CHURCH ENTERTAINMENTS

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 27, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 21.

CHURCH ENTERTAINMENTS.

AFTER the Church of Rome had preached against the God-ordained law of the tithe, it found itself in the pitiable plight of poverty. To escape from the sad but inevitable consequences of its sin, it sought to replenish its empty coffers by introducing pilgrimages to its thousand shrines, with their bones of saints, sacred relics, and pretended miracles. The divine law was supplanted by the sale of indulgences, and giving as an act of worship found its place usurped by lotteries, festivals, shows, theaters, and every device by which priestcraft could extort money from a people who knew not the word of God.

It is only to be lamented that any of the Protestant churches have in any manner been given to the use of any of these pernicious plans for raising money. Too many of our churches which have been dedicated to the glory of God are desecrated by fairs, oyster suppers, dramas, tableaux, lectures, shows, exhibitions, and various other things which are really injurious to the financial as well as the spiritual prosperity of the church, although many think otherwise. Money is not valuable enough to be purchased at so ruinous a price, and the fewer worldly people we gather into the church by these unholy means the better for the church and for the world.

We know of no good reasons in favor of such entertainments, and some of the arguments against them might be briefly stated as follows:—

1. In proportion as they are more frequently used do they despoil the church of its spiritual power.

2. Those who labor faithfully for the success of the enterprise are apt to suffer from unkind speech, or unjust suspicion in the management of the affairs and finances.

3. In most cases they are employed by Christians who withhold from God that which he requires at their hands, while they seek to carry forward the work of the church by drawing the needed funds from "outsiders." They covet the wealth of the wicked, and seek opportunity to gain their influence and money. "Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God."

4. If not universally, yet quite generally, they alienate from the church some of its most useful members.

5. Whatever other effect these entertainments may have upon those who are not church members, they surely will not lead poor sinners to the cross of Christ.

6. The most worldly minded in the congregation are sure to desire and apt to succeed in being at the head of these entertainments, and, guard them as best we may, they are almost sure to introduce into them such features as are injurious to the best interests of the church. A disgusting song spoils the concert, a double-entendre the exhibition, cordials, cider, and cigars the picnic, a heterodox statement or irreligious sentiment the lecture—on and on, through the whole list, the devil is determined to be in somewhere, or his personal friends will denounce the pastor as an "old fogy," get enraged because they cannot have their own way, dismember the congregation, and then leave in disgust.

7. Last, but by no means the least of all the evils, is the undeniable fact that church

fairs, oyster suppers, and the whole round of church entertainments, are fatal to every impulse and principle of Christian benevolence.

—Lutheran Observer.