It is with great pleasure that the complete unedited version of Champion of the Kingdom: The Story of Philip Mauro by Gordon P. Gardiner  is now presented here. Although the name of Philip Mauro is not nearly as recognized by Christians today as it was 75 years ago,  his works remain important contributions to the furtherance of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Mr. Gardiner, urged as a young man to study Mauro's books by Mrs. Martha Wing Robinson (the subject of Gardiner's  Radiant Glory), was allowed by God to not only develop a personal friendship with Mr. Mauro later in life but to write the only existent  biography of his life.  Many of Mr. Mauro's works are still available from various sources, both in print and on the Internet, and are recommended.  His  Wonders of Bible Chronology can be read on this site.  

David K. Eames, Delmar, NY

CHAMPION of THE KINGDOM

 

The Story of Philip Mauro

 

By Gordon P. Gardiner

 

To MY WIFE a true helpmeet in the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

 

Forward

 

It is with a sense of deep appreciation that I pay tribute to the painstaking labor of love and admiration for my father, which Gordon Gardiner has accomplished by the writing of this brief biography.  He has spared no effort in searching for the outstanding facts of my father’s life, seeking thereby to show the extraordinary transformation in that life, a change inexplicable save on the grounds of a sovereign work of grace by God Himself.  To Him then be the glory through His Son our Lord Jesus Christ.  May this little book be blessed by Him in drawing other unsatisfied, seeking souls to the knowledge of Him in Whom is the Light of the world.

ISABEL MAURO THARP

 

Rockport, Mass.

 

(Mrs. Tharp lost her first husband in 1933, and is now married to a retired missionary from China.)

 

 

INTRODUCTION

 

It was my privilege, as a boy of thirteen, to hear Philip Mauro for the first time at a Bible conference in Boston.  (My mother felt that I should hear a man of his experience and reputation.)  His message left a deep impression upon me, but more impressive was the man himself.  As an autograph-seeker, I approached him after the service.  I had done the same with other famous Fundamentalist speakers of the day and had been received with reactions from indifference to impatience.  In marked contrast to all of them, Philip Mauro received me as a gracious gentleman.  Sitting down, he talked to me leisurely and acted as though I were conferring an honor upon him in making my request.

 

About seven years later, I found his book, God’s Pilgrims, which I read to great profit.  And when I told one of my Bible teachers, Martha Wing Robinson, about it, she expressed delight that I had “found” Philip Mauro and urged me to study his books on the Kingdom, saying, “If you read his books on the Kingdom, they will ground you.”

 

This is precisely what these books did for me.  More than that, they led to a correspondence with their author which ripened into a close friendship resulting in repeated invitations to spend extended visits in his home.  During these times of blessed fellowship I gathered much autobiographical information which has been incorporated in this sketch.

In addition to the material received directly from Philip Mauro and from his books, his daughter, Isabel Mauro Tharp, has furnished many facts and made available the family photographs and letters, especially those written on the Carpathia after the sinking of the Titanic.  Roland Gelatt of High Fidelity Magazine directed me to The Columbia Record which contained a biographical sketch of Mr. Mauro written at the height of his legal career.  Dean Edmonds, whose parents introduced Mr. and Mrs. Mauro to each other, now a member of the patent law firm of Pennie, Edmonds, Morton, Barrows & Taylor of New York City, contributed his personal reminiscences and placed at my disposal the services of the firm’s library and its most helpful librarian, Mrs. Clara Nichols.

 

This brief life-sketch first appeared in a serial form in Bread of Life, published monthly by the Ridgewood Pentecostal Church, Brooklyn, New York, in celebration of the centennial of Philip Mauro’s birth. For this revised and enlarged edition, Mrs. Tharp made certain corrections and suggestions, which have been incorporated, and unsolicited sent the foreword which is included in this edition.  Special thanks are due to Janet Bowers of Bronx, N.Y., who freely typed the manuscript.

GORDON P. GARDINER

 

November 8, 1961

 

 

 

In the Egypt of This World

 

“Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what He hath done for my soul.” – Ps. 66:16.

 

“I came to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ on May 24, 1903, being then in my 45^th year.  I did not at that time fully understand what had happened to me on that day, and only learned subsequently through the study of the Scriptures, that, by the grace of God through faith in his Son Jesus Christ, I had then been quickened (Eph. 2:5), and had passed from death unto life (John v. 24).”

 

With these simple words, Philip Mauro, a member of the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States and one of the foremost patent lawyers of his day, began his “Testimony” of what to him was the most important event in his life.  Up to the time of his conversion, he had lived, spiritually speaking, in the Egypt of this world and “was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians,” but then he was brought “out from the land of Egypt” and forthwith forsook its pleasures, pomp, and its pride, and for the next forty-five and more years chose “to suffer affliction with the people of God” throughout his wilderness journey from earth to heaven.

 

Now, if Philip Mauro did not realize the full significance of what had taken place in his own life on that night when he was delivered “from the power of darkness” and was translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son, neither did he nor anyone else then realize that he would become one of its ablest champions in the first half of the Twentieth Century, devoting the most of his time and energy to “disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God.”

 

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, on January 7, 1859, Philip Mauro was the second son of Charlotte Davis and Charles G. Mauro.  His Grandfather Mauro was a printer who had emigrated from Stuttgart, Germany, and had settled in Washington where he figured rather prominently in his own field in the development of that city.  There his handsome son Charles met Charlotte Davis who came from an aristocratic Maryland family.  After their marriage, the young Mauros “went west” where Charles Mauro “filled the position of prosecuting attorney during the time of the Civil War and was appointed United States District Attorney by President Johnson.  Until his death in 1873, he was a leading member of the bar of St. Louis.”

 

Philip’s mother had died a few years before, shortly after the birth of her fourth child Anna.  His father had remarried, but upon his death it was decided that Philip and his older brother, Lewis, should go to live with their maternal uncle, Lewis Johnson David, a banker in Washington.

 

There young Philip attended the Emerson Institute, graduating with high honors.  Included in his course was Greek which he was to make good use of in later years.  In 1880 he was graduated from Law Department of Columbian, now George Washington, University.  Immediately he was admitted to the bar, but before beginning his practice, his uncle gave him a trip to Europe as a reward for his splendid record at the university.

 

Upon Philip Mauro’s return from Europe, he entered the law firm of Anthony Pollok, “a prominent and wealthy Washington patent lawyer.”  Here he began at the bottom but soon attracted the attention of his employer because of his proficiency in shorthand.

 

As Pollok continued to observe young Mauro, he also recognized that he not only had a clear head with the power to think things through for himself but also the gift to express, accurately and attractively, exactly what he meant to say.  Pollok, on the other hand, knew that while he himself was clever in preparing a case, he was not so apt in presenting it before a court.  Consequently, he needed someone to complement his abilities.  This he found in his employee, Philip Mauro, so that soon a partnership was formed which proved mutually beneficial.

 

Steadily rising in his profession, Mr. Mauro was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the United States on April 21, 1892.  Five days later, he began to argue his first case before the August body.  The case, Hoyt versus Horne, involved the question as to whether Horne’s machine for beating paper pulp, though quite different in appearance, was essentially the same as Hoyt’s and therefore an infringement of Hoyt’s patent.  One of the members of the court then was John Marshall Harlan, grandfather of the present (1961) associate justice of the same name.  A devoutly religious man, for many years Justice Harlan taught a large Bible class each week in the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church. Of Harlan one of his fellow associate justices once remarked, “He retires at eight with one hand on the Constitution and the other on the Bible, safe and happy in a perfect faith in justice and righteousness.

 

Now while Philip Mauro at this time was an unbeliever, he knew the Bible, and he also knew when to quote it.  Therefore, it was not without point when he clinched his argument with the biblical quotation: “The hands are the hands of Esau, but the voice is the voice of Jacob.”  At that, Justice Harlan turned to one of his colleagues and vigorously nodded his head.  Intuitively Mauro knew that he had won his case which was verified by the court’s favorable decision rendered about three weeks later.

 

From then on Philip Mauro became increasingly prominent in his field.  One of his most notable cases was that in which he represented the Boyden Brake Company against Westinghouse Air Brake Company.  “In this case,” so the Columbia Record states, ⁿ “for the first time, the Supreme Court of the United States was unable after two full presentations to reach a decision and asked for a third argument.  Mr. Mauro was employed in the final presentation, and his clients, the Boyden Company, won the case and understood to have received upward of $1,200,000 as a result.

 

Note: “The Columbia Record,” Vol. III, No. 3, March, 1905

 

“Another notable case was his suit against the Carnegie Company, which involved the nickel steel armor used on all government war vessels.  The suit was defended by the United States Government and was terminated by a compromised settlement in which Mr. Mauro obtained for his clients, Schneider & Company, the great French steel firm, large money compensation.”

 

At length Philip Mauro maintained offices in both Washington and New York, and numbered among his regular clients were the American Telephone and Telegraph Co., the Bell Telephone Co., the Rumford Chemical Works, the Wilcox and Gibbs Sewing Machine Co., and several foreign manufacturers whose products were sold in the United States.

 

His reputation, however, rested primarily on his great success as the attorney for the American Graphophone Company and its subsidiary, the Columbia Phonograph Company, of which Mr. Mauro was a large stockholder and director as well.  (This latter corporation was the parent of the present Columbia Records, a division of the Columbia Broadcasting System.)

 

In the early days of the phonograph industry, there was extensive litigation involving patents. Primarily through Mr. Mauro’s efforts, the American and Columbia patents were sustained “in the United States and in Europe as numerous cases against formidable antagonists, Thomas A. Edison among others.”  No wonder the Columbia Record stated that he was “the leading authority in his profession on the subject of graphophone and phonograph patents.”

 

In addition to representing the corporations named, Mr. Mauro was a personal friend and patent counsel for none other than the inventor, Alexander Graham Bell, best known for the telephone.  Upon little consideration, one realizes that to be an effective patent lawyer, one must know not only the laws governing patents but also have a thorough knowledge of the scientific principles involved.  Mr. Mauro’s knowledge in this respect is reflected in his membership in the erudite Franklin Institute of Philadelphia and the American Society of Electrical Engineers.

 

Naturally his repeated successes in courts of law, coupled with his extensive knowledge, gave Mr. Mauro great standing with the United States Patent Office.  Consequently, he was unanimously chosen by the examiners of the Patent Office to be “their instructor in a class organized for the purpose of studying the practice of the Federal courts in conducting patent cases and was urged to continue the work long after other demands upon his time made this impossible.”

 

His briefs, too, could not but gain recognition, for they were “models of accuracy, conciseness, and literary finish.”  As such, they were “frequently used by judges in the text of their decisions.”  These briefs, incidentally, were all written in longhand, for during his long career as a lawyer and author of many books, Mr. Mauro would not use a stenographer nor a dictating machine.  Nor would he dictate so much as a letter.  In the literal sense of the word his prodigious labors were his own.

 

Increasing prestige and success naturally brought increasing riches and social prominence.  Mr. Mauro became a member of the Cosmos Club of Washington and the Chevy Chase Club.  He and his family were able to go to Europe almost every year.  During one of these trips, he, along with a number of friends, founded the Luzerne Golf Club in Luzerne, Switzerland, so that he might follow his favorite sport while on vacation.

 

About the same time that Philip Mauro had become a practicing lawyer, he was most happily married to Emily Johnson Rockwood of Washington.  To this union were born two daughters, Margaret and Isabel.  “An indulgent husband and father,” Mr. Mauro lavished his love on his family, providing them with all possible material benefits and many luxuries in keeping with his wealth and social position.

 

Mrs. Mauro had been reared in a Presbyterian family, but upon her marriage to her husband went with him to the Episcopalian Church of the Epiphany of which he had become a “member and communicant at the age of sixteen [and] had been for many years thereafter quite a regular attendant.”  During this time Mr. Mauro “heard innumerable sermons,” but for all this, he later confessed, he “was as ignorant as any Hottentot concerning God’s one and only way of salvation.”  Less and less, as the years passed, did he attend the church’s services.  Instead, he would go to the golf course.

 

Often on Sunday morning Mr. Mauro, with a merry twinkle in his big blue eyes, would say to his godly mother-in-law, who made her home in his house, “Well, Ma, I’m going to my church with my choir boys,” referring to the caddies.  The fact was that Mr. Mauro was “drifting steadily away from even a formal profession of Christ.”  The materialistic, even atheistic, ides of many of his associates certainly contributed to this change.  (Isabel recalls, for example, how that Alexander Graham Bell, one of the family’s closest friends, was such a kind man, but “an absolute atheist.”)

 

Naturally, this condition deeply grieved Grandmother Rockwood, and she did whatever she could to counteract the atheistic influences to which her granddaughters wee being subjected.  Whenever possible on Sunday afternoons, she would pull the little girls to her side and teach them Scripture verses.  In addition to this, and what was by far her most important endeavor in this respect, she prayed incessantly for her daughter and family that they would come to Christ.  To these fervent supplications, the family attributed the subsequent work of grace which God wrought in their hearts long after she herself had gone to her reward.

 

As for Philip Mauro himself at this time, he was “striving (so earnestly, yet so hopelessly) by the aid of the rush-light of reason alone to perceive the meanings of life and the relations of man to the order of things whereof he is a part.”  He gave considerable thought in an “effort to answer such questions as, ‘Who am I, and what is my relation with the rest of creation, and with the power that gave existence to me and to it?’”

 

“Upon an idle day” in August, 1893, Mr. Mauro wrote out some of his speculations, as he said, “to attempt to exhibit to myself the real state of my mind . . . chiefly upon the question of man’s immortality, and to determine to what extent the teachings of modern science . . . affect the basis of the hope of another life or state of existence beyond the grave.”  His conclusion was that “science cannot answer this question.”  Furthermore he stated: “To the question, ‘Canst thou by searching find out God?’ science and religion are agreed that a negative answer must be given.”

 

When Mr. Mauro returned to this subject two years later (August, 1895), he wrote: “In all this, as I peruse it again after the lapse of two years, there is something very like the esoteric doctrine as expounded in Sinnett’s ‘Esoteric Buddhism,’ and in the ‘Bhagavad-Gita,’ works with which I have lately become acquainted.  In striving by the unassisted powers of my own reason to grasp at the truth touching the essential being of man, I seem to have arrived at conclusions that are centuries old – but not necessarily sound for all that.”

 

This brief “excursion into theosophy” yielded “no satisfaction” either.  Finally, “wearied of fruitless speculations,” he dismissed from his thought all such questions as to “whether or not there was an existence beyond the grave.”  “Having become a thoroughgoing rationalist (and being no more irrational than the generality of those who assume that self-flattering title),” Mr. Mauro continued, “I took the ground that it was possible to believe only what could be made evident to the physical senses.”

 

“The succeeding eight years wee marked by a decided drift away from all spiritual matters, ending in a lapse into utter indifference thereto, and an entire absorption in business affairs and other temporalities and worldliness.”

 

During this period an event occurred which, though Philip Mauro did not recognize God’s hand in it at the time, was a mighty manifestation of God’s mercy.  In the early summer of 1898, Mr. Pollok, his partner, and his family went to Europe aboard the French liner, Bourgogne.  Up to the very last minute they had begged Mr. Mauro to sail with them.  For some seemingly unaccountable reason he refused. Waving to the Polloks goodbye at the New York pier, Mr. Mauro did, however, promise, “I will see you later in Paris.”  A few days afterward, he was stunned to read in the morning paper that the Bourgogne had sunk July 4 with 562 passengers, among them Anthony Pollok and his family!  Thus in the providence of God, Mauro’s life was spared.

 

Philip Mauro’s general attitude toward life in these years is best described in his own words: “There was no aspiration in my soul beyond the gratification of self; and all the exertion which I was putting forth had for its sole object the acquisition and accumulation of means for ministering to that gratification through life. . . .

 

“The things which I valued, such as reputation, the good opinion of men, success in business enterprises, and the like, engrossed my time and thought, and beyond these there was no subject in view.” . . .

