The Crucifixion of Philip StrongSheldon, Charles M.
General
The Crucifixion of Philip Strong
Sheldon, Charles M.
Christian fiction
So he began to plan for a series of Sunday-night services different from
anything Milton had ever known. His life in the tenement district and
his growing knowledge of the labor world had convinced him of the fact
that the church was missing its opportunity in not grappling with the
problem as it existed in Milton. It seemed to him that the first step to
a successful solution of that problem was for the church and the
working-man to get together upon some common platform for a better
understanding. He accordingly planned for a series of Sunday-night
services, in which his one great purpose was to unite the church and the
labor unions in a scheme of mutual helpfulness. His plan was very
simple. He invited into the meeting one or two thoughtful leaders of the
mill-men and asked them to state in the plainest terms the exact
condition of affairs in the labor world from their standpoint. Then he,
for the church, took up their statements, their complaints, or the
reasons for their differences with capital, and answered them from the
Christian standpoint: What would Christ advise under the circumstances?
He had different subjects presented on different evenings. One night it
was reasons why the mill-men were not in the church. Another night it
was the demand of men for better houses, and how to get them. Another
night it was the subject of strikes and the attitude of Christ on wages
and the relative value of the wage-earners' product and the capitalists'
intelligence. At each meeting he allowed one or two of the invited
leaders to take the platform and say very plainly what to his mind was
the cause and what the remedy for the poverty and crime and suffering of
the world. Then he closed the evening's discussion by a calm, clear
statement of what was to him the direct application of Jesus' teaching
to the point at issue.
Finally, as this series drew to a close at the end of the month, a
subject came up which roused intense feeling. It was the subject of
wealth, its power, responsibility, meaning, and Christian use. The
church was jammed in every part of it. The services had been so unusual,
the conduct of them had so often been intensely practical, the points
made had so often told against the existing Church that great mobs of
mill-men filed into the room and for the time took possession of Calvary
Church. For the four Sunday nights of that series Philip faced great
crowds, mostly of grown-up men, crowds that his soul yearned over with
unspeakable emotion, a wonderful audience for Calvary to witness, the
like of which Milton had never seen.
CHAPTER XX.
We cannot do better than give the evening paper account of this last
service in the series. With one or two slight exaggerations the account
was a faithful picture of one of the most remarkable meetings ever held
in Milton. The paper, after speaking of the series as a sensational
departure from the old church methods, went on to say:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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