Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 March 1898 — Sunday School Column [ARTICLE]

Sunday School Column

Conducted by W. o. SMALLEY, REMINGTON, INDIANA. Young people don’t wait until you are men and women to do your best: do it now. Very often we are to blame when we do not meet with the kindness we expect; kindness begets kindness. Shame on the Christian who has to be coaxed to do Christian work. It does seem we ought to be glad to use the many opportunities that come to us for doing good and not be so reluctant about teaching a class or helping in any way possible when asked. Why not do the work with as much energy as we would show if we were engaging in some pleasant pastime. The book says “whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” Man’s best life is dependent upon uninterrupted communication with its source —God. He who neglects regular prayer and Bible study is like a town whose telegraph and telephone wires are down and whose railroads and other means of communication with the outer world are cut off. A disused Bible is a wire down. Neglected prayer is a blockade of the main high way. The hurry and rush of secular life that preclude daily intercourse with God are a Chinese wall of exclusion against God. The first and sure remedy for spiritual decline is to open up all the avenues of communication with God and see that they are used. Christianity is not a voice in the wilderness but a life in the world. It is not an idea in the air, but feet on the ground going God’s way. It is not a tender plant to be kept under a glass, but a hardy plant to bear twelve manner of fruits in all kinds of weather. Fidelity to duty is its root and branch. Nothing we can say to the Lord, no calling him by great and dear names, can take the place of the plain doing of his will. Wqmay cry out about the beauty of eating bread with him in his kingdom, but it is wasted breath and a rootless hope unless we plow and plant in his kingdom here and now. To remember him at his table and to forget him at ours, is to have invested in bad securities. There is no substitute for plain every day goodness. The writer attended a veiy enthusiastic convention at Mt. Ayr on Saturday Feb. 19th. J. R, Thompson the Sec. of the Newton Co. Association was present and conducted the meeting in a very pleasant manner. At the close of the meeting the township (Jackson) was organized with a full corps of wide awake officers. If that township does not do its work in a way that will be a credit to the County Ass’n., it will be from some cause not now apparent. Newton county is coming to the front. It now has thirty one schools.