CHAPTER XXXIX.
JONAS TAKES AN APPEAL
Jonas had waited for the coming of the quarterly meeting to carry hisappeal to the presiding elder. The quarterly meeting for the circuit washeld at the village of Brayvllle, and beds were made upon the floor forthe guests who crowded the town. Every visiting Methodist had a right toentertainment, and every resident Methodist opened his doors very wide,for Western people are hospitable in a fashion and with a bountifulnessunknown on the eastern side of the mountains. Who that has not known it,can ever understand the delightfulness of a quarterly meeting? Themeeting of old friends--the social life--is all but heavenly. And thenthe singing of the old Methodist hymns, such as
"Oh! that will be joyful! Joyful! joyful! Oh! that will be joyful, To meet to part no more."
And that other solemnly-sweet refrain:
"The reaping-time will surely come, And angels shout the harvest home!"
And who shall describe the joy of a Christian mother, when herscapegrace son "laid down the arms of his rebellion" and was "soundlyconverted"? Let those sneer who will, but such moral miracles as arewrought in Methodist revivals are more wonderful than any healing of theblind or raising of the dead could be.
Jonas turned up, faithful to his promise, and called on the "elder" atthe place where he was staying, and asked for a private interview. Hefound the old gentleman exercising his sweet voice in singing,
"Come, let us anew Our journey pursue, Roll round with the year. And never stand still till the Master appear. His adorable will Let us gladly fulfill, And our talents improve By the patience of hope and the labor of love."
"When he concluded the verse he raised his half-closed eyes and sawJonas standing in the door.
"Mr. Persidin' Elder," said Jonas, trying in vain to speak with someseriousness and veneration, "I come to ax your consent to marry one ofyour flock--the best lamb you've got in the whole fold."
"Bless you, Mr. Harrison," said Father Williams, the old elder,laughing, "bless you, I haven't any right to consent or forbid. Ask thelady herself!"
"Ax the lady!" said Jonas. "Didn't I though! And didn't Mr. Goshornforbid the lady to marry me, under the pains and penalties pervided; anddidn't Mr. Hall set his seal to the forbiddin' of Goshorn! An' I says toher, 'I won't take nothin' less than a elder or a bishop on this 'erevital question.' When I want a sheep, I don't go to the underlin,' butto the boss; and so I brought this appeal up to you on a writ of _habeascorpus_, or whatever you may call it."
The presiding elder laughed again, and looked closely at Jonas. Then hestepped to the door and called in the circuit preacher, Mr. Hall, andthe class leader, Mr. Goshorn, both of whom happened to be in the nextroom engaged in an excited discussion with a brother who was a littletouched with Millerism.
"What's this Mr. Harrison tells me about your forbidding the banns inhis case?"
"He's a New Light," said Brother Hall, showing his abhorrence in hisface, "and it seemed to me that for a Methodist to marry a New Light wasa sin--a being yoked together unequally with an unbeliever. You know,Father Williams, that New Lights are Arians."
The old man seemed more amused than ever. Turning to Jonas, he asked himif he was an Arian.
"Not as I knows on, my venerable friend. I may have caught the diseasewhen I had the measles, or I may have been a Arian in infancy, or I maybe a Arian on my mother's side, you know; but as I don't know who orwhat it may be, I a'n't in no way accountable fer it--no more'n BrotherGoshorn is to blame fer his face bein' so humbly. But I take it Arian isone of them air pleasant names you and the New Light preachers uses inyour Christian intercourse together to make one another mad. I'm one ofthem as goes to heaven straight--never stoppin' to throw no donicks atthe Methodists, Presbyterians, nor no other misguided children of men.They may ride in the packet, or go by flat-boat or keel-boat, ef theychooses. I go by the swift-sailin' and palatial mail-boat New Light, andI don't run no opposition line, nor bust my bilers tryin' to beat myneighbors into the heavenly port."
Brother Goshorn looked vexed. Brother Hall was scandalized at thelightness of Jonas's conversation. But the old presiding elder, withkeen common-sense and an equally keen sense of the ludicrous, could notlook grave with all his effort to keep from laughing.
BROTHER GOSHORN.]
"Are you an unbeliever?" he asked.
"I don't know what you call onbeliever. I believe in God and Christ, andkeep Sunday and the Fourth of July; but I don't believe in all ofBrother Goshorn's nonsense about wearing veils and artificials."
"Well," said Brother Hall, "would you endeavor to induce your wife todress in a manner unbecoming a Methodist?"
"SAY THEM WORDS OVER AGAIN."]
"I wouldn't fer the world. If I git the article I want, I don't keerwhat it's tied up in, calico or bombazine."
"Couldn't you join the Methodist Church yourself, and keep your wifecompany?" It was Brother Goshorn who spoke.
"Couldn't I? I suppose I could ef I didn't think no more of religionthan some other folks. I could jine the Methodist Church, and haveeverybody say I jined to git my wife. That may be serving God; but Ican't see how. And then how long would you keep me? The very fust time Ifired off my blunderbuss in class-meetin', and you heerd the buckshotand the squirrel-shot and the slugs and all sorts of things a-rattlin'around, you'd say I was makin' fun of the Gospel. I 'low they a'n't noMethodist in me. I was cut out cur'us, you know, and made up crooked."
"Is there anything against Mr. Harrison, Brother Goshorn?" asked theelder.
"He's a New Light," said Mr. Goshorn, in a tone that signified hisbelief that to be a New Light was enough.
"Is he honest and steady?"
"Never heard anything against him as a moralist."
"Well, then, it's my opinion that any member of your class would dobetter to marry a good, faithful, honest New Light than to marry ahickory Methodist."
Jonas got up like one demented, and ran out of the door and across thestreet. In a moment he came back, bringing Cynthy Ann in triumph.
"Now, soy them words over again," he said to the presiding elder.
"Sister Cynthy Ann," said the presiding elder, "you really love BrotherHarrison?"
"I--I don't know whether it's right to set our sinful hearts on thethings of this perishin' world. But I think more of him, I'm afeard,than I had ort to. He's got as good a heart as I ever seed. But BrotherGoshorn thought I hadn't orter marry him, seein' he is a onbeliever."
"But I a'n't," said Jonas; "I believe in the Bible, and in everything init, and in Cynthy Ann and her good Methodist religion besides."
"I think you can give up all your scruples and marry Mr. Harrison, andlove him and be happy," said the presiding elder. "Don't be afraid to behappy, my sister. You'll be happy in good company in heaven, and you'djust as well get used to it here."
"I told you I'd find a man that had salt enough to keep his religionsweet. And, Father Williams, you've got to marry us, whenever CynthyAnn's ready," said Jonas with enthusiasm.
And for a moment the look of overstrained scrupulosity on Cynthy Ann'sface relaxed and a strange look of happiness came into her eyes.
And the time was fixed then and there.
Brother Hall was astonished.
And Brother Goshorn drew down his face, and said that he didn't knowwhat was to become of good, old-fashioned Methodism and the rules of theDiscipline, if the presiding elders talked in that sort of a way. Thechurch was going to the dogs.