CHAPTER I. A LIBERAL MOVEMENT.
The success of the Second Church of Valley Rest was too evident to admit of doubt, and there seemed to be no one who begrudged the infant society its prosperity. Most of its members had come to the village from that Western city known to all its inhabitants as being the livest on the planet, and they had brought their business wits with them. At first they worshiped with the members of the First Church, established forty years before, and with an Indian or two still among its members; but it soon became evident to old members and new that no single society could be of sufficient theological elasticity to contain all the worshipers who assembled in the old building. There were differences of opinion, which, though courteously expressed, seemed great enough to claim conscientious convictions for their bases; so with a Godspeed as hearty as their welcome had been, the newer attendants organized a new society. They were strong, both numerically and financially, so within a year they had erected and paid for a costly and not hideous church building, settled a satisfactory pastor, and organized a Sunday-school, three prayer-meetings, and a sewing society. The activity of the new church became infectious, and stimulated the whole community to good works; occasionally one of the other societies would endeavor to return some of the spiritual favors conferred by the Second Church, but so leisurely were the movements of the older organizations that before they could embody a suggestion in an experience the new church would have discerned it afar off and put it into practical operation.
It was in the rapid manner alluded to that the Second Church came finally by a feature which long and gloriously distinguished it. It was 11.50 by the church clock one Sunday morning when Mrs. Buffle, wife of the great steamboat owner, who made his home at Valley Rest, noticed her husbands face suddenly illumine as if he had just imagined a model for the best lake packet that ever existed; it was only 12.10, by the same time-piece, when about thirty of the solid members of the church, remaining after service, gathered in a corner of the otherwise vacant building, and agreed to Mr. Buffle's proposal that there should be organized a Bible class especially for adults.
"When you think of it," explained the projector, "it really seems as if there'd be no end to its usefulness. I call myself as orthodox a man as you can find in any church, anywhere, but there's lots of things in the Bible that I'm not posted on. I suppose it's the same with all of you; each of you may have thought a great deal on some single subject, but you're not up in everything—you haven't sat under preachers who talk about everything."
"There aren't many preachers who dare to preach about everything," remarked young lawyer Scott, who had in marked degree the youthful appetite for the strongest mental food, and the youthful assumption that whatever can be swallowed is bound to be digested.
"Nor that dares to say what he really believes," added Captain Maile, who had that peculiar mind, not unknown in theology and in politics, which loves a doubt far more dearly than it does a demonstration.
"Preachers are like the rest of us," said Mr. Buffle; "they haven't time to study everything, and they have to take a good deal on the say-so of somebody else; a good many things they may be mistaken about, but they'd better have some idea on a subject than none at all; once get a notion into their heads and it'll roll around and make them pay attention to it once in a while. And that's just what we need, I think, and it's what brought this Bible class idea into my mind. Each of us will express our minds on whatever may be the subject of the day's lesson, and we'll learn how many ways there are of looking at it. No one of us may change his mind all at once, but if he gets out of his own rut for an hour in a week, he'll find it a little wider and no less safer when he drops into it again."
"And perhaps he may get it so wide that there'll be room enough in it for three or four, or half-a-dozen Christians to walk in it side by side, without kicking each other, or eyeing each other suspiciously," suggested Brother Radley, whose golden text always was, "It is good for brethren to dwell together in unity."
"That's it!" exclaimed Mr. Buffle, his eyes brightening suddenly. "That's it! But I don't intend to do all the talking, gentlemen. I suggest that such of us as like the idea sign our names to an agreement to meet every Sunday for the purpose specified, and that we immediately afterward proceed to elect a teacher."
"I don't wish to dampen any honest enthusiasm for Biblical research;" said Dr. Humbletop, a genial ex-minister; "but from some remarks which have been made it would seem as if doubt—perhaps honest, but doubt for all that—were to have more to do than faith with the motive of the proposed association. What we need—what I feel to need, at least, and what I believe is the case with all who are here present—is to be rooted and grounded in the faith which we profess. I would move, therefore, that if the class is to be informally organized in the manner proposed by Brother Buffle, that at least the creed of our church be appended to the document to which signatures are to be affixed."
"Mr. Chairman," exclaimed Mr. Alleman (Principal of the Valley Rest Academy, and suspected of certain fashionable heresies), "I object. In our congregation—here in this small gathering, in fact—is a large sprinkling of gentlemen who are not members of the church, and who do not accept our creed, though they enjoy worshiping with us: Brother Humbletop's resolution, if put into effect, would exclude from the proposed teachings the very class of men that we profess to believe are most in need of religious instruction. The churches are so rigid that a thinking man can scarcely gain admission to them without lying, actually or constructively: don't let us, in a class like that proposed, follow the example of the Pharisees, those very flowers of orthodoxy—and 'lay on men's shoulders burdens grievous to be borne.' If our religion is what we claim it is, let us open our gates wide enough to admit every one who is at all interested to study God's ways as made known through the scriptures."
