The vision of a short life; a memorial of Warren Bartlett Seabury, one of the founders of the Yale Mission College in China ...

Front matter

a jttemotial

OF

WARREN BARTLETT SEABURY

Contents

I. Ancestry and Early Years ... 1

II. A Year at Hotchkiss 8

III. Life at Yale 14

II A Year At Hotchkiss

Upon graduation from the High School, Warren passed his preliminaries for admission to Yale, but it was thought an advantage to give him a year in some good fitting school. Hotchkiss, at Lakeville, Connecticut, was chosen, and it was his good fortune to come under the thorough instruction and refining influence of that virile friend of boys, Edward G. Coy.

No event in a boy's life so tests his character as when he begins life in an academy away from home. To a positive, aggressive nature it brings an opportunity for leadership; to a boy of unassuming disposition it demands a reenforcement of decision, manliness, courage. Warren's happy art of making friends helped him to win his way into many hearts at Hotchkiss, but fully to adapt himself to his new surroundings required an exercise of will. He shrank from self-imposed prominence; he preferred to be sought after rather than to court favor. There was something noticeable in the way he carried himself, — open to receive impressions from others, very guarded in admitting others into the inner chamber of his heart. As a result he chose his friends cautiously and with discriminating reserve.

b i

A YEAR AT HOTCHKISS 9

In the direction of athletics, especially foot-ball, Warren developed a healthy ambition, but, having received an accident to his knee, he was kept back by parental warnings. " You are very, very kind to me. May this introductory sentence prepare you for the

next (you know me), I want to play f b .

When I get to Yale, whose Freshman class will be bigger than the whole school here, I won't get a chance to play at all, not through my whole college course. Of course I shall do as you say, but I hope you will say — what I want you to." He accepted a negative answer with that earnest deference to parental choice which always marked his conduct.

The studies of this single year at a preparatory school were directed to the final test for admission to college, and were in a measure review work. He took an honorable stand in all of them, but made his best record in English. " I am anxious to get an honor in some study ; I hope it may be in English, where I often get ' A.' My instructor in that department says my standing is high enough to warrant one. ... I am very busy ; besides twenty-one hours a week in the recitation room, I have glee club five times a week, gymnasium an hour each day, Latin at sight two evenings a week, debating once a week with duties as secretary of that Society, treasurer of the Pythian, and library work."

No record of those days at Hotchkiss would be complete without reference to the deepening of his religious life. He thought much upon problems older heads than his have found it impossible to solve. And yet he made his modest attempt at a solution : "I understand the Trinity better than I used to. It seems to me something like this, — God sent his Spirit into the world, first through a man whom He called * My son.' Jesus Christ was born like any other person, but was filled with the Spirit of God, so that He was on this earth God in the flesh. He was sinless, but being a man He came to meet and overcome temptation. (Note. It is possible for us to become Christlike, if we overcome the temptations of life.) After God had sent His Spirit into the world in visible form for the short space of thirty-three years, and after men had seen a perfect life which they might copy, He withdrew His son. Then He sent the Holy Spirit, Who takes possession of every one in proportion as he has the heart to receive Him. Christ was a man of like passions with ourselves, and yet He was the Son of God. How can I reconcile that with the fact that He was with God before the world was? Yet they need not necessarily conflict, for Christ could have come down to earth, taken the form of a child, and filled the body as He grew to manhood.

Mr. B says there is a time when young men

think they are very wise, when their simple, childhood faith gives way to broader views of life. I hope

A YEAR AT HOTCHKISS 11

to pass that stage in perfect safety. Its influence I begin to feel." In the same vein of reflection he wrote a little later : " It is much easier for me to see the reasons for serving Christ than it is for me to realize in my heart that God is everywhere, although I have mental proof of that fact and also that He is attentive to my prayers. But I am praying for ability to see more clearly what I really desire. I don't know what ' animating Presence ' is, but I think that God is that Divine Something which has got hold of the world and enters every Christian heart. Conscience is a quality of the Divine Spirit."

Warren seldom referred to his own spiritual experience, feeling it was one of those things that cannot be exposed to the view of any one. These words were rarely duplicated in his correspondence with the home circle: "I have been thinking of my own Christian life. I believe it will strengthen my faith and be advantageous to me in every way to do active work for Christ. I have a feeling that such work will help me to be a better Christian and to come into sympathy with Him. I must make my college life, now so near at hand, doubly profitable, once for the home friends and once for myself. I thank God that in pleasing my earthly parents I am pleasing Him."

