Russell H. Conwell, Founder of the Institutional Church in America Part 17

THE TEMPLE COLLEGE

The Night Temple College Was Born. Its Simple Beginning and Rapid Growth. Building the College. How the Money was Raised. The Branches it Teaches. Instances of Its Helpfulness. Planning for greater Things.

In a letter written to a member of his family, from which we quote the following, Dr. Conwell tells how the idea of Temple College was born in his mind one wintry night.

"A woman, ragged, with an old shawl over her head, met me in an alley in Philadelphia late one night. She saw the basket on my arm, and looked in my face wistfully, as a dog looks up beside the dinner table. She was hungry, and was coming in empty. I shook my head, and with a peculiarly sad glance she turned down the dark pa.s.sage. I had found several families hungry, and yet I felt like a hypocrite, standing there with an empty basket, and a woman, perhaps a mother, so pale for lack of decent food.

"On the corner was a church, stately and architecturally beautiful by day, but after midnight it looked like a glowering ogre, and looked so like Newgate Prison, in London, that I felt its chilly shadow. Half a million cost the cemented pile, and under its side arch lay two newsboys or boot-blacks asleep on the step.

"What is the use? We cannot feed these people. Give all you have, and an army of the poor will still have nothing; and those to whom you do give bread and clothes to-day will be starving and naked to-morrow.

If you care for the few, the many will curse you for your partiality.

While I stood meditating, the police patrol drove along the street, and I could see by the corner street lamp that there were two women, one little girl and a drunken old man in the conveyance, going to jail! I could do nothing for them.

"At my door I found a man dressed in costly fas.h.i.+on, who had waited for me outside, as he had been told that I would come soon, and the family had retired. He said his dying father had sent for me. So I left the basket in a side yard and went with the messenger. The house was a mansion on Spring Garden Street. The house was inelegantly overloaded with luxurious furniture, money wasted by some inartistic purchasers.

The paintings were rare and rich. The owners were shoddy. The family of seven or eight gathered by the bedside when I prayed for the dying old man. They were grief-stricken and begged me to stay until his soul departed. It was daylight before I left the bedside, and as the dying still showed that the soul was delaying his journey, I went into the s.p.a.cious, handsome library. Seeing a rare book in costly binding among the volumes on a lower shelf, I opened the door and took it out My hands were black with dust. I glanced then along the rows and rows of valuable books, and noticed the dust of months or years. The family were not students or readers. One son was in the Albany Penitentiary; another a fugitive in Canada. At the funeral, afterwards, the wife and daughter from Newport were present, and their tears made furrows through the paint. Those rich people were strangely poor, and a book on a side table on the 'Abolition of Poverty' seemed to be in the right place.

"That night was conceived the Temple College idea. It was no new truth, no original invention, but merely a simpler combination of old ideas. There was but one general remedy for all these ills of poor and rich, and that could only be found in a more useful education. Poverty seemed to me to be wholly that of the mind. Want of food, or clothing, or home, or friends, or morals, or religion, seemed to be the lack of the right instruction and proper discipline. The truly wise man need not lack the necessities of life, the wisely educated man or woman will get out of the dirty alley and will not get drunk or go to jail. It seemed to me then that the only great charity was in giving instruction.

"The first cla.s.s to be considered was the dest.i.tute poor. Not one in a thousand of those living in rags on crusts would remain in poverty if he had education enough of the right kind to earn a better living by making himself more useful. He is poor because he does not know any better. Knowledge is both wealth and power.

"The next cla.s.s who stand in need of the a.s.sistance love wishes to give is the great ma.s.s of industrious people of all grades, who are earning something, who are not cold or hungry, but who should earn more in order to secure the greater necessities of life in order to be happy. They could be so much more useful if they knew how. To learn how to do more work in the same time, or how to do much better work, is the only true road to riches which the owner can enjoy.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE SAMARITAN HOSPITAL Showing the houses in which it was originally located, and part of the new building]

"To help a man to help himself is the wisest effort of human love. To have wealth and to have honestly earned it all, by labor, skill or wisdom, is an object of ambition worthy of the highest and best.

Hence, to do the most good to the great cla.s.ses, rich or poor, we must labor industriously. The lover of his kind must furnish them with the means of gaining knowledge while they work.

"Then there was a third cla.s.s of mankind, starving, with their tables breaking with luscious foods, cold in warehouses of ready-made clothing of the most costly fabrics; seeing not in the moon-light, and restless to distraction on beds of eiderdown. They do not know the use or value of things. They are hara.s.sed with plenty they cannot appropriate. They are doubly poor. They need education. The library is a care, an expense and a disgrace to the owner who cannot read. To give education to those in the possession of property which they might use for the help of humanity and which they might enjoy, is as clear a duty and charity as it is to help the beggar. And, indeed, indirectly the education of the unwise wealthy to become useful may be the most practical way of raising the poor. There is a need for every dollar of the nation's property, and it should be invested by men whose minds and hearts have been trained to see the human need and to love to satisfy it.

