We were now headed for Chester, but stopped the Sunday at Malvern.
We had to take refuge in the hotel near the station because the more
select one was full; but we found it comfortable, and the people with
whom we came in contact made up for the exclusive refinement of the
smaller inn.
On Sunday morning Ruth announced that she was going to take a "day
off," so I went to the Abbey alone. It is a beautiful building in
spite of restorations, but, as usual, I was more interested in the
people than in the building, and as I had to look with Ruth's eyes as
well as my own, the first thing that attracted me was the number of
children present, and, secondly, the beauty of the girls' hair.
There were a score of girls whose hair would have made the fortune of
the proprietor of a capillary tonic. It was long and glossy, and
fine as silk. Sometimes, it seemed to me, the color was rather pale,
but it floated over their shoulders in waves of beauty. I thought of
St. Paul's remark that a woman's glory is her hair, which showed a
more sympathetic appreciation than one would have expected from such
a source. Indeed, it is almost the only thing he says about women
which appeals to the modern mind.
You remember Newman's complaint, in the Apologia, that if there is
anything more dreary than the Anglican service, he does not know what
it is. Well, that may have been true in his day before the Romantic
spirit, which in its ecclesiastical form we call the Oxford Movement,
had revealed the beauty of the liturgy, but it could hardly have been
justly said of the service this morning at the Abbey. But the
sermon! I have since learned that the vicar was ill and that a
curate was suddenly called upon to take his place. It would have
been far better had there been no sermon at all. The service was
enough. I believe it is often enough, and the trouble with us
parsons is that we do not know when to stop! I do not mean after the
sermon has begun, but before it! Certainly in this church, had the
organist been taken suddenly ill they would not have called on a
choir boy to play the organ, nor should that curate have been allowed
to fret the congregation as he did. Well, it had one merit, it was
but ten minutes long.
As I walked away I was joined by a man whom I had noticed at the
hotel. He abruptly remarked: "Beastly sermon!" Well, "dog will not
eat dog," so I only said: "Did you think so?"
"I should say I did. I call it a disgrace to allow such an
exhibition. Damn lazy beggar, he didn't even get his text right. I
wonder if there is any other profession in which such incompetence
would be tolerated? I do not know what his stipend may be, I only
know he is grossly overpaid no matter how small it may be."
There did not seem to be anything to say that would not sound like an
anticlimax after such eloquence, so I kept silence, a thing, by the
way, an Englishman never resents.
One often hears it said that Englishmen do not care for sermons, but
I suspect they like them as much as other people, when they can get
them! I have been wondering since if I should have been so much
impressed by the girls' hair if there had been more men in the church!
As you know the _Cause Célèbre_ is making great excitement here as
all over the world--perhaps more here. As the judges were expected
to give their decision yesterday, I hurried to the railway station
early this morning to get a Sunday paper. But there are no such
things! Did you know that? It seems incredible that the result of
this portentous trial is known all over the world except a hundred
miles from the spot where the verdict was given. But it is so!
In the evening I attended service at the little church near the
hotel--Ruth's day off lasting into the evening! Not that I am
surprised. We parsons work off the nervous strain in the act of
preaching and forget that the family has the strain without the
relief! At any rate, that is the way with Ruth. I think she expects
each Sunday that I shall come, what the English call a "cropper," so
I am glad when she can be induced to rest on the Lord's Day. But, on
the other hand, a parson is like an actor, of whom I have heard it
said that if he gets a night "off" he goes to some other theatre!
Well, apart from its religious influence, which I trust was not
altogether lacking, I am glad I went to this church, for reasons I
will now explain.
When the time for the notices came, the parson, with more hesitations
and swallowings than I can describe, said: "My brethren, at this
morning's service (ahem) I reminded you that a trial in which the
whole world is interested, (swallow) and in which questions of the
most momentous importance were to be decided, (ahem) was being held,
(ahem) and I suggested (swallow) that it would be well, if in your
private prayers, (ahem) you would ask that the judges might be guided
to a right judgment. Since then, however, (a fearful swallow) I have
been informed that a private telegram (ahem) has been received, by a
person present at this morning's service, saying (ahem) that the
judgment had been rendered yesterday. Possibly (ahem) it may seem to
some of you (swallow) that prayers offered after an event (ahem)
could in no wise affect that (swallow) event (swallow) and (ahem)
were therefore quite futile. But while this is (ahem) a not
unnatural, it is (swallow) a hasty conclusion. It may be that they
will not immediately (ahem) effect a reversal of a judgment which, I
am sure we all feel, was wrong. But even if that should not be the
result, who can put a limit to the Divine Omnipotence? I do not
believe those prayers were in vain--I do not believe any prayers are
in vain. I believe that in ways we cannot foresee, God will bring
good out of evil."
