Alasdair Gray - Old Men in Love

By 1842 the Royal Mail penny postal service was running smoothly, and over breakfast one morning Henry received a letter from his mother in Widdicombe Crescent saying that Martha’s health was much, much worse. He went at once to Bath leaving Starky to conduct the evening meetings and Sunday services, for he was now able to do both. A fortnight later Henry returned to the rectory in time for he and Starky to receive a messenger from the Bishop of Bath and Wells, who introduced himself as the Bishop’s chaplain then said, “We are sorry to hear your wife has been very ill, Mr Prince.” “No longer, sir. It is true that she suffered terribly at the end, but that is no longer the case. Martha Prince is now perfectly well and happy, in a better world than ours.”

“I am glad she is in a better world, but sorry that you are bereft of a helpmeet in these difficult times.”

“Why do you think the times difficult, sir?”

“Because you and your rector are both making them difficult for your Right Reverend Father in God, George Henry Law. He is now a very old man. Letters of complaint from your Charlinch parishioners have alarmed him extremely. I arrived here two days ago to investigate these complaints and find good cause for them.”

“What cause have you found?”

“Mr Starky, you have forbidden the Evensong service to many respectable Christians. Prominent farmers, dealers and artisans are now ordering their wives and servants not to attend any of the Sunday services. Women are threatening to leave husbands who will not go to Mr Prince’s prayer meetings and enraged husbands are threatening to kill wives who do go to them. Children are quarrelling with parents, servants with masters while the ungodly look on, laughing and hooting because they find these scandals highly entertaining. This is not Christianity. Christ is the Prince of Peace.”

Henry sighed and looked at Starky who murmured, “Christ said I come not to send peace; but a sword, for I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her — ”

“Yes yes, we know that, but Christ was referring to the sword wielded by Roman persecutors. He never rejected any who came to hear Him. You must allow all in Charlinch to attend Evensong. Those who pay life rent for pews are entitled to them under the law of the land.”

“Alas, our small church has no room for all who wish to hear God’s word from Brother Starky’s lips,” said Henry.

“That is because you have been poaching — attracting people from other parishes.”

Henry and Starky stared at each other but said nothing.

“I have a mandate from the Bishop to withdraw your licences to preach unless you, Mr Starky, stop excluding any of your own parishioners, and Mr Prince leaves Charlinch forthwith.

What do you say to that?”

“But!” pleaded Starky, “But! But does the Bishop not know the strength of Belovéd Brother Prince’s following? The Lampeter Brethren are not a negligible body. If our Belovéd is excommunicated by the Church of England, others too may leave.”

“Bishop Law threatens no one with excommunication. Mr Prince is free to seek more useful work in a different parish, if it is also in a different diocese. Will he do so?”

Henry said gloomily, “Does the Bishop really want Charlinch church to be a place where people once again come for a nap on Sundays?”

“I will not answer that question. I insist on you answering mine — will you leave Charlinch?”

Starky looked appealingly to Prince who said, “Before answering I must consult with The Spirit in prayer.”

“Do so. I will call for the answer tomorrow. Good day.”

Henry sat silent for a long time not responding to Starky’s few, timidly spoken words: “The Church of England, I fear, is governed by very worldly men. . If The Spirit wishes, of course, my family connections can easily place you in another parish. . Or will it command us, Belovéd, to defy the Bishop and leave the Church of England?. . If it does we will surely be able to continue in the rectory for a while because my father built it. . Several Anglicans have left the Church recently by turning Catholic. . Of course the incomes of me, my wife and sister will easily support us all, that is certainly a comfort and yet. . Many Scottish ministers so detest the patronage of landlords that they threaten to break away and found a Free Church. .”

“I must pray for guidance alone, Brother Starky,” said Henry, and went to his room.

The Starkys had never doubted that Henry’s amazingly unruffled composure came from God. He had told them his strange life story: that his mother in God had been a Catholic who taught him to love Jesus from the Bible; that she had persuaded his bodily mother of his priestly vocation; that four years ago she had become Anglican and joined him in holy wedlock before suffering at his side in this then faithless parish. They knew Martha’s death must have disturbed him more deeply than he had shown, and when he joined them in the drawing room later his air of wild distraction frightened them.

“My brother and sisters in Christ! O how I need your help,” he cried, weeping, “Is it possible that I am the most selfish, the most deluded of men? Can Satan — not the Holy Spirit — have led me into troubling this peaceful English parish? Has my inordinate pride deluded me and you and half a respectable Christian congregation? O say it is not so! Or else say, say, say that it is!”

He knelt down and raised clasped hands looking from Starky to the women and back. They clustered round him with soothing sounds from the women soon silenced by Starky’s ringing words: “Do not torment yourself, Belovéd! It is now my turn to reprove your lack of faith. By their fruits ye shall know them , declare the Scriptures. How can the fruits you have borne through the Lampeter Brethren and through me be Satan’s work? Satan cannot bring infidels to God, or heal the sick, or make active, experimental Christians out of worldly, formal ones. Remember that you are a Branch of the Tree of Life — that man called Branch whose fruit gives eternal life. Has the death of your belovéd Martha made you doubt your divine vocation? But she loved you and had faith in you, a faith you must not betray. Please get up.”

“I want to believe you dear, dear Sam,” sobbed Henry, still kneeling, “But The Spirit has commanded something so unexpected and strange — so outrageous to what worldly people think right — that I fear it cannot be obeyed.”

His listeners stared at each other, bewildered. Starky said, “The Spirit is surely not asking you to commit a crime!”

“Not a crime, no. What it commands breaks no human law and it is surely not sinful in the eyes of God.”

“Then who will it harm?”

“None, but a great many will be shocked.”

“If what the Spirit commands is not sinful, the Spirit must be obeyed,” said Starky, “What does it command?”

In a strangely timid voice Henry asked the women, “Do you agree with Brother Samuel?”

They agreed vehemently. Henry whispered, “Julia, the Spirit commands me to marry you.”

Julia’s mouth fell open. For several seconds, as the others gazed, the blood left her cheeks very pale, then returned in a blush that spread to her throat, ears and forehead. At last she nodded and said, “Since the Spirit commands us, yes, Henry. Yes my belovéd Henry. Yes, my belovéd Prince.”

He sighed deeply, said, “You have removed a great burden from me,” stood up and began drying his face with a handkerchief. Mrs Starky said faintly, “But I suppose the wedding need not take place very soon? Need it? There will be the usual year or so of mourning before it is solemnised.”