Paul R Dienstberger
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THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC
Nation of Christians
Portraits

by Paul R Dienstberger
Copyright 2000 Paul R. Dienstberger

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Chapter 7 The Search for Holiness

  • I. The Reconstruction and Negro Education
  • II Education and The Church
  • III The Holiness Movement
  • IV. Dwight L. Moody
  • V. The Philanthropists
  • VI. The Preachers & Their Dilemma
  • VII The Social Gospel
  • VIII Organizations
  • IX. The Temperance Movement
  • X. The Turn of the Century
  • The Revival of 1857 and the Civil War marked a watershed of dramatic change in the American scene and the US church. It was Frank Beardsley's opinion that the Great Revival prepared the North for the Civil War, and that the revival in the Southern armies during the war providentially prepared the South for the defeat and the desolation.

    Paul Kennedy stated in his Rise and Fall of Great Powers that the Civil War was the catalyst to transform America's latent national power into the greatest military nation on earth by 1865. Also, the conflict produced the first real industrialized total war effort along the prototype of the 20th Century wars. In his final analyst the North won with superior finances, industrial and agricultural production, and supply lines.

    Moreover, the war gave impetus to the tremendous industrial growth, the large flow of immigrants, and the rapid urbanization during the last four decades of the 19th Century. The old ways were dying and the changes brought unrest and bitterness to the masses. The new economic and social order unveiled many ills, and they demanded a solution from the government and the society, as well as the church and it's lay people.

    Several decisions by the Lincoln administration contributed to this expansion. First, President Lincoln and Treasury Secretary Chase decided to finance the war through taxes and printing "greenbacks" rather than the money borrowing from European bankers. Also, the postwar westward expansion was encouraged by two Lincoln campaign promises: a trans-continental railroad and the Homestead Act. In 1860 there were three millionaires in the US, and by the end of the century there were over four thousand of them. The prosperity was both a blessing and a curse.

    The industrialization brought colossal changes in transportation, communication, agricultural and domestic life. For some the labor, income, and machines meant tremendous opportunities, but for others the work, sweat, and grind of daily life only produced despair. The title of the Gilded Age has endured, but the wrongdoing, immorality, luxury, extravagance, speculation, and intemperance was called by the daily newspapers the almost forgotten name "Carnival of Crime." An industrial war resulted between labor and capital. The working force used strikes, boycotts, and violence against the management's low pay, long hours, lockouts, and blacklists. Regardless, the owners could always contract immigrants for the lowest pay on any job.

    Furthermore, the immigration made a striking change in the US church. The "old" immigrants came from Western Europe, and they were mainly Protestant. The "new" immigrants came from Southern and Central Europe, and they were Catholic, Jewish, Eastern Orthodox, and unchurched in background. They came by the millions and they made the US more diversified and pluralistic than ever before. The traditional Protestant philosophy no longer dominated the nation.

    The factories and the immigrants swelled the urban population centers. Urbanization meant that the rich and the middle-class would move uptown, while the old downtown suffered from atrocious tenements with disease and drunkenness and despair. Again the age old issue faced the church on how to minister to the poor and the suffering.

    The Noonday Prayer Revival had resulted in a huge increase in the influence of the laity. Their volunteerism and philanthropy continued throughout the war and afterwards. With an increase in money and a force of willing workers the church searched for a new direction to handle the new problems. Old evangelicalism seemed like a weakened tune, and a new song rang out for personal holiness, sanctification, and perfectionism. As the revival of the laymen continued, even the voice of the women could be heard, too. However, the greatest lay person of the age was Dwight L. Moody, and he was, also, the strongest voice of the age.

    The church, also, faced new challenges to their theology from science and scholarship. In 1859 Charles Darwin published his theories on natural selection or evolution. In 1878 Julius Wellhausen introduced his theories on biblical criticism. He rejected the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch. Although he was not the first, he disputed the historical reliability of the Isaiah, Daniel, and the Old Testament. The new thoughts on science, technology, Marxism, sociology, psychology, and comparative religion all questioned the established Western Christian world.

    In past ages the opposition always seemed to be a single or at least a limited target. The church could always hope and pray for a revival. But, by this era America's religion had become so diverse and the social problems were compounded so much that Ahlstrom called the post Civil War transition a period of "strange formlessness." Moreover, when the church was forced to spend its energies in so many directions, they at least had the wealth and the lay people to meet the challenges.

    While the revivals continued and personal spiritual growth was still emphasized, Clifton Omstead said, that never before had church membership been stronger, but their spiritual soundness was weaker. The wealth enabled the churches to avoid the "crudities" of the frontier age. Wooden churches with mourners benches and spirited singing by the congregation with lay preachers gave way to magnificent brick buildings with cushioned pews and robed choirs as an intro to an eloquent seminary-trained minister. Furthermore, most churches had a social stratification based on economic similarities, education, and ethnic background.

    During the final decades of the 19th Century the Christian community responded to the social problems in many ways. The call for concern for the plight of the less fortunate was aligned under an all-encompassing term known as the "Social Gospel." Many social and service organizations sprang up to meet the needs of people. The institutional church had a gymnasium, handicraft center, library, perhaps a parochial school, maybe medical and even economic services. The church became concerned for not only the spiritual well-being, but for every aspect of the individual's life.

    I. The Reconstruction and Negro Education:

    As the armies returned home, the country set about the task of reconstruction to restore the Union, and to bind up the nation's wounds, and to give this nation under God a new birth of freedom. However, the rift between the North and the South grew even larger. Lincoln's plea for reconciliation died with him in too many cases. In the South Southern Presbyterian theologian Robert Lewis Dabney declared, "What! forgive those people, who have invaded our country, burned our cities, destroyed our homes, slain our young men, and spread desolation and ruin over our land! No, I do not forgive them." In the North at New Haven Theodore Thornton Munger exclaimed that the South was only being punished "for its sins." Regretfully, retaliation ruled and rather than restoration. As the federal government attempted to arrange reconciliation, the rift between Congress and President Johnson grew greater, too. While Southern governments passed Black Codes, the President vetoed the Congressional policies on re-admission to the Union, political and civil rights for the Negro, and a freedmen's assistance bill. When the Radical Republicans impeached the President, the Methodist Episcopal general conference devoted an hour of prayer for his deliverance, and the African Methodist Episcopal Church prayed for his conviction at their general session. Meanwhile the federal troops entrenched the carpetbag governments in the South.

    For the freedmen they had little concept of freedom or the reality of it. Their greatest interest was in religion and education. Booker T. Washington said, "The great ambition of the older people was to try to read the Bible before they died." Without jobs they had time for religion and it was reported "that baptizings among Negroes were as popular as were operas among whites." The opportunities for jobs, land, or private business were restricted by the other Southerners, who were suffering some of the same postwar struggles. When the US Congress passed the Freedmen's Bureau and other Reconstruction legislation, they hoped that Negro rights and economic openings would occur.

    The Freedmen's Bureau was the first federal relief agency aimed at aiding the distressed. It gave rations and medical services to blacks and whites. Under the leadership of General O.O. Howard they tried to establish labor contracts and resettle lands especially for Negroes. Although it faced opposition from Southerners and experienced the corruption and fraud like everything else during this era, the Bureau was extremely successful in the field of education. When the agency ceased in 1870, there were 4,329 schools with 247,333 students, and the Bureau had spent $5 million dollars in educating the Negroes. In 1869 there were 9,503 teachers in the freedmen's schools in the South. The Bureau claimed that schools had been set up even "in the remotest counties of each of the Confederate States." Booker T. Washington called it "the most striking example of Christian brotherhood and benevolence in the annals of mankind." White teachers and philanthropic aid came from the North. Many of the teachers were women paid by the American Missionary Association. George Peabody of Massachusetts set up a $3.5 million fund for Southern education and particularly for Negroes. It was the first great philanthropic fund and it lasted 46 years. The John Fox Slater fund for "colored education" would be established to "confer upon them the blessings of a Christian education." Eventually the two funds united.

