Our August free read by Faye Huntington is a delightful story about two topics very close to the author’s heart: the Christian Endeavor movement, and how sowing seeds of good can result in a bountiful harvest of blessings.
Like everyone in impoverished Castle City, twelve-year-old Tom Gates has given up hope of making a better life, until he has a chance encounter with a group of stranded Christian Endeavorers. Their kindness and faith inspire Tom; for the first time in his life he wants something the town has never had before: A Sunday school.
With his sister Lucy and their friends, Tom uses his wits to raise money and secure a building; and along the way, he ignites a fire of change that will shape the town for generations to come.
Our December Free Read is a short Christmas story Isabella wrote in 1893.
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Poor Miss Parker! She’s a young woman of limited means, but she prays for God to show her a way she can make Christmas special for someone in need. Could the girls in Miss Parker’s Sunday Bible class provide the very help that’s needed to answer her prayers?
Our June Free Read is a short story Isabella wrote in 1894 about the way new people can bring fresh ideas to an old institution.
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In desperation, the Christian Endeavor Society of the Fifth Street Church appoints Silas Rogers to chair the Temperance Committee. They don’t expect the young man from the country to do much, but Silas Rogers knows his faith will help him succeed where others have failed.
In Alabama the Tuscaloosa Female College was a successful and popular boarding school for girls aged six through sixteen.
Tuscaloosa Female College, from an 1895 brochure.
In addition to classroom studies, the school offered students a variety of different clubs they could join; one club that was available to the youngest students was a chapter of The Pansy Society.
Isabella created The Pansy Society of Christian Endeavor as a children’s version of the Christian Endeavor program that had taken teens and young adults by storm in the 1880s.
Logo for The Pansy Society of Christian Endeavor
She wrote about The Pansy Society in stories and articles she published The Pansy magazine. Children who joined the society pledged to do good works and live their daily lives “For Jesus’ sake.”
That motto—For Jesus’ Sake—was a motto the students at the Tuscaloosa Female College took to heart. Under the mentorship of teacher Eloise Hemphill, the school’s Pansy Society chapter took a special interest in some newspaper articles written by a local reporter about an orphanage in Tuskegee that was in need of help.
From The Tuskaloosa Gazette, September 20, 1888.
So when it came time for the school’s Pansy Society to perform their annual Christmas cantata, they invited the same reporter who wrote the articles to attend so he could write about their performance for the newspaper.
Unfortunately, the reporter arrived late, after much of the performance was over, and after Santa Claus had distributed all of the presents under the Christmas tree. So he was very surprised when, as soon as he arrived, the students immediately halted the program and called him up on the stage.
Wary, he did as he was asked, expecting to “receive a ten-cent comic toy placed on the tree by some little girl, to have a good laugh at his expense.”
“Imagine, therefore, his surprise and gratification when old Santa Claus handed him an envelope, tied with a piece of pink floss, with the following inscription:
“A Christmas offering of five dollars to the orphans of Tuskegee; presented by the Pansy Society in the Primary Department of the Tuskaloosa [sic] Female College, December 25, 1887.”
From The Tuskaloosa Gazette, Thursday, January 5, 1888.
In 1887, five dollars was a lot of money for little girls to raise; it was the equivalent of about $160 in today’s economy.
The reporter was so surprised and gratified, the gesture caused him “to lose his head and eyesight at the same time” as he stammered out his thanks.
Of course the editor of The Tuskaloosa Gazette printed the story of the evening’s events, and added:
“Miss Eloise Hemphill and the sweet little Pansy Society have acted nobly. Out of their own little savings, in the midst of the festivities of Christmas, these little girls have contributed the handsome sum of five dollars for the little orphans whom God hath bereft of father and mother. It was one of the most delicate little acts of kindness it has ever been our pleasure to witness.”
Miss Eloise Hemphill (from Ancestry.com)
The editor added:
“The seeds of charity that have this Christmas been planted in their hearts by their noble teacher, Miss Eloise Hemphill, will take root and grow and bloom as they develop into lovely womanhood, until, like angels of mercy, they will go about doing good as long as they live.”
