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."