) Religion better 
 than heathenism; (2) government; (3) agriculture; 
 (4) manufacture; (5) commerce. 
 
 3. Defects — friars. (1) Grasping good land; 
 (2) exorbitant fees for weddings, funerals, burials, and 
 baptism; (3) suppressed liberty; (4) Immorality of 
 friars. (a) Gambling, illustration — cock fighting; 
 (b) living with concubines; (c) drunkenness. 
 
 4. Traits of natives. (1) Hospitable; (2) musi- 
 cal, Manila band, Mr. Tynell and wife; (3) industrious; 
 (4) clean and neat, bathing; (5) credulous children 
 (compare Africans^ ; (6) mixed population — half-breeds, 
 Chinese, Japanese, Americans. 
 
 III. Benefits of American Rule. 
 
 1. Civil strife suppressed. 
 
 2. Complete liberty. 
 
 3. Local self-government. 
 
258 OUTLINES 
 
 4. American schools. 
 
 5. Protestant religion. (1) Criticism answered 
 — need; (2) churches operating; (3) Evangelical Union; 
 (4) our Church; (a) where? (b) missionaries, illustra- 
 tion — reception: (c) concerts; (d) Baguio visit. 
 
 IV. Outlook. 
 
 1. For islands. (1) Agriculture — products; (2) 
 mining — gold, copper; (3) lumbering; (4) manufactur- 
 ing, cloth, hemp, sugar, tobacco. 
 
 2. Most hopeful people of the Malays; duty to 
 them. I should like to go there. 
 
 ADDRESS ON JAPAN 
 
 I. Land. 
 
 1. Location and climate. 
 
 2. Size, 160,000 square miles; compare with 
 California and Texas. 
 
 3. Surface. (1) Mountains, plains, rivers; (2) 
 fertile soil, little farms, three-fourth acre; (3) products 
 — rice, wheat, millet, beans vegetables. 
 
 4. Beauty— flowers, mountains, lakes, inland 
 sea. Beautiful vs. majestic, Portland Heights. 
 
 II. Old Japan. 
 
 1. People — origin; Mongols, Chinese, Koreans, 
 Malays; 50,000,000; composite versatility. 
 
 2. Customs: (1) Domestic — marriage, house, 
 children; (2) economic — food, clothing, shelter, agri- 
 culture, fishing, mining and lumbering, war. 
 
 3. Education. Common people not educated. 
 
 4. Religions: (1) Shinto, origin, nature worship; 
 (2) Buddhism — foreign; (3) Confucianism — foreign. 
 
 5. Political — change impending when Perry came 
 1853. (1) Emperor; (2) Shogun; (3) Daimios; (4) 
 Samurai. 
 
 TIL New Japan — Transformation. 
 
 1. Constitution government. 
 
 2. Laws. 
 
OUTLINES 259 
 
 3. Feudalism abolished. 
 
 4. Modtrn education. 
 
 5. Modern improvements: (1) Railways and 
 street cars; (2) post office, telephone, and telegraph; 
 (3) system of banking; (4) manufacturers: \5) army 
 and navy. 
 
 IV. Christian Japan Forces. 
 
 1. Christian education, (1) Sendal, (2) Sayami, 
 (3) Doshisha and others. 
 
 2. Printing-press, Bibles, hymn books, other 
 literature. 
 
 3. Missionaries. 
 
 4. Christian union in Japan — Methodists, 
 Presbyterians, and Reformed. 
 
 5. Local control. 
 
 NOTES ON FOURTH OF JULY SERMON, 1886 
 
 Text — "The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, 
 which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, 
 till the whole was leavened." (Matthew 13:33.) 
 
