Make them Feel at Home.
By John Harvey Kellogg
THE following paragraph, from the Methodist Recorder, contains some good advice; and it will apply just as well to the cases of strangers who do not come as members; strangers who, from interest, or even from curiosity, may visit our places of worship. When a church becomes established and the faces of regular attendants become familiar, then when a strange face is seen in the congregation that person should never be suffered to leave the threshold without a kindly greeting. If he is far from home he should be the guest of some member of the church for the day if circumstances permit. Our churches should ever be alive to do all kinds of missionary labor, and in this way the heart of strangers may often be touched, prejudice removed if any exists, and the seed be sown in fruitful ground. It would be profitable to most of us to carefully read all that the Lord has said about our treatment of strangers. "When strangers come into the church, either from the world to begin the new life, or with a certificate of membership from another communion, it becomes the duty of the members to recognize that stranger, and to welcome him, or her, into their fellowship. While the stranger has a hundred faces to learn, or five hundred, the church of the hundreds has but this one new name and face to learn, and therefore the chances are, that, while the stranger may sometimes mistake a name or face, or even neglect to speak, fearing an intrusion, the whole church will know the stranger wherever he may be seen, even in the twilight or in the crowd. And yet we hear persons who belong to citizen membership, and who ought to help the stranger into acquaintance, sometimes say chilling things of the one put to such disadvantages! The church which holds its new members off at arms' length, or frosts them over with criticism for backwardness, or lack of social grace, thereby chills himself and loses power which it needs for winning souls. Readers, if you would be fair and true to the stranger, meet him more than half way when he comes among you, and never be so cruel as to stand apart on your own dignity until that stranger feels at home. He will never feel at home while you willfully misunderstand the laws of Christian etiquette."