The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-09-26
ACCOUNT OF
 SUINDA Y SERMONS
MEMS ATTITUDE TO
 RELIGION-DR DILLARD

NEWS ATTITUDE TO
 RELIGION-DR. DILLARD Why More Men Are Not Chris tians," was the theme of the sermon preached by Dr. j.. A. billiard, pas tor of the southside Baptist church, yesterday morning at the Il o'clock service. Dr. billiard said in part: T am frequently asked by people who assume to know, Why aren't more men Christians?' My first an- swer is, They are There are a great many more men Christians than most reople think. I have just closed a meeting in Birmingham and my wife remarked to me that she was sur prised to find nearly twice as many men as women in attendance.
 Since l have been in Birmingham I have received about as many men into the membership of our church as women. While the war was going on it was my privilege to visit many of the training camps and to talk with hundreds of men. I was re- ceived courteously by all of them and came to the conviction that the av- craze man is just about as religious Gs the average woman But he is different
 Men are more timid and secretive in nature than women. You notice this even in boys and girls. Girls in their early teens, take pride in appearing upon platforms, in con- tests and anywhere they will be seen, but boys of this age would rather take thrashing. I belong to number of secret societies. l have found scores of men express their religious convictions behind the lodge doors. whose teeth you couldn't pry open with a coal chisel iE a church. My judgment is that more men than women are secret Christians.
 Men are more practical and less emotional in the expression of their religious convictions than women. If they are given the opportunity they are glad to make a sacrifice for the other fellow, but they don't want to say anything in public about 1t. A W oman enjoys crying in public, but q man feels disgraced if he sheds tear or blows his nose in church. | Many men are not professedly 1 Christians because they have a mis-, l understanding of what Christianity | is. Some of them have confused real religion with the signing of creeds or the saying of prayers or church attendance or some highly emotional experience instead of the acceptance | of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and the attempt to conform ones life to His example and teaching. Jesus expressed the real heart of religion when He said, Thou shafr love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind and strength and thy neighbor as thyself,' The prophet of old expressed it this way, | He hath showed thee, o man. what is right, and what doth the Lord re- quire of thee but to do justly, love | mercy and walk humbly with thy God The Apostle James expressed 1t this way, Pure religion and unde- filed before God and the Father Is this, to visit the fatherless and the widow in their affliction and to keep
 himself unspotted from the worlu.
 These three views agree in giving the essence of religion.
 Tt seems to me that any man who really understands what Christianity
 means, what it proposes to do for l him and what it will enable him to | do for others--any man who under | stands this ought to be Christian, but alas
 "The fact remains that there are
 some men whose lives are nor right, they are not willing to pay the price, there is some secret sin they are not
 willing to give up, and so they miss
 the chief joy of life and the hope of heaven while trying to satisfy
 their immortal souls upon the husks that the swine do eat Any man can be a Christian that wants to, and is willing to pay the price. And no
 man ever yet regretted it.
 l
 .FOES WITHIN" SUBJECT
 OF SERMON-DR. MACSPORRAN
 And a mans foes shall be they of his own household was Dr. J. A. MacSporran's theme Sunday morning
 before the congregation of the First Presbyterian church.
 Touching on the phrase. "the war to end war" which was used during the recent great conflict to catch and hold the popular attention. he spoke of that as being the purpose of the Christian church. stating there car be no peace until that is really
 done.
 Tn doing this" said pr. MacSpor- \ ran. i've must know who our enemle \ are. It is not always so clear case
 as in the World war, where we saw in the German nation q spirit tha'
 must be crushed or lie would be-
 come intolerable for us,all Yet now
 we fail to see how much of tha' 1 same spirit of darkness is in our selves. We must be more on guard lest that which looks black in oul oponentss becomes white If seen II
 our own ranks.
 Here pr. MacSporran drove hom' again the thought that mans or ar organizations real enemies are al
 ways within. Pleading for thorougr lrecognition of that fact, he dweit or
 the case of the manufacturers or