Smyrna times., 1921-11-23
PREACHER ADVISES MOTION
PICTURES To FILE CHURCHES
REV. F. BURGETT SHORT DE.
CLARES FOR MODERN METHODS
Says Use Press, TOO-Empty BalcOn
les DeplOred; Asserts Service Must
Be Carried to the People

DC NdiAlSu 10 the IeOpIe
Advocating the use of the motion
picture, the billboard and the press as
means of getting the gospel of Jesus
Christ to the people, DIR. F. Burgett
Short, of New York, University of
Delaware graduate, Sunday night
preached the sermon at Epworth
Methodist Episcopal Church, Tenth
and Lombard streets, Wilmington. Dr.
Short, who is a former pastor of Ep-
worth Church, decried the empty bal
comics of the church, and declared that
the church has got to do more than
merely drift about on passive waters.
The church must carry the service to
the people, he asserted. "If good
preaching would have saved this town.
he said, at would have been saved
long ago, before anyone in the con-
gregation or myself, had been born.
Some men have been preached to till
their hides are as thick as that of
porpose."
DR.. Short based his sermon on the
text: "And Abraham went forth not
knowing whittier" A modern busi-
ness man, he said, would call Abra-
ham Ounce, saying no one should go
out into life without some purpose or
some aim. But, he added, ever since
the time of Abraham until the present
time, in every department of man
kinds activities, the people who have
achieved glory and success have been
those who went forward fearlessly,
without shaking in fear of an unsuc-
ceSsful end.
He criticized the lack of progress
being made by the church, and de-
clared that the only moving some peo-
pie did was to get up when the preach
er announced that eve will now stand
and sing number one-fifty-eight." The
speaker said that if he were still pas
tor of the church there he would equip
the place with a motion picture ma
chine, and every Friday night he
would offer a selected program of the
very best films he could obtain, charg-
ing two or three cents admission to
cover expenses and then, on Sunday
nights, would show a picture Of the
right kind for church use. The duty
of the church, he said, is to do dar-
ing thing, and said that at one time
people looked with horror upon having
an organ in church. He told of the
success of having motion pictures in
his chuch at Spokane, and said that
the "stuff that got the people years
ago will not get them today"
He urged that the gospel of Jesus
Christ be preached from the pulpit
from the organ, from the choir, from
the press, from the billboard and from
the motion picture, so that the people
will learn what temptations the devil
is throwing in front of them to ruiz
them.
If you will just get people talking
about a thing-particula the wo-
men-he said, that thing will be ban
ished. He referred particularly tc
slavery, which was ended by the Civil
War, and to the liquor trade. God is
working his plan amog the political
powers of the world, he said, calling
attention to the disarmament confer
ence in Washington. He said that
William Jennings Bryan worked hard
est, and with the least glory, for peace
and termed him one of the great pio-
neers.
He closed his sermon with a plea
that the people get out and do some
task. If they would get started, ant
know they were starting right, he sale
Jesus Christ would lead them in theil
efforts.