Christian fiction; Clergy -- Fiction; Jesus Christ -- Influence -- Fiction
"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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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