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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/4540-h.zip b/4540-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d3bb6a3 --- /dev/null +++ b/4540-h.zip diff --git a/4540-h/4540-h.htm b/4540-h/4540-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d87eb8b --- /dev/null +++ b/4540-h/4540-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,11426 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> + +<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<TITLE> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of In His Steps, by Charles M. Sheldon +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: small } + +P.letter {text-indent: 0%; + font-size: small ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.footnote {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.transnote {font-size: small ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +P.intro {font-size: 80% ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of In His Steps, by Charles M. Sheldon + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: In His Steps + +Author: Charles M. Sheldon + +Posting Date: August 11, 2009 [EBook #4540] +Release Date: October, 2003 +First Posted: February 5, 2002 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN HIS STEPS *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Aldarondo. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +In His Steps +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +by +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +Charles M. Sheldon +</H2> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter One +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +"For hereunto were ye called; because Christ also suffered for you, +leaving you an example, that ye should follow in his steps." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +It was Friday morning and the Rev. Henry Maxwell was trying to +finish his Sunday morning sermon. He had been interrupted several +times and was growing nervous as the morning wore away, and the +sermon grew very slowly toward a satisfactory finish. +</P> + +<P> +"Mary," he called to his wife, as he went upstairs after the last +interruption, "if any one comes after this, I wish you would say I +am very busy and cannot come down unless it is something very +important." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Henry. But I am going over to visit the kindergarten and you +will have the house all to yourself." +</P> + +<P> +The minister went up into his study and shut the door. In a few +minutes he heard his wife go out, and then everything was quiet. He +settled himself at his desk with a sigh of relief and began to +write. His text was from 1 Peter 2:21: "For hereunto were ye called; +because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that ye +should follow his steps." +</P> + +<P> +He had emphasized in the first part of the sermon the Atonement as a +personal sacrifice, calling attention to the fact of Jesus' +suffering in various ways, in His life as well as in His death. He +had then gone on to emphasize the Atonement from the side of +example, giving illustrations from the life and teachings of Jesus +to show how faith in the Christ helped to save men because of the +pattern or character He displayed for their imitation. He was now on +the third and last point, the necessity of following Jesus in His +sacrifice and example. +</P> + +<P> +He had put down "Three Steps. What are they?" and was about to +enumerate them in logical order when the bell rang sharply. It was +one of those clock-work bells, and always went off as a clock might +go if it tried to strike twelve all at once. +</P> + +<P> +Henry Maxwell sat at his desk and frowned a little. He made no +movement to answer the bell. Very soon it rang again; then he rose +and walked over to one of his windows which commanded the view of +the front door. A man was standing on the steps. He was a young man, +very shabbily dressed. +</P> + +<P> +"Looks like a tramp," said the minister. "I suppose I'll have to go +down and—" +</P> + +<P> +He did not finish his sentence but he went downstairs and opened the +front door. There was a moment's pause as the two men stood facing +each other, then the shabby-looking young man said: +</P> + +<P> +"I'm out of a job, sir, and thought maybe you might put me in the +way of getting something." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know of anything. Jobs are scarce—" replied the minister, +beginning to shut the door slowly. +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't know but you might perhaps be able to give me a line to +the city railway or the superintendent of the shops, or something," +continued the young man, shifting his faded hat from one hand to the +other nervously. +</P> + +<P> +"It would be of no use. You will have to excuse me. I am very busy +this morning. I hope you will find something. Sorry I can't give you +something to do here. But I keep only a horse and a cow and do the +work myself." +</P> + +<P> +The Rev. Henry Maxwell closed the door and heard the man walk down +the steps. As he went up into his study he saw from his hall window +that the man was going slowly down the street, still holding his hat +between his hands. There was something in the figure so dejected, +homeless and forsaken that the minister hesitated a moment as he +stood looking at it. Then he turned to his desk and with a sigh +began the writing where he had left off. +</P> + +<P> +He had no more interruptions, and when his wife came in two hours +later the sermon was finished, the loose leaves gathered up and +neatly tied together, and laid on his Bible all ready for the Sunday +morning service. +</P> + +<P> +"A queer thing happened at the kindergarten this morning, Henry," +said his wife while they were eating dinner. "You know I went over +with Mrs. Brown to visit the school, and just after the games, while +the children were at the tables, the door opened and a young man +came in holding a dirty hat in both hands. He sat down near the door +and never said a word; only looked at the children. He was evidently +a tramp, and Miss Wren and her assistant Miss Kyle were a little +frightened at first, but he sat there very quietly and after a few +minutes he went out." +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps he was tired and wanted to rest somewhere. The same man +called here, I think. Did you say he looked like a tramp?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, very dusty, shabby and generally tramp-like. Not more than +thirty or thirty-three years old, I should say." +</P> + +<P> +"The same man," said the Rev. Henry Maxwell thoughtfully. +</P> + +<P> +"Did you finish your sermon, Henry?" his wife asked after a pause. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, all done. It has been a very busy week with me. The two +sermons have cost me a good deal of labor." +</P> + +<P> +"They will be appreciated by a large audience, Sunday, I hope," +replied his wife smiling. "What are you going to preach about in the +morning?" +</P> + +<P> +"Following Christ. I take up the Atonement under the head of +sacrifice and example, and then show the steps needed to follow His +sacrifice and example." +</P> + +<P> +"I am sure it is a good sermon. I hope it won't rain Sunday. We have +had so many stormy Sundays lately." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, the audiences have been quite small for some time. People will +not come out to church in a storm." The Rev. Henry Maxwell sighed as +he said it. He was thinking of the careful, laborious effort he had +made in preparing sermons for large audiences that failed to appear. +</P> + +<P> +But Sunday morning dawned on the town of Raymond one of the perfect +days that sometimes come after long periods of wind and mud and +rain. The air was clear and bracing, the sky was free from all +threatening signs, and every one in Mr. Maxwell's parish prepared to +go to church. When the service opened at eleven o'clock the large +building was filled with an audience of the best-dressed, most +comfortable looking people of Raymond. +</P> + +<P> +The First Church of Raymond believed in having the best music that +money could buy, and its quartet choir this morning was a source of +great pleasure to the congregation. The anthem was inspiring. All +the music was in keeping with the subject of the sermon. And the +anthem was an elaborate adaptation to the most modern music of the +hymn, +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Jesus, I my cross have taken,<BR> + All to leave and follow Thee."<BR> +</P> + +<P> +Just before the sermon, the soprano sang a solo, the well-known +hymn, +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Where He leads me I will follow,<BR> + I'll go with Him, with Him, all the way."<BR> +</P> + +<P> +Rachel Winslow looked very beautiful that morning as she stood up +behind the screen of carved oak which was significantly marked with +the emblems of the cross and the crown. Her voice was even more +beautiful than her face, and that meant a great deal. There was a +general rustle of expectation over the audience as she rose. Mr. +Maxwell settled himself contentedly behind the pulpit. Rachel +Winslow's singing always helped him. He generally arranged for a +song before the sermon. It made possible a certain inspiration of +feeling that made his delivery more impressive. +</P> + +<P> +People said to themselves they had never heard such singing even in +the First Church. It is certain that if it had not been a church +service, her solo would have been vigorously applauded. It even +seemed to the minister when she sat down that something like an +attempted clapping of hands or a striking of feet on the floor swept +through the church. He was startled by it. As he rose, however, and +laid his sermon on the Bible, he said to himself he had been +deceived. Of course it could not occur. In a few moments he was +absorbed in his sermon and everything else was forgotten in the +pleasure of his delivery. +</P> + +<P> +No one had ever accused Henry Maxwell of being a dull preacher. On +the contrary, he had often been charged with being sensational; not +in what he had said so much as in his way of saying it. But the +First Church people liked that. It gave their preacher and their +parish a pleasant distinction that was agreeable. +</P> + +<P> +It was also true that the pastor of the First Church loved to +preach. He seldom exchanged. He was eager to be in his own pulpit +when Sunday came. There was an exhilarating half hour for him as he +faced a church full of people and know that he had a hearing. He was +peculiarly sensitive to variations in the attendance. He never +preached well before a small audience. The weather also affected him +decidedly. He was at his best before just such an audience as faced +him now, on just such a morning. He felt a glow of satisfaction as +he went on. The church was the first in the city. It had the best +choir. It had a membership composed of the leading people, +representatives of the wealth, society and intelligence of Raymond. +He was going abroad on a three months vacation in the summer, and +the circumstances of his pastorate, his influence and his position +as pastor of the First Church in the city— +</P> + +<P> +It is not certain that the Rev. Henry Maxwell knew just how he could +carry on that thought in connection with his sermon, but as he drew +near the end of it he knew that he had at some point in his delivery +had all those feelings. They had entered into the very substance of +his thought; it might have been all in a few seconds of time, but he +had been conscious of defining his position and his emotions as well +as if he had held a soliloquy, and his delivery partook of the +thrill of deep personal satisfaction. +</P> + +<P> +The sermon was interesting. It was full of striking sentences. They +would have commanded attention printed. Spoken with the passion of a +dramatic utterance that had the good taste never to offend with a +suspicion of ranting or declamation, they were very effective. If +the Rev. Henry Maxwell that morning felt satisfied with the +conditions of his pastorate, the First Church also had a similar +feeling as it congratulated itself on the presence in the pulpit of +this scholarly, refined, somewhat striking face and figure, +preaching with such animation and freedom from all vulgar, noisy or +disagreeable mannerism. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly, into the midst of this perfect accord and concord between +preacher and audience, there came a very remarkable interruption. It +would be difficult to indicate the extent of the shock which this +interruption measured. It was so unexpected, so entirely contrary to +any thought of any person present that it offered no room for +argument or, for the time being, of resistance. +</P> + +<P> +The sermon had come to a close. Mr. Maxwell had just turned the half +of the big Bible over upon his manuscript and was about to sit down +as the quartet prepared to arise to sing the closing selection, +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "All for Jesus, all for Jesus,<BR> + All my being's ransomed powers..."<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +when the entire congregation was startled by the sound of a man's +voice. It came from the rear of the church, from one of the seats +under the gallery. The next moment the figure of a man came out of +the shadow there and walked down the middle aisle. +</P> + +<P> +Before the startled congregation fairly realized what was going on +the man had reached the open space in front of the pulpit and had +turned about facing the people. +</P> + +<P> +"I've been wondering since I came in here"—they were the words he +used under the gallery, and he repeated them—"if it would be just +the thing to say a word at the close of the service. I'm not drunk +and I'm not crazy, and I am perfectly harmless, but if I die, as +there is every likelihood I shall in a few days, I want the +satisfaction of thinking that I said my say in a place like this, +and before this sort of a crowd." +</P> + +<P> +Henry Maxwell had not taken his seat, and he now remained standing, +leaning on his pulpit, looking down at the stranger. It was the man +who had come to his house the Friday before, the same dusty, worn, +shabby-looking young man. He held his faded hat in his two hands. It +seemed to be a favorite gesture. He had not been shaved and his hair +was rough and tangled. It is doubtful if any one like this had ever +confronted the First Church within the sanctuary. It was tolerably +familiar with this sort of humanity out on the street, around the +railroad shops, wandering up and down the avenue, but it had never +dreamed of such an incident as this so near. +</P> + +<P> +There was nothing offensive in the man's manner or tone. He was not +excited and he spoke in a low but distinct voice. Mr. Maxwell was +conscious, even as he stood there smitten into dumb astonishment at +the event, that somehow the man's action reminded him of a person he +had once seen walking and talking in his sleep. +</P> + +<P> +No one in the house made any motion to stop the stranger or in any +way interrupt him. Perhaps the first shock of his sudden appearance +deepened into a genuine perplexity concerning what was best to do. +However that may be, he went on as if he had no thought of +interruption and no thought of the unusual element which he had +introduced into the decorum of the First Church service. And all the +while he was speaking, the minister leaded over the pulpit, his face +growing more white and sad every moment. But he made no movement to +stop him, and the people sat smitten into breathless silence. One +other face, that of Rachel Winslow from the choir, stared white and +intent down at the shabby figure with the faded hat. Her face was +striking at any time. Under the pressure of the present unheard-of +incident it was as personally distinct as if it had been framed in +fire. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not an ordinary tramp, though I don't know of any teaching of +Jesus that makes one kind of a tramp less worth saving than another. +Do you?" He put the question as naturally as if the whole +congregation had been a small Bible class. He paused just a moment +and coughed painfully. Then he went on. +</P> + +<P> +"I lost my job ten months ago. I am a printer by trade. The new +linotype machines are beautiful specimens of invention, but I know +six men who have killed themselves inside of the year just on +account of those machines. Of course I don't blame the newspapers +for getting the machines. Meanwhile, what can a man do? I know I +never learned but the one trade, and that's all I can do. I've +tramped all over the country trying to find something. There are a +good many others like me. I'm not complaining, am I? Just stating +facts. But I was wondering as I sat there under the gallery, if what +you call following Jesus is the same thing as what He taught. What +did He mean when He said: 'Follow Me!'? The minister said,"—here he +turned about and looked up at the pulpit—"that it is necessary for +the disciple of Jesus to follow His steps, and he said the steps are +'obedience, faith, love and imitation.' But I did not hear him tell +you just what he meant that to mean, especially the last step. What +do you Christians mean by following the steps of Jesus? +</P> + +<P> +"I've tramped through this city for three days trying to find a job; +and in all that time I've not had a word of sympathy or comfort +except from your minister here, who said he was sorry for me and +hoped I would find a job somewhere. I suppose it is because you get +so imposed on by the professional tramp that you have lost your +interest in any other sort. I'm not blaming anybody, am I? Just +stating facts. Of course, I understand you can't all go out of your +way to hunt up jobs for other people like me. I'm not asking you to; +but what I feel puzzled about is, what is meant by following Jesus. +What do you mean when you sing 'I'll go with Him, with Him, all the +way?' Do you mean that you are suffering and denying yourselves and +trying to save lost, suffering humanity just as I understand Jesus +did? What do you mean by it? I see the ragged edge of things a good +deal. I understand there are more than five hundred men in this city +in my case. Most of them have families. My wife died four months +ago. I'm glad she is out of trouble. My little girl is staying with +a printer's family until I find a job. Somehow I get puzzled when I +see so many Christians living in luxury and singing 'Jesus, I my +cross have taken, all to leave and follow Thee,' and remember how my +wife died in a tenement in New York City, gasping for air and asking +God to take the little girl too. Of course I don't expect you people +can prevent every one from dying of starvation, lack of proper +nourishment and tenement air, but what does following Jesus mean? I +understand that Christian people own a good many of the tenements. A +member of a church was the owner of the one where my wife died, and +I have wondered if following Jesus all the way was true in his case. +I heard some people singing at a church prayer meeting the other +night, +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + 'All for Jesus, all for Jesus,<BR> + All my being's ransomed powers,<BR> + All my thoughts, and all my doings,<BR> + All my days, and all my hours.'<BR> +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +and I kept wondering as I sat on the steps outside just what they +meant by it. It seems to me there's an awful lot of trouble in the +world that somehow wouldn't exist if all the people who sing such +songs went and lived them out. I suppose I don't understand. But +what would Jesus do? Is that what you mean by following His steps? +It seems to me sometimes as if the people in the big churches had +good clothes and nice houses to live in, and money to spend for +luxuries, and could go away on summer vacations and all that, while +the people outside the churches, thousands of them, I mean, die in +tenements, and walk the streets for jobs, and never have a piano or +a picture in the house, and grow up in misery and drunkenness and +sin." +</P> + +<P> +The man suddenly gave a queer lurch over in the direction of the +communion table and laid one grimy hand on it. His hat fell upon the +carpet at his feet. A stir went through the congregation. Dr. West +half rose from his pew, but as yet the silence was unbroken by any +voice or movement worth mentioning in the audience. The man passed +his other hand across his eyes, and then, without any warning, fell +heavily forward on his face, full length up the aisle. Henry Maxwell +spoke: +</P> + +<P> +"We will consider the service closed." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter Two +</H3> + +<P> +Henry Maxwell and a group of his church members remained some time +in the study. The man lay on the couch there and breathed heavily. +When the question of what to do with him came up, the minister +insisted on taking the man to his own house; he lived near by and +had an extra room. Rachel Winslow said: +</P> + +<P> +"Mother has no company at present. I am sure we would be glad to +give him a place with us." +</P> + +<P> +She looked strongly agitated. No one noticed it particularly. They +were all excited over the strange event, the strangest that First +Church people could remember. But the minister insisted on taking +charge of the man, and when a carriage came the unconscious but +living form was carried to his house; and with the entrance of that +humanity into the minister's spare room a new chapter in Henry +Maxwell's life began, and yet no one, himself least of all, dreamed +of the remarkable change it was destined to make in all his after +definition of the Christian discipleship. +</P> + +<P> +The event created a great sensation in the First Church parish. +People talked of nothing else for a week. It was the general +impression that the man had wandered into the church in a condition +of mental disturbance caused by his troubles, and that all the time +he was talking he was in a strange delirium of fever and really +ignorant of his surroundings. That was the most charitable +construction to put upon his action. It was the general agreement +also that there was a singular absence of anything bitter or +complaining in what the man had said. He had, throughout, spoken in +a mild, apologetic tone, almost as if he were one of the +congregation seeking for light on a very difficult subject. +</P> + +<P> +The third day after his removal to the minister's house there was a +marked change in his condition. The doctor spoke of it but offered +no hope. Saturday morning he still lingered, although he had rapidly +failed as the week drew near its close. Sunday morning, just before +the clock struck one, he rallied and asked if his child had come. +The minister had sent for her at once as soon as he had been able to +secure her address from some letters found in the man's pocket. He +had been conscious and able to talk coherently only a few moments +since his attack. +</P> + +<P> +"The child is coming. She will be here," Mr. Maxwell said as he sat +there, his face showing marks of the strain of the week's vigil; for +he had insisted on sitting up nearly every night. +</P> + +<P> +"I shall never see her in this world," the man whispered. Then he +uttered with great difficulty the words, "You have been good to me. +Somehow I feel as if it was what Jesus would do." +</P> + +<P> +After a few minutes he turned his head slightly, and before Mr. +Maxwell could realize the fact, the doctor said quietly, "He is +gone." +</P> + +<P> +The Sunday morning that dawned on the city of Raymond was exactly +like the Sunday of a week before. Mr. Maxwell entered his pulpit to +face one of the largest congregations that had ever crowded the +First Church. He was haggard and looked as if he had just risen from +a long illness. His wife was at home with the little girl, who had +come on the morning train an hour after her father had died. He lay +in that spare room, his troubles over, and the minister could see +the face as he opened the Bible and arranged his different notices +on the side of the desk as he had been in the habit of doing for ten +years. +</P> + +<P> +The service that morning contained a new element. No one could +remember when Henry Maxwell had preached in the morning without +notes. As a matter of fact he had done so occasionally when he first +entered the ministry, but for a long time he had carefully written +every word of his morning sermon, and nearly always his evening +discourses as well. It cannot be said that his sermon this morning +was striking or impressive. He talked with considerable hesitation. +It was evident that some great idea struggled in his thought for +utterance, but it was not expressed in the theme he had chosen for +his preaching. It was near the close of his sermon that he began to +gather a certain strength that had been painfully lacking at the +beginning. +</P> + +<P> +He closed the Bible and, stepping out at the side of the desk, faced +his people and began to talk to them about the remarkable scene of +the week before. +</P> + +<P> +"Our brother," somehow the words sounded a little strange coming +from his lips, "passed away this morning. I have not yet had time to +learn all his history. He had one sister living in Chicago. I have +written her and have not yet received an answer. His little girl is +with us and will remain for the time." +</P> + +<P> +He paused and looked over the house. He thought he had never seen so +many earnest faces during his entire pastorate. He was not able yet +to tell his people his experiences, the crisis through which he was +even now moving. But something of his feeling passed from him to +them, and it did not seem to him that he was acting under a careless +impulse at all to go on and break to them this morning something of +the message he bore in his heart. +</P> + +<P> +So he went on: "The appearance and words of this stranger in the +church last Sunday made a very powerful impression on me. I am not +able to conceal from you or myself the fact that what he said, +followed as it has been by his death in my house, has compelled me +to ask as I never asked before 'What does following Jesus mean?' I +am not in a position yet to utter any condemnation of this people +or, to a certain extent, of myself, either in our Christ-like +relations to this man or the numbers that he represents in the +world. But all that does not prevent me from feeling that much that +the man said was so vitally true that we must face it in an attempt +to answer it or else stand condemned as Christian disciples. A good +deal that was said here last Sunday was in the nature of a challenge +to Christianity as it is seen and felt in our churches. I have felt +this with increasing emphasis every day since. +</P> + +<P> +"And I do not know that any time is more appropriate than the +present for me to propose a plan, or a purpose, which has been +forming in my mind as a satisfactory reply to much that was said +here last Sunday." +</P> + +<P> +Again Henry Maxwell paused and looked into the faces of his people. +There were some strong, earnest men and women in the First Church. +</P> + +<P> +He could see Edward Norman, editor of the Raymond DAILY NEWS. He had +been a member of the First Church for ten years. +</P> + +<P> +No man was more honored in the community. There was Alexander +Powers, superintendent of the great railroad shops in Raymond, a +typical railroad man, one who had been born into the business. There +sat Donald Marsh, president of Lincoln College, situated in the +suburbs of Raymond. There was Milton Wright, one of the great +merchants of Raymond, having in his employ at least one hundred men +in various shops. There was Dr. West who, although still +comparatively young, was quoted as authority in special surgical +cases. There was young Jasper Chase the author, who had written one +successful book and was said to be at work on a new novel. There was +Miss Virginia Page the heiress, who through the recent death of her +father had inherited a million at least, and was gifted with unusual +attractions of person and intellect. And not least of all, Rachel +Winslow, from her seat in the choir, glowed with her peculiar beauty +of light this morning because she was so intensely interested in the +whole scene. +</P> + +<P> +There was some reason, perhaps, in view of such material in the +First Church, for Henry Maxwell's feeling of satisfaction whenever +he considered his parish as he had the previous Sunday. There was an +unusually large number of strong, individual characters who claimed +membership there. But as he noted their faces this morning he was +simply wondering how many of them would respond to the strange +proposition he was about to make. He continued slowly, taking time +to choose his words carefully, and giving the people an impression +they had never felt before, even when he was at his best with his +most dramatic delivery. +</P> + +<P> +"What I am going to propose now is something which ought not to +appear unusual or at all impossible of execution. Yet I am aware +that it will be so regarded by a large number, perhaps, of the +members of this church. But in order that we may have a thorough +understanding of what we are considering, I will put my proposition +very plainly, perhaps bluntly. I want volunteers from the First +Church who will pledge themselves, earnestly and honestly for an +entire year, not to do anything without first asking the question, +'What would Jesus do?' And after asking that question, each one will +follow Jesus as exactly as he knows how, no matter what the result +may be. I will of course include myself in this company of +volunteers, and shall take for granted that my church here will not +be surprised at my future conduct, as based upon this standard of +action, and will not oppose whatever is done if they think Christ +would do it. Have I made my meaning clear? At the close of the +service I want all those members who are willing to join such a +company to remain and we will talk over the details of the plan. Our +motto will be, 'What would Jesus do?' Our aim will be to act just as +He would if He was in our places, regardless of immediate results. +In other words, we propose to follow Jesus' steps as closely and as +literally as we believe He taught His disciples to do. And those who +volunteer to do this will pledge themselves for an entire year, +beginning with today, so to act." +</P> + +<P> +Henry Maxwell paused again and looked out over his people. It is not +easy to describe the sensation that such a simple proposition +apparently made. Men glanced at one another in astonishment. It was +not like Henry Maxwell to define Christian discipleship in this way. +There was evident confusion of thought over his proposition. It was +understood well enough, but there was, apparently, a great +difference of opinion as to the application of Jesus' teaching and +example. +</P> + +<P> +He calmly closed the service with a brief prayer. The organist began +his postlude immediately after the benediction and the people began +to go out. There was a great deal of conversation. Animated groups +stood all over the church discussing the minister's proposition. It +was evidently provoking great discussion. After several minutes he +asked all who expected to remain to pass into the lecture-room which +joined the large room on the side. He was himself detained at the +front of the church talking with several persons there, and when he +finally turned around, the church was empty. He walked over to the +lecture-room entrance and went in. He was almost startled to see the +people who were there. He had not made up his mind about any of his +members, but he had hardly expected that so many were ready to enter +into such a literal testing of their Christian discipleship as now +awaited him. There were perhaps fifty present, among them Rachel +Winslow and Virginia Page, Mr. Norman, President Marsh, Alexander +Powers the railroad superintendent, Milton Wright, Dr. West and +Jasper Chase. +</P> + +<P> +He closed the door of the lecture-room and went and stood before the +little group. His face was pale and his lips trembled with genuine +emotion. It was to him a genuine crisis in his own life and that of +his parish. No man can tell until he is moved by the Divine Spirit +what he may do, or how he may change the current of a lifetime of +fixed habits of thought and speech and action. Henry Maxwell did +not, as we have said, yet know himself all that he was passing +through, but he was conscious of a great upheaval in his definition +of Christian discipleship, and he was moved with a depth of feeling +he could not measure as he looked into the faces of those men and +women on this occasion. +</P> + +<P> +It seemed to him that the most fitting word to be spoken first was +that of prayer. He asked them all to pray with him. And almost with +the first syllable he uttered there was a distinct presence of the +Spirit felt by them all. As the prayer went on, this presence grew +in power. They all felt it. The room was filled with it as plainly +as if it had been visible. When the prayer closed there was a +silence that lasted several moments. All the heads were bowed. Henry +Maxwell's face was wet with tears. If an audible voice from heaven +had sanctioned their pledge to follow the Master's steps, not one +person present could have felt more certain of the divine blessing. +And so the most serious movement ever started in the First Church of +Raymond was begun. +</P> + +<P> +"We all understand," said he, speaking very quietly, "what we have +undertaken to do. We pledge ourselves to do everything in our daily +lives after asking the question, 'What would Jesus do?' regardless +of what may be the result to us. Some time I shall be able to tell +you what a marvelous change has come over my life within a week's +time. I cannot now. But the experience I have been through since +last Sunday has left me so dissatisfied with my previous definition +of Christian discipleship that I have been compelled to take this +action. I did not dare begin it alone. I know that I am being led by +the hand of divine love in all this. The same divine impulse must +have led you also. +</P> + +<P> +"Do we understand fully what we have undertaken?" +</P> + +<P> +"I want to ask a question," said Rachel Winslow. Every one turned +towards her. Her face glowed with a beauty that no physical +loveliness could ever create. +</P> + +<P> +"I am a little in doubt as to the source of our knowledge concerning +what Jesus would do. Who is to decide for me just what He would do +in my case? It is a different age. There are many perplexing +questions in our civilization that are not mentioned in the +teachings of Jesus. How am I going to tell what He would do?" +</P> + +<P> +"There is no way that I know of," replied the pastor, "except as we +study Jesus through the medium of the Holy Spirit. You remember what +Christ said speaking to His disciples about the Holy Spirit: +'Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you +into all the truth: for he shall not speak from himself; but what +things soever he shall hear, these shall he speak: and he shall +declare unto you the things that are to come. He shall glorify me; +for he shall take of mine, and shall declare it unto you. All things +whatsoever the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he +taketh of mine, and shall declare it unto you.' There is no other +test that I know of. We shall all have to decide what Jesus would do +after going to that source of knowledge." +</P> + +<P> +"What if others say of us, when we do certain things, that Jesus +would not do so?" asked the superintendent of railroads. +</P> + +<P> +"We cannot prevent that. But we must be absolutely honest with +ourselves. The standard of Christian action cannot vary in most of +our acts." +</P> + +<P> +"And yet what one church member thinks Jesus would do, another +refuses to accept as His probable course of action. What is to +render our conduct uniformly Christ-like? Will it be possible to +reach the same conclusions always in all cases?" asked President +Marsh. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Maxwell was silent some time. Then he answered, "No; I don't +know that we can expect that. But when it comes to a genuine, +honest, enlightened following of Jesus' steps, I cannot believe +there will be any confusion either in our own minds or in the +judgment of others. We must be free from fanaticism on one hand and +too much caution on the other. If Jesus' example is the example for +the world to follow, it certainly must be feasible to follow it. But +we need to remember this great fact. After we have asked the Spirit +to tell us what Jesus would do and have received an answer to it, we +are to act regardless of the results to ourselves. Is that +understood?" +</P> + +<P> +All the faces in the room were raised towards the minister in solemn +assent. There was no misunderstanding that proposition. Henry +Maxwell's face quivered again as he noted the president of the +Endeavor Society with several members seated back of the older men +and women. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter Three +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +"He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also to walk even as +He walked." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +EDWARD NORMAN, editor of the Raymond DAILY NEWS, sat in his office +room Monday morning and faced a new world of action. He had made his +pledge in good faith to do everything after asking "What would Jesus +do?" and, as he supposed, with his eyes open to all the possible +results. But as the regular life of the paper started on another +week's rush and whirl of activity, he confronted it with a degree of +hesitation and a feeling nearly akin to fear. +</P> + +<P> +He had come down to the office very early, and for a few minutes was +by himself. He sat at his desk in a growing thoughtfulness that +finally became a desire which he knew was as great as it was +unusual. He had yet to learn, with all the others in that little +company pledged to do the Christlike thing, that the Spirit of Life +was moving in power through his own life as never before. He rose +and shut his door, and then did what he had not done for years. He +kneeled down by his desk and prayed for the Divine Presence and +wisdom to direct him. +</P> + +<P> +He rose with the day before him, and his promise distinct and clear +in his mind. "Now for action," he seemed to say. But he would be led +by events as fast as they came on. +</P> + +<P> +He opened his door and began the routine of the office work. The +managing editor had just come in and was at his desk in the +adjoining room. One of the reporters there was pounding out +something on a typewriter. Edward Norman began to write an +editorial. The DAILY NEWS was an evening paper, and Norman usually +completed his leading editorial before nine o'clock. +</P> + +<P> +He had been writing for fifteen minutes when the managing editor +called out: "Here's this press report of yesterday's prize fight at +the Resort. It will make up three columns and a half. I suppose it +all goes in?" +</P> + +<P> +Norman was one of those newspaper men who keep an eye on every +detail of the paper. The managing editor always consulted his chief +in matters of both small and large importance. Sometimes, as in this +case, it was merely a nominal inquiry. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes—No. Let me see it." +</P> + +<P> +He took the type-written matter just as it came from the telegraph +editor and ran over it carefully. Then he laid the sheets down on +his desk and did some very hard thinking. +</P> + +<P> +"We won't run this today," he said finally. +</P> + +<P> +The managing editor was standing in the doorway between the two +rooms. He was astounded at his chief's remark, and thought he had +perhaps misunderstood him. +</P> + +<P> +"What did you say?" +</P> + +<P> +"Leave it out. We won't use it." +</P> + +<P> +"But—" The managing editor was simply dumbfounded. He stared at +Norman as if the man was out of his mind. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think, Clark, that it ought to be printed, and that's the +end of it," said Norman, looking up from his desk. +</P> + +<P> +Clark seldom had any words with the chief. His word had always been +law in the office and he had seldom been known to change his mind. +The circumstances now, however, seemed to be so extraordinary that +Clark could not help expressing himself. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you mean that the paper is to go to press without a word of the +prize fight in it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. That's what I mean." +</P> + +<P> +"But it's unheard of. All the other papers will print it. What will +our subscribers say? Why, it is simply—" Clark paused, unable to +find words to say what he thought. +</P> + +<P> +Norman looked at Clark thoughtfully. The managing editor was a +member of a church of a different denomination from that of +Norman's. The two men had never talked together on religious matters +although they had been associated on the paper for several years. +</P> + +<P> +"Come in here a minute, Clark, and shut the door," said Norman. +</P> + +<P> +Clark came in and the two men faced each other alone. Norman did not +speak for a minute. Then he said abruptly: "Clark, if Christ was +editor of a daily paper, do you honestly think He would print three +columns and a half of prize fight in it?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, I don't suppose He would." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, that's my only reason for shutting this account out of the +NEWS. I have decided not to do a thing in connection with the paper +for a whole year that I honestly believe Jesus would not do." +</P> + +<P> +Clark could not have looked more amazed if the chief had suddenly +gone crazy. In fact, he did think something was wrong, though Mr. +Norman was one of the last men in the world, in his judgment, to +lose his mind. +</P> + +<P> +"What effect will that have on the paper?" he finally managed to ask +in a faint voice. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you think?" asked Norman with a keen glance. +</P> + +<P> +"I think it will simply ruin the paper," replied Clark promptly. He +was gathering up his bewildered senses, and began to remonstrate, +"Why, it isn't feasible to run a paper nowadays on any such basis. +It's too ideal. The world isn't ready for it. You can't make it pay. +Just as sure as you live, if you shut out this prize fight report +you will lose hundreds of subscribers. It doesn't take a prophet to +see that. The very best people in town are eager to read it. They +know it has taken place, and when they get the paper this evening +they will expect half a page at least. Surely, you can't afford to +disregard the wishes of the public to such an extent. It will be a +great mistake if you do, in my opinion." +</P> + +<P> +Norman sat silent a minute. Then he spoke gently but firmly. +</P> + +<P> +"Clark, what in your honest opinion is the right standard for +determining conduct? Is the only right standard for every one, the +probable action of Jesus Christ? Would you say that the highest, +best law for a man to live by was contained in asking the question, +What would Jesus do?' And then doing it regardless of results? In +other words, do you think men everywhere ought to follow Jesus' +example as closely as they can in their daily lives?" Clark turned +red, and moved uneasily in his chair before he answered the editor's +question. +</P> + +<P> +"Why—yes—I suppose if you put it on the ground of what men ought +to do there is no other standard of conduct. But the question is, +What is feasible? Is it possible to make it pay? To succeed in the +newspaper business we have got to conform to custom and the +recognized methods of society. We can't do as we would in an ideal +world." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you mean that we can't run the paper strictly on Christian +principles and make it succeed?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, that's just what I mean. It can't be done. We'll go bankrupt +in thirty days." +</P> + +<P> +Norman did not reply at once. He was very thoughtful. +</P> + +<P> +"We shall have occasion to talk this over again, Clark. Meanwhile I +think we ought to understand each other frankly. I have pledged +myself for a year to do everything connected with the paper after +answering the question, What would Jesus do?' as honestly as +possible. I shall continue to do this in the belief that not only +can we succeed but that we can succeed better than we ever did." +</P> + +<P> +Clark rose. "The report does not go in?" +</P> + +<P> +"It does not. There is plenty of good material to take its place, +and you know what it is." +</P> + +<P> +Clark hesitated. "Are you going to say anything about the absence of +the report?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, let the paper go to press as if there had been no such thing as +a prize fight yesterday." +</P> + +<P> +Clark walked out of the room to his own desk feeling as if the +bottom had dropped out of everything. He was astonished, bewildered, +excited and considerably angered. His great respect for Norman +checked his rising indignation and disgust, but with it all was a +feeling of growing wonder at the sudden change of motive which had +entered the office of the DAILY NEWS and threatened, as he firmly +believed, to destroy it. +</P> + +<P> +Before noon every reporter, pressman and employee on the DAILY NEWS +was informed of the remarkable fact that the paper was going to +press without a word in it about the famous prize fight of Sunday. +The reporters were simply astonished beyond measure at the +announcement of the fact. Every one in the stereotyping and +composing rooms had something to say about the unheard of omission. +Two or three times during the day when Mr. Norman had occasion to +visit the composing rooms the men stopped their work or glanced +around their cases looking at him curiously. He knew that he was +being observed, but said nothing and did not appear to note it. +</P> + +<P> +There had been several minor changes in the paper, suggested by the +editor, but nothing marked. He was waiting and thinking deeply. +</P> + +<P> +He felt as if he needed time and considerable opportunity for the +exercise of his best judgment in several matters before he answered +his ever present question in the right way. It was not because there +were not a great many things in the life of the paper that were +contrary to the spirit of Christ that he did not act at once, but +because he was yet honestly in doubt concerning what action Jesus +would take. +</P> + +<P> +When the DAILY NEWS came out that evening it carried to its +subscribers a distinct sensation. +</P> + +<P> +The presence of the report of the prize fight could not have +produced anything equal to the effect of its omission. Hundreds of +men in the hotels and stores down town, as well as regular +subscribers, eagerly opened the paper and searched it through for +the account of the great fight; not finding it, they rushed to the +NEWS stands and bought other papers. Even the newsboys had not a +understood the fact of omission. One of them was calling out "DAILY +NEWS! Full 'count great prize fight 't Resort. NEWS, sir?" +</P> + +<P> +A man on the corner of the avenue close by the NEWS office bought +the paper, looked over its front page hurriedly and then angrily +called the boy back. +</P> + +<P> +"Here, boy! What's the matter with your paper? There's no prize +fight here! What do you mean by selling old papers?" +</P> + +<P> +"Old papers nuthin'!" replied the boy indignantly. "Dat's today's +paper. What's de matter wid you?" +</P> + +<P> +"But there is no account of the prize fight here! Look!" +</P> + +<P> +The man handed back the paper and the boy glanced at k hurriedly. +Then he whistled, while a bewildered look crept over his face. +Seeing another boy running by with papers he called out "Say, Sam, +le'me see your pile." A hasty examination revealed the remarkable +fact that all the copies of the NEWS were silent on the subject of +the prize fight. +</P> + +<P> +"Here, give me another paper!" shouted the customer; "one with the +prize fight account." +</P> + +<P> +He received it and walked off, while the two boys remained comparing +notes and lost in wonder at the result. "Sump'n slipped a cog in the +Newsy, sure," said the first boy. But he couldn't tell why, and ran +over to the NEWS office to find out. +</P> + +<P> +There were several other boys at the delivery room and they were all +excited and disgusted. The amount of slangy remonstrance hurled at +the clerk back of the long counter would have driven any one else to +despair. +</P> + +<P> +He was used to more or less of it all the time, and consequently +hardened to it. Mr. Norman was just coming downstairs on his way +home, and he paused as he went by the door of the delivery room and +looked in. +</P> + +<P> +"What's the matter here, George?" he asked the clerk as he noted the +unusual confusion. +</P> + +<P> +"The boys say they can't sell any copies of the NEWS tonight because +the prize fight isn't in it," replied George, looking curiously at +the editor as so many of the employees had done during the day. Mr. +Norman hesitated a moment, then walked into the room and confronted +the boys. +</P> + +<P> +"How many papers are there here? Boys, count them out, and I'll buy +them tonight." +</P> + +<P> +There was a combined stare and a wild counting of papers on the part +of the boys. +</P> + +<P> +"Give them their money, George, and if any of the other boys come in +with the same complaint buy their unsold copies. Is that fair?" he +asked the boys who were smitten into unusual silence by the unheard +of action on the part of the editor. +</P> + +<P> +"Fair! Well, I should—But will you keep this up? Will dis be a +continual performance for the benefit of de fraternity?" +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Norman smiled slightly but he did not think it was necessary to +answer the question. +</P> + +<P> +He walked out of the office and went home. On the way he could not +avoid that constant query, "Would Jesus have done it?" It was not so +much with reference to this last transaction as to the entire motive +that had urged him on since he had made the promise. +</P> + +<P> +The newsboys were necessarily sufferers through the action he had +taken. Why should they lose money by it? They were not to blame. He +was a rich man and could afford to put a little brightness into +their lives if he chose to do it. He believed, as he went on his way +home, that Jesus would have done either what he did or something +similar in order to be free from any possible feeling of injustice. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter Four +</H3> + +<P> +DURING the week he was in receipt of numerous letters commenting on +the absence from the News of the account of the prize fight. Two or +three of these letters may be of interest. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +Editor of the News: +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +Dear Sir—I have been thinking for some time of changing my paper. I +want a journal that is up to the times, progressive and +enterprising, supplying the public demand at all points. The recent +freak of your paper in refusing to print the account of the famous +contest at the Resort has decided me finally to change my paper. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +Please discontinue it. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +Very truly yours,———- +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Here followed the name of a business man who had been a subscriber +for many years. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +Edward Norman, +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +Editor of the Daily News, Raymond: +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +Dear Ed.—What is this sensation you have given the people of your +burg? What new policy have you taken up? Hope you don't intend to +try the "Reform Business" through the avenue of the press. It's +dangerous to experiment much along that line. Take my advice and +stick to the enterprising modern methods you have made so successful +for the News. The public wants prize fights and such. Give it what +it wants, and let some one else do the reforming business. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +Yours,———- +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Here followed the name of one of Norman's old friends, the editor of +a daily in an adjoining town. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +My Dear Mr. Norman: +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +I hasten to write you a note of appreciation for the evident +carrying out of your promise. It is a splendid beginning and no one +feels the value of it more than I do. I know something of what it +will cost you, but not all. Your pastor, +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +HENRY MAXWELL. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +One other letter which he opened immediately after reading this from +Maxwell revealed to him something of the loss to his business that +possibly awaited him. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +Mr. Edward Norman, +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +Editor of the Daily News: +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +Dear Sir—At the expiration of my advertising limit, you will do me +the favor not to continue it as you have done heretofore. I enclose +check for payment in full and shall consider my account with your +paper closed after date. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +Very truly yours,———- +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Here followed the name of one of the largest dealers in tobacco in +the city. He had been in the habit of inserting a column of +conspicuous advertising and paying for it a very large price. +</P> + +<P> +Norman laid this letter down thoughtfully, and then after a moment +he took up a copy of his paper and looked through the advertising +columns. There was no connection implied in the tobacco merchant's +letter between the omission of the prize fight and the withdrawal of +the advertisement, but he could not avoid putting the two together. +In point of fact, he afterward learned that the tobacco dealer +withdrew his advertisement because he had heard that the editor of +the NEWS was about to enter upon some queer reform policy that would +be certain to reduce its subscription list. +</P> + +<P> +But the letter directed Norman's attention to the advertising phase +of his paper. He had not considered this before. +</P> + +<P> +As he glanced over the columns he could not escape the conviction +that his Master could not permit some of them in his paper. +</P> + +<P> +What would He do with that other long advertisement of choice +liquors and cigars? As a member of a church and a respected citizen, +he had incurred no special censure because the saloon men advertised +in his columns. No one thought anything about it. It was all +legitimate business. Why not? Raymond enjoyed a system of high +license, and the saloon and the billiard hall and the beer garden +were a part of the city's Christian civilization. He was simply +doing what every other business man in Raymond did. And it was one +of the best paying sources of revenue. What would the paper do if it +cut these out? Could it live? That was the question. But was that +the question after all? "What would Jesus do?" That was the question +he was answering, or trying to answer, this week. Would Jesus +advertise whiskey and tobacco in his paper? +</P> + +<P> +Edward Norman asked it honestly, and after a prayer for help and +wisdom he asked Clark to come into the office. +</P> + +<P> +Clark came in, feeling that the paper was at a crisis, and prepared +for almost anything after his Monday morning experience. This was +Thursday. +</P> + +<P> +"Clark," said Norman, speaking slowly and carefully, "I have been +looking at our advertising columns and have decided to dispense with +some of the matter as soon as the contracts run out. I wish you +would notify the advertising agent not to solicit or renew the ads +that I have marked here." +</P> + +<P> +He handed the paper with the marked places over to Clark, who took +it and looked over the columns with a very serious air. +</P> + +<P> +"This will mean a great loss to the NEWS. How long do you think you +can keep this sort of thing up?" Clark was astounded at the editor's +action and could not understand it. +</P> + +<P> +"Clark, do you think if Jesus was the editor and proprietor of a +daily paper in Raymond He would permit advertisements of whiskey and +tobacco in it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well no—I—don't suppose He would. But what has that to do with +us? We can't do as He would. Newspapers can't be run on any such +basis." +</P> + +<P> +"Why not?" asked Norman quietly. +</P> + +<P> +"Why not? Because they will lose more money than they make, that's +all!" Clark spoke out with an irritation that he really felt. "We +shall certainly bankrupt the paper with this sort of business +policy." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think so?" Norman asked the question not as if he expected +an answer, but simply as if he were talking with himself. After a +pause he said: +</P> + +<P> +"You may direct Marks to do as I have said. I believe it is what +Christ would do, and as I told you, Clark, that is what I have +promised to try to do for a year, regardless of what the results may +be to me. I cannot believe that by any kind of reasoning we could +reach a conclusion justifying our Lord in the advertisement, in this +age, of whiskey and tobacco in a newspaper. There are some other +advertisements of a doubtful character I shall study into. +Meanwhile, I feel a conviction in regard to these that cannot be +silenced." +</P> + +<P> +Clark went back to his desk feeling as if he had been in the +presence of a very peculiar person. He could not grasp the meaning +of it all. He felt enraged and alarmed. He was sure any such policy +would ruin the paper as soon as it became generally known that the +editor was trying to do everything by such an absurd moral standard. +What would become of business if this standard was adopted? It would +upset every custom and introduce endless confusion. It was simply +foolishness. It was downright idiocy. So Clark said to himself, and +when Marks was informed of the action he seconded the managing +editor with some very forcible ejaculations. What was the matter +with the chief? Was he insane? Was he going to bankrupt the whole +business? +</P> + +<P> +But Edward Norman had not yet faced his most serious problem. When +he came down to the office Friday morning he was confronted with the +usual program for the Sunday morning edition. The NEWS was one one +of the few evening papers in Raymond to issue a Sunday edition, and +it had always been remarkably successful financially. There was an +average of one page of literary and religious items to thirty or +forty pages of sport, theatre, gossip, fashion, society and +political material. This made a very interesting magazine of all +sorts of reading matter, and had always been welcomed by all the +subscribers, church members and all, as a Sunday morning necessity. +Edward Norman now faced this fact and put to himself the question: +"What would Jesus do?" If He was editor of a paper, would he +deliberately plan to put into the homes of all the church people and +Christians of Raymond such a collection of reading matter on the one +day in the week which ought to be given up to something better +holier? He was of course familiar with the regular arguments of the +Sunday paper, that the public needed something of the sort; and the +working man especially, who would not go to church any way, ought to +have something entertaining and instructive on Sunday, his only day +of rest. But suppose the Sunday morning paper did not pay? Suppose +there was no money in it? How eager would the editor or publisher be +then to supply this crying need of the poor workman? Edward Norman +communed honestly with himself over the subject. +</P> + +<P> +Taking everything into account, would Jesus probably edit a Sunday +morning paper? No matter whether it paid. That was not the question. +As a matter of fact, the Sunday NEWS paid so well that it would be a +direct loss of thousands of dollars to discontinue it. Besides, the +regular subscribers had paid for a seven-day paper. Had he any right +now to give them less than they supposed they had paid for? +</P> + +<P> +He was honestly perplexed by the question. So much was involved in +the discontinuance of the Sunday edition that for the first time he +almost decided to refuse to be guided by the standard of Jesus' +probable action. He was sole proprietor of the paper; it was his to +shape as he chose. He had no board of directors to consult as to +policy. But as he sat there surrounded by the usual quantity of +material for the Sunday edition he reached some definite +conclusions. And among them was a determination to call in the force +of the paper and frankly state his motive and purpose. He sent word +for Clark and the other men it the office, including the few +reporters who were in the building and the foreman, with what men +were in the composing room (it was early in the morning and they +were not all in) to come into the mailing room. This was a large +room, and the men came in curiously and perched around on the tables +and counters. It was a very unusual proceeding, but they all agreed +that the paper was being run on new principles anyhow, and they all +watched Mr. Norman carefully as he spoke. +</P> + +<P> +"I called you in here to let you know my further plans for the NEWS. +I propose certain changes which I believe are necessary. I +understand very well that some things I have already done are +regarded by the men as very strange. I wish to state my motive in +doing what I have done." +</P> + +<P> +Here he told the men what he had already told Clark, and they stared +as Clark had done, and looked as painfully conscious. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, in acting on this standard of conduct I have reached a +conclusion which will, no doubt, cause some surprise. +</P> + +<P> +"I have decided that the Sunday morning edition of the NEWS shall be +discontinued after next Sunday's issue. I shall state in that issue +my reasons for discontinuing. In order to make up to the subscribers +the amount of reading matter they may suppose themselves entitled +to, we can issue a double number on Saturday, as is done by many +evening papers that make no attempt at a Sunday edition. I am +convinced that from a Christian point of view more harm than good +has been done by our Sunday morning paper. I do not believe that +Jesus would be responsible for it if He were in my place today. It +will occasion some trouble to arrange the details caused by this +change with the advertisers and subscribers. That is for me to look +after. The change itself is one that will take place. So far as I +can see, the loss will fall on myself. Neither the reporters nor the +pressmen need make any particular changes in their plans." +</P> + +<P> +He looked around the room and no one spoke. He was struck for the +first time in his life with the fact that in all the years of his +newspaper life he had never had the force of the paper together in +this way. Would Jesus do that? That is, would He probably run a +newspaper on some loving family plan, where editors, reporters, +pressmen and all meet to discuss and devise and plan for the making +of a paper that should have in view— +</P> + +<P> +He caught himself drawing almost away from the facts of +typographical unions and office rules and reporters' enterprise and +all the cold, businesslike methods that make a great daily +successful. But still the vague picture that came up in the mailing +room would not fade away when he had gone into his office and the +men had gone back to their places with wonder in their looks and +questions of all sorts on their tongues as they talked over the +editor's remarkable actions. +</P> + +<P> +Clark came in and had a long, serious talk with his chief. He was +thoroughly roused, and his protest almost reached the point of +resigning his place. Norman guarded himself carefully. Every minute +of the interview was painful to him, but he felt more than ever the +necessity of doing the Christ-like thing. Clark was a very valuable +man. It would be difficult to fill his place. But he was not able to +give any reasons for continuing the Sunday paper that answered the +question, "What would Jesus do?" by letting Jesus print that +edition. +</P> + +<P> +"It comes to this, then," said Clark frankly, "you will bankrupt the +paper in thirty days. We might as well face that future fact." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think we shall. Will you stay by the NEWS until it is +bankrupt?" asked Norman with a strange smile. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Norman, I don't understand you. You are not the same man this +week that I always knew before." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know myself either, Clark. Something remarkable has caught +me up and borne me on. But I was never more convinced of final +success and power for the paper. You have not answered my question. +Will you stay with me?" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter Five +</H3> + +<P> +SUNDAY morning dawned again on Raymond, and Henry Maxwell's church +was again crowded. Before the service began Edward Norman attracted +great attention. He sat quietly in his usual place about three seats +from the pulpit. The Sunday morning issue of the NEWS containing the +statement of its discontinuance had been expressed in such +remarkable language that every reader was struck by it. No such +series of distinct sensations had ever disturbed the usual business +custom of Raymond. The events connected with the NEWS were not all. +People were eagerly talking about strange things done during the +week by Alexander Powers at the railroad shops, and Milton Wright in +his stores on the avenue. The service progressed upon a distinct +wave of excitement in the pews. Henry Maxwell faced it all with a +calmness which indicated a strength and purpose more than usual. His +prayers were very helpful. His sermon was not so easy to describe. +How would a minister be apt to preach to his people if he came +before them after an entire week of eager asking, "How would Jesus +preach? What would He probably say?" It is very certain that he did +not preach as he had done two Sundays before. Tuesday of the past +week he had stood by the grave of the dead stranger and said the +words, "Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust," and still he +was moved by the spirit of a deeper impulse than he could measure as +he thought of his people and yearned for the Christ message when he +should be in his pulpit again. +</P> + +<P> +Now that Sunday had come and the people were there to hear, what +would the Master tell them? He agonized over his preparation for +them, and yet he knew he had not been able to fit his message into +his ideal of the Christ. Nevertheless no one in the First Church +could remember ever hearing such a sermon before. There was in it +rebuke for sin, especially hypocrisy, there was definite rebuke of +the greed of wealth and the selfishness of fashion, two things that +First Church never heard rebuked this way before, and there was a +love of his people that gathered new force as the sermon went on. +When it was finished there were those who were saying in their +hearts, "The Spirit moved that sermon." And they were right. +</P> + +<P> +Then Rachel Winslow rose to sing, this time after the sermon, by Mr. +Maxwell's request. Rachel's singing did not provoke applause this +time. What deeper feeling carried the people's hearts into a +reverent silence and tenderness of thought? Rachel was beautiful. +But her consciousness of her remarkable loveliness had always marred +her singing with those who had the deepest spiritual feeling. It had +also marred her rendering of certain kinds of music with herself. +Today this was all gone. There was no lack of power in her grand +voice. But there was an actual added element of humility and purity +which the audience distinctly felt and bowed to. +</P> + +<P> +Before service closed Mr. Maxwell asked those who had remained the +week before to stay again for a few moments of consultation, and any +others who were willing to make the pledge taken at that time. When +he was at liberty he went into the lecture-room. To his astonishment +it was almost filled. This time a large proportion of young people +had come, but among them were a few business men and officers of the +church. +</P> + +<P> +As before, he, Maxwell, asked them to pray with him. And, as before, +a distinct answer came from the presence of the divine Spirit. There +was no doubt in the minds of any present that what they purposed to +do was so clearly in line with the divine will, that a blessing +rested upon it in a very special manner. +</P> + +<P> +They remained some time to ask questions and consult together. There +was a feeling of fellowship such as they had never known in their +church membership. Mr. Norman's action was well understood by them +all, and he answered several questions. +</P> + +<P> +"What will be the probable result of your discontinuance of the +Sunday paper?" asked Alexander Powers, who sat next to him. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know yet. I presume it will result in the falling off of +subscriptions and advertisements. I anticipate that." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you have any doubts about your action. I mean, do you regret it, +or fear it is not what Jesus would do?" asked Mr. Maxwell. +</P> + +<P> +"Not in the least. But I would like to ask, for my own satisfaction, +if any of you here think Jesus would issue a Sunday morning paper?" +</P> + +<P> +No one spoke for a minute. Then Jasper Chase said, "We seem to think +alike on that, but I have been puzzled several times during the week +to know just what He would do. It is not always an easy question to +answer." +</P> + +<P> +"I find that trouble," said Virginia Page. She sat by Rachel +Winslow. Every one who knew Virginia Page was wondering how she +would succeed in keeping her promise. "I think perhaps I find it +specially difficult to answer that question on account of my money. +Our Lord never owned any property, and there is nothing in His +example to guide me in the use of mine. I am studying and praying. I +think I see clearly a part of what He would do, but not all. What +would He do with a million dollars? is my question really. I confess +I am not yet able to answer it to my satisfaction. +</P> + +<P> +"I could tell you what you could do with a part of it," said Rachel, +turning her face toward Virginia. "That does not trouble me," +replied Virginia with a slight smile. "What I am trying to discover +is a principle that will enable me to come to the nearest possible +to His action as it ought to influence the entire course of my life +so far as my wealth and its use are concerned." +</P> + +<P> +"That will take time," said the minister slowly. All the rest of the +room were thinking hard of the same thing. Milton Wright told +something of his experience. He was gradually working out a plan for +his business relations with his employees, and it was opening up a +new world to him and to them. A few of the young men told of special +attempts to answer the question. There was almost general consent +over the fact that the application of the Christ spirit and practice +to the everyday life was the serious thing. It required a knowledge +of Him and an insight into His motives that most of them did not yet +possess. +</P> + +<P> +When they finally adjourned after a silent prayer that marked with +growing power the Divine Presence, they went away discussing +earnestly their difficulties and seeking light from one another. +</P> + +<P> +Rachel Winslow and Virginia Page went out together. Edward Norman +and Milton Wright became so interested in their mutual conference +that they walked on past Norman's house and came back together. +Jasper Chase and the president of the Endeavor Society stood talking +earnestly in one corner of the room. Alexander Powers and Henry +Maxwell remained, even after the others had gone. +</P> + +<P> +"I want you to come down to the shops tomorrow and see my plan and +talk to the men. Somehow I feel as if you could get nearer to them +than any one else just now." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know about that, but I will come," replied Mr. Maxwell a +little sadly. How was he fitted to stand before two or three hundred +working men and give them a message? Yet in the moment of his +weakness, as he asked the question, he rebuked himself for it. What +would Jesus do? That was an end to the discussion. +</P> + +<P> +He went down the next day and found Mr. Powers in his office. It +lacked a few minutes of twelve and the superintendent said, "Come +upstairs, and I'll show you what I've been trying to do." +</P> + +<P> +They went through the machine shop, climbed a long flight of stairs +and entered a very large, empty room. It had once been used by the +company for a store room. +</P> + +<P> +"Since making that promise a week ago I have had a good many things +to think of," said the superintendent, "and among them is this: The +company gives me the use of this room, and I am going to fit it up +with tables and a coffee plant in the corner there where those steam +pipes are. My plan is to provide a good place where the men can come +up and eat their noon lunch, and give them, two or three times a +week, the privilege of a fifteen minutes' talk on some subject that +will be a real help to them in their lives." +</P> + +<P> +Maxwell looked surprised and asked if the men would come for any +such purpose. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, they'll come. After all, I know the men pretty well. They are +among the most intelligent working men in the country today. But +they are, as a whole, entirely removed from church influence. I +asked, 'What would Jesus do?' and among other things it seemed to me +He would begin to act in some way to add to the lives of these men +more physical and spiritual comfort. It is a very little thing, this +room and what it represents, but I acted on the first impulse, to do +the first thing that appealed to my good sense, and I want to work +out this idea. I want you to speak to the men when they come up at +noon. I have asked them to come up and see the place and I'll tell +them something about it." +</P> + +<P> +Maxwell was ashamed to say how uneasy he felt at being asked to +speak a few words to a company of working men. How could he speak +without notes, or to such a crowd? He was honestly in a condition of +genuine fright over the prospect. He actually felt afraid of facing +those men. He shrank from the ordeal of confronting such a crowd, so +different from the Sunday audiences he was familiar with. +</P> + +<P> +There were a dozen rude benches and tables in the room, and when the +noon whistle sounded the men poured upstairs from the machine shops +below and, seating themselves at the tables, began to cat their +lunch. There were present about three hundred of them. They had read +the superintendent's notice which he had posted up in various +places, and came largely out of curiosity. +</P> + +<P> +They were favorably impressed. The room was large and airy, free +from smoke and dust, and well warmed from the steam pipes. At about +twenty minutes to one Mr. Powers told the men what he had in mind. +He spoke very simply, like one who understands thoroughly the +character of his audience, and then introduced the Rev. Henry +Maxwell of the First Church, his pastor, who had consented to speak +a few minutes. +</P> + +<P> +Maxwell will never forget the feeling with which for the first time +he stood before the grimy-faced audience of working men. Like +hundreds of other ministers, he had never spoken to any gatherings +except those made up of people of his own class in the sense that +they were familiar in their dress and education and habits. This was +a new world to him, and nothing but his new rule of conduct could +have made possible his message and its effect. He spoke on the +subject of satisfaction with life; what caused it, what its real +sources were. He had the great good sense on this his first +appearance not to recognize the men as a class distinct from +himself. He did not use the term working man, and did not say a word +to suggest any difference between their lives and his own. +</P> + +<P> +The men were pleased. A good many of them shook hands with him +before going down to their work, and the minister telling it all to +his wife when he reached home, said that never in all his life had +he known the delight he then felt in having the handshake from a man +of physical labor. The day marked an important one in his Christian +experience, more important than he knew. It was the beginning of a +fellowship between him and the working world. It was the first plank +laid down to help bridge the chasm between the church and labor in +Raymond. +</P> + +<P> +Alexander Powers went back to his desk that afternoon much pleased +with his plan and seeing much help in it for the men. He knew where +he could get some good tables from an abandoned eating house at one +of the stations down the road, and he saw how the coffee arrangement +could be made a very attractive feature. The men had responded even +better than he anticipated, and the whole thing could not help being +a great benefit to them. +</P> + +<P> +He took up the routine of his work with a glow of satisfaction. +After all, he wanted to do as Jesus would, he said to himself. +</P> + +<P> +It was nearly four o'clock when he opened one of the company's long +envelopes which he supposed contained orders for the purchasing of +stores. He ran over the first page of typewritten matter in his +usual quick, business-like manner, before he saw that what he was +reading was not intended for his office but for the superintendent +of the freight department. +</P> + +<P> +He turned over a page mechanically, not meaning to read what was not +addressed to him, but before he knew it, he was in possession of +evidence which conclusively proved that the company was engaged in a +systematic violation of the Interstate Commerce Laws of the United +States. It was as distinct and unequivocal a breaking of law as if a +private citizen should enter a house and rob the inmates. The +discrimination shown in rebates was in total contempt of all the +statutes. Under the laws of the state it was also a distinct +violation of certain provisions recently passed by the legislature +to prevent railroad trusts. There was no question that he had in his +hands evidence sufficient to convict the company of willful, +intelligent violation of the law of the commission and the law of +the state also. +</P> + +<P> +He dropped the papers on his desk as if they were poison, and +instantly the question flashed across his mind, "What would Jesus +do?" He tried to shut the question out. He tried to reason with +himself by saying it was none of his business. He had known in a +more or less definite way, as did nearly all the officers of the +company, that this had been going on right along on nearly all the +roads. He was not in a position, owing to his place in the shops, to +prove anything direct, and he had regarded it as a matter which did +not concern him at all. The papers now before him revealed the +entire affair. They had through some carelessness been addressed to +him. What business of his was it? If he saw a man entering his +neighbor's house to steal, would it not be his duty to inform the +officers of the law? Was a railroad company such a different thing? +Was it under a different rule of conduct, so that it could rob the +public and defy law and be undisturbed because it was such a great +organization? What would Jesus do? Then there was his family. Of +course, if he took any steps to inform the commission it would mean +the loss of his position. His wife and daughter had always enjoyed +luxury and a good place in society. If he came out against this +lawlessness as a witness it would drag him into courts, his motives +would be misunderstood, and the whole thing would end in his +disgrace and the loss of his position. Surely it was none of his +business. He could easily get the papers back to the freight +department and no one be the wiser. Let the iniquity go on. Let the +law be defied. What was it to him? He would work out his plans for +bettering the condition just before him. What more could a man do in +this railroad business when there was so much going on anyway that +made it impossible to live by the Christian standard? But what would +Jesus do if He knew the facts? That was the question that confronted +Alexander Powers as the day wore into evening. +</P> + +<P> +The lights in the office had been turned on. The whirr of the great +engine and the clash of the planers in the big shop continued until +six o'clock. Then the whistle blew, the engine slowed up, the men +dropped their tools and ran for the block house. +</P> + +<P> +Powers heard the familiar click, click, of the clocks as the men +filed past the window of the block house just outside. He said to +his clerks, "I'm not going just yet. I have something extra +tonight." He waited until he heard the last man deposit his block. +The men behind the block case went out. The engineer and his +assistants had work for half an hour but they went out by another +door. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter Six +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +"If any man cometh unto me and hateth not his own father and mother +and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own +life also, he cannot be my disciple." +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +"And whosoever forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my +disciple." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +WHEN Rachel Winslow and Virginia Page separated after the meeting at +the First Church on Sunday they agreed to continue their +conversation the next day. Virginia asked Rachel to come and lunch +with her at noon, and Rachel accordingly rang the bell at the Page +mansion about half-past eleven. Virginia herself met her and the two +were soon talking earnestly. +</P> + +<P> +"The fact is," Rachel was saying, after they had been talking a few +moments, "I cannot reconcile it with my judgment of what Christ +would do. I cannot tell another person what to do, but I feel that I +ought not to accept this offer." +</P> + +<P> +"What will you do then?" asked Virginia with great interest. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know yet, but I have decided to refuse this offer." +</P> + +<P> +Rachel picked up a letter that had been lying in her lap and ran +over its contents again. It was a letter from the manager of a comic +opera offering her a place with a large traveling company of the +season. The salary was a very large figure, and the prospect held +out by the manager was flattering. He had heard Rachel sing that +Sunday morning when the stranger had interrupted the service. He had +been much impressed. There was money in that voice and it ought to +be used in comic opera, so said the letter, and the manager wanted a +reply as soon as possible. +</P> + +<P> +"There's no great virtue in saying 'No' to this offer when I have +the other one," Rachel went on thoughtfully. "That's harder to +decide. But I've about made up my mind. To tell the truth, +Virginia, I'm completely convinced in the first case that Jesus +would never use any talent like a good voice just to make money. But +now, take this concert offer. Here is a reputable company, to travel +with an impersonator and a violinist and a male quartet, all people +of good reputation. I'm asked to go as one of the company and sing +leading soprano. The salary—I mentioned it, didn't I?—is +guaranteed to be $200 a month for the season. But I don't feel +satisfied that Jesus would go. What do you think?" +</P> + +<P> +"You mustn't ask me to decide for you," replied Virginia with a sad +smile. "I believe Mr. Maxwell was right when he said we must each +one of us decide according to the judgment we feel for ourselves to +be Christ-like. I am having a harder time than you are, dear, to +decide what He would do." +</P> + +<P> +"Are you?" Rachel asked. She rose and walked over to the window and +looked out. Virginia came and stood by her. The street was crowded +with life and the two young women looked at it silently for a +moment. Suddenly Virginia broke out as Rachel had never heard her +before: +</P> + +<P> +"Rachel, what does all this contrast in conditions mean to you as +you ask this question of what Jesus would do? It maddens me to think +that the society in which I have been brought up, the same to which +we are both said to belong, is satisfied year after year to go on +dressing and eating and having a good time, giving and receiving +entertainments, spending its money on houses and luxuries and, +occasionally, to ease its conscience, donating, without any personal +sacrifice, a little money to charity. I have been educated, as you +have, in one of the most expensive schools in America; launched into +society as an heiress; supposed to be in a very enviable position. +I'm perfectly well; I can travel or stay at home. I can do as I +please. I can gratify almost any want or desire; and yet when I +honestly try to imagine Jesus living the life I have lived and am +expected to live, and doing for the rest of my life what thousands +of other rich people do, I am under condemnation for being one of +the most wicked, selfish, useless creatures in all the world. I have +not looked out of this window for weeks without a feeling of horror +toward myself as I see the humanity that passes by this house." +</P> + +<P> +Virginia turned away and walked up and down the room. Rachel watched +her and could not repress the rising tide of her own growing +definition of discipleship. Of what Christian use was her own talent +of song? Was the best she could do to sell her talent for so much a +month, go on a concert company's tour, dress beautifully, enjoy the +excitement of public applause and gain a reputation as a great +singer? Was that what Jesus would do? +</P> + +<P> +She was not morbid. She was in sound health, was conscious of her +great powers as a singer, and knew that if she went out into public +life she could make a great deal of money and become well known. It +is doubtful if she overestimated her ability to accomplish all she +thought herself capable of. And Virginia—what she had just said +smote Rachel with great force because of the similar position in +which the two friends found themselves. +</P> + +<P> +Lunch was announced and they went out and were joined by Virginia's +grandmother, Madam Page, a handsome, stately woman of sixty-five, +and Virginia's brother Rollin, a young man who spent most of his +time at one of the clubs and had no ambition for anything but a +growing admiration for Rachel Winslow, and whenever she dined or +lunched at the Page's, if he knew of it he always planned to be at +home. +</P> + +<P> +These three made up the Page family. Virginia's father had been a +banker and grain speculator. Her mother had died ten years before, +her father within the past year. The grandmother, a Southern woman +in birth and training, had all the traditions and feelings that +accompany the possession of wealth and social standing that have +never been disturbed. She was a shrewd, careful business woman of +more than average ability. The family property and wealth were +invested, in large measure, under her personal care. Virginia's +portion was, without any restriction, her own. She had been trained +by her father to understand the ways of the business world, and even +the grandmother had been compelled to acknowledge the girl's +capacity for taking care of her own money. +</P> + +<P> +Perhaps two persons could not be found anywhere less capable of +understanding a girl like Virginia than Madam Page and Rollin. +Rachel, who had known the family since she was a girl playmate of +Virginia's, could not help thinking of what confronted Virginia in +her own home when she once decided on the course which she honestly +believed Jesus would take. Today at lunch, as she recalled +Virginia's outbreak in the front room, she tried to picture the +scene that would at some time occur between Madam Page and her +granddaughter. +</P> + +<P> +"I understand that you are going on the stage, Miss Winslow. We +shall all be delighted, I'm sure," said Rollin during the +conversation, which had not been very animated. +</P> + +<P> +Rachel colored and felt annoyed. "Who told you?" she asked, while +Virginia, who had been very silent and reserved, suddenly roused +herself and appeared ready to join in the talk. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! we hear a thing or two on the street. Besides, every one saw +Crandall the manager at church two weeks ago. He doesn't go to +church to hear the preaching. In fact, I know other people who don't +either, not when there's something better to hear." +</P> + +<P> +Rachel did not color this time, but she answered quietly, "You're +mistaken. I'm not going on the stage." +</P> + +<P> +"It's a great pity. You'd make a hit. Everybody is talking about +your singing." +</P> + +<P> +This time Rachel flushed with genuine anger. Before she could say +anything, Virginia broke in: "Whom do you mean by 'everybody?'" +</P> + +<P> +"Whom? I mean all the people who hear Miss Winslow on Sundays. What +other time do they hear her? It's a great pity, I say, that the +general public outside of Raymond cannot hear her voice." +</P> + +<P> +"Let us talk about something else," said Rachel a little sharply. +Madam Page glanced at her and spoke with a gentle courtesy. +</P> + +<P> +"My dear, Rollin never could pay an indirect compliment. He is like +his father in that. But we are all curious to know something of your +plans. We claim the right from old acquaintance, you know; and +Virginia has already told us of your concert company offer." +</P> + +<P> +"I supposed of course that was public property," said Virginia, +smiling across the table. "I was in the NEWS office day before +yesterday." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, yes," replied Rachel hastily. "I understand that, Madam Page. +Well, Virginia and I have been talking about it. I have decided not +to accept, and that is as far as I have gone at present." +</P> + +<P> +Rachel was conscious of the fact that the conversation had, up to +this point, been narrowing her hesitation concerning the concert +company's offer down to a decision that would absolutely satisfy her +own judgment of Jesus' probable action. It had been the last thing +in the world, however, that she had desired, to have her decision +made in any way so public as this. Somehow what Rollin Page had said +and his manner in saying it had hastened her decision in the matter. +</P> + +<P> +"Would you mind telling us, Rachel, your reasons for refusing the +offer? It looks like a great opportunity for a young girl like you. +Don't you think the general public ought to hear you? I feel like +Rollin about that. A voice like yours belongs to a larger audience +than Raymond and the First Church." +</P> + +<P> +Rachel Winslow was naturally a girl of great reserve. She shrank +from making her plans or her thoughts public. But with all her +repression there was possible in her an occasional sudden breaking +out that was simply an impulsive, thoroughly frank, truthful +expression of her most inner personal feeling. She spoke now in +reply to Madam Page in one of those rare moments of unreserve that +added to the attractiveness of her whole character. +</P> + +<P> +"I have no other reason than a conviction that Jesus Christ would do +the same thing," she said, looking into Madam Page's eyes with a +clear, earnest gaze. +</P> + +<P> +Madam Page turned red and Rollin stared. Before her grandmother +could say anything, Virginia spoke. Her rising color showed how she +was stirred. Virginia's pale, clear complexion was that of health, +but it was generally in marked contrast with Rachel's tropical type +of beauty. +</P> + +<P> +"Grandmother, you know we promised to make that the standard of our +conduct for a year. Mr. Maxwell's proposition was plain to all who +heard it. We have not been able to arrive at our decisions very +rapidly. The difficulty in knowing what Jesus would do has perplexed +Rachel and me a good deal." +</P> + +<P> +Madam Page looked sharply at Virginia before she said anything. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course I understand Mr. Maxwell's statement. It is perfectly +impracticable to put it into practice. I felt confident at the time +that those who promised would find it out after a trial and abandon +it as visionary and absurd. I have nothing to say about Miss +Winslow's affairs, but," she paused and continued with a sharpness +that was new to Rachel, "I hope you have no foolish notions in this +matter, Virginia." +</P> + +<P> +"I have a great many notions," replied Virginia quietly. "Whether +they are foolish or not depends upon my right understanding of what +He would do. As soon as I find out I shall do it." +</P> + +<P> +"Excuse me, ladies," said Rollin, rising from the table. "The +conversation is getting beyond my depth. I shall retire to the +library for a cigar." +</P> + +<P> +He went out of the dining-room and there was silence for a moment. +Madam Page waited until the servant had brought in something and +then asked her to go out. She was angry and her anger was +formidable, although checked in some measure by the presence of +Rachel. +</P> + +<P> +"I am older by several years than you, young ladies," she said, and +her traditional type of bearing seemed to Rachel to rise up like a +great frozen wall between her and every conception of Jesus as a +sacrifice. "What you have promised, in a spirit of false emotion I +presume, is impossible of performance." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you mean, grandmother, that we cannot possibly act as our Lord +would? or do you mean that, if we try to, we shall offend the +customs and prejudices of society?" asked Virginia. +</P> + +<P> +"It is not required! It is not necessary! Besides how can you act +with any—" Madam Page paused, broke off her sentence, and then +turned to Rachel. "What will your mother say to your decision? My +dear, is it not foolish? What do you expect to do with your voice +anyway?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know what mother will say yet," Rachel answered, with a +great shrinking from trying to give her mother's probable answer. If +there was a woman in all Raymond with great ambitions for her +daughter's success as a singer, Mrs. Winslow was that woman. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh! you will see it in a different light after wiser thought of it. +My dear," continued Madam Page rising from the table, "you will live +to regret it if you do not accept the concert company's offer or +something like it." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter Seven +</H3> + +<P> +RACHEL was glad to escape and be by herself. A plan was slowly +forming in her mind, and she wanted to be alone and think it out +carefully. But before she had walked two blocks she was annoyed to +find Rollin Page walking beside her. +</P> + +<P> +"Sorry to disturb your thoughts, Miss Winslow, but I happened to be +going your way and had an idea you might not object. In fact, I've +been walking here for a whole block and you haven't objected." +</P> + +<P> +"I did not see you," said Rachel briefly. +</P> + +<P> +"I wouldn't mind that if you only thought of me once in a while," +said Rollin suddenly. He took one last nervous puff on his cigar, +tossed it into the street and walked along with a pale look on his +face. +</P> + +<P> +Rachel was surprised, but not startled. She had known Rollin as a +boy, and there had been a time when they had used each other's first +name familiarly. Lately, however, something in Rachel's manner had +put an end to that. She was used to his direct attempts at +compliments and was sometimes amused by them. Today she honestly +wished him anywhere else. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you ever think of me, Miss Winslow?" asked Rollin after a pause. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes, quite often!" said Rachel with a smile. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you thinking of me now?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. That is—yes—I am." +</P> + +<P> +"What?" +</P> + +<P> +"Do you want me to be absolutely truthful?" +</P> + +<P> +"Of course." +</P> + +<P> +"Then I was thinking that I wished you were not here." Rollin bit +his lip and looked gloomy. +</P> + +<P> +"Now look here, Rachel—oh, I know that's forbidden, but I've got to +speak some time!—you know how I feel. What makes you treat me so? +You used to like me a little, you know." +</P> + +<P> +"Did I? Of course we used to get on very well as boy and girl. But +we are older now." +</P> + +<P> +Rachel still spoke in the light, easy way she had used since her +first annoyance at seeing him. She was still somewhat preoccupied +with her plan which had been disturbed by Rollin's sudden +appearance. +</P> + +<P> +They walked along in silence a little way. The avenue was full of +people. Among the persons passing was Jasper Chase. He saw Rachel +and Rollin and bowed as they went by. Rollin was watching Rachel +closely. +</P> + +<P> +"I wish I was Jasper Chase. Maybe I would stand some chance then," +he said moodily. +</P> + +<P> +Rachel colored in spite of herself. She did not say anything and +quickened her pace a little. Rollin seemed determined to say +something, and Rachel seemed helpless to prevent him. After all, she +thought, he might as well know the truth one time as another. +</P> + +<P> +"You know well enough, Rachel, how I feel toward you. Isn't there +any hope? I could make you happy. I've loved you a good many +years—" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, how old do you think I am?" broke in Rachel with a nervous +laugh. She was shaken out of her usual poise of manner. +</P> + +<P> +"You know what I mean," went on Rollin doggedly. "And you have no +right to laugh at me just because I want you to marry me." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not! But it is useless for you to speak, Rollin," said Rachel +after a little hesitation, and then using his name in such a frank, +simple way that he could attach no meaning to it beyond the +familiarity of the old family acquaintance. "It is impossible." She +was still a little agitated by the fact of receiving a proposal of +marriage on the avenue. But the noise on the street and sidewalk +made the conversation as private as if they were in the house. +</P> + +<P> +"Would that is—do you think—if you gave me time I would." +</P> + +<P> +"No!" said Rachel. She spoke firmly; perhaps, she thought afterward, +although she did not mean to, she spoke harshly. +</P> + +<P> +They walked on for some time without a word. They were nearing +Rachel's home and she was anxious to end the scene. +</P> + +<P> +As they turned off the avenue into one of the quieter streets Rollin +spoke suddenly and with more manliness than he had yet shown. There +was a distinct note of dignity in his voice that was new to Rachel. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Winslow, I ask you to be my wife. Is there any hope for me +that you will ever consent?" +</P> + +<P> +"None in the least." Rachel spoke decidedly. +</P> + +<P> +"Will you tell me why?" He asked the question as if he had a right +to a truthful answer. +</P> + +<P> +"Because I do not feel toward you as a woman ought to feel toward +the man she marries." +</P> + +<P> +"In other words, you do not love me?" +</P> + +<P> +"I do not and I cannot." +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" That was another question, and Rachel was a little surprised +that he should ask it. +</P> + +<P> +"Because—" she hesitated for fear she might say too much in an +attempt to speak the exact truth. +</P> + +<P> +"Tell me just why. You can't hurt me more than you have already." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I do not and I cannot love you because you have no purpose in +life. What do you ever do to make the world better? You spend your +time in club life, in amusements, in travel, in luxury. What is +there in such a life to attract a woman?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not much, I guess," said Rollin with a bitter laugh. "Still, I +don't know that I'm any worse than the rest of the men around me. +I'm not so bad as some. I'm glad to know your reasons." +</P> + +<P> +He suddenly stopped, took off his hat, bowed gravely and turned +back. Rachel went on home and hurried into her room, disturbed in +many ways by the event which had so unexpectedly thrust itself into +her experience. +</P> + +<P> +When she had time to think it all over she found herself condemned +by the very judgment she had passed on Rollin Page. What purpose had +she in life? She had been abroad and studied music with one of the +famous teachers of Europe. She had come home to Raymond and had been +singing in the First Church choir now for a year. She was well paid. +Up to that Sunday two weeks ago she had been quite satisfied with +herself and with her position. She had shared her mother's ambition, +and anticipated growing triumphs in the musical world. What possible +career was before her except the regular career of every singer? +</P> + +<P> +She asked the question again and, in the light of her recent reply +to Rollin, asked again, if she had any very great purpose in life +herself. What would Jesus do? There was a fortune in her voice. She +knew it, not necessarily as a matter of personal pride or +professional egotism, but simply as a fact. And she was obliged to +acknowledge that until two weeks ago she had purposed to use her +voice to make money and win admiration and applause. Was that a much +higher purpose, after all, than Rollin Page lived for? +</P> + +<P> +She sat in her room a long time and finally went downstairs, +resolved to have a frank talk with her mother about the concert +company's offer and the new plan which was gradually shaping in her +mind. She had already had one talk with her mother and knew that she +expected Rachel to accept the offer and enter on a successful career +as a public singer. +</P> + +<P> +"Mother," Rachel said, coming at once to the point, much as she +dreaded the interview, "I have decided not to go out with the +company. I have a good reason for it." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Winslow was a large, handsome woman, fond of much company, +ambitious for distinction in society and devoted, according to her +definitions of success, to the success of her children. Her youngest +boy, Louis, two years younger than Rachel, was ready to graduate +from a military academy in the summer. Meanwhile she and Rachel were +at home together. Rachel's father, like Virginia's, had died while +the family was abroad. Like Virginia she found herself, under her +present rule of conduct, in complete antagonism with her own +immediate home circle. Mrs. Winslow waited for Rachel to go on. +</P> + +<P> +"You know the promise I made two weeks ago, mother?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Maxwell's promise?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, mine. You know what it was, do you not, mother?" +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose I do. Of course all the church members mean to imitate +Christ and follow Him, as far as is consistent with our present day +surroundings. But what has that to do with your decision in the +concert company matter?" +</P> + +<P> +"It has everything to do with it. After asking, 'What would Jesus +do?' and going to the source of authority for wisdom, I have been +obliged to say that I do not believe He would, in my case, make that +use of my voice." +</P> + +<P> +"Why? Is there anything wrong about such a career?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, I don't know that I can say there is." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you presume to sit in judgment on other people who go out to +sing in this way? Do you presume to say they are doing what Christ +would not do?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mother, I wish you to understand me. I judge no one else; I condemn +no other professional singer. I simply decide my own course. As I +look at it, I have a conviction that Jesus would do something else." +</P> + +<P> +"What else?" Mrs. Winslow had not yet lost her temper. She did not +understand the situation nor Rachel in the midst of it, but she was +anxious that her daughter's course should be as distinguished as her +natural gifts promised. And she felt confident that when the present +unusual religious excitement in the First Church had passed away +Rachel would go on with her public life according to the wishes of +the family. She was totally unprepared for Rachel's next remark. +</P> + +<P> +"What? Something that will serve mankind where it most needs the +service of song. Mother, I have made up my mind to use my voice in +some way so as to satisfy my own soul that I am doing something +better than pleasing fashionable audiences, or making money, or even +gratifying my own love of singing. I am going to do something that +will satisfy me when I ask: 'What would Jesus do?' I am not +satisfied, and cannot be, when I think of myself as singing myself +into the career of a concert company performer." +</P> + +<P> +Rachel spoke with a vigor and earnestness that surprised her mother. +But Mrs. Winslow was angry now; and she never tried to conceal her +feelings. +</P> + +<P> +"It is simply absurd! Rachel, you are a fanatic! What can you do?" +</P> + +<P> +"The world has been served by men and women who have given it other +things that were gifts. Why should I, because I am blessed with a +natural gift, at once proceed to put a market price on it and make +all the money I can out of it? You know, mother, that you have +taught me to think of a musical career always in the light of +financial and social success. I have been unable, since I made my +promise two weeks ago, to imagine Jesus joining a concert company to +do what I should do and live the life I should have to live if I +joined it." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Winslow rose and then sat down again. With a great effort she +composed herself. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you intend to do then? You have not answered my question." +</P> + +<P> +"I shall continue to sing for the time being in the church. I am +pledged to sing there through the spring. During the week I am going +to sing at the White Cross meetings, down in the Rectangle." +</P> + +<P> +"What! Rachel Winslow! Do you know what you are saying? Do you know +what sort of people those are down there?" +</P> + +<P> +Rachel almost quailed before her mother. For a moment she shrank +back and was silent. Then she spoke firmly: "I know very well. That +is the reason I am going. Mr. and Mrs. Gray have been working there +several weeks. I learned only this morning that they want singers +from the churches to help them in their meetings. They use a tent. +It is in a part of the city where Christian work is most needed. I +shall offer them my help. Mother!" Rachel cried out with the first +passionate utterance she had yet used, "I want to do something that +will cost me something in the way of sacrifice. I know you will not +understand me. But I am hungry to suffer for something. What have we +done all our lives for the suffering, sinning side of Raymond? How +much have we denied ourselves or given of our personal ease and +pleasure to bless the place in which we live or imitate the life of +the Savior of the world? Are we always to go on doing as society +selfishly dictates, moving on its little narrow round of pleasures +and entertainments, and never knowing the pain of things that cost?" +</P> + +<P> +"Are you preaching at me?" asked Mrs. Winslow slowly. Rachel rose, +and understood her mother's words. +</P> + +<P> +"No. I am preaching at myself," she replied gently. She paused a +moment as if she thought her mother would say something more, and +then went out of the room. When she reached her own room she felt +that so far as her own mother was concerned she could expect no +sympathy, nor even a fair understanding from her. +</P> + +<P> +She kneeled. It is safe to say that within the two weeks since Henry +Maxwell's church had faced that shabby figure with the faded hat +more members of his parish had been driven to their knees in prayer +than during all the previous term of his pastorate. +</P> + +<P> +She rose, and her face was wet with tears. She sat thoughtfully a +little while and then wrote a note to Virginia Page. She sent it to +her by a messenger and then went downstairs and told her mother that +she and Virginia were going down to the Rectangle that evening to +see Mr. and Mrs. Gray, the evangelists. +</P> + +<P> +"Virginia's uncle, Dr. West, will go with us, if she goes. I have +asked her to call him up by telephone and go with us. The Doctor is +a friend of the Grays, and attended some of their meetings last +winter." +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Winslow did not say anything. Her manner showed her complete +disapproval of Rachel's course, and Rachel felt her unspoken +bitterness. +</P> + +<P> +About seven o'clock the Doctor and Virginia appeared, and together +the three started for the scene of the White Cross meetings. +</P> + +<P> +The Rectangle was the most notorious district in Raymond. It was on +the territory close by the railroad shops and the packing houses. +The great slum and tenement district of Raymond congested its worst +and most wretched elements about the Rectangle. This was a barren +field used in the summer by circus companies and wandering showmen. +It was shut in by rows of saloons, gambling hells and cheap, dirty +boarding and lodging houses. +</P> + +<P> +The First Church of Raymond had never touched the Rectangle problem. +It was too dirty, too coarse, too sinful, too awful for close +contact. Let us be honest. There had been an attempt to cleanse this +sore spot by sending down an occasional committee of singers or +Sunday-school teachers or gospel visitors from various churches. But +the First Church of Raymond, as an institution, had never really +done anything to make the Rectangle any less a stronghold of the +devil as the years went by. +</P> + +<P> +Into this heart of the coarse part of the sin of Raymond the +traveling evangelist and his brave little wife had pitched a +good-sized tent and begun meetings. It was the spring of the year +and the evenings were beginning to be pleasant. The evangelists had +asked for the help of Christian people, and had received more than +the usual amount of encouragement. But they felt a great need of +more and better music. During the meetings on the Sunday just gone +the assistant at the organ had been taken ill. The volunteers from +the city were few and the voices were of ordinary quality. +</P> + +<P> +"There will be a small meeting tonight, John," said his wife, as +they entered the tent a little after seven o'clock and began to +arrange the chairs and light up. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I fear so." Mr. Gray was a small, energetic man, with a +pleasant voice and the courage of a high-born fighter. He had +already made friends in the neighborhood and one of his converts, a +heavy-faced man who had just come in, began to help in the arranging +of seats. +</P> + +<P> +It was after eight o'clock when Alexander Powers opened the door of +his office and started for home. He was going to take a car at the +corner of the Rectangle. But he was roused by a voice coming from +the tent. +</P> + +<P> +It was the voice of Rachel Winslow. It struck through his +consciousness of struggle over his own question that had sent him +into the Divine Presence for an answer. He had not yet reached a +conclusion. He was tortured with uncertainty. His whole previous +course of action as a railroad man was the poorest possible +preparation for anything sacrificial. And he could not yet say what +he would do in the matter. +</P> + +<P> +Hark! What was she singing? How did Rachel Winslow happen to be down +here? Several windows near by went up. Some men quarreling near a +saloon stopped and listened. Other figures were walking rapidly in +the direction of the Rectangle and the tent. Surely Rachel Winslow +had never sung like that in the First Church. It was a marvelous +voice. What was it she was singing? Again Alexander Powers, +Superintendent of the machine shops, paused and listened, +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Where He leads me I will follow,<BR> + Where He leads me I will follow,<BR> + Where He leads me I will follow,<BR> + I'll go with Him, with Him.<BR> + All the way!"<BR> +</P> + +<P> +The brutal, coarse, impure life of the Rectangle stirred itself into +new life as the song, as pure as the surroundings were vile, floated +out and into saloon and den and foul lodging. Some one stumbled +hastily by Alexander Powers and said in answer to a question: "De +tent's beginning to run over tonight. That's what the talent calls +music, eh?" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter Eight +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +"If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up +his cross daily and follow me." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +HENRY MAXWELL paced his study back and forth. It was Wednesday and +he had started to think out the subject of his evening service which +fell upon that night. Out of one of his study windows he could see +the tall chimney of the railroad shops. The top of the evangelist's +tent just showed over the buildings around the Rectangle. He looked +out of his window every time he turned in his walk. After a while he +sat down at his desk and drew a large piece of paper toward him. +After thinking several moments he wrote in large letters the +following: +</P> + +<P> +A NUMBER OF THINGS THAT JESUS WOULD PROBABLY DO IN THIS PARISH +</P> + +<P> +Live in a simple, plain manner, without needless luxury on the one +hand or undue asceticism on the other. Preach fearlessly to the +hypocrites in the church, no matter what their social importance or +wealth. Show in some practical form His sympathy and love for the +common people as well as for the well-to-do, educated, refined +people who make up the majority of the parish. Identify Himself with +the great causes of humanity in some personal way that would call +for self-denial and suffering. Preach against the saloon in Raymond. +Become known as a friend and companion of the sinful people in the +Rectangle. Give up the summer trip to Europe this year. (I have been +abroad twice and cannot claim any special need of rest. I am well, +and could forego this pleasure, using the money for some one who +needs a vacation more than I do. There are probably plenty of such +people in the city.) +</P> + +<P> +He was conscious, with a humility that was once a stranger to him, +that his outline of Jesus' probable action was painfully lacking in +depth and power, but he was seeking carefully for concrete shapes +into which he might cast his thought of Jesus' conduct. Nearly every +point he had put down, meant, for him, a complete overturning of the +custom and habit of years in the ministry. In spite of that, he +still searched deeper for sources of the Christ-like spirit. He did +not attempt to write any more, but sat at his desk absorbed in his +effort to catch more and more the spirit of Jesus in his own life. +He had forgotten the particular subject for his prayer meeting with +which he had begun his morning study. +</P> + +<P> +He was so absorbed over his thought that he did not hear the bell +ring; he was roused by the servant who announced a caller. He had +sent up his name, Mr. Gray. +</P> + +<P> +Maxwell stepped to the head of the stairs and asked Gray to come up. +So Gray came up and stated the reason for his call. +</P> + +<P> +"I want your help, Mr. Maxwell. Of course you have heard what a +wonderful meeting we had Monday night and last night. Miss Winslow +has done more with her voice than I could do, and the tent won't +hold the people." +</P> + +<P> +"I've heard of that. It is the first time the people there have +heard her. It is no wonder they are attracted." +</P> + +<P> +"It has been a wonderful revelation to us, and a most encouraging +event in our work. But I came to ask if you could not come down +tonight and preach. I am suffering from a severe cold. I do not dare +trust my voice again. I know it is asking a good deal from such a +busy man. But, if you can't come, say so frankly, and I'll try +somewhere else." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sorry, but it's my regular prayer meeting night," began Henry +Maxwell. Then he flushed and added, "I shall be able to arrange it +in some way so as to come down. You can count on me." +</P> + +<P> +Gray thanked him earnestly and rose to go. +</P> + +<P> +"Won't you stay a minute, Gray, and let us have a prayer together?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said Gray simply. +</P> + +<P> +So the two men kneeled together in the study. Henry Maxwell prayed +like a child. Gray was touched to tears as he knelt there. There was +something almost pitiful in the way this man who had lived his +ministerial life in such a narrow limit of exercise now begged for +wisdom and strength to speak a message to the people in the +Rectangle. +</P> + +<P> +Gray rose and held out his hand. "God bless you, Mr. Maxwell. I'm +sure the Spirit will give you power tonight." +</P> + +<P> +Henry Maxwell made no answer. He did not even trust himself to say +that he hoped so. But he thought of his promise and it brought him a +certain peace that was refreshing to his heart and mind alike. +</P> + +<P> +So that is how it came about that when the First Church audience +came into the lecture room that evening it met with another +surprise. There was an unusually large number present. The prayer +meetings ever since that remarkable Sunday morning had been attended +as never before in the history of the First Church. Mr. Maxwell came +at once to the point. +</P> + +<P> +"I feel that I am called to go down to the Rectangle tonight, and I +will leave it with you to say whether you will go on with this +meeting here. I think perhaps the best plan would be for a few +volunteers to go down to the Rectangle with me prepared to help in +the after-meeting, if necessary, and the rest to remain here and +pray that the Spirit power may go with us." +</P> + +<P> +So half a dozen of the men went with the pastor, and the rest of the +audience stayed in the lecture room. Maxwell could not escape the +thought as he left the room that probably in his entire church +membership there might not be found a score of disciples who were +capable of doing work that would successfully lead needy, sinful men +into the knowledge of Christ. The thought did not linger in his mind +to vex him as he went his way, but it was simply a part of his whole +new conception of the meaning of Christian discipleship. +</P> + +<P> +When he and his little company of volunteers reached the Rectangle, +the tent was already crowded. They had difficulty in getting to the +platform. Rachel was there with Virginia and Jasper Chase who had +come instead of the Doctor tonight. +</P> + +<P> +When the meeting began with a song in which Rachel sang the solo and +the people were asked to join in the chorus, not a foot of standing +room was left in the tent. The night was mild and the sides of the +tent were up and a great border of faces stretched around, looking +in and forming part of the audience. After the singing, and a prayer +by one of the city pastors who was present, Gray stated the reason +for his inability to speak, and in his simple manner turned the +service over to "Brother Maxwell of the First Church." +</P> + +<P> +"Who's de bloke?" asked a hoarse voice near the outside of the tent. +</P> + +<P> +"De Fust Church parson. We've got de whole high-tone swell outfit +tonight." +</P> + +<P> +"Did you say Fust Church? I know him. My landlord's got a front pew +up there," said another voice, and there was a laugh, for the +speaker was a saloon keeper. +</P> + +<P> +"Trow out de life line 'cross de dark wave!" began a drunken man +near by, singing in such an unconscious imitation of a local +traveling singer's nasal tone that roars of laughter and jeers of +approval rose around him. The people in the tent turned in the +direction of the disturbance. There were shouts of "Put him out!" +"Give the Fust Church a chance!" "Song! Song! Give us another song!" +</P> + +<P> +Henry Maxwell stood up, and a great wave of actual terror went over +him. This was not like preaching to the well-dressed, respectable, +good-mannered people up on the boulevard. He began to speak, but the +confusion increased. Gray went down into the crowd, but did not seem +able to quiet it. Maxwell raised his arm and his voice. The crowd in +the tent began to pay some attention, but the noise on the outside +increased. In a few minutes the audience was beyond his control. He +turned to Rachel with a sad smile. +</P> + +<P> +"Sing something, Miss Winslow. They will listen to you," he said, +and then sat down and covered his face with his hands. +</P> + +<P> +It was Rachel's opportunity, and she was fully equal to it. Virginia +was at the organ and Rachel asked her to play a few notes of the +hymn. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Savior, I follow on,<BR> + Guided by Thee,<BR> + Seeing not yet the hand<BR> + That leadeth me.<BR> + Hushed be my heart and still<BR> + Fear I no farther ill,<BR> + Only to meet Thy will,<BR> + My will shall be."<BR> +</P> + +<P> +Rachel had not sung the first line before the people in the tent +were all turned toward her, hushed and reverent. Before she had +finished the verse the Rectangle was subdued and tamed. It lay like +some wild beast at her feet, and she sang it into harmlessness. Ah! +What were the flippant, perfumed, critical audiences in concert +halls compared with this dirty, drunken, impure, besotted mass of +humanity that trembled and wept and grew strangely, sadly thoughtful +under the touch of this divine ministry of this beautiful young +woman! Mr. Maxwell, as he raised his head and saw the transformed +mob, had a glimpse of something that Jesus would probably do with a +voice like Rachel Winslow's. Jasper Chase sat with his eyes on the +singer, and his greatest longing as an ambitious author was +swallowed up in his thought of what Rachel Winslow's love might +sometimes mean to him. And over in the shadow outside stood the last +person any one might have expected to see at a gospel tent +service—Rollin Page, who, jostled on every side by rough men and +women who stared at the swell in fine clothes, seemed careless of +his surroundings and at the same time evidently swayed by the power +that Rachel possessed. He had just come over from the club. Neither +Rachel nor Virginia saw him that night. +</P> + +<P> +The song was over. Maxwell rose again. This time he felt calmer. +What would Jesus do? He spoke as he thought once he never could +speak. Who were these people? They were immortal souls. What was +Christianity? A calling of sinners, not the righteous, to +repentance. How would Jesus speak? What would He say? He could not +tell all that His message would include, but he felt sure of a part +of it. And in that certainty he spoke on. Never before had he felt +"compassion for the multitude." What had the multitude been to him +during his ten years in the First Church but a vague, dangerous, +dirty, troublesome factor in society, outside of the church and of +his reach, an element that caused him occasionally an unpleasant +twinge of conscience, a factor in Raymond that was talked about at +associations as the "masses," in papers written by the brethren in +attempts to show why the "masses" were not being reached. But +tonight as he faced the masses he asked himself whether, after all, +this was not just about such a multitude as Jesus faced oftenest, +and he felt the genuine emotion of love for a crowd which is one of +the best indications a preacher ever has that he is living close to +the heart of the world's eternal Life. It is easy to love an +individual sinner, especially if he is personally picturesque or +interesting. To love a multitude of sinners is distinctively a +Christ-like quality. +</P> + +<P> +When the meeting closed, there was no special interest shown. No one +stayed to the after-meeting. The people rapidly melted away from the +tent, and the saloons, which had been experiencing a dull season +while the meetings progressed, again drove a thriving trade. The +Rectangle, as if to make up for lost time, started in with vigor on +its usual night debauch. Maxwell and his little party, including +Virginia, Rachel and Jasper Chase, walked down past the row of +saloons and dens until they reached the corner where the cars +passed. +</P> + +<P> +"This is a terrible spot," said the minister as he stood waiting for +their car. "I never realized that Raymond had such a festering sore. +It does not seem possible that this is a city full of Christian +disciples." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you think any one can ever remove this great curse of drink?" +asked Jasper Chase. +</P> + +<P> +"I have thought lately as never before of what Christian people +might do to remove the curse of the saloon. Why don't we all act +together against it? Why don't the Christian pastors and the church +members of Raymond move as one man against the traffic? What would +Jesus do? Would He keep silent? Would He vote to license these +causes of crime and death?" +</P> + +<P> +He was talking to himself more than to the others. He remembered +that he had always voted for license, and so had nearly all his +church members. What would Jesus do? Could he answer that question? +Would the Master preach and act against the saloon if He lived +today? How would He preach and act? Suppose it was not popular to +preach against license? Suppose the Christian people thought it was +all that could be done to license the evil and so get revenue from +the necessary sin? Or suppose the church members themselves owned +the property where the saloons stood—what then? He knew that those +were the facts in Raymond. What would Jesus do? +</P> + +<P> +He went up into his study the next morning with that question only +partly answered. He thought of it all day. He was still thinking of +it and reaching certain real conclusions when the EVENING NEWS came. +His wife brought it up and sat down a few minutes while he read to +her. +</P> + +<P> +The EVENING NEWS was at present the most sensational paper in +Raymond. That is to say, it was being edited in such a remarkable +fashion that its subscribers had never been so excited over a +newspaper before. First they had noticed the absence of the prize +fight, and gradually it began to dawn upon them that the NEWS no +longer printed accounts of crime with detailed descriptions, or +scandals in private life. Then they noticed that the advertisements +of liquor and tobacco were dropped, together with certain others of +a questionable character. The discontinuance of the Sunday paper +caused the greatest comment of all, and now the character of the +editorials was creating the greatest excitement. A quotation from +the Monday paper of this week will show what Edward Norman was doing +to keep his promise. The editorial was headed: +</P> + +<P> +THE MORAL SIDE OF POLITICAL QUESTIONS +</P> + +<P> +The editor of the News has always advocated the principles of the +great political party at present in power, and has heretofore +discussed all political questions from the standpoint of expediency, +or of belief in the party as opposed to other political +organizations. Hereafter, to be perfectly honest with all our +readers, the editor will present and discuss all political questions +from the standpoint of right and wrong. In other words, the first +question asked in this office about any political question will not +be, "Is it in the interests of our party?" or, "Is it according to +the principles laid down by our party in its platform?" but the +question first asked will be, "Is this measure in accordance with +the spirit and teachings of Jesus as the author of the greatest +standard of life known to men?" That is, to be perfectly plain, the +moral side of every political question will be considered its most +important side, and the ground will be distinctly taken that nations +as well as individuals are under the same law to do all things to +the glory of God as the first rule of action. +</P> + +<P> +The same principle will be observed in this office toward candidates +for places of responsibility and trust in the republic. Regardless +of party politics the editor of the News will do all in his power to +bring the best men into power, and will not knowingly help to +support for office any candidate who is unworthy, no matter how much +he may be endorsed by the party. The first question asked about the +man and about the measures will be, "Is he the right man for the +place?" "Is he a good man with ability?" "Is the measure right?" +</P> + +<P> +There had been more of this, but we have quoted enough to show the +character of the editorial. Hundreds of men in Raymond had read it +and rubbed their eyes in amazement. A good many of them had promptly +written to the NEWS, telling the editor to stop their paper. The +paper still came out, however, and was eagerly read all over the +city. At the end of a week Edward Norman knew very well that he was +fast losing a large number of subscribers. He faced the conditions +calmly, although Clark, the managing editor, grimly anticipated +ultimate bankruptcy, especially since Monday's editorial. +</P> + +<P> +Tonight, as Maxwell read to his wife, he could see in almost every +column evidences of Norman's conscientious obedience to his promise. +There was an absence of slangy, sensational scare heads. The reading +matter under the head lines was in perfect keeping with them. He +noticed in two columns that the reporters' name appeared signed at +the bottom. And there was a distinct advance in the dignity and +style of their contributions. +</P> + +<P> +"So Norman is beginning to get his reporters to sign their work. He +has talked with me about that. It is a good thing. It fixes +responsibility for items where it belongs and raises the standard of +work done. A good thing all around for the public and the writers." +</P> + +<P> +Maxwell suddenly paused. His wife looked up from some work she was +doing. He was reading something with the utmost interest. "Listen to +this, Mary," he said, after a moment while his lip trembled: +</P> + +<P> +"This morning Alexander Powers, Superintendent of the L. and T. R. R. +shops in this city, handed in his resignation to the road, and gave +as his reason the fact that certain proofs had fallen into his hands +of the violation of the Interstate Commerce Law, and also of the +state law which has recently been framed to prevent and punish +railroad pooling for the benefit of certain favored shippers. Mr. +Powers states in his resignation that he can no longer consistently +withhold the information he possesses against the road. He will be a +witness against it. He has placed his evidence against the company +in the hands of the Commission and it is now for them to take action +upon it. +</P> + +<P> +The News wishes to express itself on this action of Mr. Powers. In +the first place he has nothing to gain by it. He has lost a very +valuable place voluntarily, when by keeping silent he might have +retained it. In the second place, we believe his action ought to +receive the approval of all thoughtful, honest citizens who believe +in seeing law obeyed and lawbreakers brought to justice. In a case +like this, where evidence against a railroad company is generally +understood to be almost impossible to obtain, it is the general +belief that the officers of the road are often in possession of +criminating facts but do not consider it to be any of their business +to inform the authorities that the law is being defied. The entire +result of this evasion of responsibility on the part of those who +are responsible is demoralizing to every young man connected with +the road. The editor of the News recalls the statement made by a +prominent railroad official in this city a little while ago, that +nearly every clerk in a certain department of the road understood +that large sums of money were made by shrewd violations of the +Interstate Commerce Law, was ready to admire the shrewdness with +which it was done, and declared that they would all do the same +thing if they were high enough in railroad circles to attempt it." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter Nine +</H3> + +<P> +HENRY MAXWELL finished reading and dropped the paper. +</P> + +<P> +"I must go and see Powers. This is the result of his promise." +</P> + +<P> +He rose, and as he was going out, his wife said: "Do you think, +Henry, that Jesus would have done that?" +</P> + +<P> +Maxwell paused a moment. Then he answered slowly, "Yes, I think He +would. At any rate, Powers has decided so and each one of us who +made the promise understands that he is not deciding Jesus' conduct +for any one else, only for himself." +</P> + +<P> +"How about his family? How will Mrs. Powers and Celia be likely to +take it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Very hard, I've no doubt. That will be Powers' cross in this +matter. They will not understand his motive." +</P> + +<P> +Maxwell went out and walked over to the next block where +Superintendent Powers lived. To his relief, Powers himself came to +the door. +</P> + +<P> +The two men shook hands silently. They instantly understood each +other without words. There had never before been such a bond of +union between the minister and his parishioner. +</P> + +<P> +"What are you going to do?" Henry Maxwell asked after they had +talked over the facts in the case. +</P> + +<P> +"You mean another position? I have no plans yet. I can go back to my +old work as a telegraph operator. My family will not suffer, except +in a social way." +</P> + +<P> +Powers spoke calmly and sadly. Henry Maxwell did not need to ask him +how the wife and daughter felt. He knew well enough that the +superintendent had suffered deepest at that point. +</P> + +<P> +"There is one matter I wish you would see to," said Powers after +awhile, "and that is, the work begun at the shops. So far as I know, +the company will not object to that going on. It is one of the +contradictions of the railroad world that Y. M. C. A.'s and other +Christian influences are encouraged by the roads, while all the time +the most un-Christian and lawless acts may be committed in the +official management of the roads themselves. Of course it is well +understood that it pays a railroad to have in its employ men who are +temperate, honest and Christian. So I have no doubt the master +mechanic will have the same courtesy shown him in the use of the +room. But what I want you to do, Mr. Maxwell, is to see that my plan +is carried out. Will you? You understand what it was in general. You +made a very favorable impression on the men. Go down there as often +as you can. Get Milton Wright interested to provide something for +the furnishing and expense of the coffee plant and reading tables. +Will you do it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," replied Henry Maxwell. He stayed a little longer. Before he +went away, he and the superintendent had a prayer together, and they +parted with that silent hand grasp that seemed to them like a new +token of their Christian discipleship and fellowship. +</P> + +<P> +The pastor of the First Church went home stirred deeply by the +events of the week. Gradually the truth was growing upon him that +the pledge to do as Jesus would was working out a revolution in his +parish and throughout the city. Every day added to the serious +results of obedience to that pledge. Maxwell did not pretend to see +the end. He was, in fact, only now at the very beginning of events +that were destined to change the history of hundreds of families not +only in Raymond but throughout the entire country. As he thought of +Edward Norman and Rachel and Mr. Powers, and of the results that had +already come from their actions, he could not help a feeling of +intense interest in the probable effect if all the persons in the +First Church who had made the pledge, faithfully kept it. Would they +all keep it, or would some of them turn back when the cross became +too heavy? +</P> + +<P> +He was asking this question the next morning as he sat in his study +when the President of the Endeavor Society of his church called to +see him. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose I ought not to trouble you with my case," said young +Morris coming at once to his errand, "but I thought, Mr. Maxwell, +that you might advise me a little." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm glad you came. Go on, Fred." He had known the young man ever +since his first year in the pastorate, and loved and honored him for +his consistent, faithful service in the church. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, the fact is, I am out of a job. You know I've been doing +reporter work on the morning SENTINEL since I graduated last year. +Well, last Saturday Mr. Burr asked me to go down the road Sunday +morning and get the details of that train robbery at the Junction, +and write the thing up for the extra edition that came out Monday +morning, just to get the start of the NEWS. I refused to go, and +Burr gave me my dismissal. He was in a bad temper, or I think +perhaps he would not have done it. He has always treated me well +before. Now, do you think Jesus would have done as I did? I ask +because the other fellows say I was a fool not to do the work. I +want to feel that a Christian acts from motives that may seem +strange to others sometimes, but not foolish. What do you think?" +</P> + +<P> +"I think you kept your promise, Fred. I cannot believe Jesus would +do newspaper reporting on Sunday as you were asked to do it." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, Mr. Maxwell. I felt a little troubled over it, but the +longer I think it over the better I feel." +</P> + +<P> +Morris rose to go, and his pastor rose and laid a loving hand on the +young man's shoulder. "What are you going to do, Fred?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know yet. I have thought some of going to Chicago or some +large city ." +</P> + +<P> +"Why don't you try the NEWS?" +</P> + +<P> +"They are all supplied. I have not thought of applying there." +</P> + +<P> +Maxwell thought a moment. "Come down to the NEWS office with me, and +let us see Norman about it." +</P> + +<P> +So a few minutes later Edward Norman received into his room the +minister and young Morris, and Maxwell briefly told the cause of the +errand. +</P> + +<P> +"I can give you a place on the NEWS," said Norman with his keen look +softened by a smile that made it winsome. "I want reporters who +won't work Sundays. And what is more, I am making plans for a +special kind of reporting which I believe you can develop because +you are in sympathy with what Jesus would do." +</P> + +<P> +He assigned Morris a definite task, and Maxwell started back to his +study, feeling that kind of satisfaction (and it is a very deep +kind) which a man feels when he has been even partly instrumental in +finding an unemployed person a remunerative position. +</P> + +<P> +He had intended to go right to his study, but on his way home he +passed by one of Milton Wright's stores. He thought he would simply +step in and shake hands with his parishioner and bid him God-speed +in what he had heard he was doing to put Christ into his business. +But when he went into the office, Wright insisted on detaining him +to talk over some of his new plans. Maxwell asked himself if this +was the Milton Wright he used to know, eminently practical, +business-like, according to the regular code of the business world, +and viewing every thing first and foremost from the standpoint of, +"Will it pay?" +</P> + +<P> +"There is no use to disguise the fact, Mr. Maxwell, that I have been +compelled to revolutionize the entire method of my business since I +made that promise. I have been doing a great many things during the +last twenty years in this store that I know Jesus would not do. But +that is a small item compared with the number of things I begin to +believe Jesus would do. My sins of commission have not been as many +as those of omission in business relations." +</P> + +<P> +"What was the first change you made?" He felt as if his sermon could +wait for him in his study. As the interview with Milton Wright +continued, he was not so sure but that he had found material for a +sermon without going back to his study. +</P> + +<P> +"I think the first change I had to make was in my thought of my +employees. I came down here Monday morning after that Sunday and +asked myself, 'What would Jesus do in His relation to these clerks, +bookkeepers, office-boys, draymen, salesmen? Would He try to +establish some sort of personal relation to them different from that +which I have sustained all these years?' I soon answered this by +saying, 'Yes.' Then came the question of what that relation would be +and what it would lead me to do. I did not see how I could answer it +to my satisfaction without getting all my employees together and +having a talk with them. So I sent invitations to all of them, and +we had a meeting out there in the warehouse Tuesday night. A good +many things came out of that meeting. I can't tell you all. I tried +to talk with the men as I imagined Jesus might. It was hard work, +for I have not been in the habit of it, and must have made some +mistakes. But I can hardly make you believe, Mr. Maxwell, the effect +of that meeting on some of the men. Before it closed I saw more than +a dozen of them with tears on their faces. I kept asking, 'What +would Jesus do?' and the more I asked it the farther along it pushed +me into the most intimate and loving relations with the men who have +worked for me all these years. Every day something new is coming up +and I am right now in the midst of a reconstruction of the entire +business so far as its motive for being conducted is concerned. I am +so practically ignorant of all plans for co-operation and its +application to business that I am trying to get information from +every possible source. I have lately made a special study of the +life of Titus Salt, the great mill-owner of Bradford, England, who +afterward built that model town on the banks of the Aire. There is a +good deal in his plans that will help me. But I have not yet reached +definite conclusions in regard to all the details. I am not enough +used to Jesus' methods. But see here." +</P> + +<P> +Wright eagerly reached up into one of the pigeon holes of his desk +and took out a paper. +</P> + +<P> +"I have sketched out what seems to me like a program such as Jesus +might go by in a business like mine. I want you to tell me what you +think of it: +</P> + +<P> +"WHAT JESUS WOULD PROBABLY DO IN MILTON WRIGHT'S PLACE AS A BUSINESS +MAN" +</P> + +<P> +He would engage in the business first of all for the purpose of +glorifying God, and not for the primary purpose of making money. All +money that might be made he would never regard as his own, but as +trust funds to be used for the good of humanity. His relations with +all the persons in his employ would be the most loving and helpful. +He could not help thinking of all of them in the light of souls to +be saved. This thought would always be greater than his thought of +making money in the business. He would never do a single dishonest +or questionable thing or try in any remotest way to get the +advantage of any one else in the same business. The principle of +unselfishness and helpfulness in the business would direct all its +details. Upon this principle he would shape the entire plan of his +relations to his employees, to the people who were his customers and +to the general business world with which he was connected. +</P> + +<P> +Henry Maxwell read this over slowly. It reminded him of his own +attempts the day before to put into a concrete form his thought of +Jesus' probable action. He was very thoughtful as he looked up and +met Wright's eager gaze. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you believe you can continue to make your business pay on these +lines?" +</P> + +<P> +"I do. Intelligent unselfishness ought to be wiser than intelligent +selfishness, don't you think? If the men who work as employees begin +to feel a personal share in the profits of the business and, more +than that, a personal love for themselves on the part of the firm, +won't the result be more care, less waste, more diligence, more +faithfulness?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I think so. A good many other business men don't, do they? I +mean as a general thing. How about your relations to the selfish +world that is not trying to make money on Christian principles?" +</P> + +<P> +"That complicates my action, of course." +</P> + +<P> +"Does your plan contemplate what is coming to be known as +co-operation?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, as far as I have gone, it does. As I told you, I am studying +out my details carefully. I am absolutely convinced that Jesus in my +place would be absolutely unselfish. He would love all these men in +His employ. He would consider the main purpose of all the business +to be a mutual helpfulness, and would conduct it all so that God's +kingdom would be evidently the first object sought. On those general +principles, as I say, I am working. I must have time to complete the +details." +</P> + +<P> +When Maxwell finally left he was profoundly impressed with the +revolution that was being wrought already in the business. As he +passed out of the store he caught something of the new spirit of the +place. There was no mistaking the fact that Milton Wright's new +relations to his employees were beginning even so soon, after less +than two weeks, to transform the entire business. This was apparent +in the conduct and faces of the clerks. +</P> + +<P> +"If he keeps on he will be one of the most influential preachers in +Raymond," said Maxwell to himself when he reached his study. The +question rose as to his continuance in this course when he began to +lose money by it, as was possible. He prayed that the Holy Spirit, +who had shown Himself with growing power in the company of First +Church disciples, might abide long with them all. And with that +prayer on his lips and in his heart he began the preparation of a +sermon in which he was going to present to his people on Sunday the +subject of the saloon in Raymond, as he now believed Jesus would do. +He had never preached against the saloon in this way before. He knew +that the things he should say would lead to serious results. +Nevertheless, he went on with his work, and every sentence he wrote +or shaped was preceded with the question, "Would Jesus say that?" +Once in the course of his study, he went down on his knees. No one +except himself could know what that meant to him. When had he done +that in his preparation of sermons, before the change that had come +into his thought of discipleship? As he viewed his ministry now, he +did not dare preach without praying long for wisdom. He no longer +thought of his dramatic delivery and its effect on his audience. The +great question with him now was, "What would Jesus do?" +</P> + +<P> +Saturday night at the Rectangle witnessed some of the most +remarkable scenes that Mr. Gray and his wife had ever known. The +meetings had intensified with each night of Rachel's singing. A +stranger passing through the Rectangle in the day-time might have +heard a good deal about the meetings in one way and another. It +cannot be said that up to that Saturday night there was any +appreciable lack of oaths and impurity and heavy drinking. The +Rectangle would not have acknowledged that it was growing any better +or that even the singing had softened its outward manner. It had too +much local pride in being "tough." But in spite of itself there was +a yielding to a power it had never measured and did not know we +enough to resist beforehand. +</P> + +<P> +Gray had recovered his voice so that by Saturday he was able to +speak. The fact that he was obliged to use his voice carefully made +it necessary for the people to be very quiet if they wanted to hear. +Gradually they had come to understand that this man was talking +these many weeks and giving his time and strength to give them a +knowledge of a Savior, all out of a perfectly unselfish love for +them. Tonight the great crowd was as quiet as Henry Maxwell's +decorous audience ever was. The fringe around the tent was deeper +and the saloons were practically empty. The Holy Spirit had come at +last, and Gray knew that one of the great prayers of his life was +going to be answered. +</P> + +<P> +And Rachel her singing was the best, most wonderful, that Virginia +or Jasper Chase had ever known. They came together again tonight, +this time with Dr. West, who had spent all his spare time that week +in the Rectangle with some charity cases. Virginia was at the organ, +Jasper sat on a front seat looking up at Rachel, and the Rectangle +swayed as one man towards the platform as she sang: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Just as I am, without one plea,<BR> + But that Thy blood was shed for me,<BR> + And that Thou bidst me come to Thee,<BR> + O Lamb of God, I come, I come."<BR> +</P> + +<P> +Gray hardly said a word. He stretched out his hand with a gesture of +invitation. And down the two aisles of the tent, broken, sinful +creatures, men and women, stumbled towards the platform. One woman +out of the street was near the organ. Virginia caught the look of +her face, and for the first time in the life of the rich girl the +thought of what Jesus was to the sinful woman came with a suddenness +and power that was like nothing but a new birth. Virginia left the +organ, went to her, looked into her face and caught her hands in her +own. The other girl trembled, then fell on her knees sobbing, with +her head down upon the back of the rude bench in front of her, still +clinging to Virginia. And Virginia, after a moment's hesitation, +kneeled down by her and the two heads were bowed close together. +</P> + +<P> +But when the people had crowded in a double row all about the +platform, most of them kneeling and crying, a man in evening dress, +different from the others, pushed through the seats and came and +kneeled down by the side of the drunken man who had disturbed the +meeting when Maxwell spoke. He kneeled within a few feet of Rachel +Winslow, who was still singing softly. And as she turned for a +moment and looked in his direction, she was amazed to see the face +of Rollin Page! For a moment her voice faltered. Then she went on: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Just as I am, thou wilt receive,<BR> + Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve,<BR> + Because Thy promise I believe,<BR> + O Lamb of God, I come, I come."<BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter Ten +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +"If any man serve me, let him follow me." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +IT was nearly midnight before the services at the Rectangle closed. +Gray stayed up long into Sunday morning, praying and talking with a +little group of converts who in the great experiences of their new +life, clung to the evangelist with a personal helplessness that made +it as impossible for him to leave them as if they had been depending +upon him to save them from physical death. Among these converts was +Rollin Page. +</P> + +<P> +Virginia and her uncle had gone home about eleven o'clock, and +Rachel and Jasper Chase had gone with them as far as the avenue +where Virginia lived. Dr. West had walked on a little way with them +to his own home, and Rachel and Jasper had then gone on together to +her mother's. +</P> + +<P> +That was a little after eleven. It was now striking midnight, and +Jasper Chase sat in his room staring at the papers on his desk and +going over the last half hour with painful persistence. +</P> + +<P> +He had told Rachel Winslow of his love for her, and she had not +given him her love in return. It would be difficult to know what was +most powerful in the impulse that had moved him to speak to her +tonight. He had yielded to his feelings without any special thought +of results to himself, because he had felt so certain that Rachel +would respond to his love. He tried to recall the impression she +made on him when he first spoke to her. +</P> + +<P> +Never had her beauty and her strength influenced him as tonight. +While she was singing he saw and heard no one else. The tent swarmed +with a confused crowd of faces and he knew he was sitting there +hemmed in by a mob of people, but they had no meaning to him. He +felt powerless to avoid speaking to her. He knew he should speak +when they were alone. +</P> + +<P> +Now that he had spoken, he felt that he had misjudged either Rachel +or the opportunity. He knew, or thought he knew, that she had begun +to care something for him. It was no secret between them that the +heroine of Jasper's first novel had been his own ideal of Rachel, +and the hero in the story was himself and they had loved each other +in the book, and Rachel had not objected. No one else knew. The +names and characters had been drawn with a subtle skill that +revealed to Rachel, when she received a copy of the book from +Jasper, the fact of his love for her, and she had not been offended. +That was nearly a year ago. +</P> + +<P> +Tonight he recalled the scene between them with every inflection and +movement unerased from his memory. He even recalled the fact that he +began to speak just at that point on the avenue where, a few days +before, he had met Rachel walking with Rollin Page. He had wondered +at the time what Rollin was saying. +</P> + +<P> +"Rachel," Jasper had said, and it was the first time he had ever +spoken her first name, "I never knew till tonight how much I loved +you. Why should I try to conceal any longer what you have seen me +look? You know I love you as my life. I can no longer hide it from +you if I would." +</P> + +<P> +The first intimation he had of a repulse was the trembling of +Rachel's arm in his. She had allowed him to speak and had neither +turned her face toward him nor away from him. She had looked +straight on and her voice was sad but firm and quiet when she spoke. +</P> + +<P> +"Why do you speak to me now? I cannot bear it—after what we have +seen tonight." +</P> + +<P> +"Why—what—" he had stammered and then was silent. +</P> + +<P> +Rachel withdrew her arm from his but still walked near him. Then he +had cried out with the anguish of one who begins to see a great loss +facing him where he expected a great joy. +</P> + +<P> +"Rachel! Do you not love me? Is not my love for you as sacred as +anything in all of life itself?" +</P> + +<P> +She had walked silent for a few steps after that. They passed a +street lamp. Her face was pale and beautiful. He had made a movement +to clutch her arm and she had moved a little farther from him. +</P> + +<P> +"No," she had replied. "There was a time I—cannot answer for that +you—should not have spoken to me—now." +</P> + +<P> +He had seen in these words his answer. He was extremely sensitive. +Nothing short of a joyous response to his own love would ever have +satisfied him. He could not think of pleading with her. +</P> + +<P> +"Some time—when I am more worthy?" he had asked in a low voice, but +she did not seem to hear, and they had parted at her home, and he +recalled vividly the fact that no good-night had been said. +</P> + +<P> +Now as he went over the brief but significant scene he lashed +himself for his foolish precipitancy. He had not reckoned on +Rachel's tense, passionate absorption of all her feeling in the +scenes at the tent which were so new in her mind. But he did not +know her well enough even yet to understand the meaning of her +refusal. When the clock in the First Church struck one he was still +sitting at his desk staring at the last page of manuscript of his +unfinished novel. +</P> + +<P> +Rachel went up to her room and faced her evening's experience with +conflicting emotions. Had she ever loved Jasper Chase? Yes. No. One +moment she felt that her life's happiness was at stake over the +result of her action. Another, she had a strange feeling of relief +that she had spoken as she had. There was one great, overmastering +feeling in her. The response of the wretched creatures in the tent +to her singing, the swift, powerful, awesome presence of the Holy +Spirit had affected her as never in all her life before. The moment +Jasper had spoken her name and she realized that he was telling her +of his love she had felt a sudden revulsion for him, as if he should +have respected the supernatural events they had just witnessed. She +felt as if it was not the time to be absorbed in anything less than +the divine glory of those conversions. The thought that all the time +she was singing, with the one passion of her soul to touch the +conscience of that tent full of sin, Jasper Chase had been unmoved +by it except to love her for herself, gave her a shock as of +irreverence on her part as well as on his. She could not tell why +she felt as she did, only she knew that if he had not told her +tonight she would still have felt the same toward him as she always +had. What was that feeling? What had he been to her? Had she made a +mistake? She went to her book case and took out the novel which +Jasper had given her. Her face deepened in color as she turned to +certain passages which she had read often and which she knew Jasper +had written for her. She read them again. Somehow they failed to +touch her strongly. She closed the book and let it lie on the table. +She gradually felt that her thought was busy with the sights she had +witnessed in the tent. Those faces, men and women, touched for the +first time with the Spirit's glory—what a wonderful thing life was +after all! The complete regeneration revealed in the sight of +drunken, vile, debauched humanity kneeling down to give itself to a +life of purity and Christlikeness—oh, it was surely a witness to +the superhuman in the world! And the face of Rollin Page by the side +of that miserable wreck out of the gutter! She could recall as if +she now saw it, Virginia crying with her arms about her brother just +before she left the tent, and Mr. Gray kneeling close by, and the +girl Virginia had taken into her heart while she whispered something +to her before she went out. All these pictures drawn by the Holy +Spirit in the human tragedies brought to a climax there in the most +abandoned spot in all Raymond, stood out in Rachel's memory now, a +memory so recent that her room seemed for the time being to contain +all the actors and their movements. +</P> + +<P> +"No! No!" she said aloud. "He had no right to speak after all that! +He should have respected the place where our thoughts should have +been. I am sure I do not love him—not enough to give him my life!" +</P> + +<P> +And after she had thus spoken, the evening's experience at the tent +came crowding in again, thrusting out all other things. It is +perhaps the most striking evidence of the tremendous spiritual +factor which had now entered the Rectangle that Rachel felt, even +when the great love of a strong man had come very near to her, that +the spiritual manifestation moved her with an agitation far greater +than anything Jasper had felt for her personally or she for him. +</P> + +<P> +The people of Raymond awoke Sunday morning to a growing knowledge of +events which were beginning to revolutionize many of the regular, +customary habits of the town. Alexander Powers' action in the matter +of the railroad frauds had created a sensation not only in Raymond +but throughout the country. Edward Norman's daily changes of policy +in the conduct of his paper had startled the community and caused +more comment than any recent political event. Rachel Winslow's +singing at the Rectangle meetings had made a stir in society and +excited the wonder of all her friends. +</P> + +<P> +Virginia's conduct, her presence every night with Rachel, her +absence from the usual circle of her wealthy, fashionable +acquaintances, had furnished a great deal of material for gossip and +question. In addition to these events which centered about these +persons who were so well known, there had been all through the city +in very many homes and in business and social circles strange +happenings. Nearly one hundred persons in Henry Maxwell's church had +made the pledge to do everything after asking: "What would Jesus +do?" and the result had been, in many cases, unheard-of actions. The +city was stirred as it had never been before. As a climax to the +week's events had come the spiritual manifestation at the Rectangle, +and the announcement which came to most people before church time of +the actual conversion at the tent of nearly fifty of the worst +characters in that neighborhood, together with the con version of +Rollin Page, the well-known society and club man. +</P> + +<P> +It is no wonder that under the pressure of all this the First Church +of Raymond came to the morning service in a condition that made it +quickly sensitive to any large truth. Perhaps nothing had astonished +the people more than the great change that had come over the +minister, since he had proposed to them the imitation of Jesus in +conduct. The dramatic delivery of his sermons no longer impressed +them. The self-satisfied, contented, easy attitude of the fine +figure and refined face in the pulpit had been displaced by a manner +that could not be compared with the old style of his delivery. The +sermon had become a message. It was no longer delivered. It was +brought to them with a love, an earnestness, a passion, a desire, a +humility that poured its enthusiasm about the truth and made the +speaker no more prominent than he had to be as the living voice of +God. His prayers were unlike any the people had heard before. They +were often broken, even once or twice they had been actually +ungrammatical in a phrase or two. When had Henry Maxwell so far +forgotten himself in a prayer as to make a mistake of that sort? He +knew that he had often taken as much pride in the diction and +delivery of his prayers as of his sermons. Was it possible he now so +abhorred the elegant refinement of a formal public petition that he +purposely chose to rebuke himself for his previous precise manner of +prayer? It is more likely that he had no thought of all that. His +great longing to voice the needs and wants of his people made him +unmindful of an occasional mistake. It is certain that he had never +prayed so effectively as he did now. +</P> + +<P> +There are times when a sermon has a value and power due to +conditions in the audience rather than to anything new or startling +or eloquent in the words said or arguments presented. Such +conditions faced Henry Maxwell this morning as he preached against +the saloon, according to his purpose determined on the week before. +He had no new statements to make about the evil influence of the +saloon in Raymond. What new facts were there? He had no startling +illustrations of the power of the saloon in business or politics. +What could he say that had not been said by temperance orators a +great many times? The effect of his message this morning owed its +power to the unusual fact of his preaching about the saloon at all, +together with the events that had stirred the people. He had never +in the course of his ten years' pastorate mentioned the saloon as +something to be regarded in the light of an enemy, not only to the +poor and tempted, but to the business life of the place and the +church itself. He spoke now with a freedom that seemed to measure +his complete sense of conviction that Jesus would speak so. At the +close he pleaded with the people to remember the new life that had +begun at the Rectangle. The regular election of city officers was +near at hand. The question of license would be an issue in the +election. What of the poor creatures surrounded by the hell of drink +while just beginning to feel the joy of deliverance from sin? Who +could tell what depended on their environment? Was there one word to +be said by the Christian disciple, business man, citizen, in favor +of continuing the license to crime and shame-producing institutions? +Was not the most Christian thing they could do to act as citizens in +the matter, fight the saloon at the polls, elect good men to the +city offices, and clean the municipality? How much had prayers +helped to make Raymond better while votes and actions had really +been on the side of the enemies of Jesus? Would not Jesus do this? +What disciple could imagine Him refusing to suffer or to take up His +cross in this matter? How much had the members of the First Church +ever suffered in an attempt to imitate Jesus? Was Christian +discipleship a thing of conscience simply, of custom, of tradition? +Where did the suffering come in? Was it necessary in order to follow +Jesus' steps to go up Calvary as well as the Mount of +Transfiguration? +</P> + +<P> +His appeal was stronger at this point than he knew. It is not too +much to say that the spiritual tension of the people reached its +highest point right there. The imitation of Jesus which had begun +with the volunteers in the church was working like leaven in the +organization, and Henry Maxwell would even thus early in his life +have been amazed if he could have measured the extent of desire on +the part of his people to take up the cross. While he was speaking +this morning, before he closed with a loving appeal to the +discipleship of two thousand years' knowledge of the Master, many a +man and woman in the church was saying as Rachel had said so +passionately to her mother: "I want to do something that will cost +me something in the way of sacrifice." "I am hungry to suffer +something." Truly, Mazzini was right when he said that no appeal is +quite so powerful in the end as the call: "Come and suffer." +</P> + +<P> +The service was over, the great audience had gone, and Maxwell again +faced the company gathered in the lecture room as on the two +previous Sundays. He had asked all to remain who had made the pledge +of discipleship, and any others who wished to be included. The after +service seemed now to be a necessity. As he went in and faced the +people there his heart trembled. There were at least one hundred +present. The Holy Spirit was never before so manifest. He missed +Jasper Chase. But all the others were present. He asked Milton +Wright to pray. The very air was charged with divine possibilities. +What could resist such a baptism of power? How had they lived all +these years without it? +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter Eleven +</H3> + +<P> +DONALD MARSH, President of Lincoln College, walked home with Mr. +Maxwell. +</P> + +<P> +"I have reached one conclusion, Maxwell," said Marsh, speaking +slowly. "I have found my cross and it is a heavy one, but I shall +never be satisfied until I take it up and carry it." Maxwell was +silent and the President went on. +</P> + +<P> +"Your sermon today made clear to me what I have long been feeling I +ought to do. 