1906-1907. AGE 18-19
His lamps are we,
To shine where He shall say:
And lamps arc not for sunny rooms
Nor for the light of day;
But for dark places of the earth
Where shame and wrong and crime have birth;
Or for the murky twilight gray
Where wandering sheep have gone astray,
Or where the lamp of faith burns dim
And souls are groping after Him.
ANNIE JOHNSTON FLINT
WAS IT ONE RESULT of the step taken at the Lakeville Conference that in sophomore year Borden was drawn into most unexpected and fruitful work for others? The Living Water was flowing out in new, unlooked-for channels.
But first he had to face the fraternity question which had been causing him a good deal of exercise of mind. There were five junior (Greek letter) societies at Yale, as well as the three senior fraternities already referred to in Borden’s letters. Unless a man had been elected in sophomore year to membership in one of the five, the senior societies would as a matter of course pass him by. Each of the junior societies received thirty new members annually, and as with the senior fraternities, the greatest possible secrecy was observed in all their proceedings. A fraternity man would “keep still” if his society were even mentioned. It was this secrecy and the exclusiveness of the system that troubled Borden, whose uncle had been one of the founders of Wolf’s Head, of which his brother was a member. “He could have had anything here that he wanted,” wrote Dr. Kenneth Latourette in this connection. But, though feeling no less than others how hard it would be to be shut out, Borden had his misgivings. His friend Charles Campbell recalls:
Shortly before College opened, Bill asked me to come to Poughkeepsie to talk over the society question. He invited James M. Howard and E. F. Jefferson at the same time. The discussion centered about such questions as these: Could we as Christians go into a secret society? Would such action harm or help our work for Christ? It was a new thought to most of us. We had taken the society system very much for granted, and had never questioned whether it was right or wrong for us to join one of the fraternities. But Bill took nothing for granted. He was a servant of Jesus Christ, and everything must be tested and bear the stamp of Christ’s approval before he would enter upon it.
The element of secrecy was one of Bill’s difficulties with regard to joining a fraternity. As a Christian he felt that he should not go into anything that he did not clearly understand beforehand. Then he feared that the fraternity system led to the forming of cliques in the college. He did not wish to be set apart from the class. Further, Bill did not wish to have anything come between him and God. He had given himself wholeheartedly to Christ, to be His follower pure and simple, and he wanted that relation kept always real. Therefore he felt he had no right to vow allegiance to any secret, man-made organization.
This attitude is entirely comprehensible to the thoughtful Yale man who thinks back to his freshman year and remembers how certain men lose their heads and set out to make a fraternity as the be-all and end-all of existence. I remember Bill’s telling me of one classmate who said that he should consider his college course a failure unless he made Delta Kappa Epsilon among the first ten elected. Happily such insanity does not continue long after the verdant stage. This man, as I remember, never made Delta Kappa at all, but another fraternity in its second election, and I am sure he did not, as a senior, thin his course a failure—certainly we, his classmates, did not.
The discussions at Poughkeepsie brought out much that was to be said on both sides, but no definite decision was arrived at. The first fraternity elections would not be given out until a month after college reopened, so Borden and his friends went back with the question more or less unsettled. The position this little group held in the estimation of their classmates is seen in an interesting light as the letter continues:
A short time before the fraternity elections were given out, the class elected the “Deacons.” At Yale, during our time, each class chose four men at the beginning of sophomore year who acted as deacons in the University Church and were; charged with responsibility for the religious work of their class. The day of the elections, Bill, Jim Howard, Pop Jefferson and I prayed that God would guide the choice, so that the right people should be appointed. As it turned out, the four of us were chosen! We always used to laugh about that―it seemed so like praying for ourselves.
Soon after came the first elections to the junior fraternities. We had talked together many times since the visit in Poughkeepsie, and had discussed the society question from every point of view. I think Bill talked the matter over with Henry Wright and one or two others, and of course with his mother. The final outcome was Bill’s decision to go into no society. The others of us decided to join if we had the opportunity. Bill adhered to this decision all through his college course, never joining a secret society, though he did join the Elihu Club, a non-secret organization, at the close of his junior year.
That the decision cost him a good deal is evident from letters to his mother:
October 3, 1906
Last night I had several callers—two bunches of Psi U men, one of Delta K. E., one of Zeta Psi. But as I’m not worrying, it didn’t bother me, and I was able to study between their visits. I knew most of them.
October 6, 1906
I have had more ups and downs in the last day or two than I’ve ever had before, I think. Nothing very serious to be sure, but annoying. Just at present I’m recovering from a down. Your little notes are a great source of comfort and enjoyment. I am going out to get some exercise now, throwing the hammer.
