COMMITTEE SOCIABILITY

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, Cal. · Apr 2, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 14.

COMMITTEE SOCIABILITY.

My friend Lapham was telling a few of us last evening how he got on, when he first came to the city, in trying to find a pleasant church home. It was in the suburbs, and as he entered the church door, he was met in a friendly way by four young men, who took him by the hand, and said, one after another: “I’m glad to see you. Come again.” That sounded attractive, and seemed a good omen of a speedy acquaintance. The next morning the four young men were on the train with him going into the city to business, but not one of them noticed him; and the same thing occurred every day that week, going into town and out again. But, thinking that they might not have recognized him as the same young man they had welcomed at church, he went again the following Sunday, and was met by them all with the same greeting: “I’m glad to see you. Come again;” and, as before, not one of them spoke to him on the train that week. So he tried it the third Sunday, by way of seeing how long that sort of thing would last, with precisely the same experience,—“I’m glad to see you. Come again,” and no recognition in the station or on the train on Monday. So, seeing one of them sitting alone that morning, and being a good deal piqued by the way things were going, he went forward and volunteered a little conversation on his own account. “Excuse me,” said he, “but I feel like asking you a question. For three Sundays now I have been at your church, and you have said each time: ‘I’m glad to see you. Come again,’ but during the week you do not seem to know me. Doesn’t that strike you as a trifle odd?” “I suppose it does,” the young man replied, “tho I hadn’t thought of it. Next Sunday I’ll try to say something different.”—The Advance.