Brothers of Pity | Page 3

the sermons with their
names and the texts. I read it through, to see which sounded the most
interesting, and I didn't care much for any of them. However, the last
but one was called "A Funeral Sermon, preached at the Obsequies of
the Right Honourable the Countess of Carbery;" and I wondered what
obsequies were, and who the Countess of Carbery was, and I thought I
would preach that sermon and try to find out.
There was a very long text, and it was not a very easy one. It was: "For
we must needs die, and are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot
be gathered up again: neither doth GOD respect any person: yet doth
He devise means that His banished be not expelled from Him."
The sermon wasn't any easier than the text, and half the s's were like f's
which made it rather hard to preach, and there was Latin mixed up with
it, which I had to skip. I had preached two pages when I got into the
middle of a long sentence, of which part was this: "Every trifling
accident discomposes us; and as the face of waters wafting in a storm
so wrinkles itself, that it makes upon its forehead furrows deep and
hollow like a grave: so do our great and little cares and trifles first
make the wrinkles of old age, and then they dig a grave for us."
I knew the meaning of the words "wrinkles," and "old age." Godfather
Gilpin's forehead had unusually deep furrows, and, almost against my
will, I turned so quickly to look if his wrinkles were at all like the
graves in the churchyard, that Taylor's Sermons, in its heavy binding,
slipped from the pulpit and fell to the ground.

And Godfather Gilpin woke up, and (quite forgetting that he was really
the old gentleman in the pew with the knocker) said, "Dear me, dear me!
is that Jeremy Taylor that you are knocking about like a football? My
dear child, I can't lend you my books to play with if you drop them on
to the floor."
I took it up in my arms and carried it sorrowfully to Godfather Gilpin.
He was very kind, and said it was not hurt, and I might go on playing
with the others; but I could see him stroking its brown leather and gold
back, as if it had been bruised and wanted comforting, and I was far too
sorry about it to go on preaching, even if I had had anything to preach.
I picked up the smallest book I could see in the congregation, and sat
down and pretended to read. There were pictures in it, but I turned over
a great many, one after the other, before I could see any of them, my
eyes were so full of tears of mortification and regret. The first picture I
saw when my tears had dried up enough to let me see was a very
curious one indeed. It was a picture of two men carrying what looked
like another man covered with a blue quilt, on a sort of bier. But the
funny part about it was the dress of the men. They were wrapped up in
black cloaks, and had masks over their faces, and underneath the
picture was written, "Fratelli della Misericordia"--"Brothers of Pity."
I do not know whether the accident to Jeremy Taylor had made
Godfather Gilpin too anxious about his books to sleep, but I found that
he was keeping awake, and after a bit he said to me, "What are you
staring so hard and so quietly at, little Mouse?"
I looked at the back of the book, and it was called Religious Orders; so
I said, "It's called Religious Orders, but the picture I'm looking at has
got two men dressed in black, with their faces covered all but their eyes,
and they are carrying another man with something blue over him."
"Fratelli della Misericordia," said Godfather Gilpin.
"Who are they, and what are they doing?" I asked. "And why are their
faces covered?"

"They belong to a body of men," was Godfather Gilpin's reply, "who
bind themselves to be ready in their turn to do certain offices of mercy,
pity, and compassion to the sick, the dying, and the dead. The
brotherhood is six hundred years old, and still exists. The men who
belong to it receive no pay, and they equally reject the reward of public
praise, for they work with covered faces, and are not known even to
each other. Rich men and poor men, noble men and working men, men
of letters and the ignorant, all belong to it, and each takes his turn when
it comes round to nurse the sick, carry the dying