SETTLING QUESTIONS.
"THERE is Bible for that doctrine too."
"Where?" Flossy asked, turning quickly to Marion.
"In this verse: "If meat maketh my brother to offend, I will eat no meat while the world stands." Don"t you see you never can know which brother may be made to offend?"
"And it is even about so useful a thing as food," said Flossy, looking her amazement; she had never heard that verse before in her life. "About just that thing; and nothing so really unnecessary to a complete life as card-playing may be."
"Col. Baker sneers at the inconsistency of people who have nothing to do with cards, and who play croquet," Eurie said this with cheeks a little heightened in color; she had come in contact with Col. Baker on this very question.
Ruth looked up quickly from the paper on which she was scribbling.
"I think myself," she said, "that if it should seem necessary to me to give up cards entirely, consistency would oblige me to include croquet, and all other games of that sort."
"I shouldn"t feel obliged to do any such thing," Marion said, promptly; "at least, not until I had become convinced that people played croquet late into the night, in rooms smelling of tobacco and liquor, and were tempted to drink freely of the latter, and p.a.w.n their coats, if necessary, to get money enough to carry out the game. You see, there is a difference."
"Yet people can gamble in playing croquet," Eurie said, thoughtfully.
"Oh, yes, and people can gamble with pins, or in tossing up pennies. The point is, they are not in the habit of doing it; and pins suggest no such thing to people in general; neither do croquet b.a.l.l.s; while the fact remains that the ordinary use of cards, is to gamble with them; and comparatively few of those who use them habitually confine themselves to quiet home games. People are in danger of making their brothers offend by their use; we all know that."
"If that is true, then just that one verse from the Bible ought to settle the whole question." There was no mistaking the quiet meaning in Flossy"s voice; it was as good as saying that the whole question _was_ settled for her. Marion regarded her with evident satisfaction; her manner was all the more fascinating, because she was so entirely unconscious that this way of looking at questions, rather than this firm manner of settling questions, was not common, even among Christians.
"Can you show me the verse in your Bible?" she presently asked.
"I can do that same with the greatest pleasure," Marion said, bringing forward a new and shining concordance. "I really meant to have a new dress this fall; I say that, Ruthie, for your special comfort; but the truth is, there was an army of Bible verses that I learned in my youth trooping up to me, and I had such a desire to see the connection, and find out what they were all about, that I was actually obliged to sacrifice the dress and get a concordance. I have lots of comfort with it. Here is the verse, Flossy."
Flossy drew the Bible toward her with a little sigh.
"I wish I knew an army of verses," she said. "Seems to me I don"t know any at all." Then she went to reading.
"I know verses enough," Eurie said, "but they seem to be in a great muddle in my brain. I can"t remember that any of them were ever explained to me; and it isn"t very often that I find a place where any of them will fit in."
"They do fit in, though, and with astonishing closeness, you will find, as you grow used to them. I have been amazed at that feature of the Bible. Some of the verses that occur in the selections for parsing are just wonderful; they seem aimed directly at me. What have you found, Flossy?"
"Wonderful things," said Flossy, flushing and smiling.
"You are reading backward, aren"t you? I know those verses; just you let me read them, subst.i.tuting the object about which we are talking, and see how they will fit. You see, girls, this astonishing man, Paul by name--do you happen to know his history?--more wonderful things happened to him than to any other mortal I verily believe. Well, he was talking about idols, and advising his Christian friends not to eat the food that had been offered to idols; not that it would hurt them, but because--well, you"ll see the "because" as I read. I"ll just put in our word, for an ill.u.s.tration, instead of meat. "But cards commend us not to G.o.d: for neither if we play are we the better; neither if we play not, are we the worse. But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling-block to them that are weak; for if any man see thee which hast knowledge, sit at cards, shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to sit at cards also? And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish for whom Christ died? But when ye sin so against the brethren and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ. Wherefore if cards make my brother to offend, I will play no more cards while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend." Doesn"t that fit?"
"Let me look at that," said Eurie, suddenly, drawing the Bible to her.
"After all," she said, after a moment, "what right have you to subst.i.tute the word cards? It is talking about another matter."
"Now, Eurie Mitch.e.l.l, you are too bright to make such a remark as that!
If the Bible is for our help as well as for Paul"s, we have surely the right to subst.i.tute the noun that fits our present needs. We have no idols nowadays; at least they are not made out of wood and stone; and the logic of the question is as clear as sunlight. We have only to understand that the matter of playing cards is a snare and a danger to some people, and we see our duty clearly enough, because, how are we ever to be sure that the very person who will be tempted is not within the reach of our influence. What do you think, Flossy? Is the question any clearer to you?"
"Why, yes," Flossy said, slowly, "that eighth verse settles it: "For meat commendeth us not to G.o.d, for neither if we eat are we the better, neither if we eat not are we the worse." It certainly can do no one any harm if I let cards alone, and it is equally certain that it may do harm if I play them. I should think my duty was clear."
"I wonder what Col. Baker will say to that duty?" queried Eurie, thinking aloud rather than speaking to any one. "He is very much given over to the amus.e.m.e.nt, if I am not mistaken."
