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THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN AND NEWS. oATUIWAY. SEPTEMBER B, 1907. H A FRIEND TO PUBLICANS AND SINNERS By REV. RICHARD GRME FLINN, PASTOR NORTH AVENUE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH Did you read the story In The Geor gian last Saturday evening entitled “How Does It Keel to be Down and Out In Life?” Well, we did, and it cut us to the heart. It was a story dictated by a man on a hospital cot, who had at tempted three times to end it all by suicide. There was no complaint in the story, no bitterness, but there was a profound sadness, a deep discontent with himself,- and a hopelessness ns black ns a midnight sky when wild tempests drive away the stars. He say®, "I em responsible for my present condition/’ • * * “A man Is re sponsible for all the suffering ho has to bear; trouble ma> / come upon him through no fault of his own, but suffer- ing—the kind that makes a man want to die, the kind that la too hard to bear he must blame‘himself for. Suffer ing has caused my desire for death. No one knows how I have suffered. Many time® I have prayed to God to let me die. I do not want to cumber the earth filling the place some better man might occupy.” And then ho tells us of his disgrace, his sickness, the emptiness of life, the despair of anything better farther on and the absence of any stim ulating sympathy, and here his word® cut deepest, for ho said. “I did not be lieve anyone cared at all for me.” And, my friends, the pain this story gave us w&i not due alone to the genuine hu man sympathy we felf for a man whose heart was so full of deppair, but most of all we were touched by a sense of *hame that there could be in this Chris, tian city even one man in such an hour of need who did not know Jesus Christ who Is the "friend of publicans and sinner®." When our Master was on earth there was^io doubt of His friend ship for the lost. It is remarkable how He Impressed both friend and foe with this fact; that Ho was the friend of i>ubl leans and of sinners. Why, the Pharisees, HI® bitterest enemies, sought to disgrace Him by this charge. They said, "He is the friend of publicans;" that 1®, those who are socially non grata personae, whose business puts them out of the pale of good society. Yes, He Is even the friend of sinners, an associate of those whom decent peo. pie avoid with acorn and contempt. But this charge of His enemies did not abash Him, as Luke tells us in 7:34. He accepts the same as true, and not only declares explicitly Himself that it is so and that He came not seeking the righteous, but the sinner, but He proved, by all of His actions that indeed He was the friend of sinners. Whatever the sinner and the outcast may think of Christ today, none of those who came near Him when He was in the flesh doubted for a moment that Ho was their friend. In the melancholy confession of this man, who is go severe In his self-cen sure and so lacking in any acrimonious charge against others, Is there not, all unconscious to him, a solemn arraign ment against us who claim to bo Christ’s disciples, and yet who, as such, somehow failed to make this one feel that there was one who did care, who Is the friend to sinners? You and I, who profess to bo His followers today, ai*e the only means Christ has of Illus trating to the world what He Is and what He stands for, and as His friends He Is counting on us not to misrepre sent Him. Christ loves those who are sinners, and He declares that He Is near to those of a contrite spirit and of a broken heart, and yet, my brethren, ]i“n- in mir very midst, \v;m a man who. despite our < Inin lies ami institutions and the thousands of Christians of this city, thought that no tone cared, and, because he did not recognize the fact that no matter how far astray he might have gone, Christ still loved him, sought to throw his life away as worth less Instead of yielding it up to God for service. li it Fair? I want to ask, Was it fair to the Master? And I want to ask. Was it fair to the man? Whatever may be our boast today, I am very sure that we will not please our Lord unless wo keep very clearly impressed upon the world the fact that He was so careful to im press, namely, that He is a friend of the publican and the sinner. We may rejoice In our splendid church archi tecture, our fine appointments, our music, our theology, our polity, our religious leadership,, or whatever else we please, but unless with ail .these things and in all these Jhlngs and through all these things we still make clear to the publican and to the sinner ttiat we care for them and desire to befriend them/ and that Christ loves them and is able to save them, all these other things in which we may rejoice are an abomination unto God. If our churches become too fine for the poor est to be comfortable In them, or If our services become too stately to be inter rupted in