THE next day
she went down to the NEWS office to see Edward Norman and
arrange the details of her part in the establishment of the
paper on its new foundation. Mr. Maxwell was present at this
conference, and the three agreed that whatever Jesus would
do in detail as editor of a daily paper, He would be guided
by the same general principles that directed His conduct as
the Saviour of the world.
"I have
tried to put down here in concrete form some of the things
that it has seemed to me Jesus would do," said Edward
Norman. He read from a paper lying on his desk, and Maxwell
was reminded again of his own effort to put into written
form his own conception of Jesus' probable action, and also
of Milton Wright's same attempt in his business.
"I have
headed this, 'What would Jesus do as Edward Norman, editor
of a daily newspaper in Raymond?'
"1. He
would never allow a sentence or a picture in his paper
that could be called bad or coarse or impure in any way.
"2. He
would probably conduct the political part of the paper
from the standpoint of non-partisan patriotism, always
looking upon all political questions in the light of their
relation to the Kingdom of God, and advocating measures
from the standpoint of their relation to the welfare of
the people, always on the basis of 'What is right?' never
on the basis of 'What is for the best interests of this or
that party?' In other words, He would treat all political
questions as he would treat every other subject, from the
standpoint of the advancement of the Kingdom of God on
earth."
Edward
Norman looked up from the reading a moment. "You
understand that is my opinion of Jesus' probable action on
political matters in a daily paper. I am not passing
judgment on other newspaper men who may have a different
conception of Jesus' probable action from mine. I am simply
trying to answer honestly, 'What would Jesus do as Edward
Norman?' And the answer I find is what I have put down.'
"3. The
end and aim of a daily paper conducted by Jesus would be
to do the will of God. That is, His main purpose in
carrying on a newspaper would not be to make money, or
gain political influence; but His first and ruling purpose
would be to so conduct his paper that it would be evident
to all his subscribers that He was trying to seek first
the Kingdom of God by means of His paper. This purpose
would be as distinct and unquestioned as the purpose of a
minister or a missionary or any unselfish martyr in
Christian work anywhere.
"4. All
questionable advertisements would be impossible.
"5. The
relations of Jesus to the employees on the paper would be
of the most loving character."
"So far
as I have gone," said Norman again looking up, "I
am of opinion that Jesus would employ practically some form
of co-operation that would represent the idea of a mutual
interest in a business where all were to move together for
the same great end. I am working out such a plan, and I am
confident it will be successful. At any rate, once introduce
the element of personal love into a business like this, take
out the selfish principle of doing it for personal profits
to a man or company, and I do not see any way except the
most loving personal interest between editors, reporters,
pressmen, and all who contribute anything to the life of the
paper. And that interest would be expressed not only in the
personal love and sympathy but in a sharing with the profits
of the business."
"6. As
editor of a daily paper today, Jesus would give large
space to the work of the Christian world. He would devote
a page possibly to the facts of Reform, of sociological
problems, of institutional church work and similar
movements.
"7. He
would do all in His power in His paper to fight the saloon
as an enemy of the human race and an unnecessary part of
our civilization. He would do this regardless of public
sentiment in the matter and, of course, always regardless
of its effect upon His subscription list."
Again Edward
Norman looked up. "I state my honest conviction on this
point. Of course, I do not pass judgment on the Christian
men who are editing other kinds of papers today. But as I
interpret Jesus, I believe He would use the influence of His
paper to remove the saloon entirely from the political and
social life of the nation."
"8.
Jesus would not issue a Sunday edition.
"9. He
would print the news of the world that people ought to
know. Among the things they do not need to know, and which
would not be published, would be accounts of brutal
prize-fights, long accounts of crimes, scandals in private
families, or any other human events which in any way would
conflict with the first point mentioned in this outline.
"10.
If Jesus had the amount of money to use on a paper which
we have, He would probably secure the best and strongest
Christian men and women to co-operate with him in the
matter of contributions. That will be my purpose, as I
shall be able to show you in a few days.
"11.
