SECRETARY-TREASURER THOMPSON'S DEATH—A SURPRISE FROM THE FAR-OFF EAST.
The most pious and trusted of all the tabernacle officials was John Thompson, who, though not handsome in the outer man, was in soul beautiful. Indeed, his homeliness was at one time the subject of a good joke, when an old friend of Mr. Melvin's, who was a noted scientist, in visiting him, attended a Sabbath service, and seeing him (that is, Mr. Thompson), said to a bystander: "I have long sought for the missing link to establish the development theory, but the last place I ever expected to find it was in Mount Zion Tabernacle, and yet there it is!"
In spite of jests, however, the secretary-treasurer had the qualities of mind and heart which go to make the true man, and when word was borne to his pastor that he was seriously ill, Mr. Melvin lost no time in reaching his couch. The first question he asked was, "Are you suffering much, Brother Thompson," who, in reply, said: "I am suffering great bodily pain, but though heart and flesh fail I am trusting in the living God." The fifteen minutes that followed were too sacred to record, and when the minister left the sick man's chamber it was noticed that his face looked as if he had been treading on the borderland of Paradise. Next day, as our clerical friend was entering the home of his afflicted official, he met the medical doctor who had been in attendance, and asked him if there was any hope for his friend. The doctor said that if his trouble had been attended to in time his life would have been saved, but now no power on earth could do more than prolong it for a few days. Mr. Melvin saw that what the man of skill said was correct, as he had frequently noticed that Mr. Thompson was in poor health, if appearances went for anything, and altogether he was so busied with his duties and deeds of charity that he neglected himself until there was no chance for medical science to give him, as it would have done under Providence, if consulted in time, years of usefulness. Next time the pastor visited his dying parishioner, he received some good advice from one who was not nearly so learned as himself. Said he: "If your sermons possessed the spirituality which they do philosophy and common-sense, the congregation would soon receive a great spiritual uplift." Mr. Melvin was a very sane man, and heeded not the rebuke except to profit by it. Indeed, it was a marked compliment to him that his teaching was endorsed by the best man in his congregation while on the verge of the heavenly kingdom.
Next day the minister called again to see his faithful officer, and on inquiry found that his hopes still rested upon his Saviour's blood and righteousness, and in the conversation which followed Mr. Thompson said: "How little in this hour do stocks, bonds and mortgages, houses and lands, trouble one. The only house of which I can now think is the one to which I have a clear title through a loving Saviour's sacrificial death, and it has not been formed by human hands, for its builder and founder is God." As Mr. Melvin bade farewell to his friend on this occasion, he saw that he was steadily sinking, and would soon be in the house of many mansions. About two o'clock next morning the door-bell at the parsonage was so vigorously rung that everybody was awakened, and a message was handed in, asking the pastor to go, if possible, at once to Mr. Thompson's, as he was just dying.
Mr. Melvin dressed quickly and passed out into the darkness of the night, soon arriving at the home of the dying man. One glance showed that the sands had almost run out, but upon his feeling the hand-clasp, the sick man revived for a time and said, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, the things which God has in store for those that love Him." After uttering these words he seemed to be exhausted, and sank down deeper into his pillow. Mr. Melvin watched him, and after a time saw his lips move, and placing his ear close to them, caught the words, "Home at last, home at last." Then the lips ceased to move, and all could see that the ransomed spirit of the redeemed man had passed beyond the river.
The people of Carsville and of the world had now an evidence that character and true worth could not be measured by outward appearance. During the hours that the body of the sainted Thompson lay in state and was deposited in God's acre the flags were flying at half-mast, and every business place was closed. In spite of unattractive exterior the people of all languages and creeds in the place recognized the fact that a broad-minded man, full of loving sympathy for all classes and creeds, was not dead, but had been translated.
Mr. Melvin always looked with a certain measure of suspicion upon holiness people, believing that there was more hypocrisy than sanity in all that sort of thing, and called to mind the case of Sambo who professed it, and when asked by his good old-fashioned class-leader, who knew his weakness, if he had during the past week stolen any ducks, said, "No, massa." "Any geese?" "No, massa." "Any turkeys?" "No, massa." "Bless the Lord, Sambo, you are on your happy way to heaven." As the leader passed on to admonish the next, Sambo turned to his neighbor and whispered: "If massa had said chickens he had me; I was at de roosts of Widder Simpkins last week."
Mr. Thompson had, however, never professed it, but his life gave evidence that he possessed it, and his pastor thought it wise never to mention that much misunderstood word "holiness" again.
Shortly after the burial of the secretary-treasurer there came to Carsville a straight military-looking young man with an indifferent air, who procured employment at the foundry, and whom the minister noticed in the congregation, intercepting him at the close of the service to find out who he was and to welcome him. The person was Leonard Devoau, who had returned from Manchuria, where he had fought in the Russian army at Port Arthur and Mukden, escaping from the former to the latter disguised as a Chinaman, where he took part in the world's greatest battle. Mr. Devoau said that he was born at Ottawa, the capital of the Dominion, and always loved adventure, and it was this love that led him to enlist in the Russian army, and pass through the frightful scenes at the above places.
