CHAPTER XI. CONCLUSION.
When next the Scripture Club convened there were visible some vacant places. Mr. Alleman was not there, and Mr. Prymm had betaken himself to Dr. Humbletop's class, where he might study the Word of God without perplexing annoyances from those who could not, for even an hour in a week, and that hour on the Sabbath day, let the world out of their thoughts. Several of the members had endeavored to dissuade Mr. Prymm from his intention, but he remained firm. Broker Whilcher went back to his Unitarian brethren, but even among them he was noted as having lost his old interest in the brotherhood of man and the rights of humanity. Young Mr. Banty drifted off to nowhere in particular; but for weeks he told to every irreligious acquaintance the story of the difficulties in the Scripture Club, and great was the sinful hilarity excited thereby.
The difference of opinion on the subject of righteousness had upon the class an effect so peculiar that Dr. Fahrenglotz did not hesitate to express an opinion that free speech was a dead letter, and he thereafter took pains to absent himself from the company of the assumed custodians thereof, although he was frequently and earnestly besought to favor the club with the pure logical aspect of questions, the import of which the members had first obscured by much sophistry.
Judge Cottaway, Squire Woodhouse, Principal Alleman, Mr. Radley, and the founder of the class contracted a habit of meeting informally at each other's residence, and as subscription papers increased in numbers soon after, there was little or no curiosity manifested by their late associates to know what was talked about at these meetings. It was a noteworthy fact, and the subject of much dismal head-shaking among the churchly, that these five men represented four different denominations, and that they finally deprived Father McGarry's flock of a member who had several times listened to the discussions of the club in its earlier days, whom they failed to provide with a new denominational faith in place of his old one.
As for Captain Maile, he was thereafter the most shamefaced and silent man at Valley Rest. He was by no means the first man who had mistaken the critical faculty for character; but he was not a man of large information in the history of the world outside of Valley Rest, so he spent several years of his life in indignant yet humble self-questionings as to his peculiar mental organization. He finally admitted to himself that to keep his fault-finding disposition under control, he must devote more persistent attention to it than he had ever given his better self before. Several years later he identified himself closely with all the practical work of the Second Church, and distinguished himself as being the man of all others who could accept advice without showing impatience.
But the remainder of the club remained faithful, and they devoted themselves to study with an earnestness that was simply magnificent. They would divide each lesson into sections, and assign a section to each member, which member would in turn collect and present to the class all available information upon the subject, and some of the young lady attendants pronounced some of these addresses more interesting than sermons. Mr. Jodderel naturally took in charge all topics relating to the future state of existence, and as the class imposed no arbitrary distinctions as to time, he found no cause to complain. To President Lottson fell the duty of enlightening the class upon the geography of Palestine, and so thoroughly did he do his work that one of his papers was asked for publication, and copies of it were accepted with thanks by several learned societies. Mr. Prymm, who finally came back to the class after having been assured that for months it had discussed no subject not purely scriptural, made some remarks upon the atonement which were finally collected in a volume entitled "A Layman's Views of Christ's Great Work," and the book received many carefully worded non-committal notices from the religious press, though the bulk of the edition still remains in the storehouse of the publisher. Young Mr. Waggett kept an observant eye for all topics bearing literally upon the subject of salvation. Mr. Hopper found at last an opportunity to read his long-cherished essay upon "The True Location of the Holy Sepulchre," with many notes, suggestions, and emendations by himself. And the class grew in membership and in the number of listeners, and there was never heard in it a personality or a revival of old disputes which had time and again rended the church. Nothing was said in its whole subsequent history which could cast discredit upon the daily life of any member, or cause Satan to feel any serious apprehensions for the continued activity of his own business.
THE END.