Decatur Democrat, Volume 43, Number 51, Decatur, Adams County, 1 March 1900 — Page 7

n HIS STEPS. «What WoulJ Jesus Do?” ' By 02ABLES M. GZZLDON. „ ht . a nnd publish- lin book form by Publishing <’<'•-f Chicago.] [continue:’] 't«r all. What am 1 spying? Rachel Winslow, have yon forgotten'’— She rose and walked baca and forth. She was deeply moved. Nevertheless it X evident to herself that her emotion not that of regret or sorrow. Somehow a glad, new joy had come to her. She had entered another circle of exXrwnce, and later in the day she reUedwith a very strong and sincere gladness that her Christian discipleship found room for this crisis in her feeling It was indeed a part of it, for if «he were beginning to love Rollin it was the Christian man who had won her heart. The other never would have moved her to this great change. And Rollin as he went back treasured . hope that had been a stranger to him since Rachel had said no that day. In that hope he went on with his work as the days sped on, and at no time was he more successful in reaching and saving his old acquaintances than in the time that followed that chance meeting with Rachel Winslow The summer had gone, and Raymond was once more facing the rigor of her winter season. Virginia had been able to accomplish a part of her plan for ■■capturing the Rectangle.” as she called it. but the building of houses in the field, the transforming of its bleak, bare aspect into an attractive park, all of which was included in her plan, was a work too large to be completed that fall after she had secured the property. Bnt a million dollars in the hands of a person who really wants to do with it as Jesus would ought to accomplish wonders for humanity in a short time, and Henry Maxwell, going over to the scene of the new work one day after a noon hour with the shopmen, was amazed to see how much had been done outwardly Yet he walked home thoughtfully, and on his way he could not avoid the question of the continual problem thrust into his notice by the saloon. How much had been done for the Rectangle, after all 1 Even counting in Virginia's and Rachel's work and Mr. Gray’s, where had it actually counted in any visible quantity? Os course he said to himself that the redemptive work begun and carried on by the Holy Spirit in his wonderful displays of power in the First church and in the tent meetings had had its effect on the life of Raymond, but as he walked past saloon after saloon and noticed the crowds going in and coining out of them, as he saw the wretched dens, as many as ever apparently. as he caught the brutality and squalor and open misery and degradation on countless faces of men and women and children, he sickened at the sight He found himself asking how much cleansing could even a million dollars poured into this cesspool accomplish? Was not the living source of nearly all the human misery they sought to relieve untouched as long as these saloons did their deadly but legitimate work? What could ev-Ai such unselfish Christian discipleship as Virginia’s and Rachel's do to lessen the stream of vice so long as the great spring of vice and crime flowed as deep and strong as ever? Was it not a practical waste of beautiful lives for these young women to throw themselves into this earthly hell when for every soul rescued by their sacrifice the saloon made two more that needed rescue ?

He could not escape the question. It was the same that Virginia had put to Rachel in her statement that, in her opinion, nothing really would ever be done until the saloon was taken out of the Rectangle. Henry Maxwell went hack to his parish work that afternoon with added convictions on the license business. But, if the saloon were a factor in the problem of the life of Raymond, no less were the First church and its little company of disciples who had pledged themselves to do as Jesus would do. Henry Maxwell, standing at the very center of the movement, was not in a position to judge of its power as some one from the outside might have done, but Raymond itself felt the touch of ms new discipleship and was changed in very many ways, not knowing all the reasons for the change. The winter had gone, and the year was ended, the year which Henry Maxwell had fixed as the time during w hich the pledge should be kept to do as aesus would do. Sunday, the anniversary of that one a year ago, was in ® lan F ways the most remarkable day I,J First church ever knew It was h lor ®. Important than the disciples in e First church realized. The year had ®ade history so fast and so serious that . * people were not yet able to grasp ■tri S '^ n ‘ f ’ cance - and the day itself, niar ' ie< ] the completion of a r k . ’ Tc . al such discipleship, was a.act-erized by such revelations and i„ n t) ess ’ onß that the immediate actors e events themselves could not untrstand the value of what had been ? r relation of their trial to the cou-t c^nrc^ea aD( i cities in the

R happened that the week before vin _ ann >versary Sunday the Rev. Calpn D- D., of the Nazareth Avn e , Chicago, was in RayKni - e h® ''*d come on a visit to his nia fr ! ends al) d incidentally to see "Well „ u “ nar y classmate, Henry Maxchurch WaS P resent at the First tivp ■■ Was an exceedingly attenconntr spectator. His accially of * n Ra - Vmond ' and espclight n Sunday, may throw more descrint- e ent t re situation than any Hr. Er ° r record from other sources. ee s statement ia therefore here

given [Letter from Rev. Calvin Bruce, D D., of the Nazareth Avenue church. Chicago, to Rev. Philip S Caxton. D. D.. New York city] “My Dear Caxton—lt is late Sunday night, but 1 am so intensely awake and so overflowing with what 1 have seen and heard that I feel driven to write you now some account of the situation in Raymond as I have been studying it and as it has apparently come to a climax today So this is my only excuse for writing so extended a letter at this time.

