Mrs Flint's Married Experience.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 429, 11 August 1904, Page 2

Mrs Flint's Married Experience.

Vll*—(Continued.)

'Land of liberty!" ejaculated the old man. drawing the back of Lis band across his month to smother a laugh; 'didn't jon give him jesse I I swan you're the gal fox a free fight, now. He's heerdthe fac's in the case if he never did afore. Of all things 1 what be you a-cr ym' for now, ehP* ForMab, a real woman, had flung her apron over her face, and was sobbing violently. Uncle Israel gently tried to pull the check screen away, but she held on to it.

'let m? cry, l the said. ' I ain't sorry; I'm mad i and I've got to cry it out' 'Well,' said Israel, returning to his potatoes, and slowly shaking hii head, 'women-folks air the beatoree. I don't know nothing about 'em, and I'm five-an'- - sixty year old come Friday. Lordy! there ain't no riddles nor Chinee punle-xings to compare with 'em. Fve bed a wife an' lost a wife, praise the Lord t but I ntver was sure o' her, even. I wouldn't no more try it agin than I'd slip down into a bee tree, for there's full as much stings as honey to 'em, and take an eveiidge, I guess there's more.' Whether or not the parson's silent ideas coincided with those Israel expressed is "THstrfor the ignorant chxoHiclerio say, but it is certain that Mb candid and generous soul was so far moved by M ab'a tirade, however he denied and defied it during its delivery, that the ntx: day he resolved to call in a council of hia neighbouring brethren to discuss the matter and indorse or reprobate the action of his own church.

VIIL So he wrote to the Beverend Ami Dobbins, of Dorset* and the B*verend Samuel Jehoram Hill, of Biseington, better knows as Father Hill, and in compliance with his request they repaired to Basset and investigated the matter. Being advised of the pastor, who had had his experiences, they went to Mrs Flint's during school hoar*, and Mat el had no chance to psur - oat her soul before them; they encountered only a pale, depressed, weak woman . who was frightened out of what little haart was left her by past trials, when these two august personages came into her presence, and with severe countenances began their catechism of her life with Daacon Flint. As in the case of many another woman, her terror, her humiliation, and a lingering desire to shield her husband from his own misdeeds, all cobspired against her; her testimony was tearful, confused, and contradictory, though through it all she did feebly insist f. on her own Bufferings, and depicted them in hoaeat colors. From her they went to the deaeoa, whom they found resigned, pious, and loftily saperior to common ■„. v - things; then he was a man, and a deacon! Is it to be wondered at that their letter to th* ohurcb at Baasett was in the deacon's favour P Thy did indeed own that Mrs Flint had' peculiar trials,' bnt went onto **J : _' Ifaverthelees, she can not be fully justified, but has departed from meekness and a Christian spirit .... particularly in indulging angry and passionate expressions, tending to provoke and irritate her husband; and however enjustifiable his conduct may be, that dot a not exculpate her. We think that it wo aid be proper to make suitable reflections < acknowledge she hath given her brethren and sisters of the church occasion of stumbling and to be dissatisied; and upon her maaifeating a becoming spirit ot meekness and love, we think they ought to restore her; but if she should refuse io make sich reflections, they can not consistently receive her.' And with a tew added remarks on tfce perplexity of the case, and advising the c lurch to call an ecclesiastical conncil, the Beverend Ami Dobbins and Father Hill retired for th» present. Bnt Basset was not content. Weeks pissed, and no act of confession or contrition came from tnis poor old offender. To tell the truth, Mabel stood behind her now, afire with honest rage at the way she hid been put upon. 'You iha'n't do it, aunty 1' she said, with all her native vehemence. 'Ton confess! I like that! It is that old hypocrite's place to oonfess. He drove you ont, now when you get down to it, and he ain't asked you to come back that I've heard tell. Id let hire and the church, and Bassett too. go to thunder if they're a mwd to. If you make 'suitable reflations' they'll reflect on old Flint and Busttt churoh members. Dear me! I know one thing: I'd rather be an old maid ten times over than married to that manf

A faint r»ile crept ov*r the old woman V pale faee i from her high pillow en« had a f jod outlook, ani mor* thaa vnzv aae had seen »n interview by the iittl« jfn;e that did not aujur long maidenfauod for Mab.

' Well, Mabel if thatfe your say, why, it behoove* you to be rami cautious, though I don* know as S*m Prate

By Rose Terry Cooke

brother could be anyways other than good.'

Mab blushed like a Provence rose, but said nothing; yet day after day kept hardesißg her aunt's heart »s well as she knew how; and Parson Egberts receiving no 'reflections* from the offender, and having great faith in Father Hill's power of persuasion, invited him to come again by himself and hold a conversation with Sister F4int on the subject of her trials and her contumacy. Father Hill was a quaint, gentle, sweetnatured old man, steeped, however, in the prejudices of his time and his faith j he, too, went to the house mailed with his fixed assurance of ecclesiastical dignity and marital supremacy. Sympathy, pity, comprehension of her side of the case, would have divined Mrs Flint completely i she would have gobbed, confessed, laid her hand on her mouth and her mouth in the dust, and been ready to own herself the chief of sinners; but to be placed in the wrong from the first, reproved, admonished, and treated as an impenitent and hardened culprit, made it easier for her weak nature to accept the situation than to defy ox deny it. Nothing Father Hill could say moved her, but her dull and feeble obstinacy stirred her tender heart to its depths; he felt a despair of human means and a yearning tenderness that could find no outlet but in prayer; he fell on hid kneeß bafore the chair in which he had been sitting, and lifted his earnest face to heaven.