order that the cry of the penitent may be heard, or If our eccle siastical affairs are so engaging ns that we can not find time to be practi cal in our kindness as He was “to the unthankful and to the evil," then we are radically wrong, and have drifted far aflcld from Christ, who was the friend of the publican and the sinner. A Frank Admission. We may as well be frank with our selves. We must admit' that the world today Is not os much Impressed through us with the fact that Christ loves the publican and the sinner ns It was when j He Himself was here in person, espe- I citdiy the publican and .the sinner ore not thus Impressed. Sinners do not| floek to the churches os they did to Him, nor do our enemies charge us with being too much concerned with those that are suffering the disgrace and shame of moral shipwreck. In stead, they charge us with ministering to the decent rather than to the evil, •'»n«l miy tliar our rhmvhes an* filled with the respectable rather than with the outcast. As the slimy tides of sin invade the down-town districts, the churches move up town, they say, where the better people live, and the slums are left to themselves. It is charged again that those who have been sinners—that Is outrageous sin ners—are not desired by the church for membership. Indeed the church is embarrassed when a man who ha® fall, en very low—or more especially when a woman who has fallen very low—ap plies for admission. Not that the of ficers are not willing to receive them, and not that the best people do not re joice In their fescue, but instead they are more pleased with their salvation than with their affiliation; they wotild rather they should attend somewhere else, because they are afraid there are some In the membership who will not forget the past and who will not man ifest the same kindly interest that the Master did, which made even the wom an w'ho was a sinner unafraid to go through the c^owd to bathe His feet with tears and: wipe them with her hair as she anointed Him at Simon’s table. It is charged that when mer> are in REV. RICHARD ORME FLINN. dire need they do not turn to the church unless they have to, ns Its finances are not arranged with reference to such emergencies, and so, It Is claimed, they may hope for surer help from frater nal organizations outside the church than from the church itself. There arc discussions In the magazines concern ing even the' indifference of the churches to woll^groqmed strangers, and the embarrassment of poor people who would Join the church were It not for the frequent appeals for money, which appeals would be unnecessary if those who have abundance were as much In earnest ns Christ was, who "though rich made himself poor, that we, by His poverty, might become rich." Now undoubtedly there is much In these charges that is unfair. For in stance, it is said that we see few save the respectable at church. In a sense this Is true, but why? Because, if a dissolute man will but truly turn to God, He makes a respectable man out of him very quickly. He may como In rags, but he will not stay in rags. In & little while you will find such a man wearing clean linen to correspond with his clean heart. And so we might like wise examine the other charges and find that there Is much of* mis-state ment, yet we must admit that the charges are made, and this in Itself Is bad enough. The very existence of these charges manifests a doubt on the part of the world concerning our friendliness to the publican and to the sinner and no such doubt existed In their minds toward Christ when He dealt with them directly instead of dealing with them through us. And further, we must acknowledge that the marvelous growth of frater- rtal organisations outside of the church, the conflict of their lodge meetings with the church services, and the attitude of many of these organizations to the church with the decreasing attendance upon our services of the working peo ple, and the almost entire absence from them of the sin-marred and the de spairing, Is a matter of significance, Christ was sought by such. They claimed Him as their friend, and heard IHm gladly, and we are persuaded that their attitude would net be so differ ent to the church today were it per fectly true to its Lord. If there could be such love (by which Christ said all men should know them as His disci ples), such fellowship and such prac tical co-operation and sympathy be tween thofce who claim to be Christ’s followers as the Master means there should be, we are persuaded that those charges would not be made so frequent ly and boldly, nor would there be felt the need of the multiplication of out side fraternities. What Can Wo Do? If we admit as a fact this distrust on . the part of the publicans and the sinners of the church’s friendship, such admission calls for an explanation. Some one must give an account of this to God, for some day He is going to ask about the reason for