The bell on the orthodox church called the members of Mr. Peck's society

together for the business meeting with the same plangent, lacerant note

that summoned them to worship on Sundays. Among those who crowded the house

were many who had not been there before, and seldom in any place of the

kind. There were admirers of Putney: workmen of rebellious repute and of

advanced opinions on social and religious questions; nonsuited plaintiffs

and defendants of shady record, for whom he had at one time or another done

what he could. A good number of the summer folk from South Hatboro' were

present, with the expectation of something dramatic, which every one felt,

and every one hid with the discipline that subdues the outside of life in a

New England town to a decorous passivity.

At the appointed time Mr. Peck rose to open the meeting with prayer; then,

as if nothing unusual were likely to come before it, he declared it ready

to proceed to business. Some people who had been gathering in the vestibule

during his prayer came in; and the electric globes, which had been recently

hung above the pulpit and on the front of the gallery in substitution of

the old gas chandelier, shed their moony glare upon a house in which few

places were vacant. Mr. Gerrish, sitting erect and solemn beside his wife

in their pew, shared with the minister and Putney the tacit interest of the

audience.

He permitted the transaction of several minor affairs, and Mr. Peck, as

Moderator, conducted the business with his habitual exactness and effect

of far-off impersonality. The people waited with exemplary patience,

and Putney, who lounged in one corner of his pew, gave no more sign of

excitement, with his chin sunk in his rumpled shirt-front, than his

sad-faced wife at the other end of the seat.

Mr. Gerrish rose, with the air of rising in his own good time, and said,

with dry pomp, "Mr. Moderator, I have prepared a resolution, which I will

ask you to read to this meeting."

He held up a paper as he spoke, and then passed it to the minister, who

opened and read it-"_Whereas_, It is indispensable to the prosperity and well-being of

any and every organisation, and especially of a Christian church, that the

teachings of its minister be in accord with the convictions of a majority

of its members upon vital questions of eternal interest, with the end and

aim of securing the greatest efficiency of that body in the community, as

an example and a shining light before men to guide their steps in the

strait and narrow path; therefore "_Resolved_, That a committee of this society be appointed to inquire

if such is the case in the instance of the Rev. Julius W. Peck, and be

instructed to report upon the same."




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