•0 dear Lord and Master,' he aiid, speaking even as a man unto his friend, * Thou hast borne our griefs and earned oar Borrows. Thou know eat by heart every pain and woe that we feel; a stranger can not intermeddle, but O thou Hope of Israel, why shouldest Tqou be as a stranger that paseeth by, and a wayfaring man that tarrieth but a night, in thiß dwelling of thy handmaid t Dear Lord, it is not in man that walketh to direct his own steps, how much less the steps of others! Come Thou in the might of Tny great tenderness and Thine allknowiag sympathy and love, and show this child of Thine the right way, saying. •Walk ye in it.' Thou knowest every sorrow she has passed through, every bitter draught she has drunk, every sin she has been led into; yea, when she said there waß no comforter, Thine arm pitied and Thine arm waited to save her, though the eye of fi*sh saw it not. Come now and place beneath her weary heart and failing fltsh the everlasting arms of Thy oveifiowing love and care; give her peace and reet; give her an understanding heart; above all, with Thy love and pity redeem her, as Thou didst the elder Israel, and bring her with tender leading and Divine affection not only into Thy fold on earth, but to the G.neial Assembly and Church of the first born in heaven, and to Thee shall be praiae and love asd glory forever Amen.'

When he arose, his old face fair with the shining of the Mount from whencß hj came down, the poor woman, who had dropped her head on her hand, lifted it, and cried to thaHk him, but streaming tears choked her; and behind the door into the Bhed a stifled sob betrayed some hidden auditor.

' F*rewell!' said Father Hill, and with a look of heavenly benignity went out from the house. His deep and earnest piety Lad got the better of his dogmas, and, so strange is human nature, he was a little ashamed of it. But on his departing steps the shed door opened, and Mab came in, her face all washed with tears.

'That man's got religion!' she said decisively. «I never heard a mortal creatore pray like that: seemed as though he Bdo right iHto glory, and talked face to face with the Lord. If that's being pious, I irish I was as pious as fury myself.'

• He's a good man,' sobbed Mrs Flint; 'one of the Lord's an'inted, I make no doubt; and, Mabel, I don't know but what I have did wrong. I ain't noways heavenly-minded like him; maybe I had oupk>' fcgvs put up with everything.' * m , you hadn't; that ain't so; but if it's going to make you easier, aunty, to 'make reflections,' as old Parson Roberts Bays, why, make 'em; only don't tell no lies to the church.because you've got into a heavenly mood all at once. Folks that ain't just to themselves don't never get justicejslsewheres, now I tell you.'

Father.-Hill, despairing of having impressed Mrs Flint, had cast the matter into his Master's hands, and from his study in fJassiagton sent a letter to Farson E jberte, running thns:

'Bev'd akd dear Bbothib, —I have had Opportunity with Ma Jb'iiQt, and find that the conceived her leaving the Deacon »*e a real duty et that time; that her B-covery under Prcvidense maid upon it; that she did not then foresee the Con--Brq\*-ECt« that sueh a step would issue in her final Separation .... She stands ready to reflect upon huself as far as ahe can be convinced ahe ought to do bo, bat

thinks the fault is no* on h«r Side ex things now are. ' I feel unable to direct or advise farther. The cause of Beligion, the causa of the Christian Churoh, you are very seaBible, is of More Consequence than the Honor or Peace of any irdividu*!. If such a settlement can be made as may secure Beligion from suffering, it must be an object to be deßired .... Sensible of the Embarrassments you and tbe church labor under, and desirous to contribute my mite, I use this Freedom.

* This from your affectionate Brother, 'Sam(JUL J Hill 'To Bev'd Mr Boberts. . «To be communicated if you think expedient.'

Bat while the ministers were is this strait above their obstinate parishioner, the Lord had answered Father Hill, unknown to himself, while ha was yet speaking. Moved, and indeed melted, by the love and sympathy that prayer showed, Mrs Pint, no longer hindered by Mabel, prepared herself to write 'proper reflections' to the church j but in doing so was also perpetually prompted by Mabel not to traitorously deny her own cause or slip aside from the truth in a voluntary humility; and in due time the following confession was laid before that august body:

•I, the subscriber, Sarepta Flint, a member of the church of Christ in BasEstt, sensible that the Caurch are dissatisfied with me. on account of the Separation that has taken place between Deacon Flint and myself, and that they are Apprehensive that I have not been innocent as to measures whioh have led to this unhappy Event, whereby Beligion is wounded and the Pease of the Churoh disturbed, take this opportunity to publickly acknowledge myself a poor, imperfect Creture, and to own that under my Weak state of Body and weakness of mind, with which I was attended at one Time or another, I no doubt manifested on certain Ochsions an unsuitable Temper of mind, said and Did things which under other Circumstances 1 should not have eaid or done. lam far from j astifying myself in all my conduct. Particular I would re fl act on myself for that Expression in regard to swearing the Pease against Dea Flint. ... I ask the Forgiveness of God and this church, and of all others who are aggrieved, and request the prayers o my Christian Brethern and Sisters that I henceforth conduct as a true and faithful Disciple of Christ, and adorn the Solemn Vocation by which I am called. ' Saebpta Flint

' P.S.—I stand ready also to retain to my Husband as soon as a suitable Djor opens for thai Purpose.' (To be continued.)