A MINISTER OF THE WORLD.
 
 LADIES HOME JOURNAL 
 LIBRARY OF FICTION 
 
 VOL. I. The Spirit of Sweet- 
 water. By Hamlin Gar 
 land. 
 
 VOL. II. A Minister of the 
 World. By Caroline A. 
 Mason. 
 
 VOL. III. The People of 
 Our Neighborhood. By 
 Mary E. Wilkins. 
 
 Cloth, fifty cents each.
 
 LADIES HOME JOURNAL 
 LIBRARY OF FICTION 
 
 A MINISTER OF 
 THE WORLD 
 
 BY 
 
 CAROLINE ATWATER MASON 
 
 PHOTOGRAVURES FROM DRAWINGS BY 
 
 W. T. SMEDLEY 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 CURTIS PUBLISHING 
 COMPANY 
 
 NEW YORK 
 DOUBLEDAY 
 
 McCLURE CO.
 
 Copyright, 1895, by 
 THE CURTIS PUBLISHING Co. 
 
 Copyright, 1897, by 
 A. D. F. RANDOLPH & Co. 
 
 Copyright, 1898, by 
 
 DOUBLEDAY & McCtURE Co.
 
 A Minister of the World.
 
 TAKE any of the sons our age has nursed, 
 Fed with her food and taught her best and worst ; 
 Suppose no great disaster ; look not nigh 
 On hidden hours of his extremity ; 
 But watch him like the flickering magnet stirred 
 By each imponderable look and word, 
 And think how firm a courage every day 
 He needs to bear him on life s common way, 
 Since even at the best his spirit moves 
 Thro such a tourney of conflicting loves, 
 Unwisely sought, xintruly called untrue ; 
 Beloved and hated and beloved anew ; 
 Till in the changing whirl of praise and blame 
 He feels himself the same and not the same ; 
 ***** 
 
 And often idly hopeless, often bent 
 
 On some tumultuous deed and vehement, 
 
 Because his spirit he can nowise fit 
 
 To the world s ways and settled rule of it, 
 
 But thro contented thousands travels on 
 
 Like a sad heir in disinherison. 
 
 FREDERIC "W. H. MYERS.
 
 A MINISTER OF THE WORLD 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Twas one of the charmed days 
 
 When the genius of God doth flow, 
 The wind may alter twenty ways, 
 
 A tempest cannot blow. 
 It may blow north, it still is warm ; 
 
 Or south, it still is clear ; 
 Or east, it smells like a clover-farm ; 
 
 Or west, no thunder fear. 
 
 EMERSON. 
 
 THEEE is a row of locust-trees in 
 front of the parsonage at Thornton, on 
 the outer edge of the sidewalk, and it 
 seemed on this particular June after 
 noon as if all the upper spaces of the air 
 were occupied by the fragrance of their 
 pale, wind-blown blossoms. Below, on 
 our own level, was the spicy breath of 
 the garden roses and the honest, heavy 
 5
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 sweetness of the syringa. But the fra 
 grance of the locust hlossoms has a 
 peculiarly aerial, elusive quality, in 
 fact, a certain loftiness, as if it knew 
 that its family had seen better days and 
 was not held in the high regard of an 
 earlier time, and hence it would not 
 descend to delight the sense of the sor 
 did folk with free bestowal. Still more 
 delicate and more elusive was the scent 
 of the grapevine blossom ; but this 
 was shyness without the assumption of 
 superiority. It was forever coming to 
 you from around a corner, but if you 
 went to the corner to catch it, it would 
 have escaped you. All of these pre 
 cious odors, and I dare not say how 
 many more, were making the air around 
 the parsonage intoxicating that early 
 afternoon. 
 
 The house was a white cottage with 
 a wide front and a small veranda on 
 which the house door stood open direct 
 ly into the sitting-room. There was a 
 cleanly swept, home-woven carpet on 
 6
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 the floor of this room, a table with a 
 red cotton cover, and on a white paint 
 ed shelf, between two vases filled with 
 garden flowers, a clock ticked with 
 sharp emphasis from its Gothic wooden 
 case. The emptiness and orderliness of 
 the room, the open door, the very 
 silence itself, seemed to impart a sense 
 of expectancy, but no one was to be 
 seen. Outside the bees hummed drow 
 sily in the yellow roses, which were daz- 
 zlingly bright in the broad sunshine ; a 
 light breeze passed now and then over 
 the grass ; it grew as high as the pal 
 ings of the fence on either side of the 
 walk, and it was already ripe for the 
 scythe. It had been an early spring in 
 Thornton. Fairly swamped in the tall 
 timothy stood deep red peonies, their 
 petals dropping and drifting heedlessly 
 around them in the sea-green depths of 
 the grass. Standing on the walk be 
 tween the clumps of peonies one could 
 look down across the clover-fields which 
 adjoined the parsonage acre and see 
 7
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 the lovely Thornton valley, with its 
 smooth green meadows, its graceful 
 elm-trees dotted along the river s bank, 
 and the wooded slopes of the enclosing 
 hills. Beyond the parsonage, as one 
 looked up the village street, stood the 
 white church, with its square, ungrace 
 ful tower, and its uncompromising aus 
 terity of outline. A row of maple-trees 
 grew before it, concealing the village 
 from view. But there was not much 
 to conceal. Thornton was only a clus 
 ter of houses, each a farmhouse in its 
 way, with a church, a post-office, a 
 store, and a blacksmith s shop, to sup 
 ply the actual needs of the surrounding 
 neighborhood. For those who con 
 fessed to complex and ambitious de 
 mands there was Pembroke, the county- 
 seat, only seven miles away, where 
 were to be found all the refinements 
 and luxuries of life. But Pembroke, 
 with its noise of locomotives and fac 
 tories, was well out of sight and hear 
 ing, and Thornton dozed on in its
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 dreamy stillness, undisturbed thus far, 
 even by the advent of the summer 
 boarder," an unconscious, unspoiled, 
 country village. 
 
 Down the street a light open wagon 
 containing two women, one of whom 
 was driving the somewhat spiritless 
 horse, could now be seen approaching 
 the parsonage. The clock on the white 
 shelf had just drawn up all its vibrations 
 into a single distinct effort and clanged 
 out two resonant strokes. A slender, 
 gray-haired woman in a checked cotton 
 gown and white apron came out to the 
 door just as the clock struck, and stood 
 watching the horse and wagon as they 
 drew near. 
 
 " It s Lecty and Aunt Elizy, I de 
 clare !" she exclaimed in a shrill but 
 gentle voice. " They ve got here first 
 of all !" 
 
 There was silence in the house as be 
 fore, and after a moment s pause the 
 woman stepped back within the room, 
 and addressing herself toward a door
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 which stood open on the left, she 
 cried : 
 
 " Stephen, don t yon hear what I 
 say? Lecty Sanbonvs bringing Aunt 
 Elizy ; they ve turned in already, and 
 you must hurry and help her to get out 
 of the wagon." 
 
 In the room beyond, at an oblong ta 
 ble covered with green enamelled cloth, 
 a young man w r as sitting in his shirt 
 sleeves with his back to the door, writ 
 ing. The room was not a large one. 
 and its walls were nearly lined with 
 bookshelves, rising two-thirds of the 
 distance to the low ceiling. Above the 
 books facing the door hung a photo 
 graph of Ilolman Hunt s " Light of the 
 World. 1 
 
 On being thus appealed to, the young 
 man rose from the table, stretched one 
 long arm up behind the door, and pro 
 duced a coat, which he drew on as lie 
 crossed the sitting-room with a few 
 strides and followed the woman, who 
 was his mother, out through the clean, 
 10
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 sunny kitchen to the horse-block at 
 the side of the house. He was a tall, 
 athletic fellow, this Stephen Castle, 
 looking less than his eight-and-twenty 
 years, with light hair close cropped, a 
 finely browned skin, and a pair of good 
 gray eyes. There was about him in 
 rare degree that indefinable personal 
 attraction which gives charm to every 
 word and motion of some men and 
 women. His face wore the stamp of 
 thought and study, and indeed there 
 was upon it a suggestion of spiritual 
 purity and earnestness, which united 
 with the boyish freedom of his move 
 ments and his thoroughgoing manliness 
 to make a peculiarly winning personal 
 ity, even to one who saw him only for 
 a moment. He was the pastor of the 
 church in Thornton, and had been for 
 four years, coining thither direct from 
 the divinity school. With him came 
 his mother, a widow, who, having no 
 other child, followed him wherever he 
 went, making a home for him and de 
 ll
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 voting herself to him and his interests 
 absolutely. Mrs. Castle had been 
 country born and bred herself, and 
 Stephen had pursued his studies in the 
 humbler and more rural schools of New 
 England, so that neither of them felt 
 anything of deprivation or sacrifice in 
 settling in a little village like Thornton 
 and adapting themselves to the ways of 
 a farming parish. Indeed, Stephen 
 Castle would not have believed that he 
 could have been in his element in a city 
 church. lie doubted whether lie was 
 man enough to preach to this handful 
 of country folk ; he had not learned his 
 own powers yet ; his weaknesses he 
 thought he clearly understood. 
 
 Four years were not needed, even 
 with the slow and unenthusiastic habit 
 of Xew England country people, to 
 win for the young pastor the almost 
 adoring love of his parishioners. They 
 petted and praised him ; boasted of 
 him wherever they went ; treasured 
 and repeated the things he said, as men 
 
 12
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 do the sayings of a darling child ; 
 gloried in his physical and intellectual 
 strength, and yet more in his obvious 
 weaknesses ; and, in fine, idolized him 
 and spoiled him as far as this kind of 
 devotion could. Stephen was of too 
 fine a nature to become vain or assum 
 ing ; if he grew somewhat imperious, 
 it was in so fine a degree that it merely 
 served to attract men and women more 
 irresistibly to him. 
 
 He stood now on the rough stone 
 block before the kitchen door, and lifted 
 the little old lady whom his mother 
 called " Aunt Elizy" from the wagon 
 as easily as if she had been a child, then 
 holding her withered, chilly little hands 
 in his, which were warm and steady, 
 he looked with a deference which sat 
 well upon him into her face, and said : 
 
 " It was very good of you to come, 
 Aunt Eliza ; you don t know how glad 
 and proud you make us. 
 
 The old lady was dressed in a black 
 silk gown and an old-fashioned fringed 
 13
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 mantilla. She wore a large black bon 
 net, under which appeared the snow- 
 white crinkled frill of her cap and some 
 soft gray hair. Her face was fairly 
 tiny and much wrinkled, but sensitive 
 and refined in its expression, and the 
 hazel eyes had almost the brightness of 
 young eyes, as she looked up with a 
 certain archness, which in some women 
 lasts a lifetime, and said : 
 
 Then why don t you kiss me, Ste 
 phen ? 
 
 At this the middle-aged woman, who 
 still sat in the wagon, threw back her 
 head and laughed. 
 
 " If you don t beat all ! Aunt Elizy," 
 she exclaimed. I d never have 
 brought you down here if I d s posed 
 you were goin to perform like this. 
 Mis Castle, I shouldn t think you d 
 stand there and allow such goin s on." 
 
 Quite regardless of her noisy banter, 
 
 Stephen bent and gravely kissed the 
 
 little lady, and then, drawing her hand 
 
 into his arm, he carefully led her up 
 
 14
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 the steps and into the house. It was 
 only the door of a very humble country 
 parsonage, but the young man s chival 
 rous courtesy and the old lady s quiet 
 grace and fine manner would have been 
 in place at the entrance to a royal 
 house. 
 
 15
 
 "Whate er the scene presented to her view. 
 That was the best, to that she was attuneu 
 By her benign simplicity of life, 
 And through a perfect happiness of soul. 
 
 WORDSWORTH. 
 
 ONE after another, at longer or short 
 er intervals, half a dozen carriages were 
 now driven into the parsonage yard, 
 and their owners were received by 
 Mrs. Castle and conducted to her own 
 bedroom. Having laid aside their bon 
 nets and frowned for an instant at 
 their front hair in the looking-glass, 
 they crossed the large and rather empty 
 sitting-room and entered the parlor, 
 where chairs and tables had been pushed 
 to the wall to leave all the middle space 
 free for the cjuilting-frame, on which 
 was stretched a marvellous piece of 
 
 Mrs. Castle s handiwork, constructed 
 16
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 of small cotton squares of nearly every 
 color united by bands of white. 
 
 " Ain t it a beauty?" 
 
 "There don t anything beat Irish 
 chain, does there, Mis Castle ?" 
 
 " What if we should spoil it in the 
 quiltin ? I m most afraid to touch it, 
 it is so handsome." 
 
 These and majiy kindred exclama 
 tions were made as the guests entered 
 the cool parlor and took the places as 
 signed them by Mrs. Castle around the 
 quilting-frame. Aunt Eliza alone did 
 not join the party, but sat in state in a 
 high-backed, haircloth-covered easy- 
 chair, with a little white knitting work 
 in her hands. More gently born and 
 bred than her neighbors, being a fine 
 illustration of the " old school" type of 
 woman, Aunt Eliza s presence was 
 greatly desired in the Thornton gather 
 ings as imparting something of distinc 
 tion. Her advanced age and increasing 
 feebleness, however, generally served 
 as sufficient reason for refusing all invi- 
 17
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 tations, hence Mrs. Castle s "quilting" 
 was held to be highly favored, and 
 many admiring remarks were made to 
 the effect that " Aunt Elizy was just as 
 smart as ever," and that " she wouldn t 
 have come anywhere else only to the 
 parsonage, but of course she knoAv it 
 would please Mr. Castle, and wa n t it 
 a sight to see how attentive he was to 
 her ? And to hear her call him Ste 
 phen !" The story of the kiss at the 
 kitchen door was speedily set in circu 
 lation, and awakened a vast amount of 
 subdued hilarity, of the form considered 
 suitable to a party at the parsonage. 
 As " Lecty," or Mrs. Wescott, the 
 niece of Aunt Eliza who had accom 
 panied her, confided to her right-hand 
 neighbor at the quilt : 
 
 " It ain t goin to do to train too 
 hard when you come to the ministers 
 house." 
 
 The disposition to " train," however, 
 was not to be wholly suppressed, and 
 presently Mrs. Wescott remarked, with 
 18
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 a peculiarly mischievous glance at a 
 fair-haired girl in a white gown, who 
 had come with her mother, and was 
 quilting demurely at her side : 
 
 " I don t know what the rest thinks, 
 and I don t hardly dare to say anything 
 before Mis Castle, but, after all, it 
 does strike me that there s something 
 awful suspicious about this quilt." 
 Then looking over her shoulder, she 
 cried in mock consternation : " Oh, 
 my gracious, the Elder ain t nowheres 
 about, is he ? ; 
 
 Why, Lecty , what do you mean ? 
 asked one of the women. 
 
 " Don t ask me, I don t dare to say 
 another word ; Mis Castle looks so 
 sober I m scared, and if the Elder heard 
 me he might turn me out of meetin . 
 But there s one thing about it," she 
 cried, the sense of fun flashing from her 
 black eyes, "if he does, I ll just tell 
 the deacons I saw him kissin Aunt 
 Elizy outside the kitchen door, right 
 under them old locust-trees, with my 
 19
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 own eyes !" And at this she burst out 
 into a hearty fit of laughter, in which 
 everybody joined everybody, that is, 
 except Aunt Eliza. She was not known 
 to have laughed aloud since her husband 
 died, twenty years ago. 
 
 " But what is it you mean, Lee, 
 about this quilt being suspicious ?" asked 
 the hostess when the laughter had sub 
 sided. " I am sure I don t under 
 stand." 
 
 " Oh, now, Mis Castle, don t you be 
 too innocent. You know I always 
 speak right out and say what all the 
 rest thinks. It ain t to be supposed 
 that our minister is goin to live single 
 all his days, when every girl between 
 Thornton Four Corners and Pembroke 
 is makin eyes at him, and I don t 
 know s I wonder any ; I d make eyes 
 at him myself if twould be any use 
 that is, if Hiram hadn t any objec 
 tions," she added, with a quaint wit 
 which made her the leader of conversa 
 tion in all the Thornton gatherings. 
 20
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 " When folks go to makin quilts," she 
 went on soberly, " when it s very well 
 known that they have a whole shelf full 
 put away already, why it begins to 
 look as if here she paused in pre 
 tended embarrassment. 
 
 " Looks as if what, Lee? Go on !" 
 was the general cry. 
 
 " Well," she said, with a toss of her 
 head, "I ain t sure myself that it s 
 proper for Liny Barry to be workin on 
 this quilt. I ve noticed the Elder likes 
 her singin pretty well lately, haven t 
 you, Mis Sanford ? 
 
 A shriek of laughter greeted this 
 sally, and the young girl thus alluded 
 to blushed rosy red, and bent lower 
 over her needle, her mother, a digni 
 fied, matronly woman, seeming not at 
 all displeased at this form of attack, 
 which she judged it best, however, not 
 to prolong too far. Turning to Mrs. 
 Castle, she said : 
 
 I put a basket of doughnuts under 
 the seat of our buggy when we came 
 21
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 away. I don t know whether Mr. Cas 
 tle took them out. but I meant him to." 
 
 "While Mrs. Castle was expressing 
 her gratitude, the company at the (milt 
 were joining in a chorus of praise of 
 Mrs. Barry s doughnuts, which, it ap 
 peared, were famous throughout Thorn 
 ton, and the despair of all the other 
 housewives, who lamented that they 
 " couldn t give them just the twist, and 
 turn them out just so light and soft and 
 yellow as Drusilly could." 
 
 Meanwhile, Stephen Castle, whose 
 doings and sayings and preferences 
 were directly or indirectly the subject 
 of most of the conversation in the par 
 lor, had again laid aside his coat, bor 
 rowed a scythe of his nearest neighbor, 
 and was now hard at work mowing the 
 tall timothy in the front yard. Of the 
 women gathered around the quilt, Lina 
 Barry alone had discovered this fact, 
 and through the half-closed shutters of 
 one parlor window she was enjoying all 
 to herself the sight of the athletic grace 
 22
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 of motion with which the young minis 
 ter performed this labor, which to her 
 seemed so far beneath him. 
 
 Down on his knees, Stephen was pull 
 ing out the grass close to the crimson 
 peonies, which he could not cut with 
 the scythe without beheading the flow 
 ers, when a clear voice behind him 
 said : 
 
 " I should think you would get a 
 lawn-mower, and try to make it look 
 nice here, Mr. Castle. It has been 
 dreadful the way you have let that 
 grass grow." 
 
 Turning his head slightly, the young 
 man greeted the speaker by waving a 
 handful of grass toward her. 
 
 "You will excuse me, perhaps, if I 
 do not rise, he said briefly. I am 
 crushed by your severity, Emily. " 
 
 " Oh, no, you are not !" the girl re 
 torted gayly. " You are only trying 
 to gain time to defend yourself. " 
 
 Upon this Stephen sprang to his feet 
 and turned full upon her. 
 23
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 "What an absurd idea," he ex 
 claimed, " that I should try to make a 
 fashionable, sheared lawn of my old 
 dooryard ! I should hate it if it tried 
 to look like something it could never 
 be. I love this tall, waving timothy, 
 and besides, I am too good a farmer to 
 waste so much good hay, with Doll 
 there in the barn to eat it." 
 
 The girl before him laughed merrily 
 at the energy of his defence. 
 
 " You got out of it better than I ex 
 pected," she returned ; then holding 
 out her hands, which were full of books, 
 " See," she said, " I have brought your 
 books back. Where shall I leave 
 them?" 
 
 " Oh, yes ; why, in the study, if you 
 will, for my mother has cleared out the 
 sitting-room for the company tea, you 
 know." 
 
 " I will find their places on the book 
 shelves, if you like. I think I know 
 where they belong." 
 
 "Thanks. Do so." 
 
 24
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 And Stephen again lifted his scythe, 
 while Emily Merle passed, light of foot 
 and heart, into the parsonage. She 
 was a slender girl, with dark hair and 
 eyes, not strikingly pretty, but notice 
 able for her bright and joyous look, 
 and the frank, spirited self-reliance 
 which was conveyed in her voice and 
 expression. There was no meek ador 
 ing in her eyes as they met Stephen 
 Castle s, but rather a challenge, which, 
 although playful, was sufficient to put 
 him on his mettle. Plainly it did not 
 suit him to have this clear-eyed young 
 woman suspect him of laziness. 
 
