The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-05-19

suit? Would not one year of such
united effort eclipse the missionary
work Of eighty years, and that TOO
without for once disparaging the grand
and noble work OF those who have
gOLa before.
Yesterday the world measured by
precepr Today it demands example.
There is constantly growing con
viction that Christianity should mean
like Christ.
An Evangelist pasted throughout a
certain city Small slips of paper on
which were printed these words: Get
right with God" The following Sab
bath a prominent divine of that same
city took as his subject these words:
Get right with man, and you will be
right with God"
When the Rev Charles NJ Sheldon
gave to the religious world that grand
book, I'm His steps" he brought face
to face the Christianity that is and
the Christianity that should be. He
has not given the world meaningless
theory nor a visionary scheme.
The writer personally knows the
works of this man; knows that Anne
RIGA possesses no truer, nobler practi-
cal Christian than he. He daily asks
the question: What would Jesus
do?" then proceeds to do it. He is a
man prominently identified with all
that lifts man out of the religious
and economic ruts Of the present; a
man identified with associated chart
ties, and it is a serious mistake TO sup
pose that he, in his book, even by i'm
plication advocates the indiscriminate
giving of aims. He does believe that
a righteous God will condemn society
even more than society now condemns
her criminals.
We find this same man to the fore
in kindergarten work among the
poor; establishing free library and
reading room among the ignorant,
and daily moving in and out among his
people as did Christ.
Alexander Powers is not alone a fl
Sheldon, the man who has daily gone
into the midst of thousands of toilers
during their noon hour, and done his
little towards giving them ray of
sunshine, increasing their already too
small store of human happiness and
knowledge
Professor Marsh bears more than a
paper name. His real name is Sheldon,
who, modest, and shrinking from pu-
blicity has nevertheless not hesitated
to organize what Christian force he
could against rum and political cor
ruption.
Virginia Page is not alone a word
painting of Christian grace. Her proto-
type can be found in one C. NJ. Sheldon.
Smoky Row." the hell of Kansas S
capital, knows him almost as we'll as
does his own we'll dressed, intelligent
parishiOners. I doubt whether he ever
visits these places that he does not
silently ask: How long shall Christ
ian people continue to support, by
their silence and their ballots, the
greatest form of slavery ever known
in American"
No, there is no vision about this
man or his books. 1t took an Uncle
Toms Cabin to arouse the political
apathy of a Christian nation in days
gone by. 1t will take an In His
Steps" to arouse the Christian apathy
Of to-day. 1t is not a book good for
one to read to arouse a little religious
enthusiasm. 1t is a book to live.
1t would be absolutely impossible for
any individual, single handed under
our present defective and cruel social
system to dare take as his motto:
What would Jesus do?" Be he rich
or poor, learned or ignorant, he
would fall before the battle was fairly
begun, and that too by the very hands
of those who would profess moral
support
But, how different it would be with
a united body of earnest men and
women, sufficient number TO form a
society unto themselves, whose COM
bined religious enthusiasm, moral
courage, intellectual and financial
strength could and would win lasting
victory for humanity and God.
D. II. c.