the Bible because the young man was evidently a Christian, and that
the text he had selected was the only appropriate one he could find.

The evening after the funeral, Charlie Bowen and Dick sat alone in the
reading room, for the hour was late and the others had all gone to
their homes. Charlie was speaking of the burial. "I tell you," he said,
"it looks mighty hard to see a man laid away by strangers who do not
even know his name, and that too, after dying all alone in the snow
like a poor dog. And to think that perhaps a mother is watching for
him to come home; and the hardest part is that he is only one of many.
In a cold snap like this, the amount of suffering among the poor and
outcast is something terrible. If only the bad suffered, one might not
feel so."

Dick made no reply, but sat staring moodily into the fire.

"I've studied on the matter a good bit lately," continued Charlie.
"Why is it that people are so indifferent to the suffering about them?
Is Udell right when he says that church members, by their own teaching,
prove themselves to be the biggest frauds in the world?"

"He is, so far as the church goes," replied Dick; "but not as regards
Christianity. This awful neglect and indifference comes from a _lack_
of Christ's teaching, or rather from a lack of the application of
Christ's teaching, and too much teaching of the church. The trouble
is that people follow the church and not Christ; they become church
members, but not Christians."

"Do you mean to say that the church ought to furnish a lodging place
for every stranger who comes to town?" asked Charlie.