 Entering the study alone, Emily hesi 
 tated a moment, yielding to an uncon 
 querable shyness. In spite of herself, 
 this room seemed a kind of shrine into 
 which she scarcely dared to enter with 
 out its master. On the writing-table 
 lay several broad sheets of manuscript, 
 written in a bold handwriting, which 
 she recognized. She was afraid she 
 might read the very words of the next 
 25
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 Sabbath sermon, and that would have 
 seemed to her like an almost profane 
 intrusion upon holy things. 
 
 She crossed quickly to the book 
 shelves, and stood before them trying 
 to see the spaces where the books be 
 longed which she had brought. The 
 room was almost dusky, the grapevines 
 grew so closely about the open win- 
 doAvs, with their thick, green shade, 
 and the air was strangely sweet. As 
 she stood, intently looking, she was 
 aware of the vine being pushed aside, 
 and Stephen Castle s face appeared out 
 side the window. 
 
 Emily could not control the quick 
 color which rose in her cheeks, but 
 without turning her head she said 
 quietly : 
 
 " I see where the Saint Augustine 
 belongs on the upper shelf, and the 
 Martineau, here, of course," and 
 then she hesitated. 
 
 Put the Natural Law down on 
 my desk, if you will ; I shall want it to
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 refer to. Did you like it ? Stephen 
 asked. 
 
 Yes, although I am afraid it is not 
 all true. But, do you know, I think 
 you have marked it so oddly ? Some 
 of the parts which I call weak you have 
 marked for especial power." 
 
 " Show me one, please." 
 
 * I can t now. I am going in the 
 other room to quilt. That is what I 
 came for, you know. 
 
 Never mind the quilting. I want 
 you to bring the book over here and let 
 me see what you mean. 
 
 Stephen Castle said these words in a 
 tone which Emily found it hard to re 
 sist, although she had an instinctive 
 feeling that she ought not to be linger 
 ing in the study, but in a moment their 
 heads Avere bending together over the 
 book which lay on the window-sill be 
 tween them, and the sunlight sifted 
 down through the leaves upon its pages, 
 etching sharp shadows, which darted in 
 endless motion beneath their eyes. 
 27
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 Emily s questionings were clear-cut and 
 bright as the glancing lights and shad 
 ows, and Stephen found keen enjoy 
 ment in defending and explaining to 
 her quick perception his own and his 
 favorite author s positions, while needle 
 and scythe were alike forgotten. 
 
 In the parlor, where the work seemed 
 now to grow tiresome, and the conver 
 sation dull, Lina Barry looked in vain 
 from the window and wondered why 
 the mower had so suddenly vanished, 
 and whether he would not return. She 
 had not seen Emily Merle when she 
 came up the walk, nor heard her voice. 
 Emily Merle was the daughter of a 
 clergyman who had been pastor of the 
 Thornton Church for years, and who 
 had now retired from the active work 
 of the ministry by reason of bodily in 
 firmity. They lived in a brick man 
 sion, rich with ivy, on an estate just 
 out of the village which had been Mrs. 
 Merle s inheritance. As Emily was the 
 only child, her education had been the 
 
 28
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 constant study of her parents, and she 
 had, under her father s teaching, be 
 come a fine scholar in classic as well as 
 modern studies. Her vigorous intellect 
 and comprehension, ho wever, were 
 united to a peculiarly sympathetic na 
 ture, and thus her culture and position 
 never became a barrier between her and 
 the people among whom she lived. 
 She mingled freely with them with no 
 sense of superiority ; in every home, 
 however humble, in Thornton she was 
 a welcome guest. 
 
 Stephen Castle, coming to the place 
 as a stranger, had found in Emily Merle 
 an invaluable ally. Clear and impartial 
 in her perceptions, she was able to give 
 the young pastor a co-operation which 
 he could find nowhere else. They had 
 become close friends and fellow-work 
 ers, but the relation between them was 
 of frank comradeship, untouched, ap 
 parently, by sentiment. 
 
 29
 
 CIIAPTEE III 
 
 I watch thy grace ; and in its place 
 My heart a charm d slumber keeps, 
 While I muse upon thy face, 
 And a languid fire creeps 
 Thro my veins to all my frame, 
 Dissolvingly and slowly. 
 
 TENNYSON. 
 
 " I GUESS there s goin to be a good 
 turn-out to-day." It \vas Mrs. AYes- 
 cott, better known in Thornton as 
 Lecty, who spoke in a loud whisper, 
 turning at right angles in her pew to 
 speak to Mrs. Barry in the seat behind 
 her. 
 
 It was the first Sunday in July, a 
 few weeks after Mrs. Castle s quilting 
 party, and nearly time for the morning 
 service to begin. The interior of the 
 little church was bare and dull, but it 
 was scrupulously clean, and the dark 
 30
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 green blinds, closed behind the tall, un- 
 colored windows, softened the light, 
 while they permitted spots and bars of 
 sunshine to strike through here and 
 there. Behind the pulpit, on the gray 
 wall, a group of fluted pillars was paint 
 ed in fresco, the painter intending to 
 convey to the congregation the illusion 
 that an alcove extended backward at 
 that point ; but the perspective was 
 such that no child was ever known to 
 be deceived. Counting and comparing 
 those painted pillars, however, was the 
 prime employment of the Thornton 
 children of tender years during the 
 hours of service, and they thus served a 
 purpose, if not that entertained by their 
 designer. There was a black haircloth 
 sofa in front of the pillars ; behind the 
 mahogany pulpit, and at one side, stood 
 a small, unsteady table, on which this 
 morning had been placed a painted 
 glass vase of " hundred-leaf" roses. 
 At the opposite end of the church, in a 
 high gallery, behind a railing and a 
 31
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 green curtain, were the singers seats 
 and the organ. 
 
 The congregation did not increase 
 rapidly, nor even very perceptibly, but 
 one after another small groups of 
 women and children and young girls 
 came quietly in and took their seats, 
 while at intervals, after each group, a 
 sunburned man or boy would slip into 
 the end of the pew beside his <; women 
 folks, 7 having disposed of his horses 
 and had his Sunday morning chat with 
 his neighbors under the meeting-house 
 sheds. 
 
 The young girls were in most cases 
 dressed in white, with a liberal use of 
 blue and pink ribbons. Their faces 
 wore a look of shyness, amounting 
 nearly to an absence of expression. 
 The older women occasionally smiled 
 and nodded to those who sat near them, 
 and a few were chatting in whispers, 
 but there was, on the whole, a sober 
 silence throughout the room. On the 
 table below the pulpit a bar of sunlight 
 32
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 touched to an almost mystic splendor 
 the silver vessels and the snow-white 
 linen of the communion feast, which 
 was this morning spread before the 
 people. Seeing this, a more impressi 
 ble person here and there sat with head 
 slightly bent, but the greater part ab 
 stained from even this degree of expres 
 sion. Emily Merle, in a shaded corner, 
 had sat since taking her seat with her 
 forehead dropped upon her hand. Her 
 father, a white-haired, venerable man, 
 sat beside her with closed eyes and with 
 a devout expression upon his face. 
 
 Meanwhile, as the congregation grad 
 ually increased, Lecty continued her 
 whispered observations, saying now : 
 
 " Hayin s over and harvestin hain t 
 begun yet, and there isn t anything to 
 keep folks from comin to meetin if 
 they wanted to." 
 
 " That s so," returned Mrs. Barry ; 
 
 " by next Sunday the men 11 say the 
 
 horses have got to rest. The wheat s 
 
 ripe already down in our south lot, and 
 
 33
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 Amasa says he shall begin cuttin there 
 to-morrow mornin , and after that, you 
 know, there won t be much let-up, not 
 till the wheat s all in." Then, sud 
 denly interrupting herself, she touched 
 Lecty s hand, which hung over the back 
 of the seat, and which held a sprig of 
 fennel, and whispered with lively inter 
 est, %; Say, Lee, who s that? 
 
 Both women were looking now at a 
 small company of people who were pass 
 ing up the central aisle a man and two 
 ladies, one of whom was leading a 
 child. 
 
 i Why, that s Lorenzo Deering." 
 whispered Lecty promptly, and that s 
 his wife, her with the young one. She s 
 a second wife ; his first wife was a 
 Cutter, don t you remember? They 
 live in that big brown house on the 
 pike, most to Pembroke, and they don t 
 very often go anywheres to meetin . I 
 guess, but I ve seen him here once or 
 twice evenin s this spring. Guess he 
 likes to hear Elder Castle preach." 
 34
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 " But who is with them, that other 
 one?" questioned Mrs. Barry. 
 
 " I don t know," Lecty confessed re 
 luctantly, adding, " Hush ! there s the 
 minister. 
 
 The small organ was piping shrilly 
 as Stephen Castle walked up the aisle, 
 ascended the platform, and seated him 
 self behind the pulpit. Every eye was 
 upon him, and a sudden hush seemed to 
 fall upon the people as he bowed his 
 head, and so sat before them in silent 
 prayer. However boyish and merry 
 he might be in his e very-day mood, 
 however free and accessible in his min 
 istrations to the Thornton people as 
 their pastor, Stephen Castle was always 
 regarded by them with reverence, as 
 one distinctly above and beyond them 
 selves. To hold ordinary conversation 
 with him on the Sabbath day was never 
 thought of. It was his habit to spend 
 those early hours alone in his study, 
 from which he came into the pulpit 
 with a high and solemn aspect, as of 
 35
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 one who had seen that which, is invisi 
 ble. Most marked was his rapt and 
 self-forgetting look at the communion 
 season, when he seemed in a peculiar 
 degree to feel the weight of desire for 
 the souls intrusted to him, and all the 
 people, seeing him, felt, if they did not 
 speak it, He has been praying for us. ? 
 
 The choir now led the people in the 
 Doxology, Lina Barry s sweet, almost 
 childish voice floating clear and high 
 above them all from her place in the 
 gallery. Standing thus, with Stephen 
 Castle across the church ir, his place in 
 the pulpit, Lina s blue eyes were fixed 
 on him, and she was suddenly aware 
 of a slight change, a shade of surprise 
 which quickly passed over his face, 
 leaving it quiet as before, but which 
 made Lina look where he had looked 
 into the pew where the strangers sat, 
 whose coming had been a matter of 
 curiosity and interest to all the congrega 
 tion, as well as to Lecty and Mrs. Barry. 
 
 The service proceeded with prayer 
 36
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 and reading, and the whole-souled, 
 honest attempt to sing unto the Lord, 
 which makes the music in a country 
 church often half pathetic. Xot a sec 
 ond time did Stephen Castle s glance 
 linger in the spot where the Deerings 
 sat, but wherever he turned his eyes 
 that morning he saw the one face, 
 whose look haunted him against his 
 will. Among all those honest, homely 
 faces, with their inflexible reticence, 
 their brief range of expression, their 
 honest but unresponsive attentiveness, 
 his consciousness was thrilled and stirred 
 by the sight of a face so subtly, so mar 
 vellously different. He did not know 
 that the face was very beautiful, he 
 only knew the strange, new sense of 
 harmony that it gave him, like a per 
 fect chord of music ; neither did he un 
 derstand the complexities and refine 
 ments of feeling and perception which 
 gave that face its play of radiant ex 
 pression, its swift changes and flashes 
 of light and shade. He only knew 
 37
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 that every other face before him sud 
 denly became hard and immobile, as if 
 of wood or stone. Even Emily Merle s 
 seemed strangely dull to him, and Lina 
 Barry s blue eyes were as expression 
 less as the eyes of a statue. 
 
 All this Stephen felt rather than 
 thought, in a succession of impressions 
 which in persons of susceptible imagina 
 tion make much of the stuff of the men 
 tal life. Unconsciously to himself he 
 was stimulated by the presence of that 
 face before him as by new wine, and 
 even those who were most ardent in 
 their admiration of their pastor con 
 fessed to each other at the end of the 
 service that they " never saw Elder 
 Castle so much engaged as he was this 
 morning. 
 
 When the congregation broke up, 
 Stephen, contrary to his custom, re 
 mained for a few minutes in the pulpit. 
 He knew if he mingled, as usual, with 
 the people that he must greet Mr. Deer- 
 ing, whom he had met before, and must 
 38
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 meet the face of that stranger ; and 
 this, for some reason, he feared to do. 
 
 Strangers were rarely seen in the lit 
 tle church at Thornton, and the women 
 stood aside and watched with half- 
 averted but observant eyes the two 
 ladies who followed Mr. Deering down 
 the aisle and out from the church to 
 the horse-block, where a man was sit 
 ting in a handsome covered carriage 
 holding a pair of well-groomed horses. 
 Young Mrs. Deering and her child re 
 ceived their share of attention, espe 
 cially from the young mothers, who 
 were interested in the dainty gown of 
 the little girl. It was the young lady 
 who accompanied Mrs. Deering, how 
 ever, who was most intently observed, 
 and there were some who, seeing her 
 that morning and never seeing her 
 again, could still, years after, recall the 
 grace of her slender figure, the exquisite 
 color and texture of her gown, the faint 
 fragrance that passed by with her, and 
 the brilliant light of her smile. 
 39
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 Mrs. Barry, upon whom none of these 
 things were lost, turned back as the 
 door shut upon the stranger, and looked 
 at Lina, who had just come down from 
 the gallery and was standing, in her 
 thick white cotton gown and pink rib 
 bons, with something of disapproval in 
 her eyes. She was a pretty girl every 
 body said so and she had a nice, fair 
 skin, but nothing would ever make her 
 look like that, even her mother was ad 
 mitting. It was just then that Emily 
 Merle came by with an armful of library 
 books, for it was time for the session 
 of the Sunday-school to open now, and 
 with her clear, untroubled voice said : 
 
 " What a beautiful woman that was, 
 Mrs. Barry ! It was a pleasure to look 
 at her. 
 
 To which Mrs. Barry replied with a 
 shade of coldness : 
 
 " Why, do you think so ? I should 
 never have thought of calling her beau 
 tiful she was so dark." 
 
 Emily Merle made no reply. 
 40
 
 CHAPTEK IV 
 
 All may of thee partake ; 
 
 Nothing can be so mean, 
 Which with this tincture (for thy sake) 
 
 Will not grow bright and clean. 
 
 This is the famous stone 
 
 That turneth all to gold ; 
 For that which God dotli touch and own 
 
 Cannot for less be told. 
 
 GEORGE HERBERT. 
 
 ON the Wednesday following, Ste 
 phen Castle was driving his bay mare 
 Doll, between nine and ten in the 
 morning, along the turnpike road, or the 
 old stage road as it was often called, 
 between Thornton and Pembroke. Be 
 side him in his single carriage sat Mrs. 
 Castle in her best gown, with a look of 
 lively but restrained interest on her 
 face. 
 
 The morning was breathless with 
 41
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 heat already, and the dust from their 
 wheels settled heavily upon the tang-led 
 weeds and brambles by the roadside. 
 The pine and spruce trees exhaled a 
 pungent fragrance under the keen July 
 sun, and on the more distant hills 
 shaded to almost a bluish black in its 
 early light. It was midsummer day. 
 
 " It s going to be a pretty hot day 
 for a wedding, Stephen, hook how 
 Doll feels the heat already," remarked 
 Mrs. Castle. 
 
 "The warmest day yet, I think, 
 Stephen replied in a tone which said 
 plainly that the weather did not inter 
 est him vividly. His face wore an ab 
 stracted expression, which his mother 
 perceived, and so kept silence for some 
 moments. Whether it was the close 
 sympathy between them which made 
 the same thoughts common to both 
 without words, or whether it was acci 
 dent, when Mrs. Castle spoke again she 
 touched the subject of Stephen s inner 
 most thought. 
 
 42
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 I wonder, she said, after they had 
 driven a mile in silence, " whether the 
 Deerings won t most likely come to 
 Sarah s wedding- ? I should most think 
 they would, George Allen being their 
 tenant for so many years. What do 
 you think?" 
 
 Very likely they may be there, 
 Stephen replied, and again they rode 
 on in silence until they came in sight of 
 a low, brown farmhouse near the road, 
 with an orchard on one side and a 
 smooth, green yard on the other, slop 
 ing down to a vegetable garden. Con 
 trary to custom, the front door of the 
 house was in use to-day, and stood open, 
 showing that an event of importance 
 was to take place, and accordingly 
 Stephen drove up to the front steps, in 
 stead of to the kitchen door, as was his 
 custom when making pastoral calls. 
 George Allen, the father of the girl 
 whose wedding-day it was, stood in his 
 shirt-sleeves ready to greet them and 
 to take the horse around to the barn ; 
 43
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 and Stephen, after a moment s delay, 
 followed his mother into the house. 
 The small entry had a close smell of 
 new oilcloth, and contained no furni 
 ture beyond an oblong, leaved table 
 covered by a red and black printed 
 cloth. On the table stood a crimson 
 fuchsia in full blossom. 
 
 Stephen laid his straw hat on the ta 
 ble and went into the square room at 
 the left, called the parlor, which was 
 full of heavy odors of flowers, and 
 closely shut and shaded, as if for a fu 
 neral. The room was of moderate size, 
 and contained, besides a few chairs and 
 tables, a new melodeon and a polished 
 sheet-iron stove, which was freely deco 
 rated with branches of asparagus. The 
 carpet was in violently contrasting 
 shades of red and green, and felt rough 
 and uneven to the feet by reason of its 
 underlining of hay. 
 
 When Stephen entered the room 
 there were ten or twelve women stand 
 ing about its outside limits, with all of 
 44
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 whom he shook hands, and then, with 
 drawing to a corner behind a small ta 
 ble, he stood silent, a small, morocco- 
 bound book in one hand. His look and 
 attitude plainly indicated his disinclina 
 tion to the small talk with which the 
 women were trying to fill up the time 
 of waiting, and respecting his wishes, 
 and standing in especial awe of him as 
 probably passing through mysterious 
 mental conditions appropriate to the 
 discharge of high official function, they 
 left him to himself. 
 
 Yery soon there was a flutter in the 
 little entry, and Mrs. Allen, in a tidy 
 gown with a little lace about her throat 
 and a bit of pink geranium in her 
 bosom, ushered into the parlor Mr. and 
 Mrs. Deering, accompanied by the lady 
 who had been with them at church on 
 Sunday morning. At the door Mr. 
 Deering was pausing to introduce his 
 wife s friend to Mrs. Allen, with a 
 laughing apology for bringing a stran 
 ger to Miss Sarah s wedding. 
 
 45
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 "Miss Loring (Stephen heard her 
 name called) " from Xew York." lie 
 heard her voice, and saw her smile and 
 move across the room, as he stood appar 
 ently indifferent to all that passed, not 
 lifting his eyelids nor changing his pos 
 ture, except to fold his arms across his 
 chest, with the little book still in his hand. 
 
 The moments passed. The men who 
 had accompanied their wives from dis 
 tant farms showed a marked disinclina 
 tion to appear in the parlor, and per 
 sistently clung to the refuge of some 
 apple-trees near the barn, biting bits of 
 grass and uneasily trying to be at ease. 
 For a length of time, which began to 
 grow appalling, it seemed almost cer 
 tain that these wedding guests would 
 not consent to witness the ceremony, 
 and great was the anxiety of their 
 wives, who now confided to each other, 
 with little bursts of nervous laughter, 
 that "the men were always just so," 
 and that " it would serve them right if 
 they got left altogether." 
 46
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 One by one, however, with no evi 
 dence of haste, but with an air of re 
 luctance well calculated to deceive a 
 denizen of the outer world, the hus 
 bands dropped into the parlor, and 
 stood with their heavy, brown hands 
 variously, but always uneasily dis 
 posed, and their roughened heads bent 
 at different angles. 
 
 The situation became more and more 
 awkward, and Stephen Castle, as he 
 stood apart, frowned and bit his lip in 
 the vexation of it, for still the bridal 
 party tarried. Twenty-five people 
 were now standing together under cir 
 cumstances which hardly admitted of 
 conversation, and where every one felt, 
 none the less, that complete silence 
 was the one calamity which might not 
 be endured. The moments passed pain 
 fully. The time before the men had 
 joined the company now seemed in 
 credibly distant and remote, and each 
 woman in her heart justified her hus 
 band s superior wisdom which had 
 
 47
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 made him delay in yielding himself a 
 captive to these four walls before the 
 time. 
 