    General Samuel Chapman Armstrong, the son of Christian missionaries to Hawaii, founded Hampton Institute for manual training of freed people. Booker T. Washington, the most famous Hampton graduate, established Tuskegee Institute as a vocational school with a purpose for the Negro to move "up from slavery." Other institutions like Howard, Fisk, Atlanta and some twenty other colleges blossomed. Schools were established at every level. Booker T. Washington observed, " It was a whole race trying to go to school." He, also, wrote that "the best forces of the republic - the state, the Christian philanthropists and the grateful beneficiary - are all working harmoniously together to prepare the children of former slaves for the proper and high duties of citizenship."

    According to John Hope Franklin the second great relief agency was the Negro church. While none of the pre-Civil War churches re-united immediately after the war, the African Americans experienced phenomenal growth in their own independent churches after the emancipation. Kenneth Scott Latourette called the church growth of the American Negro membership between 1815-1914 "one of the greatest of all achievements of the Christian faith." The African Methodist Episcopal and the Negro Baptist churches reached 700,000 members by the end of the Reconstruction. In 1860 only 11.7 percent of the Negroes were church members, but by 1916 forty-four percent were church members which was exactly the same as the whites.

    The church was the first social institution in America fully controlled by Blacks. It was during this period that religion and politics blended into the Negro culture and the Black pulpit. W.E.B. DuBois pointed out the minister's importance when he said, "The Preacher is the most unique personality developed by the Negro on American soil. A leader, a politician, a 'boss,' an intriguer, an idealist." Even with a modest elementary education, it was the only profession open to a Negro man. According to James Weldon Johnson, a 20th Century secretary in the NAACP, the preacher had "the greatest single influence among the colored people of the United States,"

    A unique fund raising idea was originated by the treasurer of Fisk University George L. White. He borrowed money to send the Jubilee Singers to Oberlin, Ohio in 1875. They sang Negro spirituals and work songs at the National Council of Congregational Church's meeting. Quickly, the all-Negro group became an attraction and went on tour throughout the North and Europe. Within seven years they raised $150,000 to finance the building of Jubilee Hall on the campus of Fisk University.

    Despite such advancements northern enthusiasm declined and southern opposition became more zealous. The older Radical leaders left office. Some Republicans became disenchanted with the corruption during Grant's administration. Unfortunately, one carpetbag politician even preached that Jesus Christ was a Republican. Some of the church agencies lost interest and abandoned the cause. When the Freedman's Bureau ended most of the white teachers returned to the North.

    In the South white supremacists increased the call for home rule. Also, the rise in violence by the secret societies like the Ku Klux Klan even wearied the best intentions and mildly won over Southerners, who did not approve of the methods. When Congress granted amnesty to ex-Confederates and passed laws against the Klan, Northerners felt justified that they had put forth enough effort toward the Reconstruction.

    In the election of 1876 Rutherford B. Hayes was given the Presidency in a Congressional compromise that returned the South to their own rule. All the troops were removed, and the carpetbag governments collapsed. The white majority voters returned to power, and the Solid South Democrats called themselves "Redeemers." Unfortunately, the Negroes were restricted from voting and ended up mostly as sharecroppers.

    The symbolic end to the era occurred when President Hayes placed flowers on the Confederate graves in Chattanooga, Tennessee on May 30, 1877. The practice had originated in Charleston in 1865 when James Redpath and a some Negro children put flowers on the graves of Union soldiers. The event became a national holiday called "Decoration Day." It mark an end to the era of "bloody shirt politics" and was called a day of reconciliation.

    Ironically with the close of American slavery, an American newspaper story exposed the world's darkest story of slavery in Africa. The 19th Century's most famous newspaper story in the New York Herald the serial of Henry Morton Stanley's search for the famous Scottish missionary-explorer David Livingstone circulated an appeal to end Africa's slavery. It, also, served to recruit missionaries. The enlistment was so successful that for the first time in history a continent became a Christian majority in a single century.

    II. Education and The Church:

    When the Civil War ended the nation renewed its drive for universal education. However, only one state, Massachusetts, had a compulsory attendance law and that was weak. The education system had 7 million pupils, but only 3 percent got beyond the eighth grade. Ninety percent of the Negroes were illiterate. The old aristocratic attitude continued to oppose the school tax. The upper class preferred private and church influenced schools that were financed by private donations.

    Education was under state control because of the 10th Amendment in the Bill of Rights. The first attempt at federal aid to education was the Morrill Act of 1862. It was aimed at vocational education. This land grant act founded the A & M colleges. It was, also, the beginning of federal aid to education.

    The standard teaching methods were reflected in an 1847 book by David P. Page. For a half century his opinion was typical, when he wrote, "there would be no objection to teaching generally accepted Christian doctrine in the public schools or even directly teaching religion."

    Methodist professor William Warren Sweet wrote that "the most important single influence in organized religion by the end of the 19th Century was the tremendous increase in wealth in the nation." The wealth changed the buildings, the educational institutions, and the congregations of the churches. They were transformed into middle-class assemblies with prominent, respected business families heading every church. Their charity and philanthropy was an example for all to follow.

    Education was the major beneficiary of their gifts and endowments. The Methodist church was the most prodigious. The US Commissioner of Education reported in 1903 that of the 464 universities in the nation 76 were Methodist institutions, and of the 923 secondary schools under denominational control 109 were Methodist schools.

    The Sunday School was a major emphasis of the Protestant church. In 1872 B.F. Jacobs instituted a plan for uniform Sunday School lessons. An interdenominational committee wrote a curriculum with a progressive system of scriptures for different ages and levels of understanding. Jacobs and Dr. John Vincent persuaded the Fifth National Sunday-School Convention to adopt the idea.

    In 1874 John Heyl Vincent, a Methodist minister, began a training program for Sunday School teachers at Lake Chautauqua in New York. It expanded into a popular education assembly that featured a variety of lectures, discussions, and even college credits. The Daily Vacation Bible School originated as another summertime Bible program in New York City in 1899.

    The unchurched, the unaffiliated, and especially the young were the main Sunday School targets of Protestant Christianity. In many places in America the "Bible classes" overshadowed the regular worship service. It was Sydney Ahlstrom's opinion that the US Sunday Schools produced "the most pious and knowledgeable laity in all of Christendom." While all agreed that the religious education was the first the responsibility of the home, most expected the church and the school to supplement the family's efforts. The Roman Catholics and Missouri Synod Lutheran developed a new innovation with the parochial school system. The Catholics argued that the government should contribute financial aid to their schools. However, the Lutherans not only objected to government funds, but they refused to take any of them. Another issue Bible reading in the public schools was opposed by the Catholics.

    As the nation was changing and becoming more diverse and pluralistic, education was in transition, too. In ages past schools were upper-class, private, classical and Christian based. But now, with the new wave of immigrants and the emphasis was on the common person. The American education system was an eclectic training ground for citizenship, democracy, literacy in English, some vocational skills, and the "three R's." As the "modern" and "secular" ideas became more influential, Christianity and the Bible were having less of an influence on the curriculum.

