'How are things going in your church?

How are things going in your church?

The question was asked of two church officers, " How are things going in your church? " The first spoke discouragingly. The church to which he belonged seemed dead, he said. The attendance was not large. The Sunday school had fallen off. The prayer meetings were only a handful. The men in the membership appeared indifferent.

Even the pastor did not seem as enthusiastic as he used to be. The whole tone of the man's talk was pessimistic. There was not a glad, cheerful, thankful word in all he said.

The other man, to the same question, answered with enthusiasm. The meetings were full. The pastor was working with earnestness and hope. Everybody was eager to work. A tone of thanksgiving ran through all his words.

A church with such sunshiny people will have twice the success and blessing that a church can have whose people are gloomy, disheartened, and hopeless.

But it is not in religious life and work only, that there is so much lack of cheer and hope. In all lines of life, one finds the same spirit. In many homes there is almost an entire absence of the thanksgiving spirit. A shadow rests on all the life.

There is an immense amount of whining heard. Nothing is quite satisfactory. There is little singing. The quest seems to be for faults and mistakes, something to blame and condemn.

How much better it would be, how much more of Heaven we would get into our homes if we would train ourselves to find the beautiful things and good things in each other, and in all our experiences and circumstances!

Anybody can find fault — it takes no genius to do this. Genius is far better shown in finding something to praise and commend in imperfect people, in hard conditions.

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