The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1897-12-15
CHRIsTIANITY's COLD SHOULDER.
Pastor Chalmers Visited the Churches Dis
guised as a Poor Man.
Atlanta Coastissstion.

/ ces. I tried to put myself IN the
workingman's place for the evening
and yet I had to remind myself that I
was not aworkingman and that [ had
better clothes at home before 1 could
be willing to carry it out. 1 almost
felt tempted to tell who really was
to get recognition, but l refrained.
"When the men with the silk hats
and those in fashionable attire had
been given seats down in front, around
me and almost over me, an officious
usher, evidently feeling that I was
cumbering the ground, pointed out to
me the last seat in the house. He
had to BRING b ne Baee lRs'sa6ie
distance to give me the seat, for l had
advanced some way down the aisle to
see if might get recognition. I was
not told in so many words that I was
not wanted. There was no one at the
door with a club to knock me down
and drag me out because Of my imper-
tinence at coming to the Church Of
Jesus Christ, the carpenter Of Nazar-
eth, in the clothes Of carpenter. [
felt that il Jesus had come to that
Church that night it would have been
with the words Woe unto you,
scribes and pharisees, hyocrites who
/ 1.-THE of mint and anise and cummin
and neglect the more weighty matters
Of judgment, mercy aud peace
ssThe whole service was fitted for
the cultured. The preaching, the
singing, the entire service was very
dignifed and proper az our services go
these days, but the poor we're not
shere, and it is not surprising, for they
were not wanted. If you were to ask
the pastor OF the Church if he wanted
the poor he would say Yes If you
were to ask shc ,offce-bearers in that
Church they would say Yes, we vel
come the poor and are glad if they
come and feel at home in our Church.
The difficulty is-in the lack Of vel
come that is felt by one who visits our
Churches in these days.
CATER the service was out stayed
around to see if / would be sought out
and asked to come again and made to
feel at home finally. After standing
around for time and watching the
rich greet the rich, and no poor there
! to greet me, [ wandered home sicker
than when I started out. [ was sick
in body and sick in soul, for | love the
Church and it hurt me to see the apos-
tasy in the life of the Church which
is SO much worse apostasy than that
of doctrine.
s'I would not care to investigate the
creed of the Church I visited that
night. I wanted life and not musty
theology. If Ihadgone to the Church
that night dressed in my usual way,
I would without doubt have been given
the best place in the house, and possi-
bly, would have been invited to the
pulpit to assist in the opening servi-
ces. I found that in the estimation
Of the Church the clothes made the
mau and not worth.
II determined that night that |
would make our Church more open
and see that the men who worked on
the streets shoveling, and the man who
delivers our ice, and the girls who
work in our kitchens, and the women
who do ous washing, should find our
Church and should find therein most
/ cordial and genuine friendship.
ST began series Of sermons on the
line Of my visits and kindred subjects
and our audiences have been increased
by the hundreds in the past two OF
three weeks. I feel chat the Church
should be first, not for those who need
most. The light owes something to
darkness. The wise belong to the ig-
norant. The good have duty to the
bad. The lives filled with love belong
to those lives filed with hate, even as
Christ belongs to the world more fol
what be could do for it than what he
could get out Of it.
"Men of money are feeling more and
more that capital has it's duties as vel
as its rights. Culture is feeling hel
debt to illiteracy. and university ex
tension work is an evidence of such
sense of duty. The characterful are
feeling their belonging to the charac
terless and the social settlement worI
is the outgrowth of that feeling. The
Church must feel her belonging to al
the multitude. not because they art
good, but because they may be. The
man With the largest need should fine
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