October 18, 1906
Well, I guess I wanted to go in a good deal more than I realized... I have not slept much the last few nights I know. The question yesterday resolved itself into this: Are secret societies a good thing―from the Christian standpoint, of course? I cannot feel that they are either good or necessary, therefore I cannot go into one and lend them my support. I hope that God will bless Jim and Jeff and Charlie and use them mightily, but I cannot see my way clear. It is settled.
He felt like a different man, he wrote as soon as this decision was reached. “Busy and happy” was his next report. The sacrifice had been great, greater perhaps than anyone realized, but the reward was great too. Far from losing influence by not being a member of a fraternity, Dr. Kenneth Latourette stated that “as a matter of fact he had more influence with his classmates in his senior year than ever before.” He had more freedom also, and more time to give to his work as a deacon and in other spiritual ways. And this meant much, as it proved, in connection with unexpected developments.
It was on his nineteenth birthday, the first of November, that Jolla Magee, the graduate Secretary of the Y.M.C.A., stopped him in Dwight Hall and asked for a few minutes’ conversation. There were matters in which he needed help that he felt Borden could give.
New Haven, a seaport town midway between New York and Boston, was a place where vagrants of all sorts were apt to congregate. Work was to be had on the docks, and it was a halfway house for tramps and hoboes moving from one city to the other. It was also the location of the county jail, from which prisoners were constantly being discharged with no one to give them a helping hand. For while drinking saloons and infamous resorts were to be found in abundance there was no Rescue Mission with its doors always open to those who needed succor. This state of things appealed to John Magee from a double point of view. He saw the need of the down-and-out; he saw also the possible influence of such a mission upon the college community, as a witness to the living, saving power of Christ. And he believed that Borden would see and feel it too.
“For,” as a modern writer has well stated, “there is an empiricism of religion which is worth attention. It challenges the skeptic to explain both the conversion of the sinner and the beauty of the saint. If religion can change a man’s whole character in the twinkling of an eye, if it can give a beauty of holiness to human nature such as is felt by all men to be the highest expression of man’s spirit, truly it is a science of life which works and one which its critics must explain.... Let the skeptic bring his indictment against the lives of those who attribute to Christ alone the daily miracle of their gladness.”
What could the unbeliever make, for example, of a man who had been the terror of the worst ward in New York, the river-thief who would not have hesitated, as he said himself, “to cut a man’s throat for a five dollar bill, and kick him overboard,” who was sentenced to fifteen years’ hard labor in Sing Sing when he was only nineteen, and came out to sink ever deeper into drunkenness and sin, with no power to break his chains―until Christ met and transformed him? Yet that man was Jerry McAuley, who established in his old haunts the first of such Rescue Missions, and was a means of temporal and spiritual blessing to thousands.
What would the skeptic do with the educated, able man of business, entangled in the meshes of the drinking habit, sinking from depth to depth of misery, until his friends, home and wife all gone, haunted by crimes he had committed―a hundred and twenty forgeries against one man alone―tormented with the horrors of delirium tremens, there was nothing before him but the jail or suicide, and he had chosen the latter? Yet that man was Samuel H. Hadley, McAuley’s successor in the Water Street Mission, and like him an apostle of the lost. Truly “if any man be in Christ Jesus he is a new creation.”
Knowing such facts as these it was little wonder that Magee and Borden began to pray that a similar mission might be established in New Haven, for the sake of the University no less than for the unfortunate. To his mother Borden wrote:
November 1, 1906
John Magee is trying his best to do just what we have wanted done―to develop the evangelistic element and spirit here at Yale. As you may know, Dr. J. W. Dawson is to be here for a week in February. The present head of the McAuley Mission in New York is a college graduate who went down, down, and was converted about two years ago, Edward C. Mercer. They had him at Princeton recently, and John has been inquiring to see how it went down there. He found that it was fine, and he is going to invite him here to speak at Dwight. That’s just what I’ve been hoping for, and I think you have too. John is really a corker and is doing a lot.
He had me up in his room today to speak about the need He had me up in his room today to speak about the need for a good City Mission here in New Haven.... The plan is to get a suitable building in the downtown district and have a real Rescue Mission, run by a man from Water Street, or some such place, and a few picked men from the University.... It would be great!―just the thing to take a few skeptics down and let them see the Spirit of God really at work regenerating men.
