 26. 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 became publicly known that the bishop had also announced his resignation in retirement from the position he had held so long, in order to go and live himself in the center 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 proposed 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 in 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 respective 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 open, 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. Vascom, a saleswoman who rents our three rooms 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 smile. 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 with 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 am 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 for 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 flush pots 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 as as good as the meals you used to get at the auditorium at the big banquet, said Felicia slightly. As good as! The auditorium bankwits 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 in 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. In the man's heart heavy though it had grown during several months of vast, sin-bearing rejoice 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 and 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 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. Someone noticed that he whistled ladderer than ever as he planned. 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 paying over a 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. End of Chapter 26 Chapter 27 of In His Steps This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by S. M. Hammond In His Steps by Charles Monroe Sheldon, Chapter 27 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 when 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 threw 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 towards 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 toward 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 lead 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 own 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 the 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's 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 cold 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 it 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 here 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 yours that morning. You prayed for me just as mother used to. And you didn't seem to take account of the fact that I was ragging and tough-looking and more than half drunk when I rang your doorbell. Oh, what a life I've lived. The saloon has housed me and honed 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 at 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 anyone 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 than six months since either of us did anything to tell of. Unless you count holding up work, I call it pretty wearing kind of job myself. Especially when we put in a night like this and don't make nothing. Suppose I found good jobs for both of you. Would you quit this and begin all over? And what's the use? The man on the stone spoke sullenly. I reformed a hundred times. Every time I go down deeper, the devil has begun to foreclose on me already. It's too late. No, said the bishop. And never before the most entrenched 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, Oh, 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 this 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 too 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. Oh 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 bishops. 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 dull, 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 rend 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. End of Chapter 27 Chapter 28 of In His Steps This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by S. M. Hammond In His Steps, by Charles Monroe Sheldon, Chapter 28 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 pale and came out a moment later with a quartered 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. Oh 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 sulfur 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 on 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. Oh, 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, oh Lord, how long, he prayed. Dr. Rus 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 worthwhile. But what can we do, Edward, against the saloon in this great city? It is as firmly established as the Church's or politics. What power can ever remove it? God will do it in time as he has removed slavery, was the great reply. Meanwhile, I think we have a right to know who controls the saloon so near the settlement. I'll find out, said Dr. Rus. 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 to the settlement where the Bishop and myself now are, you know. I'm 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. Dr., 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 leading 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 in 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 businessmen 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 to the settlement was closed. The saloonkeeper'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 are ready 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 winner, but a gay winner never had there been such a succession of parties, receptions, balls, dinners, banquets, fates, gayities. Never had the opera and the theater 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. Fast quantities of food and clothing and large sums of money were donated by the churches, 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 and time to come? The bishop found his heart saying 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. His charity, the giving of worn-out garments, is it a $10 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 musical and go and actually touch herself the foul, sinful, sore, 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 winner. 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 shun the terrors of the social problem as they would shun a contagious disease. End of Chapter 28 Chapter 29 of In His Steps This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by S. M. Hammond. In His Steps by Charles Monroe Sheldon, Chapter 29 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 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 the 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 newcomers, 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 anyone 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 right into the country? asked the divinity student. Someone 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. In an 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 defined 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 looks 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. Dr., 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 and 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 shed 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, saw 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 hobble of a home and faced with 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 seemed 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's 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 outline 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-bearers 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. In 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 in a 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. The end of Chapter 29 Chapter 30 of In His Steps This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by S. M. Hammond In His Steps by Charles Monroe Sheldon Chapter 30 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 lean forward in a way seldom seen in Church audiences, or anywhere except among working men 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 businessmen, the politicians, the newspapers, the working men, 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 the 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 pinned 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 and lest 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 govern 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, owe into 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 the 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 accept 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 men who remained standing began eagerly. This is the first time I was ever in here, and maybe it'll be the last. Fact is, I'm 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 over 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. Well, 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 awful little earnings I saved up during the world's fair jobs I got. I'm a carpenter by trade, and I try 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. Oh God, his heart prayed. This is a question that brings up the entire social problem and 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 arms 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 on 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 Carlson, the socialist leader. Now you'll hear something. This is all bosh to my mind, began Carlson, 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, who go to church Sundays and sing their hymns about giving all the 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. Carlson 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. Carlson 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 trade's 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. Carlson, 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 bases, 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 hell far from the poor because the personal possessor of voice or fingers capable of stirring divinous 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 had 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 bearded garden as a source of comfort or happiness. Aught 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 cursed 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? End of Chapter 30 Chapter 31 of In His Steps This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by S. M. Hammond. In His Steps by Charles Monroe Sheldon Chapter 31 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, in 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 more? 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, thank 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 businessman 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 businessman, 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. Everyone 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 this very thing, it was an answer that more than met his desires. There followed this movement of prayer service that in its impressions repeated the raiment 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 kneel 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 Christian dumb. 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 Roland 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 in 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 Saur 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 division 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 everyone 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. Oh, my master, has not the time come for this dawn of the millennium of Christian history? O break upon the Christian dharma 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. End of Chapter 31 End of In His Steps by Charles Monroe Sheldon