The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1904-04-30

ridiculous or preposterous than that z
But that was in the second century.
Wen, come down to thesseyenteenth
century, when a society of people
tsprang up who taught that the fruit
which God forbade Adam and Eve to
eat was potatoes So they countettait
the unpardonable sin to eat potatoes
They styled themselves the Potatoites
Can you produce anything in the pres
ent age more ridiculous Than that?
See persons of the past lashlnS them
selves, supposing that thus suffering
they were partakers of ChriSJs suffer
ings. that this pain was meritorious
and sanctifSing anguish. Can you
match that consummaTe nonsense from
the church of the present? Sec per,
sons climbing TO the top of high pill
lars, made by themselves, and there
living in the sky the rest of thei!
lives. Others claiming themselves 10
rocks and crags and peaks OF the
mountains and spending their lives i'll
this loneliness and drearineSs. Can
YOU match that Iomfoolery out OF the
present church? Q yes, your course
OF Christian education is designed 10
make a person cheerful, hopeful. opti-
mistic.
1t Produces Enthusiasm.
You know that in Christian work
there is good deal of ffulness. y
great many go by jerks and spurts,
fits and spasms. If you can get them
when fit or spasm is on they will
do something, but there is a great
part OF the year in which the fits don
come. When there is special meet
ing and they finally get worked up,
they do very we'll for a time, but ii
is not long until decline SETS in and
their interest is reduced almost To
nothing by the time another special
meeting comes around. If some per
son comes and makes a stirring adj
dress about missions, tells It few pitt
ful and narrowing stories about moth
crs giving their babies 10, CrocodileS.
they become Wonderfully Interested III
missions. But after the person IS
gone with his crocodile stories this
persons interest is gone. Now, there's
a picture that is not of fancy or iIl-
agination. The great question Is TO
secure perennial interest in the hearts
OF members. II one could keep up
some kind OF I. comnlotion or Sensa-
ton the year around that would hc
one solution. II one could keep Dehinc |
them all the year he might keep them
going If one could hold his services |
in a cemetery where people could |
weep over their dead, he might keep !
int.
YOU can depend upon the year rount. |
year III and year out, that s the prob |
lem Here IS The solution. in educa-
ton For Illustration: believe thai |
if you have persons who viii take |
this course in missions they viii have
an intelligent conception of mission |
arv work that viii give them 4 con
U;nnous and reliable interest Then, |
when you want to take Il collection TO-
missions YOU viii not need 70 hat> |
some agent come around and stir TAP |
The people but you will have an in |
tel est upon which you can draw at
any time. Over in an association al |
q certain man came 10 |
q certain church 10 take up a foreign |
missionary coilecron. He preached |
before he did so. and told them about
the second coming of the Lord, and
got some Of them TO feeling that the
Lord was just waiting to come whom
Dcople gave q good-siZed offering 10 |
foreign missions. Well, in this highly |
wrought state they gave 500 The |
missionary man went of. Ire
next time it came the turn to take an
Offering for missions there was no |
person there to stir them. but they |