THE CHURCH COUNCIL.
"I know you won't give way," said Rachel, as she helped her husband
into his coat.
Luke did not answer at once.
"If you remain firm this time you will find it easier the next."
"I don't intend to give way," said Luke gravely. "It would be fatal."
"Yes, and you would never forgive yourself." Luke buttoned up his coat
and looked at his wife.
"We should hear the same excuse that that old woman gave for not
attending her Parish Church," he said smiling.
"What was that?"
"That she had been too ill for the last half year to come to the
services but she was proud to say she had not missed a single Whist
Drive."
"Oh you mustn't give way," repeated Rachel earnestly. Then she added,
laying a hand on his arm, "You know what I shall be doing."
When Luke smiled his face was transfigured.
He smiled now.
"You will be doing the part of Moses," he said. "I am not sure that I
should not fail if it were not for that." Then he opened the door and
was gone.
Rachel stood where he had left her looking absently at the door which
he had shut after him.
That the Church Councils were not always happy meetings she knew.
Luke said the right people were not on it. There were some really in
earnest, but these often seemed afraid of speaking. Those who spoke the
most often and the loudest were those who wanted to make their Church
the most popular in the town by way of parish dances, whist drives,
etc. Luke, Rachel knew, had always stood out against such methods of
work, but people were growing persistent, and the subject was to come
up again this evening. His last words had surprised her and made her
anxious, for they showed her that his resistance was growing weaker and
that he felt himself in real danger of giving way.
She knew what giving way would mean to him. It would lie on his heart
like lead. He would not look for blessing so expectantly and hopefully
in his parish if once his church began to cater for the amusement of
his people instead of putting its full strength into the spiritual
work. By this time Rachel knew her husband so well, that she felt sure
that he would grow melancholy and depressed, and his work would be
robbed of zeal and happiness in consequence.
It was not as if he had any doubts as to the wrongfulness of such
methods for Church work. He absolutely disapproved of them and had made
his opinions known. If he gave way or countenanced such proceedings, in
the least, people would cease to believe in him.
Well there was one thing she could do to help him to be strong; she
would go and do it. And while Luke was wrestling with his Church
Council, Rachel was wrestling in prayer.
Then she went down stairs to listen for his footstep.
When she heard it, it did not inspire her with hope. Luke came in
quietly and made his way slowly into the drawing-room where he knew he
would find her.
"Well?" she said.
He took a seat on the sofa near her.
"I have gained my point."
Rachel's eyes shone.
"What good news," she said greatly relieved. "Why do you look so
melancholy?"
"Because though I have gained my point I have lost four of the most
regular members of the congregation. They walked out of the room."
"Oh well, that is not half so bad as if they had gained the victory,"
said Rachel cheerfully. Then Luke looked lovingly down at his wife.
"I doubt if I should have taken such a strong attitude if it had not
been for you. I knew you were praying."
"Yes, I was praying."
"The knowledge of that helped me enormously. The four who resigned have
been my most loyal supporters and I can tell you it was hard to stand
out against them. They have been so exceedingly kind to me ever since
I have had the church. It was this fact that made it so difficult.
Besides I love peace."
"Peace with honour, but not without."
"That's just it. I felt that my Master's honour was at stake."
"I can't tell you how thankful I am," said Rachel. And under his wife's
influence Luke regained something of his usual spirits. But Rachel had
only heard Luke's side of the question. The next day she was inundated
with callers.
"I suppose you know," said Mrs. Moscombe, the wife of the owner of the
principal shop in the parish, "that the Vicar got his way by one vote
only. I own when I heard all the arguments in favour of opening the
Hall for such purposes I began to wonder if we ought not to do what the
neighbouring churches have done to attract the young people."
"I don't think that kind of thing attracts people to Church," said
Rachel.
"But as my husband says," continued Mrs. Moscombe, "it saves the boys
and girls from going to worse places. Surely that is the work of the
Church."
"It may save them for two or three days, possibly; but it really leads
them to go to unwise places of amusement in the long run, and I know my
husband feels very strongly that the Church loses its spiritual power
if it goes in for catering for amusements."
"But then, dear Mrs. Greville, your husband, forgive me for saying so,
is rather peculiar in his views. He scarcely moves with the times and
isn't up to date as they say."
Rachel flushed.
"The times are not so particularly good that one should wish to move
with them," she said. "I am very thankful that my husband does what he
considers right without swerving or moving with the times."
Rachel was glad to see the last of her visitor, but had hardly said
goodbye when the door opened to admit Mrs. Stone.
"Of course," she said as she took a seat, "your husband has told you
all about last night. I admired him immensely. He didn't give way an
inch though the majority were really against him."
"But anyhow he had a majority of one."
Mrs. Stone laughed.
