I just found this among my clippings while preparing a sermon. Thought someone might enjoy it.

If a man would be a soldier, he’d expect, of course to fight;
And he couldn’t be an author if he didn’t try to write.
So it isn’t common logic, doesn’t have a real true ring,
That a man to be a Christian doesn’t have to do a thing.

If a man would be a hunter, he must go among the trees;
And he couldn’t be a sailor, if he wouldn’t sail the seas.
How strange for any member of a church to think that he
Can stay from worship and a worthy member be!

When you join associations, you must pay up all your dues;
And you pay for all you purchase, from your hat down to your shoes.
There are social clubs for women, and the same for men and boys,
But the members all expect to pay for what each one enjoys.

Then how is it that the members of a church can sit in pews,
And expect some few to run it without others paying dues?
The costs of operations must be met in church the same
As in home or corporation or in work of any name.

Let us honestly consider why this difference we find,
Between our church relations and every other kind.
Our business obligations MUST be met, the laws provide;
But the church is not insistent, so we let the matter slide.

May we undertake our duties, for our Lord
With such measure of devotion as accords with His own Word.

In our human obligations thus are recognized, why then
Surely God should have our service now and evermore.
Amen.
—Rev. Henry Anstadt D. D.