A Tell-Tale Illustration.
By Editor
A GOOD illustration of the lightness and frivolity of those who constitute "religious society" is given in the Christian at Work of November 25, by a disgusting illustration termed "A Thanksgiving Medley." In the upper part of this picture is a long table at the respective ends of which are seated a weeping father and mother turkey, while on each side of the table is a row of empty chairs; this production is entitled "The Desolate Household." It is astonishing that any one professing Christianity should publish such a hideous caricature on the ravages of death, and no one who has realized half the meaning of the words, a "desolate household," would be guilty of such mockery. On each side of this production are other ridiculous figures, one a plucked turkey on crutches, and another a turkey on a bicycle—sketches worthy of a fourth-rate hoodlum comic paper. But the central picture of the group is particularly objectionable. It represents one of the "Christians at work," we suppose, pulling a wish-bone out of a woman's mouth with his teeth. It would not be surprising to see such an exhibition in the Police Gazette, but it is surprising that a paper bearing the name "Christian" should fall so low. If this is to be taken as a standard of Christian propriety, can we wonder that indecent pictures are flaunted in the face of the public everywhere? This picture is well called "A Thanksgiving Medley," and is a good illustration of the real spirit that underlies this festival. Thanksgiving has come to be synonymous with "gormandizing" and is supposed to be an excuse for revelry and surfeiting. But they that do such things "serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple" (Rom. 16:18); and are "enemies of the cross of Christ; whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is their shame, who mind earthly things." Phil. 3:18, 19.