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DETROIT
McAuley Mission,
ST. AUBIN AVE. AND SHERMAN ST.

ITS ORIGIN AND HISTORY.
(SECOND EDITION.)
Feb. 22d, 1885.

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DETROIT
MCAULEY MISSION
•
ST. AUBIN AVE. AND SHERMAN ST.
ITS ORIGIN AND HISTORY.
DETROIT:
JOHN F. EBY & Co., BOOK AND JOB PRINTERS.
1885.
COMMITTEE.
MEMBERS EX OFFICIO.
CHARLES F. FUNKE.
HENRY O. WILLS.
ADVISORY COMMITTEE.
REV. GEORGE DUFFIELD, D. D., Chairman.
MILLARD T. CONKLIN, Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian
Church, Secretary.
REV. WILLIAM DAWE, Methodist Episcopal Church (Mary
Palmer Memorial.)
DAVID PRESTON, Central Methodist Episcopal Church.
R. B. OWEN, Central Methodist Episcopal Church.
F. D. TAYLOR, Woodward Avenue Congregational.
D. A. WATERMAN, First Baptist Church.
L. H. Fox, Lafayette Street Baptist Church (N. A. Ins. Co.,
35 W. Congress street), Treasurer.
GEN. LUTHER S. TROWBRIDGE, Protestant Episcopal Church.
REV. W. B. THOMPSON, Church of the Disciples.
.
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HE DIED FOR ME.'
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Unto all who are of the household of faith, this
cometh greeting!
The undersigned have a simple story to tell, of
some recent events in Detroit, which they confi-
dently believe will commend itself to the cordial
sympathy and hearty co-operation of Christians of
every name, who love our Lord Jesus Christ in
sincerity and truth. "In His Name," we ask for
it a prompt and prayerful consideration.
"The
King's business requires haste!"
Called to act in the premises as an Advisory
Committee, our first step was to make thorough
investigation; composed of ministers and laymen
from four different evangelical denominations, we
had every facility for making ourselves acquainted
with the facts; finding the story of more than
usual interest-indeed, quite remarkable-just in
this proportion did we search for a corresponding
amount of evidence. Having found it to our com-
plete satisfaction, we have no longer any hesitation
in allowing the use of our names as references to
6-13-3
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all whom it may concern. More than this, each of
us has felt it a rare privilege to contribute his in-
dividual share to this good work, and to bid it God
speed!
Early last spring, a man about fifty years of age,
and somewhat rough in appearance, stopped a
Christian lawyer on Griswold street, handed him a
notice, and invited him to attend a meeting. At
once the lawyer recognized an old acquaintance, and
looked upon him with no little suspicion.
"Your name is Wills ?"
your pledge?" "Yes."
"Yes." "You broke
Ι
"You sold your Red
Ribbon, and drank it up in whiskey?" "Yes. I
own up with shame, to this and a great deal more.'
"Well, what evidence have you that you are not
just as bad as ever?" "Only this," said he; "I
have found something better than the Red Ribbon."
Taking out of his pocket a white cross on which
was inscribed, "He died for me," he said, "I ain't
likely to drink this, am I? But just come to the
meeting, please, and hear for yourself."
On his return home the lawyer related this inci-
dent to a Christian brother. It can do no harm,
they thought, to accept the invitation, and so they
went, with the distinct understanding that neither
would speak until they had heard Wills himself.
It was a long way into the suburbs-far beyond
street cars to the place of meeting.
It was a
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church, the audience very miscellaneous—in their
every day clothes, and few of them church goers.
The exercises began with singing, prayer, and read-
ing the scriptures, but good order prevailed through-
out, even among the boys. Then Mr. W. explained
the object of the meeting. It was, "To do you
good;" "to show how you may be saved, as well
as me;" "few of you have been as bad, certainly
none can be worse;" and "if there is hope for me,
there is hope for you, too." Just as St. Paul con-
fessed himself "the chief of sinners," that he might
show himself "a miracle of grace," so, to use the
phrase of his hearers, did Mr. Wills “give himself
away." No concealment, no reserve, no palliation,
his prevailing thought seemed to be wonder and
gratitude that such a sinner as he could be saved.
