A story of twentieth century Christianity : the road to Jericho

Preface

Among the chief reasons for writing this book and placing it before the whole body of ministers, is to call their attention to the fact that as the indignation of righteousness, the fundamental anxiety to seize upon truth and justice was the mainspring of the Reformation, so there is still an irrepressible cry for truth and purity in life and the Church. Here, in the United States, religion is commingled with all the habits of the nation and all the feelings of patriotism, so that here religion, so far as its vital power is concerned, is individual and not a name or a creed, but purity of desire and deed, Christly love of God and man ; religious truth being every man ’s property and right. For such reasons, we find that the American works on Moral Science are strongly espousing the maxim brought forth by a former president of Brown University, that every man is so created as instinctively to commit to the community of his fellowmen the protection of his rights and the redress of his wrongs; and his fellowmen, on the other hand, instinctively assume this authority.

Such authority and power must exert its influence even against the sins and errors of any organized society violating the social laws of man. Neither can we wonder at that, in our American Ethics, we are strongly reminded of that our Christian religion imposes upon every individual subjection to the civil power, as a matter of moral duty, on the ground that society is an ordinance of God. “Let every soul be in subjection to the higher powers: for there is no power but of God ; and the powers that be are ordained of God. Therefore he that resisteth the power, withstandeth the ordinance of God. Wherefore, ye must needs be in subjection, not only because of the wrath, but also for conscience’s sake.”

When, therefore, years of private appeals to one, or two, or twenty men of any organized society, are futile, it becomes the duty of society as a whole to secure to each individual the enjoyment of rights already bestowed upon him by the Creator; each individual also having the right to exhibit what he believes to be the truth, and gain as many converts to his opinions as he can. At this juncture, we read in the Practical Ethics of Dr. Francis Wayland :

“If he succeed in changing the opinions of his fellow-citizens, they will agree with him. If he, however, is unable to do this, and cannot contend by force, what then shall he do? I see no other course open for him than to do whatever he believes to be right, dispassionately and boldly, and suffer the consequences. These may be suffering even to martyrdom ; but if he suffer in the cause of right, he may in this manner do more to change the minds of men than by the most convincing argument. Persecution is apt to react powerfully upon the persecutor. Thus it was said in early days, ‘ The blood of the martyrs was the seed of the church/ It is from just such martyrdoms that the greatest and most important improvements in society have originated.’’

In submitting this work to the judgment of “society,” the editor indulges the hope that the hurried efforts and labors bestowed upon it, in the midst of anguish and persecutions, may answer the purposes for which it is intended.

C. J. A. H.

Concord, N. H., March, 1909.

If obedience to the will of God be necessary to happiness, and knowledge of his will necessary to obedience, I know not how he that withholds this knowledge, or delays it, can be said to love his neighbor as himself. He that voluntarily continues in ignorance is guilty of all the crimes which that ignorance produces; as to him that should extinguish the tapers of a lighthouse might be justly imputed the calamities of shipwrecks. Christianity is the highest perfection of humanity; and as no man is good but as he wishes the good of others, no man can be good in the highest degree who wishes not to others the largest measure of the greatest good.

Dr. Johnson.

We see then that in so far as wicked men are by their wickedness miserable, benevolence renders it our duty to reclaim them. And to such benevolence the highest rewards are promised. “They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars forever and ever.” But this is not all. If we love our Father in Heaven, it must pain us to see His children violating His just and holy laws, abusing His goodness, rendering not only themselves, but also His other children miserable, and exposing themselves and others to His eternal displeasure. The love of God would prompt us to check these evils, and to teach our brethren to serve and love and reverence our common Father, and to become his obedient children, both now and forever.

The more hateful to us is the conduct of those whom we love, the more zealous will be our endeavors to bring them back to virtue. ... It would be easy to show that the improvement of the moral character of our fellowmen is also the surest method of promoting their physical, intellectual and social happiness.

Dr. Wayland.

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Alternates

THE ROAD TO JERICHO

Chapter I

I am a voice of that life where darkness and terror reign. I am the despairing cry of those who remain below and who have sent me to herald their pain. They also long to rise to self-respect, to light and freedom.

Gorky.

The Arena.

