Evening journal., 1909-09-14
THE EVENING JOURNAL, TUESDAY SEPTEMBER a. 1909
THE DEACONS' SITES,
BY M. QUAD.

tain sect at CDarleSJOWp Inere came
the question OF the site. 1t was a scat
tered village. and there were may old
people that wanted the building as
close TO them as possible. There were
others that thought the site that would
show off the church to the greatest
advantage and that at the same time
could bo bought the cheapest. was the
one TO he selected 1t wasn't TO be
anything grand but If located right il
would make up for that in a measure.
1t took six months to settle the ques-
tion of the site. One faction wanted
1t on the crest Of hill and the other
at the end Of the bridge over the river
Deacon Henderson owned one site and
Deacon Frazer the other. and each
wanted 5000 for the land. Elch be-
came the leader of a faction.
At first all the talk was in a good
natured way. as becomes such a sub
ject, but as TIME went on acrimony
crept 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. and
when brotheriy love is stretched too
far It gets pretty thin and weak.
Deacon Henderson. who owned the hill
site. went about saying:
you can put cooper shop most
anywhere. but when it comes to a
meeting house there's only one place
for it. and that's on a hill, II there
are any hills around. most think
that's what the Lord created hills
for"
"Oh. Deacon Henderson may talk
that way" Deacon Frazer would reply.
but he's all wrong. You put a meet
ing house on a hill and you make
circus of it,"
The dispute finally 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 a 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 had
a shot in reserve. When the frame
of the building was up and rooted
over he brought out statistics to show
| that nine-tenths 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 it understood that
he would never enter it Of Sunday
when there seemed the slightest chance
of a thunderstorm. His 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 thunderbolt on its
way to destroy the church.
"Yes, we know that a building on a
hill is more exposed to lightning than
a building in a hollow" Deacon Hen
derson would reply. but we are go
ing to prepare for that We shall put
up a lightning rod. Itil 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'
1t 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 dc
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 to stir VI
things again. He had given the mat
ter of that lightning rod much thought
and he had come TO the conclusion thai
it was flying in the face of Providence
to put one up 1t was saying to the
Lord that they couldn't trust him.
Deacon Henderson was hard put {,
answer these arguments. They werl
a sort of def TO the other faction /
the church had been built in the hol
low the Frazer faction would have de
pended on Providence. Now that
was being built on a hill the Hender
son faction was going TO give Provi
dence the shake and go to the expensl
of 500 to put up a lightning rod. Wer
they whole Christians or half Chris
tians? If they believed that man wa
greater than Providence, then Satal
would be glad to see the building fin
ished and dedicated. Here was
yawning pit and but one way to bridg
it. The lightning rod faction took tina
way by announcing that there woul'
: be no rod Everything would be lef
to Providence This really ended al
dispute. Deacon Frazer tried hard t
think Of some other point, but nothing
would occur. Only when he and th
other deacon would meet he woul'
shake his head and say:
Il dunno about that church. deacon
Gimme church in holler. with
big walnut tree five rods away. AM
I'll trust Providence for the rest"
"There she is, right up on the hill,
Deacon Henderson would reply. ''an
we're asking Providence to protect he
, without the help Of any trees"
The church had been dedicated
month when there came terribl
storm one night First the wind bley
with fury. and then there came raj
and thunder and lightning, and all o
! a sudden a crash that lifted half tn
town out Of bed When the storr
ceased It was found that the walnu
tree in the hollow had been struck an
snivered and that the church on tn
hill had been blown from its founda
| .t..... o,,d -oliad doxvt, tho hillside int