CHAPTER XXXIV. CLOSING DAYS IN BALTIMORE. It is the deliberate verdict of the Lord Jesus that it is better not to live than not to love. -Henry Drummond. On his return to Baltimore, Edward entered into his work with fresh zeal, taking up his residence in his old room at Winans' Tenements. And when, later, there came the probability of his leaving the city, his interest in the church. so dear to him seemed increased, rather than diminished. And there was certainly no lessening of his efforts to seek and impart light in the line of Christian Sociology. This is made evident by the following list of his Sunday evening discourses: An illustrated sermon on Jesus, the carpenter, or Christianity and Labor, the pictures being by Hunt, Durer, Hoffman, Millet, Breton, Raphael, and others. 64 'The Laborer is worthy of his Hire."-Luke 10:7. "The Duties of Employers aud the Employed."-Col. 3:22.-41:1. From these sermons a few extracts are taken: The duties of both master and servant may be summed up in two words, Brotherhood, Partnership, though the latter is really included in the former. We are all the children of one common Father. We are all in the brotherhood of humanity. The whole solution of the problem of labor and capital is involved in the application of the principle of brotherhood. This will prevent our treating one another as machines. The master will not think of his servant as a mere commodity which he may buy and sell and treat as he pleases, provided only that he holds to his bargain and keeps within the law. The workman will not regard his master as a machine, to which as little work as possible is to be given, out of which as much wages as possible is to be squeezed. The shop girl will cease thinking of the store as a grind where she is to do the least she can and yet draw her week ly wages. The servant girl will not care more about her afternoons out than about her mornings in, but will have a sisterly concern for all she engages to do. Your employer is your brother. Treat him as such. Have an interest in all his interests. Do not have your eye on the clock all the time, or your ear on the whistle, so that when the moment comes you drop a job in the middle, careless of what harm it may do so that you are out of your grind as soon as possible, jealous lest you should give him a little more than he has paid you for. Work heartily, as unto the Lord. There is a yet broader sense in which masters and workmen are alike bound to enter into a common partnership. No man standeth or falleth for himself alone. The interests of all mankind are one. Every man who works should enter into a partnership with his fellowmen, whereby he gives them the very best possible thing he can do, and receives from them the joint result of all their labor. There is a partnership between the ages. What benefits have we received from those who have gone before us! What obligation to pass them, increased by our own toil, down to those who come after us! We are bound to co-operate with all our fellowmen for the best good of the race. The brotherhood of mankind should bring a business partnership of mankind, in which the interest of all is seen to lie in the faithful, intelligent labor of every one! The great work of the church is to present Christ to the soul and to the world, and to impress him upon the community around. The trouble has been that we have been satisfied with presenting him to the world. The decisive work of impressing him on the life of society-which is applied Christianity,—we have too often left undone, as if we had no responsibility save to utter the message in general terms, leaving it to take care of itself. But Christianity is nothing if not applied. Its great aim is the kingdom of God. That means the will of God done on earth as it is done in heaven. That means in all departments of life and on every day in the week. The definite object which church and pulpit have before them is the Christianization of society and the nation. Not until this is accomplished is the church true to the world of to-day. It must first be true and then timely. It must be heard on those subjects which are in the minds of men, concerning which there is doubt and difficulty. It dare not shirk social problems. The social questions must be treated from the Gospel standpoint, and the mind of Christ ascertained, the life of Christ felt. The kingdoms of this world are to become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ; and the phrase includes, says Dr. Gladden, "not merely the kingdom of Siam and the kingdom of Madagascar and the kingdom of Dahomey, but the kingdom of commerce and the kingdom of industry and the kingdom of fashion and the kingdom of learning and the kingdom of amusement; every great department of society is to be pervaded by the Christian spirit and governed by Christian law." As to his various sociological addresses all along, Mr. Henderson writes: "I recall, among others, a review of Bellamy's Looking Backward and two illustrated lec tures, one on "How the other half lives," and the other, "What is being done for the other half?" which he gave first in his own church, and afterwards was called to repeat at different churches. And he frequently presented the claims of the Charity Organization Society. "Those who were most learned and most active in good work were always his most enthusiastic hearers. He was sure of his facts; his statements did not have to be discounted; his deductions from the facts were sound and his arguments convincing; he took a broad view of all these questions, and was not a crank in any of them." A letter from Dr. Steiner, librarian of the Enoch Pratt Free Library:— I first met Mr. Lawrence through Mr. Stockbridge, who introduced him to me as a fellow Yale graduate and member of Alpha Delta Chi. After a time our family connected ourselves with the First Congregational Church, and I learned to know him as pastor. I recall his kindliness of heart, purity and unselfishness of motive, and singleness of purpose. I must not fail to mention a very valuable course of doctrinal sermons delivered by him during the Sunday evenings of the spring of 1893. To me they were of great value and furnished many helpful and constructive thoughts. On Sept. 10th, Mr. Lawrence preached a sermon which I have considered one of the ablest to which I have ever