•2. 3. IS 
 
 LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 BX 9225 .B39"B3 
 Barrows, Mary Eleanor. 
 John Henry Barrows 
 
From a Photograph taken in Cleveland in 1900. 
 
JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 A MEMOIR 
 
 By His Daughter 
 
 MARY ELEANOR BARROWS 
 
 CHICAGO NEW YORK TORONTO 
 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
 
 LONDON AND EDINBURGH 
 MCMIV 
 
Copyright, 1904 
 
 By FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
 
 November 
 
 CHICAGO: 63 WASHINGTON STREET 
 NEW YORK: 158 FIFTH AVENUE 
 TORONTO: 27 RICHMOND STREET, W. 
 I-ONDON: 21 PATERNOSTER SQUARE 
 EDINBURGH: 30 ST. MARY STREET 
 
TO MY MOTHER 
 
 Whose unfailing wisdom and sympathy kept my 
 father's radiance bright and whose inspiration and 
 counsel make possible this record of his life, these 
 pages are lovingly and admiringly dedicated. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 This book makes no attempt at judicial criticism. It 
 is not addressed to those, curious only concerning the lives 
 of a few men of undisputed pre-eminence. My father's 
 death is so recent and the spell cast by his personality 
 upon those that knew him, so irresistible, as to preclude 
 dispassionate judgment. Moreover, great and varied as 
 were his talents and achievements, his genius was but a 
 genius for friendship. I write, therefore, to those inter- 
 ested in any intensely human document and primarily in 
 answer to the thousands of letters sent by my father's 
 friends of all ranks and creeds and climes, whose lives are 
 richer for his life, and whose hearts still ache because of 
 his withdrawal from their midst. 
 
 M. E. B. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. 
 
 II. 
 
 III. 
 
 IV. 
 
 V. 
 
 VI. 
 
 VII. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 IX. 
 
 X. 
 
 XI. 
 
 XII. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 XTV. 
 
 XV. 
 XVI. 
 
 II 
 
 iS 
 
 3-^ 
 54 
 7i 
 
 100 
 
 128 
 
 149 
 
 165 
 180 
 204 
 
 Parentage and Early Years .... 
 
 Olivet Days, 1860-1867 
 
 Preparation for the Ministry. New Haven and 
 New York, 1867-1869 
 
 Life in Kansas, 1869-1872 
 
 From Springfield to Paris, 1872-1873 . 
 
 Six Months of Travel, 1873-1874 
 
 Massachusetts Years, 1874-1881 
 
 The First Presbyterian Church and its Min- 
 ister, 1881-1886 
 
 His Chicago ]\Iinistry, 1886-1891 
 
 Leisure Hours 
 
 His Preaching and its Revelation of Himself . 
 
 His Preaching and its Revelation of Himself 
 (continued) 223 
 
 Citizen and Patriot 2^7 
 
 Preparations for the Parliament of Religions, 
 1891-1893 253 
 
 Success and Sorrow, 1893- 1894 . . .273 
 
 The Haskell and Barrows Lectureships of the 
 University of Chicago, 1894-1895 . . . 300 
 
 The End of His Chicago Ministry, 1895-1896 323 
 
 The First Stage in a World Pilgrimage, 1896 
 
 India and Japan, 1896-1897 
 
 From Chicago to Oberlin, 1897-1899 
 
 His College Presidency, 1899-1902 
 
 343 
 364 
 390 
 406 
 
 
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CHAPTER I 
 
 PARENTAGE AND EARLY YEARS 
 
 "There is one man who has appeared under various 
 names in all ages, from the time of Moses to our own 
 century, who has been the wisest man, morally speaking, 
 that history commemorates. He is sometimes called 'the 
 prophet,' he is sometimes a statesman, he is sometimes a 
 reformer, he is often a martjT. A later age has called 
 him 'a Puritan.' The Puritan spirit not in its errors, not 
 in its extravagances, but in its lofty moral wisdom, towers 
 above the tide of time, a glorious lighthouse kept blazing 
 by the splendor of divine holiness." 
 
 When he wrote this, my father may have been thinking 
 of his mother, whose story he has told in these words: 
 "She was born in Saratoga County, New York, and 
 taught a district school before she had reached the age of 
 fifteen. She was converted in Troy by the personal min- 
 istry of Reverend Fayette Shipherd, a brother of the 
 founder of Oberlin. Being hungry^ for a college educa- 
 tion, she went to her father and said, 'Give me the portion 
 of goods that falleth to me that I may go West, where 
 Professor Charles G. Finney is,' and she went. It was a 
 journey of four hundred miles or more that she made in 
 a stage coach to reach the forests of the Western Reserve, 
 there to undergo the trials, the sickness, and the hardship 
 and to gain the inspiration of student life in those stirring 
 early days of Oberlin. It was a time when bean soup 
 was deemed dainty fare, when a slab boarding house was 
 
12 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 a palace of ease, and when ornaments of all kinds on the 
 person of a young lady were indications of a carnal heart. 
 My mother acquired some linguistic learning which 
 nearly all vanished in later pioneer hardships. She read 
 the New Testament through in Greek. Besides studying 
 Latin and attaining a good knowledge of French, she 
 read thirty chapters of the book of Genesis in Hebrew, 
 and I think used to hush her children to sleep by repeat- 
 ing the deep-toned, full-voweled opening words of the 
 old Bible, But better than the language taught was the 
 earnest spirit breathed from the brave lives of those 
 pioneer teachers who helped to make Oberlin perhaps the 
 greatest single factor in the evangelization of the West. 
 Their theology did not square altogether with the West- 
 minster Confession, but it made revivalists, reformers, and 
 public spirited citizens. The ambition of the early Oberlin 
 students, exemplified by my mother as completely as by 
 any other person I ever knew, was to be nobly useful, to 
 sell their lives for the greatest possible good." 
 
 At Oberlin, this energetic joung woman met her future 
 husband, John Manning Barrows. His home was in 
 Troy, New York, where his father, John Barrows, had 
 settled when the place was a swamp-encircled village of 
 two or three hundred inhabitants. A surveyor and engi- 
 neer, John Barrows had staked out the original bound- 
 aries betvveen Troy and Lansingburg, made the earliest 
 map of Troy now extant, written much for the local 
 papers, and, after his marriage with a young widow, 
 Bertha Anthony Butler, had conducted a flourishing 
 school. Of their five children, John Manning, born in 
 1808, was the only son. The boy's mother had had 
 seven brothers, seamen of New Bedford, and privateers 
 of the Revolution, several of whom were killed while 
 
PARENTAGE AND EARLY YEARS 13 
 
 fighting with British ships. Her father was a merchant 
 and shipowner, and when the British fired New Bedford, 
 she had fled with her parents in an ox cart to Dighton, 
 only pausing once on the brow of a hill for a backward 
 glance at the flames from their house and store, redden- 
 ing the sky. He was also descended from a certain John 
 Barrowe, who sailed from Yarmouth to Plymouth in 
 1637. His grandfather, John Barrows, had left his home 
 in Attleboro, Massachusetts, to study at Harvard for the 
 ministry; soon after graduation was led by doubts as 
 to the "validity of his call," to abandon preaching and 
 to build a school-house in Cambridgeport where he pre- 
 pared boys for college; and when the British burned 
 the town, began anew with his wife, Sarah Manning, and 
 taught school in Dighton for fifty years. 
 
 John Manning Barrows, as he grew toward man- 
 hood, tall and shy, fond of poetry and of swimming in 
 the Hudson, came under the influence of Amos Eaton, 
 "founder of American botany." Professor Eaton, hav- 
 ing completed a geological survey of the Erie canal, had 
 urged his patron, Stephen Van Rensselaer of Albany, to 
 found a school where natural sciences should be taught. 
 And so, in 1824, a score of years before the birth of the 
 scientific departments of Harvard or of Yale, the Rens- 
 selaer Polytechnic Institute opened at Troy with Pro- 
 fessor Eaton as chief instructor. Here, where the studies 
 were "chemistry, experimental philosophy, and natural 
 history, with their applications to agriculture, domestic 
 economy and the arts," John Manning Barrows was 
 educated. As adjunct-professor of botany the last year 
 of his course, he conducted the Seniors on a tour through 
 western Massachusetts, but upon graduation, in 1829, he 
 left Troy forever. 
 
14 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 Up to this time, in spite of his regular attendance at 
 the Episcopal church, his ancestral faith lay dormant. In 
 Georgia, where he went as a teacher of the natural 
 sciences, his first view of slavery made him a changed 
 man. On his return to the North, he continued teach- 
 ing, first at Onondaga Academy in New York, then at 
 the Temple Hill School, Geneseo, and lastly at Chilli- 
 cothe, Ohio. Often he was fortunate in his pupils. In 
 Troy he had given her first botany lessons to Emma Wil- 
 lard, principal of what was then probably the best "Ladies' 
 Seminary" in the land ; and in Geneseo, Marcius Wilson, 
 later the well known author of school histories, and Eben 
 Horsford, to be for sixteen years professor at Harvard, 
 were in his classes. Though successful, these years did 
 not let him forget the man-hunt he had seen in Georgia. 
 Too honest to attempt an impossible reconciliation be- 
 tween slavery and Christianity, too Puritan to shake off 
 the burden of its unrighteousness, though he was retiring 
 by nature, and had little talent for action, his fear of 
 God finally cast out all other fears, and, unable to escape 
 his conscience, he determined to study for the ministry. 
 In 1836 he went to Oberlin, at that time burning with 
 the Abolition fever, caught from Lyman Beecher. 
 
 In Oberlin, from whose theological department he was 
 graduated in 1838, he was vitally touched by the tre- 
 mendous spiritual power of Charles G. Finney, "the 
 greatest of American evangelists." Here, too, he became 
 deeply attached to Catherine Moore, who sympathised so 
 fully with his faith and zeal that, in spite of delicate 
 health, she consented to join him in his life as reformer 
 and home missionary. From this determination he was 
 turned neither by Professor Eaton's counsel to abandon 
 the cause of slavery and accept a lucrative professorship 
 
PARENTAGE AND EARLY YEARS 15 
 
 of science, nor by the refusal of the American Home 
 Missionary Society to aid him unless he broke off his con- 
 nection with the Congregational Association bearing the 
 over-radical Oberlin mark, which he refused to do. 
 
 During the next ten years Mr. and Mrs. Barrows 
 lived in St. Anns, New York; Perrysburg, Rome, and 
 Franklin, Ohio; Medina and Woodstock, Michigan. 
 More than once they were "egged" from town because 
 of their anti-slavery sentiments. Although a man of 
 great gentleness and geniality, such was Mr. Barrows's 
 earnestness in denouncing slavery that Professor Esta- 
 brook, a leading Michigan educator, wrote of one of his 
 sermons: "Never can I forget the burning words that 
 fell from his mouth on that occasion. He saw with 
 prophetic doom the fate that awaited his country if she 
 failed to let the oppressed go free. The inspiration that 
 I received from that sermon has never left me. It en- 
 tered my life and is fresh in my memory today." 
 
 In Medina, preaching, an exceedingly precarious sup- 
 port for a growing family, was exchanged for teaching, 
 and at Woodstock, where they joined a colored man 
 named Foster in running a school, their burdens were 
 especially heavy. To Mrs. Barrows's share, besides the 
 housekeeping and the care of her little children, fell the 
 teaching of all the mathematics. However, clear think- 
 ing, warm loving, and a large courage so tempered the 
 hardness of their lot, that to their eyes it seemed always 
 good. In fact, this husband and wife supplemented each 
 other well. To his naturally over-sanguine nature, and 
 mystic dreaminess, she added tireless energy, extreme con- 
 scientiousness, and rare administrative faculty, which en- 
 abled her to make their small income avail for the com- 
 fortable support of the children, to whom she gave her- 
 
i6 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 self with unsparing devotion. For both of them the 
 poetry and pageantry of the Hebrew Scriptures were so 
 alive that Abraham counting the stars, Jacob wrestling 
 with the angel, Moses trembling before the burning bush, 
 symbolised their individual experiences. In the same 
 majestic way they thought also of their country. Amer- 
 ica's story was to them that of a chosen people. 
 
 On July II, 1847, their son, John Henry Barrows, 
 was born "n a log cabin about five miles from Medina, 
 Lenawee County, Michigan. My father was the fourth 
 of five children, all but one of whom were boys. His 
 recollections of the first thirteen years of his life clus- 
 tered about schools in Michigan and Ohio. In 1849, 
 the family, returning to Medina after a year in Wood- 
 stock, moved a few miles away into another house, still 
 of logs, but with a frame addition, for the Medina people 
 had formed a school company, bought a farm, built school 
 house and boarding house, and placed Mi-, and Mrs. 
 Barrows in charge. Mr. Barrows taught during the fore- 
 noon and worked on the eighty acre farm raising corn and 
 wheat in the afternoon, while his wife spent the morn- 
 ings in housework, no easy task, since it usually meant 
 cooking for fourteen boarders in addition to the family, 
 and after dinner taught all the mathematics of the school. 
 Students came from thirty miles around, and the Me- 
 dina Union Seminary prospered signally, its numbers 
 reaching and remaining about one hundred until 1856, 
 when Mr. and Mrs. Barrows moved to West Unity, 
 Ohio, to conduct the town school there. 
 
 Life in this family was necessarily simple. Although 
 matches and Stewart stoves distinguished these from 
 pioneer days, my father used to watch the candles grow 
 under the second and third dippings. Nor was this a 
 
PARENTAGE AND EARLY YEARS i; 
 
 strictly ordered household. With no corporal punish- 
 ment or strict observance of Sunday, with its much jok- 
 ing and individual freedom, its life differed from that 
 of many New England homes. Its temper may be ascribed 
 to his parents' natural liberality and love of beauty, to 
 which Shakespeare, Young, Hood, Kirke White, Thomp- 
 son, Campbell, and Byron, jostling the Bible commen- 
 taries, school books, and biographies on the shelves of the 
 little Medina house, bore witness. 
 
 When very young, he learned to read at home, and, 
 except for a few terms at a district school, his instruc- 
 tion came either from his father, who taught him the 
 botanical names of all the flowers in the region and drilled 
 him well in grammar, or from his mother, who for years 
 practiced her mathematics lessons on him before she 
 taught them to her classes. Thus it happened that at 
 nine, he passed an examiination in Stoddard's intellectual 
 arithmetic before a crowded house, sitting among stu- 
 dents from eighteen to twenty-five years old. At ten, he 
 mastered a higher algebra, and won a prize for penman- 
 ship, a joke in later years when many of his illegible ser- 
 mons tried his patience. In West Unity, while his father 
 read aloud the Waverley novels, his love of books kindled 
 into flame. At this time, too, he heard "Uncle Tom's 
 Cabin" from pages of old numbers of the "National Era," 
 and through articles in the Independent and New York 
 Ledger, to which the family subscribed, first became 
 acquainted with Henry Ward Beecher, who was later 
 to be a great power in his life. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 OLIVET DAYS 1860-1867 
 
 In the spring of i860, Professor Barrows went to 
 Olivet, Michigan, as teacher of natural science, while his 
 wife was made matron of "Ladies' Hall." Olivet Col- 
 lege, which had been founded by Oberlin men, was then 
 only a year old. It had one hundred and seventy stu- 
 dents, most of them in the preparatory department, and 
 but three professors, besides its president, N. J. Morri- 
 son. Professor John H. Hewitt of Williams College 
 writes of this time : "It was my good fortune to be a 
 member of the Barrows family for four years. It was a 
 family of high literary ideals. It was for a long time 
 the custom for some one to read aloud during the meal 
 time, and thus, as a family, they came to have a wide 
 acquaintance with the best in English Literature. The 
 historian who will give a full account of the influences 
 that helped Olivet most in those days of straits will give 
 a large place to the influence of Professor and Mrs. Bar- 
 rows, who gave the ripest years of their lives to the 
 institution and whose children took their degrees there 
 and gave distinction to its name." 
 
 My father lived from his thirteenth to his twentieth 
 birthday in Olivet. Between i860 1863, his previous 
 interest in mathematics, due to the ease with which he 
 answered its riddles, was displaced by enthusiasm for the 
 classics. President Morrison, now of Fairmount Col- 
 lege, says: "I first knew 'John Henry,' as his noble 
 mother always called him, as a beginner in the elements 
 
OLIVET DAYS 19 
 
 of Latin and Greek with his brother Walter, — par nobile 
 fratrum, — in a little basement recitation room under the 
 Ladies' Hall at Olivet College. This was in the spring 
 of i860, I think. He was then a slender little boy, at- 
 tractive in face and manner as ever afterwards, open- 
 eyed, eager to learn, quick to comprehend, never needing 
 urging or reproof, never unprepared in his lessons, and, of 
 course, winning his teacher's heart from the start. For a 
 time he recited to me in both of the classical tongues, but 
 later I confined my teaching to the Greek. He read 
 Greek with me from the alphabet up through all the 
 preparatory and college stages of study to the Junior 
 year, — the last six months of his college study in that 
 noblest of languages. He was the best all-round Greek 
 scholar I ever had, fluent and accurate in translation, 
 enthusiastic in mastering the intricacies of Greek acci- 
 dence, and quick to appreciate the immortal literature 
 enshrined in the structure of that language. His intel- 
 lectual quickness in turning English sentences into Greek 
 was my especial delight. It was my custom in teaching 
 to question the class on matters of grammatical construc- 
 tion, interpretation, or historical and mythological ref- 
 erence, outside, or in advance of the assigned lesson, in 
 order to stimulate the student's initiative in investigation 
 and a habit of shrewd inference and guessing as he read. 
 Such questions were often put to the class as a whole, but 
 invariably answered alone, or first by this boy, the other 
 members of the class looking up with surprised faces, as 
 much as to say, 'Where in the world did John find 
 answers to such questions ?' " 
 
 The boy's journal contains two entries in which those 
 who knew his goodness will see the touch of unconscious 
 humour, — "Spring term of 1861. Walter was converted 
 
20 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 and joined the church. From this time I was growing 
 harder and harder in sin." "Fall term of 1862. There 
 was a revival of religion here and I trust that I sub- 
 mitted my selfish will to Christ's." Years later he wrote : 
 "I shall never forget the time when the truth of my 
 Saviour's Deity flashed into my gladdened soul and I 
 came to know that God is no longer 'awful, remote, and 
 inaccessible.' I had been like a man fighting in a thick 
 mist, striking wildly at foes whose faces I did not see, 
 whose spirit I could not understand, and suddenly I 
 saw the mist lifted, and a new light from heaven thrown 
 over the field, and with this disclosure, my mistaken zeal, 
 my blameworthy ignorance were made plain, and I turned 
 my penitent and renewed energies into a nobler battle 
 for a nobler ideal." 
 
 One smiles, too, at the characteristic interest in public 
 affairs, classical and literary references, and glowing 
 rhetoric, found in a letter written before his fifteenth 
 birthday when on a visit to a Mr. E. P. Cowles, a Chip- 
 pewa Indian and former Oberlin student, to whose farm 
 near Dowagiac the boy had been sent for a needed change. 
 The letter refers to the freeing by Congress of the slaves 
 in the territories, without compensation to their owners, 
 in June, 1862. 
 "Dear Father: 
 
 "In the past month we have passed through greater 
 events than perhaps the world has seen for centuries. The 
 prayer of millions of years has been answered ; the thun- 
 derings of Garrison, Smith, and Phillips have produced 
 an effect. Slavery is virtually at an end. Our Congress 
 has shown in its proceedings an tntrgy and masterly 
 judgment which will place it in as high a position among 
 legislative bodies as the Amphictyonic Council of Greece, 
 
OLIVET DAYS 
 
 the Senate of Rome, or the Long Parliament of Britain. 
 But in the field affairs are difFerent. We may say Mc- 
 Clellan drove back the rebels at Richmond, but his utter 
 incompetency as a general has been clearly shown by our 
 Senator in Congress. But in spite of McClellans and 
 Hallecks, parties and factions, the truth will be at last 
 victorious. Some one will say that the iron car of in- 
 flexible Destiny with Revolution yoked like a whirlwind 
 to. his wheels, is sweeping to the destruction of slavery. 
 Justice must triumph! The soul of Osawatomie's im- 
 mortal hero is on the breeze. The startled Hamlet 
 shrieked to the ghost of his father 'Why have thy canon- 
 ised bones, hearsed in death, burst their cerements?' But 
 the body of John Brown is still in the tomb. Yet his 
 heroic soul has burst from his narrow resting place among 
 the mountains and has imbued itself into the soul of a 
 nation, impelling them to the destruction of Tyranny with 
 all its hydra-headed horridness." 
 
 He wrote to his sister: " 'Round Lake,' which is very 
 near to 'Crooked,' is a very beautiful body of water and 
 I viewed it at a most auspicious time. It is almost round 
 and about a mile in length and breadth. The declining 
 sun turned the surface into a sea of gold. A strong wind 
 from the south made the waters heave in billows, and 
 the beech, oak, and hemlock trees which stretched their 
 long branches far out into the lake formed a dark back- 
 ground to this sea of heaving light." 
 
 In 1863, with five others, he entered the freshman 
 class. That he and his brother Walter were the only tw^o 
 of the original six graduated in 1867 shows how the stu- 
 dent body shifted. Still, in spite of such drawbacks, 
 Olivet was much alive. Its faculty gained such men as 
 Professor Joseph S, Daniels, Professor J. H. Hewitt, and 
 
22 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 Professor Frank P, Woodburj'. Its curriculum contained 
 not only Demosthenes and Tacitus, calculus and meta- 
 physics, but natural sciences, French, German, and Eng- 
 lish Literature, while Olivet audiences listened eagerly to 
 lectures on travel and art. Of course the opportunities 
 which the college could offer were crude compared with 
 those of older, well-endowed institutions, and such was 
 the boy's natural bent toward the humanities, and so keen 
 his later interest in the increasing of college electives 
 and equipment, that we should expect to find him lament- 
 ing the limitations of his own college environment. That 
 he does not, is due, perhaps, partly to his feeling of grati- 
 tude for what it gave him. 
 
 These four college years constituted for him a period 
 of receptivity and intense feeling. He once wrote, years 
 later: "It is sometimes a consolation in the midst of 
 one's half-fulfilled promises and imperfect achievements 
 to recall not only his early dreams, but those prophetic and 
 powerful impressions made by other souls, and those early 
 aspirations to embody in life what one found to admire 
 and to exult in as he contemplated various forms of hu- 
 man excellence. How vividly I remember the impression 
 that came from my father's love of nature, from my 
 mother's spirit of self-sacrifice, and from the marvelous 
 mental accuracy which I discovered in her. How vividly 
 I remember the shock of mental excitement with v.'hich I 
 came into contact with accomplished speakers and how 
 rebuked and yet inspired I was in college days, when, 
 with tears rolling down his face, the good president 
 pictured the heroism of Paul and the self-effacing martyr- 
 dom of spirit with which great men had done their great- 
 est work. How I learned by heart the speeches of Wen- 
 dell Phillips, and marvelled over their brilliancy, their 
 
OLIVET DAYS 23 
 
 directness, their pungency and their strange blending of 
 sweetness and severity, till the orator seemed to me like 
 a golden vase 'that burned with concentrated and per- 
 fumed fire.' " 
 
 We are told that — "In those days one of the important 
 events of the Olivet commencement season was the public 
 oral examination of the classes. A board of visitors, rep- 
 resenting the Presbyterian and Congregational churches 
 of Michigan, was always present to attend and report 
 upon the character of the examinations. One of the strik- 
 ing features of these examinations was the recitations of 
 John and Walter Barrows. On one occasion when the 
 subject of the examination was Guizot's History of Civil- 
 ization, John had drawn as his topic the lecture on the 
 Reformation. After he had recited two or three pages, 
 almost word for word, and the instructor had pronounced 
 it sufficient, the visitors, impressed by the brilliancy of the 
 exhibition, requested that the student be allowed to pro- 
 ceed, which he did to the close of a lecture of several 
 pages." 
 
 Though Olivet then lacked the organized athletics, 
 college periodicals, and fraternity rivalries of the more 
 modern educational m.achine, he managed to develop both 
 his muscles and his social faculties. One winter he drilled 
 three nights a week in a military company and rose to 
 the lofty rank of second corporal : for a part of his course 
 he took fencing lessons; long tramps with his father and 
 brothers for rare plants were not infrequent ; farm work 
 often filled his summers, and in his Junior year he writes 
 with ardor of joining a "base ball club" just formed. 
 
 To these years belonged also his first longer journeys, 
 am.ong them those to Ann Arbor, for the commencement 
 of '64, to Ogdensburg with his father the same summer to 
 
24 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 attend the National Teachers' Convention, thence to 
 Montreal, the White Mountains, Portland, and Boston ; 
 in '67 to Chicago, where he was delighted with his first 
 opera, Meyerbeer's "L'Africaine." In connection with 
 these trips his journal gives most space to the sermons and 
 addresses which he heard. Public speaking early became 
 his passion. He threw himself into the work of the Phi 
 Alpha Phi Society, of which he was a charter member, 
 and which aimed both to develop the oratorical talent 
 of its members and also to conduct a good lecture course. 
 From a record of the addresses he heard, often including 
 elaborate abstracts of the discourses, as well as comments 
 on the speakers, come the following quotations: January 
 30th, 1867. "Fifth lecture before the association, by 
 Theodore Tilton, on the 'Cornerstone of Reconstruc- 
 tion,' the finest specimen of oratory it has ever been my 
 pleasure to enjoy — in fact Tilton is the only orator I 
 ever heard. He spoke to us two hours, which seemed but 
 a few minutes. He is a tall, youthful, very handsome 
 man of thirty-one. His style of speaking is like that of 
 Wendell Phillips. He reviewed the subject of reconstruc- 
 tion — the different plans, the true plan, looked at the 
 whole subject of suffrage, was very logical, very convinc- 
 ing, his language perfect, no hesitation in utterance, did 
 not take back a word, perfect respiration, gestures very 
 forceful, his word pictures alwa5's conveyed a piercing 
 truth. His references and personal conversations added 
 force to his argument. His power over an audience is 
 marvelous. 'Long may he wave.' " 
 
 February 14th, 1867. "Frederick Douglass spoke on 
 the 'Sources of Danger to the Republic' House crowded. 
 Mr. Douglass was evidently much pleased. He spoke to 
 us two hours and a half. His great power is in logical. 
 
OLIVET DAYS 
 
 forcible statement and appeal. His language is potent — 
 manifestly a great man, a mixture of Webster and Ran- 
 dolph. His effective sarcasm is another element in his 
 greatness. * * * * j^jg peroration was sublime, 
 some of his word pictures equal to Tilton's. A noble, use- 
 ful, great man." 
 
 March 4th, 1867. "Wendell Phillips lectured this 
 evening on 'Reconstruction.' He was unable to give 
 'Toussaint' on account of a cold. Mr. Phillips was in 
 no trim for speaking, and those who have heard him fre- 
 quently say they never knew him to speak so indifferently, 
 yet it was not difficult to see the elements of his marvel- 
 ous power. His style was conversationally argumentative, 
 his language strong, picturesque Saxon, his earnestness 
 quiet, his repose perfect, his position that of a pleader 
 before judges, his object to convince, not to display him- 
 self. He began by giving his views of the Lyceum system 
 and so gradually moved off into reconstruction that no one 
 could see where he began his real theme. He developed 
 the difference between northern and southern ideas, 
 showed in what southern statesmanship had been the 
 wiser. He gave Beecher some friendly blows; showed 
 that the constitutional amendment as a basis of reorgan- 
 ization was a swindle: justly criticised Grant, approved 
 the new military bill, but demanded the impeachment 
 and removal of Johnson to carry it out. No one went 
 away saying 'magnificent,' but all were convinced, and 
 wondered how the time had passed so rapidly." 
 
 Professor Daniels writes: "I can never forget what 
 a red letter day it was for Olivet when Wendell Phillips 
 was the orator of the evening and the honored guest of 
 the Barrows home. Mr. Phillips had done his great life 
 work. Slavery was abolished. The war had ended. He 
 
26 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 had won his laurels. To some of us who had heard his 
 philippics in the days of John Brown, the address on "Re- 
 construction" seemed somewhat tame. 
 
 "But what an inspiration there was in meeting the 
 man, in sitting with him at the same table, in seeing the 
 gleam of his genial eye and feeling the electric touch of 
 his great soul. What a thrilling hour for a young man 
 with aspirations for a like service to humanity in the field 
 of oratory. 
 
 "Mr. Phillips was in his best humor that memorable 
 evening. He was the 'Autocrat' of the table. He forgot 
 himself and his supper, while he feasted us with stories 
 about Webster and Gough and the men and events of his 
 time. John Henr}^ Barrows had a new baptism and con- 
 secration to oratory that night." 
 
 Besides his other work, he taught in the preparatory 
 department, sometimes history, sometimes Greek, oftener 
 Latin, and for a while was assistant Librarian. The 
 librar}'^ hours were among his happiest. Of these experi- 
 ences he later wrote: "For many months in every year 
 I felt toward the Olivet collection of two or three thou- 
 sand volumes much as Dominie Sampson did to the 
 Bishop's library placed in Guy Mannering's hall. To 
 my youthful eyes this number seemed, as the Dominie 
 would say, 'prodigious' : and although my tastes did not 
 lead me to devour such leather bound, antique, and pon- 
 derous tomes as he reverenced, the Chrysostoms and 
 Aquinases, I was often discovered, pausing, like him, on 
 the step ladder with an open book in my hand, oblivious 
 of that tocsin of the juvenile soul — the call to the dinner 
 table. 
 
 "There was Sir Edgerton Brydges's complete edition 
 of Milton's poems, which, with its learned notes, was an 
 
OLIVET DAYS 27 
 
 endless fascination. In spite of his fiery Toryism, Sir 
 Edgerton yielded to no one in his estimation of England's 
 greatest master of epic and lyric poetry, and many years 
 afterward, while reverently musing by Milton's grave in 
 Saint Giles's Church, Cripplegate, I recalled those days 
 in happy far-off summers, when I listened so constantly to 
 this 
 
 'Mighty mouthed inventor of harmonies.' 
 Among the books read from the old library, which make 
 it dear to my recollection, are Motley's 'Rise of the Dutch 
 Republic,' which no student should leave college without 
 reading; Parkman's fascinating histories, (the series was 
 not then complete) which have encircled the primeval 
 wilderness of America with a girdle of romance; Pres- 
 cott's 'Ferdinand and Isabella,' Louis Napoleon's Caesar, 
 which is now as dead as the Napoleonic Empire; Vol- 
 taire's 'Charles the Twelfth' ; Tytler's 'Universal His- 
 tory,' an exceedingly arid account of Germany, which I 
 now deem a grievous insult to one of the greatest of na- 
 tions; Locke's 'Essay on the Human Understanding'; 
 Forsythe's 'Life of Cicero' ; Emerson's 'Representative 
 Men'; Lord Derby's rather un-Homeric Homer; Macau- 
 lay's 'England,' which gives no sign of being superseded, 
 and Tocqueville's 'Democracy in America,' of immense 
 stimulating and corrective wisdom, but now giving place 
 to Bryce's 'America Comm.on wealth.' And I remember 
 with great pleasure Bulwer's 'Athens,' a book enriched 
 with spirited translations from the Greek tragedians. 
 Lord Bacon's essays and Thomas Arnold's lectures on 
 history were among the treasures of the old library, and 
 there were Webster's speeches from which came the moral 
 ammunition wherewith our soldiers shot the slaveholders' 
 rebellion. I recall also how I used to turn the curious 
 
28 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 pages of Burton's 'Anatomy of Melancholy,' loaded with 
 Latin quotations, a book which Emerson assigns to the 
 category of vocabularies: 'To read it is like reading a 
 dictionar}'.' And I used to delve into Sir William Hamil- 
 ton's essays, and to wonder at the wide scholarship which, 
 as Dr. Samuel Johnson would say, 'Turned over a whole 
 librarj' to make one book.' I shall not forget the crisis 
 in my mental life which came from reading Young's 
 'Christ in History,' wherein I learned not only the Deit>' 
 of the world's Saviour, but what it is to love God with 
 the mind as well as the heart. And in the old library I 
 read a famous biography which brightened my path 
 toward the Christian ministry; I mean the 'Life of Fred- 
 erick W. Robertson,' the most suggestive of modern 
 preachers, and such was my thankfulness for that book 
 that I went to the ugliest chapel in London, to hear a ser- 
 mon from its author, the Reverend Stopford Brooke, and 
 to express my gratitude for the moral service which he 
 had unconsciously rendered to a young student in a far- 
 off western college." 
 
 The following rules for reading, from the journal of 
 his Sophomore year, are of interest, because he followed 
 most of them through life. "I have decided on this plan 
 in reading: First, have a systematic course, reading works 
 which are somewhat connected, — as Smith's 'Greece,' Bul- 
 wer's 'Athens,' and Cleveland's 'Compendium of Clas- 
 sical Literature.' Secondly, never pass over a word which 
 I do not understand, a historical or fictitious reference 
 which is new, and, especially in classical reading, a geo- 
 graphical locality which I cannot point out. Thirdly, 
 seldom mark passages in books, take but few notes while 
 reading, but at the close of the day recall some important 
 fact, date, or thought and write it in my daily memoran- 
 
OLIVET DAYS 29 
 
 dum. Fourthly, when finding anything valuable for 
 future reference, mark it in this note-book. Fifthly, keep 
 a list of books read, with comments." The list of books 
 for the four college years contains but a hundred and 
 twenty-one names ; m.any of the volumes, however, are 
 long, the whole number of pages being about fifty thou- 
 sand. He was never a rapid reader ; he remembered much 
 that he read word for word, — especially poetry, and was 
 for years able to recite without hesitation the first three 
 books of "Paradise Lost." 
 
 His social needs were largely met by his responsive and 
 affectionate family. With his teachers, too, his inter- 
 course was far more intimate and constant than is pos- 
 sible in larger colleges. But his closest attachment was 
 to his brother Walter, fifteen months his senior. The 
 natural rivalry between two high-spirited boys spurred 
 them both; and is expressed in the following selections 
 from Walter's diary, written in '61. "I commenced this 
 year for the first time to write a diary. I have written 
 one page a day with one exception (and I wrote that the 
 next day) and on the Sabbath two pages. John began 
 at the same time and he has missed nine or ten times." 
 And again, he writes of his dislike for school: "I had 
 rather stay at home and work all day upon the farm, 
 and I very often did so, as in summer time Father would 
 want help, and I could ride horse-back, drive oxen and 
 even plow, and John could do none of these things." 
 Walter was physically the stronger of the two, could more 
 easily do manual work, had a conscience more exacting 
 than John's, and a will equally rigid. Though Walter 
 found Latin and Greek difficult at first, through energetic 
 and persistent work, his scholarship eventually equalled 
 his brother's. This college competition never impaired 
 
30 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 their friendship, for, as President Morrison writes: "As 
 the brothers approached the close of their college career 
 an incident occurred which finely illustrated the nobility 
 of John Henry's nature, as well as the perfect harmony 
 and sympathy of the brothers. John's class-room record 
 was a fraction higher than Walter's; Walter was a cal- 
 endar or two the elder; John was entitled to the valedic- 
 tory oration at the graduating exercises, the chief honor 
 of his class. With a rare magnanimity he declined the 
 honor, and asked that the valedictory be given to Walter, 
 which was done." 
 
 Professor Hewitt writes that — "On his graduation, 
 John appeared twice on the same program. He opened 
 the speaking by an address in Latin. My recollection is 
 that this was something more than the stereotyped form 
 of salutation ; it was a discussion in classical Latin of 
 some of the principles of democratic government. His 
 second oration was on Samuel Adams. 
 
 "The class of 1867 consisted of but six members, but 
 it was a marked class, not only for the ability of the mem- 
 bers, but because it was the first class of men which the 
 college had graduated. In those days, when the isolation 
 of Olivet was greater than it is today, and when the chief 
 means of conveyance to and from the college was the 
 old stage-coach from Marshall, the graduation of a class 
 of six young men marked an epoch for the young college. 
 The presence in the college for four years of two such 
 young men as the Barrows boys meant very much for the 
 small college in giving it prestige. The repute of their 
 fine scholarship and oratorical ability was of far more 
 worth to the college than would have been the endowment 
 of two professorships. 
 
 "John Henry Barrows was gifted with intellectual 
 
OLIVET DAYS 31 
 
 qualities of a high and varied order, — qualities which in- 
 dicated a peculiar fitness for any one of three distinct 
 fields of activity, — the field of scholarship, of literature, 
 or of oratory. With high ethical standards and a burn- 
 ing hatred for every form of human oppression, he was 
 an ardent champion of the rights of the down-trodden. 
 He always had a large faith in the capacity of the human 
 race for progress, and in the power of the gospel of Jesus 
 Christ. This faith, joined with a large capacity for 
 friendship and the most catholic sympathy with other 
 forms of belief than his own, made him an optimist in 
 an age of doubt and criticism. It was easy for a teacher 
 to predict for a student of such qualities and traits the 
 career of the eloquent preacher and the scholarly and 
 efficient college president." 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 PREPARATION FOR THE MINISTRY — NEW HAVEN AND 
 NEW YORK 1 867- 1 869 
 
 To prepare for their life work, my father and his like- 
 minded brother Walter left Olivet in 1867, for New 
 Haven. They stopped at Oberlin and heard Charles G. 
 Finney preach on the "Wickedness of the Heart." 
 Though the great evangelist's strength was then failing, 
 they marvelled at the "practical and searching power," 
 as my father's journal phrased it, of this man of whom 
 Dr. Cuyler has written, "Probably no American ever 
 numbered among his converts so many lawyers and men 
 of intellectual culture." They also called on President 
 James H. Fairchild, then presiding over the college, and 
 he wrote in my father's album, "Fidelity is success," words 
 the young man ever treasured. His stay was short in this 
 Ohio college town which he was not to see again for more 
 than thirty years, but he received strong impressions of 
 the contrasting personalities of the two leaders: the in- 
 spired preacher who traveled the world over grasping 
 men's minds with his logic and their wills with his fiery 
 earnestness; and the sweet-souled teacher, listening to the 
 still small voice, and faithful to its message of self-renun- 
 ciation. 
 
 From Olivet, that palpable anomaly, a new college, 
 to Yale, was a change so decided that our tall, slight 
 youth of twenty, with shining gray eyes, walked to his 
 first recitation expecting to be at a disadvantage in culture 
 
PREPARATION FOR THE MINISTRY 33 
 
 and training beside men from eastern colleges. Soon his 
 trepidation wholly ceased, the discipline of small western 
 halls proving ample; in fact, he and his brother found 
 themselves among the first scholars of their New Haven 
 class of twelve. Dr. G. S. Dickerman writes me: "At 
 the Yale Divinity School, your father and his brother 
 occupied the room directly across the hall from mine and 
 I saw a good deal of them both. They were rare fellows, 
 of scholarly tastes and studious habits, but none the less 
 companionable and heartily liked by their fellow students 
 as well as the professors. The difference in their training 
 from that of the other students was apparent, but not to 
 their disadvantage, I think. As the sons of Professor 
 Barrows they had enjoyed opportunities in the home be- 
 yond most of us. Their ideals were those of the new 
 country in distinction from the conservative spirit of New 
 England. They believed in the West and were full of 
 western enterprise and enthusiasm. The home mission- 
 ary field of work was more attractive in their view than 
 any other for a young minister. 
 
 "One thing especially surprised me in your father's 
 standards of culture — his emphasis on rhetorical form. I 
 well remember his expressions of dissatisfaction with some 
 of the professors on this score, especially with Professor 
 Porter, who was afterwards President of the college. It 
 was rather characteristic of the Yale faculty throughout 
 to make their instructions clear and forcible rather than 
 elegant. Professor Porter was a very stimulating lecturer 
 and intensely interesting as a thinker, but his language 
 was utterly reckless of form and often of grammar. To 
 your father, this was simply shocking and unpardonable 
 in an instructor who was training men to preach. This 
 attitude of mind is interesting as forecasting the elegance 
 
34 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 that is so well known in Dr. Barrows's own style of ad- 
 dress. 
 
 "One efFect of their being at Yale was to impress the 
 Divinity School faculty with the value of western stu- 
 dents. Active eliForts were made to attract the graduates 
 of western colleges and since then until the present time 
 large numbers have come thither." He did not under- 
 rate Professor Porter, as is evident from his letters home: 
 "I think Porter is a great m.an, in more senses than one. 
 He doesn't pretend to have any dignity but commands re- 
 spect as well as affection. To see him with his old cap 
 over his ears, you wouldn't dream that you were meeting 
 one of the biggest men of Yale." 
 
 In connection with Professor Porter's course in Moral 
 Philosophy, he read widely, and carefully analyzed Ed- 
 wards on the Will. At first Hebrew grammar was dis- 
 tasteful to him. But so admirably was the importance 
 of accurate and thorough Hebrew scholarship advocated 
 and illustrated by Professor George E. Day that before 
 the paradigms were learned he grew to like it. Indeed, 
 in crowded later years, he often contrived to read He- 
 brew. He was delighted with his Greek Testament, 
 taught by Professor Timothy Dwight, whom his journal 
 describes as "a young, but very thorough and fair-minded 
 exegete, repetitious often, but wholly satisfactory." 
 Weekly conferences, at which faculty and students dis- 
 cussed questions of interest to both, he found profitable, 
 and often reports in his letters. 
 
 "Last Monday we had our third meeting with the 
 faculty for extempore discussion. The subject was the 
 'Qualifications for Membership in the Christian Church.' 
 I was amazed to find the faculty so liberal in this matter. 
 They utterly repudiated the New England and Olivet 
 
PREPARATION FOR THE MINISTRY 35 
 
 plan of making candidates subscribe to a theological creed 
 before entering. Professor Fisher said we had no right 
 to impose any other conditions than Christ did. They 
 told amusing stories about New England confessions of 
 faith. All agreed that when a pastor was convinced that 
 a candidate believed in Christ and was regenerate, he 
 should be admitted. It is of course necessary to be satis- 
 fied that he or she is moral in action. Professor Fisher 
 would admit a Christian Quaker who did not believe in 
 the Lord's Supper, or a Christian who did not believe in 
 future punishment. The question of admitting slave- 
 holders is a question of morality. Dr. Bacon surprised 
 me most. He said that a Congregational Church ought 
 to be simply a Christian church. He condemned the 
 sectarian spirit of Congregational journals! He told us 
 if we ever founded a new church in a new place to call 
 it the Church of Christ — in such a place — not the Tirst 
 Congregational Church' of such a place. That is the way 
 the New Haven churches were originally called." 
 
 "The subject for discussion at last Thursday's meeting 
 was 'Temperance as a Christian Virtue.' Fisher refused 
 to speak on the subject, as it was too broad. The others 
 did, however, and Bacon and Hoppin told some ridiculous 
 stories about Oberlin extravagance, which they held up 
 as being representative, whereas, as we know, they are 
 merely exceptional. Dr. Bacon told of an Oberlin 
 student who was so anti-slavery that he would not use 
 anything m.ade by slave labor — even cotton and sugar. 
 He took lodgings at a hotel and finding there were cotton 
 sheets on the bed, he slept on the carpet, but in the morn- 
 ing he was horrified, — there was cotton in the carpet! 
 Professor Hoppin speaks as if Oberlin men thought it 
 a sin to use tea. Walter said he wanted to tell them that 
 
7,6 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 he had taken tea with the President of Oberlin College, 
 and if Hoppin's memory wasn't poor, he would recollect 
 that he had done the same, etc. When we were at Ober- 
 lin, we disliked to hear the people praise themselves but 
 away from Oberlin we can't bear to hear Oberlin misrep- 
 resented. The East is very slow to learn the truth con- 
 cerning the West. I have wondered how strangers who 
 go to Olivet can endure to hear Olivet people praise them- 
 selves. Here at Yale we say all the good words we can 
 about our Alma Mater. When we go from here, we shall 
 not like to hear old Yale falsely represented. Truly 
 'there is a good deal of human nature in man.' One ought 
 to become acquainted with many institutions in order not 
 to overrate or underrate any." 
 
 In addition to his seminary work, a course in German 
 with Professor W. D. Whitney, a Sunday School class, 
 the formation and maintenance of a missionary society, at- 
 tendance upon sermons, concerts and lectures helped to 
 fill his time. The following letters tell of some of the 
 extras. 
 
 New Haven, Conn., October, 1867. 
 Dear Mother: 
 
 I have just returned from the best preaching I ever 
 heard. What shall I say, in a word, worthy of New- 
 man Hall? His text was "Show us the Father." His 
 manner was somewhat different from what I anticipated 
 — his voice of infinite melody — his action animated and 
 graceful — his power is that of brief argument with tender 
 passion — the Apostle John of living preachers — with a 
 spark of Peter's boldness. His sermon was an exposition 
 of Christ's divine humanity — a showing forth of man's 
 need and God's power of supplying it. Of all the men 
 I ever heard he preaches and embodies Christ. I have on 
 
PREPARATION FOR THE MINISTRY 2,7 
 
 my table the "Church Monthly," an Episcopalian review. 
 Professor Hoppin sent it to me to learn a declamation 
 for next Thursday — an extract from one of Bossuet's 
 sermons — very fine. It also contains a severe criticism on 
 Professor Hoppin's "Old England" — a criticism that en- 
 hances my esteem for the Professor. The critic com- 
 plains among other things because Professor Hoppin ad- 
 mires Newman Hall's preaching more than that of the 
 High Church divines! I don't wonder at his choice, for 
 I've heard both. 
 
 Please don't get J. S. C. Abbott out to Olivet. He is 
 only small "small potatoes." I pass his house every day. 
 You may think that is a poor proof of his being "small 
 fry." I know it, but it is as good as Professor Fisher's 
 way of belittling Webster's dictionary. A student cor- 
 rected him for his mispronouncing a word. He asked his 
 authority for the correction. "Webster's Dictionary." 
 "Pooh," said Fisher, "that book is nothing — I had a hand 
 in making that book m.yself, and the best of it was made 
 next door to my room!" Get Miss Dickinson if you can, 
 as "Idiots and Women" is a lecture that will open the 
 eyes of some and stop the mouths of others. If she would 
 omit a few extravagances it would be more effective. 
 
 I'll finish this after hearing Newman Hall tonight. 
 
 9 p. M. 
 
 I have just returned from the greatest jam ever known 
 in New Haven. I have witnessed the desperate attempt 
 to solve the problem — how to pack a church with a thou- 
 sand more people than it is capable of holding. After 
 going to Professor Thatcher's lecture, Walter and I ran 
 down to the Third Church — found the doors unopened 
 and fifteen hundred people outside. When they were 
 opened the rush was grand — the pressure to the square 
 
JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 inch on my back was a hundred pounds; once I was 
 crushed to death against a seat, but recovered; sweet- 
 hearts were torn from their lovers, ladies fainted. The 
 scene was uproarious. We as usual got seats. This was 
 before the bell tolled. On the people came, pressing 
 those in front upon the pulpit and out of the doors at 
 the pulpit end of the church. The chaos was at last re- 
 duced to order. People stood patiently through a most 
 excellent sermon, and those who couldn't hear the first 
 sermon, with many who did, repaired to the Chapel Street 
 Church, where Hall preached again. He is a most un- 
 selfish man, preferring rather to do good than to display 
 himself. He is a great preacher, but not like Beecher, a 
 man of great creative thought. It is wonderful how he 
 can use plain truth in moving men. He is a man who 
 reminds me of Frederick W. Robertson's picture. 
 
 Your John. 
 "New Haven Theological Seminary, 
 "January 17, 1868. 
 "Dear Ones at Home: 
 
 "The lectures of Day and Dwight, of late, though not 
 touching on the matter of 'verbal inspiration' directly, 
 have upset that doctrine in the mind of every Junior. 
 Next Monday we begin Romans — I have bought Stuart's 
 Commentary. Professor Dwight took up the hour this 
 morning in giving us a list of the best books in his depart- 
 ment, which we shall need for our libraries, together with 
 their retail prices. It made us feel our poverty pretty 
 keenly. The books he mentioned as quite desirable cost 
 about $550. They were almost entirely works explanatorj'- 
 of the New Testament text. I have little doubt that books 
 alone tend to malae preaching stupid. About the 'livest' 
 sermon I ever heard in New Haven was last Sunday 
 
PREPARATION FOR THE MINISTRY 39 
 
 morning from George Beecher. I think I shall try to 
 hear him frequently." 
 
 During this year, his reading of theology, history, and 
 philosophy was varied and extensive. Adolf Slater's "Life 
 of Lessing" and Lewes's "Life of Goethe" first opened for 
 him the door of German literature. His note-book speaks 
 often of Dickens, Tennyson, and especially, George Eliot, 
 to whom through life he was quick to pay his tribute. 
 
 His throat troubled him all the jear, not only keepmg 
 him constantly in the doctor's hands and cutting him from 
 several weeks of lectures, but clouding his glorious dream 
 of future preaching. Although fearful lest he should 
 never have voice enough for the ministry, he bravely 
 worked in number 9, Divinity Hall, sought the gymna- 
 sium each day at ten, and walked with his brother to East 
 and West Rocks. Walking was at all times his delight, 
 though solitary exercise rarely pleased him. In May, he 
 wrote in his journal: "Such living has made me grow. 
 Good-bye, dear Yale." 
 
 The second year of his theological course was spent 
 with his brother at Union Seminary, New York. In 
 1868 under the leadership of Richard T. Haines and 
 Charles Butler, this seminary had much to offer. Henry 
 B. Smith taught Systematic Theology, Thomas H. Skin- 
 ner, Pastoral Theology, the brilliant Roswell D. Hitch- 
 cock held the chair of Church History, and William G. 
 T. Shedd that of New Testament Exegesis. Dr. Philip 
 Schaff was not added to the faculty until two years later. 
 My father ever honoured the "heavenly-mindedness" of 
 Dr. Skinner, the "catholic spirit" of Dr. Smith, and "the 
 impregnable logic" of Dr. Shedd, but he found Dr. 
 Shedd's theology alien to his faith. He once wrote : 
 "Calvinism has its immortal truths. The sovereignty 
 
40 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 of God is an immortal truth; we cannot get away from 
 it if we would. The objection that is rightly made to 
 the conception of sovereignty embodied in the theology of 
 the Reformation, is that it seems the sovereignty of power 
 more than of benevolence, the sovereignty of kingship 
 more than of Fatherhood, the sovereignty of pure will, 
 more than of Divine love. I have never known a more 
 saintly man that the late Dr. Shedd of New York. His 
 theology, hovrever, has been called not a description, but 
 an arraignment of the Divine government. It was more 
 rigid than anything which the worst enemies of John Cal- 
 vin ever interpreted that great man as teaching. We 
 used to go out from his lecture-room, with its sombre 
 mediasvalism of doctrine, an echo from the darkest ages 
 of human fear, where man was pictured, not as a child in 
 the arm of a father, but as a hunted deer under the paw of 
 a lion, and look up at the bright sky and at the telegraph 
 wires in order to get back into the nineteenth century." 
 And so abhorrent to his nature was this theology, that his 
 faith in his calling to the ministry weakened. At this 
 hour of need, he came face to face with a great person- 
 ality. 
 
 One who feels the "genius of places" must ever be at- 
 tracted by Plymouth Church. When my father entered 
 it, all the Puritan within him rose up to salute its un- 
 adorned walls, and he felt singularly at home. Much in 
 him responded to Mr. Beecher's pulpit oratory, to his 
 love of art, historic sense, intense patriotism, power over 
 men and belief in them, joy in living, and most of all 
 to his spiritual insight. On his return from his first 
 journey across the river to Orange street, my father wrote 
 in his journal: "Mr. Beecher's prayer was richer in re- 
 ligious ideas than that of any man I ever heard. It was 
 
PREPARATION FOR THE MINISTRY 41 
 
 inspired emotion poured forth in simple, powerful speech," 
 and at the end of the year we read: "Mr. Beecher has 
 been worth more to me than the Seminary, he is a well- 
 spring of divine power. My debt to him is incalculable." 
 During this year, President Morrison, then of Olivet, 
 proposed that he fit himself for the chair of modern lan- 
 guages in Olivet College. At this time and through 
 life, the path of the scholar always looked bright to him, 
 but he writes to his mother: "I was of course surprised 
 that the President thought me worth securing for so hon- 
 ourable a position as a professorship in the best institution 
 of learning in the whole Northwest. I feel deeply grateful 
 for all the interest that has for years been shown me by 
 one who, in many respects, has had the largest moulding 
 influence on my education of any living being. What 
 little culture and discipline I have obtained, intellectually 
 and morally, are due, next to training at home, to the wise 
 stimulus and thorough instruction of President Morrison. 
 I have always regarded him and the Greek language as my 
 mental parents. I hope to be worthy of so good a par- 
 entage. We have proposed all along to complete a three 
 years' course in theolog>', and then see what Providence 
 indicated for the future. We have had on the whole good 
 health and have been deeply interested in our work. While 
 conscious of our poor preparation for the great work of 
 preaching, it has been our hope that God might still use 
 us for som.e humble service in the great Gospel ministry. 
 We have felt that we needed the ministry as much as the 
 ministry needed us, and all who were decently qualified 
 for its work. We need to get out from the student's 
 habits of mind into something warmer and less critical. 
 The pastor's work with its development of the sympathies, 
 and the preacher's work of giving out as well as pouring 
 
JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 in, — all this we have felt great need of, for our own sakes 
 at least. Then we have not been insensible to the press- 
 ing demand for laborers in the Gospel ministry both at 
 home and abroad. Our greatest troubles have been our 
 poor throats. Walter's is very weak at present, mine is 
 not strong. We have feared that this drawback might 
 keep us from preaching any great length of time. Still 
 we shall never be satisfied in our consciences and judg- 
 ment of what is best, unless we complete a Theological 
 course and enter the ministry. 
 
 "Nothing would so fall in with my selfish inclinations 
 as to accept the plan proposed. Only I should need to 
 spend more than one year in Europe. Since coming to 
 New York I have spent considerable time at odd intervals 
 upon French. Professor Alexy, as you know, has been a 
 great help, especially in French conversation. He thinks 
 three months in Paris would enable me to speak the lan- 
 guage quite fluently. But sending me abroad might be 
 a bad investment for the college. More efficient teachers 
 in the department of modern languages can be obtained 
 with less trouble. We have such in the Seminary. As 
 things stand, it appears now that nothing, except health 
 and duty to our parents, should interfere to prevent the 
 completing of our Theological course. How our affairs 
 will be at the close of the year, we cannot say." Much 
 more that made up this brief but critical year appears in 
 the following letters to his family: 
 
 "November 21, 1868. 
 
 "I did not intend to do anything so pleasant and easy 
 as to write home tonight, as my unfinished manuscript lies 
 on the table calling me to settle forever all the controver- 
 sies on fate, freewill, and foreknowledge. Four weeks of 
 hard reading and continual discussion have resulted in 
 
PREPARATION FOR THE MINISTRY 43 
 
 an essay of a half-hour's length, which leaves most of the 
 great problems unsettled in my own mind. Walter and 
 I have become more convinced of human freedom, though 
 the doctrines of decrees and predestination are still 'with- 
 out form and void.' 
 
 "Thursday was the great day. The announcement 
 that Beecher was to open the discussion on 'How are 
 Prayer-m.eetings to be most Effective?' filled the church 
 to overflowing. The prayer-meeting from nine to ten 
 was very interesting. Ralph Wells led. Our missionary, 
 Mr. Wilder, took part. At ten the President, Dr. Cros- 
 by, called the convention to order. Old Dr. S. H. Cox, 
 beautiful old man, dressed to perfection, arose and spoke 
 of the privilege he expected of being introduced to Grant 
 that evening, and he wanted the convention to send their 
 congratulations et cetera. He was called to the stand and 
 made one of those speeches one remembers for a lifetime 
 in the most grandiloquent phrases, quoting Latin, point- 
 ing with his black cane to the heavens, shaking his beaver 
 hat. I thought I should die with laughter. Beecher 
 sat in his chair and grinned audibly. Dr. Crosby told 
 Dr. Cox he must reduce his proposition to writing. He 
 sat down to do so, and then Beecher was introduced to 
 the expectant audience. It was the happiest effort I ever 
 heard from any man, giving his wealth of wisdom and 
 experience on the conducting of meetings. The audience 
 was convulsed with merriment or moved to tears. We 
 were right in front and enjoyed it hugely. Old School, 
 New School, all denominations were fused together and 
 moved at Beecher's will. Dr. Cox couldn't write his 
 motion as he confessed afterwards, he laughed so much. 
 The President lost his dignity. There on the floor was 
 the Editor of the Observer, hardly able to contain him- 
 
44 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 self. A woman behind me shouted 'Glory to Jesus.' I 
 think Beecher's humor is the most marvelous faculty pos- 
 sessed by any man I ever heard. He jumped right into 
 his subject and spoke of the moral, social, and physical 
 elements of a prayer meeting. His suggestions were ad- 
 mirable, a 'world of common sense' as one man said. 
 Beecher thought a prayer meeting was a school of train- 
 ing in spiritual things. He believed in women's prayers. 
 (Applause.) 'We gnaw the bones and throw the fat 
 away.' The timid ones are the ones that do the most good 
 when they speak. Some men are to be choked off. The 
 great thing to be aimed at is naturalness and sincerity. 
 Many become unconscious hypocrites imitating others. 
 Beecher spoke eloquently of the use of hymns, the poetical 
 liturgies, the best prayers we have. Long theological 
 hymns which tell the Lord all he ever did, he did not be- 
 lieve in. He took down the deacons who do all the pray- 
 ing. One reason why meetings for prayer often fail is that 
 they are held in too large rooms. Beecher told of lecturing 
 in Columbus to an audience of ten. He enjoyed it, but he 
 made the men sit on the front row. The failure of meet- 
 ings is largely due to pastors themselves. He gave a his- 
 tory of prayer-meetings in Plymouth Church, their small 
 beginnings, and how he worked for ten years before they 
 became what they are now. I wish you could have been 
 there. It did all immense good, as many acknowledged 
 afterwards. Beecher was allowed to speak an hour. A 
 half hour was the usual time. Dr. Cox hadn't finished 
 his resolutions, so Dr. Hall, the big gun of New York, 
 was called on to speak on 'How to promote the study of 
 the Bible?' He bowed to Beecher and complimented him 
 on his speech, so full of valuable things et cetera. Dr. 
 Hall spoke very well for a half hour, but he is not a gen- 
 
PREPARATION FOR THE MINISTRY 45 
 
 ius or an orator. Dr. Cox managed to write his resolu- 
 tion, which he read. It set the whole house roaring, an 
 address to Grant, full of tremendous phrases, Latin quo- 
 tations, e pluribus unum, este perpetua, semper eadem et 
 cetera. I thought Beecher would burst. As soon as Dr. 
 Cox had finished his document Dr. Hall offered a brief 
 substitute, but a motion of Dr. Budington sent the whole 
 thing to the business committee. Dr. Hall suggested that 
 Grant did not understand Latin, after which the conven- 
 tion broke up. Beecher related some funny stories about 
 his experiences in silencing bores in prayer-meeting. The 
 poor speakers in meeting, he said, always spoke the best. 
 We were very glad to meet old Dr. Cox, who according 
 to B. quotes Latin in his prayers. In the evening was 
 the closing meeting, crowded house. Dr. McCosh of 
 Princeton opened with an account of Christian work in 
 Great Britain. He has a fine face, the scholar's stoop, 
 Scotch accent, ducks his head like Vincent, is very fluent 
 and wordy. He spoke 'to edification.' The Christian 
 Evangelical Alliance will meet in New York next fall. 
 The great men of Europe will be here. McCosh moved 
 me considerably, he ought to have succeeded to the chair 
 of Sir William Hamilton, instead of to that of Jonathan 
 Edwards. William E. Dodge, Jr., and Moody of Chi- 
 cago spoke. Alexy was carried away by Moody, thought 
 he did better than McCosh. 
 
 "Friday evening we went to Beecher's prayer-meeting 
 accompanied by C. of the Junior class, from Amherst and 
 a member of Beecher's church, and B. of our class. We 
 walked down to Catherine Ferry and found the room 
 nearly full when we arrived. Eight hundred were pres- 
 ent. Beecher with his flowers sat on a slightly raised 
 platform. The meeting was opened with singing, piano 
 
46 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 accompanying. Then Beecher spoke about heaven and 
 what people expected in heaven, some looked for rest ; 
 some, for society; some, liberty; some, especially to meet 
 friends gone before. He heard a slave song in South 
 Carolina which ran 'No more Monday mornings there." 
 Monday morning epitomized the whole of slavery. Then 
 Beecher spoke of those who have no anticipations of 
 heaven. 'Brother Bell, will you pray for such?' After 
 an earnest and simple prayer from Brother Bell there was 
 another hymn and then another prayer and then a young 
 man arose and questioned Beecher about his Sunday even- 
 ing sermon. Then an old man spoke about the hopes of 
 heaven, then Moody of Chicago told a very affecting in- 
 cident about a man's rejoicing in the death of his only 
 daughter because it led him to Christ. Then a young 
 man who had lost both his wife and his child arose and 
 expressed the wish that he might be led to rejoice in his 
 sorrows. Then Beecher prayed for the sorrowing. After 
 singing 'Joyfully, joyfully onward we move,' Beecher said 
 that while Christ and the Apostles were on the Mount of 
 Transfiguration devils were tearing men below. We have 
 been seeing heavenly things, but the time has come to de- 
 scend to the practical things of earth. He then told ol 
 a lady who was teaching and helping the people of Alex- 
 andria who came to him for permission to ask his church 
 for aid. He refused for a long while but finally consented 
 if she would come to his prayer-meeting and present her 
 cause. But she did not know how to speak in meeting. 
 He asked her if she would answer questions, and she said 
 'Yes.' 'Miss Parker, stand up.' Miss Parker rose and 
 Henry questioned her, and she replied very well indeed. 
 He told her to tell us no fibs about not being able to speak 
 
PREPARATION FOR THE MINISTRY 47 
 
 in meeting. A collection was then taken up for her 
 amounting to seventy-five dollars. 
 
 "After the meeting we went forward to present our 
 letters. Quite a number stopped ; Moody, and several 
 from the Christian convention who came to see if Beecher 
 knew how to conduct a prayer-meeting. The church 
 committee was called together, and after a prayer from 
 Beecher in which he asked that 'we might not be only 
 beneficiaries but benefactors,' he read our letters from 
 Chapel Street Church. The clerk took down our names 
 in full. Beecher remarked that half of my name was a 
 very good one. He then questioned us as to where we 
 lived, how long we had been professing Christians, and 
 then whether we were 'teetotalers' or not. Walter said 
 he did not know the taste of liquor. 'That will satisfy 
 you, Brother Fanning.' Moody asked what they would 
 have done if we had replied that we took a glass now and 
 then. Beecher said that in such cases they put the applr- 
 cant off with one excuse or another to see if he could not 
 be persuaded to reform. The church brought all the 
 moral influence it could to bear upon its members. One 
 liquor-seller was kept away two years till at last he gave 
 up his traffic and now is an ornament to the church. 
 There was no rule excluding such persons, but Beecher 
 said if they resisted all the moral influence brought to 
 bear on them we should doubt whether they were Chris- 
 tians and they would generally be excluded for that rea- 
 son. John Zundel, the organist, then spoke up and said 
 he was admitted though he drank wine and always ex- 
 pected to. This created some laughter, and Beecher ex- 
 plained that he was a German who went back to Ger- 
 m.any last year, and so had fallen from grace. Zundel 
 acknowledged that he had taken much less wine because he 
 
JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 knew how the church regarded it. Moody then asked 
 Beecher if he would admit him into the church. 'I should 
 want to be first convinced that you were a Christian!' 
 'But/ said Moody, 'supposing I were a modest man?' 
 'Oh,' said Beecher, 'that is not a supposable case.' So 
 they had it to and fro. Moody asked if Beecher would ad- 
 mit Arminians into the Church. 'If I believed they were 
 Christians. I believe the Lord Jesus Christ who can save 
 a man from the power of the devil can save a man in 
 spite of his creed. Brother Fanning here has a good 
 many tests to apply to candidates, I simply try to find if 
 there is dependence on Christ, the "helpless hangs my soul 
 on thee" spirit.' Moody wanted to know if Beecher 
 would admit a lady who went to balls and the theatre. 
 Well, he would do what he could to teach her better at 
 first, but that was one of those things which must be left 
 to the individual conscience. So we got a good deal of 
 Beecher's theology. Beecher thought that he was the one 
 that was examined rather than we. He and Moody kept 
 us laughing continually. Beecher asked if we were work- 
 ing at all. We said we were laboring in New York. 
 'Well, we need you in our church, but if you are working 
 in New York do stay there!' He has no mercy on New 
 York. So we found that it is no easy matter to get into 
 Plymouth Church, but I did not mean to go into partic- 
 ulars so much. We were the only ones that joined Plym- 
 outh, Friday evening. Beecher expected a young lady 
 from New York, who met him after his speech at the 
 Christian Convention, and told him she always disliked 
 him, would never go to hear him, would never read his 
 sermons. But last Sunday she did go to hear him, and 
 the Lord converted her to pay for it." 
 
PREPARATION FOR THE MINISTRY 49 
 
 "January, 1869. 
 "As we entered Dr. E. H. Chapin's parlors we caught 
 sight of the round, beaming, butter-milk face of the phi- 
 losopher of the Tribune. We sat down to listen to 
 Greeley's conversation with his pastor, surprised to see 
 him out of the editorial sanctum down town, and admir- 
 ing the philosopher's cow-hide boots with soles an inch 
 or two thick. Greeley, 'The Unitarians are mostly Uni- 
 versalists, aren't they?' Chapin, 'Nine-tenths of them.' 
 Greeley, 'They must be to be logical.' He asked Greeley 
 if Beecher was lecturing any. Greeley thought not, as 
 he was writing the life of Christ. Chapin didn't know 
 whether that was Beecher's field or not. Greeley said 
 it would be a book of fervor rather than critical. Chapin 
 thought it would sell well. Greeley was sure that if 
 Beecher did himself justice and told just what he thought 
 about Christ it would surely sell a half million copies. 
 They were speaking of Fiske's arrest of the Springfield edi- 
 tor. 'What does Wendell Phillips mean,' asked Chapin, 
 'by coming to the rescue of Fiske?' *Oh', said Horace, 
 'He is pitching into everybody, things haven't gone to suit 
 him and he has become malignant.' 'I wonder,' said Cha- 
 pin, 'what Phillips will do in the millennium?' 'Oh,' said 
 Horace, 'He will pitch into the multiplication table.' 
 Horace is evidently very sensitive to Wendell's sarcasm. 
 It is quite true that Phillips changes with altered aspects 
 of the public affairs and is really Inconsistent. It is also 
 true that Phillips was right in rebuking Greeley for his 
 part In the Davis business, and in satirizing his attempts 
 In diplomacy, which have been failures. In such matters 
 Phillips said briefly 'Greeley is an ass' — 'a comprehensive 
 argument,' Beecher would say, 'including all the facts In 
 the case.' There was more talk, about Smalley, the Trib- 
 
so JOHN HENRY BARROWS ____^ 
 
 line's foreign messenger at London, whom Chapin said 
 was really a bright fellow. 'We have no reliable news 
 from Spain,' said Horace. 'We know^ nothing about the 
 results of the elections, and Smalley has got to go down 
 to Madrid.' " 
 
 "February, 1869. 
 
 "After the meeting that we attended in Brooklyn, the 
 other evening, new members w-ere voted into the church. 
 Then we repaired to the main room, where several who 
 felt their consciences would be easier by the rite, were to 
 be baptized by immersion. The whole pulpit stand was 
 transformied into a baptistry, filled with warmed water. 
 There were steps leading down both sides. When all was 
 ready Beecher appeared robed in white like a friar, hav- 
 ing on rubber-boots. He gave out a hymn w^hich the con- 
 gregation sang as the rite was performed. Three ladies 
 and one gentleman, dressed for the occasion, came in. 
 Beecher led each in turn down into the water, and after 
 the usual words, which had an unwonted solemnity, sub- 
 merged the candidate, and after wiping his or her face, 
 led up the opposite steps the dripping form, which an 
 attendant immediately wrapped in a cloak, and the in- 
 teresting ceremony was ended. Quite an improvement 
 on the method often practiced of cutting a hole in the ice 
 and letting the candidate down in. I heard of a case where 
 the tide swept one person under and away, whereupon 
 the minister shouted, 'One soul gone to heaven, bring me 
 another. ' " 
 
 "February 14, 1869. 
 
 "Monday morning Dr. Storrs's address was a magnifi- 
 cent intellectual production, on the 'Incarnation of God in 
 Jesus, the Fundamental Truth in Christianity.' His 
 rhetoric is exuberant, but choice. He gave us solid blocks 
 
PREPARATION FOR THE MINISTRY 51 
 
 of granite truth. But they were polished after the simil- 
 itude of a palace and adorned with lavish ornaments. 
 
 "This has been a stirring week, but I can only give 
 you a sketch of its incidents. First, let me say that our 
 board has cost us a dollar each in cash. Dried beef and 
 eggs properly mixed make a 'lordly dish.' Walter and I 
 are becoming terrible tea-drinkers. This will last till the 
 tea on hand gives out. Secondly, we are very well, en- 
 joying superb spring weather, and have done our usual 
 mission work. 'My little girl,' as I call an eight-year-old 
 daughter of Mrs. Baldwin, has been sick and nigh unto 
 death with diphtheria. I happened in as usual just when 
 I was needed, got a physician and called on Mrs. Higby 
 for money. I never saw a little girl so patient in severe 
 pain. She told her half-crazy mother she was willing to 
 die if the Lord wanted her. I have called three times. 
 The diphtheria is gone but pneumonia has set in, the case 
 is critical still. I have never had my feelings so drawn 
 out to a sick child before. Thirdly, Tuesday I preached 
 my first sermon before the class, and Dr. Skinner, text 
 Matthew XI. 28. I never was in so embarrassing a place 
 before. The criticisms were very severe, and mostly 
 just. All the criticisms on pronunciation were wrong, 
 as I knew they would be. Some of the suggestions were 
 quite helpful. It is an excellent discipline, which I should 
 like to go through every month. One or two of the 
 criticisms were laughable blunders. Walter is working 
 bravely for the ordeal. 
 
 "Yesterday we hadn't money enough to get dinner, so 
 I came to my room and boiled eggs. Our darky called 
 in the afternoon and cut Walter's hair. His name is 
 Fisher or Piscator. He was born in Jamaica, speaks four 
 languages, thinks I have been to Paris from my French 
 
52 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 accent, is quite a philosopher and physiognomist. We 
 went to Plymouth this morning and got in this time. 
 Mr. Beecher gave us the greatest sermon I ever heard, 
 partly on Christ's divinity. He gave the Unitarians 
 same awful blows. We met at the door Mrs. Putnam, 
 Mrs. Tilton, Mrs. Bradshavv, and Miss Bradshaw, who 
 has made a bust of Theodore, Miss Annie Tilton, Theo- 
 dore's sister, who looks like him, and little Florence Til- 
 ton. We walked with them to Mr. Tilton's house, 126 
 Livingston Street, and took dinner. We saw Miss Brad- 
 shaw's bust of Theodore in the hall, and Page's portrait 
 of him in the parlor, just brought from the exhibition. 
 Tilton's house is a museum of art. He has the finest 
 collection of engravings in America. It was very inter- 
 esting to us to notice the devices and ornaments which 
 make his house so charming. But Mrs. Tilton is charm 
 enough in herself. A quiet womanly woman, simple, 
 sympathetic, and good. The children, Florence, Alice, and 
 Carroll, resemble both father and mother. We had a very 
 interesting talk at dinner. Mrs. Morse, Mr. Tilton's 
 mother-in-law, presided. Mrs. Tilton asked the blessing. 
 Theodore is in Michigan. We drank his health at his 
 wife's request, in cold water. I shan't soon forget the 
 roast beef and the conversation, both excellent. We 
 needed Theodore to talk about his pictures. He loves 
 to spend hours in describing his treasures. We saw the 
 rope that hung John Brown, or, as Theodore expressed 
 it in his lecture at Lyric Hall, 'that suspended the last 
 of the Christian martyrs.' " 
 
 "February, 1869. 
 "We have just cleared our table of the supper dishes, 
 consisting of a tin basin and two teaspoons. Buttered 
 toast and boiled rice were the delicacies of our humble 
 
PREPARATION FOR THE MINISTRY 53 
 
 meal. I make no mention of Malaga grapes, oranges, and 
 cranberry sauce, simply because we didn't have any. Yes- 
 terday I took the cars at South Ferry and rode five or 
 six miles along the west of Manhattan up to Forty- 
 seventh Street and from there walked to Sunday School. 
 I took a couple of little girls along with me, who had 
 never been before. I had hard work in persuading one 
 of them to go, unless the other would take off her blue 
 silk dress and wear a calico one. Human nature that!" 
 
 Throughout the year, the fight to make both ends 
 meet was on in earnest. Several afternoons a week he 
 spent in mission work in the nineteenth ward, in behalf 
 of the Sunday School of the Eleventh Presbyterian 
 Church. He writes: "I visit about twenty-five families 
 each day of work. After having called on four hundred 
 and thirty-seven, I find I have obtained forty new schol- 
 ars. I have been treated uncivilly only four times. Yes- 
 terday a dirty little girl wanted to kiss me. I had to 
 yield. It is impossible to conceive in what filth some 
 people are willing to live. It is refreshing after visiting 
 a dozen Germans or Irish to happen in on a clean Episco- 
 pal English lady, or better still, a Scotch Irish Presby- 
 terian, or best of all, that matchless 'piece of household 
 furniture,' a New England Congregationalist!" Besides, 
 he gave lessons to an illiterate Wall Street broker, who 
 came to be taught to speak good English. His case was 
 so hopeless, that the lessons in grammar and literature 
 were discouraging to pupil and teacher alike. With 
 "Alexy," a Hungarian, his best friend in the Seminary, 
 he read French diligently, and at the close of the Sem- 
 inary, in May, taught History for a few weeks, in a 
 girls' fashionable school on Fifth Avenue before return- 
 ing to Olivet. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 LIFE IN KANSAS 1 869- 1 872 
 
 'Who is the happy warrior? Who is he 
 That every man in arms should wish to be? 
 It is the generous spirit, who, when brought 
 Among the tasks of real life, hath wrought 
 Upon the plan that pleased his boyish thought: 
 Whose high endeavors are an inward light 
 That makes the path before him ever bright." 
 "Character of the Happy Warrior." 
 
 Wordsworth. 
 
 However strenuous our Happy Warrior had been here- 
 tofore, in the fall of 1869 he faced to a far greater de- 
 gree the "tasks of real life." Forced by ill health to aban- 
 don study, he and his brother, with their father and sister, 
 became farmers and home missionaries in Osage County, 
 Kansas. They were lured thither by Reverend Thomas 
 W. Jones, an old family friend and one of the leaders of 
 the Anglo- Welsh colony of Arvonia. This town was sit- 
 uated at the junction of Cherry and Coal Creeks with 
 the Marais des Cygnes, a river named by the French 
 voyagers and trappers who first explored the west, and 
 made famous by Whittier's poem. The region having 
 been until recently an Indian Reservation, Arvonia was 
 but a few months old. It lay iYi the midst of rolling 
 prairies, bare of trees, save for the heavily timbered river 
 banks, but blessed with a most fertile soil, abundant 
 game, brilliant wild flowers, coal mines, limestone and red 
 
LIFE IN KANSAS 55 
 
 sandstone quarries, and with frugal, energetic and God- 
 fearing Welsh settlers. Here the Barrowses bought a 
 farm. My father made the Kansas journey before his 
 parents and describes it in a letter home: "We drove 
 slowly through the black mud, crossing several creeks 
 slightly swollen with the last night's rain. Sam and 
 Luce, the mules, gave pace to the caravan. At Salt 
 Creek we stopped to feed the horses and mules. Two 
 miles beyond we lost sight of human habitation, and for 
 eight miles further, till we saw Arvonia, there was no 
 trace of man's handiwork but the black line of the road 
 and here and there a surveyor's stake. This was the 
 finest thing about it, to be utterly alone with nature. 
 The meadow-larks and many smaller birds arose at our 
 approach. There, flew a frightened duck. In those 
 woods we saw a crow and a hawk, birds that one can 
 never get away from. But here — and now I know that 
 I am in new latitudes, only a rod from the road arise 
 three prairie chickens — and there is another — and there 
 another. Oh for B.'s blunderbuss! But the sublimity of 
 these wide-stretching prairies is more impressive than 
 aught else, rolling on in 'swelling and limitless billows' 
 of luxuriant, rampant verdure, with no tree in sight till 
 you look behind you at the magnificent curves of the 
 graceful hills, standing out clear, against the blue sky, 
 five miles away. Through this tall grass countless armies 
 of buffaloes have roamed. Those beautiful slopes have 
 been crossed by the war-paths of the Indian. Down those 
 hills the rebel chief led his marauders against the herds 
 and homes of loyal and liberty-loving citizens. But now 
 the buffalo has found other pasture ground and the Indian 
 other war-paths. Slavery is dead. Kansas is free. 'The 
 rebel rides on his raids no more." John Brown's spirit 
 
56 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 hovers over the tracks of Quantrell and his ruffian prede- 
 cessors, and yet these unbounded fields have never . felt 
 the farmer's plow. The prairie-flowers waved their 
 purple banners over these hills when Columbus landed. 
 Perhaps the autumn and winter fires, fierce, but fertiliz- 
 ing, had lit up the evening sky, when Nero burnt Rome. 
 This soil lay untouched and virgin, when Paul preached. 
 But that black line of road is the beginning of a new 
 era. Along its track are to proceed enterprise and in- 
 dustry, Christianity and the spelling book, the mowing 
 machine and my trunk full of theology! I walk two 
 miles, am in high spirits. The stars come out. I see 
 that I am to be as long in going from Burlingame to 
 Arvonia as from Chicago to St. Louis. Now we come 
 to the Marais de Cygnes and turning sharply to the right 
 we see seven or eight houses, the 'city on a hill.' " 
 
 Remembrances of Medina days must have flowed in 
 upon Professor Barrows and his two sons, as they boarded 
 at "Walnut Slab Hall," the chief edifice of the tiny 
 village, until their house was ready for use. Theirs was a 
 story and a half building, with one room below and one 
 room above, to which they added a lean-to for kitchen 
 and pantry. When they had papered down stairs, laid 
 a new rag carpet, and set up furniture from home, they 
 possessed the "best room" the settlement could boast, and 
 all strangers were brought to visit it. Mrs. Barrows re- 
 mained in Olivet with her youngest son, but when chaos 
 was thus far reduced to order, Mary, the daughter of the 
 family, came to keep house for them until her mother's 
 advent, the following summer. 
 
 What with fencing the farm, breaking the soil, herding 
 cattle, doing housework, and preparing for the winter, 
 that was a busy autumn for them all. But, as additional 
 
LIFE IN KANSAS 57 
 
 means of transmitting the family energy, they organized 
 the Arvonia Literary Society; its purpose to be the es- 
 tablishment of a lecture course for the profit and pleasure 
 of the tiny but rapidly growing community. The lec- 
 tures, delivered that winter over the chief store, proved 
 a decided success. As the family contributions, Professor 
 Barrows lectured on "Geology," Mary, on "Charlotte 
 Bronte," Walter, on "Our Republican Institutions," and 
 John Henry, on "Hugh Miller or the Working Man's 
 Education." Books were scarce, but a missionary box 
 had happened to hold "My Schools and Schoolmasters" 
 and "The Testimony of the Rocks." On these he seized, 
 and the stone mason of Cromarty so won his admiration 
 that he had to share the "topic in his head and the throb 
 of pleasure in his heart." This lecture, first delivered on 
 March third, 1870, in Arvonia, he repeated seventeen 
 times during the two succeeding years, in Lawrence, To- 
 peka, Emporia, Burlingame, and other neighboring towns. 
 Meanwhile he had not forgotten his old college hero, the 
 man of such energy and sagacity that the Tories called 
 the Revolution "Sam Adams's conspiracy." Kis com- 
 mencement oration he now rewrote and gave more than 
 a dozen times to Kansas audiences. 
 
 Besides farming and lecturing, he, together with his 
 father and brother, both preached and wrote. In Olivet, 
 the preceding summer he had given his first sermon from 
 the text "Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy- 
 laden and I will give you rest." When a few years later. 
 Dr. Henry M. Storrs said to him "Tell me honestly did 
 you not, like most young men, mention Napoleon in your 
 first sermon?" his "Yes" greatly delighted his questioner. 
 Dr. Storrs however speedily granted him pardon on learn- 
 ing that his first sermon fell on August fifteenth, 1869, 
 
58 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 the one hundredth anniversary of Napoleon's birth. Dur- 
 ing these Kansas years, he supplied, often weeks at a time, 
 vacant pulpits in surrounding towns, built up Sunday 
 Schools, conducted prayer-meetings, and visited the sick 
 and troubled. His most carefully prepared sermon, 
 printed in the county paper, was a eulogy of church unity 
 delivered at the laying of the corner-stone of the Arvonia 
 Union Church. Twenty years later he wrote: "We 
 were tired of divisions am.ong sects, and we agreed to 
 unite and construct something that would be worthy of 
 this village which was yet to become a great railroad 
 center. The Church foundations, brought from neigh- 
 boring quarries where I toiled many a day, were laid on 
 a large scale, but the foundations were the only part of 
 the building ever completed. The people, divided by 
 racial and denominational distinctions, soon broke up into 
 their original chaos, the railroads never came, the houses 
 of the village were gradually taken, one by one, to neigh- 
 boring farms, and last year, my wife and I visited the 
 ruins of this deserted village, and poked around amid the 
 weed-mantled stones of that ambitious foundation. Of 
 course I recalled the fact that I had been invited to make 
 the address on laying the corner-stone of this structure. 
 It was the first address of mine ever published and with 
 what a thrill of paternal interest I read it. I have a copy 
 of it in my scrap-book. It indicates to you that though 
 a preacher, I am not a born prophet: 'The church we 
 begin to-day is for countless generations to be a beacon 
 light of truth over these boundless prairies. Here multi- 
 tudes will gather for worship. Down these aisles parents 
 will bring their children to the baptismal font and here 
 the happy bride and groom will exchange their vows of 
 love and faithfulness at the marriage-altar. Within these 
 
LIFE IN KANSAS 59 
 
 walls, will be heard the songs of praise from thousands 
 of grateful hearts and the service we render today will be 
 remembered through all the coming centuries.' " 
 
 He wrote continually for the newspapers, the Burlin- 
 game Chronicle, the Lyndon Signal, and the Lawrence 
 Journal. To the Topeka Commonwealth he sent fort- 
 nightly contributions signed "Taliessin," the Welsh bard 
 of Gray's line, "Hear from the grave great Taliessin, 
 hear." His letters breathe happiness. 
 
 Arvonia, Kansas, January 2, 1870. 
 Dear Mother: 
 
 It is so odd to write those two new figures for the first 
 time that it is hard to get away from them. 1870 — 1870. 
 Please get used to them. The old year and the decade 
 have come to an end in Kansas, with the usual rejoicings, 
 noises, and festivities ushering in the new. Yesterday we 
 filled up with skating, roosters, candy, anvils, smiles, and 
 thanksgivings. There were sorrows too, mingled wfth 
 our joy, as we had just heard of Stanton's sudden death. 
 The great War Secretary had a large place in our hearts, 
 and we could but feel a proud grief for one of the na- 
 tion's greatest and noblest sons. 
 
 What a year the past one has been to us individually 
 and as a family ! Indeed my thoughts travel back through 
 the last ten to i860, when the family flock sat on its Ohio 
 roost, preparing to fly northward. We have all lived 
 a lifetime since we took that eighty mile flight. To you 
 the past ten have been years of new toil and self-sacrifice 
 for us. To us children they have been the making of 
 all we are, mentally and morally. The great world has 
 grown as much as we. Since I began to study the ele- 
 ments of Latin, events great and numerous enough have 
 occurred to make centuries of history, as history used to 
 
6o JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 be made. Recall them for a moment, and never despair 
 again of the future! Within the last decade our native 
 land has been regenerated in fire and blood; the greatest 
 and most Christian war of modern history, involving tre- 
 mendous issues for the whole world, has culminated in the 
 death of slavery, in the prospect of universal franchise- 
 ment of the oppressed of all nations. How old notions 
 have been broken up! What was radicalism in i860 is 
 conservatism today. Then cross the Atlantic. England 
 is coming out from the shadows of the past, the people 
 have nearly doubled their power. Aristocracy has been 
 doomed. The Irish church has been swept away. In 
 France the Imperialism of Napoleon has been liberalized 
 by the advancing claims of the people. In Germany we 
 see Prussia becoming a first class power, gathering into 
 her fold the scattered and discordant states that have 
 divided the German people. Austria has been humbled 
 and then liberalized. Hungary has become virtually in- 
 dependent. Italy has acquired Venice, and is united and 
 prosperous. Russia has emancipated her serfs and Spain 
 has driven out her Bourbon queen. Cuba and Crete have 
 striven for liberty. The Gospel has entered China and 
 Japan. The Atlantic cable has been laid, the Suez canal 
 has been opened, the Pacific Railroad has been built, and 
 the church in Arvonia is under Vv-ay! Find another ten 
 years to eclipse these last. 
 
 But this historical re-hash is not a letter. We have 
 just returned from communion service. A larger number 
 were present than we have had before, which is a sign 
 of progress in Arvonia; more than a dozen new faces. 
 We are to observe the week of prayer. Walter and I 
 are cutting down big oaks for fence-posts. Mary excelled 
 herself in the line of dinner. Before the close of the 
 
LIFE IN KANSAS 6i 
 
 fifth course we became exceeding boisterous "like men 
 drunken of new wine." But the year proper begins to- 
 day, for from this morning I leave off all tea and coffee. 
 This is the only new leaf I have yet turned over. How 
 many need to be! I hope your letters will fly even faster 
 now. What studies do you take up, Rannie? Hamil- 
 ton's Metaphysics, I hope. We are reading Shakespeare, 
 in the family, have finished "Cymbeline" and "Winter's 
 *rale" and are now in the middle of "All's Well that 
 ends Well." Our copy is borrowed ; please put Shake- 
 speare in the box you send. In the last thirty-six hours 
 I have eaten ten apples. Thanks for such a New Year's 
 gift. Beautiful weather. Love, 
 
 J. H. B. 
 
 Arvonia, January gth, 1870. 
 Dear Mother and Brother: 
 
 I wish every week of my life could be as happy as the 
 first week of this year. And j'et that may be a very un- 
 wise desire. Suffering is often more needful than joy. 
 You will wonder what it has been of late that has given 
 me peculiar pleasure; nothing out of the ordinary course, 
 no unexpected ship just come in from Spain, but simply 
 the combination of the common elements of happiness 
 that often come to us separately and singly, but rarely all 
 together. Good health, buoyant spirits, pleasant occupa- 
 tion, agreeable recreation, a reasonably quiet conscience, 
 the sense of God's favor in doing something for others, 
 domestic sport and comfort, any one of these blessings 
 singly is worthy of a special note of gratitude, and to 
 some lives would bring new hope and refreshment. But 
 to have them all conferred at once, that is the wonder, 
 and accounts for my writing as I do. Well, you will 
 
62 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 care more for the news than for any meditations of mine. 
 I will mention first that we relied on Mary's apple 
 dumpling as the main thing, when on cutting it open our 
 hungry souls were dismayed to find the dumplings to 
 consist largely of half-baked dough! We retreated 
 hastily, and for the next half hour, while our dinner was 
 re-cooking, read the closing chapters of "Silas Marner, 
 or the Weaver of Raveloe" with whose simple story 
 George Eliot has been delighting us of late. Then we 
 returned to the attack refreshed with new vigor. Secondly, 
 I will mention the fact that I rode on Black William to 
 the sand quarry, Wednesday last, with Jones. Two such 
 horsemen are seldom seen. This was the first time I had 
 ridden a nag a mile since, when a boy of twelve, I clung 
 to "Old Dolly's" back, as she walked from Medina to 
 West Unity. Black William is an ugly beast to ride, 
 except on a fast run or a slow walk. I galloped into 
 town at a tearing pace, amazing the villagers. Thirdly, 
 I have skated more this week than during the last five 
 years together. We own ourselves a splendid park of 
 glaring ice, a half mile in length and a hundred feet wide, 
 sheltered from sun and wind by high banks, over-hung 
 with trees, from which you can gather, now in January, 
 still juicy grapes as you skate along. Along the shores I 
 picked up nearly a bushel of black walnuts, as fresh and 
 good as if they had just fallen, four hundred and forty 
 nuts by count! Fourthly, a few miscellanies. Walter and 
 I have sawed ten oak logs. Friday we received, — what a 
 time we had ! — eleven letters, and the Independent. I am 
 reading a good deal of French with Mrs. M. The meet- 
 ings last week were well attended and profitable. The 
 people are expecting a course of lectures from our family, 
 
LIFE IN KANSAS 62, 
 
 including Mary, as soon as the new hall is ready. Father 
 will speak on "Geology" and Walter on "American In- 
 stitutions." Mary and I have not chosen subjects. 
 
 Love to all, 
 
 John. 
 
 Burlington, March 28, 1870. 
 My Dear Mother: 
 
 It is about eight in the evening and the gladdening 
 rains are pouring without. I am reading a little in 
 Lange's Commentary. The next Sunday is Easter, isn't 
 it? I am reading on the Resurrection. Myers says that 
 the four accounts can't be harmonized. I think with 
 Dwight that there are twelve weighty reasons on each 
 side of the discussion, but I disagree with him in believ- 
 ing that, on the whole, the probabilities seem slightly 
 (though a judicious mind might long hesitate to decide) 
 to preponderate, on which side was it? I think a man 
 whose convictions are like Professor Dwight's opinions 
 on mooted points, will never run into dogmatism, though 
 the dogmatists will naturally run into him. 
 
 A fine field opens here for somebody's life work. The 
 whole community would feel the presence of one live 
 soul. I am persuaded that there is nothing in this world 
 so potent as what Beecher calls "flaming soul power." 
 The greatest earthly influences don't He in money or 
 books, but in human hearts. "The foolishness of preach- 
 ing" God may make his own wisdom and power. I trust 
 Mr. Jones will come to Burlington a week from next 
 Sunday to administer the communion and receive new 
 members. He may do great good in a short time. The 
 people remember Walter with great interest and esteem. 
 I trust that this rain is pouring on our "unweedy" garden 
 
64 JOHN HENRY BARRO WS 
 
 tonight. I enclose a piece of dried buffalo meat. It is 
 "bully." I shall expect a letter soon. 
 
 With love, 
 
 John. 
 
 Arvonia, January 13, 1870. 
 Dear Mother : 
 
 On Wednesday I broke into the ice. Imagine me 
 skating along at a fearful rate admiring the still beauty 
 of the winter scene. The morning sunlight plays on the 
 neighboring hills, the wood-pecker and the noisy crow 
 make discordant clamors in the tree tops. The blood 
 tingles in my veins as I glide over the glittering ice. 
 Suddenly the smooth floor gives way under my feet and 
 in a moment I am shot with terrific velocity far under 
 the ice. The momentum was so great that I was carried 
 many yards from the hole. My presence of mind was 
 perfect and turning about I swam as I supposed back- 
 ward to the opening into which I had fallen but, to my 
 dismay I could not find it. After a vain search for five 
 minutes I concluded to swim with the current as I remem- 
 bered an opening in the ice about half a mile away. I 
 was not much encumbered with clothing. My back 
 glided easily along the under surface of the ice. My pre- 
 vious training stood me in good stead. But suddenly I 
 was stopped. A snag projecting downwards through the 
 ice caught my coat. I endeavored to extricate myself by 
 swimming backward but the force of the current pre- 
 vented. I tried to break the stick but could not. Then 
 I bethought me of father's knife which I had borrowed 
 that morning. Is the knife about me? is now an im- 
 portant question. In a moment, to my joy, my hand 
 feels it. I open it with my teeth and grasp it firmly. 
 
