Ronald R Johnson

Wanted: A Congregation, Part 4l: Is That Moment of Silence Possible?

From Lloyd C. Douglas, “Wanted—A Congregation, Fourth Phase—The Service of Worship,” in The Christian Century, 9/2/1920.

[The following is from the fourth installment in Lloyd Douglas’s series, “Wanted—A Congregation!” in the summer and fall of 1920. This installment, dated 9/2/1920, is titled, “Fourth Phase—The Service of Worship.” The series is about the Reverend D. Preston Blue, who is on a campaign to enlarge his congregation. This episode takes place after he has begun to succeed in building his audience. Douglas explains why it is necessary for latecomers not to be admitted during the ritualistic part of the service.]

“It is entirely unnecessary that there should be a steady tramp, tramp, tramp down the aisles during this impressive moment. The public does not value Christianity the more highly for being permitted to treat a church service with less respect than it is obliged to manifest in a playhouse. Therein lies one of the chief difficulties with the Protestant churches of America. They have consistently believed and practiced a series of logical fallacies with reference to the public mind.

“They have lacked the wisdom to understand that people are not especially attracted to any institution which they are permitted to treat disrespectfully. Not infrequently during the organ prelude, ‘dear old Brother Smithers’ snuggles up beside ‘dear old Major Welickedem’ and chatters audibly, to the annoyance of everybody within a range of fifty yards. Where else but in a Protestant church would such an absolutely unnecessary disturbance be tolerated? Not in the theater, surely. Nor at a concert. And why must the church put up with such annoyances? Oh, because it has consistently permitted almost any sort of a nuisance to nullify whatever opportunities were presented for an orderly, inspirational service of worship! But – someone exclaims – what is one to do? One must go to dear old Brother Smithers and tell him to cut it out. It can be said gently, tactfully, purringly – but it should be said. If the dear old fellow becomes incensed and withdraws to some other church, it will be a great deal better for his own soul than if he stayed where he was and habitually made a nuisance of himself. For, in church Number Two, he will not talk during the service, remembering what had happened at Number One.

“There must be no crying babies, shrieking all through the otherwise impressive moments of the service! Nowhere else but in a Protestant church would such an annoyance be permitted for a moment! What shall we do? We must tell the young mother that she is to be excused from her church duties until her baby is old enough to be placed in the church kindergarten where all small children are to be during the church service.

“You wonder why some of the finest, most earnest, most philanthropic people in your town are not in church on Sundays? Provide a service that appeals to the heart and is uninterrupted by petty annoyances which destroy every possibility for a reverential worship, and let it be known that you mean to have such a service every Sunday – and you may notice a change!

“No, sir; when the time comes in the service where silence is the order, close the doors, shut off the tramp of the tardy and the chatter of the thoughtless, and have silence!

“If some belated brother and his wife become offended because they are obliged to wait a few minutes in the vestibule, that is sufficient proof that the church, with its old way of doing things, hasn’t done very much for their souls, and it is high time something was tried! And if they get so angry they resolve never to come back, and go away and tell it all over the lot that they went to their dear old church, where their dear old fathers and mothers had been wont to come straggling down the aisle almost any time between ten-forty-three and eleven-thirty-five, and, bless you, weren’t permitted to go to their own seat just because their fool preacher had suddenly developed a crazy notion that the doors were to be closed through the opening service – well – what of that? Is that going to put the church out of business? Indeed, it is the very choicest advertising. No church would be able to purchase or devise a finer publicity medium than about half a dozen loquacious ex-members who had gone forth to spread the report that their church had gone in for a strict practice of reverence. Such a campaign is sure to bring out a select lot of splendid souls who will come next Sunday to see if, perchance, there is that something in your service for which they had sought, eagerly and in vain.”

[In my next post, I’ll tell you about Douglas’s fifth and final article in the series, “Wanted – A Congregation.”]

Wanted: A Congregation, Part 4k: A Consistent Ritual

by Ronald R Johnson

[The following is from the fourth installment in Lloyd Douglas’s series, “Wanted—A Congregation!” in the summer and fall of 1920. This installment, dated 9/2/1920, is titled, “Fourth Phase—The Service of Worship.” The series is about the Reverend D. Preston Blue, who is on a campaign to enlarge his congregation. This episode takes place after he has begun to succeed in building his audience. He is explaining to his wife how he intends to improve the order of worship.]

