The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1901-09-19

ple on the Lords day ana give lne iii
good stout life, and We can do IL. we
have it all orr own way. 1t is grea'
pity if, with the floor clear and no III
terruption, we cannot during tine
course of an hour get our hymn or oul
prayer or our sermon under such mo-
mentum we can, by the help OF Goa
lift the people, body, mind and soul
clear out of their sins, temptations ana
troubles.
| think that ministerial laziness
often empties the church OF AUDITORS
Hearers, who are intelligent through
reading newspapers and by active as
ISOLATION in business circles, will not
on the Sabbath sit and listen to platl-
ludes. Hearers will not come to ser
mons which have in them no import
ant facts, no information, no stirring
power, no adaptation, no fire. The pew
will not listen to the pulpit unless the
pulpit knows more thar the pew. MIN
isterial laziness has cleared out many
churches. Such ministers saunter
around from parlor to parlor under the
name of pastoral visitation and go
sadding about through the village or
the city on errands of complete moth
ingness and wrap their brains around
a cigar and smoke them up, and then
on Saturday afternoon put few crude
thoughts together and on Sunday
morning wonder that the theme OF
Christ and him crucified does not bring
a large audience, and on Monday sit
down and write jeremiads for the re-
ligious newspapers about the deca-
dence o. church attendance.
Chu-chsoins as Il Duty.
People will not go to church merely
as a matter of duty. There will not
next Sabbath be thousand people in
any city who will get up in the morn
ing and say: The Bible says 1 must
go to church. 1t is my duty to go to
church, therefore / will go to church"
The vast multitude of people who go
to church go to church be-
cause they like it, and the
multitude of people who stay away
from church stay away because they
do not like it. l am not speaking
about the way the world ought to be,
l am speaking about the way the world
is, Taking things as they are, we
must make the centripetal force of
the church mightier than the centri
fugal
We must make our churches mag
nets to draw the people thereunto, so
that man will feel uneasy if he does
not so to church. saying: Il wish l
had gone this morning. l wonder if
can't dress yet and get there in time.
1t is l ! O'Clock; now they are singing.
1t is half-past IL; now they are preach
ing. l wonder when the folks will be
home 10 tell us what was said, what
has been going on When the impress
sion is confirmed that our churches, by
architecture, by music, by sociality and
by sermon, shall be made the most at
tractive 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
Deoyle
Nicarious Suffering.
Why should we go away off to get
an illustration of the vicarious suf-
ferng of Jesus Christ when at Bloom
field, n. j., two little children were
walking on the rail track and train
was coming: but thev Were, on a h11nA
Of trestlework, and the little girl took
Aer brother and let him down through
the trestlework as gently as she could
toward the water, very carefully and
lovingly and cautiously, so that he
might not be hurt in the fall and
picked up by those who were standing
near by; while doing that the train
struck her, and hardly enough Of her
body was left to gather into funeral
casket? What was that? Vicarious
suffering. Like Christ. Pang for
oth,rs Woe for Others Death for
others. What is the use of our going
away off to find an illustration in past
ages when in Michigan mail carrier
on horseback. riding on. pursued by
those flames which had swept over a
hundred miles, saw an old man by the
roadside, dismounted, helped the old
man on the horse, saying, Nov, whip
up and get away" The old man got
away, but the mail carrier persisted.
Just like Christ dismounting from the
glories of heaven to put us on the way
of deliverance, then falling back into
the flames of sacrifice for others. Pang
for others. Woe for others. Death for
others. Vicarious suffering. What is
the use of our going away off in
ancient history to find an illustration
of the fact that it is dangerous to DEFY
God when in the Adirondacks saw
flash of lightning and bolt so vivid I
SAID, That struck something very
near?' A few hours afterward we
found that two farmers that Monday
morning had been seated under trea
the one boasting how the day before
on the Lords day-he had got his
hay In and SO cheated the Lord out of
that part of the time anyhow, and
both of them laughing over the
achievement by which they had
wronged the Lord of his holy day.
when the lightning struck one dead
instantly, and the other had been two
weeks in bed when we left the Adiron-
dacks and has become an invalid
suppose, for life. He did not make
as much out of the Lord as he thought
he did. Was it any less an illustra-
ton for my soul because l met the
clergyman on his way home from the