It brought to the minister a vivid realization of how those words would sound the next Sunday when he should utter them before his people in the sacred hush of the church.
His people!--they WERE his people.

Could he do it?
Dare he do it?
Dare he not do it?
It was a fearful denunciation, even without the words that would follow--his own words.

He had prayed and prayed.

He had pleaded earnestly for help, for guidance.

He longed--oh, how earnestly he longed!--to take now, in this crisis, the right step.