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"There are two objections," said Miss Flush, "to your argument from Job. The first is, that he is represented as a man of great integrity, and without any perceptible fault of his own, was given over into the power of Satan to prove how much his piety could resist his assaults -- (our paupers, Mr. Sherman, have most of them, by lives of intemperance and extravagance, ruined themselves!) The second is, that the whole history of Job may be fabulous, and so unworthy of credence."

"Then some of the most precious truths and principles of religious faith must perish."

"Oh! I do not say it is so -- but it may be, you know?"

"I 'know' no such thing, but build my faith on it as confidently as on the Psalms of David."

"Well, I do not see that it is necessary to depend on the second objection, as the other is so unanswerable."

"I do not think it at all 'unanswerable.' Satan can do an injury to no good man without Divine permission. Job's case is illustrative of many whose trials and scourges have been brought on them for the glory of God and for the direct good of their souls. It is a marked, a special, a most extraordinary case, but by no means wanting in circumstances that place it outside the range of human casualties, and so illustrative of human experience. We are all in the hands of God, who can give us over to temptations from Satan that will inevitably destroy us unless we are supported by him. So was it with Job, God defended-his life and delivered his soul. And he will, with every temptation, provide a way of escape to all such as fear him, although he may see it best greatly to scourge and afflict them."

"The paupers, Mr. Sherman, hardly will pass for a class of righteous men -- even if there are persons among them who have piety, perhaps of a dubious sort."

"Miss Flush, let me read you what David says on the very point you so bravely defend. 'The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord; and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall,' -- notice this, if you please -- 'Though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. I have been young and now am old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.' Now, my friend, please tell me, if you have ever fully considered this matter in the light of its antecedent truths?"

"Well, I cannot say precisely, I may have."

"I know it is altogether probable you have read the connecting passages a hundred times; but I am con- strained to think you have thought far less of their import than of the other. They surely teach that a good man may ' fall' into affliction, poverty if you please, and be no less immediately a subject of Almighty grace and love; that to be in affliction, that is, say in poverty or beggary, is not necessarily to be ' forsaken,' but to be in a state of discipline and trial. And we are especially to notice, that this language, 'I have not seen the righteous forsaken,' &c., ' may relate especially to those who are charitable to the poor, and liberal of their substance to meet the necessities of the needy and afflicted, and intimates that David had never observed any, in his long life none, who by reason of their charities had ever been brought into straits of poverty themselves, or entailed it as a consequence on their children.'" (27)

"Why! Mr. Sherman, I never did regard the subject in that light. Is it at all probable it may have any such explanation?"

"I think so."

"You must excuse my frankness; I receive new interpretations of favorite scripture passages with great reluctance. I will converse with you again sometime, but assure you my views of the main question, while they are exceedingly tenacious, are yet such as at the outset I informed you ) they leave my mind open to conviction."

James' heart, however, sunk within him at the dismal prospect of convincing by argument such an open mind, and though well aware he was no match for her in concentration or subtlety, he yet felt confident he had 'put' the case for the poor before her in the honest convictions of truth, not always deficient either in strength of argument. He was very anxious that Miss Flush might alter her opinions respecting the paupers, for no other woman nor any dozen men in the town had so much influence as she in keeping up the opposition to the efforts of the reformers. She seemed to regard the movement as fanatical, and as anti-scriptural -- especially, though altogether erroneously believing that it would turn away the minds of the people from their customary and long approved modes of Christian benevolence, and so be an injury to the cause of religion! * * **

Miss Flush said she would sometime or other visit the poor-house.

From time to time, a good many of the citizens of Crampton, besides Miss Flush, had thought they should visit the poor-house.

CHAPTER XXXIX.
Grandfather Sherman.