The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1909-01-05
WEEK OF PRAYER
WAS OPENED
Large Number Attended the Speak
ing at the Christian
Church Laet Even
THE HARVEST CALL
Rev. J. F. Sanders of the First
Baptist Church Gave an In
teresting and Helpful
Talk.

The first of the series of five SER
mons to be given under the direction
of the Ministerial association was Civ
en- last evening in the First Christian
church at Tenth and Blondeau streets.
A large number were present at the
church considering the inclement
weather and the meeting was very
enthusiastic one. Tonight the second
meeting of the series will be given
Ut the First Congr ,gational church,
corner of Sixth and High streets and
the subject of the sermon will be
"Fearess Confession of Christ"
The speaker for each evening is not
announced and the ministers of the
board alone know who will be the
speaker for the evening until the hour
for the delivery The reason for
Withholding the name of the speaker
being obvious.
The services at the Christian church
last evening were in charge Of Rev.
R. w. Lilley, pastor who opened the
services by announcing hymn 3S1,
Nearer, My God to Thee. The church
choir was present and aided much in
the song service of the evening. Rev.
Foster of the United Presbyterian
church offered prayer and several
more hymns were sung.
Rev. Lilley then introduced the
speaker of the evening, Rev. James F..
Sanders of the First Baptist church.
was The Harvest Call and was list
ened to with closest attention IRON the
assemblage. Rev. Sanders said in
part:
Il take for my text this evening the
ninth chapter of Matthew from the
twentyseventh verse: The world is
lost, the harvest is indeed plenteous
and the reapers are few. Never in
tie history of the church of Christ
have these words of the Bible text
been SO appreciated. There rever
were such magnificent efforts put forth
today by the church.
Critics tell us all sorts of things.
Some of them say that the church is
{ worn out institution and that we are
face to face with solar forces. This
is all wrong. The church is the great
est force in the world today. 1t has
been the mother of education and bet
ter things and the uplifting of man
kind 1t stands today more for the up
lifting of mankind more than all the
other institutions in the world com
bined. When we look around and find
people looking for economical and So
rlal forces to save the world be sure
then that they are the ones who have
little faith in the gospel.
The Scribes and Pharisees were the
itellectual people of their day and
tried to preach the doctrine of Christ.
These men knew Jesus Christ to be the
Savior Of man and knew that he would
save them even to the uttermost. He
that will not believe this will be
damned. These men were all evange
lists and it was their one aim in life
70 preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The supreme need of our churches
is their transformation into evange-
hstic centers. This is the real bust
ness of the churches. In great many
communities there is prevailing
thought that the church cannot reach
the masses. This is merely an illusion
OF the devil, and nothing else. Our
churches are well built and well
thn{ 10
rent buildings in which to hold evange
h3tlc meetings. The church is the
place for evangelistic work and the
tllne is here when We should make the
church the place to reach out and
get hold of men and bring them to
God When the people realize what
the church is for, then will the church
reach out and become an evangelistic
center.
have more faith in some old sin
ners than in some old saints of the
church, There are some old saints in
our churches who have good easy
iihe and expect the pastors to be
sort OF nurse to them and honey
'hem along And they also expect to
san into Heaven without ever lifting
hand to help the Kingdom Of God,
'ut they will awaken somo morning
ana md themselves in the bottomless
pit Oh nell. It's hard to keep some old
SAINTS in the way of the life eyerlast-
ing.
Hundreds and thousands of men are
brought to Christ over the country