The Story of a Life Part 10

The congregation preferred to take business affairs from their own number, rather than from the minister. As an example--One morning a man rose and said: "Since I have been hearing Brother Carr preach, my Bible has become a new Bible. I never understood it till now. But there is one subject Brother Carr has omitted--the duty and privilege of financially supporting the preacher." Having delivered himself upon this neglected theme, the man concluded: "You know me and my circ.u.mstances. I am a shipwright. I will give half a crown a week. My wife will do the same.

There are many present who can do as well. Now, will you do it?" And the audience rose and said, "We will do it!"

Before a house had been selected for the missionaries, Mrs. Carr went on a visit to some new-found friends; as a result we have a series of letters between her and Mr. Carr; we trust our extracts from them will be both judicious and interesting.

Mr. Carr to Mrs. Carr: "If my writing proves obscure, remember I'm an obscure person in this country. Brother Magarey left for Ballarat. We all went with him to the depot. Alex. and Vaney" (Magarey's sons) "could hardly keep from crying when they saw their father leave." (Alex. and Vaney are to board with the Carrs in order to finish the course at the University of Melbourne.) "I went to look at that house in Clarendon Terrace, but behold, it was let when I got there! However, the owner said he wouldn't have been willing to have you teach a school in it; and besides, it would have been too far out for the boys (Alex. and Vaney) to walk. There will be plenty of houses to rent when the people go to the seaside for the summer." (By which we mean December).

"We must wait a little longer and be satisfied. I trust in G.o.d. We are to do a great work here, if we will be humble and abide the Lord's will.

One confession at chapel, today, five at the hall. There are very large audiences. Your cla.s.s did well. They seemed much disappointed in not seeing you, but they didn't come right out and say they preferred you as their teacher--mighty smart girls! Brother Zelius says I must remember him to you." ("Brother Zelius'" was the first house the Carrs entered on landing at Melbourne; it was he who had sent O. A. Carr the money to come from America. Years before, Zelius had stood penniless, save for one shilling, and entirely unknown, in the streets of Melbourne; but he had done well since he heard and accepted the doctrine as presented by the Christians, and it was natural that he should have a proprietary interest in his missionaries.)[8]

Mrs. Carr to Mr. Carr: "We reached Nutcundria last evening in safety. The day is intensely hot" (November 29). "I do not believe I could ever love the Australian climate. Give me the sunny and starlit skies, the balmy breezes, the snows and winter winds of old Kentucky! There is abundance of ripe fruit here. Couldn't you come for me next week? The trip can be made in a day. I shall never regret placing my heart in your keeping; for every day, I see a new light shining in your character."

Mr. Carr to Mrs. Carr: "Joy came this morning in the shape of a letter apiece; yours from brother Joe, which, I see, came by way of Panama.

Mine is from sister Minnie--her news has touched and thrilled my inmost soul: Jimmie has obeyed the Gospel; and dear old father, working hard all day, and going to prayer-meeting at night! Poor mother! I wish it were so that she could attend oftener. Vaney, Alex. and I were at the hall last night. Alex. announced the hymns for me. Vaney says they would take me for a Catholic priest if it were not for my whiskers. Vaney is always cutting at me--we have a good deal of fun as we go along. Say! I would like to see you monstrous well! If you stay up there much longer please send me a lock of your hair! I have a house in view--3 stories, 8 good rooms, just behind Fitzroy Garden, near corner of Clarendon and George streets, price 130 pounds. All rates paid. This house is beautifully situated; from it you can view the Botanical Garden, the Bay, Emerald Hill, etc., but it is a long walk from chapel. I have spent about 3 hours in preparing a lecture for the cla.s.s, tonight" (we will hear more about that cla.s.s a little later.)

Mr. Carr again: "Two confessions at chapel, 3 at the hall. The work is going gloriously on. I baptized 10 Friday night. I am very busy. There is great excitement. The Rev. Mr. Ballantyne has issued a tract on baptism. The brethren want me to reply as soon as possible, (presenting arguments for immersion). I ought to get out the tract in 10 days, so I cannot come up for you. If Miss McIntyre will come down in coach with you, I will take pleasure in helping her on the way to heaven; but I cannot come next week. We have no house yet. Brother and Sister Zelius send love."