"The thought that in education of the best quality was to be found the remedy for hunger, loneliness, crime and weakness was most clearly emphasized to my mind by the coming of two young men who had felt the need from the under side. They had received but little instruction; they were over twenty years of age, and they wished to enter the ministry. Was there any way open for a poor, industrious laborer to get the highest education while he supported his mother, sister and himself? I urged them to try it for the good of many who would follow them if they made it a clear success. I was elated almost to uncontrollable enthusiasm the night they came to my study to begin their course. They brought five with them, and all proved themselves n.o.ble men. One is not, for G.o.d took him. But the others are moulding and inspiring their world."

Thus was conceived the idea of the inst.i.tution that is now educating annually three thousand men and women. The need for it has been plainly proven. Rev. Forest Dager, at one time Dean of Temple College, said in regard to the people who in later life crave opportunities for study:

"That the Temple College idea of educating working men and working women, at an expense just sufficient to give them an appreciation of the work of the Inst.i.tution, covers a wide and long-neglected field of educational effort, is at once apparent to a thoughtful mind.

Remembering that out of a total enrollment in the schools of our land of all grades, public and private, of 14,512,778 pupils, 96-1/2 per cent are reported as receiving elementary instruction only; that not more than 35 in 1,000 attend school after they are fourteen years of age; that 25 of these drop out during the next four years of their life; that less than 10 in 1,000 pa.s.s on to enjoy the superior instruction of a college or some equivalent grade of work, we begin to see the unlimited field before an Inst.i.tution like this. Thousands upon thousands of those who have left school quite early in life, either because they did not appreciate the advantages of a liberal education, or because the stress of circ.u.mstances compelled them to a.s.sist in the maintenance of home, awake a few years later to the realization that a good education is more than one-half the struggle for existence and position. Their time through the day is fully occupied; their evenings are free. At once they turn to the evening college, and grasping the opportunities for instruction, convert those hours which to many are the pathway to vice and ruin, into stepping stones to a higher and more useful career ... An ill.u.s.tration of the wide-reaching influence of the College work is the significant fact that during one year there were personally known to the president, no less than ninety-three persons pursuing their studies in various universities of our country, who received their first impulses toward a higher education and a wider usefulness in Temple College."

In 1893, in an address on the Inst.i.tutional church, delivered before the Baptist Ministers' Conference in Philadelphia, Dr. Conwell said:

"At the present time there are in this city hundreds of thousands--to speak conservatively, (I should say at least five hundred thousand people) who have not the education they certainly wish they had obtained before leaving school. There are at least one hundred thousand people in this city willing to sacrifice their evenings and some of their sleep to get an education, if they can get it without the humiliation of being put into cla.s.ses with boys and girls six years old. They are in every city. There is a large cla.s.s of young people who have reached that age where they find they have made a mistake in not getting a better education. If they could obtain one now, in a proper way, they would. The university does not furnish such an opportunity. The public school does not.

"The churches must inst.i.tute schools for those whom the public does not educate, and must educate them along the lines they cannot reach in the public schools.

"We are not to withdraw our support from, nor to antagonize, the public schools; they are the foundations of liberty in the nation. But the public schools do not teach many things which young men and young women need. I believe every church should inst.i.tute cla.s.ses for the education of such people, and I believe the Inst.i.tutional church will require it. I believe every evening in the week should be given to some particular kind of intellectual training along some educational line; that this training should begin with the more evident needs of the young people in each congregation, and then be adjusted as the matter grows, to the wants of each."

So, because one poor boy struggled so bitterly for an education, because a man, keen-eyed, saw others' needs, reading the signs by the light of his own bitter experience, a great College for busy men and women has grown, to give them freely the education which is very bread and meat to their minds.

Most people use for their own benefit the lessons they have learned in the hard school of experience. They have paid for them dearly. They endeavor to get out of them what profit they can. Not so Dr. Conwell.

He uses his dearly bought experiences for the good of others, turning the bitterness which he endured, into sweetness for their refreshment.

The Temple College was founded, as was stated in its first catalogue, for the purpose "of opening to the burdened and circ.u.mscribed manual laborer, the doors through which he may, if he will, reach the fields of profitable and influential professional life.

"Of enabling the working man, whose labor has been largely with his muscles, to double his skill through the helpful suggestions of a cultivated mind.

"Of providing such instruction as shall be best adapted to the higher education of those who are compelled to labor at their trades while engaged in study, or who desire while studying to remain under the influence of their home or church.

"Of awakening in the character of young laboring men and women a strong and determined ambition to be useful to their fellowmen.

