09 ON FURLOUGH IN AMERICA

Chapter 9 ON FURLOUGH IN AMERICA

WE have but scanty records of Dr. Phillips’ journey to America, and of the earlier part of his furlough in that country. We have to content ourselves therefore with such brief and occasional glimpses of his movements as are afforded by the following extracts from his letters and diaries. From Calcutta to London he served as surgeon on the steamer.

"London, April 23rd, 1875 -- My medical work was very light on board ship, and I was able to answer all calls, which is a better record than I feared I should make, being such a poor sailor. We arrived here on the 18th, and leave at once for Liverpool, whence we sail on Thursday the 29 th for New York. Moody and Sankey are doing well here."

"New York, May 20th, 1875 -- We arrived here on the 13th, and received a hearty welcome from our friends. So far I have no plans for the first year, but I am going to visit all my friends out West, to do what I can quietly and personally for the mission, and to get work on a farm. Yesterday I attended the Beecher trial, and was much interested. The jury will probably acquit him."

"Chicago, June 11th, 1875 -- Dear John [his brother] met me at the depot here, and seemed so glad to see me. He and I have been having a good time together this week. He is a noble, good fellow, and has grown much in every way. My hand seems to be no better, and I write with great difficulty. The doctors gave me little hope of its improving, and sometimes even now the pen falls from my fingers through sheer weakness of the muscles. It is a species of palsy, and may grow worse."

" Brunswick, July 9th, 1875 -- This is Commencement week at my dear old college, and I felt that I could not stay away. The fifteen years since I graduated have made a great change, both in the college and in the town. Yet everybody seems happy to see me, and it is quite a pleasure to be here. Only one old woman I knew in the Poor House is now left. She is ninety-five, and remembers me well. At the close of a service in Lewistown the other day, a lady introduced herself to me as my first convert at the Poor House, and gave me the text which had touched her heart. I had the pleasure of hearing Longfellow’s beautiful poem, ’ In Memoriam ’ which was read at this Commencement. I have been urged to accept the chair of Latin and Oriental languages at Brunswick, but I would not leave the Indian Mission for any post in America. I visited dear Mother Upham,and found she has failed very much, but her heart is as happy and her hope is brighter than ever. It is something to be thankful for all through one’s life, to have known such a Christian as she is."

Dr. Phillips’ ideas of taking a rest were both characteristic and peculiar. He constantly visited churches, attended conferences, and at every possible opportunity delivered addresses on missions. The conference held at Caledonia, Nova Scotia, much cheered him, and he wrote that " it was a delightful meeting, and these brethren and sisters are taking hold of the work very nobly indeed. They seem enthusiastically interested in our Foreign Missionary Society, and bid fair to begin good work in all the churches. The Lord bless and cheer them! I have been asked to become Corresponding Secretary for our Free Baptist Mission Board, and have promised to do what I can until some other person is found."

It would be difficult to find a more striking example of enthusiastic zeal overcoming all considerations of prudence and of personal comfort, than this broken-down missionary, suffering from brain fag and threatened with paralysis of the hand, undertaking a post so arduous and exacting. Before commencing his new work, he was induced to spend a few weeks in the mountains, whence he wrote a very interesting newspaper article from which we take the following extract : —

"Rest Days in the North Woods."

