ROCKEFELLER'S PASTOR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 59, 15 April 1907, Page 4

ROCKEFELLER'S PASTOR.

Dr Charles F. Aked is the subject of a sketch ami interview by .James Haslain in the Mitigate Monthly. The fact that he is taking up the pastorate of the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church, "New York, one of the richest places of wor- # ship in the world, where John D. Rockefeller, King of the Standard Oil Trust, is a worshipper, loads piquancy to Dr Aked's humble origin. 3Jo was !>orn in 18(54 in a working-class home in Nottington. lie started work in a coal merchant's oflice at 5s a week. Then he entered an auctioneer's office, and liecame himself-an auctioneer. Tie was on the point of leaving for New Zealand, and had secured a berth, when he was persuaded by his minister to prepare for Gospel work in England. He began his pastorate at Syston, near Leicester, and went thence to Liverpool, and later to Pembroke Chapel >n that city. Ilis battle for life with tuberculosis has issued victory. He had been cured by the open-air" treatment. He adheres still to this, and is not afraid of Spartan rigor. He says.—"AH night my bedroom windows are wide open, and have not been closed or partly elo>ed once when I have been at home since the house was built. The storms rage through the room. The rains conic in. The. west wind beats the rain on my bed. My heawl is as wet as if T had eonie out of a lmlh, and the pillows are wet through after a March or Novem her gnle. But Tam warm and comfortable and have never taken a cold." TJis cure, has made him an ardent champion against the ravages of phthisis. But cure is a question of cash. His recovery cost him /CI2OO. What is a poor man to do? Dr Aked would invoke ihe aid of the State. He would also reIv on private philanthropy. He says:— 'I hope to influence rich people, who pour out their money for a crussule to kill the disease. One object T shall haw when I get to America wiil be to win sympathv and help of people uho are in a position to help, and who can do ?omething big and memorable in the way of -tamp'ng out consumption from the English-speaking world.'"