LIFE IN KANSAS 6$ 
 
 Suddenly there is a splash and a dash. Something strikes 
 my knife blade into which it pierces. The ice is so clear 
 above me that I can discern a large fish, which mistaking 
 me for some Jonah fleeing from duty or attracted by the 
 gleaming of my knife, had rushed toward me and been 
 pierced to death. Even in this extremity I determined 
 not to lose the fish. I remembered the story of the dea- 
 con who commanded his boys not to fish on Sunday but 
 always added "Now, boys, if you ever do, be sure to bring 
 home the fish!" I found a loose strap in my pocket and 
 tied the huge "sea fowl" to my left leg. By this time 
 I was so cold that I was afraid I should be unable to 
 reach the open water for which I was aiming. My only 
 hope of escape was to cut through the ice above me. I 
 went resolutely to work for my breath was almost gone, 
 and in a short time I had cut a hole about ten inches 
 in diameter through five inches of ice. Into this I poked 
 my head but could go no further. Before I could cut 
 room for my shoulders I must certainly freeze. So I be- 
 gan to yell lustily for help. Fortunately, Daniel was 
 cutting wood on the north side of the river. In a moment 
 he was on the bank to see what was the matter. It was 
 amusing to note his amazement at sight of a man's head 
 peering above the ice. I told him to ask no questions 
 but to cut me out. He hurried forward and with a dozen 
 blows of his axe he so loosened the ice about me that he 
 was enabled to pull me from the water, my huge pickerel, 
 still clinging to my leg. I w^as so numb that he had to 
 carry me. Soon we met Hugh's wagon. I was laid 
 therein and driven with great speed to the house. The 
 sight of me rejoiced the family at the prospect of fresh 
 fish. While father was rubbing me down, I related my 
 Munchausen story. Walter makes such alarming tales 
 
66 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 out of his adventures that I am determined to try my 
 hand. Your loving 
 
 John. 
 
 After January first, 1871, his nevv^spaper articles are 
 chiefly on educational topics, for at that time he as- 
 sumed the duties of School Superintendent of Osage 
 County. He had been elected to this office on the regular 
 Republican ticket in spite of the fight put up against him 
 by those in the county hostile to Arvonia's anti-saloon pol- 
 icy. The following extract from one of his newspaper 
 articles indicates his interest and spirit during this year 
 spent in riding on horseback over the prairie, visiting 
 schools, examining applicants for teachers' certificates, urg- 
 ing the county through speeches and the press to build 
 school houses, secure competent teachers, insist that treas- 
 urers give the required bond, execute the law about uni- 
 form text-books, and make liberal appropriations. He 
 writes for the Burlingame Chronicle: 
 
 "From a pretty wide observation we are satisfied that 
 some of the best school work in Kansas has been done in 
 Burlingame. But the people here must never be satisfied 
 with the past. Many things should be done speedily. 
 The school grounds should be fenced and planted with 
 trees ; philosophical apparatus should be purchased ; the 
 school library should be enlarged, and, above all, children 
 should not be taken from school so soon after they strike 
 their teens. The high schools of Michigan are becoming 
 the feeders of her great university. Graduates from these 
 schools are hereafter to be admitted to the university with- 
 out preliminary examinations. How much remains to be 
 done before the city schools of Kansas can show such re- 
 sults or be trusted with so high a responsibility? The 
 
LIFE IN KANSAS 67 
 
 people generally are deaf to the claims of higher educa- 
 tion. A reform in public sentiment is needed that will 
 strike through all classes in society. People must learn 
 that education has other than economic uses. A nation 
 of money-changers fighting the battle of life with the 
 multiplication table, is this to be the highest result of 
 American civilization? Or, as Wendell Phillips put it 
 a dozen years ago, 'The zeal of the Puritan, the faith of 
 the Quaker, a century of colonial health, and then this 
 large civilization, does it result only in a work-shop, fops 
 melted in baths and perfumes, and men grimy with toil?' 
 Such will certainly be the issue, if as a nation, we do not 
 preserve the old Puritan integrity, and add to it that 
 Greek enthusiasm for intellectual culture which made 
 puny Attica, with Athens for a capital, for two thousand 
 years the mistress of the world of mind." 
 
 The trials of this varied work but whetted his zeal, 
 still they abounded. Kansas educationally had not much 
 food for pride. This is evidenced by the following an- 
 swers, which he received in examining candidates for 
 teachers' positions. 
 
 Q. What was the cause of the War of 1812? 
 
 A. The suppressment of American citizens into the 
 English navy, or the Indians beginning to molest the 
 whites, 
 
 Q. Who settled New York? 
 
 A. The Spanish. 
 
 Q. What is the object of digestion. 
 
 A. To impair the body. 
 
 Q. What is the capital of Austria? 
 
 A. Venice. 
 
 Q. Why is it colder in Labrador than in England? 
 
 A. The earth turning from east to west. 
 
68 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 Q. What is a diphthong? / 
 
 A. A continuation of three letters representing only 
 one sound as "th" in "the." 
 
 Q. Who are eligible to the offices of U. S. Representa- 
 tive and Senator? 
 
 A. Loyal men of good moral character that have the 
 welfare of the people at heart. 
 
 Q. Where is Crimea? 
 
 A. In Sicily. 
 
 Q. Where is Yale? 
 
 Answ^ers various. Yale is a college in Hartford. Yale 
 is a city in New England. Yale is a college in New 
 Haven, Massachusetts. 
 
 Q. What are the principal countries around the Med- 
 iterranean Sea? 
 
 A. The United States of Colombia, Bogota, and Ven- 
 ezuela. 
 
 Q. Where is Ireland? 
 
 A. In the northern part of the United States. 
 
 Q. Given the difference in longitude between two 
 places, how do you find the difference in time? 
 
 A. Multiply by fifteen, for the sun passes over fifteen 
 degrees in one minute of time. (How he must whiz at 
 that rate!) 
 
 Q. What are the different religions in the world ? 
 
 A. The Mohammedean, the Christian, and the Prot- 
 estant. (A reply which might please a Catholic.) 
 
 Q. How many sounds has "O"? 
 
 A. Three, as in "one," "done" and "boy." 
 
 In spite of disillusionments, work that overtaxed his 
 strength, and a run of typhoid fever, in the fall of '71, 
 through which his mother and sister devotedly nursed 
 him, he found Kansas "so full of a number of things" 
 
LIFE IN KANSAS 69 
 
 that he was as happy as proverbial kings. Indeed through 
 life, he seemed to glow with a radiance caught somewhere 
 behind the "flaming ramparts of the world," was a kind 
 of Balder the shining of his eyes undimmed by Hela's 
 realm. 
 
 He writes: "In the last two weeks your reporter has 
 ridden through two hundred miles of fertile mud in Osage 
 County, and has seen much of the interior life of our 
 rapidly growing state. For two weeks he has 'browsed' 
 on the people, and found good fodder everywhere. 
 An easterner, with his head full of the Kansas famine, 
 may perhaps imagine that the shadow of one dark year 
 has rested on the whole decade since ; but if said 'oriental' 
 could have accompanied this itinerant superintendent, he 
 would have been as much surprised as Elijah when the 
 angel fed him under the juniper tree. He would have 
 seen the fat hens flying from his approach, as though he 
 were a Methodist minister. He would have sat down to 
 tables that groaned as tables have not done since Dickens 
 described the Christmas dinner of Tiny Tim, and he would 
 have written home that these Kansas matrons know how 
 to refresh the inner man as perfectly as any New Eng- 
 land woman who lives within sight of Mount Tom. We 
 sat down to a wedding dinner on the banks of the Marais 
 des Cygnes that would have tempted even the lean, ab- 
 stemious proprietors of the Commonwealth from their 
 diet of bitter herbs. 
 
 "The next thing after good living, which the traveler 
 in Kansas would note, is the wonderful variety of ele- 
 ments which have been thrown together in our prairies. 
 If heterogeneity is the index of civilization, as Spencer 
 and Guizot and Beecher tell us, then Kansas is already 
 one of the first states on the globe, and promises, when 
 
70 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 these multitudinous factors have been combined, to pro- 
 duce results that shall be unique and surprising. The 
 opening of the Government lands in the Sac and Fox re- 
 serve in Osage County has brought to us a population as 
 heterogeneous as can be found in America. This variety 
 has been a daily spice to my visitations among the people. 
 "I eat breakfast with a brawny Canadian, visit a school 
 taught by a Frenchman who saw Louis Napoleon re- 
 viewing his soldiers before the coup d'etat, call on a dis- 
 trict director who speaks the dialect of Hans Breitman, 
 and take supper with a Long Island Englishman who 
 says, after the fashion of his native Warwickshire, 'not 
 far from we.' The next day I take my morning meal 
 with a Scotch Irishman, visit a school taught by a lady 
 from Alabam.a, receive a call from a district officer who 
 was once a Welsh sea captain, and is still a Welshman, 
 inquire the way of a Dane, and losing it, soon inquire 
 again of a Swede, and finally sleep with a New York 
 politician. The day after I take breakfast with a 'corn 
 cracker,' and after visiting a school taught by a lady from 
 California, take a good dinner with a 'Puke.' In the 
 afternoon I am directed on my journey by that rare ani- 
 mal, a cross between a Scotch Highlander and a Pennsyl- 
 vania Dutchman, and find supper and a bed at the cabin 
 of a 'Tooth-pick' who thinks my horse too small to 'pack' 
 me. On the morrow I visit a log school house where 
 John Smith, Sambo, and Pamawathescuk Batiste, Cau- 
 casian, African, and Indian are taught on the same rude 
 benches, to read of Him, who 'hath made of one blood 
 all nations of men.' I am lucky this day to get my dinner 
 at the house of a Unitarian Major. It becomes suddenly 
 cold this afternoon, and I hurry to a log cabin where I 
 am generally warmed by an orthodox Congregationalist. 
 
LIFE IN KANSAS 71 
 
 In the evening I examine an ample library filled with the 
 works of the unbelievers, and my host discourses to me of 
 the virtues of Thomas Paine and the revelations of An- 
 drew Jackson Davis. On the morrow I join in family 
 worship with a large-hearted Baptist brother, take dinner 
 with a Methodist, and eat supper with a Presbyterian who 
 broils his own steak to perfection and is an artist in coffee. 
 Thus my bigotry is worn off and my better instincts 
 gladly testify to the 'oneness of humanity' ; myself a Wen- 
 dell Phillips radical, I listen undisturbed to a defense of 
 slavery by a fine-hearted Kentucky gentleman." 
 
 Certainly it was impressive to see a district of seven 
 hundred and twenty square miles turning in two years 
 from the hunting-ground of Sac and Fox Indians into a 
 region of fine farms, with seven thousand five hundred 
 inhabitants, several growing towns, and a railroad. He 
 believed with Beecher that the Christianity of our day 
 looks to the bottom as well as to the top. This faith lives 
 in the following quotations from the introduction written 
 in Arvonia, to his lecture on Hugh Miller: "Neither 
 king nor peasant can stay the swift march of civilization 
 from the castle to the cottage, from the monastery to the 
 schoolhouse. The era of man as man is approaching. 
 The vast weights that have heretofore held down the 
 poor are being lightened. The struggles of aspiring 
 genius in the face of social obstacles and the brave cham- 
 pionship of the cause of the lowly, have in our day nursed 
 up heroes of truer valor that Agamemnon, men who might 
 have sat with unabashed eyes amid the Knights of King 
 Arthur's table. Democracy is impatient of forms. It 
 hungers and thirsts after realities. Men are even be- 
 coming partial to merit that springs from unexpected 
 sources. Obscure origin does not necessarily mark the 
 
72 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 successful genius with the stigma of upstart. Worth 
 joined to modesty conquers the admiration even of Tory 
 squires." And again: "All modern knowledge is shod 
 with perpetual unrest. The evolution theory now ad- 
 vanced is destined to be amended by fresh discoveries. 
 With Agassiz and Huxley in your hand, Cuvier is no 
 longer a text-book. Books become antiquated ; manhood, 
 never. Few read Dr. Johnson in his prose or rhyme, but 
 the old Tory himself is as real to us as our next door 
 neighbors, and much more beloved. Men get their notion 
 of Calvin not from the 'Institutes' but from Dr. Henry's 
 Life of the Genevan reformer. Lyman Beecher's career 
 will stir laughter and draw tears when his published ser- 
 mons shall keep company with the Latin writers of the 
 tenth centur>'. And when the 'Old Red Sandstone' shall 
 be laid away with the Natural History of Pliny and the 
 Chemistry of Paracelsus, eager and thoughtful boys will 
 take from the library shelf some well-worn volume stand- 
 ing with Plutarch's Lives and the 'Autobiography of 
 Franklin' wherein they shall read with quickened pulses, 
 how a humble Scottish lad, poorer than themselves, 
 chiselled his name upon the heart of a nation." 
 
 In after years he used to advise theological students 
 to do home missionary work in the west before entering 
 the ministry. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 FROM SPRINGFIELD TO PARIS 1872-1873 
 
 He spent the next year in Springfield, Illinois, to whose 
 First Congregational Church he was called in the spring 
 of 1872, and of which he was pastor — although not yet 
 an ordained minister — until the summer of 1873. Two 
 things characterize his life in the city of Lincoln — unusu- 
 ally hard work, and the making of several life-long friend- 
 ships. The first arose largely from the fact that hereto- 
 fore he had written very few sermons, and to write two 
 a week, for an audience that called forth his very best, 
 severely taxed his strength. Although his sister spent a 
 few months with him in the fall, for most of the time 
 he was without any of his family, a new experience for 
 him. His brother Walter, his companion in Olivet, New 
 Haven, New York, and Kansas, was now pastor of the 
 Congregational Church in Marshall, Michigan, thence 
 to go in turn to Andover Theological Seminary, Salt Lake 
 City, and New York, so that their paths lay far apart for 
 many years. His Springfield friends, therefore, met a 
 real need. He was always one to respond quickly to 
 praise and affection ; they worked on him as sunshine on 
 the flowers. And he was even more ready to give than 
 to receive. The growing audiences, the words of appre- 
 ciation, the loyal support of the church, endeared it 
 warmly to him. Among his friends were Mr. and Mrs. 
 Albert Smith, young married people, who did much for 
 his pleasure and comfort. Mrs. Smith, better known as 
 May Riley Smith, author of the poems "Sometime," "De- 
 
74 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 parture," "My Uninvited Guest," and many more, writes 
 her memories of him in the Springfield days. They strik- 
 ingly illustrate the singular unity of his life. People 
 thirty years later received identical impressions. 
 
 "If I were asked what are the dominating impressions 
 I have retained from my friend President John Henry 
 Barrows as I first knew him thirty years ago, I should 
 say, of his individuality I recall his lofty sense of honor; 
 of his mental equipment his splendid imagination ; of his 
 nature his optimism; of his personality his joj'ousness; of 
 his religion his unfaltering faith in the Fatherhood of 
 God. His religion kept its promise to his soul and never 
 disappointed him. Once under the shadow of disappoint- 
 ments common to all lives that drink from many foun- 
 tains as they go their way he said, 'It is right, it's one of 
 the lessons I've got to learn. I need it. God will make 
 a fine fellow of me yet!' And surely those who knew 
 him and traced his upward way, can testify how few 
 hindrances to this end he put in the way of the great 
 Moulder of Men, and with what obedience and zeal he 
 learned his 'lessons' in the great school-room of life. 
 
 "Looking over my shoulder to the time thirty years 
 ago, when I made one of the little Congregational Church 
 over which Dr. Barrows presided in Springfield, Illinois, 
 I find myself surprised anew at the vitality he infused 
 into that little band of worshipers, in a somewhat con- 
 servative, old-fashioned Capital City. The weekly meet- 
 ing for pra3^er and interchange of profitable thought grew 
 under his leadership to be sweet and profitable hours, with 
 an absence of the stiffness and embarrassment which often 
 pervade these gatherings, and they were anticipated with 
 real pleasure by those who attended them. 
 
 "He had the rare gift of bringing out the best of those 
 
FROM SPRINGFIELD TO PARIS 75 
 
 with whom he came in contact: — a gift which had grown 
 into a most precious power when he left us, eminently 
 fitting him for his relation with the young in the College 
 which so loves and honors him today. 
 
 "I can see him now as he sat among us at the Friday 
 evening meetings, his slender figure erect, his fine head 
 thrown back, and his almost boyish face contrasting 
 strangely with the gray heads and lined faces of the men 
 who came to be taught by him, his light waving hair, 
 through which it was a habit of his to run his long slim 
 fingers, tossed back from his fine forehead, and those 
 wonderful, compelling eyes of his sweeping the group and 
 resting upon some silent, timid man, who to the surprise 
 of himself not less than others, was so encouraged and re- 
 assured by his pastor's belief in him that he was drawn 
 to speak of the things of God and his own soul with a 
 freedom he would have declared impossible to his native 
 reserve. To such an one this was a relief like the loosing 
 of bands, and we know how inimical to growth are self- 
 consciousness and timidity. 
 
 "Dr. Barrows had a keen scent for ability of every sort, 
 and none knew better than he, how to adapt this to the 
 good of the church, and of the individual. How many 
 hidden accomplishments he discovered and made profit- 
 able in some direction! How many peculiar aptitudes 
 he fitted into the right channel! What a quick and 
 appreciative apprehension was his of the especial gifts and 
 graces of this or that member of his congregation! He 
 threw out his searchlight in all directions, and nothing 
 eluded him. He associated intimately with his people, 
 and w^as their friend as well as their pastor, a most unus- 
 ual and valuable combination! He went in and out of 
 the homes of his people with that simplicity and natural 
 
76 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 courtesy which set everyone at ease, and forbade con- 
 straint or embarrassment. If there was little bread and no 
 meat he made as if that were the rule, not the exception, 
 and his humble hostess forgot to be ashamed. He ac- 
 cepted the hospitality of rich and poor with equal pleasure 
 and simplicity. 
 
 "Happening to call one day on one of his parishioners, 
 and a dear friend, on the morning she had moved into 
 a new house, and finding her without a servant he made 
 himself as easily at home in her kitchen as in her draw- 
 ing-room, went to the baker's for a loaf of bread, and 
 while he helped her peel the radishes and hull the straw- 
 berries he had brought in at her request, he and his host- 
 ess discussed Tasso's 'Jerusalem Delivered' which they 
 had both been reading. 
 
 "He was impulsive, which was in him a special charm, 
 because the secret chambers of his life were so orderly and 
 well-appointed that when a door was blown open by a 
 sudden gust of impulse nothing unkempt was revealed, 
 only that which was pleasant and good. 
 
 "I never knew him to do an undignified thing, yet I 
 have seen him do that which many another could not do 
 without running the risk of being considered so. He had 
 a keen sense of humor, and I never knew anyone that 
 exhaled such an atmosphere of joyousness, of gladness in 
 the good gift of life. His face was a praise-offering to 
 God for what he was, and for what everyone was to him, 
 and you found j^ourself asking God to forgive you for 
 your own ingratitude! His capacity for enjoyment was, 
 delightful. If it was croquet or tennis no one enjoyed 
 it quite as he did; and the abandon with which he flung 
 his mallet into a patch of unmown grass adjoining the 
 lawn and himself after it at full-length in despair be- 
 
FROM SPRINGFIELD TO PARIS 77 
 
 cause he had failed in a crucial stroke was worth going 
 far to see ; and never were you betrayed into wishing he 
 would not do it. You only broke the tenth command- 
 ment by coveting your neighbor's enthusiasm, and won- 
 dered where was the false note in your own naturalness 
 that you couldn't do it! 
 
 "Perhaps the only time when he made anyone who 
 came to him ill at ease, was when someone repeated to 
 him some of the gossip and unkind criticism which often 
 crawl their contemptible way through the best regulated 
 church circles. At such times his face forgot its genial 
 smile, and grew grave to sternness, and the news-bearer 
 was made to feel that there are nobler themes for broth- 
 ers and sister in a church to pass from tongue to tongue 
 than the lapses of their fellows, which they should rather 
 seek to hide from sight, and especially was it prejudicial 
 to the family feeling which should prevail in a church. 
 So sincere and grieved was his manner that he rarely 
 gave offense, but the offender was made to feel whole- 
 somely ashamed. In these ways he cultivated among his 
 people a bond of unity, and the true family spirit, without 
 which there could be no real or far-reaching influence. 
 He continually urged them to cultivate the gift of con- 
 versation upon profitable themes, and in every way to 
 uplift their ideals, and broaden their charities. The 
 fathers of the church found themselves if not impercepti- 
 bly yet willingly being led by this young ardent guide 
 into richer, fuller, and sweeter meanings of the old stead- 
 fast truth, and the young loved him, and found him 
 then, as they ever have since, as genial as a comrade as 
 he was wise as a guide. 
 
 "But who that knew him in his later years needs to be 
 told that he was all this and more in the days of his 
 
78 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 )outh, for he was then but twenty-five years old! Such 
 a life is from beginning to end like a pure stream running 
 through the land from which the multitude drink and are 
 refreshed and strengthened as they go on their way! 
 
 "Many have spoken of this prince among men in his 
 many and varied relations, but those early days of his 
 ministry were touched with a beautiful freshness and 
 fervor of enthusiasm in ever}' good word and work, which, 
 as I open this door into a very dear room of my past, 
 sweep in upon me like a strong, sweet wind, loaded with 
 balsamic odours, and 'give me thoughts too deep for 
 tears.' 
 
 " 'We have lost him, he is gone. 
 We know him now, we see him as he moved, 
 How modest, kindly, all-accomplished, wise, 
 With w'hat sublime repression of himself, 
 And in what limits, — and how tenderly.' " 
 
 In the spring of 1873, his health was so poor that he 
 resigned. But he still held fast his purpose of more study, 
 now made possible. Therefore, the 21st of July, in com- 
 pany with Professor Daniels, his old friend, he set sail 
 on the Steamship "Victoria," from New York to Glas- 
 gow. 
 
 He writes, "The Atlantic this time was pacific." Now% 
 as in years to follow, the ocean renewed his vigor. Be- 
 sides, he possessed that unfair advantage, imagination. 
 Hence, we learn from his letters of daj-s on the water 
 that shone "far down the memorj\" "The sea is inde- 
 scribably grand and suggestive, dark and azure, yet glisten- 
 ing in lanes of light, here and there; God's great volume 
 bound in blue and gold." And afterwards, to one home- 
 ward bound, "It almost makes me cry, to live over again 
 
FROM SPRINGFIELD TO PARIS 79 
 
 in imagination those ten days on the Atlantic. And you 
 have seen the ever-varj'ing main, with Greek, poetic eyes. 
 You have sailed with the smiling ocean and laughed with 
 its multitudinous laughter. The 'wine-colored deep,' did 
 you see that? Homer talks about the 'hoary deep,' but 
 there is one epithet of his that moistens my eyes as I 
 slowly say it, 'the unharvested sea.' " 
 
 In spite of 3'outh, imagination, and a head crammed 
 full of history and poetrj', during the next six weeks, 
 Edinburgh, London, Munich, Vienna, Geneva, and Paris 
 did not hold the first place in his heart. That had been 
 speedily taken by one travelling with friends in the same 
 party, Miss Sarah Eleanor Mole. She was from Wil- 
 liamstown, Massachusetts, home of her mother and grand- 
 mother before her, and though but twenty-one years old, 
 was teaching in her alma mater, the Westfield Normal 
 School. The following is his only letter to her, previous 
 to their engagement. It contains several references to 
 Lowell's "Cathedral," which they had both been reading: 
 
 Geneva, Aug. 3rd, 1873. 
 
 My dear Friend : 
 
 I rose from very dreamful sleep this morning with the 
 praj'erful hope that finally "vous etes un habitant" — 
 never mind the dislocated syntax — You know what I 
 mean. "In Paris," said the good Professor pulling out 
 his watch, "Paris is France and France is the world." 
 It is comforting to me to believe that you are still a 
 terrestrial being. I made several earnest attempts to get 
 another look at you — after we said good-bye — and when 
 the train moved from the station I waved my hat (the 
 immortal, "by beauty's franchise disenthralled of time") 
 with pathetic energ}'! "Some natural tears I dropped, 
 
So JOHN HENRY BARROWS ^ 
 
 but wiped them soon." (Of course the weeping was 
 spiritual — not visible.) 
 
 Leaving the Professor to read the New York Times, 
 I went over to Rousseau's Isle, where I met a negro boy, 
 a West Indian, who had been a slave, I think. You 
 know Rousseau furnished Jefferson the opening sentences 
 of the Declaration of Independence. The coincidence 
 furnished me some thoughts which I have sent to my 
 dear "paternal sire." Then I — I — a heretic, an alien 
 from rigorous Calvinism — spent an hour in searching for 
 Calvin's house. I knew that it was in the Rue des Cha- 
 noines. I stepped into a book-store and inquired of a lady 
 (in English) (please connect properly) where said street 
 was. She opened a drawer and offered me some colored 
 views of the Valley of Chamouni ! Not wishing to 
 walk so far as that to see even a living Calvin, I examined 
 the views carefully, said "trop cher," and walked sadly 
 away. My dear friend, I did not dare undeceive her. I 
 should have died laughing, and then I should never see 
 you dressed in white, with that wonderful lace collar and 
 the matchless watch-chain to add to the bewildering ef- 
 fect! I trust that my dear "happy Goth" will not lay 
 it up against me that I left, on the mind of a Genevesc 
 maiden, the impression that a tall youth w^ith a white hat 
 desired to purchase views of the Vale of Chamouni. I 
 shall not be entirely restful until I am exculpated by you. 
 I found the Rue des Chanoines, and saw Calvin's house, 
 and went away rejoicing. The streets that lead to it are 
 as dark and crooked as a sermon defending the dogma of 
 eternal reprobation. But Calvin was a heroic, noble 
 soul, granitic, it is true, but much that is beautiful in 
 your dear Massachusetts, blossoms out of the granite soil 
 of Calvinism. I am a Calvinist, please remember, I don't 
 
FROM SPRINGFIELD TO PARIS 8i 
 
 believe in either supra- or sub-lapsarianism, but I am 
 mighty in my faith in foreordination! (I hope this dis- 
 tinction will not remind you of the colored preacher's 
 declaration — that some were hastening to everlasting 
 damnation, and the rest to eternal perdition — which pro- 
 voked the remark, "Then this niggah will take to the 
 woods.") 
 
 After visiting the English Garden, I dragged my tired 
 feet to the supper-table, where I made a frugal and 
 lonely repast, at which there were more memories than 
 rolls, and more of the bitterness of regret than of the 
 sweetness of honey. Well, I didn't care to weary myself 
 any more, so, after waiting an hour, I "sought repose on 
 my couch," or, "went to bed." 
 
 The Professor dreamed that he was climbing a moun- 
 tain all night. I had "visions out of other 5'ears" mingled 
 with the visions of recent days — a curiously interwoven 
 mesh. I was glad when morning came, for my sleep was 
 not the best. I hope your blue eyes were not peering out 
 into the darkness all night. My advice (pastoral) to 
 you is this, "with all your learning, learn to sleep." 
 
 I have returned from the "College" where Pere Hya- 
 cinth preaches. I went early to the "College." Pere Hya- 
 cinth entered very soon after I arrived, and took his seat 
 — in the audience. He was in citizen's clothes, and I 
 soon realized that I was not to hear his "Voice in the rich 
 dawn of an ampler day." There were scores of Ameri- 
 cans there, and we heard an eloquent, gospel sermon, from 
 a young priest. The text was "He is the light that light- 
 eth every man," etc. Madame Hyacinth was with her 
 husband, and knelt with him to partake of the wafer. 
 She is a noble woman in appearance. I asked a young 
 man if Pere Hyacinth was to preach to-day. I spoke in 
 
82 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 French. He answered in perfect English, "Not till next 
 Sunday." I was soon aware that I had spoken to 
 Madame Hyacinth's son. We lifted our hats as the ex- 
 Carmelite Friar and his wife rode off in their carriage. 
 
 I hope you have received best news. I shall miss you 
 more than I can tell you. I may not be in Paris till 
 Thursday. Inquire about Chartres. The Lord bless 
 and keep you evermore. 
 
 In great haste, 
 
 Your faithful friend, 
 
 John H. Barrows. 
 
 Years afterward he dedicated his most important book 
 to her, "The bright star of a happy Christian home, and 
 the crown of God's best earthly gifts," his "beloved wife 
 whose kindly and far-seeing wisdom, unwearied helpful- 
 ness, and unwavering faith" had been his "constant solace 
 and inspiration," and to all who knew them the words rang 
 absolutely true. In the old Arabian tale, the silken car- 
 pet discovered in the box of sandal wood bore the prince 
 and princess aloft, to remain awhile far from the gaze of 
 men. We, like the courtiers, must stay below. Yet the 
 Princess, though still unseen, will often walk through the 
 coming pages. 
 
 But let us return to his rapid journey through the cap- 
 itals of Europe. At Vienna he visited the World's Ex- 
 position and was shocked by America's small showing. 
 Farm implements seemed to be about her only supreme 
 excellence; a gigantic soda-water fountain, and a char- 
 coal sketch of pork-packing in Cincinnati, her most im- 
 portant exhibits. The chief minor adventure of the sum- 
 mer occurred on the Mer de Glace. His account reads 
 thus : I 
 
FROM SPRINGFIELD TO PARIS 83 
 
 "Two hours this side of Chamouni is the Mer de 
 Glace, the great glacier of Europe. All wanted to ex- 
 plore it on foot. All were tired, but after much con- 
 sultation we decided to send the guide on to the village 
 with our coats and books, and we would meet him at the 
 hotel d'Angleterre in the evening. We said we would 
 get there by seven or seven-thirty o'clock. So, grasping 
 my alpenstock, I followed the sturdy Captain in the as- 
 cent toward the glacier. In a half hour we were up 
 where we could see the glacier well. The Captain out- 
 stripped us, and climbed up out of sight, and we saw him 
 no more. The way to Chamouni, as we supposed, was 
 across the glacier. The Professor was anxious to cross. 
 I was, too. We rested and amused ourselves by tumbling 
 rocks down and seeing them bound on the rocks below. 
 Finally we clambered down the ice below us. It was 
 seamed into great ridges by the heat. As we advanced 
 the views became more interesting at each step. Mighty 
 stones were carried on the points of great slabs that had 
 nearly melted away. There were caves that we did not 
 dare to enter, as the superstructure seemed too uncertain. 
 It was "trickle," "trickle," everywhere. The stones 
 beneath us were uncertain. I was refreshed by the cool- 
 ness; we walked between mountains of ice thirty or forty 
 feet above the ice sea. We began to descend. By the aid 
 of my alpenstock and our two umbrellas we helped each 
 other down the great slippery steps. Things became very 
 interesting now. We saw that there was no getting back, 
 and our safety was in reaching the rocky debris beyond, 
 and thence down into the valley. It demanded great cau- 
 tion of us, not to tumble into the crevasses and great holes 
 which the heat had made in the glacier. After an hour's 
 labor, we reached the southern side of the glacier, and 
 
84 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 placed our feet on rocks once more! The view here was 
 simply glorious. A thousand feet below us tumbled and 
 rushed the Arveiron, hurrying through the vale. Toward 
 the west was one great wall of the valley, over whose pine- 
 clad summits streamed the lengthening light. Above us 
 was the glacier, so beautifully blue in spots, jagged, lead- 
 ing up, up to the northern slopes of Mt. Blanc. After 
 picking a few flowers near the eternal frost, we hastened 
 over to the southern slope of the rock-strewn hill to go 
 down into the vale. But to our horror we soon discov- 
 ered that we came to a sheer declivity, down which there 
 was no descent, except by falling, which was very easy — 
 but not desirable! All my weariness vanished now. I 
 nerved myself for some desperate work, which had it not 
 been for that grand dinner on the Col de Balme I never 
 could have performed. We dared not undertake to climb 
 back the ice mountain. The descent had been all we 
 could make. There was only one other chance. By foi» 
 lowing the glacier itself down, or by clinging to the rocks 
 on the line of the glacier's edge, there was a possibility of 
 escape. It must be undertaken. The stones slipped be- 
 neath our feet and tumbled far below. We had to keep 
 close together to prevent the falling rocks from smiting 
 ourselves. At last we came to a place where our judg- 
 ments differed. The Professor wanted to go to the gla- 
 cier's edge and follow it down, and I wanted to slide over 
 the smooth edge of the rock, scraped in the years so that 
 it was almost like a waxed floor turned up on an angle of 
 forty-five degrees. Sticking the steel edge of my alpen- 
 cane into the glacier, and crouching low, I began my de- 
 scent, and in ten minutes was by the glacier's edge. Sev- 
 eral hundred feet lower, I waited for the Professor. As I 
 looked back, it seemed as though the ice-mountains were 
 
FROM SPRINGFIELD TO PARIS 85 
 
 about to fall on us. I was nothing in the hands of irre- 
 sistible power. Both of us agree that the view here was 
 the "grandest sight in Europe." The Professor looked 
 very small on the cliffs above. He could find no way 
 down, so he went back to where I had found my slippery 
 way to my present position. We said but little. There 
 was little hope of ever getting back, and all was uncer- 
 tainty below us, with growing probabilities that we could 
 not find egress. After watching the magnificent spectacle 
 above us, with some silent prayers to God, and many 
 longing, loving thoughts of friends over the Atlantic, we 
 cautiously continued our downward journey. I fell often 
 and bruised my hands on the jagged rocks. Our boots 
 were white with dust and suffered brutal treatment on 
 the sharp stones. Our clothes were torn, but we were 
 yet alive, and disposed to eat supper in Cook's Hotel that 
 night, if possible. We were on the maghty sloping de- 
 bris, within a few feet of the glacier. Remember that we 
 were standing not only on precipitous places, but that 
 our foothold was very shaky. A slip might fling us down 
 a hundred feet and smash us on the rocks, or hurl us into 
 the bed of the little ice-stream at the edge of the glacier, 
 where we might soon have been tumbled into a dark ice- 
 hole, the Lord knows how deep. We didn't want to ex- 
 plore the ice-wells in that way. If we slipped, I said, and 
 we did slip, every minute. The uncertainty was great. 
 ?vIoreover, we could not see the foot of the glacier, and 
 were not sure but that every step down vras a step away 
 from our foothold on the rocks above, and another step 
 down toward destruction. We were very cautious nov/. 
 Down, down we went, as slowly as possible. At last I 
 saw what seemed to be the dent of steel on a stone. 
 Somebody had been there from below! Now we could 
 
86 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 see the great ice-arch from which the Arveiron flows at 
 the foot of the glacier. The last fifteen minutes were the 
 most dangerous of all, but finally, bruised, torn, bleeding, 
 we stood in safety at the foot of the magnificent monster, 
 while inexpressible gratitude filled our hearts ; then, turn- 
 ing around and looking up to the south — O, glory incon- 
 ceivable! there was the sunset spreading its golden mantle 
 over the broad snow-fields and gray peaks of Mt. Blanc! 
 It was God's benediction ! An hour and a half of walk- 
 ing brought us to Chamouni village. We had been 
 three hours on the Mer de Glace. Daniels said he would 
 not take a friend over that track again. But how glad 
 we were to have done what we did. We had seen our 
 glacier thoroughly! Our guide was looking for us anx- 
 iously at the hotel. Captain Sanders came in a half hour 
 later. We flung ourselves on our beds, completely ex- 
 hausted. After a short rest, we had a refreshing supper, 
 and slept gloriously that night. The next morning we 
 saw the sun rise in all his glory in the vale of Chamouni. 
 Read Coleridge and you have it all." 
 
 My father lived from August until January at 27 Rue 
 Caumartin, Paris, that fascinating city, where, to para- 
 phrase Victor Hugo, the "canaille" of today are the "peo- 
 ple" of tomorrow; that odd city where in those days a 
 good dinner cost less than a letter home. French read- 
 ing in the morning with Madame Portait, French con- 
 versation in the afternoon with Professor Noirit, French 
 plays in the evening at the Theatre Frangais, where Ra- 
 cine or Moliere, combined with the great actor Got to 
 evoke much laughter; these, for a while, were his chief 
 interests. But soon great inroads were made on his time 
 for the French classics. Dr. E. W. Hitchcock, pastor 
 of the American Chapel, in the rue de Berri, desiring to 
 
FROM SPRINGFIELD TO PARIS 87 
 
 attend the meetings of the Evangelical Alliance in New 
 York, asked him to preach in his absence. It was for- 
 tunate that he accepted, for hardly had he assumed his 
 new duties when Jay Cooke, the banker with whom he had 
 his letter of credit, failed. The fifty francs a Sunday and 
 the twenty-five a week, secured for Latin lessons given to 
 an American boy, tided him over the interval before assist- 
 ance from home reached him. Into the work of preaching, 
 teaching a Bible class, and looking out for American 
 transients he entered fervently. Through his connection 
 with the American chapel he made pleasant acquaintances ; 
 his letters make mention of Doctors Coe and Schaff, 
 Colonel Waring, Ex-Governor Hoffman of New York, 
 and others, besides many Americans living in Paris, so 
 that though Professor Daniels and Miss Mole's party had 
 left him, he did not lack for comradeship. He writes: 
 
 "This is Sunday evening, as I ought to have said some 
 time ago. At four I went to 45 Avenue de la Grande 
 Armee, and heard Reverend M. Bersier, the leading Prot- 
 estant minister of Paris. His text from glorious old David 
 impressed me: 'One thing have I asked (dcmande) of 
 the Lord, and that will I seek after, to see the beauty of 
 the Lord and dwell in his house forever.' Bersier is cer- 
 tainly one of the first preachers of the world. He has the 
 'look' of the great pulpit orators — Beecher, Hyacinth. 
 John Hall, etc., a full strong face, a robust physique, a 
 brow retreating a little, but still high and ample, eyes of 
 slumbering fire, a voice that whispers or thunders with 
 equal ease, and one cannot hear him a half-hour without 
 discovering in the man that combination of logic, imag- 
 ination, feeling, goodness, earnestness, and will which, 
 added to thorough culture, make the consummate master 
 of speech. I have given this short description of Bersier, 
 
JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 because I expect to hear him every Sunday and shall often 
 refer to him. The hall where he speaks is always 
 crowded. His sermon was an eloquent defense and expo- 
 sition of prayer. His manner is graceful but without 
 artifice, earnest but without rant. I followed his French 
 sentences with more comprehension than I hoped to h^ve 
 so soon. I have loved to pray more than usual of late." 
 
 "Mr Stebbins lives in what the French call a Hotel. 
 The nobility live in Hotels, when they are rich enough. 
 You know that a Hotel is not a Hotel, but a very private 
 residence. I was ushered into the most gorgeous apart- 
 ment that I have seen in Paris. Mrs. Stebbins — a tem- 
 porary invalid — was reclining on a sofa, wrapped in a 
 'stunning' white robe, and as she took my hand said, 'I am 
 so glad to m.eet you. Your praises have been sounded in 
 my ears ever since I returned.' Now, all this was over- 
 Vv'helming to a young man who was conscious that his coat 
 needed mending in at least three places! There were 
 present, besides Mr. Stebbins's family of four nice little 
 children, a Mrs. Morrell, and a Miss Gardiner, Amer- 
 ican artists who have been in Paris six years. They told 
 me of their adventures in the Commune. They lived near 
 the Luxembourg gardens, and had their house tumbled 
 about their ears by the explosion of fift>' thousand pounds 
 of gunpowder within a few minutes' walk of them. Their 
 bodies were wounded, their pictures torn, but they did 
 not hear the explosion. People beyond Versailles did! 
 Mr. Stebbins is an art-critic. He has money and leisure. 
 He took us through his collection. Mrs. Morrell told 
 me that it is the finest private collection in Paris. He 
 directed my attention especially to one of Horace Ver- 
 net's, one of Gerome's (Father Joseph and Louis XHI's 
 Courtiers) and to Bierstadt's 'Sunset in Yosemite,' which 
 
FROM SPRINGFIELD TO PARIS 89 
 
 is certainly finer than his great Yosemite. Mrs. Steb- 
 bins is very winning and very Frenchy. She told me that 
 she had been presented at the courts of Berlin and St. 
 James, and the Tuileries often, when Napoleon was in 
 his glory. She wants a king back, not the Comte dc 
 Chambord, though. 
 
 "The dinner was something memorable. It was served 
 by liveried fellows, in white gloves. Everything was to 
 my liking, such elegance, such rich simplicity. I could 
 not but be at ease with such simply polite people. Mrs. 
 Stebbins reclined on a sofa at my left, in oriental fashion, 
 and sipped her iced and foaming wine, white and 'honey- 
 hearted,' as Homer calls it, and talked about church af- 
 fairs. She and her husband were very liberal in their 
 ideas. I must not let some of the church people know 
 that I went to the theatre. She admired it extremely. 
 Her husband said this was bosh! There were some in 
 the church who didn't want solo singing. She is very 
 fond of picnics, and when Mr. Hitchcock returns will 
 take us to Versailles, etc., etc. (All this is genuine tea- 
 table talk, isn't it?) Mr. Stebbins changed my ideas of 
 Napoleon HI. He was not so bad. I never shall repeat 
 my awful diatribe again. I have no interest in clinging 
 to a lie. After dinner came coffee, up stairs. The chil- 
 dren's French is perfect. There is one little girl, who 
 kissed me good night and chatted away to my discourage- 
 ment. I left at nine." 
 
 "About two in the afternoon I began my stroll toward 
 the 'Chapelle Evangelique de I'Etoile' where the Protestant 
 service is held. First I called at the hotel and found there 
 a letter from the Professor. Taking the shady side of the 
 Boulevard Haussman (You know Louis Napoleon's 
 Minister of Public Works) I walked leisurely along, till 
 
go JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 I came to the monument erected by Louis XVIII over 
 the graves of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Their 
 bodies were removed to St. Denis in 1815. But here for 
 twenty-one years they slept in their bloody shrouds. I 
 have alwaj's had sympathy with the hapless queen, though 
 never with Burke's famous description of her, for that is 
 full of bad merals. But I can never forget the starving 
 peasant mothers on whose misery the Louis lived in the 
 splendid luxury of Versailles. And I sometimes think 
 that God would be better pleased by a little helpful sym- 
 pathy shown to the poor whom we always have with us, 
 than with sentimental gushings over fallen greatness. To 
 the more thoughtful mind, 'The queen of France on the 
 scaffold,' as Charles Sumner once said, 'is a less touch- 
 ing and suggestive spectacle than the woman on the auc- 
 tion block.' " 
 
 "There is a quiet happiness about these interesting 
 Parisians on Sunday holidays, that, if very earthy in its 
 origin, is about as excusable and pleasant as surly piety." 
 
 "My friend Dr. Wasson called last evening. He is 
 very kind, very visionary, very changeable. He gave me 
 one privilege this morning, for which I shall ever be 
 thankful. I believe you have never read any of Turge- 
 neff's novels. The high critics on both sides of the water 
 place this Russian in the fore ranks of modern writers. 
 His 'Father and Sons' (translated by Mr. Schuyler of 
 Yale College, now at St. Petersburg) made a great sen- 
 sation. Last summer I read his 'Smoke,' a tale of Baden 
 Baden. Well, Dr. Wasson told me that he was filling 
 the teeth of a Russian author whom he admired very 
 much, but whose name he had forgotten. I suggested 
 'Turgeneff.' 'That's the very name,' he answered. 
 Then I told him what I knew of the Russian celebrity, 
 
FROM SPRINGFIELD TO PARIS 91 
 
 and he asked me to call and see him this morning, which 
 I did at eleven o'clock, and the result was a most delight- 
 ful visit. M. TurgenefE welcomed me with the cor- 
 diality of a supreme gentleman. I was surprised to find 
 him a large, patriarchal-looking man of sixty, with the 
 manners of Wendell Phillips and the head of Phidias's 
 Jupiter. He was much pleased to hear about his friends 
 over the water, admires America, wants to visit us, knows 
 Mr. Schuyler, etc., etc. Walter, who admires Turgeneff, 
 will throw up his stovepipe when he hears of my good 
 luck." 
 
 "If I had gone to the hotel at once I should have missed 
 a call. General John Eaton, the Commissioner of Edu- 
 cation for the United States, came to see me. I rode with 
 him from St. Louis to Kansas City two years ago. He 
 is examining the educational institutions of Europe. He 
 talked enthusiastically for an hour, especially of Italy, and 
 then asked me if I knew French enough to interpret for 
 him in a call he was about to make on the French Min- 
 ister of Public Instruction. I said 'No,' but told him of 
 Professor Hardy. So we took a carriage and called at 
 Hardy's rooms. He was not in ; we left word that we 
 should be back in an hour or two. General Eaton was 
 hungry, so was I. He wanted me to take him where he 
 could have a good breakfast. (All at Uncle Sam's ex- 
 pense, you know.) So we drove to Durand's and had a 
 glorious repast! Then we returned for the Professor, 
 and drove together to the minister's office (south of the 
 Seine). His Excellency was not in Paris, but a sub- 
 official received the General with great courtesy, and 
 offered him the entree to everything in Paris. He fur- 
 nished us tickets to see the new Opera House, the Gobe- 
 lins, Sevres, Sainte Chapelle, etc., etc. Hardy succeeded 
 
92 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 admirably. Then we visited the School of Deaf-mutes, 
 where there is some fine chromo lithographing which the 
 children had done. Then we visited the Pantheon, and 
 came home. The General is to be here with his carriage 
 at ten, and the Professor and I are to spend the day with 
 him in seeing that which without him we could scarcely 
 see at all." 
 
 "My last letter went Wednesday. That day General 
 Eaton, Professor Hardy, and I spent together, visiting the 
 American Embassy, the Louvre, and the Nouvel Opera. 
 We spent an hour in examining the interior. We had 
 tickets from the Minister of Public Instruction. It is 
 the most wonderful building in Paris. The stage is so 
 built that all the large scenes can be dropped right down 
 into a vast space below. The Emperor has a magnificent 
 waiting room, approached by a private stairway, and 
 opening into his private box. In 76 the Opera House 
 will be ready. We went also to the School of Roads 
 and Bridges, where we saw wonderful models in civil 
 engineering, and L'Ecole des Beaux Arts, the most com- 
 plete in the world. I must break this sentence and tell 
 you about this school. There are nine hundred pupils at- 
 tending lectures here. All the collections are for service. 
 The museums are students' workshops. Everything is for 
 use. The vast court is lined and filled with architectural 
 specimens. But I was most interested in a room where 
 the first prizes — that is, the paintings which secured them 
 — were on exhibition. The great names in French art 
 since 17 10 appear there. The inspirational power of this 
 room on the artist student is almost incalculable. We 
 lingered lovingly in Taine's lecture-room. It is a perfect 
 beauty — amphitheatrical in form. The wall is one great 
 painting, representing the artists of all ages. 
 
FROM SPRINGFIELD TO PARIS 93 
 
 "We went to many other places that day. In the even- 
 ing, after I had gone to bed, the General called! A 
 white-robed form opened the door to his repeated knock- 
 ings. I lay down and he sat down to an hour's talk about 
 education and religion in France. I kept gloriously 
 awake while he stayed. He is a fine talker and a splendid 
 man." 
 
 "My opinions are myself — and you want to know 
 them! Well, I believe in the Apostles' Creed, and the 
 Declaration of Independence. I have a strong sympathy 
 with a certain sort of radicalism. I hate cant and can't. 
 I believe in Greek and Latin — for some people. I be- 
 lieve the world is not growing daily worse. I believe in 
 soap. I hate drugs. I believe in good-nature and grit. 
 I believe in French soups. I believe in Congregational 
 singing. I believe strongly in Normal Schools, and in 
 some Normal School teachers. I believe in free inquiry 
 and agitation. I believe in woman-kind. I have some 
 hope for man-kind. I believe that a mule is better than 
 a man in climbing the Col de Balme. I believe that 'True 
 poets are true democrats.' I believe in Charles Sumner 
 — I believe much less in Charles Sumner's wife. I be- 
 lieve in Henry Ward Beecher and Dean Stanley and 
 George MacDonald and F. D. Maurice and John Milton 
 and Blaise Pascal and Thomas a Kempis and old Socrates 
 and the Apostle Paul and the singer David. I believe that 
 the Sabbath was made for man, and that you did right 
 in writing me September twenty-seventh. I believe in the 
 real — not in the accidental and conventional. I believe in 
 double-soled boots for Paris streets, and in rubbers for 
 Swiss glaciers. I believe in children — though my faith 
 varies with the child. I believe in co-education of the 
 sexes. I believe in the American eagle, when good men 
 
94 JOH^^ HENRY BARROWS 
 
 hold the string. I believe that American scholars should 
 take more interest in public affairs. I believe in good 
 prayer-meetings. I believe in Wheeler & Wilson sewing- 
 machines. I believe that Massachusetts girls should learn 
 to swim. I believe in that 'inspired bore' William 
 Wordsworth. I believe in ]\Iay Riley Smith and Charles 
 F. Gilson. I believe that the kings are playing a losing 
 game in this world. I believe in thick under-clothing, and 
 deep plowing, teachers' institutes, civil service reform, 
 and international copyright, penny-postage, and Worces- 
 ter's Dictionaries. I believe in my father and mother. 
 I believe in Sarah Eleanor Mole. I believe that love is 
 the fulfilling of the law. I believe in the better things 
 to come, 'The far-off divine event, toward which the whole 
 creation moves.' Now — I have emptied my head of my 
 opinions. A bundle of opinions is not a man. I con- 
 fess, though, that it is sometimes pleasant to meet people 
 who think as I do." 
 
 "Tuesday, Nov. 4th, I attended the great trial of Mar- 
 shal Bazaine at the Grand Trianon, in the Park of Ver- 
 sailles. I secured admission with eighteen hundred others, 
 saw the Marshals of France, the illustrious accused, the 
 one hundred and fifty reporters for the great journals of 
 the world, the President of the Council (son of Louis 
 Philippe) the Due d' Aumale, etc. I have no time for 
 descriptions. 
 
 "Reverend Mr. McAU (whom I met) who has preach- 
 ed to thirty-five thousand in Paris during the last year, has 
 sent me an urgent invitation to help him. I may speak 
 next Tuesday evening at 204 Rue des Faubourg St. An- 
 toine. That will be something worth remembering. To 
 preach Christ among the Jacquerie near Madame de 
 Farge's wine-shop !" 
 
FROM SPRINGFIELD TO PARIS 95 
 
 "I mentioned the sad news about the Opera House, It 
 is a complete ruin. One thousand artists, mechanics, etc., 
 out of employment. It is only temporary, however. I 
 went to see the fire Thursday, but the soldiers kept the 
 crowds two blocks from the scene of the disaster. Here 
 is an interesting article from the Rappel. La cloche qui 
 avait donne le signal du massacre de la Saint Bathelemy 
 servait a V opera; elle est fondue entierement. This bell 
 played in the opera of the Huguenots. 
 
 "Thursdaj^, I read in Taine's Notes sur V Angleterre. 
 It is very rich. The vocabulary is choice and recondite, 
 and sends one to the dictionary continually. His descrip- 
 tion of London weather is equal to Dickens's and not so 
 prolix. He says 'Nature here looks like a bad charcoal- 
 sketch over whom somebody had rubbed his sleeve!' In 
 the evening Mrs. S. read to me from Emile Sylvestre'? 
 'Le Philosophe sous le Toit,' a charming book after the 
 style of Marvel's 'Reveries of a Bachelor.' 
 
 "I have spent several hours at the Louvre since my 
 last, mostly among the ancient sculptors. The Salle d' 
 Auguste interested me greatly. I walked meditatively 
 through this splendid chamber, crowded with Roman 
 Emperors, and looked to the ceilings, splendid with the 
 brilliancy of modern French art, and saw there the me- 
 dallion of the late 'pinch-beck Charlemagne;' and from 
 this hall, that unites the glories of distant ages, I passed 
 through another supported by eight granite pillars from 
 Charlem.agne's church at Aix la Chapelle; and then, with 
 a long glance at the Venus de Milo, I stepped into the 
 great chamber of Catherine di Medicis, where this Italian 
 Jezebel held her revels, — where Henry IV married Mar- 
 garet, where his own body was laid after his assassination, 
 and where the artist who sculptured the carj^atides that 
 
96 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 give name to the room, was shot at his work on the 
 bloody night of St. Bartholomew. History gets crowded 
 together in some places, doesn't it? The French love to 
 startle by contrasts. Antithesis is the genius of the 
 Louvre, as of Victor Hugo's poetry. Who but a French- 
 man would think of putting side by side the statues of 
 Voltaire and Bossuet? 
 
 "After dinner I rode out to Mt. Parnasse Cemetery, 
 where we assisted at a Catholic funeral. There we took 
 the Chemin de fer de Ceinture for the St. Lazar station, 
 but carelessly neglected to change cars at the right place, 
 and were taken beyond the walls of the city out towards 
 Versailles. We descended at a small village and walked 
 out into the fields. The stillness of nature was like a 
 reinvigoration from God. The day was 'perfect from 
 its own resource.' He had tenderly 'filled his blue urn 
 with fire.' Paris was visible only in her loftiest domes. 
 God was everywhere. The peasantry among the vine- 
 yards attracted us. We had an interesting conversation 
 with one old man. He was an earnest republican, believed 
 Bazaine a traitor, had taken part in the civil war, in- 
 quired about the great nation beyond the western sea. 
 Working with his 'pioche' among the vines, he was not 
 a great figure on this round world, but there is One who 
 looks upon the old peasant with a pitiful love that is im- 
 measurable, and woe be to the human governments that 
 despise and ill-use God's poor. 
 
 "Friday we entered two French law courts and were 
 very much interested. In every chamber of justice that 
 I have seen in France there is but one picture, viz., that 
 of the Crucifixion, placed back of the judge. I cannot 
 see the propriety of this, unless the spectacle of the great 
 
FROM SPRINGFIELD TO PARIS 
 
 judicial crime of the ages warns from following Pilate 
 and Caiaphas." 
 
 "Wednesday morning. Comment allez-vousf I am 
 myself again. Last evening I went with Mrs. Taylor and 
 Willie to the Vaudeville, to hear the great caricature 
 of American manners, called 'L'Oncle Sam,' which is 
 m.aking all Paris laugh. The Americans enjoy it most, 
 though it is basely slanderous. The ladies' toilettes 
 are killingly extravagant. A French Marquis is the 
 hero. You would have died to see how the girls shook 
 his hands and kissed him. Nearly all the women 
 had been divorced. One 'Monsieur le Reverend,' who 
 sm.okes and drinks, appears with his spiritual wife! One 
 colonel introduces a lady to the Marquis as his 'first wife!' 
 The scenes are in the Fifth Avenue Hotel, and on a 
 gorgeous steamboat of the Sound or the Hudson. Irish- 
 men and firemen and shoddy millionaires are the repre- 
 sentative Americans! We had a box with a Russian 
 Baron and Baroness, whom Mrs. Taylor met coming from 
 Nice. The Russian lady was very charming, and spoke 
 beautiful English. The Baron and I talked French all the 
 evening. Would that I talked half as well as he." 
 
 "Dec. 4. I took dinner with Air. Hitchcock. We 
 talked of little but the disaster, the sinking of the Ville 
 de Havre. I heard about a queer Frenchman in London 
 who said that if the Thames were only the Seine he would 
 drown himself! Miss H. would say the man was nearly 
 insane and wanted to be so entirely! This day I moved 
 (fourth time) to the south side of this blessed Paris house. 
 O, you ought to have heard Mr. R. talk French last night, 
 on leaving. He said to the proprietor, 'Prenez garde de 
 ma fiUe!' He means, 'Take good care of Mrs. S!' 
 
 "Friday, Dec. 5. A cold foggy day. I went to Mr. 
 
JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 Washburne's and secured a ticket for the French Assem- 
 bly. One of the Parisian officials kindly lent him an- 
 other, which he gave to me. So I took Mrs. S. and went 
 to Versailles, buying tickets for the round trip. We took 
 breakfast beneath the shadow of the chateau (it was all 
 shadow), — then wandered through the great galleries, 
 visiting the magnificent room where King William was 
 crowned Emperor of Germany, in January 1871. At a 
 little past two we entered the theatre of Louis XIV, 
 and were admitted to the first gallery, and to the box 
 where Lord Lyons, the English Ambassador, watches the 
 French Assembly. It was a very interesting afternoon. 
 We saw everything. We sat right in front of the Pres- 
 ident of the Assembly. The Deputies sit according to 
 political affiliations, as you know. The left-centre were 
 right in front of us. The extreme left (radical Repub- 
 licans) were at our right. You see why — they are on the 
 left of the President. Before the President's stand is the 
 Tribune, from which all the speeches are made. The 
 debate was on the State of Siege. Most of France is 
 under martial law. This was necessary at the close of 
 the war. It is continued to-day, for political purposes. 
 It is a sore task for a man to speak in this noisy body. 
 The interruptions, insults, taunts, hisses, cat-calls, war- 
 whoops are constant. All acted like college boys. We 
 saw a few notables, Jules Favre, who treated with Bis- 
 marck, and was President of the Government of National 
 Defense, Jules Simon, one of the ablest French states- 
 men. Ex-minister of Public Instruction. We heard Louis 
 Blanc, the great socialist. He is almost ridiculously 
 petit. We were back at six. I took a cab to 186 Boule- 
 vard Haussman, and dined with Professor Hardy and his 
 wife and son. Hardy is a splendid fellow. See his article 
 
FROM SPRINGFIELD TO PARIS 99 
 
 on French politics in the Boston Advertiser. On Satur- 
 day, I took my new coat and waistcoat from John 
 Hendry's, my tailor's. I have been economical in clothes 
 while in Europe, w^earing some of the garments that you 
 saw. I could say of myself as a Frenchman said in a 
 restaurant the other day, 'Je suis victime de courants 
 d'air!'" 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 1873-1874 
 
 SIX MONTHS OF TRAVEL 
 
 So extended a tour as my father now made was more 
 uncommon in 1874 than it is to-day. From his letters 
 we ascertain that painting was not his principal inter- 
 est. Of architecture and sculpture he writes more at 
 length, but it is the historical and religious elements of 
 He shall speak for himself. 
 
 "In the early morning of December eighteenth we had a 
 good breakfast, and soon were in the Mt. Cenis Tunnel. 
 As we came out of it the sun made rosy the white peaks of 
 the Alps, and the mist was all gone, and a blue sky as 
 lovely as anything in dreams, broke upon us, and our 
 new world began. The approach to the tunnel on the 
 Italian side is a marvel of engineering. There are fre- 
 quent openings in the solid rock, giving us a momentary 
 outlook upon some valley and snowy mountain-side, and 
 then all is dark again. A picture of our glimpses into 
 the other world. It is there, in more than Italian beauty, 
 even though we never see it long." 
 
 "MiLANO, Friday Eve., Dec. 19, 1873. 
 "A golden day. O, the Cathedral is beyond all fancies. 
 I have explored it in every way, and thanked God for 
 this most precious jewel in the crown of northern Italy. 
 I felt proud that 'men, my brothers' had accomplished 
 so much. It is no slight thing to see a church which has 
 
SIX MONTHS OF TRAVEL loi 
 
 five thousand statues, an art gallery in the sunlight. 
 Stand here and look up. Those saints poised so firmly 
 and looking so cheerful on those white pinnacles, that 
 mount up so boldly and stand out so clearly against the 
 blue sky, seem the avant-couriers of humanity, announc- 
 ing to the heavena that we shall all yet come up into 
 the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Then 
 the glory within! The view is unobstructed by the airy 
 colum.ns. Such spaces! Such splendor of sunlight! If 
 this is Gothic, I am the proudest of happy Goths. But 
 the roof! We walked through a marble forest. New 
 surprises at every step. And then up, up, up, three hun- 
 dred and forty feet, till we saw all the wilderness of 
 beauty beneath us, a flower-garden and fruit-garden of 
 stone. What but silence befits my reverent thought of 
 this marble miracle, and yet I must essay the weakness 
 of words. The bliss of solitude will henceforth be en- 
 hanced by a vision that divided my heart between delight 
 and amazement." 
 
 "Venice, Dec. 20. The Doges would rattle their old 
 bones to see our iron-courser, mightier than the horses 
 of St. Mark. The city was scarcely visible from the car, 
 I only knew that Venice was near. We stopped at last, 
 and found ourselves in a modern railway station, not 
 noticeably different from one in Springfield or Chicago. 
 The old things followed us still, and we were seeking 
 a city of romance — wait. We descended the granite 
 steps and for the first time in our lives sat down on the 
 black cushions of a hearse-like boat, with a tall and grace- 
 ful prow, at either end of which a Venetian oars-man 
 makes his meager living by paddling another man's canoe. 
 
 "^Later, I stand in the center of the Piazza San Marco. 
 It is two o'clock. That brass Vulcan from the clock- 
 
JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 tower on the left strikes the signal bell, as he did four 
 years after Columbus discovered America. A score of 
 other bells tell the same story. The pigeons, sacred birds 
 of the citj^ know the hour, and from a hundred perches on 
 palace and cathedral, they fly down to the pavements to 
 be fed. They pick the food from that boy's hand. The 
 scene is as lovely and domestic as possible, and it carries 
 the mind back to the thirteenth century, when the Vene- 
 tian Admiral, besieging Candia, received from Venice on 
 the 'wings of the doves' news which gave him victor)', and 
 the grateful cit>' remembers these pigeons, or rather, their 
 descendants, as Berne remembers the bears!" 
 
 "Dec. 28. Again this date of Rome — 'the most solemn 
 and interesting that my hand can ever write.' So wrote 
 our dear Dr. Arnold, thirt}--three years ago. The Pan- 
 theon is truly the historic building of the world, and still 
 so beautiful within. It has majestic simplicity, producing 
 one undivided impression on the imagination, not requir- 
 ing, like St. Peter's, a repeated or prolonged contempla- 
 tion, not overwhelming you with its magnificence, not call- 
 ing your mind out into diverse fancies, but filling you with 
 'one sweetly solemn thought' of the majesty of man as 
 he reaches upward toward God. St. Peter's is 'the Pan- 
 theon in air,' yes, but with all modern art and civilization 
 placed beneath it as a pedestal. St. Peter's is a colossal and 
 multiplex thing. Its beauty (for nothing can be more 
 truly beautiful as a whole) is gigantesque and many- 
 sided. The Pantheon is 'simple, erect, austere, sublime.' 
 St. Peter's is a harmony. The Pantheon is a melody. 
 The former overwhelms you in some moods. The latter 
 causes a delicious tremble in your heart, in any mood. 
 
 "This morning I escaped all companionship by early 
 rising, and hurried off to the Pantheon, with my sermon. 
 
SIX MONTHS OF TRAVEL 103 
 
 The great blue eye of the glorious dome shone down 
 kindly on me. I studied what I had written about 'Oui 
 Father' in the temple where all gods but 'Our Father' 
 had been worshipped. A little boy and I were for a time 
 the sole occupants of this 'home of art and piety.' I sat 
 by Raphael's grave, and imagined the old Roman em- 
 perors stalking in the door as all of them had often done. 
 After reviewing my sermon, and musing away a little 
 time very profitably, I went to the Church of St. Mary 
 on the Capitoline, where the miraculous Bambino is ex- 
 hibited during the twelve days of Christmas. This doll, 
 covered with costliest jewels, reposes in a manger, and 
 all the scenery of the incarnation at Bethlehem (including 
 the angels) is exhibited after the style of Madame Tus- 
 saud in London! The sight is simply disgusting. The 
 superstition suffocates you. I strolled to the other side 
 of the hill. The Tarpeian Rock 'where Rome embraced 
 her heroes' and flung over her traitors, has been almost 
 leveled. It is still high enough to insure death to one 
 who should be pushed over it. I remembered Donatello 
 and the model. I was at the American Church by eleven. 
 A very large audience. Mr. Waite is a capital fellow, a 
 worthy minister of the new era in Rome. I am glad to 
 have had the privilege of preaching Christ in the city 
 where Paul was murdered, and where Luther caught a 
 vision of the second Babylon." 
 
 "Dec. 31. Roman streets are not interesting. The 
 boasted Corso is not forty feet wide. Those balconies 
 on each story tell you where you are. The carnival days 
 are not yet past, though their glory is dimmed year by 
 year. Notice that hand-cart with a stalwart Italian pull- 
 ing at it. See on it those letters, S. P. Q. R. ('Senatus 
 populusque Romanus.') I was startled at the first behold- 
 
104 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 ing. The letters which Rome carried on her victorious 
 standards from the Baltic to the Nile, are now painted on 
 a scavenger's cart! 
 
 "Beggars besought our pity at the Vatican gate. The 
 tides of Italian mendicancy are not to be kept back by 
 palaces. We hadn't any permesso to enter the Vatican, 
 but we entered and told an obliging fellow to secure per- 
 mission by the time we came out! The gates of heaven 
 turn on golden hinges, those of Rome on copper." 
 
 "This evening a large party of us went to the Colos- 
 seum. The air was clear in the light of a moon nearly 
 full. There were soldiers about and within the grand 
 old ruin. I went at once to the cross in the center of the 
 great arena where the early followers of the cross were 
 butchered. I seemed in the heart of a mountain valley. 
 The outer wall looked vastly remote. The moon flooded 
 us with her silver waves, and the stars shone through 
 the rents of ruin as when Byron was here. There are 
 little chapels all around the inner wall, and also a 
 Capuchin monk's pulpit, which I mounted. It was very 
 hard to actualize the' awful past to the imagination. The 
 gladiators who fought, the wild beasts who tore, the 
 martyrs who prayed, the emperors who laughed or wept 
 at the bloody spectacles, the eighty thousand brutalized 
 spectators, seemed creations of the historian's fancy. The 
 scene before us was too beautiful. In the sunlight you 
 may believe history. We ascended the stairw^ays to the 
 third story of this colossal ruin. I had been up before, 
 but our guide, with his great flambeau illuminating the 
 vast, vaulted passages, gave a weirdness to the scene that 
 was lacking before. The ages have plundered its mar- 
 bles, and stolen the iron clamps between its blocks, and 
 
SIX MONTHS OF TRAVEL 105 
 
 built great churches from its walls, but its grandeur is 
 scarcely impaired." 
 
 "To-day, January ist, we saw the stone pillar to which 
 Paul was chained. 'But the Word is not bound,' and the 
 hero-apostle is no longer bound, but rules in all the earth. 
 From this vile cell, his body was carried to glut the sham- 
 bles of his imperial butcher, and from his departing spirit 
 there went out an influence which has been the inspira- 
 tion of Christian lives for eighteen centuries. 
 
 "We passed over the modern road once more and re- 
 viewed the Forum. At times a sense of the awful past 
 comes over me with almost depressing force. Day by day, 
 with increasing knowledge and familiarity, Rome appears 
 to me more and more the image as well as mistress of the 
 world. We looked around once more before climbing 
 the Capitol. The Temple of Concord was the scene of 
 Cicero's magnificent indictment of Catiline. From those 
 few remaining stones, I almost imagine that a voice has 
 gone out through all the world! How the vision to-day 
 is linked with the memory of a little study-room and a 
 little recitation-room far off in the heart of an American 
 forest ! 
 
 "I have seen, too, Michael Angelo's Moses, It is in the 
 Church of St. Peter in Vinculis, where the apostle's chains 
 are kept. It was to be a part of the tomb of Julius II, 
 and is now, — only it over-shadows everj'thing else, and 
 makes the statue of the pope himself look very mean. 
 Truly, I know nothing so commanding, so imperial, so 
 prophet-like, as this sublime work. Nothing in the Vat- 
 ican is so profoundly impressive. 
 
 "A weak-eyed priest showed us about. 'Do you like 
 the King?' 'By force,' was the reply. Is the mighty 
 church falling?" 
 
io6 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 "Thursday, Jan. 8th. The whole morning was given 
 to St. Peter's, my fifth visit. Nobody has a right to pro- 
 nounce on the World's Cathedral until he knows it after 
 long study and repeated visits. I am conscious now of its 
 defects. The fagade, which hides so much of the dome, 
 the change from Michael Angelo's plan of a Greek cross 
 to the Latin cross, the ugly statue of St. Peter, the pure 
 cheerful light which pours through the unpainted win- 
 dows, thereby depriving us of illusions, the many monu- 
 ments to bad popes, the almost deification of one Galilean 
 fisherman, whose work was so inferior to Paul's — all of 
 these things must be taken into consideration in judging 
 of the world's greatest temple. But you give yourself 
 up to the glory of the interior, and it is not hard to for- 
 get, but hard to remember, what I have just mentioned. 
 The ever genial summer air, the mighty acres of marble 
 pavement, the sculptured pilasters, the magnificence of the 
 chapels, the sublime canopy beneath the dome, rising a 
 hundred feet, though seemingly far lower, the endless 
 riches which never tire and always startle you by new 
 disclosures, the long cataracts of sunlight that dash down 
 through the consecrated spaces, and above all that sculp- 
 tured epic poem, that splendid garden of mosaics, that mi- 
 raculous thought of Michael Angelo, blossomed out into 
 everlasting azure and purple and gold, from which all holy 
 apostles and saints look down with benediction on your 
 radiant up-turned face, the great, central dome, buttressed 
 by pillars each as large as a village church of New Eng- 
 land. All these things together, when God gives you soul 
 and mind enough to know them, make St. Peter's the one 
 church of all the ages." 
 
 Years later, in his sermon on Spiritual Worship, he 
 
SIX MONTHS OF TRAVEL 107 
 
 described the interior of St. Peter's, in which his mind 
 loved to linger. 
 
 "You enter the great vestibule of St. Peter's and 
 push aside the heavy curtain and slowly absorb the sug- 
 gestions of a scene which sometimes dwarfs and dims the 
 spaciousness and splendor of the outer universe. You 
 walk the consecrated pavements where armies might move 
 with freedom. There is no oppressiveness in this grand- 
 eur, no gloom in this solemnity. The cheerful light falls 
 tenderly through the ever-balmy air, on marble and mo- 
 saic, on bronze and gold. With exultation you move 
 toward the central shrine of St. Peter. Everything mag- 
 nifies as you approach. The pilasters expand into pillars, 
 which seem mighty enough to uphold the crystal arches 
 of the heavens. Slowly the majestic dome opens to your 
 vision. Its vastness seems lovingly to enclose and shelter 
 your greatest thought of God. But while your heart is 
 thus opened by the sensuous imagination, the divine Spirit 
 finds his home not amid those luminous spaces, but in 
 the worshipper's soul. Here is love which interprets love 
 and renders praises which are more acceptable than the 
 adornments of the world's cathedral. The architecture 
 of man is the plaything of time. And the moment shall 
 come when the golden lamps about St. Peter's tomb shall 
 be extinguished and the miracle of Michael Angelo shall 
 mingle in the dust of ancient Rome; but the architecture 
 of God abides. 'Ye are the temples of the Holy Ghost.' " 
 From Rome his road lay through Naples, bringing his 
 first view of the Mediterranean "Over which," he says, 
 "had hovered the dreams of my childhood ; the beautiful 
 little ocean of the ancient world that buffeted the heroes 
 and apostles o'f Greece, and Tj^e, and Carthage, and 
 Rome, and Jerusalem." From Naples he set sail for 
 
io8 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 Sicily. On the boat, as had happened to him before in 
 Italy, an Italian gentleman inquired if he were Rubin- 
 stein. Of Palermo and Syracuse, he relates much, adding: 
 "We passed what are called the Campis Laestrogonii, 
 where the Laestrogonian savages, referred to by Macaulay 
 in the first chapter of his history, lived. I remember 
 working hard to find out where those fellows dwelt." In 
 his onward way to Egypt, his final halt was Malta, 
 whence he writes: "I never expected to be shipwrecked 
 where Paul was, to caress a Maltese cat above the graves 
 of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, to sit down at 
 a table with nineteen men and no ladies, to attend a 
 sitting of the Maltese Parliament, and to see women 
 who all looked like nuns, yet these things have happened 
 to me." 
 
 In Egj'pt he remained a month, taking the long trip 
 up the Nile to the first cataract. With the stillness of 
 nature, and the ruins of the past about him, as the silent 
 dahabeah kept running aground, he wrote: "A Nile 
 voyage is just such a release as overworked laborers need. 
 It is the true way of finding a rest that is not more weari- 
 some than work." Indeed, such was his content during 
 those lazy weeks spent in conserving energy, that even the 
 Parisian ladies, plying him with questions about "the In- 
 dians, Longfellow, and the author of the 'Wide, Wide, 
 World' " failed to disturb his peace, however fractured 
 might be the French of his replies. Let us quote from his 
 letters : 
 
 "Top of the Great Pyramid, Feb. 14, 1874. 'Forty 
 centuries look down on you.' How queer it seems to be 
 here! And what a freak it is for me to be letter-writing 
 from such a place, at such a time! I have just made the 
 ascent. There are eleven Bedouins and three Anglo- 
 
SIX MONTHS OF TRAVEL 109 
 
 Saxons on this majestic mole-hill. One of the rascally 
 fellows who helped us up is singing 'Yankee Doodle,' in 
 order to win from us a 'nice backsheesh.' I look toward 
 the Nile. A Bedouin village lies at my feet. Beyond, are 
 fields that were green before Moses wept in his cradle 
 and will remain green when this monument of human 
 tyranny shall crumble or be swept away. The desert 
 which lies on every side cannot conquer the fertilizing 
 Nile-flood. I sit where Herodotus and Saladin and Napo- 
 leon have sat, and look out with saddened gaze over the 
 ruins of Memphis and the tombs of nameless kings. The 
 Sphinx still faces the east, but the hope of this world 
 comes not from the rising sun. Would that you could 
 sit here with me beneath this azure sky." 
 
 "Cairo, February 15. Our dragoman, Giogio Caligula, 
 a faithful fellow, is a Greek, and led us to a purely Greek 
 service. Hats off and boots on! 'Off and on' is a fre- 
 quent expression with us now. The old city of Memphis 
 was called by the Hebrews Noph. The city of Heliopolis 
 is the On of the Scriptures. Hence we speak of Egypt as 
 the land of Noph and On!" 
 
 "Monday afternoon we rode out four miles west of 
 Cairo to the famous Shoobra Palace Gardens. The im- 
 mense fountain in the palace court occupies the whole 
 area. It is unique and, strange to say, was lighted by 
 gas jets before gas was introduced into Paris. If you 
 want to see Cairo life, this is the place to drive. It is 
 Fifth Avenue, Rotten Row, the Champs Elysees, all in 
 one. Camels laden w^'th clover and wood, minute don- 
 keys ridden by bare-legged fellaheen (or countrymen) 
 returning home, European adventuresses in fine carriages, 
 American and English starers, and the viceroy himself in 
 
no JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 his gilded chariot and gay out-riders, these all jostle each 
 other on the Shoobra Road." 
 
 "On the Nile, February i8. 'Egypt,' said Herodotus, 
 'is the gift of the Nile.' That is all Egyptian geography 
 in a nutshell. The soul comes from God and longs for 
 God. Water comes from the sea and longs for the sea. 
 The rain torrents of tropical Africa, yearning to mingle 
 with the ocean took the easiest route and scooped out 
 a channel longer than the Mississippi, right through the 
 African sand. The Nile is the longest river in the world, 
 and though not so broad and majestic as the St. Lawrence, 
 yet to a Greek, who had seen only the little creeks of At- 
 tica, to a Roman who had swum the Tiber and fished in 
 the Arno, or even to a Goth from the Danube, the Nile 
 must have seemed the chief stream of the world. I met, 
 unexpectedly, some compatriots, this morning. They were 
 on an Egyptian bark, and had, each, one leg tied. They 
 were four American birds. American in origin, domestic 
 turkeys. I felt like rushing to their rescue. The 
 Pharoahs never saw a turkey on the Nile. Moses never 
 had roast turkey at the Egj^ptian banquets. The turkey 
 is America's gift to the world, and I claim every turkey I 
 see as an exiled fellow-countryman. (There, we have 
 just stuck in the mud, and I must go on deck to see what 
 the matter is.)" 
 
 "February 28. While anchored at Thebes, i. e., the 
 modern Luxor (east bank) I was invited to spend the 
 evening with an American, in his palatial dahabeah. One 
 of the party in this boat was — who do you suppose? 
 Father Hecker, the genial Irish-American orator, who 
 replied to Froude. I found him delightful. He has 
 been on the Nile since Christmas, resting. He has made 
 great collections of birds, and copied inscriptions, etc., etc. 
 
SIX MONTHS OF TRAVEL 
 
 He said, 'It is well for us, the infants of the world, to 
 come back to Egypt, the cradle. I have had to change 
 my chronology and some other things in the last few 
 months.' I spoke of the doctrine of a future life, as so 
 wonderfully expressed and illustrated in all the Egyptian 
 tombs and temples. 'Yes,' he said, 'and for that very 
 reason, I have thought Moses made very little of it. It 
 was a thing universally received in Egypt, and from wise 
 policy, Moses did not emphasize it. It w^ould have seemed 
 like copying from the ideas of that country to which the 
 Jews were only too anxious to return.' He asked me to 
 call again, on returning to Luxor. He expects to remain 
 some time pursuing birds and his Egyptian studies. I 
 have found the elucidation of several Bible mysteries since 
 coming to Egypt. Stanley's chapter, introductory to 
 'Sinai and Palestine' is the best picture of our voyage that 
 I have read." 
 
 "I must describe an evening's entertainment. It was 
 at Luxor. The German Consul there, an Arab, invited 
 the Baron to ask us all to an Arab concert. In an upper 
 room of the consulate, well furnished for a wonder, we 
 were seated around the walls and treated to pipes, cigars, 
 coflfee, sherbet, and date-wine. The musicians, four in 
 number, sat on the floor. Two of them played a sort of 
 violin, an instrument sounding like a saw undergoing the 
 surgery of a file. An old woman, partly vested, played a 
 sort of drum. Then four dancing girls, black and ugly, 
 came in and sat down and sang right barbarously. Next 
 came the barbaric dances, accompanied by the jingling of 
 little cymbals. The girls then rested and smoked and 
 drank wine and went at it again. Our ladies were stifled 
 by the smudge, deafened by the noise, and alarmed at some 
 of the possibilities of the dance, when the wine should take 
 
112 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 effect! I signaled to the Baron to give the sign to go, but 
 he was afraid of offending the Consul. At last I arose 
 and excused myself and the ladies followed. The men 
 stood it through. All the descriptions you ever read 
 about the beauty, etc., of the dancing girls of Egypt is 
 ridiculous, lying bosh. They are the most disgusting 
 creatures that one sees anywhere." 
 
 After leaving Egypt, the pivotal point in the next 
 month's journey was Jerusalem, and of Jerusalem, the 
 Holy Sepulchre. But it was six days after landing at 
 Joppa before he saw the city of David. Swerved by the 
 power of mere sentiment, he, with his traveling com- 
 panion, six guides and servants, tents and provisions, 
 fourteen horses and mules, made a detour by Bethlehem, 
 Hebron, and the Dead Sea, that they mignt first behold 
 Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives. They traversed the 
 Plain of Sharon, "one great wheat field," and encamped 
 in the land of Benjamin, bright with scarlet flowers re- 
 sembling poppies, which pilgrims called the "Saviour's 
 blood drops." He thus relates part of the story: "We 
 reached Bethlehem at four in the afternoon, and found our 
 tents pitched on the eastern slope of the hill in an olive- 
 grove, just below the convent walls. In the convent, or 
 rather in the grotto, are Turkish soldiers, kept there by 
 the Sultan to prevent the Christian sects who guard the 
 cradle of Jesus from cutting each other's throats! I 
 asked my Latin guide how many Greek monks there were 
 in the convent. His reply was 'Nous ne regardons pas 
 les Grecs.' This is the saddest thing about Bethlehem. 
 'Love one another.' I met an Arab here, who fought in 
 the French army at Sedan. He was pointing out the 
 hills beyond the Dead Sea, giving the modern Arabic 
 
SIX MONTHS OF TRAP' EL 113 
 
 names. I asked him which was Mt. Pisgah. *Mt. 
 Pisgah! I never heard of that!' " 
 
 "You remember Jacob's prophecy concerning Judab, 
 'Binding his foal to the vine and his ass's colt to the choice 
 vine.' Some of the stalwart knotty vines looked like good 
 hitching-posts. We followed the brook, (called a road) 
 and soon spattered into Hebron, a Mussulman city of ten 
 thousand inhabitants, very vile and fanatical. We knew 
 there were Jews in Hebron, with some one of whom we 
 hoped to get a lodging for the night. This we succeeded 
 in doing at once, and then rode through the town, dirty, 
 vile, infernal, in search of the Mosque or Harem (one of 
 the four sacred places of the Mohammedan and Jewish 
 world), beneath which is the cave of Machpelah, the tomb 
 of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and 
 Leah. We were scowled on by the villainous inhabitants, 
 who are taught to hate all Christians. Crowds of boys 
 followed us to the great Harem. We knew that it was 
 impossible to enter, that a bribe of a million dollars would 
 have been scorned. Still we wanted to see the building 
 beneath which was the cave, the only possession which 
 Abraham ever had in the Promised Land, his tomb and 
 that of his children. This is one of the few spots in Pales- 
 tine about which there never has been and never can 
 be dispute. The tomb was honored and guarded in the 
 days of Josephus, the early Christian writers describe it, 
 the Crusaders honored the shrine, but the Moslems have 
 held it now for nearly seven centuries. A sheikh con- 
 ducted us to a part of the outer wall, where a small portion 
 of the natural rock of the 'double cave' (Machpelah) is 
 exposed. This the Jews are permitted to kiss. I had 
 little time for reflection or sentiment. The rascally boys 
 were bent on insulting us. My coat was pulled three 
 
114 JOHN HE NRY BARROWS 
 
 times and a nasty wreath of straw was flung against me. 
 I turned and hurled it back ! The rhinoceros whip which 
 I had in my hand kept the villainous rabble a little way 
 off, and gave me a sense of power which was refreshing. 
 I have seldom been so indignant. I felt that Abraham 
 was my father, as well as theirs. His life of faith was 
 the glory of the whole religious world, and I did not en- 
 joy being insulted by the Ishmaelitish branch of Abra- 
 ham's posterity, who had no spiritual relationship to the 
 'Friend of God.' From the countless stones at my feet, 
 I felt that God could raise up better children to Abra- 
 ham than these infantile furies about me." 
 
 "Jerusalem drinks from a broken cistern. Her palaces 
 are buried beneath seventy feet of ruins. Her only garden 
 is Gethsemane. And yet no one ever approaches any 
 other city with the burning eagerness of him who is 
 drawing near to poor, discrowned Jerusalem. Her broken 
 rod swallows all their kingly sceptres. In the early dawn 
 we broke our camp at Elisha's fountain, above the plain 
 of Jericho, and began the chief journey of our lives. We 
 had gone to sleep, the night previous, with a certain 
 awful consciousness that before another evening came, 
 we should climb to the ridge of the Mount of Olives and 
 look down on the city of David. It was early Saturday 
 morning when we turned our horses' heads Zionward. 
 We had nearly four thousand feet to climb from the 
 depressed Jordan valley to the mountain-throne where 
 Jerusalem sits between the lion of Judah and the wolf 
 of Benjamin. Behind us was the past of Jewish history. 
 From our saddles we caught glimpses of the Dead Sea, 
 sending up for us as for Abraham a cloud of vapor, that 
 seemed the smoke of its eternal torment. Beyond, was the 
 long blue line of the Moab Hills. Pisgah and Nebo were 
 
From a Photograph taken in Rome in 1873. 
 
SIX MONTHS OF TRAVEL 
 
 there, indistinguishable. From that azure wall the dying 
 prophet had seen the land of promise and looked down 
 on this plain of Jericho, then covered with palm-trees 
 and busy with life. Amid those hills that touch the 
 eastern horizon, Elijah had been caught up in fiery trans- 
 lation. Along the green line of the willow-shaded Jordan 
 the voice of the Baptist had preached repentance as the 
 kingdom of heaven drew near. But our eyes seldom 
 reverted to all this. Eager expectation urged us on. Men 
 will laugh even in Palestine. It is the oldest of proverbs 
 that new skies do not make new people. A person is true 
 to himself, put him where you will. Women talk fashion 
 in St. Peter's and study dress in the Church of the Holy 
 Sepulchre. As we entered the noble harbor of Alexandria, 
 'the chief sea-port of the world,' I heard a New York 
 stock-broker and a Bombay merchant discussing Eries and 
 Illinois Centrals. Our amusement came from Moham- 
 med the sheikh, and his diminutive donkey. This 
 animal was perhaps three feet and a half high. On his 
 back was a little mountain of clothes and forage, with 
 saddle-bags containing the day's luncheon, and a leather 
 water-jug filled from the last spring. Perched on this 
 heap sat Mohammed, with a double-barreled shot-gun 
 strapped to his back, his short legs bare to the knee 
 stretched out horizontally on either side, while his red 
 Damascus slippers pointed like church-steeples, religiously 
 toward the skies. While he sat thus, in oriental medita- 
 tion, his eagle nose almost resting on his hairy chest, the 
 donkey, like Lot's wife, was seized with curiosity to ob- 
 serve what was going on behind and suddenly reversed 
 the position of his fore and hind feet. Result, Mohammed 
 lay by the roadside. He was not meditative, but profane. 
 Then Mohammed scrambled back on his whirligig and 
 
Ii6 JOHX HENRY BARROWS 
 
 fell into meditation until the animal repeated his observa- 
 tions of the landscape behind, when Mohammed struck 
 gravel again, and again climbed back to his perch. Pt)or 
 Mohammed! like many others, he found Jordan literally 
 a hard road to travel ! 
 
 "The simple mule-path, which needs no stroke of pick 
 and shovel, is the true Syrian road. However rocky its 
 bed and however slow the horse's or camel's foot in over- 
 coming the difficulties, the oriental mind is content. 
 There is a leaden satisfaction in following the old paths. 
 There is no desire for speed, and no mercy on the beast. 
 
 "It was something to enter the Holy City by the path 
 the Saviour followed in his last journey. When noon 
 came, we rested and lunched near two of the most char- 
 acteristic features of Palestine scenery, a fountain and a 
 ruin. Eg\'pt is watered only as the mechanical skill of 
 man can utilize one great mysterious force. But the Lord 
 gave his people a land wet by the rains of heaven, a land 
 of springs and fountains. Those are still God's bounty 
 to the oriental traveler, and by them one is sure to see 
 the relics of human sin and fallen greatness, the broken 
 foundation of some tomb or temple or city wall or modern 
 caravansary. At half-past one o'clock we entered St. 
 Stephen's gate, where watch is still kept by the four lions 
 of Godfrey. 
 
 "It is an event in a prosaic life to stand for the first 
 time at the gates of a walled city, especially an oriental 
 city. Here are the outlets and inlets of all activities. 
 The gates of Jerusalem came to mean the city itself. 
 Jehovah loveth the gates of Zion. They are the darlings 
 of the Lord, and the highest note of the Psalmist's praise 
 is the cry, 'Lift up your heads ye everlasting gates, and 
 the King of Glory shall come in.' " 
 
SIX MONTHS OF TRAVEL 117 
 
 "The Holy Sepulchre is brilliantly illuminated within 
 and without. Napoleon's tomb in the Hotel des Invalides 
 is the only other in the world that seems equally mag- 
 nificent. You stoop beneath a low archway and enter the 
 ante-chamber, where the stone on which the angel sat is 
 exhibited. Then you bow yourself once more and stand 
 in the holiest place of this world, if places can be holy. 
 Golden lamps make the once dark tomb of Joseph bril- 
 liant as the gateways of the sun. The native rock of the 
 tomb is covered over with other stone. The marble which 
 overlies the mantel on which the Saviour lay has been 
 worn with kisses and washed with tears. I was never 
 elsewhere so greatly moved. There came visions of armies 
 trooping from every land and meeting in close-set battle 
 about this sacred sepulchre. Rivers of blood seemed 
 flowing through its double portals. The very mistakes 
 of his followers illustrated the majesty of him for whose 
 tomb the Christian world was proud to die. Then I 
 watched the worshippers of the hour. Here was an old 
 man from the frozen steppes of Siberia, a true Scythian 
 of to-day. Then came a Greek priest in rich vestments, 
 followed by a poor woman from a village of Lebanon.- 
 Dark Egyptians and fair-haired sons of the west, here 
 met as children of Him who hath made of one blood all 
 nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth. At 
 last a Nubian woman, black as Ethiop's queen, passed 
 the sacred portal, and thinking of the wrongs which she 
 symbolized and of the freedom which Christ had wrought, 
 I felt that the Holy Sepulchre had deepened one lesson 
 in my heart, and that henceforth for me there should be 
 neither Jew nor Greek, barbarian nor Scythian, bond nor 
 free. 
 
 "On Sunday afternoon I came down the Mount of 
 
ii8 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 Olives and entered the little gate which opens into Geth- 
 semane, it must be close to the site of the ancient garden, 
 and there read the story of the agony of prayer and the 
 conquering might of His purpose to do the will of the 
 Father. Eight venerable olive-trees, some of them fifteen 
 centuries old, sentinel the sacred ground. The olive is 
 the Christian's tree. The graceful palm was once the 
 symbol of Palestine, as we learn from the coins of the 
 Maccabees. The vine was once the glory of Judah, and 
 wreathed its great marble clusters on the portico of the 
 last temple. But palm and vine are gone, and the olive 
 abides." 
 
 From Jerusalem he journeyed northward, pitching his 
 tent at Nazareth, Damascus, and Beirout. His record 
 reads: "April 6. Our Lx)rd did not look upon superb 
 natural beauty or grandeur. The hills encompassing 
 Nazareth are almost barren. A few olive-groves and fig 
 trees are about. One level wheat-field leads southward 
 toward the great battlefield of Esdraelon. There was 
 verj' little in the ordinary view on which the soul of the 
 Divine One could have fed. His inspiration was not 
 from nature. He was above it. He knew the soul of 
 natural things, but his own soul was not formed and 
 fashioned by the outer world. His 'youth sublime' was 
 lighted from 'fountains elder than the day.' His Father 
 wrought upon him, so that the divine type within him 
 took possession of his manhood. It seemed very sad to 
 me, this afternoon, as I thought of ancient Nazareth, to 
 think of Jesus having lived for thirty years in the midst 
 of miserable humanity, waiting his time. But Nazareth 
 is not all commonplace. We climbed the hill back of the 
 village just at sunset. It was a difficult walk of twenty 
 minutes, well repaying us, however, for we had one of 
 
SIX MONTHS OF TRAVEL 119 
 
 the most extensive views in Palestine. The sun was just 
 dropping below the ridge of Carmel, that ran away out 
 into the sea. The ^Mediterranean (dragging my fancv 
 clear across to the western world) lay there, snug against 
 the mountain, and broadening away toward the horizon. 
 I never knew before that Jesus might daily have looked at 
 the sea, on which the world was to come to visit the home 
 of his childhood. South of us was the great Esdraelon 
 Plain, the Plain of Megiddo (the Armageddon of the 
 Apocalypse), with Gilboa and Tabor in the midst of it. 
 Eastward were transjordanic hills and northward the 
 snow-peak of Hermon. The contrast between the Naza- 
 reth vale and this hill-top view reminded me of that be- 
 tween the obscurity of Christ's early life, and the growing 
 glory of to-day." 
 
 "We left Nazareth at seven this morning, climbing the 
 hill which closes the vale on the north. I looked back 
 on a scene of peculiar interest, Nazareth, with her 
 churches and white stone houses, nestled in the vale, amid 
 her cactus hedges and olive-trees. A flock of black goats 
 were feeding on the hill-side, to the west. A string of 
 fifteen camels (pilgrims from Damascus to Cairo) was 
 entering the town. Two camps of travelers were just 
 breaking, and scores of pack-animals stood about the Vir- 
 gin's Fountain. In the cemetery more than twenty w^omen 
 were wailing over their dead. I could but think of the 
 words of the beloved disciple of the Nazarene, 'God shall 
 wipe away all tears from their eyes ; and there shall be no 
 more death, neither sorrow nor crying.' I shall always 
 remember my last view of Nazareth." 
 
