Blair Collection > Rhys Lewis, minister of Bethel

J?HYS LEWIS. 155
" Mr. Brown," she said, " I know only of One who can give
a bruise and heal it, who is able to cast down and raise up; so,
if you came here thinking to put a plaister upon the hurt you
gave, your errand has been in vain. A kick and a kiss I call a
thing of that sort, Mr. Brown. After you had put my innocent
boy in prison, it would be very difScult for me to take any help
from you, let my distress be what it might. Perhaps you will
say I am making bold, and so I am; but I must speak the thing
which is on my mind ; I'll feel easier then. I am surprised
at you, Mr. Brown! I used to think well of you, as a
neighbour; but, if it makes any difference to you, you have
gone down ten degrees in my sight. I think I know with
whom I am speaking ; because, as Thomas of Nant said : —
* Praised and reverenced worthily,
O'er all men, the priest we see ;
But none more accurs'd than he.
If God-guided he not be.'
And I don't much fancy, Mr. Brown, that God guides you
when you associate and co-operate with a man like the owner
of the Hall, who cares for nothing on this earth but his race-
horses, fox-hounds, and furniture."
" Mrs. Lewis ! Mrs. Lewis ! " remonstrated Mr. Brown.
"My name is Mary, Mir. Brown. I'm but a poor woman,
and I don't want to be ' mistressed,' if you please. But I tell
you again— your place is not on the bench, hearing every
cause, clean and dirty. A priest has quite enough to do to
look after the souls of his congregation, if he has that work at
heart, without meddling with other matters ; and if I 'were
queen, I would say to every priest, and preacher too, for that
matter, as the Lord said in another case— and one which it
would be well for you and I to think more of—' What hast
thou to do to declare my statutes ? ' That I would. Paul, before
his conversion, was on the way to Damascus with his pockets
stuffed with summonses for putting good men in prison ; but,
after that great event, I warrant you he tossed them all over
the hedge, and nobody ever heard of bis sending anyone to
gaol again ; he had better work to do by a great deal. Another
thine:, Mr. Brown, I don't know how you can expect a blessing,