John Chambers, Servant of Christ and Master of Hearts, and His Ministry in Philadelphia — John Shaqi
John Chambers, Servant of Christ and Master of Hearts, and His Ministry in PhiladelphiaGriffis, William Elliot
Religion
John Chambers, Servant of Christ and Master of Hearts, and His Ministry in Philadelphia
Griffis, William Elliot
Chambers, John, 1797-1875
After ten or fifteen years of service, when his congregation had
increased and lads and lassies were multiplied, he organized in 1840
the Youth's Temperance Society. It was made up of young people. Once
a month or every two months, alternating with the Missionary Society,
the afternoon Sunday School service took the form of a temperance
meeting; at which, besides prayer and singing, addresses were made
by speakers, either from the congregation or without. There were
also occasionally recitations, but the crowning event of the year,
for which preparations were made often weeks in advance, was the
anniversary. This was held on the evening of Washington's Birthday,
February 22d, either in the church edifice or at Concert Hall on
Chestnut Street, which is now occupied by the Public Library.
Exquisitely lovely in memory rises the scene, when after duly
committing to memory and practicing, cutting down to the right length
and repeatedly rehearsing the speeches, the dialogues and the musical
parts, the boys and the girls, in a glow of excitement, gathered in
the rooms below the stage. The little maidens in their best clothes
and most bewitching adornments in hair and dress and slippers, seemed
to me most radiantly lovely. The boys who were to be speakers had
on their coats a rosette of quilled ribbon, in the center of which
was a tinsel star, from which gushed forth a cataract of red, white,
and blue satin pendants or streamers. How gay and happy we all were!
How heaven-like it all appeared! Except for the thumping of one's
heart under his ribs, it seemed positive rapture to hear one's
name announced by the superintendent, Aaron H. Burtis--that superb
re-incarnation, as we thought, of George Washington. To make one's bow
before a thousand human beings, to speak his piece with high pulse
and magnetic thrills, were delights that filled a few triumphant
moments. Stirring are the memories of the genial pastor, ever ready to
cheer the boys, the portly form of Robert Luther, the happy faces of
John Yard, Francis Newland, Daniel Steinmetz and Rudolph S. Walton,
and the younger but constantly efficient Robert H. Hinckley, Jr. The
Youth's Temperance Society flourished until the close of Mr. Chambers'
ministry. Although all of the lads trained under John Chambers did
not as they grew up, become Prohibitionists, yet a small army of
good citizens, earnest in temperance reform, owe their strength of
conviction to their noble pastor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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