George went home the next day; and the following week sent Andrew a note, explaining that when he saw him he did not know his obligation to him, and expressing the hope that, when next in town, he would call upon him. This was hardly well, being condescension1 to a superior. Perhaps the worst evil in the sense of social superiority is the vile2 fancy that it alters human relation. George did not feel bound to make the same acknowledgment of obligation to one in humble3 position as to one in the same golden rank with himself! It says ill for social distinction, if, for its preservation4, such an immoral5 difference be essential. But Andrew was not one to dwell upon his rights. He thought it friendly of Mr. Crawford to ask him to call; therefore, although he had little desire to make his acquaintance, and grudged6 the loss of time, to no man so precious as to him who has a pursuit in addition to a calling, Andrew, far stronger in courtesy than the man who invited him, took the first Saturday afternoon to go and see him.
Mr. Crawford the elder lived in some style, and his door was opened by a servant whose blatant7 adornment8 filled Andrew with friendly pity: no man would submit to be dressed like that, he judged, except from necessity. The reflection sprung from no foolish and degrading contempt for household service. It is true Andrew thought no labor9 so manly10 as that in the earth, out of which grows everything that makes the loveliness or use of Nature; for by it he came in contact with the primaries of human life, and was God's fellow laborer11, a helper in the work of the universe, knowing the ways of it and living in them; but not the less would he have done any service, and that cheerfully, which his own need or that of others might have required of him. The colors of a parrot, however, were not fit for a son of man, and hence his look of sympathy. His regard was met only by a glance of plain contempt, as the lackey12, moved by the same spirit as his master, left him standing13 in the hall—to return presently, and show him into the library—a room of mahogany, red morocco, and yellow calf14, where George sat. He rose, and shook hands with him.
“I am glad to see you, Mr. Ingram,” he said. “When I wrote I had but just learned how much I was indebted to you.”
“I understand what you must mean,” returned Andrew, “but it was scarce worth alluding15 to. Miss Fordyce had the better claim to serve you!”
“You call it nothing to carry a man of my size over a mile of heather!”
“I had help,” answered Andrew; “and but for the broken leg,” he added, with a laugh, “I could have carried you well enough alone.”
There came a pause, for George did not know what next to do with the farmer fellow. So the latter spoke16 again, being unembarrassed.
“You have a grand library, Mr. Crawford! It must be fine to sit among so many books! It's just like a wine-merchant's cellars—only here you can open and drink, and leave the bottles as full as before!”
“A good simile17, Mr. Ingram!” replied George. “You must come and dine with me, and we'll open another sort of bottle!”
“You must excuse me there, sir! I have no time for that sort of bottle.”
“I understand you read a great deal?”
“Weather permitting,” returned Andrew.
“I should have thought if anything was independent of the weather, it must be reading!”
“Not a farmer's reading, sir. To him the weather is the Word of God, telling him whether to work or read.”
George was silent. To him the Word of God was the Bible!
“But you must read a great deal yourself, sir!” resumed Andrew, casting a glance round the room.
“The books are my father's!” said George.
He did not mention that his own reading came all in the library-cart, except when he wanted some special information; for George was “a practical man!” He read his Bible to prepare for his class in the Sunday-school, and his Shakespeare when he was going to see one of his plays acted. He would make the best of both worlds by paying due attention to both! He was religious, but liberal.
His father was a banker, an elder of the kirk, well reputed in and beyond his circle. He gave to many charities, and largely to educational schemes. His religion was to hold by the traditions of the elders, and keep himself respectable in the eyes of money-dealers. He went to church regularly, and always asked God's blessing18 on his food, as if it were a kind of general sauce. He never prayed God to make him love his neighbor, or help him to be an honest man. He “had worship” every morning, no doubt; but only a Nonentity19 like his God could care for such prayers as his. George rejected his father's theology as false in logic20 and cruel in character: George knew just enough of God to be guilty of neglecting Him.
“When I am out all day, I can do with less reading; for then I have the 'book of knowledge fair,'” said Andrew, quoting Milton. “It does not take all one's attention to drive a straight furrow21 or keep the harrow on the edge of the last bout22!”
“No, sir,” answered Andrew, amused. “A body could not well manage a book between the stilts24 of the plow. The Bible will keep till you get home; a little of it goes a long way. But Paul counted the book of creation enough to make the heathen to blame for not minding it. Never a wind wakes of a sudden, but it talks to me about God. And is not the sunlight the same that came out of the body of Jesus at His transfiguration?”
“Perhaps, sir! For a man to have no ideas of his own, is much the same as to have no ideas at all. A man can not have the ideas of another man, any more than he can have another man's soul, or another man's body!”
“Perhaps we are not talking about the same thing! I mean by ideas, what a man orders his life by.”
“Your ideas may be wrong!”
“The All-wise is my judge.”
“So much the worse, if you are in the wrong!”