Isabella encouraged every member of The Pansy Society to plant similar “seeds of charity.” Each Christmas she asked them to pause amid the merry bustle of the season to “make some little gift as a loving reminder to one who otherwise would have none,” and to do it “For Jesus’ Sake.”
Do you have a similar Christmas tradition of giving a christmas gift to someone who otherwise wouldn’t have one?
What’s your favorite way to share a small act of kindness “For Jesus’ Sake”?
You can read more about The Pansy Society of Christian Endeavor in these posts:
July’s free read is a short story Isabella wrote in 1894 about a subject she felt strongly about; namely, that Christians were never “off duty” when it came to influencing others for Christ.
Kay Morse and her friends are enjoying a perfect summer vacation together, until Kay’s conscience puts her at odds with everyone. Can she help them understand why they must follow their Christian Endeavor principles—even while they are on vacation?
Last week’s free story “A Christian Endeavor Picnic” ended with this interesting sentence:
When the merry party from the city completed their six weeks’ vacation and went home, they left a Christian Endeavor Society in the quiet seaside village fully organized and Henry Myers and Katrine Hempel are both on the lookout committee.
What, exactly, was a “lookout committee”?
As the name suggests, the Lookout Committee was responsible for bringing new members into a Christian Endeavor Society, but the committee members did so much more!
They were also responsible for educating potential members about their responsibilities. Joining a C.E. society was a major commitment, and it was the members of the Lookout Committee who ensured applicants understood everything membership entailed.
The most important requirement for a member was signing the C. E. covenant, which read:
Trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ for strength, I promise Him that I will strive to do whatever He would like to have me do; that I will pray and read the Bible every day; and that, just as far as I know how, I will try to lead a Christian life. I will be present at every meeting of the Society when I can, and will take some part in every meeting.
The Lookout Committee’s job wasn’t over once a new member joined. They called on members who missed even one prayer-meeting to encourage them to honor their commitment. They counseled members who were unfaithful to the covenant, and sometimes they had to make crucial decisions about when and how to drop members from their society.
At times, Lookout Committee members must have had a very difficult job!
But, as Rev. Clark summed it up, it was the Lookout Committee’s duty to keep the society active, earnest, efficient, and spiritually minded. A difficult task? Yes, but he regularly reminded Lookout Committee members that . . .
“You can do it through Him who strengtheneth you.”
Did you know Christian Endeavor Societies had such strict requirements for joining?
What do you think of the pledge new Christian Endeavor members were required to sign?
You can read more about Isabella’s involvement with Christian Endeavor in these previous posts:
This month’s Free Read is a short story Isabella wrote about the Christian Endeavor movement and the opportunities its members had to influence others for Christ.
While on vacation, Dorothea Conklin is determined to invite the local teens to her Christian Endeavor prayer meeting, even if her friends oppose her plan. Somehow she must find a way to convince her friends—and the local teens—that there’s room for everyone at an Endeavor prayer meeting.
Sharp-eyed readers might recognize the name of one of the characters in the story: Eurie Shipley. Why does it sound familiar?
Because Isabella introduced Eurie Harrison and Flossie Shipley in her 1875 novel, Four Girls at Chautauqua.
Perhaps when she wrote “A Christian Endeavor Picnic” in 1896, she meant to imply that Eurie Shipley was somehow a relative of those two beloved characters from twenty years before. What do you think?
You can read “A Christian Endeavor Picnic” for free!
Isabella was very involved in the Christian Endeavor movement and often mentioned the organization in her stores. She strongly believed Christians were called to serve others—even in small ways—as Christ would.
She illustrated the point in “The Spool-Cotton Girl,” a short story she wrote in 1892 about a young girl who labors long and thankless hours in a department store selling the store’s cheapest cotton threads.