In The Arena, with reference to the blacklisting-slavery of our days, Mr. W. J. Strong, counsel for F. R. Ketcham, who obtained a verdict for $21,666.33 against the C. & N. W. R. R. Co., asserts :

If a man who quits the employ of another can not get work in his occupation without first obtaining the consent of his former employer he becomes a slave. He will not dare to resist any oppression his employer may see fit to impose upon him. His wages may be cut to the starvation point. He may be called upon to work extra hours, yet he dares not complain, and he knows that he can not leave and get employment elsewhere. If he protests, his employer will say: “Very well, if you don’t like it you can quit.” The man having a wife and children to support will bow in submission, knowing that his master has him in his power and that he cannot leave and get employment elsewhere without the consent of his employer. This is slavery pure and simple. This blacklisting system is also being adopted in nearly all branches of corporate employment. It is one of the growing evils of the present era of combinations and trusts, menacing the liberty of a large class of our citizens. How long will it be before the laboring masses of the country, having become the helpless tools of these mighty masters, will do their bidding in the elective franchise? We shall then have a government of corporations, by corporations, and for corporations. The wage-earner who feels his little children tug at his coat-tails for bread will fear to assert his manhood and resist oppression. Can a republic made up of such citizens long endure? Blacklisting is the chief agency in fostering anarchy. It destroys manhood in citizens and makes them slaves. There must be a change. The love of liberty is too deeply rooted in the hearts of Americans long to tolerate this dangerous abuse. It is particularly against public policy because when men cannot find work they become public charges, if not criminals.

The American Magazine.

In the September number of the American Magazine, with reference to the reasons for the falling off in number of students for the ministry, a Western minister affirms :

Occasionally a superintendent is of narrow calibre, autocratic, abusing the authority entrusted him. Whom he will he puts forward, whom he dislikes he puts down and out. Not only does he hold absolute sway in his own state, but a postal to another superintendent can prevent any blacklisted man from getting a charge or hearing in that state. Many good men have thus been driven out of the ministry. Great good may result from an earnest minister’s work, but he will pay dearly for his fidelity to duty. The powers that be may blacklist him as an unsafe man. Many of his fellow ministers, who never raised a disturbance or anything else worth mentioning, will “knock” him and look at him out of the corner of their eyes half in pity, half in blame. The startling decline in the number of students for the ministry is causing alarm in all branches of the church. Statistics show that of American farmers, 90 per cent, come from farmers’ families ; of lawyers, 40; doctors, 30; bankers, 42; ministers, only 8 per cent.

Decoration Day.

Forsooth, this is not the first time “the Church,” wearing the name of Jesus, is making a poor estimate of the rights of man. On Decoration Day our heart bows down in grief over the silent forms of 300,000 men, concerning whose sufferings and dyings, it is deplorably alleged:

Especially should the pulpit and the Church scatter flowers on the graves of the Union dead, for these awful battles and this awful carnage were planned by the blindness and weakness of religion. The pulpit was too weak or ignorant to oppose slavery in its beginning.

As when the sanctuary is the tutelary saint and an amicus usque ad astra of a heinous wrong, the sword and the battlefield must come, the church is told on Decoration Day to bless the soldiers for having by their blood atoned for the cowardice of the sanctuary, why, then, should not the still available printing press be commissioned to affix the wholesome gaze of publicity on the doings of scribes, transforming the 20th century church into an institution for merely increasing their own market value, etc., grievously deadening the influence of religion as a champion of civilization? For even here, Wendell Phillips’ assertion is true, that only by continual oversight can the Democrat in office, the hand entrusted with power, be prevented from hardening into a despot.

In the history of England we read that in 1807 the gaslight was tried in London, “and soon the cheerful blaze chased away forever the tumultuous vagabonds who were wont, in the darkness, to insult, to plunder, and to kill.” So, in another sense, already in the twilight of the 15tli century was dawning the great invention that was to be so fatal to the dominion of the priestly bigot, and so efficient for breaking up separate centers of intrigues, etc. ; the press, to our best knowledge, being the means by which, in the figurative speech of the millennium, the worker of iniquity is to be cowed, so that, under the Argus eyes of publicity, the coarse-grained Cain and the fine-grained Abel decently may live and dwell together.

And as it is becoming an established fact, that, as in the case of the good Samaritan mentioned in the Scripture, by nature some individuals are of a benevolent and scrupulous disposition, while others are disposed to be regardless of the welfare of others, just as there are mild, good-natured horses, while others are ill-natured; and as the Spirit, the powerful restraint, may be withdrawn from any individual, even ministers of less goodness of nature, why, then, should not, as for instance a Monitor was built to turn the tide in our Civil War, an expedient bureau and publication be established to turn the tide in our present social skirmishes preceding the coming national crisis, such use of the printing craft to be governed by the maxim :

Let us raise the fallen wherever we can, but without forgetting to protect those who are adapted to support others in return. Let us help the helpers first. They are of the greatest value in the economy of the social world. Let us foster genius, especially the genius for doing good.

The Skeleton in the Closet.

