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In His Steps

Charles M Sheldon

Charles M. Sheldon (1857-1946) was an American pastor, writer, and social reformer. He was born and grew up in a homestead in the Dakota Territory, his father servings as a missionary superintendent for the Territory. He went on to study at Brown University and graduated from Andover Theological Seminary, before filling his first pastorate in Waterbury, Vermont. In 1889, he became pastor of a new Congregational church in Topeka, Kansas, where he engaged in ministry to the working-class and to the black community. In the 1890's Sheldon and his church helped to develop the newly-introduced kindergarten system and educational training in the area. Throughout his ministry, Sheldon kept alive his early interest in writing, Bible reading and storytelling. He introduced a popular line of serial "Sermon stories" for his evening service in Topeka, and would write In His Steps along the same lines. After his retirement in 1919, he served as editor of the Christian Herald (1920-25).

One of the first popular Christian novels in America, still one the most enduring and widely read.

This popular and widely read novel, was written by Sheldon in 1896, inspired by the serial "Sermon stories" which he used to read in his Sunday evening services in Topeka, Kansas. In these stories, read a chapter at a time, each installment would end with a "cliffhanger" situation, which would keep the audience intrigued, and which would naturally propel the story's narrative. Already in its first year of publication the book proved quite popular, inspiring Christians to follow the example of the novel's fictional congregation – a Midwestern Church that is challenged by a vagrant who dies in their midst. The challenge posed is to live out truthfully and effectively the faith which is professed from the pulpit every Sunday. The congregation's year-long pledge has now become quite famous: "What would Jesus do?"

Inspirational & Devotional

Fiction