My grandfather, Rev. Claude Warren, was a lifelong diarist. Here’s the story he told of how he won over the girl of his dreams.

THE GIRL OF HIS DREAMS

 

BY

C. W. WARREN

August 22, 1914

 

Prologue

 

After spending nearly two weeks in Canada I said Goodbye to the dear folks once more and turned my face southward. Thursday, Aug. 20, 1914. Arrived in Minneapolis the next morning and spent the day with Jo. We went to Minnehaha Falls after moss, which she was collecting for some fancy decorative work. Had a dandy visit then when she saw me off at 6:00 that night at the train. How I longed to tell her the secret in my heart, the purpose of my visit to Walworth, but I did not dare mention the subject. How could I know that the final outcome was to be, what assurance had I that such a great flood of happiness should come surging into my life. I shall never forget our last talk at the depot waiting for my train to pull out. We were talking about Uncle Moulton and Jo said she had always regretted that she did not have the opportunity to live with him and know him intimately as Mary had. Then we fell to talking about Mary. Jo remarked several times that all the noble and beautiful qualities of her father’s character had reappeared in Mary. Added to her father’s strong thoroughgoing, Puritanical nature she has all the sweetness and loveliness of true womanhood. How my heart beat high with hopes and longing at those dear words spoken by one girl regarding another girl, her sister. How rare it is that of two sisters one should speak of the other as “the sweetest, dearest girl” she ever knew. But this is characteristic of the entire family. Brought up in an atmosphere of love for each member of the family circle found in the others the basis for deep and enduring friendship. But of this not one word did I dare breathe to Jo, the dear girl who had called me her “bestest” cousin. But of this more anon.

 

I arrived at Harvard Saturday morning and an hour later with two heavy suit cases I was ascending the front steps of Grace’s home in Walworth, when who should open the door but a dear, little brown eyes maiden that very self same “sweetest dearest girl” that Jo had described the day before

 

And now, gentle reader begins a story of love and romance, a battle royal for a woman’s heart, a titanic struggle such as Dan Cupid had never witnessed on land or sea. As the Love god from the side lines watched the tides of battle rage and surge across the field of carnage, his eyes fairly blazed with excitement. Never in history from the capture of Helen of Troy to the Winning of Barbara Worth had there been such a momentous conflict between two great elemental passions. The attacking force was commanded by a man of quiet, determined force of character. He was ably supported by battalions of well directed arguments with a reserve force of persuasive and powerful appeals ready to be called into play should the main attacking columns walk or fall back. The general had chosen his own battle ground. He knew every inch of ground. Every twist and turn of the road was all carefully planned out in advance. He had counted the cost, he knew the strength of the enemy and he was there to win or die on the field of honor. Retreat was impossible. In all his career he had never lost a battle. He was now face to face with the greatest crisis of his life and he must not fail.

 

On the August 22^nd the besieging force surrounded the citadel and the first gun boomed across the field. The fortress was commanded by a young woman of singular beauty and charming personality, loved, courted and admired by all the countryside, young and old, rich and poor, high and low. All held her in deep esteem and devotion and rallied to her support in the crisis now upon her.

 

She was indeed a formidable opponent to meet. Tho of sweet and lovable disposition, she possessed a strength of character and force of will which was well nigh unconquerable. A starter champion of Truth, a more chivalrous defender of Honor never engaged battle on the tournament fields of King Arthur.

 

And now dear reader we must pause while the battle rages and go back and review the course of events which led up to this initial struggle and clash of contending forces. For this you see is only the Introduction to “The Romance of Uhlein Park”

 

 

 

Dramatic Personae

 

Sir William – The man who never lost a battle. In command of Besieging  Army.

 

Lady Mary – Beautiful Princess.   Defender of the Citadel.

 

Lady Grace – The Strategist, who played into the hands of the enemy.

 

 

THE WINNING OF LADY MARY

OR

THE ROMANCE OF UHLEIN PARK

 

Chapter I

 

 

It all began in a hammock on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, on the shores of peaceful Delavan Lake, Wis. The hero Sir William had been sojourning at Lake Geneva for several weeks and decided to spend a certain Sunday in July at “The Cottage” where his relatives were spending the summer. There was Aunt Jenny, Grace, Annie and Jo all cousins and the Princess, Lady Mary.