    III. The Holiness Movement:

    Before the Civil War American Christianity was dominated by the evangelical emphasis on salvation. After the war the emphasis on the Christian life was the post conversion experience of a changed life known as sanctification or separation from sin. Part of this doctrine came from the Methodist teachings of John Wesley on perfection and some came from Finney on "entire sanctification." A potpourri of regeneration terms were used to describe this "second blessing" or "second work of grace." Officially, the general term became "holiness." The movement started before the Civil War and continued afterwards. The teachings of Phoebe Palmer spearheaded the perfectionist revival as early as the 1830's. She was the founder of the ladies Tuesday prayer meetings for holiness in the Methodist church. The first National Camp Meeting for the Holiness movement was held in the summer of 1867 in Vineland, New Jersey. For ten days over 10,000 followers listened to speeches on Christian holiness. Before the camp closed they organized an Association to Promote Holiness with Rev. John Swannell Inskip, a young New York City Methodist pastor, as their President. Also, Bishop Matthew Simpson, who was a circuit rider and a college president of DePauw, surfaced as one of the better Methodist "holiness" preachers.

    While the movement emerged from the Methodist bodies, it attracted followers from other Protestant groups. The next year in Mannheim outside of Lancaster in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country the Second National Holiness camp meeting drew 25,000 attenders and over 300 preachers. The crowd was an interdenominational group from almost every state. It was one of the largest of the century. It marked the renewal of the camp meeting days. It, also, was characterized by the Methodist emotion and enthusiasm of earlier times. The closing night communion was usually the fervent high point for the campers. In 1869 they met at Round Lake, New York. In 1870 three national meetings were held, and by 1872 it moved to the South.

    When the "Shepherdess" Phoebe Palmer died in 1874, the movement was in full bloom outside the Methodist Church and even reaching Europe. The holiness emphasis on living a life void of conscious or deliberate sin was attracting many disciples. It did not result in any single new denomination, but splintered into many loosely aligned and independently connected fellowships. The conservative wing resulted in the Church of the Nazarene, the Pilgrim Holiness Church, and the Church of God (Anderson, Indiana).

    Another branch of the movement led to a number of Holiness and Wesleyan groups, and the Christian Missionary Alliance Church which was founded by A.B. Simpson, a leader on holiness ideas. When the holiness writers expanded on the term "entire sanctification," they referred to it as a "baptism of the Holy Spirit." This eventually spawned the Pentecostal churches and the Assemblies of God denomination.

    Those, who joined the movement, sought a higher Christian life of holy living according to the Bible. They had a strong emphasis on the Holy Spirit and a New Testament church like after Pentecost in the Book of Acts. Although there was allot of talk about unity, many went their separate ways. In the opinion of Melvin Dieter the movement resulted in "the largest group of new church organizations which America ever produced in so short a time." Also, since the book of Acts was widely read, they studied the prophesies of Joel and the latter days. They accepted the popular premillennial views of the 19th Century. Consequently, they were more interested in social improvements and ushering in Christ's return than they were with evangelism. Oswald Chambers born in Britain in 1874 observed, "The holiness movements of today have none of the rugged reality of the New Testament about them. There is nothing about them that needs the death of Jesus Christ. All that is required is a pious atmosphere, prayer, and devotion." And "If you accept this concept of the holiness movement, your life's determined purpose will not be for God, but for what you call the evidence of God in your life." Nevertheless, in an age of greed and dishonesty where the mainline denominations were run like businesses with wealthy businessmen leading the church boards, the holiness movement tried to be a genuine Christian church like Jerusalem in the days of Acts. Their hope of restoring the post-Pentecost fellowship was along the lines of the best days of the Puritans and the Pietists. They expected purity, and love, and good koinonia, and a work of the Holy Spirit - now! (in the present age). Unfortunately, their vitality is not strongly remembered in the 20th Century. Perhaps part of the reason is that the movement separated from the old main-line denominations.

    IV. Dwight L. Moody:

    A continuing impact of the 1858-59 revival was the growth in ministries by laymen. Over the same period to the end of the century the nation experienced a postwar boom in business and industry. American Christianity reaped the benefits from both in the work of D.L. Moody. He was a "babe in Christ" during the awakening, a very advanced "babe," and a salesman in the shoe business. He applied his business knowledge to the successful big city campaigns in Britain and America. William McLoughlin rated the 19th Century evangelists by saying, "Charles Finney made revivalism a profession, but Dwight L. Moody made it big business."

    He was born in Northfield, Mass. in 1837. Shortly after his father's death when Dwight was four, his widowed mother had the entire family baptized at the Unitarian Church. It was Moody's only baptism. His schooling ended in the seventh grade, so he was never ordained to preach. At age seventeen he went to Boston to work in his uncle's shoe store. He quickly became the leading salesman in the store.

    He attended the Mt. Vernon Congregational Church in Boston. He was assigned to the Sunday School class of Edward Kimball, who was instrumental in his conversion. It was undramatic. While visiting the store and talking about Christ, Mr. Kimball just placed his hand on D.L.'s shoulder, and Moody made a simple, quiet, unemotional decision to trust in Christ. He recalled the event by saying, "here is a man who never saw me till lately, and he is weeping over my sins, and I never shed a tear for them." When he applied for church membership his testimony seemed vague about how he "accepted Christ," so three persons were assigned to disciple him in the way of salvation. Ten months later he was given membership, but by then he was ready to leave Boston.

    In 1856 he went to Chicago to earn his fortune in the shoe business. His goal was $100,000. However, he joined the Plymouth Congregational Church and served in many ways. He invited the youngsters from the streets to his Sunday School class, and founded his own North Market Sabbath classes which grew to fifteen hundred members. President-elect Abraham Lincoln even visited a Sunday School class. Moody soon gave up his job and became a city missionary. He did home visitations and welfare activities for the YMCA. He, also, became engaged to British-born Emma Revells, whose brother was the famous publisher Fleming H. Revells. They were married in 1862.

    When the Civil War broke out, Moody served in the Christian Commission and the YMCA by visiting the soldiers on both sides and passing out Christian literature. He ministered from Fort Douglass in Illinois to the battlefields of Tennessee and eventually entered Richmond with General Grant. He witnessed to the captor, the prisoner, and the wounded. Nine times we went to the battlefield. General O.O. Howard said of Moody, "His preaching was direct and effective, and multitudes responded with a confession and promise to follow Christ."

    After the war he became President of the YMCA (1865-69) and proved to be a remarkable fund raiser among the wealthy businessmen. The trustees of his stock company included B.F. Jacobs, George Armour, Cyrus McCormick, and John V. Farwell. In 1867 Farwell Hall, the first YMCA building in the world, was built at a cost of $159,000. The building was consumed in the fire of 1868 and was rebuilt only to be destroyed in the great Chicago fire of 1871.

    In 1870 Moody made a decision that forever changed the methods of American revivalism. At the YMCA convention in Indianapolis he invited Ira D. Sankey to be his song leader. For almost 30 years they co-labored to present the gospel. Their innovation set the standard for future mass evangelists. They were models for Sunday and Rodeheaver, Graham and Shea, and many lesser known pairs.

    In 1872 while on YMCA business in Britain, an evangelical leader named Henry Varley made this challenge, "Moody, the world has yet to see what God will do with a man fully consecrated to Him." When Moody and Sankey were invited to substitute in a London pulpit, four hundred people responded after the sermon. Moody decided that mass evangelism or revivalism was his calling and he would return to Great Britain.

