The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-08-28
CHAPTER v.
PILOTS AND PREACHERS.

was the Rev. Mr.. Bradbury. He was that
sort of man whose character and habits
made it natural for people to prefix his
title, even in formal introductions, and
where other ministers are called Or. Brown
and Mr.. Jones, he was always the Rev. Mr..
Bradbury.
He was one of those men whom one can
not call young man. nor yet truthfully
say that he was a middle-aged man. Inc
records in the various places where dates
of birth are kept showed him to be still
young, but his manner, the tone of his talk
and his constant pastoral air when among
his flock all testified loudly to his advance
into years of discretion. In the first five
minutes OF observation Shacklett decided
that it might be necessary TO throw the
preacher overheard before the voyage was
over. At the end of the first day Shacklett
had fully decided that the Rev. Mr.. Brad
bury was the right kind of preacher to tie
to, and that it really a pity that it
would be necessary to knock him out of
the appointment to which it was very evil
dent he aspired-appointmen to the place
of perpetual pastor over the heart of Mary
Stoddard.
Most people would have referred to the
i
their similarities more interesting The
minister not only believed in the right, but
kept his feet in the narrow path with all
the particularly of a man who has not
drunk so very much walking a crack in
the floor and taking pride in the success of
| that achievement. Shacklett was accus-
/ toned to walk across to the objective point
on the other side of the room regardless
/ Of hon i
! at all sorts of angles, and took pride only
/ in getting to the object desired But both
| had the dominant characteristics of
! strength, success in the end, self-will, per-
feet openness of heart and carefulness of
! head, honesty of purpose. even though the
! purposes were dramatically opposed gen.
| orally, knowledge of human nature. and
nigh ambitions to accomplish something
worth while in the world The chief differ
ence between them was that one went di-
rectly after the game he was hunting. and
would have taken the tablets of Moses out
| of the ark of the covenant and stood on
| them to reach over wall to shoot an
Amorite. while the other saw all the angels
| of the Lord that came in his path and
/ never tried to get past any of them-for
| which men not so acute as Shacklett were
won't to call him an ass sometimes, though
/ Shacklett honored him for it, and said to
himself that men like the Rev. Mr.. Brad
/ bury were what kept the lobby from en-
! tirely managing the churches. On the other
| hand the Rev. Mr.. Bradbury had several
bad half hours on the steamboat trip and
| after, trying TO be sure that it was really
/ an angel of the Lord who told him that
| Shacklett was a fine type of wickedness.
! He feared that might be only a mirage of
| his own brain, especially when the young
man with such familiarity with practical
affairs of government showed underlying
! traits of honesty that seemed out of har-
mony with of the stories he told
about himself when the two men were
alone by the side rail late at night.
They had many such talks. Shacklett al
ways liked TO study the enemy and recon-
hotter for himself. His opponent in this
| particular contest was anxious to resolve
| the doubts he had about Shacklett and find
! the key to the paradox Shacklett seemed to
! be. Then, too. it a certainty that
Shacklett really had interest in what the
! minister had TO say, and was sincerely glad
| to hear him talk of ethics, nature, religion
and philosophy. And so it became the
usual thing for them TO sit up to talk for
hours after the women had gone TO their
staterooms. The moonlight made the river
dream which harmonized perfectly with
| the talk of the minister and the Rev. Mr..
Bradbury not only showed the hard sense
that Shacklett liked in his conversation,
! but also really liked to have another man
! smoking near him.
! I'm not very we'll acquainted with God"
Shacklett said in one of the first of these
! conversations, land L wouldn't pretend to
! criticise anybody who is, but / never could
| see why preachers stuck so close to the
Bible. The work done in the Legislature
| is finally all put in the blue-covered session
/ laws but that isn't anyways near all there
/ is to state government. 1t looks to ae that
/ there ought to be lot more of God than
/ there is told of in the Bible" The real fact
was that Shacklett knew more about the
/ Bible than he did about preachers, and he
was fishing for informa = On about the view
/ point of this particular minister on things
/ in general.
You are perfectly right" replied the
Rev. Mr.. Bradbury, land one reason why
/ some preachers are not more successful in
/ their work is because they do not recognize
/ what you seem to instnctively feel God
! gave TO man two books for his instruction.
/ One of them is a royal octave, or some
! times quarto, printed with an abundance
! of italics and a column of reference marks
/ down the side; the other is specked with
/ gold, ornamented with colors that have
| never been reproduced. and bound in a
| cover that the world has got only partly
open after thousands of years. That bind
| ing is strong and heavy, but it is up far
| enough now for us TO see some things in
side the volume. The teachers of Gods
| word should not confine themselves too
/ closely TO the little octave bound in leather.
/ and teach so little from the great book of
/ nature. One of the chief of them recog-
/ nized that there are sermons in stones and
/ running brooks. There are greater sermons
/ in the hills. the rivers, the blades of grass,
/ the plumage of birds, the color of insects,
the instincts of animals, the cell structure
/ of man. Because it is so seldom that these
/ things are treated in the pulpit half of
/ Gods word 10 man is allowed 10 grow
/ musty and TO become wOrm-eaten by the
| pseudo-scientists in the larva stage of
/ thought"
Maybe one reason is that most of the
/ preachers know SO little about nature"
/ Shacklett replied Il confess that the
/ preachers I've known personally have been
/ rather poor sticks compared with city
/ preachers but at least they don't know
/ of WI