uld not. There is not a particle of doubt in my mind
about it. What right has a disciple of Jesus Christ to spend for the
gratification of his physical aesthetic pleasures money which ought to
be feeding the hungry bodies of men or providing some useful necessary
labor for their activity?--I mean, of course, the gratification of those
senses which a man can live without. In this age of the world society
ought to dispense with some of its accustomed pleasures and deny itself
for the sake of the great suffering, needy world. Instead of that, the
members of the very Church of Christ on earth spend more in a single
evening's entertainment for people who don't need it than they give to
the salvation of men in a whole year. I protest out of the soul that God
gave me against such wicked selfishness. And I will protest if society
spurn me from it as a bigot, a puritan, and a boor. For society in
Christian America is not Christian in this matter--no, not after the
Christianity of Christ!"

"What can you do about it, Philip?" His wife asked the question sadly.
She had grown old fast since coming to Milton. And a presentiment of
evil would, in spite of her naturally cheery disposition, cling to her
whenever she considered Philip and his work.

"I can preach on it, and I will."

"Be wise, Philip. You tread on difficult ground when you enter society's
realm."

"Well, dear, I will be as wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove,
although I must confess I never knew just exactly how much that verse
meant. But preach on it I must and will."

And when the first Sunday of the month came, Philip did preach on it, to
the dismay of several members of his church who were in the habit of
giving entertainments and card parties on a somewhat elaborate scale.

He had never preached on the subject of amusements, and he stated that
he wished it to be plainly understood that he was not preaching on the
subject now. It was a question which went deeper than that, and took
hold of the very first principles of human society. A single passage in
the sermon will show the drift of it all.

"We have reached a time in the history of the world when it is the
Christian duty of every man who calls himself a disciple of the Master
to live on a simpler, less extravagant basis. The world has been living
beyond its means. Modern civilization has been exorbitant in its
demands. And every dollar foolishly spent to-day means suffering for
some one who ought to