USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > History of the Parish of the Holy Apostles, Philadelphia : 1868-1918 > Part 4
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thing connected with him we look forward. He closed his book with the title of the lesson for the succeeding Sunday. What a thought for us. That there should be no finality to our work, but that we should look at each day completed as a commencement, the beginning of another day.
But how does he end the lesson of last Sunday ? It was the lesson of Lazarus, the brother brought back to life. The points of his remarks are :-
1st. At the tomb.
2nd. Martha's remark and the Lord's reply.
3rd. The Lord's prayer.
4th. The dead ariseth.
5th. Results.
Coulds words better express what is in our hearts to-day than these:
"The dead ariseth; results."
Here is a little book to which he has often called your attention. The last that he has written here is :-
"The day of resurrection."
"Life restored."
"Sympathy."
In this little book I find so many things; the prec- ious things in connection with the Sunday-school; a letter from Phillips Brooks (been there since 1888). A little address which he heard delivered by somebody, and which affected him, and which he got that person to give him, from Romans 8. "The blessedness of those that love God." Making me think of what he said last Sunday when some one with loving thought- fulness said to him, "Don't you think you had better go
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home ?" He said, " 'Tis pleasant to linger in the house of the Lord."
I find here a letter to his wife; a letter of mine to him; a calendar; a letter from some one of his dearest friends-it seemed too precious to open-a little poem,
When gathering clouds around I view And days are dark, and friends are few, On Him I lean, who not in vain Experienced every human pain ;
He sees my wants, allays my fears, And counts and treasures up my tears.
If aught should tempt my soul to stray, From heavenly wisdom's narrow way, To fly the good I would pursue, Or do the ill I would not do; Still he who felt temptation's power, Shall guard me in that dangerous hour.
If vexing thoughts within me rise, And sore dismay'd my spirit dies ; Still he who once vouchsafed to bear Such bitter conflict with despair, Shall sweetly soothe, shall gently dry The throbbing heart, the streaming eye.
When sorrowing o'er some stone I bend, Which covers what was once a friend, And from his voice, his hand, his smile, Divides me for a little while, Thou Saviour, mark'st the tears I shed, For thou did'st weep o'er Lazarus dead.
And O, when I have safely past Through every conflict but the last, Still, still, unchanging, watch beside My bed of death, for Thou hast died; Then point to realms of cloudless day, And wipe the latest tear away.
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It was my privilege to be at his home five minutes before he passed away. They called me upstairs and I was there in time to say the commendatory prayer, but I think his spirit passed away before the prayer was ended.
Mrs. Thomas was here to-day in the church, and would have been here in the Sunday-school to teach her class this afternoon but I would not have it. What an example! It was the Saviour's example to the end. And it is so to those who love Him.
Now I want to hear of no nonsense in this parish about our not being able to do things just because he has gone. His wife can stand up to her duty, and so can you and so can I. Is a fine example to go for nothing ?
This afternoon Mrs. Thomas said, "I should like to see the flowers, because I did not see them yesterday." How many people go to see the flowers instead of going to the house of God. If it is your wish it will be my pleasure to take these flowers from the Sunday-school to-day and place them upon Mr. Thomas's grave.
I am sorry for the man that tries to take Mr. Thomas's place here, and you will be sorry for him too. The world does not give two men like Mr. Thomas to any parish when only one man was given to the nation, and here to-day in his memory, are we every one of us going to do our best? As Bishop Whitaker said to me, "I told the doctor I would rather lose the sight of my eyes (which I have so much cherished) than not to pay my tribute to George Thomas." How about our little tribute? We can make this his monument forever if we come, and train our children to come, and tell our grandchildren, this school must be a power so long as this building stands. No one man can take his place,
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but the composite power of parts are sometimes stronger than the most gigantic man. How weak is a single strand of rope, but put together as a hawser they can draw the largest ocean steamships.
I am pleased to learn from Mr. Bailey that there are 1,023 present, which is the largest number ever present in this school. May it ever be so. This school is his monument and what a terrible thing it would be if after working forty-one years, his effort should count for nothing.
EXTRACTS FROM THE NEWSPAPERS OF PHILADELPHIA
George C. Thomas, retired banker and noted phil- anthropist, one of the most prominent laymen in the Protestant Episcopal Church in this country, whose benefactions amount to hundreds of thousands, died at his home at the southeast corner of Twenty-first and Spruce Streets, last evening, from arteriosclerosis.