 

He had met the princess on several occasions. On this particular Sunday, he was sitting alone in the hammock, over looking the placid lake when a lovely vision in white came and sat by his side. It was the princess. He scarcely noticed her so sad and dejected he appeared because he had never met in the flesh the girl of his dreams. For years he had carried a vision in his heart of a girl he hoped some day to claim for his own. He had searched everywhere but in vain. Would she never come to fill the aching void in his heart?

 

Thus he sat, gloomy and unhappy, while the princess, demure and sweet sought in vain to brighten the outlook and cheer his heart with a smile. Later in the day he rowed her across the lake after water lilies and as they were returning to the Cottage at sunset, the dream of his life began to slowly unfold before him. Perhaps it would come true after all. That night as he said Goodbye and was flashed away over the hills in his auto, little did he realize what the outcome of the brief hour in the hammock was to be.

Chapter II

 

STRATEGY

 

OR WHO LAID THE TRAP FOR THE PRINCESS?

 

On Monday morning Aug. 3^rd, he left Geneva bound for Winnebago intending to remain one day at Walworth to visit Grace and Annie, his cousins. However they promised to take him to Delavan on Wednesday for a day’s fishing if he would stay. So he decided to stay until Thursday night.

 

(Enter Lady Grace who formed the plot and played into the hands of the enemy.)

It happened on the next day as Grace who dearly loved Lady Mary, was praising her beauty and telling how she was rapidly developing into a noble and beautiful woman, that the hero began to stir within himself and to awaken from his lethargy. And then a wonderful thing happened. Like a flash it broke upon his mind. It was clear as day. He recognized in Mary Clark, his dream girl who had appeared in the flesh, his vision was realized at last. He had found his ideal as near perfect as he had ever dreamed she might be. It was a wonderful and sacred moment when one soul recognized in another all those endearing qualities which he had looked and longed for in the secret recesses of his soul. In every respect he discovered that she measured up to his ideal.

 

1. Physically, she possessed a strong physique. A lover of outdoor life, fond of hiking, skating, swimming, rowing, basketball, etc.
2. Intellectually, a college graduate, a good student, capable of keeping pace with any man whose tastes turn to books and literature.
3. Socially, a leader in college social life. One to whom young people turn for help and suggestions in carrying out activities that are wholesome and stimulating. Very popular, a jolly good mixer with boys and girls and yet one who is greatly beloved by old people for whom she always extends the most thoughtful consideration.
4. Morally and Spiritually. Altho fond of out door athletic life, she scrupulously avoids the boastful and mannish airs of the so-called modern girl, but carries a sweet, charming personality on all occasions, bubbling over with enthusiasm and heartily enjoying life to the end of his finger tips. The daughter of a minister whose life was devoted to humanity, her mother, a woman of sweet and beautiful character, she had inherited all the worthy qualities of her parents and is a girl to command the deepest devotion and reverence from the best man that ever lived. Most remarkable of all is the fact that she is an intense believer in prayer. With her, God is a daily reality, a source of power to help her overcome and to accomplish the impossible.
5. During her Senior year at Beloit she was president of the Y.W.C.A, a position of leadership in spiritual things which she has ably filled. It was this fact above which caused the prince to turn his mind towards her in his search for the girl who was to become his beloved wife. Here was a girl he thought who will understand him and his life ambitions, who will be able intellectually to discuss his work, to plan methods and organization, to enter into his life with a woman’s true sympathy and greatest of all a wife to whom he can share the secrets and reveal the deepest longings of his inmost soul, a dear companion to whom he can unbosom his heart in times of sorrow and discouragement, a refuge for strength and inspiration. As Gunsaulus has said “Heaven pity the man who has no holy grounds to which he can retreat for help.” The husband of Mary Clark will find her to be “a ray from God’s pure sunshine.”

 

Chapter III

THE PLOT THICKENS

 

Now of course , dear reader, I do not mean to say all these things came into the mind of the prince all at once. No! No! It was a gradual awakening you see.