Warren's religious life developed normally, growing into a serene faith and at times into an exuberant joy. And yet the tide was not always at the full : " I have made several good resolves of late, but I think it is better not to speak of them, but to show what they are by their results." In the following he admits an experience unknown to him before, nor did he ever use the depressing words again : " I am almost discouraged, and yet I cannot explain it. I feel doubtful about religion. I don't know what to do. I must remember that religion is not emotional. I almost feel that in what I have been writing there were things which I could not have fully realized or things in which I was deceived. Don't mind what I say. I shall be all right soon. At any rate it will do me good to get home once more. I hope to get into college without a condition but am afraid of being over-confident." In this case at least his habit of underestimating his ability was not well founded. He passed all his examinations for admission to Yale without conditions.

The instructors and students of Hotchkiss School followed Warren to his new work in China. His name was kept before them by speakers from outside, and there were many references to his labors in China during the Missionary Conference at the School in 1907. To centralize this interest and give it permanent form, a tablet is about to be erected in one of the Yale Mission buildings at Changsha, bearing the following inscription : —

A YEAR AT HOTCHKISS 13

IN LOVING MEMORY OF

THE REVEREND WARREN BARTLETT SEABURY, B.A.

A FOUNDER OF THIS COLLEGE

BORN SEPTEMBER 17, 1877, DROWNED AT RULING, JULY 29, 1907

THIS TABLET IS ERECTED

BY THE

HOTCHKISS SCHOOL

OF WHICH HE WAS ONCE A MEMBER

He walked with God and he was not for God took him

Ill

" All is well ! I am a Yale student in full standing J Please send my bond." The bond under seal, soon in Warren's hands, suggests a "bond" of a more personal kind, and more enduring, between himself and the college of his choice. It was destined to hold him to her as with bands of steel, to mould his character and give it structure, to shape his life's work and give it concreteness. It was " a bond under seal " to the Almighty for service in China.

The first of his family to enter Yale, he threw himself into her contagious activities. He quickly responded to her bracing " spirit." Although of a sensitive temperament, he had withal a good measure of self-reliance, force of will, discrimination in matters of personal justice, a fine passion against defenceless abuse; he had the qualities which call out respect among his associates. His year at Hotchkiss had given him a circle of acquaintances exceedingly helpful in establishing him in the student life of the University. That he early caught her atmosphere appears in a letter of his, published in the Dedham "High School Bulletin," soon after the opening of Freshman year : " Yale is preeminently a college of customs.

The Freshmen are not permitted to sit on the fence in the Campus unless their nine wins the base-ball game with the Harvard Freshmen ; nor can they pass ball nor spin top on the Campus (!). This * privilege ' is reserved for Seniors. Only Seniors can bow to the President as he passes down the middle aisle at Chapel. Although athletics are interesting to all the students, they are not predominant over the intellectual side of Yale life, as outsiders sometimes claim they are."

Soon after the opening of college Dean H. P. Wright gave the customary address to the Freshman class; his subject, "Privileges and Duties of Students," with its fourfold division, " Character, Honor, Privilege, Example," furnishing Warren a motto for his course at Yale. During Freshman year he roomed in Lake Place, at the house of Dr. E. F. Mcintosh ; during Sophomore and Junior years at 272 Lawrance Hall.

In the summer of 1897, at the close of Freshman year, Warren travelled in Europe with his cousin, M. Phillips Mason, a Junior at Harvard. They visited Paris, did a good deal in Switzerland, saw the beauties of the Rhine, looked into Western Germany, toured Holland and a little of Southern England. Writing of the trip, Mr. Mason says : " Warren had two qualities which are invaluable when travelling with others ; he was always good-natured, ready to undertake anything, and he had a deep sense of humor. He seemed to enjoy people, on the whole, more than places. He was always having his fun with the various persons whom we happened to meet, and did love to have his little talks with them to see what they were made of. While we were in London we went to service in Westminster Abbey . Canon Gore preached ; his text was from one of the verses in the story of the Pharisee and the Publican, and he very effectively inveighed against self-satisfaction and exclusiveness. He came close to his audience, and his manner was extremely informal. We both felt that it was one of the finest sermons we had ever heard. But Warren remarked that the formality of the English service did not seem to him in keeping with the directness of Canon Gore. This illustrates not only his dislike for formality in religious worship, but his good sense of the fitness of things."

