The minister smiled tenderly upon her, but shook his
head with determination ; and although she was urging
him to take this step, she loved him the more, and the
more admired him, because of the high quality in him
which made him refuse to heed her advice. " I shall
not repudiate my ordination vows," he said solemnly,
" so long as I feel that there is any possibility of my
FRIENDS IN COUNCIL 81
doing good work, even in some obscure corner of the
vineyard."
" One of your most serious defects, my dear," said
the wife, putting her arm lovingly about his neck, " is
your sensitiveness. It seems a strange kind of defect
in a clergyman, I admit ; but it really is a defect, in
these days, under present conditions. I have noticed
that many of the successful ministers if I may be
allowed, my dear sir, for the moment" (with a kiss on
his hand, which she was holding), " to use the word
success in its worldly sense very many of them
are men of great physical vigor, rather than spiritual
vitality ; they are men of kindliness of manner, and of
little or no great delicacy. A shy minister is fore
ordained to be a failure. He must not be in the least
encumbered, socially or in the pulpit, by any overdrawn
feelings of delicacy. He must put out his hand to men
with boldness, and put up his voice to his Maker, loudly
and even familiarly. Anything less than the most out
spoken, unreserved boldness and self-confidence, toward
both man and God, is quickly mistaken for timidity or
weakness. I have never "
" There, there ! Rebecca," interposed her husband,
with a gentle but amused show of authority, " you are
getting too firmly seated on the tripod, as Pythian
priestess, and are bent on delivering your oracle ; but
I will not countenance it. You are partly right, but
only partly so. Let me tell you about the plan I have
for our future. I am much interested in it, and I think
we will be very happy yet, and still be true to the best
there is in us."
CHAPTER VI
FROM HIGHWAYS AND HEDGES
" The blessed work of helping the world forward happily does
not wait to be done by perfect men ; and I should imagine that
neither Luther nor John Bunyan, for example, would have satisfied
the modern demand for an ideal hero." GEORGE ELIOT.
Two months passed, and important changes had been
made. Mr. Freeman had closed his ministry over Em
manuel Church, and had entered upon a field of work
which he had been contemplating for a considerable
time. On the north side of the town there was a dense
population of rather rough, ignorant people, where the
police force was doubled at night, and persons who
were affluent enough to carry watches did not much
care to display them. Scattered among these disorderly
classes were many individuals and families, of higher
intellectual and moral attainments. Some of these fam
ilies were descendants of well-to-do original settlers ;
for this north side was the part of the city first built,
and was now fallen into decay, as the earliest settled
parts of any city are likely to fall.
Mr. Freeman had seen, long before, that this quarter
was left too much to itself, by people of reformatory
and philanthropic inclinations ; and he had cast about,
at times, for some efficient plan of reaching the people
who dwelt here. As it became evident to him that his
stay in Emmanuel Church was to terminate soon, he
had gone over this waste territory more carefully,
and tried to determine its stratification, its defences,
and its most promising features. Very near the heart
82
FROM HIGHWAYS AND HEDGES 83
of the region he found a rusty-looking old structure,
which proved, on closer inspection, to be an abandoned
chapel now used for the storage of merchandise. The
paint was off the building, but the structure itself was
in good weatherproof condition. The steeple had been
taken down, and the interior stripped of all ecclesiasti
cal furnishings. After making a good survey of the
premises, Mr. Freeman had inquired and learned the
owner s name; then he went to his trusted adviser,
Mr. Marshall, as truly and stanchly his friend now
as when the former official relations existed between
them. The building was the property of a business
man, not personally known to the minister, but known
to Mr. Marshall; and, as Mr. Freeman explained his
plan of opening some hall for religious and educational
work, near the site of this disused chapel, Mr. Marshall
at once saw the advantages which such a building offered,
and silently made some plans of his own. These plans
resulted in the quiet purchase of the property by
Mr. Marshall and another man, and the renting it to
Mr. Freeman on nominal terms.
