The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1879-05-08
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NOT That Squire JACK Ws engaged Il
4 p0aIt9 business, suy more thau tie oikel
/ membets 81 lbe nickogt0wn Church.
/ Ills belRhbou, Hke al good people if
( coaBtfY villages. kepi chickens, turkeys
aud gttse, and 90 aid be of course. MOI
was squire Jack peculiar ia keeping l
hock Of moyui fowls; for al bis neigh
F b5ts, ike al other MORALS, dld the same
! What squire Jsek was especially noted
/ for was, lhat 10 biz aaek Of moral fowls
which ali bis lifelong had gained theil
f ljfebood By scratching among bis neigh
/ bors' faults and iaiiings, there was one
bird, noble high-slepping, long -pnrred
cock, which, singular 10 relate, while be
lel other peoples gardens alone, could
scratch up The Parsons early peas more
/ peneyenugy aud edectually than any
other cock ia the county.
The Hiekorytown Church was. ss The
English would say, poor living wheth-
er because the people were poor, or be-
canse they were close listed, matters not
bere 10 relate, But SO Il was, that pastors
were often changed. And when q new
pafson had settled 10 the place, to see
Squire Jsek's famous long giailed game
cock walk over into the Parsons yard,
aud lesr op his early peas, and scratch
up bis garden aud make il look like The
abomination Of desolsIion, aud cry cock
A-doode.do over 1t all, was sight TO
make all liiokOrylown shake its eldes
with laughter, Squire Jacks bird was a
iow indeed but he came home to roost
one night IN 4 plight so sad, aud bedrag-
gled, aud SO beliIted in his own eyes snd
estimation withsl, that he was never
thereafter, TO his dying day, known to
mount ieuce and crow. How and by
what means bis tad misadventure beieli
the poor cock, we shall tell firstly, how
Squire Jacks chickens tore up the Par
sons peas; aud, secondly, how squire
Jacks chickens came home to roOst
squire Jack bad a hobby, as who has
no,l and be rode il hard, a. who had
better right? But alas one day his horse,
or as, IN another figure, we termed it, bis
game cock, was this, to wit: Squire Jack
read bis Bible; and there was one or two
chapters which bad a peculiar fascination
fOr him. These were The tenth Of st.
Matthew aud The tenth oil ST. Luke. OF
reading aud oxpoundiug these, especially
in the presence Of a new parson, he never
weared, as indeed he was never defeated
in his lorcible exposition of them. A
seli-made theologan was Squire Jack,
aud great indeed was he in the depart
menl OF Exegesis; especially in so far as
it concerned our Lords instructions to
the apostles as TO The manner in which
they should 90 forth into the world, and
the means by which they should be sup
ported. He was dead sot agin preachers
hevin' Selafy. Let 'em work like Paul
did, earn their own Twin. Some ten
years back the Hickorytown Church bad
been about 10 buy parsonage, but
Squire Jack threw the whole meeting
into helpless confusion by powerful
speech, in which be challenged any man
in Hickorytown TO give the Scriptural
authority, chapter and verse, fer preach
ers heyin' personages. He'd like to know
whether Peter ever had personage?
The parsonage was never got.
No, my friends-tbus would he, time
and again, begin bis harangue in the viii
lage store Of winter nights, and in none
the lower tone because the Parson was
by-No, my friends, ! amt agin the
preachers. Preachers are al good enough
10 their place, What | am agiu, is this
thing Of preachers geltin' personages an
weariu' shiny black coats, an heyin'
white hands like a woman, au' getlin'
from four to six hundred dollars a year,
I'd like jest once in my life 10 see the
Scripture authority fer that. Did Paul
hey parsonage! Did Peter hev shiny
black costf Did Thomas or Philip or
any OF the resi- OF 'em ever hey any selary
No, sir! they he'd nolhin' au' the Lord
told EN- they shouldn't take notbin', not
two coats, nor purse Of money, nolbin'
at all, but maybe SIT Fl That's the way
they was to 20 out, with their lives in
their hands, an trust Ia the Lord to keep
'em An now what | want 10 know,
and what I've been askin' every preacher
we've he'd here in Hickoryiown for the
last twenty year-an' we've he'd here a
right smart lot OF 'em ii that time--is
this: is preachers nowadays betl9r'n the
apostles wssf
II was telling speech # was a
knock-down argument. Ii scratched up
the Parsons pess most eiiectually, and
crowed cock.s-doodle-do over The whole
forlorn garden. Many was the tilt Squire
Jack run With the preachers, and always
with The same re.uit-tbe pafson invari.
sby uuhorsed aud iugloriously defeated
aud put to shame IN the eyes OF all Hick.
orytown 10 vain did the preacher argue
that these instructions to the apostles
could no, reasonably be applied to their
successors, nor were necessarily intended
to be applied, on The ground that times
and circumstance. bad so greatly changed
sluce the apostolic period, that !, would
plsiuly be impossible to adhere to The
strict letter Of The text Squire Jack was
proof agaiasi The historical argument, aud
would bear none of their redaed theo-
logical lore; be was plain msn, and
could understand plain woFds, aud there
il was IN the Bible, 10 black and white