Mrs. Carr, to Mr. Carr: "I walked out this evening to meet you, and was disappointed. Soon after, I received your letter; of course I approve your conscientious course of conduct. I do not ask your _best_ love, Ollie, that belongs to G.o.d; I ask only its reflex. Your fealty to our Savior is the foundation-stone upon which my affection is built, sure and firm. How strong is my faith that that foundation-stone will ever stand! Next to my faith in Jesus, it brings me the sweetest consolation.

I loved you better than my brother, for I left him to follow you; but I am learning more and more each day, how much better. G.o.d knows how my heart yearns toward my dear brothers and sisters; but you are dearer to me, Ollie, than all the world beside. In reply to Mr. Ballantyne, studiously avoid all offense; that which offends will never convince.

May G.o.d bless your efforts for the promulgation of the Truth."[9]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Government Building, Melbourne]

[Ill.u.s.tration: "Take a Look at Diana and the Stag"]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Favorite Walk Toward Barclay Terrace]

"Last Friday morning we started to the Spur, an offshoot of the Dandenon. The scenery along its sides and summit, is the most beautiful in Victoria. The gorges filled with enormous pines, stately grottos, and gums, and peppermints, are a rich feast to the aesthetic nature--but I saw nothing that so stirred the depths of my soul, as the dreamy hills in autumn along the magnificent Ohio. About 40 miles below the Spur we found good accommodations at Heyfield, which we enjoyed after the long jolting ride.

"We rose at five the next morning to visit the Falls on the Thompson.

Their beauty fully paid us for our mile's walk--it seemed three to me.

The Falls are magnificent, the lower plunging from 50 to 100 feet, the highest from 200 feet. We made our way with considerable difficulty along the whole face of the Falls. We had to cling to the saplings to keep from rolling headlong into the river. I had a severe headache that morning, and kept my hair hanging, and the bush was so very thick, I wonder I did not share the fate of Absalom. I hope you will get us a house as soon as possible; I am anxious to have a home of our own--if that is possible in a foreign land. I hear that Mr. Surber is going to New Zealand. May G.o.d bless you, my dear husband, that you may bring many into the Kingdom."

Shortly after Mrs. Carr's return to her husband, they received another letter from their fellow-countryman, T. J. Gore, who is still afraid they may succ.u.mb to homesickness. The manner in which he argues against such a feeling, is very philosophical: "Our home beyond the bright blue sea is lovely; there a father and mother are longing to lay their arms about our necks and say, 'Welcome home!' What a happy meeting that would be!--but not to be compared to the welcome into everlasting arms.

Brother Carr, we are going home--we have already embarked--we _are_ on the ship, the good old ship, and swiftly we are speeding over the waves of life. We have met a few storms, but the Captain said, 'Peace be still.' The barometer has been low, but He said, 'There's no danger in this ark of safety!' G.o.d only lent us our little homes among the hills of Kentucky; it is true they are dear to us; but in a few years He will lend them to others of whom we know nothing."

A sentence farther on explains, perhaps, how the writer can be so calmly philosophical: "You have, of course, heard that I am married. Mrs. Gore begs to be remembered to you; we cannot be as strangers: You and Sister Carr must come over (to Adelaide) to see us soon."

Letters from home may have accented the stress of home-longing, but others came that gave heart for the long separation, such as the following from Mrs. Drusie Ellis of Ghent, Ky.; "Last night, I heard of your safe arrival in Australia. I loaned the paper containing your letters to a friend. She brought it back with the remark that she could scarcely keep from tears while reading it,--and, as I told Doctor, '_Scarcely_ keep from crying, indeed!'--when I could not even _mention_ the subject in a steady voice! The thought of your wife so n.o.bly giving up home and country for the great work touches my heart deeply. I read of her welcome with streaming tears, and determined to write this word of Christian sympathy, hoping to add one little thrill of joy to hearts so truly consecrated."

