John Wesley, Jr.: The Story of an ExperimentBrummitt, Dan B. (Dan Brearley)
Religion
John Wesley, Jr.: The Story of an Experiment
Brummitt, Dan B. (Dan Brearley)
Christian fiction; Methodists -- Fiction
And Joe said to Mr. Drury, in the last moment at the door, "Mr. Drury,
if we could all get a conscience about the tithe, and pay attention to
that conscience, half the Everyday Doctrines would not even need to be
stated. They would be self-evident. And the other half could be put into
practice with a bang!"
The Delafield _Dispatch_ got hold of a copy of the "Everyday Doctrines"
and printed the whole of it with a not unfavorable editorial comment,
under the caption "When Will All This Come True?"
But Walter Drury, when he saw it, said to himself, "It has already come
true in a very real sense, for John Wesley, Jr., and these others
believe in it." And he knew it marked one more stage of the Experiment,
so that he could thank God and take courage.
CHAPTER V
HERE THE ALIEN; THERE THE LITTLE BROWN CHURCH
It was all very well to work out the "Everyday Doctrines of Delafield."
To secure their adoption and application by all the churches of
Delafield was another matter. The unofficial committee scattered, for
one thing. Joe Carbrook went back to medical school, and Marcia to the
settlement and the training school. Marty was traveling his circuit. J.
W. and the pastor and a few others continued their studies of the town.
Nobody had yet ventured to talk about experts, but it began to be
evident that the situation would soon require thoroughgoing and skilled
assistance. Otherwise, all that had been learned would surely be lost.
One day in the late fall a stranger dropped in at the Farwell Hardware
Store and asked for Mr. J.W. Farwell, Jr. He had called first on Pastor
Drury, who was expecting him; and that diplomat had said to him, "Go see
J.W. I think he'll help you to get something started."
J.W., with two of the other clerks, was unloading a shipment of
stovepipes. The marks of his task were conspicuous all over him, and he
scarcely looked the part of the public-spirited young Methodist. But
the visitor was accustomed to know men when he saw them, under all
sorts of disguises.
J.W., called to the front of the store, met the visitor with a
good-natured questioning gaze.
"Mr. Farwell, I am Manford Conover, of Philadelphia. Back there we have
heard something of the 'Everyday Doctrines of Delafield,' and I've been
sent to find out about them--and their authors."
"Sent?" J.W. repeated. "Why should anybody send you all the way from
Philadelphia to Delafield just for that?" He could not know how much
pastoral and even episcopal planning was back of that afternoon call.
"Don't think that we reckon it to be unimportant, Mr. Farwell," said Mr.
Conover, pleasantly. "You see I'm from a Methodist society with a long
name and a business as big as its name--the Board of Home Missions and
Church Extension. The thing some of you are starting here in Delafield
is our sort of thing. It may supply our Board with new business in its
line, and what we can do for you may make your local work productive of
lasting results, in other places as well as here."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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