All the faces in the room were raised towards the minister in solemn assent.  There was no misunderstanding that proposition.  Henry Maxwell’s face quivered again as he noted the president of the Endeavor Society with several members seated back of the older men and women.

Chapter Three

“He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also to walk even as He walked.”

Edward Norman, editor Of the Raymond daily news, sat in his office room Monday morning and faced a new world of action.  He had made his pledge in good faith to do everything after asking “What would Jesus do?” and, as he supposed, with his eyes open to all the possible results.  But as the regular life of the paper started on another week’s rush and whirl of activity, he confronted it with a degree of hesitation and a feeling nearly akin to fear.

He had come down to the office very early, and for a few minutes was by himself.  He sat at his desk in a growing thoughtfulness that finally became a desire which he knew was as great as it was unusual.  He had yet to learn, with all the others in that little company pledged to do the Christlike thing, that the Spirit of Life was moving in power through his own life as never before.  He rose and shut his door, and then did what he had not done for years.  He kneeled down by his desk and prayed for the Divine Presence and wisdom to direct him.

He rose with the day before him, and his promise distinct and clear in his mind.  “Now for action,” he seemed to say.  But he would be led by events as fast as they came on.

He opened his door and began the routine of the office work.  The managing editor had just come in and was at his desk in the adjoining room.  One of the reporters there was pounding out something on a typewriter.  Edward Norman began to write an editorial.  The daily news was an evening paper, and Norman usually completed his leading editorial before nine o’clock.

He had been writing for fifteen minutes when the managing editor called out:  “Here’s this press report of yesterday’s prize fight at the Resort.  It will make up three columns and a half.  I suppose it all goes in?”

Norman was one of those newspaper men who keep an eye on every detail of the paper.  The managing editor always consulted his chief in matters of both small and large importance.  Sometimes, as in this case, it was merely a nominal inquiry.

“Yes—­No.  Let me see it.”

He took the type-written matter just as it came from the telegraph editor and ran over it carefully.  Then he laid the sheets down on his desk and did some very hard thinking.

“We won’t run this today,” he said finally.

The managing editor was standing in the doorway between the two rooms.  He was astounded at his chief’s remark, and thought he had perhaps misunderstood him.