The Falls City tribune., 1910-10-21

of them are so apt and ~piquant that
they elbow their way into the die
t~ionary instanter.
That word gutter is one of the
elect.
The gutter is the man who
throws up his job either because
some difficulty arises, or because the
novelty wears eff. He is, ordinarily
either a faintheart; or else of a mer-
curial temperament.
At any rate, you cannot tie to
him. Like John Mark, whom Paul
who held on to anything he under
took with a bulldog grip-branded as
a gutter, he quickly drops out of the
ranks and slips away to the e
when the arduous work begins.
When you come to think of it
Paul knew a number of folks OF this
ilk. Demas was II of the fraternity
of quitters-Paul said to him, De
mas hath forsaken me, having loved
this present world And then there
were a number of cutters down in
Galatia to whom the Apostle wrote,
"Ye did run well, who did hinder
you?" And in his farewell letter
from his lonely prison he wrote "All
men forsook me-"
How many a devoted Christian
leader. in some crisis time, when
the cooperation and cordial SYM
patty of those who had pledged
him these very things would have
meant everything for his own in
spiration and the progress Of the
work, has been compelled t o echo
that sad indictment. There are
enough men and women nerolled in
our churches each year to sweep the
and Of evil, and to conquer the
world for Christ-but so many of
them are cutters. They cannot
be counted Upon for persistent con-
tinuance in Jealous devotion. Ey-
cry community has them. Who can
not count them by the score? Pos
sibly their names are still on the
church-roll; but you never think of
including them among the church's
live assets. You feel like quoting
that infants epitaph with special APP
plication to this class;
"Since then he was so early done for,
I wonder what he was begun for"
They grew well enough for a little
While, but as Don as mercury be-
gan to climb; as soon as they dis
covered that Christian activity meant
"a mans job" for them, they with
cred away"
In ono of his sledge-hammer SER
mons, DR.. Burrill recently, in char
acterizing "the gutter told how
lin the lobby of the United States
Senate a group of politicians, not
long ago, was discussing the quail
fications of certain men as candi-
dates for he presidential nomination.
1t so happened that some of them
were pledged to advocate in interest
of a mutual friend. One of these
said, q have changed my mind as to
the eligibility of Mr.- and am
inclined to think that we had better
drop him. A moments silence. and
then another member of the group
said simply, God Almighty hates a
GUTTER " and ne goes on to draw
some helpful lessons from Peters la
mentable experience in this business
of quitting. But it is not so much
those who, like Peter, through cow
ardice, forsake Christ, that we have
in mind. The cutters, in our church
today are those who, after a little
squirt in running the race, get tired
of their job and quit.
They have solemnly promised not
to. But they get tired and quit
just the same.
They themselves understand that
Gods real purpose in keeping them
here is service, and that making any
other use of life is a misuse of it.
But that did not prevent them from
getting tired and quitting.
They realize that by relaxing their
zeal and slipping out of the ranks,
they are weakening the regiment
and making victory that much more
difficult for those who have to bear
the brunt. But nevertheless they
quit. They believe that a day of
accounting is coming when the loaner
of the talents will not tolerate a
na~pkin-story whine. But still they
quit.
1t was not because some great
big honest doubt crept into their
hearts and, by the storm clouds of
their sou~l-struggle faith was eclipsed.
They did not have any soul struggle,
they just got tired and quit.
And because they were cutters
tho ah,r,,I -rl -. ,..11 - ,,-,,s-1