 Mrs. Castle, imbued with the idea 
 that it was her duty, as she would have 
 said herself, "to sovr beside all wa 
 ters," could now be heard distinctly in 
 the growing stillness addressing a pale 
 little woman in black, who stood near 
 est her, in phrases which, although con 
 versational, were obviously didactic, 
 and death and the grave were fre 
 quently mentioned, to the dismay of 
 Miss Loring, who stood in the shelter 
 of the melodeon, only a few feet dis 
 tant. 
 
 Why should he have been taken T 
 Mrs. Castle was now asking gently, 
 but quite firmly of her neighbor, " I 
 asked my husband as we rode home 
 from the grave." The little woman 
 murmured an inarticulate but appreci 
 ative response, and at that moment a 
 woman who stood at the other end of 
 the melodeon from Miss Loring was 
 48
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 heard to say with cheerful emphasis 
 that she " didn t know whether that 
 child would live to outgrow them fits 
 or not." 
 
 Miss Loring felt a wild desire to 
 scream at the top of her voice, but re 
 strained herself, and Mrs. Castle could 
 now be heard leading her submissive 
 hearer up through successive stages of 
 resignation to a position which seemed 
 to imply a decided preference that 
 Stephen s infant brother had been taken 
 out of this present evil world. Any 
 thing from her after this would have 
 been an anti-climax. Plainly this line 
 of argument ought to have lasted until 
 the appearance of the bridal party, but 
 still they did not come, although the 
 ceremony had been appointed for ten 
 o clock, and it was already ten minutes 
 later, ^o one dared now to speak for 
 fear of being in the midst of an inap 
 propriate sentence when the eventful 
 moment should come, and every one in 
 the room was occupied with avoiding 
 49
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 the eye of every other person the 
 men on general principles, the women 
 for fear they should be betrayed into 
 hysterical laughter when suddenly a 
 broad-shouldered, sunburned young 
 fellow, with a rosy-cheeked girl on his 
 arm, in a light gray gown and neatly 
 braided hair, appeared in the doorway, 
 and stepped rather rapidly across the 
 room to the appointed corner, where 
 Stephen Castle had been standing so 
 long. 
 
 Looking with searching directness 
 into their anxious young faces, Stephen 
 spoke, and instantly all the nervous 
 tension of the moment, all its grotesque 
 blending of the funereal with the fes 
 tive quality, was dispelled. His voice 
 was full and deep, and vibrated with a 
 tender authority, which seemed to trans 
 form those two commonplace-looking 
 persons into children of God, exalted by 
 His grace to highest privilege. The 
 room became a sacred place, and those 
 two were brought face to face with 
 
 50
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 God. "When the final words of bless 
 ing were spoken, Miss Loring, lifting 
 her eyes and seeing the white, strained 
 face of the girl s mother as she turned 
 to her child, and the emotion on the 
 two young faces, could not restrain her 
 tears, and they were still wet upon her 
 lashes when some one beside her spoke 
 a word of introduction, and Stephen 
 Castle, with the seriousness of his office 
 still upon him, took her hand and spoke 
 to her with grave courtesy.
 
 CHAPTER Y 
 
 The encounter of the wise, 
 Say, what other metre is it 
 Than the meeting of the eyes ? 
 
 ***** 
 Single look has drained the breast, 
 Single moment years confessed. 
 
 EMERSON. 
 
 JUST how it happened Stephen did 
 not clearly understand at the time, al 
 though afterward it became sufficiently 
 plain to him, but a few minutes later 
 he found himself standing in the green 
 seclusion of the old orchard at the north 
 side of the farmhouse, leaning against 
 a stout-limbed apple-tree, while Miss 
 Loring sat before him in a hammock, 
 which had been stretched there by the 
 young people whom they had just left 
 in the close parlor. 
 
 " How good it is to be in the air!" 
 she said gently.
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 Stephen nodded without speaking. 
 He was stirred by the emotions of the 
 last half hour, and confused by his near 
 ness to this beautiful woman. lie rec 
 ognized fully now that she was beauti 
 ful, with her gray eyes under long, dark 
 lashes, her face set like a flower upon 
 the round, white throat, and the won 
 derful ripple and glint of her bright 
 brown hair, which curled off delicately 
 from her temples. There was some 
 thing in the contour of her head and in 
 the poise of it which vaguely recalled 
 to him classic heads of fair Greek wom 
 en. Her throat was bare to a point 
 below its soft white hollow, and the 
 round arms from the elbow down. 
 Stephen had never seen women who 
 wore their gowns in this fashion, and 
 it gave him a shamefaced unwilling 
 ness to look at her. She was dressed 
 in cream- white stuff, thin and soft, with 
 lines of yellow in it here and there, but 
 without frills or furbelows, and she 
 wore no jewels. The outline of her 
 53
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 head and waist, as she sat in the ham 
 mock, was girlish, and vet Stephen was 
 sure that she was not very young, per 
 haps not younger than himself. 
 
 As he did not speak she began again ; 
 this time her look seemed to compel 
 him to lift his eyes and meet hers. 
 
 " I must tell you," she said timidly, 
 " how very wonderful it was, what you 
 did there in that marriage ceremony. 
 I never felt myself in such an absurd 
 position in my life ; it all seemed per 
 fectly droll and dreadful to me at the 
 beginning. I was wondering if they 
 were going to bring in a dead person 
 every minute all the talk was so grew- 
 some and dismal and when that poor, 
 frightened fellow appeared with his 
 great hands in those ghastly white 
 gloves it was worse than ever. I felt 
 as if I should disgrace myself by some 
 outburst, but the moment you spoke 
 the situation was completely altered 
 redeemed, don t you know ? It all be 
 came noble and beautiful, and I never 
 
 54
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 in my life felt what such things meant 
 as I did while you were speaking. 
 Please do not mind my telling you ; I 
 almost felt that I ought, you see." 
 
 She spoke beseechingly, for Stephen 
 had lowered his eyes again ; her words 
 seemed to beat them down, and his face 
 was very grave. A strange tumult 
 was going on within the young man s 
 mind, awakened by her words, not less 
 by her presence. He saw the scene 
 they had left through her eyes sud 
 denly, as he could never have seen it 
 before, in all its grotesqueness, and he 
 was angry with her for making him see 
 it, angry that his world was so far 
 apart from hers. Closely mingled with 
 this feeling was a strange, exciting per 
 ception that in the real nature of things 
 it was to her world that he belonged. 
 Her grace and charm, her, sub tie sym 
 pathy, her swift perception of the good 
 in what he said, were what he craved, 
 were what belonged to him. Xo one 
 else had ever given all this to him. 
 55
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 Emily Merle was bright and clear-head 
 ed, and she was his good comrade, but 
 she never hesitated to point out his mis 
 takes and criticise his opinions. He 
 thought of her no\v for an instant, with 
 a faint sense of indignation, as he raised 
 his eyes at last, and by an odd little ac 
 cident caught sight of a name embroid - 
 ered in delicate tracery on the handker 
 chief which lay in Miss Loring s lap. 
 Then all thought of Emily was forgot 
 ten in the surprise with which he read 
 the name, " Stephanie." It was a new 
 name to him. How strange that her 
 name should be the counterpart of his 
 own ! Was there not a meaning in it ? 
 A sudden flash of intelligence passed 
 between their eyes as his were lifted 
 from the handkerchief, and Stephen 
 colored deeply. 
 
 " I wonder if you know that my 
 name is Stephen ?" he said simply. 
 
 "Yes," she returned ; "how very 
 strange it is ! We ought to be good 
 friends. There ought to be do you 
 56
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 not think so ? a kind of invisible affin 
 ity between us. 
 
 " I believe there is," Stephen an 
 swered soberly, seeking to hide a 
 strange, intoxicating sense of exultation 
 Avhich seemed mounting hotly to his 
 brain. 
 
 And yet as he followed Stephanie 
 Loring under the orchard boughs into 
 the farmhouse, whither they were now 
 called to the wedding feast, there was 
 beneath the excitement of the moment 
 a perception, not fully clear as yet to 
 his own consciousness, that it was less 
 to her that he owed this affinity of 
 which they had spoken than to what 
 she stood for the unknown world of 
 beauty and art and human perfection 
 to which she belonged. 
 
 In the week which followed the wed 
 ding, Stephen Castle spent many hours 
 at the Deerings , having been invited 
 to call by Mrs. Deering when they met 
 after the marriage. He found great 
 enjoyment in the hospitable house, 
 
 57
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 where he was welcomed with unfeigned 
 cordiality whenever he presented him 
 self, and given the freedom of the pleas 
 ant rooms and grounds. 
 
 Stephanie Loring remained with the 
 Deerings throughout another week, and 
 Stephen always found himself Tier guest 
 in particular. She played and sang to 
 him as he sat in the great music-room, 
 and opened to his possession a new 
 realm, for he had never until now heard 
 good music. At other times they sat 
 under the oak-trees near the house, and 
 while she was busy with some dainty 
 handiwork he read aloud from books 
 which he loved, and which she received 
 with quick insight and responsive sym 
 pathy. 
 
 Then there were long, quiet talks in 
 the evenings on the piazza, which some 
 way always turned at last upon the 
 church to which Stephanie belonged in 
 New York : how it was without a pas 
 tor ; how sadly it needed just the right 
 man ; how she wished but here she 
 58
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 always interrupted herself or was inter 
 rupted by Stephen. 
 
 Stephen would drive home in the 
 darkness or in the starlight after these 
 long visits, which for the time absorbed 
 his days, with his thoughts in a riot. 
 What was coming to him ? Could it be 
 that he did not belong, after all, to the 
 Thornton parish and to the people who 
 loved him so tenderly ? Was it disloy 
 alty to let his mind dwell on these now 
 possibilities ? Surely other men left 
 their churches. Might it not be that 
 another man could reach the hearts of 
 these people better than he ? How 
 rarely was a word said to show that 
 his sermons had made even the slightest 
 impression ! Stephanie Loring dis 
 cussed them freely with him ; noticed 
 all the fine points, the impressive pas 
 sages, and Stephen found her apprecia 
 tion very sweet. How would it be to 
 live among people like her quick to 
 perceive his best, gracious and delicate 
 in their recognition of his work ? How 
 59
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 would it be to be in a position of influ 
 ence not to be a country pastor any 
 more ? "What would the fellows say if 
 such a tiling 1 ever did happen ? "What 
 would Dr. Endicott of the Divinity 
 School say ? Stephen had always felt, 
 with a mingled humility and resent 
 ment, that the old Doctor did not rate 
 his ability very high. It would not be 
 altogether distasteful to him to make 
 the Doctor open his eyes. Thus his 
 thoughts, earnest or idle, would cross 
 each other in endless motion, like waves 
 of the sea. as he drove along the silent 
 roads, through the sweetness of the 
 clover- fields wet with dew. But it often 
 happened that when he turned down the 
 hill above the little white church, and 
 saw it lying there under the quiet sky, 
 with the parsonage in the grassy yard 
 beyond all these thoughts would yield 
 to a yearning tenderness for the simple 
 place and the simple people, who so 
 faithfully loved him and so patiently 
 allowed themselves to be led by him. 
 60
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 When August came the excitement 
 was over, for Stephanie Loring, having 
 prolonged her visit to her old friend 
 far beyond its first limits, had taken 
 her departure to join her family at 
 Newport for the remainder of the sea 
 son. "When she parted from Stephen 
 she had looked straight into his eyes, 
 and had said significantly : 
 
 ; I shall see you again. This is not 
 where you belong, but I must not say 
 any more. You will understand." 
 
 61
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 Deep in the man sits fast his fate 
 To mould his fortunes, mean or great ; 
 Unknown to Cromwell as to me 
 Was Cromwell s measure or degree. 
 
 EMERSON. 
 
 STEPHEN went back from the charmed 
 life he had been leading to the unevent 
 ful days in the parsonage with his 
 mother and the farmers and their fam 
 ilies. He was not the same, and with 
 honest pain in his heart he saw that he 
 could never be again, lie felt a weari 
 ness and distaste for the people about 
 him. And yet he strove earnestly to 
 come back into harmony with his peo 
 ple and his work, and sometimes he 
 fancied he was succeeding. 
 
 It was Emily Merle who showed him 
 that this was a delusion, as he strolled 
 62
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 home with her from the "Wednesday 
 evening prayer-meeting. 
 
 " Do you want me to tell your for 
 tune, Mr. Castle?" she asked, half 
 laughingly, half sadly. 
 
 Yes, Emily ; I wish somebody was 
 wise enough to. It is very dim to me 
 just now. 
 
 " That is because you are in the con 
 fusion of a great change coming, I 
 think," she said in a voice which was 
 cheerful, but not steady. That love 
 ly lady at the Deerings was a new star 
 in your sky, and she is bringing great 
 changes to you and in you as well. 
 Perhaps others do not see it, but it is 
 quite clear to me. 
 
 How do you mean ? I do not un 
 derstand," Stephen protested uneasily. 
 
 You are not for us any more. You 
 are for her, and she will draw you to 
 her." 
 
 Do you mean that I love her, Em 
 ily ?" Stephen spoke abruptly, as if it 
 were a relief to him to touch the subject. 
 63
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 "I do not know," Emily replied. 
 " There is no reason why you should 
 not. I know she must attract you 
 strongly, and that she will influence 
 your life always. Perhaps you love her ; 
 I cannot tell." 
 
 " She is like a wonderful new book 
 to me," Stephen confessed. " She fas 
 cinates me, and yet she does not touch 
 my heart. She is top fine for me, 
 Emily. She would ne ver look at a 
 country boy like me. You are my best 
 friend, my sister in a way, dear Emily. 
 I can talk to you even of this. 
 
 " I wonder if you kno \vhow changed 
 you have become since Miss Loring 
 came here ? Emily continued. You 
 are tired of us all ; our ways and our 
 doings are stale, flat, and unprofitable. 
 Sometimes I think I understand just 
 how dull and dreary it seems ; we all 
 say the things we have always said in 
 meeting, and no one is bright and clev 
 er, like Miss Loring. I saw how you 
 felt to-night when Mrs. Wescott said 
 64
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 she felt like settin her stakes and 
 startin out anew, and when Jacob 
 Poole said, as he always does, that he 
 knew he wasn t anything but a poor 
 failable worm of the dust. 
 
 " What did you see ?" asked Stephen, 
 surprised. 
 
 " How all these things, which you 
 used to smile over a little, but in a ten 
 der kind of way, as the poor attempts 
 of those whom you truly cared for, 
 vex you now ; make yon impatient 
 even, I think ; give you a feeling of 
 humiliation that the people to whom 
 you belong are so rude and uneducated, 
 and all that. 
 
 Stephen did not reply. With her 
 usual clear vision Emily had seen into 
 his innermost thought. He felt 
 ashamed, but he was too honest to 
 deny the truth of what she said. 
 
 After a short silence they had 
 reached her gate by this time Emily 
 said in a quite steady voice now : 
 
 " When you go away, for you will 
 
 65
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 before very long you know I have the 
 gift of second sight sometimes I shall 
 be glad in a certain way for you, Mr. 
 Castle." 
 
 " Call me Stephen, if you will. Em 
 ily," he interrupted her gently, " when 
 we are by ourselves, at least." 
 
 With no touch of cocjuetry. Emily ac 
 cepted the suggestion in a quiet, natural 
 way, and went on : 
 
 As I was saying, I shall be glad, 
 Stephen, although the difference to us 
 here in Thornton will be very hard to 
 bear. But the change for you is sim 
 ply in the natural order for a man of 
 your gifts and tastes. I should think 
 the only thing to fear might be that 
 gifts and tastes would, perhaps, rule 
 the day in the new life, not the old 
 convictions and motives those you 
 know which make all souls of equal 
 worth to us, as I suppose they must be 
 before God." 
 
 Emily faltered a little, and spoke 
 timidly. But he had scarcely noticed 
 66
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 her last words, so surprised was he 
 with the manner in which she took it 
 for granted that he was to leave Thorn 
 ton. 
 
 They parted a moment later, and 
 Stephen sat for hours in his study that 
 evening pondering upon all these things, 
 and also upon a letter from Stephanie 
 Loring, which the evening mail had 
 brought him, and which had kept her 
 before him all through the meeting by 
 its faint suggestion of violet perfume. 
 
 September and October passed quietly 
 in Thornton, with no events beyond 
 those common to the place and people. 
 The harvests were gathered, the leaves 
 fell and huddled in heaps at the edges 
 of the woods, the fields lay in dull, rich 
 tones of green and russet, and the 
 farmers began to have time to look 
 about them a little and make ready for 
 the long winter. 
 
 Lina Barry was now known to be 
 " going with" a prosperous young man. 
 whose father s farm adjoined that of 
 67
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 her father, and for whom she had been 
 set apart by tacit consent since her 
 childhood, until the advent of Stephen 
 Castle had suddenly given a spur to her 
 mother s ambition, and stirred a roman 
 tic interest in the girl s heart. For a 
 time she had treated her old lover cold 
 ly, influenced more by her mother s 
 wishes than her own, but of late she 
 had been more favorably inclined to 
 him, and Mrs. "Wescott. as usual, gave 
 voice to the popular feeling in Thornton 
 when she said that " for her part she 
 was glad Mis Barry had got through 
 settin poor Liny s cap at Elder C astle. 
 Twa n t no kind o use, if she did beat 
 the county on doughnuts." 
 
 Stephen Castle, observing what had 
 come to pass, although he never sus 
 pected, being a modest fellow, that 
 Lina had felt more than an ordinary 
 interest in himself, recalled, as if it had 
 been a dream of the night, unreal and 
 impossible, a time when lie had felt 
 that Lina would make some man a 
 
 68
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 sweet wife, even fancying himself the 
 man. His mother, who had hoped for 
 such an event, began now to feel the 
 change in him, and gre\v uneasy and 
 depressed, but she kept her thoughts to 
 herself with inborn reserve. 
 
 It was in November, one Sunday 
 morning, that something 1 happened 
 which shook Thornton throughout its 
 length and breadth. This bombshell 
 consisted merely in the presence of two 
 strange gentlemen at the morning ser 
 vice. They came late and left early, 
 driving out from Pembroke, and they 
 made themselves known to no one. 
 Mrs. Wescott, who sat behind them 
 during the service, however, formed 
 her own conclusions, which she impart 
 ed to a knot of women in a corner of 
 the vestry at noon. 
 
 They set right in front of me, she 
 said, " and they was both dressed in 
 their black broadcloth, as fine as satin, 
 and their collars and cuffs shone so you 
 could most see your face in them. 
 69
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 One of them had on a big ring with a 
 stone in it ; he was the young one. 
 The old feller, he had the long, gray 
 side-whiskers, and looked kind o* mili- 
 terry. And now let in*} jest tell you 
 that as sure s my name s Electy "\Ves- 
 cott, and I m standin here, that man 
 was own father to that han soine- 
 lookin" young woman that come here 
 to church a couple of times with the 
 Deerings. Don t you remember ? lie 
 had jest sech eyes, and jest sech a way 
 of holdin his head. And if you want 
 to know what I felt like callin out 
 when I see them two men stealin out 
 of the church. I ll tell you : * Shoot 
 them while they re goin through the 
 door ! They ve come here to steal our 
 minister. 
 
 " But what makes you think so, 
 Lee? somebody asked. 
 
 Think so? I know so. Lecty 
 
 sniffed contemptuously. " Those men 
 
 don t hail from Pembroke, and they 
 
 don t hail from anywheres this side of 
 
 70
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 the city of New York. Now that 
 much I ll bet you, if it is Sunday, and 
 in the meetin -house, too ! What did 
 they come up here in their broadcloth 
 and gold rings for, and come out to 
 Thornton to meetin if twa n t jest to 
 spy out what kind of a preacher we d 
 got ? Oh, yes, I ve heard of sech 
 things before now. That s the way 
 they do it in them big city churches. 
 They hear that some poor little strug- 
 glin church in the country has got a 
 minister they love and they re all united 
 on, and they think, Well, if he s as 
 smart as they say, maybe he ll do for 
 us ; he s most likely too big a man for 
 country folks. But they don t send 
 and ask him to come and preach a ser 
 mon to them fair and square. No, 
 they send a couple of spies to see if 
 they think he ll do, and then they wait 
 a spell, and the next thing you know 
 your minister s got took sudden to go 
 off and pay a visit to his old pastor, or 
 to his grandmother, or else it s to look 
 71
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 at a new organ. He keeps kind o* still 
 about what direction he s goin to travel 
 in. but pretty soon he gets a call, and 
 then. Ihirrah. boys ! It s off and 
 away to the city. It s the Lordcallin 
 and no mistake ! You ll see if it don t 
 come out as I say." 
 
