Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1900-04-23

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since Rachel had said no that day. In
that hope he went on with his work as
the days sped on, and at no time was
he more successful in reaching and saw
ing his old acquaintance than in the
time that followed that chance meeting
with Rachel Winslow.
The summer had gone, and Raymond
was once more facing the rigor of her
winter season. Virginia had been able
to accomplish a part of her plan for
Capturing the Rectangle, as she
called it, but the building Of houses in
the field, the transforming of its bleak,
bare aspect into an attractive park, all
of which was included in her plan, was
work too large to be completed that
fall after she had secured the property.
But a million dollars in the hands of a
person who really wants to do with it
as Jesus would ought to accomplish
wonders for humanity in a short time,
and Henry Maxwell, going over to the
scene of the new work one day after a
noon hour with the shopmen, was
amazed to see how much had been done
outwardly.
Yet he walked home thoughtfully,
and on his way he could not avoid the
question of the continual problem thrust
into his notice by the saloon. How
much had been done for the Rectangle
after all? Even counting in Virginia's
and Rachel's work and Mr.. Gray's
where had it actually counted in any
visible quantity? OF course he said to
himself that the redemptive work begun
and carried on by the Holy Spirit in
his wonderful displays Of power in the
First church and in the tent meetings
had had it's effect on the life of Ray
mond, but as he walked past saloon aft
er saloon and noticed the crowds going
in and coming out of them, as he saw
the wretched dens, as many as ever ap-
parently, as he caught the brutality and
squalor and open misery and degrade
ton on countless faces of men and
women and children, he sickened. at the
sight. He found himself asking how
much cleansing could even a million
dollars poured into this cesspool accom-
plish? Was not the living source of
nearly all the human misery they
sought to relieve untouched as long as
these saloons did their deadly but legiti-
mate work? What could even such I'M
selfish Christian discipleship as Vir-
ginia's and Rachels do to lessen the
stream of vice so long as the great
spring of vice and crime flowed as deep
and strong as ever? Was it not a prac-
tical waste of beautiful lives for these
young women to throw themselves into
this earthly hell when for every soul
rescued by their sacrifice the saloon
made two more that needed rescue?
He could not escape the question. 1t
was the same that Virginia had put to
Rachel in her statement that, in her
opinion, nothing really would ever be
done until the saloon was taken out of
the Rectangle. Henry Maxwell went
back to his parish work that afternoon
with added convictions on the license
business.
But if the saloon were a factor in
the problem of the life of Raymond no
less were the First church and it's little
company of disciples who had pledged
themselves to do as Jesus would do.
Henry Maxwell, standing at the very
center of the movement, was not in q
position to judge of it's power as some
one from the outside might have done,
but Raymond itself felt the touch of
this new discipleship and was changed
in very many ways, not knowing all
the reasons for the change.
The winter had gone and the year
was ended, the year which Henry Max
we'll had fixed as the time during
which the pledge should be kept to do
as Jesus would do Sunday, the ami
versary of that one year ago, was in
many ways the most remarkable day
the First church ever knew. 1t was
more important than the disciples in
the First church realized The year had
made history SO fast and SO serious that
the people were not yet able to grasp
its significance, and the day itself,
which marked the completion of a
whole year of such discipleship was
characterized by such revelations and
confessions that the immediate actors
in the events themselves could not I'M
derstand the value of what had been
done or the relation of their trial to the
rest of the churches and cities in the
country
It happened that the week before
that anniversary Sunday the Rev. Cal
vim Bruce, D. D., of the Nazareth Az
enue church, Chicago. was in Ray
mond, where he had come on a visit to
some old friends and incidentally to see
his old seminary classmate, Henry Max
we'll He was present at the First
church and was an exceedingly atten
tive and interested spectator His &C. !
count of events in Raymond and espe-
cially of that Sunday, may throw more
light on the entire situation than any
Mi orr ord of,
DR.. Bruce's statement is therefore here
given.
Letter from Rev. Calvin Bruce, D.