OPENING 
OF 
THE HOME FOR CONSUMPTIVES, 
CHESTNUT HILL, 
ADDRESS OF REV. BENJAMIN WATSON, D. D. 
AND THE 
ON THE OCCASION 
Monday, May 3, 1886. 
PRESS OF 
Burk & McFetridge, 
PHILADELPHIA. The Home For Consumptives. 
Dedication of the New Buildings. 
The opening services at the Home for Consumptives, at 
Chestnut Hill, were held on the afternoon of May 3d, 1886. 
A service of dedication had been set forth, and, at the appointed 
hour, the Bishop, preceded by a large number of the clergy of 
the diocese, entered the chapel, repeating alternately the 145th 
Psalm. The request for the dedication of the House was read 
by William S. Lane, Esq., of the Board of Council, and the 
sentence of consecration by the Rev. Dr. Richard Newton. 
The Rev. Dr. D. S. Miller and the Rev. Messrs. J. D. Newlin, 
H. L. Duhring, and W. H. Graff assisted the Bishop in the 
services. An address was delivered by the Rev. Dr. B. Watson, 
which, by resolution of the Board of Council, is appended to 
this report. The Bishop followed with a few earnest words of 
counsel and congratulation. At the conclusion of the service 
in the chapel, the choristers and clergy proceeded to the cot- 
tage, where the Rev. Samuel Durborow, Superintendent of the 
City Mission, read the special prayers as they had been ap- 
pointed, and the Bishop pronounced the Benediction. 
Address by the Rev. Benjamin Watson, D. D., at the 
Dedication of the Home for Consumptives: 
Charity never faileth. We all know what the Apostle 
meant when he wrote these golden words: that while those 
other “gifts” of which he speaks—“prophecies”—“tongues” 
—“ knowledge”—are for this life, and, for us, shall “fail ” when 
“we fail,” charity, or love, shall be as much ours in eternity, 
as in time, in “the heavenly places,” as amidst these earthly 2 
scenes. The words of the poet are only those of the apostle 
amplified: 
“True love is indestructible, 
Its holy flame forever burneth, 
From heaven it came, to heaven returneth.” . 
But I think we may venture to evolve an additional meaning 
out of those words. Charity never fails in this sense also, that 
it never exhausts itself, never falls into decrepitude, never 
wearies in well-doing. It is like “a tree planted by the water- 
side, that bringeth forth its fruit in due season; ” or like that 
tree in the midst of the Paradise of God, bearing twelve 
manner of fruits, yielding her fruit every month ; whose leaves 
were for the healing of the nations. And, mayhap, that very 
tree is this Charity or Divine Love. 
If there is one decisive mark of a living church, it is the 
presence and exercise in it of this heavenly grace. And when 
any professing church shall wane as a light-bearer, in this 
regard, may we not take up the words of our Lord to that 
church of old, and apply them to her, in warning : “ Remember, 
therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the 
first works; or else I will come to thee and will move thy 
candle-stick out of its place, except thou repent ?” 
God be thanked, that while to that ancient church in Ephesus, 
the exalted Saviour was thus constrained to speak, our modern 
church in Philadelphia, by His grace, has been enabled to keep 
its light of love burning ever more and more brightly! 
We say this, not in boasting, not in a spirit of self-satisfac- 
tion, but in humble thankfulness for His great mercy, which 
has thus put it into the hearts of His people here to go on and 
on in their works of charity and beneficence. 
When I entered upon the ministry in this diocese, and in this 
city, now upwards of forty years ago, though there was much 
zeal in the church, and, I doubt not, “fire of love,” too; yet, 
for the most part, it was expended in parochial efforts, in bring- 
ing souls to Christ, (great and glorious work !) and in building 3 
them up in their Christian life. But a time speedily arrived 
when a voice came to it: “These ought ye to have done, and 
not to leave the other undone.” And that “other” was the 
great work of charitable endeavor for the good of those who 
were outside the folds, for the blessing both of their bodies 
and their souls. And that voice was hearkened to. Thence- 
forth began an era of church building, when rapidly church 
after church arose, mainly through the efforts and agency of 
certain noble-hearted laymen, whose names some of us can 
recall, and who shall be had in everlasting remembrance. Then 
came the planning and building of our magnificent hospital, 
the second or third of such institutions with which our city is 
now so largely furnished. The old Episcopal Academy was 
resuscitated for the instruction of our youth; the Divinity 
School was instituted and endowed for the training of our own 
young men, and those from other parts, for the sacred ministry; 
the City Mission, with its wide-reaching designs in behalf of 
the poor and neglected, was established; and the Sheltering 
Arms, for enfolding babes who had none to care for them, and 
who, left to such public provision as had heretofore been made, 
had perished literally as sheep for the slaughter. Other agen- 
cies might be enumerated, were this the time and the place. 