'What would Jesus do in my place?' I have asked the +question repeatedly since I made my promise. I have tried to satisfy +myself that He would simply go on as I have done, attending to the +duties of my college work, teaching the classes in Ethics and +Philosophy. But I have not been able to avoid the feeling that He +would do something more. That something is what I do not want to do. +It will cause me genuine suffering to do it. I dread it with all my +soul. You may be able to guess what it is." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I think I know. It is my cross too. I would almost rather do +any thing else." +</P> + +<P> +Donald Marsh looked surprised, then relieved. Then he spoke sadly +but with great conviction: "Maxwell, you and I belong to a class of +professional men who have always avoided the duties of citizenship. +We have lived in a little world of literature and scholarly +seclusion, doing work we have enjoyed and shrinking from the +disagreeable duties that belong to the life of the citizen. I +confess with shame that I have purposely avoided the responsibility +that I owe to this city personally. I understand that our city +officials are a corrupt, unprincipled set of men, controlled in +large part by the whiskey element and thoroughly selfish so far as +the affairs of city government are concerned. Yet all these years I, +with nearly every teacher in the college, have been satisfied to let +other men run the municipality and have lived in a little world of +my own, out of touch and sympathy with the real world of the people. +'What would Jesus do?' I have even tried to avoid an honest answer. +I can no longer do so. My plain duty is to take a personal part in +this coming election, go to the primaries, throw the weight of my +influence, whatever it is, toward the nomination and election of +good men, and plunge into the very depths of the entire horrible +whirlpool of deceit, bribery, political trickery and saloonism as it +exists in Raymond today. I would sooner walk up to the mouth of a +cannon any time than do this. I dread it because I hate the touch of +the whole matter. I would give almost any thing to be able to say, +'I do not believe Jesus would do anything of the sort.' But I am +more and more persuaded that He would. This is where the suffering +comes for me. It would not hurt me half so much to lose my position +or my home. I loathe the contact with this municipal problem. I +would so much prefer to remain quietly in my scholastic life with my +classes in Ethics and Philosophy. But the call has come to me so +plainly that I cannot escape. 'Donald Marsh, follow me. Do your duty +as a citizen of Raymond at the point where your citizenship will +cost you something. Help to cleanse this municipal stable, even if +you do have to soil your aristocratic feelings a little.' Maxwell, +this is my cross, I must take it up or deny my Lord." +</P> + +<P> +"You have spoken for me also," replied Maxwell with a sad smile. +"Why should I, simply because I am a minister, shelter myself behind +my refined, sensitive feelings, and like a coward refuse to touch, +except in a sermon possibly, the duty of citizenship? I am unused to +the ways of the political life of the city. I have never taken an +active part in any nomination of good men. There are hundreds of +ministers like me. As a class we do not practice in the municipal +life the duties and privileges we preach from the pulpit. 'What +would Jesus do?' I am now at a point where, like you, I am driven to +answer the question one way. My duty is plain. I must suffer. All my +parish work, all my little trials or self-sacrifices are as nothing +to me compared with the breaking into my scholarly, intellectual, +self-contained habits, of this open, coarse, public fight for a +clean city life. I could go and live at the Rectangle the rest of my +life and work in the slums for a bare living, and I could enjoy it +more than the thought of plunging into a fight for the reform of +this whiskey-ridden city. It would cost me less. But, like you, I +have been unable to shake off my responsibility. The answer to the +question 'What would Jesus do?' in this case leaves me no peace +except when I say, Jesus would have me act the part of a Christian +citizen. Marsh, as you say, we professional men, ministers, +professors, artists, literary men, scholars, have almost invariably +been political cowards. We have avoided the sacred duties of +citizenship either ignorantly or selfishly. Certainly Jesus in our +age would not do that. We can do no less than take up this cross, +and follow Him." +</P> + +<P> +The two men walked on in silence for a while. Finally President +Marsh said: "We do not need to act alone in this matter. With all +the men who have made the promise we certainly can have +companionship, and strength even, of numbers. Let us organize the +Christian forces of Raymond for the battle against rum and +corruption. We certainly ought to enter the primaries with a force +that will be able to do more than enter a protest. It is a fact that +the saloon element is cowardly and easily frightened in spite of its +lawlessness and corruption. Let us plan a campaign that will mean +something because it is organized righteousness. Jesus would use +great wisdom in this matter. He would employ means. He would make +large plans. Let us do so. If we bear this cross let us do it +bravely, like men." +</P> + +<P> +They talked over the matter a long time and met again the next day +in Maxwell's study to develop plans. The city primaries were called +for Friday. Rumors of strange and unknown events to the average +citizen were current that week in political circles throughout +Raymond. The Crawford system of balloting for nominations was not in +use in the state, and the primary was called for a public meeting at +the court house. +</P> + +<P> +The citizens of Raymond will never forget that meeting. It was so +unlike any political meeting ever held in Raymond before, that there +was no attempt at comparison. The special officers to be nominated +were mayor, city council, chief of police, city clerk and city +treasurer. +</P> + +<P> +The evening NEWS in its Saturday edition gave a full account of the +primaries, and in the editorial columns Edward Norman spoke with a +directness and conviction that the Christian people of Raymond were +learning to respect deeply, because it was so evidently sincere and +unselfish. A part of that editorial is also a part of this history. +We quote the following: +</P> + +<P> +"It is safe to say that never before in the history of Raymond was +there a primary like the one in the court house last night. It was, +first of all, a complete surprise to the city politicians who have +been in the habit of carrying on the affairs of the city as if they +owned them, and every one else was simply a tool or a cipher. The +overwhelming surprise of the wire pullers last night consisted in +the fact that a large number of the citizens of Raymond who have +heretofore taken no part in the city's affairs, entered the primary +and controlled it, nominating some of the best men for all the +offices to be filled at the coming election. +</P> + +<P> +"It was a tremendous lesson in good citizenship. President Marsh of +Lincoln College, who never before entered a city primary, and whose +face was not even known to the ward politicians, made one of the +best speeches ever made in Raymond. It was almost ludicrous to see +the faces of the men who for years have done as they pleased, when +President Marsh rose to speak. Many of them asked, 'Who is he?' The +consternation deepened as the primary proceeded and it became +evident that the oldtime ring of city rulers was outnumbered. Rev. +Henry Maxwell of the First Church, Milton Wright, Alexander Powers, +Professors Brown, Willard and Park of Lincoln College, Dr. West, +Rev. George Main of the Pilgrim Church, Dean Ward of the Holy +Trinity, and scores of well-known business men and professional men, +most of them church members, were present, and it did not take long +to see that they had all come with the one direct and definite +purpose of nominating the best men possible. Most of those men had +never before been seen in a primary. They were complete strangers to +the politicians. But they had evidently profited by the politician's +methods and were able by organized and united effort to nominate the +entire ticket. +</P> + +<P> +"As soon as it became plain that the primary was out of their +control the regular ring withdrew in disgust and nominated another +ticket. The NEWS simply calls the attention of all decent citizens +to the fact that this last ticket contains the names of whiskey men, +and the line is sharply and distinctly drawn between the saloon and +corrupt management such as we have known for years, and a clean, +honest, capable, business-like city administration, such as every +good citizen ought to want. It is not necessary to remind the people +of Raymond that the question of local option comes up at the +election. That will be the most important question on the ticket. +The crisis of our city affairs has been reached. The issue is +squarely before us. Shall we continue the rule of rum and boodle and +shameless incompetency, or shall we, as President Marsh said in his +noble speech, rise as good citizens and begin a new order of things, +cleansing our city of the worst enemy known to municipal honesty, +and doing what lies in our power to do with the ballot to purify our +civic life? +</P> + +<P> +"The NEWS is positively and without reservation on the side of the +new movement. We shall henceforth do all in our power to drive out +the saloon and destroy its political strength. We shall advocate the +election of the men nominated by the majority of citizens met in the +first primary and we call upon all Christians, church members, +lovers of right, purity, temperance, and the home, to stand by +President Marsh and the rest of the citizens who have thus begun a +long-needed reform in our city." +</P> + +<P> +President Marsh read this editorial and thanked God for Edward +Norman. At the same time he understood well enough that every other +paper in Raymond was on the other side. He did not underestimate the +importance and seriousness of the fight which was only just begun. +It was no secret that the NEWS had lost enormously since it had been +governed by the standard of "What would Jesus do?" And the question +was, Would the Christian people of Raymond stand by it? Would they +make it possible for Norman to conduct a daily Christian paper? Or +would the desire for what is called news in the way of crime, +scandal, political partisanship of the regular sort, and a dislike +to champion so remarkable a reform in journalism, influence them to +drop the paper and refuse to give it their financial support? That +was, in fact, the question Edward Norman was asking even while he +wrote that Saturday editorial. He knew well enough that his actions +expressed in that editorial would cost him very heavily from the +hands of many business men in Raymond. And still, as he drove his +pen over the paper, he asked another question, "What would Jesus +do?" That question had become a part of this whole life now. It was +greater than any other. +</P> + +<P> +But for the first time in its history Raymond had seen the +professional men, the teachers, the college professors, the doctors, +the ministers, take political action and put themselves definitely +and sharply in public antagonism to the evil forces that had so long +controlled the machine of municipal government. The fact itself was +astounding. President Marsh acknowledged to himself with a feeling +of humiliation, that never before had he known what civic +righteousness could accomplish. From that Friday night's work he +dated for himself and his college a new definition of the worn +phrase "the scholar in politics." Education for him and those who +were under his influence ever after meant some element of suffering. +Sacrifice must now enter into the factor of development. +</P> + +<P> +At the Rectangle that week the tide of spiritual life rose high, and +as yet showed no signs of flowing back. Rachel and Virginia went +every night. Virginia was rapidly reaching a conclusion with respect +to a large part of her money. She had talked it over with Rachel and +they had been able to agree that if Jesus had a vast amount of money +at His disposal He might do with some of it as Virginia planned. At +any rate they felt that whatever He might do in such case would have +as large an element of variety in it as the differences in persons +and circumstances. There could be no one fixed Christian way of +using money. The rule that regulated its use was unselfish utility. +</P> + +<P> +But meanwhile the glory of the Spirit's power possessed all their +best thought. Night after night that week witnessed miracles as +great as walking on the sea or feeding the multitude with a few +loaves and fishes. For what greater miracle is there than a +regenerate humanity? The transformation of these coarse, brutal, +sottish lives into praying, rapturous lovers of Christ, struck +Rachel and Virginia every time with the feeling that people may have +had when they saw Lazarus walk out of the tomb. It was an experience +full of profound excitement for them. +</P> + +<P> +Rollin Page came to all the meetings. There was no doubt of the +change that had come over him. Rachel had not yet spoken much with +him. He was wonderfully quiet. It seemed as if he was thinking all +the time. Certainly he was not the same person. He talked more with +Gray than with any one else. He did not avoid Rachel, but he seemed +to shrink from any appearance of seeming to renew the acquaintance +with her. Rachel found it even difficult to express to him her +pleasure at the new life he had begun to know. He seemed to be +waiting to adjust himself to his previous relations before this new +life began. He had not forgotten those relations. But he was not yet +able to fit his consciousness into new ones. +</P> + +<P> +The end of the week found the Rectangle struggling hard between two +mighty opposing forces. The Holy Spirit was battling with all His +supernatural strength against the saloon devil which had so long +held a jealous grasp on its slaves. If the Christian people of +Raymond once could realize what the contest meant to the souls newly +awakened to a purer life it did not seem possible that the election +could result in the old system of license. But that remained yet to +be seen. The horror of the daily surroundings of many of the +converts was slowly burning its way into the knowledge of Virginia +and Rachel, and every night as they went uptown to their luxurious +homes they carried heavy hearts. +</P> + +<P> +"A good many of these poor creatures will go back again," Gray would +say with sadness too deep for tears. "The environment does have a +good deal to do with the character. It does not stand to reason that +these people can always resist the sight and smell of the devilish +drink about them. O Lord, how long shall Christian people continue +to support by their silence and their ballots the greatest form of +slavery known in America?" +</P> + +<P> +He asked the question, and did not have much hope of an immediate +answer. There was a ray of hope in the action of Friday night's +primary, but what the result would be he did not dare to anticipate. +The whiskey forces were organized, alert, aggressive, roused into +unusual hatred by the events of the last week at the tent and in the +city. Would the Christian forces act as a unit against the saloon? +Or would they be divided on account of their business interests or +because they were not in the habit of acting all together as the +whiskey power always did? That remained to be seen. Meanwhile the +saloon reared itself about the Rectangle like some deadly viper +hissing and coiling, ready to strike its poison into any unguarded +part. +</P> + +<P> +Saturday afternoon as Virginia was just stepping out of her house to +go and see Rachel to talk over her new plans, a carriage drove up +containing three of her fashionable friends. Virginia went out to +the drive-way and stood there talking with them. They had not come +to make a formal call but wanted Virginia to go driving with them up +on the boulevard. There was a band concert in the park. The day was +too pleasant to be spent indoors. +</P> + +<P> +"Where have you been all this time, Virginia?" asked one of the +girls, tapping her playfully on the shoulder with a red silk +parasol. "We hear that you have gone into the show business. Tell us +about it." +</P> + +<P> +Virginia colored, but after a moment's hesitation she frankly told +something of her experience at the Rectangle. The girls in the +carriage began to be really interested. +</P> + +<P> +"I tell you, girls, let's go 'slumming' with Virginia this afternoon +instead of going to the band concert. I've never been down to the +Rectangle. I've heard it's an awful wicked place and lots to see. +Virginia will act as guide, and it would be"—"real fun" she was +going to say, but Virginia's look made her substitute the word +"interesting." +</P> + +<P> +Virginia was angry. At first thought she said to herself she would +never go under such circumstances. The other girls seemed to be of +the same mind with the speaker. They chimed in with earnestness and +asked Virginia to take them down there. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly she saw in the idle curiosity of the girls an opportunity. +They had never seen the sin and misery of Raymond. Why should they +not see it, even if their motive in going down there was simply to +pass away an afternoon. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter Twelve +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +"For I come to set a man at variance against his father, and the +daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her +mother-in-law; and a man's foes shall be they of his own household." +</P> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +"Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in +love, even as Christ also loved you." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +"HADN'T we better take a policeman along?" said one of the girls +with a nervous laugh. "It really isn't safe down there, you know." +</P> + +<P> +"There's no danger," said Virginia briefly. +</P> + +<P> +"Is it true that your brother Rollin has been converted?" asked the +first speaker, looking at Virginia curiously. It impressed her +during the drive to the Rectangle that all three of her friends were +regarding her with close attention as if she were peculiar. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, he certainly is." +</P> + +<P> +"I understand he is going around to the clubs talking with his old +friends there, trying to preach to them. Doesn't that seem funny?" +said the girl with the red silk parasol. +</P> + +<P> +Virginia did not answer, and the other girls were beginning to feel +sober as the carriage turned into a street leading to the Rectangle. +As they neared the district they grew more and more nervous. The +sights and smells and sounds which had become familiar to Virginia +struck the senses of these refined, delicate society girls as +something horrible. As they entered farther into the district, the +Rectangle seemed to stare as with one great, bleary, beer-soaked +countenance at this fine carriage with its load of fashionably +dressed young women. "Slumming" had never been a fad with Raymond +society, and this was perhaps the first time that the two had come +together in this way. The girls felt that instead of seeing the +Rectangle they were being made the objects of curiosity. They were +frightened and disgusted. +</P> + +<P> +"Let's go back. I've seen enough," said the girl who was sitting +with Virginia. +</P> + +<P> +They were at that moment just opposite a notorious saloon and +gambling house. The street was narrow and the sidewalk crowded. +Suddenly, out of the door of this saloon a young woman reeled. She +was singing in a broken, drunken sob that seemed to indicate that +she partly realized her awful condition, "Just as I am, without one +plea"—and as the carriage rolled past she leered at it, raising her +face so that Virginia saw it very close to her own. It was the face +of the girl who had kneeled sobbing, that night with Virginia +kneeling beside her and praying for her. +</P> + +<P> +"Stop!" cried Virginia, motioning to the driver who was looking +around. The carriage stopped, and in a moment she was out and had +gone up to the girl and taken her by the arm. "Loreen!" she said, +and that was all. The girl looked into her face, and her own changed +into a look of utter horror. The girls in the carriage were smitten +into helpless astonishment. The saloon-keeper had come to the door +of the saloon and was standing there looking on with his hands on +his hips. And the Rectangle from its windows, its saloon steps, its +filthy sidewalk, gutter and roadway, paused, and with undisguised +wonder stared at the two girls. Over the scene the warm sun of +spring poured its mellow light. A faint breath of music from the +band-stand in the park floated into the Rectangle. The concert had +begun, and the fashion and wealth of Raymond were displaying +themselves up town on the boulevard. +</P> + +<P> +When Virginia left the carriage and went up to Loreen she had no +definite idea as to what she would do or what the result of her +action would be. She simply saw a soul that had tasted of the joy of +a better life slipping back again into its old hell of shame and +death. And before she had touched the drunken girl's arm she had +asked only one question, "What would Jesus do?" That question was +becoming with her, as with many others, a habit of life. +</P> + +<P> +She looked around now as she stood close by Loreen, and the whole +scene was cruelly vivid to her. She thought first of the girls in +the carriage. +</P> + +<P> +"Drive on; don't wait for me. I am going to see my friend home," she +said calmly enough. +</P> + +<P> +The girl with the red parasol seemed to gasp at the word "friend," +when Virginia spoke it. She did not say anything. +</P> + +<P> +The other girls seemed speechless. +</P> + +<P> +"Go on. I cannot go back with you," said Virginia. The driver +started the horses slowly. One of the girls leaned a little out of +the carriage. +</P> + +<P> +"Can't we—that is—do you want our help? Couldn't you—" +</P> + +<P> +"No, no!" exclaimed Virginia. "You cannot be of any help to me." +</P> + +<P> +The carriage moved on and Virginia was alone with her charge. She +looked up and around. Many faces in the crowd were sympathetic. They +were not all cruel or brutal. The Holy Spirit had softened a good +deal of the Rectangle. +</P> + +<P> +"Where does she live?" asked Virginia. +</P> + +<P> +No one answered. It occurred to Virginia afterward when she had time +to think it over, that the Rectangle showed a delicacy in its sad +silence that would have done credit to the boulevard. For the first +time it flashed across her that the immortal being who was flung +like wreckage upon the shore of this early hell called the saloon, +had no place that could be called home. The girl suddenly wrenched +her arm from Virginia's grasp. In doing so she nearly threw Virginia +down. +</P> + +<P> +"You shall not touch me! Leave me! Let me go to hell! That's where I +belong! The devil is waiting for me. See him!" she exclaimed +hoarsely. She turned and pointed with a shaking finger at the +saloon-keeper. The crowd laughed. Virginia stepped up to her and put +her arm about her. +</P> + +<P> +"Loreen," she said firmly, "come with me. You do not belong to hell. +You belong to Jesus and He will save you. Come." +</P> + +<P> +The girl suddenly burst into tears. She was only partly sobered by +the shock of meeting Virginia. +</P> + +<P> +Virginia looked around again. "Where does Mr. Gray live?" she asked. +She knew that the evangelist boarded somewhere near the tent. A +number of voices gave the direction. +</P> + +<P> +"Come, Loreen, I want you to go with me to Mr. Gray's," she said, +still keeping her hold of the swaying, trembling creature who moaned +and sobbed and now clung to her as firmly as before she had repulsed +her. +</P> + +<P> +So the two moved on through the Rectangle toward the evangelist's +lodging place. The sight seemed to impress the Rectangle seriously. +It never took itself seriously when it was drunk, but this was +different. The fact that one of the richest, most +beautifully-dressed girls in all Raymond was taking care of one of +the Rectangle's most noted characters, who reeled along under the +influence of liquor, was a fact astounding enough to throw more or +less dignity and importance about Loreen herself. The event of +Loreen's stumbling through the gutter dead-drunk always made the +Rectangle laugh and jest. But Loreen staggering along with a young +lady from the society circles uptown supporting her, was another +thing. The Rectangle viewed it with soberness and more or less +wondering admiration. +</P> + +<P> +When they finally reached Mr. Gray's lodging place the woman who +answered Virginia's knock said that both Mr. and Mrs. Gray were out +somewhere and would not be back until six o'clock. +</P> + +<P> +Virginia had not planned anything farther than a possible appeal to +the Grays, either to take charge of Loreen for a while or find some +safe place for her until she was sober. She stood now at the door +after the woman had spoken, and she was really at a loss to know +what to do. Loreen sank down stupidly on the steps and buried her +face in her arms. Virginia eyed the miserable figure of the girl +with a feeling that she was afraid would grow into disgust. +</P> + +<P> +Finally a thought possessed her that she could not escape. What was +to hinder her from taking Loreen home with her? Why should not this +homeless, wretched creature, reeking with the fumes of liquor, be +cared for in Virginia's own home instead of being consigned to +strangers in some hospital or house of charity? Virginia really knew +very little about any such places of refuge. As a matter of fact, +there were two or three such institutions in Raymond, but it is +doubtful if any of them would have taken a person like Loreen in her +present condition. But that was not the question with Virginia just +now. "What would Jesus do with Loreen?" That was what Virginia +faced, and she finally answered it by touching the girl again. +</P> + +<P> +"Loreen, come. You are going home with me. We will take the car here +at the corner." +</P> + +<P> +Loreen staggered to her feet and, to Virginia's surprise, made no +trouble. She had expected resistance or a stubborn refusal to move. +When they reached the corner and took the car it was nearly full of +people going uptown. Virginia was painfully conscious of the stare +that greeted her and her companion as they entered. But her thought +was directed more and more to the approaching scene with her +grandmother. What would Madam Page say? +</P> + +<P> +Loreen was nearly sober now. But she was lapsing into a state of +stupor. Virginia was obliged to hold fast to her arm. Several times +the girl lurched heavily against her, and as the two went up the +avenue a curious crowd of so-called civilized people turned and +gazed at them. When she mounted the steps of her handsome house +Virginia breathed a sigh of relief, even in the face of the +interview with the grandmother, and when the door shut and she was +in the wide hall with her homeless outcast, she felt equal to +anything that might now come. +</P> + +<P> +Madam Page was in the library. Hearing Virginia come in, she came +into the hall. Virginia stood there supporting Loreen, who stared +stupidly at the rich magnificence of the furnishings around her. +</P> + +<P> +"Grandmother," Virginia spoke without hesitation and very clearly, +"I have brought one of my friends from the Rectangle. She is in +trouble and has no home. I am going to care for her here a little +while." +</P> + +<P> +Madam Page glanced from her granddaughter to Loreen in astonishment. +</P> + +<P> +"Did you say she is one of your friends?" she asked in a cold, +sneering voice that hurt Virginia more than anything she had yet +felt. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I said so." Virginia's face flushed, but she seemed to recall +a verse that Mr. Gray had used for one of his recent sermons, "A +friend of publicans and sinners." Surely, Jesus would do this that +she was doing. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know what this girl is?" asked Madam Page, in an angry +whisper, stepping near Virginia. +</P> + +<P> +"I know very well. She is an outcast. You need not tell me, +grandmother. I know it even better than you do. She is drunk at this +minute. But she is also a child of God. I have seen her on her +knees, repentant. And I have seen hell reach out its horrible +fingers after her again. And by the grace of Christ I feel that the +least that I can do is to rescue her from such peril. Grandmother, +we call ourselves Christians. Here is a poor, lost human creature +without a home, slipping back into a life of misery and possibly +eternal loss, and we have more than enough. I have brought her here, +and I shall keep her." +</P> + +<P> +Madam Page glared at Virginia and clenched her hands. All this was +contrary to her social code of conduct. How could society excuse +familiarity with the scum of the streets? What would Virginia's +action cost the family in the way of criticism and loss of standing, +and all that long list of necessary relations which people of wealth +and position must sustain to the leaders of society? To Madam Page +society represented more than the church or any other institution. +It was a power to be feared and obeyed. The loss of its good-will +was a loss more to be dreaded than anything except the loss of +wealth itself. +</P> + +<P> +She stood erect and stern and confronted Virginia, fully roused and +determined. Virginia placed her arm about Loreen and calmly looked +her grandmother in the face. +</P> + +<P> +"You shall not do this, Virginia! You can send her to the asylum for +helpless women. We can pay all the expenses. We cannot afford for +the sake of our reputations to shelter such a person." +</P> + +<P> +"Grandmother, I do not wish to do anything that is displeasing to +you, but I must keep Loreen here tonight, and longer if it seems +best." +</P> + +<P> +"Then you can answer for the consequences! I do not stay in the same +house with a miserable—" Madam Page lost her self-control. Virginia +stopped her before she could speak the next word. +</P> + +<P> +"Grandmother, this house is mine. It is your home with me as long as +you choose to remain. But in this matter I must act as I fully +believe Jesus would in my place. I am willing to bear all that +society may say or do. Society is not my God. By the side of this +poor soul I do not count the verdict of society as of any value." +</P> + +<P> +"I shall not stay here, then!" said Madam Page. She turned suddenly +and walked to the end of the hall. She then came back, and going up +to Virginia said, with an emphasis that revealed her intensive +excitement of passion: "You can always remember that you have driven +your grandmother out of your house in favor of a drunken woman;" +then, without waiting for Virginia to reply, she turned again and +went upstairs. Virginia called a servant and soon had Loreen cared +for. She was fast lapsing into a wretched condition. During the +brief scene in the hall she had clung to Virginia so hard that her +arm was sore from the clutch of the girl's fingers. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap13"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter Thirteen +</H3> + +<P> +WHEN the bell rang for tea she went down and her grandmother did not +appear. She sent a servant to her room who brought back word that +Madam Page was not there. A few minutes later Rollin came in. He +brought word that his grandmother had taken the evening train for +the South. He had been at the station to see some friends off, and +had by chance met his grandmother as he was coming out. She had told +him her reason for going. +</P> + +<P> +Virginia and Rollin comforted each other at the tea table, looking +at each other with earnest, sad faces. +</P> + +<P> +"Rollin," said Virginia, and for the first time, almost, since his +conversion she realized what a wonderful thing her brother's changed +life meant to her, "do you blame me? Am I wrong?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, dear, I cannot believe you are. This is very painful for us. +But if you think this poor creature owes her safety and salvation to +your personal care, it was the only thing for you to do. O Virginia, +to think that we have all these years enjoyed our beautiful home and +all these luxuries selfishly, forgetful of the multitudes like this +woman! Surely Jesus in our places would do what you have done." +</P> + +<P> +And so Rollin comforted Virginia and counseled with her that +evening. And of all the wonderful changes that she henceforth was to +know on account of her great pledge, nothing affected her so +powerfully as the thought of Rollin's change of life. Truly, this +man in Christ was a new creature. Old things were passed away. +Behold, all things in him had become new. +</P> + +<P> +Dr. West came that evening at Virginia's summons and did everything +necessary for the outcast. She had drunk herself almost into +delirium. The best that could be done for her now was quiet nursing +and careful watching and personal love. So, in a beautiful room, +with a picture of Christ walking by the sea hanging on the wall, +where her bewildered eyes caught daily something more of its hidden +meaning, Loreen lay, tossed she hardly knew how into this haven, and +Virginia crept nearer the Master than she had ever been, as her +heart went out towards this wreck which had thus been flung torn and +beaten at her feet. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile the Rectangle awaited the issue of the election with more +than usual interest; and Mr. Gray and his wife wept over the poor, +pitiful creatures who, after a struggle with surroundings that daily +tempted them, too often wearied of the struggle and, like Loreen, +threw up their arms and went whirling over the cataract into the +boiling abyss of their previous condition. +</P> + +<P> +The after-meeting at the First Church was now eagerly established. +Henry Maxwell went into the lecture-room on the Sunday succeeding +the week of the primary, and was greeted with an enthusiasm that +made him tremble at first for its reality. He noted again the +absence of Jasper Chase, but all the others were present, and they +seemed drawn very close together by a bond of common fellowship that +demanded and enjoyed mutual confidences. It was the general feeling +that the spirit of Jesus was the spirit of very open, frank +confession of experience. It seemed the most natural thing in the +world, therefore, for Edward Norman to be telling all the rest of +the company about the details of his newspaper. +</P> + +<P> +"The fact is, I have lost a great deal of money during the last +three weeks. I cannot tell just how much. I am losing a great many +subscribers every day." +</P> + +<P> +"What do the subscribers give as their reason for dropping the +paper?" asked Mr. Maxwell. All the rest were listening eagerly. +</P> + +<P> +"There are a good many different reasons. Some say they want a paper +that prints all the news; meaning, by that, the crime details, +sensations like prize fights, scandals and horrors of various kinds. +Others object to the discontinuance of the Sunday edition. I have +lost hundreds of subscribers by that action, although I have made +satisfactory arrangements with many of the old subscribers by giving +them even more in the extra Saturday edition than they formerly had +in the Sunday issue. My greatest loss has come from a falling off in +advertisements, and from the attitude I have felt obliged to take on +political questions. The last action has really cost me more than +any other. The bulk of my subscribers are intensely partisan. I may +as well tell you all frankly that if I continue to pursue the plan +which I honestly believe Jesus would pursue in the matter of +political issues and their treatment from a non-partisan and moral +standpoint, the NEWS will not be able to pay its operating expenses +unless one factor in Raymond can be depended on." +</P> + +<P> +He paused a moment and the room was very quiet. Virginia seemed +specially interested. Her face glowed with interest. It was like the +interest of a person who had been thinking hard of the same thing +which Norman went on to mention. +</P> + +<P> +"That one factor is the Christian element in Raymond. Say the NEWS +has lost heavily from the dropping off of people who do not care for +a Christian daily, and from others who simply look upon a newspaper +as a purveyor of all sorts of material to amuse or interest them, +are there enough genuine Christian people in Raymond who will rally +to the support of a paper such as Jesus would probably edit? or are +the habits of the church people so firmly established in their +demand for the regular type of journalism that they will not take a +paper unless it is stripped largely of the Christian and moral +purpose? I may say in this fellowship gathering that owing to recent +complications in my business affairs outside of my paper I have been +obliged to lose a large part of my fortune. I had to apply the same +rule of Jesus' probable conduct to certain transactions with other +men who did not apply it to their conduct, and the result has been +the loss of a great deal of money. As I understand the promise we +made, we were not to ask any question about 'Will it pay?' but all +our action was to be based on the one question, 'What would Jesus +do?' Acting on that rule of conduct, I have been obliged to lose +nearly all the money I have accumulated in my paper. It is not +necessary for me to go into details. There is no question with me +now, after the three weeks' experience I have had, that a great many +men would lose vast sums of money under the present system of +business if this rule of Jesus was honestly applied. I mention my +loss here because I have the fullest faith in the final success of a +daily paper conducted on the lines I have recently laid down, and I +had planned to put into it my entire fortune in order to win final +success. As it is now, unless, as I said, the Christian people of +Raymond, the church members and professing disciples, will support +the paper with subscriptions and advertisements, I cannot continue +its publication on the present basis." +</P> + +<P> +Virginia asked a question. She had followed Mr. Norman's confession +with the most intense eagerness. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you mean that a Christian daily ought to be endowed with a large +sum like a Christian college in order to make it pay?" +</P> + +<P> +"That is exactly what I mean. I had laid out plans for putting into +the NEWS such a variety of material in such a strong and truly +interesting way that it would more than make up for whatever was +absent from its columns in the way of un-Christian matter. But my +plans called for a very large output of money. I am very confident +that a Christian daily such as Jesus would approve, containing only +what He would print, can be made to succeed financially if it is +planned on the right lines. But it will take a large sum of money to +work out the plans." +</P> + +<P> +"How much, do you think?" asked Virginia quietly. +</P> + +<P> +Edward Norman looked at her keenly, and his face flushed a moment as +an idea of her purpose crossed his mind. He had known her when she +was a little girl in the Sunday-school, and he had been on intimate +business relations with her father. +</P> + +<P> +"I should say half a million dollars in a town like Raymond could be +well spent in the establishment of a paper such as we have in mind," +he answered. His voice trembled a little. The keen look on his +grizzled face flashed out with a stern but thoroughly Christian +anticipation of great achievements in the world of newspaper life, +as it had opened up to him within the last few seconds. +</P> + +<P> +"Then," said Virginia, speaking as if the thought was fully +considered, "I am ready to put that amount of money into the paper +on the one condition, of course, that it be carried on as it has +been begun." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank God!" exclaimed Mr. Maxwell softly. Norman was pale. The rest +were looking at Virginia. She had more to say. +</P> + +<P> +"Dear friends," she went on, and there was a sadness in her voice +that made an impression on the rest that deepened when they thought +it over afterwards, "I do not want any of you to credit me with an +act of great generosity. I have come to know lately that the money +which I have called my own is not mine, but God's. If I, as steward +of His, see some wise way to invest His money, it is not an occasion +for vainglory or thanks from any one simply because I have proved in +my administration of the funds He has asked me to use for His glory. +I have been thinking of this very plan for some time. The fact is, +dear friends, that in our coming fight with the whiskey power in +Raymond—and it has only just begun—we shall need the NEWS to +champion the Christian side. You all know that all the other papers +are for the saloon. As long as the saloon exists, the work of +rescuing dying souls at the Rectangle is carried on at a terrible +disadvantage. What can Mr. Gray do with his gospel meetings when +half his converts are drinking people, daily tempted and enticed by +the saloon on every corner? It would be giving up to the enemy to +allow the NEWS to fail. I have great confidence in Mr. Norman's +ability. I have not seen his plans, but I have the same confidence +that he has in making the paper succeed if it is carried forward on +a large enough scale. I cannot believe that Christian intelligence +in journalism will be inferior to un-Christian intelligence, even +when it comes to making the paper pay financially. So that is my +reason for putting this money—God's, not mine—into this powerful +agent for doing as Jesus would do. If we can keep such a paper going +for one year, I shall be willing to see that amount of money used in +that experiment. Do not thank me. Do not consider my doing it a +wonderful thing. What have I done with God's money all these years +but gratify my own selfish personal desires? What can I do with the +rest of it but try to make some reparation for what I have stolen +from God? That is the way I look at it now. I believe it is what +Jesus would do." +</P> + +<P> +Over the lecture-room swept that unseen yet distinctly felt wave of +Divine Presence. No one spoke for a while. Mr. Maxwell standing +there, where the faces lifted their intense gaze into his, felt what +he had already felt—a strange setting back out of the nineteenth +century into the first, when the disciples had all things in common, +and a spirit of fellowship must have flowed freely between them such +as the First Church of Raymond had never before known. How much had +his church membership known of this fellowship in daily interests +before this little company had begun to do as they believed Jesus +would do? It was with difficulty that he thought of his present age +and surroundings. The same thought was present with all the rest, +also. There was an unspoken comradeship such as they had never +known. It was present with them while Virginia was speaking, and +during the silence that followed. If it had been defined by any of +them it would perhaps have taken some such shape as this: "If I +shall, in the course of my obedience to my promise, meet with loss +or trouble in the world, I can depend upon the genuine, practical +sympathy and fellowship of any other Christian in this room who has, +with me, made the pledge to do all things by the rule, 'What would +Jesus do?'" +</P> + +<P> +All this, the distinct wave of spiritual power emphasized. It had +the effect that a physical miracle may have had on the early +disciples in giving them a feeling of confidence in the Lord that +helped them to face loss and martyrdom with courage and even joy. +</P> + +<P> +Before they went away this time there were several confidences like +those of Edward Norman's. Some of the young men told of loss of +places owing to their honest obedience to their promise. Alexander +Powers spoke briefly of the fact that the Commission had promised to +take action on his evidence at the earliest date possible. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap14"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter Fourteen +</H3> + +<P> +BUT more than any other feeling at this meeting rose the tide of +fellowship for one another. Maxwell watched it, trembling for its +climax which he knew was not yet reached. When it was, where would +it lead them? He did not know, but he was not unduly alarmed about +it. Only he watched with growing wonder the results of that simple +promise as it was being obeyed in these various lives. Those results +were already being felt all over the city. Who could measure their +influence at the end of a year? +</P> + +<P> +One practical form of this fellowship showed itself in the +assurances which Edward Norman received of support for his paper. +There was a general flocking toward him when the meeting closed, and +the response to his appeal for help from the Christian disciples in +Raymond was fully understood by this little company. The value of +such a paper in the homes and in behalf of good citizenship, +especially at the present crisis in the city, could not be measured. +It remained to be seen what could be done now that the paper was +endowed so liberally. But it still was true, as Norman insisted, +that money alone could not make the paper a power. It must receive +the support and sympathy of the Christians in Raymond before it +could be counted as one of the great forces of the city. +</P> + +<P> +The week that followed this Sunday meeting was one of great +excitement in Raymond. It was the week of the election. President +Marsh, true to his promise, took up his cross and bore it manfully, +but with shuddering, with groans and even tears, for his deepest +conviction was touched, and he tore himself out of the scholarly +seclusion of years with a pain and anguish that cost him more than +anything he had ever done as a follower of Christ. With him were a +few of the college professors who had made the pledge in the First +Church. Their experience and suffering were the same as his; for +their isolation from all the duties of citizenship had been the +same. The same was also true of Henry Maxwell, who plunged into the +horror of this fight against whiskey and its allies with a sickening +dread of each day's new encounter with it. For never before had he +borne such a cross. He staggered under it, and in the brief +intervals when he came in from the work and sought the quiet of his +study for rest, the sweat broke out on his forehead, and he felt the +actual terror of one who marches into unseen, unknown horrors. +Looking back on it afterwards he was amazed at his experience. He +was not a coward, but he felt the dread that any man of his habits +feels when confronted suddenly with a duty which carries with it the +doing of certain things so unfamiliar that the actual details +connected with it betray his ignorance and fill him with the shame +of humiliation. +</P> + +<P> +When Saturday, the election day, came, the excitement rose to its +height. An attempt was made to close all the saloons. It was only +partly successful. There was a great deal of drinking going on all +day. The Rectangle boiled and heaved and cursed and turned its worst +side out to the gaze of the city. Gray had continued his meetings +during the week, and the results had been even greater than he had +dared to hope. When Saturday came, it seemed to him that the crisis +in his work had been reached. The Holy Spirit and the Satan of rum +seemed to rouse up to a desperate conflict. The more interest in the +meetings, the more ferocity and vileness outside. The saloon men no +longer concealed their feelings. Open threats of violence were made. +Once during the week Gray and his little company of helpers were +assailed with missiles of various kinds as they left the tent late +at night. The police sent down a special force, and Virginia and +Rachel were always under the protection of either Rollin or Dr. +West. Rachel's power in song had not diminished. Rather, with each +night, it seemed to add to the intensity and reality of the Spirit's +presence. +</P> + +<P> +Gray had at first hesitated about having a meeting that night. But +he had a simple rule of action, and was always guided by it. The +Spirit seemed to lead him to continue the meeting, and so Saturday +night he went on as usual. +</P> + +<P> +The excitement all over the city had reached its climax when the +polls closed at six o'clock. Never before had there been such a +contest in Raymond. The issue of license or no-license had never +been an issue under such circumstances. Never before had such +elements in the city been arrayed against each other. It was an +unheard-of thing that the President of Lincoln College, the pastor +of the First Church, the Dean of the Cathedral, the professional men +living in fine houses on the boulevard, should come personally into +the wards, and by their presence and their example represent the +Christian conscience of the place. The ward politicians were +astonished at the sight. However, their astonishment did not prevent +their activity. The fight grew hotter every hour, and when six +o'clock came neither side could have guessed at the result with any +certainty. Every one agreed that never before had there been such an +election in Raymond, and both sides awaited the announcement of the +result with the greatest interest. +</P> + +<P> +It was after ten o'clock when the meeting at the tent was closed. It +had been a strange and, in some respects, a remarkable meeting. +Maxwell had come down again at Gray's request. He was completely +worn out by the day's work, but the appeal from Gray came to him in +such a form that he did not feel able to resist it. President Marsh +was also present. He had never been to the Rectangle, and his +curiosity was aroused from what he had noticed of the influence of +the evangelist in the worst part of the city. Dr. West and Rollin +had come with Rachel and Virginia; and Loreen, who still stayed with +Virginia, was present near the organ, in her right mind, sober, with +a humility and dread of herself that kept her as close to Virginia +as a faithful dog. All through the service she sat with bowed head, +weeping a part of the time, sobbing when Rachel sang the song, "I +was a wandering sheep," clinging with almost visible, tangible +yearning to the one hope she had found, listening to prayer and +appeal and confession all about her like one who was a part of a new +creation, yet fearful of her right to share in it fully. +</P> + +<P> +The tent had been crowded. As on some other occasions, there was +more or less disturbance on the outside. This had increased as the +night advanced, and Gray thought it wise not to prolong the service. +</P> + +<P> +Once in a while a shout as from a large crowd swept into the tent. +The returns from the election were beginning to come in, and the +Rectangle had emptied every lodging house, den and hovel into the +streets. +</P> + +<P> +In spite of these distractions Rachel's singing kept the crowd in +the tent from dissolving. There were a dozen or more conversions. +Finally the people became restless and Gray closed the service, +remaining a little while with the converts. +</P> + +<P> +Rachel, Virginia, Loreen, Rollin and the Doctor, President Marsh, +Mr. Maxwell and Dr. West went out together, intending to go down to +the usual waiting place for their car. As they came out of the tent +they were at once aware that the Rectangle was trembling on the +verge of a drunken riot, and as they pushed through the gathering +mobs in the narrow streets they began to realize that they +themselves were objects of great attention. +</P> + +<P> +"There he is—the bloke in the tall hat! He's the leader! shouted a +rough voice. President Marsh, with his erect, commanding figure, was +conspicuous in the little company. +</P> + +<P> +"How has the election gone? It is too early to know the result yet, +isn't it?" He asked the question aloud, and a man answered: +</P> + +<P> +"They say second and third wards have gone almost solid for +no-license. If that is so, the whiskey men have been beaten." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank God! I hope it is true!" exclaimed Maxwell. "Marsh, we are in +danger here. Do you realize our situation? We ought to get the +ladies to a place of safety." +</P> + +<P> +"That is true," said Marsh gravely. At that moment a shower of +stones and other missiles fell over them. The narrow street and +sidewalk in front of them was completely choked with the worst +elements of the Rectangle. +</P> + +<P> +"This looks serious," said Maxwell. With Marsh and Rollin and Dr. +West he started to go forward through a small opening, Virginia, +Rachel, and Loreen following close and sheltered by the men, who now +realized something of their danger. The Rectangle was drunk and +enraged. It saw in Marsh and Maxwell two of the leaders in the +election contest which had perhaps robbed them of their beloved +saloon. +</P> + +<P> +"Down with the aristocrats!" shouted a shrill voice, more like a +woman's than a man's. A shower of mud and stones followed. Rachel +remembered afterwards that Rollin jumped directly in front of her +and received on his head and chest a number of blows that would +probably have struck her if he had not shielded her from them. +</P> + +<P> +And just then, before the police reached them, Loreen darted forward +in front of Virginia and pushed her aside, looking up and screaming. +It was so sudden that no one had time to catch the face of the one +who did it. But out of the upper window of a room, over the very +saloon where Loreen had come out a week before, someone had thrown a +heavy bottle. It struck Loreen on the head and she fell to the +ground. Virginia turned and instantly kneeled down by her. The +police officers by that time had reached the little company. +</P> + +<P> +President Marsh raised his arm and shouted over the howl that was +beginning to rise from the wild beast in the mob. +</P> + +<P> +"Stop! You've killed a woman!" The announcement partly sobered the +crowd. +</P> + +<P> +"Is it true?" Maxwell asked it, as Dr. West kneeled on the other +side of Loreen, supporting her. +</P> + +<P> +"She's dying!" said Dr. West briefly. +</P> + +<P> +Loreen opened her eyes and smiled at Virginia, who wiped the blood +from her face and then bent over and kissed her. Loreen smiled +again, and the next minute her soul was in Paradise. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap15"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter Fifteen +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +"He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +THE body of Loreen lay in state at the Page mansion on the avenue. +It was Sunday morning and the clear sweet spring air, just beginning +to breathe over the city the perfume of early blossoms in the woods +and fields, swept over the casket from one of the open windows at +the end of the grand hall. The church bells were ringing and people +on the avenue going by to service turned curious, inquiring looks up +at the great house and then went on, talking of the recent events +which had so strangely entered into and made history in the city. +</P> + +<P> +At the First Church, Mr. Maxwell, bearing on his face marks of the +scene he had been through, confronted an immense congregation, and +spoke to it with a passion and a power that came so naturally out of +the profound experiences of the day before that his people felt for +him something of the old feeling of pride they once had in his +dramatic delivery. Only this was with a different attitude. And all +through his impassioned appeal this morning, there was a note of +sadness and rebuke and stern condemnation that made many of the +members pale with self-accusation or with inward anger. +</P> + +<P> +For Raymond had awakened that morning to the fact that the city had +gone for license after all. The rumor at the Rectangle that the +second and third wards had gone no-license proved to be false. It +was true that the victory was won by a very meager majority. But the +result was the same as if it had been overwhelming. Raymond had +voted to continue for another year the saloon. The Christians of +Raymond stood condemned by the result. More than a hundred +professing Christian disciples had failed to go to the polls, and +many more than that number had voted with the whiskey men. If all +the church members of Raymond had voted against the saloon, it would +today be outlawed instead of crowned king of the municipality. For +that had been the fact in Raymond for years. The saloon ruled. No +one denied that. What would Jesus do? And this woman who had been +brutally struck down by the very hand that had assisted so eagerly +to work her earthly ruin what of her? Was it anything more than the +logical sequence of the whole horrible system of license, that for +another year the very saloon that received her so often and +compassed her degradation, from whose very spot the weapon had been +hurled that struck her dead, would, by the law which the Christian +people of Raymond voted to support, perhaps open its doors tomorrow +and damn a hundred Loreens before the year had drawn to its bloody +close? +</P> + +<P> +All this, with a voice that rang and trembled and broke in sobs of +anguish for the result, did Henry Maxwell pour out upon his people +that Sunday morning. And men and women wept as he spoke. President +Marsh sat there, his usual erect, handsome, firm, bright +self-confident bearing all gone; his head bowed upon his breast, the +great tears rolling down his cheeks, unmindful of the fact that +never before had he shown outward emotion in a public service. +Edward Norman near by sat with his clear-cut, keen face erect, but +his lip trembled and he clutched the end of the pew with a feeling +of emotion that struck deep into his knowledge of the truth as +Maxwell spoke it. No man had given or suffered more to influence +public opinion that week than Norman. The thought that the Christian +conscience had been aroused too late or too feebly, lay with a +weight of accusation upon the heart of the editor. What if he had +begun to do as Jesus would have done, long ago? Who could tell what +might have been accomplished by this time! And up in the choir, +Rachel Winslow, with her face bowed on the railing of the oak +screen, gave way to a feeling which she had not allowed yet to +master her, but it so unfitted her for her part that when Mr. +Maxwell finished and she tried to sing the closing solo after the +prayer, her voice broke, and for the first time in her life she was +obliged to sit down, sobbing, and unable to go on. +</P> + +<P> +Over the church, in the silence that followed this strange scene, +sobs and the noise of weeping arose. When had the First Church +yielded to such a baptism of tears? What had become of its regular, +precise, conventional order of service, undisturbed by any vulgar +emotion and unmoved by any foolish excitement? But the people had +lately had their deepest convictions touched. They had been living +so long on their surface feelings that they had almost forgotten the +deeper wells of life. Now that they had broken the surface, the +people were convicted of the meaning of their discipleship. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Maxwell did not ask, this morning, for volunteers to join those +who had already pledged to do as Jesus would. But when the +congregation had finally gone, and he had entered the lecture-room, +it needed but a glance to show him that the original company of +followers had been largely increased. The meeting was tender; it +glowed with the Spirit's presence; it was alive with strong and +lasting resolve to begin a war on the whiskey power in Raymond that +would break its reign forever. Since the first Sunday when the first +company of volunteers had pledged themselves to do as Jesus would +do, the different meetings had been characterized by distinct +impulses or impressions. Today, the entire force of the gathering +seemed to be directed to this one large purpose. It was a meeting +full of broken prayers of contrition, of confession, of strong +yearning for a new and better city life. And all through it ran one +general cry for deliverance from the saloon and its awful curse. +</P> + +<P> +But if the First Church was deeply stirred by the events of the last +week, the Rectangle also felt moved strangely in its own way. The +death of Loreen was not in itself so remarkable a fact. It was her +recent acquaintance with the people from the city that lifted her +into special prominence and surrounded her death with more than +ordinary importance. Every one in the Rectangle knew that Loreen was +at this moment lying in the Page mansion up on the avenue. +Exaggerated reports of the magnificence of the casket had already +furnished material for eager gossip. The Rectangle was excited to +know the details of the funeral. Would it be public? What did Miss +Page intend to do? The Rectangle had never before mingled even in +this distant personal manner with the aristocracy on the boulevard. +The opportunities for doing so were not frequent. Gray and his wife +were besieged by inquirers who wanted to know what Loreen's friends +and acquaintances were expected to do in paying their last respects +to her. For her acquaintance was large and many of the recent +converts were among her friends. +</P> + +<P> +So that is how it happened that Monday afternoon, at the tent, the +funeral service of Loreen was held before an immense audience that +choked the tent and overflowed beyond all previous bounds. Gray had +gone up to Virginia's and, after talking it over with her and +Maxwell, the arrangement had been made. +</P> + +<P> +"I am and always have been opposed to large public funerals," said +Gray, whose complete wholesome simplicity of character was one of +its great sources of strength; "but the cry of the poor creatures +who knew Loreen is so earnest that I do not know how to refuse this +desire to see her and pay her poor body some last little honor. What +do you think, Mr. Maxwell? I will be guided by your judgment in the +matter. I am sure that whatever you and Miss Page think best, will +be right." +</P> + +<P> +"I feel as you do," replied Mr. Maxwell. "Under the circumstances I +have a great distaste for what seems like display at such times. But +this seems different. The people at the Rectangle will not come here +to service. I think the most Christian thing will be to let them +have the service at the tent. Do you think so, Miss Virginia?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said Virginia. "Poor soul! I do not know but that some time I +shall know she gave her life for mine. We certainly cannot and will +not use the occasion for vulgar display. Let her friends be allowed +the gratification of their wishes. I see no harm in it." +</P> + +<P> +So the arrangements were made, with some difficulty, for the service +at the tent; and Virginia with her uncle and Rollin, accompanied by +Maxwell, Rachel and President Marsh, and the quartet from the First +Church, went down and witnessed one of the strange things of their +lives. +</P> + +<P> +It happened that that afternoon a somewhat noted newspaper +correspondent was passing through Raymond on his way to an editorial +convention in a neighboring city. He heard of the contemplated +service at the tent and went down. His description of it was written +in a graphic style that caught the attention of very many readers +the next day. A fragment of his account belongs to this part of the +history of Raymond: +</P> + +<P> +"There was a very unique and unusual funeral service held here this +afternoon at the tent of an evangelist, Rev. John Gray, down in the +slum district known as the Rectangle. The occasion was caused by the +killing of a woman during an election riot last Saturday night. It +seems she had been recently converted during the evangelist's +meetings, and was killed while returning from one of the meetings in +company with other converts and some of her friends. She was a +common street drunkard, and yet the services at the tent were as +impressive as any I ever witnessed in a metropolitan church over the +most distinguished citizen. +</P> + +<P> +"In the first place, a most exquisite anthem was sung by a trained +choir. It struck me, of course—being a stranger in the place—with +considerable astonishment to hear voices like those one naturally +expects to hear only in great churches or concerts, at such a +meeting as this. But the most remarkable part of the music was a +solo sung by a strikingly beautiful young woman, a Miss Winslow who, +if I remember right, is the young singer who was sought for by +Crandall the manager of National Opera, and who for some reason +refused to accept his offer to go on the stage. She had a most +wonderful manner in singing, and everybody was weeping before she +had sung a dozen words. That, of course, is not so strange an effect +to be produced at a funeral service, but the voice itself was one of +thousands. I understand Miss Winslow sings in the First Church of +Raymond and could probably command almost any salary as a public +singer. She will probably be heard from soon. Such a voice could win +its way anywhere. +</P> + +<P> +"The service aside from the singing was peculiar. The evangelist, a +man of apparently very simple, unassuming style, spoke a few words, +and he was followed by a fine-looking man, the Rev. Henry Maxwell, +pastor of the First Church of Raymond. Mr. Maxwell spoke of the fact +that the dead woman had been fully prepared to go, but he spoke in a +peculiarly sensitive manner of the effect of the liquor business on +the lives of men and women like this one. Raymond, of course, being +a railroad town and the centre of the great packing interests for +this region, is full of saloons. I caught from the minister's +remarks that he had only recently changed his views in regard to +license. He certainly made a very striking address, and yet it was +in no sense inappropriate for a funeral. +</P> + +<P> +"Then followed what was perhaps the queer part of this strange +service. The women in the tent, at least a large part of them up +near the coffin, began to sing in a soft, tearful way, 'I was a +wandering sheep.' Then while the singing was going on, one row of +women stood up and walked slowly past the casket, and as they went +by, each one placed a flower of some kind upon it. Then they sat +down and another row filed past, leaving their flowers. All the time +the singing continued softly like rain on a tent cover when the wind +is gentle. It was one of the simplest and at the same time one of +the most impressive sights I ever witnessed. The sides of the tent +were up, and hundreds of people who could not get in, stood outside, +all as still as death itself, with wonderful sadness and solemnity +for such rough looking people. There must have been a hundred of +these women, and I was told many of them had been converted at the +meetings just recently. I cannot describe the effect of that +singing. Not a man sang a note. All women's voices, and so soft, and +yet so distinct, that the effect was startling. +</P> + +<P> +"The service closed with another solo by Miss Winslow, who sang, +'There were ninety and nine.' And then the evangelist asked them all +to bow their heads while he prayed. I was obliged in order to catch +my train to leave during the prayer, and the last view I caught of +the service as the train went by the shops was a sight of the great +crowd pouring out of the tent and forming in open ranks while the +coffin was borne out by six of the women. It is a long time since I +have seen such a picture in this unpoetic Republic." +</P> + +<P> +If Loreen's funeral impressed a passing stranger like this, it is +not difficult to imagine the profound feelings of those who had been +so intimately connected with her life and death. Nothing had ever +entered the Rectangle that had moved it so deeply as Loreen's body +in that coffin. And the Holy Spirit seemed to bless with special +power the use of this senseless clay. For that night He swept more +than a score of lost souls, mostly women, into the fold of the Good +Shepherd. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap16"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter Sixteen +</H3> + +<P> +No one in all Raymond, including the Rectangle, felt Loreen's death +more keenly than Virginia. It came like a distinct personal loss to +her. That short week while the girl had been in her home had opened +Virginia's heart to a new life. She was talking it over with Rachel +the day after the funeral. Thee were sitting in the hall of the Page +mansion. +</P> + +<P> +"I am going to do something with my money to help those women to a +better life." Virginia looked over to the end of the hall where, the +day before, Loreen's body had lain. "I have decided on a good plan, +as it seems to me. I have talked it over with Rollin. He will devote +a large part of his money also to the same plan." +</P> + +<P> +"How much money have you, Virginia, to give in this way?" asked +Rachel. Once, she would never have asked such a personal question. +Now, it seemed as natural to talk frankly about money as about +anything else that belonged to God. +</P> + +<P> +"I have available for use at least four hundred and fifty-thousand +dollars. Rollin has as much more. It is one of his bitter regrets +now that his extravagant habits of life before his conversion +practically threw away half that father left him. We are both eager +to make all the reparation in our power. 'What would Jesus do with +this money?' We want to answer that question honestly and wisely. +The money I shall put into the NEWS is, I am confident, in a line +with His probable action. It is as necessary that we have a +Christian daily paper in Raymond, especially now that we have the +saloon influence to meet, as it is to have a church or a college. So +I am satisfied that the five hundred thousand dollars that Mr. +Norman will know how to use so well will be a powerful factor in +Raymond to do as Jesus would. +</P> + +<P> +"About my other plan, Rachel, I want you to work with me. Rollin and +I are going to buy up a large part of the property in the Rectangle. +The field where the tent now is, has been in litigation for years. +We mean to secure the entire tract as soon as the courts have +settled the title. For some time I have been making a special study +of the various forms of college settlements and residence methods of +Christian work and Institutional church work in the heart of great +city slums. I do not know that I have yet been able to tell just +what is the wisest and most effective kind of work that can be done +in Raymond. But I do know this much. My money—I mean God's, which +he wants me to use—can build wholesome lodging-houses, refuges for +poor women, asylums for shop girls, safety for many and many a lost +girl like Loreen. And I do not want to be simply a dispenser of this +money. God help me! I do want to put myself into the problem. But +you know, Rachel, I have a feeling all the time that all that +limitless money and limitless personal sacrifice can possibly do, +will not really lessen very much the awful condition at the +Rectangle as long as the saloon is legally established there. I +think that is true of any Christian work now being carried on in any +great city. The saloon furnishes material to be saved faster than +the settlement or residence or rescue mission work can save it." +</P> + +<P> +Virginia suddenly rose and paced the hall. Rachel answered sadly, +and yet with a note of hope in her voice: +</P> + +<P> +"It is true. But, Virginia, what a wonderful amount of good can be +done with this money! And the saloon cannot always remain here. The +time must come when the Christian forces in the city will triumph." +</P> + +<P> +Virginia paused near Rachel, and her pale, earnest face lighted up. +</P> + +<P> +"I believe that too. The number of those who have promised to do as +Jesus would is increasing. If we once have, say, five hundred such +disciples in Raymond, the saloon is doomed. But now, dear, I want +you to look at your part in this plan for capturing and saving the +Rectangle. Your voice is a power. I have had many ideas lately. Here +is one of them. You could organize among the girls a Musical +Institute; give them the benefit of your training. There are some +splendid voices in the rough there. Did any one ever hear such +singing as that yesterday by those women? Rachel, what a beautiful +opportunity! You shall have the best of material in the way of +organs and orchestras that money can provide, and what cannot be +done with music to win souls there into higher and purer and better +living?" +</P> + +<P> +Before Virginia had ceased speaking Rachel's face was perfectly +transformed with the thought of her life work. It flowed into her +heart and mind like a flood, and the torrent of her feeling +overflowed in tears that could not be restrained. It was what she +had dreamed of doing herself. It represented to her something that +she felt was in keeping with a right use of her talent. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," she said, as she rose and put her arm about Virginia, while +both girls in the excitement of their enthusiasm paced the hall. +"Yes, I will gladly put my life into that kind of service. I do +believe that Jesus would have me use my life in this way. Virginia, +what miracles can we not accomplish in humanity if we have such a +lever as consecrated money to move things with!" +</P> + +<P> +"Add to it consecrated personal enthusiasm like yours, and it +certainly can accomplish great things," said Virginia smiling. And +before Rachel could reply, Rollin came in. +</P> + +<P> +He hesitated a moment, and then was passing out of the hall into the +library when Virginia called him back and asked some questions about +his work. +</P> + +<P> +Rollin came back and sat down, and together the three discussed +their future plans. Rollin was apparently entirely free from +embarrassment in Rachel's presence while Virginia was with them, +only his manner with her was almost precise, if not cold. The past +seemed to have been entirely absorbed in his wonderful conversion. +He had not forgotten it, but he seemed to be completely caught up +for this present time in the purpose of his new life. After a while +Rollin was called out, and Rachel and Virginia began to talk of +other things. +</P> + +<P> +"By the way, what has become of Jasper Chase?" Virginia asked the +question innocently, but Rachel flushed and Virginia added with a +smile, "I suppose he is writing another book. Is he going to put you +into this one, Rachel? You know I always suspected Jasper Chase of +doing that very thing in his first story." +</P> + +<P> +"Virginia," Rachel spoke with the frankness that had always existed +between the two friends, "Jasper Chase told me the other night that +he—in fact—he proposed to me—or he would, if—" +</P> + +<P> +Rachel stopped and sat with her hands clasped on her lap, and there +were tears in her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Virginia, I thought a little while ago I loved him, as he said he +loved me. But when he spoke, my heart felt repelled, and I said what +I ought to say. I told him no. I have not seen him since. That was +the night of the first conversions at the Rectangle." +</P> + +<P> +"I am glad for you," said Virginia quietly. +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" asked Rachel a little startled. +</P> + +<P> +"Because, I have never really liked Jasper Chase. He is too cold +and—I do not like to judge him, but I have always distrusted his +sincerity in taking the pledge at the church with the rest." +</P> + +<P> +Rachel looked at Virginia thoughtfully. +</P> + +<P> +"I have never given my heart to him I am sure. He touched my +emotions, and I admired his skill as a writer. I have thought at +times that I cared a good deal for him. I think perhaps if he had +spoken to me at any other time than the one he chose, I could easily +have persuaded myself that I loved him. But not now." +</P> + +<P> +Again Rachel paused suddenly, and when she looked up at Virginia +again there were tears on her face. Virginia came to her and put her +arm about her tenderly. +</P> + +<P> +When Rachel had left the house, Virginia sat in the hall thinking +over the confidence her friend had just shown her. There was +something still to be told, Virginia felt sure from Rachel's manner, +but she did not feel hurt that Rachel had kept back something. She +was simply conscious of more on Rachel's mind than she had revealed. +</P> + +<P> +Very soon Rollin came back, and he and Virginia, arm in arm as they +had lately been in the habit of doing, walked up and down the long +hall. It was easy for their talk to settle finally upon Rachel +because of the place she was to occupy in the plans which were being +made for the purchase of property at the Rectangle. +</P> + +<P> +"Did you ever know of a girl of such really gifted powers in vocal +music who was willing to give her life to the people as Rachel is +going to do? She is going to give music lessons in the city, have +private pupils to make her living, and then give the people in the +Rectangle the benefit of her culture and her voice." +</P> + +<P> +"It is certainly a very good example of self-sacrifice," replied +Rollin a little stiffly. +</P> + +<P> +Virginia looked at him a little sharply. "But don't you think it is +a very unusual example? Can you imagine—" here Virginia named half +a dozen famous opera singers—"doing anything of this sort?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, I cannot," Rollin answered briefly. "Neither can I imagine +Miss—" he spoke the name of the girl with the red parasol who had +begged Virginia to take the girls to the Rectangle—"doing what you +are doing, Virginia." +</P> + +<P> +"Any more than I can imagine Mr.—" Virginia spoke the name of a +young society leader "going about to the clubs doing your work, +Rollin." The two walked on in silence for the length of the hall. +</P> + +<P> +"Coming back to Rachel," began Virginia, "Rollin, why do you treat +her with such a distinct, precise manner? I think, Rollin—pardon me +if I hurt you—that she is annoyed by it. You need to be on easy +terms. I don't think Rachel likes this change." +</P> + +<P> +Rollin suddenly stopped. He seemed deeply agitated. He took his arm +from Virginia's and walked alone to the end of the hall. Then he +returned, with his hands behind him, and stopped near his sister and +said, "Virginia, have you not learned my secret?" +</P> + +<P> +Virginia looked bewildered, then over her face the unusual color +crept, showing that she understood. +</P> + +<P> +"I have never loved any one but Rachel Winslow." Rollin spoke calmly +enough now. "That day she was here when you talked about her refusal +to join the concert company, I asked her to be my wife; out there on +the avenue. She refused me, as I knew she would. And she gave as her +reason the fact that I had no purpose in life, which was true +enough. Now that I have a purpose, now that I am a new man, don't +you see, Virginia, how impossible it is for me to say anything? I +owe my very conversion to Rachel's singing. And yet that night while +she sang I can honestly say that, for the time being, I never +thought of her voice except as God's message. I believe that all my +personal love for her was for the time merged into a personal love +to my God and my Saviour." Rollin was silent, then he went on with +more emotion. "I still love her, Virginia. But I do not think she +ever could love me." He stopped and looked his sister in the face +with a sad smile. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know about that," said Virginia to herself. She was noting +Rollin's handsome face, his marks of dissipation nearly all gone +now, the firm lips showing manhood and courage, the clear eyes +looking into hers frankly, the form strong and graceful. Rollin was +a man now. Why should not Rachel come to love him in time? Surely +the two were well fitted for each other, especially now that their +purpose in life was moved by the same Christian force. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap17"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter Seventeen +</H3> + +<P> +THE next day she went down to the NEWS office to see Edward Norman +and arrange the details of her part in the establishment of the +paper on its new foundation. Mr. Maxwell was present at this +conference, and the three agreed that whatever Jesus would do in +detail as editor of a daily paper, He would be guided by the same +general principles that directed His conduct as the Saviour of the +world. +</P> + +<P> +"I have tried to put down here in concrete form some of the things +that it has seemed to me Jesus would do," said Edward Norman. He +read from a paper lying on his desk, and Maxwell was reminded again +of his own effort to put into written form his own conception of +Jesus' probable action, and also of Milton Wright's same attempt in +his business. +</P> + +<P> +"I have headed this, 'What would Jesus do as Edward Norman, editor +of a daily newspaper in Raymond?' +</P> + +<P> +"1. He would never allow a sentence or a picture in his paper that +could be called bad or coarse or impure in any way. +</P> + +<P> +"2. He would probably conduct the political part of the paper from +the standpoint of non-partisan patriotism, always looking upon all +political questions in the light of their relation to the Kingdom of +God, and advocating measures from the standpoint of their relation +to the welfare of the people, always on the basis of 'What is +right?' never on the basis of 'What is for the best interests of +this or that party?' In other words, He would treat all political +questions as he would treat every other subject, from the standpoint +of the advancement of the Kingdom of God on earth." +</P> + +<P> +Edward Norman looked up from the reading a moment. "You understand +that is my opinion of Jesus' probable action on political matters in +a daily paper. I am not passing judgment on other newspaper men who +may have a different conception of Jesus' probable action from mine. +I am simply trying to answer honestly, 'What would Jesus do as +Edward Norman?' And the answer I find is what I have put down.' +</P> + +<P> +"3. The end and aim of a daily paper conducted by Jesus would be to +do the will of God. That is, His main purpose in carrying on a +newspaper would not be to make money, or gain political influence; +but His first and ruling purpose would be to so conduct his paper +that it would be evident to all his subscribers that He was trying +to seek first the Kingdom of God by means of His paper. This purpose +would be as distinct and unquestioned as the purpose of a minister +or a missionary or any unselfish martyr in Christian work anywhere. +</P> + +<P> +"4. All questionable advertisements would be impossible. +</P> + +<P> +"5. The relations of Jesus to the employees on the paper would be of +the most loving character." +</P> + +<P> +"So far as I have gone," said Norman again looking up, "I am of +opinion that Jesus would employ practically some form of +co-operation that would represent the idea of a mutual interest in a +business where all were to move together for the same great end. I +am working out such a plan, and I am confident it will be +successful. At any rate, once introduce the element of personal love +into a business like this, take out the selfish principle of doing +it for personal profits to a man or company, and I do not see any +way except the most loving personal interest between editors, +reporters, pressmen, and all who contribute anything to the life of +the paper. And that interest would be expressed not only in the +personal love and sympathy but in a sharing with the profits of the +business." +</P> + +<P> +"6. As editor of a daily paper today, Jesus would give large space +to the work of the Christian world. He would devote a page possibly +to the facts of Reform, of sociological problems, of institutional +church work and similar movements. +</P> + +<P> +"7. He would do all in His power in His paper to fight the saloon as +an enemy of the human race and an unnecessary part of our +civilization. He would do this regardless of public sentiment in the +matter and, of course, always regardless of its effect upon His +subscription list." +</P> + +<P> +Again Edward Norman looked up. "I state my honest conviction on this +point. Of course, I do not pass judgment on the Christian men who +are editing other kinds of papers today. But as I interpret Jesus, I +believe He would use the influence of His paper to remove the saloon +entirely from the political and social life of the nation." +</P> + +<P> +"8. Jesus would not issue a Sunday edition. +</P> + +<P> +"9. He would print the news of the world that people ought to know. +Among the things they do not need to know, and which would not be +published, would be accounts of brutal prize-fights, long accounts +of crimes, scandals in private families, or any other human events +which in any way would conflict with the first point mentioned in +this outline. +</P> + +<P> +"10. If Jesus had the amount of money to use on a paper which we +have, He would probably secure the best and strongest Christian men +and women to co-operate with him in the matter of contributions. +That will be my purpose, as I shall be able to show you in a few +days. +</P> + +<P> +"11. Whatever the details of the paper might demand as the paper +developed along its definite plan, the main principle that guided it +would always be the establishment of the Kingdom of God in the +world. This large general principle would necessarily shape all the +detail." +</P> + +<P> +Edward Norman finished reading the plan. He was very thoughtful. +</P> + +<P> +"I have merely sketched a faint outline. I have a hundred ideas for +making the paper powerful that I have not thought out fully as yet. +This is simply suggestive. I have talked it over with other +newspaper men. Some of them say I will have a weak, namby-pamby +Sunday-school sheet. If I get out something as good as a +Sunday-school it will be pretty good. Why do men, when they want to +characterize something as particularly feeble, always use a +Sunday-school as a comparison, when they ought to know that the +Sunday-school is one of the strongest, most powerful influences in +our civilization in this country today? But the paper will not +necessarily be weak because it is good. Good things are more +powerful than bad. The question with me is largely one of support +from the Christian people of Raymond. There are over twenty thousand +church members here in this city. If half of them will stand by the +NEWS its life is assured. What do you think, Maxwell, of the +probability of such support?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know enough about it to give an intelligent answer. I +believe in the paper with all my heart. If it lives a year, as Miss +Virginia said, there is no telling what it can do. The great thing +will be to issue such a paper, as near as we can judge, as Jesus +probably would, and put into it all the elements of Christian +brains, strength, intelligence and sense; and command respect for +freedom from bigotry, fanaticism, narrowness and anything else that +is contrary to the spirit of Jesus. Such a paper will call for the +best that human thought and action is capable of giving. The +greatest minds in the world would have their powers taxed to the +utmost to issue a Christian daily." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," Edward Norman spoke humbly. "I shall make a great many +mistakes, no doubt. I need a great deal of wisdom. But I want to do +as Jesus would. 'What would He do?' I have asked it, and shall +continue to do so, and abide by the results." +</P> + +<P> +"I think we are beginning to understand," said Virginia, "the +meaning of that command, 'Grow in the grace and knowledge of our +Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.' I am sure I do not know all that He +would do in detail until I know Him better." +</P> + +<P> +"That is very true," said Henry Maxwell. "I am beginning to +understand that I cannot interpret the probable action of Jesus +until I know better what His spirit is. The greatest question in all +of human life is summed up when we ask, 'What would Jesus do?' if, +as we ask it, we also try to answer it from a growth in knowledge of +Jesus himself. We must know Jesus before we can imitate Him." +</P> + +<P> +When the arrangement had been made between Virginia an Edward +Norman, he found himself in possession of the sum of five hundred +thousand dollars to use for the establishment of a Christian daily +paper. When Virginia and Maxwell had gone, Norman closed his door +and, alone with the Divine Presence, asked like a child for help +from his all-powerful Father. All through his prayer as he kneeled +before his desk ran the promise, "If any man lack wisdom, let him +ask of God who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and +it shall be given him." Surely his prayer would be answered, and the +kingdom advanced through this instrument of God's power, this mighty +press, which had become so largely degraded to the base uses of +man's avarice and ambition. +</P> + +<P> +Two months went by. They were full of action and of results in the +city of Raymond and especially in the First Church. In spite of the +approaching heat of the summer season, the after-meeting of the +disciples who had made the pledge to do as Jesus would do, continued +with enthusiasm and power. Gray had finished his work at the +Rectangle, and an outward observer going through the place could not +have seen any difference in the old conditions, although there was +an actual change in hundreds of lives. But the saloons, dens, +hovels, gambling houses, still ran, overflowing their vileness into +the lives of fresh victims to take the place of those rescued by the +evangelist. And the devil recruited his ranks very fast. +</P> + +<P> +Henry Maxwell did not go abroad. Instead of that, he took the money +he had been saving for the trip and quietly arranged for a summer +vacation for a whole family living down in the Rectangle, who had +never gone outside of the foul district of the tenements. The pastor +of the First Church will never forget the week he spent with this +family making the arrangements. He went down into the Rectangle one +hot day when something of the terrible heat in the horrible +tenements was beginning to be felt, and helped the family to the +station, and then went with them to a beautiful spot on the coast +where, in the home of a Christian woman, the bewildered city tenants +breathed for the first time in years the cool salt air, and felt +blow about them the pine-scented fragrance of a new lease of life. +</P> + +<P> +There was a sickly babe with the mother, and three other children, +one a cripple. The father, who had been out of work until he had +been, as he afterwards confessed to Maxwell, several times on the +edge of suicide, sat with the baby in his arms during the journey, +and when Maxwell started back to Raymond, after seeing the family +settled, the man held his hand at parting, and choked with his +utterance, and finally broke down, to Maxwell's great confusion. The +mother, a wearied, worn-out woman who had lost three children the +year before from a fever scourge in the Rectangle, sat by the car +window all the way and drank in the delights of sea and sky and +field. It all seemed a miracle to her. And Maxwell, coming back into +Raymond at the end of that week, feeling the scorching, sickening +heat all the more because of his little taste of the ocean breezes, +thanked God for the joy he had witnessed, and entered upon his +discipleship with a humble heart, knowing for almost the first time +in his life this special kind of sacrifice. For never before had he +denied himself his regular summer trip away from the heat of +Raymond, whether he felt in any great need of rest or not. +</P> + +<P> +"It is a fact," he said in reply to several inquiries on the part of +his church, "I do not feel in need of a vacation this year. I am +very well and prefer to stay here." It was with a feeling of relief +that he succeeded in concealing from every one but his wife what he +had done with this other family. He felt the need of doing anything +of that sort without display or approval from others. +</P> + +<P> +So the summer came on, and Maxwell grew into a large knowledge of +his Lord. The First Church was still swayed by the power of the +Spirit. Maxwell marveled at the continuance of His stay. He knew +very well that from the beginning nothing but the Spirit's presence +had kept the church from being torn asunder by the remarkable +testing it had received of its discipleship. Even now there were +many of the members among those who had not taken the pledge, who +regarded the whole movement as Mrs. Winslow did, in the nature of a +fanatical interpretation of Christian duty, and looked for the +return of the old normal condition. Meanwhile the whole body of +disciples was under the influence of the Spirit, and the pastor went +his way that summer, doing his parish work in great joy, keeping up +his meetings with the railroad men as he had promised Alexander +Powers, and daily growing into a better knowledge of the Master. +</P> + +<P> +Early one afternoon in August, after a day of refreshing coolness +following a long period of heat, Jasper Chase walked to his window +in the apartment house on the avenue and looked out. +</P> + +<P> +On his desk lay a pile of manuscript. Since that evening when he had +spoken to Rachel Winslow he had not met her. His singularly +sensitive nature—sensitive to the point of extreme irritability +when he was thwarted—served to thrust him into an isolation that +was intensified by his habits as an author. +</P> + +<P> +All through the heat of summer he had been writing. His book was +nearly done now. He had thrown himself into its construction with a +feverish strength that threatened at any moment to desert him and +leave him helpless. He had not forgotten his pledge made with the +other church members at the First Church. It had forced itself upon +his notice all through his writing, and ever since Rachel had said +no to him, he had asked a thousand times, "Would Jesus do this? +Would He write this story?" It was a social novel, written in a +style that had proved popular. It had no purpose except to amuse. +Its moral teaching was not bad, but neither was it Christian in any +positive way. Jasper Chase knew that such a story would probably +sell. He was conscious of powers in this way that the social world +petted and admired. "What would Jesus do?" He felt that Jesus would +never write such a book. The question obtruded on him at the most +inopportune times. He became irascible over it. The standard of +Jesus for an author was too ideal. Of course, Jesus would use His +powers to produce something useful or helpful, or with a purpose. +What was he, Jasper Chase, writing this novel for? Why, what nearly +every writer wrote for—money, money, and fame as a writer. There +was no secret with him that he was writing this new story with that +object. He was not poor, and so had no great temptation to write for +money. But he was urged on by his desire for fame as much as +anything. He must write this kind of matter. But what would Jesus +do? The question plagued him even more than Rachel's refusal. Was he +going to break his promise? "Did the promise mean much after all?" +he asked. +</P> + +<P> +As he stood at the window, Rollin Page came out of the club house +just opposite. Jasper noted his handsome face and noble figure as he +started down the street. He went back to his desk and turned over +some papers there. Then he came back to the window. Rollin was +walking down past the block and Rachel Winslow was walking beside +him. Rollin must have overtaken her as she was coming from +Virginia's that afternoon. +</P> + +<P> +Jasper watched the two figures until they disappeared in the crowd +on the walk. Then he turned to his desk and began to write. When he +had finished the last page of the last chapter of his book it was +nearly dark. "What would Jesus do?" He had finally answered the +question by denying his Lord. It grew darker in his room. He had +deliberately chosen his course, urged on by his disappointment and +loss. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap18"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter Eighteen +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +"What is that to thee? Follow thou me." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +WHEN Rollin started down the street the afternoon that Jasper stood +looking out of his window he was not thinking of Rachel Winslow and +did not expect to see her anywhere. He had come suddenly upon her as +he turned into the avenue and his heart had leaped up at the sight +of her. He walked along by her now, rejoicing after all in a little +moment of this earthly love he could not drive out of his life. +</P> + +<P> +"I have just been over to see Virginia," said Rachel. "She tells me +the arrangements are nearly completed for the transfer of the +Rectangle property." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. It has been a tedious case in the courts. Did Virginia show +you all the plans and specifications for building?" +</P> + +<P> +"We looked over a good many. It is astonishing to me where Virginia +has managed to get all her ideas about this work." +</P> + +<P> +"Virginia knows more now about Arnold Toynbee and East End London +and Institutional Church work in America than a good many +professional slum workers. She has been spending nearly all summer +in getting information." Rollin was beginning to feel more at ease +as they talked over this coming work of humanity. It was safe, +common ground. +</P> + +<P> +"What have you been doing all summer? I have not seen much of you," +Rachel suddenly asked, and then her face warmed with its quick flush +of tropical color as if she might have implied too much interest in +Rollin or too much regret at not seeing him oftener. +</P> + +<P> +"I have been busy," replied Rollin briefly. +</P> + +<P> +"Tell me something about it," persisted Rachel. "You say so little. +Have I a right to ask?" +</P> + +<P> +She put the question very frankly, turning toward Rollin in real +earnest. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, certainly," he replied, with a graceful smile. "I am not so +certain that I can tell you much. I have been trying to find some +way to reach the men I once knew and win them into more useful +lives." +</P> + +<P> +He stopped suddenly as if he were almost afraid to go on. Rachel did +not venture to suggest anything. +</P> + +<P> +"I have been a member of the same company to which you and Virginia +belong," continued Rollin, beginning again. "I have made the pledge +to do as I believe Jesus would do, and it is in trying to answer +this question that I have been doing my work." +</P> + +<P> +"That is what I do not understand. Virginia told me about the other. +It seems wonderful to think that you are trying to keep that pledge +with us. But what can you do with the club men?" +</P> + +<P> +"You have asked me a direct question and I shall have to answer it +now," replied Rollin, smiling again. "You see, I asked myself after +that night at the tent, you remember" (he spoke hurriedly and his +voice trembled a little), "what purpose I could now have in my life +to redeem it, to satisfy my thought of Christian discipleship? And +the more I thought of it, the more I was driven to a place where I +knew I must take up the cross. Did you ever think that of all the +neglected beings in our social system none are quite so completely +left alone as the fast young men who fill the clubs and waste their +time and money as I used to? The churches look after the poor, +miserable creatures like those in the Rectangle; they make some +effort to reach the working man, they have a large constituency +among the average salary-earning people, they send money and +missionaries to the foreign heathen, but the fashionable, dissipated +young men around town, the club men, are left out of all plans for +reaching and Christianizing. And yet no class of people need it +more. I said to myself: 'I know these men, their good and their bad +qualities. I have been one of them. I am not fitted to reach the +Rectangle people. I do not know how. But I think I could possibly +reach some of the young men and boys who have money and time to +spend.' So that is what I have been trying to do. When I asked as +you did, What would Jesus do?' that was my answer. It has been also +my cross." +</P> + +<P> +Rollin's voice was so low on this last sentence that Rachel had +difficulty in hearing him above the noise around them, But she knew +what he had said. She wanted to ask what his methods were. But she +did not know how to ask him. Her interest in his plan was larger +than mere curiosity. Rollin Page was so different now from the +fashionable young man who had asked her to be his wife that she +could not help thinking of him and talking with him as if he were an +entirely new acquaintance. +</P> + +<P> +They had turned off the avenue and were going up the street to +Rachel's home. It was the same street where Rollin had asked Rachel +why she could not love him. They were both stricken with a sudden +shyness as they went on. Rachel had not forgotten that day and +Rollin could not. She finally broke a long silence by asking what +she had not found words for before. +</P> + +<P> +"In your work with the club men, with your old acquaintances, what +sort of reception do they give you? How do you approach them? What +do they say?" +</P> + +<P> +Rollin was relieved when Rachel spoke. He answered quickly: "Oh, it +depends on the man. A good many of them think I am a crank. I have +kept my membership up and am in good standing in that way. I try to +be wise and not provoke any unnecessary criticism. But you would be +surprised to know how many of the men have responded to my appeal. I +could hardly make you believe that only a few nights ago a dozen men +became honestly and earnestly engaged in a conversation over +religious matters. I have had the great joy of seeing some of the +men give up bad habits and begin a new life. 'What would Jesus do?' +I keep asking it. The answer comes slowly, for I am feeling my way +slowly. One thing I have found out. The men are not fighting shy of +me. I think that is a good sign. Another thing: I have actually +interested some of them in the Rectangle work, and when it is +started up they will give something to help make it more powerful. +And in addition to all the rest, I have found a way to save several +of the young fellows from going to the bad in gambling." +</P> + +<P> +Rollin spoke with enthusiasm. His face was transformed by his +interest in the subject which had now become a part of his real +life. Rachel again noted the strong, manly tone of his speech. With +it all she knew there was a deep, underlying seriousness which felt +the burden of the cross even while carrying it with joy. The next +time she spoke it was with a swift feeling of justice due to Rollin +and his new life. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you remember I reproached you once for not having any purpose +worth living for?" she asked, while her beautiful face seemed to +Rollin more beautiful than ever when he had won sufficient +self-control to look up. "I want to say, I feel the need of saying, +in justice to you now, that I honor you for your courage and your +obedience to the promise you have made as you interpret the promise. +The life you are living is a noble one." +</P> + +<P> +Rollin trembled. His agitation was greater than he could control. +Rachel could not help seeing it. They walked along in silence. At +last Rollin said: "I thank you. It has been worth more to me than I +can tell you to hear you say that." He looked into her face for one +moment. She read his love for her in that look, but he did not +speak. +</P> + +<P> +When they separated Rachel went into the house and, sitting down in +her room, she put her face in her hands and said to herself: "I am +beginning to know what it means to be loved by a noble man. I shall +love Rollin Page after all. What am I saying! Rachel Winslow, have +you forgotten—" +</P> + +<P> +She rose and walked back and forth. She was deeply moved. +Nevertheless, it was evident to herself that her emotion was not +that of regret or sorrow. Somehow a glad new joy had come to her. +She had entered another circle of experience, and later in the day +she rejoiced with a very strong and sincere gladness that her +Christian discipleship found room in this crisis for her feeling. It +was indeed a part of it, for if she was beginning to love Rollin +Page it was the Christian man she had begun to love; the other never +would have moved her to this great change. +</P> + +<P> +And Rollin, as he went back, treasured a hope that had been a +stranger to him since Rachel had said no that day. In that hope he +went on with his work as the days sped on, and at no time was he +more successful in reaching and saving his old acquaintances than in +the time that followed that chance meeting with Rachel Winslow. +</P> + +<P> +The summer had gone and Raymond was once more facing the rigor of +her winter season. Virginia had been able to accomplish a part of +her plan for "capturing the Rectangle," as she called it. But the +building of houses in the field, the transforming of its bleak, bare +aspect into an attractive park, all of which was included in her +plan, was a work too large to be completed that fall after she had +secured the property. But a million dollars in the hands of a person +who truly wants to do with it as Jesus would, ought to accomplish +wonders for humanity in a short time, and Henry Maxwell, going over +to the scene of the new work one day after a noon hour with the shop +men, was amazed to see how much had been done outwardly. +</P> + +<P> +Yet he walked home thoughtfully, and on his way he could not avoid +the question of the continual problem thrust upon his notice by the +saloon. How much had been done for the Rectangle after all? Even +counting Virginia's and Rachel's work and Mr. Gray's, where had it +actually counted in any visible quantity? Of course, he said to +himself, the redemptive work begun and carried on by the Holy Spirit +in His wonderful displays of power in the First Church and in the +tent meetings had had its effect upon the life of Raymond. But as he +walked past saloon after saloon and noted the crowds going in and +coming out of them, as he saw the wretched dens, as many as ever +apparently, as he caught the brutality and squalor and open misery +and degradation on countless faces of men and women and children, he +sickened at the sight. He found himself asking how much cleansing +could a million dollars poured into this cesspool accomplish? Was +not the living source of nearly all the human misery they sought to +relieve untouched as long as the saloons did their deadly but +legitimate work? What could even such unselfish Christian +discipleship as Virginia's and Rachel's do to lessen the stream of +vice and crime so long as the great spring of vice and crime flowed +as deep and strong as ever? Was it not a practical waste of +beautiful lives for these young women to throw themselves into this +earthly hell, when for every soul rescued by their sacrifice the +saloon made two more that needed rescue? +</P> + +<P> +He could not escape the question. It was the same that Virginia had +put to Rachel in her statement that, in her opinion, nothing really +permanent would ever be done until the saloon was taken out of the +Rectangle. Henry Maxwell went back to his parish work that afternoon +with added convictions on the license business. +</P> + +<P> +But if the saloon was a factor in the problem of the life of +Raymond, no less was the First Church and its little company of +disciples who had pledged to do as Jesus would do. Henry Maxwell, +standing at the very centre of the movement, was not in a position +to judge of its power as some one from the outside might have done. +But Raymond itself felt the touch in very many ways, not knowing all +the reasons for the change. +</P> + +<P> +The winter was gone and the year was ended, the year which Henry +Maxwell had fixed as the time during which the pledge should be kept +to do as Jesus would do. Sunday, the anniversary of that one a year +ago, was in many ways the most remarkable day that the First Church +ever knew. It was more important than the disciples in the First +Church realized. The year had made history so fast and so serious +that the people were not yet able to grasp its significance. And the +day itself which marked the completion of a whole year of such +discipleship was characterized by such revelations and confessions +that the immediate actors in the events themselves could not +understand the value of what had been done, or the relation of their +trial to the rest of the churches and cities of the country. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap19"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter Nineteen +</H3> + +<P> +[Letter from Rev. Calvin Bruce, D.D., of the Nazareth Avenue Church, +Chicago, to Rev. Philip A. Caxton, D.D., New York City.] +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"My Dear Caxton: +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"It is late Sunday night, but I am so intensely awake and so +overflowing with what I have seen and heard that I feel driven to +write you now some account of the situation in Raymond as I have +been studying it, and as it has apparently come to a climax today. +So this is my only excuse for writing so extended a letter at this +time. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"You remember Henry Maxwell in the Seminary. I think you said the +last time I visited you in New York that you had not seen him since +we graduated. He was a refined, scholarly fellow, you remember, and +when he was called to the First Church of Raymond within a year +after leaving the Seminary, I said to my wife, 'Raymond has made a +good choice. Maxwell will satisfy them as a sermonizer.' He has been +here eleven years, and I understand that up to a year ago he had +gone on in the regular course of the ministry, giving good +satisfaction and drawing good congregations. His church was counted +the largest and wealthiest church in Raymond. All the best people +attended it, and most of them belonged. The quartet choir was famous +for its music, especially for its soprano, Miss Winslow, of whom I +shall have more to say; and, on the whole, as I understand the +facts, Maxwell was in a comfortable berth, with a very good salary, +pleasant surroundings, a not very exacting parish of refined, rich, +respectable people—such a church and parish as nearly all the young +men of the seminary in our time looked forward to as very desirable. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"But a year ago today Maxwell came into his church on Sunday +morning, and at the close of the service made the astounding +proposition that the members of his church volunteer for a year not +to do anything without first asking the question, 'What would Jesus +do?' and, after answering it, to do what in their honest judgment He +would do, regardless of what the result might be to them. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"The effect of this proposition, as it has been met and obeyed by a +number of members of the church, has been so remarkable that, as you +know, the attention of the whole country has been directed to the +movement. I call it a 'movement' because from the action taken +today, it seems probable that what has been tried here will reach +out into the other churches and cause a revolution in methods, but +more especially in a new definition of Christian discipleship. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"In the first place, Maxwell tells me he was astonished at the +response to his proposition. Some of the most prominent members in +the church made the promise to do as Jesus would. Among them were +Edward Norman, editor of the DAILY NEWS, which has made such a +sensation in the newspaper world; Milton Wright, one of the leading +merchants in Raymond; Alexander Powers, whose action in the matter +of the railroads against the interstate commerce laws made such a +stir about a year ago; Miss Page, one of Raymond's leading society +heiresses, who has lately dedicated her entire fortune, as I +understand, to the Christian daily paper and the work of reform in +the slum district known as the Rectangle; and Miss Winslow, whose +reputation as a singer is now national, but who in obedience to what +she has decided to be Jesus' probable action, has devoted her talent +to volunteer work among the girls and women who make up a large part +of the city's worst and most abandoned population. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"In addition to these well-known people has been a gradually +increasing number of Christians from the First Church and lately +from other churches of Raymond. A large proportion of these +volunteers who pledged themselves to do as Jesus would do comes from +the Endeavor societies. The young people say that they have already +embodied in their society pledge the same principle in the words, 'I +promise Him that I will strive to do whatever He would have me do.' +This is not exactly what is included in Maxwell's proposition, which +is that the disciple shall try to do what Jesus would probably do in +the disciple's place. But the result of an honest obedience to +either pledge, he claims, will be practically the same, and he is +not surprised that the largest numbers have joined the new +discipleship from the Endeavor Society. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"I am sure the first question you will ask is, 'What has been the +result of this attempt? What has it accomplished or how has it +changed in any way the regular life of the church or the community?' +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"You already know something, from reports of Raymond that have gone +over the country, what the events have been. But one needs to come +here and learn something of the changes in individual lives, and +especially the change in the church life, to realize all that is +meant by this following of Jesus' steps so literally. To tell all +that would be to write a long story or series of stories. I am not +in a position to do that, but I can give you some idea perhaps of +what has been done as told me by friends here and by Maxwell +himself. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"The result of the pledge upon the First Church has been two-fold. +It has brought upon a spirit of Christian fellowship which Maxwell +tells me never before existed, and which now impresses him as being +very nearly what the Christian fellowship of the apostolic churches +must have been; and it has divided the church into two distinct +groups of members. Those who have not taken the pledge regard the +others as foolishly literal in their attempt to imitate the example +of Jesus. Some of them have drawn out of the church and no longer +attend, or they have removed their membership entirely to other +churches. Some are an element of internal strife, and I heard rumors +of an attempt on their part to force Maxwell's resignation. I do not +know that this element is very strong in the church. It has been +held in check by a wonderful continuance of spiritual power, which +dates from the first Sunday the pledge was taken a year ago, and +also by the fact that so many of the most prominent members have +been identified with the movement. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"The effect on Maxwell is very marked. I heard him preach in our +State Association four years ago. He impressed me at the time as +having considerable power in dramatic delivery, of which he himself +was somewhat conscious. His sermon was well written and abounded in +what the Seminary students used to call 'fine passages.' The effect +of it was what an average congregation would call 'pleasing.' This +morning I heard Maxwell preach again, for the first time since then. +I shall speak of that farther on. He is not the same man. He gives +me the impression of one who has passed through a crisis of +revolution. He tells me this revolution is simply a new definition +of Christian discipleship. He certainly has changed many of his old +habits and many of his old views. His attitude on the saloon +question is radically opposite to the one he entertained a year ago. +And in his entire thought of the ministry, his pulpit and parish +work, I find he has made a complete change. So far as I can +understand, the idea that is moving him on now is the idea that the +Christianity of our times must represent a more literal imitation of +Jesus, and especially in the element of suffering. He quoted to me +in the course of our conversation several times the verses in Peter: +'For even hereunto were ye called, because Christ also suffered for +you, leaving you an example, that ye would follow His steps'; and he +seems filled with the conviction that what our churches need today +more than anything else is this factor of joyful suffering for Jesus +in some form. I do not know as I agree with him, altogether; but, my +dear Caxton, it is certainly astonishing to note the results of this +idea as they have impressed themselves upon this city and this +church. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"You ask how about the results on the individuals who have made this +pledge and honestly tried to be true to it. Those results are, as I +have said, a part of individual history and cannot be told in +detail. Some of them I can give you so that you may see that this +form of discipleship is not merely sentiment or fine posing for +effect. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"For instance, take the case of Mr. Powers, who was superintendent +of the machine shops of the L. and T. R. R. here. When he acted upon +the evidence which incriminated the road he lost his position, and +more than that, I learn from my friends here, his family and social +relations have become so changed that he and his family no longer +appear in public. They have dropped out of the social circle where +once they were so prominent. By the way, Caxton, I understand in +this connection that the Commission, for one reason or another, +postponed action on this case, and it is now rumored that the L. and +T. R. R. will pass into a receiver's hands very soon. The president +of the road who, according to the evidence submitted by Powers, was +the principal offender, has resigned, and complications which have +risen since point to the receivership. Meanwhile, the superintendent +has gone back to his old work as a telegraph operator. I met him at +the church yesterday. He impressed me as a man who had, like +Maxwell, gone through a crisis in character. I could not help +thinking of him as being good material for the church of the first +century when the disciples had all things in common. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"Or take the case of Mr. Norman, editor of the DAILY NEWS. He risked +his entire fortune in obedience to what he believed was Jesus' +action, and revolutionized his entire conduct of the paper at the +risk of a failure. I send you a copy of yesterday's paper. I want +you to read it carefully. To my mind it is one of the most +interesting and remarkable papers ever printed in the United States. +It is open to criticism, but what could any mere man attempt in this +line that would be free from criticism. Take it all in all, it is so +far above the ordinary conception of a daily paper that I am amazed +at the result. He tells me that the paper is beginning to be read +more and more by the Christian people of the city. He was very +confident of its final success. Read his editorial on the money +questions, also the one on the coming election in Raymond when the +question of license will again be an issue. Both articles are of the +best from his point of view. He says he never begins an editorial +or, in fact, any part of his newspaper work, without first asking, +'What would Jesus do?' The result is certainly apparent. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"Then there is Milton Wright, the merchant. He has, I am told, so +revolutionized his business that no man is more beloved today in +Raymond. His own clerks and employees have an affection for him that +is very touching. During the winter, while he was lying dangerously +ill at his home, scores of clerks volunteered to watch and help in +any way possible, and his return to his store was greeted with +marked demonstrations. All this has been brought about by the +element of personal love introduced into the business. This love is +not mere words, but the business itself is carried on under a system +of co-operation that is not a patronizing recognition of inferiors, +but a real sharing in the whole business. Other men on the street +look upon Milton Wright as odd. It is a fact, however, that while he +has lost heavily in some directions, he has increased his business, +and is today respected and honored as one of the best and most +successful merchants in Raymond. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"And there is Miss Winslow. She has chosen to give her great talent +to the poor of the city. Her plans include a Musical Institute where +choruses and classes in vocal music shall be a feature. She is +enthusiastic over her life work. In connection with her friend Miss +Page she has planned a course in music which, if carried out, will +certainly do much to lift up the lives of the people down there. I +am not too old, dear Caxton, to be interested in the romantic side +of much that has also been tragic here in Raymond, and I must tell +you that it is well understood here that Miss Winslow expects to be +married this spring to a brother of Miss Page who was once a society +leader and club man, and who was converted in a tent where his +wife-that-is-to-be took an active part in the service. I don't know +all the details of this little romance, but I imagine there is a +story wrapped up in it, and it would make interesting reading if we +only knew it all. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"These are only a few illustrations of results in individual lives +owing to obedience to the pledge. I meant to have spoken of +President Marsh of Lincoln College. He is a graduate of my alma +mater and I knew him slightly when I was in the senior year. He has +taken an active part in the recent municipal campaign, and his +influence in the city is regarded as a very large factor in the +coming election. He impressed me, as did all the other disciples in +this movement, as having fought out some hard questions, and as +having taken up some real burdens that have caused and still do +cause that suffering of which Henry Maxwell speaks, a suffering that +does not eliminate, but does appear to intensify, a positive and +practical joy." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap20"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter Twenty +</H3> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"BUT I am prolonging this letter, possibly to your weariness. I am +unable to avoid the feeling of fascination which my entire stay here +has increased. I want to tell you something of the meeting in the +First Church today. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"As I said, I heard Maxwell preach. At his earnest request I had +preached for him the Sunday before, and this was the first time I +had heard him since the Association meeting four years ago. His +sermon this morning was as different from his sermon then as if it +had been thought out and preached by some one living on another +planet. I was profoundly touched. I believe I actually shed tears +once. Others in the congregation were moved like myself. His text +was: 'What is that to thee? Follow thou Me.' It was a most unusually +impressive appeal to the Christians of Raymond to obey Jesus' +teachings and follow in His steps regardless of what others might +do. I cannot give you even the plan of the sermon. It would take too +long. At the close of the service there was the usual after meeting +that has become a regular feature of the First Church. Into this +meeting have come all those who made the pledge to do as Jesus would +do, and the time is spent in mutual fellowship, confession, question +as to what Jesus would do in special cases, and prayer that the one +great guide of every disciple's conduct may be the Holy Spirit. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"Maxwell asked me to come into this meeting. Nothing in all my +ministerial life, Caxton, has so moved me as that meeting. I never +felt the Spirit's presence so powerfully. It was a meeting of +reminiscences and of the most loving fellowship. I was irresistibly +driven in thought back to the first years of Christianity. There was +something about all this that was apostolic in its simplicity and +Christ imitation. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"I asked questions. One that seemed to arouse more interest than any +other was in regard to the extent of the Christian disciple's +sacrifice of personal property. Maxwell tells me that so far no one +has interpreted the spirit of Jesus in such a way as to abandon his +earthly possessions, give away of his wealth, or in any literal way +imitate the Christians of the order, for example, of St. Francis of +Assisi. It was the unanimous consent, however, that if any disciple +should feel that Jesus in his own particular case would do that, +there could be only one answer to the question. Maxwell admitted +that he was still to a certain degree uncertain as to Jesus' +probable action when it came to the details of household living, the +possession of wealth, the holding of certain luxuries. It is, +however, very evident that many of these disciples have repeatedly +carried their obedience to Jesus to the extreme limit, regardless of +financial loss. There is no lack of courage or consistency at this +point. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"It is also true that some of the business men who took the pledge +have lost great sums of money in this imitation of Jesus, and many +have, like Alexander Powers, lost valuable positions owing to the +impossibility of doing what they had been accustomed to do and at +the same time what they felt Jesus would do in the same place. In +connection with these cases it is pleasant to record the fact that +many who have suffered in this way have been at once helped +financially by those who still have means. In this respect I think +it is true that these disciples have all things in common. Certainly +such scenes as I witnessed at the First Church at that after service +this morning I never saw in my church or in any other. I never +dreamed that such Christian fellowship could exist in this age of +the world. I was almost incredulous as to the witness of my own +senses. I still seem to be asking myself if this is the close of the +nineteenth century in America. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"But now, dear friend, I come to the real cause of this letter, the +real heart of the whole question as the First Church of Raymond has +forced it upon me. Before the meeting closed today steps were taken +to secure the co-operation of all other Christian disciples in this +country. I think Maxwell took this step after long deliberation. He +said as much to me one day when we were discussing the effect of +this movement upon the church in general. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"'Why,' he said, 'suppose that the church membership generally in +this country made this pledge and lived up to it! What a revolution +it would cause in Christendom! But why not? Is it any more than the +disciple ought to do? Has he followed Jesus, unless he is willing to +do this? Is the test of discipleship any less today than it was in +Jesus' time?' +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"I do not know all that preceded or followed his thought of what +ought to be done outside of Raymond, but the idea crystallized today +in a plan to secure the fellowship of all the Christians in America. +The churches, through their pastors, will be asked to form disciple +gatherings like the one in the First Church. Volunteers will be +called for in the great body of church members in the United States, +who will promise to do as Jesus would do. Maxwell spoke particularly +of the result of such general action on the saloon question. He is +terribly in earnest over this. He told me that there was no question +in his mind that the saloon would be beaten in Raymond at the +election now near at hand. If so, they could go on with some courage +to do the redemptive work begun by the evangelist and now taken up +by the disciples in his own church. If the saloon triumphs again +there will be a terrible and, as he thinks, unnecessary waste of +Christian sacrifice. But, however we differ on that point, he +convinced his church that the time had come for a fellowship with +other Christians. Surely, if the First Church could work such +changes in society and its surroundings, the church in general if +combining such a fellowship, not of creed but of conduct, ought to +stir the entire nation to a higher life and a new conception of +Christian following. +</P> + +<P CLASS="letter"> +"This is a grand idea, Caxton, but right here is where I find my +self hesitating. I do not deny that the Christian disciple ought to +follow Christ's steps as closely as these here in Raymond have tried +to do. But I cannot avoid asking what the result would be if I ask +my church in Chicago to do it. I am writing this after feeling the +solemn, profound touch of the Spirit's presence, and I confess to +you, old friend, that I cannot call up in my church a dozen +prominent business or professional men who would make this trial at +the risk of all they hold dear. Can you do any better in your +church? What are we to say? That the churches would not respond to +the call: 'Come and suffer?' Is our standard of Christian +discipleship a wrong one? Or are we possibly deceiving ourselves, +and would we be agreeably disappointed if we once asked our people +to take such a pledge faithfully? The actual results of the pledge +as obeyed here in Raymond are enough to make any pastor tremble, and +at the same time long with yearning that they might occur in his own +parish. Certainly never have I seen a church so signally blessed by +the Spirit as this one. But—am I myself ready to take this pledge? +I ask the question honestly, and I dread to face an honest answer. I +know well enough that I should have to change very much in my life +if I undertook to follow His steps so closely. I have called myself +a Christian for many years. For the past ten years I have enjoyed a +life that has had comparatively little suffering in it. I am, +honestly I say it, living at a long distance from municipal problems +and the life of the poor, the degraded and the abandoned. What would +the obedience to this pledge demand of me? I hesitate to answer. My +church is wealthy, full of well-to-do, satisfied people. The +standard of their discipleship is, I am aware, not of a nature to +respond to the call of suffering or personal loss. I say: 'I am +aware.' I may be mistaken. I may have erred in not stirring their +deeper life. Caxton, my friend, I have spoken my inmost thought to +you. Shall I go back to my people next Sunday and stand up before +them in my large city church and say: 'Let us follow Jesus closer; +let us walk in His steps where it will cost us something more than +it is costing us now; let us pledge not to do anything without first +asking: 'What would Jesus do?' If I should go before them with that +message, it would be a strange and startling one to them. But why? +Are we not ready to follow Him all the way? What is it to be a +follower of Jesus? What does it mean to imitate Him? What does it +mean to walk in His steps?" +</P> + +<P> +The Rev. Calvin Bruce, D. D., of the Nazareth Avenue Church, +Chicago, let his pen fall on the table. He had come to the parting +of the ways, and his question, he felt sure, was the question of +many and many a man in the ministry and in the church. He went to +his window and opened it. He was oppressed with the weight of his +convictions and he felt almost suffocated with the air in the room. +He wanted to see the stars and feel the breath of the world. +</P> + +<P> +The night was very still. The clock in the First Church was just +striking midnight. As it finished a clear, strong voice down in the +direction of the Rectangle came floating up to him as if borne on +radiant pinions. +</P> + +<P> +It was a voice of one of Gray's old converts, a night watchman at +the packing houses, who sometimes solaced his lonesome hours by a +verse or two of some familiar hymn: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "Must Jesus bear the cross alone<BR> + And all the world go free?<BR> + No, there's a cross for every one,<BR> + And there's a cross for me."<BR> +</P> + +<P> +The Rev. Calvin Bruce turned away from the window and, after a +little hesitation, he kneeled. "What would Jesus do?" That was the +burden of his prayer. Never had he yielded himself so completely to +the Spirit's searching revealing of Jesus. He was on his knees a +long time. He retired and slept fitfully with many awakenings. He +rose before it was clear dawn, and threw open his window again. As +the light in the east grew stronger he repeated to himself: "What +would Jesus do? Shall I follow His steps?" +</P> + +<P> +The sun rose and flooded the city with its power. When shall the +dawn of a new discipleship usher in the conquering triumph of a +closer walk with Jesus? When shall Christendom tread more closely +the path he made? +</P> + +<P> +"It is the way the Master trod; Shall not the servant tread it +still?" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap21"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter Twenty-one +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +"Master, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +THE Saturday afternoon matinee at the Auditorium in Chicago was just +over and the usual crowd was struggling to get to its carriage +before any one else. The Auditorium attendant was shouting out the +numbers of different carriages and the carriage doors were slamming +as the horses were driven rapidly up to the curb, held there +impatiently by the drivers who had shivered long in the raw east +wind, and then let go to plunge for a few minutes into the river of +vehicles that tossed under the elevated railway and finally went +whirling off up the avenue. +</P> + +<P> +"Now then, 624," shouted the Auditorium attendant; "624!" he +repeated, and there dashed up to the curb a splendid span of black +horses attached to a carriage having the monogram, "C. R. S." in +gilt letters on the panel of the door. +</P> + +<P> +Two girls stepped out of the crowd towards the carriage. The older +one had entered and taken her seat and the attendant was still +holding the door open for the younger, who stood hesitating on the +curb. +</P> + +<P> +"Come, Felicia! What are you waiting for! I shall freeze to death!" +called the voice from the carriage. +</P> + +<P> +The girl outside of the carriage hastily unpinned a bunch of English +violets from her dress and handed them to a small boy who was +standing shivering on the edge of the sidewalk almost under the +horses' feet. He took them, with a look of astonishment and a "Thank +ye, lady!" and instantly buried a very grimy face in the bunch of +perfume. The girl stepped into the carriage, the door shut with the +incisive bang peculiar to well-made carriages of this sort, and in a +few moments the coachman was speeding the horses rapidly up one of +the boulevards. +</P> + +<P> +"You are always doing some queer thing or other, Felicia," said the +older girl as the carriage whirled on past the great residences +already brilliantly lighted. +</P> + +<P> +"Am I? What have I done that is queer now, Rose?" asked the other, +looking up suddenly and turning her head towards her sister. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, giving those violets to that boy! He looked as if he needed a +good hot supper more than a bunch of violets. It's a wonder you +didn't invite him home with us. I shouldn't have been surprised if +you had. You are always doing such queer things." +</P> + +<P> +"Would it be queer to invite a boy like that to come to the house +and get a hot supper?" Felicia asked the question softly and almost +as if she were alone. +</P> + +<P> +"'Queer' isn't just the word, of course," replied Rose +indifferently. "It would be what Madam Blanc calls 'outre.' +Decidedly. Therefore you will please not invite him or others like +him to hot suppers because I suggested it. Oh, dear! I'm awfully +tired." +</P> + +<P> +She yawned, and Felicia silently looked out of the window in the +door. +</P> + +<P> +"The concert was stupid and the violinist was simply a bore. I don't +see how you could sit so still through it all," Rose exclaimed a +little impatiently. +</P> + +<P> +"I liked the music," answered Felicia quietly. +</P> + +<P> +"You like anything. I never saw a girl with so little critical +taste." +</P> + +<P> +Felicia colored slightly, but would not answer. Rose yawned again, +and then hummed a fragment of a popular song. Then she exclaimed +abruptly: "I'm sick of 'most everything. I hope the 'Shadows of +London' will be exciting tonight." +</P> + +<P> +"The 'Shadows of Chicago,'" murmured Felicia. "The 'Shadows of +Chicago!' The 'Shadows of London,' the play, the great drama with +its wonderful scenery, the sensation of New York for two months. You +know we have a box with the Delanos tonight." +</P> + +<P> +Felicia turned her face towards her sister. Her great brown eyes +were very expressive and not altogether free from a sparkle of +luminous heat. +</P> + +<P> +"And yet we never weep over the real thing on the actual stage of +life. What are the 'Shadows of London' on the stage to the shadows +of London or Chicago as they really exist? Why don't we get excited +over the facts as they are?" +</P> + +<P> +"Because the actual people are dirty and disagreeable and it's too +much bother, I suppose," replied Rose carelessly. "Felicia, you can +never reform the world. What's the use? We're not to blame for the +poverty and misery. There have always been rich and poor; and there +always will be. We ought to be thankful we're rich." +</P> + +<P> +"Suppose Christ had gone on that principle," replied Felicia, with +unusual persistence. "Do you remember Dr. Bruce's sermon on that +verse a few Sundays ago: 'For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus +Christ, that though he was rich yet for our sakes he became poor, +that ye through his poverty might become rich'?" +</P> + +<P> +"I remember it well enough," said Rose with some petulance, "and +didn't Dr. Bruce go on to say that there is no blame attached to +people who have wealth if they are kind and give to the needs of the +poor? And I am sure that he himself is pretty comfortably settled. +He never gives up his luxuries just because some people go hungry. +What good would it do if he did? I tell you, Felicia, there will +always be poor and rich in spite of all we can do. Ever since Rachel +Winslow has written about those queer doings in Raymond you have +upset the whole family. People can't live at that concert pitch all +the time. You see if Rachel doesn't give it up soon. It's a great +pity she doesn't come to Chicago and sing in the Auditorium +concerts. She has received an offer. I'm going to write and urge her +to come. I'm just dying to hear her sing." +</P> + +<P> +Felicia looked out of the window and was silent. The carriage rolled +on past two blocks of magnificent private residences and turned into +a wide driveway under a covered passage, and the sisters hurried +into the house. It was an elegant mansion of gray stone furnished +like a palace, every corner of it warm with the luxury of paintings, +sculpture, art and modern refinement. +</P> + +<P> +The owner of it all, Mr. Charles R. Sterling, stood before an open +grate fire smoking a cigar. He had made his money in grain +speculation and railroad ventures, and was reputed to be worth +something over two millions. His wife was a sister of Mrs. Winslow +of Raymond. She had been an invalid for several years. The two +girls, Rose and Felicia, were the only children. Rose was twenty-one +years old, fair, vivacious, educated in a fashionable college, just +entering society and already somewhat cynical and indifferent. A +very hard young lady to please, her father said, sometimes +playfully, sometimes sternly. Felicia was nineteen, with a tropical +beauty somewhat like her cousin, Rachel Winslow, with warm, generous +impulses just waking into Christian feeling, capable of all sorts of +expression, a puzzle to her father, a source of irritation to her +mother and with a great unsurveyed territory of thought and action +in herself, of which she was more than dimly conscious. There was +that in Felicia that would easily endure any condition in life if +only the liberty to act fully on her conscientious convictions were +granted her. +</P> + +<P> +"Here's a letter for you, Felicia," said Mr. Sterling, handing it to +her. +</P> + +<P> +Felicia sat down and instantly opened the letter, saying as she did +so: "It's from Rachel." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, what's the latest news from Raymond?" asked Mr. Sterling, +taking his cigar out of his mouth and looking at Felicia with +half-shut eyes, as if he were studying her. +</P> + +<P> +"Rachel says Dr. Bruce has been staying in Raymond for two Sundays +and has seemed very much interested in Mr. Maxwell's pledge in the +First Church." +</P> + +<P> +"What does Rachel say about herself?" asked Rose, who was lying on a +couch almost buried under elegant cushions. +</P> + +<P> +"She is still singing at the Rectangle. Since the tent meetings +closed she sings in an old hall until the new buildings which her +friend, Virginia Page, is putting up are completed. +</P> + +<P> +"I must write Rachel to come to Chicago and visit us. She ought not +to throw away her voice in that railroad town upon all those people +who don't appreciate her." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Sterling lighted a new cigar and Rose exclaimed: "Rachel is so +queer. She might set Chicago wild with her voice if she sang in the +Auditorium. And there she goes on throwing it away on people who +don't know what they are hearing." +</P> + +<P> +"Rachel won't come here unless she can do it and keep her pledge at +the same time," said Felicia, after a pause. +</P> + +<P> +"What pledge?" Mr. Sterling asked the question and then added +hastily: "Oh, I know, yes! A very peculiar thing that. Alexander +Powers used to be a friend of mine. We learned telegraphy in the +same office. Made a great sensation when he resigned and handed over +that evidence to the Interstate Commerce Commission. And he's back +at his telegraph again. There have been queer doings in Raymond +during the past year. I wonder what Dr. Bruce thinks of it on the +whole. I must have a talk with him about it." +</P> + +<P> +"He is at home and will preach tomorrow," said Felicia. "Perhaps he +will tell us something about it." +</P> + +<P> +There was silence for a minute. Then Felicia said abruptly, as if +she had gone on with a spoken thought to some invisible hearer: "And +what if he should propose the same pledge to the Nazareth Avenue +Church?" +</P> + +<P> +"Who? What are you talking about?" asked her father a little +sharply. +</P> + +<P> +"About Dr. Bruce. I say, what if he should propose to our church +what Mr. Maxwell proposed to his, and ask for volunteers who would +pledge themselves to do everything after asking the question, 'What +would Jesus do?'" +</P> + +<P> +"There's no danger of it," said Rose, rising suddenly from the couch +as the tea-bell rang. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a very impracticable movement, to my mind," said Mr. Sterling +shortly. +</P> + +<P> +"I understand from Rachel's letter that the Raymond church is going +to make an attempt to extend the idea of the pledge to other +churches. If it succeeds it will certainly make great changes in the +churches and in people's lives," said Felicia. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, well, let's have some tea first!" said Rose, walking into the +dining-room. Her father and Felicia followed, and the meal proceeded +in silence. Mrs. Sterling had her meals served in her room. Mr. +Sterling was preoccupied. He ate very little and excused himself +early, and although it was Saturday night, he remarked as he went +out that he should be down town on some special business. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you think father looks very much disturbed lately?" asked +Felicia a little while after he had gone out. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I don't know! I hadn't noticed anything unusual," replied Rose. +After a silence she said: "Are you going to the play tonight, +Felicia? Mrs. Delano will be here at half past seven. I think you +ought to go. She will feel hurt if you refuse." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll go. I don't care about it. I can see shadows enough without +going to the play." +</P> + +<P> +"That's a doleful remark for a girl nineteen years old to make," +replied Rose. "But then you're queer in your ideas anyhow, Felicia. +If you are going up to see mother, tell her I'll run in after the +play if she is still awake." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap22"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter Twenty-two +</H3> + +<P> +FELICIA started off to the play not very happy, but she was familiar +with that feeling, only sometimes she was more unhappy than at +others. Her feeling expressed itself tonight by a withdrawal into +herself. When the company was seated in the box and the curtain had +gone up Felicia was back of the others and remained for the evening +by herself. Mrs. Delano, as chaperon for half a dozen young ladies, +understood Felicia well enough to know that she was "queer," as Rose +so often said, and she made no attempt to draw her out of her +corner. And so the girl really experienced that night by herself one +of the feelings that added to the momentum that was increasing the +coming on of her great crisis. +</P> + +<P> +The play was an English melodrama, full of startling situations, +realistic scenery and unexpected climaxes. There was one scene in +the third act that impressed even Rose Sterling. +</P> + +<P> +It was midnight on Blackfriars Bridge. The Thames flowed dark and +forbidden below. St. Paul's rose through the dim light imposing, its +dome seeming to float above the buildings surrounding it. The figure +of a child came upon the bridge and stood there for a moment peering +about as if looking for some one. Several persons were crossing the +bridge, but in one of the recesses about midway of the river a woman +stood, leaning out over the parapet, with a strained agony of face +and figure that told plainly of her intention. Just as she was +stealthily mounting the parapet to throw herself into the river, the +child caught sight of her, ran forward with a shrill cry more animal +than human, and seizing the woman's dress dragged back upon it with +all her little strength. Then there came suddenly upon the scene two +other characters who had already figured in the play, a tall, +handsome, athletic gentleman dressed in the fashion, attended by a +slim-figured lad who was as refined in dress and appearance as the +little girl clinging to her mother, who was mournfully hideous in +her rags and repulsive poverty. These two, the gentleman and the +lad, prevented the attempted suicide, and after a tableau on the +bridge where the audience learned that the man and woman were +brother and sister, the scene was transferred to the interior of one +of the slum tenements in the East Side of London. Here the scene +painter and carpenter had done their utmost to produce an exact copy +of a famous court and alley well known to the poor creatures who +make up a part of the outcast London humanity. The rags, the +crowding, the vileness, the broken furniture, the horrible animal +existence forced upon creatures made in God's image were so +skilfully shown in this scene that more than one elegant woman in +the theatre, seated like Rose Sterling in a sumptuous box surrounded +with silk hangings and velvet covered railing, caught herself +shrinking back a little as if contamination were possible from the +nearness of this piece of scenery. It was almost too realistic, and +yet it had a horrible fascination for Felicia as she sat there +alone, buried back in a cushioned seat and absorbed in thoughts that +went far beyond the dialogue on the stage. +</P> + +<P> +From the tenement scene the play shifted to the interior of a +nobleman's palace, and almost a sigh of relief went up all over the +house at the sight of the accustomed luxury of the upper classes. +The contrast was startling. It was brought about by a clever piece +of staging that allowed only a few moments to elapse between the +slum and the palace scene. The dialogue went on, the actors came and +went in their various roles, but upon Felicia the play made but one +distinct impression. In realty the scenes on the bridge and in the +slums were only incidents in the story of the play, but Felicia +found herself living those scenes over and over. She had never +philosophized about the causes of human misery, she was not old +enough she had not the temperament that philosophizes. But she felt +intensely, and this was not the first time she had felt the contrast +thrust into her feeling between the upper and the lower conditions +of human life. It had been growing upon her until it had made her +what Rose called "queer," and other people in her circle of wealthy +acquaintances called very unusual. It was simply the human problem +in its extreme of riches and poverty, its refinement and its +vileness, that was, in spite of her unconscious attempts to struggle +against the facts, burning into her life the impression that would +in the end either transform her into a woman of rare love and +self-sacrifice for the world, or a miserable enigma to herself and +all who knew her. +</P> + +<P> +"Come, Felicia, aren't you going home?" said Rose. The play was +over, the curtain down, and people were going noisily out, laughing +and gossiping as if "The Shadows of London" were simply good +diversion, as they were, put on the stage so effectively. +</P> + +<P> +Felicia rose and went out with the rest quietly, and with the +absorbed feeling that had actually left her in her seat oblivious of +the play's ending. She was never absent-minded, but often thought +herself into a condition that left her alone in the midst of a +crowd. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, what did you think of it?" asked Rose when the sisters had +reached home and were in the drawing-room. Rose really had +considerable respect for Felicia's judgment of a play. +</P> + +<P> +"I thought it was a pretty fair picture of real life." +</P> + +<P> +"I mean the acting," said Rose, annoyed. +</P> + +<P> +"The bridge scene was well acted, especially the woman's part. I +thought the man overdid the sentiment a little." +</P> + +<P> +"Did you? I enjoyed that. And wasn't the scene between the two +cousins funny when they first learned they were related? But the +slum scene was horrible. I think they ought not to show such things +in a play. They are too painful." +</P> + +<P> +"They must be painful in real life, too," replied Felicia. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, but we don't have to look at the real thing. It's bad enough +at the theatre where we pay for it." +</P> + +<P> +Rose went into the dining-room and began to eat from a plate of +fruit and cakes on the sideboard. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you going up to see mother?" asked Felicia after a while. She +had remained in front of the drawing-room fireplace. +</P> + +<P> +"No," replied Rose from the other room. "I won't trouble her +tonight. If you go in tell her I am too tired to be agreeable." +</P> + +<P> +So Felicia turned into her mother's room, as she went up the great +staircase and down the upper hall. The light was burning there, and +the servant who always waited on Mrs. Sterling was beckoning Felicia +to come in. +</P> + +<P> +"Tell Clara to go out," exclaimed Mrs. Sterling as Felicia came up +to the bed. +</P> + +<P> +Felicia was surprised, but she did as her mother bade her, and then +inquired how she was feeling. +</P> + +<P> +"Felicia," said her mother, "can you pray?" +</P> + +<P> +The question was so unlike any her mother had ever asked before that +she was startled. But she answered: "Why, yes, mother. Why do you +ask such a question?" +</P> + +<P> +"Felicia, I am frightened. Your father—I have had such strange +fears about him all day. Something is wrong with him. I want you to +pray—." +</P> + +<P> +"Now, here, mother?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. Pray, Felicia." +</P> + +<P> +Felicia reached out her hand and took her mother's. It was +trembling. Mrs. Sterling had never shown such tenderness for her +younger daughter, and her strange demand now was the first real sign +of any confidence in Felicia's character. +</P> + +<P> +The girl kneeled, still holding her mother's trembling hand, and +prayed. It is doubtful if she had ever prayed aloud before. She must +have said in her prayer the words that her mother needed, for when +it was silent in the room the invalid was weeping softly and her +nervous tension was over. +</P> + +<P> +Felicia stayed some time. When she was assured that her mother would +not need her any longer she rose to go. +</P> + +<P> +"Good night, mother. You must let Clara call me if you feel badly in +the night." +</P> + +<P> +"I feel better now." Then as Felicia was moving away, Mrs. Sterling +said: "Won't you kiss me, Felicia?" +</P> + +<P> +Felicia went back and bent over her mother. The kiss was almost as +strange to her as the prayer had been. When Felicia went out of the +room her cheeks were wet with tears. She had not often cried since +she was a little child. +</P> + +<P> +Sunday morning at the Sterling mansion was generally very quiet. The +girls usually went to church at eleven o'clock service. Mr. Sterling +was not a member but a heavy contributor, and he generally went to +church in the morning. This time he did not come down to breakfast, +and finally sent word by a servant that he did not feel well enough +to go out. So Rose and Felicia drove up to the door of the Nazareth +Avenue Church and entered the family pew alone. +</P> + +<P> +When Dr. Bruce walked out of the room at the rear of the platform +and went up to the pulpit to open the Bible as his custom was, those +who knew him best did not detect anything unusual in his manner or +his expression. He proceeded with the service as usual. He was calm +and his voice was steady and firm. His prayer was the first +intimation the people had of anything new or strange in the service. +It is safe to say that the Nazareth Avenue Church had not heard Dr. +Bruce offer such a prayer before during the twelve years he had been +pastor there. How would a minister be likely to pray who had come +out of a revolution in Christian feeling that had completely changed +his definition of what was meant by following Jesus? No one in +Nazareth Avenue Church had any idea that the Rev. Calvin Bruce, D. +D., the dignified, cultured, refined Doctor of Divinity, had within +a few days been crying like a little child on his knees, asking for +strength and courage and Christlikeness to speak his Sunday message; +and yet the prayer was an unconscious involuntary disclosure of his +soul's experience such as the Nazareth Avenue people had seldom +heard, and never before from that pulpit. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap23"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter Twenty-three +</H3> + +<P> +"I AM just back from a visit to Raymond," Dr. Bruce began, "and I +want to tell you something of my impressions of the movement there." +</P> + +<P> +He paused and his look went out over his people with yearning for +them and at the same time with a great uncertainty at his heart. How +many of his rich, fashionable, refined, luxury-loving members would +understand the nature of the appeal he was soon to make to them? He +was altogether in the dark as to that. Nevertheless he had been +through his desert, and had come out of it ready to suffer. He went +on now after that brief pause and told them the story of his stay in +Raymond. The people already knew something of that experiment in the +First Church. The whole country had watched the progress of the +pledge as it had become history in so many lives. Mr. Maxwell had at +last decided that the time had come to seek the fellowship of other +churches throughout the country. The new discipleship in Raymond had +proved to be so valuable in its results that he wished the churches +in general to share with the disciples in Raymond. Already there had +begun a volunteer movement in many churches throughout the country, +acting on their own desire to walk closer in the steps of Jesus. The +Christian Endeavor Society had, with enthusiasm, in many churches +taken the pledge to do as Jesus would do, and the result was already +marked in a deeper spiritual life and a power in church influence +that was like a new birth for the members. +</P> + +<P> +All this Dr. Bruce told his people simply and with a personal +interest that evidently led the way to the announcement which now +followed. Felicia had listened to every word with strained +attention. She sat there by the side of Rose, in contrast like fire +beside snow, although even Rose was alert and as excited as she +could be. +</P> + +<P> +"Dear friends," he said, and for the first time since his prayer the +emotion of the occasion was revealed in his voice and gesture, "I am +going to ask that Nazareth Avenue Church take the same pledge that +Raymond Church has taken. I know what this will mean to you and me. +It will mean the complete change of very many habits. It will mean, +possibly, social loss. It will mean very probably, in many cases, +loss of money. It will mean suffering. It will mean what following +Jesus meant in the first century, and then it meant suffering, loss, +hardship, separation from everything un-Christian. But what does +following Jesus mean? The test of discipleship is the same now as +then. Those of us who volunteer in this church to do as Jesus would +do, simply promise to walk in His steps as He gave us commandment." +</P> + +<P> +Again he paused, and now the result of his announcement was plainly +visible in the stir that went up over the congregation. He added in +a quiet voice that all who volunteered to make the pledge to do as +Jesus would do, were asked to remain after the morning service. +</P> + +<P> +Instantly he proceeded with his sermon. His text was, "Master, I +will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest." It was a sermon that +touched the deep springs of conduct; it was a revelation to the +people of the definition their pastor had been learning; it took +them back to the first century of Christianity; above all, it +stirred them below the conventional thought of years as to the +meaning and purpose of church membership. It was such a sermon as a +man can preach once in a lifetime, and with enough in it for people +to live on all through the rest of their lifetime. +</P> + +<P> +The service closed in a hush that was slowly broken. People rose +here and there, a few at a time. There was a reluctance in the +movements of some that was very striking. Rose, however, walked +straight out of the pew, and as she reached the aisle she turned her +head and beckoned to Felicia. By that time the congregation was +rising all over the church. "I am going to stay," she said, and Rose +had heard her speak in the same manner on other occasions, and knew +that her resolve could not be changed. Nevertheless she went back +into the pew two or three steps and faced her. +</P> + +<P> +"Felicia," she whispered, and there was a flush of anger on her +cheeks, "this is folly. What can you do? You will bring some +disgrace on the family. What will father say? Come!" +</P> + +<P> +Felicia looked at her but did not answer at once. Her lips were +moving with a petition that came from the depth of feeling that +measured a new life for her. She shocked her head. +</P> + +<P> +"No, I am going to stay. I shall take the pledge. I am ready to obey +it. You do not know why I am doing this." +</P> + +<P> +Rose gave her one look and then turned and went out of the pew, and +down the aisle. She did not even stop to talk with her +acquaintances. Mrs. Delano was going out of the church just as Rose +stepped into the vestibule. +</P> + +<P> +"So you are not going to join Dr. Bruce's volunteer company?" Mrs. +Delano asked, in a queer tone that made Rose redden. +</P> + +<P> +"No, are you? It is simply absurd. I have always regarded that +Raymond movement as fanatical. You know cousin Rachel keeps us +posted about it." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I understand it is resulting in a great deal of hardship in +many cases. For my part, I believe Dr. Bruce has simply provoked +disturbance here. It will result in splitting our church. You see if +it isn't so. There are scores of people in the church who are so +situated that they can't take such a pledge and keep it. I am one of +them," added Mrs. Delano as she went out with Rose. +</P> + +<P> +When Rose reached home, her father was standing in his usual +attitude before the open fireplace, smoking a cigar. +</P> + +<P> +"Where is Felicia?" he asked as Rose came in. +</P> + +<P> +"She stayed to an after-meeting," replied Rose shortly. She threw +off her wraps and was going upstairs when Mr. Sterling called after +her. +</P> + +<P> +"An after-meeting? What do you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"Dr. Bruce asked the church to take the Raymond pledge." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Sterling took his cigar out of his mouth and twirled it +nervously between his fingers. +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't expect that of Dr. Bruce. Did many of the members stay?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know. I didn't," replied Rose, and she went upstairs +leaving her father standing in the drawing-room. +</P> + +<P> +After a few moments he went to the window and stood there looking +out at the people driving on the boulevard. His cigar had gone out, +but he still fingered it nervously. Then he turned from the window +and walked up and down the room. A servant stepped across the hall +and announced dinner and he told her to wait for Felicia. Rose came +downstairs and went into the library. And still Mr. Sterling paced +the drawing-room restlessly. +</P> + +<P> +He had finally wearied of the walking apparently, and throwing +himself into a chair was brooding over something deeply when Felicia +came in. +</P> + +<P> +He rose and faced her. Felicia was evidently very much moved by the +meeting from which she had just come. At the same time she did not +wish to talk too much about it. Just as she entered the +drawing-room, Rose came in from the library. +</P> + +<P> +"How many stayed?" she asked. Rose was curious. At the same time she +was skeptical of the whole movement in Raymond. +</P> + +<P> +"About a hundred," replied Felicia gravely. Mr. Sterling looked +surprised. Felicia was going out of the room, but he called to her: +"Do you really mean to keep the pledge?