Category: reading

In His Steps, Reading #39

In His Steps

Chapter 20

 

“But I am prolonging this letter, possibly to your weariness. I am unable to avoid the feeling of fascination which my entire stay here has increased. I want to tell you something of the meeting in the First Church today.

“As I said, I heard Maxwell preach. At his earnest request I had preached for him the Sunday before, and this was the first time I had heard him since the Association meeting four years ago. His sermon this morning was as different from his sermon then as if it had been thought out and preached by some one living on another planet. I was profoundly touched. I believe I actually shed tears once. Others in the congregation were moved like myself. His text was: What is that to thee? Follow thou Me.’ It was a most unusually impressive appeal to the Christians of Raymond to obey Jesus’ teachings and follow in His steps regardless of what others might do. I cannot give you even the plan of the sermon. It would take too long. At the close of the service there was the usual after meeting that has become a regular feature of the First Church. Into this meeting have come all those who made the pledge to do as Jesus would do, and the time is spent in mutual fellowship, confession, question as to what Jesus would do in special cases, and prayer that the one great guide of every disciple’s conduct may be the Holy Spirit.

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In His Steps, Reading #38

In His Steps

Chapter 19

 

Letter from
Rev. Calvin Bruce, D.D.,
Nazareth Avenue Church,
Chicago,
to
Rev. Philip A. Caxton, D.D.,
New York City.

“My Dear Caxton:

“It is late Sunday night, but I am so intensely awake and so overflowing with what I have seen and heard that I feel driven to write you now some account of the situation in Raymond as I have been studying it, and as it has apparently come to a climax today. So this is my only excuse for writing so extended a letter at this time.

“You remember Henry Maxwell in the Seminary. I think you said the last time I visited you in New York that you had not seen him since we graduated. He was a refined, scholarly fellow, you remember, and when he was called to the First Church of Raymond within a year after leaving the Seminary, I said to my wife, Raymond has made a good choice. Maxwell will satisfy them as a sermonizer.’ He has been here eleven years, and I understand that up to a year ago he had gone on in the regular course of the ministry, giving good satisfaction and drawing good congregations. His church was counted the largest and wealthiest church in Raymond. All the best people attended it, and most of them belonged. The quartet choir was famous for its music, especially for its soprano, Miss Winslow, of whom I shall have more to say; and, on the whole, as I understand the facts, Maxwell was in a comfortable berth, with a very good salary, pleasant surroundings, a not very exacting parish of refined, rich, respectable people – such a church and parish as nearly all the young men of the seminary in our time looked forward to as very desirable.

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In His Steps, Reading #37

In His Steps

Chapter 18

“What is that to thee? Follow thou me.”

 

When Rollin started down the street the afternoon that Jasper stood looking out of his window he was not thinking of Rachel Winslow and did not expect to see her anywhere. He had come suddenly upon her as he turned into the avenue and his heart had leaped up at the sight of her. He walked along by her now, rejoicing after all in a little moment of this earthly love he could not drive out of his life.

“I have just been over to see Virginia,” said Rachel. “She tells me the arrangements are nearly completed for the transfer of the Rectangle property.”

“Yes. It has been a tedious case in the courts. Did Virginia show you all the plans and specifications for building?”

“We looked over a good many. It is astonishing to me where Virginia has managed to get all her ideas about this work.”

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In His Steps, Reading #36

Two months went by. They were full of action and of results in the city of Raymond and especially in the First Church. In spite of the approaching heat of the summer season, the after-meeting of the disciples who had made the pledge to do as Jesus would do, continued with enthusiasm and power. Gray had finished his work at the Rectangle, and an outward observer going through the place could not have seen any difference in the old conditions, although there was an actual change in hundreds of lives. But the saloons, dens, hovels, gambling houses, still ran, overflowing their vileness into the lives of fresh victims to take the place of those rescued by the evangelist. And the devil recruited his ranks very fast.

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