The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-10-01

you may have had your souls lifted by grander music, more exquisltely rendered.
 than you hear in your own church. but has that given you a distaste for the home services? Oh, no. As the best place
 for a man to grow and live in a domestic sense by the freslde of his own home. so
 the best place in which he is to build up spiritually Is in his own church. H spite of yourself when you go to other churches you go in a critical spirit but here In your own church home you come to wor- ship. There is an atmosphere about your accustomed church which ought to be more sacred to you than that of any other building. That Is your church home.
 There you have so often commingled your prayers that they have a different mean ing there than when you pray among strangers. The pastor Is in gospel sense part of you and you are part of him. He welcomes you back to your place of wor- | ship to your household of faith.'
 | Then there is another reason why I SO | gladly welcome you back as worshipers | to your own church pew. You know as | we'll as I know that most of the good we get from a gospel sermon Is due not so much to the intrinsic worth and to the | briliancy of the sermon as to the spirit | ual preparations We make at home for the reception of the Bread of Life. This {, Sabbath day, in a Christian home, you | u
 did not see any fishing poles You did not see the carriages being driven up for | the long mountain rides. You did not see the pleasure parties starting out for a yachting trip. You arose in the spirit of prayer. After breakfast you gathered the children about the family altar. Then before you Started for Sunday school you all knelt. Then you uttered a prayer like this: 70 God like Enoch may we walk
 with thee this day. Be with our Sunday school. Give the teachers power to ex- pound thy word. Give the scholars re- captive hearts to listen to thy lessons. And O Father. thou great and omnipo-
 tent King, be with our pastor. He Is one of us May we lift up his arms. May he
 today be a man with mighty power for God. May just the right word be spoken
 which will bring down shower of bless ings to our hearts" Are not those pray CTS having any results? Why, friends as
 I speak this morning I feel strange in
 fuence lifting me up. That influence, oh.
 my people, comes from the prayers of the | family altars of my church. That power
 comes from the prayers of my people here 1 in this church, praying for me. That power comes from the fact that when you l started for church you and your house. | holds were In praying atmosphere. It | is hard, awfully hard. to make the neces-
 sary spiritual preparations for Sunday |
 in worldly summer hotel. I congratu-
 late you that you have pee- ahle to start
 this holy Sabbath in t,ie r":ht way upon
 your knees before your family altars.
 Welcome Back to Church.
 Then l also congratulate the homecom- | CTS because you have come back to your i opportunities of religious work as well as 1 to your temporal work and to your church l worship. A vacation from the store in-
 variably means a vacation from church
 labors and church work. Thomas Guth- 1 rie the great Scotch preacher, once wrote 1 a book entitled "Out of Harness.' In 1t
 he described himself away from his l pulpit amide the Alpine hills seeking 1 health and relaxation from toll. Tn one ! chapter he described himself worshiping z | with couple of prominent English ki-
 vines in little Swiss village church As {: the services went on. led by the village , church. As the service went on, led by
 the village pastor. he looked cross the | aisle at the noble brow of great London | preacher sitting there. Then he com | pared this silent preacher to a mighty engine with It's fires drawn. The screws. | the boiler the mighty driving wheel the | smokestack were all there. But there was no water in the boiler and no coal in the furnace and no steam was being generated. The great throbbling life of the engine was stilled. So with you dur ing your past vacation. You may have attended the church services, but you went to church simply as worshipers and
 not as workers. And. my friends. true