Annie Kilburn

Putney got upon his feet and called out, "Mr. Moderator, will Brother

Gerrish allow me to ask him a single question?"

Mr. Peck put the request, and Mr. Gerrish involuntarily made a pause, in

which Putney pursued-"My question is simply this: doesn't Brother Gerrish think it would help

us to get at the business in hand sooner if he would print the rest of his

advertisement in the Hatboro' _Register_?"

A laugh broke out all over the house as Putney dropped back into his seat.

Mr. Gerrish stood apparently undaunted.

"I will attend to you presently, sir," he said, with a schoolmasterly

authority which made an impression in his favour with some. "And I thank

the gentleman," he continued, turning again to address the minister, "for

recalling me from a side issue. As he acknowledges in the suggestion which

he intended to wound my feelings, but I can assure him that my self-respect

is beyond the reach of slurs and innuendoes; I care little for them; I

care not what quarter they originate from, or have their--their origin;

and still less when they spring from a source notoriously incompetent and

unworthy to command the respect of this community, which has abused all its

privileges and trampled the forbearance of its fellow-citizens under foot,

until it has become a--a byword in this place, sir."

Putney sprang up again with, "Mr. Moderator--" "No, sir! no, sir!" pursued

Gerrish; "I will not submit to your interruptions. I have the floor, and I

intend to keep it. I intend to challenge a full and fearless scrutiny of

my motives in this matter, and I intend to probe those motives in others.

Why do we find, sir, on the one side of this question as its most active

exponent a man outside of the church in organising a force within this

society to antagonise the most cherished convictions of that church? We

do not asperse his motives; but we ask if these motives coincide with

the relations which a Christian minister should sustain to his flock as

expressed in the resolution which I have had the privilege to offer, more

in sorrow than in anger."

Putney made some starts to rise, but quelled himself, and finally sank back

with an air of ironical patience. Gerrish's personalities had turned public

sentiment in his favour. Colonel Marvin came over to Putney's pew and shook

hands with him before sitting down by his side. He began to talk with him

in whisper while Gerrish went on-"But on the other hand, sir, what do we see? I will not allude to myself

in this connection, but I am well aware, sir, that I represent a large and

growing majority of this church in the stand I have taken. We are tired,

sir--and I say it to you openly, sir, what has been bruited about in secret

long enough--of having what I may call a one-sided gospel preached in this

church and from this pulpit. We enter our protest against the neglect of

very essential elements of Christianity--not to say the essential--the

representation of Christ as--a--a spirit as well as a life. Understand me,

sir, we do not object, neither I nor any of those who agree with me, to the

preaching of Christ as a life. That is all very well in its place, and it

is the wish of every true Christian to conform and adapt his own life as

far as--as circumstances will permit of. But when I come to this sanctuary,

and _they_ come, Sabbath after Sabbath, and hear nothing said of my

Redeemer as a--means of salvation, and nothing of Him crucified; and when I

find the precious promises of the gospel ignored and neglected continually

and--and all the time, and each discourse from yonder pulpit filled up with

generalities--glittering generalities, as has been well said by another--in

relation to and connection with mere conduct, I am disappointed, sir, and

dissatisfied, and I feel to protest against that line of--of preaching.

During the last six months, Sabbath after Sabbath, I have listened in

vain for the ministrations of the plain gospel and the tenets under

which we have been blessed as a church and as--a--people. Instead of

this I have heard, as I have said--and I repeat it without fear of

contradiction--nothing but one-idea appeals and mere moralisings upon duty

to others, which a child and the veriest tyro could not fail therein; and I

have culminated--or rather it has been culminated to me--in a covert attack

upon my private affairs and my way of conducting my private business in a

manner which I could not overlook. For that reason, and for the reasons

which I have recapitulated--and I challenge the closest scrutiny--I felt

it my duty to enter my public protest and to leave this sanctuary, where I

have worshipped ever since it was erected, with my family. And I now urge

the adoption of the foregoing resolution because I believe that your

usefulness has come to an end to the vast majority of the constituent

members of this church; and--and that is all."