 CHAPTER IX 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 anyone else, only for himself. How about his family? How will Mrs. Powers and Celia be likely to take it? Very hard, I have no doubt. That will be Powers' cross in this matter. They will not understand his movers. 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 a while. 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 work that YMCA'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 is 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 furnishing and expenses 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-grass 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 Jewish 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, 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 him and honored him for his consistent, faithful service in the church. Well the fact is, I'm 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 addition that came out Monday morning, just to 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 asks 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've thought some of going to Chicago or some large city. Why don't you try the news? They are all supplied. I've 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 him the cause of the errand. I can give you a place on the news, said Norman, with his keen looks, often by a smile that made it winsome. I want reporters who won't work on Sundays. And what is more, I'm 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's a very deep kind, which a man feels when he has even been partly instrumental in finding an unemployed person a renumbered 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, wishing God's 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 that this was the Milton Wright he used to know, eminently practical, business-like, according to the regular code of business, and viewing everything 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 it's a small item compared with a number of things I 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 his 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 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 here 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've 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 further along it pushed me into the most intimate and loving relations with the men who have worked with me for all these years. Every day something new is coming up and I'm right now in the midst of a reconstruction of the entire business so far as it's motive for being conducted is concerned. I am so practically ignorant of all plans for cooperation and its application of business that I'm trying to get information from every possible source. I have lately made a special study of the lice of Titus Salt, the great mill owner of Bradford, England, who afterward built that model town on the banks of the ire. There's 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 used enough to Jesus' methods. But see here, Wright eagerly reached up into one of the pigeonholes of his desk and took out a paper. I have sketched out what seems to me like a program such that Jesus might go by in a business like mine. I want you to tell me what you would think of it. What would Jesus probably do in Milton Wright's place as a businessman? 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 anyone 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 which was connected. Henry Maxwell read this over slowly. It reminded him of his own attempts the day before to put into concrete form his thought of Jesus's 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 businessmen 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 cooperation? Yes, as far as I've gone, it does. As I told you, I'm studying out my details carefully. I'm absolutely convinced that Jesus in my place would be absolutely unselfish. He would love all these men and his employee. 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 writes 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 in 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 the 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 would know what that meant to him, when he had done that in the 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 daytime might have heard a good deal about the meetings in one way or another. It cannot be said that up to that Sunday night there was any appreciable lack of osse or impunity in 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 well 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 came to understand that this man was talking these many weeks and giving his time and strength to give them the 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. As for 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, was 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, and 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 around the platform, most of them kneeling and crying, a man in evening dress, different from the others, pushed to the seats and came and knelt 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 Roland 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. End of chapter 9, recording by Vaughan Ollman, v-o-n-s-b-o-o-k-s dot com. Chapter 10 of In His Steps. If any man serve me, let him follow me. It was nearly midnight before the services at the rectangle closed. Prey 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 on him to save them from physical death. Among these converts was Roland 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 or results to himself, because he had felt so certain that Rachel would respond to his love. He tried to recall the impression she had 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 tents 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 idea 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 uneraced from his memory. He even recalled the fact that he began to speak just at the point on the avenue where, a few days before, he had met Rachel walking with Roland Page. He had wondered at the time what Roland 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've 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 began to see a great loss, facing him where he had 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 to street lamp. Her face was pale and beautiful. He had made a movement to clutch her arm, and she had moved a little further from him. No. She had replied, there was a time I cannot answer that for 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. Sometime, 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 of her feelings 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 of 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 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 a reverence 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 have still felt the same toward him. She always had. What was that feeling? What had he been to her? Had she made a mistake? She went to her bookcase 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 Roland 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 and 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 a time being to contain all the actors in 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'm sure I do not love him, not enough to give him my life. And after she had thus spoken the evening's experience of the tent came crowding in again, thrusting out all of the 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 his action in the matter of the railroad frauds that created 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, 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 businesses and social circles strange things happening. Nearly 100 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 weak events had come the spiritual manifestation at the rectangle, and the announcement which came to most people before its church time, of the actual conversion at the tent of nearly 50 of the worst characters in that neighborhood, to gather with the conversion of Roland Page, the well-known society and clubmen. 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 a living voice of God. His prayers were unlike any of the people had ever heard before. They were often broken, even once or twice they had actually been 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 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 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 the 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 light 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, businessman, 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 or let good men to city offices and clean the municipality? How much had prayers helped to make Raymond better while the 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 to 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 had been amazed if he could have measured the extent of desire in the part of his people to take up the cross. While he was speaking this morning and before he closed with a loving appeal to the discipleship of 2,000 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 Mazini 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? End of chapter 10. Recording by Vaughan Ollman, v-o-n-s-b-o-k-s dot com. Chapter 11 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 Vaughan Ollman. In His Steps by Charles Monroe Sheldon, chapter 11. 