"Of cultivating such a taste for the higher and most useful branches of learning as shall compel the students, after they have left the college, to continue to pursue the best and most practical branches of learning to the very highest walks of mental and scientific achievement."

A broad, humanitarian purpose it is, one that grew out of the heart of a man who loved humanity, who believed in the practical application of the teachings of Christ, who knew a cause would succeed if it filled a need.

Dr. Conwell's own experience, his observations of life had told him that this great need existed, but it was brought home to him practically in 1884, when these two young men of whom he speaks in the letter quoted came to him and said they wanted to study for the ministry but had no money. His mind leaped the years to those boyhood days when he longed for an education but had no money. He fixed an evening and told them he would teach them himself. When the night came, the two had become seven. The third evening, the seven had grown to forty. It was in the days when pastor and people were working hard for their new church and his hands were full. But he did not s.h.i.+rk this new task that came to him. Forty people eager to study, anxious to broaden their mental vision, to make their lives more useful, could not be disappointed, most a.s.suredly not by a man who had known this hunger of the mind. Teachers were secured who gave their services free, the lower parts of the church where they were then wors.h.i.+pping at Berks and Mervine streets were used as cla.s.s rooms and the work went forward with vigor.

The first catalogue was issued in 1887, and the inst.i.tution chartered in 1888, at which time there were five hundred and ninety students.

The College overflowed the bas.e.m.e.nt of the church into two adjoining houses. When The Temple was completed the College occupied the whole building. When that was filled it moved into two large houses on Park Avenue. Still growing, it rented two large halls.

The news that The Temple College had enlarged quarters in these halls brought such a flood of students that almost from the start applicants were turned away. Nothing was to be done but to build. It was a serious problem. The church itself had but just been completed and a heavy debt of $250,000 hung over it. To add the cost of a college to this burden of debt required faith of the highest order, work of the hardest. But G.o.d had shown them their work and they could not s.h.i.+rk it.

"For seven years I have felt a firm conviction that the great work, the special duty of our church, is to establish the College," said Dr.

Conwell, in speaking of the matter to his congregation. "We are now face to face with it. How distinctly we have been led of G.o.d to this point! Never before in the history of this nation have a people had committed to them a movement more important for the welfare of mankind than that which is now committed to your trust in connection with the permanent establishment of The Temple College. We step now over the brink. Our feet are already in the water, and G.o.d says, 'Go on, it shall be dryshod for you yet'; and I say that the success of this inst.i.tution means others like it in every town of five thousand inhabitants in the United States."

"One thing we have demonstrated--those who work for a living have time to study. Some splendid specimens of scholars.h.i.+p have been developed in our work. And there are others, splendid geniuses, yet undiscovered, but The Temple College will bring them to the light, and the world will be the richer for it. By the use of spare hours--hours usually running to waste--great things can be done. The commendation of these successful students will do more for the college than any number of rich friends can do. It will make friends; it will bring money; it will win honor; it will secure success."

An investment fund was created and once more the people made their offerings. The same self-sacrificing spirit was evident as in the building of the church. One boy brought to the pastor fifty cents, the first money he had ever earned; a woman sent to the treasury a gold ring, the only gift she could make, which bore interest in the suggestion that all who chose might offer similar gifts as did the women in the day of Moses. A business man hearing of this said, "If a day is appointed, I will on that day give to the College all the gold and silver that comes into my store for purchases." Every organization of Grace Church contributed time, work, money, and prayer to the building of the College. Small wonder then that obligations were met and payments made promptly.

One of the most successful methods by which money was raised for the College was the "Penny Talent" effort in 1893. Burdette, in his "Temple and Templars" has made a most painstaking record of the various ways in which the talent was used. He says:

"Each worker was given a penny, no more. Four thousand were given out at one service. One man put his penny in a neat box, took it to his office, and exhibited his 'talent' at a nickel a 'peep.' He gained $1.70 the first day of his 'show,' A woman bought a 'job lot' of mola.s.ses with her penny, made it into mola.s.ses candy, sold it in square inch cakes, after telling the customer her story; payments were generous and she netted $1.80. Then the man who sold her the mola.s.ses returned her penny. Another sister established a 'cooky' business, which grew rapidly. One boy kept his penny and went to work, earned 50 cents, the first money he ever earned in his life. It was a big penny, but he was bubbling over with enthusiasm and in it all went; he brought it straight to his pastor. One worker collected autographs and sold them. A boy sold toothpicks. One young man made silver b.u.t.tonhooks and a young lady sold them. A woman traded her penny up to a dollar, made ap.r.o.ns from that time on until she earned $10. One cla.s.s of seven girls in the Sunday-school united its capital and gave a supper at the Park and netted $50. The Young Men's Bible Cla.s.s constructed a model of the College building, which they exhibited. The children gave a supper in the Lower Temple, which added $100 to the College fund. There came into the treasury $1.00 'saved on carfares'; 'whitewas.h.i.+ng a cellar' brought $3. Thrice, somebody walked from Germantown to The Temple and back, saving 75 cents; a wife saved $20 from household allowances. A little girl of seven years went into a lively brokerage business with her penny, and took several 'flyers'

that netted her handsome margins. Here is her report--

"'Sold the "talent penny" to Aunt Libby for seven cents; sold the seven cents to Mamma for 25 cents; sold the 25 cents to Papa for 50 cents. Aunt Caddie, 10 cents; Uncle Gilman, 5 cents; Cousin Walter, 4 cents; cash, 25 cents,--$1.04 and the penny talent returned.'

