The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-09-18
CHRISTIAN socIARILITY.
Dr.. Harris Says Christ intended Soc ia
bility Be Shown in Church.

Dr. harris DAYS ChrlSt INTENDED Socra-
biity Be Shown in Church.
Rev. Moses H. Harris spoke at All
Souls church yesterday morning, on
Religion and sociability,' taking his
text from Malehi iii:1e, They spoke
often one to another" In part, he
said:
Christian sociability is a factor so es-
sential to the life and growth of a
church that IF it be divorced from it,
the church dies and society casts it out
as a withered branch Religion and
sociability walk hand in hand, and if
we should hear of a person who pro
fesses to be a Christian, say that he
has no desire to mingle in the society
of his brothers and sisters in the
church. we should count that mans re-
ligion an exception, because religion is
not of this character. 1t is no recluse:
It will not stay by itself. You cannot
lock it up within walls, nor in the cells
of your heart If you try to do this,
it will decline and die. Religion wants
to see and talk, sing and make all
around it happy.
Every now and then we find one of
those churches in which the social ele-
ment is not cultivated. The members
of such a church come in and go out
as travellers in the cars. speaking to no
one but themselves. They sit down be-
side each other without even a smile
.of recognition, and then separate with
cut word of friendly greeting. Such
department as this among people call
ing themselves Christians is a shame
or flaI on, = g ~
God intended the church to be like
unto family circle. Every church
should have its social gatherings the
year round, and these should be of the
most pleasant and lively character not
such as il found in some churches
which are so solemn and so stupid that
the livliest occurrence of the whole eve
ming is the singing of the long meter
doxology. Carry no long faced piety
to such places. Let the people who
go allow their religion to shine out in
its own beautiful light and show itself
in its own spontaneous and winning
way. Unless a church adopts and keeps
up such means as will develop the So
cial feature, it will fail to accomplish
that which it should be seeking always
to do, that is, to reach and attract the
great unchurehed masses. The church
that ignores the social element will lose
us power IOI SOou. 'ODe OF the secrets
of a live church lies in the administra-
tion of sociability.
Under God, the social power is the
strong power The greetings of the
pews often has more power than the
preaching of the pulpit Sermons are
good, but a hearty shake of the hand
is sometimes better. Human palms
stand next TO human hearts, and when
often sincerely pressed together hearts
cannot remain asunder. There is often
more of religion in the social hand
than insthe fdrmalprayer in the friend
" salutation, mutually given among
the people than in the. preaching to
Which they listen. Count that congre-
cation a sinner which allows a
stranger 70 depart unsaluted, and that
parish sinner that allows family to
live in it unvisited By so doing the
people take the veal of their church
into their OWE power and become I'M
der God. their own guarantees Of sue
cess.