Methodist Idylls

Front matter

METHODIST IDYLLS METHODIST IDYLLS BY HARRY LINDSAY AUTHOR OF RHODA ROBERTS, A WELSH MINING STORY. LONDON : JAMES BOWDEN 10 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, W.C. I897 TO MY WIFE NOTE In these stories the author has refrained from giving the dialect in its broadest form, so that the patience of his readers might not be tried overmuch, and, except in a few instances, words of only local significance have been scrupulously dropped. There is another reason. What is true of almost every dialect in England is true of the Gloucestershire dialects, viz., that the patois of a certain area often bears no more resemblance to that in a neighbouring district than the Cockney twang do96 to the brogue of the Irishman. So far a's it goes, however, what is here set down is correct. H. L. CONTENTS PACE aaron priestley's stewardship . . 13 do unto others . . . -33 the mellowing of jesse stallard . 5 1 I. AS SPARKS THAT FLY 2.

THE HUMBLING OF A MAN 3. RIGHTLY PREJUDICED 4. A MIRACLE OF GRACE REMOVING OLD LANDMARKS . . .127 THE MAKING OF A MINISTER . . 1 49 NED THORNBURY'S LOVE STORY . 1 83 I. A DAUGHTER OF THE PHILISTINES 2. A JUNE MORNING IDYLL 3. OTHER SHEEP OF THE FOLD A MEMBER o' TH' BOORD . . 23 1 I. A CURIOUS RECEPTION 2. A DESPOTIC MAJORITY 3. AN APPEAL TO THE ELECTORATE JOHN OAKEY'S CHRISTMAS BOX . .283 THE BACKSLIDER . . . 315 I. BEYOND THE PALE 2. RESTORING THE WANDERER THE WOODLEIGH POET . . . 343 LINGERERS OVERLONG . . 361 I. HIS HEART'S DESIRE 2. NOW LETTEST THOU THY SERVANT A He had been circuit steward for forty years. He was a lawyer and a wealthy man, and perhaps that had something to do with his long term of office. The nomination is vested solely with the superintendent minister, and naturally he loves to name men of means and of acumen to fill so distinguished a post.

And no one will greatly blame him for so doing. Such men give a status and a dignity to the circuit, not only in the immediate neighbour hood, but, what is still more important, in the District Synods and at the Conference. But forty years is a long time, and a man in office so long is apt to think himself indis pensable. It is but human nature that he should do so. Others, too, begin to imagine that such a man has a monopoly of honour and responsibility, and the critics — not openly, of course, but clandestinely — load him with opprobrium. Aaron Priestly had seen a long procession of preachers come and go, but he never changed. Like Tennyson's brook it seemed as if he went on for ever. Nothing was more certain than his re-nomination at each December meeting, ' just for one more year,' until at length the Quarterly Meeting had come to accept the proposition as a matter of course, and would have been completely shocked and dazed had any other name been mentioned.