People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1900-02-01

I
and said to herself II am beginning
to know what it means to be loved by
a noble man shall love Rollin Page
after all What am l saying? Rachel
Winslow, have you forgotten
She rose and walked back and forth.
She was deeply moved. Nevertheless it
was evident to herself that her emotion
was not that Of regret or sorrow. Some
how glad, new joy had come to her.
She had entered another circle Of ex-
perience, and later in the day she re-
joiced with very strong and sincere
gladness that her Christian discipleship
found room for this crisis in her feel
ing. 1t was indeed a part of it, for if
she were beginning to love ROllin it
was the Christian man who had won
her heart The other never would have
moved her to this great change.
And ROllin as he went back treasured
hope that had been a stranger to him
since Rachel had said 10 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 say
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
a work too large to be completed that
fall after she had secured the property
But million dollars in the hands of
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
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 5
and Rachel's work and Mr. Gray's
where had it actually counted in any
visible quantityf 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 its 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-
plish2 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 Rachel's 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-
teal 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 It
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 ont 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 its 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 a
position to judge of its 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
well 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.
1t happened that the week before