Church Entertainments Condemned
Commenting upon the popular “church entertainments” of the day, the Christian Advocate (New York), the leading Methodist paper of the United States, says that they are “but a sample of the degradation to which some societies in all churches have fallen. . . . In one Methodist church in the far West, at the last Christmas festivity in the nineteenth century, ‘Belshazzar’ was advertised to ‘spread an elaborate feast to his lords.’ In connection with the performance three young men were actually to appear in the fiery furnace. Twelve prizes were to be given to the queen’s maids. The king and his lords were to lead the guests to supper at 6 P. M., and the feast was to continue until ten, when the maids would come royally robed. After this the furnace would be heated, and the three men were to be represented as burned in it. . . . A more sacrilegious performance could hardly be imagined. Many of the worst foes Christianity has to encounter are its professed friends. By their conduct Christ is wounded in the house of His friends. Unless public enlightenment puts a stop to such things, within ten years, in many places it will become a serious question with all religious and thoughtful parents whether they can safely allow their children to go to Sunday-school or to a church where such vulgarity and irreverence are allowed.”