"'Pinching the market-basket' sent in $2.50; 'all the pennies and nickels received in four months, $12.70'; 'walking instead of riding, $6.50'; 'singing and making plaster plaques, $7.' A dentist bought of a fellow dentist one cent's worth of cement filling-material; this he used, giving his labor, and earned 50 cents; with this he bought 50 cents' worth of better filling, part of which he used, again giving his labor, and the College gained $3.00. A boy sold his penny to a physician for a dollar. The physician sold the 'talent penny' for 10 cents, which he exchanged at the Mint for bright new pennies. These he took to business friends and got a dollar apiece for them; added $5.00 of his own and turned in $15.00. Donations of one cent each were received through Mr. William P. Harding, from Governor Tillman of South Carolina, Governor McKinley of Ohio, Governor Russell of Ma.s.sachusetts. From Governor Fuller of Vermont--a rare old copper cent, 1782, coined by Vermont before she was admitted to the Union; the governors' letters were sold to the highest bidders. Everybody who worked, everybody who traded with the penny, did something, and every penny was blessed, so lovingly and so zealously was the trading done.

It was the Master's talent which they were working with. All the little things that went into the treasury; lead pencils, tacks, $3.00 in one case and $5.00 in another; 'beefs liver, $14.00'--think of that! How tired the boarders must have grown of liver away out on Broad Street--stick pins, hairpins, and the common kind that you bend and lose; candy, pretzels, and cookies; 'old tin cans,' wooden spoons, pies; one man sent $50.00 as a gift because he said 'his penny had brought him luck'; another found 16 pennies, which good fortune he ascribed to the penny in his pocket.

"So in October the workers who had received their pennies in April came together to show what they had done. Four thousand pennies had been given out; $6,000 came directly from the returns, and indirectly about $8,000 more.

"The 'Feast of t.i.thes,' held in December of the same year, was a great fair, extending through seven week days. The displays of goods and the refreshment booths were in the Lower Temple, while fine concerts and other entertainments were given in the auditorium. The Feast of t.i.thes netted $5,500 for the College fund."

Thus the work progressed. No one could give large amounts, but many gave a little, and stone by stone the building grew. In August, 1893, the corner stone of the College building was laid. Taking up the silver trowel which had been used in laying the corner stone of The Temple, in 1889, Dr. Conwell said:

"Friends, to-day we do something more than simply lay the corner stone of a college building. We do an act here very simply that shows to the world, and will go on testifying after we have gone to our long rest, that the church of Jesus Christ is not only an inst.i.tution of theory, but an inst.i.tution of practice. It will stand here upon this great and broad street and say through the coming years to all pa.s.sersby, 'Christianity means something for the good of humanity; Christianity means not only a belief in things that are good and pure and righteous, but it also means an activity that shall bless those who need the a.s.sistance of others.' It shall say to the rich man, 'Give thou of thy surplus to those who have not.' It shall say to the poor man, 'Make thou the most of thy opportunities and thou shalt be the equal of the rich.'

"Now, in the name of the people who have given for this enterprise, in the name of the many Christians who have prayed, and who are now sending up their prayers to heaven, I lay this corner stone."

The work went on. In May, 1894, a great congregation thronged The Temple to attend the dedication services of "Temple College," for it was in its new home; a handsome building, presenting with The Temple a beautiful stone front of two hundred feet on the broad avenue which it faces. Robert E. Pattison, governor of Pennsylvania, presided, saying, in his introductory remarks, "Around this n.o.ble city many inst.i.tutions have arisen in the cause of education, but I doubt whether any of them will possess a greater influence for good than Temple College." Bishop Foss, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, offered prayer. The orator was Honorable Charles Emory Smith, of Philadelphia, ex-minister to Russia. Mr. James Johnson, the builder, gave the keys to the architect, Mr. Thomas P. Lonsdale, who delivered them to the pastor of Grace Church and president of Temple College, remarking that "it was well these keys should be in the hands of those who already held the keys to the inner temple of knowledge."

President Conwell, receiving the keys, said that, "by united effort, penny by penny, and dollar by dollar, every note had been paid, every financial obligation promptly met. It is a demonstration of what people can do when thoroughly in earnest in a great enterprise."