The Devils Lake world and inter-ocean. (Devils Lake, N.D.) 1915-1920, 1915-04-01
THE t. !. Value |: Of
8. PUBLICITY

&, ~ ~ - af
Under the significant heading of
"What the modern business world is
teaching the church," a prominent
eastern divine writes glowingly to the
Christian Register (Unitarian) of
Boston,. as follows:
One great lesson that is being
taught is that of the value of publicity
false, misrepresentation, or
boastful advertisement, but genuine
straightforward, honest publicity. The
modern business mar has long since
learned that he can sell his goods on
ly as he makes known his goods, tell
ing the simple truth about them so
frankly and exactly that the goods is
the announcement in every case, SO
that even the smallest member OF the
household eating his morning cereal
and remembering the appetizing pic
ture of the bowl of Corn-Flakes upon
the back page of his mothers maya
zine will say "That's it, all right"
The value of publicity, in the n OF
the making known and boosting of a
thing believed in as of solid worth, is
a lesson that every church may we'll
learn from the business world, and
which I think the churches must learn
if they hope to win out in the strug-
gle of modern life.
If they have anything to believe IN
and believe that it is worth believing
in, the churches must tell the people
about it, or else how else a they ex-
pect the people to know of their ex-
istence? The Christian movement be-
gan as a publicity campaign. Listen:
"Go We into all the world and proclaim
the good tidings,"-make it known,
publish the good news. The way in
which Christianity began is the only
way in which it can continue. The
moment we sit down and begin to wait
for people to come our way they will
stop coming. The challenge of Jesus
was to go out and compel them to
come in. You can't get people in any
other way, as every man with a shirt
stud to sell or a vote to win knows
we'll enough, and as every church or
ganization ought to have the common
sense to see. People r out walking
around the streets with nothing else to
do but look for the latest and most in
teresting thing in religion, but they
will very probably show a willingness
to investigate even the most cratic
fad if the matter is only called to their
attention with sufficient vividness and
frequency. Moreover, if any n of a
dozen firms with a soap or a serial to
sell, feels that it is worth while for
the sake of mercenary profit to spend
a million dollars a year in publicity,
how much more ought it not to be the
concern of the church to bring to the
public. notice things held to be of ines
Unable value to. the -highest moral
well--being and betterment of the peo-
pie themselves!
1t seems to me that when our aim
is not dollars, but souls, there is some
thing wrong with us if we are willing,
to allow the dollar-catcher to beat us,
while even if it were simply dollars we
are after We should probably, like
the soap and cereal vendor, that pub
licity pays. Publicity, then, as a
means of making known the good It'd
ings of religion, and as asmeans to the
moral uplift and spiritual ,edification
of the human race, is the second great
lesson which the modern business
world is teaching the Church, and if /
were addressing a company of church
officials seeking light upon this matter
in it's practical aspects, and were ask
ed about methods of publicity and
their legitimacy, I would answer that
any sort Of publicity that tells the
truth and reaches the eye and ear Of
the people it is the aim to reach is le-
gitimate, proper and right.
Az NIL 7.sV- 49, 1..--I -,.k