 

As for his “material circumstances,” he could honestly say “that in the practice of my chosen profession (law) I was sufficiently successful to gratify my own ambition and to excite the envy of others; that I was blessed with excellent physical health; and that my domestic relations were all that could be desired.  Nothing seemed to be lacking that could be desired.  Nothing seemed to be lacking that could ensure or contribute to happiness and contentment.

 

“But peace of mine and rest of conscience are not to be found in what the world calls ‘easy circumstances’!”  Mr. Mauro continued in his “Testimony.”  “Notwithstanding that I had apparently every reason to be well-satisfied with my lot and every opportunity to enjoy things of this world, my mental condition was anything but satisfactory.  It is hard to picture the state of a mind subject to increasingly frequent and protracted spells of depression, for which there seemed to be no reason of explanation.

 

“No longer could I find mental satisfaction and diversion in the places and things which once had supplied them.  (My gratifications had been largely of an intellectual order). . . . But some remedy against settled despair must be found. . . . Some good people who were interested in me and who had an inkling of my condition assured me that what I needed was more ‘diversion’ and ‘relaxation,’ that I was ‘working too hard,’ etc. . . . So I followed others in the attempt to find distraction in gaieties, amusements, and excitements of a godless, pleasure-seeking world, among whom I was as godless as any. . . .

 

“Certainly I was thoroughly discontented, desperately unhappy, and becoming more and more easy prey to gloomy thoughts and vague, indefinable apprehensions. . . . Life had no meaning, advantage, purpose, or justification; and the powers of the much-vaunted intellect seemed unequal to the solution of the simplest mysteries.  The prospect before me was unspeakably dark and forbidding.”

 

 

Translated into the Kingdom

 

Such was Philip Mauro’s condition when “one never-to-be-forgotten evening, in New York City,” in the spring of 1903, he tells, “I strolled out in my usual unhappy frame of mind, intending to seek diversion at the theatre.  This purpose carried me as far as the lobby of a theatre on Broadway and caused me to take my place in the line of ticket purchasers.  But an unseen hand turned me aside, and the next thing that I remember was a very faint sound of singing which came to my ears amid the noises in Eighth Avenue, near 44^th Street, fully a mile away from the theatre.

 

“There is no natural explanation of my being attracted by, and of my following up, that sound.  Nevertheless, I pushed my way into the building (a very plain, unattractive affair, bearing the sign ‘Gospel Tabernacle’), whence the sound emanated, and found myself in a prayer-meeting.  I took a seat and remained through the meeting.

 

“I was not much impressed by the exercises, and in fact was not at all in sympathy with what transpired.  What did, however, make an impression upon me was the circumstance that, as I was making my way to the door after the meeting, several persons greeted me with a pleasant word and a shake of the hand, and one inquired about my spiritual state.”

 

The fact was that the friendliness shown to Philip Mauro was “the only impression which was really favorable” which he carried away with him from that service.  And but for this “interest in and care of the stranger [he] would probably not have gone to that place again.”

 

(It was because of his own experience in this respect that Mr. Mauro regarded it of the highest importance for Christians and for ushers, in particular, to make visitors to gospel services “feel at home.” “Let us,” he once wrote, “charge ourselves with responsibility to exhibit kindness to, and to show friendly interest in, the stranger who ventures perhaps with reluctance, almost certainly with prejudice and suspicion, to come among us.”)

 

In the following days after this first visit, unaccountably but irresistibly, Mr. Mauro was repeatedly drawn back to the Gospel Tabernacle of which A. B. Simpson, founder and president of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, was then the pastor.  “No natural explanation will account for the fact that I was constrained to return to a place so utterly devoid of attractions and so foreign to all my natural tastes and inclinations.  The people were not in the social grade to which I had been accustomed, and I would have found nothing at all congenial in their society. . . . I do not remember how many times I went to these meeting before I yielded to the Spirit’s influence, and I do not remember that I was conscious of any benefit from attending the meetings, which, from the ordinary standpoint, would have been pronounced decidedly dull.

 

“The crisis in my life came on the evening of the 24^th May, 1903, when, yielding to an inward prompting, which, gentle as it was, yet overpowered all my natural reluctance and repugnance to such an act, I went forward and knelt with a few others at the front of the meeting room.  I took the sinner’s place and confessed myself in need of the grace of God.  A Christian man (the same how first asked me about my soul) kneeled by me and called on the Lord Jesus to save me. . . .

 

“I did not know the nature of what was happening, for I did not believe in sudden conversions.  I supposed that a change of nature, if it occurred at all, must be very gradual – an ‘evolution,’ in fact.  But my ignorance of the process did not stand in the way of the mighty power of God, acting in grace, to quicken me into new life.  I called upon the name of the Lord with a deep conviction of sin in my heart, and that was enough.”

 

This period of earnest supplication must have continued for some time, for it was not until near midnight that Philip Mauro arose from his knees a pardoned sinner and a new creature in Christ Jesus.

 

“I should have supposed,” Mr. Mauro later reflected, “that, in order to convince me of the truth of the Bible and Christianity, it would be necessary to employ the best efforts of a faculty of the profoundest theologians, versed in all the arguments of skeptical philosophy, and able to furnish plausible replies to them.  But God, in His wisdom, sent me to learn the way of everlasting life from a company of exceedingly plain, humble people, of little education, to whom I regarded myself as immeasurably superior in all the higher branches of knowledge.  It is true that these people knew very little of what is taught in the colleges and seminaries; but they did have that knowledge of which is the highest and most excellent of all . . . ‘the KNOWLEDGE of Christ Jesus my Lord.’ . . .

 

“In a very short time the habits of my life, as well as the occupations of my heart and mind, [underwent] a great change.  The habit of daily Bible-reading, and of morning and evening prayer, was immediately established.”

 

Within a few days after his conversion, this babe in Christ left for Europe to spend the summer with his wife and daughters who had been there for some months.  He purposely had engaged passage on a slow steamer that he might enjoy to the full the opportunity for rest that such a trip would afford him in his weary condition.

 

Before his departure, Mr. Mauro had secured Young’s Concordance and The treasury of Scripture Knowledge.  This Treasury goes through the Bible verse by verse, selecting the prominent words of the verse, and gives all the outstanding references and parallel passages in the rest of the Bible to that particular word.  In all, there are 500,000 such citations – a veritable lawyer’s paradise.  In addition, Mr. Mauro took with him a large quantity of yellow paper, second sheets.  Using The Treasury as his guide, he began to write out all references on a given word or theme to which his attention was directed.  By this means he ultimately became thoroughly acquainted with the Word of God.

 

As he studied in this manner, he awoke to the many wonders of the Word.  It became his delight so that he meditated in it day and night.  And so on this ocean voyage, the sails of his own boat were set for the remainder of his life – a passionate and almost incessant occupation with the living Word of the living God.  Fortunately, from the very first, the primary purpose of this study was practical – to find out how to please God.

 

The results of this method of study are very patent to anyone who has read only a few pages of Mr. Mauro’s writings.  One of the outstanding characteristics of his work is the phenomenal way in which he connects similar words and phrases from widely separated portions of the Bible, thereby demonstrating both the unity of the book and his unusual familiarity with it. Then follows invariably the application of such study to one’s daily life.

 

“Perhaps the most wonderful change which was manifested to my consciousness,” Mr. Mauro testified, “was this, that all my doubts, questionings, scepticism, and criticism concerning the full inspiration, accuracy, and authority of the Holy Scriptures . . .; concerning the sufficiency of Christ’s Atonement to settle the question of sin, and to provide a ground upon which God could, with perfect righteousness, forgive and justify a sinner; and concerning an assured salvation and perfect acceptance in Christ, were swept away completely. . . . I had no notion at all that intellectual difficulties and questioning could be removed in any way except by being answered, one by one, to the intellectual satisfaction of the person in whose mind they existed. But my doubts and difficulties were not met in that way.  They were simply removed when I believed on the crucified One and accepted Him as the Christ of God, and as my personal Savior.”

 

When, at last, Philip Mauro joined his family in Florence, Italy, they found him to be a changed man.  For one thing, he was doing something they had never seen him do before.  Laughingly one of the girls said, “Look! Father’s reading the Bible!”  That, they all thought, was the best joke in the family of recent date!

 

Mr. Mauro offered no explanation for the change in him.  In fact, “through timidity and fear of comment and ridicule,” he tried to keep to himself as much as possible and to conceal the reason for the very evident difference.  Whatever the reason, his wife and daughters were soon to find out that it was no joke, but living reality, a way of life which was to revolutionize the entire family.

 

Margaret, his oldest daughter, was subject to periodic spells of deep depression such as he himself had known for so long.  Now she was in one of these awful states.  Deeply he sympathized with her and longed that she should be set free, as he had been, for since his conversion, his “old condition of mental distress and unrest” had passed away so completely that he could hardly recall it.

 

“You can get up and harangue a bench of old judges when you won’t face your wife and daughters,” was the word that came into his soul and finally goaded him into speaking just a word for Jesus.

 

At last, seeing the suffering of his beloved daughter and realizing he knew the remedy which would cure her, he felt “compelled” to open his lips “and to preach Christ for the first time.”

 

With his knees shaking and his tongue cleaving to the roof of his mouth, Mr. Mauro fearfully ventured into the room of his suffering daughter and simply said, “Margaret, what you need is the Lord Jesus Christ.”

 

“What effort the delivery of this sermon cost me cannot be described,” her father later recalled, “and after that utterance, the preacher had not another word to say, and the only visible result was a very awkward and constrained silence.  Yet this simple, clumsily-given testimony, together with some verses of Scripture read at random, were used by the Spirit of God to quicken another dead soul.”

 

Not long after Margaret’s conversion, about the end of July, Mrs. Mauro joined the Christian members of the household in their new-found faith.  Now it was their turn to learn some facts about her which she had carefully concealed for years.  As a child she, too, had been converted; consequently, this experience was not unknown to her.  But she had loved the world and its pleasures so that for many years she had followed the Lord afar off.  After her marriage, she had followed her husband, but now that he had taken his stand, the lost sheep returned to the fold.

 

Now all the household was converted except Isabel, the younger daughter.  Only eighteen, gay and without any conscious need such as Margaret had, she felt no necessity of nor desire for this experience which the other members of the family had.  She was not even interested, but she soon became uncomfortable, for the Holy Spirit was beginning His work in her soul also.  For the present, however, she continued to go the way of the world.  Wisely, the others exerted no pressure on her but simply prayed that she, too, might accept Christ and be translated out of darkness into His marvelous light.

 

 

“Outside the Camp”

 

 

In September, 1903, the Mauros returned to the United States.  Arriving in New York City, Mr. Mauro decided to remain there for a month or more before proceeding to their home in Washington.  Deeming it unbecoming for Christians to stay at the Waldorf Astoria, where formerly they had resided when in New York, he took a simple apartment nearby and sought the fellowship of humble Christian believers.

 

All this was very irritating to Isabel.  She made the best of it, however.  Having learned something of the new Christian vocabulary and phraseology, she wittily used it in the present circumstances.  Commenting on her bed, she explained to Margaret, “This bed is more blessed than yours!”  But oh, how she loathed going down to some little restaurant on Fourth Avenue to lunch with “that tribe.”

 

To make matters more difficult, however, her ardent suitor, Charles S. French, a lawyer from Boston, came to see her.  They had met in Florence.  Madly in love with her, he came to visit her as soon as possible.  A Unitarian, young French was an unbeliever.

 

Now, Isabel herself was still unconverted, but she was loyal to her family, and she had absorbed a great deal of the doctrines when she was continually hearing propounded and discussed.  Unquestionably, in view of her actions, she at least had become convinced in her mind of the possibility of these things being true, for she immediately began to pass them on to her attentive suitor.

 

Going over to the “gaudy Waldorf,” she would sit in the lobby “solemnly stuffing this young man” with the things she herself had just heard, especially about the coming of the Lord, while she herself was still unconverted!  Wisely, however, she also pointed him to the New Testament.  Wishing to please her, he began to read it.

 

These incidents, humorous and simple as they are, illustrate the radical change which was taking place in the manner of life of the Mauro family.

 

“God’s goodness towards us did not stop at revealing the truth as to our acceptance in Christ and our consequent security in Him,” wrote Mr. Mauro a little later.  “He led us to see that it was our duty and privilege to take at once the place of rejection with Christ. . . . He showed that Christ had given Himself for our sins for the express purpose that He might deliver us from this present evil age (Gal. 1:4); and that His will for the redeemed of this age is that they should go forth unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach (Heb. 13:13).”

 

Now That Philip Mauro was back in New York City, he also returned to the place of his spiritual birth, the Gospel Tabernacle, and attended the meetings there regularly.  “At one of these,” recalled Mr. Mauro, “where saints were seeking a deeper experience of the grace and power of God (all of which was strange and unintelligible to me in my utter ignorance of spiritual things), my attention was drawn to a man, poorly dressed, and evidently in humble circumstances, who was kneeling in the aisle a little in front of me.  He seemed in great distress of mind, and my pity was so awakened that I leaned forward, and, with a vague notion of expressing sympathy, whispered something in his ear.  Without turning his head to see who was endeavoring to comfort him, he uttered just these four words, ‘You are a smoker.’ 

 

“That was all, but it was enough.  Never did a shot go straighter to the mark or produce a more immediate result.  In a flash, I saw that smoking was unbecoming a child of God; and I was enabled without a moment’s hesitation to say, ‘No, I was a smoker, but am one no longer.’  And this I must have spoken in the power of the Spirit; for it was the truth.  That instant I ceased to be a smoker.  My soul escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowler.”

 

The magnitude of Mr. Mauro’s “deliverance from tobacco-bondage” is seen when it is realized in his unconverted days he was strongly addicted to the habit of smoking.  “In fact,” he tells us, “I was enslaved by it, as I found when, under the stimulus of impressive warnings from my physician, I endeavored to break the chain.  In the daily routine of my life in those days, the first act on rising was to light a cigar or cigarette; and from then to bed-time, it was only when at meals (and not always then) or in places where smoking was not permitted that I was not indulging in the practice.”

 

During the few days between his conversion the previous May and his leaving for Europe, Mr. Mauro further records, “None of the Lord’s people with whom I had become acquainted spoke to me on the subject of tobacco; yet I had a distinctly uncomfortable feeling about using it.

 

“I landed in Europe in a shattered state of health, and at once consulted a doctor.  He found my heart, lungs, and digestion seriously impaired, and that the use of tobacco was the cause.  Therefore, he ordered immediate and complete cessation of the habit under penalty of permanent ill-health, or worse.  Thus warned, I of course resolved to give up the indulgence, and I set myself with all the power of my will to do so.  But it was to no purpose. My sturdiest efforts, even though stimulated by fear of the worst consequences, were in vain.  For a few days I resisted the intense cravings, and then it happened unto me according to the true proverb (2 Peter 2:22).”

 

Therefore, it was indeed a miracle when instantaneously, as he says, “The chains fell from me as did Peter’s in prison; and . . . I have, with respect to the habit which once had dominion over me, rejoiced in the liberty wherewith Christ has made me free.”

 

Upon the return of the Mauro family to their home in Washington, they also returned to their “home” church, regular attendants, worshipers of God in spirit and in truth.  That which had once been an empty form and dead was now full of meaning and, to some extent, at least, of life.

 

Almost at once, however, they were to prove themselves most unusual Episcopalians. Desirous to follow the Lord Jesus Christ implicitly, they wanted to obey His command to be baptized in water.  Consequently, Margaret, who had already been “baptized” according to the Episcopal Church and considered a member in good standing all her life, now went to their rector and requested him to baptize them according to the scriptural mode – by immersion.ⁿ

 

Note:   Although it is not encouraged or the general practice, the Episcopal Church will baptize an adult convert by immersion upon request of the candidate.

 

This request posed quite a theological and practical problem for the rector.  According to him and the church, they had been baptized and were Christians, and to be baptized again was certainly opposed to the teaching of the church.  But Margaret, who was the determined spokesman, declared that according to the Scriptures only those who had repented were to be baptized and that by immersion.  According to God’s Word, she witnessed, they had never been Christians until their recent conversion.  Upon her insistence, the rector consulted the bishop who reluctantly gave his consent to the immersion.  Thus the Mauros were buried with Christ into His death by baptism at the hands of the rector of an Episcopalian Church and raised again to walk in newness of life!