There is no place for a man with a tired head like the hills and the woods, if I am any judge. The fashionable resorts by the sea cannot tempt me when I have a good chance to plunge into the forest primeval. Tramping in the woods, climbing the rough hills, dropping a line into the clear brooks, or bowling across the charming little lakes of the forest of Northern New York, never fail to bring back strength and courage to the weary limbs and the fainting heart. I have known wonderful cures effected by the agency of Nature alone, under God’s gracious benediction. Vis medicatrix naturx is something our learned doctors are prone to forget amid their legions of pills and potions. We are now camped out under the beautiful trees beside one of the lovely streams in the Adirondacks. On the edge of this stream, behind a cluster of balsams and cedars, stands our shanty. It is well covered with spruce bark, so there is no danger of our being drenched by the rain. Raspberries and blueberries are found in abundance along the road. A day or two ago we camped out near a trout stream many miles from everywhere, and in three and a half hours had caught 185 beautiful speckled trout. This is no ’ fish ’ story. We slept at night on soft balsam boughs, under the stars, with a glorious log fire blazing and crackling at our feet. There are bears and deer in this jungle, but they keep well away. I have not had a shot at one yet. These woods seem but small, compared with the Indian jungle. In tramping miles you may not see as many birds. ... I had my head shaved, but the mosquitoes troubled me so much that I was obliged to cover it with a kind of tar to keep them off." After this resting time, during which his general health was considerably recruited, Dr. Phillips commenced his new official and deputation work with characteristic zest and enthusiasm. The record is here given as far as possible in his own words.

"Cape Sable, U.S., Sept. 6th, 1876 -- Here I am on the very jumping-off place of the Dominion of Canada, the most southern point in Nova Scotia. There is a magnificent lighthouse here on the Cape, and the steam-tug whistle is being constructed beside it. The lighthouse is kept by a widow and her son, who gave me a hearty welcome. On the sitting room wall I was astonished to discover my own thin, bony face, one of a group taken over twelve years ago." This visit to Nova Scotia terminated with an accident, in which Dr. Phillips narrowly escaped with his life. As it was, he received very severe injuries, which he good humorlessly underrates in the following communication to his denominational paper : —

" Perhaps my Nova Scotia friends have been wondering at my silence. Well, the fact is that a broken arm cannot hold as much as a pencil yet, so I am going to send you a left-handed talk about my tour. Mr. Crowell had arranged for me to go direct from Boston to Yarmouth in the SS Dominion, but that very week the vessel was laid up for repairs, which obliged us to go by way of St. John. About midway between Digby and Yarmouth the post coach went over on one side, landing us all most indiscriminately on the ground, save those who were shut up inside. There were sixteen or more passengers, and it might have been a benevolent plan to equally divide the bruises and breaks incidental to such charming catastrophes. Unfortunately, however, your correspondent had to serve as scapegoat for the whole party, and nearly all the damages were heaped upon him, probably because he was a heathen Hindu. I received serious injuries in my right arm, across the ribs, and on one leg, and was otherwise hurt more or less. I at first thought that one of my wrist bones was merely dislocated, but soon felt pretty sure that there was a fracture. Now there can be no doubt of this. The long bone of the forearm was broken directly across, and it will be weeks and months yet before I shall be able to use it again, if indeed ever, as before. For the first week I had to do my work sitting, and for more than a month my arm had to be carried in a sling. The splints are still on it.

" In my opinion, human avarice was the immediate cause of this accident. Men are too greedy to be rich. In addition to a coach full of passengers, and half a dozen on the outside, there were quite a number of heavy trunks added to the load. Had the big ones on the top lost their moorings when we went over, an undertaker’s services would probably have been all that I should have required. The coach was overloaded and top-heavy, and it went over on a good road with a sober driver doing his part well. It may be comforting to future sufferers on this line to know that the proprietors sent a man round to pay me back the fare! " For many weeks Dr. Phillips was compelled to lay aside all work, and to spend his time in complete inaction, a thing to him most distasteful, though it may be that this compulsory time of total rest was not without a beneficial effect upon his general health. Not till the beginning of 1877 do we find him again able to resume his multifarious occupations.

