“Josiah, there’s going to be some sort of meeting next Sunday night after the regular service, and there is going to be something done to get Mr. McGowan out of his church. 157 Of course, if he ain’t orthodox, I’d hate to see the meeting interfered with, but–––”
“Clemmie, I ain’t up on this hairsay and orthodox stuff, and I ain’t sartin I want to be. It all sounds like mighty dry picking to me. But I’ve been thinking, and I’ve decided that whatever them things are they ain’t real religion. And I’ve decided that the Lord ain’t been sitting in on them church meetings for quite a spell. I cal’late I’ll be on hand next Sunday night with a special invitation for Him to cut the pack for this new deal.”
Miss Pipkin looked as though she expected him to be struck dead. But he was not. This fact decided her in favor of being present to witness the thing which the Captain intended to do.
CHAPTER VIII
On Sunday evening the chapel was packed. It was evident that many were there, not for the service, but for what promised to be a sensational after-meeting. Members of the Athletic Club were scattered through the room, and the same dogged determination was on their faces as on the night of the boxing affair.
Mr. McGowan hobbled up the pulpit stair. He announced his text: “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets.” Captain Pott felt Elizabeth, who was sitting beside him, stiffen. Miss Pipkin leaned forward in her eagerness to catch every word, and as the minister proceeded her expression changed from perplexity and doubt to one of deep respect. There were others who followed the thought of the sermon with keen interest. Elder Fox was present, for the first time in weeks. Occasionally, 159 he would write something on a pad, and then lean back to pull at his silky chops.
Throughout the sermon Mr. McGowan spoke with tense earnestness.
“The time has come when the church must cut the shore lines that have been binding us to the past. If a man persists in dragging the shore line he may get a few good fish, but that does not set aside the fact that he is either a poor fisherman or a coward. He must know the habits of the fish, and go where they are.... The same thing may be said of the church. We may produce a few fair Christians by dragging shore lines of church doctrine, but our success will be due more to luck than to a knowledge of the working of God’s laws.... We have been long-shore Christians for a good many centuries; the day has come for us to break away from the surf of man-made ideas, and launch out till we can feel the swell of a boundless love, a love not confined to the letter of denominational law or creed. We must get into us the spirit of Christianity. We must recognize the fact that the spirit is not a thing that we 160 can confine to sand-lined beaches of narrow conceptions of faith and salvation that now exist in our churches....