Christian fiction; Clergy -- Fiction; Jesus Christ -- Influence -- Fiction
He saw Dr. Bruce and the Bishop going on with the Settlement work.
He seemed to see the great blazing motto over the door enlarged,
"What would Jesus do?" and by this motto every one who entered the
Settlement walked in the steps of the Master.
He saw Burns and his companion and a great company of men like them,
redeemed and giving in turn to others, conquering their passions by
the divine grace, and proving by their daily lives the reality of
the new birth even in the lowest and most abandoned.
And now the vision was troubled. It seemed to him that as he kneeled
he began to pray, and the vision was more of a longing for a future
than a reality in the future. The church of Jesus in the city and
throughout the country! Would it follow Jesus? Was the movement
begun in Raymond to spend itself in a few churches like Nazareth
Avenue and the one where he had preached today, and then die away as
a local movement, a stirring on the surface but not to extend deep
and far? He felt with agony after the vision again. He thought he
saw the church of Jesus in America open its heart to the moving of
the Spirit and rise to the sacrifice of its ease and
self-satisfaction in the name of Jesus. He thought he saw the motto,
"What would Jesus do?" inscribed over every church door, and written
on every church member's heart.
The vision vanished. It came back clearer than before, and he saw
the Endeavor Societies all over the world carrying in their great
processions at some mighty convention a banner on which was written,
"What would Jesus do?" And he thought in the faces of the young men
and women he saw future joy of suffering, loss, self-denial,
martyrdom. And when this part of the vision slowly faded, he saw the
figure of the Son of God beckoning to him and to all the other
actors in his life history. An Angel Choir somewhere was singing.
There was a sound as of many voices and a shout as of a great
victory. And the figure of Jesus grew more and more splendid. He
stood at the end of a long flight of steps. "Yes! Yes! O my Master,
has not the time come for this dawn of the millennium of Christian
history? Oh, break upon the Christendom of this age with the light
and the truth! Help us to follow Thee all the way!"
He rose at last with the awe of one who has looked at heavenly
things. He felt the human forces and the human sins of the world as
never before. And with a hope that walks hand in hand with faith and
love Henry Maxwell, disciple of Jesus, laid him down to sleep and
dreamed of the regeneration of Christendom, and saw in his dream a
church of Jesus without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, following
him all the way, walking obediently in His steps.
THE END
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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