Jasper County Democrat, Volume 20, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 September 1917 — “Take the Step.” [ARTICLE]

“Take the Step.”

A story is told of a riVival held in a town not a thousand miles from the national capital. A man of mark in the place for many years and for ever so long a vestryman in one of the oldest of the churches, was interested in the work of the evangelist and attended the services. He was impressed by the earnestness of the preacher and his good faith. One night when the mourners were called this godly men, for years the pattern of high sentiment and correct conduct in his church, was shocked into almost violent speech, when he was approached by a converted bartender and urged: “Colonel —take the step!” The very idea was revolting to his sense of propriety, as for a quarter of a century he had been living in the beauty of holiness, and he could hardly have been blamed for feeling just a bit embarrassed by the plea of the converted barkeeper.