The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-11-16


came and said they'd started little SIM
! day school on Swain street and asked
me to join them in the work. / did so,
and never worked so hard in my life
rs | labored there for two years and \
half. But / was happy in it. / was not
walking on the earth. Somehow | was
conscious that Jesus Christ was by my
side as | tramped those hills and went
into those homes.
There were, as ] have said. but ten
Of us-five men and FIVE women, aud
| only two Of the men owned the.r homes
| But from this small beginning has
| grown the greatest Sunday School m d
/ one of the strongest churches IN the
| State Both number their membership
| by the hundreds.
But that is not ALL Other honors
| God has given you in this work.
DO you know where started the or
phanage work in this State? 1t began
with that little Swain Street Sunday
School from which this church sprang.
! There was a man in il, you all know or
him, big i'll body and brain, large in soul
and generosity. He looked around him
and slowly spelled out the need for
home for the homeless. In that little
perhaps. better than anywhere else he
had opportunity to see this need. He
often discussed the matter with me and
finally he undertook it. From that lit
tie church and from that man has come
the orphan homes in Oxford. Thomas
vile, Barium Springs, Goldsboro Raj
eigh and other places
How many II death-bed has been
made easier by that great mans work.
He has dried the tears of the widow
and kept the wolf from many home 70
the fatherless he was a father, to the
homeless he gave shelter.
I'VE don't count things as God counts
them. When we organized that Little
church over yonder it meant peace and
good viii to the orphan though in our
blindness we knew it not Oh the TRACE
dies that must have gone on before
Jack Mills day! ! have seen women
stand on the very threshold Of heaven,
the songs of angels IN their ears, the
brightness of the glory of God in Their
faces-then would come to them The
thought Of homeless children left be-
hind. bringing back the cares of earth.
The organization of this church
meant good tidings for the prisoners
Dr. Hufham then told how the reli-
gious work at the penitentiary was or
ganized by Rev. j. X. Howell, then Ia
ter how he was joined in it by Col
Heck, Mr.. A. NJ Mcpheerers, Governor
Holden, Jacob s. Allen and others.
Il went ont on Sunday afternoons to
preach to the prisoners. Never did man
and women so appeal to me. | can see
them even now, slipping into the hall
rhot hniI
with bowed head and furtive look. /
never had such experiences as i had with
these prisoners"
The speaker related number of the
experiences, some amusing and some pa
thetic.
These people were on my mind day
by day. They won my sympathy and
pity-locled behind gray walls, never
hearing the talk and laughter Of child or
woman. So one Sunday when | Went
out l carried with me two little boys
members of this school. How the pris-
oners did feast their eyes on their child
ISL faces and as we started away two
men followed us as far as they could
and then asked permission to make the
children present Of some trinkets they
had made in their cells.
One of these boys, years later as he
was about to go off to college, fell sick.
Sunday came. He was secretary Of the
Sunday School in the church nearby and
as the bell rang that morning
he tried to get out of his
bed. We told him he was too i'll to gb.
It's the first time that bell ever rang
and | was not there, ne said The Tues
day following he died. When we
searched his trunk we found among the
things he'd treasured up and kept, the
little bone trinket given him that day
by the convict"
Dr. Hufham told of the ex-conyicts
he'd met in his work since and the graft
tude they expressed for what had been
done for them by the good men who
have tried to give them the gospel.
ut is a great work that can never
die. In North Carolina the Christian
people will hold these prisoners in their
hearts and seek to uplft them until they
are in Gods sight equal with the an
gels.
'TThe founding of this church was
a brave enterprise. ! have seen brave
deeds, but nothing equal to the courage
of those ten men and women when they
started upon this work
''But somehow we didn't once lose
faith. If there had been Il committee
lunatico inquirendo | tremble to think
what might have been their verdict in
regard to us. Even as it was people
said, Huffman means well, but But
Huffman didn't stop to consider what
they were saying. He didn't care. He
meant to succeed there or die there. 1t
was victory or DEATH | invited folks to
go over TO Swain Street church with
me. They said their wives didn't want
them to go. And so the women too.
were against us. Lord God, what cour-
age it takes in work of this kind when
the men are Indifferent and the women
are against you!
but God doesn't look upon things as
men do, and He meant this church to
nave and shake the city of Raleigh. And
the shaking soon came.
THAT old man over there (pointing to
Rev r. M. Jordan), who is not as old
as he looks and not half as wise, came
here and started a meeting. And then
for the first time house to house can
yass of the city was made. In one
house a woman told me she had not
heard a sermon in seventeen years, in
another none of the family had been 10
church in seven wears. still anothnr ,yo-