The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1911-02-24
The Chain Of
Christian Life
By REV. TREL0RE
Pastor of Calvary Baptist Church,
Houston, Texas

TEXT-Make a chain: for the land Is
full Of bloody crimes, and the city is full
of violence.-Ezekiel 1928.
Ezekiel Is about to pronounce doom
upon the people of the upper classes.
and In the last part of the verse he
speaks Of general conditions Of the
land and city.
l do not propose to discuss the
things they were in the days of the
prophet. But would take the express
sion, Make a Chain" and let Jesus
speak to us as we examine the differ
ent links in the chain, knowing as we
it's weakest link.
| would point out to you then the
different links in the chain of Chris
tan life and, II possible, strengthen
those links so our work the coming
year might be more steadfast and as a
church and people we might fill the
place our Father has assigned us in
this part of the city.
First, l would let the links repre-
sent things in our individual lives,
know that no church can be stronger
intellectually, spiritually or morally
than are the members of that church.
Here is a link, we will call it the
link of love. Do we have it in our
lives? God is love-"
John said, Little children, love one
another" Our usefulness as Chris
tians will be determined by our love
for God and his cause. By it our work
for the church is measured. If the love
of God is in our hearts we will be as
David when he said Il was glad when
they said unto me, let us go into the
house of the lord" Men shun Gods
house and never enter it because they
do not love Cod
Here is link we will call personal
work. How much it is needed in our
church to keep the members of the
church busy, this should not be neces-
Bary and would not be needed if we
were all alive to our opportunities.
A great field for personal work lies
outside the church, we can go out and
find Bible school scholars and bring
them in. What a great improvement
it would be if every member Of our
church capable Of teaching class in
the school would go out and find the
school and teach them.
This link we will call home mission.
1t is sometimes misunderstood; we
think of our Mexican work or the
work in the western states. But while
this is true and that is a part of the
home mission work, yet I would bring
you face to face with the homes in
our community, many of them are in
need of words Of sympathy, some are
needing the bread and butter to sus-
tain physical life, others have never
accepted Jesus as personal savior.
Home missions would carry US to
the needy communities around us
where Bible schools could be organ
lied and chapels built, churches or
gained, etc.
This much needed work done would
mean more for our city, state and ma
ton than we can imagine, brethren.
Make a chain and bind together all
l would put in a link here in the
chain which l hope will be strong
enough to bring our church up to self
support and pay off our debt. 1 wish
We might all adopt the Bible plan of
giving one-tenth of our income to the
Lords work, and in a short time our
debt would be gone and home eX-
penses met and we would be looking
for new fields to enter for Jesus sake.
l may have left out many links
which should be in the chain, but
weld these and many others together
with the great love Of God and the
power Of God. and you will have a
chain strong enough to rescue the per
ishing soul and to make your inf1u-
ence felt around the world
= What use would l make of the
chain?
We, as individual members of this
church, are links in the great chain
that holds this church here in this
community, as the great ship is held
in place in yonder gulf the anchors
power is measured by the weakest
link in the chain that holds the ship;
so the power of this church is meas
ured by our strength as individual
members of the church
The church Is anchored, mighty
storm is brewing, sins Of all kinds are
endeavoring to wipe out the influence
of the church.
The saloon, which carries with it
the bulk Of all crimes and makes any
land or city, such as the prophet saw
when he said in this verse, THE land
is full Of bloody crimes, and the city
is full Of violence" This greatest of
all foes against the individual the
home, the church and our nation, has
been crowded out of north Texas,
west Texas, central Texas, and here
on the very banks of the Gulf of Mexi.
co the saloon will make its final fight.
God grant that his people will make
the fight of all fights and drive from
our city and state this great enemy of
mankind with all its kindred vices.
and may the church Of Jesus Christ
prove true to all that has been intrust-
ed to it.
The TAponIn ~