St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1876-04-14

How would you Use the boys and
girls
Iou have to use good deal of dis
creti"n about children. | will admit
there Is great danger in having children
take an active part, for some people are
sure to say: "Don't that boy speak
well ?" And up comes spiritual pride,
and You have ruined that boy.
Is Il man justified in neglecting ser
vices at his own church in order to talk
to those who will not attend church
My experience has been that the man
that has got the spirit To 90 out after
other men Will bring Il good many into
the church. He don't neglect it. He
Is worth about il dozen men who go and
take good cushioned seats Sunday aftel
Sunday and don't speak to any one.
When ii MAI. feels that he must preach
the Gospel, and the church doesn't
want to hear it, must he go out
A great many have got the idea that
they can preach the Gospel, when they
cannot. And some have got the idea
that they cannot preach the Gospel.
and they can, to ii certain class aud
then they are just the ones to speak in
that church. Now, have tried that.
| W II 4 " dS III ~ i
must talk to them about Christ But
saw they did not like it 3: and finally
they came and told me | could serve
the Lord better by keeping still. Then
| went out into the street. and God
blessed me, and ! got to preaching he
fore | knew it. If the people don'l
want You, don't force Yourself upon
them. Go out and preach to the ragged
and the destitute.
Would you encourage women preach
ing i'll the pulpite
should say it is Il complicated point
and We will leave it. don't care about
my wife going around and preaching.
| have noticed. said he. i'll travelling
up and down the country. and after
mingling with IL great many ministers
| that it Is not the man that can preach
the best that is the most successful but
the man that knows how to get his
people together to pray. He has NOR,
| freedom. 1t is 50 much easier to preach
to an audience that is in full sympathy
with YOU than To those that are CRITICS
ing all the time. Ii chills your heart
| through and through. Now. if we could
only have our PRAYER meetings what
they ought to he. and people 90. not
out ot any SENSE OF duty, but because
they delight t" so. it would be ii great
help to ii minister in his Sunday ser
vices. Now, find it Il great help in
PRAYER meetings to get the people right
up close together. and then get my yselt
right down to them. bclieve many Il
meeting is lost by the people being
| scattered.
Another important thing is To see that
the ventilation is all right. Sometimes !
have been in rooms where | think the
all must have been in there five or six
Years. You cannot always trust the
janitorS to take care of it. The people
get sleepy. and you think it is youl
fault. Very often such Il thing is the
fault of bad ventilation. See that YOU
get fresh air-not too hot and not too
cold, but pure. Then il is good thing
to have IL subject. Let all the people
know Il week beforehand what the sub
.ject Is going to be. You take the sub
ject of Faith, say. and ask Il brother OF
tw" privately I" say IL little on that
subject. If they say, Il cannot get my
thoughts together" OF Il am SCI fright =
cned when get up that | tremble all
over" then tell him just to get up and
read Il verse. Ii wont be- long before
they will add few words to that verse /;
and after Il while they will want To talk
too much. and the meetings thus he
come very profitable To those men.
What We want is variety. Instead of
having Deacon Jones and Deacon Smith
and Deacon Brown do all the praN ing
and all the talking. have somebody
else say something III this way. and
thus create an interest.
| would not have the minister alwaN :
take the lead ; ion have noticed. " hen
the minister takes the lead, if he ever
goes off there is Il collapse Now il
seems to me IL minister should get diff
tcrent ones into the chair: and wheu
he goes OF the meetings won't miss him
and there will he no falling of Not
only that but he is training his mem
bcrS t" work. They will go ont around
the town and i'll >chool-h houses and
preach the Gospel. And we multipl,
preachers and workers in that WAY, il
they are only just taught to take part
Now. believe there are Il great many
i'll our rchurch PRAYER r-mertingS that could
bc brought out and made to he IL great
help if the ministers would only pay
their attention To it. How many law
NerS. physicians. public speakers we
have who do nothing to actively help
along the work aud believe that diff
ficultN could he removed if the minister
would take Il little pains. Let the faith
er whose son has been converted get up
and give thanks. Have once in IL while
Il Thanksgiving meeting. 1t wakes up Il
church wonderfully. once in Il while.
t" let the Young converts relate their
experiences. Then YOU say, what are
You going to ii" with these men that
talk so long! | would talk to them
privately, and tell them they must try
to he shorter. And it is Il good thing
sometimes for ministers themselves not
To he too long. Sometimes they read a
good deal of scripture and talk until
perhaps only fifteen minutes are left {;
and then they complain hrcIIISe Deacon
smith or Jones oT some one elS,. talk
too long. just let the minister strike
the keynote of the meeting. And if h,.
cant do that i'll ten minutes. he cant at
all. NcrH often a minister takes up Il
chapter and cXharIsts it. and SAYS cl-
erything he can think of in the chapter.
And then can You wonder IL lavman
cannot say more. who has had no study
of the subject Give ont the subject Il
week ahead, let the minister take i've OF
ten minutes III opening, and then let
the different ones take palt. That
would bc greater variety. When IL man
takes part he gets greatly interested
himself. 1t was pretty true what the
old deacon said that when he took
part they were very Interesting. and
when he didn't they seemed very dull.
As Mr. Moody clnsc.l. three OF fnur