menu_book Chapter 4

Chapter 4 of Jerry Macaulay, His Life and Work, by Jerry Macaulay and edited by Robert M. Offord. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Kristen Hand. Chapter 4, Trials and Triumphs When we cannot see our way, we should trust and still obey.

He who bids us forward go will instruct us the way to know. In the preceding chapter, brief reference was made to the origin of the Water Street Mission meetings. Speaking later to a friend of the Thanksgiving there mentioned, Jerry thus described the memorable occasion. On Thanksgiving, we gave a good dinner to 150 poor people, and afterwards we had a kind of family prayer meeting. Brother Rue proposing to give thanks for the grand day we had experienced.

We got together for prayer and singing, and while this was going on, the outside people flocked in and crowded the house. Such a sight I never saw. Sinners crying, God have mercy on me. Lord help me. And while I was on my knees, the Lord said, you had better open the door every evening. And so I did. And this was the beginning of the grand revival since carried on at the Water Street Mission, commencing in such a humble way and yet doing such a great work among all sorts of people, rich and poor, high and low.

All along, the work was one of faith. Feeding many needy persons every day, even with the simple food provided, and carrying on the meetings every night, was not accomplished without means. But Jerry believed that the work was God's, and that so long as God wished him to carry it on, the money would be forthcoming. So the testing times were trusting times, and days of trial were happy days of triumph. For God greatly honored the humble faith of these two earnest ones.

Jerry says, As we had made it a rule to neither beg nor run in debt, our finances would frequently run very low and we found ourselves more than once with very little in the treasury. Then again we would feel rich when we found we had ten dollars in cash. We borrowed no trouble about finances but trusted wholly in the Lord. In the first printed report we find many incidents serving to illustrate the spirits in which the work was carried on. From among these we select the two following.

Before the cold weather set in the workers prayed earnestly for the winter's supply of coal. Two businessmen were talking about it just then in their office downtown. One of these men had been converted but a few months before at the mission and felt moved to send in a thank offering to the Lord. The other had been for many months a devoted worker there.

Said the first, let us join and send them enough coal to last the winter months. The thought was of God, before whom the earnest prayer had just gone up. It was done, and all trouble on that score was settled. On another occasion, a gas bill came in, and there was not a cent in the treasury, but it was taken to the father, to whom belongs the silver and the gold.

In the course of the day, a letter was received containing just the amount of the bill and the car fare of the messenger who should go to pay it. During the first year of this useful work, 26,261 meals were furnished to hungry men. Lodgings were given to 5,144, and a great deal of clothing was supplied. This was all done without any accumulation of debt, money coming to hand as it was needed. Of two instances in which his faith was tried but was found firm and proved victorious,

Jerry thus speaks. I call to mind one instance and relate it to show how we were led. One night we found the mission without a cent and 40 odd tramps to feed and nothing to offer them. It was a time to test my views for I had declared I would let the Lord have his way and whenever he ceased to provide, I would accept it as an evidence that he did not want us to go on, and as he supplied our necessities would consider he was pleased to have us continue. I felt for those poor hungry men.

Some of them had probably not tasted a bit of food for two and three days. They had no money to help themselves, and when they came on Saturday night we usually kept them over Sunday, but on this night we were broke. We proceeded to the mission room and commenced the services, and some souls were saved. But even when nine o'clock had come, strange to say, no one had handed us a penny. As the meeting drew to a close and nothing came, oh, how dark everything looked. My faith trembled.

I could hardly keep from crying as I looked into the hungry faces of my poor tramps and converts. I spoke to my wife about them and she replied, the Lord will provide, you see if he don't. I closed with a heavy heart and dismissed the meeting and my wife took her position at the door as usual to shake hands with the folks as they went out. A lady passed out with her husband, and after going five or ten yards, suddenly stopped. Coming back to my wife said, Mrs.

McCauley, we keep a baker shop in Cherry Street, and I just happened to think you had better send up and get five dollars worth of bread. There was God's hand in answer to prayer, and we soon had enough for all and some to spare. Another time we'd used our last scent. We said nothing about it in the meeting, but prayed secretly for the dear Lord to interpose for us. Meeting was dismissed, and shortly after the people began to leave, a man came in from the street and handed me a package.

