The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-06-25
DR.. TALMAGE'S SERMON.


Lord and Master and there they will AL
ways be in their places.
my do l put such an emphasis unon
TINS plea for eonsecrated men and yo-
men IN the official boards? A true church
leader cannot be created in a day or
week or month or year and more than
a lawyer, doctor, an engineer a prima
donna, can be created In a minute s,lp-
posing | should enter your store some
DAY and say, Come, Mr.. Jones. let us
take a trip to Europe and have a five
months vacation" oh" YOU would saw
10 me, Il cannot go. have no one with
WEom to leave the store" mo one? Why.
what are you talking about? Here are
clerks galore. You have at least twenty
men and women In your employ" II
Know It,, you answer, but not one of
them all is competent to take my place.
they are all young men. I cannot make
a merchant out of an errand boy In a
minute any more than you could make a
THOMAS A. Edison in a minute out of a
young college youth Tho has just matrie-
ulated in the scientific school of Prince
ton Yet the strange fact remains that,
though church work Is the most import
ant of all work, the leading Christian
men of a city will get up almost en- masse
and walk out of these halfway
churches" Thus thy will practically say
to the minister wh) is struggling there:
young man. fill your session with a lot
of young people who are utterly inexpe-
rienced. Grab right and left for your
Sunday school superintendent and teach
ers, no matter whether they know the
Bible or no. We want to go and live on
the aristocratic bouleyards and go to a
stylish church You must get along as
best You can" Thus these leading men,
seemingly without the least compunc-
ton. desert their gospel ship when it is
in danger of sinking.
Don't Desert It.
Is it surprising that these halfway
churches are destroyed when their
strong church leaders desert them in this
way? Let me today enter one of our
large city churches in the residential dis
tricts and take away fifteen of it's power
full eonsecrated church leaders. The next
year have another fifteen to depart and
so on year by year. Would not the spir-
itual work of that church be doomed? Yet
this is Just what is happening to our
halfway churches The greatest diff
Guilty facing such churches is not that the
multitudes are not near by to be reached
These multitudes by the ebb and flow
of the boarding house element come
ane go. but there s always a multitude
there. The greatest trouble is that the
leading positions of those churches are
not filed with experienced men ana Wo-
men, with gospel veterans who stick there
for the works sake. These halfway
churches have not the spiritual leaven-
ers to leaven the chereh loaf. o Christian
workers. be you men or women, you have
no right to desert that halfway church!
There you are needed fifty. hundred
times more than you are needed upon the
church of the boulevard. | know OF what
| speak. 1t is simply an impossibility for
any clergyman to make a success OF one
half oh
uni ass some of the Christian men and wo-
men who are now sittinss useessly In
some of our weather. uptown churches
are ready to go down and help them
Agan and again in these old 'haltway
churches a new session of nine members
has been elected and within six months
half of them would be gone.
These halfway churches must have
the right .,ind of men and women for
their official boards. More than that
tLey must have money sufficient for their
work. Some of this money should be col
lected from their own people Most OF
this money, however should and must
come from outside sources. These
churches need it and must have ii in the
same way that a little child must have
help from a father Surprising | should
say to my eight-year-old hoy, Son, you
must now earn your living" You would
answer me: THAT is absurd! Your boy
in time will be able to earn his own liv-
ing, but he cannot do 1t now. the 'half-
way church" in one sense is the child.
1t can do a little for its own support,
but not enough to be independent of help.
But, though our boards of home and for
eign missions send tier representatives
to many different classes they neglect,
for the most part, these 'halfway
churches" where every dollar invested
To- Christ will bring the greatest returns
ever found in Christian work,
They Need Looking After.
The importance of financial aid for
these halfway churches" can best be- IL
Illustrated by describing the classes of peo-
pie to which these churches appeal. They
are not dead BEATS loafers and out
casts; they are for the most part, young
men and women-students clerks and
young married people. There are many
who have known what better days mean.
but have been forced on account of mis-
fortune to seek the cheaper lodgings of
town Shall they not be looked after?
| Here is one case: / am farmers boy.
'Goodby. mother" | say. as | climb into
the village stage which takes me to the
city. @Goodby! Goodbye Brothers and
sisters wave as | disappear over the last
hill, which shuts out the old home and
the familiar scenes of my boyhood. am
now heading for the city to make my way
in the world. Where will | board? In
fashionable part of the town? OF course
not. MY salary is only Sc week. l must
live within walking distance of the store.
Besides that. each week | must send
little money home to help father hire an
other hand to take my place on the farm.
Lieut. down my expenses by sharing my
room with a fellow clerk or l hired
small room in the boarding region under
the shadow of the halfway church. II
that church does not appeal to me | will
never go to church Mark that! | de-
mand as a young man good music. good
preaching and Christian fellowship in that
church lest ] drift into the paths OF sin,
as thousands do yearly And yet l as
young man can give or, at any rate, will
give. only a few pennies weekly for the
support of the church
Now, | believe in saving the cannibal on
the Kongo. / believe In social settlements
ir the slums. I. however do not believe
In giving so much to the work in the
Sums and to converting the heather can
nil ais that we have none left to give to
develop the spiritual life OF the farmers
-, ,,,,1 tho yotn- pirl clerk living al