THE OLD AND THE NEW
Rufus awoke next morning to the sound of Christmas bells ringing wildly
down the valley and out across the hills. It was a pleasant sound, and
awoke many tender memories in his heart. Instinctively his thoughts
turned back to the Gospel story, and to the Christ who had changed the
history of the world. Whatever might be said of the doctrines and dogmas
that his grandfather had preached for fifty years with so much vehemence
and energy, there could be no doubt as to the ethical value of Christ's
life and sayings.
He had not looked into the New Testament for a good many years now, but
it suddenly occurred to him that it was scarcely fair to hold Christ
responsible for all the foolish things done and taught in His name. He
recalled without effort whole paragraphs of the Sermon on the Mount, for
he had been compelled, as a boy, to get off whole chapters both of the
Old and New Testament by heart, and he felt that nothing nobler had been
taught in all the history of the world. Besides all that, there was
something infinitely beautiful and touching in the tragedy of Christ's
life and death. He was a martyr for scorned ideals. He gave up his life
rather than compromise with evil, or be a party to the hypocrisies of
His time. He was, undoubtedly, the friend of the poor, and outcast, and
oppressed, and was the only religious man of His time who had the
courage to speak a kind word to publicans and harlots.
Rufus began to have an uncomfortable feeling that he had scarcely
treated this sacred figure with ordinary chivalry or fair play. The very
ideals he stood for and advocated were among those the Man of Nazareth
lived for and died for. From what, then, had he revolted? Against what
had he protested?
He closed his eyes while the bells rang on, and tried to think. He could
recall no word of Christ to which he could take exception, no single act
that was not in itself a message of goodwill to men. Here was a life
absolutely unselfish, and sacrificed in the pursuit of the noblest
ideal. Here was teaching that struck at the greed and hypocrisy and lust
of a corrupt age. Here was an influence, if taken by itself, which must
always be for the common good.
Why, then, had he revolted? He had called Christianity a delusion and a
snare. A benumbing superstition, an invention of priests for the
enslavement of men and women. In his defence of the position he had
taken up he had pointed out that Christianity had stood for slavery, for
war, for oppression, for persecution, for greed, and for the rule of the
strong over the rights and consciences of the weak. Had he been wrong in
this contention? And if not, where was the discrepancy?
Could it be true that Christ stood for one thing, and Christianity for
another? In other words, was the thing that bore the name of
Christianity, Christianity at all? Did it bear anything but the most
distant resemblance to that sweet and ennobling influence that Jesus
breathed into the life of the world?
He became interested in the problem. The bells ceased their wild revel,
and a little company of carol singers broke out in the front garden:
Hark! the glad sound, the Saviour comes,
The Saviour promised long,
Let every heart prepare a throne,
And every voice a song.
They sang well and tunefully, sustaining all the parts, and throwing
heart and enthusiasm into the exercise. He listened with interest and
pleasure. A new chord seemed to have been struck in his nature. A fresh
window had been opened in his mind. A year ago the carol might have
irritated him, and he would probably have laid the flattering unction to
his soul, that he had outgrown a mouldy and moth-eaten superstition.
He wondered if loving Madeline Grover had made his heart sensitive to
new influences, or if it was the possibility of a speedy escape from
life that had turned his heart anew to these questions.
The carol-singers had come to honour his grandfather. He was no longer
their pastor. He had preached till he was eighty--preached till his once
crowded congregation had dwindled down to a mere handful, and the glory
of "Zion," as the chapel was called, had become but a memory. Yet his
name was revered still. For fifty years and more he had lived in
Tregannon, and had lived a life of strict and severe integrity, and,
though the younger generation had drifted away from his ministry, and
"Zion" was no longer enthusiastic about the terms of its title-deeds,
yet there was no one who had not a good word to speak of the
white-haired supernumerary.
He heard the door open at length. The old servant had gone down to let
the singers in, and he knew there would be cocoa and saffron cake, and a
word of welcome and exhortation from his grandfather. It was pleasant,
after all, to be remembered with so much affection after a life of
eighty-four years.
Rufus wondered if his name would ever be held in any degree of esteem by
his fellows, or if he would live unhonoured, and die unlamented. Why was
it his grandfather's name was so much revered? Was it the manner of his
life or the character of his preaching that had touched the heart and
imagination of Tregannon?