 

That night (Thursday) he could not sleep. He had found his ideal. He loved her. He wanted her for his dear wife. But how should he win her? She was visiting at that time at McGregor, Iowa, with a college friend. Should he go there and tell her of his love or should he speak to Grace, tell her his secret and appeal for support and good will.

The next day while eating lunch at Delavan where they had gone for a days fishing, he gave Grace a hint that he was in need of a woman’s advice and told her he wanted an interview with her the following day. You see that was to be his last day at Walworth and he was determined to know his fate as far as Grace was concerned, that day. Of course you can imagine how her curiosity was aroused to a high pitch. Well next morning after breakfast he had it out. He came at the subject in a round about manner, talking about Jo and what a fine girl she was then suddenly bringing poor little Mary into the foreground “Say Grace, am I any relation to Mary?” he asked. “No,” she said. ”Well did it ever occur to you that I might fall in love with her.” Well say, Grace fell off from the Christmas tree, right there. She sure was flabbergasted. For once in her life she was taken unaware. Never even suspected it. B’Gosh!

Well they went around and round, discussed every phase of the subject from A to Izzy. In the afternoon they walked out to the cemetery and there over the final resting place of Mary’s dear father, they discussed the question of Mary’s future. And then Grace, dear noble girl that she is, told him that she believed if her father were living he would give his consent, and as far as she was concerned anything that meant happiness for Mary was her supreme ambition. So I left for Winnebago.

On my arrival I wrote to Mary at McGregor’s saying I would return to Chicago via Walworth and would like to visit her there a few days if she intended to be there. The dear girl replied she would be “only too glad” to see me. Walked right into the trap you see.

 

 

Chapter IV

 

SATURDAY

THE FIRST DAY’S FIGHT

 

 

The fight for a girl’s heart began the minute I dropped my two suitcases on Grace’s front porch that Saturday morning and the beautiful princess swung the door wide open and admitted me with a smile. How glad they all were to see me and how my heart did beat high, with the fire of battle flashing in my eye. As I took Mary’s hand offered in sincere friendship I realized what a rich prize was mine if I could only win her. That day we had several walks and errands together around town. In the evening Harry invited me for an auto ride but I declined with the thanks, where upon Grace eagerly accepted leaving Mary and I alone for a long talk.   We discussed Y.W. and Y.M. work and many topics of mutual interest thoroughly laying a solid foundation for another subject also of mutual interest later. You see, kind reader, in Love as in War, you must bide your time. Don’t try to storm the fortress too early in the game. Be sure of your supporting columns and don’t expect to see the white flag of surrender run up at the sound of a mere pop gun. Remember a great general plans his battle in his head first before he ventures into the field with an army.

And again, always quit and go to bed before midnight. The lights might go out on you.

 

Chapter V

 

SUNDAY

THE DAY OF UNCERTAINTY

 

 

In the morning Mary and I washed the dishes, then had a sing and went to church. Mary sang in the choir. How beautiful she looked in white, her lovely brown eyes and hair making a striking contrast. I have forgotten what we had for dinner – Oh! We all rode over to the lake and had a picnic dinner. After dinner Harry fished and Mary and I rowed down the lake a mile or so, went ashore, climbed a tree which in her girlhood days had been a favorite look-out point for Mary. On our way home we rowed into a little secluded nook hidden from view of passing boats and there I told Mary that I was in love with someone but didn’t say who it was. The girl I said was my perfect ideal in every way. She never dreamed that she was the very girl herself. I avoided telling her purposely. I wanted her to think it over that night to have her turn the question over in her mind with all of its possibilities. There we rowed back to the cottage. After Carrol, Mary and I had a good swim we ate the rest of the lunch and drove home by moon- light. I shall never forget that drive. Mary and I sat on a box behind and I helped dry her hair. How beautiful it was and how eagerly I kissed it behind her back thinking she didn’t know it, but she did just the same.

That night she couldn’t sleep. She laid awake and cried for three hours, then poor, dear girl because her Claude was in love with some other girl. She dared to think it might be she and then she dismissed the thought at once. Of course not, she was not good enough for me, she thought, the dear, noble girl.

