Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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2 ME BUTHBRAN VISITOR Janvnry 30, 1902 CHURCHLESS CHRI9TIAHS BY REV. W. SEL.NER Christians may be located in a nascent community, yet destitute of consecrated houses of public worship. While such Christians are^not permitted to worship in churchly and attractive edifices, they, under the circumstancs, may render very acceptable worship in dwelling bouses, in barns, in the open field or in the forest for the time being. A little expansion on the part of such a Christian com- munity brings houses of worship sooner or later. Church Extension Boards are doing a most magnifi cent and far reaching work in the way of helping such people to churches. There insy beorgamzi- tion in the absence of church build ings. In tact organization must necessarily prectde church erection. Bnt no organization of Uod’s peo ple, however pioos and devoted to the work can expect to accomplish mnch in the way of extending (he kingdom without a const orated house of worship. The services don’t seem to have the same power and depth when conducted in a school room. There seems to be an inspiration in the pulpit, in the altar and in the pew us nowhere else found The preacher needs all the£ inspiration he ; can get in order to achieve the highest possible success A consecrated, churchly room with all the requis ite appliances affords the preacher no small amount of necessary in spiration. A churchly house of worship, the Common Service well rendered and.a throughly well pre prepared sermon are the best cores to use against irreverence. Let the hard working home mission ary once occupy a consecrated pul pit and he feels like a new man. It gives him nerve and energy, something needed by all. Let the peopleonceget ontof a dingy school room or out of an inappropiate, out of the way hall into a church of their own, and they feel vastly dififerent. A Christian located in a church less community need not necessar ily sever hia connection from the church, the body of Christ. He can retain his membership in the Church In the community from whence he came, worship and serve God best as he can. This class of people though deprived of churchly places of worship still belong to the body of Christ. They are often typical disciples.' FROM ME PULPIT. Myself apart, I am convinced that the ministers are a superior order of men. I think that it must be conceded by all who reflect that they maintain a high order of in telligence and goodness. I wonder what they would become if they were preached to as they preach to others a hundred times in a year. Something uncommonly good, one would say. I knew a minister who was accustomed to preach his ser mons to himself befare he took them to the pulpit to preach them to the people of his charge; and I can believe that be made the application to himself thorough, for he was a most excellent preacher and a remarkably good man. 1 am led to these reflections by the fi,ct thatj yesterday was not a good day with me. In particular the sermon in the morning did not seem to take hold, and I had'not liberty, as the Methodist brethren would say. E quire B. sat side- wise, with his face apparently fixed in thought upon tho case that was to come op in court next day ; the members of £tbe choir wriggled about restlessly, and Sister C. took a journey to the land of Nod, trav eling, I presume, on a Sunday ex cursion ticket. But she returned in time to receive the benediction, and may the peace of God .abide forever>0 her sweet spirit I I bad not been consciously neglectful in preparation for the Sunday services, but if he had had the chance per haps some faithful preacher might have shown where a subtle world liness had led me astray, or some dart from Satan had not been caught by the shield when I was in jeopardy. Clearly enough we have these treasures in earthly vessels. Having these thoughts in mind, I took from the shelf-again Christ- lieb’s incomparable book on “Hom iletics,” that I might receive anew some thought from the great preacher at Bonn. With Christ- lieb, as all should know, the deep est. principle in homiletics is that of witnessing. To preach well is to testify. "The fundamental re quisite for the preacher,” he says, “is the personal knowledge and experience of salvation or faith in bis own hea?t and the anointing of the Holy Spirit.” The homily is the heart’s life put into some lit form of words, this is the thought of Christlieb.; and he laments the fact that “innumerable young hom ilists in Germany think that they can equip themselves for the preach er’s calling with a certain measure ment of acquirement and facility without being inwardly qualified for it.” And he quotes Stier when be says, “But now very many who could not, out of their own heart of hearts, before the eye of the Lord, who is to be feared, speak three words to a congrega tion in his name, cover this defect with their artificial product, as the theologian covers his unbelief with his orthodoxy.” Stier calls the human made rhetoric the “strange woman” who flattereth with her lips, bnt inevitably leads astray. “An unconverted preacher is a combination of most unnatural ele ments,” says our author again, which reminds me of remarks of a pious woman who said that her pastor would be a very good preach er if he were only converted. Alas, are we sure of ourselves t It is related of Origen that being once asked by the pastor at Jeru salem to preach, he opened the Bible at Psalms 50, 16, 17, where it reads, “Buttintothe wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to de clare my statutes, or ^bat thou shouldst take my covenant in thy mouth, seeing that thou hatest in struction and casteth my words be hind theeT” Then he sat down and burst into tears, and the whole assembly wept with him. This and nothing more was the sermon, and a most effective one it was. How few of ns today weep before the searching words of this wonderful Psalm! Do we surely realize the perilous need of men for the mes- saget and are we confident that we have the prime qualifications for the delivery of it; namely, a soul possessing and possessed by ilf The sermon, in a most important sense, is the preacher. The trite words of Emerson, “What yon are thunders so 1 cannot hear what you say,” has significance for everybody, but the preacher in par ticular. Being conquered by Christ we conquer others. And a merely intellectual receptibn of the truth is not a snfficient equipment for the preacher. '-‘It is involved in the nature of these spiritual truths that one only luarns to understand them thoroughly by yielding him self to them, following them, and. thus experiencing them in their saving power,” Were Esquire/B. and Sister C. blameworthy! And were the young men and young women right in their wriggling! It was a hot day, and the air was dull. But after all there must be a life which can con quer all dullness, a light that is more than the densent darkness, a Spirit’s breath that can purify the foulest air. Nothing can withstand the fire in a renewed soul, and I sorrowfully take the blame wholly to myself.—Huntington, in The Advance. The Rev. William Dallman on Temper ance. The Rev. William Dallmen, a Missouri pastor in New York City, and one of the leoding clergyman in the English Synod of Missouri, in a tract on Temperance writes as follows: “Although the Bible does not by precept or principle forbid the nse of stimulants, yet some states, conn- tfes, towns or cities forbid the trade of distilled liquors. Whatever Christians may think of the advan tage of such laws, asChristiansand citizens they are bound to respect and obey those laws. Let every soul be fubject unto the higher power. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are or dained of God. . . . “As a Christ ian, a man must try to hiner drunk enness wherever he can, because it ii a sin. But a Christian is also a citizen of the state. And this is a ‘goverment of the people, by the people, and for the people,’ as Lin coln has well said at Gettysburg. We are the people; the govermeut is 'our s^ivant. “Drunkenness is also a great danger to social 'well being. As citizens seeking the welfare of the State, our conscience must compel us to do all in onr power to hinder drunkenness. God’s Word dees not prescribe to you in what man ner you are to do that. Political experience must teach you the best measure for that purpose, wheth er it be prohibition as a police re gulation, or local option, or high license, or the Gothenburg system, or the South Carolina dispensary law, or whatever statesmen may devise.” Do not draw aline of separation between the house of God and the house of business. The counting- house and the shop may be as much the house of God as the holiest shrine where generations knelt in prayer.—F. B. Meyer. Holy souls love retirement; it will do us good to be often left alone; and if we have the art of improving*solitnde we shafl find that we are never Jess alone than when alone.—Mathew Henry.