Chapter XVI: The Church Council

"I know you won't give way," said Rachel, as she helped her husband into his coat.

Luke did not answer at once.

"If you remain firm this time you will find it easier the next."

"I don't intend to give way," said Luke gravely. "It would be fatal."

"Yes, and you would never forgive yourself." Luke buttoned up his coat and looked at his wife.

"We should hear the same excuse that that old woman gave for not attending her Parish Church," he said smiling.

"What was that?"

"That she had been too ill for the last half year to come to the services but she was proud to say she had not missed a single Whist Drive."

"Oh you mustn't give way," repeated Rachel earnestly. Then she added, laying a hand on his arm, "You know what I shall be doing."

When Luke smiled his face was transfigured.

He smiled now.

"You will be doing the part of Moses," he said. "I am not sure that I should not fail if it were not for that." Then he opened the door and was gone.

Rachel stood where he had left her looking absently at the door which he had shut after him.

That the Church Councils were not always happy meetings she knew. Luke said the right people were not on it. There were some really in earnest, but these often seemed afraid of speaking. Those who spoke the most often and the loudest were those who wanted to make their Church the most popular in the town by way of parish dances, whist drives, etc. Luke, Rachel knew, had always stood out against such methods of work, but people were growing persistent, and the subject was to come up again this evening. His last words had surprised her and made her anxious, for they showed her that his resistance was growing weaker and that he felt himself in real danger of giving way.

She knew what giving way would mean to him. It would lie on his heart like lead. He would not look for blessing so expectantly and hopefully in his parish if once his church began to cater for the amusement of his people instead of putting its full strength into the spiritual work. By this time Rachel knew her husband so well, that she felt sure that he would grow melancholy and depressed, and his work would be robbed of zeal and happiness in consequence.

It was not as if he had any doubts as to the wrongfulness of such methods for Church work. He absolutely disapproved of them and had made his opinions known. If he gave way or countenanced such proceedings, in the least, people would cease to believe in him.

Well there was one thing she could do to help him to be strong; she would go and do it. And while Luke was wrestling with his Church Council, Rachel was wrestling in prayer.

Then she went down stairs to listen for his footstep.

When she heard it, it did not inspire her with hope. Luke came in quietly and made his way slowly into the drawing-room where he knew he would find her.

"Well?" she said.

He took a seat on the sofa near her.

"I have gained my point."

Rachel's eyes shone.

"What good news," she said greatly relieved. "Why do you look so melancholy?"

"Because though I have gained my point I have lost four of the most regular members of the congregation. They walked out of the room."

"Oh well, that is not half so bad as if they had gained the victory," said Rachel cheerfully. Then Luke looked lovingly down at his wife.

"I doubt if I should have taken such a strong attitude if it had not been for you. I knew you were praying."

"Yes, I was praying."

"The knowledge of that helped me enormously. The four who resigned have been my most loyal supporters and I can tell you it was hard to stand out against them. They have been so exceedingly kind to me ever since I have had the church. It was this fact that made it so difficult. Besides I love peace."

"Peace with honour, but not without."

"That's just it. I felt that my Master's honour was at stake."

"I can't tell you how thankful I am," said Rachel. And under his wife's influence Luke regained something of his usual spirits. But Rachel had only heard Luke's side of the question. The next day she was inundated with callers.

"I suppose you know," said Mrs. Moscombe, the wife of the owner of the principal shop in the parish, "that the Vicar got his way by one vote only. I own when I heard all the arguments in favour of opening the Hall for such purposes I began to wonder if we ought not to do what the neighbouring churches have done to attract the young people."

"I don't think that kind of thing attracts people to Church," said Rachel.

"But as my husband says," continued Mrs. Moscombe, "it saves the boys and girls from going to worse places. Surely that is the work of the Church."

"It may save them for two or three days, possibly; but it really leads them to go to unwise places of amusement in the long run, and I know my husband feels very strongly that the Church loses its spiritual power if it goes in for catering for amusements."

"But then, dear Mrs. Greville, your husband, forgive me for saying so, is rather peculiar in his views. He scarcely moves with the times and isn't up to date as they say."

Rachel flushed.

"The times are not so particularly good that one should wish to move with them," she said. "I am very thankful that my husband does what he considers right without swerving or moving with the times."

Rachel was glad to see the last of her visitor, but had hardly said goodbye when the door opened to admit Mrs. Stone.

"Of course," she said as she took a seat, "your husband has told you all about last night. I admired him immensely. He didn't give way an inch though the majority were really against him."

"But anyhow he had a majority of one."

Mrs. Stone laughed.

