I'm not a
delegate, so I go to a hotel. You come with me; be my guest. Tell 'em you
have already accepted an invitation to stop with a friend. Don't worry,
they'll be glad enough to have one less to care for, and I want you."
The young man eagerly accepted.
At the meeting was the usual gathering of the usual types. There were
the leaders, regularly appointed by the denomination, who were determined
to keep that which had been committed to them, at any cost; and to this
end glorified, in the Lord's service, the common, political methods of
distributing the places of conspicuous honor and power, upon program and
committee, among those friends and favorites who could be depended upon
to respond most emphatically, or who were--in the vernacular--"safe."
Equally active, with methods as familiar but not equally in evidence--for
one must be careful--were the would-be leaders, who--"for the glory of
Christ"--sought these same seats of the mighty, and who were assisted by
those who aspired to become their friends and favorites--joint heirs in
their success should they succeed. Then there were the self-constituted
leaders who pushed and pulled and scrambled to the front; content if they
could, only for the moment, be thought by the multitude to be something
more than they were; who were on their feet instantly to speak upon every
question with ponderous weight of words, and were most happy if they
could fill some vacant chair on the platform.
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