The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-06-15
matter how sweetly and beautifully
it is dished up.

devoted whole long sermon to show
ing that Samson could not possibly
have tied all those foxes tails together
with fire brand between each two
and driven them into the grain of the
Philistines and burned it up. After
the sermon an old farmer said, "Well
what of it9 Suppose he did and sup
pose he didn't, what does it amount
to anyways" This man came hungry
for the bread of life and he evidently
felt that decoction of foxes tails
made very poor spiritual food.
Another variation is Socialism.
Social questions are the questions of
the hour. They are interesting and
people are discussing them, and there
is tendency to put them into the
pulpit rather than the Gospel. But
Socialism will not preach. No theo-
ries of socialistic reformation or or
ganization can take the place of
Christianity. The Gospel really
touches socialism only at one point,
but here it touches it vitality. 1t may
be applied with advantage and all
possible energy. Down at the bottom
of all this social question is gigan-
tic selfishness. Capital wants to get
all it can and give as little as possible
in return. and labor wants to do as
little as possible and get all it can for
it. Against this selfis hness the Cos
pei may be used with all possible
efficacy and the church will be the
better for it as well as society. Get
the kingdom of God into men and
then you can get men into the king
dom of God.
Under this head we would say a
word about lecturing on all sorts of
subjects to draw the crowd. How to
keep up the second service is the
question. This troubles the preacher
more than all things else. He resorts
to brass bands, stringed instruments,
lectures and pictures. Our expert
ence is that none of these things
help the prosperity of the church.
They draw the crowd, but it is the
Gaping crowd" and when they get
through gaping at you they go off
and cape at somebody else. We have
no knowledge that our church was
ever helped by these lectures, unless
they were religious lectures, or what
we call 'lecture sermons"
Another thing we would emphasize
here, and that is the Importance of
doctrinal instruction, of roofing and
grounding the people in the faith.
Our experience is that one genuine
Universalist, who has the root of the
matter in him, is worth half-dozen
liberals" who have got their feet off
of the ground and their heads bump
ing around among the stars. They
are like the Ir.shman's flea, "When
you put your finger on him he amt
there"
Evangelistic work is grand. We
believe in it, but it must be used
wisely. 1t is good to arouse dor
mant parish and to carry those we'll
instructed in the doctrine over into
religious action, but with us it is not
worth much as missionary work. The
reason is that we have no machinery
to take care of our converts after we
get them. The Methodists have
built themselves up in this way, but
they have the machinery to take care
of their converts after they get them.
They look after their converts, and
we look at them, and see whether they
are going to stick.
2. The second condition of church
prosperity is, that the church and its
services be made central and all-im-
portant There is tendency to sub
stitute other things for the church
service. A friend of ours in the State
of New York, who was little sarcas
tic, used to say, "How many Uniyer
salists there are when we have pic
nicl Why, the woods are full of them.' y
And Universalist dance; my, how it
does draw The socials, how attrac
tive they arel Why, you think every
body is becoming Universalist. Go
to church Sunday morning and there
you will find little handful trying
to worship God. Indeed we think
that the church today is engaged in
very much of what has been well
called '''fussy activity" while it neg
lects the heart and core of all, the
service of worship.
But the great enemy of church
prosperity is the modern Sunday
school. When it is run Independent
of the church. Those who run it fire.
quently take little or nointerest in the