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +Felicia colored. Over her face and neck the warm blood flowed and +she answered, "You would not ask such a question, father, if you had +been at the meeting." She lingered a moment in the room, then asked +to be excused from dinner for a while and went up to see her mother. +</P> + +<P> +No one but they two ever knew what that interview between Felicia +and her mother was. It is certain that she must have told her mother +something of the spiritual power that had awed every person present +in the company of disciples who faced Dr. Bruce in that meeting +after the morning service. It is also certain that Felicia had never +before known such an experience, and would never have thought of +sharing it with her mother if it had not been for the prayer the +evening before. Another fact is also known of Felicia's experience +at this time. When she finally joined her father and Rose at the +table she seemed unable to tell them much about the meeting. There +was a reluctance to speak of it as one might hesitate to attempt a +description of a wonderful sunset to a person who never talked about +anything but the weather. +</P> + +<P> +When that Sunday in the Sterling mansion was drawing to a close and +the soft, warm lights throughout the dwelling were glowing through +the great windows, in a corner of her room, where the light was +obscure, Felicia kneeled, and when she raised her face and turned it +towards the light, it was the face of a woman who had already +defined for herself the greatest issues of earthly life. +</P> + +<P> +That same evening, after the Sunday evening service, Dr. Bruce was +talking over the events of the day with his wife. They were of one +heart and mind in the matter, and faced their new future with all +the faith and courage of new disciples. Neither was deceived as to +the probable results of the pledge to themselves or to the church. +</P> + +<P> +They had been talking but a little while when the bell rang and Dr. +Bruce going to the door exclaimed, as he opened it: "It is you, +Edward! Come in." +</P> + +<P> +There came into the hall a commanding figure. The Bishop was of +extraordinary height and breadth of shoulder, but of such good +proportions that there was no thought of ungainly or even of unusual +size. The impression the Bishop made on strangers was, first, that +of great health, and then of great affection. +</P> + +<P> +He came into the parlor and greeted Mrs. Bruce, who after a few +moments was called out of the room, leaving the two men together. +The Bishop sat in a deep, easy chair before the open fire. There was +just enough dampness in the early spring of the year to make an open +fire pleasant. +</P> + +<P> +"Calvin, you have taken a very serious step today," he finally said, +lifting his large dark eyes to his old college classmate's face. "I +heard of it this afternoon. I could not resist the desire to see you +about it tonight." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm glad you came." Dr. Bruce laid a hand on the Bishop's shoulder. +"You understand what this means, Edward?" +</P> + +<P> +"I think I do. Yes, I am sure." The Bishop spoke very slowly and +thoughtfully. He sat with his hands clasped together. Over his face, +marked with lines of consecration and service and the love of men, a +shadow crept, a shadow not caused by the firelight. Once more he +lifted his eyes toward his old friend. +</P> + +<P> +"Calvin, we have always understood each other. Ever since our paths +led us in different ways in church life we have walked together in +Christian fellowship—." +</P> + +<P> +"It is true," replied Dr. Bruce with an emotion he made no attempt +to conceal or subdue. "Thank God for it. I prize your fellowship +more than any other man's. I have always known what it meant, though +it has always been more than I deserve." +</P> + +<P> +The Bishop looked affectionately at his friend. But the shadow still +rested on his face. After a pause he spoke again: "The new +discipleship means a crisis for you in your work. If you keep this +pledge to do all things as Jesus would do—as I know you will—it +requires no prophet to predict some remarkable changes in your +parish." The Bishop looked wistfully at his friend and then +continued: "In fact, I do not see how a perfect upheaval of +Christianity, as we now know it, can be prevented if the ministers +and churches generally take the Raymond pledge and live it out." He +paused as if he were waiting for his friend to say something, to ask +some question. But Bruce did not know of the fire that was burning +in the Bishop's heart over the very question that Maxwell and +himself had fought out. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, in my church, for instance," continued the Bishop, "it would +be rather a difficult matter, I fear, to find very many people who +would take a pledge like that and live up to it. Martyrdom is a lost +art with us. Our Christianity loves its ease and comfort too well to +take up anything so rough and heavy as a cross. And yet what does +following Jesus mean? What is it to walk in His steps?" +</P> + +<P> +The Bishop was soliloquizing now and it is doubtful if he thought, +for the moment, of his friend's presence. For the first time there +flashed into Dr. Bruce's mind a suspicion of the truth. What if the +Bishop would throw the weight of his great influence on the side of +the Raymond movement? He had the following of the most aristocratic, +wealthy, fashionable people, not only in Chicago, but in several +large cities. What if the Bishop should join this new discipleship! +</P> + +<P> +The thought was about to be followed by the word. Dr. Bruce had +reached out his hand and with the familiarity of lifelong friendship +had placed it on the Bishop's shoulder and was about to ask a very +important question, when they were both startled by the violent +ringing of the bell. Mrs. Bruce had gone to the door and was talking +with some one in the hall. There was a loud exclamation and then, as +the Bishop rose and Bruce was stepping toward the curtain that hung +before the entrance to the parlor, Mrs. Bruce pushed it aside. Her +face was white and she was trembling. +</P> + +<P> +"O Calvin! Such terrible news! Mr. Sterling—oh, I cannot tell it! +What a blow to those girls!" "What is it?" Mr. Bruce advanced with +the Bishop into the hall and confronted the messenger, a servant +from the Sterlings. The man was without his hat and had evidently +run over with the news, as Dr. Bruce lived nearest of any intimate +friends of the family. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Sterling shot himself, sir, a few minutes ago. He killed +himself in his bed-room. Mrs. Sterling—" +</P> + +<P> +"I will go right over, Edward. Will you go with me? The Sterlings +are old friends of yours."' +</P> + +<P> +The Bishop was very pale, but calm as always. He looked his friend +in the face and answered: "Aye, Calvin, I will go with you not only +to this house of death, but also the whole way of human sin and +sorrow, please God." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap24"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter Twenty-four +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +WHEN Dr. Bruce and the Bishop entered the Sterling mansion +everything in the usually well appointed household was in the +greatest confusion and terror. The great rooms downstairs were +empty, but overhead were hurried footsteps and confused noises. One +of the servants ran down the grand staircase with a look of horror +on her face just as the Bishop and Dr. Bruce were starting to go up. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Felicia is with Mrs. Sterling," the servant stammered in +answer to a question, and then burst into a hysterical cry and ran +through the drawing-room and out of doors. +</P> + +<P> +At the top of the staircase the two men were met by Felicia. She +walked up to Dr. Bruce at once and put both hands in his. The Bishop +then laid his hand on her head and the three stood there a moment in +perfect silence. The Bishop had known Felicia since she was a little +child. He was the first to break the silence. +</P> + +<P> +"The God of all mercy be with you, Felicia, in this dark hour. Your +mother—" +</P> + +<P> +The Bishop hesitated. Out of the buried past he had, during his +hurried passage from his friend's to this house of death, +irresistibly drawn the one tender romance of his young manhood. Not +even Bruce knew that. But there had been a time when the Bishop had +offered the incense of a singularly undivided affection upon the +altar of his youth to the beautiful Camilla Rolfe, and she had +chosen between him and the millionaire. The Bishop carried no +bitterness with his memory; but it was still a memory. +</P> + +<P> +For answer to the Bishop's unfinished query, Felicia turned and went +back into her mother's room. She had not said a word yet, but both +men were struck with her wonderful calm. She returned to the hall +door and beckoned to them, and the two ministers, with a feeling +that they were about to behold something very unusual, entered. +</P> + +<P> +Rose lay with her arms outstretched upon the bed. Clara, the nurse, +sat with her head covered, sobbing in spasms of terror. And Mrs. +Sterling with "the light that never was on sea or land" luminous on +her face, lay there so still that even the Bishop was deceived at +first. Then, as the great truth broke upon him and Dr. Bruce, he +staggered, and the sharp agony of the old wound shot through him. It +passed, and left him standing there in that chamber of death with +the eternal calmness and strength that the children of God have a +right to possess. And right well he used that calmness and strength +in the days that followed. +</P> + +<P> +The next moment the house below was in a tumult. Almost at the same +time the doctor who had been sent for at once, but lived some +distance away, came in, together with police officers, who had been +summoned by frightened servants. With them were four or five +newspaper correspondents and several neighbors. Dr. Bruce and the +Bishop met this miscellaneous crowd at the head of the stairs and +succeeded in excluding all except those whose presence was +necessary. With these the two friends learned all the facts ever +known about the "Sterling tragedy," as the papers in their +sensational accounts next day called it. +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Sterling had gone into his room that evening about nine o'clock +and that was the last seen of him until, in half an hour, a shot was +heard in the room, and a servant who was in the hall ran into the +room and found him dead on the floor, killed by his own hand. +Felicia at the time was sitting by her mother. Rose was reading in +the library. She ran upstairs, saw her father as he was being lifted +upon the couch by the servants, and then ran screaming into her +mother's room, where she flung herself down at the foot of the bed +in a swoon. Mrs. Sterling had at first fainted at the shock, then +rallied with a wonderful swiftness and sent for Dr. Bruce. She had +then insisted on seeing her husband. In spite of Felicia's efforts, +she had compelled Clara to support her while she crossed the hall +and entered the room where her husband lay. She had looked upon him +with a tearless face, had gone back to her own room, was laid on her +bed, and as Dr. Bruce and the Bishop entered the house she, with a +prayer of forgiveness for herself and for her husband on her +quivering lips, had died, with Felicia bending over her and Rose +still lying senseless at her feet. +</P> + +<P> +So great and swift had been the entrance of grim Death into that +palace of luxury that Sunday night! But the full cause of his coming +was not learned until the facts in regard to Mr. Sterling's business +affairs were finally disclosed. +</P> + +<P> +Then it was learned that for some time he had been facing financial +ruin owing to certain speculations that had in a month's time swept +his supposed wealth into complete destruction. With the cunning and +desperation of a man who battles for his very life when he saw his +money, which was all the life he ever valued, slipping from him, he +had put off the evil day to the last moment. Sunday afternoon, +however, he had received news that proved to him beyond a doubt the +fact of his utter ruin. The very house that he called his, the +chairs in which he sat, his carriage, the dishes from which he ate, +had all been bought with money for which he himself had never really +done an honest stroke of pure labor. +</P> + +<P> +It had all rested on a tissue of deceit and speculation that had no +foundation in real values. He knew that fact better than any one +else, but he had hoped, with the hope such men always have, that the +same methods that brought him the money would also prevent the loss. +He had been deceived in this as many others have been. As soon as +the truth that he was practically a beggar had dawned upon him, he +saw no escape from suicide. It was the irresistible result of such a +life as he had lived. He had made money his god. As soon as that god +was gone out of his little world there was nothing more to worship; +and when a man's object of worship is gone he has no more to live +for. Thus died the great millionaire, Charles R. Sterling. And, +verily, he died as the fool dieth, for what is the gain or the loss +of money compared with the unsearchable riches of eternal life which +are beyond the reach of speculation, loss or change? +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Sterling's death was the result of the shock. She had not been +taken into her husband's confidence for years, but she knew that the +source of his wealth was precarious. Her life for several years had +been a death in life. The Rolfes always gave an impression that they +could endure more disaster unmoved than any one else. Mrs. Sterling +illustrated the old family tradition when she was carried into the +room where her husband lay. But the feeble tenement could not hold +the spirit and it gave up the ghost, torn and weakened by long years +of suffering and disappointment. +</P> + +<P> +The effect of this triple blow, the death of father and mother, and +the loss of property, was instantly apparent in the sisters. The +horror of events stupefied Rose for weeks. She lay unmoved by +sympathy or any effort to rally. She did not seem yet to realize +that the money which had been so large a part of her very existence +was gone. Even when she was told that she and Felicia must leave the +house and be dependent on relatives and friends, she did not seem to +understand what it meant. +</P> + +<P> +Felicia, however, was fully conscious of the facts. She knew just +what had happened and why. She was talking over her future plans +with her cousin Rachel a few days after the funerals. Mrs. Winslow +and Rachel had left Raymond and come to Chicago at once as soon as +the terrible news had reached them, and with other friends of the +family were planning for the future of Rose and Felicia. +</P> + +<P> +"Felicia, you and Rose must come to Raymond with us. That is +settled. Mother will not hear to any other plan at present," Rachel +had said, while her beautiful face glowed with love for her cousin, +a love that had deepened day by day, and was intensified by the +knowledge that they both belonged to the new discipleship. +</P> + +<P> +"Unless I can find something to do here," answered Felicia. She +looked wistfully at Rachel, and Rachel said gently: +</P> + +<P> +"What could you do, dear?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing. I was never taught to do anything except a little music, +and I do not know enough about it to teach it or earn my living at +it. I have learned to cook a little," Felicia added with a slight +smile. +</P> + +<P> +"Then you can cook for us. Mother is always having trouble with her +kitchen," said Rachel, understanding well enough she was now +dependent for her very food and shelter upon the kindness of family +friends. It is true the girls received a little something out of the +wreck of their father's fortune, but with a speculator's mad folly +he had managed to involve both his wife's and his children's portion +in the common ruin. +</P> + +<P> +"Can I? Can I?" Felicia responded to Rachel's proposition as if it +were to be considered seriously. "I am ready to do anything +honorable to make my living and that of Rose. Poor Rose! She will +never be able to get over the shock of our trouble." +</P> + +<P> +"We will arrange the details when we get to Raymond," Rachel said, +smiling through her tears at Felicia's eager willingness to care for +herself. +</P> + +<P> +So in a few weeks Rose and Felicia found themselves a part of the +Winslow family in Raymond. It was a bitter experience for Rose, but +there was nothing else for her to do and she accepted the +inevitable, brooding over the great change in her life and in many +ways adding to the burden of Felicia and her cousin Rachel. +</P> + +<P> +Felicia at once found herself in an atmosphere of discipleship that +was like heaven to her in its revelation of companionship. It is +true that Mrs. Winslow was not in sympathy with the course that +Rachel was taking, but the remarkable events in Raymond since the +pledge was taken were too powerful in their results not to impress +even such a woman as Mrs. Winslow. With Rachel, Felicia found a +perfect fellowship. She at once found a part to take in the new work +at the Rectangle. In the spirit of her new life she insisted upon +helping in the housework at her aunt's, and in a short time +demonstrated her ability as a cook so clearly that Virginia +suggested that she take charge of the cooking at the Rectangle. +</P> + +<P> +Felicia entered upon this work with the keenest pleasure. For the +first time in her life she had the delight of doing something of +value for the happiness of others. Her resolve to do everything +after asking, "What would Jesus do?" touched her deepest nature. She +began to develop and strengthen wonderfully. Even Mrs. Winslow was +obliged to acknowledge the great usefulness and beauty of Felicia's +character. The aunt looked with astonishment upon her niece, this +city-bred girl, reared in the greatest luxury, the daughter of a +millionaire, now walking around in her kitchen, her arms covered +with flour and occasionally a streak of it on her nose, for Felicia +at first had a habit of rubbing her nose forgetfully when she was +trying to remember some recipe, mixing various dishes with the +greatest interest in their results, washing up pans and kettles and +doing the ordinary work of a servant in the Winslow kitchen and at +the rooms at the Rectangle Settlement. At first Mrs. Winslow +remonstrated. +</P> + +<P> +"Felicia, it is not your place to be out here doing this common +work. I cannot allow it." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Aunt? Don't you like the muffins I made this morning?" Felicia +would ask meekly, but with a hidden smile, knowing her aunt's +weakness for that kind of muffin. +</P> + +<P> +"They were beautiful, Felicia. But it does not seem right for you to +be doing such work for us." +</P> + +<P> +"Why not? What else can I do?" +</P> + +<P> +Her aunt looked at her thoughtfully, noting her remarkable beauty of +face and expression. +</P> + +<P> +"You do not always intend to do this kind of work, Felicia?" +</P> + +<P> +"Maybe I shall. I have had a dream of opening an ideal cook shop in +Chicago or some large city and going around to the poor families in +some slum district like the Rectangle, teaching the mothers how to +prepare food properly. I remember hearing Dr. Bruce say once that he +believed one of the great miseries of comparative poverty consisted +in poor food. He even went so far as to say that he thought some +kinds of crime could be traced to soggy biscuit and tough beefsteak. +I'm sure I would be able to make a living for Rose and myself and at +the same time help others." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap25"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter Twenty-five +</H3> + +<P> +THREE months had gone by since the Sunday morning when Dr. Bruce +came into his pulpit with the message of the new discipleship. They +were three months of great excitement in Nazareth Avenue Church. +Never before had Rev. Calvin Bruce realized how deep the feeling of +his members flowed. He humbly confessed that the appeal he had made +met with an unexpected response from men and women who, like +Felicia, were hungry for something in their lives that the +conventional type of church membership and fellowship had failed to +give them. +</P> + +<P> +But Dr. Bruce was not yet satisfied for himself. He cannot tell what +his feeling was or what led to the movement he finally made, to the +great astonishment of all who knew him, better than by relating a +conversation between him and the Bishop at this time in the history +of the pledge in Nazareth Avenue Church. The two friends were as +before in Dr. Bruce's house, seated in his study. +</P> + +<P> +"You know what I have come in this evening for?" the Bishop was +saying after the friends had been talking some time about the +results of the pledge with the Nazareth Avenue people. +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Bruce looked over at the Bishop and shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"I have come to confess that I have not yet kept my promise to walk +in His steps in the way that I believe I shall be obliged to if I +satisfy my thought of what it means to walk in His steps." +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Bruce had risen and was pacing his study. The Bishop remained in +the deep easy chair with his hands clasped, but his eye burned with +the blow that belonged to him before he made some great resolve. +</P> + +<P> +"Edward," Dr. Bruce spoke abruptly, "I have not yet been able to +satisfy myself, either, in obeying my promise. But I have at last +decided on my course. In order to follow it I shall be obliged to +resign from Nazareth Avenue Church." +</P> + +<P> +"I knew you would," replied the Bishop quietly. "And I came in this +evening to say that I shall be obliged to do the same thing with my +charge." +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Bruce turned and walked up to his friend. They were both +laboring under a repressed excitement. +</P> + +<P> +"Is it necessary in your case?" asked Bruce. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. Let me state my reasons. Probably they are the same as yours. +In fact, I am sure they are." The Bishop paused a moment, then went +on with increasing feeling: +</P> + +<P> +"Calvin, you know how many years I have been doing the work of my +position, and you know something of the responsibility and care of +it. I do not mean to say that my life has been free from +burden-bearing or sorrow. But I have certainly led what the poor and +desperate of this sinful city would call a very comfortable, yes, a +very luxurious life. I have had a beautiful house to live in, the +most expensive food, clothing and physical pleasures. I have been +able to go abroad at least a dozen times, and have enjoyed for years +the beautiful companionship of art and letters and music and all the +rest, of the very best. I have never known what it meant to be +without money or its equivalent. And I have been unable to silence +the question of late: 'What have I suffered for the sake of Christ?' +Paul was told what great things he must suffer for the sake of his +Lord. Maxwell's position at Raymond is well taken when he insists +that to walk in the steps of Christ means to suffer. Where has my +suffering come in? The petty trials and annoyances of my clerical +life are not worth mentioning as sorrows or sufferings. Compared +with Paul or any of the Christian martyrs or early disciples I have +lived a luxurious, sinful life, full of ease and pleasure. I cannot +endure this any longer. I have that within me which of late rises in +overwhelming condemnation of such a following of Jesus. I have not +been walking in His steps. Under the present system of church and +social life I see no escape from this condemnation except to give +the most of my life personally to the actual physical and soul needs +of the wretched people in the worst part of this city." +</P> + +<P> +The Bishop had risen now and walked over to the window. The street +in front of the house was as light as day, and he looked out at the +crowds passing, then turned and with a passionate utterance that +showed how deep the volcanic fire in him burned, he exclaimed: +</P> + +<P> +"Calvin, this is a terrible city in which we live! Its misery, its +sin, its selfishness, appall my heart. And I have struggled for +years with the sickening dread of the time when I should be forced +to leave the pleasant luxury of my official position to put my life +into contact with the modern paganism of this century. The awful +condition of the girls in some great business places, the brutal +selfishness of the insolent society fashion and wealth that ignores +all the sorrow of the city, the fearful curse of the drink and +gambling hell, the wail of the unemployed, the hatred of the church +by countless men who see in it only great piles of costly stone and +upholstered furniture and the minister as a luxurious idler, all the +vast tumult of this vast torrent of humanity with its false and its +true ideas, its exaggeration of evils in the church and its +bitterness and shame that are the result of many complex causes, all +this as a total fact in its contrast with the easy, comfortable life +I have lived, fills me more and more with a sense of mingled terror +and self accusation. I have heard the words of Jesus many times +lately: 'Inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of these least My +brethren, ye did it not unto Me.' And when have I personally visited +the prisoner or the desperate or the sinful in any way that has +actually caused me suffering? Rather, I have followed the +conventional soft habits of my position and have lived in the +society of the rich, refined, aristocratic members of my +congregations. Where has the suffering come in? What have I suffered +for Jesus' sake? Do you know, Calvin," he turned abruptly toward his +friend, "I have been tempted of late to lash myself with a scourge. +If I had lived in Martin Luther's time I should have bared my back +to a self-inflicted torture." +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Bruce was very pale. Never had he seen the Bishop or heard him +when under the influence of such a passion. There was a sudden +silence in the room. The Bishop sat down again and bowed his head. +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Bruce spoke at last: "Edward, I do not need to say that you have +expressed my feelings also. I have been in a similar position for +years. My life has been one of comparative luxury. I do not, of +course, mean to say that I have not had trials and discouragements +and burdens in my church ministry. But I cannot say that I have +suffered any for Jesus. That verse in Peter constantly haunts me: +'Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that ye should +follow His steps.' I have lived in luxury. I do not know what it +means to want. I also have had my leisure for travel and beautiful +companionship. I have been surrounded by the soft, easy comforts of +civilization. The sin and misery of this great city have beaten like +waves against the stone walls of my church and of this house in +which I live, and I have hardly heeded them, the walls have been so +thick. I have reached a point where I cannot endure this any longer. +I am not condemning the Church. I love her. I am not forsaking the +Church. I believe in her mission and have no desire to destroy. +Least of all, in the step I am about to take do I desire to be +charged with abandoning the Christian fellowship. But I feel that I +must resign my place as pastor of Nazareth Church in order to +satisfy myself that I am walking as I ought to walk in His steps. In +this action I judge no other minister and pass no criticism on +others' discipleship. But I feel as you do. Into a close contact +with the sin and shame and degradation of this great city I must +come personally. And I know that to do that I must sever my +immediate connection with Nazareth Avenue Church. I do not see any +other way for myself to suffer for His sake as I feel that I ought +to suffer." +</P> + +<P> +Again that sudden silence fell over those two men. It was no +ordinary action they were deciding. They had both reached the same +conclusion by the same reasoning, and they were too thoughtful, too +well accustomed to the measuring of conduct, to underestimate the +seriousness of their position. +</P> + +<P> +"What is your plan?" The Bishop at last spoke gently, looking with +the smile that always beautified his face. The Bishop's face grew in +glory now every day. +</P> + +<P> +"My plan," replied Dr. Bruce slowly, "is, in brief, the putting of +myself into the centre of the greatest human need I can find in this +city and living there. My wife is fully in accord with me. We have +already decided to find a residence in that part of the city where +we can make our personal lives count for the most." +</P> + +<P> +"Let me suggest a place." The Bishop was on fire now. His fine face +actually glowed with the enthusiasm of the movement in which he and +his friend were inevitably embarked. He went on and unfolded a plan +of such far-reaching power and possibility that Dr. Bruce, capable +and experienced as he was, felt amazed at the vision of a greater +soul than his own. +</P> + +<P> +They sat up late, and were as eager and even glad as if they were +planning for a trip together to some rare land of unexplored travel. +Indeed, the Bishop said many times afterward that the moment his +decision was reached to live the life of personal sacrifice he had +chosen he suddenly felt an uplifting as if a great burden were taken +from him. He was exultant. So was Dr. Bruce from the same cause. +</P> + +<P> +Their plan as it finally grew into a workable fact was in reality +nothing more than the renting of a large building formerly used as a +warehouse for a brewery, reconstructing it and living in it +themselves in the very heart of a territory where the saloon ruled +with power, where the tenement was its filthiest, where vice and +ignorance and shame and poverty were congested into hideous forms. +It was not a new idea. It was an idea started by Jesus Christ when +He left His Father's House and forsook the riches that were His in +order to get nearer humanity and, by becoming a part of its sin, +helping to draw humanity apart from its sin. The University +Settlement idea is not modern. It is as old as Bethlehem and +Nazareth. And in this particular case it was the nearest approach to +anything that would satisfy the hunger of these two men to suffer +for Christ. +</P> + +<P> +There had sprung up in them at the same time a longing that amounted +to a passion, to get nearer the great physical poverty and spiritual +destitution of the mighty city that throbbed around them. How could +they do this except as they became a part of it as nearly as one man +can become a part of another's misery? Where was the suffering to +come in unless there was an actual self-denial of some sort? And +what was to make that self-denial apparent to themselves or any one +else, unless it took this concrete, actual, personal form of trying +to share the deepest suffering and sin of the city? +</P> + +<P> +So they reasoned for themselves, not judging others. They were +simply keeping their own pledge to do as Jesus would do, as they +honestly judged He would do. That was what they had promised. How +could they quarrel with the result if they were irresistibly +compelled to do what they were planning to do? +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap26"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter Twenty-six +</H3> + +<P> +MEANWHILE, Nazareth Avenue Church was experiencing something never +known before in all its history. The simple appeal on the part of +its pastor to his members to do as Jesus would do had created a +sensation that still continued. The result of that appeal was very +much the same as in Henry Maxwell's church in Raymond, only this +church was far more aristocratic, wealthy and conventional. +Nevertheless when, one Sunday morning in early summer, Dr. Bruce +came into his pulpit and announced his resignation, the sensation +deepened all over the city, although he had advised with his board +of trustees, and the movement he intended was not a matter of +surprise to them. But when it become publicly known that the Bishop +had also announced his resignation and retirement from the position +he had held so long, in order to go and live himself in the centre +of the worst part of Chicago, the public astonishment reached its +height. +</P> + +<P> +"But why?" the Bishop replied to one valued friend who had almost +with tears tried to dissuade him from his purpose. "Why should what +Dr. Bruce and I propose to do seem so remarkable a thing, as if it +were unheard of that a Doctor of Divinity and a Bishop should want +to save lost souls in this particular manner? If we were to resign +our charge for the purpose of going to Bombay or Hong Kong or any +place in Africa, the churches and the people would exclaim at the +heroism of missions. Why should it seem so great a thing if we have +been led to give our lives to help rescue the heathen and the lost +of our own city in the way we are going to try it? Is it then such a +tremendous event that two Christian ministers should be not only +willing but eager to live close to the misery of the world in order +to know it and realize it? Is it such a rare thing that love of +humanity should find this particular form of expression in the +rescue of souls?" +</P> + +<P> +And however the Bishop may have satisfied himself that there ought +to be nothing so remarkable about it at all, the public continued to +talk and the churches to record their astonishment that two such +men, so prominent in the ministry, should leave their comfortable +homes, voluntarily resign their pleasant social positions and enter +upon a life of hardship, of self-denial and actual suffering. +Christian America! Is it a reproach on the form of our discipleship +that the exhibition of actual suffering for Jesus on the part of +those who walk in His steps always provokes astonishment as at the +sight of something very unusual? +</P> + +<P> +Nazareth Avenue Church parted from its pastor with regret for the +most part, although the regret was modified with a feeling of relief +on the part of those who had refused to take the pledge. Dr. Bruce +carried with him the respect of men who, entangled in business in +such a way that obedience to the pledge would have ruined them, +still held in their deeper, better natures a genuine admiration for +courage and consistency. They had known Dr. Bruce many years as a +kindly, conservative, safe man, but the thought of him in the light +of sacrifice of this sort was not familiar to them. As fast as they +understood it, they gave their pastor the credit of being absolutely +true to his recent convictions as to what following Jesus meant. +Nazareth Avenue Church never lost the impulse of that movement +started by Dr. Bruce. Those who went with him in making the promise +breathed into the church the very breath of divine life, and are +continuing that life-giving work at this present time. +</P> + +<HR ALIGN="center" WIDTH="60%"> + +<P> +It was fall again, and the city faced another hard winter. The +Bishop one afternoon came out of the Settlement and walked around +the block, intending to go on a visit to one of his new friends in +the district. He had walked about four blocks when he was attracted +by a shop that looked different from the others. The neighborhood +was still quite new to him, and every day he discovered some strange +spot or stumbled upon some unexpected humanity. +</P> + +<P> +The place that attracted his notice was a small house close by a +Chinese laundry. There were two windows in the front, very clean, +and that was remarkable to begin with. Then, inside the window, was +a tempting display of cookery, with prices attached to the various +articles that made him wonder somewhat, for he was familiar by this +time with many facts in the life of the people once unknown to him. +As he stood looking at the windows, the door between them opened and +Felicia Sterling came out. +</P> + +<P> +"Felicia!" exclaimed the Bishop. "When did you move into my parish +without my knowledge?" +</P> + +<P> +"How did you find me so soon?" inquired Felicia. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, don't you know? These are the only clean windows in the +block." +</P> + +<P> +"I believe they are," replied Felicia with a laugh that did the +Bishop good to hear. +</P> + +<P> +"But why have you dared to come to Chicago without telling me, and +how have you entered my diocese without my knowledge?" asked the +Bishop. And Felicia looked so like that beautiful, clean, educated, +refined world he once knew, that he might be pardoned for seeing in +her something of the old Paradise. Although, to speak truth for him, +he had no desire to go back to it. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, dear Bishop," said Felicia, who had always called him so, "I +knew how overwhelmed you were with your work. I did not want to +burden you with my plans. And besides, I am going to offer you my +services. Indeed, I was just on my way to see you and ask your +advice. I am settled here for the present with Mrs. Bascom, a +saleswoman who rents our three rooms, and with one of Rachel's music +pupils who is being helped to a course in violin by Virginia Page. +She is from the people," continued Felicia, using the words "from +the people" so gravely and unconsciously that her hearer smiled, +"and I am keeping house for her and at the same time beginning an +experiment in pure food for the masses. I am an expert and I have a +plan I want you to admire and develop. Will you, dear Bishop?" +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed I will," he replied. The sight of Felicia and her remarkable +vitality, enthusiasm and evident purpose almost bewildered him. +</P> + +<P> +"Martha can help at the Settlement with her violin and I will help +with my messes. You see, I thought I would get settled first and +work out something, and then come with some real thing to offer. I'm +able to earn my own living now." +</P> + +<P> +"You are?" the Bishop said a little incredulously. "How? Making +those things?" +</P> + +<P> +"Those things!" said Felicia with a show of indignation. "I would +have you know, sir, that 'those things' are the best-cooked, purest +food products in this whole city." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't doubt it," he replied hastily, while his eyes twinkled, +"Still, 'the proof of the pudding'—you know the rest." +</P> + +<P> +"Come in and try some!" she exclaimed. "You poor Bishop! You look as +if you hadn't had a good meal for a month." +</P> + +<P> +She insisted on his entering the little front room where Martha, a +wide-awake girl with short, curly hair, and an unmistakable air of +music about her, was busy with practice. +</P> + +<P> +"Go right on, Martha. This is the Bishop. You have heard me speak of +him so often. Sit down there and let me give you a taste of the +fleshpots of Egypt, for I believe you have been actually fasting." +</P> + +<P> +So they had an improvised lunch, and the Bishop who, to tell the +truth, had not taken time for weeks to enjoy his meals, feasted on +the delight of his unexpected discovery and was able to express his +astonishment and gratification at the quality of the cookery. +</P> + +<P> +"I thought you would at least say it is as good as the meals you +used to get at the Auditorium at the big banquets," said Felicia +slyly. +</P> + +<P> +"As good as! The Auditorium banquets were simply husks compared with +this one, Felicia. But you must come to the Settlement. I want you +to see what we are doing. And I am simply astonished to find you +here earning your living this way. I begin to see what your plan is. +You can be of infinite help to us. You don't really mean that you +will live here and help these people to know the value of good +food?" +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed I do," she answered gravely. "That is my gospel. Shall I not +follow it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Aye, Aye! You're right. Bless God for sense like yours! When I left +the world," the Bishop smiled at the phrase, "they were talking a +good deal about the 'new woman.' If you are one of them, I am a +convert right now and here." +</P> + +<P> +"Flattery! Still is there no escape from it, even in the slums of +Chicago?" Felicia laughed again. And the man's heart, heavy though +it had grown during several months of vast sin-bearing, rejoiced to +hear it! It sounded good. It was good. It belonged to God. +</P> + +<P> +Felicia wanted to visit the Settlement, and went back with him. She +was amazed at the results of what considerable money an a good deal +of consecrated brains had done. As they walked through the building +they talked incessantly. She was the incarnation of vital +enthusiasm, and he wondered at the exhibition of it as it bubbled up +and sparkled over. +</P> + +<P> +They went down into the basement and the Bishop pushed open a door +from behind which came the sound of a carpenter's plane. It was a +small but well equipped carpenter's shop. A young man with a paper +cap on his head and clad in blouse and overalls was whistling and +driving the plane as he whistled. He looked up as the two entered, +and took off his cap. As he did so, his little finger carried a +small curling shaving up to his hair and it caught there. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Sterling, Mr. Stephen Clyde," said the Bishop. "Clyde is one +of our helpers here two afternoons in the week." +</P> + +<P> +Just then the bishop was called upstairs and he excused himself a +moment, leaving Felicia and the young carpenter together. +</P> + +<P> +"We have met before," said Felicia looking at Clyde frankly. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, 'back in the world,' as the Bishop says," replied the young +man, and his fingers trembled a little as they lay on the board he +had been planing. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." Felicia hesitated. "I am very glad to see you." +</P> + +<P> +"Are you?" The flush of pleasure mounted to the young carpenter's +forehead. "You have had a great deal of trouble since—since—then," +he said, and then he was afraid he had wounded her, or called up +painful memories. But she had lived over all that. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, and you also. How is it that you're working here?" +</P> + +<P> +"It is a long story, Miss Sterling. My father lost his money and I +was obliged to go to work. A very good thing for me. The Bishop says +I ought to be very grateful. I am. I am very happy now. I learned +the trade, hoping some time to be of use, I am night clerk at one of +the hotels. That Sunday morning when you took the pledge at Nazareth +Avenue Church, I took it with the others." +</P> + +<P> +"Did you?" said Felicia slowly. "I am glad." +</P> + +<P> +Just then the Bishop came back, and very soon he and Felicia went +away leaving the young carpenter at his work. Some one noticed that +he whistled louder than ever as he planed. +</P> + +<P> +"Felicia," said the Bishop, "did you know Stephen Clyde before?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, 'back in the world,' dear Bishop. He was one of my +acquaintances in Nazareth Avenue Church." +</P> + +<P> +"Ah!" said the Bishop. +</P> + +<P> +"We were very good friends," added Felicia. +</P> + +<P> +"But nothing more?" the Bishop ventured to ask. +</P> + +<P> +Felicia's face glowed for an instant. Then she looked her companion +in the eyes frankly and answered: "Truly and truly, nothing more." +</P> + +<P> +"It would be just the way of the world for these two people to come +to like each other, though," thought the man to himself, and somehow +the thought made him grave. It was almost like the old pang over +Camilla. But it passed, leaving him afterwards, when Felicia had +gone back, with tears in his eyes and a feeling that was almost hope +that Felicia and Stephen would like each other. "After all," he +said, like the sensible, good man that he was, "is not romance a +part of humanity? Love is older than I am, and wiser." +</P> + +<P> +The week following, the Bishop had an experience that belongs to +this part of the Settlement history. He was coming back to the +Settlement very late from some gathering of the striking tailors, +and was walking along with his hands behind him, when two men jumped +out from behind an old fence that shut off an abandoned factory from +the street, and faced him. One of the men thrust a pistol in his +face, and the other threatened him with a ragged stake that had +evidently been torn from the fence. +</P> + +<P> +"Hold up your hands, and be quick about it!" said the man with the +pistol. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap27"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter Twenty-seven +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +"Righteousness shall go before him and shall set us in the way of +his steps." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +THE Bishop was not in the habit of carrying much money with him, and +the man with the stake who was searching him uttered an oath at the +small amount of change he found. As he uttered it, the man with the +pistol savagely said, "Jerk out his watch! We might as well get all +we can out of the job!" +</P> + +<P> +The man with the stake was on the point of laying hold of the chain +where there was a sound of footsteps coming towards him. +</P> + +<P> +"Get behind the fence! We haven't half searched him yet! Mind you +keep shut now, if you don't want—" +</P> + +<P> +The man with the pistol made a significant gesture with it and, with +his companion, pulled and pushed the Bishop down the alley and +through a ragged, broken opening in the fence. The three stood still +there in the shadow until the footsteps passed. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, then, have you got the watch?" asked the man with the pistol. +</P> + +<P> +"No, the chain is caught somewhere!" and the other man swore again. +</P> + +<P> +"Break it then!" +</P> + +<P> +"No, don't break it," the Bishop said, and it was the first time he +had spoken. "The chain is the gift of a very dear friend. I should +be sorry to have it broken." +</P> + +<P> +At the sound of the Bishop's voice the man with the pistol started +as if he had been suddenly shot by his own weapon. With a quick +movement of his other hand he turned the Bishop's head toward's what +little light was shining from the alleyway, at the same time taking +a step nearer. Then, to the amazement of his companion, he said +roughly: "Leave the watch alone! We've got the money. That's +enough!" +</P> + +<P> +"Enough! Fifty cents! You don't reckon—" +</P> + +<P> +Before the man with the stake could say another word he was +confronted with the muzzle of the pistol turned from the Bishop's +head towards his own. +</P> + +<P> +"Leave that watch be! And put back the money too. This is the Bishop +we've held up—the Bishop—do you hear?" +</P> + +<P> +"And what of it! The President of the United States wouldn't be too +good to hold up, if—" +</P> + +<P> +"I say, you put the money back, or in five seconds I'll blow a hole +through your head that'll let in more sense than you have to spare +now!" said the other. +</P> + +<P> +For a second the man with the stake seemed to hesitate at this +strange turn in events, as if measuring his companion's intention. +Then he hastily dropped the money back into the rifled pocket. +</P> + +<P> +"You can take your hands down, sir." The man lowered his weapon +slowly, still keeping an eye on the other man, and speaking with +rough respect. The Bishop slowly brought his arms to his side, and +looked earnestly at the two men. In the dim light it was difficult +to distinguish features. He was evidently free to go his way now, +but he stood there making no movement. +</P> + +<P> +"You can go on. You needn't stay any longer on our account." The man +who had acted as spokesman turned and sat down on a stone. The other +man stood viciously digging his stake into the ground. +</P> + +<P> +"That's just what I am staying for," replied the Bishop. He sat down +on a board that projected from the broken fence. +</P> + +<P> +"You must like our company. It is hard sometimes for people to tear +themselves away from us," and the man standing up laughed coarsely. +</P> + +<P> +"Shut up!" exclaimed the other. "We're on the road to hell, though, +that's sure enough. We need better company than ourselves and the +devil." +</P> + +<P> +"If you would only allow me to be of any help," the Bishop spoke +gently, even lovingly. The man on the stone stared at the Bishop +through the darkness. After a moment of silence he spoke slowly like +one who had finally decided upon a course he had at first rejected. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you remember ever seeing me before?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," said the Bishop. "The light is not very good and I have really +not had a good look at you." +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know me now?" The man suddenly took off his hat and getting +up from the stone walked over to the Bishop until they were near +enough to touch each other. +</P> + +<P> +The man's hair was coal black except one spot on the top of his head +about as large as the palm of the hand, which was white. +</P> + +<P> +The minute the Bishop saw that, he started. The memory of fifteen +years ago began to stir in him. The man helped him. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't you remember one day back in '81 or '82 a man came to your +house and told a story about his wife and child having been burned +to death in a tenement fire in New York?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I begin to remember now." The other man seemed to be +interested. He ceased digging his stake in the ground and stood +still listening. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you remember how you took me into your own house that night and +spent all next day trying to find me a job? And how when you +succeeded in getting me a place in a warehouse as foreman, I +promised to quit drinking because you asked me to?" +</P> + +<P> +"I remember it now. I hope you have kept your promise." +</P> + +<P> +The man laughed savagely. Then he struck his hand against the fence +with such sudden passion that he drew blood. +</P> + +<P> +"Kept it! I was drunk inside of a week! I've been drinking ever +since. But I've never forgotten you nor your prayer. Do you remember +the morning after I came to your house, after breakfast you had +prayers and asked me to come in and sit with the rest? That got me! +But my mother used to pray! I can see her now kneeling down by my +bed when I was a lad. Father came in one night and kicked her while +she was kneeling there by me. But I never forgot that prayer of +yours that morning. You prayed for me just as mother used to, and +you didn't seem to take 'count of the fact that I was ragged and +tough-looking and more than half drunk when I rang your door bell. +Oh, what a life I've lived! The saloon has housed me and homed me +and made hell on earth for me. But that prayer stuck to me all the +time. My promise not to drink was broken into a thousand pieces +inside of two Sundays, and I lost the job you found for me and +landed in a police station two days later, but I never forgot you +nor your prayer. I don't know what good it has done me, but I never +forgot it. And I won't do any harm to you nor let any one else. So +you're free to go. That's why." +</P> + +<P> +The Bishop did not stir. Somewhere a church clock struck one. The +man had put on his hat and gone back to his seat on the stone. The +Bishop was thinking hard. +</P> + +<P> +"How long is it since you had work?" he asked, and the man standing +up answered for the other. +</P> + +<P> +"More'n six months since either of us did anything to tell of; +unless you count 'holding up' work. I call it pretty wearing kind of +a job myself, especially when we put in a night like this and don't +make nothin'." +</P> + +<P> +"Suppose I found good jobs for both of you? Would you quit this and +begin all over?" +</P> + +<P> +"What's the use?" the man on the stone spoke sullenly. "I've +reformed a hundred times. Every time I go down deeper. The devil's +begun to foreclose on me already. It's too late." +</P> + +<P> +"No!" said the Bishop. And never before the most entranced audience +had he felt the desire for souls burn up in him so strongly. All the +time he sat there during the remarkable scene he prayed, "O Lord +Jesus, give me the souls of these two for Thee! I am hungry for +them. Give them to me!" +</P> + +<P> +"No!" the Bishop repeated. "What does God want of you two men? It +doesn't so much matter what I want. But He wants just what I do in +this case. You two men are of infinite value to Him." And then his +wonderful memory came to his aid in an appeal such as no one on +earth among men could make under such circumstances. He had +remembered the man's name in spite of the wonderfully busy years +that lay between his coming to the house and the present moment. +</P> + +<P> +"Burns," he said, and he yearned over the men with an unspeakable +longing for them both, "if you and your friend here will go home +with me tonight I will find you both places of honorable employment. +I will believe in you and trust you. You are both comparatively +young men. Why should God lose you? It is a great thing to win the +love of the Great Father. It is a small thing that I should love +you. But if you need to feel again that there is love in the world, +you will believe me when I say, my brothers, that I love you, and in +the name of Him who was crucified for our sins I cannot bear to see +you miss the glory of the human life. Come, be men! Make another try +for it, God helping you. No one but God and you and myself need ever +know anything of this tonight. He has forgiven it the minute you ask +Him to. You will find that true. Come! We'll fight it out together, +you two and I. It's worth fighting for, everlasting life is. It was +the sinner that Christ came to help. I'll do what I can for you. O +God, give me the souls of these two men!" and he broke into a prayer +to God that was a continuation of his appeal to the men. His pent-up +feeling had no other outlet. Before he had prayed many moments Burns +was sitting with his face buried in his hands, sobbing. Where were +his mother's prayers now? They were adding to the power of the +Bishop's. And the other man, harder, less moved, without a previous +knowledge of the Bishop, leaned back against the fence, stolid at +first. But as the prayer went on, he was moved by it. What force of +the Holy Spirit swept over his dulled, brutal, coarsened life, +nothing but the eternal records of the recording angel can ever +disclose. But the same supernatural Presence that smote Paul on the +road to Damascus, and poured through Henry Maxwell's church the +morning he asked disciples to follow in Jesus' steps, and had again +broken irresistibly over the Nazareth Avenue congregation, now +manifested Himself in this foul corner of the mighty city and over +the natures of these two sinful sunken men, apparently lost to all +the pleadings of conscience and memory and God. The prayer seemed to +red open the crust that for years had surrounded them and shut them +off from divine communication. And they themselves were thoroughly +startled by it. +</P> + +<P> +The Bishop ceased, and at first he himself did not realize what had +happened. Neither did they. Burns still sat with his head bowed +between his knees. The man leaning against the fence looked at the +Bishop with a face in which new emotions of awe, repentance, +astonishment and a broken gleam of joy struggled for expression. The +Bishop rose. +</P> + +<P> +"Come, my brothers. God is good. You shall stay at the Settlement +tonight, and I will make good my promise as to the work." +</P> + +<P> +The two men followed him in silence. When they reached the +Settlement it was after two o'clock. He let them in and led them to +a room. At the door he paused a moment. His tall, commanding figure +stood in the doorway and his pale face was illuminated with the +divine glory. +</P> + +<P> +"God bless you, my brothers!" he said, and leaving them his +benediction he went away. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap28"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter Twenty-eight +</H3> + +<P> +IT WAS the afternoon of that morning when Burns was installed in his +new position as assistant janitor that he was cleaning off the front +steps of the Settlement, when he paused a moment and stood up to +look about him. The first thing he noticed was a beer sign just +across the alley. He could almost touch it with his broom from where +he stood. Over the street immediately opposite were two large +saloons, and a little farther down were three more. +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly the door of the nearest saloon opened and a man came out. +At the same time two more went in. A strong odor of beer floated up +to Burns as he stood on the steps. He clutched his broom handle +tightly and began to sweep again. He had one foot on the porch and +another on the steps just below. He took another step down, still +sweeping. The sweat stood on his forehead although the day was +frosty and the air chill. The saloon door opened again and three or +four men came out. A child went in with a pail, and came out a +moment later with a quart of beer. The child went by on the sidewalk +just below him, and the odor of the beer came up to him. He took +another step down, still sweeping desperately. His fingers were +purple as he clutched the handle of the broom. +</P> + +<P> +Then suddenly he pulled himself up one step and swept over the spot +he had just cleaned. He then dragged himself by a tremendous effort +back to the floor of the porch and went over into the corner of it +farthest from the saloon and began to sweep there. "O God!" he +cried, "if the Bishop would only come back!" The Bishop had gone out +with Dr. Bruce somewhere, and there was no one about that he knew. +He swept in the corner for two or three minutes. His face was drawn +with the agony of his conflict. Gradually he edged out again towards +the steps and began to go down them. He looked towards the sidewalk +and saw that he had left one step unswept. The sight seemed to give +him a reasonable excuse for going down there to finish his sweeping. +</P> + +<P> +He was on the sidewalk now, sweeping the last step, with his face +towards the Settlement and his back turned partly on the saloon +across the alley. He swept the step a dozen times. The sweat rolled +over his face and dropped down at his feet. By degrees he felt that +he was drawn over towards that end of the step nearest the saloon. +He could smell the beer and rum now as the fumes rose around him. It +was like the infernal sulphur of the lowest hell, and yet it dragged +him as by a giant's hand nearer its source. +</P> + +<P> +He was down in the middle of the sidewalk now, still sweeping. He +cleared the space in front of the Settlement and even went out into +the gutter and swept that. He took off his hat and rubbed his sleeve +over his face. His lips were pallid and his teeth chattered. He +trembled all over like a palsied man and staggered back and forth as +if he was already drunk. His soul shook within him. +</P> + +<P> +He had crossed over the little piece of stone flagging that measured +the width of the alley, and now he stood in front of the saloon, +looking at the sign, and staring into the window at the pile of +whiskey and beer bottles arranged in a great pyramid inside. He +moistened his lips with his tongue and took a step forward, looking +around him stealthily. The door suddenly opened again and someone +came out. Again the hot, penetrating smell of liquor swept out into +the cold air, and he took another step towards the saloon door which +had shut behind the customer. As he laid his fingers on the door +handle, a tall figure came around the corner. It was the Bishop. +</P> + +<P> +He seized Burns by the arm and dragged him back upon the sidewalk. +The frenzied man, now mad for a drink, shrieked out a curse and +struck at his friend savagely. It is doubtful if he really knew at +first who was snatching him away from his ruin. The blow fell upon +the Bishop's face and cut a gash in his cheek. He never uttered a +word. But over his face a look of majestic sorrow swept. He picked +Burns up as if he had been a child and actually carried him up the +steps and into the house. He put him down in the hall and then shut +the door and put his back against it. +</P> + +<P> +Burns fell on his knees sobbing and praying. The Bishop stood there +panting with his exertion, although Burns was a slightly-built man +and had not been a great weight for a man of his strength to carry. +He was moved with unspeakable pity. +</P> + +<P> +"Pray, Burns—pray as you never prayed before! Nothing else will +save you!" +</P> + +<P> +"O God! Pray with me. Save me! Oh, save me from my hell!" cried +Burns. And, the Bishop knelt by him in the hall and prayed as only +he could pray. +</P> + +<P> +After that they rose and Burns went to his room. He came out of it +that evening like a humble child. And the Bishop went his way older +from that experience, bearing on his body the marks of the Lord +Jesus. Truly he was learning something of what it means to walk in +His steps. +</P> + +<P> +But the saloon! It stood there, and all the others lined the street +like so many traps set for Burns. How long would the man be able to +resist the smell of the damnable stuff? The Bishop went out on the +porch. The air of the whole city seemed to be impregnated with the +odor of beer. "How long, O Lord, how long?" he prayed. Dr. Bruce +came out, and the two friends talked about Burns and his temptation. +</P> + +<P> +"Did you ever make any inquiries about the ownership of this +property adjoining us?" the Bishop asked. +</P> + +<P> +"No, I haven't taken time for it. I will now if you think it would +be worth while. But what can we do, Edward, against the saloon in +this great city? It is as firmly established as the churches or +politics. What power can ever remove it?" +</P> + +<P> +"God will do it in time, as He has removed slavery," was the grave +reply. "Meanwhile I think we have a right to know who controls this +saloon so near the Settlement." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll find out," said Dr. Bruce. +</P> + +<P> +Two days later he walked into the business office of one of the +members of Nazareth Avenue Church and asked to see him a few +moments. He was cordially received by his old parishioner, who +welcomed him into his room and urged him to take all the time he +wanted. +</P> + +<P> +"I called to see you about that property next the Settlement where +the Bishop and myself now are, you know. I am going to speak +plainly, because life is too short and too serious for us both to +have any foolish hesitation about this matter. Clayton, do you think +it is right to rent that property for a saloon?" +</P> + +<P> +Dr. Bruce's question was as direct and uncompromising as he had +meant it to be. The effect of it on his old parishioner was +instantaneous. +</P> + +<P> +The hot blood mounted to the face of the man who sat there beneath a +picture of business activity in a great city. Then he grew pale, +dropped his head on his hands, and when he raised it again Dr. Bruce +was amazed to see a tear roll over his face. +</P> + +<P> +"Doctor, did you know that I took the pledge that morning with the +others?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I remember." +</P> + +<P> +"But you never knew how I have been tormented over my failure to +keep it in this instance. That saloon property has been the +temptation of the devil to me. It is the best paying investment at +present that I have. And yet it was only a minute before you came in +here that I was in an agony of remorse to think how I was letting a +little earthly gain tempt me into a denial of the very Christ I had +promised to follow. I knew well enough that He would never rent +property for such a purpose. There is no need, Dr. Bruce, for you to +say a word more." +</P> + +<P> +Clayton held out his hand and Dr. Bruce grasped it and shook it +hard. After a little he went away. But it was a long time afterwards +that he learned all the truth about the struggle that Clayton had +known. It was only a part of the history that belonged to Nazareth +Avenue Church since that memorable morning when the Holy Spirit +sanctioned the Christ-like pledge. Not even the Bishop and Dr. +Bruce, moving as they now did in the very presence itself of divine +impulses, knew yet that over the whole sinful city the Spirit was +brooding with mighty eagerness, waiting for the disciples to arise +to the call of sacrifice and suffering, touching hearts long dull +and cold, making business men and money-makers uneasy in their +absorption by the one great struggle for more wealth, and stirring +through the church as never in all the city's history the church had +been moved. The Bishop and Dr. Bruce had already seen some wonderful +things in their brief life at the Settlement. They were to see far +greater soon, more astonishing revelations of the divine power than +they had supposed possible in this age of the world. +</P> + +<P> +Within a month the saloon next the Settlement was closed. The +saloon-keeper's lease had expired, and Clayton not only closed the +property to the whiskey men, but offered the building to the Bishop +and Dr. Bruce to use for the Settlement work, which had now grown so +large that the building they had first rented was not sufficient for +the different industries that were planned. +</P> + +<P> +One of the most important of these was the pure-food department +suggested by Felicia. It was not a month after Clayton turned the +saloon property over to the Settlement that Felicia found herself +installed in the very room where souls had been lost, as head of the +department not only of cooking but of a course of housekeeping for +girls who wished to go out to service. She was now a resident of the +Settlement, and found a home with Mrs. Bruce and the other young +women from the city who were residents. Martha, the violinist, +remained at the place where the Bishop had first discovered the two +girls, and came over to the Settlement certain evenings to give +lessons in music. +</P> + +<P> +"Felicia, tell us your plan in full now," said the Bishop one +evening when, in a rare interval of rest from the great pressure of +work, he was with Dr. Bruce, and Felicia had come in from the other +building. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I have long thought of the hired girl problem," said Felicia +with an air of wisdom that made Mrs. Bruce smile as she looked at +the enthusiastic, vital beauty of this young girl, transformed into +a new creature by the promise she had made to live the Christ-like +life. "And I have reached certain conclusions in regard to it that +you men are not yet able to fathom, but Mrs. Bruce will understand +me." +</P> + +<P> +"We acknowledge our infancy, Felicia. Go on," said the Bishop +humbly. +</P> + +<P> +"Then this is what I propose to do. The old saloon building is large +enough to arrange into a suite of rooms that will represent an +ordinary house. My plan is to have it so arranged, and then teach +housekeeping and cooking to girls who will afterwards go out to +service. The course will be six months' long; in that time I will +teach plain cooking, neatness, quickness, and a love of good work." +</P> + +<P> +"Hold on, Felicia!" the Bishop interrupted, "this is not an age of +miracles!" +</P> + +<P> +"Then we will make it one," replied Felicia. "I know this seems like +an impossibility, but I want to try it. I know a score of girls +already who will take the course, and if we can once establish +something like an esprit de corps among the girls themselves, I am +sure it will be of great value to them. I know already that the pure +food is working a revolution in many families." +</P> + +<P> +"Felicia, if you can accomplish half what you propose it will bless +this community," said Mrs. Bruce. "I don't see how you can do it, +but I say, God bless you, as you try." +</P> + +<P> +"So say we all!" cried Dr. Bruce and the Bishop, and Felicia plunged +into the working out of her plan with the enthusiasm of her +discipleship which every day grew more and more practical and +serviceable. +</P> + +<P> +It must be said here that Felicia's plan succeeded beyond all +expectations. She developed wonderful powers of persuasion, and +taught her girls with astonishing rapidity to do all sorts of +housework. In time, the graduates of Felicia's cooking school came +to be prized by housekeepers all over the city. But that is +anticipating our story. The history of the Settlement has never yet +been written. When it is Felicia's part will be found of very great +importance. +</P> + +<P> +The depth of winter found Chicago presenting, as every great city of +the world presents to the eyes of Christendom the marked contrast +between riches and poverty, between culture, refinement, luxury, +ease, and ignorance, depravity, destitution and the bitter struggle +for bread. It was a hard winter but a gay winter. Never had there +been such a succession of parties, receptions, balls, dinners, +banquets, fetes, gayeties. Never had the opera and the theatre been +so crowded with fashionable audiences. Never had there been such a +lavish display of jewels and fine dresses and equipages. And on the +other hand, never had the deep want and suffering been so cruel, so +sharp, so murderous. Never had the winds blown so chilling over the +lake and through the thin shells of tenements in the neighborhood of +the Settlement. Never had the pressure for food and fuel and clothes +been so urgently thrust up against the people of the city in their +most importunate and ghastly form. Night after night the Bishop and +Dr. Bruce with their helpers went out and helped save men and women +and children from the torture of physical privation. Vast quantities +of food and clothing and large sums of money were donated by the +churches, the charitable societies, the civic authorities and the +benevolent associations. But the personal touch of the Christian +disciple was very hard to secure for personal work. Where was the +discipleship that was obeying the Master's command to go itself to +the suffering and give itself with its gift in order to make the +gift of value in time to come? The Bishop found his heart sing +within him as he faced this fact more than any other. Men would give +money who would not think of giving themselves. And the money they +gave did not represent any real sacrifice because they did not miss +it. They gave what was the easiest to give, what hurt them the +least. Where did the sacrifice come in? Was this following Jesus? +Was this going with Him all the way? He had been to members of his +own aristocratic, splendidly wealthy congregations, and was appalled +to find how few men and women of that luxurious class in the +churches would really suffer any genuine inconvenience for the sake +of suffering humanity. Is charity the giving of worn-out garments? +Is it a ten-dollar bill given to a paid visitor or secretary of some +benevolent organization in the church? Shall the man never go and +give his gift himself? Shall the woman never deny herself her +reception or her party or her musicale, and go and actually touch, +herself, the foul, sinful sore of diseased humanity as it festers in +the great metropolis? Shall charity be conveniently and easily done +through some organization? Is it possible to organize the affections +so that love shall work disagreeable things by proxy? +</P> + +<P> +All this the Bishop asked as he plunged deeper into the sin and +sorrow of that bitter winter. He was bearing his cross with joy. But +he burned and fought within over the shifting of personal love by +the many upon the hearts of the few. And still, silently, +powerfully, resistlessly, the Holy Spirit was moving through the +churches, even the aristocratic, wealthy, ease-loving members who +shunned the terrors of the social problem as they would shun a +contagious disease. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap29"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter Twenty-nine +</H3> + +<P> +THE breakfast hour at the settlement was the one hour in the day +when the whole family found a little breathing space to fellowship +together. It was an hour of relaxation. There was a great deal of +good-natured repartee and much real wit and enjoyable fun at this +hour. The Bishop told his best stories. Dr. Bruce was at his best in +anecdote. This company of disciples was healthily humorous in spite +of the atmosphere of sorrow that constantly surrounded them. In +fact, the Bishop often said the faculty of humor was as God-given as +any other and in his own case it was the only safety valve he had +for the tremendous pressure put upon him. +</P> + +<P> +This particular morning he was reading extracts from a morning paper +for the benefit of the others. Suddenly he paused and his face +instantly grew stern and sad. The rest looked up and a hush fell +over the table. +</P> + +<P> +"Shot and killed while taking a lump of coal from a car! His family +was freezing and he had had no work for six months. Six children and +a wife all packed into a cabin with three rooms, on the West Side. +One child wrapped in rags in a closet!" +</P> + +<P> +These were headlines that he read slowly. He then went on and read +the detailed account of the shooting and the visit of the reporter +to the tenement where the family lived. He finished, and there was +silence around the table. The humor of the hour was swept out of +existence by this bit of human tragedy. The great city roared about +the Settlement. The awful current of human life was flowing in a +great stream past the Settlement House, and those who had work were +hurrying to it in a vast throng. But thousands were going down in +the midst of that current, clutching at last hopes, dying literally +in a land of plenty because the boon of physical toil was denied +them. +</P> + +<P> +There were various comments on the part of the residents. One of the +new-comers, a young man preparing for the ministry, said: "Why don't +the man apply to one of the charity organizations for help? Or to +the city? It certainly is not true that even at its worst this city +full of Christian people would knowingly allow any one to go without +food or fuel." +</P> + +<P> +"No, I don't believe it would," replied Dr. Bruce. "But we don't +know the history of this man's case. He may have asked for help so +often before that, finally, in a moment of desperation he determined +to help himself. I have known such cases this winter." +</P> + +<P> +"That is not the terrible fact in this case," said the Bishop. "The +awful thing about it is the fact that the man had not had any work +for six months." +</P> + +<P> +"Why don't such people go out into the country?" asked the divinity +student. +</P> + +<P> +Some one at the table who had made a special study of the +opportunities for work in the country answered the question. +According to the investigator the places that were possible for work +in the country were exceedingly few for steady employment, and in +almost every case they were offered only to men without families. +Suppose a man's wife or children were ill. How would he move or get +into the country? How could he pay even the meager sum necessary to +move his few goods? There were a thousand reasons probably why this +particular man did not go elsewhere. +</P> + +<P> +"Meanwhile there are the wife and children," said Mrs. Bruce. "How +awful! Where is the place, did you say?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, it is only three blocks from here. This is the 'Penrose +district.' I believe Penrose himself owns half of the houses in that +block. They are among the worst houses in this part of the city. And +Penrose is a church member." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, he belongs to the Nazareth Avenue Church," replied Dr. Bruce +in a low voice. +</P> + +<P> +The Bishop rose from the table the very figure of divine wrath. He +had opened his lips to say what seldom came from him in the way of +denunciation, when the bell rang and one of the residents went to +the door. +</P> + +<P> +"Tell Dr. Bruce and the Bishop I want to see them. Penrose is the +name—Clarence Penrose. Dr. Bruce knows me." +</P> + +<P> +The family at the breakfast table heard every word. The Bishop +exchanged a significant look with Dr. Bruce and the two men +instantly left the table and went out into the hall. +</P> + +<P> +"Come in here, Penrose," said Dr. Bruce, and they ushered the +visitor into the reception room, closed the door and were alone. +</P> + +<P> +Clarence Penrose was one of the most elegant looking men in Chicago. +He came from an aristocratic family of great wealth and social +distinction. He was exceedingly wealthy and had large property +holdings in different parts of the city. He had been a member of Dr. +Bruce's church many years. He faced the two ministers with a look of +agitation on his face that showed plainly the mark of some unusual +experience. He was very pale and his lips trembled as he spoke. When +had Clarence Penrose ever before yielded to such a strange emotion? +</P> + +<P> +"This affair of the shooting! You understand? You have read it? The +family lived in one of my houses. It is a terrible event. But that +is not the primary cause of my visit." He stammered and looked +anxiously into the faces of the two men. The Bishop still looked +stern. He could not help feeling that this elegant man of leisure +could have done a great deal to alleviate the horrors in his +tenements, possibly have prevented this tragedy if he had sacrificed +some of his personal ease and luxury to better the conditions of the +people in his district. +</P> + +<P> +Penrose turned toward Dr. Bruce. "Doctor!" he exclaimed, and there +was almost a child's terror in his voice. "I came to say that I have +had an experience so unusual that nothing but the supernatural can +explain it. You remember I was one of those who took the pledge to +do as Jesus would do. I thought at the time, poor fool that I was, +that I had all along been doing the Christian thing. I gave +liberally out of my abundance to the church and charity. I never +gave myself to cost me any suffering. I have been living in a +perfect hell of contradictions ever since I took that pledge. My +little girl, Diana you remember, also took the pledge with me. She +has been asking me a great many questions lately about the poor +people and where they live. I was obliged to answer her. One of her +questions last night touched my sore! 'Do you own any houses where +these poor people live? Are they nice and warm like ours?' You know +how a child will ask questions like these. I went to bed tormented +with what I now know to be the divine arrows of conscience. I could +not sleep. I seemed to see the judgment day. I was placed before the +Judge. I was asked to give an account of my deeds done in the body. +'How many sinful souls had I visited in prison? What had I done with +my stewardship? How about those tenements where people froze in +winter and stifled in summer? Did I give any thought to them except +to receive the rentals from them? Where did my suffering come in? +Would Jesus have done as I had done and was doing? Had I broken my +pledge? How had I used the money and the culture and the social +influence I possessed? Had I used it to bless humanity, to relieve +the suffering, to bring joy to the distressed and hope to the +desponding? I had received much. How much had I given?' +</P> + +<P> +"All this came to me in a waking vision as distinctly as I see you +two men and myself now. I was unable to see the end of the vision. I +had a confused picture in my mind of the suffering Christ pointing a +condemning finger at me, and the rest was shut out by mist and +darkness. I have not slept for twenty-four hours. The first thing I +saw this morning was the account of the shooting at the coal yards. +I read the account with a feeling of horror I have not been able to +shake off. I am a guilty creature before God." +</P> + +<P> +Penrose paused suddenly. The two men looked at him solemnly. What +power of the Holy Spirit moved the soul of this hitherto +self-satisfied, elegant, cultured man who belonged to the social +life that was accustomed to go its way placidly, unmindful of the +great sorrows of a great city and practically ignorant of what it +means to suffer for Jesus' sake? Into that room came a breath such +as before swept over Henry Maxwell's church and through Nazareth +avenue. The Bishop laid his hand on the shoulder of Penrose and +said: "My brother, God has been very near to you. Let us thank Him." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes! yes!" sobbed Penrose. He sat down on a chair and covered his +face. The Bishop prayed. Then Penrose quietly said: "Will you go +with me to that house?" +</P> + +<P> +For answer the two men put on their overcoats and went with him to +the home of the dead man's family. +</P> + +<P> +That was the beginning of a new and strange life for Clarence +Penrose. From the moment he stepped into that wretched hovel of a +home and faced for the first time in his life a despair and +suffering such as he had read of but did not know by personal +contact, he dated a new life. It would be another long story to tell +how, in obedience to his pledge he began to do with his tenement +property as he knew Jesus would do. What would Jesus do with +tenement property if He owned it in Chicago or any other great city +of the world? Any man who can imagine any true answers to this +question can easily tell what Clarence Penrose began to do. +</P> + +<P> +Now before that winter reached its bitter climax many things +occurred in the city which concerned the lives of all the characters +in this history of the disciples who promised to walk in His steps. +</P> + +<P> +It chanced by one of those coincidences that seem to occur +preternaturally that one afternoon just as Felicia came out of the +Settlement with a basket of food which she was going to leave as a +sample with a baker in the Penrose district, Stephen Clyde opened +the door of the carpenter shop in the basement and came out in time +to meet her as she reached the sidewalk. +</P> + +<P> +"Let me carry your basket, please," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"Why do you say 'please'?" asked Felicia, handing over the basket +while they walked along. +</P> + +<P> +"I would like to say something else," replied Stephen, glancing at +her shyly and yet with a boldness that frightened him, for he had +been loving Felicia more every day since he first saw her and +especially since she stepped into the shop that day with the Bishop, +and for weeks now they had been thrown in each other's company. +</P> + +<P> +"What else?" asked Felicia, innocently falling into the trap. +</P> + +<P> +"Why—" said Stephen, turning his fair, noble face full toward her +and eyeing her with the look of one who would have the best of all +things in the universe, "I would like to say: 'Let me carry your +basket, dear Felicia'." +</P> + +<P> +Felicia never looked so beautiful in her life. She walked on a +little way without even turning her face toward him. It was no +secret with her own heart that she had given it to Stephen some time +ago. Finally she turned and said shyly, while her face grew rosy and +her eyes tender: "Why don't you say it, then?" +</P> + +<P> +"May I?" cried Stephen, and he was so careless for a minute of the +way he held the basket, that Felicia exclaimed: +</P> + +<P> +"Yes! But oh, don't drop my goodies!" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, I wouldn't drop anything so precious for all the world, dear +Felicia," said Stephen, who now walked on air for several blocks, +and what was said during that walk is private correspondence that we +have no right to read. Only it is a matter of history that day that +the basket never reached its destination, and that over in the other +direction, late in the afternoon, the Bishop, walking along quietly +from the Penrose district, in rather a secluded spot near the +outlying part of the Settlement district, heard a familiar voice +say: +</P> + +<P> +"But tell me, Felicia, when did you begin to love me?" +</P> + +<P> +"I fell in love with a little pine shaving just above your ear that +day when I saw you in the shop!" said the other voice with a laugh +so clear, so pure, so sweet that it did one good to hear it. +</P> + +<P> +"Where are you going with that basket?" he tried to say sternly. +</P> + +<P> +"We are taking it to—where are we taking it, Felicia?" +</P> + +<P> +"Dear Bishop, we are taking it home to begin—" +</P> + +<P> +"To begin housekeeping with," finished Stephen, coming to the +rescue. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you?" said the Bishop. "I hope you will invite me to share. I +know what Felicia's cooking is." +</P> + +<P> +"Bishop, dear Bishop!" said Felicia, and she did not pretend to hide +her happiness; "indeed, you shall be the most honored guest. Are you +glad?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I am," he replied, interpreting Felicia's words as she wished. +Then he paused a moment and said gently: "God bless you both!" and +went his way with a tear in his eye and a prayer in his heart, and +left them to their joy. +</P> + +<P> +Yes. Shall not the same divine power of love that belongs to earth +be lived and sung by the disciples of the Man of Sorrows and the +Burden-bearer of sins? Yea, verily! And this man and woman shall +walk hand in hand through this great desert of human woe in this +city, strengthening each other, growing more loving with the +experience of the world's sorrows, walking in His steps even closer +yet because of their love for each other, bringing added blessing to +thousands of wretched creatures because they are to have a home of +their own to share with the homeless. "For this cause," said our +Lord Jesus Christ, "shall a man leave his father and mother and +cleave unto his wife." And Felicia and Stephen, following the +Master, love him with a deeper, truer service and devotion because +of the earthly affection which Heaven itself sanctions with its +solemn blessing. +</P> + +<P> +But it was a little after the love story of the Settlement became a +part of its glory that Henry Maxwell of Raymond came to Chicago with +Rachel Winslow and Virginia Page and Rollin and Alexander Powers and +President Marsh, and the occasion was a remarkable gathering at the +hall of the Settlement arranged by the Bishop and Dr. Bruce, who had +finally persuaded Mr. Maxwell and his fellow disciples in Raymond to +come on to be present at this meeting. +</P> + +<P> +There were invited into the Settlement Hall, meeting for that night +men out of work, wretched creatures who had lost faith in God and +man, anarchists and infidels, free-thinkers and no-thinkers. The +representation of all the city's worst, most hopeless, most +dangerous, depraved elements faced Henry Maxwell and the other +disciples when the meeting began. And still the Holy Spirit moved +over the great, selfish, pleasure-loving, sin-stained city, and it +lay in God's hand, not knowing all that awaited it. Every man and +woman at the meeting that night had seen the Settlement motto over +the door blazing through the transparency set up by the divinity +student: "What would Jesus do?" +</P> + +<P> +And Henry Maxwell, as for the first time he stepped under the +doorway, was touched with a deeper emotion than he had felt in a +long time as he thought of the first time that question had come to +him in the piteous appeal of the shabby young man who had appeared +in the First Church of Raymond at the morning service. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap30"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter Thirty +</H3> + +<P CLASS="intro"> +"Now, when Jesus heard these things, He said unto him, Yet lackest +thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the +poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow Me." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +WHEN Henry Maxwell began to speak to the souls crowded into the +Settlement Hall that night it is doubtful if he ever faced such an +audience in his life. It is quite certain that the city of Raymond +did not contain such a variety of humanity. Not even the Rectangle +at its worst could furnish so many men and women who had fallen +entirely out of the reach of the church and of all religious and +even Christian influences. +</P> + +<P> +What did he talk about? He had already decided that point. He told +in the simplest language he could command some of the results of +obedience to the pledge as it had been taken in Raymond. Every man +and woman in that audience knew something about Jesus Christ. They +all had some idea of His character, and however much they had grown +bitter toward the forms of Christian ecclesiasticism or the social +system, they preserved some standard of right and truth, and what +little some of them still retained was taken from the person of the +Peasant of Galilee. +</P> + +<P> +So they were interested in what Maxwell said. "What would Jesus do?" +He began to apply the question to the social problem in general, +after finishing the story of Raymond. The audience was respectfully +attentive. It was more than that. It was genuinely interested. As +Mr. Maxwell went on, faces all over the hall leaned forward in a way +seldom seen in church audiences or anywhere except among workingmen +or the people of the street when once they are thoroughly aroused. +"What would Jesus do?" Suppose that were the motto not only of the +churches but of the business men, the politicians, the newspapers, +the workingmen, the society people—how long would it take under +such a standard of conduct to revolutionize the world? What was the +trouble with the world? It was suffering from selfishness. No one +ever lived who had succeeded in overcoming selfishness like Jesus. +If men followed Him regardless of results the world would at once +begin to enjoy a new life. +</P> + +<P> +Maxwell never knew how much it meant to hold the respectful +attention of that hall full of diseased and sinful humanity. The +Bishop and Dr. Bruce, sitting there, looking on, seeing many faces +that represented scorn of creeds, hatred of the social order, +desperate narrowness and selfishness, marveled that even so soon +under the influence of the Settlement life, the softening process +had begun already to lessen the bitterness of hearts, many of which +had grown bitter from neglect and indifference. +</P> + +<P> +And still, in spite of the outward show of respect to the speaker, +no one, not even the Bishop, had any true conception of the feeling +pent up in that room that night. Among those who had heard of the +meeting and had responded to the invitation were twenty or thirty +men out of work who had strolled past the Settlement that afternoon, +read the notice of the meeting, and had come in out of curiosity and +to escape the chill east wind. It was a bitter night and the saloons +were full. But in that whole district of over thirty thousand souls, +with the exception of the saloons, there was not a door open except +the clean, pure Christian door of the Settlement. Where would a man +without a home or without work or without friends naturally go +unless to the saloon? +</P> + +<P> +It had been the custom at the Settlement for a free discussion to +follow any open meeting of this kind, and when Mr. Maxwell finished +and sat down, the Bishop, who presided that night, rose and made the +announcement that any man in the hall was at liberty to ask +questions, to speak out his feelings or declare his convictions, +always with the understanding that whoever took part was to observe +the simple rules that governed parliamentary bodies and obey the +three-minute rule which, by common consent, would be enforced on +account of the numbers present. +</P> + +<P> +Instantly a number of voices from men who had been at previous +meetings of this kind exclaimed, "Consent! consent!" +</P> + +<P> +The Bishop sat down, and immediately a man near the middle of the +hall rose and began to speak. +</P> + +<P> +"I want to say that what Mr. Maxwell has said tonight comes pretty +close to me. I knew Jack Manning, the fellow he told about who died +at his house. I worked on the next case to his in a printer's shop +in Philadelphia for two years. Jack was a good fellow. He loaned me +five dollars once when I was in a hole and I never got a chance to +pay him back. He moved to New York, owing to a change in the +management of the office that threw him out, and I never saw him +again. When the linotype machines came in I was one of the men to go +out, just as he did. I have been out most of the time since. They +say inventions are a good thing. I don't always see it myself; but I +suppose I'm prejudiced. A man naturally is when he loses a steady +job because a machine takes his place. About this Christianity he +tells about, it's all right. But I never expect to see any such +sacrifices on the part of the church people. So far as my +observation goes they're just as selfish and as greedy for money and +worldly success as anybody. I except the Bishop and Dr. Bruce and a +few others. But I never found much difference between men of the +world, as they are called, and church members when it came to +business and money making. One class is just as bad as another +there." +</P> + +<P> +Cries of "That's so!" "You're right!" "Of course!" interrupted the +speaker, and the minute he sat down two men who were on the floor +for several seconds before the first speaker was through began to +talk at once. +</P> + +<P> +The Bishop called them to order and indicated which was entitled to +the floor. The man who remained standing began eagerly: +</P> + +<P> +"This is the first time I was ever in here, and may be it'll be the +last. Fact is, I am about at the end of my string. I've tramped this +city for work till I'm sick. I'm in plenty of company. Say! I'd like +to ask a question of the minister, if it's fair. May I?" +</P> + +<P> +"That's for Mr. Maxwell to say," said the Bishop. +</P> + +<P> +"By all means," replied Mr. Maxwell quickly. "Of course, I will not +promise to answer it to the gentleman's satisfaction." +</P> + +<P> +"This is my question." The man leaned forward and stretched out a +long arm with a certain dramatic force that grew naturally enough +out of his condition as a human being. "I want to know what Jesus +would do in my case. I haven't had a stroke of work for two months. +I've got a wife and three children, and I love them as much as if I +was worth a million dollars. I've been living off a little earnings +I saved up during the World's Fair jobs I got. I'm a carpenter by +trade, and I've tried every way I know to get a job. You say we +ought to take for our motto, 'What would Jesus do?' What would He do +if He was out of work like me? I can't be somebody else and ask the +question. I want to work. I'd give anything to grow tired of working +ten hours a day the way I used to. Am I to blame because I can't +manufacture a job for myself? I've got to live, and my wife and my +children have got to live. But how? What would Jesus do? You say +that's the question we ought to ask." +</P> + +<P> +Mr. Maxwell sat there staring at the great sea of faces all intent +on his, and no answer to this man's question seemed for the time +being to be possible. "O God!" his heart prayed; "this is a question +that brings up the entire social problem in all its perplexing +entanglement of human wrongs and its present condition contrary to +every desire of God for a human being's welfare. Is there any +condition more awful than for a man in good health, able and eager +to work, with no means of honest livelihood unless he does work, +actually unable to get anything to do, and driven to one of three +things: begging or charity at the hands of friends or strangers, +suicide or starvation? 'What would Jesus do?'" It was a fair +question for the man to ask. It was the only question he could ask, +supposing him to be a disciple of Jesus. But what a question for any +man to be obliged to answer under such conditions? +</P> + +<P> +All this and more did Henry Maxwell ponder. All the others were +thinking in the same way. The Bishop sat there with a look so stern +and sad that it was not hard to tell how the question moved him. Dr. +Bruce had his head bowed. The human problem had never seemed to him +so tragical as since he had taken the pledge and left his church to +enter the Settlement. What would Jesus do? It was a terrible +question. And still the man stood there, tall and gaunt and almost +terrible, with his arm stretched out in an appeal which grew every +second in meaning. At length Mr. Maxwell spoke. +</P> + +<P> +"Is there any man in the room, who is a Christian disciple, who has +been in this condition and has tried to do as Jesus would do? If so, +such a man can answer this question better than I can." +</P> + +<P> +There was a moment's hush over the room and then a man near the +front of the hall slowly rose. He was an old man, and the hand he +laid on the back of the bench in front of him trembled as he spoke. +</P> + +<P> +"I think I can safely say that I have many times been in just such a +condition, and I have always tried to be a Christian under all +conditions. I don't know as I have always asked this question, 'What +would Jesus do?' when I have been out of work, but I do know I have +tried to be His disciple at all times. Yes," the man went on, with a +sad smile that was more pathetic to the Bishop and Mr. Maxwell than +the younger man's grim despair; "yes, I have begged, and I have been +to charity institutions, and I have done everything when out of a +job except steal and lie in order to get food and fuel. I don't know +as Jesus would have done some of the things I have been obliged to +do for a living, but I know I have never knowingly done wrong when +out of work. Sometimes I think maybe He would have starved sooner +than beg. I don't know." +</P> + +<P> +The old man's voice trembled and he looked around the room timidly. +A silence followed, broken by a fierce voice from a large, +black-haired, heavily-bearded man who sat three seats from the +Bishop. The minute he spoke nearly every man in the hall leaned +forward eagerly. The man who had asked the question, "What would +Jesus do in my case?" slowly sat down and whispered to the man next +to him: "Who's that?" +</P> + +<P> +"That's Carlsen, the Socialist leader. Now you'll hear something." +</P> + +<P> +"This is all bosh, to my mind," began Carlsen, while his great +bristling beard shook with the deep inward anger of the man. "The +whole of our system is at fault. What we call civilization is rotten +to the core. There is no use trying to hide it or cover it up. We +live in an age of trusts and combines and capitalistic greed that +means simply death to thousands of innocent men, women and children. +I thank God, if there is a God—which I very much doubt—that I, for +one, have never dared to marry and make a home. Home! Talk of hell! +Is there any bigger one than this man and his three children has on +his hands right this minute? And he's only one out of thousands. And +yet this city, and every other big city in this country, has its +thousands of professed Christians who have all the luxuries and +comforts, and who go to church Sundays and sing their hymns about +giving all to Jesus and bearing the cross and following Him all the +way and being saved! I don't say that there aren't good men and +women among them, but let the minister who has spoken to us here +tonight go into any one of a dozen aristocratic churches I could +name and propose to the members to take any such pledge as the one +he's mentioned here tonight, and see how quick the people would +laugh at him for a fool or a crank or a fanatic. Oh, no! That's not +the remedy. That can't ever amount to anything. We've got to have a +new start in the way of government. The whole thing needs +reconstructing. I don't look for any reform worth anything to come +out of the churches. They are not with the people. They are with the +aristocrats, with the men of money. The trusts and monopolies have +their greatest men in the churches. The ministers as a class are +their slaves. What we need is a system that shall start from the +common basis of socialism, founded on the rights of the common +people—" +</P> + +<P> +Carlsen had evidently forgotten all about the three-minutes rule and +was launching himself into a regular oration that meant, in his +usual surroundings before his usual audience, an hour at least, when +the man just behind him pulled him down unceremoniously and arose. +Carlsen was angry at first and threatened a little disturbance, but +the Bishop reminded him of the rule, and he subsided with several +mutterings in his beard, while the next speaker began with a very +strong eulogy on the value of the single tax as a genuine remedy for +all the social ills. He was followed by a man who made a bitter +attack on the churches and ministers, and declared that the two +great obstacles in the way of all true reform were the courts and +the ecclesiastical machines. +</P> + +<P> +When he sat down a man who bore every mark of being a street laborer +sprang to his feet and poured a perfect torrent of abuse against the +corporations, especially the railroads. The minute his time was up a +big, brawny fellow, who said he was a metal worker by trade, claimed +the floor and declared that the remedy for the social wrongs was +Trades Unionism. This, he said, would bring on the millennium for +labor more surely than anything else. The next man endeavored to +give some reasons why so many persons were out of employment, and +condemned inventions as works of the devil. He was loudly applauded +by the rest. +</P> + +<P> +Finally the Bishop called time on the "free for all," and asked +Rachel to sing. +</P> + +<P> +Rachel Winslow had grown into a very strong, healthful, humble +Christian during that wonderful year in Raymond dating from the +Sunday when she first took the pledge to do as Jesus would do, and +her great talent for song had been fully consecrated to the service +of the Master. When she began to sing tonight at this Settlement +meeting, she had never prayed more deeply for results to come from +her voice, the voice which she now regarded as the Master's, to be +used for Him. +</P> + +<P> +Certainly her prayer was being answered as she sang. She had chosen +the words, +</P> + +<P> +"Hark! The voice of Jesus calling, Follow me, follow me!" +</P> + +<P> +Again Henry Maxwell, sitting there, was reminded of his first night +at the Rectangle in the tent when Rachel sang the people into quiet. +The effect was the same here. What wonderful power a good voice +consecrated to the Master's service always is! Rachel's great +natural ability would have made her one of the foremost opera +singers of the age. Surely this audience had never heard such a +melody. How could it? The men who had drifted in from the street sat +entranced by a voice which "back in the world," as the Bishop said, +never could be heard by the common people because the owner of it +would charge two or three dollars for the privilege. The song poured +out through the hall as free and glad as if it were a foretaste of +salvation itself. Carlsen, with his great, black-bearded face +uplifted, absorbed the music with the deep love of it peculiar to +his nationality, and a tear ran over his cheek and glistened in his +beard as his face softened and became almost noble in its aspect. +The man out of work who had wanted to know what Jesus would do in +his place sat with one grimy hand on the back of the bench in front +of him, with his mouth partly open, his great tragedy for the moment +forgotten. The song, while it lasted, was food and work and warmth +and union with his wife and babies once more. The man who had spoken +so fiercely against the churches and ministers sat with his head +erect, at first with a look of stolid resistance, as if he +stubbornly resisted the introduction into the exercises of anything +that was even remotely connected with the church or its forms of +worship. But gradually he yielded to the power that was swaying the +hearts of all the persons in that room, and a look of sad +thoughtfulness crept over his face. +</P> + +<P> +The Bishop said that night while Rachel was singing that if the +world of sinful, diseased, depraved, lost humanity could only have +the gospel preached to it by consecrated prima donnas and +professional tenors and altos and bassos, he believed it would +hasten the coming of the Kingdom quicker than any other one force. +"Why, oh why," he cried in his heart as he listened, "has the +world's great treasure of song been so often held far from the poor +because the personal possessor of voice or fingers, capable of +stirring divinest melody, has so often regarded the gift as +something with which to make money? Shall there be no martyrs among +the gifted ones of the earth? Shall there be no giving of this great +gift as well as of others?" +</P> + +<P> +And Henry Maxwell, again as before, called up that other audience at +the Rectangle with increasing longing for a larger spread of the new +discipleship. What he had seen and heard at the Settlement burned +into him deeper the belief that the problem of the city would be +solved if the Christians in it should once follow Jesus as He gave +commandment. But what of this great mass of humanity, neglected and +sinful, the very kind of humanity the Savior came to save, with all +its mistakes and narrowness, its wretchedness and loss of hope, +above all its unqualified bitterness towards the church? That was +what smote him deepest. Was the church then so far from the Master +that the people no longer found Him in the church? Was it true that +the church had lost its power over the very kind of humanity which +in the early ages of Christianity it reached in the greatest +numbers? How much was true in what the Socialist leader said about +the uselessness of looking to the church for reform or redemption, +because of the selfishness and seclusion and aristocracy of its +members? +</P> + +<P> +He was more and more impressed with the appalling fact that the +comparatively few men in that hall, now being held quiet for a while +by Rachel's voice, represented thousands of others just like them, +to whom a church and a minister stood for less than a saloon or a +beer garden as a source of comfort or happiness. Ought it to be so? +If the church members were all doing as Jesus would do, could it +remain true that armies of men would walk the streets for jobs and +hundreds of them curse the church and thousands of them find in the +saloon their best friend? How far were the Christians responsible +for this human problem that was personally illustrated right in this +hall tonight? Was it true that the great city churches would as a +rule refuse to walk in Jesus' steps so closely as to +suffer—actually suffer—for His sake? +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap31"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +Chapter Thirty-one +</H3> + +<P> +HE had planned when he came to the city to return to Raymond and be +in his own pulpit on Sunday. But Friday morning he had received at +the Settlement a call from the pastor of one of the largest churches +in Chicago, and had been invited to fill the pulpit for both morning +and evening service. +</P> + +<P> +At first he hesitated, but finally accepted, seeing in it the hand +of the Spirit's guiding power. He would test his own question. He +would prove the truth or falsity of the charge made against the +church at the Settlement meeting. How far would it go in its +self-denial for Jesus' sake? How closely would it walk in His steps? +Was the church willing to suffer for its Master? +</P> + +<P> +Saturday night he spent in prayer, nearly the whole night. There had +never been so great a wrestling in his soul, not even during his +strongest experiences in Raymond. He had in fact entered upon +another new experience. The definition of his own discipleship was +receiving an added test at this time, and he was being led into a +larger truth of the Lord. +</P> + +<P> +Sunday morning the great church was filled to its utmost. Henry +Maxwell, coming into the pulpit from that all-night vigil, felt the +pressure of a great curiosity on the part of the people. They had +heard of the Raymond movement, as all the churches had, and the +recent action of Dr. Bruce had added to the general interest in the +pledge. With this curiosity was something deeper, more serious. Mr. +Maxwell felt that also. And in the knowledge that the Spirit's +presence was his living strength, he brought his message and gave it +to that church that day. +</P> + +<P> +He had never been what would be called a great preacher. He had not +the force nor the quality that makes remarkable preachers. But ever +since he had promised to do as Jesus would do, he had grown in a +certain quality of persuasiveness that had all the essentials of +true eloquence. This morning the people felt the complete sincerity +and humility of a man who had gone deep into the heart of a great +truth. +</P> + +<P> +After telling briefly of some results in his own church in Raymond +since the pledge was taken, he went on to ask the question he had +been asking since the Settlement meeting. He had taken for his theme +the story of the young man who came to Jesus asking what he must do +to obtain eternal life. Jesus had tested him. "Sell all that thou +hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; +and come follow me." But the young man was not willing to suffer to +that extent. If following Jesus meant suffering in that way, he was +not willing. He would like to follow Jesus, but not if he had to +give so much. +</P> + +<P> +"Is it true," continued Henry Maxwell, and his fine, thoughtful face +glowed with a passion of appeal that stirred the people as they had +seldom been stirred, "is it true that the church of today, the +church that is called after Christ's own name, would refuse to +follow Him at the expense of suffering, of physical loss, of +temporary gain? The statement was made at a large gathering in the +Settlement last week by a leader of workingmen that it was hopeless +to look to the church for any reform or redemption of society. On +what was that statement based? Plainly on the assumption that the +church contains for the most part men and women who think more 'of +their own ease and luxury' than of the sufferings and needs and sins +of humanity. How far is that true? Are the Christians of America +ready to have their discipleship tested? How about the men who +possess large wealth? Are they ready to take that wealth and use it +as Jesus would? How about the men and women of great talent? Are +they ready to consecrate that talent to humanity as Jesus +undoubtedly would do? +</P> + +<P> +"Is it not true that the call has come in this age for a new +exhibition of Christian discipleship? You who live in this great +sinful city must know that better than I do. Is it possible you can +go your ways careless or thoughtless of the awful condition of men +and women and children who are dying, body and soul, for need of +Christian help? Is it not a matter of concern to you personally that +the saloon kills its thousands more surely than war? Is it not a +matter of personal suffering in some form for you that thousands of +able-bodied, willing men tramp the streets of this city and all +cities, crying for work and drifting into crime and suicide because +they cannot find it? Can you say that this is none of your business? +Let each man look after himself? Would it not be true, think you, +that if every Christian in America did as Jesus would do, society +itself, the business world, yes, the very political system under +which our commercial and governmental activity is carried on, would +be so changed that human suffering would be reduced to a minimum? +</P> + +<P> +"What would be the result if all the church members of this city +tried to do as Jesus would do? It is not possible to say in detail +what the effect would be. But it is easy to say, and it is true, +that instantly the human problem would begin to find an adequate +answer. +</P> + +<P> +"What is the test of Christian discipleship? Is it not the same as +in Christ's own time? Have our surroundings modified or changed the +test? If Jesus were here today would He not call some of the members +of this very church to do just what He commanded the young man, and +ask them to give up their wealth and literally follow Him? I believe +He would do that if He felt certain that any church member thought +more of his possessions than of the Savior. The test would be the +same today as then. I believe Jesus would demand He does demand +now—as close a following, as much suffering, as great self-denial +as when He lived in person on the earth and said, 'Except a man +renounce all that he hath he cannot be my disciple.' That is, unless +he is willing to do it for my sake, he cannot be my disciple. +</P> + +<P> +"What would be the result if in this city every church member should +begin to do as Jesus would do? It is not easy to go into details of +the result. But we all know that certain things would be impossible +that are now practiced by church members. +</P> + +<P> +"What would Jesus do in the matter of wealth? How would He spend it? +What principle would regulate His use of money? Would He be likely +to live in great luxury and spend ten times as much on personal +adornment and entertainment as He spent to relieve the needs of +suffering humanity? How would Jesus be governed in the making of +money? Would He take rentals from saloons and other disreputable +property, or even from tenement property that was so constructed +that the inmates had no such things as a home and no such +possibility as privacy or cleanliness? +</P> + +<P> +"What would Jesus do about the great army of unemployed and +desperate who tramp the streets and curse the church, or are +indifferent to it, lost in the bitter struggle for the bread that +tastes bitter when it is earned on account of the desperate conflict +to get it? Would Jesus care nothing for them? Would He go His way in +comparative ease and comfort? Would He say that it was none of His +business? Would He excuse Himself from all responsibility to remove +the causes of such a condition? +</P> + +<P> +"What would Jesus do in the center of a civilization that hurries so +fast after money that the very girls employed in great business +houses are not paid enough to keep soul and body together without +fearful temptations so great that scores of them fall and are swept +over the great boiling abyss; where the demands of trade sacrifice +hundreds of lads in a business that ignores all Christian duties +toward them in the way of education and moral training and personal +affection? Would Jesus, if He were here today as a part of our age +and commercial industry, feel nothing, do nothing, say nothing, in +the face of these facts which every business man knows? +</P> + +<P> +"What would Jesus do? Is not that what the disciple ought to do? Is +he not commanded to follow in His steps? How much is the +Christianity of the age suffering for Him? Is it denying itself at +the cost of ease, comfort, luxury, elegance of living? What does the +age need more than personal sacrifice? Does the church do its duty +in following Jesus when it gives a little money to establish +missions or relieve extreme cases of want? Is it any sacrifice for a +man who is worth ten million dollars simply to give ten thousand +dollars for some benevolent work? Is he not giving something that +cost him practically nothing so far as any personal suffering goes? +Is it true that the Christian disciples today in most of our +churches are living soft, easy, selfish lives, very far from any +sacrifice that can be called sacrifice? What would Jesus do? +</P> + +<P> +"It is the personal element that Christian discipleship needs to +emphasize. 'The gift without the giver is bare.' The Christianity +that attempts to suffer by proxy is not the Christianity of Christ. +Each individual Christian business man, citizen, needs to follow in +His steps along the path of personal sacrifice to Him. There is not +a different path today from that of Jesus' own times. It is the same +path. The call of this dying century and of the new one soon to be, +is a call for a new discipleship, a new following of Jesus, more +like the early, simple, apostolic Christianity, when the disciples +left all and literally followed the Master. Nothing but a +discipleship of this kind can face the destructive selfishness of +the age with any hope of overcoming it. There is a great quantity of +nominal Christianity today. There is need of more of the real kind. +We need revival of the Christianity of Christ. We have, +unconsciously, lazily, selfishly, formally grown into a discipleship +that Jesus himself would not acknowledge. He would say to many of us +when we cry, 'Lord, Lord,' 'I never knew you!' Are we ready to take +up the cross? Is it possible for this church to sing with exact +truth, +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + 'Jesus, I my cross have taken,<BR> + All to leave and follow Thee?'<BR> +</P> + +<P> +If we can sing that truly, then we may claim discipleship. But if +our definition of being a Christian is simply to enjoy the +privileges of worship, be generous at no expense to ourselves, have +a good, easy time surrounded by pleasant friends and by comfortable +things, live respectably and at the same time avoid the world's +great stress of sin and trouble because it is too much pain to bear +it—if this is our definition of Christianity, surely we are a long +way from following the steps of Him who trod the way with groans and +tears and sobs of anguish for a lost humanity; who sweat, as it +were, great drops of blood, who cried out on the upreared cross, 'My +God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' +</P> + +<P> +"Are we ready to make and live a new discipleship? Are we ready to +reconsider our definition of a Christian? What is it to be a +Christian? It is to imitate Jesus. It is to do as He would do. It is +to walk in His steps." +</P> + +<P> +When Henry Maxwell finished his sermon, he paused and looked at the +people with a look they never forgot and, at the moment, did not +understand. Crowded into that fashionable church that day were +hundreds of men and women who had for years lived the easy, +satisfied life of a nominal Christianity. A great silence fell over +the congregation. Through the silence there came to the +consciousness of all the souls there present a knowledge, stranger +to them now for years, of a Divine Power. Every one expected the +preacher to call for volunteers who would do as Jesus would do. But +Maxwell had been led by the Spirit to deliver his message this time +and wait for results to come. +</P> + +<P> +He closed the service with a tender prayer that kept the Divine +Presence lingering very near every hearer, and the people slowly +rose to go out. Then followed a scene that would have been +impossible if any mere man had been alone in his striving for +results. +</P> + +<P> +Men and women in great numbers crowded around the platform to see +Mr. Maxwell and to bring him the promise of their consecration to +the pledge to do as Jesus would do. It was a voluntary, spontaneous +movement that broke upon his soul with a result he could not +measure. But had he not been praying for is very thing? It was an +answer that more than met his desires. +</P> + +<P> +There followed this movement a prayer service that in its +impressions repeated the Raymond experience. In the evening, to Mr. +Maxwell's joy, the Endeavor Society almost to a member came forward, +as so many of the church members had done in the morning, and +seriously, solemnly, tenderly, took the pledge to do as Jesus would +do. A deep wave of spiritual baptism broke over the meeting near its +close that was indescribable in its tender, joyful, sympathetic +results. +</P> + +<P> +That was a remarkable day in the history of that church, but even +more so in the history of Henry Maxwell. He left the meeting very +late. He went to his room at the Settlement where he was still +stopping, and after an hour with the Bishop and Dr. Bruce, spent in +a joyful rehearsal of the wonderful events of the day, he sat down +to think over again by himself all the experience he was having as a +Christian disciple. +</P> + +<P> +He had kneeled to pray, as he always did before going to sleep, and +it was while he was on his knees that he had a waking vision of what +might be in the world when once the new discipleship had made its +way into the conscience and conscientiousness of Christendom. He was +fully conscious of being awake, but no less certainly did it seem to +him that he saw certain results with great distinctiveness, partly +as realities of the future, partly great longings that they might be +realities. And this is what Henry Maxwell saw in this waking vision: +</P> + +<P> +He saw himself, first, going back to the First Church in Raymond, +living there in a simpler, more self-denying fashion than he had yet +been willing to live, because he saw ways in which he could help +others who were really dependent on him for help. He also saw, more +dimly, that the time would come when his position as pastor of the +church would cause him to suffer more on account of growing +opposition to his interpretation of Jesus and His conduct. But this +was vaguely outlined. Through it all he heard the words "My grace is +sufficient for thee." +</P> + +<P> +He saw Rachel Winslow and Virginia Page going on with their work of +service at the Rectangle, and reaching out loving hands of +helpfulness far beyond the limits of Raymond. Rachel he saw married +to Rollin Page, both fully consecrated to the Master's use, both +following His steps with an eagerness intensified and purified by +their love for each other. And Rachel's voice sang on, in slums and +dark places of despair and sin, and drew lost souls back to God and +heaven once more. +</P> + +<P> +He saw President Marsh of the college using his great learning and +his great influence to purify the city, to ennoble its patriotism, +to inspire the young men and women who loved as well as admired him +to lives of Christian service, always teaching them that education +means great responsibility for the weak and the ignorant. +</P> + +<P> +He saw Alexander Powers meeting with sore trials in his family life, +with a constant sorrow in the estrangement of wife and friends, but +still going his way in all honor, serving in all his strength the +Master whom he had obeyed, even unto the loss of social distinction +and wealth. +</P> + +<P> +He saw Milton Wright, the merchant, meeting with great reverses. +Thrown upon the future by a combination of circumstances, with vast +business interests involved in ruin through no fault of his own, but +coming out of his reverses with clean Christian honor, to begin +again and work up to a position where he could again be to hundreds +of young men an example of what Jesus would do in business. +</P> + +<P> +He saw Edward Norman, editor of the NEWS, by means of the money +given by Virginia, creating a force in journalism that in time came +to be recognized as one of the real factors of the nation to mold +its principles and actually shape its policy, a daily illustration +of the might of a Christian press, and the first of a series of such +papers begun and carried on by other disciples who had also taken +the pledge. +</P> + +<P> +He saw Jasper Chase, who had denied his Master, growing into a cold, +cynical, formal life, writing novels that were social successes, but +each one with a sting in it, the reminder of his denial, the bitter +remorse that, do what he would, no social success could remove. +</P> + +<P> +He saw Rose Sterling, dependent for some years upon her aunt and +Felicia, finally married to a man far older than herself, accepting +the burden of a relation that had no love in it on her part, because +of her desire to be the wife of a rich man and enjoy the physical +luxuries that were all of life to her. Over this life also the +vision cast certain dark and awful shadows but they were not shown +in detail. +</P> + +<P> +He saw Felicia and Stephen Clyde happily married, living a beautiful +life together, enthusiastic, joyful in suffering, pouring out their +great, strong, fragrant service into the dull, dark, terrible places +of the great city, and redeeming souls through the personal touch of +their home, dedicated to the Human Homesickness all about them. +</P> + +<P> +He saw Dr. Bruce and the Bishop going on with the Settlement work. +He seemed to see the great blazing motto over the door enlarged, +"What would Jesus do?" and by this motto every one who entered the +Settlement walked in the steps of the Master. +</P> + +<P> +He saw Burns and his companion and a great company of men like them, +redeemed and giving in turn to others, conquering their passions by +the divine grace, and proving by their daily lives the reality of +the new birth even in the lowest and most abandoned. +</P> + +<P> +And now the vision was troubled. It seemed to him that as he kneeled +he began to pray, and the vision was more of a longing for a future +than a reality in the future. The church of Jesus in the city and +throughout the country! Would it follow Jesus? Was the movement +begun in Raymond to spend itself in a few churches like Nazareth +Avenue and the one where he had preached today, and then die away as +a local movement, a stirring on the surface but not to extend deep +and far? He felt with agony after the vision again. He thought he +saw the church of Jesus in America open its heart to the moving of +the Spirit and rise to the sacrifice of its ease and +self-satisfaction in the name of Jesus. He thought he saw the motto, +"What would Jesus do?" inscribed over every church door, and written +on every church member's heart. +</P> + +<P> +The vision vanished. It came back clearer than before, and he saw +the Endeavor Societies all over the world carrying in their great +processions at some mighty convention a banner on which was written, +"What would Jesus do?" And he thought in the faces of the young men +and women he saw future joy of suffering, loss, self-denial, +martyrdom. And when this part of the vision slowly faded, he saw the +figure of the Son of God beckoning to him and to all the other +actors in his life history. An Angel Choir somewhere was singing. +There was a sound as of many voices and a shout as of a great +victory. And the figure of Jesus grew more and more splendid. He +stood at the end of a long flight of steps. "Yes! Yes! O my Master, +has not the time come for this dawn of the millennium of Christian +history? Oh, break upon the Christendom of this age with the light +and the truth! Help us to follow Thee all the way!" +</P> + +<P> +He rose at last with the awe of one who has looked at heavenly +things. He felt the human forces and the human sins of the world as +never before. And with a hope that walks hand in hand with faith and +love Henry Maxwell, disciple of Jesus, laid him down to sleep and +dreamed of the regeneration of Christendom, and saw in his dream a +church of Jesus without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, following +him all the way, walking obediently in His steps. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P CLASS="finis"> +THE END +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of In His Steps, by Charles M. Sheldon + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN HIS STEPS *** + +***** This file should be named 4540-h.htm or 4540-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/5/4/4540/ + +Produced by Charles Aldarondo. 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Sheldon + +Posting Date: August 11, 2009 [EBook #4540] +Release Date: October, 2003 +First Posted: February 5, 2002 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN HIS STEPS *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Aldarondo. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + +In His Steps + + +by + +Charles M. Sheldon + + +JTABLEA 10 31 1 + + + +Chapter One + + +"For hereunto were ye called; because Christ also suffered for you, +leaving you an example, that ye should follow in his steps." + + +It was Friday morning and the Rev. Henry Maxwell was trying to +finish his Sunday morning sermon. He had been interrupted several +times and was growing nervous as the morning wore away, and the +sermon grew very slowly toward a satisfactory finish. + +"Mary," he called to his wife, as he went upstairs after the last +interruption, "if any one comes after this, I wish you would say I +am very busy and cannot come down unless it is something very +important." + +"Yes, Henry. But I am going over to visit the kindergarten and you +will have the house all to yourself." + +The minister went up into his study and shut the door. In a few +minutes he heard his wife go out, and then everything was quiet. He +settled himself at his desk with a sigh of relief and began to +write. His text was from 1 Peter 2:21: "For hereunto were ye called; +because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that ye +should follow his steps." + +He had emphasized in the first part of the sermon the Atonement as a +personal sacrifice, calling attention to the fact of Jesus' +suffering in various ways, in His life as well as in His death. He +had then gone on to emphasize the Atonement from the side of +example, giving illustrations from the life and teachings of Jesus +to show how faith in the Christ helped to save men because of the +pattern or character He displayed for their imitation. He was now on +the third and last point, the necessity of following Jesus in His +sacrifice and example. + +He had put down "Three Steps. What are they?" and was about to +enumerate them in logical order when the bell rang sharply. It was +one of those clock-work bells, and always went off as a clock might +go if it tried to strike twelve all at once. + +Henry Maxwell sat at his desk and frowned a little. He made no +movement to answer the bell. Very soon it rang again; then he rose +and walked over to one of his windows which commanded the view of +the front door. A man was standing on the steps. He was a young man, +very shabbily dressed. + +"Looks like a tramp," said the minister. "I suppose I'll have to go +down and--" + +He did not finish his sentence but he went downstairs and opened the +front door. There was a moment's pause as the two men stood facing +each other, then the shabby-looking young man said: + +"I'm out of a job, sir, and thought maybe you might put me in the +way of getting something." + +"I don't know of anything. Jobs are scarce--" replied the minister, +beginning to shut the door slowly. + +"I didn't know but you might perhaps be able to give me a line to +the city railway or the superintendent of the shops, or something," +continued the young man, shifting his faded hat from one hand to the +other nervously. + +"It would be of no use. You will have to excuse me. I am very busy +this morning. I hope you will find something. Sorry I can't give you +something to do here. But I keep only a horse and a cow and do the +work myself." + +The Rev. Henry Maxwell closed the door and heard the man walk down +the steps. As he went up into his study he saw from his hall window +that the man was going slowly down the street, still holding his hat +between his hands. There was something in the figure so dejected, +homeless and forsaken that the minister hesitated a moment as he +stood looking at it. Then he turned to his desk and with a sigh +began the writing where he had left off. + +He had no more interruptions, and when his wife came in two hours +later the sermon was finished, the loose leaves gathered up and +neatly tied together, and laid on his Bible all ready for the Sunday +morning service. + +"A queer thing happened at the kindergarten this morning, Henry," +said his wife while they were eating dinner. "You know I went over +with Mrs. Brown to visit the school, and just after the games, while +the children were at the tables, the door opened and a young man +came in holding a dirty hat in both hands. He sat down near the door +and never said a word; only looked at the children. He was evidently +a tramp, and Miss Wren and her assistant Miss Kyle were a little +frightened at first, but he sat there very quietly and after a few +minutes he went out." + +"Perhaps he was tired and wanted to rest somewhere. The same man +called here, I think. Did you say he looked like a tramp?" + +"Yes, very dusty, shabby and generally tramp-like. Not more than +thirty or thirty-three years old, I should say." + +"The same man," said the Rev. Henry Maxwell thoughtfully. + +"Did you finish your sermon, Henry?" his wife asked after a pause. + +"Yes, all done. It has been a very busy week with me. The two +sermons have cost me a good deal of labor." + +"They will be appreciated by a large audience, Sunday, I hope," +replied his wife smiling. "What are you going to preach about in the +morning?" + +"Following Christ. I take up the Atonement under the head of +sacrifice and example, and then show the steps needed to follow His +sacrifice and example." + +"I am sure it is a good sermon. I hope it won't rain Sunday. We have +had so many stormy Sundays lately." + +"Yes, the audiences have been quite small for some time. People will +not come out to church in a storm." The Rev. Henry Maxwell sighed as +he said it. He was thinking of the careful, laborious effort he had +made in preparing sermons for large audiences that failed to appear. + +But Sunday morning dawned on the town of Raymond one of the perfect +days that sometimes come after long periods of wind and mud and +rain. The air was clear and bracing, the sky was free from all +threatening signs, and every one in Mr. Maxwell's parish prepared to +go to church. When the service opened at eleven o'clock the large +building was filled with an audience of the best-dressed, most +comfortable looking people of Raymond. + +The First Church of Raymond believed in having the best music that +money could buy, and its quartet choir this morning was a source of +great pleasure to the congregation. The anthem was inspiring. All +the music was in keeping with the subject of the sermon. And the +anthem was an elaborate adaptation to the most modern music of the +hymn, + + "Jesus, I my cross have taken, + All to leave and follow Thee." + +Just before the sermon, the soprano sang a solo, the well-known +hymn, + + "Where He leads me I will follow, + I'll go with Him, with Him, all the way." + +Rachel Winslow looked very beautiful that morning as she stood up +behind the screen of carved oak which was significantly marked with +the emblems of the cross and the crown. Her voice was even more +beautiful than her face, and that meant a great deal. There was a +general rustle of expectation over the audience as she rose. Mr. +Maxwell settled himself contentedly behind the pulpit. Rachel +Winslow's singing always helped him. He generally arranged for a +song before the sermon. It made possible a certain inspiration of +feeling that made his delivery more impressive. + +People said to themselves they had never heard such singing even in +the First Church. It is certain that if it had not been a church +service, her solo would have been vigorously applauded. It even +seemed to the minister when she sat down that something like an +attempted clapping of hands or a striking of feet on the floor swept +through the church. He was startled by it. As he rose, however, and +laid his sermon on the Bible, he said to himself he had been +deceived. Of course it could not occur. In a few moments he was +absorbed in his sermon and everything else was forgotten in the +pleasure of his delivery. + +No one had ever accused Henry Maxwell of being a dull preacher. On +the contrary, he had often been charged with being sensational; not +in what he had said so much as in his way of saying it. But the +First Church people liked that. It gave their preacher and their +parish a pleasant distinction that was agreeable. + +It was also true that the pastor of the First Church loved to +preach. He seldom exchanged. He was eager to be in his own pulpit +when Sunday came. There was an exhilarating half hour for him as he +faced a church full of people and know that he had a hearing. He was +peculiarly sensitive to variations in the attendance. He never +preached well before a small audience. The weather also affected him +decidedly. He was at his best before just such an audience as faced +him now, on just such a morning. He felt a glow of satisfaction as +he went on. The church was the first in the city. It had the best +choir. It had a membership composed of the leading people, +representatives of the wealth, society and intelligence of Raymond. +He was going abroad on a three months vacation in the summer, and +the circumstances of his pastorate, his influence and his position +as pastor of the First Church in the city-- + +It is not certain that the Rev. Henry Maxwell knew just how he could +carry on that thought in connection with his sermon, but as he drew +near the end of it he knew that he had at some point in his delivery +had all those feelings. They had entered into the very substance of +his thought; it might have been all in a few seconds of time, but he +had been conscious of defining his position and his emotions as well +as if he had held a soliloquy, and his delivery partook of the +thrill of deep personal satisfaction. + +The sermon was interesting. It was full of striking sentences. They +would have commanded attention printed. Spoken with the passion of a +dramatic utterance that had the good taste never to offend with a +suspicion of ranting or declamation, they were very effective. If +the Rev. Henry Maxwell that morning felt satisfied with the +conditions of his pastorate, the First Church also had a similar +feeling as it congratulated itself on the presence in the pulpit of +this scholarly, refined, somewhat striking face and figure, +preaching with such animation and freedom from all vulgar, noisy or +disagreeable mannerism. + +Suddenly, into the midst of this perfect accord and concord between +preacher and audience, there came a very remarkable interruption. It +would be difficult to indicate the extent of the shock which this +interruption measured. It was so unexpected, so entirely contrary to +any thought of any person present that it offered no room for +argument or, for the time being, of resistance. + +The sermon had come to a close. Mr. Maxwell had just turned the half +of the big Bible over upon his manuscript and was about to sit down +as the quartet prepared to arise to sing the closing selection, + + "All for Jesus, all for Jesus, + All my being's ransomed powers..." + +when the entire congregation was startled by the sound of a man's +voice. It came from the rear of the church, from one of the seats +under the gallery. The next moment the figure of a man came out of +the shadow there and walked down the middle aisle. + +Before the startled congregation fairly realized what was going on +the man had reached the open space in front of the pulpit and had +turned about facing the people. + +"I've been wondering since I came in here"--they were the words he +used under the gallery, and he repeated them--"if it would be just +the thing to say a word at the close of the service. I'm not drunk +and I'm not crazy, and I am perfectly harmless, but if I die, as +there is every likelihood I shall in a few days, I want the +satisfaction of thinking that I said my say in a place like this, +and before this sort of a crowd." + +Henry Maxwell had not taken his seat, and he now remained standing, +leaning on his pulpit, looking down at the stranger. It was the man +who had come to his house the Friday before, the same dusty, worn, +shabby-looking young man. He held his faded hat in his two hands. It +seemed to be a favorite gesture. He had not been shaved and his hair +was rough and tangled. It is doubtful if any one like this had ever +confronted the First Church within the sanctuary. It was tolerably +familiar with this sort of humanity out on the street, around the +railroad shops, wandering up and down the avenue, but it had never +dreamed of such an incident as this so near. + +There was nothing offensive in the man's manner or tone. He was not +excited and he spoke in a low but distinct voice. Mr. Maxwell was +conscious, even as he stood there smitten into dumb astonishment at +the event, that somehow the man's action reminded him of a person he +had once seen walking and talking in his sleep. + +No one in the house made any motion to stop the stranger or in any +way interrupt him. Perhaps the first shock of his sudden appearance +deepened into a genuine perplexity concerning what was best to do. +However that may be, he went on as if he had no thought of +interruption and no thought of the unusual element which he had +introduced into the decorum of the First Church service. And all the +while he was speaking, the minister leaded over the pulpit, his face +growing more white and sad every moment. But he made no movement to +stop him, and the people sat smitten into breathless silence. One +other face, that of Rachel Winslow from the choir, stared white and +intent down at the shabby figure with the faded hat. Her face was +striking at any time. Under the pressure of the present unheard-of +incident it was as personally distinct as if it had been framed in +fire. + +"I'm not an ordinary tramp, though I don't know of any teaching of +Jesus that makes one kind of a tramp less worth saving than another. +Do you?" He put the question as naturally as if the whole +congregation had been a small Bible class. He paused just a moment +and coughed painfully. Then he went on. + +"I lost my job ten months ago. I am a printer by trade. The new +linotype machines are beautiful specimens of invention, but I know +six men who have killed themselves inside of the year just on +account of those machines. Of course I don't blame the newspapers +for getting the machines. Meanwhile, what can a man do? I know I +never learned but the one trade, and that's all I can do. I've +tramped all over the country trying to find something. There are a +good many others like me. I'm not complaining, am I? Just stating +facts. But I was wondering as I sat there under the gallery, if what +you call following Jesus is the same thing as what He taught. What +did He mean when He said: 'Follow Me!'? The minister said,"--here he +turned about and looked up at the pulpit--"that it is necessary for +the disciple of Jesus to follow His steps, and he said the steps are +'obedience, faith, love and imitation.' But I did not hear him tell +you just what he meant that to mean, especially the last step. What +do you Christians mean by following the steps of Jesus? + +"I've tramped through this city for three days trying to find a job; +and in all that time I've not had a word of sympathy or comfort +except from your minister here, who said he was sorry for me and +hoped I would find a job somewhere. I suppose it is because you get +so imposed on by the professional tramp that you have lost your +interest in any other sort. I'm not blaming anybody, am I? Just +stating facts. Of course, I understand you can't all go out of your +way to hunt up jobs for other people like me. I'm not asking you to; +but what I feel puzzled about is, what is meant by following Jesus. +What do you mean when you sing 'I'll go with Him, with Him, all the +way?' Do you mean that you are suffering and denying yourselves and +trying to save lost, suffering humanity just as I understand Jesus +did? What do you mean by it? I see the ragged edge of things a good +deal. I understand there are more than five hundred men in this city +in my case. Most of them have families. My wife died four months +ago. I'm glad she is out of trouble. My little girl is staying with +a printer's family until I find a job. Somehow I get puzzled when I +see so many Christians living in luxury and singing 'Jesus, I my +cross have taken, all to leave and follow Thee,' and remember how my +wife died in a tenement in New York City, gasping for air and asking +God to take the little girl too. Of course I don't expect you people +can prevent every one from dying of starvation, lack of proper +nourishment and tenement air, but what does following Jesus mean? I +understand that Christian people own a good many of the tenements. A +member of a church was the owner of the one where my wife died, and +I have wondered if following Jesus all the way was true in his case. +I heard some people singing at a church prayer meeting the other +night, + + 'All for Jesus, all for Jesus, + All my being's ransomed powers, + All my thoughts, and all my doings, + All my days, and all my hours.' + +and I kept wondering as I sat on the steps outside just what they +meant by it. It seems to me there's an awful lot of trouble in the +world that somehow wouldn't exist if all the people who sing such +songs went and lived them out. I suppose I don't understand. But +what would Jesus do? Is that what you mean by following His steps? +It seems to me sometimes as if the people in the big churches had +good clothes and nice houses to live in, and money to spend for +luxuries, and could go away on summer vacations and all that, while +the people outside the churches, thousands of them, I mean, die in +tenements, and walk the streets for jobs, and never have a piano or +a picture in the house, and grow up in misery and drunkenness and +sin." + +The man suddenly gave a queer lurch over in the direction of the +communion table and laid one grimy hand on it. His hat fell upon the +carpet at his feet. A stir went through the congregation. Dr. West +half rose from his pew, but as yet the silence was unbroken by any +voice or movement worth mentioning in the audience. The man passed +his other hand across his eyes, and then, without any warning, fell +heavily forward on his face, full length up the aisle. Henry Maxwell +spoke: + +"We will consider the service closed." + + + + +Chapter Two + + +Henry Maxwell and a group of his church members remained some time +in the study. The man lay on the couch there and breathed heavily. +When the question of what to do with him came up, the minister +insisted on taking the man to his own house; he lived near by and +had an extra room. Rachel Winslow said: + +"Mother has no company at present. I am sure we would be glad to +give him a place with us." + +She looked strongly agitated. No one noticed it particularly. They +were all excited over the strange event, the strangest that First +Church people could remember. But the minister insisted on taking +charge of the man, and when a carriage came the unconscious but +living form was carried to his house; and with the entrance of that +humanity into the minister's spare room a new chapter in Henry +Maxwell's life began, and yet no one, himself least of all, dreamed +of the remarkable change it was destined to make in all his after +definition of the Christian discipleship. + +The event created a great sensation in the First Church parish. +People talked of nothing else for a week. It was the general +impression that the man had wandered into the church in a condition +of mental disturbance caused by his troubles, and that all the time +he was talking he was in a strange delirium of fever and really +ignorant of his surroundings. That was the most charitable +construction to put upon his action. It was the general agreement +also that there was a singular absence of anything bitter or +complaining in what the man had said. He had, throughout, spoken in +a mild, apologetic tone, almost as if he were one of the +congregation seeking for light on a very difficult subject. + +The third day after his removal to the minister's house there was a +marked change in his condition. The doctor spoke of it but offered +no hope. Saturday morning he still lingered, although he had rapidly +failed as the week drew near its close. Sunday morning, just before +the clock struck one, he rallied and asked if his child had come. +The minister had sent for her at once as soon as he had been able to +secure her address from some letters found in the man's pocket. He +had been conscious and able to talk coherently only a few moments +since his attack. + +"The child is coming. She will be here," Mr. Maxwell said as he sat +there, his face showing marks of the strain of the week's vigil; for +he had insisted on sitting up nearly every night. + +"I shall never see her in this world," the man whispered. Then he +uttered with great difficulty the words, "You have been good to me. +Somehow I feel as if it was what Jesus would do." + +After a few minutes he turned his head slightly, and before Mr. +Maxwell could realize the fact, the doctor said quietly, "He is +gone." + +The Sunday morning that dawned on the city of Raymond was exactly +like the Sunday of a week before. Mr. Maxwell entered his pulpit to +face one of the largest congregations that had ever crowded the +First Church. He was haggard and looked as if he had just risen from +a long illness. His wife was at home with the little girl, who had +come on the morning train an hour after her father had died. He lay +in that spare room, his troubles over, and the minister could see +the face as he opened the Bible and arranged his different notices +on the side of the desk as he had been in the habit of doing for ten +years. + +The service that morning contained a new element. No one could +remember when Henry Maxwell had preached in the morning without +notes. As a matter of fact he had done so occasionally when he first +entered the ministry, but for a long time he had carefully written +every word of his morning sermon, and nearly always his evening +discourses as well. It cannot be said that his sermon this morning +was striking or impressive. He talked with considerable hesitation. +It was evident that some great idea struggled in his thought for +utterance, but it was not expressed in the theme he had chosen for +his preaching. It was near the close of his sermon that he began to +gather a certain strength that had been painfully lacking at the +beginning. + +He closed the Bible and, stepping out at the side of the desk, faced +his people and began to talk to them about the remarkable scene of +the week before. + +"Our brother," somehow the words sounded a little strange coming +from his lips, "passed away this morning. I have not yet had time to +learn all his history. He had one sister living in Chicago. I have +written her and have not yet received an answer. His little girl is +with us and will remain for the time." + +He paused and looked over the house. He thought he had never seen so +many earnest faces during his entire pastorate. He was not able yet +to tell his people his experiences, the crisis through which he was +even now moving. But something of his feeling passed from him to +them, and it did not seem to him that he was acting under a careless +impulse at all to go on and break to them this morning something of +the message he bore in his heart. + +So he went on: "The appearance and words of this stranger in the +church last Sunday made a very powerful impression on me. I am not +able to conceal from you or myself the fact that what he said, +followed as it has been by his death in my house, has compelled me +to ask as I never asked before 'What does following Jesus mean?' I +am not in a position yet to utter any condemnation of this people +or, to a certain extent, of myself, either in our Christ-like +relations to this man or the numbers that he represents in the +world. But all that does not prevent me from feeling that much that +the man said was so vitally true that we must face it in an attempt +to answer it or else stand condemned as Christian disciples. A good +deal that was said here last Sunday was in the nature of a challenge +to Christianity as it is seen and felt in our churches. I have felt +this with increasing emphasis every day since. + +"And I do not know that any time is more appropriate than the +present for me to propose a plan, or a purpose, which has been +forming in my mind as a satisfactory reply to much that was said +here last Sunday." + +Again Henry Maxwell paused and looked into the faces of his people. +There were some strong, earnest men and women in the First Church. + +He could see Edward Norman, editor of the Raymond DAILY NEWS. He had +been a member of the First Church for ten years. + +No man was more honored in the community. There was Alexander +Powers, superintendent of the great railroad shops in Raymond, a +typical railroad man, one who had been born into the business. There +sat Donald Marsh, president of Lincoln College, situated in the +suburbs of Raymond. There was Milton Wright, one of the great +merchants of Raymond, having in his employ at least one hundred men +in various shops. There was Dr. West who, although still +comparatively young, was quoted as authority in special surgical +cases. There was young Jasper Chase the author, who had written one +successful book and was said to be at work on a new novel. There was +Miss Virginia Page the heiress, who through the recent death of her +father had inherited a million at least, and was gifted with unusual +attractions of person and intellect. And not least of all, Rachel +Winslow, from her seat in the choir, glowed with her peculiar beauty +of light this morning because she was so intensely interested in the +whole scene. + +There was some reason, perhaps, in view of such material in the +First Church, for Henry Maxwell's feeling of satisfaction whenever +he considered his parish as he had the previous Sunday. There was an +unusually large number of strong, individual characters who claimed +membership there. But as he noted their faces this morning he was +simply wondering how many of them would respond to the strange +proposition he was about to make. He continued slowly, taking time +to choose his words carefully, and giving the people an impression +they had never felt before, even when he was at his best with his +most dramatic delivery. + +"What I am going to propose now is something which ought not to +appear unusual or at all impossible of execution. Yet I am aware +that it will be so regarded by a large number, perhaps, of the +members of this church. But in order that we may have a thorough +understanding of what we are considering, I will put my proposition +very plainly, perhaps bluntly. I want volunteers from the First +Church who will pledge themselves, earnestly and honestly for an +entire year, not to do anything without first asking the question, +'What would Jesus do?' And after asking that question, each one will +follow Jesus as exactly as he knows how, no matter what the result +may be. I will of course include myself in this company of +volunteers, and shall take for granted that my church here will not +be surprised at my future conduct, as based upon this standard of +action, and will not oppose whatever is done if they think Christ +would do it. Have I made my meaning clear? At the close of the +service I want all those members who are willing to join such a +company to remain and we will talk over the details of the plan. Our +motto will be, 'What would Jesus do?' Our aim will be to act just as +He would if He was in our places, regardless of immediate results. +In other words, we propose to follow Jesus' steps as closely and as +literally as we believe He taught His disciples to do. And those who +volunteer to do this will pledge themselves for an entire year, +beginning with today, so to act." + +Henry Maxwell paused again and looked out over his people. It is not +easy to describe the sensation that such a simple proposition +apparently made. Men glanced at one another in astonishment. It was +not like Henry Maxwell to define Christian discipleship in this way. +There was evident confusion of thought over his proposition. It was +understood well enough, but there was, apparently, a great +difference of opinion as to the application of Jesus' teaching and +example. + +He calmly closed the service with a brief prayer. The organist began +his postlude immediately after the benediction and the people began +to go out. There was a great deal of conversation. Animated groups +stood all over the church discussing the minister's proposition. It +was evidently provoking great discussion. After several minutes he +asked all who expected to remain to pass into the lecture-room which +joined the large room on the side. He was himself detained at the +front of the church talking with several persons there, and when he +finally turned around, the church was empty. He walked over to the +lecture-room entrance and went in. He was almost startled to see the +people who were there. He had not made up his mind about any of his +members, but he had hardly expected that so many were ready to enter +into such a literal testing of their Christian discipleship as now +awaited him. There were perhaps fifty present, among them Rachel +Winslow and Virginia Page, Mr. Norman, President Marsh, Alexander +Powers the railroad superintendent, Milton Wright, Dr. West and +Jasper Chase. + +He closed the door of the lecture-room and went and stood before the +little group. His face was pale and his lips trembled with genuine +emotion. It was to him a genuine crisis in his own life and that of +his parish. No man can tell until he is moved by the Divine Spirit +what he may do, or how he may change the current of a lifetime of +fixed habits of thought and speech and action. Henry Maxwell did +not, as we have said, yet know himself all that he was passing +through, but he was conscious of a great upheaval in his definition +of Christian discipleship, and he was moved with a depth of feeling +he could not measure as he looked into the faces of those men and +women on this occasion. + +It seemed to him that the most fitting word to be spoken first was +that of prayer. He asked them all to pray with him. And almost with +the first syllable he uttered there was a distinct presence of the +Spirit felt by them all. As the prayer went on, this presence grew +in power. They all felt it. The room was filled with it as plainly +as if it had been visible. When the prayer closed there was a +silence that lasted several moments. All the heads were bowed. Henry +Maxwell's face was wet with tears. If an audible voice from heaven +had sanctioned their pledge to follow the Master's steps, not one +person present could have felt more certain of the divine blessing. +And so the most serious movement ever started in the First Church of +Raymond was begun. + +"We all understand," said he, speaking very quietly, "what we have +undertaken to do. We pledge ourselves to do everything in our daily +lives after asking the question, 'What would Jesus do?' regardless +of what may be the result to us. Some time I shall be able to tell +you what a marvelous change has come over my life within a week's +time. I cannot now. But the experience I have been through since +last Sunday has left me so dissatisfied with my previous definition +of Christian discipleship that I have been compelled to take this +action. I did not dare begin it alone. I know that I am being led by +the hand of divine love in all this. The same divine impulse must +have led you also. + +"Do we understand fully what we have undertaken?" + +"I want to ask a question," said Rachel Winslow. Every one turned +towards her. Her face glowed with a beauty that no physical +loveliness could ever create. + +"I am a little in doubt as to the source of our knowledge concerning +what Jesus would do. Who is to decide for me just what He would do +in my case? It is a different age. There are many perplexing +questions in our civilization that are not mentioned in the +teachings of Jesus. How am I going to tell what He would do?" + +"There is no way that I know of," replied the pastor, "except as we +study Jesus through the medium of the Holy Spirit. You remember what +Christ said speaking to His disciples about the Holy Spirit: +'Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you +into all the truth: for he shall not speak from himself; but what +things soever he shall hear, these shall he speak: and he shall +declare unto you the things that are to come. He shall glorify me; +for he shall take of mine, and shall declare it unto you. All things +whatsoever the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he +taketh of mine, and shall declare it unto you.' There is no other +test that I know of. We shall all have to decide what Jesus would do +after going to that source of knowledge." + +"What if others say of us, when we do certain things, that Jesus +would not do so?" asked the superintendent of railroads. + +"We cannot prevent that. But we must be absolutely honest with +ourselves. The standard of Christian action cannot vary in most of +our acts." + +"And yet what one church member thinks Jesus would do, another +refuses to accept as His probable course of action. What is to +render our conduct uniformly Christ-like? Will it be possible to +reach the same conclusions always in all cases?" asked President +Marsh. + +Mr. Maxwell was silent some time. Then he answered, "No; I don't +know that we can expect that. But when it comes to a genuine, +honest, enlightened following of Jesus' steps, I cannot believe +there will be any confusion either in our own minds or in the +judgment of others. We must be free from fanaticism on one hand and +too much caution on the other. If Jesus' example is the example for +the world to follow, it certainly must be feasible to follow it. But +we need to remember this great fact. After we have asked the Spirit +to tell us what Jesus would do and have received an answer to it, we +are to act regardless of the results to ourselves. Is that +understood?" + +All the faces in the room were raised towards the minister in solemn +assent. There was no misunderstanding that proposition. Henry +Maxwell's face quivered again as he noted the president of the +Endeavor Society with several members seated back of the older men +and women. + + + + +Chapter Three + + +"He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also to walk even as +He walked." + + +EDWARD NORMAN, editor of the Raymond DAILY NEWS, sat in his office +room Monday morning and faced a new world of action. He had made his +pledge in good faith to do everything after asking "What would Jesus +do?" and, as he supposed, with his eyes open to all the possible +results. But as the regular life of the paper started on another +week's rush and whirl of activity, he confronted it with a degree of +hesitation and a feeling nearly akin to fear. + +He had come down to the office very early, and for a few minutes was +by himself. He sat at his desk in a growing thoughtfulness that +finally became a desire which he knew was as great as it was +unusual. He had yet to learn, with all the others in that little +company pledged to do the Christlike thing, that the Spirit of Life +was moving in power through his own life as never before. He rose +and shut his door, and then did what he had not done for years. He +kneeled down by his desk and prayed for the Divine Presence and +wisdom to direct him. + +He rose with the day before him, and his promise distinct and clear +in his mind. "Now for action," he seemed to say. But he would be led +by events as fast as they came on. + +He opened his door and began the routine of the office work. The +managing editor had just come in and was at his desk in the +adjoining room. One of the reporters there was pounding out +something on a typewriter. Edward Norman began to write an +editorial. The DAILY NEWS was an evening paper, and Norman usually +completed his leading editorial before nine o'clock. + +He had been writing for fifteen minutes when the managing editor +called out: "Here's this press report of yesterday's prize fight at +the Resort. It will make up three columns and a half. I suppose it +all goes in?" + +Norman was one of those newspaper men who keep an eye on every +detail of the paper. The managing editor always consulted his chief +in matters of both small and large importance. Sometimes, as in this +case, it was merely a nominal inquiry. + +"Yes--No. Let me see it." + +He took the type-written matter just as it came from the telegraph +editor and ran over it carefully. Then he laid the sheets down on +his desk and did some very hard thinking. + +"We won't run this today," he said finally. + +The managing editor was standing in the doorway between the two +rooms. He was astounded at his chief's remark, and thought he had +perhaps misunderstood him. + +"What did you say?" + +"Leave it out. We won't use it." + +"But--" The managing editor was simply dumbfounded. He stared at +Norman as if the man was out of his mind. + +"I don't think, Clark, that it ought to be printed, and that's the +end of it," said Norman, looking up from his desk. + +Clark seldom had any words with the chief. His word had always been +law in the office and he had seldom been known to change his mind. +The circumstances now, however, seemed to be so extraordinary that +Clark could not help expressing himself. + +"Do you mean that the paper is to go to press without a word of the +prize fight in it?" + +"Yes. That's what I mean." + +"But it's unheard of. All the other papers will print it. What will +our subscribers say? Why, it is simply--" Clark paused, unable to +find words to say what he thought. + +Norman looked at Clark thoughtfully. The managing editor was a +member of a church of a different denomination from that of +Norman's. The two men had never talked together on religious matters +although they had been associated on the paper for several years. + +"Come in here a minute, Clark, and shut the door," said Norman. + +Clark came in and the two men faced each other alone. Norman did not +speak for a minute. Then he said abruptly: "Clark, if Christ was +editor of a daily paper, do you honestly think He would print three +columns and a half of prize fight in it?" + +"No, I don't suppose He would." + +"Well, that's my only reason for shutting this account out of the +NEWS. I have decided not to do a thing in connection with the paper +for a whole year that I honestly believe Jesus would not do." + +Clark could not have looked more amazed if the chief had suddenly +gone crazy. In fact, he did think something was wrong, though Mr. +Norman was one of the last men in the world, in his judgment, to +lose his mind. + +"What effect will that have on the paper?" he finally managed to ask +in a faint voice. + +"What do you think?" asked Norman with a keen glance. + +"I think it will simply ruin the paper," replied Clark promptly. He +was gathering up his bewildered senses, and began to remonstrate, +"Why, it isn't feasible to run a paper nowadays on any such basis. +It's too ideal. The world isn't ready for it. You can't make it pay. +Just as sure as you live, if you shut out this prize fight report +you will lose hundreds of subscribers. It doesn't take a prophet to +see that. The very best people in town are eager to read it. They +know it has taken place, and when they get the paper this evening +they will expect half a page at least. Surely, you can't afford to +disregard the wishes of the public to such an extent. It will be a +great mistake if you do, in my opinion." + +Norman sat silent a minute. Then he spoke gently but firmly. + +"Clark, what in your honest opinion is the right standard for +determining conduct? Is the only right standard for every one, the +probable action of Jesus Christ? Would you say that the highest, +best law for a man to live by was contained in asking the question, +What would Jesus do?' And then doing it regardless of results? In +other words, do you think men everywhere ought to follow Jesus' +example as closely as they can in their daily lives?" Clark turned +red, and moved uneasily in his chair before he answered the editor's +question. + +"Why--yes--I suppose if you put it on the ground of what men ought +to do there is no other standard of conduct. But the question is, +What is feasible? Is it possible to make it pay? To succeed in the +newspaper business we have got to conform to custom and the +recognized methods of society. We can't do as we would in an ideal +world." + +"Do you mean that we can't run the paper strictly on Christian +principles and make it succeed?" + +"Yes, that's just what I mean. It can't be done. We'll go bankrupt +in thirty days." + +Norman did not reply at once. He was very thoughtful. + +"We shall have occasion to talk this over again, Clark. Meanwhile I +think we ought to understand each other frankly. I have pledged +myself for a year to do everything connected with the paper after +answering the question, What would Jesus do?' as honestly as +possible. I shall continue to do this in the belief that not only +can we succeed but that we can succeed better than we ever did." + +Clark rose. "The report does not go in?" + +"It does not. There is plenty of good material to take its place, +and you know what it is." + +Clark hesitated. "Are you going to say anything about the absence of +the report?" + +"No, let the paper go to press as if there had been no such thing as +a prize fight yesterday." + +Clark walked out of the room to his own desk feeling as if the +bottom had dropped out of everything. He was astonished, bewildered, +excited and considerably angered. His great respect for Norman +checked his rising indignation and disgust, but with it all was a +feeling of growing wonder at the sudden change of motive which had +entered the office of the DAILY NEWS and threatened, as he firmly +believed, to destroy it. + +Before noon every reporter, pressman and employee on the DAILY NEWS +was informed of the remarkable fact that the paper was going to +press without a word in it about the famous prize fight of Sunday. +The reporters were simply astonished beyond measure at the +announcement of the fact. Every one in the stereotyping and +composing rooms had something to say about the unheard of omission. +Two or three times during the day when Mr. Norman had occasion to +visit the composing rooms the men stopped their work or glanced +around their cases looking at him curiously. He knew that he was +being observed, but said nothing and did not appear to note it. + +There had been several minor changes in the paper, suggested by the +editor, but nothing marked. He was waiting and thinking deeply. + +He felt as if he needed time and considerable opportunity for the +exercise of his best judgment in several matters before he answered +his ever present question in the right way. It was not because there +were not a great many things in the life of the paper that were +contrary to the spirit of Christ that he did not act at once, but +because he was yet honestly in doubt concerning what action Jesus +would take. + +When the DAILY NEWS came out that evening it carried to its +subscribers a distinct sensation. + +The presence of the report of the prize fight could not have +produced anything equal to the effect of its omission. Hundreds of +men in the hotels and stores down town, as well as regular +subscribers, eagerly opened the paper and searched it through for +the account of the great fight; not finding it, they rushed to the +NEWS stands and bought other papers. Even the newsboys had not a +understood the fact of omission. One of them was calling out "DAILY +NEWS! Full 'count great prize fight 't Resort. NEWS, sir?" + +A man on the corner of the avenue close by the NEWS office bought +the paper, looked over its front page hurriedly and then angrily +called the boy back. + +"Here, boy! What's the matter with your paper? There's no prize +fight here! What do you mean by selling old papers?" + +"Old papers nuthin'!" replied the boy indignantly. "Dat's today's +paper. What's de matter wid you?" + +"But there is no account of the prize fight here! Look!" + +The man handed back the paper and the boy glanced at k hurriedly. +Then he whistled, while a bewildered look crept over his face. +Seeing another boy running by with papers he called out "Say, Sam, +le'me see your pile." A hasty examination revealed the remarkable +fact that all the copies of the NEWS were silent on the subject of +the prize fight. + +"Here, give me another paper!" shouted the customer; "one with the +prize fight account." + +He received it and walked off, while the two boys remained comparing +notes and lost in wonder at the result. "Sump'n slipped a cog in the +Newsy, sure," said the first boy. But he couldn't tell why, and ran +over to the NEWS office to find out. + +There were several other boys at the delivery room and they were all +excited and disgusted. The amount of slangy remonstrance hurled at +the clerk back of the long counter would have driven any one else to +despair. + +He was used to more or less of it all the time, and consequently +hardened to it. Mr. Norman was just coming downstairs on his way +home, and he paused as he went by the door of the delivery room and +looked in. + +"What's the matter here, George?" he asked the clerk as he noted the +unusual confusion. + +"The boys say they can't sell any copies of the NEWS tonight because +the prize fight isn't in it," replied George, looking curiously at +the editor as so many of the employees had done during the day. Mr. +Norman hesitated a moment, then walked into the room and confronted +the boys. + +"How many papers are there here? Boys, count them out, and I'll buy +them tonight." + +There was a combined stare and a wild counting of papers on the part +of the boys. + +"Give them their money, George, and if any of the other boys come in +with the same complaint buy their unsold copies. Is that fair?" he +asked the boys who were smitten into unusual silence by the unheard +of action on the part of the editor. + +"Fair! Well, I should--But will you keep this up? Will dis be a +continual performance for the benefit of de fraternity?" + +Mr. Norman smiled slightly but he did not think it was necessary to +answer the question. + +He walked out of the office and went home. On the way he could not +avoid that constant query, "Would Jesus have done it?" It was not so +much with reference to this last transaction as to the entire motive +that had urged him on since he had made the promise. + +The newsboys were necessarily sufferers through the action he had +taken. Why should they lose money by it? They were not to blame. He +was a rich man and could afford to put a little brightness into +their lives if he chose to do it. He believed, as he went on his way +home, that Jesus would have done either what he did or something +similar in order to be free from any possible feeling of injustice. + + + + +Chapter Four + + +DURING the week he was in receipt of numerous letters commenting on +the absence from the News of the account of the prize fight. Two or +three of these letters may be of interest. + + +Editor of the News: + +Dear Sir--I have been thinking for some time of changing my paper. I +want a journal that is up to the times, progressive and +enterprising, supplying the public demand at all points. The recent +freak of your paper in refusing to print the account of the famous +contest at the Resort has decided me finally to change my paper. + +Please discontinue it. + +Very truly yours,------- + + +Here followed the name of a business man who had been a subscriber +for many years. + + +Edward Norman, + +Editor of the Daily News, Raymond: + +Dear Ed.