The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-09-14
REV QUERY CONFtSSES HIS SINS
BILE announcements OF FROM
fnent Divine. Who HIS
Faith. His hurch and Ills VIE with
Whom lie Has Lived for twenty
Years.

which many a time Rev. B. T. Query,
the Seventh Day Baptist preacher at
Raymond. H.. has uttered In 'he
score Of years OF his ministry he mao
welded many couples OF his faitn'
had buried the dead and conSoied the
living. anu in his earnest, simple way
preached te gospel TO the little tnrohs
in his far-away chapel. Yet today ne
is a wanderer-sinless. it is true-has
renowned the wife OF his youth, and
the faith OF his fathers
1t is hard to say which Of his acts
Of remuneration caused the greatest
CONSERVATION AS a pracner his repu-
tation was good; as d husband IL was
unexceptionable. For twenty years he
has lived in a little cottage, his hard
working wife by his side ~e~onCnlzing
the scant earnings OF his rural minis
try. Now he says he never loved her.
nor she rim, that their marriage was
a sham, and that its burden grew too
heavy for them 10 bear.
1t was from the pulpit OF the church
in open meeting, that Parson Query
made his declaration. 1t threw the
congregation into a tumult, from
which even now il has not recovered.
In these rustic little communities, eN-
elements are scarce, and TO them the
parsons words were as fateful as Were
those of Dean Maitland when lie stood
in the pulpit and declared himself a
murderer and perjurer. And when he
added that he his faith as
we'll as his marriage ties, the primitive
congregation held its breath, and belief
was staggered.
The married life of this homely
country couple had struck all their
acquaintance as one long sweet song.
They married in the place of their
birth, in remote North Carolina. She
had been the belle of the countryside
there-he the poor, struggling e
logical student, AMBITIOUS for ordina-
ton. Their marriage surprised their
friends, for it was Known that she had
nan far better offers-better. that is.
in the worlds sense. But she seemed
to hav beer destined for a preachers
wife, and after their marriage she en-
tered into her husbands work with
the utmost zeal and painstaking.
1t was hard work. 1t was work poorly
paid for. 1t called the couple into
many a emote and bleak 'wayside 0Ve.
rocky paths into cabined domiciles hid
den in the valleys ana parks of the
great mountains. Here the meagre
earth gave scant ~sustenance to her
children, and among them Elder Quer-
ry n his tirelesS wife worked and
lived.
! 1t was not until after their marriage
hat they came to Raymond, where the
parson had been given charge of the
church-the church at Honey Bend,
several miles away. Here We're the
headquarters of the strange sect, where
once a year it met in a great grove,
and amid rejoicing and hoSannaS, the
memberS washed n another'S feet,
after the Biblical fashion. Here they
worked harder and harder. economical
closer and closer. and bought a little
home. No children were born to them.
and they worked and visited together.
They were the ideal married couple Of
the countryside, dwelling together j.
unity, one flesh.
Thus it went from year to year,
their lives an open book. Every 10Y
ment, every little purchase, every out
: lay of minister's wife was noted and
discussed by the congregation, which
felt that Parson Query and his wife
We're their own. Mrs. Query did all
her own Homework and her washing,
mended and baked, and saved and suf-
fered. With her husband she still
rode h circuit Of their congregatior
and every Sabbath saw her in the lit
tie church.
Parson Query worked with an earn
estness that begot the confidence of his
congregation. He possessed a u d
untutored eloquence that appealed to
their most inward souls. He saw the
children of those early welded in his
ministry grow to maturity. and many
of them welded in their turn. Early
marriages are the custom IN these
primitive communities. At these cere-
monies the good pastor discoursed elo-
quently of love as the real basis of
every true marriage, without which
marriage, he declared, was a heresy
and a sim. And when the wedding vas
Yer, friends Of the couple would con-
graduate them and hope they might
lead happy lives, lives like those of the
Rev. Query and his wife.
About six months ago there came to
the Query home a strange visitor in
the guise Of a travelling healer of ills,
who made passes in the air with his
hands and pronounced strange and
queer formulas combined Of scriptural
quotations. Mrs. Query regarded him
with aversion and distrust, but the par
son listened, debated, disputed, and, a,
length, believed. Soon his ministry
/! grew less pleasant, and it's duties even
became irksome. He looked coldly al
his wife. the helpmeet Of his whole
lifetime, now, like himself, more than
so years old
One day in the parlor Of their little
home the minister. now grown moody
N full Of gloom, arose and said:
marietta, there is no love between
us. Let us be divorced"
She bent her head. But the teach.
ings of her childhood and the hard ex.
perienceS of her married life a made
this simple woman a heroine. She
held back the tears which rushed to
her eyes.
A you will, Benjamin"
On the following day the horse was
hitched in the little phaeton and the
old minister and his calm wife drove
to n country town. They asked a di.
vorce.
Upon what ~ground?' queried the
astonished old lawyer for he had
known them well.
W do not love each other. We have
v loved" said the parson-
That is not sufficient" replied tn
lawyer. You are married and unless
legal cause exists for divorce yor
must remain married" And he told
them what the legal cause was.
Parson Query left the lawyers of.
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