The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-09-02

to play the hypocrite will choose the church.
 rne Devil hates the churches and has a eight to. for they are undoing his work.
 With all her faul.s, and in spite or ali the criticisms. love her still and expect to give the best have to up- hold her honor and advance her inter ests
 There is need in the present day for q clear definition of the mission of the church. Many people. even church peo- plc have a mistaken idea as to the mis- sion of the church. The most severe criticisms we hear are those that &C., cuse the church for not doing the things that are not intended sn her mission.
 The church has one great, divine. else is secondary.
 The church is social institution and an educational institution, but such features of her work are secondary and not a part of the primary mission. Some men confuse the means for carrying out the mission of the church with tho mission itself.
 church we need first to learn what is the mission of the great head of the church. When we know definitely the mission of Christ, then we know the mission of His church.
 Tn Luke xix: 10 we learn that "The Son of Man is come to seek aud to save that which was lost" and John xvii; IS As thou hast sent me into the world, so have 1 sent them into the world" From this we see that Christ came to save the lost, and that he has sent Us to do the same thing that Hs came to do.
 ''The mission of the church then Is .tc go into the world and bring the lost to Christ. The church must not be afraid to go into the world, but must become very much alarmed when ths world begins to come into it. L IL @ weakness with many of our | ci. arches Is that unlike our Divine Lord. they are unwilling to go out at- ter men for God. Christ has commis- sioned us to so into the world aftcr men,
 "Wben the church goes after mon she | should not forget that She has gons after them for their salvation. The church does, not go after men to pni clcan clotlees on them and food in theiI bodies. These things may be done, but # done it must be as a means to an | end and not as an end in itself. The first thing to be done for any man Is to get Christ in his heart. If we | fail in this. we have lost everything We have done nothing when we cloths and feed man if we do not get him to confess Christ as his Savior and Master The mission of the church is, first of all to get men down on their knees befort | the cross in confession.
 we come very near expressing tho whole truth when we say that the u1ts- sion Of the church Is to bring the lest | to Christ.
 We hear a great deal about the ne cesslty for our churches being Evan | gelical. We do want them to be Evan gelical, but we must not forget that tht New Testament church was Evangelis. tic as well. Tho church Is not an end | in itself, but a means to au end. It ta not enough that the church be correct | ip her own inner life she must go oui 1fter men We arc great etickIers foi orthodoxy, but 1t is poor orthodoxy thai | will not try to save lost world. We need to sound clear and strons the note of Evangelism in our churches All else is secondary. The field Is ths world. If any church limits her field | to circumference less than 2t,o0t miles, she shows marrow vision"