Memories of Many Men in Many Lands

Francis E. Clark '73, D.D., LL.D. United Society of Christian Endeavor, Boston and Chicago, 1922.

This is by air odds one of the significant recent books on American religious history. It describes not only the early life of Dr. Clark and the Dartmouth College of his day, (he graduated in 1873), but in some detail the origin of the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor, its growth in the United States, and its extension over the entire world. Indeed, the personal part of the story is distinctly subordinated to the wider considerations of Christian Endeavor history.

In the history of recent religious development, the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor had an important share. Its beginnings came at the precise time when the theories of Darwin and the conclusions of other scientists, as well as of the higher critics, were putting American religion on the defensive. On the one hand, many church people were declaring that if any parts of the Bible were unsound, then all were. Such critics gave up their religion. Others were taking the ground that modern science must be wrong because it conflicted with the Bible. They therefore refused to accept science. To the great majority of thinking men, however, the problem was to readjust the old creeds to the new scientific theories, and at the same time retain some sort of a religious creed during the transition. The Y.P.S.C.E. with its simple pledges, greatly helped in this process. From this point of view Dr. Clark's autobiography is of great interest to the student of religious history.

The success of the Society was litte short of astounding. Founded in 1881 in the Williston Church in Portland, Maine, it slowly extended to other churches, until the number of members grew to 13,000 in 1885. Between that year and 1890 the growth was all but unbelievable. The numbers of members in the latter year amounted to approximately 775,000. So great an enterprise must have been built upon distinct personal qualities in the founder of the movement. Dr. Clark's autobiography shows exactly what those qualities were.

In the first place, Dr. Clark was something of a pioneer by birth and early training. He was born in Aylmer, Canada, a frontier village at the point where the fringe of civilization met the limitless forest. Life in Aylmer was reminiscent of life on the American frontier before the Civil War. Before Dr. Clark was three years of age his father died; and before he was eight he lost his mother. He was then adopted by his mother's brother.

The second fundamental quality in Dr. Clark's personal equipment for his task was his ready literary skill. He could write easily, rapidly and interestingly. From the publication of his first book in 1874, (Our Vacations), the year after he left College, until the publication of these Memories in 1922, he has turned out no fewer than thirty-seven volumes, in addition to thousands of sermons, editorials and articles of various kinds in both secular and religious magazines. For years he was the mainstay of the Society organ. "The GoldenRule," later "The Christian Endeavor World."

The third quality was his unflagging energy. Dr. Clark has traveled more thousands of miles to Christian Endeavor Conventions all over the world than he is able to estimate in his Memories. On all these trips, in railway trains, in stations, on shipboard and at a thousand stopping points, his pen was incessantly busy at his literary task. Without this energetic publicity, it is difficult to see how the Y. P. S. C. E. could have covered the world as it did.

Most important of all, however, is the inexhaustible store of religious power which Dr. Clark possesses. No man could spread a religious movement so widely, speaking for more than forty years in thousands of conventions and meetings large' and small without having something to draw upon besides energy and literary skill. Dr. Clark had a message which he thought he ought to give. Lacking the message, these Memories would never have been written.

There are other points of view from which the book is interesting. Chapter V, "Dartmouth Days" has its local appeal. Nor should Dr. Clark's sense of humor be overlooked, a gift which ought to be included in the makeup of all clergymen. Sometimes he even "played hookey" from Christian Endeavor meetings and showed that the man had not altogether outgrown the boy. An entire chapter could be written about important events that Dr. and Mrs. Clark stumbled upon in their numerous journeys around the world,—floods and fires, earthquakes and Boxer Rebellions, railroad wrecks, and other mishaps and nearmishaps. Another chapter would be necessary to mention the kings, princes, chiefs and potentates whom Dr. Clark has met in the course of the last forty years. And yet another aspect of the book is the geographical information which it contains. One who took the trouble to read the Memories with atlas in hand would acquire enough knowledge of geography to pass a college examination with flying colors.

In the main, however, these Memories are most important for their story of the spread of a world-wide religious movement. And by the way, is it not of some significance that two such valuable autobiographies in the field of recent religious history should have come from Dartmouth pens,. Dr. Tucker's My Generation and Dr. Clark's Memories of Many Men inMany Lands.

The Bell Telephone Quarterly for April, 1923 contains an article "Public Utilities as Allies of Industry" by Edward K. Hall '92.

H. F. Manchester '21 is the author of "Ambassador Harvey's Boyhood Secrets Told" which appears in the Boston Sunday Post, April 29, 1923.

Prof. Leonard D. White is the author of "The Status of Scientific Research in Illinois by State Agencies other than the University of Illinois." This monograph of 83 pages appears in the March issue of the Bulletin of the National Research Council.

Dr. William R. P. Emerson '92 is the author of "Nutrition and Growth in Children," reprinted from the Boston Medical and SurgicalJournal for January 4. 1923. Dr. Emerson's article "Nutrition and Growth in Relation to Tuberculosis" has also been reprinted from the issue of the same magazine for October 5, 1922.

"Preaching by Laymen" by President Ozora S. Davis '89 published by Fleming H. Revell Company will be reviewed in a later issue of the magazine.

The Wilson Bulletin for May, 1923, under the caption "Bird Binding Department" contains an article "What Has Happened in New England," by S. Prentiss Baldwin '92.

Walter Sidney Adams '98 together with Alfred H. Joy is the author of "A Spectroscopic Method of Determining the Absolute Magnetism of A-type Stars and the Parallexes of SS4 Stars" which appears as contribution No. 244 from the Mount Wilson Observatory.

Progress in the Treatment of Syphilis by Dr. H. Sheridan Baketel, Medical '95, has been reprinted from the January and February issues of Medical Times.