Feasting for Christ's Sake.
By Editor
THE California Christian Advocate comes to the rescue of the church festival, in the following style: "The Signs of the Times grows pathetic over a supper held at the First Methodist church for the purpose of raising money for a purely benevolent purpose. There is no harm in a supper and a good, social time. It may cost every cent of the twenty-five cents charged for the supper; yet, coming together for better acquaintance, for Christ's sake, is an advantage." We call attention to this, because it illustrates that which we condemned,—a spirit that is getting to be so common in the church, to dignify self-indulgence with the name of "charity." It is a natural result of the so prevalent notion that the chief object of religion is to make men "happy." We believe in sociability, but we do not believe that it is the duty of the church to provide "amusement" for either young or old. We have never claimed that there is any harm in a supper, nor in any other meal, providing the viands are wholesome, and the partakers are in need of food, and do not gorge themselves; but we do protest against the custom of stuffing one's self for a "purely benevolent purpose," or having a "good, social time," and calling it philanthropy. It is a sad comment on the times, that in order to get the mass of people, young and old, to engage in anything like a religious or benevolent act, it must be sugar-coated so that not the slightest particle of self-denial shall be tasted. In our article we allowed ten cents profit on each twenty-five-cent meal. The Advocate, better posted in such affairs, says that it may cost "every cent of the twenty-five cents charged for it," yet it is "an advantage," because it is for a "purely benevolent purpose!" If that was the case with the supper in question, we fail to see the advantage to the old lady who needed assistance. The Advocate, however, is critical. It doubtless uses the word "benevolent" in its strict etymological sense, "wishing well." Much of such benevolence, however, consists in wishing well to one's self, rather than to others. We commend the words of James: "If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you [or the whole church] say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body [because the supper absorbed all the money]; what doth it profit?"