 1 Providence reserved this continent for later 
 . use. 
 
 2. Prepared special blessings for the race then. 
 Illustration: Daniel's vision. 
 
 3. Not speak of dangers today. 
 
 4. The gospel leavening in our nation. (1) Our 
 nation was esj:ablished by Christian men and women, 
 (a) Puritan, Huguenot, etc. ; (b) Washington _ and 
 others. (2) It was founded on Christian principles, 
 
 (a) Liberty, a Christian idea- (b) equality before the 
 law, (c) fraternity among men-"sons." (3) Its in- 
 stitutions are Christian, (a) Popular government; 
 
 (b) popular education; (c) benevolent institutions 
 (Wind, insane, etc.); (d) Christian Sabbath; (e) Chris- 
 tian religion and morality, so far as any is recognized. 
 Illustration: Fast days, thanksgiving, etc. chaplains, 
 oaths. (4) Some things not Christian, (a) Slavery; 
 
260 OUTLINES 
 
 (b) Mormonism; (c) communism and anarchy; 
 (d) whisky traffic. Illustration: Christian men not 
 perfect. Trust the Christian ideal to do much. A 
 Christian God permeated by Christian religion. 
 Christian morality. 
 
 5. To what sources must we look for such 
 results? (a) The Christian home, (b) the Sunday 
 school; (c) the evangelical work of the church revivals; 
 (d) private and public influence of Christian men. 
 
 6. We trust for this result; (a) God's providence, 
 (b) Bible; (c) Holy Spirit. 
 
 7. These must transform this mixed mass of 
 humanity. 
 
 OUTLINE OF ADDRESS DELIVERED AT LEANDER 
 CLARK COLLEGE, TOLEDO, IOWA, IN 1907. 
 
 The Religion of an Ideal Youth. 
 
 Memory comes back like a flood, as I stand here to-day 
 and search for the departed faces, or recognize those that 
 still remain mingled with a majority of new ones. 
 
 I wish to first express my profound joy and gratitude 
 for the privileges of the hour, and for the courtesy of your 
 pref^ident in inviting me to share this hour with you. 
 
 My message is the most important one I ever brought 
 to you. Incident. 
 
 Theme — ^The Religion of an Ideal Youth. 
 
 Text — "How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that 
 I must be about my Father's business?^' (Luke 2:49.) 
 
 1. Christ's humanity obscured. 
 
 2. Here revealed. (1) Grew; (2) learned obedi- 
 ence, etc., made perfect, lived a human life on earth. 
 
 I. He had a religious nature. 
 
 1. Tarrying in temple reveals it. 
 
 2. All were so endowed. Necessary part of 
 human nature, of imagination, memory, or social nature. 
 
 3. Why is one religious? Cannot help it, cannot 
 destroy it, divine in us. 
 
OUTLINES 261 
 
 4. In what does it consist? Spirit of God in us 
 seeking to lead. A sense of God, immorality, duty of 
 prayer, and dependence upon God. In heart of all 
 normal human beings, as reason, memory, or imagi- 
 nation. No better language than that of Paul in 
 which to express it, 
 "Feeling after God," if happy. History. 
 
 II. At this time a crisis in his religious nature. 
 
 1. So earnestly inquiring in temple, forgot to 
 return home, "My Father." Encouragement to a crisis. 
 
 2. In what it consisted. 
 
 3. A natural crisis in life, (1) from twelve to 
 twenty-four years of age; (2) Christianity knew it; but 
 did not keep it. Why? Illustration: Physical changes; 
 Intellectual changes. 
 
 4. Bible statements, (1) remember; (2) seek 
 first, etc. 
 
 5. Proofs from your experience. 
 
 6. Neglect here often fatal. 
 
 7. Need of special effort to secure such a result. 
 Illustration: Temple enthusiasm; Word of God; songs, 
 sacrifices, throngs of believers. 
 
 III. He became conscious that he was the Son of God. 
 "My Father's business." 
 
 1. Greatness of such consciousness, not cheory, 
 but fact. 
 
 2. Baptism, voice ever aftei dominated him. 
 His Father. 
 
 3. Greatest message to men, "Ye are sons of 
 God." Parable, Prodigal Son. 
 
 4. How realized? "Because ye are his sons, 
 God hath sent forth the Son of sons," etc. "The 
 Spirit himself beareth witness," etc. Illustration: 
 German family, Reading, Pa. 
 
