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Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town by Stephen Leacock
page 92 of 213 (43%)
which he spoke with Christian serenity.

I don't think that at first anybody troubled much about the debt on
the church. Dean Drone's figures showed that it was only a matter of
time before it would be extinguished; only a little effort was
needed, a little girding up of the loins of the congregation and they
could shoulder the whole debt and trample it under their feet. Let
them but set their hands to the plough and they could soon guide it
into the deep water. Then they might furl their sails and sit every
man under his own olive tree.

Meantime, while the congregation was waiting to gird up its loins,
the interest on the debt was paid somehow, or, when it wasn't paid,
was added to the principal.

I don't know whether you have had any experience with Greater
Testimonies and with Beacons set on Hills. If you have, you will
realize how, at first gradually, and then rapidly, their position
from year to year grows more distressing. What with the building loan
and the organ instalment, and the fire insurance,--a cruel charge,--
and the heat and light, the rector began to realize as he added up
the figures that nothing but logarithms could solve them. Then the
time came when not only the rector, but all the wardens knew and the
sidesmen knew that the debt was more than the church could carry;
then the choir knew and the congregation knew and at last everybody
knew; and there were special collections at Easter and special days of
giving, and special weeks of tribulation, and special arrangements
with the Hosanna Pipe and Steam Organ Co. And it was noticed that
when the Rural Dean announced a service of Lenten Sorrow,--aimed more
especially at the business men,--the congregation had diminished by
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