 "Damascus, Saturday evening, April 11, 1874. I write 
 from the oldest city of the world, a city that may have 
 been old when Abraham chased hither the five kings who 
 
JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 captured Lot. At seven I saw Damascus on the horizon, 
 with its white minarets shooting up from a wilderness of 
 verdure. At two we entered the city. I spent the morn- 
 ing in reading the book of Acts. It is very easy reading 
 on horseback. We followed the road which Paul must 
 have taken. To me Damascus is associated with what I 
 regard as the greatest event in the history of Christianity, 
 the conversion of the persecuting Pharisee into the serv- 
 ant of Jesus Christ. The sun fairly burned down on us. 
 What must have been the brightness of that light that 
 shone above the brightness of a Syrian noonday! Damas- 
 cus is encompassed with gardens of tropical wealth of 
 vegetation. 'A diamond set in emeralds' as the Arabian 
 poets say, and yet earthly and sensual. To live like a 
 Damascene is to be a lazy animal trying to forget every- 
 thing, or a spry animal trying to get everything." 
 
 The last of April he set sail for Athens. He writes on 
 shipboard: "April 22. Yesterday morning at eight the 
 hills of Cyprus were in sight. We soon dropped anchor in 
 the harbor of Larnaka, the chief seaport of the Island, 
 where five hundred Greek pilgrims went ashore with the 
 patriarch of Jerusalem. There are still seven hundred 
 people on the steamer! Such a sight as the decks present! 
 We went ashore for two hours, called on the American 
 Consul, General Cesnola, who made the famous Cesnola 
 collection of Cyprian antiquities, now in the Metropolitan 
 Art Museum at New York. I sent him my card with a 
 word or two about General Bates, who was in Libby 
 Prison with him. (The Consul was sick and wouldn't 
 receive the party.) A blue-coated 'kavasse' rushed down 
 stairs like lightning to order me into the general's pres- 
 ence. We had a delightful talk about General Bates, 
 etc. Cesnola spoke, with tears filling his eyes, of Sum- 
 
SIX MONTHS OF TRAVEL 
 
 ner's death, 'the best man in America,' as he called him. 
 The sad news came to me in Beirut. How the mighty 
 oaks have fallen! Sumner has been my ideal statesman 
 ever since I gave my boy's soul to the cause of freedom. 
 I could write his biography from my memory. How glad 
 I am the old Bay State did tardy justice to her greatest son 
 whom she had insulted. Sumner had his faults and made 
 his mistakes, but as long as human history shall be writ- 
 ten, his name will be known as that of the bravest soldier 
 that ever carried the banner of freedom. A man of peer- 
 less culture and of granite fortitude, he gave a giant's 
 strength to the help of the lowly. His name and fame 
 have gone out through all the earth. His words are clas- 
 sic while the English language endures. His work and 
 his memory are America's priceless heritage. God save 
 the old Commonwealth of Massachusetts! God bless the 
 Republic! I have had a few proud tears to shed beneath 
 the cedars of Lebanon. A 'cedar of God' has fallen." 
 
 His face was now turned homeward. Thoughts of 
 happy meetings and of work to be done pressed in upon 
 him but they could not dull the edge of Grecian charms. 
 He writes: "This morning dawned on the ^gean with 
 a beauty that made me a sun-worshipper. Homer's sea 
 is wonderfully lovely. No wonder that Greek fancy drew 
 Venus from these waves." And again, "As we left Athens 
 the hills were so blue, I thought them vast blocks of 
 lapis-lazuH with a background of luminous, palpitating, 
 amber sky." 
 
 From Greece, his course ran up through Italy, Paris, 
 and London. From Florence, in an article that was 
 printed in The Independent, he describes the International 
 Flower Show. 
 
 "An International Flower Show, in such a city, in the 
 
JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 month of May! It is like advertising the return of 
 Arcadia, or the rehabilitation of the Golden Age. The 
 King of Italy gave his royal but not handsome presence 
 to the simple ceremony of the inauguration. The face 
 of Victor Emmanuel is in striking contrast with Italian 
 art and nature, and especially with such a combination of 
 natural and artistic beauty as Florence to-day exhibited. 
 As the King stood on the summit of the great cascade, 
 surrounded by gigantic plants of rarest grace, and looked 
 upon the gay dresses, the bright uniforms, and the floral 
 profusion below, one could but think of a fairy scene, with 
 a buffalo as the central figure. But Flora rules to-day, 
 and it becomes us to examine her beautiful treasures. On 
 our right as we enter are two little gardens of tulips, 
 from Haarlem, of almost every conceivable combination 
 of color. I believe no nation ever ventured to compete 
 with Holland in tulips. 'What can he do that cometh 
 after the King?' Here are pinks from Geneva, looking 
 too sweet to sympathize with theological warfare. Augs- 
 burg comes to Florence with a rich bouquet in her right 
 hand, and extorts a 'confession' to which there are no 
 dissenters. A collection of pansies from Leghorn, some 
 of them black, others only 'freaked with jet,' recalled the 
 violets which Lowell, in dreary February, threw on the 
 grave of his friend, the poet, Arthur Hugh Clough. The 
 roses bloom there now and the English cemetery smiles 
 with May blossoms. I made my pilgrimage to Mrs. 
 Browning's tomb to-day; but gazed with deeper emotions 
 on the plain slab inscribed with the name of the great 
 Boston heretic. Loving hands had decked the grave with 
 white lilies of Val d'Arno. Those of us who believe 
 that Theodore Parker strayed far from the truth must 
 admire the greatness of his heart and the strength and 
 
SIX MONTHS OF TRAVEL 12.3 
 
 fervor with which he loved the God whom he had not 
 seen and the brother whom he had seen." 
 
 In London he writes of two preachers. "When I ar- 
 rived in front of Spurgeon's Tabernacle, I found myself 
 one of a thousand waiting. But I showed mj' card to an 
 usher, and he referred me to an officer who gave me a 
 little ticket in the shape of an envelope, saying, 'Put 
 something in the envelope, drop it in that box, and walk 
 in that gate.' I was admitted to the first gallery. When 
 I explained how far I had come to another usher, he said 
 that all Americans talked just that way. Still, he gave 
 me, after a while, a seat in the front row, near the great 
 elevated platform called the pulpit, and I w^as thoroughly 
 happy. The vast room w^as filled at fifteen minutes of 
 eleven, just as completely as Beecher's church. Mr. 
 Spurgeon looks much younger than I supposed him to 
 be. Indeed, he is only forty. After a strong, vigorous, 
 spiritual prayer, he read one of Watts's hymns, with his 
 glorious voice, and then w^e sang! I thought I was back 
 in Plymouth Church. Then he read parts of the sixth and 
 seventh chapters of Acts, commenting in a way that would 
 have delighted Walter, and did me. Then came another 
 prayer full of rememberable things. 'Get glory out of us 
 somehow^ O Lord !' ' May we be on tip-toe of expecta- 
 tion of invisible things.' He said that his heart was en- 
 vious with a hunger for souls when he thought of the 
 Lord's work in Scotland. (Afterwards he spoke of 
 Moody and Sankey.) He prayed for America in a way 
 that made a fellow cry! Then came another hymn, then 
 the notices, and then a sermon an hour long, on Stephen's 
 martyrdom, one of the richest, most pungent, and most 
 telling sermons I have ever heard. Spurgeon went far 
 beyond my expectations. What a grip on the Saxon 
 
124 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 English he has! Here is something that I noted. 'Death 
 is only the crown. Life is the head that must wear it.' 
 The sermon was followed by the benediction, a new thing, 
 to me. I am not sure but Spurgeon has rightly divined 
 human nature, in this feature of the service. God bless 
 the great apostle! He has not Beecher's versatile genius 
 and varied culture. He has not Beecher's variety. He 
 does not stir you all up, as Beecher does. But he sends 
 arrows right through you. He preaches Christ with a 
 heart as big as Luther's and with a mastery of English like 
 John Bunyan. 
 
 "About three I went into Westminster Abbey in the 
 north transept, just below the statue of Lord Mansfield. 
 The crowd filled every inch of standing and sitting room 
 as far as I could see. The music was the sweetest that 
 ever came to my ear. When the service was over, a new 
 man arose from a new part of the abbey to preach. He 
 seemed to be about fifty-five years of age, wore a black 
 velvet skull-cap, and read from a blue manuscript his 
 text, Ps. 68: 1. 'Now let the Lord arise, and let his 
 enemies be scattered.' His voice reached everywhere 
 (where there was anj'body to listen). His reading was 
 not stiff, but hearty, and good-natured. The man's face 
 was pleasant and thoughtful. He spoke of the origin of 
 the text. David had taken it from the morning shout 
 of the Camp of Moses. He illustrated its frequent use in 
 Old Testament history, with fulness of learning. Then 
 he described occasions in the history of the church when 
 the words 'Now let God arise,' etc., had rung out like a 
 trumpet. He spoke of Origen, and Savonarola, and 
 Cromwell, with a touch of the old rhetorical brilliancy 
 with which he had made me familiar as I read his words 
 in my librar}' in the far west, or by the Jordan, and be- 
 
SIX MONTHS OF TRAVEL 125 
 
 neath the walls of Jerusalem in the far east! I needed 
 no one to tell me that I was listening to an old friend. 
 Dean Stanley preaches a splendid Christian morality. He 
 knows what Christianity is in its relation to civilization, 
 to the state, to society, to church organizations, but he 
 could not bring a living Christ to the masses as does 
 Spurgeon. I love him for his large charity. I admire him 
 for his wide and elegant scholarship, and I gladly shout 
 the old war-cry, 'On, Stanley, on!' " 
 
 The following are selections from his last letter to 
 America, written partly in London, partly on shipboard, 
 to Mrs. May Riley Smith: 
 
 "I must not write a word till I have laid my offerings 
 at the feet cf the young child. Permit a man from the 
 east (not a wise man) to pay his tribute to the little king 
 who has come to bind its father and mother with new 
 chains of love. I have no gold (to spare) ! I have no 
 incense (I neglected to buy it when in Jerusalem). I 
 have no myrrh from 'the spicy shores of Araby the blessed.' 
 But I give my love and my prayers to the little wingless 
 cherub, and I freely offer you any advice in the training 
 of this new 'heir of all the ages in the foremost' cradle 
 'of time.' 
 
 "I send you a flower from the chestnut-tree in Abney 
 Park, under which Watts used to sit and meditate his 
 hymns. I have visited his grave in Bunhill Fields, near 
 that of dear John Bunyan and Daniel Defoe. I pre- 
 ferred Robinson Crusoe to Pilgrim's Progress when I 
 was of your age — (I mean when I was young!) but my 
 tastes as well as my needs have changed since. Opposite 
 Bunhill Fields is the chapel where John Wesley preached. 
 I went up into the great man's pulpit and occupied it! 
 Wesley's tomb is just back of the chapel. I send you a 
 
126 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 floral souvenir which you may give to any Methodist 
 friend that wants it. There is one Englishman that I 
 revere more than any other. Of course I found my way 
 to St. Giles's church, and stood with proud and grateful 
 love over the grave of John Milton, 'the glory of English 
 literature, the champion and martyr of English liberty.' 
 How many recollections, reaching back to my early col- 
 lege days, when I slept with the big red volume of Mil- 
 ton's works, came to me then ! How much of my mental 
 furnishings, how many of my best aspirations have come 
 from years given to the study of him who wrote with the 
 pen and heart of an archangel! Leaving St. Giles, a 
 beautiful church, fit resting place for a beautiful soul, I 
 felt a familiar sensation creeping over me. So I entered 
 the Milton Coffee House, and sat down to a sixpenny 
 dinner! It was pleasant, as I devoured my roast beef, 
 to look up to the walls of the room and see Milton's face 
 looking at me, and Cromwell's, too, and that of Macau- 
 lay, Milton's greatest eulogist. I call that a literary din- 
 ner. The cost was sixpence ha'penny. I must be exact. 
 
 "One of my happiest afternoons in London was spent 
 on the Thames, riding way down to Greenwich and 
 Woolwich and back. Did I see the grand spectacle of 
 London's glories, as the swift boat shot along? Yes, but, 
 I had just purchased for eleven pence Beecher's last 
 lectures on Preaching (the best thing that ever came from 
 him) and I devoured three of his discourses with more 
 hunger than I have had for the last six da}'s. He made 
 me almost forget Westminster and the Temple and the 
 Tower and the great bridges and all the pageantry of 
 river life. You see I am getting into my preaching harness 
 once more. 
 
 "Let me tell you a pleasant thing. You know of the 
 
SIX MONTHS OF TRAVEL 127 
 
 great revivals in Edinburgh and Glasgow, under our 
 friends Aloody and Sankey. Kave you thought, while 
 you have been in your sick-room far away, that your 
 words were comforting and inspiring thousands, in the 
 land of cakes and brither Scots? But it is a fact. I was 
 much amused yesterday in Glasgow, to see in a shop win- 
 dow, among photographs of eminent persons like Queen 
 Victoria, John Bright, Earl Derby, etc., the smiling face 
 of our friend Sankey. The minstrel shall stand before 
 kings, might be added to Solomon's Proverbs. (Mr. 
 Sankey was singing one of Mrs. Smith's songs, "Let us 
 gather up the sunbeams.") What a world of memories 
 my mind wanders through as I review the past year. I 
 am certainly the same old fellow — a little stouter, far 
 healthier, perhaps a little less mean — for I have had a 
 wonderful experience of divine goodness," 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS YEARS 1 874- 1 88 1 
 
 My father spent the next seven years in Massachu- 
 setts. During this period we can readily descry changes 
 in his character; for like every life, whatever its unity, his 
 was a kind of palimpsest; at times its former record was 
 partly erased, and for it another substituted. His new 
 inscriptions may largely be assigned to his new environ- 
 ment. He grew both less impulsive and more intense as 
 he assumed responsibilities in communities where the evils 
 were more rigid, distinctions of rank allotted with greater 
 nicety, and sympathies but slowly demonstrated. 
 
 In 1874, he entered Andover Theological Seminary, 
 where, although for a time Professors Park and Phelps 
 were absent, he passed a profitable year. The autobiog- 
 raphy of John Stuart Mill was causing much discussion 
 that fall; and many Christian people were of the opinion 
 that it would do serious harm. In a debate under the 
 auspices of the Porter Rhetorical Society, he upheld the 
 opposite side, which accorded with his life-long faith that 
 fair play is ever wise as well as honorable, and that the 
 larger truth must eventually absorb the lesser. His win- 
 ning the debate may also possess significance. Through- 
 out the winter he frequently preached in Park Street 
 Church, Boston, and so successfully that its deacons made 
 advances to him. These, and a call from the First Con- 
 gregational Church of Detroit, he rejected, believing him- 
 self as yet unequal to a metropolitan pulpit. In this he 
 doubtless acted wisely ; he was but twenty-seven years old, 
 
MASSACHUSETTS YEARS 129 
 
 with uncertain health, and a still scanty stock of sermons. 
 Besides, some lessons can be mastered quicker in a small 
 community than in a large one. When asked by a friend 
 if he were waiting for opportunities, he replied, "Yes, and 
 making them." 
 
 Dr. Francis E. Clark tells us: "It is nearly thirty years 
 since I met him first. He was a student in Andover, alert, 
 erect, wide-eyed, with a distingue look that has grown 
 with the years, and which befits the crowding dignities 
 and honors of these later days. One of my first recollec- 
 tions of my friend was when I as a student was walking 
 down Andover Hill on the eve of a debate with another 
 school in which I was one of the contestants. I met Bar- 
 rows walking up the hill, and he sung out in his cheery 
 way, 'Go in and win, Clark. I believe in you everj' 
 time.' Doubtless he has forgotten the incident long ago, 
 but I have not, and it is characteristic of his life. 
 
 "I have seen him when upon the same platform with 
 myself follow a somewhat uninteresting speaker with 
 glowing face and moistened eyes, because he saw the 
 beauty and nobility of the thought which others, looking 
 only at the halting outward expression, failed to catch. I 
 have knelt at the same bench with him in the Quiet Hour 
 at a Christian Endeavor Convention while the leader 
 offered the closing prayer, and the rude bench shook with 
 the intense emotion of the one at my side. A cold-blooded, 
 critical man would very likely have been picking to pieces 
 the rhetoric of the prayer, and have risen to his feet un- 
 moved. 
 
 "This is the secret, in part, at least, of Dr. Barrows's 
 moving eloquence, for few men can sway an audience as 
 he can. He himself opens his mind to others, and because 
 of this, others open their minds to him. He is moved 
 
Uo JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 by others; therefore he moves others. This, too, is the 
 secret of the abiding character of his friendships. He 
 does not use men for his convenience and profit, and they 
 never suspect him of it. He does not love a friend to- 
 day and discard him to-morrow because he has got through 
 with him. When he grapples a man to his heart it is with 
 hooks of steel, because it is the man's good points that 
 he sees and loves, while he is generously blind to his weak- 
 nesses." 
 
 Reverend James L. Hill, another friend whom he made 
 at Andover, writes: "In that day ministers used to dis- 
 cuss the question, 'In preparation for the pulpit shall a 
 man prepare himself or his sermon?' Dr, Barrows pre- 
 pared himself. He stopped at nothing that would better 
 fit him for public service. He lived for it; he died in it. 
 Worn with his studies in Andover, and with supplying 
 Sundays the Park Street Church in Boston, he would say 
 to me on Saturday afternoon, 'Let us get a horse and 
 carriage and you drive. The morning cometh. The serv- 
 ice will be enough better to justify it.' " 
 
 That work to which he at length gave himself lay in 
 the neighboring city of Lawrence. The accomplished 
 Reverend Theodore T. Munger had just resigned from its 
 Eliot Congregational Church. This had been founded 
 ten years previous by a half dozen influential families who 
 felt that some church was needed to reach the factory 
 , employees. Its membership now numbered one hundred 
 and twenty-six. My father was involved in debt which he 
 had contracted during his expensive foreign travels. With 
 the debt the Church, in February, offered to help him, if 
 he would accept its call. To its people his heart went out, 
 and without waiting to receive from Andover his B. D. 
 degree, he began his new duties in Lawrence, on March 
 
MASSACHUSETTS YEARS i3£ 
 
 14th, 1875, and was both ordained and installed the 29th 
 of April. 
 
 With the ordination he had some difficulty. The exam- 
 ination by the Andover Conference surprised him. It was 
 far less thorough than he had anticipated. Moreover, on 
 one point he disagreed with his examiners; it was his be- 
 lief that all who loved the Lord Jesus Christ should be 
 invited to the Lord's Supper, whether church members 
 or not, since the minister stood simply in the place of 
 Christ, who had made the invitation general. After 
 being badgered for several hours, he lost one vote, by his 
 quickness of retort. When it was suggested to him that 
 the Devil himself might accept his invitation, he rejoined, 
 "We have him ever with us." Without reaching a de- 
 cision, the meeting adjourned, to reassemble later. At 
 length the audience gathered above for the Installation 
 service became impatient at the delay, and the conference, 
 unable to make him retract, voted to ordain him. Years 
 after, when the reputation of Andover for over-liberality 
 frightened the churches, many a committee wrote to him, 
 asking if in his opinion it would be dangerous for them to 
 call a young Andover man whom they liked. He must 
 always have smiled at his invariable advice to "offer the 
 young man a chance." Dr. E. K. Alden gave the sermon 
 that ordained him into the ministry, and the Boston 
 preacher couU hardly have selected words more singularly 
 appropriate to the new pastor, than his text, "Bring forth 
 things old and new out of the treasury." 
 
 On the sixth of May, that same year, though still in 
 debt, he was married. This proved a wise step. In 
 Lawrence, as always, my mother was of incalculable aid 
 to him, not merely in many practical ways, by her ability 
 to economize, her large Bible class of factory women, her 
 
132 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 calls, her hours of reading aloud, undaunted even by 
 "Charnock on the Attributes," but by her good counsel, 
 high ideals, and unfailing sympathy. Through their com- 
 bined efforts and prayers and the support of its members, 
 the Eliot Church grew rapidly, m.ore than doubling its 
 membership. Both Missionary and Temperance work 
 interested him. At his invitation Francis Murphy con- 
 ducted a remarkable temperance campaign in Lawrence, 
 in which he assisted. But the church v.as in his mind 
 primarily a place of prayer, wherein men received the 
 sacraments and learned of God. A church was not a 
 factorj^ but a mountain stream. It was a minister's duty 
 to keep its springs pure, its waters abundant, its bed un- 
 blocked with rubbish, rather than to construct mill-wheels 
 for it to turn or ships to float on its surface. Any at- 
 tempt to cure the evil in human hearts without Christ, he 
 used often to say, was like trying "to extinguish Vesuvius 
 with cologne water." And the means that most pro- 
 foundly interested him for bringing men to God through 
 Christ was preaching. 
 
 Hence he naturally continued his theological reading, 
 spent hours daily in Bible study, and devoted most of his 
 strength to sermon writing and to preparation for prayer- 
 meetings. During the summer of 1879, while the church 
 was being enlarged to accomm.odate its increased member- 
 ship, he preached in the city hall. To his surprise, he 
 had crowded audiences, and the Lawrence papers printed 
 and discussed with enthusiasm his sermons. Some of 
 these were on such popular subjects as the "Duties of 
 ■Husbands and Wives," "Amusements," "Church-going," 
 "Hopeful Signs in the Political Life of Lawrence," 
 "Modern Attacks on the Bible;" others, on "Tempta- 
 
MASSACHUSETTS YEARS 133 
 
 tions," "Christian Contentment," "The Divinity of 
 Christ." 
 
 One of his chief experiences during those Lawrence 
 years was his attendance on the Beecher Council. It will 
 be remembered that for some time Mr. Beecher had been 
 scurrilously attacked by his enemy, Theodore Tilton ; that 
 in 1874 a Committee of his Church had completely exon- 
 erated him ; that the Beecher-Tilton trial had then ensued 
 in the Brooklyn city court, at whose end the jury and pub- 
 lic were divided over Mr. Beecher's innocence, in which 
 the judge and leading lawyers believed. In 1876 there 
 was still hostility to Plymouth Church and to its minister, 
 and much trouble was being caused by a few members who 
 refused to attend its services and threatened to call coun- 
 cils if their names were dropped from the church roll. 
 Therefore, in February, Plymouth Church summoned 
 a National Advisory Council, extending invitations to one 
 hundred and seventy-two churches and twenty-eight 
 eminent ministers without churches. The joy felt by this 
 young and unknown Lawrence pastor on receiving an in- 
 vitation to join the council was intense. His faith in his 
 hero, over whose sufferings and diminished influence he 
 grieved, had never flagged. The following are extracts 
 from letters to his wife: "Brooklyn, Feb. 16, 1876. In 
 Dunton's store I was taken for the 'gasconading harlequin' 
 Tilton. On entering Plymouth Church VvC were sur- 
 rounded by friends * * * Henry Ward was there, 
 serene, happy, without a care, — except his care for others, 
 for he was busy distributing letters to mem^bers. We sat 
 by General Bates. The galleries were filled. The body 
 of the house was reserved for delegates and pastors. At 
 two, Mr. Beecher stepped upon the platform; the pulpit 
 had -been removed, and flowers were there in great abun- 
 
134 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 dance. Nobody who saw him, as with perfect command 
 of himself and dignified deliberation he began his address 
 of welcome, would have imagined that any trouble had 
 come to his life. His Saviour's words were true of him, 
 'My peace I leave with you.' His address was beautiful 
 and just to the point. He spoke of our leaving work 
 that could ill spare us, but hoped that through God's 
 blessing on us here, we should carry back to our labors 
 a new spirit of Christian zeal and love. Dr. Bacon was 
 elected moderator, nominated by Dr. H. M. Storrs. Gov- 
 ernor Dingley of Maine, and General Bates were elected 
 assistant moderators. After Dr. Bdcon's appropriate 
 opening words, and the appointing of a business com- 
 mittee, came Mr. Beecher's address. It was simply sub- 
 lime. I never heard more impressive speaking. All felt 
 that the Lord was with him. * * * Mr. Beecher 
 had designated the pastor and delegate of the Eliot Church 
 to the house of Professor Raymond. We told Mr. 
 Beecher that we were being entertained by friends, and 
 he said, 'It is best to have as little as possible to do with 
 Plymouth Church.' " 
 
 "February 17. Mr. Beecher was asked many questions 
 and his replies in the evening were electrifying, especially 
 in his account of the relations of Dr. Storrs and Dr. Bud- 
 ington to himself. Men broke down and wept. This 
 Council will do great good, simply by clearing up some 
 things and enabling men to see matters as they are. News 
 of Dr. Bushnell's death came this morning. Dr. Bacon 
 and President Porter spoke, and ]\Ir. Beecher prayed us 
 all into tears. God bless Mr. Beecher." 
 
 Among his diversions were the study of history'', Dante, 
 and Art, and a journey to Utah, where he became much 
 interested in the Mormon problems there confronting 
 
. MASSA CHUSETTS YEARS uS 
 
 his brother Walter. He and his wife were given to hos- 
 pitality. They entertained relatives, friends, and many 
 such celebrated transients, as Joseph Cook, and Wash- 
 ington Gladden. One of their most frequent and delight- 
 ful guests was an old Paris acquaintance, the distinguished 
 artist, Colonel James Fairman. Under Colonel Fair- 
 man's supervision an art circle of two hundred members 
 was formed in Lawrence, and it came to pass that during 
 one winter my mother read to my father nearly forty books 
 on art. Another charming guest, in 1878, was Wendell 
 Phillips, They were then living a little out of town 
 where for several weeks no servant could be induced to 
 follow. Throughout the two days of Wendell Phillips' 
 stay, the domestic machinery moved so smoothly that he 
 failed to perceive that Mrs. Barrows was running it un- 
 aided. At his departure she could not resist telling him. 
 He thereupon rebuked her for keeping him in the dark, 
 remarking, "I could have been of great assistance. My 
 chicken and coffee might have equalled yours, for, owing 
 to my wife's invalidism, I have learned to cook scientifi- 
 cally, and after the servant's sudden exit, my wife some- 
 times says, "This is so delicious, I suspect the girl's gone!" 
 After Wendell Phillips' death, years later, my father 
 wrote of him: 
 
 "I knew him a little and loved him much. He was 
 personally the most fascinating of men, and the closer 
 you came to him, the more delightful and noble he seemed, 
 with his 'ineffable sweetness' and that winning courtesy 
 which disarmed all prejudice. It is said that the meas- 
 urements of the Apollo Belvidere were almost precisely 
 those of Wendell Phillips. But while he had the per- 
 sonal splendor of the Greek Apollo, the light which 
 warmed his soul and flamed his cheek, and seemed at times 
 
136 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 to surround his whole person, fell from the Transfigured 
 Christ. Several times I have bowed and knelt with him 
 in prayer, and have listened to his own voice in supplica- 
 tion, and I believe that, tolerant as he was with freedom 
 of thought, severe as he was in rebuking churchly sins, im- 
 patient as he was with all cant, he had a child's heart of 
 piety. Of course he had more faith in the religion of 
 action than in the religion of profession alone. After 
 relating to me many instances of noble self-devotion on 
 the part of others in the rescue of fugitive slaves, he would 
 ask, 'Wasn't that Christian?' He spoke to me of a certain 
 scholarly and skeptical English book that he had just 
 read, and asked me to find and send him some thorough 
 criticisms of it which he thought must have appeared in 
 some of the theological reviews. 'Christianity,' he said, 
 'is a great moral power, the determining force of our 
 present civilization. Unbelief has written books, but it 
 never lifted a million men into a united struggle. The 
 battle for human rights was finally fought on a Christian 
 plane.' 
 
 "I heard him lecture on nine different occasions, begin- 
 ning with the winter of 1867, and on none of these was 
 there anything to call forth his latent power. But I 
 had learned by heart the volume of his addresses pub- 
 lished in 1863, and I now attribute to that early familiar- 
 ity with his words, the best part of my knowledge of pub- 
 lic speech. Of course he disappointed those who are 
 charmed by vocal displays and loud sensationalism, but 
 when roused, he made men feel not only the rhythmic 
 beauty of his tones, of his sentences, and of his manner, 
 but the moral greatness of the orator himself. Beneath 
 the easy and graceful words there was a subduing maj- 
 esty and might. At the close of one of his lectures in 
 
MASSACHUSETTS YEARS 137 
 
 New York, I introduced to him my friend Alexy, who 
 said, 'How can one speak so?' Mr. Phillips replied, 
 with that smile which was sunshine to his friends, 'Have 
 it in your heart, and then practice.' Profound sincerity 
 was at the root of his eloquence, added, of course, to some 
 of the finest intellectual gifts man ever possessed, and 
 besides this was the drill of years of debate. 
 
 "His life and words were joined into an indissoluble 
 moral oneness. A colored minister once came to me for 
 help for his Church. I inquired if he had seen Wendell 
 Phillips. His eyes rolled, and with wondering Joy he 
 exclaimed: 'Yes, and he gave me fifty dollars.' In a quiet, 
 constant benevolence, Mr. Phillips's fortune melted under 
 his touch. A friend of mine saw him coming out of 
 Music Hall in Boston one Sunday afternoon during that 
 winter before the war, when his life was in perpetual 
 peril. It seemed unlikely that he would reach home alive. 
 But his face was radiant as if with a martyr's expectancy 
 of triumph. I shall never forget his amusement in relat- 
 ing how a Boston mob, following him homeward, broke 
 a druggist's window. Shortly after, the apothecary sent 
 Mr. Phillips a bill for the broken glass. It was like re- 
 ceiving a coat of tar and feathers from a Western mob, 
 and then being required to pay for the feathers and the 
 tar. In describing how the eggs flew while he was ad- 
 dressing a hostile meeting in Cincinnati, Mr. Phillips said, 
 with child-like amusement, 'Every egg hit, but the eggs 
 were good ; it was in the spring of the year.' 
 
 "His errors were the mistakes of one who had been 
 taught to mistrust the organized selfishness of men, of one 
 who could not be tolerant of wrong, and who must lift 
 his voice wherever it seemed to him that 
 
 'Freedom raised her cry of pain,' 
 
138 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 whether that cry came from the shops of Lawrence and 
 Lowell, the swamps of the Carolinas, the hovels of Ire- 
 land, or the ice-dungeons of Russia. My judgment has 
 not always been his in more recent years, but I believe, 
 with one of his eulogists, that he deserved 'A monument 
 at Dublin and St. Petersburg, as well as at Charleston 
 and New Orleans.' I once heard him contrast the fame 
 of those who catch the sentiment of the hour and are pop- 
 ular in their brief day, and the fame of those purer and 
 more strenuous souls who reflect the mind of God and 
 shine like the stars in all the after ages. 'The fireworks,' 
 he said in effect, 'fill the sky with their blaze ; a few hours 
 pass, and the rocket is extinguished ; the torch lies in its 
 own dust, while above are Orion and the Pleiades, eternal 
 and serene.' Into the galaxy of unwaning stars he him- 
 self has entered. He takes his place with Hampden and 
 Milton, with Algernon Sidney and Sir Harry Vane, with 
 Samuel Adams and William Lloyd Garrison, with 
 Charles Sumner and Abraham Lincoln, with Kosciusko, 
 Kossuth, and John Bright, with O'Connell and Mazzini, 
 with Victor Hugo and Garibaldi, among those who have 
 grandly befriended the rights of man and enlarged the 
 shining area of human freedom." 
 
 It was with regret that my father thought of leaving 
 the manufacturing city on the Merrimac. His work had 
 been blessed, his two oldest children had been born there, 
 and he had made many life-long friends. Yet in the sum- 
 mer of 1880, he accepted a call to the Maverick Congrega- 
 tional Church of East Boston, where he was installed in 
 December, Dr. Alexander MacKenzie of Cambridge 
 preaching the sermon from the text, "Let not him that 
 girdeth on his harness boast himself, as he who putteth it 
 off." He found his now enlarged life full of interest. At 
 
MASSACHUSETTS YEARS 139 
 
 the Boston ministers' meetings he came in contact with 
 men whom he admired, like Doctors A. H. Plumb, S. E, 
 Herrick, J. L. Withrow, William J. Tucker and 
 Charlco F. Thwing. Then, too, for this western man a 
 glamour rested on New England's men of fame. It 
 was pleasant to see Longfellow and Lowell at public 
 assemblies, to watch Amos Bronson Alcott dine off lettuce 
 at the Parker House, and have a little talk with him, 
 and to listen in the street car to Wendell Holmes, as 
 jumping about, he poked fun at his seat-mate, Robert C, 
 Winthrop, because Sumner got his statue first. His 
 chief hero of these years was Emerson, on whom he had 
 called in the summer of 1874. The following letter de- 
 scribes his Concord visit: 
 
 "I was a little shaken at the thought of meeting the 
 very person of him who had filled my brain with golden 
 words. I came to the house, a large, two-storied, fresh, 
 brownish-blue frame building, embowered in trees. The 
 gate was open. Two little girls, who had been carrying 
 milk there, were in the large yard. They had no fear, 
 evidently. Soon a young man came hurriedly on the 
 piazza, and with a white napkin scared away two red 
 dogs. I saw that the Concord sage must be at tea, so 
 I walked back toward the hotel. I soon returned, how- 
 ever, entered the gate, stood at the door, and lightly 
 rang the bell. Mr. Emerson's daughter, a girl of seven- 
 teen, I think, came to meet me. I asked for Mr. Emer- 
 son, gave my card, and was politely ushered into the 
 library. I sat down on a very spacious sofa, and looked 
 down at my feet. What semed a red wolf lay there^ 
 ready to spring at me. It was the queerest sort of a rug, 
 made of fur. I scanned the library, and looked at the 
 pictures. Right back of me was a striking portrait of 
 
140 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 Carlyle, with his own autograph below. Soon Mr. Emer- 
 son entered, and he took my hand cordially and broke 
 my heart by the sweetest smile that ever lighted a man's 
 face. He was dressed in a dark gray, farmer-like garb. 
 There was a boyishness in the old man's look that told 
 of a happy heart, that had never been 'madly with its 
 blessedness at strife.' He asked if he had ever met me 
 before. I said 'No, Sir; my only excuse for calling is 
 my gratitude, and the respect in which I hold you.' He 
 thanked me as only the supreme gentleman can, and ush- 
 ered me into his sitting room, where we had an hour's 
 delicious talk, about Springfield and Lincoln first, then 
 about my travels, for he soon learned that I had just re- 
 turned from Europe, then of his travels in Egypt, then of 
 Athens. I told him of Marathon, and he was intensely 
 interested to learn that I had seen the most famous of 
 battlefields. He didn't know that any one could safely 
 visit it. He told me of a townsman who had returned 
 from Athens, with 'his face illuminated,' etc. I confessed 
 to him that after seeing Rome and Egj^pt and the East, 
 I stood on the Acropolis and repeated his own lines : 
 
 'Earth proudly wears the Parthenon 
 As the best gem upon her zone.' 
 
 This evidently touched Mr. Emerson, but 'the wise nose's 
 firm built aquiline' curved sharper at once, and the wise 
 old man talked slowly on, as though he cared less for 
 himself than his subject. He wanted to show me some 
 large photographs of the Parthenon, the work of Mr. 
 Stillman, the American Consul at Crete. As he did not 
 find them at once, I told him to take no trouble, as I had 
 seen them. Mr. Emerson talks in the simplest, most 
 deliberate way, sitting 'with eyes averse' while giving his 
 
MASSACHUSETTS YEARS W 
 
 views or speaking of himself, but turning with a benevo- 
 lent smile toward you when he asks you a question. He 
 told me about the burning of his house, and then spoke 
 of Concord, of Walden Pond, and talked long and lov- 
 ingly of Thoreau. I quoted Lowell to him, 'Thoreau 
 studied nature like a detective who was to take the stand.' 
 Emerson replied, 'Lowell is wicked toward Thoreau. I 
 have always complained of his treatment of him,' etc. 
 Then I asked if Lowell had returned. 'Yes, ten days 
 ago. I have not seen him yet. We were in Paris to- 
 gether. Lowell is a man of great genius and capability.' 
 I spoke of Lowell's 'Agassiz' and asked if this was not the 
 best thing he had done. 'No, no,' Emerson said, very 
 emphatically. He told me about hearing it at the Boston 
 Club, and then criticised it. He thinks the 'Commemora- 
 tion Ode' Lowell's best serious writing. He told me 
 about Concord, asked me where I was going to live, 
 hoped that I might make Concord my home (this was 
 after I spoke of the possibility that Massachusetts might 
 be my home). As I rose to go, Mr. Em.erson called his 
 son, Dr. Emerson, a young man of twenty-two perhaps, 
 and introduced me to him with this speech: 'Mr. Bar- 
 rows has travelled from Springfield to Damascus and has 
 seen the old world, and now he wants to see Concord ; 
 can't you show him the sights tomorrow?' The doctor 
 was more than willing. He is to call here at ten. 'R. 
 W.,' to quote the inn keeper's nomenclature, then said, 
 'li my horse were not lame you should have her,' and 
 spoke of his present work (he is overlooking Thoreau's 
 manuscript) as his excuse for not oiiFering his own serv- 
 ices to m.e. Did you ever hear anything quite so splendid 
 as that?" 
 
 "At ten Dr. E. W. Emerson (whom I came to know 
 
142 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 as one of the nicest fellows in the world) called and we 
 began work at once. He took me to the summit of old 
 Burying Ground Hill, and we sat down on a brick tomb, 
 while he recounted the history of Concord. Some of the 
 tombs are of great interest. I saw one belonging to a 
 person who was born two years after John Milton. That 
 seems like a link connecting America with the remote 
 past. Then we started down Battle Street, the doctor 
 pointing out trees and houses that were here at the time 
 of the Concord fight. He talked with great animation 
 and seemed pleased with my interest in what he said. We 
 entered the doctor's office to study a map, then leaping 
 a neighbor's fence we strolled down toward the Concord 
 river, where, at the bridge, now gone, the first resistance 
 to the English soldiers occurred. Emerson said, 'In that 
 house, on the right, there is a copy of a sketch of Concord, 
 made by one of General Washington's staff; when we 
 return we'll call in and see it.' Poor fellow. I attributed 
 all this to mere kindness. The result shows that there is 
 much human nature even in the son of a philosopher. We 
 stopped at Mr. Keyes's house, as we walked back, to see 
 the picture of course. The young doctor didn't knock, 
 but shouted up stairs, 'Annie, Annie.' A vtry pleasing, 
 sensible-looking New England girl came down and I was 
 introduced. We entered the parlor and young Emerson 
 explained the picture, as 'Annie' thought he could do so 
 better than she. I was looking at the picture, intently, 
 but I think that the loving eyes of my companion were 
 meanwhile exchanging the 'right Promethean fire.' As 
 we left, the good physician squeezed the fair girl's hand, 
 and she said, 'Don't forget the bullet-hole.' So we looked 
 at the old bullet-hole, carefully preserved, one of the 
 marks about the house which tell of its relations to the 
 
MASSACHUSET TS YEARS 143 
 
 neighboring battle-field. Then the Doctor said, 'I am 
 at home in this house. I am engaged to that girl.' If an 
 old Concord musket had burst under my left ear, I could 
 not have been more shocked. How could he do it ? Shall 
 the children of the Sun, the scions of Olympian divini- 
 ties, be like the world's rabble? Has philosophy bestrid- 
 den Emerson's great brow for sixty years, in vain? Do 
 not her old eyes weep to see Emerson's child after the 
 flesh fondling the soft hand of a Puritan girl? What is 
 the race coming to? Is civilization a failure? I said to 
 myself, 'John, never get engaged.' I said to Emerson, 
 'I can sympathize with you perfectly.' Emerson and I 
 became more cordial. Then we leaped fences, and darted 
 into the woods, and he told me about Thoreau. Passing 
 through a vineyard of Concord grapes, we entered Sleepy 
 Hollow cemetery, and soon, with foreheads bare, we 
 looked on Hawthorne's tomb, and I said, 
 
 'November nature with a name of May, 
 Whom high o'er Concord plains we laid to sleep, 
 While the orchards mocked us in their white array, 
 And building robins wondered at our tears.' 
 Near by is Thoreau. I send you some souvenirs from 
 Hawthorne's grave. It is a charming spot, that where 
 'New England's poet' sleeps. God has wiped the tears 
 from those sad eyes. 
 
 "As we started on, Emerson told me of Arthur Hugh 
 Clough, who stayed long at his father's house. He himself 
 was a boy then. I asked if he agreed with Lowell's esti- 
 mate of him. 'Yes.' Then he said, 'I have his best poem 
 in my office. If I had known you were interested in him 
 I would have shown it to you.' Then he repeated, 'As 
 ships becalmed.' We climbed, through thick brush, a 
 steep hill, and were in Hawthorne's back yard and passed 
 
144 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 down Hawthorne's walk, to the grass below and looked 
 up at the house, where for many years the prose-poet 
 lived. We walked on past Alcott's house. Mrs. Alcott, 
 Louisa M. and 'May' were sitting under the elm trees 
 before the mansion. Emerson raised his hat and was 
 smiled on. He asked me if I wanted to see Mr. Alcott. 
 I said 'No,' and we walked on. Then we climbed a hill 
 and had a view of Monadnock and Wachusett mountains. 
 Then we went back through the cemetery where our jour- 
 ney began, and the village was 'done.' I told Mr. Emer- 
 son that I had never enjoyed a day in Europe better. He 
 was only too glad to do what he had, and asked me to 
 come again and go with him to Walden Pond." 
 
 In the spring of 1881, my father was called to the First 
 Presbyterian Church of Chicago. Although this new 
 opening greatly attracted him, he felt bound to decline. 
 He had been but a winter in East Boston, and the Maver- 
 ick Church was thirty-three thousand dollars in debt. 
 The Chicago committee persisted in their claim, finally of- 
 fering to pay five thousand dollars toward this debt, if 
 he would come to them. Mr. Edward Kimball, a famous 
 raiser of debts, then happened to be in Boston. With his 
 assistance the entire debt was raised that summer, and my 
 father accepted the Chicago call. A garbled report of his 
 resignation got abroad, and the following conversation was 
 overhead at a Congregational installation where my father 
 gave the sermon. One man said, on seeing a friend, 
 "You here ! I didn't suppose you had ever stepped inside 
 of a Congregational Church." "I never have, before. 
 I've come to hear the man who was paid five thousand dol- 
 lars to leave that denomination." 
 
 My father once wrote : "Directly in front of my study 
 table is a large picture of my wife, and near by are the 
 
MASSACHUSETTS YEARS i4S 
 
 photographs of four of my children, while over to the right 
 my eye falls on three bulky volumes called 'The Life and 
 Public Services of Samuel Adams.' There is a clear and 
 straight line of Providence leading from the second to 
 the first. If it had not been for the volumes, I never 
 should have had this wife and these children, and should 
 never have sat in this Chicago study. The greater part 
 of our lives is beyond our control. We are swayed here 
 or there by the most trivial circumstances. During my 
 last year at college, I took up the New York Independ- 
 ent and read, with great interest, a review of Wells's 
 'Life of Samuel Adams,' just published. I soon got hold 
 of the books, and was so deeply interested that I took the 
 revolutionary patriot as the theme of my graduating ora- 
 tion. Three years later, while living in Kansas, I devel- 
 oped the oration into a lecture, and gave it in the town 
 called Independence. In the audience was a jnan who 
 had formerly lived in Springfield, Illinois, and unknown 
 to m.e, he kindly sent word to some Springfield friends 
 that the lecturer might make an acceptable preacher there 
 in the vacant pulpit of the First Congregational Church. 
 This letter soon accomplished the wish which it had ex- 
 pressed. After a year or more in Springfield, I found my- 
 self possessed of money sufficient to warrant my going to 
 Europe. I resigned and was soon on the deck of an Anchor 
 Line steamship, where I made the acquaintance of a Nev/ 
 England teacher whom otherwise I never should have 
 met, and who, within a few weeks, promised to join 
 forces with mine. While in Paris, I made the acquaint- 
 ance of Mr. F., who eight years later was indirectly the 
 means of my being invited to the First Presbyterian pul- 
 pit at Chicago. For more than twenty years the chief 
 events in my life have turned on an incident so trivial 
 
146 JOHN HE NRY BARROWS 
 
 that but for its effect, it might never have been remem- 
 bered. The first moral of this story, of course is this: Be 
 sure that your subscription to the New York Independ- 
 ent does not run out, and the second is even more im- 
 portant: Do leave in the Third Chapter enough of the 
 Calvinistic theology to indicate all things are decreed 
 from eternity, and that man's freedom in his little sover- 
 eignty is in some way mysteriously accordant with the 
 divine rule over all things." 
 
 Thus these busy years came to an end. He had lec- 
 tured a little, studied much to learn of God, and had 
 scaled, often after slips and falls, some of the chief obsta- 
 cles confronting a minister. Into his sermons had crept 
 a Puritanic sternness, as if New England's ancient spirits 
 were besetting him, and few of his listeners departed, 
 unmoved, when he preached on God's retribution by 
 means of the torturing remembrances of an outraged con- 
 science. We quote from his sermons: 
 
 "It is said we are living under the warmth and light of 
 Divine Fatherhood ; we have escaped from the wintry 
 cold of the doctrinal teaching to which our fathers lis- 
 tened in meeting-houses where their feet and hands were 
 half frozen with actual cold. We don't need to hear of 
 death and the Divine wrath against sin. Let us bask ever 
 in the sunshine of the Fatherly love which paints the 
 gold of the buttercup and the blue of the sky, that bright- 
 ens all our domestic life, that deepens and ennobles all our 
 earthly affections, that robs the grave of its terror and 
 irradiates all things with blissful hope. I thank God 
 that we have escaped from the dungeon of despair, that 
 we are learning that love is a more constant influence for 
 good than fear, and if we can only maintain the equilib- 
 rium of truth, not forgetting nor neglecting any part of 
 
MASSACHUSET TS YEARS 147 
 
 that word which is profitable for instruction in righteous- 
 ness, not casting aside the wholesome restraints of law, 
 not rubbing off the sharp corners of truth till it has the 
 glossy smoothness of a lie, if, I say, we can still preserve 
 the sharp distinctions which are the basis of morality and 
 call things by their right names, good and only good will 
 result from the change of emphasis which has come to 
 Christian teaching. Summer is better than winter, but 
 when you pass from winter on Saturday to summer on 
 Sunday, sometimes the whole system is unstrung. Moral 
 changes have in some cases been too sudden. 
 
 "Over against our human ignorance is God's awful 
 eye, seeing things as they are. And if the Holy Spirit 
 should bring His purging fire to men's vision of sin, and 
 the world could behold its iniquity as contrasted with the 
 pure splendor of God, it may be that a wail of horror, 
 drowning all of the noises of Nature would shake the 
 expanse of heaven. Every gambling hell in Chicago and 
 New York, every hall of dissolute revelry in London, 
 Paris, or Vienna, every gin palace on the Thames, every 
 drinking-hole on the shores of Lake Michigan, every 
 church where hypocrites kneel, every house where god- 
 lessness reigns, every den of secret vice, would send out 
 its shrieking inmates into the streets and men would pray 
 as though billows of red fire were roaring after them, 
 'like masterless hell-hounds.' 
 
 "Eternal life, His gift, is not merely some future prize 
 to be won, and eternal death is not merely some future 
 misery to be escaped. Life is begun here ; incipient per- 
 dition is all about us. The horror of sin is not its penalty 
 but its nature; the anguish of a lost soul is its eternal 
 loneliness, its voluntary and perpetual exile from God, 
 its flight from the embrace of the Everlasting Arms. Do 
 
148 JOHN HENRY BA RRO IVS 
 
 not speak about the punishment that follows sin; speak 
 rather of sin as its own punishment. Do not separate sin 
 and hell ; sinning against God is hell. The wicked heart 
 that comes to know itself creates a Gehenna. 
 
 "If we are to have in our land a republic of God and 
 not ultimately a lair of ravening and roaring tigers, we 
 must stock our stores and our caucuses, our Boards of 
 Trade, and our council chambers, our legislative halls and 
 our executive mansions, with old Hebrew righteousness, 
 fresh from Mount Sinai. Our Christianity needs to get 
 a new inspiration from John Knox; it needs to catch the 
 tones of thunder in which Savonarola denounced the cor- 
 ruptions of Italy; it needs the courage with which Paul 
 made Felix tremble, and the unflinching eye with which 
 John the Baptist stood before adulterous Herod; it 
 needs to live at times in the atmosphere of the statesmen- 
 prophets of old Israel; it needs to take up, if occasion 
 requires, the scourge of small cords with which the Lion of 
 the tribe of Judah drove the traffickers from the temple." 
 
 Under his preaching, many had entered the church. 
 He had learned to penetrate the seeming cant of feeble 
 minds and hearts, to the genuine warmth within. He 
 had practiced patience when at the mercy of mediocre 
 people. He had discovered the difficulties of making the 
 life of the spirit real to men of no spirituality, and the 
 comparative ease with which he could touch the hearts 
 of those who had caught glimpses of heavenly visions. 
 These experiences left him less light-hearted, slower to 
 judge, more compassionate with the weak and troubled. 
 Yet in spite of such sobering influences, the Gospel that 
 he believed and declared, was ever good tidings. It was 
 still manifest that the chrism of his anointing was the 
 oil of gladness. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH AND ITS MINISTER 
 1881-1886 
 
 My father left the Congregational church with regret. 
 He liked its stress upon independence and equality, its 
 strong personalities, liberal theology, and progressive pol- 
 icy in connection with social reforms and benevolent 
 enterprises. The chief mother of American colleges and 
 contributing the original impulse to foreign missions, it 
 had held in its ranks many of his personal heroes. If it 
 had not settled the place of its council, neither had Pres- 
 byterianism the rights of its elder; if it had run off into 
 Unitarianism in New England, Presbyterianism in Eng- 
 land had done the same. Nor did the methods peculiar to 
 Presbyterianism at first attract him. Not used to so much 
 machinery, he feared and disliked it. To submit the rec- 
 ords of his session to the presbytery appeared to him un- 
 necessary red tape, and the rebuke accompanying their 
 return, because his clerk had neglected to state that a 
 certain meeting opened with prayer, represented distaste- 
 ful surveillance. Then, too, although he believed the 
 Westminster confession of faith to "contain the system 
 of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures," it held much 
 that he did not believe, and its emphases were by no 
 means his. 
 
 Nevertheless he became an enthusiastic Presbyterian. 
 The theology of the New School closely resembled that 
 which he had learned from Mr. Beecher. He found the 
 past, too, of his new denomination inspiring. He wrote in 
 
ISO JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 1885: "It has a history linked with the annals of the ref- 
 ormation in Switzerland and France, in Holland and 
 Scotland. Its story is read by the light of martyrdoms 
 and of Puritan camp-fires ; it is never forgetful of Calvin 
 and Knox, Coligni, and William of Orange ; its triumphs 
 are associated with the Long Parliament, the Westminster 
 Assembly, and the Continental Congress; it numbers 
 among all who bear its name two million five hundred 
 thousand communicants, one million of whom are on this 
 side of the sea; it has made itself strong in the Middle 
 States and the great middle classes; it has sent out its mis- 
 sionaries to nearly every land ; it has given to Biblical and 
 theological and philosophical scholarship such names as 
 Edward Robinson, Henry B. Smith, Charles Hodge, and 
 James McCosh; it has claimed for its pulpit such orators 
 as Chalmers and Guthrie; it has built up great charities, 
 and rejoices in princely givers like Morgan and Dodge and 
 Cyrus H. McCormick." Moreover, after the first he 
 heartily advocated the distinctive policy of Presbyterian- 
 ism — discovering in its methods of church government 
 no rightful impediment to liberty, and a great aid in re- 
 moving friction in the single church and in preventing 
 injustice to the individual by furnishing higher courts of 
 appeal. The strength of its comparative solidarity, and 
 the dignity attached to its great, smoothly-working organi- 
 zation, pleased his conservative love of tradition and de- 
 corum. In the freedom w^ith which it opened its doors 
 to all believers in Christ, requiring only of its clergy and 
 elders acceptance of its standards, he thoroughly believed. 
 It may be, too, that as time elapsed he feared somewhat 
 the danger of disintegration attending the greater radical- 
 ism and looser organization of Congregationalism. There 
 is a touch of something more than fun in his saying to 
 
THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 151 
 
 the Congregationalists of Chicago, "I certainly think that 
 you have too many burning questions for your own 
 healthiest life. They make you lively brethren, but is 
 there not peril of one-sidedness and distortion in remain- 
 ing for years before such a blazing theme as that of 
 Future Probation? I feel like giving the great Boanerges 
 of Boston and some others the warning the boy gave to a 
 big, bow-legged man he saw standing before a fire in a 
 hotel parlor: 'You'd better move away from that fire, 
 mister, you're a'warpin',' " Methods of church govern- 
 ment, however, never seemed to him vital matters, and his 
 dominant life-long feeling toward these two denomina- 
 tions was evidently love for both, delight in their like- 
 ness, and expectancy of their union. "It is pleasant," he 
 says of them, "to know that we are much alike and that 
 the fences which separate us are not made of barbed wire, 
 to get through which would lacerate even a long-horned 
 Calvinist ; they are like England's low walls covered with 
 ivy, which beautify the landscape, and sweet hedges of 
 hawthorn or yellow blossoming furze, in which the 
 thrush and the mavis have sung from the days of Chaucer, 
 with friendly stiles here and there, the haunts of lovers, 
 who invite those living on one side to come and live on 
 the other. 
 
 "There is no need for Professor Phelps of Andover and 
 Mr. Blaine of Maine to argue the desirability of organic 
 union between such kindred drops as we. Arguments 
 will not hasten what other influences are accomplishing. 
 When I see men zealously striving,to do what Providence 
 v.ill, in His own time, achieve, I think of that New 
 Yorker who was afraid he should miss the ferrj^-boat he 
 wished to take. Just as he reached the pier, he saw the 
 boat nearly ten feet away and he leaped for it desperately 
 
152 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 and reached it, bunting his head into a gentleman's stom- 
 ach, flinging his bag one way and his umbrella another, 
 and shouting Breathlessly, 'There! I caught it!' 'Yes, 
 you, sacred fool,' said a calm bystander, 'but this boat is 
 coming in.' " 
 
 Beneath some of the pleasantries of an address that he 
 made in '85 before a union meeting of the Baptist, Con- 
 gregational, Methodist, and Presbyterian seminaries of the 
 city, lie both his generous catholicity and his affection for 
 his own denomination. "The verj^ names we bear," he 
 said, "indicate the fact of our limitations. 'Baptist' sug- 
 gests a distinctive form of doctrine with regard to one of 
 the sacraments; 'Methodist' a distinctive form of Chris- 
 tian life; 'Congregationalist' and 'Presbyterian' distinc- 
 tive forms of church government. Then each denomina- 
 tion has suggestive connections with Scripture without 
 finding its legend written on ever>' inspired page. One 
 carries on its escutcheon the name given to the heroic fore- 
 runner of Christ ; another is ruled by officers bearing the 
 title, if not precisely the functions, of the bishops of the 
 early church ; another suggests by its organization the 
 simplicitj^ and brotherly equality of primitive Christen- 
 dom. And what shall I say of my own denomination? 
 I was making an address at an ordination in this city a 
 few years ago, in which I referred to the loving fellow- 
 ship of Paul and Peter and John in the council at Jeru- 
 salem, and the next morning I discovered in one of our 
 dailies that 'Mr. Barrows had spoken ver>' earnestly in 
 praise of the early champions of Presbyterianism.' 
 
 "These denominations are like the four parts in music ; 
 each lovely by itself, but the four together bringing out 
 the full richness of the treasure-house of harmony. If 
 the alto pathos belongs to the Methodist, and the so- 
 
THE FIRST PRESBY TERIAN CHURCH 153 
 
 prano, so clear and captivating at its best, though liable 
 to be roughened by a New England east wind, is the 
 sweet possession of the Congregationalists, and the mel- 
 low and far-reaching tenor pertains to a denomination so 
 wide extending and so ripe with age as the Presbyterians, 
 the noble bass may surely be claimed by the Baptists, 
 whose voice mingles so grandly with the sound of many 
 waters. Let us praise God for the variety which delights 
 us in nature, and which ought equally to delight us in 
 church life. If the Methodists, with their order and their 
 fire, may be likened to the punctual sun whose heat pre- 
 serves our world from death; the Baptists to the fresh, 
 abounding, purifying life of the majestic ocean; and the 
 Congregationalists, with their splendid examples of indi- 
 vidual development, and their steady and surprising con- 
 tributions to intellectual life, to the stars of heaven — 
 perhaps the Presbyterians are the blue, the illimitable 
 blue, which overarches the sea, and in which even the 
 sun and stars move and shine!" 
 
 Doubtless his heart was warmed to his new denomina- 
 tion by the "First Presbyterian Church during the four- 
 teen years that he presided over it. At the time of his 
 installation, December 8, 1881, its membership was be- 
 tween eight and nine hundred. Among its supporters 
 were many strong men, some of them, like D. K. Pear- 
 sons and Marshall Field, of national reputation; old 
 settlers, whose force and sagacity had overcome great 
 obstacles, and scores of younger members who were 
 closely connected with the upbuilding of Chicago ; men 
 and women of varied talent, devoted to the church and 
 ready to cooperate with a leader who should possess large 
 ideals for them, their city, and their country. Among 
 them were some men of great generosity, and m.y father 
 
IS4 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 loved to tell how, after presenting the cause of a cer- 
 tain mission church to one of these, he received fifty dol- 
 lars, with the remark, 'I wish it were two hundred and 
 fifty, but the church you ask for is the fifth church to 
 which I have subscribed this morning." 
 
 And that the church held a place of historic interest in 
 the community did not lessen its attractiveness for him. 
 The first of its ecclesiastical records reads "1833, May 30. 
 About thirty professing Christians in the garrison brought 
 from Sault Ste. Marie to this place landed on the 13th 
 of May, with the Reverend Jeremiah Porter, pastor." 
 From this record my father perceived that the church 
 would soon complete fifty years of history. His sugges- 
 tion that this semi-centennial be observed met with enthu- 
 siastic response, and on June 24, 1883, large numbers of 
 former members, all of its living ministers, including Mr. 
 Jeremiah Porter, and many friends assembled to do honor 
 to the past. The service was beautiful, with special deco- 
 rations and music, including a festival hymn by Mr. 
 Philo A. Otis. We quote from my father's interesting 
 and comprehensive historical sermon : 
 
 "Mr. Porter brought with him to Chicago, in 1833, as 
 many Christians as were then to be found at that fron- 
 tier post. Previous to this, on the 19th of August, 1832, 
 Mr. Philo Carpenter, with three other earnest Christians, 
 had begun a Sunday School, the first that was established 
 in Northern Illinois, except one opened by that heroic mis- 
 sionary, Reverend Aratus Kent, in a dram shop in Ga- 
 lena." After Mr. Porter's coming, in order "to accom- 
 modate both soldiers and citizens, preaching .services were 
 held for some time both at Fort Dearborn and at Father 
 Walker's cabin at Wolf's Point. This scheme was un- 
 satisfactory, and Mr. Porter advised the erection of a 
 
THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 155 
 
 frame building, suggesting that subscriptions made toward 
 his support should go toward the church edifice. This 
 plan was adopted, a building committee was appointed 
 June II, and application was made to the Home Mis- 
 sionary Society for Mr. Porter's support. On June 26, 
 the church was organized, adopting the covenant and 
 articles of faith of the Presbytery of Detroit. Sixteen 
 persons, four of them women, were received from the gar- 
 rison ; five men and five women were received from Chi- 
 cago." This, the oldest church organization in Chicago, 
 though starting from such humble beginnings, had played 
 a large part in the city's life. In an important sense it 
 had been the mother of the Second, Third, and Fourth 
 Presbyterian, and the Plymouth Congregational Churches. 
 During its history it had enrolled more than three thou- 
 sand communicants. Probably no church in the West had 
 contributed so largely to missions and benevolences. Its 
 church edifice being swept away by the fire of 1871, it 
 had united with the Calvary Church and moved soufh to 
 the corner of Indiana Avenue and Twenty-first Street. 
 The famous trial of Professor David Swing for heresy, 
 on charges brought by Professor Francis L. Patton, was 
 held in 1874 in its lecture room, its minister. Dr. Arthur 
 Mitchell, acting as moderator. Under Dr. Mitchell, too, 
 its large mission, the Railroad Chapel, was rebuilt at an 
 expense of seventy thousand dollars, and placed under the 
 charge of Mr. Charles M. Morton. 
 
 On the next three days of the semi-centennial celebra- 
 tion large meetings were held at which former pastors 
 and representatives of other churches and denominations ' 
 gave reminiscent and congratulatory addresses. The 
 many columns the newspapers devoted to these gather- 
 ings suggest their great local interest. Among the trib- 
 
156 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 utes that the Church received, this selection from Pro- 
 fessor Swing's address may be taken as an example and 
 close our account of this anniversary : 
 
 "During my seventeen years in Chicago, no quarrel in 
 the choir, no difficulty with the sexton, no flat note from 
 the soprano or tenor, no poor sermon or good one from 
 the pastor or from the supply, no analysis of the mental 
 forces of the pulpit of this First Church has ever failed 
 to come sooner or later to my willing or unwilling ear. 
 Nothing is more visible than a church. The steeple is no 
 more conspicuous than the necktie of the clergyman or 
 the half-minute doze of an elder. 
 
 "This church has borne well this strong light, more 
 searching than electric. There are some men and women 
 who look best when the lights are dim in the parlor and 
 when there are red globes to create for a half-century face 
 the flush of an earlier date ; and others there are whose 
 faces would suggest that the lamps be not lighted ; but 
 we meet this evening in the parlors of a creature that 
 need not fear the full beams of open day." 
 
 In February, 1883, my father enlarged the work of 
 his church by opening Sunday evening preaching services, 
 in Central Music Hall on the corner of State and Ran- 
 dolph streets. These services, costing about three thou- 
 sand, seven hundred dollars a year, and supported by the 
 generosity of about thirty members of his First Church 
 congregation, were continued for four winters with ex- 
 traordinary success. Three years after their inauguration 
 he thus described their purpose, to the ministers of Boston : 
 "We endeavor to reach a class of people who do not go 
 to the evangelistic services in Farwell Hall or to any 
 of the mission enterprises of the city. And we succeed. 
 The effort is to make the service largely educational and 
 
THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 157 
 
 attractive to the more thoughtful class. The best homi- 
 letic work which I am capable of, I do not hesitate to 
 bring before my miscellaneous congregation at the Hall. 
 Its quality averages well with that in our churches. 
 I have spoken on such themes as 'God and Science,' 
 'Man's Need of God,' 'Religion and Human Progress,' 
 'Revelations of Nature Concerning the Divine Existence 
 and Character,' 'Reasons for Regarding the Scriptures as 
 a Divine Revelation,' 'Miracles,' 'Justification by Faith,' 
 'Difficulties of the Bible,' 'Popular Objections to the 
 Bible,' 'Modern Missions as an Evidence of the Truth of 
 Christianity,' etc. The reason that these services have 
 more than held their own after three years, in my judg- 
 ment, is that we have endeavored to make them reach 
 such people as I have described. Temporary and more 
 showy results might have been achieved, possibly, by a 
 different method from that pursued." Not only was the 
 Hall seating twenty-three hundred filled, but often hun- 
 dreds were turned away. Those in attendance were, 
 for the most part, non-churchgoers, and his preaching did 
 much to bridge the chasm between the church and the un- 
 evangelized. Wholesome Christian impressions were 
 given to many thousands in the turmoil of intellectual un- 
 rest. Personal testimonies by the hundred gladdened my 
 father's heart. Although no after meetings were held, 
 scores of persons reported to him their intention to begin 
 to lead Christian lives. Their stories would probably 
 fill a book. By accident he learned of one reckless youth 
 accustomed to spend his Sunday evenings in places of 
 dissipation, who was induced one Sunday to attend the 
 Central Music Hall service, of which he had heard so 
 much at the Palmer House. Going two Sundays in 
 succession, he was "cut down," as he said, and formed 
 
iS8 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 the purpose to live a Christian life. As a result of his 
 changed ideals, eight young men in the office where he 
 worked were led to unite with the church. This work 
 was commended by religious papers all over the country 
 and many ministers wrote to learn of "Dr. Barrows's 
 methods." These were very simple. As many of his 
 audience came half an hour early to get seats, he caused 
 to be distributed at the doors each week two thousand 
 printed slips, with the hymns for that evening upon one 
 side; on the other, extracts from Christian writers, let- 
 ters from Mark Hopkins and Dr. Storrs stating why 
 they believed in Christianity, facts about the progress of 
 the Church, and names of good books on the Evidences of 
 Christianity. The case is known of a young man thus 
 led to buy Father Lambert's "Notes on Ingersoll," and 
 by this induced to give up infidelity. Most of the slips 
 were read and taken home, some were sent to mothers far 
 away, thus becoming, as my father said, "bearers of 
 comfort as well as of healing." He believed, too, in con- 
 gregational singing as an effective means of bringing the 
 Divine life to men, and in this the assistance of a large 
 chorus and of Mr. William L. Tomlins, the distinguished 
 conductor, in leading the singing, did much to secure the 
 desired results. To preach in a public hall is like trying to 
 warm men with a fire out of doors. Yet some way Cen- 
 tral Music Hall seemed to forget the opera singers and 
 diamonds and cold-hearted gayety of its weekly audiences, 
 as hushed and solemn it saw my father touch men's 
 hearts and consciences. He was an "evangelical," not 
 an "evangelistic" preacher. He revered truth too deeply 
 to be sensational, but "evangelical" and "dull" were not 
 synonyms in his vocabulary. Through his sincerity, wis- 
 dom, and eloquence, he could bring home old truths. 
 
THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 159 
 
 Brimful of his theme and speaking without notes, he 
 won his audience, and of the results of this preaching no 
 estimate is possible. 
 
 In 1883, also, public attention was less pleasantly 
 turned to him. That summer Mr. Beecher came to 
 Chicago to lecture. Calling on his old friend one Satur- 
 day, and learning to his surprise that Mr. Beecher had no 
 engagement to preach the next day, my father naturally 
 invited him to occupy his pulpit. Mr. Beecher accepted 
 at once, and preached for an hour and ten minutes the 
 next morning before a full house. To the greater part 
 of his sermon the most conservative old school Presby- 
 terian could find no objection, but with questionable taste 
 he took occasion, early in the hour, to attack violently 
 several Calvinistic dogmas. As efforts were at that time 
 being put forth to effect an organic union between the 
 Northern and Southern branches of the Presbyterian 
 church, Mr. Beecher's "unorthodox" preaching in a 
 Northern Presbyterian pulpit happened most inopportune- 
 ly and evoked much indignant comment. The Central 
 Presbyterian and St. Louis Presbyterian vehemently 
 berated my father for offering his pulpit to such a man, 
 cited his action as a good reason for opposing the union 
 of the Northern and Southern churches, and kept the 
 matter for some time before the public. One writer to 
 the St. Louis Presbyterian stated: "Every minister I saw 
 during the week — and they were many — was deeply in- 
 dignant at and sorely criticised Dr. Barrows's action. I 
 venture to say that his influence in the Northwest is at an 
 end." His church, conscience, and liberal minded friends, 
 however, stood by him. He had a way of winning hearts, 
 and in 1885 Dr. Gray wrote in the Interior: 
 
 "The pastor of the First Presbyterian Church is the 
 
i6o JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 beloved disciple among the ministers of Chicago. He is 
 so full of kindliness and gentleness and good-will for every 
 class, condition, and type of man, and of belief, that he 
 has been regarded as deficient in silex. He is not the man 
 to be put in commission when Agag is to be hewn in 
 pieces. But when anything for the promotion of brother- 
 ly love or for the amelioration of sorrow or of destitution 
 or of despair is to be done, they send for Brother Barrows. 
 Men of his type are hard to start on the war-path, but 
 still harder to stop. Possibly he might be so, though we 
 think he would be hard to start and easy to stop. As an 
 orator — in the sense usually conveyed by that word — he 
 has no superior in the pulpit of Chicago, of any denomi- 
 nation. A rich, full, elevated, picturesque, sympathetic 
 tide of thought — a spoken anthem — is his style. He in- 
 dulges in the most genial humor, which *'-'ckles and 
 tickles down through the audience, and stays with them, 
 and they laugh gently over it when they think of it for 
 a day or two. Dr. Barrows is tall and slender, and not 
 rugged in appearance, but he appears to bear the heavy 
 strain which the pastors of the leading churches must 
 endure, about as well as his physically more stalwart 
 brethren. We wonder whether such kindly men do not 
 have a better time of it in life than those who shove their 
 way by main force? Is it not something like a ship with 
 a sharp prow, gentle curves, and a propeller that works 
 smoothly beneath the surface, and does not rise to the top 
 and lash the waves into foam? We think so. And yet 
 we suppose that it requires less to give them pain than it 
 does the men who give blows freely, and expect to take 
 them. However it may be, here 
 
 'Blessings on your gentle pow, 
 John Anderson, my jo.' " 
 
THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH i6i 
 
 Compared with later years this early period of his Chi- 
 cago ministry was not crowded by the pressure of outside 
 demands. Still the boundaries of his parish steadily ex- 
 tended; we find him lecturing and preaching more often 
 outside of the city; giving, for example, addresses at the 
 convention of the American Sunday-school Union in 
 Newark, New Jersey, and in Music Hall, Boston, at the 
 celebration of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Ameri- 
 can Board of Foreign Missions. 
 
 Of these years the winter of 1886 was the busiest part. 
 In January, Professor David Swing, who had withdrawn 
 from the Presbyterian Church in 1874, and at the head of 
 the Central Church, an independent organization, had 
 continued his ministry ever since, completed his twentieth 
 year as a Chicago minister. He had reached the widest 
 audiences up to that time accorded to any American 
 preacher, and though preaching no dogmas, had by his 
 spirit of faith, hope, and love, raised thousands from 
 despair into serene and lovely living. It was natural 
 enough, therefore, that four hundred of Chicago's most 
 distinguished citizens should gather at a banquet in the 
 Palm.er House to do him honor. It was also right that 
 my father, who, although his theological views were quite 
 other than Professor Swing's, appreciated and loved him, 
 should make one of the chief speeches in his honor, saying 
 among other things, "He has been a high priest of the 
 beautiful in the midst of our Philistinism, an influential 
 preacher of the value of the ideal in a prosperous com- 
 munity which is supposed to appreciate the art of wrestling 
 and the art of butchering swine and the art of 'fixing' 
 election returns far more than Lessing's 'Laocoon' or the 
 'Seven Lamps of Architecture.' Professor Swing, let me 
 close these remarks by a recognition not only of your 
 
i62 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 services to the higher life of this community, but by an 
 expression of the kindly feelings of that group of your 
 friends whom I represent. Dr. Hodge of Princeton once 
 wrote: 'Old controversies of opinion are passing out of 
 view — I dread being estranged from any who really love 
 and worship our common Lord and Saviour.' Our differ- 
 ences have not estranged us, and you will allow me to 
 give you this benediction, 'May the light of the true and 
 the fair and the good ever shine on your brightening path, 
 till, returning late to heaven, you shall see the King in 
 His beauty.' " 
 
 For thus praising a man theologically "unsound," my 
 father was severely criticised, one paper referring to him 
 as a "truckling Iscariot." Not simply anonymous letter 
 writers, but some of his esteemed fellow ministers could 
 see in his action nothing but a compromise wiiii his faith, 
 one of them writing: "In this desperate fight against the 
 world, the flesh, and the devil, in which some of us have 
 been looking to you for help, in these times of fashion, 
 gayety, and greed, you have turned your guns upon us. 
 However unwittingly, it seems to me that you have dealt 
 our common faith a blow in this cit>' that every enemy of 
 evangelical Christianity will rejoice over, and from which 
 it will be a long time in recovering." My father thought 
 quite otherwise. He was always an enigma to men ad- 
 hering to systems, too literally logical to allow for the 
 spirit blowing where it listeth. 
 
 Probably, though, no one in Chicago that winter worked 
 harder for evangelical Christianity than he. The city was 
 so full of anarchistic and atheistic sentiment, the churches 
 so spiritually dull, that the Presbyterian ministers met 
 together for several all-day prayer-meetings. My father 
 preached to his people on spiritual crises and revivals, and 
 
THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 163 
 
 held extra services, with the assistance of Mr. W. W. 
 Newell, Jr., of the McCall Mission, Paris. In February, 
 the ministers on the South Side, determining to unite their 
 efforts to awaken the consciences of the large numbers 
 unreached by the Church, called the Georgian evangelist, 
 Sam Jones, to their aid, and inaugurated a series of meet- 
 ings in the Casino Skating Rink, on State and Twenty- 
 fourth Streets. So far as attendance and the genius of the 
 speaker went, these meetings left little to be desired. Ten 
 thousand people a day often listened to Mr. Jones's match- 
 less wit as he urged- them to "quit" their "meanness." 
 The after meetings, too, were crowded, and my father was 
 one of those who worked night after night till morning 
 answering questions and trying to help those who swarmed 
 about him. In this work the South Side ministers stood 
 valiantly together, j'et it was far from being an un- 
 qualified success. Mr. Jones's jokes were often coarse, 
 sometimes almost blasphemous. Rich and fashionable 
 churches were his favorite butt, and consequently he not 
 only so antagonized church members that they speedily 
 withdrew their support, but so affected his converts that 
 they were often loth to join the available churches. On 
 the whole, the meetings did good, hundreds found Christ, 
 and my father never regretted giving his strength to them. 
 But they did harm, too, and for months he and his fellow- 
 workers were the targets for criticism. When Mr. Jones 
 departed, the difficulties of following up his work were 
 such that my father and Mr. F. G. Ensign sought out 
 Mr. Moody. They found him in Charlotteville, Vir- 
 ginia, and only with the greatest difficulty persuaded him 
 to come to Chicago. Mr. Moody's meetings, as he had 
 expected, were sparsely attended, and by a class of people 
 whom Mr. Jones had never touched. It was a relief, ^ 
 
i64 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 therefore, when, because of anarchist disturbances, all large 
 public gatherings were disbanded. 
 
 It happened one Saturday afternoon, after the long 
 strain of this revival work, that my father took up the 
 manuscript of the sermon he had written that morning, 
 and could not recall writing it. This strange lapse of 
 memory was only temporary ; but it indicated so complete 
 a nervous breakdown that his people forced upon him a 
 six months' vacation. Some of the experiences of these 
 months, spent for the most part in Europe, we shall sug- 
 gest in a later chapter. Their chief result was the re- 
 newed energy with which he again shouldered his work, 
 in October, 1886. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE MINISTER OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
 1886-189I 
 
 "A great pastorship," writes Phillips Brooks, "is the 
 noblest picture of human influence, and of the relationship 
 of man to man which the world has to show. It is the 
 canonization of friendship. It is friendship lifted above 
 the regions of mere instinct and sentiment and fondness, 
 and exalted into the mutual helpfulness of the children 
 of God." 
 
 These words truly describe mj'^ father's relation to his 
 people. About his means of bringing help, there is noth- 
 ing unusual. The musical interests of the church, for 
 years in the hands of the distinguished organist, Mr. 
 Clarence Eddy, always had my father's warm support. 
 While he kept the sermon's place supreme, he found any- 
 thing that beautified the service a good lens wherewith to 
 see God. He says in one sermon: "Take away music 
 from the house of God and from the Christian home, and 
 you remove that which stirs our best emotions, lifts heaven- 
 ward our best petitions, and teaches young and old the 
 most spiritual truth. The Christian life of the world has 
 been preserved not so much in sermons and printed prayers 
 as in hymns. And perhaps the service rendered this day 
 to the Lord our Maker and Redeemer, which is given in 
 sacred song, is ampler and purer than that which has come 
 from the teachings of Christian pulpits." And in another 
 he asserts, "A piety that discards all forms, symbols, and 
 visible helps Is in danger of evaporation." 
 
i66 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 Annuallj^ or semi-annually he sent out a printed letter 
 impressing upon his people their spiritual needs. During 
 some years he taught a weekly Bible class for men, and a 
 catechism class for children, and his touch was felt on 
 the manifold organizations of the Church. He started a 
 Christian Endeavor Society, and was its most loyal sup- 
 porter. 
 
 On his return from Europe in 1886, the Central Music 
 Hall work was abandoned. Financial difficulties were in 
 the way, since a large sum was needed for the erection of 
 a new Railroad Chapel. From 1889 to 1891 he held 
 evening preaching services in his own church. The audi- 
 ences were always large and hundreds, at times, were 
 turned away; one of his church members complained that 
 if something wasn't done to reduce trie evening audiences 
 the new carpets would be worn out! 
 
 Although without regular paid assistants, he shifted 
 many of the activities of the church upon other shoulders. 
 In this way he both trained earnest and able workers, and 
 rarely let mere routine close the door of his soul, which, 
 to his thinking, should be ever left ajar for those heavenly 
 guests that come "without observation." He once reports 
 making six hundred calls in a year, no trifling task in a 
 constantly shifting parish stretching from Monroe street 
 to Hyde Park; on the sick, troubled, and dying, his calls 
 were always many; yet they grew constantly fewer. 
 Preaching was his mission, and in his creed it was poor 
 economy to keep a race-horse continually plowing. 
 
 He came strangely close to his people. A social gather- 
 ing often followed upon the Wednesday evening prayer- 
 meeting. Here, as in a large family, he recounted his 
 hopes and fears, shared his travels, vacations, and reading. 
 Testimonies are countless of his leaving those who had 
 
MINISTER OF THE CHURCH 167 
 
 been cynical and weak, sanguine and courageous. He be- 
 lieved in men and women. There was a healing and 
 tonic happiness about him that made the air electric as he 
 passed. 
 
 Some of his experiences he thus recounts : 
 
 "It is hard to look over my record of marriage services 
 without continuous merrim.ent, as memory recalls this and 
 that amusing incident or mistake. I think of the couple 
 whom I called by wrong names, saying, 'Do you, George?' 
 and 'Do you, Martha?', when I was really addressing 
 'John' and 'Jane'. In hurriedly glancing over the license 
 I had read the names of the bride's father and mother, 
 instead of the bride and groom. Then I recall the mar- 
 riage where the groom saluted the bride with a sonorous 
 kiss at the close of the service, and then, in his hymeneal 
 ecstasy, exclaimed in a voice heard by the entire congre- 
 gation, 'Wasn't that a smacker?' I think of the awkward 
 father of a certain bride, who was himself nearly seven 
 feet tall, and who tried to kneel when his daughter knelt, 
 and who required help, after the benediction, to bring him 
 to his feet again. I remember my brother-in-law, who 
 forgot his trunk, and for four weeks after marriage forgot 
 to pay the wedding fee. I think of the loving groom who 
 came to m.y house to be wed, and who, after the cerem.ony, 
 tenderly remarked, 'Jennie has no friends here, Doctor, 
 and I should be so glad if you would kiss her.' I think of 
 the young man in church who walked with five other 
 young men up one aisle, while the bride and five other 
 young ladies walked up the other aisle, the two forming 
 a straight military line before the altar, and who, when I 
 whisperingly asked him his first name, replied in loud 
 tones, *I do' ; and who, at the close of the service, took 
 out a ten-dollar bill and presented it in the presence of the 
 
i68 JOHN HENRY BARROWS ^ 
 
 entire congregation. I recall a summons one evening to 
 a humble home on Cottage Grove avenue, where Emma, 
 a servant in the household, was to be married to a German 
 mechanic. I took off my fur cap and my rubbers, and 
 two boys found huge sport in playing with them while the 
 mother vainly strove to preserve order. All were waiting 
 for somebody; the man of the house had not returned. 
 Emma and her German lover sat on the black, horse-hair 
 sofa holding hands. I endeavored to keep up the con- 
 versation, and soon found unexpected help. A tight-bodied 
 little woman, looking as if she had stepped out of one 
 of Dickens's stories, came in and sat down, and immedi- 
 ately piped out, 'Dr. Barrows, I think marriage is a very 
 interesting episode.' I agreed with he/, and soon discov- 
 ered that she was a widow of ten years' standing, or wait- 
 ing. Soon a young iceman, with his trousers in his boots, 
 walked in and shook hands all around, remarking that he 
 was 'sorry he hadn't time to fix up.' After awhile there 
 was a noise in the back room — a strange, wheezy sound — 
 which indicated that the man of the house had returned 
 intoxicated. His friends tried to exclude him, but he 
 came in and drew a chair close to where I was sitting. 
 The service was now ordered and all were in evident 
 anxiety lest the new-comer should interrupt it. I finally 
 got Emma and the bridegroom properly placed and began 
 my address, which was interrupted by loud whoops from 
 the jovial inebriate. I struggled along until I came to 
 the prayer, which I unfortunately introduced with the 
 Lord's Prayer. I had scarcely begun its familiar words 
 when the intoxicated chorus called out, 'Chestnuts, 
 chestnuts;' and what happened after that I scarcely 
 knew, except that poor Emma, when the service 
 was over, threw herself on the sofa and burst into tears. 
 
MINISTER OF THE CHURCH i6g 
 
 I walked home that night something of a Prohibitionist. 
 "Marriages recall funerals, as they are often recorded 
 in the same book. A few years ago a famous Chicago 
 lawyer named O. died in the house next my own. He 
 had been notoriously successful in saving thieves and mur- 
 derers from justice. He had been a man of exceedingly 
 vicious life, though for a year or two he had drank little. 
 He was divorced from his wife and had been living with 
 a daughter who had been trained in the Presbyterian 
 church. He had had the very slightest acquaintance with 
 Professor Swing. The landlady of the house where he 
 died was anxious to make the funeral a very great occa- 
 sion. She wanted sermons, she said, both from Professor 
 Swing and myself. I consented to take some part in the 
 services for the sake of the daughter, but confessed I did 
 not want to make any remarks. Professor Swing called 
 at my house before the service and said, 'Barrows, we have 
 rather a tough job on hand.' I assented, but told the 
 Professor that I was confident he could pull the case 
 through if anybody could. I asked to have the simplest 
 part of the exercises, the reading from the Scriptures, and 
 the Professor offered to furnish me some appropriate 
 selections. We entered the house of death together. The 
 rooms were crowded, largely with ex-convicts, escaped 
 criminals. I sat next to one of the most famous murder- 
 ers in Chicago. The time came for the service to begin, 
 and I read the selections offered me, the first of which 
 did not seem altogether appropriate : 'Blessed are the dead 
 that die in the Lord.' After the reading, the landlady 
 sitting at the piano in the back-parlor started the hymn, 
 'Nearer my God to Thee,' expecting the congregation to 
 join in, but the words were not familiar to the Assembly, 
 and soon the music died out. Then the Professor began 
 
170 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 his remarks in his low, quiet, almost inaudible tones. 
 Those on the stairway and in the hall could not hear, and 
 the landlady, feeling that the occasion had not reached the 
 impressive dignity which she coveted, came forward and 
 asked the gentle Professor to stand in the entrance of the 
 hall and speak louder. He quietly declined. His remarks, 
 as I remember them, were about these: 'Neither Brother 
 Barrows nor I had much acquaintance with Brother O. 
 I met him once at a railroad station about two o'clock in 
 the morning, when I had to wait for awhile, and we 
 talked together of the general truths of Christianity and 
 I found he was sound in regard to the ordinary tenets of 
 religion.' This testimony of Brother Swing's to Brother 
 O.'s soundness was very comforting to my spirit. Then 
 Professor Swing continued: 'Brother O. did not profess 
 to have attained unto faith, he was striving to attain faith ; 
 that is what we are all striving for. The old orthodox 
 tenets of religion are fast disappearing. God is no longer 
 thought of as a God of fear, but as a God of love. What 
 we all need is a God of love. I read of a man who was 
 walking through a valley in Wales. It was called 'Para- 
 dise Vale,' and the little birds came out of the grass and 
 out of the bushes and out of the trees and lighted on 
 this man's head and on his clothes. Why did these little 
 birds do this? Because the man loved little birds. God 
 is love. I read an article not long ago in the Popular 
 Science Monthly, called 'The March of the Million.' It 
 represents a million persons setting out in life together, 
 and after five years fifty thousand are gone. After ten 
 years a hundred thousand are gone. After fifty years 
 five hundred thousand are gone. Friends, Brother 
 O. was one of the five hundred thousand. We believe he 
 has at last attained unto faith. 'God is love.' After a 
 
MINISTER OF THE CHURCH 171 
 
 few words of prayer by the Professor, one of the criminals 
 present laid his hand on Brother O.'s forehead and said to 
 me, 'You didn't know him?' I modestly answered, 'No.' 
 'He was a good man,' said this jail-bird, on whose ugly 
 countenance all the vices had stamped their feet. As we 
 came out, I said to the Professor, 'I must confess that 
 you are equal to such an occasion, and did far better than 
 I could have done.' Several months later Professor Swing, 
 meeting me, said, 'We seem to meet usually at funerals; 
 what a pity we cannot attend each other's obsequies.' I 
 certainly could not ask for a gentler critic of my faults 
 than the eulogist of Brother O.!" 
 
 During these years the Presbyterian Church was consid- 
 ering the advisability of revising the Westminster Con- 
 fession. In the discussion my father took a prominent 
 part. So rapidly is religious history made that this con- 
 troversy is already an old story, but in the eighties its 
 outcome was doubtful, and the opposition to men of his 
 views and courage, strong. His position is shown by these 
 citations from sermons and speeches before his congrega- 
 tion and the Chicago Presbytery. 
 
 "I do believe that our confession of faith is now, and 
 has been in the past, a hindrance to the progress of the 
 Kingdom of Christ, Professor Goldwin Smith once re- 
 marked to a friend of mine that in his judgment the Pres- 
 byterian church of America would have three times its 
 present strength if it had not persisted in carrying a mill- 
 stone around its neck in the shape of the confession. We 
 know that the Cumberland Presbyterian church broke 
 off from us because of the teachings of the third chapter 
 regarding the decree of reprobation or preterition. We 
 know that we have been at a serious disadvantage wn'th 
 other denominations in commending our doctrine to the 
 
172 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 popular mind, and the present discussion will show that 
 inside the church there has been so much of drifting and 
 departure from the Westminster standards that they do 
 not fairly represent the convictions of to-day. The time 
 is coming, if it is not already here, when improved Biblical 
 science will demand from us a better and broader inter- 
 pretation of the Scriptures. There will be less of the let- 
 ter and more of the spirit. Many things which the Chris- 
 tian spirit condemns have been defended by the letter of 
 Scripture, and the Church of Christ has suffered on ac- 
 count of it. We rightly believe some things that are not 
 expressly taught in the Scriptures, and under the inspira- 
 tion of Christian truth we come to better judgments of 
 Christian doctrines as a whole. We need a confession that 
 shall make the impression upon us which is made by the 
 words of Christ: 'How often would I have gathered ye, 
 but ye would not ;' and by the words of Paul : 'God, our 
 Saviour, willeth that all men should be saved.' We want 
 a confession that is not out of harmony with the teach- 
 ing of that early reformer who wrote: 'Our salvation is 
 from God, our perdition is from ourselves.' If the final 
 outcome of these years of intelligent and charitable Chris- 
 tian discussion shall be a new creed which we can heartily 
 proclaim, it will express a living faith that will give our 
 churches and our pulpits a new spiritual power. It is 
 better to believe a few things thoroughly than to hold a 
 confession that weighs down many minds with a deal of 
 theological lumber." 
 
 "Dr. Patton, in his masterly and classic argument 
 against revision, may quietly sneer at the doctrine of the 
 Christian consciousness as 'a modern compound of Hegel 
 and Schleiermacher,' but the fact remains that the Chris- 
 tian consciousness is the joint product of the Holy Spirit 
 
MINISTER OF THE CHURCH 173 
 
 and the Holy Scriptures, and makes it impossible for any 
 minister in Chicago to defend chattel slavery, and impos- 
 sible for Dr. Patton to use before Presbyterian congrega- 
 tions to-day such pictures of the 'infants of Turks and 
 Saracens' tormented in hell-fire, or such portraitures of the 
 'damned boiling in dungeons of everlasting brimstone,' 
 with black and terrible devils pricking them with long and 
 sharp-toothed forks, as were made by some of the authors 
 of the Westminster Confession, We live in a different at- 
 mosphere — an atmosphere created by Christianity, by bet- 
 ter conceptions of Christian doctrine and larger apprehen- 
 sions of God's loving kindness. It is certain that many 
 who have hope for revision are now feeling that revision 
 alone would be inadequate and unsatisfactory. Undoubt- 
 edly the confession as it now stands is a logical and consist- 
 ent document, and if it is to be slashed and altered accord- 
 ing to the multitudinous views of all who are expressing 
 their minds about it, we shall have an amended confession 
 which its original authors would scarcely recognize, and 
 which they certainly would repudiate. I do not think it 
 is honoring the Westminster divines. I should vastly pre- 
 fer to keep the confession as it is. I would not remove 
 it from the place it now occupies in our history, but I 
 would have a supplementary and shorter statement, giving 
 what the Presbyterian church of to-day believes are its 
 essential and necessary articles. A standard which allows 
 four different interpretations to one clause does not defi- 
 nitely state our present beliefs. We need a supplementary 
 creed in order to be square with the world and with our- 
 selves; we need it to dampen some of the most effective 
 ammunition of infidelity; we need it to explain what we 
 deem the essentials of our system, and to bring into the 
 light some things which the standards have left in ob- 
 
174 J OHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 scurity. We also need a new creed as a manual of in- 
 struction and a manifesto to the world. I have been 
 greatly grieved that on account of the confessional barrier 
 certain beloved and honored brethren are kept out of 
 the eldership, and I am well aware that many are unwill- 
 ing to enter the church as members because it is anchored 
 to the doctrinal statement from so much of which they 
 dissent. They are unwilling to seem affiliated with doc- 
 trines which they reject because they do not deem them 
 a fair interpretation of the Scriptures. There are Chris- 
 tians in our congregations and not in our churches; they 
 number multitudes of our best givers, our wisest coun- 
 selors, our most respected fellow-citizens, and truest rep- 
 resentatives of some parts of the Christian life. 
 
 "The new creed which I ^advocate should be a basis 
 for popular instruction — should declare the Church's be- 
 lief to the world. It ought to have the excellence of 
 brevity, the attractiveness of moderation in its claims 
 on belief, and the blessed power which belongs to the 
 supreme and central truths of revelation. And why 
 should a church which is going forth to conquer India, 
 China, and Japan for Christ carry in her hand beside the 
 Word of God anything less worthy than a fresh and 
 modern statement of essential truth ? I acknowledge that 
 for the people generally the supplementarj^ creed, if it 
 ever comes, will utterly take the place of the Westminster 
 Confession. It ought to; this will be a great gain. I 
 should not like to see any seventeenth century theological 
 yoke placed on the rising churches of the missionary world 
 or on the coming generations in Christian lands. Who 
 gave the Westminster divines any such authority that 
 their work, which undoubtedly contains the substance of 
 Christian truth, should remain unmodified and unex- 
 
MINISTER OF THE CHURCH 175 
 
 plained as the last test of theological soundness? Why 
 should we not trust the Holy Spirit in the church of 
 Christ to-day? Why should we not attempt, in connec- 
 tion with other Presbyterian churches it may be, to arrive 
 at a formula which shall omit the offensive parts of the 
 Westminster Confession, and set forth in modern language 
 its essential truth? The great trouble with the offensive 
 parts of the Westminster Confession is not that texts of 
 Scripture cannot be found that apparently sustain them, 
 but that they cannot be rationally used for the practical 
 purposes of the pulpit. There are dogmas, as Professor 
 Phelps has remarked, 'which have a place in historic 
 creeds, * * * * \vhich in systems of divinity can 
 be made plausible, but which in contact with real life 
 fade out of man's faith. They do not constitute a work- 
 ing theology and they never did.' Now, among such 
 doctrines are the doctrine of reprobation, and the doctrine 
 that to-day men are in any sense guilty of Adam's sin ; 
 that on account of it, irrespective of their own evil acts, 
 they are justly liable to eternal damnation. Men do 
 feel under the influence of the Holy Spirit and of divine 
 truth the corruption of their own nature; they do feel 
 the need of divine renewal ; but when you attempt to 
 bring them into responsible connection with Adam's sin, 
 you confuse the judgment and weaken the power of the 
 pulpit. I once heard President Dwight, of Yale College, 
 say that he knew of a man who had been taught that he 
 ought to repent not only of his own sins, but of the sins 
 of his ancestors, clear back to the father of the race. But 
 he said he had so many of his own to repent of, that he 
 would begin at his end of the line and probably be com- 
 pelled to stay there the rest of his life. Dr. Schaff says 
 that the Westminster theologj' condemns the whole race 
 
176 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 to everlasting woe for a single transgression committed 
 without our knowledge or consent six thousand years ago. 
 No wonder the church of to-day shrinks from it. 
 