 IV. He caught a vision of his vocation — "My Father^ s 
 business." 
 
 1. God's business on earth, the business of every 
 man. 
 
 2. Jesus consecrated himself to it. Scene at 
 Samaria — "Hath any man brought him ought to 
 
262 OUTLINES 
 
 eat?" and the answer, "My meat is to do the will of 
 him that sent me, and to finish his work." 
 
 3. Every man's work planned of God. "What- 
 soever ye do," etc. God's partner. Illustration: 
 Preacher, teacher, lawyer, physician, farmer, builder, 
 house makers, etc., God's partners. All true work, 
 God's work. 
 
 V. He began at once to prepare for his life work. 
 Thirty years, Bare field in spring, hardest daily life. 
 
 1. If there had been a college accessible he would 
 probably have sought it, but these were for the favored 
 classes then. He was a poor lad. 
 
 2. He pursued other means. (1) Nature's teach- 
 ing, his environments, Nazareth, vale and hill. 
 Face north on hill above Nazareth, to right. 
 Tabor and Sea of Galilee, on left, Mt. Carmel and 
 Mediterranean Sea, behind. Plain of Jezreel, influence 
 on a susceptible soul. He learned from this grand 
 open book of nature. Life, birds, plants. (2) Syna- 
 gogue and Old Testament. 
 
 3. Daily toil. 
 
 4. Association of men. Prayers and obedience. 
 
 5. Home life and love of a noble mother. Illus- 
 tration: Jesus on the cross remembers his mother. 
 Widow and only son. Hon. H. A. Wilbon. 
 
 VI. Started upon his work; eighteen silent years of 
 preparation, filled with Spirit of God, complete equipment. 
 
 1. Might have gone forth in his own purity and 
 strength, but did not. 
 
 2. All have a measure of God's Spirit, but need 
 his fullness. Illustration: Well at Toledo. 
 
 Clasb of 1907, God sifts the nation each year to gather 
 into the halls of learning an elect body of noble youth. It 
 is your Father's good pleasure that this greatest privilege 
 of life is yours. God is your refuge and strength, His 
 trt-asures are at your option. 
 
 "Let us, then, be up and doing, 
 W^ith a heart for any fate; 
 Still achieving, still pursuing 
 Learn to labor and to wait." 
 
OUTLINES 263 
 
 A SERMON IN OUTLINE 
 
 Text — "But we all, with op'.n face beholding as in a 
 glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same 
 image from glory to glory." (II. Corinthians 3:18}. 
 \. Context. 
 
 2. Exposition of text. 
 
 3. Theme — We are all God's Mirrors. 
 
 The coming of Jesus is the beginning of a new creation; 
 henceforth rhe life of man is the life of the Spirit. Man is 
 created anew in Christ Jesus, in the image of God, in 
 righteousness and true holiness. Animal man is trans- 
 formed into a mirror of God. 
 
 I. Mans nature must he unveiled to the presence of God. 
 It is possible to have tyes and see not; ears and hear 
 not; hearts, and perceive not. Animals have as perfect 
 external organs of sense as men, but they are not known to 
 have seen the beauty of earth, or the glory of the heavens, 
 or to h.ave heard the song of the morning stars, or the 
 music of the spheres. 
 
 Some souls have a vision of the unseen, and "endure as 
 seeing Him who is invisible" "While we look not, etc." 
 This unveiling is accomplished by a process, illustrated by 
 the process of education. Illustration: Child learning to 
 read, literacure, Newton, the child and the man. 
 
 1. By obedience to the truth already known. 
 Illustration: Ruskin said, "Every sin that a man 
 commits hide« from his eyes, Jesus." He that "willeth 
 to do his will, he shall know of the teaching, whether 
 it be of God, or whether I speak for myself." "He 
 that hath my commandments, etc." 
 
 ?. By purity of heart, the vision is attained. 
 "The pure in heart shall see God." God is as near 
 us now, geographically speaking, as he ever will be; 
 vision needed. The psalmist: "If I ascend, etc." 
 
