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The Story of Grenfell of the Labrador - A Boy's Life of Wilfred T. Grenfell by Dillon Wallace
page 17 of 199 (08%)
illimitable style, struck up the music. In a moment the vast audience
was singing as Grenfell had never heard an audience sing before. After
the hymn Moody spoke. Grenfell told me once that that sermon changed
his whole outlook upon life. He realized that he was a Christian in
name only and not in fact. His religious life was a fraud.

There and then he determined that he must be either an out and out
Christian or honestly renounce Christianity. With his home training
and teachings he could not do the latter. He decided upon a Christian
life. He would do nothing as a doctor that he could not do with a
clear conscience as a Christian gentleman. This he also decided: a
man's religion is something for him to be proud of and any one ashamed
to acknowledge the faith of his fathers is a moral coward, and a moral
coward is more contemptible than a physical coward. He also was
convinced that a boy or man afraid or ashamed to acknowledge his
religious belief could only be a mental weakling.

It was characteristic of Grenfell that whatever he attempted to do he
did with courage and enthusiasm. He never was a slacker. The hospital
to which he was attached was situated in the centre of the worst slums
of London. It occurred to him that he might help the boys, and he
secured a room, fitted it up as a gymnasium, and established a sort of
boys' club, where on Sundays he held a Bible study class and where he
gave the boys physical work on Saturdays. There was no Y.M.C.A. in
England at that time where they could enjoy these privileges. In the
beginning, there were young thugs who attempted to make trouble. He
simply pitched them out, and in the end they were glad enough to
return and behave themselves.

Grenfell and his brother, with one of their friends, spent the long
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