{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_54627/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_54627","id":"gutenberg_54627","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/54627","summary":null,"tags":["Bible -- Study and teaching -- Fiction","Category: Novels","Category: Religion/Spirituality","United States -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction"],"text":"VALUABLE BOOKS\n\nPUBLISHED BY\n\nG. P. PUTNAM'S SONS,\n\nNew York.\n\n\n+I. Tent Life in Siberia.+ ADVENTURES AMONG THE KORAKS AND OTHER TRIBES IN\nKAMCHATKA AND NORTHERN ASIA. Fifth Edition. 12mo, cloth extra 2 00\n\n     \"We strongly recommend this book as one of the most entertaining\n     volumes of travel that have appeared for some years.\"--London\n     Athen\u00e6um.\n\n\n+II. Travels in Portugal.+ By JOHN LATOUCHE. With Photographic\nIllustrations. Octavo, cloth extra 3 50\n\n     \"A delightfully written book, as fair as it is pleasant. * * *\n     Entertaining, fresh, and as full of wit as of valuable\n     information.\"--London Spectator.\n\n\n+III. The Abode of Snow.+ A TOUR THROUGH CHINESE TIBET, THE INDIAN\nCAUCASUS, AND THE UPPER VALLEYS OF THE HIMALAYA. By ANDREW WILSON.\nSquare octavo, cloth extra, with map 2 25\n\n     \"There is not a page in this volume which will not repay perusal.\n     * * * The author describes all he meets with on his way with\n     inimitable spirit.\"--London Athen\u00e6um.\n\n\n+IV. The Life and Journals of John J. Audubon, the Naturalist.+ Comprising\nNarratives of his Expeditions in the American Forests, &c. 12mo, cloth\nextra, with Portrait 2 25\n\n     \"It is a grand story of a grand life; more instructive than a\n     sermon; more romantic than a romance.\"--Harpers' Magazine.\n\n\n+V. Notes on England and Italy.+ By Mrs. NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE (wife of the\nNovelist). Third edition. 12mo, cloth 2 00\n\nIllustrated Edition, with 12 Steel Plates. Octavo, cloth extra, gilt\nedges 5 00\n\n     \"One of the most delightful books of travel that have come under\n     our notice.\"--Worcester Spy.\n\n     \"The grace and tenderness of the author of the 'Scarlet Letter' is\n     discernable in its pages.\"--London Saturday Review.\n\n\n+VI. Recollections of a Tour Made in Scotland in 1803.+ By DOROTHY\nWORDSWORTH (Sister of the Poet). Edited by PRINCIPAL SHAIRP, LL.D. 12mo,\ncloth extra 2 50\n\n     \"The volume glistens with charming passages, showing how rich in\n     'Wordsworthian' fancy was this modest sister.\"--London Athen\u00e6um.\n\n\n+VII. Bayard Taylor's Travel.+ Complete in 10 Vols. Containing works upon\nAfrica; Egypt; Iceland; California and Mexico; Greece and Russia; India,\nChina and Japan; Palestine, Asia Minor, Sicily and Spain; Sweden,\nDenmark and Lapland; Europe, &c., &c. Per volume 1 50\n\nOr, 11 Volumes, neatly put up in box 16 50\n\n     \"There is no romance to us quite equal to one of Bayard Taylor's\n     books of travel.\"--Hartford Republican.\n\n\nPUTNAM'S NEW CATALOGUE will be forwarded to any address on receipt of\nstamp.\n\n\n\n\nRECENT PUBLICATIONS\n\nOF\n\nG. P. PUTNAM'S SONS.\n\n\nDODGE. THE PLAINS OF THE GREAT WEST, AND THEIR INHABITANTS. A vivid and\npicturesque description of the Western plains of the American Continent,\nincluding accounts of the game, a careful topographical record, notes of\nemigration, &c., &c., and an exhaustive account of the life and habits\nof the Indians (both the \"reserved\" and the \"unreserved\"), their customs\nin fighting, hunting, marriage, death, clothing, religious beliefs and\nrites, &c., &c., with some suggestions for the treatment of the Indian\nquestion. By RICHARD IRVING DODGE, Colonel in the U.S. Army. 1 large\noctavo volume very fully illustrated, $4.00\n\n     Colonel Dodge has, during many years, held positions of\n     responsibility on the Western frontier, and has enjoyed exceptional\n     opportunities for obtaining an intimate knowledge of the life and\n     habits of the Indians, and of the features of the great plains in\n     which they live, and the record of his experiences and observations\n     will be found not only most fascinating reading, but a trustworthy\n     and authoritative guide on the subjects of which it treats.\n\n\nVAN LAUN. THE HISTORY OF FRENCH LITERATURE.\n\nBy HENRI VAN LAUN, Translator of Taine's \"History of English\nLiterature,\" the Works of Moli\u00e8re, etc., etc.\n\n     Vol. I.--FROM ITS ORIGIN TO THE RENAISSANCE.\n     Vol. II.--FROM THE RENAISSANCE TO LOUIS XIV.\n     Vol. III.--FROM LOUIS XIV. TO NAPOLEON III. (_In preparation._)\n\n8vo, cloth extra, each, $2.50.\n\n     We have to deal with a people essentially spirited and\n     intellectual, whose spirit and intellect have been invariably the\n     wonder and admiration, if not the model and mould, of contemporary\n     thought, and whose literary triumphs remain to this day among the\n     most notable landmarks of modern literature. * * * _Extract from\n     Author's Preface._\n\n\nTHE BEST READING. A CLASSIFIED BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR EASY REFERENCE. With\nHints on the Selection of Books, the Formation of Libraries, on Courses\nof Reading, etc. 15th Edition. Entirely re-written and brought down to\nAugust, 1876, with the addition of priced lists of the best books in\nFrench, German, Spanish and Italian Literature. 8vo, paper, $1.25;\ncloth, $1.75.\n\n     \"By far the best work of the kind.\"--_College Courant._\n\n\nTHE SELECT BRITISH ESSAYISTS. A series planned to consist of half a\ndozen volumes, comprising the Representative Papers of _The Spectator_,\n_Tatler_, _Guardian_, _Rambler_, _Lounger_, _Mirror_, _Looker-On_, etc.,\netc. Edited, with Introduction and Biographical Sketches of the Authors,\nby JOHN HABBERTON.\n\n     Vol. I.--THE SPECTATOR. By ADDISON and STEELE. Square r\u00f3mo,\n     beautifully printed, and tastefully bound in cloth extra, $1.25\n\n     This series has been planned to preserve, and to present in a form\n     at once attractive and economical, the permanently valuable\n     portions of those standard productions of the Essayists, which, as\n     well for the perfection of their English style, as for the sterling\n     worth of their matter are deservedly perennial.\n\n     Vol. 2. SIR ROGER DE COVERLY PAPERS. From _The Spectator._\n\n     One volume, 16mo, $1.00.\n\n     \"Mr. Habberton has given us a truly readable and delightful\n     selection from a series of volumes that ought possibly never to go\n     out of fashion, but which by the reason of their length and\n     slightly antiquated form there is danger of our\n     overlooking.\"--_Liberal Christian._\n\n\n[Illustration: BROTHER HUMBLETOP WITHDRAWS.]\n\n\n\n\nTHE SCRIPTURE CLUB OF VALLEY REST\n\nOR\n\nSKETCHES OF EVERYBODY'S NEIGHBOURS\n\nBY THE AUTHOR OF\n\"_The Barton Experiment_,\" \"_Helen's Babies_,\" _Etc._\n\nNEW YORK\n\nG. P. PUTNAM'S SONS\n182 FIFTH AVENUE.\n\n1877\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\n                                  Page\nA LIBERAL MOVEMENT                   1\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nSOME SPIRITUAL DIFFERENCES          20\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nFREE SPEECH                         42\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nA SOLEMN HOUR COMPLETELY SPOILED    60\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nFAMILIAR SOUNDS                     78\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nBUILDER STOTT SAVES THE FAITH       92\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nFREE SPEECH BECOMES ANNOYING       109\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nAFTERMATH                          126\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\nTHE DOCTRINE OF INSURANCE          144\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\nA DECISIVE BATTLE                  162\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\nCONCLUSION                         183\n\n\n\n\nSCRIPTURE CLUB.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\nA LIBERAL MOVEMENT.\n\n\nThe success of the Second Church of Valley Rest was too evident to admit\nof doubt, and there seemed to be no one who begrudged the infant society\nits prosperity. Most of its members had come to the village from that\nWestern city known to all its inhabitants as being the livest on the\nplanet, and they had brought their business wits with them. At first\nthey worshiped with the members of the First Church, established forty\nyears before, and with an Indian or two still among its members; but it\nsoon became evident to old members and new that no single society could\nbe of sufficient theological elasticity to contain all the worshipers\nwho assembled in the old building. There were differences of opinion,\nwhich, though courteously expressed, seemed great enough to claim\nconscientious convictions for their bases; so with a Godspeed as hearty\nas their welcome had been, the newer attendants organized a new society.\nThey were strong, both numerically and financially, so within a year\nthey had erected and paid for a costly and not hideous church building,\nsettled a satisfactory pastor, and organized a Sunday-school, three\nprayer-meetings, and a sewing society. The activity of the new church\nbecame infectious, and stimulated the whole community to good works;\noccasionally one of the other societies would endeavor to return some of\nthe spiritual favors conferred by the Second Church, but so leisurely\nwere the movements of the older organizations that before they could\nembody a suggestion in an experience the new church would have discerned\nit afar off and put it into practical operation.\n\nIt was in the rapid manner alluded to that the Second Church came\nfinally by a feature which long and gloriously distinguished it. It was\n11.50 by the church clock one Sunday morning when Mrs. Buffle, wife of\nthe great steamboat owner, who made his home at Valley Rest, noticed her\nhusbands face suddenly illumine as if he had just imagined a model for\nthe best lake packet that ever existed; it was only 12.10, by the same\ntime-piece, when about thirty of the solid members of the church,\nremaining after service, gathered in a corner of the otherwise vacant\nbuilding, and agreed to Mr. Buffle's proposal that there should be\norganized a Bible class especially for adults.\n\n\"When you think of it,\" explained the projector, \"it really seems as if\nthere'd be no end to its usefulness. I call myself as orthodox a man as\nyou can find in any church, anywhere, but there's lots of things in the\nBible that I'm not posted on. I suppose it's the same with all of you;\neach of you may have thought a great deal on some single subject, but\nyou're not up in everything--you haven't sat under preachers who talk\nabout everything.\"\n\n\"There aren't many preachers who _dare_ to preach about everything,\"\nremarked young lawyer Scott, who had in marked degree the youthful\nappetite for the strongest mental food, and the youthful assumption that\nwhatever can be swallowed is bound to be digested.\n\n\"Nor that dares to say what he really believes,\" added Captain Maile,\nwho had that peculiar mind, not unknown in theology and in politics,\nwhich loves a doubt far more dearly than it does a demonstration.\n\n\"Preachers are like the rest of us,\" said Mr. Buffle; \"they haven't time\nto study everything, and they have to take a good deal on the say-so of\nsomebody else; a good many things they may be mistaken about, but they'd\nbetter have _some_ idea on a subject than none at all; once get a notion\ninto their heads and it'll roll around and make them pay attention to it\nonce in a while. And that's just what _we_ need, I think, and it's what\nbrought this Bible class idea into my mind. Each of us will express our\nminds on whatever may be the subject of the day's lesson, and we'll\nlearn how many ways there are of looking at it. No one of us may change\nhis mind all at once, but if he gets out of his own rut for an hour in a\nweek, he'll find it a little wider and no less safer when he drops into\nit again.\"\n\n\"And perhaps he may get it so wide that there'll be room enough in it\nfor three or four, or half-a-dozen Christians to walk in it side by\nside, without kicking each other, or eyeing each other suspiciously,\"\nsuggested Brother Radley, whose golden text always was, \"It is good for\nbrethren to dwell together in unity.\"\n\n\"_That's_ it!\" exclaimed Mr. Buffle, his eyes brightening suddenly.\n\"That's it! But I don't intend to do all the talking, gentlemen. I\nsuggest that such of us as like the idea sign our names to an agreement\nto meet every Sunday for the purpose specified, and that we immediately\nafterward proceed to elect a teacher.\"\n\n\"I don't wish to dampen any honest enthusiasm for Biblical research;\"\nsaid Dr. Humbletop, a genial ex-minister; \"but from some remarks which\nhave been made it would seem as if doubt--perhaps honest, but doubt for\nall that--were to have more to do than faith with the motive of the\nproposed association. What we _need_--what _I_ feel to need, at least,\nand what I believe is the case with all who are here present--is to be\nrooted and grounded in the faith which we profess. I would move,\ntherefore, that if the class is to be informally organized in the manner\nproposed by Brother Buffle, that at least the creed of our church be\nappended to the document to which signatures are to be affixed.\"\n\n\"Mr. Chairman,\" exclaimed Mr. Alleman (Principal of the Valley Rest\nAcademy, and suspected of certain fashionable heresies), \"I object. In\nour congregation--here in this small gathering, in fact--is a large\nsprinkling of gentlemen who are not members of the church, and who do\nnot accept our creed, though they enjoy worshiping with us: Brother\nHumbletop's resolution, if put into effect, would exclude from the\nproposed teachings the very class of men that we profess to believe are\nmost in need of religious instruction. The churches are so rigid that a\nthinking man can scarcely gain admission to them without lying, actually\nor constructively: don't let us, in a class like that proposed, follow\nthe example of the Pharisees, those very flowers of orthodoxy--and 'lay\non men's shoulders burdens grievous to be borne.' If our religion is\nwhat we claim it is, let us open our gates wide enough to admit every\none who is at all interested to study God's ways as made known through\nthe scriptures.\"\n\n\"Don't trouble yourself,\" said Captain Maile, who was as dyspeptic in\nbody as in mind, but was also a keen observer of human nature; \"I don't\nsee but saints need converting as badly as sinners do, and there's\nenough of _them_ to keep you busy. We sinners can find a gathering place\nsomewhere else--perhaps the sexton will think the furnace-room the\nproper place for us--and we'll take Christian hospitality and\ngreat-heartedness as our first subject for discussion.\"\n\n\"You won't do anything of the kind,\" exclaimed Squire Woodhouse, one of\nthe old settlers who had joined himself to the Second Church to avoid\nbeing tormented about what some of the members of the First Church\ntermed his rationalism. \"You're going to meet with us, blow us up all\nyou like, teach us anything you can, and make us better in any way you\nknow how to. God Almighty's kingdom isn't any four-acre lot with a high\nstone wall and a whole string of warnings to trespassers; his kingdom\ntakes in all out-doors; every man alive is his child, and got a right to\ncome and go in his Father's house, even if he don't sit on the same\nstyle of chair or creep under the same kind of bedclothes that his\nbrothers do. If he don't like the meat, or bread, or dessert that\nsomebody else is eating, the table's so full of other good things that\nhe _can't_ go hungry unless he insists upon it. There isn't one of you\nbut's got more religion and brains than any of the twelve apostles ever\nhad; but none of _them_ were ever turned out of _the_ Bible class,\nthough one of them, who was a thief, was man enough to stay away of his\nown accord, and voluntarily go to judgment.\"\n\n\"Churches wouldn't be near so full if all thieves followed Judas's\nexample,\" was the ungracious remark with which Captain Maile received\nthis handsome speech; a hearty laugh took the sting out of the captain's\ninsinuation, however. Meanwhile Mr. Buffle had torn a leaf out of a\nhymn-book, scrawled a form of agreement thereupon, and passed it around\nfor signatures. When the paper reached Dr. Humbletop, that gentleman\nsaid:\n\n\"Brethren, I sign this paper in the hope that we shall work together for\nthe honor and glory of God; but I distinctly avow and reserve the right\nto withdraw at any time, should such time come, when my conscience\nforbids me any longer to attend.\"\n\nSeveral others, among them Insurance President Lottson and Mr. Stott,\nthe well-to-do builder, announced the same reservation, but no one\nentirely declined to sign. Then Mr. Buffle moved the election of a\nteacher, and the choice fell upon Deacon Bates, a man of unabused\nconscience, pure life, extreme orthodoxy, and an aimless curiosity\n(which he mistook for thought) about things Biblical and spiritual. Then\nMr. Buffle arose and said:\n\n\"Mr. Chairman--Mr. Teacher, I mean--time is money in the church as well\nas in the world. It's only 12.30; Sunday-school won't be out until 1.30.\nI move we select a lesson, and go right to work.\"\n\nThe motion was put and carried, and in a second Dr. Humbletop was upon\nhis feet.\n\n\"I propose,\" said he, \"that after the offering of a prayer--an\nessential which seems to have been overlooked by our brethren so zealous\nin good works--that we proceed to the consideration of the Epistle of\nPaul to the Romans. Let us sit at the feet of one, the latchet of whose\nshoes no other theologian was ever worthy to unloose, and let us there\nseek those truths which shall make us wise unto salvation. Let us make\nourselves fully acquainted with God's plan for the redemption of sinful\nman.\"\n\n\"I move as a substitute,\" said Mr. Alleman, \"that we begin with the\nSermon on the Mount, and learn from the Master instead of the servant.\"\n\nThe place was a church and the occasion was the study of the Scriptures.\nBut the attendants were only human and they recognized the conditions\nnecessary to a fight with many indications of satisfaction; faces\nlightened up, eyes rapidly increased in luster, and lips unconsciously\nparted in the manner natural to persons who are gradually abandoning\nthemselves to the influence of an impending pleasure. Men sitting to\nthe right, left, and front of the apparent contestants twisted their\nnecks until their eyes commanded the scene; while good old Major Brayme,\nwho was rather deaf, and had got into a corner for his neuralgia's sake,\nscented the battle afar off and limped around to a front seat.\n\n\"The question is on the amendment,\" said the leader, \"unless some\nbrother has still another amendment to offer.\"\n\nNobody spoke; as Captain Maile afterward explained, \"'twasn't anybody\nelse's fight.\" Besides, Valley Rest was peopled by the race peculiar to\nall other portions of this terrestrial ball, and one of the instincts of\nthat race, whether savage or civilized, is that it is far more pleasing\nto be a spectator than a participant in an altercation.\n\n\"Mr. Leader,\" said Mr. Alleman after a moment of silence, \"in support of\nmy amendment I wish to say that no one more enthusiastically admires\nthan I do the remarkable, almost unique, logical ability of the apostle;\nbut the very reason which prompted him to give forth that wonderful\nletter to the Romans is the one which I offer in opposition to our\nstudying that same epistle. Paul was originally a shrewd man of the\nworld, and his conversion did not deprive him of his common sense and\ntact. Writing to the church at Rome--a church whose members, judging by\nthe Roman mental constitution, must have been gained through appeals\nlogical rather than emotional--he met them upon their own ground, and\ntaught them and grounded them in belief through those faculties in them\nwhich were most easily reached, and which, more than any others, would\nretain the impressions formed upon them. Of all that Paul taught we\nprofess to be convinced; of what Christ taught we are not so well\ninformed, for the reason that it is Paul, rather than Christ, who is\npreached from the pulpit. But here we are in a world and a state of\nsociety in which, for righteousness' sake, we are less helped by\nlogically drawn dogma than by earnest injunction and pure example. We\n_do_ believe; what we need is to learn to lead the new life which that\nbelief implies; we need to have asserted, explained, and impressed upon\nus the simple but comprehensive rules and gracious promises which Jesus\nenounced during his life. The Sermon on the Mount begins with the\nBeatitudes; which of us really _believes_ in them as we do in Paul's\nargument to the Romans? It continues and concludes with a number of\nmoral injunctions, all of which we practically reject, or at least\nneglect; yet these bear directly on our daily intercourse with our\nfellow-men, and our daily acts of all sorts. Why, St. Paul himself\napparently preached after this same model when he had to talk to men of\nthe world whose intelligence was not confined to a single groove, for we\nread that when he preached--talked--to Felix, the governor, he reasoned\nof righteousness, temperance, and the judgment to come. Therefore I\nmove, for the good of those here assembled, and for the glory of God,\nthat this class proceed to the study of the Sermon on the Mount.\"\n\nThere was a perceptible rustle and an active interchange of winks and\nhead-shakings as Mr. Alleman closed; but a dead silence was restored as\nDr. Humbletop slowly rose to his feet, cleared his throat, adjusted his\nnewly-polished glasses, and raised his voice.\n\n\"My dear friends,\" said he, \"having been an humble but earnest follower\nof the Lord Jesus Christ for nearly half a century, I need not on this\noccasion enter into a defense of myself against any possible insinuation\nof lack of faith. Nor will any one doubt that I apprehend the great\nvalue of the Sermon on the Mount; some of you will, perhaps, recall a\nseries of sermons which I preached a few years ago upon the Beatitudes.\nBut Jesus Christ was not merely a moral teacher; his great work was to\nredeem the world from death by offering himself as a propitiation for\ntheir sins, and submitting himself unto death, even the shameful death\nof the cross. His teachings were great, he spake as man never spake\nbefore, but all this is as naught compared with the great work which he\nfinished upon Calvary. It is _this_ that we need to study; it is for\nthis we should love and adore him. 