    In 1873 Moody and Sankey began two years of evangelism in the British Isles. They, also, adopted several successful changes in revivalism. First, Moody used the British practice of inquiry meetings or "after meetings" rather than the Finney anxious bench. Eventually he used decision cards so pastors could follow up those, who made decisions. Also, they had the Sankey hymnbook published. It was 16 pages and it was sold for 12 cents each. It immediately became a best seller and made a million dollars, but neither Moody or Sankey took a penny of it. Moody re-introduced the noon prayer meeting, but it was in preparation for the evening meetings. As many as 6,000 attended the noonday meetings. Again the secular press picked up on the religious frenzy like in 1859. The Earl of Shaftesbury said that Moody was " the right man at the right hour."

    Moody's message was a simple, clear presentation of eternal life in the style of a layman, whose only text was the Bible. The educated clergy criticized him for his lack of theological principles. The erudite said that his speech had slurs and slang, and some "ain'ts," and he didn't always use the King's English. However, Moody's target was the unchurched and the poor, and consequently the common audience identified with his message. A surprising response came from young people, who had been raised in the church by faithful parents, but they left the church as adults. Also, a large number of church goers came to be revived by Moody's preaching and Sankey's singing. Very few of the poor attended the meetings. At times Moody criticized the Christians for sitting up front and taking seats away from the poor, unsaved, and unchurched. Nevertheless, capacity crowds followed the American pair throughout the British Isles.

    For two years Moody and Sankey traveled around England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. Moody preached Bible stories and Sankey led easily memorized hymns which he played on a small, portable organ. It was said that Sankey sang the gospel while Moody preached it, and as many made decisions during the singing as during the preaching. By the end of the campaign 3 to 4 million people had been reached. The London meetings lasted the final twenty weeks and attracted 2,500,000 with some crowds reaching 20,000 in the Agricultural Hall. The pair had become world famous and America anticipated their return to their homeland.

    They returned to the United States in the summer of 1875. Moody was now a national religious folk hero. When he held small revival meetings in his mother's hometown of Northfield, the activities made the front page of the New York newspapers. After the new reports of their British success invitations poured in from the excited American church people. Delegations from New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago with offers for his meetings. Moody's first requirement was interdenominational unity. Philadelphia said that they had two hundred ministers in agreement with the movement, and they had started on a tabernacle for the location. However, he accepted the invitation by his good friend Rev. Theodore Cuyler in Brooklyn first.

    In Nov. 1876 the Philadelphia campaign was arranged through the efforts of John Wanamaker, the Christian businessman of five and dime fame. Wanamaker renovated the old Pennsylvania Railroad Freight Depot at a cost of $20,000 out of his own pocket, and purchased 10,960 chairs for the Moody evangelistic meetings. The banner over the podium read "I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people." For two great months overflow crowds of over one million attended with an estimated 4,000 converts. President Grant, the governor of Pennsylvania, and senators and representatives were in the audiences.

    In New York City P.T. Barnum's Hippodrome on Madison Avenue, which is the present site of Madison Square Garden, was the principal venue for the Moody meetings. By now the Moody methods were familiar. Sankey soothed their hearts with congregational singing. The message urged sinners to "come forward." With the Bible in his hand he waved for them to come to the "inquiry rooms." His homey homily simple said, "Until the heart is made right all else will be wrong." Even the New York Times agreed, "the work accomplished by Mr. Moody in this city for private and public morals will live." The attendance was one and a half million.

    Finally in October of 1776 Moody and Sankey returned to Chicago to a hometown hero's welcome. The city was practically rebuilt from the great fire. An 8,000 seat tabernacle had been built at a cost of $21,000. Overflow crowds warmed the winter campaign which saw 5,000 people respond at the evangelistic services. The city and its people were overjoyed with what they called a "Pentecostal visitation."

    Cities and committees lined up for the evangelist. Local pastors and laymen followed a standard procedure outlined by the Moody organization. Tabernacles were built for around $20,000 to $30,000. Funds were raised to finance the campaigns. The average weekly cost was $5,000. Famous businessmen and laymen gave money in advance to a "Guaranty Fund" to cover the expenses. Handbills were distributed and the meetings were always advertised "No Collection" would be taken. After 1878 Moody decided not to use the tabernacle system because of the expense. The meetings were held at churches, and he tried to stay longer for up to six months.

    Moody was a tireless worker always trying to reach the masses. Each year he campaigned in big cities for several months and made brief stops in smaller one. In 1877 he went to Boston and received opposition from the Unitarians and the Roman Catholics. The press even ridiculed his five foot six and 280 pound frame. They criticized his diction because he said, "done" for "did" and he mixed up some verbs. Nevertheless, Moody methodically worked his plan. Nothing was spontaneous. Three services a day: a morning inspirational meeting, a noonday prayer time, and the evening evangelistic service. No hand clapping, shouting, or gyrations occurred. Moody gave the message and motioned with his Bible to come forward, while Sankey and a choir of maybe a thousand sang invitation hymns. The seekers were led to inquiry rooms. The coercion was gentle like the hand on his shoulder when Dwight trusted Christ with Mr. Kimball. From Boston in 1878 the pair continued throughout New England and Baltimore. The next year to St. Louis and Cleveland, and then the Pacific coast. In 1881 they returned for another two year campaign in Great Britain. Back home in 1884 they made a tour of small American cities. In 1887 Moody went to Palestine and preached on Calvary on Easter Sunday. He made another tour of the British Isles in 1891-92 and a return to Palestine. In 1893 at the Chicago World's Fair, celebrating the anniversary of Columbus' voyage, two million people heard D.L. Moody preach. J. Edwin Orr called it "his greatest campaign." The next year Moody went to Mexico City. His final campaign was held at the 15,000 seat Convention Hall, the largest site of his career, in Kansas City in 1899. He became ill after several days and went home to Northfield. He died Dec. 22, 1899.

    Although his preaching was always for the saving of souls, his secondary passion was the educating, the discipling, the perfecting of the saints. He came to the conclusion that the inquiry room was not enough training. He developed 15 suggestions for growth through daily Bible studies. He always encouraged every inquirer to join a church quickly. He criticized the habits of "smoking, chewing, drinking, horse-racing, dancing, card-playing Christian," but he still majored on the issue of their redemption, first.

    His second great work, and perhaps his greatest legacy, was training a corp of Christian workers. In 1879 he established Northfield Seminary for Girls. In 1881 Mt. Herman School was founded for boys. The Bible Institute of Chicago was born in 1886 and became the now famous Moody Bible Institute. In the early days it was called the "West Point of Christian Service." Throughout his life conferences were always an opportunity for spiritual growth whether they were for Sunday School, the YMCA, students, the Christian Workers, or the ones at Northfield. The Student Volunteers Movement for world missions grew out of one of the 1886 Northfield conference. It resulted in over 20,000 missionaries around the globe.

    While the church leaders and theologians struggled to answer the controversies of the day, Moody gave uncomplicated answers from the Bible. On evolution Moody said, "It is easier to believe that man was created in the image of God than to believe his grandparents were monkeys." On "higher" criticism he answered directly, "The Bible! I just believe it." On the death of the famous atheist Robert Ingersoll in 1899 compassionately Moody advised, "We need to pray for the Colonel's wife and daughters."

    Although Dwight L. Moody was an itinerant evangelist in the truest sense, it was estimated that he traveled over a million miles in his lifetime, and he addressed over a 100 million people. One eulogist pondered, "How many millions have been saved through his life, no one can tell." This rural-born, common layman received the financial blessing of the rich and famous of his day, and he preached to every level of the social spectrum from Presidents and world leaders to street urchins and the unemployed poor. He laid the ground work for every mass evangelist in the 20th Century, and his influence on Christianity will continue into the 21st century. He remains an inspiration to every layman of what can happen to a man with a Bible, a concordance, and a topical study guide.

