The Chautauquan, Vol. 04, January 1884: A Monthly Magazine Devoted to the Promotion of True Culture.; Organ of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle.Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
History
The Chautauquan, Vol. 04, January 1884: A Monthly Magazine Devoted to the Promotion of True Culture.; Organ of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle.
Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle
Chautauqua Institution -- Periodicals; Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle -- Periodicals
another redoubtable champion of every good cause, Rev. Dr. M. C.
Briggs, who is like a tower “that stands four-square to every wind that
blows.” Observe that well-knit figure, those herculean shoulders, that
dauntless face, and it will go without saying that this man is nature’s
model of the Methodist pioneer, to whom all hardships are but play;
who has a sledge hammer blow for evil doers, but a brother’s clasp for
the repentant; a man whose deep, musical voice in the palmy days of
his prime gave wings to such rhetoric and such argument as combined
with the speeches of Starr King and Col. Baker, to save California to
the Union. Near the gifted Dr. Briggs stand his life-time friends and
allies, Captain and Mrs. Charles Goodall, the former our Methodist
Mecænus in California, founder of the famous “Oregon Navigation
Company,” and the true type of a Christian layman, his heart and home
open to all who come in the name of the Master whom he loves with the
simplicity and fondness of the child. A tall, dark-eyed, impressive
man, in life’s full prime, comes next. “See Otis Gibson, or you have
missed the moral hero of Gold-opolis”—this was concurrent testimony
coming from every side. Garfield left no truer saying than that the
time wants men “who have the courage to look the devil squarely in the
face and tell him that he is the devil.” Precisely this fearless sort
of character is Rev. Otis Gibson. He has been the uncompromising friend
of “the heathen Chinee,” through all that pitiful Celestial’s grievous
fortunes on our western shore. When others cursed he blessed; while
others pondered he prayed; what was lacking in schools, church, counsel
and kindness he supplied. It cost something thus to stand by a hated
and traduced race in spite of hoodlum and Pharisee combined. But Otis
Gibson could not see why the people to whom we owe the compass and the
art of printing, the choicest porcelain, the civil service examination
might not christianize as readily on our shores as their own. In this
faith he and his noble wife have worked on until they have built up a
veritable city of refuge for the defenceless and despairing, in the
young and half barbarous metropolis of the Pacific slope. We went to a
wedding in this attractive home, where a well-to-do young Chinaman was
married to a modest, gentle Chinese girl, rescued from a life of untold
misery and sin by this blessed Christian home. Contrary to popular
opinion, a chorus of Chinese made very tolerable music, and while a
Celestial played one of Sankey’s hymns, stately Mrs. Capt. Goodall, the
generous friend and patron saint of the establishment, escorted the
bride, and after a simple service (with the word “obey” conspicuously
left out), the large circle of invited philanthropists was regaled on
the refreshments made and provided for such entertainments.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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