 And so it did. in fact, befall. A 
 month from that day Stephen Castle 
 read his resignation as pastor of the 
 Thornton church, in order to accept 
 the call of the Church of All Good 
 Spirits in Xew York City to become 
 their pastor. lie spoke in frank and 
 manly fashion to his people, who heard 
 him with blinding tears. He told them 
 plainly that he had become restless and 
 dissatisfied, not through any fault of 
 theirs, but because he wanted to be where 
 he could improve and develop among 
 other men. He expected life to be harder 
 than it had been here, where they had 
 all been so gentle to his faults and mis 
 takes, and he knew that he could never 
 love any other people as he loved them. 
 73
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 " All the same he s goin ," said Mrs. 
 Wescott at the close of the service, 
 mopping her eyes with a very wet 
 handkerchief. " And I don t see any 
 kind o use for my part in gettin a 
 new bonnet this winter, do yon, Aunt 
 Elizy?" 
 
 The old lady sat beside her in the 
 pew, and a tear or two was slipping 
 quietly down her withered cheek. 
 
 " That s your way of putting it, 
 Electy , she said quietly. There 
 don t seem very much left to live for, 
 not just now. But it s all right, Ste 
 phen," she said, looking up into the 
 face of the young man, who had come 
 to the end of the pew and stood lean 
 ing over to speak to her with flushed 
 face and dim eyes. " It s all right, 
 Stephen. It will be a different life 
 from this for you, and you re young 
 and strong, and you ought to have a 
 chance to grow. I m sorry for the 
 people here. I sha n t stay long to 
 mind it. I expected you would be 
 73
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 close by when the call came for me, 
 and I thought I should like to have 
 you hold my hand, but it s till right." 
 And the little old lady looked up 
 through her tears in the bright, s \veet 
 way which Stephen loved. 
 
 " You are to send for me when you 
 want me, Aunt Eliza, he said ear 
 nestly, his o\vn voice breaking ; I 
 will come to you. I promise to. I 
 shall never change to my Thornton 
 people ; they will always be mine, just 
 as much as they are no\v." 
 
 He was protesting, but she put up 
 her linger and lightly touched his lips, 
 and said with a quaint smile : 
 
 You think so now, but you will 
 know better when you are older. 
 
 74
 
 CHAPTER YII 
 
 The sole thing that I remark 
 
 About the difficulty, this : 
 
 We do not see it where it is. 
 
 At the beginning of the race ; 
 
 As we proceed, it shifts its place, 
 
 And where we looked for crowns to fall, 
 
 "We find the tug s to come that s all. 
 
 BROWNING. 
 
 " STEPHEN, did YOU say that Mr. 
 Wells was a deacon of your church ?" 
 
 It was Mrs. Castle who spoke, lean 
 ing back in a cushioned armchair in a 
 tiny and much-upholstered reception- 
 room. It was one of a small suite of 
 furnished rooms which they had taken 
 in an apartment house in Xew York. 
 It was night and twelve o clock by the 
 French clock on the mantel, which told 
 the hour in a tone far more melodious 
 than that of the old timepiece which 
 
 75
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 presided over the parsonage living-room 
 in Thornton. The face of this was en 
 circled by the arms of certain gilded 
 and smiling nymphs, of whose general 
 effect Mrs. Castle strongly disapproved. 
 She felt uneasily that they expressed 
 the tendency, which prevailed in her 
 new environment, to diminish the em 
 phasis on the solemn passing of the 
 hours the view of life as a winter s 
 day, a journey to the tomb. Feeling 
 this now with peculiar distinctness, she 
 listened severely to the silvery softness 
 of the tone with which the hour was 
 told. 
 
 Mrs. Castle wore a new black silk 
 gown, which she had had made in 
 Pembroke before leaving Thornton, 
 two weeks ago, and it sat primly on 
 her narrow, stiffened form. She wore 
 black kid gloves over her work-hard 
 ened hands, through which the enlarged 
 joints would show themselves, and she 
 carried stiffly in one hand a starched 
 handkerchief precisely folded. Her 
 76
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 face was pale and wore a disturbed 
 and anxious expression. They had 
 just returned in Mr. Loring s carriage 
 from a reception given in Stephen s 
 honor at that gentleman s house. There 
 had been an official reception to the 
 new pastor at the chapel of the Church 
 of All Good Spirits the week before. 
 The affair of this evening had been 
 purely social, although it was within 
 its purpose to enable the members of 
 the church, or rather those belonging 
 to the right set, to become better ac 
 quainted with Stephen Castle. 
 
 In reply to his mother s question, 
 Stephen, who had thrown himself upon 
 a divan and was looking intently at the 
 pink and green frescoes on the ceiling 
 over his head, remarked, in a slightly 
 defensive tone : 
 
 " Certainly, mother. Why do you 
 ask the question in such a way ?" 
 
 " It don t seem possible," Mrs. Cas 
 tle returned, with something between a 
 groan and a sigh. " I guess Christians
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 in Xew York aren t much like Chris 
 tians out in the country, or churches, 
 or deacons. 
 
 " In some outward points I suppose 
 they are different," said Stephen kind 
 ly ; but at heart I have no doubt 
 they are alike everywhere.-" 
 
 ; AVell, I don t know. Stephen. It 
 looks very queer to me. and I guess I 
 sha n t ever feel at home very much in 
 your new church. This Mr. ATells, and 
 you say he s a deacon, stood right be 
 side my chair there, a spell before they 
 dished their ice-cream, and lie was talk 
 ing to a young man about a whist- 
 party that s what he called it that 
 was going to be at his house I mean 
 Mr. AVells s house and he was urging 
 that young man, Stephen, to come 
 there and play cards ! And lie s a 
 deacon in your church ! It must l>e a 
 different kind of a church to any I ever 
 was acquainted with, where the dea 
 cons themselves play cards and entice 
 young men into such sinful pleasures^ 
 78
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 as if they wouldn t go fast enough 
 themselves. I don t know, I never 
 felt so in my life. It seemed as if it 
 kind of struck to my stomach," and 
 Mrs. Castle, who had sat up with sud 
 den energy as she talked, dropped her 
 head again on the back of the chair. 
 
 As Stephen said nothing, she soon be 
 gan again : 
 
 " This wasn t the only thing, nor 
 the worst tiling. IIo\v did you feel 
 when you saw those women the way 
 they were dressed ? Did you think a 
 minister of the Gospel belonged in such 
 a place ?" and a flush came in her faded 
 cheeks and an indignant spark in her 
 eyes. 
 
 "Don t get so stirred up, mother," 
 Stephen said soothingly. "You must 
 remember that we are not used to city 
 ways yet. 
 
 " No, and I thank the Lord I am 
 not used to city ways, if those are city 
 ways, and I pray I never shall be ! I 
 was all mixed up one time," she con- 
 
 79
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 tinued, after a little pause. " and I sup 
 pose some of the folks had a laugh at 
 my ignorance, but I guess it s just as 
 well not to know too much about some 
 things. One of those pretty-looking 
 young girls that wore so much of that 
 thin, gauzy stuff came up to me and 
 got an introduction and talked a little. 
 She looked pleasant enough, but she 
 hadn t much to say. and I hadn t, and 
 I was just hoping you would come 
 around and propose to go home, when 
 she said. Have you seen Miss Rehan 
 yet ? and I said. Xo, I don t think 
 she s been introduced, though she may 
 have been : it s hard remembering so 
 many names. At that t saw she 
 looked kind of puzzled, and then she 
 said. Oh. I don t mean anybody here, 
 I was speaking of Miss Ada Rehan, 
 Mr. Daly s leading lady. You must 
 be sure to go and see her in " As You 
 Like It." 
 
 Stephen could not restrain a smile at 
 this, knowing that his mother had al- 
 80
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 ways regarded the theatre as furnishing 
 a direct geographical approach to the 
 infernal regions. 
 
 " What did you say ?" he asked. 
 
 "Say? What should a Christian 
 say ? I said, Xo, my dear, I shall 
 never be seen inside of a theatre while 
 I have my senses, and I want to ask 
 you if you think it is a place for an im 
 mortal soul on its way to eternity to be 
 found ? How would you like to be 
 called to die in such a place ? When 
 I put it straight to her conscience I 
 could see it went home ; she colored up 
 and said she was sorry she had made 
 such a mistake. Then I told her I was 
 sorry, too, but the gates of mercy were 
 wide open for those that had wandered 
 far. It was just then that you came 
 up, and I left her. 
 
 There was a little silence in the room. 
 Stephen was looking at his mother with 
 a pang in his heart, as he saw the keen 
 suffering she was enduring for his 
 sake. She had been very silent since 
 
 81
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 they reached New York, although 
 there had been a homeless, piteous look 
 upon her face as she moved about the 
 small, over-furnished rooms of their 
 new domicile a home they could hard 
 ly call it vaguely seeking for some 
 thing to do. The rooms were kept in 
 order for them ; she did not even have 
 the privilege of making her own bed, 
 and she was too timid to ask for it, and 
 they took their meals in the general 
 dining-room of the house. But all the 
 bitter homesickness in her heart Mrs. 
 Castle would have kept resolutely to 
 herself. Stephen had felt it his duty 
 to respond to the call to this new church, 
 and she would follow, cost what it 
 might. But now her conscience had 
 been alarmed ; an awful fear had over 
 taken her that the Church of All Good 
 Spirits was not the Church of God, and 
 she could keep silence no longer. 
 
 Stephen Castle was not a small man. 
 Some men in his position would have 
 been mortified by the display of the 
 82
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 rustic ignorance on the part of his 
 mother, and would have yielded to the 
 irritation which such a feeling would 
 incite. But the young man was too 
 profoundly affected himself to give way 
 to petty or superficial considerations. 
 He had made like discoveries, which 
 amazed and shocked him no less than 
 they had his mother, and in his own 
 heart he was simply appalled at the 
 situation before him. These two peo 
 ple had lived all their lives in remote, 
 inland villages of Northern ]S r e\v Eng 
 land. The most rigid Puritanic scruples 
 had been handed down through succes 
 sive generations. It had been a minis 
 terial family, characterized hitherto by 
 respectable but not marked ability, and 
 by the most unflinching devotion to a 
 sense of duty. Mrs. Castle was a some 
 what narrow woman, but she was the 
 product of generations ready to die at 
 the stake or in battle for the sake of 
 principle, and the same stuff was in 
 her. In her son was a strain of the 
 
 83
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 imaginative, idealizing temperament 
 more of flexibility, less of severity. 
 Furthermore, he was bound to be hope 
 ful by all the exigencies of the position. 
 
 "Well, mother, he said, rising and 
 opening the door into her room, l we 
 must remember that we have not all 
 the truth ourselves, and we may find 
 much that is good underneath these ap 
 pearances which trouble us so to-night. 
 Don t lie awake. Don t worry. God 
 will help us, perhaps, to make these 
 people over in some way. Perhaps 
 that is what lie brought me here for." 
 
 " If they don t make you over into 
 one of their own kind instead, Stephen ; 
 that is what I am most afraid of, and 
 Mrs. Castle looked with piercing keen 
 ness into her son s face. 
 
 <% Hardly," he said, with a faint at 
 tempt at a smile. " I lusvo too much 
 of your blood in my veins for that. 
 Good-m o-ht !" 
 
 84
 
 CHAPTEK VIII 
 
 Through what tears and sweat and pain 
 
 Must we gain 
 
 Fruitage from the tree of life ! 
 Shall it yield him bitter flavor ? 
 
 Shall its savor 
 
 Be as manna midst the turmoil and the strif 
 
 E 
 
 MR. LOKING, the father of Stephanie, 
 was in many ways the most influential 
 member of the Church of All Good 
 Spirits. He was a man of much wealth 
 and some culture, of great personal 
 popularity, with a decided interest in 
 the affairs of the church, but in this 
 and in all things he was first and last 
 and always a "business man. A Wall 
 Street broker, he was keen, although 
 not unscrupulous, a master at manoeu 
 vres, whether in church or in business 
 concerns. It was thus a matter of no 
 great difficulty for Stephanie to bring 
 85
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 about the call to Stephen Castle, which 
 was, as must have been inferred, the 
 immediate result of her efforts. All 
 through the months at Xewport she 
 had talked to her father of the wonder- 
 full}- brilliant young preacher whom 
 she had discovered away off among the 
 Xew England hills. She had dwelt 
 upon his physical power and beauty, 
 upon his personal charm and magnet 
 ism, and upon his intellectual promise, 
 until her father, who was chairman of 
 the pulpit committee of his church, 
 finally consented to present the name 
 of Stephen Castle at the first committee 
 meeting held in October. lie did this 
 with easy, laughing apology for calling 
 the attention of the gentlemen to a 
 country boy, for he supposed him to 
 be really nothing more, but he had 
 heard how, he omitted to say that 
 he was a fellow of extraordinary tal 
 ent, and, of course, other things being 
 equal, nothing would tak? like a young, 
 enthusiastic man in the pulpit. He 
 86
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 would probably be a little green and 
 countrified at first, but that could be 
 depended upon to wear off, etc. As 
 he and Stephanie had expected, Mr. 
 Loring, with another member of the 
 committee, was deputed to go to Thorn 
 ton quietly and hear the young man 
 preach. We know the results of this 
 errand. 
 
 The negotiations with Stephen him 
 self had impressed the young clergy 
 man as more purely businesslike than 
 he would have wished ; but he felt 
 himself at a certain disadvantage with 
 these polished, elegant men, and dis 
 trusted his own impressions. 
 
 " Your preaching is what we Avant," 
 Mr. Loring had said. " Pastoral work 
 is not expected in our church, except in 
 extreme cases illness and death. You 
 will, of course, meet our people fre 
 quently at dinners and receptions and 
 all that. We shall try to make it 
 pleasant for you socially. But Avhat 
 our church wants is good preaching 
 87
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 brains, in short, Mr. Castle, and that 
 is what we have secured. TVe are en 
 tirely satisfied on that point. Your 
 salary will be five thousand, not as 
 large as it ought to be. but perhaps a 
 little advance on what you are having 
 now, and I think you can live on it. in 
 a (juiet way. of course a little apart 
 ment, you know, or something of that 
 sort. "NYe will try to help you out. 
 My daughter is great on all that kind 
 of thing. 
 
 This conversation occurred in Xew 
 York, after the Sunday which Stephen 
 had spent there in the late autumn. 
 He had returned to Thornton and the 
 little parsonage, and as he stepped upon 
 the yellow painted floor of the narrow 
 piazza, passing the now leafless rose 
 bushes, he thought with a kind of 
 shame that it was this house and eight 
 hundred dollars a year which he was 
 exchanging for a salary of five thou 
 sand. The shame was lest it would 
 seem to everv one who knew it that it
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 was this difference which had dazzled 
 and drawn him away from Thornton, 
 and in his heart of hearts Stephen Cas 
 tle knew it was not this. But it was 
 not until weeks afterward that he could 
 bring himself to mention the subject of 
 his salary, even to his mother. 
 
 In the plans for their new residence, 
 and all their domestic arrangements, 
 Stephanie Loring s help had been of 
 the utmost importance to them. She 
 had shown herself most sincerely inter 
 ested in caring for Mrs. Castle s com 
 fort. It was to her that Stephen went 
 for light and knowledge on all doubtful 
 points which came up in his new life, 
 and this Avas precisely what she had 
 expected. 
 
 A few days after the reception at Mr. 
 Loring s, Stephen called at the house, 
 the conventional brownstone front in 
 the correct section of Fifth Avenue, 
 and found Stephanie alone in the library. 
 There was delicate flattery in the glad 
 ness with which she greeted him, and 
 
 89
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 he felt an exquisite pleasure in watch 
 ing her grace and loveliness as she sat 
 near him, and in meeting the radiance 
 of her smile as they exchanged a few 
 gay repartees, an accomplishment which 
 Stephen was learning readily. But he 
 was not in a gay mood at heart, and 
 soon he said with a sudden, impatient 
 gesture : 
 
 " Do you know, Miss Loring, what 
 an awful blunder it was bringing me 
 here ? 
 
 " Xo, I have not discovered the blun 
 der yet, she rejoined promptly, skil 
 fully hiding her dismay at his words, 
 for she knew that he spoke seriously. 
 
 " May I talk with you plainly ?" he 
 asked. I am awfully tired not 
 bodily, but in the head and heart of me, 
 and I want to say things as I really feel 
 them, not as I am expected to say them. 
 
 " I wish you would speak perfectly 
 plainly. I want you to with me al 
 ways," Stephanie said, in a voice which 
 was half caressing in its gentleness. 
 
 90
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 "Thank you. Well, in the first 
 place, if you will let me say it, All 
 Good Spirits is a fashionable church 
 an ultra-fashionable church. I have 
 found this out by a little questioning 
 here and there where I was not known ; 
 and I find they call it the Boudoir 
 Church, and the All Swells Church, 
 and all that kind of thing. This is the 
 simple fact. The church is intended 
 for the wealthy and aristocratic class, 
 and for them alone. That is not the 
 kind of church I ever ought to serve. 
 I am country born and bred. More 
 than that, many things which are mat 
 ters of course in l^ew York fashionable 
 society are simply monstrous to me. 
 The extravagance in flowers and on the 
 table at these dinners and receptions 
 seems to me actually wicked you see 
 I am speaking plainly ; the way the 
 ladies dress, the way they all amuse 
 themselves ! I am perplexed, confused, 
 at a loss utterly. I have always sup 
 posed that all these things were what 
 91
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 belonged to the world in the scrip 
 tural sense, and that the abstaining 
 from them was essential to the Chris 
 tian life. But the members of my 
 church practise these things continu 
 ally, without scruple or restraint. 
 What does it mean ? Are they all 
 wrong, or am I all wrong ? How can 
 two walk together unless they are 
 agreed?" and Stephen looked into 
 Stephanie s face with unsmiling eyes. 
 His own face was stern and white. 
 
 She had flushed when he had begun 
 his talk, but her face was clear now and 
 composed. 
 
 " It would hardly be graceful to re 
 mind you," she said, smiling. " who it 
 was that said. Why was not this oint 
 ment sold for three hundred pence and 
 given to the poor ? 
 
 " Yes," he returned quickly; " but it 
 was upon the feet of Christ that the 
 ointment was poured, and all this lav 
 ish waste is for personal, even sensuous 
 pleasure, so far as I can see." 
 
 92
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 " That is where I think you are 
 wrong. Can you not understand that 
 there may be unselfishness in the ex 
 penditure of several hundred dollars in 
 the beauty of flowers by a woman who 
 calls her friends together for the sake 
 of giving them happiness ? The under 
 lying, perhaps I ought to say the ideal 
 motive in all our entertaining is to 
 brighten life for one another, to give it 
 joy and charm. Now, I claim that this 
 is a right motive. How much ought 
 to be spent in this way is for each per 
 son to judge himself. Perhaps the 
 woman who spent two hundred dollars 
 for her dinner the other night had sent 
 two thousand for the work in the lower 
 part of the city." 
 
 I see the line you are taking I am 
 glad you have as good a one. I sup 
 pose we all give some place to beauty 
 and enjoyment in our lives." 
 
 "To be sure we do. Those people 
 at the wedding where I met you, in 
 Thornton, had washed up their pickle 
 93
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 jars and filled them with roses and 
 peonies, and I respected the effort they 
 had made for beauty and festivity. It 
 is a need of nature in all of us, and I can 
 see nothing worse in niv sending an or- 
 
 i/ 
 
 der for flowers to my florist where I 
 am trying to make a number of people 
 forget for a little that life is a horrid 
 grind. It helps the florist, it gives 
 pleasure, it cultivates the sense of 
 beauty." 
 
 But how about the amusements? 
 They sit still heavier on my soul. 
 
 " There, ,ATr. Castle, you will have 
 to allow me to say the question is sim 
 ply one of education. You have been 
 brought up to think it was right to 
 play with dominoes and croquet-balls, 
 and wrong to play with cards and bil 
 liard-balls; right to listen to tame or 
 lame elocution, wrong to witness the 
 magnificent interpretations of men like 
 Booth and Jefferson. Most people in 
 this part of the world think that all 
 these recreations are alike as far as 
 94
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 moral quality is concerned, and the 
 question which they shall use is merely 
 one of taste and preference." 
 
