Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1877-12-04
A New England Confessional.
From, Miss pSe3,.s' .. Syoy-.y M Arfee-

john said wife, i'm the tone she used at
tea, treading on his toes under the table when
he propounded some doctrine that savored of
iaxity: with conservative supply spending
What's the matter now." asked John. Civ
ing the baby double twist that the offspring
oil any less muscular Christianity would have
again today"
I-th-thnk-not 1t sounds right on the
whole" said Coy anxiously; but l never know
where You'll turn up. John. An immortal soul
Is all right, so far as it goes. of course, John
dear. but the trouble have with theology is,
theology especially, somehow John, is-you
kn0w-l like To have You make il very plain,
because the baby is usually mixed up in lit
Tie ohere you'll bump her head y or else, you
see-I ma IT hard 10 fix my mind when I'm
being kissed. III I'd been intellectual. like
Avis, suppose 1 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
Ill the wrong place, with the ironed purple
strings to her bonnet-asked me yesterday
else nature of the ministerial vocation. told
her I'd ask. She said she hoped you realized,
Ior you was so very young, the awful respOn-
slbllity which rested on minister il single
soul In his congregation had never been wOr-
rled-no, never been warned, that was it-by
his pastor. 1 said supposed so. And then
she asked me IL L knew good receipt for
Parker house rolls. But now, John dear, I'll
tell you what think a minister is. He is a
Kind OF a doctor. John. don't YOU See?-a
soul-dOctor; l don't pretend TO understand
associated with wicked people,; but it seems
70 me like an awful disease,-like scarlet
fever. Peoples souls are sick-sick-sick al
about us. John. And if you can cure them.
|. You know
Amen" said John gravely.
Or if you could only ease them little
"Amen!" said John again.
O1 course don't mean quite by yourself
unless neutrality-suspicious. behind, " said
Coy quickly, slipping. with the characteristic
retlcence of the atmosphere in which she had
been bred, from explicit expression of the
more vital elements of religious feeling. But
I've been thinking, John. why shouldn't a
minister have an Office-system, like doctor,
and be at home SO many hours a day to ach-
ing people. ~
1t was this suggestion which John Rose, i'm
carrying out almost to the letter, had made so
memorable a feature in his Yarmouth work.
He announced, not only from the pulpit and
IN the vaguely polite ways usually thought SUI
ficlent TO relieve the ministerial conscience.
but literally upon his modest dOOr-plate. like a
physician of the body. that he who assumed to
prescribe for the health of the soul would be
within TO patients from such an hour to such
an hour, making II in due time quietly under
stood among the heterogeneous population of
the town that he held himself answerable to
the call OF any creature in any lack. were ii of
friend or pillow, were it of heaven or a
dinner, were il of forgiveness or fannelS.
In the course OF six months from the inaug-
uration OF this project the young ministers
Coy called the aching people" The aching
people of place in which the intelligence of
society Is almost wholly absorbed i'm the i'm.
partment and the reception of intellectual cul-
ture, have certain bitterness in their capaci-
ty and ability to ache not to be matched i'm
communities Of broader and more human in
tereStS.
John Rose received into his healthy young
heart, as within the walls of a newly-cOn
Grated temple, these refugees of human fate
on an average perhaps to the number of twenty
souls each day. This method of labor brought
him in contact with what We are wont to term
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 threshold of delicate homes
Strange figures not known to the pew-roll of
the Central church skulked i'm on Sunday
evenings, and stood, savage, unkempt. like
Centaurs, up and down the crowded asleS.
The heavy pew-OwnerS were gratified, and
proposed a mission church.
If these men and women go, / go with
Them" said John Rose, i'm deep voice with
which his deacOnS were not familiar. Turn
them out into a mission church, if you will /:
but you turn me there, too. ~
So the rich and the poor met together i'm this
young prophets church. for the Lords sake,
who was the Maker of them all. And John
Rose, bent to his sacred work with awed and
humble eyes, seeking 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
pastor-that the common people heard him
gladly.