The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1909-12-17

comiEgs. but you being faithful t
your obligations never have to rend
er an excuse about helping your
wives or having so much to do y0u
could not Ke, to church or had ne
clothes tit to wear or people were
cold and ignored you or the pastor
had not been to see you or had rub
bed your raw spot. Now l would not
have you think that all my people are
like these for some OF them are faith.
ful to all obligations and perform
their obligations as faithfully as you
do and meet me here as faithfully aS
you do unless p~rOvidentialIy kept
away, And l make bold to say 1 love
them dearly but forgive me, 1 do
not love o empty pewS.
IL. But while / have commended
you empty pews, yet as l have limited
in the closing clause above, Il have
somewhat against you" With all
your excellencieS there are Sume
things | do not like about you. In
fact you are StriKingly~ like some Of
my members and on that account /
cannot like you as we'll as | wish !
could In fact you are so S%trikingly
like some OF them | wonder why they
Ina We not noticed it themselves.
L. First, my preaching does you
no good. You do not even hear the
~discourseS, much less understand
them. This is SO like many Of my
memberS-trey never hear one OF
them. | cannot preach loud enough
FOR them to hear it for, unlike you,
they are far away. | do not like you
because you are not in sympathy with
my work nO' with me nor do you care
a bean whether it succeeds ur fails
1On do not even appreciate my sJrug-
! giles to have you tilled-witt human
beings. In this you are so like many
of my members. They have no sym
pathy for nv work nor do they ap-
~preciate my toll in having them filled
with the power OF God. Unlike
you, however, they do not give me a
chance to reach them. But very
much like you some of them do not
know whether they like MT or not,
for like iyou again, they have not
heard me often enough.
,. You empty pewS do not pray.
In this you are strikingly like some OF
my members. A congregation that
does not pray for its pastor is net i'm
sympathy with him and therefore
fails to get much good from his eff
forts. You empty pews are a prayer
less congregation. Many of my mem.
bers pray, but only a few of them
pray for me. And failing to pray fer
me some do not succeed in locating
u trouble here 1--WE have some trOu.
BILE here but OF course you do not
know about that They do not see
of course, that they are in any way to
blame that the re are SO many Of you
empty pewS present at every service.
Now | do not mind telling you a
little secret because | know you will
not tell it: l even have some deacons
who do not pray for me. And in
confidence | do not mind telling you
that | incline to the opinion that
Of them do not pray much at
all. Therefore they are disposed
(some Of them to blame me, when a
few fervent prayers for me and them
might disclose the fact that
some of the blame might rest with
great propriety on them and a little
extra energy on their part might
bring much to pass in spite of the
short. cOmingS of fallible pastor who
hope to please everybody.
Furthermore, a sufficient amount of
fervent prayer would help some of
them to see that if they would pray
for the pastor and talk less
about him in his absence the chariot
wheels might not drag so slowly here
lbOutS. That a little more prayer
for the pastor might enable them to
see in him more eXcellencieS and
fewer faults. And if they would
pray more for themselves the sore
spots would heal, their skins would
up and the discourSes Of the
would not hurt so bad. While
know that talking about praying
will do you no good, l hope many of
ny members and some Of my deaconS
VIII prOhu CnereOy. Anu yeC unlike
'Ou, some Of them may get mad about
What l have said about prayer. You
will not get mad, they may. But if
hey do l shall know that L was right
II my coDjectures about their pray
ng. And they will continue TO do
uSt like you-fail to pray.
3. You do not contribute o cent
0 The support of the gospel il this
hurch, although it costs you nothing
1hatever to exist. You not only
i've nothing yourself but J GU do rot d;
others to give. In this /,
a,e SO strikingly like some Of my
1emberS that l wonder that they
onot note the similarity themselves. :
tut it can be said to your eternal :
redit on this point that you do not !
lake any excuses for not cOntri5ut-
ng. And then to your credit it
lay be said also that if you do not r
attribute to the support OF the Cos :,
you do not spend the Lords mon :
needlesSiy and let the church go :
ithout. | have members here Il !
ell free to tell you this because l
x:1l rat rooaor it\ phO no NO