“I think you’re wrong,” said Pat, in his queer, abrupt way.  “From what I can figure there was only a few of those guys got around Christ and knew what he really was!  You didn’t suppose it would be any different now, did you?  Guess you’ll find it that way everywhere, only a few real folks in any gang!”

Courtland looked at Pat in wonder.  He was a constant surprise to his friend, in that he grew so fast in the Christian life.  He had a little Bible that he had bought before he left the city.  It was small and fine and expensive, utterly unlike Pat, and he carried it with him always, apparently read it much.  He hadn’t been given to reading anything more than was required at college, so it was the more surprising.  He told Courtland he wanted to know the rules of the game if he was going to get in it.  His sturdy common-sense often gave Courtland something to think about.  Pat was bringing his new religion to bear upon his work.  He already had a devoted bunch of boys to whom he was dealing out wholesome truths beginning a new era in the school.  The head-master looked on in amazement, for morality hadn’t been one of the chief recommendations that the faculty of the university had given Pat.  They had, in fact, privately cautioned the school that they would have to watch out for such things themselves.  Instead, however, of finding a somewhat lawless man in their new coach, the head-master was surprised to discover a purity campaign on foot, a ban on swearing and cigarette-smoking such as they had never been able to establish before.  It came to their ears that Pat had personally conducted an offender along these lines out to the boundaries of the school grounds, well behind the gymnasium, where there was utmost privacy, and administered a good thrashing on his own account.  The faculty watched anxiously to see the effect of such summary treatment on the student body, but were relieved to find that the new coach’s following was in no wise diminished, and that better conduct began presently to be the order of the day.

Pat and Courtland were much together these days, and one Sunday afternoon in late October, while the sun was still warm, they took the athletic teams a long hike over the country.  When they sat down to rest Pat asked Courtland to tell the boys about Stephen, and the Presence.

That was the real beginning of Courtland’s ministry, those unexpected, spontaneous talks with the boys, where he could speak his heart and not be afraid of being misunderstood.

There were two or three professors in the seminary who struck Courtland as being profoundly spiritual and sincere in their lives.  They were old men, noted for their scholarship and their strong faith the world over.  They taught as Courtland imagined a prophet might have taught in the days of the Old Testament, with their ears ever open to see what the Lord would have them speak to the children of men.  At their feet he sat and drank in great draughts of