"And he would not have had that if it had not been for me. I didn't agree with him in the least! I must tell you, but I voted for his views as I always feel he is such a good man that he probably knows what is for the good of his people better than I do. If it had not been for my vote, he would himself have had to give the casting vote."

"I am very disappointed that you don't agree with us," said Rachel.

"Well I do believe in people keeping up with the times, and girls and boys are crazy now for dancing and cards. You can't get them if you don't give way. Things have changed so much since our fathers' times."

Rachel was silent. She felt depressed. She quite expected people like Mrs. Moscombe and others who had called to see her, and who did not profess to be religious, to misunderstand Luke's action, but it was a blow to find that her friend Mrs. Stone also disagreed with him.

But the last caller was the most trying of all.

Rachel heard her mother-in-law open the front door and walk heavily across the little hall.

"What has Luke been doing?" she exclaimed almost before she was in the room. "I hear he has quite estranged the four best supporters of the Church." She looked at Rachel as if she were to blame.

"It was about the amusement question," said Rachel. "He put down his foot at the proposal to introduce them into the work of the parish."

"Well I call it remarkably silly of him. It is a matter of very little importance and certainly not worth wrangling over. I am quite thankful I am not a member of the Council. I could not have voted against my son, but I should have felt very vexed at being a party to such a loss to the Church."

"You mean?"

"I mean losing his four best financial supporters, and those who give the most to the Easter offerings. Who is he to look to now, I should like to know? And if he only waited to consider the state of his own finances and the expense of food, (eggs are still fourpence a piece), he would not have made such a fatal mistake."

Rachel was silent, but she disagreed with every word her mother-in-law had spoken. Then after a pause during which Mrs. Greville tied and untied her bonnet strings in her agitation, she said:

"I don't suppose any consideration respecting finance would weigh with Luke against doing what he thinks right."

"My dear, young men often make a fatal mistake in going their own way, thinking that youth must know better than age. Think of those four gray haired men who know more of the world than Luke, being set at nought like that. I have never known Luke to make such a mistake. If he had only consulted me before he had acted."

Then Rachel spoke.

"But don't you see how noble it was of him to keep to what he felt right even though he must have known what the result would be. I own am proud of him, and should have been bitterly disappointed if he had given way. I am sure he did the right thing."

Mrs. Greville looked at her son's wife and could not but admire the way she stood up for her son's folly, (as she considered it). There was an expression on her face that any mother-in-law would have been pleased to see on the face of her son's wife. But for all that she felt it incumbent on her to give her a snub.

"I daresay," she said, "that you admire him. So would most young girls who only look for actions without weighing their cost. We all admire a man who is not afraid to speak out. But when it comes to flouting those who have been kind and considerate, and who never hesitate to give money for the work, it is a different matter. Luke has done a bad thing for the parish by his action of last night."

"People would never have believed in his convictions again if he had given way," said Rachel.

"Well now, don't you go and encourage him in that kind of thing," said Mrs. Greville. "I hope that you recognise the fact that Luke is not a paragon of wisdom, neither can any one turn him from what he imagines his duty. But he must remember that he now has a wife to support. He not only will stubbornly stick to his point even when it means losing money for the work of the parish, but will give away every penny he possesses without a thought of the consequences. I daresay you have found that out."

Rachel laughed, thinking of the pearls.

"Well, am I not right?"

"Luke is the most generously minded man that I have ever come across," said Rachel.

And then Mrs. Greville gave her a kiss. She could not resist it; though she knew that her action would startle her daughter-in-law.

"My dear," she said, "I do believe that you love that boy of mine as much as I do."

Rachel was tempted to answer "a great deal more," but forbore, only returning the kiss with warmth. She was getting almost fond of Mrs. Greville.

"Well, you see," she said with a smile, "he is my husband."

"But that does not always follow I am sorry to say. Wives are generally very quick in seeing and resenting faults in their husbands. And much as I love my dear boy I see a great many in him."

"But there are more virtues after all," was Rachel's answer, "and to return to the subject of whist drives, it is perfectly true what Luke quoted to me from some speech yesterday. 'The Church has so little power with the world because the world has so much power over the Church.' Don't you agree?"

"Well perhaps it is so. But when a man's bread and butter is concerned and when the Church funds are low, I own I feel it is not the time to be too particular."

"I am afraid I don't agree with you a bit."

"I don't suppose you do; that is because Luke has imbued you with his ideas of right and wrong."

"Luke has a very high ideal," said Rachel, "and I am trying to live up to it."

And Mrs. Greville went away thinking to herself, "I only hope that Luke realises what a devoted wife he has. I don't believe he does."