Rockingham post-dispatch. [volume] (Rockingham, N.C.) 1917-1965, 1922-07-27
THE HOUR is COME. :
MeLsndon Sermon Continued From

never Dteil dDle 10 HdIluic the Sltud
ton. When arrived | found that
it wasn't a preacher they wanted; il
was an undertaken they needed. Oh
all the cold storage, frosty, frigidity
polar bear, embalming fluid, black
hearse, graveyard propositions
have ever seen, or ever expect to
see, | found it there. My first ser,
vice was a funeral sermon, and
told some beautiful little pathetic
stories, and we all put on the sob
stuff, and shed copious crocodile
tears, and the next morning they
ran down the road to the presiding
elder telling him that they had at
last found the preacher that they
had been looking for Remember,
there was not a single solitary hui
man being in that church that pro-
fessed religion and no one ever
thought of accusing them of having
it. All that week | was loading my
gun and preparing for the coming
conflict, and on Sunday | turned
loose on that bunch and they began
TO duck and the feathers began to
fly. The way one old bell wether
that believed strictly in the minority
rule, and the preacher had to walk
like he said walk, and talk like he
said talk, and come, when he said
come, and go when he said go. They
called him Cousin Samuel and he
sure was car, king and dictator in
that community. When opened
up in high gear-I can see Cousin
Samuel now. He wiggled and twist
ed and squirmed like he had hor.
net in his clothes. His discontinue
and distress was so perceptible that
it was heart-rendering. Up to that
time Cousin Sammie would pout for
a week If he didn't raise all the
hymns and of course he persistently
insisted that would be the order
without deviation and his old voice
was cross between a cane mill,
goose cackling, fiddle playing and a
jackass braying. AS result of my
labors | split that little church just
as wide open as song book, and
corralled lot of unchurch people
and really got them converted"
Here Mack told about another
leading light in another one of his
churches who said she always went
TO church to be entertained and that
his preaching on hell and repent
ance got on her nerves in such a
way that her meals remained UNI
tasted and that her sleep left her.
She was very wealthy and called the
board of stewards together and mott
fed them that it was always great
pleasure for her TO give of her means
to support Dr. Drydust, and also the
Rev. Soft Pedal, but that she didn't
see her way clear to loosen up for
their present pastor They replied
that they saw things in the same
light that she did but that was on
their hands and would be until the
net conference, when the bishop
probably would be mercifui and re-
lieve them of a very embarrassing
situation. For six months only two
members of thatchurch spoke to me.
One Sunday morning while the
birds were singing and the grass
WAS growing and the flowers were
blooming and all nature was smiling,
| was preaching great Christ, that
could save men from sin, and that
Il was the pancea for every ailment
and a wave of emotion broke over
that church and | can see that dear
old sister now sitting hack there on
the rear roost, with her old hard,
Ieathery countenance turned on me.
and she slowly arose and down the
aisle she came. She was so large
she almost had to move in section:
she fell like sack Of sand at the!
altar, and the information that she
gave the Lord would fill book.
She told Him that all her life that
she had been looking on the church
as an end instead of the means to
an end, and that she had substituted
literally and good works for the new
birth, and that she had never been
born again. She stayed on her
prayer bones until she prayed her
hat OFF and her hair down, and rats
out. The dust, powder and paint
and her tears cut from the CARPET
arose and mixed with grooves
through the combination. 1t wasn't (
long before that old sister plowed a
hole through the sky and got in
connection with the Grand Central
and God planted the kiss of pardon
on her face and the sunshine If
heaven broke into her soul. From
that day until Father sent the old
family carriage after her and took
her home, she lived holy life
Just before she got off to heaven She
them to write to the preacher that
had been true to her soul am, ask
him to come and stand by her omen
grave while the dirt fell with its
dull remorseless thud. That woman
was like thousands of people up and
down this country. She was looking
On the church as kind of mutual
Soc;a4,, ~, !. .....,i No !,