With him in his last moments were his wife, his sons, George C. Thomas, Jr., and Leonard M. Thomas; Mrs. Sophie Thomas Remington, a daughter; Bishop- elect Nathaniel S. Thomas and Dr. J. Nicholas Mitchell.
While returning on Sunday afternoon from the Church of the Holy Apostles, Mr. Thomas was attacked with severe pains. He was assisted home by his wife and the Rev. Mr. Thomas, who were accompanying him, and Dr. Mitchell was immediately summoned.
On Tuesday Mr. Thomas's condition was slightly improved, but at noon yesterday he suddenly collapsed and sank gradually until the end.
As he was apparently in good health, despite his 70 years, until last Sunday, Mr. Thomas's death came as a great surprise and shock to those who knew him,
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especially to his associates in religious, social and finan- cial circles.
From his record, dating from the time of his youth, may be shown an illustration of Christian manhood of the most exalted type. One of Mr. Thomas's chief aims was to bring cheer and sunshine to the lives of others. In addition to aiding many young men to get a start in life he gave immense sums to religious and charitable institutions. The actual amount of money which he gave for such purposes will probably never be known, as he was a man who disliked having his charity recorded.
Next to J. Pierpont Morgan Mr. Thomas was the greatest benefactor of the Protestant Episcopal Church in this country.
His life in business was ever in accord with his life as a Christian. This was especially manifest in 1873, when, by reason of the failure of Jay Cooke & Co., Mr. Thomas's career as a banker was temporarily cut short. He promptly gave up every dollar of his fortune for the benefit of the creditors of his firm.
MR. THOMAS'S WIDE CHARITY
Among the munificent gifts made by Mr. Thomas was The Chapel of The Holy Communion, at 27th and Wharton Streets, as a thank-offering for the recovery of his son, George C. Thomas, Jr .; the Richard Newton Memorial Building to the Church of the Holy Apostles, 21st and Christian Streets, and a hall and gymnasium, Twenty-third and Christian Streets, for the use of the members of the Church of the Holy Apostles. He also gave the large piece of ground for the nurses' home of the Hahnemann Hospital to that institution. This gift was also presented as a memorial to his daughter.
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With Mrs. Thomas he gave a large parish house to the Chapel of the Holy Communion, and also donated $12,000 toward erecting the parish house of the Chapel of the Mediator, at Fifty-first and Spruce Streets.
Mr. Thomas's last gift was made on Palm Sunday, when he gave $5000 to the Chapel of the Mediator. He announced the gift the moment he learned that the con- gregation would start a subscription for a church edi- fice on the lot adjoining the parish-house. This chapel is attached to the parish of the Holy Apostles, with which Mr. Thomas was connected for forty-one years. All that time he was superintendent of the Sunday School. It was largely through Mr. Thomas's efforts that the Church of the Holy Apostles was organized, and the aid which he gave it from time to time placed it among the leaders in the diocese. At the close of the recent Lenten season, it was found that the Church of the Holy Apostles led all others in the diocese in the way of Lenten offerings.
In addition to his money, Mr. Thomas gave of his energy to the work of the Church, and was a leader in all of its movements.
CHURCH TOWER AS A TRIBUTE
It was inevitable that the gratitude of the people of the parish to Mr. George C. Thomas for all that he had done for the church should take some tangible form, and so on June 10, 1901, at a special meeting of the Vestry, at which Mr. Thomas was not present, per- mission was granted to a committee to erect a tower on the church as an affectionate tribute.
This embattled tower, in the transitional Norman style of architecture, having as its general model that on Holy Trinity Church, raised 100 feet from the
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ground, designed by Messrs. D. W. and W. D. Hewitt, and costing over $11,000, was dedicated, with unusual ceremonies by Bishop Coadjutor Mackay-Smith, and in the procession besides the rector and clergy of the
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parish were over one hundred clergymen, among them being Bishops Leonard, Talbot and Whitehead, Dr. William R. Huntington, Dr. Thomas A. Tidball, Dr. Arthur S. Lloyd, and the Rev. Richard N. Thomas.
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The dedication took place on the feast of St. Philip and St. James, Thursday, May 1, 1902.
