Kentucky -- Fiction; Older women -- Fiction; Widows -- Fiction
The money that's given in fulfilment of a promise,' says he,
'is clean money: let it go into the walls of the church. Coming from
Meredith Schuyler's hands the way it does,' says he, 'it's pure gold.
He's not offering it as a bribe to us to keep him in the church, but
if we take it as a bribe,' says he, 'the minute it gets into our hands
it turns to base coin, and it's a dishonor to us who take it and an
insult to him who gave it.'
"Well, the session set there and studied a while, and shook their
heads, and said they couldn't see things that way. And Brother Wilson
looked at 'em a minute or two, and then he jumped up and says he, 'Let
us pray.' And then he offered up a prayer that God would send his
spirit into the hearts and consciences of his servants, that they
might see things in the right light, so that all they did might be for
the glory of God and of his kingdom on earth. Then they all set down
and waited a while, and Brother Wilson says, 'Brethren, are you still
of the same mind?' And they all nodded their heads, and says he,
'Well, when the session thinks one way and the minister another, it's
time for them to separate.' Says he, 'Here's my resignation by word of
mouth, and as soon as I go home, I'll put it in writing.' And off he
went, leavin' the session sittin' there.
"Well, of course the men went home and told their wives all about it,
and before the next day everybody was talkin' about Brother Wilson
resignin', and the church-members lined up, some on the squire's side
and some on the preacher's side, jest like they did in Goshen church
the time we got the new organ. There was the church walls goin' up,
and both sides had put money into 'em, and neither side had money
enough to buy the other side out, and neither side wanted to be
bought out. And the squire's side, they'd say, 'We've got the money,
and you can't have a church without money.' And the preacher's side,
they'd say, 'But we've got the members and the preacher, and you can't
have a church without church-members and a preacher.' And they had it
up and down and back and forth, and the Methodists and Babtists, they
took sides, and such quarrelin' and disputin' you never heard. Some o'
the outsiders went to Brother Wilson, and says they, 'You Christian
people are settin' a mighty bad example to us outsiders. Can't
somethin' be done,' says they, 'to stop this wranglin' amongst the
churches?'
"And Brother Wilson, he laughed at 'em, and says he, 'Open your Bibles
and find out who it was said, "I came not to send peace, but a
sword."' Says he, 'The word of the Lord is a two-edged sword, and all
this disturbance means that the Lord is visiting his church and his
spirit is striving with the spirit of man.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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