That Printer of Udell's: A Story of the Middle WestWright, Harold Bell
General
That Printer of Udell's: A Story of the Middle West
Wright, Harold Bell
Christian fiction; Middle West -- Fiction; Printers -- Fiction; Young men -- Fiction
The body was held as long as possible, but when no word could be had
as to the poor fellow's identity, he was laid away in a lot purchased
by the printer, who also bore the funeral expenses. When Uncle Bobbie
would have helped him in this, George answered: "No, this is my work.
I found him. Let me do this for his mother's sake."
The funeral was held in the undertaking rooms. Dick Falkner, Uncle
Bobbie and his wife, and Clara Wilson, with George, followed the hearse
to the cemetery.
To-day, the visitor to Mt. Olive, will read with wonder, the inscription
on a simple stone, bearing no name, but telling the story of the young
man's death, and followed by these words, "I was a stranger and ye
took me not in."
The church people protested loudly when it was known how the grave was
to be marked, but George Udell answered that he wanted something from
the Bible because the young man was evidently a Christian, and that
the text he had selected was the only appropriate one he could find.
The evening after the funeral, Charlie Bowen and Dick sat alone in the
reading room, for the hour was late and the others had all gone to
their homes. Charlie was speaking of the burial. "I tell you," he said,
"it looks mighty hard to see a man laid away by strangers who do not
even know his name, and that too, after dying all alone in the snow
like a poor dog. And to think that perhaps a mother is watching for
him to come home; and the hardest part is that he is only one of many.
In a cold snap like this, the amount of suffering among the poor and
outcast is something terrible. If only the bad suffered, one might not
feel so."
Dick made no reply, but sat staring moodily into the fire.
"I've studied on the matter a good bit lately," continued Charlie.
"Why is it that people are so indifferent to the suffering about them?
Is Udell right when he says that church members, by their own teaching,
prove themselves to be the biggest frauds in the world?"
"He is, so far as the church goes," replied Dick; "but not as regards
Christianity. This awful neglect and indifference comes from a _lack_
of Christ's teaching, or rather from a lack of the application of
Christ's teaching, and too much teaching of the church. The trouble
is that people follow the church and not Christ; they become church
members, but not Christians."
"Do you mean to say that the church ought to furnish a lodging place
for every stranger who comes to town?" asked Charlie.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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