--What is this sensation you have given the people of your +burg? What new policy have you taken up? Hope you don't intend to +try the "Reform Business" through the avenue of the press. It's +dangerous to experiment much along that line. Take my advice and +stick to the enterprising modern methods you have made so successful +for the News. The public wants prize fights and such. Give it what +it wants, and let some one else do the reforming business. + +Yours,------- + + +Here followed the name of one of Norman's old friends, the editor of +a daily in an adjoining town. + + +My Dear Mr. Norman: + +I hasten to write you a note of appreciation for the evident +carrying out of your promise. It is a splendid beginning and no one +feels the value of it more than I do. I know something of what it +will cost you, but not all. Your pastor, + +HENRY MAXWELL. + + +One other letter which he opened immediately after reading this from +Maxwell revealed to him something of the loss to his business that +possibly awaited him. + + +Mr. Edward Norman, + +Editor of the Daily News: + +Dear Sir--At the expiration of my advertising limit, you will do me +the favor not to continue it as you have done heretofore. I enclose +check for payment in full and shall consider my account with your +paper closed after date. + +Very truly yours,------- + + +Here followed the name of one of the largest dealers in tobacco in +the city. He had been in the habit of inserting a column of +conspicuous advertising and paying for it a very large price. + +Norman laid this letter down thoughtfully, and then after a moment +he took up a copy of his paper and looked through the advertising +columns. There was no connection implied in the tobacco merchant's +letter between the omission of the prize fight and the withdrawal of +the advertisement, but he could not avoid putting the two together. +In point of fact, he afterward learned that the tobacco dealer +withdrew his advertisement because he had heard that the editor of +the NEWS was about to enter upon some queer reform policy that would +be certain to reduce its subscription list. + +But the letter directed Norman's attention to the advertising phase +of his paper. He had not considered this before. + +As he glanced over the columns he could not escape the conviction +that his Master could not permit some of them in his paper. + +What would He do with that other long advertisement of choice +liquors and cigars? As a member of a church and a respected citizen, +he had incurred no special censure because the saloon men advertised +in his columns. No one thought anything about it. It was all +legitimate business. Why not? Raymond enjoyed a system of high +license, and the saloon and the billiard hall and the beer garden +were a part of the city's Christian civilization. He was simply +doing what every other business man in Raymond did. And it was one +of the best paying sources of revenue. What would the paper do if it +cut these out? Could it live? That was the question. But was that +the question after all? "What would Jesus do?" That was the question +he was answering, or trying to answer, this week. Would Jesus +advertise whiskey and tobacco in his paper? + +Edward Norman asked it honestly, and after a prayer for help and +wisdom he asked Clark to come into the office. + +Clark came in, feeling that the paper was at a crisis, and prepared +for almost anything after his Monday morning experience. This was +Thursday. + +"Clark," said Norman, speaking slowly and carefully, "I have been +looking at our advertising columns and have decided to dispense with +some of the matter as soon as the contracts run out. I wish you +would notify the advertising agent not to solicit or renew the ads +that I have marked here." + +He handed the paper with the marked places over to Clark, who took +it and looked over the columns with a very serious air. + +"This will mean a great loss to the NEWS. How long do you think you +can keep this sort of thing up?" Clark was astounded at the editor's +action and could not understand it. + +"Clark, do you think if Jesus was the editor and proprietor of a +daily paper in Raymond He would permit advertisements of whiskey and +tobacco in it?" + +"Well no--I--don't suppose He would. But what has that to do with +us? We can't do as He would. Newspapers can't be run on any such +basis." + +"Why not?" asked Norman quietly. + +"Why not? Because they will lose more money than they make, that's +all!" Clark spoke out with an irritation that he really felt. "We +shall certainly bankrupt the paper with this sort of business +policy." + +"Do you think so?" Norman asked the question not as if he expected +an answer, but simply as if he were talking with himself. After a +pause he said: + +"You may direct Marks to do as I have said. I believe it is what +Christ would do, and as I told you, Clark, that is what I have +promised to try to do for a year, regardless of what the results may +be to me. I cannot believe that by any kind of reasoning we could +reach a conclusion justifying our Lord in the advertisement, in this +age, of whiskey and tobacco in a newspaper. There are some other +advertisements of a doubtful character I shall study into. +Meanwhile, I feel a conviction in regard to these that cannot be +silenced." + +Clark went back to his desk feeling as if he had been in the +presence of a very peculiar person. He could not grasp the meaning +of it all. He felt enraged and alarmed. He was sure any such policy +would ruin the paper as soon as it became generally known that the +editor was trying to do everything by such an absurd moral standard. +What would become of business if this standard was adopted? It would +upset every custom and introduce endless confusion. It was simply +foolishness. It was downright idiocy. So Clark said to himself, and +when Marks was informed of the action he seconded the managing +editor with some very forcible ejaculations. What was the matter +with the chief? Was he insane? Was he going to bankrupt the whole +business? + +But Edward Norman had not yet faced his most serious problem. When +he came down to the office Friday morning he was confronted with the +usual program for the Sunday morning edition. The NEWS was one one +of the few evening papers in Raymond to issue a Sunday edition, and +it had always been remarkably successful financially. There was an +average of one page of literary and religious items to thirty or +forty pages of sport, theatre, gossip, fashion, society and +political material. This made a very interesting magazine of all +sorts of reading matter, and had always been welcomed by all the +subscribers, church members and all, as a Sunday morning necessity. +Edward Norman now faced this fact and put to himself the question: +"What would Jesus do?" If He was editor of a paper, would he +deliberately plan to put into the homes of all the church people and +Christians of Raymond such a collection of reading matter on the one +day in the week which ought to be given up to something better +holier? He was of course familiar with the regular arguments of the +Sunday paper, that the public needed something of the sort; and the +working man especially, who would not go to church any way, ought to +have something entertaining and instructive on Sunday, his only day +of rest. But suppose the Sunday morning paper did not pay? Suppose +there was no money in it? How eager would the editor or publisher be +then to supply this crying need of the poor workman? Edward Norman +communed honestly with himself over the subject. + +Taking everything into account, would Jesus probably edit a Sunday +morning paper? No matter whether it paid. That was not the question. +As a matter of fact, the Sunday NEWS paid so well that it would be a +direct loss of thousands of dollars to discontinue it. Besides, the +regular subscribers had paid for a seven-day paper. Had he any right +now to give them less than they supposed they had paid for? + +He was honestly perplexed by the question. So much was involved in +the discontinuance of the Sunday edition that for the first time he +almost decided to refuse to be guided by the standard of Jesus' +probable action. He was sole proprietor of the paper; it was his to +shape as he chose. He had no board of directors to consult as to +policy. But as he sat there surrounded by the usual quantity of +material for the Sunday edition he reached some definite +conclusions. And among them was a determination to call in the force +of the paper and frankly state his motive and purpose. He sent word +for Clark and the other men it the office, including the few +reporters who were in the building and the foreman, with what men +were in the composing room (it was early in the morning and they +were not all in) to come into the mailing room. This was a large +room, and the men came in curiously and perched around on the tables +and counters. It was a very unusual proceeding, but they all agreed +that the paper was being run on new principles anyhow, and they all +watched Mr. Norman carefully as he spoke. + +"I called you in here to let you know my further plans for the NEWS. +I propose certain changes which I believe are necessary. I +understand very well that some things I have already done are +regarded by the men as very strange. I wish to state my motive in +doing what I have done." + +Here he told the men what he had already told Clark, and they stared +as Clark had done, and looked as painfully conscious. + +"Now, in acting on this standard of conduct I have reached a +conclusion which will, no doubt, cause some surprise. + +"I have decided that the Sunday morning edition of the NEWS shall be +discontinued after next Sunday's issue. I shall state in that issue +my reasons for discontinuing. In order to make up to the subscribers +the amount of reading matter they may suppose themselves entitled +to, we can issue a double number on Saturday, as is done by many +evening papers that make no attempt at a Sunday edition. I am +convinced that from a Christian point of view more harm than good +has been done by our Sunday morning paper. I do not believe that +Jesus would be responsible for it if He were in my place today. It +will occasion some trouble to arrange the details caused by this +change with the advertisers and subscribers. That is for me to look +after. The change itself is one that will take place. So far as I +can see, the loss will fall on myself. Neither the reporters nor the +pressmen need make any particular changes in their plans." + +He looked around the room and no one spoke. He was struck for the +first time in his life with the fact that in all the years of his +newspaper life he had never had the force of the paper together in +this way. Would Jesus do that? That is, would He probably run a +newspaper on some loving family plan, where editors, reporters, +pressmen and all meet to discuss and devise and plan for the making +of a paper that should have in view-- + +He caught himself drawing almost away from the facts of +typographical unions and office rules and reporters' enterprise and +all the cold, businesslike methods that make a great daily +successful. But still the vague picture that came up in the mailing +room would not fade away when he had gone into his office and the +men had gone back to their places with wonder in their looks and +questions of all sorts on their tongues as they talked over the +editor's remarkable actions. + +Clark came in and had a long, serious talk with his chief. He was +thoroughly roused, and his protest almost reached the point of +resigning his place. Norman guarded himself carefully. Every minute +of the interview was painful to him, but he felt more than ever the +necessity of doing the Christ-like thing. Clark was a very valuable +man. It would be difficult to fill his place. But he was not able to +give any reasons for continuing the Sunday paper that answered the +question, "What would Jesus do?" by letting Jesus print that +edition. + +"It comes to this, then," said Clark frankly, "you will bankrupt the +paper in thirty days. We might as well face that future fact." + +"I don't think we shall. Will you stay by the NEWS until it is +bankrupt?" asked Norman with a strange smile. + +"Mr. Norman, I don't understand you. You are not the same man this +week that I always knew before." + +"I don't know myself either, Clark. Something remarkable has caught +me up and borne me on. But I was never more convinced of final +success and power for the paper. You have not answered my question. +Will you stay with me?" + + + + +Chapter Five + + +SUNDAY morning dawned again on Raymond, and Henry Maxwell's church +was again crowded. Before the service began Edward Norman attracted +great attention. He sat quietly in his usual place about three seats +from the pulpit. The Sunday morning issue of the NEWS containing the +statement of its discontinuance had been expressed in such +remarkable language that every reader was struck by it. No such +series of distinct sensations had ever disturbed the usual business +custom of Raymond. The events connected with the NEWS were not all. +People were eagerly talking about strange things done during the +week by Alexander Powers at the railroad shops, and Milton Wright in +his stores on the avenue. The service progressed upon a distinct +wave of excitement in the pews. Henry Maxwell faced it all with a +calmness which indicated a strength and purpose more than usual. His +prayers were very helpful. His sermon was not so easy to describe. +How would a minister be apt to preach to his people if he came +before them after an entire week of eager asking, "How would Jesus +preach? What would He probably say?" It is very certain that he did +not preach as he had done two Sundays before. Tuesday of the past +week he had stood by the grave of the dead stranger and said the +words, "Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust," and still he +was moved by the spirit of a deeper impulse than he could measure as +he thought of his people and yearned for the Christ message when he +should be in his pulpit again. + +Now that Sunday had come and the people were there to hear, what +would the Master tell them? He agonized over his preparation for +them, and yet he knew he had not been able to fit his message into +his ideal of the Christ. Nevertheless no one in the First Church +could remember ever hearing such a sermon before. There was in it +rebuke for sin, especially hypocrisy, there was definite rebuke of +the greed of wealth and the selfishness of fashion, two things that +First Church never heard rebuked this way before, and there was a +love of his people that gathered new force as the sermon went on. +When it was finished there were those who were saying in their +hearts, "The Spirit moved that sermon." And they were right. + +Then Rachel Winslow rose to sing, this time after the sermon, by Mr. +Maxwell's request. Rachel's singing did not provoke applause this +time. What deeper feeling carried the people's hearts into a +reverent silence and tenderness of thought? Rachel was beautiful. +But her consciousness of her remarkable loveliness had always marred +her singing with those who had the deepest spiritual feeling. It had +also marred her rendering of certain kinds of music with herself. +Today this was all gone. There was no lack of power in her grand +voice. But there was an actual added element of humility and purity +which the audience distinctly felt and bowed to. + +Before service closed Mr. Maxwell asked those who had remained the +week before to stay again for a few moments of consultation, and any +others who were willing to make the pledge taken at that time. When +he was at liberty he went into the lecture-room. To his astonishment +it was almost filled. This time a large proportion of young people +had come, but among them were a few business men and officers of the +church. + +As before, he, Maxwell, asked them to pray with him. And, as before, +a distinct answer came from the presence of the divine Spirit. There +was no doubt in the minds of any present that what they purposed to +do was so clearly in line with the divine will, that a blessing +rested upon it in a very special manner. + +They remained some time to ask questions and consult together. There +was a feeling of fellowship such as they had never known in their +church membership. Mr. Norman's action was well understood by them +all, and he answered several questions. + +"What will be the probable result of your discontinuance of the +Sunday paper?" asked Alexander Powers, who sat next to him. + +"I don't know yet. I presume it will result in the falling off of +subscriptions and advertisements. I anticipate that." + +"Do you have any doubts about your action. I mean, do you regret it, +or fear it is not what Jesus would do?" asked Mr. Maxwell. + +"Not in the least. But I would like to ask, for my own satisfaction, +if any of you here think Jesus would issue a Sunday morning paper?" + +No one spoke for a minute. Then Jasper Chase said, "We seem to think +alike on that, but I have been puzzled several times during the week +to know just what He would do. It is not always an easy question to +answer." + +"I find that trouble," said Virginia Page. She sat by Rachel +Winslow. Every one who knew Virginia Page was wondering how she +would succeed in keeping her promise. "I think perhaps I find it +specially difficult to answer that question on account of my money. +Our Lord never owned any property, and there is nothing in His +example to guide me in the use of mine. I am studying and praying. I +think I see clearly a part of what He would do, but not all. What +would He do with a million dollars? is my question really. I confess +I am not yet able to answer it to my satisfaction. + +"I could tell you what you could do with a part of it," said Rachel, +turning her face toward Virginia. "That does not trouble me," +replied Virginia with a slight smile. "What I am trying to discover +is a principle that will enable me to come to the nearest possible +to His action as it ought to influence the entire course of my life +so far as my wealth and its use are concerned." + +"That will take time," said the minister slowly. All the rest of the +room were thinking hard of the same thing. Milton Wright told +something of his experience. He was gradually working out a plan for +his business relations with his employees, and it was opening up a +new world to him and to them. A few of the young men told of special +attempts to answer the question. There was almost general consent +over the fact that the application of the Christ spirit and practice +to the everyday life was the serious thing. It required a knowledge +of Him and an insight into His motives that most of them did not yet +possess. + +When they finally adjourned after a silent prayer that marked with +growing power the Divine Presence, they went away discussing +earnestly their difficulties and seeking light from one another. + +Rachel Winslow and Virginia Page went out together. Edward Norman +and Milton Wright became so interested in their mutual conference +that they walked on past Norman's house and came back together. +Jasper Chase and the president of the Endeavor Society stood talking +earnestly in one corner of the room. Alexander Powers and Henry +Maxwell remained, even after the others had gone. + +"I want you to come down to the shops tomorrow and see my plan and +talk to the men. Somehow I feel as if you could get nearer to them +than any one else just now." + +"I don't know about that, but I will come," replied Mr. Maxwell a +little sadly. How was he fitted to stand before two or three hundred +working men and give them a message? Yet in the moment of his +weakness, as he asked the question, he rebuked himself for it. What +would Jesus do? That was an end to the discussion. + +He went down the next day and found Mr. Powers in his office. It +lacked a few minutes of twelve and the superintendent said, "Come +upstairs, and I'll show you what I've been trying to do." + +They went through the machine shop, climbed a long flight of stairs +and entered a very large, empty room. It had once been used by the +company for a store room. + +"Since making that promise a week ago I have had a good many things +to think of," said the superintendent, "and among them is this: The +company gives me the use of this room, and I am going to fit it up +with tables and a coffee plant in the corner there where those steam +pipes are. My plan is to provide a good place where the men can come +up and eat their noon lunch, and give them, two or three times a +week, the privilege of a fifteen minutes' talk on some subject that +will be a real help to them in their lives." + +Maxwell looked surprised and asked if the men would come for any +such purpose. + +"Yes, they'll come. After all, I know the men pretty well. They are +among the most intelligent working men in the country today. But +they are, as a whole, entirely removed from church influence. I +asked, 'What would Jesus do?' and among other things it seemed to me +He would begin to act in some way to add to the lives of these men +more physical and spiritual comfort. It is a very little thing, this +room and what it represents, but I acted on the first impulse, to do +the first thing that appealed to my good sense, and I want to work +out this idea. I want you to speak to the men when they come up at +noon. I have asked them to come up and see the place and I'll tell +them something about it." + +Maxwell was ashamed to say how uneasy he felt at being asked to +speak a few words to a company of working men. How could he speak +without notes, or to such a crowd? He was honestly in a condition of +genuine fright over the prospect. He actually felt afraid of facing +those men. He shrank from the ordeal of confronting such a crowd, so +different from the Sunday audiences he was familiar with. + +There were a dozen rude benches and tables in the room, and when the +noon whistle sounded the men poured upstairs from the machine shops +below and, seating themselves at the tables, began to cat their +lunch. There were present about three hundred of them. They had read +the superintendent's notice which he had posted up in various +places, and came largely out of curiosity. + +They were favorably impressed. The room was large and airy, free +from smoke and dust, and well warmed from the steam pipes. At about +twenty minutes to one Mr. Powers told the men what he had in mind. +He spoke very simply, like one who understands thoroughly the +character of his audience, and then introduced the Rev. Henry +Maxwell of the First Church, his pastor, who had consented to speak +a few minutes. + +Maxwell will never forget the feeling with which for the first time +he stood before the grimy-faced audience of working men. Like +hundreds of other ministers, he had never spoken to any gatherings +except those made up of people of his own class in the sense that +they were familiar in their dress and education and habits. This was +a new world to him, and nothing but his new rule of conduct could +have made possible his message and its effect. He spoke on the +subject of satisfaction with life; what caused it, what its real +sources were. He had the great good sense on this his first +appearance not to recognize the men as a class distinct from +himself. He did not use the term working man, and did not say a word +to suggest any difference between their lives and his own. + +The men were pleased. A good many of them shook hands with him +before going down to their work, and the minister telling it all to +his wife when he reached home, said that never in all his life had +he known the delight he then felt in having the handshake from a man +of physical labor. The day marked an important one in his Christian +experience, more important than he knew. It was the beginning of a +fellowship between him and the working world. It was the first plank +laid down to help bridge the chasm between the church and labor in +Raymond. + +Alexander Powers went back to his desk that afternoon much pleased +with his plan and seeing much help in it for the men. He knew where +he could get some good tables from an abandoned eating house at one +of the stations down the road, and he saw how the coffee arrangement +could be made a very attractive feature. The men had responded even +better than he anticipated, and the whole thing could not help being +a great benefit to them. + +He took up the routine of his work with a glow of satisfaction. +After all, he wanted to do as Jesus would, he said to himself. + +It was nearly four o'clock when he opened one of the company's long +envelopes which he supposed contained orders for the purchasing of +stores. He ran over the first page of typewritten matter in his +usual quick, business-like manner, before he saw that what he was +reading was not intended for his office but for the superintendent +of the freight department. + +He turned over a page mechanically, not meaning to read what was not +addressed to him, but before he knew it, he was in possession of +evidence which conclusively proved that the company was engaged in a +systematic violation of the Interstate Commerce Laws of the United +States. It was as distinct and unequivocal a breaking of law as if a +private citizen should enter a house and rob the inmates. The +discrimination shown in rebates was in total contempt of all the +statutes. Under the laws of the state it was also a distinct +violation of certain provisions recently passed by the legislature +to prevent railroad trusts. There was no question that he had in his +hands evidence sufficient to convict the company of willful, +intelligent violation of the law of the commission and the law of +the state also. + +He dropped the papers on his desk as if they were poison, and +instantly the question flashed across his mind, "What would Jesus +do?" He tried to shut the question out. He tried to reason with +himself by saying it was none of his business. He had known in a +more or less definite way, as did nearly all the officers of the +company, that this had been going on right along on nearly all the +roads. He was not in a position, owing to his place in the shops, to +prove anything direct, and he had regarded it as a matter which did +not concern him at all. The papers now before him revealed the +entire affair. They had through some carelessness been addressed to +him. What business of his was it? If he saw a man entering his +neighbor's house to steal, would it not be his duty to inform the +officers of the law? Was a railroad company such a different thing? +Was it under a different rule of conduct, so that it could rob the +public and defy law and be undisturbed because it was such a great +organization? What would Jesus do? Then there was his family. Of +course, if he took any steps to inform the commission it would mean +the loss of his position. His wife and daughter had always enjoyed +luxury and a good place in society. If he came out against this +lawlessness as a witness it would drag him into courts, his motives +would be misunderstood, and the whole thing would end in his +disgrace and the loss of his position. Surely it was none of his +business. He could easily get the papers back to the freight +department and no one be the wiser. Let the iniquity go on. Let the +law be defied. What was it to him? He would work out his plans for +bettering the condition just before him. What more could a man do in +this railroad business when there was so much going on anyway that +made it impossible to live by the Christian standard? But what would +Jesus do if He knew the facts? That was the question that confronted +Alexander Powers as the day wore into evening. + +The lights in the office had been turned on. The whirr of the great +engine and the clash of the planers in the big shop continued until +six o'clock. Then the whistle blew, the engine slowed up, the men +dropped their tools and ran for the block house. + +Powers heard the familiar click, click, of the clocks as the men +filed past the window of the block house just outside. He said to +his clerks, "I'm not going just yet. I have something extra +tonight." He waited until he heard the last man deposit his block. +The men behind the block case went out. The engineer and his +assistants had work for half an hour but they went out by another +door. + + + + +Chapter Six + + +"If any man cometh unto me and hateth not his own father and mother +and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own +life also, he cannot be my disciple." + +"And whosoever forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my +disciple." + + +WHEN Rachel Winslow and Virginia Page separated after the meeting at +the First Church on Sunday they agreed to continue their +conversation the next day. Virginia asked Rachel to come and lunch +with her at noon, and Rachel accordingly rang the bell at the Page +mansion about half-past eleven. Virginia herself met her and the two +were soon talking earnestly. + +"The fact is," Rachel was saying, after they had been talking a few +moments, "I cannot reconcile it with my judgment of what Christ +would do. I cannot tell another person what to do, but I feel that I +ought not to accept this offer." + +"What will you do then?" asked Virginia with great interest. + +"I don't know yet, but I have decided to refuse this offer." + +Rachel picked up a letter that had been lying in her lap and ran +over its contents again. It was a letter from the manager of a comic +opera offering her a place with a large traveling company of the +season. The salary was a very large figure, and the prospect held +out by the manager was flattering. He had heard Rachel sing that +Sunday morning when the stranger had interrupted the service. He had +been much impressed. There was money in that voice and it ought to +be used in comic opera, so said the letter, and the manager wanted a +reply as soon as possible. + +"There's no great virtue in saying 'No' to this offer when I have +the other one," Rachel went on thoughtfully. "That's harder to +decide. But I've about made up my mind. To tell the truth, +Virginia, I'm completely convinced in the first case that Jesus +would never use any talent like a good voice just to make money. But +now, take this concert offer. Here is a reputable company, to travel +with an impersonator and a violinist and a male quartet, all people +of good reputation. I'm asked to go as one of the company and sing +leading soprano. The salary--I mentioned it, didn't I?--is +guaranteed to be $200 a month for the season. But I don't feel +satisfied that Jesus would go. What do you think?" + +"You mustn't ask me to decide for you," replied Virginia with a sad +smile. "I believe Mr. Maxwell was right when he said we must each +one of us decide according to the judgment we feel for ourselves to +be Christ-like. I am having a harder time than you are, dear, to +decide what He would do." + +"Are you?" Rachel asked. She rose and walked over to the window and +looked out. Virginia came and stood by her. The street was crowded +with life and the two young women looked at it silently for a +moment. Suddenly Virginia broke out as Rachel had never heard her +before: + +"Rachel, what does all this contrast in conditions mean to you as +you ask this question of what Jesus would do? It maddens me to think +that the society in which I have been brought up, the same to which +we are both said to belong, is satisfied year after year to go on +dressing and eating and having a good time, giving and receiving +entertainments, spending its money on houses and luxuries and, +occasionally, to ease its conscience, donating, without any personal +sacrifice, a little money to charity. I have been educated, as you +have, in one of the most expensive schools in America; launched into +society as an heiress; supposed to be in a very enviable position. +I'm perfectly well; I can travel or stay at home. I can do as I +please. I can gratify almost any want or desire; and yet when I +honestly try to imagine Jesus living the life I have lived and am +expected to live, and doing for the rest of my life what thousands +of other rich people do, I am under condemnation for being one of +the most wicked, selfish, useless creatures in all the world. I have +not looked out of this window for weeks without a feeling of horror +toward myself as I see the humanity that passes by this house." + +Virginia turned away and walked up and down the room. Rachel watched +her and could not repress the rising tide of her own growing +definition of discipleship. Of what Christian use was her own talent +of song? Was the best she could do to sell her talent for so much a +month, go on a concert company's tour, dress beautifully, enjoy the +excitement of public applause and gain a reputation as a great +singer? Was that what Jesus would do? + +She was not morbid. She was in sound health, was conscious of her +great powers as a singer, and knew that if she went out into public +life she could make a great deal of money and become well known. It +is doubtful if she overestimated her ability to accomplish all she +thought herself capable of. And Virginia--what she had just said +smote Rachel with great force because of the similar position in +which the two friends found themselves. + +Lunch was announced and they went out and were joined by Virginia's +grandmother, Madam Page, a handsome, stately woman of sixty-five, +and Virginia's brother Rollin, a young man who spent most of his +time at one of the clubs and had no ambition for anything but a +growing admiration for Rachel Winslow, and whenever she dined or +lunched at the Page's, if he knew of it he always planned to be at +home. + +These three made up the Page family. Virginia's father had been a +banker and grain speculator. Her mother had died ten years before, +her father within the past year. The grandmother, a Southern woman +in birth and training, had all the traditions and feelings that +accompany the possession of wealth and social standing that have +never been disturbed. She was a shrewd, careful business woman of +more than average ability. The family property and wealth were +invested, in large measure, under her personal care. Virginia's +portion was, without any restriction, her own. She had been trained +by her father to understand the ways of the business world, and even +the grandmother had been compelled to acknowledge the girl's +capacity for taking care of her own money. + +Perhaps two persons could not be found anywhere less capable of +understanding a girl like Virginia than Madam Page and Rollin. +Rachel, who had known the family since she was a girl playmate of +Virginia's, could not help thinking of what confronted Virginia in +her own home when she once decided on the course which she honestly +believed Jesus would take. Today at lunch, as she recalled +Virginia's outbreak in the front room, she tried to picture the +scene that would at some time occur between Madam Page and her +granddaughter. + +"I understand that you are going on the stage, Miss Winslow. We +shall all be delighted, I'm sure," said Rollin during the +conversation, which had not been very animated. + +Rachel colored and felt annoyed. "Who told you?" she asked, while +Virginia, who had been very silent and reserved, suddenly roused +herself and appeared ready to join in the talk. + +"Oh! we hear a thing or two on the street. Besides, every one saw +Crandall the manager at church two weeks ago. He doesn't go to +church to hear the preaching. In fact, I know other people who don't +either, not when there's something better to hear." + +Rachel did not color this time, but she answered quietly, "You're +mistaken. I'm not going on the stage." + +"It's a great pity. You'd make a hit. Everybody is talking about +your singing." + +This time Rachel flushed with genuine anger. Before she could say +anything, Virginia broke in: "Whom do you mean by 'everybody?'" + +"Whom? I mean all the people who hear Miss Winslow on Sundays. What +other time do they hear her? It's a great pity, I say, that the +general public outside of Raymond cannot hear her voice." + +"Let us talk about something else," said Rachel a little sharply. +Madam Page glanced at her and spoke with a gentle courtesy. + +"My dear, Rollin never could pay an indirect compliment. He is like +his father in that. But we are all curious to know something of your +plans. We claim the right from old acquaintance, you know; and +Virginia has already told us of your concert company offer." + +"I supposed of course that was public property," said Virginia, +smiling across the table. "I was in the NEWS office day before +yesterday." + +"Yes, yes," replied Rachel hastily. "I understand that, Madam Page. +Well, Virginia and I have been talking about it. I have decided not +to accept, and that is as far as I have gone at present." + +Rachel was conscious of the fact that the conversation had, up to +this point, been narrowing her hesitation concerning the concert +company's offer down to a decision that would absolutely satisfy her +own judgment of Jesus' probable action. It had been the last thing +in the world, however, that she had desired, to have her decision +made in any way so public as this. Somehow what Rollin Page had said +and his manner in saying it had hastened her decision in the matter. + +"Would you mind telling us, Rachel, your reasons for refusing the +offer? It looks like a great opportunity for a young girl like you. +Don't you think the general public ought to hear you? I feel like +Rollin about that. A voice like yours belongs to a larger audience +than Raymond and the First Church." + +Rachel Winslow was naturally a girl of great reserve. She shrank +from making her plans or her thoughts public. But with all her +repression there was possible in her an occasional sudden breaking +out that was simply an impulsive, thoroughly frank, truthful +expression of her most inner personal feeling. She spoke now in +reply to Madam Page in one of those rare moments of unreserve that +added to the attractiveness of her whole character. + +"I have no other reason than a conviction that Jesus Christ would do +the same thing," she said, looking into Madam Page's eyes with a +clear, earnest gaze. + +Madam Page turned red and Rollin stared. Before her grandmother +could say anything, Virginia spoke. Her rising color showed how she +was stirred. Virginia's pale, clear complexion was that of health, +but it was generally in marked contrast with Rachel's tropical type +of beauty. + +"Grandmother, you know we promised to make that the standard of our +conduct for a year. Mr. Maxwell's proposition was plain to all who +heard it. We have not been able to arrive at our decisions very +rapidly. The difficulty in knowing what Jesus would do has perplexed +Rachel and me a good deal." + +Madam Page looked sharply at Virginia before she said anything. + +"Of course I understand Mr. Maxwell's statement. It is perfectly +impracticable to put it into practice. I felt confident at the time +that those who promised would find it out after a trial and abandon +it as visionary and absurd. I have nothing to say about Miss +Winslow's affairs, but," she paused and continued with a sharpness +that was new to Rachel, "I hope you have no foolish notions in this +matter, Virginia." + +"I have a great many notions," replied Virginia quietly. "Whether +they are foolish or not depends upon my right understanding of what +He would do. As soon as I find out I shall do it." + +"Excuse me, ladies," said Rollin, rising from the table. "The +conversation is getting beyond my depth. I shall retire to the +library for a cigar." + +He went out of the dining-room and there was silence for a moment. +Madam Page waited until the servant had brought in something and +then asked her to go out. She was angry and her anger was +formidable, although checked in some measure by the presence of +Rachel. + +"I am older by several years than you, young ladies," she said, and +her traditional type of bearing seemed to Rachel to rise up like a +great frozen wall between her and every conception of Jesus as a +sacrifice. "What you have promised, in a spirit of false emotion I +presume, is impossible of performance." + +"Do you mean, grandmother, that we cannot possibly act as our Lord +would? or do you mean that, if we try to, we shall offend the +customs and prejudices of society?" asked Virginia. + +"It is not required! It is not necessary! Besides how can you act +with any--" Madam Page paused, broke off her sentence, and then +turned to Rachel. "What will your mother say to your decision? My +dear, is it not foolish? What do you expect to do with your voice +anyway?" + +"I don't know what mother will say yet," Rachel answered, with a +great shrinking from trying to give her mother's probable answer. If +there was a woman in all Raymond with great ambitions for her +daughter's success as a singer, Mrs. Winslow was that woman. + +"Oh! you will see it in a different light after wiser thought of it. +My dear," continued Madam Page rising from the table, "you will live +to regret it if you do not accept the concert company's offer or +something like it." + + + + +Chapter Seven + + +RACHEL was glad to escape and be by herself. A plan was slowly +forming in her mind, and she wanted to be alone and think it out +carefully. But before she had walked two blocks she was annoyed to +find Rollin Page walking beside her. + +"Sorry to disturb your thoughts, Miss Winslow, but I happened to be +going your way and had an idea you might not object. In fact, I've +been walking here for a whole block and you haven't objected." + +"I did not see you," said Rachel briefly. + +"I wouldn't mind that if you only thought of me once in a while," +said Rollin suddenly. He took one last nervous puff on his cigar, +tossed it into the street and walked along with a pale look on his +face. + +Rachel was surprised, but not startled. She had known Rollin as a +boy, and there had been a time when they had used each other's first +name familiarly. Lately, however, something in Rachel's manner had +put an end to that. She was used to his direct attempts at +compliments and was sometimes amused by them. Today she honestly +wished him anywhere else. + +"Do you ever think of me, Miss Winslow?" asked Rollin after a pause. + +"Oh, yes, quite often!" said Rachel with a smile. + +"Are you thinking of me now?" + +"Yes. That is--yes--I am." + +"What?" + +"Do you want me to be absolutely truthful?" + +"Of course." + +"Then I was thinking that I wished you were not here." Rollin bit +his lip and looked gloomy. + +"Now look here, Rachel--oh, I know that's forbidden, but I've got to +speak some time!--you know how I feel. What makes you treat me so? +You used to like me a little, you know." + +"Did I? Of course we used to get on very well as boy and girl. But +we are older now." + +Rachel still spoke in the light, easy way she had used since her +first annoyance at seeing him. She was still somewhat preoccupied +with her plan which had been disturbed by Rollin's sudden +appearance. + +They walked along in silence a little way. The avenue was full of +people. Among the persons passing was Jasper Chase. He saw Rachel +and Rollin and bowed as they went by. Rollin was watching Rachel +closely. + +"I wish I was Jasper Chase. Maybe I would stand some chance then," +he said moodily. + +Rachel colored in spite of herself. She did not say anything and +quickened her pace a little. Rollin seemed determined to say +something, and Rachel seemed helpless to prevent him. After all, she +thought, he might as well know the truth one time as another. + +"You know well enough, Rachel, how I feel toward you. Isn't there +any hope? I could make you happy. I've loved you a good many +years--" + +"Why, how old do you think I am?" broke in Rachel with a nervous +laugh. She was shaken out of her usual poise of manner. + +"You know what I mean," went on Rollin doggedly. "And you have no +right to laugh at me just because I want you to marry me." + +"I'm not! But it is useless for you to speak, Rollin," said Rachel +after a little hesitation, and then using his name in such a frank, +simple way that he could attach no meaning to it beyond the +familiarity of the old family acquaintance. "It is impossible." She +was still a little agitated by the fact of receiving a proposal of +marriage on the avenue. But the noise on the street and sidewalk +made the conversation as private as if they were in the house. + +"Would that is--do you think--if you gave me time I would." + +"No!" said Rachel. She spoke firmly; perhaps, she thought afterward, +although she did not mean to, she spoke harshly. + +They walked on for some time without a word. They were nearing +Rachel's home and she was anxious to end the scene. + +As they turned off the avenue into one of the quieter streets Rollin +spoke suddenly and with more manliness than he had yet shown. There +was a distinct note of dignity in his voice that was new to Rachel. + +"Miss Winslow, I ask you to be my wife. Is there any hope for me +that you will ever consent?" + +"None in the least." Rachel spoke decidedly. + +"Will you tell me why?" He asked the question as if he had a right +to a truthful answer. + +"Because I do not feel toward you as a woman ought to feel toward +the man she marries." + +"In other words, you do not love me?" + +"I do not and I cannot." + +"Why?" That was another question, and Rachel was a little surprised +that he should ask it. + +"Because--" she hesitated for fear she might say too much in an +attempt to speak the exact truth. + +"Tell me just why. You can't hurt me more than you have already." + +"Well, I do not and I cannot love you because you have no purpose in +life. What do you ever do to make the world better? You spend your +time in club life, in amusements, in travel, in luxury. What is +there in such a life to attract a woman?" + +"Not much, I guess," said Rollin with a bitter laugh. "Still, I +don't know that I'm any worse than the rest of the men around me. +I'm not so bad as some. I'm glad to know your reasons." + +He suddenly stopped, took off his hat, bowed gravely and turned +back. Rachel went on home and hurried into her room, disturbed in +many ways by the event which had so unexpectedly thrust itself into +her experience. + +When she had time to think it all over she found herself condemned +by the very judgment she had passed on Rollin Page. What purpose had +she in life? She had been abroad and studied music with one of the +famous teachers of Europe. She had come home to Raymond and had been +singing in the First Church choir now for a year. She was well paid. +Up to that Sunday two weeks ago she had been quite satisfied with +herself and with her position. She had shared her mother's ambition, +and anticipated growing triumphs in the musical world. What possible +career was before her except the regular career of every singer? + +She asked the question again and, in the light of her recent reply +to Rollin, asked again, if she had any very great purpose in life +herself. What would Jesus do? There was a fortune in her voice. She +knew it, not necessarily as a matter of personal pride or +professional egotism, but simply as a fact. And she was obliged to +acknowledge that until two weeks ago she had purposed to use her +voice to make money and win admiration and applause. Was that a much +higher purpose, after all, than Rollin Page lived for? + +She sat in her room a long time and finally went downstairs, +resolved to have a frank talk with her mother about the concert +company's offer and the new plan which was gradually shaping in her +mind. She had already had one talk with her mother and knew that she +expected Rachel to accept the offer and enter on a successful career +as a public singer. + +"Mother," Rachel said, coming at once to the point, much as she +dreaded the interview, "I have decided not to go out with the +company. I have a good reason for it." + +Mrs. Winslow was a large, handsome woman, fond of much company, +ambitious for distinction in society and devoted, according to her +definitions of success, to the success of her children. Her youngest +boy, Louis, two years younger than Rachel, was ready to graduate +from a military academy in the summer. Meanwhile she and Rachel were +at home together. Rachel's father, like Virginia's, had died while +the family was abroad. Like Virginia she found herself, under her +present rule of conduct, in complete antagonism with her own +immediate home circle. Mrs. Winslow waited for Rachel to go on. + +"You know the promise I made two weeks ago, mother?" + +"Mr. Maxwell's promise?" + +"No, mine. You know what it was, do you not, mother?" + +"I suppose I do. Of course all the church members mean to imitate +Christ and follow Him, as far as is consistent with our present day +surroundings. But what has that to do with your decision in the +concert company matter?" + +"It has everything to do with it. After asking, 'What would Jesus +do?' and going to the source of authority for wisdom, I have been +obliged to say that I do not believe He would, in my case, make that +use of my voice." + +"Why? Is there anything wrong about such a career?" + +"No, I don't know that I can say there is." + +"Do you presume to sit in judgment on other people who go out to +sing in this way? Do you presume to say they are doing what Christ +would not do?" + +"Mother, I wish you to understand me. I judge no one else; I condemn +no other professional singer. I simply decide my own course. As I +look at it, I have a conviction that Jesus would do something else." + +"What else?" Mrs. Winslow had not yet lost her temper. She did not +understand the situation nor Rachel in the midst of it, but she was +anxious that her daughter's course should be as distinguished as her +natural gifts promised. And she felt confident that when the present +unusual religious excitement in the First Church had passed away +Rachel would go on with her public life according to the wishes of +the family. She was totally unprepared for Rachel's next remark. + +"What? Something that will serve mankind where it most needs the +service of song. Mother, I have made up my mind to use my voice in +some way so as to satisfy my own soul that I am doing something +better than pleasing fashionable audiences, or making money, or even +gratifying my own love of singing. I am going to do something that +will satisfy me when I ask: 'What would Jesus do?' I am not +satisfied, and cannot be, when I think of myself as singing myself +into the career of a concert company performer." + +Rachel spoke with a vigor and earnestness that surprised her mother. +But Mrs. Winslow was angry now; and she never tried to conceal her +feelings. + +"It is simply absurd! Rachel, you are a fanatic! What can you do?" + +"The world has been served by men and women who have given it other +things that were gifts. Why should I, because I am blessed with a +natural gift, at once proceed to put a market price on it and make +all the money I can out of it? You know, mother, that you have +taught me to think of a musical career always in the light of +financial and social success. I have been unable, since I made my +promise two weeks ago, to imagine Jesus joining a concert company to +do what I should do and live the life I should have to live if I +joined it." + +Mrs. Winslow rose and then sat down again. With a great effort she +composed herself. + +"What do you intend to do then? You have not answered my question." + +"I shall continue to sing for the time being in the church. I am +pledged to sing there through the spring. During the week I am going +to sing at the White Cross meetings, down in the Rectangle." + +"What! Rachel Winslow! Do you know what you are saying? Do you know +what sort of people those are down there?" + +Rachel almost quailed before her mother. For a moment she shrank +back and was silent. Then she spoke firmly: "I know very well. That +is the reason I am going. Mr. and Mrs. Gray have been working there +several weeks. I learned only this morning that they want singers +from the churches to help them in their meetings. They use a tent. +It is in a part of the city where Christian work is most needed. I +shall offer them my help. Mother!" Rachel cried out with the first +passionate utterance she had yet used, "I want to do something that +will cost me something in the way of sacrifice. I know you will not +understand me. But I am hungry to suffer for something. What have we +done all our lives for the suffering, sinning side of Raymond? How +much have we denied ourselves or given of our personal ease and +pleasure to bless the place in which we live or imitate the life of +the Savior of the world? Are we always to go on doing as society +selfishly dictates, moving on its little narrow round of pleasures +and entertainments, and never knowing the pain of things that cost?" + +"Are you preaching at me?" asked Mrs. Winslow slowly. Rachel rose, +and understood her mother's words. + +"No. I am preaching at myself," she replied gently. She paused a +moment as if she thought her mother would say something more, and +then went out of the room. When she reached her own room she felt +that so far as her own mother was concerned she could expect no +sympathy, nor even a fair understanding from her. + +She kneeled. It is safe to say that within the two weeks since Henry +Maxwell's church had faced that shabby figure with the faded hat +more members of his parish had been driven to their knees in prayer +than during all the previous term of his pastorate. + +She rose, and her face was wet with tears. She sat thoughtfully a +little while and then wrote a note to Virginia Page. She sent it to +her by a messenger and then went downstairs and told her mother that +she and Virginia were going down to the Rectangle that evening to +see Mr. and Mrs. Gray, the evangelists. + +"Virginia's uncle, Dr. West, will go with us, if she goes. I have +asked her to call him up by telephone and go with us. The Doctor is +a friend of the Grays, and attended some of their meetings last +winter." + +Mrs. Winslow did not say anything. Her manner showed her complete +disapproval of Rachel's course, and Rachel felt her unspoken +bitterness. + +About seven o'clock the Doctor and Virginia appeared, and together +the three started for the scene of the White Cross meetings. + +The Rectangle was the most notorious district in Raymond. It was on +the territory close by the railroad shops and the packing houses. +The great slum and tenement district of Raymond congested its worst +and most wretched elements about the Rectangle. This was a barren +field used in the summer by circus companies and wandering showmen. +It was shut in by rows of saloons, gambling hells and cheap, dirty +boarding and lodging houses. + +The First Church of Raymond had never touched the Rectangle problem. +It was too dirty, too coarse, too sinful, too awful for close +contact. Let us be honest. There had been an attempt to cleanse this +sore spot by sending down an occasional committee of singers or +Sunday-school teachers or gospel visitors from various churches. But +the First Church of Raymond, as an institution, had never really +done anything to make the Rectangle any less a stronghold of the +devil as the years went by. + +Into this heart of the coarse part of the sin of Raymond the +traveling evangelist and his brave little wife had pitched a +good-sized tent and begun meetings. It was the spring of the year +and the evenings were beginning to be pleasant. The evangelists had +asked for the help of Christian people, and had received more than +the usual amount of encouragement. But they felt a great need of +more and better music. During the meetings on the Sunday just gone +the assistant at the organ had been taken ill. The volunteers from +the city were few and the voices were of ordinary quality. + +"There will be a small meeting tonight, John," said his wife, as +they entered the tent a little after seven o'clock and began to +arrange the chairs and light up. + +"Yes, I fear so." Mr. Gray was a small, energetic man, with a +pleasant voice and the courage of a high-born fighter. He had +already made friends in the neighborhood and one of his converts, a +heavy-faced man who had just come in, began to help in the arranging +of seats. + +It was after eight o'clock when Alexander Powers opened the door of +his office and started for home. He was going to take a car at the +corner of the Rectangle. But he was roused by a voice coming from +the tent. + +It was the voice of Rachel Winslow. It struck through his +consciousness of struggle over his own question that had sent him +into the Divine Presence for an answer. He had not yet reached a +conclusion. He was tortured with uncertainty. His whole previous +course of action as a railroad man was the poorest possible +preparation for anything sacrificial. And he could not yet say what +he would do in the matter. + +Hark! What was she singing? How did Rachel Winslow happen to be down +here? Several windows near by went up. Some men quarreling near a +saloon stopped and listened. Other figures were walking rapidly in +the direction of the Rectangle and the tent. Surely Rachel Winslow +had never sung like that in the First Church. It was a marvelous +voice. What was it she was singing? Again Alexander Powers, +Superintendent of the machine shops, paused and listened, + + "Where He leads me I will follow, + Where He leads me I will follow, + Where He leads me I will follow, + I'll go with Him, with Him. + All the way!" + +The brutal, coarse, impure life of the Rectangle stirred itself into +new life as the song, as pure as the surroundings were vile, floated +out and into saloon and den and foul lodging. Some one stumbled +hastily by Alexander Powers and said in answer to a question: "De +tent's beginning to run over tonight. That's what the talent calls +music, eh?" + + + + +Chapter Eight + + +"If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up +his cross daily and follow me." + + +HENRY MAXWELL paced his study back and forth. It was Wednesday and +he had started to think out the subject of his evening service which +fell upon that night. Out of one of his study windows he could see +the tall chimney of the railroad shops. The top of the evangelist's +tent just showed over the buildings around the Rectangle. He looked +out of his window every time he turned in his walk. After a while he +sat down at his desk and drew a large piece of paper toward him. +After thinking several moments he wrote in large letters the +following: + +A NUMBER OF THINGS THAT JESUS WOULD PROBABLY DO IN THIS PARISH + +Live in a simple, plain manner, without needless luxury on the one +hand or undue asceticism on the other. Preach fearlessly to the +hypocrites in the church, no matter what their social importance or +wealth. Show in some practical form His sympathy and love for the +common people as well as for the well-to-do, educated, refined +people who make up the majority of the parish. Identify Himself with +the great causes of humanity in some personal way that would call +for self-denial and suffering. Preach against the saloon in Raymond. +Become known as a friend and companion of the sinful people in the +Rectangle. Give up the summer trip to Europe this year. (I have been +abroad twice and cannot claim any special need of rest. I am well, +and could forego this pleasure, using the money for some one who +needs a vacation more than I do. There are probably plenty of such +people in the city.) + +He was conscious, with a humility that was once a stranger to him, +that his outline of Jesus' probable action was painfully lacking in +depth and power, but he was seeking carefully for concrete shapes +into which he might cast his thought of Jesus' conduct. Nearly every +point he had put down, meant, for him, a complete overturning of the +custom and habit of years in the ministry. In spite of that, he +still searched deeper for sources of the Christ-like spirit. He did +not attempt to write any more, but sat at his desk absorbed in his +effort to catch more and more the spirit of Jesus in his own life. +He had forgotten the particular subject for his prayer meeting with +which he had begun his morning study. + +He was so absorbed over his thought that he did not hear the bell +ring; he was roused by the servant who announced a caller. He had +sent up his name, Mr. Gray. + +Maxwell stepped to the head of the stairs and asked Gray to come up. +So Gray came up and stated the reason for his call. + +"I want your help, Mr. Maxwell. Of course you have heard what a +wonderful meeting we had Monday night and last night. Miss Winslow +has done more with her voice than I could do, and the tent won't +hold the people." + +"I've heard of that. It is the first time the people there have +heard her. It is no wonder they are attracted." + +"It has been a wonderful revelation to us, and a most encouraging +event in our work. But I came to ask if you could not come down +tonight and preach. I am suffering from a severe cold. I do not dare +trust my voice again. I know it is asking a good deal from such a +busy man. But, if you can't come, say so frankly, and I'll try +somewhere else." + +"I'm sorry, but it's my regular prayer meeting night," began Henry +Maxwell. Then he flushed and added, "I shall be able to arrange it +in some way so as to come down. You can count on me." + +Gray thanked him earnestly and rose to go. + +"Won't you stay a minute, Gray, and let us have a prayer together?" + +"Yes," said Gray simply. + +So the two men kneeled together in the study. Henry Maxwell prayed +like a child. Gray was touched to tears as he knelt there. There was +something almost pitiful in the way this man who had lived his +ministerial life in such a narrow limit of exercise now begged for +wisdom and strength to speak a message to the people in the +Rectangle. + +Gray rose and held out his hand. "God bless you, Mr. Maxwell. I'm +sure the Spirit will give you power tonight." + +Henry Maxwell made no answer. He did not even trust himself to say +that he hoped so. But he thought of his promise and it brought him a +certain peace that was refreshing to his heart and mind alike. + +So that is how it came about that when the First Church audience +came into the lecture room that evening it met with another +surprise. There was an unusually large number present. The prayer +meetings ever since that remarkable Sunday morning had been attended +as never before in the history of the First Church. Mr. Maxwell came +at once to the point. + +"I feel that I am called to go down to the Rectangle tonight, and I +will leave it with you to say whether you will go on with this +meeting here. I think perhaps the best plan would be for a few +volunteers to go down to the Rectangle with me prepared to help in +the after-meeting, if necessary, and the rest to remain here and +pray that the Spirit power may go with us." + +So half a dozen of the men went with the pastor, and the rest of the +audience stayed in the lecture room. Maxwell could not escape the +thought as he left the room that probably in his entire church +membership there might not be found a score of disciples who were +capable of doing work that would successfully lead needy, sinful men +into the knowledge of Christ. The thought did not linger in his mind +to vex him as he went his way, but it was simply a part of his whole +new conception of the meaning of Christian discipleship. + +When he and his little company of volunteers reached the Rectangle, +the tent was already crowded. They had difficulty in getting to the +platform. Rachel was there with Virginia and Jasper Chase who had +come instead of the Doctor tonight. + +When the meeting began with a song in which Rachel sang the solo and +the people were asked to join in the chorus, not a foot of standing +room was left in the tent. The night was mild and the sides of the +tent were up and a great border of faces stretched around, looking +in and forming part of the audience. After the singing, and a prayer +by one of the city pastors who was present, Gray stated the reason +for his inability to speak, and in his simple manner turned the +service over to "Brother Maxwell of the First Church." + +"Who's de bloke?" asked a hoarse voice near the outside of the tent. + +"De Fust Church parson. We've got de whole high-tone swell outfit +tonight." + +"Did you say Fust Church? I know him. My landlord's got a front pew +up there," said another voice, and there was a laugh, for the +speaker was a saloon keeper. + +"Trow out de life line 'cross de dark wave!" began a drunken man +near by, singing in such an unconscious imitation of a local +traveling singer's nasal tone that roars of laughter and jeers of +approval rose around him. The people in the tent turned in the +direction of the disturbance. There were shouts of "Put him out!" +"Give the Fust Church a chance!" "Song! Song! Give us another song!" + +Henry Maxwell stood up, and a great wave of actual terror went over +him. This was not like preaching to the well-dressed, respectable, +good-mannered people up on the boulevard. He began to speak, but the +confusion increased. Gray went down into the crowd, but did not seem +able to quiet it. Maxwell raised his arm and his voice. The crowd in +the tent began to pay some attention, but the noise on the outside +increased. In a few minutes the audience was beyond his control. He +turned to Rachel with a sad smile. + +"Sing something, Miss Winslow. They will listen to you," he said, +and then sat down and covered his face with his hands. + +It was Rachel's opportunity, and she was fully equal to it. Virginia +was at the organ and Rachel asked her to play a few notes of the +hymn. + + "Savior, I follow on, + Guided by Thee, + Seeing not yet the hand + That leadeth me. + Hushed be my heart and still + Fear I no farther ill, + Only to meet Thy will, + My will shall be." + +Rachel had not sung the first line before the people in the tent +were all turned toward her, hushed and reverent. Before she had +finished the verse the Rectangle was subdued and tamed. It lay like +some wild beast at her feet, and she sang it into harmlessness. Ah! +What were the flippant, perfumed, critical audiences in concert +halls compared with this dirty, drunken, impure, besotted mass of +humanity that trembled and wept and grew strangely, sadly thoughtful +under the touch of this divine ministry of this beautiful young +woman! Mr. Maxwell, as he raised his head and saw the transformed +mob, had a glimpse of something that Jesus would probably do with a +voice like Rachel Winslow's. Jasper Chase sat with his eyes on the +singer, and his greatest longing as an ambitious author was +swallowed up in his thought of what Rachel Winslow's love might +sometimes mean to him. And over in the shadow outside stood the last +person any one might have expected to see at a gospel tent +service--Rollin Page, who, jostled on every side by rough men and +women who stared at the swell in fine clothes, seemed careless of +his surroundings and at the same time evidently swayed by the power +that Rachel possessed. He had just come over from the club. Neither +Rachel nor Virginia saw him that night. + +The song was over. Maxwell rose again. This time he felt calmer. +What would Jesus do? He spoke as he thought once he never could +speak. Who were these people? They were immortal souls. What was +Christianity? A calling of sinners, not the righteous, to +repentance. How would Jesus speak? What would He say? He could not +tell all that His message would include, but he felt sure of a part +of it. And in that certainty he spoke on. Never before had he felt +"compassion for the multitude." What had the multitude been to him +during his ten years in the First Church but a vague, dangerous, +dirty, troublesome factor in society, outside of the church and of +his reach, an element that caused him occasionally an unpleasant +twinge of conscience, a factor in Raymond that was talked about at +associations as the "masses," in papers written by the brethren in +attempts to show why the "masses" were not being reached. But +tonight as he faced the masses he asked himself whether, after all, +this was not just about such a multitude as Jesus faced oftenest, +and he felt the genuine emotion of love for a crowd which is one of +the best indications a preacher ever has that he is living close to +the heart of the world's eternal Life. It is easy to love an +individual sinner, especially if he is personally picturesque or +interesting. To love a multitude of sinners is distinctively a +Christ-like quality. + +When the meeting closed, there was no special interest shown. No one +stayed to the after-meeting. The people rapidly melted away from the +tent, and the saloons, which had been experiencing a dull season +while the meetings progressed, again drove a thriving trade. The +Rectangle, as if to make up for lost time, started in with vigor on +its usual night debauch. Maxwell and his little party, including +Virginia, Rachel and Jasper Chase, walked down past the row of +saloons and dens until they reached the corner where the cars +passed. + +"This is a terrible spot," said the minister as he stood waiting for +their car. "I never realized that Raymond had such a festering sore. +It does not seem possible that this is a city full of Christian +disciples." + +"Do you think any one can ever remove this great curse of drink?" +asked Jasper Chase. + +"I have thought lately as never before of what Christian people +might do to remove the curse of the saloon. Why don't we all act +together against it? Why don't the Christian pastors and the church +members of Raymond move as one man against the traffic? What would +Jesus do? Would He keep silent? Would He vote to license these +causes of crime and death?" + +He was talking to himself more than to the others. He remembered +that he had always voted for license, and so had nearly all his +church members. What would Jesus do? Could he answer that question? +Would the Master preach and act against the saloon if He lived +today? How would He preach and act? Suppose it was not popular to +preach against license? Suppose the Christian people thought it was +all that could be done to license the evil and so get revenue from +the necessary sin? Or suppose the church members themselves owned +the property where the saloons stood--what then? He knew that those +were the facts in Raymond. What would Jesus do? + +He went up into his study the next morning with that question only +partly answered. He thought of it all day. He was still thinking of +it and reaching certain real conclusions when the EVENING NEWS came. +His wife brought it up and sat down a few minutes while he read to +her. + +The EVENING NEWS was at present the most sensational paper in +Raymond. That is to say, it was being edited in such a remarkable +fashion that its subscribers had never been so excited over a +newspaper before. First they had noticed the absence of the prize +fight, and gradually it began to dawn upon them that the NEWS no +longer printed accounts of crime with detailed descriptions, or +scandals in private life. Then they noticed that the advertisements +of liquor and tobacco were dropped, together with certain others of +a questionable character. The discontinuance of the Sunday paper +caused the greatest comment of all, and now the character of the +editorials was creating the greatest excitement. A quotation from +the Monday paper of this week will show what Edward Norman was doing +to keep his promise. The editorial was headed: + +THE MORAL SIDE OF POLITICAL QUESTIONS + +The editor of the News has always advocated the principles of the +great political party at present in power, and has heretofore +discussed all political questions from the standpoint of expediency, +or of belief in the party as opposed to other political +organizations. Hereafter, to be perfectly honest with all our +readers, the editor will present and discuss all political questions +from the standpoint of right and wrong. In other words, the first +question asked in this office about any political question will not +be, "Is it in the interests of our party?" or, "Is it according to +the principles laid down by our party in its platform?" but the +question first asked will be, "Is this measure in accordance with +the spirit and teachings of Jesus as the author of the greatest +standard of life known to men?" That is, to be perfectly plain, the +moral side of every political question will be considered its most +important side, and the ground will be distinctly taken that nations +as well as individuals are under the same law to do all things to +the glory of God as the first rule of action. + +The same principle will be observed in this office toward candidates +for places of responsibility and trust in the republic. Regardless +of party politics the editor of the News will do all in his power to +bring the best men into power, and will not knowingly help to +support for office any candidate who is unworthy, no matter how much +he may be endorsed by the party. The first question asked about the +man and about the measures will be, "Is he the right man for the +place?" "Is he a good man with ability?" "Is the measure right?" + +There had been more of this, but we have quoted enough to show the +character of the editorial. Hundreds of men in Raymond had read it +and rubbed their eyes in amazement. A good many of them had promptly +written to the NEWS, telling the editor to stop their paper. The +paper still came out, however, and was eagerly read all over the +city. At the end of a week Edward Norman knew very well that he was +fast losing a large number of subscribers. He faced the conditions +calmly, although Clark, the managing editor, grimly anticipated +ultimate bankruptcy, especially since Monday's editorial. + +Tonight, as Maxwell read to his wife, he could see in almost every +column evidences of Norman's conscientious obedience to his promise. +There was an absence of slangy, sensational scare heads. The reading +matter under the head lines was in perfect keeping with them. He +noticed in two columns that the reporters' name appeared signed at +the bottom. And there was a distinct advance in the dignity and +style of their contributions. + +"So Norman is beginning to get his reporters to sign their work. He +has talked with me about that. It is a good thing. It fixes +responsibility for items where it belongs and raises the standard of +work done. A good thing all around for the public and the writers." + +Maxwell suddenly paused. His wife looked up from some work she was +doing. He was reading something with the utmost interest. "Listen to +this, Mary," he said, after a moment while his lip trembled: + +"This morning Alexander Powers, Superintendent of the L. and T. R. R. +shops in this city, handed in his resignation to the road, and gave +as his reason the fact that certain proofs had fallen into his hands +of the violation of the Interstate Commerce Law, and also of the +state law which has recently been framed to prevent and punish +railroad pooling for the benefit of certain favored shippers. Mr. +Powers states in his resignation that he can no longer consistently +withhold the information he possesses against the road. He will be a +witness against it. He has placed his evidence against the company +in the hands of the Commission and it is now for them to take action +upon it. + +The News wishes to express itself on this action of Mr. Powers. In +the first place he has nothing to gain by it. He has lost a very +valuable place voluntarily, when by keeping silent he might have +retained it. In the second place, we believe his action ought to +receive the approval of all thoughtful, honest citizens who believe +in seeing law obeyed and lawbreakers brought to justice. In a case +like this, where evidence against a railroad company is generally +understood to be almost impossible to obtain, it is the general +belief that the officers of the road are often in possession of +criminating facts but do not consider it to be any of their business +to inform the authorities that the law is being defied. The entire +result of this evasion of responsibility on the part of those who +are responsible is demoralizing to every young man connected with +the road. The editor of the News recalls the statement made by a +prominent railroad official in this city a little while ago, that +nearly every clerk in a certain department of the road understood +that large sums of money were made by shrewd violations of the +Interstate Commerce Law, was ready to admire the shrewdness with +which it was done, and declared that they would all do the same +thing if they were high enough in railroad circles to attempt it." + + + + +Chapter Nine + + +HENRY MAXWELL finished reading and dropped the paper. + +"I must go and see Powers. This is the result of his promise." + +He rose, and as he was going out, his wife said: "Do you think, +Henry, that Jesus would have done that?" + +Maxwell paused a moment. Then he answered slowly, "Yes, I think He +would. At any rate, Powers has decided so and each one of us who +made the promise understands that he is not deciding Jesus' conduct +for any one else, only for himself." + +"How about his family? How will Mrs. Powers and Celia be likely to +take it?" + +"Very hard, I've no doubt. That will be Powers' cross in this +matter. They will not understand his motive." + +Maxwell went out and walked over to the next block where +Superintendent Powers lived. To his relief, Powers himself came to +the door. + +The two men shook hands silently. They instantly understood each +other without words. There had never before been such a bond of +union between the minister and his parishioner. + +"What are you going to do?" Henry Maxwell asked after they had +talked over the facts in the case. + +"You mean another position? I have no plans yet. I can go back to my +old work as a telegraph operator. My family will not suffer, except +in a social way." + +Powers spoke calmly and sadly. Henry Maxwell did not need to ask him +how the wife and daughter felt. He knew well enough that the +superintendent had suffered deepest at that point. + +"There is one matter I wish you would see to," said Powers after +awhile, "and that is, the work begun at the shops. So far as I know, +the company will not object to that going on. It is one of the +contradictions of the railroad world that Y. M. C. A.'s and other +Christian influences are encouraged by the roads, while all the time +the most un-Christian and lawless acts may be committed in the +official management of the roads themselves. Of course it is well +understood that it pays a railroad to have in its employ men who are +temperate, honest and Christian. So I have no doubt the master +mechanic will have the same courtesy shown him in the use of the +room. But what I want you to do, Mr. Maxwell, is to see that my plan +is carried out. Will you? You understand what it was in general. You +made a very favorable impression on the men. Go down there as often +as you can. Get Milton Wright interested to provide something for +the furnishing and expense of the coffee plant and reading tables. +Will you do it?" + +"Yes," replied Henry Maxwell. He stayed a little longer. Before he +went away, he and the superintendent had a prayer together, and they +parted with that silent hand grasp that seemed to them like a new +token of their Christian discipleship and fellowship. + +The pastor of the First Church went home stirred deeply by the +events of the week. Gradually the truth was growing upon him that +the pledge to do as Jesus would was working out a revolution in his +parish and throughout the city. Every day added to the serious +results of obedience to that pledge. Maxwell did not pretend to see +the end. He was, in fact, only now at the very beginning of events +that were destined to change the history of hundreds of families not +only in Raymond but throughout the entire country. As he thought of +Edward Norman and Rachel and Mr. Powers, and of the results that had +already come from their actions, he could not help a feeling of +intense interest in the probable effect if all the persons in the +First Church who had made the pledge, faithfully kept it. Would they +all keep it, or would some of them turn back when the cross became +too heavy? + +He was asking this question the next morning as he sat in his study +when the President of the Endeavor Society of his church called to +see him. + +"I suppose I ought not to trouble you with my case," said young +Morris coming at once to his errand, "but I thought, Mr. Maxwell, +that you might advise me a little." + +"I'm glad you came. Go on, Fred." He had known the young man ever +since his first year in the pastorate, and loved and honored him for +his consistent, faithful service in the church. + +"Well, the fact is, I am out of a job. You know I've been doing +reporter work on the morning SENTINEL since I graduated last year. +Well, last Saturday Mr. Burr asked me to go down the road Sunday +morning and get the details of that train robbery at the Junction, +and write the thing up for the extra edition that came out Monday +morning, just to get the start of the NEWS. I refused to go, and +Burr gave me my dismissal. He was in a bad temper, or I think +perhaps he would not have done it. He has always treated me well +before. Now, do you think Jesus would have done as I did? I ask +because the other fellows say I was a fool not to do the work. I +want to feel that a Christian acts from motives that may seem +strange to others sometimes, but not foolish. What do you think?" + +"I think you kept your promise, Fred. I cannot believe Jesus would +do newspaper reporting on Sunday as you were asked to do it." + +"Thank you, Mr. Maxwell. I felt a little troubled over it, but the +longer I think it over the better I feel." + +Morris rose to go, and his pastor rose and laid a loving hand on the +young man's shoulder. "What are you going to do, Fred?" + +"I don't know yet. I have thought some of going to Chicago or some +large city ." + +"Why don't you try the NEWS?" + +"They are all supplied. I have not thought of applying there." + +Maxwell thought a moment. "Come down to the NEWS office with me, and +let us see Norman about it." + +So a few minutes later Edward Norman received into his room the +minister and young Morris, and Maxwell briefly told the cause of the +errand. + +"I can give you a place on the NEWS," said Norman with his keen look +softened by a smile that made it winsome. "I want reporters who +won't work Sundays. And what is more, I am making plans for a +special kind of reporting which I believe you can develop because +you are in sympathy with what Jesus would do." + +He assigned Morris a definite task, and Maxwell started back to his +study, feeling that kind of satisfaction (and it is a very deep +kind) which a man feels when he has been even partly instrumental in +finding an unemployed person a remunerative position. + +He had intended to go right to his study, but on his way home he +passed by one of Milton Wright's stores. He thought he would simply +step in and shake hands with his parishioner and bid him God-speed +in what he had heard he was doing to put Christ into his business. +But when he went into the office, Wright insisted on detaining him +to talk over some of his new plans. Maxwell asked himself if this +was the Milton Wright he used to know, eminently practical, +business-like, according to the regular code of the business world, +and viewing every thing first and foremost from the standpoint of, +"Will it pay?" + +"There is no use to disguise the fact, Mr. Maxwell, that I have been +compelled to revolutionize the entire method of my business since I +made that promise. I have been doing a great many things during the +last twenty years in this store that I know Jesus would not do. But +that is a small item compared with the number of things I begin to +believe Jesus would do. My sins of commission have not been as many +as those of omission in business relations." + +"What was the first change you made?" He felt as if his sermon could +wait for him in his study. As the interview with Milton Wright +continued, he was not so sure but that he had found material for a +sermon without going back to his study. + +"I think the first change I had to make was in my thought of my +employees. I came down here Monday morning after that Sunday and +asked myself, 'What would Jesus do in His relation to these clerks, +bookkeepers, office-boys, draymen, salesmen? Would He try to +establish some sort of personal relation to them different from that +which I have sustained all these years?' I soon answered this by +saying, 'Yes.' Then came the question of what that relation would be +and what it would lead me to do. I did not see how I could answer it +to my satisfaction without getting all my employees together and +having a talk with them. So I sent invitations to all of them, and +we had a meeting out there in the warehouse Tuesday night. A good +many things came out of that meeting. I can't tell you all. I tried +to talk with the men as I imagined Jesus might. It was hard work, +for I have not been in the habit of it, and must have made some +mistakes. But I can hardly make you believe, Mr. Maxwell, the effect +of that meeting on some of the men. Before it closed I saw more than +a dozen of them with tears on their faces. I kept asking, 'What +would Jesus do?' and the more I asked it the farther along it pushed +me into the most intimate and loving relations with the men who have +worked for me all these years. Every day something new is coming up +and I am right now in the midst of a reconstruction of the entire +business so far as its motive for being conducted is concerned. I am +so practically ignorant of all plans for co-operation and its +application to business that I am trying to get information from +every possible source. I have lately made a special study of the +life of Titus Salt, the great mill-owner of Bradford, England, who +afterward built that model town on the banks of the Aire. There is a +good deal in his plans that will help me. But I have not yet reached +definite conclusions in regard to all the details. I am not enough +used to Jesus' methods. But see here." + +Wright eagerly reached up into one of the pigeon holes of his desk +and took out a paper. + +"I have sketched out what seems to me like a program such as Jesus +might go by in a business like mine. I want you to tell me what you +think of it: + +"WHAT JESUS WOULD PROBABLY DO IN MILTON WRIGHT'S PLACE AS A BUSINESS +MAN" + +He would engage in the business first of all for the purpose of +glorifying God, and not for the primary purpose of making money. All +money that might be made he would never regard as his own, but as +trust funds to be used for the good of humanity. His relations with +all the persons in his employ would be the most loving and helpful. +He could not help thinking of all of them in the light of souls to +be saved. This thought would always be greater than his thought of +making money in the business. He would never do a single dishonest +or questionable thing or try in any remotest way to get the +advantage of any one else in the same business. The principle of +unselfishness and helpfulness in the business would direct all its +details. Upon this principle he would shape the entire plan of his +relations to his employees, to the people who were his customers and +to the general business world with which he was connected. + +Henry Maxwell read this over slowly. It reminded him of his own +attempts the day before to put into a concrete form his thought of +Jesus' probable action. He was very thoughtful as he looked up and +met Wright's eager gaze. + +"Do you believe you can continue to make your business pay on these +lines?" + +"I do. Intelligent unselfishness ought to be wiser than intelligent +selfishness, don't you think? If the men who work as employees begin +to feel a personal share in the profits of the business and, more +than that, a personal love for themselves on the part of the firm, +won't the result be more care, less waste, more diligence, more +faithfulness?" + +"Yes, I think so. A good many other business men don't, do they? I +mean as a general thing. How about your relations to the selfish +world that is not trying to make money on Christian principles?" + +"That complicates my action, of course." + +"Does your plan contemplate what is coming to be known as +co-operation?" + +"Yes, as far as I have gone, it does. As I told you, I am studying +out my details carefully. I am absolutely convinced that Jesus in my +place would be absolutely unselfish. He would love all these men in +His employ. He would consider the main purpose of all the business +to be a mutual helpfulness, and would conduct it all so that God's +kingdom would be evidently the first object sought. On those general +principles, as I say, I am working. I must have time to complete the +details." + +When Maxwell finally left he was profoundly impressed with the +revolution that was being wrought already in the business. As he +passed out of the store he caught something of the new spirit of the +place. There was no mistaking the fact that Milton Wright's new +relations to his employees were beginning even so soon, after less +than two weeks, to transform the entire business. This was apparent +in the conduct and faces of the clerks. + +"If he keeps on he will be one of the most influential preachers in +Raymond," said Maxwell to himself when he reached his study. The +question rose as to his continuance in this course when he began to +lose money by it, as was possible. He prayed that the Holy Spirit, +who had shown Himself with growing power in the company of First +Church disciples, might abide long with them all. And with that +prayer on his lips and in his heart he began the preparation of a +sermon in which he was going to present to his people on Sunday the +subject of the saloon in Raymond, as he now believed Jesus would do. +He had never preached against the saloon in this way before. He knew +that the things he should say would lead to serious results. +Nevertheless, he went on with his work, and every sentence he wrote +or shaped was preceded with the question, "Would Jesus say that?" +Once in the course of his study, he went down on his knees. No one +except himself could know what that meant to him. When had he done +that in his preparation of sermons, before the change that had come +into his thought of discipleship? As he viewed his ministry now, he +did not dare preach without praying long for wisdom. He no longer +thought of his dramatic delivery and its effect on his audience. The +great question with him now was, "What would Jesus do?" + +Saturday night at the Rectangle witnessed some of the most +remarkable scenes that Mr. Gray and his wife had ever known. The +meetings had intensified with each night of Rachel's singing. A +stranger passing through the Rectangle in the day-time might have +heard a good deal about the meetings in one way and another. It +cannot be said that up to that Saturday night there was any +appreciable lack of oaths and impurity and heavy drinking. The +Rectangle would not have acknowledged that it was growing any better +or that even the singing had softened its outward manner. It had too +much local pride in being "tough." But in spite of itself there was +a yielding to a power it had never measured and did not know we +enough to resist beforehand. + +Gray had recovered his voice so that by Saturday he was able to +speak. The fact that he was obliged to use his voice carefully made +it necessary for the people to be very quiet if they wanted to hear. +Gradually they had come to understand that this man was talking +these many weeks and giving his time and strength to give them a +knowledge of a Savior, all out of a perfectly unselfish love for +them. Tonight the great crowd was as quiet as Henry Maxwell's +decorous audience ever was. The fringe around the tent was deeper +and the saloons were practically empty. The Holy Spirit had come at +last, and Gray knew that one of the great prayers of his life was +going to be answered. + +And Rachel her singing was the best, most wonderful, that Virginia +or Jasper Chase had ever known. They came together again tonight, +this time with Dr. West, who had spent all his spare time that week +in the Rectangle with some charity cases. Virginia was at the organ, +Jasper sat on a front seat looking up at Rachel, and the Rectangle +swayed as one man towards the platform as she sang: + + "Just as I am, without one plea, + But that Thy blood was shed for me, + And that Thou bidst me come to Thee, + O Lamb of God, I come, I come." + +Gray hardly said a word. He stretched out his hand with a gesture of +invitation. And down the two aisles of the tent, broken, sinful +creatures, men and women, stumbled towards the platform. One woman +out of the street was near the organ. Virginia caught the look of +her face, and for the first time in the life of the rich girl the +thought of what Jesus was to the sinful woman came with a suddenness +and power that was like nothing but a new birth. Virginia left the +organ, went to her, looked into her face and caught her hands in her +own. The other girl trembled, then fell on her knees sobbing, with +her head down upon the back of the rude bench in front of her, still +clinging to Virginia. And Virginia, after a moment's hesitation, +kneeled down by her and the two heads were bowed close together. + +But when the people had crowded in a double row all about the +platform, most of them kneeling and crying, a man in evening dress, +different from the others, pushed through the seats and came and +kneeled down by the side of the drunken man who had disturbed the +meeting when Maxwell spoke. He kneeled within a few feet of Rachel +Winslow, who was still singing softly. And as she turned for a +moment and looked in his direction, she was amazed to see the face +of Rollin Page! For a moment her voice faltered. Then she went on: + + "Just as I am, thou wilt receive, + Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve, + Because Thy promise I believe, + O Lamb of God, I come, I come." + + + + +Chapter Ten + + +"If any man serve me, let him follow me." + + +IT was nearly midnight before the services at the Rectangle closed. +Gray stayed up long into Sunday morning, praying and talking with a +little group of converts who in the great experiences of their new +life, clung to the evangelist with a personal helplessness that made +it as impossible for him to leave them as if they had been depending +upon him to save them from physical death. Among these converts was +Rollin Page. + +Virginia and her uncle had gone home about eleven o'clock, and +Rachel and Jasper Chase had gone with them as far as the avenue +where Virginia lived. Dr. West had walked on a little way with them +to his own home, and Rachel and Jasper had then gone on together to +her mother's. + +That was a little after eleven. It was now striking midnight, and +Jasper Chase sat in his room staring at the papers on his desk and +going over the last half hour with painful persistence. + +He had told Rachel Winslow of his love for her, and she had not +given him her love in return. It would be difficult to know what was +most powerful in the impulse that had moved him to speak to her +tonight. He had yielded to his feelings without any special thought +of results to himself, because he had felt so certain that Rachel +would respond to his love. He tried to recall the impression she +made on him when he first spoke to her. + +Never had her beauty and her strength influenced him as tonight. +While she was singing he saw and heard no one else. The tent swarmed +with a confused crowd of faces and he knew he was sitting there +hemmed in by a mob of people, but they had no meaning to him. He +felt powerless to avoid speaking to her. He knew he should speak +when they were alone. + +Now that he had spoken, he felt that he had misjudged either Rachel +or the opportunity. He knew, or thought he knew, that she had begun +to care something for him. It was no secret between them that the +heroine of Jasper's first novel had been his own ideal of Rachel, +and the hero in the story was himself and they had loved each other +in the book, and Rachel had not objected. No one else knew. The +names and characters had been drawn with a subtle skill that +revealed to Rachel, when she received a copy of the book from +Jasper, the fact of his love for her, and she had not been offended. +That was nearly a year ago. + +Tonight he recalled the scene between them with every inflection and +movement unerased from his memory. He even recalled the fact that he +began to speak just at that point on the avenue where, a few days +before, he had met Rachel walking with Rollin Page. He had wondered +at the time what Rollin was saying. + +"Rachel," Jasper had said, and it was the first time he had ever +spoken her first name, "I never knew till tonight how much I loved +you. Why should I try to conceal any longer what you have seen me +look? You know I love you as my life. I can no longer hide it from +you if I would." + +The first intimation he had of a repulse was the trembling of +Rachel's arm in his. She had allowed him to speak and had neither +turned her face toward him nor away from him. She had looked +straight on and her voice was sad but firm and quiet when she spoke. + +"Why do you speak to me now? I cannot bear it--after what we have +seen tonight." + +"Why--what--" he had stammered and then was silent. + +Rachel withdrew her arm from his but still walked near him. Then he +had cried out with the anguish of one who begins to see a great loss +facing him where he expected a great joy. + +"Rachel! Do you not love me? Is not my love for you as sacred as +anything in all of life itself?" + +She had walked silent for a few steps after that. They passed a +street lamp. Her face was pale and beautiful. He had made a movement +to clutch her arm and she had moved a little farther from him. + +"No," she had replied. "There was a time I--cannot answer for that +you--should not have spoken to me--now." + +He had seen in these words his answer. He was extremely sensitive. +Nothing short of a joyous response to his own love would ever have +satisfied him. He could not think of pleading with her. + +"Some time--when I am more worthy?" he had asked in a low voice, but +she did not seem to hear, and they had parted at her home, and he +recalled vividly the fact that no good-night had been said. + +Now as he went over the brief but significant scene he lashed +himself for his foolish precipitancy. He had not reckoned on +Rachel's tense, passionate absorption of all her feeling in the +scenes at the tent which were so new in her mind. But he did not +know her well enough even yet to understand the meaning of her +refusal. When the clock in the First Church struck one he was still +sitting at his desk staring at the last page of manuscript of his +unfinished novel. + +Rachel went up to her room and faced her evening's experience with +conflicting emotions. Had she ever loved Jasper Chase? Yes. No. One +moment she felt that her life's happiness was at stake over the +result of her action. Another, she had a strange feeling of relief +that she had spoken as she had. There was one great, overmastering +feeling in her. The response of the wretched creatures in the tent +to her singing, the swift, powerful, awesome presence of the Holy +Spirit had affected her as never in all her life before. The moment +Jasper had spoken her name and she realized that he was telling her +of his love she had felt a sudden revulsion for him, as if he should +have respected the supernatural events they had just witnessed. She +felt as if it was not the time to be absorbed in anything less than +the divine glory of those conversions. The thought that all the time +she was singing, with the one passion of her soul to touch the +conscience of that tent full of sin, Jasper Chase had been unmoved +by it except to love her for herself, gave her a shock as of +irreverence on her part as well as on his. She could not tell why +she felt as she did, only she knew that if he had not told her +tonight she would still have felt the same toward him as she always +had. What was that feeling? What had he been to her? Had she made a +mistake? She went to her book case and took out the novel which +Jasper had given her. Her face deepened in color as she turned to +certain passages which she had read often and which she knew Jasper +had written for her. She read them again. Somehow they failed to +touch her strongly. She closed the book and let it lie on the table. +She gradually felt that her thought was busy with the sights she had +witnessed in the tent. Those faces, men and women, touched for the +first time with the Spirit's glory--what a wonderful thing life was +after all! The complete regeneration revealed in the sight of +drunken, vile, debauched humanity kneeling down to give itself to a +life of purity and Christlikeness--oh, it was surely a witness to +the superhuman in the world! And the face of Rollin Page by the side +of that miserable wreck out of the gutter! She could recall as if +she now saw it, Virginia crying with her arms about her brother just +before she left the tent, and Mr. Gray kneeling close by, and the +girl Virginia had taken into her heart while she whispered something +to her before she went out. All these pictures drawn by the Holy +Spirit in the human tragedies brought to a climax there in the most +abandoned spot in all Raymond, stood out in Rachel's memory now, a +memory so recent that her room seemed for the time being to contain +all the actors and their movements. + +"No! No!" she said aloud. "He had no right to speak after all that! +He should have respected the place where our thoughts should have +been. I am sure I do not love him--not enough to give him my life!" + +And after she had thus spoken, the evening's experience at the tent +came crowding in again, thrusting out all other things. It is +perhaps the most striking evidence of the tremendous spiritual +factor which had now entered the Rectangle that Rachel felt, even +when the great love of a strong man had come very near to her, that +the spiritual manifestation moved her with an agitation far greater +than anything Jasper had felt for her personally or she for him. + +The people of Raymond awoke Sunday morning to a growing knowledge of +events which were beginning to revolutionize many of the regular, +customary habits of the town. Alexander Powers' action in the matter +of the railroad frauds had created a sensation not only in Raymond +but throughout the country. Edward Norman's daily changes of policy +in the conduct of his paper had startled the community and caused +more comment than any recent political event. Rachel Winslow's +singing at the Rectangle meetings had made a stir in society and +excited the wonder of all her friends. + +Virginia's conduct, her presence every night with Rachel, her +absence from the usual circle of her wealthy, fashionable +acquaintances, had furnished a great deal of material for gossip and +question. In addition to these events which centered about these +persons who were so well known, there had been all through the city +in very many homes and in business and social circles strange +happenings. Nearly one hundred persons in Henry Maxwell's church had +made the pledge to do everything after asking: "What would Jesus +do?" and the result had been, in many cases, unheard-of actions. The +city was stirred as it had never been before. As a climax to the +week's events had come the spiritual manifestation at the Rectangle, +and the announcement which came to most people before church time of +the actual conversion at the tent of nearly fifty of the worst +characters in that neighborhood, together with the con version of +Rollin Page, the well-known society and club man. + +It is no wonder that under the pressure of all this the First Church +of Raymond came to the morning service in a condition that made it +quickly sensitive to any large truth. Perhaps nothing had astonished +the people more than the great change that had come over the +minister, since he had proposed to them the imitation of Jesus in +conduct. The dramatic delivery of his sermons no longer impressed +them. The self-satisfied, contented, easy attitude of the fine +figure and refined face in the pulpit had been displaced by a manner +that could not be compared with the old style of his delivery. The +sermon had become a message. It was no longer delivered. It was +brought to them with a love, an earnestness, a passion, a desire, a +humility that poured its enthusiasm about the truth and made the +speaker no more prominent than he had to be as the living voice of +God. His prayers were unlike any the people had heard before. They +were often broken, even once or twice they had been actually +ungrammatical in a phrase or two. When had Henry Maxwell so far +forgotten himself in a prayer as to make a mistake of that sort? He +knew that he had often taken as much pride in the diction and +delivery of his prayers as of his sermons. Was it possible he now so +abhorred the elegant refinement of a formal public petition that he +purposely chose to rebuke himself for his previous precise manner of +prayer? It is more likely that he had no thought of all that. His +great longing to voice the needs and wants of his people made him +unmindful of an occasional mistake. It is certain that he had never +prayed so effectively as he did now. + +There are times when a sermon has a value and power due to +conditions in the audience rather than to anything new or startling +or eloquent in the words said or arguments presented. Such +conditions faced Henry Maxwell this morning as he preached against +the saloon, according to his purpose determined on the week before. +He had no new statements to make about the evil influence of the +saloon in Raymond. What new facts were there? He had no startling +illustrations of the power of the saloon in business or politics. +What could he say that had not been said by temperance orators a +great many times? The effect of his message this morning owed its +power to the unusual fact of his preaching about the saloon at all, +together with the events that had stirred the people. He had never +in the course of his ten years' pastorate mentioned the saloon as +something to be regarded in the light of an enemy, not only to the +poor and tempted, but to the business life of the place and the +church itself. He spoke now with a freedom that seemed to measure +his complete sense of conviction that Jesus would speak so. At the +close he pleaded with the people to remember the new life that had +begun at the Rectangle. The regular election of city officers was +near at hand. The question of license would be an issue in the +election. What of the poor creatures surrounded by the hell of drink +while just beginning to feel the joy of deliverance from sin? Who +could tell what depended on their environment? Was there one word to +be said by the Christian disciple, business man, citizen, in favor +of continuing the license to crime and shame-producing institutions? +Was not the most Christian thing they could do to act as citizens in +the matter, fight the saloon at the polls, elect good men to the +city offices, and clean the municipality? How much had prayers +helped to make Raymond better while votes and actions had really +been on the side of the enemies of Jesus? Would not Jesus do this? +What disciple could imagine Him refusing to suffer or to take up His +cross in this matter? How much had the members of the First Church +ever suffered in an attempt to imitate Jesus? Was Christian +discipleship a thing of conscience simply, of custom, of tradition? +Where did the suffering come in? Was it necessary in order to follow +Jesus' steps to go up Calvary as well as the Mount of +Transfiguration? + +His appeal was stronger at this point than he knew. It is not too +much to say that the spiritual tension of the people reached its +highest point right there. The imitation of Jesus which had begun +with the volunteers in the church was working like leaven in the +organization, and Henry Maxwell would even thus early in his life +have been amazed if he could have measured the extent of desire on +the part of his people to take up the cross. While he was speaking +this morning, before he closed with a loving appeal to the +discipleship of two thousand years' knowledge of the Master, many a +man and woman in the church was saying as Rachel had said so +passionately to her mother: "I want to do something that will cost +me something in the way of sacrifice." "I am hungry to suffer +something." Truly, Mazzini was right when he said that no appeal is +quite so powerful in the end as the call: "Come and suffer." + +The service was over, the great audience had gone, and Maxwell again +faced the company gathered in the lecture room as on the two +previous Sundays. He had asked all to remain who had made the pledge +of discipleship, and any others who wished to be included. The after +service seemed now to be a necessity. As he went in and faced the +people there his heart trembled. There were at least one hundred +present. The Holy Spirit was never before so manifest. He missed +Jasper Chase. But all the others were present. He asked Milton +Wright to pray. The very air was charged with divine possibilities. +What could resist such a baptism of power? How had they lived all +these years without it? + + + + +Chapter Eleven + + +DONALD MARSH, President of Lincoln College, walked home with Mr. +Maxwell. + +"I have reached one conclusion, Maxwell," said Marsh, speaking +slowly. "I have found my cross and it is a heavy one, but I shall +never be satisfied until I take it up and carry it." Maxwell was +silent and the President went on. + +"Your sermon today made clear to me what I have long been feeling I +ought to do. 'What would Jesus do in my place?' I have asked the +question repeatedly since I made my promise. I have tried to satisfy +myself that He would simply go on as I have done, attending to the +duties of my college work, teaching the classes in Ethics and +Philosophy. But I have not been able to avoid the feeling that He +would do something more. That something is what I do not want to do. +It will cause me genuine suffering to do it. I dread it with all my +soul. You may be able to guess what it is." + +"Yes, I think I know. It is my cross too. I would almost rather do +any thing else." + +Donald Marsh looked surprised, then relieved. Then he spoke sadly +but with great conviction: "Maxwell, you and I belong to a class of +professional men who have always avoided the duties of citizenship. +We have lived in a little world of literature and scholarly +seclusion, doing work we have enjoyed and shrinking from the +disagreeable duties that belong to the life of the citizen. I +confess with shame that I have purposely avoided the responsibility +that I owe to this city personally. I understand that our city +officials are a corrupt, unprincipled set of men, controlled in +large part by the whiskey element and thoroughly selfish so far as +the affairs of city government are concerned. Yet all these years I, +with nearly every teacher in the college, have been satisfied to let +other men run the municipality and have lived in a little world of +my own, out of touch and sympathy with the real world of the people. +'What would Jesus do?' I have even tried to avoid an honest answer. +I can no longer do so. My plain duty is to take a personal part in +this coming election, go to the primaries, throw the weight of my +influence, whatever it is, toward the nomination and election of +good men, and plunge into the very depths of the entire horrible +whirlpool of deceit, bribery, political trickery and saloonism as it +exists in Raymond today. I would sooner walk up to the mouth of a +cannon any time than do this. I dread it because I hate the touch of +the whole matter. I would give almost any thing to be able to say, +'I do not believe Jesus would do anything of the sort.' But I am +more and more persuaded that He would. This is where the suffering +comes for me. It would not hurt me half so much to lose my position +or my home. I loathe the contact with this municipal problem. I +would so much prefer to remain quietly in my scholastic life with my +classes in Ethics and Philosophy. But the call has come to me so +plainly that I cannot escape. 'Donald Marsh, follow me. Do your duty +as a citizen of Raymond at the point where your citizenship will +cost you something. Help to cleanse this municipal stable, even if +you do have to soil your aristocratic feelings a little.' Maxwell, +this is my cross, I must take it up or deny my Lord." + +"You have spoken for me also," replied Maxwell with a sad smile. +"Why should I, simply because I am a minister, shelter myself behind +my refined, sensitive feelings, and like a coward refuse to touch, +except in a sermon possibly, the duty of citizenship? I am unused to +the ways of the political life of the city. I have never taken an +active part in any nomination of good men. There are hundreds of +ministers like me. As a class we do not practice in the municipal +life the duties and privileges we preach from the pulpit. 'What +would Jesus do?' I am now at a point where, like you, I am driven to +answer the question one way. My duty is plain. I must suffer. All my +parish work, all my little trials or self-sacrifices are as nothing +to me compared with the breaking into my scholarly, intellectual, +self-contained habits, of this open, coarse, public fight for a +clean city life. I could go and live at the Rectangle the rest of my +life and work in the slums for a bare living, and I could enjoy it +more than the thought of plunging into a fight for the reform of +this whiskey-ridden city. It would cost me less. But, like you, I +have been unable to shake off my responsibility. The answer to the +question 'What would Jesus do?' in this case leaves me no peace +except when I say, Jesus would have me act the part of a Christian +citizen. Marsh, as you say, we professional men, ministers, +professors, artists, literary men, scholars, have almost invariably +been political cowards. We have avoided the sacred duties of +citizenship either ignorantly or selfishly. Certainly Jesus in our +age would not do that. We can do no less than take up this cross, +and follow Him." + +The two men walked on in silence for a while. Finally President +Marsh said: "We do not need to act alone in this matter. With all +the men who have made the promise we certainly can have +companionship, and strength even, of numbers. Let us organize the +Christian forces of Raymond for the battle against rum and +corruption. We certainly ought to enter the primaries with a force +that will be able to do more than enter a protest. It is a fact that +the saloon element is cowardly and easily frightened in spite of its +lawlessness and corruption. Let us plan a campaign that will mean +something because it is organized righteousness. Jesus would use +great wisdom in this matter. He would employ means. He would make +large plans. Let us do so. If we bear this cross let us do it +bravely, like men." + +They talked over the matter a long time and met again the next day +in Maxwell's study to develop plans. The city primaries were called +for Friday. Rumors of strange and unknown events to the average +citizen were current that week in political circles throughout +Raymond. The Crawford system of balloting for nominations was not in +use in the state, and the primary was called for a public meeting at +the court house. + +The citizens of Raymond will never forget that meeting. It was so +unlike any political meeting ever held in Raymond before, that there +was no attempt at comparison. The special officers to be nominated +were mayor, city council, chief of police, city clerk and city +treasurer. + +The evening NEWS in its Saturday edition gave a full account of the +primaries, and in the editorial columns Edward Norman spoke with a +directness and conviction that the Christian people of Raymond were +learning to respect deeply, because it was so evidently sincere and +unselfish. A part of that editorial is also a part of this history. +We quote the following: + +"It is safe to say that never before in the history of Raymond was +there a primary like the one in the court house last night. It was, +first of all, a complete surprise to the city politicians who have +been in the habit of carrying on the affairs of the city as if they +owned them, and every one else was simply a tool or a cipher. The +overwhelming surprise of the wire pullers last night consisted in +the fact that a large number of the citizens of Raymond who have +heretofore taken no part in the city's affairs, entered the primary +and controlled it, nominating some of the best men for all the +offices to be filled at the coming election. + +"It was a tremendous lesson in good citizenship. President Marsh of +Lincoln College, who never before entered a city primary, and whose +face was not even known to the ward politicians, made one of the +best speeches ever made in Raymond. It was almost ludicrous to see +the faces of the men who for years have done as they pleased, when +President Marsh rose to speak. Many of them asked, 'Who is he?' The +consternation deepened as the primary proceeded and it became +evident that the oldtime ring of city rulers was outnumbered. Rev. +Henry Maxwell of the First Church, Milton Wright, Alexander Powers, +Professors Brown, Willard and Park of Lincoln College, Dr. West, +Rev. George Main of the Pilgrim Church, Dean Ward of the Holy +Trinity, and scores of well-known business men and professional men, +most of them church members, were present, and it did not take long +to see that they had all come with the one direct and definite +purpose of nominating the best men possible. Most of those men had +never before been seen in a primary. They were complete strangers to +the politicians. But they had evidently profited by the politician's +methods and were able by organized and united effort to nominate the +entire ticket. + +"As soon as it became plain that the primary was out of their +control the regular ring withdrew in disgust and nominated another +ticket. The NEWS simply calls the attention of all decent citizens +to the fact that this last ticket contains the names of whiskey men, +and the line is sharply and distinctly drawn between the saloon and +corrupt management such as we have known for years, and a clean, +honest, capable, business-like city administration, such as every +good citizen ought to want. It is not necessary to remind the people +of Raymond that the question of local option comes up at the +election. That will be the most important question on the ticket. +The crisis of our city affairs has been reached. The issue is +squarely before us. Shall we continue the rule of rum and boodle and +shameless incompetency, or shall we, as President Marsh said in his +noble speech, rise as good citizens and begin a new order of things, +cleansing our city of the worst enemy known to municipal honesty, +and doing what lies in our power to do with the ballot to purify our +civic life? + +"The NEWS is positively and without reservation on the side of the +new movement. We shall henceforth do all in our power to drive out +the saloon and destroy its political strength. We shall advocate the +election of the men nominated by the majority of citizens met in the +first primary and we call upon all Christians, church members, +lovers of right, purity, temperance, and the home, to stand by +President Marsh and the rest of the citizens who have thus begun a +long-needed reform in our city." + +President Marsh read this editorial and thanked God for Edward +Norman. At the same time he understood well enough that every other +paper in Raymond was on the other side. He did not underestimate the +importance and seriousness of the fight which was only just begun. +It was no secret that the NEWS had lost enormously since it had been +governed by the standard of "What would Jesus do?" And the question +was, Would the Christian people of Raymond stand by it? Would they +make it possible for Norman to conduct a daily Christian paper? Or +would the desire for what is called news in the way of crime, +scandal, political partisanship of the regular sort, and a dislike +to champion so remarkable a reform in journalism, influence them to +drop the paper and refuse to give it their financial support? That +was, in fact, the question Edward Norman was asking even while he +wrote that Saturday editorial. He knew well enough that his actions +expressed in that editorial would cost him very heavily from the +hands of many business men in Raymond. And still, as he drove his +pen over the paper, he asked another question, "What would Jesus +do?" That question had become a part of this whole life now. It was +greater than any other. + +But for the first time in its history Raymond had seen the +professional men, the teachers, the college professors, the doctors, +the ministers, take political action and put themselves definitely +and sharply in public antagonism to the evil forces that had so long +controlled the machine of municipal government. The fact itself was +astounding. President Marsh acknowledged to himself with a feeling +of humiliation, that never before had he known what civic +righteousness could accomplish. From that Friday night's work he +dated for himself and his college a new definition of the worn +phrase "the scholar in politics." Education for him and those who +were under his influence ever after meant some element of suffering. +Sacrifice must now enter into the factor of development. + +At the Rectangle that week the tide of spiritual life rose high, and +as yet showed no signs of flowing back. Rachel and Virginia went +every night. Virginia was rapidly reaching a conclusion with respect +to a large part of her money. She had talked it over with Rachel and +they had been able to agree that if Jesus had a vast amount of money +at His disposal He might do with some of it as Virginia planned. At +any rate they felt that whatever He might do in such case would have +as large an element of variety in it as the differences in persons +and circumstances. There could be no one fixed Christian way of +using money. The rule that regulated its use was unselfish utility. + +But meanwhile the glory of the Spirit's power possessed all their +best thought. Night after night that week witnessed miracles as +great as walking on the sea or feeding the multitude with a few +loaves and fishes. For what greater miracle is there than a +regenerate humanity? The transformation of these coarse, brutal, +sottish lives into praying, rapturous lovers of Christ, struck +Rachel and Virginia every time with the feeling that people may have +had when they saw Lazarus walk out of the tomb. It was an experience +full of profound excitement for them. + +Rollin Page came to all the meetings. There was no doubt of the +change that had come over him. Rachel had not yet spoken much with +him. He was wonderfully quiet. It seemed as if he was thinking all +the time. Certainly he was not the same person. He talked more with +Gray than with any one else. He did not avoid Rachel, but he seemed +to shrink from any appearance of seeming to renew the acquaintance +with her. Rachel found it even difficult to express to him her +pleasure at the new life he had begun to know. He seemed to be +waiting to adjust himself to his previous relations before this new +life began. He had not forgotten those relations. But he was not yet +able to fit his consciousness into new ones. + +The end of the week found the Rectangle struggling hard between two +mighty opposing forces. The Holy Spirit was battling with all His +supernatural strength against the saloon devil which had so long +held a jealous grasp on its slaves. If the Christian people of +Raymond once could realize what the contest meant to the souls newly +awakened to a purer life it did not seem possible that the election +could result in the old system of license. But that remained yet to +be seen. The horror of the daily surroundings of many of the +converts was slowly burning its way into the knowledge of Virginia +and Rachel, and every night as they went uptown to their luxurious +homes they carried heavy hearts. + +"A good many of these poor creatures will go back again," Gray would +say with sadness too deep for tears. "The environment does have a +good deal to do with the character. It does not stand to reason that +these people can always resist the sight and smell of the devilish +drink about them. O Lord, how long shall Christian people continue +to support by their silence and their ballots the greatest form of +slavery known in America?" + +He asked the question, and did not have much hope of an immediate +answer. There was a ray of hope in the action of Friday night's +primary, but what the result would be he did not dare to anticipate. +The whiskey forces were organized, alert, aggressive, roused into +unusual hatred by the events of the last week at the tent and in the +city. Would the Christian forces act as a unit against the saloon? +Or would they be divided on account of their business interests or +because they were not in the habit of acting all together as the +whiskey power always did? That remained to be seen. Meanwhile the +saloon reared itself about the Rectangle like some deadly viper +hissing and coiling, ready to strike its poison into any unguarded +part. + +Saturday afternoon as Virginia was just stepping out of her house to +go and see Rachel to talk over her new plans, a carriage drove up +containing three of her fashionable friends. Virginia went out to +the drive-way and stood there talking with them. They had not come +to make a formal call but wanted Virginia to go driving with them up +on the boulevard. There was a band concert in the park. The day was +too pleasant to be spent indoors. + +"Where have you been all this time, Virginia?" asked one of the +girls, tapping her playfully on the shoulder with a red silk +parasol. "We hear that you have gone into the show business. Tell us +about it." + +Virginia colored, but after a moment's hesitation she frankly told +something of her experience at the Rectangle. The girls in the +carriage began to be really interested. + +"I tell you, girls, let's go 'slumming' with Virginia this afternoon +instead of going to the band concert. I've never been down to the +Rectangle. I've heard it's an awful wicked place and lots to see. +Virginia will act as guide, and it would be"--"real fun" she was +going to say, but Virginia's look made her substitute the word +"interesting." + +Virginia was angry. At first thought she said to herself she would +never go under such circumstances. The other girls seemed to be of +the same mind with the speaker. They chimed in with earnestness and +asked Virginia to take them down there. + +Suddenly she saw in the idle curiosity of the girls an opportunity. +They had never seen the sin and misery of Raymond. Why should they +not see it, even if their motive in going down there was simply to +pass away an afternoon. + + + + +Chapter Twelve + + +"For I come to set a man at variance against his father, and the +daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her +mother-in-law; and a man's foes shall be they of his own household." + +"Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in +love, even as Christ also loved you." + + +"HADN'T we better take a policeman along?" said one of the girls +with a nervous laugh. "It really isn't safe down there, you know." + +"There's no danger," said Virginia briefly. + +"Is it true that your brother Rollin has been converted?" asked the +first speaker, looking at Virginia curiously. It impressed her +during the drive to the Rectangle that all three of her friends were +regarding her with close attention as if she were peculiar. + +"Yes, he certainly is." + +"I understand he is going around to the clubs talking with his old +friends there, trying to preach to them. Doesn't that seem funny?" +said the girl with the red silk parasol. + +Virginia did not answer, and the other girls were beginning to feel +sober as the carriage turned into a street leading to the Rectangle. +As they neared the district they grew more and more nervous. The +sights and smells and sounds which had become familiar to Virginia +struck the senses of these refined, delicate society girls as +something horrible. As they entered farther into the district, the +Rectangle seemed to stare as with one great, bleary, beer-soaked +countenance at this fine carriage with its load of fashionably +dressed young women. "Slumming" had never been a fad with Raymond +society, and this was perhaps the first time that the two had come +together in this way. The girls felt that instead of seeing the +Rectangle they were being made the objects of curiosity. They were +frightened and disgusted. + +"Let's go back. I've seen enough," said the girl who was sitting +with Virginia. + +They were at that moment just opposite a notorious saloon and +gambling house. The street was narrow and the sidewalk crowded. +Suddenly, out of the door of this saloon a young woman reeled. She +was singing in a broken, drunken sob that seemed to indicate that +she partly realized her awful condition, "Just as I am, without one +plea"--and as the carriage rolled past she leered at it, raising her +face so that Virginia saw it very close to her own. It was the face +of the girl who had kneeled sobbing, that night with Virginia +kneeling beside her and praying for her. + +"Stop!" cried Virginia, motioning to the driver who was looking +around. The carriage stopped, and in a moment she was out and had +gone up to the girl and taken her by the arm. "Loreen!" she said, +and that was all. The girl looked into her face, and her own changed +into a look of utter horror. The girls in the carriage were smitten +into helpless astonishment. The saloon-keeper had come to the door +of the saloon and was standing there looking on with his hands on +his hips. And the Rectangle from its windows, its saloon steps, its +filthy sidewalk, gutter and roadway, paused, and with undisguised +wonder stared at the two girls. Over the scene the warm sun of +spring poured its mellow light. A faint breath of music from the +band-stand in the park floated into the Rectangle. The concert had +begun, and the fashion and wealth of Raymond were displaying +themselves up town on the boulevard. + +When Virginia left the carriage and went up to Loreen she had no +definite idea as to what she would do or what the result of her +action would be. She simply saw a soul that had tasted of the joy of +a better life slipping back again into its old hell of shame and +death. And before she had touched the drunken girl's arm she had +asked only one question, "What would Jesus do?" That question was +becoming with her, as with many others, a habit of life. + +She looked around now as she stood close by Loreen, and the whole +scene was cruelly vivid to her. She thought first of the girls in +the carriage. + +"Drive on; don't wait for me. I am going to see my friend home," she +said calmly enough. + +The girl with the red parasol seemed to gasp at the word "friend," +when Virginia spoke it. She did not say anything. + +The other girls seemed speechless. + +"Go on. I cannot go back with you," said Virginia. The driver +started the horses slowly. One of the girls leaned a little out of +the carriage. + +"Can't we--that is--do you want our help? Couldn't you--" + +"No, no!" exclaimed Virginia. "You cannot be of any help to me." + +The carriage moved on and Virginia was alone with her charge. She +looked up and around. Many faces in the crowd were sympathetic. They +were not all cruel or brutal. The Holy Spirit had softened a good +deal of the Rectangle. + +"Where does she live?" asked Virginia. + +No one answered. It occurred to Virginia afterward when she had time +to think it over, that the Rectangle showed a delicacy in its sad +silence that would have done credit to the boulevard. For the first +time it flashed across her that the immortal being who was flung +like wreckage upon the shore of this early hell called the saloon, +had no place that could be called home. The girl suddenly wrenched +her arm from Virginia's grasp. In doing so she nearly threw Virginia +down. + +"You shall not touch me! Leave me! Let me go to hell! That's where I +belong! The devil is waiting for me. See him!" she exclaimed +hoarsely. She turned and pointed with a shaking finger at the +saloon-keeper. The crowd laughed. Virginia stepped up to her and put +her arm about her. + +"Loreen," she said firmly, "come with me. You do not belong to hell. +You belong to Jesus and He will save you. Come." + +The girl suddenly burst into tears. She was only partly sobered by +the shock of meeting Virginia. + +Virginia looked around again. "Where does Mr. Gray live?" she asked. +She knew that the evangelist boarded somewhere near the tent. A +number of voices gave the direction. + +"Come, Loreen, I want you to go with me to Mr. Gray's," she said, +still keeping her hold of the swaying, trembling creature who moaned +and sobbed and now clung to her as firmly as before she had repulsed +her. + +So the two moved on through the Rectangle toward the evangelist's +lodging place. The sight seemed to impress the Rectangle seriously. +It never took itself seriously when it was drunk, but this was +different. The fact that one of the richest, most +beautifully-dressed girls in all Raymond was taking care of one of +the Rectangle's most noted characters, who reeled along under the +influence of liquor, was a fact astounding enough to throw more or +less dignity and importance about Loreen herself. The event of +Loreen's stumbling through the gutter dead-drunk always made the +Rectangle laugh and jest. But Loreen staggering along with a young +lady from the society circles uptown supporting her, was another +thing. The Rectangle viewed it with soberness and more or less +wondering admiration. + +When they finally reached Mr. Gray's lodging place the woman who +answered Virginia's knock said that both Mr. and Mrs. Gray were out +somewhere and would not be back until six o'clock. + +Virginia had not planned anything farther than a possible appeal to +the Grays, either to take charge of Loreen for a while or find some +safe place for her until she was sober. She stood now at the door +after the woman had spoken, and she was really at a loss to know +what to do. Loreen sank down stupidly on the steps and buried her +face in her arms. Virginia eyed the miserable figure of the girl +with a feeling that she was afraid would grow into disgust. + +Finally a thought possessed her that she could not escape. What was +to hinder her from taking Loreen home with her? Why should not this +homeless, wretched creature, reeking with the fumes of liquor, be +cared for in Virginia's own home instead of being consigned to +strangers in some hospital or house of charity? Virginia really knew +very little about any such places of refuge. As a matter of fact, +there were two or three such institutions in Raymond, but it is +doubtful if any of them would have taken a person like Loreen in her +present condition. But that was not the question with Virginia just +now. "What would Jesus do with Loreen?" That was what Virginia +faced, and she finally answered it by touching the girl again. + +"Loreen, come. You are going home with me. We will take the car here +at the corner." + +Loreen staggered to her feet and, to Virginia's surprise, made no +trouble. She had expected resistance or a stubborn refusal to move. +When they reached the corner and took the car it was nearly full of +people going uptown. Virginia was painfully conscious of the stare +that greeted her and her companion as they entered. But her thought +was directed more and more to the approaching scene with her +grandmother. What would Madam Page say? + +Loreen was nearly sober now. But she was lapsing into a state of +stupor. Virginia was obliged to hold fast to her arm. Several times +the girl lurched heavily against her, and as the two went up the +avenue a curious crowd of so-called civilized people turned and +gazed at them. When she mounted the steps of her handsome house +Virginia breathed a sigh of relief, even in the face of the +interview with the grandmother, and when the door shut and she was +in the wide hall with her homeless outcast, she felt equal to +anything that might now come. + +Madam Page was in the library. Hearing Virginia come in, she came +into the hall. Virginia stood there supporting Loreen, who stared +stupidly at the rich magnificence of the furnishings around her. + +"Grandmother," Virginia spoke without hesitation and very clearly, +"I have brought one of my friends from the Rectangle. She is in +trouble and has no home. I am going to care for her here a little +while." + +Madam Page glanced from her granddaughter to Loreen in astonishment. + +"Did you say she is one of your friends?" she asked in a cold, +sneering voice that hurt Virginia more than anything she had yet +felt. + +"Yes, I said so." Virginia's face flushed, but she seemed to recall +a verse that Mr. Gray had used for one of his recent sermons, "A +friend of publicans and sinners." Surely, Jesus would do this that +she was doing. + +"Do you know what this girl is?" asked Madam Page, in an angry +whisper, stepping near Virginia. + +"I know very well. She is an outcast. You need not tell me, +grandmother. I know it even better than you do. She is drunk at this +minute. But she is also a child of God. I have seen her on her +knees, repentant. And I have seen hell reach out its horrible +fingers after her again. And by the grace of Christ I feel that the +least that I can do is to rescue her from such peril. Grandmother, +we call ourselves Christians. Here is a poor, lost human creature +without a home, slipping back into a life of misery and possibly +eternal loss, and we have more than enough. I have brought her here, +and I shall keep her." + +Madam Page glared at Virginia and clenched her hands. All this was +contrary to her social code of conduct. How could society excuse +familiarity with the scum of the streets? What would Virginia's +action cost the family in the way of criticism and loss of standing, +and all that long list of necessary relations which people of wealth +and position must sustain to the leaders of society? To Madam Page +society represented more than the church or any other institution. +It was a power to be feared and obeyed. The loss of its good-will +was a loss more to be dreaded than anything except the loss of +wealth itself. + +She stood erect and stern and confronted Virginia, fully roused and +determined. Virginia placed her arm about Loreen and calmly looked +her grandmother in the face. + +"You shall not do this, Virginia! You can send her to the asylum for +helpless women. We can pay all the expenses. We cannot afford for +the sake of our reputations to shelter such a person." + +"Grandmother, I do not wish to do anything that is displeasing to +you, but I must keep Loreen here tonight, and longer if it seems +best." + +"Then you can answer for the consequences! I do not stay in the same +house with a miserable--" Madam Page lost her self-control. Virginia +stopped her before she could speak the next word. + +"Grandmother, this house is mine. It is your home with me as long as +you choose to remain. But in this matter I must act as I fully +believe Jesus would in my place. I am willing to bear all that +society may say or do. Society is not my God. By the side of this +poor soul I do not count the verdict of society as of any value." + +"I shall not stay here, then!" said Madam Page. She turned suddenly +and walked to the end of the hall. She then came back, and going up +to Virginia said, with an emphasis that revealed her intensive +excitement of passion: "You can always remember that you have driven +your grandmother out of your house in favor of a drunken woman;" +then, without waiting for Virginia to reply, she turned again and +went upstairs. Virginia called a servant and soon had Loreen cared +for. She was fast lapsing into a wretched condition. During the +brief scene in the hall she had clung to Virginia so hard that her +arm was sore from the clutch of the girl's fingers. + + + + +Chapter Thirteen + + +WHEN the bell rang for tea she went down and her grandmother did not +appear. She sent a servant to her room who brought back word that +Madam Page was not there. A few minutes later Rollin came in. He +brought word that his grandmother had taken the evening train for +the South. He had been at the station to see some friends off, and +had by chance met his grandmother as he was coming out. She had told +him her reason for going. + +Virginia and Rollin comforted each other at the tea table, looking +at each other with earnest, sad faces. + +"Rollin," said Virginia, and for the first time, almost, since his +conversion she realized what a wonderful thing her brother's changed +life meant to her, "do you blame me? Am I wrong?" + +"No, dear, I cannot believe you are. This is very painful for us. +But if you think this poor creature owes her safety and salvation to +your personal care, it was the only thing for you to do. O Virginia, +to think that we have all these years enjoyed our beautiful home and +all these luxuries selfishly, forgetful of the multitudes like this +woman! Surely Jesus in our places would do what you have done." + +And so Rollin comforted Virginia and counseled with her that +evening. And of all the wonderful changes that she henceforth was to +know on account of her great pledge, nothing affected her so +powerfully as the thought of Rollin's change of life. Truly, this +man in Christ was a new creature. Old things were passed away. +Behold, all things in him had become new. + +Dr. West came that evening at Virginia's summons and did everything +necessary for the outcast. She had drunk herself almost into +delirium. The best that could be done for her now was quiet nursing +and careful watching and personal love. So, in a beautiful room, +with a picture of Christ walking by the sea hanging on the wall, +where her bewildered eyes caught daily something more of its hidden +meaning, Loreen lay, tossed she hardly knew how into this haven, and +Virginia crept nearer the Master than she had ever been, as her +heart went out towards this wreck which had thus been flung torn and +beaten at her feet. + +Meanwhile the Rectangle awaited the issue of the election with more +than usual interest; and Mr. Gray and his wife wept over the poor, +pitiful creatures who, after a struggle with surroundings that daily +tempted them, too often wearied of the struggle and, like Loreen, +threw up their arms and went whirling over the cataract into the +boiling abyss of their previous condition. + +The after-meeting at the First Church was now eagerly established. +Henry Maxwell went into the lecture-room on the Sunday succeeding +the week of the primary, and was greeted with an enthusiasm that +made him tremble at first for its reality. He noted again the +absence of Jasper Chase, but all the others were present, and they +seemed drawn very close together by a bond of common fellowship that +demanded and enjoyed mutual confidences. It was the general feeling +that the spirit of Jesus was the spirit of very open, frank +confession of experience. It seemed the most natural thing in the +world, therefore, for Edward Norman to be telling all the rest of +the company about the details of his newspaper. + +"The fact is, I have lost a great deal of money during the last +three weeks. I cannot tell just how much. I am losing a great many +subscribers every day." + +"What do the subscribers give as their reason for dropping the +paper?" asked Mr. Maxwell. All the rest were listening eagerly. + +"There are a good many different reasons. Some say they want a paper +that prints all the news; meaning, by that, the crime details, +sensations like prize fights, scandals and horrors of various kinds. +Others object to the discontinuance of the Sunday edition. I have +lost hundreds of subscribers by that action, although I have made +satisfactory arrangements with many of the old subscribers by giving +them even more in the extra Saturday edition than they formerly had +in the Sunday issue. My greatest loss has come from a falling off in +advertisements, and from the attitude I have felt obliged to take on +political questions. The last action has really cost me more than +any other. The bulk of my subscribers are intensely partisan. I may +as well tell you all frankly that if I continue to pursue the plan +which I honestly believe Jesus would pursue in the matter of +political issues and their treatment from a non-partisan and moral +standpoint, the NEWS will not be able to pay its operating expenses +unless one factor in Raymond can be depended on." + +He paused a moment and the room was very quiet. Virginia seemed +specially interested. Her face glowed with interest. It was like the +interest of a person who had been thinking hard of the same thing +which Norman went on to mention. + +"That one factor is the Christian element in Raymond. Say the NEWS +has lost heavily from the dropping off of people who do not care for +a Christian daily, and from others who simply look upon a newspaper +as a purveyor of all sorts of material to amuse or interest them, +are there enough genuine Christian people in Raymond who will rally +to the support of a paper such as Jesus would probably edit? or are +the habits of the church people so firmly established in their +demand for the regular type of journalism that they will not take a +paper unless it is stripped largely of the Christian and moral +purpose? I may say in this fellowship gathering that owing to recent +complications in my business affairs outside of my paper I have been +obliged to lose a large part of my fortune. I had to apply the same +rule of Jesus' probable conduct to certain transactions with other +men who did not apply it to their conduct, and the result has been +the loss of a great deal of money. As I understand the promise we +made, we were not to ask any question about 'Will it pay?' but all +our action was to be based on the one question, 'What would Jesus +do?' Acting on that rule of conduct, I have been obliged to lose +nearly all the money I have accumulated in my paper. It is not +necessary for me to go into details. There is no question with me +now, after the three weeks' experience I have had, that a great many +men would lose vast sums of money under the present system of +business if this rule of Jesus was honestly applied. I mention my +loss here because I have the fullest faith in the final success of a +daily paper conducted on the lines I have recently laid down, and I +had planned to put into it my entire fortune in order to win final +success. As it is now, unless, as I said, the Christian people of +Raymond, the church members and professing disciples, will support +the paper with subscriptions and advertisements, I cannot continue +its publication on the present basis." + +Virginia asked a question. She had followed Mr. Norman's confession +with the most intense eagerness. + +"Do you mean that a Christian daily ought to be endowed with a large +sum like a Christian college in order to make it pay?" + +"That is exactly what I mean. I had laid out plans for putting into +the NEWS such a variety of material in such a strong and truly +interesting way that it would more than make up for whatever was +absent from its columns in the way of un-Christian matter. But my +plans called for a very large output of money. I am very confident +that a Christian daily such as Jesus would approve, containing only +what He would print, can be made to succeed financially if it is +planned on the right lines. But it will take a large sum of money to +work out the plans." + +"How much, do you think?" asked Virginia quietly. + +Edward Norman looked at her keenly, and his face flushed a moment as +an idea of her purpose crossed his mind. He had known her when she +was a little girl in the Sunday-school, and he had been on intimate +business relations with her father. + +"I should say half a million dollars in a town like Raymond could be +well spent in the establishment of a paper such as we have in mind," +he answered. His voice trembled a little. The keen look on his +grizzled face flashed out with a stern but thoroughly Christian +anticipation of great achievements in the world of newspaper life, +as it had opened up to him within the last few seconds. + +"Then," said Virginia, speaking as if the thought was fully +considered, "I am ready to put that amount of money into the paper +on the one condition, of course, that it be carried on as it has +been begun." + +"Thank God!" exclaimed Mr. Maxwell softly. Norman was pale. The rest +were looking at Virginia. She had more to say. + +"Dear friends," she went on, and there was a sadness in her voice +that made an impression on the rest that deepened when they thought +it over afterwards, "I do not want any of you to credit me with an +act of great generosity. I have come to know lately that the money +which I have called my own is not mine, but God's. If I, as steward +of His, see some wise way to invest His money, it is not an occasion +for vainglory or thanks from any one simply because I have proved in +my administration of the funds He has asked me to use for His glory. +I have been thinking of this very plan for some time. The fact is, +dear friends, that in our coming fight with the whiskey power in +Raymond--and it has only just begun--we shall need the NEWS to +champion the Christian side. You all know that all the other papers +are for the saloon. As long as the saloon exists, the work of +rescuing dying souls at the Rectangle is carried on at a terrible +disadvantage. What can Mr. Gray do with his gospel meetings when +half his converts are drinking people, daily tempted and enticed by +the saloon on every corner? It would be giving up to the enemy to +allow the NEWS to fail. I have great confidence in Mr. Norman's +ability. I have not seen his plans, but I have the same confidence +that he has in making the paper succeed if it is carried forward on +a large enough scale. I cannot believe that Christian intelligence +in journalism will be inferior to un-Christian intelligence, even +when it comes to making the paper pay financially. So that is my +reason for putting this money--God's, not mine--into this powerful +agent for doing as Jesus would do. If we can keep such a paper going +for one year, I shall be willing to see that amount of money used in +that experiment. Do not thank me. Do not consider my doing it a +wonderful thing. What have I done with God's money all these years +but gratify my own selfish personal desires? What can I do with the +rest of it but try to make some reparation for what I have stolen +from God? That is the way I look at it now. I believe it is what +Jesus would do." + +Over the lecture-room swept that unseen yet distinctly felt wave of +Divine Presence. No one spoke for a while. Mr. Maxwell standing +there, where the faces lifted their intense gaze into his, felt what +he had already felt--a strange setting back out of the nineteenth +century into the first, when the disciples had all things in common, +and a spirit of fellowship must have flowed freely between them such +as the First Church of Raymond had never before known. How much had +his church membership known of this fellowship in daily interests +before this little company had begun to do as they believed Jesus +would do? It was with difficulty that he thought of his present age +and surroundings. The same thought was present with all the rest, +also. There was an unspoken comradeship such as they had never +known. It was present with them while Virginia was speaking, and +during the silence that followed. If it had been defined by any of +them it would perhaps have taken some such shape as this: "If I +shall, in the course of my obedience to my promise, meet with loss +or trouble in the world, I can depend upon the genuine, practical +sympathy and fellowship of any other Christian in this room who has, +with me, made the pledge to do all things by the rule, 'What would +Jesus do?'" + +All this, the distinct wave of spiritual power emphasized. It had +the effect that a physical miracle may have had on the early +disciples in giving them a feeling of confidence in the Lord that +helped them to face loss and martyrdom with courage and even joy. + +Before they went away this time there were several confidences like +those of Edward Norman's. Some of the young men told of loss of +places owing to their honest obedience to their promise. Alexander +Powers spoke briefly of the fact that the Commission had promised to +take action on his evidence at the earliest date possible. + + + + +Chapter Fourteen + + +BUT more than any other feeling at this meeting rose the tide of +fellowship for one another. Maxwell watched it, trembling for its +climax which he knew was not yet reached. When it was, where would +it lead them? He did not know, but he was not unduly alarmed about +it. Only he watched with growing wonder the results of that simple +promise as it was being obeyed in these various lives. Those results +were already being felt all over the city. Who could measure their +influence at the end of a year? + +One practical form of this fellowship showed itself in the +assurances which Edward Norman received of support for his paper. +There was a general flocking toward him when the meeting closed, and +the response to his appeal for help from the Christian disciples in +Raymond was fully understood by this little company. The value of +such a paper in the homes and in behalf of good citizenship, +especially at the present crisis in the city, could not be measured. +It remained to be seen what could be done now that the paper was +endowed so liberally. But it still was true, as Norman insisted, +that money alone could not make the paper a power. It must receive +the support and sympathy of the Christians in Raymond before it +could be counted as one of the great forces of the city. + +The week that followed this Sunday meeting was one of great +excitement in Raymond. It was the week of the election. President +Marsh, true to his promise, took up his cross and bore it manfully, +but with shuddering, with groans and even tears, for his deepest +conviction was touched, and he tore himself out of the scholarly +seclusion of years with a pain and anguish that cost him more than +anything he had ever done as a follower of Christ. With him were a +few of the college professors who had made the pledge in the First +Church. Their experience and suffering were the same as his; for +their isolation from all the duties of citizenship had been the +same. The same was also true of Henry Maxwell, who plunged into the +horror of this fight against whiskey and its allies with a sickening +dread of each day's new encounter with it. For never before had he +borne such a cross. He staggered under it, and in the brief +intervals when he came in from the work and sought the quiet of his +study for rest, the sweat broke out on his forehead, and he felt the +actual terror of one who marches into unseen, unknown horrors. +Looking back on it afterwards he was amazed at his experience. He +was not a coward, but he felt the dread that any man of his habits +feels when confronted suddenly with a duty which carries with it the +doing of certain things so unfamiliar that the actual details +connected with it betray his ignorance and fill him with the shame +of humiliation. + +When Saturday, the election day, came, the excitement rose to its +height. An attempt was made to close all the saloons. It was only +partly successful. There was a great deal of drinking going on all +day. The Rectangle boiled and heaved and cursed and turned its worst +side out to the gaze of the city. Gray had continued his meetings +during the week, and the results had been even greater than he had +dared to hope. When Saturday came, it seemed to him that the crisis +in his work had been reached. The Holy Spirit and the Satan of rum +seemed to rouse up to a desperate conflict. The more interest in the +meetings, the more ferocity and vileness outside. The saloon men no +longer concealed their feelings. Open threats of violence were made. +Once during the week Gray and his little company of helpers were +assailed with missiles of various kinds as they left the tent late +at night. The police sent down a special force, and Virginia and +Rachel were always under the protection of either Rollin or Dr. +West. Rachel's power in song had not diminished. Rather, with each +night, it seemed to add to the intensity and reality of the Spirit's +presence. + +Gray had at first hesitated about having a meeting that night. But +he had a simple rule of action, and was always guided by it. The +Spirit seemed to lead him to continue the meeting, and so Saturday +night he went on as usual. + +The excitement all over the city had reached its climax when the +polls closed at six o'clock. Never before had there been such a +contest in Raymond. The issue of license or no-license had never +been an issue under such circumstances. Never before had such +elements in the city been arrayed against each other. It was an +unheard-of thing that the President of Lincoln College, the pastor +of the First Church, the Dean of the Cathedral, the professional men +living in fine houses on the boulevard, should come personally into +the wards, and by their presence and their example represent the +Christian conscience of the place. The ward politicians were +astonished at the sight. However, their astonishment did not prevent +their activity. The fight grew hotter every hour, and when six +o'clock came neither side could have guessed at the result with any +certainty. Every one agreed that never before had there been such an +election in Raymond, and both sides awaited the announcement of the +result with the greatest interest. + +It was after ten o'clock when the meeting at the tent was closed. It +had been a strange and, in some respects, a remarkable meeting. +Maxwell had come down again at Gray's request. He was completely +worn out by the day's work, but the appeal from Gray came to him in +such a form that he did not feel able to resist it. President Marsh +was also present. He had never been to the Rectangle, and his +curiosity was aroused from what he had noticed of the influence of +the evangelist in the worst part of the city. Dr. West and Rollin +had come with Rachel and Virginia; and Loreen, who still stayed with +Virginia, was present near the organ, in her right mind, sober, with +a humility and dread of herself that kept her as close to Virginia +as a faithful dog. All through the service she sat with bowed head, +weeping a part of the time, sobbing when Rachel sang the song, "I +was a wandering sheep," clinging with almost visible, tangible +yearning to the one hope she had found, listening to prayer and +appeal and confession all about her like one who was a part of a new +creation, yet fearful of her right to share in it fully. + +The tent had been crowded. As on some other occasions, there was +more or less disturbance on the outside. This had increased as the +night advanced, and Gray thought it wise not to prolong the service. + +Once in a while a shout as from a large crowd swept into the tent. +The returns from the election were beginning to come in, and the +Rectangle had emptied every lodging house, den and hovel into the +streets. + +In spite of these distractions Rachel's singing kept the crowd in +the tent from dissolving. There were a dozen or more conversions. +Finally the people became restless and Gray closed the service, +remaining a little while with the converts. + +Rachel, Virginia, Loreen, Rollin and the Doctor, President Marsh, +Mr. Maxwell and Dr. West went out together, intending to go down to +the usual waiting place for their car. As they came out of the tent +they were at once aware that the Rectangle was trembling on the +verge of a drunken riot, and as they pushed through the gathering +mobs in the narrow streets they began to realize that they +themselves were objects of great attention. + +"There he is--the bloke in the tall hat! He's the leader! shouted a +rough voice. President Marsh, with his erect, commanding figure, was +conspicuous in the little company. + +"How has the election gone? It is too early to know the result yet, +isn't it?" He asked the question aloud, and a man answered: + +"They say second and third wards have gone almost solid for +no-license. If that is so, the whiskey men have been beaten." + +"Thank God! I hope it is true!" exclaimed Maxwell. "Marsh, we are in +danger here. Do you realize our situation? We ought to get the +ladies to a place of safety." + +"That is true," said Marsh gravely. At that moment a shower of +stones and other missiles fell over them. The narrow street and +sidewalk in front of them was completely choked with the worst +elements of the Rectangle. + +"This looks serious," said Maxwell. With Marsh and Rollin and Dr. +West he started to go forward through a small opening, Virginia, +Rachel, and Loreen following close and sheltered by the men, who now +realized something of their danger. The Rectangle was drunk and +enraged. It saw in Marsh and Maxwell two of the leaders in the +election contest which had perhaps robbed them of their beloved +saloon. + +"Down with the aristocrats!" shouted a shrill voice, more like a +woman's than a man's. A shower of mud and stones followed. Rachel +remembered afterwards that Rollin jumped directly in front of her +and received on his head and chest a number of blows that would +probably have struck her if he had not shielded her from them. + +And just then, before the police reached them, Loreen darted forward +in front of Virginia and pushed her aside, looking up and screaming. +It was so sudden that no one had time to catch the face of the one +who did it. But out of the upper window of a room, over the very +saloon where Loreen had come out a week before, someone had thrown a +heavy bottle. It struck Loreen on the head and she fell to the +ground. Virginia turned and instantly kneeled down by her. The +police officers by that time had reached the little company. + +President Marsh raised his arm and shouted over the howl that was +beginning to rise from the wild beast in the mob. + +"Stop! You've killed a woman!" The announcement partly sobered the +crowd. + +"Is it true?" Maxwell asked it, as Dr. West kneeled on the other +side of Loreen, supporting her. + +"She's dying!" said Dr. West briefly. + +Loreen opened her eyes and smiled at Virginia, who wiped the blood +from her face and then bent over and kissed her. Loreen smiled +again, and the next minute her soul was in Paradise. + + + + +Chapter Fifteen + + +"He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness." + + +THE body of Loreen lay in state at the Page mansion on the avenue. +It was Sunday morning and the clear sweet spring air, just beginning +to breathe over the city the perfume of early blossoms in the woods +and fields, swept over the casket from one of the open windows at +the end of the grand hall. The church bells were ringing and people +on the avenue going by to service turned curious, inquiring looks up +at the great house and then went on, talking of the recent events +which had so strangely entered into and made history in the city. + +At the First Church, Mr. Maxwell, bearing on his face marks of the +scene he had been through, confronted an immense congregation, and +spoke to it with a passion and a power that came so naturally out of +the profound experiences of the day before that his people felt for +him something of the old feeling of pride they once had in his +dramatic delivery. Only this was with a different attitude. And all +through his impassioned appeal this morning, there was a note of +sadness and rebuke and stern condemnation that made many of the +members pale with self-accusation or with inward anger. + +For Raymond had awakened that morning to the fact that the city had +gone for license after all. The rumor at the Rectangle that the +second and third wards had gone no-license proved to be false. It +was true that the victory was won by a very meager majority. But the +result was the same as if it had been overwhelming. Raymond had +voted to continue for another year the saloon. The Christians of +Raymond stood condemned by the result. More than a hundred +professing Christian disciples had failed to go to the polls, and +many more than that number had voted with the whiskey men. If all +the church members of Raymond had voted against the saloon, it would +today be outlawed instead of crowned king of the municipality. For +that had been the fact in Raymond for years. The saloon ruled. No +one denied that. What would Jesus do? And this woman who had been +brutally struck down by the very hand that had assisted so eagerly +to work her earthly ruin what of her? Was it anything more than the +logical sequence of the whole horrible system of license, that for +another year the very saloon that received her so often and +compassed her degradation, from whose very spot the weapon had been +hurled that struck her dead, would, by the law which the Christian +people of Raymond voted to support, perhaps open its doors tomorrow +and damn a hundred Loreens before the year had drawn to its bloody +close? + +All this, with a voice that rang and trembled and broke in sobs of +anguish for the result, did Henry Maxwell pour out upon his people +that Sunday morning. And men and women wept as he spoke. President +Marsh sat there, his usual erect, handsome, firm, bright +self-confident bearing all gone; his head bowed upon his breast, the +great tears rolling down his cheeks, unmindful of the fact that +never before had he shown outward emotion in a public service. +Edward Norman near by sat with his clear-cut, keen face erect, but +his lip trembled and he clutched the end of the pew with a feeling +of emotion that struck deep into his knowledge of the truth as +Maxwell spoke it. No man had given or suffered more to influence +public opinion that week than Norman. The thought that the Christian +conscience had been aroused too late or too feebly, lay with a +weight of accusation upon the heart of the editor. What if he had +begun to do as Jesus would have done, long ago? Who could tell what +might have been accomplished by this time! And up in the choir, +Rachel Winslow, with her face bowed on the railing of the oak +screen, gave way to a feeling which she had not allowed yet to +master her, but it so unfitted her for her part that when Mr. +Maxwell finished and she tried to sing the closing solo after the +prayer, her voice broke, and for the first time in her life she was +obliged to sit down, sobbing, and unable to go on. + +Over the church, in the silence that followed this strange scene, +sobs and the noise of weeping arose. When had the First Church +yielded to such a baptism of tears? What had become of its regular, +precise, conventional order of service, undisturbed by any vulgar +emotion and unmoved by any foolish excitement? But the people had +lately had their deepest convictions touched. They had been living +so long on their surface feelings that they had almost forgotten the +deeper wells of life. Now that they had broken the surface, the +people were convicted of the meaning of their discipleship. + +Mr. Maxwell did not ask, this morning, for volunteers to join those +who had already pledged to do as Jesus would. But when the +congregation had finally gone, and he had entered the lecture-room, +it needed but a glance to show him that the original company of +followers had been largely increased. The meeting was tender; it +glowed with the Spirit's presence; it was alive with strong and +lasting resolve to begin a war on the whiskey power in Raymond that +would break its reign forever. Since the first Sunday when the first +company of volunteers had pledged themselves to do as Jesus would +do, the different meetings had been characterized by distinct +impulses or impressions. Today, the entire force of the gathering +seemed to be directed to this one large purpose. It was a meeting +full of broken prayers of contrition, of confession, of strong +yearning for a new and better city life. And all through it ran one +general cry for deliverance from the saloon and its awful curse. + +But if the First Church was deeply stirred by the events of the last +week, the Rectangle also felt moved strangely in its own way. The +death of Loreen was not in itself so remarkable a fact. It was her +recent acquaintance with the people from the city that lifted her +into special prominence and surrounded her death with more than +ordinary importance. Every one in the Rectangle knew that Loreen was +at this moment lying in the Page mansion up on the avenue. +Exaggerated reports of the magnificence of the casket had already +furnished material for eager gossip. The Rectangle was excited to +know the details of the funeral. Would it be public? What did Miss +Page intend to do? The Rectangle had never before mingled even in +this distant personal manner with the aristocracy on the boulevard. +The opportunities for doing so were not frequent. Gray and his wife +were besieged by inquirers who wanted to know what Loreen's friends +and acquaintances were expected to do in paying their last respects +to her. For her acquaintance was large and many of the recent +converts were among her friends. + +So that is how it happened that Monday afternoon, at the tent, the +funeral service of Loreen was held before an immense audience that +choked the tent and overflowed beyond all previous bounds. Gray had +gone up to Virginia's and, after talking it over with her and +Maxwell, the arrangement had been made. + +"I am and always have been opposed to large public funerals," said +Gray, whose complete wholesome simplicity of character was one of +its great sources of strength; "but the cry of the poor creatures +who knew Loreen is so earnest that I do not know how to refuse this +desire to see her and pay her poor body some last little honor. What +do you think, Mr. Maxwell? I will be guided by your judgment in the +matter. I am sure that whatever you and Miss Page think best, will +be right." + +"I feel as you do," replied Mr. Maxwell. "Under the circumstances I +have a great distaste for what seems like display at such times. But +this seems different. The people at the Rectangle will not come here +to service. I think the most Christian thing will be to let them +have the service at the tent. Do you think so, Miss Virginia?" + +"Yes," said Virginia. "Poor soul! I do not know but that some time I +shall know she gave her life for mine. We certainly cannot and will +not use the occasion for vulgar display. Let her friends be allowed +the gratification of their wishes. I see no harm in it." + +So the arrangements were made, with some difficulty, for the service +at the tent; and Virginia with her uncle and Rollin, accompanied by +Maxwell, Rachel and President Marsh, and the quartet from the First +Church, went down and witnessed one of the strange things of their +lives. + +It happened that that afternoon a somewhat noted newspaper +correspondent was passing through Raymond on his way to an editorial +convention in a neighboring city. He heard of the contemplated +service at the tent and went down. His description of it was written +in a graphic style that caught the attention of very many readers +the next day. A fragment of his account belongs to this part of the +history of Raymond: + +"There was a very unique and unusual funeral service held here this +afternoon at the tent of an evangelist, Rev. John Gray, down in the +slum district known as the Rectangle. The occasion was caused by the +killing of a woman during an election riot last Saturday night. It +seems she had been recently converted during the evangelist's +meetings, and was killed while returning from one of the meetings in +company with other converts and some of her friends. She was a +common street drunkard, and yet the services at the tent were as +impressive as any I ever witnessed in a metropolitan church over the +most distinguished citizen. + +"In the first place, a most exquisite anthem was sung by a trained +choir. It struck me, of course--being a stranger in the place--with +considerable astonishment to hear voices like those one naturally +expects to hear only in great churches or concerts, at such a +meeting as this. But the most remarkable part of the music was a +solo sung by a strikingly beautiful young woman, a Miss Winslow who, +if I remember right, is the young singer who was sought for by +Crandall the manager of National Opera, and who for some reason +refused to accept his offer to go on the stage. She had a most +wonderful manner in singing, and everybody was weeping before she +had sung a dozen words. That, of course, is not so strange an effect +to be produced at a funeral service, but the voice itself was one of +thousands. I understand Miss Winslow sings in the First Church of +Raymond and could probably command almost any salary as a public +singer. She will probably be heard from soon. Such a voice could win +its way anywhere. + +"The service aside from the singing was peculiar. The evangelist, a +man of apparently very simple, unassuming style, spoke a few words, +and he was followed by a fine-looking man, the Rev. Henry Maxwell, +pastor of the First Church of Raymond. Mr. Maxwell spoke of the fact +that the dead woman had been fully prepared to go, but he spoke in a +peculiarly sensitive manner of the effect of the liquor business on +the lives of men and women like this one. Raymond, of course, being +a railroad town and the centre of the great packing interests for +this region, is full of saloons. I caught from the minister's +remarks that he had only recently changed his views in regard to +license. He certainly made a very striking address, and yet it was +in no sense inappropriate for a funeral. + +"Then followed what was perhaps the queer part of this strange +service. The women in the tent, at least a large part of them up +near the coffin, began to sing in a soft, tearful way, 'I was a +wandering sheep.' Then while the singing was going on, one row of +women stood up and walked slowly past the casket, and as they went +by, each one placed a flower of some kind upon it. Then they sat +down and another row filed past, leaving their flowers. All the time +the singing continued softly like rain on a tent cover when the wind +is gentle. It was one of the simplest and at the same time one of +the most impressive sights I ever witnessed. The sides of the tent +were up, and hundreds of people who could not get in, stood outside, +all as still as death itself, with wonderful sadness and solemnity +for such rough looking people. There must have been a hundred of +these women, and I was told many of them had been converted at the +meetings just recently. I cannot describe the effect of that +singing. Not a man sang a note. All women's voices, and so soft, and +yet so distinct, that the effect was startling. + +"The service closed with another solo by Miss Winslow, who sang, +'There were ninety and nine.' And then the evangelist asked them all +to bow their heads while he prayed. I was obliged in order to catch +my train to leave during the prayer, and the last view I caught of +the service as the train went by the shops was a sight of the great +crowd pouring out of the tent and forming in open ranks while the +coffin was borne out by six of the women. It is a long time since I +have seen such a picture in this unpoetic Republic." + +If Loreen's funeral impressed a passing stranger like this, it is +not difficult to imagine the profound feelings of those who had been +so intimately connected with her life and death. Nothing had ever +entered the Rectangle that had moved it so deeply as Loreen's body +in that coffin. And the Holy Spirit seemed to bless with special +power the use of this senseless clay. For that night He swept more +than a score of lost souls, mostly women, into the fold of the Good +Shepherd. + + + + +Chapter Sixteen + + +No one in all Raymond, including the Rectangle, felt Loreen's death +more keenly than Virginia. It came like a distinct personal loss to +her. That short week while the girl had been in her home had opened +Virginia's heart to a new life. She was talking it over with Rachel +the day after the funeral. Thee were sitting in the hall of the Page +mansion. + +"I am going to do something with my money to help those women to a +better life." Virginia looked over to the end of the hall where, the +day before, Loreen's body had lain. "I have decided on a good plan, +as it seems to me. I have talked it over with Rollin. He will devote +a large part of his money also to the same plan." + +"How much money have you, Virginia, to give in this way?" asked +Rachel. Once, she would never have asked such a personal question. +Now, it seemed as natural to talk frankly about money as about +anything else that belonged to God. + +"I have available for use at least four hundred and fifty-thousand +dollars. Rollin has as much more. It is one of his bitter regrets +now that his extravagant habits of life before his conversion +practically threw away half that father left him. We are both eager +to make all the reparation in our power. 