Why did I so name it? I was not aware at that time that there was a London City Mission, so that I am free from the charge of plagiarism in that respect. I am satisfied that I was divinely led in the choice of a name, and the one and only human reason I could offer for the choice, was that foreigners were spread over the whole city, and our Mission was equally coextensive.
At that time foreigners were arriving via New York and Canadian ports, and increasing the population of Montreal at the rate of ten thousand per year. I had been asked by the Protestant Ministerial Association of Montreal for a "paper" on "The Duty of the Churches to the Foreign Population", and the preparation of this paper led me into correspondence with Ottawa as well as the City Hall in Montreal, and into a canvass of lodging houses, street by street. It seemed to me a fearful thing, that in a dwelling which once accommodated a merchant prince's family, there should be crowded one hundred and fifty men lodgers, with two or three women to do the cleaning, if it might so be called.
My paper was given, and found its way into the newspapers. One member of the Association, at the conclusion of the reading said "Mr President, it is a masterly review of the situation". I really thought that the churches were deeply in earnest, but that is all the response I have ever received, except to be reminded "That is your work".
On the evening of July 1st 1910, I stepped into the street with a borrowed "Billhorn" organ (later donated to us), and a young lady organist. The congregation that gathered in the side street included a native of India, who that evening and on several subsequent occasions, gave a helpful gospel testimony and personal experience. The following four evenings brought similar encouragements.
I had no particular plans as I began this work; I simply said, God will help me to earn an honest living, and I will take care of these people in the evenings and on Sundays. I made no application for funds or for employment to any one, but three Managers of Insurance companies approached me. One said "Give up this preaching, and come to us. Think of all the good you could do for widows and orphans". The second said "Give up this preaching. We need your service. Come to us and we will make it financially worthwhile". A third laying his hand on my shoulder said "You can do good work for us among your young men. We will give you our rate card, and you can work between times, and we will give you sixty per cent of all first premiums that you take in". That was a proposition that did not interfere with my calling. In the first five days of my new life I placed enough insurance to bring to myself One Hundred Dollars in cash.
Then another friend said:- "You are a journalist. Why do you not attend the Convention of British Empire Journalists in London. There are special rates. See the Secretary". So I was booked. I left the Mission interests in the hands of two helpers. On shipboard, I found an excursion party of "Sons of England" from Winnipeg and Toronto. These good people at once discovered my status and took the new Mission under their care. I was made their Chaplain, and from them I received the first donation of money for the new enterprise, and on arrival at the City of Bristol I was requested to respond to the Lord Mayor's address of welcome. I certainly felt that sunshine was falling upon me, and that God was opening my way. Mr Joseph Storrs Fry received me into his office, and said "Let us pray", and he himself led in prayer. Before I left him with his best wishes, he gave me his cheque for Ten Pounds. At Ashton Court, Lady Smyth, through her Estate Agent, sent a similar cheque. Charles B Cousins of the Men's Brotherhood Old Market Street, took up my work as being akin to that of Mr George Muller, and taking me for an outing on Durdham Downs, drew gold from his pocket also.
I had friends to visit in Cork, and here, as each came down to Sunday morning breakfast, each to my surprise approached me with a gold sovereign. Here as in Bristol, I was called upon to preach. In Scotland I visited William Quarrier and his family at the Orphan Homes in Bridge of Weir, and on leaving this abode of blessing I was again richly endowed. My way led to London and Croydon. Miss A Bilbrough became my great helper, adding to my outfit for large work and introducing me to other generous Christians. The Annie Macpherson Home took on a share of responsibility. I was brought into contact with the Scripture Gift Mission which, through the Rev Francis C Brading donated most valuable consignments of gospels in the languages of the people to whom I expected to minister. And the Secretary of the National Sunday School Union lent its aid by donations of hymn books. How I gave thanks unto God, for His guidance, and for all of these helps in service as I returned to Canada ready for attempting great things for God.
The month of October found me returned to Montreal, and to the care of my new work. In my absence the Sunday School had held its meetings in the narrow hallway of a private house, and under the direction of two helpers. Now I must find a larger home. My pulpit at present was the market street in the centre of the city, and amid an almost entirely foreign and French Canadian population.