More recently Mr. Mason wrote : " On one of the last drives we took together, I remember Warren's telling me that he thought the main thing that made life worth living was to live for some high ideal. I think he felt most at home in an intellectual and spiritual environment, but his real ideal was to bring about something of an architectonic nature. He was primarily executive."

Warren's candor and ingenuousness lacked nothing in their claim on his fellows; he was never tempted to be other than perfectly transparent. Various forces contributed to develop his Christian life. One of these was the college pulpit. It was his habit to give in his weekly home letter a digest of the sermon of the previous Sunday. He wrote of his enjoyment in listening to Dr. Alexander McKenzie, whose definition of a Christian he long remembered and quoted : " A Christian is one who does for Christ's sake what he would not do otherwise."

Of President Stryker of Hamilton he writes : " He uses forcible language, and some of his bursts of eloquence would seem out of place from one who spoke less spontaneously than he. One secret of his power lay in his naturalness and ease." He was impressed by the ornate diction of Dr. Henry van Dyke, the evangelical fervor of Dr. Burrell, the practical weight of Dr. Teunis Hamlin, the logical acumen and Saxon clarity of Dr. Jefferson. Stirred by a powerful discourse by Dr. Bradford, he hastened to record his feelings : " I have been thinking that a minister does very little good who does not preach fundamental truths. While listening to such a man as he, one feels the love of God, the power of God, and something of His eternal verities. I sometimes think we talk too much and think too little." Later in his course he writes of the services in Battell Chapel in a more appreciative way still: "I don't know what I should do without the divine stimulus of hearing God's Word preached, and being in a religious atmosphere; I am praying for guidance and the soul to follow God closely in my life's work."

The field for mission work in New Haven is a wide one. As in the case of many other students Warren went into it heartily, believing it would have its bearing on his future, as a Christian worker. After an evening at the East Street Mission he described in his home letter the arrangements of the building and the atmosphere of the room, " filled with college men and tramps." When testimonies were called for, two men arose to show their desire to live better lives : " The leader told them that if they wanted to follow Christ they could not have lodgings in that house that night. * Which will you choose ? ' said the leader. They both gave up the lodgings." This frontier-like method of putting an untutored inquirer to the test did not commend itself to Warren's common sense. But his open-mindedness towards any methods by which a man may be reached led him to review the subject thoughtfully and make a personal application to his own life : " I don't think I myself have learned some important truths yet. I wish that the desire for work which I feel in a meeting like this burned in my heart all the time. May God give me an earnest enthusiasm in His service this week."

The religious life at Yale was sometimes quickened by the coming of preachers or evangelists of note, selected for their power over young men. In Warren's Junior year George Adam Smith and Dwight L. Moody held special services at the College: " Moody preached with his usual frankness and straightforwardness on 'sowing and reaping.' After speaking for half an hour he asked those who could do so to remain longer, and many stayed. Then he asked if any had the courage to say they wanted the gift of eternal life. There was a pause; then I tried to count the voices of those who said ' I have,' or an equivalent, but could not keep track of them. Over one hundred followed him downstairs, while a large number of Christians remained above to pray. We have been praying for ten days that Moody and Smith might have power to move men's hearts. May God forgive us for doubting that He would answer our prayers, and for being surprised when He did answer them to-night. We are very thankful for the work done by glorious Mr. Moody. We look for a decided spiritual atmosphere here at Yale. We have a list of twenty men in our class who have responded to his direct appeals to enter the Christian life. It has always seemed to me that the great feature of the Christian life was a deep, animating, changeless, spiritual energy, — something which never seemed to be my possession. If I were not wrong in trusting so much to feeling, and if I were not deceived by a temporary enthusiasm, I should think I was drawing nearer."

The growth of Warren's Christian life was marked from the outset by a healthful virility. Imbedded in a deep religious instinct, it broadened sanely into an every -day life in God. There was no feverish straining after a stereotyped form of godliness, but the unfolding of a man's inner self, with God as its Soul and Being. He believed that Dwight Hall, as a centre for the activities of Christian men, was a distinct localization and development of the spiritual aspirations of students. It quite fitted into his own needs as expressed early in his course : " I think my Christian life is somewhat dependent upon my surroundings. I must be in close alliance with others in order to feel enthusiastic."