 "There are some things which we believe so intensely 
 and absolutely that they ought to constitute the substance 
 of our creed. We believe in God, personal, infinite, 
 eternal, and triune, and we desire, as the colored preacher 
 said of Dr. Emmons's preaching, 'to m.ake him big to 
 human thought,' to exalt him as Calvinism has always 
 done. We believe in God's infinite love to all his 
 creatures, and would see this made as prominent and 
 supreme in a confession of faith as it is in modern preach- 
 ing. We believe that Christ is the light that enlighteneth 
 every man that cometh into the world ; that in every na- 
 tion he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is 
 accepted of him. We believe thoroughly, also, in man's 
 lost estate, in the need of divine deliverance and the uni- 
 versal working of God's spirit, and that Christ is the 
 divine Son of God, equal with the Father, who hath made 
 a propitiation for the sins of the whole world. We do not 
 believe that any sinner who turns penitently and believ- 
 ingly toward the divine mercy, even if he is so unfortunate 
 as not to have heard of Jesus Christ, will be cast into 
 hell and sufier 'unspeakable torment in soul and body 
 without intermission forevermore.' We believe in the 
 decisive character of this life, in its influence on the con- 
 ditions of eternity, and therefore we are greatly in earnest 
 that men should accept salvation. We believe that the 
 Gospel bears down with tremendous force on the duty 
 of immediate repentance and faith, and that if anj are 
 lost it is because they will not turn and live. We do 
 not believe that because all men will not accept our 
 church and our creed or our interpretation of the Word 
 
MINISTER OF THE CHURCH 177 
 
 we can have little hope of such. While evangelically 
 earnest, we are evangelically charitable and hopeful. We 
 believe most thoroughly that Christ is a sufficient Saviour 
 for all mankind, that the Gospel was meant for all, and 
 that it should be carried to all. Caring less for philoso- 
 phizing than did our fathers, we believe that the preach- 
 ing which builds up the soul, as well as saves the soul, is 
 Biblical preaching. We believe that the new creed should 
 keep closer than the old to essentials and not bristle 
 against other Christians. It should be an olive branch, 
 not a sword. We believe the law of Christian life in the 
 Church and in the individual is growth, expansion. 
 While holding settled beliefs they should be settled not 
 like a rock which cannot be moved, but like an oak, which, 
 rooted deep in the soil, has the principle of life within it 
 and rises and expands and throws its giant arms on every 
 side. We believe in the Holy Spirit, and that it is dis- 
 honoring Him to doubt that He is able to lead the Church, 
 and to inspire even a heavenlier and more perfect wisdom 
 than that which our fathers gained. We believe, with 
 Dr. Alexander of New York, that the nineteenth century 
 is nearer to Christ than the seventeenth century. Many 
 of us believe, with Reverend Dr. James Candlish, pro- 
 fessor of theology in the Free Church of Scotland, that 
 'The Westminster Confession in many parts has ceased to 
 be a statement of the vital truths of Christianity in a form 
 suitable and intelligible to the mind of the present day.' 
 We believe that the Confession ought to be modified or 
 supplemented, since it now as popularly apprehended 
 seems to teach the horrible dogma that God from eternity 
 has foredoomed the great mass of his children to eternal 
 torment, passing them by and leaving them no possibility 
 of redemption on account of the failure of their first 
 
178 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 parents, Christ not dying for them, and they unable by 
 conforming their lives ever so diligently to the light 
 of nature to come within the power of his redeeming 
 mercy. Moreover, we believe that the time is swiftly 
 coming when a growing demand for the union of Chris- 
 tendom must lead to practical results. We believe that 
 the elaborate metaphysical and in some respects offensive 
 creed of the seventeenth century, unexplained and un- 
 changed, is a hindrance to the fulfillment of Christ's last 
 prayer. The Presbyterian Church has in some respects 
 the best form of government of any of the denomina- 
 tions. It is a mediator between them. It has strong 
 affiliations with the Congregationalists on one side, and 
 with the Methodists and Episcopalians on the other. I 
 believe that it will be far better equipped for the work 
 before it if it presents to the world a simpler theology. 
 Let the Westminster Confession occupy its honored place 
 in our seminaries ; let it stand unchanged as a grand 
 landmark of Puritan theolog>\ But may we not wisely 
 take steps which shall lead to the theological consensus 
 of the reformed churches?" 
 
 In the spring of i8go, the Chicago Presbytery voted 
 for revision, but the idea of a supplementary creed had 
 little following there or elsewhere. Only a year from 
 the next fall, however, it voted for a new creed, and 
 eleven years later my father rejoiced that he had lived to 
 read that creed and witness its peaceable adoption by the 
 General Assembly. 
 
 His tenth anniversarj' sermon gives the chief facts 
 concerning the growth and work of the church under his 
 leadership. "Since 1881 there have been twelve hundred 
 and twenty-seven members added, eight hundred and 
 twenty-seven of whom come by confession of faith. In 
 
LEISURE HOURS m 
 
 these ten years the church has raised and expended eight 
 hundred and thirty-nine thousand dollars, a large portion 
 of it for public charities of every sort. Men are begin- 
 ning to learn that wealth comes from God and that he 
 expects them to use it for good works. In the first five 
 years of this decade this Church gave one hundred and 
 thirty-nine thousand dollars in charities, in the second five 
 years, five hundred and thirty-four thousand dollars, nearly 
 four times as much." 
 
 A large measure of success, fair health, joy in his wife 
 and in his five children, in friends and in work, were 
 surely his. Just as certainly was his life one of heavy 
 responsibility and almost unremitting labor, saddened by 
 his father's death, by the sin about him, by the indifference 
 of others to his ideals, or their censure of his methods, by 
 his temptations to lower his standards, and the frequent 
 condemnations of his sensitive conscience. Those near 
 him knew by the light he radiated that he was walking the 
 way of the cross; for such as he there is none other, and 
 whether its thorns or rocks, steeps and pitfalls be few 
 or many, it is the way of blessedness. 
 
 But in order to know rightly either his personality 
 or his achievement, we must examine his leisure, his 
 preaching, and his connection with civic, national, and 
 international movements toward righteousness. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 LEISURE HOURS 
 
 Men like Charles Lamb and Matthew Arnold are 
 known only apart from their daily round ; it is not the 
 city clerk or the school examiner that we count dear, but 
 the writers of Dream Children and Dover Beach. My 
 father was particularly fortunate in his vocation. It 
 elicited his best. Yet even with him, the office imposed 
 somewhat of its own nature upon its holder ; and we must 
 see him disassociated from it. 
 
 Early in the summer of 1886, he and my mother paid 
 their first visit to Ireland. In Killarney they met an old 
 man, who, pointing out the mountain that held on its sum- 
 mit a lake called the Devil's Punch Bowl, said : "There's 
 an island in the lake where the Devil spends his nights 
 when he comes to drink. It's the only bit of ground he 
 owns in these parts, and it's enough. Sir." At Blarney they 
 learned from the driver that the treasure there hidden 
 would never be recovered until four hundred black horses 
 with no white hair among them should be collected to re- 
 move it; the sad conclusion being, "and we've never been 
 able to get them together. Sir." It seemed to them that 
 in contrasting the Irish peasants with the tillers of the 
 soil in Illinois, they found in the one case, destitution, 
 pathos, and yet cheerfulness, in the other brutal plenty, 
 but a sort of low discontent. After a glance at the In- 
 ternational Exposition in Liverpool, they journeyed to 
 London. Here in June my father addressed the Mild- 
 may Conference in Mildmay Hall, where a large audi- 
 
LEISURE HOURS i8i 
 
 ence received him with enthusiasm. To secure the perfect 
 quiet that he was seeking, he refused further invitations 
 and did not present his letters of introduction. He wrote 
 from London to his brother Walter: 
 
 "Mr. Gladstone's magnanimity and unselfishness lift 
 him as much above his opponents as his intellectual su- 
 periority. The comic papers are as brutal here over 
 the 'old man's fall' as any papers in America ever were in 
 similar circumstances. One thing has struck me in the 
 English elections — viz. — the great mass of people who 
 have no concern in them. This makes it impossible to 
 have outward demonstrations, parades, and so forth, so 
 common with us. 
 
 "The ministers here are very active in politics. Even 
 in the Mildmay Conference they couldn't help praying 
 politics. One man told the Lord all about the danger of 
 yielding to the 'damnable system of Rome,' and assailed 
 England for her manifold sins, in the style of an Irish 
 dynamiter. Canon Farrar preached a sermon against 
 Gladstone on the fourth of July as bitter as any of his ser- 
 mons against the liquor traffic. 
 
 "The greatest preacher now living in my judgment is 
 — shall I say it? — Dr. Parker of the 'Temple.' And 
 yet, I should say greatest only in some things. He hasn't 
 the popular powers of Beecher, the evangelical unction 
 and earnestness of Spurgeon, the rhetorical captivation of 
 Farrar, the Ciceronian eloquence of Storrs, the scriptural 
 instructiveness of William M. Taylor, — but he has such 
 a combination of good qualities that, unaccustomed as 
 I am to him, I should delight more to hear him, at least 
 for a time, than any preacher I know." 
 
 Of Stratford, he writes : "Seldom in my life have I 
 had so vivid a feeling and so sweet a certainty of immor- 
 
i82 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 tality, as when, full of the thoughts of Shakespeare, I 
 wandered through the little Warwickshire city that gave 
 him birth and where rises the slim spire of the church 
 under whose pavement his body lies. Who, knowing his 
 mind and wandering over the fields which he loved three 
 centuries ago, could think of Shakespeare as dead? To 
 me he almost seemed to live in the life of my own soul, 
 and in the sunshine which fell on the outstretched 
 meadows," 
 
 The Isle of Wight, too, brought emotions that he has 
 recounted : "While there I read again the story of the 
 Dairyman's Daughter, written by Leigh Richmond, who 
 was a rector in one of the parishes of that beautiful island. 
 The life of a Christian servant-girl, who knew so much 
 of Christ and who died so victorious a death, has been 
 read in millions of copies in Great Britain and America. 
 It has been translated into most of the European lan- 
 guages, and a Russian version, made by a Russian princess, 
 found its way into the palace of the Czar, who expressed 
 his gratitude by a valuable gift to the author. Elizabeth 
 Walbridge, the dair>'man's daughter, lived in the humble 
 parish of Arreton, about eight miles from where we were 
 visiting. Pilgrims in great numbers from all Christian 
 lands resort to that lowly grave over which friends have 
 erected a simple stone with an inscription which begins: 
 
 'Stranger, if e'er by chance or feeling led 
 Upon this hallowed ground to tread. 
 Turn from the contemplation of this sod 
 To think on her whose spirit rests with God.' 
 
 "We determined to visit Arreton by ourselves. In the 
 twilight we rode along the perfect highways, between 
 the hedgerows having wide views of verdant fields and 
 
LEISURE HOURS 183 
 
 ivy-clad walls, with occasional glimpses of the sea which 
 separates the island from the Hampshire coast. There 
 on our right were the two towers of Osborn Palace, the 
 Queen's dwelling for three months of the year, and where 
 she then was. 
 
 "The twilight was deepening as we looked down on 
 the lowly church of Arreton, almost hidden in the vale. 
 A walk across the fields and over the stiles soon brought 
 us to the grave we had come so far to see. There we 
 were alone, and we read the inscription and prayed that 
 the Lord would incline our hearts to walk more humbly 
 in the paths of the meek, who are to inherit the earth. 
 The twilight shade, which is not deep in these northern 
 latitudes, was brightened by the 'star which ushers even- 
 ing in,' and we did not forget that they that are wise 
 shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they 
 that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and 
 ever. Do not such graves as this make old England 
 sacred? Do not such graves as this teach us the worth 
 and worthiness of the human soul beyond all the pageants 
 of history?" 
 
 The dull routine of Ems and Schwalbach occupied 
 most of August and September, but for this, a week in 
 Holland compensated. He wri*-es: "The little land, 
 with its picturesque, winged towers that tell how a saga- 
 cious and indomitable people yoked the storm-wind into 
 their combat with the waves, and with its gaily-colored 
 boats and its painted houses within which domestic com- 
 fort and the goddess of cleanliness are worshipped, is still 
 so notable that the proudest traveler may well doff his 
 hat to the humblest Dutchman he meets, for he stands 
 before the representative of a race, which more than any 
 other since time began, excepting only the Hebrew, illus- 
 
i84 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 trates the power of the human soul to suffer, to dare, and 
 to conquer." His chief experience in this land he thus de- 
 scribed some few years later: "Rembrandt gave me the 
 most considerable intellectual sensation that I remember 
 ever to have received. Many of us seek, and long in 
 vain, to find the embodiment of our own spirit in the 
 domain of art. Fifteen years ago, I made some incursions 
 into the world of pictures, in the galleries of England 
 and Belgium, France and Italy. I had been greatly im- 
 pressed, and slightly oppressed, by what I had seen. In 
 my memories of miles of canvases, I had realized that 
 'Art is long,' and when in August, 1886, I found myself 
 for the first time in Holland, I did not dream of the artis- 
 tic regeneration that awaited me. A man nearing forty, 
 who had crossed the ocean, seen the Alps and the Vatican, 
 St. Peter's and the Pyramids, Damascus and Baalbec, 
 Jerusalem and Chicago, is not usually expecting a pow- 
 erful, new sensation. Unconsciously, however, I was 
 making ready for one of the chief shocks of pleasure of 
 which a man is capable. I was in The Hague, one of the 
 fairest of cities, girdled by those lovely, sacred, imme- 
 morial woods which gave Holland its ancient name, the 
 Holt Land. I had been reading something of Rembrandt, 
 and in this receptive and sensitive mood, I found myself 
 standing before that renowned picture which Rembrandt 
 executed at the age of twenty-five, the Lesson or School 
 of Anatomy. Such is the wealth and force of life in the 
 countenances of this picture, such the vital beauty and ex- 
 pressiveness of teacher and spectators, that in this miracle 
 of art the thought and horror of death were completely 
 overpowered. I was face to face with living men, my 
 kindred, students of truth, fathers of science, children of 
 liberty, and then I owned that I belonged to that north- 
 
LEISURE HOURS 185 
 
 ern race which finds beauty, not so much in forms of 
 Greek outline or soft Italian grace, not so much in the 
 idealized world of Madonnas and saints, as in the realm 
 of actual humanity, and there in the presence of Rem- 
 brandt's astonishing portraits, even the grandeurs of 
 Michael Angelo and the seraphic ideals of Raphael faded 
 from my fancy, and, beside the grave, manly, intellectual 
 beauty of these noble faces, all of Rubens's lusty and rubi- 
 cund goddesses seemed more than ever the products of a 
 fleshly paganism. Although subsequent study has en- 
 larged and deepened my admiration for Rembrandt, it 
 has also chastened and modified it. It is a relief at times 
 to turn from the sombre poetry of his chiaroscuro, from 
 his literal and often graceless drawing, and from the 
 frequent commonness of his subjects and the grotesque- 
 ness of their treatment, and to feel once more the beauty, 
 dignity, style, splendor, of the Italian schools. Yet there 
 is a strong masculine element in Rembrandt which makes 
 him the artist for all persons who value vigor and thought 
 more than prettiness, who are touched by mystery and 
 sublimity and far-reaching suggestiveness, and who can 
 tolerate external deformities as did this robust genius." 
 After this sensation, it is not strange that he felt for Hol- 
 land the affection reflected in these further words of 
 his: 
 
 "In no other nation does the art belong so naturally 
 and so beautifully to the people. It appears to spring 
 out of their soil, rise through its vapors, sit by their fire- 
 sides, join in their merriment, and glorify their rude 
 and thoughtful faces. The Dutch painters depict the 
 Dutch home adorned with festoons and quaint heraldic 
 devices and succeed, as Emerson sometimes did, in finding 
 out the poetry of a kitchen and a saucepan ; they revel in 
 
JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 the flickering lights of the town market; they lead us 
 over the grassy plains of their level landscapes, amid 
 tree-bordered canals and brown, fantastic windmills and 
 meek-eyed, prosperous cattle and along the shores of the 
 great sea; they perpetuate the faces of their soldiers and 
 physicians and scholars; they do their work with un- 
 equalled care and finish, and throw into it a new magic 
 of color; for beneath their misty skies they loved all 
 brightness as they loved their tulips and their hyacinths, 
 their painted ships and rose-colored houses and the bright 
 flagons of Delft ware that gleamed from their comfortable 
 chimneys. In the grasp of her Art as of her commerce, 
 the Batavian commonwealth held the lands of splendor, 
 and it has been said that many a Dutch sailing-master, 
 when he saw his vessels coming home laden with the 
 treasures of the East 'dreamed of the sun of Java when 
 he saw only the grey shadows of Holland.' " 
 
 As an outcome of these Dutch and English experiences 
 my father gave much of his leisure to Rembrandt and 
 Shakespeare — both so virile, so free from hyper-fastidious- 
 ness, with imaginations suflliciently strong to brighten life's 
 common roads. The direct fruits of this study were 
 lectures on these men which he gave frequently thereafter, 
 throughout his life. 
 
 To Shakespeare during several years he turned almost 
 daily for refreshment. He found that there are times 
 when work, the sky, the Bible even, fail to lift the soul ; 
 when it cherishes old truths most if they are mingled with 
 unaccustomed, feebler elements. Always, and probably 
 rightly, he rated his critical faculties comparatively low. 
 His temperament was active, rather than introspective; 
 his mind worked synthetically, not analytically; he was 
 governed by his admirations, and had few dislikes. He 
 
LEISURE HOURS 187 
 
 often jotted down his opinion of the books he read. He 
 wrote : 
 
 "Mark Pattison's 'Life of Milton' is thoroughly read- 
 able and imbued with a just admiration of the great poet's 
 lofty character. But it seems to me to be written some- 
 what in the spirit of the young man who was praising 
 his mother and began by saying 'She is very lame and 
 everybody in town calls her "Old Marm Hutch," but 
 still I think my mother is a very good woman.' Pattison 
 thrusts before our faces the criticisms and condemnations 
 of Milton's life and works, makes us familiar, first of all, 
 with what has been said against him, and then concludes 
 that he was one of the grandest of characters and noblest 
 of poets. It is like forcing a man to look intently at the 
 wart on Cromwell's face as a preliminary to the study 
 of Cromwell's character. It seems to me that the spirit 
 of truth demands of the biographer of Milton the full, 
 fair, eloquent portrayal of Milton's great character and 
 work, and the subordination of the defects of his life 
 to those positive and majestic virtues which constitute his 
 greatness." 
 
 It is interesting to notice that in his strenuous life, in 
 the heart of a great city, he lectured upon Shakespeare, 
 not on his other chief friend among the poets — Milton. 
 He thought Milton "the greater artist and loftier char- 
 acter," but described Shakespeare as "of ampler imagina- 
 tion, richer in worldly wisdom, reaching a wider audience, 
 and touching the springs of all the arts." Many little 
 personal traits that he discovered or fancied in Shake- 
 speare pleased him ; such for example, as his complete in- 
 difference to posterity. "In the golden twilight of his 
 later years, it was not like him to treat his works as many 
 great writers have treated their productions, combing 
 
i88 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 their locks, washing their faces, and straightening their 
 clothes, in order to make a presentable appearance to 
 posterity. His mind had discharged itself of its burden, 
 he had laid aside his wand, even as his own Prospero 
 broke his magic rod, and he could placidly permit the 
 race he had enriched to guard the treasures he had given." 
 But the principal ties binding him to Shakespeare were 
 the dramatist's knowledge of men, and his profound eth- 
 ical and religious teachings. This latter of course, my 
 father qualifies. "He had none of the instincts of the 
 reformer, either in politics, morals, or religion. Men 
 call him a universal genius. It is a natural mistake. He 
 knew so much of humanity, it seems as if he knew all. 
 But there was one immense class of human characters, 
 and that the m.ost influential in history, into whose lives 
 he did not enter, I mean those who are possessed and 
 controlled by religious ideas. Such men as apostles, 
 martyrs, missionaries, fanatics, saints, Christian reformers; 
 such personages as Athanasius, Mohammed, Peter the 
 Hermit, St. Bernard, Luther, St. Catherine did not come 
 within the range of his marvellous interpreting sympathy. 
 The soul life in its relation to God and duty, which is 
 unveiled with such vividness and power in the pages of 
 Harriet Beecher Stowe and Hawthorne and George Mac- 
 Donald, and even more profoundly at times in the works 
 of George Eliot, v.-as not constantly present to the mind 
 of Shakespeare. He had not the elevation of moral tone 
 which strikes us at once in Dante and Milton, in Words- 
 worth, and often in Victor Hugo. No other poet ever 
 had such a vast tolerance for human infirmity." "Yet," 
 he continues, "his intellect was too comprehensive and 
 penetrating not to discern a m.ultitude of things which 
 make him one of the greatest of ethical and even of re- 
 
LEISURE HOURS 189 
 
 ligious teachers. The morality of Shakespeare is not in 
 the words and characters so much as in the very plot of 
 the plays. So it is in history. An era black with human 
 baseness may, after all, furnish grand lessons in ethics. 
 And so it is in the Bible. Thinking only of the sins of 
 men like Jacob and David and Solomon, and calling 
 attention to what are deemed coarse expressions here and 
 there, shallow men have said the Bible is not altogether 
 moral. The hinge of the Shakespearean play, that upon 
 which it turns, is God's providential order which is com- 
 mandingly ethical, blazing forth the truth that the gov- 
 ernment of the moral sphere is set against selfishness, 
 against hypocrisy, against treachery, against the madness 
 of an Antony— who for lust flung from him a world, 
 and even against the hasty unwisdom of an Othello. 
 
 "The adjustment of good and evil is not always equi- 
 table, in the world of Shakespeare; he does not punish 
 all villains as they deserve, 'on this bank and shoal of 
 timie.' It was left to Charles Dickens to accomplish this 
 in his cheap, popular way. But Shakespeare is truer to 
 nature and teaches, as the wrong-doers in the 'Tempest' 
 discovered, that transgression comes into conflict with 
 all spiritual powers, and that nothing finally avails 'except 
 heartfelt sorrow and a clear life ensuing.' And this man 
 was not in doubt regarding God, his personality, provi- 
 dence, righteousness, and mercy. In the many hundreds 
 of times in which Shakespeare uses the Divine Name, 
 every power, attribute, quality which faith and revelation 
 have assigned Him, is again and again illustrated or af- 
 firmed." 
 
 He refers us to Henry V after Agincourt, to faithful 
 Adam giving to Orlando his store of money, to Banquo 
 in the horror and confusion following King Duncan's 
 
190 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 murder, to Dame Quickly and the "jovial, sensuous, 
 cowardly, vain, and half-lovable Falstaff," to Lorenzo 
 whispering to Jessica, to Clarence crying to his murderer, 
 to Richard III, and to the "sad and distracted Hamlet, 
 the most speculative, intellectual, mysterious, and fasci- 
 nating of Shakespeare's men." And Shakespeare's world 
 is also full of prayer. "We breathe the atmosphere of 
 prayer and hear its words, with kings on the edge of 
 battle and with innocent women in the stress of sorrow ; 
 and while we behold the futile agony of the prayer of the 
 wicked and unrepentant, as we see the Danish king on his 
 knees, we also catch a glimpse of its heavenly beauty as 
 Juliet exclaims that she has 'need of many orisons.' " 
 
 After relating his love for Perdita, "frolicsome Rosa- 
 lind," "Miranda, the pure sweet daughter of wonder," 
 and for those "meek victims of man's unwisdom.," 
 Ophelia, Desdemona, Hermione, and Cordelia, he calls 
 them all "embodiments of the Christian graces of meek- 
 ness, truth, sweetness, and mercy." Other distinctly 
 Christian truth he also indicates. "What marvellous 
 blending of the truth that God is merciful and man is 
 sometimes incorrigible is found in the death-bed scene of 
 the wicked Cardinal Beaufort! And who else, like this 
 Stratford playwright, has pictured for us the beauty of 
 the Christian grace of mercy, in the words of Isabella 
 or of Portia. Where else is the work of Christ's Atone- 
 ment more sweetly told than in these lines from Measure 
 for Measure: 
 
 'Why, all the souls that were were forfeit once; 
 And He that might the vantage best have took 
 Found out the remedy;' 
 
 unless it be in these other Shakespearean words: 
 
LEISURE HOURS 191 
 
 'That dread King who took our state upon Him 
 To free us from His Father's wrathful curse;' 
 
 though both of these passages pale before the splendid 
 beauty of these lines of King Henry the Fourth, 
 
 'The holy fields 
 Over whose acres walked those blessed feet, 
 Which fourteen hundred years ago were nailed 
 For our advantage to the bitter cross.' 
 
 "And nowhere else outside of the Scriptures is the sin 
 of man, perhaps I should say are the sins of men, revealed 
 with more astonishing and terrific power as acts com- 
 mitted against the Divine order. This painter of ideal 
 scenes that appear to us more actual than fields of battle, 
 so that we walk in fancy over the platform of the castle 
 of Elsinore with deeper emotions than over the plain of 
 Marathon, is also so ethical, especially in his greater 
 dramas, that his javelins strike deep at almost every sin, 
 and he unconsciously takes moral rank for the moment 
 with Aeschylus and Dante. Moreover, we feel that we 
 are in the very spirit of the most solemn of Scriptural 
 truths, when we follow Shakespeare as he unveils the 
 workings of a guilty conscience." Then, too, he finds that 
 Shakespeare comes "closer yet to the hearts of men gen- 
 erally in the marvelous reflections of Biblical truth which 
 he gives us, as he sings of the instability of earthly hap- 
 piness, the transitoriness of earthly beauty, the vanity of 
 earthly glory, and ventures, now and then, to lead our 
 thoughts and hopes into the lucid realms of the life im- 
 mortal." 
 
 My father was also a lover of Lowell, whom he con- 
 sidered, on the whole, the best representative of American 
 literary development. They had had some correspondence 
 
192 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 and at Mr. Lowell's request, they met in 1887 when the 
 poet came to Chicago to address the Union League Club. 
 My father found him delightfully communicative about 
 the new edition of his works, then only a prophecy, his 
 opinions of great men, and of European life and politics. 
 Mr. Lowell took occasion to say: "The only thing 
 settled by the Congress of Vienna was that Gruyere cheese 
 is the best cheese in the world," and to tell of turning a 
 laugh on Sumner, who had no sense of humour. Sumner 
 had been talking at great length about the recent suicide 
 of the French Ambassador at Washington. After he had 
 given all the theories as to the cause of the suicide, Lowell 
 said : "Sumner, did you see the French Ambassador often 
 before his death?" "Yes," said Sumner, "I saw him 
 every day." "Did you speak with him in English or 
 French?" "Oh, I talked nothing but French," said 
 Sumner. On this Lowell said : "Gentlemen, we do not 
 need to seek any further reason for his death; this fully 
 explains the suicide!" Sumner was never able to under- 
 stand the laughter which followed. 
 
 In the first five years after his return from Europe, my 
 father spent many of his vacations in traveling. He 
 caught muscallonge in Lost Lake, Wisconsin, and red fish 
 in Tampa Bay, he scaled the heights of Quebec and in- 
 spected cigar factories in Cuba; he preached in places as 
 dissimilar as Brooklyn and New Orleans, St. Louis and 
 St. Augustine. Some experiences of his trip to Fort 
 Worth, Texas, to speak at the opening of the Spring 
 Palace, he related to his church in these words : "Along 
 the road which passes by the railway track, I saw a dozen 
 teams driven by Oklahoma boomers, returning sadly and 
 slowly toward the land from which they came. When 
 saluted by a wave of the handkerchief from a car window, 
 
LEISURE HOURS 193 
 
 they always good-naturedly responded. We tried this 
 salutation on a number of stolid Indians, but had our 
 pains for our trouble. The aboriginal lord of the soil was 
 not disposed to exchange greetings with strangers. There 
 is no need to tell you at length of the sights in Okla- 
 homa, of the patches of soil here and there turned up by 
 the plow, of the very infrequent shanties or tents visible 
 on the plains. But the city of Guthrie, the would-be 
 capital of the new territory, where we paused a half hour, 
 is worth a moment's description. This mushroom me- 
 tropolis of pine and canvas spreads out over a square mile 
 on either side of the track, and looks as though it had 
 come out for the afternoon to enjoy a summer picnic; 
 and yet there are signs of trade and enterprise. Hotels 
 are visible, bearing such names as Sherman House, the 
 Lindell Hotel, the European Hotel. These are usually 
 one story, or one story and a half in height, and capable 
 of housing a half-dozen people. I saw a tent, ten feet 
 square, with this sign, 'Board by the day or week.' I 
 saw a shanty without a roof, perhaps six feet by eight, in 
 front of which, supported by two posts twelve feet high, 
 was an immense sign, 'Bakery, Wholesale and Retail.' 
 Another establishment a little larger had over it the sign, 
 'Groceries and Hardware, Wholesale and Retail.' 
 * * * * The people of Texas may have their faults, 
 but among them are not a lack of frankness, and a lack 
 of generous appreciation. This gigantic State is gigantic 
 in its compliments, and the words in which your humble- 
 minded pastor was introduced to this intelligent and eager 
 and thoughtful congregation, exhausted his capacities for 
 blushing, and made him wish that a large Texas knot- 
 hole had been provided for the occasion. Right in front 
 of the platform was a fountain playing, and in a basin 
 
194 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 about it were swimming a dozen white ducks. After 
 your doctor had been introduced in this tremendous way, 
 one of the ducks very appropriately called out 'quack!' " 
 The summer of 1887 and the four succeeding summers 
 he went with his family to West Lake, a Canadian farm- 
 ing village, eighty miles east of Toronto. Here for the 
 first time since his days in Kansas he reveled in country 
 life. He writes: "The sun is a great healer when you 
 are on the water. I believe that twelve hours spent in 
 a boat, especially when some one else rows, will do more 
 to restore the vigor of a tired man than several days 
 spent in bed. * * * * The change in the sounds 
 that smite the ear is a pleasure and a refreshment. In- 
 stead of the car-bell, the rumble of the market wagons 
 and fire engines, the distant whistle of the locomotive, the 
 yells of the newsboys, and the cries of the charcoal man, 
 it was a relief to listen to the voiceful silence of Nature, 
 for the voices seem still compared to those to which the 
 ear Is wont. The chirp of the cricket, the whistle of the 
 meadow lark, the chirrup of the tree toad and of the 
 squirrel, the humming of the bees, the soughing of the 
 wind in the cedars, the plash of the waves, the lowing of 
 the cattle, the cackle of the barnyard, the falling of apples 
 and pears, the whinnying of horses, the click of the har- 
 vester and of the croquet balls, these are some of the 
 sounds which replaced the din of the city." Something 
 of this life shows in his article called "Two Miles of a 
 Country Road," from which we quote: "You have never 
 walked this road, unless you have made a summer trip 
 through a somewhat obscure part of the Canadian do- 
 minion. It is not a very picturesque bit of the queen's 
 highway, but to me it is hallowed by memories of sweetest 
 domestic pleasure. Three or four times a week, for ten 
 
LEISURE HOURS i95 
 
 weeks of my life, I have driven over it with my best friend 
 and with one or another of our children. It was the 
 closing pleasure of the happy, idyllic day, a day of air and 
 sunshine and outdoor life between our three lakes. 
 
 "Our daily life here by this road may not seem at all 
 attractive to people who love great hotels and elaborate 
 dinners and much society. But we thought it a return 
 to paradise. With the fresh products of the farm to 
 live on, served by an excellent cook (and a good cook is 
 one of the noblest inventions of the modern world), with 
 pure, cool air to breathe, not wanting in the balsamic 
 flavors of the near woods, with everything to invite us 
 out of doors, we found the days too short. In our farm- 
 house we breakfasted at seven, and after prayers came the 
 day's varied occupations. With tennis, croquet, archery, 
 foot-ball, base-ball, riding, rowing, swimming, and above 
 all, fishing, the day was almost as full as a city pastor's 
 when at work. It is a blessing for a busy man to take 
 time to get acquainted with his children, to find out what 
 they like, to be their companion, to make himself a boy 
 again, to teach them to row and swim and fish and to take 
 a fresh and lively interest in the outer world. 
 
 "But we must begin our brief journey. 'Tom,' our 
 horse, does not care to take more than ten minutes to 
 whirl us to the end of two miles, and he is easily persuaded 
 to return in even shorter time. Horses love to set their 
 faces homeward, like travelers who have seen Egypt and 
 Italy and France and England, and find themselves at 
 last confronting the stormy sea at Liverpool. Our road 
 leads from the farm-house to an old mill, a part of which 
 is now used for a post-oflSce. We often find the office 
 locked and then call on the post-mistress at the house 
 hard by. She lets us examine the small basket containing 
 
JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 the meagre mail, half of which is sometimes ours. I find 
 it a saving of mental nerve to dwell for a time where 
 the modern Mercur\- alights not three times a day, but 
 every other day. 
 
 "Do you wish to ride with us tonight? Mary or 
 Manning will give you the seat for just once. Before 
 stepping into the buggj' you must look at the splendid ex- 
 hibition of clouds with which the Great Painter delights 
 us. You perhaps never saw so wide and high a pillar 
 of snow-white, luminous vapor as that which now reaches 
 almost to the zenith. The winds are slowly tearing ofif 
 islands of floating splendor and spreading them like golden 
 fleeces over the azure upper sea. You may think this a 
 rather common country, but God never lavished else- 
 where more glory on the evening sky. You rejoice in an 
 almost unobstructed vision of the horizon and the heaven; 
 and the lake which gleams between you and the great 
 sand dune to the westward (and that yellow sand-hill 
 itself is a sort of mountainous Sahara) both help to make 
 the picture more beautiful. We are in the carriage now 
 and though the youngest child frowns a little at our de- 
 parture, because it is not 'his turn,' we ride to the gate 
 which the little hands hold open and are in our road going 
 northward. There is a rail fence on either side, with 
 juniper bushes, choke-cherries, wild plum trees, and wil- 
 lows, decorating and guarding its primitive abruptness. 
 Back of us the road leads by several turns through a 
 forest to the unseen shores of Ontario, where, unless the 
 wind quiets, there may be no haul of white-fish tomorrow 
 morning. To-night the great lake is roaring, as it rushes 
 over the lime-stone shelves and tries to eat a little deeper 
 into the coast. We may have no orchestra to delight us 
 here with the music of Wagner and Beethoven, but there 
 
LEISURE HOURS 197 
 
 is a deeper and grander music speaking to our hearts from 
 the unseen organ of the waves, a music which has lulled 
 human eyes to sleep for a hundred years. Our road is 
 older than any across the prairies. Children walk over 
 it to school to-day as their great-grandmothers did. I 
 hope your children have learned to distinguish all these 
 trees along the way. Mine love to say, 'Oh, I see an 
 iron-wood, a beech, an ash, a birch, a bass-wood, a hickory, 
 a wild-cherry, a cedar, a pine, a silver maple, a mountain- 
 ash, a choke-cherry, a spruce, a willow, a hard maple, a 
 butternut.' We see all of these on our little ride. 
 
 "I am thankful for these two miles of country road. 
 They remind me of the way over which, thirty-four years 
 ago, I trudged to a district school and my children will 
 think of it as the road which led them into the fields of 
 natural knowledge. Dante went through a forest on his 
 way to hell. We do not find these woods so dusky, dense, 
 and dreadful as his, and love and peace make us dream 
 that we have come to a summer Eden. 
 
 "The lake looks rough tonight, the children will not 
 ask us to go out 'bull-heading' on our return. I know 
 an individual who thinks that, next to a good prayer- 
 meeting, catching bull-heads by moonlight is the sweetest 
 of pleasures. I know of no exercise to me pleasanter than 
 on a still day to be rowing a boat with two friends be- 
 sides, trailing three or four long lines through the water 
 when the bass and pickerel happen to be hungry. Look- 
 ing at the lake to-night from our buggy, I remember some 
 successes and many failures in the last few weeks, and 
 vividest of all is the recollection of a muscallonge, who 
 this very morning let me haul him to the side of my boat 
 so that I could see his silvery beauty, and who then con- 
 cluded to finish his breakfast on something more palatable 
 
JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 than the 'spoon victuals' which were all that I offered 
 him. But it is better to have fished and lost than never 
 to have fished at all, when the game you are after is this 
 savage and beautiful monster, the wolf of our waters, 
 whose name the Indians and the white men spell or pro- 
 nounce in some five different ways." During the sum- 
 mer evenings, too, he often plaj^ed backgammon until, as 
 he says, he came to feel "like the minister who indulged 
 so much in this game that he became very restless when 
 he looked down from his pulpit and saw in any part of 
 the congregation, a pew with only one person in it. It 
 seemed to him like a point uncovered, and he felt like 
 coming down and placing some other person by the side 
 of the solitary listener." 
 
 In these years, as always, his friendships play a large 
 part in his life. These notes to Dr. Simon J. McPherson, 
 then minister of the Second Presbyterian Church of Chi- 
 cago, are characteristic : 
 
 1885. 
 Dear Mack: 
 
 We have put you on for the last speaker that we might 
 say, "Optimum vinum usque adhuc." Write that you 
 approve and that you love me. I have been looking over 
 the minutes of the Assembly and have been so impressed 
 by the showing of your church that I send my congratula- 
 tions. It is a noble record of which your elders (the 
 First Church congregation) feel proud. 
 
 If you want to be still greater than you are, read daily 
 Park's "Discourses." 
 
 For two weeks my life has been a funeral procession. 
 These recent days which the Nation- has given to Grant 
 have doubtless softened your heart as they have mine. 
 I am happy to be able at last to reach some just estimate 
 
LEISURE H OURS i99 
 
 of the old commander. During his life it was hard to 
 do so. 
 
 March 7, 1888. 
 My Dear Mack: 
 
 I shall gladly rattle 'round in your pulpit a week from 
 Sunday evening. You ought to go to the New York 
 banquet, and I am glad that the Chicago Presbytery and 
 the Chicago Princeton Club are to be represented there by 
 the ablest man in our denomination. But don't let the 
 New York fellows get their hooks into you. A Chris- 
 tian man can preserve his self-respect, his American prin- 
 ciples, his religion, and everything good except his ortho- 
 doxy more easily in Chicago than in New York! 
 
 2957 Indiana Avenue, Nov. 15, 1889. 
 
 My Capital and "Capitalistic" Friend: 
 
 We have had a jubilee at our house this morning, read- 
 ing John Crerar's noble and nobly characteristic will. 
 Every good man in Chicago feels prouder and richer 
 from what he reads of your friend's princely benefactions. 
 We can do our work with stronger hope now that we see 
 what reinforcement has come to us. Bless the Lord, O 
 my soul! 
 
 But I cannot write one tithe of what I feel. John 
 Crerar has made us all his debtors — How wisely and well 
 he has distributed his fortune! You and I might have 
 wished to see Lake Forest and the Presbyterian Board 
 remembered, but nine hundred and ninety-nine out of a 
 thousand of Chicago's best people will say, "It could 
 hardly have been better." 
 
 I am so glad about the League, the Library, the Hos- 
 pital, the statue, the Y. M. C. A., the Sunday School 
 Union, and all the rest, including S. J. M. 
 
JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 By the way, I have one or two pet causes that I like 
 to present to my rich friends, but I will not trouble you 
 now. 
 
 October i6, 1891. 
 My Dear Mack: 
 
 Your letter was golden and the enclosure only "silver." 
 I keep the gold but return the "silver," believing that 
 the clerical laborer is worthy of his argent. I may claim 
 the kiss from the bride when she returns. That emolu- 
 ment I ought not to lose. You must not begin a bad 
 precedent. When you are sick and I officiate in the 
 Second Church, I may get a hundred dollar fee, and my 
 wife would quarrel with me if I sent it to you ! 
 
 Yours, Jack. 
 
 Perhaps his most noticeable trait in his leisure hours 
 was the lavishness with which he poured the best wine of 
 his nature for those nearest to him. Few children have 
 had a father like him. After waking his flock in the 
 morning, he would tell them part of a never-ending Sin- 
 bad story, wherein Marienbad, Katrinenbad, Mannien- 
 bad, and the others played their several parts, sliding down 
 hills of ice-cream, slaking their thirst in streams of foam- 
 ing soda-water, and discovering every kind of magic treas- 
 ure. Breakfast over, his prayer for help and forgiveness 
 followed, full of thanks for "Thy favour which is life, and 
 Thy loving kindness which is better than life," after 
 which, with moistened eyes, he always kissed each member 
 of his family. And so, until the evening hymns, "Up- 
 ward where the stars are burning," "The spacious firma- 
 ment on High," and "Lead, Kindly Light," which some- 
 times closed the day, his loving presence guided. Accord- 
 ing to some lax modern notions, he was too strict a parent. 
 
LEISURE HOURS 201 
 
 Both he and his wife believed in corporal punishment, 
 and as in other things, the bridge betw'een their theory 
 and practice was not unused. He was both just and 
 tender, with the result that his children so early learned 
 obedience, truthfulness, and absolute devotion to him, 
 that though they were disorderly, quick-tempered, and 
 wilful, severe discipline was rarely necessary. 
 
 He inaugurated many delightful family customs; a 
 procession at Christmas time, when after breakfast each 
 child playing a different instrument, mouth-organ, comb, 
 bell, horn, or whistle, as the case might be, marched after 
 him through all the house from attic to cellar and round 
 and round the bulging stockings hanging on the parlor 
 chairs. The plan was not to break ranks till he halted. 
 Oh, the excitement of it! Every time we entered the 
 parlor, our music would grow faint for we were breath- 
 less with expectancy; would our laughing leader pause, 
 or would he still twang his zither and march relentlessly 
 away? And then there was the birthday bonfire. This 
 came each August, in honor of all those members of the 
 family whose natal days fell in the summer months. It 
 was weeks in building and when finally lighted on the top 
 of the highest sand-dune it blazed more glorious than 
 fire-works, so high that all night long, ships far out on 
 Lake Ontario could see it. For each birthday, too, he 
 wrote a hymn, which was sung to the child w^hose day 
 was being celebrated. One of these, to the tune "Amer- 
 ica," contained the line, "I love thy frocks and frills." 
 
 Life was never monotonous with him as comrade. 
 Surprises were his specialty, and of a kind and variety that 
 only the most loving imagination could conceive. Soda- 
 water tickets under plates upon hot mornings, rare stamps 
 for collections falling out of napkins, invitations to drive 
 
JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 behind the ponies in Lincoln Park pinned on pillows, 
 were among the minor varieties. He would send pres- 
 ents or post letters on his way to the train, that his wife 
 might hear sooner than she anticipated, letters abounding 
 in puns and rhymes, often containing long paragraphs 
 wherein each word began with the same letter, or illus- 
 trated by strange designs, or relating imaginary adven- 
 tures, or full of German, French, and Latin phrases writ- 
 ten in Greek characters all to the endless delight of his 
 children. For their pleasure there seemed nothing that 
 he could not do ; in rowing, swimming, and running races, 
 every kind of tournament, tennis, croquet, and archery, 
 he was the moving spirit. He loved even better than 
 they, if that is possible, to play Indian, set night lines, 
 turn the crank for the hand-organ man, ride in a merry- 
 go-round, make pop-corn balls, and listen while his wife 
 read aloud the Parent's Assistant, or the Count of Monte 
 Crista, as the case may be. At one time he bought oil 
 paints and canvas, and though knowing nothing of the 
 art, devoted his leisure noon hour for months to painting 
 a landscape. Assured that when the picture was finished 
 he could hardly face a picture dealer in its company with- 
 out embarrassment, he had the canvas, while yet spotless, 
 heavily framed in gilt. It was odd to watch him hard 
 at work before it. His devices for gaining desired effects 
 were sometimes ingenious. When the sun rising in the 
 back-ground refused to round out as it should, he se- 
 cured the proper bulge by gluing on a gilded fifty cent 
 piece. Professor Swing on being shown the completed 
 picture hanging behind the door, exclaimed, "Did Bar- 
 rows do that? He's a great man!" Yet this was the 
 artist's sole attempt, and the forsaken paints sent to the 
 talented daughter of a missionary brought forth a most 
 
LEISURE HOURS 203 
 
 touching letter of thanks. In a long poem entitled "The 
 Idyl of the Queens" he wrote most fascinatingly of his 
 second trip abroad. He could tell all of the interesting 
 things the school books forgot to say, and he would recite 
 poetry of many kinds, Homer and Byron, scenes from 
 Hamlet, and whole books from Paradise Lost on beauti- 
 ful walks among the wild flowers of Jackson Park, before 
 the days of Fair buildings, or across the Canadian sand- 
 dunes in the moonlight. To know him one must have 
 stood beside him. His presence made the spot whereon 
 he walked a beautiful and holy place. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 HIS PREACHING AND ITS REVELATION OF HIMSELF 
 
 One has truly said of my father, "His pulpit was his 
 throne." From it he swayed thousands. Nor were his 
 hearers the only ones that his words touched. Chicago 
 dailies issued on Monday mornings large extracts from 
 his sermons. The Golden Rule, years before it became 
 the organ of the Christian Endeavor Society, often printed 
 his sermons, as did, less frequently, the Interior, and other 
 religious papers. Beginning with 1887, a newspaper 
 syndicate secured each week a resume of his Sunday's dis« 
 course and presented the abstract simultaneously in the 
 larger cities from Pittsburg to St. Louis. Some of his 
 sermons were widely distributed in pamphlet form, among 
 them those on "Glorifying God," "Eternal Enjoyment," 
 "Christian Manhood," "Christ and the Poor," "Munic- 
 ipal Patriotism," the "Nation's Hope," "Robert Els- 
 mere," and "Religion the Motive Power in Human 
 Progress." In 1891, D. Lothrop & Company published 
 his first book, The Gospels are True Histories, seven lec- 
 tures on the credibility of the Gospels. These addresses, 
 originally written for his evening audiences, had proved 
 very effective ; all but two of them had come out earlier 
 in the Golden Rule and had called forth warmest expres- 
 sions of interest from all over the country; and on their 
 appearance in book form, distinguished men praised them 
 for meeting a real need. Dr. Cuyler deemed them "clear, 
 convincing and powerful," adding, "They ought to be 
 scattered broadcast in our schools and colleges;" and Dr. 
 
HIS PREACHING 205 
 
 Francis E. Clark felt assured that they would "do much 
 to establish in the faith many souls that might otherwise 
 slip their moorings and drift out on the sea of unbelief." 
 Three years later a second book, entitled, / Believe in 
 God, consisting of four sermons on theism and pub- 
 lished by F. H. Revell Company, was similarly reviewed. 
 Though these two collections are the only sermons that 
 he ever published in book form, they are not those on 
 which his fame as a preacher rests, nor is their distinctive 
 style particularly characteristic of him, as the following 
 study of his preaching will show. 
 
 Among his chief heroes were preachers. It was with 
 quick-beating heart that he ascended at Eisenach, Wiemar, 
 and Wittenberg, pulpits wherein Luther had preached. 
 He was prone to remember Paul, Augustine, Francis, 
 Wyclif, Whitefield, Robertson, and other illustrious oc- 
 cupants of his office, and its satisfactions were to him of 
 the amplest. "I believe that happiness is a great duty," 
 he writes, "and that happiness is simply impossible in a 
 world of sickness and change and disappointment to any 
 soul that is not anchored to Him who has conquered sor- 
 row, trouble, and death. The chief and ever-present duty 
 of man, is to get into accord with the mind of his Maker, 
 to love those things that are dear to God's heart, to link 
 his life with the one life that has brought more peace and 
 happiness to human souls than all the thrones of kings 
 and swords of conquerors. I fear that some of you pity 
 a m.an who is called to preach, think that there are other 
 things more satisfying. You are utterly wrong. A man 
 who is called of Heaven to preach Christ's evangel, and 
 who would willingly exchange the work of the minister 
 and the pastor for any life of intellectual leisure, has sur- 
 rendered his birthright, has thrown from him God's rich- 
 
2o6 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 est crown. The Lord has given to me many joys in this 
 world, the joy of friendship, and of blessed human love; 
 the joy of success, and enough of what the world calls 
 fame, to show its hoUowness and unsatisf actoriness ; he 
 has given me something of the joy of intellectual achieve- 
 ment; but nothing ennobles and satisfies the soul like the 
 consciousness that now and then one has been the minister 
 of God to some stricken heart." 
 
 The reference to Christ in this passage is typical. His 
 faith in a divine Christ is one of the most insistent notes 
 in his preaching. Divinity, as he conceived it, was neither 
 tangible nor limited, truth being mysterious and measure- 
 less. No single group of men could ever monopolize it ; 
 he was truly protestant in his advocacy of every man's 
 right to his own view. Yet to his mind, a religion not 
 expressed in terms of Christ is too easily dissipated to 
 avail much with men. He observes that just as "a man 
 often walks in the cold light of the October moon with 
 no grateful thought of the sun whose reflected splendor 
 silvers the autumn field," so men without the Christ may 
 have somewhat of the "brightness of Christianity," but 
 are without "its personal light and consolation ;" and 
 again, "Those subject to Christ pray often and with 
 fervor; those bi'eaking their allegiance, with coldness and 
 increasing rarity." In the midst of a eulogy of the Bible 
 he questions: "Why do 3^ou grope so blindly after the 
 fireflies of truth which can never warm you? Why at- 
 tempt to tear out the crimson pages of God's word, when 
 from your choicest literatures you can bring nothing so 
 comforting to man's soul? Destroy, if you may, human 
 faith in the Word of God, but where shall the guilty 
 turn for peace and the dying for hope? The deep of 
 science says, "They are not with me.' The bending heav- 
 
HIS PREACHING 207 
 
 ens and the burning stars cry out, 'They are not with 
 us,' and all the while the human heart will be yearning 
 and listening for some strong voice in the wilderness of 
 doubt, exclaiming, 'Behold the Lamb of God that taketh 
 away the sins of the world.' " 
 
 His belief in the paradoxical truths of the Crucifixion 
 and Resurrection live in these passages: "The new Chris- 
 tianity sees in the sacrifice of Jesus the perpetual principle, 
 the abiding law, of the individual. It would not have the 
 cross lifted up merely in systems of theology and in pulpit 
 eloquence ; it would have the cross not merely exalted upon 
 church-spires and framed into sword-hilts, and held in the 
 hand of the prayerful, and ornamenting the breasts of de- 
 voted recluses, but, above all, it would have the cross, in its 
 vital and permanent spirit, borne upon the heart of every 
 disciple. No wonder that St. Ambrose saw in the cross 
 the image of the destroying sword thrust into the earth. 
 The upper end is the hilt, about which is clasped Al- 
 mighty power. The outstretched arms are the guard, 
 and the body of it is the sharp blade driven down into the 
 head of the old red dragon." 
 
 "In the history of the Church men unfortunately seemed 
 to forget that ours is the risen Saviour. What meant the 
 gloom and asceticism of the Middle Ages? What meant 
 the perpetual singing of the Dies Irae, and what means the 
 everlasting parade in some of the European cathedrals of 
 the dead Christ? Shall the Psalms of David be alive with 
 spiritual gladness and the Church of the risen Lord be 
 sunk into anxiety and despair? No bridal music is half so 
 glad as the notes in which faith pours forth her Easter 
 song. All good things seem possible to us as we stand 
 with Jesus beneath the olive trees of the garden and look 
 back at the broken portals and empty prison of His tomb." 
 
2o8 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 The following are quotations from a sermon on the 
 "Attractiveness of Christ:" "Where else will you find 
 a love which covers or absorbs the whole domain of life, 
 like that which Christ has called forth ? The love which 
 is born of gratitude, He certainly has kindled that. The 
 love which is linked with reverent and perfect admira- 
 tion, He certainly has commanded that. The love which 
 rejoices in tender communing of mind with mind, He 
 surely has evoked that. The love which delights to pour 
 itself out in lyric ecstasy, that He certainly has gained in 
 amplest measure, as witnessed by the golden treasury of 
 the Christian hymns. The love which is pitiful sorrow 
 for great suffering, the love which bows in humble adora- 
 tion, the love which inspires men to endure hardships, 
 traverse oceans, penetrate the heart of the American or 
 the African continent, brave dangers from savage tribes 
 or wasting pestilence, submit to shame, and despise death 
 in its direst forms, all these manifestations of love appear 
 like a band of radiant angels about the Christ, covering 
 His Cross with garlands of roses and forests of laurel. 
 
 "In al'i greatest souls there are two passions, a passion 
 for holiness or right character, and a passion for doing 
 good. In the Christian the two are one, in the passion 
 for Christ. He, by his unparalleled greatness, fills the 
 mind that comes to know Him with an angelic enthu- 
 siasm. One who has been ensnared by the golden mesh of 
 the Lord's transfiguring love and loveliness, is not lightly 
 drawn away to meaner attractions. He who has known 
 and seen Jesus has seen life lifted to its highest. This 
 man had the secret we all need to learn, the secret which 
 is missed equally by the sensualist and the materialist 
 and the pessimist. In every hour of hungry disappoint- 
 ment, when the soul, baffled and beaten back, is still 
 
HIS PREACHING 209 
 
 craving and is as eager as ever to find that which does not 
 disappoint, there comes before us the figure of this trans- 
 cendent being calm amid all storms, victorious in all ap- 
 parent defeats, royal in His lowliest service, and we feel 
 that He can teach us His own secret and thus cure our 
 trouble. 
 
 "No one else ever brought to the sinner such powerful 
 incentives to escape from sin or such strong assurances 
 that sin may be forgiven and overcome. And what in- 
 ducements, sweet as the spring sunshine, fragrant as the 
 breath of pine forests in northern solitudes, many-voiced 
 as the sound of the sea, tender as the grace which breathed 
 forgiveness from the cross, and mighty as the solemnities 
 of eternity. He presses on our hearts to lead us to commit 
 their keeping unto Him." 
 
 "We have a moral and intellectual right, with all 
 brotherly kindness in our souls, to ask kings and sages, 
 poets and prophets, to crown Him Lord of all. In the 
 olden days when the German emperor was chosen, the 
 three archbishops of Treves, Mayence, and Cologne, girt 
 him with the sword and crowned him with the crown of 
 Charlemagne. At the banquet the Bohemian king was 
 his cup-bearer, the Count Palatine plunged his knife into 
 the roasted ox and waited on his master, the Duke of 
 Saxony spurred his horse into heaps of golden grain and 
 bore off a full measure for 'his lord, while the Margrave 
 of Brandenburg rode to a fountain and filled the imperial 
 ewer with water. Standing now, as in the presence of the 
 chief prophets and mightiest forces in all His world, let 
 us pray for and expect a new coronation of the world's 
 Christ, the rightful Emperor of mankind. Let the 
 churches gird Him with the sword of spiritual power 
 and crown Him with the royal diadem which is His due ; 
 
210 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 let princes and nobles be servants of His Gospel; let kings 
 and emperors wait on Him who is the Ancient of Days; 
 let cities bring great measure of gold to publish His 
 Word, and let universities, forsaking every unworthy and 
 strange idolatry of human leaders, fill their imperial chal- 
 ices from the River of the Water of Life, and stand at- 
 tendant on their Lord." 
 
 But his preaching does not relate simply to Christ. It 
 unveils, in the second place, the speaker's own profound 
 love for every human being. The appellation of "Be- 
 loved Disciple" bestowed upon him by his fellow min- 
 isters, was suggested by the gentleness, charity, compas- 
 sion, and faith of his attitude toward men. Humanity 
 was to him the glory of the universe, people not systems, 
 God's instruments of progress. "The martyr ashes in 
 the Colosseum outweigh the whole Roman Empire," he 
 writes. And again, "It is the Devil's own creed that 
 omits men's divine sonship ; if each man have his price, 
 it is that which Jesus set." His interest in human rela- 
 tions led him to exclaim, "The age of Christian theology 
 is being followed by the age of Christian sociolog}\" 
 
 For all his sublime faith in men he believed that their 
 chief need is moral. We are almost dismayed by his in- 
 sistence on the deadly and all-pervasive properties of sin. 
 In hundreds of sermons he seems to be crying out, "If we 
 say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth 
 is not in us." "You cannot rightly or safely ignore sin. 
 You might as well push back Niagara with your open 
 palm. The trouble with the skeptics of our time is that 
 they have followed Renan's example and 'suppressed sin,' 
 have sought to film over its wound, doubt its poison, 
 refuse its remedy. Hence the restlessness, the cynicism, 
 the pessimism which are the accompanirr'.ents of a Christ- 
 
HIS PREACHING 
 
 less culture." Again he writes: " Some men are in 
 truth like Noah's Ark, carrying a menagerie of animals 
 on the surface of the sea of life, and if you put your ear 
 close to them you will hear the roar of the lion and the 
 hiss of the serpent and the low snarl of the fox ; and then 
 the scream of the vulture, the howl of the wolf, the 
 grunting of the swine, and the bray of the wild ass. And 
 the men we reckon on the whole good, and indeed among 
 the best, show at times this strange and provoking incon- 
 sistency and moral versatility." 
 
 His conviction of the impossibility of eluding the conse- 
 quences of sin appears in this passage: "We run away 
 from the scenes where our wild oats were sown ; we cover 
 over the sores that have made us suffer with bandages of 
 new friends, new hopes, new virtues. All seems as though 
 all had ever been right. But into our bodies there comes 
 a death-arrow which was shot, it may be, twenty years 
 ago. The Greeks were not wrong in imagining that a 
 revengeful fate followed a wicked house down the line 
 of the generations. And every one who moves through 
 the j^ears is aware that whatever he leaves behind follows 
 after, and that the blood and bitterness which he drops 
 into the stream of life leave a taste and a colouring which 
 Time may lessen, but which Time alone may not de- 
 stroy." And again we find him saying: "If this be not 
 a life of constant and fearful temptation, if there be no 
 terrible experiences and possibilities which make the need 
 of such a Saviour as Christ and such a sacrifice as the 
 cross and such an armoury of steel-bright weapons as the 
 Scriptures, then the Bible is a book of foolish exaggera- 
 tions. It offers us oceans when we need only goblets. 
 It is bright with suns when candles are all-sui?icient." 
 
 He thus makes clear his opinion that vigorous natures 
 
JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 are those most open to temptation : "I can scarcely con- 
 ceive a man who has force of nature, that power which 
 overcomes obstacles, triumphs in creative work, and be- 
 comes a master in any department of activity, who, if 
 we knew his life, would not be seen wrestling at certain 
 crises with the Prince of darkness. And such men are not 
 usually in any doubt about the evil personality who has 
 played such a vast part in human affairs. They find an 
 echo to their own surmises, or an explanation of their 
 own difficulties in the Scriptural representation of an evil 
 person, the head of the kingdom of evil, chained to a de- 
 gree, under God's authority, but for inscrutable reasons 
 permitted to try the children of men. If in your life 
 you have not been confronted by his enticements, it may 
 be because Satan has not thought it worth while to train 
 his heavy artillery on such small deer. The old Spanish 
 pirates used to strike the galleons laden with the gold 
 of Mexico and Peru. They knew what was worth gain- 
 ing. It is the souls that have on board the unsearchable 
 riches of Christ that the Devil sets his covetous and deadly 
 eyes on." He thus expresses the doubtful appearance of 
 sin: "Sin, before its commission, is often radiant with 
 attractions, like the clouds of the morning. Sin, after 
 its commission, is black and lurid as an advancing 
 thunder storm, from which there is no hiding place. Sin 
 was one thing to Judas when Jesus was washing his feet; 
 quite another thing when remorse was eating his soul 
 with a tooth of everlasting fire." To escape from sin we 
 must enter the kingdom of heaven, which comprises, he 
 tells us, "those who have the mind of the king." Some 
 men seem to happen into it, others spend time and 
 strength in finding it; but membership in it, whether 
 
HIS PREACHING 213 
 
 gained slowly or quickly, belongs only to those born of 
 its spirit. 
 
 Assured that sin contaminates and depraves every fac- 
 ulty of man, and convinced that it can be escaped only 
 through gaining the mind of Christ, he applied himself 
 with energj' to impressing this twofold truth. Intimate 
 understanding of his people and ability to assail sin, not 
 in the abstract alone, but in its peculiar manifestations, 
 accorded him very large success. So perfectly were they 
 adapted to their hearers, that many of his sermons clearly 
 depict the audience for which they were written; one 
 composed of city people with property and social stand- 
 ing, with brains and culture, yet possessing needs similar 
 to those of their less endowed fellows, in their minister's 
 mind at least, for he declares: "Some men who have 
 all are too poor to crave anything but pity." They were 
 men and women exposed to temptations of greed, pride, 
 frivolity, hardness of heart, skepticism fostered by indif- 
 ference, living intricate lives freighted with responsibility, 
 in danger in their quest for money, pleasure, and knowl- 
 edge, of missing righteousness, faith, and joy. This leads 
 their minister to cry out: "If God's existence, the divine 
 character and revelation of Jesus Christ, the reality of 
 the life beyond the grave, are not truths that live and 
 glow in the heart of the Christian ; if he writes 'perhaps' 
 or 'I hope' over any, or even if it come to be true to him 
 only after a careful series of reasonings and argumenta- 
 tions; if it is not as certain and intimate to his very soul 
 as the air he breathes, as vital to his daily life as his be- 
 lief in the love of his mother, then his Christian life is 
 at best one of careful moralities, and not also one of 
 spiritual life and joy. I know very well what devitalizes 
 this truth to many. A selfish and luxurious and worldly- 
 
214 JOHN HENRY BARROW S 
 
 spirited life will do it. Separation from living sympathy 
 with men will do it. Absorption in purely physical studies 
 will often do it. What a man believes depends very 
 largely on where he looks. It is of no use to talk with 
 men about stars if they are all the while gazing into a 
 muddy well. If the well were clear they might see the 
 Pleiades looking downward." 
 
 "Christians whirling daily in a giddy circle of frivoli- 
 ties are no more likely to get a deep and adequate impres- 
 sion of such supreme realities as God, human guilt, the 
 divine wrath against sin, the atonement, the worth of 
 souls, the power of the world to come, the crying neces- 
 sity of seeking lost men and keeping before them the need 
 of a Redeemer, than a traveller running at full speed 
 through a gallery of art is to have any conception of the 
 grace of Raphael and the splendor of Titian. By the 
 love of Him who died on Calvarj' I call on )'ou to stop 
 and think and repent and pray; I beseech you to meditate 
 on the vital truths of God's Word ; to measure your re- 
 sponsibilities in the light of God's mercy to you; I be- 
 seech you to begin with your heart, and then to be right 
 with your own family, and brethren, and neighbors; I 
 ask you to forsake not the meeting for prayer, but to 
 come in the Spirit and to seek a mightier contact with 
 His blessed Almightiness; I ask you to abide, as did the 
 early disciples, with Christ the life, and you shall know 
 the joy of salvation in your own soul." 
 . He once tells us that: "We can no more absorb the 
 Cross through the reason than we can analyze the sun- 
 beam with the keen edge of a razor." Yet he also says: 
 "If the Christian creed cannot abide the severest testing 
 of the intellect, it is doomed, and rightly so." Hence, 
 his sermons abound in practical suggestions of many 
 
HIS PREACHING 215 
 
 kinds, and indicate a searching knowledge of men, as the 
 following quotations bear witness: "Some men want 
 perfect knowledge "before they will offer perfect obedi- 
 ence. They will not worship until their temple of truth 
 is finished, every stone from the everlasting hills of God 
 in place, every buttress impregnable, every window clear- 
 shining with the light of heaven, every pinnacle wrought 
 out in perfect beauty as it springs upwards to the skies. 
 They are like some mad Italian who should refuse to 
 worship in the Milan Cathedral because, though it gleams 
 over the Lombard plains like a resplendent crown, there 
 are unfinished portions in this white wilderness of marble, 
 ornaments not in place, and airy pinnacles j^et waiting for 
 some saintly or heroic statue to complete their heavenward 
 soaring. Such a temple of faith was never erected, and 
 never will be till heaven and earth are one, and all the 
 shadows of the infinite are dispelled by the light of the 
 Great White Throne on high." 
 
 "Judas, like the rest of us, could endure a great deal 
 of self-contempt, but was unable to bear up under public 
 reproach. We can get along with the discomforts of our 
 own conscience for a time more easily if they are not 
 reinforced by the consciences of others, finding expression 
 in condemnation." 
 
 "Where a man is, does not determine his character and 
 outcome so m.uch as the way he is heading. Two ships 
 are in midocean, one is bound for Liverpool and the 
 other for New York. Every day's voyage may carry one 
 American family nearer home, and another family farther 
 away from it. Two men are at the same spot half way 
 up the mountain; one may be rushing to its foot, while 
 the other is climbing to its far-viewing summit." 
 
 "It is not the historic which teaches all m.en most im- 
 
216 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 pressively. The great picture in Berlin of the late Em- 
 peror William on the battle-field of Sadowa may move 
 you much less than a new photograph of your little child, 
 enclosed in a letter from over the sea. There is doubtless 
 an immense dignity and nobility belonging to man as 
 we survey the pageants of the past, but when a father 
 watches by the sick-bed of an only son and sees the 
 strength ebbing like the fast retreating tide, when the 
 preciousness of that one bit of life cheapens all the treas- 
 ures he has gathered, and when at last the bodiless spirit 
 takes its flight into the voiceless and mystic unknown, 
 there is taught to one soul at least the truth that a single 
 creature of God, with the powers and possibilities of 
 manhood, has not only an unspeakable dignity, but also 
 an immeasurable value." 
 
 "There is to me no more beautiful habit than that 
 which some married people have of never depreciating 
 each other before their friends. I think the lack of this 
 one habit has led many of the young men and women of 
 today into the mistake of believing that there are only 
 a few husbands and wives who have been married ten 
 years that really care much for each other." 
 
 "I wish that we would learn to read the books of the 
 Bible more sensibly. We take up the Word of God as 
 we take up a jewel — to look at it, to get light from some 
 beautiful point in it, and thus we lose the movement, the 
 rush, the momentum, which might come to us from read- 
 ing at one sitting an entire Gospel, a whole Epistle, or 
 this epic poem of the early Church, the Acts of the 
 Apostles." 
 
 "Many have made shipwreck of their faith, by always 
 steering their craft against every rock on the coast of 
 this ocean of truth. Wise navigators prefer a safe chan- 
 
HIS PREACHING 217 
 
 nel, an open sea; but restless, impracticable, and willful 
 minds often covet a dangerous shore. They go through 
 the Bible, not like the traveller who keeps the safe high- 
 way, but like the wayward children who climb over the 
 rocks and sport along the stony hedges until, foot-sore 
 and bleeding they ask, 'Is this the way of life?' The 
 wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err if he seek 
 from this Book chiefly a safe, practical direction in the 
 path of duty; but the wayfaring man may be a prodigy 
 of learning and metaphysical acuteness, and wander far 
 off from the truth, if he is seeking chiefly to solve all 
 difficulties and explore the heart of every mystery." 
 
 "The evidences of Christianity may grow clearer age 
 after age till they become like the legend of God's glory 
 which is written out on the starry heavens above us, but 
 so long as human nature remains unchanged, so long as 
 men are disinclined to a self-sacrificing and holy life, 
 there will be skeptics." 
 
 Besides his love for men and his attempt to satisfy va- 
 rious human needs with his message, his sermons, in the 
 third place, proclaim him somewhat of a mystic. To 
 stand consciously in God's presence was to him a possi- 
 bility and the most genuine of realities. This presence 
 was not confined to any local habitation. It might be 
 met on State Street just as truly as at the door of Abra- 
 ham's tent, on the Island of Patmos, or in Savonarola's 
 cell. But whenever, wherever, to whomsoever the vision 
 appeared, its effect was ever the same, to alter the fashion 
 of the beholder's countenance. He trusted in the mes- 
 sages of his highest moments. Feeling the impress of the 
 Spirit was an experience whose quality made it the de- 
 termining and interpreting force in his life. To the 
 divine impulses of the unseen world about him, which 
 
2i8 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 sapped the sources of sin and of despair, are rightly attrib- 
 utable his calm amid perplexities, his quick renewal of 
 depleted energies, and his courage after failure for new 
 attempts. "Faith," he tells us, "is the highest effort 
 of mind, the mind grasping the eternal," and this faith 
 permeates his sermons. His God is that of the Hebrews, 
 personal, present, and loving. "The deities of other na- 
 tions," he says, "are now only a dream, a whiff of ancient 
 mist gilding some far-off morning of the past." "O, 
 would that I might destroy for you the cold abstraction 
 which some of you call God." "I know men have a 
 thousand various conceptions of God ; I know that lo 
 some He is only a vagueness undefined that fills the uni- 
 verse, intangible, cold, and comfortless; that to some He 
 is only a speculation, a collection of qualities that mean 
 nothing attractive in the same way that a rose is attrac- 
 tive to the eye, or a beautiful face is attractive to the 
 heart; I know that to some God is a terror and a black 
 cloud of wrath that touches the earth only as the light- 
 ning does, to pierce and blight it. But to the Christian. 
 God is He who said, 'I and my Father are one.' " "In 
 the early evening, on the Atlantic coast, I have sometimes 
 been watching the stars, when suddenly a fog from the 
 ocean swept inland, covering the earth and blotting out 
 the heavens. So the idea of God as a mist filling all 
 things, even though it be the golden mist of Pantheism, 
 blots out every star of truth and hope, for the Divine per- 
 sonality is obliterated. The Hebrew prophets made no 
 such mistake, and what a comfort there is in their mani- 
 fold representations of God as father, mother, husband, 
 king, fortress, sun, shield, rock, and star." 
 
 "The root of skepticism is the banishing of a personal 
 God from ourselves. There is a faith which nothing dis- 
 
HIS PREACHING 219 
 
 turbs, and that is the faith which springs from experience. 
 If we have seen God, if we have felt His indwelling love, 
 then we shall walk day by day as in a supernatural world. 
 The attitude of some men toward the world of the Spirit 
 is that of a blind man who denies the existence of the 
 sun. They do not need proof or facts; what they need 
 is capacity of vision." "The secret of perfection is to 
 know God's presence." "Behold Him in the light, as 
 the Persian poets did, for He is there. See Him in the 
 sun, as the makers of the Hindu Scriptures did. Breathe 
 in His life as you breathe the morning air, for it is God's 
 atmosphere in which you dwell." "Death is mighty, 
 mighty enough to tear the mother from her children, the 
 monarch from his throne, the idolater from his idols, the 
 miser from his hoard, the school-boy from his books, the 
 dying actress from her jewels, the statesman from his 
 place in the halls of legislation, the man of business from 
 the roaring exchange. Death can separate us from 'this 
 visible, diurnal sphere,' but has no power to separate us 
 from that love which saved us and will cherish us forever. 
 And 'life' shall not separate us from God's love. It fol- 
 lows us from the mountain heights of childhood, over 
 the broad rich fields, and through the tangled forests of 
 middle life and of earth's closing years, into the eternal 
 sea; and there it brings us a glory and a joy such as the 
 world has never known. And though life separates, 
 oftentimes, the friendships of this world ; though these 
 friendships appear like the school-day attachments, which 
 in a few years are so outgrown that we forget the name 
 of the boy who recited his Latin grammar by our side in 
 the old academy on the hilltop ; God's love, like His 
 memory, never fades ; and when a thousand summers have 
 adorned the valleys with blossoms, and a thousand 
 
320 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 autumns have decked the hills with crimson and gold, we 
 shall be nearer to God's soul than the first-born child 
 is to its mother's heari-." 
 
 He was too true a mystic to over-emphasize miracles. 
 Christ's personality was to him the great miracle; and 
 Christ would have appeared to him divine, were his in- 
 dividual acts all explicable by natural laws and had his 
 physical birth been attended by no marvelous signs. Yet, 
 as natural corollaries to his faith in the unseen, he be- 
 lieved in miracles, in angels, and in heaven, with the 
 simple faith of the little child and the great man. "The 
 Word of God," he says, "is not a field all blazing with 
 sunlight. Clouds hover over it; for, even with this book 
 in our hands, the Apostle tells us we know in part. 
 Shadows fall on its pages — the shadows of the Infinite. 
 It is impossible that we should comprehend God. We 
 may apprehend Him — that is, lay hold of His nature, 
 touch the shining hem of His holiness and the soft hand 
 of His grace, but who shall grasp the fullness, or measure 
 the altitude of His being and comprehend the circumfer- 
 ence of His truth?" "It was natural that the Holy One 
 of Nazareth, whose touch is the life of our civilization 
 today, whose spirit is the very breath of God, should do 
 the works of the Father. Miracles are the 'burning bush' 
 in the divine Word drawing men ever aside to listen to 
 the voice of God; and when they ask why this burning 
 bush is not consumed, the answer, as in the day of Moses, 
 is now and ever shall be, 'Because God is in it.' " Of 
 angels he says: "It is these ministering spirits, one with 
 Christ in suffering sympathy with us, whom we meet 
 when first, and when last, we look upon our Lord. There 
 was movement and holy ecstasy in the upper air when 
 Jesus was born in the lowly manger. The dawn of our 
 
HIS PREACHING 
 
 redemption is glorified by their radiance. And when all 
 was finished, and the clouds hid the ascending Lord from 
 straining, earthly eyes that saw Him not, even through 
 the telescope of tears, they lingered by, like the glowing 
 colors of evening when the sun is gone, and foretold His 
 final coming. Remembering their ministries, so august 
 and tender, shall we not heed the entreaties of the Divine 
 Word to make our peace with God, because of the 
 angels?" He writes of heaven: "It is a locality as well 
 as a condition of mind, and wherever it is, however far 
 removed from the universe which we perceive, even 
 though our astronomical lenses may never discern it. 
 Heaven is God's dwelling-place, where He reigns in 
 super-eminent glory, and, though we may seem to be far 
 from it, the infinite Jehovah, to whom this universe is 
 but the outward expression of His power and wisdom, 
 may be surely depended on to take us there, for in God's 
 hands there is safety." 
 
 God and immortality are to him inseparable, and fur- 
 nish the soul's chief motives. "If no future, edged with 
 intolerable radiance like the empurpled bars of sunset, 
 lies along the horizon of our lives, then we have no God, 
 for God assures of transformation and of higher life. 
 Take from the Christian heart the sweet hope of im- 
 mortality, and all our highest impulses would be shriv- 
 eled. Even Jesus our Lord endured the Cross, despising 
 the shame, because of the joy that was set before Him. 
 It is not easy to walk the burning stairs of self-sacrifice, 
 except when confident that they reach up at last to the 
 gates of pearl." 
 
 And he was full of vitalizing assurance and cheer. 
 "I can hardly think," he writes, "of any soul that is 
 flooded with a sense of the majesty, and that is filled 
 
JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 with the consciousness of the mercy and goodness of 
 Christ, that is habitually, or even frequently, cast down 
 by fear, and hampered by those petty timidities which 
 make so many people the slaves of the opinions of fools, 
 or cowards before the uncertainties of life, property, and 
 health ; for the truly Christly soul, having been linked in 
 love and faith to the all-loving and the altogether lovely, 
 has come to judge this world with other than human 
 judgments and to look out upon time and change and 
 sorrow with eyes that are often turned to that victorious 
 Author and Finisher of our faith, who, having borne the 
 Cross, is now regnant in eternal glory." 
 
 The final impression that he leaves is always of nec- 
 essary ultimate triumph to men of faith. "We shall see 
 God; we shall have perfect knowledge and shall be free 
 from sickness, sorrow, pain, hunger, thirst, tears. Ordi- 
 nary language is insufficient to express what God has pre- 
 pared for us. Who knows the meaning of the words that 
 tell of eating of the 'hidden manna,' of having the 'white 
 stone' and the 'new name,' of being given the 'morning 
 star,' of partaking of the 'tree of life,' of being led of 
 God to the 'living fountains of waters,' of standing on 
 the 'sea of glass,' of having His name in our foreheads 
 and of sitting on His throne? But, though the words are 
 mysterious, out of them come sweetest visions; and the 
 blessings that they prophesy have their beginnings and 
 counterparts here; and it is not possible to imagine mo- 
 tives greater or finer or nobler, leading to repentance and 
 holy living. Immortality, freedom from sin, joy, growth 
 in knowledge and power, serving God always in His uni- 
 verse — what can one desire above these?" 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 HIS PREACHING AND ITS REVELATION OF HIMSELF 
 
 (Continued) 
 
 "My God has been slowly fashioned, so to speak, out 
 of the elements and forces furnished through the whole 
 experience of life. Into my conception there has entered 
 something that came from my mother's early prayers, 
 something from my father's love of beauty, of right- 
 eousness, and of freedom, something from the streaming 
 eyes of the earnest college President who prayed for the 
 salvation of the students, something from the peace 
 which came to my heart when I looked toward the Cruci- 
 fied and felt the burden gone, something associated with 
 the impression of God's greatness when I first ascended 
 the slope of a lofty mountain and saw half of New Eng- 
 land spread out before me. God is associated in my 
 thought with doxologies sung over a nation's triumph, 
 with strange raptures which came at sea while looking at 
 the wild, tumbling crags of the ocean. He is linked with 
 those deeper joys which the pastor knows in the midst of 
 his first revival. God means compassion towards my 
 many short-comings and sins, tender wisdom and mercy, 
 both in chastisement and in rescue, a deep sense of His 
 goodness in the home when children have been born or 
 have been saved from death, and He means more and 
 more that mental expansion which is brought through 
 communion with His liberating and life-giving Word. 
 Now this atom of knowledge, this faintest glimpse of 
 
334 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 God is the source of whatever goodness or serviceableness 
 we possess. How much more we might know, how much 
 more we shall know!" 
 
 With such a faith and the belief that preaching might 
 be made the "clearest trumpet of the armies of Christ," 
 he naturally spent himself upon his sermons. These he 
 always wrote, but such was his memory that after an 
 hour's work he could repeat a sermon verbatim. There- 
 fore, until his nervous breakdown in 1886, he spoke with- 
 out notes, and even after that he was never bound to his 
 manuscript in preaching. Thus, while possessing the 
 careful preparation of the writer, he attained in the pul- 
 pit the ease of the extemporaneous speaker. Since his 
 motto was "Say something in every sentence, and some- 
 thing that the people care to hear," he devoted part of 
 each morning to study. "The best preparation for ser- 
 mon-writing," he says, "I often find to be the reading of 
 some poet that enkindles the imagination. I do my best 
 preaching when I have a mind kept full by reading on 
 some great subject outside the line of the minister's chief 
 studies." His sermons were composed in many different 
 ways — sometimes written at white heat. More often he 
 dictated an outline and rough notes to his wife, early in 
 the week, and on Saturday declaimed to his stenographer 
 in an hour and a half, the whole sermon, speaking as if 
 directly to his congregation. As a general thing this ser- 
 mon was based less on the thinking of that week than on 
 the work of previous weeks and months. Sometimes he 
 kept the thought for years to ripen it, with the result that 
 few hasty conclusions mar his utterances. This practice did 
 not deter him, however, from timely application of his 
 thinking. Sermons on municipal reform were given in 
 times of political agitation; his ideas on Christ's relation 
 
HIS PREACHING— CONTINUED 225 
 
 to the social question appear along with the hanging of 
 the anarchists, the issue of "Looking Backward," and 
 the Pullman strike. When his hearers' minds are full of 
 Ingersoll's lectures, he attacks agnosticism; when the 
 papers discuss a new Presbyterian creed, the trial of Pro- 
 fessor Briggs, or the Sunday opening of the World's Fair, 
 he preaches on a modified Calvinism, higher criticism, or 
 the American Sunday. Nor did his careful preparation 
 prevent his discarding a newly-written sermon when, as 
 sometimes happened, his mood changed, or Sunday morn- 
 ing brought to his notice some pressing need of his audi- 
 ence which his sermon failed to meet. 
 
 Moreover, mere discernment of truth seemed to him 
 insufficient qualification for effectiveness. His eulogy of 
 the Sermon on the Mount reads: "This sermon is not 
 made up of brilliant speculations; it is not a constellation 
 of maybes, perhapses, guesses, bright suggestions; it is the 
 voice of the eternal, the word that was with God and 
 was God uttering itself to men who need to be lifted 
 above the region of speculations, above the uncertainties 
 of human thought into the atmosphere and altitude of 
 God's eternity." Yet he believed even the voice of the 
 eternal to be powerless unless so pitched that men can hear 
 it. He usually preached more than half an hour at a 
 time. Still he perceived clearly that, unless it defeat its 
 purpose, a sermon must seem short. To this end, its de- 
 livery, composition, and effect demanded careful study. 
 At intervals he studied elocution with a teacher; and al- 
 though when in the pulpit all rules for gesture slipped his 
 mind, his well-modulated voice, and his commanding 
 presence held the audience. His friends, remembering 
 John of Antioch, "the golden tongued," called him 
 Chrysostom. 
 
226 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 To the structure of his sermon he gave the attention of 
 a rhetorician. At times the proverbial homiletic first, 
 secondly, thirdly serve to connect its points; more often 
 the skeleton, though well knit together, is so clothed that 
 not even the joints protrude. Frequently the order is 
 historical, the past preceding the present; again it is log- 
 ical, efFects leading him to causes. Sometimes, when his 
 tone is argumentative, possible objections are refuted in 
 turn. But whatever the order, his sermons are singu- 
 larly unified, each division related closely not simply to 
 its neighbors, but to the central truth under considera- 
 tion. Besides, he guards lest his thought seem stationary ; 
 it runs like a melody through the whole, bearing the 
 reader with it, for to his mind movement, like unity, is a 
 chief requisite for securing the effect of brevity. Their 
 potential momentum may account for his fondness for 
 series of sermons. Of these he wrote many, on such 
 themes as Early Jewish History, the Temptations of 
 Christ, the Lord's Prayer, The Beatitudes, The Com- 
 mandments, and different phases of a man's life. 
 
 But unity and movement are not his chief achievement 
 in expression. Writing of Mr. Beecher, he truly de- 
 scribed himself: "He never affects a colorless simplicity 
 that has no beauty in it." Truth was to him infinite in 
 suggestion and warm in its emotional tone. Variety of 
 form and richness of texture were therefore his natural 
 and chosen means of exposition. The use of two texts as 
 foils to one another, is one of his favorite devices. "Th<; 
 wages of sin is death" and "Ye shall not surely die" head 
 one sermon. Another on "The Shadow and the Sub- 
 stance" opens with the words: "Man Fleeth as a 
 Shadow." "Unto Thee will I cry, O Lord, my Rock." 
 In the interests of movement, many of his sentences are 
 
HIS PREACHING— CONTINUED 227 
 
 long. But monotony is often broken and the thought 
 pinned down by the insertion of shorter sentences, often 
 figures of speech, such as: " 'If and 'But,' between these 
 two words how many souls has Satan crucified." "Noth- 
 ing makes such cowards as unfaithfulness." "We must 
 not wither the blossom of the Gospel into an apothecary's 
 drug to be bought at a fixed price." "Prayers from an 
 unforgiving heart are like flint arrows sent straight sky- 
 ward that fall back on our own souls." 
 
 In his earlier sermons he spins similes and metaphors 
 like a gold web across his pages, not to conceal defective 
 logic or faulty proportion, but as an additional means of 
 appeal. They usually seem the natural overflowing of a 
 full mind and heart. The following citations may re- 
 veal their nature: 
 
 "We are seeking unity, not by getting all men to sub- 
 scribe to the same metaphysical creed, not by forcing their 
 heads under the same sacerdotal fingers, not by plunging 
 their bodies under the same cleansing waters, but by 
 bringing about a sense of spiritual fellowship in our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, just as the unity of the branches of an oak 
 tree is found in this, that they draw the life-giving sap 
 from the same roots, whereas the ecclesiastical idea of 
 unity is found in the lopping off of all the wide-spread 
 latitude of the oak's boughs, or compressing them into 
 one body till, like a liberty pole, it stands tall, smooth, 
 ■straight, and dead, fitted only to fly from its top some 
 narrow streamer scrawled over with sectarian watch- 
 words." 
 
 "God does not shower miracles on the earth as He does 
 snowflakes in the winter. A single flake falling in the 
 course of a thousand years would excite admiration and 
 
228 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 delight. The storms of the winter season excite in some 
 minds quite different emotions." 
 
 "When Satan seizes hold of some passage that is poetic, 
 and makes it literal, he holds out a glittering bait that 
 covers a sharp, dangerous hook." 
 
 "Life is something that is fed by memories that go 
 back, like angels, to the Cross of Christ, and by hopes that 
 wing their way heavenward to the Throne of God and of 
 the Lamb." 
 
 "The sayings of Jesus seem the easy expressions of 
 One who was greater far than what He said, snowy 
 petals shaken by the breezes of discussion from the 
 boughs of this tree of life." 
 
 His experience taught him that men often deem a truth 
 worn out, simply because its everyday apparel is thread- 
 bare and ill-fitting; such a dress he was ever seeking to 
 replace. Yet for some minds his figures were too nu- 
 merous, at times distracting. And it is noticeable that 
 in his later sermons he uses far less figurative language. 
 As his thought strengthens with years and his people be- 
 come his friends, his homiletic stjde grows ever less 
 rhetorical, though always rich in color. 
 
 As an additional means of force he employs illustra- 
 tions as well as imager}\ These are sometimes pathetic, 
 again humorous, always stimulating. On poetry, his- 
 tor)^, personal reminiscence, music, and science he draws 
 freely. Every experience was to him a symbol of some 
 aspect of truth, so that such dissimilar things as the 
 treakfast-table, factory, ocean steamer, picture gallery, 
 stock exchange, golf links, and ball-room creep into his 
 preaching. These selections from his sermons on "Re- 
 ligion the Motive Power of Human Progress" and on 
 
HIS PREACHING— CONTINUED 229 
 
 "Christianity in Our National Life" well exemplify his 
 illustrations: 
 
 "If the sharp-tongued critics of religion would study 
 the genius of the Gospels they might gain juster views of 
 Christian faith. The chemist who explores only a poi- 
 soned atmosphere is not likely to understand the proper- 
 ties of air. Suppose some brilliant babbler in science 
 should have the following experience: He sits by his 
 evening lamp — a gust of wind blows it out ; he walks the 
 street — the cold air chills him ; he ascends a mountain — 
 the thin air makes him gasp for breath ; he crosses the 
 ocean — a hurricane imperils the ship ; he descends into an 
 English coal-pit — the choke-damp endangers his life; he 
 crosses the Campagna of Rome — a deadly wind withers 
 his strength ; he looks down into Vesuvius — a sulphurous 
 gust half chokes him. WHiereupon he returns home and 
 having thought over all his painful experiences with the 
 atmosphere, he takes the platform and announces his con- 
 viction that air is the greatest curse of the world ! Fools 
 listen and applaud, forgetting that in this vast ethereal 
 ocean we move and have our being, and that without It, 
 all 'life dies, death lives, and nature breeds perverse.' 
 So religion is the atmosphere in which humanity lives, 
 and rather than dispense with it, we can well endure the 
 thin air of ritualism, the cold fogs of bigotry, and even 
 the noxious vapors of cruel superstition." 
 
 "It is said that an Illinois farmer plants corn to feed 
 swine to buy land, to plant more corn to feed more swine 
 in order to get more money to buy still more land to 
 plant still more acres of corn to feed still more herds of 
 swine. And woe be unto us if our boasted America ends 
 in swine or the fruits of a material civilization merely. 
 I would that in the midst of our selfish and spendthrift 
 
230 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 lives we might catch something of the spirit of that 
 Western preacher who once had a vacation, and went to 
 a boarding house in Saratoga, and thence wrote home to 
 his wife that a certain fashionable woman's habiliments 
 and adornments, as he reckoned, were equivalent to one 
 meeting-house, seven cabinet organs, and forty-two Sun- 
 day-school libraries!" 
 
 "Three years after the close of the Franco- 
 Prussian war, it was my fortune to be present at 
 the trial of IMarshal Bazaine in the little palace among 
 the woods of Versailles which Louis XIV. had erected 
 for one of his favorites. Bazaine, as you remember, had 
 shown great irresolution at the siege of Metz, resulting in 
 disaster to France, and when he sought to exculpate him- 
 self by declaring that he could not tell what was the 
 government of the country, or if it still had any gov- 
 ernment, the President of the military tribunal, the Due 
 d'Aumale, burst forth on the Marshal with the pathetic 
 and passionate cry: 'Mais In France, la France.' The 
 instinct of the nation's indestructible life found expression 
 in that intense and ringing utterance. France still lived, 
 and to her ever>^ soldier and citizen owed supreme and 
 instant allegiance. Though her Emperor was a prisoner 
 and his empire a ruin, though the Prussian cavalry had 
 swept over her vine-clad hills, and the Prussian artillery 
 had crushed her army at Sedan, though a hostile sovereign 
 held her fortresses in his iron hand and encamped his 
 cuirassiers in the heart of Paris, in those Elysian fields 
 between the gorgeous palace of the Tuileries and the 
 great arch of the First Napoleon's triumphs, France, the 
 nation, was not dead. She extemporized a government, 
 liberated her soil, paid her indebtedness, and rose up 
 purified and strengthened to moral heights never reached 
 
HIS PREACHING— CONTINUED 231 
 
 before. And so, though our horizon is lurid with the 
 camp-fires of evil, though the nien of Babylon have built 
 their temples in the vales that have been dedicated to a 
 pure Gospel, though Mammon and Belial and Moloch 
 have erected ten thousand altars in our great cities, and 
 though envious hosts from other lands shake their fists 
 at the palaces and towers of our Christian Zion, tonight 
 let the ringing cry of faith go forth, 'But Christ, but 
 Christ!' He still lives, the God-man that was delivered 
 unto death for our offenses and raised from the sepulchre 
 for our justification, Christ who hath all power in heaven 
 and earth, He holds in His hands the reins of universal 
 government and athwart the devices of all error and 
 evil, and along the footpaths of all history, from the 
 morning of time until now, He directs the serene and un- 
 wearied Omnipotence of redeeming love." 
 
 His sermons are not theological treatises, though he 
 offered with clear logic a modified Calvinism. Nor, 
 though of sound judgment, did he write critical essays 
 distinguished by subtle analyses and delicate phrasing. 
 He loves truth, yet philosophical abstractions do not com- 
 pose the chief part of his pages, and shrewd worldly wis- 
 dom fills still less. His method is, on the whole, not that 
 of the logician but that of the artist. His greatness lies 
 not so much in the weight of his thought as in his 
 depth of feeling, and command of vivid expression. His 
 sermons are his visions, and they filled the eyes and melted 
 the hearts of his hearers. He is wonderfully concrete, 
 presenting beautiful pictures in words full of music. 
 Many pages of his illustrate this as perfectly as the fol- 
 lowing paragraph: 
 
 " 'Man fleeth as a shadow.' What is a shadow? 
 Nothing; it is the absence of light, some obstruction has 
 
232 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 come between the earth and sun, light has been inter- 
 cepted, and as rapidly as light moves so the shadow with- 
 draws itself. A leaf creates it, a limb, a tree, a fence, a 
 snow-flake, a cloud, a house, a flower, a church spire, a 
 child's hand. It is very beautiful like life itself. Nature 
 delights in shadows, they are essential to loveliness and 
 to expression, and the master of light and shade is the 
 great painter. But O, how swiftly the shadows flee 
 away!" 
 