'God so loved the world, that he gave\nhis only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not\nperish, but have eternal life.'\"\n\n\"I should like to ask Brother Humbletop if personal salvation is the\nhighest motive with which we should study the Bible?\" said Mr. Alleman.\n\nIt was evident that the question was a poser to the good doctor; the\nvery convexity and luster of his glasses served only to make his eyes\nstare more aimlessly at nothing for a moment or two. He recovered\nhimself, however, and replied:\n\n\"God, in his generosity, and doubtless in view of the needs of sinful\nhumanity, has ordered that the salvation of mankind should have been the\nprincipal object of Christs coming upon earth; I am not here to\ncriticise my Maker.\"\n\n\"And you know that no one else is,\" remarked Mr. Alleman, with not\ninexcusable acerbity.\n\n\"Question!\" exclaimed several voices. The leader put the question, and\nthe amendment of Mr. Alleman was adopted by a considerable majority.\nAgain Dr. Humbletop got upon his feet.\n\n\"My dear friends,\" said he, \"I regret at this early hour to part from an\nassociation from which I had fondly hoped to derive spiritual benefit,\nbut my sense of duty impels me to take such a step; the vote of the\nclass seems to indicate an estimate of Christ to which I should never\ndare to commit myself--an estimate against which I must always protest.\nPersonally, I hold you all in high esteem; you shall always be\nremembered by me at the throne of grace, but upon the prime essential of\nChristian fraternity we seem hopelessly at variance. In one way I doubt\nnot that your deliberations will tend toward good, but that way is not\nthe best way, and I must therefore regret it. I shall consider it my\nduty to take steps toward the organization of a class upon what I\nconceive to be a Christian basis, and in that class I shall always be\nready to heartily welcome any of you. Salvation through the atonement of\nChrist is the central truth of the Bible; a body of students who examine\nthe Word from any other standpoint may be perfectly sincere and in\nearnest, and they may constitute what may without unkind meaning be\ncalled a Scripture Club, but they can never claim to be regarded as a\nBible class, in the proper acceptation of the term.\"\n\nThe doctor gathered his cloak, hat, and cane, and retired with a\ngraceful but dignified bow; the class rose to its feet in some\nconfusion, and Squire Woodhouse exclaimed:\n\n\"Scripture Club, eh? Well, its a good name.\"\n\n\"That's so,\" said Mr. Alleman; \"let's adopt it, and show the blessed old\nman that names can't change natures.\"\n\nA general assent was sounded; not so noisy a one, perhaps, as that with\nwhich the Dutch patriots of three hundred years ago accepted the\ndesignation of \"Beggars,\" cast at them by Spain, and destined to recoil\nupon those who bestowed it; but the acclamation was nevertheless more\nearnest and demonstrative than is common in churches, and it was perhaps\nwell that in the midst of it the dismissal of the Sunday-school\ncompelled parents who were members of the \"Club\" to hurry out in search\nof their children.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nSOME SPIRITUAL DIFFERENCES.\n\n\nThe next meeting of the Scripture Club of Valley Rest was impatiently\nlooked forward to by all the club members. Although there were at that\ntime plenty of political theories to quarrel over, two or three fine\nprojects for new lines of lake navigation, and at least a dozen for\nmaking of the neighboring city the greatest Western rival to New York,\nconversation on these subjects was only fitful on the boats which\ncarried the business men of Valley Rest between their homes and the\ncity. Before the second Sunday of the existence of the class, each\nmember had in mind at least one religious topic upon which he wanted\nfull, exhaustive, and decisive discussion; he also in his innermost\nheart, and sometimes on his lips, had the settled conviction that he\nwas just the man to speak the decisive word, and thus readjust human\nthought to the newly-discovered requirements of eternal truth.\n\nNor was excitement on religious topics confined to the members of the\nclub. Not a day of the week passed without bringing to Deacon Bates a\nnew candidate for admission. First came Mr. Hopper, who took\nenthusiastic delight in whatever was new, whether in religion, politics,\nmedical theories, or popular smoking tobaccos. As Mr. Hopper was a rich\nman, good Deacon Bates hastily assured him that the class would be\ndelighted to have him as a member, and Mr. Hopper graciously responded\nby offering to read at the very first meeting a seventeen-page paper,\nfrom a very heavy but comparatively new quarterly, on \"The True Location\nof the Holy Sepulchre.\" Then came Mr. Jodderel, who had once defrayed\nthe entire cost of producing a bulky pamphlet, the motive of which was\nthe probable final settlement of all departed spirits, in renewed\nbodies, on some one of the terrestrial globes which he believed had been\nin preparation from the foundation of the world. Mr. Jodderel more than\nhinted that he would like to see considerable attention given to this\ntopic in the new class, and though good Leader Bates trembled at the\nthought, having heard the same subject discussed in season and out of\nseason ever since Mr. Jodderel had made the coming peerless city of the\nWest his place of business, he was true to the sentiment which had led\nto the formation of the class, and therefore gave Mr. Jodderel a hearty\nfraternal welcome. Then, like Nicodemus, there came by night, and from\nfear of the orthodox, Brother Prymm, to whom the slightest letter of the\nlaw was of more importance than the whole of the spirit thereof. He had\nmade the matter of joining the class a subject of special prayer, he\nsaid, and had made up his mind that if it were really the intention of\nthe members to encourage free speech and honestly search for the actual\ntruth regarding the will of God, it was his duty to join the class, and\nserve his blessed Master to the extent of his poor abilities. Mr. Maddle\ncame next, and Leader Bates' heart gladdened to receive him, for Mr.\nMaddle was one of the most successful organizers in the State; he had\nplanned and executed at least two remarkably successful campaigns in the\nlocal political field, and had reorganized, out of nothing, more than\none shapeless business enterprise so admirably that the backers thereof\ncould not learn what they had expended, nor could the creditors discern\nwhat they themselves had received. With such a man behind him, Leader\nBates rose superior to his own fears of the possible disintegration\nwhich the diversity of views of his fellow-members had seemed to make\npossible. And then, as if providentially sent to give the class the\nimpress and protection of the highest order of mentality, came Dr.\nFahrenglohz, Ph.D., G\u00f6ttingen, who had additional repute as being a\ngood physician and a man who always paid his bills. All these were\npresent at the opening hour of the next meeting, and with them came\nseveral people of the class which yields capital listeners, and proves\nthe wondrous capacity of the human mind for absorbing information\nwithout ever being moved to lend any of it again to others.\n\nThe meeting was opened with prayer. Deacon Bates remarked prefatorily\nthat such would be the proper thing in a class composed of adults, and\nthen he looked around hesitatingly for the proper man to make the first\nformal committal of the class into the hands of the Lord; but Squire\nWoodhouse saved him the trouble by springing to his feet and\nvolunteering to Heaven an address so concise that there remained nothing\nunsaid. Then Bibles were distributed, and opened at the fifth chapter of\nMatthew's Gospel, and every one looked unspeakably profound, though Mr.\nHopper had the presence of mind to place his hand beneath his\ncoat-tails and take hold of the review containing the paper on \"The True\nLocation of the Holy Sepulchre,\" so as to be ready in case occasion\noffered.\n\n\"Let us begin with the beatitudes,\" said the leader. \"'Blessed are the\npoor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' By the way, I\nwould suggest that each member speaks in the order of his sitting. Mr.\nLottson,\" continued Deacon Bates, addressing the insurance president,\n\"whom do you suppose Jesus referred to as 'the poor in spirit'?\"\n\n\"Before answering that question,\" said Mr. Lottson, \"I think attention\nshould be called to a passage in the opening of the chapter. It is said\nthat 'When he was set, _his disciples_ came unto him. And he opened his\nmouth and taught _them_, saying,' etc. Now, before we try to understand\nthis beautiful succession of blessings, we should realize whom they were\nspoken to--to the disciples, who had left all and followed him, and\ntherefore to a set of men to whom he could say things which it would be\nnonsensical for him to say to the common people and business men around\nhim. The disciples were out of business, and lived on their friends--it\nwas right enough for them to do so under the circumstances, but for this\nvery reason Jesus told them the things which nobody else could\nunderstand. This sermon was preached to self-forgetting preachers, not\nto men who had to make their living and take the world as they found it;\nand I suppose the first beatitude meant to them just what it said.\n_They_ were poor in spirit--any man has to be, if he be willing to go\naround without a cent in his pocket--but to pay them for it he gave them\nthe kingdom of heaven, that is, the church of which Christ is prophet,\npriest, and king. It's the greatest charge in the world; all business\nenterprises are nothing in comparison with it; but Jesus showed his\ndivine nature by giving them this, for while they managed it splendidly,\nit's the only great affair in the world that a lot of poor-spirited men\ncould manage without running it into the ground.\"\n\n\"That depends upon what 'poor in spirit' means,\" remarked Squire\nWoodhouse. \"President Lottson seems to think it's the same thing as\nmean-spirited, but if it is, I can tell him that there's more money for\nthat kind of chaps in other businesses. Now I'm a farmer--my principal\ncrop is hay, and when my barn burned down last winter with eleven tons\nloose and forty odd tons pressed, and I went to the insur----\"\n\n\"The members will please speak as called upon,\" said the leader, whose\nwatchful ear imagined it detected a personality in the immediate future\nof the Squire's address. Squire Woodhouse subsided after a soft whisper\nto his right-hand neighbor, which caused that gentleman to notice that\nPresident Lottson's face was flushing a little, and his lips touching\neach other more firmly than usual.\n\n\"It seems to me,\" said Mr. Radley, who was next called upon, \"that the\npassage means just what it says. The kingdom of heaven means the place\nwe all hope to get to some day, and the poor in spirit are the people\nwho aren't touchy and don't put on airs Christ was a man of this kind\nhimself, and he knew by experience what he was talking about.\"\n\n\"Then how did he come to call a lot of good church members vipers?\"\ndemanded Squire Woodhouse, before the leader could bring him to order.\n\n\"Because they _were_ vipers,\" answered Mr. Radley. \"Being poor in\nspirit--humble--doesn't need to keep anybody from telling the truth.\nIt's your _high_-spirited chaps that do most of the lying in the\nworld--they do in business circles anyway.\"\n\n\"Next,\" said Deacon Bates, and Captain Maile lifted up his voice.\n\n\"Judging by the notions most people have of the kingdom of heaven,\" said\nhe, \"I don't think anybody but poor-spirited people can ever want to go\nthere.\"\n\nNext in order came Mr. Jodderel, and, as he afterward told his wife, he\nbreathed a small thank-offering to Heaven for preparing so perfect an\noccasion for the presentation of his own theological pet.\n\n\"I don't wonder,\" he said, \"that my military friend turns up his nose at\nthe home-made heaven of most people, but I want him to understand that\nit was no such place that the Lord was talking about. What did he mean\nwhen he said, 'Come, ye blessed of my Father, and inherit the kingdom\nprepared for you from the foundation of the world'? What sensible man\nimagines that the kingdom he spoke of meant any such place as Christians\ntalk about, or even the place where the Lord himself is? It can't be the\nlatter, for _that_ wasn't prepared from the foundation of the world; it\nexisted long before, and didn't need any preparation. If he prepared the\nkingdom from the foundation of the world, and made the sun, moon, and\nstars when he founded the world--a fact which I fully and implicitly\nbelieve because it is recorded in the inspired Word--the kingdom must be\nin some other sphere. And if, as astronomers say, and I have no reason\nto doubt, these spheres are worlds, a great deal like ours, we will have\nmaterial bodies when we go to them.\"\n\n\"And poor spirits?\" queried the insurance president.\n\n\"Yes!\" exclaimed Mr. Jodderel fearlessly. \"We can't go there without\nfirst dying here, and I never yet saw a man on his death-bed who thought\na high spirit, or what men call a high spirit, had ever done him any\ngood.\"\n\nPresident Lottson tried to swallow a sigh which was a little too quick\nfor him; he had once or twice imagined himself on his own death-bed, and\nhad gained thereon some practical intimations which he had made haste to\nforget when he got back to business. Mr. Prymm, who sat next to Mr.\nJodderel, cleared his throat and said:\n\n\"I think we owe Mr. Lottson our thanks for calling our attention to an\nimportant fact which has escaped general notice. The sermon _was_\nundoubtedly preached to the disciples, and should be considered\naccordingly; a great many mistakes of interpretation are doubtless due\nto the habit of Christians in taking to themselves every saying of the\nLord and his prophets. I confess that the view advanced is so new a one\nto me that I am unable at present to express any opinion upon it, but I\nderive already this benefit from it--I learn anew how necessary it is to\npay close attention to the letter of the Word.\"\n\n\"Then,\" said young Mr. Waggett, who sat next Mr. Prymm, and who was\nprincipally remarkable for undeviating devotion to Number One, \"then the\npassage has nothing to do with the great affair of the salvation of our\nown souls.\"\n\n\"Supposing it hasn't,\" said Squire Woodhouse, in spite of the warning\nglance of the leader, \"Sunday isn't a business day, and if we want to\ntalk about some of our best friends then there's no harm in doing so,\nnor any time wasted either.\"\n\n\"Brother Scott,\" said Deacon Bates. The young lawyer, who had been\nexerting over himself a degree of control that was simply terrible,\nconsidering his temptations to interruption, said:\n\n\"May it please the class: There are some evident misunderstandings\nabroad. Mr. Lottson's position is untenable, as the context of the same\nsermon proves; no examination, according to the rules of evidence, can\nfail to prove that the sermon was addressed to the whole people. The\npassage cannot mean literally what it says, as Mr. Radley thinks,\nbecause literally it is illogical, and had such been its intention it\ncould never have been accepted by that consistent apologist for the\nintegrity of the Scriptures, the Apostle Paul, whose mind was so\nmarvelously under control of the legal instinct. Captain Maile's\nassumption as to the general idea of heaven is utterly without support\nfrom fact; for poverty of spirit is not the prevailing characteristic of\nthose whose opinions of heaven are verbally made manifest. As for Mr.\nJodderel's proposition, it involves the literal accuracy of the Book of\nGenesis, which many orthodox Christians are unprepared to admit. Mr.\nPrymm's notion that the sayings of Jesus may be wrongly taken by\nindividuals, as applying to themselves, is not in accordance with\nlogical deductions from other portions of Holy Writ. And how can Mr.\nWaggett sustain his position that there is _any_ eternal truth that is\nnot necessary to salvation?\"\n\nA soft chorus of long-drawn breaths followed the delivery of this\nspeech, and then Squire Woodhouse said:\n\n\"Well, now that you've knocked all the rest down, what are you going to\ndo yourself?\"\n\n\"That,\" replied Lawyer Scott, evidently pleased by the compliment but\npuzzled by the question, \"cannot be answered as easily as it is asked,\nand I must beg the gentleman's indulgence until I have time to prepare\nmy case.\"\n\nMr. Buffle, founder of the class, was next in order, and admitted that\nhe could not see that Jesus, being a clear-headed man, could ever have\nmeant anything but what he said. He, Mr. Buffle, always said what he\nmeant, no matter whether he was talking to preachers, shippers, or the\ndeck-hands on his own boats; he had found that if a man said exactly\nwhat he meant, the stupidest of people could understand him, while\nsmarter people needed no more. He would consider himself a fool if he\ntalked over the head of any one who was listening to him, and of course\nJesus couldn't have been foolish. He was very glad, though, to listen to\nthe many different views that had been advanced on the subject; they\nproved just what he had always believed, that men would learn more about\na thing by hearing all sides of it than he could from the smartest\ntalker alive who knew only one side. He liked the liberality of the\nmembers of the class; it was what he _called_ liberality, to listen to\nvarious views courteously, even if you couldn't accept them all or make\nthem agree.\n\nThe question had now reached Dr. Fahrenglohz, and the members, both\nliberal and narrow, prepared for something terrible. They knew, in\ngeneral, that he believed nothing that they themselves did; how then\ncould his own ideas be anything but dreadful?\n\nThe doctor looked mildly from behind his very convex glasses, and said:\n\n\"Jesus was a mystic. From the spiritual plane on which he lived it was\nimpossible for him to descend. He could say only that which he believed.\nPure-minded and wholly regardless of ordinary earthly interests, he\ncould not be a utilitarian, in the vulgar acceptation of the word. What\nthought he, what thinks any philosopher, of how his theories may affect\nthe world? It is his duty to discover the truth, help or hinder\nwhomsoever it may, and to speak it as he understands it, not in such\nfragments as other people may comprehend it. What did Buddha and Brahma?\nThey spoke, they gave forth that which originated with them.\"\n\n\"And what did it all amount to?\" asked Squire Woodhouse. \"Business don't\namount to a row of pins among _their_ followers, according to the\n_Missionary Herald_, and virtue is worse off yet.\"\n\nThe doctor smiled condescendingly. \"'He that hath ears to hear, let him\nhear' as _your_ prophet says. Is virtue and good business always to be\nfound with those who sit under the words of Jesus?\"\n\n\"N-no,\" said the Squire, \"and that's just what we're driving at. If the\nwords are understood--and followed--men can't help being good and\nsuccessful.\"\n\n\"And so there is all the more need of careful, prayerful study of the\nwords,\" remarked Mr. Prymm.\n\nThere was general disappointment, among those who had yet to speak, at\nthe lack of any startling heresy in the doctor's utterances. Builder\nStott in particular had felt that he might have an opportunity of\ndefending the faith which he so unhesitatingly accepted, at no matter\nwhat intellectual difficulties, by abusing some heterodox utterance of\nthe doctor; but the doctors statements had seemed to him to resemble\neither a sphere--and a hollow one--from which all projectiles would\nglance harmlessly, or mere thin air, in which there was nothing to aim\nat. So he could do nothing but assert his own orthodoxy.\n\n\"I believe everything that Jesus said was meant just as it was spoken,\"\nsaid he; \"whether what we call common sense has got anything to do with\nit or not, is none of our business. Of course we can't live up to it\nall--we're born in sin and shapen in iniquity; our hearts are deceitful\nabove all things and desperately wicked--but what we can't do, he did\nfor us, by dying on the cross. _We_ can never act according to his\nteachings--we'd go to the poor-house or into our coffins as soon as we\nattempted it. If we _could_ do it, there wouldn't have been any need of\nan atonement.\"\n\n\"Then the atonement is an excuse for rascality, is it?\" asked Captain\nMaile. The Captain's own house had been erected by Builder Stott, and\nmany had been his complaints of features which had proved not in\naccordance with the spirit of the contract.\n\nLeader Bates felt extremely uncomfortable; he never had liked\npersonalities, and hated them all the worse when they interfered with\nthat heavenly feeling which was to him the principal object of all\nreligious meetings. He made haste to call upon Mr. Alleman, and that\ngentleman replied:\n\n\"Mr. Leader, there can be no doubt that this passage was spoken to\nliving men, about living interests, and that it not only can be lived up\nto by the exercise of such qualities as men already have, but that it\n_must_ be treated and respected as truth if men do not wish the disgrace\nand penalties of hypocrisy. Of what consequence is it to true\nrighteousness if men will or will not reconcile scriptural injunctions\nwith business desires? Bring business up to truth, not truth down to\nbusiness, is the earthly application of Christ's teachings.\"\n\n\"That,\" said Builder Stott, \"may be all right in running a first-class\nacademy, but you can't run the building business on any such basis.\"\n\nThe hour for dismission was reached at that instant, with Mr. Hopper\nstill nervously shaking the coat-tail pocket which contained the review\nwith the article on the \"True Location of the Holy Sepulchre.\" Two or\nthree of the members departed, but the greater number stood about and\ndiscussed the discussion.\n\n\"Well, everybody had a chance to speak his mind,\" said Mr. President\nLottson.\n\n\"That's so,\" said Mr. Buffle, founder of the class, rubbing his hands\nenthusiastically. \"Nobody was afraid of his neighbor's opinions.\"\n\n\"There seemed a general disposition to view the subject from all\npoints,\" remarked Mr. Prymm.\n\n\"Not much regard paid to evidence,\" said young Lawyer Scott, \"but still\nan evident willingness to open the case fairly.\"\n\n\"There was not a proper interest displayed in the future location of the\nsoul,\" complained Mr. Jodderel; \"still the members acted like good\nlisteners.