The Roanoke times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1897-1977, 1897-06-01
Nh A THOUGHTFUL MOOD.
Tramp Says a Few Words on
Ministers and Churches.

The Impressions gathered by an obser-
want person knocking about the city ON
Sunday with nothing particular to do
are varied and sometimes the subject of
much thu6ght In the first place there
& seems to be u sort of aimlessness about
our people On Sundays Many OF them go
to church. more than one would
i think until the number of churches Is
counted over and the size of the regular
congregations noted. Yet aside from this
there appears to be an air of ''nothing to
do" This may be accounted for by
the fact that there really is nothing to
do. If we walk we feel that we must do
y go at random, as there is no place to walk
to. five go on the cars we do so feeling
that at the other end CT the ride there will
be found nothing more interesting than
what we have left BEND. We feel the
need of somewhere to go on Sundays AID
something to do.
Roanoke has a very large church going
population. Many of the congregations
have had to divide up and form other
churches because too large for their
buildings. Our ministers rs rule have
been good preacher and interesting ones
That goes Icing ways towards the growth
of religion. People will set aside the
sense of duty in many cases and remain
at home or wander off TO other folds il
their pastors are dry and dull in the pull
pit. Then again there is occasionally
something lacking in the way of "hospi
tality,' it may be called, or good fellow
ship, that tends in many cases to chill and
gradually cause the entire withdrawal of
persons from Il church. People now. a.
days are heard to ay,"We want 10Th cen.
tury religion, religion that affects us as
we are to-day and our relations with
world also Of to day. Let questions of
time, for instance, or argument as to
whether it should be said The Lord rose
again from the dead,' or the Lord rose
from the dead, take care of themselves
that is of small import as compared
with what relates to the welfare of our
SOULS Let us have less learned theo
logical dissertation in the pulpit and
moro practical exposition of scripture and
the number of our churches will continue
to increase.
Music and the church choirs are very
difficult problems in communities where
the congregations cannot afford paid as.
sistance. Many people do not appreciate
the vast amount of work, worry and vex.
alton those composing voluntary choir
have to undergo, and are therefore often
very apt to criticise the performance of
persons who have only undertaken the !
work to prevent it's collapse, entirely of
their own free will and with no preten.
sions to musical ability at al. Praise
alone for their efforts should be given.
An elaborate musical programme when
well rendered, though not liked by many,
is very beautiful and fitting, but if badly
rendered does much towards destroying
the effect of the sermon and all else of
the service. Therefore no matter how
much zeal there may be to prompt per-
sons of limited musical capacity to I'M
dertake choir work they should confine
themselves to simple music, which if
we'll rendered is a thousand times more
effective than difficult music badly rem
dered.
Why should large hats be worn Mt
church any more than at the theatres.
The majority of people depend as much
upon the speakers expression for their
pleasure in his sermon as upon his words.
1t is hard to listen to man you cannot
see. A great big hat decorated with a
tremendous fiuted, perpendicular bow,
under which is young girl who has
come to church to see the people and is |
determined to accomplish what she came |
for, can do more towards destroying all |
pleasure in n sermon than anything else. |
This may not be charitable but although |
charity belongs ut home'' we trust that |
1T will begin in sufficiently large nuanti-
ties To be worn instead of these big hats.
How many of us have not noticed and
abused the dog that comes to our church