 His sermons, however, reveal in their picturesque and 
 beautiful form not merely intensity of conviction and 
 spiritual insight, but his singular completeness; a many- 
 sidedness and largeness of view due to a rare docility of 
 spirit which prevented his own conception of truth from 
 eclipsing God's revelation. "I am determined," he says, 
 "that nothing shall keep me from entering into heartiest 
 sympathy with all. I prefer to see the good things, 
 rather than the evil, in every body of Christians. No 
 pope shall excommunicate me from being a good Catholic. 
 I shall never cease to cherish grateful thoughts of the 
 English Church, so long as the books of her scholars 
 occupy so large a place in my library. While I hold a 
 modern hymn-book in my hand, I shall remain a good 
 Methodist, and so long as they continue to save the souls 
 of the poor, I shall be a member of the Salvation Army. 
 It is a great mistake, for it narrows and hurts our souls, 
 to fix our thoughts chiefly on what we deem the defects 
 of other Christian bodies. The result is bigoted Pres- 
 byterians and poor Christians. What our age wants is 
 larger-minded men. When they come in great multi- 
 tudes the unification of Christendom will not be delayed. 
 Men are great not on account of their denominational con- 
 nections, not on account of their ecclesiasticism, but on 
 
HIS PREACHING— CONTINUED 233 
 
 account of service and character. The late Cardinal 
 Manning, who was mourned by millions of England's 
 poor, belonged to the Church Universal. His Christian- 
 ity was greater than his cardinal's hat and more divine 
 than his princely office." 
 
 Alive to the consecrating influence of associations, de- 
 claiming against lawlessness, devoted to the established 
 order of society, such was his faith in the magnitude and 
 ultimate supremacy of truth that he listened to the social 
 reformer, advocated a new creed, welcomed the doctrine 
 of evolution, encouraged scientific study of the Bible, and 
 finally organized a Parliament of Religions. He rarely 
 exalted devotion to the exclusion of service, or vice versa, 
 but exclaims: "Blessed is holy contemplation, blessed is 
 prayer; but the prophet, in his vision of the angels in 
 glory, saw that they not only veiled their faces in awe 
 before the face of God — not only did their wings cover 
 their eyes as they worshipped in the presence of Jehovah, 
 but they had wings wherewith they might fly on the 
 errands of God." He is given to prayer and meditation, 
 though intensely active and social by nature. Quick to 
 learn the lessons of sorrow, he writes: "It is the mistake 
 of the young, and it is a m.istake of those who grow more 
 and more selfish and discontented with life, to think that 
 it is best always to live in the sun. The sun is a great 
 benefactor. How much of beauty and of life he is all the 
 while creating ; but the sun hides far more than he reveals ! 
 It is the sun that shuts from our view the greater part 
 of the universe we live in. If there were never any night 
 shadowing our globe in gloom, we should be unable to 
 behold the stars, and how small to our instructed minds 
 the heavens would be without those stellar orbs, each one 
 of which is a sun, the center of its own great universe. 
 
234 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 So it is that the night of sorrow and trouble comes down 
 over us in God's own ordering, that our hearts may be 
 filled with the divine joy of knowing the larger worlds 
 of the spirit, and believing in immortality." 
 
 And again: "Tragedy appears to take deeper hold of 
 the human mind than any other form of literary art, for 
 the reason that it is in harmony with the deepest facts 
 of a world that sees a lost Paradise at the beginning of 
 history and a Day of Judgment at the end of it. One 
 element of the immense power of the life of Jesus is its 
 tragic pathos; for with the grief of unrequited and of 
 rejected love, He offered Himself to Israel, His own 
 people, and to Nazareth, His own city." 
 
 Yet few men so exalted or eulogized joy. He writes 
 of Cana: "It is a large place in the moral world, for 
 there was struck the key-note of Christ's ministry, and it 
 ranks almost with Bethlehem, where the angels sang 
 'Peace and Good-will.' It is joy which Christ came to 
 bring men ; joy, after earth's thousand years of discord 
 and dolor; joy, in the home and in the heart and in the 
 community, the happy and harmonious working of the 
 forces of human life, which even though discipline and 
 sorrow and death shall come, must ultimately prevail 
 because joy is the key-note of God's moral universe. The 
 world gives the best wine at the start, and how desperate 
 people become when they find that the quality of pleasure 
 is lowered and its quantity lessened. O, how they strug- 
 gle and agonize to refresh their aged lips with the wine of 
 youth ! But things grow worse and worse until the end 
 is reached in desolateness and despair. It is not so with 
 us. The path grows brighter, the pleasures grow sweet- 
 er, our peace which began as a tiny rivulet flows at length 
 as a river, the River of God. The water is turned into 
 
HIS PREACHING— CONTINUED 235 
 
 wine, earth is changed to heaven, Cana to the New- 
 Jerusalem." In a sermon on Christian Optimism, he 
 says: "There are two sides of the curtain of life, and 
 God sees both. The angels see both, and they wonder, 
 almost, at our tears, at least over those things which 
 bring greatest joy to Heaven, those things that add to 
 the spiritual powers of the universe, those things that 
 are a divine summons to our souls to come up higher; 
 those things that are ladders of light ascending from 
 earth to Heaven. We may not rightly be blind to the 
 Divine side of our human lot; for we are not those who 
 have been left in the twilight of Nature. Something 
 better than a stoical endurance of life's woes is beseeming 
 men and women who have been instructed as we have 
 been." 
 
 Then, too, whatever his denunciations of sin, we still 
 feel his magnanimity. We can say of him, as he said 
 of Paul: "He was not lenient toward fundamental 
 error but flamed against it with consuming zeal, j^et he 
 was not cramped into believing that his conceptions of 
 truth and service exhausted all the possibilities of the 
 Spirit." So great is his moral earnestness that he de- 
 clares: "We must not expect too much of the ministry 
 of the beautiful ; there are some things which Art cannot 
 do. Paris cannot cure her sensualities with pictures, any 
 more than she could kill the Commune with a canvas, 
 even though Delacroix had covered it with matchless 
 colorings or Millet had filled it with heavenly-minded 
 peasants." Yet he adds, "Though art in Paris may seem 
 only a pearl on the neck of the demi-monde, it is never- 
 theless true that it has a gracious ministry" — and the rest 
 of the sermon extols that ministry. He tells us that 
 "God delights in beautiful thoughts and beautiful things, 
 
236 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 otherwise He would not have given us the Scriptures or 
 made the golden-rod to fringe the dusty road of life." 
 Much as he loves righteousness, his verj^ treatment of a 
 theme proclaims his instinct for the beautiful. For ex- 
 ample, with the subject, "A faith worth contending for," 
 he discourses not upon the countless contentions and 
 schisms of histor>% but on the beauty of Christianitj-. 
 And part of that nobleness of spirit which excluded petty 
 dogmatising, wrangling, and personal dislikes from his 
 sermons is his devotion to whatsoever things are lovely. 
 
 He is conservative and radical, a mystic and a re- 
 former, sensitive alike to sorrow and to joy, moved equally 
 by nature and by art, loving righteousness and beauty, 
 his own land and the world. Still if one idea rarely 
 blinded him to the complexity of truth, neither did his 
 variety of interest destroy his singleness of purpose. So 
 glowing was his faith in Christ, in man, and in God, and 
 so complete his nature that we may truly apply to his im- 
 passioned eloquence his description of Mr. Beecher's: 
 "One will never forget, who knew it in its golden and 
 wondrous prime, that preaching which swept with angelic 
 strength and splendor over the whole domain of human 
 experience, and touched every chord of memory and hope, 
 of reason and imagination, of playfulness and indignant 
 passion, of self-sacrifice and of sympathy ; so that it seemed 
 as if all the powers of a great organ had been concen- 
 trated into a living man, through whom spake the living 
 God ; now uttering his voice In homelike familiarity, 
 and then with the trumpet's most piercing and passionate 
 notes; now with the plaintiveness of a child's pleading, 
 and anon with a Miltonic sweep and grandeur of sound 
 like the thunderous music of the ocean's shore." 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 CITIZEN AND PATRIOT 
 
 "There is no civic virtue more urgently demanded in 
 American life to-day than a wise patriotism, especially 
 that form of public spirit which has been called municipal 
 patriotism. We know that among the future possibili- 
 ties of American life are a heathenism and wretchedness, 
 concentrated in some American London, approaching the 
 awful brutality and misery depicted in "Darkest Eng- 
 land," where the cry of distress, breaking from pestilen- 
 tial rookeries, is wrung from lips purple with alcohol and 
 crimson with fever. It is the city which Biblical inspira- 
 tion makes the type of an inhuman, material civilization, 
 that Babylon, which is yet to be destroyed, whose mer- 
 chants shall mourn as they stand afar off and see the 
 smoke of its burning, the city whose merchandise is gold 
 and silver and precious stones and pearls and fine linen and 
 scarlet and all manner of vessels of iron and brass and 
 marble, and cinnamon and odors and ointments and 
 frankincense and wine and oil and fine flour and wheat 
 and beasts and sheep and horses and chariots and slaves 
 and the souls of men. Is not many a civilized metropolis 
 rapidly becoming a ruthless machine wherein are ground 
 up the souls of men? Chicago is past the age of mere 
 material bigness, and is gathering to herself many ele- 
 ments of the higher civilization. She is no longer a mere 
 commercial capital; she is a metropolis, with all the tre- 
 piendous responsibilities belonging to one of the chief 
 cities of our globe. Our best people, our farthest-sighted 
 
238 ^OHX HEXRY BARROWS 
 
 citizens, desire what Matthew Arnold somewhat inele 
 gantly calls 'the best ideas that are going.* But, while 
 we know far better than some of our critics the excellent 
 features of our citj- life, the public spirit of many who 
 are gi\'ing their time and wealth and wisdom to the im- 
 provement of the common weal; while we are proud of 
 our churches and schools, our parks and charities, and 
 while we hug with complacenq- Dudley Warner's com- 
 pliments in regard to our increasing interest in the in- 
 tellectual life, and while our sturdy Americanism and 
 tbe firmness which throttled anarchy and the magnificent 
 energ}- which the fire could not destroy or dim, are 
 recognized, it must be confessed that we cannot justly 
 claim to have reached any high degree of municipal ex- 
 cellence; it must be confessed that we are governed by 
 the criminal classes. 
 
 At the heart of his Thanksgiving sermon of 1890. from 
 which we have just quoted, lay my father's deep love 
 and grave fear for his cit}-. The appeal that Chicago 
 made to him was compelling; its possibilities for good and 
 evil seemed incalculable. He was a patriot, too, and the 
 dty t>"pically American. Besides. Chicago's boj'ish con- 
 ceit oasered a teachableness that was able to ciromavent 
 tbe deadliest forms of provindalism. As he looked upon 
 the cit}' in its ugliness and wickedness, its powers and 
 fascinations, stretching its huge form north, south, and 
 west, he longed to change its foulness into a beaut}' as 
 pure and shining as the depths of Lake Michigan. He 
 was glad to be connected with Chicago during such 
 formative years. On coming from Boston, he had left a 
 larger dty for a smaller. Though well restored after its 
 great fire, Chicago, in 1881, boasted few of its present 
 most impressive factories, elevators, and wholesale estab- 
 
CITIZEN AXD PATRIOT 239 
 
 lishments, none of its largest apartment houses, offices, and 
 department stores, not even its Board of Trade building. 
 It had no electric lights, electric cars, or elevated trains. 
 Those were the days when fairs. May festivals, and sum- 
 mer concerts were held in the dark, rambling Expositioa 
 building on the Lake Front; when Chicago's half-million 
 people traveled in horse-cars which, moving in opposite 
 directions on a single track, waited for each other at 
 the comer "bulges." The city possessed no Thomas 
 Orchestra or St. Gaudens's Lincoln: no Fine Arts Build- 
 ing, "Dial." "Brush and Pencil," and School of 
 Fiction. My father watched the growth of the Mc- 
 Cormick Theological Seminar}-, from small beginnings, 
 helped establish the Presb>-terian Social L'nion, preached 
 sermons at the dedications of the Normal Training School 
 and Presbyterian Hospital, In 1 88 1, Hull House, the 
 Auditorium, Armour and Lewis Institutes, the Dewey 
 School, the Newberr\- and Crerar libraries, the Field 
 Columbian Museum, the present Art Institute and Uni- 
 versitv-. existed, if at all, but in dreams. And as miles 
 of pavement were laid, as scores of suburbs sprung up, 
 and as the population trebled, my father was one of the 
 cit\-'s best dreamers and workers. His connections with 
 its World's Fair and L'niversity shall be treated later, 
 but of only slighter import was his more general ci\-ic 
 work. 
 
 "I am earnestly opposed," he sa>-s, "to the minister's 
 becoming an active political partisan. He can accomplish 
 more by teaching principles than by advocating policies. 
 B-ut I do not believe that it is the minister's place, in this 
 age which needs ethical truth in a thousand applications 
 to life, to hide himself as a 'gentle hermit.' The Ameri- 
 can pulpit is called on to treat of a large nimiber of politi- 
 
240 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 cal themes, such as Temperance Legislation; the Sunday 
 Question in its many legal aspects; the Indian Question; 
 the Bible in School Question; Obedience to Law, and 
 the ways to secure it ; Divorce ; Gambling in its various 
 forms; the Health of Cities; Pauperism; Illiteracy; and 
 that problem, to solve which the Church should call on the 
 government to help, like Paul making an 'Appeal to 
 Caesar,' the great educational and moral problem pre- 
 sented by seven million freedmen at the South. These ask 
 only for occasional treatment, compared with the ordinary 
 themes of pulpit teaching, but they are not to be ignored. 
 If it is right to preach against ordinary stealing, then it 
 is right to denounce the infamy of public officials in mak- 
 ing honest voters stand four and six hours in a line reach- 
 ing to a ballot-box, but a line so long that they are 
 robbed of the dearest right of citizenship. In applying 
 Christian principles to political afifairs, the preachers will 
 find that political and partisan politics sometimes overlap. 
 So much the worse for the party in the greater wrong. 
 There are times when a sermon on the Ten Command- 
 ments might be objected to as bringing campaign issues 
 into the pulpit! The General Assembly of our church 
 trespassed on the verge of partisan politics in some of its 
 deliverances on the prohibition of slavery, and the rights 
 of the Union. We are not bound to refrain from speak- 
 ing against wrong from the pulpit because the wrong may 
 be sheltered behind other good men's consciences. We all 
 know that in what we call conscience is hidden a vast 
 deal of prejudice, interest, timidity, and self-will. We all 
 know how much of weak human nature goes into con- 
 science, so-called, as the pompous colored man said in 
 reply to the question, what is conscience? 'Conscience is 
 that feeling in here that says I won't; that is conscience." 
 
CITIZEN AND PATRIOT 241 
 
 "There are times when to be true to God the pulpit 
 must preach truths that have immediate political bearings. 
 In fact, the objections made to the pulpit's applying the 
 principles of the Sermon on the Mount to affairs of gov- 
 ernment, often come from those whose own political ideas 
 could not seriously be proclaimed from a Christian pulpit. 
 Immense mischief is wrought when men feel that the 
 motive power in moral reforms is not generated by 
 Christianity. Much of the infidelity of New England 
 sprang from the cowardly action of the Church toward 
 American slavery. I pray that in the important read- 
 justments of labor and capital which are at hand, the 
 workingmen may not feel that organized Christianity is 
 their enemy, but may come to know that there is a 
 Christian socialism, wiser, deeper, more real and helpful 
 than godless communism. The way to Christianize hu- 
 man activities, in political and all other spheres, is not 
 to keep out of them, but boldly to enter them and claim 
 them for God." 
 
 He found in his Central Music Hall services a God- 
 given opportunity to apply the teachings of Christ to 
 men's civic life. His pulpit, too, he sometimes used for 
 this purpose. Year after year he was a prominent speaker 
 at mass meetings in behalf of Sunday observance and tem- 
 perance, and before the Citizens' and the Law and Order 
 Leagues. He laments the indifference of many to the 
 public weal, the greed of gold and love of excitement 
 evidenced in wheat pits and gambling dens, the corrupt 
 city council, the spread of atheistic and anarchistic views, 
 the public disregard for Sunday, the growing spirit of caste 
 in rich churches, the scarcity of churches in districts most 
 needing them, the prevalence of crime, and the power of 
 the saloon and the house of impurity to destroy their 
 
242 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 victims and undermine the social order. His fairness 
 pleased the honest minded ; he appealed to men's highest 
 motives; his courage, fire and knowledge of facts made 
 his blows strike home. This preaching did not win him 
 the favor of those standing on lower moral ground than 
 his. Managers of theaters that held Sunday performances 
 were among his enemies, and one of the mayors attacked 
 him openly, saying among other things, "Dr. Barrovvs 
 wears the cloak of the Lord. I have a shrewd suspicion 
 that if Christ were here to-day he would say to this man 
 who preaches politics on Sunday, 'Get thee behind me, 
 Satan.' " 
 
 In these addresses my father often clearly expounds his 
 belief that individuals, not systems, are the determining 
 forces in social progress. He distrusted the materialism, 
 the over-reliance upon machinery, the infringement of in- 
 dividual liberty, and the consequent curtailment of mental 
 and moral achievement, which he discerned in some social- 
 istic schemes. He writes, "I greatly dread any approach 
 to the doctrine that society owes every m.an a support. I 
 remember the words of one of my old teachers who said, 
 'Beware of the man who says that "society owes him a 
 living," The farmer has learned not to leave his cellar 
 door open when such theorists are about.' Nationalism 
 will not succeed in doing what all other external institu- 
 tions have failed to accomplish. It is not wisdom but 
 folly to imagine that just one social panacea is all that is 
 needed ; that the nationalizing of industrj^ will keep men 
 from overreaching each other, and turn inherent selfishness 
 into brotherly love. I long as earnestly as any one to see 
 principles of cooperation and brotherhood applied to the 
 production and distribution of wealth, but it should be 
 voluntary, not compulsory cooperation. The right handle 
 
CITIZEN AND PATRIOT 243 
 
 for all reform is the individual. Man could attain his 
 noblest development, as in Paul, under the infamous em- 
 pire of Nero. Man can sink to his lowest degradation 
 amid all the benignities of a Christian republic. I am 
 not opposing the efforts of good men to adjust more 
 equally the relations of labor and capital. Christ de- 
 mands that the golden rule shall be the law of all life. 
 I am not decr3qng the work of any reform associations. 
 The spirit of Christ is back of every one of them that is 
 good. But all these movements should remember that 
 they are but scaffolding for the reconstruction of man. 
 They should make easier the great work of the Church, 
 the work of renewing men. Better conditions and ex- 
 ternal improvements are not able to meet of themselves 
 the radical needs of human nature. Men are aliens from 
 God, death-stricken with sin. The blinded efforts of 
 some people to-day to cure this world, suggest the picture 
 of a man whitewashing a pest-house, or opening schools 
 and mansions for children bitten by mad dogs." 
 
 While describing those who refuse to help the man who 
 has fallen among thieves, he does not eulogize the passing 
 reformer who muses thus: "What is the use of helping 
 one wounded sufferer; he is only one of a multitude? 
 Other men will be robbed and plundered and destroyed 
 by these Bedouin banditti ; it will not mend the matter 
 to care for this one. The thing to be done is to change 
 the whole system of government, io inaugurate a new 
 order of things which will make plundering impossible; 
 to do away with the whole body of monopolists, land- 
 sharks, money-grabbers, banded plunderers of the poor, 
 trust-pirates, who are desolating the modern world and 
 making the path of the poor a red and bloody road 
 indeed. And so he neglects the call of humanity, the cry 
 
244 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 of personal need, because he has a theory that certain 
 sweeping changes must be brought about, and that relief 
 to individuals is only a mockery." Again he tells us that 
 "An excellent form of government, unless it is conducted 
 by wise and good men, will no more prevent or abolish 
 present evils than a fine broadcloth coat will keep off 
 the Russian grippe." 
 
 And so, since he based his hope of social progress far 
 more upon improved manhood than upon improved in- 
 stitutions, hfs chief endeavor was to train ideal citizens, 
 men who voluntarily sacrifice personal and party inter- 
 ests for the city, preferring to undertake distasteful offices 
 rather than submit themselves to be ill-governed. "There 
 is too little concern," he says, "for things outside our- 
 selves and our households; we live in a community where 
 palaces are girded with weeds and surrounded by filthy 
 lanes. So long as Chicago is governed by its saloons, so 
 long as the care of our streets is in the hands of un- 
 scrupulous jobbery, so long as the city fathers continue 
 to shield the open violators of the law and the municipal 
 executive refuses to meet "his sworn obligations, so long 
 as public nuisances abound on every hand, darkening the 
 sky and polluting the air to such an extent that the man 
 in the moon is supposed to hold his nostrils when he comes 
 too near our city limits, so long will it be needful that 
 good citizens should unselfishly labor for good govern- 
 ment." "The trouble is that so many men's pockets con- 
 trol their politics; they weakly imagine that they cannot 
 afEord to follow their consciences; they are determined 
 not to ofiEend their patrons; they prefer to sell their prin- 
 ciples to get a larger sale for their goods. As Dante, 
 the Florentine patriot, who cherished even in exile the 
 lilied loveliness of the city of the Amo, looked upon her 
 
CITIZEN AND PATRIOT 345 
 
 fierce factions as the spotted panther which impeded his 
 poetic way up the mount of vision, so the fierce, unmean- 
 ing factions of our city life obstruct the elevation of our 
 municipality. In city affairs I am thoroughly convinced 
 that there should be henceforth only two parties — the 
 saloon party and the anti-saloon party. The anti-saloon 
 party would be primarily the law and order party, and, 
 in view of our municipal needs, there is no sense in any 
 other division of the people. The evidences are numerous 
 that our best newspapers and an increasing number of 
 the voters are championing political independence. 
 Partisanship in city affairs has become like the relic which 
 Hezekiah broke in pieces, Nehushtan, a thing of brass, 
 the brassiest thing now in circulation, especially when 
 embodied in partisan clubs organized to plunder a giant 
 municipality. The ideal citizen is not a man who is 
 merely a clothed and animated roll of bank stock and 
 railroad bonds. There is many a gilded youth in Chi- 
 cago who is not worth to the better life of our city, one 
 tithe of that wealth which many a young woman furnishes 
 in a mission school. O, young millionaire of to-day, liv- 
 ing amid such splendid opportunities, with God's riches 
 intrusted to you, set your face against a selfish life, against 
 the ostentatious vulgarities which recent books have 
 opened to our view in the American metropolis, the social 
 contentions where chef vies with chef, and butler strives 
 with butler, and wine-cellar contends with wine-cellar, 
 and where Worth and Red fern are the Achilles and 
 Hector of the social battlefield ! God save Chicago from 
 such vulgar Iliads!" 
 
 Yet, for all his apprehensions about the city of his love, 
 his final words were always hopeful. "Perhaps the time 
 shall come when the signal weather-flag from our Audi- 
 
246 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 torlum tower, and the gilded ship over the Board of 
 Trade shall be saluted by some Wordsworth, or Hugo, 
 or Emerson of the better age, his heart thrilled and 
 kindled by the loftiest civic pride." 
 
 His Christianity also included love of country. "A 
 religion without patriotism," he oncd remarked, "is not 
 inspired of that Christ who came first to the lost sheep 
 of the house of Israel, who wept over Jerusalem, and 
 whose patriotic heart gave the command that his gospel 
 should be preached first in the capital city of his nation. 
 The deepest philosophy now recognizes that the nation is 
 not a political accident, that it is not merely the work of 
 man, a voluntary association for economic ends, but that 
 it has its origin in God, and like God has continuance, 
 authoritj^ and a moral being." His love for America 
 was strengthened by his faith in her. Unhesitatingly he 
 believed in democracy, in spite of its moral dangers and 
 the unbeautiful living it engenders. The waters of the 
 Pierian spring should be freely offered. A little learning 
 seemed to him less dangerous than none at all. Then, 
 too, he always kept in mind the thousandth man who 
 would drink deep. He writes: "There has risen a power 
 this side the Atlantic which more and more will modify 
 the methods of all other governments. It is painful to 
 hear Americans speak despondently of our future and 
 slightingly of things American. I know liberty is dan- 
 gerous ; like fire, and water, and air, the necessities of life, 
 it can be misused. It needs healthful regulation, so as 
 to prevent the fever spasms of revolution, which come 
 when life and freedom are brutally repressed. But in 
 our land the ebullitions of popular discontent find con- 
 tinuous and natural outlets in local, state, and national 
 governments. It is Germany and Russia that sit trem- 
 
CITIZEN AND PATRIOT 247 
 
 blingly on the steam-boilers holding down too many of the 
 valves. English laborers sometimes complain that nobles 
 and bishops promise them plenty of land when they get 
 to heaven, but are very careful that they shall not possess 
 a part of it on earth. But Christian democracy, which 
 I hope America represents, demands that all who are 
 created God's children should have an equal chance with 
 all others to a many-sided and healthful life and develop- 
 ment here below. And we ought to rejoice that so gen- 
 erally manly character is still higher than factitious dis- 
 tinctions of wealth and position." 
 
 Natural outgrowths of his patriotism were his interest 
 in the Grand Army of the Republic, in politics, and in 
 education. The Abraham Lincoln Post of the Grand 
 Army of the Republic, in 1884, made him an honorary 
 member and their permanent orator, presented him with a 
 framed resolution of thanks, and a gold badge m appre- 
 ciation of his patriotic addresses. This honor seems fitting 
 when we remember his words, which have found their 
 way into a school reader: "America need not go beyond 
 her own annals to read once more the story of Bayard 
 and Sidney, of Vane and Havelock, And one there was, 
 greater than all, whose name will never be inscribed on 
 the scroll of history, but whose fame is immortal. He 
 held a lowly place. In his hand was a musket, not a 
 sword. In his heart was the love of country, the love of 
 freedom, the love of home. He knew every hardship — 
 the long march under the cruel sun, the picket's lonely 
 watch, the meager fare, the dreary pain of the hospital. 
 Sometimes he was seen gayly marching through Georgia, 
 Again he was found in the deadly swamps of the Chicka- 
 hominy. He was patient, though generals blundered. 
 He was happiest w^hen commanders sent him away from 
 
348 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 the idle encampment into the field of strife. His man- 
 hood saved the Nation, and the Nation has not altogether 
 forgotten him and his children. You will see him on the 
 street, sometimes armless and crippled, or in some Soldiers' 
 Home, and as you raise your hand to him in military 
 salute the hot tears will sometimes start from your eyes. 
 He lives in the midst of a not ungrateful people, but full 
 honor has not yet been given him. I bid citizens to hail 
 him with grateful hearts — the hero of the war, the pledge 
 of America's future, the common soldier of the Union 
 Army." 
 
 Politics rarely crept into his addresses, except those 
 dealing with municipal evils. But in 1884, at a con- 
 vention of the National Law and Order League, he op- 
 posed a national prohibition party. The same summer, 
 he wrote to the Boston Journal a letter in support of Mr. 
 Blaine, which was widely quoted. And later, he opened 
 the National Republican Convention with a prayer, of 
 which thousands of copies were circulated through Indiana 
 as a campaign document! 
 
 It was a favorite remark of his, that "If the torch of 
 Liberty is to enlighten the world, it must be fed from 
 the lamp of knowledge." Early in the eighties, when 
 many minds looked askance at the discoveries of science, 
 he declared the doctrine of Evolution to be "a relief and 
 a help in solving many scriptural difficulties." And later, 
 when some of his hearers shrank from the discoveries of 
 Biblical scholars, he declared : "We are not to be afraid 
 of the truth; all truth is of God, therefore we welcome 
 it, or, if it seems hard at first, we adjust ourselves to it. 
 Therefore we should seek for it as for hidden treasure. 
 Bring to the Bible all the light which may be gained from 
 Hebrew study, from Assyrian research, from the higher 
 
CITIZEN AND PATRIOT 249 
 
 and the lower criticism. Discover, if you may, how the 
 Bible was constructed, and when, and who were all its 
 authors; but you will not have touched with one destroy- 
 ing finger its central and celestial light. God is in it." 
 Education, therefore, claimed his attention. In his own 
 city, the children of the Harrison school considered him 
 their friend ; he offered annual prizes for the best work 
 done in English composition by the pupils of the eighth 
 grade, and it was one of his pleasures each June to present 
 Macaulay's History of England and a set of Shakespeare 
 to the happy winners. Lake Forest University early won 
 his interest. In 1882, it conferred upon him the degree 
 of Doctor of Divinity. He spoke before its students and 
 several times raised money for it. Of Knox College, in 
 1884, he was made a trustee. During his Chicago minis- 
 try he gave seventy addresses before more than twenty 
 different colleges and universities, diverse as Beloit, Black- 
 burn, Chicago, Cornell, Hope, Holland, Illinois, Kansas, 
 Olivet, Purdue, Rockford, Yale, Wellesley, and Williams. 
 
 The summer of 1887, he lectured for the first time at 
 Chautauqua, "the people's college," which stood, he be- 
 lieved, "for universal education and the helping of every 
 ardent and aspiring seeker after knowledge." Later he 
 became one of the Board of Councilors, and he continued 
 year after year to lecture to Chautauqua assemblies. He 
 once said: "The Chautauqua movement will ultimately 
 be seen to rank with the chief religious, reformatory, and 
 educational movements of the past. It enobles domestic 
 life, quickens and directs intellectual enthusiasm, promotes 
 brotherhood and patriotism, lays broad and sure founda- 
 tion for the better American civilization, honors God's 
 word and enthrones Christ." 
 
 In 1888, he was elected Trustee of the United Society 
 
250 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 of Christian Endeavor. During the next thirteen years 
 he addressed conventions at Chicago, St. Louis, New 
 York, Boston, Nashville, Detroit, and Portland, on such 
 subjects as "America for Christ," "The Religious Possi- 
 bilities of the World's Fair," "The Brotherhood of Na- 
 tions," "The Conquest of the World," "The Supreme 
 Value of Higher Education," and "Christian Endeavor 
 and Missions." These words express his faith in this 
 work: "The Christian Endeavor ^Movement is a dis- 
 tinct, divinely guided movement, and has given our 
 churches some gleams of millennial daybreak, planting in 
 the hearts of the young those convictions and enthusiasms, 
 forming those habits and setting in motion those activities 
 that are to give the Church of the next generation new 
 prayer meetings. Christians better equipped with the 
 Bible, new missionaries, hosts of new givers, and men 
 and women who will represent the new Christianity, 
 which is as old as Jesus the Christ." 
 
 One of the Trustees of the United Society writes: "I 
 feel like reaching out my hands toward the millions I 
 represent, saying, 'Let us take hold of one another's hands ; 
 I want to feel 5'our presence; I would gladly utter your 
 name; I want only to name those things on which we are 
 all agreed.' They would say to me, — I speak for them — 
 you may refer to Dr. Barrows as our Chrysostom ; he was 
 the golden-mouthed ; he was put forward on all our 
 great occasions. When we have conventions numbering 
 twenty, forty, seventy thousand young persons, of course 
 there are great summits, when some man who can com- 
 mand the assembly must stand forth and voice the com- 
 mon sentiment. Almost uniformly Dr. Barrows was ap- 
 pointed to that position. He was our foremost trustee." 
 It may be that my father's optimistic spirit is due in 
 
CITIZEN AND PATRIOT 251 
 
 part to his participation in so many important activities. 
 It is certain that such activities seemed to him but the 
 minor part of his rightful work. "We need," he writes, 
 "a wise balance between the two views of the kingdom, as 
 within or without. It must be within first; but the 
 spirit in the soul is not one of solitude, it is one of fellow- 
 ship. All morality has regard to relations, and we feel 
 the incongruity of such collocation of words as a Christian 
 taskmaster, a Christian distiller, a heavenly-minded slave- 
 trader, a philanthropic despot. The Christian spirit is 
 profoundly concerned in bringing about better conditions, 
 but it should seek these things and all things under the 
 shadow and shelter, under the joy and glory of the en- 
 compassing and overarching kingdom of God. It is pos- 
 sible for benevolent men to-day to devote themselves so 
 exclusively to some one reform, to be so completely ab- 
 sorbed in securing some one amendment in human life, 
 some amelioration of the condition of labour, as to forget 
 that, after all, the chief enfranchisement which men need 
 is spiritual, and also to forget that their little reform, 
 which is to hurry forward the millennium, is only one 
 little acre of those golden fields which make up the king- 
 dom of heaven." 
 
 It is certain, too, that his hope for his city and land 
 was largely the outgrowth of the love for every human 
 soul so constantly manifested by his life. "Oh, what a 
 rebuke," he exclaims, "are the words 'Our Father' to the 
 social paganism which strives to preserve its respectability 
 by avoiding those to whom Christ gave His whole life. 
 Let kid-gloved and lavender-scented delicacy gather its 
 white skirts away from the pollution of the ordinary 
 crowd ; let men refuse any brotherly recognition of hard- 
 handed toil ; let women decline to speak to those who 
 
252 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 have sinned against society and shrink even from associa- 
 tion with their braver sisters who help the fallen outcast. 
 Let all such assemble themselves for God's worship in 
 some temple of beauty thinking themselves safe from 
 vulgar intrusion, and they will find that in the highest 
 and noblest exercise of the human powers, that of prayer, 
 they must associate with those to whom they have denied 
 the meanest fellowship ; they must remain forever dumb 
 before God until they can descend to the level of mere 
 humanity and enter his gates with the motley hosts of a 
 poor and sinful race. The pyramid that reaches heaven 
 must have humanity for its base. God does not call us 
 upward unattended. As we can approach God only by 
 bringing with us all men, so we can live to God only as 
 we live for all men." 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 PREPARATIONS FOR THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 
 189I-1893 
 
 In 1889, my father was appointed a member of the 
 World's Congress Committee, which developed the next 
 year into the World's Congress Auxiliary of the World's 
 Columbian Exposition, "an organization authorized and 
 supported by the Exposition corporation for the purpose 
 of bringing about a series of world's conventions of the 
 leaders in the various departments of human progress, 
 during the exposition season of 1893." In the fall of 
 1890 this Auxiliary made him chairman of its Committee 
 on Religious Congresses, a committee composed of men 
 of fifteen denominations, and probably "the most broadly 
 representative that ever signed a religious manifesto." 
 These men soon began to call the most important of these 
 Religious Congresses, the Parliament of Religions, a name 
 probably suggested to my father by Tennyson's line: 
 "In the Parliament of man, the federation of the world." 
 
 They commenced their work under the impression that 
 nothing resembling a Parliament of Religions had been 
 heretofore imagined. They soon ascertained that the 
 Buddhist Emperor Asoka, twenty centuries previous had 
 presided over such a gathering; that in the i6th century 
 a similar Parliament had been conceived by the Moravian 
 bishop, John Comenius, and by Akbar, the greatest of 
 the Mogul emperors; that the Free Religious Associa- 
 tion of Boston had in the seventies originated the idea of 
 such a convention and that Dr. W. F. Warren of the 
 
254 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 Boston University had preached a sermon on an imagi- 
 nary conference in Tokyo of the religious leaders of the 
 Orient. But if their plan was not wholly new, my father 
 and his confederates were the first men of the Christian 
 era to bring it to fruition. 
 
 In the spring of 1891, they sent to personages and peri- 
 odicals in all lands a letter containing this invitation : 
 "Believing that God is, and that He has not left Himself 
 without witness; believing that the influence of Religion 
 tends to advance the general welfare, and is the most 
 vital force in the social order of every people; and con- 
 vinced that of a truth God is no respecter of persons, but 
 that in every nation he that feareth Him and worketh 
 righteousness is accepted of Him, we affectionately invite 
 the representatives of all faiths to aid us in presenting to 
 the world, at the Exposition of 1893, the religious har- 
 monies and unities of humanity, and also in showing forth 
 the moral and spiritual agencies which are at the root of 
 human progress." 
 
 The replies that poured in voiced sharp differences ot 
 opinion. Some men prophesied that the proposed Con- 
 gress would compromise and belittle Christianity; others, 
 that it would be a picturesque spectacle unique and sug- 
 gestive enough to dazzle visionaries, but of slight actual 
 significance; still others that it might be a signal mani- 
 festation of the modern scientific spirit and an efficacious 
 means of disseminating enlightenment and inculcating 
 religious tolerance. From the men who held this last 
 view an advisory council was formed, which proved of 
 great aid in presenting the proposed Parliament to the 
 public. With the advice of this council the committee 
 finally proposed the following statement of the objects 
 of the World's Parliament of Religions: 
 
PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 255 
 
 "First, to bring together in conference, for the first 
 time in history, the leading representatives of the great 
 Historic Religions of the world; secondly, to show to 
 men, in the most impressive way, what and how many 
 important truths the various Religions hold and teach 
 in common; thirdly, to promote and deepen the spirit of 
 human brotherhood among religious men of diverse faiths, 
 through friendly conference and mutual good under- 
 standing, while not seeking to foster the temper of in- 
 diiferentism, and not striving to achieve any formal and 
 outward unity; fourthly, to set forth, by those most com- 
 petent to speak, what are deemed the important dis- 
 tinctive truths held and taught by each Religion, and by 
 the various chief branches of Christendom ; fifthly, to 
 indicate the impregnable foundations of Theism, and the 
 reasons for man's faith in Immortality, and thus to unite 
 and strengthen the forces which are adverse to a material- 
 istic philosophy of the universe; sixthly, to secure from 
 leading scholars, representing the Brahman, Buddhist, 
 Confucian, Parsee, Mohammedan, Jewish, and other 
 Faiths, and from representatives of the various Churches 
 of Christendom, full and accurate statements of the spir- 
 itual and other effects of the Religions which they hold, 
 upon the literature, art, commerce, government, do- 
 mestic and social life of the peoples among whom these 
 Faiths have prevailed ; seventhly, to inquire what light 
 each Religion has afforded, or may afford, to the other 
 Religions of the world; eighthly, to set forth, for per- 
 manent record to be published to the world, an accurate 
 and authoritative account of the present condition and 
 outlook of Religion among the leading nations of the 
 earth; ninthly, to discover, from competent men, what 
 light Religion has to throw on the great problems of the 
 
356 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 present age, especially the important questions connected 
 with temperance, labor, education, wealth and pov- 
 erty; tenthly, to bring the nations of the earth into a 
 more friendly fellowship, in the hope of securing per- 
 manent international peace." 
 
 However stoutly thinkers wrangled over the value of 
 attaining some of these objects, they agreed, that were his 
 plan to succeed the organizer of the Parliament of Re- 
 ligions must be a man of faith and of executive genius. 
 The difficulties that he had to meet were greater than is 
 generally known and are but faintly shadowed in his 
 laughing remark when the Parliament had become history, 
 "I had to toil for an unprecedented achievement with the 
 General Assembly of my own church, forty infallible re- 
 ligious editors, the Sultan of Turkey, and the Archbishop 
 of Canterbury pulling hard on my unclerical coat tails." 
 Such hostility of course jeopardized his plan, and could 
 be counteracted only by securing leading English and 
 American Episcopalians and Presbyterians for his advisory 
 council. In this he was eminently successful. The par- 
 ticipation of the Roman Catholic Church was also of 
 supreme moment, since an invitation to the Pagan world 
 issued merely by Protestant Christianity would have com- 
 paratively little weight. 
 
 In his travels the condition of Catholic countries had 
 impressed him unpleasantly. The political power and 
 diplomacy of Catholics about him in Kansas had awak- 
 ened in him distrust and recollections of the corruption 
 and bigotry of Rome's mediaeval secular power. And 
 though ten years in Chicago had convinced him that the 
 lower elements of the population can be restrained from 
 anarchy only by the priests, he was uncertain what re- 
 sponse his propositions would receive. During the months 
 
PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 257 
 
 of silence that succeeded his dispatching a letter to Cardi- 
 nal Gibbons, so frequently did my father impress upon 
 his children the importance of his receiving the desired 
 answer, that whenever he sat lost in thought, we used to 
 exclaim, "He must be willing the Cardinal!" And we 
 were not far wrong. The letter that finally came ran 
 thus: "Judged by the tenor of the Preliminary Address 
 of the General Committee on Religious Congresses in 
 connection with the Exposition of 1893, I deem the move- 
 ment you are engaged in promoting worthy of all encour- 
 agement and praise. Assuredly a congress of eminent 
 men gathered together to declare, as your address sets 
 forth, what they have to offer or suggest for the world's 
 betterment, what light Religion has to throw on the labor 
 problems, the educational questions, and the perplexing 
 social conditions of our times cannot but result in good 
 to our common country. I rejoice accordingly to learn 
 that the project for a Religious Congress in Chicago in 
 1893 has already won the sympathies and enlisted the 
 active cooperation of those in the front rank of human 
 thought and progress even in other lands than ours. If 
 conducted with moderation and good will such a congress 
 may result, by the blessing of divine providence, in bene- 
 fits more far reaching than the most sanguine would dare 
 to hope for." The receiver's joy but deepened when 
 Archbishop Ireland wrote, "I promise my active coopera- 
 tion in the work. The conception of such a religious 
 assembly seems almost like an inspiration." These and 
 like responses from Roman Catholic dignitaries confirmed 
 in my father the belief that the Catholic Church in Amer- 
 ica to-day differs from that of the past and of the Con- 
 tinent, in that it is being led by American citizens with 
 American ideas. 
 
258 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 But hostile criticism and the uncertainties it engen- 
 dered were not his sole trials, nor the friendliness of many- 
 leaders his only cause of thanksgiving. The seers of the 
 Orient are poor — and even if he succeeded in communi- 
 cating with those most trul)' representative, and won them 
 to his point of view, how could they find means of 
 traveling thirteen thousand miles? By the time this 
 question faced him Chicago business men had come to 
 place confidence in his plan; and they answered his plea 
 for aid, with thousands of dollars. He perceived, too, 
 that some steps must be taken early, to preserve the 
 records of the gathering and to bring it more prominently 
 to public attention. Therefore, in the spring of 1893, 
 the Parliament Publishing Company was formed, and the 
 widely distributed prospectus of the History of the Par- 
 liament of Religions gained him the support of many 
 thousands, heretofore indifferent. 
 
 The results of these preparations are made evident in 
 his report to the Auxiliary in March, 1893. He writes 
 that "Nearly fifteen hundred men eminent in the realm of 
 religion have accepted places on the Advisory Council ; 
 that the plan of holding a Parliament of Religions at which 
 the representatives of the great historic faiths shall sit to- 
 gether in frank and friendly conference over the great 
 things of our common spiritual and moral life, is no 
 longer a dream. It is now confidently expected that rep- 
 resentatives of the leading historic faiths will be present 
 in the Parliament. A Confucian scholar has been com- 
 missioned by the Chinese government to attend. Bud- 
 dhist scholars, representing both the Northern and South- 
 ern Church, among them Reverend Zitsuzen Ashitsu, edi- 
 tor of a Buddhist magazine in Tokyo; a high priest of 
 Shintoism, Moslem scholars from India, Parsis from Bom- 
 
PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIOXS 259 
 
 bay, representatives of various types of Hinduism, eminent 
 Christian missionaries, leading scholars from Europe and 
 America, and probably representatives of the Russian, 
 Armenian, and Bulgarian churches, will all have part in 
 this great meeting. Jewish Rabbis of Europe and 
 America are in earnest sympathy with this movement. 
 The interest in the Exposition and in this approaching 
 Congress will draw to Chicago numerous representatives 
 of the historic religions. Leading Christian missionaries 
 and native Christians of many lands will be present, 
 including some of the foremost men of India. Prominent 
 scholars in America, England, and Germany have already 
 accepted invitations to address the Parliament. 
 
 "The Catholic Archbishops of America at their meet- 
 ing in New York, In November, 1892, took action approv- 
 ing the participation of the Catholic Church in the Par- 
 liament of Religions, and appointed the Rt. Rev. John 
 J. Keane, Rector of the Catholic University of America, 
 Washington, D. C, to arrange with the General Com- 
 mittee for the proper and adequate presentation of the 
 Catholic doctrine on the questions coming before the 
 Parliament. 
 
 "In communicating the action of the Board of Arch- 
 bishops, Bishop Keane writes: 'I ask leave to add the 
 expression of my own profound conviction that the project 
 is an admirable one, and that it ought to receive the 
 encouragement of all who really love truth and charity, 
 and who wish to further their reign among mankind. It 
 is only by a friendly and brotherly comparison of con- 
 victions that reasonable men can ever come to an agree- 
 ment about the all-important truths which are the founda- 
 tion of Religion, and that an end can be put to the 
 religious divisions and antagonisms which are a grief to 
 
26o JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 our Father in Heaven. Such an assemblage of intelli- 
 gent and conscientious men, presenting their religious 
 convictions without minimizing, without acrimony, with- 
 out controversy, with love of truth and of humanity, will 
 be an honorable event in the history of Religion, and 
 cannot fail to accomplish much good.' " 
 
 This report also contains a general programme for the 
 seventeen days' meetings to be held the following Sep- 
 tember. 
 
 The amount of work all this involved is hardly cal- 
 culable and can be appreciated only by those who saw 
 my father rising at six and working until midnight, 
 writing thousands of letters, providing work for several 
 secretaries, and assuming large financial obligations. To 
 quote his own words: "The Chairman early formed a 
 resolution, strictly adhered to, never to notice by public 
 reply any criticism of the Parliament, and yet it became 
 inevitably a part of his work to explain the Christian and 
 Scriptural grounds on which the defense of the Parlia 
 ment securely rested. In many public addresses, at the 
 International Christian Endeavor Convention (1892) in 
 New York, before the International Missionary Union 
 at Clifton Springs, at the Bay View Assembly in Michi- 
 gan and elsewhere and by frequent contributions to the 
 Missionary Review of the World, The Homiletic Re- 
 view, the Independent, the Golden Rule, the Congrega- 
 tionalist, the Christian at Work, the Review of Reviews 
 or some other organ of public opinion, he endeavored to 
 show how fully the Parliament was in accord with the 
 Christian spirit of brotherhood." 
 
 However much the coming Congress might demand his 
 full energies he had no mind to shirk his regular duties. 
 "My engagements," he writes early in 1892, "stretch like 
 
PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 261 
 
 Wordsworth's daffodils in never ending line." Before 
 the Parliament of Religions was dreamed, in obedience to 
 a last wish of his father's, he had contracted with Funk 
 & Wagnalls to write the life of Beecher for the American 
 Reformers series. These quotations from my mother's 
 diary during the winter and spring of 1892 mention some 
 of his varied activities: 
 
 "Tonight J. introduced Thomas Nelson Page at Cen- 
 tral Music Hall." 
 
 "J. spoke on the Religious Congresses for an hour this 
 evening at the Church Club." 
 
 "J. has gone down to Pastors' Alliance to speak before 
 five hundred 'amalgamated ministers' about the Religious 
 Congresses. 
 
 "J. came in while we were at supper. He made a 
 great hit yesterday with his Shakespeare at the Presbyte- 
 rian Social Union in St. Louis." 
 
 "J« got home at one-thirty this morning from the Union 
 League Club dinner, where he spoke, as he was chaplain." 
 
 "J. took his mother with him to the Colored Church 
 and she enjoyed very much hearing him speak on Wendell 
 Phillips, and meeting the colored people afterwards." 
 
 "He is writing hard on Beecher." 
 
 "He speaks tonight at a Chautauqua Rally." "Dean 
 Hale came to dinner." 
 
 "J. is to speak at the International Mission Associa- 
 tion at Clifton Springs." "Joseph Cook came to dinner 
 and urged J. to become one of the Editors of 'Our Day.' " 
 And May 2, 1892, the entry reads: "The mail today 
 has been interesting; a Figaro with J.'s picture and 
 article on 'The Library,' a long and interesting letter 
 from Ameer Ali, 'Our Day' with a notice of J. as new 
 editor, a document about the Russian Church from Dean 
 
262 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 Hale, the 'Revue de Belgique' with an article on the 
 Parliament by Count D'Alviella, a typewritten article on 
 the Parliament by Professor Wilkinson which he wanted 
 J. to read and criticise before sending it to the Independ- 
 ent, a note from Professor Willis Beecher asking for a 
 sketch of J. for Johnson's Encyclopedia — besides the 
 usual letters. J. went to a ball game after luncheon, 
 Chicago versus Boston, four to one." 
 
 The address that he gave that summer in Carnegie 
 Hall, New York, contains the fullest early expression of 
 his hopes for the coming Parliament. 
 
 "I have no doubt that this phenomenal meeting will 
 make apparent the fact that there is a certain unity in 
 religion, — that is, that men not only have common desires 
 and needs, but also have perceived more or less clearly, 
 certain common truths. And as the Apostle Paul, with 
 his unfailing tact and courtesy, was careful to find com- 
 mon ground for himself and his Greek auditors in Athens, 
 before he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection, so 
 the wise Christian missionary is discovering that he must 
 not ignore any fragment of truth which the heathen mind 
 cherishes, for, thus ignoring it, he makes an impassable 
 barrier against conviction in the non-Christian mind. I 
 believe that the Parliament will do much to promote the 
 spirit of human brotherhood among those of diverse faiths, 
 by diminishing ill-will, by softening rancor, and giving 
 men the privilege of getting their impressions of others at 
 first hand. Though light has no fellowship with dark- 
 ness, light does have fellowship with twilight. God has 
 not left himself without witness, and those who have the 
 full light of the cross should bear brotherly hearts toward 
 all who grope in a dimmer illumination. While the 
 Apostle Paul denounced an idol worship which was devil 
 
PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 263 
 
 worship, he fully recognized that heathen religion was 
 not of that malign quality. He instructed the Athenians 
 that he and they adored the same God, of whom all were 
 the offspring, they in ignorance of God's full nature, and 
 he in the blessed knowledge which Christ had given him. 
 
 "And I believe that there will be furnished a grand 
 field for Christian apologetics, a matchless opportunity of 
 setting forth the distinctive truths of the Christian Gos- 
 pel. A Parliament of Christendom is to be interwoven 
 with the Parliament of Religions, and able Christian 
 scholars will treat of such themes as the Incarnation, the 
 Divine Person, the Atonement and Resurrection of 
 Christ, and the relations of Christians to one another. 
 Thomas Arnold has said: 'Other religions show us man 
 seeking God. Christianity shows us God seeking man.' 
 It is on this account that Christianity claims to be the 
 true religion, fitted to all and demanding the submission 
 of all. Christianity alone shows us a Mediator. The 
 Church of Christ has a unique message which she will 
 proclaim to all the world, giving the reasons why her 
 faith should supplant all others, showing, among other 
 truths, that transmigration is not regeneration, that 
 ethical knowledge is not redemption from sin, and that 
 Nirvana is not heaven. 
 
 "I believe that the Parliament of Religions will be 
 valuable to scholars and to young missionaries and to 
 Christian people ever>'where by exciting a deeper interest 
 in the non-Christian world and a deeper respect for it. I 
 know that the worst things in pagan lands excite our 
 horror and pity, but pagandom should not be judged solely 
 by its worst. We have pitied the poor heathen so much 
 that most Christians despise him and do little or nothing 
 for his enlightenment. When the doors of China were 
 
264 JOHN HE NRY BARROWS 
 
 thrown open to the missionary and also to the worst ele- 
 ments of European and American life, some people 
 imagined that China, with her ancient and marvelous 
 institutions, would succumb at once to our Christian 
 civilization. But she did not, and, as Professor Fisher, 
 of Yale, said to me the other day, 'I think all the more 
 of her for not surrendering immediately.' There is 
 tenacious and splendid material there for the future 
 Christian church. And on the other hand, while it 
 would be better for Christendom to know the full truth 
 about pagan lands, it would be vastly better for pagan 
 lands to know the full truth about Christendom, and 
 that cannot be gained by reading only the 'Cry of Out- 
 cast London,' Zola's fictions, the descriptions of Ameri- 
 can society in English magazines, the records of our 
 crimes and divorces, the statistics of the liquor traffic, 
 some of the newspaper pictures of Chicago, and Dr. 
 Parkhurst's brave sermons on municipal corruption in 
 New York. At the Parliament of Religions the nobler 
 and grander facts of our Christian civilization will be 
 presented to the candid judgment of the world. And 
 yet, in the light of the discussions which may be evoked, 
 so-called Christian nations may, m some things, stand 
 rebuked before the non-Christian. And I, for one, shall 
 not be sorry. The time is come when Christendom 
 should repent in dust and ashes. Missionary progress is 
 frightfully checked by the sins of Christian people. I 
 need not characterize the barbarous Chinese exclusion 
 bill ; I need not speak of the rum traffic on the west coast 
 of Africa, the whiskey and gunpowder of Christian com- 
 merce, or the forcing of the opium trade into China, or 
 the miserable examples of greed, pride, and cruelty which 
 have disfigured the name of Christian in India and 
 
PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 265 
 
 Cathay. With Christian life, as portrayed in Rudyard 
 Kipling's pictures of British character in India, before 
 him, we do not wonder that the student of the Vedas 
 is not altogether fascinated with Christian civilization. 
 May it not be, under the blessing of God, a means of 
 pricking Christendom to the heart, to see itself rebuked 
 in 'The Parliament of man, the federation of the world?' 
 "And while the Parliament will do something to pro- 
 mote Christian unity and bridge the chasms of separation 
 between the disciples of Christ, it will do much, I hope, 
 to bring the non-Christian world before the minds and 
 hearts of a selfish and indifferent Christendom. Speaking 
 as a pastor, living in the capital of Western materialism, 
 with all the world knocking at our doors and thronging 
 our streets, let me here record the conviction that the 
 divine way of building up the kingdom of Christ in 
 America is to engage with fresh ardor in efforts to 
 Christianize India and Africa, Turkey and China. The 
 heart that is aglow with a wise Christian patriotism must 
 plead earnestly for foreign missions. One chief hindrance 
 to missionary progress is the misty unreality of the great 
 heathen world. We scarcely think of them as our breth- 
 ren. Many people's interest in them, judged by their 
 gifts, is hardly noticeable. I believe they will soon be 
 brought nearer to our thought; I believe that the coming 
 event is to stir a wide-reaching interest in the study of 
 comparative religion, thereby strengthening the faith of 
 disciples and quickening their benevolent impulses. 
 Biblical Christianity, exhibited by the side of the systems 
 of Buddha, Mohammed, and Confucius, seems more 
 divine than ever. Those who appreciate most fully the 
 truths of natural religion are increasing their unselfish 
 efforts to give all the world the supreme and priceless 
 
266 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 blessings of the Christian Gospel. Let no one fear that 
 the solar orb of Christianity is to be eclipsed by the lan- 
 terns and rush-lights of other faiths." 
 
 The distinction between sacred and secular was not a 
 favorite one of his, and not only the Religious Congresses 
 but the Exposition itself interested him. He wrote of it: 
 
 "Its approach causes a stir in the studios of Paris and 
 Munich, and on the pasture-grounds of far-off Australia; 
 among the Esquimaux of the icy North, and the skilled 
 artisans of Delhi and Damascus. The work-shops of 
 Sheffield, Geneva, and Moscow, and the marble quarries 
 of Italy, the ostrich farms of Cape Colony, and the mines 
 of Brazil, know of its coming. The ivory hunters in the 
 forests of Africa and the ivory cutters in the thronged 
 cities of Japan and China, the silk-weavers of Lyons and 
 the shawl-makers of Cashmere, the designers of Kensing- 
 ton, the lace-weavers of Brussels, and the Indian tribes of 
 South America, the cannon founders of Germany, the 
 silver-miners of Mexico, the ship-makers of the Clyde, 
 and the canoe-builders of the Mackenzie River, toil with 
 the eyes of their minds daily turned toward the Colum- 
 bian Exposition. Over the ample site on the shore of 
 Lake Michigan, which has been transformed into a scene 
 of more than Venetian loveliness, fall the shadows from 
 the Alps and the Pyrenees, from the white crags of the 
 Himalayas and the snowy cone of the sacred mount of 
 Japan. 
 
 "As I was looking the other day at the immense build- 
 ing for the mines and mining exhibit in Jackson Park, I 
 was glad to see in the ornamentation of the grand south- 
 ern portico the words that are stamped on our national 
 coins, 'In God we trust.' And to the reverent mind, — to 
 him who sees God and the instrumentalities for the en- 
 
PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 267 
 
 largement of His kingdom in the forces of material 
 civilization, even these displays of human progress and 
 achievement in subduing and transforming nature will 
 suggest inspiring and hopeful thoughts. It would be easy 
 for the Biblical student to find appropriate scriptural 
 words to write on every structure in the World's Fair, 
 Below the gilded dome of the administration building, I 
 would inscribe the words of Isaiah: 'The government 
 shall be upon his shoulders ;' over the machinery hall I 
 would write : 'Every house is builded by some man, but 
 he that built all things is God ;' over the transportation 
 building I would write: 'Make straight a highway for our 
 God ;' over the palace of fine arts : 'The gate of the 
 temple which is called beautiful;' over the agricultural 
 hall: 'Behold, a sower went forth to sow;' over the elec- 
 trical palace: 'His lightnings enlighten the world;' over 
 the woman's pavilion: 'She stretcheth out her hands to 
 the needy;' over the horticultural building: 'I am the 
 rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys;' over the build- 
 ing of the United States government: 'He hath not dealt 
 so with any nation;' over the unique and beautiful fish- 
 eries building: 'And the fishes of the sea shall declare 
 unto thee;' over the mineral palace: 'In his hand are the 
 deep places of the earth ;' over one of the resplendent gates 
 to the exposition ground I would write the prophecy: 
 'The kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms 
 of our Lord and of his Christ.' " 
 
 That August he underwent a surgical operation which 
 for two months kept him from work. Part of this inter- 
 val he spent with his wife at Mackinac Island, whence he 
 wrote to me: 
 
 "We have found the place to tone up our nerves, the 
 'gem' of all islands, where we are likely to have a sum- 
 
268 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 mer home. Yesterday I contracted for a lot, covered 
 with pines, on a bluff overlooking 'the sea,' as we call it, 
 where you can watch the stately ships as they go 'to their 
 haven under the hill.' We are two hundred feet above 
 the lake (Lake Huron) and the steep slope down to it is 
 covered with the forest primeval. Such crystal waters, 
 such spendid forests, such beautiful drives, such exhilarat- 
 ing air! No heat, no mosquitoes, no hay- fever, no 
 malaria! I can now walk ten miles, and when you saw 
 me I could hardly creep to the carriage." 
 
 In spite of all his work that fall and winter he found 
 time to write me such letters as the following, which was 
 in reply to accounts of the arguments used by certain 
 skeptics of my acquaintance: 
 
 "Jan. 28, 1893- 
 
 "It is not the mark of good breeding, — it is a sign of 
 intellectual and social coarseness for those people by as- 
 sertion, by ridicule, and by what they call argument, to 
 dim the light in you which has guided your path thus far. 
 I know and love men who hold their views, but if they 
 should use such methods in striving to quench my faith, 
 I should not rank them so high as I do now. There are 
 'superstitions' in the world and God gives us our minds 
 that we may carefully and wisely discriminate between 
 reasonable and unreasonable beliefs. Among the chief 
 'superstitions' are to be reckoned the notion that the Bible 
 is only a human production, that Jesus Christ was an im- 
 postor or a dupe, although He, the sinless One, claimed 
 to have been sent from God, and that the life beyond, 
 which Christ came to make more real to men, is only a 
 dream. Some in our time who have been conspicuous in 
 arguing against Christian suoerstitions have been found 
 worshipping 'atoms' instead of God. The favorite argu- 
 
PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 269 
 
 ment that all the greatest minds, Darwin, Spencer, and 
 Mill, believe 'so and so' becomes resistible when you 
 recall a remark of Stopford Brooke's that, compared with 
 the mental power of a great poet, the mental power of a 
 great scientist seems small indeed. The great poets, 
 Dante, Shakespeare, Milton, Goethe, Hugo, Emerson, 
 Lowell, Tennyson, Browning not only believed in God, 
 immortality, and in Jesus as someone better and greater 
 than good, wise Socrates, but most of them adored Christ 
 as a Divine Redeemer. Of course, if your acquaintances 
 have mastered Butler's 'Analogy' and Paley's 'Evidences' 
 and Fisher's 'Grounds of Theistic and Christian Belief 
 and Christlieb's 'Modern Doubt and Christian Belief,' 
 and Bushnell's 'Nature and the Supernatural' and Schaff's 
 'Person of Christ' and the works of Schleiermacher and 
 Professor Henry B. Smith and Dr. Peabody's 'Lowell 
 Lectures' and Canon Liddon's 'Divinity of Christ,' and 
 have seen on the spot that the girls of India who have 
 been taught in Christian schools are no better — if they 
 have done all this and still cling to their unbelief you 
 need not think that they will be easily led by you into 
 the truth! 
 
 "But I know that you will keep on loving them. I 
 believe that it is right that your faith should be tested, 
 but I am not eager that it should be tried. You know 
 that I am considered very liberal and tolerant in theology, 
 but I have no respect for the blatant materialism that is 
 all the while making mouths at the Gospel of Christ. 
 'Prove all things, hold fast that which is good.' Doubt 
 is not necessarily 'devil born.' We all have our doubts 
 to fight. You remember what Tennyson says of one : 
 
 'Who fought his doubts and gathered strength: 
 He would not make his judgment blind: 
 
270 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 He faced the spectres of the mind 
 And laid them ; thus he came at length 
 To find a stronger faith his own.' 
 
 "And so will you. I send you some good books for 
 reference. You will get much from the Bushnell." 
 
 That spring and summer my mother's diary contains 
 these entries: 
 
 "March lo. The chief blessings to record to-day are a 
 letter from Andrew D. White announcing what J. calls 
 the 'capture of the Greek Church' and a box of oranges 
 from an unknown friend in California." 
 
 "April 14. J. wrote the preface to the Parliament 
 book." 
 
 "April 29. J. called on President Cleveland, who re- 
 ceived him immediately after his luncheon. He was easy 
 and familiar in his manner and in reply to J.'s invitation 
 to address the Parliament on September 10, said that he 
 could not decide definitely now, he might have a con- 
 gress of his own about that time." 
 
 "June 15, Mackinac Island. A telegram came from 
 J. saying 'Beecher finished. Start for you this afternoon. 
 Love. Glory!' We are happy." 
 
 Several visits with his family at their new Mackinac 
 cottage. The Seven Pines, broke up that summer of 1893. 
 He found time to take his children camping and fishing 
 at the Cheneaux Islands and to share with them that part 
 of his voluminous mail which they could appreciate — 
 letters from men like Gladstone, Tennyson, Phillips 
 Brooks, Whittier, Col. Higginson, George W. Cable, 
 George William Curtis, and others. 
 
 Final arrangements for the Parliament and welcoming 
 the Oriental speakers filled the last of the summer. Nor 
 
PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS 271 
 
 were his trials over. Just a few days before the Congress 
 opened, his secretary announced, "The Buddhists are pack- 
 ing up to leave." These Japanese priests warned by 
 friends at home of probable unjust treatment had come to 
 Chicago with misgivings. These fears were quickened by 
 the rule of the committee that copies of all Parliament 
 addresses should be sent in for inspection, and when the 
 secretary unfortunately mislaid the manuscript about 
 whose reception their doubts were keenest they decided 
 on instant departure. The secretary's apologies for the 
 loss, his expressions of delight that the missing paper was 
 but a copy, and his assurances that their addresses should 
 all be given in full, did not change their plans. Yet my 
 father, with no new fact to offer them, so won their con- 
 fidence and affection by a single interview, that they 
 straightway unpacked their boxes. 
 
 Under the pressure of this life he learned to work with 
 great dispatch. Yet he rarely hurried. He did not allow 
 trifles to exhaust his strength or weights to crush it. Be- 
 cause of the elasticity of his nature responsibilities neither 
 cowed nor cramped him. Perpetual moiling was impos- 
 sible to him. Out of work hours, taught by necessity 
 perhaps, he divested himself of his load as completely as 
 if it were another's. His friends and children found him 
 every year a better play fellow. Few people rode the 
 camels in the Streets of Cairo, dined in old Vienna, or 
 glided in gondolas about the Court of Honor, with hearts 
 lighter than his. 
 
 And his expansion of mind and heart was in keeping 
 with his faith that "Comprehension and not exclusiveness 
 :': the key to the world's progress and enlightenment at 
 the present time. Men are unwilling to know only half 
 the truth. Not only are their thoughts widened with the 
 
272 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 process of the suns, but their hearts are growing larger. 
 They are unwilling to exclude from their brotherly sym- 
 pathies any who are groping, however blindly, after God. 
 If the proposed Congress does not prove itself to be, what 
 Ameer Ali prophesied, 'the greatest event of the century' 
 it may yet accomplish a noble work in calling a truce to 
 theological strife, in deepening the spirit of human broth- 
 erhood, and in leading men to discover whether the ele- 
 ments of a perfect and ultimate religion have yet been 
 recognized and embodied in any one of the great historic 
 faiths. It will be a great moment in human history, 
 when for the first time the representatives of the world- 
 religions stand side by side. May the Holy Ghost be 
 the divine apostle preaching Jesus to an assembled world !" 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 SUCCESS AND SORROW 1 893- 1 894 
 
 The Parliament of Religions opened on September 11, 
 1893, "with the great peace-bell at the Fair tolling, as 
 many hoped, the death-knell to intolerance; with the 
 Rabbis of Israel praying at that hour in many lands that 
 the name of Jehovah might be reverenced over all the 
 earth; with representatives of ten religions gathered be- 
 neath one roof; and with a Catholic Cardinal repeating 
 the universal prayer of the world's Saviour." It con- 
 tinued in session seventeen days, with a total attendance of 
 nearly 150,000 and was "a meeting of brotherhood, where 
 'the Brahman forgot his caste, and the Catholic was chiefly 
 conscious of his catholicity;' and where, in the audience, 
 'the variety of interests, faiths, ranks, and races was as 
 great as that found on the platform.' " To quote its 
 chairman still further: "It was not like the Emperor 
 Asoka's conference, a meeting of Indian Buddhists only; 
 it was not like the Emperor Akbar's little debating society 
 where rival priests of several faiths contended before him 
 like mediaeval knights, in no spirit of fellowship, each 
 anxious for an imperial verdict in his favor. It was full 
 of the highest religious enthusiasm. At times the scenes 
 were Pentecostal." The imperial government of China, 
 the Buddhist Church of Southern India, the Brahmo- 
 Somaj, the Jains, the Kayasth Society of India, and the 
 Roman Catholic Church of America, were officially rep- 
 resented and eminent individuals from all of the great 
 religious bodies of the world made addresses. 
 
274 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 The daily press of Chicago gave fifty columns a day to 
 the proceedings of this Congress during its sessions. Sev- 
 eral large histories of it have been written, hundreds of 
 pamphlets and magazine articles have been devoted to it, 
 and courses of lectures upon it have been delivered by men 
 as distinguished and diverse as Father Hj'acinthe and 
 Joseph Cook, Professor Bonet-Maury before Paris audi- 
 ences, Max Miiller before Oxford students, and Count 
 Goblet d'Alviella before the school of Social Sciences an- 
 nexed to the University at Brussels. We shall therefore 
 not pause with its programme but shall cite its chairman's 
 account of its spirit and of the world's thought concern- 
 ing it. 
 
 "Too much cannot be said in commendation of the 
 spirit which prevailed in this great meeting. It was a 
 novel sight that orthodox Christians should greet with 
 cordial words the representatives of alien faiths which 
 they were endeavoring to bring into the light of the 
 Christian Gospel; but it was felt to be wise and advan- 
 tageous that the religions of the world, which are com- 
 peting at so many points in all the continents, should be 
 brought together, not for contention but for loving con- 
 ference, in one room. Those who saw the Greek Arch- 
 bishop, Dionysios Latas, greeting the Catholic Bishop 
 Keane, with an apostolic kiss on the cheek and words of 
 brotherly love ; those who heard Bishop Keane relate how 
 Archbishop Ireland and himself, finding that they were 
 unable to enter the Hall of Columbus on account of the 
 throng, went to the Hall of Washington and presided 
 over the Jewish Conference; those who witnessed the 
 enthusiasm with which Christians greeted a Buddhist's 
 denunciation of false Christianity; and the scores of thou- 
 sands who beheld day after day the representatives of the 
 
From a Photograph taken in Chicago in 1893. 
 
SUCCESS AND SOR ROW 275 
 
 great historic religions joining in the Lord's Prayer, felt 
 profoundl" that a new era of religious fraternity had 
 dawnec" 
 
 "It is unwise to pronounce the Parliament, as some 
 have done, a vindication or an illustration pre-eminently 
 of one idea, either the Liberal, the Catholic, or the Evan- 
 gelical. The Parliament was too large to be estimated 
 and judged in this way. It did emphasize, as the Liberals 
 have so emphatically done, liberty, fellowship, and char- 
 acter in religion; it did emphasize the Catholic idea of a 
 universal church and the desirableness of greater unity 
 in religious organization; it did emphasize and illustrate 
 the great Evangelical claim that the historic Christ is 
 divine, the sufficient and only Saviour of mankind; but 
 from the fact that it made conspicuous so many truths 
 and phases of religion, the glory of it cannot be monop- 
 olized by any one division of the religious world. 
 
 "It has presented to the world the idea of human broth- 
 erhood in the domain of the Spirit, and summoned man- 
 kind to a friendly conference over those themes which di- 
 vide the race. If many years shall need to roll away be- 
 fore the leading idea of the Parliament shall be actualized, 
 let us not forget that greatest things have at first been 
 a dream, an inspiration, a hope. It is a great thing to 
 fling an idea into the air, to throw an idea like a flash of 
 light into the future. It is an idea of a great and peace- 
 ful empire, \ye are told, that has held China together 
 through thirty centuries. It is an idea which Jesus flung 
 upon the breezes of Palestine to become the joy of the 
 ages; and the idea of a universal brotherhood beneath the 
 mild supremacy of a heavenly King is now in the minds of 
 men, and will yet in God's good time be enthroned over 
 
2^(i JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 all the high places of bigotry and alienation, of ignorance 
 and oppression. 
 
 "A great variety of opinions has been expressed by lead- 
 ing participants in the Parliament and by others as to its 
 nature and effects. To Nagarkar, it is 'a foretaste of 
 universal brotherhood ;' to Dr. Morgan Dix, 'a master- 
 piece of Satan ;' to Dr. Schaff, 'a new epoch in the his- 
 tory of Religion, stimulating efforts for the reunion of 
 Christendom;' to Professor Richey, 'a valuable setting 
 forth of the relations of Christianity and Natural Reli- 
 gion;' to Kiretchjian, a movement sure to result in 'a rich 
 harvest of right thinking and right doing;' to Professor 
 Minas Tcheraz, supremely important, for having 'laid the 
 basis of universal tolerance;' to Lakshmi Narain, of the 
 Arya Somaj, useful to all who 'take interest in the study 
 of Religions.' 
 
 "The world appears to be determined to regard the 
 Parliament of Religions as vastly significant. To Bishop 
 Coxe, of Western New York, an earnest foe of this con- 
 gress, it is still 'one of the most serious events of the kind 
 in the history of humanity, since the wise men from the 
 east came to the cradle of Bethlehem.' Count D'Alviella 
 regards it as a fact of great importance 'that the pro- 
 gramme of the Congress was accepted by confessions so 
 diverse and numerous, and that these were drawn to meet 
 on a footing of equality.' The equality recognized was 
 'parliamentary,' not doctrinal. To Professor Emilio 
 Comba, of Rome, it seems like reviving the spectacle of 
 the ancient Pantheon, where the priests of many faiths 
 met with a smile, not of cunning, but of courtesy and tol- 
 erance." 
 
 The followmg selections from final addresses at the 
 Parliament show the impression that the gathering and 
 
SUCCESS AND SORROW 277 
 
 its organizer made upon its speakers. Dr. Alfred W. 
 Momerie of London tendered the chairman his warmest 
 congratulations saying: "First of all I do not believe there 
 is another man living who could have carried this Con- 
 gress through and made it such a gigantic success. It 
 needed a head, a heart, an energy, a common sense, and 
 a pluck such as I have never known to be united before 
 in a single individual. During my stay in Chicago it has 
 been my singular good fortune to be received as a guest 
 by the kindest of hosts and the most charming of hostesses, 
 and among the many pleasures of their brilliant and de- 
 lightful table, one of the greatest has been that I have sat 
 day by day by Dr. Barrows, and day by day I have learned 
 to admire and love him more. In the successes that lie 
 before him in the future I shall always take the keenest 
 interest; but he has already achieved something that will 
 eclipse all. As Chairman of this first Parliament of Re- 
 ligions he has won immortal glory which nothing in the 
 future can diminish, which I fancy nothing in the future 
 can very much augment. Secondly, I should like to offer 
 my congratulations to the American people. This Par- 
 liament of Religions has been held in the new world. I 
 confess I wish it had been held in the old world, in my 
 own country, and that it had had its origin in my own 
 church. It is the greatest event so far in the history of the 
 world, and it has been held on American soil. I congrat- 
 ulate the people of America." Mr. P. C. Mozoomdar 
 of Calcutta began his remarks with the opinion that, "The 
 charge of materialism, laid against the age in general and 
 against America in particular, is refuted forever. Could 
 these myriads have spent their time, their energy, neglected 
 their business, their pleasures, to be present with us if 
 their spirit had not risen above their material needs or 
 
278 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 carnal desires? The spirit dominates still over matter 
 and over mankind." He concluded, "with acknowledg- 
 ing the singular cordiality and appreciation extended to 
 us Orientals. Where everyone has done so well we did 
 not deserve special honor, but undeserved as the honor 
 may be, it shows the greatness of your leaders, and espe- 
 cially of your Chairman, Dr. Barrows. Dr. Barrows, 
 humanly speaking, has been the soul of this noble move- 
 ment. The profoundest blessings of the present and 
 future generations shall follow him." Prince Wolkonsky 
 said: "To be a man is the highest thing we can pretend 
 to be on this earth. I do not know whether many have 
 learned in the sessions of this Parliament what respect 
 of God is, but I know that no one will leave the Con- 
 gress without having learned what respect of man is. And 
 should the Parliament of Religions of 1893 have no other 
 result but this, it is enough to make the names of Dr. 
 Barrows and those who have helped him imperishable in 
 the historj^ of humanity." And Mr. H. Dharmapala, 
 "in behalf of four hundred and seventy-five millions of the 
 followers of Buddha Gautama, offered his affectionate re- 
 gards" to "John Henry Barrows, a man of noble tolerance, 
 of sweet disposition w^hose equal I could hardly find." 
 
 In his own last words to the Parliament its chairman 
 said, "Men of Asia and Europe, we have been made glad 
 by your coming, and have been made wiser. I am happy 
 that you have enjoyed our hospitalities. While floating 
 one evening over the illum.inated waters of the White 
 City, Mr. Dharmapala said, with that smile which has 
 won our hearts, 'AH the joys of heaven are in Chicago;' 
 and Dr. Momerie, with a characteristic mingling of en- 
 thusiasm and skepticism, replied, 'I wish I were sure that 
 all the joys of Chicago are to be in Heaven.' But surely 
 
SUCCESS AND SORROW «79 
 
 there will be a multitude there, whom no man can num- 
 ber, out of every kindred and people and tongue, and in 
 that perpetual parliament on high the people of God will 
 be satisfied. 
 
 "We have learned that truth is large and that there 
 are more ways than one in God's providence by which 
 men emerge out of darkness into the heavenly light. It 
 was not along the line of any one sect or philosophy that 
 Augustine and Origen, John Henry Newman and Dean 
 Stanley, Jonathan Edwards and Channing, Henry Ward 
 Beecher and Keshub Chunder Sen walked out into the 
 light of the eternal. The great high wall of Heaven 
 is pierced by twelve portals, and we shall doubtless be 
 surprised, if we ever pass within those gates, to find many 
 there whom we did not expect to see. We certainly 
 ought to cherish stronger hopes for those who are pure 
 in deeds, even though living in the twilight of faith, than 
 for selfish souls who rest down on a lifeless Christianity. 
 
 "I am glad that you will go back to India, to Japan, 
 to China, and the Turkish empire and tell the men of 
 other faiths that Christian America is hospitable to all 
 truth and loving to all men. Yes, tell the men of the 
 Orient that we have no sympathy with the abominations 
 which falsely-named Christians have practiced. 
 
 "I thank God for the friendships which in this Parlia- 
 ment we have knit with men and women beyond the sea, 
 and I thank you for your sympathy and over generous 
 appreciation, and for the constant help which you have 
 furnished in the midst of my multiplied duties. Chris- 
 tian America sends her greetings through you to all man- 
 kind. We cherish a broadened sympathy, a higher re- 
 spect, a truer tenderness to the children of our common 
 Father in all lands, and, as the story of this Parliament 
 
28o JOHN HENRY B ARROWS 
 
 is read in the cloisters of Japan, by the rivers of South- 
 ern Asia, amid the universities of Europe, and in the 
 isles of all the seas, it is my prayer that non-Christian 
 readers may in some measure discover what has been the 
 source and strength of that faith in divine fatherhood and 
 human brotherhood which, embodied in an Asiatic Peas- 
 ant who was the Son of God and made divinely potent 
 through Him, is clasping the globe with bands of heavenly 
 light. 
 
 "Most that is in my heart of love and gratitude and 
 happiness must go unsaid. If any honor is due for this 
 magnificent achievement let it be given to the spirit of 
 Christ, which is the spirit of love, in the hearts of those 
 of many lands and faiths who have toiled for the high 
 ends of this great meeting. May the blessing of Him 
 who rules the storm and holds the ocean waves in his 
 right hand, follow you with the prayers of all God's 
 people to your distant homes. And as Sir Joshua Rey- 
 nolds closed his lectures on 'The Art of Painting' with 
 the name of Michael Angelo, so, with a deeper reverence, 
 I desire that the last words which I speak to this Parlia- 
 ment shall be the name of Him to whom I owe life and 
 truth and hope and all things, who reconciles all contra- 
 dictions, pacifies all antagonisms, and who from the throne 
 of His heavenly kingdom directs the serene and unwearied 
 omnipotence of redeeming love — Jesus Christ, the Saviour 
 of the world." 
 
 The feelings with which some of the delegates returned 
 home, he thus described in the Forum: 
 
 "The Orientals attending the Parliament were deeply 
 impressed by the fraternity and Christian love which in- 
 vited them, furnished them hospitality, gave them a free 
 platform, and welcomed their sharpest criticisms of Chris- 
 
SUCCESS AND SORROW 281^ 
 
 tendom. The eloquent Buddhist, Mr. Hirai, on leaving 
 for Japan, said to me: 'I go back a Christian, by which I 
 mean that Christianity is a religion which I shall be glad 
 to see established in Japan. Only let the Christian mis- 
 sionaries not interfere with our national usages and 
 patriotic holidays. I expected that before I finished my 
 address, criticising false Christianity in Japan, I should 
 be torn from the platform. But I was received with 
 enthusiasm.' 
 
 "Mr. Gandhi, the critic of Christian missions, said: 
 'American Christianity I like; it is something better than 
 what we have usually seen in India.' The high priest 
 of Shintoism, Rt. Rev. R. Shibata, and the Buddhist 
 bishop, Zitzusen Ashitsu, write with grateful enthusiasm 
 of their reception in America. The international friend- 
 ships knit by the Congress of 1893 are a contribution to 
 international peace, while inter-religious good-will is a 
 manifest help to the study of comparative theology." 
 
 No records hold the full inner history of the Parlia- 
 ment but my father once gave the Chicago Literary Club 
 glimpses behind the scenes. 
 
 "The Congress of the World's Faiths has filled my 
 study with a great variety of interesting things and in- 
 teresting ghosts. I look around on thirty volumes of 
 literature, which grew out of that meeting, twenty vol- 
 umes of letters in a dozen languages, enough curios to 
 stock one section of a museum, and opening a closet door, 
 I see in the glimmering darkness four hundred volumes 
 of the Buddhist Scriptures kindly brought to me by the 
 Japanese delegates. 
 
 "A great many cranks tried to capture the Parliament 
 without success. Here is an immense petition, signed by 
 hundreds in Utah and Colorado, earnestly urging the 
 
282 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 Congress to pass resolutions in favor of free silver ; here a 
 letter signed by a Hindu pre-millennialist Christian, u^ho 
 prophesied that the world would come to an end when 
 the Parliament closed, because the Gospel would have 
 been preached to all nations, after which, according to the 
 Scriptures, comtth the end. What measureless leisure 
 the men of the East must have : I have a letter, the longest 
 I ever saw, sent uie from India, on sheets of paper two 
 feet square, written with the beauty and regularity of 
 copper plate, and giving elaborately the writer's views on 
 all the great questions of faith and philosophy, which 
 have been discussed since the morning of Time. There, 
 lies a most elaborate biography and genealogy of an hered- 
 itary high priest of the Hindus, covering many pages care- 
 fully written out and showing conclusively that compared 
 with his highbred and pure blooded stock, European 
 Dukes and Marquises are upstarts and pretenders. One 
 long letter in Greek contains a protest on the part of some 
 Greek Christians against American missionaries carrying 
 on any Gospel work in the Orient. Here, is the autobiog- 
 raphy of a Siamese prince, in which he writes: 'When 
 His Majesty, the present King, succeeded to the throne, 
 I was only nine years old. It was through his kindness 
 and care that I acquired education, wealth, and comfort, 
 as can be in Siam.' At the close of the document, he 
 says: 'This is my life, concisely described, which is noth- 
 ing but a series of changeable appearances or modifica- 
 tions of one great truth, the Dharma.' I have a very 
 clever caricature of the Parliament, pretending to be a 
 translation of an ancient Baked Cylinder, giving the 
 Proclamation of Ezra, etc., calling the hundred and 
 twenty provinces of Babylon to a Parliament of Religions, 
 at which the worshippers of Jehovah, Baal, Moloch, 
 
SUCCESS AND SORROW 283 
 
 Dagon, etc., should sit down together in friendly confer- 
 ence. In this document are letters of approval from 
 many, for example, Zerubbabal the Architect, who 
 says, 'I am rejoiced to see this movement towards union 
 and harmony among discordant religions. We can greatly 
 profit by each other's contribution, I am sure; I hope 
 some day to lay the foundations of the new Temple, and 
 want models of new altars such as can be had in Damas- 
 cus and in Egypt.' Among those who approve of the 
 plan are Haggai the Prophet, and Edowin-ben-Arnol, 
 Poet Laureate of Baal. 
 
 "I see also four volumes written twelve thousand miles 
 away, from the pen and heart of one of the most spiritually 
 minded men of the century; the author of 'The Oriental 
 Christ,' 'The Spirit of God,' and the life of his master 
 Chunder Sen. In Mr. Mozoomdar I have found one of 
 the deepest and richest souls. I am not acquainted with 
 any English or American divine who seems to me to live 
 so much in the world of spirit. His book called 'Heart- 
 beats' is one of the most remarkable works of devotion in 
 literature. He has cultivated the golden acres of the 
 spiritual world beyond almost any other man of his time. 
 I remember him as he stood in a friend's house in our 
 city on the morning he was to leave us. He was offer- 
 ing a prayer and down his dusky cheeks the tears were 
 rolling, as in simplest language he prayed the All Father 
 to remember us in our separations and to bless the friends 
 who had been kind to him. 
 
 "It would be easy to write a book of personal descrip- 
 tions, detailing the peculiarities of the men and women 
 who made up the membership of the Parliament of Re- 
 ligions. These friends, now scattered to the ends of 
 the earth, sometimes visit me in spirit. I take once more 
 
284 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 the thin, dark hand of the white-robed Dharmapala, and 
 get a new acquaintance with Gautama Buddha, as I mark 
 his gentleness, his unresentfulness, his helplessness in all 
 practical matters, his quiet trust in Karma; — or as the 
 Japanese brethren make their bows and take infinite time 
 for an exchange of courtesies, I realize anew the great 
 separation between the languid Orient and the rushing 
 Occident. Opening my Greek Testament, I hear once 
 more the strong voice of the Archbishop of Zante, de- 
 claiming to my household Paul's speech on Mars' Hill. 
 The interior history of this meeting has never been writ- 
 ten. It would contain some sensational anecdotes, and 
 would rival in interest many a book of fiction. 
 
 "One of the most interesting forms that ever enters 
 my study is that of the Honorable Pung Quang Yu, the 
 rotund, big.-headed, and ever-smiling representative of the 
 Celestial Empire. He was a man of very capacious and 
 vigorous mind, as may be discovered from his treatise on 
 Confucianism. One remembrance of the Chinese secre- 
 tary always fills me with inextinguishable laughter. I 
 had invited him to respond for China to the addresses of 
 welcome on the opening day, that day when the represent- 
 atives of so many empires, nationalities, religions, spoke 
 their words of kindness, and when thousands of hearts 
 were filled with a noble enthusiasm. Mr. Pung accepted 
 my invitation, but requested that I give him an outline 
 of what would be appropriate at such a time. He sent 
 me word through his secretary that he was not acquainted 
 with our usages and so he desired my help. Thereupon I 
 dictated perhaps two hundred words to my secretary, giv- 
 ing what seemed to me to be appropriate in order to direct 
 the honorable Secretary's mind into the right channels. 
 When this imperial Commissioner from China arose on 
 
SUCCESS AND SORROW 285 
 
 the afternoon of September eleventh, 1893, he was greeted 
 with such manifestations of welcome and honor as came 
 to no other speaker on the platform. Men and women 
 sprang to their feet and there was wild waving of hats 
 and handkerchiefs. Mr. Fung's secretary stood by him 
 and began to read the address, since Mr. Fung's knowl- 
 edge of English was very limited. This secretary, Mr. 
 Kwai, is a graduate of Yale College, but, unlike Chauncey 
 M. Depew and most other graduates of that institution, 
 he could not make himself heard. The eager thousands 
 called out my name and commanded me to read what 
 they were so hungry to hear. As I took the paper from 
 Mr. Kwai's hand, I found to my sad surprise that it wao 
 precisely the same sheet of paper which had come from 
 the fingers of my own typewriter, without a single modifi- 
 cation. As I read my own words, the people cheered and 
 Mr. Fung bowed low. They kept on cheering as they 
 listened to the noble Christian sentiments which came 
 from the heart of this Confucian representative of the 
 greatest of empires. When I had finished, the applause 
 broke forth again, and Mr. Fung bowed and bowed his 
 gracious thanks. Imagine my feelings as I afterwards 
 read in the Christian journals of our land such words as 
 these: 'The noble sentiments spoken by Mr. Fung at the 
 Farliament of Religions mark an era in the progress of 
 humanity. Such friendly and magnanimous words indi- 
 cate that China has been touched by the Christian spirit, 
 and is fast coming out into the brotherhood of nations.' 
 "It is said that Samuel Adams sometimes wrote the 
 speeches of Governor John Hancock, his addresses to the 
 Massachusetts Assembly, and then, he would be placed 
 by his fellow members at the head of a committee to 
 thank the Governor for his patriotic, able, and timely 
 
380 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 utterances. I was saved from such moral embarrassment. 
 I have every reason to think that Mr. Fung's opening ad- 
 dress at the Parliament expressed, however, his real senti- 
 ments. His closing address, seventeen days later, was his 
 own and I must humbly say was an improvement on his 
 first speech." 
 
 The Parliament over, it remained for my father to 
 give it permanent literary form. Six crowded weeks en- 
 sued On October 19, he wrote to me : 
 
 "I have been thinking of you as I have lain on my 
 bed this morning, wondering about many things in these 
 strange lives of ours — but reaching the conclusion that to 
 love God and our fellowmen is about all we know of 
 wisdom. Your last letter made me realize that j'ou are 
 an example of the power of heredity. At your age I had 
 the same exaltations and depressions and they continued 
 —more or less — till I was married and had a home of my 
 own. These fluctuations of life are all pointing and 
 heading us to our future homes — on earth or in Heaven 
 or both. 
 
 "I had a little talk with Professor Drummond the other 
 evening. He approved my plan of going around the 
 world to preach the Gospel in India, China, Japan, etc. 
 He said that the Buddhists told him in Japan, 'You 
 would better send us one ten thousand dollar missionary 
 than ten one thousand dollar missionaries.' 
 
 "I cannot tell you what a godsend Dr. Leonard W. 
 Bacon is to me. He takes Book and Church largely off 
 my hands. He is one of the most interesting, able, and 
 delightful men I know and he is a joy in the family. 
 Mrs. Bacon is equally lovely. I hope that you will know 
 her." 
 
 And on November 1 1 , he wrote : 
 
SUCCESS AXD SORROW. 287 
 
 "Why don't I write? My getting through with the 
 book is a matter of life and death. Professors Goodspeed 
 and Votaw of the Universit}', Dr. Leonard W. Bacon, 
 Mr. F. P. Noble, and Professor Towne are at work on 
 it with me, and Walter will be added to the force next 
 week. The first volume will soon be out. Don't tell 
 any body, but P. sails with copies of it for England next 
 week. There are six rival publishers (piratical) who 
 are getting out one-volume cheap imitations of our work.'" 
 
 That very day my brother Manning, a boy of rare in- 
 telligence and afiectionateness. was injured in a game 
 of football. Five days later he died of septic peritonitis. 
 This was the chief sorrow of my father's life. It came to 
 him in the midst of weariness and responsibility. The 
 spirit in which he bore it lives in the concluding pages 
 of the book which he was writing. 
 
 "Before closing my work I wish to contribute my 
 strong and grateful testimony to the truth and power of 
 the Christian Gospel. While I write these words, the 
 body of my eldest son, John Manning Barrows, a noble 
 boy of thirteen, lies unburied in my house. From behind 
 this earthly shadow I would that a gleam of heavenly 
 brightness might fall on these final pages. With mil- 
 lions of sorrowing hearts I now know the precious and 
 unspeakable consolations of Christ, and to all. who in the 
 Old World or the New, dwell in death-smitten homes. I 
 would that he might enter, who is the Conqueror of 
 death and who fills the believing heart with sweet and 
 satisf\-ing assurances of endless reunion and conscious 
 blessedness beyond the grave." 
 
 On December i, he sent me this note: 
 
 "Your mother is reading to the children and I am 
 sitting by a blazing fire in my study, which for the first 
 
288 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 time since last May is in order. Here it is where you 
 used to come and say good-night to me in the happy days 
 of last June. We are very heavy hearted at times these 
 days — but are having everything to be grateful for — a 
 dear child in heaven — good children on earth — a host 
 of loving friends, all needed earthly blessings. Still 
 nature asserts herself with our poor yearning hearts. 
 Your mother got along fairly well through Thanksgiving 
 Day, but I have been quite depressed for several days 
 this week. I am better to-day. 
 
 "The sweet letters of sympathy have been grateful to 
 us. We have a volume of choicest words in the literature 
 of grief. 
 
 "My book is in the printer's hands. The sales are 
 good. 
 
 "I am looking forward to your being with us Christ- 
 mas. I hope that, God willing, we shall find our skies 
 brighter. But — compared with many — we live now 
 under a noon-day sun." 
 
 But Christmas time was saddened still further by the 
 sudden death of his mother, to whom his life had been 
 bound closely, and from whom he had inherited practical 
 wisdom and reverence for truth. Shortly after, he wrote 
 to his friend, Mrs. Haskell: "You wonder why so much 
 sorrow has come to me. I often feel that I need this 
 chastening. The world was getting too attractive and 
 God is turning my heart to Heaven." 
 
 Early in Januar}' he and my mother decided to ac- 
 company their friends, Mr. and Mrs. Bartlett, to Cali- 
 fornia. The letters to me tell the story of the ensuing 
 months : 
 
 "2957 Indiana Ave., Chicago, Jan. 7, 1894. 
 "We have just returned from a communion service at 
 
SUCCESS AND SORROW. 289 
 
 which ten were received into the Church, four of them 
 Chinese 'boys,' one of whom came from New Zealand. 
 I thought, of course, of the Sunday in September, when 
 Greek, Japanese, and Chinese were in Church together. 
 And this reminds me to thank your friend for her letter. 
 I am more pleased when such as she like my book than I 
 am to receive a whole bunch of newspaper book notices 
 however cordial. Fresh roses are a better gift than 
 pressed flowers. You will be glad to learn that more 
 than 20,000 sets have actually been sold, that there are 
 1,500 agents in the field. 
 
 "Well, as you have kindly wished we are going to 
 California. Perhaps you will get some letters from the 
 'Pacific Slope.' 
 
