Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-08-05

WENT down to the village church
4 this week for the first time this
summer. It Is not always easy to go
% the village church. because II IL
where city preachers show off to summer
boarders.
Not that they mean to show off. hut
most Of them fall unconsciously into the
temptation Of preaching "a bow WOW,
Quack -quark' sermon for an occasion
rather than for plain folks sitting in
pews.
On my walk through the meadows
to the village | heard the church bell
and I realized would he late anyway.
20 did not hurry. | met man com
Ing up the path in the opposite dtrec-
tton, man who was ordinarily on
other summers a sort of front pew
standby. He always went. and he al
ways hurried the singing faster with
his head when it dragged. As we
passed today, both of us so far from
church and one of US going in the "p.
pOsite direction. he said apolOgctically
You are good. see"
NO. not good. just going to church,
said I.
well, he called back over his
shoulder. 'at least that is being better
than I am Listening to a sermon is
q religious act"
Il don look at II that way
shouted, for bv now We were far apart
A Nd, of course, neither did For,
Athough | do not belong to what IA
clever English dean spoke of the other
day as 'the blue domcrs." those who
prefer to worship God under the blue
sky with some instrument Of sport In
stead of a prayer book. still ! never
could hnd any command or even saying
of Christ that would entail going To-
church on Sunday to listen to a sermon
rs the important duty of a Christian,
or one that he should apologize for for
not performing.
One gets as we'll as gives much by
an act of worship. but listening 10 most
sermons il not an act of worship.
That is about as far ns | had got
in my desuitOry and not original rs-
Elections WI m | came almost abreast of
the village church. \ few chnuf"urs
were lolllng about, their cars parked
while the owners were attending the
service. The village legal lght--the
Justice of the peace--and two lesser
politicians of the countryside were ex-
changing views and also gesticuIations
on the doorstep of the genera store.
The village visiting nurse was coming
out of the intrmary. and | crossed over
TO ask her who was i'll. No one was i'll,
or rather a mother and new baby
were doing nicely The nurse wave,
her hand in good-by 10 another patient
whom she had Just finished looking after
for the morning. | looked in the di-
rection Of her wave, and saw sick
woman out on her porch in wheel
chair. 1t was the minister's wife, who
IS i'll of conSuE ption. With the sound
Of the last hymn before the sermon
- \ i 81.
street to the parsonage and sat down
to visit with the ministers : wife.
0VOU will be missing a very good
L sermon said she. And she
mentioned n large New Yori; church
where the preacher holds forth during
the winter season. Sermons were not
the important part Of going TO church.
explained. Whereupon she sighed,
and said patiently that so her husband
had found.
went on. And they trust my hus-
band and seem willing to have us stay
on. but they do not come out to church
And he breaches and prays TO empty
pews most all the time after the SIM
mer folks go.
"Rut he and you and your family and
all that you live for are things that do
not fall unheeded. He does not preach
BY his life to an empty village
urged.
She asscnted rather YEARLY. ITS
the thing that is expected of him.
preaching, though she said. "And
failing at that, gives him nothing to
tell his success by. that and the boys
and girls coming to him to marry them
And just lately there has been kind
Of fashion for going to the Justice of
the peace 70 get married. by young
couples. SO thar sort Of set him to
thinking. may be-" she paused plain-
lively and did not finish.
could hear the preacher'S voice
through the open windows Of the church
booming out.
"They say he draws crowds :" She
said, listening, TOO.
WHEN | reached the church. sure
w enough il was full. and as the
ushers had subsidized into seats and were