AN EVENING COLLOQUY by A. Smith

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 7, 1900

AN EVENING COLLOQUY.

By A. Smith

ONE evening in midwinter several men were gathered round the stove in the only store of the village of B., discussing the topic of most general interest at that time, —the “revival” in the B. church.

Mr. Jones said he had no confidence in it; for he certainly knew that the members of that church showed very little confidence in or love for each other, and, in fact, that they had frequent tiffs and quarrels, but he could see no evidence that they were trying to “make up” for such things.

“For some reason,” said Mr. Jennings, “they don’t seem to have the ‘power,’ as they called it in my younger days, and to make up for it they sent for an evangelist, who could tell sensational stories and sing opera music to get the people excited to ‘make a start’ to serve the Lord. I’d rather hear the plain Bible truth preached, that calls sin by its right name, and says, ‘Thou art the man.’”

Said Mr. Wilson: “There’s old man Day, a member of the church. He gets his blacksmithing done at my shop, but never has ‘quite enough change’ to pay his bill, but ‘will pay next time.’ I have chalked down the small deficiencies, and now they amount to about five dollars. When I hear him talk religion in meeting, I seem to see chalk marks all over him; and what he says only makes me hate his religion the more.”

“Well,” said Mr. Ainsworth, “that’s something like the case of Brown, the miller, another member of the church. One day I took a grist to his mill, and I noticed that the measure with which he tolled the grist had a large knot-hole in the bottom, over which he had nailed a piece of tin on the outside. Of course every time he tolled a grist he stole that knot-hole full of grain each time he filled the measure. I just figured a little on that matter, and made out that he took, in that way, about fifty bushels of grain a year that did not belong to him; and so every time I hear him pleading with sinners to ‘come forward, and give themselves to the Lord,’ he appears to me to be full of knot-holes, and covered with the smut of wheat.

“There’s one member of the church, however, that I believe is a true Christian, and that is old man Lee. I like to hear him talk in meeting; for every word seems to express true piety, humble, Christlike piety. I have had a good many business transactions with the old man, and have always proved him to be honest and fair. One day he came to my place to buy some apples, and said he, ‘What do you ask for those nice hand-picked winter apples?’ ‘Fifty cents a bushel,’ said I. ‘But,’ said he, ‘do you not know that such apples have just advanced in price to sixty cents? I am willing to pay that.’

“Well, I thought that, since the old man was so honest, and poor too, I would give him big measure. So I piled in the basket all the apples I could make lay on; but he began to lay them off, saying, ‘Neighbor, that is neither right nor reason; just weights and measures are the Lord’s delight.’”

“He doesn’t force his religious views on one’s attention by talk and argument; but he just lives out his profession every day, and almost always has a text of Scripture ready to fit any occasion. I never pay half as much attention to what the minister reads from the Bible as I do to what old man Lee quotes, and I don’t forget it very soon, either.”

“What Ainsworth says,” said Mr. Gray, “reminds me of Mrs. Thompson, a member of the C. church. I was at Thompson’s one evening, when a neighbor lady, also a member of the church, came in with a large head of cabbage. ‘How much do you ask for it?’ said Mrs. T. ‘Six cents,’ said the neighbor. (Cabbages were dear then.) ‘That is not enough, sister; that cabbage is worth ten cents,’ said Mrs. T., and she paid her that amount.”

“I’m always watching church-members,” said Mr. Gaylord, “as I suppose we all are, to see how they will act under a pressure of provocation; and, particularly, I like to say something complainingly about the weather. With most of them it is too hot, too cold, too dry, or too wet, etc.; but old man Lee is always satisfied with the weather, and tells all the good things about it he can; for says he, ‘It is just such weather as my Father in heaven is pleased to send.’”

“There’s Mrs. Bayne, a member of the B. church,” said one; “she frets and scolds at home, but at church she talks like a minister. When I hear her appeals to sinners, I think, ‘Isn’t she tonguey? No wonder she can scold.’”

“Old man Lee keeps Saturday for Sunday, as we all know,” said another; “and, somehow, I never get sight of him, especially on Saturdays, without calling to remembrance all about what he and his people teach concerning their peculiar faith; and I am forced to admit that it is Bible truth. Of course the best of those church-members make mistakes, or do wrong sometimes (for to err is human); but when they own up to it, and do all they can to make matters fair and square, I have confidence in them; and when they talk religion, I feel that there’s something in it worth having.

“No, poor sinners can’t live on spiritual candy, and sweetcake, and froth, and chaff. We want the Bread of life. We want to hear something definite and scriptural about sin and salvation, about Christ and Calvary, and the love of God.” A. SMITH. Grandville, Mich.