The Scripture Club of Valley Rest; or, Sketches of Everybody's Neighbours

The Scripture Club of Valley Rest; or, Sketches of Everybody's Neighbours is a book by John Habberton. Habberton was an American author and journalist. Excerpt: "The success of the Second Church of Valley Rest was too evident to admit of doubt, and there seemed to be no one who begrudged the infant society its prosperity. Most of its members had come to the village from that Western city known to all its inhabitants as being the livest on the planet, and they had brought their business wits with them. At first they worshiped with the members of the First Church, established forty years before, and with an Indian or two still among its members; but it soon became evident to old members and new that no single society could be of sufficient theological elasticity to contain all the worshipers who assembled in the old building. There were differences of opinion, which, though courteously expressed, seemed great enough to claim conscientious convictions for their bases; so with a Godspeed as hearty as their welcome had been, the newer attendants organized a new society. They were strong, both numerically and financially, so within a year they had erected and paid for a costly and not hideous church building, settled a satisfactory pastor, and organized a Sunday-school, three prayer-meetings, and a sewing society. The activity of the new church became infectious, and stimulated the whole community to good works; occasionally one of the other societies would endeavor to return some of the spiritual favors conferred by the Second Church, but so leisurely were the movements of the older organizations that before they could embody a suggestion in an experience the new church would have discerned it afar off and put it into practical operation."