The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1900-03-22


again with noise and power. He strug-
gled up into sitting position and
with pain of s.dy almost fell from
the couch upon his knees and with his
I face bowed upon the letter, which he
spread out before him with both
hands, he sobbed out a yearning cry
to his Master for light in his darkness.
/ 1t came as he kneeled down, and 1t
did not seem to him at all strange or
absurd that as he kneeled there came
to his thought 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 superstitious or
I 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
2 call to Fairyiew.
CHAPTER XVIII.
When n few minutes later Mrs.
Strong came up, Philip told her ex-
actly how he had decided.
81 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 men--l
cannot bear to have them think me
beaten, driven out. defeated. And In
addition to all the rest have feeling
that God has wonderful blessing in
store for me and the church very soon,
and ! cannot Danish the feeling that If
| accept the call to Fairview | should
always be haunted by that ghost OF
Duty murdered and run away from
which would make me unhappy in all
nv 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 coward in the face of
my duty, my conscience and my God.
Is it not SOP
The answer came in a sob of mingled
anguish and happiness:
Eyes, Philip, but it was only for your
sake l wanted you to leave this work.
1t is killing you. Yet''-and she lifted
her head, with Il smile through all the
tears-"yet, Philip, whittier thou goest
| will go, and where thou lodgest /
will lodge; thy people shall be my peo-
pie and thy God my God. Where thou
diest will | die, and there will | be
buried; the Lord do so to me and more
also if aught but death part thee and
me-"
There were people in Milton who
could not understand how a person Of
such refined and even naturally expen-
sive and luxurious habits as the minis
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 so 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 and 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
well 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 a
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
these men were in the church. Dis
cOuraged as he had so often been in
his endeavOr 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 it back.
AS he faced the church this morning
he faced an audience composed of very
conflicting elements. Representatives
Of labor were conspicuous in the gal
leries. People whom he had assisted
at one time and another were scattered
through the house. mostly in the back
seats under the choir gallery. His own
membership was represented by men
who, while opposed to his idea Of the
Christian life and his Interpretation Of
Christ, nevertheless continued to go
and hear him preach. The incident Of
the sections application for member
ship and his rejection by vote had also
told somewhat in favor of the minister.
Many preachers would have resigned
after such a scene. He had said his
say about it and then refused to speak
or be interviewed by the papers on the
subject. What it cost him In suffering
as he rose to give his message in the
person of Christ, the thought of the