The letter which Philip had received, and which his wife now read, was
as follows:
REV. PHILIP STRONG,
Pastor Calvary Church, Milton:
DEAR SIR AND BROTHER:--The Seminary at Fairview has long been
contemplating the addition to its professorship of a chair of Sociology.
The lack of funds and the absolute necessity of sufficient endowment for
such a chair have made it impossible hitherto for the trustees to make
any definite move in this direction. A recent legacy, of which you have
doubtless heard, has made the founding of this new professorship
possible. And now the trustees by unanimous vote, have united upon you
as the man best fitted to fill this chair of Sociology. We have heard of
your work in Milton and know of it personally. We are assured you are
the man for this place. We therefore tender you most heartily the
position of Professor of Sociology at Fairview Seminary at a salary of
twenty-five hundred dollars a year and a preliminary year's absence,
either abroad or in this country, before you begin actual labors with
the Seminary.
With this formal call on the part of the trustees goes the most earnest
desire on the part of all the professors of the Seminary who remember
you in your marked undergraduate success as a student here. You will
meet with the most loving welcome, and the Seminary will be greatly
strengthened by your presence in this new department.
We are, in behalf of the Seminary,
Very cordially yours, THE TRUSTEES.
Here followed their names, familiar to both Philip and his wife.
There was a moment of astonished silence and then Sarah said:--
"Well, Philip, that's what I call the finger of Providence!"
"Do you call it the finger of Providence because it points the way you
want to go?" asked Philip, with a smile. But his face instantly grew
sober. He was evidently very much excited by the call to Fairview. It
had come at a time when he was in a condition to be very much moved by
it.
"Yes, Philip," replied his wife, as she smoothed back his hair from his
forehead, "it is very plain to me that you have done all that any one
can do here in Milton, and this call comes just in time. You are worn
out. The church is opposed to your methods. You need a rest and a
change. And besides, this is the very work that you have always had a
liking for."
Philip said nothing for a moment. His mind was in a whirl of emotion.
Finally he said, "Yes, I would enjoy such a professorship. It is a very
tempting call. I feel drawn towards it. And yet----" he hesitated--"I
don't know that I ought to leave Milton just now."
Mrs. Strong was provoked. "Philip Strong, you have lived this kind of
life long enough! All your efforts in Calvary Church are wasted. What
good have all your sermons done? It is all a vain sacrifice, and the end
will be defeat and misery for you. Add to all this the fact that this
new work will call for the best and most Christian labor, and that some
good Christian man will take it if you don't--and I don't see, Philip,
how you can possibly think of such a thing as refusing this
opportunity."
"It certainly is a splendid opportunity," murmured Philip. "I wonder why
they happened to pitch on me for the place!"
"That's easy enough. Every one knows that you could fill that chair
better than almost any other man in the country."
"Do you mean by 'every one' a little woman by the name of Sarah?" asked
Philip, with a brief return of his teasing habit.
"No, sir, I mean all the professors and people in Fairview and all the
thinking people of Milton and every one who knows you, Philip. Every one
knows that whatever else you lack, it isn't brains."
"I'd like to borrow a few just now, though, for I seem to have lost most
of mine. Lend me yours, won't you, Sarah, until I settle this question
of the call?"
"No, sir, if you can't settle a plain question like this with all your
own brains you couldn't do any better with the addition of the little I
have."
"Then do you really think, do you, Sarah, that I ought to accept this as
the leading of the Spirit of God, and follow without hesitation."
Mrs. Strong replied with almost tearful earnestness:
"Philip, it seems to me like the leading of his hand. Surely you have
shown your willingness and your courage and your sacrifice by your work
here. But your methods are distasteful, and your preaching has so far
roused only antagonism. Oh, I dread the thought of this life for you
another day. It looks to me like a suicidal policy, with nothing to show
for it when you have gone through with it."
Philip spread the letter out on the couch and his face grew more and
more thoughtful as he gazed into the face of his wife, and his mind went
over the ground of his church experience. If, only, he was, perhaps,
thinking, if only the good God had not given him so sensitive and
fine-tempered a spirit of conscientiousness. He almost envied men of
coarse, blunt feelings, of common ideals of duty and service.
His wife watched him anxiously. She knew it was a crisis with him. At
last he said:--
"Well, Sarah, I don't know but you're right. The spirit is willing, but
the flesh is weak. The professorship would be free from the incessant
worry and anxiety of a parish, and then I might be just as useful in the
Seminary as I am here--who knows?"
