to
my house to accuse me unjustly of wronging you? I am willing to talk the
matter over in a friendly spirit, but I will not listen to personal
abuse."

There was something in the tone and manner of this declaration that
subdued the mill-owner a little. He was an older man than Philip by
twenty years, but a man of quick and ungoverned temper. He had come to
see the minister while in a heat of passion, and the way Philip received
him, the calmness and dignity of his attitude, thwarted his purpose. He
wanted to find a man ready to quarrel. Instead he found a man ready to
talk reason. Mr. Winter replied, after a pause, during which he
controlled himself by a great effort:

"I consider that you purposely selected me as guilty of conduct unworthy
a church-member and a Christian, and made me the target of your remarks
yesterday. And I wish to say that such preaching will never do in
Calvary Church while I am one of its members."

"Of course you refer to the matter of renting your property to saloon
men and to halls for gambling and other evil uses," said Philip,
bluntly. "Are you the only member of Calvary Church who lets his
property for such purposes?"

"It is not a preacher's business to pry into the affairs of his
church-members!" replied Mr. Winter, growing more excited again. "That
is what I object to."

"In the first place, Mr. Winter," said Philip, steadily, "let us settle
the right and wrongs of the whole business. Is it right for a Christian
man, a church-member, to rent his property for saloons and vicious
resorts, where human life is ruined?"

"That is not the question."

"What is?" Philip asked, with his eyes wide open to the other's face.

Mr. Winter answered sullenly: "The question is whether our business
affairs, those of other men with me, are to be dragged into the Sunday
church-services, and made the occasion of personal attacks upon us. I
for one will not sit and listen to any such preaching."

"But aside from the matter of private business, Mr. Winter, let us
settle whether what you and others are doing is right. Will you let the
other matter rest a moment, and tell me what is the duty of a Christian
in the use of his property?"

"It is my property, and if I or my agent choose to rent it to another
man in a legal, business way, that is my affair. I do not recognize that
you have anything to do with it."

"Not if I am convinced that you are doing what is harmful to the
community and to the c