Chesterton, one of the best known and popular critics of England, alleges that in the world, as it is today, it is obvious and beyond all discussion, that success goes not with merit, and that those triumph who ought not to triumph.

Experto crede, what has been the line of action in regard to the ever-hopeful and for the welfare of the people ever struggling, Rev. E. A. Fogelstrom of the Lutheran Augustana Synod ? When weighed down with overwork, “unduly laid upon him,” this warm-hearted founder of the Immanuel Deaconess Institute and Hospital of Omaha, Neb., had retreated to Thorsby, Ala., to recuperate, did not two men, one of whom became, and still is, his successor as to office and standing, on an ostensibly friendly visit, induce him away from his wife ; afterwards persuading her, and causing to be published that he was incurably insane, “in a mild form.”

Was an up-to-date, impartial investigation as to his real condition and needs conceded to him? Nay, were the doors to his own so beloved hospital and institution kept ajar to its noble-spirited founder? Or, unconcerned to his high order of sentiment and intensity of feeling, did not self-opinioned individuals, lacking the more delicate shadings of sensibility Fogelstrom, as a genius, possesses, exercise exclusive discretion over this whole-souled meek Christian brother, to deliver him unsuspectingly to a rival institution, and into the hands of a Church against whom the Lutherans are constantly militating, and in regard to which, from his childhood days, he has listened to stories enough to make one’s flesh creep? When subsequently he succeeded in escaping from this to him vexatious asylum, was he not then subjected to be examined by a physician who, on account of age and debility, by Fogelstrom had been removed from the staff of consulting physicians of the hospital Fogelstrom presided over; and by the aid of this jilted physician having locked him up in the state asylum of Lincoln, Neb., was not the Douglas County Court, without even seeing the man, called upon to declare him insane, though he had never been examined by a regular insanity board? And this, though a physician states, that if he were unscrupulous enough to want to get rid of his wife, he could lock her up in an asylum, merely by asking some “ broke” member of the staff of his town to testify to her dementia, which he can claim is not so readily fathomed by any one but himself, who has a more intimate knowledge as to her strange acts; he at the same time promising to do his “broke” brother a turn at some other time.

In advocating more rigid laws to govern commitment to State Hospitals, Dr. E. 0. Crossman, the chairman of the standing committee on the insane of the state of New Hampshire, asserts :

Certainly any person who is suspected of being insane is entitled to a thorough medical examination by the best physician in the vicinity, who has standing, character and professional knowledge of insanity satisfactory to the judge of probate or a judge of the Superior or Supreme Court of New Hampshire. ... A full statement should be made regarding the patient’s physical and mental condition, together with a history of any prior disease or injury, also a report of what the patient said and did in the presence of the medical examiners.

The superintendent of the state hospital should within two days after the admission or commitment of an insane person send notice of said commitment by mail, postage prepaid, to each of said relatives not exceeding five, and to any other person whom the person committed shall designate.

Such and other things are in accord with the commitment laws of Massachusetts and New York and are none too rigid.

* ‘ In Perils among False Brethren. ’ ’

Recently released from his “prisons,” and broken down from such tantalizing experiences, enough to frighten a man out of his senses, and at present appealing to the Synod for an impartial investigation and redress, was Fogelstrom, at the Synod ’s meeting last summer, met with the consideration it behooves disciples of Christ to manifest? Or, was his imprisonment, as he claims, merely a move to give the “kidnapper,” his successor, the president of the Nebraska Conference, the office and the place or home Fogelstrom had founded and loved so intensely? And, if so, why can not everything be settled in a brotherly spirit and with due regard for the wronged man’s feelings or deep sense ?

Withal, is not the heartrending appeals in his printed circular, “In Perils among False Brethren,” met with disheartening contempt, a circular evidently printed after the pattern of my own round robins? Now, if the Church were to throw into the insane asylums those who excel in the higher and finer manifestations of humanity, and those who are merely oversensitive and nervous from overwork, what would then become of our great improvements, and of the higher manifestations of humanity? All honor to the dark-skinned people of the coarse-grained virile texture ; they are needed. Yet, we need also purity and goodness in its more delicate shadings, though so often abused and misunderstood by the strong characters of the coarse-grained type.

Are we forgetful of that he who does injustice must make right — here or hereafter? “There being a law that follows him, and seizes him at last and thrusts him into prison, where the uttermost farthing must be paid. This is true, or there is no balance in the universe.”

Unbiased Testimonies.

That Fogelstrom was in possession of his faculties at the time he was induced away from his wife is beyond a doubt from the many testimonies rendered by unbiased parties such as Messrs. Ames Altman, J. F. Peterson, etc. Nay, the well-known founder of Thorsby, Mr. T. T. Thorson, testifies as follows :

Thorsby, Ala., Janaury 20, 1908.