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's 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 o'er 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 go simply on as I have done, attempting to the duties of my college work, teaching the classics in ethics and philosophy. But I have not been able to avoid 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 anything else. Donald Marsh looked surprised and 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 the 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 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 anything 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 from 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 me 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'm 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'm 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 participate in the municipal life, the duties and privileges we preach from the pulpit. What would Jesus do? I'm now at a point where, like you, I'm 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've been able 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 could 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 ramen 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 this loon element is cowardly and easily frightened in spite of its lawlessness and corruption. Let us plan a campaign that will mean something because it's 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 courthouse. The citizen for 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 counsel, 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 the directness and conviction that the Christian of people of Raymond were learning to respect deeply because it was so 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 courthouse 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 everyone else was simply a tool or 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 hitherto 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 with 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 world 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 had 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 old-time ring of city rulers was outnumbered. Reverend Henry Maxwell of the First Church, Milton Wright, Alexander Powers, Professors Brown, Willard and Park of Lincoln College, Dr. West, Reverend George Main of the Pilgrim Church, Dean Ward of Holy Trinity, and scores of well-known businessmen and professional men, most of them church members were present, and 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 politicians' methods, and were able, by organizing an effort, to nominate the entire ticket. As soon as it became plain that the primary was out of their control, the regular wing withdrew in disgust and nominated another ticket. The news simply caused the attention of all decent citizens to the fact that this last ticket contains the names of whiskeymen, and the line is sharply and distinctly drawn between the saloon and corrupt management, such as we've 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 bootle and shameless incompetency, or shall we, as President March 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 March and the rest of the citizens who have thus begun a long-needed reform in our city. President March 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 covered 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 and partisanship of the regular sort, and his like to champions of remarkable reform and 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 businessmen in Raymond. And still, as he drove his pen over the paper, he asked another question, what would Jesus do? That question had become part of his 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 one 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 in 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'd been able to agree that if Jesus had a vast amount of money as disposal, he might do as some of it as Virginia planned. At any rate, they felt that whatever he might do in such a case would have as large an element of variety 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, satish 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 experience of full of profound excitement for them. Roland 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 anyone 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 finish 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 supranational 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 purely life, it did not seem possible that the election could result in the old system of license. But that remains 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 houses, 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 character. It does not stand to reason that these people can always resist the sight and smell of the devilish drink about them. Oh, 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 did not have much hope of 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 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 altogether 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 driveway instead of 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, as one of the girls tapping her playfully on the shoulder with a red-sink parasol? We hear that you've 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 God, 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 have 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 12 OF IN HIS STEPPS by Charles Monroe Sheldon 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, so 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? That's 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's been 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 unto the 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 the 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's 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 the 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. In a moment she was out, and had gone up to the girl and taken her by the arm. Laurene! she said. And that was all. The girl looked into her face, and her own changed to 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 bandstand in the park floated into the rectangle. The concert had begun, and the fashion and wealth of Raymond were displaying themselves uptown on the boulevard. When Virginia left the carriage and went up to Laurene 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. Before she had touched the drunken girl's arm she had only asked 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 Laurene, and the whole scene was cruelly vivid to her. She first thought of the girls in the carriage. "'Drive on! Don't wait for me. I'm 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 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, and 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 hill 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 him. 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,' 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 towards 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 stumbling through the gutter, dead drunk, always made the rectangle laugh and jest. But Loreen, staggering along with the 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 Gray's, 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're 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 Madame 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 to her handsome house in Virginia, she breathed a sigh of relief, even in the face of the interview with her 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. Madame 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. And mother, 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'm going to care for her here a little while." Madame Page glanced from her granddaughter to Loreen in astonishment. "'Did you say she was 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 Madame Page in an angry whisper, stepping near Virginia. "'I know very well. She's an outcast. You need not tell me, Grandmother. And I know it even better than you do. She is drunk at this minute, but she's 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 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've brought her here, and I shall keep her.' Madame 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 the long list of necessary relations which people of wealth and position must sustain to the leaders of society? To Madame Page society represented more than the church or any other institution. It was a power to be feared and obeyed. The loss of its goodwill 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 Lorraine 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 Lorraine here to-night, and longer if it seems best. Then you can answer for the consequences. I do not stay in the same house with the miserable— Madame 