El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-11-25
IN HIS STEPS.
u1flat muuIn
SrsuH Du -"
Copyrighted and published in book form By the
AdUdnce Publishing Co. of Chicago.

| as or MS sermons. was 1t possible he
now so abhorred the elegant refinement
of a formal public petition that he pur-
posely chose to rebuke himself for his
previous precise manner of prayer? 1t
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 mis-
take. 1t is certain he had never prayed
SO effectively as he did now.
There are times when a sermon has a
value and power due to conditions in
the audience rather than to anything
new or startling or eloquent in the
words or the arguments presented Such
conditions faced Henry Maxwell tn,
morning as he preached against the sa-
loon, according to his purpose deter
| mined on the week before. He had no
| new statements TO make about the evil
influence of the saloon in Raymond.
| What new facts were tl1ere2 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 q great many times !.
The effect of his message this morning
owed its power to the unusual facteOf
his preaching about the saloon at all,
together with the events that had stir
red the people. He had never in the
course of his ten years pastorate men
toned the saloon as something to be re-
garded in the light of an enemy, not
only to the poor and the tempted, but
to the business life of the place and the
church itself He spoke now with a
freedom that seemed to measure his
complete sense of the conviction that
Jesus would speak so. At the close he
pleaded with the people to remember
the new life that had begun at the Rec
tangle. The regular election of city Off
GERS would be an issue in that election.
What of the poor creatures surrounded
by the hell of drink while just begin
ming 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 disci
pie, business man, professional man,
citizen, in favor of continuing to license
these crimes and shame producing in
situations? Was not the most Christian
thing they could do to act as citizens
in the matter, fight the saloon at the
polls, elect good men to the city offices
and clean the municipality How much
had prayers helped to make Raymond
better while votes and actions had real
ly been on the side of the enemies of
Jesus Would not Jesus do this7 What !
disciple could imagine him refusing to !
suffer or take up his cross in the mat !,
ter? How much had the members of |
the First church ever suffered in an at |
tempt to initiate Jesus? Was Christian |
discipleship thing of convenience of |
custom, of tradition2 Where did the !
suffering come in? Was it necessary, !
in order to follow Jesus. steps. to go up |
as well as the Mount of Trans
fguration?
His appeal was stronger at this point
than he knew. 1t is not too much to
say that the spiritual tension of the
First church 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 Max
well would, even thus early in his new
life. have been amazed if he could have
the extent of desire on the
part of his people to take up the cross.
While he was speaking this morning
before he closed with a loving appeal to
The discipleship of 1000 years knowl-
edge OF the Master, many a man and
woman in the church was saying, as
Rachel had said SO passionately to her
mother: 81 want to do something that
will cost me something in the way of
acrifice. 1 am hungry to suffer some
hing" Truly, Mazzini was right when
le said, ''NO appeal is quite so power
nj in the end as the call. Come and
rffer. !" |,
The service was over, the great audi ,
nee had gone, and Henry Maxwell
gain faced the company gathered in {
he lecture room as on the two previous ]
sundays He had asked all to remain E
Tho had made the pledge of disciple I
hip and any others who wished to be
Included The after service seemed now {
D be necessity. AS he went in and
aced the people there his heart trem-
led. There were at least 300 present. f
he Holy Spirit was never SO manifest. s
lie missed Jasper Chase, but all the
theirs were present. He asked Milton 4
Wright to pray. The very air was q
narged with divine Possibilities What b
ould resist such baptism of power2 O
low had they lived all these years t
ithout it? a
They counseied together, and there t.
ere many prayers. Henry Maxwell v
ated from that meeting some of the n
rious events that afterward became a Il
art of the history of the First church e.
Raymond When finally they went Il
ome, all of them were impressed with c.
le joy of the Spirits power. c.
Donald Marsh, president of Lincoln J
'llege. walked home with Henry Max n
ell "
81 have reached one consc1usion, II
axwell, said Marsh, speaking slow ly
81 have found my cross, and it is
,avy one. but shall never be satisfied tt