People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1900-03-01

have lived in luxury | do not know
what it means to want | also have had
my leisure for travel and beautiful COM
partnership have been surrounded by
soft, easy comforts of civilization. The
sin and misery of this great city have
beat like waves against the stone walls
Of my church and Of this house in
which live. and | have hardly needed
them, the walls have been so thick.
have reached point where | cannot
endure this any longer am not con-
demning the church love her am
not forsaking the church | believe in
her mission and have no desire to de-
stroy Least of all, in the step | am
about to take, do | desire to be charged
with abandoning the Christian fellow
ship, but | feel | must resign my place
as pastor of Nazareth Avenue church
in order to satisfy myself that | am
walking as l ought to walk in his steps
In this action | judge no other minis
tiers and pass no criticism on others
discipleship but feel as you do. Into
a closer contact with the sin and shame
and degradation of this great city |
must come personally, and know that
to do that must sever my immediate
connection with Nazareth Avenue
church. l do not see any other way for
myself to suffer for his sake as l feel
that l ought to suffer"
Again that sudden silence fell over
these two men 1t was no ordinary &C
ton they were deciding. They had both
reached the same conclusion by the
same reasoning, and they were too
thoughtful, too well accustomed to the
measuring of conduct, to underestimate
the seriousness of their position
"What is your planf" The bishop at
last spoke gently, looking up with his
smile that always beautifed his face
The bishops face grew in glory now
every day
"Myplan, replied DR.. Bruce slowly,
sis, in brief, the putting of myself into
the center of the greatest human need
can find in this city and living there
My wife is fully in accord with me-
/ We have already decided to find a resi-
dence in that part of the city where we
can make our personal lives count for
the most. "
'Let me suggest a place" The bishop
was on fire now. His fine face actually
glowed with the enthusiasm of the
movement in which he and his friend
were inevitably embarked He went on
and unfolded a plan of such farreaching
/ power and possibility that Dr. Bruce,
capable and experienced as he was, felt
amazed at the vision of a greater soul
than his own.
They sat up late and were as eager
and even glad as if they were planning
for trip together TO some rare land of
unexplored travel Indeed the bishop
said many times afterward that the
moment his decision was reached to live
the life of personal sacrifice he had
chosen he suddenly felt an uplifting, as
if a great burden was taken from him
He was eyultant. So was DR.. Bruce
from the same cause
Their plan as it finally grew into a
workable fact was in reality nothing
more than the renting Of a large build
ing formerly used as a warehouse for a
| brewery, reconstructing it and living
in it themselves in the very heart Of a
territory where the saloon ruled with
power, where the tenement was its
filthiest, where vice and ignorance and
shame and poverty were congested into
hideous forms. 1t was not a new idea
1t was an idea started by Jesus Christ
when he left his Father house and for
sock the riches that were his in order
to get nearer humanity and. by becom-
ing a part Of its sin, help to draw hui
mainly apart from its sin. The univer-
sity settlement idea is not modern 1t is
as old as Bethlehem and Nazareth, and
in this particular case it was the near
est approach to anything that would
satisfy the hunger of these two men to
suffer for Christ There had sprung up
in them at the same time longing that
amounted to passion to get nearer the
great physical poverty and spiritual
restitution of the mighty city that
throbbed around them How could they
do this except as they became part
of it, as nearly as one man can become
a part of another's miseryi Where was
the suffering to come in unless there
was an actual self denial Of some sort 2
And what was to make that self denial
apparent to themselves or any one else
unless it took this concrete. actual per-
sOnal form Of trying to share the deep
est suffering and sin Of the cityf
So they reasoned for themselves. not
judging others They were simply keep
ing their own pledge to do as Jesus
would do, as they honestly judged he
would DO That was what they had
promised How could they quarrel with
the RESULT They were ,irresisti6ly 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. DR.
Bruce had acquired and saved by liter.
airy work carried on in connection with
his parish duties more than a comforta-
bic 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 a settlement house
Meanwhile Nazareth Ayenue church