And one or two visits made at the jail had not been helpful to him.

The man had refused each time to see the minister, and he had gone away feeling hungry in his soul for the man's redemption, and realizing something of the spirit of Christ when he was compelled to cry out: "They will not come unto me that they might have eternal life." That always seemed to Philip the most awful feature of the history of Christ--that the very people he loved and yearned after spit upon him and finally broke his heart with their hatred.
He continued his study of the problem of the town, believing that every place has certain peculiar local characteristics which every church and preacher ought to study.

He was struck by the aspect of the lower part of the town, where nearly all the poorer people lived.

He went down there and studied the situation thoroughly.

It did not take a very great amount of thinking to convince him that the church power in Milton was not properly distributed.