"Who knows, indeed!" exclaimed Sarah, joyfully; at the same time she was
almost crying. She picked up the letter and called Philip's attention to
the clause which granted him a year abroad in case he accepted. "Think
of that, Philip! Your dream of foreign travel can come true now."
"That is," Philip looked out of the window over the dingy roof of a shed
near by to the gloomy tenements, "that is, supposing I decide to
accept."
"Supposing! But you almost same as said----Oh, Philip, say you will! Be
reasonable! This is the opportunity of a lifetime!"
"That's true," replied Philip.
"You may not have another such chance as this as long as you live. You
are young now and with every prospect of success in work of this kind.
It is new work, of the kind you like. You will have leisure and means to
carry on important experiments, and influence for life young men
entering the ministry. Surely, Philip, there is as great opportunity for
usefulness and sacrifice there as anywhere. It must be that the will of
God is in this. It comes without any seeking on your part."
"Yes, indeed!" Philip spoke with the only touch of pride he ever
exhibited. It was pride in the knowledge that he was absolutely free
from self-glory or self-seeking.
"Then say you will accept. Say you will, Philip!"
The appeal, coming from the person dearest to him in all the world,
moved Philip profoundly. He took the letter from her hand, read it over
carefully, and again laid it down on the couch. Then he said:--
"Sarah, I must pray over it. I need a little time. You will have
reason----" Philip paused, as his habit sometimes was, and at that
moment the bell rang and Mrs. Strong went downstairs. As she went along
she felt almost persuaded that Philip would yield. Something of his tone
seemed to imply that the struggle in his mind was nearly ended.
The callers at the door were three men who had been to see Philip
several times to talk with him about the mill troubles and the labor
conflict in general. They wanted to see Philip. Mrs. Strong was anxious
about the condition of Philip's health. She asked the men to come in,
and went upstairs again.
"Can you see them? Are you strong enough?" she asked.
"Yes, tell them to come up. I am comfortable now."
Philip was resting easily, and after a careful look at him, Mrs. Strong
went downstairs.
To her surprise, two of the men had gone. The one who remained explained
that he thought three persons would excite or tire the minister more
than one; he had stayed and would not trouble Philip very long. But the
business on which he came was of such an important nature that he felt
obliged to see the minister if he could do so without danger to him.
So the man went up and Philip greeted him with his usual heartiness,
excusing himself for not rising. The man took a chair, moved up near the
couch, and sat down. He seemed a good deal excited, but in a suppressed
and cautious way.
"I came to see you, Mr. Strong, to tell you about a thing you ought to
know. There is danger of your life here."
"Where?" asked Philip, calmly.
"Here, in this neighborhood."
"Well?" Philip waited for more explanation.
"I didn't want to tell your wife, for fear of scaring her, but I thought
you ought to know, Mr. Strong, and then you could take steps to protect
yourself or get away."
"Go on; tell me the worst," said Philip, quietly, as the man paused.
"Well," the man went on in a low tone, "two others and me overheard a
talk last night by the men who run the Star Saloon and den down by the
Falls. They have a plan to waylay you, rob you and injure you, sir--and
do it in such a way as to make it seem a common hold-up. They seemed to
know about your habit of going around through the alleys and
cross-streets of the tenements. We heard enough to make us sure they
really and truly meant to deal foully by you the first good chance, and
we thought best to put you on your guard. The rummies are down on you,
Mr. Strong, you have been so outspoken against them; and your lecture in
the hall last week has made them mad, I tell you. They hate you worse
than poison, for that's the article they seem to sell and make a living
out of."
Philip had the week before addressed a large meeting of working-men, and
in the course of his speech he had called attention to the saloon as one
of the greatest foes of the wage-earner.
"Is that all?" Philip asked.
"All, man alive!--isn't it enough? What more do you hanker after?"
"Of course I don't 'hanker after' being held up or attacked, but these
men are mistaken if they think to frighten me."
"They mean more than frighten, Mr. Strong. They mean business."
"Why don't you have them arrested, then, for conspiracy? If you
overheard their talk they are guilty and could be convicted."
"Not in Milton, Mr. Strong. Besides, there was no name mentioned. And
the talk was scattering-like. They are shrewd devils. But we could tell
they meant you plain enough--not to prove anything in court, though."
