People's voice., 1900-01-11
IN HIS STEPS.
"T1Elat Unnl1
Sesus Duf"
By Charles Ii. Sheldon.
Copyrighted and published IN book form by the
Advance Publishing Co. Of Chicago.
By Charles H. Sheldon.

was now regularly established henry
Maxwell went into the lecture room on
the Sunday succeeding the week of the
primary and was greeted with an en-
thusiasm that made him tremble at first
for its reality Ee noted again the alb
scence of Jasper Chase, but all the 9TH
ers were present, and they seemed
drawn very close together by bond CT
common fellowship that demanded and
enjoyed mutual condolences. 1t was the
general feeling that the spirit of Jesus
was a spirit Of very open, frank cOnfes-
sion of experience. 1t seemed the most
natural thing in the world for Edward
Norman to be telling all the rest of the
company about the details of his news
paper
1.-The fact is, / have lost a good deal
of money during the last three weeks
cannot tell how much. l am losing
great many subscribers every day.
''What do the subscribers give as
their reason for dropping the paper?'
asked Henry Maxwell All therest were
listening eagerly
"There are a good many different
reasons Some say they want a paper
that prints all the news, meaning by
that the crime details, sensations like
prizafghts, scandals and horrors of
various kinds Others object to the dis
continuance Of the Sunday edition.
have lost hundreds of subscribers by
that action. although | have made sat
isfactory arrangements with many of
the old subscribers by giving even more
in the extrG Saturday edition than they
formerly had in the Sunday issue. Ny
greatest loss has come from a falling off
in advertisements and from the attitude
have felt obliged to take on political
questions This last action has really
cost me more than any other The bulk
of my subscribers are intensely par
tisan.. | may as well tell you all frank
ly that if | continue to pursue the plan
which l honestly believe Jesus would
in the matter of political issues and
their treatment from nOnpartisan and
moral standpoint The News will not be
able to pay its operating expenses IN
less one factor in Raymond can be de-
pended on
He paused moment, and the room
was very quiet. Virginia seemed spe-
cially interested Her face glowed with
interest. 1t was like the interest of
person who had been thinking hard of
the same thing Norman went on now
to mention.
THAT one factor is the Christian
element in Raymond Say The News
has lost heavily from the dropping off
of people who do not care for a Chris
tian daily and from others who simply
look upon newspaper as purveyor
of all sorts of material to amuse and
interest them, are there enough genu-
inc Christian people in Raymond who
will rally to the support of a paper
such as Jesus would probably edit, or
are the habits of the people so firmly
established in their demands for the
regular type Of journalism that they
will not take paper unless it is strip
ped largely of the Christian and moral
purpose? Imay also say in this fellow
ship gathering that, owing to recent
complications in my business affairs
outside of my paper, l have been
obliged to lose large part of my for
tune. l have had to apply the same rule
Of Jesus probable conduct to certain
transactions with other men who did
not apply it to their conduct, and the
result has been the loss of a great deal
of money
"As | understand the promise we
made, we were not to ask any questions
about Will it payf but all our ac-
tiOn was to be based on the one ques-
tion, What would Jesus dor Acting
on that rule Of conduct, | have been
obliged to lose nearly all the money
have accumulated in my paper 1t is
not necessary for me to go into details
There is no question with me now, aft
er the three weeks experience | have
had, that great many men would lose
vast sums Of money under the present
system of business if this rule of Jesus
were honestly obeyed | mention my
loss here because l have the fullest faith
in the final success of a daily paper
conducted on the lines l have recently
laid down. and | had planned to put
into it my entire fortune in order to
win final success As it is now, unless,
as | said, the Christian people of Ray
mond, the church members and profess
ing disciples, will support the paper
with subscriptions and advertisements,
cannot continue its publication on the
present basis. "
Virginia asked a question She had
followed Mr.. Norman's s confession with
the most intense eagerness.
do you mean that Christian daily
ought to be endowed with large sum.
like a Christian college, in order to
make it psyS'
"That is exactly what l mean. ]
have laid out plans for putting into The
News such a variety of material. in
such a strong and truly interesting
way, that it would more than make mp
for whatever was absent from its col
umns in the way of un-C Christian mat
ter, but my plans called for a very large
outlay of money | am very confident
that a Christian daily such as Jesus
would approve, containing only what
be would print, can be made to succeed