(July 11, 1838–December 12, 1922), was a U.S. Postmaster General, 1889–93; a financier; and founder of one of the first American department stores. He had served as secretary of the Philadelphia YMCA, 1857–61. In 1861, he formed a clothing business with Nathan Brown; in 1869 he founded John Wanamaker and Company; and in 1875 he purchased the freight depot of the Pennsylvania Railroad to house the store. John Wanamaker made numerous advancements in the field of advertising within the retail industry, having run the first full-page mercantile advertisement in an American paper. In addition, the two magazines he founded to carry advertising copy became precursors to today’s mail-order catalogues. His store in Philadelphia had a 33,000–pipe organ which was played daily and prominently displayed paintings of Christ.
On July 9–11, 1889, in Philadelphia, during the Eighth Annual Conference of the Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor, John Wanamaker exhorted:
I came only to salute you, as one working with you, and as one in sympathy with you. Whatever skepticism of the day may say, there is a power in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Keep uppermost the profound conviction that it is the Gospel that is to win the heart and convert the world. The things that were sweet dreams in our childhood are now being worked out. The procession is being made longer and longer; the letters of Christ’s name are becoming larger and larger.2808
John Wanamaker help found the Bethany Presbyterian Church and served as a senior elder. He led a John Wesley Class Meeting, with attendance growing to over 5,000 people, and was an active Sunday school superintendent for nearly 70 years. John Wanamaker stated:
I like to be present at the meeting, in the middle of the week, feeling, as I sit among the people gathered, some of them deaf, hearing hardly a spoken word and others with failing sight, that as the Lord passed around amongst them He might give me a blessing too.2809
John Wanamaker stated:
I cannot too greatly emphasize the importance and value of Bible study—more important than ever before in these days of uncertainties, when men and women are apt to decide questions from the standpoint of expediency rather than of the eternal principles laid down by God, Himself.2810
John Wanamaker prayed:
Our Father, we have come to sit down together to rest, after a busy week, and to think. We are not satisfied with ourselves for we all, like sheep, have gone astray. What we have done is what we ought not to have done. We are stung to the quick with disappointment, sorrow and desolation.
It seems as though there were a cankerworm eating at the core of our hearts, and there is no rest for our souls day or night. Have pity on us, Lord, and cut us not down in Thy displeasure. We confess our sin and bring it to Thee. Let our prayers prevail in Heaven, and do Thou heal and help us to a new life in Christ Jesus. Amen.2811
Hay, John Milton (October 8, 1838–July 1, 1905), was an ambassador to Great Britain under President McKinley. He served as Secretary of State, 1898–1905; and helped negotiate over fifty treaties. From the Open-Door policy with China, to the Panama Canal, to the Alaskan boundary, to the Philippine policy, he exerted a lasting impact on American foreign policy. In addition to serving as private secretary to President Lincoln, he was a poet and editorial writer for the New York Tribune. John Hay composed the poem:
Sinai and Calvary
But Calvary stands to ransom
The earth from utter loss;
In shade than light more glorious
The shadow of the Cross.
To heal a sick world’s trouble,
To soothe its woe and pain,
On Calvary’s sacred summit
The Pascal Lamb was slain.
Almighty God! direct us
To keep Thy perfect Law!
O blessed Saviour, help us
Nearer to Thee to draw!
Let Sinai’s thunder aid us
To guard our feet from sin,
And Calvary’s light inspire us
The love of God to win.2812
On July 3, 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt issued a Proclamation which stated:
John Hay, Secretary of State of the United States, died on July 1st. His death, a crushing sorrow to his friends, is to the people of this country a national bereavement; and it is in addition a serious loss to all mankind, for to him it was given to stand as a leader in the effort to better world-conditions by striving to advance the cause of international peace. He entered the public service as the trusted and intimate companion of Abraham Lincoln, and for well-nigh forty-five years he served his country with loyal devotion and high ability in many positions of honor and trust; and finally he crowned his life work by serving as Secretary of State with such farsighted reading of the future and such loyalty to lofty ideals as to confer lasting benefits not only upon our own country but upon all the nations of the earth.2813