MRS. VINCENT was ready in very good time for the meeting; she brought
her son a cup of coffee with her own hand when she was dressed in her
bonnet and shawl. She had put on her best bonnet--her newest black silk
dress. Perhaps she knew that device of Tozer's, of which the minister
yet was not aware; but Arthur for once was too peremptory and decided
for his mother. She who knew how to yield when resistance was
impossible, had to give in to him at last. It was better to stay at
home, anxious as her heart was, than to exasperate her boy, who had so
many other things to trouble him. With much heroism the widow took off
her bonnet again and returned to Susan's room. There could be little
doubt now what the minister was going to do. While she seated herself
once more by her daughter's bedside, in a patience which was all but
unbearable, her son went alone to his last meeting with his flock. He
walked rapidly through Grove Street, going through the stream of Salem
people, who were moving in twos and threes in the same direction. A
little excitement had sprung up in Carlingford on the occasion. The
public in general had begun to find out, as the public generally does,
that here was a man who was apt to make disclosures not only of his
opinions but of himself wherever he appeared, and that a chance was
hereby afforded to the common eye of seeing that curious phenomenon, a
human spirit in action--a human heart as it throbbed and changed--a
sight more interesting than any other dramatic performance under heaven.
There was an unusual throng that night in Grove Street, and the audience
was not less amazed than the minister when they found what awaited them
in the Salem schoolroom. There Phoebe Tozer and her sister-spirits had
been busy all day. Again there were evergreen wreaths on the walls, and
the stiff iron gaslights were bristling with holly. Phoebe's genius
had even gone further than on the last great occasion, for there were
pink and white roses among the green leaves, and one of the texts which
hung on the wall had been temporarily elevated over the platform, framed
in wreaths and supported by extempore fastenings, the doubtful security
of which filled Phoebe's artless soul with many a pang of terror. It
was the tender injunction, "Love one another," which had been elevated
to this post of honour, and this was the first thing which met Vincent's
eye as he entered the room. Underneath, the platform table was already
filled with the elite of the flock. The ladies were all in their best
bonnets in that favoured circle, and Tozer stood glorious in his Sunday
attire--but in his own mind privately a little anxious as to the effect
of all this upon the sensitive mind of the minister--by the side of the
empty chair which had been left for the president of the assembly. When
Vincent was seen to enter, it was Tozer who gave the signal for a burst
of cheering, which the pleased assembly, newly aware of the treat thus
provided for it, performed heartily with all its boots and umbrellas.
Through this applause the minister made his way to the platform with
abstracted looks. The cheer made no difference upon the stubborn
displeasure and annoyance of his face. Nothing that could possibly have
been done to aggravate his impatient spirit and make his resolve
unalterable, could have been more entirely successful than poor Tozer's
expedient for the conciliation of the flock. Angry, displeased, humbled
in his own estimation, the unfortunate pastor made his way through the
people, who were all smiles and conscious favour. A curt general bow and
cold courtesy was all he had even for his friends on the platform, who
beamed upon him as he advanced. He was not mollified by the universal
applause; he was not to be moved to complaisance by any such argument.
He would not take the chair, though Tozer, with anxious officiousness,
put it ready for him, and Phoebe looked up with looks of entreaty from
behind the urn. In the sight of all the people he refused the honour,
and sat down on a little supernumerary seat behind, where he was not
visible to the increasing crowd. This refusal sent a thrill through all
the anxious deacons on the platform. They gathered round him to make
remonstrances, to which the minister paid no regard. It was a dreadful
moment. Nobody knew what to do in the emergency. The throng streamed in
till there was no longer an inch of standing-ground, nor a single seat
vacant, except that one empty chair which perplexed the assembly. The
urns began to smoke less hotly; the crowd gave murmurous indications of
impatience as the deacons cogitated-- What was to be done?--the tea at
least must not be permitted to get cold. At last Mr. Brown stood up and
proposed feebly, that as Mr. Vincent did not wish to preside, Mr. Tozer
should be chairman on this joyful occasion. The Salem folks, who thought
it a pity to neglect the good things before them, assented with some
perplexity, and then the business of the evening began.
