_Scene-shifting_
Mr. Trimblerigg’s fall from the grace of true Belief--or from the good
graces of the True Believers--had a famous reverberation in the Free
Church Press; and at the age of twenty-four he became for the time
being--next to the great Dr. Giffard himself--the most controversially
talked-of person among the high lights of Nonconformity.
For just at that time the Free Churches had nothing on which to grit
their teeth, and badly wanted a new bone. The New Theology of Dr.
Ramble had come almost to nothing: its author had deserted it upon
the door-step of the more ancient faith into which he had retired;
and the fight about it had died down. But here was a fight, not more
suddenly sprung than ended; and in a single round this young Jonathan
of a David had been knocked out by the older Goliath. The common
sympathies were with him, for the True Believers were not a popular
sect; a time had come when it was generally felt that they were doing
harm rather than good by an insistence on the literal truth of things
which no one really believed. Nevertheless many old school Free
Evangelicals considered that Mr. Trimblerigg’s method of attack had
been inconsiderate and rash; for if one started to put quotation marks
round everything one did not wish to accept, where would the process
end? The world still believed in punishment for the wicked; Samuel and
Elisha stood high among the prophets; and if harvests were not liable
to be cursed for a nation’s sins, how then consistently could they--or
alterations in the weather--be prayed for? As for the tearing of the
she-bears, in primitive times primitive punishments were not regarded
as they are now. Besides, as somebody pointed out in the correspondence
which followed in _The Rock of Ages_, the she-bears may only have torn
them slightly though sufficiently, killing none; merely teaching them
to behave better in the future.
But though then, as always, Mr. Trimblerigg’s plunges in exegesis
provoked criticism, they had at least abundantly released him from the
restricting inhibitions of True Belief, and the way to wider pulpits
now lay open.
And then in the very nick of time, on a Saturday night of all days
and hours in the week, Grandfather Hubback was taken ill, and Mr.
Trimblerigg, who had been much in doubt where to go for his next
Sunday’s worship, came down at short notice and preached at Bethesda so
beautifully, so movingly, and in so charitable and resigned a spirit,
that there was no question of asking anyone else to come the following
Sunday and take his place.
And so, informally, with the goodwill of a congregation where he
was native and known, Mr. Trimblerigg became temporary preacher to
the Free Evangelicals; and when, after a six weeks’ illness, Pastor
Hubback died, Mr. Trimblerigg was congregationally recommended to take
his place; and after a certain amount of prayer, deliberation, and
inquisition before a Committee, in answering which Mr. Trimblerigg
found no difficulty at all, his ministerial status was confirmed and
the appointment made.
In the month following, to make it as easy as might be for the faithful
at Horeb to find and accommodate a new pastor, Mr. Trimblerigg
moved his wife, family, and furniture to the larger abode of his
late grandfather. But though the chapel was then left to them free
of charge, and the house at a fair rental, the True Believers of
the locality thenceforth dwindled to a small remnant; while the
congregation at Bethesda increased and multiplied.
Mr. Trimblerigg, however, had made his exit so handsomely that though
henceforth a suspended and disconnected minister (for the fiat of the
Synod had gone forth against him to that effect) there was nevertheless
between him and his old congregation a certain measure of goodwill;
those who parted from him parted with regret; a few, younger members
mostly, came out and followed him.
In that matter, indeed, more followed him than he could have wished;
for no sooner had he been cut off from the communion of True Belief,
than it became evident that in that narrow and reactionary following
the woman’s ministry propaganda had not a dog’s chance of success.
Possibly also, with him out of it, the sect ceased to attract the
forward spirits of feminism. Whatever the cause, within a few weeks
the agitation, so far as True Belief was concerned, died the death;
but unfortunately came to life elsewhere, more vigorously and more
abundantly than ever.
The long struggle of women, in the broad fold of Free Evangelicalism,
to obtain sex-equality is not to be told here. Its main importance,
so far as we are concerned, is the effect it had on the career of Mr.