A tablet was placed in the vestibule of the tower bearing the following inscription :
TO THE GLORY OF GOD And to the Honor of His Servant GEORGE CLIFFORD THOMAS
long-time warden of this Church, a grateful people has builded and now dedicates this tower. Feast of St. Philip and St. James MCMII
CONSPICUOUS IN CHURCH WORK
In addition to numerous other offices in his relig- ious work, Mr. Thomas was treasurer of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society. He was frequently a member of the diocesan conventions and was also a deputy to eight general conventions, a steward of the Sustentation Fund, and a member of the Board of Mis- sions. He was one of the chief workers in building up the American Church Sunday School Institute, which grew out of the Sunday School Association of the dio- cese of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Thomas was a strong advocate of the Sunday- school Advent and Lenten offerings for missions. Nearly all his life he was a prominent figure at Sunday- school institutes and conventions of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, where he frequently made addresses.
In addition to being superintendent of Holy Apos- tles Sunday-school, he maintained for more than forty
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TO THE STORY OF 60 AND TO THE HONOUR OF HIS SERVANT GEORGE CLIFFORD THOMAS LONG TIME WARDEN OF THIS CHURCH A GRATEFUL PEOPLE HAS BUILDED AND NOW DEDICATES THIS TOWER FEAST OF ST. PHILIP AND ST.JAMES MCMII
TABLET PLACED IN TOWER
years a Friday Evening Teachers' Lesson Study Class, and for five years a Normal Class for intending teach- ers, which brought the instruction of the school to the highest standard.
Mr. Thomas was a vestryman of the Church of the Holy Apostles. Many of Mr. Thomas's friends fre- quently wondered how he could so successfully direct so many departments of the Church and keep them so thoroughly abreast of the times. His absolute sin- cerity in everything he attempted is believed to have been the basis of his success. Often after a strenuous day or night in his religious work, Mr. Thomas sought relaxation in music. He spent many of his quiet mo- ments with the old masters at his pipe organ. He was an accomplished musician, but played chiefly for his own amusement.
There were many quiet charities in which Mr. Thomas was concerned that were practically unknown. In addition to helping many young men over the rough edges of life, he also enabled many young women to accomplish their ambition by providing for their edu- cation.
WHOLE NEIGHBORHOOD MOURNS
In the neighborhood of the Church of the Holy Apostles the whole community is mourning as for a common friend, for Mr. Thomas was personally known to most of them. When the tidings of his death reached that section people could be seen standing on their door- steps for a block, near the church, talking of the sad event.
NATIVE OF THIS CITY
George C. Thomas was born in this city on October 28, 1839. His father, John W. Thomas, was one of
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Philadelphia's most prominent merchants, and for many years was accounting warden of old St. Paul's Church. The younger Thomas attended the Episcopal Academy in the period of its greatest prosperity.
At an early age he took charge of the financial part of his father's business, for which he showed a marked aptitude. Recognizing his financial ability, Jay Cooke offered Mr. Thomas a position in his banking house, and he was soon admitted into the firm.
FINANCIAL AID IN CIVIL WAR
In 1863 and throughout the period of the Civil War, when the great financial operations of the Government were conducted by the firm, he was one of its active partners. He took a prominent part in the work ac- complished by the firm, which strengthened the finances of the Government so that it was enabled to carry on a war which cost from $300,000,000 to $800,000,000 a year.
Upon the failure of the firm of Jay Cooke & Co. in September, 1873, Mr. Thomas for several months was compelled to give his personal attention to the work of straightening out the firm's affairs. Undaunted by his experience, he began business anew before the close of the same year. With the late Joseph M. Shoemaker, he established the firm of Thomas & Shoemaker, which in a few years gained influential clientage.
BECAME PARTNER IN DREXEL'S
It was not long before Mr. Thomas repaired his fortune in his new business, and in 1883 he was invited by Anthony J. Drexel to become a partner in his firm. Since that time there have been few large financial transactions in this city in which Mr. Thomas has not
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figured. He was concerned in the Reading and North- ern Pacific reorganizations and all the big operations of the Drexel and Morgan firms before his retirement. For twenty-one years he was among the first of Phila- delphia's international bankers.
PRICELESS BOOKS AND ART TREASURES
Next in point of consequence to the charities which Mr. Thomas has fostered is the collection of books, pic- tures, priceless relics and art treasures which form a portion of his estate. This collection has been housed at Twenty-first and Spruce Streets, and has been visited by every art lover in this city and New York since its beginning, years ago. The rare books and the pic- tures aggregate an amount of artistic and financial value probably unequaled in any other private collection in this country.
