Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-03-06
DEACON RARKER,S CONVERSION.
By H. A. BERTON.

Or the severa pillars of the church al
Pawkin Centre, Deacon Barker was by
al odds the strongest. His orthodoxy
Ms tie admiration of the entire congre.
CATION, and the terror of all the ministers
within easy driving distance of the Dea-
cons natiYe village. He it was who had
argued the late pastor of the Pawkin Cen
tire church into that state of dsquietude
which had carred him, through a few
daysof dellrious fever, into the church
triumphant3 and it was also Deacon Bar
ker whose questions at the examination
of soe&efs Tor the ex-pastor's shoes had
cast Transformation into divinity
school,, Tar and near, that soon it was
very hard 70 find candidate for minis
teriAl hOnors at Pawkin Centre.
Nor WIS his faith made manifest by
words aaone.s Be the weather what it
might. ne Deacon was always in his pew,
both morning and evening, in time to
Join in the first hymn, and on every
Thursday night, at quarter past seven
n wlntag. and quarter before eight in
SUMMED, t6good Deacon's cane and shoes
could be heard coming solemnly down
The aisle bringing to the prayer meeting
the champion OF orthodoxy. Nor did the
holy air III the prayer meeting even one
single evening fail to vibrate to the voice
Of the BeecOn, as he made, in Scriptural
hamble confession and fearful
before the throne, or-still
strictly 6iptural in expression-he
warned md exhorted the impenitent.
The contzlbafion-box always received his
slxpo1co eng as specie payment last
ed, and mallest fractional currency
note theEgq1er; and to each Of the regu-
lar annuAI aderings to the missionary
cause, The Bible cause, and kindred
Christian cater prises, the Deacon regu-
larly Cent? 6uted his dollar and his pray
ers.
The Deacon could quote Scripture in a
manner which put Biblical professors to
the blush, and every principle of his
creed 70 bristled with texts contirmatory.
and aggressive, that doubters
we're rebuked and free thinkers We're
speedily reduced to speechless humility
u rage. But the unregenerate, and even
Iome who professed Righteousness, de-
Jared that more fondly than to any other
5criptural passage did the good Deacon
cling to the Injunction, Make to your
selves friends of the mammon of I'M
'ighteousness. Meekly insisting that he
vas only steward OF the Lord, he put
,ut his IoEdk money that he might re.
,elvc + Agai1 With usury, and so success
III had he been that almost all mortga ges
held en- property near Pawkin Centre
we're n the lands of the good Deacon,
md lew Nere the foreclosure sales in
which he - not the seller.
The - ostor at Pawkin Centre. like
gooo pa.eQ everywhere, had tortured
nimeeak AMY headache over the
perRa question, Glow are we to
lesen l. enitent in our midst?" The
; : T.. were, with but few excep-
|, ~ pN nous, honest, respectable,
Ia /" }. g. r, 49, ople, and the worthy pastor,
as lu,l4 gnated with Yankee thrift
As 49, shuddered to think of the
= 49, that was constantly threat
o .IA 8. 1h, like many another pas
. . 3 meeting of the brethren
~ ~ consider this momentous
7 Deacon came, Of course,
e'1 A =. the other pillars, and many
~ GO. s.. ~ ented their views. Brother
ea..s j the final doom of the i'm
= ~ ad be more forcibly present
81 :; truggs had an abiding con-
80 : ) 81 was the Man of Sin hold
Ins W 1850 In their hearts that kept
. -. r. way from the means of
$500 s Ponder mildly suggested
that the on3eek might perhaps he Attained
IT those Within the fold maintained a nn ,
godly Walk md conversation. INT ba NO
promptly though covertly rebuked hy NJ
goQ0 Ne0u Barker, who reminded tbo
trctn1en HI "it is the Shirt thai oI,; Oh
eneth Brother Elite, who hadn,t an,,
money, thought the church ought 70 bniid
working-men's chapel" but this idea
Vas promptly and vigorously combated
~ - IN 81 property in the congregation
- the usual closing hour had
r. - I'D after benediction the faith.
1 81, each with about the ideas he
49, the meeting.
n.sx.9 morning the good Deacon
49, ~ his mind half full of the
.,ne.. nnconverted, and half of his
ha ..ssss G.. shed, took his stick and
-.s.sss9a4 lt the village in search of a
tr... IT, nnlSh the incompleted struc-
r. -. !. was Moggs, but Moggs had
~. ~. a ~ the season, and it would be
- e,aaeS TO want full price for days
r. zsszl 9 was idle, but Stubb was
49, II .,,Augur used LIQUOR, and
~ iong ago firmly resolved
hS5s = - OF h1s money, if he could
~ ~ 0uiu ever go for the accursed
49, -. ot there was Hay-he hadn't
49, S.!|!1 y work for a long time-per-
...p Nould be anxious enough for
Wofk 10 it cheaply. ''