The Story of a Life

by J. Breckenridge Ellis

The following is from Mrs. Carr to her brother: "How my heart blesses you, for almost every mail brings us cheer from your pen! If it be the will of God that we ever again see each other face to face, you will know how grateful I am. You would laugh if you could see us running to the door at the ringing of the postman, or leaping from our seats at the cry of—'Arrival of the British Mail!' We have many dear friends here, but a word from Kentucky carries our hearts back in a mighty rush, and all is lost in the old and tried affections of home. Forget you, did you say? Ah, we could not if we would. Come back to you, did you say? Assuredly, if it is God's will. When I come back, brother, I want to sit in your lap, and with my arms about your neck, tell you of my little trials, and of my many, very many abiding joys. Ollie's health and mine, is not good as when we first came here; we fear it may be due to the climate. Ollie is so upright, so gentle and kind to me, that I have strength to bear everything.

"Now a question: Suppose we should establish a College in Australia, exclusively for young men, hoping some day to convert it into a university—and suppose we should cry to America for professors—would you come? Think of the cries of the churches here for education—how they are obliged to send their young men all the way to Kentucky to prepare them for the ministry in the Christian Church. Would you come?" And much more to the same purpose, showing that this idea of a Christian University in Australia, has become a fixed idea with Mrs. Carr—an idea which she is not to yield readily.

Now comes O. A. Carr to the charge, showing a little of the heat of battle that has been roused by controversy with the sectarians. It is Thomas Magarey, father of Alex. and Vaney, whom he accosts: "Thanks for candor, but your admonition was unnecessary. I know how it would aggravate a zealous brother to think that my little squirt is throwing water on the fire he is trying to keep aglow. You seem to think that I am desperately bent on doing nothing with a vengeance, especially if it will injure Australia. It may be true I have no more judgment than a pig; I may be showing the pig—or dog, if you like,—in writing this; but like you, if I am wrong, I apologize. And now to the point: What I wrote was solely to argue that we must not depend upon America in the contemplated college affair. My reason for believing that evangelists would not come here from there, was the simple fact of their not coming. I have never written a line home derogatory to anyone's coming to Australia. I wrote a confidential letter to Brother Albert Myles, which he made me promise to do; I gave my first impressions of Australia, and they were more favorable than I ever dreamed I could give, when I was at home. As Brother Myles was to come on Adelaide money, I frankly told him that I could not give him any account of Adelaide. I never believed Brother Myles would come, when we received the call at the same time, for the conviction that he should do so, was not so strong as mine. His mother was a widow, and looked to him for support. Brother Myles is as true a soldier of the Cross as ever drew the sword. Had he seen his way clearly, he would have come, for he wanted to do so. I hold myself free from throwing anything in the way.

"Pardon me for saying it, but I suppose I will always be a 'new chum' and 'too inexperienced for old English women to sit under,' and 'who ought not to be allowed to write a little Tract till some old, experienced brother had reviewed it to see if it were sound.' I want you to believe that the 'new chum' wrote nothing he could not prove, and that he is anxious for all to come and help in the glorious work, who ought to assume the responsible position of a preacher. So much from the 'bear with the sore head!' There; now! I haven't flared up. I do hope you will send for more evangelists, and that the country will be supplied with a faithfully preached Gospel. Alex. is much better, and is able to eat heartily; Vaney is well. Mattie, I believe, is writing to you."

Back to the charge comes the doughty Englishman, Member of Parliament, and miller from South Australia: "It is a very busy day with me, but I must not leave you under painful feelings caused by hasty words of mine. As I was mistaken, I am heartily thankful, and apologize without reserve. In the first place, you are a new chum, and nine out of ten new chums write home under disappointed feelings, as the romance melts from those visions which lend enchantment to the view. But since you did not do so, I am much to blame for hasty accusation. As to the rest, you misunderstood my letter. The fault is with me. I am always getting myself into unpleasant scrapes by my correspondence. Even the newspapers that report my speeches complain that they cannot tell whether I am joking, or in earnest. I have always looked upon you as a great acquisition to the cause of Christ in Australia. I cannot imagine what you mean by talking of 'a bear with a sore head.' I am utterly unconscious of having written anything to give rise to your expression. Will you kindly send me the whole passage. I do not think of you as a bear at all, sore-headed or otherwise. Why, I look upon you as one of the pillars of the Cause. I think,—if we get so much out of Brother Carr at 24, what will we get at 30! Then I think that by the time you are 30, you will have ruined your health, and be fit for nothing. I feel angry that you undertake so much. I know, had it not been for you during Brother Surber's absence in New Zealand, the Cause would have gone to ruin in Melbourne. Then how could I have thought you in the way, as 'a pig,' or as a man? I do not think any of our evangelists are without faults; but if I let them see that I do not consider them faultless, they should not therefore run back to America, as they sometimes threaten to do! I ought to have known better than to take such freedom with our friends from Kentucky. It is said by travelers that a Southerner will allow you to tell him his faults, or his country's faults. But he will not; or can not, understand any playful allusions to them. Now, Brother Carr, I am exceedingly sorry to have written anything that hurt your feelings. I begin to have some dim recollection that I may have written something about a bear with a sore head, but I cannot remember what it was. What was it? I have Sister Carr's letter; am delighted with it; was afraid she might be cross about that bear. I have no letter from my boys, but hope to receive one soon. But I must close this long rigamarole which I cannot read myself, it is so badly done."[12]

As a last letter in this chapter's mail—what a long chapter it is making!—this is offered from Martin Zelius, he who began Melbourne life with one shilling, and later sent to America the gold that brought over Mr. and Mrs. Carr; it will show that he, too, was interested in that Tract: "I have heard that you intend to investigate, and bring out, the injustice that one of the religious bodies here has done our people. I hope you will do it most effectually, not for the sake of victory, nor of retaliation, but for the love of the truth. Stand up at any time, and under any circumstances, to defend the commands of Jesus. He has said he will never leave us, nor forsake us. When we have our friend Jesus to stand by us, our confidence is raised to the highest pitch. My dear brother, it brings the tears to my eyes when I look back on the past, and see how Jesus has shielded me from many a trial, from many a foe. Stand up for him, Brother Carr! He who is with us is more than all who can be against us!"

The way in which the Church of Christ looked at religious matters was so different from the usual view, that the American evangelists felt the pressing need of tracts to disseminate their ideas. One illustration of their effectiveness, may close this branch of the subject.

There was a young man whose parents lived in a house passed, every day, by the Carrs, on their way to town. The father belonged to one denomination, the mother to another, while the son, finding the Calvinistic doctrines of both repellant to his bent of mind, refused to accept any scriptural or unscriptural principles. He graduated at the Melbourne University, then took a special course for the degree of M. D. He went into the adjacent country to practice, without having ever met the missionaries. One day he came across one of O. A. Carr's tracts. "I read it with great interest," he said. "I asked myself, is this the truth? I was then unsatisfied with the truths of Christianity."

The young man sought his Bible, and began with Moses and the prophets, in a course of systematic and scrupulous examination of the Word. He read himself into the belief of the Christian church. He called upon the neighbors to meet in a hall, that he might tell them what had won him to Christianity. He delivered to them a course of lectures, insisting that everything needful to man's salvation, and life of holiness, was explicitly laid down in the Bible. At the conclusion he cried out, "Is there any one here who believes?"