THE K I NG ' S BUS I NESS church. What seven years of preaching had failed to do, five minutes of heart- contact and personal relation accom plished.— Dr. Cortland Myers, in the Civic Forum. How to Fail The following rules for preaching so as to convert nobody were given by Charles G. Finney a half century ago. Do they not hold good in our day as in his? 1. Let your supreme motive be pop ularity rather than salvation. 2. Study to please your congregation and to make a reputation, rather than to please God. 3. Take up popular, passing and sen sational themes to draw the crowd, and avoid the essential doctrines of salva tion. 4. Denounce sin in the abstract, hut pass lightly over sins that prevail in your congregation. 5. If asked, “ Is it wrong to dance, play cards and attend the theater?” answer very pleasantly, “ Oh, that is a matter for private judgment. It is not for me to say you shall or shall not.” 6. Preach on the loveliness'of virtue and the glory of heaven, but not on the sinfulness of sin and the terrors of hell. 7. Reprove the sins of the absent, but make those who are present pleased with themselves, so that they will enjoy the sermon and not go away with their feelings hurt. b . Make the impression on worldly church members that God is too good to send any one to hell, even if there is any hell. 9. Preach' the universal Fatherhood of God and brotherhood of man, so as to show that no second birth is really needed.
820 heard of a woman who lived in one of the towns of New York State who did nothing but weep. She could not for give herself for a neglected opportunity of some years before. And if there should he tears in heaven she would likely do a little weeping there. There lived in her town, the town of Hanover, we believe, a little boy by the name of Joseph Smith. She was deeply im pressed that she should visit him and get him into the Sunday school, but she did not. The Spirit impressed her time and again. She still refused. The boy grew to manhood and became the leader of a sect that has been the enemy of the church, the home and the state. We refer to Joseph Smith of the Mormons or the Church of the Latter Day Saints. Had he been gotten into the Sunday school he likely would have become a Spurgeon, or a Moody or a Chapman.— Reitzel. In physical warfare it is said that nine shots out of every ten prove ineffective. If this he true in battles waged between nations, who shall tell the number of sermons, addresses, prayer-meeting talks that have been sent forth by those who are waging spiritual warfare, that have not killed one sin, corrected one error, or brought liberty to one soul. There has been no aiming at the mark. Personal Touch I laid my hand upon the shoulder of a noble specimen of young manhood and asked him if he was a Christian. I had not seen him to know him or to separate him from the crowd before that moment. He replied, with an evident desire to detain mie, “ No, sir, I have heard you preach every Sunday for seven years without one exception, but •I am not a Christian yet.” He is now one of the most faithful members of the PULPIT POINTERS How Many Shots Win?
10. Do not rebuke the worldliness of the church, but fall in with the amuse ment policy. Instead of meeting for prayer let the people “ sit down to eat and drink and rise up to play.” YOU CAN INVEST $1.00 OR $1,000.00
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