The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-09-17

past IL; low they are preaching. / won
der when the folks viii be home to tel
rs 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 viii want twice as many
churches as we have now, twice as large,
and then they will not half accommodate
the people.
/ 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 yivacity 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
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. Frogs
never croak in running water; always in
s~tagnant. But / say to all Christian
workers, to all Sunday school teachers,
to all evangelists, to all ministers Of the
gospel, if we a our Sunday schools
and our prayer meetings and our
churches to gather the people we must
freshen up. The simple fact is, the peo-
pie are tired of the humdrum of re-
l~igionists. Religious humdrum is the
worst Of all humdrum. You say over
and over again, Come to Jesus" until
the phrase means absolutely nothing.
Why do you not tell them q story which
will make them come to Jesus in five
minutes?
You say that all Sunday school teach
ers and all evangelists and all ministers
must bring their illustrations from the
Bible. Christ did not when he preached.
The most of the Bible was written before
Christs time. but where did be get his
illustrations? He drew them from the
lilies, from the ravens, from salt, from q
candle, from a bushel, from long faced
hypocrites, from gnats, from moths, from
large gates and small gates, from a
camel, from the needles eye, from yeast
in the dough Of bread, from a mustard
seed, from a fishing net, from debtors and
creditors. That is the reason m%uititudes
followed Christ. His illustrations were
so easy and so Understandable. There
fore, my brother Christian worker. if you
and 1 find two illustrations for a religious
subject and the one is q Bible illustration
and the other is outside tie Bible / VIII
take the latter, because | want to be Ike
the Master. Looking across to 4 h;:l
Christ saw the city OF Jerusalem. Taik-
ing to the people about the consp;cui;.y of
Christian example be sad: TIE VIII is
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