(3 of 3)
With these figures at his fingertips, it takes Big Dan but a few minutes to persuade Grocer Paddock, Banker Winton, Realtor Jones, Judge Burnes and Major Riley of Westover—members of five different denominations—to accept from him, blushingly, and administer, a foundation of $2,559,494.08 to build three nondenominational "temples" costing $500,000 apiece. Invested at 5%, the $1,059,494.08 surplus over building costs will yield $52,974.70 per annum, or $17,658.23 per temple, or more than five times the annual expenses of each of the 44 present Westover churches. Big Dan explains that preachers, powerless under denominationalism ("in the grip of this great un-Christian machine"), will gladly come to the temples. The Westover elders hope so. A temple rises, not without denominational dirty work.
Happy Ending. Unfortunately, the nature of the worship conducted in the first Westover temple is left vague, except for "Nearer, My God, to Thee." But Mr. Wright assures the reader that "there was not a feature of that service which would not have been endorsed by all churches. There was not a word of the sermon which would not have been endorsed by all ministers. It was simply Christianity in spirit and in fact—and it was nothing else. . . . The groceryman and his four friends knew that they had made no mistake. . . . The minister left the rostrum through the arched way. . . . There was no effusive and perfunctory handshaking by an ap- pointed committee at the door . . . the people went out from the house of worship."
The full force of this ending is brought home in a final chapter, entitled "Happiness," where the groceryman's wife, Mrs. Paddock, repents of having flirted with a local literary light and the grocer's daughter, Georgia Paddock, forgives Hero Jack Ellory for having belittled, by premature tactics, "the fully matured love of a man for his mate."
* THE DARK CHAMBER—Leonard Cline— Viking Press ($2), *God AND THE GROCERYMAN—Harold Bell Wright —Appleton ($2).