St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1900-01-17
IN HIS STEPS.
"wHAT WOULD JESUS DO"
BY CHARLES Nj. SHELDON.
Copyrig hted by the Advance Publishing
Co. Chicago.
[coutinued from last week.

CATlS0u, Wlbu ulb SIodb UldCR Dehrueu
face, absorbed the music with the deep
love of it peculiar to his nationality.
and tear ran over his cheek and glis-
tened in his beard as his face softened
and became almost noble in its aspect.
The man out of work who had wanted
to know what Jesus would do in his
place sat with grimy hand on the back
Of the bench in front of him, with his
mouth partly open, his great tragedy
for the moment forgotten. The song
while it lasted was food and work and
warmth and union with his wife and
babies once more. The man who had
spoken SO fiercely against the churches
and the ministers sat with his head
erect at first with a look of stolid re-
sistance, as if he stubbornly resented
the introduction into the exercises of
anything that was even remotely con.
nected with the church or its form of
worship, but gradually he yielded to
the power that was swaying the hearts
Of all the persons in that room, and
look of sad thoughtfulness crept over
his face.
The bishop said to himself that night
while Rachel was singing that if tSe
world of sinful, diseased, depraved lost
humanity could only have the gospel
preached to it by consecrated prima
donnas and professional tenors and altos
and bassos he believed it would hasten
the coming Of the kingdom quicker
than any other one force. "Why, oh,
why" he cried in his heart as he lis
tened, "has the world s great treasure in
song been SO often held far from the
poor because the personal possessor of
voice or fingers capable of stirring di-
vinest melody has so often regarded the
gift as something with which to make
money? Shall there be no martyrs
among the gifted ones of the earthP
Shall there be no giving of this great
gift as well as of othersH'
And Henry Maxwell again, as before,
called up that other audience at the
Rectangle, with increasing longing for
larger spread of the new discipleship.
What he had seen and heard at the set
Element burned into him deeper the be-
lief that the problem of the city would
be solved if the Christians in it should
once follow Jesus as he gave command
ment. But what of this great mass of
humanity, neglected and sinful, the
very kind of humanity the Saviour
came to save, with all its mistakes and
narrowness, its wretchedness and loss
Of hope-above all, its unqualified Bit
terness toward the church, That was
what smote Henry Maxwell deepest.
Was the church, then, so far from the
Master that the people no longer found
him in the church? Was it true that
the church had lost its power over the
very kind of humanity which in the
early ages of Christianity it reached in
the greatest numbers2 How much was
true in what the socialist leader said
about the uselessness of looking to the
church for reform or redemption be-
cause of the selishness and seclusion
and aristocracy of its members3
He was more and more impressed
with the appalling fact that the COM
paratively few men in the hall, now
being held quiet for awhile by Rachel's
voice, represented thousands of others
just like them, to whom a church and
a minister stood for less than saloon
or beer garden as source of comfort
or happiness. Ought it to be SOL If the
church members were all doing as Jesus
would do, could it remain true that
armies of men would walk the streets
for jobs and hundreds of them curse
sthe church and thousands of them find
lin the saloon their best friendf How
far were the Christians responsible for
this human problem that was personally
illustrated right in this hall tonight9
Was it true that the great city churches
would, as a rule, refuse to walk in Je-
lsus' steps so closely as to suffer. actual
lly suffer, for his sake2
Henry Maxwell kept asking this ques-
|tion even &fter Rachel had finished sing
Ping and the meeting had come to an
END, after social gathering which was
Very informal, He asked it while the
Aittle company of residents, with the
Raymond visitors, were having a devo-
flonal service, as the custom in the set
Element was. He asked it during con-
#erence with the bishop and DR.. Bruce
(which lasted until O clock He asked
pt as he kneeled again before sleeping
Rnd poured out his soul in his petition
for spiritual baptism on the church in
america such as it had never known.
File asked it the first thing in the morn
Png and all through the day as he went
lpver the settlement district and saw the !
|lite of the people so far removed from
|the life abundantly Would the church
members, would the Christians, not
|ohly In the churches of Chicago, but |
throughout the country, refuse to walk
IN his steps if, in order to do so, they
must actually take up cross and fol-
low him?
This was the one question that con-
annually demanded answer. He had
planned, when he came to the city, to
return to Raymond and be in his own
pulpit on Sunday, but Friday morning
ne had received at the settlement call
from the pastor of one of the largest
churches in Chicago and had been in
VlVed to fill the pulpit for both morning
and evening services.
AT first he hesitated, but finally &C.