“‘Now,’ said Blue, ‘the ritualistic service of worship begins. I don’t believe that we had better fumble around in the back of the book anymore for a responsive reading. We’ll print it in the bulletin, and let it make up in power whatever it lacks in former length. Anyway, these ‘readings’ in the back of the book weren’t built correctly. Most of them are too long, and too full of local color about the Jews.’

“The preacher smiled as he repeated a few of these passages for the edification of his wife. ‘What good does it do a crowd of able-bodied citizens of the United States in 1920 to stand up and read together about brotherhood being “like the precious oil upon the head; like the dew of Hermon,” or that purely parochial remark of an ancient people, “Before Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, stir up thy might.” And what possible benefit can accrue to anybody by reading aloud so misleading a passage as, “For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled”? And so many of them have a curious trick of ending on an awkward phrase like, “Yes, the work of our hands, establish Thou it” – leaving one with the uncomfortable feeling of having come off and forgotten something, until the next event of the service mercifully blots the dissonance out of mind. No; we will not go to the back of the hymnal anymore – at least not until we can do so with better effect than is now in sight.

“‘After that first hymn, there is going to be a moment of silence – an impressive silence! The auditorium doors will be closed. The ushers will seat no more latecomers until the ritualistic service is concluded. The service isn’t operated for the sole purpose of accommodating the tardy anyway. If they will come late, they can do exactly as at the orchestral concert or the theater – wait until there is an intermission.’

Wanted: A Congregation, Part 4j: Encouraging Meditation

by Ronald R Johnson

[The following is from the fourth installment in Lloyd Douglas’s series, “Wanted—A Congregation!” in the summer and fall of 1920. This installment, dated 9/2/1920, is titled, “Fourth Phase—The Service of Worship.” The series is about the Reverend D. Preston Blue, who is on a campaign to enlarge his congregation. This episode takes place after he has begun to succeed in building his audience. He is telling his wife about his plans for improving the order of worship…]

“‘That organ prelude,’ soliloquized Blue, ‘ought to begin quietly. People come in from the racket of traffic on the street. They should be given some incentive to calm their spirits and meditate without being overwhelmed and distracted with a thunderous noise. It should be understood by the ushers that the seating of the people should be done with a minimum of confusion. From the moment the prospective worshipper steps inside the door, he should be impressed with the fact that this is the House of God. He should be given a chance to think, to pray, to sense the divine Presence. Therefore, the organ prelude, which helps him to that mood, must not be a big ‘show piece,’ but rather an impassioned tug at the heart-strings. And then it should grow, almost imperceptibly, at its close, until it seems to be building up toward some definite action. The people must be filled with a desire to express themselves.

“‘Without a pause,’ continued Blue, thinking aloud, ‘the organist will modulate into the score of the opening hymn. Just think of the thrill of it, my dear,’ exclaimed the minister – ‘the organ piling harmony upon harmony, higher, richer, fuller, until, in one great, triumphant chord, it peals out the majestic measures of ‘O God, the Rock of Ages!’ – and the choir comes to its feet – and the congregation rises, not hesitatingly, by squads, but spontaneously, immediately, because it can’t sit still another moment – and then they will sing! Fine – isn’t it?’

“Blue remembers a wonderful service he had attended, in which the organist had begun with an impassioned prelude, rising to a martial mood, and, because the minister was going to preach on a patriotic theme, brought the congregation to a stand with the strains of ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ – after which he swept his choir and the audience into the first verse of ‘Lead On, O King Eternal,’ which happened to be in the same key and therefore required no introduction at all. True, the congregation didn’t know for a moment what was afoot, but it was not long in finding out, and the genuine thrill it experienced shattered every vestige of indifference and tuned the heart for a thorough appreciation of that great militant hymn.”

[Douglas’s story will continue in my next post…]

Wanted: A Congregation, Part 4i: Renewing the Batteries

by Ronald R Johnson

[The following is from the fourth installment in Lloyd Douglas’s series, “Wanted—A Congregation!” in the summer and fall of 1920. This installment, dated 9/2/1920, is titled, “Fourth Phase—The Service of Worship.” The series is about the Reverend D. Preston Blue, who is on a campaign to enlarge his congregation. This episode takes place after he has begun to succeed in building his audience. While he and his wife are on vacation, he takes a critical look at his “order of worship” and finds it wanting…]

“Needless to say, explanations followed which made it possible for the minister’s wife to share her husband’s musings. She encouraged him to tell her of his plans for a better order of worship, and he begged her to help him with suggestions. They discussed this matter far into the night.

