Mrs. Limburg's Sweeney

A frequent criticism of brisk Dr. Frank Nathan Daniel Buchman's "Oxford Group Movement" or "First Century Christian Fellowship" has been that its members are too exclusively preoccupied with well-tailored, socially presentable people. Group members counter by telling how they "changed" (converted) an old Pennsylvania bootlegger called "Bill Pickle"; how in London Group workers live in slum quarters; how a poor little girl was changed, telling her mother that God wanted her to help with the housework.

Last week in Manhattan the Oxford Group presented an even better-documented case. At a meeting at the Hotel Plaza a small, bald, 54-year-old butler named Francis ("Frank") Sweeney arose to give testimony to the audience of 1,500. His employer, Mrs. Alan M. Limburg of White Plains, N. Y., whose husband is a nephew of New York's Governor Lehman, had just told how, born a Jewess, she had had difficulty in coming to know Christ. Then Butler Sweeney said:

"I am thankful to God, for He changed my life., ... I had a great craving for the pleasures of the world and thought the only way to get them was by going to dance halls and house parties. I led a life of drunkenness and sin for twelve years, and my life was a hell on earth. Drink was my god. On one occasion I lay in a speakeasy for five days and five nights without changing my clothes. I had been in the alcoholic ward of Bellevue with D. T.'s five times. Once I was there for six weeks, and when I came out I went right back to the old life because I thought my case was hopeless. And then a young man sent me to Calvary Mission. . . ."

Convert Sweeney soon became the steward of Calvary House, a mission ably run by Rev. Samuel Moor ("Sam") Shoemaker, rector of Manhattan's Calvary Episcopal Church and No. 1 U. S. Group leader. Later he went as butler to Mrs. Limburg, joining with her once a week in "quiet time" (communion with God).

Seasoned Groupers were quick to point out last week that many a family has discovered that their faith is, among other things, a solution of the servant problem. A typical case is that of Mrs. Harden Crawford of Rumson, N. J. Running her household under God's guidance has changed its atmosphere and "the cooking has improved unbelievably."

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