The first astonishment had given place to
conjecture, which yielded in turn to dogmatic judgments--acquiescing or
condemning, as the self-constituted judges happened to be favorable or
adverse to the cause of the minister.
When the first Sabbath after the arrest came, and the church was closed
because the pulpit was unoccupied, the dispersed congregation, haunted
by the vision of the absent pastor in his cell, discussed the matter
anew, and differed and disputed, and fell out worse than ever. Parties
formed for and against the minister, and party feuds raged high.
Upon the second Sabbath--being the day before the county court should
sit--a substitute filled the pulpit of Mr. Willcoxen, and his
congregation reassembled to hear an edifying discourse from the text: "I
myself have seen the ungodly in great power, and flourishing like a
green bay-tree. I went by, and lo! he was gone; I sought him, but his
place was nowhere to be found."
This sermon bore rather hard (by pointed allusions) upon the great
elevation and sudden downfall of the celebrated minister, and, in
consequence, delighted one portion of the audience and enraged the
other. The last-mentioned charged the new preacher with envy, hatred and
malice, and all uncharitableness, besides the wish to rise on the ruin
of his unfortunate predecessor, and they went home in high indignation,
resolved not to set foot within the parish church again until the
honorable acquittal of their own beloved pastor should put all his
enemies, persecutors and slanderers to shame.
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