The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1909-09-05
THE DEACONS' SITES,
BY n. QUAD.
tCopyright 1909. by Associated Literar
Press

w ueil IL Hdh Heeh uldllA uetlued
to erect church building for q GER
tain sect at Ch8rlestown there came
the question of the site. II was a scat
tered village. aud there were many old
people that wanted the building as
close to them as possible. There were
others that thought the site that would
show off lie church to the greatest
advantage nod that at the same time
could he belAht The cheapest. was the
one TO be selected. II wasn't to be
anything grand but | located right It
would make up for tilit In measure
II took six months to settle The ques-
ton of the site One faction wanted
1t on the "t';I Of ii hill aud he other
ut the end If lie hiit'gt over the river
Deacon F"+t'rts, Ii twnpd one site aud
Deacon lfens the other. and each
wanted 5000 for the land Zach be
came the leader of faction.
At first al the talk was In good
natured way as becomes such a sub.
tect, but as time went on acrlmony
rrept in and argument became dis
pute. The pastor was anxious to see
the building under way, but he could
not favor either faction. He could
simply counsel brotherly love. aud
when brotherly love is stretched too
far It gets pretty thin and weak.
Deacon Henderson. who owned the hill
site. went about saying.
You can put q cooper shop most
anywhere, but wien 1t comes to a
meeting house there's only one place
for It. and that's an n bill. II there
are any hills around. most think
that's what the Lord created hills
for
"0h. Deacon Henderson may talk
that way" Deacon Frazer would reply.
but he's all wrong. You put meet
ing house on Hill and you make a
circus of IT. /"
The dispute flnnllv resulted in the
hilltop being offered at half price. and
the congregation accepted the offer.
The minister went to bed that night
with thankful heart. and great sigh
OF relief passed over the town. Every
thing seemed to be settled at last. and
men began preparing the foundations
of the building But there are wheels
within wheels. Deacon Frazer had
been defeated on the site. but he hld
shot in reserve. When the frame
of the building was up and rooted
Over he brought out statistics to show
that nineztenths OF the church build
ings struck by lightning were build.
ings standing on hills. There was
every chance that this one would be
struck. He wanted 1t understood that
he would never enter 1t Of a Sunday
when there seemed the slightest chance
of thunderstorm. Ills faction fol-
lowed him IN his argument, and there
was another wrangle on hand. If his
site had been chosen there was a big
walnut tree that would have detected
and received any thunderboit on its
way to destroy the church.
"Yes, we know that building on
hill IL more exposed to lightning than
a building IN q hollow" Deacon Hem
derson would reply, 'but we are go
Ing to prepare for that. We shall put
up a lightning rod. It'll catch all the
thunderbolts that come along and run
'em into the ground. We don't care
how much ground they tear up, SOS
they let the church alone"
II was the era when men pinned
their faith TO lightning rods and defied
old Jove to do his worst. 1t was set
tied that rod on the church would do
the business, and now all disputes
seemed to be ended. The truce lasted
just four weeks. The building was
more than half finished when Deacon
Frazer came to the front 10 stir up
things again. He had given the mat
ter Of that lightning rod mitch thought,
aud he had Come to the conclusion that
1t was dying In the face of Providence
to put one mp. II was saying to the
Lord that they couldn't trust him.
Deacon Henderson was hard put to
answer these arguments they were
d sort of def to the other fuction. IL
the church had been built In the hul.
low the lTraxer faction would have de-
pended Oh Providence. Now that II
was being built on hill the Hender-
son faction was going to give Provi4
denee the shake and go to the expense
of $50 to put up lightning rod. Were
they whole Christians or half Chris
tians7 II they believed that inan was
greater than Providence, then Satan
would be giad to see the building fine
islled and dedicated. Here was a
yawning pit nid but ore WY TO bridge
1t. The lightning rod fnetion took that
way by announcing that there would
be no rod. Everything would be left
70 Providence. This really ended all
dispute. Deacon Frazer tried hard to
think Of some other point, but nothing
would occur. Only when he and The
other deacon wonid meet he would
shake his head aud say
Il dunno about that church, deacon.
Gimme a church In d holler. with
big walnut tree i've rods away. and
I'll trust Providence for the rest
"Thefe she Is. right UP on the bill, "
Deacon Henderson would reply. 'and
we're asking Providence to protect Der