Milford chronicle., 1901-09-20
ChurchGOIng as a Duty.

CnuECMEOAuB as a Outgs
People will not go to church merely as
a matter of duty. There will not next
Sabbath be a thousand people in any city
who will get up in the morning and say:
''The Bible says l 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
because 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, 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 centrifugal.
We must make our churches magnets
to draw the people thereunto, so that a
man will feel uneasy if he does not go
to church, saying: Il wish l had gone
this morning I wonder if l can't dress
yet and get there in time. 1t is IL
o'clock; now they are singing. 1t is half
past IL; now they are preaching. won
der 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 people.
l say to the young men who are enter
ing the ministry, we must put on more
force, more energy and into our religious
| services more vivNcity if we want the
people to come. You look into a church
court of any denomination Of Christians.
First you will find the men of large COM
mon sense and earnest look. The educa-
ton of their minds, the piety Of their
| hearts, the holiness Of their lives, qualify
| them for their work. Then you will find
| in every church court of every denomina,
/ ton a group of men who utterly amaze
1 you with the fact that such semi-im
becility can get any pulpits to preach in
Those are the men who give forlorn sta
| tistics about church decadence. Frog
never croak in running water; always il
stagnant. But l say to all Christian
workers, to all Sunday school teachers
to all evangelists, to all ministers of tn
gospel, if we want our Sunday school
and our prayer meetings and gu
churches to gather the people we mus
freshen up. The simple fact is, the pee
pie are tired of the humdrum Of re
ligionists. Religious humdrum is tn
worst Of all humdrum You say owe
and over again, Come to Jesus" unit
the phrase means absolutely nothing
Why do you not tell them story whic
will make them come to Jesus in fiv
minutes?
You say that all Sunday school teacl
ers and all evangelists and all minister
must bring their illustrations from Ii
Bible. Christ did not when he preache,
The most Ofsfhe Bible was written befol
Christ's time, but where did he get b
illustrations? He drew them from IL
lilies, from the ravens, from salt, from
> candle, from a bushel, from long face
hypocrites, from gnats, from moths, fro
large gates and small gates, from
: camel, from the needles eye, from yea
E in the dough of bread, from q musta
i seed, from fishing net, from debtors al
creditors. That is the reason multitud
followed Christ. His illustrations we
u so easy and so understandable. Thel
Il fore my brother Christian worker, if y
Z and find two illustrations for a religio
l. subject and the one is a Bible illustrate
n and the other is outside the Bible l W
o take the latter, because want to be Ii
ie the Master. Looking across to a b
J, Christ saw the city Of Jerusalem. Ia