Why, then, had he revolted? He had called Christianity a delusion and a snare. A benumbing superst.i.tion, an invention of priests for the enslavement of men and women. In his defence of the position he had taken up he had pointed out that Christianity had stood for slavery, for war, for oppression, for persecution, for greed, and for the rule of the strong over the rights and consciences of the weak. Had he been wrong in this contention? And if not, where was the discrepancy?
Could it be true that Christ stood for one thing, and Christianity for another? In other words, was the thing that bore the name of Christianity, Christianity at all? Did it bear anything but the most distant resemblance to that sweet and enn.o.bling influence that Jesus breathed into the life of the world?
He became interested in the problem. The bells ceased their wild revel, and a little company of carol singers broke out in the front garden:
Hark! the glad sound, the Saviour comes, The Saviour promised long, Let every heart prepare a throne, And every voice a song.
They sang well and tunefully, sustaining all the parts, and throwing heart and enthusiasm into the exercise. He listened with interest and pleasure. A new chord seemed to have been struck in his nature. A fresh window had been opened in his mind. A year ago the carol might have irritated him, and he would probably have laid the flattering unction to his soul, that he had outgrown a mouldy and moth-eaten superst.i.tion.
He wondered if loving Madeline Grover had made his heart sensitive to new influences, or if it was the possibility of a speedy escape from life that had turned his heart anew to these questions.
The carol-singers had come to honour his grandfather. He was no longer their pastor. He had preached till he was eighty--preached till his once crowded congregation had dwindled down to a mere handful, and the glory of "Zion," as the chapel was called, had become but a memory. Yet his name was revered still. For fifty years and more he had lived in Tregannon, and had lived a life of strict and severe integrity, and, though the younger generation had drifted away from his ministry, and "Zion" was no longer enthusiastic about the terms of its t.i.tle-deeds, yet there was no one who had not a good word to speak of the white-haired supernumerary.
He heard the door open at length. The old servant had gone down to let the singers in, and he knew there would be cocoa and saffron cake, and a word of welcome and exhortation from his grandfather. It was pleasant, after all, to be remembered with so much affection after a life of eighty-four years.
Rufus wondered if his name would ever be held in any degree of esteem by his fellows, or if he would live unhonoured, and die unlamented. Why was it his grandfather"s name was so much revered? Was it the manner of his life or the character of his preaching that had touched the heart and imagination of Tregannon?
He had not much difficulty in answering that question. n.o.body cared about his sermons now. The few that were remembered, were remembered only to be discussed and discarded. His criticisms of Luther, his fierce attacks on Arminianism, his deadly a.s.saults on Darwin and Huxley, who were beginning to be talked about, his righteous scorn at infant baptism, his ponderous defence of verbal inspiration, his laboured expositions of the prophecies of Daniel, his flounderings in the deep waters of the Apocalypse, his weighty disquisitions on foreknowledge and predestination, and his nicely-balanced definitions of such terms as atonement, justification, regeneration and the like--what did they all amount to now? Who recalled them or were made the better by them? The thing that mattered was goodness. In so far as he had set an example of uprightness of character, of simplicity of aim, of unselfishness in his dealings with his fellows, he had lived to purpose. The sermon that all Tregannon remembered was his upright life. Austere he had always been, carrying himself with a certain reserve that no one could break down, but beneath a cold and placid surface there had beaten a genuinely human heart. To the poor and suffering and heartbroken he had proved himself through two generations a genuine friend. Hence it was that though he had lived in retirement for the last four years his name was held in reverence still.
Rufus found himself debating the question from a fresh standpoint. Was Christianity what his grandfather preached, or what he lived? He had heard him declare from the pulpit, with pa.s.sionate vehemence, that good works were filthy rags, and that morality might be a millstone around the neck to sink the soul in deeper perdition. Yet who cared for his grandfather"s theology in Tregannon? The thing that made his name revered was that very morality which he had so often warned his hearers against.
"There"s a screw loose somewhere," Rufus said to himself, with a smile.
"Perhaps I had better read the New Testament again and try to find out what Christianity is. What pa.s.ses in its name I like as little as ever I did. Its priestly a.s.sumptions, its grotesque dogmas, its truculent grovelling at the feet of wealth, its pitiful squabblings about forms and orders, its defence of oppression and war, and most other abominations, its silence and helplessness in face of public corruption.