“‘First of all,’ said Blue after he had explained his dilemma, ‘I must establish closer cooperation with my choir. It is a good choir. And Fred Young is a capable organist and director. I mean to talk this all through with him when we get back. And then I shall go over it with the choir. They will see the significance of this matter, and will be glad to do their part.’

“‘Well,’ said Mrs. Blue, with a woman’s inclination to repair, ‘let us begin at the beginning, and see how much of the service is to be mended, and how much must be brand new. First, there is the opening hymn – ‘

“‘No,’ said Blue, ‘first is the organ prelude, which Broad Street Church uses to drown whispered conversations in the pews. We will put a notice in the bulletin that the organ prelude is a part of the service of worship. Perhaps, if Young is given to understand that the people are listening to his organ number, he may put a little more into it.’ There was a silence of several minutes during which the minister remembered dismally that this inattentiveness of the audience to the organ prelude might easily be accounted for on the ground of his own attitude toward it, for had he not customarily spent the whole of it fussing over his holy properties – locating his Bible lesson, and reading in the hymnal and the opening hymn, and toying with his sermon notes, and leafing through the bulky sheaf of announcements with which he would later drug his congregation almost into insensibility, and otherwise busying himself in a manner denoting his absolute indifference to the organ number?

“Why couldn’t he step into his pulpit Saturday evening and attend to all these little errands, seeing they were so important? Perhaps it would do no harm, anyway, to go into his pulpit on Saturday evening and, having arranged his books and papers, stand for a moment in that silent, dimly-lit place, and invoke God’s blessing on his next day’s work. Indeed, he thought, if there was a convenient way to do it, he would like to spend Saturday night in the church.

“Ah, but it was a wise old cult that required its officiating priests to sleep in the temple on the night preceding the major service of the week. Many an otherwise excellent sermon has had the breath of life clattered out of it by the rattle of breakfast dishes, the crying of babies, and general confusion at the parsonage on Sunday morning. Blue decides that henceforth he will get up at five on Sundays, prepare his own breakfast, and hie himself to the little den in the attic where nothing short of serious illness or a fire would be permitted to disturb him until time to go to church. He owes that much to his work.”

[Douglas’s story will continue in my next post…]

Wanted: A Congregation, Part 4h: Psychological Considerations

by Ronald R Johnson

[The following is from the fourth installment in Lloyd Douglas’s series, “Wanted—A Congregation!” in the summer and fall of 1920. This installment, dated 9/2/1920, is titled, “Fourth Phase—The Service of Worship.” The series is about the Reverend D. Preston Blue, who is on a campaign to enlarge his congregation. This episode takes place after he has begun to succeed in building his audience. He is taking a critical look at his order of worship and finding many things he doesn’t like, especially his tendency to announce the hymn over and over again, even though it’s listed in the bulletin…]

“Then there would ensue an awkward pause, during which the organist was guessing whether Brother Blue had said everything that was in his mind at that moment. Having finally determined that the preacher had said it all, the organ would pipe out a puny little combination of ‘solicional’ and ‘violin diapason’ wherewith to introduce the hymn, playing the entire score of it in this feeble manner until, by the time the congregation was actually turned loose to sing, it didn’t want to. There is a peculiar psychology back of this. When the minister has begged the congregation to sing, the man in the pew is reluctant to make the adventure. He fears his neighbor may think that he is going to cut loose and show these people that he, for one, is some singer. Again, when the organ introduces the hymn with a frail little prelude, everybody is afraid to begin, for fear there will be no support.

“But, just now, the thing that filled D. Preston Blue’s mind with misgivings was the thought that he had been talking too much during his ‘service of worship.’ When he had come to the point of announcing the responsive reading of the psalm, he always said something like this: ‘Shall we not now turn to selection one hundred and six, in the back of the hymnal, page one hundred and twenty, and read responsively?’ Then came another of those blighting delays, while people hunted for the page. Blue was conscious of the awkwardness of such moments, and his only remedy for them was to fill them up with talk – mere superfluous chatter. He would keep on repeating, dully, while they searched, ‘Selection one hundred and six – on the one hundred and twentieth page – in the back of the hymnal.’ Oh, how could he have been so exasperatingly stupid? Every time there arose the merest ghost of a chance for the congregation to have a little of blessed silence, here was Blue chattering like a magpie!

