ton, and this call comes just in time. You are worn
out. The church is opposed to your methods. You need a rest and a
change. And besides, this is the very work that you have always had a
liking for."

Philip said nothing for a moment. His mind was in a whirl of emotion.
Finally he said, "Yes, I would enjoy such a professorship. It is a very
tempting call. I feel drawn towards it. And yet----" he hesitated--"I
don't know that I ought to leave Milton just now."

Mrs. Strong was provoked. "Philip Strong, you have lived this kind of
life long enough! All your efforts in Calvary Church are wasted. What
good have all your sermons done? It is all a vain sacrifice, and the end
will be defeat and misery for you. Add to all this the fact that this
new work will call for the best and most Christian labor, and that some
good Christian man will take it if you don't--and I don't see, Philip,
how you can possibly think of such a thing as refusing this
opportunity."

"It certainly is a splendid opportunity," murmured Philip. "I wonder why
they happened to pitch on me for the place!"

"That's easy enough. Every one knows that you could fill that chair
better than almost any other man in the country."

"Do you mean by 'every one' a little woman by the name of Sarah?" asked
Philip, with a brief return of his teasing habit.

"No, sir, I mean all the professors and people in Fairview and all the
thinking people of Milton and every one who knows you, Philip. Every one
knows that whatever else you lack, it isn't brains."

"I'd like to borrow a few just now, though, for I seem to have lost most
of mine. Lend me yours, won't you, Sarah, until I settle this question
of the call?"

"No, sir, if you can't settle a plain question like this with all your
own brains you couldn't do any better with the addition of the little I
have."

"Then do you really think, do you, Sarah, that I ought to accept this as
the leading of the Spirit of God, and follow without hesitation."

Mrs. Strong replied with almost tearful earnestness:

"Philip, it seems to me like the leading of his hand. Surely you have
shown your willingness and your courage and your sacrifice by your work
here. But your methods are distasteful, and your preaching has so far
roused only antagonism. Oh, I dread the thought of this life for you
another day. It looks to me like a suicidal policy, with nothing to show
for it when you have gone through with it."

Philip spread the l