BUILDER STOTT SAVES THE FAITH.
The Scripture Club proceeded promptly to work on the ensuing Sunday. Too
many men had brought to the previous meeting ideas which they could not
find time to express; so on the second Sunday in which the nature and
reward of the meek were considered, the members who had not expressed
their views, with several who had, made haste to occupy front seats, so
as to be sure of opportunities to speak.
Among these was Squire Woodhouse. He had several times ruined the
regularity of the proceedings of other meetings, but still he was
unsatisfied. He had not expressed his own views in full, partly because
he had not been asked to do so, but principally because he had had no
settled views to express. Now, however, the case was different. He had
leisurely pondered over everything that he had heard in the class, he
had admired each original idea with the true American heartiness toward
new notions, he had endeavored to reconcile them with his unformulated
but still very positive preconceived religious opinions, and his honesty
had finally triumphed over his theology and his sophistry. When he came
to church, therefore, he neglected his own pew and took the front seat
and the extreme right end thereof, so when Deacon Bates opened the
exercises of the class immediately after service, it was impossible not
to call upon Squire Woodhouse first of all. The Squire cleared his
throat, waved his head about in a dissatisfied manner, and finally said:
"This thing of being meek grows pretty big when you think about it for a
little while, and the worst of it is that everything else in the chapter
is only a chip out of the same block. All of it--being meek and
everything else--seems to come in the end to just this: you mustn't be
like folks in general, particularly like business men. I confess that I
don't know exactly how to do it all, but it seems to me it must be done
by any one who believes that Jesus Christ had the right to say all that
he did. I _don't_ know how to be meek about the way I was
swindled--treated, I mean--by the insurance companies when my barn
burned down----"
"Personal!" whispered Mr. Prymm.
"I don't care if it _is_ personal," said Squire Woodhouse. "I'm trying
to point a moral, and it isn't my fault if other folks get in the way
and get hurt. I don't know how to be meek when I'm abused, but----"
"It isn't required of you," said Mr. Jodderel. "You're expected to take
care of what has been intrusted to you in your capacity as a steward of
the Lord."
Many were the affirmative shakes of head which followed this remark.
"I suppose I am," said the Squire, "and so long as I am a human being I
won't be likely to forget it; but whether when I get mad over being
swindled the anger all comes from my feeling of being deprived of the
Lord's property, I'm not so sure: I've a suspicion that more of it comes
from the heart of Squire Woodhouse than from the kingdom of heaven."
"Not a bit of it," said Mr. Hopper, finding at last a subject upon which
he could speak from the abundance of his heart. "Aren't you working for
the good of your family, and don't St. Paul say that the man who don't
look out for his family is worse than an infidel?"
"Yes," said the Squire meditatively; "but he don't tell you to boil over
when there's nothing to be gained by it, and when getting mad makes you
uninteresting to everybody, not excepting yourself. He doesn't tell you
to let your suspicions manage your wits, and determine what sort of a
man your neighbor is. The man who gets the best of me in a trade may be
a scoundrel; I've always made it a rule to think so, in fact; but when
I come to think of it, I remember that I've sometimes made a hard, sharp
trade myself without meaning anything wrong."
"You never carried back the unfair gains, though, when you saw what
you'd done, did you?" asked Captain Maile.
"Well, no; not that I can recollect. I _have_ tried to make it up to the
man in some way or other, though."
"Taking pains to tell him why you were trying to do it?" asked the
Captain.
"No--no, I can't say that I did--I don't know that I ever succeeded in
doing it, any how," said the Squire honestly. "I'd think it over, off
and on, and before I'd know it, the whole thing would fall out of my
mind."
"So all you did was to ease your conscience--sing it to sleep, so to
speak," continued the Captain. "You gave him all the good feeling you
could, which you couldn't help giving any way, because you're naturally
a good-hearted fellow, and then when you'd comforted yourself your work
stopped."
"That's about the truth of the matter," replied the Squire, "though I
didn't mean to out with it all so plainly before folks."
"Then," asked the Captain, "what's the moral difference between you and
a rascal?"
"Sh--h--h--h" arose in chorus, even President Lottson taking part in the
remonstrance.
