When Mr. Redman got home he related the affair to his wife, and inquired if she thought there was any more thoughtfulness than usual among the females of the parish.
“In my opinion there was never less, but I would do as Elder Whitman requests.”
“He is a very old man and may be in his dotage. I am afraid it would seem ridiculous and do more harm than good.”
“He has the clearest head of any man in this parish to-day, and is more likely to know the mind of the Lord than anybody else, and I know never would say what he did to you without a solid reason.”
Mr. Redman, a nervous person, greatly puzzled and agitated by what he considered an unreasonable request, was unable to fix his mind upon any definite topic of remark, and went to the meeting with very slight preparation.
He was surprised to find the house was filled and Mr. Whitman of the same opinion, which served to increase his agitation, and after a few, as he felt, incoherent remarks threw the meeting open and sat down.
Mr. Whitman instantly got up and said,—
“I am an old man, about the oldest among you. I feel that I have been an unprofitable servant and that, profitable or unprofitable, I am almost at my journey’s end, but this is no time to depart. I would not die in such a dead state of the church and people of God as this. My neighbors, you must wake up, and wake up to-night. I must go and I want to carry better tidings than it is possible to carry now. Can I face my Master, and yours, and tell him that the wise and the foolish are slumbering together, and that the seed his servant sows rots in the furrow because it is not watered with the prayers of the church, and because Christian people are more concerned to train their children to get a living than they are to save their souls?”
He went on for half an hour, and when he sat down there were three or four on their feet together, for his words went through the people like an electric shock.
At the close of the meeting Mr. Redman gave the notice and more than half of the assembly stopped. Among them was Walter Conly the schoolmaster, his brother Edward, and sister Emily; Will Orcutt who had come home from Reading on a visit, and his brother George; Arthur and Elmer Nevins, John and William Edibean, and the Wood boys, Jane Gifford, Martha Kendrick; many heads of families, Lunt the miller and Samuel Dorset the drover. Mr. Whitman and his wife, Peter and Maria, remained, but the grandfather saw Bertie and James go out. It gave the good old man a heartache, and he said within himself,—