The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-07-10
W HAT YO J M ISS AWAY FROM CHURCH
 MACSPORRAN TOPIC
Pastor First Presbyterian Church Delivers Last Ser mon Before Leaving on
 Annual Vacation


 In his final sermon before leaving for his vacation at Magnolia Beach. Dr. MacSporran preached at the First Presbyterian church yesterday morn ing on What You Miss When You
 Miss Church" His text was, "But Thomas. one of the twelve. was not there when Jesus came.s
 In part, Dr. MacSporran said: T have never found anyone who thought that the chief things in his private history were the things he had suf- fered and achieved. It is what he es- capped. what he just missed that in- terest us. Let him tell you how word spoken or unspoken changed his whole destiny, and what he barely missed grips us. Life never becomes dull to those who see the element of danger in 1t, because of the things we miss.
 What pilgrimage it is. across the yearsl Youth offers us every thing. Our chief fear is that we may
 miss some great adventure of the road Then we find that we must necessarily miss much. We have to choose always, and wonder if we re- jected the wrong thing. The pathetic part is that so many never grow out of that immature state. They are forever sampling and trying until in their efforts to miss nothing they miss everything that is worth while. They just miss by so litttle-yet by so much-peace and happiness and usefulness. They just miss a really
 noble character and influence and power by falling short ever so little. What little difference there is be- tween a really great man and mediocre onei The great man has just little bit more, but that little puts him in a class all by himself.
 "Is there anything more distressing than seeing what the other fellow is missing? Yet we don't see what we ourselves are missing.-Two ulti- mate emotions fill us. First there Is gratitude and wonder over our hair breadth escapes from death, disgrace and failure. We remember how we hung in the balance physically, mor-' ally and spiritually. How little mar gin there is!
 "A second emotion irritates and an- gers us. Our great chances and op- portunities for which we were not quite ready. But there is only one sensible, attitude to take in this mat ter, that there are compensations for nearly everything. Poverty may close to us the doors of travel, luxuries and the like, yet we still nave the way to the heart of all things while left wide open to us. And the door to our Fathers house is there, too So often the man with the heaviest handicaps comes out on top
 "Some things we miss and can ar ford to miss. Other things there are the loss of which is fatal and tragic. We must learn these last. We dare not miss them. To do so Is total ioss and ruin. Here is my big point: Is the habit of regular church attend ance one of these vital essential things? Do we ever miss anything very much when we miss church! General opinion is In the negative. Only a small percentage of the peo- ole attend regularly. Others do not feel that they are missing anything at ail./ And yet their instinct Is to miss no valuable thing # they can nelr it. But they miss the he use Of God deliberately and don't feel they miss thing. Even some church goers are the same way. Ifitilns eN- cuses stop them. Scolding or ccaxlng would only make matters worse. ihe enly thing to do is to show them I .I2ut Thomas, one of che twelve, was not there when Jesus came And Thomas missed resurrection rcveia- ton. That Is what men miss waen fhev miss church. Those who stay away still miss Christ. They miss the rebuke of His presence. For ir helms to keep us humble to be in HIS house, 1t keeps us from ]ustIytns (. .urseIves so that we are Is good $ others are They miss the engage ment of His love and His correctlon of their low views and false stand ards. the power and discipline anu constraints of the cross--- Even the IT, regular attendants may miss lne great flash of insight that will come without warning. No one knows III advance when that will be. The-only safe thing is to be there ready.
 ssThen there is an injury to the church in your absence. It kills the enthusiasm of others. It breaks down the organizations and lowers lne standards of your ministers Ana, e.o.11xy if wounds the LOrQ almstil-