Dr.
Guide, under whose spiritual ministrations the deacon had sat every
Sunday for many years, was a man of large experience in church work of
all kinds, and, although he was extremely orthodox, to the extent of
believing that those who already had united with his church were on the
proper road to heaven, he nevertheless realized, as a practical man,
that frequently there is more trouble with sheep in the road than with
those who are straying about.
He had devoted no little of his time since he had been settled over the
Bruceton church to the reclamation of doubtful characters of all kinds,
but he frequently confided to his wife that one of the most
satisfactory proofs to him of the divine origin of the church was that
those already inside it were those most in need of spiritual
ministrations. He had reclaimed some sad sinners of the baser sort from
time to time with very little effort, but people concerning whom he
frequently lay awake nights were men and women who were nominally in
good standing in his own denomination and in the particular flock over
which he was shepherd.
He had therefore made no particular haste to call on Sam Kimper, being
entirely satisfied, as he told his wife, his only confidante, that so
long as the man was following the course which he was reported to have
laid down for himself he was not likely to go far astray, whereas a
number of members of the congregation, men of far more influence in the
community, seemed determined to break from the straight and narrow way
at very slight provocation, and among these, the reverend doctor sadly
informed his wife, he feared Deacon Quickset was the principal.
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