    V. The Philanthropists

    The national wealth of the United States grew from 16 billion dollars in 1860 to 87 billion dollars by 1890. The development of great business organizations and particularly those extending from the railroad industry resulted in immense personal fortunes for the leaders of these corporations. Many of these men, who were called "Captains of Industry," were active church leaders and generous contributors to charitable causes like churches, schools, hospitals, and orphanages.

    The philosophy of philanthropy was promoted by men like Russell Conwell and Andrew Carnegie. The steel magnate called his benevolent wisdom The Gospel of Wealth. He applied Social Darwinism to business success and the "fittest" individuals. He gave away over $350 million dollars to colleges, research projects, the peace movement, and almost 3,000 libraries. Carnegie was known as an agnostic. He had a standing offer of $10,000, if anyone could prove to him the resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday. Nevertheless, he still gave millions of dollars for church organs.

    Dr. Conwell was a Baptist preacher. His Christian ideals were expressed in his sermon "Acres of Diamonds." His first lecture was in 1868 and after 6,000 lectures he had enough money to start Temple University. He said, "Money is power, and you ought to be reasonably ambitious to have it. You ought because you can do more good with it than you could without it. Money printed your Bible, money builds your churches, money sends your missionaries, and money pays your preachers...I say, then, you ought to have money. If you can honestly attain unto to riches in Philadelphia, it is your Christian and godly duty to do so."

    John Wanamaker's Philadelphia department store was one of the most successful businesses in the world. He was head of the YMCA in Philadelphia, and superintendent of the largest Sunday School in the world at Bethany Presbyterian Church. He, also, served as Postmaster General of the US. When asked how he could hold so many positions at once, he replied, "Early in my life I read, 'Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you,' The Sunday School is my business, all the rest are things." At his store he had a specially constructed sound proof room where he spent 30 minutes a day praying and mediating on God's Word. He, also, conducted Bible studies for his employees, while he paid them on company time. He was worth $25 million dollars.

    John D. Rockefeller, the founder of the Standard Oil Trust, tithed every dollar he ever made and taught Sunday School in the Baptist church for many years. He became a billionaire and looked upon himself as a steward of The Lord and his wealth as "God's Gold." After age 58 he devoted his retirement years to philanthropy and playing golf. He gave away 550 million dollars. As an avid golfer, he partnered with President Harding, Judge Landis, Harvey Firestone, even evangelist Billy Sunday, and many other famous people.

    John Pierpont Morgan's banking business controlled the most wealth of the era an estimated 22 billion dollars. He had power in banks, railroads, steel, the nation's gold supply, and over 100 corporations. His art treasures started the New York Metropolitan Museum. Yet for all his wealth and power, his 10,000 word will summed up his final dependence; he wrote, "I commit my soul into the hands of my Savior, in full confidence that, having redeemed and washed it in his most precious blood, he will present it faultless before my heavenly Father; and I entreat my children to maintain and defend, at all hazard and at any cost of personal sacrifice, the blessed doctrine of complete atonement for sin through the blood of Jesus Christ, once offered, and through that alone."

    Many of the great business leaders were active church and parachurch leaders. The meat packers the Swifts (Methodists), and the Armours along with Farwell & Marshall Field were YMCA and Moody supporters. Cyrus McCormick of farm machinery was a devout Presbyterian. Jay Cooke of the 1873 panic was a tither and an Episcopalian. His investment associate Daniel Drew gave money for a Methodist seminary. Railroad leaders Hill and Vanderbilt funded educational institutions. A Baptist Seminary was donated for John P. Crozer. John D. Rockefeller gave $78 million to University of Chicago and its Baptist School of Divinity.

    A lesser known Chicago businessman Horatio G. Spafford lost everything in the Chicago fire. Nevertheless, his Christian faith became even more famous, when his wife and all his children died in a shipwreck. While shedding tears over the telegram, he wrote the famous hymn "It is Well with My Soul."

    Contrariwise to the good intentions and efforts of the givers, the money was called "tainted." The ruthless business practices negated the philanthropic images of some churchgoers like Rockefeller, who was ridiculed with the nickname "Wreckafeller." Even Dr. Conwell lamented their triumph by referring to it as "that bitch goddess: success." A generation later their Horatio Alger countenance was given the revised title of "robber barons."

    VI. The Preachers and their Dilemma:

    At the time of Moody's death revival preaching teams and philanthropic pursuits numbered in the hundreds. It was anticipated that J. Wilbur Chapman, a Presbyterian pastor in Philadelphia and New York, and Reuben Torrey, first President of Moody Bible, would abide on the same path. Charlie Alexander, a Moody Bible product from Tennessee, warmed up their audiences with his joyful music and his humorous rapport with the crowds. Although they never achieved the widespread appeal of Dwight L. Moody, Chapman published valuable papers on how carry on the work of evangelism. Torrey was, also, a significant author, and he established the Bible Institute of Los Angeles or BIOLA.

    Samuel Porter Jones, an itinerant, Methodist preacher from Georgia, became known as the "Moody of the South." His gospel singer was E. O. Excell. Jones was known for his sarcasm and wit as he ridiculed everything from the evils of the city to the theology of the educated preachers. His colorful, rural humor was as effective as the professionals like Mark Twain. "Sam" never failed to offer an opinion on the issues of his time. During his evangelistic career in the South and the Midwest for over thirty years, he claimed 500,000 converts from audiences with 25 million listeners.

    Benjamin Fay Mills developed his city-wide revivals into a business organization, which was called the "District Combination Plan." He had an Executive Committee to oversee the committees on finance, canvassing, music, advertising, and even the ushers which were assigned specific duties. His prayer meetings were called the "midweek Sabbath." His messages were thought to have a weak and liberal theology, so he lost credibility with the evangelicals. Although he drifted into a Unitarian ministry for a time, his administrative innovations were still respected.

    While revivals attracted the crowds, and the evangelists and their gospel singers got the publicity, many congregations were served by faithful pastors. William W. Sweet said, "Perhaps at no period in the history of the American pulpit had there been so many outstanding preachers as in the last two decades of the 19th Century." At the top of the list were Phillips Brooks of Trinity Episcopal Church in Boston and Henry Ward Beecher of the Brooklyn Plymouth Congregational Church. George A. Gordon of Boston's Old South Church, T. DeWitt Talmadge at Central Presbyterian in New York, and New Haven's Congregational ministers Theodore Munger and Newman Smyth were classed as "princes of the pulpit" by Sydney Ahlstrom. Other historians include many over preachers and evangelists.

    In spite of their reputations, it appeared that the preachers and that evangelical "old-time religion" could not answer the new encounters with the "modern" scientific theories in the 19th Century. The "old" White Anglo-Saxon Protestant principles no longer dominated the nation. Darwin's evolutionary theory and "higher" biblical criticism put the church on the defensive over the authority of the Holy Scriptures and the traditional explanation of Creation.

    Charles Hodge of Princeton Seminary in his 1874 repudiation What is Darwinism? said that natural selection was a flat out contradiction to the doctrine of an omnipotent, omniscient Creator. His conclusion, which was accepted by Moody and his backers, was that Darwinism was atheism. In 1882 H.W. Beecher announced, "He was a Christian evolutionist." Lyman Abbott espoused a theory that God was the "one Great Cause" behind a "continuous development." Other compromise renditions moved toward what became known as "liberal Protestantism" or "modernism." Their accommodations were labeled as heresy by the evangelicals, who were now being called "Fundamentalists." The Christian response during the "first generation" of these theories on evolution, only resulted in a general acceptance of Darwinism. By the turn of the century it was estimated that three-fourths of the whites in America believed the theory. Some maintained that evolution's "survival of the fittest" was a justification for the idea of racial superiority. However, the supporters of Biblical Christianity remained committed to the Divine creation and the redemptive purpose of Christ for mankind's existence.