Great Scott! what does it all mean? Think of Christianity in Russia siding with the brutes who rule that unhappy land; think of it in France, where the people in disgust are trying to kick it out; think of it in England, allied to the State, intriguing for power and resorting to every kind of sharp practice to gain its own ends, and think of Jesus dying for a great ideal. I"ll give up the problem, it"s beyond me." And he got out of bed and began to dress. After breakfast he rather astonished the old people by announcing that he would go to chapel.
"I hope you will go, Rufus, in a proper spirit," the old man said, severely.
"I hope so," was the answer; "though I am bound to confess I am prompted mainly by a desire to hear your new minister."
The Rev. Reuben looked grave. "It is possible he may say something you may approve of. I grieve to say that even the pulpit is touched by what is called the modern spirit."
"But I hear that "Zion" is regaining some of its former glory."
"The congregations are large, I admit; but I fear in these days the people have itching ears."
"That has been true, I am told, of every generation."
"It may be so. Yet thirty years ago--aye, twenty years ago--the people endured sound doctrine even when it was galling to the flesh."
"And to-day, grandfather?"
The old man shook his head and smiled sadly. "I fear me they have no stomach for strong meat," he said, pathetically.
"Well, it is not a bit of use trying to swallow what we cannot digest,"
Rufus said, with a laugh. "However, I will hear this Rev. Marshall Brook for myself."
He felt painfully conspicuous as he walked into the chapel behind the stooping form of his grandfather--the little grandmother was too feeble to attend. He thought that everybody was eyeing him with an unnecessary amount of curiosity. He slipped into the far corner of the pew, the place where he had spent many a weary and painful hour in the years gone by, and for awhile he kept his eyes fixed upon the floor. A quiet, slow-moving voluntary was being played on the organ, around him was a faint rustle of silks and the shuffling of feet. From the vestibule came a subdued hum of voices as acquaintances met and exchanged Christmas greetings.
Rufus was carried back again to the days of his boyhood and youth. The present was forgotten. He had never been away from Tregannon. He was still a lad. He had a jack-knife in his pocket and a white alley and a piece of cobbler"s wax and several yards of string. That was Billy Beswarick"s suppressed cough coming from a neighbouring pew, and he was sure d.i.c.k Daddo was behind him waiting to pull his hair.
He raised his eyes at length, and the illusion partially vanished; but not altogether. There was the same organ--how often he had counted its gilt dummy pipes; new bra.s.s book-rests had been placed in the gallery front for the convenience of the choir--that was an innovation, and brought him down to more modern days. The iron pillars that supported the galleries were festooned with evergreens, and over the arch of the organ loft was a text of Scripture, conspicuous in white against a scarlet background:--"On earth peace and good will toward men."
The text set Rufus thinking again. He rather wondered that anyone had the courage to put it up. Perhaps the young people had done it, unthinkingly, for no sentiment could be more incongruous or out of place. The air was full of the clash of arms, the newspapers contained little else than records of battle and slaughter. Ministers all over the country were preaching sermons on patriotism and Imperialism. Churches and Sunday-schools were organising boys" brigades, and children were being taught how to shoot. Here and there a solitary voice protested against all war as unchristian, but the voice in the main was unheeded.
How could war be unchristian? How could killing on a large scale be anything but an enn.o.bling occupation? How could defending homes that were not attacked and destroying homes that were not defended, be anything less than heroic? How could stealing your neighbour"s birthright and possessing his inheritance be anything but righteous?
"There"s evidently a screw loose somewhere," he said to himself, with a smile. "If that text sets forth the objective of Christ"s mission, then a good deal that pa.s.ses muster as Christianity to-day is loathsome hypocrisy."
Then his attention was arrested by the entrance of the minister into the pulpit. A young man with a frank, boyish face, large, square forehead, a wide mouth, strong chin and jaw--all this he took in at a glance. A moment later he noticed that his dress was unclerical, his hands small and brown, his eyes deep-set and dark.
