The northwestern bulletin., 1923-07-21
Timely Topics
BY George w. H0ibert

Not very long ago l attended serv-
ices at little church where a GER
tain popular minister of the Twin
Cities was to preach a special sermon.
attended because this particular
minister is an eloquent and logical
speaker and is always interesting.
His text was taken from one of Da-
vid's Psalms and was entitled "Give
Praise Unto the Lord" He preached
his usual good sermon and when he
had finished, everybody was happy.
Then a hymn was given out and aft
er the finish OF the first verse this
minister advanced to the front Of the
pulpit and said, II want the Chris
tians, only those who have been born
again, those who have the spirit of
God in their hearts, to sing, the rest
of you keep your mouths shut"
Those were his exact words and de-
livered in a belligerent tone. They
came to me like a blow in the face. I
wondered had I heard Alright! Could
be in church? Was this minister
of the gospel, telling people not to
sing Gods songs unless they were
Christians? Has 1t come to a point
where one must have ones name on
some church book or be a professed
Christian before one can give praise
to God for his love and mercy. And he
had Just finished a splendid sermon,
the subject of which was, Give
Praise unto the Lord" wonder was
1t just a careless remark or did 1t re-
just a careless remark or did 1t re-
fleet the mans real conception of
what Is right. And there are great
many people who attended churches
but do not belong to any, still they
believe in God and the Christian re-
ligion, they are mindful of their many
blessings and are grateful to their
Creator for the happiness. health and
prosperity they enjoy and in their
own way they give thanks to God for
his goodness to them. know many
people who are not professed Chris
tians who would not think of retiring
without first offering their thanks to
God for his tender mercies to them.
Can you imagine man, who's duty 1t
Is to expound the religion of Jesus
Christ, commanding a congregation
not to do what he had just finished
preaching from. The sun shines on
the just and unjust, the physical and
material blessings of this world are
meted out to the human beings who
inhabit it, regardless Of whether they
are Christians or not. It's pretty
good thing for most Of us that Gods
munificence is not on the narrow scale
of this particular minister's. When
church rallies come around and con-
ference dollars are being collected.
can you imagine this same man tell
ing these same people to keep their
money in their pocket! And still
they wonder why they preach to half
filled churches.
Here's another interesting church
incident. About two weeks ago a
minister resigned because, he said,
his congregation was too "old-fash-
ioned." His deacons prepared their
prayers too long. The sisters insist
ed on shouting when they got happy
and everybody wanted to sing hymns
of slavery days and so this modern
up-to-date minister resigned and got
out and you wouldn't guess in hun.
dred years where this church was 10.
Gated. Well I will tell you, 1t was q
little Baptist church in Chicago.
Let's give some credit to any Negro
congregation that has the mora
courage to stand up and say, we viii
pray the prayers our fathers sang ant
serve God with our hearts and soul!
and give praise unto the Lord will
shoutings and EXPLANATIONS of JOY
The mystifying part Of the who'll
thing to me Is how could so cold /;
man have aroused enough enthusi
asm to cause any one to shout!
little OF that ''old-time religion in
jected into some Of the Twin Cite
churches wouldn't hurt bit. I an
fairly familiar with the history Of tn
Civil War, that finally resulted in tn
freedom Of my race. am quite will
. ing to give Grant and Sherman an
Sheridan full credit for their militar
genius that finally crowned them cor
querors. But somehow I have alway
felt that the prayers of my ancestors
; offered up In the still darkness Of tn
night, in order to evade the listenin
ears Of cruel masters and inhuma
. overseers, offered with blind fait
that their God would eventually hea
. them. beating necessarily for hun
dreds Of years at the throne of grace
never faltering, never wavering, ney
er losing faith, that finally move
God to answer these faithful peopl
land Lincoln and his armies and GER