He was never well looked on by the vicar since a famous scene that took place in the church one Sunday. After catechism was over, Joshua stood out before the rest, just in his rough country clothes as he was, and said very respectfully to the vicar, "Mr. Grand, if you please I would like to ask you a few questions."
"Certainly, my lad. What have you to say?" said Mr. Grand rather shortly.
"If we say, sir, that Jesus Christ was God," said Joshua, "surely all that He said and did must be real right? There cannot be a better way than His?"
"Surely not, my lad," Mr. Grand made answer.
"And His apostles and disciples, they showed the way, too?" said Joshua.
"And they showed the way, too, as you say; and if you come up to half they taught you'll do well, Joshua."
The vicar laughed a little laugh as he said this, but it was a laugh, Joshua's mother said, that seemed to mean the same thing as a "scat"--our Cornish word for a blow--only the boy didn't seem to see it.
"Yes; but, sir, if we are Christians, why don't we live as Christians?" said Joshua.
"Ah, indeed, why don't we?" said Mr. Grand. "Because of the wickedness of the human heart; because of the world, the flesh, and the devil."
"Then, sir, if you feel this, why don't you and all the clergy live like the apostles, and give what you have to the poor?" cried Joshua, clasping his hands and making a step forward, the tears in his eyes.