Trimblerigg. The recrudescence of Isabel Sparling and her followers in
congregations drawn together by his growing reputation as a preacher
became a sad impediment to the flow of his oratory. The manifestations
were epidemic through all the loosely-knit communions of the Free
Churches; but against himself they were directed with a personal
animus of which only he and Isabel Sparling knew the full inwardness.
For public purposes it was sufficient that, after first disclaiming
all further obligation to their cause--since only in the bonds of True
Belief had he stood fully committed thereto--he now sought to postpone
the question of their admission until the corporate union of the Free
Churches, and a few other reforms (Disestablishment amongst others),
on which he had set his heart, had been accomplished. A piecemeal
extension of the ministerial function to women would, he maintained,
have a disturbing and a disuniting effect on communions which he sought
to draw together in closer bonds of brotherhood. ‘I am in favour of
it,’ he said (to the deputations which continued to wait on him), ‘but
I am not so much in favour of it, as of other and more fundamental
things which must come first.’
Fundamental: the word kindled in the hearts of women who had felt that
fundamental call of the spirit, a flame of resentment that crackled and
spread. Who was he, who was anybody to dictate times and seasons, when
the signs of that spiritual outpouring were here and now?
And so there was War in all the Free Churches which strove to fulfil
themselves under the ministry of one sex alone; and Mr. Trimblerigg’s
prayers and preachings were in consequence broken into shorter
paragraphs than was good for them.
But the violence with which those spiritual interruptions were carried
out could not go on for ever; it was not in human, it was not in
heavenly nature to utter messages born of the spirit with the drilled
regularity and mechanism of a firing-squad. The things they said lacked
conviction, did not come from their hearts or their heads, but only
from their tongues and their tempers; and when in certain selected
cases, Mr. Trimblerigg was inspired to pause so that they might speak
as the spirit gave them utterance, the spirit left them badly in the
lurch, they faltered and became dumb. For Isabel Sparling had enlisted
in her cause many who were the poorest of poor speakers and had no wish
whatever to become ministers; and when these heard themselves speak
to a congregation which was artfully prevailed upon to listen they
trembled and were afraid, and felt themselves fools.
And so, for a while, in his own particular congregation, it almost
seemed that Mr. Trimblerigg was on the way to restore order and recover
the undivided attention of his audiences.
But once again the pin-prick policy of Isabel Sparling got the better
of him; and in the third year of her Church Militancy, forces of a new,
a more placid, and a more undefeatable type were let loose against him.
They came, they behaved themselves, they said not a word, cloven
tongues of inspiration no longer descended upon them; but in the most
moving passage of prayer or sermon, they would feel imperatively moved
to get up and go. And with much deprecatory fuss and whispered apology,
always from the centre of a well-occupied row--they would go forth and
presently return again, finding that they had left book, or handbag, or
handkerchief behind them, or that they had taken away their neighbour’s
in mistake for their own. And it was all so politely and apologetically
done that everybody, except the preacher, had to forgive them.
And so it came about that after Mr. Trimblerigg had been at Bethesda
for a little more than two years, he accepted with alacrity a post at
the Free Evangelical centre for the organization of foreign missions.
And when he went out to preach it was at short notice here, there and
everywhere, where the sedulous attentions of Miss Isabel Sparling and
her followers had not time to overtake him.
That great work of organization, and the addressing of meetings for men
only, gave his energies the outlet, the flourish, and the flamboyance
which they imperatively demanded; and while he discovered in himself
a head for business and a leaning toward speculative finance, in
the great Free Evangelical connection his spiritual and oratorical
reputation continued to grow.
And meanwhile, in his domestic circumstances, Mr. Trimblerigg was
living an enlarged life and doing well. His wife had presented him with
three children; and he in return, by moving them from a remote country
district of primitive ways to one of the big centres of civilization,
had presented her with a house containing a basement and a bathroom.
The basement enabled them to keep a servant; while the bathroom--a
matter of more importance--enabled me to obtain a clearer view (which
is not quite the same as a complete explanation), of Mr. Trimblerigg’s
character.