\"\n\n\"There was a little too much talking back,\" said Mr. Radley; \"men should\nbe more careful about treading on each other's corns. But there was a\nreal, liberal spirit shown throughout, and that's what religious\nsocieties need.\"\n\n\"Men shouldn't _have_ corns, if they don't want them trodden on,\" said\nCaptain Maile. \"I won't complain, though--I never saw so little\nnarrowness in so large a religious gathering.\"\n\n\"I take great delight in recalling the conference we have had,\" said Dr.\nFahrenglohz. \"I supposed, when I heard of this association, that it\nwould not bear the test of differences of opinions, but I am grateful\nfor the respect shown to me, and pleased at the courtesy displayed\ntoward others.\"\n\nSquire Woodhouse waited until Mr. Alleman disappeared, and then burst\ninto a small group exclaiming:\n\n\"Now, I like Alleman first rate--all of my children go to his\nacademy--but I _do_ wonder whether he could run a farm with those\nnotions of his? I'm glad the class listened respectfully, though--it\nshowed that nobody was afraid that a little liberality would hurt any\none.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nFREE SPEECH.\n\n\nThe members of the Scripture Club did not put off their holy interest\nwith their Sunday garments, as people of the world do with most things\nreligious. When the little steamboat _Oakleaf_ started on her Monday\nmorning trip for the city, the members of the Scripture Club might be\nidentified by their neglect of the morning papers and their tendency to\ngather in small knots and engage in earnest conversation. In a corner\nbehind the paddle-box, securely screened from wind and sun, sat Mr.\nJodderel and Mr. Prymm, the latter adoring with much solemn verbosity\nthe sacred word, and the former piling text upon text to demonstrate the\nfinal removal of all the righteous to a new state of material existence\nin a better ordered planet. In the one rocking-chair of the cabin sat\ninsurance President Lottson, praising to Mr. Hopper, who leaned\nobsequiously upon the back of the chair and occasionally hopped\nvivaciously around it, the self-disregard of the disciples, and the\nevident inability of anyone within sight to follow their example. The\nprudent Waggett was interviewing Dr. Fahrenglotz, who was going to\nattend the meeting of a sort of Theosophic Society, composed almost\nentirely of Germans, and was endeavoring to learn what points there\nmight be in the Doctor's belief which would make a man wiser unto\nsalvation, while Captain Maile stood by, a critical listener, and\ndistributed pitying glances between the two. Well forward, but to the\nrear of the general crowd, stood Deacon Bates in an attitude which might\nhave seemed conservative were it not manifestly helpless, Mr. Buffle\nwith the smile peculiar to the successful business man, Lawyer Scott,\nwith the air of a man who had so much to say that time could not\npossibly suffice in which to tell it all, Squire Woodhouse, who was in\nsearch of a good market for hay, Principal Alleman, who was in chase of\nan overdue shipment of text-books, and Mr. Radley, who with indifferent\nsuccess was filling the self-assigned roll of moderator of the little\nassemblage.\n\n\"Nothing settled by the meeting?\" said Mr. Buffle, echoing a despondent\nsuggestion by Deacon Bates. \"Of course not. You don't suppose that what\ntheologians have been squabbling over for two thousand years can be\nsettled in a day, do you? We made a beginning and that's a good half of\nanything. Why, I and every other man that builds boats have been hard at\nwork for years, looking for the best model, and we haven't settled the\nquestion yet. We're in earnest about it--we can't help but be, for\nthere's money in it, and while we're waiting we do the next best\nthing--we use the best ones we know about.\"\n\n\"Don't you think you'd get at the model sooner, if some of you weren't\npig-headed about your own, and too fond of abusing each other's?\" asked\nMr. Radley.\n\n\"Certainly,\" admitted Mr. Buffle, \"and that's why I wanted us to get up\na Bible-class like the one we have. If everybody will try to see what's\ngood in his neighbors theories and what's bad in his own, his\nfortune--his religion, I mean--is a sure thing. Fiddling on one string\nalways makes a thin sort of a tune.\"\n\n\"There were a good many small tunes begun yesterday, then,\" observed\nSquire Woodhouse.\n\n\"Well,\" said Mr. Buffle, \"I thought something of the kind, myself, but a\nman can't break an old habit to pieces all at once. Things will be\ndifferent before long, though.\"\n\n\"There is no reason why they shouldn't,\" said Principal Alleman,\n\"excepting one reason that's stronger than any other. You can't get to\nthe bottom of any of the sayings of Christ, the Prophets or the\nApostles without finding that they mean, Do Right. And when you reach\nthat point, what is in the man and not what is in the book comes into\nplay, or, rather, it always should but seldom does.\"\n\n\"I suppose that's so,\" said Mr. Buffle, soberly.\n\n\"In and of ourselves we can do nothing,\" remarked Deacon Bates.\n\n\"It's very odd, then, that we should have been told to do so much,\"\nreplied Principal Alleman.\n\n\"It was to teach us our dependence upon a higher power,\" said Deacon\nBates, with more than his usual energy.\n\n\"Are we only to be taught, and never to learn, then?\" asked Principal\nAlleman. \"Some of my pupils seem to think so, but those who depend least\nupon the teacher and act most fully up to what they have been taught are\nthe ones I call my best scholars.\"\n\nDeacon Bates's lower lip pushed up its neighbor; in the school-room, the\nPrincipal's theory might apply, but in religion it was different, or he\n(Deacon Bates) had always been mistaken, and this possibility was not to\nbe thought of for an instant. Fortunately for his peace of mind, the\nboat touched her city dock just then, and from that hour until five in\nthe afternoon, when he left his store for the boat, religious theories\nabsented themselves entirely from Deacon Bates's mind.\n\nThe last meeting of the class was still the most popular subject of\nconversation among the members, however, and interest of such a degree\ncould not help be contagious. Other residents of Valley Rest,\noverhearing some of the chats between the members, expressed a desire to\nlisten to the discussions of the class, and to all was extended a hearty\nwelcome, without regard to race, color, or previous condition of\nreligious servitude, and all were invited to be doers as well as\nhearers. So at the next session appeared ex-Judge Cottaway, who had\nwritten a book and was a vestryman of St. Amos Parish, Broker Whilcher,\nwho worshipped with the Unitarians but found them rather narrow, and\nBroker Whilcher's bookkeeper, who read Herbert Spencer, and could not\ntell what he himself believed, even if to escape the penalty of death.\nVarious motives brought men from other churches, including even one from\nFather McGarry's flock, and all of them were assured that they might say\nwhatever they chose, provided only that they believed it.\n\n\"Shall we continue our consideration of last Sunday's lesson?\" asked\nDeacon Bates, after the opening prayer had been offered. \"We have some\nnew members, and should therefore have some additional views to\nconsider.\"\n\n\"Let's hear everybody,\" said Captain Maile. \"If we talk as long about\nthis verse as we'll _have_ to talk before we reach any agreement, we'll\nall die before we can reach the square up-and-down verses that are\nfurther along in this same sermon.\"\n\n\"If the class has no objection to offer, we will continue our study of\nthe third verse of the fifth chapter of Matthew, and those who spoke on\nlast Sunday will allow the newer members and others an opportunity to\nmake their views known.\" As Deacon Bates spoke, his eye rested warningly\non Mr. Jodderel.\n\n\"I think,\" said Mr. Jodderel, \"that the new members ought to know what\nideas have already been presented, so as to throw any new light upon\nthem, if they can. The nature of the kingdom of heaven, now, is the most\nimportant question suggested by the lesson, and----\"\n\n\"It won't be of the slightest consequence to anyone,\" interrupted\nPrincipal Alleman, \"unless they first comply with the condition which\nthe verse imposes upon those who want to reach the kingdom.\"\n\n\"I wouldn't be too sure of that,\" remarked President Lottson, \"while\nJesus said that the poor in spirit should have the kingdom of heaven, He\ndidn't say that no one else should share it with them. What is written\ndoesn't always express all that is meant.\"\n\n\"It doesn't in insurance policies, anyhow,\" said Squire Woodhouse, \"when\nmy barn burned----\"\n\n\"Time is precious, my brethren,\" said Deacon Bates hastily, scenting a\npersonality, \"I will therefore ask Judge Cottaway for his opinion of the\npassage.\"\n\n\"I think,\" said the Judge, with that impressive cough which is the\nrightful indulgence of a man who has written a volume on the rules of\nevidence, \"that 'poor in spirit' undoubtedly means unassuming, rightly\nsatisfied with what is their due, mindful of the fact that human nature\nis so imperfect that whatever a man obtains is probably more than he\ndeserves. They can not be the meek, for special allusion is made to the\nmeek in this same group of specially designated persons. Neither can it\nrefer to people who are usually called poor-spirited persons, to wit,\nthose who are too devoid of what is commonly designated as spirit, for\nthese are properly classified as peace-makers, and have a similar though\nnot identical blessing promised to them.\"\n\n\"The class owes its thanks to the Judge for his clear definition of the\nterm 'poor in spirit,\" said Mr. Jodderel, \"and if he can be equally\ndistinct upon the expression 'kingdom of heaven' he will put an end to a\ngreat deal of senseless blundering.\"\n\n\"I know of but one definition,\" said the Judge, \"heaven is the abode of\nGod and the angels, and of those who are finally saved.\"\n\n\"Ah, but _where_ is it? _that's_ the question this class wants\nanswered,\" said Mr. Jodderel, twisting his body and craning his head\nforward as he awaited the answer.\n\n\"Really,\" said the Judge, \"you must excuse me. I don't know where it is,\nand I can't see that study as to its locality can throw any light upon\nthe lesson.\"\n\nThis opinion, delivered by an ex-Judge, who had written a book on rules\nof evidence, would have quieted almost anyone else, and the members'\nfaces expressed a sense of relief as they thought that Mr. Jodderel also\nwould be quieted. But Mr. Jodderel was not one of the faint-hearted, and\nin his opinion faint-heartedness and quietness were one and the same\nthing.\n\n\"No light upon the lesson?\" echoed Mr. Jodderel. \"Why, what is the Bible\nfor, if not to inform us of our destiny? What is this world but a place\nof preparation for another? And how can we prepare ourselves unless we\nknow what our future place and duty is to be?\"\n\n\"Next!\" exclaimed Deacon Bates with more than his usual energy, and Mr.\nJodderel sank back into his chair and talked angrily with every feature\nbut his mouth, and with his whole body besides. \"Mr. Whilcher has some\nnew ideas to present, no doubt,\" continued the leader, bracing himself\nsomewhat firmly in his chair, for the Deacon naturally expected an\nassault from a man of Mr. Whilcher's peculiar views.\n\n\"Poverty of spirit seems to me to be old English for modesty,\" said Mr.\nWhilcher, \"We know very little, comparatively, of the great designs of\nGod, and about as little of the intentions of our fellow-men, so we\nshould be very careful how we question our maker or criticise our\nneighbors. No human being would appreciate divine perfection if he saw\nit; no man can give his fellow-men full credit for what they _would_ do,\nif they were angels, and are sorry because they can't do. I think the\npassage means that only by that modesty, that self-repression, by which\nalone a man can accept the inevitable as decreed by God, and forbear\nthat fault-finding which comes fully as easy as breathing, can a man be\nfitted for the companionship of the loving company which awaits us all\nin the next world.\"\n\n\"Whereabouts?\" asked Mr. Jodderel.\n\nHalf-a-dozen members filibustered at once, and Mr. Jodderel was\ntemporarily suppressed, after which Squire Woodhouse remarked:\n\n\"Well, now, that sounds first rate--I never knew before that Unitarians\nhad such good religion in them--no harm meant, you know, Whilcher.\"\n\n\"Now let us hear from Mr. Bungfloat,\" said Deacon Bates.\n\nMr. Bungfloat, bookkeeper to Mr. Whilcher, hopelessly explored his\nmemory for something from Herbert Spencer that would bear upon the\nsubject, but finding nothing at hand, he quoted some expressions from\nJohn Stuart Mills' essay on \"Nature,\" and was hopelessly demoralized\nwhen he realized that they did not bear in the remotest manner upon the\ntopic under consideration. Then Deacon Bates announced that the subject\nwas open for general remark and comment. Mr. Jodderel was upon his feet\nin an instant, though the class has no rule compelling the members to\nrise while speaking.\n\n\"Mr. Leader,\" said he, \"everybody has spoken, but nobody has settled\nthe main question, which is, where is the 'kingdom of heaven?' Everybody\nknows who the poor in spirit are; any one who didn't know when we began\nhas now a lot of first class opinions to choose from. But where and what\nis heaven--_that_ is what we want to know.\"\n\nA subdued but general groan indicated the possibility that Mr. Jodderel\nwas mistaken as to the desires of the class. Meanwhile, young Mr. Banty,\nwho had been to Europe, and listened to much theological debate in caf\u00e9s\nand beer-gardens, remarked.\n\n\"I'm not a member of this respected body, but I seem to be included in\nthe chairman's invitation. I profess to be a man of the world--I've been\naround a good deal--and I never could see that the poor in spirit\namounted to a row of pins. If they're fit for heaven they ought to be\nfit for something on this side of that undiscovered locality.\"\n\n\"Discovered millions upon millions of times, bless the Lord,\"\ninterrupted Squire Woodhouse.\n\n\"Well, the discoverers sent no word back, at any rate,\" said young Mr.\nBanty, \"so there's one view which I think ought to be considered; isn't\nit possible that Jesus was mistaken?\"\n\nMr. Prymm turned pale and Deacon Bates shivered violently, while a low\nhum and a general shaking of heads showed the unpopularity of young Mr.\nBanty's idea.\n\n\"The class cannot entertain such a theory for an instant,\" answered\nDeacon Bates, as soon as he could recover his breath, \"though it\nencourages the freest expression of opinion.\"\n\n\"Oh!\" remarked Mr. Banty, with a derisive smile. The tone in which this\ninterjection was delivered put the class upon its spirit at once.\n\n\"Our leader means exactly what he says,\" said Mr. Jodderel; \"any honest\nexpression of opinion is welcome here.\"\n\n\"If such were not the case,\" said Mr. Prymm, \"a rival class would not\nhave been formed.\"\n\n\"And none of us would have learned how many sides there are to a great\nquestion,\" said Mr. Buffle.\n\n\"Larger liberty wouldn't be possible,\" said Builder Stott. \"Why, I've\njust had to shudder once in awhile, but the speakers meant what they\nsaid, and I rejoiced that there was somewhere where they could say it.\"\n\n\"I've said everything _I've_ wanted to,\" remarked Squire Woodhouse.\n\n\"That's so,\" exclaimed insurance President Lottson.\n\n\"I havn't seen any man put down,\" testified Captain Maile, \"and I don't\nyet understand what to make of it.\"\n\n\"Nobody could ask a fairer show,\" declared Mr. Radley.\n\n\"The utmost courtesy has been displayed toward me,\" said Dr.\nFahrenglotz, \"although I am conscious my views are somewhat at variance\nwith those of others.\"\n\n\"The nature of proof has not been as clearly understood as it should\nhave been,\" said young Lawyer Scott; \"but no one has lacked opportunity\nto express his sentiments.\"\n\n\"So far from fault being found with the freedom of speech,\" said Mr.\nAlleman, \"the sentiment of the class is, I think, that the expression of\nadditional individual impressions would have been cordially welcomed, as\nthey will also hereafter be.\"\n\nYoung Mr. Banty felt himself to be utterly annihilated, and the pillars\nof the class looked more stable and enduring than ever, and felt greatly\nrelieved when the session ended, and they could congratulate each other\non the glorious spirit of liberty which had marked their collective\ndeliberations. And when Squire Woodhouse dashed impetuously from the\nroom, and returned to report that Dr. Humbletop's class consisted of\none solitary pupil, several of the members unconsciously indulged in\nsome hearty hand-shaking.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nA SOLEMN HOUR COMPLETELY SPOILED.\n\n\nThe Scripture Club of Valley Rest, on the fourth day of its assembling,\nfound itself a fixed and famous institution. Some of the members had at\nfirst regretted that no one of the smaller rooms in the church edifice\nwas unoccupied at the hour of session; but this regret was soon\nabandoned, for the reason that neither the pastors study nor the regular\nBible class-room, had either been available at the noon-day hour, would\nhave been large enough to accommodate the class and its visitors. The\nmain audience-room was the only one which was adequate to the\nrequirements of the class. When the benediction was pronounced after the\nmorning sermon, a large portion of the congregation remained, and,\ninstead of chatting leisurely with the occupants of neighboring pews\nand preventing the exit of unsociable people, they hurried to the seats\nnearest the corner occupied by the class. Even then, those who came last\nwere occasionally compelled to exclaim \"Louder!\" for the attendants of\nthe Second Church did not compose the entire body of hearers. Members of\nthe five other churches in the town, though loath to depart from their\ndenominational associations and pride so far as to worship elsewhere,\nwere not only without scruples against listening to an informal body\nlike the Scripture Club, but hurried from their own places of worship to\nthe Second Church, and some of them were suspected even of staying away\nfrom their own services in order to reach the Scripture Club in time to\nsecure good seats.\n\nThe effect of all this upon the Club was stimulating in high degree. Its\nfirst effect was to decrease whatever tendency to personality existed;\nwhatever might be the week-day opinions of the members about each\nother, on Sunday every one tacitly agreed to the application of the\nSatanic rule that religion is religion, and business is business. Some\nspecial effort was necessary to bring Squire Woodhouse to forget, for an\nhour in the week, his burned barn and the action of President Lottson's\ninsurance company; but finally the Squire's pride closed his lips upon\nthis tender subject. Members, who before had possessed no religious\nideas excepting those they had adopted at second-hand, now began to\nthink for themselves, and being men of natural wits well sharpened by\nbusiness experience, they speedily developed theories of their own, and\nstrengthened their own pet positions. The few religious books of\nreference in the village library--many of them having once been gladly\ngiven to the library by the very men who now sought them--were in demand\nat early morn and dewy eve, pastors' libraries were ransacked, and some\nmembers even consulted booksellers, and purchased works bearing upon\ntheir own special lines of thought and belief. Respect for the ideas of\nothers did not necessarily imply assent, so discussion was frequent and\nanimated. Champions of the faith--as delivered unto themselves--were\nnumerous, and assailants of the truth as held by the orthodox were in\nsufficient numbers to keep their antagonists from lapsing into a\ncondition of mere assertion. And over and around everything, like a\nglorious halo, was the assurance, always prominent, that free speech\nwould not only be welcomed, but that the lack of it, from any motive of\nfear or conservatism, would greatly be regretted by every member.\n\nThe discussion of the first beatitude consumed the time of four entire\nsessions, and during all these days it was in vain that Mr. Hopper\ncarried the review containing the paper on \"The True Location of the\nHoly Sepulchre.\" When, on the fifth day, Deacon Bates asked whether any\nother members had anything to say on the subject under consideration,\nCaptain Maile made answer:\n\n\"Call it a drawn fight, and give it up at that; if any man here _had_\nbeen whipped, he wouldn't know it.\"\n\n\"Oh, come, come!\" said Squire Woodhouse, \"I'll join issue with you on\nthat. _I_ want to know what 'poor in spirit' means, and have a share in\nthe kingdom of heaven----\"\n\n\"But you don't want to know where or what the kingdom is,\" interrupted\nMr. Jodderel.\n\n\"Yes, I do; but I want first to know what poor in spirit means. I feel\npretty sure about it now, but----\"\n\n\"That's it, exactly,\" said Captain Maile. \"But--but you don't want to be\nanything that interferes with business. Give us something easier, Mr.\nLeader.\"\n\nThere were some indignant whispers of dissent, but none of them were\naudible enough to attract the attention of the class, and Deacon Bates\nread the next verse.\n\n\"Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted,\" read Deacon\nBates. \"Brother Prymm, will you open the discussion of this beatitude?\"\n\n\"There is none other more precious to the earthly nature,\" said Mr.\nPrymm, \"and yet the passage proves the comprehensiveness peculiar to\ninspired words. Sin and perplexity are the lot of all mortals, and they\nbring trouble with them; but the single sorrow which raises man up to\nGod, and brings God down to man, is mourning. It may be done from sinful\ncauses--upon earth--but whatever the cause, the act itself shows us how\nnear God is to us, and what are his sentiments usward. He knows from the\ngreatness and purity of his own nature how intense this sentiment may\nbe, and his sympathy shows itself so tenderly in no other way as by this\npromise, that he will come to his children and comfort them when they\nare in sorrow. What an evidence of the need of a God does this promise\nafford! Where else can we turn for true comfort when in trouble?\nEarthly friends lack that knowledge of us from which alone true sympathy\ncan come; the pleasure of the flesh can give us nothing better than\ntemporary forgetfulness; but the divine sympathy is perfect in its\nknowledge, timely and appropriate in its expression, and incalculable in\nits force and endurance.