Evening journal., 1916-01-05

nAa a hBAAAA VI NAhNATN AAAAhNNhf a ~
were looking for an eternal reward.
Not till one begins to build beyond
the stars is he fitted to live here on
this earth. They did not care whether
they were counted among the noted
and the great they were members OF
the divine aristocracy; princes and
princesses of the Kingdom Of God. IL
was little to them whether they lived
in cottages or palaces. for they knew
they had mansions not made with
hands, eternal in the heavens.
Some Destructive Elements.
The time came when the zeal Of the
early church began to wane. When
Christianity was poor il was pure,
when it became rich and popular il
began to go down. When Constantine
the Great made Christianity the relig-
ion OF the empire. the nobility, who
before had sneered at and prosecuted
the Nazarenes, thinking now that il
was popular. fiocked into membership
in the church. The result was dis
astrous to spirituality. There is a
great danger today that wealth and
popularity may prove detrimental aud
destructive to religion. It is a great
cause for cOngratulation that the
church is as popular as it is. FIRE.
quontly one OF the first questions that
applicants for important and re-
spOnsible positions are asked is. DO
you belong to a church, Said one
young man to me. Il never knew be-
fore that church membership helped
man in business" ! replied 1T
often helps him too much in business.
And the result is that many join the
church for financial. political and so
cial rather than spiritual reasons" "
One society leader said to me. mo
one can be a member of our social
set unless she Is in good standing in
some church" She belonged to the
cream of society. Some OF these
folks are almost cold and stihf enough
TO be called the ice cream. The church
today with all of her wealth and pros
perity, may become like Samson with
his head in Delilahs lap, shorn OF its
power and yet knowing not that the
Spirit of God has departed
Never was there a time when the
church was any richer or any stingier
than it is today. Nine million dollars
6 into the pockets Of professed Chris
tians in America every twenty -four
hours, and never was such a small
percentage of their incomes given for
religious purposes The mission sec
retaries Of all denominations are con-
stantly compelled to beg for money
enough to keep the work going in
multitudes of needy fields. This cOun-
try spent last year, more for gum
than for the gospel The men in our
churches paid more for tobacco than
they did for religion. If man spends
more on gasoline for JOY rides than he
does for Christian work. no matter
what church he belongs to, he needs to
be converted.
The time was when some Of you
lived. perhaps. in a small house in the
country. The circuit rider would
come around once n month and hold
services. You would sweep that little
church or school house, and build the
fires on a cold winter morning; you
would give the preacher the best
room in the hot sc and the last dollar
you had toward mis- salary. But now
you hdvs moved TO town. learned 10
play bridge, sent your children tC
dancing school and tried to break into
| society, and you have little time OF
money for Gods work or workers
The richer you have become the
tighter you have pulled your purse
strings and your soul has Withered
and sh~iveled up to the size of a mus
tard seed. Aren't you ashamed o
yourself? I saw a sign upon pillar
in big church out on the coast which
read our denomination gave sixty
cents per capita for missions last
year" Either give more than one
sixth of a cent a day for the sendinf
of the gospel around the earth or stoI
singing Christ for the world, We
sing In the language Of the street
Either put up or shut up!"
We now see signs Of the dawning O
brighter day. The church has bee
trying every other means to build u
its work, and has failed; now peopl
are coming back to the gospel. The
find that we must have more religion
or very soon we will have vastly lest
Being a Christian is like riding a bi
cycle; you must either go on or yO
will go off. The calls for evangelism
are coming up from all over the lanC
Seven thousand of the choicest youn
people in our American colleges ar
foreign missionary volunteers, enlist
ing to go to the ends OF the earth 10
\ Christ's sake. Oh, that this mission
airy spirit might permeate the mem
bership OF the churches in all ou
home fields! That spirit that actuate
the life OF that martyred missionar,
Horace Tracy Pitkin. who was muT
dered in the boxer insurrection. o
that last night before his death, a
he bade goodbye to his native assist
ant, he said. "Send word to Mrs. Pit
kin in America, that died trusting i
Jesus. And when our little Horac
is twenty-four years OF age, l wan
him to come back to China and TAX
up the work which his father is no.
laying down"
Do you think Pitkin's life was
failure? Then the lives Of Wil.iaI
Wallace and Robert Bruce in tn
highlands of Scotland were failures
Then the life of Robert Emmett
ireland, of Lafayette in France. an
Kosciusko on the plans Of Polan
we're failures. Then the lives of Lin
coin and Lovejoy we're failures, an
the life Of Jesus Christ Himself, stae
= gering up Calvary bearing the heav
cross. then His life was a failure. OF
that men might be willing to fail 70
Christ's sakel Some how there mus
be wave of persecution sweI
!