 

Now, while the Mauros continued to attend fashionable St. Thomas, they also, at once, took their place “outside the camp” by attending the unfashionable Central Union Mission where along with the poor, they “had the gospel preached unto them” Here, too, the Mauros at once began their labors for the Lord, witnessing to the “down and outers” of the saving power of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

 

In another way the Mauros took their place “outside the camp.”  Henceforth, there was to be no participation in the social doings in which they had formerly indulged so fully and eagerly.  Shortly after their return to Washington, Isabel received an invitation to a dinner party from one of the family’s oldest and closest friends, the wife of one of Washington’s most famous celebrities.  To Isabel’s anger, her mother dictated a letter to her to write refusing the invitation.  This act, of course virtually broke a relationship which had once been so dear.

 

The family continued to pray for Isabel, and soon she, too, came to the Lord.  At a meeting in Central Union Mission she rose and feebly stammered out, as she describes it, some sort of hodgepodge of a testimony that she, too, was a Christian.

 

At the invitation of Mrs. Mauro, Isabel’s suitor, Charles French, came to Washington for a visit.  Since he had last seen Isabel in New York, this young Unitarian lawyer had been reading the New Testament.  As he did so, he came to the Gospel of John and was convinced that Jesus is indeed the Christ, the Son of God, and that he must be born again if he would enter the Kingdom of God.  So he, too, received Christ and was given power to become a son of God by believing on His name.  Of course, Charles attended the Central Union Mission with the Mauros, and there it was, among the broken wrecks of humanity, that this proper Bostonian gave public expression to his faith in Christ – somewhat faint and feeble, like the cry of a newborn babe, but so very sincere.  That his experience was genuine was proved, in part, by the fact that he kept his faith even though Isabel rejected his proposal of marriage.

 

In July of 1904, the Mauros left for their annual summer visit in Europe.  Settled in Switzerland, Philip Mauro pursued his usual physical recreation, golf.  The family attended the local Episcopalian church “with regularity – a new experience in a summer resort.  While the really drastic changes in these respects still lay ahead, Mr. Mauro spent much time with his Bible and “must have been occupied with the very first of his written ministry,” according to Isabel’s recollections. “His habit of concentrated study of one subject or another had become such an accepted pattern that the switch to a completely new subject did not impress me.”

 

Upon Mr. Mauro’s return to the United States in the fall of 1904, he completed the first of some forty or so books he was to write, From Reason to Revelation.  This was in part autobiographical, but only in a small part, for in all his writings Mr. Mauro was very reticent about speaking of himself.  This treatise was an attempt to speak to his many reasoning associates and to show them that man by wisdom knows not God but only by the revelation of God’s Spirit.  A. B. Simpson introduced this new author to the Christian public by writing the preface to this small volume.

 

On March 28, 1905, Isabel was united in marriage to none other than Charles French.  Good lawyer that he was, Charles had no intention of losing his suit of love any more than he would a suit of law.  Therefore, when the Mauros left for Europe the previous summer, he booked passage on the same boat.  In the middle of the ocean, he again proposed and this time was accepted.

 

Inasmuch as the Mauros were endeavoring to conform every phase of their lives to the Word of God, they applied the principles found there to Isabel’s wedding.  Therefore, not only their aristocratic friends of former years, an elegant array of Washington society, were invited, but a wholesale invitation was extended to the congregation of the Central Union Mission, many of whom had been reclaimed from a life in the depths of sin and shame.  Thus it was indeed a “mixed multitude” which gathered in St. Thomas’ for this occasion.

 

This cross section of humanity gave rise to an amusing incident.  After the ceremony, a banker, Charles Bell, cousin of Alexander Graham Bell, and Mr. Mauro’s closest friend, remarked to him, “Philip, I’m interested in these reclaimed souls.”  Then, indicating a guest who was conspicuous, an elderly gentleman with long, straggly hair and beard, he asked, “Is that one of them?”

 

No, it was not.  It was the bridegroom’s former Boston pastor, Dr. Edward Everett Hale, author of A Man Without a Country and now chaplain of the United States Senate!

 

Isabel’s wedding proved to be a sharp dividing line in the life of the Mauro family.  The break with “the world” was now complete and obvious to their former friends, and because of their definite, bold stand for Christ, many of their former associates would walk no more with them.

 

Such separation was accompanied by “much adverse comment, much irritation, much hostility.”  Charges of “self-righteousness and fanaticism” were likewise hurled at them.  All this criticism and abuse the Mauros bore meekly and gladly, “rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.”

 

But if the Mauros suffered persecution and sorrow, they experienced triumphs and joys which more than compensated for their “light affliction.”  In addition to the personal spiritual blessings they received following their conversion, they had the satisfaction of seeing a large number of people, including many of their immediate families, translated out of darkness into the kingdom of God’s dear Son through their testimony.

 

 

Ministering by Pen and Word

 

 

“When did you come into the light of divine healing?”  Philip Mauro was asked when he was about eighty-five.

 

Instantly, the relaxed countenance of the kindly, old gentleman changed into the penetrating gaze of a lawyer engaged in intense cross-examination.

 

“What do you mean – ‘come into the light of divine healing?”

 

Then, without waiting for an answer to his question, he continued, “When I came to the Lord, I found He was good for anything I would trust Him for.”

 

It will be remembered that Mr. Mauro was converted in the church of which A. B. Simpson was then pastor.  Now Dr. Simpson, who had been healed of an incurable heart condition himself, not only proclaimed divine healing but also prayed for the sick with outstanding results.  Unquestionably, Mr. Mauro had became acquainted with the teaching and ministry of divine healing through this mighty man of God, and it is not surprising that Philip Mauro’s second book, Salvation and the Mortal Body, dealt with this theme and was published by the Alliance Press and copyrighted, 1905, by A. B. Simpson.

 

Yet, for all the light and help Mr. Mauro may have received from other teachers, one cannot but be impressed that his presentation of this subject, as of any other with which he dealt, was marked by a freshness and originality, indicative of his having been directly taught by the Teacher, the Spirit of God.  His approach, his presentation, and his conclusion, all reflect his own experience.

 

In respect to the subject of diving healing, his treatise is that of one who has been a devotee – almost an idolator – of the scientific achievements of his day (including those of medical science), but who has come to test and view all of these things in the light of the plain teachings of the Word of God, accepting that as the only standard and guide in this as in any other question of life.  The conclusions reached are then given with the same logic and clarity he used in presenting a case before the Supreme Court of the United States.

 

“These pages are intended to set forth for those who believe on Him,” wrote Philip Mauro in the preface, “the pertinent teachings of the Scripture on the important subject of treatment of the body in sickness and to explain why the writer has been constrained to surrender options formerly entertained by him and very largely held by Christian men and women.”

 

These words as to the author’s intention follow a discussion as to how one finds the truth, including the truth regarding our bodies and of the consequent results of such knowledge when acted upon.  Inasmuch as this preface gives deep insight into Mr. Mauro’s own spiritual experience as a beginner, especially his study of the Bible, in addition to the intrinsic importance and benefit of the teaching itself, it is fitting to quote further from it:

 

“In the eighth chapter of the Gospel according to St. John is a very important statement concerning the acquisition of truth and its effect.  It is a statement addressed by Jesus ‘to those Jews which believed on Him.’  To them He said: ‘If ye continue in My Word then are ye My disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’

 

“The process of apprehending the truth consists in continuing in His Word, and the effect of the apprehension of truth is freedom.  This statement should be accepted by all believers as the enunciation of a spiritual law by Him Who impressed upon creation the laws which it obeys.  This law is one that man might never have discovered for himself; but he can verify it by experience and observation, now that it has been revealed to him.  He can find abundant confirmation of the fact that knowing the truth gives freedom, that the more truth one knows the larger is his liberty, and that the effect of rejecting truth and clinging to error is a corresponding bondage.

 

“Continuing in the Word is the process whereby we apprehend truth, and conversely the apprehension of truth is the purpose for which we continue in the Word. We can set no limit to the amount of truth which it is possible for us to apprehend, but we may limit the amount apprehended, and hence may limit our freedom, by clinging to preconceptions after we have seen the Word the truth which contradicts them.

 

“One of the commonest preconceptions brought to the study of the Bible is that it deals exclusively with man’s spiritual concerns and makes provisions only for his spiritual needs.  Not that this preconception is always formulated in the mind, but it is nevertheless securely lodged there, and all the more securely if unconsciously entertained.  There is a pronounced though unconscious tendency to despise material things, to regard the body as a prison, and to think of oneself as merely struggling to escape from it and from all fleshly and earthly environment.  There is also a tendency to regard one’s future as a mighty, unsubstantial, disembodied existence, concerning which it is impossible to form any clear conceptions.  Nothing could be farther from the truth as revealed in Scripture; as one who has had his attention called to the fact, and hence is put on guard against his unconscious preconceptions, will see how much is made of the human body, as the crowning glory of God’s material creation, and of the earth upon which man lives, with all its manifold creatures and its marvels of divine wisdom and adaptation.  He will find that the human body, and its physical environment, are not experiments which God will abandon as failures, but are His unchangeable purposes, which are to endure to all eternity, and are to be manifested and fulfilled in a glorified body, delivered from all the effects of sin, and in a glorified earth purged from the curse which transgression brought upon it.

 

“The truth concerning the human body is apprehended by the same process as that employed in the apprehension of any other truth.  One sees the truth in the Word, believes it, trusts it, and then verifies it by experience.  In this manner the writer has apprehended the teachings of the Word concerning the divine provision therein made for the mortal bodies of believers, in sickness and in health.  Having learned that our present salvation is not between the ‘mortal bodies’ of believers and the resurrection life of Christ (Rom. 8:11), he has come into the enjoyment of the corresponding freedom which that truth confers (John 8:32).”

 

Basing his opening chapter on Paul’s exhortation to “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service” (Rom 12:1), Mr. Mauro proceeds to show the provision of God for the mortal bodies of those He has redeemed by the blood of Christ and to contrast that with the provision made by man for the same.  This leads him to a plain, logical conclusion concerning medical science as it relates to the child of God.

 

Outstanding is the chapter on “The Indwelling Spirit” in which Mr. Mauro shows that one of the main purposes of our bodies is that they shall be temples of the Holy Ghost, indwelt by His Spirit, and “that we are commanded to ‘be filled with the Spirit’ (Eph. 5:18), and a failure to be thus completely occupied by Him can only be viewed as a condition of disobedience.”

 

“The effect of the indwelling Spirit on our mortal bodies is clearly stated in Romans 8:11: ‘But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.’. . .

 

“The body then is for the Lord and is the temple of the Holy Ghost.  Health, order, and purity in the body are essential for efficient ministry.  Hence, the presence of the Spirit in the body must have the effect of driving out sickness, which is impurity and disorder. Indeed, it is not seen how we can, in a diseased state, glorify God in our body (I Cor. 6:20).  It is plain, then, that ‘if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you,’ He will surely ‘quicken your mortal bodies.’

 

“What then shall we believers do if there be any sickness among us?  Shall we call for the physicians, expecting that the compound of drugs shall save the sick?  The answer is not open to any doubt whatever. One who really accepts the Bible as the Word of God will not ask for any clearer directions than these: –

 

“‘Is there any sick among you?  Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him.’

 

“These directions still stand upon the sacred page.  God’s voice has spoken them through the same Spirit who distributed the gifts to the members of Christ’s body.  We cannot argue about them, for they are too plain to admit of argument.  We can do but one of two things, either believe or obey, or disbelieve and ignore them.”

 

“Brought to a simple statement which all can comprehend, the duty of the believer when sickness gains hold of his body, as I see that duty defined in Scripture, is to take the case to God and leave it with Him, carefully and trustfully following the directions of James 5.  If healing does not come, continue to wait upon God, asking Him to show what hinders the operation of His healing power, in order that the impediment may be laid upon the altar and dealt with by Him as a ‘devoted thing,’ and particularly asking Him to search the heart to see that the blessing of health is desired in order to employ it for His service.  We should not expect our wise and loving Father to bestow a blessing upon us if it is to be used in self-indulgence, in seeking enjoyment, or in the pursuit of worldly advantages; for in that case restored health would not be a blessing at all.

 

“Dear fellow-Christian,” Mr. Mauro then concludes in a most searching, yet tender appeal, “to you who have followed this discussion thus far, let me, in conclusion, speak a solemn word, heart to heart.  We look forward to the day, now very near, when we shall stand before the judgment seat of Christ to be tested according to the deeds done in this body.  As we look back upon the light affliction in the mortal body, which was but for a moment, it will seem a matter of small consequence whether healing came, or how.  But if asked why at that time I sent for the elders of the church, and employed the ‘means’ of prayer, laying on of hands, and anointing with oil, it seems to me that I can confidently answer, ‘Because so it is written.’  How shall it be with you?  If when sick, you sent for the doctor and used the ‘means’ prescribed by him, and you are asked, ‘Why did not you send for the elders of the church and do as directed in My Word?’  Have you any reply you could make to that question in that Presence?

 

Thus in this matter, as in all others, the only question by Philip Mauro was: “What does the Word of God say?”  Once that was ascertained, there was no further question in his mind as to what course he was to follow.

 

“It certainly costs something to receive and stand for this truth; and it moreover requires a showing of one’s faith by one’s works such as is not demanded by other Christian doctrines,” Mr. Mauro truthfully asserted in proclaiming his belief in divine healing.  Throughout his long life he would repeatedly be called upon to show his faith by his works, as will be related in this narrative. 

 

For the present it is sufficient to give his testimony as included in his pamphlet, Sickness Among Saints (1909):

 

“. . . the writer and the members of his family have had an experience of about six years in trusting God alone for help and deliverance in sickness. . . . We have seen severe, acute, and in some cases chronic disorders, removed by the hand of God; but that is not the greatest of the resulting benefits. Though it is indeed a very blessed experience to receive physical deliverance directly from Him, and though it is no small matter to be free from the expense, inconvenience, uncertainty, and often disastrous blunders, incident to medical practice, the great benefits have been the spiritual profit accruing from permitting His correction and discipline to proceed to the accomplishment of His purpose, looking therein not primarily for the healing, but for the peaceable fruit of righteousness. . . As the writer now looks back upon the (nearly) seven years of his life as a child of God, and recalls the marvels of grace, goodness, and faithfulness, which He was manifested to us during that short time, it is clear that some of our richest and most profitable experiences would be lacking had we not learned and acted upon the truth that it is our privilege, as well as our duty, to trust Him wholly with every case of physical illness.”

 

Published in the same year (1905) as Salvation and the Mortal body was Philip Mauro’s third book, The World and Its God, also brought out under the auspices of A. B. Simpson.  “The purpose of this volume,” said the author in his preface, “is to make an application of the philosophic or rationalistic test to the Bible account of Creation, and particularly to that portion of the account which deals with the Origin of Evil in human nature.”

 

Two years after the book’s appearance in the United States, Morgan & Scott of London brought out the first English edition, 6,000 copies, followed within three months by a second printing of another 6,000 copies.  Received with such tremendous interest but also with “criticisms and suggestions . . . from various sources, it seemed desirable to revise and amplify the work.”  This done, the revised and considerably enlarged second edition of 10,800 copies was published in January, 1908.  The demand for the book now was so great that in the same month a second printing of 11,500 copies were necessary, making a total of 22,300 copies printed in that month alone.  Subsequently other editions were published in Great Britain and in the United States and it was translated into other languages so that the total circulation of the book was over one hundred thousand copies.ⁿ

 

Note:     In May, 1946, an edition of 5,000 copies was published in Australia.  In the “Foreword” to this edition Captain B. Acworth, D.S.O., R.N., makes this interesting observation: “This inspired effort of Mr. Mauro’s was originally published a few years before the outbreak of the first World War in 1914.  Few volumes written at that time, dealing with current events, analyzing the course of human history and showing the inevitable climax toward which it is tending, as this one does, would now prove suitable for republication.  The world-shattering events of the two great wars have upset the calculations of the philosophers.  Not so with this volume.  The revelation concerning man’s origin and destiny as recorded in the sacred Scriptures.” 

