I did remember it very well.  But I was anxious that the other gentlemen should not forget it.

“And now, gentlemen,” said I, “you propose to add three hundred dollars to that annual deficit.  Where is the money to come from?”

There was a momentary silence.  The question was evidently a new one.  Apparently not a member of the Board had considered it.  At length one gentleman suggested that we must raise the pew rents.  This brought an indignant protest from Deacon Goodsole, who is a strong advocate of the free-pew system.

“Never,” said he, “with my consent.  Any pew-rent is bad enough.  Trafficking in the Gospel is abominable at best.  It shuts out the poor.  Worse than that, it shuts out the godless, the irreligious, the profane—­the very men we want to catch.  The pew-rents are too high now.  We must not raise them.”

The Treasurer also added a mild protest.  The pew-holders would not stand it.

“What do you say, Mr. Wheaton?” said I.

“Say?” said he:  “why, I say you cannot carry on a church on the same principles on which you carry on a railroad or a bank.  It is a different affair altogether.  You must trust the Lord for something.  I think that we can safely trust Him to the amount of three hundred dollars at least.  Where’s your faith?”

“Making false promises and trusting the Lord to fulfil them isn’t faith,” said Deacon Goodsole.

“I say, Jim,” said Mr. Jowett, “you trust Him for your interest money—­that will set us all right.”

There was a little laugh at this suggestion.  Mr. Wheaton holds a mortgage on the church.  He did not take kindly to this practical application of the doctrine of faith.

“Oh! well,” said he, “we can raise it somehow.  Never fear.  A good minister will fill up our empty pews.  Then in the summer we must manage to bleed the boarders a little more freely.  It won’t hurt them.  What with a concert, or fair, or a subscription, or a little extra effort our plate collections, we can manage it, I have no doubt.”

“For my part,” said I, “I agree with one the gentlemen, who told us early in this discussion that we must carry on church affairs on business principles.  I don’t see any business principles in agreeing to pay money which we have not got and don’t know where to get.”

“Gentlemen,” said Mr. Jowett, “Mr. Laicus is right.  The shamefully loose ways in which our Protestant churches carry on their finances is a disgrace to the Christian religion.”

Mr. Jowett is a broker.  He assured me after the meeting that it was almost impossible to get a loan on church property because churches were so notoriously slack in paying their interest.

Mr. Hardcap murmured an assent.  “I don’t b’lieve, gentlemen, in agreein’ to pay what we hain’t got.  If we’d got the $1,500, I’d say give it to him.  I don’t grudge him the money.  But I don’t want this church to make no promises that it aint’ a goin’ to keep.”