November 8, 1906
Last night I went over and saw Magee. Mr. Skinner and old Brother Martin (converted drunkards) met with us, and we talked over plans for the City Mission. I tell you it was inspiring to hear those men talk!... We decided to pray over the matter for a week and see what would develop. I hope to go to the prison with them a week from Sunday. They go once a month. The prospects for the Mission are very bright, and I feel sure we shall have it, if it is the Lord’s will.
Meanwhile his classroom work was not neglected. At the close of freshman year Borden had discovered that his marks were not up to Phi Beta Kappa standard, and he decided to change his habits of study. Previously he had gone on the method of studying up for each recitation just before it came. Now he set himself to prepare a day ahead, and never retired for the night without having all his preparation completed for the following day.
“It was a hard method to live up to,” commented his friend Campbell, “and showed his strength of will. Think of what it meant on Saturday to get all Monday’s work out of hand. For Bill never studied on Sunday. He would work till eleven or eleven-thirty at night, but not later. Then he could sleep quietly, and be ready for whatever calls upon his time might come. It meant much in his mental make-up and when it came to examinations.”
“I figured up yesterday where my time went per week,” Borden wrote early in sophomore year, “and found that about thirty-five hours are wasted somehow. I am going to see if I can’t systematize, so as to get the most use out of them.”
That he must have been successful in this effort is evident from the amount of work he was able to get through in addition to his studies as the year went on. The daily prayer groups were still kept up, as he wrote to his mother in December:
You just must come to New Haven and meet these fellows, J. B. and B. R. especially. The latter is the latest addition to our group and is growing every day. It is interesting that out of our bunch of eleven, eight should be A men, one B and two C; a pretty good showing I think.
The responsibilities of Class Deacon were taken seriously by the four friends. It seems that the office, which is much respected, dates back to the founding of “The Church of Christ in Yale,” in 1756. Up to that time the students and faculty had attended the old Congregational Church on The Green, but it was felt that a different style of preaching was desirable from that suited to the usual mixed assembly. Much opposition had to be overcome, but ultimately the University Church was organized on Congregational lines. As in that fellowship the officers are not elders but deacons, the term “Class Deacon” was adopted to designate the students chosen by the undergraduate body as their representatives in church affairs.
In Borden’s time they held their meetings weekly, a committee of twelve men, four from each of the sophomore, junior and senior classes, charged with the spiritual interests of their fellow students. These meetings were times of sincere prayer for help and guidance, and resulted in “strong friendships that gave a certain sense of unity to the religious life in the college.” Borden and his friends had been already on the Freshman Religious Committee, and brought to these new opportunities the same earnest aggressive spirit.
And all the while, Borden was writing just as frequently to his mother.
October 21, 1906
Charley, Jeff and I got together today and divided up the class (consisting of about three hundred men). The plan is for each deacon to have a quarter of the class as his parish and to know every individual man. It will take time, but we believe it will pay.
October 24, 1906
Things are going to hum this year, or I’m very much mistaken. We deacons meet with Joe Twitchell, ‘06, the College Y.M.C.A. Secretary, every Wednesday evening. He is very amusing in his impetuosity, but very frank and good-natured.
December 10, 1906
You will be pleased to hear that X. is getting on very well in every way (the classmate who formerly boasted that he had broken every commandment but one). He leads a Sunday School class and has a Phi Beta Kappa stand in his studies. Rather a contrast with last year!
Had my first exam today, Physics. It was very hard.
Have received six Christmas invitations. Guess I’m still in society!
Sunday, January 20, 1907
We have had a fine time today, and I feel like singing the Doxology....
You remember I told you that the first meeting of our Bible Class with the new teacher wasn’t much good. Well, Wednesday we had an extra good prayer meeting at noon, and had faith. The result was we had a fine meeting that evening, though not many fellows were present. Charlie and I spoke to Mr. C. afterward and said that we were behind him in prayer. He was very nice, and we feel confident for the future.
My Mission Study class went very nicely on Thursday.
I am thankful to say I have been doing a little more real work for Christ. I asked N. S. to go and hear Gipsy Smith, and he said he would if possible. I also wrote to M. T., following up our talk at Camden. D. W. was on my heart; and I wrote a pretty plain letter to him. This is about all my long-distance work.
With F. I haven’t done much more, but the door is open. My work with S. is going finely. After our Bible groups today, which went very well, I had the best talk with him I’ve ever had. He’s nearly there, I believe.
Charlie’s work is going well. He has a new group started today (Bible Study) among some seemingly impossible fellows. He is getting hold of perhaps the brightest man in the class, who is also one of the most dissipated....