"Grand Manan, Jan. 5th, 1877 -- Among the fishermen of this large island off’ Maine I shall speak five times, and then return to Fredericton. Next, I hope to visit the churches in New England, New York, Pennsylvania, and the West. A great many boys and girls attend my meetings, and I often think that in the near future New Brunswick will be sending out her own missionaries. This very day I have received a letter from a young man who wishes to go out to India. At Fredericton a young lady teacher said, ’ I will go.’ We shall not have very long to wait for helpers from New Brunswick. I have yielded to the persuasions of many friends to deliver a secular lecture on India at Lewistown. Tickets were 35 cents, the proceeds to be appropriated for a telescope for us to take when we return to India. We had a good house, and I spoke for two hours. The telescope will be for my Santal schools. The people seemed pleased with my lecture, and I hope the information will be worth something to them. Wherever I go, the people welcome me, and show real intelligent interest in my work, which cheers me very much. So far the women have come out well. At each church an auxiliary has been formed. I have organised twenty-nine women’s societies, with 530 members."

"March, 1877 -- A very cheering feature of my winter tour through New Brunswick was the hearty reception which the women of our churches gave to the missionary work for their benighted sisters in India. It added to my labour to hold special services for them, but for this I was richly repaid. In some places it was necessary to hold a women’s meeting in connection with the public lecture directly at its close ; but as a rule these meetings were at another hour, either before or after the lecture. Those succeeded best, perhaps, which were held on the day following, and these were usually well attended by women. When I went to New Brunswick for my winter work, it was with the prayer and hope that I might find someone for India. Before my tour was all done, the Lord graciously gave me the assurance that my prayer was heard, and this cheered me very much. After that I was expecting to hear someone volunteer to go. You can hardly conceive how my heart leaped with joy at hearing the first person in New Brunswick say, ’ I will go.’ My work was distributed among all the districts into which the Free Baptist Churches are divided. Many times in years to come I shall recall the glad greetings and warm welcomes that cheered me wherever I went. Every Christian worker’s success depends upon his faith in God, and in the work He has commissioned him to do. How squarely and forcibly this applies to our denominational work in British India! For these forty years past we have been reaping as we have sown. Had we attempted greater things, and had we expected greater things, who can doubt that our record would have been a brighter and nobler one in that heathen land. I do wish we had an nondenominational missionary society. I have so often felt and said this."

"Harper’s Ferry, March 7th, 1877 -- Last week I wrote you from Washington. The city was full of people. I was very fortunate to reach the Capitol just in time to see the electoral count completed. The filibusterers did all they could to stave off the count ; but the republicans, assisted by the better part of the democratic members, were too strong for them. I was in the Capitol from 6.30 on Thursday evening till 4.20 on Friday morning. I spent an hour or so in the Senate Chamber, and the rest of the time in the House. I was on the floor of the House, and had a chat with Professor Seelye, a member for Massachusetts. You may remember that he made a tour through India several years ago lecturing to the educated Hindus. In the Senate I talked with Senator Congkling from Utica, whom I knew while a student at Whitestown. Hayes is President. If he chooses a good Cabinet, I think his administration will be a success. While in Washington, I was the guest of an old Whitestown student of twenty years ago. I called with my hostess at the White House, and had a little chat with President and Mrs. Hayes. She is a noble-looking lady, with a full, plain, sensible face. It is said that she will introduce a dress reform in Washington, while she has already instituted a temperance reform. On Saturday afternoon we called on President Grant. He said he should be glad to get through and retire to private life again. I do not doubt it. The Freedman’s College here is doing finely. This school has sent out over a hundred teachers and preachers since it began. This winter there has been quite a revival among the students. Some of these are very black, while others are so white that you would never suspect colour in them. Not a kink in their hair, and lips as thin as ours. What sinister marks of slavery! Give thanks that the peculiar institution of the South is gone for ever. I long to see some of these young men start out as missionaries to their own race in Africa.

" That Nova Scotia visit injured me much, and though I am getting over it nicely, my wrist may never be as strong as before. The effects of that old fever, the partial paralysis of the muscles, are still felt, so that it is very difficult to write. I am using my left hand altogether for writing, but am now able to shake hands with the right without pain. My work is pressing, and I often wonder how I shall carry it all through. I need great wisdom from above to find the right ones for our mission, to raise money for our school, and to select my successor in the secretarial office.