 " But there are certainly degrading 
 associations with card-playing and the 
 theatre which make them unsuitable 
 for use to thoughtful Christian peo 
 ple." 
 
 " So everything about us is capable 
 of abuse, but is it not better to learn 
 self-restraint and the proper propor 
 tioning of these things to the earnest 
 work of our lives, than to frown indis 
 criminately upon bad and good alike ? 
 Is it not really a higher use of one s 
 moral perceptions?" and she looked 
 into his face with the witchery of her 
 wonderfully brilliant smile. 
 
 " I do not know. I confess you be 
 wilder me. I shall have to go home 
 and try to analyze what you have said, 
 and see of what it is made. I have a 
 lingering fear that sophistry and self- 
 indulgence are not altogether absent 
 from the position you defend, and yet 
 
 95
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 you have made me see things from your 
 point of view." 
 
 lie had risen now to go, and she stood 
 facing him before the fireplace. 
 
 ; And you will not say again that 
 you have made a blunder in coming to 
 us? she asked, looking wistfully at 
 him, and holding out both her hands. 
 
 He took them in his and looked down 
 into her face, his own much moved. 
 
 " It could not be a blunder to come 
 where you led me, he said. Perhaps 
 I do not know I could not choose 
 but follow," and vfith that he was gone. 
 
 Stephanie, standing alone, as the 
 house door shut, clasped her hanfls to 
 gether and her eyes flashed with a sud 
 den light, unlike the pleading softness 
 which had just now been in them. 
 
 " lie, too, is a man," she whispered 
 to herself with something like exulta 
 tion; " even he. at last, is human !"
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 I have stifled more than one nascent love. 
 Why ? Because, with that prophetic certainty 
 which belongs to moral intuition, I felt it lacking 
 in true life, and less durable than myself, I 
 choked it down in the name of the supreme affec 
 tion to come. The loves of sense, of imagination, 
 of sentiment I have seen through and rejected 
 them all ; I sought the love which springs from 
 the central profundities of being. 
 
 AMIEL. 
 
 NEARLY three years have passed since 
 Stephen Castle became pastor of the 
 Church of All Good Spirits, and on an 
 evening in early spring we find him in 
 a select company at the house of one of 
 his parishioners, Mrs. Petersham. Din 
 ner is over, and the guests are standing 
 in groups about the great drawing- 
 room, which is magnificently furnished, 
 and rich with paintings, bronzes, and 
 porcelains of rare value. 
 97
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 Mrs. Petersham, who is a widow of 
 great wealth, has a son of the age of 
 Stephen Castle, and between the two 
 men a friendship lias sprung up. As a 
 result the young pastor had been abroad 
 with the Petershams on a journey of 
 several months in the preceding sum 
 mer and fall. 
 
 To-night Stephen is among her guests, 
 but his old Thornton friends might 
 hesitate a moment before they recog 
 nized him. lie is in full dress, with a 
 single white rose in his buttonhole, and 
 above the broad white expanse of his 
 shirt-front his face rises paler and thin 
 ner than they knew it, and its expres 
 sion, half dreamy and indifferent, would 
 strike them as yet more strangely al 
 tered. The old, boyish frankness, the 
 eager happiness, has gone from the 
 face, and with it the indescribable 
 spiritual elevation which made it so 
 like the face of some strong, young 
 saint. The face is at once prouder 
 and sadder than it used to be, more 
 9S
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 intellectually refined, more reserved, 
 less earnest. 
 
 He was standing now before a paint 
 ing on an easel in a curtained recess, a 
 gentleman and lady with him. He 
 Avas leaning against the wall of the al 
 cove with something of languid grace 
 in his attitude, unlike his old alertness, 
 and with eyelids drawn narrowly he 
 surveyed the picture with critical 
 scrutiny. 
 
 " Yes, I saw it in Paris," he replied 
 to the lady who had just asked him a 
 question, " but that was five months 
 ago. Mrs. Petersham has only re 
 ceived it within a day or two." 
 
 " It was at the Salon, was it not ?" 
 
 "Yes. It is a wonderful thing." 
 Stephen spoke the last words almost 
 under his breath. 
 
 The painting showed a woman, ex 
 quisitely beautiful, reclining under green 
 ilex-trees. The landscape was plainly 
 Grecian. Beside her, prone and sub 
 missive, lay a tiger. One of her fair,
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 white arms was dropped across his 
 sleek, tawny shoulders. Her attitude 
 was of indolent repose, her face dream 
 ily content, only the eyes were fixed 
 with eager desire upon the sea, where a 
 storm-tossed boat could be seen passing 
 near the shore, the sailors looking shore 
 ward with anxious faces. Plainly, it 
 was Circe, the enchantress. 
 
 Across the room Stephanie Loring 
 was the centre of a group, where sev 
 eral gentlemen were vying with one 
 another in winning her smiles and at 
 tention. She was dressed with unusual 
 elegance, in gleaming white satin, with 
 a fall of lace around her beautiful 
 shoulders, and her brilliant beauty and 
 wit made her the central point of the 
 company. 
 
 It was not long before she slipped 
 away from the people she was with, 
 and came quietly into the recess where 
 Stephen Castle was still regarding the 
 picture. He was alone now. 
 
 I must see this wonderful new pic- 
 
 100
 
 A Minister of the World , 
 
 ture," she said, not looking at Stephen, 
 but standing so near him that the lace of 
 her dress touched his arm. Mrs. Peter 
 sham always finds the loveliest things !" 
 she added in her clear, cool tone desociete. 
 
 For a moment they stood in silence ; 
 then Stephanie said in a lower voice, 
 through which some inner feeling 
 vibrated : 
 
 " Do you like it ? The subject is al 
 ways so disagreeable, I think. I won 
 der that you should find so much in it, 
 Mr. Castle." 
 
 " It is a great picture to me, he 
 said half carelessly ; " it is what it 
 suggests, not what it shows, which 
 gives it power. 
 
 " Oh, I see," she responded lightly ; 
 " it might make good sermon material. 
 Naturally ! How stupid I was ! I 
 shall expect a famous sermon to young 
 men before long, with Mrs. Petersham s 
 pretty Circe she certainly is extremely 
 pretty for a text. I can see how you 
 could use it charmingly. 
 101
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 " Oh, thank you, 1 said Stephen with 
 mock gratitude. 
 
 " But really, Mr. Castle, yon do use 
 a classic motif like that wonderfully. 
 I heard so many speak of the sermon 
 where you wove in the Iphigenia story. 
 It made a very great impression." 
 
 Just then Lloyd Petersham joined 
 them, announcing that the carriages 
 Avere ready now, and it was time to 
 leave for the opera. Patti was singing 
 in opera. Mrs. Petersham s guests 
 were to occupy her box that evening at 
 the^ Academy. As Stephen and Ste 
 phanie turned to join the others Lloyd 
 Petersham said : 
 
 Oh, by the way, Castle, I stopped 
 at your rooms on my way up to-night, 
 thinking you might not have left, and 
 they gave me this letter for you. It 
 was all the afternoon mail brought you, 
 I believe," and he handed Stephen a 
 letter. It was in a yellow envelope, 
 and the address was written in a stiff, 
 uncertain hand. The postmark was 
 102
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 Thornton. Murmuring his thanks, Ste 
 phen slipped the letter into his pocket 
 and followed his friend to the dressing- 
 room. He and Stephanie rode in the 
 carriage with Mrs. Petersham to the 
 Academy, and when they entered the 
 box, which was full of flowers and fra 
 grance, Stephen quietly took a chair 
 behind Stephanie, in the background of 
 the gay company, Avhere he could be 
 still if he chose. 
 
 They were late ; one act was already 
 over, and the violins were sighing in 
 yearning tones over the overture to 
 the second. The curtain rose ; the 
 prima-donna sang her bravest ; the 
 audience went wild ; and then the 
 curtain fell, and the lights flared up 
 again. 
 
 It was at this time that Stephen, for 
 some reason, remembered the letter in 
 his pocket, and turning to be un 
 observed, he broke the seal and looked 
 at the signature. lie found this to be 
 Electa Wescott, and immediately he 
 103
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 reversed the sheet and read the letter 
 through. It was as follows : 
 
 Mu. CASTLE. 
 
 Dear and Reverend Sir : I have the sad news to 
 give you that Aunt Eliza is no more. She had 
 not been sick in bed, but failing slowly, and on 
 Sunday evening, just after the second service, 
 she breathed her last without a struggle. I may 
 truly say that she died in peace. You was one 
 of the last she named. When the church bell 
 rang she heard it, and she said, " I should have 
 liked to see Stephen Castle once more. You 
 know she felt free to call you so, and you will 
 excuse me that I repeat her words. We asked 
 her if you should be sent for to the funeral, and 
 she shook her head and said, "Too far, don t 
 trouble him, but she wanted her love given, and 
 she always grieved a good deal that your poor 
 mother died and left you. That was more 
 than a year ago, and Aunt, Eliza has failed faster 
 ever since. Aunt Eliza was buried yesterday, 
 and it would have done us good to have heard you 
 speak a few words, but we must not repine. We 
 shall be glad if you can come and make us a 
 visit some time. 
 
 Please excuse these lines, etc. 
 
 The lights, the music, the flowers, 
 the beautiful women all seemed to 
 whirl away from Stephen Castle as he 
 104
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 read this letter, and he was in a low- 
 roofed farmhouse in Thornton, bending 
 over his old friend, meeting the love- 
 light in her eyes, before it was quenched 
 forever, catching one last glimpse of 
 her spirit before it fled. It seemed to 
 him that he would have given all that 
 made his life just then to have looked 
 once more into the sweet old face. He 
 had never known, except from his 
 mother, a love so tender, so exalted as 
 Aunt Eliza s, nor one which so uplifted 
 his o\vn nature. She was one of those 
 rare persons who mysteriously touch 
 every soul they meet to its utmost of 
 purity and aspiration. Xo one whom 
 lie had seen in all this glittering world 
 in which he moved now was in this 
 way to be compared with her. 
 
 " I loved her she needed me," the 
 young man cried in his heart, holding 
 the letter crushed in his hand, and a 
 moment after he rose, and making his 
 way to Mrs. Petersham, excused him 
 self and left the place. 
 105
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 Mr. Loring was in the parquet with 
 a friend, and he watched Stephen [is he 
 appeared for a moment in the most 
 conspicuous part of the box, in his even 
 ing dress, bending with courtly defer 
 ence to speak to his hostess. 
 
 " I tell you," Mr. Loring remarked 
 to his friend, " I never saw anything 
 equal the transformation in that fellow 
 Castle, I mean. When he came here 
 he was good-looking enough he 
 couldn t help being striking, put him 
 anywhere and talented, you know, a 
 scholar, but that was all. He had 
 been in the country all his life, knew 
 nothing of society, art, music, the ways 
 of the world on any side. He was full 
 of a lot of Puritanic notions, and I 
 thought for a while lie would kick out 
 of the traces the best we could do. I kit 
 bless your heart ! inside of a year he 
 settled down to business in great shape, 
 and I certainly never saw a man im 
 prove so rapidly in my life. He has 
 travelled, you know ; is up on art ; 
 106
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 hears good music, an opera now and 
 then nothing beyond clerical propri 
 ety, of course preaches elegant ser 
 mons, and he can hold his own socially 
 with any clergyman in Xew York." 
 
 " Yes, I hear the ladies are all break 
 ing their hearts over him. lie is get 
 ting to be the fashion, you might say. 
 Don t they spoil him with all the flat 
 tery ? He is a young fellow still." 
 
 " No, they can t spoil him, and they 
 can t catch him either, that s what 
 amuses me !" said Mr. Loring, laugh 
 ing, and then the curtain rose, and the 
 conversation ended. 
 
 The following morning Stephen Cas 
 tle was sitting at his study-desk, pen in 
 hand , essaying to write a letter of sym 
 pathy to Electa Wescott in Thornton. 
 Her letter lay on the table beside him, 
 and with it a faded, old-fashioned card 
 photograph of Aunt Eliza, which would 
 have signified nothing to a stranger, 
 but in seeing which Stephen could call 
 up vividly the arch smile, the uncon- 
 107
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 scious grace, the pure s\veet-heartedness 
 which had made the little old lady so 
 dear to him. He looked careworn and 
 sad this morning, and the letter was a 
 hard one to write. Presently, as his 
 pen groped its slow way on, he was in 
 terrupted by a servant who brought 
 him the letters just delivered by the 
 postman. 
 
 Stephen pushed his writing materials 
 aside, as glad of an occasion for post 
 poning a difficult task, and proceeded 
 to cut open the several envelopes with 
 a mother-of-pearl paper-knife. His 
 study was large and luxuriously ap 
 pointed. Costly pictures were upon the 
 walls, many of them gifts from his 
 wealthy parishioners, but in one remote 
 corner hung a photograph of Hunt s 
 " Light of the World," the one link 
 between this study and the one in the 
 little parsonage of Thornton. 
 
 One letter which Stephen opened 
 aroused an expression of keener interest 
 than the rest. It was dated at "Win- 
 
 108
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 Chester, the seat of the Divinity School 
 where he had himself graduated, and it 
 was written by a student there who 
 was to be ordained pastor of the church 
 in Thornton in the following June. He 
 wrote in the respectful tone of one ad 
 dressing a man far above him and yet 
 with a manly confidence which pleased 
 Stephen Castle to ask if the latter 
 would be present in Thornton at the 
 time of his ordination, and preach the 
 sermon which was always looked for 
 ward to as the event of these occasions. 
 Stephen turned at once to his desk 
 and wrote a few words of cordial ac 
 ceptance. Then, taking up a calendar, 
 he wrote on it for the fifth, sixth, and 
 seventh of June the word " Thornton." 
 This done he sat a long time with his 
 head dropped upon his hand, thinking. 
 The last time he had visited Thornton 
 was on his way home from the burial 
 of his mother, and this circumstance 
 and the death of Aunt Eliza brought 
 his mother very tenderly to his mind. 
 
 109
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 Her life in Xew York had been a poor, 
 homely little tragedy, not devoid, after 
 all, of some great elements. Where 
 Stephen had gradually yielded to the 
 influence of his environment, she had 
 held herself rigidly apart, and main 
 tained her position of Puritanic sober 
 ness. The Church of All Good Spirits 
 had no use for her, this being so, and 
 she distinctly understood this. At 
 Thornton she had had her household 
 cares, like other housewives, but she had 
 been considered al \vays as on a plane 
 above all the rest, and was accustomed 
 to being deferred to as a kind of spir 
 itual leader. 
 
 Xo\v all was different. In her in 
 most heart she was convinced that her 
 son was being led away from her, and 
 from " pure religion and undeilled, 
 and this conviction ate into the very 
 sources of her vital energy. Homesick 
 beyond expression, homeless rather, she 
 felt herself a useless appendage to Ste 
 phen s life, instead of being its chief 
 no
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 support, and with no word of upbraid 
 ing or complaint she pined and failed 
 day after day, so gradually that Stephen 
 did not dream of her growing weakness 
 until the last. Then, with full con 
 sciousness, she lay down to die, calm 
 and collected, without triumphs or 
 ecstasies, but with unshaken faith, ask 
 ing only at Stephen s hands that she 
 be taken back to the little New Eng 
 land village where she was born, and 
 laid to rest beside his father. 
 
 Stephen had sent for Emily Merle, 
 who had always been like his mother s 
 right hand in her work in Thornton, 
 and the girl had come and taken her 
 place with the nurse by the bedside, 
 and had remained there until all was 
 over. It was a rest, even now, to re 
 call her sweet, womanly ways and the 
 quiet sympathy which could make itself 
 felt without words. Rousing suddenly 
 from his attitude of dejection, he pulled 
 his letter to Electa Wescott back to its 
 place before him, and finished it with 
 111
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 no further hesitation. At the close he 
 wrote : 
 
 " Yes, I shall make YOU all a visit 
 before many months. I have promised 
 Mr. Waldo to preach his ordination ser 
 mon in June, and I cannot say how 
 glad I am that I can look forward to 
 seeing the people I love so well at 
 that time. 
 
 He was addressing the letter when 
 his friend, Lloyd Petersham, came in. 
 After a little conversation of no particu 
 lar interest, Petersham said with a 
 troubled expression : 
 
 " Have ou seen Mr. Lorin this 
 
 mornn 
 
 " 
 
 " Xo, I have not been out at all yet. 
 
 " I thought he might possibly have 
 been in. You have not heard, then, 
 that Miss Loring is quite ill ?" 
 
 " Xo," cried Stephen, much startled; 
 "how can it be so? She was at her 
 very best, apparently, last night." 
 
 " I know ; I never saw her lovelier 
 or more brilliant," and young Peter- 
 112
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 sham spoke as if it were pleasant to re 
 call the image of Stephanie as they had 
 seen it so few hours before. " She was 
 taken, it seems, with a severe chill not 
 very long after you left, and went 
 home. She has been alarmingly ill 
 through the night. 
 
 Stephen rose and paced the room 
 with unconcealed distress upon his face. 
 
 " I will go around there before 
 lunch," he said. 
 
 You cannot expect to see her, said 
 Petersham thoughtfully. 
 
 " No, certainly not, but I can at least 
 know more exactly the state of things. 
 
 " What a strange fellow you are, 
 Castle ! said the other. 
 
 "How so, Lloyd?" 
 
 " You ought to have the right to be 
 near her at a time like this. What any 
 other man would die to win you could 
 have for the asking, and you do not 
 even care to speak." 
 
 Stephen changed color perceptibly. 
 
 "Don t, Petersham !" he exclaimed. 
 113
 
 CIIAPTEE X 
 
 Falls are not always by the grosser sins which 
 the world takes count of, but by spiritual sins, 
 subtle and secret, which leave no stain upon the 
 outward life. 
 
 CARDINAL MANNING. 
 
 All noblest things are born 
 
 In agony. 
 Only upon some cross of pain or woe 
 
 God s son may lie ; 
 Each soul redeemed from self and sin must know 
 
 Its Calvary. 
 
 FRANCES POWER COBBE. 
 
 STEPHEN CASTLE was standing in the 
 broad upper hall of the Lorings house, 
 which was dimly lighted and profound 
 ly still. Below, in the library, he had 
 left Mr. Loring and his wife, with 
 whom he had exchanged a few agitated 
 words. lie was waiting now, his head 
 drooping forward, a chilly dampness 
 gathering on his forehead, as he watched 
 
 114
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 a door opposite the place where he 
 stood. It opened at length, noiselessly, 
 and a man appeared, who joined him 
 and spoke with the calmness of the ex 
 perienced physician in a time of crisis. 
 
 "Mr. Castle, I believe? Yes, as I 
 supposed. You understand it is Miss 
 Loring s wish to see you. It is to be 
 regretted," with a deprecatory lifting 
 of shoulders and brows, " on account 
 of her extreme exhaustion, but I sup 
 pose we can hardly refuse the re 
 quest. 
 
 Stephen s eyes fell at the suggestion 
 of the doctor s last words, and a tremor 
 ran through his frame, which he quickly 
 controlled. 
 
 " You do not think it will increase 
 the exhaustion seriously?" he asked. 
 
 " Not more than the excitement of 
 having her wish opposed. I do not an 
 ticipate an immediate change. You 
 will, of course, avoid any subject which 
 might produce agitation. I depend 
 upon your judgment entirely, Mr. Cas- 
 lio
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 tie, as Miss Loring wishes to see YOU 
 alone." 
 
 He led the way now to the opposite 
 door, which he softly opened, saying 
 as he did so, " You may remain about 
 half an hour if it seems best," and then, 
 Stephen having entered, he closed the 
 door behind him. 
 
 For a moment, in the strange hush 
 of the room, the young man stood, un 
 able- to move forward. It was dark, 
 save for a night-lamp burning at some 
 distance from the door. The air had a 
 peculiar odor, aromatic and yet stupe 
 fying. At the foot of the bed a woman 
 in white cap and apron was quietly 
 folding a light blanket, which she laid 
 upon the bed, and then disappeared into 
 an adjoining room. 
 