 "Please note any errors you find in the book. We will 
 get it more perfect after a while. I fill up most of the 
 blank pages in the new edition. I have a lovely letter 
 from 'Shibata.' He is telling all Japan what a good 
 time he had." 
 
 "The Hotel del Coronado, Coronado Beach, Cal. 
 
 "Jan. 21, '94. 
 
 "All loving greetings from the soft dashing surf of the 
 Pacific to our girl among the New England Hills! 
 We had a lovely four days' journey across the Continent 
 — with good traveling companions. The things of in- 
 terest were not very many, and yet some of them were 
 very grand. The Spanish Peaks of ew Mexico, cov- 
 ered with snow — Pike's Peak 'n the distance, the 
 hills of Western Arizona, the rose colored alkali 
 plains, even the prairie wolf and prairie dogs and the 
 great herds of cattle would have interested you. But 
 the journey across the Continent is nothing to the won- 
 
290 JOHN HEXRY BARROWS 
 
 ders and delights of California. Here at Coronado Beach 
 is our American Bay of Naples — only ours is much finer. 
 There is a ring of snow covered mountains about us — 
 a mile of glorious beach in front of us and beyond is the 
 Pacific — with beautiful islands — and infinite scope for 
 the imagination. I cannot look westward without think- 
 ing of the great populous Continent that lies on the other 
 side — the mother of all civilizations and religions — beck- 
 oning us to bring to her the light and truth and love 
 which have made us free and great. Well — there is.no 
 end to my musings here, 
 
 'WTiere the haunted waves of Asia die 
 On the shores of the world-wide sea.' 
 
 "At Riverside we saw miles of orange orchards, their 
 'golden moons' glowing amid dark-green leaves. At San 
 Juan — near which we caught our first glimpse of the 
 Pacific — we saw the ruins of a great Franciscan monas- 
 ter>-. 
 
 "Dudley Warner says that superlatives are in place 
 here. God, once in a great while, concentrates His mar- 
 vels of climate and scenerj' and productions and attrac- 
 tions to eye and heart. The result is Coronado Beach." 
 
 "Jan. 27, 1894- 
 "Your leter came in the mail with letters from Profes- 
 sor Carpenter and Dr. John Smith of Edinburgh, praising 
 my Beecher verj' warmly; with a letter from Dr. Momerie 
 praising my History and with a letter from Charles Dud- 
 ley Warner, in reply to a letter of mine about the Wan- 
 dering Jew and the Parliament of Religions (see Jan. 
 Harper's Editor's Study), but to me your letter out- 
 weighed them all. I am glad that you had so good an 
 afternoon with the 'Man with a Countrj';' that you are 
 
SUCCESS AND SORROW. 291 
 
 taking so deep a delight in nature (How you would rave 
 with oceanic ecstasy here!); that you enjoy amateur 
 African Minstrelsy; that German is becoming a joy; that 
 you eloquently defended that glory of English undefiled, 
 John Bunyan ; that you mourn over the vanished Peri- 
 style — which will live only in art and in memory; and 
 that you have placed your 'song-birds in a row.' 
 
 "We have had a great week here. I weigh one hun- 
 dred and seventy-six pounds and three quarters without 
 an overcoat, my highest weight — which shows that I have 
 been well fed. I am brown of cheek and red of nose — 
 which tells a tale of sunshine — not of vinous potation. 
 Tuesday Mr. B., Frank, and I went twenty-five miles out 
 into old Mexico and with a fine hunter as guide shot 
 thirty-five quail and a rabbit. There is a more marked 
 contrast between our territory and the Mexican than be- 
 tween the American and Canadian. We were stopped at 
 the custom house and forced to pay fifty-five cents on 
 our cartridges." 
 
 "Lamanda Park Station and P. O., Feb. 4, 1894. 
 
 "Your face is before me on the mantel, on the left the 
 strange, beloved, clear-eyed face of the dear boy and 
 brother who has led our minds and hearts out into the 
 unseen, but not unknown, world. Your mother has been 
 reading m.e this evening another chapter from Gordon's 
 fine, strong book on Immortality. Your early life is so 
 different from what mine was. Death came very close to 
 you at seventeen ; to me it came close only when I was 
 over forty. 
 
 "We are settled here at the foot of these mountains 
 probably for two weeks. Our plan now is to give my 
 head a little longer rest and return to Chicago early in 
 
292 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 March. We came to Pasadena, as you know, last Mon- 
 day. I was the only one of the party very deeply re- 
 gretting our departure from Coronado. The music of the 
 Pacific surf had entered my soul. But now I am fairly 
 wedded to the mountains, these lovely California moun- 
 tains, four, five, and six thousand feet high, with two 
 snow peaks reaching up to eleven and twelve thousand 
 feet. This beautiful San Gabriel valley reminds us of 
 both Williamstown and Northampton, though the sweep 
 here is wider and the peaks higher. We have had many 
 lovely drives. And on Friday we followed the trail to 
 the top of Mt. Wilson six thousand feet. It was a great 
 experience, riding on burros and climbing into the heavens 
 by a narrow path where one misstep of the tough little 
 animal would have tumbled us down sometimes one 
 thousand or fifteen hundred feet. If you happen to see 
 Kate Sanborn's 'A Truthful Woman in Southern Cali- 
 fornia' read the bright chapter called 'Camping on Mt. 
 Wilson.' At first our climbing was made inexpressibly 
 funny by our appearance, the women astride like the men, 
 and your mother and Mrs. Bartlett striving for what we 
 call the 'Aunt Julia prize.' You remember Dr. 
 Momerie's story about Aunt Maria who was a 
 fool and Aunt Julia who was a blamed fool! 
 But we all became soberly estatic before we reached 
 the peak, such glorious vistas, such great gorges 
 musical with mountain brooks, such magnificent oaks 
 and pines and hemlocks. At three-thirty we reached Mar- 
 tin's Camp and five inches of snow. Didn't we enjoy our 
 dinner ! And in the clear evening what a matchless vision 
 of beauty and splendor dazzled us in the valley below. 
 It was nothing but the various tinted electric lights, I 
 should say more than a thousand in number in Pasadena, 
 
SUCCESS AND SOR ROW 293 
 
 and ten miles beyond in Los Angeles, but they looked as if 
 all the great constellations had fallen into the valley and 
 kept on twinkling." 
 
 "Sierra Madre Villa, Cal., Feb. 11, 1894. 
 
 "We earnestly hope to receive a lot of delayed mail to- 
 morrow and perhaps a letter from you will be in the pile 
 (for a pile it sometimes is). I reply now to most of my 
 letters 'in propria manu.' I do not particularly enjoy 
 much of this correspondence — and when I return, I hope 
 to impose it on somebody else. 
 
 "Saturday Mr. B., Mr. S., and I went to Los Angeles. 
 I was interviewed by a 'Times' reporter about the Par- 
 liament and there are two columns in to-day's paper re- 
 garding our talk together. This same Parliament is like 
 the shirt of Nessus — something that sticks rather tight 
 to your poor father. The mail is full of it. The people 
 at the hotel talk it. Thirty-five ministers of Los Angeles 
 sent me a petition to lecture on it. (Declined.) This 
 morning we walked two miles to the Sierra Madre Con- 
 gregational Church and the minister preached on it — the 
 first of a series of sermons, etc. 
 
 "We talk much of living here some day. Phillips 
 Brooks was at this Villa once and in his volume of letters 
 he says that this region has some of the charms of Italy, 
 Palestine, and India." 
 
 "Sierra Madre Villa, Lamanda Park, Feb. 18, 1894. 
 
 "On Thursday we went to Redlands — in the San 
 Bernardino Valley — a most beautiful region. We had a 
 four-horse wagon and drove up the famous Smiley Hill 
 — from which we obtained the most wonderful view 
 we have had in California — miles of orange groves and 
 beyond, the mountain wall — here eight thousand feet high 
 
294 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 with three great snow peaks rising to eleven, twelve, and 
 thirteen thousand feet. Mr. Smiley came out to meet us 
 and said to me, 'Is not this Dr. Barrows?' He showed 
 us his beautiful estate. The next day we were in San 
 Bernardino when I met on the street a man with a copy of 
 my book in his hand. I stopped him and found him to 
 be one of our agents. He had sold forty-four sets in this 
 far-off town. 
 
 "Today we went to church and heard a sermon on 
 Mohammedanism. By the way, Mohammed Webb has 
 written me a letter, in which he indicates that the Dedi- 
 cation of the History of the Parliament to your mother is 
 very offensive to him and to all Orientals." 
 
 "Chicago, April 3rd, 1894. 
 
 "I am sorry that I could not be your escort on your 
 first visit in the Puritan metropolis. I love Boston very 
 dearly and used to be a good guide to its many places of 
 supreme historical interest. 
 
 "So you have attended service in the old Second Church 
 of Boston! Cotton Mather, if he were living today, 
 would probably have enjoyed the sermon of his successor; 
 but I think Cotton Mather would have deemed all the 
 Boston ministers of today tyros in learning. He could 
 speak Latin, Greek, and Hebrew when he entered Har- 
 vard College, at the age of eleven, and he wrote more 
 books than any other man who ever lived in America. 
 
 "It is four weeks next Friday since we came home and 
 it seems to me that I was never busier, except during last 
 September. I am giving myself entirely to the Church 
 work. The only invitations which I have accepted were 
 to speak at a Catholic banquet last Thursday and to give 
 the baccalaureate sermon at Wellesley College on the 
 
SUCCESS AND SO RROW 29S 
 
 seventeenth of June. The Catholic banquet was given 
 to Hon. W. J. Onahan, Secretary of the Catholic Con- 
 gresses, who has been made a knight by the Pope. I sat 
 next to Archbishop Ireland. About one hundred and fifty 
 of the leading Catholics of the city were present and the 
 dinner and speaking were fine. When the Archbishop 
 asked the blessing all crossed themselves and bowed their 
 heads. Father Butler, the jolliest and most learned priest 
 in Chicago, was on my left. He speaks six languages 
 equally well and sings divinely. He is very sorry the 
 Archbishop of Chicago will not let him go to the opera. 
 'When I am abroad,' he said, 'I go every night.' I had a 
 great many congratulations over the Parliament. Father 
 Butler said: 'You can do anything you please with us 
 Catholics except to make us Presbyterians.' I responded 
 to the toast 'The Columbian Congresses,' and when I 
 finished I had a very warm reception, 
 
 "I have had a copy of my book bound in white by the 
 best binder in London. It has silk on the inside of the 
 cover, beautiful white silk. There is a band of yellow 
 on the white leather and the coat of arms is in the centre 
 in gilt. It is the most beautiful piece of work I ever saw 
 and cost twenty dollars. I am going to send it today to 
 the Pope through the kindness of Cardinal Gibbons. We 
 are expecting a new edition of our book tomorrow and 
 I am going to send a fine copy to Castelar, the great 
 Spanish orator and statesman, who has been writing some 
 splendid things about the Parliament. A pleasant letter 
 came from Dharmapala the other day; he heard of Man- 
 ning's death on the Indian Ocean. 
 
 "I am giving my whole strength to preaching and try- 
 ing to make up for lost time. The book has been a suc- 
 cess and now I am going to do my work in Presbyterian 
 
296 /0/^.V HENRY BARROWS 
 
 lines. I spent all day yesterday at the Spring meeting of 
 the Chicago Presbytery in the Jefferson Park Church and 
 made an address on the death of Dr. Patterson. Next 
 Saturday evening the Hungarians here celebrate the im- 
 mortal Kossuth. I declined several urgent invitations to 
 speak. If you were here this v^'eek I would take you to 
 hear 'Faust' and 'Lohengrin ;' as you are not here I shall 
 not go at all. Did you know that the Emperor of Japan 
 had called for a sort of Japanese parliament of religions 
 next October? He is going to have a competitive exam- 
 ination of the religions of the empire in the sacred city 
 of Kioto. But I mustn't run on any longer." 
 
 "Chicago, May i6th, 1894. 
 
 "The parks are superb; but I should like to see the 
 New England hills with you and take a long stroll over 
 your favorite paths. We are in the tread-mill, as ever, 
 and are looking iorward to Mackinac with much eager- 
 ness. We'll try, won't we, to have a restful time? We 
 are just finishing the reading of the Bride of Lammer- 
 moor, and think that Scott leads nearly all the novelists. 
 
 "Did Mr. Dharmapala write to you his views about 
 the cause of Manning's death ? Here is an extract from a 
 letter which he wrote to Miss McC. : 'Sad indeed 
 that Dr. B. should have been deprived of his promising 
 son. It was the boy's Karma to leave the world so soon. 
 In his previous incarnations he must have destroyed life 
 and according to the Karmic law he had to suffer and 
 the world joins in his suffering,' Isn't it wonderful that 
 our friend and so many others should believe in a number 
 of things for which there is no evidence, and yet refuse 
 to believe in certain Christian truths and facts for which 
 the evidence is overwhelming? 
 
SUCCESS AND SORROW. 297 
 
 "Bring your 'Sartor' to Mackinac and read me your 
 favorite passages. With great love, 
 
 "Your gray haired Sire." 
 
 During this winter enthusiastic reviews of the history 
 of the Parliament of Religions appeared in many languges. 
 The next year some of these notices were collected and 
 published in pamphlet form by Professor George S. Good- 
 speed, of the University of Chicago. 
 
 Reverend George T. Candlin wrote to my father from 
 Tien Tsin, China: 
 
 "The history of the Parliament takes an unique place 
 among the books of the world, in two respects, which are 
 of supreme importance. ( i ) There is a point of view 
 from which the earnest believer in any religion view^s the 
 faith which is precious to him, and which renders it to 
 him at once so credible and so excellent that it commands 
 his unbounded admiration. To sympathetically under- 
 stand his religion, we must, at least temporarily, see it 
 from his point of view. This book, alone of books, en- 
 ables us to see all the great religions of the world in this 
 manner. (2) For practical purposes, there is an enor- 
 mous difference between a religion as we are able to con- 
 ceive it at some stage of its development, through a mil- 
 lennium of history, and the religion as it is held vitally, 
 in the present, by its recognized leaders and champions. 
 This work is the only considerable collection of material 
 which will enable us to understand what all the faiths of 
 the world are now, and what is their value as forces which 
 make for human well-being and spiritual comfort. Just 
 as the Parliament of Religions gave us, not the Chris- 
 tianity of Augustine, or Aquinas, or Calvin, but of the 
 present hour, so it gave us, not the Hinduism of Gau- 
 
JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 tama's time, nor the Buddhism of Asoka's, nor the Con- 
 fucianism of Chu Hsi's, nor the Taoism of Chuang Tzu, 
 but of men who in the present hour carry the lamp into 
 the unexplored future. It must be, therefore, the best 
 text-book of comparative religion." 
 
 But however great the applause this book received, at- 
 tacks were made upon the Parliament of Religions by 
 those opposed to its sentiments and many prophecies of its 
 disastrous effect upon Christian Missions were rife. There 
 were good reasons for some of these apprehensions, and 
 years later, when the evidence was well in, my father 
 wrote : 
 
 "It cannot be doubted that the Parliament has wrought 
 some evil results. It has been confusing to some Christian 
 minds, who have found it necessary to modify old ideas. 
 It is like the Epistles of St. Paul in which there were 
 some things hard to be understood, and which the un- 
 stable and the unlearned have perverted. It was like 
 every advance movement in human thought liable to be 
 misunderstood and misused, but I think these evils are 
 diminishing and will pass away in time while the good 
 will be permanent. The Parliament also gave occasion 
 for some foolish and unfounded reports in heathendom. 
 A few of the returning delegates, gravely informed the 
 Oriental world that America was getting tired of Chris- 
 tianity and looked upon Buddhism or Hinduism as better. 
 Such misinterpretations of the courtesy extended to them 
 in America and our generous tolerance were to be ex- 
 pected. But, like other mistakes, they have been for 
 the most part corrected. The gravest indictment against 
 the Parliament is that in India and Japan it has stirred 
 the ethnic religions to a new life and vigor, but the same 
 indictment can be made against Christian missions." 
 
SUCCESS AND SORROW 299 
 
 There was never any doubt in my father's mind that 
 its good far outweighed its evil results. He wrote to his 
 friend Dr. George Dana Boardman: "Don't you really 
 believe that the influence of the Parliament has, on the 
 whole, been good rather than evil? I am perfectly con- 
 fident of it. It has widened horizons, stimulated interest 
 in the non-Christian world, challenged Christendom to 
 consider its errors, and missionaries to review some of 
 their methods; it has made heathendom feel better to- 
 ward us ; it has shown the vast significance of religion ; 
 it has brought Christians closer together. I acknowledge 
 that some light-headed people have misconceived the Par- 
 liament as a step away from Christ, but they are not very 
 many or very wise. Christ was supremely honored." 
 
 And in the Forum, he wrote: "No other event ever 
 awakened so wide and sympathetic an interest in compara- 
 tive religion. The spectacle itself gave vividness and real- 
 ity to the vague popular notions of the ethnic faiths." 
 
 The attacks made against the Parliament of Religions 
 called forth letters and articles favorable to it from all 
 over the world ; some of them from missionaries who de- 
 duced their opinions from plenty of first-hand observation. 
 Hon. William E. Dodge, President of the Evangelical 
 Alliance of the United States, declared: "There is one 
 man who, by virtue of the marvelous ability with which 
 he organized and conducted the great Parliam.ent of Re- 
 ligions, is I think fairly entitled to be called the foremost 
 evangelist in the world." 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE HASKELL AND BARROWS LECTURESHIPS OF THE 
 UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO 1 894- 1 895 
 
 As a direct outcome of the Parliament of Religions, 
 Mrs. Caroline E. Haskell, a member of my father's con- 
 gregation, gave to the University of Chicago, in April, 
 1894, $20,000, for founding the Haskell Lectureship on 
 Comparative Religion. She believed that "The immense 
 interest awakened by the Parliament of Religions makes 
 it eminently desirable that the students in the University 
 and people generally shall be given more instruction in 
 this most important of all subjects." And in June, she 
 gave $100,000 for the Haskell Oriental Museum. 
 
 My father sympathized fully with her idea: "What 
 study should broaden the bounds of intellectual and moral 
 sympathy like this? Should it not give to the heart an 
 expansion like that which* astronomy has given to the 
 brain ? We, ourselves, are heirs of all that has been ; 
 we feel the touch of hands that became dust when Nine- 
 veh was destroyed, and hear the sound of pathetic voices 
 that were stilled before the Argive keels grated on the 
 shores of Ilium or the Aryan races made their way to the 
 plains of India. The sceptered spirits of the Past rule us 
 from urns older than the Druidic arches of Stonehenge, 
 or the rock hewn temples of Elephanta, from urns as 
 ancient as the burial places of the Egyptian dead. 
 
 "And the study of religion in its entirety should be a 
 mighty reinforcement to faith. The spiritual facts and 
 problems in their majesty and universality must awe the 
 
HASKELL AND BARROWS LECTURESHIPS 301 
 
 careless mind into reverence and rebuke the shallow 
 skepticism which dismisses the greatest fact of man's de- 
 velopment as a baseless superstition." 
 
 Two years before, he had begun a systematic study of 
 comparative religion. It was therefore natural that he 
 should be appointed to the Haskell I^ectureship and in 
 May, 1894, h^ ^^'^s unanimously elected a member of the 
 University faculty, with the rank of professor. This 
 position he held until his death. Probably no other honor 
 ever came to him for which he cared more, and of all the 
 organizations with which he was ever connected few 
 rivalled in his affections the University of Chicago. He 
 used to say, "I earnestly believe that our beloved uni- 
 versity represents all that is highest in our city's life and 
 that it will do more than anything else to free us from 
 reproach and to give our name, already honored as rep- 
 resenting material masteries, a purer and more lasting 
 lustre." 
 
 On October first, he lectured at the University Convo- 
 cation on the "Greatness of Religion." "By religion," 
 he said, "I mean a form of belief which furnishes what is 
 deemed a divine sanction for righteousness and love. 
 Like the presence of God, it is everjavhere, and is not to 
 be excluded by willful selfishness from any region of 
 thought and activity. It is an inspiring and regulating 
 force, the spirit of love, reverence, hope, and trust, pene- 
 trating every movement and forbidding the old division 
 into secular and sacred. We have looked down with 
 haughty and ignorant contempt on faiths older than 
 Christian history, on philosophies which are among the 
 stupendous exploits of the human intelligence, and we 
 have sometimes defended our narrowness and ignorance 
 with texts of scripture. But a better day has dawned. 
 
302 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 In six of the leading American institutions comparative 
 religion has found a place. Immense interest has been 
 aroused and many will now sympathize with the convic- 
 tion expressed by another that until our religious thoughts 
 can claim to be universal they will not satisfy a rational 
 being." Through the kindness of the University, this 
 address was widely circulated. It was republished in 
 England and India and received a warm welcome. In it 
 he emphasized the importance of the study of compara- 
 tive religion, called attention to Mr. Mozoomdar's wish 
 that lectures upon it might be heard in India and added, 
 "May not some friend of the University be moved to 
 establish in Calcutta, the chief center of college training 
 in the Asiatic world, a lectureship which shall carry on 
 the good work of enlightenment and fraternity begun by 
 the recent Parliament of Religions?" To this question 
 Mrs. Haskell quickly replied in the following letter: 
 
 "Chicago, Oct. 12, 1894. 
 "To President William R. Harper, Ph. D., D. D. 
 
 "My Dear Sir: I take pleasure in offering to the 
 University of Chicago the sum of twenty thousand dol- 
 lars for the founding of a second Lectureship on the Re- 
 lations of Christianity and the other religions. These 
 lectures, six or more in number, are to be given in Cal- 
 cutta (India), and, if deemed best, in Bombay, Madras, 
 or some other of the chief cities of Hindustan, where 
 large numbers of educated Hindus are familiar with the 
 English language. The wish, so earnestly expressed by 
 Mr. P. C. Mozoomdar, that a lectureship like that which 
 I had the privilege of founding last summer might be 
 provided for India, has led me to consider the desirability 
 of establishing in some great collegiate center, like Cal- 
 
HASKELL AND BARROWS LECTURESHIPS 303 
 
 cutta, a course of lectures to be given, either annually 
 or as may seem better, biennially, by leading Christian 
 scholars of Europe, Asia, and America, in which, in a 
 friendly, temperate, conciliatory way, and in the fraternal 
 spirit which pervaded the Parliament of Religions, the 
 great questions of the truths of Christianity, its harmonies 
 with the truths of other religions, its rightful claims, and 
 the best methods of setting them forth should be presented 
 to the scholarly and thoughtful people of India. 
 
 "It is my purpose to identify this work, which I be- 
 lieve will be a work of enlightenment and fraternity, 
 with the University Extension Department of the Uni- 
 versity of Chicago, and it is my desire that the manage- 
 ment of this lectureship should lie with yourself as Presi- 
 dent of all the Departments of the University, with Rev- 
 erend John Henry Barrows, D. D., the Professorial Lec- 
 turer on Comparative Religion, with Professor George S. 
 Goodspeed, the Associate Professor of Comparative Re- 
 ligion, and with those who shall be your and their suc- 
 cessors in these positions. It is my request that this lec- 
 tureship shall bear the name of John Henry Barrows, 
 who has identified himself with the work of promoting 
 friendly relations between Christian America and the 
 people of India. The committee having the management 
 of these lectures shall also have the authority to determine 
 whether any of the courses shall be given in Asiatic or 
 other cities outside of India. 
 
 "In reading the proceedings of the Parliament of Re- 
 ligions, I have been struck with the many points of har- 
 mony between the different faiths, and the possibility of 
 so presenting Christianity to others as to win their favor- 
 able interest in its truths. If the committee shall decide 
 to utilize this lectureship still further in calling forth the 
 
304 JOHN HENRY BARROW S 
 
 views of scholarly representatives of the non-Christian 
 faiths, I authorize and shall approve such a decision. 
 Only good will grow out of such a comparison of views. 
 
 "Europe and America wish to hear and ponder the 
 best that Asia can give them, and the world of Asia would 
 gladly listen to the words of such Christian scholars as 
 Archdeacon Farrar, of London; Dr. Fairbairn, of Ox- 
 ford ; Professor Henry Drummond and Professor A. B. 
 Bruce, of Glasgow ; Professor George P. Fisher, of Yale ; 
 Professor Francis G. Peabody, of Harvard; Bishop H. C. 
 Potter and Dr. Lyman Abbott, of New York, and sev- 
 eral others who might be named from the University of 
 Chicago. It is my wish that, accepting the offer which 
 I now make, the committee of the University will corre- 
 spond with the leaders of religious thought in India, and 
 secure from them such helpful suggestions as they may be 
 ready to give. I cherish the expectation that the Barrows 
 Lectures will prove, in the years that shall come, a new 
 golden bond between the East and the West. In the 
 belief that this foundation will be blessed by our Heaven- 
 ly Father, to the extension of the benign influence of 
 our great University, to the promotion of the highest 
 interests of humanity, and to the enlargement of the 
 kingdom of Truth and Love on earth, I remain, with 
 much regard. Yours sincerely, 
 
 "Caroline E. Haskell." 
 
 The response from India to the announcement of this 
 proposed lectureship was most gratifying. The Calcutta 
 "Statesman" and the Madras "Hindu" greeted it with 
 enthusiasm, and Dr. K. S. MacDonald, President of the 
 Missionary Conference of Calcutta, Dr. William Miller, 
 President of the leading College of Madras, Professor 
 
HASKELL AND BARROWS LECTURESHIPS 305 
 
 Alexander Tomary of Duff College, Reverend R. A. 
 Hume and other prominent men of India offered the Uni- 
 versity their cordial support and sent Mrs. Haskell their 
 thanks. 
 
 My father wrote to her: "I never can be grateful 
 enough for the kindness and wisdom with which you 
 have supplemented and carried on my work. These two 
 Lectureships which you have founded will be an abiding 
 monument for the Parliament of Religions and, more 
 than that, they will perpetuate and w^iden its influence." 
 Later he dedicated a volume of lectures to "The elect 
 lady, beloved and honored in the East and in the West, 
 with admiration for her world-embracing philanthropy, 
 and her brave and far-seeing faith and also in recognition 
 of her splendid services to the cause of Oriental learning 
 in America and of the expanding kingdom of God in the 
 continent of Asia." 
 
 That same October, he was greatly saddened by the 
 death of his friend, David Swing. On the seventh he 
 preached Professor Swing's funeral sermon, from which 
 we quote : 
 
 "He will be remembered as a preacher of a new type. 
 He stood before you, luminous with a heavenly light, 
 his features made lovely by his thought, discoursing of 
 the life of man, 'the life of love, the divine Jesus, the 
 blissful immortality.' He found in the Bible, to use 
 his own words, 'the record of God's will as to the life and 
 salvation of His children.' He did not preach like others, 
 but according to the bent of his own genius. His dis- 
 course might not harmonize with Professor Phelps's defi- 
 nition of a sermon ; it was not always a popular speech on 
 truth derived directly from the scriptures, elaborately 
 treated with a view to persuasion, but there was a quiet 
 
3o6 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 power which moved many minds as fiery exhortation or 
 elaborate exegesis does not always move them. With 
 ethical enthusiasm, with luminous intelligence, with gentle 
 sympathy, he made known his faith in God's goodness and 
 man's possibilities. His intellectual refinement was ex- 
 traordinary, and it seems almost an irony of fate that 
 this rude city of the West should have held the most cul- 
 tured and esthetic of American preachers. 
 
 "As he felt deeply that men are to be aided best through 
 hope and generous praise he would not fix his mind on 
 the evil only. He said: 'If we come to think that all 
 are worshiping gold, we, too, despairing of all else, will 
 soon degrade ourselves by bowing at the same altar.' 
 How he called our thoughts away to the better aspects 
 of the age, and while men were scanning with eager envy 
 deeds of the millionaires he bade us mark 'how our schol- 
 ars hurried to the far west to study the last eclipse of 
 the sun, and how a score of new sciences met on that 
 mountain top to ask the shadow to tell them something 
 more about the star depths and the throne of the Al- 
 mighty.' Who else in our time has preached more con- 
 tinuously and persuasively the gospel of a kingdom of 
 God on earth? 
 
 "Now, that he has gone, how many of us wish that we 
 had known him better! And yet many felt that he was 
 their friend and that they knew him well, though they 
 may never have sat at his table or conversed with him 
 familiarly of high themes. Their souls have had sympa- 
 thetic communion with his spirit, and every week they 
 have talked with what was best of him. For several 
 years it was my fortune to live within a few miles of 
 the poet Whittier, and I never thought it needful to in- 
 trude myself into his home in order to know him, for 
 
HASKELL AND BARROWS LECTURESHIPS 307 
 
 had he not spoken his choicest thought to me for twenty 
 years? Had not his psalm been to me like David's and 
 why should I look at the features of the Hermit Thrush 
 of Amesbury to know the music of his soul? All this is 
 true with many of our friends; it was true with David 
 Swing, and it will remain peculiarly true now that he has 
 gone. A leader of thought, a prophet of the gentle hu- 
 manities of Jesus, has fallen, and the old places which he 
 loved here are desolate. The October leaves will cover 
 paths where he used to walk; winter will spread her 
 white mantle over the earth, and spring, which he so 
 loved, will come again and clothe the fields with grass 
 and blossoms, but he will not see them, nor the summer 
 flowers which seemed to live in his speech. But we be- 
 lieve that his is an eternal springtime, or a beautiful un- 
 ending sum.mer, and that more than all the loveliness 
 which he knew on earth shall be his forever." 
 
 Something more of his life that fall and winter may be 
 learned from his letters: 
 
 "Chicago, Sept. 19, 1894. 
 
 "Your mother and I are deep in Kidd's 'Social Evolu- 
 tion' and she thinks it one of the greatest books she ever 
 read. I am not quite so wild over it. We have been 
 reading a little in Dean Stanley's letters and found some 
 good stories. He called upon the Pope, who told him of 
 an English clergyman who camie to convert him. This 
 English clergyman talked Latin with the English pro- 
 nunciation and the Pope was surprised to be called by 
 him Sancte Pater. He thought that the Protestant Eng- 
 lishman had called him 'Holy Peter.' So I am learning 
 that there are some advantages in your pronunciation. 
 If I hstd my life to live over again I should make up my 
 
3o8 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 mind to read and speak Latin, German, and French be- 
 fore I was twenty. 
 
 "Chicago, Sept. 26, 1894. 
 
 "I am to speak at Miss Willard's reception on Friday 
 evening. I have finished my Convocation Address. On 
 Monday there came a letter from Monsignor O'Connell, 
 the head of the American College in Rome, in reply to 
 my present to the Pope of those tAvo beautiful volumes 
 which Mr. P. brought back from London. I will quote 
 a part of the letter. 
 
 "He says, 'I was absent from Rome when the articles 
 arrived, traveling in the East and in Greece, and on my 
 return I found many duties awaiting my immediate at- 
 tention, while in the meantime I was seeking a favorable 
 opportunity for making the presentation. This I did last 
 Wednesday evening. That work was in everj' way very 
 much out of the common, in its magnificent get up, its 
 striking illustrations and its highly and finely artistically 
 finished binding. But then more unusual still the burden 
 of its story was entirely new. "Holy Father," I said, "I 
 present you a history, not only unique in its kind, but 
 absolutely the only one ever written on this new subject, 
 since the world began." "And what is that?" he inquired. 
 "Your Holiness, The History of the Parliament of Re- 
 ligions." "It is presented to you," I continued, "by the 
 Reverend John Henrj^ Barrows of Chicago, President of 
 the Parliament, who sent the work to London to have it 
 finished in this artistic manner for your Holiness." All 
 his interest was awakened. He inquired more about the 
 Parliament, asked what part the Catholic Church had 
 taken in it and heard with pleasure that it was well rep- 
 resented. Then volume after volume he turned over all 
 
HASKELL AND BARROWS LECTURESHIPS 309 
 
 the pages to see the illustrations, and asked me explana- 
 tions of the most striking ones. Finally, placing the 
 volumes on his little writing table, he charged me to 
 write you his most cordial thanks and to assure you that 
 your present was most gratifying and that he appreciates 
 very highly what you have done. 
 
 " 'It is a great pleasure for me to write you these 
 words, and I take it as no mean sign of peace and good 
 will for the future, that the Head of the Church receives 
 with such gratification the history of the Parliament of 
 Religions. "Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth 
 peace to men of good will," is the sentiment I know you 
 and I equally wish to gird the whole world round, and 
 to unite the whole human brotherhood into one family 
 whose father is God. "One fold and one shepherd." 
 Asking you again to pardon my long delay, I remain with 
 sentiments of profound regard, 
 
 " 'Most respectfully yours, 
 
 " 'D. J. O'ConnelL' 
 
 "I must say that I read this letter with very deep in- 
 terest. It was a compensation for much of the hard 
 labor and anxiety which I have undergone in the last 
 four years. Just think of all my labors with the dignita- 
 ries of the Catholic Church from the time when I called 
 on Archbishop Feehan in the spring of i8go to this con- 
 summation of my work with the benediction and thanks 
 of the Pope of Rome. 
 
 "I have no good stories to tell except one. I was talk- 
 ing with Father Cox, a Catholic priest, at a committee 
 meeting the other day. In a pause in the meeting I told 
 him that I had had the last communication of anybody 
 in Chicago from His Holiness, the Pope, and then ex- 
 
310 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 plained what it was. He grasped me by the hand, and 
 said with a hearty grin, 'We'll have you in the Church 
 yet/ I told him that I was in the Church already." 
 
 "November 23, 1894. 
 
 "I am getting first letters from Europe in regard to 
 the pamphlets which I sent out. Yesterday I got a big 
 dose of bitter and biting criticism of the Parliament from 
 Dr. Pierson, in the Missionary Review of the World, 
 but the chief interest of the last two days has been Gen- 
 eral Booth. The arrangements for his meeting the Min- 
 isters of Chicago were given to me, and I went to work 
 to get him an audience. First, I got Willard Hall, which 
 will hold about eight hundred. Then I had the leading 
 Ministerial Associations unite to invite him. Then I sent 
 invitations to all theological seminaries. Catholic and 
 Protestant, of this neighborhood, asking the faculties to be 
 present with the senior classes. Then I had the Salvation 
 Army people send out a postal card invitation and re- 
 minder, to every minister in this city. In this way, I 
 hoped to get perhaps three or four hundred ministers to- 
 gether. When I entered Willard Hall at three o'clock 
 yesterday afternoon, a thousand had jammed themselves 
 into every available square inch of the beautiful hall. The 
 General was glorious. In the evening, K. and I went to 
 the Auditorium. I was to introduce him there and make 
 an address of welcome. Every seat was taken. Hundreds 
 stood. There were two hundred and fifty Salvationists 
 on the platform. You will be glad to know that 
 K. has become very popular in Chicago. When 
 she appeared on the platform last night, the 
 drummers drummed, the horns tooted, the Salvation- 
 ists and five thousand people besides, arose and cheered, 
 
HASKELL AND BARROWS LECTURESHIPS 311 
 
 and waved their handkerchiefs. K. was almost terrified 
 but as General Booth and I accompanied her, she soon was 
 quieted. At the close of nearly every sentence of my 
 address of welcome, the Salvationists beat the drums, 
 clashed the cymbals, and shouted. Amen and Halleluiah. 
 It was glorious. General Booth spoke on 'Darkest Eng- 
 land and the Way Out.' He is a great orator, and made 
 a great impression. The singing of the Salvation Army 
 Hymn, led by Ballington Booth, was something to re- 
 member for a lifetime. The General is to speak at the 
 University tomorrow, and if I get time I shall go down 
 and present him to Dr. Harper. I am beginning to do a 
 little work on my lectures. I suppose your mother has 
 told you that we are thinking seriously of going to India 
 in a year or two. I must get something ready which it 
 will do to deliver in Calcutta." 
 
 "March 6, 1895. 
 "So you have been appointed to report on the Barrows 
 Lectureship before your Oriental Club. You will find 
 in the March number of the Missionary Review of the 
 World important discussions on this Lectureship by Rev- 
 erend J. T. Gracey, D. D. This will give both sides of 
 the debate now going on in India. The whole discussion 
 seems to hinge on this, whether Christianity will gain 
 much by emphasizing the harmonies which are supposed 
 to exist on some points between itself and the other 
 faiths. If you take the affirmative of that position, you 
 may find some reinforcement in the opinions of Professor 
 Alexander Tomory of Duff College, Calcutta, who writes 
 to me, 'Nothing has delighted me more in recent years 
 than the growth of that spirit of toleration, based on 
 knowledge, which now characterizes Christianity versus 
 
312 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 Hinduism. Before I went to India my favorite study 
 was comparative religion. In Duff College, Calcutta, 
 I have taught Christianity in the Bible hour, and in recent 
 years have gained great attention and cordial sympathy 
 for Christianity by presenting it, not as is too often done, 
 in sharp contrast to Hinduism and Buddhism, etc., but 
 as a piece of the development of Religion, without which 
 the history of Religion would be incomplete. I find that 
 the Hindu mind is prepared for the theory of Incarna- 
 tion by its own theology and that a large part of Chris- 
 tian vital truth as opposed to secondary truth can be de- 
 duced from the idea of Incarnation. This broad plat- 
 form has been the basis of my teaching for the past few 
 years, and I have seen, with great satisfaction, cordiality 
 take the place of dogged indifference in the Bible Class, 
 and in many cases I have seen spiritual interest aroused 
 which will I believe be eternal in its consequences. From 
 this you will understand how cordially I agree with your 
 circular and its objects.' I think that Gracey's article, 
 together with the Biblical World, will furnish you more 
 than you can use. We are now trying to secure an emi- 
 nent Anglican to give the first course of lectures. Things 
 go by governmental influence in India and I have written 
 to the Viceroy, Lord Elgin, asking his cooperation. The 
 letter is forwarded by Lady Henry Somerset through 
 her friends in the English Government. I do not expect 
 to go before 1897. The Mohammedans have not wel- 
 comed the Lectureship in India. The missionaries in 
 Southern India are more favorable than those in Northern 
 India. An editorial has just come from Bombay from 
 the "Times" of India — very friendly to the Lectureship. 
 Among other things the editor says, 'We live in a day of 
 comparative study; and are already far past the time 
 
HASKELL AND BARROWS LECTURESHIPS 313 
 
 when the intelligent votaries of any creed see harm or 
 insult in a quiet and philosophical attempt to compare 
 it with others.' " 
 
 "April 5, 1895. 
 "Did I write j^ou that the University had offered Mr. 
 Gladstone a thousand pounds if he would go to India 
 next winter and give the first course of lectures on the 
 new foundation? This is not in the papers yet. Of 
 course, we had no hope that he would accept, but we did 
 hope to receive from him an appreciative letter. A cable 
 from Reverend F. Herbert Stead says: 'Gladstone appre- 
 ciatively declines, recommends Gore.' This is Principal 
 Charles Gore of the Pusey House, Oxford, one of the 
 authors of 'Lux Mundi.' My mind has been on Gore 
 for some time. I have just been reading his last book 
 of lectures on the Incarnation. He is just now the 'fad' 
 with orthodox English churchmen. He is a man of great 
 ability and of reasonable liberality. Of course if he went 
 to India we should get a backing for the Barrows Lecture- 
 ship from the English Church ; this is very important. 
 The question which we have now in mind is, whether 
 we shall try to get Principal Gore to go in December 1895 
 or in December 1896, or whether we would better wait 
 for me to inaugurate the course in 1897." 
 
 "April nth, 1895. 
 "I have a letter from Canon Fremantle of Canterbury 
 inviting me to speak in the 'Jerusalem Chamber' before 
 the Christian Conference, an association founded by Dean 
 Stanley representing all the leading churches. Unfortu- 
 nately the meeting is June 17th and I cannot go. How 
 I wish that I had not arranged to go to Chautauqua this 
 summer and could have enlarged my European trip. 
 
314 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 Canon Fremantle invites us to visit him in Canterbury. 
 
 "The letter from Mr. Gladstone has come and we are 
 greatly pleased with the warm appreciation with which 
 he writes. We are sending this week a letter of invita- 
 tion to Canon Gore of Westminster, who, Mr. Gladstone 
 says, 'is filling Westminster Abbey by his week-day ser- 
 mons.' We had a lovely call on President Harper yes- 
 terday afternoon. I am invited to lecture at Oberlin next 
 month, but I must decline. Dr. George Dana Board- 
 man is here. I have heard two lectures from him al- 
 ready. He is one of the wisest and best of men. We had 
 an election here a few days ago, as you may have seen, 
 and the Republican candidate for maj-or, Mr. George B. 
 Swift, went in by the unprecedented plurality of forty- 
 two thousand, and the corruptest administration that even 
 Chicago ever had was trampled into the mud which it 
 had made. The Civil Service Law was ratified by an im- 
 n:ense majority. Mr. Swift is already at the helm and we 
 have a chance, I think very good chance, for genuine 
 municipal reform." 
 
 "May 20, 1895. 
 
 "Now I must tell you about Canon Gore. A letter 
 has come from Mr. Stead written just after his inter- 
 view with Canon Gore at the Abbey. He was delight- 
 fully received and found the Canon most pleasantly im- 
 pressed with the idea of going to India. He is exceedingly 
 busy, and thinks that he may not be able to go this year. 
 He was very much touched by Mr. Gladstone's letter 
 and is also favorably impressed with the Parliament of 
 Religions. Mr. Stead writes that he believes Mr. Gore 
 will accept. But a cable has come, sent a week after the 
 letter, saying, 'Gore declines.' Dr. Harper, Professor 
 Goodspeed and I think that we would better not take the 
 
HASKEL L AND BARROWS LECTURESHIPS 315 
 
 r; ■ 
 
 declination as final, since he wants to go. It is probably 
 a question of time which troubles him. In a few days I 
 expect to receive Mr. Gore's letter which will give us 
 more definite information. 
 
 "We are on the whole encouraged by what we hear 
 from London. I am used to delays and temporary dis- 
 appointments. I had three years of such experience in 
 the Parliament and came out ahead after all. This seems 
 to me nothing. Perhaps I shall see Mr. Gore this sum- 
 mer. Two other men whom we have had in mind, Dr. 
 Fairbairn and Professor Bruce, are to lecture at the Uni- 
 versity this summer and we may sound them and see 
 what can be done. But unless Canon Gore can be se- 
 cured it may be that I ought to go to India as the first 
 Lecturer, in which case, I ought not to put it off later 
 than the winter of 1896. That is a year from next 
 December. I am afraid that affairs of the church will 
 not be in a condition to make it prudent for me to ask 
 release, so we will be patient for a while longer. 
 
 "You are daily in my loving thoughts and prayers. I 
 too have been through intellectual trouble and unrest. 
 The main thing is not to put too much confidence in any 
 recently adopted philosophical theories. They may be 
 venerable and worm-eaten 'chestnuts,' and are not to be 
 mistaken for the bread of life. We all have responsi- 
 bility to the coming generations. The life of the true 
 Church must not be broken. God has given us great 
 truth, to be handed down and handed on, and we must 
 be careful that some of the water of life does not leak out 
 of our imperfect vessels. While cherishing one truth, we 
 must take care not to lose others of equal importance." 
 
 On six Sunday afternoons, beginning with May 5th, 
 he gave to crowded audiences in Kent Theater the first 
 
3i6 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 course of the Haskell lectures, choosing as his themes, 
 "World-wide Aspects of Christianity," "World-wide Ef- 
 fects of Christianity,' "The Universal Book," "The 
 Universal Man and Saviour," "The Christian Revela- 
 tion of God the Basis of a Universal Religion," and "The 
 Historic Character of Christianity as Confirming its 
 Claims to World-wide Authority." 
 
 During the next two months he wrote to Mrs. Haskell: 
 
 "May 25th, 1895. 
 
 "I have spent much time recently with Reverend Joseph 
 Cook, who is to leave very soon for Australia, New Zea- 
 land, Japan, and India on a lecturing tour around the 
 world. His wife will meet him in October in Japan. 
 He has taken quite a number of the pamphlets and he is 
 unbounded in his enthusiasm for the lectureship. He 
 says that no halls in India will be large enough to hold 
 the audiences that will come out to hear me when I go. 
 He is greatly pleased with Canon Gore, but he thinks that 
 I ought to be the first lecturer. Mr. Cook and I lunch 
 with Dr. Harper this noon. He speaks at the University 
 to-day and in our church Sunday night. I introduced 
 him last night at the Union Park Congregational Church 
 of the West Side. If you could have heard the magnilo- 
 quent language in which he spoke of the Lectureships, of 
 the Parliament and of me, you would have blushed for 
 me. 
 
 "I have a letter from Professor Bonet-Maury from 
 Paris giving an account of a very important conference 
 held in Mrs. Potter Palmer's drawing-room at the Grand 
 Hotel early this month, at which they talked over the 
 prospects of a Parliament in Paris in 1900. She related 
 her interview with the Pope. She asked of him if he ap- 
 
HASKELL AND BARROWS LECTURESHIPS 317 
 
 proved of the Parliament of Religions in Chicago. He 
 replied that he had been satisfied with the result, had ap- 
 proved the participation of the American bishops and 
 had no objection that they should hold another Parlia- 
 ment or Congress elsewhere, although he did not say in 
 Europe or in France. One of the Catholic writers pres- 
 ent at the conference said that the Archbishops of Paris, 
 several of the bishops and professors in the Catholic in- 
 stitutes, and several editors to Catholic reviews were 
 favorable to the Parliament. The Jesuits are hostile to 
 it." 
 
 "May 28th, 1895. 
 "Dr. Harper wishes to have a ceremony at the laying 
 of the corner-stone of the Haskell Museum, in the course 
 of two or three weeks, and after much reluctance I have 
 consented to make the address. There never has been a 
 ceremony at the laying of a corner-stone in the University 
 before, but as yours is the first building ever erected in 
 the New World dedicated exclusively to Oriental studies, 
 and as the occasion can be made one of great interest and 
 profit to the University, he is anxious to have the event 
 properly celebrated." 
 
 "June 5th, 1895- 
 "Canon Gore writes as follows: 
 
 " '4 Little Cloisters, 
 
 " 'Westminster. 
 
 " 'To the President of the University of Chicago, Etc. : 
 " 'Gentlemen : — I should have felt that your weighty 
 appeal demanded my most serious consideration, but, 
 after consultation with the Dean of Westminster, I feel 
 sure that I ought not for several years to come to enter- 
 tain any proposal which would involve my absence during 
 
3i8 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 the winter months from my work at Westminster upon 
 which I have so recently entered. 
 
 " 'Allow me, gentlemen, to express my sense uf the 
 honor you have done me in offering me the post of lecturer 
 on your new foundation, and, with every expression of 
 regard, believe me to be, 
 
 " 'Yours faithfully, 
 
 " 'Charles Gore.' 
 
 "I am pleased with his letter for many reasons. I 
 still hope we shall be able to get him for the next lecturer. 
 Everj^thing seems to point to my going to India first." 
 
 "June 1 2th, 1895. 
 
 "Dr. Joseph Cook made a very graceful and hearty 
 reference to my work in the introduction of his address 
 at the First Church Sunday evening. Speaking of the 
 minister, he said, 'He has fought a good fight,' and then, 
 with tremiendous emphasis, 'and has kept the faith,' then, 
 pausing and bringing down his two heels so as to shake 
 the rostrum, he added, 'but he has by no means finished 
 his course.' 
 
 "By the way, I have received a little book for you 
 called 'A Compilation of Theistic Texts' from the various 
 scriptures. It was sent to 'Lady Caroline E. Haskell.' 
 It is partly in English and partly in some Hindu lan- 
 guage. Shall I send it to you or wait till we meet?" 
 
 "June 19th, 1895. 
 "I arrived at Ithaca Saturday noon, and was met by 
 the P:;:ident's Secretary with a carriage and was taken 
 to Sage College, the College for Women on the Campus, 
 where I was entertained. The views from the Uni- 
 versity Hill are magnificent. The buildings are numer- 
 
HASKELL AND BARROWS LECTURESHIPS 319 
 
 ous and fine. I preached Sunday afternoon the bac- 
 calaureate sermon in the Armory Hall, before a great 
 audience. I seldom enjoyed speaking so thoroughly. 
 When I said 'Members of the graduating class,' more 
 than four hundred men and women rose up to receive 
 the parting words. It was a great sight. I was par- 
 ticularly pleased to have some of the mothers of the 
 graduates come to me at the close and speak warmly and 
 gratefully of what their sons had heard. In the evening 
 I took dinner at President Schurman's, when I met 
 Governor Cornell, and Mr. H. W. Sage, who has given 
 more than half a million dollars to the University. In 
 the evening I preached at a union service of the Pres- 
 byterian and Methodist Churches and gave the second 
 of the Haskell Lectures, which was cordially received." 
 
 "July, 1895. 
 
 "I thought of you often last week but was so fearfully 
 busy preparing and delivering my addresses before the 
 Christian Endeavor Convention in Boston, seeing friends 
 and attending the meetings, that I had no time to write. 
 I had a glorious time and hope I did some good. I sup- 
 pose I addressed some twenty thousand people in the 
 four speeches which I made. There were frequent ref- 
 erences made to the work which I have done and which 
 through your kindness I hope to do in India. One funny 
 thing was this, that I was always introduced as having 
 had a leading part in the Religious Congress of 1893. 
 One man said in introducing me, 'I am to present to 
 you a man who did something which no man ever did 
 since Adam kissed Eve.' " 
 
 In spite of the extras so prominent in these letters, he 
 was still giving most of his energy to preaching. His 
 
320 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 sermons of this year lead us to think that his responsi- 
 bilities and outward successes were but deepening his 
 prayerfulness. He himself seems an illustration of the 
 truth of his own words — "A swift and instant reference 
 of all things to God is the essence of humility. If one 
 has a truly noble nature, you will never find him more 
 humble than in the hour of triumph." However, the 
 chief new interests of these months were comparative 
 religion and the University of Chicago. And his love 
 for both is plain in his speech on July i, 1895, at the 
 laying of the corner-stone of the Haskell Oriental 
 Museum. 
 
 "As the three chief languages of the ancient world 
 were employed to write on the Cross of Christ the in- 
 scription of his royalty, so the same three languages are 
 used to inscribe on the corner-stone of this building sen- 
 tences which will be both inspiration and guidance to the 
 scholars who, through coming centuries, shall pass in and 
 out of this beautiful edifice. 
 
 "Lux ex Oriente. It comes to us with every daybreak, 
 awakening joy and hope, as the solar king flames in the 
 forehead of the morning sky. From the East have come 
 the world's religions, all of them native to Asia; from 
 the East has come the Bible of humanity; in the East 
 have risen the mighty prophets whose words are the life 
 of our civilization. And with faces fronting the dawn, 
 we still anticipate new sunbursts of truth, that light 
 which never was on sea or land, which dwells in the souls 
 of sages and saints, of apostles and martyrs, and of all 
 devout seekers after the divine. 
 
 "On this corner-stone is also inscribed a sentence from 
 the Hebrew psalms in that venerable language wherein 
 was written the chief part of the world's great Bible, 
 
HASKELL AND BARROWS LECTURESHIPS 321 
 
 'The entrance of thy words giveth light.' All of God's 
 utterances deserve this eulogy. It was enlightenment 
 which came to Prince Siddartha beneath the bo-tree; it 
 was enlightenment which came to Saul at Damascus, the 
 divine word entering into his soul in dazzling illumina- 
 tion. It was enlightenment which came to Socrates in 
 the streets of Athens, through the divine haunting Genius 
 whom he questioned. It was enlightenment which the 
 Persian worshipers sought and found on the eastern hill- 
 tops brilliant with the banners of the morning. Pre- 
 eminently it was enlightenment which came with the 
 divine word to the souls of those Hebrew prophets who 
 are ever urging us to walk in the light of the Eternal. 
 
 "And on the third side of this corner-stone is inscribed 
 in Greek, the language of the highest and broadest cul- 
 ture, that word from the Prologue of the Fourth Gospel 
 which says of the Logos, the Christ, 'He was the true, 
 or the original light, which, coming into the world, en- 
 lighteneth every man.' The Christian faith which identi- 
 fies the spiritual illumination of our race with that gra- 
 cious manifestation of God, which came through His Son 
 in the Incarnation, now irradiates those hopeful and 
 earnest studies into comparative religion from which 
 theology rightly expects so much. We believe that 
 
 'The word unto the prophet spoken 
 Was writ on tables yet unbroken; 
 The word by seers or sibyls told 
 In groves of oak or fanes of gold, 
 Still floats upon the morning wind 
 Still whispers to the willing mind ; 
 One accent of the Holy Ghost 
 The heedless world has never lost/ 
 
222 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 "And we who cherish the Christ, as He is revealed in 
 the Scriptures, gratefully and reverently identify Him 
 with the universal manifestations of God's truth and love. 
 
 "A century hence the Haskell Oriental Museum, now 
 rising, will be surrounded by groups of academic build- 
 ings that shall repeat many of the glories so dear to 
 Oxford. Two hundred years hence this University may 
 be a seat of learning like that by the Isis, learning hal- 
 lowed by time and by sacred memories, 
 
 'The Past's incalculable hoard, 
 Mellowed by scutcheoned panes in cloisters old 
 Seclusions iv>'-hushed, and pavements sweet 
 With immemorial lisp of musing feet.' 
 
 "All honor, then, to those who have so wisely planned 
 and skillfully guided the development of this University! 
 All blessings on the generous benefactress whose gracious 
 hand lifts this structure toward the sky! All hail to the 
 imperial future, rich with the increasing spoils of learn- 
 ing and the multiplied triumphs of faith, of which the 
 Oriental Museum is a sure and golden prophecy." 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE END OF HIS CHICAGO PASTORATE, 1 895- 1 896 
 
 One of the secrets of my father's unarrested growth 
 was his willingness to turn from lessons he had mastered 
 to tasks as yet untried. He wrote in one of his sermons 
 at this time, "Spiritual progress is dependent on a certain 
 kind of forgetfulness. We must not all the while be 
 relearning the alphabet, dwelling evermore in our spirit- 
 ual infancy. The other day in looking over some papers 
 I found a number of essays written when I was a boy 
 in college, and to my great surprise they indicated, in a 
 vealy and immature way, many of the lines of conviction 
 and of activity on which my life has since proceeded. But 
 I had forgotten them. And it certainly would have 
 been foolish for me to have kept these essays on my library 
 table through all these years to be guides and models to a 
 growing mind. I do not believe it is a good thing for 
 men to be all the while remembering their successes or 
 spending their time, until they get to be very old, in 
 writing their memoirs. I believe it is a beautiful thing 
 to be able to recall, in hours of wakefulness and loneli- 
 ness, the fair and flower-bespangled landscapes of our 
 past years. I d'o not in the least undervalue such a 
 pleasing retrospect, and I know something of the bliss of 
 solitude. But we may weaken the fiber of our minds by 
 indulging in too much reverie. Mental progress for me 
 lay in forgetting such things, and in reaching eagerly 
 toward the higher standards of literature and of thought. 
 
 "And surely all this applies with added emphasis to the 
 
324 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 memory of past sorrows and failures and disappointments. 
 The Christian has no business to unfit himself for the 
 duties which God places upon him by a perpetual and 
 distrustful memorj^ of sorrow. At least semi-forgetful- 
 ness is the condition of the Christian's healthful life. God 
 certainly would not have us become utterly unmindful 
 of the griefs which often make life more sacred and 
 significant, but He would have us rise above them, or 
 have us carrj- them with us as a sweet medicine to the 
 soul, amid the toils and victories of the present. There 
 are some things we cannot forget and would not forget 
 that are numbered In the catalogue of sorrows, but there 
 is a divine way of remembering them, of making them 
 sweet memorials of God's love and healing consolation. 
 It is our duty, so far as we can, to make memory a hive 
 of sweetness and not a nest of hornets." These words 
 partly explain the lightheartedness with which at such a 
 crisis as was soon to confront him, he could press on into 
 untrodden paths. 
 
 His sermons are usually the truest index left us of his 
 inner life, and in 1895 they testif\' to the complexities that 
 beset him, and to his steady visions of the life to come. 
 
 "Over against and above this imperfect life of ours," 
 he said, "there is held up before our imagination, a state 
 of being where the sun that we only see in occasional 
 glimpses Is the 'light of common day.' Here, is constant 
 turmoil, there, Is eternal peace. Here, life is like an 
 Alpine glacier, plowing its way over opposing obstacles, 
 gathering great rocks in its hands and scratching with 
 granite pen the foundations of the mountains. There, life 
 is like the obedient stars, keeping in their eternal orbits 
 and wheeling noiseless in their ethereal grooves." 
 
 Church problems were becoming difficult. Hundreds 
 
END OF THE PASTORATE 325 
 
 of the constituents of the First Presbyterian Church were 
 moving toward the southern suburbs. To the unthink- 
 ing this boded no disaster, as the attractive power of its 
 preacher was sufficient to fill the church. Some of its 
 members suggested that the church move south, but their 
 advice received half-hearted hearing. 
 
 Partly as a good preparation for the winter's duties, my 
 father accepted Dr. Henry S. Lunn's invitation to speak 
 at the Grindelwald Conference and spent the last six 
 weeks of the summer of 1895 abroad. He writes of this 
 European journey: 
 
 "7 Norham Gardens, Oxford, 
 
 "Aug. 14, 1895- 
 "My Dear Mrs. Haskell: — I am looking out on the 
 lovely lawn of Professor Max Miiller's house — where we 
 are now entertained by two of the most delightful people 
 that we ever met. One of Professor Miiller's questions 
 was this: 'Who is that benevolent lady who has been 
 giving so much ?' So you see I had an opportunity to 
 speak of you to this great scholar. He wears his weight 
 of learning like a flower; he is a good listener as well as 
 a good talker, is happy in his beautiful home, with a wife 
 who represents all that is finest in English womanhood. 
 He has been talking about Lowell and Holmes, and other 
 Americans who have been his guests, and especially about 
 Dean Stanley. 
 
 "I have asked him to visit us and address the Univer- 
 sity, and also to go next year to India. He has gratefully 
 declined. 'I do not need to go to America,' he says, 'for 
 America comes to me. I do not need to go to India, for 
 India comes to me. I am only at home among my books.' 
 
 "He is full of enthusiasm for what he regards as my 
 
326 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 'great work.' How little I ever expected any such honors 
 as he has given me. He says, 'Why didn't you convince 
 me that the Parliament was to be so great an affair? I 
 would have been there.' He gave all this afternoon to 
 showing us about this wonderful Oxford. It has been 
 our greatest day." 
 
 "Grindelwald, Switzerland, 
 
 "30th August, 1895. 
 "My Dear Mrs. Haskell: 
 
 "I have so much to tell you which I know will interest 
 you that I hardly know where to begin. Dr. Lunn has 
 kindly offered me the use of his private secretary for my 
 letters. You know how hard it is for me to write legibly. 
 I have met many delightful people here. Dr. Lunn and 
 his family have shown us every kindness, and Mrs. Bar- 
 rows has fallen in love with this place, as have also the 
 girls and I. I can give you no idea how beautiful it is 
 here. 
 
 "It was late in the afternoon when we pulled into this 
 village. We all said, as we looked upon the mighty 
 mountain walls, with their snow-capped peaks flooded, 
 over miles of whiteness, by the intense light of the sunset, 
 'This is the climax of all our journeyings.' Dr. Lunn 
 welcomed us cordially and settled us at 'The Bear,' a 
 delightful hostelry, in spite of its name. In the evening 
 we listened to an able paper on 'Christianity and Social- 
 ism,' by Thomas M. Lindsay, D. D., Professor of Church 
 History in the Free Church College of Glasgow, a col- 
 league of Dr. Bruce. The address was followed by a 
 discussion. Archdeacon Wilson, of Manchester, for 
 many years Head Master of Science at Rugby, and an 
 eminent writer on some of the moral problems, proved hit 
 
END OF THE PASTORATE ^27 
 
 wonderful intellectual resources by his remarks. Reverend 
 Charles A. Berry, D. D., of Wolverhampton, who was 
 invited to succeed Mr. Beecher, is also a fine, strong 
 specimen of the Broad Evangelical Englishman, who takes 
 the liveliest interest in social and political problems. 
 
 "Day before yesterday we went with Dr. Lunn, Dean 
 Fremantle, of Ripon, and Archdeacon Wilson to the 
 Lauterbrunnen Valley. The day was one of a thousand, 
 'cloudless of care' and cloudless in the sky. There I 
 realized anew that 'the mountains and all deeps are but 
 the raised letters of the alphabet of infinity by which we 
 poor, blind children of men may spell out the great name 
 of God.' 
 
 "But better even than the mountain view was the two 
 hours' walk which I had with Dean Fremantle, the author 
 of the Bampton Lectures on the 'World as the Subject of 
 Redemption,' a book which will, I believe, be read many 
 hundred years hence. Bishop Vincent once told me that 
 these lectures had influenced his life more than any other 
 book. 
 
 "The Dean is a most charming companion. The 
 breadth of his sympathies is remarkable, and proverbial 
 English insularity finds no illustration in him. He in- 
 forms me that he hopes to devote much of his energy to 
 the work of the reunion of Christendom. I urged him to 
 come to America next spring in company with Dr. Lunn 
 and perhaps he may. 
 
 "We returned a little late for Mrs. Lunn's delightful 
 outdoor tea, where we met a company of fine-hearted 
 Christians. In the evening I gave my address on some 
 of the lessons of the Parliament, and found sympathetic 
 hearer? 
 
 "Yesterday morning the mountain train lifted us sev- 
 
328 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 eral thousand feet to the Scheideck, and a twenty minutes' 
 walk brought us to the edge of the great Eiger glacier, 
 where there is one of the finest views in Europe. Dr. 
 Lunn gave us a very interesting lecture on glaciers, and 
 -wt felt that he warmed a cold subject with his own 
 glowing eloquence. At the close of the talk we all sprang 
 to our feet startled by the roar, like that of a distant 
 battle-field. A mile or more away an avalanche, probably 
 a hundred feet in breadth, poured down the mountain 
 side its thousands of tons of ice in a beautiful cascade, 
 which lasted more than a minute. My dear children 
 were aglow with enthusiasm. 
 
 "And now I have great news to tell you. Our party 
 has divided. Four have gone to Paris, and Mrs. Bar- 
 rows, the two girls, and I leave this evening for Gottin- 
 gen, Germany, where it is very likely we shall leave the 
 girls for the year. I have many things to tell you. I 
 feel that the coming to this place has been one of the 
 great experiences in my life." 
 
 He wrote from Paris the first week of September: 
 "One of the most delightful experiences which I have 
 had here was a call from Pere Hyacinthe, who is cer- 
 tainly one of the most impressive orators of the nine- 
 teenth centurj', and one of the greatest-hearted men that 
 I ever met. He was determined that I should remain 
 a month in Paris, being sure that I could influence even 
 the bigoted French ecclesiastics, who were out of sym- 
 pathy with their American Catholic brethren. He said, 
 'You have no idea what a revolution in the Catholic 
 Church you inaugurated, when you induced the Catholic 
 scholars to confer and pray with heretics and schismatics.' 
 He spoke enthusiastically of the Congress in Chicago as 
 the first ecumenical council that ever was called. 
 
END OF THE PASTORATE 329 
 
 "I have also had a delightful call from Abbe Char- 
 bonnel, whose article in the 'Revue de Paris' on the Paris 
 Congress of 1900 is making such a stir; from 
 Zadoc Kahn, the chief Rabbi of France; from Auguste 
 Sabatier, editor of 'Le Temps' and Professor in the 
 University of Paris, and from Professor Bonet-Maury, 
 who also strongly urged me to remain in the city; but I 
 could not, even though a reception by the French Academy 
 was promised me." Shortly after this he sailed for home. 
 
 Throughout the fall he wrote almost daily to my sis- 
 ter and me in Germany. 
 
 "Oct. 9th, 1895. 
 
 "Last evening I was inaugurated the president of the 
 Literary Club. We had a fine banquet and a larger 
 number present than usual. I gave an address of forty 
 minutes on 'Musings in My Library.' I said in closing, 
 *I need not say, but I am going to say most emphatically, 
 that the honor which you have conferred upon me is un- 
 deserved. I receive it partly as a gracious and tender 
 suggestion that I have not attended the meetings of the 
 club faithfully, and that I am expected henceforth to be 
 with you. I only fear that, after this precedent, other 
 members will expect, by diligently absenting themselves, 
 to be crowned with the presidential laurel. However 
 that may be, I appreciate your kindness toward me and 
 express my hearty gratitude. If I were less of an Amer- 
 ican and more English, I might say, 'thanks awfully.' A 
 few years ago, when visiting the French market in New 
 Orleans early one morning I saw a blind beggar who 
 also saw me. This mendicant had a dog who carried in 
 his mouth a tin pail, into which the benevolent cast their 
 copper and peradventure their silver. I threw in a nickel, 
 and at that moment it was the dog's business to hold out 
 
330 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 his paw, and to bow his thanks. He did not perform his 
 full duty to me, and the blind beggar saw it and cuffing 
 the cur reprovingly, he said : 'Dog not good enough for 
 such kind people.' This is one of the occasions in my 
 life when I feel like that dog." 
 
 "Oct. 24th, 1895- 
 "Yesterday morning Professor Bonet-Maury's book on 
 'The Congress of Religions at Chicago,' a beautiful little 
 volume of three hundred and forty-five pages, came to 
 hand. It has fourteen excellent portraits. It is published 
 by Hachette, the great Paris publisher, and is a thorough, 
 careful, and scholarly work. I am very proud of it. I 
 will ask him to send a copy of it to you. What he says 
 about your father will make your hair stand on end. I 
 read this morning at the breakfast table to Mrs. Haskell 
 two pages which he devoted to her in the conclusion of the 
 book. She was very much gratified. Last night I had a 
 meeting of the Session and read to them a letter explain- 
 ing the India project and asking for a leave of absence 
 from December, 1896, to May, 1897. The matter is of 
 such importance that they have called a meeting of all 
 the officers of the church for Saturday of this week to talk 
 it over. 
 
 "Did you ever hear the story about Abraham Lincoln 
 which Mr. Bartlett told at the Literary Club? Two 
 artists were debating in Mr. Lincoln's presence as to the 
 proper proportions of the human body, especially the 
 legs, and were questioning whether the legs of a certain 
 statue were of the right length. They referred the case 
 to Mr. Lincoln, and he modestly replied that he was nOt 
 an authority upon the subject, but he said, 'I have always 
 had the feeling that a man's legs should be just long 
 
END OF THE PASTORATE 331 
 
 enough to reach from his body to the ground.' See if you 
 can tell that story to the Fraulein in German! Good- 
 bye. I am so eager to see you that I think of resigning!" 
 
 "Oct. 25th. 
 
 "Yesterday at dinner Mr. B. told me a story of his 
 going to a side-show where a snake was to be seen ; and 
 the man at the tent door kept calling out in these words : 
 'Come up, roll up, jump up, tumble up, any way to get 
 up, ladies, gentlemen and small children ; come and see 
 the snake! It was caught in the wilds of Africa at the 
 cost of one hundred thousand dollars in gold by a band 
 of fearless men ! It measures fourteen feet from his nose 
 to the tip of his tail, and also fourteen feet from the tip 
 of his tail to his nose, making twenty-eight feet in all! 
 Come right up!' " 
 
 "Nov. 2nd, 1895. 
 
 "I rather expect to give my second course of Haskell 
 Lectures in January and February. I think that my 
 themes will be about as follows: 'Christianity and Hin- 
 duism,' 'Christianity and Buddhism,' 'Christianity and 
 Confucianism,' 'Christianity and Mohammedanism,' 
 'Christianity and Judaism,' and then a sixth and final lec- 
 ture indicating the proper mode for Christianity to reach 
 these dififerent faiths." 
 
 "Nov. 5th, 1895. 
 "Last evening we took dinner with Mrs. Haskell at 
 the hotel and President Harper came in for a little while. 
 After dinner I went to the Literary Club, where we had 
 a delightful paper called 'Yarns of an Old Town.' It 
 was an account of Newburyport, Massachusetts, and was 
 filled with most interesting references to times old and 
 new. The reader, a Mr. Stone, who is Secretary of the 
 
332 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 Board of Trade, said that it was said of a certain man of 
 Newburyport, 'He was so very wealthy that his opinions 
 did not need the support of argument.' Is not that de- 
 licious ? 
 
 "We were all very much shocked yesterday by the 
 sudden death of Eugene Field. He was found dead in 
 his bed yesterday morning." 
 
 "Nov. 7th, 1895. 
 
 "Tuesday night there was a big celebration at the 
 University of Mr. Rockefeller's three million dollar gift, 
 which means five millions added to the University. The 
 'Interior' finally hauls in its horns. It has been critical 
 of Dr. Harper and the University, but now it says that 
 Rockefeller's gift means that we are to have here the 
 greatest University in America. Hooray! The students 
 and professors went wild Tuesday night. They had cal- 
 cium lights on the grounds, processions, fish horns, and 
 speeches. One of the best was made by Professor Von 
 Hoist." 
 
 "Nov. 14th, 1895. 
 
 "Lorado Taft, the sculptor, has been trying for a long 
 while to get me to sit for him, and Tuesday afternoon 
 I went down to his studio in the Athenaeum and mounted 
 the model's chair. He had a big pile of clay on the table 
 in front of him and a standard made of lead pipe and 
 lumber as a sort of frame for the structure. He said the 
 lumber would help when he came to the lumbar regions. 
 He is wonderfully quick and skilful. He put a head on 
 the thing before many minutes and took a few measure- 
 ments and got an outline of the features in an hour and 
 a half, and had shaped the thing so deftly that I was 
 recognizable to the people who came in. I hope to go 
 
END OF THE PASTORATE 335 
 
 again to-day. In a half dozen sittings he will probably 
 do me in clay." 
 
 While he was writing these November letters the offi- 
 cial boards of his church had considered his India plan. 
 No formal action concerning it was taken, but in the 
 opinion of the majority his proposed absence did not ac- 
 cord with the best interests of the church. To him, 
 however, the Barrows lectureship seemed something too 
 important to lay aside. He wrote at this time : 
 
 "I have a deep and invincible feeling that God has 
 given me a mission of preaching Christ, not only here but 
 in Asia, and it is the larger Christ that I want to preach, 
 not the Christ who cares only for Christian Europe and 
 Christian America, not a Christ who has forgotten and 
 forsaken Asia and Africa, but the Christ whose light has 
 illumined in some measure all hearts." 
 
 Therefore, three weeks after the meeting of his officers, 
 he courageously cut himself off from his chief source of 
 income and from work and friends most dear to him. 
 Surely he belonged — to quote his own words — to "the 
 army of the Lord which stands with faces fronting the 
 dawn, holding in their hands the 'white shields of ex- 
 pectation.' " 
 
 His people received his resignation with surprise and 
 sorrow. Many entreated him to recall it. Few men 
 have been the recipients of such admiring and grateful 
 love. The official minute of the Presbytery expressed 
 "affectionate appreciation of his signal ability and broad 
 culture, his unfailing refinement and courtesy, his strong 
 and gentle Christian character, his large public spirit and 
 wide sympathies with men, and his fidelity as a preacher 
 of the Gospel of Christ," and he was "reluctantly re- 
 leased, in deference to his own constraining conviction 
 
334 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 that he had been providentially called to establish the 
 lectureship that bears his name, in the great cities of 
 India." 
 
 Something of the pleasure given him by these as- 
 surances of affection show in his letters: 
 
 "Nov. 2jtn, 1895. 
 
 "You will receive with this letter papers giving an ac- 
 count of my resignation and I think you will feel a good 
 deal happier than some of our people do. I look upon it 
 all as providential. I have been evidently called to the 
 wider field and I feel very restful in my own heart. It 
 was a rather painful scene at the close of my sermon 
 yesterday morning when I read my letter of resignation. 
 It came as a thunderbolt to almost all of the congrega- 
 tion. I have come to the conclusion that people can keep 
 a secret. Men and women both. So far as I know only 
 one, and he was a minister, leaked, and he leaked just a 
 little! The enthusiasm and devotion of people make 
 us very happy and yet mingled with it is deep sorrow in 
 leaving such splendid friends. 
 
 "The newspapers have been very friendly. Six of the 
 leading ones have editorials which give me a new feeling 
 of the hold we have on this big city. But our chief 
 feelings, excepting sorrow in leaving our dear friends 
 here, are of prospective relief from the stress of work 
 and of rejoicing that, God willing, we will soon be re- 
 united, I wish I could tell you how good our people 
 are to us, but you can imagine. 
 
 "I just had a letter from Dr. Schaff, the son of the 
 great Dr. Schal?. He is writing his father's biography 
 and shortly before reading the story of my resignation 
 and my going to Gottingen, he was telling of his father's 
 
END OF THE PASTORATE 335 
 
 visit to Gottingcn in 1888, where he saw Ritschl and 
 other famous professors. Two weeks ago I resigned my 
 membership in the Quadrangle Club of the University, 
 not feeling rich enough to pay for a club that I could not 
 attend. I received a letter from Professor Matthews 
 which contains an expression which you both will enjoy. 
 *We shall miss 3'our spirit even more than your bodily 
 presence, but wait till you see the new club house, then, as 
 Chimmie Fadden would say, "You will chase yourself 
 in." • 
 
 "Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and we shall miss you 
 awfully. A. had his choice between going to hear me 
 preach at the union services at eleven o'clock and going 
 to the football game. You will be greatly surprised that 
 he chose the football. He says confidentially, that I 
 would rather go to the game than preach! It is a pity 
 that children know your weaknesses so thoroughly!" 
 
 "Dec. 5th, 1895. 
 "Our life is quieting down beautifully. By making it 
 plain from the beginning that my resignation was final 
 and absolute, I secured a unanimous acceptance from 
 Session, Society, and Presbyterj'. Monday morning I 
 read my letter before the Presbytery. I shall never for- 
 get the beautiful tributes which were heaped upon my 
 head. Dr. McPherson spoke nearly half an hour, most 
 tenderly and happily. Among other things he mentioned 
 the perfect good understanding and fraternal relations 
 between the two pastors of the First and Second Churches. 
 He said that the honor and good name of the Second 
 Church had always been as safe in my hands as in his 
 own. He commended the mission I was undertaking 
 abroad, and spoke wittily of my growing physical powers. 
 
336 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 He said that when I was eighty years old I would proba- 
 bly make a good center rush for a football team and that 
 I would probably preach till I was ninety-three. Dr. 
 Withrow poured out his heart, too, saying, among other 
 things, that 'The going away of the pastor of the First 
 Church will leave a vast vacant space in Chicago.' 
 Then Dr. Hall spcke in a similar vein. Dr. Hillis said, 
 'This is no funeral. Dr. Barrows has been called to a 
 wider field, and he is the first m.an ever going to India 
 who is simply a representative of Christianity and not of 
 a sect or of a board.' He believed that 'Dr. Barrows 
 was the best known minister among foreign people in 
 America, and that no such opportunity was ever before 
 given to anybody.' It would have done your heart good 
 to have heard their beautiful tributes and it certainly did 
 my heart good. Not that I feel worthy of them, but this 
 love and commendation are among the best rewards for 
 what I have tried to do. Dr. Hillis is arranging to have 
 the trustees of the Central Church give me a reception 
 and recognition service at Central Music Hall Sunday 
 evening, February 9th, at which addresses will be made 
 by Lyman Gage, representing the World's Fair; Dr. 
 Harper, representing the University; Dr. Gunsaulus, the 
 Congregationalists; Dr. McPherson, the Presbyterians; 
 Dr. Bristol, the Methodists; Mrs. Potter Palmer, the 
 World's Congress Auxiliary; Mrs. Greenleaf, the public 
 schools, and Bishop Fallows, the soldiers and the Chris- 
 tian Endeavor Society. Isn't this a lovely thing for him 
 to do? 
 
 "I have just had a caller, — a bronze manufacturer, 
 who is arranging with Mr. Mulligan, an artist in Mr. 
 Taft's studio, to make a life-sized bronze bas-relief of 
 your paternal sire. I have given my reluctant consent. 
 
END OF THE PASTORATE 337 
 
 This afternoon I am going down to have a portrait made. 
 All this attention to one's personality is as good as dying 
 and reading the obituaries. 
 
 "We feel that we have so many anchors in Chicago 
 that we shall be glad if our future life is here." 
 
 "Dec. 9th, 1895. 
 
 "If you were here or we were there, we could tell you 
 some things that would make you laugh and cry. I never 
 realized before, except after Manning's death, how good 
 people are to us. 
 
 "You speak of the sorrow of leaving Chicago, this 
 great city. Everybody who speaks of my going away, 
 prophesies that I will return. 
 
 "Did I write you that I have been engaged by 'The 
 Record' to furnish letters during all my absence in Eu- 
 rope and Asia? I shall want you girls to find out all 
 the interesting and funny things which I can utilize in 
 my weekly scribblings. Perhaps I shall become famous 
 as a correspondent! But O, how I shall miss my type- 
 writer, by which I do not mean the machine. You may 
 care to know that 'The Outlook' speaks of my resignation 
 as an event of national importance and prophesies the 
 absorption of the First Church with the Second. Isn't 
 that funny? Nobody ever thinks of that. 
 
 "Good-bye. I haven't time to write at the close of 
 this letter one of those involved and fire-darting sentences 
 by which — as by a flaming bolt out of the empyrean — I 
 sometimes, though alas! inadequately, flash into your girl- 
 ish, though by no means juvenile, souls some beam of that 
 inextinguishable paternal affection which consumes the 
 heart of your far away sire. Therefore I shall omit it.' 
 
338 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 "Dec. 1 6th, 1895. 
 
 "Yesterday was a great day in our church. Dr. Clark 
 of the Christian Endeavor Society was in town and spoke 
 beautifully before my sermon. Mr. Francis Murphy, the 
 great temperance apostle, was also on the platform and 
 said a few words. 
 
 "Saturday night I gave my European lecture at the 
 Home for the Incurables. Chicago's University received 
 another million and a quarter last week. Miss Culver, 
 a niece of Mr. Hull, for whom the Hull House was 
 named, gave a million dollars for the department of biol- 
 ogy. There will be a great building for the biological 
 department of the University, a biological station, fully 
 equipped for inland work at Lake Geneva, a marine bio- 
 logical department at Woods Hole, and several biological 
 lectureships. Isn't this immense? Of course, now Mr, 
 Rockefeller has to hand out another million, according 
 to his promise. Isn't this glorious? 
 
 "All the trustees of the United Society whom I met 
 in Detroit approved of my decision and feel that I am 
 entering upon a larger work. Dr. Clark is very happy 
 over it. I value the fellowship of the Christian Endeavor 
 trustees more I think than any Christian fellowship that 
 has ever come to me. They are the noblest company of 
 men that I ever knew, representing all the different 
 evangelical denominations." 
 
 "Dec. 24th, 1895. 
 
 "Monday morning I left for Cleveland ; arrived there 
 about six o'clock in the evening; was met at the station 
 and taken to the Hollenden House. The Congregational 
 Club gave me a lovely reception before the supper. I 
 met President Thwing of Adelbert College, President 
 Ballantine of Oberlin and many other fine people. The 
 
END OF THE PASTORATE 339 
 
 beautiful dining-hall was filled with two hundred and 
 fifty guests and I had the whole evening to myself after 
 supper, giving them my lecture on Samuel Adams. We 
 had a supper of eight courses and I began by saying I 
 felt like Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms when 
 he said, 'God help me I can take no other course.' 
 
 "President Francis E. Clark told me that the United 
 Society of Christian Endeavor had a little money left over 
 after paying the expenses of the Boston Convention last 
 summer, I think he said about two hundred dollars, and 
 they are thinking of placing a stone over the grave of 
 Samuel Adams in the Granary Hill Burying Ground ; 
 (ft Is not marked by any monument, strange to say) 
 and they think of placing on the stone a sentence from 
 my lecture. I deem this a great honor." 
 ■ During January and February he gave his second course 
 of Haskell lectures on the relations of Christianity to 
 each of the other great religions. Although his letters 
 refer to these lectures as "hasty pudding served up hot" 
 and he laments their inadequacy — they were enthusiasti- 
 cally welcomed. What with the lectures, dinner en- 
 gagements almost every evening, and all the extras attend- 
 ant upon finishing his church work, these were busy 
 months. One of his letters refers to two farewells. 
 
 'Chicago, Feb. nth, 1896. 
 "I have sent you papers giving an account of the fare- 
 well reception at Central Music Hall last Sunday night. 
 It was really a magnificent afifair, but I felt that they 
 were talking about some other fellow. I am in the fare- 
 well business at present. Last night I gave my farewell 
 to the Chicago Literary Club, and four of the ex-PresI- 
 dents made kind addresses at the close of my paper. Some 
 
340 JOHN HENRY BA RROWS 
 
 of them thought I might be eaten by the cannibals. One 
 of them told of a picture of a cannibal who had caught a 
 missionary and tied him to a tree and was anxiously turn- 
 ing over the leaves of a cook book to see in what style 
 he would serve him. There was so much anxiety on the 
 cannibal's face that you had more sympathy for him than 
 for the missionary. One of the speakers thought I might 
 return from the East dressed in a yellow robe with the 
 Koran under one arm and the Rig Veda under the other, 
 henceforth to be a preacher of the Oriental faiths. When 
 I had a chance to reply, I said about this : I thank you 
 most heartily, dear friends, for all these words of kindness. 
 I am sorry that you feel skeptical about my continuing 
 in the faith. Bishop Arnett of the African Methodists 
 feels differently. He took luncheon with me on Sat- 
 urday and said that when I returned from the journey 
 round the world, they were going to make me a Bishop 
 of the African Methodist Church. But, friends, the best 
 thing I can do now is to invite you to a banquet which 
 I have had prepared in the next room. (We always have 
 a lunch of crackers and ginger beer provided.) As I feel 
 very hungry and as I recall what Mr. Mason has said 
 about the cannibals, I must say, in the words of Thomas 
 Hood, *I would rather die eating, than diet.' " 
 
 The way in which he regarded all this work and suc- 
 cess is shown in his latest Chicago sermons. 
 
 "We are," he wrote, "all the while over-rating our 
 direct influence. We sometimes are discouraged unduly 
 because we are not working as actively or as widely in 
 public ways as we would and we care far too little for the 
 spirit in which our limited activities are carried on. Some 
 of us have never learned that our indirect influence is 
 always a greater force for good than our direct, inten- 
 
END OF THE PASTORATE 341 
 
 tional, and aggressive activities in right ways. After the 
 Day of Pentecost Peter was so surcharged with the Holy 
 Ghost that, walking the streets of Jerusalem, his very 
 shadow falling on the sick and paralytic gave them heal- 
 ing and strength. Many modern Christians are like the 
 child's toy engine, very busy and stirring in mind and 
 body, puff, puff, whirling about, tipping over once in a 
 while, and then soon exhausting the steam. They have 
 not that quiet and continuous strength which has been 
 fed and nourished through the culture of the soul in 
 hours of quiet meditation and communion." 
 
 On Sunday, February 16, he said good-bye amid the 
 tears of his people, yet his love and service and their 
 loyal response had bound him to them with a bond far 
 stronger than any official connection, and one that could 
 never be severed. As we pause a moment in the gracious 
 influences that he had shed during these more than fourteen 
 years, we recall first of all the largeness of his heart. It 
 may be that it warmed quickest to spontaneous, expressive, 
 struggling people, and slowest to cynics and dilettanti, 
 but it could hold every one who needed help, whatever 
 his temperament or worth. It was loving imagination 
 that disclosed to him men's natures. Indifferentism and 
 intellectual posing he found to be faults of the fastidious 
 few. Prejudice, mean ideals, and meager outlook were 
 commoner defects of character. Hence his hopes for a 
 Parliament of Religions. Born of the heart, too, was 
 his faith in men, which saved him from talking down to 
 them, awoke his eagerness to meet their real needs, and, 
 destroying false pride, made him willing to be popular. 
 
 We recall, too, his fearlessness with which he entered 
 into wide and so-called worldly activities, and the spirit 
 with which he beautified and hallowed them. And per- 
 
342 JOHX HENRY BARROWS 
 
 haps we may best close this chapter in his life with his 
 creed that Christianitj^ should not cramp but enlarge 
 and sanctify experience and his sense of the obstacles in 
 the way of this ideal : 
 
 "I know there are perils grave and sometimes fatal 
 which come from the teaching that we are to enter in the 
 spirit of Christ into all the occupations and rightful en- 
 joyments of life. It is hard to do it; it is much easier 
 to run away, and to be Christians in a little round of 
 prescribed duty. Some people haven't Christianity 
 enough when spread out, to cover the whole domain of 
 activity and pleasure. If you find it impossible to main- 
 tain the spirit of Christ in such a life as yours has become, 
 by all means narrow it, cut off here and there, surrender 
 that which is letting the life-blood out of your soul and 
 paganizing your spirit. But after all, the highest ideal 
 is that which Jesus illustrated and which John the Bap- 
 tist did not. And you will need to spend nights in prayer 
 as well as days at the marriage feast. You will need to 
 fill your soul with the heavenly life if you are to refresh 
 the manifold paths of earth." 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 A WORLD PILGRIMAGE 1 896 
 
 "I have already, three different times, peeped into the 
 life of the Fatherland. But now for the first time, I 
 live among German people, sharing their daily life, eat- 
 ing of their abundant food, sleeping under their moun- 
 tainous feather beds, and hearing from morning till night 
 the musical bubble and sputter of their strong, queer, 
 exuberant speech." So wrote my father from Gottingen, 
 his headquarters from March until October, 1896. This 
 placid Hanoverian town, unexcited save over Roentgen's 
 discovery, saw him studying German, hearing lectures by 
 Schultz and Wellhausen, sending long letters to the Chi- 
 cago "Record" and "Interior" and rewriting his India 
 addresses. He found this "home of quietness in the heart 
 of old Germany far from stupid" because it discovered to 
 him "an undreamed of relish for rest and retirement." 
 He delighted in the "gardens golden with crocuses and 
 blue with hepaticas" and in the Gottingen rampart "now 
 tamed to a lovers' walk, beneath whose magnificent trees 
 we follow a path which not only encompasses the city 
 but leads out into dreamland." Here — to quote still 
 further his own words, he "felt deeply the presence of 
 those spiritual guests who throng and dignify so many 
 parts of the old world" — and loved to recall that "beneath 
 these shades, incredible as it may seem, Schopenhauer 
 brooded his pessimism and Lotze meditated his deeper and 
 truer thoughts." Heine and Longfellow, Bancroft and 
 Everett, Bismarck and Motley Mere among the spirits 
 
344 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 of the wall with whom he had converse, and he wrote 
 of Coleridge: "How often he must have mused and 
 spun out his endless speculations as he made the circuit 
 of the town on this rampart. Few poets have given 
 us intenser pleasure than this man, who was able to write 
 a few perfect things. I have already met him in the 
 vale of Chamouni and seen the sunrise over Mount Blanc 
 through his illumined and reverent vision. Every voy- 
 ager who knows 'The Ancient Mariner' meets him on 
 the sea and now and then in some highland nook by some 
 tiny cascade the traveler repeats after him: 
 
 'Beneath yon birch with silver bark 
 
 And boughs so pendulous and fair, 
 
 The brook falls scattered down the rock 
 And all is mossy there.' " 
 
 In April this leisure for meditation was broken. At 
 the request of the committee organizing a religious con- 
 gress to be held in 1900, he went to Paris to speak on 
 "La Religion et la Fraternite humaine" before a con- 
 ference presided over by M. Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu. 
 His letters to my mother chronicle the events of his pleas- 
 ant month spent with his friend Professor Bonet-Maury, 
 one of the Protestant faculty of the University of Paris. 
 
 "81 rue de Lille, Paris, April 16, 1896. 
 
 "It is twenty- two years next month since I wrote you 
 my last letter from Paris. It seems like the good old 
 times to be writing you of my doings in this illustre cap- 
 ital d'une nation a laquelle le Republique Americaine doit 
 tant de reconnaissance, (if you will permit me to quote 
 from my maiden French harangue). Well — I love Paris 
 ■ — and so do you. 
 
 "Traveling through Belgium I felt happier than in 
 
A WORLD PILGRIMAGE 34S 
 
 the Fatherland — because I am even more perfectly master 
 of French than of German ! and secondly, because one 
 has more liberty. For example, it was not illegal for me 
 to take the long, yellow skin of the orange I had eaten 
 and throw it from the window upon the ground that 
 once grew cabbages for the imperial table of Charlemagne. 
 My wonderful knowledge of three languages has given 
 me much comfort. It is so nice — when a waiter says to 
 you 'Reisen Sie abf not to look like a fool, and when you 
 put the question 'Wie heisst diese Stadtf to be able to 
 understand the answer." 
 
 "81 rue de Lille, Paris, April 19, 1896. 
 
 "One hundred and twenty-one years ago to-day a shot 
 was fired that was heard around the world. Now shots 
 are fired every week that perform the circuit of the globe. 
 Yesterday morning we took a cab and called on Baron 
 Schickler, one of the members of the Organizing Com- 
 mittee. He is the foremost Protestant of France — very 
 liberal, though orthodox, very rich and benevolent and 
 cultivated. He has a magnificent house on the Place 
 Vendome. In the afternoon we called on the Vicomtc 
 de Meaux — a splendid Catholic gentleman, a friend of 
 Archbishop Ireland and son-in-law of the great Count 
 Montalembert. We had much pleasant talk. Then I 
 came home to sleep. After more study of the 'oration,' 
 I dressed for the Sorbonne dinner given by the professors 
 here to delegates from the universities of Scotland. With 
 his unfailing French politeness Professor Bonet-Maury 
 said, 'You are radiant as the sun.' 
 
 "I can give you no idea of the Banquet. To hear the 
 octogenarian Jules Simon was an event. His political 
 history dates back to '48. He has been Prime Minister 
 
346 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 of the Republic twice and also Minister of Public Instruc- 
 tion. He is the Gladstone of France. Lord Reay's toast 
 was excellent. Mr. Bourgeois's was to the Sorbonne, and 
 this present Prime Minister bids fair to equal any of his 
 predecessors in gracious and tactful oratory, 
 
 "This morning I went with Professor Bonet-Maury 
 to the 'Oratoire' — the greatest of the Protestant Churches 
 of France, and heard a great sermon from Reverend J. C. 
 Roberti, who is considered the first preacher in Paris. 
 His text was 'Help mine unbelief.' Back of the 
 Oratoire (which by the way was crowded) is the great 
 white marble statue of Admiral Coligni — holding in his 
 hand an open Bible on whose pages are the words, 'The 
 memory of the just shall endure.' It is to me the most 
 impressive statue in the world and I should have 'boo- 
 hooed' like a baby if I had been permitted by my guide to 
 look at it longer and think of 'good Coligni's hoary hair, 
 all dabbled with his blood.' 
 
 "After breakfast at 1 1 :30 we went by train to Neuilly 
 and called on M. Frederic Passy — President of the Ar- 
 bitration Committee of France, for eight years a member 
 of the Chamber of Deputies. He is a grand old man 
 and his old home is surrounded by the loveliest garden I 
 ever saw. I wish you could have seen the flowers and 
 the cherry trees. M. Passy's chief enthusiasms now are 
 Free-trade and the Parliament of Religions!" 
 
 "Paris, April 22, '96. 
 "At 5 :30 I met Professor Bonet-Maury — by appoint- 
 ment — at Jules Simon's, 10 Place de Madeleine. He and 
 we had just heard of the sudden death of Leon Say — the 
 great French statesman, political economist, and financier 
 who managed the payment of the indemnity to Germany 
 
A WORLD PILGRIMAGE. 347 
 
 after the war — who, with Thiers, saved the nation and, 
 with Gambetta, organized the Republic. Jules Simon was 
 very much cast down and the old man sat in his chair like 
 one crushed with age and sorrow. But he seemed inter- 
 ested in my journey to India and he told some good 
 stories. As I left, he accompanied us to the door of his 
 great library — where we paused a moment to look at the 
 bust of Thiers, and thinking of my journey round the 
 world — the octogenarian, with the pleasantest of smiles, 
 waved his hand and said 'Bon voyage.' It was a picture 
 I shall never forget." 
 
