Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1906-08-15
Member. VINO A.. NJ. mombsrs.

IL seems TO me Jh6J in the Ordl-
nary Methodist congregation to-day
not more than half the names on the
roll represent real workers. 1t is
often difficult to estimate the
strength of the church in such cases.
/ realize that expelling member
aught to be the very last resort, but
it is very evident that there should
be revision of many church regis
ters.
In one church on this charge /
cannot put my hand on more than
half the membership of the congre-
'gation--that is, if the church register
is to be taken as an accurate roll of
members. Now, what is to be done !?
| take it for granted that this one is
no exception to the rule. In many
congregations there are asfew faith
full ones who are laboring hard to
hold the church together. The
church, for instance; claims a raem-
bership of one hundred; the average
attendance is about thirty or forty.
Now, what is the real strength of
that church? There is no way of
ascertaining its strength.
/ have a few members whom I
have never seen at any church SER
vice-they do absolutely nothing for
the church, but want to claim all the
privileges of members. Some of
them live very near the church, but
| have always been unable to per-
suade them to attend. Notwith-
standing their obligations, they con-
tribute nothing whatever to support
the church. But their names are
still on the book and they claim to
be members of the Methodist church.
A man cannot be true Methodist
and at the same time absent himself
from every service of his church,
and, therefore, I contend that these
people cannot be reported as belong
ing to our church. No wonder we
are able to report such large num-
bers. / believe that it is wrong for
us TO claim that man belongs to us
when he is doing nothing in any
way to keep the church alive. He
that is not for US is against us, and
the man who is indolent, unworthy,
is an enemy of the church, and .tbe
more 80 because his name is on her
rolls. They bring a reproach upon
us and should be expelled, in order
that they may have less opportunity
to injure us. have always con-
tended that the church's enemies are
those inside who are not worthy to
be called by the name of "Metho-
dist"
Recently an old lady came to me
and said 81 have lived Il this town
for three years, and the Methodist
preacher has never been to see me.
/ am good old Methodist, too"
She was very much offended because
the preachers who have been here
failed to find her. But upon investi-
cation l learned that this poor old
woman had not been to church in
three years, and still claimed to be a
good old Methodist.
Would it not be we'll to have q
law to expel members who, without
reasonable excuse, absented him
self from church given number of
times in successionp Can q loyal
member remain away from the house
of God for montha at a time? The
answer must be that he cannot.
Then those who do this ought not to
be considered members of the
church.
As long as this condition exists
we will have but very vague idea
of our real strength. A smaller
membership, who could be depended
upon, would be better than long
roll of members who neither attend
services or contribute to support the
institutions of the church. REV.
Rhett II. Doyle, in Southern Chris
tian Advocate.