“Thus did he review, with burning cheeks, the specific defects in that cold and pulseless ‘order of service,’ searching for the cause of its failure; when, suddenly, the real secret of its hopelessness and dullness stood out, clear-cut as a cameo, and he shouted to Mrs. Blue, ‘I’ve got it! I know what ails Broad Street Church! She’s a-been gettin’ too much gas and not enough spark!'”

[Douglas’s story will continue in my next post…]

Wanted: A Congregation, 4g: “You’ve A-Flooded ‘Er!”

by Ronald R Johnson

[The following is from the fourth installment in Lloyd Douglas’s series, “Wanted—A Congregation!” in the summer and fall of 1920. This installment, dated 9/2/1920, is titled, “Fourth Phase—The Service of Worship.” The series is about the Reverend D. Preston Blue, who is on a campaign to enlarge his congregation. This episode takes place after he has begun to succeed in building his audience. While on vacation, he is painfully analyzing his typical worship service and seeing its faults.]

“Whatever pauses occurred in the service were not eloquent silences, portentous with meaning; they were only awkward delays which the congregation availed itself of as a suitable time to cough in concert, and thumb the hymnal, and wonder whether there’s enough in the tank to run to Blinkton this afternoon or had we better fill it before we start, and to speculate on whether her hat, the forecastle of which shuts off the view, was last season’s rosette upsidedown, or the 1918 model turned wrongsideout.

“Considered as a whole, the service lacked life. It was cloddish, sluggish, heavy; a worse burden than Solomon’s grasshopper. Moreover, as Blue invoiced the thing seriatim, he became conscious that most of its inspirational possibilities had been annulled through his own habit of getting in the way of every potential emotional thrill by the utterance of stupid commonplace. For example: he invariably insisted upon announcing the opening hymn with which the service began. True, it was printed on the bulletin in every member’s hand that the first hymn would be No. 145 – printed so plainly that the wayfaring man needed only to glance at it for the required directions. But Blue always announced it anyway. He would say, ‘Shall we not -‘ (Oh ‘shall we not?’ indeed! Out on all these wobbly-kneed shall-we-notters! What wretched psychology! The old prophets used to say, ‘Hear ye, O Israel!’ That was better!) Well – Blue would say, ‘Shall we not open our service of worship this morning by singing that grand old hymn of the church, number one hundred and forty-five, ‘O God, the Rock of Ages,’ to the tune of ‘Miriam’ which you will find on the left-hand page, the full text being on the right-hand page, however. Let us all join heartily in the singing of this hymn, the one hundred and forty-fifth.'”

[Douglas will explain why he thinks this is bad psychology in my next post…]

Wanted: A Congregation, Part 4f: Ashes on the Altar

by Ronald R Johnson

[The following is from the fourth installment in Lloyd Douglas’s series, “Wanted—A Congregation!” in the summer and fall of 1920. This installment, dated 9/2/1920, is titled, “Fourth Phase—The Service of Worship.” The series is about the Reverend D. Preston Blue, who is on a campaign to enlarge his congregation. This episode takes place after he has begun to succeed in building his audience. He and his wife are on vacation and he is taking stock of the recent improvements.]

“These self-searching queries had been giving our friend some painful hours tonight. He had become shamefully stricken with remorse – the kind that sends a dull ache into the throat and a stinging pain into the eyes. As Blue reviewed the so-called ‘service of worship’ customarily rendered in Broad Street Church, it galled him to reflect upon those cold, gray ashes that stood for an altar fire. It humiliated him to remember how lifeless, how perfunctory the thing really was – so exceedingly dull that even he himself thought of it, when and if he thought of it, as a mere something-necessarily-to-be-gone-through preliminary to the main event of the hour – his sermon! Why, some of his members had frankly accounted for their habitual tardiness at the Sunday morning service with the bland explanation, ‘Oh, all that we care for is the sermon anyway!’ – and Blue had been so short of sight as to feel complimented!

