It was scarcely likely to be; for although Arthur Knight’s personal interest in his people and their well-being was great, he was even more solicitous in regard to his country. He rejoiced to know that from a thousand pulpits and platforms the imperative duty of the Church was being announced, and the need of Christian union insisted upon. To a great extent, he knew, and deplored the knowledge, that the Church had lost her hold upon the masses; and he thought that the coming contest would be a life and death struggle in more respects than one. Would she awake and put on her strength, and do the work to which God had appointed her in the emergency that was at hand? He did not know; but he hoped. If England would send to Westminster a body of picked men, pledged not to party or to politics, but to Christ and His kingdom, determined to make short work of even high positions and vested interests if they stood in the way of righteousness and the people’s good, a body of men of high character and sound sense and iron resolution, who were afraid of nothing but the sin that disgraced the nation, a body of men chosen by the united churches, and well-tested in the places they were to represent, who would fight together under one banner, “_For Christ and for the People_,” then, indeed, there was hope for the world and for the Church. But if not? During that time of stress it was noticed that Arthur Knight’s voice rang like a clarion. He spoke as he never had spoken before, and his urgent thought and impassioned speech roused many thousands of men. There was coming to be a look of stern determination on the faces of the people that had seldom been seen during many years; and they were making a promise—which they meant to keep—to themselves and one another, and even to God. This is what it was: That they would not rest until dishonesty and cruelty, drunkenness and impurity, were put away from the high places and the low places in England. Many sneeringly asked, “Do you hope to convert the world by Acts of Parliament?” and the reply was “No; we do not! Conversion is another matter; but we will so punish the perpetrators of these wrongs, and so restrict their power and influence, that they shall not insult the better sense of the English people as they have so long done in past years.” Committees were formed everywhere, and meetings were held in vestries and in chapels, for the Church at last realised what her business was, and meant to do it. In the very midst of the rush of meetings Arthur Knight stood aside for two days and let them go on without him. He disappointed many people; but he believed that he was doing something of the utmost importance while absenting himself from the meetings. He spent those two days in listening to and talking with the Rev. Peter Macdonald.