The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1877-06-29

looked upon King GreensborOugh as an
inc, rrigible unbeliever, until he sud-
denly became a convert. Latterly he
had been going occasionally to the
Me- hOdist Church, where a new preacher
had been installed, whose eloquence
Martha deeply longed to hear, but the
stern will of her iron-sided father for
bade it, thereby rendering her lonely
anC sorrowiI g, for Martha was secretly
an6 earnest y in love with King, and
she desired most of all to go whitherso-
eve he went, and that his God might
be hers, even as was the God of Boaz
the God of Ruth.
1t was Sunday night. The big church
with the new preacher was filled to
overlooking, and Martha sat demurely
beside her mother listening Dervously
to the sonorous inharmony that the
Major mistook for singing as it rolled
from his rasped and rasping throat,
when suddenly the maiden's heart be-
gan a wilder beating as she saw her
souls ideal step majestically down the
aisle and take his seat among the scat
tered audience.
"What has brought King over from
the big church ?" whispered Mrs. Mar
blehead,, whereat Martha was taken
with sudden fit of inattentiOh and
! pretended not to hear.
az thought so sensible young man
would prove to be one of the elect,U re-
sumed the good dame, who spoke in a
whisper, for she generally Obeyed the
injunction of Paul to listen in silence,
with all subjection, and if she would
learn anything, to ask her husband at
home.
This implicit reliance upon her legal
head was a source of constant security
to Mrs. Marblehead Not that she was
destitute of will power, logic, or intui-
tion of her own, but she had so long
held these inherent gifts in allegiance to
the law of her husband, that both of
them would have looked for an imme-
diate opening of the yawning gulf to
swallow her into the quenchless fires of
eternity if she had dared to use those
gifts for an instant, except in conform
ity with the expressed injunction of the
head of the woman, who (the head was
so much unlike the Prototype that he
never once thought of laying aside so
much as pet prejudice to please her.
As to laying down his life for her sake
nonsense! He never read any other
Scriptures than those suiting his creed,
and he did not remember that there
were any such illusions in the New
Testament.
Kingston Greensborough entered one
of the high-backed pews and seated
himself where he could obtain an unin-
terrupted view of Martha's blushing
glances. Love needs no Interpreter ex-
cept its own instinct, and revival meet
ings are CupiPs harvest seasons.
Now, good orthodox reader, don't get
shocked, and refuse to follow this DER
true narrative further because l have
dared to assert a philosophical fact. I
need not thus admonish you, however,
for no matter how much you may OBJ
ject to this plain expression of the truth,
away down in your heart of hearts you
will assent to it as fact, and in assent
ing, will unwittingly phiIosophise.
Time was when it was considered
blasphemOus to account for any of the
natural phenomena in any way con-
nected with religion upon scientific
principles. It is not more than thirty
years since my grandmother, a marvel
of piety and conscientiousness, took me
most severely to task for having learned
in school, and presumed to repeat in her
hearing, the fact that the reflection of
the sunlight upon the clouds from the
falling drops of water formed the rain
bow.
"God made the rainbow" she said,
land placed it in the heavens as a sign
that there should never be another flood;
and it was not for us to fathom the un-
movable by ascertaining how He did
it,"
You may smile at her simplicity,
reader, but not more verdant was she
than are you if you would make your
self believe there is no natural phiIoso-
ply in religion or revivals that leads to
love and marriages.
Very solemn and very exciting had
been the protracted services before King
GreensbOrough entered the church, and
now it was unfortunate that he should
enter and be seated just in time to hear
the Majors sonorOus jangle, which
could not by any stretch of the imagi-
nation be construed into melody. It
was unfortunate, because the young
man had only the evening before been
the recipient of the change of heart he
had been seeking diligently for a week
or more, and his object in attending the
Baptist Church on the present occasion,
aside from seeing Martha, who had ex-
perienced change, too, was to offer
himself as candidate for church men,
bership, that he might henceforth be
considered as one of the elect.
am afraid the young man was actu-
ated by motive in joining, or desiring
to join this particular church, which