 Then at last Stephen advanced to the 
 bedside, took the chair which had been 
 left there for him, and looked again, 
 for the first time in many weeks, upon 
 the face of Stephanie. He had not 
 seen her since the night of Mrs. Peter- 
 lie
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 sham s dinner, when she had been in 
 the perfection of her beauty and power 
 gay, witty, brilliant a woman of 
 the world with the world at her feet. 
 Now he saw lying on the broad pil 
 lows a white, shrunken face and figure, 
 the small, thin hands lying passively 
 over the coverlet, the lips colorless, the 
 eyes deeply sunken, a woman around 
 whom the shadows of the next world 
 were gathering thickly. At first Ste 
 phen thought he could discover no fa 
 miliar line or look in the face before 
 him, but when he took the weak hand 
 in his, and for an instant pressed it to 
 his lips, there looked out from the eyes 
 something of the old radiance of Ste 
 phanie s smile. She seemed to try to 
 speak, but in vain, for no sound came 
 from her lips. In sore anguish Stephen 
 sought the only refuge which seemed 
 left to him, and said in a voice which 
 all the power of his will could not 
 steady : 
 
 "Shall I pray, dear?" 
 117
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 Her eyes did not give the assent 
 for which he looked, but she spoke 
 now, and to his surprise quite clearly, 
 the old familiar inflections of her 
 voice unchanged, in spite of its weak 
 ness. 
 
 " I do not care, she said ; "we have 
 only a little time. I do not feel that 
 it would make any difference, do you ?" 
 and the hollow eyes looked searchingly 
 into his. 
 
 Stephen s surprise was so great that 
 he did not reply, and she said : 
 
 " Of course it is the proper thing for 
 you to do, but it would not mean much 
 for either of us. 
 
 Still Stephen was speechless, with a 
 horror as of something beyond death 
 coming upon him. 
 
 " Xow, lying here," Stephanie went 
 on feebly, " nothing holds, you see, 
 but the real things. I think you be 
 lieved in prayer when I knew you first, 
 and I know you think you do now, but 
 
 the life is gone." 
 
 118
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 " Stephanie" Stephen spoke at last 
 with exceeding gentleness " God is for 
 us when we need Him, even though I 
 am cold and weak where I should be 
 strong. No matter how I have failed, 
 God does not fail." 
 
 Yes, yes, she murmured half im 
 patiently; " I cannot stop to argue. I 
 have only a little time, you see. They 
 do not tell me so, but I know by their 
 faces. I thought once that God was 
 so close and real to you that you would 
 bring Him to me you understand ? 
 I had never found Him, and doubted 
 everything then I saw you, up there 
 in Thornton." 
 
 She paused a little, and Stephen, 
 softly smoothing her hand, said : 
 
 " Yes, I remember. You came to 
 church, and afterward I saw you at 
 the wedding. 
 
 " Then I was determined to have 
 
 you come here. I knew I could do it. 
 
 You do not know why. It was because 
 
 I thought your religion could stand even 
 
 119
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 here. I needed it. I thought you 
 could give it to me. 
 
 " And I have not, murmured Ste 
 phen, wondering in a consciousness 
 which seemed to overlie the unimagina 
 ble abyss of his pain, whether ever 
 priest had heard such a deathbed con 
 fession as this. 
 
 u ^so," she said calmly, using in her 
 stress only the necessities of bare truth 
 " no, you are like the rest. There is 
 no help, no God, in what you preach. 
 It could not stand the life I thought 
 you had, so there is nothing left for me. 
 
 "O Stephanie," and Stephen Cas 
 tle groaned aloud, disregarding for an 
 instant the danger of exciting her, in 
 the poignancy of his suffering. 
 
 Do not mind," she said tenderly; 
 " life is too much for any of us, I think. 
 I was wrong to expect you to be strong 
 er than men are. Pride and intellect 
 and ambition are what really rule all 
 men, only they call them different 
 names. 
 
 120
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 Stephen hardly heard what she said; 
 his whole soul was concentrated in. an 
 inner cry that God would undo the evil 
 he had wrought. 
 
 She had turned her head slightly on 
 the pillow, and when he lifted his eyes 
 he was startled at the expression with 
 winch she was watching him. 
 
 " We will not speak any more of all 
 that," she said, smiling faintly. "I 
 have more to tell you the other reason 
 why I wanted you to come to us. Per 
 haps you would never have known it if 
 I were not so ill, but now, you see, I 
 cannot wait. You must know it. I 
 cannot keep it in my heart to the very 
 end, Stephen," and there was some 
 thing so piteous in the appeal of her 
 face and voice, so unlike the proud 
 woman she had always been, that 
 painful tears rushed to Stephen s eyes. 
 
 "It was only" and she shielded her 
 
 face from his eyes with one transparent 
 
 hand " that from the very first, with 
 
 all my life and all my heart, I loved you." 
 
 121
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 There was a throbbing silence for a 
 moment, which it was impossible for 
 either to break, and then Stephanie 
 said : 
 
 " It is strange for me to tell you this. 
 Life could never have done it, but now, 
 what does it matter ? It is the one 
 true thing left to me all the rest of 
 my life seems meaningless. " 
 
 Kneeling beside the bed, Stephen 
 drew the wasted form for a moment 
 into his strong arms, and kissed her 
 solemnly on brow and lips. 
 
 " God bless you and keep you, dear, 
 and hold you close and give you light 
 and peace. Amen. 
 
 His voice was firm, and there was a 
 strange thrill of hope and power in it, 
 and as he rose to his feet he seemed to 
 shed upon Stephanie a mysterious grace 
 and benediction. 
 
 Then the door opened, the physician, 
 watch in hand, came in with a look of 
 warning on his face, and the clergyman 
 withdrew. 
 
 122
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 "White and haggard and half be 
 numbed with pain, Stephen made his 
 way out of the house and on through 
 the darkness of the night to his own 
 silent rooms. Having struck a light, he 
 glanced mechanically at his own reflec 
 tion in the glass over his dressing-table, 
 and turned away amazed at the change 
 which the last hour had wrought in his 
 face. There were lines and furrows in 
 it such as only remorse and sorrow cut, 
 but what struck most sharply upon his 
 consciousness was the perception that 
 his face was no longer that of a free 
 man. The look of self-poise, of free 
 dom, of firm will, was gone. It had 
 become an irresolute, tortured face. 
 Strangely enough, with the recognition 
 of this change came the thought that 
 he was glad that Emily Merle could not 
 see him now. 
 
 Entering his study, Stephen sat down 
 
 beside the desk, and with his head 
 
 bowed between his hands he remained 
 
 there hour after hour struggling for a 
 
 123
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 clear comprehension of the point reached 
 in his own experience which had made 
 this interview with Stephanie possible, 
 and along what way he had come to it. 
 He did not dwell long upon the later 
 part of their conversation. That she 
 had loved him with the whole power of 
 her nature, and that she had thus con 
 fessed her love in the hour of her ex 
 tremity, gave him, just now, little per 
 sonal feeling. Something of consecra 
 tion and of emotion seemed to rest upon 
 him, even in his pain, from this revela 
 tion, but it had no power to hold his 
 thoughts. He had been under the spell 
 of her beauty and charm all the years 
 that he had known her, although some 
 element of his nature had always risen 
 in protest when he would have declared 
 himself her lover. The very delicacy 
 of his feeling now forbade his placing 
 strong emphasis on the fact that it was 
 she who had given voice to the power 
 ful attraction existing between them, 
 rather than himself. 
 124
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 The awful rock upon which his soul 
 seemed crashing in perpetual wreck, re 
 peated through hour after hour of the 
 night, was the fact that he had been 
 pronounced by a soul in the face of 
 death, and to that soul s undoing, faith 
 less to his trust. This, in brief, was to 
 him the import of Stephanie s words, 
 spoken with the awful sincerity of 
 death. She had sought power and 
 faith and guidance in him as in one 
 standing in vital relation to God, and 
 she had found weakness and self-seek 
 ing and spiritual confusion. She had 
 seen the desire for power and pre-emi 
 nence and intellectual distinction crowd 
 ing out the devotion to poor and humble 
 souls as those for whom Christ died, 
 which had been the passion of his early 
 ministry. She had seen the crumbling 
 of faith, the weakening of conviction, 
 the subtle admixture of motive. lie 
 saw it now with startling clearness, but 
 so gradually had the change come about 
 that not until this hour had he known 
 
 125
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 what manner of man he had come to 
 he. Now, at last, he saw it, and, in 
 hitterness of spirit, he called himself 
 false to God and men ; false to the 
 faith of his fathers : false to the ideals 
 of his youth. 
 
 Stephen Castle was no coward. That 
 Stephanie might have known all the 
 way along that it had l>een her own 
 voice which won him away from the 
 strength and simplicity of his earlier 
 manhood did not for a moment lessen 
 his sense of responsibility for his own 
 failure, nor the gentleness of his feeling 
 for her. What if the loss of faith and 
 power which she met in him were her 
 own work, and work not all blindly 
 wrought, it would still have been im 
 possible for Stephen to offer this in his 
 own excuse. To captivate, to dazzle, 
 to lead whither she would, was a part 
 of the personality of this woman, whose 
 life had touched his in its most impressi 
 ble years. It had still remained possi 
 ble for his own personality to reject an 
 126
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 influence over-strong, to retain its poise, 
 its freedom. If it had not done this 
 the fault was in the weakness of the 
 man, not in the power of the woman. 
 This he felt keenly. And it had been 
 once in his power to lead Stephanie to 
 the life * which is the light of men," 
 and he, in what seemed to him now un 
 fathomable foil} 7 , had, instead, allowed 
 her to lead him into darkness. Noth 
 ing was left them now but darkness 
 now, when her soul was hovering in the 
 borderland, where death s shadow falls, 
 and his own soul was falling, broken 
 and despairing, upon the thorns of life ! 
 
 Worn out at last, Stephen fell asleep 
 at his desk, an image from the inferno 
 vaguely haunting his uneasy sleep, of 
 two troubled spirits flitting, wailing 
 and homeless, through an endless dark 
 ness. 
 
 On the following Sunday in the 
 Church of All Good Spirits many per 
 sons in the congregation observed the 
 extreme pallor of the young pastor as 
 
 127
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 lie stood before them in the pulpit, 
 and the very unusual languor of his 
 manner. There were some who at 
 tributed these manifestations of suffer 
 ing to the critical condition of Stephanie 
 Loring, who was still lying, apparently, 
 at the gates of death. There were 
 none who divined the darkness, deeper 
 than any which the shadow of death 
 could bring, in which his soul was 
 wrapped that day. The subdued splen 
 dor of the stately building, its impres 
 sive architecture, the richness of its 
 wood-carving and stained glass, the 
 noiseless footsteps of the worshippers 
 as they trod the thick carpets of the 
 aisles, their graceful and well-bred de 
 votions, the very flattery in their faces 
 as they looked at himself all these 
 things, in which before he had found 
 high satisfaction, oppressed him un 
 speakably to-day. 
 
 Even the deep tones of the organ 
 jarred upon him, and when the quar 
 tette, which was the pride of All Good 
 128
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 Spirits and the envy of all other 
 churches of its order, produced a classic 
 selection with marvellously artistic per 
 fection, he longed to break the spell 
 bound attention of the people with the 
 rude discords of which his own soul 
 was full. 
 
 Stephen had taken, almost at ran 
 dom, an old sermon that morning. He 
 had hardly read it through. Not until 
 he announced it did he recognize the 
 bitter irony of the text : Ye are the 
 salt of the earth, but if the salt hath 
 lost its savor, wherewith shall it be 
 salted?" 
 
 129
 
 CIIAPTEK XI 
 
 What filmy strands 
 Are these that turn to iron bands ? 
 "What knot is this so firmly tied 
 That naught but fate can now divide ? 
 Ah ! these are things one understands 
 But once or twice. 
 
 AUSTIN DOBSOX. 
 
 " STEPHANIE will recover !" This 
 sentence was ringing through Stephen 
 Castle s brain like bells of joy as lie 
 walked up and down his study, his hag 
 gard face illuminated again with some 
 thing of the hope and courage which 
 had been absent from it for so many 
 days. ]\fr. Loring had just left him, 
 having rushed in, almost wild with ex 
 citement and the reaction after long 
 suspense, to tell him that the doctors 
 pronounced that the force of Stephanie s 
 disease had spent itself, and that, con- 
 130
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 trary to all their expectation, her 
 strength had endured the terrible strain, 
 and there was reason to hope that she 
 would recover. 
 
 " They say they never saw such 
 elasticity, such rebound, such a superb 
 organization." This Mr. Loring had 
 said to Stephen, unaware himself that 
 tears were running down his cheeks, 
 and he hurried away to give an hour 
 or t\vo to the business interests which 
 for the last few weeks he had utterly 
 ignored. 
 
 " Stephanie will recover !" All that 
 this meant to Stephen himself he did 
 not, he could not consider. His beauti 
 ful, peerless friend was given back to 
 life, to the air, to the sun, to freedom, 
 and to joy ! The wonderful radiance 
 of her smile was not to be quenched ; 
 her beauty and grace and charm were 
 not to be given to the embrace of 
 death. Life, which had seemed of late 
 so bare and joyless, now looked bright 
 again, and Stephen felt all his pulses 
 
 131
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 run full and fast. And yet there was 
 a swift perception which clouded his 
 brow and steadied him in the joyful 
 tumult of the moment. Xow. with life 
 and strength coming back, and the or 
 dinary considerations of convention as 
 serting themselves, how would a proud 
 woman like Stephanie feel in remem 
 bering the revelation of her love which 
 she had made to him, Stephen Castle, 
 when she supposed herself to be near 
 the gate of death ? He felt himself 
 grow hot and cold for her, knowing by 
 intuitive sympathy what she would suf 
 fer, and how she would shrink from the 
 recollection which he felt sure would 
 haunt her day and night, even in this 
 time of restoration. 
 
 Hardly had this perception made 
 itself clear to his consciousness when 
 Stephen s mind leaped to a solution of 
 the difficulty the only natural and ade 
 quate solution, he instantly felt. One 
 thing only could reconcile Stephanie to 
 the thought of her confession to him, 
 132
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 but that one thing was sufficient. It 
 was that he should ask her to be his. 
 wife. A man of a different mental and 
 moral organization would have taken a 
 day to reflect and decide upon a step 
 like this. A cautious man would have 
 seen serious considerations against it, 
 which must be carefully weighed, for 
 in the past week Stephen had gradually 
 reached the point of believing that the 
 only way back to his integrity as a 
 minister of Christ lay in a complete 
 break from his present surroundings. 
 But all this was impossible to Stephen. 
 Xo consideration of self, however just 
 at other times, could hold against the 
 instinct of a chivalrous nature in a crisis 
 like this. Stephanie s happiness was 
 clouded, her recovery perhaps retarded 
 by a humiliation from which it was in his 
 power to save her. lie hesitated no more 
 to throw himself into the breach than a 
 knight of King Arthur s time would have 
 stopped to consider his own safety when 
 called upon to do battle for a fair lady. 
 133
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 Within an hour of Mr. Loring s call 
 a note was on its way to Stephanie, in 
 which Stephen Castle said : 
 
 " Will you forgive me that I do not 
 wait, as I ought, until you are stronger, 
 but that now in my great joy that God 
 is giving you back to us, I dare to ask 
 that to me, more than to all others, 
 you may be given ? 
 
 " I know, in some faint degree, I 
 think, ho\v surpassingly great is the 
 favor I ask. I know, too, ho\v un 
 worthy I am to ask it, but all that f 
 am or can be is yours, if you will take 
 it. Do not try to write or to see me 
 until you are quite strong. I can be 
 patient now. ; 
 
 A day or two passed. There was a 
 great storm at sea, with awful ship 
 wreck and disaster. Stephen, restless 
 and unable to force himself into any of 
 his wonted occupations, left the city 
 and went out to a little settlement on 
 an exposed point of the Long Island 
 coast, to watch the effects of the storm, 
 134
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 and to fight, with the men of the life- 
 saving station, for the lives of ship 
 wrecked sailors, who might be washed 
 ashore at that point. 
 
 He found something of relief in the 
 struggle of the elements ; his own per 
 sonal conflicts were lost for the time, 
 and he seemed to come into touch with 
 the majestic powers of nature, which 
 even in their most terrible manifesta 
 tions can quiet the fever and passion of 
 the human heart. 
 
 Returning late at night to his apart 
 ment, he found in a pile of letters wait 
 ing for him, not the one he half expect 
 ed from Stephanie, but one from Emily 
 Merle, asking him when he came to 
 Thornton to bring her a certain book 
 which she had sent for in vain to dif 
 ferent booksellers. 
 
 Stephen started to his feet in conster 
 nation. Thornton ! To be sure, he 
 was under engagement to go to Thorn 
 ton the fifth of June to attend Waldo s 
 ordination. The experiences and ex- 
 
 133
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 citements of the last six weeks had en 
 tirely driven the matter from his mind, 
 and now it was the fourth of June. 
 His ordination sermon had not even 
 been thought of, the arrangements for 
 his absence were not made, and yet lie 
 must start at seven o clock the next 
 morning ; even then it was doubtful 
 whether he could reach Thornton, 
 which was not on the main line of rail 
 road, the same night. 
 
 Stephen turned the leaves of his cal 
 endar. Yes, there was no room for 
 doubt in the matter ; he had written 
 " Thornton" across the spaces occupied 
 by the next three days. When he had 
 written it the time had seemed far 
 away. How distinctly it all came back 
 to him now ! It was the night at Mrs. 
 Petersham s, the night he had last seen 
 Stephanie Loring in health, the evening 
 he had heard of Aunt Eliza s death. 
 There was no time now to be spent in 
 meditation. lie must make ready for 
 his journey. Fortunately the book 
 136
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 which Emily wanted was in his own 
 library. It went first into his gripsack, 
 which he at once proceeded to pack, 
 throwing in another book or two to 
 help him in working up his sermon, 
 which he must prepare on the cars. 
 Then he wrote half a dozen hasty notes, 
 arranging for different appointments 
 to be met during his absence ; among 
 them was one to Lloyd Petersham, ask 
 ing him to explain his sudden departure 
 fully to the Lorings, and to attend to 
 the immediate forwarding of any letters 
 which might come to him the next day. 
 Having done all these things, Stephen 
 ordered his breakfast for six o clock, 
 and lay down for a few hours of sleep. 
 At eight o clock the next evening a 
 train, evidently impatient at the neces 
 sity, slowed up for half a minute at a 
 little station in a cut between two 
 grassy hills, and having deposited a soli 
 tary passenger steamed on again, as if 
 eager to reach a point of greater conse 
 quence. The man who alighted, grip- 
 
 137
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 sack in hand, at the station under the 
 hill, \vas Stephen Castle, and, half a 
 mile vo the west, the spire which rose 
 against the pale yellow sky, where the 
 sunset fires were burning out, was the 
 spire of the Thornton church. 
 
 There was no one there to meet him, 
 no one at the station but the man who 
 had it in charge, and this was what he 
 hoped for and what he expected. Be 
 fore he left Xew York in the morning, 
 he had telegraphed to Thornton that, 
 the connections being uncertain, he 
 would spend the night at AVinchester. 
 He did this knowing that he could join 
 the little party of professors from the 
 Divinity School there who would doubt 
 less attend Waldo s ordination, and 
 with them reach Thornton in time for 
 the morning session of the Council. 
 However, in the course of the day he 
 had found that he could, after all, by 
 availing himself of another road, reach 
 Thornton in the evening. The longing 
 to see the place was growing strong 
 138
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 within him, and to see it in its normal 
 quiet, before the influx of visitors to 
 the ordination had transformed it. He 
 knew that some one would give him a 
 bed, and so he came on, without stop 
 ping at Winchester. 
 
 Leaving his gripsack with the station- 
 master, who recognized him and re 
 ceived him with manifest but silent en 
 thusiasm, Stephen ran up the long flight 
 of steps to the crest of the hill, and 
 struck out on the road which ran be 
 tween clover-fields up to the village. 
 It was twilight, and the grassy path by 
 the roadside, along which he walked, 
 was wet with dew. The white farm 
 houses, each with its company of barns, 
 red or ochre or unpainted gray, lay in 
 unbroken silence, with broad meadows 
 and orchards between. The air was 
 pure as crystal, and sweet with the 
 breath of many blossoms. How still it 
 was ! His own footsteps were the only 
 sound except the ripple of the brook as 
 it ran beside the road and under the 
 139
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 old bridge. The clear water broke in 
 shallow cascades over the red-brown 
 stones, just as it used in the sweet old 
 time when he was wont to come there 
 Saturday afternoons for the rest and 
 cooling of its music. And the man, the 
 boy rather, eager and free-hearted, 
 who used to linger there was himself, 
 Stephen Castle, who no\v stood on the 
 little bridge, with care and pain and a 
 bitter sense of failure ever with him. 
 Of course there came the longing to 
 
 o o 
 
 break a way from his present conditions 
 and take refuge in a haven of peace 
 like this, but as inevitable was the rec 
 ognition that this was impossible as 
 well as useless. The time for peace 
 and repose in his life was over, until 
 old age should bring it back perchance ; 
 he was in the years of conflict now, and 
 must endure hardness as a soldier. 
 
