Page:The unhallowed harvest (1917).djvu/150

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
THE SPIRIT OF REVENGE
145

in control of the rich people who support it. And the rector can't please those people and be just to the poor at the same time. And the preacher who isn't just to the poor isn't good."

Miss Tracy made no effort to defend the rich people of her church. She simply said:

"I don't think Mr. Farrar is so much concerned about pleasing people as he is about being right. And I think he is very just to the poor."

"So do I. That's the reason I think he is too good for his Church. I've heard about the trouble he is having. I don't know whether you are for him or against him. But I'm sure he'll be beaten in the end."

"Why do you think so?"

"Because the power of money is too great. It controls everything; society, business, law, religion, everything. Sooner or later Mr. Farrar must yield to it or it will destroy him."

"I do not think you know how much will and determination Mr. Farrar has."

"In a way I do. I have heard him preach several times lately. He is very brave. I believe he is as good as he is brave. He has—done me some favors, and I am very grateful to him."

"Then why do you not permit him to call?"

"Did he tell you that I refused him? Well, that was before I knew of what stuff he was made."

"And you wouldn't refuse him now? May I tell him so? He will be so glad."

Lamar, who had been watching, with some uneasiness, the drift of the conversation, could not refrain at this juncture from interrupting it.

"I don't think it does any good, Miss Tracy," he said, "for preachers to visit the working class. It doesn't help us any toward industrial freedom, and that's what we need first, not religion."

"But Mr. Farrar is also an advocate of industrial freedom."