Whatever the details of the paper might demand as the
paper developed along its definite plan, the main
principle that guided it would always be the establishment
of the Kingdom of God in the world. This large general
principle would necessarily shape all the detail."
Edward
Norman finished reading the plan. He was very thoughtful.
"I
have merely sketched a faint outline. I have a hundred ideas
for making the paper powerful that I have not thought out
fully as yet. This is simply suggestive. I have talked it
over with other newspaper men. Some of them say I will have
a weak, namby-pamby Sunday-school sheet. If I get out
something as good as a Sunday-school it will be pretty good.
Why do men, when they want to characterize something as
particularly feeble, always use a Sunday-school as a
comparison, when they ought to know that the Sunday-school
is one of the strongest, most powerful influences in our
civilization in this country today? But the paper will not
necessarily be weak because it is good. Good things are more
powerful than bad. The question with me is largely one of
support from the Christian people of Raymond. There are over
twenty thousand church members here in this city. If half of
them will stand by the NEWS its life is assured. What do you
think, Maxwell, of the probability of such support?"
"I
don't know enough about it to give an intelligent answer. I
believe in the paper with all my heart. If it lives a year,
as Miss Virginia said, there is no telling what it can do.
The great thing will be to issue such a paper, as near as we
can judge, as Jesus probably would, and put into it all the
elements of Christian brains, strength, intelligence and
sense; and command respect for freedom from bigotry,
fanaticism, narrowness and anything else that is contrary to
the spirit of Jesus. Such a paper will call for the best
that human thought and action is capable of giving. The
greatest minds in the world would have their powers taxed to
the utmost to issue a Christian daily."
"Yes,"
Edward Norman spoke humbly. "I shall make a great many
mistakes, no doubt. I need a great deal of wisdom. But I
want to do as Jesus would. 'What would He do?' I have asked
it, and shall continue to do so, and abide by the
results."
"I
think we are beginning to understand," said Virginia,
"the meaning of that command, 'Grow in the grace and
knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.' I am sure I
do not know all that He would do in detail until I know Him
better."
"That
is very true," said Henry Maxwell. "I am beginning
to understand that I cannot interpret the probable action of
Jesus until I know better what His spirit is. The greatest
question in all of human life is summed up when we ask,
'What would Jesus do?' if, as we ask it, we also try to
answer it from a growth in knowledge of Jesus himself. We
must know Jesus before we can imitate Him."
When the
arrangement had been made between Virginia an Edward Norman,
he found himself in possession of the sum of five hundred
thousand dollars to use for the establishment of a Christian
daily paper. When Virginia and Maxwell had gone, Norman
closed his door and, alone with the Divine Presence, asked
like a child for help from his all-powerful Father. All
through his prayer as he kneeled before his desk ran the
promise, "If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God
who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it
shall be given him." Surely his prayer would be
answered, and the kingdom advanced through this instrument
of God's power, this mighty press, which had become so
largely degraded to the base uses of man's avarice and
ambition.
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.
Henry
Maxwell did not go abroad. Instead of that, he took the
money he had been saving for the trip and quietly arranged
for a summer vacation for a whole family living down in the
Rectangle, who had never gone outside of the foul district
of the tenements. The pastor of the First Church will never
forget the week he spent with this family making the
arrangements. He went down into the Rectangle one hot day
when something of the terrible heat in the horrible
tenements was beginning to be felt, and helped the family to
the station, and then went with them to a beautiful spot on
the coast where, in the home of a Christian woman, the
bewildered city tenants breathed for the first time in years
the cool salt air, and felt blow about them the pine-scented
fragrance of a new lease of life.
There was
a sickly babe with the mother, and three other children, one
a cripple. The father, who had been out of work until he had
been, as he afterwards confessed to Maxwell, several times
on the edge of suicide, sat with the baby in his arms during
the journey, and when Maxwell started back to Raymond, after
seeing the family settled, the man held his hand at parting,
and choked with his utterance, and finally broke down, to
Maxwell's great confusion. The mother, a wearied, worn-out
woman who had lost three children the year before from a
fever scourge in the Rectangle, sat by the car window all
the way and drank in the delights of sea and sky and field.
