that folks that have gone to the other world can come back agin and appear.Shaw!" sez he, dretful loud and bold.I don't believe I ever heard a louder shaw in my life than that wuz, or more kinder haughty and highheaded.
And then I spoke up, and sez, "Josiah, it is always well, to shaw in the right place, and I am afraid you haint studied on it as much as you ort.I am afraid you haint a shawin' where you ort to.""Where should I shaw?" sez he, kinder snappish.
"Wall," sez I, "when you condemn other folkses beliefs, you ort to be careful that you haint a condemin' your own belief at the same time.Now my belief is grounded in the Methodist meetin'
house like a rock; my faith has cast its ancher there inside of her beliefs and can't be washed round by any waves of opposin'
doctrines.But I am one who can't now, nor never could, abide bigotry and intolerance either in a Pope, or a Josiah Allen.
"And when you condemn a belief simply on the ground of its bein'
miraculous and beyond your comprehension, Josiah Allen, you had better pause and consider on what the Methodist faith is founded.
"All our orthodox meetin' houses, Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist, Episcopalian, every one on 'em, Josiah Allen, are sot down on a belief, a deathless faith in a miraculous birth, a life of supernatural events, the resurrection of the dead, His appearance after death, a belief in the graves openin' and the dead comin'
forth, a belief in three persons inhabitin' one soul, the constant presence and control of spiritual influences, the Holy Ghost, and the spirits of just men.And while you are a leanin' up against that belief, Josiah Allen, and a leanin' heavy, don't shaw at any other belief for the qualities you hold sacred in your own."He quailed a very little, and I went on.
"If you want to shaw at it, shaw for sunthin' else in it, or else let it entirely alone.If you think it lacks active Christian force, if you think it is not aggressive in its assaults at Sin, if you think it lacks faith in the Divine Head of the church, say so, do; but for mercy's sake try to shaw in the right place.""Wall," sez he, "they are a low set that follers it up mostly, and you know it." And his head was right up in the air, and he looked very skernful.
But I sez, "Josiah Allen, you are a shawin' agin in the wrong place," sez I."If what you say is true, remember that 1800years ago, the same cry wuz riz up by Pharisees, `He eats with Publicans and sinners.' They would not have a king who came in the guise of the poor, they scerned a spiritual truth that did not sparkle with worldly lustre.
"But it shone on; it lights the souls of humanity to-day.Let us not be afraid, Josiah Allen.Truth is a jewel that cannot be harmed by deepest investigation, by roughest handlin'.It can't be buried, it will shine out of the deepest darkness.What is false will be washed away, what is true will remain.For all this frettin', and chafing, all this turbelence of conflectin'
beliefs, opposin' wills, will only polish this jewel.Truth, calm and serene, will endure, will shine, will light up the world."He begun to look considerable softer in mean, and I continued on: "Josiah Allen, you and I know what we believe the beautiful religion (Methodist Episcopal) that we both love, makes a light in our two souls.But don't let us stand in that light and yell out, that everybody else's light is darkness; that our light is the only one.No, the heavens are over all the earth; the twelve gates of heaven are open and a shinin' down on all sides of us.
"Jonesville meetin' house (Methodist Episcopal) haint the only medium through which the light streams.It is dear to us, Josiah Allen, but let us not think that we must coller everybody and drag 'em into it.And let us not cry out too much at other folkses superstitions, when the rock of our own faith, that comforts us in joy and sorrow, is sot in a sea of supernaturalism.
"You know how that faith comforts our two souls, how it is to us, like the shadow of a great rock in a weary land, but they say, their belief is the same to them, let us not judge them too hardly.No, the twelve gates of heaven are open, Josiah Allen, and a shinin' down onto the earth.We know the light that has streamed into our own souls, but we do not know exactly what rays of radience may have been reflected down into some other lives through some one of those many gates.