“Torn now with remorse, the preacher resolved to analyze that profitless, cold, and all but sacrilegious ‘order of worship’ – a piece of mummery that had become so trite and feeble that even he was heartily glad when the last wearisome yawn of it had been dutifully recited, and the book chucked back in the rack. Blue was under contract with his own soul to mend matters at that point, without further delay! This was the burden of his thoughts tonight. It was a very, very serious problem. It was not much wonder he didn’t hear the turtles, or see the moon, or chat with Mrs. Blue! He was under conviction of a blunder that was considerably more serious than a mere misdemeanor. He had failed at a vital point! So – he took up that ‘order of worship’ item by item and looked at it.

“In the first place, it was a service absolutely devoid of thrills! (I daresay such use of the word ‘thrills’ will entitle the writer to some more piously-phrased, albeit unsigned, communications from his brethren, warning him to flee the wrath to come.) Well – anyhow – whate’er the future may have in store for him who boswells* for D. Preston Blue, it was a service devoid of thrills! There wasn’t a single feature of it calculated to quicken a man’s respiration or grip his throat or stir his pulse. What little of solemn ritual there was in it possessed no current – just lazily ambled along on a level like the sleepy Yangtse-kiang for five hundred miles without a ripple. It reached no high spots; led up to no climaxes; pointed to no definite goal; and, having no destination in mind, it failed to arrive anywhere.”

(*”boswells” is a verb referring to Douglas’s role as narrator of Blue’s story, just as James Boswell famously narrated the story of Samuel Johnson.)

[Douglas’s article will continue in my next post…]

Wanted: A Congregation, Part 4e: Back to the Invoice

by Ronald R Johnson

[The following is from the fourth installment in Lloyd Douglas’s series, “Wanted—A Congregation!” in the summer and fall of 1920. This installment, dated 9/2/1920, is titled, “Fourth Phase—The Service of Worship.” The series is about the Reverend D. Preston Blue, who is on a campaign to enlarge his congregation. This episode takes place after he has begun to succeed in building his audience. He is on vacation with his wife, taking stock of the recent improvements.]

“Now, there comes a time in the experience of every minister who has been party to such a resurrection of the dead, when his new responsibility makes him very humble. He does not come by this sensation at first. Just the sheer wonder and delight of witnessing the miracle occupies his whole attention. His feeling of gratification knows no bounds. He had always wanted a live church and a magnetic congregation – and now he is getting it! Hallelujah!

“Every Sunday there are many more new faces before him, and he is spurred to his best efforts by their challenging expression of an appraisal that seems to be saying, ‘Well, we’ve heard about it, and here we are; wonder if it’s as good as advertised!’ Yes, there is that period to be gone through – a time of delirious excitement over the hitherto untasted joy of seeing the pulpit actually function.

“Then comes, with a shock, the almost terrifying sense of responsibility to do something more for these eager people than merely preach to them. D. Preston Blue had now arrived at that stage. As he sat gazing wide-eyed but unseeingly into the night, his heart was very heavy. He had wanted a congregation. His dream was going to come true. People would come to his church in increasing numbers. But why did people go to church? Why should they go? To hear a sermon? Was that all? Was there not another – indeed, a primary – function of the church that he, Blue, had almost completely ignored? Was he helping to satisfy that irresistible heart-hunger of the normal human soul for a closer contact with the Infinite? Was he doing anything to deepen the desire and increase the capacity of his people for worship? After all, wasn’t this the main business of the church – to offer a service of worship so reverential and inspirational that it would serve as a spiritual tonic to souls in desperation to escape the tyranny of material things, almost frantically eager to catch occasional glimpses of an intangible heart-kingdom where the youth of the spirit is renewed until it mounts up on eagle-wings?”

[Douglas’s essay will continue in my next post…]

Wanted: A Congregation, Part 4d: Resurgam!

by Ronald R Johnson

[The following is from the fourth installment in Lloyd Douglas’s series, “Wanted—A Congregation!” in the summer and fall of 1920. This installment, dated 9/2/1920, is titled, “Fourth Phase—The Service of Worship.” The series is about the Reverend D. Preston Blue, who is on a campaign to enlarge his congregation. This episode takes place after he has begun to succeed in building his audience. He’s on vacation with his wife, thinking back over how bad things were in his congregation until he turned things around.]

