1903
An Unfamiliar Text
But It Was a Forcible Illustration of a Great Truth
Several years ago there labored in one of the western villages of Minnesota a preacher who was always in the habit of selecting his texts from the Old Testament and particularly some portion of the history of Noah. No matter what the occasion was, he would always find some parallel incident from the history of this great character that would readily serve as a text or illustration.
At one time he was called upon to unite the daughter of the village mayor and a prominent attorney in the holy bonds of matrimony. Two little boys, knowing his determination to give them a portion of the sacred history touching Noah's marriage, hit upon the novel idea of pasting together two leaves in the family Bible so as to connect, without any apparent break, the marriage of Noah and the description of the ark.
When the noted guests were all assembled and the contracting parties with attendants in their respective stations, the preacher began the ceremonies by reading the following text: "And when Noah was one hundred and forty years old he took unto himself a wife," then, turning the page, he continued, "300 cubits in length, 50 cubits in width and 30 cubits in depth and within and without besmeared with pitch."
The story seemed a little strong, but he could not doubt the Bible, and, after reading it once more and reflecting a moment, he turned to the startled assemblage with these remarks, "My beloved brethren, this is the first time in the history of my life that my attention has been called to this important passage of the Scriptures, but it seems to me that it is one of the most forcible illustrations of that grand eternal truth that the nature of woman is exceedingly difficult to comprehend. — Starlight Messenger.
Showing posts with label boys. Show all posts
Showing posts with label boys. Show all posts
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Church to Send Pastors' Wives Away to School
1922
(By the Associated Press)
MARSHAL, Tex., May 4. — Rural and town churches in the south-west are planning to send the wives of the pastors to the summer school for Town and Country pastors conducted by the Department of Rural Work of the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension of the Methodist Episcopal church at Wiley University, here, May 1-20. A special course is to be given in the interest of pastor's wives and many of the churches are paying the expenses of wives in order that they may get this scientific and expert knowledge.
For the instruction of the pastors and their wives the following subjects are to be discussed: "The Parsonage and the Pastor's Wife," "Making the Parsonage Beautiful on the Outside and the Inside," "Making the Parsonage Healthy," "The Woman's Pocketbook — Who has it?" "The Spirit of Cooperation in the Home," "Organizing the Parsonage Home," "The Pastor's Wife a Home Maker," "The Parsonage Bad Boy," and "The Parsonage Bad Boy — Later on."
The preachers are also to be instructed in sermon building.
—The Ada Evening News, Ada, Oklahoma, May 6, 1922, p. 5.
(By the Associated Press)
MARSHAL, Tex., May 4. — Rural and town churches in the south-west are planning to send the wives of the pastors to the summer school for Town and Country pastors conducted by the Department of Rural Work of the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension of the Methodist Episcopal church at Wiley University, here, May 1-20. A special course is to be given in the interest of pastor's wives and many of the churches are paying the expenses of wives in order that they may get this scientific and expert knowledge.
For the instruction of the pastors and their wives the following subjects are to be discussed: "The Parsonage and the Pastor's Wife," "Making the Parsonage Beautiful on the Outside and the Inside," "Making the Parsonage Healthy," "The Woman's Pocketbook — Who has it?" "The Spirit of Cooperation in the Home," "Organizing the Parsonage Home," "The Pastor's Wife a Home Maker," "The Parsonage Bad Boy," and "The Parsonage Bad Boy — Later on."
The preachers are also to be instructed in sermon building.
—The Ada Evening News, Ada, Oklahoma, May 6, 1922, p. 5.
Monday, May 7, 2007
Pastor Has Pretty Girls for Ushers: Attendance, Giving Up
1897
Girls Fill The Church
Pretty Ushers Prove a Paying Move at Trenton, N.J.
Rev. Maurice Penfield Fikes, of the First Baptist church, Trenton, N. J., has astonished religious circles by introducing in his church a novel feature in the form of girl ushers, whose business it is to take up the collections as well as to show church attendants to seats.
Mr. Fikes advertised the fact that there would be girl ushers in the church, and it was incidentally announced that in selecting care would be taken to pick out half a dozen, of the prettiest maidens in the congregation. The announcement was sufficient to draw to the church recently such an attendance of young men as was never there before.