“Yon remember Henry Maxwell in the seminary. I think you said the last time I visited you in New York that you had not seen him since we graduated. He was a refined, scholarly fellow, you remember, and when he was called to the First church of Raymond within a year after leaving the seminary I said to my wife ’Raymond has made a good choice. Maxwell will satisfy them as a sermonizer. ’ He has been here 11 years, and I understand that up to a year ago he bad gone on in the regular course of the ministry, giving good satisfaction and drawing a good congregation to his morning preaching service His church was counted the largest, most wealthy church in Raymond All the best people attended it, and most of them belonged. The quartet choir was famous for its music, especially for its soprano. Miss Winslow, of whom I shall have more to say. and. on the whole, as I understand the fact. Maxwell was in a comfortable berth, with a very good salary, pleasant surroundings. not a very exacting parish of refined, rich, respectable people, such a church and parish as nearly all the young men in the seminary in our time looked forward to as very desirable. "Bnt a year ago today Maxwell came into his church on Sunday morning and at the close of his service made the astounding proposition that the members of his church volunteer for a year not to do anything without first asking the question. ‘What would Jesus do?’ and. after answering it. to do what in their honest judgment he would do, regardless of what the result might be to them “The effect of this proposition as it has been met and obeyed by a number of the members of the First church of Raymond has been so remarkable that, as you know, the attention of the whole country has been directed to the movement I call it a ‘movement’ because from the action taken today it seems probable that what has been tried here in the First church in Raymond will reach out into the other churches and cause a revolution in church methods, but more especially in a new definition of Christian discipleship “In the first place. Maxwell tells me he was astonished at the response made to his proposition Some of the most prominent members in the church made the promise to do as Jesus would Among them were Edward Norman, the editor of The Daily News, which has made such a sensation in the newspaper world; Milton Wright, one of the leading merchants in Raymond; Alexander Powers, whose action in the matter of the railroads against the interstate commerce laws made such a stir about a year ago: Miss Page, one of Raymond's leading society heiresses, who lias lately dedicated her entire fortune. as 1 understand, to the Christian daily paper and the work of reform in the slum district known as the Rectangle. and Miss Winslow, whose reputation as a singer is now national, but who. in obedience to what she has decided to be Jesus’ probable action, has devoted her talent to volunteer work among the girls and women who make up a large part of the city’s worst and most abandoned population “In addition to these well known people has been a gradually increasing number of . Christians from the First church and lately from other churches in Raymond A large proportion of these volunteers who pledge themselves to do as Jesus would comes from the Endeavor societies. The young people say that they have already embodied in their society pledge the same principle in the words. ‘1 promise him that I will strive to do whatever he would have me do. ’ This is not exactly what is included in Maxwell’s proposition, which is that the disciples shall try to do what Jesus would probably do in the disciples’ place, but the result of an honest obedience to either pledge, he claims, will be practically the same, and he is not surprised that the largest numbers have joined the new discipleship from the Endeavor society “I am sure the first question you will ask is. ‘What has been the result of this attempt, what has it accomplished or how has it changed in any way the regular course of the church or the community? “You already know something from reports of Raymond that have gone over the country what the results have been, but one needs to come here and learn something of the changes in individual lives, and especially the change in the church life, to realize all that is meant by this following of Jesus’ steps so literally To tell all that would be to write a long story or series of stories. 1 am not in a position to do that, but 1 can give yon some idea perhaps of what has happened here from what has been told me by my friends and Henry Maxwell himself “The result of the pledge upon the First church has been twofold—it has brought about a spirit of Christian fellowship which Maxwell tells me never before existed and which now impresses him as being very nearly what the Christian fellowship of the apostolic churches must have been, and it has divided the church into two di st in groups of members Those w o ® not taken the pledge regard the others as foolishly literal in their attempts to imitate the example of Jesus “Some of them have drawn out of the church and no longer attend, or they have removed their ®«nt*rship entirely to other churches borne are an internal element of strife, and