It was very lively business for the first half-hour. Poor Mrs. Tufton,
who was seated immediately in front of the minister, disturbed by his
impatient movements, took fright for the young man; and could not but
wonder in herself how people managed to eat cake and drink tea in such
an impromptu fashion, who doubtless had partaken of that meal before
leaving home, as she justly reflected. The old minister's wife stood by
the young minister with a natural esprit the corps, and was more anxious
than she could account for. A certain cloud subdued the hilarity of the
table altogether; everybody was aware of the dark visage of the
minister, indignant and annoyed, behind. A certain hush was upon the
talk, and Tozer himself had grown pale in the chair, where the good
butterman by no means enjoyed his dignity. Tozer was not so eloquent as
usual when he got up to speak. He told the refreshed and exhilarated
flock that he had made bold to give them a little treat, out of his own
head, seeing that everything had gone off satisfactory last night; and
they would agree with him as the minister had no call to take no further
trouble in the way of explanations. A storm of applause was the response
of the Salem folks to this suggestion; they were in the highest
good-humour both with themselves and the minister--ready to vote him a
silver tea-service on the spot, if anybody had been prompt enough to
suggest it. But a certain awe stole over even that delighted assembly
when Mr. Vincent came forward to the front of the table and confronted
them all, turning his back upon his loyal supporters. They did not know
what to make of the dark aspect and clouded face of the pastor, relieved
as it was against the alarmed and anxious countenances behind him. A
panic seized upon Salem: something which they had not anticipated--something
very different from the programme--was in the minister's eye.
The Pigeons were in a back seat--very far back, where Mrs. Vincent had
been the previous evening--spies to see what was going on, plotting the
Temperance Hall and an opposition preacher in their treacherous hearts;
but even Mrs. Pigeon bent forward with excitement in the general
flutter. When the minister said "My friends," you could have heard a pin
drop in the crowded meeting; and when, a minute after, a leaf of holly
detached itself and fluttered down from one of the gaslights, the whole
row of people among whom it fell thrilled as if they had received a
blow. Hush! perhaps it is not going to be so bad after all. He is
talking of the text there over the platform, in its evergreen frame,
which Phoebe trembles to think may come down any moment with a crash
upon her father's anxious head. "Love one another!" Is Mr. Vincent
telling them that he is not sure what that means, though he is a
minister--that he is not very sure what anything means--that life is a
great wonder, and that he only faintly guesses how God, being pitiful,
had the heart to make man and leave him on this sad earth? Is that what
he says as he stands pale before the silent assembly, which scarcely
dares draw breath, and is ashamed of its own lightness of heart and
vulgar satisfaction with things in general? That is what the minister
says. "The way is full of such pitfalls--the clouds so heavy
overhead--the heavens, so calm and indifferent, out of reach--cannot we
take hands and help each other through this troubled journey?" says the
orator, with a low voice and solemn eyes. When he pauses thus and looks
them all in the face, the heart of Salem fails. The very gaslights seem
to darken in the air, in the silence, and there is not one of the
managers who does not hear the beating of his own heart. Then suddenly
the speaker raises his voice, raises his hand, storms over their heads
in a burst of indignation not loud but grand. He says "No."--"No!"
exclaims the minister--"not in the world, not in the church, nowhere on
earth can we be unanimous except by moments. We throw our brother down,
and then extend a hand to him in charity--but we have lost the art of
standing side by side. Love! it means that you secure a certain woman to
yourself to make your hearth bright, and to be yours for ever; it means
that you have children who are yours, to perpetuate your name and your
tastes and feelings. It does not mean that you stand by your brother for
him and not for you!"
Then there followed another pause. The Salem people drew a long breath
and looked in each other's faces. They were guilty, self-convicted; but
they could not tell what was to come of it, nor guess what the speaker
meant. The anxious faces behind, gazing at him and his audience, were
blank and horror-stricken, like so many conspirators whose leader was
betraying their cause. They could not tell what accusation he might be
going to make against them, to be confirmed by their consciences; but
nobody except Tozer had the least conception what he was about to say.
