& jflfloftetrt gsL jFranctg Being a Brief Record of the Life and Labors of the Rev. CHARLES CALEB PEIRCE Of El Dorado County, California By the Right Reverend WILLIAM H. MORELAND, D.D. Bishop of Sacramento EL DORADO, A CALIFORNIA MINING TOWN A Modern St. Francis BY THE RIGHT REVEREND WILLIAM H. MORELAND, D.D., BISHOP OF SACRAMENTO T HE Rev. Charles Caleb Peirce, presbyter, who fell asleep at Placerville, El Dorado county, California, March 14th, 1903, was a striking personality. As a hero of the mission field, as a man of rare self- sacrifice, as a character of rugged strength and spirituality, as a Christian pastor, his career is highly instructive, and reflects glory upon the American Church. For forty-two years this man labored and served in one place, and that a rough, sparsely settled, obscure corner of the United States. Although without private means, he refused to receive a salary, believing that the people whom he served would provide for him in health and sickness and in the hour of death. His title was rector of the Church of the Saviour, Placerville, which he built in pioneer days at large expense, raising much of the money him¬ self, but his parish was the entire county of El Dorado, over which he tramped week by week, until he was a familiar and beloved figure in every hamlet, min¬ ing cgmp and farmhouse with in its limits. Sundays he spent serving the parish church, but invariably on Monday morn¬ ings he set out on his walks over the dusty highways and mountain roads, bearing a heavy pack of sacred writings which he gave away. He gathered neigh¬ borhoods in farm kitchens and school- houses where by candle-light this grad¬ uate of the General Theological Sem¬ inary, learned in the Hebrew and Greek Bible, expounded Scripture to the coun¬ try people, afterward presenting each one with a copy of the book under re¬ view. He carried about successively all the principal books of the Old and New Testaments, each being separately bound, and each in turn he carefully ex¬ plained, until he had taken his hearers through the Bible and had presented them with a consecutive library of the sacred writings. He excited curiosity and interest in the almost unknown con¬ tents of Holy Scripture by announcing true but striking and fanciful titles to his Bible readings. “The Brave Heart in Prison” would prove to be an in¬ troduction to the Epistle to the Philip- pians. “Letter of the Dying Hero” was the phrase whereby he secured a hearing for II. Timothy. lie would bring out and apply some of the richness of the selected Scripture, simply to whet the appetite for more, then place the book itself in the hand of each hearer, urging a completer study at home. In this way he sowed the seeds of eternal life, which on subsequent visits he found ripening and bearing fruit. In scattered rural communities and appeared the people were awaiting him with glad anticipation. Every house in the county was his home. At noon or in the evenings when he would turn in to rest, a plate would be set for him at any table and a bed found ready under any roof. He could sleep in the hay or under the trees, if need be, but there was not a farmer or housewife in the land who did not feel honored to shelter this man of God. Monday morning: Ready for the week’s tramp Sunday morning: Ready for the church service THE REV. CHARLES C. PEIRCE along country sides where human habi¬ tations were few and widely separated he went with his store of Divine knowl¬ edge, evangelizing a people who were wholly without settled pastors and be¬ yond the reach of a parochial system. Being unmarried and of vigorous health, he vvas able to spend six days of every week in walking over the county, aver¬ aging sixty miles from Monday to Sat¬ urday, announcing in advance the cir¬ cuit of his journeys, so that wherever he Ilis parish records show a remark¬ able ministry. He baptized 772 indi¬ viduals, married 597 couples, officiated at 1,385 burials, and this among a scant and widely scattered population. Ilis custom was to preach at weddings, christenings and funerals, believing that he ought to let no opportunity pass to tell the people of Christ, especially where so few had the chance to attend church. He saw children whom he bap¬ tized grow to maturity, and was often called on to baptize their children, and children’s children. He performed offices of the Church for three and even four generations in the same family. His charity was unbounded, involving at times self-inflicted suffering and pri¬ vation. Distress or poverty among those he met appealed to him so strongly that he would share even his wearing ap¬ parel with an entire stranger who seemed to need it more than himself. The chief anxiety o f his friends was lest he should give away his ef¬ fects faster than they could sup¬ ply him. It is easy to under¬ stand how such a life as this, con- ti n u e d in simple un¬ conscious heroism for forty -two years, made the man al- m o s t the idol of his people. Other min¬ isters came and went, “Father Peirce” stayed on. It was enough for him to be the servant of Christ to a whole county. He gladly accepted this as his life work and it was his boast be¬ fore life closed that only twice had he been outside the county limits—and then against his will. When such a ministry as this came to its close great and spontaneous was the outpouring of a people’s grief. Far and wide through the country flashed the news, “ ‘Father Peirce’ is dead.” On the day of his funeral the roads were lined with vehicles of every description, bring¬ ing people to the county seat. The Mayor of Placerville issued a proclama¬ tion calling on the schools and stores to close. There was complete cessation of business. The windows displayed the portrait of the dead pastor draped in black. Even the saloons were locked, and bore on their glass doors the words, “Closed on account of the funeral of Brother Peirce.” The people stood about in groups discussing a life which in¬ spired them with awe as of something supernatural. The body, robed in his vestments, lay in the church, and for two days many h u n d reds came to look upon it. It was pathetic to see among the crowds, the waifs and strays o f human¬ ity, men whose blear eyes and sorry dress spoke too plainly o f the sad in- f i r m i t y which had o v e r c o me them. Peirce had been their friend. No one had sunk too low to lose his sympathy or lack his helping hand. The solid men of the county, including its officers, administrators, miners, laborers, marched to Ms grave. The Board of Education, of which he had been a member for forty years, with teachers and pupils, were witness¬ ing to the public loss. The newspaper issued an extra supplement with his por¬ trait and a poem from a local source, en¬ titled “Come, El Dorado, and Bury Your Dead.” The Bishop, at Father Peirce’s last request, preached a funeral sermon and read the solemn offices of the Church. Not often when an “Episcopal minis¬ ter” dies is the blow felt in every house¬ hold, the public business suspended and “ALONG COUNTRY SIDES WHERE HUMAN HABITATIONS WERE FEW” THE CHURCH OF OUR SAVIOUR, PLACERVILLE every inhabitant impressed with the feeling that a general calamity has occurred. Allowance must be made for the appeal to popular imagination of such a life as Peirce’s. Doubtless many an equally Christlike life is spent in busy streets and amid purely urban sur¬ roundings. But here was one who seemed to reproduce the method of the Saviour’s life. Peirce appeared to be patterned after Him who “went about doing good,” who “had not where to lay His head.” El Dorado county became to a grateful people a twentieth cen¬ tury Palestine hallowed by the footprints of a devoted follower of the Christ. This was the way they came to regard him, pointing him out as he passed by in his rough gray suit, woollen shirt and thick boots, with the words, “There goes a man like Jesus Christ.” Charles Caleb Peirce was born of Quaker parentage in Cincinnati, O., in 1826. His father, Thomas Peirce, was an iron merchant of Chester county, Penn¬ sylvania. He studied and practised law for a few years, but his gentle nature found the exercise of litigation distaste¬ ful, and he turned to the ministry of the Church. He was graduated from the General Theological Seminary in New York in the class of 1860, was ordered deacon in Trinity Church, New York, the same year and came at once to Cali¬ fornia, being moved with a yearning for the West. For some months he was in charge of Grace Church, San Francisco, while the Eev. Dr. F. C. Ewer, the rector, went East for a vacation from which he never returned. An incident occurred while here which gave direction to his whole subsequent life. A kind- hearted parishioner of worldly disposi¬ tion said to him, “Mr. Peirce, if you would be a success in the ministry you must cultivate the rich, for money rules the world.” This sentiment, seriously expressed, shocked the sensitive spirit of young Peirce, whose heart was burning with ardent love and faith. He resolved to shake the dust of wealthy cities from His feet and turn to some wilderness where he could throw himself altogether upon God. He selected El Dorado, as being a wild, half settled mining coun¬ try without railroads. Thither he went in 1861 after his ordination to the priest¬ hood. He resolved to demonstrate in his own experience the truth of the Saviour’s promise: “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” This was his Master’s word and he believed it absolutely. Therefore he refused a sal¬ ary, and would not on principle save any of the money which came into his hands, lie argued, “If I were a man of family, I should feel compelled to look forward to provision for my wife and children, but I have only myself to provide for, and