The White Pine news. [volume] (Ely, Nev.) 1906-1910, 1909-03-17


came running in on the stage, and
commenced leaping at the tempting
morsel. hanging. alas, just beyond
their reach Finally, as each one
saw that il could not get hold of the
meat. il was afraid the others would,
and presently they fell on each other,
and a dog fight followed such as
might have pleased the fondest adj
mirer of canine pugilistics. 1t lasted
until the dogs had TO be driven off,
whipped away from one another and
the meat remained untouched. Then
the sultan appeared.
This is my answer" he said. I
am the meat. You are a lot of Chris
tian dogs. quarreling among your
selves. What is the use of your tell
ing me what to do. You can not
agree on what | shall do. You can
not agree on what you shall do re-
garding me- You quarrel about it,
because You are afraid that if you do
anything one will get more ont of II
than the other. don't care what
you say. | am safe. ! shall do as
| please.
So with the church. and anything
else when it can not agree. When IL
is all the time quarreling. II can ac-
complish nothing. The devil cares
not whit for il. He is safe. He
does as he pleases. He goes on a
vacation
Ii is amazing. sometimes. the tri-
vial thing that will cause church
quarrel. You have read Bret Harte 5
story of the two miners who had a
falling out They were partners, liv-
ing in the same cabin, but they had
a tilt. one day, and news spread
around in the camp that If the two
met they were going to blow each
others brains out. And that after
noon. they met in the street. and ev-
erybody got ready TO hear the guns
repeat, but they met. and passed
without as much as reaching toward
their hip pockets and even as Star
Battle said 1t was time for all thor
oughbreds to get out of the camp.
Western principle and codes of honor
had gone to smash. Ii was no place
for a decent man. And those two
men became the bitterest of enemies.
and they drifted away from one an
other and TWO or three years later
they met in a foreign land. They
were bonanza kings now, and they
decided 'twere best TO forget their
grievance. Look here, old pal,
said the other, Il did put saleratus
in the bread that night" All right, |
old boy" said the other. | said You
didn't, but let's forget it, and be /
friends once more
Look into the reason for most
church quarrels, and you'll find that I
il was because somebody heard that +
said a certain thing; or
that the preacher said something that /
was personally intended for so-and- +
so; or somebody didn speak TO So
and-so at the prayer meeting or the /
church service; or when social was I
arranged so-and-so was put on the +
of arrangements, and So
and-so wasn't Somebody doesn't +
like this way of doing. and somebody +
doesn't like that. Maybe the preach /
er forgot to put any saleratus in his /
sermon, maybe he didn't put in any +
sugar, maybe he charged II with +
pepper instead and somebody got of /
Tended. and won't come 10 church +
any more. Back in a big city in the +
east, there is a beautiful church edi- +
fee, but il hasn't any steeple. +
When they got everything built but /
the steeple, the members Went to i
quarreling about the steeple. They +
agree on the kind of a stee- /
pie they wanted, and a big following I
of the church members seeded from /
the church and erected another, and |
the rest of the members could never /
get enough money together To finish |
their building. To this day. IT has /
remained "a church without q stee- |
plea church without a steeple be-
cause it had a quarrel. | visited a
church back east couple of years
ago that was once a beautiful edi-
flee. But it has stood for many
years, and the walls of the interior
of that church are a sorry sight, with
the plaster dropping off--qlite in
contrast to the rich, blackwood fews,
the blackwood pulpit and fine pipe
organs. And the money to repair
those walls is in the bank. II was
deposited there several years ago for
that purpose. Why, ther, don. they
do the repairing? Because the mem-
bers of that church once got into a
quarrel. and there is breach in the
church that has first got to be repair
ed. The money is in the bank on
that condition. And because the
members of that church cant patch
up their quarrel They're meeting
there every Sunday, a Few of them.
letting the house of God go TO ruin
the place where they assume to be
gathered together for glory Isn't II
a shame? But the worst part of II
is a church suffers not alone under
such circumstances-but the church
body itself suffers. humanity suf-
.,-1.rI H.. rho