this condi tion, which is so contrary to His plan. Let us see, then, if we can discover wherein the trouble lies, that ..tve may. If possible, correct it. The problem Is a difficult one, but may not the following be factors worth considering? First, do we not sometimes misplace the emphasis in our conception of the sphere and the purpose of the church’s work? We speak often of our church, as though everything connected with It was for us alone, as though It ex isted for our benefit, our comfort, our pleasure. But this is not according to the plan of Christ. It is for Us, but It is for us in order that it may enable us' to be for others. He loves us, and He has made Us 'brothers with Him self that we may learn with Ulm to' love our brothers who are yet outside; therefore thit which should most concern us ad we come into Christ's church Is that we bring others with us. As we learn tp appreciate the gospel, our chief endeavor, should be to bring the gospel into v contact with the restless hearted, sln-smltten world. When we know the Christ ns Lord, it should be our mission to introduce oth ers who ore lost, that in their despair they may realise how great is God’s love for them and how ready anfl able He Is to deliver them, and thus, have hope. Second. May It It not he that the trouble has arisen by our trying to do Christ’s work by contract and through others. Instead of by contact and in person? May it not bo that we need to get away from machinery and to get more into personal touch with men? Is it more of religious or philanthropic in stitutions that are needed? Is It more of machinery, or of professional agents? Or, in order that the world may be convinced of Christ’s concern, is it not more of compassionate, spirit-filled In dividuals that we need? Third. May not*another secret of our failure lie in Christian Inconsistency? We were warned long ago against an effort to pluck out the motes from our brothers’ eyes before the beams In our own eyes have been dealt with. Has this warning been heeded? Is there not far too much of unrebuked sin in the church today? Is there not a need to get this sin out of the church in order that wo may get'sinners into it? As Christians we must clear our skirts be fore we can hope to be very helpful to others In cleaning theirs. The charge is sometimes made that professing Christians are so entangled with the world, and running so much with Its crowd, that they have lost their power to persuade the world that they have anything to offer other than what it holds. Is there any truth in this, so far as our lives are concerned? Do we not, as individuals, need to prove to the outcast and the publican that we are not with them in their sin. andjhat we have something better In order that we may persuade them to leave sin and enter with us Into service? Fourth. When, by God's grace, we have In a measure gotten the world out of us, is It not true that we make the mistake sometimes of trying to get outselves out of it? Christ’s prayer for His disciples was that they might be In the world and yet not of ft, but the effort of the disciples too often seems to bo to revise, or even to re verse, this plan. They crave to be de livered from contact with life In the rough and the raw—that is, t.» get out of tho world—and yet, sometimes—la not our surmise true—they do not seem to crave to have all of the world got ten out of them, but hug to their hearts much that they should execrate and scorn? * If we are to be true to God’s high design for us, like our Master, we need to keep close In touch with men. to mingle with them, and to know their needs and dangers. Christ’s dealing with the demoniac of Gadara, whoso name was Legion, so full was he of t ho devil, Is a lesson to us concerning Christ's method. When the demons were departed, when the man was clothed and in hls right mind, he de sired to leave the scenes of hls disgrace that In fellowship with the apostles he might follow tho Lord into other regions. But Christ said, “No; go home to your friends and neighbors and tell them how great things God hath done for you and hath hail compas sion on you.” We need more men who have been saved to remain in Gadara that they may witness concerning Christ's wonderful power and compas sion. ■Oh, my brethren! Ho who was so Inexorable In hls antagonism to all evil, whose life was so holy, and who was so intolerant of sin, yet who was known by sinners as their friend. Is misunderstood, and in part, at least, are to blame. We who represent Him, have not been faithful, and be cause we have failed to do our part men are despairing nnd dying, who should, through knowledge of His friendship, be rejoicing. For the world's sake and for the sako of truth and loy alty to Christ, by a kindliness, a sym pathy and love, wo need to make tho Master known today to all as the friend of publicans and sinners- MY LAST EXPERIENCE AS A CONFEDERATE SCOUT When General