Ginx's Baby: His Birth and Other Misfortunes; a SatireJenkins, Edward
General
Ginx's Baby: His Birth and Other Misfortunes; a Satire
Jenkins, Edward
Christian sects -- Fiction; Education -- Fiction; Orphans -- Fiction; Satire, English
On receiving this letter the Superioress conferred not with flesh and
blood, but sent for Mrs. Ginx. That worthy woman was not enchanted with
her child's position. I have hinted that her faith was simple, but in
proportion to its simplicity it was strongly-rooted in her nature. 'Tis
not infrequent to find it so. Lengthy creeds and confessions of faith
are apt to extend the strength and fervor of belief over too wide a
surface. In the close frame of some single article will be concentrated
the whole energy of the soul. The first formula, “Repent and believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ,” was maintained with a heat that became less
intense, though more distributed, in the insertion of an Athanasian
creed. Mrs. Ginx's creed was succinct.
Mrs. GINX'S PRIMARY CREED.
I believe in God, giver of bread, meat, money, and health.
This she maintained, with indifferent ritual and devotional observances.
But there was to Mrs. Ginx's faith a corollary or secondary creed, only
needed to meet special emergencies.
Mrs. GINX'S SECONDARY CREED.
1. I believe in the Church of England.
2. I believe in Heaven and Hell.
3. (A negative article) I hate Popery, priests, and the Devil.
When her husband made his fatal gift to the nun, this third article of
his wife's belief, or unbelief, stirred up and waxed aggressive.
Said the Lady Superior, “My good woman, your child thrives under the
care of Holy Mother Church.”
“Yes'm, he thrives well,” replies Mrs. Ginx, repeating no more of Sister
Suspiciosa's sentence, “an' I've 'ad more milk than ever for the darlin'
this time, thank God.”
“And the Holy Virgin.”
“I dunno about her,” cries Mrs. Ginx emphatically, perhaps not seeing
congruity between a virgin and the subject of thankfulness.
“And the Holy Virgin,” repeated the nun, “who interests herself in all
mothers. She has thus blessed you that your child may be made strong for
the work of the Church. Do you not see a miracle is worked within you to
prove Her goodness? This, no doubt, is an evidence to you of Her wish to
bless you and take you for Her own. I beseech you listen to Her voice,
and come and enter Her fold.”
“If you mean the Virgin Mary, mum, I ain't a idolater, beggin' yer
parding,” says Mrs. Ginx; “an' tho' I wouldn't for the world offend
them as has been so kind to my child, an' saved it from that deer little
creetur bein' thrown over Wauxhall Bridge--an' Ginx ought to be ashamed
of hisself, so he ought--I ain't Papish, mum, and I ain't dispoged, with
twelve on 'em there at home all Protestant to the back bone, to turn
Papish now, an' so I 'ope an' pray, mum,” says Mrs. Ginx, roaring and
crying, “you ain't agoin' to make Papish of my flesh an' blood. O dear!
O dear!”
The Lady Superior shut her ears; she had raised a familiar spirit and
could not lay it. She temporized.
“You know your husband has given the child to us. It will be called the
infant Ambrosius.”
“Dear, dear!” sighed Mrs. Ginx, “what a name!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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