The Washington times., 1917-02-21
Secretary of State Lansing Ex-
pected to Head Attendance of
Employees Tonight.
FOUR CONVERTS RECEIVED
Gypsy Smith, Jr., breaches Of
obedience" Before Throng
of 1000 Persons.

estimated at more than 1000 which
filled~the tabernacle at Sixteenth and
V streets last night. At the .close
OF the address four converts slipped
forward.
stated that never since his stay in
Washington has the evangelist made
such a strong appeal. The sermon
last night was taken from the fif-
teenth chapter of Samuel, first verse.
obedience" was the topic.
He first told the story of how Saul
had disobeyed the command of God.
after conQuering the Amalachites, and
how, when Samuel came out to meet
the returning and victorious army of
the Israelites, Saul had put on ID
religious smile" and made excuses.
Yes" said the evangelist. saul
put on a religious smile when Samuel
met him. And IL Saul had been a
modern day Christian. he would have
doubtless put Abide With Me- on the
talking machine when the preacher
came to see him. There il such
thing as a religious smile, and you
all know what it is.
ut isn't any snap, this preachers
job. II you don't believe 1t, come up
here and try II. The thing that leads
the preacher to his grave before his
time is worry. Take the preacher
who has a little flock of 100 in a
small town. One hundred in his con-
gregation and 100 different ways OF
thinking. Suppose you are walking
down the street some day, and pass
an old lady who is one of the pillars
of the church. And because you don't
zee her and fail to tip your hat, she
stops coming to church."
Reniss ChurehEoers.
The evangelist then told of why SO
many people fail to go to church.
"If ask you tonight what is keep
ing you out of church. the last man
you would blame would be yourself.
Listen, your worst enemy is your
wife's husband
There are some who say they are
Christians and don't go to church, and
don't think they have to join the
church in order to get to heaven.
You have as much chance of getting
10 Europe by swimming the Atlantic
ocean as you have of getting to
heaven without joining the church.
Some say environment il what
keeps them from being Christians. /
can put a pig in a parlor, and 1 know
which will change first, and it won't
be the pig. 1 have seen girls a 8 pure
as snow working for the Salvation
Army in the filthy slums of cities.
Environment Not to Blame.
And they don't change. any
either. I am a man. and am
stronger than my environment. It's
not your environment. it's yourself.
! could take the biggest hobo in the
District tonight and put him in the
White House and the country would
20 to hell in three days.
Some people say they don't want
to join the church because there are
hypocrites in the church. Yes, and
there are hypocrites In your bust
mesa and in your lodges. and yet you
Join lodges and don't stay away
from your business. When man
says to me he is afraid to come into
the church because there are hypo-
critics there, I always tell him there's
room for one more.
Don't stop because OF The other
fellow God is going TO ask YOU
about yourself. You haze yourself
to save before you begin reforming
other men.
Some people say they want the
perfect church. ] have been around
the world three times, and know
there Is no such thing as a perfect
church, and II there was. you couldn't
get in Other men want readjust-
ments to the church, to suit modern
times. I tell you, the church can't
be readJusted to suit modern times.
What you need is a little more Of
your mothers sight in this matter.
should Blame Yourself
You blame your faults on the
devil. He gets blamed for every
thing. It's yourself you ought TO
blame. When temptation knocks at
your door, that's not sin, but when
you get up and let temptation in
through the door. that is sim"
Here the young evangelist seemed
20 lose himself in his own emotion.
He hurled his words at the audience
and shook his fist and stamped his
feet as he he made statements which
made people sit up and gasp.
You libel God when you say you
can't quit what you are doing, I
won't stand here and hear God libel
ed It's because you don't want to
quit. When you keep on living in
darkness its because you want to-
. live there"
Attack on Gard Playing.
Here the speaker began his attack
on card playing.
"I have as many friends as anybody
IN the District" he said. land ! have
been invited into a number of homes.
Why hasn't some one offered me
pack of cards, and asked me to play
a little game with him after dinner?
] can play a good game of ctibbage.
! am not so good at bridge, but l can
play.
why don't they ask me to join
them? Because they know that they
would insult me.
Card playing and Christianity
don't go together. Women will sit
up all evening and play themselves
stupid for little dinky pitcher. They
say there's no harm in it. No? There's
no harm in Mrs. Smiths playing a
a game of cards with me. Both OF us
can play. We can play from now till
Kingdom come. and il won't do us any
harm. But what about the other fel-
low?
VIII Learn Outside Home.
Some people say that their sons
will learn to play outside the home.
why not teach him to play at home