Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-02-03
Billy" Sundays Sermon Today

some one viii understand, SO even tho
elect of the spirit are deceived. Try the
spirit, whether II be of God, and In ali
ages when the church has stood for some-
thing she has had W That Is why
many n preacher is n failure today: he
Is q c~ompromiser. That is why the
church is a failure; she is compromising
with the men that sit In the seats and
w saloons and whom she never re-
Dukes she is compromising with the men
who rent their property for disorderly
houses, and whom she never rebukes,
They are living off the products OF shame,
and IL they buy food and clothes for their
wives and children from such money,
they, too, are living Off this product OF
shame. We have lost our power because
we have compromised.
when 1 played baseball I used to at
tend every theatre in the country. Since
l was converted l have not darkened a
theatres door In % years, except TO
preach the Gospel We've lost our power
because we've lost our faith.
SOCIAL LEADERS.
"our leading members are leaders In
nothing but card parties and society;
they are not leaders in spiritual things.
A man comes to me and says Mrs. So
and-so is one OF my leading members. 1
ask, Does she visit the sick2' No
Does she put her arms around some poor
sinner and try to save her for Christ?'
NO. And I find she is a leader in moth
ing but society, card parties, dances and
bridge whist club / don't call that kind
n leading woman In the church; she is
the DEVILS bell wether. That is true. I
tell you people what 1 call your leading
woman: She is the one who gets down
on her knees and prays; she Is the one
hat can wrap her arms around a. sinner
and lead her to Christ; that Is q leading
church member. You have it doped out
wrong.
Did Martin Luther trim his sails TO
tho breeze of his day7 If he had, you
would never have had a Reformation. 1
will tell o why we nave lost our
power; 1 have told you what 1 don't mean
by power. Samson wist not. so tho spirit
of the Lord departed.
First, wo have lost our power because
we have failed to insist on the separa-
ton of the church from the world. You
have lost. The church is a separate body
of men and women We are to be in the
world, but not of the world. Neither in
our methods or Impressions; she is all
right in the world, all wrong when the
world is in her, and the trouble with the
church today is hat she has sprung a
leak. The flood tides of the world LAY
swept in until wen her pews are en-
quilted; yet, even the choir loft is almost
submerged. We have become but a third
rate amusement bureau. The world has
got to see a clean cut line OF demarca-
ton between the church and the world.
So 1 believe.
IF there's anything the church of God
needs it's to climb the stairs and get in
an upper room.
1T believe 1t is through the sound OF
God. Come out from among them-and
there Is another bunch 1 have no use for,
the c~ome-outers. People who won't come
out to any church. l would keep my hen
roost locked when they are around. I
know there are faults IN the church, but
that is no reason for o to say you
won't go to church.
Years ago, down In Phillips Academy,
in Andover. there was developed a stu
lent who knew God. Some students go to
Berlin, or Leipzig. or Munich and dream
out a few heresies over beer mugs They
to Europe to brush up Sometimes
they put a parenthesis around the college
and allow a student to slip over from the
academy to the seminary. The trouble
with the church today Is that too many
are Swimming the wire, like the gripman
on a cable car"