“Then came the rosy morning when D. Preston Blue resolved to ‘buck up’ and avail himself of the natural opportunities at his command to call Centerville’s attention to the message of his pulpit! Perhaps there was just a little bit of sporting blood still drifting, sluggishly, in his arteries; or, maybe some adventurous ancestor in him had whispered, ‘Come on, Preston, old boy, let’s run her nose right into the gale and see what comes of it!’ At all events, Blue had found himself. After careful investigation of certain psychologically-sound methods of dignified advertising, he had begun to experiment with these new processes of stirring the public’s curiosity. Already he had realized astounding results, and not half his scheme was in operation! Whatever anxiety and timidity he had felt about his new program at first was quickly dispelled. He knew that with the resumption of his work after vacation, he could fill Broad Street Church – galleries and all! When he had left town, his membership was buzzing with delight over the unexpected prosperity and interest that had developed in their church. It was exactly as if some new kind of fuel had been thrown into the furnaces of a central power plant; the dim lights had begun to grow brighter; there was a genial warmth in habitually cold radiators; erstwhile reluctant wheels were spinning merrily! Every department of the church had cheered up. The Sunday School superintendent, who had flatly declared in April that he wouldn’t take the job another year if they offered it to him on a golden platter garnished with orchids, had recently spent an evening at the parsonage outlining his program for the autumn with an enthusiasm that left Blue blinking with bewilderment. It was becoming easy to gain the consent of efficient people to serve as committee chairmen. Yes; the preacher knew, now, that Broadstreet was about to be a going concern.”

[Douglas’s essay will continue in my next post…]

Wanted: A Congregation, Part 4c: Invoicing the Stock

by Ronald R Johnson

[The following is from the fourth installment in Lloyd Douglas’s series, “Wanted—A Congregation!” in the summer and fall of 1920. This installment, dated 9/2/1920, is titled, “Fourth Phase—The Service of Worship.” The series is about the Reverend D. Preston Blue, who is on a campaign to enlarge his congregation. This episode takes place after he has begun to succeed in building his audience. He is vacationing in the woods with his wife, reminiscing about how serious his situation was before he caught his “second wind.”]

“One of the chief benefits of a preacher’s vacation is the opportunity it affords him to get far enough away from his job to look at it with telescopic vision. Its little details, which loom up so ominously at close range, fade so nearly out of the picture that they cease to clutter his view of the things that really matter. It is so easy for the preacher’s life to settle into mere humdrum, so easy for it to wear almost inescapably deep grooves in his circuit of daily duties and the weekly performance of conventional tasks, so easy to accept and follow certain ways of doing things without stopping to inquire into their adaptability to meet changing conditions.

“This season’s vacation was bringing a flood of new light into the mind of D. Preston Blue. In the past few months, he had got his second wind. He had taken a fresh grip on a ministry that had almost lost its earlier attractions. Indeed, he had fallen so low in spirit, just previous to his new resolution, that it was only economic necessity that held his flanges to the rails. Had his assets consisted of more than a little piece of overtaxed yellow clay environing a small house that needed a roof and a group of dilapidated farm buildings, plus a few thousands of life insurance which couldn’t be collected so long as he insisted upon remaining alive, there was a moment when he would have given it all up as a bad job and retired. His forty-fifth birthday had been spent in sackcloth. Here he was – forty-five – when he should be just entering upon the most active and useful period of his ministerial career, conscious that he not only hadn’t grown an inch or gained a pound as a preacher since thirty, but that he had actually slumped! He wasn’t the man he had been at thirty! Not only had he been unable to lengthen his tent-ropes – his interests were narrowing! Forty-five! – and still pursuing the petty round of more or less aimless and purposeless parochial visits, pushing door buttons four afternoons a week, for all the world like a policeman ringing up headquarters, every fifteen minutes, to let the sergeant know he was still on his beat; increasingly serving as an errand-boy and general roustabout for a score of church auxiliaries with long names, short memories, frequent meetings, and feeble achievements; preaching dull sermons on Sundays to a small group of drowsy people who occupied less than one-fourth the seating space in his church auditorium – forty-five and a failure! It shamed him to reflect that his only reason for staying on the job at all was not unlike the explanation the Unjust Steward gave for the doubtful transaction to which he resorted – he couldn’t dig, and he was ashamed to beg!”

[To be continued in my next post…]