 

Dealing with the same general theme but developing and enlarging its scope were Mr. Mauro’s next two books, Man’s Day (1908), published simultaneously in the United States and England, and The Number of Man (1909).  The former of these volumes deals with the subject from the standpoint of Dispensational system of interpreting Scripture, showing how greatly the author had been influenced by it and how fully he had accepted and applied it at this time.  The latter volume is a comprehensive examination of the social, political, economic, and religious movements of human activity “for the purpose of ascertaining the direction and probable outcome of these movements of the modern world.”

 

The inquiry is one of great importance and of vital interest to all human beings.  It carries us on to the end of all the struggles, trials, and efforts of mankind.  It looks into the future to see what is to be the consummation – the complete numbering or summing up – not merely of the present era of scientific civilization and industrial development – the age of machinery – but of the Career of Humanity as a whole.  It seeks to ascertain the ‘NUMBER OF MAN’ in its totality.”

 

With remarkable, almost prophetic, foresight Mr. Mauro showed that “mankind as a whole” was indeed “approaching a crisis of the first magnitude,” and in addition, he outlined some of the details of that crisis with amazing accuracy.  More than thirty years before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he wrote:

 

Is it nothing that America’s western border is menaced by a mysterious people, stimulated by conquest, capable of nurturing revenge for years until the moment comes, and then of striking a fatal blow?”

 

And how strikingly pertinent to the political situation of this very day and hour are his remarks written over fifty years ago about England and America:

 

“Let us consider our ways; and let us be not so foolish and so oblivious of the plainest lessons of history as to suppose that these menacing evils may be averted by maintaining the ‘two-power standard,’ and by expending vast sums for armament.  There is but one way whereby the English-speaking nations may escape the unparalleled disaster that menaces them; and that is by repenting and forsaking their sins, and returning to the God Who gave them wealth and greatness.

 

No book of flighty prophetic interpretations, its general outlook and conclusions, based as they are on sound observations and valid reasoning in the light of the Scriptures, have been verified by the events of the passing years.  In spite of some references which are naturally “dated,” the book is remarkably up-to-date.  No wonder that “it has gone through many editions, has been translated into various foreign languages,” and was in “steady demand” for years after its publication. 

 

“The most widely circulated of all Mr. Mauro’s books,” Life in the Word, was also first published in 1909.  A classic in its field, it reflected how absolutely its author, in his relatively brief experience, had become controlled by “the sufficiency, finality, and completeness of the revelation given by God in His Word.”  Realizing the importance “to insist unceasingly” upon this truth, Mr. Mauro wrote this treatise.

 

“It would be, however, a task far beyond the capacity of the writer to present all the unique characteristics of the Bible, whereby it is so distinguished from other books that it occupies a class by itself.  The writer has, therefore, singled out for consideration one special attribute, or characteristic of the Holy Scriptures, namely that signified by the word ‘living.’”

 

Life in the Word was published both separately and as a part of a series called The Fundamentals.  Alone, the circulation of the book finally exceeded 200,000 copies while as part of the original edition of The Fundamentals, over three million copies of it were published and distributed.  “One of the greatest and most widely distributed series on Christian doctrines and Christian evidences ever written by a galaxy of some of the best Bible scholars of recent times,” The Fundamentals as republished in a revised edition in 1958.  Thus, what many have regarded as Mr. Mauro’s greatest work, certainly his most popular one, continues to live and to be disseminated the world over.  Incidentally, the designation of evangelical believers as Fundamentalists came from the title of this famous series.

 

The fact that Mr. Mauro was chosen to write for this series, along with such outstanding evangelical leaders of the day as F. Bettex, W.J. and C.R. Erdman, James M. Gray, James Orr, A.T. Pierson, C.I. Scofield, R.A. Torrey, and B.B. Warfield, clearly indicates the high esteem in which Philip Mauro was held by orthodox Christian leaders. 

 

The very fact that a materialistic, scientific lawyer of such high reputation as Mr. Mauro had become such an earnest Christian and such an able advocate of Christianity, both by his pen and public addresses, caused him to be sought for increasingly as a speaker at Bible conferences and in Christian circles generally.

 

As a speaker, his striking personality, coupled with his dynamic delivery, completely captivated his audiences.  With an extraordinary gift of impersonation, he would become the thing or person he was talking about.  If, for example, he was speaking of Zacchaeus, he was Zacchaeus; he was no longer Philip Mauro, so one keen observer described his abilities.  This characteristic, coupled with the “lucidity and force” of his presentation and arguments, rendered him as highly effective on the platform as he had been before the Supreme Court of the United States.

 

Such popularity inevitably presents its own temptations, especially pride.  Fortunately God took care to keep His chosen vessel humble.  In the beginning, he and his family suffered shame at the hands of former friends and business associates.  Later he was cautiously – even critically – received by many believers because of his espousal of divine healing.  With any, they regarded it as regrettable, to say the least, that a man of his talents and capacity should both accept and propound such a doctrine; others, of course, considered he had embraced fanaticism on that score.  No one, however, could deny his clear-cut testimony nor the value of it throughout the world. Hence, his ministry was welcomed even if with some reservations.

 

In addition to these outward means which God used to keep him humble, he himself was given the inward conviction of its importance.  Fortunately, too, he had a wife who feared only one ting – the result her husband’s popularity might have on his spiritual experience.  Hence, she prayed incessantly for him.  In this respect, the testimony of no other than C.I. Scofield of the Scofield Reference Bible is of paramount significance.  In a letter written at this period to a friend, he refers to Mauro as having “a sweet spirit and is clearly an able man.”

 

 

Sowing Beside All Waters

 

 

As Philip Mauro’s ministry by pen and on the platform steadily increased, it left less and less time for the conduct of his legal practice.  He still argued some cases, but these became fewer and fewer.

 

Each summer the family continued to go to Europe, but with each return trip these seasons became less and less of a vacation and in reality more and more of a missionary enterprise, for wherever the Mauros found themselves, they expected to work for the Master.  One summer, probably in 1908, they took a villa in Bellagio on the eastern shore of Lake Como, Italy.  Immediately Mrs. Mauro and Margaret began to do house-to-house visitation among the poor women of the village, bringing them the good news of Christ as Savior.  For some time Spirit of God had been dealing with Mrs. Mauro, seeking to bring every aspect of her life into greater conformity to the Word of God.  As a Washington society woman, born and bred, jewels and costly array were a regular part of her ordinary attire.  These she had continued to wear after her new spiritual experience.  One day, however, during the course of her witnessing among the Italian peasant women, she was reminded of such admonitions for women as the Apostle Paul’s:

 

 

“In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shame-facedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; but (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works” (I Tim. 2:9, 10).

 

God had spoken to her heart.  For her, there was nothing else to do but to obey.  Immediately she returned to their quarters and stripped herself of her jewels. Collecting these and all other similar valuables that she had, she took them and sold them to the wife of the local hotel keeper.

 

Vanity which had been her concern and joy now became hated and despised.  Henceforth, her apparel was to be plain and her only adorning would be “a meek and quiet spirit,” – the “beauty of holiness.”  Compared to her former appearance, she now looked quite plain.  Extreme?  Yes, but she had lived in the other extreme, and with her there could be no compromise with the revealed will of God.  She wanted to live exactly as the Word of God indicated and thus please Him and Him alone.

 

Back in the United States, the next year Mr. Mauro received word that his beloved Aunt Anna, only eight years his senior, was ill at Lausanne, Switzerland.  An unusually beautiful and attractive woman, in her youth suitors had swarmed around her “as bees around a honey pot.”  Finally, she had married a man of means who was now dead.  For the most part, she spent her time in Europe, much of it at Nice on the Riviera.  As one of the family who had been reared a Roman Catholic, she had remained unmoved by the testimony of her nephew. She had, however, been the object of his prayers.  Now, as a result of taking an overdose of varinol, she was in need of help and called for her nephew and his wife.

 

Immediately they responded to this call and sailed for Europe.  It was evident that Aunt Anna demanded attention, and after prayerful consideration, the Mauros felt that the Lord would have them undertake her care.  Hurriedly they returned to the United States to settle their affairs and prepared to return to Europe to take up their residence.  For this reason, they now sold their Washington house with all its furnishings.

 

Rapallo, a village fifteen miles east of Genoa, on the Mediterranean sea coast, was chosen as their residence.  Thither Aunt Anna was brought.  Mrs. Mauro accepted this burden as a challenge and a call from God Himself and insisted on herself nursing what became a most difficult case which was to last for several years.

 

Rapallo afforded an excellent opportunity for Mr. Mauro to give himself to the ministry of the Word and to prayer.  Diligently he continued his searching of the Scriptures, some of the fruits of which will be presently noted.  This study he coupled with fervent prayer.  For many years he observed Wednesday as a day for private fasting and prayer.

 

One of the first productions from his pen while at Rapallo was a pamphlet entitled Trusting God in Sickness.  This was written as a result of the many letters received from brethren “advancing objections, or stating difficulties” regarding the doctrine of divine healing as set forth in Sickness Among Saints.  These objections he considered and endeavored to answer after first setting forth the doctrine as he understood the Scriptures to teach it.

 

One of these objections which was from a brother of “great competence as a teacher of the Word” deals with a question so often asked, and Mr. Mauro’s answer is of such wit and consistency that it is included here:

 

“I was quite prepared for the query about the supposed case of a broken leg.  The regularity with which that fractured member hobbles into the discussion (where it is quite out of place) would be amusing, were the subject not so serious.  It suggests the idea that a ‘broken leg’ is about the only thing which the objectors to this doctrine have to stand on.

 

“My reply to the question: What would I do if I should break my leg? Is that a child of God has not to deal with hypothetical cases, but only with real events as they occur; and that no mishap such as a broken leg can occur to him except by God’s permission.  Therefore, I trust His protecting care not to permit such an accident to occur; and in particular I can trust Him to care for His own truth, which I am seeking to maintain.  The child of God who takes the stand of looking solely to Him for healing has no more reason to fear a broken leg than a cold in the head.  Furthermore, this hypothetical question has to do only with my consistency.  It does not touch the subject of God’s revealed will in regard to sickness, and that is the only thing in question.”

 

Further, he deals incisively and conclusively with the objection to his personally espousing and proclaiming divine healing:

 

“You appeal to me (as others have done) to keep silence concerning God’s way in sickness on the ground that, by teaching it, I will impair my ‘influence,’ because you think my ‘power’ lies along a certain line of testimony.  This, however, is but an appeal to fleshy pride. It is not a question where my power lies (for I have none) nor whether or not the many turn away from me.  What is involved is solely and simply a matter of faithfulness to God’s revealed truth.  Whatever influence for God I may have exerted has been due simply to speaking out plainly what He has shown me by the light of His Word.  And shall I pursue another course in respect to this matter?  I know full well the cost of faithfulness, especially when it comes to a ‘hard saying’ and one that cuts the flesh.  With such Scriptures as John 6:66 and 2 Tim. 1:15 before me, I should not wonder at a loss of ‘popularity.; . . . I know full well what sort of teaching on this subject will please equally well the world and the class of saints who are likely to turn from me because of the unwelcome doctrine I hold; and I know that it is a pleasant thing to receive the approbation of those we seek to instruct in the ways of God. . . . yet it is distinctly a case wherein ‘if I yet please men I should not be a servant of Christ.’ Therefore, my reply to your appeal must be, ‘As the Lord liveth, what the Lord saith unto me that will I speak;’ though I am open always to be shown by His Word that I have mistaken His message.  In this matter I am seeking not to extend my ‘influence’ or exert my ‘power’ but to lead Christ’s people into that path of separation in which He desires to find them when He comes.”

 

Rightly Mr. Mauro discerned and called this argument what it was – “a strong and tempting appeal to the flesh” – and rightly refused to listen to it for a moment.

 

“In conclusion I would say, with all earnestness and solemnity, that, if I have any spiritual discernment at all, the doctrine herein presented is a part of God’s message to those of His saints in the time of the end who have the ambition to walk with God, as did Enoch, in complete isolation from the world and all its ways, and to share in that great and now imminent event of which Enoch’s translation was a figure.  I have the conviction that the Spirit of God is now working to effect for those who are ‘alive and remain’ unto the coming of the Lord such a conformity to His death and such a detachment from all earthly things, as is comparable to that which death has effected for ‘them that sleep.’  If you will just attempt to think of walking with God, and at the same time seeking and using human expedients for deliverance from the attacks of Satan, I am sure you will realize the incongruity between the two things.”

 

One who thus boldly declares this truth must be prepared to be tested accordingly.  Consequently, it is not surprising to learn that in Rapallo Mr. Mauro suffered “a fearful attack of gallstones,” nor should it be surprising to learn that he had a most miraculous deliverance in answer to the prayer of faith. 

 

A new era in Philip Mauro’s writing began with The “Wretched Man” and His Deliverance which he finished in September, 1910.  Of this book he later said, it “was (if my memory is not at fault) my first attempt at Bible exposition.  Was impelled to the writing of it by the unsatisfactory and contradictory explanations of Romans VII that were then available.”ⁿ

 

Note: From a letter to the author, May 26, 1944.

 

As a matter of fact, about half of this book deals with part of Romans VIII because the discussion of some of the themes of Romans VII is continued and concluded only in that chapter.  This first volume devoted to Bible exposition was to be followed by numerous others, covering a wide range of subjects and many parts of the Bible both in the Old and New Testaments.  In fact, from this time on, almost all his writing was to be in the field of Bible exposition.

 

Mr. Mauro’s ministry in these Rapallo years was not confined to the printed page nor to the public platform on his various trips to the United States and England.  As always was their custom, so in Rapallo the Mauros opened their home for meetings which Mr. Mauro conducted.  The fact that he did not know the Italian language he considered no excuse or deterrent from his bringing the Light to those around them who were sitting in darkness.  To accomplish this, he employed an interpreter.

 

One Lord’s Day Mr. Mauro decided, in an attempt to interest and to please his hearers, that he would memorize a few words of this unknown language and venture to repeat them at the beginning of his talk.  Then he planned to continue his address, as usual, by means of the interpreter.  Accordingly he quoted his memorized sentence!  Then, to his surprise, another word in Italian came, and another, and another, until he had delivered his whole talk in Italian. He did not use his interpreter.  What is more – he did not use him again.  So supernatural was this that Mr. Mauro always regarded it as similar to what happened on the Day of Pentecost when the believers spoke in tongues and “every man heard them speak in his own language . . . the wonderful works of God.”

 

 

“As Strangers and Pilgrims”

 

 

Bible study and exposition did not completely absorb Mr. Mauro’s time and thought at Rapallo.  Some attention had to be given to the preparation of a few pending legal cases.  To present these, Mr. Mauro had to return to the United States occasionally, combining such trips with the ministry of the Word.  One such case, with the old familiar names again appearing, was presented June 13, 1911 – “American Graphophone Co. Versus Victor Talking Machine Co.

 

Again in 1912 Mr. Mauro, accompanied by Margaret, was in the United States.  The pending legal cases demanded more time than he had anticipated so that their return plans were disarranged and delayed.  Finally, with his affairs settled, he and Margaret were able to book passage on the Carpathia which sailed from New York, bound for Genoa, April 11, 1912.

 

Significantly, Mr. Mauro was busily engaged on the voyage with the writing of God’s Pilgrims, a series of exhortations based on the book of Hebrews.  These emphasized the fact that God’s people must ever remember they are Hebrews – “passengers” – to another country and hence “strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”

 

Four days out at sea, “in the early morning of Monday, the 15^th, a few minutes past midnight, a brief message was received by wireless telegraph” by Carpathia’s operator:

 

“Come at once.  We have struck a berg.  It’s a C.Q.D., old man.  Position 41'56", N. 50'14" W. M. G. Y.”

 

C.Q.D.” was the then international call of distress.  “M.G.Y.” were the call letters of the world’s largest ship, then on her maiden voyage – the Titanic.

 

A few minutes later a second message was received from the Titanic with the new international call for distress which had just been adopted and which was now used for the first time: “S.O.S. M.G.Y.”

“Coming hard” was the message returned by the operator of the Carpathia, which was then about ninety miles away.