heard rumors of an attempt on their part to force Maxwell's resignation. I do not know that this element is very strong in the church. It has been held in cheek by a wonderful continuance of spiritual power, which dates from the first Sunday the pledge was taken a year ago. and also by the fact that so many of the most prominent members have been identified with the movement 'The effect on Henry Maxwell is very marked. I heard kim preach at our state association font years ago. He impressed me at the time as having considerable power in dramatic delivery. of which he himself was somewhat conscious. His sermon was well written and abounded in what the seminary students used to call ‘fine passages.’ The effect of it was what the average congregation would call pleasing. This morning I heard Maxwell preach again for the first time since then. I shall speak of that further on. He is not the same man. He gives me the impression of one who has passed through a crisis of revolution. He tells me this revolution is simply a new definition of Christian discipleship. He certainly has changed many of his old views. His attitude on the saloon question is radically opposite to the one he entertained a year ago. and in his entire thought of his ministry, his pulpit and parish work I find he has made a complete change. So far as I can understand, the idea that is moving him on now is the idea that the Christianity of our times must represent a more literal imitation of Jesus, and especially in the element of suffering. He quoted to me in the course of our conversation several times the verse from Peter, ‘For hereunto were ye called, because Christ also suffered for yon, leaving you an example, that ye should follow his steps.' and he seems filled with the conviction that what our churches need today more than anything else is this factor of suffering for Jesus in some form.

“I do not know that I agree with him altogether; bnt, my dear Caxton. it is certainly astonishing to note the results of this idea as they have impressed themselves upon this city and upon this church. "You ask how about the results on the individuals who have made the pledge and honestly tried to be true to it. Those results are, as I have said, a part of individual history and cannot be told in detail. Some of them I can give you. so that you may see that this form of discipleship is not merely sentiment or fine posing for effect. “For instance, take the case of Alexander Powers, who was superintendent of the machine shops of the L. and T R. R here. When he acted upon the evidence that incriminated the road, he lost his position, and. more than that. I learn from my friends here his family and social relations have become so changed that the family no longer appear in public. They have dropped out of the social circle where once- they were so prominent. By the way. Caxton. I understand in this connection that the commission, for one reason and another, postponed action on this case, and it is now rumored that the L. and T. R. R. will pass into a receiver’s hands very soon. The president of the road. who. according to the evidence submitted by Powers, was the principal offender, has resigned, and complications which have arisen since point to the receivership. Meanwhile the superintendent has gone back to his old work as a telegraph operator. I met him at the church yesterday He impressed me as a man who bad. like Maxwell, gone through ts crisis in character. I could not help thinking of him as being good materia) for the church of the first century, when the disciples had all things in common. “Or take the case of Mr. Norman, editor of The Daily News. He risked his entire fortune in obedience to what he believed was Jesus’ probable action and revolutionized his entire conduct of the paper at the risk of a failure. I send yon a copy cf yesterday’s paper I want you to read it carefully. To my mind, it is one of the most interesting and remarkable papers ever printed in the United States. It is open to criticism. but what could any mere man attempt in this line that would be free frem criticism ? Take it all in all, it is so far above the ordinary conception of a daily paper that I am amazed at the result' He tells me that the paper is beginning to be read more and more by the Christian people of the -city. He is very confident of its final success. “Read his editorial on the money question; also the one on the coining election in Raymond, when the question of license will again be an issue. Both articles are of the best from this point of view He says he never begins an editorial or. in fact, any part of his newspaper work without first asking, ‘What would Jesus do?’ The result is certainly apparent. “Then there is Milton Wright, the merchant. He has. I am told, so revolutionized his business that no man is more beloved today in Raymond. His own clerks and employees have affection for him that is very touching During the winter, while he was lying dangerously ill at his home, scores of clerks volunteered to watch or help in anv possible way. and his return to his store was greeted with marked demonstrations. All this has been brought about by the element of personal love introduced into the business. This loveis not mere words, but the business itself is carried on under a system of cooperation that is not a patronizing recognition of inferiors, but a real sharing in the entire business. Other men on the street look upon Milton Wright as odd. It is a fact, however, that while he has lost heavily in some directions he has increased his business and is today respected and honored as one of the best and most successful merchants in Raymond. “And there is Miss Winslow She has chosen to give her great talent to the poor and wretched of the city. Her plans include a musical institute where

choruses and classes in vocal music shall be a feature. She is enthusiastic over her life work. In connection with her friend Miss Page she has planned a course in music which, if carried out. will certainly do much to lift up the lives of the people down there lam not too old. my dear Caxton. to be interested in the romantic aide of much that has also been tragic here in Raymond. and 1 must tell you that it is well understood there that Miss Winslow’ expects to be married this spring to a brother of Miss Page, who was once a society leader and clubman and who was converted in a tent where his wife that is to be took an active part in tho service. I don’t know till the details of this little romance, but I can imagine there is a little story wrapped up in it, and it would be interesting reading if we only knew it all. “These are only a few illustrations of results in individual lives owing to obedience to the pledge. I meant to have spoken of President Marsh of Lincoln college. He is a graduate of my alma mater, and I knew him slightly when I was in the senior year. He has taken an active part in the recent municipal agitation, and his influence in the city is regarded as a very large factor in the coming election. He impressed me. as did all the other disciples in this movement, as having fought out some hard questions and as having taken up some real burdens that have caused and still do cause that suffering of which Henry Maxwell speaks, a suffering that does not eliminate but does appear to intensify a positive and practical joy. “But I am prolonging this letter, possibly to your weariness. I am unable to avoid the feeling of fascination which my entire stay here has increased I want to tell you something of the meeting in the First church today. “As I said. I heard Maxwell preach. At his earnest request I had preached for him the Sunday before, and this was the first time I had heard him since the association four years ago. His sermon this morning was as different from his sermon then as if it had been thought out and preached by some one living on another planet. I was profoundly touched. I believe I actually shed tears onca Others in the congregation were moved like myself. His text was; ‘What is that to thee? Follow thou me. ’ And it was a most unusually impressive appeal to the Christians of Raymond to obey Jesus’ teachings and follow in his steps, regardless of what others might do. I cannot give you even the plan of the sermon. It would take too long At the close of the service there was the usual after meeting that has become a regular feature of the First church. Into this meeting have come all those who made the pledge to do as Jesus would do. and the time is spent in mutual fellowship, confession. questions as to what Jesus would do in special cases and prayer that the one great guide of every disciple’s conduct may be the Holy Spirit. “M ixwell asked me to come into this meeting. Nothing in all my ministerial life. Caxton. has so moved me as that meeting. I never felt the Spirit's presence so powerfully It was a meeting of reminiscences and of the most loving fellowship. I was irresistibly driven in thought back to the first years of Christianity. There was something about all this that was apostolic in its simplicity and Christ imitation. “I asked questions. One that seemed to arouse more interest than any other was in regard to the extent of the Christian disciples’ sacrifice of personal property. Henry Maxwell tells me that so far no one has interpreted the spirit of Jesus in such away as to abandon his earthly possessions, give away all his wealth or in any literal