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THE PULPIT.
A BRILLIANT SUNDAY SEPJVION BY
DR. CURTIS LEE LAWS.
Theme: Men in the Church.
Brooklyn, N. Y.—Dr. Curtis Lee
Laws, the new pastor of the Greene
Avenue Bapth Church, Sunday night
preached a i jcial sermon to men.
The . service was held under the
auspices of the Men’s League of the
church. In the course of his address
he said some very strong things. The
subject was "Why There Are More
Women Than Men in the Church.”
He took no text, but at once vigorous
ly took up his theme. He said:
It is not a fact that our churches
are not reaching men in our day and
in our city. We are reaching men;
we are reaching men in large num
bers and men from all classes of so
ciety. But it is a fact that we are not
reaching men in the same proportion
to the same number as we are
reaching women. This is a fact, and
it is a fact to which we cannot be in
nocently indifferent. We must meet
the situation fairly, and if the fault
is in the church we must remove it.
Here are facts which no one will
dispute. Fully two-thirds of the
church members of our country are
women and more than two-thirds of
the people in the church congregation
are women. I doubt very much if we
have in Brooklyn a single church with
snore than thirty-three per cent, of
men in its membership. This is a
startling fact when we come to con
sider it, and it becomes more start
ling still if church membership bears
any relation to the question of salva
tion. Few will claim that a man must)
be a member of some church to bel
saved, but all will agree that the
church is the place for saved men,
and that, generally speaking, saved
men are in the church.
Why, then, i= it, that with all our
equipment and zeal, we are not able!
to reach men. in the same proportion
as we reach women? Why is it that
only a third of our memoership are
men, and that, relatively speaking,
we l)ave so few men in our congrega
tions? Personally I love men. I re
joice in their society and fellowship,
and I do my best to interest them in
Christianity and the church, and yet,
broadly speaking, we have the same
conditions ir. our church that prevail
everywhere else. I come to the study
of this question with a great deal if
personal interest and after a great
deal of thought.
It is claimed by specialists who
have studied this question that the
reason why men are not attracted to
.the church in larger numbers is that
the ministry of th*= modern church is
not strong enough intellectually to
eatisfy men of culture and education.
This is practically the ground taken
by a writer in a famous article pub
lished in one of our magazines. After
talking with hundreds of young men
the writer came to the conclusion that
“The modern pulpit is sluggish and
stagnant,” and that young men ab
sent themselves from church simply
because the average minister is dull
and heavy and behind the times.
Are the men who do not attend
church brainier, more intelligent or
more cultured than the men who do
attend church? I would like to see
the men who do not attend church
placed upon the south side of one af
our streets and the men who co at
tend church placed upon the north
side of the same street. Then I would
like to drive slowly along the street
between these two groups that I
might study their faces. Cn which
6ide do you think I would find the
brains and the culture, and the re
finement and the character?
Again, when non-churchgoing men
prate about the uninteresting preach
ers, I always feel that they are cast
ing needless insults into the teeth of
their mothers and daughters and
wives and sweethearts. Women read
more than men, and except about po
litical and commercial questions they
are better informed than men. Not
withstanding their higher culture and
their greater refinement, the women
do not find the sermons of the average
preacher dull and inconsequential.
Again, it is claimed that the
churches don’t seek the men nor wel
come them to the services as they
should. Now, personally, I do not be
lieve a word of this. I have been for
years very closely identified with the
church life of a great city, and I have
been in close personal relations with
a greath many of our ministers, and I
tell you that the whole Christian
church is making a mighty effort to
reach the unchurched men of the city.
And wanting them as much as we do,
It is nonsense to talk about not wel-.
coming them. I have heard that in a
certain section of Maine there is a
church which has out in the vestibule
a nickel-in-the-slot machine. All that
a stranger has to do is to walk in and
drop in his nickel and out from the
machine comes a hand to grasp his in
cordial welcome. We do not have
anything like that here, but we can
beat that in our church, for here
many a stranger gets a hearty hand
grasp and goes away with his nicks!
in his pocket.
I tell you that men are welcome in
our churches; men, irrespective of the
accident of fine clothing; men, how
ever dressed and however wicked;
they are all welcome in nine-tenths
of the churches; and what is more,
they know quite well they will not
only be welcome, hut that we are
praying that they may come. Let us
glance now at some of the real rea
sons why men do not come to our
churches and into our churches, as
their sisters dc.
Men are driven so hard by the work
of the week that when Sunday comes
many of them are in a state of col
lapse mentally, and so they spend the
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time in bed, or else they betake them
selves to the parks or to the country
for recuperation.
