By this and by what he had seen at the convention, the old physician knew
that the hour in Dan's life for which he watched with such careful,
anxious interest, was drawing near.
With Hope gone out of his life he turned to his work with grim,
desperate, determination. What, indeed, had he now to which he might
turn but his work? He realized that now he must find in this work for
which he had made the supreme sacrifice of his life, the only thing that
would, to him, justify his choice--the choice that had cost both him and
the woman he loved so much suffering. His ministry had now become
something more to him than a chosen life work. To those high motives
that had led him to the service of the church, he added now the price he
had paid in giving up the woman who had grown so much into his life. He
_must_ find that in his ministry which would make the great price paid,
not in vain.
So, with all the strength of his great nature, he threw himself with
feverish energy into what had, in spite of himself, come to be a
too-empty ministry. Crushing every feeling of being misunderstood, and
unjustly criticized; permitting himself no thought that there were under
the surface treacherous currents working for his overthrow; blaming
himself always and others never, when he felt a lack of warmth or
sympathy in his people; yielding for the time even his own conviction as
to his teaching, and striving to shape his sermons to the established
lines of the Elders, he fought to put himself into his work.
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