THE CASE OF MR. ABBOTT
During the winter of 1910, there came into the Gospel Mission a man, ragged, soiled, blear-eyed, doped and utterly down and out; he came only for the coffee and rolls given Sunday night. Before coming up the steps he had said to a friend, “I don't want to hear any of their blank sermons, but I am starving.” He heard no sermon, instead he received a warm hand-shake, he heard bright singing, but, best of all, he heard redeemed men tell how God had saved them from the alcohol habit, till he cried out, “If God has power to save me from the sin of drink, I want God!” He kneeled and poured out his soul in prayer. As soon as he began to pray aloud, we saw he was an educated man. The Spirit came upon him in great power, he really had the searchlight of God on his soul, and he saw himself for a short time as God saw him. Then God forgave him, he rose justified, strong, happy, a new man in Christ Jesus. The Mission gave him a bed for the night, and the next morning this man, who had not worked or desired work for two years, begged that we should find a place for him to earn his way. He obtained a situation to solicit business for a laundry, about as hard work as one can imagine, but he made good, and in six months he was made foreman of the laundry in which he was employed. He modernized its methods and doubled its business by the end of the year, and the company made him a present of five hundred shares of stock and elected him president of the company. Then he received $3000 a year salary, besides his percentage of all gains made by the house. His friends claim his income is now about $5000 a year. In the meantime, after he had been redeemed, probably four months, his wife, a most beautiful and accomplished Philadelphia woman, brought their lovely son, aged about eight, and they began housekeeping again. The home has given needed physical comfort, the companionship has given the mental and the spiritual help needed to make this former tramp into a first-class citizen. At night, during the last winter, he has been studying law in one of the university law schools, and on Sunday he acts as usher and vestryman in one of the largest Protestant Episcopal churches. As a child he had been a choir boy in a church in Philadelphia. Doubtless the knowledge gained there as a child made him able to understand his duty to God and man after his conversion better far than an ignorant, uninstructed person could have done after months of instruction.
CHILDREN OF ALL NATIONS
SETTLEMENT HOUSE