CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 5
The next Sunday morning Henry Maxwell’s church was again crowded.
Henry Maxwell faced it all with a calmness that indicated an unusual strength and purpose. While his prayers were very helpful, his sermon was not so easy to describe. He did not preach as he had done two Sundays before.
He agonized over his preparation for his sermon, and yet he knew he had not been able to fit his message into his ideal of the Christ. Nevertheless, no one in the First Church could remember ever hearing such a sermon before. There was in it rebuke for sin—things that First Church never heard rebuked this way before. And there was a love of his people that gathered new force as the sermon went on. When it was finished there were those who said in their hearts, “The Spirit moved that sermon.” Then Rachel Winslow rose to sing, this time after the sermon, by Mr. Maxwell’s request. Today there was no lack of power in her grand voice, but there was an added element of humility and purity that the audience noted.
Before the service closed, Mr. Maxwell asked those who had remained the week before to stay again for a few moments of consultation, and welcomed any others who were willing to make the pledge at that time. When he went into the lecture room, it was almost filled. As before, Maxwell asked them to pray with him, and again a distinct answer came from the presence of the divine Spirit. There was no doubt in the minds of any present that what they purposed to do was clearly in line with the divine will. There was a feeling of fellowship such as they had never known in their church membership. Jasper Chase said, “I have been puzzled several times during the week to know just what Jesus would do. It is not always an easy question to answer.”
“I think perhaps I find it specially difficult to answer that question on account of my money,” Virginia Page said. “Our Lord never owned any property, and there is nothing in His example to guide me in the use of mine.” Virginia smiled slightly. “What I am trying to discover is a principle that will enable me to come to the nearest possible to His action as it ought to influence the entire course of my life so far as my wealth and its use are concerned.”
“That will take time,” said the minister slowly.
Milton Wright told how he was gradually working out a plan for his business relations with his employees, and it was opening up a new world to him and to them.
There was almost general consent over the fact that the application of the Christ spirit and practice to the everyday life required a knowledge of Him and an insight into His motives that most of them did not yet possess.
When they finally adjourned after a silent prayer that marked with growing power the Divine Presence, they went away discussing earnestly their difficulties and seeking light from one another.
After the others had gone, Alexander Powers spoke to his pastor. “I want you to come down to the shops tomorrow and see my plan and talk to the men. Somehow I feel as if you could get nearer to them than anyone else just now.”
How was he fitted to stand before two or three hundred workingmen and give them a message? Yet in the moment of his weakness, he asked the question, “What would Jesus do?” That was an end to the discussion.
He went down the next day and found Mr. Powers in his office. The superintendent said, “Come upstairs, and I’ll show you what I’ve been trying to do.”
They went through the machine shop, climbed a long flight of stairs, and entered a very large, empty room that had once been used by the company for a storeroom.
“My plan is to provide a good place where the men can come up and eat their noon lunch, and give them, two or three times a week, the privilege of a fifteen-minute talk on some subject that will be a real help to them in their lives.”
Maxwell asked if the men would come for any such purpose.
“Yes, they’ll come. They are among the most intelligent workingmen in the country today. But they are, as a whole, entirely removed from church influence. I asked, ‘What would Jesus do?’ and it seemed to me He would begin to act in some way to add more physical and spiritual comfort to the lives of these men. I have asked them to come up at noon and see the place, and I’ll tell them something about it. I want you to speak to them, too.”
There were a dozen rude benches and tables in the room, and when the noon whistle sounded, about three hundred men poured upstairs from the machine shops below and, seating themselves at the tables, began to eat their lunch.
At about twenty minutes to one, Mr. Powers told the men what he had in mind. He spoke very simply, like one who understands thoroughly the character of his audience, and then introduced the Reverend Henry Maxwell of the First Church, his pastor, who had consented to speak a few minutes.
Maxwell would never forget the feeling with which, for the first time, he stood before the grimy-faced audience of workingmen. Like hundreds of other ministers, he had never spoken to any gatherings except those made up of people of his own class in the sense that they were familiar in their dress and education and habits. This was a new world to him, and nothing but his new rule of conduct could have made possible his message and its effect.
Alexander Powers went back to his desk that afternoon with a glow of satisfaction. After all, he wanted to do as Jesus would, he said to himself.
It was nearly four o’clock when he opened one of the company’s long envelopes. He ran over the first page of typewritten matter in his usual quick, businesslike manner before he saw that what he was reading was not intended for his office but for the superintendent of the freight department.
He turned over a page mechanically. Before he knew it, he was in possession of evidence that conclusively proved that the company was engaged in a systematic violation of the Interstate Commerce Laws of the United States and the new state laws.
He dropped the papers on his desk as if they were poison, and instantly the question flashed across his mind, “What would Jesus do?”
He had known in a more or less definite way that this had been going on. But he was not in a position to prove anything directly, and he had regarded it as a matter that did not concern him at all. Now the papers before him revealed the entire affair.
If he came out against this lawlessness as a witness, it would drag him into courts, his motives would be misunderstood, and the whole thing would end in his disgrace and the loss of his position. Surely it was none of his business. He could easily get the papers back to the freight department and no one would be the wiser.
Let the iniquity go on. Let the law be defied. What was it to him? He would work out his plans for bettering the condition of his men. What more could a man do in this railroad business when there was so much going on anyway that made it impossible to live by the Christian standard? But what would Jesus do if He knew the facts? Day wore into evening as Alexander Powers pondered the question. At six o’clock the whistle blew, the engine slowed, and the men dropped their tools and ran for the blockhouse.
Powers waited until he heard the last man clock out. Then he knelt and buried his face in his hands as he bowed his head upon the papers on his desk.