Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-05-06
CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR HOUR

Conducted by Grace Livingston Hill-Lutz.
For Sunday. May T. 1905.
Topic: ''The Making of Christian: His Exercise"
Conservation Meeting) James 22-27.
%. But be ye doors of the word. and not
hearers only. deceiving your own selves.
o. For If any man be a hearer of the
word. and not doer he is like unto man
beholding his natural face in glass:
"a For he beholdeth himself, and goeth
his way. and straightway forgetteth what
manner of man he was.
IS But whose looketh into the perfect law
Of liberty. and continueth therein, he being
not forgetful nearer, but doer Of the
work. this man shall be blest in his deed.
%. If any man among you seem to be re-
lgious. and bridleth not his tongue. but de-
ceiveth his own heart, this mans religion is
vain.
u. Pure religion and undeflled before God
and the Father is this, To visit the father
less and widows in their affliction, and to
keep himself unspotted from the world.
The Lesson.
If you have ever watched a gymnasium
class on the floor at work you have noticed
a good many pupils, especially in a begin
ners' class. who do not do so we'll as the
Majority. They stand helplessly and watch
the leader or the other members, and ac-
complsh nothing. Their muscles are soft
and they have no control over them They
listen attentively to the directions given by
the teacher; perhaps he is teaching them to
do work upon the traDeZe but when it
comes to putting into practice what he has
told them to do they are as helpless as a
baby that has not learned to walk. They
grasp the trapeze, dangle amlessly about
In the air and are utterly unable to even
swing their feet up to the height of their
heads. Now watch those faulty pupils in a
few days. When the rest periods come or
the class is over for the day some of them
will go sadly from the gymnasium, glad
that the time of fruitless learning is over
or will sit about listlessly, staring the fact
in the face that they cannot do what the
others are doing; but others. the ones into
whom the words OF the teacher have en-
tered, spend every leisure moment at that
trapeZe. They organize themselves into an
auxiliary class and they take turns trying
They swing, and swing, and swing their
feet up, higher and higher, sometimes
touching the desired bar of the trapeze, with
an eXultant thrill. and at last succeed in
catching the feet up there Oh the wonder
the delight they feel when at last the I'M
used muscles of the trunk become limbered
up to their new work and can actually con-
troll the body and put it up into that swing
In the air at will. Any one who has tried it
will tell you of the moment of pause, the
JOY over the new power, the trying it again
and again, uncertain whether it can ever
be repeated, the delight in it as a new pos
session. and finally the use of it In still
greater feats of athletic skill. This is the
joy of attaining, and can only be brought
about by exercise-by constant trying.
Every church full of Christians is like
unto a great gymnasium class There be
many who are willing enough to study the
theory of spiritual development, but when
1t comes to the actual putting Of it into
practice they turn sadly away or shake
listless heads and declare that they cannot
do these things; perhaps they do not even
try, some imagining that they have it all
because they have the theoretical facts in
their heads. How the Bible searches into
the depths of every heart and picks out
the laggards in the class of Christ, de
ceiving your own selves" Isn't that just
what We do? Take the simple little easy-
hard thing to do bridIing your tongue
How often do you succeed? How many
times have you accomplished the feat of
keeping silence when some one made you
angry and brought the sharp retaliation
to your lips? Can you do it as well as
the strongfaced unbeliever whom you
pity, and perhaps despise, or, better, pray
for, as one needing Christ so much more
than you? And yet you have not bridled
your tongue. Think of yesterday. You
know those sharp answers that you gave
You excused yourself and said it was
righteous Indignation you We're express
ing. Are you sure? Did you look into
Chnsts mirror, His perfect law, to find
that out?
III d 3 lilIldSluIl CLASS tNlnSS are carried
on after a perfectly scientific method. The
members of the class are measured and
weighed every week or month and every
bit of growth carefully noted If GER
tain muscle is deficient that muscle is
given a set of exercises to develop 1t and
make it stronger. and 1T is only through
constant use that it can grow larger and
stronger and hit for more use Why do
we not do the same in the Christian ath-
leticse But we don't. Your church for
instance. is deficient in prayers. In the
weekly prayer meeting there only
half dozen women who can be depended
upon, and three or four men who will pray
when called upon You deplore that You
think church cannot be healthy and we'll
developed without prayer, and yet have
you tried with all your might to remedy
that? You can't pray yourself before 9TH
ers. Oh. no; your education was neglected
in that direction. You have not n gift for
it. Your heart gets into your throat when
you try and the very thought of it makes
your knees tremble. If you had begun
when you We're young-but you didn't and
now it is too late to try.
Now, you know that is all nonsense
and that if you take a glance into that
mirror which will show you yourself YOU
will find out that you are Just one of the
shunken. shriveled muscles of PRAYER of
this dear church of ours, and that YOU
need to get to work at once and put il
through a course of exercises that win do
Yeiop It. You may never be able to make
the prayer in public that you would have
made IL you had begun younger but Won
can develop into something better than
you are at least something that will helm
to make the whole body of Christ's bride
stronger and more beautiful and more eff
fective jim its work. Did you ever think
of that?
And there are so many other shrunken
muscles in this bride of Christ besides those
of prayer. There Is the visiting the widows
and fatherless." They are not always lust
widows and fatherless. Sometimes thew
young girl not in your social circle.
whose acquaintance viii not raise YOU
higher in the estimation of the friends Of
Garth but be assured 1t will raise you
higher in the estimation of the angels
There are the muscles that stay the pas
tors hands and the muscles that bride
many of your actions well as your
tongue. There is much bridling to be DONE
Suppose you look for a few minutes into
Christ's mirror and then be not a forgetful
hearer, but enter the cias of DEVELOPMENT
at once and help to rectify your defects
Applied Truth.
When an athlete Is In training for some
special race or contest he has rigid rules