Eutychus and His Kin: November 10, 1958

THANKSGIVING FARCE

Pastor Peterson is down again with a severe reaction. He is allergic to American holidays. This time Thanksgiving has him in trouble. He was asked to prepare the pageant for the Harvest Home Festival, and all went well until Mrs. Patience Alden Strauss, chairwoman of the Festival Committee, saw the dress rehearsal.

The curtain parted on three Thanksgiving tableaux arranged across the stage: Pilgrims on the way to church; a picture window view of an American family at dinner; and the home team float in the parade of Mohawk Bowl for the Big Game.

The band played a medley of Come, Ye Thankful People, Come; Hail, Hail, the Gang’s All Here; and On, Wisconsin. Mrs. Strauss thought that this completed the pageant and was applauding delightedly when the action started. The Pilgrims came alive, walked out of the woods, and gaped at the picture window.

A wonderfully confusing scene followed in which the Pilgrims gradually concluded that help should be found to seize this family of irreligious, bewitched heathen and commit them to stocks. The modern Americans had meanwhile decided that these Pilgrim actors were overdoing it, and directed them to the Mohawk Bowl parade, under threat of calling the police.

When the Pilgrims encountered the yelling Indians on the float, they bravely grouped for self-defense, and held their fire until the Mohawks made a hilarious charge with lifted tomahawks.

How the pageant was to have ended I don’t know. One of the Pilgrims had put too much powder in Judge Ronson’s old muzzle loader, and when it went off everything seemed to go up in smoke. After Judy Trout had stopped screaming and someone brought aromatic spirits for Mrs. Strauss, Pastor Peterson tried to defend his satirical fantasy. Mrs. Strauss admitted that the awkwardness of having Pilgrim visitors on Thanksgiving had been cleverly suggested. She thought the dialogue witty in the dining room scene, and she especially approved Uncle George’s speech explaining to the Pilgrims why an American Thanksgiving is above creeds and church-going. But she was offended by the implications of the “slapstick farce” that Thanksgiving has lost contact with the Pilgrim tradition. Her ancestors came on the Mayflower. Peterson cancelled the pageant but wished that every “Thanksgiving” farce could be called off—or transformed!

CALL TO ACTION

Let us take a look at the cold facts concerning the achievements and success of the Eighteenth Amendment during the Prohibition Era of 1920–1932: The breweries, distilleries and 177,000 saloons (all of them) were closed; according to Dr. Irving Fisher, author of book and highest authority on liquor problems, the consumption of liquor was reduced between 70 and 80%; the nation’s wealth was increased by more than $40,000,000,000.00; the number of savings depositors increased from 10,000,000 to 50,000,000; the number of automobile owners leaped from 7,000,000 to 26,000,000; Keeley Institutes for cure of alcoholics were closed; many jails and prisons were completely emptied; enrollment in high schools increased 65%, in colleges 75%; Christian churches made a gain in membership of 10,000,000. This constituted the most prosperous decade, economically and morally, in our national history. Informed industrialists, economists, sociologists, and political and religious authorities recognized this as the greatest reform ever accomplished in history in a similar length of time. Yet these gigantic strides were made while enforcement of the law was in the hands of its enemies, a leading distiller and a national administration which used all their powers to nullify rather than enforce the law!

That prohibition was a failure is one of the most colossal and unscrupulous falsehoods ever propagated by the forces of evil, yet their slogan has been repeated so long and so often that many uniformed people believe it.… The Eighteenth Amendment placed in the Constitution after a century of costly effort by 46 of our states, has been torn from the heart of the Constitution by the most unscrupulous forces and ruthless methods ever known to history, and 40 million of our citizens in about one-third of our states have been disfranchised by taking away their natural constitutional right to vote on the liquor problem by Local Option. No! It is not necessary to go through the long, difficult and costly work of adopting another Amendment to the Federal Constitution. Prohibition is already there in the second section of the Twenty-first Amendment, from which we quote: “The transportation and importation into any state, territory or possession of the United States for the delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.”

