In His Steps

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Chapter 10

“If any man serve me, let him follow me.”

It was nearly midnight before the services at the Rectangle closed. Gray stayed up long into Sunday morning, praying and talking with a little group of converts who in the great experiences of their new life, clung to the evangelist with a personal helplessness that made it as impossible for him to leave them as if they had been depending upon him to save them from physical death. Among these converts was Rollin Page.

Virginia and her uncle had gone home about eleven o’clock, and Rachel and Jasper Chase had gone with them as far as the avenue where Virginia lived. Dr. West had walked on a little way with them to his own home, and Rachel and Jasper had then gone on together to her mother’s.

That was a little after eleven. It was now striking midnight, and Jasper Chase sat in his room staring at the papers on his desk and going over the last half hour with painful persistence.

He had told Rachel Winslow of his love for her, and she had not given him her love in return. It would be difficult to know what was most powerful in the impulse that had moved him to speak to her tonight. He had yielded to his feelings without any special thought of results to himself, because he had felt so certain that Rachel would respond to his love. He tried to recall the impression she made on him when he first spoke to her.

Never had her beauty and her strength influenced him as tonight. While she was singing he saw and heard no one else. The tent swarmed with a confused crowd of faces and he knew he was sitting there hemmed in by a mob of people, but they had no meaning to him. He felt powerless to avoid speaking to her. He knew he should speak when they were alone.

Continue reading “In His Steps, Reading #22”

“What Jesus Would Probably Do in Milton Wright’s Place as a Business Man”

 He would engage in the, business first of all for the purpose of glorifying God, and not for the primary purpose of making money. 

1. All money that might be made he would never regard as his own, but as trust funds to be used for the good of humanity.
2. His relations with all the persons in his employ would be the most loving and helpful. He could not help thinking of all of them in the light of souls to be saved. This thought would always be greater than his thought of making money in the business.
3. He would never do a single dishonest or questionable thing or try in any remotest way to get the advantage of any one else in the same business.
4. The principle of unselfishness and helpfulness in the business would direct all its details.
5. Upon this principle he would shape the entire plan of his relations to his employees, to the people who were his customers and to the general business world with which he was connected.

Henry Maxwell read this over slowly. It reminded him of his own attempts the day before to put into a concrete form his thought of Jesus’ probable action. He was very thoughtful as he looked up and met Wright’s eager gaze.

“Do you believe you can continue to make your business pay on these lines?” 

Continue reading “In His Steps, Reading #21”

In His Steps

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Chapter 9

 

Henry Maxwell finished reading and dropped the paper.

“I must go and see Powers. This is the result of his promise.”

He rose, and as he was going out, his wife said: “Do you think, Henry, that Jesus would have done that?”

Maxwell paused a moment. Then he answered slowly, “Yes, I think He would. At any rate, Powers has decided so and each one of us who made the promise understands that he is not deciding Jesus’ conduct for any one else, only for himself.”

“How about his family? How will Mrs. Powers and Celia be likely to take it?”

“Very hard, I’ve no doubt. That will be Powers’ cross in this matter. They will not understand his motive.”

Maxwell went out and walked over to the next block where Superintendent Powers lived. To his relief, Powers himself came to the door.

The two men shook hands silently. They instantly understood each other without words. There had never before been such a bond of union between the minister and his parishioner.

“What are you going to do?” Henry Maxwell asked after they had talked over the facts in the case.

“You mean another position? I have no plans yet. I can go back to my old work as a telegraph operator. My family will not suffer, except in a social way.”

Powers spoke calmly and sadly. Henry Maxwell did not need to ask him how the wife and daughter felt. He knew well enough that the superintendent had suffered deepest at that point.

“There is one matter I wish you would see to,” said Powers after awhile, “and that is, the work begun at the shops. So far as I know, the company will not object to that going on. It is one of the contradictions of the railroad world that Y. M. C. A.’s and other Christian influences are encouraged by the roads, while all the time the most un-Christian and lawless acts may be committed in the official management of the roads themselves. Of course it is well understood that it pays a railroad to have in its employ men who are temperate, honest and Christian. So I have no doubt the master mechanic will have the same courtesy shown him in the use of the room. But what I want you to do, Mr. Maxwell, is to see that my plan is carried out. Will you? You understand what it was in general. You made a very favorable impression on the men. Go down there as often as you can. Get Milton Wright interested to provide something for the furnishing and expense of the coffee plant and reading tables. Will you do it?”

Continue reading “In His Steps, Reading #20”

In His Steps

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Chapter 8

“If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”

 

Henry Maxwell paced his study back and forth. It was Wednesday and he had started to think out the subject of his evening service which fell upon that night. Out of one of his study windows he could see the tall chimney of the railroad shops. The top of the evangelist’s tent just showed over the buildings around the Rectangle. He looked out of his window every time he turned in his walk. After a while he sat down at his desk and drew a large piece of paper toward him. After thinking several moments he wrote in large letters the following:

 A Number of Things That Jesus Would Probably Do in This Parish

•  Making the Most of Life
• Live in a simple, plain manner, without needless luxury on the one hand or undue asceticism on the other.
• Preach fearlessly to the hypocrites in the church, no matter what their social importance or wealth.
• Show in some practical form His sympathy and love for the common people as well as for the well-to-do, educated, refined people who make up the majority of the parish.
• Identify Himself with the great causes of humanity in some personal way that would call for self-denial and suffering.
• Preach against the saloon in Raymond.
• Become known as a friend and companion of the sinful people in the Rectangle.
• Give up the summer trip to Europe this year. (I have been abroad twice and cannot claim any special need of rest. I am well, and could forego this pleasure, using the money for some one who needs a vacation more than I do. There are probably plenty of such people in the city.)

Continue reading “In His Steps, Reading #18”