The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1922-04-27


people that can walk but don't
know Jesus Christ, and I'd rather
lie here, knowing Jesus Christ,
than to be able to walk and not
know him."
What lesson!
challenge coming to the churches to-
day and the actual situation is that we
are morally and spiritually ineffic-
lent" He said, You can't read a
church paper or a magazine without
having the challenge hurled against us
that the church is morally and spiritu-
ally inefficient" Well, he is right.
Bishop Anderson in Chicago said,
1--WE can point to many brilliant VIC
tories, and all that we must recognize
is that we are inefficient"
The best thing we can do when we
are sick is to get proper diagnosis
and then we are on a fair way to re-
covery and it won't do to stick your
head in the sand like an ostrich and
pretend that everything is going on
fine when it is not.
Too Many
Are inefficient.
Our men and our women are ineffic.
lent. Our elders, deacons and stew
ards and vestrymen. they are all inef-
ficient. Sunday school teachers are
inefficient. A lot Of them don't know
beans about the lesson they teach.
They are inefficient Young peoples
societies are inefficient Missionary
evangelists are inefficient You are
inefficient. I am inefficient.
I The sooner we find It out, the bet
ter 1t will be for God and for the
world. For every two nominal Chris
tians there are three that are not even
nominal and out of every two Chris.
tians one is a liability. 1t is a fact!
Now, nine out of twelve in the United
States are not members of any church
and out of five, who are members
two of them are not any help to the
church, absolutely no earthly good!
1t means the responsibility falls up
on every two church members to wir
eight others, in order to win the un
converted church members to Jesus
Christ. That is what 1t means, If YOU
want to know why l am preaching as
am. You just face a few facts il
you've got any criticism, you will
turn it on yourself instead of harp
| ing about it to me. / am only telling
you the truth. God pity your hide,
am not responsible for the facts, I an
only telling you what they are, so thai
you will rectify them.
/ Now, the missionary and othel
work of the church, brilliant as 1t ha!
been is not what it should be- 1
men and women only took religion
more seriously than they do, we'd bt
doing a thousand fold more than W.
are and the war that was waged-i
brought the challenge that Christian
ity is a failure.
Oh! that isn't true. It isn't thu
failure of Christianity, it is the failur,
Of civilization that is not Christian
Oh if civilization was Christian
there'd be no war. hate war, but
say it is not the failure of Christianity
it is the failure of civilization that i
not Christian. That is where the fail
ure comes.
Christians Themselves
Are Failures.
Just the same as the failure O
many a person in the church to liv
up to their vows, that is not the fail
ure of Christianity at all, but it is tn
failure of those in the church that ar
not Christians If he is a hypocrite
that isn't a failure of the church, i
it?
/ So when President Elliot and a 10
! of others talk about the World war be
ing failure of Christianity, is poppy
cock. 1t is a failure of civilization
that is not Christian. Now the fai
ure of civilization that is not Chris
tian just throws the question back
little farther, it doesn't answer it.
They ask, what has the churc
been doing then, for two thousan
years that it hasn't brought abou
more corporate Christianity"
"You can't blame Christianit
: again. God Almighty created freedor
of the human intellect and freedoI
carries with it the privilege of the Ii;
: bility to sin if you want to. Go
couldn't make anybody free ager
without giving them the right to
right or wrong just as he pleased
That is where the angels rebellet
That is why they are devils. Ever
devil was once an angel. He had
, free will and he rebelled.
The fever with which we exert
sort of repressive influence over tn
2 social influences of today the Ion
l tolerance that we have given to chill
I labor and other evils, not only thing
/ that went on that ought not to hav
e existed at all, that we allowed to e.
e list that shouldn't have existed; thos
laws ought to have been on the1
= long, long ago; and then by allowin
e the Bible to be driven out of the pu
e lie schools without a fight.
e Bible Should BE
In Schools.
t / tell you right now this is Chri
!. tian nation and you can't kick tt
:. Bible out of the schools without
5 fight from me, and if you don't lii
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