Every seat in the church was filled long before services were begun, and it was necessary to set chairs in the aisles to accommodate the crowd. As ushers the girls were a grand success, but their best service was given when the time came to take up the collection. Pastor Fikes, prior to the time for starting the girls out with the contribution boxes, announced that the Lord loves a cheerful giver and said that he who gave to a church invested his money in an institution that was better than a savings bank. "Give freely and cheerfully," said he, "and the Lord, as well as these good girls, will appreciate it." The contribution was the largest ever taken in the church.
—Dubuque Daily Herald, Dubuque, IA, Dec. 4, 1897, p. 7.
Girls Fill The Church
Pretty Ushers Prove a Paying Move at Trenton, N.J.
Rev. Maurice Penfield Fikes, of the First Baptist church, Trenton, N. J., has astonished religious circles by introducing in his church a novel feature in the form of girl ushers, whose business it is to take up the collections as well as to show church attendants to seats.
Mr. Fikes advertised the fact that there would be girl ushers in the church, and it was incidentally announced that in selecting care would be taken to pick out half a dozen, of the prettiest maidens in the congregation. The announcement was sufficient to draw to the church recently such an attendance of young men as was never there before.
Every seat in the church was filled long before services were begun, and it was necessary to set chairs in the aisles to accommodate the crowd. As ushers the girls were a grand success, but their best service was given when the time came to take up the collection. Pastor Fikes, prior to the time for starting the girls out with the contribution boxes, announced that the Lord loves a cheerful giver and said that he who gave to a church invested his money in an institution that was better than a savings bank. "Give freely and cheerfully," said he, "and the Lord, as well as these good girls, will appreciate it." The contribution was the largest ever taken in the church.
—Dubuque Daily Herald, Dubuque, IA, Dec. 4, 1897, p. 7.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Ship's Boy Gets Sacred Black Cat from Hindu Temple
1912
SHIP'S BOY GETS SACRED BLACK CAT
Strays Into Hindoo Temple at Bombay and Escapes with Life and Feline.
SOMETHING HIT HIM
Daring Apprentice of Tramp Steamer Who Went in Search of Adventure at an Indian Port Had Plenty of Excitement
Philadelphia.—A daring apprentice who had the audacity to steal into a Hindoo temple and kidnap a sacred cat is the tale that a tramp steamer brings to this port.
The apprentice, Albert Berrige, passed behind the veil of one of the most sacred temples of the Hindoos in Bombay, saw with his Caucasian eyes the great idols and returned to the outer world with the sacred cat. The cat once bore, no doubt, a strange Indian name, but since joining the tramp ship the sacred feline has been dubbed Tommy. Tommy is as black as the conscience of a bigamist and is not very different from other cats. Black cats bring good luck to ships that plough the seven seas, so Tommy is held in great esteem. While Berrige's ship swung at her anchor off "The City of the Dreadful Night," as Kipling has called Bombay, the towering domes of the Hindoo temples kindled Albert's imagination, and he chafed at the bit until he had obtained shore leave.
"Be back by sundown, young man," ordered the captain as the apprentice went over the side about midday. There was so much to interest Albert that he forgot altogether the captain's injunction to be back by sundown. Darkness had enveloped the city when Albert reached one of the Hindoo temples, probably the most sacred in all Bombay.
"It was all dark and scary in that temple," said the apprentice in telling of his adventure. "There were big pillars all round with the most scary looking carvings you ever saw. I got behind one of these pillars all by myself and tried to see what was going on. Away off in the distance I saw some lights burning in front of a row of big idols that looked like huge monkeys. The Hindoos who were coming into the temple were making their way toward those idols, bowing and sort of sing-songing. They were so busy in their worship of the big gilded monkeys and things that they would not have seen me if I had been on fire.
"I was so encouraged by my success in getting to the front, near the big show, that I kept on the move through the dark. Suddenly, as I tiptoed along, I put my foot down on something soft. The next thing I knew there came a yowl and screech that made my backbone feel as though a bolt of lightning was running up and down it. The sing-song and the moaning had ceased. There was absolute silence for a moment.
"Suddenly I felt something hit me in the middle of the back. Then I felt sharp claws digging into my hide. The next instant I was traveling like a meteor toward the temple entrance and every manjack of these Hindoos in pursuit.