'What would Jesus do with +this money?' We want to answer that question honestly and wisely. +The money I shall put into the NEWS is, I am confident, in a line +with His probable action. It is as necessary that we have a +Christian daily paper in Raymond, especially now that we have the +saloon influence to meet, as it is to have a church or a college. So +I am satisfied that the five hundred thousand dollars that Mr. +Norman will know how to use so well will be a powerful factor in +Raymond to do as Jesus would. + +"About my other plan, Rachel, I want you to work with me. Rollin and +I are going to buy up a large part of the property in the Rectangle. +The field where the tent now is, has been in litigation for years. +We mean to secure the entire tract as soon as the courts have +settled the title. For some time I have been making a special study +of the various forms of college settlements and residence methods of +Christian work and Institutional church work in the heart of great +city slums. I do not know that I have yet been able to tell just +what is the wisest and most effective kind of work that can be done +in Raymond. But I do know this much. My money--I mean God's, which +he wants me to use--can build wholesome lodging-houses, refuges for +poor women, asylums for shop girls, safety for many and many a lost +girl like Loreen. And I do not want to be simply a dispenser of this +money. God help me! I do want to put myself into the problem. But +you know, Rachel, I have a feeling all the time that all that +limitless money and limitless personal sacrifice can possibly do, +will not really lessen very much the awful condition at the +Rectangle as long as the saloon is legally established there. I +think that is true of any Christian work now being carried on in any +great city. The saloon furnishes material to be saved faster than +the settlement or residence or rescue mission work can save it." + +Virginia suddenly rose and paced the hall. Rachel answered sadly, +and yet with a note of hope in her voice: + +"It is true. But, Virginia, what a wonderful amount of good can be +done with this money! And the saloon cannot always remain here. The +time must come when the Christian forces in the city will triumph." + +Virginia paused near Rachel, and her pale, earnest face lighted up. + +"I believe that too. The number of those who have promised to do as +Jesus would is increasing. If we once have, say, five hundred such +disciples in Raymond, the saloon is doomed. But now, dear, I want +you to look at your part in this plan for capturing and saving the +Rectangle. Your voice is a power. I have had many ideas lately. Here +is one of them. You could organize among the girls a Musical +Institute; give them the benefit of your training. There are some +splendid voices in the rough there. Did any one ever hear such +singing as that yesterday by those women? Rachel, what a beautiful +opportunity! You shall have the best of material in the way of +organs and orchestras that money can provide, and what cannot be +done with music to win souls there into higher and purer and better +living?" + +Before Virginia had ceased speaking Rachel's face was perfectly +transformed with the thought of her life work. It flowed into her +heart and mind like a flood, and the torrent of her feeling +overflowed in tears that could not be restrained. It was what she +had dreamed of doing herself. It represented to her something that +she felt was in keeping with a right use of her talent. + +"Yes," she said, as she rose and put her arm about Virginia, while +both girls in the excitement of their enthusiasm paced the hall. +"Yes, I will gladly put my life into that kind of service. I do +believe that Jesus would have me use my life in this way. Virginia, +what miracles can we not accomplish in humanity if we have such a +lever as consecrated money to move things with!" + +"Add to it consecrated personal enthusiasm like yours, and it +certainly can accomplish great things," said Virginia smiling. And +before Rachel could reply, Rollin came in. + +He hesitated a moment, and then was passing out of the hall into the +library when Virginia called him back and asked some questions about +his work. + +Rollin came back and sat down, and together the three discussed +their future plans. Rollin was apparently entirely free from +embarrassment in Rachel's presence while Virginia was with them, +only his manner with her was almost precise, if not cold. The past +seemed to have been entirely absorbed in his wonderful conversion. +He had not forgotten it, but he seemed to be completely caught up +for this present time in the purpose of his new life. After a while +Rollin was called out, and Rachel and Virginia began to talk of +other things. + +"By the way, what has become of Jasper Chase?" Virginia asked the +question innocently, but Rachel flushed and Virginia added with a +smile, "I suppose he is writing another book. Is he going to put you +into this one, Rachel? You know I always suspected Jasper Chase of +doing that very thing in his first story." + +"Virginia," Rachel spoke with the frankness that had always existed +between the two friends, "Jasper Chase told me the other night that +he--in fact--he proposed to me--or he would, if--" + +Rachel stopped and sat with her hands clasped on her lap, and there +were tears in her eyes. + +"Virginia, I thought a little while ago I loved him, as he said he +loved me. But when he spoke, my heart felt repelled, and I said what +I ought to say. I told him no. I have not seen him since. That was +the night of the first conversions at the Rectangle." + +"I am glad for you," said Virginia quietly. + +"Why?" asked Rachel a little startled. + +"Because, I have never really liked Jasper Chase. He is too cold +and--I do not like to judge him, but I have always distrusted his +sincerity in taking the pledge at the church with the rest." + +Rachel looked at Virginia thoughtfully. + +"I have never given my heart to him I am sure. He touched my +emotions, and I admired his skill as a writer. I have thought at +times that I cared a good deal for him. I think perhaps if he had +spoken to me at any other time than the one he chose, I could easily +have persuaded myself that I loved him. But not now." + +Again Rachel paused suddenly, and when she looked up at Virginia +again there were tears on her face. Virginia came to her and put her +arm about her tenderly. + +When Rachel had left the house, Virginia sat in the hall thinking +over the confidence her friend had just shown her. There was +something still to be told, Virginia felt sure from Rachel's manner, +but she did not feel hurt that Rachel had kept back something. She +was simply conscious of more on Rachel's mind than she had revealed. + +Very soon Rollin came back, and he and Virginia, arm in arm as they +had lately been in the habit of doing, walked up and down the long +hall. It was easy for their talk to settle finally upon Rachel +because of the place she was to occupy in the plans which were being +made for the purchase of property at the Rectangle. + +"Did you ever know of a girl of such really gifted powers in vocal +music who was willing to give her life to the people as Rachel is +going to do? She is going to give music lessons in the city, have +private pupils to make her living, and then give the people in the +Rectangle the benefit of her culture and her voice." + +"It is certainly a very good example of self-sacrifice," replied +Rollin a little stiffly. + +Virginia looked at him a little sharply. "But don't you think it is +a very unusual example? Can you imagine--" here Virginia named half +a dozen famous opera singers--"doing anything of this sort?" + +"No, I cannot," Rollin answered briefly. "Neither can I imagine +Miss--" he spoke the name of the girl with the red parasol who had +begged Virginia to take the girls to the Rectangle--"doing what you +are doing, Virginia." + +"Any more than I can imagine Mr.--" Virginia spoke the name of a +young society leader "going about to the clubs doing your work, +Rollin." The two walked on in silence for the length of the hall. + +"Coming back to Rachel," began Virginia, "Rollin, why do you treat +her with such a distinct, precise manner? I think, Rollin--pardon me +if I hurt you--that she is annoyed by it. You need to be on easy +terms. I don't think Rachel likes this change." + +Rollin suddenly stopped. He seemed deeply agitated. He took his arm +from Virginia's and walked alone to the end of the hall. Then he +returned, with his hands behind him, and stopped near his sister and +said, "Virginia, have you not learned my secret?" + +Virginia looked bewildered, then over her face the unusual color +crept, showing that she understood. + +"I have never loved any one but Rachel Winslow." Rollin spoke calmly +enough now. "That day she was here when you talked about her refusal +to join the concert company, I asked her to be my wife; out there on +the avenue. She refused me, as I knew she would. And she gave as her +reason the fact that I had no purpose in life, which was true +enough. Now that I have a purpose, now that I am a new man, don't +you see, Virginia, how impossible it is for me to say anything? I +owe my very conversion to Rachel's singing. And yet that night while +she sang I can honestly say that, for the time being, I never +thought of her voice except as God's message. I believe that all my +personal love for her was for the time merged into a personal love +to my God and my Saviour." Rollin was silent, then he went on with +more emotion. "I still love her, Virginia. But I do not think she +ever could love me." He stopped and looked his sister in the face +with a sad smile. + +"I don't know about that," said Virginia to herself. She was noting +Rollin's handsome face, his marks of dissipation nearly all gone +now, the firm lips showing manhood and courage, the clear eyes +looking into hers frankly, the form strong and graceful. Rollin was +a man now. Why should not Rachel come to love him in time? Surely +the two were well fitted for each other, especially now that their +purpose in life was moved by the same Christian force. + + + + +Chapter Seventeen + + +THE next day she went down to the NEWS office to see Edward Norman +and arrange the details of her part in the establishment of the +paper on its new foundation. Mr. Maxwell was present at this +conference, and the three agreed that whatever Jesus would do in +detail as editor of a daily paper, He would be guided by the same +general principles that directed His conduct as the Saviour of the +world. + +"I have tried to put down here in concrete form some of the things +that it has seemed to me Jesus would do," said Edward Norman. He +read from a paper lying on his desk, and Maxwell was reminded again +of his own effort to put into written form his own conception of +Jesus' probable action, and also of Milton Wright's same attempt in +his business. + +"I have headed this, 'What would Jesus do as Edward Norman, editor +of a daily newspaper in Raymond?' + +"1. He would never allow a sentence or a picture in his paper that +could be called bad or coarse or impure in any way. + +"2. He would probably conduct the political part of the paper from +the standpoint of non-partisan patriotism, always looking upon all +political questions in the light of their relation to the Kingdom of +God, and advocating measures from the standpoint of their relation +to the welfare of the people, always on the basis of 'What is +right?' never on the basis of 'What is for the best interests of +this or that party?' In other words, He would treat all political +questions as he would treat every other subject, from the standpoint +of the advancement of the Kingdom of God on earth." + +Edward Norman looked up from the reading a moment. "You understand +that is my opinion of Jesus' probable action on political matters in +a daily paper. I am not passing judgment on other newspaper men who +may have a different conception of Jesus' probable action from mine. +I am simply trying to answer honestly, 'What would Jesus do as +Edward Norman?' And the answer I find is what I have put down.' + +"3. The end and aim of a daily paper conducted by Jesus would be to +do the will of God. That is, His main purpose in carrying on a +newspaper would not be to make money, or gain political influence; +but His first and ruling purpose would be to so conduct his paper +that it would be evident to all his subscribers that He was trying +to seek first the Kingdom of God by means of His paper. This purpose +would be as distinct and unquestioned as the purpose of a minister +or a missionary or any unselfish martyr in Christian work anywhere. + +"4. All questionable advertisements would be impossible. + +"5. The relations of Jesus to the employees on the paper would be of +the most loving character." + +"So far as I have gone," said Norman again looking up, "I am of +opinion that Jesus would employ practically some form of +co-operation that would represent the idea of a mutual interest in a +business where all were to move together for the same great end. I +am working out such a plan, and I am confident it will be +successful. At any rate, once introduce the element of personal love +into a business like this, take out the selfish principle of doing +it for personal profits to a man or company, and I do not see any +way except the most loving personal interest between editors, +reporters, pressmen, and all who contribute anything to the life of +the paper. And that interest would be expressed not only in the +personal love and sympathy but in a sharing with the profits of the +business." + +"6. As editor of a daily paper today, Jesus would give large space +to the work of the Christian world. He would devote a page possibly +to the facts of Reform, of sociological problems, of institutional +church work and similar movements. + +"7. He would do all in His power in His paper to fight the saloon as +an enemy of the human race and an unnecessary part of our +civilization. He would do this regardless of public sentiment in the +matter and, of course, always regardless of its effect upon His +subscription list." + +Again Edward Norman looked up. "I state my honest conviction on this +point. Of course, I do not pass judgment on the Christian men who +are editing other kinds of papers today. But as I interpret Jesus, I +believe He would use the influence of His paper to remove the saloon +entirely from the political and social life of the nation." + +"8. Jesus would not issue a Sunday edition. + +"9. He would print the news of the world that people ought to know. +Among the things they do not need to know, and which would not be +published, would be accounts of brutal prize-fights, long accounts +of crimes, scandals in private families, or any other human events +which in any way would conflict with the first point mentioned in +this outline. + +"10. If Jesus had the amount of money to use on a paper which we +have, He would probably secure the best and strongest Christian men +and women to co-operate with him in the matter of contributions. +That will be my purpose, as I shall be able to show you in a few +days. + +"11. Whatever the details of the paper might demand as the paper +developed along its definite plan, the main principle that guided it +would always be the establishment of the Kingdom of God in the +world. This large general principle would necessarily shape all the +detail." + +Edward Norman finished reading the plan. He was very thoughtful. + +"I have merely sketched a faint outline. I have a hundred ideas for +making the paper powerful that I have not thought out fully as yet. +This is simply suggestive. I have talked it over with other +newspaper men. Some of them say I will have a weak, namby-pamby +Sunday-school sheet. If I get out something as good as a +Sunday-school it will be pretty good. Why do men, when they want to +characterize something as particularly feeble, always use a +Sunday-school as a comparison, when they ought to know that the +Sunday-school is one of the strongest, most powerful influences in +our civilization in this country today? But the paper will not +necessarily be weak because it is good. Good things are more +powerful than bad. The question with me is largely one of support +from the Christian people of Raymond. There are over twenty thousand +church members here in this city. If half of them will stand by the +NEWS its life is assured. What do you think, Maxwell, of the +probability of such support?" + +"I don't know enough about it to give an intelligent answer. I +believe in the paper with all my heart. If it lives a year, as Miss +Virginia said, there is no telling what it can do. The great thing +will be to issue such a paper, as near as we can judge, as Jesus +probably would, and put into it all the elements of Christian +brains, strength, intelligence and sense; and command respect for +freedom from bigotry, fanaticism, narrowness and anything else that +is contrary to the spirit of Jesus. Such a paper will call for the +best that human thought and action is capable of giving. The +greatest minds in the world would have their powers taxed to the +utmost to issue a Christian daily." + +"Yes," Edward Norman spoke humbly. "I shall make a great many +mistakes, no doubt. I need a great deal of wisdom. But I want to do +as Jesus would. 'What would He do?' I have asked it, and shall +continue to do so, and abide by the results." + +"I think we are beginning to understand," said Virginia, "the +meaning of that command, 'Grow in the grace and knowledge of our +Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.' I am sure I do not know all that He +would do in detail until I know Him better." + +"That is very true," said Henry Maxwell. "I am beginning to +understand that I cannot interpret the probable action of Jesus +until I know better what His spirit is. The greatest question in all +of human life is summed up when we ask, 'What would Jesus do?' if, +as we ask it, we also try to answer it from a growth in knowledge of +Jesus himself. We must know Jesus before we can imitate Him." + +When the arrangement had been made between Virginia an Edward +Norman, he found himself in possession of the sum of five hundred +thousand dollars to use for the establishment of a Christian daily +paper. When Virginia and Maxwell had gone, Norman closed his door +and, alone with the Divine Presence, asked like a child for help +from his all-powerful Father. All through his prayer as he kneeled +before his desk ran the promise, "If any man lack wisdom, let him +ask of God who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and +it shall be given him." Surely his prayer would be answered, and the +kingdom advanced through this instrument of God's power, this mighty +press, which had become so largely degraded to the base uses of +man's avarice and ambition. + +Two months went by. They were full of action and of results in the +city of Raymond and especially in the First Church. In spite of the +approaching heat of the summer season, the after-meeting of the +disciples who had made the pledge to do as Jesus would do, continued +with enthusiasm and power. Gray had finished his work at the +Rectangle, and an outward observer going through the place could not +have seen any difference in the old conditions, although there was +an actual change in hundreds of lives. But the saloons, dens, +hovels, gambling houses, still ran, overflowing their vileness into +the lives of fresh victims to take the place of those rescued by the +evangelist. And the devil recruited his ranks very fast. + +Henry Maxwell did not go abroad. Instead of that, he took the money +he had been saving for the trip and quietly arranged for a summer +vacation for a whole family living down in the Rectangle, who had +never gone outside of the foul district of the tenements. The pastor +of the First Church will never forget the week he spent with this +family making the arrangements. He went down into the Rectangle one +hot day when something of the terrible heat in the horrible +tenements was beginning to be felt, and helped the family to the +station, and then went with them to a beautiful spot on the coast +where, in the home of a Christian woman, the bewildered city tenants +breathed for the first time in years the cool salt air, and felt +blow about them the pine-scented fragrance of a new lease of life. + +There was a sickly babe with the mother, and three other children, +one a cripple. The father, who had been out of work until he had +been, as he afterwards confessed to Maxwell, several times on the +edge of suicide, sat with the baby in his arms during the journey, +and when Maxwell started back to Raymond, after seeing the family +settled, the man held his hand at parting, and choked with his +utterance, and finally broke down, to Maxwell's great confusion. The +mother, a wearied, worn-out woman who had lost three children the +year before from a fever scourge in the Rectangle, sat by the car +window all the way and drank in the delights of sea and sky and +field. It all seemed a miracle to her. And Maxwell, coming back into +Raymond at the end of that week, feeling the scorching, sickening +heat all the more because of his little taste of the ocean breezes, +thanked God for the joy he had witnessed, and entered upon his +discipleship with a humble heart, knowing for almost the first time +in his life this special kind of sacrifice. For never before had he +denied himself his regular summer trip away from the heat of +Raymond, whether he felt in any great need of rest or not. + +"It is a fact," he said in reply to several inquiries on the part of +his church, "I do not feel in need of a vacation this year. I am +very well and prefer to stay here." It was with a feeling of relief +that he succeeded in concealing from every one but his wife what he +had done with this other family. He felt the need of doing anything +of that sort without display or approval from others. + +So the summer came on, and Maxwell grew into a large knowledge of +his Lord. The First Church was still swayed by the power of the +Spirit. Maxwell marveled at the continuance of His stay. He knew +very well that from the beginning nothing but the Spirit's presence +had kept the church from being torn asunder by the remarkable +testing it had received of its discipleship. Even now there were +many of the members among those who had not taken the pledge, who +regarded the whole movement as Mrs. Winslow did, in the nature of a +fanatical interpretation of Christian duty, and looked for the +return of the old normal condition. Meanwhile the whole body of +disciples was under the influence of the Spirit, and the pastor went +his way that summer, doing his parish work in great joy, keeping up +his meetings with the railroad men as he had promised Alexander +Powers, and daily growing into a better knowledge of the Master. + +Early one afternoon in August, after a day of refreshing coolness +following a long period of heat, Jasper Chase walked to his window +in the apartment house on the avenue and looked out. + +On his desk lay a pile of manuscript. Since that evening when he had +spoken to Rachel Winslow he had not met her. His singularly +sensitive nature--sensitive to the point of extreme irritability +when he was thwarted--served to thrust him into an isolation that +was intensified by his habits as an author. + +All through the heat of summer he had been writing. His book was +nearly done now. He had thrown himself into its construction with a +feverish strength that threatened at any moment to desert him and +leave him helpless. He had not forgotten his pledge made with the +other church members at the First Church. It had forced itself upon +his notice all through his writing, and ever since Rachel had said +no to him, he had asked a thousand times, "Would Jesus do this? +Would He write this story?" It was a social novel, written in a +style that had proved popular. It had no purpose except to amuse. +Its moral teaching was not bad, but neither was it Christian in any +positive way. Jasper Chase knew that such a story would probably +sell. He was conscious of powers in this way that the social world +petted and admired. "What would Jesus do?" He felt that Jesus would +never write such a book. The question obtruded on him at the most +inopportune times. He became irascible over it. The standard of +Jesus for an author was too ideal. Of course, Jesus would use His +powers to produce something useful or helpful, or with a purpose. +What was he, Jasper Chase, writing this novel for? Why, what nearly +every writer wrote for--money, money, and fame as a writer. There +was no secret with him that he was writing this new story with that +object. He was not poor, and so had no great temptation to write for +money. But he was urged on by his desire for fame as much as +anything. He must write this kind of matter. But what would Jesus +do? The question plagued him even more than Rachel's refusal. Was he +going to break his promise? "Did the promise mean much after all?" +he asked. + +As he stood at the window, Rollin Page came out of the club house +just opposite. Jasper noted his handsome face and noble figure as he +started down the street. He went back to his desk and turned over +some papers there. Then he came back to the window. Rollin was +walking down past the block and Rachel Winslow was walking beside +him. Rollin must have overtaken her as she was coming from +Virginia's that afternoon. + +Jasper watched the two figures until they disappeared in the crowd +on the walk. Then he turned to his desk and began to write. When he +had finished the last page of the last chapter of his book it was +nearly dark. "What would Jesus do?" He had finally answered the +question by denying his Lord. It grew darker in his room. He had +deliberately chosen his course, urged on by his disappointment and +loss. + + + + +Chapter Eighteen + + +"What is that to thee? Follow thou me." + + +WHEN Rollin started down the street the afternoon that Jasper stood +looking out of his window he was not thinking of Rachel Winslow and +did not expect to see her anywhere. He had come suddenly upon her as +he turned into the avenue and his heart had leaped up at the sight +of her. He walked along by her now, rejoicing after all in a little +moment of this earthly love he could not drive out of his life. + +"I have just been over to see Virginia," said Rachel. "She tells me +the arrangements are nearly completed for the transfer of the +Rectangle property." + +"Yes. It has been a tedious case in the courts. Did Virginia show +you all the plans and specifications for building?" + +"We looked over a good many. It is astonishing to me where Virginia +has managed to get all her ideas about this work." + +"Virginia knows more now about Arnold Toynbee and East End London +and Institutional Church work in America than a good many +professional slum workers. She has been spending nearly all summer +in getting information." Rollin was beginning to feel more at ease +as they talked over this coming work of humanity. It was safe, +common ground. + +"What have you been doing all summer? I have not seen much of you," +Rachel suddenly asked, and then her face warmed with its quick flush +of tropical color as if she might have implied too much interest in +Rollin or too much regret at not seeing him oftener. + +"I have been busy," replied Rollin briefly. + +"Tell me something about it," persisted Rachel. "You say so little. +Have I a right to ask?" + +She put the question very frankly, turning toward Rollin in real +earnest. + +"Yes, certainly," he replied, with a graceful smile. "I am not so +certain that I can tell you much. I have been trying to find some +way to reach the men I once knew and win them into more useful +lives." + +He stopped suddenly as if he were almost afraid to go on. Rachel did +not venture to suggest anything. + +"I have been a member of the same company to which you and Virginia +belong," continued Rollin, beginning again. "I have made the pledge +to do as I believe Jesus would do, and it is in trying to answer +this question that I have been doing my work." + +"That is what I do not understand. Virginia told me about the other. +It seems wonderful to think that you are trying to keep that pledge +with us. But what can you do with the club men?" + +"You have asked me a direct question and I shall have to answer it +now," replied Rollin, smiling again. "You see, I asked myself after +that night at the tent, you remember" (he spoke hurriedly and his +voice trembled a little), "what purpose I could now have in my life +to redeem it, to satisfy my thought of Christian discipleship? And +the more I thought of it, the more I was driven to a place where I +knew I must take up the cross. Did you ever think that of all the +neglected beings in our social system none are quite so completely +left alone as the fast young men who fill the clubs and waste their +time and money as I used to? The churches look after the poor, +miserable creatures like those in the Rectangle; they make some +effort to reach the working man, they have a large constituency +among the average salary-earning people, they send money and +missionaries to the foreign heathen, but the fashionable, dissipated +young men around town, the club men, are left out of all plans for +reaching and Christianizing. And yet no class of people need it +more. I said to myself: 'I know these men, their good and their bad +qualities. I have been one of them. I am not fitted to reach the +Rectangle people. I do not know how. But I think I could possibly +reach some of the young men and boys who have money and time to +spend.' So that is what I have been trying to do. When I asked as +you did, What would Jesus do?' that was my answer. It has been also +my cross." + +Rollin's voice was so low on this last sentence that Rachel had +difficulty in hearing him above the noise around them, But she knew +what he had said. She wanted to ask what his methods were. But she +did not know how to ask him. Her interest in his plan was larger +than mere curiosity. Rollin Page was so different now from the +fashionable young man who had asked her to be his wife that she +could not help thinking of him and talking with him as if he were an +entirely new acquaintance. + +They had turned off the avenue and were going up the street to +Rachel's home. It was the same street where Rollin had asked Rachel +why she could not love him. They were both stricken with a sudden +shyness as they went on. Rachel had not forgotten that day and +Rollin could not. She finally broke a long silence by asking what +she had not found words for before. + +"In your work with the club men, with your old acquaintances, what +sort of reception do they give you? How do you approach them? What +do they say?" + +Rollin was relieved when Rachel spoke. He answered quickly: "Oh, it +depends on the man. A good many of them think I am a crank. I have +kept my membership up and am in good standing in that way. I try to +be wise and not provoke any unnecessary criticism. But you would be +surprised to know how many of the men have responded to my appeal. I +could hardly make you believe that only a few nights ago a dozen men +became honestly and earnestly engaged in a conversation over +religious matters. I have had the great joy of seeing some of the +men give up bad habits and begin a new life. 'What would Jesus do?' +I keep asking it. The answer comes slowly, for I am feeling my way +slowly. One thing I have found out. The men are not fighting shy of +me. I think that is a good sign. Another thing: I have actually +interested some of them in the Rectangle work, and when it is +started up they will give something to help make it more powerful. +And in addition to all the rest, I have found a way to save several +of the young fellows from going to the bad in gambling." + +Rollin spoke with enthusiasm. His face was transformed by his +interest in the subject which had now become a part of his real +life. Rachel again noted the strong, manly tone of his speech. With +it all she knew there was a deep, underlying seriousness which felt +the burden of the cross even while carrying it with joy. The next +time she spoke it was with a swift feeling of justice due to Rollin +and his new life. + +"Do you remember I reproached you once for not having any purpose +worth living for?" she asked, while her beautiful face seemed to +Rollin more beautiful than ever when he had won sufficient +self-control to look up. "I want to say, I feel the need of saying, +in justice to you now, that I honor you for your courage and your +obedience to the promise you have made as you interpret the promise. +The life you are living is a noble one." + +Rollin trembled. His agitation was greater than he could control. +Rachel could not help seeing it. They walked along in silence. At +last Rollin said: "I thank you. It has been worth more to me than I +can tell you to hear you say that." He looked into her face for one +moment. She read his love for her in that look, but he did not +speak. + +When they separated Rachel went into the house and, sitting down in +her room, she put her face in her hands and said to herself: "I am +beginning to know what it means to be loved by a noble man. I shall +love Rollin Page after all. What am I saying! Rachel Winslow, have +you forgotten--" + +She rose and walked back and forth. She was deeply moved. +Nevertheless, it was evident to herself that her emotion was not +that of regret or sorrow. Somehow a glad new joy had come to her. +She had entered another circle of experience, and later in the day +she rejoiced with a very strong and sincere gladness that her +Christian discipleship found room in this crisis for her feeling. It +was indeed a part of it, for if she was beginning to love Rollin +Page it was the Christian man she had begun to love; the other never +would have moved her to this great change. + +And Rollin, as he went back, treasured a hope that had been a +stranger to him since Rachel had said no that day. In that hope he +went on with his work as the days sped on, and at no time was he +more successful in reaching and saving his old acquaintances than in +the time that followed that chance meeting with Rachel Winslow. + +The summer had gone and Raymond was once more facing the rigor of +her winter season. Virginia had been able to accomplish a part of +her plan for "capturing the Rectangle," as she called it. But the +building of houses in the field, the transforming of its bleak, bare +aspect into an attractive park, all of which was included in her +plan, was a work too large to be completed that fall after she had +secured the property. But a million dollars in the hands of a person +who truly wants to do with it as Jesus would, ought to accomplish +wonders for humanity in a short time, and Henry Maxwell, going over +to the scene of the new work one day after a noon hour with the shop +men, was amazed to see how much had been done outwardly. + +Yet he walked home thoughtfully, and on his way he could not avoid +the question of the continual problem thrust upon his notice by the +saloon. How much had been done for the Rectangle after all? Even +counting Virginia's and Rachel's work and Mr. Gray's, where had it +actually counted in any visible quantity? Of course, he said to +himself, the redemptive work begun and carried on by the Holy Spirit +in His wonderful displays of power in the First Church and in the +tent meetings had had its effect upon the life of Raymond. But as he +walked past saloon after saloon and noted the crowds going in and +coming out of them, as he saw the wretched dens, as many as ever +apparently, as he caught the brutality and squalor and open misery +and degradation on countless faces of men and women and children, he +sickened at the sight. He found himself asking how much cleansing +could a million dollars poured into this cesspool accomplish? Was +not the living source of nearly all the human misery they sought to +relieve untouched as long as the saloons did their deadly but +legitimate work? What could even such unselfish Christian +discipleship as Virginia's and Rachel's do to lessen the stream of +vice and crime so long as the great spring of vice and crime flowed +as deep and strong as ever? Was it not a practical waste of +beautiful lives for these young women to throw themselves into this +earthly hell, when for every soul rescued by their sacrifice the +saloon made two more that needed rescue? + +He could not escape the question. It was the same that Virginia had +put to Rachel in her statement that, in her opinion, nothing really +permanent would ever be done until the saloon was taken out of the +Rectangle. Henry Maxwell went back to his parish work that afternoon +with added convictions on the license business. + +But if the saloon was a factor in the problem of the life of +Raymond, no less was the First Church and its little company of +disciples who had pledged to do as Jesus would do. Henry Maxwell, +standing at the very centre of the movement, was not in a position +to judge of its power as some one from the outside might have done. +But Raymond itself felt the touch in very many ways, not knowing all +the reasons for the change. + +The winter was gone and the year was ended, the year which Henry +Maxwell had fixed as the time during which the pledge should be kept +to do as Jesus would do. Sunday, the anniversary of that one a year +ago, was in many ways the most remarkable day that the First Church +ever knew. It was more important than the disciples in the First +Church realized. The year had made history so fast and so serious +that the people were not yet able to grasp its significance. And the +day itself which marked the completion of a whole year of such +discipleship was characterized by such revelations and confessions +that the immediate actors in the events themselves could not +understand the value of what had been done, or the relation of their +trial to the rest of the churches and cities of the country. + + + + +Chapter Nineteen + + +[Letter from Rev. Calvin Bruce, D.D., of the Nazareth Avenue Church, +Chicago, to Rev. Philip A. Caxton, D.D., New York City.] + + +"My Dear Caxton: + +"It is late Sunday night, but I am so intensely awake and so +overflowing with what I have seen and heard that I feel driven to +write you now some account of the situation in Raymond as I have +been studying it, and as it has apparently come to a climax today. +So this is my only excuse for writing so extended a letter at this +time. + +"You remember Henry Maxwell in the Seminary. I think you said the +last time I visited you in New York that you had not seen him since +we graduated. He was a refined, scholarly fellow, you remember, and +when he was called to the First Church of Raymond within a year +after leaving the Seminary, I said to my wife, 'Raymond has made a +good choice. Maxwell will satisfy them as a sermonizer.' He has been +here eleven years, and I understand that up to a year ago he had +gone on in the regular course of the ministry, giving good +satisfaction and drawing good congregations. His church was counted +the largest and wealthiest church in Raymond. All the best people +attended it, and most of them belonged. The quartet choir was famous +for its music, especially for its soprano, Miss Winslow, of whom I +shall have more to say; and, on the whole, as I understand the +facts, Maxwell was in a comfortable berth, with a very good salary, +pleasant surroundings, a not very exacting parish of refined, rich, +respectable people--such a church and parish as nearly all the young +men of the seminary in our time looked forward to as very desirable. + +"But a year ago today Maxwell came into his church on Sunday +morning, and at the close of the service made the astounding +proposition that the members of his church volunteer for a year not +to do anything without first asking the question, 'What would Jesus +do?' and, after answering it, to do what in their honest judgment He +would do, regardless of what the result might be to them. + +"The effect of this proposition, as it has been met and obeyed by a +number of members of the church, has been so remarkable that, as you +know, the attention of the whole country has been directed to the +movement. I call it a 'movement' because from the action taken +today, it seems probable that what has been tried here will reach +out into the other churches and cause a revolution in methods, but +more especially in a new definition of Christian discipleship. + +"In the first place, Maxwell tells me he was astonished at the +response to his proposition. Some of the most prominent members in +the church made the promise to do as Jesus would. Among them were +Edward Norman, editor of the DAILY NEWS, which has made such a +sensation in the newspaper world; Milton Wright, one of the leading +merchants in Raymond; Alexander Powers, whose action in the matter +of the railroads against the interstate commerce laws made such a +stir about a year ago; Miss Page, one of Raymond's leading society +heiresses, who has lately dedicated her entire fortune, as I +understand, to the Christian daily paper and the work of reform in +the slum district known as the Rectangle; and Miss Winslow, whose +reputation as a singer is now national, but who in obedience to what +she has decided to be Jesus' probable action, has devoted her talent +to volunteer work among the girls and women who make up a large part +of the city's worst and most abandoned population. + +"In addition to these well-known people has been a gradually +increasing number of Christians from the First Church and lately +from other churches of Raymond. A large proportion of these +volunteers who pledged themselves to do as Jesus would do comes from +the Endeavor societies. The young people say that they have already +embodied in their society pledge the same principle in the words, 'I +promise Him that I will strive to do whatever He would have me do.' +This is not exactly what is included in Maxwell's proposition, which +is that the disciple shall try to do what Jesus would probably do in +the disciple's place. But the result of an honest obedience to +either pledge, he claims, will be practically the same, and he is +not surprised that the largest numbers have joined the new +discipleship from the Endeavor Society. + +"I am sure the first question you will ask is, 'What has been the +result of this attempt? What has it accomplished or how has it +changed in any way the regular life of the church or the community?' + +"You already know something, from reports of Raymond that have gone +over the country, what the events have been. But one needs to come +here and learn something of the changes in individual lives, and +especially the change in the church life, to realize all that is +meant by this following of Jesus' steps so literally. To tell all +that would be to write a long story or series of stories. I am not +in a position to do that, but I can give you some idea perhaps of +what has been done as told me by friends here and by Maxwell +himself. + +"The result of the pledge upon the First Church has been two-fold. +It has brought upon a spirit of Christian fellowship which Maxwell +tells me never before existed, and which now impresses him as being +very nearly what the Christian fellowship of the apostolic churches +must have been; and it has divided the church into two distinct +groups of members. Those who have not taken the pledge regard the +others as foolishly literal in their attempt to imitate the example +of Jesus. Some of them have drawn out of the church and no longer +attend, or they have removed their membership entirely to other +churches. Some are an element of internal strife, and I heard rumors +of an attempt on their part to force Maxwell's resignation. I do not +know that this element is very strong in the church. It has been +held in check by a wonderful continuance of spiritual power, which +dates from the first Sunday the pledge was taken a year ago, and +also by the fact that so many of the most prominent members have +been identified with the movement. + +"The effect on Maxwell is very marked. I heard him preach in our +State Association four years ago. He impressed me at the time as +having considerable power in dramatic delivery, of which he himself +was somewhat conscious. His sermon was well written and abounded in +what the Seminary students used to call 'fine passages.' The effect +of it was what an average congregation would call 'pleasing.' This +morning I heard Maxwell preach again, for the first time since then. +I shall speak of that farther on. He is not the same man. He gives +me the impression of one who has passed through a crisis of +revolution. He tells me this revolution is simply a new definition +of Christian discipleship. He certainly has changed many of his old +habits and many of his old views. His attitude on the saloon +question is radically opposite to the one he entertained a year ago. +And in his entire thought of the ministry, his pulpit and parish +work, I find he has made a complete change. So far as I can +understand, the idea that is moving him on now is the idea that the +Christianity of our times must represent a more literal imitation of +Jesus, and especially in the element of suffering. He quoted to me +in the course of our conversation several times the verses in Peter: +'For even hereunto were ye called, because Christ also suffered for +you, leaving you an example, that ye would follow His steps'; and he +seems filled with the conviction that what our churches need today +more than anything else is this factor of joyful suffering for Jesus +in some form. I do not know as I agree with him, altogether; but, my +dear Caxton, it is certainly astonishing to note the results of this +idea as they have impressed themselves upon this city and this +church. + +"You ask how about the results on the individuals who have made this +pledge and honestly tried to be true to it. Those results are, as I +have said, a part of individual history and cannot be told in +detail. Some of them I can give you so that you may see that this +form of discipleship is not merely sentiment or fine posing for +effect. + +"For instance, take the case of Mr. Powers, who was superintendent +of the machine shops of the L. and T. R. R. here. When he acted upon +the evidence which incriminated the road he lost his position, and +more than that, I learn from my friends here, his family and social +relations have become so changed that he and his family no longer +appear in public. They have dropped out of the social circle where +once they were so prominent. By the way, Caxton, I understand in +this connection that the Commission, for one reason or another, +postponed action on this case, and it is now rumored that the L. and +T. R. R. will pass into a receiver's hands very soon. The president +of the road who, according to the evidence submitted by Powers, was +the principal offender, has resigned, and complications which have +risen since point to the receivership. Meanwhile, the superintendent +has gone back to his old work as a telegraph operator. I met him at +the church yesterday. He impressed me as a man who had, like +Maxwell, gone through a crisis in character. I could not help +thinking of him as being good material for the church of the first +century when the disciples had all things in common. + +"Or take the case of Mr. Norman, editor of the DAILY NEWS. He risked +his entire fortune in obedience to what he believed was Jesus' +action, and revolutionized his entire conduct of the paper at the +risk of a failure. I send you a copy of yesterday's paper. I want +you to read it carefully. To my mind it is one of the most +interesting and remarkable papers ever printed in the United States. +It is open to criticism, but what could any mere man attempt in this +line that would be free from criticism. Take it all in all, it is so +far above the ordinary conception of a daily paper that I am amazed +at the result. He tells me that the paper is beginning to be read +more and more by the Christian people of the city. He was very +confident of its final success. Read his editorial on the money +questions, also the one on the coming election in Raymond when the +question of license will again be an issue. Both articles are of the +best from his point of view. He says he never begins an editorial +or, in fact, any part of his newspaper work, without first asking, +'What would Jesus do?' The result is certainly apparent. + +"Then there is Milton Wright, the merchant. He has, I am told, so +revolutionized his business that no man is more beloved today in +Raymond. His own clerks and employees have an affection for him that +is very touching. During the winter, while he was lying dangerously +ill at his home, scores of clerks volunteered to watch and help in +any way possible, and his return to his store was greeted with +marked demonstrations. All this has been brought about by the +element of personal love introduced into the business. This love is +not mere words, but the business itself is carried on under a system +of co-operation that is not a patronizing recognition of inferiors, +but a real sharing in the whole business. Other men on the street +look upon Milton Wright as odd. It is a fact, however, that while he +has lost heavily in some directions, he has increased his business, +and is today respected and honored as one of the best and most +successful merchants in Raymond. + +"And there is Miss Winslow. She has chosen to give her great talent +to the poor of the city. Her plans include a Musical Institute where +choruses and classes in vocal music shall be a feature. She is +enthusiastic over her life work. In connection with her friend Miss +Page she has planned a course in music which, if carried out, will +certainly do much to lift up the lives of the people down there. I +am not too old, dear Caxton, to be interested in the romantic side +of much that has also been tragic here in Raymond, and I must tell +you that it is well understood here that Miss Winslow expects to be +married this spring to a brother of Miss Page who was once a society +leader and club man, and who was converted in a tent where his +wife-that-is-to-be took an active part in the service. I don't know +all the details of this little romance, but I imagine there is a +story wrapped up in it, and it would make interesting reading if we +only knew it all. + +"These are only a few illustrations of results in individual lives +owing to obedience to the pledge. I meant to have spoken of +President Marsh of Lincoln College. He is a graduate of my alma +mater and I knew him slightly when I was in the senior year. He has +taken an active part in the recent municipal campaign, and his +influence in the city is regarded as a very large factor in the +coming election. He impressed me, as did all the other disciples in +this movement, as having fought out some hard questions, and as +having taken up some real burdens that have caused and still do +cause that suffering of which Henry Maxwell speaks, a suffering that +does not eliminate, but does appear to intensify, a positive and +practical joy." + + + + +Chapter Twenty + + +"BUT I am prolonging this letter, possibly to your weariness. I am +unable to avoid the feeling of fascination which my entire stay here +has increased. I want to tell you something of the meeting in the +First Church today. + +"As I said, I heard Maxwell preach. At his earnest request I had +preached for him the Sunday before, and this was the first time I +had heard him since the Association meeting four years ago. His +sermon this morning was as different from his sermon then as if it +had been thought out and preached by some one living on another +planet. I was profoundly touched. I believe I actually shed tears +once. Others in the congregation were moved like myself. His text +was: 'What is that to thee? Follow thou Me.' It was a most unusually +impressive appeal to the Christians of Raymond to obey Jesus' +teachings and follow in His steps regardless of what others might +do. I cannot give you even the plan of the sermon. It would take too +long. At the close of the service there was the usual after meeting +that has become a regular feature of the First Church. Into this +meeting have come all those who made the pledge to do as Jesus would +do, and the time is spent in mutual fellowship, confession, question +as to what Jesus would do in special cases, and prayer that the one +great guide of every disciple's conduct may be the Holy Spirit. + +"Maxwell asked me to come into this meeting. Nothing in all my +ministerial life, Caxton, has so moved me as that meeting. I never +felt the Spirit's presence so powerfully. It was a meeting of +reminiscences and of the most loving fellowship. I was irresistibly +driven in thought back to the first years of Christianity. There was +something about all this that was apostolic in its simplicity and +Christ imitation. + +"I asked questions. One that seemed to arouse more interest than any +other was in regard to the extent of the Christian disciple's +sacrifice of personal property. Maxwell tells me that so far no one +has interpreted the spirit of Jesus in such a way as to abandon his +earthly possessions, give away of his wealth, or in any literal way +imitate the Christians of the order, for example, of St. Francis of +Assisi. It was the unanimous consent, however, that if any disciple +should feel that Jesus in his own particular case would do that, +there could be only one answer to the question. Maxwell admitted +that he was still to a certain degree uncertain as to Jesus' +probable action when it came to the details of household living, the +possession of wealth, the holding of certain luxuries. It is, +however, very evident that many of these disciples have repeatedly +carried their obedience to Jesus to the extreme limit, regardless of +financial loss. There is no lack of courage or consistency at this +point. + +"It is also true that some of the business men who took the pledge +have lost great sums of money in this imitation of Jesus, and many +have, like Alexander Powers, lost valuable positions owing to the +impossibility of doing what they had been accustomed to do and at +the same time what they felt Jesus would do in the same place. In +connection with these cases it is pleasant to record the fact that +many who have suffered in this way have been at once helped +financially by those who still have means. In this respect I think +it is true that these disciples have all things in common. Certainly +such scenes as I witnessed at the First Church at that after service +this morning I never saw in my church or in any other. I never +dreamed that such Christian fellowship could exist in this age of +the world. I was almost incredulous as to the witness of my own +senses. I still seem to be asking myself if this is the close of the +nineteenth century in America. + +"But now, dear friend, I come to the real cause of this letter, the +real heart of the whole question as the First Church of Raymond has +forced it upon me. Before the meeting closed today steps were taken +to secure the co-operation of all other Christian disciples in this +country. I think Maxwell took this step after long deliberation. He +said as much to me one day when we were discussing the effect of +this movement upon the church in general. + +"'Why,' he said, 'suppose that the church membership generally in +this country made this pledge and lived up to it! What a revolution +it would cause in Christendom! But why not? Is it any more than the +disciple ought to do? Has he followed Jesus, unless he is willing to +do this? Is the test of discipleship any less today than it was in +Jesus' time?' + +"I do not know all that preceded or followed his thought of what +ought to be done outside of Raymond, but the idea crystallized today +in a plan to secure the fellowship of all the Christians in America. +The churches, through their pastors, will be asked to form disciple +gatherings like the one in the First Church. Volunteers will be +called for in the great body of church members in the United States, +who will promise to do as Jesus would do. Maxwell spoke particularly +of the result of such general action on the saloon question. He is +terribly in earnest over this. He told me that there was no question +in his mind that the saloon would be beaten in Raymond at the +election now near at hand. If so, they could go on with some courage +to do the redemptive work begun by the evangelist and now taken up +by the disciples in his own church. If the saloon triumphs again +there will be a terrible and, as he thinks, unnecessary waste of +Christian sacrifice. But, however we differ on that point, he +convinced his church that the time had come for a fellowship with +other Christians. Surely, if the First Church could work such +changes in society and its surroundings, the church in general if +combining such a fellowship, not of creed but of conduct, ought to +stir the entire nation to a higher life and a new conception of +Christian following. + +"This is a grand idea, Caxton, but right here is where I find my +self hesitating. I do not deny that the Christian disciple ought to +follow Christ's steps as closely as these here in Raymond have tried +to do. But I cannot avoid asking what the result would be if I ask +my church in Chicago to do it. I am writing this after feeling the +solemn, profound touch of the Spirit's presence, and I confess to +you, old friend, that I cannot call up in my church a dozen +prominent business or professional men who would make this trial at +the risk of all they hold dear. Can you do any better in your +church? What are we to say? That the churches would not respond to +the call: 'Come and suffer?' Is our standard of Christian +discipleship a wrong one? Or are we possibly deceiving ourselves, +and would we be agreeably disappointed if we once asked our people +to take such a pledge faithfully? The actual results of the pledge +as obeyed here in Raymond are enough to make any pastor tremble, and +at the same time long with yearning that they might occur in his own +parish. Certainly never have I seen a church so signally blessed by +the Spirit as this one. But--am I myself ready to take this pledge? +I ask the question honestly, and I dread to face an honest answer. I +know well enough that I should have to change very much in my life +if I undertook to follow His steps so closely. I have called myself +a Christian for many years. For the past ten years I have enjoyed a +life that has had comparatively little suffering in it. I am, +honestly I say it, living at a long distance from municipal problems +and the life of the poor, the degraded and the abandoned. What would +the obedience to this pledge demand of me? I hesitate to answer. My +church is wealthy, full of well-to-do, satisfied people. The +standard of their discipleship is, I am aware, not of a nature to +respond to the call of suffering or personal loss. I say: 'I am +aware.' I may be mistaken. I may have erred in not stirring their +deeper life. Caxton, my friend, I have spoken my inmost thought to +you. Shall I go back to my people next Sunday and stand up before +them in my large city church and say: 'Let us follow Jesus closer; +let us walk in His steps where it will cost us something more than +it is costing us now; let us pledge not to do anything without first +asking: 'What would Jesus do?' If I should go before them with that +message, it would be a strange and startling one to them. But why? +Are we not ready to follow Him all the way? What is it to be a +follower of Jesus? What does it mean to imitate Him? What does it +mean to walk in His steps?" + +The Rev. Calvin Bruce, D. D., of the Nazareth Avenue Church, +Chicago, let his pen fall on the table. He had come to the parting +of the ways, and his question, he felt sure, was the question of +many and many a man in the ministry and in the church. He went to +his window and opened it. He was oppressed with the weight of his +convictions and he felt almost suffocated with the air in the room. +He wanted to see the stars and feel the breath of the world. + +The night was very still. The clock in the First Church was just +striking midnight. As it finished a clear, strong voice down in the +direction of the Rectangle came floating up to him as if borne on +radiant pinions. + +It was a voice of one of Gray's old converts, a night watchman at +the packing houses, who sometimes solaced his lonesome hours by a +verse or two of some familiar hymn: + + "Must Jesus bear the cross alone + And all the world go free? + No, there's a cross for every one, + And there's a cross for me." + +The Rev. Calvin Bruce turned away from the window and, after a +little hesitation, he kneeled. "What would Jesus do?" That was the +burden of his prayer. Never had he yielded himself so completely to +the Spirit's searching revealing of Jesus. He was on his knees a +long time. He retired and slept fitfully with many awakenings. He +rose before it was clear dawn, and threw open his window again. As +the light in the east grew stronger he repeated to himself: "What +would Jesus do? Shall I follow His steps?" + +The sun rose and flooded the city with its power. When shall the +dawn of a new discipleship usher in the conquering triumph of a +closer walk with Jesus? When shall Christendom tread more closely +the path he made? + +"It is the way the Master trod; Shall not the servant tread it +still?" + + + + +Chapter Twenty-one + + +"Master, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest." + + +THE Saturday afternoon matinee at the Auditorium in Chicago was just +over and the usual crowd was struggling to get to its carriage +before any one else. The Auditorium attendant was shouting out the +numbers of different carriages and the carriage doors were slamming +as the horses were driven rapidly up to the curb, held there +impatiently by the drivers who had shivered long in the raw east +wind, and then let go to plunge for a few minutes into the river of +vehicles that tossed under the elevated railway and finally went +whirling off up the avenue. + +"Now then, 624," shouted the Auditorium attendant; "624!" he +repeated, and there dashed up to the curb a splendid span of black +horses attached to a carriage having the monogram, "C. R. S." in +gilt letters on the panel of the door. + +Two girls stepped out of the crowd towards the carriage. The older +one had entered and taken her seat and the attendant was still +holding the door open for the younger, who stood hesitating on the +curb. + +"Come, Felicia! What are you waiting for! I shall freeze to death!" +called the voice from the carriage. + +The girl outside of the carriage hastily unpinned a bunch of English +violets from her dress and handed them to a small boy who was +standing shivering on the edge of the sidewalk almost under the +horses' feet. He took them, with a look of astonishment and a "Thank +ye, lady!" and instantly buried a very grimy face in the bunch of +perfume. The girl stepped into the carriage, the door shut with the +incisive bang peculiar to well-made carriages of this sort, and in a +few moments the coachman was speeding the horses rapidly up one of +the boulevards. + +"You are always doing some queer thing or other, Felicia," said the +older girl as the carriage whirled on past the great residences +already brilliantly lighted. + +"Am I? What have I done that is queer now, Rose?" asked the other, +looking up suddenly and turning her head towards her sister. + +"Oh, giving those violets to that boy! He looked as if he needed a +good hot supper more than a bunch of violets. It's a wonder you +didn't invite him home with us. I shouldn't have been surprised if +you had. You are always doing such queer things." + +"Would it be queer to invite a boy like that to come to the house +and get a hot supper?" Felicia asked the question softly and almost +as if she were alone. + +"'Queer' isn't just the word, of course," replied Rose +indifferently. "It would be what Madam Blanc calls 'outre.' +Decidedly. Therefore you will please not invite him or others like +him to hot suppers because I suggested it. Oh, dear! I'm awfully +tired." + +She yawned, and Felicia silently looked out of the window in the +door. + +"The concert was stupid and the violinist was simply a bore. I don't +see how you could sit so still through it all," Rose exclaimed a +little impatiently. + +"I liked the music," answered Felicia quietly. + +"You like anything. I never saw a girl with so little critical +taste." + +Felicia colored slightly, but would not answer. Rose yawned again, +and then hummed a fragment of a popular song. Then she exclaimed +abruptly: "I'm sick of 'most everything. I hope the 'Shadows of +London' will be exciting tonight." + +"The 'Shadows of Chicago,'" murmured Felicia. "The 'Shadows of +Chicago!' The 'Shadows of London,' the play, the great drama with +its wonderful scenery, the sensation of New York for two months. You +know we have a box with the Delanos tonight." + +Felicia turned her face towards her sister. Her great brown eyes +were very expressive and not altogether free from a sparkle of +luminous heat. + +"And yet we never weep over the real thing on the actual stage of +life. What are the 'Shadows of London' on the stage to the shadows +of London or Chicago as they really exist? Why don't we get excited +over the facts as they are?" + +"Because the actual people are dirty and disagreeable and it's too +much bother, I suppose," replied Rose carelessly. "Felicia, you can +never reform the world. What's the use? We're not to blame for the +poverty and misery. There have always been rich and poor; and there +always will be. We ought to be thankful we're rich." + +"Suppose Christ had gone on that principle," replied Felicia, with +unusual persistence. "Do you remember Dr. Bruce's sermon on that +verse a few Sundays ago: 'For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus +Christ, that though he was rich yet for our sakes he became poor, +that ye through his poverty might become rich'?" + +"I remember it well enough," said Rose with some petulance, "and +didn't Dr. Bruce go on to say that there is no blame attached to +people who have wealth if they are kind and give to the needs of the +poor? And I am sure that he himself is pretty comfortably settled. +He never gives up his luxuries just because some people go hungry. +What good would it do if he did? I tell you, Felicia, there will +always be poor and rich in spite of all we can do. Ever since Rachel +Winslow has written about those queer doings in Raymond you have +upset the whole family. People can't live at that concert pitch all +the time. You see if Rachel doesn't give it up soon. It's a great +pity she doesn't come to Chicago and sing in the Auditorium +concerts. She has received an offer. I'm going to write and urge her +to come. I'm just dying to hear her sing." + +Felicia looked out of the window and was silent. The carriage rolled +on past two blocks of magnificent private residences and turned into +a wide driveway under a covered passage, and the sisters hurried +into the house. It was an elegant mansion of gray stone furnished +like a palace, every corner of it warm with the luxury of paintings, +sculpture, art and modern refinement. + +The owner of it all, Mr. Charles R. Sterling, stood before an open +grate fire smoking a cigar. He had made his money in grain +speculation and railroad ventures, and was reputed to be worth +something over two millions. His wife was a sister of Mrs. Winslow +of Raymond. She had been an invalid for several years. The two +girls, Rose and Felicia, were the only children. Rose was twenty-one +years old, fair, vivacious, educated in a fashionable college, just +entering society and already somewhat cynical and indifferent. A +very hard young lady to please, her father said, sometimes +playfully, sometimes sternly. Felicia was nineteen, with a tropical +beauty somewhat like her cousin, Rachel Winslow, with warm, generous +impulses just waking into Christian feeling, capable of all sorts of +expression, a puzzle to her father, a source of irritation to her +mother and with a great unsurveyed territory of thought and action +in herself, of which she was more than dimly conscious. There was +that in Felicia that would easily endure any condition in life if +only the liberty to act fully on her conscientious convictions were +granted her. + +"Here's a letter for you, Felicia," said Mr. Sterling, handing it to +her. + +Felicia sat down and instantly opened the letter, saying as she did +so: "It's from Rachel." + +"Well, what's the latest news from Raymond?" asked Mr. Sterling, +taking his cigar out of his mouth and looking at Felicia with +half-shut eyes, as if he were studying her. + +"Rachel says Dr. Bruce has been staying in Raymond for two Sundays +and has seemed very much interested in Mr. Maxwell's pledge in the +First Church." + +"What does Rachel say about herself?" asked Rose, who was lying on a +couch almost buried under elegant cushions. + +"She is still singing at the Rectangle. Since the tent meetings +closed she sings in an old hall until the new buildings which her +friend, Virginia Page, is putting up are completed. + +"I must write Rachel to come to Chicago and visit us. She ought not +to throw away her voice in that railroad town upon all those people +who don't appreciate her." + +Mr. Sterling lighted a new cigar and Rose exclaimed: "Rachel is so +queer. She might set Chicago wild with her voice if she sang in the +Auditorium. And there she goes on throwing it away on people who +don't know what they are hearing." + +"Rachel won't come here unless she can do it and keep her pledge at +the same time," said Felicia, after a pause. + +"What pledge?" Mr. Sterling asked the question and then added +hastily: "Oh, I know, yes! A very peculiar thing that. Alexander +Powers used to be a friend of mine. We learned telegraphy in the +same office. Made a great sensation when he resigned and handed over +that evidence to the Interstate Commerce Commission. And he's back +at his telegraph again. There have been queer doings in Raymond +during the past year. I wonder what Dr. Bruce thinks of it on the +whole. I must have a talk with him about it." + +"He is at home and will preach tomorrow," said Felicia. "Perhaps he +will tell us something about it." + +There was silence for a minute. Then Felicia said abruptly, as if +she had gone on with a spoken thought to some invisible hearer: "And +what if he should propose the same pledge to the Nazareth Avenue +Church?" + +"Who? What are you talking about?" asked her father a little +sharply. + +"About Dr. Bruce. I say, what if he should propose to our church +what Mr. Maxwell proposed to his, and ask for volunteers who would +pledge themselves to do everything after asking the question, 'What +would Jesus do?'" + +"There's no danger of it," said Rose, rising suddenly from the couch +as the tea-bell rang. + +"It's a very impracticable movement, to my mind," said Mr. Sterling +shortly. + +"I understand from Rachel's letter that the Raymond church is going +to make an attempt to extend the idea of the pledge to other +churches. If it succeeds it will certainly make great changes in the +churches and in people's lives," said Felicia. + +"Oh, well, let's have some tea first!" said Rose, walking into the +dining-room. Her father and Felicia followed, and the meal proceeded +in silence. Mrs. Sterling had her meals served in her room. Mr. +Sterling was preoccupied. He ate very little and excused himself +early, and although it was Saturday night, he remarked as he went +out that he should be down town on some special business. + +"Don't you think father looks very much disturbed lately?" asked +Felicia a little while after he had gone out. + +"Oh, I don't know! I hadn't noticed anything unusual," replied Rose. +After a silence she said: "Are you going to the play tonight, +Felicia? Mrs. Delano will be here at half past seven. I think you +ought to go. She will feel hurt if you refuse." + +"I'll go. I don't care about it. I can see shadows enough without +going to the play." + +"That's a doleful remark for a girl nineteen years old to make," +replied Rose. "But then you're queer in your ideas anyhow, Felicia. +If you are going up to see mother, tell her I'll run in after the +play if she is still awake." + + + + +Chapter Twenty-two + + +FELICIA started off to the play not very happy, but she was familiar +with that feeling, only sometimes she was more unhappy than at +others. Her feeling expressed itself tonight by a withdrawal into +herself. When the company was seated in the box and the curtain had +gone up Felicia was back of the others and remained for the evening +by herself. Mrs. Delano, as chaperon for half a dozen young ladies, +understood Felicia well enough to know that she was "queer," as Rose +so often said, and she made no attempt to draw her out of her +corner. And so the girl really experienced that night by herself one +of the feelings that added to the momentum that was increasing the +coming on of her great crisis. + +The play was an English melodrama, full of startling situations, +realistic scenery and unexpected climaxes. There was one scene in +the third act that impressed even Rose Sterling. + +It was midnight on Blackfriars Bridge. The Thames flowed dark and +forbidden below. St. Paul's rose through the dim light imposing, its +dome seeming to float above the buildings surrounding it. The figure +of a child came upon the bridge and stood there for a moment peering +about as if looking for some one. Several persons were crossing the +bridge, but in one of the recesses about midway of the river a woman +stood, leaning out over the parapet, with a strained agony of face +and figure that told plainly of her intention. Just as she was +stealthily mounting the parapet to throw herself into the river, the +child caught sight of her, ran forward with a shrill cry more animal +than human, and seizing the woman's dress dragged back upon it with +all her little strength. Then there came suddenly upon the scene two +other characters who had already figured in the play, a tall, +handsome, athletic gentleman dressed in the fashion, attended by a +slim-figured lad who was as refined in dress and appearance as the +little girl clinging to her mother, who was mournfully hideous in +her rags and repulsive poverty. These two, the gentleman and the +lad, prevented the attempted suicide, and after a tableau on the +bridge where the audience learned that the man and woman were +brother and sister, the scene was transferred to the interior of one +of the slum tenements in the East Side of London. Here the scene +painter and carpenter had done their utmost to produce an exact copy +of a famous court and alley well known to the poor creatures who +make up a part of the outcast London humanity. The rags, the +crowding, the vileness, the broken furniture, the horrible animal +existence forced upon creatures made in God's image were so +skilfully shown in this scene that more than one elegant woman in +the theatre, seated like Rose Sterling in a sumptuous box surrounded +with silk hangings and velvet covered railing, caught herself +shrinking back a little as if contamination were possible from the +nearness of this piece of scenery. It was almost too realistic, and +yet it had a horrible fascination for Felicia as she sat there +alone, buried back in a cushioned seat and absorbed in thoughts that +went far beyond the dialogue on the stage. + +From the tenement scene the play shifted to the interior of a +nobleman's palace, and almost a sigh of relief went up all over the +house at the sight of the accustomed luxury of the upper classes. +The contrast was startling. It was brought about by a clever piece +of staging that allowed only a few moments to elapse between the +slum and the palace scene. The dialogue went on, the actors came and +went in their various roles, but upon Felicia the play made but one +distinct impression. In realty the scenes on the bridge and in the +slums were only incidents in the story of the play, but Felicia +found herself living those scenes over and over. She had never +philosophized about the causes of human misery, she was not old +enough she had not the temperament that philosophizes. But she felt +intensely, and this was not the first time she had felt the contrast +thrust into her feeling between the upper and the lower conditions +of human life. It had been growing upon her until it had made her +what Rose called "queer," and other people in her circle of wealthy +acquaintances called very unusual. It was simply the human problem +in its extreme of riches and poverty, its refinement and its +vileness, that was, in spite of her unconscious attempts to struggle +against the facts, burning into her life the impression that would +in the end either transform her into a woman of rare love and +self-sacrifice for the world, or a miserable enigma to herself and +all who knew her. + +"Come, Felicia, aren't you going home?" said Rose. The play was +over, the curtain down, and people were going noisily out, laughing +and gossiping as if "The Shadows of London" were simply good +diversion, as they were, put on the stage so effectively. + +Felicia rose and went out with the rest quietly, and with the +absorbed feeling that had actually left her in her seat oblivious of +the play's ending. She was never absent-minded, but often thought +herself into a condition that left her alone in the midst of a +crowd. + +"Well, what did you think of it?" asked Rose when the sisters had +reached home and were in the drawing-room. Rose really had +considerable respect for Felicia's judgment of a play. + +"I thought it was a pretty fair picture of real life." + +"I mean the acting," said Rose, annoyed. + +"The bridge scene was well acted, especially the woman's part. I +thought the man overdid the sentiment a little." + +"Did you? I enjoyed that. And wasn't the scene between the two +cousins funny when they first learned they were related? But the +slum scene was horrible. I think they ought not to show such things +in a play. They are too painful." + +"They must be painful in real life, too," replied Felicia. + +"Yes, but we don't have to look at the real thing. It's bad enough +at the theatre where we pay for it." + +Rose went into the dining-room and began to eat from a plate of +fruit and cakes on the sideboard. + +"Are you going up to see mother?" asked Felicia after a while. She +had remained in front of the drawing-room fireplace. + +"No," replied Rose from the other room. "I won't trouble her +tonight. If you go in tell her I am too tired to be agreeable." + +So Felicia turned into her mother's room, as she went up the great +staircase and down the upper hall. The light was burning there, and +the servant who always waited on Mrs. Sterling was beckoning Felicia +to come in. + +"Tell Clara to go out," exclaimed Mrs. Sterling as Felicia came up +to the bed. + +Felicia was surprised, but she did as her mother bade her, and then +inquired how she was feeling. + +"Felicia," said her mother, "can you pray?" + +The question was so unlike any her mother had ever asked before that +she was startled. But she answered: "Why, yes, mother. Why do you +ask such a question?" + +"Felicia, I am frightened. Your father--I have had such strange +fears about him all day. Something is wrong with him. I want you to +pray--." + +"Now, here, mother?" + +"Yes. Pray, Felicia." + +Felicia reached out her hand and took her mother's. It was +trembling. Mrs. Sterling had never shown such tenderness for her +younger daughter, and her strange demand now was the first real sign +of any confidence in Felicia's character. + +The girl kneeled, still holding her mother's trembling hand, and +prayed. It is doubtful if she had ever prayed aloud before. She must +have said in her prayer the words that her mother needed, for when +it was silent in the room the invalid was weeping softly and her +nervous tension was over. + +Felicia stayed some time. When she was assured that her mother would +not need her any longer she rose to go. + +"Good night, mother. You must let Clara call me if you feel badly in +the night." + +"I feel better now." Then as Felicia was moving away, Mrs. Sterling +said: "Won't you kiss me, Felicia?" + +Felicia went back and bent over her mother. The kiss was almost as +strange to her as the prayer had been. When Felicia went out of the +room her cheeks were wet with tears. She had not often cried since +she was a little child. + +Sunday morning at the Sterling mansion was generally very quiet. The +girls usually went to church at eleven o'clock service. Mr. Sterling +was not a member but a heavy contributor, and he generally went to +church in the morning. This time he did not come down to breakfast, +and finally sent word by a servant that he did not feel well enough +to go out. So Rose and Felicia drove up to the door of the Nazareth +Avenue Church and entered the family pew alone. + +When Dr. Bruce walked out of the room at the rear of the platform +and went up to the pulpit to open the Bible as his custom was, those +who knew him best did not detect anything unusual in his manner or +his expression. He proceeded with the service as usual. He was calm +and his voice was steady and firm. His prayer was the first +intimation the people had of anything new or strange in the service. +It is safe to say that the Nazareth Avenue Church had not heard Dr. +Bruce offer such a prayer before during the twelve years he had been +pastor there. How would a minister be likely to pray who had come +out of a revolution in Christian feeling that had completely changed +his definition of what was meant by following Jesus? No one in +Nazareth Avenue Church had any idea that the Rev. Calvin Bruce, D. +D., the dignified, cultured, refined Doctor of Divinity, had within +a few days been crying like a little child on his knees, asking for +strength and courage and Christlikeness to speak his Sunday message; +and yet the prayer was an unconscious involuntary disclosure of his +soul's experience such as the Nazareth Avenue people had seldom +heard, and never before from that pulpit. + + + + +Chapter Twenty-three + + +"I AM just back from a visit to Raymond," Dr. Bruce began, "and I +want to tell you something of my impressions of the movement there." + +He paused and his look went out over his people with yearning for +them and at the same time with a great uncertainty at his heart. How +many of his rich, fashionable, refined, luxury-loving members would +understand the nature of the appeal he was soon to make to them? He +was altogether in the dark as to that. Nevertheless he had been +through his desert, and had come out of it ready to suffer. He went +on now after that brief pause and told them the story of his stay in +Raymond. The people already knew something of that experiment in the +First Church. The whole country had watched the progress of the +pledge as it had become history in so many lives. Mr. Maxwell had at +last decided that the time had come to seek the fellowship of other +churches throughout the country. The new discipleship in Raymond had +proved to be so valuable in its results that he wished the churches +in general to share with the disciples in Raymond. Already there had +begun a volunteer movement in many churches throughout the country, +acting on their own desire to walk closer in the steps of Jesus. The +Christian Endeavor Society had, with enthusiasm, in many churches +taken the pledge to do as Jesus would do, and the result was already +marked in a deeper spiritual life and a power in church influence +that was like a new birth for the members. + +All this Dr. Bruce told his people simply and with a personal +interest that evidently led the way to the announcement which now +followed. Felicia had listened to every word with strained +attention. She sat there by the side of Rose, in contrast like fire +beside snow, although even Rose was alert and as excited as she +could be. + +"Dear friends," he said, and for the first time since his prayer the +emotion of the occasion was revealed in his voice and gesture, "I am +going to ask that Nazareth Avenue Church take the same pledge that +Raymond Church has taken. I know what this will mean to you and me. +It will mean the complete change of very many habits. It will mean, +possibly, social loss. It will mean very probably, in many cases, +loss of money. It will mean suffering. It will mean what following +Jesus meant in the first century, and then it meant suffering, loss, +hardship, separation from everything un-Christian. But what does +following Jesus mean? The test of discipleship is the same now as +then. Those of us who volunteer in this church to do as Jesus would +do, simply promise to walk in His steps as He gave us commandment." + +Again he paused, and now the result of his announcement was plainly +visible in the stir that went up over the congregation. He added in +a quiet voice that all who volunteered to make the pledge to do as +Jesus would do, were asked to remain after the morning service. + +Instantly he proceeded with his sermon. His text was, "Master, I +will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest." It was a sermon that +touched the deep springs of conduct; it was a revelation to the +people of the definition their pastor had been learning; it took +them back to the first century of Christianity; above all, it +stirred them below the conventional thought of years as to the +meaning and purpose of church membership. It was such a sermon as a +man can preach once in a lifetime, and with enough in it for people +to live on all through the rest of their lifetime. + +The service closed in a hush that was slowly broken. People rose +here and there, a few at a time. There was a reluctance in the +movements of some that was very striking. Rose, however, walked +straight out of the pew, and as she reached the aisle she turned her +head and beckoned to Felicia. By that time the congregation was +rising all over the church. "I am going to stay," she said, and Rose +had heard her speak in the same manner on other occasions, and knew +that her resolve could not be changed. Nevertheless she went back +into the pew two or three steps and faced her. + +"Felicia," she whispered, and there was a flush of anger on her +cheeks, "this is folly. What can you do? You will bring some +disgrace on the family. What will father say? Come!" + +Felicia looked at her but did not answer at once. Her lips were +moving with a petition that came from the depth of feeling that +measured a new life for her. She shocked her head. + +"No, I am going to stay. I shall take the pledge. I am ready to obey +it. You do not know why I am doing this." + +Rose gave her one look and then turned and went out of the pew, and +down the aisle. She did not even stop to talk with her +acquaintances. Mrs. Delano was going out of the church just as Rose +stepped into the vestibule. + +"So you are not going to join Dr. Bruce's volunteer company?" Mrs. +Delano asked, in a queer tone that made Rose redden. + +"No, are you? It is simply absurd. I have always regarded that +Raymond movement as fanatical. You know cousin Rachel keeps us +posted about it." + +"Yes, I understand it is resulting in a great deal of hardship in +many cases. For my part, I believe Dr. Bruce has simply provoked +disturbance here. It will result in splitting our church. You see if +it isn't so. There are scores of people in the church who are so +situated that they can't take such a pledge and keep it. I am one of +them," added Mrs. Delano as she went out with Rose. + +When Rose reached home, her father was standing in his usual +attitude before the open fireplace, smoking a cigar. + +"Where is Felicia?" he asked as Rose came in. + +"She stayed to an after-meeting," replied Rose shortly. She threw +off her wraps and was going upstairs when Mr. Sterling called after +her. + +"An after-meeting? What do you mean?" + +"Dr. Bruce asked the church to take the Raymond pledge." + +Mr. Sterling took his cigar out of his mouth and twirled it +nervously between his fingers. + +"I didn't expect that of Dr. Bruce. Did many of the members stay?" + +"I don't know. I didn't," replied Rose, and she went upstairs +leaving her father standing in the drawing-room. + +After a few moments he went to the window and stood there looking +out at the people driving on the boulevard. His cigar had gone out, +but he still fingered it nervously. Then he turned from the window +and walked up and down the room. A servant stepped across the hall +and announced dinner and he told her to wait for Felicia. Rose came +downstairs and went into the library. And still Mr. Sterling paced +the drawing-room restlessly. + +He had finally wearied of the walking apparently, and throwing +himself into a chair was brooding over something deeply when Felicia +came in. + +He rose and faced her. Felicia was evidently very much moved by the +meeting from which she had just come. At the same time she did not +wish to talk too much about it. Just as she entered the +drawing-room, Rose came in from the library. + +"How many stayed?" she asked. Rose was curious. At the same time she +was skeptical of the whole movement in Raymond. + +"About a hundred," replied Felicia gravely. Mr. Sterling looked +surprised. Felicia was going out of the room, but he called to her: +"Do you really mean to keep the pledge?" he asked. + +Felicia colored. Over her face and neck the warm blood flowed and +she answered, "You would not ask such a question, father, if you had +been at the meeting." She lingered a moment in the room, then asked +to be excused from dinner for a while and went up to see her mother. + +No one but they two ever knew what that interview between Felicia +and her mother was. It is certain that she must have told her mother +something of the spiritual power that had awed every person present +in the company of disciples who faced Dr. Bruce in that meeting +after the morning service. It is also certain that Felicia had never +before known such an experience, and would never have thought of +sharing it with her mother if it had not been for the prayer the +evening before. Another fact is also known of Felicia's experience +at this time. When she finally joined her father and Rose at the +table she seemed unable to tell them much about the meeting. There +was a reluctance to speak of it as one might hesitate to attempt a +description of a wonderful sunset to a person who never talked about +anything but the weather. + +When that Sunday in the Sterling mansion was drawing to a close and +the soft, warm lights throughout the dwelling were glowing through +the great windows, in a corner of her room, where the light was +obscure, Felicia kneeled, and when she raised her face and turned it +towards the light, it was the face of a woman who had already +defined for herself the greatest issues of earthly life. + +That same evening, after the Sunday evening service, Dr. Bruce was +talking over the events of the day with his wife. They were of one +heart and mind in the matter, and faced their new future with all +the faith and courage of new disciples. Neither was deceived as to +the probable results of the pledge to themselves or to the church. + +They had been talking but a little while when the bell rang and Dr. +Bruce going to the door exclaimed, as he opened it: "It is you, +Edward! Come in." + +There came into the hall a commanding figure. The Bishop was of +extraordinary height and breadth of shoulder, but of such good +proportions that there was no thought of ungainly or even of unusual +size. The impression the Bishop made on strangers was, first, that +of great health, and then of great affection. + +He came into the parlor and greeted Mrs. Bruce, who after a few +moments was called out of the room, leaving the two men together. +The Bishop sat in a deep, easy chair before the open fire. There was +just enough dampness in the early spring of the year to make an open +fire pleasant. + +"Calvin, you have taken a very serious step today," he finally said, +lifting his large dark eyes to his old college classmate's face. "I +heard of it this afternoon. I could not resist the desire to see you +about it tonight." + +"I'm glad you came." Dr. Bruce laid a hand on the Bishop's shoulder. +"You understand what this means, Edward?" + +"I think I do. Yes, I am sure." The Bishop spoke very slowly and +thoughtfully. He sat with his hands clasped together. Over his face, +marked with lines of consecration and service and the love of men, a +shadow crept, a shadow not caused by the firelight. Once more he +lifted his eyes toward his old friend. + +"Calvin, we have always understood each other. Ever since our paths +led us in different ways in church life we have walked together in +Christian fellowship--." + +"It is true," replied Dr. Bruce with an emotion he made no attempt +to conceal or subdue. "Thank God for it. I prize your fellowship +more than any other man's. I have always known what it meant, though +it has always been more than I deserve." + +The Bishop looked affectionately at his friend. But the shadow still +rested on his face. After a pause he spoke again: "The new +discipleship means a crisis for you in your work. If you keep this +pledge to do all things as Jesus would do--as I know you will--it +requires no prophet to predict some remarkable changes in your +parish." The Bishop looked wistfully at his friend and then +continued: "In fact, I do not see how a perfect upheaval of +Christianity, as we now know it, can be prevented if the ministers +and churches generally take the Raymond pledge and live it out." He +paused as if he were waiting for his friend to say something, to ask +some question. But Bruce did not know of the fire that was burning +in the Bishop's heart over the very question that Maxwell and +himself had fought out. + +"Now, in my church, for instance," continued the Bishop, "it would +be rather a difficult matter, I fear, to find very many people who +would take a pledge like that and live up to it. Martyrdom is a lost +art with us. Our Christianity loves its ease and comfort too well to +take up anything so rough and heavy as a cross. And yet what does +following Jesus mean? What is it to walk in His steps?" + +The Bishop was soliloquizing now and it is doubtful if he thought, +for the moment, of his friend's presence. For the first time there +flashed into Dr. Bruce's mind a suspicion of the truth. What if the +Bishop would throw the weight of his great influence on the side of +the Raymond movement? He had the following of the most aristocratic, +wealthy, fashionable people, not only in Chicago, but in several +large cities. What if the Bishop should join this new discipleship! + +The thought was about to be followed by the word. Dr. Bruce had +reached out his hand and with the familiarity of lifelong friendship +had placed it on the Bishop's shoulder and was about to ask a very +important question, when they were both startled by the violent +ringing of the bell. Mrs. Bruce had gone to the door and was talking +with some one in the hall. There was a loud exclamation and then, as +the Bishop rose and Bruce was stepping toward the curtain that hung +before the entrance to the parlor, Mrs. Bruce pushed it aside. Her +face was white and she was trembling. + +"O Calvin! Such terrible news! Mr. Sterling--oh, I cannot tell it! +What a blow to those girls!" "What is it?" Mr. Bruce advanced with +the Bishop into the hall and confronted the messenger, a servant +from the Sterlings. The man was without his hat and had evidently +run over with the news, as Dr. Bruce lived nearest of any intimate +friends of the family. + +"Mr. Sterling shot himself, sir, a few minutes ago. He killed +himself in his bed-room. Mrs. Sterling--" + +"I will go right over, Edward. Will you go with me? The Sterlings +are old friends of yours."' + +The Bishop was very pale, but calm as always. He looked his friend +in the face and answered: "Aye, Calvin, I will go with you not only +to this house of death, but also the whole way of human sin and +sorrow, please God." + + + + +Chapter Twenty-four + + +These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. + + +WHEN Dr. Bruce and the Bishop entered the Sterling mansion +everything in the usually well appointed household was in the +greatest confusion and terror. The great rooms downstairs were +empty, but overhead were hurried footsteps and confused noises. One +of the servants ran down the grand staircase with a look of horror +on her face just as the Bishop and Dr. Bruce were starting to go up. + +"Miss Felicia is with Mrs. Sterling," the servant stammered in +answer to a question, and then burst into a hysterical cry and ran +through the drawing-room and out of doors. + +At the top of the staircase the two men were met by Felicia. She +walked up to Dr. Bruce at once and put both hands in his. The Bishop +then laid his hand on her head and the three stood there a moment in +perfect silence. The Bishop had known Felicia since she was a little +child. He was the first to break the silence. + +"The God of all mercy be with you, Felicia, in this dark hour. Your +mother--" + +The Bishop hesitated. Out of the buried past he had, during his +hurried passage from his friend's to this house of death, +irresistibly drawn the one tender romance of his young manhood. Not +even Bruce knew that. But there had been a time when the Bishop had +offered the incense of a singularly undivided affection upon the +altar of his youth to the beautiful Camilla Rolfe, and she had +chosen between him and the millionaire. The Bishop carried no +bitterness with his memory; but it was still a memory. + +For answer to the Bishop's unfinished query, Felicia turned and went +back into her mother's room. She had not said a word yet, but both +men were struck with her wonderful calm. She returned to the hall +door and beckoned to them, and the two ministers, with a feeling +that they were about to behold something very unusual, entered. + +Rose lay with her arms outstretched upon the bed. Clara, the nurse, +sat with her head covered, sobbing in spasms of terror. And Mrs. +Sterling with "the light that never was on sea or land" luminous on +her face, lay there so still that even the Bishop was deceived at +first. Then, as the great truth broke upon him and Dr. Bruce, he +staggered, and the sharp agony of the old wound shot through him. It +passed, and left him standing there in that chamber of death with +the eternal calmness and strength that the children of God have a +right to possess. And right well he used that calmness and strength +in the days that followed. + +The next moment the house below was in a tumult. Almost at the same +time the doctor who had been sent for at once, but lived some +distance away, came in, together with police officers, who had been +summoned by frightened servants. With them were four or five +newspaper correspondents and several neighbors. Dr. Bruce and the +Bishop met this miscellaneous crowd at the head of the stairs and +succeeded in excluding all except those whose presence was +necessary. With these the two friends learned all the facts ever +known about the "Sterling tragedy," as the papers in their +sensational accounts next day called it. + +Mr. Sterling had gone into his room that evening about nine o'clock +and that was the last seen of him until, in half an hour, a shot was +heard in the room, and a servant who was in the hall ran into the +room and found him dead on the floor, killed by his own hand. +Felicia at the time was sitting by her mother. Rose was reading in +the library. She ran upstairs, saw her father as he was being lifted +upon the couch by the servants, and then ran screaming into her +mother's room, where she flung herself down at the foot of the bed +in a swoon. Mrs. Sterling had at first fainted at the shock, then +rallied with a wonderful swiftness and sent for Dr. Bruce. She had +then insisted on seeing her husband. In spite of Felicia's efforts, +she had compelled Clara to support her while she crossed the hall +and entered the room where her husband lay. She had looked upon him +with a tearless face, had gone back to her own room, was laid on her +bed, and as Dr. Bruce and the Bishop entered the house she, with a +prayer of forgiveness for herself and for her husband on her +quivering lips, had died, with Felicia bending over her and Rose +still lying senseless at her feet. + +So great and swift had been the entrance of grim Death into that +palace of luxury that Sunday night! But the full cause of his coming +was not learned until the facts in regard to Mr. Sterling's business +affairs were finally disclosed. + +Then it was learned that for some time he had been facing financial +ruin owing to certain speculations that had in a month's time swept +his supposed wealth into complete destruction. With the cunning and +desperation of a man who battles for his very life when he saw his +money, which was all the life he ever valued, slipping from him, he +had put off the evil day to the last moment. Sunday afternoon, +however, he had received news that proved to him beyond a doubt the +fact of his utter ruin. The very house that he called his, the +chairs in which he sat, his carriage, the dishes from which he ate, +had all been bought with money for which he himself had never really +done an honest stroke of pure labor. + +It had all rested on a tissue of deceit and speculation that had no +foundation in real values. He knew that fact better than any one +else, but he had hoped, with the hope such men always have, that the +same methods that brought him the money would also prevent the loss. +He had been deceived in this as many others have been. As soon as +the truth that he was practically a beggar had dawned upon him, he +saw no escape from suicide. It was the irresistible result of such a +life as he had lived. He had made money his god. As soon as that god +was gone out of his little world there was nothing more to worship; +and when a man's object of worship is gone he has no more to live +for. Thus died the great millionaire, Charles R. Sterling. And, +verily, he died as the fool dieth, for what is the gain or the loss +of money compared with the unsearchable riches of eternal life which +are beyond the reach of speculation, loss or change? + +Mrs. Sterling's death was the result of the shock. She had not been +taken into her husband's confidence for years, but she knew that the +source of his wealth was precarious. Her life for several years had +been a death in life. The Rolfes always gave an impression that they +could endure more disaster unmoved than any one else. Mrs. Sterling +illustrated the old family tradition when she was carried into the +room where her husband lay. But the feeble tenement could not hold +the spirit and it gave up the ghost, torn and weakened by long years +of suffering and disappointment. + +The effect of this triple blow, the death of father and mother, and +the loss of property, was instantly apparent in the sisters. The +horror of events stupefied Rose for weeks. She lay unmoved by +sympathy or any effort to rally. She did not seem yet to realize +that the money which had been so large a part of her very existence +was gone. Even when she was told that she and Felicia must leave the +house and be dependent on relatives and friends, she did not seem to +understand what it meant. + +Felicia, however, was fully conscious of the facts. She knew just +what had happened and why. She was talking over her future plans +with her cousin Rachel a few days after the funerals. Mrs. Winslow +and Rachel had left Raymond and come to Chicago at once as soon as +the terrible news had reached them, and with other friends of the +family were planning for the future of Rose and Felicia. + +"Felicia, you and Rose must come to Raymond with us. That is +settled. Mother will not hear to any other plan at present," Rachel +had said, while her beautiful face glowed with love for her cousin, +a love that had deepened day by day, and was intensified by the +knowledge that they both belonged to the new discipleship. + +"Unless I can find something to do here," answered Felicia. She +looked wistfully at Rachel, and Rachel said gently: + +"What could you do, dear?" + +"Nothing. I was never taught to do anything except a little music, +and I do not know enough about it to teach it or earn my living at +it. I have learned to cook a little," Felicia added with a slight +smile. + +"Then you can cook for us. Mother is always having trouble with her +kitchen," said Rachel, understanding well enough she was now +dependent for her very food and shelter upon the kindness of family +friends. It is true the girls received a little something out of the +wreck of their father's fortune, but with a speculator's mad folly +he had managed to involve both his wife's and his children's portion +in the common ruin. + +"Can I? Can I?" Felicia responded to Rachel's proposition as if it +were to be considered seriously. "I am ready to do anything +honorable to make my living and that of Rose. Poor Rose! She will +never be able to get over the shock of our trouble." + +"We will arrange the details when we get to Raymond," Rachel said, +smiling through her tears at Felicia's eager willingness to care for +herself. + +So in a few weeks Rose and Felicia found themselves a part of the +Winslow family in Raymond. It was a bitter experience for Rose, but +there was nothing else for her to do and she accepted the +inevitable, brooding over the great change in her life and in many +ways adding to the burden of Felicia and her cousin Rachel. + +Felicia at once found herself in an atmosphere of discipleship that +was like heaven to her in its revelation of companionship. It is +true that Mrs. Winslow was not in sympathy with the course that +Rachel was taking, but the remarkable events in Raymond since the +pledge was taken were too powerful in their results not to impress +even such a woman as Mrs. Winslow. With Rachel, Felicia found a +perfect fellowship. She at once found a part to take in the new work +at the Rectangle. In the spirit of her new life she insisted upon +helping in the housework at her aunt's, and in a short time +demonstrated her ability as a cook so clearly that Virginia +suggested that she take charge of the cooking at the Rectangle. + +Felicia entered upon this work with the keenest pleasure. For the +first time in her life she had the delight of doing something of +value for the happiness of others. Her resolve to do everything +after asking, "What would Jesus do?" touched her deepest nature. She +began to develop and strengthen wonderfully. Even Mrs. Winslow was +obliged to acknowledge the great usefulness and beauty of Felicia's +character. The aunt looked with astonishment upon her niece, this +city-bred girl, reared in the greatest luxury, the daughter of a +millionaire, now walking around in her kitchen, her arms covered +with flour and occasionally a streak of it on her nose, for Felicia +at first had a habit of rubbing her nose forgetfully when she was +trying to remember some recipe, mixing various dishes with the +greatest interest in their results, washing up pans and kettles and +doing the ordinary work of a servant in the Winslow kitchen and at +the rooms at the Rectangle Settlement. At first Mrs. Winslow +remonstrated. + +"Felicia, it is not your place to be out here doing this common +work. I cannot allow it." + +"Why, Aunt? Don't you like the muffins I made this morning?" Felicia +would ask meekly, but with a hidden smile, knowing her aunt's +weakness for that kind of muffin. + +"They were beautiful, Felicia. But it does not seem right for you to +be doing such work for us." + +"Why not? What else can I do?" + +Her aunt looked at her thoughtfully, noting her remarkable beauty of +face and expression. + +"You do not always intend to do this kind of work, Felicia?" + +"Maybe I shall. I have had a dream of opening an ideal cook shop in +Chicago or some large city and going around to the poor families in +some slum district like the Rectangle, teaching the mothers how to +prepare food properly. I remember hearing Dr. Bruce say once that he +believed one of the great miseries of comparative poverty consisted +in poor food. He even went so far as to say that he thought some +kinds of crime could be traced to soggy biscuit and tough beefsteak. +I'm sure I would be able to make a living for Rose and myself and at +the same time help others." + + + + +Chapter Twenty-five + + +THREE months had gone by since the Sunday morning when Dr. Bruce +came into his pulpit with the message of the new discipleship. They +were three months of great excitement in Nazareth Avenue Church. +Never before had Rev. Calvin Bruce realized how deep the feeling of +his members flowed. He humbly confessed that the appeal he had made +met with an unexpected response from men and women who, like +Felicia, were hungry for something in their lives that the +conventional type of church membership and fellowship had failed to +give them. + +But Dr. Bruce was not yet satisfied for himself. He cannot tell what +his feeling was or what led to the movement he finally made, to the +great astonishment of all who knew him, better than by relating a +conversation between him and the Bishop at this time in the history +of the pledge in Nazareth Avenue Church. The two friends were as +before in Dr. Bruce's house, seated in his study. + +"You know what I have come in this evening for?" the Bishop was +saying after the friends had been talking some time about the +results of the pledge with the Nazareth Avenue people. + +Dr. Bruce looked over at the Bishop and shook his head. + +"I have come to confess that I have not yet kept my promise to walk +in His steps in the way that I believe I shall be obliged to if I +satisfy my thought of what it means to walk in His steps." + +Dr. Bruce had risen and was pacing his study. The Bishop remained in +the deep easy chair with his hands clasped, but his eye burned with +the blow that belonged to him before he made some great resolve. + +"Edward," Dr. Bruce spoke abruptly, "I have not yet been able to +satisfy myself, either, in obeying my promise. But I have at last +decided on my course. In order to follow it I shall be obliged to +resign from Nazareth Avenue Church." + +"I knew you would," replied the Bishop quietly. "And I came in this +evening to say that I shall be obliged to do the same thing with my +charge." + +Dr. Bruce turned and walked up to his friend. They were both +laboring under a repressed excitement. + +"Is it necessary in your case?" asked Bruce. + +"Yes. Let me state my reasons. Probably they are the same as yours. +In fact, I am sure they are." The Bishop paused a moment, then went +on with increasing feeling: + +"Calvin, you know how many years I have been doing the work of my +position, and you know something of the responsibility and care of +it. I do not mean to say that my life has been free from +burden-bearing or sorrow. But I have certainly led what the poor and +desperate of this sinful city would call a very comfortable, yes, a +very luxurious life. I have had a beautiful house to live in, the +most expensive food, clothing and physical pleasures. I have been +able to go abroad at least a dozen times, and have enjoyed for years +the beautiful companionship of art and letters and music and all the +rest, of the very best. I have never known what it meant to be +without money or its equivalent. And I have been unable to silence +the question of late: 'What have I suffered for the sake of Christ?' +Paul was told what great things he must suffer for the sake of his +Lord. Maxwell's position at Raymond is well taken when he insists +that to walk in the steps of Christ means to suffer. Where has my +suffering come in? The petty trials and annoyances of my clerical +life are not worth mentioning as sorrows or sufferings. Compared +with Paul or any of the Christian martyrs or early disciples I have +lived a luxurious, sinful life, full of ease and pleasure. I cannot +endure this any longer. I have that within me which of late rises in +overwhelming condemnation of such a following of Jesus. I have not +been walking in His steps. Under the present system of church and +social life I see no escape from this condemnation except to give +the most of my life personally to the actual physical and soul needs +of the wretched people in the worst part of this city." + +The Bishop had risen now and walked over to the window. The street +in front of the house was as light as day, and he looked out at the +crowds passing, then turned and with a passionate utterance that +showed how deep the volcanic fire in him burned, he exclaimed: + +"Calvin, this is a terrible city in which we live! Its misery, its +sin, its selfishness, appall my heart. And I have struggled for +years with the sickening dread of the time when I should be forced +to leave the pleasant luxury of my official position to put my life +into contact with the modern paganism of this century. The awful +condition of the girls in some great business places, the brutal +selfishness of the insolent society fashion and wealth that ignores +all the sorrow of the city, the fearful curse of the drink and +gambling hell, the wail of the unemployed, the hatred of the church +by countless men who see in it only great piles of costly stone and +upholstered furniture and the minister as a luxurious idler, all the +vast tumult of this vast torrent of humanity with its false and its +true ideas, its exaggeration of evils in the church and its +bitterness and shame that are the result of many complex causes, all +this as a total fact in its contrast with the easy, comfortable life +I have lived, fills me more and more with a sense of mingled terror +and self accusation. I have heard the words of Jesus many times +lately: 'Inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of these least My +brethren, ye did it not unto Me.' And when have I personally visited +the prisoner or the desperate or the sinful in any way that has +actually caused me suffering? Rather, I have followed the +conventional soft habits of my position and have lived in the +society of the rich, refined, aristocratic members of my +congregations. Where has the suffering come in? What have I suffered +for Jesus' sake? Do you know, Calvin," he turned abruptly toward his +friend, "I have been tempted of late to lash myself with a scourge. +If I had lived in Martin Luther's time I should have bared my back +to a self-inflicted torture." + +Dr. Bruce was very pale. Never had he seen the Bishop or heard him +when under the influence of such a passion. There was a sudden +silence in the room. The Bishop sat down again and bowed his head. + +Dr. Bruce spoke at last: "Edward, I do not need to say that you have +expressed my feelings also. I have been in a similar position for +years. My life has been one of comparative luxury. I do not, of +course, mean to say that I have not had trials and discouragements +and burdens in my church ministry. But I cannot say that I have +suffered any for Jesus. That verse in Peter constantly haunts me: +'Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that ye should +follow His steps.' I have lived in luxury. I do not know what it +means to want. I also have had my leisure for travel and beautiful +companionship. I have been surrounded by the soft, easy comforts of +civilization. The sin and misery of this great city have beaten like +waves against the stone walls of my church and of this house in +which I live, and I have hardly heeded them, the walls have been so +thick. I have reached a point where I cannot endure this any longer. +I am not condemning the Church. I love her. I am not forsaking the +Church. I believe in her mission and have no desire to destroy. +Least of all, in the step I am about to take do I desire to be +charged with abandoning the Christian fellowship. But I feel that I +must resign my place as pastor of Nazareth Church in order to +satisfy myself that I am walking as I ought to walk in His steps. In +this action I judge no other minister and pass no criticism on +others' discipleship. But I feel as you do. Into a close contact +with the sin and shame and degradation of this great city I must +come personally. And I know that to do that I must sever my +immediate connection with Nazareth Avenue Church. I do not see any +other way for myself to suffer for His sake as I feel that I ought +to suffer." + +Again that sudden silence fell over those two men. It was no +ordinary action they were deciding. They had both reached the same +conclusion by the same reasoning, and they were too thoughtful, too +well accustomed to the measuring of conduct, to underestimate the +seriousness of their position. + +"What is your plan?" The Bishop at last spoke gently, looking with +the smile that always beautified his face. The Bishop's face grew in +glory now every day. + +"My plan," replied Dr. Bruce slowly, "is, in brief, the putting of +myself into the centre of the greatest human need I can find in this +city and living there. My wife is fully in accord with me. We have +already decided to find a residence in that part of the city where +we can make our personal lives count for the most." + +"Let me suggest a place." The Bishop was on fire now. His fine face +actually glowed with the enthusiasm of the movement in which he and +his friend were inevitably embarked. He went on and unfolded a plan +of such far-reaching power and possibility that Dr. Bruce, capable +and experienced as he was, felt amazed at the vision of a greater +soul than his own. + +They sat up late, and were as eager and even glad as if they were +planning for a trip together to some rare land of unexplored travel. +Indeed, the Bishop said many times afterward that the moment his +decision was reached to live the life of personal sacrifice he had +chosen he suddenly felt an uplifting as if a great burden were taken +from him. He was exultant. So was Dr. Bruce from the same cause. + +Their plan as it finally grew into a workable fact was in reality +nothing more than the renting of a large building formerly used as a +warehouse for a brewery, reconstructing it and living in it +themselves in the very heart of a territory where the saloon ruled +with power, where the tenement was its filthiest, where vice and +ignorance and shame and poverty were congested into hideous forms. +It was not a new idea. It was an idea started by Jesus Christ when +He left His Father's House and forsook the riches that were His in +order to get nearer humanity and, by becoming a part of its sin, +helping to draw humanity apart from its sin. The University +Settlement idea is not modern. It is as old as Bethlehem and +Nazareth. And in this particular case it was the nearest approach to +anything that would satisfy the hunger of these two men to suffer +for Christ. + +There had sprung up in them at the same time a longing that amounted +to a passion, to get nearer the great physical poverty and spiritual +destitution of the mighty city that throbbed around them. How could +they do this except as they became a part of it as nearly as one man +can become a part of another's misery? Where was the suffering to +come in unless there was an actual self-denial of some sort? And +what was to make that self-denial apparent to themselves or any one +else, unless it took this concrete, actual, personal form of trying +to share the deepest suffering and sin of the city? + +So they reasoned for themselves, not judging others. They were +simply keeping their own pledge to do as Jesus would do, as they +honestly judged He would do. That was what they had promised. How +could they quarrel with the result if they were irresistibly +compelled to do what they were planning to do? + + + + +Chapter Twenty-six + + +MEANWHILE, Nazareth Avenue Church was experiencing something never +known before in all its history. The simple appeal on the part of +its pastor to his members to do as Jesus would do had created a +sensation that still continued. The result of that appeal was very +much the same as in Henry Maxwell's church in Raymond, only this +church was far more aristocratic, wealthy and conventional. +Nevertheless when, one Sunday morning in early summer, Dr. Bruce +came into his pulpit and announced his resignation, the sensation +deepened all over the city, although he had advised with his board +of trustees, and the movement he intended was not a matter of +surprise to them. But when it become publicly known that the Bishop +had also announced his resignation and retirement from the position +he had held so long, in order to go and live himself in the centre +of the worst part of Chicago, the public astonishment reached its +height. + +"But why?" the Bishop replied to one valued friend who had almost +with tears tried to dissuade him from his purpose. "Why should what +Dr. Bruce and I propose to do seem so remarkable a thing, as if it +were unheard of that a Doctor of Divinity and a Bishop should want +to save lost souls in this particular manner? If we were to resign +our charge for the purpose of going to Bombay or Hong Kong or any +place in Africa, the churches and the people would exclaim at the +heroism of missions. Why should it seem so great a thing if we have +been led to give our lives to help rescue the heathen and the lost +of our own city in the way we are going to try it? Is it then such a +tremendous event that two Christian ministers should be not only +willing but eager to live close to the misery of the world in order +to know it and realize it? Is it such a rare thing that love of +humanity should find this particular form of expression in the +rescue of souls?" + +And however the Bishop may have satisfied himself that there ought +to be nothing so remarkable about it at all, the public continued to +talk and the churches to record their astonishment that two such +men, so prominent in the ministry, should leave their comfortable +homes, voluntarily resign their pleasant social positions and enter +upon a life of hardship, of self-denial and actual suffering. +Christian America! Is it a reproach on the form of our discipleship +that the exhibition of actual suffering for Jesus on the part of +those who walk in His steps always provokes astonishment as at the +sight of something very unusual? + +Nazareth Avenue Church parted from its pastor with regret for the +most part, although the regret was modified with a feeling of relief +on the part of those who had refused to take the pledge. Dr. Bruce +carried with him the respect of men who, entangled in business in +such a way that obedience to the pledge would have ruined them, +still held in their deeper, better natures a genuine admiration for +courage and consistency. They had known Dr. Bruce many years as a +kindly, conservative, safe man, but the thought of him in the light +of sacrifice of this sort was not familiar to them. As fast as they +understood it, they gave their pastor the credit of being absolutely +true to his recent convictions as to what following Jesus meant. +Nazareth Avenue Church never lost the impulse of that movement +started by Dr. Bruce. Those who went with him in making the promise +breathed into the church the very breath of divine life, and are +continuing that life-giving work at this present time. + + * * * * * + +It was fall again, and the city faced another hard winter. The +Bishop one afternoon came out of the Settlement and walked around +the block, intending to go on a visit to one of his new friends in +the district. He had walked about four blocks when he was attracted +by a shop that looked different from the others. The neighborhood +was still quite new to him, and every day he discovered some strange +spot or stumbled upon some unexpected humanity. + +The place that attracted his notice was a small house close by a +Chinese laundry. There were two windows in the front, very clean, +and that was remarkable to begin with. Then, inside the window, was +a tempting display of cookery, with prices attached to the various +articles that made him wonder somewhat, for he was familiar by this +time with many facts in the life of the people once unknown to him. +As he stood looking at the windows, the door between them opened and +Felicia Sterling came out. + +"Felicia!" exclaimed the Bishop. "When did you move into my parish +without my knowledge?" + +"How did you find me so soon?" inquired Felicia. + +"Why, don't you know? These are the only clean windows in the +block." + +"I believe they are," replied Felicia with a laugh that did the +Bishop good to hear. + +"But why have you dared to come to Chicago without telling me, and +how have you entered my diocese without my knowledge?" asked the +Bishop. And Felicia looked so like that beautiful, clean, educated, +refined world he once knew, that he might be pardoned for seeing in +her something of the old Paradise. Although, to speak truth for him, +he had no desire to go back to it. + +"Well, dear Bishop," said Felicia, who had always called him so, "I +knew how overwhelmed you were with your work. I did not want to +burden you with my plans. And besides, I am going to offer you my +services. Indeed, I was just on my way to see you and ask your +advice. I am settled here for the present with Mrs. Bascom, a +saleswoman who rents our three rooms, and with one of Rachel's music +pupils who is being helped to a course in violin by Virginia Page. +She is from the people," continued Felicia, using the words "from +the people" so gravely and unconsciously that her hearer smiled, +"and I am keeping house for her and at the same time beginning an +experiment in pure food for the masses. I am an expert and I have a +plan I want you to admire and develop. Will you, dear Bishop?" + +"Indeed I will," he replied. The sight of Felicia and her remarkable +vitality, enthusiasm and evident purpose almost bewildered him. + +"Martha can help at the Settlement with her violin and I will help +with my messes. You see, I thought I would get settled first and +work out something, and then come with some real thing to offer. I'm +able to earn my own living now." + +"You are?" the Bishop said a little incredulously. "How? Making +those things?" + +"Those things!" said Felicia with a show of indignation. "I would +have you know, sir, that 'those things' are the best-cooked, purest +food products in this whole city." + +"I don't doubt it," he replied hastily, while his eyes twinkled, +"Still, 'the proof of the pudding'--you know the rest." + +"Come in and try some!" she exclaimed. "You poor Bishop! You look as +if you hadn't had a good meal for a month." + +She insisted on his entering the little front room where Martha, a +wide-awake girl with short, curly hair, and an unmistakable air of +music about her, was busy with practice. + +"Go right on, Martha. This is the Bishop. You have heard me speak of +him so often. Sit down there and let me give you a taste of the +fleshpots of Egypt, for I believe you have been actually fasting." + +So they had an improvised lunch, and the Bishop who, to tell the +truth, had not taken time for weeks to enjoy his meals, feasted on +the delight of his unexpected discovery and was able to express his +astonishment and gratification at the quality of the cookery. + +"I thought you would at least say it is as good as the meals you +used to get at the Auditorium at the big banquets," said Felicia +slyly. + +"As good as! The Auditorium banquets were simply husks compared with +this one, Felicia. But you must come to the Settlement. I want you +to see what we are doing. And I am simply astonished to find you +here earning your living this way. I begin to see what your plan is. +You can be of infinite help to us. You don't really mean that you +will live here and help these people to know the value of good +food?" + +"Indeed I do," she answered gravely. "That is my gospel. Shall I not +follow it?" + +"Aye, Aye! You're right. Bless God for sense like yours! When I left +the world," the Bishop smiled at the phrase, "they were talking a +good deal about the 'new woman.' If you are one of them, I am a +convert right now and here." + +"Flattery! Still is there no escape from it, even in the slums of +Chicago?" Felicia laughed again. And the man's heart, heavy though +it had grown during several months of vast sin-bearing, rejoiced to +hear it! It sounded good. It was good. It belonged to God. + +Felicia wanted to visit the Settlement, and went back with him. She +was amazed at the results of what considerable money an a good deal +of consecrated brains had done. As they walked through the building +they talked incessantly. She was the incarnation of vital +enthusiasm, and he wondered at the exhibition of it as it bubbled up +and sparkled over. + +They went down into the basement and the Bishop pushed open a door +from behind which came the sound of a carpenter's plane. It was a +small but well equipped carpenter's shop. A young man with a paper +cap on his head and clad in blouse and overalls was whistling and +driving the plane as he whistled. He looked up as the two entered, +and took off his cap. As he did so, his little finger carried a +small curling shaving up to his hair and it caught there. + +"Miss Sterling, Mr. Stephen Clyde," said the Bishop. "Clyde is one +of our helpers here two afternoons in the week." + +Just then the bishop was called upstairs and he excused himself a +moment, leaving Felicia and the young carpenter together. + +"We have met before," said Felicia looking at Clyde frankly. + +"Yes, 'back in the world,' as the Bishop says," replied the young +man, and his fingers trembled a little as they lay on the board he +had been planing. + +"Yes." Felicia hesitated. "I am very glad to see you." + +"Are you?" The flush of pleasure mounted to the young carpenter's +forehead. "You have had a great deal of trouble since--since--then," +he said, and then he was afraid he had wounded her, or called up +painful memories. But she had lived over all that. + +"Yes, and you also. How is it that you're working here?" + +"It is a long story, Miss Sterling. My father lost his money and I +was obliged to go to work. A very good thing for me. The Bishop says +I ought to be very grateful. I am. I am very happy now. I learned +the trade, hoping some time to be of use, I am night clerk at one of +the hotels. That Sunday morning when you took the pledge at Nazareth +Avenue Church, I took it with the others." + +"Did you?" said Felicia slowly. "I am glad." + +Just then the Bishop came back, and very soon he and Felicia went +away leaving the young carpenter at his work. Some one noticed that +he whistled louder than ever as he planed. + +"Felicia," said the Bishop, "did you know Stephen Clyde before?" + +"Yes, 'back in the world,' dear Bishop. He was one of my +acquaintances in Nazareth Avenue Church." + +"Ah!" said the Bishop. + +"We were very good friends," added Felicia. + +"But nothing more?" the Bishop ventured to ask. + +Felicia's face glowed for an instant. Then she looked her companion +in the eyes frankly and answered: "Truly and truly, nothing more." + +"It would be just the way of the world for these two people to come +to like each other, though," thought the man to himself, and somehow +the thought made him grave. It was almost like the old pang over +Camilla. But it passed, leaving him afterwards, when Felicia had +gone back, with tears in his eyes and a feeling that was almost hope +that Felicia and Stephen would like each other. "After all," he +said, like the sensible, good man that he was, "is not romance a +part of humanity? Love is older than I am, and wiser." + +The week following, the Bishop had an experience that belongs to +this part of the Settlement history. He was coming back to the +Settlement very late from some gathering of the striking tailors, +and was walking along with his hands behind him, when two men jumped +out from behind an old fence that shut off an abandoned factory from +the street, and faced him. One of the men thrust a pistol in his +face, and the other threatened him with a ragged stake that had +evidently been torn from the fence. + +"Hold up your hands, and be quick about it!" said the man with the +pistol. + + + + +Chapter Twenty-seven + + +"Righteousness shall go before him and shall set us in the way of +his steps." + + +THE Bishop was not in the habit of carrying much money with him, and +the man with the stake who was searching him uttered an oath at the +small amount of change he found. As he uttered it, the man with the +pistol savagely said, "Jerk out his watch! We might as well get all +we can out of the job!" + +The man with the stake was on the point of laying hold of the chain +where there was a sound of footsteps coming towards him. + +"Get behind the fence! We haven't half searched him yet! Mind you +keep shut now, if you don't want--" + +The man with the pistol made a significant gesture with it and, with +his companion, pulled and pushed the Bishop down the alley and +through a ragged, broken opening in the fence. The three stood still +there in the shadow until the footsteps passed. + +"Now, then, have you got the watch?" asked the man with the pistol. + +"No, the chain is caught somewhere!" and the other man swore again. + +"Break it then!" + +"No, don't break it," the Bishop said, and it was the first time he +had spoken. "The chain is the gift of a very dear friend. I should +be sorry to have it broken." + +At the sound of the Bishop's voice the man with the pistol started +as if he had been suddenly shot by his own weapon. With a quick +movement of his other hand he turned the Bishop's head toward's what +little light was shining from the alleyway, at the same time taking +a step nearer. Then, to the amazement of his companion, he said +roughly: "Leave the watch alone! We've got the money. That's +enough!" + +"Enough! Fifty cents! You don't reckon--" + +Before the man with the stake could say another word he was +confronted with the muzzle of the pistol turned from the Bishop's +head towards his own. + +"Leave that watch be! And put back the money too. This is the Bishop +we've held up--the Bishop--do you hear?" + +"And what of it! The President of the United States wouldn't be too +good to hold up, if--" + +"I say, you put the money back, or in five seconds I'll blow a hole +through your head that'll let in more sense than you have to spare +now!" said the other. + +For a second the man with the stake seemed to hesitate at this +strange turn in events, as if measuring his companion's intention. +Then he hastily dropped the money back into the rifled pocket. + +"You can take your hands down, sir." The man lowered his weapon +slowly, still keeping an eye on the other man, and speaking with +rough respect. The Bishop slowly brought his arms to his side, and +looked earnestly at the two men. In the dim light it was difficult +to distinguish features. He was evidently free to go his way now, +but he stood there making no movement. + +"You can go on. You needn't stay any longer on our account." The man +who had acted as spokesman turned and sat down on a stone. The other +man stood viciously digging his stake into the ground. + +"That's just what I am staying for," replied the Bishop. He sat down +on a board that projected from the broken fence. + +"You must like our company. It is hard sometimes for people to tear +themselves away from us," and the man standing up laughed coarsely. + +"Shut up!" exclaimed the other. "We're on the road to hell, though, +that's sure enough. We need better company than ourselves and the +devil." + +"If you would only allow me to be of any help," the Bishop spoke +gently, even lovingly. The man on the stone stared at the Bishop +through the darkness. After a moment of silence he spoke slowly like +one who had finally decided upon a course he had at first rejected. + +"Do you remember ever seeing me before?" + +"No," said the Bishop. "The light is not very good and I have really +not had a good look at you." + +"Do you know me now?" The man suddenly took off his hat and getting +up from the stone walked over to the Bishop until they were near +enough to touch each other. + +The man's hair was coal black except one spot on the top of his head +about as large as the palm of the hand, which was white. + +The minute the Bishop saw that, he started. The memory of fifteen +years ago began to stir in him. The man helped him. + +"Don't you remember one day back in '81 or '82 a man came to your +house and told a story about his wife and child having been burned +to death in a tenement fire in New York?" + +"Yes, I begin to remember now." The other man seemed to be +interested. He ceased digging his stake in the ground and stood +still listening. + +"Do you remember how you took me into your own house that night and +spent all next day trying to find me a job? And how when you +succeeded in getting me a place in a warehouse as foreman, I +promised to quit drinking because you asked me to?" + +"I remember it now. I hope you have kept your promise." + +The man laughed savagely. Then he struck his hand against the fence +with such sudden passion that he drew blood. + +"Kept it! I was drunk inside of a week! I've been drinking ever +since. But I've never forgotten you nor your prayer. Do you remember +the morning after I came to your house, after breakfast you had +prayers and asked me to come in and sit with the rest? That got me! +But my mother used to pray! I can see her now kneeling down by my +bed when I was a lad. Father came in one night and kicked her while +she was kneeling there by me. But I never forgot that prayer of +yours that morning. You prayed for me just as mother used to, and +you didn't seem to take 'count of the fact that I was ragged and +tough-looking and more than half drunk when I rang your door bell. +Oh, what a life I've lived! The saloon has housed me and homed me +and made hell on earth for me. But that prayer stuck to me all the +time. My promise not to drink was broken into a thousand pieces +inside of two Sundays, and I lost the job you found for me and +landed in a police station two days later, but I never forgot you +nor your prayer. I don't know what good it has done me, but I never +forgot it. And I won't do any harm to you nor let any one else. So +you're free to go. That's why." + +The Bishop did not stir. Somewhere a church clock struck one. The +man had put on his hat and gone back to his seat on the stone. The +Bishop was thinking hard. + +"How long is it since you had work?" he asked, and the man standing +up answered for the other. + +"More'n six months since either of us did anything to tell of; +unless you count 'holding up' work. I call it pretty wearing kind of +a job myself, especially when we put in a night like this and don't +make nothin'." + +"Suppose I found good jobs for both of you? Would you quit this and +begin all over?" + +"What's the use?" the man on the stone spoke sullenly. "I've +reformed a hundred times. Every time I go down deeper. The devil's +begun to foreclose on me already. It's too late." + +"No!" said the Bishop. And never before the most entranced audience +had he felt the desire for souls burn up in him so strongly. All the +time he sat there during the remarkable scene he prayed, "O Lord +Jesus, give me the souls of these two for Thee! I am hungry for +them. Give them to me!" + +"No!" the Bishop repeated. "What does God want of you two men? It +doesn't so much matter what I want. But He wants just what I do in +this case. You two men are of infinite value to Him." And then his +wonderful memory came to his aid in an appeal such as no one on +earth among men could make under such circumstances. He had +remembered the man's name in spite of the wonderfully busy years +that lay between his coming to the house and the present moment. + +"Burns," he said, and he yearned over the men with an unspeakable +longing for them both, "if you and your friend here will go home +with me tonight I will find you both places of honorable employment. +I will believe in you and trust you. You are both comparatively +young men. Why should God lose you? It is a great thing to win the +love of the Great Father. It is a small thing that I should love +you. But if you need to feel again that there is love in the world, +you will believe me when I say, my brothers, that I love you, and in +the name of Him who was crucified for our sins I cannot bear to see +you miss the glory of the human life. Come, be men! Make another try +for it, God helping you. No one but God and you and myself need ever +know anything of this tonight. He has forgiven it the minute you ask +Him to. You will find that true. Come! We'll fight it out together, +you two and I. It's worth fighting for, everlasting life is. It was +the sinner that Christ came to help. I'll do what I can for you. O +God, give me the souls of these two men!" and he broke into a prayer +to God that was a continuation of his appeal to the men. His pent-up +feeling had no other outlet. Before he had prayed many moments Burns +was sitting with his face buried in his hands, sobbing. Where were +his mother's prayers now? They were adding to the power of the +Bishop's. And the other man, harder, less moved, without a previous +knowledge of the Bishop, leaned back against the fence, stolid at +first. But as the prayer went on, he was moved by it. What force of +the Holy Spirit swept over his dulled, brutal, coarsened life, +nothing but the eternal records of the recording angel can ever +disclose. But the same supernatural Presence that smote Paul on the +road to Damascus, and poured through Henry Maxwell's church the +morning he asked disciples to follow in Jesus' steps, and had again +broken irresistibly over the Nazareth Avenue congregation, now +manifested Himself in this foul corner of the mighty city and over +the natures of these two sinful sunken men, apparently lost to all +the pleadings of conscience and memory and God. The prayer seemed to +red open the crust that for years had surrounded them and shut them +off from divine communication. And they themselves were thoroughly +startled by it. + +The Bishop ceased, and at first he himself did not realize what had +happened. Neither did they. Burns still sat with his head bowed +between his knees. The man leaning against the fence looked at the +Bishop with a face in which new emotions of awe, repentance, +astonishment and a broken gleam of joy struggled for expression. The +Bishop rose. + +"Come, my brothers. God is good. You shall stay at the Settlement +tonight, and I will make good my promise as to the work." + +The two men followed him in silence. When they reached the +Settlement it was after two o'clock. He let them in and led them to +a room. At the door he paused a moment. His tall, commanding figure +stood in the doorway and his pale face was illuminated with the +divine glory. + +"God bless you, my brothers!" he said, and leaving them his +benediction he went away. + + + + +Chapter Twenty-eight + + +IT WAS the afternoon of that morning when Burns was installed in his +new position as assistant janitor that he was cleaning off the front +steps of the Settlement, when he paused a moment and stood up to +look about him. The first thing he noticed was a beer sign just +across the alley. He could almost touch it with his broom from where +he stood. Over the street immediately opposite were two large +saloons, and a little farther down were three more. + +Suddenly the door of the nearest saloon opened and a man came out. +At the same time two more went in. A strong odor of beer floated up +to Burns as he stood on the steps. He clutched his broom handle +tightly and began to sweep again. He had one foot on the porch and +another on the steps just below. He took another step down, still +sweeping. The sweat stood on his forehead although the day was +frosty and the air chill. The saloon door opened again and three or +four men came out. A child went in with a pail, and came out a +moment later with a quart of beer. The child went by on the sidewalk +just below him, and the odor of the beer came up to him. He took +another step down, still sweeping desperately. His fingers were +purple as he clutched the handle of the broom. + +Then suddenly he pulled himself up one step and swept over the spot +he had just cleaned. He then dragged himself by a tremendous effort +back to the floor of the porch and went over into the corner of it +farthest from the saloon and began to sweep there. "O God!" he +cried, "if the Bishop would only come back!" The Bishop had gone out +with Dr. Bruce somewhere, and there was no one about that he knew. +He swept in the corner for two or three minutes. His face was drawn +with the agony of his conflict. Gradually he edged out again towards +the steps and began to go down them. He looked towards the sidewalk +and saw that he had left one step unswept. The sight seemed to give +him a reasonable excuse for going down there to finish his sweeping. + +He was on the sidewalk now, sweeping the last step, with his face +towards the Settlement and his back turned partly on the saloon +across the alley. He swept the step a dozen times. The sweat rolled +over his face and dropped down at his feet. By degrees he felt that +he was drawn over towards that end of the step nearest the saloon. +He could smell the beer and rum now as the fumes rose around him. It +was like the infernal sulphur of the lowest hell, and yet it dragged +him as by a giant's hand nearer its source. + +He was down in the middle of the sidewalk now, still sweeping. He +cleared the space in front of the Settlement and even went out into +the gutter and swept that. He took off his hat and rubbed his sleeve +over his face. His lips were pallid and his teeth chattered. He +trembled all over like a palsied man and staggered back and forth as +if he was already drunk. His soul shook within him. + +He had crossed over the little piece of stone flagging that measured +the width of the alley, and now he stood in front of the saloon, +looking at the sign, and staring into the window at the pile of +whiskey and beer bottles arranged in a great pyramid inside. He +moistened his lips with his tongue and took a step forward, looking +around him stealthily. The door suddenly opened again and someone +came out. Again the hot, penetrating smell of liquor swept out into +the cold air, and he took another step towards the saloon door which +had shut behind the customer. As he laid his fingers on the door +handle, a tall figure came around the corner. It was the Bishop. + +He seized Burns by the arm and dragged him back upon the sidewalk. +The frenzied man, now mad for a drink, shrieked out a curse and +struck at his friend savagely. It is doubtful if he really knew at +first who was snatching him away from his ruin. The blow fell upon +the Bishop's face and cut a gash in his cheek. He never uttered a +word. But over his face a look of majestic sorrow swept. He picked +Burns up as if he had been a child and actually carried him up the +steps and into the house. He put him down in the hall and then shut +the door and put his back against it. + +Burns fell on his knees sobbing and praying. The Bishop stood there +panting with his exertion, although Burns was a slightly-built man +and had not been a great weight for a man of his strength to carry. +He was moved with unspeakable pity. + +"Pray, Burns--pray as you never prayed before! Nothing else will +save you!" + +"O God! Pray with me. Save me! Oh, save me from my hell!" cried +Burns. And, the Bishop knelt by him in the hall and prayed as only +he could pray. + +After that they rose and Burns went to his room. He came out of it +that evening like a humble child. And the Bishop went his way older +from that experience, bearing on his body the marks of the Lord +Jesus. Truly he was learning something of what it means to walk in +His steps. + +But the saloon! It stood there, and all the others lined the street +like so many traps set for Burns. How long would the man be able to +resist the smell of the damnable stuff? The Bishop went out on the +porch. The air of the whole city seemed to be impregnated with the +odor of beer. "How long, O Lord, how long?" he prayed. Dr. Bruce +came out, and the two friends talked about Burns and his temptation. + +"Did you ever make any inquiries about the ownership of this +property adjoining us?" the Bishop asked. + +"No, I haven't taken time for it. I will now if you think it would +be worth while. But what can we do, Edward, against the saloon in +this great city? It is as firmly established as the churches or +politics. What power can ever remove it?" + +"God will do it in time, as He has removed slavery," was the grave +reply. "Meanwhile I think we have a right to know who controls this +saloon so near the Settlement." + +"I'll find out," said Dr. Bruce. + +Two days later he walked into the business office of one of the +members of Nazareth Avenue Church and asked to see him a few +moments. He was cordially received by his old parishioner, who +welcomed him into his room and urged him to take all the time he +wanted. + +"I called to see you about that property next the Settlement where +the Bishop and myself now are, you know. I am going to speak +plainly, because life is too short and too serious for us both to +have any foolish hesitation about this matter. Clayton, do you think +it is right to rent that property for a saloon?" + +Dr. Bruce's question was as direct and uncompromising as he had +meant it to be. The effect of it on his old parishioner was +instantaneous. + +The hot blood mounted to the face of the man who sat there beneath a +picture of business activity in a great city. Then he grew pale, +dropped his head on his hands, and when he raised it again Dr. Bruce +was amazed to see a tear roll over his face. + +"Doctor, did you know that I took the pledge that morning with the +others?" + +"Yes, I remember." + +"But you never knew how I have been tormented over my failure to +keep it in this instance. That saloon property has been the +temptation of the devil to me. It is the best paying investment at +present that I have. And yet it was only a minute before you came in +here that I was in an agony of remorse to think how I was letting a +little earthly gain tempt me into a denial of the very Christ I had +promised to follow. I knew well enough that He would never rent +property for such a purpose. There is no need, Dr. Bruce, for you to +say a word more." + +Clayton held out his hand and Dr. Bruce grasped it and shook it +hard. After a little he went away. But it was a long time afterwards +that he learned all the truth about the struggle that Clayton had +known. It was only a part of the history that belonged to Nazareth +Avenue Church since that memorable morning when the Holy Spirit +sanctioned the Christ-like pledge. Not even the Bishop and Dr. +Bruce, moving as they now did in the very presence itself of divine +impulses, knew yet that over the whole sinful city the Spirit was +brooding with mighty eagerness, waiting for the disciples to arise +to the call of sacrifice and suffering, touching hearts long dull +and cold, making business men and money-makers uneasy in their +absorption by the one great struggle for more wealth, and stirring +through the church as never in all the city's history the church had +been moved. The Bishop and Dr. Bruce had already seen some wonderful +things in their brief life at the Settlement. They were to see far +greater soon, more astonishing revelations of the divine power than +they had supposed possible in this age of the world. + +Within a month the saloon next the Settlement was closed. The +saloon-keeper's lease had expired, and Clayton not only closed the +property to the whiskey men, but offered the building to the Bishop +and Dr. Bruce to use for the Settlement work, which had now grown so +large that the building they had first rented was not sufficient for +the different industries that were planned. + +One of the most important of these was the pure-food department +suggested by Felicia. It was not a month after Clayton turned the +saloon property over to the Settlement that Felicia found herself +installed in the very room where souls had been lost, as head of the +department not only of cooking but of a course of housekeeping for +girls who wished to go out to service. She was now a resident of the +Settlement, and found a home with Mrs. Bruce and the other young +women from the city who were residents. Martha, the violinist, +remained at the place where the Bishop had first discovered the two +girls, and came over to the Settlement certain evenings to give +lessons in music. + +"Felicia, tell us your plan in full now," said the Bishop one +evening when, in a rare interval of rest from the great pressure of +work, he was with Dr. Bruce, and Felicia had come in from the other +building. + +"Well, I have long thought of the hired girl problem," said Felicia +with an air of wisdom that made Mrs. Bruce smile as she looked at +the enthusiastic, vital beauty of this young girl, transformed into +a new creature by the promise she had made to live the Christ-like +life. "And I have reached certain conclusions in regard to it that +you men are not yet able to fathom, but Mrs. Bruce will understand +me." + +"We acknowledge our infancy, Felicia. Go on," said the Bishop +humbly. + +"Then this is what I propose to do. The old saloon building is large +enough to arrange into a suite of rooms that will represent an +ordinary house. My plan is to have it so arranged, and then teach +housekeeping and cooking to girls who will afterwards go out to +service. The course will be six months' long; in that time I will +teach plain cooking, neatness, quickness, and a love of good work." + +"Hold on, Felicia!" the Bishop interrupted, "this is not an age of +miracles!" + +"Then we will make it one," replied Felicia. "I know this seems like +an impossibility, but I want to try it. I know a score of girls +already who will take the course, and if we can once establish +something like an esprit de corps among the girls themselves, I am +sure it will be of great value to them. I know already that the pure +food is working a revolution in many families." + +"Felicia, if you can accomplish half what you propose it will bless +this community," said Mrs. Bruce. "I don't see how you can do it, +but I say, God bless you, as you try." + +"So say we all!" cried Dr. Bruce and the Bishop, and Felicia plunged +into the working out of her plan with the enthusiasm of her +discipleship which every day grew more and more practical and +serviceable. + +It must be said here that Felicia's plan succeeded beyond all +expectations. She developed wonderful powers of persuasion, and +taught her girls with astonishing rapidity to do all sorts of +housework. In time, the graduates of Felicia's cooking school came +to be prized by housekeepers all over the city. But that is +anticipating our story. The history of the Settlement has never yet +been written. When it is Felicia's part will be found of very great +importance. + +The depth of winter found Chicago presenting, as every great city of +the world presents to the eyes of Christendom the marked contrast +between riches and poverty, between culture, refinement, luxury, +ease, and ignorance, depravity, destitution and the bitter struggle +for bread. It was a hard winter but a gay winter. Never had there +been such a succession of parties, receptions, balls, dinners, +banquets, fetes, gayeties. Never had the opera and the theatre been +so crowded with fashionable audiences. Never had there been such a +lavish display of jewels and fine dresses and equipages. And on the +other hand, never had the deep want and suffering been so cruel, so +sharp, so murderous. Never had the winds blown so chilling over the +lake and through the thin shells of tenements in the neighborhood of +the Settlement. Never had the pressure for food and fuel and clothes +been so urgently thrust up against the people of the city in their +most importunate and ghastly form. Night after night the Bishop and +Dr. Bruce with their helpers went out and helped save men and women +and children from the torture of physical privation. Vast quantities +of food and clothing and large sums of money were donated by the +churches, the charitable societies, the civic authorities and the +benevolent associations. But the personal touch of the Christian +disciple was very hard to secure for personal work. Where was the +discipleship that was obeying the Master's command to go itself to +the suffering and give itself with its gift in order to make the +gift of value in time to come? The Bishop found his heart sing +within him as he faced this fact more than any other. Men would give +money who would not think of giving themselves. And the money they +gave did not represent any real sacrifice because they did not miss +it. They gave what was the easiest to give, what hurt them the +least. Where did the sacrifice come in? Was this following Jesus? +Was this going with Him all the way? He had been to members of his +own aristocratic, splendidly wealthy congregations, and was appalled +to find how few men and women of that luxurious class in the +churches would really suffer any genuine inconvenience for the sake +of suffering humanity. Is charity the giving of worn-out garments? +Is it a ten-dollar bill given to a paid visitor or secretary of some +benevolent organization in the church? Shall the man never go and +give his gift himself? Shall the woman never deny herself her +reception or her party or her musicale, and go and actually touch, +herself, the foul, sinful sore of diseased humanity as it festers in +the great metropolis? Shall charity be conveniently and easily done +through some organization? Is it possible to organize the affections +so that love shall work disagreeable things by proxy? + +All this the Bishop asked as he plunged deeper into the sin and +sorrow of that bitter winter. He was bearing his cross with joy. But +he burned and fought within over the shifting of personal love by +the many upon the hearts of the few. And still, silently, +powerfully, resistlessly, the Holy Spirit was moving through the +churches, even the aristocratic, wealthy, ease-loving members who +shunned the terrors of the social problem as they would shun a +contagious disease. + + + + +Chapter Twenty-nine + + +THE breakfast hour at the settlement was the one hour in the day +when the whole family found a little breathing space to fellowship +together. It was an hour of relaxation. There was a great deal of +good-natured repartee and much real wit and enjoyable fun at this +hour. The Bishop told his best stories. Dr. Bruce was at his best in +anecdote. This company of disciples was healthily humorous in spite +of the atmosphere of sorrow that constantly surrounded them. In +fact, the Bishop often said the faculty of humor was as God-given as +any other and in his own case it was the only safety valve he had +for the tremendous pressure put upon him. + +This particular morning he was reading extracts from a morning paper +for the benefit of the others. Suddenly he paused and his face +instantly grew stern and sad. The rest looked up and a hush fell +over the table. + +"Shot and killed while taking a lump of coal from a car! His family +was freezing and he had had no work for six months. Six children and +a wife all packed into a cabin with three rooms, on the West Side. +One child wrapped in rags in a closet!" + +These were headlines that he read slowly. He then went on and read +the detailed account of the shooting and the visit of the reporter +to the tenement where the family lived. He finished, and there was +silence around the table. The humor of the hour was swept out of +existence by this bit of human tragedy. The great city roared about +the Settlement. The awful current of human life was flowing in a +great stream past the Settlement House, and those who had work were +hurrying to it in a vast throng. But thousands were going down in +the midst of that current, clutching at last hopes, dying literally +in a land of plenty because the boon of physical toil was denied +them. + +There were various comments on the part of the residents. One of the +new-comers, a young man preparing for the ministry, said: "Why don't +the man apply to one of the charity organizations for help? Or to +the city? It certainly is not true that even at its worst this city +full of Christian people would knowingly allow any one to go without +food or fuel." + +"No, I don't believe it would," replied Dr. Bruce. "But we don't +know the history of this man's case. He may have asked for help so +often before that, finally, in a moment of desperation he determined +to help himself. I have known such cases this winter." + +"That is not the terrible fact in this case," said the Bishop. "The +awful thing about it is the fact that the man had not had any work +for six months." + +"Why don't such people go out into the country?" asked the divinity +student. + +Some one at the table who had made a special study of the +opportunities for work in the country answered the question. +According to the investigator the places that were possible for work +in the country were exceedingly few for steady employment, and in +almost every case they were offered only to men without families. +Suppose a man's wife or children were ill. How would he move or get +into the country? How could he pay even the meager sum necessary to +move his few goods? There were a thousand reasons probably why this +particular man did not go elsewhere. + +"Meanwhile there are the wife and children," said Mrs. Bruce. "How +awful! Where is the place, did you say?" + +"Why, it is only three blocks from here. This is the 'Penrose +district.' I believe Penrose himself owns half of the houses in that +block. They are among the worst houses in this part of the city. And +Penrose is a church member." + +"Yes, he belongs to the Nazareth Avenue Church," replied Dr. Bruce +in a low voice. + +The Bishop rose from the table the very figure of divine wrath. He +had opened his lips to say what seldom came from him in the way of +denunciation, when the bell rang and one of the residents went to +the door. + +"Tell Dr. Bruce and the Bishop I want to see them. Penrose is the +name--Clarence Penrose. Dr. Bruce knows me." + +The family at the breakfast table heard every word. The Bishop +exchanged a significant look with Dr. Bruce and the two men +instantly left the table and went out into the hall. + +"Come in here, Penrose," said Dr. Bruce, and they ushered the +visitor into the reception room, closed the door and were alone. + +Clarence Penrose was one of the most elegant looking men in Chicago. +He came from an aristocratic family of great wealth and social +distinction. He was exceedingly wealthy and had large property +holdings in different parts of the city. He had been a member of Dr. +Bruce's church many years. He faced the two ministers with a look of +agitation on his face that showed plainly the mark of some unusual +experience. He was very pale and his lips trembled as he spoke. When +had Clarence Penrose ever before yielded to such a strange emotion? + +"This affair of the shooting! You understand? You have read it? The +family lived in one of my houses. It is a terrible event. But that +is not the primary cause of my visit." He stammered and looked +anxiously into the faces of the two men. The Bishop still looked +stern. He could not help feeling that this elegant man of leisure +could have done a great deal to alleviate the horrors in his +tenements, possibly have prevented this tragedy if he had sacrificed +some of his personal ease and luxury to better the conditions of the +people in his district. + +Penrose turned toward Dr. Bruce. "Doctor!" he exclaimed, and there +was almost a child's terror in his voice. "I came to say that I have +had an experience so unusual that nothing but the supernatural can +explain it. You remember I was one of those who took the pledge to +do as Jesus would do. I thought at the time, poor fool that I was, +that I had all along been doing the Christian thing. I gave +liberally out of my abundance to the church and charity. I never +gave myself to cost me any suffering. I have been living in a +perfect hell of contradictions ever since I took that pledge. My +little girl, Diana you remember, also took the pledge with me. She +has been asking me a great many questions lately about the poor +people and where they live. I was obliged to answer her. One of her +questions last night touched my sore! 