I know many men who are commit
ting a slow suicide by the work which
they are attempting to do, and I know
that when Sunday comes they snatch
a little rest as their only safety. I
feel that in some way they must get
out from under the burden which
they are bearing, some by choice and
more by necessity or else while taking
care of this life they will by sheer
neglect lose the life which is to come.
Now, women, on the other hand, have
their work for the most part in the
house, and they welcome the Sabbath
day and the church services as a kind
of mild entertainment and pleasant
diversion. There they see their
friends and have a pleasant word, but
the men have been seeing their
friends all the week, and now they
want simply rest.
Men have many things in their
lives which furnish them with social
iife, and with a little balm for their
r.ore consciences. Tens of thousands
of men belong to clubs and societies
and lodges. Here they spend their
leisure time and spare money, and
many of them will single out the
charitable features of these organiza
tions, and wall say that their lodge is
their church, inculcating all that is
good and beautiful. When any man
allows any human society to take the
place of the church of God in his life,
that society has become to him a posi
tive evil, and he ought at once to rec
ognize it as a snare of the devil.
These societies do good in their way,
hut in comparison with the church of
God they are as a rush light to a star
of the first magnitude, as a firefly to
the sun in all his glory and splendor.
I blame these societies for keeping
many men out of the reach of the
Gospel, for they try to teach men that
morals are as acceptable as religion,
and many men are giving a blind al
legiance to these human institutions
and at the same time believing that
they are serving Almighty God. Men
also have politics to interest them,
and during a political contest it seems
utterly out of the question to interest
the ordinary man in anything else
than a political discussion. Women
have few societies, and, thank
Heaven, they have no part in politics.
Men are more enamored of certain
forms of overt sin than women, and
the devil, through these forms of sin,
is winning many men away from all
the influences of the church of Christ.
Gambling and drunkenness are the
sins of men, and while some women
also fall into these two classes of sin,
they are the exception rather than
the rule. In many of our American
cities we have one legalized place for
the sale of liquor to every fifty of our
men, and we cannot tell, nor do the
authorities seem to care, how many
gambling places there are in our fair
city. But all of these places live
largely upon the patronage of men.
Now, is it strange that we have so
few men comparatively in our
churches? Men are far more in the
clutches of overt sin than woman,
and that fact must be reckoned with
when you count up 'the men in the
churches. God pity the great host of
men in our city who have sold them
selves body and soul to the devil, and
who have no care about righteousness
here nor felicity hereafter.
Society places a premium upon the
irreligiousness, if not upon the posi
tive unrigbtousness, of men by per
mittirg the double standard of mor
als. Men do w.th impunity what a
woman could not do at all if she de
sired to remain respectable in the es
timation cf her family and friends.
Now, so long as society, composed in
part of Christian people, permits men
to be libertines and drunkards, and
does not make them smart for their
sins, these same men will have but
little regard for religion. How can
we expect the libertine to have any
respect for religion when he is made
the welcome guest in the house
where, if the people lived up to their
religion, he would be loathed?
How can we expect sinful men to
come into the church and give up
t ieir sins, when the men and women
wuth whom they associate do not dis
count them in the least because of the
lives that they lead? How different
with women. They must be pure to
he respectable; they must not fall
once into tne sin in which their hus
bands and Drotners riot, for if they
dc they will be scourged out of soci
ety. I tell you men and women of
Brooklyn, the social order in which
we live puts a premium upon the vice
of men. We are responsiole to the
extent of our influence. I plead with
the fathers and mothers to protect
their daughters. Be as willing that
your son should marry a fallen woman
as that your daughter should marry
a fallen man. I plead with the Chris
tian men before me to refuse their in
timate friendship to impure men, and
under no circumstances to allow im
pure men the privilege of social equal
ity in your homes. Not until Chris
tian men take some such stand will
the men of cur generation realize the
enormity of scciai sin.
LATE NEWS NOTES.
General.
D. J. Lockwood, a barKcopt'-, at Lit
tle Rock, Ark., died after taking a
drink of whiskey and eating a banana,
the coroner’s statement being that the
mixture produced a poise. l.
A train carrying reinforcements to
General Snakiski, commander of the
Russian punitive expedition in Persia,
has been derailed, tnirteen artillery
men receiving bad injuries,.
Mrs. Ernest Terwilger was found
dead in her room at Newark, O. She
had been choked to death. Her hus
band was arrested and ue confessed
to the crime.
Digging for more bodies was re
sumed Monday on the farm of Mrs.
