“It was a most astonishing day all through, Grey. Did you ever dream that we would see such a sight as we saw yesterday?”

“No. It seems to me now, as I think back over it, that it must have been a dream.”

As he spoke, there was a sound of voices, a man’s and a woman’s. A moment later, Martha knocked on Mr. Maxwell’s study door. When he opened it, she said, “Jesus is going downtown. He asked me to tell you he would be back for dinner.”

The two men looked at her earnestly, and Mr. Maxwell said, “Martha, does it not seem like a dream to you that Jesus is actually out guest and eating and sleeping in our house?”

“No, Mr. Maxwell, it does not seem like any dream I’ve ever had. It is so real and so natural. He is the most human person I ever knew. I do not feel afraid of him as I have of some great men who have eaten and slept here.”

Martha went back into the kitchen, and Maxwell turned to Grey. “Could anything be more bewildering than what Martha said just now, about Jesus going downtown and being back for dinner? Can you grasp that as a fact?”

“No. And yet, Maxwell, it is just such common things as this that were happening all the time when he was on earth before. Was it not just such things that made him one of us? We are so overawed by our constant thought of the supernatural in Jesus that we are actually afraid of enjoying his human characteristics.”

“A common man, only different, as Martha says. But as I sat there on the platform yesterday, I could not help asking continually: in what way different?”

“He has not performed any miracles.”

“Did you hear the rumor that no one has been able to get a picture of him?”

“No. How absurd, in a scientific world of cameras and light.”

“Well, I heard it yesterday but paid little attention. There were so many other tremendous things happening. You know, Norman asked me to take notes on what he said. I was not able to put down more than the headings. Will you verify if I go over the main points?”

“Yes. I took some notes myself.”

“Then we can compare. The striking thing about the whole message to me was its note of power concerning the church. ‘The Gates of Death shall not prevail against it.’ That seemed to ring all through the entire service like a bugle.”

“Not a word, Maxwell, of censure, or fault finding, or calling attention to the pitiful weaknesses of us preachers and our poor little discipleship. Just comfort, courage, and inspiration, at the thought of the power of the church.”

“Yes. But I have here a list of necessary things for the churches to do to add to the tremendous power they already possess. I don’t have them in the order he mentioned them, but my notes give me these: