Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1915-05-07
SUNDAY SCHOOLS
ARE FLOURISHING
Falls Mills and Midway Have
Live Ones at WOrk-The Gates
Meeting in Bluefield-Taze-
Pastor in Nice Quarters.

The last production of gossippy
"turn of mind" in this journal was
from the editor as he "loafed down
the Clinch." The present effusion is
from the same pen or pencil, but not
from the editor but :.om the secre-
tary of the County Sunday School
Association, and he is not "loafing'
on the job this time, but busy, one
way and another, all the time, from
Saturday afternoon, when he left
home until Monday afternoon, when
he returned.
Some of the readers of this paper
enjoy this kind of gossip and find it
helpful, for they have been good
enough to say so. 1t is for the num-
ber of "the elect" that these letters are
written. l believe in specialists, for
but l am fully persuaded that to be
able to do more than one thing well
is an enviab'e and desirable condi-
ton to find yourself in sometimes. If
/ could do nothing but run little
paper-well, there might be no paper
10 run after a while. Every man
should be able to do more than one
thing in order to be reasonably indie
pendent. "Well, what's all this hot
air got to do with the Sunday School
trip" you ask. Not very much, per-
haps, but was led into this profound
train of thought" by my experience
last week. On Friday morning, the
paper being disposed of, l handled a
big plow part of the day, and follow
n harrow and plank drag the rest of
the day, and on Saturday morning, /
laid off until noon. mean "laid off"
corn rows. We, Mr.. Kimball, my
partner in Distress" and myself,
were anxious to get the experiment
farm" planted by May 1 and we did,
but l had to help-was glad to, glad
l knew how and was able to, and 1
could have kept at it. "knocked off"
Mt IL, attended to some correspon-
dence in the afternoon, made two Sun
day School speeches on Sunday, ETC.,
so you see there is no good reason
why l should be idle, because 1 can do
in some sort of way, more than one
kind of work. Now, do you see the
point about the shot air"
FALLS MILLS AND MIDWAY.
go to Falls Mills every chance 1
have because l like the people there,
and they have made me believe they
like for me to come.
Isaiah Harry, Fink, Dud Baker,
Cline and a number of good women,
are conducting a good Sunday school
at Falls Mills. They are in earnest
about great work. So many folks
are half-hearted, and careless when it
comes to Sunday School work! Not so
with the Falls Mills folks. But Har-
ry complained, and justly, that many
of the church folks of that communi-
ty never darken the door of the Sun
day School room. What to do with
these "church loafers" in every COM
munity, is now, and has always been,
n problem. One wise man puts it
this way: He says that "any church
member who can but wont take some
part in the good work of Bible study
and the moral and religious better
ment of the young people, either has
no religion at all, or is as blind as a
bat, and is likely some day to wake
up in hell" This is putting it strong
ly, but not too much so perhaps. This
class of church members are great
worry to the pastors. They are neith-
er "cold nor hot" and the church
would be better off without them.
But this aside. We had good Sun
day School meeting. There were 90
in attendance, besides a number of
others who dropped in" to hear what
the speaker had to say. / always en-
joy the singing at Falls Mills. Harry
is the leader. He sings well. His
entire school come to the front" and
sing. 1t wasn't quite warm enough
this time to cause Harry to "shuck
his coat" which he often does, and
when he does, and starts his folks out
on "When I Can Read My Title Clear"
there will be something going on.
Country people enjoy their Sunday
services. Town churches, many of
e.. them, the most of them, let the choir
do all the singing, such as it is, but
the country folks sing, not always
"accordin' to the book" perhaps, but
they sing. John Wesley said that
"poor singing means poor religion
and on the same principle suppose
"no singing means no religion" II
this be true, there is woeful lack OF
religion in many of the churches. AND
while 1 am at it, if the pastors and
superintendents would request and
encourage congregational singing, anC
not leave it all to the few people il
the choir, there would be an improve
ment along this line.
MIDWAY ON FLAT TOP.
After fine dinner and socia
hour with Harry and his large and in
teresting family, we started for tn,
Midway church, where a Sunda,
School meeting had been appointe,
for q O'clock Midway is m tha +o,