Corydon E. Fuller, in Reminiscences of James A. Garfield, described a period in which he (the author) was working with a school in Hambden, Ohio in 1851. In this “little village” that “enjoyed no past, and had no hope in the future,” there were two churches which he described in this way:
“The two churches stood like gladiators over against each other, shabby in their weather-beaten habiliments, faded and tattered by winter’s storms and summer’s heat. Without, they were forbidding and repulsive; within, the fires had grown cold upon their altars, and the worshipers had departed, save a few fossils who had come down from a former generation.”
If we do not remain diligent in the Lord’s service, our churches today can become just like these two in Hambden.