 Stephen left the bridge and passed on 
 
 by the familiar path, lie had reached 
 
 a farmhouse now where he had always 
 
 been a Avelcome guest. lie noticed 
 
 140
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 with a smile of pleasure, as he passed 
 the hay-fields, that the crop was large 
 and fine. The old satisfaction which 
 he used to share with the Thornton 
 people in " a good year came back to 
 him. ]STo one was in sight about the 
 house. He was glad and sorry, too. 
 He was not quite ready yet to meet his 
 Thornton friends, and yet he longed 
 for such an old-fashioned grasp of the 
 hand as he knew was ready for him. 
 Up the hill now and past the parson 
 age, but the dusk was deepening, and 
 the house could hardly be seen among 
 its vines and bushes of lilac and syringa. 
 There was a light in the middle room. 
 Stephen supposed "Waldo was there. 
 He wondered if he were to be married, 
 or whether he would live with a sister 
 or with his mother, as he had done. 
 The fragrance of the locust blossoms, 
 high in the dark above his head, came 
 to him with the mysterious power over 
 memory which odors possess. All his 
 life in the little parsonage, his mother 
 141
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 and her love and devotion, came before 
 him with overmastering power, and his 
 tears flowed unchecked. lie leaned for 
 a moment on the parsonage gate. lie 
 had thus far met not a single person, 
 but a boy was coming down the gravel 
 walk, from the direction of the post- 
 office, now, and Stephen stood aside to 
 let him pass. 
 
 lie was not ready yet to go into the 
 parsonage and find AYaldo and explain 
 his presence in Thornton to-night. lie 
 would rather walk on. A few steps 
 more and he saw a faint light shining 
 through the windows at the farther end 
 of the church. Perhaps he could slip 
 in unobserved and have a few moments 
 alone in the stillness there to calm and 
 collect himself. The door was closed, 
 but opened readily when he tried it, 
 and he found no one in the narrow ves 
 tibule, which was militated. lie knew 
 
 / o 
 
 his way well, and in a moment had 
 
 climbed the steep stairs to the choir 
 
 gallery, the door of which he cautiously 
 
 142
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 opened. The church was dark except 
 for one lamp on the communion-table, 
 at the opposite end. Unseen, he en 
 tered the gallery and sat down in the 
 shadow of the organ. 
 
 At first he thought there might be no 
 one in the building but himself, but an 
 instant later he perceived that a wom 
 an s form was bending over some jars 
 of flowers near the pulpit, and sud 
 denly, as she lifted her head, and the 
 light of the lamp struck upward on her 
 face, he recognized Emily Merle. His 
 heart gave a great leap of joy, and a 
 strange warmth and comfort and re 
 lease from pain seemed to flow through 
 his consciousness. "What power of heal 
 ing and uplift lay in a womanhood so 
 strong and steadfast, in a nature which 
 had never spent itself on the semblances 
 of life, but had had to do with its 
 truths ! Like a cooling draught in his 
 fever and pain, Stephen felt the girl s 
 presence. "What would have befallen 
 her in " the great world, " as they called 
 143
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 it the world in which he had lost his 
 path and his purpose full soon ? "Was 
 it only the accident of environment 
 which had made Emily Merle what she 
 was ? Xo, Stephen made answer to 
 himself ; the high integrity of her spir 
 itual life would have stood the proof, 
 as his, too, might have done, for the 
 stern word of the great moralist came 
 Lack to him in the silence : "It always 
 remains true that if we had been great 
 er, circumstances would have been less 
 strong against us." 
 
 She was busy with flowers and ferns, 
 and moved about quietly, but with evi 
 dent absorption in her work, sometimes 
 stepping back a few paces to note the 
 effect, then returning to lift a vine or 
 turn a flower with dainty touch. All 
 her attitudes were unconsciously grace 
 ful, and there was a sweet seriousness 
 in her face and a womanly dignity in 
 her bearing which Stephen had never 
 recognized as he did now. 
 
 He heard a door below him swing 
 144
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 after a moment, and Emily s voice 
 called : 
 
 " Did YOU find them?" 
 
 " Yes, there were plenty, and very 
 good ones." The two voices reverber 
 ated strangely through the empty church. 
 
 A young girl now came into the cir 
 cle of light around the pulpit, and Ste 
 phen saw that her hands were full of 
 tall ferns, which she gave to Emily. 
 
 Five, ten minutes passed as if in a 
 dream to Stephen alone in his shadowed 
 place, and memories of his youthful 
 ministry clustered close about him. 
 The dark church, with its one little cir 
 cle of light, which seemed strangely far 
 away, the grotesque shadows cast by 
 the single lamp, the quiet voices and 
 movements of the two girls as they 
 handled the ferns, whose shadows were 
 like trees as they flitted across the 
 walls, all made up an impression of un 
 reality, and he ceased to know or care 
 where he was or why he was there. 
 Presently he heard a voice say : 
 145
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 I wonder if he will he the same." 
 
 It was Emily Merle s voice which an 
 swered : 
 
 " Xo, he is not the same." 
 
 * Do you mean that lie has grown 
 proud and will look down upon people 
 like us?" the voice asked again. 
 
 " Xo, not that : he could never be 
 like that. His heart is as true as steel. 
 You will find him kinder than ever, 
 and interested in us as he used to be. 
 But, after all. it is different." There 
 was a little silence, and then Emily 
 Merle added : 
 
 " He does not belong to us any more, 
 you see, and he never can again." 
 
 Stephen \vas awake now and alive to 
 the fact that it was he of whom they 
 were speaking. "Was it the distance, 
 or was he right in thinking that there 
 was a pathetic note in Emily s voice, 
 an undertone of sadness ? An impulse 
 he could hardly control swept over him 
 to go to her that moment and look into 
 her face and tell her that lie did belong 
 146
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 to her, and to her only. He knew it 
 now and understood what had kept 
 him all these years from other love. 
 Then, even as he had risen impulsively 
 and stood in the dark shadows of the 
 gallery, as if doubting what to do, a 
 sudden recollection came to him, and 
 noiselessly as he had entered it he left 
 the church and came out alone into the 
 summer night. 
 
 He had until that moment forgotten 
 Stephanie, 
 
 147
 
 CHAPTEE XII 
 
 The world s infectious ; few bring back at eve, 
 Immaculate, the manners of the morn. 
 Something we thought, is blotted ; we resolved, 
 Is shaken ; we renounced, returns again. 
 
 YOUNG. 
 
 " YES, Waldo, you will find them a 
 loyal, united people, unless they have 
 greatly changed in the years since I left 
 here a good people to work with, and 
 Thornton is a good place if you want 
 to study." 
 
 It was Stephen Castle speaking. He 
 and Waldo were sitting at a bare, round 
 table on which stood a small lamp in 
 the midst of a variety of miscellaneous 
 articles. They were in the sitting- 
 room of the Thornton parsonage, which 
 was a scene of the complete confusion 
 incident to the early stage of settling a 
 148
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 new home. In the little room which 
 had formerly been Stephen s study 
 there stood an old-fashioned sofa of 
 liberal size, on which he was to sleep, 
 while Waldo would make a bed for 
 himself on the parlor floor. Stephen 
 had been in the house for half an hour, 
 and it had taken nearly all that time 
 to reconcile with Waldo s overflowing 
 hospitality his objections to letting so 
 distinguished a guest share such poor 
 accommodations as were just now at 
 his disposal. He had proposed to take 
 Stephen to the farmhouse where he was 
 expected to stay the following night, 
 but Stephen begged so earnestly for the 
 favor of sleeping one night under the 
 parsonage roof that Waldo yielded, al 
 though with many misgivings. They 
 were now spending an hour in discuss 
 ing Thornton and Waldo s prospects in 
 his first field of labor, the younger man 
 listening to Stephen s words as if each 
 one were of profoundest weight. He 
 was a short, slender fellow, Waldo, 
 
 149
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 with straight hlack hair and dark eyes, 
 a thoughtful face, and a way of speak 
 ing which gave an impression of almost 
 intense sincerity. 
 
 " Yes, I know I shall be happy here," 
 he remarked now in response to Ste 
 phen s words. "Nelson, you know, 
 who followed you, had a very good 
 pastorate here. lie is abroad now, 
 studying." 
 
 Yes, I have kept track of his move 
 ments, lie is a good fellow. lie had 
 a family, I believe, did he not?" 
 
 "Yes, a wife and one child. The 
 parsonage has not been used since they 
 left." 
 
 " How is it with you, "Waldo ? Are 
 you going to housekeeping ? These 
 preparations look like it," Stephen re 
 marked pleasantly. 
 
 " Oh, yes," replied the other, smil 
 ing brightly : " my sister is coming next 
 week to take care of me. I have no 
 prospect of anything further than that, 
 Mr. Castle, at present." 
 
 150
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 For a moment Stephen thought of 
 Emily Merle over there in the church 
 at work among the flowers, and a vision 
 of what might be filled him with an al 
 most fierce desire to thwart such a pos 
 sibility ; but he only said, half care 
 lessly : 
 
 " There is plenty of time for all that 
 sort of thing. One thing at a time. 
 A man s ordination is enough of an 
 event for one year." 
 
 "Is it not, indeed?" cried Waldo, 
 an expression of something like awe 
 coming into his face. " This is my last 
 night before it, you know, and I am 
 sure you understand what my feeling 
 must be. It seems so glorious a priv 
 ilege, in one way, to be dedicated to 
 the one single lifework, to belong solely 
 to Christ and to carrying His message ; 
 but then, on the other hand, it is al 
 most appalling to me. The responsi 
 bility seems so enormous, the fear that 
 the consecration may not be complete 
 comes continually. "Were you ever 
 151
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 troubled in such a way, Mr. Castle?" 
 and the young man looked appealingly 
 into Stephen s eyes. 
 
 The latter could only bow his head. 
 
 " I am afraid it is presuming of me 
 to ask such questions of a man like 
 you, who are so far beyond me in every 
 way," Waldo continued diffidently ; 
 I know it must seem weak and cow 
 ardly to you. It is not that I fear that 
 too much is exacted of sacrifice and all 
 that. I think I need not say that I 
 have counted the cost, and have left all 
 to follow Him, as Peter said. I do not 
 even feel this part to be a sacrifice. It 
 does not seem as if death itself for Him 
 would l)e hard," and as he spoke the 
 earnestness of the young face witnessed 
 to his sincerity, and Stephen found it 
 hard to meet his look : " but what I 
 feel is my own un worthiness to enter so 
 high a calling ; the danger that I may 
 bring reproach upon His name, even, 
 and his voice fell and his face clouded, 
 " that I might seek myself in my work, 
 
 152
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 instead of His will and the saving of 
 men." 
 
 Stephen murmured a half-articulate 
 response, for Waldo s words were like 
 a sword piercing his soul. 
 
 Mr. Castle, the young man asked 
 humbly, u you have gone far beyond 
 me in knowledge and experience. I 
 know through the people here how ex 
 alted your spiritual life has always been. 
 May I ask you, because you have won 
 the victory over dangers and tempta 
 tions like these, to pray for me, that I 
 may be saved from them, weak as I 
 know myself to be ?" 
 
 Stephen could not meet a request like 
 this with mere assent. He was honest. 
 Rising from the table, he held out his 
 hand and took that of "Waldo, who saw 
 with surprise the emotion in his face. 
 
 " I will pray for you, my dear fel 
 low, you may be sure. The dangers 
 you speak of are real dangers. I have 
 met them, and the victory has not al 
 ways been mine, as you suppose. Good- 
 153
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 night, I believe I am tired," 1 and lie 
 took the candle which was ready for 
 him and abruptly went to his room. 
 
 "Waldo, left to himself, reflected that 
 this abruptness was, perhaps, a touch 
 of the fjrand selfjncur manner which 
 one must expect in successful men, but 
 of which he had until now seen nothing 
 in Mr. Castle, and himself made ready 
 for the night. 
 
 It was the following evening, and 
 the Thornton church was crowded to 
 the doors. From all the country side 
 the farmers families had driven over 
 to the ordination ceremonies, and even 
 more especially to hear Stephen Castle 
 preach. Tie had been a favorite among 
 church-going people far and wide when 
 he was the young pastor in Thornton; 
 now he had become a noted city preach 
 er, and great was the curiosity to see 
 and hear him. From Pembroke and 
 all the neighboring villages, large num 
 bers of the clergy and more prominent 
 laity had come, and "Winchester had 
 154
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 contributed its delegation of theolo 
 gians, who, with their grave and dig 
 nified presence, had lent impressiveness 
 to the exercises of the day. 
 
 The order of the evening was the for 
 mal consecration of the candidate, 
 young Waldo, to the ministry of Christ, 
 by the laying on of hands. After this 
 ceremony, noble and affecting in its 
 simplicity, Stephen Castle was to 
 preach. 
 
 His whole environment was sur 
 charged with suggestions of his past. 
 Around him sat the venerable profess 
 ors from Winchester, under whose train 
 ing his own preparation for the minis 
 try had been made, and a number of 
 clergymen who had been his friends in 
 the days of his Thornton pastorate, 
 stalwart men with manly faces. At 
 his right, and so near that his hand 
 could have touched him, was Waldo, 
 with the high consecration of the hour 
 visible in his face a face made strange 
 ly beautiful by the man s spirit. In 
 
 153
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 him Stephen seemed to see his own 
 former self, before he had been forced 
 to travel daily farther from the east, : 
 and see the "vision splendid" of his 
 youth " fade into the light of common 
 day. 
 
 Before him, among the solid mass of 
 men and women whose faces were 
 turned expectantly to him, were his old 
 friends, true and tried ; plain, simple- 
 hearted folk who had faithfully loved 
 him, and loved and honored him still, 
 far, he felt, beyond his due. Almost 
 hidden by the bowers of greenery which 
 her hands had fashioned in the spaces 
 at the side of the pulpit, to conceal the 
 bareness of the walls, sat Emily Merle. 
 
 156
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 Though thou loved her as thyself, 
 
 As a self of purer clay, 
 
 Though her parting dims the day, 
 
 Stealing grace from all alive ; 
 
 Heartily know, 
 
 When half-gods go, 
 
 The gods arrive. 
 
 EMERSON. 
 
 As he stood, during the singing of 
 " Coronation," which preceded the ser 
 mon, Stephen had looked at Emily, 
 whom he had hardly been able to speak 
 with all through the day, and in a 
 strange flash of imagination or percep 
 tion, he hardly knew which it might be, 
 the personality of Stephanie Loring 
 came before him, as if the two women 
 stood together in his sight, and in them 
 selves showed forth the two influences 
 which had ruled his life. Both were 
 157
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 beautiful, both corresponded to power 
 ful instincts of his nature, but how 
 widely they differed ! In Stephanie, 
 Stephen saw a full and perfect manifes 
 tation of art in the highest sense, while 
 in Emily was as clear an embodiment 
 of truth. 
 
 "With Stephanie, all the natural re 
 sources of life were means adapted to 
 an end, and that end beauty, harmony, 
 delight a fair end and well attained 
 the proper aim of art. Art was in her 
 face, in her voice, in her conversation, 
 her motions, her dress, her intellectual 
 activities in fine, in all that belonged 
 to her and that surrounded her. And 
 in that expression of harmony and 
 beauty he had found pleasure of a high 
 quality ; but the one thing which he 
 had failed to find was satisfaction. 
 
 In Emily ]\Ierle. Stephen recognized 
 the very opposite type of womanhood. 
 Truth was the vital principle, the rul 
 ing force in her nature and in her life. 
 Xot truth in cold, bare outlines, but 
 158
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 made warm and radiant by a loving, 
 womanly nature, with an endless capac 
 ity for giving itself for others. As cer 
 tain elements in his own nature had 
 leaped to meet the wonderful charm of 
 Stephanie, when he saw her first in his 
 boyish inexperience, so now, but with 
 far greater power, did other and deeper 
 elements rise to the sense of beauty in 
 the character of Emily Merle. But 
 Stephen held himself in hand. The 
 thought of Stephanie was always with 
 him now, and he knew himself to be 
 pledged to her, and no longer free to 
 yield to the influence of another wom 
 an. He could not regret the step 
 which he had taken, it had belonged to 
 the very nature of things, but he saw 
 in the life before him hopeless confu 
 sion. 
 
 Aroused from the condition of intense 
 introspection into which he had fallen, 
 by the cessation of the music and the 
 rustle of garments as the congregation 
 resumed their seats, Stephen came for- 
 159
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 ward, a hush of eager expectancy per 
 vading the house. 
 
 The text which he announced con 
 sisted of but three words : " "VYho emp 
 tied Himself." It was not the text 
 which he had selected the day before 
 on his journey to Thornton, nor the ser 
 mon which he had then elaborated out 
 of philosophical and poetical elements, 
 after his present method of sermon mak 
 ing, and with perhaps more thought for 
 the Doctors of Divinity who would 
 hear him than for the rustic folk of his 
 old church. In the preceding night, 
 after his interview with Waldo, Stephen 
 had found that to preach that sermon 
 had become an impossibility. A pro 
 found desire had taken possession of 
 him to fling aside forever the artificial 
 methods, in which the aesthetic and the 
 literary predominated, and return to 
 the simple preaching of a simple gospel. 
 And to-night he did it. More than to 
 others he was preaching to himself, 
 with searching and deliberate directness. 
 160
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 The country people, who were await 
 ing a brilliant display of rhetoric and 
 dramatic oratory, listened at first with 
 a distinct sense of disappointment. 
 The learned men around him praised 
 him in their hearts for the restraint and 
 simplicity of his speech, realizing the 
 temptation to sacrifice these to the de 
 sire to produce a strong personal im 
 pression. But as Stephen approached 
 the close of his sermon the disappoint 
 ment of the one class and the approval 
 of the other w r ere alike forgotten in the 
 overmastering power of his utterance. 
 Never before had he spoken as he spoke 
 to-night, perhaps never w r ould he again, 
 for this w^as the supreme hour of crisis 
 in his life, the flood-tide of his experi 
 ence. All of the despair, the remorse, 
 and the humiliation which in the past 
 w r eeks he had suffered ; all of the con 
 flict and battle he had waged with the 
 baser elements of his own soul ; all of 
 the profound sorrow with which he 
 mourned his failure, and his sharp con- 
 161
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 demnation of the unconscious selfish 
 ness of his purposes ; all the new aspira 
 tion of his faith and the desire for purer 
 service and a single aim, were fused 
 into the solemn appeal with which he 
 closed. His fine physique seemed to 
 assume a power beyond itself ; his face 
 was illuminated by a spiritual light 
 which made it " as it had been the face 
 of an angel." It was the hour of the 
 return to truth and unity of purpose of 
 a great soul, greatly confused and gone 
 astray. 
 
 Afterward Stephen said that he did not 
 preach that sermon, he experienced it. 
 
 Breathless, the congregation sat for 
 a moment, and then together rose and 
 sang 
 
 " The Son of God goes forth to war 
 A kingly crown to gain." 
 
 The service was over, the excitement 
 of receiving hundreds of eager men and 
 women, who had pressed to the pulpit 
 stairs to touch his hand, had reached 
 its height and subsided, and Stephen
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 stood leaning against a pillar, exhaust 
 ed with the tension of the past hour. 
 A little knot of people still surrounded 
 him, but the church was nearly empty 
 and the hour was late. 
 
 Lina Barry, married now, had 
 brought her sleepy, flaxen-haired boy ; 
 and her mother and a few others lin 
 gered still, among them Mrs. "Wescott. 
 As of old, she had more to say than the 
 others. 
 
 " I ll tell you jest what it is, now. 
 Elder Castle," she began ; " you know 
 I always did have to speak out, and 
 you won t mind me." Here she paused 
 to flash a roguish challenge at Stephen 
 from her black eyes, which, were as 
 bright as ever, in spite of the deep lines 
 which the years had cut around them. 
 