"And you came to warn me? That was kind of you, my brother!" Philip
spoke with the winsome affection for men that made his hold on common
people like the grappling vine with loving tendrils.
"Yes, Mr. Strong, and I tell you the rummies will almost hold a
prayer-meeting when you leave Milton. And they mean to make you trouble
enough until you do leave. If I was you," the man paused, curiously--"if
I was you, I'd get up and leave this God-forsaken town, Mr. Strong."
"You would?" Philip glanced at the letter which still lay upon the couch
beside him. "Suppose I should say I had about made up my mind to do just
that thing?"
"Oh, no, Mr. Strong, you don't mean that!" The man made a gesture toward
Philip that revealed a world of longing and of hunger for fellowship
that made Philip's heart throb with a feeling of intense joy, mingled
with an ache of pain. The man at once repressed his emotion. It had been
like a lightning flash out of a summer cloud.
"Yes," said Philip, as if continuing, "I have been thinking of leaving
Milton."
"That might be best. You're in danger here. No telling when some harm
may come to you."
"Well, I'm thinking I might as well leave. My work here has been a
failure, anyway."
"What! A failure? Mr. Strong, you don't know the facts. There has never
been a minister in Milton who did so much for the poor and the
working-man as yourself! Let me tell you," the man continued, with an
earnestness that concealed an emotion he was trying to subdue, "Mr.
Strong, if you were to leave Milton now, it would be a greater loss to
the common people than you can imagine. You may not know it, but your
influence among us is very great. I have lived in Milton as boy and man
for thirty years, and I never knew so many laboring-men attend church
and the lectures in the hall as during the few months you have been
here. Your work here has not been a failure; it has been a great
success."
A tear stole out of Philip's eye and rolled down and fell with a warm
splash on the letter which lay beside him. If a $2,500 call could be
drowned by one tear, that professorship in Sociology in Fairview
Seminary was in danger.
"So you think the people in this neighborhood would miss me a little?"
he asked almost as modestly as if he were asking a great favor.
"Would they, Mr. Strong! You will never know what you have done for
them. If the mill-men were to hear of your leaving they would come down
here in a body and almost compel you to stay. I cannot bear to think of
your going. And yet the danger you are in, the whiskey men----"
Philip roused himself up, interrupting his visitor. The old-time flash
of righteous indignation shot out of his eyes as he exclaimed: "I am
more than half-minded to stay on that account! The rummies would think
they had beaten me out if I left!"
"Oh, Mr. Strong, I can't tell you how glad we would be if you would only
stay! And yet----"
"And yet," replied Philip, with a sad smile, "there are many things to
take into the account. I thank you out of my heart for the love you have
shown me. It means more than words can express." And Philip leaned back
with a wearied look on his face, which, nevertheless, revealed his deep
satisfaction at the thought of such friendship as this man had for him.
He was getting exhausted with the interview, following so soon on his
illness of the night before. The visitor was quick to notice it, and
after a warm clasp of hands he went away. Philip, lying there alone
while his wife was busy downstairs, lived an age in a few minutes. All
his life so far in Milton, the events of his preaching and his
experiences in the church, his contact with the workmen, his evident
influence over them, the thought of what they would feel in case he left
Milton to accept this new work, the dissatisfaction at the thought of an
unaccomplished work abandoned, the thought of the exultation of the
whiskey men--all this and much more surged in and out of his mind and
heart like heavy tides of a heaving ocean as it rushes into some deep
fissure and then flows back again with noise and power. He struggled up
into a sitting position, and with pain of body almost fell from the
couch upon his knees, and with his face bowed upon the letter, which he
spread out before him with both hands, he sobbed out a yearning cry to
his Master for light in his darkness.
It came as he kneeled down; and it did not seem to him at all strange or
absurd that as he kneeled, there came to his thought a picture of the
Brother Man. And he could almost hear the Brother Man say: "Your work is
in Milton, in Calvary Church yet. Except a man shall renounce all that
he hath he cannot be His disciple." It mattered not to Philip that the
answer to his prayer came in this particular way. He was not
superstitious or morbid, or given to yielding to impulse or fancy. He
lay down upon the couch again and knew in his heart that he was at peace
with God and his own conscience in deciding to stay with Calvary Church
and refuse the call to Fairview.