    Meanwhile, the evolutionists continued to search for the missing link. All evidence showed that the major animal groups remained in their own phylum. Crossbreeding was impossible. Also, Darwin failed to explain the uniqueness of man's larger brain and memory, his power of speech, and his use of the opposable thumb. Even Darwin admitted his inability to explain man's conscience, and his concepts of God and the soul.

    In 1854 the term thermodynamics appeared with an explanation of the transformation of heat into energy. The fact was clear that nothing in the universe was being created or destroyed; it was only being transformed and shifted around. During the 20th Century science caused more problems for evolution from the studies of DNA, statistical probability, and the Big Bang theory. Nevertheless, for some evolution became a scientific fact rather than a theory.

    The second major assault on Christianity was the authority of the Holy Scriptures. In 1853 Hermann Hupfeld, a German theology professor, claimed that Moses was not the only author of Genesis and The Pentateuch. Others including Wellhausen and Graf joined the parade of "higher" critics on Bible inerrancy. Finally, in 1888 Nietzsche concluded that "God is dead." The 1895 Niagara Bible Conference responded with a list of fundamentals of the faith, and their cornerstone was "the Bible is the inspired Word of God without error."

    In another new field of science archeology the ancient cities of Ninevah and Babylon were unearthed. Ironically, also in 1853, Austen Layard and H. Rassam discovered the "Flood Tablets" dating back to 2000 BC. The accounts were similar to the Bible. In each succeeding generation the archeological evidence would confirm the Bible's credibility and force the critics to admit their error.

    A major 19th Century response to "higher criticism" was the Revised Version of the Bible in 1885. In 1844 a German scholar Tischendorf found the Codex Sinaiticus, a 129-page manuscript from Byzantine Emperor Constantine's fifty Bibles during the 4th Century. The exciting find was in a waste paper basket at a Norman monastery at the foot of Mt. Sinai. Then, the British Parliament ordered a "language" adaptation of the King James Bible, and sixty-five English scholars spent four years to complete a "revised" version.

    In the USA an American edition was produced in 1885 under the direction of William H. Green of Princeton Seminary. By 1901 it was called the American Standard Version. At that time the Presbyterian Church struggled over the inerrancy issue of the new texts. The discussions resulted in several heresy trials and the expulsion of several distinguished scholars from their denomination.

    VII. The Social Gospel:

    Sydney Ahlstrom, who devotes an entire chapter to the topic, called the Social Gospel, "a movement which has been widely hailed at home and abroad as the most distinctive contribution of the American churches to world Christianity." The Social Gospel was the Protestant Church's response to the social problems which were created by the industrial and urban environments of the 19th Century. Their primary focus came from the post salvation responsibility for a moral and ethical attempt to change and improve the society by the regenerate Christians. The great church historian Ken Latourette explained that the Social Gospel, "sought to inspire Christians to strive to bring all society as well as the individual into conformity with the teachings of Jesus."

    The movement was nothing new among Christians. The call for reform had happened in every revival period, and each generation has been challenged to have an impact on its surrounding culture. However in this age, the needs seemed greater, and the pleas came from leaders in many fields. The workers hoped the labor unions could win some protections, while bringing public attention to the long hours, low wages, and poor working conditionings. The greatest injustice was the child laborers. By 1900 one million children under 16 years of age were working in factories and that didn't include those in coal mines. The obvious solution was in education with a mandatory attendance to a certain age.

    In politics the third parties petitioned the government to end the laissez-faire capitalism. They suggested that issues like the tariff, free silver, a single tax, and even that government control of private property might solve that social ills. While communism and socialism were being considered in Europe, the Populists and the Progressives in the US campaigned for at least some government regulations.

    By the 19th Century an optimistic view of man prevailed that if you improved his environment man was perfectible. The new beliefs on evolution supported the approach that biologically mankind was making progress. The new social sciences of sociology and psychology avowed that you needed to change the society to get better individuals. They contended that the social problems could be eliminated by changing the institutions. Meanwhile the evangelical Christians insisted that the redemption of society began with the salvation of individuals, and that the needed change was a change of heart as spoken of by Moody. However, in the churches the leaders and many of the members were from the middle-class, who were employers, salaried people, farmers, and workers in service vocations. They believed that the "blessed" were the honest, thrifty, hard working, faithful church attenders. They were not sympathetic to the workers demands, when they heard of the violence of the Molly Maguires and the riots at the Haymarket Square and the Homestead plant. Many maintained that only a conversion experience by all would solve the evils in society and the sins of materialism.

    Nevertheless, the leading spokesmen for the Social Gospel came from the liberal wing of Protestant Christianity not from the evangelical segment. Washington Gladden was a Columbus, Ohio, Congregational from 1882 to 1914. As an author and lecturer he became one of the major awakeners of the church's social conscience. He was well informed on the economic situation, the unions, and the place of the government in the economy. He advocated what he called "applied Christianity" or a spirit of brotherhood and cooperation rather than conflict and competition.

    Josiah Strong, the Congregational minister at Central Church in Cincinnati, wrote Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis. The book was very popular among the expansionists. He argued that "the Anglo-Saxon, as the great representative of these two ideas..civil liberty..and pure spiritual Christianity..is divinely commissioned to be, in a peculiar sense, his brother's keeper." He organized a series of successful Congresses between 1885 and the Chicago World's Fair in which the nations leading social spokesmen spoke on their views. His platform called the church's attention to America's destiny and a need for urban evangelism. He revived the old Evangelical Alliance, but was forced out. He then organized the League of Social Service and championed the cause for social issues.

    Walter Rauschenbusch, a second generation American, was the seventh successive generation in his family to be a clergyman. As the pastor at the Second German Baptist Church in New York City on the lower East Side, he saw first hand the worst slum in the world at the end of the 19th Century. His church was located near the notorious Hell's Kitchen. During his eleven year ministry he worked with Henry George and Jacob Riis to ease the suffering and despair in the poverty stricken area. He experienced an empathy for those he saw "out of work, out of clothes, out of shoes, and out of hope."

    During his tenure at the Rochester Seminary (1897-1917) he penned the most influential books which defined the Social Gospel. With his first book in 1907 he eloquently showed Christians "what to do" about their faith in Christ and the "Kingdom of God on earth." His works earned him the title "Father of the Social Gospel in America." However, the Great War brought prejudice for his German ancestry and it, also, diminished the hopes of others for perfecting society and the social order.

    By the 20th Century the movement had its critics. As Bernard Weisberger judged, "It might be a new form of heresy that Christianity should be more concerned with reforming society at large than with converting individuals." William McLoughlin wrote, "Social gospelers did not deny the importance of saving men's souls, but they believed that first they must change men's environment." Billy Sunday said, "Some people are trying to make a religion out of social service with Jesus Christ left out" and, "He sees the danger of magnifying it and ignoring Christ and His salvation." In 1914 Sunday said, "We've had enough of this godless social service nonsense."

    With the election of Woodrow Wilson in 1912 and the legislation of the 63rd Congress many of the issues of the Social Gospel and the Progressive Movement were satisfied by the federal and state programs of the era. Even the leading social evil alcohol was limited by the prohibition amendment. However, as always happens future generations face new problems and the perpetual demands for reform remain continuously.

