[In His Steps by Charles M. Sheldon]@TWC D-Link bookIn His Steps CHAPTER Nineteen 2/14
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. "But a year ago today Maxwell came into his church on Sunday morning, and at the close of the service made the astounding proposition that the members of his church volunteer for a year not to do anything without first asking the question, 'What would Jesus do ?' and, after answering it, to do what in their honest judgment He would do, regardless of what the result might be to them. "The effect of this proposition, as it has been met and obeyed by a number of members of the church, has been so remarkable that, as you know, the attention of the whole country has been directed to the movement.
I call it a 'movement' because from the action taken today, it seems probable that what has been tried here will reach out into the other churches and cause a revolution in methods, but more especially in a new definition of Christian discipleship. "In the first place, Maxwell tells me he was astonished at the response to his proposition.
Some of the most prominent members in the church made the promise to do as Jesus would.
Among them were Edward Norman, editor of the DAILY NEWS, which has made such a sensation in the newspaper world; Milton Wright, one of the leading merchants in Raymond; Alexander Powers, whose action in the matter of the railroads against the interstate commerce laws made such a stir about a year ago; Miss Page, one of Raymond's leading society heiresses, who has lately dedicated her entire fortune, as I understand, to the Christian daily paper and the work of reform in the slum district known as the Rectangle; and Miss Winslow, whose reputation as a singer is now national, but who in obedience to what she has decided to be Jesus' probable action, has devoted her talent to volunteer work among the girls and women who make up a large part of the city's worst and most abandoned population. "In addition to these well-known people has been a gradually increasing number of Christians from the First Church and lately from other churches of Raymond.
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