Familiar as the lawyer and his friend were with
similar stories, by "Reformed Inebriates," they had
never heard one just like this, of which we only
give the bare outlines.
HENRY O. WILLS.
Born in Troy, N. Y., he had a mother "who tried
to teach him to pray, and who did teach him the
Lord's prayer," but he "didn't keep it up." For a
short time he was in Dr. Beman's Sunday school,
but left it; in the day school, and left it; in a store.
in New York city, and left it; in the army, and
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left it; was brought back and left again! Naturally
a rover, his ever increasing love of bad liquor and
bad company greatly aggravated his natural pro-
pensity, and led him to change his place and name
often as convenience required. As a street pedler,
a railroader, a traveling man, a substitute broker,
one who took draft risks, etc.," he could say as the
sinner in Proverbs, "I was almost in all evil," and
that of every kind. From sin to vice, from vice to
crime, sin ran its inevitable career, until the swiftly
increasing circles terminated in the vortex, and as it
seemed to him, nothing remained but death.
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Late one night, after being on a long "tear," he
returned to his much enduring wife, and demanded
"nervine." So thoroughly saturated was he with
liquor, that "he felt, if he stuck a pin in his arm,
liquor would come out instead of blood." He
must have nervine. So he went to the drug store,
and drank a larger quantity than usual; but
"valerian had lost its power. "His time at last
had come, and he must die, and to die a drunkard,
and with all his sins unpardoned, was to be lost!
"LOST! LOST! LOST!" rung through his soul that
night, until the "terrors of hell" gat hold upon
him, and he could bear it no longer! Like a sailor
at sea, when his vessel is a total wreck, he began to
pray, and in such mighty earnest, too, that all his
neighbors heard him. Beginning to feel some
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relief, he sent for Mr. S., a Christian neighbor, the
man of all others in the world he had hitherto most
hated, to pray with him also. "I am glad to hear
you feel yourself lost," said Mr. S., "for now I
know you can be saved!"
While he suffered the "terror of the Lord he
was distracted, and "the burning eye" of an
offended God seemed visible to his very senses.
"O! I was terribly shaken up, almost shaken to
pieces, and I only wonder how I could have lived
it through!" He sought out a Christian minister,
and found him in Mr. D., the pastor of the Mary
Palmer M. E. Church. He heard him preach, and
attended prayer meeting and class meeting, and
had Miss McNeil, the Bible reader of the Helping
Hand, hold a prayer meeting in his house, and so
for about six months he availed himself to much
profit, of all the means of grace accessible, until his
whole soul was filled to overflowing with grateful
joy. He saw a way out of the labyrinth of intem-
perance; that Christ was just as able and willing
to save him from the power of this sin as any other!
The news was too good to keep to himself. He
must and would tell it to his old companions in sin,
but just how to begin, he did not know. One day
when in the parlor of Mr. M., a Methodist minister,
he saw a picture hanging on the wall. It was that
of a white cross, inscribed with these words: "HE
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an
DIED FOR ME." For several days the words were a
ever present thought with him, until at last "while
holding family service," the thought occurred to
him, these are the very words I must tell to others!
He made a few crosses, first on cloth, and afterwards
on metal, but not one of all without the inestimably
precious words, "HE DIED FOR ME," and so the work
began.
What the lawyer and his friend heard that night,
convinced them that the work was genuine, but
neither they nor Mr. Wills could then have believed
what they have seen since. Now, as heretofore,
God uses feeble means to produce great effects, and
it was His design that this should be more than a
mere temperance movement, however excellent.