Mr. Melvin was much impressed by the bearing of the young stranger who had returned from Manchuria so recently, and invited him to the parsonage so that they might get better acquainted. During the course of the evening he asked his guest if he was fond of soldiering, and in reply was told that when he left Canada he was in love with the idea, and even after the awful experiences of Port Arthur, where he was often for hours together in a perfect hell of fire, he thought he would love a fair fight in the open, and accordingly broke for Mukden. He told the minister, however, that this great battle, including the retreat, was even worse than the siege, as in the former large bodies of them had frequently to face about and charge with the bayonet to press back the hordes of Japanese who were continually driving in upon them.
Mr. Devoau said: "When you think of the fact that we could never meet our enemies when we were not outnumbered from two to three to every one of our own men, you will concede that we never had a fair chance, but put them man to man and they could never withstand the Russians in a bayonet charge. The disparity in numbers is very evident from the fact that the Russians had only 300,000 infantry and 26,700 cavalry at Mukden, while opposed to this was a force of 650,000 men, or, for all practical purposes, just double the number. We fought them for nineteen days along a front one hundred miles in length, and were only then defeated by an accident, bringing off 1,300 guns out of 1,360, and a larger quantity of baggage, marching into headquarters, as the corps of General Linevitch actually did, with banners flying and bands playing as if they were just fresh from the parade ground. Marshal Oyama may go down in history as a great strategist, but in my humble judgment General Kuropatkin is greater. The general knew full well that if he had one more army corps he could have cut in two the long drawn out flanking force of his antagonist, crumpled it up, and turned their victory into a disastrous and decisive defeat. As it was, at the close of the war General Linevitch confronted the enemy with 1,000,000 men in arms, and they, unwilling to try conclusions when there was man for man, made a peace favorable to Russia on the whole. As corroboration of this I give you the word of the foreign military attaches to the Russian army."
As Mr. Melvin did not in his own home consider it in very good form to inquire into the past history of Mr. Devoau, he soon visited him at his lodgings and asked him concerning his life. He said, in answer to the question, that he had been brought up by Christian parents, who held that any deviation from the path of moral rectitude was an awful thing, and consequently he himself had never gotten astray morally; his besetting sin, he said, was a love for wild adventure by flood or field, and he was now perfectly satisfied and desired no more of that kind of thing. He had foolishly thought that there was much glory in war, but after seeing its hydraheaded hideousness, and himself testing its fearful hardships, he was prepared to denounce it as anti-Christian and barbarous, except in a defensive sense. Also concerning his education he had helped different members of his father's family in their studies, and had thus been prevented from entering upon a university course, though he had undergraduate standing.
The pastor of the tabernacle said he was surprised that with his standing he should enter a foundry, and work his way just as one would who had no earlier advantages, but the reply was a very rational one, for he said he and his brother had decided that when they had mastered every detail of the business, and had saved sufficient money to warrant it, they would start a foundry of their own. "While in the Russian army," he continued, "I discovered that the prospect for iron founders was brighter than for most classes."
The minister now asked his new friend if he would like to join the tabernacle, and at the same time gave him a hearty invitation, but he said he could not conscientiously join, but would attend the services. Mr. Melvin said, "Now I am not a bigot, and do not insist on every one doing as I do, and being what I am. How would you like to simply become a member of our Young People's Society, where we would help you and you could help us?" "I will do that," said Mr. Devoau.
The new acquisition to the Debating Club of Mount Zion Tabernacle proved a great drawing card, as it was well known at the foundry and all around that he possessed a fine moral character and could always be relied upon. Before asking him to connect himself with the society the minister had not only talked to him personally, but had also written to Ottawa, and asked concerning his past life, and found that he had told the truth, and that, as he himself said, "The worst things he had ever done, and that only since entering the army, was to smoke a cigar and play a game of cards without stakes."
The pastor and his officials, however, were soon to receive a rebuke when Mr. Devoau told them, after they had been praising him for his clean life, that if they had more of the loving Christ spirit instead of lauding him they would be out into the lanes and alleys, into the highways and byways, gathering in the lost and sinful rather than those who had always been moral. "It seems to me," he said, "the Church is more needed to foster and guide those who have had their garments stained with sin than those who without any credit to themselves, but to the instruction and coercion of puritanical parents, always kept themselves clean."
Mr. Melvin was so struck with the fact that the young man who had rebuked them possessed true worth that he invited him to relate his experiences during the war in an address, when the whole evening would be given up to him, and on which the tabernacle doors would be thrown open to the public. The invitation was accepted, the young ex-soldier announcing his intention of relating some of the incidents in connection with the storming of 203 Metre Hill, of which he was one of the defenders, and the assaults on the entrenchments at Mukden.