The Crucifixion of Philip Strong

ld not decide wha

sat with his hands clasped over his knee, leaning back in his chair and looking out through h

to his study door and

would come up here.

onded a voice from below, and very soon the minis

up here unless you are in great distress. You remember the last time you called me, you had shut the tassel of your

t two. Let me read these letters and you will see." So he

CHURCH

HILIP

s decision on the part of Calvary Church and become its pastor. The church is in good condition and has the hearty support of most of the leading families in the town. It is the strongest in membership and financially of the seven principal churches here. We await your reply, confidently

Chairman of the

Sarah?" asked Philip Stron

s twice as much as you

tle creature, do you thi

u would have a decent meal or a good suit of clothes," r

me read you the other letter," he went

LL, CHURC

HILIP

enience. The Chapel Hill Church is in a prosperous condition, and many of the members recall your career in the college with much pleasure. This is an especially strong centre for church work, the proximity of the boys' academy and the university makin

ROFESSOR WELLMAN, Chairman

of that?" asked t

s just the sa

s, unselfish heart you really have, I should get vexed at you for

as you are to live on no salary if the grocer and butcher would continue to feed us

ied Philip, so gravely that his

hat to do with the letter

hurches do you pref

hapel Hill Church as far as

their call, if that

e to go to Elmdale, I feel a

l inclined to do, and accept the call that pleases you most. Why should minister

exception of the schools, there are not a thousand people in the village, a quiet, sleepy, dull, retired, studious place. I love the memory of it. I could go there as the pastor of the Elmdale church and preach to an aud

ll move at once to Elmdale, and live and die there. It is a beautiful place, and I am sure we could l

best of my knowledge, all striving after popularity and power. There is much hard, stern work to be done in Milton, by the true Church of Christ, to apply His teachings to men's needs, and somehow I cannot help hearing a voice say, 'Philip Strong, go to Milton and work for Christ. Abandon your dream of a parish where you may indulge your love of scholarship in the quiet atmosphere of a University town, and plunge into the hard, disagreeable, but ne

er a little pause, "I want to go to Elmdale, b

o exactly what he knew he ought to do, when once he decided what it was. Philip

He doesn't want you to go to Elmdale? Are there not great opportunities to influence young stude

is, am I the one to do it, or is the call to Milton more imperative? T

ecide what you had evidently settled before you called me. Do you consider that fair treatment, sir? It will serve you right if those biscuits I put in the oven when

. They can't possibly be any worse than those we had a week after we were mar

er's wife. She came close up to the desk and in a different

sive and impractical, but heart and soul, and body and m

to Milton it will be because you want to

l I answer the

decided, with my

you know I could not settle it wit

e hurried downstairs and Philip Strong, with a smile and a sigh, took up his pen and wrote replies to the two calls he had rece

ch light on his character and his purpose in going to Milton, that we will insert th

generally liked, I believe. He was a man of the old school, and made no attempt, I understand, to bring the church into contact with the masses. You will say that such a church is a poor place in which to attempt a different work. I do not necessarily think so. The Church of Christ is, in itself, I believe, a powerful engine to set in motion against all evil. I have great faith in the membership of almost any church in this country to accomplish wonderful things for humanity. And I am going to Milton with that faith very strong in me. I feel as if a very great work could be done there. Think of it, Alfred! A town of fifty thousand working men, half of them foreigners, a town with more than sixty saloons in full blast, a town with seven churches of many different denominations all situated on one street, and that street the most fashionable in the place, a town where the police records show an amount of crime and depravity almost unparalleled in municipal annals-surely such a place presents an opportunity for the true Church of Christ to do some splendid work. I hope I do not over-estimate the needs of the place. I have known the general condition of things in Milton ever since you and I did our summer work in the neighboring town of Clifton. If ever there was missionary ground in America, it is there. I cannot understand just why the call comes to me to go to a place and take up work that, in many ways, is so distasteful to me. In one sense I shrink from it with a sensitiveness which no one except my wife and you could understand. You know what

u do. We shall move to Milton next week, probably, so, if yo

to Milton. He regarded it, and rightly so, as the most serious step of his life; and while he had apparently decided the matter very quickly, it was, in reality, the result of a deep conviction that he ought to go. He was in the habit of making his decisions rapidly. This habit sometimes led