'Do you own any houses where +these poor people live? Are they nice and warm like ours?' You know +how a child will ask questions like these. I went to bed tormented +with what I now know to be the divine arrows of conscience. I could +not sleep. I seemed to see the judgment day. I was placed before the +Judge. I was asked to give an account of my deeds done in the body. +'How many sinful souls had I visited in prison? What had I done with +my stewardship? How about those tenements where people froze in +winter and stifled in summer? Did I give any thought to them except +to receive the rentals from them? Where did my suffering come in? +Would Jesus have done as I had done and was doing? Had I broken my +pledge? How had I used the money and the culture and the social +influence I possessed? Had I used it to bless humanity, to relieve +the suffering, to bring joy to the distressed and hope to the +desponding? I had received much. How much had I given?' + +"All this came to me in a waking vision as distinctly as I see you +two men and myself now. I was unable to see the end of the vision. I +had a confused picture in my mind of the suffering Christ pointing a +condemning finger at me, and the rest was shut out by mist and +darkness. I have not slept for twenty-four hours. The first thing I +saw this morning was the account of the shooting at the coal yards. +I read the account with a feeling of horror I have not been able to +shake off. I am a guilty creature before God." + +Penrose paused suddenly. The two men looked at him solemnly. What +power of the Holy Spirit moved the soul of this hitherto +self-satisfied, elegant, cultured man who belonged to the social +life that was accustomed to go its way placidly, unmindful of the +great sorrows of a great city and practically ignorant of what it +means to suffer for Jesus' sake? Into that room came a breath such +as before swept over Henry Maxwell's church and through Nazareth +avenue. The Bishop laid his hand on the shoulder of Penrose and +said: "My brother, God has been very near to you. Let us thank Him." + +"Yes! yes!" sobbed Penrose. He sat down on a chair and covered his +face. The Bishop prayed. Then Penrose quietly said: "Will you go +with me to that house?" + +For answer the two men put on their overcoats and went with him to +the home of the dead man's family. + +That was the beginning of a new and strange life for Clarence +Penrose. From the moment he stepped into that wretched hovel of a +home and faced for the first time in his life a despair and +suffering such as he had read of but did not know by personal +contact, he dated a new life. It would be another long story to tell +how, in obedience to his pledge he began to do with his tenement +property as he knew Jesus would do. What would Jesus do with +tenement property if He owned it in Chicago or any other great city +of the world? Any man who can imagine any true answers to this +question can easily tell what Clarence Penrose began to do. + +Now before that winter reached its bitter climax many things +occurred in the city which concerned the lives of all the characters +in this history of the disciples who promised to walk in His steps. + +It chanced by one of those coincidences that seem to occur +preternaturally that one afternoon just as Felicia came out of the +Settlement with a basket of food which she was going to leave as a +sample with a baker in the Penrose district, Stephen Clyde opened +the door of the carpenter shop in the basement and came out in time +to meet her as she reached the sidewalk. + +"Let me carry your basket, please," he said. + +"Why do you say 'please'?" asked Felicia, handing over the basket +while they walked along. + +"I would like to say something else," replied Stephen, glancing at +her shyly and yet with a boldness that frightened him, for he had +been loving Felicia more every day since he first saw her and +especially since she stepped into the shop that day with the Bishop, +and for weeks now they had been thrown in each other's company. + +"What else?" asked Felicia, innocently falling into the trap. + +"Why--" said Stephen, turning his fair, noble face full toward her +and eyeing her with the look of one who would have the best of all +things in the universe, "I would like to say: 'Let me carry your +basket, dear Felicia'." + +Felicia never looked so beautiful in her life. She walked on a +little way without even turning her face toward him. It was no +secret with her own heart that she had given it to Stephen some time +ago. Finally she turned and said shyly, while her face grew rosy and +her eyes tender: "Why don't you say it, then?" + +"May I?" cried Stephen, and he was so careless for a minute of the +way he held the basket, that Felicia exclaimed: + +"Yes! But oh, don't drop my goodies!" + +"Why, I wouldn't drop anything so precious for all the world, dear +Felicia," said Stephen, who now walked on air for several blocks, +and what was said during that walk is private correspondence that we +have no right to read. Only it is a matter of history that day that +the basket never reached its destination, and that over in the other +direction, late in the afternoon, the Bishop, walking along quietly +from the Penrose district, in rather a secluded spot near the +outlying part of the Settlement district, heard a familiar voice +say: + +"But tell me, Felicia, when did you begin to love me?" + +"I fell in love with a little pine shaving just above your ear that +day when I saw you in the shop!" said the other voice with a laugh +so clear, so pure, so sweet that it did one good to hear it. + +"Where are you going with that basket?" he tried to say sternly. + +"We are taking it to--where are we taking it, Felicia?" + +"Dear Bishop, we are taking it home to begin--" + +"To begin housekeeping with," finished Stephen, coming to the +rescue. + +"Are you?" said the Bishop. "I hope you will invite me to share. I +know what Felicia's cooking is." + +"Bishop, dear Bishop!" said Felicia, and she did not pretend to hide +her happiness; "indeed, you shall be the most honored guest. Are you +glad?" + +"Yes, I am," he replied, interpreting Felicia's words as she wished. +Then he paused a moment and said gently: "God bless you both!" and +went his way with a tear in his eye and a prayer in his heart, and +left them to their joy. + +Yes. Shall not the same divine power of love that belongs to earth +be lived and sung by the disciples of the Man of Sorrows and the +Burden-bearer of sins? Yea, verily! And this man and woman shall +walk hand in hand through this great desert of human woe in this +city, strengthening each other, growing more loving with the +experience of the world's sorrows, walking in His steps even closer +yet because of their love for each other, bringing added blessing to +thousands of wretched creatures because they are to have a home of +their own to share with the homeless. "For this cause," said our +Lord Jesus Christ, "shall a man leave his father and mother and +cleave unto his wife." And Felicia and Stephen, following the +Master, love him with a deeper, truer service and devotion because +of the earthly affection which Heaven itself sanctions with its +solemn blessing. + +But it was a little after the love story of the Settlement became a +part of its glory that Henry Maxwell of Raymond came to Chicago with +Rachel Winslow and Virginia Page and Rollin and Alexander Powers and +President Marsh, and the occasion was a remarkable gathering at the +hall of the Settlement arranged by the Bishop and Dr. Bruce, who had +finally persuaded Mr. Maxwell and his fellow disciples in Raymond to +come on to be present at this meeting. + +There were invited into the Settlement Hall, meeting for that night +men out of work, wretched creatures who had lost faith in God and +man, anarchists and infidels, free-thinkers and no-thinkers. The +representation of all the city's worst, most hopeless, most +dangerous, depraved elements faced Henry Maxwell and the other +disciples when the meeting began. And still the Holy Spirit moved +over the great, selfish, pleasure-loving, sin-stained city, and it +lay in God's hand, not knowing all that awaited it. Every man and +woman at the meeting that night had seen the Settlement motto over +the door blazing through the transparency set up by the divinity +student: "What would Jesus do?" + +And Henry Maxwell, as for the first time he stepped under the +doorway, was touched with a deeper emotion than he had felt in a +long time as he thought of the first time that question had come to +him in the piteous appeal of the shabby young man who had appeared +in the First Church of Raymond at the morning service. + + + + +Chapter Thirty + + +"Now, when Jesus heard these things, He said unto him, Yet lackest +thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the +poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow Me." + + +WHEN Henry Maxwell began to speak to the souls crowded into the +Settlement Hall that night it is doubtful if he ever faced such an +audience in his life. It is quite certain that the city of Raymond +did not contain such a variety of humanity. Not even the Rectangle +at its worst could furnish so many men and women who had fallen +entirely out of the reach of the church and of all religious and +even Christian influences. + +What did he talk about? He had already decided that point. He told +in the simplest language he could command some of the results of +obedience to the pledge as it had been taken in Raymond. Every man +and woman in that audience knew something about Jesus Christ. They +all had some idea of His character, and however much they had grown +bitter toward the forms of Christian ecclesiasticism or the social +system, they preserved some standard of right and truth, and what +little some of them still retained was taken from the person of the +Peasant of Galilee. + +So they were interested in what Maxwell said. "What would Jesus do?" +He began to apply the question to the social problem in general, +after finishing the story of Raymond. The audience was respectfully +attentive. It was more than that. It was genuinely interested. As +Mr. Maxwell went on, faces all over the hall leaned forward in a way +seldom seen in church audiences or anywhere except among workingmen +or the people of the street when once they are thoroughly aroused. +"What would Jesus do?" Suppose that were the motto not only of the +churches but of the business men, the politicians, the newspapers, +the workingmen, the society people--how long would it take under +such a standard of conduct to revolutionize the world? What was the +trouble with the world? It was suffering from selfishness. No one +ever lived who had succeeded in overcoming selfishness like Jesus. +If men followed Him regardless of results the world would at once +begin to enjoy a new life. + +Maxwell never knew how much it meant to hold the respectful +attention of that hall full of diseased and sinful humanity. The +Bishop and Dr. Bruce, sitting there, looking on, seeing many faces +that represented scorn of creeds, hatred of the social order, +desperate narrowness and selfishness, marveled that even so soon +under the influence of the Settlement life, the softening process +had begun already to lessen the bitterness of hearts, many of which +had grown bitter from neglect and indifference. + +And still, in spite of the outward show of respect to the speaker, +no one, not even the Bishop, had any true conception of the feeling +pent up in that room that night. Among those who had heard of the +meeting and had responded to the invitation were twenty or thirty +men out of work who had strolled past the Settlement that afternoon, +read the notice of the meeting, and had come in out of curiosity and +to escape the chill east wind. It was a bitter night and the saloons +were full. But in that whole district of over thirty thousand souls, +with the exception of the saloons, there was not a door open except +the clean, pure Christian door of the Settlement. Where would a man +without a home or without work or without friends naturally go +unless to the saloon? + +It had been the custom at the Settlement for a free discussion to +follow any open meeting of this kind, and when Mr. Maxwell finished +and sat down, the Bishop, who presided that night, rose and made the +announcement that any man in the hall was at liberty to ask +questions, to speak out his feelings or declare his convictions, +always with the understanding that whoever took part was to observe +the simple rules that governed parliamentary bodies and obey the +three-minute rule which, by common consent, would be enforced on +account of the numbers present. + +Instantly a number of voices from men who had been at previous +meetings of this kind exclaimed, "Consent! consent!" + +The Bishop sat down, and immediately a man near the middle of the +hall rose and began to speak. + +"I want to say that what Mr. Maxwell has said tonight comes pretty +close to me. I knew Jack Manning, the fellow he told about who died +at his house. I worked on the next case to his in a printer's shop +in Philadelphia for two years. Jack was a good fellow. He loaned me +five dollars once when I was in a hole and I never got a chance to +pay him back. He moved to New York, owing to a change in the +management of the office that threw him out, and I never saw him +again. When the linotype machines came in I was one of the men to go +out, just as he did. I have been out most of the time since. They +say inventions are a good thing. I don't always see it myself; but I +suppose I'm prejudiced. A man naturally is when he loses a steady +job because a machine takes his place. About this Christianity he +tells about, it's all right. But I never expect to see any such +sacrifices on the part of the church people. So far as my +observation goes they're just as selfish and as greedy for money and +worldly success as anybody. I except the Bishop and Dr. Bruce and a +few others. But I never found much difference between men of the +world, as they are called, and church members when it came to +business and money making. One class is just as bad as another +there." + +Cries of "That's so!" "You're right!" "Of course!" interrupted the +speaker, and the minute he sat down two men who were on the floor +for several seconds before the first speaker was through began to +talk at once. + +The Bishop called them to order and indicated which was entitled to +the floor. The man who remained standing began eagerly: + +"This is the first time I was ever in here, and may be it'll be the +last. Fact is, I am about at the end of my string. I've tramped this +city for work till I'm sick. I'm in plenty of company. Say! I'd like +to ask a question of the minister, if it's fair. May I?" + +"That's for Mr. Maxwell to say," said the Bishop. + +"By all means," replied Mr. Maxwell quickly. "Of course, I will not +promise to answer it to the gentleman's satisfaction." + +"This is my question." The man leaned forward and stretched out a +long arm with a certain dramatic force that grew naturally enough +out of his condition as a human being. "I want to know what Jesus +would do in my case. I haven't had a stroke of work for two months. +I've got a wife and three children, and I love them as much as if I +was worth a million dollars. I've been living off a little earnings +I saved up during the World's Fair jobs I got. I'm a carpenter by +trade, and I've tried every way I know to get a job. You say we +ought to take for our motto, 'What would Jesus do?' What would He do +if He was out of work like me? I can't be somebody else and ask the +question. I want to work. I'd give anything to grow tired of working +ten hours a day the way I used to. Am I to blame because I can't +manufacture a job for myself? I've got to live, and my wife and my +children have got to live. But how? What would Jesus do? You say +that's the question we ought to ask." + +Mr. Maxwell sat there staring at the great sea of faces all intent +on his, and no answer to this man's question seemed for the time +being to be possible. "O God!" his heart prayed; "this is a question +that brings up the entire social problem in all its perplexing +entanglement of human wrongs and its present condition contrary to +every desire of God for a human being's welfare. Is there any +condition more awful than for a man in good health, able and eager +to work, with no means of honest livelihood unless he does work, +actually unable to get anything to do, and driven to one of three +things: begging or charity at the hands of friends or strangers, +suicide or starvation? 'What would Jesus do?'" It was a fair +question for the man to ask. It was the only question he could ask, +supposing him to be a disciple of Jesus. But what a question for any +man to be obliged to answer under such conditions? + +All this and more did Henry Maxwell ponder. All the others were +thinking in the same way. The Bishop sat there with a look so stern +and sad that it was not hard to tell how the question moved him. Dr. +Bruce had his head bowed. The human problem had never seemed to him +so tragical as since he had taken the pledge and left his church to +enter the Settlement. What would Jesus do? It was a terrible +question. And still the man stood there, tall and gaunt and almost +terrible, with his arm stretched out in an appeal which grew every +second in meaning. At length Mr. Maxwell spoke. + +"Is there any man in the room, who is a Christian disciple, who has +been in this condition and has tried to do as Jesus would do? If so, +such a man can answer this question better than I can." + +There was a moment's hush over the room and then a man near the +front of the hall slowly rose. He was an old man, and the hand he +laid on the back of the bench in front of him trembled as he spoke. + +"I think I can safely say that I have many times been in just such a +condition, and I have always tried to be a Christian under all +conditions. I don't know as I have always asked this question, 'What +would Jesus do?' when I have been out of work, but I do know I have +tried to be His disciple at all times. Yes," the man went on, with a +sad smile that was more pathetic to the Bishop and Mr. Maxwell than +the younger man's grim despair; "yes, I have begged, and I have been +to charity institutions, and I have done everything when out of a +job except steal and lie in order to get food and fuel. I don't know +as Jesus would have done some of the things I have been obliged to +do for a living, but I know I have never knowingly done wrong when +out of work. Sometimes I think maybe He would have starved sooner +than beg. I don't know." + +The old man's voice trembled and he looked around the room timidly. +A silence followed, broken by a fierce voice from a large, +black-haired, heavily-bearded man who sat three seats from the +Bishop. The minute he spoke nearly every man in the hall leaned +forward eagerly. The man who had asked the question, "What would +Jesus do in my case?" slowly sat down and whispered to the man next +to him: "Who's that?" + +"That's Carlsen, the Socialist leader. Now you'll hear something." + +"This is all bosh, to my mind," began Carlsen, while his great +bristling beard shook with the deep inward anger of the man. "The +whole of our system is at fault. What we call civilization is rotten +to the core. There is no use trying to hide it or cover it up. We +live in an age of trusts and combines and capitalistic greed that +means simply death to thousands of innocent men, women and children. +I thank God, if there is a God--which I very much doubt--that I, for +one, have never dared to marry and make a home. Home! Talk of hell! +Is there any bigger one than this man and his three children has on +his hands right this minute? And he's only one out of thousands. And +yet this city, and every other big city in this country, has its +thousands of professed Christians who have all the luxuries and +comforts, and who go to church Sundays and sing their hymns about +giving all to Jesus and bearing the cross and following Him all the +way and being saved! I don't say that there aren't good men and +women among them, but let the minister who has spoken to us here +tonight go into any one of a dozen aristocratic churches I could +name and propose to the members to take any such pledge as the one +he's mentioned here tonight, and see how quick the people would +laugh at him for a fool or a crank or a fanatic. Oh, no! That's not +the remedy. That can't ever amount to anything. We've got to have a +new start in the way of government. The whole thing needs +reconstructing. I don't look for any reform worth anything to come +out of the churches. They are not with the people. They are with the +aristocrats, with the men of money. The trusts and monopolies have +their greatest men in the churches. The ministers as a class are +their slaves. What we need is a system that shall start from the +common basis of socialism, founded on the rights of the common +people--" + +Carlsen had evidently forgotten all about the three-minutes rule and +was launching himself into a regular oration that meant, in his +usual surroundings before his usual audience, an hour at least, when +the man just behind him pulled him down unceremoniously and arose. +Carlsen was angry at first and threatened a little disturbance, but +the Bishop reminded him of the rule, and he subsided with several +mutterings in his beard, while the next speaker began with a very +strong eulogy on the value of the single tax as a genuine remedy for +all the social ills. He was followed by a man who made a bitter +attack on the churches and ministers, and declared that the two +great obstacles in the way of all true reform were the courts and +the ecclesiastical machines. + +When he sat down a man who bore every mark of being a street laborer +sprang to his feet and poured a perfect torrent of abuse against the +corporations, especially the railroads. The minute his time was up a +big, brawny fellow, who said he was a metal worker by trade, claimed +the floor and declared that the remedy for the social wrongs was +Trades Unionism. This, he said, would bring on the millennium for +labor more surely than anything else. The next man endeavored to +give some reasons why so many persons were out of employment, and +condemned inventions as works of the devil. He was loudly applauded +by the rest. + +Finally the Bishop called time on the "free for all," and asked +Rachel to sing. + +Rachel Winslow had grown into a very strong, healthful, humble +Christian during that wonderful year in Raymond dating from the +Sunday when she first took the pledge to do as Jesus would do, and +her great talent for song had been fully consecrated to the service +of the Master. When she began to sing tonight at this Settlement +meeting, she had never prayed more deeply for results to come from +her voice, the voice which she now regarded as the Master's, to be +used for Him. + +Certainly her prayer was being answered as she sang. She had chosen +the words, + +"Hark! The voice of Jesus calling, Follow me, follow me!" + +Again Henry Maxwell, sitting there, was reminded of his first night +at the Rectangle in the tent when Rachel sang the people into quiet. +The effect was the same here. What wonderful power a good voice +consecrated to the Master's service always is! Rachel's great +natural ability would have made her one of the foremost opera +singers of the age. Surely this audience had never heard such a +melody. How could it? The men who had drifted in from the street sat +entranced by a voice which "back in the world," as the Bishop said, +never could be heard by the common people because the owner of it +would charge two or three dollars for the privilege. The song poured +out through the hall as free and glad as if it were a foretaste of +salvation itself. Carlsen, with his great, black-bearded face +uplifted, absorbed the music with the deep love of it peculiar to +his nationality, and a tear ran over his cheek and glistened in his +beard as his face softened and became almost noble in its aspect. +The man out of work who had wanted to know what Jesus would do in +his place sat with one grimy hand on the back of the bench in front +of him, with his mouth partly open, his great tragedy for the moment +forgotten. The song, while it lasted, was food and work and warmth +and union with his wife and babies once more. The man who had spoken +so fiercely against the churches and ministers sat with his head +erect, at first with a look of stolid resistance, as if he +stubbornly resisted the introduction into the exercises of anything +that was even remotely connected with the church or its forms of +worship. But gradually he yielded to the power that was swaying the +hearts of all the persons in that room, and a look of sad +thoughtfulness crept over his face. + +The Bishop said that night while Rachel was singing that if the +world of sinful, diseased, depraved, lost humanity could only have +the gospel preached to it by consecrated prima donnas and +professional tenors and altos and bassos, he believed it would +hasten the coming of the Kingdom quicker than any other one force. +"Why, oh why," he cried in his heart as he listened, "has the +world's great treasure of song been so often held far from the poor +because the personal possessor of voice or fingers, capable of +stirring divinest melody, has so often regarded the gift as +something with which to make money? Shall there be no martyrs among +the gifted ones of the earth? Shall there be no giving of this great +gift as well as of others?" + +And Henry Maxwell, again as before, called up that other audience at +the Rectangle with increasing longing for a larger spread of the new +discipleship. What he had seen and heard at the Settlement burned +into him deeper the belief that the problem of the city would be +solved if the Christians in it should once follow Jesus as He gave +commandment. But what of this great mass of humanity, neglected and +sinful, the very kind of humanity the Savior came to save, with all +its mistakes and narrowness, its wretchedness and loss of hope, +above all its unqualified bitterness towards the church? That was +what smote him deepest. Was the church then so far from the Master +that the people no longer found Him in the church? Was it true that +the church had lost its power over the very kind of humanity which +in the early ages of Christianity it reached in the greatest +numbers? How much was true in what the Socialist leader said about +the uselessness of looking to the church for reform or redemption, +because of the selfishness and seclusion and aristocracy of its +members? + +He was more and more impressed with the appalling fact that the +comparatively few men in that hall, now being held quiet for a while +by Rachel's voice, represented thousands of others just like them, +to whom a church and a minister stood for less than a saloon or a +beer garden as a source of comfort or happiness. Ought it to be so? +If the church members were all doing as Jesus would do, could it +remain true that armies of men would walk the streets for jobs and +hundreds of them curse the church and thousands of them find in the +saloon their best friend? How far were the Christians responsible +for this human problem that was personally illustrated right in this +hall tonight? Was it true that the great city churches would as a +rule refuse to walk in Jesus' steps so closely as to +suffer--actually suffer--for His sake? + + + + +Chapter Thirty-one + + +HE had planned when he came to the city to return to Raymond and be +in his own pulpit on Sunday. But Friday morning he had received at +the Settlement a call from the pastor of one of the largest churches +in Chicago, and had been invited to fill the pulpit for both morning +and evening service. + +At first he hesitated, but finally accepted, seeing in it the hand +of the Spirit's guiding power. He would test his own question. He +would prove the truth or falsity of the charge made against the +church at the Settlement meeting. How far would it go in its +self-denial for Jesus' sake? How closely would it walk in His steps? +Was the church willing to suffer for its Master? + +Saturday night he spent in prayer, nearly the whole night. There had +never been so great a wrestling in his soul, not even during his +strongest experiences in Raymond. He had in fact entered upon +another new experience. The definition of his own discipleship was +receiving an added test at this time, and he was being led into a +larger truth of the Lord. + +Sunday morning the great church was filled to its utmost. Henry +Maxwell, coming into the pulpit from that all-night vigil, felt the +pressure of a great curiosity on the part of the people. They had +heard of the Raymond movement, as all the churches had, and the +recent action of Dr. Bruce had added to the general interest in the +pledge. With this curiosity was something deeper, more serious. Mr. +Maxwell felt that also. And in the knowledge that the Spirit's +presence was his living strength, he brought his message and gave it +to that church that day. + +He had never been what would be called a great preacher. He had not +the force nor the quality that makes remarkable preachers. But ever +since he had promised to do as Jesus would do, he had grown in a +certain quality of persuasiveness that had all the essentials of +true eloquence. This morning the people felt the complete sincerity +and humility of a man who had gone deep into the heart of a great +truth. + +After telling briefly of some results in his own church in Raymond +since the pledge was taken, he went on to ask the question he had +been asking since the Settlement meeting. He had taken for his theme +the story of the young man who came to Jesus asking what he must do +to obtain eternal life. Jesus had tested him. "Sell all that thou +hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; +and come follow me." But the young man was not willing to suffer to +that extent. If following Jesus meant suffering in that way, he was +not willing. He would like to follow Jesus, but not if he had to +give so much. + +"Is it true," continued Henry Maxwell, and his fine, thoughtful face +glowed with a passion of appeal that stirred the people as they had +seldom been stirred, "is it true that the church of today, the +church that is called after Christ's own name, would refuse to +follow Him at the expense of suffering, of physical loss, of +temporary gain? The statement was made at a large gathering in the +Settlement last week by a leader of workingmen that it was hopeless +to look to the church for any reform or redemption of society. On +what was that statement based? Plainly on the assumption that the +church contains for the most part men and women who think more 'of +their own ease and luxury' than of the sufferings and needs and sins +of humanity. How far is that true? Are the Christians of America +ready to have their discipleship tested? How about the men who +possess large wealth? Are they ready to take that wealth and use it +as Jesus would? How about the men and women of great talent? Are +they ready to consecrate that talent to humanity as Jesus +undoubtedly would do? + +"Is it not true that the call has come in this age for a new +exhibition of Christian discipleship? You who live in this great +sinful city must know that better than I do. Is it possible you can +go your ways careless or thoughtless of the awful condition of men +and women and children who are dying, body and soul, for need of +Christian help? Is it not a matter of concern to you personally that +the saloon kills its thousands more surely than war? Is it not a +matter of personal suffering in some form for you that thousands of +able-bodied, willing men tramp the streets of this city and all +cities, crying for work and drifting into crime and suicide because +they cannot find it? Can you say that this is none of your business? +Let each man look after himself? Would it not be true, think you, +that if every Christian in America did as Jesus would do, society +itself, the business world, yes, the very political system under +which our commercial and governmental activity is carried on, would +be so changed that human suffering would be reduced to a minimum? + +"What would be the result if all the church members of this city +tried to do as Jesus would do? It is not possible to say in detail +what the effect would be. But it is easy to say, and it is true, +that instantly the human problem would begin to find an adequate +answer. + +"What is the test of Christian discipleship? Is it not the same as +in Christ's own time? Have our surroundings modified or changed the +test? If Jesus were here today would He not call some of the members +of this very church to do just what He commanded the young man, and +ask them to give up their wealth and literally follow Him? I believe +He would do that if He felt certain that any church member thought +more of his possessions than of the Savior. The test would be the +same today as then. I believe Jesus would demand He does demand +now--as close a following, as much suffering, as great self-denial +as when He lived in person on the earth and said, 'Except a man +renounce all that he hath he cannot be my disciple.' That is, unless +he is willing to do it for my sake, he cannot be my disciple. + +"What would be the result if in this city every church member should +begin to do as Jesus would do? It is not easy to go into details of +the result. But we all know that certain things would be impossible +that are now practiced by church members. + +"What would Jesus do in the matter of wealth? How would He spend it? +What principle would regulate His use of money? Would He be likely +to live in great luxury and spend ten times as much on personal +adornment and entertainment as He spent to relieve the needs of +suffering humanity? How would Jesus be governed in the making of +money? Would He take rentals from saloons and other disreputable +property, or even from tenement property that was so constructed +that the inmates had no such things as a home and no such +possibility as privacy or cleanliness? + +"What would Jesus do about the great army of unemployed and +desperate who tramp the streets and curse the church, or are +indifferent to it, lost in the bitter struggle for the bread that +tastes bitter when it is earned on account of the desperate conflict +to get it? Would Jesus care nothing for them? Would He go His way in +comparative ease and comfort? Would He say that it was none of His +business? Would He excuse Himself from all responsibility to remove +the causes of such a condition? + +"What would Jesus do in the center of a civilization that hurries so +fast after money that the very girls employed in great business +houses are not paid enough to keep soul and body together without +fearful temptations so great that scores of them fall and are swept +over the great boiling abyss; where the demands of trade sacrifice +hundreds of lads in a business that ignores all Christian duties +toward them in the way of education and moral training and personal +affection? Would Jesus, if He were here today as a part of our age +and commercial industry, feel nothing, do nothing, say nothing, in +the face of these facts which every business man knows? + +"What would Jesus do? Is not that what the disciple ought to do? Is +he not commanded to follow in His steps? How much is the +Christianity of the age suffering for Him? Is it denying itself at +the cost of ease, comfort, luxury, elegance of living? What does the +age need more than personal sacrifice? Does the church do its duty +in following Jesus when it gives a little money to establish +missions or relieve extreme cases of want? Is it any sacrifice for a +man who is worth ten million dollars simply to give ten thousand +dollars for some benevolent work? Is he not giving something that +cost him practically nothing so far as any personal suffering goes? +Is it true that the Christian disciples today in most of our +churches are living soft, easy, selfish lives, very far from any +sacrifice that can be called sacrifice? What would Jesus do? + +"It is the personal element that Christian discipleship needs to +emphasize. 'The gift without the giver is bare.' The Christianity +that attempts to suffer by proxy is not the Christianity of Christ. +Each individual Christian business man, citizen, needs to follow in +His steps along the path of personal sacrifice to Him. There is not +a different path today from that of Jesus' own times. It is the same +path. The call of this dying century and of the new one soon to be, +is a call for a new discipleship, a new following of Jesus, more +like the early, simple, apostolic Christianity, when the disciples +left all and literally followed the Master. Nothing but a +discipleship of this kind can face the destructive selfishness of +the age with any hope of overcoming it. There is a great quantity of +nominal Christianity today. There is need of more of the real kind. +We need revival of the Christianity of Christ. We have, +unconsciously, lazily, selfishly, formally grown into a discipleship +that Jesus himself would not acknowledge. He would say to many of us +when we cry, 'Lord, Lord,' 'I never knew you!' Are we ready to take +up the cross? Is it possible for this church to sing with exact +truth, + + 'Jesus, I my cross have taken, + All to leave and follow Thee?' + +If we can sing that truly, then we may claim discipleship. But if +our definition of being a Christian is simply to enjoy the +privileges of worship, be generous at no expense to ourselves, have +a good, easy time surrounded by pleasant friends and by comfortable +things, live respectably and at the same time avoid the world's +great stress of sin and trouble because it is too much pain to bear +it--if this is our definition of Christianity, surely we are a long +way from following the steps of Him who trod the way with groans and +tears and sobs of anguish for a lost humanity; who sweat, as it +were, great drops of blood, who cried out on the upreared cross, 'My +God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' + +"Are we ready to make and live a new discipleship? Are we ready to +reconsider our definition of a Christian? What is it to be a +Christian? It is to imitate Jesus. It is to do as He would do. It is +to walk in His steps." + +When Henry Maxwell finished his sermon, he paused and looked at the +people with a look they never forgot and, at the moment, did not +understand. Crowded into that fashionable church that day were +hundreds of men and women who had for years lived the easy, +satisfied life of a nominal Christianity. A great silence fell over +the congregation. Through the silence there came to the +consciousness of all the souls there present a knowledge, stranger +to them now for years, of a Divine Power. Every one expected the +preacher to call for volunteers who would do as Jesus would do. But +Maxwell had been led by the Spirit to deliver his message this time +and wait for results to come. + +He closed the service with a tender prayer that kept the Divine +Presence lingering very near every hearer, and the people slowly +rose to go out. Then followed a scene that would have been +impossible if any mere man had been alone in his striving for +results. + +Men and women in great numbers crowded around the platform to see +Mr. Maxwell and to bring him the promise of their consecration to +the pledge to do as Jesus would do. It was a voluntary, spontaneous +movement that broke upon his soul with a result he could not +measure. But had he not been praying for is very thing? It was an +answer that more than met his desires. + +There followed this movement a prayer service that in its +impressions repeated the Raymond experience. In the evening, to Mr. +Maxwell's joy, the Endeavor Society almost to a member came forward, +as so many of the church members had done in the morning, and +seriously, solemnly, tenderly, took the pledge to do as Jesus would +do. A deep wave of spiritual baptism broke over the meeting near its +close that was indescribable in its tender, joyful, sympathetic +results. + +That was a remarkable day in the history of that church, but even +more so in the history of Henry Maxwell. He left the meeting very +late. He went to his room at the Settlement where he was still +stopping, and after an hour with the Bishop and Dr. Bruce, spent in +a joyful rehearsal of the wonderful events of the day, he sat down +to think over again by himself all the experience he was having as a +Christian disciple. + +He had kneeled to pray, as he always did before going to sleep, and +it was while he was on his knees that he had a waking vision of what +might be in the world when once the new discipleship had made its +way into the conscience and conscientiousness of Christendom. He was +fully conscious of being awake, but no less certainly did it seem to +him that he saw certain results with great distinctiveness, partly +as realities of the future, partly great longings that they might be +realities. And this is what Henry Maxwell saw in this waking vision: + +He saw himself, first, going back to the First Church in Raymond, +living there in a simpler, more self-denying fashion than he had yet +been willing to live, because he saw ways in which he could help +others who were really dependent on him for help. He also saw, more +dimly, that the time would come when his position as pastor of the +church would cause him to suffer more on account of growing +opposition to his interpretation of Jesus and His conduct. But this +was vaguely outlined. Through it all he heard the words "My grace is +sufficient for thee." + +He saw Rachel Winslow and Virginia Page going on with their work of +service at the Rectangle, and reaching out loving hands of +helpfulness far beyond the limits of Raymond. Rachel he saw married +to Rollin Page, both fully consecrated to the Master's use, both +following His steps with an eagerness intensified and purified by +their love for each other. And Rachel's voice sang on, in slums and +dark places of despair and sin, and drew lost souls back to God and +heaven once more. + +He saw President Marsh of the college using his great learning and +his great influence to purify the city, to ennoble its patriotism, +to inspire the young men and women who loved as well as admired him +to lives of Christian service, always teaching them that education +means great responsibility for the weak and the ignorant. + +He saw Alexander Powers meeting with sore trials in his family life, +with a constant sorrow in the estrangement of wife and friends, but +still going his way in all honor, serving in all his strength the +Master whom he had obeyed, even unto the loss of social distinction +and wealth. + +He saw Milton Wright, the merchant, meeting with great reverses. +Thrown upon the future by a combination of circumstances, with vast +business interests involved in ruin through no fault of his own, but +coming out of his reverses with clean Christian honor, to begin +again and work up to a position where he could again be to hundreds +of young men an example of what Jesus would do in business. + +He saw Edward Norman, editor of the NEWS, by means of the money +given by Virginia, creating a force in journalism that in time came +to be recognized as one of the real factors of the nation to mold +its principles and actually shape its policy, a daily illustration +of the might of a Christian press, and the first of a series of such +papers begun and carried on by other disciples who had also taken +the pledge. + +He saw Jasper Chase, who had denied his Master, growing into a cold, +cynical, formal life, writing novels that were social successes, but +each one with a sting in it, the reminder of his denial, the bitter +remorse that, do what he would, no social success could remove. + +He saw Rose Sterling, dependent for some years upon her aunt and +Felicia, finally married to a man far older than herself, accepting +the burden of a relation that had no love in it on her part, because +of her desire to be the wife of a rich man and enjoy the physical +luxuries that were all of life to her. Over this life also the +vision cast certain dark and awful shadows but they were not shown +in detail. + +He saw Felicia and Stephen Clyde happily married, living a beautiful +life together, enthusiastic, joyful in suffering, pouring out their +great, strong, fragrant service into the dull, dark, terrible places +of the great city, and redeeming souls through the personal touch of +their home, dedicated to the Human Homesickness all about them. + +He saw Dr. Bruce and the Bishop going on with the Settlement work. +He seemed to see the great blazing motto over the door enlarged, +"What would Jesus do?" and by this motto every one who entered the +Settlement walked in the steps of the Master. + +He saw Burns and his companion and a great company of men like them, +redeemed and giving in turn to others, conquering their passions by +the divine grace, and proving by their daily lives the reality of +the new birth even in the lowest and most abandoned. + +And now the vision was troubled. It seemed to him that as he kneeled +he began to pray, and the vision was more of a longing for a future +than a reality in the future. The church of Jesus in the city and +throughout the country! Would it follow Jesus? Was the movement +begun in Raymond to spend itself in a few churches like Nazareth +Avenue and the one where he had preached today, and then die away as +a local movement, a stirring on the surface but not to extend deep +and far? He felt with agony after the vision again. He thought he +saw the church of Jesus in America open its heart to the moving of +the Spirit and rise to the sacrifice of its ease and +self-satisfaction in the name of Jesus. He thought he saw the motto, +"What would Jesus do?" inscribed over every church door, and written +on every church member's heart. + +The vision vanished. It came back clearer than before, and he saw +the Endeavor Societies all over the world carrying in their great +processions at some mighty convention a banner on which was written, +"What would Jesus do?" And he thought in the faces of the young men +and women he saw future joy of suffering, loss, self-denial, +martyrdom. And when this part of the vision slowly faded, he saw the +figure of the Son of God beckoning to him and to all the other +actors in his life history. An Angel Choir somewhere was singing. +There was a sound as of many voices and a shout as of a great +victory. And the figure of Jesus grew more and more splendid. He +stood at the end of a long flight of steps. "Yes! Yes! O my Master, +has not the time come for this dawn of the millennium of Christian +history? Oh, break upon the Christendom of this age with the light +and the truth! Help us to follow Thee all the way!" + +He rose at last with the awe of one who has looked at heavenly +things. He felt the human forces and the human sins of the world as +never before. And with a hope that walks hand in hand with faith and +love Henry Maxwell, disciple of Jesus, laid him down to sleep and +dreamed of the regeneration of Christendom, and saw in his dream a +church of Jesus without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, following +him all the way, walking obediently in His steps. + + + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of In His Steps, by Charles M. Sheldon + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN HIS STEPS *** + +***** This file should be named 4540.txt or 4540.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/5/4/4540/ + +Produced by Charles Aldarondo. 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He had been interrupted several +times and was growing nervous as the morning wore away, and the +sermon grew very slowly toward a satisfactory finish. + +"Mary," he called to his wife, as he went upstairs after the last +interruption, "if any one comes after this, I wish you would say I +am very busy and cannot come down unless it is something very +important." + +"Yes, Henry. But I am going over to visit the kindergarten and you +will have the house all to yourself." + +The minister went up into his study and shut the door. In a few +minutes he heard his wife go out, and then everything was quiet. He +settled himself at his desk with a sigh of relief and began to +write. His text was from 1 Peter 2:21: "For hereunto were ye called; +because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that ye +should follow his steps." + +He had emphasized in the first part of the sermon the Atonement as a +personal sacrifice, calling attention to the fact of Jesus' +suffering in various ways, in His life as well as in His death. He +had then gone on to emphasize the Atonement from the side of +example, giving illustrations from the life and teachings of Jesus +to show how faith in the Christ helped to save men because of the +pattern or character He displayed for their imitation. He was now on +the third and last point, the necessity of following Jesus in His +sacrifice and example. + +He had put down "Three Steps. What are they?" and was about to +enumerate them in logical order when the bell rang sharply. It was +one of those clock-work bells, and always went off as a clock might +go if it tried to strike twelve all at once. + +Henry Maxwell sat at his desk and frowned a little. He made no +movement to answer the bell. Very soon it rang again; then he rose +and walked over to one of his windows which commanded the view of +the front door. A man was standing on the steps. He was a young man, +very shabbily dressed. + +"Looks like a tramp," said the minister. "I suppose I'll have to go +down and--" + +He did not finish his sentence but he went downstairs and opened the +front door. There was a moment's pause as the two men stood facing +each other, then the shabby-looking young man said: + +"I'm out of a job, sir, and thought maybe you might put me in the +way of getting something." + +"I don't know of anything. Jobs are scarce--" replied the minister, +beginning to shut the door slowly. + +"I didn't know but you might perhaps be able to give me a line to +the city railway or the superintendent of the shops, or something," +continued the young man, shifting his faded hat from one hand to the +other nervously. + +"It would be of no use. You will have to excuse me. I am very busy +this morning. I hope you will find something. Sorry I can't give you +something to do here. But I keep only a horse and a cow and do the +work myself." + +The Rev. Henry Maxwell closed the door and heard the man walk down +the steps. As he went up into his study he saw from his hall window +that the man was going slowly down the street, still holding his hat +between his hands. There was something in the figure so dejected, +homeless and forsaken that the minister hesitated a moment as he +stood looking at it. Then he turned to his desk and with a sigh +began the writing where he had left off. + +He had no more interruptions, and when his wife came in two hours +later the sermon was finished, the loose leaves gathered up and +neatly tied together, and laid on his Bible all ready for the Sunday +morning service. + +"A queer thing happened at the kindergarten this morning, Henry," +said his wife while they were eating dinner. "You know I went over +with Mrs, Brown to visit the school, and just after the games, while +the children were at the tables, the door opened and a young man +came in holding a dirty hat in both hands. He sat down near the door +and never said a word; only looked at the children. He was evidently +a tramp, and Miss Wren and her assistant Miss Kyle were a little +frightened at first, but he sat there very quietly and after a few +minutes he went out." + +"Perhaps he was tired and wanted to rest somewhere. The same man +called here, I think. Did you say he looked like a tramp?" + +"Yes, very dusty, shabby and generally tramp-like. Not more than +thirty or thirty-three years old, I should say." + +"The same man," said the Rev. Henry Maxwell thoughtfully. + +"Did you finish your sermon, Henry?" his wife asked after a pause. + +"Yes, all done. It has been a very busy week with me. The two +sermons have cost me a good deal of labor." + +"They will be appreciated by a large audience, Sunday, I hope," +replied his wife smiling. "What are you going to preach about in the +morning?" + +"Following Christ. I take up the Atonement under the head of +sacrifice and example, and then show the steps needed to follow His +sacrifice and example." + +"I am sure it is a good sermon. I hope it won't rain Sunday. We have +had so many stormy Sundays lately." + +"Yes, the audiences have been quite small for some time. People will +not come out to church in a storm." The Rev. Henry Maxwell sighed as +he said it. He was thinking of the careful, laborious effort he had +made in preparing sermons for large audiences that failed to appear. + +But Sunday morning dawned on the town of Raymond one of the perfect +days that sometimes come after long periods of wind and mud and +rain. The air was clear and bracing, the sky was free from all +threatening signs, and every one in Mr. Maxwell's parish prepared to +go to church. When the service opened at eleven o'clock the large +building was filled with an audience of the best-dressed, most +comfortable looking people of Raymond. + +The First Church of Raymond believed in having the best music that +money could buy, and its quartet choir this morning was a source of +great pleasure to the congregation. The anthem was inspiring. All +the music was in keeping with the subject of the sermon. And the +anthem was an elaborate adaptation to the most modern music of the +hymn, + + "Jesus, I my cross have taken, + All to leave and follow Thee." + +Just before the sermon, the soprano sang a solo, the well-known +hymn, + + "Where He leads me I will follow, + I'll go with Him, with Him, all the way." + +Rachel Winslow looked very beautiful that morning as she stood up +behind the screen of carved oak which was significantly marked with +the emblems of the cross and the crown. Her voice was even more +beautiful than her face, and that meant a great deal. There was a +general rustle of expectation over the audience as she rose. Mr. +Maxwell settled himself contentedly behind the pulpit. Rachel +Winslow's singing always helped him. He generally arranged for a +song before the sermon. It made possible a certain inspiration of +feeling that made his delivery more impressive. + +People said to themselves they had never heard such singing even in +the First Church. It is certain that if it had not been a church +service, her solo would have been vigorously applauded. It even +seemed to the minister when she sat down that something like an +attempted clapping of hands or a striking of feet on the floor swept +through the church. He was startled by it. As he rose, however, and +laid his sermon on the Bible, he said to himself he had been +deceived. Of course it could not occur. In a few moments he was +absorbed in his sermon and everything else was forgotten in the +pleasure of his delivery. + +No one had ever accused Henry Maxwell of being a dull preacher. On +the contrary, he had often been charged with being sensational; not +in what he had said so much as in his way of saying it. But the +First Church people liked that. It gave their preacher and their +parish a pleasant distinction that was agreeable. + +It was also true that the pastor of the First Church loved to +preach. He seldom exchanged. He was eager to be in his own pulpit +when Sunday came. There was an exhilarating half hour for him as he +faced a church full of people and know that he had a hearing. He was +peculiarly sensitive to variations in the attendance. He never +preached well before a small audience. The weather also affected him +decidedly. He was at his best before just such an audience as faced +him now, on just such a morning. He felt a glow of satisfaction as +he went on. The church was the first in the city. It had the best +choir. It had a membership composed of the leading people, +representatives of the wealth, society and intelligence of Raymond. +He was going abroad on a three months vacation in the summer, and +the circumstances of his pastorate, his influence and his position +as pastor of the First Church in the city-- + +It is not certain that the Rev. Henry Maxwell knew just how he could +carry on that thought in connection with his sermon, but as he drew +near the end of it he knew that he had at some point in his delivery +had all those feelings. They had entered into the very substance of +his thought; it might have been all in a few seconds of time, but he +had been conscious of defining his position and his emotions as well +as if he had held a soliloquy, and his delivery partook of the +thrill of deep personal satisfaction. + +The sermon was interesting. It was full of striking sentences. They +would have commanded attention printed. Spoken with the passion of a +dramatic utterance that had the good taste never to offend with a +suspicion of ranting or declamation, they were very effective. If +the Rev. Henry Maxwell that morning felt satisfied with the +conditions of his pastorate, the First Church also had a similar +feeling as it congratulated itself on the presence in the pulpit of +this scholarly, refined, somewhat striking face and figure, +preaching with such animation and freedom from all vulgar, noisy or +disagreeable mannerism. + +Suddenly, into the midst of this perfect accord and concord between +preacher and audience, there came a very remarkable interruption. It +would be difficult to indicate the extent of the shock which this +interruption measured. It was so unexpected, so entirely contrary to +any thought of any person present that it offered no room for +argument or, for the time being, of resistance. + +The sermon had come to a close. Mr. Maxwell had just turned the half +of the big Bible over upon his manuscript and was about to sit down +as the quartet prepared to arise to sing the closing selection, + + "All for Jesus, all for Jesus, + All my being's ransomed powers..." + +when the entire congregation was startled by the sound of a man's +voice. It came from the rear of the church, from one of the seats +under the gallery. The next moment the figure of a man came out of +the shadow there and walked down the middle aisle. + +Before the startled congregation fairly realized what was going on +the man had reached the open space in front of the pulpit and had +turned about facing the people. + +"I've been wondering since I came in here"--they were the words he +used under the gallery, and he repeated them--"if it would be just +the thing to say a word at the close of the service. I'm not drunk +and I'm not crazy, and I am perfectly harmless, but if I die, as +there is every likelihood I shall in a few days, I want the +satisfaction of thinking that I said my say in a place like this, +and before this sort of a crowd." + +Henry Maxwell had not taken his seat, and he now remained standing, +leaning on his pulpit, looking down at the stranger. It was the man +who had come to his house the Friday before, the same dusty, worn, +shabby-looking young man. He held his faded hat in his two hands. It +seemed to be a favorite gesture. He had not been shaved and his hair +was rough and tangled. It is doubtful if any one like this had ever +confronted the First Church within the sanctuary. It was tolerably +familiar with this sort of humanity out on the street, around the +railroad shops, wandering up and down the avenue, but it had never +dreamed of such an incident as this so near. + +There was nothing offensive in the man's manner or tone. He was not +excited and he spoke in a low but distinct voice. Mr. Maxwell was +conscious, even as he stood there smitten into dumb astonishment at +the event, that somehow the man's action reminded him of a person he +had once seen walking and talking in his sleep. + +No one in the house made any motion to stop the stranger or in any +way interrupt him. Perhaps the first shock of his sudden appearance +deepened into a genuine perplexity concerning what was best to do. +However that may be, he went on as if he had no thought of +interruption and no thought of the unusual element which he had +introduced into the decorum of the First Church service. And all the +while he was speaking, the minister leaded over the pulpit, his face +growing more white and sad every moment. But he made no movement to +stop him, and the people sat smitten into breathless silence. One +other face, that of Rachel Winslow from the choir, stared white and +intent down at the shabby figure with the faded hat. Her face was +striking at any time. Under the pressure of the present unheard-of +incident it was as personally distinct as if it had been framed in +fire. + +"I'm not an ordinary tramp, though I don't know of any teaching of +Jesus that makes one kind of a tramp less worth saving than another. +Do you?" He put the question as naturally as if the whole +congregation had been a small Bible class. He paused just a moment +and coughed painfully. Then he went on. + +"I lost my job ten months ago. I am a printer by trade. The new +linotype machines are beautiful specimens of invention, but I know +six men who have killed themselves inside of the year just on +account of those machines. Of course I don't blame the newspapers +for getting the machines. Meanwhile, what can a man do? I know I +never learned but the one trade, and that's all I can do. I've +tramped all over the country trying to find something. There are a +good many others like me. I'm not complaining, am I? Just stating +facts. But I was wondering as I sat there under the gallery, if what +you call following Jesus is the same thing as what He taught. What +did He mean when He said: 'Follow Me!'? The minister said,"--here he +turned about and looked up at the pulpit--"that it is necessary for +the disciple of Jesus to follow His steps, and he said the steps are +'obedience, faith, love and imitation.' But I did not hear him tell +you just what he meant that to mean, especially the last step. What +do you Christians mean by following the steps of Jesus? + +"I've tramped through this city for three days trying to find a job; +and in all that time I've not had a word of sympathy or comfort +except from your minister here, who said he was sorry for me and +hoped I would find a job somewhere. I suppose it is because you get +so imposed on by the professional tramp that you have lost your +interest in any other sort. I'm not blaming anybody, am I? Just +stating facts. Of course, I understand you can't all go out of your +way to hunt up jobs for other people like me. I'm not asking you to; +but what I feel puzzled about is, what is meant by following Jesus. +What do you mean when you sing 'I'll go with Him, with Him, all the +way?' Do you mean that you are suffering and denying yourselves and +trying to save lost, suffering humanity just as I understand Jesus +did? What do you mean by it? I see the ragged edge of things a good +deal. I understand there are more than five hundred men in this city +in my case. Most of them have families. My wife died four months +ago. I'm glad she is out of trouble. My little girl is staying with +a printer's family until I find a job. Somehow I get puzzled when I +see so many Christians living in luxury and singing 'Jesus, I my +cross have taken, all to leave and follow Thee,' and remember how my +wife died in a tenement in New York City, gasping for air and asking +God to take the little girl too. Of course I don't expect you people +can prevent every one from dying of starvation, lack of proper +nourishment and tenement air, but what does following Jesus mean? I +understand that Christian people own a good many of the tenements. A +member of a church was the owner of the one where my wife died, and +I have wondered if following Jesus all the way was true in his case. +I heard some people singing at a church prayer meeting the other +night, + + 'All for Jesus, all for Jesus, + All my being's ransomed powers, + All my thoughts, and all my doings, + All my days, and all my hours.' + +and I kept wondering as I sat on the steps outside just what they +meant by it. It seems to me there's an awful lot of trouble in the +world that somehow wouldn't exist if all the people who sing such +songs went and lived them out. I suppose I don't understand. But +what would Jesus do? Is that what you mean by following His steps? +It seems to me sometimes as if the people in the big churches had +good clothes and nice houses to live in, and money to spend for +luxuries, and could go away on summer vacations and all that, while +the people outside the churches, thousands of them, I mean, die in +tenements, and walk the streets for jobs, and never have a piano or +a picture in the house, and grow up in misery and drunkenness and +sin." + +The man suddenly gave a queer lurch over in the direction of the +communion table and laid one grimy hand on it. His hat fell upon the +carpet at his feet. A stir went through the congregation. Dr. West +half rose from his pew, but as yet the silence was unbroken by any +voice or movement worth mentioning in the audience. The man passed +his other hand across his eyes, and then, without any warning, fell +heavily forward on his face, full length up the aisle. Henry Maxwell +spoke: + +"We will consider the service closed." + + + + + + +Chapter Two + + + + + +Henry Maxwell and a group of his church members remained some time +in the study. The man lay on the couch there and breathed heavily. +When the question of what to do with him came up, the minister +insisted on taking the man to his own house; he lived near by and +had an extra room. Rachel Winslow said: + +"Mother has no company at present. I am sure we would be glad to +give him a place with us." + +She looked strongly agitated. No one noticed it particularly. They +were all excited over the strange event, the strangest that First +Church people could remember. But the minister insisted on taking +charge of the man, and when a carriage came the unconscious but +living form was carried to his house; and with the entrance of that +humanity into the minister's spare room a new chapter in Henry +Maxwell's life began, and yet no one, himself least of all, dreamed +of the remarkable change it was destined to make in all his after +definition of the Christian discipleship. + +The event created a great sensation in the First Church parish. +People talked of nothing else for a week. It was the general +impression that the man had wandered into the church in a condition +of mental disturbance caused by his troubles, and that all the time +he was talking he was in a strange delirium of fever and really +ignorant of his surroundings. That was the most charitable +construction to put upon his action. It was the general agreement +also that there was a singular absence of anything bitter or +complaining in what the man had said. He had, throughout, spoken in +a mild, apologetic tone, almost as if he were one of the +congregation seeking for light on a very difficult subject. + +The third day after his removal to the minister's house there was a +marked change in his condition. The doctor spoke of it but offered +no hope. Saturday morning he still lingered, although he had rapidly +failed as the week drew near its close. Sunday morning, just before +the clock struck one, he rallied and asked if his child had come. +The minister had sent for her at once as soon as he had been able to +secure her address from some letters found in the man's pocket. He +had been conscious and able to talk coherently only a few moments +since his attack. + +"The child is coming. She will be here," Mr. Maxwell said as he sat +there, his face showing marks of the strain of the week's vigil; for +he had insisted on sitting up nearly every night. + +"I shall never see her in this world," the man whispered. Then he +uttered with great difficulty the words, "You have been good to me. +Somehow I feel as if it was what Jesus would do." + +After a few minutes he turned his head slightly, and before Mr. +Maxwell could realize the fact, the doctor said quietly, "He is +gone." + +The Sunday morning that dawned on the city of Raymond was exactly +like the Sunday of a week before. Mr. Maxwell entered his pulpit to +face one of the largest congregations that had ever crowded the +First Church. He was haggard and looked as if he had just risen from +a long illness. His wife was at home with the little girl, who had +come on the morning train an hour after her father had died. He lay +in that spare room, his troubles over, and the minister could see +the face as he opened the Bible and arranged his different notices +on the side of the desk as he had been in the habit of doing for ten +years. + +The service that morning contained a new element. No one could +remember when Henry Maxwell had preached in the morning without +notes. As a matter of fact he had done so occasionally when he first +entered the ministry, but for a long time he had carefully written +every word of his morning sermon, and nearly always his evening +discourses as well. It cannot be said that his sermon this morning +was striking or impressive. He talked with considerable hesitation. +It was evident that some great idea struggled in his thought for +utterance, but it was not expressed in the theme he had chosen for +his preaching. It was near the close of his sermon that he began to +gather a certain strength that had been painfully lacking at the +beginning. + +He closed the Bible and, stepping out at the side of the desk, faced +his people and began to talk to them about the remarkable scene of +the week before. + +"Our brother," somehow the words sounded a little strange coming +from his lips, "passed away this morning. I have not yet had time to +learn all his history. He had one sister living in Chicago. I have +written her and have not yet received an answer. His little girl is +with us and will remain for the time." + +He paused and looked over the house. He thought he had never seen so +many earnest faces during his entire pastorate. He was not able yet +to tell his people his experiences, the crisis through which he was +even now moving. But something of his feeling passed from him to +them, and it did not seem to him that he was acting under a careless +impulse at all to go on and break to them this morning something of +the message he bore in his heart. + +So he went on: "The appearance and words of this stranger in the +church last Sunday made a very powerful impression on me. I am not +able to conceal from you or myself the fact that what he said, +followed as it has been by his death in my house, has compelled me +to ask as I never asked before 'What does following Jesus mean?' I +am not in a position yet to utter any condemnation of this people +or, to a certain extent, of myself, either in our Christ-like +relations to this man or the numbers that he represents in the +world. But all that does not prevent me from feeling that much that +the man said was so vitally true that we must face it in an attempt +to answer it or else stand condemned as Christian disciples. A good +deal that was said here last Sunday was in the nature of a challenge +to Christianity as it is seen and felt in our churches. I have felt +this with increasing emphasis every day since. + +"And I do not know that any time is more appropriate than the +present for me to propose a plan, or a purpose, which has been +forming in my mind as a satisfactory reply to much that was said +here last Sunday." + +Again Henry Maxwell paused and looked into the faces of his people. +There were some strong, earnest men and women in the First Church. + +He could see Edward Norman, editor of the Raymond DAILY NEWS. He had +been a member of the First Church for ten years. + +No man was more honored in the community. There was Alexander +Powers, superintendent of the great railroad shops in Raymond, a +typical railroad man, one who had been born into the business. There +sat Donald Marsh, president of Lincoln College, situated in the +suburbs of Raymond. There was Milton Wright, one of the great +merchants of Raymond, having in his employ at least one hundred men +in various shops. There was Dr. West who, although still +comparatively young, was quoted as authority in special surgical +cases. There was young Jasper Chase the author, who had written one +successful book and was said to be at work on a new novel. There was +Miss Virginia Page the heiress, who through the recent death of her +father had inherited a million at least, and was gifted with unusual +attractions of person and intellect. And not least of all, Rachel +Winslow, from her seat in the choir, glowed with her peculiar beauty +of light this morning because she was so intensely interested in the +whole scene. + +There was some reason, perhaps, in view of such material in the +First Church, for Henry Maxwell's feeling of satisfaction whenever +he considered his parish as he had the previous Sunday. There was an +unusually large number of strong, individual characters who claimed +membership there. But as he noted their faces this morning he was +simply wondering how many of them would respond to the strange +proposition he was about to make. He continued slowly, taking time +to choose his words carefully, and giving the people an impression +they had never felt before, even when he was at his best with his +most dramatic delivery. + +"What I am going to propose now is something which ought not to +appear unusual or at all impossible of execution. Yet I am aware +that it will be so regarded by a large number, perhaps, of the +members of this church. But in order that we may have a thorough +understanding of what we are considering, I will put my proposition +very plainly, perhaps bluntly. I want volunteers from the First +Church who will pledge themselves, earnestly and honestly for an +entire year, not to do anything without first asking the question, +'What would Jesus do?' And after asking that question, each one will +follow Jesus as exactly as he knows how, no matter what the result +may be. I will of course include myself in this company of +volunteers, and shall take for granted that my church here will not +be surprised at my future conduct, as based upon this standard of +action, and will not oppose whatever is done if they think Christ +would do it. Have I made my meaning clear? At the close of the +service I want all those members who are willing to join such a +company to remain and we will talk over the details of the plan. Our +motto will be, 'What would Jesus do?' Our aim will be to act just as +He would if He was in our places, regardless of immediate results. +In other words, we propose to follow Jesus' steps as closely and as +literally as we believe He taught His disciples to do. And those who +volunteer to do this will pledge themselves for an entire year, +beginning with today, so to act." + +Henry Maxwell paused again and looked out over his people. It is not +easy to describe the sensation that such a simple proposition +apparently made. Men glanced at one another in astonishment. It was +not like Henry Maxwell to define Christian discipleship in this way. +There was evident confusion of thought over his proposition. It was +understood well enough, but there was, apparently, a great +difference of opinion as to the application of Jesus' teaching and +example. + +He calmly closed the service with a brief prayer. The organist began +his postlude immediately after the benediction and the people began +to go out. There was a great deal of conversation. Animated groups +stood all over the church discussing the minister's proposition. It +was evidently provoking great discussion. After several minutes he +asked all who expected to remain to pass into the lecture-room which +joined the large room on the side. He was himself detained at the +front of the church talking with several persons there, and when he +finally turned around, the church was empty. He walked over to the +lecture-room entrance and went in. He was almost startled to see the +people who were there. He had not made up his mind about any of his +members, but he had hardly expected that so many were ready to enter +into such a literal testing of their Christian discipleship as now +awaited him. There were perhaps fifty present, among them Rachel +Winslow and Virginia Page, Mr. Norman, President Marsh, Alexander +Powers the railroad superintendent, Milton Wright, Dr. West and +Jasper Chase. + +He closed the door of the lecture-room and went and stood before the +little group. His face was pale and his lips trembled with genuine +emotion. It was to him a genuine crisis in his own life and that of +his parish. No man can tell until he is moved by the Divine Spirit +what he may do, or how he may change the current of a lifetime of +fixed habits of thought and speech and action. Henry Maxwell did +not, as we have said, yet know himself all that he was passing +through, but he was conscious of a great upheaval in his definition +of Christian discipleship, and he was moved with a depth of feeling +he could not measure as he looked into the faces of those men and +women on this occasion. + +It seemed to him that the most fitting word to be spoken first was +that of prayer. He asked them all to pray with him. And almost with +the first syllable he uttered there was a distinct presence of the +Spirit felt by them all. As the prayer went on, this presence grew +in power. They all felt it. The room was filled with it as plainly +as if it had been visible. When the prayer closed there was a +silence that lasted several moments. All the heads were bowed. Henry +Maxwell's face was wet with tears. If an audible voice from heaven +had sanctioned their pledge to follow the Master's steps, not one +person present could have felt more certain of the divine blessing. +And so the most serious movement ever started in the First Church of +Raymond was begun. + +"We all understand," said he, speaking very quietly, "what we have +undertaken to do. We pledge ourselves to do everything in our daily +lives after asking the question, 'What would Jesus do?' regardless +of what may be the result to us. Some time I shall be able to tell +you what a marvelous change has come over my life within a week's +time. I cannot now. But the experience I have been through since +last Sunday has left me so dissatisfied with my previous definition +of Christian discipleship that I have been compelled to take this +action. I did not dare begin it alone. I know that I am being led by +the hand of divine love in all this. The same divine impulse must +have led you also. + +"Do we understand fully what we have undertaken?" + +"I want to ask a question," said Rachel Winslow. Every one turned +towards her. Her face glowed with a beauty that no physical +loveliness could ever create. + +"I am a little in doubt as to the source of our knowledge concerning +what Jesus would do. Who is to decide for me just what He would do +in my case? It is a different age. There are many perplexing +questions in our civilization that are not mentioned in the +teachings of Jesus. How am I going to tell what He would do?" + +"There is no way that I know of," replied the pastor, "except as we +study Jesus through the medium of the Holy Spirit. You remember what +Christ said speaking to His disciples about the Holy Spirit: +"Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall guide you +into all the truth: for he shall not speak from himself; but what +things soever he shall hear, these shall he speak: and he shall +declare unto you the things that are to come. He shall glorify me; +for he shall take of mine, and shall declare it unto you. All things +whatsoever the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he +taketh of mine, and shall declare it unto you.' There is no other +test that I know of. We shall all have to decide what Jesus would do +after going to that source of knowledge." + +"What if others say of us, when we do certain things, that Jesus +would not do so?" asked the superintendent of railroads. + +"We cannot prevent that. But we must be absolutely honest with +ourselves. The standard of Christian action cannot vary in most of +our acts." + +"And yet what one church member thinks Jesus would do, another +refuses to accept as His probable course of action. What is to +render our conduct uniformly Christ-like? Will it be possible to +reach the same conclusions always in all cases?" asked President +Marsh. + +Mr. Maxwell was silent some time. Then he answered, "No; I don't +know that we can expect that. But when it comes to a genuine, +honest, enlightened following of Jesus' steps, I cannot believe +there will be any confusion either in our own minds or in the +judgment of others. We must be free from fanaticism on one hand and +too much caution on the other. If Jesus' example is the example for +the world to follow, it certainly must be feasible to follow it. But +we need to remember this great fact. After we have asked the Spirit +to tell us what Jesus would do and have received an answer to it, we +are to act regardless of the results to ourselves. Is that +understood?" + +All the faces in the room were raised towards the minister in solemn +assent. There was no misunderstanding that proposition. Henry +Maxwell's face quivered again as he noted the president of the +Endeavor Society with several members seated back of the older men +and women. + + + + + + +Chapter Three + + + + + +"He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also to walk even as +He walked." + +EDWARD NORMAN, editor Of the Raymond DAILY NEWS, sat in his office +room Monday morning and faced a new world of action. He had made his +pledge in good faith to do everything after asking "What would Jesus +do?" and, as he supposed, with his eyes open to all the possible +results. But as the regular life of the paper started on another +week's rush and whirl of activity, he confronted it with a degree of +hesitation and a feeling nearly akin to fear. + +He had come down to the office very early, and for a few minutes was +by himself. He sat at his desk in a growing thoughtfulness that +finally became a desire which he knew was as great as it was +unusual. He had yet to learn, with all the others in that little +company pledged to do the Christlike thing, that the Spirit of Life +was moving in power through his own life as never before. He rose +and shut his door, and then did what he had not done for years. He +kneeled down by his desk and prayed for the Divine Presence and +wisdom to direct him. + +He rose with the day before him, and his promise distinct and clear +in his mind. "Now for action," he seemed to say. But he would be led +by events as fast as they came on. + +He opened his door and began the routine of the office work. The +managing editor had just come in and was at his desk in the +adjoining room. One of the reporters there was pounding out +something on a typewriter. Edward Norman began to write an +editorial. The DAILY NEWS was an evening paper, and Norman usually +completed his leading editorial before nine o'clock. + +He had been writing for fifteen minutes when the managing editor +called out: "Here's this press report of yesterday's prize fight at +the Resort. It will make up three columns and a half. I suppose it +all goes in?" + +Norman was one of those newspaper men who keep an eye on every +detail of the paper. The managing editor always consulted his chief +in matters of both small and large importance. Sometimes, as in this +case, it was merely a nominal inquiry. + +"Yes--No. Let me see it." + +He took the type-written matter just as it came from the telegraph +editor and ran over it carefully. Then he laid the sheets down on +his desk and did some very hard thinking. + +"We won't run this today," he said finally. + +The managing editor was standing in the doorway between the two +rooms. He was astounded at his chief's remark, and thought he had +perhaps misunderstood him. + +"What did you say?" + +"Leave it out. We won't use it." + +"But" The managing editor was simply dumbfounded. He stared at +Norman as if the man was out of his mind. + +"I don't think, Clark, that it ought to be printed, and that's the +end of it," said Norman, looking up from his desk. + +Clark seldom had any words with the chief. His word had always been +law in the office and he had seldom been known to change his mind. +The circumstances now, however, seemed to be so extraordinary that +Clark could not help expressing himself. + +"Do you mean that the paper is to go to press without a word of the +prize fight in it?" + +"Yes. That's what I mean." + +"But it's unheard of. All the other papers will print it. What will +our subscribers say? Why, it is simply--" Clark paused, unable to +find words to say what he thought. + +Norman looked at Clark thoughtfully. The managing editor was a +member of a church of a different denomination from that of +Norman's. The two men had never talked together on religious matters +although they had been associated on the paper for several years. + +"Come in here a minute, Clark, and shut the door," said Norman. + +Clark came in and the two men faced each other alone. Norman did not +speak for a minute. Then he said abruptly: "Clark, if Christ was +editor of a daily paper, do you honestly think He would print three +columns and a half of prize fight in it?" + +"No, I don't suppose He would." + +"Well, that's my only reason for shutting this account out of the +NEWS. I have decided not to do a thing in connection with the paper +for a whole year that I honestly believe Jesus would not do." + +Clark could not have looked more amazed if the chief had suddenly +gone crazy. In fact, he did think something was wrong, though Mr. +Norman was one of the last men in the world, in his judgment, to +lose his mind. + +"What effect will that have on the paper?" he finally managed to ask +in a faint voice. + +"What do you think?" asked Norman with a keen glance. + +"I think it will simply ruin the paper," replied Clark promptly. He +was gathering up his bewildered senses, and began to remonstrate, +"Why, it isn't feasible to run a paper nowadays on any such basis. +It's too ideal. The world isn't ready for it. You can't make it pay. +Just as sure as you live, if you shut out this prize fight report +you will lose hundreds of subscribers. It doesn't take a prophet to +see that. The very best people in town are eager to read it. They +know it has taken place, and when they get the paper this evening +they will expect half a page at least. Surely, you can't afford to +disregard the wishes of the public to such an extent. It will be a +great mistake if you do, in my opinion." + +Norman sat silent a minute. Then he spoke gently but firmly. + +"Clark, what in your honest opinion is the right standard for +determining conduct? Is the only right standard for every one, the +probable action of Jesus Christ? Would you say that the highest, +best law for a man to live by was contained in asking the question, +What would Jesus do?' And then doing it regardless of results? In +other words, do you think men everywhere ought to follow Jesus' +example as closely as they can in their daily lives?" Clark turned +red, and moved uneasily in his chair before he answered the editor's +question. + +"Why--yes--I suppose if you put it on the ground of what men ought +to do there is no other standard of conduct. But the question is, +What is feasible? Is it possible to make it pay? To succeed in the +newspaper business we have got to conform to custom and the +recognized methods of society. We can't do as we would in an ideal +world." + +"Do you mean that we can't run the paper strictly on Christian +principles and make it succeed?" + +"Yes, that's just what I mean. It can't be done. We'll go bankrupt +in thirty days." + +Norman did not reply at once. He was very thoughtful. + +"We shall have occasion to talk this over again, Clark. Meanwhile I +think we ought to understand each other frankly. I have pledged +myself for a year to do everything connected with the paper after +answering the question, What would Jesus do?' as honestly as +possible. I shall continue to do this in the belief that not only +can we succeed but that we can succeed better than we ever did." + +Clark rose. "The report does not go in?" + +"It does not. There is plenty of good material to take its place, +and you know what it is." + +Clark hesitated. "Are you going to say anything about the absence of +the report?" + +"No, let the paper go to press as if there had been no such thing as +a prize fight yesterday." + +Clark walked out of the room to his own desk feeling as if the +bottom had dropped out of everything. He was astonished, bewildered, +excited and considerably angered. His great respect for Norman +checked his rising indignation and disgust, but with it all was a +feeling of growing wonder at the sudden change of motive which had +entered the office of the DAILY NEWS and threatened, as he firmly +believed, to destroy it. + +Before noon every reporter, pressman and employee on the DAILY NEWS +was informed of the remarkable fact that the paper was going to +press without a word in it about the famous prize fight of Sunday. +The reporters were simply astonished beyond measure at the +announcement of the fact. Every one in the stereotyping and +composing rooms had something to say about the unheard of omission. +Two or three times during the day when Mr. Norman had occasion to +visit the composing rooms the men stopped their work or glanced +around their cases looking at him curiously. He knew that he was +being observed, but said nothing and did not appear to note it. + +There had been several minor changes in the paper, suggested by the +editor, but nothing marked. He was waiting and thinking deeply. + +He felt as if he needed time and considerable opportunity for the +exercise of his best judgment in several matters before he answered +his ever present question in the right way. It was not because there +were not a great many things in the life of the paper that were +contrary to the spirit of Christ that he did not act at once, but +because he was yet honestly in doubt concerning what action Jesus +would take. + +When the DAILY NEWS came out that evening it carried to its +subscribers a distinct sensation. + +The presence of the report of the prize fight could not have +produced anything equal to the effect of its omission. Hundreds of +men in the hotels and stores down town, as well as regular +subscribers, eagerly opened the paper and searched it through for +the account of the great fight; not finding it, they rushed to the +NEWS stands and bought other papers. Even the newsboys had not a +understood the fact of omission. One of them was calling out "DAILY +NEWS! Full 'count great prize fight 't Resort. NEWS, sir?" + +A man on the corner of the avenue close by the NEWS office bought +the paper, looked over its front page hurriedly and then angrily +called the boy back. + +"Here, boy! What's the matter with your paper? There's no prize +fight here! What do you mean by selling old papers?" + +"Old papers nuthin'!" replied the boy indignantly. "Dat's today's +paper. What's de matter wid you?" + +"But there is no account of the prize fight here! Look!" + +The man handed back the paper and the boy glanced at k hurriedly. +Then he whistled, while a bewildered look crept over his face. +Seeing another boy running by with papers he called out "Say, Sam, +le'me see your pile." A hasty examination revealed the remarkable +fact that all the copies of the NEWS were silent on the subject of +the prize fight. + +"Here, give me another paper!" shouted the customer; "one with the +prize fight account." + +He received it and walked off, while the two boys remained comparing +notes and lost in wonder at the result. "Sump'n slipped a cog in the +Newsy, sure," said the first boy. But he couldn't tell why, and ran +over to the NEWS office to find out. + +There were several other boys at the delivery room and they were all +excited and disgusted. The amount of slangy remonstrance hurled at +the clerk back of the long counter would have driven any one else to +despair. + +He was used to more or less of it all the time, and consequently +hardened to it. Mr. Norman was just coming downstairs on his way +home, and he paused as he went by the door of the delivery room and +looked in. + +"What's the matter here, George?" he asked the clerk as he noted the +unusual confusion. + +"The boys say they can't sell any copies of the NEWS tonight because +the prize fight isn't in it," replied George, looking curiously at +the editor as so many of the employees had done during the day. Mr. +Norman hesitated a moment, then walked into the room and confronted +the boys. + +"How many papers are there here? Boys, count them out, and I'll buy +them tonight." + +There was a combined stare and a wild counting of papers on the part +of the boys. + +"Give them their money, George, and if any of the other boys come in +with the same complaint buy their unsold copies. Is that fair?" he +asked the boys who were smitten into unusual silence by the unheard +of action on the part of the editor. + +"Fair! Well, I should--But will you keep this up? Will dis be a +continual performance for the benefit of de fraternity?" + +Mr. Norman smiled slightly but he did not think it was necessary to +answer the question. + +He walked out of the office and went home. On the way he could not +avoid that constant query, "Would Jesus have done it?" It was not so +much with reference to this last transaction as to the entire motive +that had urged him on since he had made the promise. + +The newsboys were necessarily sufferers through the action he had +taken. Why should they lose money by it? They were not to blame. He +was a rich man and could afford to put a little brightness into +their lives if he chose to do it. He believed, as he went on his way +home, that Jesus would have done either what he did or something +similar in order to be free from any possible feeling of injustice. + + + + + + +Chapter Four + + + + + +DURING the week he was in receipt of numerous letters commenting on +the absence from the News of the account of the prize fight. Two or +three of these letters may be of interest. + +Editor of the News: + +Dear Sir--I have been thinking for some time of changing my paper. I +want a journal that is up to the times, progressive and +enterprising, supplying the public demand at all points. The recent +freak of your paper in refusing to print the account of the famous +contest at the Resort has decided me finally to change my paper. + +Please discontinue it. + +Very truly yours,------- + +Here followed the name of a business man who had been a subscriber +for many years. + +Edward Norman, + +Editor of the Daily News, Raymond: + +Dear Ed.--What is this sensation you have given the people of your +burg? What new policy have you taken up? Hope you don't intend to +try the "Reform Business" through the avenue of the press. It's +dangerous to experiment much along that line. Take my advice and +stick to the enterprising modern methods you have made so successful +for the News. The public wants prize fights and such. Give it what +it wants, and let some one else do the reforming business. + +Yours,------- + +Here followed the name of one of Norman's old friends, the editor of +a daily in an adjoining town. + +My Dear Mr. Norman: + +I hasten to write you a note of appreciation for the evident +carrying out of your promise. It is a splendid beginning and no one +feels the value of it more than I do. I know something of what it +will cost you, but not all. Your pastor, + +HENRY MAXWELL. + +One other letter which he opened immediately after reading this from +Maxwell revealed to him something of the loss to his business that +possibly awaited him. + +Mr. Edward Norman, + +Editor of the Daily News: + +Dear Sir--At the expiration of my advertising limit, you will do me +the favor not to continue it as you have done heretofore. I enclose +check for payment in full and shall consider my account with your +paper closed after date. + +Very truly yours,------- + +Here followed the name of one of the largest dealers in tobacco in +the city. He had been in the habit of inserting a column of +conspicuous advertising and paying for it a very large price. + +Norman laid this letter down thoughtfully, and then after a moment +he took up a copy of his paper and looked through the advertising +columns. There was no connection implied in the tobacco merchant's +letter between the omission of the prize fight and the withdrawal of +the advertisement, but he could not avoid putting the two together. +In point of fact, he afterward learned that the tobacco dealer +withdrew his advertisement because he had heard that the editor of +the NEWS was about to enter upon some queer reform policy that would +be certain to reduce its subscription list. + +But the letter directed Norman's attention to the advertising phase +of his paper. He had not considered this before. + +As he glanced over the columns he could not escape the conviction +that his Master could not permit some of them in his paper. + +What would He do with that other long advertisement of choice +liquors and cigars? As a member of a church and a respected citizen, +he had incurred no special censure because the saloon men advertised +in his columns. No one thought anything about it. It was all +legitimate business. Why not? Raymond enjoyed a system of high +license, and the saloon and the billiard hall and the beer garden +were a part of the city's Christian civilization. He was simply +doing what every other business man in Raymond did. And it was one +of the best paying sources of revenue. What would the paper do if it +cut these out? Could it live? That was the question. But was that +the question after all? "What would Jesus do?" That was the question +he was answering, or trying to answer, this week. Would Jesus +advertise whiskey and tobacco in his paper? + +Edward Norman asked it honestly, and after a prayer for help and +wisdom he asked Clark to come into the office. + +Clark came in, feeling that the paper was at a crisis, and prepared +for almost anything after his Monday morning experience. This was +Thursday. + +"Clark," said Norman, speaking slowly and carefully, "I have been +looking at our advertising columns and have decided to dispense with +some of the matter as soon as the contracts run out. I wish you +would notify the advertising agent not to solicit or renew the ads +that I have marked here." + +He handed the paper with the marked places over to Clark, who took +it and looked over the columns with a very serious air. + +"This will mean a great loss to the NEWS. How long do you think you +can keep this sort of thing up?" Clark was astounded at the editor's +action and could not understand it. + +"Clark, do you think if Jesus was the editor and proprietor of a +daily paper in Raymond He would permit advertisements of whiskey and +tobacco in it?" + +"Well no--I--don't suppose He would. But what has that to do with +us? We can't do as He would. Newspapers can't be run on any such +basis." + +"Why not?" asked Norman quietly. + +"Why not? Because they will lose more money than they make, that's +all!" Clark spoke out with an irritation that he really felt. "We +shall certainly bankrupt the paper with this sort of business +policy." + +"Do you think so?" Norman asked the question not as if he expected +an answer, but simply as if he were talking with himself. After a +pause he said: + +"You may direct Marks to do as I have said. I believe it is what +Christ would do, and as I told you, Clark, that is what I have +promised to try to do for a year, regardless of what the results may +be to me. I cannot believe that by any kind of reasoning we could +reach a conclusion justifying our Lord in the advertisement, in this +age, of whiskey and tobacco in a newspaper. There are some other +advertisements of a doubtful character I shall study into. +Meanwhile, I feel a conviction in regard to these that cannot be +silenced." + +Clark went back to his desk feeling as if he had been in the +presence of a very peculiar person. He could not grasp the meaning +of it all. He felt enraged and alarmed. He was sure any such policy +would ruin the paper as soon as it became generally known that the +editor was trying to do everything by such an absurd moral standard. +What would become of business if this standard was adopted? It would +upset every custom and introduce endless confusion. It was simply +foolishness. It was downright idiocy. So Clark said to himself, and +when Marks was informed of the action he seconded the managing +editor with some very forcible ejaculations. What was the matter +with the chief? Was he insane? Was he going to bankrupt the whole +business? + +But Edward Norman had not yet faced his most serious problem. When +he came down to the office Friday morning he was confronted with the +usual program for the Sunday morning edition. The NEWS was one one +of the few evening papers in Raymond to issue a Sunday edition, and +it had always been remarkably successful financially. There was an +average of one page of literary and religious items to thirty or +forty pages of sport, theatre, gossip, fashion, society and +political material. This made a very interesting magazine of all +sorts of reading matter, and had always been welcomed by all the +subscribers, church members and all, as a Sunday morning necessity. +Edward Norman now faced this fact and put to himself the question: +"What would Jesus do?" If He was editor of a paper, would he +deliberately plan to put into the homes of all the church people and +Christians of Raymond such a collection of reading matter on the one +day in the week which ought to be given up to something better +holier? He was of course familiar with the regular arguments of the +Sunday paper, that the public needed something of the sort; and the +working man especially, who would not go to church any way, ought to +have something entertaining and instructive on Sunday, his only day +of rest. But suppose the Sunday morning paper did not pay? Suppose +there was no money in it? How eager would the editor or publisher be +then to supply this crying need of the poor workman? Edward Norman +communed honestly with himself over the subject. + +Taking everything into account, would Jesus probably edit a Sunday +morning paper? No matter whether it paid. That was not the question. +As a matter of fact, the Sunday NEWS paid so well that it would be a +direct loss of thousands of dollars to discontinue it. Besides, the +regular subscribers had paid for a seven-day paper. Had he any right +now to give them less than they supposed they had paid for? + +He was honestly perplexed by the question. So much was involved in +the discontinuance of the Sunday edition that for the first time he +almost decided to refuse to be guided by the standard of Jesus' +probable action. He was sole proprietor of the paper; it was his to +shape as he chose. He had no board of directors to consult as to +policy. But as he sat there surrounded by the usual quantity of +material for the Sunday edition he reached some definite +conclusions. And among them was a determination to call in the force +of the paper and frankly state his motive and purpose. He sent word +for Clark and the other men it the office, including the few +reporters who were in the building and the foreman, with what men +were in the composing room (it was early in the morning and they +were not all in) to come into the mailing room. This was a large +room, and the men came in curiously and perched around on the tables +and counters. It was a very unusual proceeding, but they all agreed +that the paper was being run on new principles anyhow, and they all +watched Mr. Norman carefully as he spoke. + +"I called you in here to let you know my further plans for the NEWS. +I propose certain changes which I believe are necessary. I +understand very well that some things I have already done are +regarded by the men as very strange. I wish to state my motive in +doing what I have done." + +Here he told the men what he had already told Clark, and they stared +as Clark had done, and looked as painfully conscious. + +"Now, in acting on this standard of conduct I have reached a +conclusion which will, no doubt, cause some surprise. + +"I have decided that the Sunday morning edition of the NEWS shall be +discontinued after next Sunday's issue. I shall state in that issue +my reasons for discontinuing. In order to make up to the subscribers +the amount of reading matter they may suppose themselves entitled +to, we can issue a double number on Saturday, as is done by many +evening papers that make no attempt at a Sunday edition. I am +convinced that from a Christian point of view more harm than good +has been done by our Sunday morning paper. I do not believe that +Jesus would be responsible for it if He were in my place today. It +will occasion some trouble to arrange the details caused by this +change with the advertisers and subscribers. That is for me to look +after. The change itself is one that will take place. So far as I +can see, the loss will fall on myself. Neither the reporters nor the +pressmen need make any particular changes in their plans." + +He looked around the room and no one spoke. He was struck for the +first time in his life with the fact that in all the years of his +newspaper life he had never had the force of the paper together in +this way. Would Jesus do that? That is, would He probably run a +newspaper on some loving family plan, where editors, reporters, +pressmen and all meet to discuss and devise and plan for the making +of a paper that should have in view-- + +He caught himself drawing almost away from the facts of +typographical unions and office rules and reporters' enterprise and +all the cold, businesslike methods that make a great daily +successful. But still the vague picture that came up in the mailing +room would not fade away when he had gone into his office and the +men had gone back to their places with wonder in their looks and +questions of all sorts on their tongues as they talked over the +editor's remarkable actions. + +Clark came in and had a long, serious talk with his chief. He was +thoroughly roused, and his protest almost reached the point of +resigning his place. Norman guarded himself carefully. Every minute +of the interview was painful to him, but he felt more than ever the +necessity of doing the Christ-like thing. Clark was a very valuable +man. It would be difficult to fill his place. But he was not able to +give any reasons for continuing the Sunday paper that answered the +question, "What would Jesus do?" by letting Jesus print that +edition. + +"It comes to this, then," said Clark frankly, "you will bankrupt the +paper in thirty days. We might as well face that future fact." + +"I don't think we shall. Will you stay by the NEWS until it is +bankrupt?" asked Norman with a strange smile. + +"Mr. Norman, I don't understand you. You are not the same man this +week that I always knew before." + +"I don't know myself either, Clark. Something remarkable has caught +me up and borne me on. But I was never more convinced of final +success and power for the paper. You have not answered my question. +Will you stay with me?" + + + + + + +Chapter Five + + + + + +SUNDAY morning dawned again on Raymond, and Henry Maxwell's church +was again crowded. Before the service began Edward Norman attracted +great attention. He sat quietly in his usual place about three seats +from the pulpit. The Sunday morning issue of the NEWS containing the +statement of its discontinuance had been expressed in such +remarkable language that every reader was struck by it. No such +series of distinct sensations had ever disturbed the usual business +custom of Raymond. The events connected with the NEWS were not all. +People were eagerly talking about strange things done during the +week by Alexander Powers at the railroad shops, and Milton Wright in +his stores on the avenue. The service progressed upon a distinct +wave of excitement in the pews. Henry Maxwell faced it all with a +calmness which indicated a strength and purpose more than usual. His +prayers were very helpful. His sermon was not so easy to describe. +How would a minister be apt to preach to his people if he came +before them after an entire week of eager asking, "How would Jesus +preach? What would He probably say?" It is very certain that he did +not preach as he had done two Sundays before. Tuesday of the past +week he had stood by the grave of the dead stranger and said the +words, "Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust," and still he +was moved by the spirit of a deeper impulse than he could measure as +he thought of his people and yearned for the Christ message when he +should be in his pulpit again. + +Now that Sunday had come and the people were there to hear, what +would the Master tell them? He agonized over his preparation for +them, and yet he knew he had not been able to fit his message into +his ideal of the Christ. Nevertheless no one in the First Church +could remember ever hearing such a sermon before. There was in it +rebuke for sin, especially hypocrisy, there was definite rebuke of +the greed of wealth and the selfishness of fashion, two things that +First Church never heard rebuked this way before, and there was a +love of his people that gathered new force as the sermon went on. +When it was finished there were those who were saying in their +hearts, "The Spirit moved that sermon." And they were right. + +Then Rachel Winslow rose to sing, this time after the sermon, by Mr. +Maxwell's request. Rachel's singing did not provoke applause this +time. What deeper feeling carried the people's hearts into a +reverent silence and tenderness of thought? Rachel was beautiful. +But her consciousness of her remarkable loveliness had always marred +her singing with those who had the deepest spiritual feeling. It had +also marred her rendering of certain kinds of music with herself. +Today this was all gone. There was no lack of power in her grand +voice. But there was an actual added element of humility and purity +which the audience distinctly felt and bowed to. + +Before service closed Mr. Maxwell asked those who had remained the +week before to stay again for a few moments of consultation, and any +others who were willing to make the pledge taken at that time. When +he was at liberty he went into the lecture-room. To his astonishment +it was almost filled. This time a large proportion of young people +had come, but among them were a few business men and officers of the +church. + +As before, he, Maxwell, asked them to pray with him. And, as before, +a distinct answer came from the presence of the divine Spirit. There +was no doubt in the minds of any present that what they purposed to +do was so clearly in line with the divine will, that a blessing +rested upon it in a very special manner. + +They remained some time to ask questions and consult together. There +was a feeling of fellowship such as they had never known in their +church membership. Mr. Norman's action was well understood by them +all, and he answered several questions. + +"What will be the probable result of your discontinuance of the +Sunday paper?" asked Alexander Powers, who sat next to him. + +"I don't know yet. I presume it will result in the falling off of +subscriptions and advertisements. I anticipate that." + +"Do you have any doubts about your action. I mean, do you regret it, +or fear it is not what Jesus would do?" asked Mr. Maxwell. + +"Not in the least. But I would like to ask, for my own satisfaction, +if any of you here think Jesus would issue a Sunday morning paper?" + +No one spoke for a minute. Then Jasper Chase said, "We seem to think +alike on that, but I have been puzzled several times during the week +to know just what He would do. It is not always an easy question to +answer." + +"I find that trouble," said Virginia Page. She sat by Rachel +Winslow. Every one who knew Virginia Page was wondering how she +would succeed in keeping her promise. "I think perhaps I find it +specially difficult to answer that question on account of my money. +Our Lord never owned any property, and there is nothing in His +example to guide me in the use of mine. I am studying and praying. I +think I see clearly a part of what He would do, but not all. What +would He do with a million dollars? is my question really. I confess +I am not yet able to answer it to my satisfaction. + +"I could tell you what you could do with a part of it, said Rachel, +turning her face toward Virginia. "That does not trouble me," +replied Virginia with a slight smile. "What I am trying to discover +is a principle that will enable me to come to the nearest possible +to His action as it ought to influence the entire course of my life +so far as my wealth and its use are concerned." + +"That will take time," said the minister slowly. All the rest of the +room were thinking hard of the same thing. Milton Wright told +something of his experience. He was gradually working out a plan for +his business relations with his employees, and it was opening up a +new world to him and to them. A few of the young men told of special +attempts to answer the question. There was almost general consent +over the fact that the application of the Christ spirit and practice +to the everyday life was the serious thing. It required a knowledge +of Him and an insight into His motives that most of them did not yet +possess. + +When they finally adjourned after a silent prayer that marked with +growing power the Divine Presence, they went away discussing +earnestly their difficulties and seeking light from one another. + +Rachel Winslow and Virginia Page went out together. Edward Norman +and Milton Wright became so interested in their mutual conference +that they walked on past Norman's house and came back together. +Jasper Chase and the president of the Endeavor Society stood talking +earnestly in one corner of the room. Alexander Powers and Henry +Maxwell remained, even after the others had gone. + +"I want you to come down to the shops tomorrow and see my plan and +talk to the men. Somehow I feel as if you could get nearer to them +than any one else just now." + +"I don't know about that, but I will come," replied Mr. Maxwell a +little sadly. How was he fitted to stand before two or three hundred +working men and give them a message? Yet in the moment of his +weakness, as he asked the question, he rebuked himself for it. What +would Jesus do? That was an end to the discussion. + +He went down the next day and found Mr. Powers in his office. It +lacked a few minutes of twelve and the superintendent said, "Come +upstairs, and I'll show you what I've been trying to do." + +They went through the machine shop, climbed a long flight of stairs +and entered a very large, empty room. It had once been used by the +company for a store room. + +"Since making that promise a week ago I have had a good many things +to think of," said the superintendent, "and among them is this: The +company gives me the use of this room, and I am going to fit it up +with tables and a coffee plant in the corner there where those steam +pipes are. My plan is to provide a good place where the men can come +up and eat their noon lunch, and give them, two or three times a +week, the privilege of a fifteen minutes' talk on some subject that +will be a real help to them in their lives." + +Maxwell looked surprised and asked if the men would come for any +such purpose. + +"Yes, they'll come. After all, I know the men pretty well. They are +among the most intelligent working men in the country today. But +they are, as a whole, entirely removed from church influence. I +asked, 'What would Jesus do?' and among other things it seemed to me +He would begin to act in some way to add to the lives of these men +more physical and spiritual comfort. It is a very little thing, this +room and what it represents, but I acted on the first impulse, to do +the first thing that appealed to my good sense, and I want to work +out this idea. I want you to speak to the men when they come up at +noon. I have asked them to come up and see the place and I'll tell +them something about it." + +Maxwell was ashamed to say how uneasy he felt at being asked to +speak a few words to a company of working men. How could he speak +without notes, or to such a crowd? He was honestly in a condition of +genuine fright over the prospect. He actually felt afraid of facing +those men. He shrank from the ordeal of confronting such a crowd, so +different from the Sunday audiences he was familiar with. + +There were a dozen rude benches and tables in the room, and when the +noon whistle sounded the men poured upstairs from the machine shops +below and, seating themselves at the tables, began to cat their +lunch. There were present about three hundred of them. They had read +the superintendent's notice which he had posted up in various +places, and came largely out of curiosity. + +They were favorably impressed. The room was large and airy, free +from smoke and dust, and well warmed from the steam pipes. At about +twenty minutes to one Mr. Powers told the men what he had in mind. +He spoke very simply, like one who understands thoroughly the +character of his audience, and then introduced the Rev. Henry +Maxwell of the First Church, his pastor, who had consented to speak +a few minutes. + +Maxwell will never forget the feeling with which for the first time +he stood before the grimy-faced audience of working men. Like +hundreds of other ministers, he had never spoken to any gatherings +except those made up of people of his own class in the sense that +they were familiar in their dress and education and habits. This was +a new world to him, and nothing but his new rule of conduct could +have made possible his message and its effect. He spoke on the +subject of satisfaction with life; what caused it, what its real +sources were. He had the great good sense on this his first +appearance not to recognize the men as a class distinct from +himself. He did not use the term working man, and did not say a word +to suggest any difference between their lives and his own. + +The men were pleased. A good many of them shook hands with him +before going down to their work, and the minister telling it all to +his wife when he reached home, said that never in all his life had +he known the delight he then felt in having the handshake from a man +of physical labor. The day marked an important one in his Christian +experience, more important than he knew. It was the beginning of a +fellowship between him and the working world. It was the first plank +laid down to help bridge the chasm between the church and labor in +Raymond. + +Alexander Powers went back to his desk that afternoon much pleased +with his plan and seeing much help in it for the men. He knew where +he could get some good tables from an abandoned eating house at one +of the stations down the road, and he saw how the coffee arrangement +could be made a very attractive feature. The men had responded even +better than he anticipated, and the whole thing could not help being +a great benefit to them. + +He took up the routine of his work with a glow of satisfaction. +After all, he wanted to do as Jesus would, he said to himself. + +It was nearly four o'clock when he opened one of the company's long +envelopes which he supposed contained orders for the purchasing of +stores. He ran over the first page of typewritten matter in his +usual quick, business-like manner, before he saw that what he was +reading was not intended for his office but for the superintendent +of the freight department. + +He turned over a page mechanically, not meaning to read what was not +addressed to him, but before he knew it, he was in possession of +evidence which conclusively proved that the company was engaged in a +systematic violation of the Interstate Commerce Laws of the United +States. It was as distinct and unequivocal a breaking of law as if a +private citizen should enter a house and rob the inmates. The +discrimination shown in rebates was in total contempt of all the +statutes. Under the laws of the state it was also a distinct +violation of certain provisions recently passed by the legislature +to prevent railroad trusts. There was no question that he had in his +hands evidence sufficient to convict the company of willful, +intelligent violation of the law of the commission and the law of +the state also. + +He dropped the papers on his desk as if they were poison, and +instantly the question flashed across his mind, "What would Jesus +do?" He tried to shut the question out. He tried to reason with +himself by saying it was none of his business. He had known in a +more or less definite way, as did nearly all the officers of the +company, that this had been going on right along on nearly all the +roads. He was not in a position, owing to his place in the shops, to +prove anything direct, and he had regarded it as a matter which did +not concern him at all. The papers now before him revealed the +entire affair. They had through some carelessness been addressed to +him. What business of his was it? If he saw a man entering his +neighbor's house to steal, would it not be his duty to inform the +officers of the law? Was a railroad company such a different thing? +Was it under a different rule of conduct, so that it could rob the +public and defy law and be undisturbed because it was such a great +organization? What would Jesus do? Then there was his family. Of +course, if he took any steps to inform the commission it would mean +the loss of his position. His wife and daughter had always enjoyed +luxury and a good place in society. If he came out against this +lawlessness as a witness it would drag him into courts, his motives +would be misunderstood, and the whole thing would end in his +disgrace and the loss of his position. Surely it was none of his +business. He could easily get the papers back to the freight +department and no one be the wiser. Let the iniquity go on. Let the +law be defied. What was it to him? He would work out his plans for +bettering the condition just before him. What more could a man do in +this railroad business when there was so much going on anyway that +made it impossible to live by the Christian standard? But what would +Jesus do if He knew the facts? That was the question that confronted +Alexander Powers as the day wore into evening. + +The lights in the office had been turned on. The whirr of the great +engine and the clash of the planers in the big shop continued until +six o'clock. Then the whistle blew, the engine slowed up, the men +dropped their tools and ran for the block house. + +Powers heard the familiar click, click, of the clocks as the men +filed past the window of the block house just outside. He said to +his clerks, "I'm not going just yet. I have something extra +tonight." He waited until he heard the last man deposit his block. +The men behind the block case went out. The engineer and his +assistants had work for half an hour but they went out by another +door. + + + + + + +Chapter Six + + + + + +"If any man cometh unto me and hateth not his own father and mother +and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own +life also, he cannot be my disciple." + +"And whosoever forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my +disciple." + +WHEN Rachel Winslow and Virginia Page separated after the meeting at +the First Church on Sunday they agreed to continue their +conversation the next day. Virginia asked Rachel to come and lunch +with her at noon, and Rachel accordingly rang the bell at the Page +mansion about half-past eleven. Virginia herself met her and the two +were soon talking earnestly. + +"The fact is," Rachel was saying, after they had been talking a few +moments, "I cannot reconcile it with my judgment of what Christ +would do. I cannot tell another person what to do, but I feel that I +ought not to accept this offer." + +"What will you do then?" asked Virginia with great interest. + +"I don't know yet, but I have decided to refuse this offer." + +Rachel picked up a letter that had been lying in her lap and ran +over its contents again. It was a letter from the manager of a comic +opera offering her a place with a large traveling company of the +season. The salary was a very large figure, and the prospect held +out by the manager was flattering. He had heard Rachel sing that +Sunday morning when the stranger had interrupted the service. He had +been much impressed. There was money in that voice and it ought to +be used in comic opera, so said the letter, and the manager wanted a +reply as soon as possible. + +"There's no great virtue in saying 'No' to this offer when I have +the other one," Rachel went on thoughtfully. "That's harder to +decide. But I've about made up my mind. To tell the, truth, +Virginia, I'm completely convinced in the first case that Jesus +would never use any talent like a good voice just to make money. But +now, take this concert offer. Here is a reputable company, to travel +with an impersonator and a violinist and a male quartet, all people +of good reputation. I'm asked to go as one of the company and sing +leading soprano. The salary--I mentioned it, didn't I?--is +guaranteed to be $200 a month for the season. But I don't feel +satisfied that Jesus would go. What do you think?" + +"You mustn't ask me to decide for you," replied Virginia with a sad +smile. "I believe Mr. Maxwell was right when he said we must each +one of us decide according to the judgment we feel for ourselves to +be Christ-like. I am having a harder time than you are, dear, to +decide what He would do." + +"Are you?" Rachel asked. She rose and walked over to the window and +looked out. Virginia came and stood by her. The street was crowded +with life and the two young women looked at it silently for a +moment. Suddenly Virginia broke out as Rachel had never heard her +before: + +"Rachel, what does all this contrast in conditions mean to you as +you ask this question of what Jesus would do? It maddens me to think +that the society in which I have been brought up, the same to which +we are both said to belong, is satisfied year after year to go on +dressing and eating and having a good time, giving and receiving +entertainments, spending its money on houses and luxuries and, +occasionally, to ease its conscience, donating, without any personal +sacrifice, a little money to charity. I have been educated, as you +have, in one of the most expensive schools in America; launched into +society as an heiress; supposed to be in a very enviable position. +I'm perfectly well; I can travel or stay at home. I can do as I +please. I can gratify almost any want or desire; and yet when I +honestly try to imagine Jesus living the life I have lived and am +expected to live, and doing for the rest of my life what thousands +of other rich people do, I am under condemnation for being one of +the most wicked, selfish, useless creatures in all the world. I have +not looked out of this window for weeks without a feeling of horror +toward myself as I see the humanity that passes by this house." + +Virginia turned away and walked up and down the room. Rachel watched +her and could not repress the rising tide of her own growing +definition of discipleship. Of what Christian use was her own talent +of song? Was the best she could do to sell her talent for so much a +month, go on a concert company's tour, dress beautifully, enjoy the +excitement of public applause and gain a reputation as a great +singer? Was that what Jesus would do? + +She was not morbid. She was in sound health, was conscious of her +great powers as a singer, and knew that if she went out into public +life she could make a great deal of money and become well known. It +is doubtful if she overestimated her ability to accomplish all she +thought herself capable of. And Virginia--what she had just said +smote Rachel with great force because of the similar position in +which the two friends found themselves. + +Lunch was announced and they went out and were joined by Virginia's +grandmother, Madam Page, a handsome, stately woman of sixty-five, +and Virginia's brother Rollin, a young man who spent most of his +time at one of the clubs and had no ambition for anything but a +growing admiration for Rachel Winslow, and whenever she dined or +lunched at the Page's, if he knew of it he always planned to be at +home. + +These three made up the Page family. Virginia's father had been a +banker and grain speculator. Her mother had died ten years before, +her father within the past year. The grandmother, a Southern woman +in birth and training, had all the traditions and feelings that +accompany the possession of wealth and social standing that have +never been disturbed. She was a shrewd, careful business woman of +more than average ability. The family property and wealth were +invested, in large measure, under her personal care. Virginia's +portion was, without any restriction, her own. She had been trained +by her father to understand the ways of the business world, and even +the grandmother had been compelled to acknowledge the girl's +capacity for taking care of her own money. + +Perhaps two persons could not be found anywhere less capable of +understanding a girl like Virginia than Madam Page and Rollin. +Rachel, who had known the family since she was a girl playmate of +Virginia's, could not help thinking of what confronted Virginia in +her own home when she once decided on the course which she honestly +believed Jesus would take. Today at lunch, as she recalled +Virginia's outbreak in the front room, she tried to picture the +scene that would at some time occur between Madam Page and her +granddaughter. + +"I understand that you are going on the stage, Miss Winslow. We +shall all be delighted, I'm sure," said Rollin during the +conversation, which had not been very animated. + +Rachel colored and felt annoyed. "Who told you?" she asked, while +Virginia, who had been very silent and reserved, suddenly roused +herself and appeared ready to join in the talk. + +"Oh! we hear a thing or two on the street. Besides, every one saw +Crandall the manager at church two weeks ago. He doesn't go to +church to hear the preaching. In fact, I know other people who don't +either, not when there's something better to hear." + +Rachel did not color this time, but she answered quietly, "You're +mistaken. I'm not going on the stage." + +"It's a great pity. You'd make a hit. Everybody is talking about +your singing." + +This time Rachel flushed with genuine anger. Before she could say +anything, Virginia broke in: "Whom do you mean by 'everybody?'" + +"Whom? I mean all the people who hear Miss Winslow on Sundays. What +other time do they hear her? It's a great pity, I say, that the +general public outside of Raymond cannot hear her voice." + +"Let us talk about something else," said Rachel a little sharply. +Madam Page glanced at her and spoke with a gentle courtesy. + +"My dear, Rollin never could pay an indirect compliment. He is like +his father in that. But we are all curious to know something of your +plans. We claim the right from old acquaintance, you know; and +Virginia has already told us of your concert company offer." + +"I supposed of course that was public property," said Virginia, +smiling across the table. "I was in the NEWS office day before +yesterday." + +"Yes, yes," replied Rachel hastily. "I understand that, Madam Page. +Well, Virginia and I have been talking about it. I have decided not +to accept, and that is as far as I have gone at present." + +Rachel was conscious of the fact that the conversation had, up to +this point, been narrowing her hesitation concerning the concert +company's offer down to a decision that would absolutely satisfy her +own judgment of Jesus' probable action. It had been the last thing +in the world, however, that she had desired, to have her decision +made in any way so public as this. Somehow what Rollin Page had said +and his manner in saying it had hastened her decision in the matter. + +"Would you mind telling us, Rachel, your reasons for refusing the +offer? It looks like a great opportunity for a young girl like you. +Don't you think the general public ought to hear you? I feel like +Rollin about that. A voice like yours belongs to a larger audience +than Raymond and the First Church." + +Rachel Winslow was naturally a girl of great reserve. She shrank +from making her plans or her thoughts public. But with all her +repression there was possible in her an occasional sudden breaking +out that was simply an impulsive, thoroughly frank, truthful +expression of her most inner personal feeling. She spoke now in +reply to Madam Page in one of those rare moments of unreserve that +added to the attractiveness of her whole character. + +"I have no other reason than a conviction that Jesus Christ would do +the same thing," she said, looking into Madam Page's eyes with a +clear, earnest gaze. + +Madam Page turned red and Rollin stared. Before her grandmother +could say anything, Virginia spoke. Her rising color showed how she +was stirred. Virginia's pale, clear complexion was that of health, +but it was generally in marked contrast with Rachel's tropical type +of beauty. + +"Grandmother, you know we promised to make that the standard of our +conduct for a year. Mr. Maxwell's proposition was plain to all who +heard it. We have not been able to arrive at our decisions very +rapidly. The difficulty in knowing what Jesus would do has perplexed +Rachel and me a good deal." + +Madam Page looked sharply at Virginia before she said anything. + +"Of course I understand Mr. Maxwell's statement. It is perfectly +impracticable to put it into practice. I felt confident at the time +that those who promised would find it out after a trial and abandon +it as visionary and absurd. I have nothing to say about Miss +Winslow's affairs, but," she paused and continued with a sharpness +that was new to Rachel, "I hope you have no foolish notions in this +matter, Virginia." + +"I have a great many notions," replied Virginia quietly. "Whether +they are foolish or not depends upon my right understanding of what +He would do. As soon as I find out I shall do it." + +"Excuse me, ladies," said Rollin, rising from the table. "The +conversation is getting beyond my depth. I shall retire to the +library for a cigar." + +He went out of the dining-room and there was silence for a moment. +Madam Page waited until the servant had brought in something and +then asked her to go out. She was angry and her anger was +formidable, although checked I m some measure by the presence of +Rachel. + +"I am older by several years than you, young ladies," she said, and +her traditional type of bearing seemed to Rachel to rise up like a +great frozen wall between her and every conception of Jesus as a +sacrifice. "What you have promised, in a spirit of false emotion I +presume, is impossible of performance." + +"Do you mean, grandmother, that we cannot possibly act as our Lord +would? or do you mean that, if we try to, we shall offend the +customs and prejudices of society?" asked Virginia. + +"It is not required! It is not necessary! Besides how can you act +with any--" Madam Page paused, broke off her sentence, and then +turned to Rachel. "What will your mother say to your decision? My +dear, is it not foolish? What do you expect to do with your voice +anyway?" + +"I don't know what mother will say yet," Rachel answered, with a +great shrinking from trying to give her mother's probable answer. If +there was a woman in all Raymond with great ambitions for her +daughter's success as a singer, Mrs. Winslow was that woman. + +"Oh! you will see it in a different light after wiser thought of it. +My dear," continued Madam Page rising from the table, "you will live +to regret it if you do not accept the concert company's offer or +something like it." + + + + + + +Chapter Seven + + + + + +RACHEL was glad to escape and be by herself. A plan was slowly +forming in her mind, and she wanted to be alone and think it out +carefully. But before she had walked two blocks she was annoyed to +find Rollin Page walking beside her. + +"Sorry to disturb your thoughts, Miss Winslow, but I happened to be +going your way and had an idea you might not object. In fact, I've +been walking here for a whole block and you haven't objected." + +"I did not see you," said Rachel briefly. + +"I wouldn't mind that if you only thought of me once in a while," +said Rollin suddenly. He took one last nervous puff on his cigar, +tossed it into the street and walked along with a pale look on his +face. + +Rachel was surprised, but not startled. She had known Rollin as a +boy, and there had been a time when they had used each other's first +name familiarly. Lately, however, something in Rachel's manner had +put an end to that. She was used to his direct attempts at +compliments and was sometimes amused by them. Today she honestly +wished him anywhere else. + +"Do you ever think of me, Miss Winslow?" asked Rollin after a pause. + +"Oh, yes, quite often!" said Rachel with a smile. + +"Are you thinking of me now?" + +"Yes. That is--yes--I am." + +"What?" + +"Do you want me to be absolutely truthful?" + +"Of course." + +"Then I was thinking that I wished you were not here." Rollin bit +his lip and looked gloomy. + +"Now look here, Rachel--oh, I know that's forbidden, but I've got to +speak some time!