"Are you looking for a place to rent?" a Jew shouted at me across the street. "Go and see my place" he added. To see his place took me through one of the most notorious and evil lanes in the city, and out into a narrow street which appeared to be awake only in the night time, for in daylight cabs were apparently resting everywhere and waiting to be used. I counted twenty-four before as many doors of houses. I looked over the Jew's place, and the rent being covered for six months by the money I had brought from England, Scotland and Ireland, and the location being withal convenient to the marketplace, while the surrounding conditions supplied the real test of Christianity, I decided to locate here.
"I do not know you" said the Jew, "and I shall want my rent every month. Is there any one in the city who knows you?" "Well, Banker Scott does". The 'phone rang. "Is that Mr Scott?". "Do you know Mr -- Missionary?" "Yes." "Do he do his business straight?". "He can have what he wants". The receiver was hung up with a snap. "Alright, come with me to my Notary". And so, in the month of November, like the prodigal of old-time, I became servant to one of another nation than my own. It was an out-of-the-way place for uptown people, but downtown people soon found us out, and our little wooden place soon filled up for evenings; not so for Sundays.
During my absence in the summer the Roman Catholic Church had held a great Eucharistic Congress, which was an attempt at propaganda, evangelism, and church extension by ceremonial methods, and Montreal, where such an exhibition was new, had become much inflamed. Protestants uptown were quiet, but the torch was just waiting to be touched; and it was a French Canadian who touched it. Nothing but wise diplomacy saved us from a controversial conflagration. It was Saturday evening, and I had gathered a little company in the Mission for singing, in preparation for the Sabbath Services. "First of all" I said, "I will take three with me to the market place and give away a few tracts, and invitations to our morrow's services. The rest of you will remain here until I return. I do not expect to be long out."
"Oh, here you are" said a gruff voice from a heavily built policeman; "Get along out of this". "But Officer, I have your Captain's permission". "I tell you to move on!" "But Officer--"
"Oh, come along here", he said, gripping me by the arm, "you are my prisoner. I am an officer of the Law".
A crowd gathered around the patrol box as he called up his station. Someone called out my name, and at that I judged that I should henceforth be regarded as a criminal, and that my influence for good in the city was now at an end.
The policeman did not loosen his hold on my arm until the patrol wagon arrived and he saw me safely into it. He shut the door of what was only an open one-horse affair, with a bench running off on either side, and as I sat down facing the excited assembly there was a lusty cheer which I took to be derisive rather than heroic. As we drew up to the police station I hastened into the Captain's office. Now the Captain and I had had many friendly talks, and he looked upon my work in his district as being specially helpful in keeping law and order, therefore when he saw me in such a plight, he became alarmed. He at once communicated with the Chief of Police.
Somehow the word spread through the city, and the Brotherhood meeting uptown in the afternoon passed a very strong resolution condemning such high-handed action. As I was at liberty on my own promise to appear in court, I had a noonday consultation with my lawyer. Monday, the newspapers in English had headlines, and somehow had secured copies of my photograph. There evidently was excitement in the city. Toronto newspapers also thought it worthwhile to publish the matter. I awakened to the fact that there was good material for a first-class religious controversy.
My lawyer commissioned me to visit the law library, and do some reading to help him in his argument. Our case came to Court on Wednesday. The policeman took the witness stand and the case was proceeding with his presentation to the Judge of a sixty-four page book which I had given out on Saturday night, and which he called a "circular". My reading in law had led me to the judgement of a Chief Justice in England that a "sheet of paper folded into four pages is a book". My lawyer said nothing, and I awaited an opportunity. The Judge looked at the book, and pronouncing it Italian commanded that the Interpreter be brought in. I arose from my seat at the lawyer's side. "May it please your Honor, that is not Italian".
"What is it?" "Rumanian". That was score one.
"Take the stand. Put your hand on the Bible", and the Clerk repeated the oath to "tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." Then the book was passed down to me with a command to read the title. Then I was required to tell what it was about. Suddenly the Judge showed excitement. "Bring me the Bylaws of the City" he commanded. After quietly reading, he closed the book and called for the French copy. Reading this for a few moments, he closed the book with a snap. "There is nothing in our Bylaws against this work" he said. "The case is dismissed. There is no use making a mountain out of a molehill".
My lawyer had had no chance to deliver the great speech he had prepared on the right of a British subject to worship God according to his conscience and so forth; his eloquence was uncalled for. Down in the City Hall the report speedily reached the Mayor in his office, and without ado he commissioned the Chief of Police to dismiss the unwise policeman. The City was liable for suit for false arrest.