Mr. and Mrs. Carr decided to rent the house already mentioned, in Barclay Terrace. It commanded an extensive view of Fitzroy Gardens, through which they walked every day. The way into the heart of the city led among its statues and greeneries. One might sink down to rest on the benches beside the fountains, or loiter on the rustic bridges,--only, alas! there was little time for loitering!--inhale the fragrance of the perennial flowers, and take a look at Diana and the Stag before setting forth for Chapel. From the bandstand ascended, "G.o.d save the Queen," to the Southern Cross. Who shall say what element of charm did not steal unconsciously from such beautiful surroundings into the hearts of the missionaries?

We have said there was little time for loitering; the reader shall be the judge. Two nights in the week were devoted to the prayer meetings of the two churches; one night was devoted to those who came to Barclay Terrace to inquire after the truth, or to learn Christian duty; a fourth night every week was the lecture-night at the Collinwood Church--the Church established by Mr. Carr; on Friday night there was a short sermon and then the baptizing of those who had already inquired after the truth and made the good confession, and who had been instructed as to the purpose of baptism, and what would be expected of the subject as to attendance at church, contributing, and the governing of one's household.

As the weeks pa.s.sed by, the history of the Friday nights presented the appearance of continuous "protracted meeting." Rarely, if ever, did a week pa.s.s without the application and acceptance of from one to twenty members. Nor did those who joined the one body, the church, enter upon the crest of an excitement-wave, or with a superficial notion of what it meant to be a Christian. The following note will show that converts were not to be obtained with undue haste:

"The following was pa.s.sed at the Business Meeting of 23rd March, 1869: 'That this Meeting considers it inexpedient for our Evangelists to invite public confessions, seeing they regard it desirable to have conversation before baptism.'"

"CHURCH SECRETARY."

Besides the work already indicated, there was an "Improvement Cla.s.s"

each week, composed of young members of the church, who read essays, and made short talks, to be criticised by the minister. From this cla.s.s were selected those who addressed the congregation on Sunday morning. These young men were closely bound by affection to their leader, Mr. Carr.

There was something perennially young in his own bosom, that responded to their youth.

His health was delicate, as it had been in Lexington, and the never-relaxing labors of every night in the week, might have made another prematurely old and solemn. But his boarders, Alex. and Vaney Magarey, could have told of many a time when he slipped to the attic with them for a hasty game of marbles. Such innocent, though clandestine sport, heartened him up, no doubt, to deal the more telling blows against ecclesiastical foes. Who in reading his trenchant arguments on the subject of Baptism, would have suspected that at that very moment the marbles might be clinking in his pocket![10]

No wonder the young men felt his spirit akin to their own! After prayer-meeting they would walk with him "part of the way,--" which usually extended quite across the fifty acres of Fitzroy Gardens, and up to his very door. And as they walked they talked, talked with all the earnestness of youth, when youth is in earnest.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Waiting in Melbourne, alone Will go to Hobart]

One night when the conversation had become unusually absorbing they stopped and, looking up, found they had halted before the Model School Building,--which corresponds to an American college. The subject of acquiring an education had often engaged them before, but now ideas came to a focus.

"I have a calf, and some carpenter's tools," said one young man, addressing Mr. Carr earnestly; "I will sell them, and buy clothes and books if you will teach me."

Without hesitation the minister cried, "Come on."

"May we come too?" chorused the others.

"Yes!" Little did they realize how much that consent meant; how much of energy, of which there was no surplus; how much of nerve-drain and anxious thought. A number of young men decided to come to Barclay Terrace every day. They came and Mr. Carr gave them the same course he had taken at Kentucky University. This was, indeed, paying back to the world with interest, the good that the world had bestowed! When Eneas Myall carried to Carr's tavern the money that started Oliver Carr on his road to the University, little did he dream of the beneficent influences he was setting in motion on the other side of the globe! It is so with every good deed. One never sows a word of love beneath the northern skies, but he may find it blooming some day, beneath the Southern Cross.