\"\n\n\"I am glad to offer my weak testimony in support of the remarks of\nBrother Prymm,\" said Builder Stott, who came next in the order of\nrotation. \"I have had my sad experiences in this world,--all of you have\nhad yours, I suppose,--but it seems to me that mine have been peculiar.\nI've trusted men and been swindled by them. I've been abused for things\nthat I never thought of doing. I've lost dear ones that left places that\nhave never been filled and never can be, and I have found no one whose\nwords could be more than a mockery--one that wasn't intended, of course,\nbut that hurt just as badly as if it had. It has been only when on my\nknees, or praying silently as I walked the street, that I found a\nsympathizing friend. There can be no doubt in _me_ about what that\npassage means--I know all about it by blessed experience.\"\n\n\"So do I,\" said Mr. Buffle. \"I've been what men call fortunate in this\nworld's affairs, but if any one here thinks that money can buy exemption\nfrom misery, I want to tell him that he's greatly mistaken. I lost a\nchild two or three years ago--some of you remember her; I'd have changed\nplaces with the cheapest workman in my shipyard--yes, the most miserable\nbeggar in the street--if by doing so I could have brought her back\nagain. But money couldn't do it, and, as our friend Stott has just\nremarked, the best of earthly friends couldn't take the sting away. I\ncan't say that God's comfort came just when I most wanted it, but God is\ngood and wise; he sent it when he thought best, and it was full of\nblessing when it came. It doesn't heal wounds to be comforted by\nHeaven--the wounds remain as tender as ever; but the pain and the\nfeeling of hopelessness depart, and a man is made to feel like the\nwounded soldier, or the wrecked, starved sailor when help comes--he\n_knows_ he has a friend to lean upon.\"\n\nMr. Buffle felt for his handkerchief and applied it to his eyes; an\noperation which, in spite of his great-heartedness, he seldom had\noccasion to perform in public: meanwhile Broker Whilcher said:\n\n\"I don't agree with every one here, as most of you know; but the\nbeautiful promise which forms the subject of our lesson to-day has been\nfulfilled to me. I can't explain how, but I profess to be too much of a\nman to deny what I learn by experience, even when I can't ascertain who\nmy teacher is. My own great ups and downs of life have been principally\nsocial, and, as has been remarked by others, they are the hardest of any\nto bear. And somehow--I wish I _could_ learn how--I have been helped,\nsoothed, sustained, whenever I could abandon myself to the influence of\nwhatever higher power it is that looks to the hearts of men and sees\nthat they are not entirely crushed.\"\n\n\"The older a man grows in years and experience,\" said Judge Cottaway,\nwithout his official cough, \"the greater his experience of sorrow. The\nexercise of wisdom may prevent some troubles that carelessness and\nignorance may induce, but even then there is more of misery in life than\nany human influences can avert. I believe, after much deliberation upon\nthe evidence adduced from the affairs of men, that the Comforter is also\nthe one who afflicts in many cases; but so certain am I of his wisdom\nand goodness that I would never avert his chastening hand. The cry of\nChrist in the garden, 'O, my Father, if it be possible, let this cup\npass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt,' should be\nthe sentiment of every one that is in affliction. That more bitter cry\nthat was sounded from the Cross may also be, without sin, re-echoed by\nthe human soul in trouble; but every one learns, by blessed experience,\nthat the soul is never forsaken, and that our sorrows are known to\nHeaven better than they are to ourselves.\"\n\nMr. Jodderel sat next, and Squire Woodhouse whispered to his nearest\nneighbor:\n\n\"Too bad; he'll bring in the kingdom of heaven and pit it against the\nRing.\" But to the astonishment of every one, Mr. Jodderel said only:\n\n\"No one knows more of this blessed Comforter than I. My childish days\nwere heavily clouded; I was abused in youth; I am misunderstood now; I\nhave lost dear ones; a long procession has preceded me to the grave,\neach member of it leaving my heart more lonely than before, and the time\nhas come when I am too old to search for new friends and dear ones. But\nupon my knees, or as I commune with him upon my bed in the night season,\nor when I read his precious promises given by word of mouth or through\nhis holy prophets, I find consolation and hope and cheer, and forget\nthat I am a lonely old man in an unsympathetic world.\"\n\n\"Captain Maile?\" said Leader Bates, and the ex-warrior responded:\n\n\"Everything I have heard this morning agrees with my own experience, and\nno matter what doubters may say and hypocrites may help them to make\npeople believe, I can never forget the special blessings I have received\nin affliction, and when I have least expected them.\"\n\nSquire Woodhouse sat next to Captain Maile, and joined in the general\nacknowledgment by saying:\n\n\"You all know me, my friends; you know I've often had a pretty hard row\nto hoe, for often it's been in a shape that hoeing couldn't help. But\nwhen the worst has come, and I couldn't do anything but stand still and\nendure it; when I couldn't shake it off, or forget it, or improve it\nany way, there came in just when I couldn't expect it, or see how it\ncould happen even with God managing it; when every one I leaned on\nfailed me, and I had to shut myself up in my own miserable heart--then\nthere came a visitor that made himself at home, helped me, changed me,\nmade a new man of me, and showed me that the worst chance of man is the\nbest one for God--blessings on his holy name forever.\"\n\nThen Dr. Fahrenglotz said:\n\n\"For myself, I have no family ties. I never knew my parents, for they\nentered into the unknowable while I was yet a babe; I have had neither\nbrother nor sister, but I have had friends, and they have passed away,\nleaving my heart as empty as if it had never contained any other\ndenizen. I have felt the last pulsation of the heart-dealings of many of\nyou, and have watched you afterward with a solicitude which it might\nhave seemed officious for me to have expressed. And to myself and to\nothers I have known true, mysterious comfort to come, I know not from\nwhere; the great outer, the intangible envelope of the human heart, is\nhidden from my sight and thought; but from it I know there comes a\nsubtle mystery whose influence transcends that of mortals, and which\ninfluence is tender, soothing, and lasting--an influence which I cannot\ncharacterize more aptly than to say that it must come from some one or\nsome principle of nature akin to that of Him whom most religious bodies\ndenominate The Great Physician.\"\n\n\"Excuse me, gentlemen,\" said young Mr. Banty, who had come in late, and\nhad, sorely against his will, been compelled to occupy a seat among\nthose whom he called \"the Saints;\" \"Excuse me; I didn't come in to say\nanything to-day, but, things going as they are, I can't be quiet. I went\nabroad a year ago; most of you know why. There was a lady in the\nquestion. She died; I suppose it was best for her, for I didn't, in the\nslightest degree, begin to be fit for her, but her death didn't hurt me\nany the less. I haven't, since then, been as good a man as I should have\nbeen. I don't mind saying that the ways in which I've tried to forget my\ntrouble haven't been such as have done me any good. But as everybody\nelse has opened his heart to-day, I wouldn't be a bit of a man if I kept\nmine shut. I want to say that when I have a quiet hour, and get to\nthinking about that girl, there's something happens that I don't\nunderstand, but I'm very thankful for. I got to be a great deal less\ndespairing, though, at the same time, I think a great deal more tenderly\nabout _her_. I lose my ugliness at losing her; I see how much better it\nwas for _her_; I see how things had better go as they should than as _I_\nwant them, and I come out of that time less willing to go on a spree,\nless anxious to see the boys, and more anxious to go on thinking than to\ndo anything else.\"\n\nThe order of rotation demanded that the next speaker should be Mr.\nAlleman, and that gentleman remarked:\n\n\"I am heartily glad to see that there is one ground upon which all of us\ncan meet. Those of you who know me know what frequent occasion I have\nhad to learn all that you have learned of the unspeakable power of a\ncomforting God. I have instinctively passed the greater portion of my\nlife in my affections, for I know of no other sentiment which is so\nall-comprehensive; and through these I have found daily new causes for\nmourning. We are informed by Jesus that the greatest of all commandments\nis that enjoining love toward God, and that the second is like unto it,\n'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.' To try to fulfill this\ncommand is to have constant incentives to mournfulness. Every day I have\nthem, from some cause heretofore unexpected, and the causes involve so\nmany other people in troubles, which might be avoided, and for which I\ncan blame only myself, that but for the presence of the Comforter I\nwould be driven to despair or madness. What a tremendous responsibility\nrests upon us, my friends, in this our greatest relation to humanity,\nand how impossible it would be to endure it unless aided by a power\ngreater than our own. I cannot, by any words, express my satisfaction at\nhearing so many men, and, in other religious matters, men of such\ndiffering views, testify to the unfailing promptness of the Great\nSympathizer. And I should be glad to hear a wider expression of\nexperiences, and assure myself that, in troubles outside the range\npurely personal, my fellow-beings enjoy the comfort that I do. I am\nconfident that the recital of such experiences would strengthen every\none for greater works of humanity and love.\"\n\nThere was a dead silence for several minutes, and the leader finally\nrelieved the uncomfortable sensation of the members by asking:\n\n\"Has any one any other remarks to offer?\"\n\nNo one responded.\n\n\"The next lesson, which we will hardly have time to begin to-day, will\nbe upon the third beatitude,\" said Deacon Bates. \"The class may consider\nitself dismissed, I suppose.\"\n\n\"Now, _wasn't_ that just like Alleman?\" asked Squire Woodhouse of\nCaptain Maile. \"We were having the most heavenly time I ever did know\ninside of a church, and he utterly ruined it.\"\n\n\"The rest of you didn't act a bit as if you'd ruined yourselves, did\nyou?\" asked the Captain, in reply.\n\n\"Why, how?\" asked the Squire.\n\n\"Eyes have they, but they see not,\" answered the Captain, starting\nabruptly for his carriage.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nFAMILIAR SOUNDS.\n\n\nThe members of the club spent a whole week in trying to recover from the\nbad effects of Mr. Alleman's peculiar and untimely harangue, and even\nthen they did not succeed.\n\n\"We were getting into such an unusual, such a heavenly state of mind,\"\nexplained Mr. Hopper, \"and the Lord knows that heavenly states of mind\nare scarce enough anywhere under the best of circumstances. We were\nforgetting all the tricks, the games that had been come upon us in the\ndiscussion of other points on which the brethren had made up their\nminds, and picked out their trees to hide behind; and we were having\njust the happy, quiet, sympathetic time which a man knows how to\nappreciate when he's knocked about the world for a little while, when\nall of a sudden Alleman must come in, and spring some of his peculiar\nnotions upon us. I don't see why the Lord lets such men torment the\nworld about religious affairs. They're good enough in every other way.\"\n\nOther members of the class wondered also; and when, on the following\nSunday, Deacon Bates asked if any one else had any remarks to make on\nthe late lesson, nobody answered. So the leader read:\n\n\"'Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.' Judge\nCottaway\"--the Deacon had skillfully inveigled the Judge into a front\nseat before the discussion began, so as to have a strong and respectable\nopening--\"we would be glad to learn your views of this passage.\"\n\n\"I take it to mean,\" answered the Judge, \"that meekness is a virtue so\nhighly esteemed by the Almighty, that he offers, as an incentive to its\ncultivation, the most highly valued of earthly inducements. Meekness\nseems to be the antithesis, the exact opposite of strife, and so much\nof strife is so causeless and harmful, yet so attractive to the ordinary\nmind, that those who indulge in it are by this passage warned by\nimplication. Meekness is not a virtue of such greatness as poverty of\nspirit, as may be inferred from the smaller reward promised to those who\npractice it, and----\"\n\n\"I want to correct the gentleman right there,\" exclaimed Mr. Jodderel.\n\"What earth are they to inherit? _This_ earth? Why, everybody laughs at\nthat notion. A man's got to fight awfully hard to get anything in this\nworld, and harder yet to keep whatever he gets. The path of meekness\nleads but to the poor-house. The earth alluded to evidently means the\nnew earth, which, in the Revelation, John beheld, in connection with the\nnew heaven. That new earth appeared after the destruction of the old\none; and for what could it have appeared but to be populated by the\nredeemed spirits from this? _That_ was the kingdom of heaven, and the\ntext before us evidently refers to it. 'The meek shall inherit the\nearth;' the apostles, to whom this passage was spoken, needed no more\ndefinite expression about the matter, of which the Master doubtless had\nspoken many times with them. The whole passage seems to me an exact\nrepetition of the one before it, just to give emphasis to the first.\"\n\n\"I wonder if that's exactly straight?\" remarked Squire Woodhouse, more\nwith the air of a man in a soliloquy than one asking a question. \"If\nthere _is_ a way of inheriting the earth, or even a little piece of it,\nI'd like to know all about it; but if its only the next world that the\npassage refers to----\"\n\n\"If it refers only to the next world, you're not in such a hurry to\nunderstand it,\" interrupted Captain Maile.\n\n\"We--ell,\" drawled the Squire, \"that isn't exactly the way I was going\nto finish off, but I guess it's pretty near the truth. It _don't_ sound\nwell either, does it?\"\n\n\"Brother Prymm?\" said Deacon Bates, and the champion of orthodoxy\nresponded to the invitation by saying,\n\n\"The meek are undoubtedly those who follow the non-resistant injunctions\nwhich are found everywhere in the New Testament; they are the men who\nwhen one cheek is struck turn the other also, who render not railing for\nrailing.\"\n\n\"And who, when the coat is taken, will offer the cloak also,\" added\nCaptain Maile.\n\n\"Certainly,\" said Mr. Prymm, with rather a wry face, \"though I cannot,\nwith any present light, see how the latter course would be practical and\njudicious. The other injunctions are but amplifications of the inspired\nsaying, 'A soft answer turneth away wrath,' but how property rights can\nbe maintained at all, if the injunction quoted by Captain Maile were\nfollowed, I am unable to see.\"\n\n\"It wouldn't work in the steamboat business,\" declared Mr. Buffle. \"It's\nhard enough to get the worth of your money, even when men promise to\npay; but if a man were to understand that by stealing one of my\ntug-boats he would have a right to expect a first-class lake packet as a\npresent, I'd have to go out of business within a fortnight.\"\n\n\"I'm inclined to think the passage in question must be an interpolation\nby one of Christ's reporters,\" said President Lottson, who had been\ntaking a cautious course of Matthew Arnold.\n\n\"Why, if _I_ were to live up to that injunction,\" said Builder Stott,\n\"folks would want to modify their house plans every day. In fact they do\nit now. The moment I try to oblige a man by giving a little more than\nhis contract calls for, he wants something else. Women in particular are\nperfectly awful that way; they----\"\n\n\"Ladies are present,\" remarked Lawyer Scott, who was considerable of a\nladies' man.\n\n\"Just think of a broker trying to do business in that way!\" exclaimed\nBroker Whilcher.\n\n\"Or a man whose principal crop is hay,\" said Squire Woodhouse.\n\n\"Or an importer of English cutlery,\" suggested Mr. Jodderel. \"Still, the\npassage ought either to be explained away or lived up to, for if going\ncontrary to business rules is necessary to inherit the new earth--it's\ncontrary to sense that _this_ earth can be got hold of by any such\nunbusiness-like operation--the new earth, otherwise the kingdom of\nheaven----\"\n\n\"Members will please bear in mind the rule that remarks are to be made\nin regular order,\" interposed the leader hastily. \"We will hear from\nBrother Hopper.\"\n\n\"I suppose meekness means patience,\" said the gentleman addressed,\nnervously clutching his coat-tail pocket with its precious contents;\n\"not getting into a stew about everything, in fact; but how a man is to\nbe so, when everything goes on the way it shouldn't, is more than _I_\ncan tell, and how they're going to get the earth for their pains is a\nbigger puzzle yet.\"\n\nMr. Lottson being called upon, said:\n\n\"I can only repeat about this passage my remarks upon the one which\npreceded it. It means exactly what it says, but it means it only in a\nspiritual sense, and only to those to whom it was said--to the disciples\nof Christ, and those whose conditions of life are equally admirable and\npeculiar. The disciples were meek--all but Peter, that is--and _he_\nstopped being a man of the world after he learned that he couldn't be\nthat and a consistent disciple too. And look at the result! Haven't the\ndisciples of Christ inherited the earth? Hasn't the blood of the martyrs\nbeen the seed of the Church? Hasn't the non-resistent, patient,\nself-sacrificing course of Christian missionaries led to the conversion\nof powerful heathen nations, opened avenues of trade between them and\nChristian countries----\"\n\n\"Which have straightway been traveled over by men who rob the heathen,\npoison them with rum, and kill them off with the popular vices of\ncivilization,\" interrupted Captain Maile.\n\n\"Opened avenues of trade between them and Christian countries,\" resumed\nPresident Lottson, as if no interruption had occurred, \"created a demand\nfor the Bible and the school, discouraged war, extended the area of\nproduction, established representative governments in the place of\nirresponsible despotisms, brought from foreign lands, to study our\ninstitutions, men whose fathers and grandfathers were brutal savages,\nand hastened the coming of the day when at the name of Jesus every knee\nshall bend and every tongue confess him Lord? Business alone could never\nhave done this; it required a special development of mind, and to those\nwhom he had created for this purpose Jesus enounced this promise, which\nwas the only one that in the nature of things could be made to them\nabout earthly interests.\"\n\n\"I declare!\" whispered Squire Woodhouse to Mr. Buffle, \"Lottson did that\nsplendidly. If it wasn't for the way he treated me about that barn I\nshould say that Lottson ought to have gone into the ministry.\" At the\nsame moment Deacon Bates called Mr. Prymm to the chair, took the floor\nhimself, and said:\n\n\"There was a remark dropped by Mr. Lottson, and followed up in his\nexcellent speech, which I am certain conceals a truth which is not\nclearly enough realized. If it was, a number of puzzling questions that\nhave been before the class could have easily been answered. He said the\npassage should be taken in a spiritual sense. It certainly should. God\nis a Spirit; our own spirits are our only immortal parts; everything\nelse in us and everything around us is transient and perishable. The\nmeek should be meek in a spiritual way; they should not be puffed up\nwith knowledge, or what they think to be such, but should in humility\nopen their hearts to the influences of the Holy Spirit. Business has\nnothing to do with our eternal welfare; it is only one of the necessary\nbut transient affairs of our perishable, material bodies; but the things\nunseen are eternal. If we would constantly keep this fact in our minds\nI am sure many of our present difficulties in studying the Scriptures\nwould disappear. This earth is not our abiding place; our time here is\nbut short; 'A thousand years are but as a day in His sight;' heaven is\nour final and eternal home, and it was to instruct us how to prepare our\nsouls for the future state of existence that the prophets spoke and\nJesus came to earth.\"\n\n\"According to that, it don't matter how we do business,\" said Squire\nWoodhouse; \"every man can be just as sharp and underhanded as he\npleases. Well, it's a comfortable belief, but I think you're mistaken,\nDeacon, about its being lost sight of; I think pretty much everybody\nlives up to it, as far as business goes.\"\n\n\"Dr. Fahrenglotz,\" remarked the leader, in evident confusion at the\nmoral deduced from his theory.\n\n\"Although not attaching to the words that degree of authority that some\ndo,\" said the Doctor, \"their unselfish tendency and their moral beauty\nconvince me that they have an important meaning. That they can apply to\nthe common affairs of life I cannot believe, for the theory is contrary\nto reason and experience. They probably refer to some coming state of\nsociety when the application of true reason shall have raised men above\ntheir present physical and moral level, and enabled them to translate\nthe mystic sayings of the worlds great seers.\"\n\n\"Then the passage doesn't command anything that's really essential to\nsalvation?\" asked young Mr. Waggett.\n\n\"Oh, no, certainly not,\" said Captain Maile. \"Nothing does, or if it\ndoes, our business is to get around it somehow, and look at some other\nside of it.\"\n\nThe leader called upon Mr. Alleman, who said:\n\n\"The simple fact that this saying was given is sufficient excuse and\ncommand to follow it, no matter what it brings us or takes from us. As,\nhowever, the material bearing of the passage has attracted more\nattention to-day than the manifest desire of Christ, I wish to recall to\nnotice the peculiar wording. Jesus does not say that the meek shall earn\nor acquire the earth, but that they shall inherit it. An inheritance is\nsomething that the child obtains from the parent through love and\naffection. The passage means: 'Be meek, not given to strife, not\nstirring up wrath, attending to your own affairs, not assuming to be\nbetter or more deserving than others;' and God, who owns the earth and\nall that is in it, who makes man his steward, who pulleth down one and\nsetteth up another, who knows the uses of property better than we do,\nand who sooner or later puts it into proper hands, will _give_ you the\nearth. Be meek, and trust to God for appreciation, even upon earth.