Year: 1879




But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers
only, deceiving your own selves.-JAMEs I:22.


How many protesting Christians there are
who content themselves with listening to the
word preached from the pulpit without even
the faintest suspicion that the precepts there
enunciated are intended for them-that they
have practical application, and ought to be
followed in their daily life. They see the
application of the doctrines to others, but
rarely indeed to themselves. People nova
days go to church for the purpose of listen
ing to sermons intended for their neighbors,
but seldom for themselves. 1t is quality of
human nature to overlook reproofs with
personal application except there may be
direct personal designation accompanying
them, and hence we fird that even the best
intentioned of men fail to see that they are
spoken of by the preacher of righteousness.
Even so astute man as David failed to see
the reproof of Nathan until that preacher
said to him, "Thou art the man.


This, perhaps, is not the greatest fault of
the church of to-day. A far greater is the
knowledge it's members possess of the will
of him they profess to serve, and their failure
to do it. Nearly every church member
has a theoretical knowledge of his duty as
Christian, but comparatively few act
on that knowledge. In fact, SO far as their
walk and conversation goes, there is no dis
tinction between them and those who profess
less and know less of their duty towards the
deity. They hear and they know the will of
the master. Through Indifference, perhaps,
more than deliberate neglect, they allow
their knowledge to lie dormant, seldom max
ing use of it in the practical affairs of life.
10 this fact may be traced a large degree of
the lethargy of the Christian church. There
are too many that hear the word; too few
that do it.


Let those who are members or attendants
of any of the Christian churches take look
around them and satisfy themselves on this
point. It will be found that the great mass
of the members are Christian drones. They
sit supinsly in their pews on the Sabbath,
and after the service is concluded they go to
their homes conscious of having done their
whole duty. A few, however, very few
take broader view of their bligations, and
perform the real work of the organization
They labor in the Sunday school and prayer
meeting; they are active in collecting funds
for the maintenance of the ordinances of
the church; they often neglect the duties
they owe to their families and themselves in
their anxiety for the welfare of the church.
They sometimes become weary, and COM
plain that the whole burden of church work
is thrown upon their shoulders, while others,
perhaps better able to bear them, do moth
ing.


Bu5 even those who are thus Industrious
the Marthas of the church-are some
times lacking in that religion that
ought to make of the church
power. They exhaust all of their religion
IN the church, and leave none for the outside
world. They are apt to become contracted,
and illiberal in their views, and to manifest
that uncharity towards others which was so
obnoxious to the master when he was on
earth. Their minds run in one groove,
from which it is almost impossible for them
to move it. They do only part of their
duty-perhaps more than they should do for
the church, and certainly less than they
should do for tie world. They are not,
however, as greatly to blame as their breth-
ren who do nothing for either. Men who
enjoy the privileges of the church and do
nothing to build it up-who do not set a
good example to the world or bear any of
the burdens which christianity imposes
cannot be properly denominated true Chris
tlans. They are hindrance to the progress
of the church; for they occupy the places
that might be filed by more earnest doers
of the word.


The church needs moro than anything
else fewer theorists and more workers. We
do not mean to disparage the utility of good
words and instruction. These are necessary
to perfect understanding of the word. But
workers are needed who shall put their
shoulders to the wheel, who shall be Chris
t1ans IN the church and out of it, promoting
the cause by their good example, their good
words and their earnest, consistent lives.
Theorists are plenty, both in the pulpit and
out of it. Less attention to preaching, and
more to practice, would result in wonder
full revival of true religion.