Rufus felt interested in the man. Accustomed as he had been during all the years of his boyhood and youth to seeing the tall, stiff, clerical figure of his grandfather in the pulpit, there seemed something delightfully free and unconventional about this young man. The pulpit "tone" was absent from his voice, the pulpit manner he had evidently not yet learnt, the pulpit expression had to be acquired.
Rufus got far back in his childhood days again during the singing and prayers. But directly the text was announced and the minister began to preach he felt wide awake and interested. To begin with, all his early notions about preaching were rudely upset. Taking his grandfather as a model this young man did not preach at all. He just talked and talked in a most delightfully easy and quickening way.
The farther he advanced the more interested Rufus became. There were no attempts at oratory, no flights of rhetoric, no simulated pa.s.sion, no declamation, but just earnest, lucid talk. He forgot that he was in a chapel and this man in a pulpit. They might be anywhere--in a workshop or by the fireside--and the man was talking to them on a subject of deep and perennial interest. He did not dogmatise; he did not ignore objections and difficulties. He faced every problem fairly and fearlessly, and gave his reason for the faith that was in him.
"The desire of all nations shall come," was the text. What was the desire of all nations? What was the deep, pa.s.sionate longing of all thoughtful, serious people of all ages and of all countries? And how was that longing met in Jesus of Nazareth?
On the first point he touched Rufus to the quick. He described every mental emotion through which he had pa.s.sed, and showed how every merely human philosophy had failed to satisfy the need of the human heart.
Every word of this part of the discourse was absolutely true to Rufus"s own experience.
But when the preacher came to deal with the second part of his subject, Rufus felt all his old scepticism returning with a rush; and yet so reasonably did the preacher talk that he was compelled to listen. He did not speak like an advocate with a bad case. There were no evasions, no special pleadings, no attempts to browbeat witnesses, or to sail off on side issues. He spoke as one who had fought his way through every phase of doubt, and had reached the serene heights of absolute conviction.
Christ had met his needs, and had answered his questions, had solved the riddle of life.
Rufus shook his head more than once unconsciously. The argument from experience might be satisfactory enough to those who had the experience, but he wanted proof. The experience of another man was of very little value to him.
If he could be sure that Christ spoke with absolute authority on these questions that vexed the human mind, then would he find rest also, but how was he to get that a.s.surance.
He walked home from chapel by his grandfather"s side in silence. The old man was as little disposed to talk as Rufus, but for a different reason.
After dinner Rufus went for a long walk alone. He wanted to shake off the effects of the sermon. Some of the conclusions of the preacher had made him feel distinctly uncomfortable. The possibility of life being a sacred trust for the use, or abuse, of which he would be held responsible by a Supreme Being was distinctly disquieting, especially in view of the unpleasant possibility that was hanging over his head.
If life were not his own to do as he liked with--to spend or end how or when seemed good in his own eyes--then his attempt to gamble with it was more immoral than for a trustee or a lawyer to gamble with his client"s property. Rufus had always prided himself on his honour. It was his sheet-anchor in all the mental storms through which he had pa.s.sed; but if in throwing his life into p.a.w.n he had p.a.w.ned his honour at the same time what was there left to him that was worth possessing? And if the worst should come to the worst, if, as he sometimes feared, his invention had been forestalled--not only a part of it, but the whole of it--if the demands of what he called honour should necessitate the giving up of his life, in what sort of moral dilemma would he find himself?
His compact with Muller began to appear in a more unpleasantly lurid light than it had ever done before. Could a man steal money to pay his debts with, and then boast of his honesty in paying? Could he discharge a debt of honour by an act that in itself was criminal?
It was dark when he got back to his grandfather"s house, but the influence of the sermon was still upon him. He had pa.s.sed cottages by the dozen from which had come sounds of mirth and festivity. Tregannon appeared to be enjoying itself to the full. The young people, untroubled about the future, were making merry in the hope and gladness of to-day; while he, having lost the faith of his childhood, had drifted into regions not only of hopelessness, but of peril.
"It seems but a poor exchange," he said, sadly, "but I shall have to make the best of it."
When he opened the door he was surprised to hear the voices of his grandfather and the Rev. Marshall Brook, in what seemed to him a very animated and even heated discussion.
CHAPTER XIX
AFTER THREE YEARS