hurch?"

"You have no business to meddle in our private affairs!" replied Mr.
Winter, angrily. "And if you intend to pursue that method of preaching,
I shall withdraw my support, and most of the influential, paying members
will follow my example."

It was a cowardly threat on the part of the excited mill-owner, and it
roused Philip more than if he had been physically slapped in the face.
If there was anything in all the world that stirred Philip to his
oceanic depths of feeling, it was an intimation that he was in the
ministry for pay or the salary, and so must be afraid of losing the
support of those members who were able to pay largely. He clenched his
fingers around the arms of his study-chair until his nails bent on the
hard wood. His scorn and indignation burned in his face, although his
voice was calm enough.

"Mr. Winter, this whole affair is a matter of the most profound
principle with me. As long as I live I shall believe that a Christian
man has no more right to rent his property for a saloon than he has to
run a saloon himself. And as long as I live I shall also believe that it
is a minister's duty to preach to his church plainly upon matters which
bear upon the right and wrong of life, no matter what is involved in
those matters. Are money and houses and lands of such a character that
the use of them has no bearing on moral questions, and they are
therefore to be left out of the preaching material of the pulpit? It is
my conviction that many men of property in this age are coming to regard
their business as separate and removed from God and all relation to Him.
The business men of to-day do not regard their property as God's. They
always speak of it as theirs. And they resent any 'interference,' as you
call it, on the part of the pulpit. Nevertheless, I say it plainly, I
regard the renting of these houses by you, and other business men in the
church, to the whisky men and the corrupters of youth as wholly wrong,
and so wrong that the Christian minister who would keep silent when he
knew the facts would be guilty of unspeakable cowardice and disloyalty
to his Lord. As to your threat of withdrawal of support, sir, do you
suppose I would be in the ministry if I were afraid of the rich men in
my congregation? It shows that you are not yet acquainted with me. It
would not hurt you to know me better!"

All the time Philip was talking, his manner was that of dignified
indignation. His anger was never coarse or