in john chambers, sanctified common sense was combined with spiritual fervor. as a young pastor, he had right ideas about finance and the honest support of a church. money was needed for the salaries and expenses of keeping the edifice comfortable and in repair. before the first year had passed by, it was evident to the "chamberites", that a new building would be necessary, even if the law suit had gone in their favor. the voices of the croakers and prophets of evil, at first loud and thunderous, had sunk to the "peep and mutter" stage and were rapidly approaching silence.
in a new field, larger financial resources would be necessary, but from the first, only manly, honorable, and truly scriptural methods of providing revenue were employed. never in all the history of the first independent church was there a fair or supper to which admittance was charged. those methods of raising money, too often associated with religious societies, to the scandal of faith, the equipment of the jester, and the furnishing of the ungodly with excuse for self-righteousness, were tabooed by mr. chambers. he believed both that the laborer was worthy of his hire, and that men ought to pay for their religious privileges. he was so successful in this policy that within six years, having paid all debts, his people in the spring of 1830 bought at broad and george (now sansom) streets, that lot of land for four hundred dollars, which afterwards was sold for over four hundred thousand dollars. the land and house of worship, the subsequent enlargement and repairs, as well as the running expenses of the church, so long as it[64] was independent, were paid for by subscriptions. "we have never in our lives," said john chambers in 1875, "gone abroad for means to help us."
the region west of broad street was then "out in the country". green fields, or vacant lots, stretched to the schuylkill river. at broad and market were the water works. when afterwards these were removed and the pumps and reservoir were established at fairmount, four small parks, with their trees and green sward, made one of the city's breathing spaces. even then broad street was considered the western boundary of the city of philadelphia.
bright and happy was that february morning of 1830 when the young pastor, with many of his flock around him, took his place on the green sward at broad and sansom streets. with his long hair brushed into lively motion by the matin breezes, he poured out a prayer to heaven for the blessing of the triune god. "like all irishmen, john chambers knew how to handle the spade", and handle it well he did on that day when he turned up the first spadeful of earth. after the diggers came the masons, who built honestly a solid foundation, and then the corner-stone laying in march, 1830, and finally the dedication in june, 1831. dr. john mason duncan preached first in the new house in the morning and the sermon was royally long. one little boy, now an honored pastor of eighty, remembers that it ended at half-past one! alas, that saint paul's faults, like that at troas, should be more imitated by us preachers than his virtues! in the afternoon rev. james arbuckle preached. "the house was crowded to excess all day."
how one family, and indeed a group of families allied by blood or marriage, came to be life-long supporters of and worshippers in the first independent church, we must now tell. we shall speak of one member named mary.
[65]
it was in 1832, the winter in which the famous english actress, fannie kemball, sister of mrs. sartoris (whose grandson, in our day, married nellie, the daughter of general grant) was starring in philadelphia in the old chestnut street theatre, on the south side of philadelphia's most fashionable street, above sixth. mary had spent a winter of great gaiety, revelling in the joys of the dance, the theatre and every sort of worldly amusement—much to the grief of her mother, a woman of unaffected piety, who was praying that her daughter might look less at things perishing and more at the eternal.
yet no message from the unseen, sent through a human preacher, had yet reached the ears of mary's inner being. it was while the anxious mother was most earnestly praying, that mary was invited by a maiden friend, whom she had met at a picnic and with whom she had formed a warm friendship, to visit her and go to hear the new minister on thirteenth street. mary came, and saw, and heard, and was conquered. at the first sermon she hung spell-bound on the lips of the emotional and electrifying young orator, who during all his ministrations had also that peculiar unction, without which, preaching, however logical and learned, avails little.
on coming home, after the service in the new church on broad street, mary told her mother that she would never go to the theatre again; she had heard the grandest speaker that she had ever looked upon in her life; who outshone every actor she had ever seen, and whose message had more charms for her than the theatre itself. soon after this mr. chambers with his wife made his first pastoral call at mary's home.
about this time, late in the winter and toward the spring, there was a revivalist assisting mr. chambers, who to elo[66]quence and magnetic power, added the power of the draughtsman. he was an artist in words and with the chalk also. he drew a cross on the blackboard, and without the element of color, but with the aid of music moved the emotions mightily. he called upon the congregation, led by sweet voices, to sing, "alas! and did my saviour bleed". his appeals, tender and powerful, were responded to. many were brought "under conviction" and declared themselves from that time followers of jesus christ. on the day that mary united with the church, one hundred persons were received at the communion table and into membership.