It would be setting up a false standard were we to judge of Warren's character by his religious aspirations alone. No student could have a more rational view of the whole range of college life than he. He was extremely fond of athletics, and believed they were necessary to a well-proportioned manhood. His delight in returning to the track, after an obstinate handicap of two years caused by an injured knee, was very keen : " I have been running nearly all the fall, in preparation for the autumn contests. They took place yesterday and I am the happy possessor of two shining cups, one for second in the one-hundred-yard dash and one for first in the two-twenty. It was a source of genuine satisfaction to me, but I had to run all the way. As a result I was given a big dinner at the best restaurant in the city." Writing later on the same subject, he says : " The class games took place yesterday. I was not successful. It is a sort of belief of mine that there is a law of compensation among men ; that if one cannot excel in one direction, he can in another. It only remains for him to find out what that direction is."

The shaping of Warren's future calling began to appear near the close of his Junior year. His letters of this period were especially thoughtful and specific in their references to his place in God's kingdom. About this time he, with thirty others, who were "supposedly thinking about entering the ministry," was invited to spend an evening at the house of President D wight. To be in such a company showed that he was ready to be classed among those who were looking toward that profession. In the same letter he quietly remarks : " I have had quite a long talk with Arthur B. Williams, Jr., of the Yale Missionary Band." Thus it appeared that the seed had begun to germinate. Theology and missions were filling the horizon of his future. He had succeeded in getting many of his student friends to go with him to Northfield that summer. As the meetings advanced, the ploughshare struck into the deepest depths of his soul. It brought light, conviction, decision. "The meetings lack nothing of their consummate power;" and of that " power " Warren partook in abundant measure. When he returned home he beckoned to his mother and father to come into a room by themselves, and there he told the story in a single sentence : " I have made up my mind to be a missionary.'' The light of a joyous hope was on his face, the assurance that he had done his full duty.

And yet that characteristic of his, to weigh well any step he was inclined to take, led him to write, on his return to college : " I want to consider with you the question of signing the Volunteer Card. If I decide to sign, I want to do it before I graduate, both for my own good and for the good of those about me. This is my last year and oh ! the thoughts that come when I reflect upon that fact ! I will not let this fire go out if, by God's grace, it is possible to keep it burning." And again a little later : " During this Senior year I am trying to live. There is so much that I have not done, the danger is I will not do it in this my last chance. The fact is I don't know just where to begin." The significance of such a step seemed to him so weighty that he held it in a state of suspense until March 1, 1900, when he writes, " I signed the Volunteer Card yesterday. You know this is no sudden decision of mine. I have been thinking of it for a long time. Of late special influence has been brought to bear upon me through my friend, Brewer Eddy, and others. I have looked at the matter from every side, and while I do not claim to appreciate this step fully, I feel I have been divinely guided and do not fear self-accusation for over-hastiness. I am weak, but pray for increasing strength every day. I. H. N." Nothing could indicate more clearly the prudence, the caution, the deliberateness of Warren's manner of coming to a crisis in life than this. The decision was made for all time ; nothing could turn him from it. The week following brought to Yale the two men who of all others were fitted for such a critical epoch in his life, Mott and Speer. " Mott's work," writes the new volunteer, "has been marked with power from the beginning. Not only has he reached unusually large audiences by his clear argument, solemn earnestness and conviction, but he has devoted a large portion of his time to personal interviews with men. In this way he met in the neighborhood of forty students who desired advice. We who had been praying and working for the meetings, were deeply stirred by seeing the number and quality of the fellows not only attending the meetings but staying to know more perfectly of * this way.' It was our special duty to get men to come, men who needed such influence, and to talk with them afterwards. Speer spoke to a full house last Friday evening. Robert E. Speer is a vision of God."

