pair of intelligent eyes under his shaggy brows regarding the preacher
as they might have regarded an animal in a zoo. Did they understand what
had been said? It was impossible to tell from their serious faces.

"Philanthropy has been called the dynamics of Christianity; that is to
say, it is Christianity in action," went on the preacher. "It is my
purpose this morning to speak upon the dynamics of altruism. Now
altruism is the theory that inculcates benevolence to others in
subordination to self-interest; interested benevolence as opposed to
disinterested; also, the practice of this theory."

He lifted his eyes to the audience once more and nodded his head
slightly, as if to emphasize the deep truth he had just given them, and
the battery of keen eyes before him never flinched from his face. They
were searching him through and through. Margaret wondered if he had no
sense of the ridiculous, that he could, to such an audience, pour forth
such a string of technical definitions. They sounded strangely like
dictionary language. She wondered if anybody present besides herself
knew what the man meant or got any inkling of what his subject was.
Surely he would drop to simpler language, now that he had laid out his
plan.

It never occurred to her that the man was trying to impress _her_ with
his wonderful fluency of language and his marvelous store of wisdom. On
and on he went in much the same trend he had begun, with now and then a
flowery sentence or whole paragraph of meaningless eloquence about the
"brotherhood of man"--with a roll to the r's in brotherhood.

Fifteen minutes of this profitless oratory those men of the wilderness
endured, stolidly and with fixed attention; then, suddenly, a sentence
of unusual simplicity struck them and an almost visible thrill went down
the front seat.

"For years the church has preached a dead faith, without works, my
friends, and the time has come to stop preaching faith! I repeat
it--fellow-men. I repeat it. The time has come _to stop preaching
faith_ and begin to do good works!" He thumped the desk vehemently. "Men
don't need a superstitious belief in a Saviour to save them from their
sins; they need to go to work and save themselves! As if a man dying two
thousand years ago on a cross could do any good to you and me to-day!"

It was then that the thrill passed down that front line, and Long Bill,
sitting at their head, leaned slightly forward and looked full and
frowning into