In His Steps

Rachel Winslow is the resident soprano of the First Church of Raymond, destined for the stage and a celebrated career in vocal performance. Like many others in Raymond, Rachel is content with her life and with the status quo, suffering no want and happily moving about her social circle. However, once Rev. Maxwell issues the challenge to live and act only as Jesus would, she immediately embraces his words as a personal call to reform her life, change her course of action, and abandon a career on the stage for a life in service to others. A noted beauty, Rachel is courted by several young men in town, eventually falling in love with Rollin Page, the younger brother of her best friend, Virginia Page.

Encouraged by her mother to use her immense vocal talents for self-satisfaction and the luxuries of fame and fortune, Rachel Winslow discovers that she is only truly content when using her gifts to serve others. She turns down a lucrative job offer in the opera in order to spend even more time singing for the purposes of evangelization, singing both at the First Church in Raymond as well as at the revival meetings held in the Rectangle in attempts to convert and reform the area. Thoughtful and generous to a fault, Rachel proves to be a faithful friend and an invaluable member of the evangelization team responsible for bringing light, love, and restoration to the Rectangle and the wider Raymond community.

Virginia Page is Rachel Winslow’s best friend, an unmarried, attractive, and wealthy young heiress who joins the first group at the First Church of Raymond to commit to Rev. Maxwell’s promise of acting only in accord with their Christian conscience. The executor of an enormous estate, Virginia also lives with her brother, Rollin, and her grandmother, Madame Florence Page. In contrast to many of her friends who generally inhabit the circles of the working and middle class, Virginia’s aristocratic status proves a formidable obstacle to her fulfilling her promise. Eventually, Virginia’s course of action will even drive her grandmother from the house in protest over Virginia’s newly adopted code of conduct.

While many characters face decisions that will have financial ramifications, perhaps none are so weighty and monumental as those made by Virginia, whose inheritance numbers into the millions. No person could be better prepared for the task, however, as Virginia has quite the business and financial acumen. Thus, Virginia proves to be of the highest character, donating copiously both to the newly dedicated Christian newspaper and to the establishment of a house of rehabilitation in the heart of the Rectangle district for the benefit of the entire community.

The principal editor and head of the Raymond Daily News, Edward Norman is one of the most senior members of the church and a pillar in the community. For years he ran the Daily News with only one goal in mind: success. Once Rev. Maxwell issues his challenge, however, Edward is the first to take real steps towards accomplishing his goal and fulfilling that fateful Sunday afternoon pledge. Completely redirecting the aims for the newspaper, Edward begins slowly excising all objectionable content from the paper in an attempt to publish only what is virtuous and truly newsworthy.

Immediately setting himself apart from all the other newspapers in circulation, Edward Norman refuses to print anything that he considers to be sensationalism, or gossip, or that glorifies violence, alcohol, or crime. Over the course of the novel, he loses countless subscribers and hemorrhages money until the plan for creating a Christian daily is conceived by the little community of familiars and subsequently funded by Virginia Page’s charitable donations. Edward proves himself to be resilient and steadfast to the promise, even in the face of impending doom, by risking the failure of the newspaper. He is one of the first to change the way that journalism is practiced.

Rollin Page is first introduced in relation to Rachel Winslow, with whom he has long been in love, and by whom he is summarily rejected in short order. With a sound rebuke, Rachel cuts to the heart of Rollin’s primary defect: He has never demonstrated any purpose in life. A handsome, energetic, and popular young man, Rollin—the younger brother of Virginia Page—spends most of his time frequenting clubs and social gatherings with a host of friends and acquaintances. Always one for gossip, he is the first to make public Rachel’s possible employment in show business, and when the promise of the First Church is brought up, he is the first to make himself scarce, having no interest in conversation of any depth or import.

However, in witnessing the events at the Rectangle, Rollin is moved to repentance and conversion, and he turns over a whole new leaf. Abandoning his pursuit of Rachel’s affections, Rollin begins to pursue the purpose he had, up to that point, always neglected. He begins frequenting the meetings at the revival tent, often spending much time speaking with Mr. Gray the evangelist. The change in Rollin over the course of the novel is evident to everyone, and his radical change in character eventually wins Rachel’s affection and simultaneously proves to be both a nuisance and a marvel to his former friends. Instead of abandoning his old social circles, Rollin attempts to convert them to a new way of living, desiring to see the same change in them as happened in him.

Reverend Calvin Bruce is pastor of the Nazareth Avenue Church in Chicago. An old friend of Henry Maxwell’s—the two spent time together in their seminary training—Calvin is intrigued to hear of the pledge taken by the members of First Church in Raymond and the work being done in the Rectangle. After visiting Raymond for a number of weeks, Dr. Bruce returns home to Chicago and issues the same challenge to his own parish, a community even more affluent and highfalutin than the Raymond congregation. While the challenge meets harsh resistance, Dr. Bruce is resolute and begins to form a movement in his own community.

Eventually, Dr. Bruce meets with the local Bishop who hears of the movement and joins Calvin in resigning from formal ministry to work directly among the people of the inner city in downtown Chicago. Renting out an old factory located where the saloons had the most influence, Calvin is able to work in an entirely new way; he can give his whole self in service to people directly, making real sacrifices in a way that neither he nor his congregation ever have. While Rev. Maxwell emphasizes the need to choose as Jesus did, Calvin Bruce is focused on direct contact with the poor and marginalized and the need for self-sacrifice in imitation of Jesus.