The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1905-12-20

society with which they are ut war.
| Scientific men reply that it has no love
Of truth for truths sake. While the
great mass of men outside will tell you
that they are not interested. This hour.
| and a half each week of hymns and
| prayer and sermon does not seem to
them to be a vital thing. To hear some
| speaker who can touch the heart or
head they will come, but not for the
church as church.
If the church is a class organization
it's love is not Christian. for Christ's
love knows no distinctions. If the
| church, as socialists claim. is merely
poulticing wooden legs in its charity.
then it has no love of fundamental
Christian brotherhood. If the love OF
truth is wanting its love Of God is a
sham. What the church needs. If
there is much or little in this criticism,
is not multiplication of it's philanthropy
les, nor concentration of them into q
few that would compete with the state
and stamp their character more firmly
on the world, but a filling of the church
itself, of you and me who do spend
this hour here on Sunday and have as
sumed membership in the church with
the love of Christ.
Let me try to tell you what that
love is. A man once. went to CHRIST
with the question, who, is my neigh
Dor? But the Master gave no answer.
He was not interested in knowing or
showing who our neighbors are. What
He showed that mai was how he
might become a neighbor. He told
IL-l $1,000 4h1 c&nrr nP }hn 0nn1 Nj
marian aud said to him and to us
go thou and do likewise. Do not
stand there asking who JIG thy neigh
bors. Be on the lookout for some one
to whom thou canst show mercy and
goodness and so become a ~neighbor."
You can put no man outside the field
Of FOUR mercy. Even though q man
NAV hate you, and be your enemy,
Jesus says the great duty for you Is
to seek him and do him good. If he
rejects you and will have none OF
your mercy and goodness, your efforts
should not end. You can Mt least pray
for those who despitefully use you
and prosecute you.
A member of q certain parish once
told me that while he wanted the
church to reach the poor, he did not
want the poor to attend the same serV-
ice that he attended or sit in the same
service that he attended or Sit IN the
same seat because they were too odor'
ferrous. I suppose this person stands
in his modern temple and eXclalms:
"God, I thank Thee that 1 am not as
other men are-unlaundered and I'M
washed, even as that poor man yonder.
I battle every morning, I wear two
collars a day and use patent prepare
tons for my teeth and face" Such
cleanliness is MS near goodness as the
Pharisee in the Masters story of the
publican was near the kingdom OF
God. Suppose thtt man Is unwashed
and his presence is disagreeable, the
thing for you to consider is not what
he is, but how you may become neigh
bors to him. Introduce yourself. Be
come his friend. Show him the ex-
ample Of cleanliness and godliness, and
the time will come when you can MAKE
him clean and Godlike.
On the night before he died He laid
aside His robes and washed the apos'
tles' feet, to show men that the great.
est is he who serves the most. anu
that no service, however mepial, is
too low for even divinity. Whom do
you and I love to honor? The man
who serves or the man who rules!
Whom do we initiate? Those VINO
lead in business and society OF
those who serve? Until the mel and
women in our churches honor the
Christ ms He who serveth, not by
singing hymns and saying creeds, but
giving and doing likewise. the church
may give money generously and en-
ploy costly choirs and pulpit orators
but it will not impress the world.
And then for those without there
must be goodness of heart. That the
Christian church is undergoing the
severest fire of criticism since the
early days is manifest to anyone who
reads. Much Of the criticism is just
but much of it Is unfair and one
sided. Some requires that the church
should listen patiently and acknowl'
edge what is just, and to those WOO
hate her should she return good fof
evil, blessing for ;cursing, beneficeDce
and intercession for persecution. No
heart that is susceptible to the divine
can long withstand the love nat seek
eth not her own.
A picture has been on exhibition in
England and has strongly appealed
to the imagination of men. 1t is en-
titled, SIS it nothing to you, all We
that pass BY" Christ stands on a ped.
estal before st. Paul's, as he stood
before Pilates palace, with hands tied
over head crowned with thorns. While
the crowd that passes by, absorbed in
its work or pleasure, is you, working.
man, lawyer, doctor. men Of affairs,
you women Of society, working women
and boys, and I, priest Of His church,
with v q glance to Him who died
because He loved. or to the poor
mother and her child who have taken
refuge from US at His feet. While the
motto on the pedestal before HIS ca
thedral, His people, His city is, to the
unknown God. oh, men and women,
'is' that picture true Of yOu?