He had not much difficulty in answering that question. Nobody cared
about his sermons now. The few that were remembered, were remembered
only to be discussed and discarded. His criticisms of Luther, his fierce
attacks on Arminianism, his deadly assaults on Darwin and Huxley, who
were beginning to be talked about, his righteous scorn at infant
baptism, his ponderous defence of verbal inspiration, his laboured
expositions of the prophecies of Daniel, his flounderings in the deep
waters of the Apocalypse, his weighty disquisitions on foreknowledge and
predestination, and his nicely-balanced definitions of such terms as
atonement, justification, regeneration and the like--what did they all
amount to now? Who recalled them or were made the better by them? The
thing that mattered was goodness. In so far as he had set an example of
uprightness of character, of simplicity of aim, of unselfishness in his
dealings with his fellows, he had lived to purpose. The sermon that all
Tregannon remembered was his upright life. Austere he had always been,
carrying himself with a certain reserve that no one could break down,
but beneath a cold and placid surface there had beaten a genuinely human
heart. To the poor and suffering and heartbroken he had proved himself
through two generations a genuine friend. Hence it was that though he
had lived in retirement for the last four years his name was held in
reverence still.
Rufus found himself debating the question from a fresh standpoint. Was
Christianity what his grandfather preached, or what he lived? He had
heard him declare from the pulpit, with passionate vehemence, that good
works were filthy rags, and that morality might be a millstone around
the neck to sink the soul in deeper perdition. Yet who cared for his
grandfather's theology in Tregannon? The thing that made his name
revered was that very morality which he had so often warned his hearers
against.
"There's a screw loose somewhere," Rufus said to himself, with a smile.
"Perhaps I had better read the New Testament again and try to find out
what Christianity is. What passes in its name I like as little as ever I
did. Its priestly assumptions, its grotesque dogmas, its truculent
grovelling at the feet of wealth, its pitiful squabblings about forms
and orders, its defence of oppression and war, and most other
abominations, its silence and helplessness in face of public corruption.
Great Scott! what does it all mean? Think of Christianity in Russia
siding with the brutes who rule that unhappy land; think of it in
France, where the people in disgust are trying to kick it out; think of
it in England, allied to the State, intriguing for power and resorting
to every kind of sharp practice to gain its own ends, and think of Jesus
dying for a great ideal. I'll give up the problem, it's beyond me." And
he got out of bed and began to dress. After breakfast he rather
astonished the old people by announcing that he would go to chapel.
"I hope you will go, Rufus, in a proper spirit," the old man said,
severely.
"I hope so," was the answer; "though I am bound to confess I am prompted
mainly by a desire to hear your new minister."
The Rev. Reuben looked grave. "It is possible he may say something you
may approve of. I grieve to say that even the pulpit is touched by what
is called the modern spirit."
"But I hear that 'Zion' is regaining some of its former glory."
"The congregations are large, I admit; but I fear in these days the
people have itching ears."
"That has been true, I am told, of every generation."
"It may be so. Yet thirty years ago--aye, twenty years ago--the people
endured sound doctrine even when it was galling to the flesh."
"And to-day, grandfather?"
The old man shook his head and smiled sadly. "I fear me they have no
stomach for strong meat," he said, pathetically.
"Well, it is not a bit of use trying to swallow what we cannot digest,"
Rufus said, with a laugh. "However, I will hear this Rev. Marshall Brook
for myself."
He felt painfully conspicuous as he walked into the chapel behind the
stooping form of his grandfather--the little grandmother was too feeble
to attend. He thought that everybody was eyeing him with an unnecessary
amount of curiosity. He slipped into the far corner of the pew, the
place where he had spent many a weary and painful hour in the years gone
by, and for awhile he kept his eyes fixed upon the floor. A quiet,
slow-moving voluntary was being played on the organ, around him was a
faint rustle of silks and the shuffling of feet. From the vestibule came
a subdued hum of voices as acquaintances met and exchanged Christmas
greetings.
Rufus was carried back again to the days of his boyhood and youth. The
present was forgotten. He had never been away from Tregannon. He was
still a lad. He had a jack-knife in his pocket and a white alley and a
piece of cobbler's wax and several yards of string. That was Billy
Beswarick's suppressed cough coming from a neighbouring pew, and he was
sure Dick Daddo was behind him waiting to pull his hair.
He raised his eyes at length, and the illusion partially vanished; but
not altogether. There was the same organ--how often he had counted its
gilt dummy pipes; new brass book-rests had been placed in the gallery
front for the convenience of the choir--that was an innovation, and
brought him down to more modern days. The iron pillars that supported
the galleries were festooned with evergreens, and over the arch of the
organ loft was a text of Scripture, conspicuous in white against a
scarlet background:--"On earth peace and good will toward men."
The text set Rufus thinking again. He rather wondered that anyone had
the courage to put it up. Perhaps the young people had done it,
unthinkingly, for no sentiment could be more incongruous or out of
place. The air was full of the clash of arms, the newspapers contained
little else than records of battle and slaughter. Ministers all over the
country were preaching sermons on patriotism and Imperialism. Churches
and Sunday-schools were organising boys' brigades, and children were
being taught how to shoot. Here and there a solitary voice protested
against all war as unchristian, but the voice in the main was unheeded.
How could war be unchristian? How could killing on a large scale be
anything but an ennobling occupation? How could defending homes that
were not attacked and destroying homes that were not defended, be
anything less than heroic? How could stealing your neighbour's
birthright and possessing his inheritance be anything but righteous?
