Morning journal and courier., 1881-06-13
Little Fanny Smiths Mite.
How Dying ChiId's GIFT Has Built A
Church i'm Philadelphia for ssPoor Peo-
pie Like Us.''

How a Dying Child's GIFT Has Built A
Church i'm Philadelphia for ssPoor Peo-
pie Like Us.''
About nine years ago little girl came with
her mother asking to be received as a men,
Der of the Cohoesink church. PHILADELPHIA
She was but years old, and the Session was
not disposed to receive her on account of her
age, though she had answered the questions
asked better than many adults. They asked:
Don't you think you had better wait a whi1e?"
But she said you said last Sabbath the
Lords Supper was for those who love ard
obey Him, and l am sure love Him, and 1
am trying obey" The pastor asked if she
had been coming to church, to which she re-
Piled: Mamma and l come at night. We
poor, and our clothes are not good
enough to come in the day time" The pas
tor then said, Brethren, if you feel that you
cannot receive this child, think will have
to take her on my own responsibility. She
was accordingly received. She was frail
child. and not often afterward able to be at
church; and during the following summer her
father and mother took her to Vermont to
see if the change and mountain air would i'm
prove her health. On the first Sabbath in Sep
tember of that year the pastor was sent for to
be with her iu her dying hour. He talked and
prayed with her as already an heir almost of
heaven, and when he came to part with her
she told her mother to get her money, all
that she had received in her life, consisting
of one-dollar bill and three and five cent
pieces, amounting to $4.21. This she placed
with her own feeble hands in the box in which
was the last powder of her medicine, saying
as she put in the money, II shall not want
any more medicine" aud then, turning to
her pastor with an inexpressible look of low
ing confidence, thinking, in her childish sim
phcity, that this money was enough and tax
ing his hand, said; 81 want you to make this
money and build with it a church for poor
people like US. Now" said she. promise
me, 80 l shall know, when l am in heaven,
that it is done" She died that evening
The pastor who thus received her mite was
the Rev. DIR. Samuel A. Mutchmore He ac-
cepted the trust, and soon began sending out
a circular, under the title of "A Childs Lega-
cy," asking for additions to the fund. The
result has at length been the building of a
sixty thousand-dollar church to the memory
of the little girl The property at Mont
gomery avenue and Bouvier street. Philadel-
phia, was first purchased and mortgaged for
$1,000, the instrument being held by the late
Alexander Stuart, of New York. and his broth
er, Robert Stuart, who agreed to cancel the
mortgage, provided the church should be
finished by Jan. 1, 1882. Alexander Stuart
died, but his brother Robert signed an agree
ment to carry out the original contract. Hav-
ing the ground, Pastor Mutchmore cast
around to get congregation and place of
worship. The church must necessarily be
built by private AID voluntary subscriptions
On the night of May 26, 1876, the congrega-
ton was organized in little frame shanty,
and numbered AZ persons. and Sabbath
school was founded; both have been growing
ever since. The church was built over and
around the old shanty, which was taken out
after the first floor of the new edifce was
ready to be laid. The new building is to be
literally a church for poor people, being free
in all its privileges It has now a member
ship of 284 persons, and an average atten- y
dance of 600. Its Sunday schools comprise
IS teachers and 355 scholars in the main
classes and teachers and 2S4 scholars in the
infant class, and it is situated in one of the
most rapidly developing sections of Philadel-
phia.