To express a very modern opinion in theology would disturb the churches—­the moral backers of the institution; to express an advanced idea in sociology would alienate the rich men—­the financial backers.  A month after I began my work I “supplied” the pulpit of a church in the New Haven suburbs called the Second Congregational Church of Fair Haven.  The chairman of the pulpit supply committee was a member of the Board of Directors of the Y.M.C.A.

Gradually I drifted away from the Association toward the church.  The former was building a new home and many people were glad of an excuse not to give anything toward its erection.  So any utterance of mine that seemed out of the common was held up to the solicitor.  An address on War kept the telephone ringing for days.  It was as if Christianity had never been heard of in New Haven.  Labour men asked that the address be printed and subscribed money that it might be done, but an appeal to the teachings of Jesus on the question of war was lauded by the sinners and frowned upon by the saints.

With the General Secretary I never had an unkind word.  Though a man of boundless energy he was a man in supreme command of himself.  We knew in a way that we were drifting apart and acted as Christians toward each other.  What more can men do?

Mr. Barnes, the director, who was chairman of the pulpit supply committee of the church, kept urging me to give my whole time to the church.  Every day for weeks he drove his old white horse to my door and talked it over.  I refused the call to the pastorate but divided my time between them.  For the Y.M.C.A. my duties were: 

  To conduct mass meetings for men in a theatre. 
  To organize the Bible departments and teach one of the classes. 
  Care and visiting of converts. 
  Daily office hour. 
  Literary work as associate editor of the weekly paper. 
  Writing of pamphlets. 
  To conduct boys’ meetings.

For the church: 

  To conduct regular Sunday services. 
  Friday night prayer meetings. 
  Men’s Bible class. 
  Visitation of sick and burial of the dead. 
  Class for young converts. 
  Children’s meetings.

At the same time I entered the Divinity School of Yale University, taking studies in Hebrew, New Testament Greek and Archaeology.  A little experience in the church taught me that intellectually I was leaving the ordinary type of church at a much quicker pace than I was leaving the Y.M.C.A.

Dr. Edward Everett Hale told a friend once that he preached to the South Church on Sunday morning so that he might preach to the world the rest of the week.  I told the officers of the church frankly that I was not the kind of man needed for their parish; but they insisted that I was, so I preached for them on Sunday that I might preach to a larger parish during the week.