--you know how I feel. What makes you treat me so? +You used to like me a little, you know." + +"Did I? Of course we used to get on very well as boy and girl. But +we are older now." + +Rachel still spoke in the light, easy way she had used since her +first annoyance at seeing him. She was still somewhat preoccupied +with her plan which had been disturbed by Rollin's sudden +appearance. + +They walked along in silence a little way. The avenue was full of +people. Among the persons passing was Jasper Chase. He saw Rachel +and Rollin and bowed as they went by. Rollin was watching Rachel +closely. + +"I wish I was Jasper Chase. Maybe I would stand some chance then," +he said moodily. + +Rachel colored in spite of herself. She did not say anything and +quickened her pace a little. Rollin seemed determined to say +something, and Rachel seemed helpless to prevent him. After all, she +thought, he might as well know the truth one time as another. + +"You know well enough, Rachel, how I feel toward you. Isn't there +any hope? I could make you happy. I've loved you a good many +years--" + +"Why, how old do you think I am?" broke in Rachel with a nervous +laugh. She was shaken out of her usual poise of manner. + +"You know what I mean," went on Rollin doggedly. "And you have no +right to laugh at me just because I want you to marry me." + +"I'm not! But it is useless for you to speak, Rollin," said Rachel +after a little hesitation, and then using his name in such a frank, +simple way that he could attach no meaning to it beyond the +familiarity of the old family acquaintance. "It is impossible." She +was still a little agitated by the fact of receiving a proposal of +marriage on the avenue. But the noise on the street and sidewalk +made the conversation as private as if they were in the house. + +"Would that is--do you think--if you gave me time I would." + +"No!" said Rachel. She spoke firmly; perhaps, she thought afterward, +although she did not mean to, she spoke harshly. + +They walked on for some time without a word. They were nearing +Rachel's home and she was anxious to end the scene. + +As they turned off the avenue into one of the quieter streets Rollin +spoke suddenly and with more manliness than he had yet shown. There +was a distinct note of dignity in his voice that was new to Rachel. + +"Miss Winslow, I ask you to be my wife. Is there any hope for me +that you will ever consent?" + +"None in the least." Rachel spoke decidedly. + +"Will you tell me why?" He asked the question as if he had a right +to a truthful answer. + +"Because I do not feel toward you as a woman ought to feel toward +the man she marries." + +"In other words, you do not love me?" + +"I do not and I cannot." + +"Why?" That was another question, and Rachel was a little surprised +that he should ask it. + +"Because--" she hesitated for fear she might say too much in an +attempt to speak the exact truth. + +"Tell me just why. You can't hurt me more than you have already." + +"Well, I do not and I cannot love you because you have no purpose in +life. What do you ever do to make the world better? You spend your +time in club life, in amusements, in travel, in luxury. What is +there in such a life to attract a woman?" + +"Not much, I guess," said Rollin with a bitter laugh. "Still, I +don't know that I'm any worse than the rest of the men around me. +I'm not so bad as some. I'm glad to know your reasons." + +He suddenly stopped, took off his hat, bowed gravely and turned +back. Rachel went on home and hurried into her room, disturbed in +many ways by the event which had so unexpectedly thrust itself into +her experience. + +When she had time to think it all over she found herself condemned +by the very judgment she had passed on Rollin Page. What purpose had +she in life? She had been abroad and studied music with one of the +famous teachers of Europe. She had come home to Raymond and had been +singing in the First Church choir now for a year. She was well paid. +Up to that Sunday two weeks ago she had been quite satisfied with +herself and with her position. She had shared her mother's ambition, +and anticipated growing triumphs in the musical world. What possible +career was before her except the regular career of every singer? + +She asked the question again and, in the light of her recent reply +to Rollin, asked again, if she had any very great purpose in life +herself. What would Jesus do? There was a fortune in her voice. She +knew it, not necessarily as a matter of personal pride or +professional egotism, but simply as a fact. And she was obliged to +acknowledge that until two weeks ago she had purposed to use her +voice to make money and win admiration and applause. Was that a much +higher purpose, after all, than Rollin Page lived for? + +She sat in her room a long time and finally went downstairs, +resolved to have a frank talk with her mother about the concert +company's offer and the new plan which was gradually shaping in her +mind. She had already had one talk with her mother and knew that she +expected Rachel to accept the offer and enter on a successful career +as a public singer. + +"Mother," Rachel said, coming at once to the point, much as she +dreaded the interview, "I have decided not to go out with the +company. I have a good reason for it." + +Mrs. Winslow was a large, handsome woman, fond of much company, +ambitious for distinction in society and devoted, according to her +definitions of success, to the success of her children. Her youngest +boy, Louis, two years younger than Rachel, was ready to graduate +from a military academy in the summer. Meanwhile she and Rachel were +at home together. Rachel's father, like Virginia's, had died while +the family was abroad. Like Virginia she found herself, under her +present rule of conduct, in complete antagonism with her own +immediate home circle. Mrs. Winslow waited for Rachel to go on. + +"You know the promise I made two weeks ago, mother?" + +"Mr. Maxwell's promise?" + +"No, mine. You know what it was, do you not, mother?" + +"I suppose I do. Of course all the church members mean to imitate +Christ and follow Him, as far as is consistent with our present day +surroundings. But what has that to do with your decision in the +concert company matter?" + +"It has everything to do with it. After asking, 'What would Jesus +do?' and going to the source of authority for wisdom, I have been +obliged to say that I do not believe He would, in my case, make that +use of my voice." + +"Why? Is there anything wrong about such a career?" + +"No, I don't know that I can say there is." + +"Do you presume to sit in judgment on other people who go out to +sing in this way? Do you presume to say they are doing what Christ +would not do?" + +"Mother, I wish you to understand me. I judge no one else; I condemn +no other professional singer. I simply decide my own course. As I +look at it, I have a conviction that Jesus would do something else." + +"What else?" Mrs. Winslow had not yet lost her temper. She did not +understand the situation nor Rachel in the midst of it, but she was +anxious that her daughter's course should be as distinguished as her +natural gifts promised. And she felt confident that when the present +unusual religious excitement in the First Church had passed away +Rachel would go on with her public life according to the wishes of +the family. She was totally unprepared for Rachel's next remark. + +"What? Something that will serve mankind where it most needs the +service of song. Mother, I have made up my mind to use my voice in +some way so as to satisfy my own soul that I am doing something +better than pleasing fashionable audiences, or making money, or even +gratifying my own love of singing. I am going to do something that +will satisfy me when I ask: 'What would Jesus do?' I am not +satisfied, and cannot be, when I think of myself as singing myself +into the career of a concert company performer." + +Rachel spoke with a vigor and earnestness that surprised her mother. +But Mrs. Winslow was angry now; and she never tried to conceal her +feelings. + +"It is simply absurd! Rachel, you are a fanatic! What can you do?" + +"The world has been served by men and women who have given it other +things that were gifts. Why should I, because I am blessed with a +natural gift, at once proceed to put a market price on it and make +all the money I can out of it? You know, mother, that you have +taught me to think of a musical career always in the light of +financial and social success. I have been unable, since I made my +promise two weeks ago, to imagine Jesus joining a concert company to +do what I should do and live the life I should have to live if I +joined it." + +Mrs. Winslow rose and then sat down again. With a great effort she +composed herself. + +"What do you intend to do then? You have not answered my question." + +"I shall continue to sing for the time being in the church. I am +pledged to sing there through the spring. During the week I am going +to sing at the White Cross meetings, down in the Rectangle." + +"What! Rachel Winslow! Do you know what you are saying? Do you know +what sort of people those are down there?" + +Rachel almost quailed before her mother. For a moment she shrank +back and was silent. Then she spoke firmly: "I know very well. That +is the reason I am going. Mr. and Mrs. Gray have been working there +several weeks. I learned only this morning that they want singers +from the churches to help them in their meetings. They use a tent. +It is in a part of the city where Christian work is most needed. I +shall offer them my help. Mother!" Rachel cried out with the first +passionate utterance she had yet used, "I want to do something that +will cost me something in the way of sacrifice. I know you will not +understand me. But I am hungry to suffer for something. What have we +done all our lives for the suffering, sinning side of Raymond? How +much have we denied ourselves or given of our personal ease and +pleasure to bless the place in which we live or imitate the life of +the Savior of the world? Are we always to go on doing as society +selfishly dictates, moving on its little narrow round of pleasures +and entertainments, and never knowing the pain of things that cost?" + +"Are you preaching at me?" asked Mrs. Winslow slowly. Rachel rose, +and understood her mother's words. + +"No. I am preaching at myself," she replied gently. She paused a +moment as if she thought her mother would say something more, and +then went out of the room. When she reached her own room she felt +that so far as her own mother was concerned she could expect no +sympathy, nor even a fair understanding from her. + +She kneeled. It is safe to say that within the two weeks since Henry +Maxwell's church had faced that shabby figure with the faded hat +more members of his parish had been driven to their knees in prayer +than during all the previous term of his pastorate. + +She rose, and her face was wet with tears. She sat thoughtfully a +little while and then wrote a note to Virginia Page. She sent it to +her by a messenger and then went downstairs and told her mother that +she and Virginia were going down to the Rectangle that evening to +see Mr. and Mrs. Gray, the evangelists. + +"Virginia's uncle, Dr. West, will go with us, if she goes. I have +asked her to call him up by telephone and go with us. The Doctor is +a friend of the Grays, and attended some of their meetings last +winter." + +Mrs. Winslow did not say anything. Her manner showed her complete +disapproval of Rachel's course, and Rachel felt her unspoken +bitterness. + +About seven o'clock the Doctor and Virginia appeared, and together +the three started for the scene of the White Cross meetings. + +The Rectangle was the most notorious district in Raymond. It was on +the territory close by the railroad shops and the packing houses. +The great slum and tenement district of Raymond congested its worst +and most wretched elements about the Rectangle. This was a barren +field used in the summer by circus companies and wandering showmen. +It was shut in by rows of saloons, gambling hells and cheap, dirty +boarding and lodging houses. + +The First Church of Raymond had never touched the Rectangle problem. +It was too dirty, too coarse, too sinful, too awful for close +contact. Let us be honest. There had been an attempt to cleanse this +sore spot by sending down an occasional committee of singers or +Sunday-school teachers or gospel visitors from various churches. But +the First Church of Raymond, as an institution, had never really +done anything to make the Rectangle any less a stronghold of the +devil as the years went by. + +Into this heart of the coarse part of the sin of Raymond the +traveling evangelist and his brave little wife had pitched a +good-sized tent and begun meetings. It was the spring of the year +and the evenings were beginning to be pleasant. The evangelists had +asked for the help of Christian people, and had received more than +the usual amount of encouragement. But they felt a great need of +more and better music. During the meetings on the Sunday just gone +the assistant at the organ had been taken ill. The volunteers from +the city were few and the voices were of ordinary quality. + +"There will be a small meeting tonight, John," said his wife, as +they entered the tent a little after seven o'clock and began to +arrange the chairs and light up. + +"Yes, I fear so." Mr. Gray was a small, energetic man, with a +pleasant voice and the courage of a high-born fighter. He had +already made friends in the neighborhood and one of his converts, a +heavy-faced man who had just come in, began to help in the arranging +of seats. + +It was after eight o'clock when Alexander Powers opened the door of +his office and started for home. He was going to take a car at the +corner of the Rectangle. But he was roused by a voice coming from +the tent. + +It was the voice of Rachel Winslow. It struck through his +consciousness of struggle over his own question that had sent him +into the Divine Presence for an answer. He had not yet reached a +conclusion. He was tortured with uncertainty. His whole previous +course of action as a railroad man was the poorest possible +preparation for anything sacrificial. And he could not yet say what +he would do in the matter. + +Hark! What was she singing? How did Rachel Winslow happen to be down +here? Several windows near by went up. Some men quarreling near a +saloon stopped and listened. Other figures were walking rapidly in +the direction of the Rectangle and the tent. Surely Rachel Winslow +had never sung like that in the First Church. It was a marvelous +voice. What was it she was singing? Again Alexander Powers, +Superintendent of the machine shops, paused and listened, + + "Where He leads me I will follow, + Where He leads me I will follow, + Where He leads me I will follow, + I'll go with Him, with Him. + All the way!" + +The brutal, coarse, impure life of the Rectangle stirred itself into +new life as the song, as pure as the surroundings were vile, floated +out and into saloon and den and foul lodging. Some one stumbled +hastily by Alexander Powers and said in answer to a question: "De +tent's beginning to run over tonight. That's what the talent calls +music, eh?" + + + + + + +Chapter Eight + + + + + +"If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up +his cross daily and follow me." + +HENRY MAXWELL paced his study back and forth. It was Wednesday and +he had started to think out the subject of his evening service which +fell upon that night. Out of one of his study windows he could see +the tall chimney of the railroad shops. The top of the evangelist's +tent just showed over the buildings around the Rectangle. He looked +out of his window every time he turned in his walk. After a while he +sat down at his desk and drew a large piece of paper toward him. +After thinking several moments he wrote in large letters the +following: + +A NUMBER OF THINGS THAT JESUS WOULD PROBABLY DO IN THIS PARISH + +Live in a simple, plain manner, without needless luxury on the one +hand or undue asceticism on the other. Preach fearlessly to the +hypocrites in the church, no matter what their social importance or +wealth. Show in some practical form His sympathy and love for the +common people as well as for the well-to-do, educated, refined +people who make up the majority of the parish. Identify Himself with +the great causes of humanity in some personal way that would call +for self-denial and suffering. Preach against the saloon in Raymond. +Become known as a friend and companion of the sinful people in the +Rectangle. Give up the summer trip to Europe this year. (I have been +abroad twice and cannot claim any special need of rest. I am well, +and could forego this pleasure, using the money for some one who +needs a vacation more than I do. There are probably plenty of such +people in the city.) + +He was conscious, with a humility that was once a stranger to him, +that his outline of Jesus' probable action was painfully lacking in +depth and power, but he was seeking carefully for concrete shapes +into which he might cast his thought of Jesus' conduct. Nearly every +point he had put down, meant, for him, a complete overturning of the +custom and habit of years in the ministry. In spite of that, he +still searched deeper for sources of the Christ-like spirit. He did +not attempt to write any more, but sat at his desk absorbed in his +effort to catch more and more the spirit of Jesus in his own life. +He had forgotten the particular subject for his prayer meeting with +which he had begun his morning study. + +He was so absorbed over his thought that he did not hear the bell +ring; he was roused by the servant who announced a caller. He had +sent up his name, Mr. Gray. + +Maxwell stepped to the head of the stairs and asked Gray to come up. +So Gray came up and stated the reason for his call. + +"I want your help, Mr. Maxwell. Of course you have heard what a +wonderful meeting we had Monday night and last night. Miss Winslow +has done more with her voice than I could do, and the tent won't +hold the people." + +"I've heard of that. It is the first time the people there have +heard her. It is no wonder they are attracted." + +"It has been a wonderful revelation to us, and a most encouraging +event in our work. But I came to ask if you could not come down +tonight and preach. I am suffering from a severe cold. I do not dare +trust my voice again. I know it is asking a good deal from such a +busy man. But, if you can't come, say so frankly, and I'll try +somewhere else." + +"I'm sorry, but it's my regular prayer meeting night," began Henry +Maxwell. Then he flushed and added, "I shall be able to arrange it +in some way so as to come down. You can count on me." + +Gray thanked him earnestly and rose to go. + +"Won't you stay a minute, Gray, and let us have a prayer together?" + +"Yes," said Gray simply. + +So the two men kneeled together in the study. Henry Maxwell prayed +like a child. Gray was touched to tears as he knelt there. There was +something almost pitiful in the way this man who had lived his +ministerial life in such a narrow limit of exercise now begged for +wisdom and strength to speak a message to the people in the +Rectangle. + +Gray rose and held out his hand. "God bless you, Mr. Maxwell. I'm +sure the Spirit will give you power tonight." + +Henry Maxwell made no answer. He did not even trust himself to say +that he hoped so. But he thought of his promise and it brought him a +certain peace that was refreshing to his heart and mind alike. + +So that is how it came about that when the First Church audience +came into the lecture room that evening it met with another +surprise. There was an unusually large number present. The prayer +meetings ever since that remarkable Sunday morning had been attended +as never before in the history of the First Church. Mr. Maxwell came +at once to the point. + +"I feel that I am called to go down to the Rectangle tonight, and I +will leave it with you to say whether you will go on with this +meeting here. I think perhaps the best plan would be for a few +volunteers to go down to the Rectangle with me prepared to help in +the after-meeting, if necessary, and the rest to remain here and +pray that the Spirit power may go with us." + +So half a dozen of the men went with the pastor, and the rest of the +audience stayed in the lecture room. Maxwell could not escape the +thought as he left the room that probably in his entire church +membership there might not be found a score of disciples who were +capable of doing work that would successfully lead needy, sinful men +into the knowledge of Christ. The thought did not linger in his mind +to vex him as he went his way, but it was simply a part of his whole +new conception of the meaning of Christian discipleship. + +When he and his little company of volunteers reached the Rectangle, +the tent was already crowded. They had difficulty in getting to the +platform. Rachel was there with Virginia and Jasper Chase who had +come instead of the Doctor tonight. + +When the meeting began with a song in which Rachel sang the solo and +the people were asked to join in the chorus, not a foot of standing +room was left in the tent. The night was mild and the sides of the +tent were up and a great border of faces stretched around, looking +in and forming part of the audience. After the singing, and a prayer +by one of the city pastors who was present, Gray stated the reason +for his inability to speak, and in his simple manner turned the +service over to "Brother Maxwell of the First Church." + +"Who's de bloke?" asked a hoarse voice near the outside of the tent. + +"De Fust Church parson. We've got de whole high-tone swell outfit +tonight." + +"Did you say Fust Church? I know him. My landlord's got a front pew +up there," said another voice, and there was a laugh, for the +speaker was a saloon keeper. + +"Trow out de life line 'cross de dark wave!" began a drunken man +near by, singing in such an unconscious imitation of a local +traveling singer's nasal tone that roars of laughter and jeers of +approval rose around him. The people in the tent turned in the +direction of the disturbance. There were shouts of "Put him out!" +"Give the Fust Church a chance!" "Song! Song! Give us another song!" + +Henry Maxwell stood up, and a great wave of actual terror went over +him. This was not like preaching to the well-dressed, respectable, +good-mannered people up on the boulevard. He began to speak, but the +confusion increased. Gray went down into the crowd, but did not seem +able to quiet it. Maxwell raised his arm and his voice. The crowd in +the tent began to pay some attention, but the noise on the outside +increased. In a few minutes the audience was beyond his control. He +turned to Rachel with a sad smile. + +"Sing something, Miss Winslow. They will listen to you," he said, +and then sat down and covered his face with his hands. + +It was Rachel's opportunity, and she was fully equal to it. Virginia +was at the organ and Rachel asked her to play a few notes of the +hymn. + + "Savior, I follow on, + Guided by Thee, + Seeing not yet the hand + That leadeth me. + Hushed be my heart and still + Fear I no farther ill, + Only to meet Thy will, + My will shall be." + +Rachel had not sung the first line before the people in the tent +were all turned toward her, hushed and reverent. Before she had +finished the verse the Rectangle was subdued and tamed. It lay like +some wild beast at her feet, and she sang it into harmlessness. Ah! +What were the flippant, perfumed, critical audiences in concert +halls compared with this dirty, drunken, impure, besotted mass of +humanity that trembled and wept and grew strangely, sadly thoughtful +under the touch of this divine ministry of this beautiful young +woman! Mr. Maxwell, as he raised his head and saw the transformed +mob, had a glimpse of something that Jesus would probably do with a +voice like Rachel Winslow's. Jasper Chase sat with his eyes on the +singer, and his greatest longing as an ambitious author was +swallowed up in his thought of what Rachel Winslow's love might +sometimes mean to him. And over in the shadow outside stood the last +person any one might have expected to see at a gospel tent +service--Rollin Page, who, jostled on every side by rough men and +women who stared at the swell in fine clothes, seemed careless of +his surroundings and at the same time evidently swayed by the power +that Rachel possessed. He had just come over from the club. Neither +Rachel nor Virginia saw him that night. + +The song was over. Maxwell rose again. This time he felt calmer. +What would Jesus do? He spoke as he thought once he never could +speak. Who were these people? They were immortal souls. What was +Christianity? A calling of sinners, not the righteous, to +repentance. How would Jesus speak? What would He say? He could not +tell all that His message would include, but he felt sure of a part +of it. And in that certainty he spoke on. Never before had he felt +"compassion for the multitude." What had the multitude been to him +during his ten years in the First Church but a vague, dangerous, +dirty, troublesome factor in society, outside of the church and of +his reach, an element that caused him occasionally an unpleasant +twinge of conscience, a factor in Raymond that was talked about at +associations as the "masses," in papers written by the brethren in +attempts to show why the "masses" were not being reached. But +tonight as he faced the masses he asked himself whether, after all, +this was not just about such a multitude as Jesus faced oftenest, +and he felt the genuine emotion of love for a crowd which is one of +the best indications a preacher ever has that he is living close to +the heart of the world's eternal Life. It is easy to love an +individual sinner, especially if he is personally picturesque or +interesting. To love a multitude of sinners is distinctively a +Christ-like quality. + +When the meeting closed, there was no special interest shown. No one +stayed to the after-meeting. The people rapidly melted away from the +tent, and the saloons, which had been experiencing a dull season +while the meetings progressed, again drove a thriving trade. The +Rectangle, as if to make up for lost time, started in with vigor on +its usual night debauch. Maxwell and his little party, including +Virginia, Rachel and Jasper Chase, walked down past the row of +saloons and dens until they reached the corner where the cars +passed. + +"This is a terrible spot," said the minister as he stood waiting for +their car. "I never realized that Raymond had such a festering sore. +It does not seem possible that this is a city full of Christian +disciples." + +"Do you think any one can ever remove this great curse of drink?" +asked Jasper Chase. + +"I have thought lately as never before of what Christian people +might do to remove the curse of the saloon. Why don't we all act +together against it? Why don't the Christian pastors and the church +members of Raymond move as one man against the traffic? What would +Jesus do? Would He keep silent? Would He vote to license these +causes of crime and death?" + +He was talking to himself more than to the others. He remembered +that he had always voted for license, and so had nearly all his +church members. What would Jesus do? Could he answer that question? +Would the Master preach and act against the saloon if He lived +today? How would He preach and act? Suppose it was not popular to +preach against license? Suppose the Christian people thought it was +all that could be done to license the evil and so get revenue from +the necessary sin? Or suppose the church members themselves owned +the property where the saloons stood--what then? He knew that those +were the facts in Raymond. What would Jesus do? + +He went up into his study the next morning with that question only +partly answered. He thought of it all day. He was still thinking of +it and reaching certain real conclusions when the EVENING NEWS came. +His wife brought it up and sat down a few minutes while he read to +her. + +The EVENING NEWS was at present the most sensational paper in +Raymond. That is to say, it was being edited in such a remarkable +fashion that its subscribers had never been so excited over a +newspaper before. First they had noticed the absence of the prize +fight, and gradually it began to dawn upon them that the NEWS no +longer printed accounts of crime with detailed descriptions, or +scandals in private life. Then they noticed that the advertisements +of liquor and tobacco were dropped, together with certain others of +a questionable character. The discontinuance of the Sunday paper +caused the greatest comment of all, and now the character of the +editorials was creating the greatest excitement. A quotation from +the Monday paper of this week will show what Edward Norman was doing +to keep his promise. The editorial was headed: + +THE MORAL SIDE OF POLITICAL QUESTIONS + +The editor of the News has always advocated the principles of the +great political party at present in power, and has heretofore +discussed all political questions from the standpoint of expediency, +or of belief in the party as opposed to other political +organizations. Hereafter, to be perfectly honest with all our +readers, the editor will present and discuss all political questions +from the standpoint of right and wrong. In other words, the first +question asked in this office about any political question will not +be, "Is it in the interests of our party?" or, "Is it according to +the principles laid down by our party in its platform?" but the +question first asked will be, "Is this measure in accordance with +the spirit and teachings of Jesus as the author of the greatest +standard of life known to men?" That is, to be perfectly plain, the +moral side of every political question will be considered its most +important side, and the ground will be distinctly taken that nations +as well as individuals are under the same law to do all things to +the glory of God as the first rule of action. + +The same principle will be observed in this office toward candidates +for places of responsibility and trust in the republic. Regardless +of party politics the editor of the News will do all in his power to +bring the best men into power, and will not knowingly help to +support for office any candidate who is unworthy, no matter how much +he may be endorsed by the party. The first question asked about the +man and about the measures will be, "Is he the right man for the +place?" "Is he a good man with ability?" "Is the measure right?" + +There had been more of this, but we have quoted enough to show the +character of the editorial. Hundreds of men in Raymond had read it +and rubbed their eyes in amazement. A good many of them had promptly +written to the NEWS, telling the editor to stop their paper. The +paper still came out, however, and was eagerly read all over the +city. At the end of a week Edward Norman knew very well that he was +fast losing a large number of subscribers. He faced the conditions +calmly, although Clark, the managing editor, grimly anticipated +ultimate bankruptcy, especially since Monday's editorial. + +Tonight, as Maxwell read to his wife, he could see in almost every +column evidences of Norman's conscientious obedience to his promise. +There was an absence of slangy, sensational scare heads. The reading +matter under the head lines was in perfect keeping with them. He +noticed in two columns that the reporters' name appeared signed at +the bottom. And there was a distinct advance in the dignity and +style of their contributions. + +"So Norman is beginning to get his reporters to sign their work. He +has talked with me about that. It is a good thing. It fixes +responsibility for items where it belongs and raises the standard of +work done. A good thing all around for the public and the writers." + +Maxwell suddenly paused. His wife looked up from some work she was +doing. He was reading something with the utmost interest. "Listen to +this, Mary," he said, after a moment while his lip trembled: + +This morning Alexander Powers, Superintendent of the L. and T. R. R. +shops in this city, handed in his resignation to the road, and gave +as his reason the fact that certain proofs had fallen into his hands +of the violation of the Interstate Commerce Law, and also of the +state law which has recently been framed to prevent and punish +railroad pooling for the benefit of certain favored shippers. Mr. +Powers states in his resignation that he can no longer consistently +withhold the information he possesses against the road. He will be a +witness against it. He has placed his evidence against the company +in the hands of the Commission and it is now for them to take action +upon it. + +The News wishes to express itself on this action of Mr. Powers. In +the first place he has nothing to gain by it. He has lost a very +valuable place voluntarily, when by keeping silent he might have +retained it. In the second place, we believe his action ought to +receive the approval of all thoughtful, honest citizens who believe +in seeing law obeyed and lawbreakers brought to justice. In a case +like this, where evidence against a railroad company is generally +understood to be almost impossible to obtain, it is the general +belief that the officers of the road are often in possession of +criminating facts but do not consider it to be any of their business +to inform the authorities that the law is being defied. The entire +result of this evasion of responsibility on the part of those who +are responsible is demoralizing to every young man connected with +the road. The editor of the News recalls the statement made by a +prominent railroad official in this city a little while ago, that +nearly every clerk in a certain department of the road understood +that large sums of money were made by shrewd violations of the +Interstate Commerce Law, was ready to admire the shrewdness with +which it was done, and declared that they would all do the same +thing if they were high enough in railroad circles to attempt it." + + + + + + +Chapter Nine + + + + + +HENRY MAXWELL finished reading and dropped the paper. + +"I must go and see Powers. This is the result of his promise." + +He rose, and as he was going out, his wife said: "Do you think, +Henry, that Jesus would have done that?" + +Maxwell paused a moment. Then he answered slowly, "Yes, I think He +would. At any rate, Powers has decided so and each one of us who +made the promise understands that he is not deciding Jesus' conduct +for any one else, only for himself." + +"How about his family? How will Mrs. Powers and Celia be likely to +take it?" + +"Very hard, I've no doubt. That will be Powers' cross in this +matter. They will not understand his motive." + +Maxwell went out and walked over to the next block where +Superintendent Powers lived. To his relief, Powers himself came to +the door. + +The two men shook hands silently. They instantly understood each +other without words. There had never before been such a bond of +union between the minister and his parishioner. + +"What are you going to do?" Henry Maxwell asked after they had +talked over the facts in the case. + +"You mean another position? I have no plans yet. I can go back to my +old work as a telegraph operator. My family will not suffer, except +in a social way." + +Powers spoke calmly and sadly. Henry Maxwell did not need to ask him +how the wife and daughter felt. He knew well enough that the +superintendent had suffered deepest at that point. + +"There is one matter I wish you would see to," said Powers after +awhile, "and that is, the work begun at the shops. So far as I know, +the company will not object to that going on. It is one of the +contradictions of the railroad world that Y. M. C. A.'s and other +Christian influences are encouraged by the roads, while all the time +the most un-Christian and lawless acts may be committed in the +official management of the roads themselves. Of course it is well +understood that it pays a railroad to have in its employ men who are +temperate, honest and Christian. So I have no doubt the master +mechanic will have the same courtesy shown him in the use of the +room. But what I want you to do, Mr. Maxwell, is to see that my plan +is carried out. Will you? You understand what it was in general. You +made a very favorable impression on the men. Go down there as often +as you can. Get Milton Wright interested to provide something for +the furnishing and expense of the coffee plant and reading tables. +Will you do it?" + +"Yes," replied Henry Maxwell. He stayed a little longer. Before he +went away, he and the superintendent had a prayer together, and they +parted with that silent hand grasp that seemed to them like a new +token of their Christian discipleship and fellowship. + +The pastor of the First Church went home stirred deeply by the +events of the week. Gradually the truth was growing upon him that +the pledge to do as Jesus would was working out a revolution in his +parish and throughout the city. Every day added to the serious +results of obedience to that pledge. Maxwell did not pretend to see +the end. He was, in fact, only now at the very beginning of events +that were destined to change the history of hundreds of families not +only in Raymond but throughout the entire country. As he thought of +Edward Norman and Rachel and Mr. Powers, and of the results that had +already come from their actions, he could not help a feeling of +intense interest in the probable effect if all the persons in the +First Church who had made the pledge, faithfully kept it. Would they +all keep it, or would some of them turn back when the cross became +too heavy? + +He was asking this question the next morning as he sat in his study +when the President of the Endeavor Society of his church called to +see him. + +"I suppose I ought not to trouble you with my case," said young +Morris coming at once to his errand, "but I thought, Mr. Maxwell, +that you might advise me a little." + +"I'm glad you came. Go on, Fred." He had known the young man ever +since his first year in the pastorate, and loved and honored him for +his consistent, faithful service in the church. + +"Well, the fact is, I am out of a job. You know I've been doing +reporter work on the morning SENTINEL since I graduated last year. +Well, last Saturday Mr. Burr asked me to go down the road Sunday +morning and get the details of that train robbery at the Junction, +and write the thing up for the extra edition that came out Monday +morning, just to get the start of the NEWS. I refused to go, and +Burr gave me my dismissal. He was in a bad temper, or I think +perhaps he would not have done it. He has always treated me well +before. Now, do you think Jesus would have done as I did? I ask +because the other fellows say I was a fool not to do the work. I +want to feel that a Christian acts from motives that may seem +strange to others sometimes, but not foolish. What do you think?" + +"I think you kept your promise, Fred. I cannot believe Jesus would +do newspaper reporting on Sunday as you were asked to do it." + +"Thank you, Mr. Maxwell. I felt a little troubled over it, but the +longer I think it over the better I feel." + +Morris rose to go, and his pastor rose and laid a loving hand on the +young man's shoulder. "What are you going to do, Fred?" + +"I don't know yet. I have thought some of going to Chicago or some +large city ." + +"Why don't you try the NEWS?" + +"They are all supplied. I have not thought of applying there." + +Maxwell thought a moment. "Come down to the NEWS office with me, and +let us see Norman about it." + +So a few minutes later Edward Norman received into his room the +minister and young Morris, and Maxwell briefly told the cause of the +errand. + +"I can give you a place on the NEWS," said Norman with his keen look +softened by a smile that made it winsome. "I want reporters who +won't work Sundays. And what is more, I am making plans for a +special kind of reporting which I believe you can develop because +you are in sympathy with what Jesus would do." + +He assigned Morris a definite task, and Maxwell started back to his +study, feeling that kind of satisfaction (and it is a very deep +kind) which a man feels when he has been even partly instrumental in +finding an unemployed person a remunerative position. + +He had intended to go right to his study, but on his way home he +passed by one of Milton Wright's stores. He thought he would simply +step in and shake hands with his parishioner and bid him God-speed +in what he had heard he was doing to put Christ into his business. +But when he went into the office, Wright insisted on detaining him +to talk over some of his new plans. Maxwell asked himself if this +was the Milton Wright he used to know, eminently practical, +business-like, according to the regular code of the business world, +and viewing every thing first and foremost from the standpoint of, +"Will it pay?" + +"There is no use to disguise the fact, Mr. Maxwell, that I have been +compelled to revolutionize the entire method of my business since I +made that promise. I have been doing a great many things during the +last twenty years in this store that I know Jesus would not do. But +that is a small item compared with the number of things I begin to +believe Jesus would do. My sins of commission have not been as many +as those of omission in business relations." + +"What was the first change you made?" He felt as if his sermon could +wait for him in his study. As the interview with Milton Wright +continued, he was not so sure but that he had found material for a +sermon without going back to his study. + +"I think the first change I had to make was in my thought of my +employees. I came down here Monday morning after that Sunday and +asked myself, 'What would Jesus do in His relation to these clerks, +bookkeepers, office-boys, draymen, salesmen? Would He try to +establish some sort of personal relation to them different from that +which I have sustained all these years?' I soon answered this by +saying, 'Yes.' Then came the question of what that relation would be +and what it would lead me to do. I did not see how I could answer it +to my satisfaction without getting all my employees together and +having a talk with them. So I sent invitations to all of them, and +we had a meeting out there in the warehouse Tuesday night. A good +many things came out of that meeting. I can't tell you all. I tried +to talk with the men as I imagined Jesus might. It was hard work, +for I have not been in the habit of it, and must have made some +mistakes. But I can hardly make you believe, Mr. Maxwell, the effect +of that meeting on some of the men. Before it closed I saw more than +a dozen of them with tears on their faces. I kept asking, 'What +would Jesus do?' and the more I asked it the farther along it pushed +me into the most intimate and loving relations with the men who have +worked for me all these years. Every day something new is coming up +and I am right now in the midst of a reconstruction of the entire +business so far as its motive for being conducted is concerned. I am +so practically ignorant of all plans for co-operation and its +application to business that I am trying to get information from +every possible source. I have lately made a special study of the +life of Titus Salt, the great mill-owner of Bradford, England, who +afterward built that model town on the banks of the Aire. There is a +good deal in his plans that will help me. But I have not yet reached +definite conclusions in regard to all the details. I am not enough +used to Jesus' methods. But see here." + +Wright eagerly reached up into one of the pigeon holes of his desk +and took out a paper. + +"I have sketched out what seems to me like a program such as Jesus +might go by in a business like mine. I want you to tell me what you +think of it: + +"WHAT JESUS WOULD PROBABLY DO IN MILTON WRIGHT'S PLACE AS A BUSINESS +MAN" + +He would engage in the, business first of all for the purpose of +glorifying God, and not for the primary purpose of making money. All +money that might be made he would never regard as his own, but as +trust funds to be used for the good of humanity. His relations with +all the persons in his employ would be the most loving and helpful. +He could not help thinking of all of them in the light of souls to +be saved. This thought would always be greater than his thought of +making money in the business. He would never do a single dishonest +or questionable thing or try in any remotest way to get the +advantage of any one else in the same business. The principle of +unselfishness and helpfulness in the business would direct all its +details. Upon this principle he would shape the entire plan of his +relations to his employees, to the people who were his customers and +to the general business world with which he was connected. + +Henry Maxwell read this over slowly. It reminded him of his own +attempts the day before to put into a concrete form his thought of +Jesus' probable action. He was very thoughtful as he looked up and +met Wright's eager gaze. + +"Do you believe you can continue to make your business pay on these +lines?" + +"I do. Intelligent unselfishness ought to be wiser than intelligent +selfishness, don't you think? If the men who work as employees begin +to feel a personal share in the profits of the business and, more +than that, a personal love for themselves on the part of the firm, +won't the result be more care, less waste, more diligence, more +faithfulness?" + +"Yes, I think so. A good many other business men don't, do they? I +mean as a general thing. How about your relations to the selfish +world that is not trying to make money on Christian principles?" + +"That complicates my action, of course." + +"Does your plan contemplate what is coming to be known as +co-operation?" + +"Yes, as far as I have gone, it does. As I told you, I am studying +out my details carefully. I am absolutely convinced that Jesus in my +place would be absolutely unselfish. He would love all these men in +His employ. He would consider the main purpose of all the business +to be a mutual helpfulness, and would conduct it all so that God's +kingdom would be evidently the first object sought. On those general +principles, as I say, I am working. I must have time to complete the +details." + +When Maxwell finally left he was profoundly impressed with the +revolution that was being wrought already in the business. As he +passed out of the store he caught something of the new spirit of the +place. There was no mistaking the fact that Milton Wright's new +relations to his employees were beginning even so soon, after less +than two weeks, to transform the entire business. This was apparent +in the conduct and faces of the clerks. + +"If he keeps on he will be one of the most influential preachers in +Raymond," said Maxwell to himself when he reached his study. The +question rose as to his continuance in this course when he began to +lose money by it, as was possible. He prayed that the Holy Spirit, +who had shown Himself with growing power in the company of First +Church disciples, might abide long with them all. And with that +prayer on his lips and in his heart he began the preparation of a +sermon in which he was going to present to his people on Sunday the +subject of the saloon in Raymond, as he now believed Jesus would do. +He had never preached against the saloon in this way before. He knew +that the things he should say would lead to serious results. +Nevertheless, he went on with his work, and every sentence he wrote +or shaped was preceded with the question, "Would Jesus say that?" +Once in the course of his study, he went down on his knees. No one +except himself could know what that meant to him. When had he done +that in his preparation of sermons, before the change that had come +into his thought of discipleship? As he viewed his ministry now, he +did not dare preach without praying long for wisdom. He no longer +thought of his dramatic delivery and its effect on his audience. The +great question with him now was, "What would Jesus do?" + +Saturday night at the Rectangle witnessed some of the most +remarkable scenes that Mr. Gray and his wife had ever known. The +meetings had intensified with each night of Rachel's singing. A +stranger passing through the Rectangle in the day-time might have +heard a good deal about the meetings in one way and another. It +cannot be said that up to that Saturday night there was any +appreciable lack of oaths and impurity and heavy drinking. The +Rectangle would not have acknowledged that it was growing any better +or that even the singing had softened its outward manner. It had too +much local pride in being "tough." But in spite of itself there was +a yielding to a power it had never measured and did not know we +enough to resist beforehand. + +Gray had recovered his voice so that by Saturday he was able to +speak. The fact that he was obliged to use his voice carefully made +it necessary for the people to be very quiet if they wanted to hear. +Gradually they had come to understand that this man was talking +these many weeks and giving his time and strength to give them a +knowledge of a Savior, all out of a perfectly unselfish love for +them. Tonight the great crowd was as quiet as Henry Maxwell's +decorous audience ever was. The fringe around the tent was deeper +and the saloons were practically empty. The Holy Spirit had come at +last, and Gray knew that one of the great prayers of his life was +going to be answered. + +And Rachel her singing was the best, most wonderful, that Virginia +or Jasper Chase had ever known. They came together again tonight, +this time with Dr. West, who had spent all his spare time that week +in the Rectangle with some charity cases. Virginia was at the organ, +Jasper sat on a front seat looking up at Rachel, and the Rectangle +swayed as one man towards the platform as she sang: + + "Just as I am, without one plea, + But that Thy blood was shed for me, + And that Thou bidst me come to Thee, + O Lamb of God, I come, I come." + +Gray hardly said a word. He stretched out his hand with a gesture of +invitation. And down the two aisles of the tent, broken, sinful +creatures, men and women, stumbled towards the platform. One woman +out of the street was near the organ. Virginia caught the look of +her face, and for the first time in the life of the rich girl the +thought of what Jesus was to the sinful woman came with a suddenness +and power that was like nothing but a new birth. Virginia left the +organ, went to her, looked into her face and caught her hands in her +own. The other girl trembled, then fell on her knees sobbing, with +her head down upon the back of the rude bench in front of her, still +clinging to Virginia. And Virginia, after a moment's hesitation, +kneeled down by her and the two heads were bowed close together. + +But when the people had crowded in a double row all about the +platform, most of them kneeling and crying, a man in evening dress, +different from the others, pushed through the seats and came and +kneeled down by the side of the drunken man who had disturbed the +meeting when Maxwell spoke. He kneeled within a few feet of Rachel +Winslow, who was still singing softly. And as she turned for a +moment and looked in his direction, she was amazed to see the face +of Rollin Page! For a moment her voice faltered. Then she went on: + + "Just as I am, thou wilt receive, + Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve, + Because Thy promise I believe, + O Lamb of God, I come, I come." + + + + + + +Chapter Ten + + + + + +"If any man serve me, let him follow me." + +IT was nearly midnight before the services at the Rectangle closed. +Gray stayed up long into Sunday morning, praying and talking with a +little group of converts who in the great experiences of their new +life, clung to the evangelist with a personal helplessness that made +it as impossible for him to leave them as if they had been depending +upon him to save them from physical death. Among these converts was +Rollin Page. + +Virginia and her uncle had gone home about eleven o'clock, and +Rachel and Jasper Chase had gone with them as far as the avenue +where Virginia lived. Dr. West had walked on a little way with them +to his own home, and Rachel and Jasper had then gone on together to +her mother's. + +That was a little after eleven. It was now striking midnight, and +Jasper Chase sat in his room staring at the papers on his desk and +going over the last half hour with painful persistence. + +He had told Rachel Winslow of his love for her, and she had not +given him her love in return. It would be difficult to know what was +most powerful in the impulse that had moved him to speak to her +tonight. He had yielded to his feelings without any special thought +of results to himself, because he had felt so certain that Rachel +would respond to his love. He tried to recall the impression she +made on him when he first spoke to her. + +Never had her beauty and her strength influenced him as tonight. +While she was singing he saw and heard no one else. The tent swarmed +with a confused crowd of faces and he knew he was sitting there +hemmed in by a mob of people, but they had no meaning to him. He +felt powerless to avoid speaking to her. He knew he should speak +when they were alone. + +Now that he had spoken, he felt that he had misjudged either Rachel +or the opportunity. He knew, or thought he knew, that she had begun +to care something for him. It was no secret between them that the +heroine of Jasper's first novel had been his own ideal of Rachel, +and the hero in the story was himself and they had loved each other +in the book, and Rachel had not objected. No one else knew. The +names and characters had been drawn with a subtle skill that +revealed to Rachel, when she received a copy of the book from +Jasper, the fact of his love for her, and she had not been offended. +That was nearly a year ago. + +Tonight he recalled the scene between them with every inflection and +movement unerased from his memory. He even recalled the fact that he +began to speak just at that point on the avenue where, a few days +before, he had met Rachel walking with Rollin Page. He had wondered +at the time what Rollin was saying. + +"Rachel," Jasper had said, and it was the first time he had ever +spoken her first name, "I never knew till tonight how much I loved +you. Why should I try to conceal any longer what you have seen me +look? You know I love you as my life. I can no longer hide it from +you if I would." + +The first intimation he had of a repulse was the trembling of +Rachel's arm in his. She had allowed him to speak and had neither +turned her face toward him nor away from him. She had looked +straight on and her voice was sad but firm and quiet when she spoke. + +"Why do you speak to me now? I cannot bear it--after what we have +seen tonight." + +"Why--what--" he had stammered and then was silent. + +Rachel withdrew her arm from his but still walked near him. Then he +had cried out with the anguish of one who begins to see a great loss +facing him where he expected a great joy. + +"Rachel! Do you not love me? Is not my love for you as sacred as +anything in all of life itself?" + +She had walked silent for a few steps after that. They passed a +street lamp. Her face was pale and beautiful. He had made a movement +to clutch her arm and she had moved a little farther from him. + +"No," she had replied. "There was a time I--cannot answer for that +you--should not have spoken to me--now." + +He had seen in these words his answer. He was extremely sensitive. +Nothing short of a joyous response to his own love would ever have +satisfied him. He could not think of pleading with her. + +"Some time--when I am more worthy?" he had asked in a low voice, but +she did not seem to hear, and they had parted at her home, and he +recalled vividly the fact that no good-night had been said. + +Now as he went over the brief but significant scene he lashed +himself for his foolish precipitancy. He had not reckoned on +Rachel's tense, passionate absorption of all her feeling in the +scenes at the tent which were so new in her mind. But he did not +know her well enough even yet to understand the meaning of her +refusal. When the clock in the First Church struck one he was still +sitting at his desk staring at the last page of manuscript of his +unfinished novel. + +Rachel went up to her room and faced her evening's experience with +conflicting emotions. Had she ever loved Jasper Chase? Yes. No. One +moment she felt that her life's happiness was at stake over the +result of her action. Another, she had a strange feeling of relief +that she had spoken as she had. There was one great, overmastering +feeling in her. The response of the wretched creatures in the tent +to her singing, the swift, powerful, awesome presence of the Holy +Spirit had affected her as never in all her life before. The moment +Jasper had spoken her name and she realized that he was telling her +of his love she had felt a sudden revulsion for him, as if he should +have respected the supernatural events they had just witnessed. She +felt as if it was not the time to be absorbed in anything less than +the divine glory of those conversions. The thought that all the time +she was singing, with the one passion of her soul to touch the +conscience of that tent full of sin, Jasper Chase had been unmoved +by it except to love her for herself, gave her a shock as of +irreverence on her part as well as on his. She could not tell why +she felt as she did, only she knew that if he had not told her +tonight she would still have felt the same toward him as she always +had. What was that feeling? What had he been to her? Had she made a +mistake? She went to her book case and took out the novel which +Jasper had given her. Her face deepened in color as she turned to +certain passages which she had read often and which she knew Jasper +had written for her. She read them again. Somehow they failed to +touch her strongly. She closed the book and let it lie on the table. +She gradually felt that her thought was busy with the sights she had +witnessed in the tent. Those faces, men and women, touched for the +first time with the Spirit's glory--what a wonderful thing life was +after all! The complete regeneration revealed in the sight of +drunken, vile, debauched humanity kneeling down to give itself to a +life of purity and Christlikeness--oh, it was surely a witness to +the superhuman in the world! And the face of Rollin Page by the side +of that miserable wreck out of the gutter! She could recall as if +she now saw it, Virginia crying with her arms about her brother just +before she left the tent, and Mr. Gray kneeling close by, and the +girl Virginia had taken into her heart while she whispered something +to her before she went out. All these pictures drawn by the Holy +Spirit in the human tragedies brought to a climax there in the most +abandoned spot in all Raymond, stood out in Rachel's memory now, a +memory so recent that her room seemed for the time being to contain +all the actors and their movements. + +"No! No!" she said aloud. "He had no right to speak after all that! +He should have respected the place where our thoughts should have +been. I am sure I do not love him--not enough to give him my life!" + +And after she had thus spoken, the evening's experience at the tent +came crowding in again, thrusting out all other things. It is +perhaps the most striking evidence of the tremendous spiritual +factor which had now entered the Rectangle that Rachel felt, even +when the great love of a strong man had come very near to her, that +the spiritual manifestation moved her with an agitation far greater +than anything Jasper had felt for her personally or she for him. + +The people of Raymond awoke Sunday morning to a growing knowledge of +events which were beginning to revolutionize many of the regular, +customary habits of the town. Alexander Powers' action in the matter +of the railroad frauds had created a sensation not only in Raymond +but throughout the country. Edward Norman's daily changes of policy +in the conduct of his paper had startled the community and caused +more comment than any recent political event. Rachel Winslow's +singing at the Rectangle meetings had made a stir in society and +excited the wonder of all her friends. + +Virginia's conduct, her presence every night with Rachel, her +absence from the usual circle of her wealthy, fashionable +acquaintances, had furnished a great deal of material for gossip and +question. In addition to these events which centered about these +persons who were so well known, there had been all through the city +in very many homes and in business and social circles strange +happenings. Nearly one hundred persons in Henry Maxwell's church had +made the pledge to do everything after asking: "What would Jesus +do?" and the result had been, in many cases, unheard-of actions. The +city was stirred as it had never been before. As a climax to the +week's events had come the spiritual manifestation at the Rectangle, +and the announcement which came to most people before church time of +the actual conversion at the tent of nearly fifty of the worst +characters in that neighborhood, together with the con version of +Rollin Page, the well-known society and club man. + +It is no wonder that under the pressure of all this the First Church +of Raymond came to the morning service in a condition that made it +quickly sensitive to any large truth. Perhaps nothing had astonished +the people more than the great change that had come over the +minister, since he had proposed to them the imitation of Jesus in +conduct. The dramatic delivery of his sermons no longer impressed +them. The self-satisfied, contented, easy attitude of the fine +figure and refined face in the pulpit had been displaced by a manner +that could not be compared with the old style of his delivery. The +sermon had become a message. It was no longer delivered. It was +brought to them with a love, an earnestness, a passion, a desire, a +humility that poured its enthusiasm about the truth and made the +speaker no more prominent than he had to be as the living voice of +God. His prayers were unlike any the people had heard before. They +were often broken, even once or twice they had been actually +ungrammatical in a phrase or two. When had Henry Maxwell so far +forgotten himself in a prayer as to make a mistake of that sort? He +knew that he had often taken as much pride in the diction and +delivery of his prayers as of his sermons. Was it possible he now so +abhorred the elegant refinement of a formal public petition that he +purposely chose to rebuke himself for his previous precise manner of +prayer? It is more likely that he had no thought of all that. His +great longing to voice the needs and wants of his people made him +unmindful of an occasional mistake. It is certain that he had never +prayed so effectively as he did now. + +There are times when a sermon has a value and power due to +conditions in the audience rather than to anything new or startling +or eloquent in the words said or arguments presented. Such +conditions faced Henry Maxwell this morning as he preached against +the saloon, according to his purpose determined on the week before. +He had no new statements to make about the evil influence of the +saloon in Raymond. What new facts were there? He had no startling +illustrations of the power of the saloon in business or politics. +What could he say that had not been said by temperance orators a +great many times? The effect of his message this morning owed its +power to the unusual fact of his preaching about the saloon at all, +together with the events that had stirred the people. He had never +in the course of his ten years' pastorate mentioned the saloon as +something to be regarded in the light of an enemy, not only to the +poor and tempted, but to the business life of the place and the +church itself. He spoke now with a freedom that seemed to measure +his complete sense of conviction that Jesus would speak so. At the +close he pleaded with the people to remember the new life that had +begun at the Rectangle. The regular election of city officers was +near at hand. The question of license would be an issue in the +election. What of the poor creatures surrounded by the hell of drink +while just beginning to feel the joy of deliverance from sin? Who +could tell what depended on their environment? Was there one word to +be said by the Christian disciple, business man, citizen, in favor +of continuing the license to crime and shame-producing institutions? +Was not the most Christian thing they could do to act as citizens in +the matter, fight the saloon at the polls, elect good men to the +city offices, and clean the municipality? How much had prayers +helped to make Raymond better while votes and actions had really +been on the side of the enemies of Jesus? Would not Jesus do this? +What disciple could imagine Him refusing to suffer or to take up His +cross in this matter? How much had the members of the First Church +ever suffered in an attempt to imitate Jesus? Was Christian +discipleship a thing of conscience simply, of custom, of tradition? +Where did the suffering come in? Was it necessary in order to follow +Jesus' steps to go up Calvary as well as the Mount of +Transfiguration? + +His appeal was stronger at this point than he knew. It is not too +much to say that the spiritual tension of the people reached its +highest point right there. The imitation of Jesus which had begun +with the volunteers in the church was working like leaven in the +organization, and Henry Maxwell would even thus early in his life +have been amazed if he could have measured the extent of desire on +the part of his people to take up the cross. While he was speaking +this morning, before he closed with a loving appeal to the +discipleship of two thousand years' knowledge of the Master, many a +man and woman in the church was saying as Rachel had said so +passionately to her mother: "I want to do something that will cost +me something in the way of sacrifice." "I am hungry to suffer +something." Truly, Mazzini was right when he said that no appeal is +quite so powerful in the end as the call: "Come and suffer." + +The service was over, the great audience had gone, and Maxwell again +faced the company gathered in the lecture room as on the two +previous Sundays. He had asked all to remain who had made the pledge +of discipleship, and any others who wished to be included. The after +service seemed now to be a necessity. As he went in and faced the +people there his heart trembled. There were at least one hundred +present. The Holy Spirit was never before so manifest. He missed +Jasper Chase. But all the others were present. He asked Milton +Wright to pray. The very air was charged with divine possibilities. +What could resist such a baptism of power? How had they lived all +these years without it? + + + + + + +Chapter Eleven + + + + + +DONALD MARSH, President of Lincoln College, walked home with Mr. +Maxwell. + +"I have reached one conclusion, Maxwell," said Marsh, speaking +slowly. "I have found my cross and it is a heavy one, but I shall +never be satisfied until I take it up and carry it." Maxwell was +silent and the President went on. + +"Your sermon today made clear to me what I have long been feeling I +ought to do. 'What would Jesus do in my place?' I have asked the +question repeatedly since I made my promise. I have tried to satisfy +myself that He would simply go on as I have done, attending to the +duties of my college work, teaching the classes in Ethics and +Philosophy. But I have not been able to avoid the feeling that He +would do something more. That something is what I do not want to do. +It will cause me genuine suffering to do it. I dread it with all my +soul. You may be able to guess what it is." + +"Yes, I think I know. It is my cross too. I would almost rather do +any thing else." + +Donald Marsh looked surprised, then relieved. Then he spoke sadly +but with great conviction: "Maxwell, you and I belong to a class of +professional men who have always avoided the duties of citizenship. +We have lived in a little world of literature and scholarly +seclusion, doing work we have enjoyed and shrinking from the +disagreeable duties that belong to the life of the citizen. I +confess with shame that I have purposely avoided the responsibility +that I owe to this city personally. I understand that our city +officials are a corrupt, unprincipled set of men, controlled in +large part by the whiskey element and thoroughly selfish so far as +the affairs of city government are concerned. Yet all these years I, +with nearly every teacher in the college, have been satisfied to let +other men run the municipality and have lived in a little world of +my own, out of touch and sympathy with the real world of the people. +'What would Jesus do?' I have even tried to avoid an honest answer. +I can no longer do so. My plain duty is to take a personal part in +this coming election, go to the primaries, throw the weight of my +influence, whatever it is, toward the nomination and election of +good men, and plunge into the very depths of the entire horrible +whirlpool of deceit, bribery, political trickery and saloonism as it +exists in Raymond today. I would sooner walk up to the mouth of a +cannon any time than do this. I dread it because I hate the touch of +the whole matter. I would give almost any thing to be able to say, +'I do not believe Jesus would do anything of the sort.' But I am +more and more persuaded that He would. This is where the suffering +comes for me. It would not hurt me half so much to lose my position +or my home. I loathe the contact with this municipal problem. I +would so much prefer to remain quietly in my scholastic life with my +classes in Ethics and Philosophy. But the call has come to me so +plainly that I cannot escape. 'Donald Marsh, follow me. Do your duty +as a citizen of Raymond at the point where your citizenship will +cost you something. Help to cleanse this municipal stable, even if +you do have to soil your aristocratic feelings a little.' Maxwell, +this is my cross, I must take it up or deny my Lord." + +"You have spoken for me also," replied Maxwell with a sad smile. +"Why should I, simply because I am a minister, shelter myself behind +my refined, sensitive feelings, and like a coward refuse to touch, +except in a sermon possibly, the duty of citizenship? I am unused to +the ways of the political life of the city. I have never taken an +active part in any nomination of good men. There are hundreds of +ministers like me. As a class we do not practice in the municipal +life the duties and privileges we preach from the pulpit. 'What +would Jesus do?' I am now at a point where, like you, I am driven to +answer the question one way. My duty is plain. I must suffer. All my +parish work, all my little trials or self-sacrifices are as nothing +to me compared with the breaking into my scholarly, intellectual, +self-contained habits, of this open, coarse, public fight for a +clean city life. I could go and live at the Rectangle the rest of my +life and work in the slums for a bare living, and I could enjoy it +more than the thought of plunging into a fight for the reform of +this whiskey-ridden city. It would cost me less. But, like you, I +have been unable to shake off my responsibility. The answer to the +question 'What would Jesus do?' in this case leaves me no peace +except when I say, Jesus would have me act the part of a Christian +citizen. Marsh, as you say, we professional men, ministers, +professors, artists, literary men, scholars, have almost invariably +been political cowards. We have avoided the sacred duties of +citizenship either ignorantly or selfishly. Certainly Jesus in our +age would not do that. We can do no less than take up this cross, +and follow Him." + +The two men walked on in silence for a while. Finally President +Marsh said: "We do not need to act alone in this matter. With all +the men who have made the promise we certainly can have +companionship, and strength even, of numbers. Let us organize the +Christian forces of Raymond for the battle against rum and +corruption. We certainly ought to enter the primaries with a force +that will be able to do more than enter a protest. It is a fact that +the saloon element is cowardly and easily frightened in spite of its +lawlessness and corruption. Let us plan a campaign that will mean +something because it is organized righteousness. Jesus would use +great wisdom in this matter. He would employ means. He would make +large plans. Let us do so. If we bear this cross let us do it +bravely, like men." + +They talked over the matter a long time and met again the next day +in Maxwell's study to develop plans. The city primaries were called +for Friday. Rumors of strange and unknown events to the average +citizen were current that week in political circles throughout +Raymond. The Crawford system of balloting for nominations was not in +use in the state, and the primary was called for a public meeting at +the court house. + +The citizens of Raymond will never forget that meeting. It was so +unlike any political meeting ever held in Raymond before, that there +was no attempt at comparison. The special officers to be nominated +were mayor, city council, chief of police, city clerk and city +treasurer. + +The evening NEWS in its Saturday edition gave a full account of the +primaries, and in the editorial columns Edward Norman spoke with a +directness and conviction that the Christian people of Raymond were +learning to respect deeply, because it was so evidently sincere and +unselfish. A part of that editorial is also a part of this history. +We quote the following: + +"It is safe to say that never before in the history of Raymond was +there a primary like the one in the court house last night. It was, +first of all, a complete surprise to the city politicians who have +been in the habit of carrying on the affairs of the city as if they +owned them, and every one else was simply a tool or a cipher. The +overwhelming surprise of the wire pullers last night consisted in +the fact that a large number of the citizens of Raymond who have +heretofore taken no part in the city's affairs, entered the primary +and controlled it, nominating some of the best men for all the +offices to be filled at the coming election. + +"It was a tremendous lesson in good citizenship. President Marsh of +Lincoln College, who never before entered a city primary, and whose +face was not even known to the ward politicians, made one of the +best speeches ever made in Raymond. It was almost ludicrous to see +the faces of the men who for years have done as they pleased, when +President Marsh rose to speak. Many of them asked, 'Who is he?' The +consternation deepened as the primary proceeded and it became +evident that the oldtime ring of city rulers was outnumbered. Rev. +Henry Maxwell of the First Church, Milton Wright, Alexander Powers, +Professors Brown, Willard and Park of Lincoln College, Dr. West, +Rev. George Main of the Pilgrim Church, Dean Ward of the Holy +Trinity, and scores of well-known business men and professional men, +most of them church members, were present, and it did not take long +to see that they had all come with the one direct and definite +purpose of nominating the best men possible. Most of those men had +never before been seen in a primary. They were complete strangers to +the politicians. But they had evidently profited by the politician's +methods and were able by organized and united effort to nominate the +entire ticket. + +"As soon as it became plain that the primary was out of their +control the regular ring withdrew in disgust and nominated another +ticket. The NEWS simply calls the attention of all decent citizens +to the fact that this last ticket contains the names of whiskey men, +and the line is sharply and distinctly drawn between the saloon and +corrupt management such as we have known for years, and a clean, +honest, capable, business-like city administration, such as every +good citizen ought to want. It is not necessary to remind the people +of Raymond that the question of local option comes up at the +election. That will be the most important question on the ticket. +The crisis of our city affairs has been reached. The issue is +squarely before us. Shall we continue the rule of rum and boodle and +shameless incompetency, or shall we, as President Marsh said in his +noble speech, rise as good citizens and begin a new order of things, +cleansing our city of the worst enemy known to municipal honesty, +and doing what lies in our power to do with the ballot to purify our +civic life? + +"The NEWS is positively and without reservation on the side of the +new movement. We shall henceforth do all in our power to drive out +the saloon and destroy its political strength. We shall advocate the +election of the men nominated by the majority of citizens met in the +first primary and we call upon all Christians, church members, +lovers of right, purity, temperance, and the home, to stand by +President Marsh and the rest of the citizens who have thus begun a +long-needed reform in our city." + +President Marsh read this editorial and thanked God for Edward +Norman. At the same time he understood well enough that every other +paper in Raymond was on the other side. He did not underestimate the +importance and seriousness of the fight which was only just begun. +It was no secret that the NEWS had lost enormously since it had been +governed by the standard of "What would Jesus do?" And the question +was, Would the Christian people of Raymond stand by it? Would they +make it possible for Norman to conduct a daily Christian paper? Or +would the desire for what is called news in the way of crime, +scandal, political partisanship of the regular sort, and a dislike +to champion so remarkable a reform in journalism, influence them to +drop the paper and refuse to give it their financial support? That +was, in fact, the question Edward Norman was asking even while he +wrote that Saturday editorial. He knew well enough that his actions +expressed in that editorial would cost him very heavily from the +hands of many business men in Raymond. And still, as he drove his +pen over the paper, he asked another question, "What would Jesus +do?" That question had become a part of this whole life now. It was +greater than any other. + +But for the first time in its history Raymond had seen the +professional men, the teachers, the college professors, the doctors, +the ministers, take political action and put themselves definitely +and sharply in public antagonism to the evil forces that had so long +controlled the machine of municipal government. The fact itself was +astounding. President Marsh acknowledged to himself with a feeling +of humiliation, that never before had he known what civic +righteousness could accomplish. From that Friday night's work he +dated for himself and his college a new definition of the worn +phrase "the scholar in politics." Education for him and those who +were under his influence ever after meant some element of suffering. +Sacrifice must now enter into the factor of development. + +At the Rectangle that week the tide of spiritual life rose high, and +as yet showed no signs of flowing back. Rachel and Virginia went +every night. Virginia was rapidly reaching a conclusion with respect +to a large part of her money. She had talked it over with Rachel and +they had been able to agree that if Jesus had a vast amount of money +at His disposal He might do with some of it as Virginia planned. At +any rate they felt that whatever He might do in such case would have +as large an element of variety in it as the differences in persons +and circumstances. There could be no one fixed Christian way of +using money. The rule that regulated its use was unselfish utility. + +But meanwhile the glory of the Spirit's power possessed all their +best thought. Night after night that week witnessed miracles as +great as walking on the sea or feeding the multitude with a few +loaves and fishes. For what greater miracle is there than a +regenerate humanity? The transformation of these coarse, brutal, +sottish lives into praying, rapturous lovers of Christ, struck +Rachel and Virginia every time with the feeling that people may have +had when they saw Lazarus walk out of the tomb. It was an experience +full of profound excitement for them. + +Rollin Page came to all the meetings. There was no doubt of the +change that had come over him. Rachel had not yet spoken much with +him. He was wonderfully quiet. It seemed as if he was thinking all +the time. Certainly he was not the same person. He talked more with +Gray than with any one else. He did not avoid Rachel, but he seemed +to shrink from any appearance of seeming to renew the acquaintance +with her. Rachel found it even difficult to express to him her +pleasure at the new life he had begun to know. He seemed to be +waiting to adjust himself to his previous relations before this new +life began. He had not forgotten those relations. But he was not yet +able to fit his consciousness into new ones. + +The end of the week found the Rectangle struggling hard between two +mighty opposing forces. The Holy Spirit was battling with all His +supernatural strength against the saloon devil which had so long +held a jealous grasp on its slaves. If the Christian people of +Raymond once could realize what the contest meant to the souls newly +awakened to a purer life it did not seem possible that the election +could result in the old system of license. But that remained yet to +be seen. The horror of the daily surroundings of many of the +converts was slowly burning its way into the knowledge of Virginia +and Rachel, and every night as they went uptown to their luxurious +homes they carried heavy hearts. + +"A good many of these poor creatures will go back again," Gray would +say with sadness too deep for tears. "The environment does have a +good deal to do with the character. It does not stand to reason that +these people can always resist the sight and smell of the devilish +drink about them. O Lord, how long shall Christian people continue +to support by their silence and their ballots the greatest form of +slavery known in America?" + +He asked the question, and did not have much hope of an immediate +answer. There was a ray of hope in the action of Friday night's +primary, but what the result would be he did not dare to anticipate. +The whiskey forces were organized, alert, aggressive, roused into +unusual hatred by the events of the last week at the tent and in the +city. Would the Christian forces act as a unit against the saloon? +Or would they be divided on account of their business interests or +because they were not in the habit of acting all together as the +whiskey power always did? That remained to be seen. Meanwhile the +saloon reared itself about the Rectangle like some deadly viper +hissing and coiling, ready to strike its poison into any unguarded +part. + +Saturday afternoon as Virginia was just stepping out of her house to +go and see Rachel to talk over her new plans, a carriage drove up +containing three of her fashionable friends. Virginia went out to +the drive-way and stood there talking with them. They had not come +to make a formal call but wanted Virginia to go driving with them up +on the boulevard. There was a band concert in the park. The day was +too pleasant to be spent indoors. + +"Where have you been all this time, Virginia?" asked one of the +girls, tapping her playfully on the shoulder with a red silk +parasol. "We hear that you have gone into the show business. Tell us +about it." + +Virginia colored, but after a moment's hesitation she frankly told +something of her experience at the Rectangle. The girls in the +carriage began to be really interested. + +"I tell you, girls, let's go 'slumming' with Virginia this afternoon +instead of going to the band concert. I've never been down to the +Rectangle. I've heard it's an awful wicked place and lots to see. +Virginia will act as guide, and it would be"--"real fun" she was +going to say, but Virginia's look made her substitute the word +"interesting." + +Virginia was angry. At first thought she said to herself she would +never go under such circumstances. The other girls seemed to be of +the same mind with the speaker. They chimed in with earnestness and +asked Virginia to take them down there. + +Suddenly she saw in the idle curiosity of the girls an opportunity. +They had never seen the sin and misery of Raymond. Why should they +not see it, even if their motive in going down there was simply to +pass away an afternoon. + + + + + + +Chapter Twelve + + + + + +"For I come to set a man at variance against his father, and the +daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her +mother-in-law; and a man's foes shall be they of his own household." + +"Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in +love, even as Christ also loved you." + +"HADN'T we better take a policeman along?" said one of the girls +with a nervous laugh. "It really isn't safe down there, you know." + +"There's no danger," said Virginia briefly. + +"Is it true that your brother Rollin has been converted?" asked the +first speaker, looking at Virginia curiously. It impressed her +during the drive to the Rectangle that all three of her friends were +regarding her with close attention as if she were peculiar. + +"Yes, he certainly is." + +"I understand he is going around to the clubs talking with his old +friends there, trying to preach to them. Doesn't that seem funny?" +said the girl with the red silk parasol. + +Virginia did not answer, and the other girls were beginning to feel +sober as the carriage turned into a street leading to the Rectangle. +As they neared the district they grew more and more nervous. The +sights and smells and sounds which had become familiar to Virginia +struck the senses of these refined, delicate society girls as +something horrible. As they entered farther into the district, the +Rectangle seemed to stare as with one great, bleary, beer-soaked +countenance at this fine carriage with its load of fashionably +dressed young women. "Slumming" had never been a fad with Raymond +society, and this was perhaps the first time that the two had come +together in this way. The girls felt that instead of seeing the +Rectangle they were being made the objects of curiosity. They were +frightened and disgusted. + +"Let's go back. I've seen enough," said the girl who was sitting +with Virginia. + +They were at that moment just opposite a notorious saloon and +gambling house. The street was narrow and the sidewalk crowded. +Suddenly, out of the door of this saloon a young woman reeled. She +was singing in a broken, drunken sob that seemed to indicate that +she partly realized her awful condition, "Just as I am, without one +plea"--and as the carriage rolled past she leered at it, raising her +face so that Virginia saw it very close to her own. It was the face +of the girl who had kneeled sobbing, that night with Virginia +kneeling beside her and praying for her. + +"Stop!" cried Virginia, motioning to the driver who was looking +around. The carriage stopped, and in a moment she was out and had +gone up to the girl and taken her by the arm. "Loreen!" she said, +and that was all. The girl looked into her face, and her own changed +into a look of utter horror. The girls in the carriage were smitten +into helpless astonishment. The saloon-keeper had come to the door +of the saloon and was standing there looking on with his hands on +his hips. And the Rectangle from its windows, its saloon steps, its +filthy sidewalk, gutter and roadway, paused, and with undisguised +wonder stared at the two girls. Over the scene the warm sun of +spring poured its mellow light. A faint breath of music from the +band-stand in the park floated into the Rectangle. The concert had +begun, and the fashion and wealth of Raymond were displaying +themselves up town on the boulevard. + +When Virginia left the carriage and went up to Loreen she had no +definite idea as to what she would do or what the result of her +action would be. She simply saw a soul that had tasted of the joy of +a better life slipping back again into its old hell of shame and +death. And before she had touched the drunken girl's arm she had +asked only one question, "What would Jesus do?" That question was +becoming with her, as with many others, a habit of life. + +She looked around now as she stood close by Loreen, and the whole +scene was cruelly vivid to her. She thought first of the girls in +the carriage. + +"Drive on; don't wait for me. I am going to see my friend home," she +said calmly enough. + +The girl with the red parasol seemed to gasp at the word "friend," +when Virginia spoke it. She did not say anything. + +The other girls seemed speechless. + +"Go on. I cannot go back with you," said Virginia. The driver +started the horses slowly. One of the girls leaned a little out of +the carriage. + +"Can't we--that is--do you want our help? Couldn't you--" + +"No, no!" exclaimed Virginia. "You cannot be of any help to me." + +The carriage moved on and Virginia was alone with her charge. She +looked up and around. Many faces in the crowd were sympathetic. They +were not all cruel or brutal. The Holy Spirit had softened a good +deal of the Rectangle. + +"Where does she live?" asked Virginia. + +No one answered. It occurred to Virginia afterward when she had time +to think it over, that the Rectangle showed a delicacy in its sad +silence that would have done credit to the boulevard. For the first +time it flashed across her that the immortal being who was flung +like wreckage upon the shore of this early hell called the saloon, +had no place that could be called home. The girl suddenly wrenched +her arm from Virginia's grasp. In doing so she nearly threw Virginia +down. + +"You shall not touch me! Leave me! Let me go to hell! That's where I +belong! The devil is waiting for me. See him!" she exclaimed +hoarsely. She turned and pointed with a shaking finger at the +saloon-keeper. The crowd laughed. Virginia stepped up to her and put +her arm about her. + +"Loreen," she said firmly, "come with me. You do not belong to hell. +You belong to Jesus and He will save you. Come." + +The girl suddenly burst into tears. She was only partly sobered by +the shock of meeting Virginia. + +Virginia looked around again. "Where does Mr. Gray live?" she asked. +She knew that the evangelist boarded somewhere near the tent. A +number of voices gave the direction. + +"Come, Loreen, I want you to go with me to Mr. Gray's," she said, +still keeping her hold of the swaying, trembling creature who moaned +and sobbed and now clung to her as firmly as before she had repulsed +her. + +So the two moved on through the Rectangle toward the evangelist's +lodging place. The sight seemed to impress the Rectangle seriously. +It never took itself seriously when it was drunk, but this was +different. The fact that one of the richest, most +beautifully-dressed girls in all Raymond was taking care of one of +the Rectangle's most noted characters, who reeled along under the +influence of liquor, was a fact astounding enough to throw more or +less dignity and importance about Loreen herself. The event of +Loreen's stumbling through the gutter dead-drunk always made the +Rectangle laugh and jest. But Loreen staggering along with a young +lady from the society circles uptown supporting her, was another +thing. The Rectangle viewed it with soberness and more or less +wondering admiration. + +When they finally reached Mr. Gray's lodging place the woman who +answered Virginia's knock said that both Mr. and Mrs. Gray were out +somewhere and would not be back until six o'clock. + +Virginia had not planned anything farther than a possible appeal to +the Grays, either to take charge of Loreen for a while or find some +safe place for her until she was sober. She stood now at the door +after the woman had spoken, and she was really at a loss to know +what to do. Loreen sank down stupidly on the steps and buried her +face in her arms. Virginia eyed the miserable figure of the girl +with a feeling that she was afraid would grow into disgust. + +Finally a thought possessed her that she could not escape. What was +to hinder her from taking Loreen home with her? Why should not this +homeless, wretched creature, reeking with the fumes of liquor, be +cared for in Virginia's own home instead of being consigned to +strangers in some hospital or house of charity? Virginia really knew +very little about any such places of refuge. As a matter of fact, +there were two or three such institutions in Raymond, but it is +doubtful if any of them would have taken a person like Loreen in her +present condition. But that was not the question with Virginia just +now. "What would Jesus do with Loreen?" That was what Virginia +faced, and she finally answered it by touching the girl again. + +"Loreen, come. You are going home with me. We will take the car here +at the corner." + +Loreen staggered to her feet and, to Virginia's surprise, made no +trouble. She had expected resistance or a stubborn refusal to move. +When they reached the corner and took the car it was nearly full of +people going uptown. Virginia was painfully conscious of the stare +that greeted her and her companion as they entered. But her thought +was directed more and more to the approaching scene with her +grandmother. What would Madam Page say? + +Loreen was nearly sober now. But she was lapsing into a state of +stupor. Virginia was obliged to hold fast to her arm. Several times +the girl lurched heavily against her, and as the two went up the +avenue a curious crowd of so-called civilized people turned and +gazed at them. When she mounted the steps of her handsome house +Virginia breathed a sigh of relief, even in the face of the +interview with the grandmother, and when the door shut and she was +in the wide hall with her homeless outcast, she felt equal to +anything that might now come. + +Madam Page was in the library. Hearing Virginia come in, she came +into the hall. Virginia stood there supporting Loreen, who stared +stupidly at the rich magnificence of the furnishings around her. + +"Grandmother," Virginia spoke without hesitation and very clearly, +"I have brought one of my friends from the Rectangle. She is in +trouble and has no home. I am going to care for her here a little +while." + +Madam Page glanced from her granddaughter to Loreen in astonishment. + +"Did you say she is one of your friends?" she asked in a cold, +sneering voice that hurt Virginia more than anything she had yet +felt. + +"Yes, I said so." Virginia's face flushed, but she seemed to recall +a verse that Mr. Gray had used for one of his recent sermons, "A +friend of publicans and sinners." Surely, Jesus would do this that +she was doing. + +"Do you know what this girl is?" asked Madam Page, in an angry +whisper, stepping near Virginia. + +"I know very well. She is an outcast. You need not tell me, +grandmother. I know it even better than you do. She is drunk at this +minute. But she is also a child of God. I have seen her on her +knees, repentant. And I have seen hell reach out its horrible +fingers after her again. And by the grace of Christ I feel that the +least that I can do is to rescue her from such peril. Grandmother, +we call ourselves Christians. Here is a poor, lost human creature +without a home, slipping back into a life of misery and possibly +eternal loss, and we have more than enough. I have brought her here, +and I shall keep her." + +Madam Page glared at Virginia and clenched her hands. All this was +contrary to her social code of conduct. How could society excuse +familiarity with the scum of the streets? What would Virginia's +action cost the family in the way of criticism and loss of standing, +and all that long list of necessary relations which people of wealth +and position must sustain to the leaders of society? To Madam Page +society represented more than the church or any other institution. +It was a power to be feared and obeyed. The loss of its good-will +was a loss more to be dreaded than anything except the loss of +wealth itself. + +She stood erect and stern and confronted Virginia, fully roused and +determined. Virginia placed her arm about Loreen and calmly looked +her grandmother in the face. + +"You shall not do this, Virginia! You can send her to the asylum for +helpless women. We can pay all the expenses. We cannot afford for +the sake of our reputations to shelter such a person." + +"Grandmother, I do not wish to do anything that is displeasing to +you, but I must keep Loreen here tonight, and longer if it seems +best." + +"Then you can answer for the consequences! I do not stay in the same +house with a miserable--" Madam Page lost her self-control. Virginia +stopped her before she could speak the next word. + +"Grandmother, this house is mine. It is your home with me as long as +you choose to remain. But in this matter I must act as I fully +believe Jesus would in my place. I am willing to bear all that +society may say or do. Society is not my God. By the side of this +poor soul I do not count the verdict of society as of any value." + +"I shall not stay here, then!" said Madam Page. She turned suddenly +and walked to the end of the hall. She then came back, and going up +to Virginia said, with an emphasis that revealed her intensive +excitement of passion: "You can always remember that you have driven +your grandmother out of your house in favor of a drunken woman;" +then, without waiting for Virginia to reply, she turned again and +went upstairs. Virginia called a servant and soon had Loreen cared +for. She was fast lapsing into a wretched condition. During the +brief scene in the hall she had clung to Virginia so hard that her +arm was sore from the clutch of the girl's fingers. + + + + + + +Chapter Thirteen + + + + + +WHEN the bell rang for tea she went down and her grandmother did not +appear. She sent a servant to her room who brought back word that +Madam Page was not there. A few minutes later Rollin came in. He +brought word that his grandmother had taken the evening train for +the South. He had been at the station to see some friends off, and +had by chance met his grandmother as he was coming out. She had told +him her reason for going. + +Virginia and Rollin comforted each other at the tea table, looking +at each other with earnest, sad faces. + +"Rollin," said Virginia, and for the first time, almost, since his +conversion she realized what a wonderful thing her brother's changed +life meant to her, "do you blame me? Am I wrong?" + +"No, dear, I cannot believe you are. This is very painful for us. +But if you think this poor creature owes her safety and salvation to +your personal care, it was the only thing for you to do. O Virginia, +to think that we have all these years enjoyed our beautiful home and +all these luxuries selfishly, forgetful of the multitudes like this +woman! Surely Jesus in our places would do what you have done." + +And so Rollin comforted Virginia and counseled with her that +evening. And of all the wonderful changes that she henceforth was to +know on account of her great pledge, nothing affected her so +powerfully as the thought of Rollin's change of life. Truly, this +man in Christ was a new creature. Old things were passed away. +Behold, all things in him had become new. + +Dr. West came that evening at Virginia's summons and did everything +necessary for the outcast. She had drunk herself almost into +delirium. The best that could be done for her now was quiet nursing +and careful watching and personal love. So, in a beautiful room, +with a picture of Christ walking by the sea hanging on the wall, +where her bewildered eyes caught daily something more of its hidden +meaning, Loreen lay, tossed she hardly knew how into this haven, and +Virginia crept nearer the Master than she had ever been, as her +heart went out towards this wreck which had thus been flung torn and +beaten at her feet. + +Meanwhile the Rectangle awaited the issue of the election with more +than usual interest; and Mr. Gray and his wife wept over the poor, +pitiful creatures who, after a struggle with surroundings that daily +tempted them, too often wearied of the struggle and, like Loreen, +threw up their arms and went whirling over the cataract into the +boiling abyss of their previous condition. + +The after-meeting at the First Church was now eagerly established. +Henry Maxwell went into the lecture-room on the Sunday succeeding +the week of the primary, and was greeted with an enthusiasm that +made him tremble at first for its reality. He noted again the +absence of Jasper Chase, but all the others were present, and they +seemed drawn very close together by a bond of common fellowship that +demanded and enjoyed mutual confidences. It was the general feeling +that the spirit of Jesus was the spirit of very open, frank +confession of experience. It seemed the most natural thing in the +world, therefore, for Edward Norman to be telling all the rest of +the company about the details of his newspaper. + +"The fact is, I have lost a great deal of money during the last +three weeks. I cannot tell just how much. I am losing a great many +subscribers every day." + +"What do the subscribers give as their reason for dropping the +paper?" asked Mr. Maxwell. All the rest were listening eagerly. + +"There are a good many different reasons. Some say they want a paper +that prints all the news; meaning, by that, the crime details, +sensations like prize fights, scandals and horrors of various kinds. +Others object to the discontinuance of the Sunday edition. I have +lost hundreds of subscribers by that action, although I have made +satisfactory arrangements with many of the old subscribers by giving +them even more in the extra Saturday edition than they formerly had +in the Sunday issue. My greatest loss has come from a falling off in +advertisements, and from the attitude I have felt obliged to take on +political questions. The last action has really cost me more than +any other. The bulk of my subscribers are intensely partisan. I may +as well tell you all frankly that if I continue to pursue the plan +which I honestly believe Jesus would pursue in the matter of +political issues and their treatment from a non-partisan and moral +standpoint, the NEWS will not be able to pay its operating expenses +unless one factor in Raymond can be depended on." + +He paused a moment and the room was very quiet. Virginia seemed +specially interested. Her face glowed with interest. It was like the +interest of a person who had been thinking hard of the same thing +which Norman went on to mention. + +"That one factor is the Christian element in Raymond. Say the NEWS +has lost heavily from the dropping off of people who do not care for +a Christian daily, and from others who simply look upon a newspaper +as a purveyor of all sorts of material to amuse or interest them, +are there enough genuine Christian people in Raymond who will rally +to the support of a paper such as Jesus would probably edit? or are +the habits of the church people so firmly established in their +demand for the regular type of journalism that they will not take a +paper unless it is stripped largely of the Christian and moral +purpose? I may say in this fellowship gathering that owing to recent +complications in my business affairs outside of my paper I have been +obliged to lose a large part of my fortune. I had to apply the same +rule of Jesus' probable conduct to certain transactions with other +men who did not apply it to their conduct, and the result has been +the loss of a great deal of money. As I understand the promise we +made, we were not to ask any question about 'Will it pay?' but all +our action was to be based on the one question, 'What would Jesus +do?' Acting on that rule of conduct, I have been obliged to lose +nearly all the money I have accumulated in my paper. It is not +necessary for me to go into details. There is no question with me +now, after the three weeks' experience I have had, that a great many +men would lose vast sums of money under the present system of +business if this rule of Jesus was honestly applied. I mention my +loss here because I have the fullest faith in the final success of a +daily paper conducted on the lines I have recently laid down, and I +had planned to put into it my entire fortune in order to win final +success. As it is now, unless, as I said, the Christian people of +Raymond, the church members and professing disciples, will support +the paper with subscriptions and advertisements, I cannot continue +its publication on the present basis." + +Virginia asked a question. She had followed Mr. Norman's confession +with the most intense eagerness. + +"Do you mean that a Christian daily ought to be endowed with a large +sum like a Christian college in order to make it pay?" + +"That is exactly what I mean. I had laid out plans for putting into +the NEWS such a variety of material in such a strong and truly +interesting way that it would more than make up for whatever was +absent from its columns in the way of un-Christian matter. But my +plans called for a very large output of money. I am very confident +that a Christian daily such as Jesus would approve, containing only +what He would print, can be made to succeed financially if it is +planned on the right lines. But it will take a large sum of money to +work out the plans." + +"How much, do you think?" asked Virginia quietly. + +Edward Norman looked at her keenly, and his face flushed a moment as +an idea of her purpose crossed his mind. He had known her when she +was a little girl in the Sunday-school, and he had been on intimate +business relations with her father. + +"I should say half a million dollars in a town like Raymond could be +well spent in the establishment of a paper such as we have in mind," +he answered. His voice trembled a little. The keen look on his +grizzled face flashed out with a stern but thoroughly Christian +anticipation of great achievements in the world of newspaper life, +as it had opened up to him within the last few seconds. + +"Then," said Virginia, speaking as if the thought was fully +considered, "I am ready to put that amount of money into the paper +on the one condition, of course, that it be carried on as it has +been begun." + +"Thank God!" exclaimed Mr. Maxwell softly. Norman was pale. The rest +were looking at Virginia. She had more to say. + +"Dear friends," she went on, and there was a sadness in her voice +that made an impression on the rest that deepened when they thought +it over afterwards, "I do not want any of you to credit me with an +act of great generosity. I have come to know lately that the money +which I have called my own is not mine, but God's. If I, as steward +of His, see some wise way to invest His money, it is not an occasion +for vainglory or thanks from any one simply because I have proved in +my administration of the funds He has asked me to use for His glory. +I have been thinking of this very plan for some time. The fact is, +dear friends, that in our coming fight with the whiskey power in +Raymond--and it has only just begun--we shall need the NEWS to +champion the Christian side. You all know that all the other papers +are for the saloon. As long as the saloon exists, the work of +rescuing dying souls at the Rectangle is carried on at a terrible +disadvantage. What can Mr. Gray do with his gospel meetings when +half his converts are drinking people, daily tempted and enticed by +the saloon on every corner? It would be giving up to the enemy to +allow the NEWS to fail. I have great confidence in Mr. Norman's +ability. I have not seen his plans, but I have the same confidence +that he has in making the paper succeed if it is carried forward on +a large enough scale. I cannot believe that Christian intelligence +in journalism will be inferior to un-Christian intelligence, even +when it comes to making the paper pay financially. So that is my +reason for putting this money--God's, not mine--into this powerful +agent for doing as Jesus would do. If we can keep such a paper going +for one year, I shall be willing to see that amount of money used in +that experiment. Do not thank me. Do not consider my doing it a +wonderful thing. What have I done with God's money all these years +but gratify my own selfish personal desires? What can I do with the +rest of it but try to make some reparation for what I have stolen +from God? That is the way I look at it now. I believe it is what +Jesus would do." + +Over the lecture-room swept that unseen yet distinctly felt wave of +Divine Presence. No one spoke for a while. Mr. Maxwell standing +there, where the faces lifted their intense gaze into his, felt what +he had already felt--a strange setting back out of the nineteenth +century into the first, when the disciples had all things in common, +and a spirit of fellowship must have flowed freely between them such +as the First Church of Raymond had never before known. How much had +his church membership known of this fellowship in daily interests +before this little company had begun to do as they believed Jesus +would do? It was with difficulty that he thought of his present age +and surroundings. The same thought was present with all the rest, +also. There was an unspoken comradeship such as they had never +known. It was present with them while Virginia was speaking, and +during the silence that followed. If it had been defined by any of +them it would perhaps have taken some such shape as this: "If I +shall, in the course of my obedience to my promise, meet with loss +or trouble in the world, I can depend upon the genuine, practical +sympathy and fellowship of any other Christian in this room who has, +with me, made the pledge to do all things by the rule, 'What would +Jesus do?'" + +All this, the distinct wave of spiritual power emphasized. It had +the effect that a physical miracle may have had on the early +disciples in giving them a feeling of confidence in the Lord that +helped them to face loss and martyrdom with courage and even joy. + +Before they went away this time there were several confidences like +those of Edward Norman's. Some of the young men told of loss of +places owing to their honest obedience to their promise. Alexander +Powers spoke briefly of the fact that the Commission had promised to +take action on his evidence at the earliest date possible. + + + + + + +Chapter Fourteen + + + + + +BUT more than any other feeling at this meeting rose the tide of +fellowship for one another. Maxwell watched it, trembling for its +climax which he knew was not yet reached. When it was, where would +it lead them? He did not know, but he was not unduly alarmed about +it. Only he watched with growing wonder the results of that simple +promise as it was being obeyed in these various lives. Those results +were already being felt all over the city. Who could measure their +influence at the end of a year? + +One practical form of this fellowship showed itself in the +assurances which Edward Norman received of support for his paper. +There was a general flocking toward him when the meeting closed, and +the response to his appeal for help from the Christian disciples in +Raymond was fully understood by this little company. The value of +such a paper in the homes and in behalf of good citizenship, +especially at the present crisis in the city, could not be measured. +It remained to be seen what could be done now that the paper was +endowed so liberally. But it still was true, as Norman insisted, +that money alone could not make the paper a power. It must receive +the support and sympathy of the Christians in Raymond before it +could be counted as one of the great forces of the city. + +The week that followed this Sunday meeting was one of great +excitement in Raymond. It was the week of the election. President +Marsh, true to his promise, took up his cross and bore it manfully, +but with shuddering, with groans and even tears, for his deepest +conviction was touched, and he tore himself out of the scholarly +seclusion of years with a pain and anguish that cost him more than +anything he had ever done as a follower of Christ. With him were a +few of the college professors who had made the pledge in the First +Church. Their experience and suffering were the same as his; for +their isolation from all the duties of citizenship had been the +same. The same was also true of Henry Maxwell, who plunged into the +horror of this fight against whiskey and its allies with a sickening +dread of each day's new encounter with it. For never before had he +borne such a cross. He staggered under it, and in the brief +intervals when he came in from the work and sought the quiet of his +study for rest, the sweat broke out on his forehead, and he felt the +actual terror of one who marches into unseen, unknown horrors. +Looking back on it afterwards he was amazed at his experience. He +was not a coward, but he felt the dread that any man of his habits +feels when confronted suddenly with a duty which carries with it the +doing of certain things so unfamiliar that the actual details +connected with it betray his ignorance and fill him with the shame +of humiliation. + +When Saturday, the election day, came, the excitement rose to its +height. An attempt was made to close all the saloons. It was only +partly successful. There was a great deal of drinking going on all +day. The Rectangle boiled and heaved and cursed and turned its worst +side out to the gaze of the city. Gray had continued his meetings +during the week, and the results had been even greater than he had +dared to hope. When Saturday came, it seemed to him that the crisis +in his work had been reached. The Holy Spirit and the Satan of rum +seemed to rouse up to a desperate conflict. The more interest in the +meetings, the more ferocity and vileness outside. The saloon men no +longer concealed their feelings. Open threats of violence were made. +Once during the week Gray and his little company of helpers were +assailed with missiles of various kinds as they left the tent late +at night. The police sent down a special force, and Virginia and +Rachel were always under the protection of either Rollin or Dr. +West. Rachel's power in song had not diminished. Rather, with each +night, it seemed to add to the intensity and reality of the Spirit's +presence. + +Gray had at first hesitated about having a meeting that night. But +he had a simple rule of action, and was always guided by it. The +Spirit seemed to lead him to continue the meeting, and so Saturday +night he went on as usual. + +The excitement all over the city had reached its climax when the +polls closed at six o'clock. Never before had there been such a +contest in Raymond. The issue of license or no-license had never +been an issue under such circumstances. Never before had such +elements in the city been arrayed against each other. It was an +unheard-of thing that the President of Lincoln College, the pastor +of the First Church, the Dean of the Cathedral, the professional men +living in fine houses on the boulevard, should come personally into +the wards, and by their presence and their example represent the +Christian conscience of the place. The ward politicians were +astonished at the sight. However, their astonishment did not prevent +their activity. The fight grew hotter every hour, and when six +o'clock came neither side could have guessed at the result with any +certainty. Every one agreed that never before had there been such an +election in Raymond, and both sides awaited the announcement of the +result with the greatest interest. + +It was after ten o'clock when the meeting at the tent was closed. It +had been a strange and, in some respects, a remarkable meeting. +Maxwell had come down again at Gray's request. He was completely +worn out by the day's work, but the appeal from Gray came to him in +such a form that he did not feel able to resist it. President Marsh +was also present. He had never been to the Rectangle, and his +curiosity was aroused from what he had noticed of the influence of +the evangelist in the worst part of the city. Dr. West and Rollin +had come with Rachel and Virginia; and Loreen, who still stayed with +Virginia, was present near the organ, in her right mind, sober, with +a humility and dread of herself that kept her as close to Virginia +as a faithful dog. All through the service she sat with bowed head, +weeping a part of the time, sobbing when Rachel sang the song, "I +was a wandering sheep," clinging with almost visible, tangible +yearning to the one hope she had found, listening to prayer and +appeal and confession all about her like one who was a part of a new +creation, yet fearful of her right to share in it fully. + +The tent had been crowded. As on some other occasions, there was +more or less disturbance on the outside. This had increased as the +night advanced, and Gray thought it wise not to prolong the service. + +Once in a while a shout as from a large crowd swept into the tent. +The returns from the election were beginning to come in, and the +Rectangle had emptied every lodging house, den and hovel into the +streets. + +In spite of these distractions Rachel's singing kept the crowd in +the tent from dissolving. There were a dozen or more conversions. +Finally the people became restless and Gray closed the service, +remaining a little while with the converts. + +Rachel, Virginia, Loreen, Rollin and the Doctor, President Marsh, +Mr. Maxwell and Dr. West went out together, intending to go down to +the usual waiting place for their car. As they came out of the tent +they were at once aware that the Rectangle was trembling on the +verge of a drunken riot, and as they pushed through the gathering +mobs in the narrow streets they began to realize that they +themselves were objects of great attention. + +"There he is--the bloke in the tall hat! He's the leader! shouted a +rough voice. President Marsh, with his erect, commanding figure, was +conspicuous in the little company. + +"How has the election gone? It is too early to know the result yet, +isn't it?" He asked the question aloud, and a man answered: + +"They say second and third wards have gone almost solid for +no-license. If that is so, the whiskey men have been beaten." + +"Thank God! I hope it is true!" exclaimed Maxwell. "Marsh, we are in +danger here. Do you realize our situation? We ought to get the +ladies to a place of safety." + +"That is true," said Marsh gravely. At that moment a shower of +stones and other missiles fell over them. The narrow street and +sidewalk in front of them was completely choked with the worst +elements of the Rectangle. + +"This looks serious," said Maxwell. With Marsh and Rollin and Dr. +West he started to go forward through a small opening, Virginia, +Rachel, and Loreen following close and sheltered by the men, who now +realized something of their danger. The Rectangle was drunk and +enraged. It saw in Marsh and Maxwell two of the leaders in the +election contest which had perhaps robbed them of their beloved +saloon. + +"Down with the aristocrats!" shouted a shrill voice, more like a +woman's than a man's. A shower of mud and stones followed. Rachel +remembered afterwards that Rollin jumped directly in front of her +and received on his head and chest a number of blows that would +probably have struck her if he had not shielded her from them. + +And just then, before the police reached them, Loreen darted forward +in front of Virginia and pushed her aside, looking up and screaming. +It was so sudden that no one had time to catch the face of the one +who did it. But out of the upper window of a room, over the very +saloon where Loreen had come out a week before, someone had thrown a +heavy bottle. It struck Loreen on the head and she fell to the +ground. Virginia turned and instantly kneeled down by her. The +police officers by that time had reached the little company. + +President Marsh raised his arm and shouted over the howl that was +beginning to rise from the wild beast in the mob. + +"Stop! You've killed a woman!" The announcement partly sobered the +crowd. + +"Is it true?" Maxwell asked it, as Dr. West kneeled on the other +side of Loreen, supporting her. + +"She's dying!" said Dr. West briefly. + +Loreen opened her eyes and smiled at Virginia, who wiped the blood +from her face and then bent over and kissed her. Loreen smiled +again, and the next minute her soul was in Paradise. + + + + + + +Chapter Fifteen + + + + + +"He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness." + +THE body of Loreen lay in state at the Page mansion on the avenue. +It was Sunday morning and the clear sweet spring air, just beginning +to breathe over the city the perfume of early blossoms in the woods +and fields, swept over the casket from one of the open windows at +the end of the grand hall. The church bells were ringing and people +on the avenue going by to service turned curious, inquiring looks up +at the great house and then went on, talking of the recent events +which had so strangely entered into and made history in the city. + +At the First Church, Mr. Maxwell, bearing on his face marks of the +scene he had been through, confronted an immense congregation, and +spoke to it with a passion and a power that came so naturally out of +the profound experiences of the day before that his people felt for +him something of the old feeling of pride they once had in his +dramatic delivery. Only this was with a different attitude. And all +through his impassioned appeal this morning, there was a note of +sadness and rebuke and stern condemnation that made many of the +members pale with self-accusation or with inward anger. + +For Raymond had awakened that morning to the fact that the city had +gone for license after all. The rumor at the Rectangle that the +second and third wards had gone no-license proved to be false. It +was true that the victory was won by a very meager majority. But the +result was the same as if it had been overwhelming. Raymond had +voted to continue for another year the saloon. The Christians of +Raymond stood condemned by the result. More than a hundred +professing Christian disciples had failed to go to the polls, and +many more than that number had voted with the whiskey men. If all +the church members of Raymond had voted against the saloon, it would +today be outlawed instead of crowned king of the municipality. For +that had been the fact in Raymond for years. The saloon ruled. No +one denied that. What would Jesus do? And this woman who had been +brutally struck down by the very hand that had assisted so eagerly +to work her earthly ruin what of her? Was it anything more than the +logical sequence of the whole horrible system of license, that for +another year the very saloon that received her so often and +compassed her degradation, from whose very spot the weapon had been +hurled that struck her dead, would, by the law which the Christian +people of Raymond voted to support, perhaps open its doors tomorrow +and damn a hundred Loreens before the year had drawn to its bloody +close? + +All this, with a voice that rang and trembled and broke in sobs of +anguish for the result, did Henry Maxwell pour out upon his people +that Sunday morning. And men and women wept as he spoke. President +Marsh sat there, his usual erect, handsome, firm, bright +self-confident bearing all gone; his head bowed upon his breast, the +great tears rolling down his cheeks, unmindful of the fact that +never before had he shown outward emotion in a public service. +Edward Norman near by sat with his clear-cut, keen face erect, but +his lip trembled and he clutched the end of the pew with a feeling +of emotion that struck deep into his knowledge of the truth as +Maxwell spoke it. No man had given or suffered more to influence +public opinion that week than Norman. The thought that the Christian +conscience had been aroused too late or too feebly, lay with a +weight of accusation upon the heart of the editor. What if he had +begun to do as Jesus would have done, long ago? Who could tell what +might have been accomplished by this time! And up in the choir, +Rachel Winslow, with her face bowed on the railing of the oak +screen, gave way to a feeling which she had not allowed yet to +master her, but it so unfitted her for her part that when Mr. +Maxwell finished and she tried to sing the closing solo after the +prayer, her voice broke, and for the first time in her life she was +obliged to sit down, sobbing, and unable to go on. + +Over the church, in the silence that followed this strange scene, +sobs and the noise of weeping arose. When had the First Church +yielded to such a baptism of tears? What had become of its regular, +precise, conventional order of service, undisturbed by any vulgar +emotion and unmoved by any foolish excitement? But the people had +lately had their deepest convictions touched. They had been living +so long on their surface feelings that they had almost forgotten the +deeper wells of life. Now that they had broken the surface, the +people were convicted of the meaning of their discipleship. + +Mr. Maxwell did not ask, this morning, for volunteers to join those +who had already pledged to do as Jesus would. But when the +congregation had finally gone, and he had entered the lecture-room, +it needed but a glance to show him that the original company of +followers had been largely increased. The meeting was tender; it +glowed with the Spirit's presence; it was alive with strong and +lasting resolve to begin a war on the whiskey power in Raymond that +would break its reign forever. Since the first Sunday when the first +company of volunteers had pledged themselves to do as Jesus would +do, the different meetings had been characterized by distinct +impulses or impressions. Today, the entire force of the gathering +seemed to be directed to this one large purpose. It was a meeting +full of broken prayers of contrition, of confession, of strong +yearning for a new and better city life. And all through it ran one +general cry for deliverance from the saloon and its awful curse. + +But if the First Church was deeply stirred by the events of the last +week, the Rectangle also felt moved strangely in its own way. The +death of Loreen was not in itself so remarkable a fact. It was her +recent acquaintance with the people from the city that lifted her +into special prominence and surrounded her death with more than +ordinary importance. Every one in the Rectangle knew that Loreen was +at this moment lying in the Page mansion up on the avenue. +Exaggerated reports of the magnificence of the casket had already +furnished material for eager gossip. The Rectangle was excited to +know the details of the funeral. Would it be public? What did Miss +Page intend to do? The Rectangle had never before mingled even in +this distant personal manner with the aristocracy on the boulevard. +The opportunities for doing so were not frequent. Gray and his wife +were besieged by inquirers who wanted to know what Loreen's friends +and acquaintances were expected to do in paying their last respects +to her. For her acquaintance was large and many of the recent +converts were among her friends. + +So that is how it happened that Monday afternoon, at the tent, the +funeral service of Loreen was held before an immense audience that +choked the tent and overflowed beyond all previous bounds. Gray had +gone up to Virginia's and, after talking it over with her and +Maxwell, the arrangement had been made. + +"I am and always have been opposed to large public funerals," said +Gray, whose complete wholesome simplicity of character was one of +its great sources of strength; "but the cry of the poor creatures +who knew Loreen is so earnest that I do not know how to refuse this +desire to see her and pay her poor body some last little honor. What +do you think, Mr. Maxwell? I will be guided by your judgment in the +matter. I am sure that whatever you and Miss Page think best, will +be right." + +"I feel as you do," replied Mr. Maxwell. "Under the circumstances I +have a great distaste for what seems like display at such times. But +this seems different. The people at the Rectangle will not come here +to service. I think the most Christian thing will be to let them +have the service at the tent. Do you think so, Miss Virginia?" + +"Yes," said Virginia. "Poor soul! I do not know but that some time I +shall know she gave her life for mine. We certainly cannot and will +not use the occasion for vulgar display. Let her friends be allowed +the gratification of their wishes. I see no harm in it." + +So the arrangements were made, with some difficulty, for the service +at the tent; and Virginia with her uncle and Rollin, accompanied by +Maxwell, Rachel and President Marsh, and the quartet from the First +Church, went down and witnessed one of the strange things of their +lives. + +It happened that that afternoon a somewhat noted newspaper +correspondent was passing through Raymond on his way to an editorial +convention in a neighboring city. He heard of the contemplated +service at the tent and went down. His description of it was written +in a graphic style that caught the attention of very many readers +the next day. A fragment of his account belongs to this part of the +history of Raymond: + +"There was a very unique and unusual funeral service held here this +afternoon at the tent of an evangelist, Rev. John Gray, down in the +slum district known as the Rectangle. The occasion was caused by the +killing of a woman during an election riot last Saturday night. It +seems she had been recently converted during the evangelist's +meetings, and was killed while returning from one of the meetings in +company with other converts and some of her friends. She was a +common street drunkard, and yet the services at the tent were as +impressive as any I ever witnessed in a metropolitan church over the +most distinguished citizen. + +"In the first place, a most exquisite anthem was sung by a trained +choir. It struck me, of course--being a stranger in the place--with +considerable astonishment to hear voices like those one naturally +expects to hear only in great churches or concerts, at such a +meeting as this. But the most remarkable part of the music was a +solo sung by a strikingly beautiful young woman, a Miss Winslow who, +if I remember right, is the young singer who was sought for by +Crandall the manager of National Opera, and who for some reason +refused to accept his offer to go on the stage. She had a most +wonderful manner in singing, and everybody was weeping before she +had sung a dozen words. That, of course, is not so strange an effect +to be produced at a funeral service, but the voice itself was one of +thousands. I understand Miss Winslow sings in the First Church of +Raymond and could probably command almost any salary as a public +singer. She will probably be heard from soon. Such a voice could win +its way anywhere. + +"The service aside from the singing was peculiar. The evangelist, a +man of apparently very simple, unassuming style, spoke a few words, +and he was followed by a fine-looking man, the Rev. Henry Maxwell, +pastor of the First Church of Raymond. Mr. Maxwell spoke of the fact +that the dead woman had been fully prepared to go, but he spoke in a +peculiarly sensitive manner of the effect of the liquor business on +the lives of men and women like this one. Raymond, of course, being +a railroad town and the centre of the great packing interests for +this region, is full of saloons. I caught from the minister's +remarks that he had only recently changed his views in regard to +license. He certainly made a very striking address, and yet it was +in no sense inappropriate for a funeral. + +"Then followed what was perhaps the queer part of this strange +service. The women in the tent, at least a large part of them up +near the coffin, began to sing in a soft, tearful way, 'I was a +wandering sheep.' Then while the singing was going on, one row of +women stood up and walked slowly past the casket, and as they went +by, each one placed a flower of some kind upon it. Then they sat +down and another row filed past, leaving their flowers. All the time +the singing continued softly like rain on a tent cover when the wind +is gentle. It was one of the simplest and at the same time one of +the most impressive sights I ever witnessed. The sides of the tent +were up, and hundreds of people who could not get in, stood outside, +all as still as death itself, with wonderful sadness and solemnity +for such rough looking people. There must have been a hundred of +these women, and I was told many of them had been converted at the +meetings just recently. I cannot describe the effect of that +singing. Not a man sang a note. All women's voices, and so soft, and +yet so distinct, that the effect was startling. + +"The service closed with another solo by Miss Winslow, who sang, +'There were ninety and nine.' And then the evangelist asked them all +to bow their heads while he prayed. I was obliged in order to catch +my train to leave during the prayer, and the last view I caught of +the service as the train went by the shops was a sight of the great +crowd pouring out of the tent and forming in open ranks while the +coffin was borne out by six of the women. It is a long time since I +have seen such a picture in this unpoetic Republic." + +If Loreen's funeral impressed a passing stranger like this, it is +not difficult to imagine the profound feelings of those who had been +so intimately connected with her life and death. Nothing had ever +entered the Rectangle that had moved it so deeply as Loreen's body +in that coffin. And the Holy Spirit seemed to bless with special +power the use of this senseless clay. For that night He swept more +than a score of lost souls, mostly women, into the fold of the Good +Shepherd. + + + + + + +Chapter Sixteen + + + + + +No one in all Raymond, including the Rectangle, felt Loreen's death +more keenly than Virginia. It came like a distinct personal loss to +her. That short week while the girl had been in her home had opened +Virginia's heart to a new life. She was talking it over with Rachel +the day after the funeral. Thee were sitting in the hall of the Page +mansion. + +"I am going to do something with my money to help those women to a +better life." Virginia looked over to the end of the hall where, the +day before, Loreen's body had lain. "I have decided on a good plan, +as it seems to me. I have talked it over with Rollin. He will devote +a large part of his money also to the same plan." + +"How much money have you, Virginia, to give in this way?" asked +Rachel. Once, she would never have asked such a personal question. +Now, it seemed as natural to talk frankly about money as about +anything else that belonged to God. + +"I have available for use at least four hundred and fifty-thousand +dollars. Rollin has as much more. It is one of his bitter regrets +now that his extravagant habits of life before his conversion +practically threw away half that father left him. We are both eager +to make all the reparation in our power. 'What would Jesus do with +this money?' We want to answer that question honestly and wisely. +The money I shall put into the NEWS is, I am confident, in a line +with His probable action. It is as necessary that we have a +Christian daily paper in Raymond, especially now that we have the +saloon influence to meet, as it is to have a church or a college. So +I am satisfied that the five hundred thousand dollars that Mr. +Norman will know how to use so well will be a powerful factor in +Raymond to do as Jesus would. + +"About my other plan, Rachel, I want you to work with me. Rollin and +I are going to buy up a large part of the property in the Rectangle. +The field where the tent now is, has been in litigation for years. +We mean to secure the entire tract as soon as the courts have +settled the title. For some time I have been making a special study +of the various forms of college settlements and residence methods of +Christian work and Institutional church work in the heart of great +city slums. I do not know that I have yet been able to tell just +what is the wisest and most effective kind of work that can be done +in Raymond. But I do know this much. My money--I mean God's, which +he wants me to use--can build wholesome lodging-houses, refuges for +poor women, asylums for shop girls, safety for many and many a lost +girl like Loreen. And I do not want to be simply a dispenser of this +money. God help me! I do want to put myself into the problem. But +you know, Rachel, I have a feeling all the time that all that +limitless money and limitless personal sacrifice can possibly do, +will not really lessen very much the awful condition at the +Rectangle as long as the saloon is legally established there. I +think that is true of any Christian work now being carried on in any +great city. The saloon furnishes material to be saved faster than +the settlement or residence or rescue mission work can save it." + +Virginia suddenly rose and paced the hall. Rachel answered sadly, +and yet with a note of hope in her voice: + +"It is true. But, Virginia, what a wonderful amount of good can be +done with this money! And the saloon cannot always remain here. The +time must come when the Christian forces in the city will triumph." + +Virginia paused near Rachel, and her pale, earnest face lighted up. + +"I believe that too. The number of those who have promised to do as +Jesus would is increasing. If we once have, say, five hundred such +disciples in Raymond, the saloon is doomed. But now, dear, I want +you to look at your part in this plan for capturing and saving the +Rectangle. Your voice is a power. I have had many ideas lately. Here +is one of them. You could organize among the girls a Musical +Institute; give them the benefit of your training. There are some +splendid voices in the rough there. Did any one ever hear such +singing as that yesterday by those women? Rachel, what a beautiful +opportunity! You shall have the best of material in the way of +organs and orchestras that money can provide, and what cannot be +done with music to win souls there into higher and purer and better +living?" + +Before Virginia had ceased speaking Rachel's face was perfectly +transformed with the thought of her life work. It flowed into her +heart and mind like a flood, and the torrent of her feeling +overflowed in tears that could not be restrained. It was what she +had dreamed of doing herself. It represented to her something that +she felt was in keeping with a right use of her talent. + +"Yes," she said, as she rose and put her arm about Virginia, while +both girls in the excitement of their enthusiasm paced the hall. +"Yes, I will gladly put my life into that kind of service. I do +believe that Jesus would have me use my life in this way. Virginia, +what miracles can we not accomplish in humanity if we have such a +lever as consecrated money to move things with!" + +"Add to it consecrated personal enthusiasm like yours, and it +certainly can accomplish great things," said Virginia smiling. And +before Rachel could reply, Rollin came in. + +He hesitated a moment, and then was passing out of the hall into the +library when Virginia called him back and asked some questions about +his work. + +Rollin came back and sat down, and together the three discussed +their future plans. Rollin was apparently entirely free from +embarrassment in Rachel's presence while Virginia was with them, +only his manner with her was almost precise, if not cold. The past +seemed to have been entirely absorbed in his wonderful conversion. +He had not forgotten it, but he seemed to be completely caught up +for this present time in the purpose of his new life. After a while +Rollin was called out, and Rachel and Virginia began to talk of +other things. + +"By the way, what has become of Jasper Chase?" Virginia asked the +question innocently, but Rachel flushed and Virginia added with a +smile, "I suppose he is writing another book. Is he going to put you +into this one, Rachel? You know I always suspected Jasper Chase of +doing that very thing in his first story." + +"Virginia," Rachel spoke with the frankness that had always existed +between the two friends, "Jasper Chase told me the other night that +he--in fact--he proposed to me--or he would, if--" + +Rachel stopped and sat with her hands clasped on her lap, and there +were tears in her eyes. + +"Virginia, I thought a little while ago I loved him, as he said he +loved me. But when he spoke, my heart felt repelled, and I said what +I ought to say. I told him no. I have not seen him since. That was +the night of the first conversions at the Rectangle." + +"I am glad for you," said Virginia quietly. + +"Why?" asked Rachel a little startled. + +"Because, I have never really liked Jasper Chase. He is too cold +and--I do not like to judge him, but I have always distrusted his +sincerity in taking the pledge at the church with the rest." + +Rachel looked at Virginia thoughtfully. + +"I have never given my heart to him I am sure. He touched my +emotions, and I admired his skill as a writer. I have thought at +times that I cared a good deal for him. I think perhaps if he had +spoken to me at any other time than the one he chose, I could easily +have persuaded myself that I loved him. But not now." + +Again Rachel paused suddenly, and when she looked up at Virginia +again there were tears on her face. Virginia came to her and put her +arm about her tenderly. + +When Rachel had left the house, Virginia sat in the hall thinking +over the confidence her friend had just shown her. There was +something still to be told, Virginia felt sure from Rachel's manner, +but she did not feel hurt that Rachel had kept back something. She +was simply conscious of more on Rachel's mind than she had revealed. + +Very soon Rollin came back, and he and Virginia, arm in arm as they +had lately been in the habit of doing, walked up and down the long +hall. It was easy for their talk to settle finally upon Rachel +because of the place she was to occupy in the plans which were being +made for the purchase of property at the Rectangle. + +"Did you ever know of a girl of such really gifted powers in vocal +music who was willing to give her life to the people as Rachel is +going to do? She is going to give music lessons in the city, have +private pupils to make her living, and then give the people in the +Rectangle the benefit of her culture and her voice." + +"It is certainly a very good example of self-sacrifice," replied +Rollin a little stiffly. + +Virginia looked at him a little sharply. "But don't you think it is +a very unusual example? Can you imagine--" here Virginia named half +a dozen famous opera singers--"doing anything of this sort?" + +"No, I cannot," Rollin answered briefly. "Neither can I imagine +Miss--" he spoke the name of the girl with the red parasol who had +begged Virginia to take the girls to the Rectangle--" doing what you +are doing, Virginia." + +"Any more than I can imagine Mr.--" Virginia spoke the name of a +young society leader "going about to the clubs doing your work, +Rollin." The two walked on in silence for the length of the hall. + +"Coming back to Rachel," began Virginia, "Rollin, why do you treat +her with such a distinct, precise manner? I think, Rollin--pardon me +if I hurt you--that she is annoyed by it. You need to be on easy +terms. I don't think Rachel likes this change." + +Rollin suddenly stopped. He seemed deeply agitated. He took his arm +from Virginia's and walked alone to the end of the hall. Then he +returned, with his hands behind him, and stopped near his sister and +said, "Virginia, have you not learned my secret?" + +Virginia looked bewildered, then over her face the unusual color +crept, showing that she understood. + +"I have never loved any one but Rachel Winslow." Rollin spoke calmly +enough now. "That day she was here when you talked about her refusal +to join the concert company, I asked her to be my wife; out there on +the avenue. She refused me, as I knew she would. And she gave as her +reason the fact that I had no purpose in life, which was true +enough. Now that I have a purpose, now that I am a new man, don't +you see, Virginia, how impossible it is for me to say anything? I +owe my very conversion to Rachel's singing. And yet that night while +she sang I can honestly say that, for the time being, I never +thought of her voice except as God's message. I believe that all my +personal love for her was for the time merged into a personal love +to my God and my Saviour." Rollin was silent, then he went on with +more emotion. "I still love her, Virginia. But I do not think she +ever could love me." He stopped and looked his sister in the face +with a sad smile. + +"I don't know about that," said Virginia to herself. She was noting +Rollin's handsome face, his marks of dissipation nearly all gone +now, the firm lips showing manhood and courage, the clear eyes +looking into hers frankly, the form strong and graceful. Rollin was +a man now. Why should not Rachel come to love him in time? Surely +the two were well fitted for each other, especially now that their +purpose in life was moved by the same Christian force. + + + + + + +Chapter Seventeen + + + + + +THE next day she went down to the NEWS office to see Edward Norman +and arrange the details of her part in the establishment of the +paper on its new foundation. Mr. Maxwell was present at this +conference, and the three agreed that whatever Jesus would do in +detail as editor of a daily paper, He would be guided by the same +general principles that directed His conduct as the Saviour of the +world. + +"I have tried to put down here in concrete form some of the things +that it has seemed to me Jesus would do," said Edward Norman. He +read from a paper lying on his desk, and Maxwell was reminded again +of his own effort to put into written form his own conception of +Jesus' probable action, and also of Milton Wright's same attempt in +his business. + +"I have headed this, 'What would Jesus do as Edward Norman, editor +of a daily newspaper in Raymond?' + +"1. He would never allow a sentence or a picture in his paper that +could be called bad or coarse or impure in any way. + +"2. He would probably conduct the political part of the paper from +the standpoint of non-partisan patriotism, always looking upon all +political questions in the light of their relation to the Kingdom of +God, and advocating measures from the standpoint of their relation +to the welfare of the people, always on the basis of 'What is +right?' never on the basis of 'What is for the best interests of +this or that party?' In other words, He would treat all political +questions as he would treat every other subject, from the standpoint +of the advancement of the Kingdom of God on earth." + +Edward Norman looked up from the reading a moment. "You understand +that is my opinion of Jesus' probable action on political matters in +a daily paper. I am not passing judgment on other newspaper men who +may have a different conception of Jesus' probable action from mine. +I am simply trying to answer honestly, 'What would Jesus do as +Edward Norman?' And the answer I find is what I have put down.' + +"3. The end and aim of a daily paper conducted by Jesus would be to +do the will of God. That is, His main purpose in carrying on a +newspaper would not be to make money, or gain political influence; +but His first and ruling purpose would be to so conduct his paper +that it would be evident to all his subscribers that He was trying +to seek first the Kingdom of God by means of His paper. This purpose +would be as distinct and unquestioned as the purpose of a minister +or a missionary or any unselfish martyr in Christian work anywhere. + +"4. All questionable advertisements would be impossible. + +"5. The relations of Jesus to the employees on the paper would be of +the most loving character." + +"So far as I have gone," said Norman again looking up, "I am of +opinion that Jesus would employ practically some form of +co-operation that would represent the idea of a mutual interest in a +business where all were to move together for the same great end. I +am working out such a plan, and I am confident it will be +successful. At any rate, once introduce the element of personal love +into a business like this, take out the selfish principle of doing +it for personal profits to a man or company, and I do not see any +way except the most loving personal interest between editors, +reporters, pressmen, and all who contribute anything to the life of +the paper. And that interest would be expressed not only in the +personal love and sympathy but in a sharing with the profits of the +business." + +"6. As editor of a daily paper today, Jesus would give large space +to the work of the Christian world. He would devote a page possibly +to the facts of Reform, of sociological problems, of institutional +church work and similar movements. + +"7. He would do all in His power in His paper to fight the saloon as +an enemy of the human race and an unnecessary part of our +civilization. He would do this regardless of public sentiment in the +matter and, of course, always regardless of its effect upon His +subscription list." + +Again Edward Norman looked up. "I state my honest conviction on this +point. Of course, I do not pass judgment on the Christian men who +are editing other kinds of papers today. But as I interpret Jesus, I +believe He would use the influence of His paper to remove the saloon +entirely from the political and social life of the nation." + +"8. Jesus would not issue a Sunday edition. + +"9. He would print the news of the world that people ought to know. +Among the things they do not need to know, and which would not be +published, would be accounts of brutal prize-fights, long accounts +of crimes, scandals in private families, or any other human events +which in any way would conflict with the first point mentioned in +this outline. + +"10. If Jesus had the amount of money to use on a paper which we +have, He would probably secure the best and strongest Christian men +and women to co-operate with him in the matter of contributions. +That will be my purpose, as I shall be able to show you in a few +days. + +"11. Whatever the details of the paper might demand as the paper +developed along its definite plan, the main principle that guided it +would always be the establishment of the Kingdom of God in the +world. This large general principle would necessarily shape all the +detail." + +Edward Norman finished reading the plan. He was very thoughtful. + +"I have merely sketched a faint outline. I have a hundred ideas for +making the paper powerful that I have not thought out fully as yet. +This is simply suggestive. I have talked it over with other +newspaper men. Some of them say I will have a weak, namby-pamby +Sunday-school sheet. If I get out something as good as a +Sunday-school it will be pretty good. Why do men, when they want to +characterize something as particularly feeble, always use a +Sunday-school as a comparison, when they ought to know that the +Sunday-school is one of the strongest, most powerful influences in +our civilization in this country today? But the paper will not +necessarily be weak because it is good. Good things are more +powerful than bad. The question with me is largely one of support +from the Christian people of Raymond. There are over twenty thousand +church members here in this city. If half of them will stand by the +NEWS its life is assured. What do you think, Maxwell, of the +probability of such support?" + +"I don't know enough about it to give an intelligent answer. I +believe in the paper with all my heart. If it lives a year, as Miss +Virginia said, there is no telling what it can do. The great thing +will be to issue such a paper, as near as we can judge, as Jesus +probably would, and put into it all the elements of Christian +brains, strength, intelligence and sense; and command respect for +freedom from bigotry, fanaticism, narrowness and anything else that +is contrary to the spirit of Jesus. Such a paper will call for the +best that human thought and action is capable of giving. The +greatest minds in the world would have their powers taxed to the +utmost to issue a Christian daily." + +"Yes," Edward Norman spoke humbly. "I shall make a great many +mistakes, no doubt. I need a great deal of wisdom. But I want to do +as Jesus would. 'What would He do?' I have asked it, and shall +continue to do so, and abide by the results." + +"I think we are beginning to understand," said Virginia, "the +meaning of that command, 'Grow in the grace and knowledge of our +Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.' I am sure I do not know all that He +would do in detail until I know Him better." + +"That is very true," said Henry Maxwell. "I am beginning to +understand that I cannot interpret the probable action of Jesus +until I know better what His spirit is. The greatest question in all +of human life is summed up when we ask, 'What would Jesus do?' if, +as we ask it, we also try to answer it from a growth in knowledge of +Jesus himself. We must know Jesus before we can imitate Him." + +When the arrangement had been made between Virginia an Edward +Norman, he found himself in possession of the sum of five hundred +thousand dollars to use for the establishment of a Christian daily +paper. When Virginia and Maxwell had gone, Norman closed his door +and, alone with the Divine Presence, asked like a child for help +from his all-powerful Father. All through his prayer as he kneeled +before his desk ran the promise, "If any man lack wisdom, let him +ask of God who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and +it shall be given him." Surely his prayer would be answered, and the +kingdom advanced through this instrument of God's power, this mighty +press, which had become so largely degraded to the base uses of +man's avarice and ambition. + +Two months went by. They were full of action and of results in the +city of Raymond and especially in the First Church. In spite of the +approaching heat of the summer season, the after-meeting of the +disciples who had made the pledge to do as Jesus would do, continued +with enthusiasm and power. Gray had finished his work at the +Rectangle, and an outward observer going through the place could not +have seen any difference in the old conditions, although there was +an actual change in hundreds of lives. But the saloons, dens, +hovels, gambling houses, still ran, overflowing their vileness into +the lives of fresh victims to take the place of those rescued by the +evangelist. And the devil recruited his ranks very fast. + +Henry Maxwell did not go abroad. Instead of that, he took the money +he had been saving for the trip and quietly arranged for a summer +vacation for a whole family living down in the Rectangle, who had +never gone outside of the foul district of the tenements. The pastor +of the First Church will never forget the week he spent with this +family making the arrangements. He went down into the Rectangle one +hot day when something of the terrible heat in the horrible +tenements was beginning to be felt, and helped the family to the +station, and then went with them to a beautiful spot on the coast +where, in the home of a Christian woman, the bewildered city tenants +breathed for the first time in years the cool salt air, and felt +blow about them the pine-scented fragrance of a new lease of life. + +There was a sickly babe with the mother, and three other children, +one a cripple. The father, who had been out of work until he had +been, as he afterwards confessed to Maxwell, several times on the +edge of suicide, sat with the baby in his arms during the journey, +and when Maxwell started back to Raymond, after seeing the family +settled, the man held his hand at parting, and choked with his +utterance, and finally broke down, to Maxwell's great confusion. The +mother, a wearied, worn-out woman who had lost three children the +year before from a fever scourge in the Rectangle, sat by the car +window all the way and drank in the delights of sea and sky and +field. It all seemed a miracle to her. And Maxwell, coming back into +Raymond at the end of that week, feeling the scorching, sickening +heat all the more because of his little taste of the ocean breezes, +thanked God for the joy he had witnessed, and entered upon his +discipleship with a humble heart, knowing for almost the first time +in his life this special kind of sacrifice. For never before had he +denied himself his regular summer trip away from the heat of +Raymond, whether he felt in any great need of rest or not. + +"It is a fact," he said in reply to several inquiries on the part of +his church, "I do not feel in need of a vacation this year. I am +very well and prefer to stay here." It was with a feeling of relief +that he succeeded in concealing from every one but his wife what he +had done with this other family. He felt the need of doing anything +of that sort without display or approval from others. + +So the summer came on, and Maxwell grew into a large knowledge of +his Lord. The First Church was still swayed by the power of the +Spirit. Maxwell marveled at the continuance of His stay. He knew +very well that from the beginning nothing but the Spirit's presence +had kept the church from being torn asunder by the remarkable +testing it had received of its discipleship. Even now there were +many of the members among those who had not taken the pledge, who +regarded the whole movement as Mrs. Winslow did, in the nature of a +fanatical interpretation of Christian duty, and looked for the +return of the old normal condition. Meanwhile the whole body of +disciples was under the influence of the Spirit, and the pastor went +his way that summer, doing his parish work in great joy, keeping up +his meetings with the railroad men as he had promised Alexander +Powers, and daily growing into a better knowledge of the Master. + +Early one afternoon in August, after a day of refreshing coolness +following a long period of heat, Jasper Chase walked to his window +in the apartment house on the avenue and looked out. + +On his desk lay a pile of manuscript. Since that evening when he had +spoken to Rachel Winslow he had not met her. His singularly +sensitive nature--sensitive to the point of extreme irritability +when he was thwarted--served to thrust him into an isolation that +was intensified by his habits as an author. + +All through the heat of summer he had been writing. His book was +nearly done now. He had thrown himself into its construction with a +feverish strength that threatened at any moment to desert him and +leave him helpless. He had not forgotten his pledge made with the +other church members at the First Church. It had forced itself upon +his notice all through his writing, and ever since Rachel had said +no to him, he had asked a thousand times, "Would Jesus do this? +Would He write this story?" It was a social novel, written in a +style that had proved popular. It had no purpose except to amuse. +Its moral teaching was not bad, but neither was it Christian in any +positive way. Jasper Chase knew that such a story would probably +sell. He was conscious of powers in this way that the social world +petted and admired. "What would Jesus do?" He felt that Jesus would +never write such a book. The question obtruded on him at the most +inopportune times. He became irascible over it. The standard of +Jesus for an author was too ideal. Of course, Jesus would use His +powers to produce something useful or helpful, or with a purpose. +What was he, Jasper Chase, writing this novel for? Why, what nearly +every writer wrote for--money, money, and fame as a writer. There +was no secret with him that he was writing this new story with that +object. He was not poor, and so had no great temptation to write for +money. But he was urged on by his desire for fame as much as +anything. He must write this kind of matter. But what would Jesus +do? The question plagued him even more than Rachel's refusal. Was he +going to break his promise? "Did the promise mean much after all?" +he asked. + +As he stood at the window, Rollin Page came out of the club house +just opposite. Jasper noted his handsome face and noble figure as he +started down the street. He went back to his desk and turned over +some papers there. Then he came back to the window. Rollin was +walking down past the block and Rachel Winslow was walking beside +him. Rollin must have overtaken her as she was coming from +Virginia's that afternoon. + +Jasper watched the two figures until they disappeared in the crowd +on the walk. Then he turned to his desk and began to write. When he +had finished the last page of the last chapter of his book it was +nearly dark. "What would Jesus do?" He had finally answered the +question by denying his Lord. It grew darker in his room. He had +deliberately chosen his course, urged on by his disappointment and +loss. + + + + + + +Chapter Eighteen + + + + + +"What is that to thee? Follow thou me." + +WHEN Rollin started down the street the afternoon that Jasper stood +looking out of his window he was not thinking of Rachel Winslow and +did not expect to see her anywhere. He had come suddenly upon her as +he turned into the avenue and his heart had leaped up at the sight +of her. He walked along by her now, rejoicing after all in a little +moment of this earthly love he could not drive out of his life. + +"I have just been over to see Virginia," said Rachel. "She tells me +the arrangements are nearly completed for the transfer of the +Rectangle property." + +"Yes. It has been a tedious case in the courts. Did Virginia show +you all the plans and specifications for building?" + +"We looked over a good many. It is astonishing to me where Virginia +has managed to get all her ideas about this work." + +"Virginia knows more now about Arnold Toynbee and East End London +and Institutional Church work in America than a good many +professional slum workers. She has been spending nearly all summer +in getting information." Rollin was beginning to feel more at ease +as they talked over this coming work of humanity. It was safe, +common ground. + +"What have you been doing all summer? I have not seen much of you," +Rachel suddenly asked, and then her face warmed with its quick flush +of tropical color as if she might have implied too much interest in +Rollin or too much regret at not seeing him oftener. + +"I have been busy," replied Rollin briefly. + +"Tell me something about it," persisted Rachel. "You say so little. +Have I a right to ask?" + +She put the question very frankly, turning toward Rollin in real +earnest. + +"Yes, certainly," he replied, with a graceful smile. "I am not so +certain that I can tell you much. I have been trying to find some +way to reach the men I once knew and win them into more useful +lives." + +He stopped suddenly as if he were almost afraid to go on. Rachel did +not venture to suggest anything. + +"I have been a member of the same company to which you and Virginia +belong," continued Rollin, beginning again. "I have made the pledge +to do as I believe Jesus would do, and it is in trying to answer +this question that I have been doing my work." + +"That is what I do not understand. Virginia told me about the other. +It seems wonderful to think that you are trying to keep that pledge +with us. But what can you do with the club men?" + +"You have asked me a direct question and I shall have to answer it +now," replied Rollin, smiling again. "You see, I asked myself after +that night at the tent, you remember" (he spoke hurriedly and his +voice trembled a little), "what purpose I could now have in my life +to redeem it, to satisfy my thought of Christian discipleship? And +the more I thought of it, the more I was driven to a place where I +knew I must take up the cross. Did you ever think that of all the +neglected beings in our social system none are quite so completely +left alone as the fast young men who fill the clubs and waste their +time and money as I used to? The churches look after the poor, +miserable creatures like those in the Rectangle; they make some +effort to reach the working man, they have a large constituency +among the average salary-earning people, they send money and +missionaries to the foreign heathen, but the fashionable, dissipated +young men around town, the club men, are left out of all plans for +reaching and Christianizing. And yet no class of people need it +more. I said to myself: 'I know these men, their good and their bad +qualities. I have been one of them. I am not fitted to reach the +Rectangle people. I do not know how. But I think I could possibly +reach some of the young men and boys who have money and time to +spend.' So that is what I have been trying to do. When I asked as +you did, What would Jesus do?' that was my answer. It has been also +my cross." + +Rollin's voice was so low on this last sentence that Rachel had +difficulty in hearing him above the noise around them, But she knew +what he had said. She wanted to ask what his methods were. But she +did not know how to ask him. Her interest in his plan was larger +than mere curiosity. Rollin Page was so different now from the +fashionable young man who had asked her to be his wife that she +could not help thinking of him and talking with him as if he were an +entirely new acquaintance. + +They had turned off the avenue and were going up the street to +Rachel's home. It was the same street where Rollin had asked Rachel +why she could not love him. They were both stricken with a sudden +shyness as they went on. Rachel had not forgotten that day and +Rollin could not. She finally broke a long silence by asking what +she had not found words for before. + +"In your work with the club men, with your old acquaintances, what +sort of reception do they give you? How do you approach them? What +do they say?" + +Rollin was relieved when Rachel spoke. He answered quickly: "Oh, it +depends on the man. A good many of them think I am a crank. I have +kept my membership up and am in good standing in that way. I try to +be wise and not provoke any unnecessary criticism. But you would be +surprised to know how many of the men have responded to my appeal. I +could hardly make you believe that only a few nights ago a dozen men +became honestly and earnestly engaged in a conversation over +religious matters. I have had the great joy of seeing some of the +men give up bad habits and begin a new life. 