mmunity, as her Master is of the soul.

It seems to me that this is done in a church in Ottumwa, Iowa, of which
Dr. W. H. Hormell is minister. It is in a stock-yards district, and the
daily occupation of many of the members is unclean, of some revolting.
But the church is a dynamo of spiritual forces. It supplies the
experiences most opposite to those of the slaughter-house. A half-dozen
chapels in surrounding neighborhoods, most of them in the country, are
outposts of the church, for each of which a superintendent is
responsible: and thus a man who is an underling at the slaughter-house
is a leader in the quest of eternal life. The whole company of workers
with the pastor, constitute a spiritual cabinet of the district. It is
not surprising that this church fascinates men. The minister cannot be
persuaded away, and a like devotion pervades his group of workers. The
intensity of the industrial labor is matched by the intensity of Bible
study, prayer and evangelism. The degradation and repulsion of the
leading industry of the place are equalled by the unworldly nobility and
optimism of the leading church. This church does not attempt to mend the
community--which might be found impossible--but only to serve the
community by supplying the satisfaction for spiritual wants.

According to the law of diminishing returns, the first satisfactions of
any want have infinite value. What does this mean but that they have
religious value? The first drink of water to a famished man calls forth
a fervent "Thank, God." The first book printed is a Bible. The first
landing on American soil was a solemn religious occasion--and still is
for the immigrant. So the first gains of money are of religious value to
the poor. The first hundred dollars to a mechanic's family is invested
in a dozen benefits. The first thousand dollars which a working farmer
saves go into a home, a piano or books, or an education for a child. It
is all moral and spiritual good. Later thousands have diminishing moral
and spiritual values. Most of the churches and homes in America were
paid for out of the tithes of men and women who owned at the time a
margin of less than a thousand dollars.

This is the reason for the religious character of economic life. The
most of people spend their lives with less than a thousand dollars. They
are poor, and money does them good, not harm. They need to know how to
use it. But the getting of their living is a process prolific in
re