The minister resumed his interrupted speech. Nobody had ventured to
cheer him; but during this last pause, seeing that he himself waited,
and by way of cheering up their own troubled hearts, a few feeble and
timid plaudits rose from the further end of the room. Mr. Vincent
hurriedly resumed to stop this, with characteristic impatience. "Wait
before you applaud me," said the Nonconformist. "I have said nothing
that calls for applause. I have something more to tell you--more novel
than what I have been saying. I am going to leave Carlingford. It was
you who elected me, it is you who have censured me, it was you last
night who consented to look over my faults and give me a new trial. I am
one of those who have boasted in my day that I received my title to
ordination from no bishop, from no temporal provision, from no
traditionary church, but from the hands of the people. Perhaps I am
less sure than I was at first, when you were all disposed to praise me,
that the voice of the people is the voice of God; but, however that may
be, what I received from you I can but render up to you. I resign into
your hands your pulpit, which you have erected with your money, and hold
as your property. I cannot hold it as your vassal. If there is any truth
in the old phrase which calls a church a cure of souls, it is certain
that no cure of souls can be delegated to a preacher by the souls
themselves who are to be his care. I find my old theories inadequate to
the position in which I find myself, and all I can do is to give up the
post where they have left me in the lurch. I am either your servant,
responsible to you, or God's servant, responsible to Him--which is it? I
cannot tell; but no man can serve two masters, as you know. Many of you
have been kind to me--chief among all," said Vincent, turning once round
to look in Tozer's anxious face, "my friend here, who has spared no
pains either to make me such a pastor as you wished, or to content me
with that place when he had secured it. I cannot be content. It is no
longer possible. So there remains nothing but to say
good-bye--good-bye!--farewell! I will see you again to say it more
formally. I only wish you to understand now that this is the decision I
have come to, and that I consider myself no longer the minister of Salem
from this night."
Vincent drew back instantly when he had said these words, but not before
half the people on the platform had got up on their feet, and many had
risen in the body of the room. The women stretched out their hands to
him with gestures of remonstrance and entreaty. "He don't mean it; he's
not going for to leave us; he's in a little pet, that's all," cried Mrs.
Brown, loud out. Phoebe Tozer, forgetting all about the text and the
evergreens, had buried her face in her handkerchief and was weeping, not
without demonstration of the fact. Tozer himself grasped at the
minister's shoulder, and called out to the astonished assembly that
"they weren't to take no notice. Mr. Vincent would hear reason. They
weren't a-going to let him go, not like this." The minister had almost
to struggle through the group of remonstrant deacons. "You don't mean
it, Mr. Vincent?" said Mrs. Tozer; "only say as it's a bit o' temper,
and you don't mean it!" Phoebe, on her part, raised a tear-wet cheek
to listen to the pastor's reply; but the pastor only shook his head, and
made no answer to the eager appeals which assailed him. When he had
extricated himself from their hands and outcries, he hastened down the
tumultuous and narrow passage between the benches, where he would not
hear anything that was addressed to him, but passed through with a brief
nod to his anxious friends. Just as Vincent reached the door, he
perceived, with eyes which excitement had made clearer than usual, that
his enemy, Pigeon, had just got to his feet, who shouted out that the
pastor had spoken up handsome, and that there wasn't one in Salem,
whatever was their inclination, as did not respect him that day. Though
he paid no visible attention to the words, perhaps the submission of
his adversary gave a certain satisfaction to the minister's soul; but he
took no notice of this nor anything else, as he hurried out into the
silent street, where the lamps were lighted, and the stars shining
unobserved overhead. Not less dark than the night were the prospects
which lay before him. He did not know what he was to do--could not see a
day before him of his new career; but, nevertheless, took his way out of
Salem with a sense of freedom, and a thrill of new power and vigour in
his heart.
Behind he left a most tumultuous and disorderly meeting. After the first
outburst of dismay and sudden popular desire to retain the impossible
possession which had thus slid out of their hands--after Tozer's
distressed entreaty that they would all wait and see if Mr. Vincent
didn't hear reason--after Pigeon's reluctant withdrawal of enmity and
burst of admiration, the meeting broke up into knots, and became not one
meeting, but a succession of groups, all buzzing in different tones over
the great event. Resolutions, however, were proposed and carried all the
same. Another deputation was appointed to wait on Mr. Vincent. A
proposal was made to raise his "salary," and a subscription instituted
on the spot to present him with a testimonial. When all these things
were concluded, nothing remained but to dismiss the assembly, which
dispersed not without hopes of a satisfactory conclusion. The deacons
remained for a final consultation, perplexed with alarms and doubts. The
repentant Pigeon, restored to them by this emergency, was the most
hopeful of all. Circumstances which had changed his mind must surely
influence the pastor. An additional fifty pounds of "salary"--a piece of
plate--a congregational ovation--was it to be supposed that any
Dissenting minister bred at Homerton could withstand such conciliatory
overtures as these?