“Here,” said the Squire, turning the leaves, “is another passage bearin’ on the subject. ‘O, generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth, therefore, fruits meet for repentance.’”
Vipers! Joe uncomfortably wondered who else the Squire was going to introduce into the brotherhood of the faith.
“Now, see what it says in another place,” continued the Squire, “Not every one that saith unto Me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”
“Yes,” said Joe, grateful for hearing of no more horrible believers, “but what is his will but believing on him? Don’t the Bible say that they that believe shall be saved?”
“Joseph,” said the Squire, “when you believed in my store, you put in your time and money there. When you believed in hoss-tradin’ you devoted yourself to practicing it. When you believed life insurance was a good thing, you took out policies and paid for them, though you have complained of the Patagonian dividends. Now, if you do believe in God, what have you done to prove it?”
“I’ve paid over a hundred dollars a year church dues,” said Joe, wrathfully, “not counting subscriptions to a bell and a new organ.”
“That wasn’t for God, Joseph,” said the Squire; “’twas all for you. God never’ll thank you for running an asylum for paupers fit to work. You’ll find in the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew a description of those that’s going into the kingdom of heaven—they’re the people that give food and clothing to the needy, and that visit the sick and prisoners, while those that don’t do these things don’t go in, to put it mildly. He don’t say a word about belief there, Joseph; for He knows that giving away property don’t happen till a man’s belief is pretty strong.”
Joe felt troubled. Could it really be that his eternal insurance was going to cost more money? Joe thought enviously of Colonel Bung, President of the Bungfield Railroad Co.—the Colonel didn’t believe in anything; so he saved all his money, and Joe wished he had some of the Colonel’s courage.
Joe’s meditations were interrupted by the entrance of Sam Ottrey, a poor fellow who owed Joe some money. Joe had lent Sam a hundred dollars, discounted ten per cent. for ninety days, and secured by a chattel mortgage on Sam’s horse and wagon. But Sam had been sick during most of the ninety days, and when he went to Joe to beg a few days of grace, that exemplary business man insisted upon immediate payment.
It was easy to see by Sam’s hopeless eye and strained features that he had not come to pay—he was staring ruin in the face, and felt as uncomfortable as if the amount were millions instead of a horse and wagon, his only means of support. As for Joe, he had got that hundred dollars and horse and wagon mixed up in the oddest way with what he and his partner had been talking about. It was utterly unbusinesslike—he knew it—he tried to make business business, and religion religion, but, try as he might, he could not succeed. Joe thought briskly; he determined to try an experiment.