But now we are called upon to speak more particularly of one 
of those just mentioned, in connection with which has grown 
the occasion which has brought us together for this service 
to-day. I refer to “the City Mission of the Protestant Episco- 
pal Church in Philadelphia.” 
To our present revered and beloved Diocesan are due both 
the conception and the organization of that agency of our 
church for doing good. Established now sixteen years ago, it 
had for its original aim, mainly, the seeking and saving of those 
for whose souls no man seemed to care, the unfortunate, the 
degraded, and the poverty-stricken; in carrying to them the 
blessings of the gospel in their own homes, (if homes they 
could be called), and in the various beneficent, reformatory, 4 
and punitive institutions among us; and in the establishing 
of Mission Sunday Schools, as the nuclei for churches in the 
time to come. In doing this, especially in the house to house 
ministration, it was soon discovered that to carry spiritual food 
alone to the physically hungry and necessitous seemed almost 
a mockery; and was certainly very unlike the way in which 
He, our great Head and Exemplar, “ went about doing good.” 
There was thus forced upon the Mission, if it would prosecute 
its work with any consistency or effect, the necessity of doing 
what could be done, with the means in its hands, towards sup- 
plying this defect; and thus the eleemosynary came to be grafted 
on the original strictly religious design. Having thus started 
in that direction, one class of sufferers, poverty-stricken and 
diseased, by oft coming in contact with it, was brought to its 
particular attention: the class of sufferers from that dread 
disease, conszanption. Sick and needy. How ominous the 
coupling of those two words; either of which, in what it 
represents, is distressing enough. But when the first of them 
means a long-continued wasting of vital strength and energy, 
ever downward to the tomb, then, in combination with the 
last, the case becomes pitiable indeed, and one to call forth 
our deepest commiseration. And such is that which then 
presented itself to those of the City Mission, who, as its agents, 
went on their errands of mercy. The call for entering upon 
a new field of benevolence, in its amelioration, was thus 
brought home to the Mission. And thus began that special 
department of its work, the caring for consumptives. At first, 
this was restricted to doing what was possible for their comfort, 
in the way of providing proper nutriment and medical attend- 
ance, with kindly visitation, in their own abodes; which has 
always constituted, and still continues to be, the principal 
ministration of the Mission’s charitable endeavors in that 
direction. Meanwhile, by the donation to the Mission of what 
is known as the House of Mercy, by Mr. and Mrs. Harry 
Ingersoll, (the former of whom has now, within a few days, 
after a life of much well-doing, gone to his reward), the Mission 5 
was able to make provision, to a limited extent, for those who 
were homeless and friendless, receiving them under its entire 
care, till death should release them from all need of human 
sympathy. So the good work went on, accomplishing as much 
as possible with the means provided : those means, however, 
yearly increasing as the work itself became increasingly known. 
At length, some five years since, there came, in the good 
Providence of God, that large accession to those means in the 
shape of the Mary Shield’s legacy, amounting in all to nearly, 
if not quite, two hundred thousand dollars. With this, of 
course, the work began to be greatly enlarged; but with it 
also came the responsibility of so conducting the work as to 
make that large sum available to the greatest amount of good. 
This it was deemed could best be done by securing a more 
extensive Home for the objects of the charity, than the House 
of Mercy afforded ; and to this the Board directed its efforts : 
efforts which, for a time, were frustrated, partly by the difficulty 
of finding a suitable house for the purpose, and partly, when 
such was found, from the unwillingness of neighbors, in a 
built-up street, to have such an institution in their immediate 
vicinity. Then it was that our good friend, Mr. William 
Bucknell, to whom we must ever feel most largely indebted, 
moved by an almost life-long, and I may say inherited, interest 
in this class of the afflicted, came to our relief; and by the 
transfer of this extensive and valuable estate on which we now 
are, enabled the Board to arise and build; and having com- 
pleted their building, this day (as has been done) to consecrate 
the edifice to its humane and pious purpose : its existence due, 
under God, to the benevolent thoughtfulness of one who, in 
her last testament, kindly remembered the cause, and to the 
large generosity and sympathy of another, who is with us 
still, as we trust he will long continue to be, to see the fruit of 
his, as we cannot but regard it, wise benefaction. 
The disease we denominate consumption, is one whose 
ravages are appalling, not only in this country, but almost all 6 
the world over. In this city alone, the deaths by consumption, 
during the past year, numbered twenty-eight hundred and 
twenty-one ; and in the last twenty-four years aggregated over 
fifty-six thousand. In the entire land, the yearly average of 
deaths by consumption is ninety-one thousand five hundred. 