 

“The Titanic has gone down with every one on board.”  This was the first word to reach the ears of the crew of the Carpathia when it arrived at the position of the sunken vessel and had dropped anchor just at dawn, about four a.m. on Monday, April 15, 1912.  The world’s largest ship which had been pronounced as unsinkable had gone down about an hour and forty minutes before the rescue ship arrived.

 

Philip Mauro, always an early riser, very soon learned why the Carpathia was at a standstill.  Immediately he went to Margaret’s cabin and awakened her.  With little or no explanation, he told her to dress and come to the deck immediately.  Hurriedly he then proceeded to the scene of action. 

 

“The scene that greeted our eyes when we went on deck . . . yesterday (Monday) morning is indescribable,” wrote Mr. Mauro to his daughter, Isabel.  “We are lying a few thousand yards from a perfect continent of ice, which stretched as far as the eye could reach, with here and there huge ice peaks sticking up into the air.  All around us in the sea were detached icebergs glistening in the sun.  It was a perfect polar scene, and although it was only yesterday, and although we remained four hours skirting along the icefield looking for boats and bodies, it seems already like a dream – so unreal and strange does it appear.  Surely, this hand of God is most manifestly appearing in the affairs of men.”

 

This “vast continent of ice” was, according to subsequent measurements, from seventy to ninety miles long.  Of the Titanic’s passengers and crew of upward of 2,300, there were only about 745 persons in all, mostly women,” who survived the tragedy and were taken aboard the Carpathia.  “After remaining on the spot until the prospect of further rescues were extinguished, the Carpathia headed for New York.”

 

(This right-about-face of the Carpathia had special interest for Margaret.  For personal reasons, she had not desired to leave New York when she did.  There had seemingly been no other course to pursue, however, but still she was unreconciled.  Therefore, when she had gone to bed the previous night, her sleeping thought had been: God is so wonderful that He could turn this ship around and head it back to New York.  Now that sleeping though was being actually fulfilled!)

 

“You can imagine the depression and discomfort pervading this boat, with such a cargo of concentrated abjectness and misery added to the rather full passenger list that we had at the start,” Mr. Mauro continued in his letter to Isabel.  “There are more Titanic passengers than Carpathians, and, of course, there are no accommodations for them in the ordinary sense.

 

“I gave up my room which has four bunks and spent the night in a steamer chair. Do not expect to take any clothes off till we reach New York.  The first- and second-class dining rooms and the writing room were filled with women lying on the floors, tables, and sofas.  The smoking rooms were allotted to the men.  I tried one but could not stand it.  Possibly by tonight things will be better arranged.

 

“Margaret has given away most of her things (underwear, etc.).  There has been [no great demand] for masculine apparel – but I quickly parted with some stockings, pajamas, and handkerchiefs, besides the nice, felt slippers my dear Charlie gave me.  The dozen toothbrushes I had were most acceptable.  Of course, the people had absolutely nothing but what was on their persons – not even hand togs.  They were told to the last few moments that there was no danger of the ships’s going down”

The next day Mr. Mauro continued his narrative letter of the events of those momentous days:

 

“Wednesday.  The opportunities are opening out.  A splendid one was offered this morning before breakfast.  A young man, Albert A. Dick, was saved with his wife (married less than a year ago). The Lord put him in my way.  He has made money three quarters of a million, he told me) and is about quitting business, meaning to devote the rest of his life to ‘doing good.’  Said he was not a Christian, but had been reading the Bible trying to find out if there were a God.  Was quite ready to listen, and I gave him the truth for some hours.  He was in a state similar to that of the Ethiopian treasurer.  I am sure the Lord sent me to him and that He gave me the word for him.  He lives way off in Calgary, Alberta.  Pray that the Lord may bring him clearly into the light and supply the ministry he needs.  Also, that his wife may also be saved.  She seems disinclined to hear or allow him to hear.  When she appeared, he said, ‘My dear, this gentleman is telling me how he came to be a Christian, and I mean to be one too.’

 

“Margaret has been very busy, ministering in the second cabin and steerage.  And all that she has been doing is being discussed, and so is turning into a testimony.  The whole shiploads (with few exceptions) will have received the testimony of a living Christ.

 

Among the rescued passengers is a child of God, a young man named Collett, nephew of Sidney Collett, author of Scripture Truth.  Has considerable light.

 

“Thursday.  We are expecting to reach New York this evening.  The opportunities that have opened for ministry have been simply wonderful.  Most of them came to Margaret.  Such a day as she had yesterday!  Hope she may be able to write you some of the marvelous doings of the Lord.  Now I want you to send a copy of the World and Its God to A. L. Solomon, 345 Broadway, New York. . . . He is a Jew, but his heart is quite tender just now.  It might be good to send him “The Shepherd of Israel.’  It’s only 7 a.m. now; but I have already spent more than an hour with another Jew – a wealthy London merchant. 

 

“Thursday night.  Another busy day.  We are quite fatigued but rejoicing that the Lord is working in His own irresistible way.  We are about landing and are told we shall leave again early tomorrow.

 

“Charlie’s letter was much appreciated.  Dearest love to my precious ones and comforting greetings to all the saints.

Father”

 

“The unparalleled experiences of the last four days,” wrote Margaret as the boat was nearing New York, “have left me without words to write. – One fact stands forth with luminous clearness: Christ has been glorified.”

 

The Carpathia “docked about nine o’clock . . . Thursday evening.  A dense crowd, filling the streets leading to the dock and estimated at 25,000 persons, awaited the arrival of the vessel in the hope of merely catching a glimpse of some of the survivors.”

 

Unknown to Mr. Mauro and Margaret, among that vast multitude were Isabel and Charles French, who had come from Boston to meet their own loved ones. As they waited on the wharf, they witnessed the impressive sight of two little life-boats, all that remained of the mighty Titanic, whose very name was “a savor of arrogance and presumption,” being rowed and moored in a separate place.

 

It was all a tremendous object lesson of “what becomes of the great and strong things of man when God puts His finger on them!”  Then as survivors and mourning relatives and friends were reunited, they witnessed the heart-breaking but elegant display of mourning by elaborately crepe-dressed women.  They also say and heard J. Bruce Ismay, the president of the White Star Line, booed and hissed as he came off the ship because he had allowed himself to be rescued instead of going down with the Titanic.

 

Once the Mauros and Frenches got together, they unitedly praised God that in His providence He had so ordered the steps of Mr. Mauro and Margaret, “through a disarrangement of their own plans” – even against their personal wishes, that they were on the Carpathia and thereby had been given such an unparalleled opportunity “for testimony to the Name which is above every name,” for thereby many of the wealthy and great of this world, who otherwise might not have had a chance to hear the gospel, had Christ preached to unto them.

 

As soon as the Carpathia could be gotten in readiness, it once again set forth from New York for Genoa, Mr. Mauro and Margaret aboard.  Mr. Mauro finished his work on his book, God’s Pilgrims, on this voyage.  In the preface he wrote:

 

“The studies contained in this volume were written down (from notes of addresses previously given) during the memorable voyage of the Steamship Carpathia, which was interrupted by the rescue of the survivors of the Titanic and by the return with them to the port of New York.  This is not the place to speak of the harrowing scenes and distressing incidents of the four days of that return trip.  But that event – the sudden and dramatic overthrow of the latest and greatest human achievement of its kind, the most conspicuous object in the world – which stirred all Christendom to an unprecedented degree, served to impress powerfully upon the writer’s mind the truth that ‘the Day’ is at hand for the shaking of all things, when the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low; and they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth for fear of the Lord and for the glory of His majesty, when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth.  The destruction of the Titanic is a foreshadowing of what is about to happen to the great ‘Civilization,’ upon which man has expanded his energies, and in which he puts his confidence.  For the unconverted, the obvious lesson of that tragic event is to inquire concerning the lifeboat.  But there are also solemn and important lessons in it for the saints of God.  Some lessons the writer has endeavored to set forth in the following pages.”

 

Later Mr. Mauro did write two tracts dealing with this world-shaking event: “The Life-Boat and the Death-Boat” and “The Titanic Catastrophe and Its Lessons.”

 

At Rapallo, Mr. Mauro resumed both his local ministry and his world-wide ministry through his writings.  God’s Apostle and High Priest was published the next year, 1913.  This was followed by three volumes of “Expository Readings in Romans”:

 

            God’s Gospel and God’s Righteousness

God’s Gift and Our Response

God’s Love and God’s Children.

 

“The writer’s aim herein,” wrote Mr. Mauro in the preface to the second of this series, “is practical rather than doctrinal.  He finds in himself and in others a natural disposition to give attention to doctrine rather than to walk.  There is in this a great and imminent danger.  One may hold the most accurate views regarding the fundamentals of Christine doctrine, may be able to state in dispensational and prophetic truth, and may know familiarly the teaching embodied in the types and ordinances, and yet be barren of fruit. There is grave danger lest that which was Philadelphian become Laodicean in character – rich, increased with the best doctrinal goods (handed down from fathers with whom they were living, life-controlling truths), and conscious of no need – but lukewarm.  There may be little life where there is much light. 

 

“These pages are written, therefore, not for the purpose of adding to the reader’s stock of doctrine but with the desire and prayer that they may be graciously used of God to arouse some of His people from the apathy that seems of late to have been stealing upon the household of faith, and to encourage them to run with patience the race set before us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of Faith.  For we have need of patience, in order that having done the will of God we may receive the promise.”

 

About this time, Mrs. Mauro’s sister and her husband, Mr. and Mrs. Francis Chaffin, secured a large country estate in England.  These precious saints were among the relatives who had been led to the Lord through the witness of the Mauros.  Mr. Chaffin, a wealthy man who had led a very profligate life before his conversion, gave bountifully of his substance thereafter to the advancement of the Kingdom of God.

 

Shortly after the Chaffins were settled in their new home, the Mauros, including ailing Aunt Anna, left Rapallo and joined them there.  As was his custom, Mr. Mauro immediately began to work for the Lord and ere long had built up a local assembly.

 

His ministry of writing continued apace, and in 1913 he wrote Looking for the Savior.  At the outbreak of World War I appeared The Last Call to the Godly Remnant, primarily “a study of the five messages of Haggai,” but connected with it, the author gives a brief but excellent and practical exposition of the latter part of Ephesians.  At the close of this treatise is a most interesting note:

 

“The manuscript of foregoing pages was completed and sent to the publishers the last week of July of this fateful year, 1914.  Before that M.S. had reached the publishers’ hands, the War of the Nations had broken out and is now in full progress as the writer is correcting the proofs.  (See also Joel 3:9, and Jer. 25:15-28.)  The ‘cup’ is being put into the hands of the nations, and the Lord is saying to them, ‘Ye shall certainly drink.’  The Destroyer is now doing his greatest work of destruction and desolation.  The time when he is tearing down is the time for God’s people to be building up.  The ‘power of death’ is being displayed in the world as never before.  What can it mean but that God is about to display as never before His life-giving power?  The devil is filling graves on an unprecedented scale.  What can it mean but that God is about to empty the graves of those ‘that are Christ’s?’  Surely, now is the time for us who are of the day to watch and be sober and to be redeeming the time because the days are evil; and the way to do this is to give ourselves, with all our hearts and all our energies, in work and prayer, to the building of the House of our God.”

 

 

In Perils on Land and Sea

 

 

The opening weeks of World War I found Mr. And Mrs. Mauro widely separated.  Mr. Mauro was in Rapallo, Italy, where he had gone with his daughter Margaret to encourage the little flock which he had there.  Mrs. Mauro was in England caring for Aunt Anna.

 

The unbelievably rapid advance of the German army through the Lowlands, bringing it every day nearer the English Channel, plus the possibility of bombs falling from airships, were enough to make the stoutest hearts in England tremble, while to one so exceedingly timid and fearful as Mrs. Mauro was by nature, these threats were enough to drive her frantic but for the sustaining grace of God.

 

Throughout the years, Mrs. Mauro had come to lean increasingly on the strong arm of her beloved husband.  Now that stay was removed!  She was alone in a country at war – with a sick relative to care for!  Furthermore, there loomed the ever-increasing possibility that this separation might continue for the duration of the conflict.  Such a thought was absolutely terrifying!  Mrs. Mauro’s anguish of mind was most intense. 

 

She expresses both her fears and her faith in a letter to Isabel, October 12, 1914:

 

“Humanly speaking it is enough to cast us down and make us faint, but He sustains us and keeps the waters from submerging us.  It is a time to pray through as never before. . . . Again, humanly speaking, the morning news would seem to cut off the way before our loved ones. . . .

 

“O, Issy darling, if you and I were together we could comfort one another, but the Lord knows what we need – and He loves us – and I could not murmur, for He is so good to us.  There are times tho’ when my heart cries out for one of my own, but perhaps it is for this very thing that I am here – to learn that He is sufficient and to put Him first of all.”

 

The next day, October 13, Mrs. Mauro wrote Isabel’s husband, Charles French:

 

“‘And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places, when it shall hail, coming down on the forest’ (Is. 32:18, 19).

 

“Precious Father sent me this verse.  I wrote a few lines yesterday to Isabel in some stress of spirit – I do hope I did not write in such a way as to distress her or make her anxious – but the news of the fall of Antwerp had just come officially, and, of course, that news means much more than at first appears.  The change of operations also, in France, was news also not calculated to encourage.  Then there are, necessarily, warnings and advice and also regulations given out thro’ the newspapers. . . .

 

The Lord has kept Father and Margaret where it has been very quiet – and I trust it will continue so.  If things go on as they seem to be expected about here, I can thank him for keeping them there.  Unless a miracle was done, (as far as I can see) they are more cut off than ever.

 

“But, O Charlie, the Lord has comforted me today and I can say from my heart He is a just God.  Not one thing that He has permitted me to suffer has been too much or unnecessary.  He had to allow it and I justify Him.  His loving kindness has been so marvelous all my life – His blessings beyond all words – and I have not shown that I was appreciative or thankful, so He had to show me.  Now we are in His hand – and He loves us and gave His own Son to redeem us.  Is not this enough?  Surely we can rest quietly and confidently, just trusting Him.

 

And I do not wish to be occupied with myself but to think of the millions in such depths of hopeless despair.  There are thousands coming over here.  Pray for them that there may be provision made for them – especially that there may be food enough.  I am afraid to say how many thousands came yesterday but a prodigious number and all to be housed and fed.  I do not see how it’s possible, and constant prayer is necessary for their salvation and that the Word may reach all these different parts of the arm and navy in all the different countries. . . .

 

“I have had beautiful letters from Father and Margaret right along, but I do not see how they can get through now.  But the Lord is able for all these things, and I am looking to Him. . . .

 

“And oh, Charlie, I crave for you and Isabel, that you both may be strong in prayer – praying parents – that the children may have in you both an example of those who make everything a matter of prayer.  Gather them about you before you undertake anything, and pray together if it be only a few words.  I know Isabel has done this more or less, but it would be so good for the children to look for and expect it before any move is made about anything.  Let them get accustomed to ask the Lord about it.  They will get the habit of prayer now.  Precious little ones, how I yearn over them, but oh, I do hope our Lord is coming soon.  It can’t be too long, can it?

 

“If you think the details I have put in here would make my darling child anxious, do not give it to her.  Do not either of you be anxious, but pray.  He is faithful that promised.  Mother’s tenderest love.”

 

Not too long after this, the Lord made a way for Mr. Mauro and Margaret to return to England.  Once there, however, it became evident that the family, along with sick Aunt Anna, must return to the United States because of the increasing restrictions and dangers.  Multitudes of others who were in similar plight were also seeking passage on available ships westward bound.  It seemed impossible for the Mauros to leave, but as always they made their moves a matter of prayer, knowing that “with God all things are possible” and that “all things are possible to him that believeth.”

 

Finally in June, 1915, they were able to state: “The Lord’s plan is for us to sail next Saturday.”  So amid mine-infested waters, the Mauros set sail from England and by the good hand of their God upon them crossed the Atlantic in safety and reached their desired haven in peace.

