Lab
Library
Journal
Shop
Sign in
to keep
Share image
1
158
Adventures in Contentment
·
David Grayson
75
"It
seems
a
pity
to
go
to
church
on
a
day
like
this,"
I
said
to
Harriet.
"A
pity!"
she
exclaimed.
"Could
anything
be
more
appropriate?"
Harriet
is
good
because
she
can't
help
it.
Poor
woman!--but
I
haven't
any
pity
for
her.
It
sometimes
seems
to
me
the
more
worshipful
I
feel
the
less
I
want
to
go
to
church.
I
don't
know
why
it
is,
but
these
forms,
simple
though
they
are,
trouble
me.
The
moment
an
emotion,
especially
a
religious
emotion,
becomes
an
institution,
it
somehow
loses
life.
True
emotion
is
rare
and
costly
and
that
which
is
awakened
from
without
never
rises
to
the
height
of
that
which
springs
spontaneously
from
within.
Back
of
the
church
stands
a
long
low
shed
where
we
tied
our
horse.
A
number
of
other
buggies
were
already
there,
several
women
were
standing
in
groups,
preening
their
feathers,
a
neighbour
of
ours
who
has
a
tremendous
bass
voice
was
talking
to
a
friend:
"Yas,
oats
is
showing
up
well,
but
wheat
is
backward."
His
voice,
which
he
was
evidently
trying
to
subdue
for
Sunday,
boomed
through
the
still
air.
So
we
walked
among
the
trees
to
the
door
of
the
church.
A
smiling
elder,
in
an
unaccustomed
long
coat,
bowed
and
greeted
us.
As
we
went
in
there
was
an
odour
of
cushions
and
our
footsteps
on
the
wooden
floor
echoed
in
the
warm
emptiness
of
the
church.
The
Scotch
preacher
was
finding
his
place
in
the
big
Bible;
he
stood
solid
and
shaggy
behind
the
yellow
oak
pulpit,
a
peculiar
professional
look
on
his
face.
In
the
pulpit
the
Scotch
preacher
is
too
much
minister,
too
little
man.
He
is
best
down
among
us
with
his
hand
in
ours.
He
is
a
sort
of
human
solvent.
Is
there
a
twisted
and
hardened
heart
in
the
community
he
beams
upon
it
from
his
cheerful
eye,
he
speaks
out
of
his
great
charity,
he
gives
the
friendly
pressure
of
his
large
hand,
and
that
hardened
heart
dissolves
and
its
frozen
hopelessness
loses
itself
in
tears.
So
he
goes
through
life,
seeming
always
to
understand.
He
is
not
surprised
by
wickedness
nor
discouraged
by
weakness:
he
is
so
sure
of
a
greater
Strength!
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