 3. By loving sympathy with God so far as we 
 have learned to know him. Old Testament, "The secret 
 of the Lord is with them that fear him and he will 
 show them his covenant." New Testament, "The 
 
264 OUTLINES 
 
 secret of the Lord is with them that love him, and he 
 
 will show them himself." 
 
 Appreciation, sympathy, love are the groat eye- 
 openers. Illustration: Homer, Shakespere, your enemy. 
 The affections of the heart have their visions which the 
 light of the mere intellect cannot attain. 
 
 II. We all, with unveiled natures, are God^s mirrors. 
 ^*We all with unveiled j aces reflecting.'' 
 
 1. God's deliehts are with the sons of men, and 
 he uses many ways of approach to men. "The heavens 
 declare his glory, etc." Nature has been his favorite 
 way of approach. Illustration: Theophanies. Finally, 
 in the God-man he lived a human life on earth. God's 
 glory, God's exultation tc men. 
 
 2. F.very man, as he approximates Jesus Christ 
 manifests God to his fellowmen. This is the great 
 truth underlying the priest's assumption to forgive 
 sins. Illustration: Chicago Fair, fire at cold-storage 
 building. Each Christian has the same right; this is 
 Carlyle's doctrine of the divine right of things; also 
 Emerson, "Tell me where lives the man of all good- 
 ness," etc. That is to say; The normal and spiritual 
 qualities of God and men are the same, only differ in 
 quantity. Illustration: Love, goodnsss, meekness, 
 justice, patience, holiness. Broken mirrors. Abraham. 
 
 III. By mirroring God's glory, we are more and more 
 transformed into his image and glory. ''We all, with open 
 face, etc." 
 
 1. Not the merely hearers, but the doers; not 
 the merely receivers; but the dispensers; not the merely 
 ministered unto, but the ministers; not the meiely 
 saved, but the saviors of others become more and 
 more like God. God works in men to will and to do 
 as men work ouc their own salvation. His process is 
 one of transformation. Illustration: winter to summer. 
 Man's transformation of the earth. Man makes his 
 environment, his mirror, as he is able — home life, 
 flowers. Illustrations: Indians in America. Chris- 
 tians in America. Pennsylvania farmer. 
 
OUTLINES ^^5 
 
 2. Each one makes the outer to reflect the inner. 
 The parth is man's mirror by the transformations. 
 Man is God's mirror. Illustration: Man slowly trans- 
 formed. The earth — heavens and new earth. Even 
 now, body reveals soul. 
 
 IV. The hopefulness of the process by which man 
 becomes God's mirror. "As the Lord the spirit.'' "Beloved 
 now are we the children of God, etc." 
 
 1. God, the Spirit, is immanent in all his work, 
 and especially in men. Pessimism due to forgetting 
 the fact that God has not finished his work yet. 
 
 2. The Lord as Spirit still works in earth. Illus- 
 tration: Peter, Paul, John. Stormy sea made a mirror 
 of heaven. Central Park, N. Y. 
 
 "Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith 
 the Lord of hosts." 
 
 SERMON IN OUTLINE 
 
 Text — "Think not that I am come fo destroy the law, 
 or the prophets: I am come not to destioy, but to fulfil. 
 For verily I say unto you. Till heaven and earth pass, one 
 jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all 
 be fulfilled." (Matthew 5:17, 18). 
 
 In this language Jesus Christ sets forth his relation to 
 the law and the prophets, and bears testimony to the Old 
 Testament. 
 
 Jesus Christ lives in the world to-day. His life, teach- 
 ings, power, authority, spirit, and church, man will not let 
 die. They are the most precious heritage of our race. 
 This heritage can be accounted for only on the truthfulness 
 of the Gosptls. Christianity is a fact before all eyes. Ic 
 is an effect of a cause adequate to produce it. That cause 
 is Jesus Christ. As a river may be traced back lo its 
 origin, so Chrisiianity may be followed back to its foun- 
 tain head in Christ. Taking the Gospels as a history of 
 che life and words of Christ which all scholarly men ad- 
 mit, I propose to answer the most prevalent form^ of the 
 skepticism of our day by establishing an opposite view. 
 
