Samantha among the Brethren — Volume 6Holley, Marietta
General
Samantha among the Brethren — Volume 6
Holley, Marietta
Methodism -- Humor; Women in church work -- Methodist church -- Humor; Women's rights -- Humor
"Some things we can't do; we can't stop the creakin' sounds of the
world's work; the big roar of the wheel of business that rolls through
the week days, can't be oiled into stillness; but Sundays they might get
a little rest Sunday is the only day of rest for thousands of men and
wimmen, nervous, pale, worn by their week's hard toil.
"The creakin' of the wheels of traffic are stopped on this day. They
could get a little of the rest they need to carry on the fight of life
to help support wife, child, father, husband; but religeon is too much
for 'em--the religeon that the Bible declares is mild, peacible, tender.
It clangs and bangs and whangs at 'em till the day of rest is a torment.
"Now the Lord wouldn't approve of this. I know He wouldn't, for He was
always tender and pitiful full of compassion. I called it religeon for
oritory, but it hain't religeon, it is a relict of old Barberism who,
under the cloak of Religeon, whipped quakers and hung prophetic souls,
that the secrets of Heaven had been revealed to, secrets hidden from the
coarser, more sensual vision."
Sez Deacon Garven: "I consider the bells as missionarys. They help
spread the Gospel."
"And," sez I, for I waz full of my subject, and kep him down to it all I
could, "Ralph S. Robinson has spread the Gospel over acres and acres of
land, and brung in droves and droves of sinners into the fold without
the help of church or steeple, let alone bells, and it seems es if he
ortn't to be tortured to death now by 'em."
"Wall," he said, "he viewed 'em as Gospel means, and he couldn't, with
his present views of his duty to the Lord, omit 'em."
Sez I, "The Lord didn't use 'em. He got along without 'em."
"Wall," he said, "it wuz different times now."
Sez I, "The Lord, if He wuz here to-day, Deacon Garven, if He had bent
over that form racked with pain and sufferin' and that noise of any kind
is murderous to, He would help him, I know He would, for He wuz good to
the sick, and tender hearted always."
"Wall, _I_ will help him," sez Deacon Garven, "I will watch, and I will
pray, and I will work for him."
Sez I, "Will you promise me not to ring the bells to-morrow mornin'; if
he gets into any sleep at all durin' the 24 hours, it is along in the
mornin', and I think if we could keep him asleep, say all the forenoon,
there would be a chance for him. Will you promise me?"
"Wall," sez he kinder meltin' down a little, "I will talk with the
bretheren."
Sez I, "Promise me, Deacon Eben Garven, before you see 'em."
Sez he, "I would, but I am so afraid of bringin' the Cause of Religeon
into contempt. And I dread meddlin' with the old established rules of
the church."
Sez I, "Mercy and justice and pity wuz set up on earth before bells wuz,
and I believe it is safe to foller 'em."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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