in the hands of two warring
factions, whose battles furnished the most fervid interest of the Cape
Cod community. But my inexperience disturbed me not at all, and I was
blissfully ignorant of the division in the congregation. So I entered my
new field as trustfully as a child enters a garden; and though I was
in trouble from the beginning, and resigned three times in startling
succession, I ended by remaining seven years.

My appointment did not cause even a lull in the warfare among my
parishioners. Before I had crossed the threshold of my church I was
made to realize that I was shepherd of a divided flock. Exactly what
had caused the original breach I never learned; but it had widened with
time, until it seemed that no peacemaker could build a bridge large
enough to span it. As soon as I arrived in East Dennis each faction
tried to pour into my ears its bitter criticisms of the other, but I
made and consistently followed the safe rule of refusing to listen to
either side, I announced publicly that I would hear no verbal charges
whatever, but that if my two flocks would state their troubles in
writing I would call a board meeting to discuss and pass upon them. This
they both resolutely refused to do (it was apparently the first time
they had ever agreed on any point); and as I steadily declined to listen
to complaints, they devised an original method of putting them before
me.

During the regular Thursday-night prayer-meeting, held about two weeks
after my arrival, and at which, of course, I presided, they voiced their
difficulties in public prayer, loudly and urgently calling upon the Lord
to pardon such and such a liar, mentioning the gentleman by name, and
such and such a slanderer, whose name was also submitted. By the time
the prayers were ended there were few untarnished reputations in the
congregation, and I knew, perforce, what both sides had to say.

The following Thursday night they did the same thing, filling their
prayers with intimate and surprising details of one another's history,
and I endured the situation solely because I did not know how to meet
it. I was still young, and my theological course had set no guide-posts
on roads as new as these. To interfere with souls in their communion
with God seemed impossible; to let them continue to utter personal
attacks in church, under cover of prayer, was equally impossible. Any
course I could follow seemed to lead away from my new parish, yet both
duty and