"There isn't any," said the Squire stoutly, "if everybody's a rascal
that's called one. But anybody that has the honest feelings _I_ have,
and that loves the square thing so much, and likes so much to see it
done, _isn't_ a rascal, and as I've had the kind of experiences I've
told about, I don't see why other men that have had others like them,
and that are called ugly names by me as well as everybody else, mayn't
be just as right at heart as I am. After this I'm going to believe them
so, any how."
There was a general nod of assent, and President Lottson arose, went
around to where the Squire was sitting, and offered his hand to the
loser of the barn. The Squire took it, rather gingerly at first, but
finally gave it a squeeze so hearty that President Lottson winced and
drew his hand away.
"There!" exclaimed Captain Maile; "everything is all right now, of
course. Goodness don't consist in doing right, but only in feeling
right. Not what you do, but what you believe is what saves a man."
"Such is the decree of God and the decision of the Church," remarked Mr.
Prymm.
"Then what saints the devils must be!" observed the Captain; "for _they_
believe, though, to be sure, they tremble."
Another murmur of dissent was heard, and young Mr. Waggett hastened to
throw a small quantity of oil on the troubled waters by remarking that
whatever was sufficient to salvation was the fulfillment of God's plan
as revealed in the holy Scriptures.
"I'm not through yet," said the Squire. "I was coming to that point. Of
course, other men make blunders very much like mine. I ought to be meek
about judging them--I ought to forgive them their trespasses as I hope
to have mine forgiven. But if there's so much excuse to think bad of men
for what they do and don't do, we ought to put the cause out of the way,
as well as to be patient with others as we'd have them patient with us.
If I've had reason so many times to think the worst about church
members, I suppose that sinners--sinners outside of the Church--must see
them to be just as bad as I do. And if they do, what inducement is there
for sinners to come into the Church?"
"Salvation!" promptly answered young Mr. Waggett.
"That's no moral inducement," said the Squire; "it's a selfish one."
"Oh, oh, oh!" exclaimed Builder Stott, supported by a sympathetic
sensation which was manifested by most of the members, while Mr.
Jodderel sprang to his feet and said--shouted, almost:
"Mr. Chairman, I protest against this drifting away from the subject by
talking all sorts of new-fangled notions that----"
"Free speech is the rule of this class," said Captain Maile. "_You've_
given us a great deal about the kingdom of heaven that nobody ever heard
of before, that's as unheard of in the Bible or the Church----"
"It _is_ in the Bible," said Mr. Jodderel; "you'll find it in the
prophets and apostles from beginning to end."
"I would suggest," said Mr. Prymm, in the most measured and soothing of
tones, "that Brother Woodhouse should remember that we have but a single
hour in the week to talk upon these subjects, and that however deeply he
may be interested in his own peculiar views, it would be well to let all
who are present have an opportunity to offer their views."
"Yes, let's get away from morality as soon as we can," said Captain
Maile. "What's Sunday good for, if you can't in it get away from these
enraging affairs of the week? Nine-tenths of the moral questions in the
world are started by business; and who has any right to drag business
into the Lord's house on Sunday, and just after a sermon, too?"
Faces confused, awry, angry, and merry, showed that the Captain had
aroused a great deal of feeling, which, in sentiment, was not a unit.
Deacon Bates would have ordered the immediate relief of the class from
extraneous subjects; but he had, from the beginning of the services,
groaned over the fact that next to Squire Woodhouse sat Mr. Jodderel,
and no one else could be called upon without destroying that rule of
rotation upon which the leader generally depended for relief. Silently
resolving to pack the front seats on the succeeding Sunday, he said, in
tones so subdued as to be almost pathetic:
"Brother Jodderel."
The members looked resignedly into each other's eyes; Mr. Stott turned
to the table of Hebrew weights and measures in his Bible, and tried to
lose himself in them; Broker Whilcher began slyly ciphering on a card,
doubtless to solve some problem of the market; Mr. Alleman buried
himself in a school report from some other town; Mr. Hopper re-read to
himself the paper on "The True Location of the Holy Sepulchre;" and Mr.
Buffle dropped into gentle slumber.