 His letters tell also of a reception given him by the 
 friends of religious toleration in Paris, at which the hosts 
 were Colonel and Madame Calmard and their daughters, 
 a charming Catholic family, related to Pascal. At this 
 reception and in calls made and received later, he had 
 much 'memorable talk' with the distinguished men his let- 
 ters have already mentioned, and with such others as 
 Albert Reville, Reinach, Zadoc Kahn, Brunetiere, 
 Auguste Sabatier, and Charles Wagner. 
 
 But his chief interest was his French oration. Of it 
 he wrote several years afterward : "My address required 
 of me not only unlimited 'nerve,' but weeks of the most 
 careful preparation. I was drilled day after day by a 
 teacher in Gottingen who had had large experience pre- 
 paring German professors for similar efforts, both in 
 French and English. Then in Paris I went through the 
 performance of reading the address and receiving Profes- 
 sor Bonet-Maury's corrections. It had been more than 
 twenty years since I had attempted to speak French, and 
 I encountered the utmost difficulty in twisting my Saxon 
 tongue and adjusting my English mouth to the unaccus- 
 tomed sounds. Furthermore it seemed to me cruel to 
 
348 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 handicap an American and to exhibit him before the most 
 critical of audiences, bidding him speak on a great theme 
 in a tongue which he had never before used in public. I 
 knew the reputation of Paris, and remembered how 
 Charles Dickens did not dare to go to a Parisian theatre 
 to witness the first production of one of his own stories 
 which had been dramatized. I was wrought up to a 
 height of tension unparalleled in my own experience, but 
 the more anxious I became, the harder I worked. At 
 last I found myself with my oration in my hand, standing 
 before the scholars of the University, and the best people 
 of the Faubourg St. Germain. About me were the rep- 
 resentatives of learning and religion. I was presented 
 by one of the foremost authors of France, and finally I 
 opened my lips and pronounced the opening sentences, 
 which I had committed to memory. After all I had gone 
 through, the words were to me absolutely meaningless, 
 and I shall never forget my surprise when there came 
 out of the mist and mystery before me a ripple and almost 
 a roar of generous and appreciative applause, and I said 
 to myself: Is it possible that these words mean something 
 to the people in this hall? Yes, I am in communication 
 with their minds. And the thought at once changed my 
 whole feeling, and, from that time on, forgetting myself, 
 I remembered my theme, and the meaning of the strange 
 words which my tongue with growing facility was shoot- 
 ing like arrows at the audience before me. I knew that 
 there was great anxiety with my family, who deplored 
 the humiliation into which I had been forced to plunge. 
 And, when the next morning a telegram came to my wife 
 from Professor Bonet-Maury saying 'Your husband's 
 French lecture was a brilliant success,' it was probably the 
 best news that ever reached her. By this experience I 
 
A WORLD PILGRIMAGE. 349 
 
 learned a lesson of sympathy for the thousands of men 
 and women who have gone out from Europe and America 
 into far off lands with the purpose of preaching the Gos- 
 pel in strange tongues. It is one of the most difficult 
 achievements for those in mature life to unmake their 
 minds, alter the natural working of the organs of thought 
 and speech, to make themselves the vehicles of truth in 
 other tongues. The miracles which accompanied the 
 apostles in the early church whereby they were enabled 
 to speak in other languages than those to which they were 
 born, appeared to me to be one of the most beneficent 
 things which the grace of God ever did for His people. 
 
 "My French performance was, of course, grossly Im- 
 perfect in many ways. My accent was far from Parisian, 
 but only courtesy and kindliness characterized the remarks 
 of those who listened. It made me feel ashamed of the 
 discourtesies which foreigners and especially Frenchmen 
 sometimes endure when traveling in our own country, 
 simply because they speak our language with a strong ac- 
 cent, and indicate thus that they do not belong to our 
 people. If the German and French scholars who have 
 been treated uncivilly in American custom houses, Amer- 
 ican hotels, and on American railroads should all report, 
 as some of them have done, their experiences, the report 
 would not be to the credit of America." 
 
 The day after this French oration he wrote to my 
 mother: 
 
 "I did not pronounce so well as in practicing but the 
 audience was simply electric. How I loved them ! At 
 the close I had to rise twice to bow to the applaudisse- 
 ments. It was all a strange and lovely experience. Then 
 Bonet-Maury spoke about India and gave the thanks for 
 the listeners. Then Leroy-Beaulieu called on me to reply 
 
350 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 in 'une langue maternelle' and I went in 'with a whoop.' 
 People said that I was a happier looking man in Eng- 
 lish." 
 
 "80 rue de Lille, Paris, April 27, 1896. 
 "It is after eleven o'clock. I returned an hour ago 
 from our love feast — a banquet given me by my friends — 
 at the Palais Royal. Bonet-Maury led me to this his- 
 toric spot — now given over to good dinners — at seven. 
 There were twenty covers. It was truly a feast of love. 
 Beaulieu was on my right. Among those present were 
 Roberti, Abbe Charbonnel, Charles Wagner, and Frank 
 Puaux, editor of the 'Revue Chretienne.' The addresses 
 were made by Beaulieu — who proposed, of his own ac- 
 cord, the toast of the 'Congress of 1900,' by A. Reville 
 and by Reinach, my dear lovely Jew. Reverend E. Fon- 
 tines, who proposed my health, called me 'le prophete d'es- 
 perance/ and all sorts of sweet things. I replied in elo- 
 quent English, which was much applauded. We had Cath- 
 olics, Protestants, Greeks, Jews, Swedes, French, Swiss, 
 ministers, engineers. University professors, litterateurs, 
 editors, advocates, etc., — a heavenly mixture. I do not 
 dare to recall the kind words they said of me. They 
 will be hard to live up to." 
 
 "81 rue de Lille, Paris, April 28, '96. 
 "Arthur Desjardins called at about 9:30. He cap- 
 tured the manuscript of my French lecture and sent it 
 back with a pleasant note. Then Bonet-Maury and I 
 called on two very pleasant Abbes, Abbe Klein and 
 Abbe Naquet, both friends of our cause. Then we came 
 home and drove to the Grand Hotel — where by appoint- 
 ment Madame Calmard and her oldest daughter, Pro- 
 fessor and Mrs. Bonet-Maury and I had an 
 hour with Mrs. Pottere Palmere. My friends poured 
 
A WORLD PILGRIMAGE. 351 
 
 out on her such a eulogy of my mission in Paris and told 
 so eloquently how I, the 'magician,' had entirely changed 
 the situation — that I changed my seat to talk with M. 
 Pottere Palmere. Mrs. Palmer fairly dazzled and en- 
 tirely charmed my French friends. She speaks French 
 very beautifully. 
 
 "Tonight I am to have a little rest. I never can tell 
 you how I love the men who have opened their hearts 
 to me here." 
 
 His letters describe delightful hours in the Louvre, 
 the Luxemburg, and the Salon Champs Elysees. He 
 writes, too, of "Varnishing Day" at the Salon Champ de 
 Mars, where he found Dagnan-Bouveret's "Last Supper" 
 "its own supreme and splendid vindication" and was 
 almost "awestruck by the strange loveliness of the 
 Saviour's head and by the flood of mellow light which 
 appears to come from his whole form as he stands in the 
 midst of his Apostles who are not looking at us, as if on 
 exhibition, but are absorbed in the supernatural splendor 
 of their Master." On May 2, he was presented to the 
 Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, one of the five 
 that make up the famous Institute of France. "I was 
 introduced," he tells us, "by the distinguished philosopher 
 and archaeologist M. Ravaisson-Mollieu, now in his eighty- 
 third year. About thirty of the forty members sat around 
 the elliptical table that represents the highest honor to 
 which men of science and literature in France can aspire. 
 What impressed me in the members was their simple cor- 
 diality of manner and their venerable years. The laurels 
 in France encircle gray heads." Nor was this his only ex- 
 perience that Saturday." 
 
 "May 3rd, 1896. 
 
 "I will not take time to describe the hour I spent under- 
 
353 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 ground, wax taper in hand, wandering amid a hundred 
 thousand skulls and four hundred thousand femurs, radii, 
 ulnae, etc., all artistically arranged. Leaving the quarries 
 and the sepulchers and the darkness, I hastened back to 
 Bonet-Maury's and we called on Reverend M. Fontanes. 
 He was a great friend of Dean Stanley's and is a friend of 
 Baroness Burdett-Coutts. He went with us by appoint- 
 ment to the Hotel de Rhin overlooking the Place Ven- 
 dome, where the aged and benevolent Baroness — simple as 
 a child, sweet as an angel — received us most kindly and 
 gave us tea and talked missions, India, etc. She wants me 
 to come to London before I go and see what is being done 
 for animals by her Society. She wishes me to tell Dhar- 
 mapala that we are not so bad to the animals as we were. 
 She invited us to call again." 
 
 A little tour through the Loire country convinced him 
 that "Paris is not France" and as he took the train from 
 Blois back to Paris, his mind was full of "the infinite 
 picturesqueness of the French past" and the "horrible 
 part that religion has sometimes played in the drama of 
 history" — yet he adds, "Out of the shadows the world 
 sweeps into a higher day, and that evening at Mr. Clar- 
 ence Eddy's dinner table I realized the contrast between the 
 fierce conflicts of the sixteenth century and the milder 
 struggles of the nineteenth as I heard an American lady 
 exclaiming in the ear of a skeptical British doctor, 'I tell 
 you sir, prohibition in Iowa has been a grand success.' " 
 That same day, too, he wrote, "I am determined to cut 
 these Parisian ties and fly home. Oh for my family and 
 Frau Bau Inspector's soup." Three days later he had 
 them both. These Paris experiences led him to write the 
 next year: 
 
 "I found much kinship with what is best in human 
 
A WORLD PILGRIMAGE. 353 
 
 thought and life in French society. Perhaps more than 
 I found elsewhere in my world-pilgrimage. There is a 
 willingness to accept new ideas; there is a breadth of 
 sympathy ; there is an enthusiasm for human brotherhood ; 
 there is a charm of manner ; there is a brilliancy and agil- 
 ity of mind, that make the best French people most 
 lovable and admirable. The most eloquent words I 
 heard in Europe were Jules Simon's in praise of the nobler 
 French womanhood." 
 
 In June he was invited to speak at an Arbitration 
 meeting in London in behalf of a movement that was 
 seeking to create a "sense of unity in the English-speaking 
 household." He found it unwise to accept, but a letter 
 to Mr. W. T. Stead discloses his sympathy with the pro- 
 posed plan : 
 
 "The widespread and profound ignorance or indiffer- 
 ence of many on each side of the water in regard to what 
 is noblest and most Christian in their kindred on the other 
 side of the sea, can be largely replaced by knowledge, 
 sympathy, and good will through such an organization as 
 has been suggested. Not only should a permanent Court 
 of Arbitration be established, but something effective 
 should immediately be begun to promote friendliness, de- 
 stroy animosity, and secure joint efforts for the noblest 
 common objects. 
 
 "The moral alliance of America and England and of 
 the other English-speaking peoples will be brought about 
 through the exercise of common sense, the development 
 of the idea of a common mission, and through those 
 courtesies which are found among gentlemen, and should 
 not be lacking in the columns of newspapers and the dis- 
 patches of statesmen. This moral alliance must be 
 achieved before the political federation of English-speak- 
 
354 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 ing nationalities, who will soon control the destinies of 
 mankind, will be possible. I, who have often stood, with 
 proud tears in my eyes, at the chief shrines of English 
 liberty and renown, have experienced some of the deepest 
 joys of life in our 'Old Home,' and, if I can render the 
 least service to a cause which means civilization, freedom, 
 peace, international justice, the development of English 
 institutions, and the ultimate triumph of the Larger Christ 
 and Larger Church, I shall feel that I have helped to put 
 a pry under the planet, thus giving the whole world a 
 lift toward the gladness of a brighter day." 
 
 A day with the great Rembrandts in Cassel, and a 
 tramping tour in Heine's footsteps through the Hartz, 
 broke the monotony of study. And when in August 
 the summer semester closed he forsook for a while the 
 Leine valley, lovely with poppies, daisies, and corn flowers, 
 to ramble with his three oldest children through the chief 
 historic towns of Germany. That in the midst of this 
 leisure he had not forgotten the work before him is clear 
 from one of his letters: 
 
 "Gottingen, Sept. 24, 1896. 
 "Dear Mrs. Haskell: 
 
 "At the close of a very busy day, during which we 
 have been packing five or six trunks for various parts of 
 the world, my thoughts turn to you. Now that our life 
 here is nearly ended, and we begin so soon our pilgrimage 
 to India, I wish you to share fully the happy and hope- 
 ful feelings with which I go forth on my mission, your 
 mission, yes, Christ's mission. Now that my lectures are 
 finished, I feel a renewed confidence in the message given 
 me to speak. The doors in India appear to be wide open. 
 All the chief cities and seats of learning are glad to give 
 
A WORLD PILGRIMAGE 355 
 
 me a hearing. Missionaries' homes are offered to us. 
 The Secretary of the Buddhist Society in Calcutta, in a 
 letter just received, sa3's that they will be glad to see 
 me there. Professor Manilal D'evedi, a leading Hindu 
 scholar, sends me a very cordial note. But my chief joy 
 has come from a touching letter sent by Mr. Mozoomdar. 
 Some sentences of it I must copy for you. He says: 
 'I believe both Mrs. Barrows and yourself can realize 
 how your handwriting, and all that you say of yourself, 
 cheers me. It recalls a host of associations that cling 
 around your name and my acquaintance with you, like 
 the blessed memories of some bygone and blessed state 
 of existence. I am glad you have taken this long holiday 
 in Europe with your family with you. It is a rest which 
 you needed and have fully earned. But the American's 
 rest is almost as arduous as his work. It is said the 
 Yankee employs himself by felling timber, and then rests 
 himself by sawing it up. So your rest means hard study 
 in Gottingen, of which, however, we hope to enjoy the 
 fruit next cold weather. Whenever you come, you will 
 be received as cordially as it is in our power to make it, 
 but it can never be anything like the reception we met 
 in Chicago in September, 1893. Our nation is still in the 
 old ways, ways that are narrow and crooked and dark. 
 We need a man of special call and uncommon abil- 
 ity. Such a man, my dear friend and brother, you are. 
 My hopes and enthusiasm at the prospect of your visit 
 are indeed great. Perhaps you have had and will have 
 to keep a little aloof from me, I being "non-Christian," 
 and my people much more non-Christian than mj'self. 
 Nor am I disposed to take advantage of your great name 
 and my friendship with you, to further any religious in- 
 terest that I hold dear to my heart. But I claim that 
 
356 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 no Christian, European or native, can have greater long- 
 ings that you should come to India and speak to its best 
 people, than I have. Because I know and feel that you 
 can place Christ before us as others cannot, because the 
 Spirit of God, who breathed in Christ, breathes in you. 
 And by the force of your spirit, you can draw us close 
 to oneness both with God and His blessed Son. It will 
 not be in my lifetime, which is now nearing its end, 
 that India receives the great and blessed covenant of one- 
 ness with the ancient God of our land in the spirit and 
 love of Jesus Christ, as I have received it myself, but be- 
 lieve me that the day shall come. In my very humble 
 way, the faults of which no one knows better than I, I 
 have labored for this great end ; and now, noble and 
 illustrious brother, in order that the same end may be 
 more fully served by you, I await your arrival with 
 anxiety and affection. I wish it were in my power to 
 receive you in Bombay. When you feel drawn, please 
 write to me again, for no one can have greater honor for 
 you than myself. Now what shall I say in conclusion to 
 dear Mrs. Barrows? When she comes to Calcutta my 
 poor wife will take her by both hands for all her goodness 
 to me. For myself I can only bless her and her children. 
 'Most cordially and faithfully yours, 
 
 'P. C. Mozoomdar.' 
 
 "Isn't this a wonderful letter? I read it with tears in 
 my eyes and a choking in my throat. I know of no man 
 who lives nearer to God than Mozoomdar. He speaks 
 out of the Spirit. How grateful I feel to him. He is 
 in one sense the originator of the lectureship, and I hope 
 that I can bring some comfort to his spirit. His life is 
 hard as he is a kind of mediator between Christianity and 
 
A WORLD PILGRIMAGE 357 
 
 Hinduism. O that I might be baptized into his deep 
 sense of fellowship with God! 
 
 "The dear Lord bless you abundantly and fill your 
 heart with His great peace." 
 
 Preparations for the journey to India were completed 
 in London, where he assisted, early in October, at a great 
 Armenian demonstration in the City Temple, preached 
 for his friend Dr. George F. Pentecost in the Marylebone 
 Presbyterian Church, and lectured on "God's Universal 
 Fatherhood" at Reverend Herbert Stead's Social Settle- 
 ment, Browning hall. "I was," he tells us, "very much im- 
 pressed by the intelligence and acuteness of the English 
 working people whom we met. I gave them an address, 
 which I have given before companies of scholars in Amer- 
 ican universities, and was delighted to see how pleased 
 they were that I gave them the best that I had. There 
 was no talking down to them. They are a manly, acute, 
 and broad-minded company of people." 
 
 He and my mother did not stay long in London. He 
 writes : 
 
 "We have had a golden day in Oxford, visiting with 
 Professor J. Estlin Carpenter, Professor Max Miiller, 
 and Dr. Fairbairn. Professor Carpenter showed us Man- 
 chester New College, in which he is the leading instructor. 
 This Unitarian foundation in Oxford seems to have been 
 accepted without much pious grumbling. Professor Car- 
 penter is far from being a destructive radical. His accu- 
 rate and profound scholarship is joined to a sympathetic 
 and vigorous religious nature which puts him into spirit- 
 ual accord with a large varietj^ of earnest souls. I have 
 rarely met so manly and attractive a personality. The 
 library of Manchester College is worthy of Oxford on 
 account of its beauty, and so is the chapel, with its win- 
 
35S JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 dows designed by Burne-Jones and executed b)' the late 
 William Morris. Professor Carpenter's house is one of 
 those English homes, embowered in roses, which tempt 
 many an American city pastor or professor to break the 
 tenth commandment! 
 
 "Professor and Mrs. Max Miiller were as charming 
 and gracious as we found them last summer. They had 
 invited Professor and Mrs. Carpenter to meet us at 
 luncheon, and the Indian talk by these two scholars was 
 of rare interest. Max Miiller was recently made a 
 member of the Queen's Privy Council, and is now a Right 
 Honorable. As Dean of the foreign section of the French 
 Axademy he was invited to Paris to meet the Czar. 'I 
 could not go,' he said. 'It was only an emperor!' 
 
 "Yesterday we spent in Cambridge and Ely. The 
 Ely cathedral is certainly one of the chief glories of 
 England, and Cambridge has long been to me one of the 
 Meccas of the mind. Did I not feed my youth on Mil- 
 ton's poetry? What a symposium the Cambridge alumni 
 may enjoy in the ethereal realms! 
 
 "Over the Victoria station when we began our travels 
 eastward we saw in great letters Taris, Italy, India.' A 
 two hours' ride through the hop-fields of Kent by Roch- 
 ester Cathedral, brought us to Canterbury and to the 
 comforts of this English Inn 'The Rose.' The sunshine 
 bathed the great Cathedral. We took tea with Dean 
 Farrar, who kindly walked with us through the delightful 
 grounds around the Deanery and poured forth such a 
 wealth of history as perhaps only Dean Stanley could have 
 equalled. We had seen St. Martin's church, the oldest 
 church building in England, and in its church-j'ard Dean 
 Alford's tomb, on which I read, with peculiar emotion, an 
 inscription which would be appropriate to me, resting here 
 
A WORLD PILGRIMAGE 359 
 
 to-night: 'The inn of a traveler on his way to Jerusalem.' 
 We parted from Dean Farrar under Christ Church gate, 
 beneath which, as he told us, Charles V, Henry VIII, and 
 Cardinal Wolsey had walked together. Here the good 
 Dean wished for us a happy journey to India." 
 
 The way to India ran through France, Italy, Greece, 
 Constantinople, Palestine, and Egypt. The weeks spent 
 in these places were among his happiest, since in company 
 with my mother, he renewed many of the impressions that 
 he had received twenty-three years before, and added to 
 them. 
 
 His letters to Mrs. Haskell, relating the events of his 
 stay in Constantinople and Cairo, may well end our ac- 
 count of this first stage in his world pilgrimage. 
 
 "Sea of Marmora, 40 miles from Constantinople, 
 
 "S. Y. 'Midnight Sun,' Nov. 4th, 1896. 
 "Dear Mrs. Haskell: 
 
 "We have left the wicked and doomed city of Con- 
 stantinople and are now en route to Smyrna, We have 
 not yet heard of McKinley's election, but expect to receive 
 a telegram to-morrow morning at the Dardanelles. 
 
 "We had three glorious days in Athens and three hor- 
 rible days in Constantinople, where we arrived Sunday 
 at midnight. E. has been made almost sick by what she 
 has seen and heard in Constantinople. We were invited 
 to spend two nights — and we spent one, with Dr. and 
 Mrs. Washburn at Robert College on the Bosporus, 
 perhaps eight miles from the dreadful city. They are 
 glorious people. You remember Dr. Washburn's por- 
 trait in my book. His house was guarded by sixteen 
 soldiers, and he had four faithful students to watch the 
 soldiers. The missionaries were all very kind to us. I 
 
36q JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 was taken to the American Bible House where I had quite 
 a reception. O such stories of recent cruelties as we 
 heard! Reverend Dr. Herrick came for us this morning 
 and took us over to Scutari on the Asiatic side, and we 
 with him visited the Girls' College taught and supported 
 by Americans. The young ladies were called together in 
 the chapel and I addressed them. It was a piece of 
 Heaven in all this Hell. We called on Dr. Riggs — 
 eighty-six years old and for sixtj^-five years a missionary 
 in Turkey. He and all are well informed of my mission 
 to India and will follow us with their prayers. We also 
 visited the Orphanage for little girls recently opened. 
 There are forty-nine of them. The fathers of all have 
 been recently killed. They sang for us and we could 
 hardly keep from sobbing. God bless these poor little 
 sufferers and their brave American friends! It seemed 
 to us that some great calamity is impending over the city 
 of the wicked. We were glad to leave it. Indeed the 
 American Consul at Athens warned us not to go there, 
 as the Sultan might order, at any time, the slaughter of 
 all Christians, native and foreign. 
 
 "I never felt so deeply before that the Gospel of Love, 
 Forgiveness, Humanity, the Gospel of Christ, is the 
 only hope of the world. E. says that she is never going 
 to give another cent to Home Missions! 
 
 "We are meeting many interesting people on board this 
 ship. Last Sunday night I preached to the passengers 
 on 'Religion and the Beautiful.' We had just come from 
 Athens and all minds were filled with thoughts of the 
 lovely visions of old Greek Art." 
 
 "Cairo, Egypt, Dec. i, 1896. 
 "Our days in Egypt have been most interesting and 
 yet restful. During the last few days I have been seeing 
 
A WORLD PILGRIMAGE 361 
 
 people, in the company of a Chaldean Archbishop, Prince 
 Nouri, who speaks sixteen languages. We have visited 
 the Coptic Patriarch, who learned with great interest 
 of my mission to India, and who has promised to re- 
 member my work in his prayers. We have seen the Mo- 
 hammedan University and the Coptic University. 1 
 have made the acquaintance of two learned men, editors 
 of an Arabic journal, who have published an account of 
 me and my work. 
 
 "Yesterday morning Prince Nouri and I called upon 
 a Moslem scholar, who is at the head of the Mohammedan 
 organization in Egypt, and spent more than an hour with 
 him. He is a man of broad spirit, a very unusual man 
 for a Mussulman, and he would like to represent Mo- 
 hammedanism at the next Parliament of Religions. In 
 the afternoon we called, by appointment, on Sophronius, 
 the Greek Patriarch of Alexandria, the oldest Bishop in 
 the world. He has passed his one hundred and third 
 year, having been born in Constantinople in 1792, yet 
 he looks as vigorous as any young man of seventy-five. 
 Mr. Gladstone and Pope Leo seem to him rather boyish! 
 He has been eighty-six years a priest and seventy-six years 
 a Bishop. It was pleasant to hear him say that he was 
 in loving fellowship with all who loved the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, and that he would not fail to remember me and 
 my mission in his prayers. 
 
 "This morning we had a delightful hour with Selim 
 Pasha, the Egyptian Minister of Public Instruction, He 
 belongs to the Orthodox Greek Church, but he says that 
 the best educational work done in Egypt is done by the 
 American Presbyterian Mission. His wife and five 
 daughters came in to see us. The youngest daughter is 
 named Paradise. They are almost as nice as American 
 
362 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 children but rather timid. Wherever we call, little cups 
 of Turkish coffee are served, and yesterday I drank seven 
 cups!" 
 
 "On the Gulf of Babel Mandeb, Nearing Aden, 
 
 "Dec. 8, 1896. 
 
 "The Pasha sent me his photograph and I called again 
 and gave him mine. He was most fluent and florid in 
 his acknowledgment. He said : 'Dr. Barrows, this 
 picture shall be on the front page of my album. I am a 
 poor man, but if God had given me riches, I should have 
 it framed in diamonds.' It was with difficulty that I sup- 
 pressed a tendency to titter and tried to say something in 
 reply, but if Prince Nouri's Arabic had not reinforced my 
 American English, the answer would have been utterly 
 commonplace. 
 
 "We left Cairo regretfully, though I realized that the 
 time had come for me to 'brace up' for my work. At 
 Port Said the Governor of the Suez Canal, who had read 
 of me in the Arabic papers, gave us his private boat for 
 a trip in the harbor. By the way, the oriental extrava- 
 gance of the Arabic journal in speaking of me was most 
 amusing. My friend Prince Nouri translated for me. 
 'We had the extreme delight of a sublime visit yesterday 
 from his Lordship, Reverend Dr. John Henry Barrows, 
 etc. We found in him an infinite ocean of science and 
 literature and especially of theology!!' I met the editor 
 the next day and thanked him for his great praises, but he 
 said, 'Though I am glad to have decorated my paper with 
 your immortal name, I am inexpressibly sad that my 
 words were so miserably inadequate, for to do you full 
 justice would exhaust all the columns of my paper!!' It 
 was very hard to keep my face straight, and I know that 
 
 i 
 i 
 
A WORLD PILGRIMAGE ^62, 
 
 you will have a good laugh over it as we did. I saw 
 most of the principal people of Cairo, the Greek and 
 Coptic Patriarchs and Archbishops, the leading Moslem, 
 the Minister of Public Instruction, Lord Cromer, the 
 English Viceroy, the missionaries, and leading editors. 
 
 "I enclose Dr. Hume's plan for my lectures. He has 
 done me a very great se.rvice. In one week we expect to 
 land." 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 INDIA AND JAPAN 1 896- 1 897 
 
 "Certainly he is rich, the boundaries of whose life have 
 been enlarged, so that he lives in all the rooms of his 
 spiritual house, and not merely in the cellar." Accord- 
 ing to this, his own definition, my father was a man of 
 wealth, to which new stores had been added by the 
 savants and statesmen of Paris, by secluded Gottingen 
 with its flavor of the past, and by the two months of 
 travel that bound Germany to India. But he never 
 allowed rust to corrupt his riches. Not hoarding, but 
 using, was his motto. And in these five Asiatic months 
 that called into play all of his physical energy and en- 
 durance, his mental alertness and dexterity, and his ability 
 to win men's hearts, he poured forth unstintingly his 
 abundant knowledge of God. During his three months 
 in India he traveled six thousand miles, visited twenty-five 
 towns, and made one hundred and thirteen addresses, to 
 nearly forty thousand people. 
 
 When he and my mother landed in Bombay, they 
 were welcomed by Hindus, Jains, Parsis, Brahmos, and 
 Christians. Long garlands intertwined with gilt tinsel 
 were placed about their necks, and this pretty attention 
 only presaged the courtesy and honor that greeted them 
 all through the Orient. My father has described some 
 of his first impressions. 
 
 "On the morning of December sixteenth, I looked out 
 for the first time on the fields of India. Clumps and 
 rows of trees, all of them strange to us, diversified and 
 
INDIA AND JAPAN 365 
 
 colored the dry, brown landscape with patches of green. 
 One's first feeling was the wideness and bigness of India, 
 — a striking contrast to Egypt, Palestine, and Greece. 
 But the evidences of drought were painfully present, and 
 the shivering, half-starved, and half-naked figures which 
 in the early morning came out of the wretched mud vil- 
 lages or gathered at the pretty stations of the Great In- 
 dian Peninsula Railroad, showed us that famine is impend- 
 ing. A poor ragged girl, hardly able to stand, would 
 not take from us a part of the ample and delicious lunch- 
 eon which Mrs. Hume had provided. Hungry American 
 children would have scrambled for a piece of the cake 
 which this Hindu girl, bound by caste, sadly refused. 
 But she picked up the half-anna which I threw to her, 
 equivalent to six pie or one cent. From all this E. 
 evolved the first generalization applicable to India. It 
 is this: that starving Hindu children will take pie but 
 not cake from the hands of Christians! The colors and 
 the garments and the faces and the noises at one of the 
 great railway stations of India make you feel how tame 
 and commonplace was the Midway Plaisance. Such im- 
 possible greens, blues, purples, reds, and yellows! Such 
 head-dresses of every size and shade and shape! We saw 
 Mohammedans who had dyed their beards and hair orange 
 color, and wore long gold-embroidered robes, and walked 
 barefooted or in stockingless slippers. But to me the 
 most evident fact in India thus far has not been any 
 splendor of foliage or flowers, nor the appearance of 
 monkeys in fields, nor the new kinds of vegetation, nor 
 even the general poverty everj^where apparent. To me 
 the most evident fact in India is the human leg. It is 
 usually bare to the hip. Men with their heads and bodies 
 covered with white cotton cloth walk bare-legged through 
 
366 JOHN HEN RY BARROWS 
 
 field and street. Brown legs, slim legs, black legs, hairy 
 legs, legs larger at the knees than at the thigh, so slim 
 and spare that you wonder how the body is supported, 
 legs of boys and young men and old men, of little girls 
 with sweet faces and dark fawn-like eyes, — these are the 
 objects which the non-Christian populations of India 
 thrust before the eyes of travelers. 
 
 "Benares did not enchant me with popular Hinduism. 
 It is not an inspiring and elevating spectacle, the sight 
 at close range of Hinduism and what it has effected in 
 a land where nearly one-half the people are imprisoned 
 for life, hidden from sight in the seclusion and social 
 starvation of the zenana; in a country with three hun- 
 dred millions of people and three hundred and thirty- 
 three millions of gods, most of whose inhabitants are 
 half-naked, and one-fourth of whom have but a single 
 meal a day, even when famine has not swept away, as 
 during the last twelve months, its millions of victims; 
 a country where idolatry in its most hideous forms spreads 
 its debasing influence, holding in childish enslavement 
 a ^r'-'ple whom a pure Christianity is yet to reach, in- 
 structing them that God, who is spirit, must be wor- 
 shipped in spirit and in truth ; a country where lying is 
 an immemorial fine art, where English judges are in de- 
 spair of knowing what testimony in court is true, and 
 where American observers, predisposed, like Colonel Ol- 
 cott, to look favorably on all things Indian, feel the hope- 
 lessness of raising the people out of bottomless depths of 
 moral rottenness; a country where the population, sepa- 
 rated by race, language, and religion, are spread over a 
 peninsula so vast that what is said in Calcutta may appear 
 to Lahore like an utterance from another nation, and 
 what is done in Bombay is of little moment, unless it be 
 
INDIA AND JAPAN 2,^7 
 
 in the matter of the plague, to those who live in Madras. 
 
 "India is a land where religion can be observed and 
 where it cannot be escaped, and this for two reasons: 
 first, because religion is external ; and second, because it 
 is universal. A man's religion is often indicated by the 
 streaks of paint on his forehead. If they are horizontal, 
 you know he is a worshipper of Siva. If they are vertical, 
 or convergent toward the bridge of the nose, you know 
 that he is a worshipper of Vishnu. The use of paint is 
 one of the striking features of Hinduism. Entering the 
 bank in Bombay, you are surprised that the accomplished, 
 polite, English-speaking accountant has a red mark in 
 the centre of his forehead, indicating that he has done 
 service that morning to his idol. This is called doing 
 one's 'pooja.' 
 
 "One may observe accurately and fully the working of 
 religion in India because it is universal. Religion enters 
 into all life; and in Benares, for example, it seems to be 
 the main business of life. Who that has seen it can 
 ever forget that picture which so many have attempted 
 vainly to describe — the morning scene on the Ganges, be- 
 low the long line of temples and tombs that fringe the 
 sacred shore, the men, women, and children by the thou- 
 sand, and sometimes by the ten thousand, who have 
 come down for their ablutions, stretching their arms and 
 saying their prayers toward the sun, calling upon the 
 names of their gods, washing their mouths and ears and 
 arms and legs in the great river, whose touch is so sacred 
 and potential that it removes all sin ! In the bewildering 
 scene one becomes confused and asks himself if he is vis- 
 iting Bedlam. Is this the nineteenth century? Where 
 is our boasted civilization? Are all men maniacs here? 
 Is insanity the natural condition of some portions of the 
 
368 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 human race? There is a temple to the goddess of small- 
 pox; here are idols of almost inconceivable hideousness; 
 there are men carr}ang a dead body to lay it in the sacred 
 waters before it is burned ; here others are pounding the 
 fragments of a human form that has been only partly 
 burned to ashes; there hundreds of poor wretches are 
 crowding down toward a noisome well with copper coins 
 in their fingers and wreaths of yellow flowers, eager to 
 dip their feet and hands in its infected depths; here are 
 hideous caricatures of humanity, shriveled, clothed in 
 rags and vermin, deformed, mendicant, lying on the verge 
 of the stream, hoping that death will strike them there. 
 
 "You enter a temple at Benares — if the cows will per- 
 mit you, for the cows are here deified — and you see loath- 
 some wretches crawling through filth and touching various 
 parts of the sacred animal with their lips. Here idolatry 
 presents an aspect which robs it of its last vestige of re- 
 spectability. One may have some aesthetic sympathy 
 with those who gather on the mountain-peak to watch 
 the rising sun and to render homage to the god of light 
 as he peers over the Persian mountain ; one may have 
 some sympathy with the spirit of the Japanese pilgrim 
 who climbs the sacred peak of his own beautiful land. 
 Many lovers of beauty discover something lovable, not 
 only in the Greek and Roman mythologies, but also in 
 the services rendered to Phoebus Apollo, or Pallas Athene, 
 or to Olympian Zeus ; but in Hindu temples almost every- 
 thing is dark and ugly, and many things are morally and 
 physically unclean. 
 
 "I have seen the devoted students of Hinduism in the 
 towers that overlook the Ganges, in the ancient city of 
 Benares, men who for twenty years have been reading, 
 under the guidance of saintly, unclothed pundits, the in- 
 
INDIA AND JAPAN 365 
 
 terminable books which they regard as the highest and 
 purest source of spiritual knowledge, unmindful of the 
 degradation, ignorance, and miseries of the huge mass of 
 idolaters that creep and suffer and die about them. There 
 they spin their intellectual webs; they follow the devious 
 track of former thinkers ; they endeavor to slake the un- 
 slakable at fountains that can never satisfy the soul. It 
 is one of the most ghastly pictures of misapplied assiduity 
 and ingenuity that the world presents to-day. I said to 
 these men : 'Do you not familiarize ourselves with the 
 Christian Scriptures?' and they replied: 'Before one un- 
 dertakes anything new, he asks, what purpose will it 
 serve?' I replied: 'It is worth your while to know the 
 Christian Bible, for it has shaped the mightiest nations 
 of the world." They answered : 'We have not yet fin- 
 ished our own scriptures. We find in them more than 
 we can absorb and appropriate. Why, therefore, should 
 we go elsewhere?' And there, in their conceited lone- 
 liness and abstraction, they sat, and there they will con- 
 tinue to spin the webs w'hich may catch many a fly and 
 darken many a window. There they will pursue the 
 studies v.'hich may sharpen the mind along certain nar- 
 row lines, but can never make great souls, filled with the 
 passion of righteousness and the heroism of love." 
 
 In Benares he made several addresses, but his main 
 work began with more than two weeks of constant speak- 
 ing in Calcutta. 
 
 The records of the Calcutta Missionary conference 
 state that his lectures "were distinguished by their high- 
 toned earnestness, their incisive force, their brave and 
 unambiguous outspokenness, their thorough grasp of the 
 great truths they handled, their practical value as a con- 
 tribution to Christian apologetics, their profound learn- 
 
370 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 ing, and sweet persuasiveness. In them, the inaugurat- 
 ing series of the lectureship, were fulfilled the promises 
 made at its inception. They were distinguished by the 
 scholarly and withal friendly, temperate, and conciliatory 
 manner in which opponents of Christianity were referred 
 to, and by the fraternal spirit which animated all allu- 
 sions to the devotees of other religions. While the right- 
 ful claims of Christianity were set forth w^ithout com- 
 promise or hesitation, they were at the same time set 
 forth in such a way as to secure the favorable interest 
 of the many who would not acknowledge these claims. 
 The Conference were also struck by the untiring activity 
 which Dr. Barrows manifested during his short stay of 
 fourteen days in Calcutta, for during that period he ad- 
 dressed as many as twenty-two audiences in the same 
 forceful manner, never sparing himself, or in any way 
 compromising his position as a Christian lecturer, de- 
 sirous of winning souls for the Lord Jesus." Of his 
 closing lecture the Indian Witness of Calcutta said that 
 it "was a masterly presentation of the claims of the Chris- 
 tian faith upon all men, and in every way a worthy com- 
 pletion of what must be regarded as the ablest course 
 of lectures on Christian subjects to which the Indian 
 community, of the presen' neration at least, has been 
 permitted to listen," 
 
 Besides his lectures and the discussions that followed 
 them, long personal interviews, almost every morning 
 with men of dififerent faiths, gave him opportunities for 
 presenting Christian truth, and for removing difficulties 
 in the way of its acceptance. He has given us some of 
 his impressions: 
 
 "It is a strange and wonderfui experience which comes 
 to an American to find himself standing before an audi- 
 
INDIA AND JAPAN 371 
 
 ence of dark-skinned, black-eyed, white-turbanned, lightly- 
 clothed Hindus of keen minds and to realize that he is 
 about to address a company of men (I say men, for no 
 Hindu women, excepting a few Christian and Brahmo 
 ladies, appear in public) trained in the ideas of what 
 we call heathenism; of men who are outside the thoughts 
 and convictions of Christendom. These men have been 
 educated in English government colleges and have learned 
 to understand and to speak our language, so I had 
 immediate access to their minds. The purity and clas- 
 sical beauty of the English spoken by such men as Mr. 
 Mozoomdar and Justice Banurji of Calcutta are my 
 delight and wonder. Of course most Hindus who learn 
 English gain only a superficial acquaintance with our 
 great tongue. They mistake the idioms often-times, and 
 get our proverbs mixed up. Principal Morison informs 
 me that one of his young men in a geography class told 
 him that Bombay was distant from Calcutta so many 
 miles, 'as the cock crows.' A Calcutta baker who deemed 
 himself an expert had painted upon his sign these words: 
 'Babu Chatterjea, First-class European Loafer.' Some 
 of the Hindus are very proud of their knowledge of Eng- 
 lish, an acquaintance with which is essential to entering 
 the government service, and certainly the college boys 
 whom I have met talk very fluently. They are ex- 
 ceedingly fond of debates, and would have been very glad 
 to remain several hours at the close of my lectures for 
 a discussion of the points at issue. With all this verbal 
 contentiousness, they are exceedingly courteous, and this 
 courtesy and kindness find expression in a profusion of 
 garlands and gifts of fruit, and In speeches, marked at 
 times by oriental extravagances. One Brahman judge 
 in presenting me to an audience modestly and appre- 
 
272 JOHX HENRY BARROWS 
 
 datively said : 'For me to introduce this speaker is like a 
 mosquito introducing an elephant.' 
 
 "Babu-English presents many laughable peculiarities, 
 one of which pleased me greatl)% The Pundit in Poona 
 who was teaching the Marathi language to one of our 
 missionaries was always accustomed to speak of chickens 
 as 'the cubs of a hen.' The }'oung of different animals 
 in his own language were called by one name, and when 
 he had learned in his study of English that the offspring 
 of a bear were called cubs, he applied the term indis- 
 criminately to the offspring of all other animals. This 
 fact may explain a certain item which appeared on the 
 bill of fare at a hotel in Colombo, Ceylon. The guests 
 were invited to partake of this toothsome viand: 'the 
 pups of a goose.' The Hindus are fond of high-sounding 
 titles for themselves and their friends, and I know of 
 a missionar)' who was addressed in a letter in these tre- 
 m-endous terms, 'Most Respectable Enormit}'.' 
 
 "But he who meets the educated Hindu mind in public 
 or private discussion will find no lack of acuteness, if he 
 sometimes does miss a lack of comprehensiveness and of 
 perfect candor. The Hindu is quick to detect the errors 
 and incongruities characterizing the representatives of 
 western civilization and Christianity, and I never realized 
 more vividly what is one of the obstacles to the rapid 
 progress of the Christian Gospel in India than when at 
 the close of a lecture on 'Christ, the Universal Man and 
 Saviour,' a lecture presided over by a Brahman of emi- 
 nence, and listened to verj- courteously by a quiet Hindu 
 congregation, a drunken Englishman staggered to his 
 feet and, with foolish words and gestures objected to the 
 vote of thanks which these so-called heathen people were 
 about to offer to a Christian lecturer." 
 
INDIA AND JAPAN 373 
 
 In Calcutta a dinner was given in my father's honor by 
 the Honorable Justice Ameer Ali, "a delightful man well 
 known throughout the world for his literary champion- 
 ship of Islam." He was given a reception in the palace 
 of the Maharajah Bahadur, the leading nobleman of Cal- 
 cutta, by representatives of the Hindu, IVIohammedan, 
 Jain, Parsi, Buddhist, Brahmo, and Christian communi- 
 ties; an entertainment where fine Hindu music and skil- 
 ful Hindu jugglery took the place of food. Two of the 
 other social pleasures of his stay in Calcutta he has de- 
 scribed rather fully: "On Wednesday afternoon a re- 
 ception w^as given us at Peace Cottage by Mr. and Mrs. 
 Mozoomdar which illustrated Indian ways of welcoming 
 guests. A conch shell sounded its note as we entered the 
 gate. As we drew near the house, rose-petals were show- 
 ered upon us from a balcony. Mr. Mozoomdar was 
 dressed in the white robes which he wears when preach- 
 ing. Mrs. Mozoomdar, who does not speak English, 
 made an address to Mrs. Barrows in Bengali. We were 
 garlanded, and then presented to the Brahmo ladies, a 
 beautiful group of about twenty young women. Our host 
 made an address, to which I responded, after which some 
 remarks were made by the Reverend Air. Harwood of 
 England. Incense sticks were burned, — another note of 
 welcome. Seventeen different kinds of fruits and Indian 
 sweetmeats were spread before us. Some of these were 
 delicious. Then Sanskrit and Bengali hymns were sung 
 by the 'Singing Apostle' among the Brahmos, to the accom- 
 paniment of a violin played by a beautiful young girl, 
 who also sang. Among the twenty Indian gentlemen 
 present, several were Brahmo preachers. Before leaving 
 we were shown through our host's pleasant and simply 
 furnished cottage. I was glad to see a marble cross stand- 
 
374 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 ing on Mr. Mozoomdar's table. The hour we spent 
 in Peace Cottage was one of the most beautiful of our 
 lives. 
 
 "Frida)^ January first, was a novel opening to a new 
 year. In the afternoon we accepted the invitation of the 
 Maharani of Kuch Behar, the daughter of the late Keshub 
 Chunder Sen, to visit her mother and herself at Lily Cot- 
 tage. A bell sounded as we entered the yard, and 'Wel- 
 come' in silver letters was over the door and stairway. 
 It is thirteen years now since the eloquent reformer, the 
 best-known Hindu of this generation, entered into his 
 rest. The first day of January is a sacred day with the 
 family, who always spend it at Lily Cottage together. 
 On his tomb are inscriptions in four languages, and above 
 it is a marble symbol composed of the cross, crescent, and 
 trident. Within the house garlands, sweets, fruits, tea, 
 singing, and playing entertained us. The Maharani is 
 the wife of the Maharajah of Kuch Behar, and is a beau- 
 tiful and accomplished princess. When in England, she 
 was the guest of the Queen at Windsor Castle. The 
 ^widow of Keshub Chunder Sen is a sweet faced lady, 
 rich in the love of her ten children and eighteen grand- 
 children. She was glad to hear that her husband's words 
 had been widely read and were much appreciated in 
 America. A lovelier family and a sweeter family life I 
 have never seen. The room where the Indian reformer 
 died is kept as he left it, and was fragrant with fresh 
 flowers. The household revere him not only as husband, 
 father, and grandfather, but also as a prophet. Two 
 portraits of Keshub Chunder Sen were given us, together' 
 with a set of his works. The best utterances of this great 
 man are among the classics of the Spirit." 
 
 He wrote to Mrs. Haskell: "'Lady Haskell' is a 
 
INDIA AND JAPAN 375 
 
 liousehold name in India, and when spoken it always 
 evokes applause. I have mentioned the name of Abra- 
 ham Lincoln without stirring any interest, but the men- 
 tion of your name brings on a clapping of dark-skinned 
 and fair-skinned hands. 
 
 "You will be glad to hear that the educated non-Chris- 
 tians listened attentively and gratefully and that I was 
 told that the 3'oung men of Calcutta were reading the 
 lectures with great care. One educated Hindu told me 
 that it was the first time that he had ever heard Chris- 
 tianity presented without abuse of other religions. But 
 O, how good people were to us in Calcutta!" 
 
 At Darjeeling he had his first view of the Himalayas. 
 He writes: "It is a great moment when one catches his 
 first glimpse at Darjeeling of the giant backbone of the 
 world. Those peaks, rising ten thousand feet above the 
 clouds, are of course inaccessible. The great, wide- 
 stretching cloud banks beneath give them an airy appear- 
 ance. You stand on Observatory Peak, seven thousand 
 feet above the sea, and look down, down on three sides 
 of you, into dark green abysmal depths and spaces, and 
 then lifting your eyes as they gaze northward above the 
 cloud-forms you behold, forty miles away, white peak 
 after white peak of unspeakable beauty and grandeur 
 soaring into the azure heavens. From their heights is 
 born the Ganges, issuing as the Hindus believe from the 
 feet of Vishnu, gathering from those snows the volume 
 of waters which has made life possible to a hundred 
 millions of people. It is almost impossible I found to 
 take one's eyes away from the golden crown of Kinchin- 
 junga and his mountain brothers. Gazing toward those 
 heights one feels as if he were peering into the colossal 
 studio of the Divine Artist." 
 
376 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 He writes from Delhi : "More than a dozen empires 
 have been lost and won in battles about Delhi. And 
 yet one feels in this an almost languid interest, largely 
 because the history lies outside the main current of human 
 development. 
 
 "There are native patriots to-day who imagine that the 
 'simple life of India' is preferable to the 'luxurious and 
 enervating civilization' of the West, I have even been 
 asked if I would like to live the 'simple life of India.' If 
 by this expression is meant the half-clothed distress, the 
 pitiful hunger of the many millions who, not merely in 
 years of famine, but generally, live in mud hovels without 
 the comforts that are enjoyed by some of the aboriginal 
 tribes of North America, I should neither like it for 
 myself nor for the poorest and most abject people of Eu- 
 rope." 
 
 Agra's contribution to his experience was, of course, 
 the Taj Mahal. "Nowhere else," he says, "so fully as 
 in the Taj Mahal have I had such a sober certainty of 
 the waking bliss of beauty and of human love embodied 
 in architecture. Standing beneath the dome, Moslem 
 lips breathed forth the name of Allah, and melodious 
 echoes, softening and dying away, brought back to our 
 ears the sacred syllables. The Palace Crown of Asia is 
 not out of harmony with the spirit which ascribes all 
 glory to Heaven. 
 
 "Still Jeypore was our greatest sensation since Benares. 
 It is a city of pink houses and broad streets where ele- 
 phants, monkeys, cows, and tens of thousands of pigeons 
 are equally at home. Western civilization has done a 
 large work beneath these Oriental ways and forms. But 
 driving by the fantastic Hall of the Winds, or the tall 
 tower which overlooks the city, or wandering through 
 
INDIA AND JAPAN Z77 
 
 the Maharajah's palace and pleasure-ground within which 
 his Highness employs and feeds ten thousand attendants ; 
 inspecting and buying the beautiful enamel-work done 
 in the bazaars; taking a peep at the splendid tigers, or 
 watching the horrible alligators snatching great pieces of 
 meat in the immense royal tanks ; beholding the monkeys 
 scampering along the houses, or even gazing at the curious 
 and colossal instruments in Jey Sing's Astronomical Ob- 
 servatory ; and above all, looking at the motley and many- 
 colored procession of people moving along the pink streets, 
 which in color and material appear like the scenery of 
 some gorgeous and fantastic stage, — one loses sight of 
 everything Occidental, and says in his heart, 'This is the 
 East, the quintessence of all brilliant and bewildering 
 Orientalism.' " 
 
 At Indore, the Maharajah, in a long white silk robe and 
 with bare feet, received them at his palace. My father 
 writes of Indore and Ahmednagar, "The Maharajah sent, 
 to our temporary home a colossal elephant, so that we 
 might enjoy a ride. He was almost as tall as Jumbo 
 and thicker set. He had a back on which a Hindu tem- 
 ple easily could have been carried. After photographing 
 him we mounted him, four of us. His elephantine maj- 
 esty, obedient to the stroke of the driver's iron rod, knelt 
 down, and we climbed by a ladder to seats in the howdah. 
 When he rose to his feet, I thought for a moment that 
 my lecture tour in India was about to end ! The tower 
 seemed on the point of tipping over. Things came to 
 rights, however, and our lofty perch was pronounced a 
 delightful seat, and, as the elephant-puncher put in his 
 work behind, and the great beast trotted down the road, 
 we regarded our exaltation and locomotion with princely 
 self-complacency. For daily comfort and convenience. 
 
378 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 however, give me in preference to an Indore elephant, an 
 out-door donkej\ 
 
 "The Reverend Robert A. Hume, D. D., of Ahmed- 
 nagar, has made all the arrangements for my India pil- 
 grimage, answering correspondents, accepting or declin- 
 ing invitations, and furnishing an exact itinerary down 
 to the minute of our arrival and departure in the case 
 of every city. He is now called 'Major Pond.' On 
 leaving Indore we looked for\vard with great pleasure 
 to meeting the kindly Major. He had promised us two 
 days of rest in his home. We arrived at two o'clock in 
 the morning, and, finding the American mail awaiting 
 us, closed our eyes in sleep about four. For three suc- 
 cessive mornings the Major's sweet voice awakened us at 
 half-past six. I faithfully submitted myself to the de- 
 tailed programme which he had arranged, and in the 
 two and a half days of our sojourn in his delightful home, 
 under his restful superintendence, I made six addresses, 
 enjoyed three receptions, visited four schools, went to a 
 native concert, made several calls, attended service in 
 a village church six miles away, visited the famine-relief 
 works seven miles from Ahmednagar, answered some 
 correspondents, and received many friendly visitors. As 
 the heat had destroyed my appetite, I went through these 
 days of rest on the strength of Indian tea. One morn- 
 ing we drove out with several missionaries, one of them 
 on a bicycle, six miles into the country. The Christians 
 of the village, knowing of our approach, came out to 
 meet us with strange music of horns and native drums, 
 escorting us to the schoolhouse, which is also the village 
 church. And here I had one of the chief privileges of 
 my life. I was permitted to baptize two young men, re- 
 cent converts to the gospel. It seemed to me that he who 
 
INDIA AND JAPAN 379 
 
 stooped to the lowliness of Bethlehem and Nazareth was 
 almost sensibly present in this little meeting-house, which 
 the dark hands of humble people had decorated with 
 fruits and wild flowers, out of regard to one of Christ's 
 ministers who had come to them from the other side of 
 the world. 
 
 "On leaving Ahmednagar, with its Sabbath quiet and 
 repose, we began our journey to Poona." 
 
 Poona was suffering that winter from the plague. Fires, 
 burning disinfectants, and unroofed houses where 
 death had been, were the sights he saw as he drove to 
 his lectures. At several of these "Young Poona," Brah- 
 man youth, hostile to everything Christian and Western, 
 indulged in brief outbursts of dissent. My father was 
 untroubled. "The local papers, even those most bitter 
 against Christianity, read lectures to 'Young Poona' from 
 editorial pulpits; but to me this was one of the amusing 
 and much prized experiences, which I should have been 
 sorry to have missed. My host in Poona, the Reverend 
 John Small, of the Free Church of Scotland, informed me 
 that one of his scholars, a Hindu boy, was finally per- 
 suaded that the system of geography taught in European 
 schools was true, and Mr. Small said to him: 'What will 
 you do now with the Hindu geography with its seven 
 insular continents surrounded by seven great seas, the sea 
 of salt water, of sugar-cane juice, of wine, of clarified 
 butter, of curd, of milk, and of fresh w^ater, with its 
 mountains tens of thousands of miles in height? Since 
 European geography is true, what will you do with this 
 Hindu geography?' and the reply was not astonishing: 
 'I will believe them both!' " 
 
 The last weeks of his lecturing he spent in southern 
 India where he remarked still other Hindu ways. 
 
38o JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 "There is still a thief caste in India. I saw a village 
 near Madura occupied by these people. Every midnight 
 some officer of the English Government calls the roll of 
 the male inhabitants of the community. Nevertheless, 
 after they have reported to him, and he has disappeared, 
 they spread themselves for miles over the surrounding 
 country, carrying on their occupation until the sun rises, 
 when they are found quietly sleeping in their own mud 
 hovels. At the house of our host in Palam.cottah, the 
 men in the hall outside of my room who pulled the 
 punkah over my bed through the night, both belonged to 
 the thief caste. I asked Air. Schreenivassa, the Chris- 
 tian Brahman who entertained us, why he employed 
 such men, and he said that they were under contract 
 with him to be responsible for all the stealing that was 
 done in his house. They were to see to it that no robbery 
 occurred here, but outside they probably pursued their 
 profession with commendable diligence! 
 
 "And there is a want of honesty, common truthfulness, 
 and integrity which saddens one everywhere in India. On 
 our arrival in Madura, we were informed at the station 
 that by special order the jewels of the famous temple 
 would be opened for our inspection the next afternoon. 
 These precious gems are enclosed in a great iron box to 
 which there are six separate locks and keys. Each key 
 is entrusted to a different warden and without the consent 
 of these six men, who live in different places, it is impos- 
 sible to get at the treasures. So profound is the distrust 
 which the Hindus have of each other that some of the 
 treasures are guarded by more than twenty men in this 
 way, and in Madura one of our American missionaries 
 was asked by the priests of the temple to take charge of 
 the jewels. He refused, and they said to him: 'How 
 
INDIA AND JAPAN 381 
 
 does it happen that when we have so many gods, they do 
 not make our people honest? You have only one and 
 He succeeds in your case. What we need is to get a 
 statue of your God Jesus, and put Him in our temple by 
 the side of our deities. Perhaps that will succeed in 
 making us honest!' The lengths to which the Hindu 
 mind has gone in its faith that external rites and some- 
 thing merely mechanical can produce sanctity, are almost 
 incredible. I have seen men staggering in the hot sun, 
 bearing on their shoulders buckets of water, which they 
 had carried three hundred miles from the Ganges, in 
 order to pour them into their own rivers, thus to make 
 them sacred. 
 
 "Hindu civilization — that immense and various life, 
 which men have lived 
 
 'Under the southward snows of Himalay' — 
 
 presents an example of evolution without progress, and 
 with its dcviousness, its glooms, its storms, its vastness, 
 and its languors, may be likened to the mystic and sinuous 
 stream in Coleridge's 'Kubla Khan:' 
 
 'Meandering with a mazy motion 
 Through wood and dale the sacred river ran, 
 Then reached the caverns measureless to man, 
 And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean.' " 
 The newspaper editorials on the Barrows lectures are 
 interesting. The Indian Christian Herald, the organ 
 of the Bengali Christians, says: 
 
 "The mission of Dr. Barrows, it was well understood, 
 was solely and wholly to commend to the people the fit- 
 ness of Christianity to become the world-religion. Never 
 before had a Hindu Maharaja's palace been thrown open 
 to celebrate the welcome of one with so exclusive a mes- 
 
382 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 sage to deliver. Never before had Hindus, Mohamme- 
 dans, Parsis, Buddhists, Jains, and Brahmos vied with 
 Christians in wishing godspeed to so single-purposed a 
 herald. Nor was the spell broken with the development 
 of the mission. The prayer which, for the first time, 
 went up from the palatial hall, 'May the spirit of Jesus 
 prevail still more widely and pervade still more deeply,' 
 was abundantly answered. The gospel lectures found 
 among their hearers men of light and learning, Hindu, 
 Brahmo, and Parsi, who had never before listened to a 
 distinctive, evangelical appeal. Nay, some of them were 
 delivered under the acquiescing presidency of Brahmo and 
 Hindu representatives, while all elicited from non-Chris- 
 tians and Christians alike, repeated plaudits of approval. 
 We are firmly persuaded that Dr. Barrows has been used 
 of God to draw out, and make patent, some of the invisi- 
 ble trophies of missions, and that the outlook is bound 
 to be an enthusiastic revival of the missionary spirit in 
 the homes of missions. He has taken his stand on the 
 same evangelical foundations which are exhibited in the 
 apostolic mission of the missionaries. Dr. Barrows has 
 illustrated, further, that, while the recognition of truth, 
 wherever it is found, is an imperative obligation on the 
 part of every true man, such recognition, properly viewed, 
 is a source of strength, rather than of weakness, to Chris- 
 tianity." 
 
 Soon after leaving India my father wrote: "The long, 
 low coast of India faded from our view, and that great 
 land which drew to it the covetous eye of Alexander and 
 where British adventurers founded an empire greater 
 and more durable than Alexander's — India, the spoil of 
 conquerors and the inspiration of poets and sages, the land 
 of sorrow and distress and blighting pestilence, which is 
 
INDIA AND JAPAN 383 
 
 to-day dear to the world's pitying heart, a land, too, 
 which is of all lands the battlefield of the world's religions 
 — became for us henceforth a memory, a memory which 
 gathers to itself a host of kindly thoughts and courteous 
 deeds and friendly faces, many of them 'dusk faces with 
 white silken turbans wreathed.' Land of sorrow and 
 struggle, of intellectual greatness; land of gentle manners 
 and keen intelligence, of undying hope and unwithering 
 national pride, — thou bearest on thy bosom the ashes of 
 Gautama Buddha, the grave of Keshub Chunder Sen, 
 the peerless beauty of the Taj Mahal, the throbbing 
 hearts of millions who love thee and who look in faithful 
 aspiration to God and to a golden future which shall 
 not fail thee, — farewell, and count us ever among thy 
 lovers, ready to serve thee, eager to befriend thee, unable 
 to forget thee!" 
 
 His work in India had been no merely punctilious per- 
 formance of duty. To it he had given the fullness of 
 his powers in a measure brimming over. It was, there- 
 fore, not strange that he felt on reaching Ceylon, "like an 
 escaped school boy," that he read psalms of praise, and 
 delighted in the "sweet smells and sweeter sights, cool 
 waters, blossoming trees, happy-faced children, and yel- 
 low-robed, calm-browed priests" of this Buddhist land. 
 At Kandy his tired mind and body found those best of 
 simples, rest and recreation. He writes: 
 
 "We were introduced once more to the juicy beef- 
 steak, and it was the conviction of my wise companion 
 that this steak represented about four thousand years 
 of human civilization. There are a few things in my 
 journey round the world which have impressed me so 
 deeply as the tropic vegetation of Ceylon. I never 
 realized the force of nature's creative power, the vio- 
 
384 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 lence which sun and shower can evoke from the potent 
 seeds in the earth, so intensely and with such a shock 
 of surprise as when standing in the Peradeniya Gardens 
 yesterday I saw the clusters of giant bamboos shooting 
 up from the soil more than a hundred feet, each one a 
 tree and altogether looking like a vegetable geyser. The 
 slow growth of the California pine into its colossal di- 
 mensions was less startling than this sudden up-springing 
 of a huge vegetable volcano." 
 
 On the 1 2th and 13th of March he lectured to large 
 audiences containing many Buddhists in Wesley College, 
 Colombo. 
 
 From Ceylon the steamer Yangtsi carried them to 
 Singapore, Saigon, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and finally — 
 on April 5, to Kobe. During his nineteen days in Japan 
 he gave twenty-two addresses in Kobe, Osaka, Kioto, 
 Yokohama, and Tokyo, Perhaps the unique experience 
 of these weeks was that of the dinner connected with the 
 beautiful reception given him in the Botanical Gardens 
 of Tokyo. He appreciated the honor, but not the food. 
 
 "About fifty of us," he writes, "Christians, Buddhists, 
 Shintoists, and Confucianists, sat down at noonday in a 
 most beautiful casino, surrounded by cherry trees which 
 were filling the air and covering the paths with white and 
 pink blossoms. Opposite me was Shibata, a high priest 
 of Shintoism, a cheery and good-natured soul, very fond of 
 America, who made himself famous at the Parliament of 
 Religions by kissing an American lady on the platform. 
 He had been told that this was in accordance with the 
 manners of our country. He v.-as a very friendly mortal 
 and I shall not forget some of his acts of kindness, even 
 while I cherish a slight resentment over his hilarity at this 
 dinner. There was set before each one of us a covered 
 
INDIA AND JAPAN 385 
 
 bowl of soup, and I was given a pair of wooden chop- 
 stick as my only means of getting at the steaming liquid. 
 I had never used before, and I hope never to use again, 
 these instruments of supplying the human mouth with 
 food. Removing the cover from my bowl, I plunged 
 the chopsticks, as I saw others doing, into the liquid 
 depths and fished out, — I knew not what. It was a 
 huge morsel of something which I thrust into my mouth 
 with resolute heroism, and began to chew. It was a 
 piece of raw fish, a great delicacy in Japan, and I finally 
 swallowed it, and for three days thereafter continued 
 to taste it. The soup itself, which we drank from the 
 bowl, had a fishy smell of great carrying power. I have 
 no doubt that it would reach as far as a Krupp gun. 
 Clustered around this bowl were a number of cold vege- 
 tables, cold turnip, cold carrot, and a solid paste made 
 from rice, quite as hard as a chunk of India rubber. Be- 
 sides these things there was a whole fish, the one palata- 
 ble thing on the table. It had been boiled and was stone 
 cold, and with the chopsticks one was supposed to be able 
 to carve and manage the precious viand. My com- 
 panions all about me were very skillful ichthyopagites, 
 and very active destroyers of all the various delicacies. 
 Awkwardly using fingers as much as chopsticks I nibbled 
 away at the cold fish, meditating all the while on the 
 raw article of the same character that was disturbing the 
 internal workings of my frame. The high priest oppo- 
 site me had been amused from the first by my perform- 
 ances and told me through an interpreter how, when he 
 was crossing the Pacific, he hired a man to come to his 
 room every day to teach him how to use the knife and 
 fork. But fortunately for me, the dinner did not last 
 very long, as there were about five hours of speaking 
 
386 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 expected in connection with the reception. But a little 
 box was brought to each guest and into this, according 
 to Japanese custom, he put all the fragments of food 
 which he had not eaten to carry home with him. I took 
 mine to the house of my host, Mr. McNair, and he gave 
 it to his Japanese servants, who doubtless found it a 
 casket of very great preciousness." 
 
 His lectures in Japan, the welcome they received, and 
 the kindness of his hosts, but duplicated those of India, 
 and we will but pause a moment to look at Fujiyama 
 through his eyes. 
 
 "The sacred mount of Japan has a charm all its own. 
 It has the beauty of symmetry and whiteness, of lonely 
 and sovereign majesty. It seems like a special creation 
 of the Almighty to dominate with its stately loveliness 
 the loveliest of Eastern lands, and to fill the hearts of 
 its people with proud and happy thoughts. I scarcely 
 wonder that the people hold the mountain to be sacred, 
 nor that its glorious form is constantly reproduced in 
 Japanese art." 
 
 On April 24th he and my mother set sail for San 
 Francisco. The monotonous weeks on the Pacific, broken 
 only by two days in Honolulu, where he preached and 
 lectured, gave him time to review his pilgrimage. "We 
 have sailed," he writes, "under many flags, all of which 
 we have learned to love, under the black, white, and red 
 of Germany, under the Union Jack of England in our 
 cruise around the Mediterranean, under the tri-color of 
 the French republic all the way from Port Said to Bom- 
 bay and later from Colombo to Kobe, and now we are 
 on an American ship, 'The China,' which flies the British 
 flag, because since the vessel was made in Great Britain, 
 it is not permitted to fly the American flag without hav- 
 
INDIA AND JAPAN 2,^7 
 
 ing paid an enormous duty. Is not this an extreme pro- 
 tection which must be changed to a more reasonable 
 policy, if we ever expect to see the Stars and Stripes 
 again on all the oceans? 
 
 "Many pictures pass before my vision, many voices 
 come to my hearing. What leagues of ocean, placid as 
 these waters, or tossed into tumbling crags of sapphire, 
 stretch on and on before my inner eye! Numberless are 
 the accents of kindness that float from many lands. What 
 a multitude of strange faces throng around us, — faces first 
 seen on the decks of many ships, in the halls of Paris or 
 Cairo, or at the gates of far Eastern cities! Once more the 
 muezzin calls to prayer from the minarets of Delhi, and 
 I hear again the Buddhist drums in the shrines of Ceylon 
 and Japan. The waters of many rivers flash and mur- 
 mur by. I see again the twinkling and many-colored 
 lights along the Seine and the willows that shade the 
 Jordan, the palms that lift themselves on either bank of 
 the Nile, the strange boats on the Yang-tse, the pilgrims 
 and bathers in the waters of the Ganges, and the peerless 
 white dome reflected in the loving bosom of the Jumna. 
 And around the habitations of men, some little dorf in 
 Germany, some prosperous city of England, Italy, or 
 Japan, or some immemorial village of India, with un- 
 written laws and customs more ancient than the statutes 
 o.f Manu or Moses, or about some planter's home in the 
 neighborhood of Kandy or Darjeeling, what fields of 
 wheat and tea and millet, or vivid rice or tasselled corn, 
 stretch on and on before the gaze of memory! I hear 
 the beautiful choirs in English cathedrals; I lift up my 
 eyes to Giotto's Tower in Florence, and see again the 
 fragments of the Parthenon ; I hear the dervishes in their 
 wild and woful chants ; I walk by the pyramids, enter 
 
388 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 the sacred tombs of Memphis, meditate once more on the 
 Mount of Olives, stand beneath the domes of churches 
 which rebuke and confound in their majesty all earthly 
 pride; converse with scholars in Oxford or Benares; 
 watch the solemn idolaters in the bat-infested temple of 
 Madura or the lighter-hearted pilgrims who in Japan 
 call upon Amida-Buddha ; or lift up my voice in Madras 
 or Tokyo in the name of the Universal Man and Saviour, 
 and thank God that I have learned to love and pity the 
 children of many faiths, and to believe that the less per- 
 fect may be prophecies of that fulness of truth and grace 
 which are found in the Son of God. 
 
 "The human world, as the traveller remembers it, is 
 one of bewildering variety. And yet, underneath these 
 varieties what unities are discovered ; what common 
 needs, fears, hopes, and aspirations! Humanity, whether 
 it is found among the Chinese coolies on the Bund in 
 Shanghai or the Chowringee Road in Calcutta, the 
 Champs Elysees or the Unter den Linden, whether it 
 walks the Strand or the Corso, the Via Dolorosa or the 
 Galata Bridge, possesses an essential oneness which aug- 
 menting numbers of people are coming to recognize. I 
 feel the solidarity of mankind as never before. Distant 
 peoples do not seem so distant, either in space or in char- 
 acter. In my memories of our journey I can scarcely 
 recall a half-score disagreeable experiences. How wide 
 and beautiful is the domain of kindness." 
 
 They entered the Golden Gate with rejoicing. "In 
 all the brilliant Orient," he tells us, "I have seen nothing 
 so grateful to my heart as the sight of my own country. 
 The heart-hunger of the exile has been ours, notwith- 
 standing all that we have experienced of pleasure." A 
 
INDIA AND JAPAN 389 
 
 few days later they were still happier, for on May 16 
 they reached Chicago after fifteen months' absence, in time 
 for my father to open the third course of Haskell lectures, 
 in Kent Theater, that afternoon. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 FROM CHICAGO TO OBERLIN 
 1 897-1 899 
 
 "The three greatest sights in India," according to my 
 father, "are the Himalayas, the Taj Mahal, and a con- 
 gregation of Native Christians." Now that he had seen 
 this last face to face, he felt impelled as never before to 
 proclaim the message that it brought him, and there were 
 few of his two hundred and fifty addresses during his 
 first eighteen months at home which were not reminiscent 
 of it. Soon after his return he gladly accepted invita- 
 tions from the Presbyterian and American Boards of 
 Foreign Missions to present in the larger cities of the 
 land his impressions of mission work in India, and he 
 added in regard to remuneration: "Whatever I do I 
 shall do from love for the cause. I am not willing to 
 receive anything for the months of work that I shall be 
 very happy to give. The Lord blessed my undertaking, 
 and the world of Asia lies very close to my heart." 
 
 His third and fourth Haskell courses on "Impressions 
 of the Orient," and "Christianity and Buddhism," his 
 summer school lectures at the University of Chicago, his 
 Morse Lectures before Union Theological Seminary, his 
 sermons while he supplied the pulpit of the Kenwood 
 Presbyterian Church, Chicago, his Dudlean lecture at 
 Harvard, and many of his secular addresses given under 
 the auspices of a lyceum bureau, reveal his belief in the 
 principles underlying Christian Missions, in America's 
 peculiar fitness for this work, in the moral regeneration 
 
FROM CHICAGO TO OBERLIN 391 
 
 that whole-hearted participation in it would bring to our 
 country, in special training for missionaries, and in the 
 largeness and unity of missionary activity. We quote a 
 little from his creed: 
 
 "This missionary century has exploded the idea that 
 a pagan nation must first be taught all the arts of civiliza- 
 tion before it can be ready for Christ. Culture cannot 
 take the place of conscience ; conscience loses efficacy when 
 men cease to feel that God is behind it and in it. That 
 which is born of the flesh may be decked in silken robes 
 and set in the midst of gardens and galleries, but it still 
 remains flesh. The missionary aims at vital transforma- 
 tions. He has undertaken Christ's mission of going to 
 the root of human trouble, seeking to reform society 
 through regenerating individuals, reaching each man's 
 personality, and not striving to convert nations en masse. 
 
 "Missions to degraded races are the most colossal piece 
 of idealism in the world. Prosperous selfishness has al- 
 ways sneered at them. It is one of the evil results of 
 luxury, moral indifference, and increasing age that very 
 many people cease to be brave dreamers; they have aban- 
 doned youthful visions, and no longer live in the future, 
 aspiring toward ideal goals. To be despondent is to for- 
 get God and what He has already wrought. Pessimism 
 and atheism are owlets from the same nest. I have not 
 discovered among those whose hearts are fired with mis- 
 sionary enthusiasm any disposition to despair, and rarely 
 any tendency toward malignant cynicism or moral hys- 
 terics. In the harbor at Hongkong as we looked on a 
 swarming Chinese family, in a sampan, eating rice, a 
 British merchant said to me, 'You can no more Christian- 
 ize that family than you could a family of rats.' He 
 looked upon all missionaries in China as victims of hys- 
 
392 JOHN HENRY B ARROWS 
 
 teria. I suppose David Livingstone had this malady in 
 an exaggerated form, but he was the Columbus of Africa, 
 and his grave in Westminster Abbey is more honored 
 than that of kings. The Eastern world owes much to 
 the moral hysteria of those who gave fifty years of schol- 
 arly toil to the perfection of the Arabic Bible and have 
 kindled in Ottoman lands the brightest lights that flash 
 on the Bosporus and the Euphrates. The world owes 
 much to the moral hysteria w^hich is illumining Africa, 
 diminishing the area of barbarism all over the globe, and 
 has battered down the thousand gates which once barred 
 Asia to the access of the Gospel. 
 
 "Long familiar as we are with the best which Greek 
 and Roman heathenism could teach us, and not abashed 
 by it, why should we shrink before the best which China 
 and India can impart? In my estimation the prepara- 
 tory training which our candidates for the foreign work 
 require should include the study of comparative religion. 
 I believe that missions demand the highest class of 
 minds and a wiser and humaner method in dealing 
 with faiths, in which truth and falsity, spiritual beauty 
 and moral blemishes, are so amazingly intermingled. To 
 gain the non-Christian populations, we must gain their 
 hearts, we m.ust thankfully acknowledge whatever truth 
 we find in their teachings; we must make them love us 
 and trust us before we can make them believe with us. 
 We need not speak contemptuously of the eight-fold path 
 of Gautama Buddha because we believe in 'the way, the 
 truth, the life." 
 
 "Everybody knows, and many confess, that as j'et we 
 are only playing at Christian missions, whether at home 
 or abroad. The Alsatian pastor, John Frederick Oberlin, 
 would not permit even his peasant boys and girls to come 
 
FROM CHICAGO TO OBERLIN 393 
 
 to the Holy Communion until they had furnished evi- 
 dence of having planted two trees in their rock-strewn 
 valley. It is for us to plant and nourish trees of ampler 
 verdure and more enduring beneficence, whose leaves 
 shall be for the healing of the nations. We need to per- 
 ceive that home missions and foreign missions, that Chris- 
 tian education, that our labors amid the coffee fields of 
 Porto Rico, the cabins in South Dakota, and the Indian 
 huts of Alaska, are all parts of the one great, divine mis- 
 sionary plan of our Heavenly Leader." 
 
 Although this missionary work was the paramount, it 
 was not the sole interest of these months. He saw with 
 enthusiasm the results of the Spanish-American war. He 
 prepared for publication his Barrows and Morse lectures, 
 and his newspaper letters, and they appeared in book 
 form under the titles "Christianity the World Religion," 
 "The Christian Conquest of Asia," and "A World Pil- 
 grimage," He became interested in the Institute of Sa- 
 cred Literature and President of the Council of Seventy. 
 Calls to churches, to colleges, and to leadership in other 
 lines of work, followed him on his lecture tours, inter- 
 rupted his study and proof reading, doubled his corie- 
 spondence, surrounded him with reporters, and tended to 
 keep his mand in a state of unrest. 
 
 That he w^as working hard, still loved Chicago, and 
 could keep his poise in the midst of clamor and uncer- 
 tainty is suggested by one of his letters to my mother : 
 
 "Chicago, Sept. 23, 1897. 
 
 "It is a beautiful day, and I am going to take life a 
 
 little easier. Last night when I went to bed, I was too 
 
 tired to live. Hathi sometimes piles his teak too fast, 
 
 you know. Yesterday M. and I went down town. This 
 
394 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 city of ours has no intellectual side. One may live here 
 for years and not know that there is anything but pork 
 and wheat in the world. On the train we met Miss 
 Bessie Potter, who has just returned from Florence, and 
 was going down to unbox a lot of marble statuary. She is 
 the theme of an article in the last Century, called 'A New 
 Era, or Motive in Art.' She has been visiting Saint 
 Gaudens, who is delighted with his great reception in 
 Chicago. As we were walking to the Art Institute, we 
 met Professor Shailer Matthews, who is very glad to ac- 
 cept an invitation to deliver a lecture, probably on the 
 Holy Land. Entering the Art Building, I was greeted 
 very warm.ly by the old policeman and Mr. French, who 
 wished us to see some new English pictures, and a Mu- 
 rillo. We spent an hour looking at things new and old. 
 The Dutch pictures are really excellent, and the Field 
 collection is good. The building was crowded with 
 school children who were seeing things under the guid- 
 ance of their teachers. We then went to McClurg's. 
 Col. Davis introduced me to John Vance Cheney, and 
 he wants me to come and see the Newberry Library. I 
 said to him, much to his pleasure and confusion, 'There 
 is one poem of yours that I have used in a sermon in 
 three continents,' and he told me that I had spread his 
 fame more widely than anyone else. I recited to him 
 the verse beginning: 
 
 'Who drives the horses of the sun 
 
 Shall lord it but a day; 
 Better the lowly deed were done, 
 
 And kept the humble way.' 
 
 "While we were there your friend, Mrs. McClelland, 
 of the North Side, appeared. She is putting through 
 
FROM CHICAGO TO OBERLIN 395 
 
 the press a story of the Revolution. On the street we 
 met Dr. E. F. Williams, who has published a book on 
 Germany. He amazed us by calling 'Quo Vadis' a great 
 book. Then M. and I went to see the Logan statue, 
 which is the very incarnation of life, military action, war- 
 like sternness, tremendous martial energy. The whole 
 Lake Front from the base of the statue looks very well 
 indeed. As our afternoon experiences show you, there 
 is no gleam of literature, art, or celestial light in this 
 paradise of materialism. 
 
 "I feel that we are in the way of God's appointment 
 and leading. I am having some of the freedom of spirit, 
 the new hope, the new longing to be and to do, that 
 came to me when the old First Church burden was rolled 
 off. I have been reading a good deal this morning in 
 'Daily Strength for Daily Needs,' and have felt the foun- 
 tains of spiritual life reopened in me. Though I know 
 nothing of the future, I never had so little anxiety about 
 it. I must close with a lake full of love." 
 
 Others of his letters indicate the varied nature of his 
 experiences. 
 
 "New York, Feb. 19, 1898. 
 
 "I have written your mother about the concert at the 
 Waldorf-Astoria. I was sorry to learn of Miss Willard's 
 death. I reached Boston at three. My old friend. Rever- 
 end Albinus Frost, who was a student with me at Olivet, 
 met me at the Park Square Station and took me over to 
 his home in Cambridge, where I had a kind reception. 
 After dinner Mr. Frost went with me to the Appleton 
 Chapel, where my lecture was to be given. Pretty soon 
 President Eliot came in and sat down by me. It was 
 a rainy and slushy evening, but I had a fine audience. 
 President Eliot asked me if I had received his letter, sent 
 
396 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 to Dr. Hall at Union Seminary, inviting me to dine with 
 him and to be his guest. He was very much troubled 
 when he learned that I had not received it, for it was 
 sent in time. Professor Francis G. Peabody later asked 
 me if I had received his letter inviting me to dine with 
 him Saturday night, and to spend Sunday with him. He 
 wanted me to meet some friends. He was sorry to learn 
 that the letter had not reached me. After the singing 
 of an anthem by the choir, I offered prayer and read the 
 nineteenth Psalm, and at the close we sang Oliver Wen- 
 dell Holmes's ver}^ appropriate hj'mn, 'Lord of All Be- 
 ing, Throned Afar.' I spoke an hour and five minutes 
 from a rather lofty pulpit, but I had good light and 
 was in good trim, and the audience seemed interested. 
 After the lecture I met some old friends. Professor 
 Thaj-er, of the Divinity School, was very grateful that I 
 had 'pricked that bubble Swam.i Vivekananda.' He was 
 sorry that I could not remain and accept his hospitalities. 
 Professor Palmer was there and greeted me very cor- 
 dially and brought the salutations of Mrs. Palmer, who 
 had a meeting and couldn't come. Professor Peabody 
 thought that Paul Dudley, the founder of the lectureship, 
 would have been very much enlightened as well as 
 amazed at the breadth of my treatment of the subject. 
 After the lecture President Eliot tried to capture me. I 
 agreed to go home with him for a little talk, but I had 
 already engaged my passage back to New York by the 
 tv.-elve o'clock Limited Express. We walked over through 
 the snow to his house, the President and Mr. Frost alter- 
 nating in carrj'ing my dress suit-case. I told Mr. Eliot 
 that I would tell my children that the President of Har- 
 vard College had carried my bag for me. He said he was 
 used to doing such things. I like him lots. He is a gen- 
 
FROM CHICAGO TO O BERLIN 397 
 
 tleman that reminds me a little in his cordial ways, and 
 his interesting talk, of Wendell Phillips. His house is not 
 imposing, but it is very interesting and comfortable inside. 
 He told me about a Chinese teacher whom they used to 
 have at Harvard who instructed some five or six 3'Oung 
 men in Chinese. He had his eight children and his wife 
 with him, and he read to the children every day in the 
 sacred books of China. He was taken suddenly sick and 
 died with pneumonia. On his death bed he called for 
 President Eliot, and though he could hardly speak he used 
 all his strength not to talk about himself or his children 
 or his family, but to speak of each one of the six students 
 in Chinese, telling the President what marks they de- 
 served, what standing they had reached in Chinese. 
 
 "We had some pleasant talk about missions, about 
 China, about Professor Norton, who has recently re- 
 signed ; about our observations of the Moslems in Egypt. 
 Meanwhile, we were eating roast oysters and drinking 
 cocoa. About ten o'clock we said good-bye to the hos- 
 pitable President. He took my New York address so 
 as to send me the check for one hundred dollars which 
 Paul Dudley, the founder of the lecture one hundred and 
 fifty years ago, instructed must be given to the speaker 
 as soon as possible after his address was delivered!" 
 
 "June 20th, 1898. 
 "I wish you had been with me on Woman's Day at 
 Winfield, Kansas, to have seen several hundred of the 
 bright, progressive, eager-minded women of that state. 
 The one peculiar feature of the Kansas woman to me 
 is her utter communicativeness. It was 'Sidney Lanier' 
 Day at the Chautauqua and Professor Tolman, of the 
 University, read his favorite Lanier poems. In going 
 
398 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 from Springfield, Missouri, to Winfield, I changed trains 
 at Wichita and a large women's delegation boarded the 
 train at that place. Some one who knew me spied me 
 out, and I was introduced and had to talk for an hour 
 to these strange and lovely women. I found the hotel 
 at Winfield interesting. The waitresses brought the 
 food on their heads, and when thej^ had delivered your 
 order, they were apt to say, 'My friend, is this all you 
 want?' I had a great time at Drury College, where I 
 met many old friends. The attendance at Winfield was 
 enormous; I must have spoken to nearly two thousand 
 people the first evening. But a far greater attraction 
 gathered the crowds the day before. Bryan was there 
 and the platform broke down under the weight, not of 
 his eloquence, but of the crowd." 
 
 "Boulder, Colorado, July 17, 1898. 
 "I think that you would enjoy the scene that spreads 
 before me this morning. I am in a thoroughly man- 
 made town. The trees are all set out; the water that 
 rushes by was drawn by engineering skill from mountain 
 heights; the garden that surrounds the house, rich with 
 melons, corn, peas, currants, cherries, onions, beets — is 
 made fertile and lovely by the irrigating canals that man 
 has drawn into it. But I find enough of God's handi- 
 work as I look up. Those peaks in front of me are be- 
 tween eight thousand and nine thousand feet above the 
 sea. Those bare, mighty rocks, smooth as a flat iron — 
 and called 'The Flat Irons' — heaved up against the 
 mountain wall — suggest the forces more than Titanic — 
 that worked their will away back in the earth's history. 
 A few miles away is the 'Sunshine' gold mine — to which 
 my landlady's aged husband drives a daily stage. Tv.-o 
 
FROM CHICAGO TO OBERLIN 399 
 
 miles from here in plain sight are the tents of the Chau- 
 tauqua encampment — and with silk flags flying — like a 
 victorious battleship — looms up the Auditorium where I 
 am to preach this afternoon. 
 
 "Yesterday a lady from Kansas came up and informed 
 me that she had read an account of my life before her 
 missionary society. O, life is interesting here ! These 
 dear people are out for culture and they mean to have it. 
 They frankly tell you so! They know much about many 
 things. They are grandly American and energetically 
 optimistic. 'This new-born Chautauqua is to become the 
 educational center of the continent;' I hope and believe 
 that they are right. You would enjoy this new world 
 in which I am. You would deem Chicago quiet and 
 restrained in comparison therewith. 
 
 "I was sitting on a bench by the office of the Chautau- 
 qua Company last evening after supper. The window 
 back of me was open. I heard sounds strangely familiar. 
 I listened in modest bewilderment. I looked in and there 
 a dazzlingly beautiful young lady, a reporter, was tele- 
 phoning to the office of the Rocky Mountain News — 
 forty miles away — my speech of the afternoon. Like the 
 barrel of beer for Mr. Bartlett's German porter, 'it was 
 too much,' and I ran away — from myself. 
 
 "There is a go — a swing — a glow — a rush to the ora- 
 tory, especially from the south, that I have had in the 
 last ten days, that would please and somewhat amuse 
 you. For example — Reverend Mr. W., praising Mr. 
 Hirshfield, who founded this month-old Chautauqua, said 
 in loud, sweet tones — 'His nam.e and deeds will glow im- 
 mortal in the annals of earth when blazing suns have been 
 extinguished in the skies!' There is a lack of oratorical 
 restraint here, which Smith girls would detect." 
 
400 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 In November, 1898, he received a unanimous and 
 pressing call to the presidency of Oberlin College. This 
 was accompanied by the promise of the trustees to co- 
 operate with him in raising the standard of scholarship, 
 in putting the college on a firmer financial basis, in 
 broadening its ideals, and in giving it a more command- 
 ing place among educational institutions. Those of his 
 friends that were not Congregationalists advised him to 
 decline this invitation. They believed the college to be 
 so provincial in its ideas and so conservative in its policy 
 as to make sure and rapi3 progress doubtful. It was 
 true that Oberlin had been long without a president, had 
 lost some of its earlier prestige, had cut down its courses, 
 had a large annual deficit, many dissatisfied alumni, and 
 was falling ofT in the number of its students. To ac- 
 cept this call meant that he must leave the city that he 
 loved, relinquish his freedom and the large income that 
 his lectures brought him, and assume grave responsibili- 
 ties and some uncongenial duties. He had no friends 
 among Oberlin's trustees and but two acquaintances on 
 its faculty. It was perhaps the only large college in the 
 country that he had never addressed. But he was very 
 familiar with Oberlin's emphasis upon justice and social 
 service, and with the signal devotion and sacrifice that 
 had made its history sacred ; to quote his own words : 
 "With very limited means it has done an almost unlim- 
 ited work. More than thirty thousand men and women 
 have come as students under Oberlin training, and these 
 people, scattered as teachers and citizens through almost 
 everj' village and city of Ohio and the Middle West, and 
 even the far West, have done an incalculable service for 
 the higher life of the country. Oberlin was the first 
 college to admit women to equal and common privileges 
 
FROM CHICAGO TO OBERLIN 401 
 
 with men in a classical collegiate education. It opened 
 its doors to students, irrespective of race, and was fore- 
 most in the Anti-slavery agitation which led up to the 
 Civil War and the act of Emancipation. It may justly 
 be deemed the historic college of the West, standing at 
 the center of the moral and spiritual forces which have 
 shaped our newer civilization. It is intimately linked 
 with the life-work of President Finney, that epoch-mak- 
 ing force in modern Christendom. Three presidents of 
 the United States — Hayes, Garfield, and McKinley — 
 have spoken in emphatic eulogy of w^hat this college has 
 wrought for the higher life of the country. The late 
 General Jacob D. Cox has shown that it was the mighty 
 and incessant work of the Oberlin reform.ers and the 
 thousands of Oberlin students who went forth as teach- 
 ers, lecturers, and missionaries that turned the scales in 
 the Anti-slavery contest, led to the election of Abraham 
 Lincoln and the gigantic results which followed, making 
 for Union and Freedom. America owes a great debt, not 
 yet paid, to this historic college. Oberlin students have 
 been active doers in all the fields of the world's work, 
 not only as preachers and teachers in the North, but in 
 foreign mission lands, among the Indians, and among 
 the African race in the Southern States and in the West 
 Indies. What Edward Everett Hale has called 'the 
 most democratic and cosmopolitan college in the country' 
 possesses such strong traditions and stands for such an 
 earnest type of character that its moral endowment is 
 already large." 
 
 Unfortunately for the success of his friends' persua- 
 sions, he went with my mother to Oberlin, to survey 
 the field and lecture to the college. And it came to pass 
 when he looked into the faces of a thousand students 
 
402 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 while the foot ball captain led the cheering in his honor, 
 that boyhood memories rushed back upon him, the oppor- 
 tunity seemed large, and one of those decisive spiritual 
 experiences common to him in crises of his life marked 
 this college presidency as the duty to which God now 
 called him. He took up his new work on the first of 
 January', 1899, and his own words spoken at different 
 times tell of the college's attractions for him, his hope 
 for its future, and his sympathy with its ideals. 
 
 "As many, reading the last chapter of Drummond's 
 'Ascent of Man,' have exclaimed, 'Oh, for some one to 
 take up and carrj' for\vard his fine and stimulating sug- 
 gestions, and show the later and higher evolution of man 
 in recorded historj^!' so, as I have reviewed what has 
 already been accomplished in Oberlin, and now behold 
 this hungry, aspiring, unfinished college world, the strong 
 appeal comes to me to take up and carry on this work 
 and place it upon some loftier and more radiant table- 
 land. 
 
 "The founders of Oberlin dared, for man's sake and 
 for Christ's sake, to be peculiar. Surely this has been 
 the distinctive mark of the leaders of our race, for noth- 
 ing except sin reduces the grandeur of human life like 
 inert gregariousness, the making of one's self like every 
 one else. The world needs more men and women in 
 the conflic';s of this generation who bravely listen to God, 
 who are not cheated out of their better selves either by 
 the subtle temptations of sin, or by 'the dull fool's palsy- 
 ing sneer;' and who have not been smoothed down into 
 well-shaven formalists. Jesus trained the Twelve, not 
 to make them alike, but to make each his Divinest self. 
 And so true education is not making us like others, but 
 bringing out to the best and loftiest our own personality. 
 
FROM CHICAGO TO O BERLIN 403 
 
 "There are special reasons to-day which show that the 
 part taken by the Christian college in our national life 
 is growingly important and strategic. America, already 
 the richest of nations, is to become far richer. Christian 
 character needs to be hardened and fortified against lux- 
 ury. And 'a manhood that can stand money' is what the 
 Christian college aims to produce, and what Oberlin 
 College has produced in the few men of her graduates 
 who have given their lives successfully to the getting of 
 great fortunes. Education, refinement, knowledge, are 
 the most powerful sources of misery, restlessness, and 
 vicious discontent that exist in the world to-day, unless 
 they are penetrated and controlled by the religion of 
 Christ, which gives peace, love, courage, faith, hope, and 
 joy. Our civilization rushes to a vast and fatal plunge 
 unless God is enthroned in the educated minds of our 
 people. Education without religion is architecture with- 
 out foundations and roof. Better that the walls of Ober- 
 lin should be carried back to the stone-quarries and brick- 
 yards out of which they came, that the grass should grow 
 undisturbed over all the paths made sacred by the feet 
 of saints and scholars, than that the Bible should be a 
 merely tolerated book, and that this should become a 
 place where God is politely bowed out of the classroom. 
 
 "The helpful, the creative, the democratic, the sym- 
 pathetic spirit has usually characterized the Western col- 
 lege man. He has been a doer rather than a carping 
 critic; and one ounce of creative power is better than 
 a ton of fault-finding. Oberlin College has illustrated 
 those two Christian teachings, 'No man liveth to him- 
 self,' and 'We are every one members one of another.* 
 
 "Oberlin stands for great positive truths, not for mere 
 negative prohibitions, and the tw^entieth century will see 
 
404 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 a beautiful enlargement of these positive things in the 
 air of expanding freedom. We desire to make Oberlin 
 the best of the Christian colleges of the world, where in 
 the wholesome environment of the noblest of American 
 communities, the college training which regards the to- 
 tality of human nature, giving over body, mind, and soul 
 to the educational processes, shall be growingly perfected, 
 where the spirit of a liberal culture, displacing a selfish 
 and money-making professionalism, shall ennoble gym- 
 nasium, athletic field, and the toils of the hand, as well as 
 the halls of science, language, and philosophy. 
 