Thus was accomplished a change which was very im
portant for Mr. and Mrs. Freeman, and for the neigh
borhood into which they removed ; for they rented three
or four rooms, in a fairly wholesome part of the north
side, and took up their abode in them. They did not
keep house, because they desired to conform as nearly
as possible to the social and household customs around
them ; and, to do that, Mrs. Freeman would have been
obliged to dispense with all domestic workers, and cook
and wash and keep the house in order. This she
promptly said she was not willing to do; she preferred
to give her time and strength to other kinds of work
which interested her more, for which she was fitted, by
her college training, work which brought her in some
84 RONALD CARNAQUAY
small pecuniary returns. So they rented rooms, pre
pared their own breakfast of rolls and coffee, or choco
late, and took their noon meal at restaurants or hotels.
As to their evening meal they sometimes prepared it
for themselves, sometimes they took it at a hotel ; but
more and more frequently they found themselves invited
out to tea or dinner by friends. Thus they settled into
the characteristic life around them, as quietly as possi
ble. It was really "college settlement" life, although
the Freemans saw no need of giving it any special label
whatever. They stored a part of their furniture and
pictures and other household property, keeping only
what was of the simplest construction, in order that
they might eliminate, as far as possible, seeming differ
ences between themselves and their neighbors. To this
same end they sorted out their pictures and other orna
mental furnishings, keeping those which were really
beautiful and suggestive, but were also inexpensive ;
this, too, they did with regard to wall-paper ; Mrs.
Freeman carefully chose really tasteful and positive
tints and patterns ; which proved to be much in con
trast with the neutral, dingy styles in adjacent house
holds, but actually cost less. Then, when neighbors
came in, as they very soon did, and rather openly ad
mired one and another article or arrangement in the
rooms, Mrs. Freeman was quick to explain how little
they cost; and thus she influenced the people around
her, by open example and by quiet indirect instruction,
to make their homes more attractive, and thus to com
pete more effectually with the bar-rooms of the neigh
borhood.
There was a novelty about their new life, which made
it almost like a visit and residence in London or Rome ;
and they found their time more and more fully occupied,
although in ways very different from those of a regular
FROM HIGHWAYS AND HEDGES 85
minister and minister s wife. Mr. Freeman had readily
yielded to Mr. Marshall s suggestion of taking a few
pupils in philosophy ; and Ned Marshall, with two other
young business men, came once or twice a week in the
evenings to study these subjects. Olive Marshall, with
three or four girl friends, came one afternoon in a week
to read Latin with Mr. Freeman, and one afternoon to
study literature English, French, and German with
Mrs. Freeman. Besides, Mr. Freeman found more time
now for the writing of magazine articles on sociological
subjects (and, indeed, found excellent material all about
him), and also obtained a position as regular correspond
ent of a Western weekly newspaper. His father had
written him, and both understood that at any time dur
ing this severe stress of resignation and removal, if the
son merely expressed the wish, his father would be able
to put him in the line of election to some college or aca
demic work. But Lawrence Freeman was as earnest as
ever in his devotion to the real heart of his profession,
which is "ministry," "I came not to be ministered
unto, but to minister," he was fond of quoting. He
knew, without affectation or morbid self-consciousness,
that he had great stores of sympathy for human beings
who were suffering physical privation, or mental or spir
itual maladjustment ; and he was determined to shape
his course, if possible, so as to give a field for this kind
of true ministration. He frankly said that he was not
fitted for service in a society like Emmanuel Church,
but he hoped to find himself better suited to this new
field of need. His heart had been much comforted, on
leaving his parish, by the letters and messages which
came, not from men like Dr. Mixer and Mr. Blaney,
nor women like Miss Metcalf, but from sundry obscure
people, aged or infirm or forlorn, who wrote or spoke
warmly and earnestly and concretely of the ways in
86 RONALD CARNAQUAY
which he had helped them. Thus he saw that he had
not failed, utterly, in what he knew judged by the
highest Christian standards was the real work of his
profession.
This rather unusual and persistent clinging of his to
the clerical part of his present work showed itself in
other ways. Many men, clergymen and laymen, had
gone into work of this sort at various times and in vari
ous places ; there was little that was really new in his
plans. He was well aware, however, that the successful
issue of his experiment would rest, not on any system
or method, but on him personally, on both him and his
wife as individuals. And he unconsciously rejoiced in
the field now offered him for the resolute, dominating
exercise of his powers of organization and manage
ment. He enjoyed the challenge which this new work
held forth to him ; and he realized that so far as he
could take hold of the neighborhood, and take hold of
human beings personally, and arouse them and raise
their standards of purity physical and mental and
moral and their intellectual pursuits and social amuse
ments, that far and no farther would his work be real
and fruitful.