\"\n\n\"One o'clock,\" observed President Lottson, and the session closed.\n\n\"Now _wasn't_ that just like Alleman?\" asked Squire Woodhouse of Mr.\nJodderel. \"Beautiful idea--perfectly heavenly; but nothing in it that a\nman can take hold of without running the risk of losing some of his\nproperty. He'd better not talk that way before the city booksellers, if\nhe don't want to have to pay cash for every bill of books he buys.\"\n\nAnd Captain Maile walked out singing to himself, but in a tone loud\nenough to be offensive, the old song beginning,\n\n\n     \"Whip the devil around the stump.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nBUILDER STOTT SAVES THE FAITH.\n\n\nThe Scripture Club proceeded promptly to work on the ensuing Sunday. Too\nmany men had brought to the previous meeting ideas which they could not\nfind time to express; so on the second Sunday in which the nature and\nreward of the meek were considered, the members who had not expressed\ntheir views, with several who had, made haste to occupy front seats, so\nas to be sure of opportunities to speak.\n\nAmong these was Squire Woodhouse. He had several times ruined the\nregularity of the proceedings of other meetings, but still he was\nunsatisfied. He had not expressed his own views in full, partly because\nhe had not been asked to do so, but principally because he had had no\nsettled views to express. Now, however, the case was different. He had\nleisurely pondered over everything that he had heard in the class, he\nhad admired each original idea with the true American heartiness toward\nnew notions, he had endeavored to reconcile them with his unformulated\nbut still very positive preconceived religious opinions, and his honesty\nhad finally triumphed over his theology and his sophistry. When he came\nto church, therefore, he neglected his own pew and took the front seat\nand the extreme right end thereof, so when Deacon Bates opened the\nexercises of the class immediately after service, it was impossible not\nto call upon Squire Woodhouse first of all. The Squire cleared his\nthroat, waved his head about in a dissatisfied manner, and finally said:\n\n\"This thing of being meek grows pretty big when you think about it for a\nlittle while, and the worst of it is that everything else in the chapter\nis only a chip out of the same block. All of it--being meek and\neverything else--seems to come in the end to just this: you mustn't be\nlike folks in general, particularly like business men. I confess that I\ndon't know exactly how to do it all, but it seems to me it must be done\nby any one who believes that Jesus Christ had the right to say all that\nhe did. I _don't_ know how to be meek about the way I was\nswindled--treated, I mean--by the insurance companies when my barn\nburned down----\"\n\n\"Personal!\" whispered Mr. Prymm.\n\n\"I don't care if it _is_ personal,\" said Squire Woodhouse. \"I'm trying\nto point a moral, and it isn't my fault if other folks get in the way\nand get hurt. I don't know how to be meek when I'm abused, but----\"\n\n\"It isn't required of you,\" said Mr. Jodderel. \"You're expected to take\ncare of what has been intrusted to you in your capacity as a steward of\nthe Lord.\"\n\nMany were the affirmative shakes of head which followed this remark.\n\n\"I suppose I am,\" said the Squire, \"and so long as I am a human being I\nwon't be likely to forget it; but whether when I get mad over being\nswindled the anger all comes from my feeling of being deprived of the\nLord's property, I'm not so sure: I've a suspicion that more of it comes\nfrom the heart of Squire Woodhouse than from the kingdom of heaven.\"\n\n\"Not a bit of it,\" said Mr. Hopper, finding at last a subject upon which\nhe could speak from the abundance of his heart. \"Aren't you working for\nthe good of your family, and don't St. Paul say that the man who don't\nlook out for his family is worse than an infidel?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" said the Squire meditatively; \"but he don't tell you to boil over\nwhen there's nothing to be gained by it, and when getting mad makes you\nuninteresting to everybody, not excepting yourself. He doesn't tell you\nto let your suspicions manage your wits, and determine what sort of a\nman your neighbor is. The man who gets the best of me in a trade may be\na scoundrel; I've always made it a rule to think so, in fact; but when\nI come to think of it, I remember that I've sometimes made a hard, sharp\ntrade myself without meaning anything wrong.\"\n\n\"You never carried back the unfair gains, though, when you saw what\nyou'd done, did you?\" asked Captain Maile.\n\n\"Well, no; not that I can recollect. I _have_ tried to make it up to the\nman in some way or other, though.\"\n\n\"Taking pains to tell him why you were trying to do it?\" asked the\nCaptain.\n\n\"No--no, I can't say that I did--I don't know that I ever succeeded in\ndoing it, any how,\" said the Squire honestly. \"I'd think it over, off\nand on, and before I'd know it, the whole thing would fall out of my\nmind.\"\n\n\"So all you did was to ease your conscience--sing it to sleep, so to\nspeak,\" continued the Captain. \"You gave him all the good feeling you\ncould, which you couldn't help giving any way, because you're naturally\na good-hearted fellow, and then when you'd comforted yourself your work\nstopped.\"\n\n\"That's about the truth of the matter,\" replied the Squire, \"though I\ndidn't mean to out with it all so plainly before folks.\"\n\n\"Then,\" asked the Captain, \"what's the moral difference between you and\na rascal?\"\n\n\"Sh--h--h--h\" arose in chorus, even President Lottson taking part in the\nremonstrance.\n\n\"There isn't any,\" said the Squire stoutly, \"if everybody's a rascal\nthat's called one. But anybody that has the honest feelings _I_ have,\nand that loves the square thing so much, and likes so much to see it\ndone, _isn't_ a rascal, and as I've had the kind of experiences I've\ntold about, I don't see why other men that have had others like them,\nand that are called ugly names by me as well as everybody else, mayn't\nbe just as right at heart as I am. After this I'm going to believe them\nso, any how.\"\n\nThere was a general nod of assent, and President Lottson arose, went\naround to where the Squire was sitting, and offered his hand to the\nloser of the barn. The Squire took it, rather gingerly at first, but\nfinally gave it a squeeze so hearty that President Lottson winced and\ndrew his hand away.\n\n\"There!\" exclaimed Captain Maile; \"everything is all right now, of\ncourse. Goodness don't consist in doing right, but only in feeling\nright. Not what you do, but what you believe is what saves a man.\"\n\n\"Such is the decree of God and the decision of the Church,\" remarked Mr.\nPrymm.\n\n\"Then what saints the devils must be!\" observed the Captain; \"for _they_\nbelieve, though, to be sure, they tremble.\"\n\nAnother murmur of dissent was heard, and young Mr. Waggett hastened to\nthrow a small quantity of oil on the troubled waters by remarking that\nwhatever was sufficient to salvation was the fulfillment of God's plan\nas revealed in the holy Scriptures.\n\n\"I'm not through yet,\" said the Squire. \"I was coming to that point. Of\ncourse, other men make blunders very much like mine. I ought to be meek\nabout judging them--I ought to forgive them their trespasses as I hope\nto have mine forgiven. But if there's so much excuse to think bad of men\nfor what they do and don't do, we ought to put the cause out of the way,\nas well as to be patient with others as we'd have them patient with us.\nIf I've had reason so many times to think the worst about church\nmembers, I suppose that sinners--sinners outside of the Church--must see\nthem to be just as bad as I do. And if they do, what inducement is there\nfor sinners to come into the Church?\"\n\n\"Salvation!\" promptly answered young Mr. Waggett.\n\n\"That's no moral inducement,\" said the Squire; \"it's a selfish one.\"\n\n\"Oh, oh, oh!\" exclaimed Builder Stott, supported by a sympathetic\nsensation which was manifested by most of the members, while Mr.\nJodderel sprang to his feet and said--shouted, almost:\n\n\"Mr. Chairman, I protest against this drifting away from the subject by\ntalking all sorts of new-fangled notions that----\"\n\n\"Free speech is the rule of this class,\" said Captain Maile. \"_You've_\ngiven us a great deal about the kingdom of heaven that nobody ever heard\nof before, that's as unheard of in the Bible or the Church----\"\n\n\"It _is_ in the Bible,\" said Mr. Jodderel; \"you'll find it in the\nprophets and apostles from beginning to end.\"\n\n\"I would suggest,\" said Mr. Prymm, in the most measured and soothing of\ntones, \"that Brother Woodhouse should remember that we have but a single\nhour in the week to talk upon these subjects, and that however deeply he\nmay be interested in his own peculiar views, it would be well to let all\nwho are present have an opportunity to offer their views.\"\n\n\"Yes, let's get away from morality as soon as we can,\" said Captain\nMaile. \"What's Sunday good for, if you can't in it get away from these\nenraging affairs of the week? Nine-tenths of the moral questions in the\nworld are started by business; and who has any right to drag business\ninto the Lord's house on Sunday, and just after a sermon, too?\"\n\nFaces confused, awry, angry, and merry, showed that the Captain had\naroused a great deal of feeling, which, in sentiment, was not a unit.\nDeacon Bates would have ordered the immediate relief of the class from\nextraneous subjects; but he had, from the beginning of the services,\ngroaned over the fact that next to Squire Woodhouse sat Mr. Jodderel,\nand no one else could be called upon without destroying that rule of\nrotation upon which the leader generally depended for relief. Silently\nresolving to pack the front seats on the succeeding Sunday, he said, in\ntones so subdued as to be almost pathetic:\n\n\"Brother Jodderel.\"\n\nThe members looked resignedly into each other's eyes; Mr. Stott turned\nto the table of Hebrew weights and measures in his Bible, and tried to\nlose himself in them; Broker Whilcher began slyly ciphering on a card,\ndoubtless to solve some problem of the market; Mr. Alleman buried\nhimself in a school report from some other town; Mr. Hopper re-read to\nhimself the paper on \"The True Location of the Holy Sepulchre;\" and Mr.\nBuffle dropped into gentle slumber.\n\n\"I want to say,\" said Mr. Jodderel, \"that you can't rightly know how to\nbe meek until you know what's to be required of you in the earth which\nthe meek are to inherit, and you can't know that without knowing where\nand what that earth is. Now, it _can't_ mean this earth, for if the meek\ninherited it, it would be stolen away from them precious quickly. What\nhappens to a meek man when somebody hits him without knocking the\nmeekness out of him?--he gets hit again. What happens to him if\nsomebody tries to swindle him out of his property, and he don't show\nthat he won't endure imposition?--he'll be cheated out of every cent. So\nthe meekness that _we_ think about is evidently not the thing for the\nearth that's to be inherited, and the question is, what is? And that\nbrings us back to the question, What sort of a land are we going to\ninherit? It----\"\n\n\"If it is to be the abode of the finally saved and redeemed,\" said Mr.\nRadley, \"I really don't see that meekness can be enjoined upon its\ninhabitants, unless we are all mistaken about the nature of the change\nthat will take place after death. Our mental condition will be\ndetermined for us, and we can't do better on this earth than act\naccording to what seems the highest order of goodness. I should really\nlike to ask the gentleman if the next world is all that we are to think\nof while we remain in this one, and whether we are not to guide\nourselves somewhat by the rights of other people as well as by our own\ndesires?\"\n\n\"This earth is not our abiding place,\" quoted Mr. Prymm; \"we have a\nhome not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.\"\n\n\"Certainly,\" said Mr. Jodderel; \"that's correct; it _is_ in the\nheavens--in the sky--the air above us, in which are suspended all the\nplanetary bodies, one of which----\"\n\n\"The gentleman has lost sight of my question,\" said Mr. Radley.\n\n\"So will everybody else,\" remarked Captain Maile. \"If you press that\nquestion, you'll ruin the interest of this meeting. We didn't come here\nto learn what we ought to do; we're here to study out what's to be done\nfor us.\"\n\n\"Not a bit of it,\" said Mr. Buffle, who has slowly awakened from his\nnap. \"_I'm_ not, any way. I'm as fond as any one else of getting\nanything; but I've already been blessed with more than I deserve, and I\nwant to know what God's will concerning me is on earth as well as in\nheaven.\"\n\n\"Always providing it don't cost you anything,\" said Captain Maile.\n\n\"Nonsense,\" replied Mr. Buffle, rather angrily. \"I never refused to\nspend money on any really useful charity.\"\n\nSeveral members softly responded, \"That's true.\"\n\n\"Yes,\" said Captain Maile; \"you occasionally spend a penny out of a\ndollar, so to speak, and you deserve credit for it, for very few other\nmen of means go so far; you're ahead of your day and generation. When I\ncarry around a subscription paper for anything, your name always has a\nhandsome sum after it. But do you really mean that you are going through\nthis Sermon on the Mount--if we live long enough to get through it,\nwhich is very unlikely at the present rate of progress--and practically\nagree to what it says?\"\n\nMr. Buffle was cornered; but blessed be corners! There are no other\npositions in life from which a man can obtain so good a view of\nhimself. Mr. Buffle studied the back of the seat in front of him for a\nfew seconds; looked rather blank, then very modest, then very manly,\nraised his head, and said:\n\n\"Yes, I do.\"\n\n\"Good!\" was the only word Captain Maile uttered, while Mr. Jodderel\nshook his head dismally, and exclaimed:\n\n\"Here we are, away from the subject again, Mr. Leader!\"\n\n\"We can hurry back to it, if the gentleman will answer my question,\"\nobserved Mr. Radley.\n\n\"It's one o'clock,\" remarked Builder Stott.\n\nThe members arose, and most of them departed as soon as possible, while\nPresident Lottson turned to Stott, and said:\n\n\"You did that just in time.\"\n\n\"Well,\" said Stott modestly, \"something had to be done. This old fight\nbetween faith and works has played the mischief wherever it's come up\namong men, and I'm not going to sit still and see it break up an\ninteresting class like this. I've no other chance to study the Bible\nexcept here, and I'm not going to have it ruined by a lot of theorists\ngetting into a row. I'm afraid it's too late, though. Buffle got some\nnew notion into his head when Maile cornered him there; and he never\nlets go of any thought that strikes him as good. The first thing you'll\nhear of will be another subscription list, with his name at the head,\nand he'll go into it with all his might, like he did about the building\nof this church; and everybody will be worried by him, and he'll drag it\nin here, and act as if the Bible wasn't anything but a code of every-day\nmorals.\"\n\n\"And forget all about the gospel-plan of salvation,\" said young Mr.\nWaggett.\n\n\"And the kingdom of heaven,\" suggested Mr. Jodderel.\n\n\"And the atonement, the central truth of the Scriptures,\" remarked Mr.\nPrymm; \"the vicarious efficacy of the atonement.\"\n\n\"And you'll shut your ears and eyes for fear you might be converted and\nhealed,\" said Captain Maile.\n\nAnd the lingerers went straightway every man to his own house.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nFREE SPEECH BECOMES ANNOYING.\n\n\nAs the next meeting of the Scripture Club was about to open, certain\nmembers noticed that Mr. Jodderel had taken a seat which would entitle\nhim to be the first person called upon for an opinion, and that he was\ndivesting his pockets of a large number of books, most of them in faded\nand unconventional bindings. The members glanced at each other in\nterror, and when the opening prayer was concluded, Mr. Radley promptly\nexclaimed:\n\n\"Mr. Leader, the New Testament contains eight thousand verses, lacking\ntwo. With occasional quadrennial exceptions, there are but fifty-two\nSundays in a year. We have already consumed, on an average, two Sundays\nto a verse; at this rate we will need more than three hundred years to\nget through the New Testament. Certain chapters, like the first chapter\nof Matthew and the third chapter of Luke, may form exceptions; but as no\nman here can expect to live through much more than one-tenth of the time\nnecessary to consider all the Gospels and Epistles, and as, even at the\nrate of a verse to a day, we would need to have our lives extended to\nseveral times the average longevity of mortals, I move that no single\nverse of Scripture shall be allowed to monopolize the attention of this\nclass for more than one Sunday.\"\n\n\"I second the motion,\" said Mr. Alleman.\n\n\"Mr. Leader!\" exclaimed Mr. Jodderel, \"I object. We have spent two\nSundays in considering the third beatitude, and we know no more about\nthe whereabouts of the kingdom of heaven than when we began. If the\nproposed resolution takes effect now, and we find each verse of the\nGospel as interesting as those already studied, no one knows how many\nof us may go from our deathbeds to the bar of God without knowing what\nto expect thereafter.\"\n\n\"And as God is only our Father, and the maker of the universe, and as we\nprofess only to believe that he is wiser and more loving than any\nearthly parent, we daren't trust him to make the matter plain in the\nnext world,\" observed Captain Maile.\n\n\"Question!\" exclaimed every one who had perceived Mr. Jodderel's\ncollection of books.\n\nThe question was put and carried, with but two dissenting voices, that\nof young Mr. Waggett being one of them. Then the Leader read the verse:\n\n\"Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for\nthey shall be filled;\" and he asked Mr. Jodderel to open the discussion.\nThe gentleman addressed maintained a sulky silence for about two\nminutes, and finally remarked:\n\n\"This class seems bound to drift from spiritual interests to temporal\nones. The discussion of the most important question suggested by\nrevelation has been prevented by an almost unanimous vote, and now we\nare expected to consider righteousness--mere morality--and its rather\ndubious earthly reward. Filled? Why, certainly they will be filled. In\nthis late day and age no man studies the moral law without learning more\nthan his mind can hold. Righteousness is good; it is necessary; men need\nto learn about it, and others need to teach it, but it's an awful\ncome-down for the great fact of a life beyond the grave.\"\n\n\"Certainly,\" said Captain Maile. \"Righteousness is full of annoying\nlittle bothers about what ought to be done for other people, while the\nkingdom of heaven consists only of what is to be done for ourselves. The\nBible is crammed full of these tormenting hints, and they always appear\njust when a man would rather think about something else; being given by\ndivine command, though, as the majority of the class believe they are,\nI suppose they must be talked about in one way or another.\"\n\n\"They certainly should,\" said Broker Whilcher, who had been attracted to\nMr. Jodderel's side by the array of books which that gentleman had begun\nto bring into line. \"I have a sad reputation in point of orthodoxy, but\nwhat Captain Maile admits in sarcasm, _I_ declare in the most solemn\nearnest. Morality is the order of things, and to a sinner like me, it\nseems to be a matter of prime importance. The interest which some of the\nmembers display in the nature of the kingdom of heaven is quite natural\nand proper; but how they propose to get there without morality, or, if\nthey please, righteousness, is a puzzle to any man who reads the Bible\nand notices the importance attached to right conduct.\"\n\nDeacon Bates promptly called President Lottson to the chair, took the\nfloor himself, during an animated buzz by the class, and delivered with\nrapidity and emphasis the following speech:\n\n\"The method of reaching the better world, other than that of mere right\ndoing, is rightly a matter of wonder to those who do not accept the\ninspired Word as a divinely designed and revealed plan for the salvation\nof sinful man. But if any of the good Book has binding force, all of it\nhas; it stands or falls as a whole. We are informed by the apostle whose\nwritings fill half of the New Testament, that 'The law of the Spirit of\nlife in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin, which is\ndeath. For what the law'--that is, the law of righteousness--'for what\nthe law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God,\nsending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin,\ncondemned the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be\nfulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.'\nAnd again we are told--oh, blessed assurance to those who find the law\nof righteousness impossible to fulfill!--that 'Abraham believed God, and\nit was imputed unto him for righteousness.' And we are also told, by\nthe Saviour himself, that 'God so loved the world that he gave his only\nbegotten Son, that whoso believeth in him shall not perish but have\neternal life.' The law cannot be fulfilled by man; we are all imperfect;\neven when we will to do right the flesh wars against the spirit, and\nignorance hinders men of the best intentions from doing what they would\ndo. No man can be saved through the law; excepting Jesus Christ, 'there\nis no other name under heaven whereby mankind can be saved.' I hope I\nhave answered the gentleman's question in a manner distinct enough to be\nunderstood by him and such others here present to whom the Gospel plan\nof salvation is not as plain as it should be.\"\n\nDeacon Bates resumed the chair, and Broker Whilcher replied:\n\n\"The explanation is perfectly satisfactory, as an answer to my question;\nbut it seems to me rather strange that any one should be willing to\nenter without effort when everybody is plainly told the desires of the\nking and benefactor whom they expect to meet.