Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1900-06-04
IN HIS STEPS.
"What Would Jesus DO?"
By CHARLES M. SHELDON.


Judging others. They were simply keep
ing their own pledge to do as Jesu:
would do, as they honestly judged he
would do. That was what they ha6
promised. How could they quarrel with
the result? They were irresistibly com
PEELED to do what they were planning
to do.
The bishop had money of his own
Every one in Chicago knew that the
bishop had a handsome fortune. DIR.
Bruce had acquired and saved by liter
airy work carried on in connection with
his parish duties more than comforta-
BILE competence. This money, a large
part of it. the two friends agreed to put
at once into the work, most of it into
the furnishing of settlement house.
Meanwhile Nazareth Avenue church
was experiencing something never
known before in all its history. The
simple appeal ON the part of its pastor
to his members to do as Jesus would do
had created a sensation that still con-
tinued The result of that appeal was
very much the same as in Henry Max
wells church in Raymond, only Naza-
reth Avenue church was far more aris-
tocratic, wealthy and conventional
Nevertheless when one Sunday morn
ing in early summer DR.. Bruce came
into his pulpit and announced his resig-
nation the sensation deepened all over
the city, although DR.. Bruce had adj
vised with his board of trustees, and the
movement lie intended was not mat
ter of surprise to them
But when it became publicly known
that the bishop also had announced his
retirement from the position he had
held so long in order to go and live
himself in the center of the worst part
of Chicago the public establishment
reached its height.
'But why" the bishop replied to
one valued friend who had almost with
tears tried to dissuade him from his
purpose-"why should what DR.. Bruce
and propose to do seem so remarkable
thing, as if it were unheard of that
a doctor of divinity and a bishop
should want to save souls in this par
ticular manner. If we were to resign
our charges for the purpose Of going to
Bombay or Hongkong or any place in
Africa, the churches and the people
would exclaim at the herois1n of mis-
Bions- Why should it seem so great
thing if we have been led to give our
lives to help rescue the heather and the
lost of our own city in the way we are
going to try? Is it, then, such a TIRE
mendous event that two Christian min
listers should be not only willing but
eager to live close to the misery Of the
world in order to know it and realize
it? Is it such a rare thing that love of
humanity should find this particular
form of expression in the rescue Of
souls p
However the bishop may have salts
fed himself that there ought to be moth
ing so remarkable about it all, the pub
lie continued to talk and the churches
to record their establishment that two
such men, so prominent in the ministry,
should leave their comfortable homes,
voluntarily resign their pleasant social
positions and enter upon life Of hard
ship, of self denial and actual suffering.
Christian Americal Is it a reproach
upon the form of our discipleship that
the exhibition of actual suffering for
Jesus on the part of those who walk in
his steps always provokes establishment,
as at the sight of something very I'M
usual?
Nazareth Avenue church parted from
its pastor with regret for the most part,
although the regret was modified by
some relief on the part of those who had
refused to take the pledge. DR.. Bruce
carried with him the respect of men
who, entangled in business in such
way that obedience to the pledge would
l. -,
deeper, better natures genuine admira-
ton for courage and consistency. They
had known DR.. Bruce many years as a
kindly, safe man, but the thought of
him in the light of sacrifice of this sort
was not familiar to them. AS fast as
they understood it they gave their pas
tor the credit of being absolutely true
to his recent convictions as to what fol-
lowing Jesus meant. Nazareth Avenue
church has never lost the impulse Of
that movement started by DR.. Bruce.
Those who went with him in making
the promise breathed into the church
the very breath of divine life and are
continuing that life giving work at the
present time.
1t was fall again, and the city faced
another hard winter. The bishop one
afternoon came out of the settlement
and walked around the block, intending
to go on visit to one of his new friends
in the district. He had walked about
four blocks when he was attracted by
shop that looked different from the 9TH
ers. The neighborhood was still quite
new to the bishop, and every day he
discovered some strange spot or STUN
a6 lo1711
The place that attracted his notice /
was a small house close by a Chinese .
laundry. There were two windows in /.