"He died for me," is the germinating thought of
the gospel itself, and as such is capable of unlimited
growth and expansion. Therefore we are "not to
despise the day of small things."
Ordinarily it is not the will of God in any work
that He begins to allow a man to labor alone. "Two
are better than one," for as their labor is doubled,
so is their reward. Besides, if one fall, the one will
lift up the other,
the other, "but woe to him that is alone when
he falleth, for he has not another to help him up'
(Ecc. iv., 9, 10). He who knew best of all, the
value of Christian fellowship, when He sent out his
70 disciples, sent them, Two AND Two, before His
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face, "into every city and place, whither he himself
would come" (Luke x., 1).
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So with Mr. Wills. God was soon to raise up a
true yoke-fellow" to labor with him in the Gospel,
and so far as we can see, the very man he most
needed.
CHARLES F. FUNKE.
Born in Detroit of German parents, he had been
well instructed in English; not liking his father's
theatre, he preferred to go into business, and for this
purpose received a commercial education. Desiring
to travel, he made a visit to the Fatherland for six
months. Enjoying society, he united with the
Turners, and other kindred associations; active and
energetic, he first became clerk and then book-
keeper in a wholesale grocery. Afterwards he went
into the grocery business for himself, and dealt
largely in liquors. Money came fast, but it went
fast also. Naturally in religious things he followed
the footsteps of his father; in Germany a nominal
Protestant, in America a pronounced unbeliever to
the last.
Gradually his doubts that there was a God,
and that there was a Christ, began to be over-
come, by the consistent example of his Christian
wife. He became uneasy-more and more dissatis-
fied with the worldly way in which he was living—
began to think of his soul, and his sins, until at
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length, "somehow or other," he too was made to
feel that he was out of the way, and that he, too,
was "lost." "Something must be done, but just
what he didn't know." Though he did not see how
Christian people arrived at the conclusion that there
was a God, and a Saviour, he thought it would be
a good thing for him to know it, if it was so."
His wife told him "to pray," but for "an infidel
to pray was absurd." Though he had always prided
himself on his morality and his life, much better
than others, yet at this particular time he was quite
amazed at the wickedness of his heart. Every day
his hatred of good became more intense, until at
last he felt that "his wife, who all the while was
becoming more and more an out and out Christian,
must leave her religion and church and prayer
meeting, or he must leave her."
Then again he would find himself in a different
mood, and thought he would try and become a
Christian. Mr. Wills came to him on a Saturday,
and invited him to a prayer meeting to be held at
his house by Miss McNeil, the Bible reader. "It
would not do any good for him to pray, nor to have
any one pray for him." Still he consented to go,
on one condition, viz., "that he should not be asked.
to kneel in prayer." While Wills was praying he
sat in his chair and looked him steadily in the
face. Possibly, if such a man as he could pray, he
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might learn to pray himself! Here was a ray of
hope.
The same day, in the evening, he went to Rev. Mr.
F.'s church, where his wife attended. Though he
had been there before, this was the first sermon to
which he really listened. When just leaving the
church, the pastor laid his hand on his shoulder, and
asked him to pray.
"I don't know how. What
shall I say?" "Say," said the pastor, "O Lord,
forgive my many sins, and bless me with thy Holy
Spirit, for Christ's sake. Amen." Lest he should
forget it, he asked the minister to repeat it, that his
wife might remember it for him.
On their way
home they talked it over, and for some time after.
'Just kneel down and say these words," said she.
"No use-I can't kneel-I can't." "Just this
once," said she, and they both dropped upon their
knees. "My wife prayed aloud, and said these
words, and my heart went with them. I felt as if
I would like to be a Christian-as if I could become
one—as if I could pray, and I did. My sins, like
a great burden, seemed to roll away, and they were
gone! Then I knew that there was a God, because
He had heard prayer. I knew that there was a
Christ, because He had forgiven and washed away
my sins! My joy was very great, and I feared to
sleep, lest it should only be a dream.
