Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1900-06-20

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"Yoatr qrork here has not been a. failure:
1t has been, great success"
much more surged in and out of his
mind and heart like heavy tides of
heaving ocean as it rushes into some
deep fissure and then flows back
again with noise and power. He strug-
gled up into sitting position and
wi:a pain Of body almost fell from
the couch upon his knees and with his
face bowed upon the letter. which he
spread out before him with both
hands, he sobbed out ycarning cry
to his Master for light in his darkness.
1t came as he kneeled down, and it
did not seem to him at all strange or
absurd that as he kneelcd there came
to his thought n picture of the Brother
Man. And he could almost hear the
Brother Man say: Your work is in
Milton, in Calvary church yet. Except
a man shall renounce all that he hath
he cannot be his disciple" 1t mat
tered not to Philip that the answer to
his prayer came in this particular
way. He was not supcrstitious or
morbid or given to yielding to impulse
or fancy. He lay down upon the
couch again and knew in his heart
that he was at peace with God and his
own conscience in deciding to stay
with Calvary church and refuse the
call to Fairview:
CHAPTER XVIII.
When a few minutes later Mrs.
Strong came UP, Philip told her ex
actly how lie had decided.
II cannot leave these poor fellows in
the tenements yet. My work is just
beginning to count with them. And
the church-oh, Sarah. | love it. for it
has such possibilities, and it must yield
In time. And then the whisky n'cn-l
cannot bear to have them think me
beaten, driven out. defeated. And in
addition to all the rest have il feeling
that God has a wonderful blessing in
store for me and the church very soon,
and cannot Danish the feeling that if
l accept the call to Fafryiew. | should
l0rv0x~ 1>0 n Inv f0nf ri, Of
Duty murdered and run away from
which would make me unhappy in all
my future work. Dear little woman"
Philip went on as he drew his wife's
head down and kissed her tenderly.
while tears of disappointment fell from
her-"little woman, you know you
are the dearest Of all earthly beings to
me. And my soul tells me the reason
you loved me enough to share earth's
troubles with me was that You knew l
could not be a coward in the face of
my duty. my conscience and my God.
Is it not SOP"
The answer came in sob of mingled
anguish and happiness:
Eyes, Philip, but it was only for your
sake I wanted you to leave this work.
1t is killing you. Yet"-and she lifted
her head, with smile through all the
tears-"yet, Philip, whittier thou gocst
will so. and where thou lodgest
will lodge; thy people shall be my peo-
pie and thy God my God. Where thou
diest will l die, and there will be
buried; the Lord do so to me and more
also if aught but death part thee and
me-"
There We're people in Milton who
could not understand how a person Of
such refined and even naturally expen-
ter's wife possessed could endure the
life he had planned for himself and his
idea of Christian living in general.
Philip could have told them if he had
been 80 minded. And this scene could
have revealed it to any one who knew
the minister and his wife as they really
were. That was sacred scene to hus-
band AID wife, something that belong
ed to them, one of those things which
the world did not know and had no
business to know.
When the first Sunday of another
month had come, Mr.. Strong felt quite
we'll again. A rumor Of his call to
Fairview had gone out, and to the few
intimate friends who asked him about
it he did not deny, but he said little.
The time was precious to him. He
plunged into the work with an enthu-
siasm and a purpose which sprang
from his knowledge that he was at last
really gaining some influence in the
tenement district.
The condition of affairs In that neigh
borhood was growing worse instead Of
better. The amount of vice, drunken
ness, crime and brutality made his SEN
sitive heart culver a hundred times
day as he went his way through it all.
His study Of the whole question led
him to the conviction that one of the
great needs of the place was new
home life for the people. The tene-
ments were owned and rented by men
of wealth and influence. Many of
couraged as he had so often been in
his endeayor to get the moneyed men
of the congregation to consecrate their
property to Christian uses, Philip came
up to that first Sunday with a new
phase Of the same great subject which
pressed so hard for utterance that he
could not keep 1t back.
AS he faced the church this morning
he faced an audience composed Of very
conflicting elements. Representatives