The Barton Experiment is a classic work of fiction by the American author John Habberton, famous for "Helen's Babies".

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1882 edition. Excerpt: ...had ever personally heard this opinion of himself, the verbal expression thereof would have given him but slight annoyance compared with that which he experienced from his own inner man as he paddled down the stream. To forcibly resist something so satisfied the strongest demand of his nature, that neither shortening breath nor blistering hands caused him to slacken the speed with which he forced his paddle against the water. But another contest was going on, and in this the consistent theologian was not so triumphant as he liked always to be. Harry Wainright was one of the ungodly; that he i, owned (and frequently occupied) a high-priced pew in Mr. Brown's own church was only another reason why the preacher should quote concerning him, "He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck "--what if the conclusion of the same passage, "shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy" should apply? What could prevent its doing so if Wainright had fulfilled the description in the first half? Had not the same God inspired the whole passage? If so, what right had any man, least of all a minister of the Gospel, to try to set at naught the Divine will? Harry Wainright was, according to the decrees of an unchangeable God, one of the lost, --as much so as if he were already in the bottomless pit. And still the old man's paddle flew; once on the trip he had felt as if the weakness of the arm of flesh would decide the case for him, and in favour of the Word whose expounder he was; he found himself wishing that it might, so that he could feel that although God had overruled him he might have comfort in the assurance that he had not proved indifferent to his sudden emotion of yearning for his fellow-man. But that mysterious...

DescriptionJohn Habberton (1842-1921) was an American author. He spent nearly twenty years as the literary and drama critic for the New York Herald, but he is best known for his stories about early California ...