Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1895-09-04

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the rustling of each leaf as it futtered
through her thin fingers was har.
monious accompaniment to n plain.
tive little sigh that seemed to issue
from the innermost recesses of Miss
Ruth's being ana trembled away in
piteous undulations on the unsympa
thetic atmosphere of her little sitting.
room.
The last ten pages of the book CON
tanned complete plans and specitica,
tions Of the church, from the founda.
ticn to the weather-vane, and q full.
fedged directory of all its members,
together with their addresses and any
/ explanatory remarks anent their
spiritual or material welfare, past,
present or to come, that the commit
tee might see fit to append thereto,
for it was one of the tenets of the
Lebanon Methodist Church that there
should be no hopes and aspirations in
the hearts of its flock too sacred to
become the common property of the
committee on the report and. general
history.
When she had turned the pages till
she came to the directory she laid the
book on the table before her and LEI
the index finger of her right hand run
slowly down the membership list till
she came to the T's. There it was in
the ridiculously large, black type af-
fectatiously employed by the commit
tee-tRuth Temple, Spinster. The
delicate, blue-veined hand rested there
and the index finger beat quiet tat,
too on the old-fashioned name with
its one qualifying word, and as she
looked the full red lips curved them
selves into an expressive smile peculiar
to her lips alone.
Ruth Temple had lived in LeSanon
only year. She was q Methodist by
birth and by education and by gen,
eral inclination, bgk in spite 81 shut ssAei
for siz maa.ss otter her removal to
the place she had declined to unite
with any church. AS the expiration
of that time, however, the pillars oi
the Methodist Episcopal congrega.
tion, whose services she had attended
with great regularity, got after her
with all the persuasive power of their
combined forces and her will was
bent down before the overwhelming
tide of their eloquence without one
feeble squirt of opposition.
Three months before the issuing OF
the latest report and general history
she got her letter from the Kansas
City church under whose guidance she
had passed through youth and the
early years of maturity, and gave her.
! self up unreservedly to the tender
mercies of the committee, with the
! result that hers was the most conspi-
cuous name in the whole membership
directory, for among its 200 odd wor.
shippers she was the only one who was
entitled to be called spinster.
On that Monday afternoon when
the blue-veined index finger quietly
kept time to the evolutions of her
brain, there was strange, new shadow
of perplexity in Miss Ruth's smile in
dicative of the disturbing train of
meditation that had found foothold
in her mind. The unusual fermenta-
ton of her thoughts dated from the
morning sermon of the day before.
The Rev. Israel Weston, pastor OF the
Methodist Episcopcl Church, was g.
man the greater portion OF whose life
had been spent in the study of the
word and the cultivation of an effec-
tive style of delivering its messages
and o practical demonstration of its
theories SO far as human nature would
permit. Ruth Temple had always
been impressed with his earnestness
and perhaps it was mis- few well-chosen
words of encouragement more than
anything else that had brought her
within the fold. Until that particular
Sunday he had never preached a SER
mon whose theme could not safely be
set down as q guide,post in her spirit.
ual life to which she could turn with
confidence.
But that day he had struck hitherto
unsornded keys, asld the notes Jared
on her painfully. i shall speak to-
day from Genesis H., IS, 1T is not
good that man Hhould be alone. J.
will make him heipmeet for him. "
The Rev. Israel Weston had pre-
faced the announcement of the text
with conscientious cough and com
prehensive sweep of his long, white
hands, and then had launched into O.
discourse, every caustic sentence oil
which seemed to be missile aimed
directly at Ruth Temple, and which
ourned its way into her heart and
brain. Monday afternoon the scars
still throbbed and ached, and she,
bowed her head over the report and
general history, and let the tears trio
kle out through her heavy lashes and
blot the page whereon the history OF
Ruth Temple, spinstcr, was briefly
given to all who might choose to read.
sIt was shame for him to talk SO, F"
she said at length, raising her head
and looking at the name again. "He
meant me, anybody could see that
The sermon from beginning to end
was monument to injustice. I don't
believe it, that text was meant for wo.
men as much as for men, and that the
woman who fails to marry misses the
great part she was expected to play in
life and falls short of tine requirements
of the olect. Every woman can't
marry. and he ought to know that,
He had better take his own prescrip.
tion and hunt wife fer himself. 1t
was cruel. He had no right to make
me the target for his burning philip.
pics, which doubtless are expressive OF
Whatever disappointment and ill-feel.
ing there may be ranking in his OWL