"But it was a reaching out in the dark, a blind groping for something--Dan knew not exactly what: a restless but cautious feeling about for a place whereon to set his feet." It was the Sunday evening following the incidents just related that Dan was challenged. His sermon was on "Fellowship of Service," a theme very different from the subjects he had chosen at the beginning of his preaching in Corinth. The Doctor smiled as he listened, telling himself that the boy was already beginning to "reach out." As usual the Doctor was right. But it was a reaching out in the dark, a blind groping for something--Dan knew not exactly what: a restless but cautious feeling about for a place whereon to set his feet. With the sublime confidence of the newly-graduated, this young shepherd had come from the denominational granary to feed his flock with a goodly armful of theological husks; and very good husks they were too. It should be remembered that--while Dan had been so raised under the teachings of his home that, to an unusual degree his ideals and ambitions were most truly Christian--he knew nothing of life other than the simple life of the country neighborhood where he was born; he knew as little of churches. So that--while it was natural and easy for him to accept the husks from his church teachers at their valuation, being wholly without the fixed prejudice that comes from family church traditions--it was just as natural and easy for him to discover quickly, when once he was face to face with his hungry flock, that the husks were husks. From the charm of the historical glories of the church as pictured by the church historians, and from the equally captivating theories of speculative religion as presented by teachers of schools of theology, Dan had been brought suddenly in contact with actual conditions. In his experience of the past weeks there was no charm, no glory, no historical greatness, no theoretical perfection. There was meanness, shameful littleness--actual, repulsive, shocking. He was compelled to recognize the real need that his husks could not satisfy. It had been forced upon his attention by living arguments that refused to be put aside. And Big Dan was big enough to see that the husks did not suffice--consistent enough to cease giving them out. But the young minister felt pitifully empty handed. The Doctor had foreseen that Dan would very soon reach the point in his ministerial journey where he was now standing--the point where he must decide which of the two courses open to him he should choose.