And be it remembered, these are from, not the whole popula- 
tion of adults and children combined, but from the adult por- 
tion of the population exclusively; thus making that average 
still more striking and frightful. Considering which, it is very 
remarkable that hitherto so little has been done for their care 
—I mean of those who need our care—there being, as a rule, 
no place for them in our general hospitals, and if there were, 
ordinarily no provision in such hospitals for their peculiar 
needs. When it it considered how large is the number of 
those afflicted with this malady, and of them how many must 
be among the poor and destitute, and how prolonged is the 
period of their sufferings, we can easily calculate the amount 
of misery falling to the lot of humanity from this single 
source. 
In preparing to open these buildings for their work, the 
Board having it in charge were much exercised as to what 
class of consumptive patients should come within its scope. 
Up to the present time, only those have been cared for by the 
Mission who were in the more advanced stages of the disease, 
and whose case was deemed hopeless. Should this course be 
continued ? was with them the question; or should they in- 
clude with these those who were in its earlier stages, and whose 
case might not be hopeless : not only with a view to their care, 
but to their possible relief? After deliberate consideration, 
they have concluded to adopt, as an experiment at least, the 
latter course. And that for the reason—that while, by ad- 
mitting those of the latter class, we shall, as we hope and 
believe, be benefitting them, we shall also be removing from 
the former, in a measure at least, the very natural dread which 
they have of entering a door over which despair seems to be 
inscribed, to whom the door of entrance is as to the house of death—thereby (and here we speak from past observation) 
lessening the number of those for whom the charity is pro- 
vided. In other words, if “ Hope for all ” may not be written 
over our portals, it will not be “ Despair for all.” And so the 
title by which this Institution will be known is—The Home 
for Consumptives : for their Relief and Care. 
For their Relief as well as for their care. But is not that 
a Quixotic undertaking ? In the beautiful Isle of Wight, on its 
southern shore, near the town of Ventnor, and sheltered from the 
north winds by lofty cliffs, stands a comely range of buildings, 
known as “ The National Hospital for Consumption and Diseases 
of the Chest.” Overlooking the English Channel, and fanned by 
the soft breezes that are wafted from it, and in every respect 
adapted to the use for which it was designed, that hospital is doing 
an effective work in relieving those who are brought within its 
walls. It admits, to be sure, only those who are in the in- 
cipient stages; but they are such as, if left alone, would un- 
doubtedly, for the most part, go on with various degrees of 
progress, to the fatal end. It was in the summer of 1877 that 
I visited the hospital; and then first learned its value, and the 
hope there might still be for those—some of them at least— 
whom I had been accustomed to look upon as doomed. I 
have now before me (as I write) the annual report for 1883, 
including that of the Medical Board, which concludes with 
these words: “ On the whole, it may safely be said there has 
been no falling off in the usefulness of the Institution, but 
rather that the results of the year give substantial encourage- 
ment to all who directly or indirectly lend their aid towards 
the realization of the objects for which this Hospital was 
founded.” The view thus taken by the founders and managers 
of that hospital is coincided in by medical men among our- 
selves ; namely, that under proper treatment, consumption, if 
taken in time, may be made, in many cases, to disappear, and 
restoration to health follow. Encouraged by such testimony, 
the managers of this Home have made provision for the cura- 
tive treatment of those who shall be brought hither, by the 8 
construction of its buildings with a direct view to that end, 
and by the appointment of a staff of medical advisers, most of 
whom have made diseases of the chest their specialty in study 
and practice. We have not here the mild and equable climate 
of Ventnor; but we have a pure and exhilarating air; while 
in the cottage (so called) already erected, and’ in those which 
will follow it, the rule of separation is provided for, and the 
securing of as much sunlight as possible, both so necessary 
for success in such an undertaking, 
The cottages, we say, that will follow the one now built, 
and presently to be thrown open for occupancy. Are we too 
sanguine in our expectation that this will be speedily? The 
Board proposes to reserve intact so much of the legacy to 
which allusion has been already made, as still remains, amount- 
ing to one hundred and sixty thousand dollars, as a permanent 
endowment; and therefore looks for additional gifts to add to 
the buildings already erected. Twelve thousand dollars will 
build such a cottage as that which has now been dedicated. 
Are there not, in this community, those who will join to this 
one another, and to those, yet others; so that in no great 
length of time, the whole number of twelve, contemplated in 
our plans, will have been erected ? Considering the need, as 
we have seen, what more useful charity could be thus ad- 
vanced ? What more touching to the heart, sensitive to human 
suffering, and longing to do something for its relief? With 
God’s blessing, what a noble institution, in time, this may 
become, throwing its sheltering wings, and healing influences, 
over hundreds and thousands, who might, otherwise, be bat- 
tling hopelessly with poverty, weakness, and pain. We have 
to-day invoked that blessing. We believe that it will follow; 
and that that church which already gives so many signs of a 
spirit of love working in her, will not fail us here. “ Let Thy 
work, O Lord, appear unto Thy servants, and Thy glory unto 
their children. And let the beauty of the Lord our God be 
upon us : and establish Thou the work of our hands upon us ; 
yea, the work of our hands, establish Thou it! ”