"Don't trouble yourself," said Captain Maile, who was as dyspeptic in body as in mind, but was also a keen observer of human nature; "I don't see but saints need converting as badly as sinners do, and there's enough of them to keep you busy. We sinners can find a gathering place somewhere else—perhaps the sexton will think the furnace-room the proper place for us—and we'll take Christian hospitality and great-heartedness as our first subject for discussion."
"You won't do anything of the kind," exclaimed Squire Woodhouse, one of the old settlers who had joined himself to the Second Church to avoid being tormented about what some of the members of the First Church termed his rationalism. "You're going to meet with us, blow us up all you like, teach us anything you can, and make us better in any way you know how to. God Almighty's kingdom isn't any four-acre lot with a high stone wall and a whole string of warnings to trespassers; his kingdom takes in all out-doors; every man alive is his child, and got a right to come and go in his Father's house, even if he don't sit on the same style of chair or creep under the same kind of bedclothes that his brothers do. If he don't like the meat, or bread, or dessert that somebody else is eating, the table's so full of other good things that he can't go hungry unless he insists upon it. There isn't one of you but's got more religion and brains than any of the twelve apostles ever had; but none of them were ever turned out of the Bible class, though one of them, who was a thief, was man enough to stay away of his own accord, and voluntarily go to judgment."
"Churches wouldn't be near so full if all thieves followed Judas's example," was the ungracious remark with which Captain Maile received this handsome speech; a hearty laugh took the sting out of the captain's insinuation, however. Meanwhile Mr. Buffle had torn a leaf out of a hymn-book, scrawled a form of agreement thereupon, and passed it around for signatures. When the paper reached Dr. Humbletop, that gentleman said:
"Brethren, I sign this paper in the hope that we shall work together for the honor and glory of God; but I distinctly avow and reserve the right to withdraw at any time, should such time come, when my conscience forbids me any longer to attend."
Several others, among them Insurance President Lottson and Mr. Stott, the well-to-do builder, announced the same reservation, but no one entirely declined to sign. Then Mr. Buffle moved the election of a teacher, and the choice fell upon Deacon Bates, a man of unabused conscience, pure life, extreme orthodoxy, and an aimless curiosity (which he mistook for thought) about things Biblical and spiritual. Then Mr. Buffle arose and said:
"Mr. Chairman—Mr. Teacher, I mean—time is money in the church as well as in the world. It's only 12.30; Sunday-school won't be out until 1.30. I move we select a lesson, and go right to work."
The motion was put and carried, and in a second Dr. Humbletop was upon his feet.
"I propose," said he, "that after the offering of a prayer—an essential which seems to have been overlooked by our brethren so zealous in good works—that we proceed to the consideration of the Epistle of Paul to the Romans. Let us sit at the feet of one, the latchet of whose shoes no other theologian was ever worthy to unloose, and let us there seek those truths which shall make us wise unto salvation. Let us make ourselves fully acquainted with God's plan for the redemption of sinful man."
"I move as a substitute," said Mr. Alleman, "that we begin with the Sermon on the Mount, and learn from the Master instead of the servant."
The place was a church and the occasion was the study of the Scriptures. But the attendants were only human and they recognized the conditions necessary to a fight with many indications of satisfaction; faces lightened up, eyes rapidly increased in luster, and lips unconsciously parted in the manner natural to persons who are gradually abandoning themselves to the influence of an impending pleasure. Men sitting to the right, left, and front of the apparent contestants twisted their necks until their eyes commanded the scene; while good old Major Brayme, who was rather deaf, and had got into a corner for his neuralgia's sake, scented the battle afar off and limped around to a front seat.
"The question is on the amendment," said the leader, "unless some brother has still another amendment to offer."
Nobody spoke; as Captain Maile afterward explained, "'twasn't anybody else's fight." Besides, Valley Rest was peopled by the race peculiar to all other portions of this terrestrial ball, and one of the instincts of that race, whether savage or civilized, is that it is far more pleasing to be a spectator than a participant in an altercation.
