"What does it mean?" asked Pitt.
"My dear," said his mother, "can there be a question what it means? The words are perfectly simple, it seems to me."
"Mamma, I am not talking to you. You may sit as judge and arbiter; but it is Miss Frere and I who are disputing. She will have the goodness to answer."
"I do not know what to answer," said the young lady. "Are not the words, as Mrs. Dallas says, perfectly plain?"
"Then surely it cannot be difficult to say what the teaching of them is?"
If it was not difficult, the continued silence of the lady was remarkable. She made no further answer.
"_Are_ they so plain? I have been puzzling over them. I will divide the question, and perhaps we can get at the conclusion better so. In the first place, who are these "servants" spoken of?"
"Everybody, I suppose. You have the advantage of me, Mr. Dallas; I have _not_ been studying the pa.s.sage."
"Yet you admit that we are bound to obey it."
"Yes," she said doubtfully. "Obey what?"
"That is precisely what I want to find out. Now the servants; they cannot mean everybody, for it says, he "called _his own_ servants;" the Greek is "bond-servants.""
"His servants would be His Church then."
"His own people. "He delivered unto them His goods." What are the goods he delivered to them? Some had more, some had less; all had a share and a charge. What are these goods?"
"I don"t know," said Miss Frere, looking at him.
"What were they to do with these goods?"
"Trade with them, it seems."
"In Luke the command runs so: "Trade till I come." Trading is a process by which the goods or the money concerned are multiplied. What are the goods given to you and me?--to bring the question down into the practical. It must be something with which we may increase the wealth of Him who has entrusted it to us."
"Pitt, that is a very strange way of speaking," said his mother.
"I am talking to Miss Frere, mamma. You have only to hear and judge between us. Miss Frere, the question comes to you."
"I should say it is not possible to increase "His wealth.""
"That is not _my_ putting of the case, remember. And also, every enlargement of His dominion in this world, every addition made to the number of His subjects, may be fairly spoken of so. The question stands, What are the goods? That is, if you like to go into it. I am not catechizing you," said Pitt, half laughing.
"I do not dislike to be catechized," said Miss Frere slowly. _By you_, was the mental addition. "But I never had such a question put to me before, and I am not ready with an answer."
"I never heard the question discussed either," said Pitt. "But I was reading this pa.s.sage yesterday, and could not help starting it. The "goods" must be, I think, all those gifts or powers by means of which we can work for G.o.d, and so work as to enlarge His kingdom. Now, what are they?"
"Of course we can pay money," said the young lady, looking a good deal mystified. "We can pay money to support ministers, if that is what you mean."
"So much is patent enough. Is money the only thing?"
Miss Frere looked bewildered, Mrs. Dallas impatient. She restrained herself, however, and waited. Pitt smiled.
"We pay money to support ministers and teachers. What do the ministers work with? what do they _trade_ with?"
"The truth, I suppose."
"And how do they make the truth known? By their lips, and by their lives; the power of the word, with the power of personal influence."
"Yes," said Miss Frere; "of course."
"Then the goods, or talents, so far as they are commonly possessed, and so far as we have discovered, are three: property, speech, and personal example. But the two last are entrusted to you and me, are they not, as well as the former?"
The girl looked at him now with big eyes, in which no shadow of self-consciousness was any more lurking. Eyes that were bewildered, astonished, inquiring, and also disturbed. "What do you mean?" she said helplessly.
"It comes to this," said Pitt. "If we are ready to obey the Bible, we shall use not only our money, but our tongues and ourselves to do the work which--you know--the Lord left to His disciples to do; make disciples of every creature. It will be our one business."
"How do you mean, our one business?"
"That to which we make all others subservient."
"Subservient! Yes," said Miss Frere. "Subservient in a way; but that does not mean that we should give up everything else for it."
Pitt was silent.
"My dear boy," said his mother anxiously, "it seems to me you are straining things quite beyond what is intended. We are not all meant to be clergymen, are we?"
"That is not the point, mamma. The point is, what work is given us?"
"That work you speak of is clergymen"s work."
"Mamma, what is the command?"
"But that does not mean everybody."
"Where is the excepting clause?"
"But, my dear, what would become of Society?"
"We may leave that. We are talking of obeying the Bible. I have given you one instance. Now I will give you another. It is written over here," and he turned a few leaves,--"it is another word of Christ to those whom He was teaching,--"If any man serve me, let him follow me."
Now here is a plain command; but what is it to follow Christ?"
"To imitate him, I suppose," said Miss Frere, to whom he looked.
"In what?"
The young lady looked at him in silence, and then said, "Why, we all know what it means when we say that such a person or such a thing is Christlike. Loving, charitable, kind"--
"But to _follow_ Him,--that is something positive and active. Literal following a person is to go where he has gone, through all the paths and to all the places. In the spiritual following, which is intended here,--what is it? It is to do as He did, is it not? To have His aims and purposes and views in life, and to carry them out logically."