Part 30 (1/2)

Mrs. Grier had four noisy children, who all spoke at once, and needed their mother's constant care and attention, so John and Helen could at least be silent; yet it was hard to sit through the dinner when their hearts were impatient for each other.

In a little breathing s.p.a.ce at the end of the meal, when two of the children had clambered down from their high chairs and been dismissed, Mrs. Grier began to speak of the sermon.

”It was a wonderful discourse, sir,” she said; ”seems as if n.o.body could stand against such doctrine as you gave us. I could have wished, though, you'd have told us your thoughts about infants being lost. There is a difference of opinion between Mr. Grier and two of our elders.”

”What does Brother Grier hold?” asked the preacher.

”Well,” Mrs. Grier answered, shaking her head, ”he does say they are all saved. But the elders, they say that the confession of faith teaches that elect infants are saved, and of course it follows that those not elect are lost. My father, Mr. Ward, was a real old-fas.h.i.+oned Christian, and I must say that was what I was taught to believe, and I hold by it. There now, Ellen, you take your little sister and go out into the garden, like a good girl.”

She lifted the baby down from her chair, and put her hand into that of her elder sister.

”Mrs. Grier,” Helen said, speaking quickly, ”you say you believe it, but if you had ever lost a child, I am sure you could not.”

”I have, ma'am,”--Mrs. Grier's thin lip quivered, and her eyes reddened a little,--”but that can't make any difference in truth; besides, we have the blessed hope that she was an elect infant.”

It would have been cruel to press the reason for this hope, and Helen listened instead with a breath of relief to what John was saying,--he, at least, did not hold this horrible doctrine.

”No, I agree with your husband,” he said. ”True, all children are born in sin, and are despised and abhorred as sinners by G.o.d. Jonathan Edwards, you know, calls them 'vipers,' which of course was a crude and cruel way of stating the truth, that they are sinners. Yet, through the infinite mercy, they are saved because Christ died, not of themselves; in other words, all infants who die, are elect.”

Mrs. Grier shook her head. ”I'm for holding to the catechism,” she said; and then, with a sharp, thin laugh, she added, ”But you're sound on the heathen, I must say.”

Helen s.h.i.+vered, and it did not escape her hostess, who turned and looked at her with interested curiosity. She, too, had heard the Lockhaven rumors.

”But then,” she proceeded, ”I don't see how a parson can help being sound on that, though it is surprising what people will doubt, even the things that are plainest to other people. I've many a time heard my father say that the proper holding of the doctrine of reprobation was necessary to eternal life. I suppose you believe that, Mr. Ward,” she added, with a little toss of her head, ”even if you don't go all the way with the confession, about infants?”

”Yes,” John said sadly, ”I must; because not to believe in reprobation is to say that the sacrifice of the cross was a useless offering.”

”And of course,” Mrs. Grier went on, an edge of sarcasm cutting into her voice, ”Mrs. Ward thinks so, too? Of course she thinks that a belief in h.e.l.l is necessary to get to heaven?”

The preacher looked at his wife with a growing anxiety in his face.

”No,” Helen said, ”I do not think so, Mrs. Grier.”

Mrs. Grier flung up her little thin hands, which looked like bird-claws.

”You _don't_!” she cried shrilly. ”Well, now, I do say! And what do you think about the heathen, then? Do you think they'll be d.a.m.ned?”

”No,” Helen said again.

Mrs. Grier gave a gurgle of astonishment, and looked at Mr. Ward, but he did not speak.

”Well,” she exclaimed, ”if I didn't think the heathen would be lost, I wouldn't see the use of the plan of salvation! Why, they've got to be!”

”If they had to be,” cried Helen, with sudden pa.s.sion, ”I should want to be a heathen. I should be ashamed to be saved, if there were so many lost.” She stopped; the anguish in John's face silenced her.

”Well,” Mrs. Grier said again, really enjoying the scene, ”_I'm_ surprised; I wouldn't a' believed it!”

She folded her hands across her waist, and looked at Mrs. Ward with keen interest. Helen's face flushed under the contemptuous curiosity in the woman's eyes; she turned appealingly to John.

”Mrs. Ward does not think quite as we do, yet,” he said gently; ”you know she has not been a Presbyterian as long as we have.”

He rose as he spoke, and came and stood by Helen's chair, and then walked at her side into the parlor.