To all it may concern:

This will certify that I have been well acquainted with Rev. E. A. Fogelstrom the last twenty or more years, during which time I have had a great deal of important business transactions with him. These started when we together laid the foundation of the now prosperous settlement of Wausa, Neb., and then I first gained my confidence in his ability. More complete plans, as years and experience have provided, were prepared together with him for the benefit of our Lutheran Church just at the time Fogelstrom was so suddenly induced away from Thorsby, April 21, 1906 (by two men), and our project interfered with. All the time I have been acquainted with Fogelstrom I have found him to be possessed of sound mind and common sense. His useful plans should have all encouragement, as they are valuable and he is able to complete them if not interfered with. It has been proven so many things have been done by him that seemingly were impossible for even the most favored men. He has conceived many useful things for the Church and the people, and at the same time sacrificed a great deal for himself. I have always found Fogelstrom faithful and a true servant of the Church. lie is gifted with a wonderful foresight and has a powerful enthusiasm so far above the average man that they cannot grasp the first part of his deep and far-reaching plans. He is one of the greatest promoters. I have not found his equal. He is continually straining himself in order to do the most good for his people.

Respectfully,

T. Thorsox.

This letter from Mr. Thorson cannot but remind us of how Robert Fulton, on account of his steamboat ideas, was mocked: “Poor fellow, what a pity he is crazy!” The above closing remark, that Fogelstrom is straining himself to do the most good for others, is also strikingly verified by, for instance, the circumstance that when my third supplement to “A Battle for Life” was sent to the ministers of the Synod, he was the very first to assuage and comfort, in the following letter:

Wahoo, Neb., November 14, 1908.

By dear Brother C. J. A. Holmgren:

The peace of Christ in all your anguish!

Yesterday, I received and read your circular with reference to your sufferings. Though at present unable to render any assistance, I will nevertheless write and remind you of I Peter 4 : 12-19. And let me tell you this is nothing strange in our days of apostasy. I have for thirty-five years faithfully and incessantly labored, so that through my efforts, under God, the Nebraska Conference now owns $250,000 in real estate; and it cannot be but a most bitter infliction to be subjected to such persecutions as my printed pamphlet discloses. But such things happen nowadays in the Augustana Synod, all because of the royal Swedish envy. Our poor Synod is indeed apostatized.

As to the straits in the New York Conference, I can certainly sympathize with you; and I know that many of its missionaries have had a hard struggle to get their small salaries in time.

Being now unable to sufficiently provide for myself, I deplore my incapacity to render you and others the aid that would otherwise be forthcoming. Are we to get our rights, it must be prayed for. and down upon, us. Should I succeed in this, in behalf of myself and family, then it may be possible for me to do something for you and other brethren in distress. Having lost $10,000 on the Deaconess Institution of Omaha, and being involved in debts, nay, without a home of my own, my first duty is to endeavor to retrieve from my own losses and injuries sustained.

Having for thirty-five years as faithfully as auy one served the Synod, it is heartrending to bear with what is referred to on pages 150-152 of the last synodical records, all on account of the influences exerted by the puppet popes in the Advisory Board of the Synod. What a shocking wrong and injustice! God is certainly aware of the many injustices I and others have had to submit to during the past thirty years. If repentance and confession of sins and forgiveness do not intervene such will cause more ill turns than they are willing to believe. God help us all and His wounded Church in these and the coming days of anti-Christ! This the supplications of your poor fellowsufferer. Though it is bitter to be wronged, such is, however, better than to commit the wrong, a truth I am often repeating to myself. Leaving to you as golden text Rev. 3:10-11, I am yours fraternally,

E. A. Fogelstrom.

The Express Law of God.

Though Fogelstrom had just written and published a splendid article on Prayer, and though, for instance, during his first Sunday at the State Asylum of Lincoln, Neb., he was permitted to go out and preach the sermon in the Augustana Synod church of that city, and just as this little book or pamphlet was to be printed, a loving letter came from one of the recently ordained uninitiated ministers, asserting: “This Fogelstrom is clearly not accountable for his actions and doings; and cannot be taken into consideration.”

The word “clearly” may, of course, have reference to the circumstance that prevailed upon by the unexpected appearance of my previous circulars, or affronted by the circumstance that Fogelstrom’s labors cannot be overlooked because of the $250,000 of real estate he has procured for the Conference, the ministerial bosses have advised the Synod to allow him $1,200 a year.

