CHAPTER XXIII
FAIRS AND ENTERTAINMENTS
The Temple Fairs. How They are Planned. Their Religious Aim.
Appointment of Committees. How the Committees Work. The Church
Entertainments. Their Character.
Not only does the church work in a hundred ways through its regular organizations to advance the spiritual life of its members and the community, but once every year, organization fences are taken down and as a whole and united body, it marches forward to a great fair. The Temple fairs are famous. They form an important feature of church life, and an important date in the church calendar.
"The true object of a church fair should be to strengthen the church, to propagate the Gospel, and to bring the world nearer to its God." That is Dr. Conwell's idea of the purpose of a church fair and the basic principle on which The Temple fairs are built. They always open on Thanksgiving Day, the anniversary of Dr. Conwell's coming to the church and continue for ten days or two weeks thereafter. These fairs are most carefully planned. The membership, of course, know that a fair is to be held; but before any definite information of the special fair coming, is given them, a strong foundation of systematic, careful preparation is laid. In the early summer, before Dr. Conwell leaves for his two months' rest at his old home in the Berkshires, he and the deaconess of the church go over the ground, decide on the executive committee and call it together. Officers are elected, Dr. Conwell always being appointed president and the deaconess, as a rule, secretary. The whole church membership is then carefully studied, and every member put at work upon some committee, a chairman for the committee being appointed at the same time. A notice of their appointment, the list of their fellow workers, and a letter from the pastor relative to the fair are then sent to each. Usually these lists are prepared and forwarded from Dr. Conwell's summer home. The chief purpose of the fair, that of saving souls, is ever kept in view. The pastor in his letter to each member always lays special stress on it. Quoting from one such letter, he says:
"The religious purpose is to consolidate our church by a more extensive and intimate acquaintance with each other, and to enlarge the circle of social influence over those who have not accepted Christ.
"This enterprise being undertaken for the service of Christ, each church member is urged to enter it with earnest prayer, and to use every opportunity to direct the attention of workers and visitors to spiritual things.
"Each committee should have its prayer circle or a special season set apart for devotional services. This carnival being undertaken for the spiritual good of the church, intimate friends and those who have hitherto worked together are especially requested to separate on this occasion and work with new members, forming a new circle of acquaintances.
"Do not seek for a different place unless it is clear that you can do much more in another position, for they honor God most who take up His work right where they are and do faithfully the duty nearest to them.
"Your pastor prays earnestly that this season of work, offering, and pleasure may be used by the Lord to help humanity and add to the glory of His Kingdom on earth."
This is the tenor of the letters sent each year. This is the purpose held ever before the workers.
Each committee is urged to meet as soon as possible, and, as a rule, the chairman calls a meeting within a week after the receipt of the list. Each committee upon meeting elects a president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer, which, together with the original executive committee, form the executive committee of the fair.
During the summer and fall, until the opening of the fair, these various committees work to secure contributions or whatever may be needed for the special work they have been appointed to do. If they need costumes, or expensive decorations for the booths, they give entertainments to raise the money. All this depends upon the character of the fair in general. Sometimes it is a fair in the accepted sense of the word, devoted to the selling of such goods as interested friends and well-wishers have contributed. At other times it takes on special significance. At one fair each committee represented a country, the members dressed in the costume of its people, the booth so far as possible was typical of a home, or some special building. Such products of the country as could be obtained were among the articles sold or exhibited.
Every committee meeting is opened with prayer, and each night during the fair a prayer meeting is held. In addition, a committee is appointed to look after the throng of strangers visiting the fair, and whenever possible, to get them to register in a book kept especially for that purpose at the entrance. To all those who sign the register, a New Year's greeting is sent as a little token of recognition and appreciation of their help.
Much of the great tide of membership that flows into the church comes through the doors of these church fairs. The fairs are really revival seasons. They are practical illustrations of how a working church prays, and a praying church works. Christianity has on its working clothes. But it is Christianity none the less, outspoken in its faith, fearless in its testimony, full of the love that desires to help every man and woman to a higher, happier life.
The church entertainments form another important feature of church life. Indeed, from the first of September until summer is well started, few weekday nights pass but that some religious service or some entertainment is taking place in The Temple. In the height of the season, it is no uncommon thing for two or three to be given in various halls of The Temple on one evening. An out-of-town man attending a lecture at the Lower Temple, and seeing the throngs of people pouring in at various entrances, asked the custodian of the door if there were a rear entrance to the auditorium.
"Here's where you go in for the lecture," was the reply. "There are two other entertainments on hand this evening in the halls of the Lower Temple. That's where those people are going."
