Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1880-01-08

as surprised aod panied as you car
possibly be, for had no idea that / mac
such streak OF weakness within me
st. Paul must have foreseen me, fol
sure, when he warned men 10 take heeC
lest they fall, while thinking that they
stand.
Poor Obed! had never seen hin
so mortified and humiliated, and all on
account Of what he so fifty termed thar
1 'pesky church.
q Then | asked him to tell me how'll
happened and he described the method
employed by the bishop and his Off.
cials to raise the six thousand dollars
The officials each went among the
congregation, soliciting subscriptions
from occupants, Of each pew
then, as the amount subscribed
failed to reach the desired sum,
new appeal WAS made, and persons
who had refused to subscribe at the
first round were again besieged. There
was much joking by the various per-
sons brought there to talk money out
of the people, and one of them, in
speaking of certain pews, said the
swaths had not been moved clean.
So the moving was done over and
over, and it was in the last moving,
when the last thousand dollars was
being raised, that Obed, after repeated
ly saying he could not subscribe, was
overcome by the combined persuasions
of two parsons to allow his name to be
put down for a hundred dollars-sur-
prised, the moment he yielded, and re-
GREETING it as you have heard.
"' But we can't pay it, so what was
the useP I argued, in woman fashion.
"'O, LsbaJJ pGy ii, Nell he cried,
desperately, if for no better reason
than as punishment for my weakness.
But you shan't suffer from it, he added,
stoutly.
"'Don't be too sure l said, quietly.
y" He WINGED and replied:
"t True, Nell, can never again feel
sure of anything ia.
GAS comforting reioinder quoted
All things work together for good to
them who love the Lord and keep His
commandments, 1. ~
"We concluded the talk by Obed's
asking me to promise never to alIude to
the matter again until the subscription
was paid, which | did, and then free
ing himself Of final anathema against
his own weakness and that pesky
church, we dropped the subject and
went to the dinner table, which we had
for the time being forgotten.
!, (" Well, within the following two
years Obed paid that dreadful subscrip-
tion. remember well the night when
he came home, and, catching me up in
his arms as if he had gone daft, ex-
planned his behavior by saying that the
unmentionable horror was at last can.
celed, the hundred-dollar subscription
was paid, and that if we only had
fatted calf we would kill it in honor
Of the occasion.
Although neither Obed nor during
these twoyears had mentioned the mat
ter, it was like skeleton behind the
door. My keen eyes detected his new
the retrenching screw had
another turn, and it made my
heart ache. Unknown to him I, too,
made my new economies, in behalf of
5he same cause, until / felt mean aud |
Icrimped to the furthest degree. I can't
ell you how much we endured because
If that hundred dollars, which went to-
ward paying for carpets and cushions
Ind other luxuries that the worshipers
n the old church had always done with
)ut.
"Of coure that 'pesky church still |
stands, but from that day to this we
nave never entered it. The effort to
make it aristocratic failed, and its en-
ire history has been a series of strug-
,les to pay the preacher and keep up
tyle.'
1.-TWO years ago Obed, almost en-
irely at his own expense, for he had
,ome into possession of his patrimony
hen, reftted the old church, which,
lfter all, has come to be fashionable as
veil as useful. When the suggestion
vas made to have the old church re-
,aired Obed made little speech, in
which he said that rather than have a
ingle man or woman subscribe a far
hing beyond what he or she was album
lantly able to give, he much preferred
o bear the entire expense himself; and
hat all subscriptions to the fund mast
3 UoJWntGry. He afterwards said to me
hat rather than have any person sub
ected to the pain and humiliation that
re had undergone because of that
dreadful subscription he would wor-
hip in barn to the end of his days.
often think if people who solicit sub
criptiOns with persistence that
mounts to insolence would but con-
ider the possible harm they commit J
hat they would ply their business with
lOre consideration, remembering that
vercoming a good mans sense ofright
nd duty is leading him into the temp
alton from which he daily prays to be
elivered. And now I'm through"
my friend, with a bright
lugh, only that 1 wish to suggest to J
OU that, if ever you have an Obed'
ound for church dedication, you had
etter 90 with him, unless you happily
lore abound in filthy lucre than we
id ten years ago; for Obed said after
rard that if only had been with him
re should have been spared the history J
that dreadful subscription. y
larg Wager Fisher, is Good Company. J