The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1877-12-01
New England Confessional
-. ,,,,, pholrs,s ustory nj Avis"

"John" said wife, in the tone sn
used at tea, treading on his toes unde
the table when he propounded som
doctrine that savored OF laxity, with
conservative supply spending the Sun
day.
"What's the matter now?' asked John
giving the baby a double twist that tn
offspring of any less muscular Carlsti
anIty would have resented. "Have
said anything heretical again to-day
It'll .tLink-not. II sounds right on
the whole" said Coy anxlously; "out
never know where you'll turn up
John. An immortal soul is all right SC
far as it goes, OF course, John dear, bat
the trouble l have with theology Is,
never know what is coming next. And
your theology especially, somehow John,
is-you know ike to have you make 1t
yerv plsin, because the baby is usually
mixed up in it little (there you'll bump
her head y or else. you see-l ind 1t hard
to fix nv mind when I'm being kissed.
If I'd been intellectual, like Avis, l sup
nose | shouldn't mind. Certainly 1t Is
Quite true about the immortality OF the
soul. But old Mrs. Bobley-you know
the old lady behind the last pillar, who
always cries in the wrong place, with
the ironed purple strings to her bonnet
asked me yesterday what L thought
were your views as to the precise nature
of the ministerial vocation. L tod her
I'd ask. She said she hoped you realized,
for YOU were so very young, the awful
responsibility which rested on minister
If a single soul in his congregation had
never been worried-no, never been
warned, that was it-by his pastor. L
said | supposed so. And then she asked
me if | knew q good recipe to- Parker
house rolls. But now, John dear, III
tell you what / think q minister Is. he
is kind of a doctor, John, don't you
see?-s soul doctor l don't pretend to
understand about sin / suppose that's be-
cause | We never associated with wicked
peope); but it seems to me like an awful
disease. -sick-sck al about US, John.
And if you can cure them you know
"Amenl" SAID John gravely.
Cor if you could only ease them
little
"Amenl" SAID John again.
"Of course l don't mean quite by your
sel.-unless anybody-greater were be-
hind, said Coy quickly, slipping, with
the characteristic reticence OF the atmos-
phere in which she had been bred, from
explicit expression OF the more vital eIe-
ments of religious feeling. "But I've
been thinking, John, why shouldn't
munster have All office system, like doc
tor, and be at BONE SO many hours
day to aching people
1t was this suggestion which John
Rose, carrying out almost to the letter,
had made so memorable feature 10 his
Yarmouth work. He announced, not
only from the pulpit and in the vaguely
polite WAYS usually thought SUFFICIENT to
relieve the ministerial conscience, but
literally upon his modest door.plate' IKE
a physician of the body, that he VINO as
sumed to prescribe Tor the health OF the
soul would be within to patients from
such an hour, making II IN due time
quietly understood among the heterogen-
eous population of the town that ne he'd
himself auswerable TO the call OF any
creature in any lack, were it OF TREND
or pillow, were it OF heaven or din
ner, were it of forgiveness or fannels.
In the course or six months from the
Inauguration of this project the yonng
minister's heart and hands were over
whelmed with what Coy called the
"aching people" The aching people OF
\ place in which the Intelligence OF So
ciety is almost wholly absorbed in the
impairment and the reception OF intel
lectual culture, have certain bitterness
in their capacity and ability to ache
not to be matched in communities OF
broader and more human interests.
John Rose received into his healthy
Young heart as within the walls OF
newly. consecrated temple, these refugees
OF human fate, on Nh average perhaps 10
the number of twenty souls each day
Tins method of labor brought him In
contact with what we are wont 10 terra
the dangerous classes" of society. The
walls of that little study listened TO
strange histories, not often, In the chance
of human lots, brought across the thres-
hold OF delicate homes. Strange hgures
not known to the pew-roli OF the zen
tral church skuIked in on Sunday even
ings, and stood, savage, unkempt, IKE
Cantaurs, up and down the crowded
sisles. The heavy pew,ow 1ers were
grstided, and proposed mission church,
at these men snd women CO. l go
with them" SAID John Rose, In deep,
voice with which his deacons were not
familiar. Turn them out into mission
church, if you will; but you turn me
there too
So the rich and the poor met together
in this young prophets church. tor the
Lords sake. who was the Maker OF them
all. And John Rose, bent to his sacred
work with awed and humble eyes, seek
ing only on the knees OF his heart TO
know wherefore he had been found
worthy Of that fate than which neither
life nor death has more glorious to give
the Christian psstor-that the common
people heard him gladly.