d we have been without a pastor we have been gettin' weaker
and weaker. And since old Jake Benton has gone crazy over this new
religion of hisen he is trien to get everybody else to go crazy. You
brethering knows how I sent him down in the hills this summer to mind
cattle. Well he seemed to kinder git overbalanced in his mind down there
and he's found a new religion. You know how he testified in meetin'
tother night. He said he was saved from sin and he said he was
sanctified, and whole lot of other stuff like that. And I believe he
said, didn't he, that he was just as good as Jesus Christ and gettin'
better ever' day, or something like that."

"Yes, something like that," added Brown.

"Yes," said Jones, "I was there myself and heard him. I have always
thought Jake Benton was a pretty good man; but when a feller gets so
good as all that, then he's too good for this world. You know the Bible
says there's nobody good but God."

"Yes, I've heard the best preachers that was ever pastor of Mount Olivet
Church and they all say we sin a thousand times every day," remarked
Gramps.

Jones spoke next: "I knew a bunch of them holiness people back in South
Caroliner where I come from. They was the most outrageous bunch of
people I ever saw. Why, they claimed that they couldn't sin, and that
they was just as good as Jesus Christ and that nobody would get to
heaven but them. I'll tell you brethering we must not let them get the
start here. If they do, Mount Olivet Church is ruined. They tear down
churches just as fast as they come to 'em. Old Jake Benton ought to be
run out of the country or else sent to the asylum. He ain't fit to run
at large. Why, he told Aunt Sally Perkins that he was wholly sanctified
and that his heart was just as pure as that of his little baby that died
years ago when Jake lived over on Persimmon Ridge. He talks a whole lot
now about goin' to meet his baby and his mother and he seems to get so
happy every time he talks about it." Jones's voice trembled slightly as
he went on to say, "But brethering, it makes me feel most wonderfully
queer when I hear Jake talk about meetin' his little girl. He seems to
have no doubt at all about meetin' her, and say, you remember my little
boy died the same fall as Jake's little girl, and to tell the truth I'm
just a little fearful at times about bein' ready to meet little George."

Deacon Gramps listened to all of this from Jones rather restlessly. He
spoke next with gr