    One epilogue that may outlast all the other persuasions came from Charles Sheldon. His sermon at the Topeka Central Congregational Church became the timeless and popular book In His Steps. The famous question on the dying lips of the fictitious unemployed printer was "What would Jesus do?" The book published in 1896 has sold millions, has never been out of print, and has been made into two movies. It has remained a social challenge to the lay people in the church to apply their faith on a daily basis in their communities for more than a century. Lately, the WWJD bracelet was brought to national attention when golfer Payne Stewart, who was wearing the bracelet when he won the 1999 US Open, died in a plane crash.

    VIII Organizations:

    From the Civil War to the turn of the century the biggest change in the face of America was urbanization. Between 1870 and 1900 thirteen million immigrants entered the nation. Also, a steady stream of rural folks left their farms for the opportunities in the big cities. By 1900 forty percent of the population lived in metropolitan areas. The change brought huge problems, and according to E.S. Gaustad, "neither revivals nor reforms faced the problems of city and industry as squarely as new agencies and institutions created for this purpose."

    Before the Civil War the Sunday School, the Young Men's, and the Young Women's Christian Associations had the best track record for ministering to the poor, the jobless, and the homeless. As early as the 1850's city rescue missions were founded to meet the needs of the down-and-outers in the cities. The Water Street Mission in the Bowery of New York City opened in 1872, and became the most famous of the slum ministries. The founder was Jerry MacAuley, who was saved from a wasted life at another New York mission.

    The institutional church was another agency to meet the challenge of urban problems. It provided gymnasiums, libraries, dispensaries, lecturer rooms, sewing rooms, auditoriums, and other necessities to meet the physical, mental, social, and spiritual needs of the community. Thomas K. Beecher's Park Church in Elmira, New York was one of the earliest pioneers of the idea. St. George's Episcopal Church in New York City started this practice in 1882, and reached 4,000 communicants before the end of the century. Russell Conwell's church in Philadelphia adopted the same principles in 1891.

    Historically, the Salvation Army has developed the best known urban ministry agency. It originated in Great Britain in 1865 by William and Catherine Booth, and it came to America in 1880. Commissioner George Railton and seven women officers started the American branch. Within ten years it was nationwide. They were quickly recognized in their blue uniforms playing gospel hymns with horns, cymbals, and brass drums on street corners. The "hallelujah lasses" did street preaching and even entered saloons. Starting in 1891 the Christmastime shoppers were enticed by the bell ringers to throw their change into the red kettles on a tripod.

    The Salvation Army won respect for trying to rescue the lower levels of society which others were either unable or unwilling to reach. They provided food, clothing, and shelter, and in the early days had a successful outreach to prostitutes. They furnished services that no one else provided in those days like legal advice, first aid, life insurance, even a missing persons department.

    Social settlements attempted to operate like the institutional churches, but they did not necessarily have a religious emphasis. The most famous was Hull House in Chicago. In 1889 it was found by Jane Addams, a devout Christian, who was raised in a Quaker family. Hull House was the prototype with services for the immigrants and minorities in the neighborhood. Miss Addams was the first to setup a health clinic and playgrounds for the slum dwellers. In 1931 she won a Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts for world peace.

    In Denver in 1887 four clergymen and a woman conceived the idea of a citywide fund raising campaign to distribute money to their local charities. Their vision spread to hundreds of other cities and became the Community Chest which is now called the United Way.

    There was, also, a marvelous growth of lay organizations for the young within the churches. Each denomination had its youth group. The Methodists had the Epworth League, the Presbyterians had the Westminster League, the Lutherans had the Luther League, the Episcopalians had St. Andrew's Brotherhood, and the Baptists had the Young People's Union. The total membership of these young disciples reached 2,820,540 by 1897.

    The Roman Catholics, the fastest growing religious group and largest immigrant group, grew from less than 3 million before the Civil War to over 12 million by the turn of the century. Many moved to urban ghettos. Most experienced prejudice and rejection like the infamous sign "No Irish need apply." While Catholicism and democracy seemed at odds, the American church under the leadership of such conservatives as Father James Gibbons, the second American Cardinal, became assimilated and "Americanized." Even Pope Leo XIII supported the social legislation and the unions in his 1891 letter to the church leaders.

    The Catholics in America were more activists than their European brethren, and they formed many social action groups. The Jesuits (men) and The Ursulines (women) conducted mostly educational work. The Sisters of Charity and the Sisters of Mercy worked in education, hospitals, and social services. In 1875 the Catholic Young Men's National Union offered recreation, evening, and vocational education. The Knights of Columbus were founded in 1882 mainly as a group insurance endeavor, but developed social and charitable concerns. By 1910 the Catholic Charities tried to coordinate efforts on a national scale.

    If American Protestants had to pick a single issue that upset them about the Catholic, as well as the German customs, it was the "continental Sunday" which featured sports, games, merrymaking, and drinking. As the Puritan Sabbath was eroded, some issues were gradually accepted, but the alcohol and the temperance crusade expanded in animosity.

    IX The Temperance Movement:

    Before the Civil War the prohibition movement had won victories in Maine and 13 other states. During the war interest declined, and only Maine and Massachusetts remained dry after the fighting. A Prohibition Party was launched in 1869 and several other temperance organizations were born, but the WCTU or Women's Christian Temperance Union made the biggest impact.

    The movement was born in Hillsboro, Ohio 1873 after a lecture stop by Dr. Dioclesian Lewis. On the day before Christmas a group of seventy-five women had gather for prayer and singing at the Presbyterian Church. Eliza Trimble Thompson, daughter of a former Ohio governor, led a march on a local, alcohol-selling drugstore for a pray-in. They did no violence. They prayed and sang and plead with the proprietor to end the alcohol sales. Daily hundreds of townspeople joined the march and widespread press coverage made the activities front-page news. Within days twelve other businesses succumbed to the pressure, and the Women's Revolution was on.

    During the next year similar pray-ins occurred in other Ohio cities. Other states copied the methods and the crusade moved nationwide. In November 1874 delegates from seventeen states met in Cleveland to form the WCTU, which would become the most powerful women's organization of the 19th Century, and their banner was the white ribbon.

    Frances Willard was elected the corresponding secretary. For the next two decades she more than anyone else made the WCTU a great organization. Sydney Ahlstrom called her "the single most impressive reformer to have worked within the context of the evangelical churches." She was a red-headed teacher, Dean of Women at Northwestern University, and a speaking member on Dwight L. Moody's platform team. She served as an officer for the Methodist Church and made many speaking tours for the cause of WCTU and other social causes. Although some tried to persuade her to limit her efforts, like Moody told her to avoid the Unitarians and stick to saving souls, her vigorous and talented leadership called for a "Do Everything" agenda. At her funeral someone observed, "the death of no other woman except Queen Victoria could have so stirred the world." In Ahlstrom's admiration he wrote, "Frances Willard had given American womanhood a new place in society and in the churches." The Congress of the United States after her death extolled her "the first woman of the 19th Century, the most beloved character of her times."

    In 1893 the Anti-Saloon League was organized in Oberlin, Ohio. It was called the "Church at work against the saloon." Unlike previous organizations they maintained a single goal of bringing political pressure to get dry laws passed. They quickly became a national organization with a staff and offices in every state. They were well financed and the League successfully lobbied the politicians to pass dry laws and local options.

    At the turn of the century Carrie Nation, a minister's wife, began her hatch-swinging campaign in Kansas. She was enthusiastically supported by the WCTU and most Protestant clergymen. She led a life troubled with alcoholics around her. She was called insane because of the madness which ran in her family effecting her grandmother, mother, daughter, and several other relatives. She was termed a religious fanatic and jailed over 30 times for her protests. She died of "nervous trouble" in 1911.