In regard to church fairs and entertainments, Dr. Conwell said in a sermon in 1893:
"The Lord pity any church that has not enough of the spirit of Christ in it to stand a church fair, wherein devout offerings are brought to the tithing-house in the spirit of true devotion; the Lord pity any church that has not enough of the spirit of Jesus in it to endure or enjoy a pure entertainment. Indeed, they are subjects for prayer if they cannot, without quarrels, without fightings, without defeat to the cause of Christ, engage in the pure and innocent things God offers to His children."
And in an address on "The Institutional Church," he says:
"The Institutional church of the future will have the best regular lecture courses of the highest order. There will be about them sufficient entertainment to hold the audience, while at the same time they give positive instruction and spiritual elevation. Every church of Christ is so sacred that it ought to have within its walls anything that helps to save souls. If an entertainment is put into a church for any secular purpose—simply to make money—that church will be divided; it will be meshed in quarrels, and souls will not be saved there. There must be a higher end; as between the church and the world we must use everything that will save and reject everything that will injure. This requires careful and close attention. You must keep in mind the question, 'Will Jesus come here and save souls?' Carefully eliminate all that will show irreverence for holy things or disrespect for the church. Carefully introduce wherever you can the direct teachings of the Gospel, and then your entertainments will be the power of God unto salvation. The entertainments of the church need to be carefully guarded, and, if they are, then will the church of the future control the entertainments of the world. The theatre that has its displays of low and vulgar amusement will not pay, because the churches will hold the best classes, and for a divine and humane purpose will conduct the best entertainments. There will be a double inducement that will draw all classes. The Institutional church of the future will be free to use any reasonable means to influence men for good."
The Temple, as can be seen, believes in good, pure, elevating amusements. But every entertainment to be given is carefully considered. In such a vast body of workers, many of them young and inexperienced, this is necessary. By a vote of the church, every programme to be used in any entertainment in The Temple must first be submitted to the Board of Deacons. What they disapprove cannot be presented to the congregation of Grace Church under any circumstance.
The concerts and oratorios of the chorus are of the very highest order and attract music lovers from all parts of the city and nearby towns. The other entertainments in the course of a year cover such a variety of subjects that every one is sure to find something to his liking. Among the lectures given in one year were:
"Changes and Chances," by Dr. George C. Lorimer.
"The Greek Church," by Charles Emory Smith.
"Ancient Greece," by Professor Leotsakos, of the University of Athens.
An illustrated lecture on the Yellowstone Park, by Professor George L.
Maris.
"Work or How to Get a Living," by Hon. Roswell G. Horr.
"Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," by Rev. Robert Nourse, D.D.
"Backbone," by Rev. Thomas Dixon.
The other entertainments that season included selections from "David Copperfield," by Leland T. Powers; readings by Fred Emerson Brooks, concerts by the Germania Orchestra, the Mendelssohn Quintette Club of Boston and the Ringgold Band of Reading, Pennsylvania; a "Greek Festival," tableaux, by students of Temple College; "Tableaux of East Indian Life," conducted by a returned missionary, Mrs. David Downie; "Art Entertainment," by the Young Women's Association; concert by the New York Philharmonic Club; and many entertainments by societies of the younger people, music, recitations, readings, debates, suppers, excursions, public debates, class socials. The year seems to have been full of entertainments, teas, anniversaries, athletic meetings, "cycle runs," gymnasium exhibitions, "welcomes," "farewells," jubilees, "feasts." But every year is the same.
A single society of the church gave during one winter a series of entertainments which included four lectures by men prominent in special fields of work, four concerts by companies of national reputation, and an intensely interesting evening with moving pictures.
"We are often criticised as a church," said Mr. Conwell, in an address, "by persons who do not understand the purposes or spirit of our work. They say, 'You have a great many entertainments and socials, and the church is in danger of going over to the world.' Ah, yes; the old hermits went away and hid themselves in the rocks and caves and lived on the scantiest food, and 'kept away from the world,' They were separate from the world. They were in no danger of 'going over to the world.' They had hidden themselves far away from man. And so it is in some churches where in coldness and forgetfulness of Christ's purpose, of Christ's sacrifice, and the purpose for which the church was instituted, they withdraw themselves so far from the world that they cannot save a drowning man when he is in sight—they cannot reach down to him, the distance is too great—the life line is too short. Where are the unchurched masses of Philadelphia to-day? Why are they not in the churches at this hour? Because the church is so far away. The difference that is found between the church which saves and that which does not is found in the fact that the latter holds to the Pharisaical profession that the church must keep itself aloof from the people—yes, from the drowning thousands who are going down to everlasting ruin—to be forever lost. The danger is not now so much in going over to the world as in going away from it—away from the world which Jesus died to save—the world which the church should lead to Him."
In all these entertainments, the true mission of the church is never forgotten—that mission which its pastor so earnestly and often says is "not to entertain people. The church's only thought should be to turn the hearts of men to God."