Flossy raised her eyes and fixed them thoughtfully on Eurie"s face, while a flush spread all over her own pretty one. Was it possible that she had helped to foster this taste in Col. Baker. How _many_ evenings she had spent with him in this way. _Was_ he very much addicted to the use of cards, she wondered; that is, outside of their own parlor? Eurie seemed to know something about it.
"What makes you think so?" she asked, at last.
"Because I know so. He has a great deal to do with Nell"s infatuation.
He was the very first one with whom Nell ever played for anything but fun. Flossy Shipley, you surely know that he derives a good deal of his income in that way?"
"I certainly did _not_ know it," Flossy said, with an increasing glow on her cheeks. The glow was caused by wondering how far her own brother, Charlie, had been led by this man.
"Girls," said Marion, concluding that a change of subject would be wise, "wouldn"t a Bible reading evening be nice?"
"What kind of an evening can that be?"
Marion laughed.
"Why, a reading together out of the Bible about a certain subject, or subjects, that interested us, and about which we wanted to inform ourselves? Like this, for instance. I presume there are dozens of texts that bear on this very question. It would be nice to go over them together and talk them up."
Flossy"s eyes brightened.
"I would like that exceedingly," she said. "I need the help of you all.
I know so very little about the Bible. We have musical evenings, and literary evenings; why not Bible evenings? Let"s do it."
"Apropos of the subject in hand, before we take up a new one, what do you think of this by way of ill.u.s.tration?" Ruth asked, as she threw down on the table a daintily written epistle. There was an eager grasping after it by this merry trio, and Eurie securing it, read aloud. It was an invitation for the next evening to a select gathering of choice spirits for the purpose of enjoying a social evening at cards.
"What do you propose to do with it?" Marion asked, as Eurie balanced the note on her hand with an amused face; the ill.u.s.tration fitted so remarkably into the talk.
"Decline it," Ruth said, briefly. And then added, as an after-thought, "I never gave the subject any attention in my life. I am, perhaps, not entirely convinced now, only I see as Flossy does, that I shall certainly do no harm by declining; whereas it seems I may possibly do some by accepting; therefore, of course, the way is clear."
She said it with the utmost composure, and it was evident that the idea of such a course being disagreeable to her, or of her considering it a cross to decline, had not occurred to her. She cared nothing at all about these matters, and had only been involved in them as a sort of necessity belonging to society. She was more than willing to be "counted out."
As for Flossy, she drew a little sigh of envy. She would have given much to have been const.i.tuted like Ruth Erskine. She knew that the same like invitation would probably come to her, and she knew that she would decline it; but, aside from loss of the pleasure and excitement of the pretty toilet and the pleasant evening among her friends, she foresaw long and wearisome discussions with Col. Baker, with Charlie, with her father; sarcastic remarks from Kitty and her lover, and a long train of annoyances. She dreaded them all; it was so easy to slip along with the current; it was so hard to stem it and insist on going the other way.
As for Marion Wilbur, she envied them both; a chance for them to dash out into a new channel and make some headway, not the everlasting humdrum sameness that filled her life.
Flossy was fascinated with the Bible words, that were so new and fresh to her.
"Those verses cover a great deal of ground," she said, slowly reading them over again. "I can think of a good many things which we call right enough, that, measured by that test, would have to be changed or given up. But, Marion, you spoke of dancing and theatre-going. I can"t quite see what the verses have to do with either of those amus.e.m.e.nts; I mean not as we, and the people in our set, have to do with such things. Do you think every form of dancing is wicked?"
"What wholesale questions you ask, my morsel! And you ask them precisely as though I had been made umpire and you must abide by my decisions, whatever they are. Now, do you know I never believed in dancing? I had some queer, perhaps old-fashioned, notions about it all my life. Even before there was any such thing as a conscientious scruple about it, I should not have danced if I had had a hundred chances to mingle in just the set that you do; so, perhaps, I am not the one of whom to ask that question."
"I should think you were just the one. If you have examined it, and know why you think so, you can surely tell me, and give me a chance to see whether I ought to think as you do or not."
"_I_ need posting, decidedly, on that question," Eurie said, throwing off her earnestness and looking amused. "If there is anyone thing above another that I do thoroughly enjoy, it is dancing; and I give you all fair warning, I don"t mean to be coaxed out of it very easily. I shall fight hard for that bit of fun. Marion don"t know anything about it, for she never danced; but the rest of you know just what a delicious exercise it is; and I don"t believe, when it is indulged in reasonably, and at proper places, there is any harm at all in it. If I am to give it up, you will have to show me strong reasons why I should."
"All this fits right in with my idea," Marion said. "Nothing could be more suitable for our first Bible reading. Let us take an evening for it, and prepare ourselves as well as we can beforehand, and examine into the Bible view of it. Eurie, you will be expected to be armed with all the Scriptural arguments in its favor. I"ll try for the other side. Now, Ruth and Flossy, which side will you choose?"
"Neither," Ruth said, promptly. "I am interested in the subject, and shall be glad to be informed as to what the Bible says about it, if any of you are smart enough to find anything that will bear on the subject; but I believe the Bible left that, as well as some other things, to our common sense, and that each of us have to decide the matter for ourselves."
"All right," said Marion, "we"ll accept you on the non-committal side.