    The ASL did not support Carrie Nation's efforts, but they did lead the Prohibition movement into the 20th century. After World War One the Prohibition (18th) Amendment was adopted throughout the nation. Although the cause failed, no one can deny the longtime under current and massive hope for some reform of the liquor problem.

    X. The End of the Century:

    Warren A. Candler, a Methodist bishop, who wrote Great Revivals and the Great Republic at the end of the 19th century, said of the future of mankind that "Evangelical Christianity is not only the security of the republic, it is also the hope of the world," and that "the Anglo Saxon nations..occupy the position of supremacy in the family of nations....now numbering 130 million....controlling one-fourth of the earth's land surface, having authority over one-third the world's population, owning one-half the world's wealth, and occupying every strategic point on the planet." Also, he concluded, "In view of the commanding position of the United States in this family of Anglo-Saxon peoples, some have ventured to affirm that as goes the United States so will go the world."

    The World looked at America as the gateway to opportunity where one could become a Carnegie, Rockefeller, a Horatio Alger, or even President. Their reputation told of a growing middle-class with such advantages as hot and cold running water, leasuretime and the products for recreational shopping, and a commonness of bicycles, bathtubs, and even pianos or a phonograph. The glories in their cities like New York included a variety of cultural pursuits, diversions like Central Park, and amusement places like Coney Island. It was Kenneth Latourette's opinion in the 19th Century that, "much of Christendom was more prosperous than any large group of mankind had ever been."

    However, the reality for the immigrants was more properly called by Lincoln Steffans "the shame of the cities." From 1892 to 1954 Ellis Island was seen as the "Golden Door," but, the unsuitable urban portal only offered slum housing with health hazards, either no jobs or at best sweatshops, and crime that was overlooked by politicians and police, who were influenced by too much corruption. After a 4-year panic during Cleveland's second administration and decades of deflated money, it was hoped that the federal government might finally involve itself in solving the problems rather than leaving them alone.

    As they moved toward the new century, the United States view of the World changed. For three centuries America had been mainly concerned with their own continent. Their foreign policy had been mostly isolationist since the Monroe Doctrine. The purchase of Alaska was belittled as "Seward's Folly." Inclinations of colonies, or to take up the "white man's burden," or even the annexation of Hawaii were met with anti-imperialism emotions. The debate and the prospect of world influence converged on the Spanish-American War decision involving the Philippine Islands.

    The exact reason how America got into the "splendid little war" with inept Spain usually centers around the Maine explosion or the yellow press journalism of Hearst. G.J.A. O'Toole gave this closing summation in his last line, "there seems to be but three answers to choose among: God, chance, or the impatient hand of destiny." Needless to say Admiral Dewey's quick victory in Manila Bay and the complete annihilation of the Spanish fleet off Cuba forced the US to accept a mini-colonial empire from the Caribbean to the Pacific or to give it back to Spain.

    The final decision to annex the Philippines was in the hands of President McKinley. In his fourth and final argument he concluded, "there was nothing left for us to do but to take them all, and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them, and by God's grace do the very best we could by them, as our fellow-men for whom Christ also died. And then I went to bed, and went to sleep and slept soundly." His choice forever changed America's course and the World's in the 20th Century.

    From the outset the "war sermons" had the normal range from it was a crime to it was God's righteous cause. When the decision was made to take Puerto Rico and the Philippines and to manage Cuba, the Protestant churches joined forces in their religious "open door." It was William W. Sweet's opinion that, "No single factor has been more influential in developing interdenominational understanding and cooperation than the cause of missions."

    The America churches were changed by this decision, too. In those days the Sunday School movement had developed an evangelistic work known as annual "Decision Days." However, if the American churches had a hope of revival or a zeal for evangelism at the turn of the century, it was directed toward world missions and the new brand of American colonialism. As someone said, "The cross will follow the flag."

    No organization was better prepared than the Student Volunteer Movement, which began at Moody's Mt. Hermon school in Northfield at a conference for missions-minded students in 1886. This interdenominational movement followed the leadership of John R. Mott. He gave the clarion call in his 1900 book Evangelization of the World in This Generation. Under his ecumenical ambassadorship the organization sent out over 20,000 missionaries in the 20th century. Eventually his vision became The World Council of Churches, and he received a Nobel Peace Prize in 1946.

    Throughout the 19th Century conferences and conventions for world-wide missions continued to grow and expand. Each organization and meeting seemed to attract delegates from more and more denominations and countries. In 1895 the Foreign Missions Conference of North America, including the United States and Canada, met for the first time. By 1900 a New York gathering included 162 missions board from the United States, the British Isles, and the continent of Europe.

    To close the 19th Century and to not mention the government leaders would be careless and only trust the revisionist's versions. Too many times the government corruption is over scandalized and the meekness of the politicians is over played. Not enough is said about the honor and Christian character of our leaders. They were selected because of their standards and reputations.

    Our Presidents were marvelous Christian men. President Hayes and his wife, "Lemonade Lucy," were active Methodists, who tried to keep alcohol out of the White House. President Garfield was preacher in the Disciples of Christ denomination. Presidents Arthur and Cleveland were both sons of clergymen, the first a Baptist and the later a Presbyterian. Benjamin Harrison was married to a Presbyterian minister's daughter, and he said that, "leading a man to Christ once was more satisfying than all the events of his Presidency."

    President McKinley was a Sunday School Superintendent in the Methodist Episcopalian church, and he was outspoken about his faith in Christ. He, also, was a wonderfully devoted husband to his epileptic wife sometimes refusing to travel by train because of her health. Ohioans still praise his faithfulness because from the Capitol steps he would tip his hat or wave his handkerchief at his wife, who sat in her wheelchair at a Neil House window just for a glimpse of her husband, the governor of Ohio. The carnation became the State flower after his assassination.

    Of the election of 1896 Sydney Ahlstrom said, "As in no other election, both candidates personified American Protestantism. Both William Jennings Bryan and William McKinley were reared in pious homes, educated in denominational colleges, and guided throughout their lives by the traditions and practices of evangelicalism." President McKinley died in Buffalo of an assassin's bullet, and Bryan, a Presbyterian layman, died after the Scopes Monkey Trial in 1925.

    Still not mentioned are the Christians, who made an impact in local government like "Golden Rule" Jones in Toledo and Tom Johnson in Cleveland or the crusade by Charles H. Parkhurst, a Presbyterian minister, whose preaching broke up Tammany Hall in New York.

    Also, it must be mentioned that the most famous newspaper story of the 19th Century was the New York Herald's account of Henry M. Stanley's find of the famous Scottish missionary David Livingstone in Central Africa. Another great career of home missionary Sheldon Jackson was not detailed or his 40 year activities in the Rocky Mountains and Alaska.

    All this and more led the great church historian Kenneth Scott Latourette of Yale University Divinity School to call the 19th century "The Christian Century," however no one could anticipate the phenomenal events of the 20th century. Finally, unforeseen to the World at the start of the 20th Century was the coming of the most significant Bible prophecy since Pentecost. No one could have imagined the regathering of the Jews to their own land and the founding of the State of Israel. In 1900 there was not a single Jewish village in Palestine and only about 60,000 Jews were scattered throughout their ancient lands. However, the idea was planted by an Austrian journalist Theodor Herzl in his book The Jewish State and his Zionist Congress in 1897 in Basil, Switzerland.

    This monumental international drama involved the two most evangelical Christian countries Great Britain and the United States. The fulfillment of the prophecy and the dream would come from support by Winston Churchill and Harry Truman. Even more far reaching throughout the 20th Century would be for the Jew the hope of "next year in Jerusalem" and for the Christian the excitement over the "second coming of Jesus Christ."

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