RARE EDITIONS OF THE BIBLE
The Bibles owned by Mr. Thomas include almost every rare edition ever known. One is the volume with which the English Bible began its history. It is the first complete English Bible, printed at Antwerp in 1535, by Miles Coverdale, and with it are Tyndale's New Testa- ment, printed at Worms, and the first sheets of an issue of the Bible authorized by Thomas Cromwell, and print- ed in Paris.
In another alcove is the first Bible printed in this country, the Eliot Indian Bible with the New Testa- ment. This is the Ives copy, and one of the very few perfect ones in existence. Near this rarity are the primer of Henry VIII, the Appleton copy; Queen Eliza- beth's prayer-book and the later primer, and a prayer- book once used by Martha Washington, and having on
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its flyleaf an inscription from her declaring this. The famous Mark Baskett Bible, over which scholars dis- puted for years, is also in the Thomas library.
FIRST EDITIONS AND AUTOGRAPHS
A volume for which dealers have spent thousands of dollars in vain search, and which Mr. Thomas placed in high honor in his library, is the first edition of Tennyson's poems. Not less valued are the copy of Bleak House, in the original parts, in which are the original drawings; and the set of water color drawings made by Palethorpe for Pickwick Papers. There is also a set of the original proof sheets of Walter Scott's The Surgeon's Daughter, which he corrected and emendated and afterwards reprinted as The Chronicles of the Canongate.
The collection of autographs is also notable. It includes the original libretto of Die Meistersinger, penned in the small, cramped hand of Richard Wagner. It includes the major part of the autographs of the Signers of the Declaration, the originals of Grant's dis- patches announcing Lee's surrender, and the letters of Lincoln to General Hooker.
These autographs are in volumes, carefully sorted and classified, and are from the hands of every sover- eign of England, every sovereign of France, many of the world's famous musicians and artists, and many men of letters. An expense account of Marie Antoin- ette challenges a piquant interest, since its items are most amazingly frank and equally as extravagant. In the autographs of musicians are those of Beethoven, Gluck, Handel, Haydn, Wagner, Jenny Lind, Schubert and Mozart.
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The patriotic appeal is in the twelve letters of George Washington, among which is his letter to Clin- ton announcing the Treaty of Peace, and the letters of William Penn, which fully describe the last hours of Charles II, and Penn's dealings with the Indians.
Another document of great historical import is Robert E. Lee's letter surrendering his commission in the Army of the United States at the outbreak of the Civil War. Of similar appeal is the letter written by Jefferson Davis, as Secretary of War, promoting U. S. Grant to the rank of captain in the Fourth United States Infantry, August 9, 1853.
BEAUTIFUL WORKS OF ART
Hardly less commendable to the attention of col- lectors are the paintings which adorn the Thomas home. Many of these at one time belonged to Adolph E. Borie, Secretary of the Navy in Grant's first administration, whose daughters, Mrs. James Rhoads and Mrs. John T. Lewis, sold them to Mr. Thomas.
Among the most prized is the portrait of Lady Gertrude Fitzpatrick as Sylvia by Sir Joshua Reynolds. The canvas is large, but it is one of the most charming ever achieved by the great Englishman, and has been the object of many pilgrimages since it was placed in Mr. Thomas's house, and by him considerately within the reach of genuine art lovers.
EXTRACTS FROM THE CHURCH PAPERS
"THE CHURCHMAN"
A sense of personal loss has come over the whole Church at the death of George C. Thomas, the great missionary layman. Yet the assurance of Easter joy
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colors all our thought of him. His work has made it impossible to regard his passing with thoughts only of mourning. The lessons of his life survive to inspire the Church. Mr. Thomas became what he was not by any sudden stroke of genius, nor by any great inherited gift, but by that sure, steady and invincible progress which comes from an obedient following of God's law of growth. Mr. Thomas was a man of wealth, of unwonted administrative power and business experi- ence, but hosts of men possess both these instruments of power and yet hold them back from the service of Christ and His Church. Between such men and Mr. Thomas the difference was not in financial or adminis- trative capacity, but in Christian capacity, not in having but in giving.