Thus ended Sunday as day of uncertainty. Despair for Mary – Hopes for me.

 

Chapter VI

 

CAPITULATION

 

 

Monday morning draws bright and beautiful. I was up betimes ready for the final struggle. Fate had whispered that on that day the issue of battle would be drawn and decided. It was to be revealed before night fall. Victory or Defeat! Which?

After a secret conference with Grace I decided to invite Mary for a four mile walk to Uhlein Park on Lake Geneva. I had been there that summer. I knew of a beautiful little thatched covered grotto in the lovely park with flowers, fountains, trees, and numerous streams on every hand. What an ideal place, I thought, for a most entrancing romance. But you see this was all planned in advance. Thither as John Alden “journeyed towards his Holy Land” where dwelt Priscilla, so I led the dear girl of my heart to pour out my great love to her on that eventful August afternoon.

I remember on the way we talked of many things both held in common interest. In fact as we brought up one subject after another, I suggested with a meaning subtle glance that real abiding friendship such as ours could exist only where there is a perfect agreement in mind and heart concerning life’s purposes and ideals. Thus you see, kind reader, prepared her mind for the great moment of life for which every true woman longs for with all her heart. I wanted her to comprehend the full meaning of my marriage.

As we approached the romantic spot and sat down I began talking of my work for the coming year. I wanted her to understand my hoped and plans for the future. She could thus enter into my life with perfect sympathy and become an integral part of my work. In fact it would be no longer my work but ours. As the wife of Jacob Riis said to him on their wedding day, “We will strive together for all that is noble and good” so I longed for Mary Clark to unite her strong, capable personality with mine that together we might accomplish some worthy work in the world.

And this is how I brought it about. You see one Saturday night I had told her that she was the only girl that I had ever talked with who seemed to understand the deep things of life. She seemed interested in everything that concerned my life and talked over my problems with me with clear understanding and sympathetic insight. I had never found another girl with whom I could talk such questions. I told her that Saturday night. Now Sunday afternoon in the boat I had told her I was in love with someone who was my perfect ideal. Then I asked her if this was not a trifle inconsistent on my part. She hardly knew what to say in reply. And then came the crisis and I told her she was the girl I was in love with all the time. What a thunderbolt! She was completely overcome and could not speak. With a gasp of astonishment and sudden surprise she turned her head away from me and would not answer or even look at me. Then I told her I loved her and had come to Walworth on purpose to ask her to be my dear, beautiful wife. Still she did not answer or even turn around. I told her I would gladly wait for her final answer until she was sure in her own heart what was best to do. Still she did not speak or look at me. Finally in desperation I said to her. “Mary, are you sorry I told you this?” And then she turned her beautiful eyes up on me, filled with love. I shall never forget her face. I never expect to see a more beautiful look on a persons face on earth or in heaven. Her face flushed, her eyes shining like brilliant stars, her breath coming in quick gasps, her bosom rising and falling under intense excitement, her voice tremulous with love. It was the awakening of a soul. The soul of a woman was born within her heart that day. I had called it forth into being. She looked at me with her very soul pouring thru her eyes and quietly said in answer to my question “No, Claude, I am glad you told me this.”

And now, patient reader, will you wait a few minutes while the curtain folks and the stage carpenters arrange the next scenes?

I knew she loved me, the dear, dear, girl, but we came to no permanent agreement that day. I was satisfied to wait until she could give me her final answer. Somehow I was confident over the result.

Well that night we got to Walworth at 9:30 and what do you think? Grace had supper awaiting us. Hungry? No! I wonder why! Grace said afterwards we looked so cheap she could have sold us for 30 cents. But not a word did we breathe. The next morning I got up at 5:30 and wrote her a little love letter, her very first which I delivered to her before breakfast. Also gave her my picture which I happened to have in my suitcase. That morning Aunt Jennie came and in the afternoon Mary left for the Y.W. conference at Geneva and I left two hours later for Chicago. Grace saw me off at the train.

