strange changes that have gone on since the war, the son of the old master has been reduced to poverty and obliged to work for a living.  He is now in this town.  He is this very day lying upon a sick bed in the tenement district.  And this black man has for several weeks out of his small earnings helped the son of his mother’s master and cared for him through his illness with all the devotion of a friend.

“I have only lately learned these facts.  But, knowing them as I do, and believing that he is as worthy to sit about this table as any Christian here, I cannot reconcile the rejection with my own purpose to unite here.  I therefore desire to withdraw my application for membership here.  Mr. Strong, I desire to be baptized and partake of the communion as a disciple of Christ, simply, not as a member of Calvary Church.  Can I do so?”

Philip replied in a choking voice:  “You can.”  The man sat down.  It was not the place for any demonstration, but again from the gallery came a slight but distinct note of applause.  As before, it instantly subsided as Philip looked up.  For a moment every one held his breath and waited for the minister’s action.  Philip’s face was pale and stern.  What his sensitive nature suffered in that moment no one ever knew, not even his wife, who almost started from her seat, fearing that he was about to faint.  For a moment there was a hesitation about Philip’s manner so unusual with him that some thought he was going to leave the church.  But he quickly called on his will to assert its power, and, taking up the regular communion service, he calmly took charge of it as if nothing out of the way had occurred.  He did not even allude to the morning’s incident in his prayers.  Whatever else the people might think of Philip, they certainly could find no fault with his self-possession.  His conduct of the service on that memorable Sunday was admirable.

When it was over he was surrounded by different ones who had taken part either for or against the sexton.  There was much said about the matter.  But all the arguments and excuses and comments on the affair could not remove the heart-ache from Philip.  He could not reconcile the action of the church with the spirit of the church’s Master, Jesus; and when he finally reached home and calmly reviewed the events of the morning, he was more and more grieved for the church and for his Master.  It seemed to him that a great mistake had been made, and that Calvary Church had disgraced the name of Christianity.

As he had been in the habit of doing since he moved into the neighborhood of the tenements, Philip went out in the afternoon to visit the sick and the sorrowful.  The shutting down of the mills had resulted in an immense amount of suffering and trouble.  As spring came on some few of the mills had opened, and men had found work in them at a reduction of wages.  The entire history of the enforced idleness of thousands of men in Milton during that eventful winter would