"When I reached the door two husky Hindoos jumped in front of me. I lowered my head and struck one of them amidships. He went down with a gulp like a man swallowing his adam's apple. I dodged the other fellow and jumped and half tumbled down the steps from the temple doorway. When I hit the street I kept up my running. The Hindoos were soon distanced. I must have run for a mile with that cat clawing at my spinal column. Then when I got up a dark street I stopped and tried to dislodge the cat. I finally had to take off my coat to get the beast to release his claws.
"When I got Mr. Cat into my arms he was as docile as you please and purred in real cat fashion. So I says to myself, 'It's a black cat and that means good luck, so I'll take him on board.' I had some explaining why I was so late, but I had the cat to prove my adventure in the temple and the old man let it go at that."
—Stevens Point Daily Journal, Stevens Point, Wisconsin, October 21, 1912, page 3.
Clergyman Refuted: Teddy Bears Don't Kill Maternal Instinct
1907
THE MATERNAL INSTINCT
A Chicago clergyman, who frankly states his belief that sensationalism is a good thing for the church, has hired a brass band to play at intervals during the service. Another clergyman, with apparently the same ideals but less nerve — he doesn't live in Chicago — shouts vehemently to a waiting world to beware the "Teddy bear," it promotes race suicide by killing the maternal instinct in little girls. As between these two we vastly prefer the brass band disciple as the more straightforward as well as intelligent of the two.
As for the maternal instinct, we have not supposed it was so slight and weak a thing as to be endangered by the most formidable assaults of the "Teddy bear," even though assisted by all the other animals of Noah's ark. In fact the maternal instinct seems to have resisted for many generations all the little girlish, as well as little boyish, fondness for all the animals that went in two by two.
The maternal instinct appears indeed a pretty comprehensive and pretty reliable thing, about as comprehensive and reliable as any feeling of emotion in unstable humanity.
It is also very generally and generously distributed among women, being by no means confined to those who are the actual mothers of children.
In mothers it is not confined to their own children, but reaches to all other children as well. It is not even confined to children, since the love which women feel for men is largely maternal. Often women have the same brooding tenderness for animals, especially if they are sick or suffering, or even for plants and flowers.
Kill a little girl's tenderness by giving her a "Teddy bear" to fondle? Ridiculous! A little girl will mother a "Teddy bear" just as naturally as she will mother some rags or a bit of china in the shape of a doll, or a kitten, or a little green frog, or a really, truly, baby, or anything else animate or inanimate that happens to appeal to her. And her fondness and care for any of these develops, instead of destroying her maternal instinct.
-The Waukesha Freeman, Waukesha, Wisconsin, July 11, 1907, page 4.
THE MATERNAL INSTINCT
A Chicago clergyman, who frankly states his belief that sensationalism is a good thing for the church, has hired a brass band to play at intervals during the service. Another clergyman, with apparently the same ideals but less nerve — he doesn't live in Chicago — shouts vehemently to a waiting world to beware the "Teddy bear," it promotes race suicide by killing the maternal instinct in little girls. As between these two we vastly prefer the brass band disciple as the more straightforward as well as intelligent of the two.
As for the maternal instinct, we have not supposed it was so slight and weak a thing as to be endangered by the most formidable assaults of the "Teddy bear," even though assisted by all the other animals of Noah's ark. In fact the maternal instinct seems to have resisted for many generations all the little girlish, as well as little boyish, fondness for all the animals that went in two by two.
The maternal instinct appears indeed a pretty comprehensive and pretty reliable thing, about as comprehensive and reliable as any feeling of emotion in unstable humanity.
It is also very generally and generously distributed among women, being by no means confined to those who are the actual mothers of children.
In mothers it is not confined to their own children, but reaches to all other children as well. It is not even confined to children, since the love which women feel for men is largely maternal. Often women have the same brooding tenderness for animals, especially if they are sick or suffering, or even for plants and flowers.
Kill a little girl's tenderness by giving her a "Teddy bear" to fondle? Ridiculous! A little girl will mother a "Teddy bear" just as naturally as she will mother some rags or a bit of china in the shape of a doll, or a kitten, or a little green frog, or a really, truly, baby, or anything else animate or inanimate that happens to appeal to her. And her fondness and care for any of these develops, instead of destroying her maternal instinct.
-The Waukesha Freeman, Waukesha, Wisconsin, July 11, 1907, page 4.
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