Life in London Part 8

A month or two after the theatre adventure, Mrs. Weston received an invitation to spend a week or two in the country with some relatives, whom she had not seen for several years. Mr. Brunton persuaded her to accept it, as the change would be beneficial; and George, knowing how seldom his mother had an opportunity for recreation, added all his powers of argument to induce her to go. The only obstacle presenting itself was the management of the house during her absence. Mr. Brunton invited George to stay with him while Mrs. Weston would be away; and she did not like to leave her servant alone in the house with the boarders.

It was at last arranged that George should decline Mr. Brunton's invitation, and have the oversight of the house during his mother's absence.

The first night after her departure, George brought Hardy home with him to spend the evening, and a pleasant, quiet time they had together.

"It will be rather dull for you, George," said Hardy, "if Mrs. Weston is going to remain away for a few weeks. What shall you do on Sunday? You had better come and spend the day with us."

"No, I cannot do that, because I promised I would be here, to let the servant have an opportunity of going to church. But I mean to ask Ashton to come and spend the day here, and you will come too; and there's Dixon, he is a nice fellow, I'll ask him to come as well."

"What is to be the programme for the day?" said Hardy. "Of course it will be a quiet one."

"We will all go to church or chapel in the morning, spend the afternoon together at home, and take a stroll in the evening after the service.

Are you agreed?"

"I think we shall have a very nice day of it. Let the other chaps know of it early, and we will meet here in good time in the morning."

Sunday came, and George's friends arrived as he expected. They were early, and had time for a chat before starting out.

"Where shall we go this morning?" asked George. "There is a very good minister close by at the church, and another equally good at the chapel.

My principles are unsectarian, and I do not mind where it is we go."

"Don't you think," said Dixon, "we might do ourselves more good by taking a stroll a few miles out of town, and talking out a sermon for ourselves?"

"I am inclined to the belief that nature is the best preacher," Ashton remarked. "We hear good sermons from the pulpit, it is true; but words are poor things to teach us of the Creator, in comparison with creation."

"I do not agree with you in your religious sentiments, Ashton, as you know," said George. "Creation tells us nothing about our Saviour, and, as I read the Scriptures, no man can know G.o.d, the Father and Great Creator, but through Him."

"And yet, if I remember rightly, the Saviour said that He made the world, and without Him was not anything made that was made--so that He was the Creator; and when we look from nature up to nature's G.o.d we see Him, and connecting His history with the world around us, we have in creation, as I said before, the best sermon; aye, and what the parsons call a 'gospel' sermon, too."

"I agree with you," said Dixon; "preaching is all very well in its way, and I like a good sermon; but the words of man can never excel the works of G.o.d."

"A proper sermon," replied George, "is not uttered in the words of man; they are G.o.d's words applied and expounded. Nature may speak to the senses, but the Scriptures alone speak to the heart; and that is the object of preaching. But you are my visitors, and you shall decide the point."

"Then I say a stroll," said Ashton.

"And so do I," chimed in Dixon.

"I am for going to a place of worship," said Hardy.

"And so am I," Ashton replied; "is not all G.o.d's universe a place of worship?"

"Perhaps so," answered Hardy; "but I mean the appointed and proper place, where those who try to keep holy the Sabbath day are accustomed to meet--a church or chapel."

"I side with Hardy," said George. "But I am willing to meet you halfway.

If I go with you this morning, you must all promise to go with me in the evening. But bear in mind I am making a concession, and I go for a stroll under protest, because it is contrary to my custom."

"All right, old chap," said Ashton. "I never knew anybody's conscience fit them so uneasily as yours does. But it always did; at school, you were a martyr to it, and I believe the blame lies at the door of dear old Dr. Seaward, who persisted in training us up in the way we should go, just as if we were all designed to be parsons."

"Poor old Dr. Seaward!" said George. "If he only knew two of his old scholars were going out for a stroll on Sunday morning to hear nature preach, I believe his body would hardly contain his troubled spirit."

"And he would appear before us to stop us on our way--"

"Like the spirit before Balaam and his a.s.s, seems the most appropriate simile," said Dixon, "for, if I recollect rightly, Balaam was going where he should not have gone, and his conscience gave him as much trouble as Weston's does."

George did not think and say, as Balaam did, "I have sinned;" but he felt the sting of ridicule, and determined he would allow no conscientious scruple to bring it upon him again during that day.

"After all," he argued with himself, "what is the use of my being conscientious, for I am so wretchedly inconsistent? I had better go all one way, or all the other, instead of wavering between the two, and perpetually showing my weakness."

It would have puzzled any one to have told what sermon nature preached to that merry party, as they wandered through green fields and quiet lanes, talking upon a hundred different subjects, and making the calm Sabbath morn ring with the strains of their laughter.

"Your idea of creation's voice is better in theory than in practice,"

George said, when they returned home. "Can any of you tell me what the text was which nature took to preach from, for I have no distinct remembrance of it?"

"The text seemed to me to be this," said Dixon, "that 'to everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heavens--a time to weep and a time to laugh--a time to keep silence and a time to speak;' and the application was, that we had chosen the right time for enjoying much speaking and much laughing."

The afternoon was not spent as George had been accustomed to spend it.

Light, frivolous conversation, and still more dangerous debate upon religious subjects, without religious feeling, occupied the time, and George felt glad when the evening came, and they started off together to hear a popular preacher, whose merits they had been discussing during the afternoon.

On their way thither they pa.s.sed a large building, into which several people were entering, and as the outside of the place was ornamented with handbills, they paused to read them. They ran thus:--

"HALL OF SCIENCE.--A Lecture will be delivered in this Hall on Sunday evening, at half past six, by Professor Martin, on 'The Uses of Reason.' Young men are cordially invited to attend.

"What is truth? Search and see."

"Do you know anything of this Professor Martin?" asked Dixon. "Is he worth hearing?"

"A friend of mine told me he had heard him, a little while ago, and was never better pleased with any lecture," Ashton answered. "Shall we put up here for the evening?"

"Is he a preacher, or a mere lecturer?" asked George. The question attracted the attention of a person entering the Hall; and, turning to George, he answered:--

"Professor Martin is one of those best of all preachers. He can interest without sending you to sleep, and his discourses are full of sound wisdom. He is a lover of truth, and advocates the only way to arrive at it, which is by unfettered thought. In his lectures he puts his theory into practice by freely expressing his unfettered thoughts. I have seats in the front of the lecture-room; if you will favour me by accepting them, they are at your service."

The plausible and polite manner of the stranger was effectual with George.

"I don't think we can do better than go in and hear what the lecturer has to say," he said to the others. And, a.s.sent being given, they followed the stranger, and were conducted to the proffered seats.

The audience consisted princ.i.p.ally of men, the majority of whom were young and of an inferior cla.s.s, such as shopmen and mechanics. There was a large platform, with chairs upon it, but no pulpit or reading-desk.

When the lecturer, accompanied by a chairman and some friends, entered, George and his companions were surprised to hear a clapping of hands and stamping of feet, similar to the plan adopted at public amus.e.m.e.nts.

"This does not seem much like a Sunday evening service," said George.

"We have time to leave, if you like; or shall we stay and see it out?"

"Oh! let us stay," replied the others.

No hymn was sung, no prayer was offered at the commencement, but the lecturer, with a pocket Bible in his hands, quoted a few pa.s.sages of Scripture, as follows:--

"Come now, and let us reason together,"--Isa. i. 18; "I applied mine heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and to know the reason of things,"--Eccles. vii. 25; "And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures,"--Acts xvii. 2; "Be ready alway to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you,"--1 Peter iii.

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