Usually, in projecting such " settlement work " (if
named it must be), men and women have yielded too
much to the secular demands of the people around them,
and have too often omitted (so Lawrence Freeman be
lieved) the distinctly worshipful part. Such workers
have too weakly, and without sufficient analysis, con
ceded weight to what seemed to them the rational in
stincts of the people whom they sought to raise ; anc
thus have mistakenly relinquished direct appeals to
the spiritual aspirations of those people. The truth,
as Freeman understood the situation, was that such dis
eased and perverted natures should no more be blindly
FROM HIGHWAYS AND HEDGES 87
yielded to, in their disproportionate demands for certain
elements of civilized life, and in their condemnation and
repudiation of certain other elements, than should a per
son who was physically ill. It is for the physician of
bodies and the physician of souls, both, to determine,
according to their best sympathies and judgments, what
is needed by the persons whom they would restore to
physical or moral or spiritual health. Therefore, when
the young minister, in his new environment, heard the
usual clamor for social justice, or a bitter denuncia
tion of " psalm-singing piety," he met it with calm
ness, not arousing opposition by unwise argument,
neither hastily and weakly yielding his own deep con
viction, which was that much of that kind of opposi
tion was due, not to moral, reasonable, just causes,
but to personal experience of harshness at some in
dividual s hands, and to excessive reaction against par
ticular phases of hypocrisy. Accordingly, his purpose
was to correct such social disquiet, by the education of
these persons in the inflexible laws of social and politi
cal life, and by arousing also the instincts of worship
which he believed were in every soul, and then meeting
and satisfying those devotional instincts with the means
of private and public worship. To these ends he pre
pared himself and his chapel for work in classes, on
subjects of economic, hygienic, and sociological interest,
and he also distinctly emphasized the need and privilege
of public worship. He renovated the chapel, and had
rooms in it partitioned off for classes in various depart
ments of secular education, and the main room he refur
nished, simply but tastefully, as a place for dignified,
solemn \vorship. Heartily seconded by the wise and
friendly owners of the property, he had the chapel
colored attractively, and he even so far departed from
conventional ecclesiastical customs as to put a number
88 RONALD CARNAQUAY
of pictures on its walls. These pictures were mainly
large photographs, and each taught some moral or reli
gious lesson, and many of them he used as illustrations
in his sermons and addresses. He was willing to use
hand-bills and placards, in order to bring his lectures
and services to the attention of the public, but never
pushed this advertising beyond the bounds of propriety.
He counted on a certain initial attendance of many per
sons who would come from curiosity ; but, for perma
nent attendance and loyalty of support, he depended
on his own and his wife s personal influence and exam
ple, as the earnest character of their purposes should
become known.
On this basis of a broad and sound education of all
the sides of man s nature physical, mental, moral, and
spiritual Mr. Freeman went forward in his new field
of labor. And his simple, earnest, resolute, and yet sym
pathetic ways gradually dispelled suspicions, and gained
friends for himself and adherents for his work. Many
of his warm friends in Emmanuel Church lent their aid ;
but while he gladly and gratefully accepted such aid, he
expressly told them that they still owed allegiance to
that church. He was unaffectedly anxious that in its
choice of his successor they should act wisely ; and he
stood ready, if asked, to give any counsel which lay in
his power. His position was a delicate one, wounded
as he had been by his harsh experience and by the
conduct of many of that society s strongest supporters ;
but he strove with his bitter feelings and conquered
them, and hoped to see another succeed where he had
sadly failed. Leaving him, then, for the present, busily
engaged in his interesting and encouraging work among
these people of "the highways and hedges," let us see
how Emmanuel Church determined upon a new leader.
CHAPTER VII
HUNTING MINISTERS
"And Micah said unto the Levite, Dwell with me, and be unto me
a father and a priest ; and I will give unto thee ten shekels of silver
by the year, and a suit of apparel, and thy victuals. So the Levite
went in." Judges xvii. 10.
