Chapter 6

He looked around quickly and saw that most everyone was sitting with head bowed. A low murmuring of prayer and supplication filled the hall. No one had, apparently, seen Nathaniel’s blatant exhibition of rebellion. Jonathan looked away.

For three hours, the congregation sat in self-examination. Occasionally someone stood and read a scripture or bared their souls and shared with those assembled their sinfulness. Jonathan sat with head bowed, praying, like the apostle Paul, that God take this thorn of sin from his side. He wondered, briefly, if Paul’s thorn were similar to his own. He tried not to look at Nathaniel. The time or two he succumbed to his desire to look upon the man, he saw him gazing around the room as if trying to see if there were bats roosting in the rafters.

There was nothing for it but to let Nathaniel know, in no uncertain terms, this liaison must end, lest they both be thrown into Jonathan Edward’s pit of hell.