Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1912-05-15
Another Open Letter to Non.
Church Geers by Rev. E.
G. Bailey.

Ne ~GAAASy.
1t is quite a coincidence that two
ministers in the same town should
be thinking upon the same topic at
the same time. The writer was just
about getting ready to address a
letter to non-church goers when his
attention was called to the letter of
DR.. Jeffries. After reading this let
ter, the writer said within himself,
"Were I not church goer would
now attend if for no other reason
than to express my appreciation of
the kind interest manifested in my
welfare and that of my family" :"
But apart from gratitude, we wish
to assign other reasons why every
body should make a desperate, and
if need be, sacri6cial effort to be in
church every Sabbath. Of course it
is generally understood that the
prime object of going to church is
to worship God. The first command
ment demands that we openly &C
knowledge and worship him. And
this is natural to do, if we are not
infdels. But since many are not
constrained from point of wor-
ship to attend church, and feel no
OBLIGATION to their Creator for
breath and bread, it will be neces-
sary to appeal to them from the in
fdels' standpoint who said, Il go
to church because it is indecent not
to go; always feel more like hu-
man being when I wash and dress
myself and mingle with those who
go to the house of worship; 1 60 to
church as a matter of education and
refinement; l am afraid not to go,
there is too much at stake; the NOR
al character of my sons and the vir-
tue of my daughters are worth too
much to me not to be interested; l
not only go, but l help to support
the church because if there was no
religion in this world, 1 would go
to the bedside where my daughters
are sleeping and stab them to the
heart; and laying aside the question
of hereafter the church must live,
and citizenship, to say nothing about
the rest, obligales me to do my part
and let no man do 1t for me, in
keeping up this institution which
is the only hope of the world; l am
an inhdel theoretically, practically
l am a Christian; but Tin converse
tion with a friend) do not tell my
wife that l am, it would break her
heart; if | married a hundred times
I would only marry a Christian; the
support of the church and school is
the best investment l have, the man
who is not the friend of the church
is enemy to himself, his home, his
county. The church has bad people
in it, but it is the religious peo-
pie who make the church; / am not
responsible for its hypocrites, I am
only responsible for my part; 1 want
my children to go to church for
their own sake and when they are
married, for their children's sake;
this world would be in a bad fl,
without the church; there is no in
stitution on earth like it and we are
bound to keep it up"
We have in the above given you
the substance, and in some instan-
ces, the exact language of several
noted infdels. 1t must impress you
with both sense of your guilt and
cri minal neglect as you reflect upon
the manner in which you have neg
lected a civic duty and desecrated
many holy Sabbath.
DR.. Jefries in his letter address
ed in particular that class who
nominally are Indifferent Christians
and it was all to the point. But it
matters not whether you profess or
do not profess, the obligation to at
tend the services of some church is
none the less. In the day of final
accounts the question will be, what
did you do with my command