\"\n\nBuilder Stott sat next, and hastened to the rescue of faith from a\nfreethinker like Mr. Whilcher.\n\n\"Suppose we do right always,\" said he, \"what does it amount to? Our\nrighteousness is as filthy rags in His sight, according to the inspired\nWord, and there's very little to hope for from anything so worthless.\nNobody knows, even when he's doing his best, whether he is right or\nwrong. Even Satan sometimes appears as an angel of light. I can remember\nmany a time when I've done what seemed to be exactly the right thing,\nand I not only went without any credit for it, but it seemed to make\neverything else go wrong. I begin to think the Lord knows his own\nbusiness best, and that we can't meddle with it without getting into\ntrouble.\"\n\n\"Getting into trouble is an excuse for not trying to do right, is it?\"\nasked Captain Maile.\n\n\"No, it isn't,\" replied Mr. Stott quite testily; \"but a man can do a\ngreat deal of trying without succeeding, and without finding what is the\nproper thing to do. If we always knew just what was right, we should\nnever get into trouble.\"\n\n\"I should like to ask the gentleman if Christ, the apostles, and\nprophets never got into trouble?\" said Mr. Alleman.\n\n\"I suppose they did,\" replied Mr. Stott, in visible embarrassment;\n\"but--but that was divinely ordained for the benefit of sinful man.\"\n\n\"I should like also to ask if the gentleman considers the servant above\nhis master, and free from responsibility for his conduct?\"\n\n\"No, of course not,\" said Mr. Stott, \"but----\"\n\nMr. Stott's expression remained unfinished for so long a time that Mr.\nBuffle took pity upon him, and remarked:\n\n\"It seems to me that unless hungering and thirsting after righteousness\nis a special virtue, it would not have been brought into this small\ngroup of qualities for which special blessings are promised. If it is of\nso much consequence, we ought, in gratitude to God, to be anxious to\nlearn just what righteousness is. What we are to get for practicing it\nisn't of so much consequence. And as there aren't many of us who have\nhad so much reason to study the meaning of the word as our friend Judge\nCottaway has, I think the class will be willing to waive the regular\norder of answering for once, and hear from the Judge his opinion of this\nimportant word.\"\n\nEvery one looked at the Judge, and Deacon Bates remarked that he would\nassume that Mr. Buffle expressed the sentiments of every one.\n\n\"Righteousness,\" said the Judge, with his regulation court-room air,\n\"has but one meaning. Philologically, legally, morally, and spiritually\nit means right doing. Legally, righteousness consists in obeying the\nlaw, and, by implication, refraining from offending the law. Morally,\nit is the very highest attainment possible to man; in its fulfillment\nevery ordinary duty of man toward man is accomplished. Spiritually,\neither under the old dispensation or the new, its range of application\nis increased and its nature strengthened and elevated. By no correct\nline of reasoning, nor by any honest interpretation of the letter and\nspirit of the Scriptures, can the imperative obligation of man to do\nrighteousness be set aside. Because the term is frequently used as a\nsynonym for piety, there is no excuse for substituting religious belief\nfor it, for true piety must include righteousness, and has no foundation\nwithout it. The religious sentiment may suddenly take possession of a\nman who has previously been unrighteous; but it is reputable and\nvaluable only so far as it induces its subject to attain, not only to\nnegative righteousness, the refraining from misconduct, which the law\nholds to be sufficient, but also to that positive, active virtue,\nenjoined by all the inspired teachers, which shall make a man actively\nvirtuous, and from higher motives than that of merely escaping penalties\nand gaining rewards. Christ himself said of the moral law that every jot\nand tittle of it should be fulfilled.\"\n\n\"And it _was_ fulfilled, on the Cross, when he cried, 'It is finished,'\"\ninterrupted Builder Stott.\n\n\"That's so,\" said young Mr. Waggett, now thoroughly aroused. \"If it\nhadn't been, we never could have been saved.\"\n\n\"If the gentlemen really infer from Christ's last words that he meant to\nset aside the moral law,\" resumed Judge Cottaway, \"the Church has been\nmaking a sad blunder during the twenty centuries which have followed the\nscene on Calvary. During all these years, she has been a teacher of\nmorality; she has restrained, sometimes by persuasion, oftener by\nauthority, sometimes by mistaken methods, sometimes in too lukewarm a\nmanner, the baser passions of mankind, and encouraged the nobler\nqualities. In legal righteousness, the ancient Romans surpassed the\nworld, and gave the models of all codes in operation to-day in the\ncivilized world. And yet righteousness among the Romans, while wise, was\noften vindictive, and always wholly selfish. The smallest, most ignorant\ncommunity in our neighborhood to-day has a higher, purer conception and\npractice of morality than the central city of the world had in the time\nof Christ, and though it is not under the special direction of the\nChurch, its growth can be traced back to no other source.\"\n\n\"I've often heard,\" said Mr. Jodderel, \"that so an Episcopalian admits\nthe authority and divine origin of his Church, he can believe anything\nhe pleases, and the address we have just listened to convinces me that\nthe statement is true. Why, gentlemen, while nobody has a higher respect\nfor Judge Cottaway's character and attainments than I have, it seems to\nme that he isn't much different from a Unitarian or any other\nfreethinker that imagines he has some hold upon religion. Why,\ngentlemen, what's the good of Christ having lived and died at all, if\nwe're still in bondage under the law? I don't mean that we're not to do\nright when we can--I want to do right as much as any man ever did--but\nif I've got to be bothered about all the little points that the Scribes\nand Pharisees fussed over, I don't see how much better off I am than\nthey were.\"\n\n\"The gentleman is better off, as he expresses it,\" said the Judge,\n\"because he has the benefit of the clearer light which Christ shed upon\nthe law, and because through the life and death of Christ he has\nincentives to that love for the Source of all goodness which enables a\nman to overcome difficulties which, to the merely selfish moralist, are\nutterly insurmountable. It is thus that love becomes the fulfillment of\nthe law, for it enables the weakest man to overcome his worst\ninclinations.\"\n\n\"What becomes, then, of the doctrine of justification by faith--the\ncorner-stone of all Protestantism?\" asked President Lottson.\n\n\"It remains as strong as ever,\" answered the Judge. \"All are forgiven,\nour misdeeds committed in ignorance, when--mark the condition--when we\nare honest in intention and effort. 'The just'--the righteous, that is,\nthose who do right to the best of their knowledge--'shall live by\nfaith.' I would remind the gentleman that Christian theology, of every\nschool, is based principally upon the principles laid down by that\nmasterly jurist, the Apostle Paul, and that he makes of faith not the\nmaster but the subordinate of love. 'And now abideth faith, hope, love,\nthese three; but the greatest of these is love.'\"\n\n\"You can't go back on Paul,\" remarked Squire Woodhouse, \"but it's often\nseemed to me that religious people treat Paul a great deal as the boys\ntreat my orchard; they steal the apples they like the looks of best, but\nthe best I've got are really the least handsome, and I generally have\nthe full crop to myself.\"\n\nSome one reminded the Leader that it was one o'clock, and the class\narose.\n\n\"I'm going into Humbletop's class after this,\" said Builder Stott to\nPresident Lottson. \"I was a little doubtful when this class was started\nwhether it wouldn't sooner or later run things into the ground, and now\nit _has_ done it. Cottaway is a dangerous man, for all his knowledge and\nsquareness. There are men here, members of our Church, that'll be as\nlikely as not to swallow all that he said, and then what'll their faith\namount to? I say that if any such nonsense gets a hold in this church it\nought to be made a matter of discipline.\"\n\n\"I think _I_ shall remain with the class,\" said President Lottson.\n\"There is a great deal of what is said here that I can't approve of, but\nthat is all the more reason that somebody with a cool head and quick\nwits should be on hand to prevent the orthodox faith from going to\nruin.\"\n\n\"I was very much interested in your remarks,\" said Broker Whilcher to\nthe Judge. \"Matthew Arnold has put forth some of the same views.\"\n\n\"I am glad to hear it,\" replied the Judge. \"They will save him from\ndrifting into vacuity, and they will convince his readers of his honesty\nof purpose. I wish only that I could believe that such views had as\nstrong a hold upon the Church as they have upon the outside world.\nVerily, Christ never spoke a truer saying than that 'a man's foes shall\nbe they of his own household.'\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nAFTERMATH.\n\n\nThe closing of that session of the Scripture Club, in which the nature\nand reward of righteousness was discussed, did not end the consideration\nof the subject. Mr. Radley himself determined that, at the next meeting,\nsome one should move the rescinding of his own resolution to allow but\none Sunday to a verse of Scripture; and several other members, among\nthem Squire Woodhouse, Mr. Buffle, and Mr. Alleman, determined to put\nthe resolution to death at the first opportunity. In the mean time, no\nmember of the class, who went to and from the city on the little steamer\n_Oak-leaf_, nor any one who had occasion to visit the local post-office,\nwas allowed to forget the subject, which, not for the first time, caused\nsuch widely differing theories to be offered.\n\n\"You didn't have an opportunity to express your opinions last Sunday?\"\nsaid Squire Woodhouse to Mr. Alleman, at the post-office on Monday\nevening, while the latter awaited the opening of the mail, and the\nformer lay in wait for some one upon whom to expend his pent-up\nenergies.\n\n\"No,\" replied the teacher; \"and I doubt whether the expression of them\nwould have done any good. Men are always willing enough to be observers\nof a quarrel; but to take part in one generally passes for a sign of bad\nbreeding, and the care that men have for the results of their bringing\nup is, under such circumstances, admirable beyond expression.\"\n\n\"Oh, you're not exactly fair, I think,\" said the Squire. \"Every member\nof that class thinks the case of faith _vs._ works is his own; he must\nbe interested in one side or the other, for he believes eternity depends\nupon it.\"\n\n\"I don't see why any one should have such an idea,\" said Mr. Alleman.\n\"It doesn't make the slightest difference which side they take, if they\nreally believe as they claim to do.\"\n\n\"Goodness!\" exclaimed the Squire. \"Why, are _you_ going over to the\ndefense of faith against works? You, who have always been preaching up\ngood works as the whole end of life? I'm afraid _I've_ been in too much\nof a hurry, for I've been drifting over to your side very, very fast\nduring the past two or three weeks.\"\n\n\"I've not changed my principles in the least,\" replied Mr. Alleman.\n\"Either belief includes the other, if a man is really sincere in the\nbelief itself.\"\n\n\"Well,\" said the Squire, with humility, \"you scholarly fellows can do\nsums in your heads at a rate that no common man's ciphering can equal. I\nthought I'd heard a great deal on this subject, both before I\nexperienced a change and after, but I never could see that there could\nbe any agreement between the two. One set of men say that faith is\neverything; another say that works are the thing; both sets make faces\nwhen they pass each other on Sunday on their way to their separate\nchurches, and, if I read the religious papers correctly, it's the\nsubject of the greatest religious fighting in the world.\"\n\n\"The fighting is between the men, not the ideas,\" said Mr. Alleman.\n\n\"Having withdrawn from the class,\" remarked Dr. Humbletop, who also was\npresent, \"or, I might say, having never belonged to it, I don't know\nthat I have any right to take part in your conversation, but as this is\nnot a stated session of the class----\"\n\n\"Even if it was, Doctor, you'd be free to say whatever you liked,\"\ninterrupted the Squire. \"Free speech is the rule of the class on\nSundays, and we certainly aren't going to be any narrower out of school\nthan in it. Besides, you've been to a theological seminary, and know the\nins and outs of this question. Now, I want to know if I'm not right and\nAlleman wrong?\"\n\n\"You certainly are correct in your assumptions,\" replied the reverend\ndoctor. \"The Church, or, more properly speaking, the world and the\nChurch, have always been at war upon this important issue. It has been\nthe cause of battles in which precious human blood was shed, as well as\nof struggles in which words, fiercer than spears and darts, have been\nthe weapons used, and souls instead of bodies were to be counted among\nthe killed and wounded.\"\n\n\"And the Church,\" remarked young Mr. Waggett, as he tore the wrapper\nfrom a religious newspaper, which the postmaster had just handed him,\n\"our Church has decided in favor of justification by faith, as the only\nsure way of salvation. Other churches----\"\n\n\"There are no other churches,\" said Dr. Humbletop. \"There are societies,\ncontaining many well-meaning persons, which have works as a basis of\norganization. They have built edifices for worship, founded colleges and\nschools for the education of youth in their ideas, established\nnewspapers, settled persons who, by courtesy, are called pastors, and\nformed societies which do much toward the amelioration of the physical\ncondition of unfortunate humanity. The respect which they manifest\ntoward portions of the Word of God renders it impossible to deny that\nthey possess religious feeling and aspiration; but to admit that they\nconstitute a portion of the body of which Christ is the head, is\nimpossible. These persons, individually and in their associated\ncapacity, war against the distinctive doctrine of the Church, which is,\nthat Christ died for all men to make atonement for sin, that all men may\nbecome partakers in the benefits of this saving act by acknowledging him\nto be their Lord and Saviour.\"\n\n\"There--I told you so,\" said the Squire to the teacher.\n\n\"The Doctor has suggested a point of difference between the two great\nsections of the Protestant Church,\" said Mr. Alleman; \"but that was not\nthe subject upon which we were talking.\"\n\n\"Why, yes, it was,\" said Builder Stott, who had been listening, while\npretending to be otherwise engaged. \"I heard every word of it.\"\n\nMr. Alleman gave an impatient start. \"I said the disagreement was\nbetween men, and not between ideas. Our good champion of orthodoxy, the\nDoctor, cannot, with due respect to his Maker, admit that there are any\nworks of real value that are not prompted by a true belief in the\nprinciples enounced by Jesus. Faith implies trust; trust of the inferior\nin the superior signifies a willingness to be guided: the guidance of a\nBeing in whose wisdom and love we have unlimited confidence _must_ be\nfollowed, if we really believe His utterances, and believe our own\nnature to be as imperfect and sinful as we profess to think it is.\"\n\n\"Ah!\" said Dr. Humbletop, \"theories of human action may be very\nbeautiful, but that very imperfection and sinfulness of man makes them\nof no effect. Logically, Mr. Alleman is perfectly correct, and, from his\nvery assertions, the Church deduces the argument whereby she brings\nreason to the support of inspiration. Man is so imperfect, so sinful, so\ndepraved, that, when he would do good, evil is ever present with him.\nThis condition of man shows the absolute need of a Saviour, and, of\ncourse, a loving God will not allow his children to lack anything which\nthey really need. Thus the need and the existence of a Saviour are\nestablished, by their interdependence upon each other.\"\n\n\"That is hardly the point of our conversation,\" said Mr. Alleman. \"The\nquestion between us was, whether there was not a similar interdependence\nbetween faith and works; whether, as either of them logically implies\nthe other, either is not logically inclusive of the other.\"\n\n\"Works include faith?\" exclaimed Builder Stott. \"Well, excuse me, but my\ntime is valuable, and I guess I'll be moving. I always like to get hold\nof a real idea about religion, but that notion is too far-fetched for\nanything. Why, according to you, a Unitarian or a heathen, if he does\ngood, is a child of God and a partaker of the promises. Christ might as\nwell not have lived and died, if that is all his work amounted to.\"\n\nMr. Stott started, and Squire Woodhouse exclaimed, \"Why don't you keep\nhim?\"\n\n\"Because,\" said Mr. Alleman, with a peculiar smile, \"I'm occasionally\northodox enough to believe that some men are predestinated to\ndestruction, and that men, like Stott, who never follow Christ's\nteachings and dread them as they do Satan, are among the number.\nHonestly, now, Squire Woodhouse, can you see how a sincere attempt to\nfulfill the moral injunctions of Jesus Christ and his apostles can fail\nto lead a man to faith in Christ and the Father? When a system of\nmorality is given, which, in terms and results, is so far above the\nmorality of the world that the world shrinks from it, yet which in\npractice proves to be correct, do you suppose it is possible to doubt\nthe higher inspiration of the giver? Did any mere law-giver ever enjoin\nunselfishness? Is unselfishness natural? Does not its practice, and the\nspiritual influence which is felt in return for its practice, raise a\nman to a plane of wisdom, tenderness, and strength, such as has never\nbeen reached in any other way? Have not honest disbelievers in great\nnumbers, when they have attempted a higher morality than that of the\nworld in general, fallen back upon Christ as their only available\nteacher, and been led to him, either by desperation or sympathy, or\nboth?\"\n\nThe Squire had not read as much as Mr. Alleman in the controversial\ntheological literature of the day, and he could not reply from actual\nknowledge, but he said:\n\n\"I don't know, but I'll take your word for it. I know that although I'm\na church member, and pretend to be led by the Spirit, there have been\nonly once in a while times when I've got outside of business rules about\nmatters of time and money, and that, when these times have come, I've\nfelt nearer to God than I've ever done even when I've been in trouble.\"\n\n\"Then you understand my meaning,\" said Mr. Alleman. \"There is no\ndifference between faith and works, providing both are rendered in\nsincerity, for neither of them can help leading to the other. And as you\nhave seen the truth of this fact by personal experience, you are just\nthe man who should support me in the effort which I hope to make next\nSunday to impress this truth upon the class, not for the sake of\npresenting a new theory for discussion, but to join conflicting ideas\nfor the good of man and the glory of God.\"\n\n\"I frankly admit,\" said Dr. Humbletop, \"that friend Alleman's idea is a\nbeautiful one--so beautiful that it could not have been conceived\nwithout inspiration from on high. But should it prevail in society\ninstead of being confined to the individual breast, its results can\nhardly fail to be disastrous. What will restrain depraved humanity from\nneglecting the offer of salvation by faith in Christ, and devote itself\nto working out its own salvation? How many souls will be lost if the\nfear of eternal suffering is not held before them, and if they attempt\nto begin through work, and finish ere the blessed time of change comes?\"\n\n\"If they can trust to God's mercy while they are mere beggars for help,\"\nsaid Mr. Alleman, \"they can certainly do it while they are endeavoring\nto help themselves and Him. Unless,\" continued Mr. Alleman, with an\nimpatient gesture, \"unless God can seem to you to be nothing but a\nvengeful monster--unless he has at some unknown time withdrawn all his\nmerciful promises to those who do righteousness and walk uprightly.\"\n\n\"My dear young friend,\" said Dr. Humbletop, who had slowly been dropping\nhis head backward and adding intensity to the solicitude expressed by\nhis stare, \"do you know that you have taken upon yourself the authority\nto urge men from the new dispensation back to the old, and thus to set\nback the work of grace for two thousand years? Do you not know that the\nlaw alone was found to be insufficient?\"\n\n\"Do _you_ not know,\" said Mr. Alleman, \"that by that assertion you\nimpugn the wisdom of the Almighty?\"\n\n\"God forbid!\" exclaimed the doctor, starting backward so abruptly that\nhe nearly overturned the post-office stove. \"The law was given as it was\non account of the hardness of men's hearts, as Christ himself expressly\nstates.\"\n\n\"True,\" said Mr. Alleman, \"and 'the times of this ignorance God winked\nat, but now commandeth all men to repent.' When the law was insufficient\nto the needs of mankind, God sent another law-giver in the person of\nChrist. And men might have obeyed him to a greater extent than they do,\nhad not the Church taken the position that the need of man was of more\nconsequence than duty to God, and that saving one's self--which human\nselfishness is abundantly able to look out for without being urged to\nit--is of more consequence than complying with the desires of Christ,\nand through Christ, God.\"\n\n\"Salvation possible through human selfishness!\" ejaculated Dr.\nHumbletop.\n\n\"That's the sentiment which the church most appeals to,\" said Mr.\nAlleman.\n\n\"The central truth of inspiration, revelation, and the atonement only a\nconcession to the fears and personal desires of mankind!\" continued the\ndoctor. \"Oh, horrible, horrible!\"\n\n\"It _is_ horrible,\" said Mr. Alleman, \"that a strong organization like\nthe Church, with respectability, morality, tradition, and authority on\nits side, should teach such a doctrine; but your own sermons, which I\nhave found to be models of logic, though based upon false premises,\nprove the truth of your condensation of my statements. Men are urged,\nnot to righteousness as taught by prophets, apostles, and the Master\nhimself, but to take the best possible care of Number One--urged to\nsomething which the most miserable savage alive knows is dictated by the\nstrongest instinct of his nature. What must Christ, remembering the\nintensity and agony of his earthly efforts, think of the Church?