Here I went in October, 1878, and here I spent seven
of the most interesting years of my life.
V
SHEPHERD OF A DIVIDED FLOCK
On my return from Europe, as I have said, I
took up immediately and most buoyantly the
work of my new parish. My previous occupation
of various pulpits, whether long or short, had always
been in the role of a substitute. Now, for the first
time, I had a church of my own, and was to stand
or fall by the record made in it. The ink was barely
dry on my diploma from the Boston Theological
School, and, as it happened, the little church to
which I was called was in the hands of two warring
factions, whose battles furnished the most fervid
interest of the Cape Cod community. But my in-
experience disturbed me not at all, and I was bliss-
fully ignorant of the division in the congregation.
So I entered my new field as trustfully as a child
enters a garden; and though I was in trouble from
the beginning, and resigned three times in startling
succession, I ended by remaining seven years.
My appointment did not cause even a lull in the
warfare among my parishioners. Before I had
crossed the threshold of my church I was made to
realize that I was shepherd of a divided flock.
Exactly what had caused the original breach I never
learned; but it had widened with time, until it
seemed that no peacemaker could build a bridge
large enough to span it.
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