“It is the only good, whether I be in the right or the wrong. Would I have my mistakes overlooked? What judge would I desire but the Judge of all the earth! Shall He not do right? And will He not set me right?”
“That is a most dangerous confidence!”
“It would be if there were any other judge. But it will be neither the Church nor the world that will sit on the great white throne. He who sits there will not ask: 'Did you go to church?' or 'Did you believe in this or that?' but' Did you do what I told you?'”
“And what will you say to that, Mr. Ingram?”
“I will say: 'Lord, Thou knowest!”
The answer checked George a little.
“Suppose He should say you did not, what would you answer?”
“I would say: 'Lord, send me where I may learn.'”
“And if He should say: 'That is what I sent you into the world for, and you have not done it!' what would you say then?”
“I should hold my peace.”
“You do what He tells you then?”
“I try.”
“No, sir.”
“No?”
“Somebody says something like it in the Epistle to the Hebrews.”
“And isn't that the same?”
“The Man who wrote it would be indignant at your saying so! Tell me, Mr. Crawford, what makes a gathering28 a Church?”
“It would take me some time to arrange my ideas before I could answer you.”
“Is it not the presence of Christ that makes an assembly a Church?”
“Well?”
“Does He not say that where two or three are met in His name, there is He in the midst of them?”
“Yes.”
“Then thus far I will justify29 myself to you, that, if I do not go to what you call church, I yet often make one of a company met in His name.”
“He does not limit the company to two or three.”
“Assuredly not. But if I find I get more help and strength with a certain few, why should I go with a multitude to get less? Will you draw another line than the Master's? Why should it be more sacred to worship with five hundred or five thousand than with three? If He is in the midst of them, they can not be wrong gathered!”
“It looks as if you thought yourselves better than everybody else!”
“If it were so, then certainly He would not be one of the gathering!”
“How are you to know that He is in the midst of you?”
“If we are not keeping His commandments, He is not. But His presence can not be proved; it can only be known. If He meets us, it is not necessary to the joy of His presence that we should be able to prove that He does meet us! If a man has the company of the Lord, he will care little whether another does or does not believe that he has.”
“Your way is against the peace of the Church! It fosters division.”
“Did the Lord come to send peace on the earth? My way, as you call it, would make division, but division between those who call themselves His and those who are His. It would bring together those that love Him. Company would merge30 with company that they might look on the Lord together. I don't believe Jesus cares much for what is called the visible Church; but He cares with His very Godhead for those that do as He tells them; they are His Father's friends; they are His elect by whom He will save the world. It is by those who obey, and by their obedience31, that He will save those who do not obey, that is, will bring them to obey. It is one by one the world will pass to His side. There is no saving in the lump. If a thousand be converted at once, it is every single lonely man that is converted.”
“You would make a slow process of it!”
“If slow, yet faster than any other. All God's processes are slow. How many years has the world existed, do you imagine, sir?”
“I don't know. Geologists32 say hundreds and hundreds of thousands.”
“And how many is it since Christ came?”
“Toward two thousand.”
“Then we are but in the morning of Christianity! There is plenty of time. The day is before us.”
“Dangerous doctrine for the sinner!”
“Why? Time is plentiful34 for his misery35, if he will not repent36; plentiful for the mercy of God that would lead him to repentance37. There is plenty of time for labor and hope; none for indifference38 and delay. God will have his creatures good. They can not escape Him.”
“Then a man may put off repentance as long as he pleases!”
“Certainly he may—at least as long as he can—but it is a fearful thing to try issues with God.”
“I can hardly say I understand you.”
“Mr. Crawford, you have questioned me in the way of kindly39 anxiety and reproof40; that has given me the right to question you. Tell me, do you admit we are bound to do what our Lord requires?”
“Yet a man may say: 'Lord, Lord,' and be cast out! It is one thing to say we are bound to do what the Lord tells us, and another to do what He tells us! He says: 'Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness:' Mr. Crawford, are you seeking the kingdom of God first, or are you seeking money first?”
“We are sent into the world to make our living.”
“Sent into the world, we have to seek our living; we are not sent into the world to seek our living, but to seek the kingdom and righteousness of God. And to seek a living is very different from seeking a fortune!”
“If you, Mr. Ingram, had a little wholesome41 ambition, you would be less given to judging your neighbors.”
Andrew held his peace, and George concluded he had had the best of the argument—which was all he wanted; of the truth concerned he did not see enough to care about it Andrew, perceiving no good was to be done, was willing to appear defeated; he did not value any victory but the victory of the truth, and George was not yet capable of being conquered by the truth.
“No!” resumed he, “we must avoid personalities42. There are certain things all respectable people have agreed to regard as right: he is a presumptuous43 man who refuses to regard them. Reflect on it, Mr. Ingram.”