266 OUTLINES 
 
 I. Jesus Christ is the Son of God. 
 
 1. He declared himself to be the Son of man in 
 rhe sense in which he is the highest product and type 
 of humanity: The new head and the new beginning of 
 our race — :the second Adam. 
 
 2. He also said he was rhe Son of God. (1) In 
 conversation with the man whose sight was restored, 
 Jesus said unto him, "Dost thou believe on the Son of 
 God?" He said, "Lord who i^ he that I may believe?" 
 Jesus replied, "Thou hast seen him and it is he that 
 speaks with thee." (2) Before the high priest he 
 was asked," Art thou the Christ, the Son of che 
 Blessed?" He answered: "I am." 
 
 3. He allowed ochers to call him the Son of God. 
 (]) The disciples on the sea of Galilee. Jesus walked 
 on the waves and calmed the sea; and the disciples 
 said, "Of a truth, thou art the Son of God." (2) 
 Peter's great confession is to the same effect. State 
 circumstances. Peter said, "Thou art the Christ, the 
 Son of the living God." 
 
 4. Not Son of God in the sense in which men and 
 angels may be, but as equal with God. This was the 
 charge of blasphemy. "He that hath seen me hath 
 seen the Father." "In the name of the Father, the 
 Son and the Holy Spirit." 
 
 5. This is in harmony with all his claims. (1) 
 Fulfiller, founder, etc. (2) Forgive sins, give peace. 
 (3) Rise from the dead, etc. 
 
 6. This is in harmony with his sinless and holy 
 life. (1) No outward work or act, no inner conviction 
 of cause revealed sin in him. (2) This is an exception 
 to all the race. (3) A moral miracle, which sustains 
 his claim. "Which of you convinceth us of him?" 
 
 7. Inharmony with his works. Turned into wine, 
 multiplied the loaves and fishes, walked upon the 
 waves, opened eyes and ears, healed the sick, cured 
 the palsied, cleansed the leper, raised the dead. To 
 such a one these are every-day events, and to be 
 expected. 
 
 8. God, the Father testifies to the claim of his Son. 
 (1) At baptism (2) Mount of Transfiguration (3) By 
 
OUTLINES 267 
 
 raising him from the dead, God declared him to be the 
 Son of God, with power by the resurrection from the 
 dead. His resurrection is as capable of proof as any 
 history, even by the witnesses who saw him on ten 
 occasions after the resurrection; by the descent of the 
 Holy Spirit, by the origin and existence of the church, 
 by the coming of Paul to whom he appeared, and his 
 manifestation in the world today. 
 
 n. Jesus Christ is the Jul filler of the law and prophets. 
 
 1. By correctly interpreting their meaning 
 (1) Illustration: "Thou shalt not kill; but I say unto 
 you whosoever is angry with his brother without a 
 cause shall be in danger of the judgement." (2) 
 Golden Rule. (3) Law of love, "On Christianity 
 hangs all the Law and Prophets" — "Love is the fulfill- 
 ing of the law." 
 
 2. By being the substance and truth, of which 
 they were types and figure ceremonies. (1) Illustra- 
 tion: Tomb of God, (2) The perfect prophet, priest, 
 and king, "The Son of man." 
 
 3. By fulfilling the vision and hopes of all the 
 holy prophets since the world began. (1) The Hebrew 
 prophets. (2) All Gentile prophets and religious, 
 Greece, Rome, Egypt, Arabia, India. (3) They were 
 partial, he is the fullness of grace and truth. Paul 
 said, "Whom ye ignorantly worship," etc. Jesus 
 said, "Then shall the Son of man, etc." Illustrations: 
 Oak, acorn; seed, flower; man, child; heaven, earth. 
 
 III. Jesus Christ is an infallible teacher of ethics and 
 religion. 
 
 1. Eulogies. (1) Spake with authority. (2) "As 
 never man spake." (3) Nicodemus, "We know thou 
 art a teacher." 
 
 2. He claims to be a teaciier from God. "He 
 whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God." 
 "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten 
 Son, who is in the Iwsom of the Father, he hath 
 declared him." "To this end was I born, and for this 
 cause came I unto the world, that I should bear witness 
 unto the truth." He is the truth. 
 
