[The following is an excerpt from the third installment of Lloyd Douglas’s series about the fictitious minister, Rev. D. Preston Blue in the Christian Century during summer/fall 1920. The series was called, “Wanted – A Congregation!”and the third installment, dated 8/26/1920, was titled, “The Sermon Sample.”]
“[Blue] had decided that he was going to make a strong bid for a crowd on Sunday morning, October third. This was to be the official opening of his campaign for a large congregation. Possibly this will be a good time to begin his contemplated series on ‘Shipwrecks.’ He commences to lay out his plans. The process takes many, many hours of hard labor. It requires as much thought as an architect puts into the blueprints for a new house. When he has mulled it all over, his private memorandum reads somewhat as follows:
October third – ‘The Titanic’ – unsinkable boat – not provided with lifeboats – lifeboats unnecessary because ship unsinkable – provided with palm gardens, gymnasium, swimming pool, elevators, etc. Sinks on her first voyage. Not prepared for an emergency. The Titanic kind of a life – modernly popular – pleasure-seeking, but unequipped with moral safeguards, faith, trust.
October tenth – ‘The Eastland’ – excursion boat – no ballast – wrecked at the wharf – never able to start with her human cargo. Like indulged youth that never has its chance at life – wrecked before it reaches the open water.
October seventeenth – ‘The Ibernia’ – destroyed by fire – coal ignites in the bunkers – proper that the coal should be burned – but not in the bunkers. Appetites, passions, ambitions of high value if made to function under required conditions – a menace if ‘burned in the bunkers.’
“Now, the problem of advertising this series of sermons in the papers is so simple that it needs no comment. Mr. Blue can buy enough space on Saturday in The Morning Star to give the public an advance notion of his themes, exactly after the manner of the ‘butcher boy’ in the train who presents each passenger with a few salted peanuts and comes around later to sell a bagful. Blue must not give his cause away by telling too much. Any active imagination can work this all out for Mr. Blue, should the latter be in doubt.”
[To be continued in my next post…]
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