360
T h e K i n g ’ s B u s i n e s s
August 1932
know it,” said Mrs. Jack, suddenly turning and walking with her arm around Eleanor’s waist. She was a little afraid of appearing too serious, and Eleanor, grown wise herself, as Constance had been wise with her, let the mat ter drop for the time. “ But if you do not try to win heaven, if it’s won for you already by the One whom you love, why do all you good people work so hard over something like prohibition?” Mrs. Jack went on after a moment’s silence. “ I notice that Rodney never carries a pocket flask, and you refused cock tails at Marie’s yesterday—” “ Rosamund,” interrupted Eleanor eagerly, “ it’s too strange, the way we are misunderstood by the world, all of us who follow Christ! But He said to expect it, when He was here, so I suppose we’d better do so.” “ How misunderstood, dear?” “ About prohibition, for example. It’s not a religious movement. Some reformers, splendid people Undoubtedly, are responsible for prohibition, but, once in, and a law of the country, we must keep it— ” “ Personal liberty!” interjected Mrs. Jack. “ Personal liberty is not the Christian rule of conduct. We are joyous, happy bondslaves of Christ, and we want to be. But this is a law we’re discussing, and Paul told us to keep the law— ‘the powers that be are ordained of God.” ’ Eleanor was new at this sort of thing, but to Mrs. Jack, she seemed very well versed. “ So it’s for that reason that you’ve given tip the boot leg?” “ Yes, dear. And I must say that if only the people we know had done so, there would be less suffering today.” “ What do you mean, ‘less suffering’ ?” skeptically. “ I mean that people of our kind, supposedly ‘the best people,’ leaders of families old in the land, have missed the chance o f their lives to show the world something. It was a God-given opportunity.” “ You call it an opportunity?” “ Yes, an opportunity to show the world that America has had her soul confirmed in self-control, and will sac rifice even ‘personal liberty,’ for the good of the common wealth. But they haven’t done it, and the bootlegger and the gangster are rampant in consequence, and children are martyred, and hearts are breaking everywhere because our kind haven’t stood in the gap.” Eleanor’s voice broke a little. Mrs. Jack, more moved than she would show, began hastily, “ But look at the horrible results of prohibition— ” “ Yes, I know. But would they have been "so horrible if we had been true? Haven’t we helped a little-r-no, a lot? Anyway, prohibition’s been a regular scapegoat for all the mistakes and mishaps of every sort, for the past ten years or so. Now they want to send it into the wilderness with all their sins upon it.” Mrs. Jack was silent a moment, then she hummed a note or two, and then asked, “ What is one to do, Nell? One like me, I mean? I am caught in a web of inherited customs and circumstances, you know.” “ Just one thing comes to me, dear ‘Rose of the" World,’ and it’s this. When the great Augustine met an old friend, with whom he had done much evil before he was a Chris tian, the friend stopped before him suddenly and said, ‘Augustine, it is I !’ ‘Yes,’ replied Augustine, ‘bpt it is no longer I !’ ” “ What does that mean ? He was still— ” “ He meant what Paul said, ‘It is no longer I, but
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“And now what’s all this about Rodney riding Roman ?” inquired Mrs. Jack as they strolled along the old- fashioned, leafy path. “ O f course, I saw that his best of sisters intervened— oh, but very adroitly— for his sake!” Eleanor laughed a little. “ Rosamund, when you absolutely leave out all your r’s, I know, my darling Kentuckian, that you are somewhat vexed. Don’t think that Rod isn’t wild to ride Roman, or that he isn’t simply too flattered for coherence at your sug gesting it. Before we go another step, tell me you under stand that.” No such appeal was ever made to generous Mrs.- Jack in vain. Her reply consisted of a hug, and of walking on with her arm over Eleanor’s shoulders. “ You see, Rod and I are planning an out-of-door sort of lawn party affair to begin some Bible study, because our friends don’t know how interesting it is ; and that’s on for tomorrow— ” At this, Mrs. Jack stopped short and faced Eleanor. “ Then it is true—what I hear about Rodney ?” “What have you heard, Rosamund?” asked Eleanor quietly, though her lips quivered a little. “ That you and Rodney are not the good sports you’ve always been, but—*-” “ Go on,” said Eleanor in rather a stifled tone. The cross presses a bit heavily, sometimes, on young and sensitive shoulders. “Well, that you’d gone pious,” Mrs. Jack finished desperately. “ Oh !” It was the merest breath of a sigh, but it touched Mrs. Jack’s ever tender heart. She laid her hand on the girl’s, saying, “ Nell, you know I took up for you—that I always “ I know you, Rosamund,” she replied, still with that same quietness upon her that was so new to her friend. Mrs. Jack looked at the girlish face, and as she looked, it seemed altered. It was as though a veil fell away from before it. For a moment, the flesh was a mere tabernacle of clay, and she saw within it a white eternal glory of spirit that was not of earth, but of heaven. A voice within her heart whispered, “ This is of the Father.” “ I—I think you’re right to keep Sunday, Eleanor,” she said in a different, less assured tone. “ I’d like to get to heaven myself, some way, sometime.” “ Oh, Rosamund, we don’t earn heaven. Christ gives us that great thing He won for us on the cross—eternal life. What I am doing is just something I love to do for Him—- a sacrifice I’m glad to make for Him, after all He did for me.” “ Anyway, I love you and Rodney, and I want you to will, for the sake of auld lang syne.” Eleanor pressed her hand gratefully.
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