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The choir was arriving along with the first of the audience. Elmer ran out a
little into the surf and dragged in a woman who hadalready safely touched
bottom.
How long would a drunkard listen to the counsel of one who hadnever
been inside a saloon? A shooting star had left a scrawl offlame in the sky.
OHearn had been moved by theprospectus of the learned and magnetic Dr Elmer
Gantry.
There were rags of white satin clinging to it, and inher charred hand
was still the charred cross.
He began to call his mentor Father Pengilly, and
the old man eludedhim only a little . Occasionally he took Sunday morning
service for Mrs. To every congregation he had served these forty years, he had
beena shepherd. How could he tell when he ought to pray and when heought to
recommend salts?
But outside there were less devout souls. Not like the cities
where weve been shutup! Naturally,as the end of the pier gave on open water,
there was no stageentrance at the back.
He had become so tired of her poetizing
that he almostadmitted to himself that he was tired. Perhaps there really was a
hell of burning sulphur.
It was Elmer himself who at dawn found Sharons body
lying on afloor-beam. And you feel that any sensible fellow will follow his
teaching? Daily my Subconscious shall tell me to not be content and go
onworking for somebody else. They had loved him, listened to him, and
underpaidhim.
Yet he had been ordained, he had taken a pulpit. How long would a
drunkard listen to the counsel of one who hadnever been inside a saloon?
He
longed to prove he was nevertheless a real man,and didnt know how to prove it.
There were rags of white satin clinging to it, and inher charred hand was still
the charred cross.
To every congregation he had served these forty years, he
had beena shepherd. He was a type of clergyman favored inpious fiction, yet he
actually did exist.
And you feel that any sensible fellow will follow his
teaching? Of what value were doggerel hymns raggedly sung?
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