THE festival of Emmanuel Church was a great suc
cess, at least financially ; but, pray, what other kind of
success could possibly be expected, in connection with
it ? Ah, social success ! Considered as a unit, as a
totality, there was only one kind of expectancy regard
ing it that of revenue; but, individually considered,
there were many possibilities which were not realized,
many fond hopes of established social intimacies which
died in the bud. The excitement faded out ; the several
hundred dollars which had been gathered and enjoyed,
in the respective committees, now were reluctantly
transferred to Mr. Pidge, the treasurer; and in many
households there were exhausted nerves, and several
physicians gained new cases of rheumatism and neu
ralgia.
Financially and collectively a success ; but, socially
and individually, not much to speak of. A majority of
the women who had pushed the enterprise through had
done so from two simple and creditable motives : one was
zeal for the maintenance of the church, and the other
was that fever and fury of battle which sustains the prize
fighter, and the soldier, and the millionnaire who seeks to
add another million to his first one. So these women,
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9 o RONALD CARNAQUAY
releasing themselves, for a brief period, from the monot
ony of sweeping and cooking, had rejoiced in finding
the old line true, that "the blood more stirs to rouse a
lion than to start a hare." They had deserved to be
dubbed "geniuses," for they had "toiled terribly." But
now it was over, and Mr. Pidge stood guardian over all
their earnings ; and, with a sigh, these " faithful work
ers " took up again the broom and the needle, hus
bands reasserted their old-time authority, and nothing
remained in the parish households to testify to the glory
of the now faded festival, except now and then a pie
underbaked, or a buttonless shirt overlooked.
This statement applies to the really loyal, self-sacri
ficing part of the church and congregation. As for the
ambitious, jealous portion, they had little or nothing left,
as a residuum of the sparkling social cup which had been
held to their lips. Miss Metcalf had skilfully arranged
the committees, entirely with reference to the work she
could get out of them ; and results had testified to her
good judgment. Now that the festival was over, these
various groups fell apart, since the centripetal force of a
common mercenary purpose had ceased to unite them,
and the usual centrifugal force of society s ceaseless
whirl drove them apart. All up and down the stairway
of social position there were now interesting and some
times painful episodes. Introductions among members
of committees had been followed by intimacies, as
earnest discussions of ways and means went forward.
Courtesies had been exchanged, invitations given, and
friendships had sprung up, with all the speed of the
mango tree under the Indian juggler s cloth; but, alas,
like the mango they disappeared with celerity. Perhaps
the only change in any of the centres of social equilib
rium was that of Mrs. Bellaire. She had really gained
ground ; she had made a step upward. Miss Metcalf,
HUNTING MINISTERS 91
the day after the festival, coolly disregarded most of
the relationships called forth by its duties ; but, with
reference to Mrs. Bellaire, she had decided to allow a
more permanent intercourse. She condescendingly per
mitted herself to be " known " by the ambitious, rich,
handsome woman ; -and within a week after the festival
the two had exchanged calls "really social calls, you
know " and the friendship or, better, alliance assumed
substantial and promising proportions.
Mrs. Bellaire, like her own costly house on its corner
lot, had an outlook in several directions. The house looked
out on various streets, of various degrees of respectabil
ity ; likewise did Mrs. Bellaire, the rich plumber s wife,
look forth socially on several "sets," of varying degrees
of eminence and prestige. And with this new relation
ship established between herself and Miss Metcalf (that
twig highest on the society tree), Mrs. Bellaire now ruth
lessly severed connection with two or three persons pre
sumably below her, whose friendship she had previously
been glad to possess. Among these, thus " cut off with
out even a shilling," was Mrs. Train, who had hoped for
many things from Mrs. Bellaire, and had zealously cul
tivated her. Now, alas, Mrs. Train, living on a side
street, and occasionally "taking in sewing," was passed
on the sidewalk with a cool nod, by her former friend,
and received no more invitations to " run in any time."
