Blair Collection > Rhys Lewis, minister of Bethel

74 JiUVS LEWIS.
of letters, every letter has its unwritten associations, here and
there a letter making one think of others -which have been
reduced to ashes by fire, but which cannot be burnt out of
the memory. Some are read with a sense of satisfaction, others
bring painful recollections, others stir up our whole nature,
awaking feelings and ideas we had thought lost for ever, but
which had lived on, hidden away in the caverns of the mind
and the crannies of the memory.
Although I register the night of brother Bob's excommunica-
tion among the dark nights of my life, it is not without its
bright side. The occurrence made me meditate seriously upon
the nature of religion, and what it was which constituted the
importance and sacredness of church membership. I already
had some sort of notion that there was a great difference
between religious people and "people of the world," as my
mcjher called them; but I am afraid it came to no
more than this — that the former partook of the Lord's Supper
once a month, did not get drunk, or curse and swear, and that
the latter, not belonging to Communion, were at liberty to
commit any sin they chose. But somehow, that night, I got
to doubt this view, and began to think that something more
than the one I have named went to make up the difference.
Without being able to bring myself to believe that he would,
I asked myself would Bob, now that he was no longer a church
member, get drunk occasionally? Would he curse and swear,
now and again ? Would he give over reading the Bible and other
good books, and kick up a row in the house like Peter the pot-
man? I questioned, also, whether Bob, out of Communion,
would be a worse or more wretched creature than John Lloyd
in it. That, too, was quite as impossible, to my mind.
What was it, then, which made a man religious ? The occur-
rence, moreover, made me form a high opinion of my mother's
piety. Possibly it was the conversation which ensued between
her and brother Bob which caused me thus to regard her. I
will try and reproduce this conversation as accurately as my
memory will serve. Of course mother did not know I had
heard the whole of the inquiry into Bob's case, and it wouldn't
have been well had she found out that I and Will Bryan had
stowed ourselves away in the chapel-loft. When all went in a