The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1893-03-21
CHURCH ENTERTAINMENT
Bob Layfield Gets After Them
With a Very Hot Stick.

a sensation in Kansas City
yesterday by jumping on tc
church entertainment at a meet
ing OF the Ministers Alliance. Hi:
remarks are well worth hearing, be
cause they bear the ear remarks o,
truth.
"There is many a dear child of God
who will work and sweat and bake
and boil and fry to prepare for our
church social. and woe be unto the
one that will say that her salad was
fat, her chicken was tough, or her
cake dry and heavy! And 1 suppose
we all know of cases where the pro-
fessed children of God have ceased to
speak one to another because her cake
had been made light at the church
social. believe there are many who
see no harm in making a kitchen, a
restaurant Oh an entertainment hall
out of the house of God. But it is q
good deal in the way person has
been brought up.
Gas a rule it is not the spiritual
portion of flock who are the ring
leaders and planners of the average
church entertainment. They are gen.
orally the mixed multitude who have
crept into the protesting church and
have brought in with them their
Egyptian ways and who long for the
leeks and onions of the worldly life.
1t is generally Madame Bubble and
her family who are at the bottom of
it-Miss Pride, Miss Worldymind and
Miss Giddy, assisted by Mr.. Dull,
Mr.. Dummy, Mr.. Ignorance and Mr..
Feeblemind. These people are the
thorns in the flesh Of many a godly
pastor. These, as a rule, form the
committee chosen to arrange a pro-
gramme that pleases the world and
worldly minded and who grieve the
spirit Of God
Secondly, Mr.. Layfield said. the
average church entertainment desc
Grated the house of God. The fire on
the altar had been exchanged for the
fire in the cook stove. The Savior
ssid MY house shall be called of all
nations the house OF prayer, but We
have made it den of thieves" when
He drove the money changers out of
the temple. Some may say: 1--WE
do not hold the socials in the church.
We hold them in the church parlors."
at is all one church, said Mr..
Layfeld, when We come to take out
a fire insurance policy We all know
that the social is better attended than
the prayer meeting"
Ii was not a sign of growth to build
a church with kitchen department.
This amusement heresy, this cook
stove appendix, was a sad sign Of the
times. The cook stove and entertain
ment departments we're to the church
what the ball, the theater and card
parties were to the world. They were
sources Of pleasure and revenue, and
served to feed the flesh which Paul
said We must keep under. What
would Christ say if He came into a
modern church as He heard the bois-
ferrous laugh of the wording calling
for another plate of ice cream and
saw how quickly the hand maidens
glided from chair to chair to supply
the empty plates and gather in the
dimes and quarters to pay the preach
ers salary or help pay for the new
steeple or pipe organ.
The church entertainment misrep-
resented the church of Christ, held
Mr.. Layfeld, and among other things
on this point he said:
1.-The church is not left in the world
as money making organization. 1t
is not left in the world to entertain
and please men with mandolin clubs,
negro concerts, unsaved heather choirs
and broom drills, fish ponds and neck
tie socials. 1t is not left in the world
to entertain people who are in open
rebellion against God and His Christ,
and who are condemned already. 1t
is not left in the midst of a crooked
and pervers generation to retail oys-
tiers, and ice cream. 1t is not left in
the world to erect costly church build
in rs in which a poor man feels out of
place, and then, in order to pay for
them to have shows, lectures, teasts
and 10 cent socials.
Friends, is it!not.. true that a GER
tain church in this town, at their en-
tertainment, large, feshy mar was
dressed in women's clothes for the
amusement of those present, l. it
not true that at another social the
mandolin club favored the audience
with the world'r WORKOUT 'Boom-de-
ave- and sAnnle Ronney'--and all this