But in the morning it was all there as a glorious
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reality, and it has been there ever since! I said to
my wife, "I feel as if I was just newly born, and
was beginning a new life." And so without know-
ing what Jesus of Nazareth had said to Nicodemus
1800 years ago, he unconsciously used the same
figure, and endorsed the same great change, as true
in his own personal experience.
"Next morning I went to the store, and told my
clerks, I know that there is a God, for he has heard
my prayer. He has pardoned my sins for Chrisť's
sake, therefore I know that there is a Christ. I
believe that I am born again.""
Here, then, was the conversion of two very dif
ferent men, of two different denominations, once
more confirming the undying truth, "Whosoever
believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is BORN of God"
(I. Jolin, v., 1). Let us see what further came of it.
This being "born again" and "beginning
beginning a new
life," Mr. F. knew instinctively implied a putting
off of the "old" life. He gave up drinking even
moderately, but he chewed; he gave up chewing,
but he smoked; he gave up smoking, and at last,
like Jerry McAuley, "did the clean thing," and
abandoned the use of tobacco altogether.
in
He had a harder sacrifice yet. If it was wrong
to break the Lord's day in one way it was wrong
another, so he closed his store on that day, out of
love to Him. If it was wrong to drink liquor, it
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was wrong to sell it so he ceased to sell it out of
his love to his fellow men. He knew it would
break up his business, and it did, so he had to sell
Little did he dream to what use the money
thus realized would be put, but it did not long re-
main idle.
out.
PURCHASE OF A CHURCH.
One day Mr. Wills said to him, "The M. E.
Church on Jefferson Avenue is to be sold-sold at
auction, and it will go cheap. I want you to buy
it, and I will try and raise what I can for expenses
of moving and repairs." The church was bid off
for $131, and Mr. Funke was the buyer. The
moving and repairs cost more than was expected-
about $1,200. Disappointed in their first lot, Mr.
Funke bought another for $4,250.
NAME.
There was some embarrassment as to the name.
Some wanted it the "Wills" mission, but Mr. W.
would not hear of it. Some the "Funke" mission,
but Mr. F. refused just as positively. They thought
to call it the "McNeil" mission, after the Bible
reader of the Helping Hand, who had become a
foreign missionary, but she had been only a short
time in Detroit, and was not generally known. At
last, during "the Moody meetings," it was sug-
gested by one who had been in the McAuley mis-
sion, New York, and was well acquainted with its
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history-who had heard McAuley speak, and saw
his method of conducting meetings: "Faithful unto
death, he has just received a most honorable burial.
Your mission is for precisely the same purpose, for
the same kind of men, and conducted on the same
principles. Why not call it the McAuley mis-
sion?' It would carry with it a meaning, and an
argument too, and hence the name."
Mr. Funke "found himself in for much more than
he expected." The burden was a heavy one for a
man of much greater means; but God gave him
the courage to "go forward," and the mission was
formally opened November 25, 1884. Appropriate
addresses were made by Rev. Messrs. Louis R. Fox,
William Dawe, C. R. Henderson, Moses Smith, and
George Duffield, ministers; and by Messrs. David
Preston and Charles Buncher, laymen.
At the close of the meeting, Mr. Preston was
called to preside, and subscriptions taken amounting
to $228. During the week the undersigned were
seen personally by Messrs. Funke and Wills, and
invited to act as "an advisory committee." On
Tuesday following they organized by the appoint-
ment of a chairman, and by the substitution of Mr.
D. A. Waterman for Mr. Charles Buncher, who
declined, and subsequently, by the addition of
Millard T. Conklin, Gen. L. H. Trowbridge, and
Rev. W. B. Thompson.
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As already stated, from November 25, 1884, the
mission has been open every night, week day and
Sundays, as follows:
1. Sunday afternoon, two Sunday schools.
2. Sunday evening, generally, preaching by some
evangelical minister.