It all seemed a miracle to her. And Maxwell, coming back
into Raymond at the end of that week, feeling the scorching,
sickening heat all the more because of his little taste of
the ocean breezes, thanked God for the joy he had witnessed,
and entered upon his discipleship with a humble heart,
knowing for almost the first time in his life this special
kind of sacrifice. For never before had he denied himself
his regular summer trip away from the heat of Raymond,
whether he felt in any great need of rest or not.
"It
is a fact," he said in reply to several inquiries on
the part of his church, "I do not feel in need of a
vacation this year. I am very well and prefer to stay
here." It was with a feeling of relief that he
succeeded in concealing from every one but his wife what he
had done with this other family. He felt the need of doing
anything of that sort without display or approval from
others.
So the
summer came on, and Maxwell grew into a large knowledge of
his Lord. The First Church was still swayed by the power of
the Spirit. Maxwell marveled at the continuance of His stay.
He knew very well that from the beginning nothing but the
Spirit's presence had kept the church from being torn
asunder by the remarkable testing it had received of its
discipleship. Even now there were many of the members among
those who had not taken the pledge, who regarded the whole
movement as Mrs. Winslow did, in the nature of a fanatical
interpretation of Christian duty, and looked for the return
of the old normal condition. Meanwhile the whole body of
disciples was under the influence of the Spirit, and the
pastor went his way that summer, doing his parish work in
great joy, keeping up his meetings with the railroad men as
he had promised Alexander Powers, and daily growing into a
better knowledge of the Master.
Early one
afternoon in August, after a day of refreshing coolness
following a long period of heat, Jasper Chase walked to his
window in the apartment house on the avenue and looked out.
On his
desk lay a pile of manuscript. Since that evening when he
had spoken to Rachel Winslow he had not met her. His
singularly sensitive nature--sensitive to the point of
extreme irritability when he was thwarted--served to thrust
him into an isolation that was intensified by his habits as
an author.
All
through the heat of summer he had been writing. His book was
nearly done now. He had thrown himself into its construction
with a feverish strength that threatened at any moment to
desert him and leave him helpless. He had not forgotten his
pledge made with the other church members at the First
Church. It had forced itself upon his notice all through his
writing, and ever since Rachel had said no to him, he had
asked a thousand times, "Would Jesus do this? Would He
write this story?" It was a social novel, written in a
style that had proved popular. It had no purpose except to
amuse. Its moral teaching was not bad, but neither was it
Christian in any positive way. Jasper Chase knew that such a
story would probably sell. He was conscious of powers in
this way that the social world petted and admired.
"What would Jesus do?" He felt that Jesus would
never write such a book. The question obtruded on him at the
most inopportune times. He became irascible over it. The
standard of Jesus for an author was too ideal. Of course,
Jesus would use His powers to produce something useful or
helpful, or with a purpose. What was he, Jasper Chase,
writing this novel for? Why, what nearly every writer wrote
for--money, money, and fame as a writer. There was no secret
with him that he was writing this new story with that
object. He was not poor, and so had no great temptation to
write for money. But he was urged on by his desire for fame
as much as anything. He must write this kind of matter. But
what would Jesus do? The question plagued him even more than
Rachel's refusal. Was he going to break his promise?
"Did the promise mean much after all?" he asked.
As he
stood at the window, Rollin Page came out of the club house
just opposite. Jasper noted his handsome face and noble
figure as he started down the street. He went back to his
desk and turned over some papers there. Then he came back to
the window. Rollin was walking down past the block and
Rachel Winslow was walking beside him. Rollin must have
overtaken her as she was coming from Virginia's that
afternoon.
Jasper
watched the two figures until they disappeared in the crowd
on the walk. Then he turned to his desk and began to write.
When he had finished the last page of the last chapter of
his book it was nearly dark. "What would Jesus
do?" He had finally answered the question by denying
his Lord. It grew darker in his room. He had deliberately
chosen his course, urged on by his disappointment and loss.
