Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1900-04-09
In HIS STEPS.
"What Would Jesus Do?"
By CHARLES M. SHELDON.
CHAPTER VII.

He that followeth shall not walk in dark
ness.
The body of Loreen lay in state at
the Page mansion on the avenue. It
was Sunday morning, and the clear,
sweet air, just beginning to breathe
over the city the perfume of opening
blossoms in the woods and fields, swept
over the casket from one of the open
windows at the end of the grand hall.
The church bells were ringing, and the
people on the avenue going by to serv-
ice turned curious, inquiring looks up
at the great house and went on, talking
of the recent events which had so
strangely entered into and made history
in the city.
At the First church Henry Maxwell,
bearing on his face marks of the scene
he had been through the night before,
confronted an immense congregation
and spoke of it with a passion and a
power that came so naturally out Of
the profound experiences of the day be-
fore that his people felt for him some
thing of the old feeling of pride they
once had in his dramatic delivery.
Only this was a different attitude, and
all through his imprisoned appeal this
and rebuke and stern condemnation
that made many of the members pale
with self accusation or with inward
anger.
For Raymond had awakened that
morning to the fact that the city had
gone for license, after all The rumOr
at the Rectangle that the second and
third wards had gone no license proved
to be false. 1t was true that the victory
was won by very meager majority,
but the result was the same as if it had
been overwhelming. Raymond had
voted to continue another year the sa-
loon. The Christians of Raymond stood
condemned by the result. More than
hundred Christians, protesting disciples,
had failed to go to the polls, and many
more than that number had voted with
the whisky men. If all the church
members of Raymond had voted against
the saloon, it would today be outlawed
instead of crowned king of the munich
pality. That had been the fact in Ray
mond for years The saloon ruled. No
one denied that What would Jesus do
And the woman who had been brutal
ly struck down by the very hand that
earthly ruin-what of her? Was it any
thing more than the logical sequence of
the whole horrible system of license
that for another year the saloon that
received her so often and comprised her
degradation, from whose very spot the
weapon had been hurled that struck her
dead, would by the law which the
Christian people of Raymond voted to
support open it's doors, perhaps tomor
row, and damn with earthly and eternal
destruction a hundred Loreens before
the year had drawn to its bloody close2
All this, with voice that rang and
trembled and broke in sobs of anguish
for this result did Henry Maxwell pour
out upon his people that Sunday morn
ing, and men and women wept as he
spoke. Donald Marsh sat there, his
usual erect, handsome, firm, bright,
self confident bearing all gone, his
head bowed upon his breast, the great
tears rolling down his cheeks, unmind-
full of the fact that never before had he
shown outward emotion in a public
service. Edward Norman near by sat,
with his clear cut keen face erect, but
his lip trembled and he clutched the end
of the pew with feeling of emotion
that struck deep into his knowledge of
the truth as Maxwell spoke of it. No
man had given or suffered more to in
fluence public opinion that last week
than Norman. The thought that the
Christian conscience had been aroused
too late or too feebly lay with weight
of accusation upon the heart of the
editor. What if he had begun to do
as Jesus would long ago? Who could
tell what might have been accomplished
by this time? And up in the choir
Rachel Winslow, with her face bowed
on the railing of the oak screen, gave
way to a feeling she had not yet al
lowed to master her, but it so untitled
her for her part that when Henry Max
well finished and she tried to sing the
closing solo after the prayer her voice
broke, and for the first time in her life
she was obliged to sit down sobbing and
unable to go on.
Over the church in the silence that
followed this strange scene, sobs and
the noise of weeping arose. When had
the First church yielded to such bap-
tism of tears? What had become of it's
regular, precise cold, conventional or
der of service, undisturbed by any vul-
gar emotion and unmoved by any fool
ish excitement? But the people had
lately had their deepest convictions
touched. They had been living so long
on their surface feelings that they had
almost forgotten the deeper wells of
life Now that they had broken to the
surface the people were convinced of
the meaning of their discipleship.
Henry Maxwell did not ask this
morning for volunteers to join those
who had already pledged to do as Jesus
would. but when the conoreoation had