I spent the night with the Hazletts and saw their wonderful brand new baby, Lois Margaret. The next night at 6:30 I left for Kansas City. Two hours before leaving I dropped in at the office of W. N. Northcott, executive secretary of the R.R. Y.M.C.A. of Chicago and accidentally learned they were looking for a man to take charge of extension work in the shops with plenty of opportunity for actual work as shop speaker. This was just the type of work I wanted to do above all association work. I accordingly asked them to hold the position open a few days until I could get honorably released from the position at Springfield, Mo. which I had previously accepted. I wired the secretary, so Mr. Hildes to meet me Saturday morning in Kansas City. There I went over the whole situation telling him what an opportunity for development the Chicago position meant to me and asking him to release me from the other work at Springfield. He finally consented to do so tho it placed him in a difficult position to be compelled to look for a new man at the last moment. As I look back upon this important dicussion, I am fully convinced that what I did was right and for the best. Since then I have received several letters from Mr. Hildes wishing me success in my new work and assuring me that his friendship for me had not changed in the least. I am deeply thankful for this.

I started for Chicago Monday morning, visiting at Lawson, KS.with cousin Rose Morrow’s family and with the Whitings at Washington, IA. Arrived at Chicago Thursday morning made arrangements to begin my new work on Monday, secured a room at West Side Y.M.C.A., met Sam Parker, secretary of the Dearborn Station association under whom I was to work and that afternoon started for Lake Geneva to visit my dear little sweetheart who was attending the conference.

 

Chapter VII

 

‘WATCHFUL WAITING’

 

 

How glad she was to see me and to learn that I was to be located in Chicago. I remained two days and had a fine visit with her. We had some precious talks that drew us together and made our love for each other very dear. We decided that we would come to no hasty agreement but would wait patiently and pray earnestly for guidance in a matter so vital to our own future welfare and happiness. We were both confident that if it was God’s will that our lives should be joined together it would be revealed to us in some way. And so I returned to my new work in Chicago, happy, hopeful and thankful.

On the last night at the lake, Grace, Harriett and Carrol drove over from Walworth to bring Mary home. But to their utter amazement and astonishment Mary coolly informed them that she was not going to return until the next day. Grace thought it a rather strange and unsisterly attitude for Mary who had always been so obedient, but she refrained from expressing her sentiments too freely. Then too you can imagine her surprise equally as great on finding me there as I was supposed to be in far-off Missouri by that time. So she returned without Mary and nobody knows what she thought as she plunged into the darkness over a rough and rocky road with old Dan and a busted buggy shaft.

My next visit was in October. I went to Beloit one Friday night and stayed until 11:00 oclock Sunday morning. On Friday night Mary went to the Y.W. reception. How beautiful she was in her lovely white dress. The next afternoon we took a lunch and walked up to Big Hill and there had a long talk. That evening we went auto riding with Rex and his girl. Sunday morning Mary did not go to church. She played and we sang together then she went upstairs and put on her lovely pink party dress for my special benefit. How sweet and beautiful she was and how I loved her.

On Nov. 6^th she with three other Beloit girls went to Chicago to attend the Y.W.C.A. conference. I met them Friday morning and took them over to Marshall Fields. That night I attended the conference and heard Jane Addams. At the close I took Mary out to Hazletts and what a jolly time we had getting acquainted. That night and rather early the next morning Mary Clark gave me her promise to become my dear beautiful wife. How that scene comes back to me as I write these words. I was hoping she would give me her decision that night. At first she hesitated to commit herself. It was for life she said and ought not to be entered into with undue haste. I did not urge her. I said I would gladly wait as long as she wished. I asked her why she hesitated. She had but one reason to offer. And what do you suppose it was dear reader? Imagine my complete surprise when she said, her only reason for refusing to become my wife was that she felt she was not worthy of me. Just think of it! The dear, noble girl not worthy of me! Unbelievable. But she was really in earnest. Well, I have answered and completely overcome a great many powerful, arguments in my life time but there was a new one. I couldn’t meet it. I was floored absolutely. To think that this sweet and adorable girl my ideal in all things the girl of my fondest dreams, at whose feet I loved down in the deepest love and references should say this to me.. Ah. Dear Mary it is I who should say this of you. I am the one who is unworthy of your dear love. You are far above me. You are my superior in all things. It is you who have inspired me to make my life most worthwhile. You have discovered ambitions within me. You have brought to light hopes long deferred in my soul. You have discovered me to myself. Your dear love is my one great motive power to enroll me to rise to my highest possibilities. Without you as my constant encourager these powers with in me would have remained dormant and neglected. I had given up my boyhood aspirations. You have called them back with renewed force and energy. The dreams of my youth I had forgotten. Now I am determined that they shall all be realized to the full. This you have down for me dear Beloved of my Soul. Should I accomplish any worthy work in the world, the credit may all be laid at your feet. All my life I have longed for you and at last God has brought you into my life. How inexpressibly dear and precious you are to me. How you have blessed and ennobled my life. What strength and power you have imparted to me. What glad joy and happiness with which you enveloped me. What sweet and beautiful love has sprung up in my heart for you and through you for all humanity.

