41 pages • 1 hour read
Charles SheldonIn His Steps
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1896A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 21-24Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapters 21-24 Summary
Continuing to work at the Settlement, Bishop Hampton and Dr. Bruce discuss the adjacent buildings and the saloon renting out the property next door. They find that the owner of the property is an old parishioner of Dr. Bruce’s named Clayton Price, and after a conversation, Clayton decides not only to refuse a renewal of the lease to the saloon proprietors but to also give the property to Dr. Bruce and the Bishop to expand their work. With new property and new plans, the pair of men bring Felicia Sterling into the fold. Felicia proposes a department in the Settlement devoted to food and the education of young women to become cooks, maids, and housekeepers to support themselves financially.
With the changing of the seasons, the contrast between rich and poor becomes especially apparent in the harsher conditions brought on by a harsh Chicago winter. In experiencing the reality of many of the poor firsthand, the Bishop is appalled that so many of his wealthy friends are unwilling to do anything to help in a serious way. Over breakfast at the Settlement one day, a conversation revolves around a sad piece of news found in the paper: the story of a man who was killed in an attempt to steal some coal to keep his family from freezing. They discover that the man and his family had been residing in very inhumane living conditions, and the owner of the property is Clarence Penrose, a member of the First Nazareth Church. Just as they are attempting to decide what to do, Clarence Penrose himself walks in the door.
Clarence had read the story himself, and he has determined to change how he runs his properties. Encountering true poverty and misery for the first time in his entire life, and cut to the heart by a vision of divine judgment, Clarence Penrose becomes a new man. By the time the winter season comes to a close, Felicia Sterling falls in love with a man named Stephen Clyde, and Rev. Maxwell comes to Chicago along with Rachel, Virginia, Rollin, Alexander Powers, and President Marsh. Rev. Maxwell begins to wonder just how far the movement powered by the Raymond pledge will spread.
Speaking at a meeting at the Settlement, Rev. Maxwell encounters a plethora of conflicting viewpoints by different community members who show up to voice their opinions on the work being done at the Settlement and the problems in the city in general. In this encounter, Rev. Maxwell begins to realize just how much work is yet to be done, as much of the crowd’s criticism concerns the church’s failure to help those most in need.
The final chapter finds the Rev. Maxwell invited to one of the largest churches in Chicago where he preaches on the Gospel story of the rich young man who inquires of Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Rev. Maxwell emphasizes that the needs of humanity have not changed, and that the methods of discipleship have not changed either. A spontaneous gathering of people who wish to take the pledge all gather around him. In the wake of the events at the Chicago church, Henry Maxwell experiences a vision of the future of all those affected by the pledge, who devoted themselves to the cause. He realizes that the work of Christian discipleship is still being accomplished by grace upon the earth, and he prays for a new dawn of Christian activity.
Chapters 21-24 Analysis
The final section of the novel involves the continuing expansion of the Settlement home in Chicago and the conversion of two different men who own property in the heart of the city: a former parishioner of the Nazareth church, Clayton Price, who had been renting out property for a saloon, and local real estate magnate, Clarence Penrose. Previously, most of the conversions came from within the circle of faithful in the Raymond and Chicago churches, but here is the continued spread of the pledge movement as it affects more and more people.
Felicia Sterling continues the work of providing for the material needs of those who come in contact with the movement; she proposes a food department and a new institute of domestic work that would provide an education to young women who wish to become self-sufficient. This work, in conjunction with all the other plans developed by those at the Settlement and in the Rectangle, is more evidence that those who have taken the pledge are all interested in the community’s material wellbeing in addition to their spiritual wellbeing. It is not a movement of pure proselytization without concern for the real good of their neighbor, but a movement of love and concern for the whole person. It is also a movement that is concerned with the continued wellbeing of all those who come to them for help, not just a simple one-time act of charity. Teaching the skills needed to develop long term good habits and to develop a source of income is, in the end, a profoundly Christian act that looks to the good of the person in relation to the whole of society.
The conversion of Clarence Penrose, as well, demonstrates the concern required in looking to the good of society as a whole. A single man in this instance has the influence to directly impact the lives of hundreds and thousands of people for good or for ill. The lack of concern and absence of common human decency—let alone Christian charity—is a blight on the communities of Raymond and Chicago. The witness of those striving to stay faithful to their promises provides the light for others to see the error of their own ways and reform their lives.
Another result of the movement is the creation of new families and the courtship made possible by the conversions and reclamation projects. Rachel Winslow and Rollin Page are able to kindle a romance because of Rollin’s reformed manner of life and Rachel’s decision to stay in Raymond. Felicia Sterling falls in love with Stephen Clyde because she goes to live with the Winslows in Raymond, and from there she moves on to Chicago to work with the Settlement. The pledge-makers’ sacrifices result in the salvation and restoration of many different families and individual lives, and the element of the personal is ultimately what Rev. Maxwell discerns is the new element of the discipleship he espouses; not new in the sense that it is completely new, but new in the sense that the personal is what Christianity—in Henry Maxwell’s opinion—had begun to lack and what it needed desperately to return to.
