Gathering Opposition

As I have said before, Deacon Gramps sat on his plow handles at the close of an August day. He fairly rejoiced when he saw Deacon Brown and Deacon Jones coming toward him.

“Good evening, Brother Gramps,” shouted Jones and Brown simultaneously.

“Good evening, my good brethering,” responded Gramps, “I am so glad to see you. I have a great burden on my mind and I was just planning to go to your house, Brother Brown, as soon as I had unharnessed my team and eaten supper.”

Brown and Jones looked at Gramps with an expectant gaze, and continued silent. Gramps went on, “It’s high time we was doin’ somethin’ to protect our church. I have been a deacon in this church fer many a year, but to my mind this is the most dangerous time Mount Olivet has ever seen.”

Brown and Jones nodded a candid assent to what was being said. Gramps continued, “For many years our church has been the strongest church in this county, and everybody has counted it an honor to belong to this church, but you know, brethering, ever since our pastor died last spring and we have been without a pastor, we have been gettin’ weaker and weaker. And since old Jake Benton has gone crazy over this new religion of hisen he is trien to get everybody else to go crazy. You brethering knows how I sent him down in the hills this summer to mind cattle. Well he seemed to kinder git overbalanced in his mind down there and he’s found a new religion. You know how he testified in meetin’ tother night. He said he was saved from sin and he said he was sanctified, and whole lot of other stuff like that. And I believe he said, didn’t he, that he was just as good as Jesus Christ and gettin’ better ever’ day, or something like that.”

“Yes, something like that,” added Brown.

“Yes,” said Jones, “I was there myself and heard him. I have always thought Jake Benton was a pretty good man; but when a feller gets so good as all that, then he’s too good for this world. You know the Bible says there’s nobody good but God.”

“Yes, I’ve heard the best preachers that was ever pastor of Mount Olivet Church and they all say we sin a thousand times every day,” remarked Gramps.

Jones spoke next: “I knew a bunch of them holiness people back in South Caroliner where I come from. They was the most outrageous bunch of people I ever saw. Why, they claimed that they couldn’t sin, and that they was just as good as Jesus Christ, and that nobody would get to heaven but them. I’ll tell you, brethering, we must not let them get the start here. If they do, Mount Olivet Church is ruined. They tear down churches just as fast as they come to ’em. Old Jake Benton ought to be run out of the country or else sent to the asylum. He ain’t fit to run at large. Why, he told Aunt Sally Perkins that he was wholly sanctified and that his heart was just as pure as that of his little baby that died years ago when Jake lived over on Persimmon Ridge. He talks a whole lot now about goin’ to meet his baby and his mother and he seems to get so happy every time he talks about it.” Jones’s voice trembled slightly as he went on to say, “But, brethering, it makes me feel most wonderfully queer when I hear Jake talk about meetin’ his little girl. He seems to have no doubt at all about meetin’ her, and say, you remember my little boy died the same fall as Jake’s little girl, and to tell the truth I’m just a little fearful at times about bein’ ready to meet little George.”

Deacon Gramps listened to all of this from Jones rather restlessly. He spoke next with great gravity. “Brethering, since I am president of this Board of Deacons I feel it my duty to take steps to see that this new religion is stopped and that Mount Olivet Church is not torn to pieces. As I said, I have been deacon here for many years and I have never seen the church so in danger. Something must be done. I’ll tell you what we need, we need a preacher—one of our very best ones to come here and fight this devilish holiness stuff.”

“That’s what we need, we must wipe holiness out,” responded Brown, as he let go a sluice of tobacco juice.

Gramps continued, “Just today I had a letter from a cousin of mine back in Kentucky. He says they have a wonderful preacher back there by the name of Preacher Bonds. He says this Preacher Bonds feels a special call to fight holiness. I tell you, brethering, if we could get him here we would make it hot for old Benton and his bunch.”

“We would that,” Jones chimed in.

“Brother Gramps, why don’t you write and ask Preacher Bonds to come?” suggested Brown. “Although the other two members of the Board are not here, I think we just as well go ahead.”

“Better bring it before the church,” said Gramps, “because we’ve got to raise some money to get him.”

Brown and Jones both agreed that Gramps was right in this respect. With the understanding that Deacon Gramps was to call a meeting of the church at the earliest possible date, the three men separated.

Gramps spent the entire following day riding about the community, giving every member of Mount Olivet a personal notification that a special meeting of the church would be held on the following Wednesday evening for the purpose of considering grave problems concerning the church. Wednesday evening came; practically the whole church responded. When the appointed hour arrived, Gramps was on the spot. On every face was written expectancy. Deacon Gramps presided of course. He arose from his seat, flung his quid of tobacco out of the window, squared himself against the pulpit, adjusted his eyeglasses near the point of his nose, and looking over them he addressed the assembly thus: “My brethering and sistern, we have met as members of the grand old Mount Olivet Church. Here in this church our fathers met. Here in this church our mothers met. Here in this church our grandfathers met. Here in this church our grandmothers met. Here in this church, my brethering, we have met. And let me say to you, my dear people, that we have met here tonight in this church for a purpose. There are certain people in this community whose aim is to tear up this church; certain people, I say, whose aim is to tear down this church. There is a certain doctring—the doctring of holiness—getting into this community. This holiness doctring, my friends, is a devilish doctring, my brethering, and must be wiped out!” (Amens all over the house.)

All this the Deacon said, and much more. He began his speech with considerable warmth of utterance, but as he progressed in praises of Mount Olivet and her faith he waxed hotter and hotter until his spellbound hearers were fairly deluged in a mighty avalanche of his rustic oratory, and he wound up with the sweeping statement that the doctrine of holiness must be abolished from the face of the earth.

When the Deacon had finished, and regained breath enough to put the matter to a vote, it was unanimously voted that Preacher Bonds should be secured at the earliest date possible.