In spite of his determination to get out and occupy his pulpit the first Sunday of the next month, Philip was reluctantly obliged to let five Sundays go by before he was able to preach.

During those six weeks his attention was called to a subject which he felt ought to be made the theme of one of his talks on Christ and Modern Society.

The leisure which he had for reading opened his eyes to the fact that Sunday in Milton was terribly desecrated.

Shops of all kinds stood wide open.
Excursion trains ran into the large city forty miles away, two theatres were always running with some variety show, and the saloons, in violation of an ordinance forbidding it, unblushingly flung their doors open and did more business on that day than any other.

As Philip read the papers, he noticed that every Monday morning the police court was more crowded with "drunks" and "disorderlies" than on any other day in the week, and the plain cause of it was the abuse of the day before.