" Pascoag, R.I., May 10th, 1877 -- The brightest feature of our work here now is the introduction of the new plan of systematic beneficence. I have to go to New York this week to speak for the American Tract Society at their anniversary next Saturday evening, and John, who is with us, will, I hope, accompany me. I am to preach the divinity sermons at Bates University next month, and have chosen for my topic ’ Helps for the home pastor from the foreign field.’ I shall try to show that the foreign mission work is helpful to the ministry, and to the Churches at home."

" May 26th, 1877 — In the Board meeting at Boston last Tuesday, I said to the brethren, that so important did I deem the proposed Bible School, and so vital to the permanent prosperity of the Indian mission, that I could not feel it my duty to return until the endowment fund was raised. Every member of the Board present approved of my sentiments. The matter of 500 dollars, which I saved the Society by coming from Calcutta to London as ship’s surgeon, was brought to the attention of the Board by an outside party without my request or wish, and the Board voted to pay me that sum. I told them that I could not accept it for myself, but would make it my donation to the Bible School. This pleased them much, but pleased me far more, for I had no money to give, but was very anxious to contribute something."

Here we have the first mention of the Bible School, which was to form such an important part of the work of Dr. Phillips in India. The Missionary Society with which he was connected adopted his proposals, and authorized him to collect money for the purpose. This he at once commenced to do with his customary enthusiasm and energy. It needs, perhaps, to be remembered that the Free Baptist Mission, of which Dr. Phillips was an agent, was a comparatively poor Society, and that the work of raising the necessary funds for endowing his proposed institution for training native preachers in India was thus one of greater difficulty, and involved much greater toil, than would otherwise have been the case. One of the visits paid by Dr. Phillips in connection with this new enterprise was to Whitestown College.

"Unadilla Forks, N.Y. ’Oct. 1st, 1877 -- Yesterday I preached on missions twice. In the morning at Columbus Quarter, where you know I kept my first school, and in the evening at Unadilla Forks. The Whitestown quarterly meeting met at, this place on Saturday and Sunday. Last Thursday I lectured at Whitestown Seminary, Uncle James introducing me in swell style. On Friday evening I lectured at Checkerville, now called Washington Mills, where in 1855 I preached my first sermon." In a newspaper report, dated October 11th, 1877, he wrote —

" Our triennial general conference opened its session at Fairport, New York. To this body I was a delegate from the Indian yearly meeting. The chief business devolving upon me was to present the claims of our mission in India for larger sympathy and help. The principal topic that my instructions from the mission field made it my duty to bring before the conference, and to urge upon the attention of our Churches, was the Bible School for the training of native helpers. Ample opportunity was given me to lay this matter before the general conference, and upwards of 7000 dollars (£1400) was raised on the spot towards the Bible School endowment. Reckoning what was raised before the conference and what has been raised since, now upwards of 17,000 dollars (£3400) has been realised for this good enterprise. The plan is to make the endowment at least 25,000 dollars (£5000). The annual interest on this sum would enable us to open the Bible School and to begin a systematic course of study for our native helpers. Some of the rich have contributed to this sum, but I need hardly say that almost the whole of it has come from the poor and the working classes. Now we are on the home stretch with the goal in view. How soon the remainder of this sum will be raised depends upon the ministers."