You have given me so much, I have given you so little. From henceforth I shall give back to you out of my very best. I shall surround you with love and affection. I shall shower upon you daily little acts of kindness and thoughtfulness. Your health and happiness shall be my first consideration always. And what an ideal happy home ours will be.

 

How glad and thankful I am dear Mary that we waited for God’s guidance and leadership. We have tried to know his will and to let Him have His way with our lives. Truly has it been said “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength” and again “I will keep him in prefect peace whose mind is stayed on thee.”

 

 

Chapter VIII

 

THANKSGIVING REUNION

 

On my next visit to Beloit the day before Thanksgiving I was received by Aunt Jennie as a prospective son with a right royal welcome. I arrived Wednesday at 6:00 P.M. We had a fine visit before the grate fire that night and the next morning the three of us started for Walworth. Arrived at noon and went directly to Annie’s for the big dinner. And what a reception they did give us as Mary and I ran up the back steps and met the family in the kitchen. Harry had been up in Wisconsin hunting. When he informed us that he brought a deer home with him for Thanksgiving, I replied “So did I”.

After the big turkey dinner all were “too full for utterance” for a few hours. Later in the day Mary and I walked over towards Fontana to get a view of Lake Geneva, a place that associated with tender memories for us, especially one Uhlein Park along the north shore. However we had to reserve a visit to that sacred spot for the occasion of another visit later. How stlll I remember my last Thanksgiving at Walworth three years before this. I came from Freeport and Mary from Beloit where she was a freshman. Uncle Moulton was there and as usual was the life of the company. What great and noble man he was, my ideal. How I should love to have his advice and counsel now at this stage of my life. I must never disappoint him. I must be all that he wished for in a son. His beautiful daughter, the pride of his heart and the one great joy of his life is my promised wife. All the noble elements of his character are reproduced in her. What a precious gift he has given to the world. The world is enriched and only by his personal influence but by the children he has left behind him into whom he has breathed his spirit of noble and unselfish living.

Chapter IX

 

NEW YEARS

 

I could not leave my work at Christmas time but managed to get away for New Year’s. Uncle Will and Aunt Dell had visited with Leta and Ed a few days before and I saw them in Chicago. Aunt Etta had told them all about the great news and we had lots of fun. They then started for Walworth where Aunt Jennie and Mary were visiting and poor Mary had to face the music. Uncle Will almost plagued her out of the house. But they all had lots of fun again and this bit of important news provided a good bit of merriment for all. Of course hearty congratulations were forth coming.

Well New Years afternoon Aunt Jennie birthday what does Mary Clark do but bundle up her mother against the wildest expostulations of Grace and Annie and start for Harvard. Nothing could stop her. In vain did Grace plead and Aunt Jennie implore. She must go to Beloit so she said, to rescue Dewey from some impending calamity. When Grace found that pleadings were in vain she surrendered and made some rather insinuating remarks aout “poor Dewey”, starving in the midst of plenty.

Now the fact of the matter, gently readers, is that it wasn’t Dewey at all that was the course of all this family commotion. That was all a blind, you see. The real reason was that her lover was on the Chicago train arriving at Harvard at 5:30 bound for Beloit and she had the nerve to leave a happy home and a warm fire side and drag her poor mother away from it all, just because she was crazy in love with this fellow. Isn’t it shocking? And Mary was always such a nice girl and so obedient.