 

 

Conflicts and Victories at Hebron

 

 

Once again in the United States, the Lord led the Mauros to settle in Framingham, Massachusetts, only a few miles from Boston.  To their new residence they gave the name “Hebron Farm” which was to be their home for about the next twelve years.  Here, first in their own home and later, as the congregation increased, in a hall in the village itself, Mr. Mauro conducted services marked by the blessing of God.  Here, too, he wrote a number of his greatest books, and it was at Hebron Farm that Mr. Mauro and his family were to undergo one of the most fiery trials of their lives and, by the grace of God, to experience their greatest victories.

 

Before too long a time had elapsed, Aunt Anna died.  All the family had greatly longed and fervently prayed to see her converted.  God granted them their hearts’ desire in the end.  Pointing up, her last word was “Jesus!”

 

About a year after their return to this country, one day in 1916, with little or no premonition, Mr. Mauro suffered a complete breakdown.  His condition required the closest, most constant attention.  Nobly Mrs. Mauro undertook the care of her beloved husband, humbly and confidently seeking deliverance from the hand of the Great Physician alone.

 

For thirteen years now, the Mauros had implicitly trusted the Lord for healing.  During these years, they had found Him faithful who had promised.  Throughout this period, they had boldly proclaimed that Christ is the Healer of His people and had lived accordingly.  But now, as never before, they were called upon to shew their faith by their works in a great and prolonged fight of affliction. 

 

For weary day after wear and trying day, week in and week out, the fiery trial dragged on.  Weeks went into months with no sign of diminishment of the trial or deliverance from it.  Indeed, it was a trial of faith.  Yet the family persisted and “endured as seeing Him.” 

 

“Like unto them that go down into the pit,” quoting the Psalmist (Ps. 143:7), was Mr. Mauro’s own description of his condition during that year of 1916 to 1917 when he was “carried by bodily and mental disease beyond all possibility of cure by human remedies.”  Yet, severe and long as was this trial of faith, again the Mauros proved God faithful.  Not suffering them to be tempted above what they were able to bear, in the end He gave a sudden and perfect deliverance.

 

Immediately upon his restoration to health, Philip Mauro resumed his writing. A burning issue of the day among many earnest Christians was whether or not they should serve in the armed forces of their country.  The entry of the United States in World War I, April, 1917, had made this question alive and pertinent, especially to those who were conscientiously opposed to bearing arms.  “To set forth the Lord’s answer as clearly as possible” was the stated purpose of a booklet, written in July, 1917, titled, “Shall We Smite with the Sword?”

 

Within the compass of seventeen brief pages the counselor-at-law gives concisely what he believes to be the scriptural answer to that question with a clarity and logic which is hard, if not impossible, to gainsay.  Having set forth the reasons why “the people of God” should not take part in war, Mr. Mauro asks, “What shall we then say to these things?  Shall we smite with the sword?  Certainly not.  Why not?”  Then he sums up the case with twelve statements.

 

After World War I the author wrote an addendum of eight pages to this treatise which could bear careful consideration by all Christians and especially ministers. If anything, it is more pertinent in the light of World War II.

 

The late World-war was a test of the Christianized nations, of the church, and of individual ‘Christians,’” Philip Mauro began this second part.  “It showed clearly what the advanced nations of the world really are underneath the thin veneering of so-called ‘Christian civilization.’  It showed also the true condition of the professing church; and it showed how much (or how little) of the Spirit of Christ there is in those who claim to be His.”

 

Then later, in taking up the main theme of his subject, he goes on to say:

 

“The false teaching by which many of our beloved young saints were misled to their death was based mainly upon the plea that whatever the authorities commanded was to be done, because to refuse obedience would be to ‘resist the power.’  It should be enough to say, in reply to this shallow plea, that all Scripture bears witness that we should refuse any command, no matter how exalted its source, which requires us to do anything contrary to the revealed will of God (Dan. 3:16-18; 6:10; Acts 4:19, 20, etc.).

 

“The servants of Christ are not to put themselves in any ‘service’ where they cannot obey their Lord and Master, and glorify Him in all they do and say.  He has given them such commands as this: ‘And whatsoever ye do, in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him’ (Col. 3:17).  We have only to ask then if a saint of God can, in the Name of the Lord Jesus, plunge a bayonet into the vitals of a human being, sending him to hell with curses on his lips perhaps or can he, in His Name, fire a machine-gun into the quivering flesh of his fellow-men; or can he drop a bomb into a crowd of women and children, giving thanks for the havoc wrought thereby to God and the Father by Him?  Those who accept military services commit themselves in advance to the doings of these very things and worse.”

 

The years of the war were ones of very great personal trial for Philip Mauro and his family, for his beloved wife and most faithful helpmeet became sick unto death.

Undermined by the strain of years incident to caring first, for Aunt Anna and more recently, for her husband, Mrs. Mauro’s health broke, “ending in her departure to be with Christ,” in August, 1918.

 

“During that period of testing,” wrote Mr. Mauro in the preface to the second edition of Sickness Among the Saints, issued in 1919, “many spiritual results were accomplished, and many lessons of great spiritual value were learned, which medical treatment would necessarily have made impossible.  But while this is not the place to speak of the results of our severe trials, it is appropriate to express the deep thankfulness of all the family that we had learned, in such time of need, to seek not to the physicians but to the Lord alone.  It is an unspeakable blessing to the sick, and to those who minister to the suffering one, not to have the consciousness destroyed by drugs and the last precious communications thus prevented, and, which is even more important, the last opportunity taken away to glorify God in the hour of trial and to triumph through Christ in the very face of death itself.

 

“It seems due to our fellow-believers . . . to tell them that the doctrine set forth has been fully tested both in living and in dying; and that it has more than stood the test.

 

“Not until eternity will be known the extent of the damage that has been wrought through the now universal practice of administering opiates to those in mortal pains.  How it affects the dying saint has been indicated above; and as to the dying sinner, how appalling the thought that millions are thus robbed – and in the name of ‘mercy’ – of their last opportunity to receive the Lord Jesus Christ for their personal salvation!”

 

“The need on the part of God’s people for instruction from His Word on the subject of bodily sickness is more apparent than ever,” the author said in this same preface, “and that need will doubtless be greater and greater as diseases, plagues and pestilences (of which the world had a bitter experience in 1918 – ‘Spanish Influenza,’ so called, and for which Medical Science confessed it had no remedy) increase in virulence.

 

“It seems to have been appointed by the Lord that, as part of our preparation for setting forth the teaching of His Word on this subject, we should be tested as regards that teaching to the extreme limits of bodily sickness, that we should in fact know what it is to have “the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raised the dead’ (2 Cor. 1:9).”

 

Second editions of God’s Way in Sickness and “By What Means?” were also issued in 1919.  At the same time Mr. Mauro wrote a new pamphlet, The Diseases of Egypt, “with the desire to supply that which was chiefly lacking in [his former publications], namely, the reason for which our loving Father in heaven permits such afflictions to fall upon His children and the purpose He seeks to accomplish thereby. . . . The teaching of Scripture on this great and practical subject has of late been pressed forcibly upon the writer’s mind by events occurring in his own family; and he cannot escape the conviction that one of the objects of the Lord’s recent dealings with him has been to lay upon him the responsibility to make known, to as many as he may be able to reach, the main lessons embraced in that Divine teaching.”

 

Four years later (1923) in his book James: The Epistle of Reality where he discusses the well-known passages dealing with the “Directions for Affliction and Sickness” (James 5:13-15), Mr. Mauro gives this testimony:

 

“We should here declare our deep conviction that it is by bodily sicknesses, more than by any other trial, that the saints of God, and those who claim to be such, are tes5ted as to the reality of their faith.  If the writer of these lines had not found it possible, in extreme bodily sickness, to trust himself and those dear to Him to God’s care, using only the ‘means’ which He has appointed, he could not be sure he was really trusting Him at all, or for anything. . . .

 

“We are much concerned because of the suffering which the saints have sustained in consequence of their neglect of God’s provisions for His sick ones and their failure to follow His plain directions. . . . For our part, whatever the present consequences may be, as we desire to be pure from the blood of all men, we shun not to declare all the counsel of God (Acts 20:26, 27).  Furthermore, having walked in this narrow way of faith and obedience for a score of years, we can unreservedly commend it to our fellow saints; and can bear testimony that ‘He is faithful Which promised.”

 

 

“The Kingdom of Heaven”

 

 

Concurrent with Philip Mauro’s great trial of faith in connection with his wife’s last illness and death, the Holy Spirit began to lead His servant into some of the truth of God about which, up to this time, he had not been clear and had had some gross misconceptions.  Along with most Bible teachers at that time, Mr. Mauro was giving a great deal of consideration to the subject of prophecy in general and the second coming of Christ, in particular, in connection with the war.  Already in the latter part of 1917, Mr. Mauro had written a lengthy pamphlet entitled, “Will Christ Come Again?” which was in “Examination of a Pamphlet by Shailer Mathews.”

 

As he pursued his subject, he began in the spring of 1918 to write his book, After This: or the Church, the Kingdom and the Glory.  As he did so, he “found the subject of the Kingdom lying directly in his pathway and demanding investigation.  It was a subject he had never set himself to examine; though he had been at various times troubled and perplexed by current teaching on the times troubled and perplexed by current teaching he had received with favour because of the deservedly good repute of those how propagated it.  But now he was constrained to set aside all preconceptions and to seek with unbiased mind and without consulting any authorities or commentators, whatever, the testimony of the Word of God on this great subject.

 

This study Mr. Mauro undertook in the spring of 1918, “after having been for upwards of ten years in a state of confusion and mystification regarding the whole subject of the Kingdom,” as he later testified. “It occurred to him to take up that subject again upon the assumption that when the Lord Jesus Christ said, “The Kingdom of God (or of heaven) is at hand,’ He meant just what He said.  From that moment, the writer found himself in a plain path.”  The result was that he “had to modify in some important particulars,” views he previously had held.

 

When his book, After This, was ready for the publisher, it was suggested to its author “to put forth a concise pamphlet confined to the single question: ‘What is meant by “the Kingdom of heaven?”’ Accordingly the booklet, The Kingdom of Heaven: What Is It? And When? And Where? was written and published.”

 

“That the Kingdom of heaven announced by the Lord as ‘at hand’ was the now present era of God’s grace to sinners is not by any means a new idea,” wrote Philip Mauro in the preface to this book, July 1, 1918.  “It is, in fact, what has always been held by Bible teachers and students until quite recent years. Indeed, we are at a loss to conceive how there should ever have been any other thought about it.  Nevertheless, the truth of Scripture concerning the Kingdom, which involves the governmental authority of the Lord Jesus Christ and the commandments He has given to His people, has not heretofore (so far as our knowledge goes) been set forth in its relation to ‘the true grace of God wherein we stand,’ to the truth concerning the Church of God, to that concerning the priesthood of Christ, and to that of his premillennial coming.

 

“Acknowledgment is due, and is gratefully made, to a tract entitled ‘The Kingdom of Heaven, and the Kingdom of the Son of Man,’ by Mr. John James, by which my attention was first directed to the fact that the Kingdom of heaven belongs wholly to this present age, occupying that long period of time which extends from the first coming to the second coming of Christ.  That tract came into my hands several years ago, and it impressed me at the time as being in full accord with Scriptures.  But, because of illness and for other reasons, I have been unable until lately to examine the matter carefully in the light of the Word.  Having now done so, I am surprised that I could have missed for so long a time a truth which lies conspicuously upon the page of Scripture, or could ever have entertained the idea of the Kingdom of Heaven – which God announced through John the Baptist and through the Lord Jesus Christ Himself – was the earthly kingdom promised to Israel, and that it had been withdrawn and postponed, in consequence of the refusal of the Jews to accept it.

 

“The question discussed herein is by no means one of theoretic interest merely.  On the contrary, momentous consequences hinge upon it.  Therefore, we are bold to ask the careful attention of God’s people to what is set forth in the following pages.”

 

This book, The Kingdom of Heaven, together with After This, “served the desired purpose of awakening interest in this subject and of prompting many of the people of God to inquire into it and to examine for themselves the grounds of their individual views and opinions,” wrote their author in the preface to his next book, God’s Present Kingdom, published early the next year (1919).

 

“They also served to draw forth contributions to the discussion from various quarters and to procure for the writer the benefit of a great mass of comments, suggestions, and criticisms.  This has been useful in compelling him to examine carefully all the Scriptures cited and the inferences which various students of the Bible have drawn from them, and in compelling him also to view the subject from every angle.  And the result of it all has been to bring out of the Scriptures much positive truth – ‘things new and old’ – touching THE KINGDOM OF GOD.”

 

Later this same year (October, 1919), a second edition of The Kingdom of Heaven was prepared for publication.  “Since the first edition of this book, the question discussed in it has been constantly under consideration,” wrote the author in the “Preface” to this revised edition, “and much additional evidence bearing upon it has been brought to light. . . . There is one thing which we would impress with all possible emphasis upon the reader’s mind, and that is the effect which the ‘postponement’ theory has in weakening (and in some cases even destroying) the authority which the words and commandments spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ should have over God’s children in this dispensation.  Our main contention is that the ‘words,’ ‘sayings,’ and ‘commandments,’ spoken on earth by the Lord, should receive from His people full recognition and full submission.  This is absolutely needful, first for His glory, and secondly for their welfare.”

 

This revised edition of The Kingdom of Heaven was quickly followed by Bringing Back the King (November, 1919), and A Kingdom Which Cannot Be Shaken, some time the same year.

 

The publication of these Kingdom books created a violent storm of controversy among Christians everywhere of all denominations.  Suddenly, most unexpectedly, their author found himself at the center of a battle, and soon he was completely shut out from some circles in which he had been held in the very highest esteem.  Particularly was this true of the Brethren with whom for many years he had been in close fellowship.

 

As for Mr. Mauro, having had his own eyes opened to his own error and to the danger, which multitudes of others wee in from the same cause, he had simply felt others were in from the same cause, he had simply felt impelled to sound an alarm out of zeal for God and love for his brothers and sisters in Christ, his companions in the “kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ.”  Never once did he anticipate the conflict and bitterness with its ensuing sorrow which his books created.  Unwittingly he had, however, been drawn into a battlefield and involuntarily became the champion of the Kingdom.

 

How a man conducts himself in controversy and persecution reveals his true measure. If a man preaches but does not practice the Sermon on the Mount, that man’s religion is vain.  Judged by such a standard, Mr. Mauro more than passes the test.  If he sometimes appears to speak sharply, his own words, written in his most controversial work, should be remembered: “Let it be understood at the outset that my controversy is solely with the doctrine itself; and not at all with those who hold and teach it, or any of them.  Indeed I was myself one of their number for so long a time that I can but feel a tender consideration and profound sympathy, likewise, for all such.”

 

Personal insults and attacks he utterly disregarded.  As for bringing any man’s name into any discussion, it was never for any personal reason but solely because of some doctrine with which his name was inextricably united.  That he bore no personal animosity to his bitterest enemies at whose hands he suffered cruelly is abundantly testified by those who visited him repeatedly in his home, sometimes for several days or weeks at a time.  Never was there heard from his lips an unkind or critical word of his foes.  When he felt it necessary to disagree with someone, he spoke the truth as he saw it but in the love of Christ.

 

Anyone who reads Philip Mauro’s first five kingdom books in the order in which they were written cannot but be impressed with the gradual but definite changes in the interpretation of Scripture which he finds in them.  For example, in the front of the second edition of The Kingdom of Heaven is the following:

 

A CORRECTION

 

As to the “Seventy Weeks”

At the time this book was written (1918) the author had accepted, upon the authority of teachers of good repute, the idea that the last “week” of the period of “Seventy Weeks,” spoken of in Daniel 9:24, is still in the future; and also the idea that the last verse of Daniel 9 (v.27) refers to antichrist.  Those ideas are set forth on page 135 of this volume.

 

Subsequently, however, and as the result of personal study of the Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks, the author has become thoroughly convinced that the period of seventy weeks is a continuous period; that the ministry of Christ fell within the seventieth week; that “in the midst of the week” He was “cut off,” thereby confirming the new covenant with many, and fulfilling the predictions of verse 24; and that the last verse of the prophecy speaks of Christ, not of antichrist.