Bella Gunness near LaPorte, Ind.
W. H. Howard, a wealthy commis
sion merchant, was killed by lightning.
Sunday during a rainstorm which
swept over St. Louis.
Rev. William S. Friedman was elect
ed rabbi for life of Temple Emanuel,
in Denver. This is an honor seldom
bestowed upon Jewish rabbis.
At a ball game in Buffalo Sunday a
grandstand, ho.idin,g about 800 per
sons, folded up and spilled the crowd
into the mud.
Governor Magoon has issued a de
cree that the Cuban elections shall
take place on August 1. Major Keen,
icf the medical corps, reports that
not a single case of yellow fever ex
ists cn the island.
The feature of Monday’s exercises in
connection fith the 106th annual com
mencement of Salem Female college
was the planting of the class tree.
Not a railroad in Oklahoma was in
operation Sunday night, as a result of
the heavy rains and cloudbursts that
occurred in various parts of the state.
J. O. Davidson, cashier of the Wood
ville (Miss.) bank, committed suicide
by drinking carbolic acid. He was 40
years of age. He had lest heavily in
speculation, but it is understood that
the bank will not be in any way af
fected.
A cablegram received from Kingston,
Jamaica, from Minister Ruiz of Colom
bia reports that a tornado has destroy
ed the port and town of Santa Marta,
Colombia.
The New York anti-bucket shop bill
was made a law Saturday when Gover
nor Hughes signed the measure pass
ed by the legislature.
According to a poll taken by New
Orleans representatives, prohibition
will carry thirty votes in the house for
state dryness and a majority for pro
hibition exempting New Orleans.
A monument in memory of the late
Senator Marcus A. Hanna was dedi
cated at Cleveland, 0., in the presence
of many distinguished guests and thou
sands of spectators.
The special train, bearing 500 stu
dents of the agricultural college to the
Oklahoma state field meet at Oklaho
ma City, crashed into a special car
near Ripley. Conductor Allen was kill
ed and twenty students severely in
jured.
The death is announced of Francois
Coppee in Paris. He was a French
poet and dramatist and was born in
1842.
The Globe (Ariz.) National bank,
which closed its doors November 4,
after a run, has re-opened prepared to
pay all depositors.
W. R Davis, private secretary to the
late Governor John Sparks, died at his
home in Carson, Nev., Saturday.
Through the death of Governor Sparks
and his secretary, business in the state
buildings has been brought to a
standstill.
Train service on the Mississippi Cen
tral railroad from Natchez to Hatties
burg was inaugurated Saturday. The
road is to be extended to Scranton,
Miss.
The next annual convention of the
American Bankers’ association will be
held in Denver during the week be
ginning September 27.
The Old Dominion paper mills, own
ed and operated by the American
Strawboard company, which have been
closed since November last, have re
sumed operations with a full force.
In the Elkhorn arid Pcahontas coal
fields more than two thousand miners,
who have been idle owing to slack bus
iness, resumed work Monday.
The New York National City bank
has engaged $1,300,000 gold for export.
This makes a total of $32,155,000 en
gaged for export cn the present move
ment.
Frederick Clark, 2-1 years of age,
Gertrude O’Brecht, 19, and her sister,
Bertha, 22 years old were drowned by
the upsetting of a canoe at Walkerton,
Ont., which shot over a dam in the
Saugee* river.
Washington.
With little discussion and less pub
licity, the United States senate has at
this session placed its approval on
thirty-seven treaties.
Statement of the condition of
The Bank of Locust Grove,
Located at Locust Grove, Ga., at the close of business May 14th, liIOHL
Resources
Loans and Discounts $48,487.88
Demand Loans 75.00
Overdrafts 384.55
Banking House 4,726.02
Furniture and Fixtures 1,632.05
Due from Banks and Bankers
in the State 787.97
Due from Banks and Bankers
in other States 1,287.81
Currency 442.00
Gold ’ 80,00
Silver, liickels and Pennies 743.12
Checks and Cash Items 8 56
Total 58,655.86
State of Georgia, County of Henry.
Before me came J. W. Brown, Cashier of said Bank, who being duly sworn, say*
that the above and foregoing statement is a true condition of said Bank, as shown
Oy the books of file in said Bank. J- W. Brown.
Sworn to and subscribed before me, this 22nd day of May 1908. 1). L. Burk C \ 1*
Statement of the condition of
The Bank of Henry County,
Located at McDonough, Ga , at the close of business May 14th, 190 K.