I chose to be a friend to the City, and so let any legal proceedings lapse by non-action. Two weeks passed, and I was surprised by a visit from the policeman; he came to say that he was very sorry for what he had done, that he had learned a lesson and would never again do such a thing, and as his family was dependent upon his earnings, would I forgive him and ask the Mayor to reinstate him? This I did at once by seeing His Worship personally.
And so ended a disagreeable incident, which gained for all Protestant workers the freedom of the streets, and gained for the Montreal City Mission an unexpected and helpful publicity.
In marked contrast with this strange experience, was one of a quite opposite character. It was 1913, and three years in the history of the Mission had been completed. During the summer I had again visited the British Isles, this time attending the funeral of Mr Joseph Storrs Fry. I had returned home in September, and had been busy putting things into shape for a good winter's work. We were no longer tenants in the humble quarters owned by the Jew, for I had taken advantage of an opportunity to buy half of a block of four houses immediately across the street, and thought that I now had all of the room I should ever need.
Matters were going along comfortably, when one Saturday morning the postman brought me an astonishing letter. It was from Government House in Ottawa. The Secretary of His Royal Highness intimated that, on a certain day, the Duke of Connaught would be visiting Montreal, and at three or four o'clock, according to our convenience, [would visit the Montreal City Mission]. Never had we anticipated such a letter, or such a distinguished visitor. An immediate answer as befitting the occasion.
Then what preparations! And how the citizens did help us with bunting and flags! Could I really have things just right? Before the eventful day, the Secretary himself came down to see our arrangements. And when the day arrived, what an air of excitement in that long neglected neighbourhood! How the crowds lined the streets! And the police were there in force, all spick and span in their uniforms and white helmets. H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught, Governor General of Canada, was presented with an address which was read in English by Nasib Memory, one of our young men from Beirut, and as soon as he completed the reading, the Duke sprang to his feet and gripping his hand, said "You did it well, sir". A Bulgarian who had not been with us long enough to learn much English presented a magnificent box of roses which he said was "For the big man from Ottawa", and these the Duke enthusiastically received and said he would "take them home to the Duchess".
Then the Duke read his own splendid and encouraging address, of which he left us a copy, which is framed and still hanging on our wall. The Duke must have me escort him over what was a very humble outfit, talked with me as we were alone, and expressed the wish that we had a better building, yet was sure that we were much better off than when we started this work. The last item of that memorable day was the signing of the Visitor's Book, with the Royal name of Arthur heading the Roll, and then outside the photographer was ready, and as I asked His Royal Highness if we might take his picture he said:- "Alright, but you with me". Was there ever a man more truly a man? Upon his return to Ottawa, the Secretary was commissioned to send me a cheque for One Hundred Dollars, and to this the Secretary added his own Ten. I did thank God for that day, although I scarcely felt equal to it, and I was deeply grateful for all that the Duke's visit meant for the status of our work in the city.
The next year the Great War began, and we sorrowed with others when we learned that almost at the beginning, three of the Duke's Aides who attended him at our Mission were among the dead. The war meant something to the Mission and myself, and we felt that we did our share. From my family circle went my son. The best shot in the Princess Pats was a Rumanian who proudly announced to us in class one evening "I have today joined up"; Bulgarian, Russian, Pole, French went forth from our ranks to do service overseas in the cause of the Empire and her allies, while I joined the Home-Guard and did four years drill (for the good of my health), including in my record service as Major-Chaplain with six Captains-Chaplain under me, in charge of a party of six thousand troops from Halifax to Liverpool. This involved the conduct of song services every evening, the steamship Olympic, with her large decks, affording excellent room for a service with a brass band at each end of the main deck, at the same hour without interference with each other, two Chaplains being assigned to each service.
Arrived at Liverpool, I put off my Home-Guard uniform (which I considered scarcely dressy enough for comparison with English Uniforms) and put on my usual ministerial black with a silk hat. I was permitted to be the first passenger to land, and was at once taken into the Port-Warden's office. Here the situation became amusing. Did I know any one in England? What places did I propose to go to? Who did I know there? Had I a Passport? At this point I said that a soldier of the King was not expected to carry a Passport. Then why have you not on the uniform? "It is in my trunk in your shed, and I will go and dress in it if you wish." "Wait a moment" he said. He proceeded to carry on a telephonic conversation, apparently with the ship, and presently I heard him say:- "Very well, if you will become responsible, I will let the gentleman go". Then I realised that I had been under arrest. It was explained to me by an assistant- "You know it is war time, and many dangerous people try from wrong motives to come into our country, so we have to be very careful." My return home found me as Chaplain in charge of Four Hundred casualties -- some of them in desperate and pitiful condition, and for whom it was difficult to do very much, for they seemed to have lost regard for religion.