Another force that was at work to strengthen him in his recent decision was the Ecumenical Missionary Conference in New York, April, 1900, which he calls "a fine monument to the power of the Gospel of Christ. I am glad I attended. I was impressed with the fact that there is a great host of missionaries in the field ; that the missionary enterprise is a mighty one, supported by the best element in the churches ; that the missionary's calling is one of the greatest dignity, perhaps the nearest fulfillment of Christ's will on earth. One remark made near the end of the meeting is well worth remembering: 'The close of the Ecumenical Conference is the beginning of the Ecumenical conquest.' The meetings as a whole were a great inspiration. I hope now to go on from strength to strength, without the interruption caused by lack of conviction, hesitancy, and other petty things that have foolishly hindered my growth." In such confessions as these his extreme sensitiveness and shrinking from display appeared. He could not affirm a conviction he did not feel. The fibre of his nature was so delicate that he sometimes feared his deeds might fall behind his faith : " I may be wrong, but I have felt as if I did not want to tell of my decision on all sides. Telling my near relatives would not be advertising myself, but I have felt as if it would be better to let the facts appear in due time, without haste, when my determination has ripened and developed my life a little more fully ; and so it appears to me better to say little or nothing to others about it at present."

In a letter of introspection and intense desire to make no slip in his final choice, he writes : " It seems to me that if God is at one end of this chain of fact, the need of man is at the other, and if I can be one to fill the need, that is one reason for my going. I tried to examine every foot of ground. I said, ' If God is not running any risk in this course, I am running none/ Medicine I do not care for; law seems less and less attractive as time goes on; journalism is not mine. On the ground of common sense my life seems to be directed towards serving Christ actively. If a minister, why not a missionary ? So you see how practically I have gone into this matter. I do not feel that all is yet done. I lack deep faith, confident hope, Christian joy. If I ever needed your prayers it is now. I am face to face with the future ; I must press on."

In this resolute spirit Warren moved forward. His Christian life, natively assertive, now becomes intense in its grip on men, in its vision of things spiritual. He developed a new instinct for action, for service, and for God ; he now finds new ambitions to arouse in other lives.

Returning to New Haven for his last term of Senior year, and sitting down in his room in Vanderbilt Hall, which he was so soon to leave, he writes: "It is a serious time. May God bless our last months here together. Although by this time I ought to have become accustomed to leaving home, this last leavetaking was as hard as any. The vacation was peculiarly enjoyable and every member of the family seemed dearer. There are so many things that come up now, so many advantages to avail myself of, that I wish sometimes I had four years more to devote to service in college. And yet, from another point of view, the nearness with which I approach graduation does n't seem to increase my desire to stay. When these thoughts come to me I am almost ready to accuse myself of disloyalty to Yale. And yet in spite of the happy associations and the varied joys of college life, graduation is not an altogether distasteful thought. There is a new world before me."

As Commencement Day draws near, he writes: "It is impressive, this thought of graduating from college, when one has time to think. But thinking has not been my lot much of late. Examinations are on and I have worked pretty hard so far. Up late at night and early in the morning has been my custom, with plenty of hard work during the day."

Warren entered with great ardor into the festivities of Commencement Week. It was not an easy thing for him to realize that his graduation day had really come. To his parents and sister " Dib " (his pet name for her) he gave a hearty welcome. Beneath the exterior of pleasantry there always flowed the current of reflection. The breaking of college ties brought him many a pang of regret; his frequent return to his Alma Mater afterwards revealed his love for her.

Were it possible for a single writer to give in one picture a view of Warren's college life, no one would be better able to do this than William B. Stoskopf, who has written : —

" As a friend and comrade he was ideal, loyal to the core and dependable under all circumstances. Roommates for three years as we were, I do not recall the slightest act on his part which was unworthy of the highest traditions of the Christian gentleman.

"As a student, while far removed from the 'grind,' Warren was careful, painstaking, and thoroughly conscientious. He viewed his college studies as a preparation for usefulness in his after life, and possessed the quality of assimilating knowledge and making it a part of himself. It was natural that a man who threw himself with his whole soul into as great a variety of activities as Warren did, should attain a genuine popularity. His moral force and sound practical wisdom soon made him a valued counselor for many men who prized his friendship.

"The forcefulness of the man was illustrated in the way he announced to me his decision regarding his life's work. Although I knew he was deeply interested in the Student Volunteer Movement, I had no idea he contemplated going to China until he quietly told me one evening as we were sitting in our room. What most impressed me was his utter unselfishness. The only matter worthy of consideration appeared to him to be where his life would count the most for God and man.

" Warren's life was a life with a vision. During his college course those near him perceived that he was living in that atmosphere of souls where visions may be seen.