The Backslider
“No, Mis' Talbot, I'm not going to church.
I never thought I'd be a backslider,
But I've come to it at last. The new preacher
Has upset all my ideas of religion,
For he don't believe the Bible is true,—
Leastwise only in parts. To his thinking,
Adam and Jonah never were alive:
They are just story-book folks. I heard that
And didn't flinch, for Adam don't mean much
To a Methodist who can't believe
In John Calvin and predestination.
Besides, Adam always seemed to me weakly
In his mind. I'm not a voting female
Champing for women to do everything,
But I do think Eve was an improvement
On Adam.
“Now about old Jonah:
I always took him with a ‘grain of salt.’
He must have been shiftless and careless;
I never could abide a lazy man.
I think we ought to raise our own gourd vines
To keep the sun from giving us sunstroke,
And not lay too much on the Lord's shoulders.
I stood the preacher's talk until he killed Job;
Then I rose right up in meeting and said:
‘No, you cannot take Job away from me.
He was a perfect and an upright man,
And he has been my good friend all my life.’
“I can see him just as plain as can be
Bearing the scourges of the Almighty
With fortitude, and I know how he felt
When God spoke to him out of the whirlwind.
Job has been the friend of so many folks
I wonder even the new minister
Dares to say a word against him, and tell
This generation that he never lived.
He is more alive than some men I know
Breathing on earth today.
“So now you see
Why I'm not going to church any more.
I'll sit here under the Sweet Locust tree
While you're gone, and read a chapter or two,—
Perhaps the thirty-eighth chapter of Job,
That tells of the morning stars singing
Together with the Sons of God for joy,
And of the ‘understanding of the heart,’
For all the people who ever did any good
In this world understood things with the heart,—
And the world won't be much different
In that, I fancy the new minister
Hasn't found his heart yet. After he's lived
And suffered, he'll take Job out of his grave
And find he is alive, and a friend,
And say with him in humbleness of mind:
‘I have uttered that I understand not,’
And find in the end Job's peace and Job's blessings.”
I never thought I'd be a backslider,
But I've come to it at last. The new preacher
Has upset all my ideas of religion,
For he don't believe the Bible is true,—
Leastwise only in parts. To his thinking,
Adam and Jonah never were alive:
They are just story-book folks. I heard that
And didn't flinch, for Adam don't mean much
To a Methodist who can't believe
In John Calvin and predestination.
Besides, Adam always seemed to me weakly
In his mind. I'm not a voting female
Champing for women to do everything,
But I do think Eve was an improvement
On Adam.
“Now about old Jonah:
I always took him with a ‘grain of salt.’
He must have been shiftless and careless;
I never could abide a lazy man.
I think we ought to raise our own gourd vines
To keep the sun from giving us sunstroke,
And not lay too much on the Lord's shoulders.
I stood the preacher's talk until he killed Job;
Then I rose right up in meeting and said:
‘No, you cannot take Job away from me.
He was a perfect and an upright man,
And he has been my good friend all my life.’
“I can see him just as plain as can be
Bearing the scourges of the Almighty
With fortitude, and I know how he felt
When God spoke to him out of the whirlwind.
Job has been the friend of so many folks
I wonder even the new minister
Dares to say a word against him, and tell
This generation that he never lived.
He is more alive than some men I know
Breathing on earth today.
“So now you see
Why I'm not going to church any more.
I'll sit here under the Sweet Locust tree
While you're gone, and read a chapter or two,—
Perhaps the thirty-eighth chapter of Job,
That tells of the morning stars singing
Together with the Sons of God for joy,
And of the ‘understanding of the heart,’
For all the people who ever did any good
In this world understood things with the heart,—
And the world won't be much different
In that, I fancy the new minister
Hasn't found his heart yet. After he's lived
And suffered, he'll take Job out of his grave
And find he is alive, and a friend,
And say with him in humbleness of mind:
‘I have uttered that I understand not,’
And find in the end Job's peace and Job's blessings.”
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