I know not whether any one has found much gold, or even gold quartz in me, but I do know that when I found the Montreal City Mission, I found as promising a field for human developments as any prospector has found to satisfy his thirst for gold. He may have been altruistic enough to persuade himself that in his line he was working for the commercial prosperity; I certainly have wrought with one single purpose of finding angels in human forms, and bringing them out into visible and serviceable human relations. I have had an abundance of "quartz" to dig into, and my digging has not by any means been small. It has included circulating petitions among influential persons, and securing Municipal service in turning disreputable streets from mud-holes into asphalted pavements, and decayed planks and cinders into concrete sidewalks. That meant our share of the costs had to be paid, and I have been the only party to pay.
I have had a punch in the eye on a dark night, and after that I have visited the City Hall and secured the ample lighting of streets, which had without lights been the skulking place of crime. I have been knocked down with the "blackjack" (still carrying the scar) and this led to a visit to the Police Chief, and better police administration in a neglected district. I have been advised to "keep out" of certain streets, (advice which I consistently ignored), because I listed on one occasion twenty addresses with the Chief of Police, houses of "ill fame" and "white slave" traffic, all of which were raided, and from one of which alone it took fourteen cabs for the officers to carry away the inmates arrested therein. I have had bricks thrown through my chapel windows and have traced them to their source, where lived a female demoraliser for whom we secured six months in jail, and who when released said:- "It is that minister; I will kill him".
Yet I kept on digging in the quartz, and clearing away the rubbish. I preached in the market street on three evenings a week, from May to October for seven years, and in those meetings I gave away fifty thousand copies of gospels in many languages, which had been donated by the Scripture Gift Mission of London; in one summer I, with my own hands, gave away five hundred copies in French, and four hundred in Yiddish. I have distributed in streetcars, and had the delight of looking back through the car and seeing twenty-five people engaged in reading new-found Scripture.
If I had been looking for earthly gold, I might have been greatly disappointed, for this is not the place for it; however, even in this regard, God has answered prayer and kept us supplied with sufficient to develop and maintain a plant which need not take second place to any engaged in similar work anywhere in Canada; I have, however, had to do my part by withholding nothing of what might be called my own as it was required for the common good. We have fed and clothed the extremely needy, and in this respect our storeroom has been abundantly supplied. To feed one hundred and fifty vigorous eaters without charge, would seem a serious undertaking to some people, and it would be to anybody without faith, but in twenty-four years we have done it many times.
Through all the years, this work has appeared so difficult to people outside of church membership, while those attached to their churches have so felt the claims of their churches demanding all of their time and talent available, that, although I secured the incorporation of this Mission under the laws of Quebec seventeen years ago, I have never found a person or group of persons to take over financial responsibilities; consequently as my banker says, I and the Mission make one. Is it in vain that people have trusted me with legacies, and donations, and loans, and that my credit has been good in the bank? In these very hard times my banker has remarked-- "It is hard collecting just now -- don't you want to borrow some more?", and this when I was already owing him. Years ago the decision of a head office of a bank was:- "He can have what he wants". My note was for Four Thousand Dollars, and there were no other securities attached to it than my own signature. I thank God for all the help of friends far and near, and for the business standing, and business ability which He has given me, and for the great pleasure it has been to use all for Him in helping humanity to rise.
I have been finding my gold in human character. It may be that I have not the astounding results that characterise great revival movements, but there are the very substantial results that accrue from the knowledge of the word of God, and which is the most reliable character builder; it may take two or three generations to bring to the fullest fruitage the seed which we have sown, but it can safely be said that it will come. There are not wanting evidences in the present generation, when have grown up Sunday School teachers of Russian, Polish, Rumanian, and Czechoslovakian origin to serve our needs in Sunday school -- two of these at least, from six years of age. The Czechoslovakian could speak no English when he came to us; he has found what personal religion means, and has become an able student and preacher.
