To Those Who Have Sat In Country Churches This Circular Read As A Piece
Of Most Refined Sarcasm, So Bitter Because Of Its Truth.
Where had been
the clerical eye all these years that Hodge had sat and coughed in the
draughts by the door?
Was it merely a coincidence that the clerical eye
was opened just at the moment when Hodge became a voter?
At Bethel Chapel between the services the cottagers, the farmers, and the
tradesmen break their bread together, and converse, and actually seem to
recognise one another; they do not turn their backs the instant the organ
ceases and return each to his house in proud isolation. There is no
dining together, no friendly cup of tea at the parish church. This Bethel
is, you see, the church of the poor people, most emphatically - their -
church. If the word church means not a building, but a society, then this
is the true country church. It is the society of all those who, for want
of a better expression, I may term the humble-minded, those who have no
aristocratic or exclusive tastes, very simple in their reading and
studies even if well-to-do, and simple in their daily habits, rising
early and retiring early, and plebeian in their dinner-hour. It is a
peculiar cast of mind that I am trying to describe - a natural frame of
mind; these are 'chapel people' - perhaps a phrase will convey the meaning
better than explanation. This is - their - church, and whatever the
theology may be there is undoubtedly a very strong bond of union among
them.
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