way imitate tho Christians of the order, for example. of St. Francis of Assisi. It was the unanimous consent, however, that if any disciple should feel that Jesus in his own particular case would do that there could be only one answer to the question. Maxwell frankly admitted that he was still, to a certain degree, uncertain as to Jesus’ probable action when it came to the details of household living, the possession of wealth, the holding of certain luxuries. It is, however, evident that very many of these disciples have repeatedly carried their obedience to Jesus to the extreme limit, regardless of financial loss. There is no lack of courage or consistency at this point. It is also true that some of the business men who took tho pledge have lost great sums of money in this imitation of Jesus, and very many have, like Alexander Powers, lost valuable positions owing to the impossibility of doing what they had been accustomed to do and at the same time doing what they felt Jesus would co in the same place. In connction with these cases it is pleasant to record the fact that many who have suffered in this way have at once been helped financially by those who still have means. In this respect I think it is true that these disciples have all things in common. Certainly such scenes as I witnessed at the First church at that after service this morning I never saw in my church or any other I never dreamed that such Christian fellowship could exist in this age of the world lam almost incredulous as to the witness of my own senses I still seem to be asking myself if this is the close of the nineteenth century in America. “But now. dear friend. I come to the real cause of the letter, the real heart of the whole question as the First church of Raymond has forced it upon me. Before the meeting closed today steps were taken to secure the co-oper-ation of all other Christian disciples in this country I think Henry Maxwell took this step after long deliberation. He said as much to me one day when I called upon him and we were discussing the effect of this movement upon the church in general. “ ‘Why,' he said, ‘suppose that the church membership generally in this country made this pledge ■and lived up to it. What a revolution it would cause in Christendom I But why not? Is it

any more than the disciple ought to do? Has he followed Jesus unless he is willing to do this? Is the test of discipleship any less today than it was in Jesus’ time?' “I do not know all that preceded or followed his thought of what ought to be done outside of Raymond, but the idea crystallized today in a plan to s'eeur- the fellowship of all the Christians in America, me churches throjigli then pastors will be asked to form disciple gatherings like the one in (he First church. Volunteers will be called for in the great body of church members in the United States who will promise to do as Jesus would do. Maxwell spoke particularly of the result of such general action on the saloon question. He is terribly in earnest over this. He told me that there was no question in his mind that the saloon would be beaten in Raymond at the election now near at hand If so, they could go on with some courage to do the redemptive work begun by the evangelist and now taken up by the disciples in his own church. If the saloon triumphs again, there will be a terrible and, as he thinks, unnecessary waste of Christian sacrifice. But, however we differ on that point, he has convinced his church that the time has come for a fellowship with other Christians. Surely, if the First church could work such changes in society and its surroundings, the church in general, if combining such fellowship, not of creed, but of conduct, ought to stir the entire nation to a higher life and a new conception of Christian following. “This is a grand idea. Caxton, but right here is where I find myself hesitating. I do not deny that the Christian disciple ought to follow Christ’s steps as closely as these here in Raymond have tried to do. but I cannot avoid asking what the result will be if I ask my church in Chicago to do it. I am writing this after feeling the solemn, profound touch of the Spirit’s presence, and I confess to you. old friend, that I cannot call up in my church a dozen prominent business or professional men who would make this trial at the risk of all that they hold dear. Can you do any better in your church ? What are we to say—that the church would not respond to the call, ‘Come and suffer ?’ The actual results of the pledge as obeyed here in Raymond are enough to make any pastor tremble and at the same time long with yearning that they might occur in his own parish. Certainly. never have I seen a church so signally blessed by the Spirit as this one. But am I myself ready to take this pledge ? I ask the question honestly, and I dread to face an honest answer. I know well enough that I would have to change very much in my life if I undertook to follow his steps so closely I have called myself a Christian for many years. For the past ten years I have enjoyed a life that has had comparatively little suffering in it. I am—honestly I say it—living at a long distance from municipal problems and the life of the poor, the degraded and the abandoned. What would the obedience to this pledge demand of me ? I hesitate to answer. My church is wealthy, full of well to do. satisfied people. The standard of their discipleship is. I am aware, not of a nature to respond to the call to suffering or personal loss. I say. ‘I am aware. ’ I may be mistaken I may have erred in not stirring their deeper life. Caxton. my friend. I have spoken my inmost thought to you Shall Igo back to my people next Sunday and stand up before them in my large city church and say. ‘Let us follow Jesus closer; let ns walk in his steps, where it will cost us something more than it is costing us now; let us pledge not to do anything without first asking, ‘What would Jesus do?’ If I should go before them with that message, it would be a strange and startling one to them. Bnt why ? Are we not really to follow him all the way? What is it to be a follower of Jesus? What does it mean to imitate him? What does it mean to walk in his steps?” The Rev. Calvin Bruce, D. D.. of the Nazareth Avenue church. Chicago, let his pen fall on the paper. He had come to the parting of the ways, and his question, he felt sure, was the question of many and many a man in the ministry and in the church. Ho went to his window and opened it. He was oppressed with the weight of his convictions, and he felt almost suffocated with the air of the room. He wasted to see the stars and feel the breath of the world. The night was very still. The clock in the First church was striking midnight. As it finished a clear, strong voice down in the direction of the Rectangle came floating up to him as if borne on radiant pinions “Must .Jesus bear the cross alone And all the world go free? No! There’s a cross for every one. And there’s a cross for me.” It was the voice of one of Gray’s old converts, a night watchman at the packing houses, who sometimes solaced his lonesome hours by a verse or two from some familiar hymn The Rev Calvin Bruce turned away from the window, and after a little hesitation he kneeled down. “What would Jesus do? What would Jesus do?” Never had he yielded himself so completely to the Spirit’s searching revealing of Jesus. He was on his knees a long time. He retired and slept fitfully, with many awakenings. He rose before it was clear dawn and threw open his window again. As the light in the east grew stronger he repeated to himself “What would Jesus do? What would he do? Shall I follow his steps?” The sun rose and flooded the city with its power. When shall the dawn of a new discipleship usher in the conquering triumph of a closer walk with Jesus? When shall Christendom tread more closely the path he made? With this question throbbing through his whole being the Rev. Calvin Bruce went back to Chicago, and the great crisis of his Christian life in the ministry suddenly broke irresistibly upon him. ITO BE CONTINUED.!

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MORTGAGE LOANS Money Loaned on Favorable Terms LOW RATE OF INTEREST Frivelege of Partial Payments. Abstracts of Title Carefully Prepared F. M. SCHIRMEYER, Cor. 2d and Madison Sts. DECATI It, Dr O V. CONNELL, fortuy Swpji ui bust Deeutur, Ind f f*** • ’ ■•' “ t O O F Ri nm Georgia Bank Looted. Perry, Ga., Feb. 27. — The Perry Loan and Savings bank was entered evidently by professional bank robbers last night and .$3,700 stolen. The vault door was blown open as was also the inner money vault. Chicago Man “Champ’' of England. London, Feb. 27.—At the National Sporting club, London, last evening Tommy Hogan of Chicago beat Bill Chester of London, in a 15-round boxing contest for the 128 pound championship of London. Fire Caused by Friction. Oswego, N. Y„ Feb. 27.—A portion of the Minetto Shade Cloth company’s plant at Minetto, a suburb of this city, was destroyed by fire yesterday. Loss of $200,000. The fire was caused by friction in the paint mill. Smallpox In New Jersey. Norristown, N. J., Feb. 27.—A number of fresh cases of smallpox have been reported within the last 48 hours. The disease seems to be spreading, notwithstanding the energetic efforts of the health officials co stamp it out. The Deadly Mine Shaft. Scranton. Pa., Feb. 27.—Four men were killed by being thrown from a descending carriage in the Mount Pleasant shaft of the Fuller Coal company in West Scranton yesterday. |Dr FennefsGOLDEN BELIEFI T - "J? • u A TRUE SPECIFIC IN ALL 15 - INFLAMMATION h »--= Sorethroat, Headache (6 minutes). Tooth- - c ache 11 minute), CoJd Sores. Felons. etc.etc. e c ” Id one to thirty minutes. By Dealers. The oOc. aixe t y nail Frwloataji