this is one sample picture of many of dissolving views of souls in mr. chambers's ever enlarging congregation. his ministry was from the first one of direct appeal. it was emotional, the personal element being powerful always, but there was no leaving of the converts to themselves or to neglect. behind and above the celtic fire and enthusiasm of john chambers, was the life of the spirit moving them through him. the converts were looked after. they were personally warned, exhorted, instructed, and taught. during this first year, yes, during fifty years, john chambers seemed an incarnation of paul's scripture: "whom we preach, warning every man and teaching every man that we may present every man perfect in christ jesus". no extra or special meetings were held in these early years, and none that we can recall in the later days, but the regular services were steadily "the occasions of converting power."
i have intimated that the secret of the great preacher's power cannot be discovered by mere logical analysis. one might as well try to explain john chambers's influence over human hearts and lives by his printed words alone or through mere description, as to attempt to show, by a simple knowledge of the properties of lead alone, the astounding[67] effects of a krag army rifle. the venerable dr. henry clay trumbull, veteran editor of the sunday school times, writes under date of june 11, 1903:
"an orator's or a preacher's power sometimes depends largely on his intensity of utterance or of manner. he can actually throw himself into his hearers so that they will, for the time, think or feel as he does, even beyond the meaning of his words. thus it was said of whitefield as a preacher that he could move an audience to tears by saying the word 'mesopotamia'. one who has felt the power of some preachers can understand the force of that statement.
"rev. john chambers was a man of power in this line beyond any other of the preachers i have heard in my more than seventy years. i sometimes came from hartford to philadelphia to hear him in his church on broad street. his voice would ring out with such intensity, and his words would so thrill through every nerve of my being that it seemed to me that a more than human being was making an appeal. on more than one occasion i have taken out my pencil to note such an utterance which had seemed to be inspired, but there was actually nothing to write down. no period could give the ring or the thrill. it was simply george whitefield saying 'mesopotamia'. it was an element of john chambers's power. but i love to tell of that power".
the communion seasons were from the first occasions of the manifestation of spiritual power. often the minister himself would be almost overcome by his own feelings, or, perhaps we should say, by the vividness of his vision of the crucified lover of our souls. often in such a case it was his habit, during a pause in the rush of feeling to sit down upon his chair, throw his head back and completely cover his face with his handkerchief, his hands resting upon the arms of[68] his chair until his tears and the storm of emotion had swept by. these over, he emerged as the embodiment of quiet grace, dignity, and calm strength, the master of the assembly.
after the darkening of his home through the removal from it by death of his wife, mr. chambers, left with two little children, found consolation in even profounder consecration to the work of leading souls into the way. his own spiritual life was deepened and his sympathies with suffering humanity widened by his own sorrows. he had always a message for those, who like himself, knew the weight of known griefs or secretly borne crosses. in later years he was to lose his only son. my own recollections of the young physician, whom my pastor always so tenderly referred to as "my son duncan", are of a handsome and promising man, whose life was all too short. i remember how keen and warm were the sympathies of great congregations, during the time when the father's heart was wrung with grief, as the telegrams and letters told of the ravages of disease and the approaching end.
the biographer never saw the first mrs. chambers, who is described by those who knew her as very lovely in person and manner, but her children and the other "partners in life"—his favorite phrase—are well remembered.
the second marriage of mr. chambers was on september 30th, 1834, to martha, the widow of silas e. weir, a merchant of philadelphia and the daughter of alexander henry, a merchant in philadelphia, and aunt to mayor alexander henry.
my impressions of martha chambers extend from the month of march, 1855, until a short time before her death, on friday, march 16, 1860. i have dim remembrances of my being a very little boy, when an august lady, who wore[69] her hair in bands low down on her cheeks, as the fashion then was, with a very sweet smile, spoke kindly to me in the broad street church. i recall how every sunday morning and afternoon, the stately man of god with his "companion in life", a lady of equally imposing appearance with himself moved up the middle aisle and, if i am not mistaken, often arm in arm, until reaching the space opposite the pew. then the pastor would with his left hand, open the door. after ceremoniously seeing his consort well inside, he would shut the pew door and then move briskly forward and up the pulpit steps to the sofa.
thus happy in his home life, rich in sweet domestic influences having ever a true "help meet for him", john chambers, during most of his mature life, was helped not only of god but by woman's finer strength. he was the master of hearts also in his home, having browning's "two soul sides". martha chambers once told my mother that she envied even the washerwoman that washed her husband's clothes. in philadelphia to-day there are many daughters and grand-daughters that do excellently, and they have "martha chambers" in their name.
of each one of three noble specimens of womanhood, in their appropriate time and sphere, it could be said,
"her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land".
