The weekly herald. [volume] (Cleveland, Tenn.) 1876-1888, 1880-02-12

hundred dollars would l have lost my
faith in your strength to do right
'Oh, Nell, tits just that which cuts
me to the quick, he quickly retorted. -
Nobody could have made me believe
that would do such thing. l am as
surprised and panied as you can possi-
bly, be, for I had no idea that 1 had such
a streak OF weakness within mel st.
Paul must have foreseen me, for sure,
when he warned men to take heed lest
they fall, while thinking that they
stand
Poor Obedl had never seen him so
mortified and humiliated, and all on &C.
count Of that 'pesky church
Then l asked him to tell me how it
happened, and he described the method
employed by the bishop and his officials
to raise the six thousand dollars. The
officials each went among the congrega-
tion, soliciting subscriptions from occu.
pants Of each pew; then, as the amount
subscribed failed to reach the desired
sum, new appeal was made, and per-
sons who had refused TO subscribe at
the first round were again besieged.-
There was much joking by the various
persons 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 repeatedly say
iny he could not subscribe, was over
come by the combined persuasions OF
two parsons to allow his name to be put
down for hundred dollars-surprised,
the moment he yielded, and regretting
it as you have heard.
But we can't pay it, so what was the
use?' argued in woman fashion.
'Oh, 1 shall pay it, Nell, he cried des.
perately, If for no better reason than as
a punishment for my weakness. But
you shan't suffer from it, he added
stoutly.
Don't be too sure, I said quietly.
He WINGED and replied:
True, Nell, 1 can never again feel
sure Of anything
We concluded the talk by Obed's ask
ing me to promise never to allude to the
matter again until the subscription was
paid, which did, and then freeing |
himself of final anathema against his
own weakness and that 'pesky church.
So 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 subscription.
l remember we'll the night when he
came home and catching me up in hi,
arms, as if he had gone daft, explained
his behavior by ssyin~ that the 'unmen-
tionsble horror was ut last cancelled,
the hundred dollar subscription was
paid, and that if we only had 'fatted
calf we would kill it in honor of the oc.
casiop.
Although neither Obed nor l during
these two years had mentioned the mat
ter, it was like a skeleton behind the
door. My keen eyes detected his new
economies; the retrenching screw had
received another turn, and it made my
heart ache. Unknown to him 1, too,
made my new economies, in behalf OF
the same cause. until 1 felt mean and
to the furthest degree. 1 can't
tell you how much we endured because
of that hundred dollars, which went to
ward paying for carpets and cushions
and other luxuries that the worshipers
in the old church had always done
OF course that 'pesky church still
stands, but from that day to this we
have never entered it. The effort to
make it aristocratic failed, and its entire
history has been q series of struggles
to pay the preacher and keep up style
Two years ago Obed, almost entirely
at his own expense, for he had come in
to possession of his patrimony then, re-
fitted the old church, which. after all,
has come to be fashionable as well as
useful. When the suggestion was made
to have the old church repaired Obed
made little speech, in which he said
that rather than have single man or
woman subscribe farthing beyond what
he or she was abundantly able to give,
he mucn preferred to bear the entire
expense himself; and that all subscrip-
tions to the fund must be voluntary.
Ee atterward said to me that rather
than have any person subjected to the
pain and humiliation that we had under
gone because of that dreadful subscrip.
tion, he would worship in barn to the
end Of his days. often think il people
who solicit subscriptions with persist
ence that amounts to insolence, would
but consider the possible harm they
commit, that they would ply their busi-
ness with more consideration, remem.
bering that overcoming good mans
sense Of right and duty, is leading him
into the temptation from which he daily
prays to be delivered.
MARY WAGER FISHER.