The curious smile hovered44 about the lip of the plow-man; when things to say did not come to him, he went nowhere to fetch them. Almost in childhood he had learned that, when one is required to meet the lie, words are given him; when they are not, silence is better. A man who does not love the truth, but disputes for victory, is the swine before whom pearls must not be cast. Andrew's smile meant that it had been a waste of his time to call upon Mr. Crawford. But he did not blame himself, for he had come out of pure friendliness45. He would have risen at once, but feared to seem offended. Crawford, therefore, with the rudeness of a superior, himself rose, saying:
“Is there anything I can do for you, Mr. Ingram?”
“The only thing one man can do for another is to be at one with him,” answered Andrew, rising.
“Tell me this,” returned Andrew, looking him in the eyes: “Did Jesus ever ask of His Father anything His Father would not give Him?”
“Not that I remember,” answered George, fearing a theological trap.
“He said once: 'I pray for them which shall believe in Me, that they all may be one, as Thou Father art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also many be one in us!' No man can be one with another, who is not one with Christ.”
As he left the house, a carriage drove up, in which was Mr. Crawford the elder, home from a meeting of directors, at which a dividend47 had been agreed upon—to be paid from the capital, in preparation for another issue of shares.
Andrew walked home a little bewildered. “How is it,” he said to himself, “that so many who would be terrified at the idea of not being Christians48, and are horrified49 at any man who does not believe there is a God, are yet absolutely indifferent to what their Lord tells them to do if they would be His disciples50? But may not I be in like case without knowing it? Do I meet God in my geometry? When I so much enjoy my Euclid, is it always God geometrizing to me? Do I feel talking with God every time I dwell upon any fact of his world of lines and circles and angles? Is it God with me, every time that the joy of life, of a wind or a sky or a lovely phrase, flashes through me? Oh, my God,” he broke out in speechless prayer as he walked—and those that passed said to themselves he was mad; how, in such a world, could any but a madman wear a face of joy! “Oh, my God, Thou art all in all, and I have everything! The world is mine because it is Thine! I thank Thee, my God, that Thou hast lifted me up to see whence I came, to know to whom I belong, to know who is my Father, and makes me His heir! I am Thine, infinitely51 more than mine own; and Thou art mine as Thou art Christ's!”
He knew his Father in the same way that Jesus Christ knows His Father. He was at home in the universe, neither lonely, nor out-of-doors, nor afraid.
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1
condescension
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| n.自以为高人一等，贬低(别人) | |
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vile
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| adj.卑鄙的，可耻的，邪恶的；坏透的 | |
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humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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preservation
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| n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持 | |
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immoral
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| adj.不道德的，淫荡的，荒淫的，有伤风化的 | |
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6
grudged
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| 怀恨（grudge的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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blatant
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| adj.厚颜无耻的；显眼的；炫耀的 | |
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adornment
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| n.装饰；装饰品 | |
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labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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laborer
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| n.劳动者，劳工 | |
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lackey
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| n.侍从；跟班 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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calf
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| n.小牛，犊，幼仔，小牛皮 | |
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15
alluding
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| 提及，暗指( allude的现在分词 ) | |
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16
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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17
simile
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| n.直喻，明喻 | |
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blessing
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| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
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nonentity
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| n.无足轻重的人 | |
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logic
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| n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性 | |
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furrow
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| n.沟；垄沟；轨迹；车辙；皱纹 | |
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bout
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| n.侵袭，发作；一次(阵，回)；拳击等比赛 | |
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plow
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| n.犁，耕地，犁过的地；v.犁，费力地前进[英]plough | |
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24
stilts
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| n.（支撑建筑物高出地面或水面的）桩子，支柱( stilt的名词复数 )；高跷 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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forsake
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| vt.遗弃，抛弃；舍弃，放弃 | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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justify
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| vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护 | |
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30
merge
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| v.(使)结合，(使)合并，(使)合为一体 | |
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obedience
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| n.服从，顺从 | |
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32
geologists
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| 地质学家，地质学者( geologist的名词复数 ) | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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34
plentiful
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| adj.富裕的，丰富的 | |
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misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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repent
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| v.悔悟，悔改，忏悔，后悔 | |
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repentance
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| n.懊悔 | |
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indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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40
reproof
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| n.斥责，责备 | |
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41
wholesome
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| adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的 | |
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42
personalities
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| n. 诽谤，（对某人容貌、性格等所进行的）人身攻击； 人身攻击；人格, 个性, 名人( personality的名词复数 ) | |
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43
presumptuous
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| adj.胆大妄为的，放肆的，冒昧的，冒失的 | |
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44
hovered
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| 鸟( hover的过去式和过去分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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45
friendliness
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| n.友谊，亲切，亲密 | |
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46
socialist
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| n.社会主义者；adj.社会主义的 | |
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47
dividend
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| n.红利，股息；回报，效益 | |
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48
Christians
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| n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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49
horrified
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| a.(表现出)恐惧的 | |
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50
disciples
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| n.信徒( disciple的名词复数 )；门徒；耶稣的信徒；（尤指）耶稣十二门徒之一 | |
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51
infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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