In His Steps | Page 7

than another.
Do you?" He put the question as naturally as if the whole congregation
had been a small Bible class. He paused just a moment and coughed
painfully. Then he went on.
"I lost my job ten months ago. I am a printer by trade. The new linotype
machines are beautiful specimens of invention, but I know six men who
have killed themselves inside of the year just on account of those
machines. Of course I don't blame the newspapers for getting the
machines. Meanwhile, what can a man do? I know I never learned but
the one trade, and that's all I can do. I've tramped all over the country
trying to find something. There are a good many others like me. I'm not
complaining, am I? Just stating facts. But I was wondering as I sat there
under the gallery, if what you call following Jesus is the same thing as
what He taught. What did He mean when He said: 'Follow Me!'? The
minister said,"--here he turned about and looked up at the pulpit--"that
it is necessary for the disciple of Jesus to follow His steps, and he said
the steps are 'obedience, faith, love and imitation.' But I did not hear
him tell you just what he meant that to mean, especially the last step.
What do you Christians mean by following the steps of Jesus?
"I've tramped through this city for three days trying to find a job; and in
all that time I've not had a word of sympathy or comfort except from

your minister here, who said he was sorry for me and hoped I would
find a job somewhere. I suppose it is because you get so imposed on by
the professional tramp that you have lost your interest in any other sort.
I'm not blaming anybody, am I? Just stating facts. Of course, I
understand you can't all go out of your way to hunt up jobs for other
people like me. I'm not asking you to; but what I feel puzzled about is,
what is meant by following Jesus. What do you mean when you sing
'I'll go with Him, with Him, all the way?' Do you mean that you are
suffering and denying yourselves and trying to save lost, suffering
humanity just as I understand Jesus did? What do you mean by it? I see
the ragged edge of things a good deal. I understand there are more than
five hundred men in this city in my case. Most of them have families.
My wife died four months ago. I'm glad she is out of trouble. My little
girl is staying with a printer's family until I find a job. Somehow I get
puzzled when I see so many Christians living in luxury and singing
'Jesus, I my cross have taken, all to leave and follow Thee,' and
remember how my wife died in a tenement in New York City, gasping
for air and asking God to take the little girl too. Of course I don't expect
you people can prevent every one from dying of starvation, lack of
proper nourishment and tenement air, but what does following Jesus
mean? I understand that Christian people own a good many of the
tenements. A member of a church was the owner of the one where my
wife died, and I have wondered if following Jesus all the way was true
in his case. I heard some people singing at a church prayer meeting the
other night,
'All for Jesus, all for Jesus, All my being's ransomed powers, All my
thoughts, and all my doings, All my days, and all my hours.'
and I kept wondering as I sat on the steps outside just what they meant
by it. It seems to me there's an awful lot of trouble in the world that
somehow wouldn't exist if all the people who sing such songs went and
lived them out. I suppose I don't understand. But what would Jesus do?
Is that what you mean by following His steps? It seems to me
sometimes as if the people in the big churches had good clothes and
nice houses to live in, and money to spend for luxuries, and could go
away on summer vacations and all that, while the people outside the
churches, thousands of them, I mean, die in tenements, and walk the
streets for jobs, and never have a piano or a picture in the house, and

grow up in misery and drunkenness and sin."
The man suddenly gave a queer lurch over in the direction of the
communion table and laid one grimy hand on it. His hat fell upon the
carpet at his feet. A stir went through the congregation. Dr. West half
rose from his pew, but as