I opened it, and to my astonishment found one hundred dollars in it. The sight of it nearly took my breath away. I looked at it a moment, and then at the poor fellow who brought it, and finally said to him, Where in the world did you get this? A man gave it to me just outside, and told me to hand it to you, he replied. Who was he? I said, as I turned it over and looked at it on every side to see if there wasn't something wrong about it. I don't know, said the

man, who now seemed as much surprised as I was. A man out on the sidewalk handed it to me and said, here, hand that to Jerry. That's all I know. I counted it again. It was all there, one hundred dollars. Whew, I said, we'll never be poor again. Thus, the Lord always interfered, but generally not until we were actually or pretty nearly dead broke and really needed it, proving himself a present help in time of trouble. The financial difficulties of the work were by no means the

only ones to be surmounted. Jerry says, when the every night meetings commenced, then also began our troubles, for the devil woke up. Crowds of the lowest people used to come to the door to disturb their meetings, throwing brick bats and garbage at anything they could lay their hands on into the room. The police gave us no protection at that time, although I saw the captain time and again, but to no purpose. It is greatly to be regretted that Jerry should have had to make such a statement

in reference to those who are paid and pledged to preserve order and to keep the low and vicious under restraint. We would gladly suppress that part of this record which relates to the police and their neglect of duty, but to do so would be to keep out of sight some of the severest obstacles with which our brother had to contend. It is only fair to say, however, that at times during the history of the work, the officials of the particular precinct in which Jerry labored,

as well as those at headquarters, appreciated him and the work he was doing, and showed an earnest desire to afford all the protection in their power. We shall give in Jerry's own words some of this side of the history of the Water Street work. Those who knew him best will know that he did not relate to such incidents in a spirit of boastfulness or to show his own prowess. They were drawn from him as illustrating the nature of some of the difficulties which he had

to encounter. During the early history of the mission, there were two notorious dens directly opposite our place on the other side of the street. These were inhabited by a rabble of the lowest order, and they used to gather together and yell and make all sorts of unearthly noises to disturb the meetings. We found out one day, to our great satisfaction, that some wealthy men had purchased the property where these dens stood, and that they were to be torn down and two new houses

built in their places. We congratulated ourselves that this was a good thing for us and a cause for Thanksgiving. How little we knew what trouble it was to bring us into, even before the houses were built. Many of the workmen employed on them were a hard lot of drinking, boisterous fellows. Everyone that passed along the street was at their mercy, and their language was filthy and brutal beyond all description. A young, well-dressed man was passing one day, and one of them turned

the hose on him and flooded him with water. Of course, he resented the insults, and hard words began to fly back and forth. A crowd soon gathered, and after considerable talk, the laborer threatened to knock out the young fellow's brains with a pickaxe, and the latter dared him to do it. I was standing in the door of the mission, looking quietly on, when, as the workman raised himself, as likely as not to split the young man's head open, his eye caught sight of me. Whether he

thought I was in the way of his taking vengeance on the stranger, or whether he was loaded up with bitterness on account of what he had heard about the mission, I do not know, but in a moment, He turned all his venom upon me. What are you looking at, you dirty turn cubs, you miserable hypocrite, you, he yelled, and followed with a torrent of foul words. I was astonished and said to him, see here, you must remember we are all not all of us bad here, and if you don't shut up that

foul mouth of yours, I'll take you to the station house. Come over here, you, he yelled in a fury, adding a lot more of his vile words. Then I walked over and caught hold of him by the collar. I had deputy sheriff's badge and had the right to make arrests. As I grabbed him, his pals slipped up behind me, and swinging his great heavy shovel over his shoulder was about to hit me. But I gave the fellow I had a hold of a shove and landed him into a great pile of loose sand brought there for

building purposes, and while he was scrambling and floundering to get out, I piled the other fellow on top of him. It was enough to make anyone laugh to see those fellows trying to get out of the soft sand and afraid all the time I was going for them again. Seeing a policeman coming, I beckoned to him and ordered him to arrest the scoundrel who began the row. He was about to do so when another policeman came running up. He took in the situation and whispered something in the first one's ear.