'What would Jesus do?' +I keep asking it. The answer comes slowly, for I am feeling my way +slowly. One thing I have found out. The men are not fighting shy of +me. I think that is a good sign. Another thing: I have actually +interested some of them in the Rectangle work, and when it is +started up they will give something to help make it more powerful. +And in addition to all the rest, I have found a way to save several +of the young fellows from going to the bad in gambling." + +Rollin spoke with enthusiasm. His face was transformed by his +interest in the subject which had now become a part of his real +life. Rachel again noted the strong, manly tone of his speech. With +it all she knew there was a deep, underlying seriousness which felt +the burden of the cross even while carrying it with joy. The next +time she spoke it was with a swift feeling of justice due to Rollin +and his new life. + +"Do you remember I reproached you once for not having any purpose +worth living for?" she asked, while her beautiful face seemed to +Rollin more beautiful than ever when he had won sufficient +self-control to look up. "I want to say, I feel the need of saying, +in justice to you now, that I honor you for your courage and your +obedience to the promise you have made as you interpret the promise. +The life you are living is a noble one." + +Rollin trembled. His agitation was greater than he could control. +Rachel could not help seeing it. They walked along in silence. At +last Rollin said: "I thank you. It has been worth more to me than I +can tell you to hear you say that." He looked into her face for one +moment. She read his love for her in that look, but he did not +speak. + +When they separated Rachel went into the house and, sitting down in +her room, she put her face in her hands and said to herself: "I am +beginning to know what it means to be loved by a noble man. I shall +love Rollin Page after all. What am I saying! Rachel Winslow, have +you forgotten--" + +She rose and walked back and forth. She was deeply moved. +Nevertheless, it was evident to herself that her emotion was not +that of regret or sorrow. Somehow a glad new joy had come to her. +She had entered another circle of experience, and later in the day +she rejoiced with a very strong and sincere gladness that her +Christian discipleship found room in this crisis for her feeling. It +was indeed a part of it, for if she was beginning to love Rollin +Page it was the Christian man she had begun to love; the other never +would have moved her to this great change. + +And Rollin, as he went back, treasured a hope that had been a +stranger to him since Rachel had said no that day. In that hope he +went on with his work as the days sped on, and at no time was he +more successful in reaching and saving his old acquaintances than in +the time that followed that chance meeting with Rachel Winslow. + +The summer had gone and Raymond was once more facing the rigor of +her winter season. Virginia had been able to accomplish a part of +her plan for "capturing the Rectangle," as she called it. But the +building of houses in the field, the transforming of its bleak, bare +aspect into an attractive park, all of which was included in her +plan, was a work too large to be completed that fall after she had +secured the property. But a million dollars in the hands of a person +who truly wants to do with it as Jesus would, ought to accomplish +wonders for humanity in a short time, and Henry Maxwell, going over +to the scene of the new work one day after a noon hour with the shop +men, was amazed to see how much had been done outwardly. + +Yet he walked home thoughtfully, and on his way he could not avoid +the question of the continual problem thrust upon his notice by the +saloon. How much had been done for the Rectangle after all? Even +counting Virginia's and Rachel's work and Mr. Gray's, where had it +actually counted in any visible quantity? Of course, he said to +himself, the redemptive work begun and carried on by the Holy Spirit +in His wonderful displays of power in the First Church and in the +tent meetings had had its effect upon the life of Raymond. But as he +walked past saloon after saloon and noted the crowds going in and +coming out of them, as he saw the wretched dens, as many as ever +apparently, as he caught the brutality and squalor and open misery +and degradation on countless faces of men and women and children, he +sickened at the sight. He found himself asking how much cleansing +could a million dollars poured into this cesspool accomplish? Was +not the living source of nearly all the human misery they sought to +relieve untouched as long as the saloons did their deadly but +legitimate work? What could even such unselfish Christian +discipleship as Virginia's and Rachel's do to lessen the stream of +vice and crime so long as the great spring of vice and crime flowed +as deep and strong as ever? Was it not a practical waste of +beautiful lives for these young women to throw themselves into this +earthly hell, when for every soul rescued by their sacrifice the +saloon made two more that needed rescue? + +He could not escape the question. It was the same that Virginia had +put to Rachel in her statement that, in her opinion, nothing really +permanent would ever be done until the saloon was taken out of the +Rectangle. Henry Maxwell went back to his parish work that afternoon +with added convictions on the license business. + +But if the saloon was a factor in the problem of the life of +Raymond, no less was the First Church and its little company of +disciples who had pledged to do as Jesus would do. Henry Maxwell, +standing at the very centre of the movement, was not in a position +to judge of its power as some one from the outside might have done. +But Raymond itself felt the touch in very many ways, not knowing all +the reasons for the change. + +The winter was gone and the year was ended, the year which Henry +Maxwell had fixed as the time during which the pledge should be kept +to do as Jesus would do. Sunday, the anniversary of that one a year +ago, was in many ways the most remarkable day that the First Church +ever knew. It was more important than the disciples in the First +Church realized. The year had made history so fast and so serious +that the people were not yet able to grasp its significance. And the +day itself which marked the completion of a whole year of such +discipleship was characterized by such revelations and confessions +that the immediate actors in the events themselves could not +understand the value of what had been done, or the relation of their +trial to the rest of the churches and cities of the country. + + + + + + +Chapter Nineteen + + + + + +[Letter from Rev. Calvin Bruce, D.D., of the Nazareth Avenue Church, +Chicago, to Rev. Philip A. Caxton, D.D., New York City.] + +"My Dear Caxton: + +"It is late Sunday night, but I am so intensely awake and so +overflowing with what I have seen and heard that I feel driven to +write you now some account of the situation in Raymond as I have +been studying it, and as it has apparently come to a climax today. +So this is my only excuse for writing so extended a letter at this +time. + +"You remember Henry Maxwell in the Seminary. I think you said the +last time I visited you in New York that you had not seen him since +we graduated. He was a refined, scholarly fellow, you remember, and +when he was called to the First Church of Raymond within a year +after leaving the Seminary, I said to my wife, 'Raymond has made a +good choice. Maxwell will satisfy them as a sermonizer.' He has been +here eleven years, and I understand that up to a year ago he had +gone on in the regular course of the ministry, giving good +satisfaction and drawing good congregations. His church was counted +the largest and wealthiest church in Raymond. All the best people +attended it, and most of them belonged. The quartet choir was famous +for its music, especially for its soprano, Miss Winslow, of whom I +shall have more to say; and, on the whole, as I understand the +facts, Maxwell was in a comfortable berth, with a very good salary, +pleasant surroundings, a not very exacting parish of refined, rich, +respectable people--such a church and parish as nearly all the young +men of the seminary in our time looked forward to as very desirable. + +"But a year ago today Maxwell came into his church on Sunday +morning, and at the close of the service made the astounding +proposition that the members of his church volunteer for a year not +to do anything without first asking the question, 'What would Jesus +do?' and, after answering it, to do what in their honest judgment He +would do, regardless of what the result might be to them. + +"The effect of this proposition, as it has been met and obeyed by a +number of members of the church, has been so remarkable that, as you +know, the attention of the whole country has been directed to the +movement. I call it a 'movement' because from the action taken +today, it seems probable that what has been tried here will reach +out into the other churches and cause a revolution in methods, but +more especially in a new definition of Christian discipleship. + +"In the first place, Maxwell tells me he was astonished at the +response to his proposition. Some of the most prominent members in +the church made the promise to do as Jesus would. Among them were +Edward Norman, editor of the DAILY NEWS, which has made such a +sensation in the newspaper world; Milton Wright, one of the leading +merchants in Raymond; Alexander Powers, whose action in the matter +of the railroads against the interstate commerce laws made such a +stir about a year ago; Miss Page, one of Raymond's leading society +heiresses, who has lately dedicated her entire fortune, as I +understand, to the Christian daily paper and the work of reform in +the slum district known as the Rectangle; and Miss Winslow, whose +reputation as a singer is now national, but who in obedience to what +she has decided to be Jesus' probable action, has devoted her talent +to volunteer work among the girls and women who make up a large part +of the city's worst and most abandoned population. + +"In addition to these well-known people has been a gradually +increasing number of Christians from the First Church and lately +from other churches of Raymond. A large proportion of these +volunteers who pledged themselves to do as Jesus would do comes from +the Endeavor societies. The young people say that they have already +embodied in their society pledge the same principle in the words, 'I +promise Him that I will strive to do whatever He would have me do.' +This is not exactly what is included in Maxwell's proposition, which +is that the disciple shall try to do what Jesus would probably do in +the disciple's place. But the result of an honest obedience to +either pledge, he claims, will be practically the same, and he is +not surprised that the largest numbers have joined the new +discipleship from the Endeavor Society. + +"I am sure the first question you will ask is, 'What has been the +result of this attempt? What has it accomplished or how has it +changed in any way the regular life of the church or the community?' + +"You already know something, from reports of Raymond that have gone +over the country, what the events have been. But one needs to come +here and learn something of the changes in individual lives, and +especially the change in the church life, to realize all that is +meant by this following of Jesus' steps so literally. To tell all +that would be to write a long story or series of stories. I am not +in a position to do that, but I can give you some idea perhaps of +what has been done as told me by friends here and by Maxwell +himself. + +"The result of the pledge upon the First Church has been two-fold. +It has brought upon a spirit of Christian fellowship which Maxwell +tells me never before existed, and which now impresses him as being +very nearly what the Christian fellowship of the apostolic churches +must have been; and it has divided the church into two distinct +groups of members. Those who have not taken the pledge regard the +others as foolishly literal in their attempt to imitate the example +of Jesus. Some of them have drawn out of the church and no longer +attend, or they have removed their membership entirely to other +churches. Some are an element of internal strife, and I heard rumors +of an attempt on their part to force Maxwell's resignation. I do not +know that this element is very strong in the church. It has been +held in check by a wonderful continuance of spiritual power, which +dates from the first Sunday the pledge was taken a year ago, and +also by the fact that so many of the most prominent members have +been identified with the movement. + +"The effect on Maxwell is very marked. I heard him preach in our +State Association four years ago. He impressed me at the time as +having considerable power in dramatic delivery, of which he himself +was somewhat conscious. His sermon was well written and abounded in +what the Seminary students used to call 'fine passages.' The effect +of it was what an average congregation would call 'pleasing.' This +morning I heard Maxwell preach again, for the first time since then. +I shall speak of that farther on. He is not the same man. He gives +me the impression of one who has passed through a crisis of +revolution. He tells me this revolution is simply a new definition +of Christian discipleship. He certainly has changed many of his old +habits and many of his old views. His attitude on the saloon +question is radically opposite to the one he entertained a year ago. +And in his entire thought of the ministry, his pulpit and parish +work, I find he has made a complete change. So far as I can +understand, the idea that is moving him on now is the idea that the +Christianity of our times must represent a more literal imitation of +Jesus, and especially in the element of suffering. He quoted to me +in the course of our conversation several times the verses in Peter: +'For even hereunto were ye called, because Christ also suffered for +you, leaving you an example, that ye would follow His steps'; and he +seems filled with the conviction that what our churches need today +more than anything else is this factor of joyful suffering for Jesus +in some form. I do not know as I agree with him, altogether; but, my +dear Caxton, it is certainly astonishing to note the results of this +idea as they have impressed themselves upon this city and this +church. + +"You ask how about the results on the individuals who have made this +pledge and honestly tried to be true to it. Those results are, as I +have said, a part of individual history and cannot be told in +detail. Some of them I can give you so that you may see that this +form of discipleship is not merely sentiment or fine posing for +effect. + +"For instance, take the case of Mr. Powers, who was superintendent +of the machine shops of the L. and T. R. R. here. When he acted upon +the evidence which incriminated the road he lost his position, and +more than that, I learn from my friends here, his family and social +relations have become so changed that he and his family no longer +appear in public. They have dropped out of the social circle where +once they were so prominent. By the way, Caxton, I understand in +this connection that the Commission, for one reason or another, +postponed action on this case, and it is now rumored that the L. and +T. R. R. will pass into a receiver's hands very soon. The president +of the road who, according to the evidence submitted by Powers, was +the principal offender, has resigned, and complications which have +risen since point to the receivership. Meanwhile, the superintendent +has gone back to his old work as a telegraph operator. I met him at +the church yesterday. He impressed me as a man who had, like +Maxwell, gone through a crisis in character. I could not help +thinking of him as being good material for the church of the first +century when the disciples had all things in common. + +"Or take the case of Mr. Norman, editor of the DAILY NEWS. He risked +his entire fortune in obedience to what he believed was Jesus' +action, and revolutionized his entire conduct of the paper at the +risk of a failure. I send you a copy of yesterday's paper. I want +you to read it carefully. To my mind it is one of the most +interesting and remarkable papers ever printed in the United States. +It is open to criticism, but what could any mere man attempt in this +line that would be free from criticism. Take it all in all, it is so +far above the ordinary conception of a daily paper that I am amazed +at the result. He tells me that the paper is beginning to be read +more and more by the Christian people of the city. He was very +confident of its final success. Read his editorial on the money +questions, also the one on the coming election in Raymond when the +question of license will again be an issue. Both articles are of the +best from his point of view. He says he never begins an editorial +or, in fact, any part of his newspaper work, without first asking, +'What would Jesus do?' The result is certainly apparent. + +"Then there is Milton Wright, the merchant. He has, I am told, so +revolutionized his business that no man is more beloved today in +Raymond. His own clerks and employees have an affection for him that +is very touching. During the winter, while he was lying dangerously +ill at his home, scores of clerks volunteered to watch and help in +any way possible, and his return to his store was greeted with +marked demonstrations. All this has been brought about by the +element of personal love introduced into the business. This love is +not mere words, but the business itself is carried on under a system +of co-operation that is not a patronizing recognition of inferiors, +but a real sharing in the whole business. Other men on the street +look upon Milton Wright as odd. It is a fact, however, that while he +has lost heavily in some directions, he has increased his business, +and is today respected and honored as one of the best and most +successful merchants in Raymond. + +"And there is Miss Winslow. She has chosen to give her great talent +to the poor of the city. Her plans include a Musical Institute where +choruses and classes in vocal music shall be a feature. She is +enthusiastic over her life work. In connection with her friend Miss +Page she has planned a course in music which, if carried out, will +certainly do much to lift up the lives of the people down there. I +am not too old, dear Caxton, to be interested in the romantic side +of much that has also been tragic here in Raymond, and I must tell +you that it is well understood here that Miss Winslow expects to be +married this spring to a brother of Miss Page who was once a society +leader and club man, and who was converted in a tent where his +wife-that-is-to-be took an active part in the service. I don't know +all the details of this little romance, but I imagine there is a +story wrapped up in it, and it would make interesting reading if we +only knew it all. + +"These are only a few illustrations of results in individual lives +owing to obedience to the pledge. I meant to have spoken of +President Marsh of Lincoln College. He is a graduate of my alma +mater and I knew him slightly when I was in the senior year. He has +taken an active part in the recent municipal campaign, and his +influence in the city is regarded as a very large factor in the +coming election. He impressed me, as did all the other disciples in +this movement, as having fought out some hard questions, and as +having taken up some real burdens that have caused and still do +cause that suffering of which Henry Maxwell speaks, a suffering that +does not eliminate, but does appear to intensify, a positive and +practical joy." + + + + + + +Chapter Twenty + + + + + +"BUT I am prolonging this letter, possibly to your weariness. I am +unable to avoid the feeling of fascination which my entire stay here +has increased. I want to tell you something of the meeting in the +First Church today. + +"As I said, I heard Maxwell preach. At his earnest request I had +preached for him the Sunday before, and this was the first time I +had heard him since the Association meeting four years ago. His +sermon this morning was as different from his sermon then as if it +had been thought out and preached by some one living on another +planet. I was profoundly touched. I believe I actually shed tears +once. Others in the congregation were moved like myself. His text +was: 'What is that to thee? Follow thou Me.' It was a most unusually +impressive appeal to the Christians of Raymond to obey Jesus' +teachings and follow in His steps regardless of what others might +do. I cannot give you even the plan of the sermon. It would take too +long. At the close of the service there was the usual after meeting +that has become a regular feature of the First Church. Into this +meeting have come all those who made the pledge to do as Jesus would +do, and the time is spent in mutual fellowship, confession, question +as to what Jesus would do in special cases, and prayer that the one +great guide of every disciple's conduct may be the Holy Spirit. + +"Maxwell asked me to come into this meeting. Nothing in all my +ministerial life, Caxton, has so moved me as that meeting. I never +felt the Spirit's presence so powerfully. It was a meeting of +reminiscences and of the most loving fellowship. I was irresistibly +driven in thought back to the first years of Christianity. There was +something about all this that was apostolic in its simplicity and +Christ imitation. + +"I asked questions. One that seemed to arouse more interest than any +other was in regard to the extent of the Christian disciple's +sacrifice of personal property. Maxwell tells me that so far no one +has interpreted the spirit of Jesus in such a way as to abandon his +earthly possessions, give away of his wealth, or in any literal way +imitate the Christians of the order, for example, of St. Francis of +Assisi. It was the unanimous consent, however, that if any disciple +should feel that Jesus in his own particular case would do that, +there could be only one answer to the question. Maxwell admitted +that he was still to a certain degree uncertain as to Jesus' +probable action when it came to the details of household living, the +possession of wealth, the holding of certain luxuries. It is, +however, very evident that many of these disciples have repeatedly +carried their obedience to Jesus to the extreme limit, regardless of +financial loss. There is no lack of courage or consistency at this +point. + +"It is also true that some of the business men who took the pledge +have lost great sums of money in this imitation of Jesus, and many +have, like Alexander Powers, lost valuable positions owing to the +impossibility of doing what they had been accustomed to do and at +the same time what they felt Jesus would do in the same place. In +connection with these cases it is pleasant to record the fact that +many who have suffered in this way have been at once helped +financially by those who still have means. In this respect I think +it is true that these disciples have all things in common. Certainly +such scenes as I witnessed at the First Church at that after service +this morning I never saw in my church or in any other. I never +dreamed that such Christian fellowship could exist in this age of +the world. I was almost incredulous as to the witness of my own +senses. I still seem to be asking myself if this is the close of the +nineteenth century in America. + +"But now, dear friend, I come to the real cause of this letter, the +real heart of the whole question as the First Church of Raymond has +forced it upon me. Before the meeting closed today steps were taken +to secure the co-operation of all other Christian disciples in this +country. I think Maxwell took this step after long deliberation. He +said as much to me one day when we were discussing the effect of +this movement upon the church in general. + +"'Why,' he said, 'suppose that the church membership generally in +this country made this pledge and lived up to it! What a revolution +it would cause in Christendom! But why not? Is it any more than the +disciple ought to do? Has he followed Jesus, unless he is willing to +do this? Is the test of discipleship any less today than it was in +Jesus' time?' + +"I do not know all that preceded or followed his thought of what +ought to be done outside of Raymond, but the idea crystallized today +in a plan to secure the fellowship of all the Christians in America. +The churches, through their pastors, will be asked to form disciple +gatherings like the one in the First Church. Volunteers will be +called for in the great body of church members in the United States, +who will promise to do as Jesus would do. Maxwell spoke particularly +of the result of such general action on the saloon question. He is +terribly in earnest over this. He told me that there was no question +in his mind that the saloon would be beaten in Raymond at the +election now near at hand. If so, they could go on with some courage +to do the redemptive work begun by the evangelist and now taken up +by the disciples in his own church. If the saloon triumphs again +there will be a terrible and, as he thinks, unnecessary waste of +Christian sacrifice. But, however we differ on that point, he +convinced his church that the time had come for a fellowship with +other Christians. Surely, if the First Church could work such +changes in society and its surroundings, the church in general if +combining such a fellowship, not of creed but of conduct, ought to +stir the entire nation to a higher life and a new conception of +Christian following. + +"This is a grand idea, Caxton, but right here is where I find my +self hesitating. I do not deny that the Christian disciple ought to +follow Christ's steps as closely as these here in Raymond have tried +to do. But I cannot avoid asking what the result would be if I ask +my church in Chicago to do it. I am writing this after feeling the +solemn, profound touch of the Spirit's presence, and I confess to +you, old friend, that I cannot call up in my church a dozen +prominent business or professional men who would make this trial at +the risk of all they hold dear. Can you do any better in your +church? What are we to say? That the churches would not respond to +the call: 'Come and suffer?' Is our standard of Christian +discipleship a wrong one? Or are we possibly deceiving ourselves, +and would we be agreeably disappointed if we once asked our people +to take such a pledge faithfully? The actual results of the pledge +as obeyed here in Raymond are enough to make any pastor tremble, and +at the same time long with yearning that they might occur in his own +parish. Certainly never have I seen a church so signally blessed by +the Spirit as this one. But--am I myself ready to take this pledge? +I ask the question honestly, and I dread to face an honest answer. I +know well enough that I should have to change very much in my life +if I undertook to follow His steps so closely. I have called myself +a Christian for many years. For the past ten years I have enjoyed a +life that has had comparatively little suffering in it. I am, +honestly I say it, living at a long distance from municipal problems +and the life of the poor, the degraded and the abandoned. What would +the obedience to this pledge demand of me? I hesitate to answer. My +church is wealthy, full of well-to-do, satisfied people. The +standard of their discipleship is, I am aware, not of a nature to +respond to the call of suffering or personal loss. I say: 'I am +aware.' I may be mistaken. I may have erred in not stirring their +deeper life. Caxton, my friend, I have spoken my inmost thought to +you. Shall I go back to my people next Sunday and stand up before +them in my large city church and say: 'Let us follow Jesus closer; +let us walk in His steps where it will cost us something more than +it is costing us now; let us pledge not to do anything without first +asking: 'What would Jesus do?' If I should go before them with that +message, it would be a strange and startling one to them. But why? +Are we not ready to follow Him all the way? What is it to be a +follower of Jesus? What does it mean to imitate Him? What does it +mean to walk in His steps?" + +The Rev. Calvin Bruce, D. D., of the Nazareth Avenue Church, +Chicago, let his pen fall on the table. He had come to the parting +of the ways, and his question, he felt sure, was the question of +many and many a man in the ministry and in the church. He went to +his window and opened it. He was oppressed with the weight of his +convictions and he felt almost suffocated with the air in the room. +He wanted to see the stars and feel the breath of the world. + +The night was very still. The clock in the First Church was just +striking midnight. As it finished a clear, strong voice down in the +direction of the Rectangle came floating up to him as if borne on +radiant pinions. + +It was a voice of one of Gray's old converts, a night watchman at +the packing houses, who sometimes solaced his lonesome hours by a +verse or two of some familiar hymn: + + "Must Jesus bear the cross alone + And all the world go free? + No, there's a cross for every one, + And there's a cross for me." + +The Rev. Calvin Bruce turned away from the window and, after a +little hesitation, he kneeled. "What would Jesus do?" That was the +burden of his prayer. Never had he yielded himself so completely to +the Spirit's searching revealing of Jesus. He was on his knees a +long time. He retired and slept fitfully with many awakenings. He +rose before it was clear dawn, and threw open his window again. As +the light in the east grew stronger he repeated to himself: "What +would Jesus do? Shall I follow His steps?" + +The sun rose and flooded the city with its power. When shall the +dawn of a new discipleship usher in the conquering triumph of a +closer walk with Jesus? When shall Christendom tread more closely +the path he made? + +"It is the way the Master trod; Shall not the servant tread it +still?" + + + + + + +Chapter Twenty-one + + + + + +"Master, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest." + +THE Saturday afternoon matinee at the Auditorium in Chicago was just +over and the usual crowd was struggling to get to its carriage +before any one else. The Auditorium attendant was shouting out the +numbers of different carriages and the carriage doors were slamming +as the horses were driven rapidly up to the curb, held there +impatiently by the drivers who had shivered long in the raw east +wind, and then let go to plunge for a few minutes into the river of +vehicles that tossed under the elevated railway and finally went +whirling off up the avenue. + +"Now then, 624," shouted the Auditorium attendant; "624!" he +repeated, and there dashed up to the curb a splendid span of black +horses attached to a carriage having the monogram, "C. R. S." in +gilt letters on the panel of the door. + +Two girls stepped out of the crowd towards the carriage. The older +one had entered and taken her seat and the attendant was still +holding the door open for the younger, who stood hesitating on the +curb. + +"Come, Felicia! What are you waiting for! I shall freeze to death!" +called the voice from the carriage. + +The girl outside of the carriage hastily unpinned a bunch of English +violets from her dress and handed them to a small boy who was +standing shivering on the edge of the sidewalk almost under the +horses' feet. He took them, with a look of astonishment and a "Thank +ye, lady!" and instantly buried a very grimy face in the bunch of +perfume. The girl stepped into the carriage, the door shut with the +incisive bang peculiar to well-made carriages of this sort, and in a +few moments the coachman was speeding the horses rapidly up one of +the boulevards. + +"You are always doing some queer thing or other, Felicia," said the +older girl as the carriage whirled on past the great residences +already brilliantly lighted. + +"Am I? What have I done that is queer now, Rose?" asked the other, +looking up suddenly and turning her head towards her sister. + +"Oh, giving those violets to that boy! He looked as if he needed a +good hot supper more than a bunch of violets. It's a wonder you +didn't invite him home with us. I shouldn't have been surprised if +you had. You are always doing such queer things." + +"Would it be queer to invite a boy like that to come to the house +and get a hot supper?" Felicia asked the question softly and almost +as if she were alone. + +"'Queer' isn't just the word, of course," replied Rose +indifferently. "It would be what Madam Blanc calls 'outre.' +Decidedly. Therefore you will please not invite him or others like +him to hot suppers because I suggested it. Oh, dear! I'm awfully +tired." + +She yawned, and Felicia silently looked out of the window in the +door. + +"The concert was stupid and the violinist was simply a bore. I don't +see how you could sit so still through it all," Rose exclaimed a +little impatiently. + +"I liked the music," answered Felicia quietly. + +"You like anything. I never saw a girl with so little critical +taste." + +Felicia colored slightly, but would not answer. Rose yawned again, +and then hummed a fragment of a popular song. Then she exclaimed +abruptly: "I'm sick of 'most everything. I hope the 'Shadows of +London' will be exciting tonight." + +"The 'Shadows of Chicago,'" murmured Felicia. "The 'Shadows of +Chicago!' The 'Shadows of London,' the play, the great drama with +its wonderful scenery, the sensation of New York for two months. You +know we have a box with the Delanos tonight." + +Felicia turned her face towards her sister. Her great brown eyes +were very expressive and not altogether free from a sparkle of +luminous heat. + +"And yet we never weep over the real thing on the actual stage of +life. What are the 'Shadows of London' on the stage to the shadows +of London or Chicago as they really exist? Why don't we get excited +over the facts as they are?" + +"Because the actual people are dirty and disagreeable and it's too +much bother, I suppose," replied Rose carelessly. "Felicia, you can +never reform the world. What's the use? We're not to blame for the +poverty and misery. There have always been rich and poor; and there +always will be. We ought to be thankful we're rich." + +"Suppose Christ had gone on that principle," replied Felicia, with +unusual persistence. "Do you remember Dr. Bruce's sermon on that +verse a few Sundays ago: 'For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus +Christ, that though he was rich yet for our sakes he became poor, +that ye through his poverty might become rich'?" + +"I remember it well enough," said Rose with some petulance, "and +didn't Dr. Bruce go on to say that there is no blame attached to +people who have wealth if they are kind and give to the needs of the +poor? And I am sure that he himself is pretty comfortably settled. +He never gives up his luxuries just because some people go hungry. +What good would it do if he did? I tell you, Felicia, there will +always be poor and rich in spite of all we can do. Ever since Rachel +Winslow has written about those queer doings in Raymond you have +upset the whole family. People can't live at that concert pitch all +the time. You see if Rachel doesn't give it up soon. It's a great +pity she doesn't come to Chicago and sing in the Auditorium +concerts. She has received an offer. I'm going to write and urge her +to come. I'm just dying to hear her sing." + +Felicia looked out of the window and was silent. The carriage rolled +on past two blocks of magnificent private residences and turned into +a wide driveway under a covered passage, and the sisters hurried +into the house. It was an elegant mansion of gray stone furnished +like a palace, every corner of it warm with the luxury of paintings, +sculpture, art and modern refinement. + +The owner of it all, Mr. Charles R. Sterling, stood before an open +grate fire smoking a cigar. He had made his money in grain +speculation and railroad ventures, and was reputed to be worth +something over two millions. His wife was a sister of Mrs. Winslow +of Raymond. She had been an invalid for several years. The two +girls, Rose and Felicia, were the only children. Rose was twenty-one +years old, fair, vivacious, educated in a fashionable college, just +entering society and already somewhat cynical and indifferent. A +very hard young lady to please, her father said, sometimes +playfully, sometimes sternly. Felicia was nineteen, with a tropical +beauty somewhat like her cousin, Rachel Winslow, with warm, generous +impulses just waking into Christian feeling, capable of all sorts of +expression, a puzzle to her father, a source of irritation to her +mother and with a great unsurveyed territory of thought and action +in herself, of which she was more than dimly conscious. There was +that in Felicia that would easily endure any condition in life if +only the liberty to act fully on her conscientious convictions were +granted her. + +"Here's a letter for you, Felicia," said Mr. Sterling, handing it to +her. + +Felicia sat down and instantly opened the letter, saying as she did +so: "It's from Rachel." + +"Well, what's the latest news from Raymond?" asked Mr. Sterling, +taking his cigar out of his mouth and looking at Felicia with +half-shut eyes, as if he were studying her. + +"Rachel says Dr. Bruce has been staying in Raymond for two Sundays +and has seemed very much interested in Mr. Maxwell's pledge in the +First Church." + +"What does Rachel say about herself?" asked Rose, who was lying on a +couch almost buried under elegant cushions. + +"She is still singing at the Rectangle. Since the tent meetings +closed she sings in an old hall until the new buildings which her +friend, Virginia Page, is putting up are completed. + +"I must write Rachel to come to Chicago and visit us. She ought not +to throw away her voice in that railroad town upon all those people +who don't appreciate her." + +Mr. Sterling lighted a new cigar and Rose exclaimed: "Rachel is so +queer. She might set Chicago wild with her voice if she sang in the +Auditorium. And there she goes on throwing it away on people who +don't know what they are hearing." + +"Rachel won't come here unless she can do it and keep her pledge at +the same time," said Felicia, after a pause. + +"What pledge?" Mr. Sterling asked the question and then added +hastily: "Oh, I know, yes! A very peculiar thing that. Alexander +Powers used to be a friend of mine. We learned telegraphy in the +same office. Made a great sensation when he resigned and handed over +that evidence to the Interstate Commerce Commission. And he's back +at his telegraph again. There have been queer doings in Raymond +during the past year. I wonder what Dr. Bruce thinks of it on the +whole. I must have a talk with him about it." + +"He is at home and will preach tomorrow," said Felicia. "Perhaps he +will tell us something about it." + +There was silence for a minute. Then Felicia said abruptly, as if +she had gone on with a spoken thought to some invisible hearer: "And +what if he should propose the same pledge to the Nazareth Avenue +Church?" + +"Who? What are you talking about?" asked her father a little +sharply. + +"About Dr. Bruce. I say, what if he should propose to our church +what Mr. Maxwell proposed to his, and ask for volunteers who would +pledge themselves to do everything after asking the question, 'What +would Jesus do?'" + +"There's no danger of it," said Rose, rising suddenly from the couch +as the tea-bell rang. + +"It's a very impracticable movement, to my mind," said Mr. Sterling +shortly. + +"I understand from Rachel's letter that the Raymond church is going +to make an attempt to extend the idea of the pledge to other +churches. If it succeeds it will certainly make great changes in the +churches and in people's lives," said Felicia. + +"Oh, well, let's have some tea first!" said Rose, walking into the +dining-room. Her father and Felicia followed, and the meal proceeded +in silence. Mrs. Sterling had her meals served in her room. Mr. +Sterling was preoccupied. He ate very little and excused himself +early, and although it was Saturday night, he remarked as he went +out that he should be down town on some special business. + +"Don't you think father looks very much disturbed lately?" asked +Felicia a little while after he had gone out. + +"Oh, I don't know! I hadn't noticed anything unusual," replied Rose. +After a silence she said: "Are you going to the play tonight, +Felicia? Mrs. Delano will be here at half past seven. I think you +ought to go. She will feel hurt if you refuse." + +"I'll go. I don't care about it. I can see shadows enough without +going to the play." + +"That's a doleful remark for a girl nineteen years old to make," +replied Rose. "But then you're queer in your ideas anyhow, Felicia. +If you are going up to see mother, tell her I'll run in after the +play if she is still awake." + + + + + + +Chapter Twenty-two + + + + + +FELICIA started off to the play not very happy, but she was familiar +with that feeling, only sometimes she was more unhappy than at +others. Her feeling expressed itself tonight by a withdrawal into +herself. When the company was seated in the box and the curtain had +gone up Felicia was back of the others and remained for the evening +by herself. Mrs. Delano, as chaperon for half a dozen young ladies, +understood Felicia well enough to know that she was "queer," as Rose +so often said, and she made no attempt to draw her out of her +corner. And so the girl really experienced that night by herself one +of the feelings that added to the momentum that was increasing the +coming on of her great crisis. + +The play was an English melodrama, full of startling situations, +realistic scenery and unexpected climaxes. There was one scene in +the third act that impressed even Rose Sterling. + +It was midnight on Blackfriars Bridge. The Thames flowed dark and +forbidden below. St. Paul's rose through the dim light imposing, its +dome seeming to float above the buildings surrounding it. The figure +of a child came upon the bridge and stood there for a moment peering +about as if looking for some one. Several persons were crossing the +bridge, but in one of the recesses about midway of the river a woman +stood, leaning out over the parapet, with a strained agony of face +and figure that told plainly of her intention. Just as she was +stealthily mounting the parapet to throw herself into the river, the +child caught sight of her, ran forward with a shrill cry more animal +than human, and seizing the woman's dress dragged back upon it with +all her little strength. Then there came suddenly upon the scene two +other characters who had already figured in the play, a tall, +handsome, athletic gentleman dressed in the fashion, attended by a +slim-figured lad who was as refined in dress and appearance as the +little girl clinging to her mother, who was mournfully hideous in +her rags and repulsive poverty. These two, the gentleman and the +lad, prevented the attempted suicide, and after a tableau on the +bridge where the audience learned that the man and woman were +brother and sister, the scene was transferred to the interior of one +of the slum tenements in the East Side of London. Here the scene +painter and carpenter had done their utmost to produce an exact copy +of a famous court and alley well known to the poor creatures who +make up a part of the outcast London humanity. The rags, the +crowding, the vileness, the broken furniture, the horrible animal +existence forced upon creatures made in God's image were so +skilfully shown in this scene that more than one elegant woman in +the theatre, seated like Rose Sterling in a sumptuous box surrounded +with silk hangings and velvet covered railing, caught herself +shrinking back a little as if contamination were possible from the +nearness of this piece of scenery. It was almost too realistic, and +yet it had a horrible fascination for Felicia as she sat there +alone, buried back in a cushioned seat and absorbed in thoughts that +went far beyond the dialogue on the stage. + +From the tenement scene the play shifted to the interior of a +nobleman's palace, and almost a sigh of relief went up all over the +house at the sight of the accustomed luxury of the upper classes. +The contrast was startling. It was brought about by a clever piece +of staging that allowed only a few moments to elapse between the +slum and the palace scene. The dialogue went on, the actors came and +went in their various roles, but upon Felicia the play made but one +distinct impression. In realty the scenes on the bridge and in the +slums were only incidents in the story of the play, but Felicia +found herself living those scenes over and over. She had never +philosophized about the causes of human misery, she was not old +enough she had not the temperament that philosophizes. But she felt +intensely, and this was not the first time she had felt the contrast +thrust into her feeling between the upper and the lower conditions +of human life. It had been growing upon her until it had made her +what Rose called "queer," and other people in her circle of wealthy +acquaintances called very unusual. It was simply the human problem +in its extreme of riches and poverty, its refinement and its +vileness, that was, in spite of her unconscious attempts to struggle +against the facts, burning into her life the impression that would +in the end either transform her into a woman of rare love and +self-sacrifice for the world, or a miserable enigma to herself and +all who knew her. + +"Come, Felicia, aren't you going home?" said Rose. The play was +over, the curtain down, and people were going noisily out, laughing +and gossiping as if "The Shadows of London" were simply good +diversion, as they were, put on the stage so effectively. + +Felicia rose and went out with the rest quietly, and with the +absorbed feeling that had actually left her in her seat oblivious of +the play's ending. She was never absent-minded, but often thought +herself into a condition that left her alone in the midst of a +crowd. + +"Well, what did you think of it?" asked Rose when the sisters had +reached home and were in the drawing-room. Rose really had +considerable respect for Felicia's judgment of a play. + +"I thought it was a pretty fair picture of real life." + +"I mean the acting," said Rose, annoyed. + +"The bridge scene was well acted, especially the woman's part. I +thought the man overdid the sentiment a little." + +"Did you? I enjoyed that. And wasn't the scene between the two +cousins funny when they first learned they were related? But the +slum scene was horrible. I think they ought not to show such things +in a play. They are too painful." + +"They must be painful in real life, too," replied Felicia. + +"Yes, but we don't have to look at the real thing. It's bad enough +at the theatre where we pay for it." + +Rose went into the dining-room and began to eat from a plate of +fruit and cakes on the sideboard. + +"Are you going up to see mother?" asked Felicia after a while. She +had remained in front of the drawing-room fireplace. + +"No," replied Rose from the other room. "I won't trouble her +tonight. If you go in tell her I am too tired to be agreeable." + +So Felicia turned into her mother's room, as she went up the great +staircase and down the upper hall. The light was burning there, and +the servant who always waited on Mrs. Sterling was beckoning Felicia +to come in. + +"Tell Clara to go out," exclaimed Mrs. Sterling as Felicia came up +to the bed. + +Felicia was surprised, but she did as her mother bade her, and then +inquired how she was feeling. + +"Felicia," said her mother, "can you pray?" + +The question was so unlike any her mother had ever asked before that +she was startled. But she answered: "Why, yes, mother. Why do you +ask such a question?" + +"Felicia, I am frightened. Your father--I have had such strange +fears about him all day. Something is wrong with him. I want you to +pray--." + +"Now, here, mother?" + +"Yes. Pray, Felicia." + +Felicia reached out her hand and took her mother's. It was +trembling. Mrs. Sterling had never shown such tenderness for her +younger daughter, and her strange demand now was the first real sign +of any confidence in Felicia's character. + +The girl kneeled, still holding her mother's trembling hand, and +prayed. It is doubtful if she had ever prayed aloud before. She must +have said in her prayer the words that her mother needed, for when +it was silent in the room the invalid was weeping softly and her +nervous tension was over. + +Felicia stayed some time. When she was assured that her mother would +not need her any longer she rose to go. + +"Good night, mother. You must let Clara call me if you feel badly in +the night." + +"I feel better now." Then as Felicia was moving away, Mrs. Sterling +said: "Won't you kiss me, Felicia?" + +Felicia went back and bent over her mother. The kiss was almost as +strange to her as the prayer had been. When Felicia went out of the +room her cheeks were wet with tears. She had not often cried since +she was a little child. + +Sunday morning at the Sterling mansion was generally very quiet. The +girls usually went to church at eleven o'clock service. Mr. Sterling +was not a member but a heavy contributor, and he generally went to +church in the morning. This time he did not come down to breakfast, +and finally sent word by a servant that he did not feel well enough +to go out. So Rose and Felicia drove up to the door of the Nazareth +Avenue Church and entered the family pew alone. + +When Dr. Bruce walked out of the room at the rear of the platform +and went up to the pulpit to open the Bible as his custom was, those +who knew him best did not detect anything unusual in his manner or +his expression. He proceeded with the service as usual. He was calm +and his voice was steady and firm. His prayer was the first +intimation the people had of anything new or strange in the service. +It is safe to say that the Nazareth Avenue Church had not heard Dr. +Bruce offer such a prayer before during the twelve years he had been +pastor there. How would a minister be likely to pray who had come +out of a revolution in Christian feeling that had completely changed +his definition of what was meant by following Jesus? No one in +Nazareth Avenue Church had any idea that the Rev. Calvin Bruce, D. +D., the dignified, cultured, refined Doctor of Divinity, had within +a few days been crying like a little child on his knees, asking for +strength and courage and Christlikeness to speak his Sunday message; +and yet the prayer was an unconscious involuntary disclosure of his +soul's experience such as the Nazareth Avenue people had seldom +heard, and never before from that pulpit. + + + + + + +Chapter Twenty-three + + + + + +"I AM just back from a visit to Raymond," Dr. Bruce began, "and I +want to tell you something of my impressions of the movement there." + +He paused and his look went out over his people with yearning for +them and at the same time with a great uncertainty at his heart. How +many of his rich, fashionable, refined, luxury-loving members would +understand the nature of the appeal he was soon to make to them? He +was altogether in the dark as to that. Nevertheless he had been +through his desert, and had come out of it ready to suffer. He went +on now after that brief pause and told them the story of his stay in +Raymond. The people already knew something of that experiment in the +First Church. The whole country had watched the progress of the +pledge as it had become history in so many lives. Mr. Maxwell had at +last decided that the time had come to seek the fellowship of other +churches throughout the country. The new discipleship in Raymond had +proved to be so valuable in its results that he wished the churches +in general to share with the disciples in Raymond. Already there had +begun a volunteer movement in many churches throughout the country, +acting on their own desire to walk closer in the steps of Jesus. The +Christian Endeavor Society had, with enthusiasm, in many churches +taken the pledge to do as Jesus would do, and the result was already +marked in a deeper spiritual life and a power in church influence +that was like a new birth for the members. + +All this Dr. Bruce told his people simply and with a personal +interest that evidently led the way to the announcement which now +followed. Felicia had listened to every word with strained +attention. She sat there by the side of Rose, in contrast like fire +beside snow, although even Rose was alert and as excited as she +could be. + +"Dear friends," he said, and for the first time since his prayer the +emotion of the occasion was revealed in his voice and gesture, "I am +going to ask that Nazareth Avenue Church take the same pledge that +Raymond Church has taken. I know what this will mean to you and me. +It will mean the complete change of very many habits. It will mean, +possibly, social loss. It will mean very probably, in many cases, +loss of money. It will mean suffering. It will mean what following +Jesus meant in the first century, and then it meant suffering, loss, +hardship, separation from everything un-Christian. But what does +following Jesus mean? The test of discipleship is the same now as +then. Those of us who volunteer in this church to do as Jesus would +do, simply promise to walk in His steps as He gave us commandment." + +Again he paused, and now the result of his announcement was plainly +visible in the stir that went up over the, congregation. He added in +a quiet voice that all who volunteered to make the pledge to do as +Jesus would do, were asked to remain after the morning service. + +Instantly he proceeded with his sermon. His text was, "Master, I +will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest." It was a sermon that +touched the deep springs of conduct; it was a revelation to the +people of the definition their pastor had been learning; it took +them back to the first century of Christianity; above all, it +stirred them below the conventional thought of years as to the +meaning and purpose of church membership. It was such a sermon as a +man can preach once in a lifetime, and with enough in it for people +to live on all through the rest of their lifetime. + +The service closed in a hush that was slowly broken. People rose +here and there, a few at a time. There was a reluctance in the +movements of some that was very striking. Rose, however, walked +straight out of the pew, and as she reached the aisle she turned her +head and beckoned to Felicia. By that time the congregation was +rising all over the church. "I am going to stay," she said, and Rose +had heard her speak in the same manner on other occasions, and knew +that her resolve could not be changed. Nevertheless she went back +into the pew two or three steps and faced her. + +"Felicia," she whispered, and there was a flush of anger on her +cheeks, "this is folly. What can you do? You will bring some +disgrace on the family. What will father say? Come!" + +Felicia looked at her but did not answer at once. Her lips were +moving with a petition that came from the depth of feeling that +measured a new life for her. She shocked her head. + +"No, I am going to stay. I shall take the pledge. I am ready to obey +it. You do not know why I am doing this." + +Rose gave her one look and then turned and went out of the pew, and +down the aisle. She did not even stop to talk with her +acquaintances. Mrs. Delano was going out of the church just as Rose +stepped into the vestibule. + +"So you are not going to join Dr. Bruce's volunteer company?" Mrs. +Delano asked, in a queer tone that made Rose redden. + +"No, are you? It is simply absurd. I have always regarded that +Raymond movement as fanatical. You know cousin Rachel keeps us +posted about it." + +"Yes, I understand it is resulting in a great deal of hardship in +many cases. For my part, I believe Dr. Bruce has simply provoked +disturbance here. It will result in splitting our church. You see if +it isn't so. There are scores of people in the church who are so +situated that they can't take such a pledge and keep it. I am one of +them," added Mrs. Delano as she went out with Rose. + +When Rose reached home, her father was standing in his usual +attitude before the open fireplace, smoking a cigar. + +"Where is Felicia?" he asked as Rose came in. + +"She stayed to an after-meeting," replied Rose shortly. She threw +off her wraps and was going upstairs when Mr. Sterling called after +her. + +"An after-meeting? What do you mean?" + +"Dr. Bruce asked the church to take the Raymond pledge." + +Mr. Sterling took his cigar out of his mouth and twirled it +nervously between his fingers. + +"I didn't expect that of Dr. Bruce. Did many of the members stay?" + +"I don't know. I didn't," replied Rose, and she went upstairs +leaving her father standing in the drawing-room. + +After a few moments he went to the window and stood there looking +out at the people driving on the boulevard. His cigar had gone out, +but he still fingered it nervously. Then he turned from the window +and walked up and down the room. A servant stepped across the hall +and announced dinner and he told her to wait for Felicia. Rose came +downstairs and went into the library. And still Mr. Sterling paced +the drawing-room restlessly. + +He had finally wearied of the walking apparently, and throwing +himself into a chair was brooding over something deeply when Felicia +came in. + +He rose and faced her. Felicia was evidently very much moved by the +meeting from which she had just come. At the same time she did not +wish to talk too much about it. Just as she entered the +drawing-room, Rose came in from the library. + +"How many stayed?" she asked. Rose was curious. At the same time she +was skeptical of the whole movement in Raymond. + +"About a hundred," replied Felicia gravely. Mr. Sterling looked +surprised. Felicia was going out of the room, but he called to her: +"Do you really mean to keep the pledge?" he asked. + +Felicia colored. Over her face and neck the warm blood flowed and +she answered, "You would not ask such a question, father, if you had +been at the meeting." She lingered a moment in the room, then asked +to be excused from dinner for a while and went up to see her mother. + +No one but they two ever knew what that interview between Felicia +and her mother was. It is certain that she must have told her mother +something of the spiritual power that had awed every person present +in the company of disciples who faced Dr. Bruce in that meeting +after the morning service. It is also certain that Felicia had never +before known such an experience, and would never have thought of +sharing it with her mother if it had not been for the prayer the +evening before. Another fact is also known of Felicia's experience +at this time. When she finally joined her father and Rose at the +table she seemed unable to tell them much about the meeting. There +was a reluctance to speak of it as one might hesitate to attempt a +description of a wonderful sunset to a person who never talked about +anything but the weather. + +When that Sunday in the Sterling mansion was drawing to a close and +the soft, warm lights throughout the dwelling were glowing through +the great windows, in a corner of her room, where the light was +obscure, Felicia kneeled, and when she raised her face and turned it +towards the light, it was the face of a woman who had already +defined for herself the greatest issues of earthly life. + +That same evening, after the Sunday evening service, Dr. Bruce was +talking over the events of the day with his wife. They were of one +heart and mind in the matter, and faced their new future with all +the faith and courage of new disciples. Neither was deceived as to +the probable results of the pledge to themselves or to the church. + +They had been talking but a little while when the bell rang and Dr. +Bruce going to the door exclaimed, as he opened it: "It is you, +Edward! Come in." + +There came into the hall a commanding figure. The Bishop was of +extraordinary height and breadth of shoulder, but of such good +proportions that there was no thought of ungainly or even of unusual +size. The impression the Bishop made on strangers was, first, that +of great health, and then of great affection. + +He came into the parlor and greeted Mrs. Bruce, who after a few +moments was called out of the room, leaving the two men together. +The Bishop sat in a deep, easy chair before the open fire. There was +just enough dampness in the early spring of the year to make an open +fire pleasant. + +"Calvin, you have taken a very serious step today," he finally said, +lifting his large dark eyes to his old college classmate's face. "I +heard of it this afternoon. I could not resist the desire to see you +about it tonight." + +"I'm glad you came." Dr. Bruce laid a hand on the Bishop's shoulder. +"You understand what this means, Edward?" + +"I think I do. Yes, I am sure." The Bishop spoke very slowly and +thoughtfully. He sat with his hands clasped together. Over his face, +marked with lines of consecration and service and the love of men, a +shadow crept, a shadow not caused by the firelight. Once more he +lifted his eyes toward his old friend. + +"Calvin, we have always understood each other. Ever since our paths +led us in different ways in church life we have walked together in +Christian fellowship--." + +"It is true," replied Dr. Bruce with an emotion he made no attempt +to conceal or subdue. "Thank God for it. I prize your fellowship +more than any other man's. I have always known what it meant, though +it has always been more than I deserve." + +The Bishop looked affectionately at his friend. But the shadow still +rested on his face. After a pause he spoke again: "The new +discipleship means a crisis for you in your work. If you keep this +pledge to do all things as Jesus would do--as I know you will--it +requires no prophet to predict some remarkable changes in your +parish." The Bishop looked wistfully at his friend and then +continued: "In fact, I do not see how a perfect upheaval of +Christianity, as we now know it, can be prevented if the ministers +and churches generally take the Raymond pledge and live it out." He +paused as if he were waiting for his friend to say something, to ask +some question. But Bruce did not know of the fire that was burning +in the Bishop's heart over the very question that Maxwell and +himself had fought out. + +"Now, in my church, for instance," continued the Bishop, "it would +be rather a difficult matter, I fear, to find very many people who +would take a pledge like that and live up to it. Martyrdom is a lost +art with us. Our Christianity loves its ease and comfort too well to +take up anything so rough and heavy as a cross. And yet what does +following Jesus mean? What is it to walk in His steps?" + +The Bishop was soliloquizing now and it is doubtful if he thought, +for the moment, of his friend's presence. For the first time there +flashed into Dr. Bruce's mind a suspicion of the truth. What if the +Bishop would throw the weight of his great influence on the side of +the Raymond movement? He had the following of the most aristocratic, +wealthy, fashionable people, not only in Chicago, but in several +large cities. What if the Bishop should join this new discipleship! + +The thought was about to be followed by the word. Dr. Bruce had +reached out his hand and with the familiarity of lifelong friendship +had placed it on the Bishop's shoulder and was about to ask a very +important question, when they were both startled by the violent +ringing of the bell. Mrs. Bruce had gone to the door and was talking +with some one in the hall. There was a loud exclamation and then, as +the Bishop rose and Bruce was stepping toward the curtain that hung +before the entrance to the parlor, Mrs. Bruce pushed it aside. Her +face was white and she was trembling. + +"O Calvin! Such terrible news! Mr. Sterling--oh, I cannot tell it! +What a blow to those girls!" "What is it?" Mr. Bruce advanced with +the Bishop into the hall and confronted the messenger, a servant +from the Sterlings. The man was without his hat and had evidently +run over with the news, as Dr. Bruce lived nearest of any intimate +friends of the family. + +"Mr. Sterling shot himself, sir, a few minutes ago. He killed +himself in his bed-room. Mrs. Sterling--" + +"I will go right over, Edward. Will you go with me? The Sterlings +are old friends of yours."' + +The Bishop was very pale, but calm as always. He looked his friend +in the face and answered: "Aye, Calvin, I will go with you not only +to this house of death, but also the whole way of human sin and +sorrow, please God." + + + + + + +Chapter Twenty-four + + + + + +These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. + +WHEN Dr. Bruce and the Bishop entered the Sterling mansion +everything in the usually well appointed household was in the +greatest confusion and terror. The great rooms downstairs were +empty, but overhead were hurried footsteps and confused noises. One +of the servants ran down the grand staircase with a look of horror +on her face just as the Bishop and Dr. Bruce were starting to go up. + +"Miss Felicia is with Mrs. Sterling," the servant stammered in +answer to a question, and then burst into a hysterical cry and ran +through the drawing-room and out of doors. + +At the top of the staircase the two men were met by Felicia. She +walked up to Dr. Bruce at once and put both hands in his. The Bishop +then laid his hand on her head and the three stood there a moment in +perfect silence. The Bishop had known Felicia since she was a little +child. He was the first to break the silence. + +"The God of all mercy be with you, Felicia, in this dark hour. Your +mother--" + +The Bishop hesitated. Out of the buried past he had, during his +hurried passage from his friend's to this house of death, +irresistibly drawn the one tender romance of his young manhood. Not +even Bruce knew that. But there had been a time when the Bishop had +offered the incense of a singularly undivided affection upon the +altar of his youth to the beautiful Camilla Rolfe, and she had +chosen between him and the millionaire. The Bishop carried no +bitterness with his memory; but it was still a memory. + +For answer to the Bishop's unfinished query, Felicia turned and went +back into her mother's room. She had not said a word yet, but both +men were struck with her wonderful calm. She returned to the hall +door and beckoned to them, and the two ministers, with a feeling +that they were about to behold something very unusual, entered. + +Rose lay with her arms outstretched upon the bed. Clara, the nurse, +sat with her head covered, sobbing in spasms of terror. And Mrs. +Sterling with "the light that never was on sea or land" luminous on +her face, lay there so still that even the Bishop was deceived at +first. Then, as the great truth broke upon him and Dr. Bruce, he +staggered, and the sharp agony of the old wound shot through him. It +passed, and left him standing there in that chamber of death with +the eternal calmness and strength that the children of God have a +right to possess. And right well he used that calmness and strength +in the days that followed. + +The next moment the house below was in a tumult. Almost at the same +time the doctor who had been sent for at once, but lived some +distance away, came in, together with police officers, who had been +summoned by frightened servants. With them were four or five +newspaper correspondents and several neighbors. Dr. Bruce and the +Bishop met this miscellaneous crowd at the head of the stairs and +succeeded in excluding all except those whose presence was +necessary. With these the two friends learned all the facts ever +known about the "Sterling tragedy," as the papers in their +sensational accounts next day called it. + +Mr. Sterling had gone into his room that evening about nine o'clock +and that was the last seen of him until, in half an hour, a shot was +heard in the room, and a servant who was in the hall ran into the +room and found him dead on the floor, killed by his own hand. +Felicia at the time was sitting by her mother. Rose was reading in +the library. She ran upstairs, saw her father as he was being lifted +upon the couch by the servants, and then ran screaming into her +mother's room, where she flung herself down at the foot of the bed +in a swoon. Mrs. Sterling had at first fainted at the shock, then +rallied with a wonderful swiftness and sent for Dr. Bruce. She had +then insisted on seeing her husband. In spite of Felicia's efforts, +she had compelled Clara to support her while she crossed the hall +and entered the room where her husband lay. She had looked upon him +with a tearless face, had gone back to her own room, was laid on her +bed, and as Dr. Bruce and the Bishop entered the house she, with a +prayer of forgiveness for herself and for her husband on her +quivering lips, had died, with Felicia bending over her and Rose +still lying senseless at her feet. + +So great and swift had been the entrance of grim Death into that +palace of luxury that Sunday night! But the full cause of his coming +was not learned until the facts in regard to Mr. Sterling's business +affairs were finally disclosed. + +Then it was learned that for some time he had been facing financial +ruin owing to certain speculations that had in a month's time swept +his supposed wealth into complete destruction. With the cunning and +desperation of a man who battles for his very life when he saw his +money, which was all the life he ever valued, slipping from him, he +had put off the evil day to the last moment. Sunday afternoon, +however, he had received news that proved to him beyond a doubt the +fact of his utter ruin. The very house that he called his, the +chairs in which he sat, his carriage, the dishes from which he ate, +had all been bought with money for which he himself had never really +done an honest stroke of pure labor. + +It had all rested on a tissue of deceit and speculation that had no +foundation in real values. He knew that fact better than any one +else, but he had hoped, with the hope such men always have, that the +same methods that brought him the money would also prevent the loss. +He had been deceived in this as many others have been. As soon as +the truth that he was practically a beggar had dawned upon him, he +saw no escape from suicide. It was the irresistible result of such a +life as he had lived. He had made money his god. As soon as that god +was gone out of his little world there was nothing more to worship; +and when a man's object of worship is gone he has no more to live +for. Thus died the great millionaire, Charles R. Sterling. And, +verily, he died as the fool dieth, for what is the gain or the loss +of money compared with the unsearchable riches of eternal life which +are beyond the reach of speculation, loss or change? + +Mrs. Sterling's death was the result of the shock. She had not been +taken into her husband's confidence for years, but she knew that the +source of his wealth was precarious. Her life for several years had +been a death in life. The Rolfes always gave an impression that they +could endure more disaster unmoved than any one else. Mrs. Sterling +illustrated the old family tradition when she was carried into the +room where her husband lay. But the feeble tenement could not hold +the spirit and it gave up the ghost, torn and weakened by long years +of suffering and disappointment. + +The effect of this triple blow, the death of father and mother, and +the loss of property, was instantly apparent in the sisters. The +horror of events stupefied Rose for weeks. She lay unmoved by +sympathy or any effort to rally. She did not seem yet to realize +that the money which had been so large a part of her very existence +was gone. Even when she was told that she and Felicia must leave the +house and be dependent on relatives and friends, she did not seem to +understand what it meant. + +Felicia, however, was fully conscious of the facts. She knew just +what had happened and why. She was talking over her future plans +with her cousin Rachel a few days after the funerals. Mrs. Winslow +and Rachel had left Raymond and come to Chicago at once as soon as +the terrible news had reached them, and with other friends of the +family were planning for the future of Rose and Felicia. + +"Felicia, you and Rose must come to Raymond with us. That is +settled. Mother will not hear to any other plan at present," Rachel +had said, while her beautiful face glowed with love for her cousin, +a love that had deepened day by day, and was intensified by the +knowledge that they both belonged to the new discipleship. + +"Unless I can find something to do here," answered Felicia. She +looked wistfully at Rachel, and Rachel said gently: + +"What could you do, dear?" + +"Nothing. I was never taught to do anything except a little music, +and I do not know enough about it to teach it or earn my living at +it. I have learned to cook a little," Felicia added with a slight +smile. + +"Then you can cook for us. Mother is always having trouble with her +kitchen," said Rachel, understanding well enough she was now +dependent for her very food and shelter upon the kindness of family +friends. It is true the girls received a little something out of the +wreck of their father's fortune, but with a speculator's mad folly +he had managed to involve both his wife's and his children's portion +in the common ruin. + +"Can I? Can I?" Felicia responded to Rachel's proposition as if it +were to be considered seriously. "I am ready to do anything +honorable to make my living and that of Rose. Poor Rose! She will +never be able to get over the shock of our trouble." + +"We will arrange the details when we get to Raymond," Rachel said, +smiling through her tears at Felicia's eager willingness to care for +herself. + +So in a few weeks Rose and Felicia found themselves a part of the +Winslow family in Raymond. It was a bitter experience for Rose, but +there was nothing else for her to do and she accepted the +inevitable, brooding over the great change in her life and in many +ways adding to the burden of Felicia and her cousin Rachel. + +Felicia at once found herself in an atmosphere of discipleship that +was like heaven to her in its revelation of companionship. It is +true that Mrs. Winslow was not in sympathy with the course that +Rachel was taking, but the remarkable events in Raymond since the +pledge was taken were too powerful in their results not to impress +even such a woman as Mrs. Winslow. With Rachel, Felicia found a +perfect fellowship. She at once found a part to take in the new work +at the Rectangle. In the spirit of her new life she insisted upon +helping in the housework at her aunt's, and in a short time +demonstrated her ability as a cook so clearly that Virginia +suggested that she take charge of the cooking at the Rectangle. + +Felicia entered upon this work with the keenest pleasure. For the +first time in her life she had the delight of doing something of +value for the happiness of others. Her resolve to do everything +after asking, "What would Jesus do?" touched her deepest nature. She +began to develop and strengthen wonderfully. Even Mrs. Winslow was +obliged to acknowledge the great usefulness and beauty of Felicia's +character. The aunt looked with astonishment upon her niece, this +city-bred girl, reared in the greatest luxury, the daughter of a +millionaire, now walking around in her kitchen, her arms covered +with flour and occasionally a streak of it on her nose, for Felicia +at first had a habit of rubbing her nose forgetfully when she was +trying to remember some recipe, mixing various dishes with the +greatest interest in their results, washing up pans and kettles and +doing the ordinary work of a servant in the Winslow kitchen and at +the rooms at the Rectangle Settlement. At first Mrs. Winslow +remonstrated. + +"Felicia, it is not your place to be out here doing this common +work. I cannot allow it." + +"Why, Aunt? Don't you like the muffins I made this morning?" Felicia +would ask meekly, but with a hidden smile, knowing her aunt's +weakness for that kind of muffin. + +"They were beautiful, Felicia. But it does not seem right for you to +be doing such work for us." + +"Why not? What else can I do?" + +Her aunt looked at her thoughtfully, noting her remarkable beauty of +face and expression. + +"You do not always intend to do this kind of work, Felicia?" + +"Maybe I shall. I have had a dream of opening an ideal cook shop in +Chicago or some large city and going around to the poor families in +some slum district like the Rectangle, teaching the mothers how to +prepare food properly. I remember hearing Dr. Bruce say once that he +believed one of the great miseries of comparative poverty consisted +in poor food. He even went so far as to say that he thought some +kinds of crime could be traced to soggy biscuit and tough beefsteak. +I'm sure I would be able to make a living for Rose and myself and at +the same time help others." + + + + + + +Chapter Twenty-five + + + + + +THREE months had gone by since the Sunday morning when Dr. Bruce +came into his pulpit with the message of the new discipleship. They +were three months of great excitement in Nazareth Avenue Church. +Never before had Rev. Calvin Bruce realized how deep the feeling of +his members flowed. He humbly confessed that the appeal he had made +met with an unexpected response from men and women who, like +Felicia, were hungry for something in their lives that the +conventional type of church membership and fellowship had failed to +give them. + +But Dr. Bruce was not yet satisfied for himself. He cannot tell what +his feeling was or what led to the movement he finally made, to the +great astonishment of all who knew him, better than by relating a +conversation between him and the Bishop at this time in the history +of the pledge in Nazareth Avenue Church. The two friends were as +before in Dr. Bruce's house, seated in his study. + +"You know what I have come in this evening for?" the Bishop was +saying after the friends had been talking some time about the +results of the pledge with the Nazareth Avenue people. + +Dr. Bruce looked over at the Bishop and shook his head. + +"I have come to confess that I have not yet kept my promise to walk +in His steps in the way that I believe I shall be obliged to if I +satisfy my thought of what it means to walk in His steps." + +Dr. Bruce had risen and was pacing his study. The Bishop remained in +the deep easy chair with his hands clasped, but his eye burned with +the blow that belonged to him before he made some great resolve. + +"Edward," Dr. Bruce spoke abruptly, "I have not yet been able to +satisfy myself, either, in obeying my promise. But I have at last +decided on my course. In order to follow it I shall be obliged to +resign from Nazareth Avenue Church." + +"I knew you would," replied the Bishop quietly. "And I came in this +evening to say that I shall be obliged to do the same thing with my +charge." + +Dr. Bruce turned and walked up to his friend. They were both +laboring under a repressed excitement. + +"Is it necessary in your case?" asked Bruce. + +"Yes. Let me state my reasons. Probably they are the same as yours. +In fact, I am sure they are." The Bishop paused a moment, then went +on with increasing feeling: + +"Calvin, you know how many years I have been doing the work of my +position, and you know something of the responsibility and care of +it. I do not mean to say that my life has been free from +burden-bearing or sorrow. But I have certainly led what the poor and +desperate of this sinful city would call a very comfortable, yes, a +very luxurious life. I have had a beautiful house to live in, the +most expensive food, clothing and physical pleasures. I have been +able to go abroad at least a dozen times, and have enjoyed for years +the beautiful companionship of art and letters and music and all the +rest, of the very best. I have never known what it meant to be +without money or its equivalent. And I have been unable to silence +the question of late: 'What have I suffered for the sake of Christ?' +Paul was told what great things he must suffer for the sake of his +Lord. Maxwell's position at Raymond is well taken when he insists +that to walk in the steps of Christ means to suffer. Where has my +suffering come in? The petty trials and annoyances of my clerical +life are not worth mentioning as sorrows or sufferings. Compared +with Paul or any of the Christian martyrs or early disciples I have +lived a luxurious, sinful life, full of ease and pleasure. I cannot +endure this any longer. I have that within me which of late rises in +overwhelming condemnation of such a following of Jesus. I have not +been walking in His steps. Under the present system of church and +social life I see no escape from this condemnation except to give +the most of my life personally to the actual physical and soul needs +of the wretched people in the worst part of this city." + +The Bishop had risen now and walked over to the window. The street +in front of the house was as light as day, and he looked out at the +crowds passing, then turned and with a passionate utterance that +showed how deep the volcanic fire in him burned, he exclaimed: + +"Calvin, this is a terrible city in which we live! Its misery, its +sin, its selfishness, appall my heart. And I have struggled for +years with the sickening dread of the time when I should be forced +to leave the pleasant luxury of my official position to put my life +into contact with the modern paganism of this century. The awful +condition of the girls in some great business places, the brutal +selfishness of the insolent society fashion and wealth that ignores +all the sorrow of the city, the fearful curse of the drink and +gambling hell, the wail of the unemployed, the hatred of the church +by countless men who see in it only great piles of costly stone and +upholstered furniture and the minister as a luxurious idler, all the +vast tumult of this vast torrent of humanity with its false and its +true ideas, its exaggeration of evils in the church and its +bitterness and shame that are the result of many complex causes, all +this as a total fact in its contrast with the easy, comfortable life +I have lived, fills me more and more with a sense of mingled terror +and self accusation. I have heard the words of Jesus many times +lately: 'Inasmuch as ye did it not unto one of these least My +brethren, ye did it not unto Me.' And when have I personally visited +the prisoner or the desperate or the sinful in any way that has +actually caused me suffering? Rather, I have followed the +conventional soft habits of my position and have lived in the +society of the rich, refined, aristocratic members of my +congregations. Where has the suffering come in? What have I suffered +for Jesus' sake? Do you know, Calvin," he turned abruptly toward his +friend, "I have been tempted of late to lash myself with a scourge. +If I had lived in Martin Luther's time I should have bared my back +to a self-inflicted torture." + +Dr. Bruce was very pale. Never had he seen the Bishop or heard him +when under the influence of such a passion. There was a sudden +silence in the room. The Bishop sat down again and bowed his head. + +Dr. Bruce spoke at last: "Edward, I do not need to say that you have +expressed my feelings also. I have been in a similar position for +years. My life has been one of comparative luxury. I do not, of +course, mean to say that I have not had trials and discouragements +and burdens in my church ministry. But I cannot say that I have +suffered any for Jesus. That verse in Peter constantly haunts me: +'Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that ye should +follow His steps.' I have lived in luxury. I do not know what it +means to want. I also have had my leisure for travel and beautiful +companionship. I have been surrounded by the soft, easy comforts of +civilization. The sin and misery of this great city have beaten like +waves against the stone walls of my church and of this house in +which I live, and I have hardly heeded them, the walls have been so +thick. I have reached a point where I cannot endure this any longer. +I am not condemning the Church. I love her. I am not forsaking the +Church. I believe in her mission and have no desire to destroy. +Least of all, in the step I am about to take do I desire to be +charged with abandoning the Christian fellowship. But I feel that I +must resign my place as pastor of Nazareth Church in order to +satisfy myself that I am walking as I ought to walk in His steps. In +this action I judge no other minister and pass no criticism on +others' discipleship. But I feel as you do. Into a close contact +with the sin and shame and degradation of this great city I must +come personally. And I know that to do that I must sever my +immediate connection with Nazareth Avenue Church. I do not see any +other way for myself to suffer for His sake as I feel that I ought +to suffer." + +Again that sudden silence fell over those two men. It was no +ordinary action they were deciding. They had both reached the same +conclusion by the same reasoning, and they were too thoughtful, too +well accustomed to the measuring of conduct, to underestimate the +seriousness of their position. + +"What is your plan?" The Bishop at last spoke gently, looking with +the smile that always beautified his face. The Bishop's face grew in +glory now every day. + +"My plan," replied Dr. Bruce slowly, "is, in brief, the putting of +myself into the centre of the greatest human need I can find in this +city and living there. My wife is fully in accord with me. We have +already decided to find a residence in that part of the city where +we can make our personal lives count for the most." + +"Let me suggest a place." The Bishop was on fire now. His fine face +actually glowed with the enthusiasm of the movement in which he and +his friend were inevitably embarked. He went on and unfolded a plan +of such far-reaching power and possibility that Dr. Bruce, capable +and experienced as he was, felt amazed at the vision of a greater +soul than his own. + +They sat up late, and were as eager and even glad as if they were +planning for a trip together to some rare land of unexplored travel. +Indeed, the Bishop said many times afterward that the moment his +decision was reached to live the life of personal sacrifice he had +chosen he suddenly felt an uplifting as if a great burden were taken +from him. He was exultant. So was Dr. Bruce from the same cause. + +Their plan as it finally grew into a workable fact was in reality +nothing more than the renting of a large building formerly used as a +warehouse for a brewery, reconstructing it and living in it +themselves in the very heart of a territory where the saloon ruled +with power, where the tenement was its filthiest, where vice and +ignorance and shame and poverty were congested into hideous forms. +It was not a new idea. It was an idea started by Jesus Christ when +He left His Father's House and forsook the riches that were His in +order to get nearer humanity and, by becoming a part of its sin, +helping to draw humanity apart from its sin. The University +Settlement idea is not modern. It is as old as Bethlehem and +Nazareth. And in this particular case it was the nearest approach to +anything that would satisfy the hunger of these two men to suffer +for Christ. + +There had sprung up in them at the same time a longing that amounted +to a passion, to get nearer the great physical poverty and spiritual +destitution of the mighty city that throbbed around them. How could +they do this except as they became a part of it as nearly as one man +can become a part of another's misery? Where was the suffering to +come in unless there was an actual self-denial of some sort? And +what was to make that self-denial apparent to themselves or any one +else, unless it took this concrete, actual, personal form of trying +to share the deepest suffering and sin of the city? + +So they reasoned for themselves, not judging others. They were +simply keeping their own pledge to do as Jesus would do, as they +honestly judged He would do. That was what they had promised. How +could they quarrel with the result if they were irresistibly +compelled to do what they were planning to do? + + + + + + +Chapter Twenty-six + + + + + +MEANWHILE, Nazareth Avenue Church was experiencing something never +known before in all its history. The simple appeal on the part of +its pastor to his members to do as Jesus would do had created a +sensation that still continued. The result of that appeal was very +much the same as in Henry Maxwell's church in Raymond, only this +church was far more aristocratic, wealthy and conventional. +Nevertheless when, one Sunday morning in early summer, Dr. Bruce +came into his pulpit and announced his resignation, the sensation +deepened all over the city, although he had advised with his board +of trustees, and the movement he intended was not a matter of +surprise to them. But when it become publicly known that the Bishop +had also announced his resignation and retirement from the position +he had held so long, in order to go and live himself in the centre +of the worst part of Chicago, the public astonishment reached its +height. + +"But why?" the Bishop replied to one valued friend who had almost +with tears tried to dissuade him from his purpose. "Why should what +Dr. Bruce and I propose to do seem so remarkable a thing, as if it +were unheard of that a Doctor of Divinity and a Bishop should want +to save lost souls in this particular manner? If we were to resign +our charge for the purpose of going to Bombay or Hong Kong or any +place in Africa, the churches and the people would exclaim at the +heroism of missions. Why should it seem so great a thing if we have +been led to give our lives to help rescue the heathen and the lost +of our own city in the way we are going to try it? Is it then such a +tremendous event that two Christian ministers should be not only +willing but eager to live close to the misery of the world in order +to know it and realize it? Is it such a rare thing that love of +humanity should find this particular form of expression in the +rescue of souls?" + +And however the Bishop may have satisfied himself that there ought +to be nothing so remarkable about it at all, the public continued to +talk and the churches to record their astonishment that two such +men, so prominent in the ministry, should leave their comfortable +homes, voluntarily resign their pleasant social positions and enter +upon a life of hardship, of self-denial and actual suffering. +Christian America! Is it a reproach on the form of our discipleship +that the exhibition of actual suffering for Jesus on the part of +those who walk in His steps always provokes astonishment as at the +sight of something very unusual? + +Nazareth Avenue Church parted from its pastor with regret for the +most part, although the regret was modified with a feeling of relief +on the part of those who had refused to take the pledge. Dr. Bruce +carried with him the respect of men who, entangled in business in +such a way that obedience to the pledge would have ruined them, +still held in their deeper, better natures a genuine admiration for +courage and consistency. They had known Dr. Bruce many years as a +kindly, conservative, safe man, but the thought of him in the light +of sacrifice of this sort was not familiar to them. As fast as they +understood it, they gave their pastor the credit of being absolutely +true to his recent convictions as to what following Jesus meant. +Nazareth Avenue Church never lost the impulse of that movement +started by Dr. Bruce. Those who went with him in making the promise +breathed into the church the very breath of divine life, and are +continuing that life-giving work at this present time. + +* * * * * * + +It was fall again, and the city faced another hard winter. The +Bishop one afternoon came out of the Settlement and walked around +the block, intending to go on a visit to one of his new friends in +the district. He had walked about four blocks when he was attracted +by a shop that looked different from the others. The neighborhood +was still quite new to him, and every day he discovered some strange +spot or stumbled upon some unexpected humanity. + +The place that attracted his notice was a small house close by a +Chinese laundry. There were two windows in the front, very clean, +and that was remarkable to begin with. Then, inside the window, was +a tempting display of cookery, with prices attached to the various +articles that made him wonder somewhat, for he was familiar by this +time with many facts in the life of the people once unknown to him. +As he stood looking at the windows, the door between them opened and +Felicia Sterling came out. + +"Felicia!" exclaimed the Bishop. "When did you move into my parish +without my knowledge?" + +"How did you find me so soon?" inquired Felicia. + +"Why, don't you know? These are the only clean windows in the +block." + +"I believe they are," replied Felicia with a laugh that did the +Bishop good to hear. + +"But why have you dared to come to Chicago without telling me, and +how have you entered my diocese without my knowledge?" asked the +Bishop. And Felicia looked so like that beautiful, clean, educated, +refined world he once knew, that he might be pardoned for seeing in +her something of the old Paradise. Although, to speak truth for him, +he had no desire to go back to it. + +"Well, dear Bishop," said Felicia, who had always called him so, "I +knew how overwhelmed you were with your work. I did not want to +burden you with my plans. And besides, I am going to offer you my +services. Indeed, I was just on my way to see you and ask your +advice. I am settled here for the present with Mrs. Bascom, a +saleswoman who rents our three rooms, and with one of Rachel's music +pupils who is being helped to a course in violin by Virginia Page. +She is from the people," continued Felicia, using the words "from +the people" so gravely and unconsciously that her hearer smiled, +"and I am keeping house for her and at the same time beginning an +experiment in pure food for the masses. I am an expert and I have a +plan I want you to admire and develop. Will you, dear Bishop?" + +"Indeed I will," he replied. The sight of Felicia and her remarkable +vitality, enthusiasm and evident purpose almost bewildered him. + +"Martha can help at the Settlement with her violin and I will help +with my messes. You see, I thought I would get settled first and +work out something, and then come with some real thing to offer. I'm +able to earn my own living now." + +"You are?" the Bishop said a little incredulously. "How? Making +those things?" + +"Those things!" said Felicia with a show of indignation. "I would +have you know, sir, that 'those things' are the best-cooked, purest +food products in this whole city." + +"I don't doubt it," he replied hastily, while his eyes twinkled, +"Still, 'the proof of the pudding'--you know the rest." + +"Come in and try some!" she exclaimed. "You poor Bishop! You look as +if you hadn't had a good meal for a month." + +She insisted on his entering the little front room where Martha, a +wide-awake girl with short, curly hair, and an unmistakable air of +music about her, was busy with practice. + +"Go right on, Martha. This is the Bishop. You have heard me speak of +him so often. Sit down there and let me give you a taste of the +fleshpots of Egypt, for I believe you have been actually fasting." + +So they had an improvised lunch, and the Bishop who, to tell the +truth, had not taken time for weeks to enjoy his meals, feasted on +the delight of his unexpected discovery and was able to express his +astonishment and gratification at the quality of the cookery. + +"I thought you would at least say it is as good as the meals you +used to get at the Auditorium at the big banquets," said Felicia +slyly. + +"As good as! The Auditorium banquets were simply husks compared with +this one, Felicia. But you must come to the Settlement. I want you +to see what we are doing. And I am simply astonished to find you +here earning your living this way. I begin to see what your plan is. +You can be of infinite help to us. You don't really mean that you +will live here and help these people to know the value of good +food?" + +"Indeed I do," she answered gravely. "That is my gospel. Shall I not +follow it?" + +"Aye, Aye! You're right. Bless God for sense like yours! When I left +the world," the Bishop smiled at the phrase, "they were talking a +good deal about the 'new woman.' If you are one of them, I am a +convert right now and here." + +"Flattery! Still is there no escape from it, even in the slums of +Chicago?" Felicia laughed again. And the man's heart, heavy though +it had grown during several months of vast sin-bearing, rejoiced to +hear it! It sounded good. It was good. It belonged to God. + +Felicia wanted to visit the Settlement, and went back with him. She +was amazed at the results of what considerable money an a good deal +of consecrated brains had done. As they walked through the building +they talked incessantly. She was the incarnation of vital +enthusiasm, and he wondered at the exhibition of it as it bubbled up +and sparkled over. + +They went down into the basement and the Bishop pushed open a door +from behind which came the sound of a carpenter's plane. It was a +small but well equipped carpenter's shop. A young man with a paper +cap on his head and clad in blouse and overalls was whistling and +driving the plane as he whistled. He looked up as the two entered, +and took off his cap. As he did so, his little finger carried a +small curling shaving up to his hair and it caught there. + +"Miss Sterling, Mr. Stephen Clyde," said the Bishop. "Clyde is one +of our helpers here two afternoons in the week." + +Just then the bishop was called upstairs and he excused himself a +moment, leaving Felicia and the young carpenter together. + +"We have met before," said Felicia looking at Clyde frankly. + +"Yes, 'back in the world,' as the Bishop says," replied the young +man, and his fingers trembled a little as they lay on the board he +had been planing. + +"Yes." Felicia hesitated. "I am very glad to see you." + +"Are you?" The flush of pleasure mounted to the young carpenter's +forehead. "You have had a great deal of trouble since--since--then," +he said, and then he was afraid he had wounded her, or called up +painful memories. But she had lived over all that. + +"Yes, and you also. How is it that you're working here?" + +"It is a long story, Miss Sterling. My father lost his money and I +was obliged to go to work. A very good thing for me. The Bishop says +I ought to be very grateful. I am. I am very happy now. I learned +the trade, hoping some time to be of use, I am night clerk at one of +the hotels. That Sunday morning when you took the pledge at Nazareth +Avenue Church, I took it with the others." + +"Did you?" said Felicia slowly. "I am glad." + +Just then the Bishop came back, and very soon he and Felicia went +away leaving the young carpenter at his work. Some one noticed that +he whistled louder than ever as he planed. + +"Felicia," said the Bishop, "did you know Stephen Clyde before?" + +"Yes, 'back in the world,' dear Bishop. He was one of my +acquaintances in Nazareth Avenue Church." + +"Ah!" said the Bishop. + +"We were very good friends," added Felicia. + +"But nothing more?" the Bishop ventured to ask. + +Felicia's face glowed for an instant. Then she looked her companion +in the eyes frankly and answered: "Truly and truly, nothing more." + +"It would be just the way of the world for these two people to come +to like each other, though," thought the man to himself, and somehow +the thought made him grave. It was almost like the old pang over +Camilla. But it passed, leaving him afterwards, when Felicia had +gone back, with tears in his eyes and a feeling that was almost hope +that Felicia and Stephen would like each other. "After all," he +said, like the sensible, good man that he was, "is not romance a +part of humanity? Love is older than I am, and wiser." + +The week following, the Bishop had an experience that belongs to +this part of the Settlement history. He was coming back to the +Settlement very late from some gathering of the striking tailors, +and was walking along with his hands behind him, when two men jumped +out from behind an old fence that shut off an abandoned factory from +the street, and faced him. One of the men thrust a pistol in his +face, and the other threatened him with a ragged stake that had +evidently been torn from the fence. + +"Hold up your hands, and be quick about it!" said the man with the +pistol. + + + + + + +Chapter Twenty-seven + + + + + +"Righteousness shall go before him and shall set us in the way of +his steps." + +THE Bishop was not in the habit of carrying much money with him, and +the man with the stake who was searching him uttered an oath at the +small amount of change he found. As he uttered it, the man with the +pistol savagely said, "Jerk out his watch! We might as well get all +we can out of the job!" + +The man with the stake was on the point of laying hold of the chain +where there was a sound of footsteps coming towards him. + +"Get behind the fence! We haven't half searched him yet! Mind you +keep shut now, if you don't want--" + +The man with the pistol made a significant gesture with it and, with +his companion, pulled and pushed the Bishop down the alley and +through a ragged, broken opening in the fence. The three stood still +there in the shadow until the footsteps passed. + +"Now, then, have you got the watch?" asked the man with the pistol. + +"No, the chain is caught somewhere!" and the other man swore again. + +"Break it then!" + +"No, don't break it," the Bishop said, and it was the first time he +had spoken. "The chain is the gift of a very dear friend. I should +be sorry to have it broken." + +At the sound of the Bishop's voice the man with the pistol started +as if he had been suddenly shot by his own weapon. With a quick +movement of his other hand he turned the Bishop's head toward's what +little light was shining from the alleyway, at the same time taking +a step nearer. Then, to the amazement of his companion, he said +roughly: "Leave the watch alone! We've got the money. That's +enough!" + +"Enough! Fifty cents! You don't reckon--" + +Before the man with the stake could say another word he was +confronted with the muzzle of the pistol turned from the Bishop's +head towards his own. + +"Leave that watch be! And put back the money too. This is the Bishop +we've held up--the Bishop--do you hear?" + +"And what of it! The President of the United States wouldn't be too +good to hold up, if--" + +"I say, you put the money back, or in five seconds I'll blow a hole +through your head that'll let in more sense than you have to spare +now!" said the other. + +For a second the man with the stake seemed to hesitate at this +strange turn in events, as if measuring his companion's intention. +Then he hastily dropped the money back into the rifled pocket. + +"You can take your hands down, sir." The man lowered his weapon +slowly, still keeping an eye on the other man, and speaking with +rough respect. The Bishop slowly brought his arms to his side, and +looked earnestly at the two men. In the dim light it was difficult +to distinguish features. He was evidently free to go his way now, +but he stood there making no movement. + +"You can go on. You needn't stay any longer on our account." The man +who had acted as spokesman turned and sat down on a stone. The other +man stood viciously digging his stake into the ground. + +"That's just what I am staying for," replied the Bishop. He sat down +on a board that projected from the broken fence. + +"You must like our company. It is hard sometimes for people to tear +themselves away from us," and the man standing up laughed coarsely. + +"Shut up!" exclaimed the other. "We're on the road to hell, though, +that's sure enough. We need better company than ourselves and the +devil." + +"If you would only allow me to be of any help," the Bishop spoke +gently, even lovingly. The man on the stone stared at the Bishop +through the darkness. After a moment of silence he spoke slowly like +one who had finally decided upon a course he had at first rejected. + +"Do you remember ever seeing me before?" + +"No," said the Bishop. "The light is not very good and I have really +not had a good look at you." + +"Do you know me now?" The man suddenly took off his hat and getting +up from the stone walked over to the Bishop until they were near +enough to touch each other. + +The man's hair was coal black except one spot on the top of his head +about as large as the palm of the hand, which was white. + +The minute the Bishop saw that, he started. The memory of fifteen +years ago began to stir in him. The man helped him. + +"Don't you remember one day back in '81 or '82 a man came to your +house and told a story about his wife and child having been burned +to death in a tenement fire in New York?" + +"Yes, I begin to remember now." The other man seemed to be +interested. He ceased digging his stake in the ground and stood +still listening. + +"Do you remember how you took me into your own house that night and +spent all next day trying to find me a job? And how when you +succeeded in getting me a place in a warehouse as foreman, I +promised to quit drinking because you asked me to?" + +"I remember it now. I hope you have kept your promise." + +The man laughed savagely. Then he struck his hand against the fence +with such sudden passion that he drew blood. + +"Kept it! I was drunk inside of a week! I've been drinking ever +since. But I've never forgotten you nor your prayer. Do you remember +the morning after I came to your house, after breakfast you had +prayers and asked me to come in and sit with the rest? That got me! +But my mother used to pray! I can see her now kneeling down by my +bed when I was a lad. Father came in one night and kicked her while +she was kneeling there by me. But I never forgot that prayer of +yours that morning. You prayed for me just as mother used to, and +you didn't seem to take 'count of the fact that I was ragged and +tough-looking and more than half drunk when I rang your door bell. +Oh, what a life I've lived! The saloon has housed me and homed me +and made hell on earth for me. But that prayer stuck to me all the +time. My promise not to drink was broken into a thousand pieces +inside of two Sundays, and I lost the job you found for me and +landed in a police station two days later, but I never forgot you +nor your prayer. I don't know what good it has done me, but I never +forgot it. And I won't do any harm to you nor let any one else. So +you're free to go. That's why." + +The Bishop did not stir. Somewhere a church clock struck one. The +man had put on his hat and gone back to his seat on the stone. The +Bishop was thinking hard. + +"How long is it since you had work?" he asked, and the man standing +up answered for the other. + +"More'n six months since either of us did anything to tell of; +unless you count 'holding up' work. I call it pretty wearing kind of +a job myself, especially when we put in a night like this and don't +make nothin'." + +"Suppose I found good jobs for both of you? Would you quit this and +begin all over?" + +"What's the use?" the man on the stone spoke sullenly. "I've +reformed a hundred times. Every time I go down deeper. The devil's +begun to foreclose on me already. It's too late." + +"No!" said the Bishop. And never before the most entranced audience +had he felt the desire for souls burn up in him so strongly. All the +time he sat there during the remarkable scene he prayed, "O Lord +Jesus, give me the souls of these two for Thee! I am hungry for +them. Give them to me!" + +"No!" the Bishop repeated. "What does God want of you two men? It +doesn't so much matter what I want. But He wants just what I do in +this case. You two men are of infinite value to Him." And then his +wonderful memory came to his aid in an appeal such as no one on +earth among men could make under such circumstances. He had +remembered the man's name in spite of the wonderfully busy years +that lay between his coming to the house and the present moment. + +"Burns," he said, and he yearned over the men with an unspeakable +longing for them both, "if you and your friend here will go home +with me tonight I will find you both places of honorable employment. +I will believe in you and trust you. You are both comparatively +young men. Why should God lose you? It is a great thing to win the +love of the Great Father. It is a small thing that I should love +you. But if you need to feel again that there is love in the world, +you will believe me when I say, my brothers, that I love you, and in +the name of Him who was crucified for our sins I cannot bear to see +you miss the glory of the human life. Come, be men! Make another try +for it, God helping you. No one but God and you and myself need ever +know anything of this tonight. He has forgiven it the minute you ask +Him to. You will find that true. Come! We'll fight it out together, +you two and I. It's worth fighting for, everlasting life is. It was +the sinner that Christ came to help. I'll do what I can for you. O +God, give me the souls of these two men!" and he broke into a prayer +to God that was a continuation of his appeal to the men. His pent-up +feeling had no other outlet. Before he had prayed many moments Burns +was sitting with his face buried in his hands, sobbing. Where were +his mother's prayers now? They were adding to the power of the +Bishop's. And the other man, harder, less moved, without a previous +knowledge of the Bishop, leaned back against the fence, stolid at +first. But as the prayer went on, he was moved by it. What force of +the Holy Spirit swept over his dulled, brutal, coarsened life, +nothing but the eternal records of the recording angel can ever +disclose. But the same supernatural Presence that smote Paul on the +road to Damascus, and poured through Henry Maxwell's church the +morning he asked disciples to follow in Jesus' steps, and had again +broken irresistibly over the Nazareth Avenue congregation, now +manifested Himself in this foul corner of the mighty city and over +the natures of these two sinful sunken men, apparently lost to all +the pleadings of conscience and memory and God. The prayer seemed to +red open the crust that for years had surrounded them and shut them +off from divine communication. And they themselves were thoroughly +startled by it. + +The Bishop ceased, and at first he himself did not realize what had +happened. Neither did they. Burns still sat with his head bowed +between his knees. The man leaning against the fence looked at the +Bishop with a face in which new emotions of awe, repentance, +astonishment and a broken gleam of joy struggled for expression. The +Bishop rose. + +"Come, my brothers. God is good. You shall stay at the Settlement +tonight, and I will make good my promise as to the work." + +The two men followed him in silence. When they reached the +Settlement it was after two o'clock. He let them in and led them to +a room. At the door he paused a moment. His tall, commanding figure +stood in the doorway and his pale face was illuminated with the +divine glory. + +"God bless you, my brothers!" he said, and leaving them his +benediction he went away. + + + + + + +Chapter Twenty-eight + + + + + +IT WAS the afternoon of that morning when Burns was installed in his +new position as assistant janitor that he was cleaning off the front +steps of the Settlement, when he paused a moment and stood up to +look about him. The first thing he noticed was a beer sign just +across the alley. He could almost touch it with his broom from where +he stood. Over the street immediately opposite were two large +saloons, and a little farther down were three more. + +Suddenly the door of the nearest saloon opened and a man came out. +At the same time two more went in. A strong odor of beer floated up +to Burns as he stood on the steps. He clutched his broom handle +tightly and began to sweep again. He had one foot on the porch and +another on the steps just below. He took another step down, still +sweeping. The sweat stood on his forehead although the day was +frosty and the air chill. The saloon door opened again and three or +four men came out. A child went in with a pail, and came out a +moment later with a quart of beer. The child went by on the sidewalk +just below him, and the odor of the beer came up to him. He took +another step down, still sweeping desperately. His fingers were +purple as he clutched the handle of the broom. + +Then suddenly he pulled himself up one step and swept over the spot +he had just cleaned. He then dragged himself by a tremendous effort +back to the floor of the porch and went over into the corner of it +farthest from the saloon and began to sweep there. "O God!" he +cried, "if the Bishop would only come back!" The Bishop had gone out +with Dr. Bruce somewhere, and there was no one about that he knew. +He swept in the corner for two or three minutes. His face was drawn +with the agony of his conflict. Gradually he edged out again towards +the steps and began to go down them. He looked towards the sidewalk +and saw that he had left one step unswept. The sight seemed to give +him a reasonable excuse for going down there to finish his sweeping. + +He was on the sidewalk now, sweeping the last step, with his face +towards the Settlement and his back turned partly on the saloon +across the alley. He swept the step a dozen times. The sweat rolled +over his face and dropped down at his feet. By degrees he felt that +he was drawn over towards that end of the step nearest the saloon. +He could smell the beer and rum now as the fumes rose around him. It +was like the infernal sulphur of the lowest hell, and yet it dragged +him as by a giant's hand nearer its source. + +He was down in the middle of the sidewalk now, still sweeping. He +cleared the space in front of the Settlement and even went out into +the gutter and swept that. He took off his hat and rubbed his sleeve +over his face. His lips were pallid and his teeth chattered. He +trembled all over like a palsied man and staggered back and forth as +if he was already drunk. His soul shook within him. + +He had crossed over the little piece of stone flagging that measured +the width of the alley, and now he stood in front of the saloon, +looking at the sign, and staring into the window at the pile of +whiskey and beer bottles arranged in a great pyramid inside. He +moistened his lips with his tongue and took a step forward, looking +around him stealthily. The door suddenly opened again and someone +came out. Again the hot, penetrating smell of liquor swept out into +the cold air, and he took another step towards the saloon door which +had shut behind the customer. As he laid his fingers on the door +handle, a tall figure came around the corner. It was the Bishop. + +He seized Burns by the arm and dragged him back upon the sidewalk. +The frenzied man, now mad for a drink, shrieked out a curse and +struck at his friend savagely. It is doubtful if he really knew at +first who was snatching him away from his ruin. The blow fell upon +the Bishop's face and cut a gash in his cheek. He never uttered a +word. But over his face a look of majestic sorrow swept. He picked +Burns up as if he had been a child and actually carried him up the +steps and into the house. He put him down in the hall and then shut +the door and put his back against it. + +Burns fell on his knees sobbing and praying. The Bishop stood there +panting with his exertion, although Burns was a slightly-built man +and had not been a great weight for a man of his strength to carry. +He was moved with unspeakable pity. + +"Pray, Burns--pray as you never prayed before! Nothing else will +save you!" + +"O God! Pray with me. Save me! Oh, save me from my hell!" cried +Burns. And, the Bishop knelt by him in the hall and prayed as only +he could pray. + +After that they rose and Burns went to his room. He came out of it +that evening like a humble child. And the Bishop went his way older +from that experience, bearing on his body the marks of the Lord +Jesus. Truly he was learning something of what it means to walk in +His steps. + +But the saloon! It stood there, and all the others lined the street +like so many traps set for Burns. How long would the man be able to +resist the smell of the damnable stuff? The Bishop went out on the +porch. The air of the whole city seemed to be impregnated with the +odor of beer. "How long, O Lord, how long?" he prayed. Dr. Bruce +came out, and the two friends talked about Burns and his temptation. + +"Did you ever make any inquiries about the ownership of this +property adjoining us?" the Bishop asked. + +"No, I haven't taken time for it. I will now if you think it would +be worth while. But what can we do, Edward, against the saloon in +this great city? It is as firmly established as the churches or +politics. What power can ever remove it?" + +"God will do it in time, as He has removed slavery," was the grave +reply. "Meanwhile I think we have a right to know who controls this +saloon so near the Settlement." + +"I'll find out," said Dr. Bruce. + +Two days later he walked into the business office of one of the +members of Nazareth Avenue Church and asked to see him a few +moments. He was cordially received by his old parishioner, who +welcomed him into his room and urged him to take all the time he +wanted. + +"I called to see you about that property next the Settlement where +the Bishop and myself now are, you know. I am going to speak +plainly, because life is too short and too serious for us both to +have any foolish hesitation about this matter. Clayton, do you think +it is right to rent that property for a saloon?" + +Dr. Bruce's question was as direct and uncompromising as he had +meant it to be. The effect of it on his old parishioner was +instantaneous. + +The hot blood mounted to the face of the man who sat there beneath a +picture of business activity in a great city. Then he grew pale, +dropped his head on his hands, and when he raised it again Dr. Bruce +was amazed to see a tear roll over his face. + +"Doctor, did you know that I took the pledge that morning with the +others?" + +"Yes, I remember." + +"But you never knew how I have been tormented over my failure to +keep it in this instance. That saloon property has been the +temptation of the devil to me. It is the best paying investment at +present that I have. And yet it was only a minute before you came in +here that I was in an agony of remorse to think how I was letting a +little earthly gain tempt me into a denial of the very Christ I had +promised to follow. I knew well enough that He would never rent +property for such a purpose. There is no need, Dr. Bruce, for you to +say a word more." + +Clayton held out his hand and Dr. Bruce grasped it and shook it +hard. After a little he went away. But it was a long time afterwards +that he learned all the truth about the struggle that Clayton had +known. It was only a part of the history that belonged to Nazareth +Avenue Church since that memorable morning when the Holy Spirit +sanctioned the Christ-like pledge. Not even the Bishop and Dr. +Bruce, moving as they now did in the very presence itself of divine +impulses, knew yet that over the whole sinful city the Spirit was +brooding with mighty eagerness, waiting for the disciples to arise +to the call of sacrifice and suffering, touching hearts long dull +and cold, making business men and money-makers uneasy in their +absorption by the one great struggle for more wealth, and stirring +through the church as never in all the city's history the church had +been moved. The Bishop and Dr. Bruce had already seen some wonderful +things in their brief life at the Settlement. They were to see far +greater soon, more astonishing revelations of the divine power than +they had supposed possible in this age of the world. + +Within a month the saloon next the Settlement was closed. The +saloon-keeper's lease had expired, and Clayton not only closed the +property to the whiskey men, but offered the building to the Bishop +and Dr. Bruce to use for the Settlement work, which had now grown so +large that the building they had first rented was not sufficient for +the different industries that were planned. + +One of the most important of these was the pure-food department +suggested by Felicia. It was not a month after Clayton turned the +saloon property over to the Settlement that Felicia found herself +installed in the very room where souls had been lost, as head of the +department not only of cooking but of a course of housekeeping for +girls who wished to go out to service. She was now a resident of the +Settlement, and found a home with Mrs. Bruce and the other young +women from the city who were residents. Martha, the violinist, +remained at the place where the Bishop had first discovered the two +girls, and came over to the Settlement certain evenings to give +lessons in music. + +"Felicia, tell us your plan in full now," said the Bishop one +evening when, in a rare interval of rest from the great pressure of +work, he was with Dr. Bruce, and Felicia had come in from the other +building. + +"Well, I have long thought of the hired girl problem," said Felicia +with an air of wisdom that made Mrs. Bruce smile as she looked at +the enthusiastic, vital beauty of this young girl, transformed into +a new creature by the promise she had made to live the Christ-like +life. "And I have reached certain conclusions in regard to it that +you men are not yet able to fathom, but Mrs. Bruce will understand +me." + +"We acknowledge our infancy, Felicia. Go on," said the Bishop +humbly. + +"Then this is what I propose to do. The old saloon building is large +enough to arrange into a suite of rooms that will represent an +ordinary house. My plan is to have it so arranged, and then teach +housekeeping and cooking to girls who will afterwards go out to +service. The course will be six months' long; in that time I will +teach plain cooking, neatness, quickness, and a love of good work." + +"Hold on, Felicia!" the Bishop interrupted, "this is not an age of +miracles!" + +"Then we will make it one," replied Felicia. "I know this seems like +an impossibility, but I want to try it. I know a score of girls +already who will take the course, and if we can once establish +something like an esprit de corps among the girls themselves, I am +sure it will be of great value to them. I know already that the pure +food is working a revolution in many families." + +"Felicia, if you can accomplish half what you propose it will bless +this community," said Mrs. Bruce. "I don't see how you can do it, +but I say, God bless you, as you try." + +"So say we all!" cried Dr. Bruce and the Bishop, and Felicia plunged +into the working out of her plan with the enthusiasm of her +discipleship which every day grew more and more practical and +serviceable. + +It must be said here that Felicia's plan succeeded beyond all +expectations. She developed wonderful powers of persuasion, and +taught her girls with astonishing rapidity to do all sorts of +housework. In time, the graduates of Felicia's cooking school came +to be prized by housekeepers all over the city. But that is +anticipating our story. The history of the Settlement has never yet +been written. When it is Felicia's part will be found of very great +importance. + +The depth of winter found Chicago presenting, as every great city of +the world presents to the eyes of Christendom the marked contrast +between riches and poverty, between culture, refinement, luxury, +ease, and ignorance, depravity, destitution and the bitter struggle +for bread. It was a hard winter but a gay winter. Never had there +been such a succession of parties, receptions, balls, dinners, +banquets, fetes, gayeties. Never had the opera and the theatre been +so crowded with fashionable audiences. Never had there been such a +lavish display of jewels and fine dresses and equipages. And on the +other hand, never had the deep want and suffering been so cruel, so +sharp, so murderous. Never had the winds blown so chilling over the +lake and through the thin shells of tenements in the neighborhood of +the Settlement. Never had the pressure for food and fuel and clothes +been so urgently thrust up against the people of the city in their +most importunate and ghastly form. Night after night the Bishop and +Dr. Bruce with their helpers went out and helped save men and women +and children from the torture of physical privation. Vast quantities +of food and clothing and large sums of money were donated by the +churches, the charitable societies, the civic authorities and the +benevolent associations. But the personal touch of the Christian +disciple was very hard to secure for personal work. Where was the +discipleship that was obeying the Master's command to go itself to +the suffering and give itself with its gift in order to make the +gift of value in time to come? The Bishop found his heart sing +within him as he faced this fact more than any other. Men would give +money who would not think of giving themselves. And the money they +gave did not represent any real sacrifice because they did not miss +it. They gave what was the easiest to give, what hurt them the +least. Where did the sacrifice come in? Was this following Jesus? +Was this going with Him all the way? He had been to members of his +own aristocratic, splendidly wealthy congregations, and was appalled +to find how few men and women of that luxurious class in the +churches would really suffer any genuine inconvenience for the sake +of suffering humanity. Is charity the giving of worn-out garments? +Is it a ten-dollar bill given to a paid visitor or secretary of some +benevolent organization in the church? Shall the man never go and +give his gift himself? Shall the woman never deny herself her +reception or her party or her musicale, and go and actually touch, +herself, the foul, sinful sore of diseased humanity as it festers in +the great metropolis? Shall charity be conveniently and easily done +through some organization? Is it possible to organize the affections +so that love shall work disagreeable things by proxy? + +All this the Bishop asked as he plunged deeper into the sin and +sorrow of that bitter winter. He was bearing his cross with joy. But +he burned and fought within over the shifting of personal love by +the many upon the hearts of the few. And still, silently, +powerfully, resistlessly, the Holy Spirit was moving through the +churches, even the aristocratic, wealthy, ease-loving members who +shunned the terrors of the social problem as they would shun a +contagious disease. + + + + + + +Chapter Twenty-nine + + + + + +THE breakfast hour at the settlement was the one hour in the day +when the whole family found a little breathing space to fellowship +together. It was an hour of relaxation. There was a great deal of +good-natured repartee and much real wit and enjoyable fun at this +hour. The Bishop told his best stories. Dr. Bruce was at his best in +anecdote. This company of disciples was healthily humorous in spite +of the atmosphere of sorrow that constantly surrounded them. In +fact, the Bishop often said the faculty of humor was as God-given as +any other and in his own case it was the only safety valve he had +for the tremendous pressure put upon him. + +This particular morning he was reading extracts from a morning paper +for the benefit of the others. Suddenly he paused and his face +instantly grew stern and sad. The rest looked up and a hush fell +over the table. + +"Shot and killed while taking a lump of coal from a car! His family +was freezing and he had had no work for six months. Six children and +a wife all packed into a cabin with three rooms, on the West Side. +One child wrapped in rags in a closet!" + +These were headlines that he read slowly. He then went on and read +the detailed account of the shooting and the visit of the reporter +to the tenement where the family lived. He finished, and there was +silence around the table. The humor of the hour was swept out of +existence by this bit of human tragedy. The great city roared about +the Settlement. The awful current of human life was flowing in a +great stream past the Settlement House, and those who had work were +hurrying to it in a vast throng. But thousands were going down in +the midst of that current, clutching at last hopes, dying literally +in a land of plenty because the boon of physical toil was denied +them. + +There were various comments on the part of the residents. One of the +new-comers, a young man preparing for the ministry, said: "Why don't +the man apply to one of the charity organizations for help? Or to +the city? It certainly is not true that even at its worst this city +full of Christian people would knowingly allow any one to go without +food or fuel." + +"No, I don't believe it would," replied Dr. Bruce. "But we don't +know the history of this man's case. He may have asked for help so +often before that, finally, in a moment of desperation he determined +to help himself. I have known such cases this winter." + +"That is not the terrible fact in this case," said the Bishop. "The +awful thing about it is the fact that the man had not had any work +for six months." + +"Why don't such people go out into the country?" asked the divinity +student. + +Some one at the table who had made a special study of the +opportunities for work in the country answered the question. +According to the investigator the places that were possible for work +in the country were exceedingly few for steady employment, and in +almost every case they were offered only to men without families. +Suppose a man's wife or children were ill. How would he move or get +into the country? How could he pay even the meager sum necessary to +move his few goods? There were a thousand reasons probably why this +particular man did not go elsewhere. + +"Meanwhile there are the wife and children," said Mrs. Bruce. "How +awful! Where is the place, did you say?" + +"Why, it is only three blocks from here. This is the 'Penrose +district.' I believe Penrose himself owns half of the houses in that +block. They are among the worst houses in this part of the city. And +Penrose is a church member." + +"Yes, he belongs to the Nazareth Avenue Church," replied Dr. Bruce +in a low voice. + +The Bishop rose from the table the very figure of divine wrath. He +had opened his lips to say what seldom came from him in the way of +denunciation, when the bell rang and one of the residents went to +the door. + +"Tell Dr. Bruce and the Bishop I want to see them. Penrose is the +name--Clarence Penrose. Dr. Bruce knows me." + +The family at the breakfast table heard every word. The Bishop +exchanged a significant look with Dr. Bruce and the two men +instantly left the table and went out into the hall. + +"Come in here, Penrose," said Dr. Bruce, and they ushered the +visitor into the reception room, closed the door and were alone. + +Clarence Penrose was one of the most elegant looking men in Chicago. +He came from an aristocratic family of great wealth and social +distinction. He was exceedingly wealthy and had large property +holdings in different parts of the city. He had been a member of Dr. +Bruce's church many years. He faced the two ministers with a look of +agitation on his face that showed plainly the mark of some unusual +experience. He was very pale and his lips trembled as he spoke. When +had Clarence Penrose ever before yielded to such a strange emotion? + +"This affair of the shooting! You understand? You have read it? The +family lived in one of my houses. It is a terrible event. But that +is not the primary cause of my visit." He stammered and looked +anxiously into the faces of the two men. The Bishop still looked +stern. He could not help feeling that this elegant man of leisure +could have done a great deal to alleviate the horrors in his +tenements, possibly have prevented this tragedy if he had sacrificed +some of his personal ease and luxury to better the conditions of the +people in his district. + +Penrose turned toward Dr. Bruce. "Doctor!" he exclaimed, and there +was almost a child's terror in his voice. "I came to say that I have +had an experience so unusual that nothing but the supernatural can +explain it. You remember I was one of those who took the pledge to +do as Jesus would do. I thought at the time, poor fool that I was, +that I had all along been doing the Christian thing. I gave +liberally out of my abundance to the church and charity. I never +gave myself to cost me any suffering. I have been living in a +perfect hell of contradictions ever since I took that pledge. My +little girl, Diana you remember, also took the pledge with me. She +has been asking me a great many questions lately about the poor +people and where they live. I was obliged to answer her. One of her +questions last night touched my sore! 'Do you own any houses where +these poor people live? Are they nice and warm like ours?' You know +how a child will ask questions like these. I went to bed tormented +with what I now know to be the divine arrows of conscience. I could +not sleep. I seemed to see the judgment day. I was placed before the +Judge. I was asked to give an account of my deeds done in the body. +'How many sinful souls had I visited in prison? What had I done with +my stewardship? How about those tenements where people froze in +winter and stifled in summer? Did I give any thought to them except +to receive the rentals from them? Where did my suffering come in? +Would Jesus have done as I had done and was doing? Had I broken my +pledge? How had I used the money and the culture and the social +influence I possessed? Had I used it to bless humanity, to relieve +the suffering, to bring joy to the distressed and hope to the +desponding? I had received much. How much had I given?' + +"All this came to me in a waking vision as distinctly as I see you +two men and myself now. I was unable to see the end of the vision. I +had a confused picture in my mind of the suffering Christ pointing a +condemning finger at me, and the rest was shut out by mist and +darkness. I have not slept for twenty-four hours. The first thing I +saw this morning was the account of the shooting at the coal yards. +I read the account with a feeling of horror I have not been able to +shake off. I am a guilty creature before God." + +Penrose paused suddenly. The two men looked at him solemnly. What +power of the Holy Spirit moved the soul of this hitherto +self-satisfied, elegant, cultured man who belonged to the social +life that was accustomed to go its way placidly, unmindful of the +great sorrows of a great city and practically ignorant of what it +means to suffer for Jesus' sake? Into that room came a breath such +as before swept over Henry Maxwell's church and through Nazareth +avenue. The Bishop laid his hand on the shoulder of Penrose and +said: "My brother, God has been very near to you. Let us thank Him." + +"Yes! yes!" sobbed Penrose. He sat down on a chair and covered his +face. The Bishop prayed. Then Penrose quietly said: "Will you go +with me to that house?" + +For answer the two men put on their overcoats and went with him to +the home of the dead man's family. + +That was the beginning of a new and strange life for Clarence +Penrose. From the moment he stepped into that wretched hovel of a +home and faced for the first time in his life a despair and +suffering such as he had read of but did not know by personal +contact, he dated a new life. It would be another long story to tell +how, in obedience to his pledge he began to do with his tenement +property as he knew Jesus would do. What would Jesus do with +tenement property if He owned it in Chicago or any other great city +of the world? Any man who can imagine any true answers to this +question can easily tell what Clarence Penrose began to do. + +Now before that winter reached its bitter climax many things +occurred in the city which concerned the lives of all the characters +in this history of the disciples who promised to walk in His steps. + +It chanced by one of those coincidences that seem to occur +preternaturally that one afternoon just as Felicia came out of the +Settlement with a basket of food which she was going to leave as a +sample with a baker in the Penrose district, Stephen Clyde opened +the door of the carpenter shop in the basement and came out in time +to meet her as she reached the sidewalk. + +"Let me carry your basket, please," he said. + +"Why do you say 'please'?" asked Felicia, handing over the basket +while they walked along. + +"I would like to say something else," replied Stephen, glancing at +her shyly and yet with a boldness that frightened him, for he had +been loving Felicia more every day since he first saw her and +especially since she stepped into the shop that day with the Bishop, +and for weeks now they had been thrown in each other's company. + +"What else?" asked Felicia, innocently falling into the trap. + +"Why--" said Stephen, turning his fair, noble face full toward her +and eyeing her with the look of one who would have the best of all +things in the universe, "I would like to say: 'Let me carry your +basket, dear Felicia'." + +Felicia never looked so beautiful in her life. She walked on a +little way without even turning her face toward him. It was no +secret with her own heart that she had given it to Stephen some time +ago. Finally she turned and said shyly, while her face grew rosy and +her eyes tender: "Why don't you say it, then?" + +"May I?" cried Stephen, and he was so careless for a minute of the +way he held the basket, that Felicia exclaimed: + +"Yes! But oh, don't drop my goodies!" + +"Why, I wouldn't drop anything so precious for all the world, dear +Felicia," said Stephen, who now walked on air for several blocks, +and what was said during that walk is private correspondence that we +have no right to read. Only it is a matter of history that day that +the basket never reached its destination, and that over in the other +direction, late in the afternoon, the Bishop, walking along quietly +from the Penrose district, in rather a secluded spot near the +outlying part of the Settlement district, heard a familiar voice +say: + +"But tell me, Felicia, when did you begin to love me?" + +"I fell in love with a little pine shaving just above your ear that +day when I saw you in the shop!" said the other voice with a laugh +so clear, so pure, so sweet that it did one good to hear it. + +"Where are you going with that basket?" he tried to say sternly. + +"We are taking it to--where are we taking it, Felicia?" + +"Dear Bishop, we are taking it home to begin--" + +"To begin housekeeping with," finished Stephen, coming to the +rescue. + +"Are you?" said the Bishop. "I hope you will invite me to share. I +know what Felicia's cooking is." + +"Bishop, dear Bishop!" said Felicia, and she did not pretend to hide +her happiness; "indeed, you shall be the most honored guest. Are you +glad?" + +"Yes, I am," he replied, interpreting Felicia's words as she wished. +Then he paused a moment and said gently: "God bless you both!" and +went his way with a tear in his eye and a prayer in his heart, and +left them to their joy. + +Yes. Shall not the same divine power of love that belongs to earth +be lived and sung by the disciples of the Man of Sorrows and the +Burden-bearer of sins? Yea, verily! And this man and woman shall +walk hand in hand through this great desert of human woe in this +city, strengthening each other, growing more loving with the +experience of the world's sorrows, walking in His steps even closer +yet because of their love for each other, bringing added blessing to +thousands of wretched creatures because they are to have a home of +their own to share with the homeless. "For this cause," said our +Lord Jesus Christ, "shall a man leave his father and mother and +cleave unto his wife." And Felicia and Stephen, following the +Master, love him with a deeper, truer service and devotion because +of the earthly affection which Heaven itself sanctions with its +solemn blessing. + +But it was a little after the love story of the Settlement became a +part of its glory that Henry Maxwell of Raymond came to Chicago with +Rachel Winslow and Virginia Page and Rollin and Alexander Powers and +President Marsh, and the occasion was a remarkable gathering at the +hall of the Settlement arranged by the Bishop and Dr. Bruce, who had +finally persuaded Mr. Maxwell and his fellow disciples in Raymond to +come on to be present at this meeting. + +There were invited into the Settlement Hall, meeting for that night +men out of work, wretched creatures who had lost faith in God and +man, anarchists and infidels, free-thinkers and no-thinkers. The +representation of all the city's worst, most hopeless, most +dangerous, depraved elements faced Henry Maxwell and the other +disciples when the meeting began. And still the Holy Spirit moved +over the great, selfish, pleasure-loving, sin-stained city, and it +lay in God's hand, not knowing all that awaited it. Every man and +woman at the meeting that night had seen the Settlement motto over +the door blazing through the transparency set up by the divinity +student: "What would Jesus do?" + +And Henry Maxwell, as for the first time he stepped under the +doorway, was touched with a deeper emotion than he had felt in a +long time as he thought of the first time that question had come to +him in the piteous appeal of the shabby young man who had appeared +in the First Church of Raymond at the morning service. + + + + + + +Chapter Thirty + + + + + +"Now, when Jesus heard these things, He said unto him, Yet lackest +thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the +poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow Me." + +WHEN Henry Maxwell began to speak to the souls crowded into the +Settlement Hall that night it is doubtful if he ever faced such an +audience in his life. It is quite certain that the city of Raymond +did not contain such a variety of humanity. Not even the Rectangle +at its worst could furnish so many men and women who had fallen +entirely out of the reach of the church and of all religious and +even Christian influences. + +What did he talk about? He had already decided that point. He told +in the simplest language he could command some of the results of +obedience to the pledge as it had been taken in Raymond. Every man +and woman in that audience knew something about Jesus Christ. They +all had some idea of His character, and however much they had grown +bitter toward the forms of Christian ecclesiasticism or the social +system, they preserved some standard of right and truth, and what +little some of them still retained was taken from the person of the +Peasant of Galilee. + +So they were interested in what Maxwell said. "What would Jesus do?" +He began to apply the question to the social problem in general, +after finishing the story of Raymond. The audience was respectfully +attentive. It was more than that. It was genuinely interested. As +Mr. Maxwell went on, faces all over the hall leaned forward in a way +seldom seen in church audiences or anywhere except among workingmen +or the people of the street when once they are thoroughly aroused. +"What would Jesus do?" Suppose that were the motto not only of the +churches but of the business men, the politicians, the newspapers, +the workingmen, the society people--how long would it take under +such a standard of conduct to revolutionize the world? What was the +trouble with the world? It was suffering from selfishness. No one +ever lived who had succeeded in overcoming selfishness like Jesus. +If men followed Him regardless of results the world would at once +begin to enjoy a new life. + +Maxwell never knew how much it meant to hold the respectful +attention of that hall full of diseased and sinful humanity. The +Bishop and Dr. Bruce, sitting there, looking on, seeing many faces +that represented scorn of creeds, hatred of the social order, +desperate narrowness and selfishness, marveled that even so soon +under the influence of the Settlement life, the softening process +had begun already to lessen the bitterness of hearts, many of which +had grown bitter from neglect and indifference. + +And still, in spite of the outward show of respect to the speaker, +no one, not even the Bishop, had any true conception of the feeling +pent up in that room that night. Among those who had heard of the +meeting and had responded to the invitation were twenty or thirty +men out of work who had strolled past the Settlement that afternoon, +read the notice of the meeting, and had come in out of curiosity and +to escape the chill east wind. It was a bitter night and the saloons +were full. But in that whole district of over thirty thousand souls, +with the exception of the saloons, there was not a door open except +the clean, pure Christian door of the Settlement. Where would a man +without a home or without work or without friends naturally go +unless to the saloon? + +It had been the custom at the Settlement for a free discussion to +follow any open meeting of this kind, and when Mr. Maxwell finished +and sat down, the Bishop, who presided that night, rose and made the +announcement that any man in the hall was at liberty to ask +questions, to speak out his feelings or declare his convictions, +always with the understanding that whoever took part was to observe +the simple rules that governed parliamentary bodies and obey the +three-minute rule which, by common consent, would be enforced on +account of the numbers present. + +Instantly a number of voices from men who had been at previous +meetings of this kind exclaimed, "Consent! consent!" + +The Bishop sat down, and immediately a man near the middle of the +hall rose and began to speak. + +"I want to say that what Mr. Maxwell has said tonight comes pretty +close to me. I knew Jack Manning, the fellow he told about who died +at his house. I worked on the next case to his in a printer's shop +in Philadelphia for two years. Jack was a good fellow. He loaned me +five dollars once when I was in a hole and I never got a chance to +pay him back. He moved to New York, owing to a change in the +management of the office that threw him out, and I never saw him +again. When the linotype machines came in I was one of the men to go +out, just as he did. I have been out most of the time since. They +say inventions are a good thing. I don't always see it myself; but I +suppose I'm prejudiced. A man naturally is when he loses a steady +job because a machine takes his place. About this Christianity he +tells about, it's all right. But I never expect to see any such +sacrifices on the part of the church people. So far as my +observation goes they're just as selfish and as greedy for money and +worldly success as anybody. I except the Bishop and Dr. Bruce and a +few others. But I never found much difference between men of the +world, as they are called, and church members when it came to +business and money making. One class is just as bad as another +there." + +Cries of "That's so!" "You're right!" "Of course!" interrupted the +speaker, and the minute he sat down two men who were on the floor +for several seconds before the first speaker was through began to +talk at once. + +The Bishop called them to order and indicated which was entitled to +the floor. The man who remained standing began eagerly: + +"This is the first time I was ever in here, and may be it'll be the +last. Fact is, I am about at the end of my string. I've tramped this +city for work till I'm sick. I'm in plenty of company. Say! I'd like +to ask a question of the minister, if it's fair. May I?" + +"That's for Mr. Maxwell to say," said the Bishop. + +"By all means," replied Mr. Maxwell quickly. "Of course, I will not +promise to answer it to the gentleman's satisfaction." + +"This is my question." The man leaned forward and stretched out a +long arm with a certain dramatic force that grew naturally enough +out of his condition as a human being. "I want to know what Jesus +would do in my case. I haven't had a stroke of work for two months. +I've got a wife and three children, and I love them as much as if I +was worth a million dollars. I've been living off a little earnings +I saved up during the World's Fair jobs I got. I'm a carpenter by +trade, and I've tried every way I know to get a job. You say we +ought to take for our motto, 'What would Jesus do?' What would He do +if He was out of work like me? I can't be somebody else and ask the +question. I want to work. I'd give anything to grow tired of working +ten hours a day the way I used to. Am I to blame because I can't +manufacture a job for myself? I've got to live, and my wife and my +children have got to live. But how? What would Jesus do? You say +that's the question we ought to ask." + +Mr. Maxwell sat there staring at the great sea of faces all intent +on his, and no answer to this man's question seemed for the time +being to be possible. "O God!" his heart prayed; "this is a question +that brings up the entire social problem in all its perplexing +entanglement of human wrongs and its present condition contrary to +every desire of God for a human being's welfare. Is there any +condition more awful than for a man in good health, able and eager +to work, with no means of honest livelihood unless he does work, +actually unable to get anything to do, and driven to one of three +things: begging or charity at the hands of friends or strangers, +suicide or starvation? 'What would Jesus do?'" It was a fair +question for the man to ask. It was the only question he could ask, +supposing him to be a disciple of Jesus. But what a question for any +man to be obliged to answer under such conditions? + +All this and more did Henry Maxwell ponder. All the others were +thinking in the same way. The Bishop sat there with a look so stern +and sad that it was not hard to tell how the question moved him. Dr. +Bruce had his head bowed. The human problem had never seemed to him +so tragical as since he had taken the pledge and left his church to +enter the Settlement. What would Jesus do? It was a terrible +question. And still the man stood there, tall and gaunt and almost +terrible, with his arm stretched out in an appeal which grew every +second in meaning. At length Mr. Maxwell spoke. + +"Is there any man in the room, who is a Christian disciple, who has +been in this condition and has tried to do as Jesus would do? If so, +such a man can answer this question better than I can." + +There was a moment's hush over the room and then a man near the +front of the hall slowly rose. He was an old man, and the hand he +laid on the back of the bench in front of him trembled as he spoke. + +"I think I can safely say that I have many times been in just such a +condition, and I have always tried to be a Christian under all +conditions. I don't know as I have always asked this question, 'What +would Jesus do?' when I have been out of work, but I do know I have +tried to be His disciple at all times. Yes," the man went on, with a +sad smile that was more pathetic to the Bishop and Mr. Maxwell than +the younger man's grim despair; "yes, I have begged, and I have been +to charity institutions, and I have done everything when out of a +job except steal and lie in order to get food and fuel. I don't know +as Jesus would have done some of the things I have been obliged to +do for a living, but I know I have never knowingly done wrong when +out of work. Sometimes I think maybe He would have starved sooner +than beg. I don't know." + +The old man's voice trembled and he looked around the room timidly. +A silence followed, broken by a fierce voice from a large, +black-haired, heavily-bearded man who sat three seats from the +Bishop. The minute he spoke nearly every man in the hall leaned +forward eagerly. The man who had asked the question, "What would +Jesus do in my case?" slowly sat down and whispered to the man next +to him: "Who's that?" + +"That's Carlsen, the Socialist leader. Now you'll hear something." + +"This is all bosh, to my mind," began Carlsen, while his great +bristling beard shook with the deep inward anger of the man. "The +whole of our system is at fault. What we call civilization is rotten +to the core. There is no use trying to hide it or cover it up. We +live in an age of trusts and combines and capitalistic greed that +means simply death to thousands of innocent men, women and children. +I thank God, if there is a God--which I very much doubt--that I, for +one, have never dared to marry and make a home. Home! Talk of hell! +Is there any bigger one than this man and his three children has on +his hands right this minute? And he's only one out of thousands. And +yet this city, and every other big city in this country, has its +thousands of professed Christians who have all the luxuries and +comforts, and who go to church Sundays and sing their hymns about +giving all to Jesus and bearing the cross and following Him all the +way and being saved! I don't say that there aren't good men and +women among them, but let the minister who has spoken to us here +tonight go into any one of a dozen aristocratic churches I could +name and propose to the members to take any such pledge as the one +he's mentioned here tonight, and see how quick the people would +laugh at him for a fool or a crank or a fanatic. Oh, no! That's not +the remedy. That can't ever amount to anything. We've got to have a +new start in the way of government. The whole thing needs +reconstructing. I don't look for any reform worth anything to come +out of the churches. They are not with the people. They are with the +aristocrats, with the men of money. The trusts and monopolies have +their greatest men in the churches. The ministers as a class are +their slaves. What we need is a system that shall start from the +common basis of socialism, founded on the rights of the common +people--" + +Carlsen had evidently forgotten all about the three-minutes rule and +was launching himself into a regular oration that meant, in his +usual surroundings before his usual audience, an hour at least, when +the man just behind him pulled him down unceremoniously and arose. +Carlsen was angry at first and threatened a little disturbance, but +the Bishop reminded him of the rule, and he subsided with several +mutterings in his beard, while the next speaker began with a very +strong eulogy on the value of the single tax as a genuine remedy for +all the social ills. He was followed by a man who made a bitter +attack on the churches and ministers, and declared that the two +great obstacles in the way of all true reform were the courts and +the ecclesiastical machines. + +When he sat down a man who bore every mark of being a street laborer +sprang to his feet and poured a perfect torrent of abuse against the +corporations, especially the railroads. The minute his time was up a +big, brawny fellow, who said he was a metal worker by trade, claimed +the floor and declared that the remedy for the social wrongs was +Trades Unionism. This, he said, would bring on the millennium for +labor more surely than anything else. The next man endeavored to +give some reasons why so many persons were out of employment, and +condemned inventions as works of the devil. He was loudly applauded +by the rest. + +Finally the Bishop called time on the "free for all," and asked +Rachel to sing. + +Rachel Winslow had grown into a very strong, healthful, humble +Christian during that wonderful year in Raymond dating from the +Sunday when she first took the pledge to do as Jesus would do, and +her great talent for song had been fully consecrated to the service +of the Master. When she began to sing tonight at this Settlement +meeting, she had never prayed more deeply for results to come from +her voice, the voice which she now regarded as the Master's, to be +used for Him. + +Certainly her prayer was being answered as she sang. She had chosen +the words, + +"Hark! The voice of Jesus calling, Follow me, follow me!" + +Again Henry Maxwell, sitting there, was reminded of his first night +at the Rectangle in the tent when Rachel sang the people into quiet. +The effect was the same here. What wonderful power a good voice +consecrated to the Master's service always is! Rachel's great +natural ability would have made her one of the foremost opera +singers of the age. Surely this audience had never heard such a +melody. How could it? The men who had drifted in from the street sat +entranced by a voice which "back in the world," as the Bishop said, +never could be heard by the common people because the owner of it +would charge two or three dollars for the privilege. The song poured +out through the hall as free and glad as if it were a foretaste of +salvation itself. Carlsen, with his great, black-bearded face +uplifted, absorbed the music with the deep love of it peculiar to +his nationality, and a tear ran over his cheek and glistened in his +beard as his face softened and became almost noble in its aspect. +The man out of work who had wanted to know what Jesus would do in +his place sat with one grimy hand on the back of the bench in front +of him, with his mouth partly open, his great tragedy for the moment +forgotten. The song, while it lasted, was food and work and warmth +and union with his wife and babies once more. The man who had spoken +so fiercely against the churches and ministers sat with his head +erect, at first with a look of stolid resistance, as if he +stubbornly resisted the introduction into the exercises of anything +that was even remotely connected with the church or its forms of +worship. But gradually he yielded to the power that was swaying the +hearts of all the persons in that room, and a look of sad +thoughtfulness crept over his face. + +The Bishop said that night while Rachel was singing that if the +world of sinful, diseased, depraved, lost humanity could only have +the gospel preached to it by consecrated prima donnas and +professional tenors and altos and bassos, he believed it would +hasten the coming of the Kingdom quicker than any other one force. +"Why, oh why," he cried in his heart as he listened, "has the +world's great treasure of song been so often held far from the poor +because the personal possessor of voice or fingers, capable of +stirring divinest melody, has so often regarded the gift as +something with which to make money? Shall there be no martyrs among +the gifted ones of the earth? Shall there be no giving of this great +gift as well as of others?" + +And Henry Maxwell, again as before, called up that other audience at +the Rectangle with increasing longing for a larger spread of the new +discipleship. What he had seen and heard at the Settlement burned +into him deeper the belief that the problem of the city would be +solved if the Christians in it should once follow Jesus as He gave +commandment. But what of this great mass of humanity, neglected and +sinful, the very kind of humanity the Savior came to save, with all +its mistakes and narrowness, its wretchedness and loss of hope, +above all its unqualified bitterness towards the church? That was +what smote him deepest. Was the church then so far from the Master +that the people no longer found Him in the church? Was it true that +the church had lost its power over the very kind of humanity which +in the early ages of Christianity it reached in the greatest +numbers? How much was true in what the Socialist leader said about +the uselessness of looking to the church for reform or redemption, +because of the selfishness and seclusion and aristocracy of its +members? + +He was more and more impressed with the appalling fact that the +comparatively few men in that hall, now being held quiet for a while +by Rachel's voice, represented thousands of others just like them, +to whom a church and a minister stood for less than a saloon or a +beer garden as a source of comfort or happiness. Ought it to be so? +If the church members were all doing as Jesus would do, could it +remain true that armies of men would walk the streets for jobs and +hundreds of them curse the church and thousands of them find in the +saloon their best friend? How far were the Christians responsible +for this human problem that was personally illustrated right in this +hall tonight? Was it true that the great city churches would as a +rule refuse to walk in Jesus' steps so closely as to +suffer--actually suffer--for His sake? + + + + + + +Chapter Thirty-one + + + + + +HE had planned when he came to the city to return to Raymond and be +in his own pulpit on Sunday. But Friday morning he had received at +the Settlement a call from the pastor of one of the largest churches +in Chicago, and had been invited to fill the pulpit for both morning +and evening service. + +At first he hesitated, but finally accepted, seeing in it the hand +of the Spirit's guiding power. He would test his own question. He +would prove the truth or falsity of the charge made against the +church at the Settlement meeting. How far would it go in its +self-denial for Jesus' sake? How closely would it walk in His steps? +Was the church willing to suffer for its Master? + +Saturday night he spent in prayer, nearly the whole night. There had +never been so great a wrestling in his soul, not even during his +strongest experiences in Raymond. He had in fact entered upon +another new experience. The definition of his own discipleship was +receiving an added test at this time, and he was being led into a +larger truth of the Lord. + +Sunday morning the great church was filled to its utmost. Henry +Maxwell, coming into the pulpit from that all-night vigil, felt the +pressure of a great curiosity on the part of the people. They had +heard of the Raymond movement, as all the churches had, and the +recent action of Dr. Bruce had added to the general interest in the +pledge. With this curiosity was something deeper, more serious. Mr. +Maxwell felt that also. And in the knowledge that the Spirit's +presence was his living strength, he brought his message and gave it +to that church that day. + +He had never been what would be called a great preacher. He had not +the force nor the quality that makes remarkable preachers. But ever +since he had promised to do as Jesus would do, he had grown in a +certain quality of persuasiveness that had all the essentials of +true eloquence. This morning the people felt the complete sincerity +and humility of a man who had gone deep into the heart of a great +truth. + +After telling briefly of some results in his own church in Raymond +since the pledge was taken, he went on to ask the question he had +been asking since the Settlement meeting. He had taken for his theme +the story of the young man who came to Jesus asking what he must do +to obtain eternal life. Jesus had tested him. "Sell all that thou +hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; +and come follow me." But the young man was not willing to suffer to +that extent. If following Jesus meant suffering in that way, he was +not willing. He would like to follow Jesus, but not if he had to +give so much. + +"Is it true," continued Henry Maxwell, and his fine, thoughtful face +glowed with a passion of appeal that stirred the people as they had +seldom been stirred, "is it true that the church of today, the +church that is called after Christ's own name, would refuse to +follow Him at the expense of suffering, of physical loss, of +temporary gain? The statement was made at a large gathering in the +Settlement last week by a leader of workingmen that it was hopeless +to look to the church for any reform or redemption of society. On +what was that statement based? Plainly on the assumption that the +church contains for the most part men and women who think more 'of +their own ease and luxury' than of the sufferings and needs and sins +of humanity. How far is that true? Are the Christians of America +ready to have their discipleship tested? How about the men who +possess large wealth? Are they ready to take that wealth and use it +as Jesus would? How about the men and women of great talent? Are +they ready to consecrate that talent to humanity as Jesus +undoubtedly would do? + +"Is it not true that the call has come in this age for a new +exhibition of Christian discipleship? You who live in this great +sinful city must know that better than I do. Is it possible you can +go your ways careless or thoughtless of the awful condition of men +and women and children who are dying, body and soul, for need of +Christian help? Is it not a matter of concern to you personally that +the saloon kills its thousands more surely than war? Is it not a +matter of personal suffering in some form for you that thousands of +able-bodied, willing men tramp the streets of this city and all +cities, crying for work and drifting into crime and suicide because +they cannot find it? Can you say that this is none of your business? +Let each man look after himself? Would it not be true, think you, +that if every Christian in America did as Jesus would do, society +itself, the business world, yes, the very political system under +which our commercial and governmental activity is carried on, would +be so changed that human suffering would be reduced to a minimum? + +"What would be the result if all the church members of this city +tried to do as Jesus would do? It is not possible to say in detail +what the effect would be. But it is easy to say, and it is true, +that instantly the human problem would begin to find an adequate +answer. + +"What is the test of Christian discipleship? Is it not the same as +in Christ's own time? Have our surroundings modified or changed the +test? If Jesus were here today would He not call some of the members +of this very church to do just what He commanded the young man, and +ask them to give up their wealth and literally follow Him? I believe +He would do that if He felt certain that any church member thought +more of his possessions than of the Savior. The test would be the +same today as then. I believe Jesus would demand He does demand +now--as close a following, as much suffering, as great self-denial +as when He lived in person on the earth and said, 'Except a man +renounce all that he hath he cannot be my disciple.' That is, unless +he is willing to do it for my sake, he cannot be my disciple. + +"What would be the result if in this city every church member should +begin to do as Jesus would do? It is not easy to go into details of +the result. But we all know that certain things would be impossible +that are now practiced by church members. + +"What would Jesus do in the matter of wealth? How would He spend it? +What principle would regulate His use of money? Would He be likely +to live in great luxury and spend ten times as much on personal +adornment and entertainment as He spent to relieve the needs of +suffering humanity? How would Jesus be governed in the making of +money? Would He take rentals from saloons and other disreputable +property, or even from tenement property that was so constructed +that the inmates had no such things as a home and no such +possibility as privacy or cleanliness? + +"What would Jesus do about the great army of unemployed and +desperate who tramp the streets and curse the church, or are +indifferent to it, lost in the bitter struggle for the bread that +tastes bitter when it is earned on account of the desperate conflict +to get it? Would Jesus care nothing for them? Would He go His way in +comparative ease and comfort? Would He say that it was none of His +business? Would He excuse Himself from all responsibility to remove +the causes of such a condition? + +"What would Jesus do in the center of a civilization that hurries so +fast after money that the very girls employed in great business +houses are not paid enough to keep soul and body together without +fearful temptations so great that scores of them fall and are swept +over the great boiling abyss; where the demands of trade sacrifice +hundreds of lads in a business that ignores all Christian duties +toward them in the way of education and moral training and personal +affection? Would Jesus, if He were here today as a part of our age +and commercial industry, feel nothing, do nothing, say nothing, in +the face of these facts which every business man knows? + +"What would Jesus do? Is not that what the disciple ought to do? Is +he not commanded to follow in His steps? How much is the +Christianity of the age suffering for Him? Is it denying itself at +the cost of ease, comfort, luxury, elegance of living? What does the +age need more than personal sacrifice? Does the church do its duty +in following Jesus when it gives a little money to establish +missions or relieve extreme cases of want? Is it any sacrifice for a +man who is worth ten million dollars simply to give ten thousand +dollars for some benevolent work? Is he not giving something that +cost him practically nothing so far as any personal suffering goes? +Is it true that the Christian disciples today in most of our +churches are living soft, easy, selfish lives, very far from any +sacrifice that can be called sacrifice? What would Jesus do? + +"It is the personal element that Christian discipleship needs to +emphasize. 'The gift without the giver is bare.' The Christianity +that attempts to suffer by proxy is not the Christianity of Christ. +Each individual Christian business man, citizen, needs to follow in +His steps along the path of personal sacrifice to Him. There is not +a different path today from that of Jesus' own times. It is the same +path. The call of this dying century and of the new one soon to be, +is a call for a new discipleship, a new following of Jesus, more +like the early, simple, apostolic Christianity, when the disciples +left all and literally followed the Master. Nothing but a +discipleship of this kind can face the destructive selfishness of +the age with any hope of overcoming it. There is a great quantity of +nominal Christianity today. There is need of more of the real kind. +We need revival of the Christianity of Christ. We have, +unconsciously, lazily, selfishly, formally grown into a discipleship +that Jesus himself would not acknowledge. He would say to many of us +when we cry, 'Lord, Lord,' 'I never knew you!' Are we ready to take +up the cross? Is it possible for this church to sing with exact +truth, + +'Jesus, I my cross have taken, All to leave and follow Thee?' + +If we can sing that truly, then we may claim discipleship. But if +our definition of being a Christian is simply to enjoy the +privileges of worship, be generous at no expense to ourselves, have +a good, easy time surrounded by pleasant friends and by comfortable +things, live respectably and at the same time avoid the world's +great stress of sin and trouble because it is too much pain to bear +it--if this is our definition of Christianity, surely we are a long +way from following the steps of Him who trod the way with groans and +tears and sobs of anguish for a lost humanity; who sweat, as it +were, great drops of blood, who cried out on the upreared cross, 'My +God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' + +"Are we ready to make and live a new discipleship? Are we ready to +reconsider our definition of a Christian? What is it to be a +Christian? It is to imitate Jesus. It is to do as He would do. It is +to walk in His steps." + +When Henry Maxwell finished his sermon, he paused and looked at the +people with a look they never forgot and, at the moment, did not +understand. Crowded into that fashionable church that day were +hundreds of men and women who had for years lived the easy, +satisfied life of a nominal Christianity. A great silence fell over +the congregation. Through the silence there came to the +consciousness of all the souls there present a knowledge, stranger +to them now for years, of a Divine Power. Every one expected the +preacher to call for volunteers who would do as Jesus would do. But +Maxwell had been led by the Spirit to deliver his message this time +and wait for results to come. + +He closed the service with a tender prayer that kept the Divine +Presence lingering very near every hearer, and the people slowly +rose to go out. Then followed a scene that would have been +impossible if any mere man had been alone in his striving for +results. + +Men and women in great numbers crowded around the platform to see +Mr. Maxwell and to bring him the promise of their consecration to +the pledge to do as Jesus would do. It was a voluntary, spontaneous +movement that broke upon his soul with a result he could not +measure. But had he not been praying for is very thing? It was an +answer that more than met his desires. + +There followed this movement a prayer service that in its +impressions repeated the Raymond experience. In the evening, to Mr. +Maxwell's joy, the Endeavor Society almost to a member came forward, +as so many of the church members had done in the morning, and +seriously, solemnly, tenderly, took the pledge to do as Jesus would +do. A deep wave of spiritual baptism broke over the meeting near its +close that was indescribable in its tender, joyful, sympathetic +results. + +That was a remarkable day in the history of that church, but even +more so in the history of Henry Maxwell. He left the meeting very +late. He went to his room at the Settlement where he was still +stopping, and after an hour with the Bishop and Dr. Bruce, spent in +a joyful rehearsal of the wonderful events of the day, he sat down +to think over again by himself all the experience he was having as a +Christian disciple. + +He had kneeled to pray, as he always did before going to sleep, and +it was while he was on his knees that he had a waking vision of what +might be in the world when once the new discipleship had made its +way into the conscience and conscientiousness of Christendom. He was +fully conscious of being awake, but no less certainly did it seem to +him that he saw certain results with great distinctiveness, partly +as realities of the future, partly great longings that they might be +realities. And this is what Henry Maxwell saw in this waking vision: + +He saw himself, first, going back to the First Church in Raymond, +living there in a simpler, more self-denying fashion than he had yet +been willing to live, because he saw ways in which he could help +others who were really dependent on him for help. He also saw, more +dimly, that the time would come when his position as pastor of the +church would cause him to suffer more on account of growing +opposition to his interpretation of Jesus and His conduct. But this +was vaguely outlined. Through it all he heard the words "My grace is +sufficient for thee." + +He saw Rachel Winslow and Virginia Page going on with their work of +service at the Rectangle, and reaching out loving hands of +helpfulness far beyond the limits of Raymond. Rachel he saw married +to Rollin Page, both fully consecrated to the Master's use, both +following His steps with an eagerness intensified and purified by +their love for each other. And Rachel's voice sang on, in slums and +dark places of despair and sin, and drew lost souls back to God and +heaven once more. + +He saw President Marsh of the college using his great learning and +his great influence to purify the city, to ennoble its patriotism, +to inspire the young men and women who loved as well as admired him +to lives of Christian service, always teaching them that education +means great responsibility for the weak and the ignorant. + +He saw Alexander Powers meeting with sore trials in his family life, +with a constant sorrow in the estrangement of wife and friends, but +still going his way in all honor, serving in all his strength the +Master whom he had obeyed, even unto the loss of social distinction +and wealth. + +He saw Milton Wright, the merchant, meeting with great reverses. +Thrown upon the future by a combination of circumstances, with vast +business interests involved in ruin through no fault of his own, but +coming out of his reverses with clean Christian honor, to begin +again and work up to a position where he could again be to hundreds +of young men an example of what Jesus would do in business. + +He saw Edward Norman, editor of the NEWS, by means of the money +given by Virginia, creating a force in journalism that in time came +to be recognized as one of the real factors of the nation to mold +its principles and actually shape its policy, a daily illustration +of the might of a Christian press, and the first of a series of such +papers begun and carried on by other disciples who had also taken +the pledge. + +He saw Jasper Chase, who had denied his Master, growing into a cold, +cynical, formal life, writing novels that were social successes, but +each one with a sting in it, the reminder of his denial, the bitter +remorse that, do what he would, no social success could remove. + +He saw Rose Sterling, dependent for some years upon her aunt and +Felicia, finally married to a man far older than herself, accepting +the burden of a relation that had no love in it on her part, because +of her desire to be the wife of a rich man and enjoy the physical +luxuries that were all of life to her. Over this life also the +vision cast certain dark and awful shadows but they were not shown +in detail. + +He saw Felicia and Stephen Clyde happily married, living a beautiful +life together, enthusiastic, joyful in suffering, pouring out their +great, strong, fragrant service into the dull, dark, terrible places +of the great city, and redeeming souls through the personal touch of +their home, dedicated to the Human Homesickness all about them. + +He saw Dr. Bruce and the Bishop going on with the Settlement work. +He seemed to see the great blazing motto over the door enlarged, +"What would Jesus do?" and by this motto every one who entered the +Settlement walked in the steps of the Master. + +He saw Burns and his companion and a great company of men like them, +redeemed and giving in turn to others, conquering their passions by +the divine grace, and proving by their daily lives the reality of +the new birth even in the lowest and most abandoned. + +And now the vision was troubled. It seemed to him that as he kneeled +he began to pray, and the vision was more of a longing for a future +than a reality in the future. The church of Jesus in the city and +throughout the country! Would it follow Jesus? Was the movement +begun in Raymond to spend itself in a few churches like Nazareth +Avenue and the one where he had preached today, and then die away as +a local movement, a stirring on the surface but not to extend deep +and far? He felt with agony after the vision again. He thought he +saw the church of Jesus in America open its heart to the moving of +the Spirit and rise to the sacrifice of its ease and +self-satisfaction in the name of Jesus. He thought he saw the motto, +"What would Jesus do?" inscribed over every church door, and written +on every church member's heart. + +The vision vanished. It came back clearer than before, and he saw +the Endeavor Societies all over the world carrying in their great +processions at some mighty convention a banner on which was written, +"What would Jesus do?" And he thought in the faces of the young men +and women he saw future joy of suffering, loss, self-denial, +martyrdom. And when this part of the vision slowly faded, he saw the +figure of the Son of God beckoning to him and to all the other +actors in his life history. An Angel Choir somewhere was singing. +There was a sound as of many voices and a shout as of a great +victory. And the figure of Jesus grew more and more splendid. He +stood at the end of a long flight of steps. "Yes! Yes! O my Master, +has not the time come for this dawn of the millennium of Christian +history? Oh, break upon the Christendom of this age with the light +and the truth! Help us to follow Thee all the way!" + +He rose at last with the awe of one who has looked at heavenly +things. He felt the human forces and the human sins of the world as +never before. And with a hope that walks hand in hand with faith and +love Henry Maxwell, disciple of Jesus, laid him down to sleep and +dreamed of the regeneration of Christendom, and saw in his dream a +church of Jesus without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, following +him all the way, walking obediently in His steps. + +THE END + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg Etext of In His Steps, by Charles M. Sheldon + diff --git a/old/nhstp10.zip b/old/nhstp10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..601c6a6 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/nhstp10.zip |