Laicus Or the Experiences of a Layman in a Country Parish

the house, Je

ly than her voice. I had hesitated a little before I finally closed the purch

sitting-room. I found her there before the open fire, on my return from New York. The ba

the baby, Jennie," said I. "I don

tling the precious bundle closer to her heart than before, as if in apprehe

noon. She wants to know if we won't take our letters to thi

I, for Jennie

y hired the house for the summer and might leave in the fall. But if you have bought it, John, and I am, oh! so glad you have and thank you so much"--one ha

"It's in debt, and always behind hand. I am told

o bad," sa

me for church affairs, and you--you have all you can

rue," sai

yterian church and we

made no

lect. It was dear to me in its old homely attire as a Congregationalist meeting-house. It is dear to me in its new aristocratic attire as a Congregat

" said Jennie softly, "for y

continued I. "Except the Lines and Deac

time will cure t

that I care to

ade no r

n argument--when she argues at all, which is very seldom. She accepted every consideration I had offered against uniting with the Wheathedge church, and yet I k

ence they say means consent. But I knew that it did not

u say Jenni

end its prayer-meetings, or go to its Sabbath-school, or worship with its members on the Sabbath, or even mingle much with its members in social life. We have left it, and we ought to have though

ng-room, with the wife and baby it contained, was worth a thousand Tabernacles to me; and I managed to tell Jennie so, and em

hn, to be whether we mean to be ch

bers at all

arm fifty miles away from the body? Can they keep loving watch and care over us; or we over them? It is not a

ch for contributions, and holding fairs in summer, and tableaux and what not, in winter, and generally wa

your money." (I am not so sure of that. I am inclined to think that is Je

faith in the financial argument--"this is a Pre

Jennie soberly, "and we, I hope, are Ch

tter addressed to the clerk of the Broadway Tabernacle, asking for letters of dismission and re