k. I would be
shamed before my Lord and Master if I did not declare His will in regard
to the uses of property. This question passes over from one of private
business, with which I have no right to meddle, into the domain of
public safety, where I have a right to demand that places which are
fatal to the life and morals of the young men and women of the town,
shall not be encouraged and allowed to subsist through the use of
property owned and controlled by men of influence in the community, and
especially by the members of Christ's body. My brother," Philip went on,
after a painful pause, "before God, in whose presence we shall stand at
last, am I not right in my view of this matter? Would not Christ say to
you just what I am now saying?"

Mr. Bentley shrugged his shoulders and said something about not trying
to mix up business and religion. Philip sat looking at the man, reading
him through and through, his heart almost bursting in him at the thought
of what a man would do for the sake of money. At last he saw that he
would gain nothing by prolonging the argument. He rose, and with the
same sweet frankness which characterized his opening of the subject, he
said, "Brother, I wish to tell you that it is my intention to speak of
this matter next Sunday, in the first of my talks on Christ and Modern
Society. I believe it is something he would talk about in public, and I
will speak of it as I think he would."

"You must do your duty, of course, Mr. Strong," replied Mr. Bentley,
somewhat coldly; and Philip went out, feeling as if he had grappled with
his first dragon in Milton, and found him to be a very ugly one and hard
to kill. What hurt him as much as the lack of spiritual fineness of
apprehension of evil in his church-member, was the knowledge that, as
Mr. Bentley so coarsely put it, his salary was largely paid out of the
rentals of those vile abodes. He grew sick at heart as he dwelt upon the
disagreeable fact; and as he came back to the parsonage and went up to
his cosey study, he groaned to think that it was possible through the
price that men paid for souls.

"And this, because society is as it is!" he exclaimed, as he buried his
face in his hands and leaned his elbows on his desk, while his cheeks
flushed and his heart quivered at the thought of the filth and vileness
the money had seen and heard which paid for the very desk at which he
wrote his sermons.

But Philip Strong was not one to give way at the first