"And he would not have had that if it had not been for me. I didn't
agree with him in the least! I must tell you, but I voted for his views
as I always feel he is such a good man that he probably knows what is
for the good of his people better than I do. If it had not been for my
vote, he would himself have had to give the casting vote."
"I am very disappointed that you don't agree with us," said Rachel.
"Well I do believe in people keeping up with the times, and girls and
boys are crazy now for dancing and cards. You can't get them if you
don't give way. Things have changed so much since our fathers' times."
Rachel was silent. She felt depressed. She quite expected people like
Mrs. Moscombe and others who had called to see her, and who did not
profess to be religious, to misunderstand Luke's action, but it was a
blow to find that her friend Mrs. Stone also disagreed with him.
But the last caller was the most trying of all.
Rachel heard her mother-in-law open the front door and walk heavily
across the little hall.
"What has Luke been doing?" she exclaimed almost before she was in the
room. "I hear he has quite estranged the four best supporters of the
Church." She looked at Rachel as if she were to blame.
"It was about the amusement question," said Rachel. "He put down his
foot at the proposal to introduce them into the work of the parish."
"Well I call it remarkably silly of him. It is a matter of very little
importance and certainly not worth wrangling over. I am quite thankful
I am not a member of the Council. I could not have voted against my
son, but I should have felt very vexed at being a party to such a loss
to the Church."
"You mean?"
"I mean losing his four best financial supporters, and those who give
the most to the Easter offerings. Who is he to look to now, I should
like to know? And if he only waited to consider the state of his own
finances and the expense of food, (eggs are still fourpence a piece),
he would not have made such a fatal mistake."
Rachel was silent, but she disagreed with every word her mother-in-law
had spoken. Then after a pause during which Mrs. Greville tied and
untied her bonnet strings in her agitation, she said:
"I don't suppose any consideration respecting finance would weigh with
Luke against doing what he thinks right."
"My dear, young men often make a fatal mistake in going their own way,
thinking that youth must know better than age. Think of those four gray
haired men who know more of the world than Luke, being set at nought
like that. I have never known Luke to make such a mistake. If he had
only consulted me before he had acted."
Then Rachel spoke.
"But don't you see how noble it was of him to keep to what he felt
right even though he must have known what the result would be. I own
am proud of him, and should have been bitterly disappointed if he had
given way. I am sure he did the right thing."
Mrs. Greville looked at her son's wife and could not but admire the way
she stood up for her son's folly, (as she considered it). There was an
expression on her face that any mother-in-law would have been pleased
to see on the face of her son's wife. But for all that she felt it
incumbent on her to give her a snub.
"I daresay," she said, "that you admire him. So would most young girls
who only look for actions without weighing their cost. We all admire a
man who is not afraid to speak out. But when it comes to flouting those
who have been kind and considerate, and who never hesitate to give
money for the work, it is a different matter. Luke has done a bad thing
for the parish by his action of last night."
"People would never have believed in his convictions again if he had
given way," said Rachel.
"Well now, don't you go and encourage him in that kind of thing," said
Mrs. Greville. "I hope that you recognise the fact that Luke is not a
paragon of wisdom, neither can any one turn him from what he imagines
his duty. But he must remember that he now has a wife to support. He
not only will stubbornly stick to his point even when it means losing
money for the work of the parish, but will give away every penny he
possesses without a thought of the consequences. I daresay you have
found that out."
Rachel laughed, thinking of the pearls.
"Well, am I not right?"
"Luke is the most generously minded man that I have ever come across,"
said Rachel.
And then Mrs. Greville gave her a kiss. She could not resist it; though
she knew that her action would startle her daughter-in-law.
"My dear," she said, "I do believe that you love that boy of mine as
much as I do."
Rachel was tempted to answer "a great deal more," but forbore, only
returning the kiss with warmth. She was getting almost fond of Mrs.
Greville.
"Well, you see," she said with a smile, "he is my husband."
"But that does not always follow I am sorry to say. Wives are generally
very quick in seeing and resenting faults in their husbands. And much
as I love my dear boy I see a great many in him."
"But there are more virtues after all," was Rachel's answer, "and to
return to the subject of whist drives, it is perfectly true what Luke
quoted to me from some speech yesterday. 'The Church has so little
power with the world because the world has so much power over the
Church.' Don't you agree?"
"Well perhaps it is so. But when a man's bread and butter is concerned
and when the Church funds are low, I own I feel it is not the time to
be too particular."
"I am afraid I don't agree with you a bit."
"I don't suppose you do; that is because Luke has imbued you with his
ideas of right and wrong."
"Luke has a very high ideal," said Rachel, "and I am trying to live up
to it."
And Mrs. Greville went away thinking to herself, "I only hope that Luke
realises what a devoted wife he has. I don't believe he does."
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