268 OUTLINES 
 
 The objector says, He confessed he did not know all 
 things. There was a mysterions implying of self; but he 
 knew all that God sent him to tea'^h, "The words which ye 
 hear are not mine, but the Facher's which sent me." "For 
 he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God." 
 "The words that I say unto you, I speak not of myself; 
 but the Father abiding in me, doeth the works." Illustra- 
 tion: Specialist in medicine. 
 
 3. Christ taught all the Fither gave him to 
 teach. If by the Father's will and his own voluntary 
 limitation, he did not know this fact, and confesses it, 
 he thereby implies that he does know what he is sent 
 to teach. He says, "We speak that we do know." 
 There were grave reasons why the day of his return 
 should not be made known. 
 
 4. The unique nature of Jesus Christ, as Son of 
 man, and Son of God; the unique sinlessness and holi- 
 ness of his character, and his endowment of the Spirit 
 without measure compells belief in his infallibility 
 as a teacher. 
 
 IV. Jesus Christ hears witness to the Bible as the word 
 of God. 
 
 1. Came not to destroy, but to fulfill. "It is 
 true and right, and I fulfill it as true." 
 
 2. He knew well the Old Testament. 
 
 .3. He often quotes it. (1) In the temptation, 
 "It is written, Man shall not live by brtad alone." 
 "It is written, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy 
 God." "It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord 
 thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." (2) At 
 Nazareth, Read Isaiah, 53. This day is this scripture 
 fulfilled in our ears." (3) After the resurrection. "O 
 foolish men, and slow of heart to believe." "And 
 beginning at Moses and the Prophets, etc." 
 
 4. He calls the Old Testament the word of God. 
 (1) "If he called them gods, unto whom tin word of 
 God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; vsay 
 ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent 
 into the world, Thou blasphemest ; because I said, I am 
 the Son of God?" (2) Charges scribes and Pharisees 
 of making void the word of God by their tradition'^. 
 
OUTLINES 269 
 
 5. Here calls the Old Testament truth, as he 
 
 said of himself: "I am the way." "Sanctify them 
 
 through thy truth, thy word is truth." 
 
 He constantly quotes tht Old Testament as true: He 
 
 ordered his life by it; he claims to fulfill it; he, therefore, 
 
 testifies that it is true, trustworthy, and of divine authority. 
 
 The New Testament is certified by him. He promises to 
 
 give 1 he Holy Spirit to guide into all truth. "I have yet 
 
 many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. 
 
 Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide 
 
 ycu into all truth, etc." Pentecost came. 
 
 Objector asks: "Is it all true and accurate?" Trans- 
 cription, translation, interpretations substantially true. 
 Illustrations. Living word and written word; grains of 
 sand, 
 
 V. Experience proves. Experimental proofs. 
 
 1. To the individual. "If any man will do his 
 will, he shall know of thedoctrine, whether it beef God, 
 or whether I speak of myself." "Tested, Jesus Chrst 
 by his word is the light of the world; Jesus Christ by 
 his cress is the Saviour of the world; Jesus Christ by 
 his Spirit is the life of the world." The one who 
 incarnates his word, cross, and spirit needs no other 
 evidence of the divinity of Jesus Christ; he has the wit- 
 ness in himself, and no more need of other witnesses 
 than did Elijah while ascending to heaven in the 
 chariot of fire. 
 
 2. Observation in the world. (1) His effect on 
 mental power. Illustration: World's Fair, Chicago. 
 (2) In His finished products. Illustration: State prison 
 and company of true Christians. (3) In the testimony 
 of the wise and good of earth; For 1900 years, poets and 
 painters, philosophers and scientists, philanthropists 
 and reformers, statesmen and rulers have recognized 
 Jesus of Nazareth as master and model. f4) Its effects 
 on the world. What is Christianity doing in this world? 
 Taming and clothing the savage; liberating ^nd honor- 
 ing womanhood; guarding and educating childhood; 
 revering old age; building churches and school-houses, 
 asylums, temples of justice, and happy homes. 
 