"I want to say," said Mr. Jodderel, "that you can't rightly know how to
be meek until you know what's to be required of you in the earth which
the meek are to inherit, and you can't know that without knowing where
and what that earth is. Now, it _can't_ mean this earth, for if the meek
inherited it, it would be stolen away from them precious quickly. What
happens to a meek man when somebody hits him without knocking the
meekness out of him?--he gets hit again. What happens to him if
somebody tries to swindle him out of his property, and he don't show
that he won't endure imposition?--he'll be cheated out of every cent. So
the meekness that _we_ think about is evidently not the thing for the
earth that's to be inherited, and the question is, what is? And that
brings us back to the question, What sort of a land are we going to
inherit? It----"
"If it is to be the abode of the finally saved and redeemed," said Mr.
Radley, "I really don't see that meekness can be enjoined upon its
inhabitants, unless we are all mistaken about the nature of the change
that will take place after death. Our mental condition will be
determined for us, and we can't do better on this earth than act
according to what seems the highest order of goodness. I should really
like to ask the gentleman if the next world is all that we are to think
of while we remain in this one, and whether we are not to guide
ourselves somewhat by the rights of other people as well as by our own
desires?"
"This earth is not our abiding place," quoted Mr. Prymm; "we have a
home not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."
"Certainly," said Mr. Jodderel; "that's correct; it _is_ in the
heavens--in the sky--the air above us, in which are suspended all the
planetary bodies, one of which----"
"The gentleman has lost sight of my question," said Mr. Radley.
"So will everybody else," remarked Captain Maile. "If you press that
question, you'll ruin the interest of this meeting. We didn't come here
to learn what we ought to do; we're here to study out what's to be done
for us."
"Not a bit of it," said Mr. Buffle, who has slowly awakened from his
nap. "_I'm_ not, any way. I'm as fond as any one else of getting
anything; but I've already been blessed with more than I deserve, and I
want to know what God's will concerning me is on earth as well as in
heaven."
"Always providing it don't cost you anything," said Captain Maile.
"Nonsense," replied Mr. Buffle, rather angrily. "I never refused to
spend money on any really useful charity."
Several members softly responded, "That's true."
"Yes," said Captain Maile; "you occasionally spend a penny out of a
dollar, so to speak, and you deserve credit for it, for very few other
men of means go so far; you're ahead of your day and generation. When I
carry around a subscription paper for anything, your name always has a
handsome sum after it. But do you really mean that you are going through
this Sermon on the Mount--if we live long enough to get through it,
which is very unlikely at the present rate of progress--and practically
agree to what it says?"
Mr. Buffle was cornered; but blessed be corners! There are no other
positions in life from which a man can obtain so good a view of
himself. Mr. Buffle studied the back of the seat in front of him for a
few seconds; looked rather blank, then very modest, then very manly,
raised his head, and said:
"Yes, I do."
"Good!" was the only word Captain Maile uttered, while Mr. Jodderel
shook his head dismally, and exclaimed:
"Here we are, away from the subject again, Mr. Leader!"
"We can hurry back to it, if the gentleman will answer my question,"
observed Mr. Radley.
"It's one o'clock," remarked Builder Stott.
The members arose, and most of them departed as soon as possible, while
President Lottson turned to Stott, and said:
"You did that just in time."
"Well," said Stott modestly, "something had to be done. This old fight
between faith and works has played the mischief wherever it's come up
among men, and I'm not going to sit still and see it break up an
interesting class like this. I've no other chance to study the Bible
except here, and I'm not going to have it ruined by a lot of theorists
getting into a row. I'm afraid it's too late, though. Buffle got some
new notion into his head when Maile cornered him there; and he never
lets go of any thought that strikes him as good. The first thing you'll
hear of will be another subscription list, with his name at the head,
and he'll go into it with all his might, like he did about the building
of this church; and everybody will be worried by him, and he'll drag it
in here, and act as if the Bible wasn't anything but a code of every-day
morals."
"And forget all about the gospel-plan of salvation," said young Mr.
Waggett.
"And the kingdom of heaven," suggested Mr. Jodderel.
"And the atonement, the central truth of the Scriptures," remarked Mr.
Prymm; "the vicarious efficacy of the atonement."
"And you'll shut your ears and eyes for fear you might be converted and
healed," said Captain Maile.
And the lingerers went straightway every man to his own house.