Chromo Christianity by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 14, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 31.

Chromo Christianity.

By Editor

DEALERS in tea, coffee and crockery, coax customers with chromos. Newspapers have done the same, but the whole thing is getting into disfavor. An editorial in the Baptist Weekly says also that "Chromo Christianity is not a success. The work and worship of a church should constitute its most potent attractions." Entertainments, oyster suppers, fairs, shooting galleries, and theatricals, are no more signs of real life in a society than are the ghastly contortions of a corpse when galvanized into motion. There is significance in the sneer of the novelist, Howells, who tells of the town Equity, where religion had ceased as a spiritual experience, and the salvation of the soul came to be regarded as "too depressing a theme" for young folks to consider. As a result they tried to draw them in by other attractions than those of religion. But as chromo subscribers do not stick, so our contemporary says the results of these religious devices are disappointing. Men are not to be coddled and cajoled. Religion is worth all it costs. Eternal life and eternal death are tremendous realities. Sin is not to be cast out by sweetmeats, nor are revivals the result of tea-parties. The social element of a church is best developed in the line of its legitimate work. Warm prayer-meetings, earnest Sunday-school and mission work, hearty congregational rehearsals or song-services, and other church fellowships, will infuse a permanent and cohesive life that no temporary schemes can create. Sensible men will not be slow to detect the difference between the reality and the counterfeit, between the healthful activity of genuine life and the temporary devices of a faltering, failing cause.