St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-01-21


such vicarious censure as a personal
favor. Moreover, it would be a sure
passport to the good will, both of squire
and bishop. He need not, therefore, be
afraid to lash with spiritual whips, to
anathematiZe, even to worry out the
village, the pestilent SchiSmaticS. The
relief of conscientious ScrupleS and
the high road to preferment pointed
the way he had indicated. Therein
safety and piety met together. More
than this, these odious people We're
burning with eagerness to rob the
church of her dues. They'd like to see
the parsons as poor and miserable as
they were. They deserved to be sup
pressed.
May, but the nun speak bout to the
Baptises here i the town,
Fur moast on EN- talks AEGEAN 1.-THE,
an I'd like tina to preach EN- down,
Fur they've bin a-preachin' mea down.
they hev, an 1 haates 'em now.
His hatred was clearly as genuine as
their contempt. They regarded him as
lost. He was to them as one who had
sinned against light and leading. Once
he had been in the ranks of the re-
deemed, and for mess of pottage, he
had, as they Judged, fallen away from
grace Now they had reason to regard
him as their bitterest enemy. Yet, he
informed the curate:
1 wur a BaptiS wonSt, an AEGEAN the
toithe an the raate,
though now he was only too anxious
to exact from his former confederates
the uttermost farthing of the church
rate and 1.-THE. We can picture the
sanctimonious smile on the old hypo-
critics face as he explains the reason
- oh N
1 fun that it warn't not the gaalnlst
Way to the nara gaate.
He is unconscious of any inconSlst-
ency. His religious convictions prob
ably never penetrated deeper than his
material interests. His malignity he
terial interests. His nalignity he
doubtless believed to be justifiable.
The success of his detection was to him
sufficient demonstration of his recti-
tude. In his own eyes he was hero,
and he evidently considered quality
regarded him in an equally favorable
light It was tribute to his su-
perior merit that the esquire and MS
relations responded so generously to
the offertory, and thus, directly, he was
a channel of mercy through which
charity flowed to the poor and needy.
For quality's hall my friends, an they
makes me a help to the poor,
When 1 gifts the plaate full er o Soon
days nor ony churchwarden afoor.
He realized his own little idea OF
sanctfty, and there is little reason to
doubt that he believed that of such as
he was the kingdom of heaven.
To understand Alright the full sign1f1-
canoe of the poem, the reason for the
churchwarden' detection, and the cause
of his promotion, glance at the posi-
ton of Dissenters in Lincolnshire par
ishes during Tennyson's youth is nee
cessary. Dissenters in remote villages
were on the losing side. AS rule they
were regarded with suspicion and dis
favor. They were few in number. For
the most part the congregations that
met, either in a barn or in some humble
meeting house, comprised farm laborers
and poor cotters struggling against
fate in the silent decadence of their or
der through the gradual absorption of
small holdings by the more prosperous
farmers. No Dissenters could hope to
bask in the sunshine of squirely favor.
To be one of the despised community
was to proclaim ones self soldier i'll
the rabble army of diScontentS. 1t
was a protest against the existing Or
der of things-to the rural potentateS
the more irritating because of the i'm
movable basis of conscience upon which
it was founded.
1t is easy to see that these Dissenters
had chosen a thorny pathway to the
MARIA Gaate." To ignore the admin
istrations of the church was in itself
heinous offense. Indifference might
have been condoned, as arising from
the exceptional leavening of original
sin in the fenman's nature. But hostil-
ity was a different matter. To set UP a
convertible of their own; to presume to
usurp the functions transmitted to their
appointed spiritual guides by unbrolzen
apostolic succession; to pray and
preach in a manner not sanctioned by
venerable ecclesiastical usage-was in
deed daring. 1t was to throw the
gauntlet in the face of Providence. 1t
was to set in array against them the
power of the potentates of their little
world. To be Dissenter in those days
was, therefore, to risk all.
But these men had counted the cost.
Having put their hand to the pillow,
they were not the men to turn back.
Secure in the protection of the King of
kings, they held the approval Of the
mighty ones Of the earth as lighter than
the dust of the balance in comparison.
They were Injured to endurance. Day
by day they bore the coarse tests of
village jewellers; the unfeeIing taunts of
the unbelieving; the freely expressed
diSpleaSure of the squire; perchance the
petty persecution of their EMPLOYERS.
who, however, were lenient to piety if
work was well done; and the sorroWful
arguments and pleadings of the pastor.
who honestly believed heresy to be the
objectionable sin. But force of reason
was equally unavailing. Their religion
was to them dearer than life 1t was
the pearl of great price, and they were
resolved neither to part with it, nor to
allow its luster to be furnished And
so they held on in the way they had
chosen, and maintained the Wearying
fight, looking forward with hope to the
assurance that in the end they would
be more than conquerors over all that
tyranny or fortune could inf1ict.
Notwithstanding their unpropitious
environment, there were men in these
humble congregations conspicuous for
that rare personal nobility which is
the outcome of piety combined with
courage and virtue; men pos
sessed of that spiritual force which
makes determinations possible, and rev.
OlullClS d ltIIlJle ldCl. DuI lu6y
were not Of the worlds elect. Their
zeal made them stern and unbending.
They were in deadly earnest. To them
this brief allotted span was a battle
field between the powers of light and
darkness. 1t was no place for frivoi-
tiles, lip service and shams. They es-
chewed the nameless graces which
brighten social intercourse. Fervently
as they longed for the conversion OF
others, they would not truckle to en-
ploy even for this great end the arts
of Vanity Fair. Overpowered with the
continual sense Of their own and their
neighbors' sins, they were absorbed in
the task of working out their own sal
walton with fear and trembling.
Hence they fell into the pardonable
but fatal error of identifying piety
with sourness and austerity. Thus
they repealed where they would have
attracted, and, like many wiser men,
failed in their hope to regenerate man
kind by doses of spiritual vinegar. Yet
they were not dismayed. Failure be-
came a spur to perseverance, and con-
fident in the righteousness Of their
cause and the justice of their methods,
L Il, ID l.