 

Hence this correction is made, with the author’s regrets and apologies to his readers for the error into which he was led through accepting, without examination, the views of others.  The author has not put forth his own interpretation of the prophecy in his book, The Seventy Weeks and the Great Tribulation. . . .

 

To many, such changes of interpretation indicated that the author was not a safe teacher, while to others they showed that he himself was unusually teachable.  Certainly they manifested strength of character and courage of conviction.  No one likes to admit he has been in error, especially in matters of religious belief.  And it takes a great and truly humble man to acknowledge this before the whole world, inviting, as it does, misunderstanding and criticism.

 

The fact is that the Lord led him step by step out of his “confusion and mystification regarding the whole subject of the Kingdom.”  As the light of the day appears only gradually, so, in his soul, the full light slowly became brighter.  Truths which at first seemed hazy and vague later were clear and definite.

 

Many years later Mr. Mauro expressed the thought that perhaps it would have been better if he had not published these books so soon after receiving his light, for God gave him more light about this subject afterwards.  He concluded, however, that probably the Lord had caused him to publish his writings at the time he did for a purpose.  The fact is, as his daughter Isabel said concerning any truth or light which God gave him, that “he had to get it out.”

 

One advantage of this method was that his writing was the outpouring of his soul – fresh, inspirational, spiritual, instead of being a labored, studied, mental treatise, devoid of the anointing of the Spirit.  Another advantage of his writing and publishing his books just as God gave him the light was that others were able to begin at the same place where he was and to be led along, step by step, with him as the light increased.  The noonday sun will blind those brought immediately into its brilliance from total darkness, while it is easily borne and appreciated by those who have watched it gradually rise out of the darkness.

 

 

“A Ready Writer”

 

The pen of Philip Mauro was the tongue of a ready writer, particularly from 1918 to 1929.  Following the five kingdom books, Mr. Mauro wrote Our Liberty in Christ, A Study in Galatians and Ruth, the Satisfied Stranger, both of which were published in 1920.

 

The following year (1921), he began the monthly, The Last Hour, of which he was the editor and the main contributor.  This paper served as a forum in which he gave his comments on the various issues of the day as he viewed them in the light of the Word of God.  Most of its pages, however, dealt with articles specifically “pertaining to the Kingdom of God.”  A number of books which he wrote during these years appeared first, in whole or in part, in serial form in this periodical.

 

Evolution at the Bar and The Chronology of the Bible, published in 1922, were followed the next year by James, the Epistle of Reality and The Seventy Weeks and the Great Tribulation.  This latter is considered by many as one of his major works, and certainly the author himself considered it one of his most important ones, a book that was to form, so to speak, the first of his great trilogy, which was to be completed a few years later.  In view of its primacy in Philip Mauro’s writings, it should be given special consideration.

 

Written originally as a “series of papers” for The Last Hour, Mr. Mauro states in the first chapter that he “began these studies about May, 1921.”  A great aid in his interpretation came as a result of his study of Martin Anstey’s Bible Chronology which “has the unique merit of being based on the Bible alone.”  For many years Mr. Mauro had held that the seventieth week of Daniel was yet to be fulfilled, but now he was made to examine this interpretation very critically and, as a result, came to a far different understanding of it.

 

“Writings and addresses on prophecy always excite interest, because they appeal to the element of curiosity which is prominent in human nature.  But such writings and addresses are of benefit only so far as they rightly interpret the Scripture.  In the case of unfulfilled prophecy, this is oftentimes a matter of difficulty; while on the other hand, writers on prophetic themes are under constant temptation to indulge in surmises and speculations, and even in flights of imagination.  Much has been put forth as interpretation of prophecy which is utterly unproved, but which could not be disproved except, as in cases where dates have been set for the coming of Christ, by the event itself.”

 

This he felt was what had been done with Daniel’s great prophecy.

 

“Another fact which has been impressed upon us in this connection, “Mr. Mauro continued, “is that there has been no progress in the interpretation of unfulfilled prophecy for a good many years.  At ‘prophetic conferences’ and in books and magazines, the same things are being repeated today, with little variation, that were said two decades ago. It would seem that, for some reason, the Lord has not been, of late, shedding fresh light upon this part of His precious Word. Our own thought about the matter is that writers on prophecy have gone so far in advancing, and the people of God in accepting mere conjectures, unproved theories, or at best mere probabilities, as interpretations of the prophetic ideas, and a retracing of some of our steps (which have diverged from the truth), ere there can be any real advance in the understanding of this part of the Word of God. . . .

 

“In fact, that which chiefly stands in the way of the acceptance of fresh light and truth from the Scriptures is strong (in some cases almost invincible) reluctance of the human mind to surrender, or even to examine the ground of, opinions which possibly were originally accepted upon human authority only, and without any inquiry as to the support which can be found for them in the Word of God.”

 

In this same introductory chapter the author enunciates “the controlling principles” which were to govern his exposition –

 

“The first of these . . . is, neither to accept nor to give forth as settled interpretation anything that rests upon surmise or mere probability; but only what is supported either by direct proof from Scripture, or by reasonable deduction therefrom.  We maintain that it is far better to have no explanation at all of a difficult passage than to accept one which may turn out to be wrong.  For it is not easy to give up an idea when once we have committed ourselves to it.

 

“Another guiding principle is that the proof adduced in support of any interpretation should be taken from the Scripture itself.  Our conviction is that whatever information is essential for the interpretation of any and every passage of Scripture is to be found somewhere in the Bible itself. . . . We must of course appeal to history in order to show the fulfilment of prophecy; for it cannot be shown in any other way.  But the interpretation of Scripture is another matter.

 

“Furthermore, wherever we offer a statement or opinion to the reader for his acceptance, we feel bound to give along with it the proofs by which we deem it to be established.  This should be demanded of every writer.  But, most unhappily, there are now in circulation many books dealing with Bible subjects, whose authors deem themselves to be such high ‘authorities’ that they habitually make assertions of the most radical sort without citing in support thereof any proof whatever.”

 

When Philip Mauro turns to the second part of his treatise, “The Lord’s Prophecy on Mount Olivet,” he makes a statement of paramount importance:

 

“Obviously we cannot with profit enter upon the study of unfulfilled prophecy until we have settled our minds as to the predicted things which have already come to pass.”

 

This statement is made in connection with his remarks in “The Importance of the Destruction of Jerusalem.”

 

“It is greatly to be regretted,” observed Philip Mauro,” that those who, in our day, give themselves to the study and exposition of prophecy, seem not to be aware of the immense significance of the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, which was accompanied by the extinction of Jewish national existence, and the dispersion of the Jewish people among all the nations.  The failure to recognize the significance of that event, and the vast amount of prophecy which it fulfilled, has been the cause of great confusion, for the necessary consequence of missing the past fulfillment of predicted events is to leave on our hands a mass of prophecies for which we must needs contrive fulfillments in the future.  The harmful results are two-fold; for first, we are thus deprived of the evidential value, and the support to the faith, of those remarkable fulfillments of prophecy which are so clearly presented to us in authentic contemporary histories; and second, our vision of things to come is greatly obscured and confused by the transference to the future of predicted events which, in fact, have already happened, and whereof complete records have been preserved for our information.”

 

Of very great value and illumination is the sentence-by-sentence comparison, printed in parallel columns, of “Christ’s Olivet Discourse” as recorded in the three synoptic Gospels.  Certainly the author has made an exceedingly strong case for his final paragraph:

 

“Finally, in bringing these studies to a close, we would say again that we do not in the least question there will be much “tribulation” for mankind, and many “distresses” and “woes,” in the end-time of this present age, to be followed by outpouring of the vials in which is “filled up the wrath of God” (Rev. 15:1).  All we assert is that, regardless of the nature and severity of the afflictions which are yet to come, that particular “tribulation” whereof the Lord spake as the “great tribulation,” and as “the days of vengeance” (Mat. 24:21; Lu. 21:22) was the execution of divine judgment upon Daniel’s people and his holy city, for which God used the Roman armies under Titus in A.D. 70.”

 

The year after the publication of this notable and controversial book, its author brought out Which Version? Authorized or Revised?  Then in 1925 appeared Patmos Visions, an exposition of Revelation, of which G. Campbell Morgan said, “It is the most lucid and satisfactory work on the Apocalypse that ever read.”

In addition to these volumes, Philip Mauro was writing numerous other expositions of various portions of the Scripture, such as “Glances at Isaiah’s Prophecy” and “Wherefore Then the Law?” for The Last Hour.  These various papers indeed covered a wide range.  Yet, Mr. Mauro’s main theme, as it was of John the Baptist, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Apostle Paul, was the Kingdom of God.

 

Throughout all these years, for all their disagreement with, or even antagonism to his interpretations of Scripture, Christian leaders never forgot Philip Mauro’s ability to prepare a case and to plead a cause.  Often his counsel was sought.  Perhaps one of the most important occasions where his help was requisitioned was in connection with the famous Tennessee-Scopes trial in 1925. 

 

True, William Jennings Bryan, the “silver-tongued” orator, thrice Democratic Nominee for President of the United States, devout Christian and popular Bible teacher, was retained by the State of Tennessee to defend its law prohibiting the teaching of evolution in its public schools.  The brief or argument which Bryan used, however, and thereby won the case, was prepared by Philip Mauro.  This was a great victory inasmuch as the defense attorney was none other than Clarence Darrow, the brilliant and successful criminal lawyer.

 

And if others did not forget Mauro’s legal ability, neither did he forget his former business and legal associates.  These he had faithfully and personally witnessed to after his conversion and fervently prayed that they, as he had been, might be brought out of darkness into light.  One of the most famous of these was Thomas A. Edison.

 

As successful patent counsel for the Columbia Phonograph Company, Philip Mauro had repeated encounters with this wizard, who was regarded as one of the company’s most formidable antagonists,” in the extensive litigation involving patents.  Despite the fact that Mr. Mauro wrote Edison, “giving him a personal testimony as to the peace of mind and conscience that had come to him through trusting in Jesus Christ, the result was an invitation to visit Mr. Edison at his laboratory in Orange, N.J.”  When the two met on October 29, 1926, they had not seen each other for about twenty years.

 

The story of their interview is best told by Mr. Mauro himself as printed in The Last Hour: “Mr. Edison is now in his eightieth year; but his mind is evidently as keen as ever.  All his life his attitude regarding things not seen – God, the human soul, left hereafter, etc.– has been severely skeptical.  But now, in the sunset of his days, he has undertaken the investigation of those great matters, with a desire to know the truth, but with insistence upon PROOF.  ‘I want FACTS,’ was the way he expressed the attitude of his mind.  Owing to Mr. Edison’s deafness, it was difficult for the editor to speak to him.  But it was better so; and the promise was given that he would read

dddvattentively a short letter on the matter discussed.”  This Mr. Mauro wrote “the day following the interview.”

 

“Dear Mr. Edison,

 

“It was a real pleasure to see you and hear your voice again.  Moreover, the matters touch upon in our conversation of yesterday gave me much to think about.

“You want facts.  So do I.  A reasonable man’s belief should rest upon nothing less substantial than well-attested facts.  So here is a fact for you:

 

“God (whom you reverently call ‘the Supreme Intelligence’) loves you and wants your love in return.  My visit to you and this letter are evidence of it, though, of course, not sufficient to prove to your satisfaction either that God is, or that He cares for Thomas Edison.  But wait.

 

“Another fact: God is Light.

 

“How do I know?  I know in the only w ay that light can be known – by experience.  For the nature of light is such that it admits of being known only in the way of experimental knowledge.  I am saying this to the man who had had more to do with the development of artificial light than any other who ever lived in this dark world, and who probably knows more about light, in a practical way, than any other.  How then could the existence and the nature of light be demonstrated to one who has been shut up all his life in a dark cell?  It could be done only in the same such way as by opening a window; and then the light would enter, and prove itself.

 

“This I say, because you are seeking a solution of the mystery of life and the soul by the way of analogies from nature.  Very good.  Much truth can be got in that way; as Butler, in his famous ‘Analogy’ has abundantly shown.  I hope you will continue your investigation, and in your customary thorough-going fashion; for it is the most important you ever undertook.  And in this connection I call your attention to a clear and pertinent analogy; the point of which is that the proof you demand can be had only by experiment.  For myself, I know that God is Light, and that He sheds light in the heart that is opened to Him, because I put the matter to the test of experience twenty-three years ago, and have enjoyed the consciousness of spiritual light ever since.  Moreover, my experience is that of millions of others.

 

“Let me remind you that light will not force its way into a place that is tightly closed; but that, if only a tiny chink be opened, in it comes, proving itself.

 

“Likewise Christ, who is ‘the true Light,’ does not force Himself into the chambers of the soul against the human will. For the nature of the matter is such that, like the smell of a violet, the color of a sunset, or the taste of hone, it can be known only by experiment.  The ‘Good Book,’ that you asked me not to quote, says, ‘Come and see,’ ‘Taste and see.’  Is not that strictly scientific? 

 

“You have been truly doing God’s work in helping to enlighten the darkness of nature.  But there is a spiritual darkness too.  So follow the analogy, and it will lead you straight to the truth, and to the solution of the whole mystery of human existence.

 

“With sincere affection and respect.

(Signed) Philip Mauro.”

 

 

The Last Hour, in which this letter to Edison was printed, was considerably expanded for its seventh year, 1927, with every promise of continued appearance.  In the November issue of that year, however, Philip Mauro announced that publication would cease with the December issue.

 

The publication of this periodical,” stated Mr. Mauro in an editorial, “has continued month by month, for a period of seven years (ending with December of the current year); and the editor gives thanks to God for the enabling grace that has made this a possibility.  He has now come, however, though not without much reluctance, to the conclusion that he is not to assume responsibility for its continuance beyond the current year.

 

“The main reason impelling him to this conclusion is that, under the incumbrance of added years and added responsibilities, he thinks he ought not longer undertake a work so exacting as that of issuing a periodical; which, in order to keep faith with the subscribers, must go to press at fixed time each month of the year. . . .

 

“Other reasons might be given, but there is no need; for it will doubtless be clear to our readers from the foregoing statement that the editor’s ministry with the pen must henceforth take a more flexible form than that of a monthly periodical, whereof the entire responsibility rests upon his individual shoulders.”

 

Among the “other reasons” referred to was the fact that Philip Mauro had returned to the practice of law with his old law firm in Washington, D.D.  It is significant that he returned to his firm as an employee, not as a partner, for his former partner was an unbeliever, and he would not be “unequally yoked together” with such.  For years, Mr. Mauro had retained only the slightest nominal connection, having severed all active relations, with his former firm.  In recent months, however, he had been asked to help and had taken an occasional case.  In April of this year (1927), for example, he had won the suit in Overland vs. Packard in a decision rendered by Chief Justice William Howard Taft.

 

Once his firm realized that “the immense value of his help was once more available, much pressure was brought to bear on his actual and active participation in the work.”  Various circumstances seemed to indicate to Mr. Mauro that to follow this course was the leading of the Lord for him at the time.

 

As for his “ministry with the pen,” if it had to take “a more flexible form,” it was, if anything, more valuable and greater than ever, for in the next two years, 1928 and 1929, Philip Mauro wrote the two books which completed the trilogy previously mentioned – The Gospel of the Kingdom and The Hope of Israel.

 

Upon examining The Gospel of the Kingdom, one can not but be impressed with the difference in the manner of presentation and in the tone between this book and the earlier “Kingdom Books.”  Certain it is that this later book is written as carefully prepared lawyer’s brief.

 

In reality it was written somewhat after the manner in which “the famous ‘early Fathers’” wrote their apologies.  “Those books they wrote take up the subjects as if someone were objecting,” commented one critic of great discernment. “So Mr. Mauro takes up the matter and meets the objections and explains the subject.  This must be borne in mind when you see something in them which seems too strong.”

 

The fact is that ever since the publication of his first book on the Kingdom of God about ten years before, there had been much discussion and controversy, some of it quite bitter, in Fundamentalist circles over his exposition. Those who equated Dispensationalism with orthodoxy or Fundamentalism charged Mr. Mauro with Modernism. As a result, Mr. Mauro was “dragged into positiveness” in his writing which at first appears controversial, perhaps harsh.  The author’s own word should ever be remembered in reading this “examination of modern Dispensationalism” that his conflict is not with individuals but with doctrines which he believed to be erroneous and disastrous to the cause of the Kingdom of God.