This afternoon and evening though were the best. At Band Meeting a Mr. Smeet from China spoke to us. He was filled with the spirit and gave a wonderful message which stirred Ken and me deeply, and we are going to work more for volunteers out of 1909. The evening service had a fine message for us too. Everything is leading up to the meetings Feb. 3-9, in answer to prayer.
Here on my floor things are going badly. The fellows play cards a great deal―most of it is gambling, and on Sunday too.
January 25, 1907
Things have been moving here in a great way. We went over our class again among the group leaders and made a new canvass. Charlie and I each took a hard bunch of fellows, and after a little prayer went trusting in God. The way opened up wonderfully, and we each have a new group started, mine of four men, his of ten. Charlie has three groups now, and I two beside my Mission Study Class. So we are busy―with our studies and exercise.
Yet at this very time they were planning for the rescue work which early in the new year took shape as The Yale Hope Mission. The visit of Dr. Dawson and Mr. Mercer could hardly have been more opportune, demonstrating the power of Christ and the need in men’s lives for such a Saviour.
February 10, 1907
I have just come from the last of our special services, and it was fine.... The meetings have had a great effect. Mr. Mercer’s talks have opened men’s eyes to the evil of the “social glass.” (That was what ruined him, while in the University of Virginia.) “Shef” has been moved as never before and is ripe for the reaping. Every man in the University must be reached!...
I just want to say right now that any day in which work is not done for Christ is wasted. Moreover, I’m a fool for letting such days be—for they are not pleasant.
It was a welcome development therefore when, a few weeks later, the Rescue Mission was opened which provided new opportunities for the work he and others were learning to put first in their lives. Much of hope and prayer lay behind the modest beginning, of which Charlie Campbell wrote:
A room had been rented in a cheap hotel in just the right quarter—the room which has been used ever since for the meetings. It had hideous dark red paper in those days. Later on, Bill bought the entire building, and we now have downstairs dormitories and shower baths, and a place in which clothes can be fumigated, as well as a good, inexpensive lodging-house upstairs, known as the Hotel Martine. For two dollars a week a man can have a room to himself, a little home.
But we had no such helps in those early days and did the more ourselves in consequence. I can remember distinctly how we carted hymnbooks in my suitcase down to the hall for that first meeting. The handle of the suitcase broke, and we had to hoist it upon our shoulders and carry it through the streets! Bill was heart and soul in it all. It was great to see him in those meetings―so earnest in his presentation of the truth and in dealing with those who came forward for prayer. After wards, he would often take men around until he could find a place for them to sleep, and pay the lodging house charge himself so as to avoid putting temptation in their way by giving them money.
It was the sixteenth of March when this beginning was made, and before the month was over Borden was writing to his mother of a man from Water Street who was coming to live on the premises and take charge of the growing work.
Mr. Bernhardt was a graduate of the University of Georgia and did post-graduate work at Vanderbilt. He rose to the position of cashier in a big southern Express Company. Then, through gambling, he got into debt. This led to stealing, first a little, then more, then a large sum and he was caught. Result—five years in a southern prison which he found to be “a literal hell.” He went in a comparatively innocent boy, and came out “a fiend.” He could get nothing to do, so he deliberately became a professional criminal and was before long an international character. One of his sentences was, “work in the mines under the lash for three and a half years, never seeing daylight”!
In all, he spent over twenty-two years in prison. After the last term he “lost his nerve” and determined to be a man. He traveled eight thousand miles in search of employment, without success. At last, stranded in New York, he was about to commit suicide. On his way to the river he heard singing from the Water Street Mission and turned in. Nothing happened that night or the next, but the third night the great change came. I cannot tell you all about it—but he is a Christian now and no mistake!
His present job is clerking in a cheap Bowery hotel, but he is always ready, Mr. Mercer says, to go anywhere and speak for Christ. His ambition is to get into rescue work and devote his whole time to it. This is the man we have asked to come and take the Yale Hope Mission. All he wants is a clean place to sleep, three meals a day, decent clothes and some money in his pocket to “help the other fellow.” Sixty dollars a month, he says is too much, in addition to board and lodging, so we are to give him fifty.
Bernhardt was no disappointment. Many a man on the Yale campus as well as on the streets of New Haven had reason to thank God for his coming.
“The Yale Hope Mission is booming at present beyond all expectation,” Borden wrote at the end of the month. “Bernhardt began last Sunday and that evening eight men came Forward, several of them in dead earnest. I was unable to go down last night, but Magee told me that seven more were seeking salvation. Bernhardt is fine, and is taking hold of the work wonderfully.”