I must take a short glimpse here of a peculiar incident that transpired
under my roof between two men of the cloth. One was a M. E. minister and
the other a seven day advent. The advent had been staying in town for
several weeks and I became fairly well acquainted with him and his
estimable wife, and he asked me if they might have a few meetings at our
home in the evenings, and I said certainly and he came. Both he and his
wife were scholars, well cultured and refined and we enjoyed listening
to their version of the scriptures. How the M. E. minister came to be
there one evening is still a mystery to me, but I think some one of his
parishioners must have told him that Satan had entered our home and he
had better intervene and see if he couldn’t extricate us from the wary
gentleman’s clutches.
The evening entertainment was progressing nicely and the advent man was
in charge of the machinery, when suddenly the M. E. man took issue with
him over his version of one of the scriptural passages and quick wit and
repartee was fast and furious. The advent was the superior in scriptural
knowledge and the way he got the other fellow in the meshes and so
completely tangled him up is an event that can never be erased from my
memory. The M. E. man was nonplussed, red of face and angry; and so
ungentlemanly as to let all the fireworks in his dignified Sunday nature
explode and told the cool, calm advent that teachings of his kind should
be in hell. You may lay this excitement to anger, being worsted, or
anything you like, but I think the gentleman he came to remove from our
home entered him one hundred per cent strong. Why he was on his feet
with his Methodist fists clenched, ready to fight, and if it hadn’t been
for the soothing, pacifying utterances of his good wife saying, “John,”
“John,” I don’t know what would have happened. The other fellow laughed
at him and I really think if the worst had occurred he would have given
the angry man a fuller meaning of the Bible and turned the other cheek.
I think if an Advent says Saturday is the Lord’s day and should be
observed on the Sabbath, the Methodist says Sunday is the day, and some
other denomination says Friday is the day, I’m willing to be convinced.
It beats having the Fourth of July come on Saturday, and if I had enough
money so I needn’t work I’d say let seven different denominations have
seven different days, and no matter which home I observed I wouldn’t be
left out shivering in an undershirt. Something peculiar about church
denominations, all of them headed for the same place, but each one
anxious to route you. One tells you they have the old travelled road,
founded on the Bible, another a different way, founded on the Bible, and
others another different way, also founded on the Bible. I conclude the
best and surest way is to be a Christian and read the Bible, live it and
let God show the way. Sunday churches or Saturday churches carry no
guarantee that you’ll reach Heaven.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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