Resources
Loans and Discounts $80,191.96
Demand Loans on Cotton and
Other Collateral 35,841.60
Overdrafts 2,864.06
Banking House 3,632.09
Furniture and Fixtures 2,641.68
Due from Banks and Bankers
in the State 13,131.16
Due from Banks and Bankers
in other States 23,052.87
Currency 2,043.60
Gold 5.00
Silver, Nickels and Pennies 727.59
Checks and Cash Items 372.23
Insurance Account 15.16
Total 164,418.30
Shite of Georgia, County of Henry.
Before me came J. B. Dickson, Cashier of the Bank of Henry Ccunty, who being
duly sworn, says that the above and foregoing statement is a true condition of said.
Bank, as shown by the books of file in said Bank. J. B. Dickson, Cashier.
Sworn to and subscribed before me, this 25th day of May 1908.
H. M. Turner, C. N. P. of If. C.
Statement of the condition of
The Bank of Stockbridge,
Located at Stockbridge, Ga., at the close of business May 14th, 1907.
Resources
Loans and Discounts $45,207,65
Demand Loans 2,750.00
Overdrafts 1.64
Bonds and Stocks owned by the
Bank 1,400.00
Banking House 2,169.00
Furniture and Fixtures 1,306.80
Dtie from Banks and Bankers
in the State 4,445.84
Due from Banks and Bankers
in other States 3 779.47
Currency 1,270.00.
Silver, Nickels and Pennies 158.82
Interest Paid 918.41
Depositors' Guarantee Fund 2,879.16
Total 66,286.69
State of Georgia, County of Henry.
Before me came C. M, Power, Cashier of the Bank of Sfeockbridge, who being
duly sworn, says that the above and foregoing statement is a true condition of said.
Bank, as shown by the books of file in said Bank. C. M. Power, Cashier-
Sworn to and subteribt d before me, tliis22d day of May 1908. A. H. Swann N. P.
W. W. Ward, J. T. Bond.
Statement of the condition of
The Bank of Hampton,
Located at Hampton, Ga., at the close of business May 14th, 1908.
Resources I Liabilities
, . ... . ..... ... Capital Stock Paid in *25.000.08
Loans and Discounts $.8,393 oO UndivWed p rofltß , IeBB current
* urmture and 1 ixtures 1,260.06 Expenses and Taxes Paid 20,940.19
Due from Banks and Bankers ~ ~ . h.
, . * -, Individual Deposits Subject to
in the State 10.602.72
Due from Banks and Bankers Lhetk
in other States 14,261.25 Time Certificates 3*mm
Currency 1,710.00 Bills payable, Including Time
Gold 60 00 Certificates representing
Silver, Nickels and Pennies 307.36 Borrowed Money 20.000.08
Total 106.534.83 Total 106,534-SS
Stale of Georgia. County of Henry.
Before me came J. O. Norris, Cashier of the Bank of Hampton, who being duly
sworn, says that the above and foregoing statement is a true condition of said Haute
as shown bv the boo’s of file in said Bank. J- O- Norris, Cashier.
Sworn to and sa ’ <.d before me, this 25th day of May 1908.
S. H. Griffin, N. P. Ex. off. J- P-
Liabilities.
Capital Stock Paid in $25,000.0#
Undivided Profits, less Current
Expenses and Taxes Paid 4,905.5 S
Due to Banks and Bankers in
this States 71.39
undividual Deposits Subject to
Check 22,140.99
Time Certificates 1, 194.43
Cashier’s Checks 343.59
Bills payable, Including Time
Certificates representing
Borrowed Money 5,000.09
Total 58,85588
Liabilities
Capital Stock Paid in $58,000.09
Surplus Fund 5,000.09
Undivided Profits, less Current
Expenses and Taxes Paid 13,453.58
Due to Banks and Bankers
in this State # 1!,81E.9T
Due Unpaid Dividends 60.09
Individual Deposits Subject to
Check 58,822.18
Time Certificates 24,777.1 ft
Cashier's Checks 5U2.72
Total 164,418 39
Liabilities
Capital Stock Paid in $16,000.09
Surplus Fund 1,189,ft
Undivided Profits, less Current
Expenses and Taxes Paid 23MS
Due to Banks and Bankers
in this State 6.000.0#
Due to Banks and Bankers
in other States 3,500.09
Individual Deposits Subject to
Check 18,072.7#
Time Certificates 10,375.59
Cashier’s Checks 173.7#
Bills Payable, Including Time
Certificates representing
Borrowed Money 10,000.09
Total 66,285.0#