Poor Mrs. Train ! Your efforts have been fruitless and
your time wasted. Why have you not learned, before this,
that, however the Christian path of life may be a "strait
and narrow way," too often, alas, the elect ones of Chris
tian society must dwell on the broad highway, and, if possi
ble, in houses on corner lots. And as for your hoping to
attain the high levels of " the best society," while you sew
cotton and silk together for purposes of warmth and de
cency, yes, and then sell those articles, or hire out your
92 RONALD CARNAQUAY
labor, well, you simply cannot do it. But if only you
will dawdle with worsteds or silks, over embroidery to
be given away, or even to be sold for twice its value at
the Universal Reform Society s Bazaar, why, that is en
tirely permissible ; and Mrs. Grundy, society s beadle,
will relax her vigilance at society s iron gate, and nod
sleepily in the sunshine as you pass through.
However, the worst was over ; the church and town
were again in a normal condition, and the parish com
mittee, Dr. Mixer, Mr. Marshall, Mr. Blaney, Mr. Pidge,
and one or two others, were " on the war-path after min
isters." That was the picturesque and dignified way in
which facetious Mr. Blaney expressed it, whenever the
subject came up ; and it came up often, easily, and natu
rally, wherever Mr. Blaney was ; if not, he brought it up,
by force. For Mr. Blaney was feverishly happy in the
exercise of his official functions as " Committee of One
to provide candidates." He had more leisure than had
any one else on the parish committee ; he was restless,
and suggestive, and ambitious of power. You would
have thought that he carried the destinies of empires in
his hands, as he walked along the street ; and when he
closed his jaw with an impressive firmness of resolve,
the stubby white beard on his chin hid the weak reces
sion of that feature, and he looked, with his corrugated
brow, really Bismarckian.
Some of the more substantial and conservative mem
bers of the parish agreed with the counsel given to Mr.
Marshall by the retiring pastor, that the vacancy be filled
as soon as possible, and that advice and suggestions be
asked of several of the leading clergymen of the denomi
nation. These sensible members of the parish knew, by
experience, that the period of candidating is injurious to
the best life of any church ; they had seen the harm of
it, on previous occasions, when the entire congregation
HUNTING MINISTERS 93
sat, Sunday after Sunday, at what purported to be a ser
vice of divine worship, but really was a " committee of
the whole," a sort of enlarged jury, watchful and criti
cal, with all worshipful emotions driven away, and the
always dangerous faculty of fault-finding temporarily
in control.
Therefore these sensible and anxious people, dreading
the fall of the spiritual thermometer which always re
sults at such times (and usually rises very slowly and
feebly afterward) these persons hoped for a brief
period of candidating, and urged methods which would
tend to shorten it.
Little did those who urged this reflect upon the nature
and tendencies of Mr. Wilbur Blaney, " Committee of
Supplies." Could they for one moment suppose that
he, having once grasped the sceptre of power, would
so easily lay it down ? Not he. He had always dearly
loved power, had abused it when he obtained it, and
rarely had it been bestowed on him by the same person
or organization a second time. However, there he was,
clothed with authority to invite and reject applicants, to
say absolutely who should or should not occupy the
pulpit of Emmanuel Church, for one or more Sundays.
" The power of the keys " was his temporarily, and he
jingled and jangled them on every occasion, public or
private. " Choose a pastor soon ? " No, indeed. He
did not believe in such haste. " Let s go slow," he said
frequently, his zeal getting the better of his diction ; and
again, with what seemed to himself surprising business
sagacity, when he was with Dr. Mixer or Mr. Marshall,
he laid his forefinger beside his nose, winked knowingly,
and remarked, " Candidating on Sunday costs less than
supporting a minister all the week ; chance now for
Emmanuel Church to catch up with itself." Which was
good management, from the treasury point of view, for
94 RONALD CARNAQUAY
a brief period ; but was very short-sighted economy when
the real growth and welfare of the church was considered.
The one secret thorn that pricked Mr. Blaney, as he went
forward in his important duties, was the annoying cer
tainty that sooner or later somebody must be chosen.
But that dreaded day of his own undoing he was re
solved to put as far away as possible. Meanwhile, what
candidates were available ?
So soon as the fact of Mr. Freeman s resignation had
become noised abroad, letters had begun to come in,
some to Dr. Mixer, some to Mr. Pidge, and many to
Mr. Freeman. These letters were now all turned over