The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1900-07-03
looking steau,ly at his wife.

looking steadily at his vile.
do your said Dorothy gently. Shs
kissed him. and they both seemed to
remember their promise made in the
little church. Dorothy knew we'll
enough that for man like Malcolm to
do anything that in the smallest &C.
gree contradicted his convictions
meant for him continual torture of
mind. The minute she saw that his
action in leaving Conrad meant that
sort of moral conflict she knew there
that was to stay in Conrad and battle
out the life that duty called them to
live there.
In all this nothing but the great and
trustful love they felt for each other
made possible such a complete and I'M
questioning change of plans that af-
fected their whole future. Malcolm
would not have been the man he was
if he had not felt constrained to stay
in Conrad. Dorothy would not have
been the woman she was if, once see
ing that her husbands moral strength
depended on this decision. she had at
tempted to argue him out of it or had
failed to accept the situation cheerfully
and once Cor all.
So. then, these two children of the
All Father. having settled thus simply
but decidedly this question, faced the
life before them bravely and silently,
and no one in Conrad knew until years
afterward how near they had come to
losing two of the greatest souls that
ever came into the place. Malcolm new
er told his church people. He simply
picked up the thread of his affection
for them where he had seemed for
awhile to drop it and went on to love
them more and more, and they, in
turn, never dreaming of the moral
conflict he had been having, grew tc
love him because they We're enduring
hardship together.
AT the first church meeting held aft
Ell that eventful night and day in Nal
CONS and Dorothy's lives Malcolm bold
ly called on his members to rally
around the building OF a new church.
He read the two letters, the ore from
the superintendent and the other from
the church building society. The mem
bers listened in silence. Malcolm look
gathered in the little storeroom in the
main street. Next door was a saloon,
and that Sunday, as on many others,
the congregation could hear the chnE
ing of glasses and the drunken laugh
ter of the men at the bar.
eve might as we'll accept the facts, -
said Malcolm, and as he talked it is
certain that the Holy Spirit was pres
ent in that little room in wonderful
power, as he always is after a tempta
ton and an overcoming. eve shall
have to build this church without out
side help. You know what my views
are about raising money by means of
fairs and suppers. l think the Lord
will show us a better way. We are
all poor together do not need to
say that | am willing to share this
struggle with you. We are not only
going to build a house of wood in
which to worship, but church of Je-
sus which has for it's habitation the
throne of a human soul. This saloon"-
Malcolm paused, and in the silence ev.
cry one could hear through the thin
wall the noise in the other room-"this
saloon represents destructive force
that we as church must, by Gods
grace, overcome. How much do we
value the church? Are we ready tic
sacrifice, to go without some necessi
ties even, to build up the kingdom and