Nevertheless, his own statements in the printed round robin, “In Perils among False Brethren,” do not only bring to view that he is a heavy loser of property, etc., but that the way in which he has been evicted and handled is deleterious to the future welfare of the Synod and its labors among the newcomers to our shores, and requires another adjustment and reconciliation than that, for instance, at its last meeting the Synod still leaves the man under the continuous discretion of the ones he is appealing against, and whom he calls his kidnappers; the Synod even deciding that if the directors of the institution, built by Fogelstrom, see fit to place the man under a guardian, they have a right to do so. But, even if the Synod considers Rev. Lindberg, the successor of Fogelstrom, a holy, sinless man, Fogelstrom, nevertheless, considers this president of the institute to be deficient in the organ of conscientiousness, and for such reasons the mind, the nerves, of Fogelstrom must be harrowed by the thought that he is hopelessly in the very claws of his enemy, against whom he has appealed to the brethren for protection. If, therefore, his mind should have weakened on account of the previous experiences, how could the brethren expect that this man should improve under such cruel conditions?

Withal, should we judge from Fogelstrom’s message of whole-souled sympathy, love, sanity and purity, and should the author, of this, judge from his own experiences made in the past, this word, clearly tallies with the word express, when in 1743 the Church of Scotland solemnly declared that “the penal statutes against witches has been repealed by the Parliament contrary to the ‘express’ law of God. 9 1 It being due to the great lawyers of that time the credit of first stemming the foul torrent, it is, indeed, singular that the constitution of the Augustana Synod debars a lawyer from partaking in the proceedings of this nature, while the Synod’s advisory board seems to be powerful enough to grant a clique of chums full liberty to deal with a brother in the same style as the Privy Council of Scotland was in the habit of granting commissions to resident gentlemen and ministers to examine, and afterwards to try and execute, witches all over the land ; multitudes being burnt in every part of the kingdom, under these commissions, and under a regime in which the printing press and the revival of letters had not advanced far enough in influence so as to clear away the bulk of barbarous superstructures which had been raised on the foundation of the Gospel.

Chapter II

I am become foolish in glorying. Ye have compelled me, for I ought to have been commended by you, for in nothing was I behind the very chiefest of apostles, though I am nothing.

St. Paul.

To Your Tents, 0 Israel!

If, according to liis printed round robin, 4 ‘In Perils among False Brethren,” this genial man of prayer is thus ignominiously treated or victimized and handled out of tune with his sensibility and purity of character, what a manifestation as to the ‘ ‘ Church ’ ’ making a poor estimate of the rights of man!

In juxtaposition to this “skeleton” in the closet, our present introspection merges intrinsically into exploitations as to what flag the 20th century church unfurls, when prevailed upon to amend with reference to individuals having not concentrated time and energies on a single large institution capable of depriving coarse-grained antagonists of their chances of entirely depreciating and disparaging; it being, as a matter of course, comparatively easy to set at naught those whose strenuous labors, and the results thereof, can not be taken in at one single glance.

Thirty years ago, the author of this treatise was commissioned by his father to go to America to pursue and finish the preparations for becoming an expert mechanical engineer. The groans of suffering mankind finally induced him to make America his home, and to aid its citizens in rallying its friends and opposing its enemies.

Not satisfied with patching up a few holes rent by the brute in man, he wished to strike at the very root of the evil, and to follow Gladstone’s hint: “My only hope for the world is bringing the human mind in contact with Divine revelation.”

To this end, in 1887, he was finally induced to enter the college and seminary of the Lutheran Augustana Synod at Rock Island, 111., to prepare for entering the ministry.

The Lion and the Mouse.

Having graduated from this institute of learning and having faithfully and successfuly labored as pastor in the service of the Synod, he, too, finds himself at last succumbing as the victim of ministerial conspirators and blacklisted in a plot to ruin him. to get him out of the wajr, these enemies working in the dark; the world being also ever prompt to believe ill rather than good of a man. And though the author of this is innocent of the charge of insanity and of undue lack of tact brought against him, the bosses of the sanctuary, the Sanhedrim, consider it necessary to put him in the public pillory, to set him up as a warning to others of my class not to act in accordance with the principles of truth and justice, and not to rely on that success goes with merit.

As in the story “The Lion and the Mouse” it is said of John Ryder, the millionaire, so it may be justly said of these ecclesiastical leaders :

John Ryder had not been equipped by nature with a conscience. He had no sense of right, or wrong, or justice where his own interests were concerned. He was the prince of egoists. On the other hand, he possesses qualities which, with some people, count as virtues. He was pious and regular in his attendance at church, and, while he had done but little for charity, he was known to have encouraged the giving of alms by the members of, etc.

With Judge Rossmore’s daughter, in this same play, we may here repeat :