“But,” added Mr. Hughes, “there is another matter closely related to the one just under discussion, about which I desire to speak. I mean no disrespect, and I have no ill-will toward Mr. Farrar. But there has been much criticism in the parish concerning the sermons he has been preaching to us of late, especially the one of last Sunday morning. It is needless for me to specify in what manner it was objectionable. We feel that a continuance of such sermons will seriously affect, if not entirely disrupt, the church. It has occurred to me, therefore, that if the vestry, as a body, should inform the rector of the feeling in the parish, and request him to discontinue the advocacy of his favorite sociological doctrines from the pulpit, he would probably heed the request, and thus save the church from possible disaster.”
The rector looked into the eyes of his critic without flinching. Moreover, there was in his own eyes a light that might or might not have been a signal of contempt and defiance.
“Do you really mean that, Mr. Hughes?” he asked.
“I am very much in earnest,” was the reply. “And I believe I express the feeling of a majority of the members of the vestry. How is it, gentlemen? Am I right?”
He looked around on the men in the room, and all save two of them nodded their heads or spoke in approval. The rector noted their attitude, but neither in his voice nor manner did he display surprise, disappointment or resentment.
“Then let me tell you,” he said quietly, “that any backward movement on my part is entirely out of the question. I feel that I am preaching Christ’s gospel, and that His message is to the poor as well as to the rich. To-day, so far as material things are concerned, the poor are poor because they are not receiving their just share of the wealth which they produce. Some day all this will be changed. There will be economic justice, and with economic justice will come social equality. There will be no rich, no poor, no aristocracy, no proletariat. I shall welcome that day. But, so far as things spiritual are concerned, that day dawned when Jesus Christ was born. In His religion there is no room for distinction between the classes. The Church which He founded, and its house of worship, should be open, freely and always, without distinction of any kind, to ‘all sorts and conditions of men.’”
“Good!” exclaimed Emberly.
The rector paid no heed to the interruption, but went on:
“And so long as I am rector of Christ Church I shall endeavor to break down, and to keep down within it, all distinctions between rich and poor, and between class and class. That is why I have been urging you gentlemen of wealth to blot out social differences in the House of God. I want the humblest parishioner to feel that he has an equal right with any of us to the use and benefit and enjoyment of Christ Church. It is only because you stand aloof and will not welcome him on equal terms that he does not feel so now. I hope that, eventually, your attitude will be changed; and, in that hope, I shall keep on inviting the poor to come to us, and I shall continue to preach the abolition of social distinctions in the Church.”