J.C. Penney
[On April 14, 1902, a young man with five hundred dollars in cash and a million dollars in
determination opened a drygoods store in Kemmerer, Wyoming-a little mining town of a
thousand people, situated on the old covered-wagon trail laid out by the Lewis and Clark
Expedition. That young man and his wife lived in a half-storey attic above the store,
using a large empty dry-goods box for a table and smaller boxes for chairs. The young
wife wrapped her baby in a blanket and let it sleep under a counter while she stood
beside it, helping her husband wait on customers. Today the largest chain of dry-goods
stores in the world bears that man's name: the J.C. Penney stores-over sixteen hundred
of them covering every state in the Union. I recently had dinner with Mr. Penney, and he
told me about the most dramatic moment of his life.]
Years ago, I passed through a most trying experience. I was worried and desperate. My
worries were not connected in any way whatever with the J. C. Penney Company. That
business was solid and thriving; but I personally had made some unwise commitments
prior to the crash of 1929. Like many other men, I was blamed for conditions for which I
was in no way responsible. I was so harassed with worries that I couldn't sleep, and
developed an extremely painful ailment known as shingles-a red rash and skin
eruptions. I consulted a physician-a man with whom I had gone to high school as a boy
in Hamilton, Missouri: Dr. Elmer Eggleston, a staff physician at the Kellogg Sanatorium
in Battle Creek, Michigan. Dr. Eggleston put me to bed and warned me that I was a very
ill man. A rigid treatment was prescribed. But nothing helped. I got weaker day by day. I
was broken nervously and physically, filled with despair, unable to see even a ray of
hope. I had nothing to live for. I felt I hadn't a friend left in the world, that even my family
had turned against me. One night, Dr, Eggleston gave me a sedative, but the effect
soon wore off and I awoke with an overwhelming conviction that this was my last night
of life. Getting out of bed, I wrote farewell letters to my wife and to my son, saying that I
did not expect to live to see the dawn.
When I awoke the next morning, I was surprised to find that I was still alive. Going
downstairs, I heard singing in a little chapel where devotional exercises were held each
morning. I can still remember the hymn they were singing: "God will take care of you."
Going into the chapel, I listened with a weary heart to the singing, the reading of the
Scripture lesson, and the prayer. Suddenly-something happened. I can't explain it. I can
only call it a miracle. I felt as if I had been instantly lifted out of the darkness of a
dungeon into warm, brilliant sunlight. I felt as if I had been transported from hell to
paradise. I felt the power of God as I had never felt it before. I realised then that I alone
was responsible for all my troubles. I knew that God with His love was there to help me.
From that day to this, my life has been free from worry. I am seventy-one years old, and
the most dramatic and glorious twenty minutes of my life were those I spent in that
chapel that morning: "God will take care of you."
J.C. Penney learned to overcome worry almost instantaneously, because he discovered
the one perfect cure.
I Go To The Gym To Punch The Bag Or Take A Hike Outdoors
By
Colonel Eddie Eagan
New York Attorney, Rhodes Scholar Chairman, New York State Athletic Commission
Former Olympic Light-Heavyweight Champion of the World