THE GO-TO-CHURCH CAMPAIGN

Evening Star, Issue 19274, 12 June 1926, Page 19

THE GO-TO-CHURCH CAMPAIGN

(Contributed.) " I see, Jack, that the churches are urging everybody to attend church this month. Do you ever go?” “I used to,, Bill, when I was,a kid. Father took the whole family as a matter of course. But when I grow up I drifted away from the church and now seldom go.” , “Don’t you think you loSo a lot through your neglect? I’m mighty glad I’ve kept up the practice. I’m no better than I ought to be, and don’t want to brag about myself; but I feel that I owe more to the church than I can tell. I find that a day of rest fits me for the week’s work, and that the church meets the deepest needs of any nature.” “ Well, I’m pleased to hear you speak well of tho church, and do not blame yon for keeping up a certain custom which you find helpful. I honor your sincerity. But lots of folk who go to church are such hypocrites; they don’t live up to their profession; their creed may ho all right, hut their conduct in business and their general character are not better than those of many who never darkened a church door.” “Yes, that may bo, but you don’t refuse a sovereign because some coins are counterfeit; you don’t decline a doctor’s services because some doctors are quacks and charlatans; you don’t avoid all lawyers because some, are fraudulent. Isn’t it true that tho best men and women you have known have been lovers of God and His church? Are nobler and purer lives seen anywhere than among those who bear tho Christian name and profess themselves followers of the lowly Nazarene? He came to make had men good and good men better, and He has been carrying on that great ministry all the centuries through. He has had tough material to work with, but His success is beyond dispute.”

“ Another thing that _ keeps one from church is the suspicion I have that ministers are a mercenary lot and preach for pay.” “ Well, all I can say is that they make mighty little out of it. Compared with tho incomes of other professional men, their stipends ore pitifully poor. Tho brains required to make a good minister, if employed in business or politics or tho learned professions, would yield a much ampler return. Some may enter the ministry for the social status it gives them; but in most cases the pastoral office demands self-sacrifice which none but true men would make. There are perplexities and difficulties, too, in the position they hold which only the utmost sincerity could enable them to boar. If you knew more of the inner life of the men who preach you would feel proud of them, and .honor them for their self-denial. Their service to society is beyond all praise; at least, so 1 think.” “ But is not the church nu antiquated institution in these days of scientific progress and of widely-diffused education?”

“That notion plainly influences hosts of men. They reckon that religion is but superstition which wise men have outgrown, and that churches have become effete and unnecessary. If man were all intellect and the bare facts of science could satisfy his nature, he might do without God and the truths for which the churches stand. But man has a heart as well as a head, a conscience as well as an intellect, a soul that aspires as well as the bodily appetites which earth can meet. Men of every race and all ages have striven to peer behind the visible and to ascertain what lies beyond the present. It has been well said that man is an incurably religious animal. No attainment of science can quell man’s fears or gratify his hopes. His higher nature will ever crave the comforts and the assurances which make the Ghristian Gospel the supreme treasure of the world.”

“ Yon plencl your case uncommonly well; but, anyhow, I prefer to spend my Sundays out of doors min’d the beauties of Nature, and cannot see anything to be gained by attending a church where the atmosphere is often stuffy, the people commonplace, and the preacher prosy.” “Well, Nature, in her endless loveliness, is certainly very alluring, and ho has a. dull soul who is not fascinated by her beauty and awed by her sublimity, lint why should love of natural scenery rob you of the benefit of public worship? The God who has robed the earth in beauteous garments and brightened it with His smile surely merits the united praise of His creatures. They cannot better express their joy in His handiwork than by unitedly singing His praises and owning their indebtedness to Him for the benefits innumerable which He bestows upon them continually. Your delight in the beauties of Nature would be increased by quiet hours of worship spent in the churches reared in His honor. I think I lovo Nature all the more because I go to church, and feci sure you would, do so, too.” “ In my heart of hearts, Bill, I believe you are right after all. I’ve tried to excuse my neglect of the church, but I remember how much my people owed to it, and can’t-, deny that the whitest men 1 have known have loved its services. It’s hard to pick up a lost habit, and I’ll feel mighty strange in going to church after staying away so long. Bill, I’ll make an effort, and maybe I’ll learn in time to love the church as much as you do. Call for mo next Sunday, will you?”

“Gladly. I’ve wanted to get you along with me for many a month. My minister will be delighted to see you. The choir will sing all the better because you are there. Everybody will make you feel at home. The church is the home of brotherhood and kindly sympathy and unselfish service, and the more yon know of it .the better you will like it. Don’t como critically, but with an open and a candid mind, and you’ll get good that will make you a better man and give your life a nobler meaning. I’m glad we’ve had this frank talk, and feel sure you’ll never regret that you decided to go to church this month.”