Hood', campaign Into Tennessee In December, 186*. culmi nating In tho disastrous battles of Franklin and Nashville, had ended and the Confederate army had recrossed the Tennessee river. Rose’ brigade of Tease cavalry, or more properly, mounted In fantry, were ordered back to Missis sippi, whence they lmd been withdrawn at the beginning of Sherman's famous campaign through Georgia. The Tex ans hailed tho order to return with a yell of delight. They had done service In Mississippi for two years, and a strong .mutual attachment had sprung up between them and the hospitable Mlsslsslpplans. , When the brigade reached Corinth, Its destination, the soldiers went Into winter quarters Immediately. The bri gade was stationed there to guard the approach to the staid ffom Tennessee. Corinth, situated on the line between ■r:ilfs of Mississippi anil Tennessee, Is about twenty-flve or thirty miles dis tant from tho Tennesseo river. An outpost of pickets and scouts was established on the river, as well as the writer remembers, at Walnut Grove; hut It may have been at eome other small town on the river. The writer never entered the town for reasons soon to be mentioned, nnd therefore never became familiar with Its name. Such n squad of pickets or scouts usually con sisted of twenty or thirty men under the command of a subordinate officer. Each squad did picket duty about a week and was then relieved by anothor. After sovernl weeks hod passed mo notonously In camp at Corinth a part of Company C of tho First Texas Legion, of which the writer was then a mem ber, was ordered to go on duty at the place abovo designated. Halted by Vidottos. The season of the year was some where about the beginning of spring. In 1865. Wo sot out early In the morning from camp that day, and about 1 or 2 o'clock p. m. wo were within a short distance of the town where we expect ed to relieve the party of scouts then on duty. We all wore 1 the blue Federal overcoats, which had been enptured, and generally had Federal equipments, so that It was difficult to distinguish Confederates from Federals, Near the end of our march we were called to a halt by two vldettes, whom we sup posed to be Confederates and members of the squad we were sent to relieve. When asked, "Who are you?" Lieuten ant Newt Murray, the officer In com mand, answered, "Friends.” The men on post asked, "Of what command?" "First Texas Legion,” answered tho lieutenant.. Some of tho boys began to. Jeer at them, some saying, “We are Rebs;" others, "We are Yanks." our astonishment, they fired at us and fled. Well docs the writer remember the shock of surprise to ub all, and the very words of the question of Lieuten ant Murray, "What does this mean? Can they bo Yankees?" Ordering hls men to follow, ho quickly dashed for ward In pursuit. We rode at a rapid gait until we came In full view of the town whore we saw the hill-side next to us covered with blue coats hastily forming In lino of battle. After wo had sufficiently reconnoltered the town nnd taken In the situation, we slowly rode away, but not before they began to fire on us, discharging also a few small cannon. Captured by Federal*. A large force of Federate had crossed tho Tennessee river. The name of tho general In command the writer has never learned. Evidently they had sur prised and captured the entire party of scouts stationed there. Ry what means, whether through their own carelessness In keeping watch or through tho treachery of some Federal sympathizer, has always been a mystery to the writer. Of the presence of Yankees there could bo no doubt. There they wore In largo numbers revealed to our eyes. The lieutenant Immediately dispatch ed a courier to General Ross to Inform him of the perilous situation. When we left Corinth thnt morning no one was dreaming of the enemy so close at hand. Later on, as occasion required, he sent back pne or two more couriers to General Ross. He rode bock toward Corinth a few miles, and took a position on the western bank of n creek. Mul berry, I think, was tho name of the stream, and waited tho appronch of the enemy. As the afternoon began to wane and no enemy appeared In sight, the lieutenant ordered three of us to go back across tho creek, which was spanned by a bridge, nnd aec If they were coming. Thcro was a wide swamp on tho side of the creek next to the en- emy, through which thcro was a very muddy and somewhat crooked road, most of It newly cut through the woods. We wero on the alort for tho enemy as we wended our way through the swamp. Beat Hasty Retreat, Just as two of us had crossed a very bad mud-ho|e, and tho third man was looking for the best way through It. suddenly the head of a column of Yan kees appeared around a curve In the road, not far distant from us. In stantly two guns were raised, followed by one report. My coi missed firing. If there Yankee dead from hls horse there would have been no doubt who killed him. The shot checked