In His Steps --Book Review

 The link for this week's live-streamed service is here

This week's guest blogger is Linda Cliff. As usual, she has sent along a book report. 

In His Steps: What would Jesus Do?

                               -- Charles M Sheldon

 

I took this book off my bookshelf in desperation.  It has sat there for at least twenty five years until there was a day when I had nothing to read and upon opening the book I saw it had been given to my father-in-law on his twenty-fourth birthday.  So I took a chance and started to read.  

The first thing I noted was that the book had been written in 1896, and may have influenced  the popular movement of “What would Jesus do”.

 In His Steps concerns the inhabitants of a town who pledged themselves to live for a year as Jesus would.  The main character, the Reverend Henry Maxwell, meets a homeless man who confronts Henry and his family and congregation about their lack of Christ-like mercy. Henry asks church members to take a pledge for a year to live as Jesus would.  The novel then follows the lives of four people as each person’s life is radically changed by the challenge and the town of Raymond is forever transformed by the love and sacrifice offered by the Christians inspired by the challenge.

 As you can imagine the challenges outlined in 1896 are different than the ones we see today.  But underlying human greed and sin present us with the same struggles today.  We have recently been exploring the scripture that asks us to Love thy neighbour as ourselves.  This book walks us through the consequences of embracing this command and how emulating Christ will change the world.

Originally, the author read a chapter of this book to the young people at his church in Topeka, Kansas. While it was being read it was also published in a religious weekly. Unfortunately there were problems with the copyright and the story became part of the public domain.  Lacking a proper copyright the book was published by sixteen different firms all over the world.  Because of this the book has had more circulation than any other book except the Bible. The book has sold over 50,000,000 copies and ranks as one of the best selling books of all time.

 There is a modern rendition of Sheldon’s book in our library.  It updates the story as in 1896 they were still using horse and buggy to get around, it is well worth the read. You can also read the original on-line as part of Gutenberg project here.

There is also a movie version, available for free on YouTube here.

 

 

Linda Cliff

Ed. Note: Thanks Linda for sharing your Christian reading journey on this blog.