ther more
radical or less fashionable. What was it he sought? What did he wish?
To fill the church to overflowing with the poor and needy as well as the
rich, and to enter into the lives of all. Yet at a certain point he met
a resistance that was no less firm because it was baffling. The Word, on
his lips at least, seemed to have lost it efficacy. The poor heeded it
not, and he preached to the rich as from behind a glass. They went on
with their carnival. Why this insatiate ambition on his part in an age
of unbelief? Other clergymen, not half so fortunate, were apparently
satisfied; or else--from his conversation with them--either oddly
optimistic or resigned. Why not he?

It was strange, in spite of everything, that hope sprang up within him,
a recurrent geyser.

Gradually, almost imperceptibly, he found himself turning more and
more towards that line of least resistance which other churches were
following, as the one Modern Solution,--institutional work. After all,
in the rescuing of bodies some method might yet be discovered to revive
the souls. And there were the children! Hodder might have been likened
to an explorer, seeking a direct path when there was none--a royal road.
And if this were oblique it offered, at least, a definite outlet for his
energy.

Such was, approximately, the state of his mind early in March
when Gordon Atterbury came back from a conference in New York on
institutional work, and filled with enthusiasm. St. John's was
incredibly behind the times, so he told Hodder, and later the vestry.
Now that they had, in Mr. Hodder, a man of action and ability--ahem!
there was no excuse for a parish as wealthy as St. John's, a parish
with their opportunities, considering the proximity of Dalton Street
neighbourhood, not enlarging and modernizing the parish house, not
building a settlement house with kindergartens, schools, workshops,
libraries, a dispensary and day nurseries. It would undoubtedly be an
expense--and Mr. Atterbury looked at Mr. Parr, who drummed on the vestry
table. They would need extra assistants, deaconesses, trained nurses,
and all that. But there were other churches in the city that were ahead
of St. John's--a reproach--ahem!

Mr. Parr replied that he had told the rector that he stood ready to
contribute to such a scheme when he, the rector; should be ready to
approve it. And he looked at Mr. Hodder.

Mr. Hodder said he had been considering the matter ever since his
arrival. He