 

The Hope of Israel was an enlargement of the last chapters of the former work and is, as the author states in his preface, “a painstaking investigation” of the important question, “What is the Hope of Israel?”  Many have found this volume to be the means of opening their eyes to “the unutterable glories of God” and the priceless, present inheritance which is ours to enjoy here and now as foretold by prophets and apostle, yea, even by Christ Himself.  Clearly the author demonstrates that Christ Himself is “the Hope of Israel” – not the restoration of the Jewish people to their natural land and the formation of an earthly nation, and that the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies to Israel are to be found in Christ and in His church, the true Israel of God.

 

 

“A Jonah Experience” and Afterward

 

 

Almost coincident with the publication of The Hope of Israel occurred an onslaught on its author which, to all appearances, seemed leveled by Satan himself against Mr. Mauro because of his valiant fight as champion of the Kingdom of God.  It seemed as if “Apollyon straddled quite over the whole breadth of the way” of this warrior and said, “Prepare thyself to die; for I swear by my infernal den that thou shalt go no farther: here I will spill thy soul.”  Then forthwith Apollyon threw at him “darts as thick as hail” by which he wounded his opponent “in his head, his hand, and foot,” causing him to “grow weaker and weaker” until Apollyon “had almost pressed him to death so that Christian began to despair of life.”

 

The story of this fierce conflict and glorious victory is best told by the participant himself:

 

“During the night of January 7, 1929 (that being the first day of my seventy-first year), a mental disturbance occurred [which at first appeared to be] simply a case of mental breakdown, such as frequently happens to persons of my then age, for which there is no remedy and which is indicative of an early demise.

 

“But it was a very different case, as soon became evident.  For there was no sign of mental derangement.  On the contrary, I was self-conscious and self-possessed, perfectly cognizant of passing events and able to converse intelligently with members of the family and with occasional visitors.  I was not in the least ‘out of my mind’” but the reflective faculty refused to function.  Therefore serious reasoning became so onerous as to be practically impossible.  I could not carry on a train of thought or fix my attention upon reading matter of any sort, not even on the Bible. 

 

“In that abnormal state of mind I continued for nearly three years.  But on October 24, 1931, something happened which, while it attracted no attention from others, as an important turning point in my life.  While reposing in my heavily cushioned armchair, my mind being in its then normal state of vacuous calmness, I became faintly conscious of a voice within me, softly repeating again and again the same words.  I did not for a time distinguish the words and, of course, did not apprehend their meaning.  But as the ‘still small voice’ continued repeating them over and over, my attention at last was fixed, and this is what I heard: ‘I was brought low, and He helped me.’

 

“I at once recognized the sentence as a quotation from the Bible.  And then my long-dormant reasoning faculty was, as it were, jolted into action.  For I said to myself (and may have said it audibly): “That is not right.  It should be “but He helped me.”’ For my understanding of that sentence was the writer had been cast down by an adversity of some sort, but the Lord had come to his aid.  The voice, however, continued repeating the same words.  This finally aroused me to physical action. 

 

“I arose, found my concordance (which I had not used for nearly three years), and located the passage, in Psalm 116, verse 6.  And there to my astonishment and chagrin, I read, ‘I was brought low, and He helped me.’  This sufficed, through the mercy of God, to start my reasoning faculty into normal action again. . . .  My meditation on the passage brought me to the conclusion that the event whereof the Psalmist was speaking was a single experience; that is that the bringing low, s well as the recovery, was the Lord’s doing.  And then it was easy to see the application of the quoted words to my own case.

 

“Since that time, I have frequently spoken of my sorrowful experience during those years as a ‘Jonah experience.’  For the prophet’s descent into the deep and his subsequent restoration to dry land was all of the Lord.  The chief difference between Jonah’s case and mine is that while his deliverance came on the third day, with me in came in the third year.”

 

Thus when Apollyon would “make a full end” of his adversary, Philip Mauro was given a sword – “one little word”– which felled him. So, like Christian, he was able to rise from all but mortal combat and say, “Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy; when I fall, I shall arise.”

 

If one wonders that Philip Mauro had to endure such terrific onslaughts of the enemy, his position in the frontline ranks of the King’s army as a champion of the Kingdom in word and deed should be kept in mind.  The dragon has “great wrath” against all who keep the commandments of God which is the essence of the Kingdom.  These the devil hates with an undying hatred and sets upon with all his venom and power to destroy, for it is by those who “remember the commandments of the Lord to do them” that his kingdom will be overthrown.

 

In the midst of this “great fight of affliction” on January 1, 1930, Philip Mauro married Frances Perry, a fine Christian woman whom the Mauros had known for many years.  For the remainder of Mr. Mauro’s life, twenty-two years, she was his constant, devoted companion, maintaining a well-ordered, restful home, aptly called a “suburb of heaven,” in which to carry on his activities.  In addition to her care of the home, as an efficient secretary and capable business woman, she assisted him in his literary work and the publication of his writings.

 

Restored to health and vigor, Mr. Mauro resumed his professional work, dealing with some legal cases of major importance; chief of these, requiring several years to prepare the brief, was the Langevin case.  Mr. Mauro prepared the brief although the case was argued by another member of the firm in 1940 (Langevin vs. Nicholson, Court of Customs and Appeals).

 

Philip Mauro also resumed his ministry to the Lord’s people by his pen.  In 1933 he issued a revised edition of The Chronology of the Bible under the title, The Wonders of Bible Chronology.  In the same year, he brought out Of Things Which Soon Must Come to Pass which was “an enlarged edition of the Patmos Visions.”  In this book he presented an interpretation of Revelation 20 “which places the thousand years in the realm of spiritual realities,” and “thereby a complete reconciliation is effected between the pre-millennial and post-millennial systems,” – An explanation which the author claimed was “not a novelty, for its main features are to be found in the writings of able and godly commentators from very early times.”

 

Three years later (1936), Mr. Mauro published what he himself regarded, at least in some respects, as the crowning work of his pen, The Church, The Churches and the Kingdom.

 

“The purpose of this book is eminently practical,” wrote the author in the Introduction. “Broadly its aim is the furtherance of the work of the Lord and the Gospel of God concerning His Son.  Specifically it is a plea for the restoration to their original significations of those great Bible words ‘CHURCH’ and ‘KINGDOM’ and for a recognition of the distinctions between them, which are fundamental.”

 

This volume is certainly an excellent survey of the teaching of the entire New Testament on these three subjects.  In addition, there is a wealth of new material on related subjects, included with what is in reality the quintessence of the author’s teaching concerning the Kingdom of God.

 

“It is the present writer’s profound conviction, after much pondering of these matters,” wrote Mr. Mauro in the closing pages of this book, “that one of the most urgent needs of our day is a revival in the consciousness of God’s people of the existence of His Kingdom as a present reality; and that the first step toward the accomplishment of that result is the resumption, by the servants of Christ, of the long-neglected ministry of proclaiming that special message which He pledged Himself to accomplish, through the power of the Holy Spirit, the eternal purpose of God in the redemption of the world. . . .

 

“This is an appeal to the hearts of God’s people, with the object – not of adding to their stock of head knowledge, but – of putting their feet into motion.  There is a knowledge that ‘puffeth up,’ and the conditions of modern life conduce to the accumulation of knowledge of that sort.  But there is also a knowledge of quite another sort, information as to matters of fact, received from such reliable source as to impart certainly, and of such nature as to impel the recipient, as a matter of duty, to make the facts known to others for their good.  Of such sort pre-eminently is the truth that the Almighty and Everlasting God has established His own Kingdom in this world, over which Jesus Christ, the Son of God, ‘the blessed and only Potentate,’ reigns from the throne of God in heaven.

 

“There is no truth comparable in the value to this; for it is of prime importance to all men everywhere, seeing that upon their acceptance of it ‘by the hearing of faith’ depends their eternal welfare.  But God’s own people, who presumably know the truth of this, need to be awakened to the reality thereof and to what it means to themselves and to ‘those which are without.’  Hence the urgency of the word, ‘Say unto Zion, Thy God reigneth.’”

 

The Church, The Churches and The Kingdom was Philip Mauro’s last major work, his last great defense of the Kingdom.

 

In 1936, the Spirit of God dealt with Mr. Mauro about conducting meetings in his own home as he had in years gone by. Acts 28:30, 31 was impressed upon his mind:

 

And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him,

 

Preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching these things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him.

 

Mr. Mauro believed this was a word of direction to him personally.  Therefore, although now in his seventy-seventh year, he began to hold a weekly Sunday morning service.  And this ministry he continued without interruption “two whole years,” just as the Lord had led Him to do.

 

About this time, Mr. Mauro renewed fellowship with a friend of former years, William T. MacArthur, one of the outstanding ministers of the Christian and Missionary Alliance.  At Mr. MacArthur’s request, Mr. Mauro became a special contributor to a monthly magazine he was editing. For this periodical Mr. Mauro wrote a number of articles. One series of special value was “The Book.”

 

Another series which ran for several issues was on the Lord’s Prayer, entitled “After This Manner Pray Ye.”  In this study Philip Mauro includes a testimony which gives a glimpse into the prayer life of this servant of Christ:

 

“I feel constrained to say that my personal experience of prayer (the extent whereof affords no ground for boasting) forces me to the conclusion that it is not possible to pray with the understanding and after the manner appointed by our Lord except we devote thereto all the time that may be needed for quietly and, with concentration of mind, pondering each item for which He bids us to pray.  Therefore, it is worse than ‘vain’ to use His prayer-patterns for recitation by a congregation in chorus; for under those conditions, it is not possible to give due consideration to the meaning of the words.

 

“On the other hand, I have found that, when one in the solitude and stillness of his inner being – as during the occasional stretches of wakefulness at night, lasting, it may be, for hours – brings these short, crisp clauses one by one before the eyes of his heart concentrating his thought upon each in its turn, the Holy Spirit makes of each successive clause a veritable fountain of prayer and praise; and I have found also that when one prays ‘after this manner,’ beginning with ‘Our Father Who art in heaven,’ an hour or more may pass in communion with God ere he reaches the final word, ‘forever.’”

 

One of the greatest joys accorded Mr. Mauro at this period of his life was the answer to a prayer of many years – the conversion of his sister Mary’s husband, Philip J. Ryan, who was a Roman Catholic.  As has been already noted, many of the Mauros’ relatives had come to Christ through their testimony and prayer.  Mr. Ryan, however, had never surrendered to the Lord.  Now that he was advancing in years, Mr. Mauro became increasingly concerned for his soul’s salvation, but it was exceedingly difficult to deal with him because of his almost total deafness.  Yet the Lord opened a door for witnessing to him in an unusual way.

 

One day Mr. Mauro’s “mail brought him a letter from one who signed herself ‘Sister Mary E___.’  It was written upon choice letter paper, bearing the engraved name and address of a certain college. In courteous and persuasive language, it requested that this writer would favor that college with his autographed photograph, stating that a number of authors had responded favorably to a like request, and asking also that he would write a letter to the student body.

 

“Being in uncertainty as to what I ought to do,” wrote Mr. Mauro , “I wrote in reply a noncommittal letter, asking several questions calculated to elicit information as to whether, as I surmised, the college in question was under Roman Catholic auspices.  The response from my unknown correspondent left no room for doubt as to this; and thereupon I found myself in a quandary. For how could I write to that student body of young women a letter that would bring them the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ and yet would pass the scrutiny of the rigid censorship usual in such cases?  As I sought answer from above, the words of I Peter 3:15 came into my mind: ‘Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.’”

 

Then looking to the Holy Spirit for guidance he wrote, the First Sunday in Lent, 1938, the requested letter which was a tactful but definite presentation of God’s plan of salvation, closing with an earnest appeal to take of the Water of Life freely.

 

Mr. Mauro “received a prompt and appreciative reply, stating that the letter would probably be published in the college paper, and meanwhile it would be posted on a bulletin board, under glass, in the anteroom of the college library ‘where all the students may see and read it.’”

 

At an opportune time a copy of this letter was given to his brother-in-law, Mr. Ryan, and proved to be the means of his conversion.  Thus Mr. Mauro had the great joy of seeing the last member of his immediate relationship brought into the fold of God.

 

“In July, 1942, we – my devoted wife and I – removed from Washington, D.C., to the peaceful town of Culpeper, Virginia, where her surviving relatives reside and where the Lord has provided for us an adequate and comfortable abode,” wrote Mr. Mauro to some friends in an addendum to the testimony of his conversion published about this time.

 

There Mr. Mauro continued to pursue what was the supreme passion and chief occupation of his life, searching the Scriptures.  Here, too, he prepared a new edition of The Seventy Weeks (1944), the last of his literary labors.

 

At this time, there arose a great interest in Mr. Mauro’s writings among a large group of Christians, recent converts from Seventh Day Adventism, in Australia.  These friends asked permission to reprint Mr. Mauro’s testimony of his conversion and asked for a sequel to it which he readily prepared, (Nov. 20, 1944), entitling it, “After Many Years.”

 

Summarizing the years of his spiritual pilgrimage, he said, “I was brought by the grace of God to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour in the month of May, 1903, being then in my forty-fifth year.  And ‘now after many years’ (Acts 24:17), I am asked by brethren in far-away Australia, who ‘have obtained like precious faith,’ to write a sequel to that booklet; their expressed desire being that I should set forth briefly therein the experiences of the intervening years.  This I gladly attempt to do, relying upon the gracious aid of the Holy Spirit, to the end that what is now being written may be blessed of God to the salvation of souls yet in darkness of nature, and also to the encouragement of some of His own people.

 

“As I now quietly contemplate the period of more than forty years following my conversion, I see it as a time characterized largely by conflicts, vicissitudes of diverse sorts, and many humiliating failures and defects; yet as a time of continued growth in grace and in the knowledge of God, and chiefly as a time of frequent and manifest intervention of the hand of God in my affairs, both temporal and spiritual.  On the one hand, that forty-year period was the most strenuous and tempestuous of my life; but on the other, it was pre-eminently the time of manifest interventions of the Almighty God in my behalf, with a view to the accomplishment of ‘the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Eph. 3:11).

 

“And is not this precisely what should have been expected?  For our Lord does not promise to any of us a time of ease and pleasure while passing through ‘this present evil world’; nor that we should ‘be wafted to the skies on flowery beds of ease.’  On the contrary, He plainly warns us that ‘in the world ye shall have tribulation’; but He immediately adds these consoling words, ‘But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world’ (John 16:33).

 

“In my own experience, it seems as if, after having passed forth years in Egypt of this present evil world, and then another forty years in the wilderness with the people of God, I am now nearing the border of the promised land and am given to see, as from Pisgah’s height, a faint and distant view of its glories.”

 

This was the last printed testimony to come from the pen of him who had been so “valiant for truth” and had come to the kingdom at such a time when it sorely needed a strong defender.  By pen and word he had fought fairly and fearlessly, not shunning “to declare the whole counsel of God” “according to the wisdom given him.”  By his faithful teaching he had restored to multitudes many parts of the Word of God – especially the words, sayings, and commands of the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of the Kingdom – of which they had been robbed by an erroneous system of interpretation.  While he lived not to see the final triumph of his labors, he was privileged to see a renewed interest in the Kingdom of Heaven and the people of God awakened and made to search the Scriptures afresh to see “whether those things were so.”  This accomplished, Mr. Mauro was confident God’s Spirit would do the rest.

 

Philip Mauro was to linger on the border of the Promised Land until April 7, 1952.ⁿ Then, quietly, the valiant champion of the Kingdom laid down his armor and entered into the presence of his King whom he had served so nobly.  This he did in the confidence expressed in the verse he had written on the fly-leaf of his Bible many years before:

 

Lord, I believe Thou has prepared

    Unworthy though I be,

For me a blood-bought, free reward,

     A golden harp for me.

‘Tis strung and tuned for endless years

     And formed by power divine,

To sound in God the Father’s ears

     No other name THAN THINE.

 

Note: Mrs. Mauro survived her husband by less than two months, going to be with the Lord the last of May, 1952.