The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1910-10-18

great store of religious life tina. ought
to be conserved and developed into
power Of which the church today is
not in possession.
Religious life may be conserved.
then. as any other thing is conserved.
by stopping its waste and preventing
the dissipation of it. But in another
way, a different way. spiritual life
must be conserved and developed into
power of which the church of today
Is not like a material store. If l could
preserve my store. of water as cross
the desert, put it into water-tight.
alright receptacle. that l may not
lose by leakage or evaporation; but.
you cannot thus preserve life. If l
would preserve the heat of the mix
ture, l put it into Thermos bottle,
that it may not lose that heat by con-
duction or radiation. But the relig-
ious life is not like the heat of the
the fire that Bunyan saw at the House
of the Interpreter, fed with oil by the
Christ within the wall. so that the
devil could not put 1t out, try as he
would
II Is life. not material, that we are
seeking to conserve. Jesus came that
we might have life. and that We might
have II abundantly. And how does
abundant life come to pass? Where
do you find it? Intellectual life in
abundance is found where men think
and study, and use their mental pow
ers. And intellectual idleness is the
greatest dissipater of intellectual life
and power. Where do you find the
abundant physical life? Why, where
athletes congregate. You see it on the
football field as Rome saw it at the
gladiatorial combats and Greece at
the Olympian games. 1t is where
the physical powers are exercised to
the full that you find the fullness Of
physical life and power. The natural
law holds in the spiritual world. If
we are to conserve spiritual power we
must use it to develop it. Spiritual
lethargy and inaction will paralyze
and atrophy spiritual power as surely
as the Indian takers arm is atrophied
by inaction.
II then we are to conserve the re-
ligious life of the city, we. must have
an abundance of religious activity.
Family worship must be kept up, class
meetings and prayer meetings must
not be neglected. Christian Endeavor
societies. Epworth leagues, Baptist
Young Peoples unions, Luther leagues
nv~t A0 nj h4 Cd Tot
ed and made really religious. And
above all those definite spiritual ac-
tivities must be maintained which
minister directly to the needy. Char.
tiles, home and foreign missions, act
and evangelism, ETC., will fail IL the
religious life is not maintained, and
convers, y the religious life will fail
| IL these are not maintained.
One thing more. 1t is life that we
are to conserve. l have no dou-
that some day I shall die. If there.
fore am to preserve my life. must
propagate 1t. Unless leave offspring
the line will die and life will fail, so
far as I am concerned. Still more
| emphatically is it true that if we
must propagate It. Evangelism is
the heart of Christianity. That church
which is not evangelistic in spirit viii
die, and will deserve to die That
church which in the spirit of the Mas
ter, seeks to advance the kingdom
not the individual denomination pri
marily. but the kingdom-will live
| and will doaerve IN live
/ The religious life of Richmond is
I not at flood tide. IL read the signs
Alright. We are none too rich in spir
itual life and power. If we would
conserve our present power, we must
add to 1t. Our loyalty to the Master