"There's evidently a screw loose somewhere," he said to himself, with a
smile. "If that text sets forth the objective of Christ's mission, then
a good deal that passes muster as Christianity to-day is loathsome
hypocrisy."
Then his attention was arrested by the entrance of the minister into the
pulpit. A young man with a frank, boyish face, large, square forehead, a
wide mouth, strong chin and jaw--all this he took in at a glance. A
moment later he noticed that his dress was unclerical, his hands small
and brown, his eyes deep-set and dark.
Rufus felt interested in the man. Accustomed as he had been during all
the years of his boyhood and youth to seeing the tall, stiff, clerical
figure of his grandfather in the pulpit, there seemed something
delightfully free and unconventional about this young man. The pulpit
"tone" was absent from his voice, the pulpit manner he had evidently not
yet learnt, the pulpit expression had to be acquired.
Rufus got far back in his childhood days again during the singing and
prayers. But directly the text was announced and the minister began to
preach he felt wide awake and interested. To begin with, all his early
notions about preaching were rudely upset. Taking his grandfather as a
model this young man did not preach at all. He just talked and talked in
a most delightfully easy and quickening way.
The farther he advanced the more interested Rufus became. There were no
attempts at oratory, no flights of rhetoric, no simulated passion, no
declamation, but just earnest, lucid talk. He forgot that he was in a
chapel and this man in a pulpit. They might be anywhere--in a workshop
or by the fireside--and the man was talking to them on a subject of deep
and perennial interest. He did not dogmatise; he did not ignore
objections and difficulties. He faced every problem fairly and
fearlessly, and gave his reason for the faith that was in him.
"The desire of all nations shall come," was the text. What was the
desire of all nations? What was the deep, passionate longing of all
thoughtful, serious people of all ages and of all countries? And how was
that longing met in Jesus of Nazareth?
On the first point he touched Rufus to the quick. He described every
mental emotion through which he had passed, and showed how every merely
human philosophy had failed to satisfy the need of the human heart.
Every word of this part of the discourse was absolutely true to Rufus's
own experience.
But when the preacher came to deal with the second part of his subject,
Rufus felt all his old scepticism returning with a rush; and yet so
reasonably did the preacher talk that he was compelled to listen. He did
not speak like an advocate with a bad case. There were no evasions, no
special pleadings, no attempts to browbeat witnesses, or to sail off on
side issues. He spoke as one who had fought his way through every phase
of doubt, and had reached the serene heights of absolute conviction.
Christ had met his needs, and had answered his questions, had solved the
riddle of life.
Rufus shook his head more than once unconsciously. The argument from
experience might be satisfactory enough to those who had the experience,
but he wanted proof. The experience of another man was of very little
value to him.
If he could be sure that Christ spoke with absolute authority on these
questions that vexed the human mind, then would he find rest also, but
how was he to get that assurance.
He walked home from chapel by his grandfather's side in silence. The old
man was as little disposed to talk as Rufus, but for a different reason.
After dinner Rufus went for a long walk alone. He wanted to shake off
the effects of the sermon. Some of the conclusions of the preacher had
made him feel distinctly uncomfortable. The possibility of life being a
sacred trust for the use, or abuse, of which he would be held
responsible by a Supreme Being was distinctly disquieting, especially in
view of the unpleasant possibility that was hanging over his head.
If life were not his own to do as he liked with--to spend or end how or
when seemed good in his own eyes--then his attempt to gamble with it was
more immoral than for a trustee or a lawyer to gamble with his client's
property. Rufus had always prided himself on his honour. It was his
sheet-anchor in all the mental storms through which he had passed; but
if in throwing his life into pawn he had pawned his honour at the same
time what was there left to him that was worth possessing? And if the
worst should come to the worst, if, as he sometimes feared, his
invention had been forestalled--not only a part of it, but the whole of
it--if the demands of what he called honour should necessitate the
giving up of his life, in what sort of moral dilemma would he find
himself?
His compact with Muller began to appear in a more unpleasantly lurid
light than it had ever done before. Could a man steal money to pay his
debts with, and then boast of his honesty in paying? Could he discharge
a debt of honour by an act that in itself was criminal?
It was dark when he got back to his grandfather's house, but the
influence of the sermon was still upon him. He had passed cottages by
the dozen from which had come sounds of mirth and festivity. Tregannon
appeared to be enjoying itself to the full. The young people, untroubled
about the future, were making merry in the hope and gladness of to-day;
while he, having lost the faith of his childhood, had drifted into
regions not only of hopelessness, but of peril.
"It seems but a poor exchange," he said, sadly, "but I shall have to
make the best of it."
When he opened the door he was surprised to hear the voices of his
grandfather and the Rev. Marshall Brook, in what seemed to him a very
animated and even heated discussion.