The Crucifixion of Philip StrongSheldon, Charles M.
General
The Crucifixion of Philip Strong
Sheldon, Charles M.
Christian fiction
"Then, Philip, I don't see why you don't reply to their call and tell
them you will accept; and we will move at once to Elmdale, and live and
die there. It is a beautiful place, and I am sure we could live very
comfortably on the salary and the vacation. There is no vacation
mentioned in the other call."
"But, on the other hand," continued the minister, almost as if he were
alone and arguing with himself, and had not heard his wife's words, "on
the other hand, there is Milton, a manufacturing town of fifty thousand
people, mostly operatives. It is the centre of much that belongs to the
stirring life of the times in which we live. The labor question is there
in the lives of those operatives. There are seven churches of different
denominations, to the best of my knowledge, all striving after
popularity and power. There is much hard, stern work to be done in
Milton, by the true Church of Christ, to apply His teachings to men's
needs, and somehow I cannot help hearing a voice say, 'Philip Strong, go
to Milton and work for Christ. Abandon your dream of a parish where you
may indulge your love of scholarship in the quiet atmosphere of a
University town, and plunge into the hard, disagreeable, but necessary
work of this age, in the atmosphere of physical labor, where great
questions are being discussed, and the masses are engrossed in the
terrible struggle for liberty and home, where physical life thrusts
itself out into society, trampling down the spiritual and intellectual,
and demanding of the Church and the preacher the fighting powers of
giants of God to restore in men's souls a more just proportion of the
value of the life of man on earth.'
"So, you see, Sarah," the minister went on after a little pause, "I want
to go to Elmdale, but the Lord probably wants me to go to Milton."
Mrs. Strong was silent. She had the utmost faith in her husband that he
would do exactly what he knew he ought to do, when once he decided what
it was. Philip Strong was also silent a moment. At last he said, "Don't
you think so, Sarah?"
"I don't see how we can always tell exactly what the Lord wants us to
do. How can you tell that He doesn't want you to go to Elmdale? Are
there not great opportunities to influence young student life in a
University town? Will not some one go to Elmdale and become pastor of
that church?"
"No doubt there is a necessary work to be done there. The only question
is, am I the one to do it, or is the call to Milton more imperative? The
more I think of it, the more I am convinced that I must go to Milton."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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