Reverend Lemuel Wiley reviews his life’s work: four thousand sermons, forty revivals, many baptisms. Yet the achievement he treasures most is not any of those public religious acts. It is the time he stopped the Bliss couple from divorcing. In his eyes, that intervention spared their children from disgrace and helped them become moral, happy adults who brought honor to the village. The speaker’s pride is unmistakable, and he seems to want this quiet, personal success remembered above all his preaching. The mood is reflective and warm, with a touch of self-satisfaction. He believes that preserving one family did more lasting good than all the sermons he ever delivered, and he chooses this small, human moment as the legacy he hopes will define him.
Rev. Lemuel Wiley — Summary
I preached four thousand sermons, I conducted forty revivals, And baptized many converts. Yet no deed of mine Shines brighter in the memory of the world, And none is treasured more by me: Look how I saved the Blisses from divorce, And kept the children free from that disgrace, To grow up into moral men and women, Happy themselves, a credit to the village.