human
I should not like to answer 'no' to a descendant of the Mayflower. Yes, they were highly civilized. And if we had adhered to their methods, we should have avoided a good deal of confusion. The meeting-house, you remember, had a committee for seating people according to their quality. They were very shrewd, but it had not occurred to them to give the best pews to the sitters able to pay the most money for them. They escaped the perplexity of reconciling the mercantile and the religious ideas.
gpt
At any rate, said Mrs. Fletcher,
human
Yes, and made them feel they were all sorts; but in those, days they were not much disturbed by that feeling.
gpt
Do you mean to say, asked Mr. Lyon,
human
Not at all. We have in the cities rich churches and poor churches, with prices of pews according to the means of each sort, and the rich are always glad to have the poor come, and if they do not give them the best seats, they equalize it by taking up a collection for them.
gpt
Mr. Lyon, Mrs. Morgan interrupted,
human
There is no doubt about the charity; but that doesn't seem to make the social machine run any more smoothly in the church associations. I'm not sure but we shall have to go back to the old idea of considering the churches places of worship, and not opportunities for sewing-societies, and the cultivation of social equality.
gpt
I found the idea in Rome, said Mr. Lyon,
human
How is that?
gpt
A high functionary at the Propaganda gave as a reason that the United States is the most democratic country and the Roman Catholic is the most democratic religion, having this one notion that all men, high or low, are equally sinners and equally in need of one thing only. And I must say that in this country I don't find the question of social equality interfering much with the work in their churches.
human
That is because they are not trying to make this world any better, but only to prepare for another,
gpt
Now, we think that the nearer we approach the kingdom-of-heaven idea on earth, the better off we shall be hereafter. Is that a modern idea?
human
It is an idea that is giving us a great deal of trouble. We've got into such a sophisticated state that it seems easier to take care of the future than of the present.
gpt
And it isn't a very bad doctrine that if you take care of the present, the future will take care of itself,
human
Yes, I know, insisted Mr. Morgan;
gpt
Ah, I said, looking up at the entrance of a newcomer,