By using for others consistently and regularly talents entrusted to him, he acquired the capacity to give himself and to consecrate his abilities to the serv- ice of Christ. There are great-hearted men throughout the Church who, because they have not yet given them- selves in practice to the service of God and their fellow- men, have never realized their real power or done the work that they might have done for God's family. It was here that George C. Thomas's life reached furthest and deepest. Missionary bishops at home and abroad, missionaries on the frontier and obscure workers at home, will keep as precious and inspiring memories con- stant and touching evidences of his personal interest and thoughtfulness. There are those who have known failure in the humbler walks of life, who are praising God to-day for the friend who cheered and helped them in their need to self-respecting self-support. The clear and unmistakable lesson of George C. Thomas's life to the men of the Church is to learn to serve God and their
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fellows in God's way. In following out this as a law of life Mr. Thomas grew, his parish grew, and the whole Church received from him an ever-increasing offering of his wealth and of himself. His life opens the way for a new type of layman from the very class that has failed so utterly to present the Church as God's home for all men and as the Body of Christ whose one law of membership is self-sacrificing service.
Though Mr. Thomas was conspicuously successful in business he had, from the beginning, shown that he had time and interest, an open heart and open hand for every cause of philanthropy and religion. One of his chief aims seemed to be to bring cheer and sunshine into the lives of others. It was astonishing with how many missionaries and mission fields he kept in close touch, sending from time to time some personal word or token of greeting. Through the whole mission field the news of his death will carry with it a sense of per- sonal loss. The extent of his personal beneficences will never be known. He was constantly aiding young men to get a start in life. The sum of his gifts to religious and charitable institutions is known to be above $2,000,- 000 and it was probably very much more.
"THE LIVING CHURCH"
In the death of George C. Thomas, the American Church has lost undoubtedly her foremost layman. It may truly be said of Mr. Thomas that he gave all the resources of his life to the Church. An injustice is done in thinking of him chiefly as our most liberal giver of money to all the funds of the Church. Mr. Thomas was that, but he was so much more that one almost resents the recapitulation of his money benefactions as the story of his life of service to the Church. His in-
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terest in her work included every phase of it, but par- ticularly her missionary activities in all parts of the world. But this did not make him oblivious to the work near at hand, nor did it confine his interests into a single channel. Much more than his money, he gave himself to work for God, for the Church, and for mankind. This was characteristic of his whole life, but more com- pletely of his later years, when, retired from active business interests for the most part, he was able to devote his whole time to religious and philanthropic work. And he did it so abundantly that his rector once well said of him that Mr. Thomas had visited and prayed with every family in the poorest blocks adjacent to the Church of the Holy Apostles-a parish whose manifold activities were very largely the result of his provision. He was for many years superintendent of its Sunday-school and was a leader in advanced meth- ods of Sunday-school work.
But the Church at large knew him chiefly as treas- urer of our General Missionary Society. Here his heart was chiefly centered. Every interest of the mission field was a personal responsibility to him. The ever recurring deficits in funds were a cause of great anxiety to him. Repeatedly did his benefactions make up what the rest of us had carelessly neglected to give, of our duty, but Mr. Thomas always realized that this was a precarious way of meeting the needs of the national Church. That Churchmen could not be wakened to a realization of the necessity and the blessedness of per- forming this work as the work of the whole Church, was an ever present anxiety to him. He cheerfully gave of his great wealth in such measure as few realized- for he was constantly making anonymous gifts in quiet ways-but he greatly longed for the time when the
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missionary work might stand on a higher basis with respect to the realized responsibility of all Churchmen than has yet been experienced. Hardly a missionary worker is there in the Church who could not tell of personal help received quietly from Mr. Thomas.
But to us Mr. Thomas is even more than this. Beyond all else, he was to the editor of The Living Church a deeply loved friend. His convictions were such that his sympathy was not always with the policies favored by The Living Church, yet his sunny friend- ship never was clouded thereby. His death is the loss of one who was very close to the editor, and who was reverenced for what he was as deeply as he was loved.
May God give rest to his dear soul, comfort to those whom he has left behind, and may He raise up to the Church other sons who will seek in some measure to be for her what Mr. Thomas has consistently been during these many years.
"THE SOUTHERN CHURCHMAN"
By the death of Mr. George C. Thomas, the Church has lost one of the most notable laymen that has ever devoted his life to Church work in this country. Indeed, it is very difficult to put in words a due sense of the loss which has come to the missionary and benevolent work of the Church without almost seeming to indulge in exaggeration.
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