their advance, and they began to turn back In con fusion. The gun which tho writer car ried at the time was a' light carbine which he had captured In Georgia, at Campbellton, from one of McCook’s raiders. It wns light nnd convenient to carry, but not very accurate, and effective only at short range. The mud- hole was not much In our way as we turned and fled, plunging through It without hesitation. We soon recrossed the brldgo and rejoined our own com pany. We did not havo to wait long for the approach of the Yankees. No doubt they hnd learned from Inquiry of citizens along the route that we were but few In number, and they begun to pursue us rapidly,. As experienced scouts, we kept as close to them as possible to observe their numbers nnd movements, nnd to check their advance In order to give General Ross opportunity to gat out of the way or prepare for battle. We were not out of sight or hearing of the ede my much of the time during tho rest of the afternoon and night. We sup posed that they would camp when night came on, but It soon became evi dent that they Intended, to continue pursuit. Wo kept up a pretty lively skirmish with them through the night. Tho sound of their horses’ hoofs al ways gave us notice of their approach. Halting by the road on either side wo would await their advance, then Are on them and retire. Once, at we flred and retreated quickly, one of our num ber, Doc. McFall, a bravo young fel low, dropped hls hat. He carefully noted the place where It fell, near a certain tree, checked hls horse and asked the writer to go back with him to get It. We mentioned the danger of returning juat for a hat, but he de clared that he would get It, Reluct- nntly we went, expecting the Yankees to fire on us every moment. We reach ed the spot, however, and he recovered hls hat bfore the Yankees advanced that for. A Volunteer Guide. About midnight, nr some time after, we halted and waited longer than usual for the enemy to advance. While wait. Ing here, near a dwelling house, a citi zen came to us who had left hls own home about two or three miles back on ths road we were traveling, fleeing from tho Yankees. He was well mounted, and appeared to be a very Intelligent and affable gentleman. He told our lieu tenant that he thought the Yankees had camped near hls house, about three miles distant, and proposed to pilot some of us back to see. Being a nntlvc of tho country, our guide was perfectly familiar with the roads and by-paths and assured us that he could take us through the field and by-ways without danger. The lieutenant sent three of us with him, tho writer again being of the number. Now occurred an episode thnt has made this night's adventure especially memorable to us during the years since the war. Our guide went to n house close by and brought out two young ladles as soon as they could get ready, to go back to stay with hls wife during hls absence. The young ladles were hls slsters-ln-law. The arrangement was for the young ladles to ride behind two of us, whllo the other ehould ride In advance with our citizen guide. The writer, then a youth of 18 years, was asked to take one of the girls behind him, which he declined to do through timidity, and excused himself by say ing that hls horse would not carry dou. hie. Tho Grey Eagle would have car ried both of them If they could havo found room on hls back, but we pre ferred to ride In advance with the cit izen than to ride In the rear with one of the girls behind us on our horse. When wo said that our horas would not carry double, we made a positive ml«- statement. It was a mere ruse to avoid currying 'one of the girls. The event seems more romantic looked at now In the distance of forty years, than It did i the night of Its occurrence. Hurry Call to Saddle. Our guide made a detour through the flelde and came up In rear of hla residence, which wns situated on the m&ln road. While the writer held hls horse, he pulled off some pickets from hls garden paling as noiselessly as possible, went to the back door, held a short conversation with hla wife and returned. He took the young ladles Into the house through the garden. Surely enough some camp fires were burning In the large grove near his house, and feeling confident that the enemy had bivouacked for the nlgjit, we returned with our guide to our own post and reported. Deciding that the enemy had camped for the night, we R rocured some horse, feed, fed our orses without unsaddling them, and laid down to take a little needed rest. Before we could take any rest or be fore our horses could finish eating, we heard the guns of our vldettes, and we were again In the saddle. The moon aroee some time after midnight, and we had the benefit of Its light the rest of the night. The Federals kept pursuing until after daylight, when we fell back upon one regiment of our brigade, drawn up outside of Corinth, to check their advance. When we entered Corinth we