Well we had another splendid glorious visit and several long beautiful talks sitting before the grate fire. Each time she grows deeper into my heart with each visit I discover some new beautiful element of her character.

 

 

 

 

Chapter X

 

A GREAT DECISION

 

On Feb. 26, 1915 I resigned my position at the Dearborn Station association to travel for the Hanson Bellows Co. selling the New Practical Reference Library to teachers. Several things led to this decision. There seemed to be no prospect for advancement in the rail road department of the Chicago association for some time. I did not think it would pay me to remain at Dearborn Station. By taking the salesmanship proposition I felt I could discharge my financial obligations much sooner and thus be able to plan for the future to a better advantage. I had made many friends in my Chicago work from which I parted with sincere regrets.

I left Chicago on Friday Feb. 26 bound for Walworth. Arrived there at 5:00 P.M. and Mary came at 6:00 from Beloit. In the evening I met Harry’s Y.M.C.A. boys at the church. The next afternoon Mary and I took a walk over to that most sacred trysting place Uhlein Park.   How beautiful it was in the dead of winter, the snow like a great white blanket covering spruce and balsom surrounding our bamboo seat. What tender memories came surging into our hearts as we lived over again the scene of one beautiful day in August when a great mighty love was born in our souls to endure for all eternity.

We left Sunday morning at 9:15 so as to attend Vespers

Service that afternoon. The next day I attended the Laymen’s Missionary Conference. Dr. Calkins and Dr. Agus were the main speakers.

Tuesday night, Senior play, “The Private Secretary”. It was great.

On Wednesday Mary and I went to Elgin for Vera’s funeral. She died very suddenly in Detroit where she and Aunt Vi were visiting. She had lived a noble unselfish life and had accomplished much more in a few years than many do in as whole life time. Uncle Henry and Aunt Vi will be pretty lonely now. Mary and I returned to Walworth with Grace that night and the next day we went to Beloit.

On Friday Mary and I took a walk up to the Frog Pond. On that day we discussed another great question of our lives, the decision which settled my future work. For a long time the conviction had been growing upon me that I could accomplish more permanent good in the ministry than association work. My experience speaking to shopmen last winter brought home to me the truth about the alienation of America’s working men from the church. As Bouch White says in his book The Call of the Carpenter “The alienation of the world’s workers from the world religion is a portent whose gravity cannot be overestimated,” so I began to feel that God may be calling me into a field of more active service for the Church than my association position offered me. I had suggested the matter to Mary sometime previous to this but we had arrived at no definite understanding. On this day after I told her of my supreme ambition she revealed to me in a most beautiful way the secret of her heart. She said it was her highest wish that I should enter the sacred profession to which her father had brought honor and distinction, that I could accomplish more good in that field of activity and that I ought to enter it meant a development of her life which was possible in no other way. I thought this a most remarkable statement for a girl who is looking towards her future home the dearest hopes in a woman’s breast, to make. Without her hearty cooperation and complete trust in me I should never dare to consider such a momentous decision. But with her as my dear wife and capable co-laborer, I have accepted the challenge and the die is cast.

“I see my call.

It gleams ahead like sunshine

Thru a loophole shed.

I know my task;

Up, Soul, away thee!

Sword from thigh!

To battle for his heirs of heavens!”

 

I have been reading with great interest Sylvester Horne’s Romance of Preaching. It is truly a wonderful book and has gripped me powerfully. He says that “the appearance of the true preacher is the greatest gift a nation can have.” It is his business “to keep the soul of the world alive”. He must believe in the people even tho the people do not believe in themselves. God sends no man on any errand of His without the ability to discharge it. The gift is in the good pleasure of the Givers. All other ambitions go down before the revelation of life in Christ. Only men who have approached the ministry in this spirit have had their souls and wills purged from the alloys of false and base ambition. He is literally on fire with a new idea. It is “the glory of a lighted mind.” He is a God intoxicated, Christ-illuminated soul. Like Moses he must know the cruel inequalities of life, the want and waste of humanity. A study of these conditions will breed a race of prophets who should be our leaders in a new exodus towards a new land of promise.