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 any value. I shall not stay here, then, said Madame 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 intense excitement of passion. You can always remember that you have driven your grandmother out of your house in favour of a drunken woman. Then without waiting for Virginia to reply, she turned again and went upstairs. Virginia called a servant, and soon had Lorraine 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 XIII. During 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 Madame Page was not there. A few minutes later Roland 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 Roland comforted each other at the tea table, looking at each other with earnest sad faces. Roland, said Virginia, and for the first time almost since this conversion she realised 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 Roland comforted Virginia and counselled 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 Roland'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 Laye tossed she hardly knew how into this haven, and Virginia crept nearer the master than she had ever been, as the 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 bawling 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 price fights, scandals, and horrors of various kinds. The subject 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 especially 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 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's 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 questions 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 it into 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. Things that 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, sees some wise way to invest his money, it is not an occasion for vain glory or thanks from anyone 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 the 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 interest before this little company had begun to do as they believed Jesus would do? It was with difficulty that he thought of this 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 Normans. Some of the young men told of loss of places owing to their honest obedience to their promise. Alexander Power spoke briefly of the fact that the commission had promised to take action on his evidence at the earliest date possible. CHAPTER XIV. OF IN HIS STEPPS. 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. These 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 the 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 colleague professors who had made the pledge in the first church. Their experience and suffering were the same as his. But 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 his 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 the duty which carries with it the dueling 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. That 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 Roland or Dr West. Rachel's power in song had not diminished. But 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 site, 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. Everyone 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 off the influence of the evangelists in the worst part of the city. Dr. Weston Rowland had come with Rachel and Virginia, and Lorraine, who still stayed with Virginia, was present near the organ, in a 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 apart 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 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, Lorraine, Roland 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 realise that they themselves were the 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 licence. If that is so, the whisky men have been beaten. Thank God! I hope it is true, exclaimed Maxwell. Marsh, we are in danger here. Do you realise 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 Rowland and Dr West he started to go forward through a small opening. Virginia, Rachel and Lorraine followed close and sheltered by the men who now realise 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 Salern. One with their 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 Rowland 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, Lorraine 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 Lorraine had come out a week before, someone had thrown a heavy bottle. It struck Lorraine 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 Lorraine, supporting her. She's dying, said Dr. West briefly. Lorraine opened her eyes and smiled at Virginia, who wiped the blood from her face and then bent over and kissed her. Lorraine smiled again, and the next minute her soul was in paradise. End of CHAPTER XV The body of Lorraine 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 encompassed 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 to-morrow and damp a hundred laurines before the year had drawn to its bloody clothes? 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. He marched that 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, nearby, 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 flea-flee 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, 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 and raiment 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 in 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 Lorraine 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. Everyone in the rectangle knew that Lorraine 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 Lorraine'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 Lorraine 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 greatest sources of strength. But the cry of the poor creatures who knew Lorraine 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. For 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, Reverend 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 in 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 Reverend 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 center 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 the 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 piled past leaving their flowers. All the time the singing continued softly like rain on a tank-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 an open ranks while the coffin was born out by six of the women. It is a long time since I have seen such a picture in this unpoetic Republic. If Lorraine'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 Lorraine'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 XVI No one in all Raymond, including the rectangle, felt Lorraine'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. They 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, Lorraine's body had lain. I have decided on a good plan, as it seems to me. I have talked it over with Roland. 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 $450,000. Roland 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 align 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 $500,000 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. Roland and I are going to buy up a large tract 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 gods 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 Lorraine, 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, 500 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 anyone 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 the right use of her talent. Yes, she said, as she rose and put her arm about Virginia, while both girls and 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, Roland came in. He hesitated a moment and then was passing out of the hall into the library when Virginia called him back and asked him some questions about his work. Roland came back and sat down and together the three discussed their future plans. Roland 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 Roland 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 Roland 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 and 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 Roland 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, Roland answered briefly. Neither can I imagine mist. 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, mister, Virginia spoke the name of a young society leader going about to the clubs doing your work, Roland. The two walked on in silence for the length of the hall. Coming back to Rachel, began Virginia. Roland, why do you treat her with such a distinct, precise manner? I think, Roland, 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. Roland 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 anyone but Rachel Winslow. Roland 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 us 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 savior. Roland was silent, then he went on with more emotion. I still love her, Virginia, but I do not think she could ever 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 Roland'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. Roland 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. End of chapter 16.