Young Marion Wilkes takes her Christian Endeavor pledge very seriously. She always looks for ways to witness for Christ through service to others, even though her job selling cotton threads at the local department store can sometimes test her commitment and her patience.
You can read “The Spool-Cotton Girl” for free!
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As a popular author, Isabella received plenty of publicity and media coverage, and she was probably used to seeing her name in print.
In 1893 her niece, Grace Livingston Hill was just beginning to garner some publicity of her own. A few of Grace’s stories had been published in magazines, including The Pansy, so she was already building a following of loyal readers.
Then, in April 1893, the following article about Grace appeared in a Christian magazine:
THE REVEREND AND MRS. FRANKLIN HILL
Pansy’s niece, Grace Livingston (now Mrs. Franklin Hill) has perhaps almost as warm a corner in the hearts of our readers as their older friend “Pansy,” and therefore we are glad to give the photographs of herself and her husband. Mr. Hill. [He] is pastor of a flourishing church in one of the suburbs of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania—a young man of noble character and fine intellectual gifts.
To quote from a paper giving an account of their recent marriage:
“When two souls such as these, energetic, consecrated, and peculiarly gifted, unite their lives and aims, there is promise of much good work for the Master.”
Doubtless thousands who never saw Grace Livingston’s face, feel acquainted with her, and really are acquainted with her through her writings, for a true author’s true self goes into her works. She has a bright and charming style, which reminds one of that of her aunt, Mrs. Alden (“Pansy”), and of her mother, Mrs. C. L. Livingston, who is often a collaborator with Mrs. Alden.
Mrs. Hill is not an imitator, however, or an echo of anyone else, but has a genuine style and literary character of her own. She is, moreover, much more than a mere writer. The daughter of a Presbyterian Minister, trained from her earliest days to work for the Master, she has thrown herself enthusiastically into His service.
“She has,” writes a friend, “a passion for soul-saving, and will not give up a bad boy when all others do, but pleads with him, and prays, and has patience, and often has the joy of reward, in the changed character of boys who will remember her gratefully through life. She sometimes gathers about her on Sabbath afternoons a group of older boys, and leads them on to discuss Christian evidences and the moral questions of the day, amusements, etc. On these subjects she takes high ground, setting them to search for the opinions of master minds in religious thought, and to learn what Scripture teaches on the themes under discussion. This will go on for months, each of the informal meetings delightful to the boys.”
The work of the Christian Endeavor Society is very near her heart, and she has given much time and strength to it, as her writings prove. Of late she has been especially identified with the Chautauqua Christian Endeavor reading course, whose success in the future will be largely due to her energy. While in Chautauqua during the summer, she spends much of her time in promoting the interests of the Chautauqua Christian Endeavor Society.
How can we end this brief sketch better than by quoting the words of a friend, who says:
“She loves dearly to have her own way, and yet she is one of those rare characters who knows how to yield her will sweetly for peace sake, and so for Christ’s sake.”
What a lovely article! It gives readers hints of the great work (in addition to her writing) that Grace would accomplish in the years to come.
The article appeared only four months after Grace and Thomas Franklin “Frank” Hill were married. After their marriage they both stayed involved in the Christian Endeavor Society. Together they wrote The Christian Endeavor Hour with Light for the Leader, a guide book that contained lessons and Bible verses CE societies could use in conducting their meetings. The book was published in 1896.
Grace’s “passion for soul-saving” flourished, as well. In later years she established a mission Sunday School for immigrant families in her community. It was just one of the many endeavors Grace undertook that resulted in “good work for the Master.”
This month’s Free Read is “Mine,” a novella by Isabella Alden that was first published in an 1895 Christian magazine.
Esther Field’s minister father is scheduled to speak at a Christian Endeavor convention in the big city, and he plans to take Esther with him! It’s a dream come true for Esther, who longs to mingle with young men and women her age who share her vision of leading others to Christ through service. But there is much more in store for Esther than simply a series of meetings; and when she finally returns home after twenty-four hours in the big city, she knows her life will never be the same again.
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Isabella Alden 