A Negro came to us years ago, as he says knowing little, certainly little about the Bible; now he is the pastor of a Negro congregation, and still associated with us in our Sunday School. Have I not satisfaction? Has it not been worth while to work for the discovery of youths who may become leaders in the land, and to direct them to a leadership that will help the nation, rather than leave them with their innate energies to become destructive agitators? I think so. And I prefer the reward of consciousness of having done so, to that of a well-paid pastorate, that is left often to wonder what good it is doing, and what next to talk about.
I am naturally a teacher, and the early comers to this Mission addressed me as "Mr Professor" and spoke of the Mission as "La Scola", and to this day the foreign parents move into houses in the neighbourhood in the sure conviction that their children will receive good instruction here. We have not the ritualistic practices that characterise Greek and Roman churches, and hence it becomes difficult to persuade the children that we have the standing of a "Church"; nevertheless we have been able to teach them the essential teaching, and our Sunday School has been pronounced by competent visitors from uptown as equal to the best in the matter of order, the spirit of worship, and the extensive knowledge of Scripture. How many Schools are there where opening services could be associated with the scholars reciting without book, some of them without being even able to read, the devotional Psalms of David? Or how many schools could repeat in order the Golden Texts of the Sunday School lessons for a year? Ours do these things by rule. Moreover the British Flag is here, and the Christianity which we have represented has been embraced by the children, translated by them to their parents, and thus in our section of the city there has been no need of police to quell the disorders of seditious agitators. These achievements, rather than money or earthly honors have constituted my reward.
I am now seventy-five years of age. In the promotion of this Mission, I have counted my travels across the ocean by nineteen times, (and only wish to cross once more); I have crossed Canada from Halifax to Vancouver, and have made myself familiar with Mission work in all of its principal cities, believing that a thing that is worth doing at all is worth doing well. Life has been to me a glorious romance. God has been good to me and has given me many worthwhile friends. If I had my life to live over again, I cannot say that I would wish it to be different. The "hardships" of life have been the best part -- they enabled me to be a mechanic, rather than become a machine, they built me up in initiative, and taught me how to find a way out of the puzzles, they kept me humble and modest, and saved me from becoming spoiled. I believe that hardships are providentially permitted with a view to promoting a better and more helpful humanity, and because I so believe, I thank God for all of the past, and trust Him for the future.
One thing at least I have learned to emphasise because of this work among a cosmopolitan people, namely, that Christianity is much more and much larger than sectarianism. "What are you now?" I was asked by a Methodist Minister after I had resigned from that Denomination; my ready answer was- "I am a Christian". Yet I did not wish to imply that I thought others were not Christians; rather I meant that I was free from certain restraints. "You have stepped out" said one, "and now you must take the consequence". "And what is that?" I asked. "You are not now a minister" was his reply. "My dear fellow," I answered, "I am more a minister now than ever, for I can now minister to all sorts and conditions".
And so it has proved through a quarter of a century. My visible ordination may have been at the hands of men, but essential ordination is of God, and He does not recall it so long as His servant "walks worthy". In connection with no Church could I have had the opportunity for a widely extended ministry, such as has been given to me in the eyes of all people in a city of a million of a population, and reaching out into the cities and provinces of Canada and into the United States of America. When a few years ago the Montreal Protestant Ministerial Association, composed of two hundred ministers representing the various denominations, at its annual election of officers, and on the nomination of an Anglican Canon, elected me to the Presidency, as "representing the miscellaneous", I took it as an admission that I had neither ceased to be a minister, nor had my ministry been in vain, and that perhaps I had gathered up valuable fragments which otherwise had been lost. I am quite sure that the brother who thought I had "ceased" has long since changed his mind and broadened his view.
I recognise the value of labels, and the desirability of homes and loyalty to the same, but God forbid that I should become so blind that I may not see excellencies in my neighbour's garden, and give of my support in promoting the welfare of the same. My people in my Mission have been taught that we are Protestant Christians, but I have had no occasion to define for them any of the "isms". When they have reported to me "isms" that seem contrary to clear New Testament instruction, I am quite sure that I have been amply dogmatic, and when occasion has offered, I have been ready with apologetics to become a "defender of the Faith". But I revert always to the discovery and unearthing of essential good. I have found that the European character needs especially fundamental Christian ethics, and it matters not to me whether he has been under Roman, Greek, or Lutheran influence, I deal with him irrespective of these, and according to his need.
And so I have become all good things to all men, and I consider that such an enlargement of my life has given to me greater riches than any denominationalism could possibly have done. By the grace of God, I belong to all men; I am the servant of all; I glory in presenting Christ as the equal Saviour of all.
The end.
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