"It's no use," I said. "The story is out, and it will follow me
wherever I go--doubtless with Mr. Haddon's help. You'd best let me go
while the going is easy."
"No," he Insisted. "You are a part of my work--one of my reasons for
existence. Christianity means something, Weyburn, and I am here to
define its meaning in specific cases. There is a little legacy of
common justice due you, and I shall take it upon myself to see that you
get it. As for Zadoc Haddon, you needn't worry about him. I am
ashamed to say that he is a member of my own church, but that doesn't
prevent him from being a wolf in sheep's clothing. I have told him so
to his face, and he has tried to get me ousted--without success, so
far."
I saw difficulties and more difficulties for this generous young fellow
who was so ready to champion my cause, and it seemed only decent to
spare him if I could. But at the end of my protest he summed the
situation up in a single sentence:
"What you say about me is all beside the mark; somebody has got to give
you the chance you are needing, and the fight may just as well be made
here in Springville as anywhere. Sit down again and let's dig a little
deeper into that Mexican book of Enock's. I do like his blunt English
way of describing things; don't you?"
Though the next three days were full of hopes and despairings for me I
shall pass over them lightly. Each day, though he did not tell me in
detail what he was doing, I knew that Whitley was trying his best to
find a place for me; and I knew, too, that he was meeting with no
success. He was such a fine, upstanding fellow, and so full of holy
zeal and enthusiasm, that it was hard for him to acknowledge defeat.
But on the third evening, after a dinner at which he had tried vainly
to bridge the gaps that were continually opening out in the talk, he
threw up his hands.
"Weyburn," he began, when the pipes were lighted and he had poked the
grate fire into a roaring blaze, "don't you know, these last three days
have come mighty near to making me lose faith in my kind. It's simply
wretched--miserable!"
"I would have saved you if you had been willing to let me," I reminded
him.
"The question is much bigger than Bert Weyburn or John Whitley, or both
of them put together," he asserted soberly. "It involves the entire
fabric of Christianity, and our so-called Christian civilization. The
Church is here to shadow forth the spirit and teachings of Christ, or
it isn't--one of the two. If it falls in its mission it is a hollow
mockery; a thing beneath contempt. I go to my fellow Christians with a
simple plea for justice for a man who needs it, and what do I get? I
am told, with all the sickening variations, that it won't do; that the
thing I am proposing is one of the things that 'isn't done'; that
society must be protected, and all that!"
"The mills of the gods," I suggested.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account