Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 April 1912 — WHO SERVES GOD? [ARTICLE]

WHO SERVES GOD?

Evening Comment by A. S. Cross at Baptist Church Sunday, April 21: The answer commonly is that a member of a church its one who loyally supports his church by his attendance on the Sunday and wees day services, who gives of his means and who lives a blamelessf life in the midst of a crooked' and perverse generation.

This I believe to be far from what God demands. No one ought to neglect worship, which is a fundamental part of our human nature. I fear our American life suffers much because we do not take time enough for real worship. But that spirit of worship which doe§ not seek to penqfcrate the community with t,he spirit of Jesus; which loves God and neglects its duty to fellow men is the thing that God di-pises rather than delights in. One may be a loyal church member and serve his church more tha'n his God. Again a man may not be a nominal church member, or make a loud prevention to religion and yet be doing things which really pleases God. The church member may only have the form of worsliip but the doey of God's will has the substance. - I

s>ome people are so exacting that they deny that a man who is not a professing Christian can receive a reward for a good deed he may Ui> - 7 hat is not the teaching o'. Jesu -. The person who gives a cup of cold water even in the name of a disciple shall in ho wise lose his reward. No man can do a good deed without being rewarded. His own ininer nature will receive an upward push because of such a noble impulse.

Speaking iwords of cheer to a sorrowing cne. directing the life of a little child ijn the right channel. hesitating to criticize when others censure, looking for and bringing out the good from beneath the bad, feeding the hungry with beef steak as well as prayers, etc. Kindness in words and deeds, filling the community and the world with purity and sunshine constitute the largest part of our worship of God. We serve our God best by serving our neighbor. Those men were real heroes, who last week did their duty without shrinking even in the face of death and that band which played “Nearer My God to 1 Thee," were doing God's service in a practical way. Today many' lives are being wrecked on the ocean of life. Many are fighting against thre cold icebergs of strong temptation, and

some of them in our own community. Brother, throw cut the life boat and save some sinking soul today. Many a soul may be saved from wreckage, many a burden lightened if you but sing irem the heart. “Nearer My God to Thee, nearer to Thee.”