[8] See The Mikado's Empire, Townsend Harris, Life of Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, Japan in History, Folk-lore and Art, The Religions of Japan, etc.
The afternoon Sunday School over, the preaching and worship in the auditorium above usually attracted a much larger crowd than in the morning. Often I have seen every available space in the aisles, stairways, vestibule and pulpit platform taken up.
The afternoon exit to the small boy was even more interesting than in the morning, for the pavement and "church parade" show was greater. Hence, also, for purposes other than of strict devotion the said small boy usually took his seat in the gallery, near the head of the stairs. The benediction over, he was promptly on the side walk to see the largest number of pretty girls, and other people more or less interesting.
At home, from half past five until seven o'clock was a happy time, sitting on father's knee, while he told us stories of his voyages to Manila or Africa, or Holland, or of his travels on different continents, and among many kinds of people. As we grew older the interesting library book, and the bright chat and pleasure round the supper table made the time fly until 7:10 or 7:15, when we started for the prayer meeting, which, year after year, was as I remember it, held in the lower room. It was attended by from four hundred to seven hundred people, frequently every seat being occupied, with settees down the aisles to hold those who could not get in the cushioned pews.
The old, long and imposing mahogany pulpit from the old church auditorium, but without its stairways, had been set into the lecture room of the new and enlarged building. While the leader of the prayer meeting occupied the space up and inside, Dr. Chambers sat below and in front on a large chair, immediately outside the pulpit, his head being just under the crimson velvet cushion on which the Bible rested. The front row of seats, as I remember, was usually filled by a dozen or so, more or less, of devoted women, who probably, next after God and as His most trusted representative on earth, worshipped their pastor. To the left, or eastward on the first seat, sat Mr. Newland, the choir master, who started the tunes.
The storage battery of power was in the half-dozen or so pews running north and south over in the northeast corner, at right angles to the general line of seats. Crowded with twenty to forty out of the nearly one hundred men in the church, young and old, who could and would take part in the prayer meeting, they formed a reserve force of which any pastor might be proud. Those not sitting in these special pews were usually ranged somewhere near that famous corner, though occasionally, for best effect, they chose seats more generally distributed throughout the audience. Men like Burtis, Steinmetz, Smith and Walton, as I remember, were always clear, strong, edifying, speaking out of fullness as well as conviction. Some of their prayers will never be forgotten. As the alabaster cruse of memory breaks from time to time into recollection, the sweet aroma fills all the house of the soul.
Among those in this citadel and stronghold of these delightful meetings who used most warmly to pray was an Irish brother, who once petitioned most fervently that upon the pastor might descend "the fullness of the godhead bodily". There were exaggerations in the old church, but they were usually on the right side.
Bliss, Wanamaker, Seldomridge and other young men, as I see them in my mind's eye, often sat on the western side.
Almost invariably in times of spiritual interest, which was, as it seems to me, pretty frequent, constant and general, and almost certainly so in the midwinter, the pastor, toward the end of the hour would retire into the committee room—not then called "inquiry room". Those who wished to meet him, or rather could not resist his appealing invitations, would rise from their places and reach their waiting and praying leader. This they did by passing westward, either through the southern or the northern door and rooms leading out from the prayer meeting room. After traversing some yards of a space, short and direct on the south side, longer and more diagonal on the north side, "the trembling sinner in whose breast a thousand thoughts revolve", reached the friend of their souls. Sometimes, indeed, Mr. Chambers had no one to meet him, but usually there were from two to twenty persons with whom he had a word and perhaps a prayer. In that room hundreds of decisions were made which affected souls for eternity. I shall never forget my journey thither and the warm words that welcomed, warned, and secured decision. That night the hymn was "O, to grace how great a debtor". Nor could I, even if I would, let slip into oblivion the meeting of the Session a few evenings later in the same room. The decision of the boy to "turn to the right and go straight ahead", seemed too sudden for one elder, and he spoke against immediate reception and advised postponement. So quick a change from mischief to seriousness seemed suspicious, if not dangerous.