Guide announced that he should ask Sam Kimper to assist him in the
special meetings, the deacon's conscience bade him halt and consider.
Dr. Guide was wrong,--there could be no doubt of that: would it be
right, then, merely for the sake of apparent peace and unity, for him,
the deacon, to seem to agree with his pastor's peculiar views? The
deacon made it a matter of prayer, and the result was that he remained
at home.
That Reynolds Bartram had been the first-fruits of the new special
effort was a statement which the deacon denied as soon as he heard it.
Frequent repetition of the annoying story soon began to impress him
with its probability, and finally a brother deacon, who had been
present, set all doubt at rest by the assertion that Bartram had not
only been converted, but was assisting at the meetings. When, however,
the attending deacon went on to inform his absentee brother that
Bartram had attributed his awakening and conversion to the influence of
Sam Kimper, Deacon Quickset lost his temper, and exclaimed,--
"It's all a confounded lie! It's a put-up job!"
"Brother Quickset!" exclaimed the astonished associate, with a most
reproving look.
"Oh, I don't mean that _you lie_," explained the angry defender of the
faith. "If you heard Bartram say it, he _did_ say it, of course.
Pages:
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129