Putney got upon his feet and called out, "Mr. Moderator, will Brother
Gerrish allow me to ask him a single question?"
Mr. Peck put the request, and Mr. Gerrish involuntarily made a pause, in
which Putney pursued-"My question is simply this: doesn't Brother Gerrish think it would help
us to get at the business in hand sooner if he would print the rest of his
advertisement in the Hatboro' _Register_?"
A laugh broke out all over the house as Putney dropped back into his seat.
Mr. Gerrish stood apparently undaunted.
"I will attend to you presently, sir," he said, with a schoolmasterly
authority which made an impression in his favour with some. "And I thank
the gentleman," he continued, turning again to address the minister, "for
recalling me from a side issue. As he acknowledges in the suggestion which
he intended to wound my feelings, but I can assure him that my self-respect
is beyond the reach of slurs and innuendoes; I care little for them; I
care not what quarter they originate from, or have their--their origin;
and still less when they spring from a source notoriously incompetent and
unworthy to command the respect of this community, which has abused all its
privileges and trampled the forbearance of its fellow-citizens under foot,
until it has become a--a byword in this place, sir."
Putney sprang up again with, "Mr. Moderator--" "No, sir! no, sir!" pursued
Gerrish; "I will not submit to your interruptions. I have the floor, and I
intend to keep it. I intend to challenge a full and fearless scrutiny of
my motives in this matter, and I intend to probe those motives in others.
Why do we find, sir, on the one side of this question as its most active
exponent a man outside of the church in organising a force within this
society to antagonise the most cherished convictions of that church? We
do not asperse his motives; but we ask if these motives coincide with
the relations which a Christian minister should sustain to his flock as
expressed in the resolution which I have had the privilege to offer, more
in sorrow than in anger."
Putney made some starts to rise, but quelled himself, and finally sank back
with an air of ironical patience. Gerrish's personalities had turned public
sentiment in his favour. Colonel Marvin came over to Putney's pew and shook
hands with him before sitting down by his side. He began to talk with him
in whisper while Gerrish went on-"But on the other hand, sir, what do we see? I will not allude to myself
in this connection, but I am well aware, sir, that I represent a large and
growing majority of this church in the stand I have taken. We are tired,
sir--and I say it to you openly, sir, what has been bruited about in secret
long enough--of having what I may call a one-sided gospel preached in this
church and from this pulpit. We enter our protest against the neglect of
very essential elements of Christianity--not to say the essential--the
representation of Christ as--a--a spirit as well as a life. Understand me,
sir, we do not object, neither I nor any of those who agree with me, to the
preaching of Christ as a life. That is all very well in its place, and it
is the wish of every true Christian to conform and adapt his own life as
far as--as circumstances will permit of. But when I come to this sanctuary,
and _they_ come, Sabbath after Sabbath, and hear nothing said of my
Redeemer as a--means of salvation, and nothing of Him crucified; and when I
find the precious promises of the gospel ignored and neglected continually
and--and all the time, and each discourse from yonder pulpit filled up with
generalities--glittering generalities, as has been well said by another--in
relation to and connection with mere conduct, I am disappointed, sir, and
dissatisfied, and I feel to protest against that line of--of preaching.
During the last six months, Sabbath after Sabbath, I have listened in
vain for the ministrations of the plain gospel and the tenets under
which we have been blessed as a church and as--a--people. Instead of
this I have heard, as I have said--and I repeat it without fear of
contradiction--nothing but one-idea appeals and mere moralisings upon duty
to others, which a child and the veriest tyro could not fail therein; and I
have culminated--or rather it has been culminated to me--in a covert attack
upon my private affairs and my way of conducting my private business in a
manner which I could not overlook. For that reason, and for the reasons
which I have recapitulated--and I challenge the closest scrutiny--I felt
it my duty to enter my public protest and to leave this sanctuary, where I
have worshipped ever since it was erected, with my family. And I now urge
the adoption of the foregoing resolution because I believe that your
usefulness has come to an end to the vast majority of the constituent
members of this church; and--and that is all."