been the source of
almost endless dispute among the church-members. Some said it was
inartistic; others said it was in keeping with the name of the church,
and had a right place there as part of its inner adornment. Once the
dispute had grown so large and serious that the church had voted as to
its removal or retention on the wall. A small majority had voted to
leave it there, and there it remained. It was perfectly white, on a
panel of thin wood, and stood out very conspicuously above the rear of
the platform. It was not directly behind the desk, but several feet at
one side.

Philip had never made any allusion in his sermons to this feature of
Calvary Church's architecture. People had wondered sometimes that with
his imaginative, poetical temperament he never had done so, especially
once when a sermon on the crucifixion had thrilled the people
wonderfully. It might have been his extreme sensitiveness, his shrinking
from anything like cheap sensation.

But now he stepped back--it was not far--and turning partly around, with
one long arm extended toward the cross as if in imagination, he saw the
Christ upon it, he exclaimed, "'Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away
the sin of the world!' Yes--

"'In the cross of Christ I glory,
Towering o'er the wrecks of time;
All the light of sacred story
Gathers round----'"

His voice suddenly ceased, he threw his arms up, and as he turned a
little forward toward the congregation he was seen to reel and stagger
back against the wall. For one intense tremendous second of time he
stood there with the whole church smitten into a pitying, horrified,
startled, motionless crowd of blanched staring faces, as his tall, dark
figure towered up with outstretched arms, almost covering the very
outlines of the cross, and then he sank down at its foot.

A groan went up from the audience. Several men sprang up the platform
steps. Mrs. Strong was the first person to reach her husband. Two or
three helped to bear him to the front of the platform. Sarah kneeled
down by him. She put her head against his breast. Then she raised her
face and said calmly, "He is dead."

The Brother Man was kneeling on the other side. "No," he said with an
indescribable gesture and untranslatable inflection, "he is not dead. He
is living in the eternal mansions of glory with his Lord!"

But the news was borne from lip to lip, "He is dead!" And that is the
way men speak of the body. And t