The End of the RainbowMacGregor, Mary Esther Miller
Philosophy
The End of the Rainbow
MacGregor, Mary Esther Miller
Canada -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
Jock was a Highlander, and Lawyer Ed's habit of addressing him in a
Lowland dialect was particularly irritating as the mischievous young
elder well knew.
"Yus. You know the Scriptures ferry well indeed, but if you would be
reading a little farther you will find that it will be saying, 'How
shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen?'"
This tickled Lawyer Ed and he laughed loudly. "Tut, tut, Jock! It's a
small thing to make a fuss about. You and Jimmie McTavish and a lot
more of you fellows are dead set against all sorts of things that you
accept in the end. Why, man, I can remember the day when you two
objected to the little organ in the old church, and you got used to it
and liked it."
"I liked it? Indeed, and when would that be?"
"Well, you stopped kicking, anyway, until we got the big one, which was
clean unreasonable, whatefer."
"No, sir." Mr. McPherson's spectacle case tapped the younger man's arm
peremptorily. "I was perfectly logical then, as I am now. I objected
when the wee squeaking thing was brought in, and I objected more when
you and the weemin filled up the end o' the church with a machine to
turn us all deef. As I say, I was perfectly logical, the greater the
organ, the greater the objection."
J. P. hid a smile in the darkness and hastened to interpose, for when
Jock once got riding his objection hobby he would agree with nothing
under the sun.
"There's an article in the _British Weekly_ on the evolution of the
church service--" he began; but his impetuous friend was bent on
setting Jock right in his own way, and hastened to his destruction.
"And on the same principle, the more Amen, the more objection, eh?" he
cried laughingly. "But now, look here, if you'll only consider this
thing with a fair mind you can't help seeing that, as J. P. says, a
hymn or a psalm sounds unfinished without an Amen at the end. Take any
hymn for example--"
They had reached the McPherson gate by this time, where an arc light,
high up in its leafy perch, was sputtering away shedding a white glow
over the side-walk and embroidering it with an exquisite pattern worked
out in leaf-shadows. Lawyer Ed paused under the lamp and opened the
Book of Praise.
"I defy you to find one that isn't improved and finished and rounded
off by an Amen at the end." He selected a hymn at random, and sang a
stanza in his rich voice that poured itself out gloriously on the
evening air.
"_Faith and hope and love we see
Joining hands in unity,
But the greatest of the three
And the best is love. Amen._"
The beautiful words, sung in Lawyer Ed's melodious voice, were enough
to move even Jock's orthodox heart. He was silent for a moment, then
the noise of a window being raised above their heads interrupted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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