coming to Boyd City and his search for employment. But the minister
knew nothing of Dick or his trouble. He had no particular incident in
mind; but simply desired to see a more practical working of
Christianity. In other words, he wished to see Christians doing the
things that Christ did, and using, in matters of the church, the same
business sense which they brought to bear upon their own affairs. He
thought of the poverty, squalor and wretchedness of some for whom
Christ died, and of the costly luxuries of the church into whose hands
the Master had given the care of these. He thought of the doors to
places of sin, swinging wide before the young, while the doors of the
church were often closed against them. He thought of the secret
societies and orders, doing the work that the church was meant to do,
and of the honest, moral men, who refused to identify themselves with
the church, though professing belief in Jesus Christ; and, thinking
of these things and more like them, he was forced to say that the
church must change her methods; that she must talk less and do more;
that she must rest her claims to the love of mankind where Christ
rested his; upon the works that He did.

He saw that the church was proving false to the Christ; that her service
was a service of the lips only; that her worship was form and
ceremony--not of the heart--a hollow mockery. He saw that she was not
touching the great problems of life; and that, while men were dying
for want of spiritual bread, she was offering them only the stones of
ecclesiastical pride and denominational egotism. He saw all this, and
yet,--because he was a strong man--remained full of love for Christ
and taught that those things were not Christianity but the lack of it;
and placed the blame where it justly belonged, upon the teaching and
doctrines of men, and not upon the principles of Christ; but upon the
shepherds, who fattened themselves, while the starving sheep grew thin