Nevada County picayune. (Prescott, Nev. County, Ark.) 1885-1???, 1892-02-25
RELIGIOUS COLUMN.
THOS II. WARE, EDITOR.
LOYALTY TO THE CHURCH.

We once knew member OF the
Church, whose loyalty to the Church
rose far above his own private, per-
sonal convictions and selfish views.
An example of his loyalty may be
seen in the following incident
As pastor, we proposed to take up
a collection for the Foreign Mission
airy cause, on the following Sabbath,
in the church OF which our friend
was a member; and knowing his
convictions on the missionary enter
prises OF the Church-thst he was
not in accord with the missionary
spirit of the same, and as he was
man of great influence in the com
munity, we were apprehensive that
the collection would be slim. There
are so many persons in the Church
who estimate their duties, in the mat
ter Of contributions, by the amount
contributed by others, that we feared
our collection on that occasion would
be failure. But impellcd by the
sense of duty, and conviction that
we were in harmony with the spirit
Of Christ, ("If We have not the spirit
of Christ, We are none OF his. y
Paul. who came to earth on mis-
sion, and that we were endeav0ring
to obey his command: $50 We there
fore and teach all nations" etc, we
presented the cause, and called for
liberal responses-something that
would do credit to the great cause
and reflect the christian sentiment of
the community. To our delighted
surprise, our rather doubtful, but
true and loyal son Of Christ, arose
and said 1T is generally known
that | am not in sympathy with the
missionary operations Of my Church.
l have my convictions, they are def
mite but as a loyal son of Christ, l
have no right to set up my own pri-
vate opinions against the voice and
plans OF my church. | will start
your collection to-day by giving
$40. 90 for myself, $1,000 for my
wife, and $500 for my little daugh-
ter Oils only child, little girl
about four years old l need not
say that this speech, backed up by
the rather royal Che was not rich
many contribution, gave me such q
running start" that | could hardly
stop. That was 'red-letter" day
in that Church.
However much we may have diff
fered with our friend in his opinions,
we have never ceased to admire his
loyalty and his speech, bordering on
| the heroic This case stands out in
bold contrast with many small men
in the Church, who have not any well
defined convictions" on the subject,
but who rather stoically refuse to
contribute because they are "op-
posed to Foreign Missions. And
why are they opposed to Foreign
Missions 2" Does any one believe
that the Gospel of Christ will be
hurtful to any nation or people? No.
Does the religion of the Bible prove
bond of cement in society, making
better partners, husbands, wives,
sons, daughters Sin word, does it
not have an unlifting effect upon
man, purifying the moral atmos-
phere, making earth brighter and
life swcetcr? If it ia a blessing, i'm
parting life, hope, happiness, heaven,
why oppose others, who are in 1.-THE
regions and shadow OF death" from
enjoying the same blessed boon, the
same bright hope and blissful life !?
We opine that the ground Of opposi-
ton is to be found in our own stingy
nature. Certainly no one could OBJ
ject to becoming benefactor, eX-
cept that to become such would re-
qure a demand upon self. If to be
Christ-like is to be unselfsh, we wish
there were more Christ-like Chris
tians in the world.
The Apostle Thomas was man
possessing more skepticsm than is
usually found in one so intimately
associated with Christ. And then
he possessed more devotion-yea,
tried and true love for Christ, than
Is usually found in one so skeptical
He was "slow Of heart to believe
the teachings of Christ or to accept
the declarations of Peter. But when
Christ proposed to return to Judes,
when he had been stoned a few days
before by Some rude fellows of the
baser sort - and the timOrous disci-