the Church
grieving the Spirit of God; it may be a mere schism in the church; it
may be some unsound doctrine; it may be some division in the Church.
There is one thing I have noticed as I have traveled in different
countries; I never yet have known the Spirit of God to work where the
Lord's people were divided. There is one thing that we must have if we
are to have the Holy Spirit of God to work in our midst, and that is
unity. If a church is divided, the members should immediately seek
unity. Let the believers come together and get the difficulty out of
the way. If the minister of a church can not unite the people, if
those that were dissatisfied will not fall in, it would be better for
that minister to retire. I think there are a good many ministers in
this country who are losing their time; they have lost, some of them,
months and years; they have not seen any fruit, and they will not see
any fruit, because they have a divided church. Such a church can not
grow in divine things. The Spirit of God don't work where there is
division, and what we want to-day is the spirit of unity amongst God's
children, so that the Lord may work.

WORLDLY AMUSEMENTS.

Then, another thing, I think, that grieves the Spirit, is the
miserable policy of introducing questionable entertainments. There are
the lotteries, for instance, that we have in many churches. If a man
wants to gamble, he doesn't have to go to some gambling den; he can stay
in the church. And there are fairs--bazaars, as they call them--where
they have rafflings and grab-bags. And if he wants to see a drama, he
don't need to go to the theater, for many of our churches are turned
into theaters; he may stay right in the church and witness the acting.
I believe all these things grieve the Spirit of God. I believe when we
bring the Church down to the level of the world to reach the world, we
are losing all the while and grieving the Spirit of God.

But some say, if we take that standard and lift it up high, it will
drive away a great many members from our churches. I believe it, and I
think the quicker they are gone the better. The world has come into
the Church like a flood, and how often you find an ungodly choir
employed to do the singing for the whole congregation; the idea that
we need an ungodly man to sing praises to God! It was not long ago I
heard of a church where they had an unconverted choir, and the
minister saw something about the choir that he didn't l