found It > evacuated. The wagon train had been eent south from Corinth as hurriedly as possible, with orders to burn all bridges behind them. A force of men was also sent to protect the wagon train. The rest of the brigade was crossing Hatchle river, west of Corinth, when we rejoined It, the men walking over the stream on trees that had been felled, while tho horses were ewlmmtng. As the men came to the river they would dismount and leave their horses to swim the stream, so that there was but little delay, and the lino of march was scarcely Interrupt ed. In this way General Ross made a timely escape. Daring of the Texans. As the brldgade just narrowly es caped a complete surprise, there were a few men who were captured as they returned from foraging tripe Into the country around Corinth. Wo heard aft erwards. of one daring personal ren contre of the kind for which the Tex ans wero famous. One of our men was returning to Corinth from the country, unconscious of what had oc curred, when he spied a suspicious Ihoklng horseman meeting him, with BY REV. J. S. BRYAN a few others following close behind him. Our Texan cautiously slipped hls revolver Into the right leg of hls hoot, reined hls horse to the right side of the road and kept close watch on the stranger, who turned out to be aYlla- keo cavalryman. The latter suddenly leveled hls pistol at the Texan nnd demanded a surrender, which helng re pulsed. the Ynnkeo flred. As quick as a flash, the Texan dropped on the right side of hls horse Just as hls ad versary flred, still clinging to the ani mal by the mane with hls left hand and holding on to the saddle with the spur on hls left boot. With Ills right hand he reached under tho horse’s neck, flred and killed the Ynnkoc. Be fore the Yankee's comrades could ar rive, the Texan had regained hls sad dle, dashed Into the woods and made hls escape. The Texan dodged so quickly when tho Yankee raised hls pistol that the bullet missed him. The Yankee doubtless thought thnt he had killed the Texan when tho latter drop ped from hla saddle. This Is a record of our last hoatllo meeting with Yankees. We hnd often had similar but more perilous expe- ■ rlences, but this scout will be forever memorable, first because It was the last and secondly because of the touch of romance In It. nnd of the cowardice or the lack of gallantry manifested by the writer In refusing to take one of those Mississippi belles behind him on Ids horse. As we never learned their names, we have often wondered since who thoy were, whether or not they are still living, and wtint they would have to say now nbout thnt hlght's ad venture, If any of us killed or wound ed any Yankees, waylaying and shoot ing at them by night, we, nf course, knew nothing of It. Soon after this we heard of General Lee's surrender, nnd then of the surrender of General Johnston, and we, too, soon surren dered and returned to our homes under parole, never more to hear our bugler sound a reveille or.an alarm. Loses Fine Watch, T. M. Jones, of Pulaski, Ga., a well- known traveling salesman, has report ed to the police by long distance tele phone that ho was the victim of a pick pocket Thursday In the Terminal Sta tion, ns the result of which he Is minus a fine gold watch. Mr. Jones values tho timepiece high ly, as It was presented to him by hls firm for good work. On tho Inside of the case Is engraved this Inscription "Presented to T. M. Jones by Woolfe Bros. Shoe Co. Sales for one year, *247,455." We Sell a Superior Grade of CEMENT. PLASTER 9 ROOFING, LATHS, LIME, MORTAR COLORS E HAVE every facility, for filling your orders for Builders’ Supplies with greater prompti tude and satisfaction than you can possibly get elsewhere. Place no orders with any one untu you get quotations from us. We handle more Coal per year than all the other dealers in Atlanta combined. There is a reason for this, based upon better service and quality. Avail yourself of the opportunity of buying from us. Office Gould Bldg. 10 Decatur St. Atlanta, Georgia THE PROBLEM OF THE CITY Terso Comments on tho Uniform Prayer Mooting Topie of tho Young People'o Sociotios—Christian gndeavor, Baptist Young People's Union, Epworth League, Etc.—For September 29, "Homo Missions: Religious Progress In Our Cltiee.”