You will note how, when he got on his own ground of personal
experience, his confidence increased and his hesitations ceased.
Illogical as it all sounds when it is put down in "cold" type, I
could not but admire the man's courage in sticking to his guns. And
I suspect he had laid hold of a great truth which he could not quite
swing--as who could?--and shall watch this case with new interest to
see if public opinion (which somehow we dissociate from the influence
of God's Spirit) does not compel the court to do justice in spite of
all.
I suppose there must have been a sermon, but I cannot remember
anything about it. I had enough to think of in meditating on the
notice! I wonder how often this is the case!
On returning to the hotel I went into the smoking-room for a final
pipe. There were three other men there, evidently "gentry"--you know
the type and also the oppressive silence of such places. One would
have supposed that no one of them had ever seen the other! For a
long time no one spoke. Finally one of them said:
"That was an extraordinary remark of the parson's this morning,
asking the congregation to ask in their prayers that the French
judges might be led to a right judgment, when many of us knew they
had already rendered their decision!"
The silence which followed was so long that I thought the others did
not wish to be drawn into a discussion on such a subject. But I was
mistaken. One of them, when he "got good and ready," as they used to
say in the part of the country I know best, expressed himself as
follows:
"It was worse than futile, it was highly improper. I felt incensed!
I should never dream of praying for the damned scoundrels--I should
consider it almost blasphemous."
Another long silence, and then he continued: "Moreover, I resent any
attempt on the part of a parson to dictate to me what I should or
should not pray for. I consider such things entirely private between
me and my Maker. His advice was an infringement of personal liberty,
and I highly resent it."
As no one spoke for a little space, I had time to rejoice in this
exhibition of sturdy Protestant independence, but finally the silent
member of the party spoke:
"I am thankful to say," he remarked, as he knocked the ashes out of
his pipe, "that I was not present. My wife told me about it, and I
said to her: 'My dear, this only illustrates what I have said more
than once, that the clergy never intrude into politics without making
damn fools of themselves.'"
I fled and sought for Ruth! At length I found her sitting in the
drawing-room with three ladies--probably the wives of the smokers.
She did not see me, and this is what I heard:
_First Lady_: "Do you mean to say you _like_ to live in America?"
_Ruth_: "Yes, very much."
_First Lady_: "But do you not have a great deal of lynching there?"
_Ruth_ (_confusedly_): "I am sorry to say we do have a good deal."
_Second Lady_: "What is lynching?"
_First Lady_: "Why, if a man is unpopular in a community, the leading
people drag him away to a convenient tree and hang him. Sometimes
they burn him. Shocking, is it not?"
_Second Lady_: "It would be shocking as a regular thing, but I
confess it seems to me a most admirable custom for certain occasions,
and I should be glad if it were brought over with other American
inventions that we have found so convenient. Think what it would
mean to wake up to-morrow and learn that Lloyd George had been hanged
in the night!"
_Third Lady_ (_vindictively_): "Yes, and better still, the whole
Liberal cabinet."
_Second Lady_: "Oh, that would be more than one could hope for."
_First Lady_ (_whose humanitarianism seems to have been poisoned by
party politics, but is trying to prevent a Reign of Terror in
England_): "Surely you would except John Burns?"
_Third Lady_: "Perhaps I should. I sometimes think that he has
really repented, and that now his face is set toward the light."
At that moment Ruth turned and caught my eye. She followed me out of
the room and, though choking with laughter, said: "I would give a
good deal if you had not overheard that conversation!"
"Wouldn't have missed it for worlds," I replied. "I have another
picture to hang beside it, and I shall call them 'Church and State!'"