 "Oberlin is in deep harmony with the newer peda- 
 gogy, which makes education vital, which connects the 
 schools with life, which touches the feelings and rouses 
 the enthusiasms, which regards the human mind not as a 
 phonograph merely, to report and to repeat mechanically 
 what is poured into it, but, as a dynamo, which is to 
 furnish power for the light, the movement, and the com- 
 fort of mankind ; which realizes that inspiration is more 
 than knowledge and that noble feelings stirred, and right 
 choices made, are of more worth than facts memorized ; 
 which places a high estimate on personality in education. 
 Oberlin has always valued some things more than books 
 and apparatus, than material riches and the means and 
 mechanics of education. 
 
 "In going to Oberlin I feel, in one sense, that I am 
 going home. It was at Oberlin that my father and 
 mother first came to know and love each other, and 
 from Oberlin have come the chief forces that have shaped 
 my life. 
 
 "Oberlin possesses, in a large measure, the Ideals which 
 I have always preached, the ideals of true brotherhood, 
 real democracy, freedom from artificial temptations, zeal 
 
FROM CHICAGO TO BERLIN 405 
 
 for service, devotion to higher education, intellectual lib- 
 erty, independent and intelligent patriotism, and conse- 
 cration to the expansion of the divine kingdom among 
 men, ideals which are supported by the fresh young life 
 of the students and by the beautiful spirit of the com- 
 munity. All good things seem possible in a college with 
 such a history. 
 
 "I deem myself highly favored among men that I may 
 plead, however unworthily, for such a great cause. It 
 is God's cause. The prayers and toils of the founders of 
 Oberlin will yet have a glorious fulfillment and fruitage. 
 I enter upon my work with enthusiasm and with hope- 
 fulness; and when I counsel with the brave and self- 
 denying men on the ground, who have wrestled with 
 budgets and for years have been made sore by deficits, I 
 have said to myself, 'God giving me voice and strength, 
 Oberlin's cause shall be laid before the people.' " 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 HIS COLLEGE PRESIDENCY 
 1899 — 1902 
 
 As the years went by my father's guiding faith that 
 earthly life is but part of a larger whole, served ever to 
 enhance for him the fascination and significance of his 
 daily experience. And surely absorption in all of life 
 because of its momentous connection with more life is a 
 spirit becoming to a college president. For the expan- 
 sion of the college life committed to his charge, he had 
 high hopes. To quote from his inaugural address: "We 
 live in the midst of a divine evolution, and we cannot 
 go backward if we would. Progress does not come from 
 trying to galvanize into life dead forms, nor by deploring 
 that men will not do just as their fathers did. Progress 
 does not fail to look as well as to move forward. 'God 
 fulfills his will in many ways.' The Christian life of the 
 college is marked by a new emphasis. Men talk less 
 about religion, but endeavor no less earnestly to do the 
 things which God requires. We are ambitious here to 
 exemplifj^ the breadth, the liberty, and the glory of Chris- 
 tianity, and we are not willing to lose any of its power. 
 And so we desire to live in the spirit of all that is best 
 in the new education without losing any of the ethical 
 and spiritual potencies of the past." 
 
 He believed in Oberlin's devotion to brotherhood and 
 service, but he felt that the way to honor the past is to 
 improve upon it. To increase the efficacy of that service 
 was her present duty. While she sanctified herself fof 
 
HIS COLLEGE PRESIDENCY 407 
 
 the sake of others, she must remember that mediocrity is 
 the lurking menace of democracy, that a college must not 
 offer a mere semblance of education, must not encourage 
 ambition where ability is lacking, as she thus not only 
 ushers tragedy into individual lives, but so lowers her 
 standard as to defeat one of her essential ends, the train- 
 ing of men for leadership. He perceived, too, that a com- 
 munity rightly proud of its history must guard somewhat 
 against the error of Judaism ; the error of the acorn that 
 refused to become an oak; the mistake of confining what 
 God meant should be universal ; and that a college where 
 the moral and religious aspects of truth are cogent ought 
 to be ever on the watch lest in its devotion to conscience, 
 its rectitude be marred by prejudice, and self-satisfac- 
 tion; lest prudishness and sentimentality usurp the places 
 of power and beauty. 
 
 And so, that Oberlin might train men for the loftiest 
 Christian citizenship, the task to which his own whole 
 life was consecrated, it was his ambition to stimulate her 
 enthusiasm for a perfected intellectual discipline and a 
 more symmetrical culture. His student talks abound in 
 references to the aims of a true college to form in men 
 habits of mental discrimination, of facile and graceful 
 self expression, and of recognizing the variety and love- 
 liness as well as the vitality of truth. On widely different 
 occasions he said: 
 
 "It should not be forgotten by us that there are in 
 humanity vast varieties of mental and moral constitution, 
 and in our modern world there are equally vast varieties 
 of educational influences, so that the immediate uniform- 
 ity of belief, which our impatient dogmatism sometimes 
 seeks, is an impossible result. And therefore the spirit 
 becoming in us is that of widest toleration, the most 
 
4o8 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 charitable construction of other men's duties, the sweet- 
 est-hearted love to all who are erring, while we cherish 
 and faithfully tell whatever truth has given us comfort, 
 peace, and hope. 
 
 "Some of us need to abandon our ideas with regard to 
 growth in grace. If you imagine that the Christ-like man 
 is the one who by endeavor and prayer and self-sacrifice 
 grows up into a gigantic self-complacency, you are cher- 
 ishing a very common ideal, but it is not the Christian 
 ideal. A colossal prig is not the perfect Christian. 
 
 "It is to be the business of the Oberlin Theological 
 Seminary to train men of capacity, originality, and wis- 
 dom, who have made careful studies of the most impor- 
 tant things, who have been trained to think clearly and 
 speak effectively, who have formed habits of work, and 
 who know that they cannot be teachers of men for long 
 years without being faithful students of truth; men who 
 believe the gospel with all their heart, who mean by it 
 no narrow gospel dealing exclusively with a few things; 
 men who are thoroughly manly, who have social gifts 
 and graces, who know not only how to be gentlemen, 
 but appear like gentlemen in a world of growing taste 
 and refinement; men who are sound and courageous and 
 true; men of large hearts, who give spiritual intensity 
 to their preaching. 
 
 "This college is no place for the sluggard, for the in- 
 different, for the intellectually dead, or the morally stu- 
 pid. Of selfishness and vulgarity the college is the severe 
 enemy. Colleges and universities of course emphasize 
 things that are essential. But they also teach us to put 
 a proper estimate on things that if not always essential 
 are always valuable; leisure, good manners, social enjoy- 
 ment, a love of the beautiful, the means of pleasing the 
 
HIS COLLEGE PRESIDENCY 409 
 
 aesthetic, as well as the moral sense. These are not un- 
 important, and the American people know it, and are 
 striving, not always successfully, to reproduce the con- 
 ditions which make life more agreeable abroad. We are 
 anxious to extemporize universities, art buildings, and all 
 other illustrations of a highly civilized life. We are im- 
 patient of the slow and rude and antiquated, and covet 
 all the fresh brilliancies of Paris and Vienna. We are 
 rightly not at all like the conservative lady from New 
 Orleans who, visiting some friends on the North side of 
 Chicago, expressed her dislike of our modern improve- 
 ments of locomotion. She hated the grip cars, she didn't 
 like the electric cars as a means of getting about the city ; 
 she wasn't fond of cabs and carriages even. A friend of 
 mine said to her, 'What, then, do you like?' 'I prefer,' 
 she said, 'the simple mule.' 
 
 "The chief qualities of gentility are moral ; they strike 
 down to character. But gentility is opposed, not only 
 to selfishness of heart, but also to provincialism and vul- 
 garity of mind. American democracy has not produced 
 so many persons of distinction as we had hoped. It has 
 been afflicted with a great deal of social barbarism, and 
 has not been subdued by that reverence, which is, after 
 all, a sign of the highest gentility. Liberty and equality 
 are not unabated blessings, unless permeated with cour- 
 tesy and ruled by the spirit of Christian brotherhood. 
 
 "Properly pursued the college life, first of all, gives 
 the student a wide general culture. The uneducated man 
 is a man of a parish and not of the world. The educated 
 person is one who lives in an intellectual mansion, with 
 windows on every side. Spaciousness is its fundamental 
 characteristic; the outlooks are wide. History, poetry, 
 science, various forms of literature and philosophy have 
 
4IO JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 built this mansion and they inhabit it as gracious com- 
 panions. They make one realize the dignity of the hu- 
 man spirit. Some of 30U who saw the beautiful Pan- 
 American Exposition read upon the Ethnology Building 
 these words of Emerson: 'O, rich and various man, thou 
 palace of sight and sound, carrying in thy senses the 
 morning and the night and the unfathomable galaxy; in 
 thy brain the geometry of the City of God; in thy heart 
 the bower of love and the realms of right and wrong.' 
 It is only a liberal education that fully realizes for men 
 this splendid eulog}\ 
 
 "There is nothing incompatible between Christian 
 faithfulness, earnestness, and fruitfulness and high intel- 
 lectuality. Religion is something that should not be dis- 
 sociated from the intellect. 
 
 "The new Oberlin believes in special training, and she 
 seeks for her teachers vigorous personalities who have 
 become thorough specialists while remaining strong, win- 
 some, all-rounded men." 
 
 In this connection it is interesting to note that eight 
 of the twelve principal faculty appointments made dur- 
 ing his presidency were given to those holding the degree 
 of Doctor of Philosophy from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, 
 Cornell, Halle, Heidelberg, the University of Michigan, 
 and the University of Chicago. 
 
 His efforts were not simply verbal. Never was he 
 more skillful than now in rallying men about him to pro- 
 duce desired effects. At times he travelled so continually 
 that he would wTite home, "The heading for this week's 
 chapter is six nights in a sleeping-car." During the brief 
 three and a half years allotted to him, he called on hun- 
 dreds of possible Oberlin supporters all over the country 
 and gave more than four hundred sermons and speeches 
 
HIS COLLEGE PRESIDENCY 411 
 
 mostly before teachers' associations, schools, and colleges. 
 By this means he spread Oberlin's influence, made her 
 many new friends, and attracted to her both more students 
 and more kinds of students. Under his inspiration nearly 
 $600,000, not including gifts for buildings, were added 
 to the college resources; this sum not only removed the 
 annual deficit, but made it possible to retain men of 
 power already in the faculty and to add to their number. 
 Through the generosity of Lucien C. Warner, Louis H. 
 Severance, and D, Willis James a Men's Gymnasium and 
 a Chemical Laboratory were built, and the money se- 
 cured for a Memorial Arch. Other results of his leader- 
 ship were the better adjustment of the college require- 
 ments to the best secondary schools, closer harmony with 
 the usages of the foremost American Colleges, the estab- 
 lishment of graduate scholarships as incentives to ad- 
 vanced study, considerable modifications of student regu- 
 lations in the interests of larger liberty, the appointment 
 of a College Dean and a College Secretary, more ample 
 provision for the teaching of the English language and 
 literature, the strengthening or sifting out of poor stu- 
 dents, by means of a committee on deficient scholarship, 
 and a reunion of all Oberlin alumni, the special feature 
 of which was the discussion of burning educational topics 
 by representative men from American universities. He 
 gave courses of lectures to Freshmen, on John Frederick 
 Oberlin, Books, and Methods of Study; to Seniors, on 
 Ethics, to the Seminary, on Comparative Religion. He 
 was glad to add to the College's notable collection of pho- 
 tographs and to lecture in connection with their exhibi- 
 tion. He brought many of his distinguished friends to 
 speak to the student body. He took a lively interest in 
 the College Glee Club, athletics, oratory, and .debates. 
 
412 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 To the Oberlin Conservatory of Music he gave his hearty 
 commendation. He was grateful not only for its excel- 
 lent routine work, but for its service to the church music, 
 its support of a great chorus, and the eminent musicians 
 that it regularly brought before Oberlin audiences. By 
 means of the hospitality to which he was given, he stimu- 
 lated social life among students and faculty and brought 
 the community and college into more cordial relations. 
 All that was material in this progress he considered im- 
 portant, not in itself, but as means to great ends, as his 
 first Baccalaureate Sermon tells us: 
 
 "Are the spiritual wants of mankind different to-day 
 on account of the observatory at Lake Geneva, and the 
 laboratories at Gottingen, and psychological experiments 
 at Jena? Do electricity and liquid air and Roentgen rays 
 make the sorrows and aspirations of our lives to differ 
 from those of remotest time? When it comes to our pro- 
 founder life, our abiding needs, are we essentially changed 
 from the men of antiquity? If you answer ^yts' I will 
 confute you out of the pages of Homer, out of the ancient 
 hymns of India, out of the drama of Job, out of the in- 
 scriptions on Greek and Roman sepulchers. Your holiest 
 aspirations may be expressed in the words of Sophocles: 
 'O for a spotless purity of action and of speech, according 
 to those subtle laws of right which have the heavens for 
 their birthplace, and God alone for their author, which 
 the decays of mortal nature cannot vary, nor time cover 
 with oblivion ; for the di^'inity is mighty within them, 
 and waxes not old!''' 
 
 In the accomplishment of most of these results he 
 would have been impotent, without the ardent and able 
 cooperation of those working with him. So that neither 
 his words nor achievements are the sum of his service to 
 
HIS COLLEGE PRESIDENCY 413 
 
 Oberlin. His signal gift was his inspiring, loving spirit. 
 Neither student, teacher, nor trustee stood long in his 
 presence without a deeper sense of security and hope. As 
 his friend Dr. Francis E. Clark has written, "Few men 
 ever lived with power to enter men's lives as he did." 
 So great was his ardor for perfection, and so keen his 
 sense of limitations in what was already accomplished 
 that we should expect him at times to be ruffled and dis- 
 couraged, yet good cheer and serenity of soul did not fail 
 him. Though many of his dreams for the new Oberlin 
 are still unrealized, you could not shake his faith, that 
 "He that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life 
 everlasting." His power of bringing things to pass was 
 only equalled by his willingness to wait. "It takes time," 
 he used to say, "to turn mulberry leaves into a silk dress." 
 
 "Shortsighted optimism," he once said, "is not the high- 
 est wisdom. It was not in the days before the Flood, 
 nor in the time of Jeremiah, nor in the days immediately 
 preceding the destruction of Jerusalem. And yet pessi- 
 mism was not the highest wisdom in these great catastro- 
 phes, for God was wiping His slate for a new writing 
 of better auguries. If we rise to the height from which 
 inspired Truth looks on this troubled world, we shall 
 reach a point from which 'white handed Hope' may re- 
 veal all her beauty and her bliss. Any large survey of 
 the past is a rebuke to despair, is a rebuke even to anxiety. 
 
 "Patience is the concentrated trust of the soul in God. 
 Lost in the darkness, Patience knows that the sun will 
 yet find her, and enable her to find herself. 
 
 "Sometimes in our Northern climate the seed planting 
 is done in the autumn, and thus it may be in the autumn 
 of human life, so that the winter must intervene, before 
 the harvesting is done. Be not discouraged. Hope should 
 
414 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 live in the heart, even when the summer is over, and the 
 flowers have lost their delicate embroideries, and w^hen 
 
 'The jtIIow leaves, or few or none, do hang 
 Upon those boughs that shake against the cold. 
 Bare, ruined choirs where late the sweet birds sang.' 
 
 "The old summer cannot be recalled, and nature's 
 order knows no reversal, but on through winter's frost 
 and snow, the new summer comes, with chilled and pain- 
 ful step, it may be, and icy garments cold, but she surely 
 comes and even to those who sit in the winter of the 
 spirit new violets are waiting the warmer skies to paint 
 them blue. 
 
 "A wise patience instructed by the oracles of Heaven, 
 will not expect ever to attain all its desires. The best 
 things come in strange disguises. Life leads out, under 
 God's guiding hand, into strange ways, but the issue, 
 though it may not be what we had expected, will be some- 
 thing essentially better and more divine." 
 
 Two great personal sorrows befell him during these 
 years, in the deaths of Mrs. Haskell and his brother 
 Walter. Of Mrs. Haskell he wrote, "Her light will lie 
 along our paths through all the coming years." He 
 preached for his brother a memorial sermon in which he 
 said: "It is perhaps seldom that two brothers had so 
 many things in common. A tender history of childhood 
 together amid the fields and forests surrounding a West- 
 ern home is the beginning of our common life. In his 
 earlier years he had much greater strength than I ; he 
 was far more active in the sports of boyhood and I had 
 supposed that he would outlive me. We were nearly of 
 an age. We had the same sports, went to the same rude 
 schoolhouse, fished in the same stream, 'played Indian' 
 
HIS COLLEGE PRESIDENCY 415 
 
 and hunted together, learned from the same books, were 
 afterwards in the same college and class for seven years 
 and studied for two years in the same theological semi- 
 naries. In Kansas we worked on the same farm, even 
 preached in the same church. We had similar hopes, 
 joys, and enthusiasms. When our lives separated the fel- 
 lowship was scarcely less close, and in summers we were 
 often together. There is a certain appropriateness that 
 his last days should have been spent in my own home on 
 the Island of Mackinac, which was very dear to him. 
 We shared similar views in regard to the Christian life 
 and were not separated in our thoughts about America 
 and her relations to the Kingdom of Christ on earth. 
 He was the most generous and appreciative of brothers." 
 The losses of the college, too, through the deaths of 
 some of its trustees and teachers, he made his own. He 
 said at President Fairchild's funeral : "For three years 
 I have been a message-bearer from groups of alumni in 
 different parts of the country, who have sent him through 
 me their messages of grateful and reverent love. It was 
 pleasant to see the quiet joy in his face that reflected all 
 the Beatitudes. A few days ago I brought to him a 
 grateful message from his friends in Southern California. 
 I could not remain, as the physician was in waiting, to 
 tell him all that I had to say, and his last words to me 
 (and how significant they are) were these: 'We'll talk 
 over the rest of it later.' Those words are a comfort to 
 all of us. We shall not see this Master in our Israel 
 again on the streets which he made radiant by his pres- 
 ence, but it is his faith and ours that the fellowships of 
 time are to be continued beyond. From the passing days 
 he took not their poorest, but their best gifts; not a few 
 
4i6 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 herbs and apples, but the stars and kingdoms of the soul, 
 and the sky that holds them all." 
 
 He suffered deeplj' over the Shansi Martyrs and re- 
 joiced in their monument to be erected in Oberlin by the 
 American Board of Foreign Missions, of which he was 
 now a corporate member, "But their most glorious me- 
 morial," he declared, "shall be the regeneration of an 
 empire and the speedier conquest of the world." 
 
 Among his chief pleasures were adding to his friend- 
 ships, and welcoming to his Oberlin home many friends, 
 both new and old, among them Drs. Charles Cuthbert 
 Hall, Frank W. Gunsaulus, Charles E. Jefferson, 
 Charles F. Goss, J. K. McLean, Josiah Strong, Alice H. 
 Luce, Samuel B. Capen, Professors Franklin H. Gid- 
 dings, John R. Ropes, and George E. Vincent, Miss 
 Mary E. Wooley, Senator Jonathan B. Dolliver, Mr. A. 
 C. Bartlett and President J. G. Schurman. Dr. Francis 
 E. Clark has described his welcome: 
 
 "Last spring I was to give a course of lectures to the 
 theological students of Oberlin. My train was sched- 
 uled to arrive at Oberlin late in the evening. It was an 
 hour later than it ought to have been. It was raining 
 dismally. I expected to hail a cabby, and get up to my 
 room at the hotel as quickly as possible, 
 
 "What was my surprise to be taken by the arm, as I 
 left the train, by the president of the college, and ushered 
 into the waiting-room of the station, which was filled 
 with Endeavorers and college students, where I was wel- 
 comed with the Oberlin College yell, loaded with flowers 
 from the Endeavorers, addressed by representatives of 
 college and churches, all under the direction of the presi- 
 dent, who had planned the welcome and who did not 
 think it beneath his dignity or unworthy of his time to 
 
HIS COLLEGE P RESIDENCY 417 
 
 organize this little surprise for his old friend, 'remember- 
 ing that we have been in India together and know what 
 a warm welcome is,' as he afterward explained to me. 
 
 "If my poor lectures had any value, all that was best 
 in them would surely be brought out by receiving such 
 a welcome from such a friend " 
 
 Characteristic, also, was his founding and Presidency 
 of the Lemon and Soda Societ,v. According to the con- 
 stitution that he drew up, its .-nembers were girls "be- 
 tween the ages of ten and fifteen, selected by the Presi- 
 dent, helpful in the household, and extremely promising 
 in the best things of life." 
 
 ARTICLE III 
 
 The officers of the Society shall be: President, Vice- 
 President, Recording Secretary, Corresponding Secretary, 
 Treasurer, Nominating Committee, and Executive Com- 
 mittee. All these offices shall be held by the President. 
 
 ARTICLE IV 
 
 The Initiation fee to the L. & S. Society is $1.00, and 
 is to be paid to the new member by the Treasurer. The 
 annual dues are $.25, also paid by the Treasurer. 
 
 ARTICLE V 
 
 Moneys received by the members shall be expended by 
 them in such a way as to make themselves and others 
 happy. 
 
 ARTICLE VI 
 
 Each member shall send a letter to the President once a 
 year. 
 
 Quotations from his letters may show still other sides 
 of his life: 
 
4i8 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 "The Denver Club, 
 "Friday, 5 p. m., Feb. 3, '99. 
 
 "I am glad that you are drinking in the best kind of 
 inspiration from Professor King. I am still 'a wandering 
 voice.' This morning I went out to the University of 
 Denver, six miles out. Chancellor McDowell is at the 
 head of it. He is a lovely man. The University has 
 fine buildings and one of the great telescopes of the world. 
 About four hundred — including theological students — 
 were at prayers. In introducing me the Chancellor said 
 that he had recently written to his friend Professor 
 Bosworth of Oberlin asking about the Oberlin College 
 colors. Professor Bosworth had enclosed a sample ribbon 
 in his letter which the Chancellor showed to the students. 
 At once there arose a series of cheers followed by the 
 College yell. The Oberlin colors are precisely the Denver 
 colors. Then the Chancellor decorated me and himself 
 with fine ribbons and the boys and girls applauded. Of 
 course I had their ears and hearts from the beginning. 
 Wasn't it a strange coincidence? 
 
 "Returning to the club I met President Slocum of 
 Colorado College who is a 'dear,' and we went to a very 
 delightful luncheon at Mr. and Mrs. H.'s. Mrs. H.'s 
 father told a story about a Connecticut deacon, whom he 
 knew. We had been talking about eccentric prayers. 
 There was fear of a frost which would destroy crops and 
 fruits. This was the prayer : 'Thou knowest, O Lord, that 
 a south wind will keep off a frost; Thou knowest that a 
 cloudy night will keep off a frost; Thou knowest that a 
 foggy morning will take off a frost; and Thou knowest 
 that we do not wish to dictate, but only to suggest.' " 
 
 "Chicago, Oct. 25, 1899. 
 
 "Ann Arbor has pleased me greatly. As an evidence of 
 
HIS COLLEGE PRESIDENCY 419 
 
 the progress of humanity towards animals, I noted the 
 fact that there were hundreds of fox squirrels in the town. 
 These would come down the trees and take nuts out of 
 your hand. The students never disturb them. I heard 
 Senator Frye of Maine speak last evening on the work of 
 the Paris Peace Commission. He made a strong popular 
 argument for expansion. He said the conduct of the 
 French press toward the Commission was simply atrocious. 
 'But I have no use for France,' he said. His ignorance 
 of French was ludicrous. He told us a story that went 
 the rounds of the French newspapers, which had some 
 truth in it. 'I practiced,' he said, 'for three daj's, on some 
 sentences for my barber, from whom I was to ask a sham- 
 poo and a shave. After I delivered to him my speech he 
 looked at me in a frightened way and asked, 'Are you 
 Dutch?' 
 
 "In Olivet I visited the grave of my father and mother, 
 and the home where they lived so many years. I saw the 
 memorial window which we have placed in the beautiful 
 Olivet Church, and I gave a memorial sermon in honor 
 of my brother Walter, before friends who came in from 
 twenty miles around. Rarely in my mind has the past 
 seemed so sacred and so near. Professor Daniels drove 
 me to Pine Lake, where I used to fish and swim and skate. 
 " 'Thoughts of childhood rule the full grown man.' 
 "Mr. Bartlett has just told me a good story. A 
 speaker for the Humane Society had given an address on 
 pursuing gentle measures with children. He opposed all 
 whipping, and all severe punishments. At the close a 
 gentleman stood up and inquired of the speaker if these 
 were his sentiments only, or also his practices. He said, 
 'They are my practices.' 'Then you never strike your 
 
420 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 children?' was the inquiry. 'I never strike them,' he re- 
 plied, 'except in self-defense.' 
 
 "When in Ann Arbor I received a telegram announcing 
 the horrible defeat of the Oberlin football team. Some 
 one said the Oberlin boys were like Lazarus: licked by 
 dogs." 
 
 "Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio, President's Office. 
 
 "November 13, 1899. 
 
 "My Sunday in Rockford was a beautiful and yet 
 solemn one. I have rarely been so moved as by the morn- 
 ing service, at which Dr. Woodbury preached. The at- 
 tendance in the evening when I preached Walter's me- 
 morial sermon was too large for the beautiful church. 
 Sunday afternoon I addressed the girls at Rockford Col- 
 lege. Monday I took luncheon with Merritt Starr at the 
 Union League Club, and met a great many old Chicago 
 friends. Starr told me what he claims to be Mark 
 Twain's joke on me. In his 'Following the Equator' you 
 remember he says that nothing American is familiar to 
 the average Hindu except the name of Washington and 
 the Congress of Religions held in the Holy City of Chi- 
 cago. He also says that the Hindu God Vishnu has a 
 hundred names. He tried to learn them. He thought 
 he had learned them. But the only residuum in his 
 mind after awhile was 'John Henry Vishnu.' 
 
 "Monday right I gave my Rembrandt lecture at the 
 Milwaukee College. Tuesday, as you know, I was In 
 Michigan Citj^ And Wednesday morning I was at 
 home. Friday, I went to Canton and spoke to eleven 
 hundred young people in the High School Friday after- 
 noon. In the evening I had a dinner party at Miss B.'s 
 School, I greatly enjoyed our old friends, Judge and 
 
HIS COLLEGE PRESIDENCY 421 
 
 Mrs. Day. Ke says that there was some grim humor at 
 the close of the Paris Conference. The papers reported 
 that the Spanish and American commissioners walked out 
 arm in arm in a friendly way. One of the Spanish papers 
 said, 'Yes, the Spanish commissioners walked out replete 
 with arguments, and the Americans stuffed with archi- 
 pelagoes.' Mrs. Day is very witty. You remember that 
 Tom Reed, criticising the present condition of things, said, 
 'The American people think they can send canned liberty 
 abroad.' When Mrs. Day heard this, she said, 'The 
 people are right ; for, you know, liberty must be preserved.' 
 I call that worthy of Voltaire. 
 
 "Her husband when Secretary of State had but few 
 offices to distribute among his friends. Only a few could 
 be given consulates. He was speaking to his wife about 
 the pleasure he had that he could distribute a few con- 
 sulates. But she said, 'But think of the disconsolates.' 
 
 "When Judge Day went to Washington as Assistant 
 Secretary of State, he had a small salary, and lived very 
 simply. His family turnout was a small horse and a 
 small buggy. When Miss B. was a guest of President 
 McKinley at the White House, Judge Day drove up one 
 afternoon with his tiny horse and buggy, and one of the 
 guards ordered him off. But another guard said, 'Hold 
 on! He is the Assistant Secretary of State.' Finally 
 Miss B. came out in her white kids, and the Judge gave 
 her a drive. The horse became frisky and balky. He 
 shook off part of his harness. Sometimes he would stop 
 then he would go very rapidly. The first time he jumped 
 Miss B. said, 'Oh, how playful!' But soon she became 
 serious. Finally they met the President's carriage, a noble 
 turnout. He was sitting with his Secretary, Mr. Porter. 
 Judge Day drew his hat over his eyes. Miss B.'s bonnet 
 
422 JOHy! HENRY BARROWS 
 
 was shaken to one side. They hoped to pass unnoticed, 
 but Secretar}- Porter said, 'It is Judge Day,' and the Pres- 
 ident turned around to look at the disreputable outfit. 
 The next day he made the Judge give Miss B. a drive in 
 the presidential carriage. And he never gets tired of 
 making fun of the performances of that afternoon. 
 
 "Last night I wrote an article for the Congregationalist 
 people at their request. Saturday morning I gave my 
 Sam. Adams lecture in the Central High School of Cleve- 
 land to about three hundred teachers. The Principal 
 wants me to come and address nine hundred of the High 
 School students. There are sixteen hundred in the build- 
 ing, but the main room will seat only nine hundred. I 
 have to write an article for the Independent this week 
 and to get ready for my second Freshman lecture, which 
 will be given, I suppose, on Friday." 
 
 "Oberlin, Dec. 12, 1899. We took dinner this even- 
 ing at Mr. G.'s. General and Mrs. Cox were present, 
 and General and Mrs. Shurtleff. Mrs. Cox told me that 
 when she was a young widow the people of Oberlin com- 
 plained to her father, President Finney, that her dress 
 was too rich and costly. This criticism greatly pained 
 her. One day her father called her into his study and 
 examined her ven,' carefully from top to toe, and then said, 
 'Your dress is black and plain, and I think you are all 
 right.' This was a great relief to her. In those days 
 some Oberlin people supposed they had a right to meddle 
 with other people's business. 
 
 "When Theodore Tilton was here in 1867, he was the 
 guest of General Shurtleff, and he told the General that 
 he admired President Finney above all men on account 
 of his perfect frankness. General ShurtlefiE and Tilton 
 went to see President Finney. He met the New York 
 
HIS COLLEGE PRESIDENCY 423 
 
 editor at his library door, and grasped him by both hands. 
 And then a thought struck him. He said, 'Theodore, 
 did you write those loose articles on Divorce, in the New- 
 York Independent?' Theodore said, 'I did.' 'Theodore, 
 unless you repent you will go to hell as sure as you're 
 alive.' This was a degree of frankness perhaps unex- 
 pected. 
 
 "General Cox told us a good story of Grant. It was 
 in the winter of 1863-4. General Grant had been made 
 Commander-in-Chief of the Department of the ^Mississippi, 
 and came to Eastern Tennessee at a place called Straw- 
 berry^ Plain. General Cox said, 'We showed him during 
 a cold day all there was of interest, and in the evening 
 the West Pointers gathered in a large tent and told stories. 
 Finally General Grant himself told a story which he said 
 was one of the best stories he had ever heard. John 
 Adams was entertaining some people at his home in Brain- 
 tree. As they were going out to dinner, one of his guests 
 saw a poor print of Washington, and said to John Adams, 
 'So you have the Father of his Country with you ?' John 
 Adams explained, 'That wooden-head made his fortune 
 by keeping his mouth shut.' The story is remarkable not 
 only as indicating one of General Grant's peculiarities, but 
 also as showing some of John Adams's feelings toward 
 the great Virginian. 
 
 "I said to General Cox, 'Washington was not fully ap- 
 preciated by all of the statesmen who were his contem- 
 poraries.' And he replied, 'President Lincoln suffered 
 even worse. I was in Washington toward the close of 
 the war, and Henry Winter Davis and Ben Wade gave 
 a luncheon to General Garfield and myself. I had come 
 up to Washington full of enthusiasm for Lincoln which 
 most of the soldiers had. When we would meet the 
 
424 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 Rebel outposts, they would Hurrah for Jeff Davis, and we 
 would Hurrah for Abe Lincoln. But Davis and Wade 
 poured out upon us a series of bitter attacks on Lincoln as 
 a man and politician. They did not scruple to use all 
 the bad words — "baboon," "orang-outang," etc. — applied 
 to him by the Democrats. Garfield good-naturedly 
 prodded them on, but I was horrified.' Statesmen in 
 Washington did not appreciate the excellence of those 
 State Papers of Lincoln's which are now so much ad- 
 mired. I took pleasure in remembering that when I read 
 Lincoln's Second Inaugural in 1865, I said, 'Here is some- 
 thing classical and immortal.' It seemed to me that 
 statesmen in Washington should appreciate an excellence 
 which was evident to a boy of eighteen. 
 
 "Professor C. was present and told a story of a church 
 where the choir were quarreling. There were two choir 
 leaders, each one of whom had followers. The minister 
 exchanged with a neighboring clergyman, and the visiting 
 clergyman, it was hoped, would do something to heal the 
 troubles. He did not realize, however, how bitter was 
 the quarrel until he gave out the hymn. Following one 
 leader a portion of the choir sang it to one tune; and 
 following the other leader, the remainder of the choir sang 
 it to another tune. The visiting clergyman determined 
 to change the text of his discourse, and he gave out these 
 words: 'I hear that there are divisions among you, and 
 I partly believe it.' The result was a happy one. 
 
 "Professor C. also told of a minister who when any- 
 thing of importance happened to his congregation usually 
 made reference to it in his sermon. Two young people 
 of prominence had been married, and they had returned 
 from their wedding journey; and he gave out for his text 
 
HIS COLLEGE PRESIDENCY 425 
 
 these words, 'Abundance of peace so long as the moon 
 endureth.' " 
 
 "Hotel Touraine, Boston, March 27, igoo. 
 
 "My Dear Boy: Boston was founded by the Duke of 
 Tours in 1655. This Hotel takes its name from the gal- 
 lant Duke who invented the famous Tureen in which he 
 boiled his enemies. Hence the expression 'in the Soup.' 
 The decorations of this hostelry reproduce those of the 
 Chateau of Blois. There are many Bourbon lilies 
 stamped all over the Hotel. They are in threes and 
 usually of gilt to show how wicked were the Bourbons. 
 When you get your hat ironed for fifteen cents here — 
 they clap the three golden or guilty lilies on the crown, 
 and this indicates also the three nickels which the ironing 
 costs. You must see Boston and learn these things for 
 yourself. Your mother may be glad to learn that I had 
 shad for breakfast and thought lovingly of her. 
 
 "Life may be given in many ways, and loyalty to truth 
 be sealed as bravely in the closet as the field ; so bountiful 
 is Fate.' The 'field' here referred to is the ball field, 
 and the meaning is: 'Be faithful to your books and you'll 
 win as good a decoration as the 'golden O.' " 
 
 "New York, Saturday Evening, Sept. 8, 1900. 
 "I sit in old Manhattan's modern inn. 
 Pensive and penning now my evening thoughts. 
 Regretful that this narrow paper scorns 
 Pentameters that spread beyond its marge. 
 I cling to ancient ways: my mental size 
 Approves what's solid, old, and true, and loves 
 Anti dis-es-tab-lish-ment-a-ri-ans. 
 Anti dis-es-tab-lish-ment-a-ri-ans 
 Are doubtless fine and, sure the longest men 
 
426 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 In history. They furnish me a line 
 
 As deadly dull as that of Tennyson: 
 
 'A Mr. Wilkinson, a clergyman.' 
 
 I now return from soaring fancy's flight 
 
 To ways prosaic — like the iron way 
 
 That leads from Hi-O-Hi to Hudson's mouth. 
 
 I reached this town on time and took a room 
 
 (The number is four sixty- four and cheap) 
 
 And soon was seeing Ryder, dear C. J,, 
 
 Who swears by Oberlin and longs to find 
 
 Her funds. The meeting (A.M.A.) occurs 
 
 This year in Springfield, Mass., and our Miss Luce 
 
 (I'm told) will soon be asked to make a speech 
 
 Upon the education of depressed 
 
 And colored races ! Whew ! We'll quickly make 
 
 A missionary of her Doctorship! 
 
 This afternoon I heard a very comic play 
 
 To music set by Arthur Sullivan. 
 
 'The Rose of Persia' it is called. O, fun! 
 
 Alas, I grieved your absence from the show! 
 
 We heard in tickling music of the woes 
 
 Of men whose wives are numbered by the score! 
 
 We saw the Persian harem dance: we heard 
 
 Of Mahound's cruelty: we saw the blade 
 
 The F^oyal Executioner whirled round 
 
 We laughed at Mad Hassan who loved to feed 
 
 The wicked poor: we saw him doomed to die 
 
 Yet by a story true his life was saved. 
 
 The Sultan spared him for a tale well told 
 
 And ending happily, a tale of little Tom, 
 
 An Arab of the street who dwelt we thought 
 
 In Gutter — Persia — where such Arabs live, 
 
HIS COLLEGE PRESIDENCY 427 
 
 For there their spirits lightly leap and bound 
 
 Elastic as an India-rubber ball! 
 
 Such wit will not uplift your saddened souls. 
 
 Good night! I've just relieved my little room 
 
 Of a Reporter for the prestful Press. 
 
 A kiss all round and joys be multiplied 
 
 Such joys the Rose of Persia never knew. 
 
 The flight divine, methinks is o'er. Your spouse 
 
 And father sinks to simple prose — and sleep." 
 
 "Hotel Bellevue, Philadelphia, March 2, 1901. 
 "I am glad that you are seeing Gotham and hearing 
 its music. It will be to you a good preparation for the 
 wild delights and Bacchanalian Orgies of the Oberlin 
 Sphinx. I crossed the stormy North River in safety and 
 followed Washington across the Delaware into the quiet 
 town of Philadelphia. I am putting up at this little inn 
 where I manage to keep comfortable. I leave at 12:36 
 for McKinleyville — whither the crowds now tend. I am 
 wondering whether Lincoln, the statesman, or Grant, the 
 soldier, came out first at the juvenile debate. If L. won 
 I shall not be surprised, if W. won I shall applaud. 
 Please give a silver half dollar to W. if she won and 
 please give L, a half dollar (either in silver or paper) if 
 he was victorious. But in case W. was defeated please 
 give her fifty-one cents — and if the hard battle at last 
 went againt L. give him fifty-one cents or in both cases 
 and in all cases, (Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accu- 
 sative, and Vocative) charge the one hundred and one 
 cents to me. I did not find my 'rich friend' at home this 
 evening — but I have taken my revenge in buying an 
 umbrella and some gray cloth for coat, waistcoat, and 
 trousers. (The teacher of Freshman English in Oberlin 
 
428 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 insists on the rhetorical duty of being specific. ) The cook 
 in this Bellevue Inn is 'the finest in the world.' Let us 
 study the menu together sometime. Let us come here at 
 the twilight hour and settle the great problem of life — 
 to-wit — whether a better repast can be made out of lobster 
 croquettes a la creme and boiled grouse or — a rib of 
 terrapin a la Maryland and canvas back duck. Be not 
 hasty in your decision. Do not get cold, do not fall out 
 of bed, do not break either a radius or a humerus. Be 
 humorous. Be yourself. Dare to aim and bid high. 
 Take a matinee now and then and charge it to James R. 
 Severance." 
 
 On December 31st, 1901, he returned from Cleveland 
 very happy at the successful end of a movement in which 
 Oberlin had been engaged, to raise $300,000, and thereby 
 secure $200,000 more, that Mr. Rockefeller had offered 
 conditionally. But he was tired and the following months 
 brought him little rest, which may partly account for his 
 declination of an invitation to take charge of all of the 
 Congresses in connection with the St. Louis Exposition 
 of 1904. His engagements carried him to California 
 where he gave thirty-six addresses, among them the first 
 course of Earl lectures before the Pacific Theological 
 SeminarJ^ According to his letters both Berkeley and 
 Stanford have "vast outlooks into the twentieth century. 
 One is overwhelmed on the Pacific Coast by the possi- 
 bilities of the American future." 
 
 Most of March, April, and May he spent in Oberlin, 
 glad to be working at home, to entertain his faculty with 
 a series of dinners, and to give the Baccalaureate Sermon 
 before the Theological Seminary. On May i8th he 
 preached in his old Chicago pulpit, on "Lessons from the 
 Life of John Frederick Oberlin." This sermon, which 
 
HIS COLLEGE PRESIDENCY 429 
 
 joined his old life to his new, was his last address. From 
 Chicago he went to New Haven to a banquet in honor 
 of Professor Fisher, and thence to the meeting of the Gen- 
 eral Assembly in New York where he rejoiced over the 
 ^nal action concerning the Revision of the Westminster 
 Confession. On his waj^ home, he was prostrated by an 
 illness that proved to be pneumonia, complicated by peri- 
 carditis. This resulted in his death the morning of June 
 3rd, ten days later. 
 
 During his illness the anxious crowds before the bulle- 
 tin board from seven in the morning until eleven at night, 
 the grave faces and hushed voices of students, faculty, 
 and townspeople bore witness to the love in which he was 
 held. The students gathered in a mass meeting and sent 
 him the following message: "We, the student body of 
 Oberlin College, send to our dear president our fullest 
 sympathy and our prayer in this great need. You have 
 stood not alone for the Oberlin ideals of Christian char- 
 acter and democracy, but you have stood also for their 
 realization in the broadest, most liberal, and most modern 
 form. "V'ou have ever been to us all that a noble president 
 could be, and we pray that God will spare you to us. We 
 could not bear for our own sake that you should lack 
 now this simple expression of our affection that is ever 
 yours." Such messages as this and letters and telegrams 
 from absent friends filled his last days with happiness. 
 As he struggled heroically with pain, that farewell week, 
 his devotion to the college for which he had spent him- 
 self, and his tireless thoughtfulness of almost countless 
 friends, were hourly evident. He left loving messages 
 for scores of people, remembering by name famous preach- 
 ers, men of affairs, parishioners both rich and lowly, strug- 
 gling students, his Oberlin faculty, his hosts and hostesses 
 
430 JOHS HEXRY BARROIVS 
 
 in distant places, missionaries to far lands, and many 
 more. He did not forget his little girls in his Lemon and 
 Soda Societ>- and requested that their yearly dues be 
 doubled when his good-bye was sent them. He asked, too, 
 that his body might rest in Oberlin and that Manning 
 might be placed beside him. He faced death wittingly 
 with the blessed peace of one about to gain the crown of 
 life. 
 
 His burial was princely. For three days no college 
 classes met, and all Oberlin business was suspended the 
 morning of his funeral. This was held on June fifth, in 
 the Second Church of Oberlin. The speakers were his 
 minister. Dr. H. M. Tenney, the dean of the college, 
 Professor Henry C. King, who has since become his suc- 
 cessor, and Dr. L. C. Warner of Oberlin's Board of 
 Trustees. Their loving words, the wonderful display 
 of flowers sent from many places, and the strains of the 
 Gounod Sanctus and Benedictus sung by grieving students 
 helped to soften and ennoble the hard fact of death and 
 to express the sorrow of the Oberlin communitj- and of 
 business men, educators, divines, and other friends who 
 had assembled from afar. 
 
 The casket was carried from the church to Westwood 
 Cemeten,' by sevent}-t\vo young men of the four college 
 classes. As one of his facultj' has written, "He showed to 
 his students even'where such courtesy, such an interest 
 in their sports, their studies, their spiritual welfare they 
 could not but feel that he was their friend. It was fitting 
 that he should be tenderly borne to his grave by their 
 strong arms, — relay succeeding relay, and all eagerly giv- 
 ing this proof of their love. As they passed through our 
 streets between its crowds of spectators, their gracious 
 
HIS COLLEGE PRESIDENCY 431 
 
 service reminded us of a similar scene depicted by Brown- 
 ing in 'A Grammarian's Funeral:' 
 
 'This is our master, famous, calm and dead, 
 Borne on our shoulders.' " 
 
 On the first anniversary- of his death, students covered 
 his grave witii flowers. The stone that marks his quiet 
 resting place beside his oldest son, bears these words: 
 
 "He gave 
 His body to this pleasant country's earth. 
 And his pure soul unto his captain, Christ, 
 Under whose colours he had fought so long." 
 
 "Looking steadfastly on him we sa.v his face as it had 
 been the face of an angel." 
 
 On the evening of his burial a special memorial service 
 was held in the First Church of Oberlin, of which the 
 speakers were Dr. Judson Smith, Hon. Charles Ailing, 
 Professor George S. Goodspeed, Dr. James L. Hill, Hon. 
 Harlow N. Higinbotham, Dr. Charles S. Mills. We 
 quote from Dr. Mills: 
 
 "He seemed to us to possess this first quality- which 
 Oberlin needed — an exceptional grasp upon the life of our 
 own time. 
 
 "Few had mastered the art of public speech as he had ; 
 few had come to such a courtliness of bearing in social 
 circles; few had become so truly known to the world as 
 he. The many wide relations in which he had stood 
 made it possible for him to bring the college into valuable 
 connections which it had not before maintained. And so 
 he has journeyed from the Atlantic to the Pacific, telling 
 the story of the college, and seeking everyAvhere those 
 whom he hoped to interest in its welfare. The pages 
 
432 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 of the press were open to his facile pen, and in many waj^s 
 he has delineated the heroic history and the strenuous 
 struggles of this institution. Loving his home with all 
 the devotion of the great heart of a noble husband and 
 true father, and having, as we who knew him well under- 
 stood, so much to love in that home, he allowed himself 
 rarely to tarry long within its doors. Now east, now 
 west, now south, he coursed as some brave eagle in its 
 flight. What it has meant to have such a champion none 
 of us can possibly measure; but that it has contributed 
 mightily to bring the college into wide notice, to give it a 
 new eminence among the colleges, to enlarge its resources 
 and constituency, none of us can possibly doubt. May 
 the seed that he sowed beside many waters spring up and 
 bear an abundant harvest! 
 
 "Again, he brought to the college a new interpretation 
 of the glorious Oberlin ideas and ideals. Into this town 
 of hospitality he came, in the most natural way, and built 
 a beautiful home, not for himself and his own merely, but 
 for the community, that he might be of the largest social 
 service. 
 
 "He brought, too, that trilog}' of Christian graces which 
 have ever been written upon the Oberlin standard — faith, 
 hope, love. Faith, buoyant, inspiring faith, we have ever 
 had. But here came a man, fresh from the Parliament 
 of Religions, teaching us to see the best there is in other 
 men's faith, and to build on that until it should blossom 
 into the glorious flower of faith in Christ. And hope — 
 how much it has meant that a man came into Oberlin, 
 which must always struggle against material limitations, 
 with that brave, radiant face, that unquenchable sunshine 
 of his! He was, in the largest and most glorious sense, 
 a Christian optimist. How he greeted and cheered every 
 
HIS COLLEGE PRESIDENCY 433 
 
 one! How easy it is to feel the hand-clasp and see the 
 kindly smile with which he ever met us. And love — When 
 he came back from India it was to tell men that the 'do- 
 main of fraternity is practically world-wide, and that 
 the empire of good will is the most comprehensive' the 
 sun looks upon. How true it was that he saw the best 
 there was in any man, and thus gave again a fresh inter- 
 pretation to the Oberlin ideal of loving helpfulness. Per- 
 haps his greatest service to us was through his lofty ideals 
 of culture. 
 
 "When ha/e there ever been grouped upon a single 
 platform those who could testify to the place of one man 
 in the life of such great world movements as have those 
 who have preceded me to-night? A metropolitan pulpit, 
 the greatest university of the West, the mightiest move- 
 ment that has ever taken place among young people, our 
 great American Board, the World's Parliament of Re- 
 ligions, have been in turn represented. And these rep- 
 resentatives have not come here simply to lay a flower 
 upon the brow of this man, but to tell what he wrought 
 through these world affairs. 
 
 "Who does not see — who has not seen — in these hours 
 his joyous face? Who has not heard his words of elo- 
 quence, lifting us up, up, up, to the very gates of heaven ? 
 Oberlin is a holier shrine than ever before. Never will 
 any of us come here without understanding that this dear 
 place is the better for this powerful and noble life, and 
 without in spirit thanking God that he came." 
 
 Few men have been so beloved as this man cut down in 
 his fifty-fifth year, at what seemed the height of his 
 physical and spiritual power. From England, France, 
 Germany, India, Japan and all parts of America there 
 poured in letters of sympathy and grief too personal and 
 
434 JOHN HENRY BARROWS 
 
 heart breaking to cite. Friends in Switzerland sent edel- 
 weiss to cover his grave. There is no need to recount 
 the impressive memorial exercises and eulogies in other 
 places, the gifts and verses in his memory, the pilgrimages 
 to Westwood, the touching resolutions of sorrow from 
 the organizations where his strength and love had been 
 dominant, or the appreciations of him that have appeared 
 in newspapers and magazines the world over. Their pre- 
 vailing sentiment lives in the words of Professor Charles 
 H. A. Wager of Oberlin, which clo^e this record of a 
 beautiful life. 
 
 " 'The light and fervor and convincing eloquence of 
 his personal character!' What more precise account of 
 the method of President Barrows throughout his life ? 
 He was willing to use the world's best achievements for 
 his own high ends — the artistic genius of Milton and Rem- 
 brandt, the attractions of high place gained by patriotic 
 statesmanship, the compelling charm of human wit and 
 sympathy and eloquence. He gave us a spectacle of an 
 abounding interest in life, in all its manifold expressions 
 of grace and power, an interest that was only a handmaid 
 to his devotion to that 'favor which is life,' and that 'lov- 
 ing-kmdness which is better than life.' 
 
 "Others think of President Barrows as the great 
 preacher, liberal, eloquent, devoted ; the ardent champion 
 of great causes ; the superb organizer ; the captivating lec- 
 turer and writer. Those who knew him remember, per- 
 haps first of all, his marvelous personal power, his quick, 
 appreciative sympathy, the grace and charm of all that he 
 did and was, his unsurpassed gift of making himself be- 
 loved. All this and much more might be said. Much of 
 it is far too intimate and sacred to be said. But as mem- 
 bers of an institution of learning and the liberal arts of 
 
mS COLLEGE PRESIDENCY 435 
 
 which he was the head, we may properly think of his 
 eager and unfaih'ng interest in all that is humanly 'lovely 
 and of good report,' in all the noble activities that vivify, 
 enrich, intensify, the common life of men. It was char- 
 acteristic that in his address at the funeral services of 
 President Fairchild, his mind dwelt almost exclusively 
 upon the momentous events that President Fairchild had 
 witnessed, of the wealth of life that his eighty years had 
 seen. President Barrows' half-century, too, was a stirring 
 time — and we may be sure that he rejoiced not only to live 
 in such a time, but also to reflect that he was contributing 
 his force towards the solution of the great problems of his 
 day. It was not granted to him, as to some of his pred- 
 ecessors, to see the effect upon the college of a long 
 presidency, but loyal and loving hearts will rejoice to per- 
 petuate his influence and to aid in the realization of his 
 ideal. 
 
 "One thinks of him sometimes as of Tennyson's Ulysses 
 — an eager, though not a restless spirit, rich with the gifts 
 of experience, yet still drawn on by gleams of 'that un- 
 travelled world, whose margin fades forever and forever.' 
 Life in all its fulness was not too large for his eager 
 spirit here, and into the fulness of life we believe that he 
 has entered." 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abbott, J. S. C, 37. 
 Adam's sin, 175. 
 Adams, John, 423. 
 
 " Samuel, 30, 138, 285, 339. 
 " " lecture on, 57, 422. 
 
 life of, 145. 
 Adelbert College, 338. 
 Advisory Council of Parliament of 
 
 Religions, 254, 258. 
 .^schylus, 191. 
 
 African Methodist Church, 340. 
 Agassiz, 72. 
 
 Lowell's, 141. 
 Agra, 376. 
 
 Ahmednagar, 377, 378, 379. 
 Air, properties of, 229. 
 Akbar, 253, 273. 
 Alaska, 393. 
 Alcott, A. B., 139, 144. 
 
 " L. M., 144. 
 Alden, E. K., 131. 
 Alexander, Dr., 177. 
 Alexandria, 361. 
 Alexy, Prof., 42, 53, 137. 
 Alford, Dean, tomb of, 359. 
 Ailing, Charles, 431. 
 Alpine glacier, life compared to 
 
 an, 324. 
 D'Alviella, Count, 262, 274, 276. 
 Ameer Ali, 261, 272, 373. 
 America and England, 353, 354. 
 
 faith in, 246-247. 
 American Board of Foreign Mis- 
 sions, 161, 390, 416, 433. 
 Church in Rome, 103. 
 colleges, 149, 403. 
 democracy, 409. 
 Home Missionary Society, 15. 
 Reformer's Series, 261. 
 scholars, 94. 
 
 Sunday-school Convention, 161. 
 "Ancient Mariner," 344. 
 Andover, liberality of, 131. 
 
 " Theological Seminary, 73, 
 128-130. 
 
 Angelo, Michael, 105, 106, 107, 185, 
 280. 
 
 Moses of, 105. 
 Angels, 220-221, 233. 
 Ann Arbor, 23, 418-419, 420. 
 Antoinette, Marie, 90. 
 Answers to examination quesiioiis, 
 
 67-68. 
 Apostles' creed, 93. 
 Arabian poets, 120. 
 Arabic Bible, 392. 
 
 " papers, 362. 
 Arbitration, 353. 
 Armenian Church, 259. 
 Armour Institute, 239. 
 Arnett, Bishop, 340. 
 Arnold, Matthew, 180, 238. 
 
 " Thomas, 27, 102, 263. 
 Arreton, 182-183. 
 Art Institute, 239, 394. 
 Art in Paris, 235. 
 Arvonia, 54, 55, 56, 57, 60. 
 
 " Literary Society, 57. 
 
 " Union Church, 58. 
 Arya Somaj, 276. 
 "Ascent of Man," 402. 
 Ashitzu, Zitsusen, 258, 281. 
 Asoka, 253, 273. 
 Athanasius, 188. 
 Atheism, 391. 
 Athens, 27, 28, 121, 321, 360. 
 
 Paul in, 262, 263. 
 Atlantic coast, 218. 
 Attleboro, 13. 
 
 Auditorium, Chicago, 239, 245, 310. 
 D'Aumale, Due, 94, 230. 
 Avalanche, 328. 
 
 Babu English, 371-372. 
 Baccalaureate sermon, 412. 
 Bacon, Dr., 35, 134. 
 
 L. W., 286, 887. 
 Ballantine, Pres., 338. 
 Banurji, Justice, 371. 
 Baptists, 162-152. 
 
438 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Barrowe, John, 13. 
 Barrows, John, 13. 
 Barrows, John Henry — 
 
 his appearance, 75, 77, 129, 160, 
 
 431, 432, 433. 
 his belief in individuals, 242- 
 
 243. 
 his completeness of character, 
 
 232-236, 271, 341, 364. 
 his conversion, 20. 
 his courage, 333. 
 his eloquence, 129, 160, 236, 434 
 his family life, 200-203. 
 his friendships, 130, 198-200, 
 
 413, 416. 
 his God, 223-224. 
 his habits of work, 260, 271. 
 his hopefulness, 333, 432, 433. 
 his hospitality, 416, 432. 
 his humility, 320. 
 his idea of a church, 132. 
 his ideal of life, 342, 434. 
 his impulsiveness, 76. 
 his joyousness, 61, 74, 76, 148, 
 
 167, 432, 433. 
 his leisure, 180-202. 
 his love of beauty, 235, 236. 
 his love of country, 246-247. 
 his love of country life, 194- 
 
 198. 
 his love of games, 195, 198. 
 his love of fishing, 195, 197. 
 his love of the ocean, 78-79. 
 his love of life, 434-435. 
 his love of men, 211, 217, 251, 
 
 252. 
 his love of music, 165. 
 his marriage, 131. 
 his method, 434-435. 
 his opinions, 93-94. 
 his nervous breakdown, 164. 
 his sorrows, 179, 287, 288, 414. 
 his spiritual progress, 323. 
 his success, 178-179. 
 his theology, 171-178, 269. 
 his versatility, 202, 203. 
 Barrows, Mrs. J. H., 79, 82, 131, 
 
 132, 180, 224, 287, 291, 292, 
 
 294, 307, 326, 328, 355, 356, 
 
 369, 360, 364, 373, 393. 
 
 Barrows, John Manning, 196, 291, 
 295, 296, 337, 430. 
 death of, 287. 
 Barrows, Prof. John Manning, 12- 
 18, 33, 56, 57. 
 death of, 179. 
 Barrows, Mrs. J. M., 11-18, 68, 288. 
 Barrows, Mary (Mrs. Leroy War- 
 ren), 56, 57, 60, 63, 68, 73. 
 Barrows, Ransom, 61. 
 Barrows, Walter Manning, 19, 21, 
 23, 29, 30, 32, 35, 37, 51, 57, 
 60, 62, 63, 73, 91, 135, 181, 
 287. 
 death of, 414. 
 
 memorial sermon, 414-415, 419, 
 
 420. 
 
 Barrows lectureship. The, 302-305, 
 
 311-313, 333, 354-356, 369- 
 
 370, 381-382. 
 
 Bartlett, A. C, 288, 291, 292, 293, 
 
 330, 399, 416, 419. 
 Bates, Gen., 120, 133, 134. 
 Bay View Assembly, 260. 
 Bazaine, Marshal, 94, 96, 230. 
 Beecher Council, The, 133-134. 
 " George, 39. 
 
 Henry Ward, 17, 25, 38, 
 40, 41, 43, 45, 46, 47, 48, 
 49, 52, 63, 71, 87, 93, 123, 
 124, 126, 149, 226, 261, 
 279. 
 compared with Parker^ 181. 
 compared with Spurgeon, 124. 
 in Chicago, 159. 
 life of, 261, 270. 
 Beecher, Lyman, 14, 78. 
 
 Willis, 262. 
 Bellevue Hotel, 427, 428. 
 Beloit, 249. 
 
 Beloved disciple, 160, 210. 
 Benares, 366-369, 388. 
 Bengali Christians, 381. 
 
 Hymns, 373. 
 Berkeley, California, 428. 
 Bersier, M., 87. 
 Bethlehem, 112. 
 Bible, The, 211. 
 
 how to read, 216. 
 scientific study of, 833. 
 
INDEX 
 
 439 
 
 Bible study, 132. 
 Biblical Christianity, 265. 
 
 " student, 267. 
 World, 312. 
 Bismarck, 98, 343. 
 Blaine, Mr., 151, 248. 
 Blarney, 180. 
 Blind beggar, 329. 
 Blois, 352, 425. 
 
 Boardman, George Dana, 299, 314. 
 Board of Trade, 239, 246, 332. 
 B"-ib2v, 302, 364, 366, 367. 
 Bonet-Maury, Prof., 316, 329, 330, 
 
 344-350, 352. 
 Booth, General, 310-311. 
 
 " Ballington, 312. 
 Boston, 24, 294. 
 
 Free Religious Association of, 
 253. 
 
 Journal, 248. 
 
 ministers, 139, 294. 
 address to, 156-157. 
 Bosworth, Edward I., 418. 
 Boulder, Col., 39S-399. 
 Bourgeois, M., 346. 
 Brahmo-Somaj, 273. 
 "Bride of Lammermoor," 296. 
 Briggs, Prof., 225. 
 Bristol, Frank, 336. 
 Brooke, Stopford, 28, 269. 
 Brooks, Phillips, 165, 270, 293. 
 Bronte, Charlotte, 57. 
 Brown, John, 21, 26, 52, 55. 
 Browning, E. B., 122. 
 
 Robert, 269, 431. 
 Hall, 357. 
 Bruce, Prof., 315, 326. 
 Bruntiere, 347. 
 Bryan, W. J., 398. 
 Brydge, Sir Edgerton, 27. 
 Buddhist church, 273. 
 
 " denunciation of Christian- 
 ity, 274. 
 Budington, Dr., 45, 134. 
 Bulgarian Church, 259. 
 Bunyan, John, 124, 125. 
 Burdett-Coutts, Baroness, 352. 
 Burke, 90. 
 Burlingame, 56, 57. 
 
 " Chronicle, 59, 66. 
 
 Bushnell, Horace, 134, 269, 270, 
 Butler, Bertha Anthony, 12. 
 " Charles, 39. 
 Father, 295. 
 Byron, 17, 104, 203. 
 
 Cable, G. W., 27C. 
 Cairo, 109, 359, 360-363, 387. 
 Calcutta, 302, 311, 366, 369-375, 388. 
 " Missionary Conference, 
 
 369-370. 
 " Statesman, 304. 
 California, 289-294, 428. 
 Calemard, Col. and Mde., 347, 350, 
 Calvary Church, 155. 
 Calvin, John, 40, 80, 150, 297. 
 
 life of, 72. 
 Calvinism, 39-40, 159. 
 Cambridge, 358. 
 
 " Mass., 395. 
 
 Cana, 234. 
 Canada, 194. 
 Candia, 102. 
 
 Candlin, George T., 297. 
 Candlish, James, 177. 
 Canterbury, 313, 314, 358. 
 
 " Archbishop of, 256. 
 
 Canton, 420. 
 Capen, Samuel B., 416. 
 Carpenter, J. E., 290, 357-358. 
 
 Philo, 154. 
 Cassel, 354. 
 Castelar, 295. 
 Catholic archbishops, 259. 
 banquet, 294, 295. 
 church, 256-257, 273. 
 " church in Parliament of 
 Religions, 256-257, 259, 
 308-309. 
 " university, 259. 
 Central Music Hall preaching ser- 
 vices, 156-159, 166, 241. 
 Cesnola, Gen., 120. 
 Ceylon, 383-384, 387. 
 Chaldean archbishop, 361. 
 Chamouni, 83-86, 344. 
 Chapin, E. H., 49-50. 
 Charbonnel, Abbe, 329, 350. 
 Chautauqua, 249, 313, 397, 399, 
 Cheney, John Vance, 394. 
 
440 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Chicago, 24, 56, 101, 237, 389, 420, 
 428. 
 appeal of, 237, 238, 393. 
 Archbishop of, 295. 
 business men, 258. 
 growth of, 238, 239. 
 intellectual side of, 394. 
 Literary Club, 281, 329, 331, 
 
 339. 
 Presbytery, 171, 178, 199, 296, 
 
 333. 
 Press, 274, 334. 
 Princeton Club, 199. 
 University of, 239, 297, 301, 
 304, 320, 322, 332, 390, 410. 
 Chillicothe, 14. 
 China, 263, 264, 265, 266. 
 Chinese Government, 258, 273. 
 Christ, at Parliament of Religions, 
 299. 
 attractiveness of, 208. 
 crowning of, 210. 
 in preaching, 205-210. 
 personality of, 220, 231. 
 "Christian Conquest of Asia," 393. 
 " Endeavor Convention, 
 
 129, 250, 260. 
 " Endeavor Society, 166, 
 
 204, 249. 
 " Endeavor Society, trus- 
 tees of, 338. 
 " unity, 265. 
 Christianity, eclipse of, 266. 
 
 evidence of, 217. 
 "Christianity the World Religion," 
 
 393. 
 Christmas, celebration of, 201. 
 Chrysostom, 225, 250. 
 Citizens' League, 241. 
 Clark, Francis E., 129, 205, 338, 
 
 339, 413, 416. 
 Cleveland Congregational Club, 338. 
 
 " Grover, 270. 
 Clough, A. H., 122, 143. 
 Coe, Dr., 87. 
 Coeducation, 93. 
 Coleridge, 86, 344, 381. 
 Coligni, 150, 346. 
 Colleges, aims of, 407, 408. 
 Christian, 403-404. 
 
 Colombo, 372, 384. 
 
 Colosseum, 104, 210. 
 
 Colorado College, 418. 
 
 Columbian Exposition, 225, 253, 266. 
 
 inscriptions for, 266-267. 
 Comba, Emilio, 276. 
 Comenius, John, 253. 
 Common soldier, 247-248. 
 Comparative religion, 281, 312, 392, 
 411. 
 
 lectureship on, 300. 
 
 professor of, 301. 
 
 textbook of, 298. 
 
 value of, 300-301. 
 Concord, 139-144. 
 
 Congregational Church, compared 
 with other churches, 
 152, 153. 
 Club, 151, 338. 
 Confucianism, 284, 298 . 
 Conscience, 240. 
 Constantinople, 359-360. 
 Cook, Joseph, 135, 261, 274, 318, 
 
 31S. 
 Cooke, Jay, 87. 
 Coptic patriarch, 361, 363. 
 Coptic university, 361. 
 Cornell, Gov., 319. 
 Cornell University, 249, 410. 
 Coronado Beach, 289, 290, 292. 
 Country lif^, 194-198. 
 
 " sounds, 194. 
 Cowles, E. P., 20. 
 Cows, worship of, 368. 
 Cox, Father, 309-310. 
 
 " Jacob D., 401, 422-484. 
 " S. H., 43, 45. 
 Coxe, Bishop, 276. 
 Creed, a new, 173-178. 
 Crerar, John, 199. 
 
 library, 239. 
 Cromer, Lord, 363. 
 Crosby, Dr., 43. 
 Culver, Miss., 338. 
 Currier, A. H., Prof., 424-426. 
 Cuyler, Dr., 32, 204. 
 Cyprus, 120. 
 
 Dagnan-Bouveret, 351. 
 Dairyman's Daughter, 182. 
 Damascus. 119-120, 266, 283, 321. 
 
INDEX 
 
 441 
 
 Daniels, Joseph S., 21, 25, 78, 81, 
 
 83-86, 87, 419. 
 Darjeeling, 375, 387. 
 Davis, Col., 394. 
 Day, George E., 34, 38. 
 
 " Judge and Mrs., 421-422. 
 Delhi, 266, 376. 
 Democracy, 247, 409. 
 
 faith in, 71-72. 
 Denominations like parts in music, 
 
 152-153. 
 Denver, University of, 418. 
 Depew, Chauncey M., 285. 
 Desjardins, Arthur, 350. 
 Detroit, First Cong. Church of, 128. 
 Devil's Punch Bowl, 180. 
 Dewey School, 239. 
 Dharmapala, H., 278, 284, 295, 296, 
 
 352. 
 Dial, 239. 
 
 Dickens, 39, 69, 95, 168, 189, 348. 
 Dickinson, Miss, 37. 
 Dickerman, G. S., 33. 
 Dighton, 13. 
 Dingley, Gov., 134. 
 Dionysios Latas, 274. 
 Dix, Morgan, 276. 
 Doctor of Divinity, 249. 
 Dodge, Wm. E., 45, 150, 299. 
 Dolliver, J. B., 416. 
 Douglass, Frederick, 24, 25. 
 Drummond, Henry, 286, 402. 
 Drury College, 398. 
 Dudlean lecture, 390. 
 Duff College, 305, 311-312. 
 Dwight, Timothy, 34, 38, 63, 175. 
 
 Earl lectures, 428. 
 Eaton, Amos, 13, 14. 
 
 John, 91-93. 
 East Boston, 138-148. 
 L'Ecole des Beaux Arts, 92. 
 Eddy, Clarence, 165, 352. 
 Education, 402, 409-410. 
 Egypt, 108-112, 360-363, 365. 
 Eliot Cong. Church, 130, 182. 
 
 " George, 39, 62, 188. 
 
 " Pres., 395-397. 
 Emerson, 27, 185, 245, 269, 321, 410. 
 visit to, 139-141. 
 
 Ems, 183. 
 
 England and America, 353-354. 
 
 English Church, 232, 256, 313. 
 
 " elections, 181. 
 Ensign, F. G., 163. 
 Estabrook, Prof., 15. 
 Evening Preaching Services, 166. 
 
 Fairbairn, Principal, 315, 357. 
 
 Fairchild, James H., 32, 415-416, 435. 
 
 Fairman, James, 135. 
 
 Fairmount College, 18. 
 
 Faith, shipwreck of, 216-217. 
 
 Fallows, Samuel, 336. 
 
 Farrar, 181, 358, 359. 
 
 Favre, Jules, 98. 
 
 Feehan, Archbishop, 309. 
 
 Field, Eugene, 332. 
 
 " Marshall, 153. 
 Figures of Speech, 227-228. 
 Finney, Charles G., 11, 14, 32, 401, 
 
 422. 
 Fisher, George P., 35, 37, 264, 269, 
 
 429. 
 First Presbyterian Church of Chi- 
 cago, call to 144, 145. 
 history, membership, and spirit, 
 
 153-156. 
 resignation from, 333-334. 
 farewell to, 341. 
 Florence Flower Show, 121-122. 
 Fontanes, E., 350, 352. 
 Fort Dearborn, 154. 
 
 " Worth, 192. 
 Franklin, Ohio, 15. 
 Freemantle, Dean, 327. 
 Free Religious Association of Bos- 
 ton, 253. 
 French Academy, 351. 
 
 " Assembly, 98. 
 
 " ignorance of, 419. 
 
 " law courts, 96. 
 
 " oration, 347. 
 
 " politeness, 345, S49. 
 French, Mr., 394. 
 Frost, Albinus, 395, 39«. 
 Frye, Senator, 419. 
 Funerals, 169-171. 
 
 Gage, Lyman, 336. 
 Gandhi, 281. 
 
444 
 
 IMDEX 
 
 Kansas education, 67. 
 
 " population, 69-71. 
 
 " University, 249. 
 
 " women, 397. 
 
 Kayasth Society, 273. 
 Keane, John J., 259, 274. 
 Kent, Aratus, 154. 
 
 " theater, 358, 389. 
 Kenwood Presbyterian Church, 390. 
 Keshub Chunder Sen, 374, 383. 
 Kidd's "Social Evolution," 307. 
 Killarney, 180. 
 Kimball, Edward, 144. 
 King, Henry C, 417, 430. 
 Kioto, 296, 384. 
 Kipling, Rudyard, 265. 
 Kiretchjian, 276. 
 Klein, Abbe, 350. 
 Knox College, 249. 
 Kobe, 384. 
 "Kubla Khan," 381. 
 Kwai, Mr., 285. 
 
 Labor and Capital, 243. 
 
 Laestrogonian savages, 108. 
 
 Lake Forest, 199, 249. 
 
 Lamanda Park, 291-294. 
 
 Lamb, Charles, 180. 
 
 Lambert, Father, 158. 
 
 Larnaca, 120. 
 
 "Lost Supper," by Dagnan-Bouveret, 
 
 351. 
 Latas, Dionysios, 274. 
 Latin, pronunciation of, 307. 
 Lauterbrunnen, 327. 
 Law and Order League, 240, 248. 
 Lawrence, Kansas, 57, 59. 
 
 Mass., 130, 133. 
 Lemon and Soda Society, 417, 430. 
 Lenawee Co., 15. 
 Leroy-Beaulieu 344, 349, 350. 
 Lewis Institute, 239. 
 Liberty "canned," 421. 
 Lidden, Canon, 269. 
 Lily Cottage, 374. 
 Lincoln, Abraham, 73, 138, 140, 224, 
 
 330, 401, 423-424, 425. 
 Lindsay, Thomas M., 326. 
 Livingstone, David, 392. 
 "Loafer," 371. 
 
 Logan statue, 395. 
 Loire country, 352. 
 London, 180-181. 
 
 " preachers, 123-125. 
 
 Lord's supper, invitation to, 13. 
 Los Angeles, 292, 293. 
 Louvre, 95. 
 Lowell, 139, 143, 2C9, 325. 
 
 " in Chicago, 191. 
 
 " and Hough, 122. 
 
 " and Thoreau, 141. 
 Lowell's "Agassiz, 141. 
 Lowell's "Commemoration Ode," 
 
 141. 
 Luce, Alice H., 416, 426. 
 Luther, 188, 339. 
 
 Lunn, Henry S., 325, 326, 327, 328. 
 Luxor, 110-111. 
 Lyndon "Signal," 59. 
 
 MacDonald, K. S., 304. 
 
 Mackinac Island, 264, 270, 296, 297, 
 
 415. 
 Madras, 302, 367, 388. 
 
 Hindu, 304. 
 Madura, 380. 
 Maharajah Bahadur, 373. 
 
 " of Indore, 377. 
 
 Maharani of Kuch Behar, 374. 
 Malta, 108. 
 Manning, Cardinal, 233. 
 
 " Sarah, 13. 
 
 Manchester College, 357-358. 
 Marais des Cygnes, 54, 56, 69. 
 Marathon, 140. 
 Marmora, Sea of, 359. 
 Married people, beautiful habit of, 
 
 216. 
 Marriage services, 167-169. 
 Mather, Cotton, 294. 
 Matthews, Shailer, 335, 394. 
 Maverick Cong. Church, 138, 144. 
 Meaux, Vicomte de, 345. 
 Medina, 15, 16, 17, 56, 62. 
 
 " Union Seminary 16. 
 Memphis, 109, 388. 
 Mer de Glace adventure, 82-86. 
 Methodists, 152-153. 
 McCall, Rev. Mr., 94. 
 
 " mission, 16*. 
 
INDEX 
 
 445 
 
 McQelland, Mrs., 394. 
 McCosh, James, 45, 150. 
 McCormick, Cyrus H., 150. 
 
 " Theological Seminary, 
 
 239. 
 McDowell, Chancellor, 418. 
 McLean, J. K., 416. 
 McNair, Mr., 386. 
 McPherson, Simon J., 198-200, 335, 
 
 336. 
 Michigan high schools, 66. 
 " University, 410. 
 
 Milan cathedral, 99-100, 215. 
 Mildmay Conference, 180-181. 
 Mill, J. S., 128, 269. 
 Miller, Hugh, 57, 71-72. 
 
 William, 304. 
 Mills, Charles S., 431. 
 Milwaukee College, 420. 
 Miracles, 220, 227. 
 Missionary, "a ten thousand dol- 
 lar," 286. 
 Missionaries, 259, 262. 
 
 training of, 392. 
 Mission work in New York, 53. 
 Missions, 298. 
 
 checks to progress of, 264. 
 opinions about, 390-393. 
 Mitchell, Arthur, 155. 
 Mohammed the sheikh, 115-116. 
 Mohammedan University, 361. 
 Mole, S. E., 79, 87, 94, 145. 
 Moody, 45, 46, 47, 48, 163. 
 Moore, Catherine, 14. 
 Momerie, Alfred W., 277, 278, 290. 
 Montalembert, Count, 345. 
 Morison, Principal, 371. 
 Morrison, N. J., 18, 22, 30, 41. 
 Morse lectures, 390, 393. 
 Moses, Michael Angelo's, 105. 
 Morton, Chas. M., 155. 
 Moslem scholars, 258. 
 Mount Cenis Tunnel, 100. 
 
 of Olives, 117-118, 388. 
 
 Pisgah, 113. 
 
 Wilson, 292, 293. 
 Mozoomdar, P. C, 277, 283, 302 355. 
 
 356, 371, 373, 374. 
 >Iuller, Max, 274, 325-326, 357-358. 
 
 Mule, the simple, 409. 
 
 " path, 116. 
 Mulligan. Mr., 336. 
 Munchausen story, 65. 
 Munger, Theodore T., 130. 
 Municipal reform, sermons on, 224. 
 Murphy, Francis, 132, 338. 
 "Musings in my library," 329. 
 
 Nagarkar, 276. 
 
 Napoleon, 57, 58, 89, 109. 
 
 Ill, 89. 
 Native Christians, 378, 390. 
 Nazareth, 118-119. 
 Newberry Library 239, 394. 
 Newell, Jr., W. W., 163. 
 Newburyport, 331-332. 
 New England, 223. 
 
 famous men of, 139. 
 
 hills, 289, 296. 
 
 homes, 17. 
 New Haven, 32, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 
 
 68, 73, 429. 
 Newman, John Henry, 279, 434. 
 New Orleans, 329. 
 New York, life in, 39-53. 
 Nile, 110. 
 Nirvana, 263. 
 Noah's Ark, 211. 
 Noble, F. P., 287. 
 Noph and On, 109. 
 Norham Gardens, 325. 
 Normal Schools, 93. 
 Northampton, 292. 
 Norton, C. E-, 397. 
 Nouri, Prince, 361-362. 
 
 Oberlin, 14, 15, 20, 32, 36, 314, 338. 
 alumni reunion, 416. 
 appeal of, 402-405. 
 call to, 400. 
 colors, 418. 
 dangers, 406. 
 early days at, 11, 12. 
 emphases, 406. 
 extravagances, 35. 
 football team, 410. 
 founders of, 403-404. 
 ideals, 403-404, 406-410, 432. 
 the new, 410. 
 
446 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Oberlin progress, 410-411. 
 
 service to America of, 400-401. 
 
 Sphinx, 427. 
 
 students, action of, 429, 431. 
 
 Theological Seminary, 408. 
 
 work for, 410-413. 
 Oberlin, John Frederick, 392, 411, 
 
 428. 
 O'Connell, Monsignor, 308-309. 
 Ogdensburg, 23. 
 Oklahoma, 192. 
 Olcott, Col., 366. 
 
 Olivet, 18, 19, 22, 23, 25, 26, 30, 32, 
 36, 37, 41, 56, 57, 73, 249, 419. 
 Onahan, W. J., 295. 
 Onondaga Academy, 14. 
 Optimism, 413. 
 Oratoire, 346. 
 Ordination, 131. 
 "Oriental Christ," The, 283. 
 " courtesy, 364. 
 
 faiths, 340. 
 Osage Co., 54, 66, 69, 70, 71. 
 Osaka, 384. 
 Otis, Philo A., 154. 
 Our Day, 261. 
 "Outlook," 337. 
 Oxford, 313, 325, 326, 388. 
 
 day in 358. 
 
 students, 274. 
 
 Pacific Theological Seminary, 428. 
 Page, Thomas N., 261. 
 Page's Portrait of Tilton, 52. 
 Palais Royale, love feast at, 350. 
 Palamcottah, 380. 
 Palermo, 108. 
 
 Palestine, 112-119, 275, 365. 
 Palmer, Mrs. Potter, 316, 336, 350. 
 
 Prof, and Mrs., 396. 
 Pan American Exposition, 410. 
 Pantheon, 102. 
 Pantheism, 21S. 
 Parthenon, 140, 387. 
 Paradise Lost, 29, 203. 
 Paris, 266, 344, 352-353, 364. 
 
 Archbishop of, 317. 
 
 Conference, 421. 
 
 life in, 86-99, 344-352. 
 
 Peace Commission, 419. 
 
 Paris, University of, 329, 344. 
 Parisian happiness, 90. 
 Park, Prof., 128. 
 Park's "Discourses," 198. 
 Parker, Joseph, 181. 
 
 " Theodore, 122. 
 Park Street Church, 128, 130. 
 Parkhurst, Dr., 264. 
 Parkman, Francis, 27. 
 Parliament of Religions, address on, 
 327. 
 
 addresses at, 276-280. 
 
 aims of, 255. 
 
 article on, 262. 
 
 book on, by Bonet-Maury, 330. 
 
 cranks at, 281-282. 
 
 caricature of, 282. 
 
 effect on missions, 263-266. 
 
 emphases of, 275. 
 
 friendships of, 279-281. 
 
 history of, presented to the 
 Pope, 308-309. 
 
 reviewed, 297-298. 
 
 hopes for the, 262-266. 
 
 inner history of, 281-286. 
 
 of Paris, 316. 
 
 opening of, 273. 
 
 opinions about the, 254, 276. 
 
 organizer of, 256. 
 
 Max Miiller on, 326. 
 
 monument to, 305. 
 
 oriental impressions of, 280-281. 
 
 representation at, 273. 
 
 results of, 298-299. 
 
 spirit of, 273, 274, 303. 
 Parsis, 258, 364. 
 
 Partisanship in city politics, 245. 
 Pasadena, 292-293. 
 Passy, Frederic, 346. 
 Pastoral experiences, 167-171. 
 Patience, 413-414. 
 Patriotism, 246-247. 
 Patterson, Dr., 296. 
 Pattison, Mark, 187. 
 P'atton, Francis L., 155, 172, 173. 
 Paul, 56, 93, 105, 120, 148, 205, 
 
 262. 
 Peace Cottage, 373. 
 Pearsons, D. K., 153. 
 Pentecost, G. F., 357. 
 
INDEX 
 
 447 
 
 Peabody, F. G., 269, 396. 
 Peradenija Gardens, 384. 
 Perdue, 249. 
 Perrysburg, 15. 
 Persian Worship, 368. 
 Pessimism, 391, 413. 
 Phelps, Prof., 128, 151, 175. 
 Phi Alpha Phi Society, 24. 
 Philadelphia, 427. 
 
 Phillips, Wendell, 20, 22, 24, 25, 26 
 49, 67, 71, 397. 
 impressions of, 135-138. 
 Pierson, Dr., 310. 
 Plumb, A. H., 139. 
 Plymoufh, 13. 
 
 Church, 40, 46, 48, 123, 
 133. 
 Politics, minister in, 239-244. 
 Pope, The, 308-309, 316-317 
 Porter, Jeremiah, 154-155. 
 Prof., 33, 34, 134. 
 " Rhetorical Society, 128. 
 Preaching Christ, 206-216. 
 
 Joy of, 205-206. 
 Presbyterian Board of Foreign Mis- 
 sions, 199, 390. 
 Hospital, 239. 
 Seminary, 152. 
 Social Union 239, 261. 
 Presbyterians and Congregationalists, 
 
 149. 
 Prohibition in Iowa, 352. 
 Puaux, Frank, 350. 
 Pung Quang Yu, 284-286. 
 Puritan, 11. 
 Pusey House, 318. 
 
 Quadrangle Club, 335. 
 
 Quantrell, 56. 
 
 Quebec, 192. 
 
 Queen's Privy Council, 358. 
 
 Quo Vadis, 395. 
 
 Rabbis of Israel, 273. 
 Railroad Chapel, 155, 166. 
 Raphael's grave, 103. 
 " ideals, 185. 
 
 Ravaisson-Molieu, 351. 
 Raymond, Prof., 139. 
 Reay, Lord, 346, 
 
 Record, the Chicago, 337, 343. 
 
 Redlands, 293. 
 
 Reed, Tom, 421. 
 
 Reform, dangers of, 251. 
 
 Reinach, 347, 350. 
 
 Rembrandt, 181-185, 186, 354, 420. 
 
 Renan, 210. 
 
 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 13. 
 
 Religion and the beautiful 360. 
 and the intellect, 410. 
 greatness of, 301. 
 
 Republican Convention, 24C. 
 
 Revell, Fleming H., 205. 
 
 Review of Reviews, 260. 
 Reville, Albert, 347, 350. 
 Revival meetings, 163. 
 Revue de Belgique, 262. 
 
 " Chretienne, 35. 
 Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 280. 
 Richey, Prof., 276. 
 Richmond, Leigh, 182. 
 Rig Vedas, 346. 
 Ritschl, 335. 
 Riverside, 290. 
 Robert College, 359. 
 Roberti, J. C, 380. 
 Robertson, Frederick W., 28, 146. 
 Robinson, Edward, 150. 
 Rockefeller, John D., 332, 338. 
 Rockford, 249, 420. 
 
 College, 420. 
 Rocky Mountain News, 399. 
 Rome, 56. 
 
 life in, 102-107. 
 Roman streets, 103. 
 Ropes, John R., 416. 
 Rousseau's Isle, 80. 
 Rubinstein, 108. 
 Ryder, C. J., 426. 
 
 Sabattier, Auguste, 329-347. 
 Sac amd Fox Reserve, 70-71. 
 Sacred and Secular, 266. 
 Sadowa, 216. 
 Sage College, 318. 
 
 " H. W., 319. 
 Saint Ambrose, 207. 
 
 " Anns, N. Y., 15. 
 
 " Gaudens, 239, 394. 
 
 " Giles' Church, 27, 120. 
 
448 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Saint Louis Exposition, 428. 
 " Louis Presbyterian, 159. 
 " Mark's Piazza, 101-102. 
 " Mary's Church, 103. 
 " Peter's, 102, 106-107. 
 " Peter in Vinculis, 105. 
 " Stephen's gate, 116. 
 Salon, Champs Elysees, 351. 
 
 Champs de Mars, 351. 
 Salvation Army, 232, 310-311. 
 Sampson, Dominie, 26. 
 San Bernardino Valley, 293, 294. 
 Sanborn, Kate, 292. 
 San Gabriel Valley, 292. 
 Say, Leon, 346. 
 Scepticism, root of, 218. 
 Schaff, Philip, 39, 87, 175- 269, 276 
 334. 
 Dr., 334. 
 Scheideck, 328. 
 Schickler, Baron, 345. 
 Schreenivassa, 380. 
 Schultz, Prof., 343. 
 Schurman, J. G., 319, 416. 
 Schuyler, Mr., 90, 91. 
 Schwalbach, 183. 
 Scott, 296. 
 Scutari, 360. 
 Second Presbyterian Church, 155, 
 
 198, 335, 337. 
 Selim Pasha, 361, 362. 
 Semi-Centennial of the First Pres- 
 byterian Church, 154-156. 
 Sen, Keschub Chunder, 374, 383. 
 Sermon at Arvonia, 58-59. 
 " first, 57. 
 
 subjects, 157, 226. 
 Sermons adapted to audience, 213. 
 " in pamphlet form, 204. 
 " length of, 225. 
 " method in, 231. 
 " preparation of, 224. 
 " structure, 226. 
 "Seven Pines," 270. 
 Shadows, 231-232. 
 Shakespeare, 17, 61, 182, 186-191, 
 
 249, 261, 269, 414, 431. 
 Shansi Martyrs, 416. 
 Shedd, W. G. T., 39, 40. 
 Shibata, 384-385. 
 
 Shintoism, 258, 384. 
 Shipherd, Rev. Fayette, 11. 
 Shoobra Gardens, 109. 
 
 Road, 110. 
 Shurtleff, G. W., 422. 
 Sicily, 68, 108. 
 
 Siddartha, Prince 321. (See Gau- 
 tama Buddha.) 
 Sierra Madre, 293. 
 Simon, Jules, 98, 345, 346-347, 353. 
 Sin, pervasiveness of, 210-213. 
 Singapore, 384. 
 Siva, 367. 
 
 Skinner, Thorn. H., 39. 
 Slater, Adolf, 39. 
 Small, John, 379. 
 Smalley, 49-50. 
 Smiley Hill, 293. 
 Mr., 294. 
 Smith, Albert, 73. 
 
 College Girls, 399. 
 " Goldwin, 171. 
 
 Henry B., 39, 150, 269. 
 John, Prof., 290. 
 " Judson, 431. 
 
 May Riley, 73, 94. 
 " " impressions of J. 
 
 H. Barrows, 74- 
 78. 
 " " letters to, 128- 
 
 127. 
 Socialistic schemes, 242. 
 Somerset, Lady Henry, 312. 
 Sophronius, 361. 
 Sorbonne, banquet at, 345. 
 S. P. Q. R., 103-104. 
 Springfield, 111., 73, 74, 101, 140, 
 
 145. 
 Spurgeon, 123, 181. 
 Stanford, Cal., 428. 
 Stanley, Dean, 93, 111, 124-125, 279, 
 307, 313, 325, 352, 358-359. 
 Stanton, death of, 59. 
 Stead, F. Herbert, 313, 314. 
 
 " Wm. T., 353. 
 Stebbins, Mr. and Mrs., 88-89. 
 Stillman, 140. 
 Stone, Mr., 342. 
 Storrs, H. W., 57, 134. 
 
 R. H., 50, 158, 181. 
 
INDEX 
 
 449 
 
 Stowe, H. B., 188. 
 
 Sultan of Turkey, 256. 
 
 Sumner, Charles, 90, 93, 120-121, 
 
 139. 
 Sunday School Union, 199. 
 Superstitions, 268. 
 Swift, G. B., 314. 
 Swing, David, 156, 169-171. 
 
 " " banquet to, 161. 
 
 Swing's, David, funeral sermon, 305- 
 
 307. 
 Syracuse, 108. 
 
 Taft, Lorado, 332, 336. 
 Taine, 92, 95. 
 Taj Mahal, 386, 390. 
 Taliessin, 59. 
 Tarpeian Rock, 103. 
 Taylor, Mrs. 97. 
 
 \Vm. M., 181. 
 Tasso's "Jerusalem Delivered," 76. 
 Tcherez, Minas, 276. 
 Temperance work, 132. 
 Temple Hill School, 14. 
 Tenney, Henry M., 430. 
 Tennyson, 39, 253, 269, 270, 426. 
 Tennyson's Ulysses, 435. 
 Tenth anniversary sermon, 178. 
 Texas, 193. 
 
 Thanksgiving sermon, 238. 
 Thames, on the, 126. 
 Thatcher, Prof., 37. 
 Thayer, Prof., 396. 
 Thebes, 110. 
 Thief caste, 380. 
 Thomas orchestra, 239. 
 Thoreau, 141, 143. 
 Thwing, Charles F., 139. 
 Tilton, Theodore, 24, 52, 133, 422- 
 
 423. 
 "Times," The, of India, 312. 
 Tokyo, 254, 258, 384, 388. 
 Tolman, Prof., 397. 
 Tomary, Alexander, 305, 311, 312. 
 Tomlins, \Vm. L., 158. 
 Topeka, 57. 
 
 " Commonwealth, The, 59. 
 Touraine, Hotel, 425. 
 Towne, Prof., 287. 
 
 Tragedy, 234. 
 
 Travel, pictures of, 387-388. 
 
 Tropic vegetation, 383-384. 
 
 Twain, Mark, 420. 
 
 "Two Miles of Country Road," 194- 
 
 198. 
 Tucker, \V. J., 139. 
 Turgeneff, meeting with, 90-91. 
 Turkey, Sultan of, 256. 
 
 Ulysses, 435. 
 Union League Club, 261. 
 Park Church, 316. 
 " Theological Seminary, 39, 
 390, 396. 
 Unitarian Foundation in Oxford, 
 
 357. 
 Unitarianism, 149. 
 Unitarians and Universalists, 49. 
 U. S. Government Building, 267. 
 Utah, 134, 281. 
 
 Van Rensselaer, Stephen, 13. 
 Varnishing Day, 351. 
 Vatican, 104, 105. 
 Venice, 67, 101-102. 
 Versailles, 96, 98. 
 Vesuvius, 132, 229. 
 Victor Emmanuel, 121-122. 
 Victoria Station, 358. 
 Vienna, Congress of, 192. 
 
 " Exposition, 82. 
 Vincent, Bishop, 227. 
 
 " George E., 416. 
 
 Vishnu, 353, 367, 420. 
 Vivekananda, 396. 
 Voltaire, 27, 96, 421. 
 Votaw, Prof., 287. 
 
 Wade, Ben, 423, 424. 
 Wager, C. H. A., 434-43S, 
 Wagner, Charles 347, 350. 
 Waite, Mr., 103. 
 Walbridge, Elizabeth, 182. 
 Waring, Col., 87. 
 Warner, C. D., 238, 290. 
 
 Lucien C, 411, 430. 
 Warren, W. F., 253. 
 Washburn, Dr. and Mrs., 359. 
 Washbume, Mr., 98. 
 
450 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Wasson, Dr., 90. 
 
 Webb, Mohammed, 294. 
 
 Wellesley, 249, 294. 
 
 Wellhausen, Prof., 343. 
 
 Wells, Ralph, 43. 
 
 Wesley's tomb, 125. 
 
 Westfield Normal School, 79. 
 
 West Lake, 194. 
 
 Westminster Abbey, 124, 314, 392. 
 
 Confession, 12, 149, 
 171-178, 429. 
 West Unity, O., 16, 17, 62. 
 Westwood Cemetery, 430. 
 White, Andrew D., 270. 
 Whitney, W. D., 36. 
 Whittier, 54, 270, 306, 307. 
 Willard, Emma, 13. 
 
 " Frances, 308, 395. 
 Williams Colege, 18, 249. 
 Williams, E. F., 395. 
 Williamstown, 79, 292. 
 Winfield, Kan., 397-398. 
 
 Wilkinson, Prof., 262. 
 Wilson, Archdeacon, 326-327. 
 
 " Marcius, 14. 
 Winthrop, Robert C, 189. 
 Withrow, J. L., 139. 
 Wolkousky, Prince, 278. 
 Woodbury, Frank P., 22, 420. 
 Woodstock, 15, 16. 
 VV'ooley, Mary E., 416. 
 "World as the Subject of Redemp- 
 tion," 327. 
 "World Pilgrimage," A, 393. 
 World's Congress Auxiliary, 253. 
 Fair, 225, 253, 266, 267. 
 Wordsworth, 54, 94, 261. 
 Worms, Diet of, 339. 
 
 Yale, 32, 33, 34, 36, 39, 
 
 285, 410. 
 Yokohama, 384. 
 
 Zante, Archbishop of, 284. 
 
 3, 264, 
 
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