All that is necessary is that patriotic Americans become indignant enough to fight to a finish the battle to win back their natural right to vote on the subject and that Congress change the laws of enforcement so that they would conform to the intention of the Constitution. The law is there—all we have to do is to elect candidates who will not perjure themselves by the violation of their oath to “Preserve, protect and defend the Constitution,” but who will enforce its provisions. The Supreme Court long ago declared that the manufacture and sale of liquor is permitted only by suffrance and not as a right inherent of citizenship. The Constitution and the Supreme Court have declared themselves—when will the conscience of the people respond? Twenty-five per cent of the professed Christians of the United States have a political balance of power. If they would use it they could close up every liquor outlet in a very short time. The next move is up to the Christian Church!

Townville, Pa.

BEST SERMONS

In order to find the last few “best” sermons for inclusion in Volume VII of Best Sermons, I am sending this final call for sermon manuscripts.

If you have a sermon which you think represents you at your “best” in the pulpit, may I read it? I am still seeking the last few top sermons for inclusion.

Sermons can be on any topic, although I prefer them on strong, distinctly Christian themes—God, Christ, Salvation, Faith, the Gospel; fine evangelistic sermons, sermons on the Christian home, education, national life are very welcome.

The rules are simple: Sermons can be any length. Manuscripts cannot be returned because of clerical shortage. All sermons should be original. Please secure permissions for copyrighted quotations. Kindly enclose a 1-page biographical sketch.

Little Silver Point Road

Little Silver, N. J.

JEWISH CONVERTS

As a Hebrew Christian and missionary to my people, I was grateful for the article by Dr. Jacob Gartenhouse (Apr. 14 issue) and for your report on Jewish missions (Sept. 15 issue). It would be more than wonderful if it were so … that “Jewish missions are three and a half times more productive of converts than Christian missions as a whole.” In fairness to our brethren who work among the heathen, and in fairness to the Apostle Paul himself, it should be pointed out that the large majority of these converts are not directly the result of Jewish missions, but have joined Christian churches by assimilation, by intermarriage, and by the witness of church people, Christians who are not directly connected with any Jewish mission. Fair comparisons can be made either by comparing Jewish missions abroad with Christian missions abroad, or Jewish missions at home with Christian missions at home; the latter will have to include the witness of the church as a whole. [I hope] that this will rather encourage than discourage Christian laymen to witness to the brethren of the Lord after the flesh.

New York Messianic Witness Exec. Dir.

New York City

I do not see why Christians should concern themselves with evangelizing the Jews when there are millions of so-called Christians who should be converted to Christianity. If one is to reflect on the antics in the South with regard to school integration, one would arrive at the conclusion that there is a broad field for evangelization among millions of Christians. Why should one think that the Jew is not capable of looking after his own moral and spiritual health.

Danville, Va.

EDITORIAL EXPLANATION

Some readers have commented on the form of the text of the Edwards sermon which appeared for the first time in CHRISTIANITY TODAY (Sept. 15 issue). This does differ from editions of other sermons of the same preacher which have been published. This explanation of editorial policy, which is given in far greater detail in the forthcoming volume, Jonathan Edwards’ Sermons on Romans, is here submitted. This sermon was transcribed from manuscript as accurately as possible. There was very little punctuation, except that of Edwards himself. The sermon was apparently hastily written and not revised by its author, who never intended it for publication. The editor has refrained almost entirely from smoothing out the text, in order to give the reader as authentic a reading as possible. Furthermore, as indicated, the form presented in CHRISTIANITY TODAY was somewhat abbreviated.

Pittsburgh-Xenia Theological Seminary

Pittsburgh, Pa.

ONLY TEMPORARY

Two matters in Man’s “Glorious Destiny” (Sept. 15 issue) … caused a personal reaction.… You say that Socrates is a follower of Plato. If this is not a typographical inaccuracy, I am sure that it is only a temporary mental one.…

I agree wholeheartedly that the church is not called to debate over fossil remnants.… I do object to the possible intimation that the debate over fossil remnants should not be carried on at all. Although the church is not called to do this, certainly science is.…

First Church of the Nazarene

Summerside, Prince Edward Island

HELPING THE CAUSE

I feel sure that the periodical will do much to help the cause of Protestant religion, and make a valuable contribution to the extension of the kingdom of God. Kirkintilloch, Scotland

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