Los Angeles herald., 1905-07-17
CONGREGATION OBSERVES
ITS TENTH ANNIVERSARY
Westlake Presbyterian Church, For
merly First Cumberland, Cele-
brates Decade of Existence

pTdIGS DCCdQG OI ENI6tCHCG
The tenth anniversary service of the
Westlake Presbyterian church, former
ly First Cumberland Presbyterian
church, were held yesterday morning.
Rev. w. D. Lands, M. A., the pastor,
preached on 1.-THE Church of the Fut-
ure," using the words of the scrip
lures, Behold there ariseth a little
cloud out of the sea, like a mans
hand" He dwelt upon the necessity
Of thorough organization and spiritual
ization of the church and the individ-
ual work of the members. He said in
rart:
Our church was organized ten years
ago last Friday and there has been a
steady growth ever since. but there
are new demands upon us and we must
not think that we are over all the partA
of the way that will require hardships
and self denials. May / not at this
time, without the embellishments CT
oratory or the polish of diction, point
out to you some of the things that l
think must characterize the church of
the future, whether it be ours or not?
1T must be an organized church.
God organized the church and it is
the Master to perform and this can
not be done unless we are organized
so each will know his part.
Marion Lawrence told us the story
while he was here of child who was
lost from a small North Dakota town.
The mother raised the cry late one af-
ternoon. The neighbors came from all
sides to find the lost Forty men start
ed out, each going his own way. Some
worked all night but with no success.
At daybreak they came together and
organized, starting out abreast across
one of the big wheat fields near by and
they had not gone far till they came
across the child, but with the chill of
the night and the fright of being lost
the life of the little one had gone out.
Had they organized in time the life of
the child would have been saved.
Each must have his part in church
work, but it must be in cooperating
with the whole. This applies to the
finances of the church as well as to
the work. Unless we run the church
on business principles in this age of
business it will not be respected by
business men. 1t is all a mistake for
the church to assume great debt and
carry it long enough to unload 1t off
pudiate it altogether. We must be or
ganized and businesslike in all our
church work.
"The church of the future must be
spirit-fllled church. God never had
any work for his church to do till 1t
had been filled by the presence and
power of the Holy Ghost In the be-
ginning; and the same is true today
We must wait before God to get his
image stamped on our characters. We
must turn in our devotions to him who
filleth all in all and ask him to fill
us with himself. Else we can have no
power, and without power divine we
are helpless.
"The fruit Of the spirit is love and
If we have the spirit of God we will
inevitably have it's fruit in our lives.
This makes real brotherhood and a
church without this feeling is not
really a church. for a church has no
right to exist merely as a club for the
well being of favored few. but must
live for the weakest OF the family as
much as the rest.
''The sick and invalids OF the flock
must be visited and shown the feeling
of Christian sympathy. The erring
must be warned and dealt with in the
kindest way.
'The rich and the poor meet together
There should be no class churches
Nor should there be any sectional
churches. We are too much alike to
allow past differences to divide us. We
have too much TO do in the future to
allow the past to occupy our time and
attention"