Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1902-11-22

give you tnht lntfOuuctlOnE NO! A
the top Of your lungs you would or
"Fire! Firel Firew You would te
your companion who was by your sid
to run to the nearest fire alarm bo.
and at once call the engines. And
the smoke was rolling up in grea
clouds and threatening to suffocat
the inmates OF that home you woul'
with your cane smash the parlor win
dows and rush upstairs unannouncet
and awaken the drowsy sleepers.
necessary, you would help carry th'
children down into the street In you
protecting arms. After you are read!
TO do all that to warn a stranger Of al
earthly danger, do you mean to tell mi
that unless you have been introduced
you have no right to give to that same
stranger the gospel invitation? l de
clare that your position is not tenable
tell you that If you truly believe tha
an unrepentant sinner must die, ther
you should act toward the sinner who
is In imminent danger of destruction
in the same way in which you would
act toward that man who is sleeping
In bed when the fire demons are dane
ing along his Railways and playing
hide and seek among the tapestries OF
his parlOr.
Again, il is absolutely necessary IN
order to carry out the command of my
text for the average church member
TO give the gospel invitation to his
friends and to strangers ghen they are
gathered inside the Irch walls as
well as when they are scattered with
church members to extend this invita-
tlon for specified time and place. A
general invitation TO come TO supper Is,
as a rule, worse than no invitation at
ALL When person comes to me and
gushingly says. "Oh. Mr.. Talmage,
do wish you would come and visit us;
come any time you can and stay as
long as you please" | am sure Of one
fact-that person wants to be polite
but he does not want me to come. He
did not set date. But when a friend
comes to me and says, "Mr. Talmage
will you and your wife take supper
with us next Thursday night; we are
poor folks but we will give you the
best we haveT | generally accept
Why? Because think that man wants
me to come He set time and place
where he wished to entertain me. So,
when the minister Of the Lord Jesus
Christ breaches Il sermon and gives
general invitation and says to the sin
ners, "Come to Christ" and then dis
misses his audience with a benedic
tion and goes home as n rule, that sur.
mon has amounted to but very little In
its evangelistic results. But when the
minister of the Lord Jesus Christ can
90 to his church members and say:
Brethren. we must gather in the sin
ners who are living around this church.
We must go out into the highways and
the hedges and compel them to come in.
We will tonight as soon as the bene-
diction has been pronounced have an
after meeting. As members Of this
church we will distribute ourselves
through the aisles and buttonhole every
man, woman and child, so that no one
shall leave the building without having
special invitation for this after meet
Ing" there will be no disappointment
in the spiritual results. Why? Because
the church members themselves are
asking their friends and the strangers
to meet Jesus Christ in a specified
place at a specified time. General in
vitations in reference to the gospel
banquet as we'll as TO an earthly home,
as a rule, are worse than no invitations
at all.
The Fault of the Pews.
So, today, | lay the blame for the
lack Of spiritual results in our
churches far more upon the pews than
l do upon the pulpits. God knows, |
do not believe that our ministers are
perfect men, but most of them are
earnest men, intense men. They would
do anything in their power to bring |
immortal souls to CHRIST. But the |
trouble is when the average minister |
Of the gospel announces an after meet |
Ing, where sinners can be brought face |
to face with Christ, nine-tenths, aye, |
hundredths, of all the
church members will get up and put
on their hats and go home. They will
not only by their actions refuse to
extend an invitation to the
men and women who are sitting by
their side, but they will absolutely re-
fuse to 20 into the after meetings and
talk with sinners who are trying to
find Christ. This charge which make
against the church members | make
cot only against the laymen, but also
against the church officers. | make il
against the elders and the deacorls and
he trustees. | make it in the strength
If the overwhelming fact that you
lerelct church members cannot find
great evangelistic preacher who is ac-
any great good for Christ
Who Is not backed up by praying
onsecrated band Of earnest church
workers.. Yet you can find today
hurch after church in our land that
J nothing more or less than a slaugh-
er house for ministerial usefulness.
heir pastors will win great spiritual
uccesses before they come to them,
nd those pastors will win great spir-
.ual successes after they leave them,
ut while they are in those spiritually
cad churches the pastors will stumble
bout blinded and helpless, as did the
lighty Samson, bound with fetters Of
rass, with his two eyes out, grinding
bout in the prison house Of GAIA.
hose evangellstic ministers are spir-
ually helpless in such churches be-
luse the people, the common church
will not unite as a working
'rce and personally present the gospel
Jesus Christ to the strangers who
)me among them. Instead of derid-
e and Understanding the power Of