Faith is often crushed out of the hearts of people by harsh and unjust social conditions. Someone must go to them who by his own life of brotherhood and practical sympathy will interpret to them God’s redeeming promises. When Moses did this for the Hebrew slaves it is written, “And the people believed, for when they saw that the Lord had visited His children, and had seen their afflictions then they bowed their heads and worshipped.”

The true preacher knows how people live, enters into their joys, shares their ambitions, instinctively discusses their privations, and will not see them defrauded of their rights

I have used Mr. Harne’s own words here because they tell the strory with an eloquence unsurpassed.

In his chapter on “The Apostolic Age”, he says there are no words in any language to express how dear the early Christians held their faith and how cheap they held their lives. Rome itself was baffled by men whose bodies she could burn but whose hate she could not provoke. They “triumphed over cruelty with courage, over persecution with patience, and over death itself by dying.”

The truths that conquer the world are not compromises at all. Why is it that when one witness falters, that we fall back upon apologies where we need to use unconditional affirmations.

Christianity lives by the majority of its beliefs, by its uncompromising truths.

To the young preacher.

Steep yourself in the thoughts and beliefs of the apostolic age.

Face bravely and unflinchingly their doctrines and the social consequences of their doctrines. At all cost hold back nothing of the truth for any fears or favors of man,

What grand and noble words these! How he flings down the gauntlet for battle.

 

 

The next chapter, “The Royalty of the Pulpit,” says that the Christian Church has been the nursing homes of great orators. For oratory to be great it means the inspiration of a great cause. The highest type of eloquence the world has ever known is inseparable from the most exalted inspiration and can only flow from that source.

The true preacher has a radiance in his face and a light in his eyes that tells of the unconquerable soul.

The one supreme qualification for the ministry is the soul aflame. The power to kindle the spirits of our fellows is the endowment for which we pray and plead.

The world bows before souls. People ask not as much is our religion reasonable but is it real?

The New Testament is a very furnace of Truth into which men’s souls are plunged and purified and saved so as by fire. The words of Jesus blaze and burn with life and yet some there are who try to cover up his hard sayings and line them with velvet so the most touchy conscience can come in contact with them without a shock..

Some of us have too much to enjoy and not enough to endure.

 

The genuine preacher is a man of soul with a genius for the unexpected and the unprecedented. He sways the inner world of men’s consciences, intellects, and souls.

The minister’s call comes not from the church in the given community but from the whole city. The ideal State is as much of fruit of the gospel as the ideal church.

As Carlyle said there is no victory but by battle. No crown but by the cross. No triumph for the preacher save as he pledges himself to the kingdom of God, and makes himself the willing instrument of that resistless will which shall yet in obedience to our Master’s prayer, be done on earth as it is in heaven.

These words constitute the dying message of one of God’s modern prophets. How they burn their way into my soul. Sylvester Harne has caused me to see my Divine Call as never before. The dream of my youth has come back to me. From hence forth my voice and pen and my life is in the hands of the Spirit of God to be used as He will. A long, hard fight is ahead of me. But I have absolute faith that the way will be provided. I must work and pray and wait.

 

And now, dear Beloved of my Soul, what can I say to you who have awakened me to this great Call? For had it not been for you I should never perhaps, have undertaken this great work. It was the early training of your godly father and mother which led you to prize so highly the work of the ministry as the greatest of tasks and to desire the honor for me above all things. Ah! Dearest Mary, it is you who have been the greatest source of inspiration on earth to me. You have caused me to see visions and dream dreams. You have called me to a place on the red firing line to strike a mighty blow for God and humanity. What a sacred responsibility you have laid upon me and how gladly do I accept it. You made me see my duty clearly and eagerly do I desire to perform it. From hence forth you are mine and I am yours. We shall strive together for all that is noble and good. How my heart goes out to you as I sit in my room this beautiful quiet Sunday afternoon and write these words. How I do love you, dear sweetheart, my beloved wife to be. How supremely happy we shall be in our dear home when it is established in God’s good time and way. How inexpressibly dear and precious you are to me Mary, the very life of my Soul. I shall be good to you. Your health and happiness shall ever be my first consideration. We shall be so happy together, a blessing to each other and to the world.

The End