The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-06-06
HOW THEY FOLLOW
 IN JESUS STEPS Cleveland Man Finds It Hard
 In Business A FRANK DISCUSSION Practical Difficulties of Movement Started With Enthusiasm Last Winter by Young People.
 Less Heard off It.
A FRANK DISCUSSION
Cleveland Cor. New York Sun.

Cleveland Cor New York Sun
 The movement called What Would Jesus Do? has lost the enthusiasm with which it started last winter Then mass meetings were held Sunday afternoons in Cleveland churches, at which hundreds of young people rose together and took the pledge to do as Jesus would" Ex- perience meetings were held at which scores rose and told their experiences in doing Jesus would in the various circumstances of life. The principle was that when any question of conduct arose the person who had taken the pledge should stop and ask himself, What would Jesus dor" and then do the same Mass meetings are held no longer. h. quiry reveals the fact that the move- ment has settled down into a regular branch of the work of various religious societies of young people in this country and Canada, and that hereafter one Sun day a year will be set aside for ser mons and mass meetings wherever the movement has taken root.
 An inquirer visited several of the young people who took the pledge in search of experiences which might be helpful to the world at large. It was difficult to find matter of this kind
 One young man said that he went home one evening tired and desirous of going immediately to bed. His mother wanted him to go to a drug store for medicine and he went cheerfully. He seemed to think this a fair sample of what Jesus would have done and worthy of a place in the chronicles of the movement.
 young woman said that she washed the dishes three times for her mother when she didn't have to, and another that she got up and helped her mother to get breakfast when she had not been so ac- customed. Still another, credited with having originated the movement, re- marked somewhat tartly that she had given her experiences to 12 reporters, each of whom had promised to send her copy of the paper containing them, and only one had ever done 1t and she wasn't going to give out any more.
 dentist said that a book agent called at his office one day and he was about to tell the man gruffly to get out when the question, What would Jesus do?' came to him, and instead Ae spoke to the man courteously as he would to a cus- toner. The next day the book agent brought his wife and ordered a large amount of work done on her teeth This the dentist said, encouraged him, and he has decided to make the principle a rule of business.
 Several of those interviewed did not seem to have had any special experiences They had said that living as Jesus would was merely the ordinary Christian life they were not conscious of not living as Jesus would all the time.
 One man had had more definite ex- periences. He took the pledge to live as Jesus would, apparently tried sincere ly to live up to it in daily life and dis cussed the topic with a matter of fact frankness which was rather paralyzing. You know" said he confdentially, sit ting in his place of business with his knees crossed and his arms folded, Tots of sins are no temptation to me at all and never have been. I don't care for drink and never played game of cards in my life
 l remember once, when I was a med ieal student in Chicago, I went out one evening with a crowd of the fellows who were going to make night of it. When I started out had $10 in my pocket and wore one watch. When I got back I had S350 and II watches on me. I was the only man in the lot that didn't drink and the fellows loaded me up one by one as they felt themselves getting too full for safety
 "The open door of the saloon is no
 
 to go to a dance I wouldn't care to go; if any one offered me a cigar I wouldn't t care to take it. None of those curses ever had any temptation for me. It's no trouble to me to do as Jesus would in such cases.
 But I found it made a difference in business I find that people in general don't add up the items of a bill. If you send them a bill of 50 60 items they will pay the amount at the foot of the column without counting it up.
 'sIn three instances since I started liv- ing Jesus would I found that through clerical error this sum had been too large, and l returned the money. This is not business and 1t is not the way business houses do I never did it before, and I considered myself honest and as good as the next man.
 'T found, when I propounded the ques- tion to myself, What would Jesus do 2 that that was the thing that had to be done. In two of the cases the difference amounted to only a few cents. In the third case 1t was S15
 Tn two instances customers handed out too much money, thinking it was the correct sum, and I returned it. That isn't considered necessary in business, you know. If you name the right sum 1t is up to the customer 10 count his change right in case he is attempting to make the exact change. Twice in quot ing prices l resisted the temptation to run them up a little higher, as I knew l could have done.
 .The man who mended my automobile forgot one item in his bill. I mentioned 1t to him. It cost me S1. I rather grudged that for all kinds of charges on automo- piles are certainly extortionate; but after you get to really trying the scheme, you know, the question What would Jesus do" gets to be a sort of obsession It crops up in your mind continually and sort of compels you, don you know.
 T read the other day in a New York paper a statement of Bingham's that he had been offered s600000 if he would per- init some violation of the law to go on. Now I hope the temptation will never come to me.
 "1 don't have to pray to be delivered from the temptations of saloons gam bling or vice, but I should certainly pray to be delivered from that temptation After my little experience in the What would Jesus do :? movement. ] wouldn't t feel that I ought to be too hard on any