The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1900-02-28

remember was one Of those who took
the pledge to do as Jesus would do.
thought at the time. poor fool that l
was. that had all along been doing the
Christian thing. | gave literally out of
my abundance to the church and char.
ity. never gave myself to cost me any
suffering. have been living in a per-
feet hell Of contradictions ever since /
took the pledge My little girl, Diana,
you remember. also took the pledge
with me. She has been asking me a
great many questions lately about the
poor people and where they lived. I was
obliged to answer her. Two of her oues-
tions last night touched my sore Did I
own any houses where those people
livedf Were they nice and warm like
oursf You know how child will ask
questions like these. I went to bed tor
mented with what I now know to be
the divine arrows Of conscience. could
not sleep. seemed to see the Judgment
day. l was placed before the Judge. I
was asked to give account of my deeds
done in the body. How many sinful
souls had visited in prison2 What had
l done with my stewardship How
about those tenements where people
froze in winter and stifled in sulnmer?
Did give any thought to them, except
to receive the rentals from them
Where did my suffering come in?
Would Jesus have done as I had done
and was doing? Had broken nv
pledges How had l used the money and
the culture and the social influence I
possessedS Had I used them to bless
humanity, to relieve the suffering, to
bring joy to the distressed and hope to
the despondingg had received much.
How much had given?
"All this came to me in a waking
vision as distinctly as / see you two
men and myself now. was unable to
see the end Of the vision. / had a con-
fused picture in my mind of the suffer
ing Christ pointing condemning finger
at me. and the rest was shut out by
mist and darkness. have not had sleep
for "a hours The first thing l saw this
morning was the account of the shoot-
ing at the coalyards read the account
with feeling of horror have not been
able to shake off. am guilty creature
before God"
Penrose paused suddenly. The two
men looked at him solemnly. What
power of the Holy Spirit moved the
soul Of this hitherto self satisfied, ele.
CANT. cultured man who belonged to
the social life that was accustomed to
go its way. placidly unmindful of the
great sorrows Of a great city and prac-
tically ignorant Of what it means to
suffer for Jesus sake?
Into that,room came breath such as
before swept over Henry Maxwell's
church and through Nazareth Avenue.
and the bishop laid his hand on the
shoulder of Penrose and said my
brother. God has been very near to you.
Let us thank him."
"Yes. yes" sobbed Penrose. He sat
down on q chair and covered his face.
The bishop prayed Then Penrose quiet
~ said. "Will you 90 with me to that
housef"
For answer both DR.. Bruce and the
bishop put on their overcoats and went
out with him to the home Of the dead
mans family. This was the beginning
OF a new and strange life for Clarence
Penrose. From the moment he stepped
into that wretched hovel of home and
faced for the first time in his life de-
spair and suffering such as he had read
OF. but did not know by personal con-
tact, he dated new life. 1t would be
another long story to tell how. in obedi.
ence to his pledge. he began to do with
his tenement property as he knew Jesus
would do. What would Jesus do with
tenement property if he owned it in
Chicago or any other great city of the
worldY Any man who can imagine any
true answer to this question can easily
tell what Clarence Penrose began to do
Now. before that winter reached it's
bitter climax many things occurred in
the city that concerned the lives Of all
the characters in this history of the dis
ciples who promised to walk in his steps.
. 1t CHANGED. by one of those remark
able condolences that seem to occur
preternaturally. that one afternoon, Just
rs Felicia came out of the settlement
with basket which she was going to
leave as a sample with a baker in the
Penrose district. Stephen Clyde opened
the door Of the carpenter shop in the
basement and came out of the lower
door in time to meet Felicia as she
reached the sidewalk.
''Let me carry your basket. please
he said
why do You say 'please2' . asked
Felicia. handing over the basket.
II would like to say something else."
replied Stephen. glancing at her shyly
and yet with boldness that frightened
him. for he had been loving Felicia
more every day since he first saw her,
and especially since she stepped into the
shop that day with the bishop, and for
weeks now they had been in many ways
thrown into each others company