The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-02-03
incentives To Church-going.

There have been many attempts to
make Christianity attractive, or what
many people consider the same thing,
to insure regulir attendance at church.
Perhaps recent device of metropolitan
journals, whih have this good thing
about them, that they emake even the
service of the higher life contribute to
circulation" will work to this end.
This device isnothing more nor less
than detailed descriptions on Monday of
the new and fascinating toilets at
church on Sunday. These are to some
people more attractive reading than the
reports of sermons. They appeal to the
aesthetic senses, and raise emotions
which the most eloquent discourses can
not reach. Would not many sinner be
induced to turn his steps to the sane
tuary by such announcements as these;
aPretty Women in Pretty Gowns"
" Pretty Gowns at the Churches, Fault
less Creations worn by the Ladies at the
Houses of Worship? Especially when
the names of the women are given in
full, SO that the descriptions can be veri-
fed. The descriptions are not chance
reports by dazzled reporters; they are
minute and accurate, and could be used
bv a modiste for reproduction of the
costumes. Monastery of the toilet for
effect is left unexplained. Who could
resist Miss = as the personification
of daintiness in an exquisite gown of
very pale brown shot with geranium-
red?n Or Miss in a peculiarly
fetching costume of ribbed diagonal
goods in heliotrope?" Or another angel
In crinkled cloth in the tenderest of
salmon tints,". the whole described as
simplicity itself, topped by :" a Tam O.
Shanter that, modified by clusters Of"
etc. ? What tender thoughts must arise
in the worshipping mind! In this
church, where there was so much to
divine mind life, as in one of the front
pews large sized French poodle, black
as night, and ION top of his head was
a bunch of black curls, carefully tied
with ribbon of apple green in one of
the sweetest of tints." Oh, sweet dog!
Only to be in such a place, and have
next you, perhaps, a toilet, In which
the ornamental galoon was worked
with amethyst crystals and edged with
like this? And then, * cunning velvet
hat of medium size. with back wings,
rosettes of velvet in front, and an ostrich
cigarette between, black gloves, and
patent-leather boots. Oh, my brothers,
oh, my sisters, how easy to be good!
The same talented writer who SO
seductively points out one of the ways
TO heaven also directs the blushing
bride how to march to the commonly
called sacrament of marriage. She, the
meeky down-looking virgin. is to carry in
her hand prayerbook Gan outward and
visible sign OF an inward and spiritual
erace) of color to match the prescribed
toilette. "But if she have not a prayer
book" says this symbolizing apostle of
fine new life," an "ostrich feather fan
will do.as WE'LL"
To make church-going as natural and
as attractive and as exciting as going
to ball, is not this great gain? Is
the effort wasted when the devout lady
sees herself named and painted to the
life. to the tip of her hat and the color
of her shoes, in the journal next morn
ing? This, however, is only hint at
what may be done. The church is n OF
a theatre; it is not an opera house; it is
not a ball room. And the head lines
quoted above appear only next day in d
newspaper. What is the churches but
bulletin boards in front, with big dis
play lines of the attractions within, like
the theatre posters? Would not then
an unheeding generation know where to
90? Is not this union of the newspaper
and religion one of the signs of the
times? When women study their toilets
for the church and have them reported
in the newspaper, surely some kind
millennium is at hand. But when
papers engaged in this work they should
no longer be called secular,-From "The
EDITORS Study by Charles Dudley
Warner, in Harper's Magazine.