"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.
"Maxwell
asked me to come into this meeting. Nothing in all my
ministerial life, Caxton, has so moved me as that meeting.
I never felt the Spirit's presence so powerfully. It was a
meeting of reminiscences and of the most loving
fellowship. I was irresistibly driven in thought back to
the first years of Christianity. There was something about
all this that was apostolic in its simplicity and Christ
imitation.
"I
asked questions. One that seemed to arouse more interest
than any other was in regard to the extent of the
Christian disciple's sacrifice of personal property.
Maxwell tells me that so far no one has interpreted the
spirit of Jesus in such a way as to abandon his earthly
possessions, give away of his wealth, or in any literal
way imitate the Christians of the order, for example, of
St. Francis of Assisi. It was the unanimous consent,
however, that if any disciple should feel that Jesus in
his own particular case would do that, there could be only
one answer to the question. Maxwell admitted that he was
still to a certain degree uncertain as to Jesus' probable
action when it came to the details of household living,
the possession of wealth, the holding of certain luxuries.
It is, however, very evident that many of these disciples
have repeatedly carried their obedience to Jesus to the
extreme limit, regardless of financial loss. There is no
lack of courage or consistency at this point.
"It is
also true that some of the business men who took the
pledge have lost great sums of money in this imitation of
Jesus, and many have, like Alexander Powers, lost valuable
positions owing to the impossibility of doing what they
had been accustomed to do and at the same time what they
felt Jesus would do in the same place. In connection with
these cases it is pleasant to record the fact that many
who have suffered in this way have been at once helped
financially by those who still have means. In this respect
I think it is true that these disciples have all things in
common. Certainly such scenes as I witnessed at the First
Church at that after service this morning I never saw in
my church or in any other. I never dreamed that such
Christian fellowship could exist in this age of the world.
I was almost incredulous as to the witness of my own
senses. I still seem to be asking myself if this is the
close of the nineteenth century in America.
"But
now, dear friend, I come to the real cause of this letter,
the real heart of the whole question as the First Church
of Raymond has forced it upon me. Before the meeting
closed today steps were taken to secure the co-operation
of all other Christian disciples in this country. I think
Maxwell took this step after long deliberation. He said as
much to me one day when we were discussing the effect of
this movement upon the church in general.
"'Why,'
he said, 'suppose that the church membership generally in
this country made this pledge and lived up to it! What a
revolution it would cause in Christendom! But why not? Is
it any more than the disciple ought to do? Has he followed
Jesus, unless he is willing to do this? Is the test of
discipleship any less today than it was in Jesus' time?'
"I do
not know all that preceded or followed his thought of what
ought to be done outside of Raymond, but the idea
crystallized today in a plan to secure the fellowship of
all the Christians in America. The churches, through their
pastors, will be asked to form disciple gatherings like
the one in the First Church. Volunteers will be called for
in the great body of church members in the United States,
who will promise to do as Jesus would do. Maxwell spoke
particularly of the result of such general action on the
saloon question. He is terribly in earnest over this. He
told me that there was no question in his mind that the
saloon would be beaten in Raymond at the election now near
at hand. If so, they could go on with some courage to do
the redemptive work begun by the evangelist and now taken
up by the disciples in his own church. If the saloon
triumphs again there will be a terrible and, as he thinks,
unnecessary waste of Christian sacrifice. But, however we
differ on that point, he convinced his church that the
time had come for a fellowship with other Christians.
Surely, if the First Church could work such changes in
society and its surroundings, the church in general if
combining such a fellowship, not of creed but of conduct,
ought to stir the entire nation to a higher life and a new
conception of Christian following.
"This
is a grand idea, Caxton, but right here is where I find my
self hesitating. I do not deny that the Christian disciple
ought to follow Christ's steps as closely as these here in
Raymond have tried to do. But I cannot avoid asking what
the result would be if I ask my church in Chicago to do
it. I am writing this after feeling the solemn, profound
touch of the Spirit's presence, and I confess to you, old
friend, that I cannot call up in my church a dozen
prominent business or professional men who would make this
trial at the risk of all they hold dear. Can you do any
better in your church? What are we to say? That the
churches would not respond to the call: 'Come and suffer?'
Is our standard of Christian discipleship a wrong one? Or
are we possibly deceiving ourselves, and would we be
agreeably disappointed if we once asked our people to take
such a pledge faithfully? The actual results of the pledge
as obeyed here in Raymond are enough to make any pastor
tremble, and at the same time long with yearning that they
might occur in his own parish. Certainly never have I seen
a church so signally blessed by the Spirit as this one.
But--am I myself ready to take this pledge? I ask the
question honestly, and I dread to face an honest answer. I
know well enough that I should have to change very much in
my life if I undertook to follow His steps so closely. I
have called myself a Christian for many years. For the
past ten years I have enjoyed a life that has had
comparatively little suffering in it. I am, honestly I say
it, living at a long distance from municipal problems and
the life of the poor, the degraded and the abandoned. What
would the obedience to this pledge demand of me? I
hesitate to answer. My church is wealthy, full of
well-to-do, satisfied people. The standard of their
discipleship is, I am aware, not of a nature to respond to
the call of suffering or personal loss. I say: 'I am
aware.' I may be mistaken. I may have erred in not
stirring their deeper life. Caxton, my friend, I have
spoken my inmost thought to you. Shall I go back to my
people next Sunday and stand up before them in my large
city church and say: 'Let us follow Jesus closer; let us
walk in His steps where it will cost us something more
than it is costing us now; let us pledge not to do
anything without first asking: 'What would Jesus do?' If I
should go before them with that message, it would be a
strange and startling one to them. But why? Are we not
ready to follow Him all the way? What is it to be a
follower of Jesus? What does it mean to imitate Him? What
does it mean to walk in His steps?"