 " ]S"o, I won t mind you," Stephen 
 smiled back languidly. 
 
 ""Well, when you first begun, and 
 
 after you d gone on for quite a piece, 
 
 thinks I, Well, now I don t know I 
 
 guess, after all, Elder Castle don t beat 
 
 163
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 our little minister. He can come up to 
 this. But by and by you got to goin , 
 along there where you brought in about 
 lay in aside every weight, and all that, 
 and I tell you I had to give in then ! 
 I never heard anybody preach in my 
 life like that. You preached me right 
 off the seat !" 
 
 At this moment Emily Merle came up 
 to the little group, and " Lee" paused in 
 her voluble speech. Emily had a letter in 
 her hand, which she held out to Stephen. 
 
 " Some of the men have been up to 
 the post-office," she said quietly, " and 
 this letter has come for you." 
 
 Stephen took the letter in his hand. 
 The envelope was large and square and 
 bore a crest upon the seal. The hand 
 writing of the address was altered by 
 physical weakness, but he knew it to 
 be that of Stephanie. Excusing him 
 self to his friends, he left the church as 
 quickly as he could, but not before Em 
 ily [Merle had seen that he had grown 
 white to the lips. 
 
 164
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 Measure thy life by loss instead of gain ; 
 Not by the wine drunk, but the wine poured forth. 
 UGO BASSI S SERMON. 
 
 " You are noble and knightlike, and 
 I reverence you. My heart thanks you 
 for what you offer, but it is not to be. 
 Your love would be loyal, but it would 
 be cold forever, for it is not possible for 
 a nature like yours to respond fully to 
 mine. 
 
 " Let us be satisfied. It is much to 
 have known each other. 
 
 " I am stronger, and shall sail soon 
 for a Mediterranean port. I may be 
 away a year. "When I return I shall 
 hope to see you again. Till then, 
 
 good-by. 
 
 " STEPHANIE." 
 165
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 This was the letter which Stephen 
 Castle opened and read, when, after re 
 peated delays, he at last gained the 
 seclusion of the best bedroom of the 
 farmhouse where lie was to spend the 
 night. 
 
 His tears fell upon the sheet as he 
 read. She was wise, his beautiful, 
 clear-eyed friend. His heart justified 
 her words, but it ached for the sharp 
 break which they commanded, and for 
 the sense, which can never come to a 
 human heart without pain, that "the 
 old order changeth. 
 
 Stephen read the letter over the sec 
 ond time and the third, and reverently 
 kissed the name "Stephanie" at the 
 close ; then, no less reverently and ten 
 derly, he held the folded sheet in the 
 flame of his candle, until it turned to a 
 film of ashes and crumbled from his 
 fingers into dust. As he watched the 
 paper shrivel and fall Stephen felt, 
 rather than promised, that no human 
 being should ever learn from him this 
 166
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 phase of the relation between himself 
 and Stephanie. They had been good 
 friends, nothing more. 
 
 The next morning he met Emily 
 Merle before the church he was not 
 inclined to hurry away from Thornton 
 as he would have done before receiving 
 Stephanie s letter .and said : 
 
 " There is a walk that you and I 
 must take together, Emily. Let us go 
 now. 
 
 "Where is it? To the Hollow 
 Rocks ? That used to be your favorite 
 walk, I remember," Emily responded. 
 She was looking as bright and radiant 
 as the June morning, as she stood un 
 der the old maple-trees which guarded 
 the church. 
 
 " Yes, you ever-superior young wom 
 an. With your usual discernment, you 
 have dived into the recesses of my being 
 and dragged out its profoundest inten 
 tions," and they walked on through the 
 village street, talking gayly, Emily giv 
 ing an unspoken consent to Stephen s 
 167
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 wish. Her hands were full of flowers, 
 still fresh, from the decorations of the 
 church, which she told him she must 
 take to two or three house-bound old 
 women, who had been unable to share 
 in the great event of yesterday. 
 
 " You are still the guardian angel of 
 the parish, I see. Emily," Stephen said, 
 as he took a basket of roses from her 
 hand. " I will go with you and see 
 the poor old bodies. Perhaps they will 
 still remember me." 
 
 " Remember you ! Why, they talk 
 of you as if you were next of kin to the 
 angels. You cannot understand. Mr. 
 Castle, how our Thornton people adore 
 you. I am sure I don t see why they 
 should," Emily added mischievously. 
 
 You have not forgotten to be dis 
 respectful, I see," laughed Stephen ; 
 and you just now transgressed a plain 
 compact which exists between us when 
 you called me Mr. Castle. Please do 
 not let it occur again, as the professors 
 used to say to us in college after we 
 
 168
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 had committed some undergraduate 
 crime. 
 
 " Very well," replied Emily in her 
 firm, clear-cut fashion of speech, which 
 in its freedom from consciousness Ste 
 phen found peculiarly pleasing. But 
 I started to say that it is so unreason 
 ably hard for these men to follow you 
 here in Thornton. ~No matter how 
 faithful a man may be, or how well he 
 may preach, the people simply say, 
 But he is not Elder Castle ! and the 
 poor man is condemned, as if he want 
 ed to be Elder Castle, or could be if he 
 would !" 
 
 " But AValdo, it is different with 
 him ? I am sure the people have taken 
 him into their hearts, as they ought to. 
 He is a thoroughly fine fellow. Don t 
 you think so, Emily ?" 
 
 Oh, yes, indeed, but still he is not 
 Elder Castle !" and with a bright color 
 in her cheeks Emily looked up archly 
 at Stephen, and they laughed together, 
 the spontaneous laughter of two per- 
 169
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 sons who find perfect content in each 
 other s presence. 
 
 They had reached the first cottage 
 now where Emily s flowers were to be 
 delivered, and so went in together and 
 sat for a few moments in the dull, low- 
 ceiled room , which their presence seem* >< 1 
 almost miraculously to brighten to its 
 pa in- worn inmate. Other calls fol 
 lowed, and the dew was off the grass, 
 and the sun high, and the shade re 
 freshing, when they reached the cool 
 recesses of the glen known as the Hol 
 low Hocks," where the Thornton River 
 pauses in its noisy course to fill a silent 
 pool, shut in by pine-trees and great 
 masses of mossy rock. 
 
 It had been a favorite place with Ste 
 phen when he lived in Thornton, and 
 he threw himself upon the gray old 
 boulder which had been his especial 
 resting-place in those days with a sigh 
 of satisfaction, while Emily found a 
 niche in the rock just above him, where 
 she made herself comfortable. 
 
 170
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 " Do you know, my little friend, I 
 begin to believe that there is something 
 in the Antaeus myth, as there usually is 
 in the fables of those old Greeks ? I 
 am willing to assert that there is posi 
 tive virtue in this contact with the earth, 
 and, by the same token, with primitive 
 forces in other kinds. 
 
 Primitive folks, for instance ! 
 "Yes, primitive folks, too, if you 
 please, like Emily Merle." Then, with 
 a sudden gravity which she found by a 
 glance in his face was not assumed, he 
 continued, half musingly : 
 
 O v 
 
 " Would it surprise you, I wonder, 
 to know how much I have needed a re 
 newal of strength ? Perhaps you did 
 not know that I have been a melan 
 choly failure as pastor of All Good 
 Spirits?" 
 
 " ]STo ! I supposed you had been a 
 brilliant success." 
 
 Ah, Emily, T beg you never to use 
 those words again of me or of any other 
 Christian minister ! They are not ac- 
 
 171
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 cording to your own thought. You 
 have borrowed them from the phraseol 
 ogy which belongs to a special modern 
 misconception of the ministry. To be 
 brilliant, that is, to make yourself felt 
 to your last reserves, and as much more 
 as you can borrow ; to be successful, 
 that is, to have crowds come to hear 
 you and praise you, and dine you and 
 wine you and flatter you, that is the 
 Jin de siecle ideal of success in the min 
 istry of Christ with a large class of 
 church-going people. 
 
 " Oh, but no, Stephen ! I cannot 
 believe that is true." 
 
 Xaturally you cannot, and it is not 
 true of the church at large. God for 
 bid that I should say it was ! I only 
 tell you what I know to be true in cer 
 tain circles, and I know of what I speak 
 only too well. The result is the man 
 becomes at heart an egoist. Either 
 this, or he is very great, greater than 
 I can ever be," and Emily saw with 
 keen sympathy the unfeigned sadness 
 
 172
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 and humility in Stephen s face. She 
 could not reply, and he went on : 
 
 "The old word of Paul, M deter 
 mined to know nothing among you 
 save Jesus Christ and Him crucified, 
 is translated sometimes in the church 
 of to-day as the motto for its leader, 
 I determined to know everything 
 among you save Jesus Christ and Him 
 crucified. Everything art, fashion, 
 society, music, the drama, the latest 
 literature of all nations, philosophy, 
 poetry, economics, politics, all these 
 and all else that goes to make up the 
 life of the world he must know arid 
 use." 
 
 " Did you comprehend this in the be 
 ginning of your pastorate of All Good 
 Spirits?" 
 
 " In part ; and I went in to win. I 
 felt myself strong, and even longed, in 
 a way, to try my strength. My 
 thought was to make the church over, 
 to purify and exalt it. 
 
 " But you found it impossible ?" 
 173
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 ; For a man of my temperament, 
 hopelessly so. It was I who was made 
 over, Emily, until I became altogether 
 such as the rest. Practically our 
 church life was an elevated form of 
 club life, in which the moral and intel 
 lectual and ;esthetic lines were cultiva 
 ted, and the members were held to 
 gether by a kind of social cohesion, 
 awfully unlike the sweet old notion of 
 fellowship in Christ." 
 
 " But, Stephen, you must have gained 
 something from this experience. The 
 time cannot have been all lost, nor the 
 effort." 
 
 " That is true. In certain ways I 
 have gained much. I have learned, 
 what I should never have learned else 
 where, to have sympathy for the pecu 
 liar temptations and characteristics of 
 the fashionable and aristocratic class 
 which belongs to our modern civiliza 
 tion just as it has to every other. Per 
 haps it is in the Divine economy 
 that this leisure class should exist, if 
 
 174
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 for nothing else, to furnish employment 
 for the strata below it by the multitude 
 of its artificial needs. 
 
 But there are lovely people among 
 them, people like Miss Loring, for in 
 stance. 
 
 " Yes, I have found many unselfish 
 and noble spirits in my church, as far 
 as their personal qualities are con 
 cerned, persons of exquisite fibre. But, 
 after all, it is hot-house life. They are 
 like exotics. Their development is not 
 along natural lines. Their needs are 
 artificial, their outlook upon life and 
 its demands is utterly unreal. They 
 see it all as through a colored light. 
 Almost unconsciously they come to feel 
 that the world exists for them, not they 
 for the world and its needs, according 
 to the Christian theory. 
 
 And perhaps they are no more to 
 blame than others are for their especial 
 misconceptions. 
 
 " That is just. There are many 
 ways in which I have learned of my 
 175
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 people what has greatly enriched my 
 life. "We must admit, Emily, that 
 what were in some sort the crowning 
 virtues of our fathers are no longer ac 
 cording to the all-powerful spirit of the 
 age the rigid austerity, the merciless 
 intensity of conviction, and the intoler 
 ance which it produced ! I shall never 
 be again the man who used to preach 
 in the church yonder, nor do I wish to 
 be. I am glad for the experiences 
 which have softened my nature and 
 broadened my charity. ]\Iy poor mo 
 ther could not go through with the 
 process of transition ; it simply was fa 
 tal to her, but the change was inevita 
 ble. The Puritan mould, intact as it 
 has been kept in our line, is broken in 
 me, nor do I deplore it, except as a 
 matter of sentiment. The men of the 
 last century did their work well. An 
 other type of men is needed now to do 
 the work of the world, of extensive 
 rather than intensive moral quality, 
 with wider sympathies and with a faith 
 176
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 built upon the universal human needs, 
 not upon the conception of an individ 
 ual or a class. 
 
 I have felt this, even here. 
 
 11 Of course you have, because you 
 think for yourself, and are ready to see 
 the truth, even if it declares war upon 
 our old traditions. However, we have 
 reached a point now where I can tell 
 you that I am on the point of preparing 
 my resignation as pastor of All Good 
 Spirits." 
 
 " It does not greatly surprise me 
 now, although it seems sudden." 
 
 " It is less so than it seems. It must 
 have come, but certain things have pre 
 cipitated it ; that young pastor of yours 
 helped, with that pure face of his, and 
 the questions he had to ask me the other 
 night. Of course I could go back and 
 try it over, but I see how it would re 
 sult. The side of my nature to which 
 the spirit of my present church appeals 
 is too strong to play with. I do not 
 trust myself. There is just one work 
 
 177
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 which I believe I dare to try to do, 
 which I believe God means to give me, 
 if I am not unworthy to continue in 
 His service." 
 
 " And tell me what it is, this work.- 
 " It is in lower Xew York, Emily ; 
 but you do not know what that means. 
 You read of the submerged tenth, 
 and you see a few poor folks here in 
 Thornton with all the sweet air and 
 sunshine in the world to live in, and 
 you try to imagine what the poverty in 
 great cities is, but you cannot. It 
 means all that is coarse and low and re 
 pulsive ; evil which flaunts, not hides 
 itself. But that is the life into which, 
 by the grace of God, I intend to go, 
 and in which I shall remain. I worked 
 the problem out last night. It took all 
 night to do it, because I knew what it 
 meant, you see, and I do not love 
 vice and dirt and the sight of suffer 
 ing." 
 
 "It is not well to sacrifice for the 
 sake of sacrificing, Stephen." Emily 
 178
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 said this with luminous eyes, looking 
 unafraid into his. 
 
 You have put your finger on a 
 point of danger, my dear girl, but I be 
 lieve I have not made that mistake. 
 No, I am not seeking to atone for the 
 years in which, as Newman says, pride 
 ruled my will. There is nothing of 
 the ascetic in my nature. It is this 
 way : All the years that I have been in 
 All Good Spirits I have wondered what 
 the Lord was going to do about All 
 Demons, so to say. I could not help 
 knowing the conditions down there, 
 physical and moral, and at intervals I 
 would be forced to ask myself why it 
 might not be my duty to throw myself 
 into that same work. Plainly the need 
 was crying. However, I always es 
 caped the question in one way or an 
 other. Now I have decided that it is 
 the work for me to do. 
 
 But has the work a definite shape ? 
 Have you some practical line on which 
 to work?" 
 
 179
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 " Yes. There is a poor little half- 
 deserted chapel down in Worth Street, 
 which I know of, where a spas 
 modic kind of work has been done. 
 I have some money myself, and 
 I can command more. I know I 
 can get the chapel, and I know I 
 can get decent rooms close by the 
 hardest neighborhood in that region, 
 where I can live. Is that sufficiently 
 definite? and Stephen, who had 
 risen and was helping Emily down 
 from her seat, looked fondly into her 
 face. 
 
 "Yes, I think that will do." she 
 said. 
 
 " Does it sound very hard to you ? 
 lie asked, as they pushed their way out 
 through interlacing branches to the 
 road. 
 
 " Xot too hard/ was the reply. 
 
 He stopped her a moment at the 
 wood s edge, and taking her hands said 
 simply : 
 
 " If God lets me do this work, and 
 180
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 some day I come back to ask you, do 
 you think you could do it too ?" 
 
 " I believe I could," Emily answered 
 with sweet gravity, and they walked 
 back toward the village, not as they 
 had come, but silently. 
 
 181
 
 CHAPTEE XV 
 
 All truly consecrated men learn little by little 
 that what they are consecrated to is not joy or sor 
 row, but a divine idea and a profound obedience, 
 which can find their full outward expression, not 
 in joy and not in sorrow, but in the mysterious 
 and inseparable mingling of the two. 
 
 PHILLIPS BROOKS. 
 
 Ox a midwinter Sunday night, a year 
 and a half after that June day in Thorn 
 ton, Stephen Castle is preaching to a 
 motley crowd in the little down-town 
 chapel of which we heard him speak. 
 The atmosphere of the room is neither 
 pure nor fragrant. The floors are 
 bare, the pews plain benches, and the 
 speaker stands upon a small platform 
 destitute of a pulpit. Many of the faces 
 before him are hard. In the corner by 
 the right of the platform a choir of a 
 182
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 dozen girls is gathered around a cahinet 
 organ. These girls have an air of in 
 telligent self-possession, which shows 
 that some refining influence has been at 
 work among them, nor is this influence 
 far to seek. Among them, as their 
 leader, with the pure brow and clear 
 eves we remember, sits the wife of Ste 
 phen Castle, Emily, his joy and crown 
 of life, and his spirited co-worker. 
 
 While a hymn is being sung before 
 the sermon the door opens, and a lady, 
 attended by a maid, enters the chapel. 
 Stephen Castle does not see the stranger 
 as she enters, but she is seen and recog 
 nized by one person in the room. There 
 is but one woman whom Emily Castle 
 has ever seen whose form and move 
 ments have the peculiar grace which 
 marks the newcomer, and although she 
 cannot distinctly see her face beneath 
 its veil, she knows it to be her hus 
 band s old friend, Stephanie Loring, 
 now the wife of Lloyd Petersham. She 
 has been married while abroad, and 
 
 183
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 Emily has heard of her recent return to 
 Xew York, but neither she nor Stephen 
 has met her. 
 
 Stepping forward, at the close of the 
 hymn, to the edge of the platform, 
 Stephen, with a small Testament in his 
 hand, reads a few verses from the Ser 
 mon on the Mount. Hardly has he 
 read the verses when his eye, accus 
 tomed now to the rough-hewn type of 
 feature of his chapel hearers, notes 
 that other face, and he knows that after 
 many months he is again face to face 
 
 v O 
 
 with Stephanie. A ray of uncontrolla 
 ble joy in the recognition crosses his 
 face, but as he goes on to interpret the 
 passage chosen, it is plain that he is 
 neither stimulated nor troubled by her 
 presence ; in fact, it is for the time for 
 gotten, with every other personal con 
 sideration. There is no disorder nor 
 inattention in the room. Every eye is 
 riveted upon the face of the preacher, 
 and the love, which in so unusual a de 
 gree had been his both among the sina- 
 184
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 pie folk in Thornton and the cultured 
 people in the Church of All Good Spir 
 its, is seen in the unwonted gentleness 
 which softens the faces of his hearers. 
 
 This experiment has not failed. The 
 highest gifts are not too high for use in 
 uplifting the lowliest, and all the grace 
 and power and energy of Stephen Cas 
 tle s nature are at work here among the 
 degraded and outcast, and are rewarded. 
 
 At the close of the service he and 
 Stephanie meet, with a warm clasp of 
 the hand. Then there are a few cor 
 dial inquiries concerning the events and 
 changes which the time of Stephanie s 
 absence has brought, her recovery, her 
 marriage and his, and many other 
 things. Emily joins them, and the 
 women meet with unaffected kindness. 
 It is not until then that Stephen realizes 
 how greatly Stephanie has changed. 
 
 The lights in the chapel are extin 
 guished, and the three come out to 
 gether into the frosty street, where a 
 carriage is waiting. For a moment 
 
 185
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 Stephanie pauses on the threshold, and 
 Stephen remains beside her. 
 
 He has a word for her alone. 
 
 You will let me say, will YOU not, 
 how glad I was to know of your mar 
 riage ? Petersham is the noblest fel 
 low ! Stephen speaks low and ear 
 nestly. 
 
 Yes, we care for each other very 
 truly. I am satisfied, and I believe he 
 is. Is not that enough ? You will 
 come to the house, I hope, and bring 
 your wife. She is a beautiful woman. 
 
 " It was kind of you to seek us out 
 away down here. I thank you for 
 coming. 
 
 "I wanted to see for myself," she 
 says. " I thought you were mistaken 
 in this hard, hard thing you have done, 
 but I find I was the one mistaken. 
 You have done well. 
 
 * It is much to me to have you say 
 this." Stephen speaks as one deeply 
 moved. 
 
 "Yes, I know. It must be so. 
 186
 
 A Minister of the World 
 
 Once I hurt you. I was cruel, but you 
 forgave me. All that I said then I can 
 unsay now. When I heard you preach 
 to-night I believed in you and in the 
 Christ you preached. Good-night." 
 
 Having thus spoken, Stephanie enters 
 her carriage ; Stephen joins Emily, 
 and in the darkness of the night they 
 go their different ways. 
 
 187
 
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