Mr. Carr's boys had studied some--not much--at the public school. They knew something of English grammar; he did not teach it to them; he taught Greek grammar, and it is needless to say that they became good grammarians. They read the New Testament in Greek. They were taught rhetoric and logic from Mr. Carr's notes, taken at the University. Among the cla.s.s was that T. H. Rix, who is today a successful evangelist.

Another--he who sold his calf and tools to buy books,--stands today as the best educated man in the Church of Christ, in Australia, next to T.

J. Gore. He is G. B. Moysey. Who will say he would better have kept his calf?

Thus we find O. A. Carr becomes a schoolteacher, though his purposes were all set otherwise. It seemed forced upon him by his consciousness of the good he might do. We are to find the same thing occurring again and again in his life. Duty seemed ever calling him to the desk when his own heart yearned for the pulpit. As yet he was able--both to preach and teach with all his might. Unfortunately that might was not based upon physical resources.

On the other hand, Mrs. Carr must always teach, wherever she was, because teaching was a part of her being. She had opened a cla.s.s for young ladies in her home. Her accommodations compelled her to limit the number of pupils to about twenty; but, on account of this limitation, she was enabled to select those girls who were most refined, and who promised the best spiritual reward for her labors. This was her second school; and while it was by no means so pretentious as her college at Lancaster, the results were doubtless more far-reaching.

Her system of education,--indeed, her conception of education--differed materially from that found in Melbourne. If her method seemed radical to the most conservative, it filled with delight those open to impressions of new truth. Mrs. Carr's scheme to educate a girl was not to fill her with facts, but to develop her mind and heart. This has not always been understood by those who patronized her various schools. The commonplace test of "how much a pupil knows," did not always apply to her cla.s.ses.

She took pains to teach them how to preserve their health, how to deport themselves, how to preserve their modesty and integrity, how to become forces in the world.

In a word, she did not labor to root in those tender minds a mult.i.tude of facts which the pa.s.sing of time sweeps away; it was her desire to form of each impressionable girl, a n.o.ble woman.

It was her conviction that no higher work exists in the world than the development of high ideals of womanhood. If she could have reached young girls in any other way, in daily living, she could have dispensed altogether with the school.

The school was but a means to the end of shaping lives. There were, perhaps, girls in Melbourne at that time, who were learning more facts than Mrs. Carr's girls were learning; who might, it may be, have answered with greater exact.i.tude if questioned as to the dimensions of the planets' orbits, or as to the geological eons.

These things did not seem to her of supreme importance. What to her mind, mattered, was to make world-blessings of her girls. This was so deep a conviction of her soul, that she had little patience with literalism.

It is necessary to understand her purpose, in order to comprehend the relationship between her and her pupils. When Mrs. Carr found in any girl those true and enduring qualities which, however much neglected, promise a harvest of love, and grat.i.tude, and n.o.ble deeds, and thoughts, there were no pains too great for her to take, to develop that soul.

But when it was her lot to be thrown with a girl whose life-purposes were all antagonistic to the sphere of the cultured woman--a girl who suspected insincere motives, and watched for faults, and hardened herself against sweet influences, Mrs. Carr felt that she could do more good by giving her time to more susceptible spirits.

Thus it came about that the pupil who reached after the higher standards of life, found Mrs. Carr a woman of motherly tenderness; while she who drew back, found her cold and unsympathetic.

It is difficult to learn the real character of any teacher from her pupils, unless we take into consideration the character and point of view of those interrogated. The pupil in sympathy with the instructress will praise her, one in rebellion will blame her. It seems necessary to say this, because Mrs. Carr has often been misunderstood and misrepresented. An obdurate and intractable pupil usually has a family to espouse her view of the case; and the neighbors share the impression of the family; and visiting guests share the opinions of the neighbors.

It is not always that the pupil wilfully misrepresents; indeed, in most cases, she does not intentionally do so; but she cannot understand, because her heart is not in accord. It would be a strange thing if any teacher should be universally praised by her pupils, and the suspicion would inevitably arise that she had not done her full duty.

On one point all of Mrs. Carr's pupils are agreed; that she was a splendid disciplinarian. Whether you loved her or feared her, or disliked her, she made you keep good order while under her instruction.