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Charles Monroe Sheldon (1857-1946) graduated in the Phillips Academy, Andover. He became a champion of the school of thought knon as Christian Socialism. His theological insight focused in the practical aspects of moral life with much less emphasis in the doctrinal traditions of personal redemption of sin in Christ.

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The penetrating and provocative question "What would Jesus do?" in all of life's complex situations, is the central theme of this book. It is the soul-stirring novel of men and women torn between their faith and the demands, compulsions, and temptations of life. Dr. Henry Maxwell, respected pastor of the First Church of Raymond, struggled with the idea that Christian discipleship demanded more than mental assent. He vowed to preface every attitude and action of his own life with the question: What would Jesus do in this situation if He were me? Electrifying his congregation with the same challenge, people responded with agreement to try it for one year. This book is the moving, dramatic story of a handful of Americans--a newspaper editor, a college president, a railroad executive, a pastor, a singer, a writer, a wealthy philanthropist--who pledge to walk in "the steps of Jesus." At each turning point in their daily lives, they must ask: "What would Jesus do?" For decades, readers have been gripped by this narrative and have been challenged by its implications for their own lives. In His Steps is a convincing testimony to the worth and influence of Christian witness in all of life. A Christian classic every Christian should read!

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In His Steps

Zondervan Publishing Company

Chapter One

"Mary," he called to his wife, as he went upstairs after the last interruption, "if anyone comes after this, I wish you would say I am very busy and cannot come down unless it is something very important."

"Yes, Henry. But I am going over to visit the kindergarten, and you will have the house all to yourself."

The minister went up into his study and shut the door. In a few minutes he heard his wife go out, and then everything was quiet. He settled himself at his desk with a sigh of relief and began to write. His text was from 1 Peter 2:21: "For hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps."

He had emphasized in the first part of the sermon the Atonement as a personal sacrifice, calling attention to the fact of Jesus' suffering in various ways, in His life as well as in His death. He had then gone on to emphasize the Atonement from the side of example, giving illustrations from the life and teachings of Jesus to show how faith in the Christ helped to save human beings because of the pattern or character He displayed for their imitation. He was now on the third and last point, the necessity of following Jesus in His sacrifice and example.

He had put down "Three Steps. What are they?" and was about to enumerate them in logical order when the bell rang sharply. It was one of those clockwork bells, and always went off as a clock might go if it tried to strike twelve all at once.

Henry Maxwell sat at his desk and frowned a little. He made no movement to answer the bell. Very soon it rang again; then he rose and walked over to one of his windows which commanded the view of the front door. A man was standing on the steps. He was a young man, very shabbily dressed.

"Looks like a tramp," said the minister. "I suppose I'll have to go down and-"

He did not finish his sentence, but he went downstairs and opened the front door. There was a moment's pause as the two men stood facing each other, then the shabby-looking young man said, "I'm out of a job, sir, and thought maybe you might put me in the way of getting something."

"I don't know of anything. Jobs are scarce-" replied the minister, beginning to shut the door slowly.

"I thought you might perhaps be able to give me a line to the city railway or the superintendent of the shops, or something," continued the young man, shifting his faded hat from one hand to the other nervously.

"It would be of no use. You will have to excuse me. I am very busy this morning. I hope you will find something. Sorry I can't give you something to do here. But I keep only a horse and cow and do the work myself."

The Reverend Henry Maxwell closed the door and heard the man walk down the steps. As he went up into his study, he saw from his hall window that the man was going slowly down the street, still holding his hat between his hands. There was something in the figure so dejected, homeless, and forsaken that the minister hesitated a moment as he stood looking at it. Then he turned to his desk and with a sigh began the writing where he had left off. He had no more interruptions, and when his wife came in two hours later, the sermon was finished, the loose leaves gathered up, and neatly tied together, and laid on his Bible all ready for the Sunday morning service.

"A queer thing happened at the kindergarten this morning, Henry," said his wife while they were eating dinner. "You know I went over with Mrs. Brown to visit the school, and just after the games, while the children were at the tables, the door opened and a young man came in holding a dirty hat in both hands. He sat down near the door and never said a word, only looked at the children. He was evidently a tramp, and Miss Wren and her assistant Miss Kyle were a little frightened at first, but he sat there very quietly, and after a few minutes he went out."

"Perhaps he was tired and wanted to rest somewhere. The same man called here, I think. Did you say he looked like a tramp?"

"Yes, very dusty, shabby, and generally tramplike. Not more than thirty or thirty-three years old, I should say."

"The same man," said the Reverend Henry Maxwell thoughtfully.

"Did you finish your sermon, Henry?" his wife asked after a pause.

"Yes, all done. It has been a very busy week with me. The two sermons have cost me a good deal of labor."

"They will be appreciated by a large audience Sunday, I hope," replied his wife smiling. "What are you going to preach about in the morning?"

"Following Christ. I take up the Atonement under the head of sacrifice and example."

"I am sure it is a good sermon. I hope it won't rain Sunday. We have had so many stormy Sundays lately."

"Yes, the audiences have been quite small for some time. People will not come out to church in a storm." The Reverend Henry Maxwell sighed as he said it. He was thinking of the careful, laborious effort he had made in preparing sermons for large audiences that failed to appear.

But Sunday morning dawned on the town of Raymond, one of the perfect days that sometimes come after long periods of wind and mud and rain. The air was clear and bracing, the sky was free from all threatening signs, and everyone in Mr. Maxwell's parish prepared to go to church. When the service opened at eleven o'clock, the large building was filled with an audience of the best-dressed, most comfortable-looking people of Raymond.

The First Church of Raymond believed in having the best music that money could buy, and its quartet choir this morning was a source of great pleasure to the congregation. The anthem was inspiring. All the music was in keeping with the subject of the sermon. And the anthem was an elaborate adaptation to the most modern music of the hymn "Jesus, I my cross have taken, all to leave and follow Thee."

Just before the sermon the soprano sang a solo, the well-known hymn "Where He leads me I will follow; I'll go with Him, with Him, all the way."

Rachel Winslow looked very beautiful that morning as she stood up behind the screen of carved oak which was significantly marked with the emblems of the cross and the crown. Her voice was even more beautiful than her face, and that meant a great deal. There was a general rustle of expectation over the audience as she rose. Mr. Maxwell settled himself contentedly behind the pulpit. Rachel Winslow's singing always helped him. He generally arranged for a song before the sermon. It made possible a certain inspiration of feeling that made his delivery more impressive.

People said to themselves they had never heard such singing even in the First Church. It is certain that if it had not been a church service, her solo would have been vigorously applauded. It even seemed to the minister when she sat down that something like an attempted clapping of hands or a striking of feet on the floor swept through the church. He was startled by it. As he rose, however, and laid his sermon on the Bible, he said to himself he had been deceived. Of course such applause could not occur. In a few moments he was absorbed in his sermon and everything else was forgotten in the pleasure of his delivery.

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