There was a certain upright man, a servant of the Lord, traveling in a far country among strangers. And when the Sabbath was come, he arose early in the morning saying, "I will go into the house of the Lord and worship Him, with thanksgiving and prayer. And perchance I will meet with others of like faith who also love the Lord, and my heart will be satisfied, for I will no longer be among- strangers."
And so the servant of the Lord walked through the streets of the strange city until he saw people gathering together in a church. And he went in also and sat himself down among the other worshipers.
And when a song had been sung and a scripture read, the superintendent of the meeting called attention to some charts that showed the progress of the different classes in raising money to reach the goal in the Sabbath school investment plan. And he urged the members to bring more money, so that the Sabbath school would reach its goal and keep up its enviable standing among the churches in the conference.
And after a time the members were divided into classes, and an offering was taken. The teacher counted the money from the envelope and then passed it around again a second time, urging that the members give so that the class goal would be reached. And scarcely had the class begun to discuss the lesson when they were interrupted by the home missionary secretary, who came with Lesson Quarterlies, various religious papers, and books that had been ordered.
Some of the members paid for their Quarterlies, renewed their subscriptions to the papers, or ordered some of the good books, and paid the secretary for them.
When the lesson study was over, the superintendent announced, "We have not reached our goal in offerings today. We need seven dollars and eighty-three cents more. How many of you will give one dollar toward it? We must reach our goal."
When the money was raised, they sang a song and Sabbath school was dismissed. But as our visitor reverently waited for the next service to begin, the church treasurer was walkin., around among the members handing out tithe receipts and taking care of other business.
There followed a short service in which the missionary secretary informed the church that they had not yet reached their goal in the number of Signs they should take; then he raised money so that they would not be behind the other churches.
Soon the ministers entered, as music was being played, and all the members bowed their heads in worship. And after a short prayer had been offered, one of the church elders made numerous and prolonged announcements, ending these by spending several minutes asking who would furnish cars to take the members out to raise Ing-athering funds to help reach the church's goal.
When he had finished, another elder arose to receive the morning offering. But before he passed the collection plates to the deacons, he read several striking quotations which urged that all the tithes be given, and suggested what was in store for those who failed to give liberally.
There followed a beautiful song and a prayer, and then the minister arose and read for his text the words, "Freely ye have received, freely give." After a short sermon, in which he stressed the blessings of giving willingly and cheerfully to the Lord, the minister displayed an enormous chart divided into many squares. The rest of the hour was spent in getting different church members to volunteer to be responsible for raising the money represented by five squares, or three squares, or one square, in order to help reach the church goal.
Finally, when the time to close had long passed, the minister said, "I am sorry to keep you here, brethren and sisters, but we are not going to close until every square has been taken." After more urging people volunteered, and all the squares were filled. The service closed with the pastor's complimenting the members on always reaching their goals.
And the visitor who came to worship God went away, still a stranger, with the feeling that he had received a stone when he asked for bread. The one spiritual lesson that he recalled was from the Sabbath school lesson which had been about Jesus cleansing the temple of the money-changers.
"What would Jesus have done had He visited that church with me today?" mused the stranger. "Would that the church were rid of the money changers today! Not that I am not willing to give to the Lord. I love to give, but I would gladly give much more if I were led to worship Him more reverently." And he went away sorrowful because he had not partaken in the true worship of the Lord.
