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Sermons
under
GLASS
Inspired by the wayside shrines of Europe, an American minister had the idea for "syndicated sermons" to he posted outside your neighborhood church.
By WHIT SAWYER
AN unemployed, disabled and despondent Korean veteran stood on a river bridge in a big mid' western city. Nothing seemed worthwhile. "Why not take the final jump and get it over with?" were the words running through his mind, he later admitted.
Suddenly something clicked off the switch of his suicidal mood. It was a short one-line sermon he remembered reading that same morning as he had passed his neighborhood church. It was a sentence posted on a "Wayside Pulpit," like thousands of others which dot church lawns from coast to coast. It read: "When you come to the end of your rope— Tie a knot in it and hang onto it."
Perhaps you've never stopped at a Wayside Pulpit to read its message. Each poignant sermon is printed in bold face letters of not more than four lines, on white paper 32 by 44 inches and displayed under glass in an upright frame. The "sermons" are readable from across the average city street.
IT is estimated that at least five million Americans pause momentarily each day to read and ponder these non-sectarian words of wisdom and sage philosophy, such as: "Taking the line of least resistance is what makes rivers and some men so crooked."
Many of these punch-line sermons are culled from the Bible, while others are taken from the sayings of great men in the past and the present.
The daily congregation reading these capsule sermons is never asked to drop a coin in the box, join in singing a hymn, nor listen to a longwinded service. The effectiveness of the message of the Wayside Pulpits is demonstrated by the testimonials coming daily into the office of the American Unitarian Association on Boston's Beacon Hill.
From that office, the headquarters of the Wayside Pulpit idea, weekly sermon messages are mailed all over America to churches, schools and industrial plants. Many go to far off South Africa and China, many more