It was only a word, but it acted like magic. The MP dropped his prisoner and without a word grabbed me by the collar and arrested me as the offender. Of course, I made no objection to going with him, although I knew he had no business to arrest a man wearing a badge and in the performance of his duty. How delighted the rabble were, and the policemen, entering into their spirits, give them a good chance to gloat over their seeming victory by walking me as slowly as possible down

that wicked street to show me up. There he goes, yelled one, see the dirty turncoat. Bad luck to the likes of you, screamed another, and so on, with oaths, curses, and blasphemies, devoting me to any place but heaven and wishing me anything but blessings. We reached the station house and the joy of the officials over catching such a troublesome fish was plain enough. One of the workmen made the complaint that I struck the other on the nose and knocked him down. Is that so?

said the sergeant. Did he hit you? Show me the marks. Him lay any marks on me? I'd knock his brains out, was the reply. Ah, go lying with you. Faith he did, insisted the complainant, and they were near coming to blows between themselves and made the place ring with their oaths and hard words. They contradicted each other so that the officials began to look blue as the hopes of making out a case against me died away. The foreman of the building now interfered and

said, I saw the whole thing. My men have been drinking a little too much. And then he described the affair as it was, concluding by saying, I didn't see him strike either of them. With this, the captain bowled over as he saw I was going to slip through his fingers after all. And shaking his fist under my nose, he called me all manner of names and said, I'll lock you up anyway. I'll break up that old nuisance of a mission for you. It keeps the whole place in an uproar. I'll send

you back to prison again where you belong. That old mission is a nuisance. He has a shield on too, Captain, interrupted the policeman. Just look at him. And he has a great big club down there at his old mission to knock men down with. At this, the Captain grabbed me by the collar and tore my vest open, exclaiming, I'll take it off you. I pushed him back and raising a finger said, Captain, I dare you to put your finger on that shield. As I spoke, he started for me again, but the opening

of the outside door caught his attention, and there was my wife coming in. He did not know her and growled. What can I do for you, madam? What are you going to do with that man? she questioned. What in is that to you? he retorted fiercely. A great deal, sir. He is my husband, she answered calmly, and then I interrupted them by saying to her, you go see Mr. Dodge or Mr. Hatch. She hurried down to Mr. A.S. Hatch, who was one of our reliable standbys in time of trouble,

and told him the story. Mr. Hatch was unable to leave his office just then, but he put her in a carriage and sent her to the superintendent of the city missions with a note. He went with her to Mr. William E. Dodge Sr., and this noble man of God was all stirred up in the moment. Jerry shall not sleep in that place one night if it costs $50,000 to get him out, he exclaimed, not even if a special court has to be called immediately.

My wife knew whose hands the case was in, and as it was now after the time for meeting to commence, she hurried back to the mission to look after things there. Her heart was sad and heavy as she thought of me up in that old station house among those lions, and though she had committed me to God, she could not help feeling anxious and somewhat cast down. In this mood, she came to the door of the mission, and looking inside, she started back all in a heap. She has often

since spoken of the peculiar feeling she had when looking into the chapel. She saw the meeting running in good old style, and Mr. Jerry McCauley, if you please, sitting in his usual place leading the meeting. She could hardly believe her eyes, and giving them a good rub, took another look, and finally concluded that it was either her husband that she had left a short time ago in the hands of the sharks, or his ghost sitting there, or else that the whole thing had been

an ugly dream from the beginning. She knew she was wide awake, and as I didn't look very ghostly, she settled the matter quite readily in her own mind, and walked in with a hearty thank God. and took part in the meeting. This was the way I came to be released. The foreman's statements were hard to reconcile with what the drunken men had said and what the officials would have been glad enough to prove against me. And so after talking and planning and scratching their heads

over it, the sergeant whispered to the others, it won't do. The commitment won't stand, so we better tear it up. And suiting the action to the words, he demolished it and scattered it on the floor. The foreman now interposed for his men and said, my men have been drinking some, sir, but if you will let us get back to work now. I'd like it. Go on, replied the captain, and then glaring at me like a wild beast cheated out of a good haul, he said fiercely, get out of here, get out. I thought

you were going to lock me up, captain, I said quietly. G-E-T-O-U-T, he yelled. I thought you were going to lock me up, I continued. Now I dare you to do it. Why don't you? G-E-T-O-U-T. Yes, I'll get out, I replied, but mark you, captain. I'll be in this ward when you are turned out of and I was for shortly after this we heard that he was censured and fined and then he resigned but he caused me a great deal of trouble before my prophecy came true for as soon as I got out

of his clutches that time he picked out the very worst man he had in the force a brutal and foul mouthed fellow by the name of Fitch and sent this guardian as my protector with orders from headquarters to keep him for just that post. Arrah Jerry he said when he came on I'll make it hot for and he kept his word. End of chapter 4