“I’ll find out,” said Dr. Bruce.

Two days later he walked into the business office of one of the members of Nazareth Avenue Church and asked to see him a few moments.  He was cordially received by his old parishioner, who welcomed him into his room and urged him to take all the time he wanted.

“I called to see you about that property next the Settlement where the Bishop and myself now are, you know.  I am going to speak plainly, because life is too short and too serious for us both to have any foolish hesitation about this matter.  Clayton, do you think it is right to rent that property for a saloon?”

Dr. Bruce’s question was as direct and uncompromising as he had meant it to be.  The effect of it on his old parishioner was instantaneous.

The hot blood mounted to the face of the man who sat there beneath a picture of business activity in a great city.  Then he grew pale, dropped his head on his hands, and when he raised it again Dr. Bruce was amazed to see a tear roll over his face.

“Doctor, did you know that I took the pledge that morning with the others?”

“Yes, I remember.”

“But you never knew how I have been tormented over my failure to keep it in this instance.  That saloon property has been the temptation of the devil to me.  It is the best paying investment at present that I have.  And yet it was only a minute before you came in here that I was in an agony of remorse to think how I was letting a little earthly gain tempt me into a denial of the very Christ I had promised to follow.  I knew well enough that He would never rent property for such a purpose.  There is no need, Dr. Bruce, for you to say a word more.”

Clayton held out his hand and Dr. Bruce grasped it and shook it hard.  After a little he went away.  But it was a long time afterwards that he learned all the truth about the struggle that Clayton had known.  It was only a part of the history that belonged to Nazareth Avenue Church since that memorable morning when the Holy Spirit sanctioned the Christ-like pledge.  Not even the Bishop and Dr. Bruce, moving as they now did in the very presence itself of divine impulses, knew yet that over the whole sinful city the Spirit was brooding with mighty eagerness, waiting for the disciples to arise to the call of sacrifice and suffering, touching hearts long dull and cold, making business men and money-makers uneasy in their absorption by the one great struggle for more wealth, and stirring through the church as never in all the city’s history the church had been moved.  The Bishop and Dr. Bruce had already seen some wonderful things in their brief life at the Settlement.  They were to see far greater soon, more astonishing revelations of the divine power than they had supposed possible in this age of the world.

Within a month the saloon next the Settlement was closed.  The saloon-keeper’s lease had expired, and Clayton not only closed the property to the whiskey men, but offered the building to the Bishop and Dr. Bruce to use for the Settlement work, which had now grown so large that the building they had first rented was not sufficient for the different industries that were planned.