God bless Rudolph S. Walton, transparent in his honesty as Japanese crystal! How often we laughed over it afterwards—his brief mistrust of me—as "holding forth the word of life" we cheered each other on in the Christian Way.
Although the Sabbaths were thus filled up and strictly kept, no days seemed more sunny and joyous. The weeknight services were the lecture on Wednesday evening and prayer meeting on Friday. Often the first service took the form of a big social Bible class, when in the Socratic way, by question and answer, we learned more of God and of His wonderful Word.
"All this work was made easy by the inspiration of our pastor.... No one could continue long a member of this church without finding something to do."
Nor was this all. Besides "the untiring industry, the earnest manner and the burning eloquence" of the pastor, he made us all as one family, by his own fine manners and his training of us in sociability. We had to be hospitable and act towards the unknown stranger, in each case, as if we might possibly entertain an angel unawares. I remember once seeing, about 1856, I think, a slender, bashful young man come to our Sunday School. He carried his lunch in his pocket, so as to attend both sessions, and church also, for between 12 and 2, there was not time to walk to and back from his home far distant in the south end of the city, somewhere near "the Neck." My mother spoke to him and invited him to our house to dinner. I learned to know well, to honor and to love the young man, looking up to him for inspiration and cheer. He became one of John Chambers's "three big W's." He is now one of Philadelphia's merchant princes, a maker of the new Quaker city, a tireless worker for God and man.
CHAPTER XI.
THE MASTER OF ASSEMBLIES.
Though active in the multifarious duties of the pastorate and along many lines of activity and reform in a large city, always foremost, both on the firing line, or in the charge, in that unending battle against evil, John Chambers made the pulpit his first thought. He did this in his own way and according to his own methods. He rarely if ever wrote out his sermons. After due preliminary study and renewing of his strength by waiting, in prayer, upon God, he entered the pulpit. He depended largely upon being in first class physical condition, upon the inspiration of the moment, gaining much by induction from his audience and the circumstances, while trusting heartily in the presence and blessing of the Holy Spirit, upon whom he continually waited.
John Chambers believed in thorough public announcement. A true herald, he first made sure of calling together the assembly. By this he sometimes set as much store, as he did upon the proclamation of the message itself. On himself he laid the responsibility of his hearers' attention. In the main, his preaching was of the character expressed by the New Testament Greek word kerusso (proclaim), as well as by the word evangelizo.
John Chambers was the first minister in Philadelphia to advertize the subjects of his sermons as well as the hour and place of their delivery. He thus initiated for their publishers a line of profitable revenue. In the Public Ledger, especially, one may, by looking over the files, see the range and timeliness of his discourses. The topics were "sensational", in the best meaning of that term.