listened. It was delivered to a rather small summer congregation on a hot morning. Prof. A. F. Cravens of Columbia University was with me and agreed in my high estimate of it. The text was: "A new commandment I give unto you that ye love one another; even as I have loved you that we also love one another." He showed that the so-called Golden Rule was a standard arrived at by non-Christian men, which Confucius and Socrates have come very close to in their utterances. Further, the Golden Rule is far from being a perfect rule of life. Our self-love is very faulty, and love shown to our fellows would also be faulty if modelled on what is our love for ourselves. Had Jesus Christ no newer message than this, he would have failed in giving us the worthiest ideal. He, however, gives his disciples a new commandment,— that they should love as he had loved. The quantity and quality of his love for them was perfect. The measure of his love was unstinted, the standard of it was an ideal one. Our duty is not merely to love others as we love ourselves, but to love them as completely as Christ loved us, even to death if need be. Of course, I only give you a skeleton of his line of thought, but it thrilled one through and through. Dr. Steiner hoped I could find the sermon, but it must have been extempore, as I could only find the text and one or two heads. Among his writings, however, are passages in full accord with the sermon: The Golden Rule was not enough. Jesus gave us the inmost, the Diamond Rule of Love. "That ye love one another as I have loved you." That is the self-forgetful, sacrificial, divine love. Love is the great Educator and Interpreter and Orator. It is the Creator and Inspirer of language and communion. Every word and look, every touch and embrace is but a noble sign and symbol. In all communion, in all separation, and in all intercourse, human love is but the flowing stream that has issued from the fountain. O Divine Love, pure and clear and sweet, the water of the river of life! If it be true love, it will go on through time and eternity, and every fresh deed of life will be a fresh story of love. Early in October Edward gave an address before the Y. M. C. A. of Johns Hopkins' University, of which he wrote me that he spoke with great freedom and enjoyment. From others came the most enthusiastic accounts. One of the Johns Hopkins' students writes:— The address was given in Levering Hall, at the beginning of the University year, and many new students were present. I never heard Mr. Lawrence speak more forcibly, nor with greater effect. He did not take a text, but when he had finished every one felt that he had a text. He likened the work in Christian lines in the city to a wellspread table of good things:-the regular church work, Sunday School, Missions, the Charity Organization Society, and finally, the Parkin Street work. This he described, with its needs and its possibilities, with an invitation to join in the work, and make it a veritable University Settlement. I would like to convey to you something of my appreciation of your son's acquaintance and friendship, but words seem meaningless in expressing what I feel. Dean Edward H. Griffin of the University writes me:It was a twenty minutes' unwritten talk, direct, manly and eminently fair in its recognition of the respective claims of the university work and church duties. The general thought of the address was that the church needs the university man, and that the university man needs the church. The various hindrances to co-operation between young men pursuing advanced studies and the churches, as at present organized, were pointed out with much discrimination, and the point was urged that, in spite of the difficulties of mutual understanding and sympathetic personal relation, it was for the best interest of both that these two institutions the church and the university-should act together. Specific application was made to the matter of attendance upon church services, and the reasons why each member of a university should have his regular church home, and should assume some stated burden of church duty, were set forth very cogently. The general impression of the address was of an unusual fairness in doing justice to persons of different degrees of culture and different methods of life. Dr. Lawrence was well adapted to influence students, because of his hearty sympathy with student life, and his thorough understanding of its conditions. In his attitude toward students, at one end of the scale, and the people of the tenements at the other, we see the many-sidedness of his nature, and his wide range of adaptation. In connection with Edward's betrothal to a member of his own church, the question naturally came up, whether, under the circumstances, for his friend's sake, a change of place might not be desirable. But he left it all to Providence, assured that if it was best the way would be opened. He had been absent so much that he had given up the idea of attending the American Board meeting at Worcester. But he received the proposal to exchange with Mr. Campbell of Roxbury the Sunday after the meeting, and as that would supply his pulpit, he gladly made up his mind to go. He wrote this to his mother, adding:-"I have told Lowry about my coming home, and hope you will be glad to see me. It is a most unexpected pleasure. I wish you both could be with friends at Roxbury." As soon as his plan was known, arrangements were made for us to accompany him to Roxbury, but he did not know this till he reached Linden Home on his return from the Board meeting. Worcester, Oct. 10th, 1893. Well, dear Mother, the address of welcome was no sooner heard than Dr. Quint was up with his resolution for a committee of fifteen, to whom should be referred special memorials. . . Dr. Fisher, in whose keenness and firmness all have the greatest confidence, is the great leader of the liberals. Quint and others second him well, Brother Creegan putting in a quiet word. All depends on the center moderate party which way they will swing. The committee of fifteen has been appointed and is in session listening to memorials and state ments. I take tea to-night at Professor Cutler's. And I have seen Cousin Samuel and many notables. I had the pleasure of sitting with Robert Hume during the sermon, and am appointed on the committee for India. |