I will lean wholly on the Almighty arm.” The accounts which he kept methodically showed that up to 1899 (when I had the privilege of examining his books) he had spent over $16,000 on Bibles, religious writings and sacred pictures which he gave away. This sum represented the amount he had received from the people in fees and donations. He grudged every dollar spent on him¬ self, and saved all that he earned that he might buy more books to give away. He indulged his own taste in one direction only. He secured the works of German and English scholars whom he thought able to elucidate the Hebrew and Greek Testaments in a reverent, orthodox spirit. Delitzsch was his favorite mas¬ ter. He was a close student of the letter of Scripture. His annotations in He¬ brew are to be found on the margins of his Old Testament, and in both Testa¬ ments he was ever searching as in a mine for precious treasures. That the Bible was God’s chief instrument of conversion was his conviction. Him¬ self he likened to a wheel in a running stream, with an inexhaustible supply of Scripture passing through him to the people. Thus he became the incarnation of faith, and men looked on and mar¬ velled. One day, walking with him on the road, he said to me with great earnestness, “Emmanuel is nearer than the air I breathe or the food I eat. The Saviour is the one great reality of life.” Wonderfully was his faith in God’s providential care justified. The moment illness came upon him the people sur- WHERE MR. PEIRCE MINISTERED rounded him with comfort and skilled at¬ tention. Men who never suspected that they were fulfilling the word of Christ provided liberally for Christ’s faithful servant. By whispering his name on the street, a thousand dollars might have been collected in an hour. He was sent away to the springs with an attendant. The nurse writes home: “This is an ex¬ pensive place. Good people here will look after Brother Peirce. I can return and save you $5 daily.” The answer went by wire, “Stay with him, and spare no expense.” Peirce, although he knew that he must die, was the happiest of men, for had not the Saviour’s promise proved true? “Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house or brethren . . . or wife or children or lands for My sake and the gospel’s but he shall receive an hundred fold now in this time, houses and brethren . . . and lands, and in the world to come eternal life” (St. Mark x. 29, 30). He had nothing yet possessed all things. So he went away rejoicing in the expectation of meeting Christ face to face. Within the limits of this article noth¬ ing can be written of the eccentricities which were a natural expression of his strong individuality; of his isolation from a former bishop and his clerical brethren, so that he could not be per¬ suaded to attend convocation or other gatherings; of his need of an associate to care for the flock at home, while he was ministering to the scattered sheep abroad. We must not miss, however, the magnificent witness of his life to the power of faith and the truth of Jesus Christ. The splendid breadth of his sympathy and labors makes our paro¬ chial systems, with their careful defini¬ tions of metes and boundaries, look petty, and he lived in happy forgetfulness of the column of statistics, as he went about touching and blessing every life he could in any wise approach. While others were discussing in Church Councils liow to evangelize a rural community, he was simply doing it. His career gives a valuable hint to those who will receive it, that to be the American Church we must go out to the people, full of sympathy and service for all. In the Book of Life, kept by the hand of the loving, eternal One, without doubt stands very high the name of the obscure presbyter, Charles Caleb Peirce. It may be that in this strong, spiritual person¬ ality the American Church has devel¬ oped, in one of her mission fields, a char¬ acter who will some day be recognized as one of the brightest lights of Ameri¬ can Christianity. c HIS Leaflet may be obtained from the Corresponding Secretary, 281 Fourth Avenue, New York, by calling for Leaflet No. 973 0 0 a a 0 0 0 H All offerings for Missions should be sent to Mr. George C. Thomas, Treasurer, Church Mis¬ sions House, 281 Fourth Avenue, New York. a 0 a 0 a 0 JThe Domestic and For- eign Missionary Society of the Protestant Epis¬ copal Church in' the United States, 281 Fourth Avenue, New York. 0 0 0 The article in this Leaf¬ let is reprinted from Zfyt Spirit of £0i00tons Every subscription means more money for Missions. Will you take one? The cost is One Dollar a year. The address is 281 Fourth Avenue, New York. 4 “/ take this occasion to say how improved The SPIRIT of MISSIO NS seems to me to be and how 7nuch interesting and well selected 7natter it contains." —A lfred T. Mahan, Captain United States Navy , Second Edition, March, 1906. (2M.) S. P.