\"\n\nDr. Humbletop assumed, slowly, his pulpit manner, and at length replied:\n\n\"My dear friend--for dear I must call you in remembrance of your many\nself-denying efforts for the good of mankind--I must decline to discuss\nthis subject any further with you. For two thousand years the Church of\nChrist has endured, and guided itself according to the words of Christ\nhimself--\"\n\n\"All of his words, or only such of them as have been fullest of promise\nof safety?\" interrupted Mr. Alleman.\n\n\"All of them,\" boldly replied the doctor. \"The Church has taught\neverything that Christ did. I, myself, have preached from every verse of\nChrist's sermon on the Mount.\"\n\n\"But you have carefully avoided the literal meanings of these verses in\nnearly every instance,\" said Mr. Alleman.\n\n\"I have attached to each one such meaning as the Spirit has indicated to\nme,\" said the doctor, with rather chilling dignity. \"And I would further\nsay that I have treated them according to the habit of the Church during\nthe nineteen centuries that have nearly elapsed since Christ appeared.\nIf I had taught from my own understanding alone, I might have had\nmisgivings; but with countless prophets, apostles, and martyrs to whom\nto look for example, I have felt secure in my position. You cannot,\ntherefore, expect me to accept your views as opposed to those of the\nwhole body of Christian teachers. The experience of the world is always\nof value in teaching the teacher what to do and say, and that\nexperience--\"\n\n\"Is always based upon selfishness,\" interrupted Mr. Alleman.\n\n\"And that experience,\" continued Dr. Humbletop, \"has been that the\natonement made by Christ is the all in all of Scripture.\"\n\nThe doctor called for his letters, bowed in a dignified manner to Mr.\nAlleman and the Squire, and departed.\n\nLet no one blame Dr. Humbletop for his lack of clear vision. A more\nhonest, conscientious, and generous soul could not be found in Valley\nRest. Receiving an income which to many of his acquaintances would have\nseemed insufficient to a man of good breeding and refined tastes, he\nfound ways of devoting more than a tithe of it to charities either\nprivate or public. He was always ready to forego his own tastes and\ninclinations in order to visit the sick, counsel the troubled, or pray\nwith the dying; his voice and vote were never lacking in affairs of\npublic interest, and they were always used in the interest of the\nhighest morality. But the doctor had been born and bred under a\nreligious system which he had been taught was to be accepted, not\nchanged, and not even to be questioned. To him, as to the wise Solomon,\nthe law of the Lord was perfect, the difference between the two men\nbeing that the doctor found the whole law in the letter of a single\ndepartment of it, instead of in the Spirit, and that this peculiarity of\nhis mind had come to him by birth, been strengthened by a special\neducation, and established by habit. Whenever he for a moment questioned\nhis belief, he very naturally contemplated the many generations of wiser\nmen who had accepted beliefs like his own, and in their wisdom and their\ninterpretation of Scripture his soul rested.\n\nAnd yet Squire Woodhouse was moved to say to Mr. Alleman:\n\n\"It seems to me the doctor begs the question.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\nTHE DOCTRINE OF INSURANCE.\n\n\nConversation upon the lesson of the previous Sunday was not confined to\nthe quartette that met at the village post-office. Most of the members\nof the club went to the city on Monday morning on the little steamer\n_Oak-leaf_. The radicals among them were eager for a renewal of the\nfray, and the orthodox were not at all averse to displaying their\ndefensive abilities. Indeed, President Lottson stood at the wharf,\nnewspaper in hand, for the express purpose of encountering Broker\nWhilcher, and provoking him to make an attack. The broker finally\nappeared, accompanied by his wife and children; but the presence of\nnon-combatants did not discourage the Soldier of the Cross, who had been\ntoo long in the insurance business to be willing to lose any chance of\nstrengthening his own protection against risk in another world. Broker\nWhilcher met him boldly; he sent his _impedimenta_ promptly to the\nrear--to wit, the ladies' saloon--and prepared for the combat which he\nknew was approaching.\n\n\"I suppose you think you whipped us yesterday,\" said President Lottson,\nby way of opening shot.\n\n\"It was too clear a case to depend upon supposition only,\" said the\nbroker; \"but if you've any doubts on the subject I've no objections to\nhelping defeat you again.\"\n\n\"Seriously, Whilcher,\" said the president, leading his antagonist to a\n_t\u00eate-\u00e0-t\u00eate_, \"do you realize what comes of all this nonsense? You\nprofess to be a free-thinker, so I won't ask you to meet me on my own\nground, which is that the new dispensation furnishes a substitute for\nthe old; I'll only ask you to look at the matter from your own\nrationalistic point of view. A man must live up to his beliefs, if he\n_is_ a man.\"\n\n\"True enough,\" replied the broker. \"I wish your parson would admit the\nsame, and preach accordingly. I wouldn't be cheated quite so often by\nhis parishioners.\"\n\n\"Business is business,\" said the president. \"You don't ever let any of\nthe theories of your new-fashioned philosophy stand in the way of your\nmaking a good trade, do you?\"\n\n\"No, I can't say that I do,\" replied the broker.\n\n\"And yet,\" said Mr. Lottson, \"you believe in the theory of the reign of\nlaw--a law which cannot be broken without danger of severe penalty. Now\nwhether Christ was God or only man, you've got to obey the law under\npenalty of punishment, unless there is some other way of satisfying it.\nTherefore, why not accept a belief that leaves you as free to believe in\nthe law, to admire its wisdom and beauty, as you are now? Putting the\nthing in a business light, you change no beliefs--you simply take on a\nnew one.\"\n\n\"I'll profess to believe nothing but what I understand,\" declared the\nbroker.\n\n\"You believe in geography, don't you?\" asked the president, \"and in\nhistory, astronomy, chemistry, zo\u00f6logy--all the sciences, in fact? You\nswear by Darwin, yet you certainly don't pretend to understand all that\nhe writes about.\"\n\n\"I accept his conclusions, because I believe in his wisdom and honesty,\"\nsaid the broker. \"Of course I don't profess to be able to follow him\nthrough his scientific experiments.\"\n\n\"Exactly,\" said the president. \"And you believe that Christ and the\napostles were honest, don't you?\"\n\n\"Yes--as honest as _human_ beings ever are,\" said the broker.\n\n\"That means as honest as Darwin and Spencer, then,\" said Mr. Lottson.\n\"Then why not believe them as well as your scientific teachers?\"\n\n\"Because----\" said Mr. Whilcher, and hesitated.\n\n\"Because other people _do_,\" continued Lottson, \"and it wouldn't seem\nscholarly to accept that which was taught and accepted by men whose\ndemonstrations were not made by the assistance of material things. If\nyou stick to your ideas, men will hold you to them. You can't live up to\nthem in your business; you'll lose money if you try it, and you'll be\ncalled a fool for your pains. Why don't you be consistent? There's no\nconsistency between morals and business excepting through the medium of\nthe Christian belief. Believe what you choose so long as you believe in\na First Cause, be one of us, accept the promises that were made to\nprovide for your condition as well as that of every other man that finds\na constant disagreement between life and law. Then you'll at least have\ndone what is the business duty of every man--you'll have provided\nagainst the dangers which you don't fear, and yet daren't defy for fear\nthey may exist.\"\n\n\"That's a cold-blooded way of putting it, any way,\" remarked the\nbroker, after a moment or two of thought, which was apparently amusing.\n\n\"I don't deny it,\" said the president, \"but reason is always\ncold-blooded. You don't pretend that in your darling scientific hobbies\nit's anything else, do you? You free-thinkers claim to monopolize\nreason; but you can't help seeing that religion deals in it just as much\nas science does, and that it leads men to the church as truly as it does\nto the study. And I want it to lead you to us, as it is bound to do if\nyou're as fair as you pretend to be.\"\n\n\"You want me to be a religionist, do you?\" asked Whilcher; \"a shouting,\nsentimental exhorter! What a fine reputation you want me to make--and\nlose--among my friends!\"\n\n\"I don't want you to do anything of the sort,\" said the president. \"Did\nyou ever hear of _me_ shouting or exhorting?\"\n\nMr. Whilcher laughed long and loud at the mere thought, as would any\nother of the president's acquaintances have done. The president colored\na little and contemplated the matting of the cabin floor, but replied:\n\n\"It's nothing to my discredit, nor anything to laugh about. Because\nexcitable people get into the church, drawn there by appeals to their\nemotional nature, it doesn't prove that noise and talk are necessary\nresults of religion. You don't find any nonsense of that kind in St.\nPaul's Epistles, do you? _He_ was a man after my own heart--a fellow who\nbelieved that the laborer was worthy of his hire, who kept himself\nbefore the people, who talked solid sense, and explained how easy it was\nfor every man to take advantage of the sacrifice that was made for him.\nYou know the little company there is in the city that insures against\naccidents? I don't believe you'd lend twenty-five cents on the dollar on\nits stock--I'll sell you some of their certificates cheaper than that,\nif you ever want any--but whenever you make a trip out of town I\nunderstand you take out one of their policies.\"\n\n\"So I do,\" said the broker. \"It costs very little, and it covers a good\ndeal, and may come handy in case of trouble.\"\n\n\"That's exactly the argument in favor of your joining the church,\" said\nthe president, \"excepting that in the latter case a great deal more is\npromised and the cost is nothing at all.\"\n\n\"Excepting church dues,\" said the broker, with a quizzical smile.\n\n\"Well,\" said the president, \"that's true, but what do they amount to in\na question of risk?\"\n\nBroker Whilcher reflected profoundly for several moments, and at last\nsaid:\n\n\"Lottson, I'm inclined to do it; if any one had ever talked solid sense\nto me about religion I should have been in the Church before. Still, how\nam I going to solemnly declare before a body of people that I believe\nthings which I really don't believe at all?\"\n\n\"You must believe them before you declare any belief, and believe them\nfor the reason that you believe thousands of other things--because you\nare told that they are true. You believe many a thing on the word of\nworse men than those who wrote the Gospels and Epistles, for these men\nshowed no sign of being on the make, while your business informants do.\nYou are to believe them for lack of any definite information to the\ncontrary, and because there was no selfish object in the eye of any man\nwho gave the words upon which these beliefs are founded.\"\n\n\"I declare, I'll do it!\" exclaimed the broker; \"but say, Lottson, do you\nget a commission on church members as you do on insurance risks? Because\nif you do--halves!\"\n\n\"Nonsense!\" laughed the president. \"You'll have to go before the\nexamining committee this week, for next Sunday is the first of the\nmonth, and the regular day for the reception of new members.\"\n\n\"Examining committee!\" exclaimed the broker. \"Whew! I guess I'll change\nmy mind.\"\n\n\"Don't be afraid,\" said the president. \"I'm a member of the committee,\nmyself, and when I take a candidate in hand, the others are pretty sure\nto let him alone. I've been in business long enough to know how to treat\na man according to his style, I fancy.\"\n\nThe new candidate laughed heartily to himself, stared at the president\nso intently that he embarrassed the latter; then he shook his head with\nthe air of a man to whom a new revelation had come, and he put a cigar\nin his mouth and started forward for a contemplative smoke.\n\nAs for President Lottson, he quoted to himself, with intense\nsatisfaction, the passage:\n\n\"Whoso shall convert a sinner from the error of his ways shall save a\nsoul from death and cover a multitude of sins.\"\n\nThen he searched the boat diligently for Captain Maile, and when he had\nfound him he told him the news with evident exultation, and the captain\nreplied:\n\n\"Another crooked stick reserved unto the final burning.\"\n\n\"See here, Maile,\" said Mr. Lottson, \"this is nonsense, and you're the\nlast man who should be guilty of it. Your father and grandfather were\namong the founders of the church in this section of country.\"\n\n\"That's true,\" said the captain, \"and to save the family reputation from\ndisgrace, I've had to spend some of the money they left me in trying to\nundo some of the mischief they did.\"\n\n\"Then you're a fool,\" said the president. \"That may sound like plain\ntalk, but it's true; you should have learned, as your ancestors did,\nthat religion is one thing and business is another.\"\n\n\"Oh, I've learned it,\" said the captain, \"and I've also learned that the\ndevil, if there is a devil, is the father of that precious notion, and\nthat it's worth millions to him. Do you suppose I think any more of men\nbecause they belong to the church? Do you imagine I look over your\npolicies any less carefully than I do those of Bennett, who don't\nbelieve in God, devil, or anybody else? Do you suppose I'll take\nWhilcher's word a minute quicker when he gets into the church than I do\nnow? Not a bit of it. The church is the hope of the honest and the mask\nof the rascally. How did you like the way the lesson went yesterday?\"\n\n\"I liked the way it ended better than anything else,\" said the\npresident.\n\n\"I knew you would,\" said the captain; \"and if they spring a\nreconsideration on you next Sunday, _won't_ you be disgusted!\"\n\nMr. Buffle had approached the couple as they conversed, and said:\n\n\"Gentlemen, what do you think of yesterday's exercises?\"\n\n\"Both dissatisfied,\" promptly replied the captain. \"Lottson don't like\nthe way they began, and I'm sorry that they ended when they did.\"\n\n\"I'm counting noses to see if we can't secure a reconsideration,\" said\nMr. Buffle. \"I don't like the way in which the main question was dodged,\nand I want to hear more of it.\"\n\n\"Then you'd better go over to the Unitarian Church,\" said President\nLottson. \"They'll talk morality to you there to your heart's content.\"\n\n\"They will in our church, too,\" replied Mr. Buffle, \"unless prevented by\ntrickery. One would suppose that morality was something to be afraid of\nby the way people dodge talking about it.\"\n\nMr. Lottson assumed a very high-toned air, and replied:\n\n\"It isn't that morality is feared, but that when men fall to talking\nabout it they forget that there is anything higher.\"\n\n\"Perhaps it's because they never talk about it excepting at the\nbeginning,\" said Mr. Buffle, \"and they're anxious to begin at the\nbottom, as men have to do in business and everything else, if they\nreally want to learn. I begin to think it's a subject about which there\nisn't much known. It's often seemed to me in churches that men are very\nmuch like the apprentices in my ship-yard; the first thing these boys\nwant to do is to paint the names and designs on the paddle-boxes,\nthough that's the very last thing we generally attend to. Not one in a\nhundred of them are ever anxious to know how keels are laid and hulls\nare shaped.\"\n\n\"That's only business; isn't it, Lottson?\" asked Captain Maile.\n\"Business and religion are two very different things, and a smart man\nlike you, Buffle, ought to know it, and not go about arranging for\nSunday exercises to torment men into thinking what they ought to do,\ninstead of letting them enjoy a day of holy rest and delight in the\ncontemplation of what they're going to get when they can't stay here any\nlonger to get for themselves.\"\n\nMr. Lottson turned abruptly away, and remarked to Mr. Prymm that Captain\nMaile was the most hardened scoffer he had ever known. He also informed\nPrymm of the movement in favor of a reconsideration of the lesson of the\nprevious Sunday.\n\n\"I shall oppose it,\" said Mr. Prymm with more than his ordinary\ndecision. \"I entered the class with the hope of learning something of\nGod's will as revealed by the Scriptures; but if it is the desire of the\nremaining members, or a majority of them, that we shall linger for weeks\nover single verses, I shall find it more convenient and profitable to\ndevote the corresponding hour of every Sabbath to private study and\ncontemplation.\"\n\n\"I suppose,\" said President Lottson, noting the approach of Judge\nCottaway and Deacon Bates elbow to elbow, the latter looking very solemn\nand the judge exceedingly bored, \"I suppose it will be like Cottaway to\ninsinuate that the matter should be talked over and over again until\ndoomsday. It takes a lawyer to string a subject out until he doesn't\nknow the end of it when he sees it.\"\n\n\"Lawyers like the judge have some faculties which we might imitate with\nprofit,\" said Mr. Buffle. \"They believe in listening to all the evidence\nand determining accordingly. Evidence seems a something which the\nmembers of this class are afraid of, and practice based upon it is\nstill more terrifying. Ah, good morning, judge--we want to have another\ntalk next Sunday on the subject of yesterday's lesson, and knowing your\nexperience in sifting evidence, we would be very grateful if you would\ncharge your conscience with the case, and become responsible for it.\"\n\n\"If the rule can be suspended, I shall be glad to throw upon it such\nlight as I can,\" said the judge.\n\n\"We were talking, gentlemen,\" said Deacon Bates, \"upon the spiritual\nsignificance of righteousness. I suggested, and the judge was pleased to\nagree with me, that righteousness had a spiritual as well as a merely\nmoral significance.\"\n\n\"It certainly has,\" said President Lottson promptly, \"and if for a while\nwe could divest ourselves of the materialistic notions which prevail as\nbadly in the Church as out of it, we would obtain some new light on this\nsubject which is so puzzling when considered only by the human mind. We\nwould realize that with the prince of this world Christ has nothing to\ndo; that while in the world we are under the dominion of the world.\"\n\n\"And that our real life does not begin until we are with God,\" said\nDeacon Bates, by way of supplement. \"This world is a place of\npreparation for another, and it is what we are to do and be in that\nblessed sphere that Christ came to teach us. The things of this world\nare really the unreal--only the things which are unseen are eternal. How\nmuch righteousness had the crucified thief who rebuked his fellow for\nreviling Christ? Yet to him were spoken the words which every Christian\nlongs to hear, 'This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise.' Belief in\nChrist, longing for him and his glory, are what should occupy our\nthoughts while on earth.\"\n\n\"And do it so closely that we shall have an opportunity to follow him.\nOf course when a man believes in a presidential candidate, he believes\nand does nothing else. He doesn't vote for him, act according to his\npolitical theories, spend money for him, or any such nonsense. He merely\nbelieves in him, and does or leaves undone everything else, feeling sure\nthat it's the candidate's business to make everything come right. That\nisn't the way you gentlemen talked last campaign, though.\"\n\nThe deacon smiled pityingly. \"There you go again,\" said he, \"mixing the\ntemporal and the spiritual, though they're not the slightest bit alike.\"\n\n\"Certainly not,\" said Captain Maile; \"so it's heretical to try to bring\nheavenly influences to bear upon earthly things. You want people to\nunderstand that God is not God of the living, but of the dead, though\nthat wasn't the way Christ said it when he was alive.\"\n\nEach man put on a pugnacious face, and betook himself to his own\nreflections, and these lasted until the boat touched her pier in the\ncity.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\nA DECISIVE BATTLE.\n\n\nWhen the Scripture Club assembled on the following Sunday, it was in a\nmanner somewhat more quiet and less cordial than usual. Mr. Jodderel\nvolunteered the opening prayer, and then Deacon Bates began to read the\nfifth beatitude, when Mr. Radley said:\n\n\"Mr. Leader, a majority of the class would like to hear a further\ndiscussion of the last subject. As the original mover of the resolution\nrestricting the class to one Sunday to a verse, which motion I made with\nthe almost unanimous support of the class, it is fitting that I should\ntake the initiative in securing a further hearing upon any subject of\nwhich the majority have not heard enough. I therefore move that the\nrule referred to be rescinded for one Sunday, and that we continue the\ndiscussion of the fourth beatitude.\"\n\n\"Second the motion,\" said Squire Woodhouse.\n\n\"Mr. Leader,\" exclaimed Mr. Jodderel, \"I object. The time of this class\nshould be spent upon the consideration of subjects according to their\nrelative importance. If the nature and whereabouts of the Kingdom of\nHeaven is worth only a single hour of discussion, this minor question of\nrighteousness certainly isn't entitled to any more. I must oppose the\nresolution.\"\n\n\"It was apparently very unwise to adopt such a rule,\" remarked Mr.\nPrymm, \"if only to be rescinded or suspended whenever the curiosity of\nany of the members may desire it. We are adults instead of children, and\ncannot afford, for the sake of consistency, the abrogation of this rule,\nespecially when every one present has unlimited informal and social\nopportunities for discussion, as, indeed, they have already been doing\nall week long.\"\n\nMr. Prymm looked appealingly toward President Lottson, but that\ngentleman seemed in the depths of a gloomy reverie, and unwilling to be\ndisturbed. For Mr. Lottson's convert had relapsed; he had, before the\nevening on which the examining committee met, dropped a note to Mr.