p. 336 | Go-to-Church Sunday by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jun 2, 1914

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 41, No. 21.

Go-to-Church Sunday

By Editor

WE have had our great agitation over a special go-to-church Sunday. On that particular Sunday every man, woman, and child in the United States was not only invited, but was strongly urged, to attend some place of public worship. The idea seems to have started in a little suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio, and it has spread like the proverbial "wild fire" all through the country.

It is becoming more and more common to get something of this sort started and then try to have it carried everywhere on waves of enthusiasm. Enthusiasm, whether in waves or not, is very valuable, but enthusiasm is by no means all there is to Christianity.

The trouble with our churches in these times is that they do not have a definite message. So many of them are seeking to make their houses of worship social centers, following the club idea. "Social centers," clubs, sports, and games may all be very well for people who are looking merely for a good time; but if the church is in the world for anything, it is not that it may guide people in having a good time or seeking ways of amusement, but that it may point the way of salvation. We all know that this life is very transitory and that it soon passes by. The church, therefore, has a serious work—that of arousing people to the need of preparing to meet God at the bar of the eternal Judgment.

There may be no harm in spasmodic efforts to try to arouse people to attend church one day out of the year. Possibly some good may come of it. But our work as Christians is to be just as earnest every day in the year as our energies will permit, in seeking and saving that which is lost.