270 OUTLINES 
 
 As the river of the water of Hfe, He causes the wilder- 
 ness and the soHtary place to be glad, and the desert to 
 bud and blossom as the rose, he is a fountain in a thirsty 
 land, and streams in the desert, he causes the lame man to 
 leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb to sing. He is 
 throwing up a king's highway over which the ransomed of 
 the Lord are returning to Zion, with songs and ever-lasting 
 joy; and sorrow and sighing flee away. 
 
 OUTLINE NOTES OF AN ADDRESS 
 
 Faith an Element of Power. 
 
 L Composition of the age. 
 
 1. Materialistic Age. Body and spirit. (1) In 
 theory; (2) in practice. But man shall not live by 
 bread alone. 
 
 2. Reaction to opposite extreme. Signs along 
 streets in great cities: "Astrologer," "Trance me- 
 dium," "Mental healer," "Mind reader," "Fortune 
 teller." Doweyism, and similar fads, symptoms. 
 
 3. This want or desire is the Church's oppor- 
 tunity. (1) Wants move the world — hunger and 
 thirst; (2) assure us of a new day, a new springtime in 
 which He is our Savior and Lord in all realms. 
 
 4. This new age is one of faith. 
 
 5. Faith is the greatest word in the New Testa- 
 ment. Jesus, Paul, John, walk and live by faith. "This 
 is the victory that overcometh the world, even our 
 faith." 
 
 6. Meaning of faith, the things believed; 
 articles of faith. Contend earnestly for the faith. 
 
 II. Our power to perceive or know the invisible. 
 Illustration: Moses "by faith forsook Egypt . . . .for he 
 endured, as seeing him who is invisible." Paul speaks of 
 looking "not at the things that are seen, but at the things 
 that are not seen, etc." Jesus says, "The pure in heart 
 shall see God." 
 
 \. The opposite of sense perception. It is con- 
 fidence. (1) Of the heart; (2) akin to love or friend- 
 
OUTLINES 271 
 
 ship. "Faith worketh by love." Illustration: Abra- 
 ham, faithful, friend of God. (3) Common in daily- 
 life. Illustration: Farmer — plows, sows, reaps; in 
 business world — credit; in society — built on it. 
 
 2. Faith is a conquering power. (1) Tends to 
 action, (a) All mental states tend to action, (b) The 
 more fundamental the mental state, the stronger the 
 action. Illustration: Columbus. 
 
 3. Faith creates enthusiasm in its possessor — 
 a ferment of energy. Illustration : Palissy and enamel, 
 every great invention, discovery, work of art, reform, 
 etc.; the prophets' vision; optimism of Jesus. 
 
 III. Faith is a contagious element and enlists the 
 strength oj others. 
 
 1. Every mental state tends to infect others 
 according to its energy. Illustration: Luther and the 
 reformation ; Wendel Phillips and slavery; Henry Ward 
 Beecher and England; believe a thing strongly and 
 others will have faith in it. 
 
 IV. Greater than all this, faith in God or in Jesus Chris^ 
 makes man a channel of divine power. 
 
 Paul said, "I can do all things through Christ which 
 strengtheneth me." Illustration: Nile River. Hebrew 
 roll of heroes: Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, 
 Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Judges. Great battles to be 
 fought, faith needed for victory. Illustration: Asso- 
 ciation in Toledo, Iowa. 
 
 "Then let us be up and doing with a heart for any fate, 
 etc." Paul the hero, challenges the universe, "What then 
 shall we say to these things, if God be for us, who can be 
 against us?" 
 
 V. How grow such a robust faith. 
 
 1. Pray, "Lord increase our faith." 
 
 2. Keep close to men of giant infections. 
 
 3. Study the Word of God. 
 
 4. Read the lives and works of the faithful. 
 
 5. Put to use the faith you now have. 
 
BX9878.8.IVI6F9 
 Lifeof Bishop J. S. Mills 
 
 Princeton Theological Semmary-Speer Library 
 
 1 1012 00047 2763