A Novel Party by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 15, 1883

"A Novel Party."

By Editor

"In Colusa last week a novel method was taken to raise money for the church. A basket party was held in a hall, and the ladies each made up a basket or box of good things to eat. The donor's name was inside the basket, and all were auctioned off to the male members of the audience. One of the conditions was that each purchaser should invite the lady whose name was found inside the package to eat with him. It was amusing to perambulate the hall after the sales closed and see here an old married man dining with some beautiful young lady. He would be eating very leisurely, while, perhaps, his wife across the way was bound under the law to lunch with some horrid old bach or benedict whose beauty had long since flown. She would cast a few glances at the partner of her bosom, and then gulp hers down rapidly. And then you would see some young fellow couched over a lunch with a girl not of his choice, while a short distance, perhaps, the darling of his life was feasting on cranberry sauce with the fellow of whom he had always been slightly jealous. So it went; but all ended well, and the crowd went home apparently happy."

Is this the work of the church of Christ? Does it come under "the great commission?" Is it missionary work, attracting the world to the purity of the gospel as the only means of salvation, or is it "feeding the flock," building it up in the most holy faith? Perhaps some of the religious papers which commend as a "working church," that church which holds the most successful festival, may be able to place the above somewhere in the work of the Christian church; we cannot.

There is a double shame connected with this thing. It is a shame that any church calling itself by the sacred name of Christ, should be guilty of such folly. And it is a shame that a body which will resort to such practices should be recognized as a church of Christ. By such things as this the cause of Christianity is brought into contempt before the world. We shall lose no opportunity to enter our protest against such wickedness in the church whereby the name and cause of Christ are dishonored.