Although Dr. Phillips was thus throwing his whole energies into the work of raising funds to endow the much-needed training institution for native helpers, he had at first not the slightest idea of undertaking its direction. Not until the desirability of his doing so was pressed upon him by those whose judgment he felt bound to respect, did he begin to contemplate the relinquishment of his Santal work for the educational position for which subsequent experience proved him to be so peculiarly fitted. When the matter was officially laid before him he thus replied : —

" Notwithstanding my extreme reluctance to leave the Santal work, I think that what you say seems natural and just. I think, too, that the position of President of the Bible School is one of greater importance than that of missionary to the Santals, and one on which more depends. If I am the right man for it, I will take it and do my best, but it will cost both my wife and me some pain to give up the Santal work." The following year was one of arduous work in the interests of the foreign missions of his denomination. Unfortunately, nothing but the scantiest outline is before us, and we can do no more than give the brief summary made by Dr. Phillips at its close.

" This has been a full, busy year. During the first six months I traveled through Ohio, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, being on the road day and night, and driving through mud, snow, and rain in all sorts of conveyances. The main object of my lecturing tours was the raising of funds for the Bible School and the awakening of missionary interest in the churches. I have spoken in many colleges and other seats of learning, amongst them Oberlin and Wellesley Universities. Many of the church members seemed interested in mission work while I was talking to them, but I fear that they fell fast asleep again the moment I was out of sight. I say it calmly, that if my death in America could only have moved the people to action in behalf of the heathen, I would have willingly died. Many Christian workers I find, who though they may have faults, have push and pluck, faith and zeal. Others are so sadly easy, so very slow, and so immovably stupid! I feel at times that I would like to send a ’ pint of lightning ’ through them all from Dan to Beersheba. If anyone fancies that the position of a foreign missionary on deputation work is an easy one, let him try it. He will find it is no sinecure. The last one of the 25,000 dollars for the Bible School was received in August. Attending Board meetings, yearly meetings, and anniversaries, lecturing, preaching, writing, and packing occupied the time till October. On the evening of the 4th of that month the New York Church gave us a pleasant reception, at which many friends were present. On the 5th we rushed over to Bloomfield, where I married two people, and then back to the wharf just in time to embark on the Circassia. Many dear friends saw us off at noon. On the 15 th we reached Scotland via the north of Ireland, and on the 21st we attended the Mildmay Mission Conference in London, where I saw Robert Moffat. The opening address by Sir William Muir, a distinguished Christian civilian from India, was in excellent taste. We were present at the closing meeting at Exeter Hall, leaving the same night for Liverpool, where we embarked on the City of London. The days spent on board ship en route for India were mainly occupied in teaching Oriya and Bengali to some outgoing missionaries."

"Calcutta, Nov. 28th, 1878 -- The first land that greeted our eyes this morning was the thin point of Saugor Island, at the mouth of the Ganges. What memories that strip of land stirs in our hearts! What multitudes of human sacrifices that island has witnessed ! It was for many years a favorite spot for offering up infants to the goddess Ganga. Many an innocent babe has here been flung by its own mother into the muddy waters of the sacred stream. Here, too, many a Hindu widow has perished in the flames that consumed the dead body of her husband. This island was indeed a habitation of cruelty until the Gospel reached it. Missionaries from Calcutta came here to attend the annual fairs and festivals of the Hindus. The standard of the Cross was here lifted up in the very face of the pagan gods. The name of the world’s Redeemer rang out upon the air, filled with the noise and confusion of heathen worship. What has been the result ? Today infanticide is unknown, and a suttee is never heard of. The light has entered in and driven out the darkness. Thanks be to Him who is Himself the light of the world! So shall it be at last in every dark land, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." On reaching Calcutta, Dr. Phillips and his party were guests of the Rev. J. M. Thoburn, and on Sunday the missionary was once more preaching the Gospel in India. On the following day he attended a reception given in his honour by General Litchfield. A few more days were spent at Calcutta, and then, on December 7th, Dr. Phillips once more found himself in his old home at Midnapore. He began bazaar preaching at once, and lost no time in visiting the jungle villages. The closing words of his diary for 1878 are very characteristic of the spirit of humble gratitude in which he viewed his work —

" The Lord has mercifully spared us another year. How little I have done, and how poorly that little! Help me, dear Lord, to do more and better next year."