The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1901-10-18

dience Of 500 down 10 200 and from 200 20
100 and from 100 b. fifty and from fifty %
twenty aud ON down until there was but
little left save the sexton, who was paid
10 stay until the service was over and
lock upl There Is a great deal Of cant
about Christ and Him crucihed. IL Is not
Christ and Him crucihed as on abstrac-
ton, but as an Omnipotent sympathy APP
piled to all the wants and woes OF our
immortal nature, a Christ who will help
us in every domestic, social. financial
political. national struggle, a Christ for the
parlor, n Christ for the nursery, a Christ
for the kitchen, a Christ for the barn.
Christ for the street. Christ for the
store. a Christ for the banking house
Christ for the factory. a Christ for the
Congressional assembly. a Christ for the
court room. a Christ for every trial and
every emergency and every perturbation.
Oh my brethren in the Christian minis
try we must somehow Get our shoulder
under the burden Of the people on the
Lords day and give them a good stout
lift. and we can do IT, We have it oil our
own way It is a great pity If, with the
floor clear and no interruption. we can
not during the course of an hour get our
HYMN and our prayer or our sermon I'M
der such momentum as we can, by the
helm Of God. Eft the reonlc, body. mind
and soul. clear out Of their sins, tempta-
tions and troubles.
I thinl, that ministerial laziness often
empties the church of auditors. Hearers
who are intelligent through reading news
papers and by active association in bust
nees circles will not on the Sabbath sit
and listen to platimdes. Hearers will not
come to sermons which have in them no
important facts, no information. no stir
ring power. no admiration. no FIRE The
pew will not listen to the pplpit unless ut
least on the subject that dav under dis
eussion. the pulnit knows more than the
pew. Ministerial laziness has cleared out
many churches. Such ministers saunter
around from parlor to parlor under the
name Of pastoral visitation and 20 CAD
ding about through the village or the city
on errands Of complete nothingness ami
wraD their brains around n cigar and
smoke them I'M and then on Saturday af-
ternoon nut few crude THOUGHTS together
and on SUNDAY mornino wonder that the
theme of Christ and Him crucihed does
not brine a large audience. and on Mon
dav sit down and write jeremiads for the
religious newspapers about the decadence
of church attendance
People will not 90 To church merely as
n matter of duty. There will not next
Sabbath be a thousand people in any city
who will get up in the morning and saw:
''The Bible says must go to church II
is my duty to 60 tn church: therefore ]
will 90 to church" The vast multitude of
people who 20 to church 20 to church be
cause thew like it, and the multitude Of
people who STAY away from church stay
away because they do not like it. I am
not speaking about the wav the world
ought to he; am speaking about the way
the world is. Taking things are they are,
we must make the cantripetal force of the
church mightier than the centrifugal We
must make our churches magnets to draw
the people thereunto, so that a man will
feel uneasy if he does not 90 to church,
saying: 'I wish ] had gone this morning.
I wonder If can't dress vet and get there
in time. It is II o'clock; now they are
singing. 1t is halfpast IL; now they are
preaching. I wonder when the folks will
be home to tell us what was said, what has
been going on"
When the impression is confirmed that
our churches, by architecture, by music,
by sociality and by sermon, shall be made
the most attractive places on earth. then
we will want twice as many churches as
we have now, twice as large and then
they will not half accommodate the peo-
pie.
Therefore, nv brother Christian worker,
if you and ] find two illustrations for a
religious subject, and the one is a Bible
illustration and the other is outside the
Bible, I will take the latter because 1
want to be like my Master. Looking
across to a hill, Christ saw the city of
Jerusalem.
Talking to the people about the con-
sDicuity of Christian example, He said:
'The world is looking at you; be careful.
A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid"
While He was speaking of the divine care
of Gods children bird flew past. He
said "Behold the ravens" Then, look
ing down into the valley, all covered at
that season with flowers, He said, Con
slider the lilies"
Oh, my brother Christian workers,
what is the use of our going away off in
some obscure part of history or on the
other side of the earth to get an illustra-
ton when the earth and the heavens are
full of illustrations?
Oh, Christian workers, we have got to
freshen up. What is the use of our going
back in the Christian classics to end an
illustration of the victorious Christian
deathbed when my personal friend AL
fred Goodman. a few years ago went away
in as imperial grandeur as did Edward
Payson?
Is it any less an illustration to me and
to you because met him a few weeks be-
fore in front of Trinity Church, Broad
way, and I said: Goodman, YOU look as
if you were working too hard" Where
in all the classics is there such a story as
that of Goodman, when in his last moment
he cried: 'I am sweeping through the
gates washed in the blood Of the Lamb?"
Oh, fellow Christian workers. what is
the use of our being stale and obsolete
and ancient when all around us are these
evidences of Gods grace, Gods deliver
ance, Gods mercy and Gods wisdom?
We have got to freshen up in our sermons,
freshen up in our songs, freshen up in our
zeal, freshen up in our conservation, and
| if we do it. my brethren and sisters. we