, 1907-01-07

lnree-tOuTtnS u oui PSSPAS VA soy ~
home. Just how much the service
does for those who go because Of a
sense of duty instead of from a love of
worship and a desire of what they get
when they go to church is a problem.
Welfare of the Youth.
To make one good thing seem bet
ter, take away surrounding good things.
Take away from the people their Htera-
ture, their pleasant homes. their bright
ly lighted rooms, their pleasant COM
partnership and they will more readily
seek the public places which afford
what their own houses lack. Some
will find it in church, but more will find
for the morals of a community to have
its young people at home Sunday even
ings, even at the cost or large congre-
cations in the churches, than to have a
few of them at church and the many
away from PARENTAL supervision. The
people of Laramie are not walking the
streets of the city to any great extent
during the hours of public service. If
anyone doubts this assertion he a
easily prove it's truth by staying away
from church himself and walking the
streets to see.
The Course To Pursue.
Shall we, by sensational methods, try
toslure a few from their quiet and cosy
homes in hope of getting better congre-
cations for more contemporaneous
meetings than by any possible o n
struction are called for by the COM
munity? Shall l, for fear that he
Presbyterian church may be a loser,
stand aloof from my brethren and in,
sist upon holding my own little service
to a scattered congregation who would
probably be more benefited by hearing
a minister preach to whose ways of
thinking they are a stranger, and who
perhaps, presenting truth from a differ
etnt angle, would give then what l
have vainly tried to give them, or shall
l make the cause of Christ first and the
church of which l happen to be pastor
second to the religious good of the
community?
Union Sunday Services.
When traffic on the railroad is slack
they do not keep up their full number
of trains and cars at the cost of run
ming them empty, because the sight of
empty cars does not tend to increase
travelled, and it costs TO run cars. But
churches keep up their number of ser.
vices whether people come or not. al
though empty churches are as little
conducive to new attendance as empty
cars to travel, and it also costs to hold
services. The sight of our or five min
listers preaching on the same themes
to quarter congregations within a
stones throw OF each other, for fear
that if they came together n had a
crowded house 1t would brighten the
people as well as the devil, must cause
intense wonder among the angels, who
if they were TO be Sent into u com
munity to live would be at a loss to find
any church neal enough like the church
Christ designed for the world to wish
to unite with it. l do not doubt for 6
moment that our Lord, il he could have
his way, would prefer every Sunday
evening a union service in Laramie
with Walton and Lansdell and Pierce
and Hogbin in the pulpit, and every.
thing forgotten except the mission OF
the Master to preach the gospel to ev
cry creature, and with the same mum,
Der of people present as would be
all open, han all the services which
We now hold. | also believe that the
~uncoverted people of Laramie would
be about as much surprised as the
Jews at Pentecost. The fact is, breth'
ren, the thinking people who are not
Christians have little respect for the
churches because we seem to be con,
Quoting our business as the world does
on ~self-seeking principles. We build
our churches confessedly not for the
preaching Of the gospel in Christ's way,
but to quote Brother Lansdell last
week, in the Baptist way or the Pres,
byterian way, or the Methodist way,
or the Lutheran way, forgetting that
the world cries for neither; and the
book that we follow knows neither,
and if the world is ever saved it must
be by ignoring the yoke our fathers put
upon us which neither they nor us are
able to bear.
Sectarians Instead of Christians.
1 do not mean to say that Christ has
any reason to expect that we, the min
isters of Laramie are great enough to
override the traditions of our churches,
to stand against the narrow-minded of
our own members firmly enough to in
stitute this great reform. We are only
little men. We have built three
churches when we needed only two, be-
cause we are such poor Christians that
we cannot work and worship together.
We shall. l suppose, go on in our old
blind way, seeing only the narrow cir