\nLottson, saying that the longer he meditated upon the matter the more he\nfelt that the proposed action would be hypocritical; that if the church\nwould not detect the hypocrisy, the rest of the world would, and he\npreferred to retain the respect of his friends. This note of Broker\nWhilcher's had not only inflicted disappointment upon President Lottson,\nbut it had brought him some tormenting anxieties. If Whilcher, who was a\nshrewd observer of men, really meant what he said, was it not possible\nand probable that he, President Lottson, who believed all that he had\nasked the broker to believe, and very little more, might also be looked\nupon as a hypocrite? He knew that his reputation in his own church was\nnot all that he could have wished it to be; but, looked at in sober\nearnest, his church, to his eyes, consisted of such of its members as\nwere city business men, like himself; there was still another element in\nthe church, however, and it was numerically the largest, which judged a\nman by his professions, and Mr. Lottson trusted that among these he\nstill retained his respect. But then came a more annoying thought.\nBusiness was business, and business men would take no man's word any the\nmore implicitly because he was a church member. Could it be possible\nthat among these he passed not only for a business man of ordinary\nmorality, but as a hypocrite too? Was he not really honest in his\nbeliefs? He certainly was; he could lay his hand on his heart and swear\nhonestly that every religious belief he possessed he had acquired by the\nexercise of his best logical faculties. Why, then, should he be\nconsidered hypocritical? Could it be possible that the world saw\nsomething more in the Bible than church members like himself did?\nCertainly not. How could the world do anything of the sort? It had never\nstudied the Bible as he had done, and as fathers of the faith, with whom\nhe had never for a moment dared to compare himself, had done. And then\nto have a prolonged consideration of the late lesson go on in his\nhearing while he felt as he did! It was unendurable. He would have\ndeparted silently and without explanation, and betaken himself to Dr.\nHumbletop's class, had he not previously informed Builder Stott that he\nwould remain and look after orthodox interests in the club.\n\nBut as he reached this point of his reflections, Mr. Prymm's remarks\nended, and his eye caught Mr. Prymm's, and the exasperating character of\nthe doctrine of non-paying works seemed more unendurable to him than\never, so he controlled himself, rose to his feet, and said:\n\n\"Mr. Leader, in the interest of Christianity, as defined by the Master,\nI also object to the further consideration of this subject, if it is\nurged with the spirit that has been manifested. Christ said, 'My yoke is\neasy and my burden is light,' but some of the members of this class\nremind me of the Pharisees of whom Christ said that 'they bound upon\nmen's shoulders burdens grievous to be borne.' If religion was made for\nanything, it was made for belief and use in this present world; I\nobject, therefore, to its being made to appear so unlovely and severe\nthat those who most need it are frightened from it. Those of us who\nbelieve would never have done so had we supposed that men would be\nallowed to set aside Christ's merciful words, and establish the\ncommandments--the notions--of men in their place. I believe as\nthoroughly in righteousness as any man, but I don't care to sit here and\nlisten to its meaning being changed by men who care more for their own\nopinions than they do for the commandments of God. And so I shall vote\nagainst the resolution, and ask all others to do so, if they believe in\nthe righteousness of God instead of that of man.\"\n\n\"I don't see why it's a Scriptural subject at all,\" said Mr. Hopper,\nrelinquishing for a moment his hold upon the review containing the\narticle on \"The True Location of the Holy Sepulchre.\" \"It was announced\nby Jesus, I know; but it was before he made that atonement which set\naside mere human righteousness as a requisite to salvation. I move we\ndrop the subject.\"\n\n\"The gentleman's motion is not in order, unless in the form of an\namendment,\" said Deacon Bates.\n\n\"Mr. Hopper's suggestion that this beatitude was given before the\natonement was made,\" said young Mr. Waggett, \"is so original and so full\nof practical interest that I should like to hear a further discussion of\nthe subject, if only to see whether this point cannot be\nsubstantiated--or, rather, whether it can be successfully opposed.\"\n\nPresident Lottson leaned over the back of young Mr. Waggett's chair,\nand whispered:\n\n\"Don't make an ass of yourself. _I_ can see where this thing is bound to\nlead us, if you can't; vote the other way when the question is put.\"\n\nA moment or two of silence ensued, and then Deacon Bates put the\nquestion to vote. A strong response of \"Ay!\" was soon followed by an\nequally noisy \"No!\" and some one called for a rising vote. Up rose Judge\nCottaway, Squire Woodhouse, Broker Whilcher, Mr. Radley, Principal\nAlleman, Mr. Buffle, Lawyer Scott, Dr. Fahrenglotz, and Captain Maile,\nnine in all, while for the negative there were but seven votes, Mr.\nBungfloat and young Banty keeping their seats during both votes, the\nformer with a helpless expression of countenance, and the latter with a\ncontemptuous smile.\n\n\"The ayes have it,\" said the leader, and Builder Stott, who, until that\nmoment, had listened at the key-hole, hurried off to Dr. Humbletop's\nclass-room and stated that the club was determined on carrying free\nspeech into the ground and the club with it.\n\n\"Mark my words,\" said the builder, \"the Scripture Club is as good as\ndead.\"\n\nThe discussion was opened by Judge Cottaway, according to the special\nrequest of the founder of the club, and the old jurist spoke as follows:\n\n\"Estimated according to the rules of evidence, the requirement for\nrighteousness never ends in the Holy Scriptures, and never can end while\nthe Church hold the revealed will of God as an authoritative rule of\nguidance. The law was the topic of lawgivers, prophets, the Psalmist,\nthe wise Solomon, and all of them regarded it as the only substitute for\nthe personal presence and command of God. Christ never failed to hold it\nup for reverence and obedience, excepting when minor points of it were\nof less vital importance than that of those for whose direction it was\ngiven.\"\n\n\"That's it, exactly,\" interrupted Mr. Jodderel. \"The law was made for\nman, not man for the law, and when man can't live according to the law,\nthe law must give way, as it did by express command when Christ\ncondemned the Jews for rebuking the disciples when they plucked corn on\nthe Sabbath day.\"\n\n\"I imagine that it was more for the sake of rebuking hypocrisy than to\ndefend the improvidence of his disciples that Christ spoke as he did on\nthe occasion referred to,\" said the judge. \"But he declared the binding\nforce of the law more than once, and he not only urged it upon the\npeople, but increased its scope and severity by explaining that\nobedience should not be only to the letter, but to the spirit of the\nheavenly commands. Mercy, love, and compassion are not at all\ninconsistent with the closest application of the law, though men have\nstrangely come to imagine that they are. In this same matchless sermon\nwe are studying you will find his definition of some methods of\nviolating the seventh commandment. The spiritual rule from which Christ\ndeduced these conclusions may be applied to all the other commandments\nwith results equally startling. 'Thou shalt not steal,' is the simple\nletter of the eighth commandment, but according to the new method\nprescribed by Christ for the translation of the law according to Moses,\nto deprive a man of his peace, of his patience, of his faith in mankind,\neven if done in ways permissible in business circles, is as truly theft\nas is the depriving a man of his money by actual robbery. And as I am a\nmember of the bar, as I have been a law-maker, and an adjudicator of\nlegal questions, I feel that I am severe upon no one more than my own\nold self, when I say that to recover the amount of a debt by legal means\nwhich compel the debtor to part with property of value several times\ngreater than that of the property upon which the debt is based, is theft\nof the most heinous description, for even under the most merciful\nconstruction of the most careless law, the only theft at all pardonable\nis that of small amounts in cases of dire necessity; whereas my\nexperience in legal collections is that not once in a hundred times are\nthey made excepting of men in the direst distress, and of utter\ninability to pay.\"\n\n\"But Christ mercifully forbore to give such interpretations to all the\ncommandments,\" said Mr. Jodderel, \"and I have always thought his\nrefraining from doing so was one of the sure proofs of his divinity. Of\ncourse he saw the people around him--his own disciples, even--doing\nhundreds of things that were wrong; but he knew their natures were too\nfeeble to live up to the holy ideas which were natural enough to _Him_,\nso he said little, except to exhort them to sin no more.\"\n\n\"Very true,\" said the judge, \"but since then the Christian world has had\nthe benefit of nearly twenty centuries of growth under the instructions\nof Christ. Men have grown less animal, more intellectual; less brutal,\nmore spiritual. The passions and appetites that once seemed\nuncontrollable have come more and more under restraint under the\ninfluence of generations of right living. Men nowadays endure physical\ndiscipline from which the ascetics of Christ's time, or even of the\nmiddle ages, would have shrunk with fear. The world is lamentably full\nof wickedness and weakness, but it has now what it did _not_ have when\nMoses gave his law--it has in every community one or more men who show\nby right living what a perfect control man may exert over his lower\nfaculties, or, rather, over the lower developments of faculties which in\nthe clearer light of to-day develop into noble virtues. But the stronger\nsins die hardest, so to-day we find, in communities where murder is\nunheard of, Sabbath-breaking unknown, profanity unspoken, and the\ngreater crimes mentioned in the Decalogue seldom or never brought to\nlight--in such localities we find the greed of gain made the excuse of\nunfair dealings between man and man; it stirs up strife more vicious\nthan that which took place when the civilized world was one grand camp,\nand when to kill a man for his possessions was a deed praiseworthy\nrather than otherwise, especially when the victim might, with any\nexcuse, be called an enemy.\"\n\n\"One might suppose, from the judge's remarks, that the world had but one\nsin--and only one virtue,\" said Mr. Jodderel.\n\n\"According to Scripture,\" exclaimed the judge, \"there _is_ but one\nvirtue, for it includes all others. Its name is Love--will the gentleman\nremember that the assertion is Christ's, and not mine? There is more\nthan one sin, truly; but not one of the dreadful number could exist were\nthe one virtue practiced as it should be. And this brings me back to the\nleading idea of the lesson, from which I have unintentionally been\ndiverted toward specialties. And yet, I know not how better to explain\nthe nature of righteousness according to the law, than to continue in\nuse the illustration that I have been using--the treatment, by each\nother, of men in their business affairs. For there are but few relations\nof men that cannot be classified under business heads. By implication,\nsins against self and nature belong in the same category, for the man\nwho impairs in any way his own physical and mental capital, injures to a\ngreater or less extent the whole community in which he resides. To save\nman and to bless him is the whole aim of the law, for it is only by man\nin his proper condition that God can be fully glorified. Thus regarded,\nthe way of righteousness can never seem hard, tiresome, or narrow--it is\nrather the only highway which is always delightful. The promise given,\ntherefore, in this beatitude is the most precious in the whole Bible,\nfor there is no good it does not include, nor any evil which it does not\nhelp us to shun.\"\n\n\"That's the first satisfactory description I ever heard of the law,\"\nremarked Mr. Radley. \"I wonder why other men--preachers, even--never\ntalk about it in the same way.\"\n\n\"They'd lose all their wealthy pew-holders if they did,\" answered\nCaptain Maile.\n\n\"Not all,\" said Mr. Buffle, \"at least, not if _I'm_ as well off in this\nworld's goods as I think I am. And I don't propose to forget what I have\nheard.\"\n\n\"It is very evident, however,\" said President Lottson, \"that Christ knew\nthat this idea of the law--which I admit to be as sound as it is\nbeautiful--could never be fulfilled by man, or he would never have\nconsidered it necessary to make an atonement for sin, and urge people to\naccept it, instead of trying to be saved by righteousness alone. The\ngentleman lays great stress upon the failings of business men. They\nexist about as he has painted them, but had he spent his own life in\nbusiness instead of among the abstractions of a learned profession, he\nwould see the other side of the case, which is that business is selfish,\nthat it cannot be otherwise, and that man's only hope lies in Christ's\npromises.\"\n\n\"Only hope of what?\" asked Squire Woodhouse.\n\n\"Of salvation, of course,\" replied the president.\n\n\"Then, what about the world?\" asked Mr. Radley. \"Is nothing to be done\n_here_ for God--and man? Did we come into the world for no purpose but\nto get out of it in the best shape we can? Has God no purposes to\nfulfill here, or did he only make this wonderful combination of beauty\nand utility, that we call the world, to be a mere stage for blundering\nand wrong-doing?\"\n\n\"No,\" answered young Mr. Waggett; \"it is to fit us all for entrance to\nthe glorious company of angels, prophets, and martyrs.\"\n\n\"We had better all die in infancy then,\" said Mr. Radley, \"before we've\nbeen unfitted for such society, and been compelled to begin all over\nagain. What a contemptible blunderer God must be, if the common\nreligious idea of the use of the world is correct!\"\n\n\"Gentlemen,\" said Mr. Alleman, \"it seems to me that this class has by\nthis time plainly indicated its religious measure. We have met together\nmany times; we have expressed our own views, and listened to many\nothers; we have individually indicated considerable ability and\ningenuity; but I am unable to discover that even a respectable minority\nhave changed their beliefs. Of the sincerity of belief of those who have\nspoken there can be no doubt; but something more than ability and\nsincerity is necessary to retain usefulness for a body of men, who are\ndetermined to approach intellectually no nearer to each other. As we\ncannot agree intellectually, why can we not do so morally, and establish\nfor the class a higher motive than can be furnished by religious\ncuriosity or tenacity of special theological opinions? Free speech has\nbeen the distinctive feature of the class, but all that freedom of\nexpression can gain for us has already been gained. Why cannot we,\ntherefore, form a new and solemn compact that we will, each one\naccording to his own special religious belief and light, strictly order\nour lives according to the moral ideas which we all admit are found in\nthe Bible and are above criticism?\"\n\n\"What!\" exclaimed Mr. Jodderel, \"and turn a religious organization into\na society for the encouragement of mere morality? None for me!\"\n\n\"I should consider such a course as religiously suicidal, if not\nblasphemous,\" declared Mr. Prymm.\n\n\"The man who does it can bid good-bye to his property,\" said Mr. Hopper,\n\"and I, for one, am determined to give a good account of my\nstewardship.\"\n\n\"He can bid good-bye to his chance of salvation, too,\" said young Mr.\nWaggett, \"if he's not going to think more of it than he does of mere\nmorality.\"\n\n\"Good-bye to his fun, too,\" suggested young Mr. Banty.\n\n\"If we cannot leave all to follow Him,\" remarked Deacon Bates, who had\nonce felt himself called to mission work, but successfully resisted the\ncall, \"it would certainly be unseemly to do so for the sake of mere\nworldly righteousness.\"\n\n\"'Twould revolutionize society,\" said Lawyer Scott, \"and no man should\nattempt such a thing without the most careful preparation.\"\n\n\"Doesn't Herbert Spencer say something about morality being at the top\nof everything?\" asked Mr. Buffle of Broker Whilcher.\n\n\"Ye--es,\" said the broker; \"but he considers that it's wrong to\nsacrifice one's business, as I'd have to do to live according to the\nplan suggested.\"\n\n\"If Christ had intended that morality should have been so much,\" said\nPresident Lottson, \"he would have talked more about it, and less about\nother things. He knew what the world needed, what it could stand, and\nwhat it couldn't.\"\n\n\"As if he wasn't all the while insisting upon morality,\" exclaimed Mr.\nAlleman. \"Captain Maile, you're certainly with us! You've always talked\nas if you were.\"\n\nThe captain made a wry face.\n\n\"I've talked against hypocrisy--that's what I've done,\" said he. \"I've\ngot no special religious belief myself, but I hate to see holes in those\nof other people.\"\n\n\"I,\" said Dr. Fahrenglotz, \"would yield adherence to such a system, were\nit not that men disagree as to what morality is, and I do not wish to\nsubject myself to any arbitrary rule or agreement. The soul of man\nshould be free.\"\n\nJudge Cottaway arose and gave his hand to Mr. Alleman, and several\nmembers affected to consider this action as a sign that the meeting had\nadjourned. The party dispersed more rapidly than it had ever done\nbefore, and left the judge, the principal, the Squire, Mr. Buffle, and\nMr. Radley talking to each other.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\nCONCLUSION.\n\n\nWhen next the Scripture Club convened there were visible some vacant\nplaces. Mr. Alleman was not there, and Mr. Prymm had betaken himself to\nDr. Humbletop's class, where he might study the Word of God without\nperplexing annoyances from those who could not, for even an hour in a\nweek, and that hour on the Sabbath day, let the world out of their\nthoughts. Several of the members had endeavored to dissuade Mr. Prymm\nfrom his intention, but he remained firm. Broker Whilcher went back to\nhis Unitarian brethren, but even among them he was noted as having lost\nhis old interest in the brotherhood of man and the rights of humanity.\nYoung Mr. Banty drifted off to nowhere in particular; but for weeks he\ntold to every irreligious acquaintance the story of the difficulties in\nthe Scripture Club, and great was the sinful hilarity excited thereby.\n\nThe difference of opinion on the subject of righteousness had upon the\nclass an effect so peculiar that Dr. Fahrenglotz did not hesitate to\nexpress an opinion that free speech was a dead letter, and he thereafter\ntook pains to absent himself from the company of the assumed custodians\nthereof, although he was frequently and earnestly besought to favor the\nclub with the pure logical aspect of questions, the import of which the\nmembers had first obscured by much sophistry.\n\nJudge Cottaway, Squire Woodhouse, Principal Alleman, Mr. Radley, and the\nfounder of the class contracted a habit of meeting informally at each\nother's residence, and as subscription papers increased in numbers soon\nafter, there was little or no curiosity manifested by their late\nassociates to know what was talked about at these meetings. It was a\nnoteworthy fact, and the subject of much dismal head-shaking among the\nchurchly, that these five men represented four different denominations,\nand that they finally deprived Father McGarry's flock of a member who\nhad several times listened to the discussions of the club in its earlier\ndays, whom they failed to provide with a new denominational faith in\nplace of his old one.\n\nAs for Captain Maile, he was thereafter the most shamefaced and silent\nman at Valley Rest. He was by no means the first man who had mistaken\nthe critical faculty for character; but he was not a man of large\ninformation in the history of the world outside of Valley Rest, so he\nspent several years of his life in indignant yet humble\nself-questionings as to his peculiar mental organization. He finally\nadmitted to himself that to keep his fault-finding disposition under\ncontrol, he must devote more persistent attention to it than he had ever\ngiven his better self before. Several years later he identified himself\nclosely with all the practical work of the Second Church, and\ndistinguished himself as being the man of all others who could accept\nadvice without showing impatience.\n\nBut the remainder of the club remained faithful, and they devoted\nthemselves to study with an earnestness that was simply magnificent.\nThey would divide each lesson into sections, and assign a section to\neach member, which member would in turn collect and present to the class\nall available information upon the subject, and some of the young lady\nattendants pronounced some of these addresses more interesting than\nsermons. Mr. Jodderel naturally took in charge all topics relating to\nthe future state of existence, and as the class imposed no arbitrary\ndistinctions as to time, he found no cause to complain. To President\nLottson fell the duty of enlightening the class upon the geography of\nPalestine, and so thoroughly did he do his work that one of his papers\nwas asked for publication, and copies of it were accepted with thanks by\nseveral learned societies. Mr. Prymm, who finally came back to the\nclass after having been assured that for months it had discussed no\nsubject not purely scriptural, made some remarks upon the atonement\nwhich were finally collected in a volume entitled \"A Layman's Views of\nChrist's Great Work,\" and the book received many carefully worded\nnon-committal notices from the religious press, though the bulk of the\nedition still remains in the storehouse of the publisher. Young Mr.\nWaggett kept an observant eye for all topics bearing literally upon the\nsubject of salvation. Mr. Hopper found at last an opportunity to read\nhis long-cherished essay upon \"The True Location of the Holy Sepulchre,\"\nwith many notes, suggestions, and emendations by himself. And the class\ngrew in membership and in the number of listeners, and there was never\nheard in it a personality or a revival of old disputes which had time\nand again rended the church. Nothing was said in its whole subsequent\nhistory which could cast discredit upon the daily life of any member,\nor cause Satan to feel any serious apprehensions for the continued\nactivity of his own business.\n\n\nTHE END.","title":"The Scripture Club of Valley Rest; or, Sketches of Everybody's Neighbours","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":30849}