"Mr. Leader," said Mr. Alleman after a moment of silence, "in support of my amendment I wish to say that no one more enthusiastically admires than I do the remarkable, almost unique, logical ability of the apostle; but the very reason which prompted him to give forth that wonderful letter to the Romans is the one which I offer in opposition to our studying that same epistle. Paul was originally a shrewd man of the world, and his conversion did not deprive him of his common sense and tact. Writing to the church at Rome—a church whose members, judging by the Roman mental constitution, must have been gained through appeals logical rather than emotional—he met them upon their own ground, and taught them and grounded them in belief through those faculties in them which were most easily reached, and which, more than any others, would retain the impressions formed upon them. Of all that Paul taught we profess to be convinced; of what Christ taught we are not so well informed, for the reason that it is Paul, rather than Christ, who is preached from the pulpit. But here we are in a world and a state of society in which, for righteousness' sake, we are less helped by logically drawn dogma than by earnest injunction and pure example. We do believe; what we need is to learn to lead the new life which that belief implies; we need to have asserted, explained, and impressed upon us the simple but comprehensive rules and gracious promises which Jesus enounced during his life. The Sermon on the Mount begins with the Beatitudes; which of us really believes in them as we do in Paul's argument to the Romans? It continues and concludes with a number of moral injunctions, all of which we practically reject, or at least neglect; yet these bear directly on our daily intercourse with our fellow-men, and our daily acts of all sorts. Why, St. Paul himself apparently preached after this same model when he had to talk to men of the world whose intelligence was not confined to a single groove, for we read that when he preached—talked—to Felix, the governor, he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and the judgment to come. Therefore I move, for the good of those here assembled, and for the glory of God, that this class proceed to the study of the Sermon on the Mount."
There was a perceptible rustle and an active interchange of winks and head-shakings as Mr. Alleman closed; but a dead silence was restored as Dr. Humbletop slowly rose to his feet, cleared his throat, adjusted his newly-polished glasses, and raised his voice.
"My dear friends," said he, "having been an humble but earnest follower of the Lord Jesus Christ for nearly half a century, I need not on this occasion enter into a defense of myself against any possible insinuation of lack of faith. Nor will any one doubt that I apprehend the great value of the Sermon on the Mount; some of you will, perhaps, recall a series of sermons which I preached a few years ago upon the Beatitudes. But Jesus Christ was not merely a moral teacher; his great work was to redeem the world from death by offering himself as a propitiation for their sins, and submitting himself unto death, even the shameful death of the cross. His teachings were great, he spake as man never spake before, but all this is as naught compared with the great work which he finished upon Calvary. It is this that we need to study; it is for this we should love and adore him. 'God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.'"
"I should like to ask Brother Humbletop if personal salvation is the highest motive with which we should study the Bible?" said Mr. Alleman.
It was evident that the question was a poser to the good doctor; the very convexity and luster of his glasses served only to make his eyes stare more aimlessly at nothing for a moment or two. He recovered himself, however, and replied:
"God, in his generosity, and doubtless in view of the needs of sinful humanity, has ordered that the salvation of mankind should have been the principal object of Christs coming upon earth; I am not here to criticise my Maker."
"And you know that no one else is," remarked Mr. Alleman, with not inexcusable acerbity.
"Question!" exclaimed several voices. The leader put the question, and the amendment of Mr. Alleman was adopted by a considerable majority. Again Dr. Humbletop got upon his feet.
"My dear friends," said he, "I regret at this early hour to part from an association from which I had fondly hoped to derive spiritual benefit, but my sense of duty impels me to take such a step; the vote of the class seems to indicate an estimate of Christ to which I should never dare to commit myself—an estimate against which I must always protest. Personally, I hold you all in high esteem; you shall always be remembered by me at the throne of grace, but upon the prime essential of Christian fraternity we seem hopelessly at variance. In one way I doubt not that your deliberations will tend toward good, but that way is not the best way, and I must therefore regret it. I shall consider it my duty to take steps toward the organization of a class upon what I conceive to be a Christian basis, and in that class I shall always be ready to heartily welcome any of you. Salvation through the atonement of Christ is the central truth of the Bible; a body of students who examine the Word from any other standpoint may be perfectly sincere and in earnest, and they may constitute what may without unkind meaning be called a Scripture Club, but they can never claim to be regarded as a Bible class, in the proper acceptation of the term."
The doctor gathered his cloak, hat, and cane, and retired with a graceful but dignified bow; the class rose to its feet in some confusion, and Squire Woodhouse exclaimed:
"Scripture Club, eh? Well, its a good name."
"That's so," said Mr. Alleman; "let's adopt it, and show the blessed old man that names can't change natures."
A general assent was sounded; not so noisy a one, perhaps, as that with which the Dutch patriots of three hundred years ago accepted the designation of "Beggars," cast at them by Spain, and destined to recoil upon those who bestowed it; but the acclamation was nevertheless more earnest and demonstrative than is common in churches, and it was perhaps well that in the midst of it the dismissal of the Sunday-school compelled parents who were members of the "Club" to hurry out in search of their children.