3. Monday evening, the regular weekly meeting
of the "White Cross" Temperance Association.
4. Tuesday evening, Gospel meeting under good
auspices.
5. Wednesday evening, meeting for prayer and
testimony, and Christian fellowship.
6. Thursday evening, Bible reading by a minister
of the Gospel.
7. Friday evening, same as Tuesday.
8. Saturday evening, Gospel meeting.
(The Advisory Committee have leased the church
building corner of St. Aubin avenue and Sherman
street, for one year, for $350; if taxes remitted,
for $300.)
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their belief that the work in which they are now
engaged, viz., personal hand to hand work with sin-
ners, and the constant and manifest blessing of God
that attends it, makes their time more profitable
thus employed than in any other business. Whether
the Christian community will think as they do, and
as the committee does, and keep them in the field
for this specific purpose, remains to be seen after
this appeal. God has raised up such men to do his
work elsewhere, why not in Detroit?
APPEAL.
"As the new wine is found in the cluster, and
one saith, destroy it not, for a blessing is in it"
(Isaiah lxv., 9), so first of all, we desire your prayers
that a work so auspiciously begun, may still continue.
Believing, as we unfeignedly do, that this is a branch
of the Lord's planting, "the work of His hands that
He may be glorified" (Isaiah lx., 22), we invite your
benevolence, to water the tree which is already
known by its fruits. We entreat you to let your
prayers and alms-like those of the good Cornelius,
go together, to encourage those who, mindful of
"The Helping Hand" extended to them, are en-
deavoring with all the ardor and self-sacrificing zeal
of young converts, to extend a similar hand to
others.
Very beautiful is it to see how individual chari-
ties lead on to those that are general; how denomi-
4
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national missions at the point where they come
in contact, develop into the largest field of all,
where the perishing sheaves are the most abun-
dant. Only let the faith and zeal of those who are
now full of the "new wine of the kingdom," be met
with equal faith and zeal by Christians at large, and
a wider and more effectual door will be opened in
Detroit for city missions than ever before.
As the converts from these missions go into their
respective churches, it will be seen here to a demon-
stration, as it has been long seen in New York and
Philadelphia, not only that Christians can pray, and
work together, but that it is for their own mutual
benefit so to do and for the highest advantage to
the common cause; of different tribes, but of God's
one Israel, well may the Saviour pray, "That they
all may be ONE, * * that the world may believe
that thou hast sent me" (John xvii., 21).
We trust the foregoing statement as to the origin
and history of this work will be readily understood
by those to whom it shall first come, and for whose
benefit it is printed-but not published.
The Detroit McAuley Mission is not a cheap
imitation of something of a similar kind. It is not
a mere adjunct of some other organization. It is
not a club, for no club controls either the property
or the exercises. It is not a church, for it does not
pretend to administer the ordinances and receive
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members. Mr. Wills is a regular member of the
Methodist Episcopal Church, Mr. Funke is a mem-
ber of the Presbyterian Church, and it is the advice
of this committee that they shall so continue. It is,
further, their advice that this work should continue
under the auspices of the two men to whom God
has first entrusted it.
Call it, if you will, a recruiting station, where
soldiers are enlisted for Christ, to enter whatever
army corps may be most convenient, all your com-
mittee know, is, that to us it seems a growth from
a living germ, and simply as such we appeal to you
for its present relief! He who gives quickly will
give twice.
DONATIONS RECEIVED TO FEB. 1.
Charles Buncher,
$25 00
Fort Street Presbyterian Church,
25 00
Central M. E. Church,
25 00
Mary Palmer M. E. Church Sunday School,
10 00
•
Rev. Geo. Duffield,
20 00
Dr. Biggs,
Mrs. Hugh McMillan,
Mrs. Helen A. Clarke,
John F. Eby,
A. C. McGraw,
(Signed)
20 00
10 00
15 00
25 00
5 00
ADVISORY COMMITTEE.
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