Story of Chester Lawrence: Being the Completed Account of One who Played an Important Part in "Piney Ridge Cottage"Anderson, Nephi
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Story of Chester Lawrence: Being the Completed Account of One who Played an Important Part in "Piney Ridge Cottage"
Anderson, Nephi
Christian fiction; Latter Day Saints -- Fiction
"You and your father are already forgiven. If there were a grain of
ill-feeling against him this afternoon, it all completely vanished when
I heard him talk at the services."
"You were there?"
"Yes. Now don't you worry." He was nearly to say "Little Sister;" but
again he checked himself. "I am a 'Mormon,'" he continued. "I am not
ashamed of it, because I know what it means. Only those who don't know
despise the word."
"Neither am I ashamed of it," she said as she looked him fairly in the
face. "I know a little--a very little--about the 'Mormons,' but that
which I know is good."
"What do you know?"
"I'll tell you. One evening, in Kansas City I stopped to listen to two
young men preaching on the street. They were just boys, and they did not
have the appearance of preachers. You must know that I have always been
interested in religion, and religious problems. Perhaps that is natural,
seeing my father is a minister. I read his books, and many are the
discussions I have had with him over points of doctrine,--and we don't
always agree, either. He, however, usually took my little objections
good naturedly until one day he asked me where I had obtained a certain
notion regarding baptism. In reply I handed him the booklet I had
received at the 'Mormon' street meeting. He looked at it curiously for a
moment, wanted to know where I had obtained it, then locked it up in his
desk. He was really angry; as that was something he had never been
before over any religious question, I was surprised and impressed. I
had, however, read carefully the booklet. Not only that, but I had been
secretly to one of the 'Mormon' services. I there learned that an
acquaintance of mine belonged to the 'Mormon' Church, and depend upon
it, I had her tell me what she knew."
"And your father?"
"He objected, of course. At first, I told him everything. He had always
let me go to any and all religious gatherings without objection. He
even laughingly told me I could don the Salvation lassie's bonnet and
beat a drum in the street, if I wanted to; but when it came to the
'Mormons,' O, he was angry, and forbade me from ever going to their
meetings or reading their literature. I thought it strange."
"It's not strange at all,--when you understand," remarked Chester, who
was intensely interested in her story. "I suppose you obeyed your
father."
"Well, now, you want me to tell you the truth, of course--I--I wasn't
curious--"
"Certainly not."
"You're laughing at me. But I wasn't, I tell you. I was interested.
There is something in 'Mormonism' that draws me to it. I don't know much
about it, to be sure, for it seems that the subject always widens out to
such immensity. I want you to tell me more about Joseph Smith, the Book
of Mormon and the new revelations."
"But your father will object. What would he say if he knew you were
sitting here in this beautiful moonlight talking to a 'Mormon'?"
"I'm of age, I guess. I'm doing nothing wrong, I hope."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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