Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1901-09-28

applied to all the wants and woes OF
our immortal nature-a Christ who
will help us in every domestic, social,
financial, political, national struggle
Christ for the parlor, Christ for the
nursery, a Christ for the kitchen. a
for the banking house, a Christ for the
street, a Christ for the store, a Christ
for the banking house, a Christ for the
factory, Christ for the congressional
assembly, a Christ for the courtroom,
a Christ for every trial and every
emergency and every perturbation.
Meeting Public Needs.
All, my friends, churches will be
largely attended just in proportion as
we ministers can meet their wants,
meet their sufferings, meet their be-
reavements and meet their sympathies
If there be church with small help,
small audience, medium help, medium
audience; large help large audience
If there be famine in city and three
depots Of bread and one depot has 100
loaves and another 500 Ioaves and an
other depot 10000 loaves, the depot
that has 100 loaves will have appH-
cants, the depot that has 500 loaves will
have far more applicants, the depot
that has 10000 loaves will have
throngs, throngs, throngs.
Oh, my brethren in the Christian
ministry, we must somehow get our
shoulder under the burden of the peo-
pie on the Lords day and give them
good stout life, and we can do it. We
have 1T all our own way. 1t is a great
pity if. with the floor clear and no in
terruption, we cannot during the
course of an hour get our hymn or our
prayer or our sermon under such mo-
mentum we can, by the help of God
lift the people, body, mind and soul,
clear out of their sins, temptations and
troubles
1 think that. ministerial laziness
often empties the church of auditors
Hearers, who are intelligent through
reading newspapers and by active as
sociation in business circles, will not
on the Sabbath sit and listen to plati-
tudes. 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 than the pew Min
isterial laziness has cleared out many
churches. Such ministers saunter
around from parlor to parIor under the
name of pastoral visitation and go
gadding about through the village or
the city on errands of complete moth
1ngness 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-
hgious newspapers about the deca-
dence of church attendance.
Churchgoing as Duty.
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 morn
ing and say: The Bible says 1 must
go to church. 1t is my duty to go to
church, therefore 1 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, / 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 go to church, saying: II wish l
had gone this morning. 1 wonder If
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 preach
ing / wonder when the folks will be
home to tell us what was said, what
has been going on" When the impress
sion is confirmed that our Churches, by
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
DeODle
vicarious Suffering.
Why should we go away off to get
,ering of Jesus Christ when at Bloom
ield, N. J., two little children were
walking on the rail track and a train
was coming; but they were on bridge
IF trestlework, and the little girl took
her brother and let him down through |
he trestlework as gently as she could |
.oward the water, very carefully and
ovingly and cautiously, so that he
might not be hurt in the fall and |
picked mn by those who were standing