—Jonah 1: 1-3| 3: 1-10* 4: 0-11. By WILLIAM T. ELLIS The city la one of the big modern problems. It Is so vast, so Intricate, so unknowable a thing, that usually only phnxes of It arc considered at-a time. Some speakers talk of the city when they only mean part of It th>t Is given over to poverty nnd vice. Oth- irs have In mind only the principal down town” portions, when they talk of the city: meaning thereby the mala thoroughfares, tho hotela, the big stores, the places of amusement and the railway etatlons. Still others re gard the city In an entirely material sense—:1b buildings. Its Industries, Its wealth. A city Is all these, and much more. And In any light It Is worth studying as the greatest, albeit per haps the most perilous, product of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. I A city’s sin Is simply the sin of In dividual men and women. Since human nature loves to Iqok upon the dark side of things, we 14*ar more about the evil of a great city than Its beneficence. Yet the angels must rejoice over the good that Is crowded Into every large city. What a heavenly spectacle are the Innumer able hospitals, orphanages, asylums and Instltutlona for dispensing a be wildering array of charity to be found In every great city of civilization. Ev ery form of human need has been taken thought of by the modern city. There nrc homes for the aged and homes for foundlings; homes for the blind; homes for the deaf; homes for the crippled; homes for the consumptive; homes for young men, and homes for young wom en; homes for waits, and homes for the utterly outcast; homes for feeding hungry bodies, and homes for minis tering to starved spirits. Tho amount of money spent for charity within the bound* of any modern great city amounts to a fortune every year. Let this be reckoned In taking stock of the city. All the needs that human nature pos sesses everywhere It possesses In the city; and this Includes the need of God. Of late years ths churches have mode a vigorous effort 'to grapple with what they call the city problem. Church extension and city mission committees, of varying efficiency, ore common in all denominations. Preaching places, which ordinarily develop Into full- fledged churches, follow the growth of population. Rescue missions are main tained In the congested sections. The foreign population Is given special at tention. Nevertheless, city mission work may still be said to tie In an experimental stage. Nobody thinks that the remedies equal the needs. There Is a vital something stilt lack ing; so that the lire of the averare city may fairly he said to be less religious than the life of the same number of persons In the country. A city ministers to a man’s supxrfl- clal and material needs completely; It Is when hls spirit Is hungry that the city often falls him. What mean these tens of thousands of persons who throng the thorough fare! of the city to witness a proces sion or spectacle? Probably more than half a million persons endured the rig ors of August heat In Philadelphia— somo three thousand of them suc cumbing thereto—In order to witness the marching of a body of members of a secret society which represents nothing In particular. There Is appar ently only one answer; the clamor of the multitude for "bread and circuses” Is as real as It was In the days of the Caesars. People want amusement and diversion. Anything to take them out of themselves. Anything to till the void In their minds. An appalling lack of sufficient and sustaining life Inter ests on the part of the masses Is re‘ vealed by the signs of the times. The church must provide more than prayer meetings for people If she la to meet all their proper needs. Almost no attempt—certainly no ad equate attempt—haa been made by the forces of religl&n to minister to ttje general cravings of peoplo for amuse ment. We condemn the theater and the dance and offer no substitute. One will search a great city In vain for any considerable amount of entertainment which does not hear the church’s ban.. Church socials are no substitute for the drama. ColTee houses can not take the place of saloons. When religious peo ple seriously undertake to do for the city what the city needs, there will be many first-class places of wholesomt recreation in every city—retorts which will compete, on their Intrinsic mer its, with tho best that the world has to offer. SEVEN SENTENCE SERMONS. The shorteet life Is long enough If It lead to a better, and the longest life Is too short If It do not.—Colton. I hold this thing to be grandly true, Lifting the soul from the common aod To a purer air and a broader view. —J. G. Holland. Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once. —Shakespeare. In character. In style. In nil things. The supreme excellence Is simplicity. —Longfellow. If I Con put some touches of rosy sunset Into tho life of any man or woman, then I feel that I hRve wrought with God.—George Macdonald. Some hae meat and cannn eat. And some wad eat that want It, But I hae meat. And I can eat. And say the Lord be thanklt. Burns, essential The home Is the basic and unit of our Christian civilization, and the capacity to establish, maintain and own homes Is the most sjgnjfloant characteristic of the highest develop ment “f a people.—Charles E. Llttle- That a noble deed Is a step toward God. field. DOUBLE DAILY SERVICE ' • X .t —BETWEEN— ‘ H ATLANTA and CINCINNATI Southern Railway Lv. Atlanta * 6:60 a.m. 6:00 p.m. Lv. Chattanooga 10:40 a. m. 10:10 p. m. Ar. Cincinnati 9:20 p.m. 8:20 a.m. IOUGH PULLMAN, PARLOR CARS AND DAY COACHES. DINING CARS ON ALL TRAINS.