The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-01-11

the young men nave uHlleu WlIn the lchurch during the year. and this organ
 ization has been the instrument under IGod for the entrance and advancement of a large number of young men in the
 work and joy of His Kingdom.
 The Bible school reports, through it's superintendent, A. H. Hayes, an en- lrollment of 257. The highest attend ance was 24S and the lowest 102, with
 an average of 200. The receipts from class offerings were $4S0.5O of which s147S5 was expended for quarterIies.
 s129.OS on hand, and the remainder dis bursed for various benevolences and
 miscellaneous items. Six teachers meetings have been held at different residences and have proved most help
 ful. The supply. of teachers for the
 present is good, and the outlook for the
 school most encouraging.
 The pastor, Rev. Frank R. Luckey, Ireports that there have been thirty three additions to the church, twenty two by letter and eleven on confession
 of faith, and eight removals, five by letter and three by death, making net gain for the year of twenty-five. The total membership is 494 of which 19l
 are males and SO3 are females, with fifty-three absentees. Over four hum dred families, church and Bible school,
 look to this church for pastoral care and visitation in their times of bereave- ment, sickness and death, as well as in l their joys; $521.70 has been given for
 missionary and benevolent purposes; but this sum does not include the gifts of the Bible school amounts collected by individual solicitors as above, con- tributions of the various church organ lizations, special collections or individual gifts. Public worship, both morning and evening, has been as we'll attended in this church as in any of our city, in proportion to the membership and the community served. But we need not
 disguise the fact that the people of our time have broken away from common worship Many causes have co-operat- ed to bring about this result-indolenc the strenuousness of modern life, disin- clination to discipline inclination, love I of amusement and lawlessness- deep down below them all is the lack of strenuousness of soul. Nevertheless, we are no pessimisits. Religion is a permanent interest in mans life, and
 public worship is one essential expres- sion of that fact. Uphill and heavy, against the stream of modern life. re- lligious work may be for time, but we
 can wait and work for we know that Iwhen all other voices have had their
 say the still small voice" can charm the heart and Christ will come to His own again. In the meantime institu- tional Christianity will conserve for the
 community the good tidings," and some day breath from the Infinite
 will come to us and we. shall leap into a spiritual renaissance.
 We cannot kindle when we wifi
 The fire that in the heart resides
 But while we await the movement of the Spirit of God what are we to do? What are we to do when the tide of life is not at it's fiood-When the fire that in the heart resides burns low: The af1- |swer is: Cultivate and maintain the habits of devotion; use the means of grace" The habituaL even the formal,
 has value for faith, and habits of l piety, customs, forms, are stays of faith when the spirit does not seem to move. Better to walk it may be slowly and painfully with a crutch than to lie still religious habits will not take the place lof spontaneity, but they are one of it's main conditions.
 Keep up, then, o Christian people, the habits of private devotion, of family
 prayer, of public worship; keep up the forms, trusting that sooner or later they I will become alive again with power.
 In no other way can the continuity of
 religious life be preserved, or the soul tided over the dark and dreary days of l experience. The giving up of the hab- ! it's of piety-the forms of the religious 1 llife-when the life seems to have gone clean out of them, is a grievous and in- l fectious mistake; it is to confirm the isonl in the very dullness it deplores. If
 one cannot pray with inspiration, sure l ly it is right to pray for inspiration. If
 one cannot say. T was glad when they said unto me, Let us go unto the house of Jehovah, surely it is right to even force one's self to follow in the foot steps of the Son of Man, who entered, las His custom was, into the synagogue
 on the Sabbath day. The glad desire | for worship, the spontaneous inclination lin tired soul, tired with business or
 domestic cares, may not be strong
 enough to bring that soul to the house lof God But is the desire for worship, the spontaneous inclination, to be the ionly motive? When one has no desire,
 no spontaneous inclination, to go to his daily employment, to school, or office,
 or shop, is 1t regarded as a virtue to 1 yield? Is it otherwise in religious matt l ters? If effort without inclination-an
 act of will without desire-is commend able in other matters, is it less so in re- I ligious ones? The pastor, then, praises
 as worthy of all acceptation that effort
 which holds the soul to private devo-
 ton and common worship, when the de-
 sire and inclination do not exist; what l is q virtue elsewhere is not vice here. i Surely, strenuousness of soul is as use- I full a factor in the culture of the relig- 1 ious life as in the perishable interests
 of this world. As one cannot have ma teraI capital without the ability to
 deny one's self, neither can he have 1 spiritual riches; sacrifice is the sine
 qua non of both the mammon of un- righteousness and the true riches.
 Therefore, I commend to you all that sacrifice which will enable you to do your duty in religious matters, when, l for a time and for many a reason, it |