Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-09-18
SERVICE GIVEN
DECIDES VALUE
OF CHURCH,S SAID
McMasters Says Must Measure
I'm to Test Put to Any
Other Institution.


Are the churches worth while?'
was the question asked by the Rev.
D. McMasters of the First Baptist
church. in his Sunday morning ser
mon, which was an answer to the
Interrogation. Man needs God, he de-
clared. saying that the church that
brings to us the God of beautiful
righteousness is infinitely worth
while. The sermon follows in part:
Are the churches worth while?
Seek first the kingdom of God
and his righteousness.
Are the churches worth while
Some are. Churches cost a lot of
money and time, and are necessities
or parasites. Every church should
look over it's budget of money and
time and seriously ask itself fl it is
worth what it costs. The church
is not so unlike every other insti-
tuition on earth that it can escape
the ordinary tests of value. In fact
it must apply these very tests to
itself and be brave enough and hon
est enough to seek a fair answer.
If it discovers that it is not worth
while. it should end it's parasitic
existence.
Spiritual values test the worth
Wilderness Of a church. 1t is the only
organization Of earth commissioned to
care for the spiritual interests of men.
Others will care for the political,
commercial, social and educational in
terests of men but no one but the
church will care for the soul. The
care of the soul is the church's mono
poly and the church. is the only or
ganization on earth that has a monOp-
oily and often despises it. The church
that neglects its monopoly is not worth
while.
Spiritual Values Paramount
The necessary church has the finest
job on earth. Spiritual values are
paramount. No questions are so great
sin and righteousness. selfishness and
love, death and life. No matter how
men may seem to ignore these things
the time ONE in every life when they
are seen to be the greatest of all. But
the majority of US live the sheerest
animal lives. We eat and drink. frolic
and die. That we happen to walk on
two feet and our menu includes more
than hay, Ii pleasures something
more than the frolics of the steer in
the pasture. does not make our lives
less animal. Our superior mentality
may take us into fields far beyond the
cattle of the pasture but when we use
all the achievements of our God given
powers for animal pleasures we debase
ourselves. Dehorning the bull and arm
ing the man does not indicate any God
likeness of the man. Long ago we were
taught that man is an animal and
we are very much discouraged to see
such hosts of men and women justi-
fying in every sense the description.
They are trained animals but nothing
better. Jesus saw this and it broke his
heart. The great names of history were
the names of great predatory beasts.
Even his own people who had gone to
school to God for so many hundreds of
years had little. if any. thought beyond
the brute beast.
Greatest Truths DECEASED
Gods greatest truths were debased
by the animal Interpretation of men.
When Jesus tried to lift the ppople
above this animalism and make spirit
ual truth the inspiration of life. they
rushed upon Him like mad bulls and
trampled Him into the earth. One
would have thought His glorious res
direction from the dead would have
awakened all people TO the value of
the spiritual, but it did not. There If
not a truth hat Jesus gave US that
We have not embalmed in sheen an
imalism and solemnly placed in some
holy mausoleum, where it is as dead
and useless as an Egyptian mummy
We are afraid of the spiritual, of life
The stone walls of tombs where truth
lies in creeds are our only thought of
safety. For the most part, the saliva
tlon of the church is the last gasp in
materlalism. We have baptismal re-
generation instead of spiritual regen-
Grafton and try to kid ourselves that
the spiritual is not lost in the ma
terlal. AS though we were unlike all
other people. When the ordinance is
placed between the soul and the Christ
the majority will get the ordinance and
miss the Christ. If there were any
doubt of this. the baptized savagery Of
Europe would be convincing.
Man More Than Animal
Ma is more than animal. He can
SIN. He can say NO" to his maker.
Man cannot be mere animal. Me must
be God or devil. The highest or the
lowest is his destiny. He chooses the
lowest. II is useless to mouth imbeciIe
sentimentalisms about mans divinity
He has told his own story and If is
conclusive. If man is divine. | won
der what the devil is. SO long as we
bite and devour n another. we are
cannibals, refined cannibals, perhaps
but cannibals. The world is covered
with human bones picked clean. We
revolt against the islanders long pig"
but will steal the last Poland China
III %neighbor has for his children's
meat, and enjoy our ''stolen pig" We
will give a little dab to charity and
strut around like a peacock with spread
tail shrieking to heaven and hell of our
charity.
A woman spent hundreds of dollars