Putnam patriot., 1927-07-22
BOOK REVIEW
From '1n His Steps" to Elmer Gan
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mach-discussed work of Sinclair Lew
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 Some thirty five years ago in ! Topeka Kansas, Co hOmely audience Of western cburchgoers. an obscure preacher by the name of Charles M. Sheldon read weekly instaIments of A story which he had conceived as ex- pressing a peculiar need 9f world
 which was fast losing its conscious ness of Jesus Christ. The story was entitled "ln His Steps. What Would Jesus Do2" The publishers of his church paper, hearing of the great sueeess of the reading, arranged t0 publish 1t weekly following its pulpit delivery By some freak of chance the copyright in the story was for feited So 1t came 10 pass that sev- eral publishers issued it iu book form. 1 little fire 0f enthusiasm, started in prairie town, gathered force and became d confaRratlon extending all over the United States and Canada. ieapt the oceans and spread al over the world literally. for t was trans lated into practically every known language its sales reached many, many millions. IL seemed that the aEEE fHafh AH ANAF HHWA HtA AtfAA WffAt touched and regenerated by the very simple process of verbal reincarna- ton Of the Christ Possibly t may be argued that the common people read if gladly and thaf it failed to reach Che minds of the cultured. So Loo goes the earlier record sf the Cos pei
 h any event the book became epi= demic s. it was praised, t was jeer- ed It's author was il Moses who was 10 lead the people out of wilderness of doubt and unbellef into a Canaan of peace and spiritual happiness He was q fanatic and a charlatan =. a mplc minded misguided seeker after cheap Botoriets Rarely If ever. has book exerted go rapidly and wide spread an influence. Its author sought to apply the simple question. What would Jesus d62 Co the ordinary acts and activities of daily life. + IS in the record that Che simple mar raiivp reshaped the lives of many. For laek uf better phrase let II be conceded that it converted many that ' bettered the lives of countless thousands. everywhere And that Was barely generation ago.
 Today Che most widely discussed and most eagerly read book tx "El- mer Gantry.n which openly attacks and diseredlts the message and the Messenger of Tn Ills Steps Sim clair Lewis can find uo Jesus Christ and no religion indeed. he can find no God save 10 mock and defy and Co bid that God. if there be one. come forth and strike him dead And everywhere this book is welcomed as giving concrete expression Co the mind af the day. Those without sense of faith embrace t as they would creed Those of waVering faith find in T a complete JustifIca- ton for remuneration There Is no. God Sinclair Lewis says sol The church k rottan and is ii failure Sinclair Lewis SO declares There is no spirit of Christ there is no divine human model of love or con duet. This is world without soul or spiritual conception. Ii is one huge Main Street peopled by hordes of materialized Rabbits of varying shad- es Of intellectual attainment. There are no men of God There k no evangel. Preying upon the cupidity of the weak minded there is abroai a breed of clerical quacks-a despi- cable lot of mentally undernourish- ed, overseXed individuals from whose ravages no simple. virtuous woman ir immune
 The common people-the uneom- mon people-the cultured and sophis- ticnted- welcome this book as message of emancipation and freedom from d God of straw. now lncinerat- ed by the masterly pen of Sinclair Lewis And this Is today
 One cannot but pause and marvel at such change of public heart. and honestly inquire. What does 1t all mean and how can an entire peO- ple s0 completely reverse itself within one human span2 Is it progress Ia it war? Is it jazz Is 1t all three. and more, that have eonspired to the creation of a spirit that few short years ago would have been character. lzed as infidelity or worse.
 Has the inventive genius of man SO frenzied the world by it's marvels of human eliminating in the radio and wireless telephone. ta say nothing of the demoniac instruments of destruction that We forget man has not yet produced a synthetic blade of grass or imparted breath Co the very lowest order of animal life7
 Between the two periods the issue seems Co be joined. Clearly it k. "1s there God 2"-not. "Is there Presbyterian or an Episcopalian or Jew or a Baptist or Roman Catho lie34 but :" Is there God al all, and hoW long dare We attempt to interpret and encompass the infinite So much for the purely intellectual phase or immeasurahlly greater concern Is the problem of just plain ordinary hap piness and peace of mind We may have eomplaeency and satisfaction with the achievements of man@we may feel that We are sufficiently well directed, that with safety We may drop the pilot but
 And so I sat and unused as l finish. ed Elmer Gantry. am very sim pie minded citizen of average intelh- gence. far enough along in life to be able Co contrast the home life and love of the seventies and the eighties and the nineties with the hectic life of to- day. And I wonder and wonder The world of my youth had a God and a Jesus Christ and church and a mimi stry and t held wonderful sense of security and peace and charity. My aH